Four basic elements are water, air, fire, and earth. All other elements, such as ice, light, lightning, and others are derived by combining the four in various proportions.

  — Excerpt from the Basics of Spellcasting

  Day 106, 12:20 PM

  Newstar asked me various questions on topics he understood and those he didn’t, combining screening with information gathering. A fine effort for a sixteen-year-old, but he was just sixteen. His ability to outwit someone hundreds of times his age, who had spent most of one lifetime dealing with politicians, was lacking.

  Still, I humored him, and the topics were interesting for me too. I had the chance to contemplate what I had learned while explaining it to someone else.

  “And what do you think about realm shapes?” the young man asked, bringing up a pet peeve of mine. The ones available in the imperial library were all subpar.

  “I think they are also nonsense,” I said flatly. “The first realm is made to draw energy from the world and build a solid foundation for the rest, but why does it need to be a building or object which forces the awakened to work it manually to draw the extra energy?

  All the books I read stated that mana should be gathered only by the layers of the first realm, not the later ones. My modest experiments showed the third realm was just as able to draw mana as the first. Obviously, you could use the later layers too, but I needed to test and see the actual data on the yields and differences between them.

  “From what I have read, all the recommended forms have only two things in common. They require active use, and they produce movement to draw the energy into the realm through the core, probably by creating a void at the source, which siphons outside energy.”

  Which was utter nonsense. Someone must have thought of automating the process like me, considering what kind of time-sink drawing of mana represented unless you had an endless supply of manarium.

  “I am certain there is a way to achieve the same result through passive forms, ones which do not require the hypothetical awakened’s active involvement. There has to be a way, and while my experiments have brought me a step or three forward, finding the solution is proving frustratingly difficult.”

  Newstar held his breath. The youth wore his heart on his sleeve, and I almost felt bad about the way I was using him.

  “You know something.” I steepled my fingers and leaned closer, our tea left in the cups to cool.

  “I—” the youth stuttered, and I pressed, bearing down on him with everything my charisma was worth.

  “I have shared the knowledge I have gathered and advised you without asking for anything in return. My knowledge came at an enormous cost in library access and a lifetime of experience. If you know something, please tell me. I was about to tell you something else once I finished explaining my ideas on shapes for the first realm.”

  “What did you want to say?” Newstar tried to steer me away from the subject. I humored him. Talks like the one we were having were all about push and pull, give and take.

  “I will shatter my realm and start over from scratch.” I dropped the bomb, and he looked suitably shocked. A third realm knight, over a hundred years old, risking it all to begin anew from the first realm is an insane proposal. Especially since time will chase to catch up to their slowed aging.

  “You can do that?” the youth stammered yet again.

  “Yes. The procedure is dangerous, and I would never recommend it to others. Based on what I have read, I have a fifty percent chance of dying outright, another twenty percent of crippling myself permanently. And even if I survive and preserve a healthy foundation, my mind might snap and I could remain a vegetable.”

  Newstar’s jaw hung slack as he gaped at me.

  “You are insane. Why?”

  I shrugged. “Because my foundation is poor, and my future is extremely boring and limited if things remain the way they are. I would have liked to start from the peak of the first realm, but it’s not possible with the approach I have in mind.”

  “But your odds are miserable,” the youth shouted. “Is it really worth risking your life?”

  I took a sip of my tea, and instantly regretted it. It had cooled. What do you say to a young man aspiring to greatness, without being a hypocrite? I can roll the dice until I succeed? That’s just ten to twenty loops until I get the things right?

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  But then I asked myself whether I would have restarted my realm even without Redo, and the answer is sadly no. I would have spent a quiet life of learning things for my future lives, banging Ruby or someone like her to hide the emotional hole gaping in my heart.

  Maybe, maybe, if I had already learned something like all the basic knowledge and skills in a previous life, I would risk it on a reckless attempt to become powerful enough to change the world, to level Anarchist, but as things stood, no, I would have spent a life of pleasant mediocrity.

  I looked the boy in the eye and knew exactly what I had to say. He only had one life, I had an endless torment.

  “Is this cramped life worth keeping, when an opportunity for cosmic power exists within arm’s reach, waiting for the bold to seize it?”

  It was a good answer, and a perfect way to return the conversation back on track which interested me. “If only I knew how to gather mana passively.”

  Who would have thought that what I wanted to offer as valuable information would end up being the thing I wished to learn instead?

  The boy buckled under my gaze and looked down.

  “Do you know what these are?” He traced a handful of lines against the table’s surface, immediately making me glad I had so stubbornly studied seal scribing despite the fact that I couldn’t do it.

  “Innate runes for earth and fire, glyphs of power which form naturally under certain conditions, empowered by the heavens and earth. We use them for forging, alchemy, and other crafts when we wish to add certain attributes to our creations. But I fail to see what connection they have with drawing energy.” I didn’t know whether it was another test or related to the answer, so all I could do was stare at the boy intently.

  “What if we used natural features instead of man-made objects to draw energy into our realm?”

  So, it was a reference to the natural forces, and I was too dumb to make the connection?

  Natural features which draw energy? If I could start a spring, with mana flowing like water, then it could keep drawing mana as long as ambient mana existed, but why didn’t it work with the pump? I recalled how pumps stop the flow water while moving through states, to stop the water from flowing back into the ground. But a spring would keep drawing it as long as there’s mana around…

  “You mean shaping something like a spring into the first realm?” I started voicing my thoughts. “It has to be elevated, otherwise it would become a stagnant puddle, so a mountain spring to keep the water flowing.” The cup clicked against the table as I lowered it to stop myself from fiddling with it. “But once it hits the lowest level, the water would just pool along the edge of the realm barrier and, in time, it would once more become a shallow puddle. No, the mountain needs to keep growing to keep the water from covering everything. It can even constantly pressure the realm barrier, contributing to its expansion.”

  The boy was brilliant. How did he come up with that at sixteen?

  “Yes.” I contained my roaring laughter as things fell into place, but I couldn’t stop myself from smiling at solving the puzzle. “You truly are a genius. You use fire and earth, you are not using a water spring, but a volcano; that keeps the mountain growing taller as your realm expands.”

  I stared at the place where Newstar drew the runes, and another realization dawns on me.

  “Ah, I see.” I tapped the table as a whole new world of options opened before me. “You use innate runes to empower your abilities, but simply writing earth and fire is a subpar option despite being functional. I experimented with man-made runic seals in my realm, and they work properly, so you have a much wider range of runes at your disposal. Like, Strength, Endurance, Resilience, Empower… There are thousands of different nuances which can achieve specific tasks and purposes you require if aligned properly. All you need is extensive education, years spent reading books and hoarding knowledge.”

  “You won’t harm me?” the boy asked, shaking like a mouse.

  “Harm you?” I laughed at the notion, even though the imperials and others might dissect and execute him for his secrets. “Amiability! I will reward and trust you, my young friend! My choice is already paying dividends! I have a proposal for you, a way to earn good money.”

  There it was, another opportunity to tie us closer.

  “I will place my life in your hands. You will protect me while I reform my realm. That will take a dozen weeks. In return I will do the following. I will give you a suggested realm blueprint designed to cater to your specific needs and desires once you share them. I will provide you with enough resources to reach the peak of the second realm. I could even protect you as you expand and shape it, assuming you trust me enough to expose your back to me.”

  “What if you fail to dissipate your realm? What if you die or go insane?”

  Valid questions, I guess, but not from where I stood.

  “I never met a man who starts a plan with ‘After I die…’ or ‘Once I go insane…’ But if it happens, you can keep all my belongings. You will have enough resources to reach the third or fourth stage of the third realm. I do not believe you will lose out should I fail to survive.”

  “Why do you trust me that much? What if I covet your belongings and kill you while you are in seclusion?”

  I love that righteous confusion of the morally pure - ‘Why do you think I’m pure?’ Because I can see you, and if you betray me, Redo is always an option.

  But you didn’t tell things like that to random kids on the first day they met you.

  “For one, I have been keeping an eye on you from the moment I learned of your circumstances. My intelligence network has gathered information about you ever since you took over as the patriarch of your clan. You are suffering from a guilty conscience from slaying a man who sold your parents into slavery and threw you into a hole to dig for scraps and die a miserable death. I do not see that person stealing a few tonics, especially when the alternative reward is enhancing your power and increasing your chances of reaching a high realm.”

  Newstar gulped. I had him.