Chapter 301

  Sterile Greetings

  Confidentiality.

  Sterile.

  If I had to summarize what it was like to suddenly and finally find myself back here on the sacred lands of BiPrism, I would have to say the word that best describes this homecoming as sterile.

  Why sterile?

  Well, honestly, I can’t come up with a better word to describe the sensation.

  Or maybe the lack of sensation.

  Coming back here is like going to a freshly cleaned room in an Intensive Care Unit of a Hospital. Everything cleaned, polished and bleached. No lingering signs of contamination, no chance of foreign antibodies to enter your system. Just pure cleanliness.

  That is how BiPrism feels to me, now.

  I know this sensation will eventually change, or maybe I’ll just grow accustomed to these sensations, or lack of sensations around me. That said, right now, I cannot help but feel slightly unsettled.

  Even now, I can still feel the odd pull of that other world, or realm upon me.

  Well not on me exactly, but on Zero.

  Pausing quickly, I look left and see that Zero is in fact in his larger and more robust tattoo form on my left bicep. Or at least his head is on my left bicep, as he has now grown and fully takes up most of my back, torso, and his tail even extends to my right bicep. And yes, he is gripping tightly trying to stay with me, and not be pulled back up to that odd crazy lady.

  Trembling.

  Despite his now massive size, and seemingly enhanced natural strength, Zero is now trembling. I know most of this is due to the constant pull on his body, a pull that he is resisting with all his might.

  The only problem, with his weight, or rather lack of weight, I feel that I too am being pulled back upwards and away from this realm. A realm that took me so long to find and get us back to.

  Desperate, I mentally probe around, trying to find something to tether myself to, to tether us too. I want to use magic, deep and undeniable magic. Magic that the earth itself will allow me to use.

  This is magic that the world wouldn’t give freely to everyone, and using it comes with a price. I can feel that price, just as clearly as I know I will need to use that magic right here and now.

  Mentally I nod to myself, then reach out and grab for the freely offered power of the planet. Power that will bind me and my body directly to the planet. Not just me, I can also use this same power to bind Zero to the planet, since Zero is a part of me, I do this next part without reservation.

  As I’m building up the power for this new spell, this new permanent ability, I use the energies of Arcane Geomancy, Qi, and Mana, combine them all, and even use a spark of Cosmic Energy. Cosmic Energy is the energy of the world beyond, with their strange, odd dust particles that are slightly off kilter from the building blocks of this world.

  Still, I combine them all, using the knowledge I gained from beyond to mold and shape the Cosmic Energy first, as a claw-like anchor that is meant to bind us to this world. Then from there I form the other forms of energy into chains. Chains that bind the odd claw to Zero and me.

  There is a pause, a brief moment where, I wonder if the anchor will take. Then upon feeling that it holds, I do feel the slightest of discontent winces from the world below. Feeling their wince, I decide to go one step further, coating the claw in a layer of Arcane Geomancy, so the claw doesn’t actually tear apart the world. Or at least it won’t tear apart the world any more than it already has.

  I pause, making sure that everything is still working correctly.

  Ping. Ping. Ping. Ping.

  Oh yeah, I am getting massive notifications from the planet as a whole. Notifications of what I’ve done, what I’ve missed since I’ve been gone, and ways the world is trying to reintegrate me back into its network.

  I allow everything.

  Is it bad that I can kind of guess what those errors are in relationship to?

  Also, it is definitely clear that after seeing the errors and lack of Quest Completion notifications, that wherever that crazy elf queen lives, it is not part of this realm.

  I pause, taking the last few moments of my Confidentiality to go over everything. I do want to cover everything, to get every system message out of the way, but it is clear from those Error messages that the world cannot properly evaluate what I did over there. Which is probably for the best.

  Honestly, I’d rather forget what I did over there myself.

  I think of it being a mistake, but once quick glance at Zero, and seeing that he is back, healthy, and no longer trembling in fear or straining to hang onto me like a life raft in the middle of a turbulent ocean, and I realize it was worth it, for him.

  “Almost done,” I whisper.

  By now, people are already moving towards me, well likely towards the sudden distortion around me. I did sort of make a grand entrance.

  When I cast this Teleportation spell, I had tried to focus on this planet, which sounds easier said than done. I mean, how hard is it to aim and hit a planet? When you are on said planet, and inside its gravitational field, fairly easy. When you are outside that area and have your planet hidden by other planets, each with larger gravitational fields than the planet you are aiming at, that’s when the problem gets trickier.

  This is where being a Math Nerd in my previous life paid off.

  Also, the knowledge of trajectories, acceleration, velocity, and ability to calculate for external forces on projectiles really paid off.

  Who knew, being able to track missile launch trajectories in real time would pay off with magic? The world really is smaller than you think. Or maybe, Math is more powerful than people truly understand.

  Regardless of the reason, Math wins again.

  I am so lost in how grateful I am to have focused on Math as a foundation in my past life, before BiPrism, that I almost lose track of where, and most importantly what I am doing.

  Fortunately, the system is here to help me focus.

  Unfortunately, the system also hits me with the equivalent of a pop-quiz in my worst subject.

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  Oh Gods, I mentally think to myself, as I try to come up with a name to best describe chaining myself and aspects of my soul to this world.

  Oh, speaking of which, I need to also make sure this spell covers my Simulacrums as well, can’t have them randomly floating up into space now, can I?

  Confidentiality has ended.

  Then I try to come up with a new name. But fortunately, I also feel the surge of this power reaching out towards my four Simulacrums that are all at different points in this world.

  Once, the electrical pulse reaches them, I relax and just begin saying the first thing that comes to mind. The name that would explain this spell, and what it is meant to do.

  With a calm confident tone, I begin to name this massive spell that is even now threatening to rip apart the world beneath me, lest I name it and help it settle down and take on a final form.

  “I’m back,” I begin, but at the moment I see Gwen, my Gwen enter my immediate vicinity, and I know this is shocking, but I got slightly distracted at seeing her and recognizing her energy for the first time, in so long. As such, I called out to her. “BABY!”

  In my mind, I noted there being two different thoughts. Two different thoughts for two clearly different processes. There was first the naming of the spell, a clear pause. Then the excitement of seeing my daughter for the first time in so long.

  What I got was the system once again messing with me.

  Yes, the name of the spell, well not even a spell but a formula was stupid. Worse, it seemed that the world did not stop there at it’s attempts to mock me, for even its description seemed to imply I was somehow on a Discworld that had somehow forgotten how to rotate properly.

  For a moment, I thought about blocking that quest notification, as I was certain it would lead to no good. Then I read and re-read the rewards and realized it hit me where it hurt the most. I would receive not just one, but two new skills.

  Worse, I could tell that these skills were great. Furthermore, it seemed that the system was aware of my ability to hold back on quest updates, which it then seemed to retaliate by preventing me from getting the skills early, which had almost always been the case prior to now.

  Thinking about this for just a second, I deliberated. Then thought about flipping a coin. Only to realize that right now, I have a few moments given that Gwen is helping to quarantine off the area.

  With a quick realization, I instantly understand where I am. Not just BiPrism. Not just lands under my dominion, thanks to my judicious use of Arcane Geomancy, but my classroom.

  Yes, I just now realized I was at my open school courtyard. Odd, fly through space, focusing on the place you most want to go to, and I end up in my teaching hall. Not the Kujo Caverns, with my well-deserved and needed pool of relaxation. Not my forbidden Library of The Tribunal, quite possibly the most magical place on this planet, a dungeon that will permanently spawn floor after floor of books. No, not even my locations with my Simulacrums, two of which are libraries in the Arcanarus Tower.

  Nope, not even my Qi and Mana pOwered (QiMO) ship, the Prankenstein.

  No those would probably be seen as being biased in some way, as those locations were held by one of my Simulacrums. And going to one over the other, might have caused discontent.

  So Instead, I now found myself here.

  Where was Gwen at this time?

  Well simple, like everyone else, she was a few hundred yards back.

  Apparently, the guards and faculty members’ training from the last time I was here, doing something odd with energy paid off, as everyone was quarantining the area and making sure to back everyone up away from my classroom.

  Why?

  I’d like to say it was them taking a joke too far. That was of course, before one considered the ultra-bright purple sparks of Cosmic Energy were sparking to life and threatening everything around me, I couldn’t quite blame them.

  Realizing I still had some time before anyone would likely get close to me, I decided to allow the quest and see exactly what I had gained from this quest.

  I still had the one quest for my Quintessential Ethereal Simulacrums Master Trait, which I’m pretty sure I’ve passed at this point, I likely just need to prove I can demonstrate my newfound knowledge.

  As for the Divinely Akashic Qi Master Trait, I was fairly certain I knew where I wanted to go with that. In fact, just thinking about what I wanted to do with it caused a click to form in my mind as I was pretty sure it was accepted. But before I could work out details of either two Traits with the system, more messages poured through.

  Seeing the skills that the system offered, I was not disappointed in the least, as both were exceptional for what I wanted and needed to do in the future.

  Of course, after this came the parts that were bound to draw the most attention.

  Tension.

  I pause, waiting for something to break or shatter around me. However, nothing happens.

  There is a moment when everything seems to calm down.

  I can feel my newfound skills helping me to gain control over the overflowing violet energy around me. This violet energy, of course, is the energy of the cosmos, otherwise known as Cosmic Energy.

  While focusing, I can see, sense, and even feel the foreign energy of the cosmos.

  After a few seconds of this and showing that I could maintain my focus on a third core of energy, one specifically designed to hold and cultivate the energy of the cosmos, the only way I was able to amass enough energy to Teleport back here with Zero, I set off another quest completion notification.

  Yeah, I guess I should have figured something like this would have happened. Kind of hard to get experience for completing a quest in an area that is not governed or monitored by the system.

  Honestly, I’m glad that I got any recognition for completing this quest at all.

  Though it would have been hard to deny the fact that I didn’t Teleport here using stolen energy of the cosmos to fuel my mad Teleport to freedom.

  While I will miss the experience and levels, they were not the most important part of this quest completion. What I needed most from that quest were the noted Skill and the system finally unlocking the use of the class specific power.

  There was something odd about that skill, maybe it was the way it seemed to increase the bonuses to each base Attribute the further it went?

  I don’t know. Maybe it gave more to my Social Attributes as it meant I could go out and visit more people or places?

  It is still hard for me to fully understand the system sometimes.

  That said, I finally got the mental clicking and unlocking of powers that I had wanted to begin with.

  Then as if on a synchronized reel, I feel the perk I mentally wanted for my tertiary class also be accepted.

  Exhale.

  Like that I feel like everything has settled with me. For a moment, I am whole. Not behind, not lacking, not needing to think of something that will synchronize with my class. Rather, I feel that I am caught up.

  Only for a moment, as I know my primary class, that of Quintessence Ethereal Healer, is only three levels away from forcing me through this whole ordeal over again. But for the moment, I am here and nothings broken.

  Better still, I have finally managed to siphon away the residual traces of cosmic energy that followed me and erupted outward from my landing here. Making this place once again fully sterile, and safe enough for the inhabitants as well.

  Of course, my moment of zen is short lived, for almost immediately after I am done fixing everything and have a moment to finally breathe, the system once again messes with me.

  Yep, not one, but two World Announcements generated back-to-back, both of which call me out specifically.

  Then almost as if on cue, I feel the odd pull of energy grabbing me with odd tentacle like chains, before I feel myself being pulled through time and space.

  And what is almost becoming a synonymous catchphrase with my getting caught with my hand in the cookie jar of fate, I hear the three words that send a shiver down my spine.

  “Get over here!”

  And like that, I am finally forced to interact with people once more.