Getting injured inside your realm is nothing, you will heal as soon as you move away from the source of injury. Even fighting heart demons and dying in the process will only interrupt your meditation.

  — Excerpt from Introduction to Realm Cores

  Day 109, 3:25 PM

  “How did I turn a lump of metal into a magnet?” Sure, I banged it into the correct shape, but as far as I remembered physics, just banging iron into the shape of a magnet didn’t turn it into one. I mean, horseshoes were magnet-shaped, or magnets were horseshoe-shaped. Probably the latter.

  “Why did you become a magnet?” I asked the giant hunk of metal hanging above me. It hung off a chain, but that chain also didn’t react to the magnet. I focused on the chain, thinking how it really should stick to the magnet, then, the whole contraption twisted as the magnet slammed up, sticking to the chain, crashing into the thick bar, and destroying the whole thing.

  What just happened? I looked at the chain, thinking how it really shouldn’t stick to the magnet, and it slid off.

  “I did not just spend forty-odd months playing with rusty sand and hammering things with my fists when I had telekinesis all along!”

  With an exertion of my will, the iron sand formed into the perfect replica of the magnet, then the two giant constructs slammed into each other with me in the middle, shooting me out of my realm.

  I opened my eyes wondering what just happened, when I recalled that dying inside your realm just interrupted the trance and forced you to wake up. I drew a deep breath to calm down, closed my eyes, and I was back in the iron desert.

  The expanse was mostly empty, my ruined experiment the only structure around. I stared at it, then it crumbled into metal sand. I focused, and the sand flowed. It rose from the ground and followed the contours I imagined to create an exact replica of my mechanism, only taking about half an hour instead of six days.

  I willed the magnet on and off, and the iron dust rose and fell as the pull subsided. Then, I just started laughing and threw myself back-first onto the metal sand.

  I wonder what it is that makes people regret the wasted time when they make a huge step forward? Everything that came before seemed like wasted effort, yet I only lost a handful of seconds to make the discovery.

  All right, the next step. I willed the magnet to move along the rail, and it did. I willed it to demagnetize, and the pile of extracted metal mana fell to the ground. There and back again, it moved, magnetizing and demagnetizing to collect mana, speeding up the process considerably. Then I willed it to keep repeating the process, stopped focusing on it, and the thing stopped.

  I tried thrice more before taking a break and heading for the heart of the realm, where the giant pump awaited.

  Pump, I commanded, and the crank started moving with metal spewing out of it. The waterfall hissed like shifting sand, and I watched, thinking that maybe there was a kind of genius to Dandelion, after all. Then, I saw the hill for pumping, and my opinion of the dead man reverted to its original state. But the water pump really was a better idea than my magnet, in that it only had two moves to follow. Up and down.

  The weeks spent in the artificers’ guild kicked in, and I immediately translated the two movements into a single one. Many pumps operated on wheels powered by spikebacks, which gave me another idea.

  I went back to the third realm, destroying a bunch of surrounding swords and shields with a look instead of manually bashing them to pieces — so embarrassing — and made the pump and a giant hamster wheel. With a thought, the wheel started spinning, and the pump showered the ground with iron, but the downpour ended as soon as I stopped focusing.

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  A loop passed with no improvement. I was once more heading for the adventurers’ guild, and I stopped just before it, staring at the faintly glowing seals which kept the elements and dirt out of the building, despite its perpetually open doors.

  An hour later, I awoke from my meditation, roaring in laughter. I did it! Four runic seals inscribed on the hamster wheel made for perpetual motion, wasting some mana, but creating much more than they used.

  With that, I finally had something I could use to bargain with Newstar! And that was the problem, I realized as soon as the thought came up. I wasn’t trying to be a realm knight. I was trying to find the means to bargain. That’s why I didn’t get the class.

  Or that’s what I thought, but try as I might for two loops, nothing happened, and I couldn’t reenter realm knight. In the third, I tested it with the scholar, but after reading ten books in the alchemists’ library, I got the class, losing all my previous progress. As for realm knight, I was missing something, failing to meet a condition I didn’t even know was there.

  Whatever. I spent a month trying. It was time to see about the other things Newstar asked me. In a fresh loop, I headed back to Hailstown, dug through the old records and memorized the shelf with the ledger, noting the sale of the Salamandra couple. The last thing to check was his childhood sweetheart, which brought me to another awkward subject I was avoiding since reincarnating - Dandelion’s spouses and children.

  I decided I would keep avoiding it, so I summoned Hammer.

  “How may I serve?” The old man bowed respectfully, but seemed less afraid in my presence than when I first saw him.

  “There’s a girl somewhere in the keep, Jasmine Steelwheel, I think she’s with Hardstone. Could you fetch her?”

  “Yes, townlord.” He left, and ten minutes later, a pretty young girl wearing too much makeup stood in my office, smiling at me.

  Jasmine was a looker, her chest was well developed, her face and figure pleasing to the eye, but something about her turned me off. Where Ruby was cold and sharp, forcing you to break her defenses before you could appreciate her brilliant wit and wilder side, Jasmine, well frankly, she was slutty.

  I don’t know why I got the impression, experience perhaps, but she looked like she would spread her legs at the slightest compliment and enough cash. And I preferred women who would stab me if I tried whispering sweet words into their ears before we got to know each other well.

  “You wanted to see me, chaplain.”

  I nearly cringed at the title, and at the way she panted the words. I didn’t know which would have made a real chaplain swat me dead first, the title I was soiling, or having a young adult acting like that in front of me.

  “Yes,” I said without letting my thoughts show, glad for the two loops I spent in front of the mirror. “You’re from Harthrow, at the foot of the Dragonsrest mountain, right?”

  “Yes, lord chaplain.” She folded her arms, pushing her bosom up.

  “And are you happy with Hardstone?”

  The question confused her. She couldn’t say no, but she wanted to push her agenda with me. It was almost amusing watching that moment of hesitation, the cogs inside her head turning, but she came up with an answer in less than a second.

  “Hardstone is a fine man, but he’s never around. Always with his friends, leaving me all alone in our room.”

  I couldn’t take it anymore. “Yes, I will tell him to devote more of his time to you. Now, what can you tell me about Newstar Salamandra?”

  She blinked thrice, her breath quickening. I couldn’t tell what upset her, but she regained her composure in a moment. “Newt was a dear childhood friend.”

  Was? Interesting use of past tense. They were either no longer friends or she presumed him dead, but showed no sorrow about the loss.

  “What can you tell me about him?”

  Jasmine explained in as few sentences as possible Newstar’s history up until she came to Hailstown. I thanked her for her time and, once she left, leaned back in my chair, staring at the ceiling.

  So, my brother still wants to murder me for some reason, or more likely he wants me to kill a washed up noble kid, and killing a mageknight would certainly land me into trouble. Then there’s the slutty crush, which I will need to expose, some insights about realm sculpting, and then there’s the knowledge about seal scribing he’s interested in.

  All in all, I had an array of offerings to show my good intentions and hopefully start an amicable relationship with a future powerhouse. But what then? Just being friends wouldn’t help. He needed opportunities to grow, a way to get out of his family’s poverty… Perhaps I could help there as well, see which guild missions he could complete, and send him in the right direction. Maybe a bit of gambling and arena fighting both to improve his skills and to earn manarium.

  I stopped. My plans were all nebulous. I will shatter and rebuild my realm soon. I will need a guardian while I’m defenseless and wounded, but I need to prepare proper rewards for him too.

  Fortunately, I had learned some alchemy, but I would need a distraction, something to occupy his mind while I’m working…