“... And that's when I dove through the portal after him.”

“This is how you came to be in the Black? Chasing this Shadow Faced Man, to find a cure for your teacher?”

“Yeah. And then the guy just... gave me the egg. I guess I did ask for it, but... Anyway, I’m not sure how much good it’s doing anybody with me here.”

It was the night of the second day since I jumped worlds, and I sat – along with a number of the crew - next to an almost flat crystal that emitted heat and light like a fire, though without the danger of igniting the wood of the ship. The crystal sat in a squat tripod, and a pot filled with a pungent, clear wine hung above it. Every now and again, one of the crew would dip a bowl in, though I was refraining for the moment, as it smelled quite strong. The crew had seemed a little shy when I arrived, only one or two willing to make conversation, and that consisting mostly of bravado in relation to the forest’s insectile and arachnid denizens. As it turned out, being covered in bloody, torn cloths and emerging from the equivalent of hell was not a great way to break the ice. Changing my clothes had helped – I now wore the black fighting outfit I had bought, lamenting the fact that it was going to cost a small fortune to replace my ruined brown and green outfit.

I had spent the remainder of the first day, and all of the second’s daylight in meditation, endlessly cultivating Experience and refining it into Praxis. I was still early enough in my cultivation that just experiencing the now provided a noticeable boost to my soul sea, though obviously not as much as new or intense events did. This is not to say that I found the journey to be boring – I was on another planet, on a flying ship held aloft on crystal covered wings, above a light and heat-sucking forest occupied by psychotic elves and giant bugs. Even just sitting about in such a situation was still novel enough for me to be making some pretty decent gains.

My energy centre was back up to about half-way, though there still seemed to be almost no Praxis in there, despite my constant efforts. It was a little frustrating, but I had already determined not to worry too much about it – I would ask Walker when I had chance, and until then, I had to just keep working towards completing my Core.

“Can we see the phoenix egg?”

One of the men called out across from me; I could not see the harm in showing them, they seemed to be an okay bunch so far and if they had wanted to rob be – and been capable of it – I thought they would have probably done so while I had my back turned to the whole ship, staring overboard.

With a nod, I pull the egg free of the ring it rested in and held it up in front of me. The fire coating the slightly golden shell was much bigger and more intense than when I had seen it so far below, though it still did not burn.

There were a couple of gasps from around the crystal at the sight of the rising flames – fire was obviously a bit taboo on ships – but they calmed down when I reiterated the fact that it did not burn, running one hand through the golden, incandescent wisps without incident. After a minute or so, during which a couple of people asked to touch it – which I allowed – I put the egg away again.

“You say a bird will come out of that thing? Will it not burn?”

“No, the bird is made out of fire too. It’s a Phoenix.”

“That sounds made up. You also said you shot lightning from your hands, with no Sigils? That does not seem possible either. Maybe you can show us? A little proof?”

The speaker was a man named Ilan and had been one of the people talking about the bugs when I arrived. I did not know what he meant my Sigils – I was yet to see anybody on the ship use any sort of technique or ability and had started to believe that perhaps they were as powerless as I had been back on Earth, despite the clearly magical nature of the crystals on-board.

“I’ll show you mine if you show me yours, Ilan.”

I gave him a pointed look and a wink; there were a number of chuckles from around the gently glowing crystal, and one or two louder laughs from those who had partaken a little more heavily in the heated wine.

Accepting the challenge good naturedly, Ilan stood, glancing around surreptitiously for officers – I thought – before he began to draw.

Argent lines of light appeared in the air, shimmering gold and written with glowing fingertips acting as brushes as he moved his hand with long graceful strokes, like a magic circle having a baby with calligraphy.

In moments, the Sigil seemed to be complete and from that silver and gold circle, a pulse of crimson energy flashed out, quicker than a bullet but silent. It shot into the moonless night sky to vanish amidst the innumerable stars, leaving only and afterimage behind to mark its passage.

Ilan turned back to me and crossed his arms, grinning. There were mutterings of, “... strong bastard...”, from the others and I figured he was considered reasonably powerful in whatever system they seemed to be using. It certainly did not seem to bear any resemblance to the cultivation I was used to. Or at least as much as I could be used to it at that point.

“Nice. I have no idea how impressive that was, but it looked great!”

“It was impressive.”

“And you’re so modest too!”

Ilan made what I guessed to be a rude hand gesture and I grinned, getting to my feet and backing away from the crystal.

“A deal is a deal. Ugh, I need to make sure there’s no metal around me...”

The small crowd scooted back away from me, dragging the crystal and wine with them, giving me more room.

Not wanting to set the ship ablaze, I took a deep, steadying breath and began to utilise my Focus, pushing as little power through it as I could.

Lightning flared to life around me, snapping at the air and wood of the ship with sharp snaps as it sought for paths to follow in the conductive desert I had place myself in. The sharp smell of ozone wafted out from me as the electricity split the air into ozone and for the first time, my control was effortless. Lines of blue-white surged along my energy channels, slowing the world down around me and not connecting through my body! My grin stretched wide and I pushed a little more power through my Focus, revelling in the joy of not electrocuting myself.

After several long seconds, I cut the power and looked down at the variel, whose mouths hung open as they stared at me.

“That was... impressive. How do you do that without Sigils?”

I walked back over to them and sat down, my pulse quivering in my veins as I frantically cultivated the Experience from my first truly successful use of my Focus.

“I’m not sure I could explain it to you, I'm still mostly an amateur. I have a Focus – it's like an imagine of what I want my power to do, and it’s inside me. I just... throw power at it and I get lightning.”

“You can only make lightning? Strange. Sigils can produce many effects. Perhaps this is a trade of some sort? Speed, power?”

“Sounds like it could be true, sure.”

“You are very relaxed about seeing a world not your own, and a magic unfamiliar to you.”

“Ilan, I’m much older than I look and honestly, everything seems pretty incredible to me recently. This is just one wonder amongst many, you know?”

“I too, am surrounded by wonders daily. My heart bleeds for, as I know your pain.”

That sounded suspiciously like sarcasm to me, and I looked at it from his point of view: To him, this world was normal, it was literally every day. Here I was, shooting lightning out of my ass, on a new world. I should see him the same way, and to an extent I did, but what I said had been true. Since I died, everything I had seen, everyone I had met and some of what I had done had been amazing to me. Was it starting to be... normal?

That question almost made my smack myself – I had already noticed how beneficial my experiences had been to my cultivation, but when I compared the last couple of weeks to my life before, there was really no comparison. I was living a life I knew many had dreamed of, and would have killed for, and it was normal? I laughed out loud and grabbed one of the spare bowls, filling it from the pot.

“Ilan, my new friends, to the wonders around us. To never being normal!” I drank deeply, and even not really knowing what I was referring to, the variel cheered and drank with me.

The alcohol tasted like ass.

It was very strong.

*

***

*

I woke up on the morning of the third day of my visit to this world, full of energy I stretched, luxuriating in the latent power in my body. I had been sleeping on the deck, as there were no available berths below, and I received a few dirty looks as I sat up, a smile plastered across my face at the rear of the ship. I did not know whether it was my Lesser Regeneration, my ren body or cultivation itself that prevented a hangover, but whatever had done it, I was grateful. Especially seeing the people I had drunk with wincing in the bright morning light.

I pulled the sample bag Tang had given me out and swallowed one of the clear hydrating pills, thinking about how many of the things I was going to buy when I had chance. They were incredibly convenient and had saved my life at least one, maybe twice.

Putting the bag away, I moved over to the side of the ship, once more staring down at the vivid rainbow the crystals of the wing created on fuliginous canopy below. I wondered what was happening to produce the effect, the light cast by that world’s twin suns did not seem to have the same impact – it had to be magic of some kind, but it was beyond me. I had tried to ask Inca about it the night before, but she had been dismissive, though that may have been something to do with how drunk I was by that point. Tough to say.

“Xiournal.”

The smoky tablet popped into position in front of me, invisible to those around me and very annoying if I tried to move about too much, as it always stayed stationary in my line of sight.

Assignment Received... Difficulty E-… Time Limit: 0 days, 18 hours, 58 minutes.

Make your way into Everwood City, locate the creator of the Grand Harvest Body Refining Pill and ensure another cannot be created.

Good Luck, Alex. Make me look good.

Bonus Reward: Do Not Kill the creator, or allow his death within the Time Limit.

Assignment Received... Difficulty B+... Time Limit: Before Death

Return to the world I put you on, idiot.

Bonus Reward: Do Not Die.

It was exciting – I was less than a day away from completing my first quest. The fact that I still had it suggested that Ro was still alive and un-kidnapped, I hoped, so I took some limited comfort in that. I wondered what my bonus reward would be – it was not something the dragon-god-thing had really gone over when I had been up there, and she did not seem keen on communicating since, beyond the mildly insulting second quest.

Dismissing the grey rectangle, I glanced back down in time to see the flat surface of the forest bulge and separate as a mothra-sized spider with jet-black wings exploded into the air and the rapid whump-whump of wing displaced air.

“Divine-FORNICATING-SHIT!” My shout was involuntary, as was my stumbling retreat from the side of the ship. I had always hated spiders, even the tiny ones. Seeing this... thing basically turned my brain off and I pulled my makeshift torch-mace from storage and threw it as hard as I could at the alien arachnid without thinking.

I missed, of course. I was ten or fifteen times stronger and faster than a normal human by then, but the mace was heavy and the spider, as huge as it was, was still too far away for me to hit. The mace spun end over end, vanishing into the leaves – I hoped – to ruin some Devourer’s day, deep in the depths.

At my shout, a number of the crew had turned – and seeing the spider – moved to the side of the ship closest to it, which seemed nuts to my shocked mind. Just after my mace disappeared from view, Sigils began to appear in the air, painting it silver and gold before pluses of violent red light began to flicker out, up and down the line of variel, keeping the pressure up by alternating fire.

It was very impressive – they moved with an efficient economy of motion; the movements of their hands made with practised ease. A blast about half again the size of the others joined the volley, and I guessed Ilan had stepped in to the attack, strong bastard that he was.

I wished there was something I could do, but my Focus was purely close-range. Walker would have already minced the terrifying thing and I was sure Sidona would be up there with it, burning it with fire, as is right.

Me, I just stood back, trying to figure out a way to help, but as I dithered about, Inca strode out from below deck, her rapier held unsheathed. The blade seemed to be made from some sort of wood or bone, it was difficult to say for certain because, like the trees below our wings, the sword had an ever-shifting rainbow running over its blade, like liquid light.

Without a word, Inca began to whip the prismatic rapier about, a Sigil of rapidly changing colours forming in the air in under a second. As the Sigil was completed, Inca whipped the rapier up in a salute, the blade held vertical between her eyes, before swinging it up and through the circle she had just finished.

In the air, the flying abomination was being held in place by the pressure of the crimson blasts, unable to attack and seemingly unwilling to retreat. But as Inca’s blade passed through her rainbow creation, a vast edge that looked to be made from a crystal manifested in the air between ship and spider, before rising up, catching the light from the twin suns and splitting it endlessly, even as it divided that spider neatly in two.

The two halves fell from the air, and I could see vines and twisted moss inside, dripping yellow pus looking fluid, a touch of distant red at the mass’s centre.

The strange body – or bodies – sank below the surface of the leaves, in the silence left by the stilling of its wings, and nothing more was heard.

“A job well done! Now, back to work. We will be at the Paragon’s isle by morning if we can get back to top speed!” Inca sheathed her opalescent rapier and want back below deck without another word.

“That was bad-fucking-ass.” Now that the spider was gone, my mind turned back on and I went to find Ilan.

I found him at the front of the ship, pulling a rope taut which seemed to adjust the angle of the ship’s sails, somehow.

“Wow, talk about wonders! Is that normal?”

Ilan turned to look at me as he moved to another rope.

“Ah, Hunter. Yes, it is fairly common. The light from the crystals irritates them, we think, so they come looking for the ships, rather than attacking the islands.”

“Are they always made of plants?”

“From what we know, yes. Partially. They don’t last long once captured or dead, just sort of dissolve. But Everything that comes out of the Black is of the Black, understand?”

“Not really! But either way, I’m glad I don’t have to deal with those things. I’d be pretty useless.”

“Not everyone is meant for the Mirror Guard, my strange friend.”

“Thanks for that. What about Inca? That giant sword thing she did?”

“Inca is of the Fourth Height. Very strong... maybe do not bother her while drinking, in future?”

“... Yeah, that sounds like good advice. I could have used it before last night, but still.”

Ilan snorted, wincing in pain afterwards, and waved me out of the way as he grabbed a handled wheel, turning it counter-clockwise. I had no idea what it did either, but I could hear ticking below deck when he moved it.

“You said she’s at the Fourth Height? How many Heights are there?”

“Hunter, please take no offense, but you need to leave me alone, I’m trying to work, and my head is punishing me for last night. If we don’t reach the isle on schedule, Inca will... not be happy.”

“Oh, sure, sorry. I’ll speak to you later.”

Leaving Ilan to his business, I walked back to the rear of the ship where I stood for hours, trying to make my fingers glow.

I failed.