Scribing has several applications in combat. All high-quality magical gear is scribed. Armors and weapons enchanted with runes to increase their durability and soak or deal elemental damage, but there are enchantments focused on convenience.

  Seals for self-reparation, temperature control, softness, making plate armor feel like wearing nothing at all. The options are infinite, with a rich market open for invention.

  — Excerpt from Comprehensive Introduction to Scribing and Seals

  Day 126, 2:30 PM

  Redo was red. I swallowed a lump. I had successfully performed the surgery and my core upgrade three score times, surviving every time, but Redo was always there for me. My crutch against stupid mistakes, accidental sneezes, and other random manifestations of gods’ hatred.

  My life in the Eternal Light empire was blessed. True, I didn’t have Manny, magic was weaker than in Everrain, but I knew what I was doing, and there was no deadline. No looming doom. And even if I knew there were outer gods infiltrating this world, they had no way of finding me, not if time kept rolling after I died.

  Was there really a reason to take risks? I could have taken a two-week break from the world, and continued when I had a way to salvage the situation.

  No! A part of me rebelled against the notion. They know a time hopper exists, and they are searching for me. Even if they can’t find me until I make sufficiently large ripples, they can prepare for the time-hopper’s appearance. I cannot waste two weeks. Later down the line, they might mean the difference between surviving and dying.

  Was I in that grand battle? What did Newstar say? He mentioned ages passing since he saw me, and him not blaming me for leaving him. That meant I wouldn’t make it ‘til the end. Assuming that vision was true. But even if we hadn’t seen each other in ages, it could mean I ascended somehow? Or perhaps Newstar lied, like I told Gila to lie.

  I knew I was procrastinating, delaying the inevitable, but just that minute to collect my thoughts. It was enough to realize the real implications of my vision. A deeper connection with Newstar meant that I must have succeeded, and that fact gave me enough courage to proceed.

  My hand shook as the scalpel slowly approached my bare chest, but the trembling subsided the moment the blade pressed against my skin. Numbed by the anesthetic, I felt nothing as a red bead welled up and became a trickle. I made the incision with morbid fascination, knowing that one mistake was all it took for this life to end.

  Focus! The sternum cracked, surprisingly little blood flowing, and I administered a blood-thickener at the patches from which the flow would have obscured my vision. It was an out-of-body experience, as I sheared flesh away from my core, leaving behind a single muscle fiber, which held in one piece.

  I pulled and the metallic orb melted away, entering my skin. I watched as a pristine one formed inside my opened ribcage, then started patching myself together.

  The surgery went without error, and I observed my new class as my body knitted itself thanks to the healing potion.

  To level up, expand your realm by one layer. An easy condition, one which required nothing more than the consumption of a single piece of manarium. Another change drew my attention. My Flawless Heartcore had disappeared, replaced by a Perfect Dualcore.

  I stood there, disbelieving, then finally smiled. I would’ve laughed, but I was afraid the boy would think me insane, and rightfully so. Only the insane risked their lives on imaginary threats. I inhaled deeply to regain my senses, then focused on my task.

  I took out a second realm manarium crystal and started absorbing it. Most first realm awakened would either draw mana from the air; the wealthy, from a first realm manarium crystal, but I didn’t want to waste time. Thirty-five minutes later, after barely making a dent in the second realm manarium crystal’s reserve, I got a level up notification.

  [You have expanded your realm by one layer.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  You have leveled up.

  Select a skill within sixty seconds or a random one will be assigned to you.

  Advanced Mana Gathering - You gather mana more proficiently.

  Initial Realm Sculpting - You sculpt your realm more proficiently.]

  Both options were good, but I knew I wouldn’t waste my time on mana gathering. Potions and spell seals were the major timesavers there. Potions and spell seals could also improve the speed at which one sculpted their realm, but the difference was less radical, assuming the books I had read could be believed.

  Breaking the rule of thumb, I took the lower tier skill, and checked my next level up condition. My next task was to sculpt two layers of my realm.

  I had two options, I could either keep expanding my realm, then shape it all at once or shape, then expand until I finalized my second layer, then shape that one. I decided on the latter approach, not because I was careful not to waste level up material, Redo would perfect the process.

  No, I was eager to start forming an inner world shaped based on my knowledge and affinity. And I had spent a fair number of loops considering which elements I wished to master and how, but before I would start, I took an hour to make an alarm seal timed for thirteen days, twenty-two hours and thirty minutes.

  Then, and only then, I closed my eyes, and found myself in the flat, tiny world of dust.

  “Now, what do I do with you?” I grinned at the sandbox world beneath my feet. Books mentioned that an awakened’s elemental affinity was set early on in their first realm, but it wasn’t stated at which point exactly. Any elements I couldn’t generate on my own would be outside my reach, and like I said, I had given the matter a great deal of consideration.

  It all started with a volcano. The realm needed to grow taller forever, and the only principle which could follow that course was the volcano. But unlike Newstar’s realm, I wouldn’t pour lava in all directions. Rather, I would use a more calculated approach and have a lot of lava stream on one side of the mountain, while the rest would be safe for other purposes.

  Feeling the dust, I willed a hole into existence, straight at the center of the realm, digging deep, deep until it reached the heat I was looking for. I recalled digging like that in my original realm, finding nothing but metal, but here it was, magma just waiting for me.

  With a final exertion of my will, I pierced the hole, and lava came gushing out, forming the primitive volcano.

  Newstar didn’t specify how wide was his crater, but I estimated it at around two to three layers. And since I didn’t plan to specialize in fire and earth, two layers seemed enough for me. Then, his realm was made of calcified trees, but I would replace those with real trees, to harvest the abominably named wood element, which seemed to match more closely with vitality than anything else, but for the sake of nomenclature, I decided to stick with the official name.

  Water would come easily, in the form of springs on the side of the realm opposite to lava flow, with spell seals freezing a portion of its surroundings, making a large difference in temperature, which would result in wind due to difference.

  Electricity or lightning was a tougher cookie. Not a single note indicated how I could create it, the few with the rare element tightlipped about their secrets. In general, electricity involves a difference in the number of electrons in one place compared to the other, electricity itself, just a migration from A to B. But how that occurs naturally, I had no idea.

  My hypothetical solution was a large waterwheel and friction between glass and glass fibers. It seemed like it should work, drawing electricity out of the ground and discharging it into the air, creating the lightning element.

  Metal was another tough cookie to do naturally, and I gave up after a while, coming up with a runic conveyor excavator, which would draw metal from the depths of my realm and dump it into the lava, in which it would melt and go downstream to expand my realm.

  Ice I had covered, but other elements I knew in Everrain seemed impossible to generate myself. Energy of the stars would require manipulation beyond my realm, mater and basic elements, I had already covered, as for order, chaos, space, time, and fate, I had no clue how to generate those.

  The only other Everrain mana type I had in mind was death, by means of decay, but even that would require countless hours of experimentation.

  Thanks to knowing seers existed, I knew some mix of time, fate, order, and chaos existed, but I had even less of an idea on how to sculpt my realm to achieve this result than I understood naturally occurring lightning.

  Finally, there were exotic things like light, darkness, poison, void, and another few came to mind, but I didn’t know how to approach them. Poison might correlate with the decay generator I had in mind. And light was a known element, the child of air and fire. So while I lacked the idea on how to generate light mana, I would be able to use it thanks to the two basic elements I planned on harvesting.

  I gazed at the slowly expanding pool of lava.

  What would happen if I dug a spring here, right now? Can I dig a spring?

  I focused on the ground, making another hole, and instead of finding magma, I reached an infinite body of water. I had no idea how I knew the lake was endless, I didn’t even break the final barrier leading to it, but when I did, water started gushing out, and the flow of lava slowed.

  Fascinating! I considered the phenomenon until the two, or perhaps three, forces clashed in a symphony of hisses and steam.