System Scribe Academy Book 1 - Chapters 66,67,68,69,70 (Patreon)

Chapter 66

Spatial Expansion

Ethan didn’t have an interest in dungeons. Well, he wasn’t interested in running them. But after being coaxed into the dungeon by Luna, who was perhaps the only person in the group that could’ve talked him into it, he found out why it would be an important trip. The amount of strange magic that swirled through the place was uncountable. And the interior? Rolling fields of green stretched before them right after heading through the entrance, ruins constructed from cyclopean concepts dotted the area here and there.

“Woah.” Was all Ethan could say. And not just because of the landscape.

"Isn't it something?" Alex placed his hands on his hips.  

Well, Ethan's thoughts might have been consumed only with the idea of creating a spell from the spatial magic. Now, the only thing he could think about was dimensionality because with that expanding and contracting of space came the portal. On the other side of the portal was an entire pocket dimension. That was the only way he could describe it. It was a world that rested outside the rules of the regular world, and he wanted to study every square inch of it. 

"I'm gonna go relieve some stress." Luna rolled her shoulders before kicking off from the ground. She vanished somewhere far in the distance.

“I’m gonna organize my Deck like a nerd,” Finn muttered, sitting on the ground and withdrawing a literal deck of cards from his chest.

“How about you, Ethan?” Alex asked.

The Celestial Pen was already in Ethan's hand, and he was always poking at various spaces around him. Like most magical things, this device was driven by a ray. But as he tried to take it apart, he found himself growing dizzy. There were so many parts that he couldn't even hope to represent any of them with one of his system sigils. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed to span on forever, occupying a space that was impossible, even for the artificially enlarged interior of the dungeon.

“Yeah. That’s a kick in the teeth, isn’t it?” Alex asked with a sigh. “Did you feel like you could copy anything up until now?”

Ethan shifted uncomfortably on the spot. He wasn't used to being called out like that, but Alex had hit the nail on the head. A part of him had expected to pull out the pen and scribble a few dimensional system sigils and call it a day, but this thing was way above him. He couldn't even hope to record half of what he saw and then actually do something useful with it. He would have to understand it first, and then he would have to incorporate it into a sigil. That just wasn't going to happen.

"Yeah, I feel called out, though," Ethan laughed at himself. Perhaps he was getting too full of himself. “The arrays in this place are… I don’t even know how to describe them.”

“They’re advanced system arrays.” Alex nodded as he looked around. “Layers on layers, sigils within sigils… You’ll notice that most of the lines connecting each sigil have smaller sigils embedded in them. Us mortals can’t hope to achieve that level of complexity.”

"Even if I could understand what was going on here, I don't know if I could keep it all in my memory long enough to scribe it into a System Sigil." Ethan looked around some more but eventually dimmed his magical sight. It was giving him a headache. “Speaking of that, I think the spatial magic is going to be hard enough. I can't even wrap my head around the concept of how to use it, let alone what spells I would create from it.”

“Why not just make the baseline and see what’s what?”

Ethan nodded, doing exactly that. Although he couldn't really understand the idea of making a smaller space bigger and a bigger space smaller, he had created the sigil all the same. He plopped it straight into his Affinity Ring, the Rank 1 version, and left the second one blank. A spell formed right away, and he cleared his throat as he read it for Alex to hear.

[Lesser Spatial Expansion]

Affinity Ring Ability

Generated By:

Spatial Expansion (X-13 Variant, Spatial Font Rank 1)

Description:

The cost of this spell greatly depends on the space you select to expand and by how much expansion. Allows you to select a cubic or spherical area and expand that area’s conceptual space.

Effect:

Increase the conceptual space occupied by any given spherical or cubic area.

"I already have a headache," Ethan said after reading the description. "So I can make a small space big with that one, right?"

Alex had his eyes locked on the scribe for a few long moments before he burst out laughing. He eventually fell to the ground, rolling around in the dirt and kicking his little legs. When he finally got his breath back, he wiped tears from his eyes and shook his head. "Man, you're something else. You remember how I told you that this kind of magic starts at Rank 5? I'm talking about little things, tiny blips. You're going to be performing some seriously high-rank magic, but it's only Rank 1. I don't know how any of this crap works."

“Should I just… Okay, I’ll just expand a square foot area right there.” Ethan gestured to the spot he intended to expand.

“Let me mark it out.” Alex scooped up a few stones, marking out a rough square foot of area. “Keep it inside there. That way, we can study the effects.”

With a nod, Ethan visualized the area. He mentally drew a cube roughly the size of himself, occupying the square-foot area. He then let out a breath and activated the ability. It accepted his mental measurements without an issue, and the space within the area of the rocks shimmered, appearing as though a transparent box had appeared from nowhere. There was no strain on the scribe's mind as he maintained the spell, but he could feel a slow trickle of mana leaving his chest to fuel the system's sigil.

“Man, look at you.” Alex tutted as he approached the box. “How big did you make it inside?”

“I don’t really know. I was focused more on how much mana I wanted to feed the spell.”

“Which is?”

Ethan inspected his soul, finding that about 5% was draining with every second. He took a deep breath, focusing on Mana Siphon to offset the cost. “Five-percent.”

“I know.” Alex said, finding another rock and scooping it up. He approached the transparent box, then tossed the rock inside. The rock should have sailed through the square foot area with ease. Even if Alex wasn’t the best pitcher, even a child could get that kind of distance. What proceeded was the most confusing thing the scribe had ever seen.

The rock left Alex's hand seemed to almost impact the surface of the box, and then it fell to the ground right there, as though meeting an impassable object. The pair stood there, watching and cocking their heads to either side as they attempted to figure out what had just happened. Eventually, Alex snapped his fingers.

"Looks like the space on the inside is rather large, or I'm a lot weaker than I thought. Do you think it's safe to go inside?"  

Ethan shrugged, approaching the box before he allowed his friend to delve inside. "I'll go in. No point in risking it. I'll be able to get a better feel for if the spell is going awry."

“My hero~” Alex swooned.

With a scoff, Ethan entered the box. And nearly vomited immediately. The sensation of being sent from where he had been standing to the first step inside the box was dizzying. The scribe looked around, spotting the stones that marked the square-foot area to his left and to his right, but they certainly weren't a foot away. He narrowed his eyes, judging that they were at least a hundred feet, maybe more. He took a few steps forward and looked behind him to see that Alex hadn't moved at all. His concentration faltered for only a moment, but that was enough for the box to lose its integrity. It collapsed down on him, and for an instant, he feared the worst. Instead of being shredded into little pieces from the compression of spray space, he got butterflies in his stomach.

“That was weird. I saw you walk inside the space, but you weren’t moving.”

Ethan bent down, picking up the stone that had settled in the middle of the square-foot segment. Maybe he knew how Spatial magic worked. Or at least, he was less confused about the way it worked. He looked around, spotting four ruins around them as reference points. Without hesitation, he crafted and slotted Lesser Spatial Contraction in the Rank 1 Affinity Ring, and cast the spell. Alex yelped as he was drawn to, and ultimately slammed into the scribe. They both fell on their butts, feeling sick and confused.

"I am definitely going to puke," Alex looked around in panic, searching the horizon for something familiar. But just as the spell had operated before, they were in a four-square-foot box, bordered on all four sides by the warped images of ruins.

“Okay, this one is less useful,” Ethan said, undoing the spell. The space expanded at a nauseating pace. He barely kept the contents of his stomach inside. “Expansion seems pretty cool.”

“Agreed.” Alex burped, holding his stomach and shaking his head. “Gods, I’ve grown too soft! The kid in his first year is out-cooling me!”

"Hold on, there's one more thing I want to try." Ethan turned, spotting those very same ruins and flooding his affinity ring with as much mana as it would take. By his estimation, he could only keep this version up for 10 to 20 seconds, depending on how much mana he could siphon. But in an instant, the ruins, which had been at least a few hundred feet away, shot out into the distance as though they were being sent for miles. Alex lurched forward, almost falling onto his face as the ground beneath their feet shifted. There were a lot of questions to ask about how the ground expanded or if he could take some of that expanded dirt and keep it after the spell ended, but he doubted it. This was a conceptual expansion of space. It was an anomaly.

“What’s the point of this spell!?” Alex shouted, staying on the ground.

“I expanded the local area out to a few miles.” Ethan studied the effects, taking everything in. “Like the example you gave me.”

Space contracted again, and this time Alex actually did puke. But Ethan was on a roll. He gathered enough mana in his soul, cursing his puny Mind Ring, and created a new bound for Lesser Spatial Expansion. He focused on the small space both he and Alex occupied and sent it out as far as it would go. Maybe something close to 100 miles. The ground rumbled and the small leader of the Anomalous Materials Group groaned in agony.

“For the love of the Lady of Light and all that is holy!” Alex shouted. “Oh, gods why does the sky look like that?”

Ethan had pushed the spell a bit far. The blue sky above, dotted with clouds before space had been expanded past what it should’ve been, was now a smear of white and blue. Even the ground looked as though someone had taken a texture in a video game and stretched it in one direction way too much. An instant later, the space contracted back to normal.

From his spot over on a particularly comfortable-looking rock, Finn raised his hand. "In the future, remind me never to pick a fight with a Spatial Mage. At the very least, they'll make you vomit until you give up."

“I think this might make a decent travel power.” Ethan scratched his chin. Maybe it was the way he had already gotten used to jumping to get around, but the spatial distortion didn’t affect him as much as it did Alex. “Can I leave the dungeon to test something?”

“Finn! You go with him!” Alex ordered, groaning as he rolled on the ground. “I’m gonna…”

Ethan stepped away as Alex, once again, released the contents of his stomach. He came alongside Finn, who sat on his rock and looked up with an expression of disgust. “I’m not getting in one of those. Just so you know.”

After leaving the dungeon, Ethan devised his method of travel. It was easy enough. If he could take a large area and make it smaller, then he could travel vast distances just by making the space smaller. Maybe there was some sort of side effect, but he felt as though his body was perfectly fine. Despite Finn's disagreement with the idea, he somehow roped the man into trying it out.

“There’s a big problem,” Ethan announced, just before contracting a fifty-square-mile area in front of them.

“Oh. Just a big problem, huh?” Finn asked with a laugh.

“Yeah, I have to know what the terrain looks like. The spell just gave me a pretty aggressive zap when I tried contracting a thousand miles of area.”

Finn’s face went pale. He laughed nervously.

By the time Ethan got the spell to accept his parameters, it was only about 10 miles of distance, but he accepted it and felt mana pouring from his soul as space contracted before him. The entire landscape shifted, rolling in on itself and condensing to a single point. There was a nonsense merging of mountains, lakes, and forests, all compressed into a cube no bigger than four by four feet. The scribe was the first to step forward, passing through those miles in an instant and appearing on the shore of an expansive lake. Finn came behind him shortly after, his face tinged a shade of green.

“It worked!” Ethan shouted, pumping his fist in the air. The moment he released the spell, the scene behind them stopped smearing so badly.

“My head hurts. I don’t want to think about this new spell.” Finn groaned, falling onto his back. “Ow. Rocky beach.”

Chapter 67

Lutia

The Anomalous Materials group stayed behind as Ethan pressed forward, trying to get a better handle on how his spatial magic worked. None of them wanted to go through the nauseating experience of expanding and contracting spaces anymore, but Ethan was all too happy to figure out how far he could push it. He zipped across the landscape until he arrived at the western coast. It was the same coastline that Gale House sat on, and he released a heavy sigh, finding a large chunk of driftwood to rest upon.

Of course, he should’ve expected what came next. A soft tutting came from behind him as the masked form of Thread appeared. This time, the masked cat-person was flanked by someone unfamiliar. This interloper wore a flowing dress of pure white, temporarily matching her shifting skin tone. Like Professor Sally, she was a member of the black-eyed mantis race, but her features seemed somehow more human.

“Yeah, you really messed up this time.” Thread jumped over the driftwood, taking a seat and stretching out. “Rarely do we get a call from outside the system. And you? You made a Primal mad.”

Ethan only had to think for a few seconds before his research into the gods bore fruit. From what he understood, Primal Gods were the big boys. Local sector gods were little fish compared to these. A Primal represented a bigger concept, something too large to be contained within a single sector. Thus, their influences stretched throughout the universe.

“Don’t be so dramatic,” the mantis-woman said, coming alongside the pair. “Unfortunately, the only avatar that suited my needs was this one. Thread is as insane as they come.”

“Hey! I resemble that remark.” Thread giggled at her own joke right away.

The mantis bowed her head. “Normally, my visits to mortal worlds are unpleasant. I’m happy that today, I don’t need to kill anyone.”

Ethan swallowed hard. Yeah, he had messed up. Spatial magic sucked and he never wanted to use it again. “Did I break some law?”

The mantis laughed. “Sorry. Let me introduce myself. My name is Lutia. But you can think of me as a simple adjudicator today.”

“No more large-scale spatial magic.” Thread said it simply. “Small stuff is fine, but you’re screwing the entire world up.”

Ethan blinked. “Really?”

Lutia strolled to the shore of the lake, kneeling by the waters and running her hand through the foam. "Space and time are invariably linked. As you rapidly contract and expand space, you're messing with time itself. I had to come here to fix the flow of time in several areas.”

"Is there a limit to what I should do?"

Ethan couldn't keep the shake out of his voice. He realized that he was messing with forces he truly didn't understand and probably shouldn't have even started to begin with. But with such a potent class, it was difficult to resist the pull of temptation. The one thing he had learned about gods was that he should just bow his head and do whatever they told him.

“Contraction is the problem.” Lutia seemed to think about something as she paused, her hand passing through the water and the foam. The ripples that radiated outward dissipated somewhere among the gentle waves. “How about we make a trade.”

Thread laughed for some reason.

“Okay,” Ethan agreed. “What is it?”

“There are few alive who can bargain with the Grand System. You and I have that in common.” Again with the unnatural pause. The waves came in, and the ripple from her hand in the water went out. “We’ll seal those sigils you created for good. In exchange, you’ll be given new sigils. Your system will never again generate a sigil related to Spatial magic. Time magic is also off-limits.”

Thread laughed hard enough to fall off the back of the log. She righted herself as though nothing had happened, her masked face looking between Ethan and Lutia. “Oh, gods he doesn’t get it yet. She does these bargains all the damn time. Oh, oh! Except when she goes back in time and kills babies.”

Lutia shot Thread a look that could kill. Perhaps if Thread didn’t have some divinity in her, she would’ve died.

“I keep the timelines as they should be.”

The only thing Ethan could do to keep his sanity in that moment was to focus on the exchange. She wanted him to give up his spatial sigils, which was something he was totally okay with as long as the exchange was worth it. The scribe had been messing around with spatial magic because it was fun, but the truth was he didn't think he would have much use for it except for one specific use.

“Do I get to pick the new sigil?” Ethan asked.

“You can make suggestions.”

“A ritual circle to make interior spaces larger.” Ethan spat the request out without a moment’s hesitation. He already had a plan for this in his mind. He was going to pick Amelia’s brain and get her to help him create a ritual circle to make his house, and eventually Barry’s workshop, bigger. That would’ve resulted in a lot of research, and some magic he wasn’t sure he could get his head around. Nothing like a godly shortcut to brighten his mood.

Lutia issued a soft laugh. She didn't take her gaze away from the lake, instead just shaking her head. "You're a very pragmatic man. You remind me of somebody very close to me."

“She’s talking about a goblin,” Thread blurted out.

Lutia completely ignored that, instead finally rising to her feet and turning to face Ethan. "In exchange for your system sealing off the branches of Spatial and Time magic, you will be awarded ritual magic of your choice for each school."

“Wait, each?” Thread asked, suddenly seeming indignant.

"That's correct. His system isn't as simple as the others I've dealt with in the past. It's customizable. With the approval of the grand system, I can set any number of restrictions on him in exchange for something lesser. For example, if you ever do master Time magic, you would use the same process of converting the arrays into a sigil. But when that time comes, the grand system will intervene and instead replace it with a lesser ritual version of the spell.”

From where Ethan stood, this was an absolute win. His plan had been to never touch spatial magic again, but if he could get a spatial ritual spell that expanded the interior spaces, he would consider this a complete victory.

“I agree. Do we need to sign a contract or…”

It felt as though fire was spreading through Ethan's soul. He doubled forward, nearly falling off the driftwood log to his surprise. Thread held him by the shoulders, steadying him against the oncoming explosion of pain. And then it was over in an instant. He popped open his interface and found that both of the spells he had crafted were gone. He felt as though his connection to spatial magic had been almost entirely severed, except for a single thread that rested in his mind. When he thought about that school of magic now, the only thing he could think about was a single use.

“It is done.” Lutia let out a heavy sigh. “I must say, this is a better end than I’m used to.”

“All the murder,” Thread said, patting Ethan on the shoulders.

“You truly are insufferable. I hate you.” Luta made sure to point at Thread when she said that. She then pointed at Ethan. “As for you, I don’t hate you. I like you quite a lot, and look forward to your work. Perhaps you can even undo the madness that is this thing.”

“Blah, blah, blah,” Thread said, slapping Ethan on the back. “You can split my soul when my body is wormfood.”

Lutia practically growled. She rolled her shoulders and then swiped her hand through the air. Thread was propelled backward from the log, but before she tumbled to the ground, she froze where she was. That's when Ethan got his first taste of time magic. It felt deep and infinite, more complex than even the dungeon he had just been inside. The nauseous feeling that had been settling in his stomach from using spatial magic so much doubled. For the first time that day, he thought that maybe he would be rolling on the ground, puking just like Alex.

"The local authorities will eject me very soon. I just wanted to give you some words of encouragement from someone on the other side. You stand in the first steps of your ascent to power. But the quality of your soul isn't that of one who should wear the crown. You don’t have the heart for this cruel life.” Lutia released a titanic sigh. “Do not get involved with the gods. Do not play their games. Keep your eyes down here, where the mortals dwell. Never turn your eyes toward ascension.”

In a blink, Lutia was gone. Ethan was left there with Thread frozen in mid-air. Something inside him had been drained away, but left behind was another thing. It was the innate knowledge of how the Spatial Expansion sigil had been changed to work with a long-lasting ritual circle. A circle that bordered on Enchanting magic. But she left more than just a new spell behind. The warning echoed in his mind like a gong, and he couldn’t shake it.

Ethan had spent little time in the academy thinking about what he would one day become. Denying that the System Scribe class was powerful was useless. It was obvious that one day he would become someone of note. That road might’ve been stretching far into the distance, but it was obvious. His interactions with people in positions of power had been minimal, but it wasn’t them he cared about. Solving anomalies, and fixing systems. That’s what he wanted to do, no matter how “strong” he got.

Thread hit the ground with a thud. “Oof! Not again!”

“Does that happen often?” Ethan asked, turning to spot the cat-woman dusting herself off.

“Yeah. Almost every day.” Probing at her mask, she found a crack. “Dammit! These things are expensive.”

“Why wear the mask at all?” Ethan asked. “Are you hiding something?”

“Nope. Keeps me from going nuts.” A new mask appeared from nowhere. Thread did a spin, removing the old one as her back was turned to Ethan and putting the fresh one on before her rotation completed. “Ta-da!”

Ethan clapped politely. “You look great. So, is Lutia gone?”

“Yup. I was her escort, cause… You know. Primal gods aren’t allowed to wander in the sector unescorted.”

Ethan didn’t know if Thread was hiding who she was, but she was doing a terrible job of it. He just laughed, turning his attention inward as he probed his newest sigil. It was perfect for his application, but there was a problem. He still had to do the work to create the ritual circle. Which meant he needed someone who actually knew what they were doing.

“Wanna get some lunch?” Ethan asked.

“Ew, mortal food? No thanks.” Thread lingered there for a few moments, picking at something under her mask. “Okay. Bye!”

Without another word, the strange Avatar was gone. Ethan could only shake his head, more confused than ever before. This was the best way to end his adventure with Spatial magic. Lutia was very specific about the kinds of magic he wasn’t allowed to use. Whatever seal she had placed on him didn’t affect a few other forms of magic. A smile spread across the scribe’s face as he stood.

“She didn’t say anything about Gate, Portal, and Teleportation magic. God, I love loopholes.”

Chapter 68

A Date with the Big Gate

Being stripped of a few hard-earned sigils might’ve been cause for concern. That was, if one didn’t consider the full implications of messing around with System Sigils. Spatial magic was confusing, so screw it. After Ethan viewed this as the best-case scenario, he used his System Leap to link back up with the Anomalous Materials Group. He mentioned nothing about his encounter with the Primal God of Time, instead asking if they wanted to head out for some lunch.

To his surprise, they accepted.

It hasn’t taken that long to get the Spatial Anomaly sorted. That’s likely thanks to their meeting time starting at 7am, which was an ungodly hour for classes. Although Ethan felt slightly tired from his lack of sleep, he was excited to chat with everyone about Alex. Naturally, the man was excitedly nervous about the entire thing. At least they would have a chance to see him off, so long as everyone came along for the adventure to Erradon.

Sitting outside a cafe in the Silver City, everyone seemed content with the day. They served some pretty decent food, including some monster meats. Since Alex had offered to pay, either by some mysterious burst of charity or something more closely related to his departure, everyone ate their fill.

“What kind of job are we going to do, anyway?” Ethan asked, breaking a long silence that had settled in over the table.

“That might be a problem.” Alex scratched his chin. “Very little information from the guy who contracted us.”

Luna leaned in over the table, narrowing her eyes. “Who contracted us?”

Alex looked away immediately. “Same guy who gave me an invitation to Erradon.”

“Who?” Finn asked, also leaning over. Luna had stretched far enough that it looked as though she was about to pounce.

Ethan got some distance, holding his hands up as a fight seemed to be boiling.

“Fine! You guys… Look, there’s nothing to freak out about.” Alex seemed happy to do anything but explain who had asked them to take care of an anomaly. “Compared to Tal’vengar, the other planets have very few anomalies. Which means—”

“Spit it out!” Luna shouted.

Alex released a heavy sigh. “I know he doesn’t have the best reputation—”

“The Herald?!” Luna shouted, slamming her fists on the table. “The damn leader of the Crystal Dragonflight? That guy is an absolute clown.”

“Bet you wouldn’t say it to his face,” Alex muttered.

“Yeah, that’s the point. Because he might take my head off if I say something wrong.” Luna let out a heavy sigh.

It took Ethan a few moments to realize why Luna was angry. She wasn’t mad they had to do some job for a clownish man. She was mad that Alex had tied his future to this guy, which could spell trouble for him down the road.

“Who is that, exactly?” Ethan asked. “Sorry, I’m not up on my inter-planet politics.”

“The Herald created Erradon.”

“So, he’s a god,” Ethan concluded.

Luna sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “No, he just made it. He also holds a position in the system, requiring him to defend the mortal realm. Hard to find information about him, but you hear things.”

“Yeah, you hear how bad he is at running a world.” Finn sighed as he sat back. “Only recently did he learn to take a step back and stop being so involved.”

“Yeah, see? That shows growth.” Alex looked between Finn and Luna as though seeking their approval. “And he’s paying some decent coin, so he understands the importance of dealing with insanely dangerous anomalies early.”

“Sorry, what did you say?” Ethan asked.

“Moderately dangerous. Barely a threat.” Alex shook his head. “A breeze!”

Luna, Ethan, and Finn shared a look. They gave a collective shrug before turning their attention back to their meals.

“Sounds good. I like the other planets,” Luna eventually said, pretending as though nothing had happened.

The collective shrug was enough for everyone to move on. The mood seemed to have settled, so Ethan calmed down. He now looked forward to paying a visit to Erradon. Right after he spent the next few days working on his bracelet and his Mind Ring. Maybe if he was lucky, he’d get a magically bigger kitchen.

***

Falling behind in classes was easy when one didn’t do their homework. Although Ethan had reminded himself, more times than one, that he couldn’t let Ritual Foundations or Array Foundations slip through his fingers, that’s exactly what happened. What little time he had left on Thursday, he spent working on his bracelet. Friday and Saturday were no different, where he pushed both his bracelet and his Mind Ring to their limits. Which meant he spent the entire time sitting in a park, gathering mana, eating mana-rich foods, and ‌just filling stuff with mana.

The Mind Ring was one of the only ones that responded well to being traced. If Ethan pulled his Celestial Pen out with a load of mana on the tip, he could trace the shape of his Mind Ring, detailing every quirk of the lines to gain some energy for that ring. The other rings seemed to respond a bit, but the ring that determined the amount of mana he had in his soul absolutely loved it. Even with all that effort, the ring didn’t gain a rank.

What had happened was the massive expansion of his Scribe’s Bracelet. At first, Ethan focused on the concept of adding a Rank 2 process. It felt like filling the sea with tears at first, but with all things at least tangentially related to cultivation techniques, it only took time to get used to. Not only did he come up with one Rank 2 Processing Block, but he also added a crapload of Memory Blocks. If that wasn’t a sweet enough deal, he was now working on something that would be insanely useful. He inspected the bracelet the morning of his adventure to Erradon.

Circuit:

Memory Block (10 Units).

3x Processing Block (Rank 1).

1x Processing Block( Rank 2).

Projector Construction In Progress…

Learning…

According to the bracelet, still unnamed despite trying, it could innately scan things as a feature of its existence. But it offered a solution to the image projection problem in the form of the Projector Block. Even without the block, he had prepared properly for this trip. The night before, Ethan had pilfered the library. With 10 Memory Blocks to work with, he scanned one book on every school of magic held by the library at Gale House. Even the ones that seemed useless, like books on cleaning magic. He had the memory, so why not?

More than getting to see a new world, Ethan found himself excited to test his computer in the real world.

The Anomalous Materials Group met in their usual room, preparing to depart and double-checking their equipment and supplies. Ethan had brought a small backpack filled with provisions just in case the trip went long, and the others had done similar preparations. The scribe had trouble not thinking about his new ritual sigil. He had barely gotten his bracelet ready in time for this trip and hadn't had the time to talk to Amelia about spatial expansion.

“Okay, folks.” Alex checked himself again. “We got a date with the big gate!”

“The big gate?” Ethan asked.

“The one that lets us go to another planet.” Luna clarified the confusion, getting a bit closer and wrapping her arm around his shoulder. “No worries. I’m here to protect you.”

And she wasn’t actually kidding about that. Ethan felt like a child in the group, but one thing was certain. Of all the members in the Anomalous Materials Group, Luna could actually fight. Apparently, no matter the path in her school, they all learned some basic self-defense. For the scribe’s part, he was sure he could lay some hurt on some people in a pinch. Or just run away really fast, whichever worked best.

The description of the large gate undersold it by quite a lot. Ethan had never been in the part of town that held the interplanetary gate, but as he looked upon it, he couldn't keep his mouth closed. It was a thing of wonder. An absolutely massive marble archway dominating the skyline of the eastern part of the city. The presence of guards around the area was absurd, with full military occupation seeming like a normal Sunday thing.

Alex walked ahead to get their clearance to leave. This was a level of clearance that went above anything Ethan had seen before, and likely came back to both the benefactors and the Herald for full authorization. That’s what the scribe assumed anyway, since it took about a half-hour to get everything squared away. The logistics of authorizing individuals to travel through the gate were a bit confusing. Perhaps there was some sort of magical determining factor where they could track who had authorization, but it was impossible for him to figure out just standing there. Instead, during the wait, he focused on getting more mana into his projector. It was an excellent distraction.

Eventually, Alex trotted across a massive courtyard. The flagstones below were made from similar material as the gigantic archway itself. Even now, from hundreds of feet away, Ethan could hear the thing crackling to life. The magics that stung the air were potent enough to make the hair on the back of his neck rise. This got a reaction from the military presence, who arrayed themselves in neat rows. Their shining silver armor caught the sunlight, and it was hard not to wonder how uncomfortable they were standing there all day. But they didn't complain, and eventually, in the center of the archway, an intense blue magic formed to create the portal.

“This thing costs a lot of money to run!” Alex shouted, gesturing forward. “Let’s go!”

“Just hold your breath,” Luna said, hand still resting on Ethan’s shoulder. “We’re traveling through the local Voidspace. There are always bumps along the way.”

Luna must have been interested in earning the greatest understatement of the year award. Ethan watched as the other members of the party passed through the portal as though they did it every other day. He only hesitated for a moment, drawing on his experience with the other portals stationed around the planet to know what to expect. But those expectations were shattered the instant he walked through. It wasn't instant transportation. Instead, he felt himself being broken down to almost nothing and then sucked through a straw that traveled through the world's most unpleasant roller coaster. At least he had remembered to hold his breath because when he came out on the other side, he nearly lost his breakfast on the ground below.

There might not’ve been a connection between breath holding and vomiting during Voidspace travel. But it was hard to say.

Ethan's ears rang as he stumbled forward on his hands, falling on his hands and knees and looking around. The place where they found themselves was plain. There wasn't much to speak of but low stone buildings and the crowding of too much vegetation. He heard the sound of people talking in the distance and smelled the scent of sweet flowers in the air. Most of all, it was a bit too warm for his liking.

“Come on,” Luna urged, dragging Ethan to his feet. “I already see the Herald. Put on your best face.”

Ethan's vision was blurry. He looked around, eventually spotting several people who could have been the Herald. But when he saw one elven man with a bright white smile and locks of golden hair cascading over his ruffled shoulders, he knew he had spotted him. The hat with ostentatious feathers poking out didn’t help him stay concealed.

“My goodness!” the Herald shouted, spreading his arms wide as he beamed some more. “On behalf of the Crystal Dragon Flight and the citizens of Whisperwood, I welcome you to Erradon!” For a few moments, his eyes dragged across each of them, eventually landing on Ethan. “And oh my. You actually brought along the scribe.”

Chapter 69

The Herald

There was something off-putting about the Herald, something Ethan couldn't put his finger on initially. The man had introduced himself in as flamboyant a manner as humanly possible, but there was something behind his eyes that betrayed the pleasant demeanor. There was a hint of predatory instinct in his eyes that went far deeper than just a man accustomed to combat. The look in his eyes was that of a killer, somebody who at any moment could spring forward and end them all with a breath.

Yeah, he turned to lead them down a tightly packed cobblestone road, bordered on either side by tall trees and the fruits they bore. His tone didn't betray any of that capability. "You may call me by my title. Which title, you might ask? The Herald, the God Slayer, the leader of the Crystal Dragon Flight. I don't care. Pick one."

"Whatever pleases you, my lord," Alex said, bowing his head. He looked around, eyes glittering as he observed the city of Whisperwood. Ethan knew almost nothing about it. He thought he was decently well-read on the major places back in Tal’vengar, but here, he was a stranger in a strange land.

"Oh, you're such a stick in the mud. I'll stick with the Herald then. I'll be fine with that. Anyway, transport to the eastern continent is... well, it's non-existent. You would have to take a ship and, well, that would take weeks, if not months, depending on how things are going. Instead, I'll use a little of my authority to send you there instantaneously. “The Herald pirouetted on the spot, placing his hands on his hips in a dramatic pose. He pointed directly at Alex. "Did you know this is the homeland of your people? Before the resets and the migrations, this is the image of where they were born."

"The image…" Alex nodded as he looked around. "So some of what's in the history books are true. You created this planet as a representation of your homeland."

The Herald shrugged, spinning on the spot and continuing his walk. “I got some details wrong. By that point, the planet had a mind of its own!” He laughed for a good while before continuing. “Well, I’ve changed my approach recently. Can you imagine? The moment I promise not to get involved, an anomaly pops up. We haven’t had one before.” He stopped again, turning to look directly at Ethan. “I wonder what caused it.”

The awkward moment lasted for longer than Ethan was comfortable. He placed his hand over his bracelet and felt the metal to center himself. But more than the cool metal under his fingers, the powerful hand, gripping him tightly on the shoulder brought him far more comfort.

“We have a job to do, my lord,” Luna said. “I appreciate your lack of understanding. The clock ticks faster for us mortal folk.”

“I thought he was in charge,” the Herald said, pointing at Alex. “Oh! I almost forgot. He’s being expelled, so he isn’t coming back. Are you settling in the eastern colonies?”

Everyone in the Anomalous Materials group knew that Alex was leaving. From the point when Ethan joined them, they knew it was a replacement situation. The scribe wanted more for the group, though. He wanted to keep Alex and hire some more people to help. Maybe that was just the dreams of a child talking, but he wanted to fight against the status quo… But he wouldn’t kid himself. Forces beyond his control were at work here.

“That’s right.” Alex shot Luna a nasty look. “We’d appreciate it if you could speed us along to our destination.”

“Quite fine.” The Herald sighed dramatically. “I have matters to attend to. You wouldn’t believe how many incursions assault us daily. It really is obnoxious.”

That flew in the face of some things Ethan knew about this world, but he didn’t have time to process it. The Herald snapped his fingers, and this time the scribe couldn’t stay on his feet. One moment he had been standing on paved roads, and the next he was standing in a chilly field. He fell on his butt, sliding slightly down a hill. He felt slightly better when both Finn and Alex also took a tumble. Luna remained rooted to the ground, looking around as though assessing threats.

"Could somebody remind me why we needed to come do this?" Ethan did his best to stand back on his feet, but it was as though something had screwed with his inner ear. Instead, he simply assessed the area they found themselves in.

They stood in a wide-open field with clusters of trees visible far in the distance. The topography was that of a temperate environment with small rocky slopes and fields of various grasses growing in every direction. The most notable thing of all was the gigantic, swirling mass of energy 500 feet to the left.

“He brought us, because we’re the experts.” Alex finally got his footing, producing a wooden staff to support himself.

Luna’s gaze dragged between Alex and Ethan. She scowled. “He brought us because of Ethan. The Herald knows more about the Anomalous Materials Group than he’ll admit.”

“I don’t like it.” Finn didn’t even try getting up from the ground. He looked up at the blue sky above, seeming to watch as clouds floated by. “And we’re leaving Alex here? I thought you were coming back.”

“We’ll talk about that later.” Alex muttered something under his breath, eventually squaring his shoulders as though preparing to face some great monster. “Okay, folks. You know the drill. Once you can walk, I want you to figure out what kind of magic we’re dealing with.”

Ethan's head rolled to one side as he looked at the anomaly. It was too distant for him to get a good look, but he knew from where he was on the ground that he had never encountered this type of magic before. "Bracelet, can you run an analysis on that thing and let me know if you have any references in the books we scanned?"

“Understood. Operation time: 15 minutes.”

“Hell yeah,” Ethan said, still feeling sick but getting a bit better.

Luna had already dashed off, and Alex was limping his way toward the anomaly. Only Ethan and Finn remained on the ground, staring up at the sky as their heads spun. Perhaps it was physical tampering of the body or some conditioning they didn't have, but they weren't able to move for quite some time. In fact, the bracelet's calculations were completed before the scribe could rise to his feet.

"The anomaly has characteristics similar to that of Spatial, Dimensional, Creation, Crafting, and Infusion magic."

“Any way to narrow it down?”

“This unit suggests you emulate the anomaly in question.”

Of course, that was easier said than done. Ethan eventually got to his feet and helped Finn up. Together, they limped toward the anomaly, assessing it as they went. Neither man had seen one like it before, and as they drew closer, it became stranger. The anomaly had etched a scar into the landscape. It was a swirling vortex of energy that created a prismatic tornado shooting skyward. It ate away at the surrounding landscape, chewing a spherical pit in the open field. Dirt and stone crumbled inward, falling into the dark depths below.

Ethan hadn't been at the school long, but the anomalous materials group was more of a home than any of his classes. He fell into the practiced routine of skirting along the edges of the anomaly and sampling the mana. He didn't pull it into his soul with the siphon technique, instead favoring a manual process to get a sample for his bracelet. After sending a wisp inside, he consulted the artifact.

“Can you give me more information based on that?”

“Understood. Operation time: 1 hour.”

Ethan frowned at that. Even with his new processors, it’d take a while.

"Bad news?" Fin came alongside him and looked at the bracelet as though he would discern some hidden information.

"It'll take an hour before the bracelet can tell me anything about the mana out here. Until then, I guess we're just gonna do what Alex suggested and keep our distance. I can't say that I blame him. I don't trust this energy. It's kind of strange."

From his chest, a card rotated forward. Finn snatched it from the air and held it out for Ethan to see. Detailed on the surface were words he couldn't recognize and the image of a vague stream of power floating through open air. "I have a card that tells me the quality of mana. And this stuff is way above my rank. Are you still going to be able to emulate it?”

Ethan shook his head. “I can do Rank 2… maybe. But if we’re dealing with anything higher, we’re out of luck.”

“Old-fashioned methods, then,” Finn said with a nod. “Let’s get to work.”

Alex's orders changed. Instead of avoiding the anomaly entirely, they were supposed to go to the furthest edges of it and begin the mana siphoning process. This wasn't right up against the hole where the anomaly was most visible but a place nearly 200 paces outward where the mage had detected the extent of the field. For now, the three men would tackle that perimeter while Luna floated around on her flying sword and probed for the spherical presence of the anomaly.

Time dragged on until the bracelet finally finished a report. When the voice spoke into Ethan’s mind, he jumped from fright, clutching his chest.

"Assessment of aberrant mana completed. Mana contains elements of Spatiality and Creation."

“Give me a rundown of Creation magic,” Ethan said.

“Creation magic is an advanced form of Conjuration and Illusion. A mage with Creation Magic can, quite simply, create things. This unit doesn’t have enough information to make assumptions, but can presume that a Creation Anomaly is quite dangerous.”

Ethan whistled, gaining the attention of the other members of his squad. They came over, and he gave the same report that his bracelet had given to him. He saw confusion and even a few shrugs.

"Creation magic is rare enough to be considered a rumor." Alex shook his head. "We know it exists because of records, but the number of people who have put in the work required to reach the Creation Mage stage are few‌.”

“If any living,” Finn added.

“Good news, though. It doesn’t have any adverse elements that I can detect.” Ethan perked up after considering the implications. He was used to dealing with fire, gravity, and water. Even the Spatial Anomaly had some concerns, but this seemed mostly safe. Aside from the giant sinkhole, which had grown suspiciously larger since they had arrived.

“Let’s start a full-scale siphoning effort,” Alex said. “Once we get close enough… Hey, looks like we got a local coming to gawk at the idiots playing with fire.”

Ethan looked, spotting a figure jogging in the distance. They came down a hill from a direction Ethan had learned was likely north. Their pace didn’t express any haste, but they still moved at a decent clip.

“I elect Ethan as our ambassador.”

“Seconded,” Alex said, not missing a beat.

“So it shall be,” Luna said somberly.

Although Ethan groaned his objections enough that he was tempted to give the finger to all his companions, he dusted himself off and made sure he looked presentable. He was wearing the robes of his class, which were constantly cleaned thanks to his vigor ring. With a sigh, he headed off to intercept the man, waving as he drew near. The guy was pretty plain-looking, with short, brown hair, a shaven face, and a youthful appearance. He was perhaps 20 years old at the oldest but had a steely look in his eyes that betrayed his age.

"Sorry about the mess. We're just cleaning up a magical anomaly, and it shouldn't take us long at all." Ethan gestured back toward the anomaly, but the man before him didn't say anything. There was a very faint flash of magic that came from the man, causing his brows to knit. The man was wearing plain clothes and showed no outward appearance of being a mage, but the magic was there. He might’ve missed it if not for his Celestial Pen, which was nothing if not a magnet for magic. “Sorry, are you a mage?”

The man tilted his head to one side before the plain, even bored expression faded from his face. He quirked a smile. “Nate. And you are?”

“Ethan,” the scribe said, reaching a hand out for him to shake. His grip was like a vice.

“Thanks, Ethan,” Nate said, pushing the scribe to one side with no effort. He then continued jogging. Directly at the anomaly.

Chapter 70

Psychotic Locals

Ethan did his best to keep up with the jogging pace of Nate, but the guy was like a machine. He even ran mechanically, making him seem like a Terminator, running off to find some poor girl in the past. The scribe shouted, gaining the attention of his companions who stepped in to block the man's path, but there was no use. He quickly approached the anomaly, reached the edge of the sinkhole, and then he jumped.

“What in the hells are you doing?!” Alex shouted, mouth falling open as he watched the weird man sail through the air.

To everyone's surprise, the man landed in the center of the tornado, where all the energy gathered into a nexus of sizzling power. He stood there for a few moments, pressing his hand into the service of it. To Ethan's utter shock, the size of the tornado faded. Visible wisps of mana vented from the man's body. The scribe realized at that moment that he was siphoning mana directly from the center, clearing it out and rendering it mostly safe. The tornado died down, becoming little more than a dust devil that could hardly whip up the surrounding dirt. He then dusted his hands off and jumped back to the other side of the sinkhole and waved to Ethan.

“Y'all were trying to disarm the energy tornado, right?” Nate asked.

There wasn't exactly a Southern twang in the man's voice, but from his use of the word "y'all" and his casual nature, Ethan couldn't help but think of the country folk back home. An amused smile spread across his face. "That's exactly what we were trying to do, but normally we do it in a safer manner."

Nate finished dusting himself off. His clothes had been shredded in places from the energy, but his skin was completely unscathed. Ethan couldn't stop studying the man, determining that the only way he could have avoided being hurt by the power of the energy vortex was some sort of incredibly powerful reinforcement of his body. As he watched, he thought he saw the last speck of mana fade from his skin. So, he had covered himself completely in a layer of mana, perhaps going down below the dermal layer to keep himself safe. That was some incredibly impressive mana control if he was right.

“You can’t just jump into a tornado of energy!” Alex shouted, throwing his hands in the air. “What is your problem?!”

Nate just nodded a few times, approaching Ethan, of all people. “You don’t mind if I stick around, do you?”

Ethan shared a concerned look with Alex. “I mean… You did disarm it. Alex, that saved us a ton of work. Like… five hours of work.”

Alex looked at Ethan as though he had been betrayed. The mage’s gaze shot to Luna, who shrugged. “Okay! I guess!” he shouted, throwing his hands into the air one final time. “We’ll just get to work while the strange dude who didn’t die in the tornado watches. Why not?!”

“Perfect. Thanks, guys.” Nate took a seat on a nearby rock, leaning forward as though prepared to watch the entire process.

Once Ethan got his senses back, he joined Luna. They now had to approach the anomaly itself, which was currently suspended over the massive sinkhole. Once they were out of earshot, she turned to him and shook her head.

“You didn’t see it did you?” Luna asked, looking back one more time to make sure Nate couldn’t hear. “He covered his entire body in a layer of mana to avoid taking damage. Even in my sect, that’s some seriously impressive control.”

“I saw that,” Ethan said. Try as he might, he couldn’t look like anything other than a conspirator. “Did he use mana in his legs to jump further?”

Luna nodded in confirmation. “There’s a lot more under the surface there. Let’s just count our blessings that he showed up to help.”

Ethan settled on using System Platform to get near the anomaly. He took readings with his bracelet, and committed everything he could to the memory blocks before getting back on solid ground. The complexity of the containing arrays was enough to make his stomach twist into knots, but he set his bracelet on another task and went to have a seat.

“Gonna take me a while,” he shouted, waving his hand so everyone knew they could take it easy. “Pretty sure we have a Rank 2 anomaly. Maybe Rank 3.”

Alex groaned. “Just do your best, Ethan. We can destroy it if need be.”

Nate perked up at the mention of destroying the anomaly. “I believe in you, Ethan,” he said, a smarmy smile hanging on his face.

And so Ethan got to work. He went between solid ground, sketching out what he thought was the array and using his system platform ability to get closer to it to check his results. The bracelet didn't come back with the correct assessment at first, requiring many iterations of the effort. At first, it seemed as though nothing would break through the complexity of the anomaly until the scribe decided to put some materials he had learned in the Array Foundation's one class to use. Arrays on arrays, sigils on sigils. Instead of considering the arrangement as a bunch of interconnected sigils on a 2D plane, he thought of it as a 3D webwork.

Thankfully, sketching stuff out in 3D was easy with his Celestial Pen. He drew the main segment of the array, all of which were easy enough to produce considering they were the Rank 1 part, then got to work on the Rank 2 portion.

“Second sigil from the left,” the bracelet said. “You’ve created the wrong one. Replace it with the Spatial concept of compression.”

Ethan scratched his head, squinting as he looked at the hovering projection he had created. He crouched, bent his head to the side, and sighed. “Yeah, you’re right.”

“Is everything going well?” Luna asked tentatively. “You seem frustrated.”

"Yeah, this thing is just devilishly complex. We just barely started covering advanced arrays in my class, and truth be told, I haven't even crafted a rank two spell. All of this is very new to me."

Ethan and Luna stopped talking, watching as the interloper Nate came over. He folded his arms, looked at the arrangement, and nodded with approval. "You only Rank 1, and you're doing this kind of work?" He clicked his tongue, shaking his head. “Damn impressive work, Ethan. Pay attention to your lines. Here, look at it from this angle.”

Although Ethan tried to object, Nate grabbed him by the shoulders and bodily moved him into a new position. The man placed a hand on either side of his head, and lined up his vision.

“See that?” Nate asked. “Those lines should overlap. The connection between the arrays in the lattice needs to be absolute. When you shoot mana into a formation like this, you’re seeking to flood the entire thing at once.”

“Well, damn. Why don’t you just do this?” Ethan asked, offering Nate the pen.

The man shook his head, smiling bigger than ever. “Nah, arrays were never my strongest point.”

Ethan just stared at him for quite a while, shaking his head. Eventually, he sighed, falling into a seated position and withdrawing a length of dried monster meat from his bag. He offered one to both Luna and Nate, who gladly accepted. Finn and Alex took that as a sign to take a break themselves. They had the important job of keeping the ambient mana down in the area. If they didn’t, the anomaly was likely to reform. Although with Nate around, that might not be an issue.

Starting his siphoning process again, Ethan dumped everything he had into the bracelet. Including the extra mana from the monster meat.

“Bracelet, can you fix the array with what Nate suggested?”

“Processing…”

“A mind spirit, huh?” Nate asked.

“Not exactly,” Luna corrected. “More like a… what did you call it?”

“A computer.” Ethan opened his eyes for a moment. Long enough to see Nate’s brows peak in surprise. “Are you from a technological world?”

Nate laughed, taking another bite of the dried monster meat. “Yeah. Something like that.”

Ethan had already dumped quite a lot of mana into the bracelet over the weekend. He could feel that it was close to finally gaining the projector block, but it took a lot more than he would have liked. He spent two hours on the ground using his mana siphon ability and the monster meat in tandem to fuel the hungry bracelet. His stomach was full to the point where he felt sick, but finally, the projector block was completed. Breathing a sigh of relief, he held his bracelet out.

“Project that array for me, please,” Ethan said. “Lock it in place if you can, right over my own work.”

A moment later, the bracelet buzzed with electric power, and the completed array sprung to life in the air. It superimposed itself over the array Ethan had been working on, and the errors were now clear. For a person, especially one that wasn’t as experienced with array construction, having a logical thing such as the bracelet computer take the stage was an obvious choice. But this just revealed how powerful the Rank 2 Processing Block was. The bracelet knew what the array should look like, based on the data it had gathered so far. And it had intelligently made the adjustments needed for this version of that array.

“I got it,” Ethan said, nodding as he snapped his fingers. He cleared away the work he had done and sketched out the System Sigil for the anomaly. With his eyes locked on the faint energy in the distance, he felt a rush pass through his body as a system message appeared.

[Anomalous M-228 System Variant Emulated]

ERROR: You have emulated an anomalous system. This variant of the M-228 system is incomplete and mostly non-functional. Your interaction with this system will be limited more than normal. Please use your Celestial Pen to resolve enough errors to stabilize the anomaly.

Creation Magic Anomaly

Difficult Rank: Difficult (Rank 2)

Known Errors: INCOMPLETE

System Alignment: X-13

Anomaly Designation: Tablet

Current Status: Stable

This anomaly was different. Ethan could normally get the emulation process going if he understood a bit about the Array that had supported it, but this one was stubborn. It didn't want to give him access until he had gotten to the final step. Still, his attempt to create a system sigil to contain it wasn't good enough, and even that required a few iterations before he felt that it was actually correct. Then he could get to work on the problem within the array itself. Fortunately, he had a wealth of knowledge from the other members of the anomalous materials group, his bracelet, and Nate. They discovered and patched the issue within the hour.

Standing on his System Platform, Ethan made the changes to the anomaly. This time, it wasn’t just a matter of patching up some faulty mana storage logic. Instead, the problem with this one was the gathering of that power, and the imbuement in some random object. The array was designed to create a random stone tablet that would do… something. No one could figure out what it was meant to do based on the array alone, but soon enough, the pleasant completion message appeared in his vision.

[Tablet Anomaly Repaired]

You have repaired an anomaly known to the Grand System. Please continue to resolve anomalies.

Reward:

Increased breadth and depth of one Attribute Ring of your choice.

500 coins.

Sometimes the system gave him a bag of coins and other times it gave him a single coin that had already been compressed. This time, it decided to give him the 500 coins in the single-piece variant, which was all right by him. He would have to combine the others if it gave him the bag. The smile played across the scribe's face as he infused all that power into his mind ring. He could tell that it was very close to expanding out to the second level, which would solve quite a lot of his problems. The anomaly itself fizzled out until the energy revealed a small stone tablet that fell into the chasm below.

“You guys should come to town,” Nate offered. “We can have a few drinks. Talk about… stuff.”

Alex eventually shrugged. “Okay. Why not? What’s that tiny town called again?”

“Stoutforge,” Nate said, looking back into the hole. It was a bit too obvious that he wanted that tablet, but what was he gonna do? Jump into the hole?

“Let’s go. I could use a few hundred drinks.” Finn slumped as he walked forward. “We’re getting paid for this right? Wait, do they accept our coins?”

“I believe they do.” Nate led the way to the north.

Ethan lingered behind for a few long moments, his eyes locked onto the hole. Nate seemed like a decent guy, but there was an edge to him. It was as though he was hiding quite a few things. With a massive shrug, he joined with the other members of the Anomalous Materials Group. A bit of rest was good. Especially since he had classes in the morning.