The grade of one’s core can only be measured by two factors. One is the speed at which the awakened draws mana, the other the speed at which they unleash it. We can consider these two the core’s potential. How an awakened shapes their realm may cripple or enhance them, but will never change those two innate qualities.

  — Excerpt from Introduction to Realm Cores

  Day 114, 12:30 PM

  The Raptor’s Crest was a middling quality establishment - cheap, mediocre food and brew, a place I visited only once while exploring my town, mostly to scratch that completionist itch, and I would have left it at that if not for Newstar’s sudden appearance.

  Since Newstar happened, I was nursing my tolerable beer, sitting at the corner table, waiting for the boy to return to the dingy pub. Redo was red, two and a half days to go before it was available. Kind of worrisome, but I was slowly coming to terms with such things. Still, getting into the mentality that not everyone is out to kill me just because my immortality is on standby was kind of tough.

  I was on my third tankard when Newstar finally showed up. He entered the common room distraught and glanced around with a certain hint of madness in his eyes when he spotted me and reels.

  “You’re the townlord!”

  Nothing about my clothes should have revealed my status, and I had never met the boy. Maybe he and Dandelion had met before? But that seemed unlikely. He had spent three years locked up in a mine, and his father hopefully had more common sense than to bring his kid to meet a bunch of bandits turned town guardians.

  “Correct. Would you sit down?”

  “You weren’t there originally!” He pointed a finger at me. “I dreamed about all of this, and it was all vaguely familiar until I got here, but then the inn, the things people said, all of it was the same.”

  Interesting. I steepled my hands. “Come, sit down. I want to hear more about that dream of yours.”

  He watched me with wild eyes and approached, but didn’t sit, instead he loomed over me. “What happened to my mother?”

  “She was sold as a slave, her life, dignity, and honor guaranteed. Same as your father. There are many slaves who sell themselves for resources. We aren’t barbarians.”

  He nodded a bit too maniacally for my liking, but calmed down and sat.

  “Do you want a beer?”

  “I don’t drink.”

  “How about some tisane?”

  He nodded, and I signaled the innkeeper to come over. “Chamomile and lavender, well steeped, sweetened with honey.”

  The boy blinked at me.

  “Helps calm the nerves.” I sent the greasy man away with a glance and focused back on the washed up noble heir. “I hear you have been looking for me. I was out of town, but decided to find you when I heard, so, how may I help you?”

  “What happened to my parents?”

  I cocked an eyebrow, but the boy was too distraught and since the loop wasn’t a final one, I didn’t care to work on his manners.

  No, I have to see how he reacts to me exercising my authority.

  “You will address me as sir, townlord, or lord. I am your senior, have superior realm, and I wasted time to visit you. The least I’m entitled to is respect if not seeking an outright payment for my effort. Do you understand?”

  The boy jerked back as if slapped, but after gathering himself, he nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  “Good.” Kid submitted to authority — bad for him, but useful for me, at least temporarily. “So, about your parents. They were sold as voluntary slaves, and they will remain such as long as their masters don’t mistreat them or until they pay off their debts, which almost never happens.”

  Newstar nodded. “And whom did you sell them to, sir?”

  “No idea, I can check for you, but I believe I am not a slaver as such. All I did was facilitate the deal, but as I have said, I can inquire about that for you. It might take a while, though.”

  “Thank you, sir.” He looked down. He wasn’t there only for the matter of his parents.

  “Anything else you would like to discuss?”

  He turned his head to shake it, but stopped himself.

  “I heard a rumor saying your son kidnapped a childhood friend of mine. Some said she came of her own free will, others that he dragged her away.”

  I made an ugly face and nodded. “I’ll look into that as well. Anything else?”

  The boy was confused, but shook his head. “No, sir.”

  “All right, my turn. How did you recognize me?”

  “I told you, I had a strange dream.” He hesitated, but a firm look got him talking.

  Newstar explained how he was having a sense of already living through everything that had happened to him, the after a bit more frowning, he said how in his dream my half-brother approached him, told him how I had abused his mother and childhood friend, who was obviously more than just a friend, then he killed me and woke up back in the inn he was sleeping in.

  The kid remembered. Was it because of the vision connecting me with his future version, or was it something more, something I don’t yet understand? Whatever the case, I needed to make sure not to have anyone else inside Vengeful’s blast area if I can help it.

  As we chatted, and the boy drank his tea, he relaxed.

  “Before coming here, I went to your home and chatted with your former tutor, Stronggrow.” That got the youth spraying tea out of his nose, but I ignored the outburst. “He told me you intend to earn a fortune and buy back your parents. Could you please explain your plan? The minimal price to purchase your parents, two peak third real mages, is several dozen fourth realm manarium pieces. Depending on which resources their masters gave them, it may have already reached hundreds or thousands.”

  Newstar stopped coughing and stared at me. He had absolutely no plan at all. I barely stopped myself from rolling my eyes.

  “What are you good at? My sources told me you awoke as a mageknight, and your realm isn’t horrible for your age.” It was quite good actually, if the books I read weren’t outdated. “You could sell yourself to slavery. You might fetch a better price than your mage parents, but that seems like switching your places and just winding up without your parents again. So can you do, or do you know, anything people might need? Anything they would pay good money for?”

  He glared at me with determination and little else.

  “Alchemy?” I started. “Beast taming? Blacksmithing? Carpentry? Herbalism? Masonry? Seal scribing?”

  His eyes brightened at the last one. “I see, you have some interest in scribing seals. That is a profitable profession. Do you have any experience?”

  He hesitated, but shook his head. “No.”

  Again, a secret he’s concealing poorly, but that’s fine. “How would you feel if I gave you an introductory book on seals and runes?”

  His eyes sparkled.

  “I would be grateful.” Watching a sixteen-year-old with a non-existent social life trying to hide his emotions was priceless. It also reminded me I needed to spend a loop in front of a mirror, mastering my face fully.

  “I’ll see what I can do about that. Is there anything else you would like, and what can you pay me with?”

  The boy showed his pitiful purse full of gold and silver, but with only a single piece of first realm manarium visible. He was bound to have some more, but even then he didn’t have enough hiding spots on his person to conceal a second realm crystal’s worth of manarium.

  “Frankly, that hardly covers my travel expenses for coming to meet you from Thunderbluff, let alone the information I have shared so far.” I wondered what they call puppy eyes in the Eternal Light empire, but I could call them Newstar eyes. “That look doesn’t work on me.”

  The boy bit his lips. I had something he wanted, and he almost certainly had something I wanted. He became or would become a powerhouse, depending on your point of view.

  “I don’t mind helping you. In fact, I’ll help you as much as I can, but I deal in equivalent exchange when it comes to knowledge and information.” I lost him there. Whatever he knew was too valuable to exchange for beginner advice on seal scribing.

  “I see.” Best tell it straight, given how he’s acting. “You believe your knowledge is worth much more than what I’m offering. Well, what are you interested in? It’s not other crafts, few have more than one under their belt on account of how much time they consume. I already told you I would see about your parents and girlfriend.”

  He stiffened at that. The girl might be more important to him than I guessed.

  “The only other thing which could interest you, other than material wealth would be…” I realized what he wanted, and I had absolutely no experience on the subject.

  “…information of realm building and shaping. I’m a realm higher than you, and I have quite a few years of experience under my belt, while your tutor is only a peak second realm mage.” I once more lied in a way which would pass lie detection, but I really needed to spend several loops on learning how to manipulate mana. I delayed the subject as long as possible, seeking to build a foundation in other classes before dealing with magic, but the time had come.

  I guess that loops of putting my theoretical knowledge to use had arrived.