Chapter 1403 (Patreon)

After considering the options, I decided there was no way I would put in enough time to convert all my current anchors to the new version one after the other, without any diversions or distractions. I had no doubt that my brain would stage a revolt within my skull and flee out my ears, possibly by dribbling. Or by drooling; I wasn’t sure of the mechanism, only that I had no interest in experiencing it. 

So, instead of staying focused on that single project, I converted one anchor every five days, while the middle days were reserved for further exploration, resulting in new anchors built toward Apple Gate Farm. There still was that dungeon I wanted to examine for Death or Soul Magic, and the respective Runes, so I needed to travel there. But that was a slow, ongoing project, which would likely take me a few more days, especially as the ever-lengthening days meant I had less time to fly at night. Stupid spring, stupid summer, stupid Sun- it just couldn’t mind its own business and remain hidden behind clouds.

“Mother, why don’t we move?” Lia asked when we met after one of her excursions. She had been prowling more and more, travelling with Jademoon Tower as her base and investigating different human settlements in a fairly large area. At the same time, she was working on her long-distance travel through the shadows, but that was an ongoing project. So far, she had only managed to return to a prepared anchor; she couldn’t make them on her own just yet. But that was okay, at least in my eyes. It mostly meant Lia would prowl for a week or two and return to the tower on the weekend, allowing us to plan our meetings. The only issue was her returning to her prowl, but I was working on a solution.

The idea was to make an anchor but keep it mobile. She would have to drop it before travelling to the tower, and returning to it would leave the user vulnerable, as Lia would be unable to scout out the anchor beforehand, so she would essentially appear in a defined location without being able to make sure it was safe. If the anchor was found by enemies, and those enemies understood what it was, it could be moved into a hazardous area, or an outright kill-zone. Neither would be pleasant, but it was the best solution I could currently imagine. Well, other than making her learn to place anchors or scout through the Astral River, either of those would work. But both remained fruitless, at least for now. 

“What do you mean?” I asked, looking at her with a mixture of curiosity and confusion.

“Well, we’re on a sphere, right?” she asked, her voice a little too amused, as if she was pointing out something completely obvious. Which, in this case, she was, but she wasn’t making a point just yet. Or maybe she was, as her words could make sense in a certain, rather reasonable context. 

“Distance,” I replied, keeping my voice bored and idle, as if her idea had been considered and rejected, even if the idea to slowly make my way to the southern hemisphere and set up shop there wasn’t actually bad. I could keep my Nexus Tower and set up a second tower somewhere far, far south- Antarctica or somewhere nearby- and simply switch between the Nexus Tower in the North and whatever structure I build in the South, depending on the time of the year. Turn myself into a migratory bird, or maybe a migratory dragon; that might work. And be reasonably amusing.

“You mean you can’t Shadow-Travel that far?” she asked, looking at me askance. 

“That, I don’t know,” I admitted. “No, it’s more an issue of getting there in the first place. Even from Jademoon Tower to the Nexus Tower isn’t that far, at least compared to the southern hemisphere and far enough south to make a difference. It doesn’t look all that bad on a simple, 2-D map, but the distance, if I recall correctly, is about three times as long as the distance between Jademoon Tower and the Nexus Tower,” I explained, noticing that Lia went wide-eyed before quickly walking over to our library, with me following along.

“But…” Lia began, looking at the world map in one of the books we had. I couldn’t help but grin as I was teaching her about projection and distortion. To be fair, she got it quickly and was massively pouting over her own mistake, which tabled that discussion, at least for now. Maybe I would revisit her idea at some point, but that was a consideration for later.

“Say, what other communities are out there?” I asked after Lia’s idea was temporarily discarded. “Anything interesting? Some more Sasquatch or something like that?”

“Eh,” Lia shrugged, “Not really?” She hesitated for a moment, a small frown on her face.

“I mean, the vast majority of people I come across are settled in small communities, basically farming and trying their best to keep things together. Few seem to have the leisure to explore the system, let alone anything beyond their immediate surroundings; they are all busy trying to survive,” she paused for a second, looking a little lost in thought. 

“Or maybe not survive; the people who are still out there have figured that out pretty well. Sure, there are issues and moments of crisis, but that’s to be expected, right?” She shrugged, while I nodded in agreement. Without large communities able to create social safety nets, something like an unexpected drought or a bad harvest could spell disaster, with a capital D, ready to screw the people involved. 

“How many came across magic?” I asked, as that topic was of particular interest to me. “I mean, how many found the Gods, or were found by them, how many managed to figure out the Arcane and to what extent?”

“More people have divine magic, though it’s only those who pray to Sunna who are the best prey. Well, Sunna, Apollo, Helios, I’m sure there are more delicious devouts, but I have only tasted those so far,” she admitted, a grin on her face. 

“How does that work?” I asked, mostly talking to myself. I doubted that Lia had any special insight into that question, as she had even less interest and contact with divine magic than I did. She was only interested in the fact that faith in certain deities improved the taste of their followers’ blood. Which was rather amusing, though I had no idea how exactly that worked. My first assumption, when it was only Sunna, was that the divine power in the Blood had some funny interaction with Lia’s curse. But learning that it seemed to be all Sun-deities made that a little moot, as the Curse came directly from Sunna. So, according to my idea, only her divine power should have interacted with the Curse, but I was obviously wrong. I just didn’t know how. 

“Maybe the Gods reach out,” Lia shrugged, “I mean, you mentioned that this Anise was contacted and guided by Lady Hecate, right?” She paused, and I nodded in response. “So, why wouldn’t other Gods reach out, too. Or maybe they simply stumbled across that prayer to make contact with a suitable deity, or receive a suitable idol, or however that worked. I mean, it can’t be that complex, right? Not if it’s innately designed to get people in contact with the right deities.” 

“True,” I admitted, “Not that it makes sense, not without some entity above the Gods, other than the system, I mean,” I paused, frowning, “Though the system must have come from somewhere, so maybe the entity that made the system also made that, so that would work,” I reasoned, before shaking the idea off. Before considering that, I needed to be much more secure in my power, even though trying to use power gained through the system to challenge it would be rather pointless. And almost certainly impossible.

“Still, why don’t people go into Arcane Magic?” I asked, feeling a little annoyed. 

“Because Arcane Magic has a bit of a barrier of entry. The simple Magic skills primarily allow you to change the material involved, either its state or its position. Doesn’t help a whole lot when you need to get water in the first place; that’s what the Rune Mastery is for,” Lia suggested, making me scowl at the realisation that she was right. Sure, the ability to move water was nice, but it wasn’t something people would invest large amounts of mental time and effort in. Meaning Earth Magic might be the most widespread. Or maybe Wind. 

“Well, and talent,” Lia continued, “I mean, talent is needed, especially if you don’t have a teacher. And people with that talent who learn on their own are unlikely to travel. Instead, they set up shop somewhere and a community forms around them, cause magic is incredibly useful,” she added, leaving the ‘as you know’ unsaid. And I couldn’t refute her claims, not that I really wanted to. 

Still, it annoyed me that Arcane Magic seemed to be a lot less widespread than the divine foolishness. Maybe I would have to do something about that.