There’s an undeniable fact that transcends dimensional barriers and knowledge; ice-cream is delicious in every world. Whether it’s chocolate, vanilla, or dragon's blood, each flavour has its perks and intricacies.

“Is that a tear in your eye?” William gripped his dessert cup in his hands.

“Yes, and it’s genuine.” I pointed my spoon at him. “Vanilla is without a doubt the best flavour. Smooth, but not overpowering like chocolate. It never gets old.”

I wiped the side of my eye to get rid of the tear. In truth, it had been involuntary, a side-effect of my taste buds remembering my time on Earth. It was nice to have one meal that was exactly the same in every way to its Earth counterpart.

Everything else tasted slightly different.

“That’s where you and I are going to have an argument.” William put down his ice cream.

Gold squawked in agreement. He was standing on the table and had a small cup in front of himself. Both William and he were eating the same flavour.

It looked raspberry red, but there were tinges of rainbow rocks scattered across its surface. Each one would begin popping in your mouth the moment they touched your tongue.

The flavour was called dragon’s blood.

I don’t know why the puffer enjoyed it, but William let us know in full force why he did.

“Ordinary ice cream doesn’t have that extra oomph that dragon’s blood does. It makes vanilla look like civilization before the wheel was invented. Basic.”

“It still doesn’t beat chocolate.” Amanda called out from beside me.

William took her comment personally.

“Chocolate looks like poo.” He stated simply.

I glanced at the girl sitting next to me. Amanda had been quiet since her loss, but over the course of dessert a smile had grown on her face.

She had changed out of the battle robe she had been wearing for the fight, and into ordinary clothes.

“Your wise words never fail to astound me.” I poked my spoon into William’s ice cream and scooped a bite.

The moment it touched my lips I felt the flavour explode. It was called dragon’s blood, but it tasted like mango and raspberry mixed together.

The multicoloured rocks crackled in my mouth, flavourless but fun.

“Not bad.” I nodded. “But you’re still wrong.”

I heard Amanda giggle beside me. Agni was resting on Amanda’s head, apparently the fight had taken a lot out of her.

I heard a ‘tink’ sound as my spoon hit an empty ice-cream cup. I’d already finished my dessert.

“Well, clearly this debate will only be solved with more ice-cream.” I stood up. “We’ll do this again sometime.”

“Of course.” William placed a hand on the table. “By then you’ll see the wisdom of my words.”

Gold hopped over to me, and Amanda stood up as well.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Amanda gave me a pat on the back. “Make sure to text me if you need an emergency exit.”

“Will do.” I gave her a thumbs up.

Her brother's party was tomorrow, and I hardly knew the people that were going. Amanda wasn’t interested in participating, especially since it was doubling as a congratulation party for his win against her.

She made her way towards the noble district, and I walked towards the school with William.

He wasn’t allowed to have a portal opened up in the middle of the city without permission, so he was coming with me to the academy entrance.

“Roxxy isn’t a bad person to get to know. At least, if you’re looking for connections.” William had his hands behind the back of his head as he spoke.

“I’m looking for good people. I don’t care about their status or what benefits knowing them brings me.” I waved my hand dismissively at the notion.

Even if the people at Koshima academy were prestigious, it didn’t mean much to me.

I wanted to get to know people for who they were and getting to know them for personal gain was the exact thing I wanted to avoid.

“Everyone brings benefits to each other, even if it's happiness and comfort.” William replied. “Although if you’re getting to know people, then maybe Alexis should be your target for the evening.”

“Alexis? Why?” We were quickly closing in on the academy gate.

“Because you’re so close with Amanda. You’ll spend more time with him even if you don’t intend to, so having a good rapport with him can only make your life easier.”

I tapped a finger against my side as I thought over his words.

I didn’t really want to become closer with Alexis. I was still put off by the guy. Even if I was comfortable enough to go to one of his parties, that didn’t mean I wanted to get to know him better.

My main motivation was that there would be so many of my classmates there.

Gold squawked and I nodded my head.

Alexis still didn’t like William. There was no reason to get to know him better while that grudge existed. Not while I had so many other options around me.

“I’ll think about it, but honestly if he didn’t invite you, then I’m not interested in talking with him” I spoke honestly.

The torn painting of William crossed through my mind.

Alexis’ grudge against William hadn’t died down, even if he was nice to William during Unice’s celebration. William was a good friend, and I would rather continue being friends with him than make friends with someone that hated him.

Soon we crossed into the academy proper, and two portals formed around us.

“I’ll see you next week.”

I waved goodbye to William and entered through the portal door.

The trip home and the subsequent afternoon was uneventful. I didn’t level up or attune to water. I did catch up with my other class homework, which was a relief.

When I woke up the next morning it was chilly, and the moon was still in the sky. Unlike the morning at Amanda’s mansion, I didn’t feel refreshed, and drowsiness threatened to close my eyes against my will.

I crossed my legs into my meditation position and took a deep breath.

The world darkened around me, and I entered the mental construct of my mind. A blank space surrounded me, and I focused on conjuring a book I had memorised.

Earth construct.

The skill book was still fresh in my mind, and I turned through the pages carefully. Even though I hadn’t met with Mr Black yet for our main class discussion, I was trying to see if I could at least learn the requirements of some of the better skills.

Around me the ground trembled and the dark void beyond the barriers of my construct disappeared behind an onslaught of concrete buildings and skyscrapers.

It was my home city from when I’d lived on Earth.

It had become my place of comfort inside my mind, and I could place the various memories and books I had memorised into my old apartment.

It was a slow process, but it built a solid foundation.

I held the book in one hand and walked through the concrete streets, brushing my fingers against the surfaces of the buildings.

I could manipulate the stone as though it was real, and I tried to form the basic constructs that the book listed.

A square, a circle, and a triangle.

It wasn’t difficult.

I felt like I was a baby trying to fit shapes in holes, and my earth creation and earth manipulation were simulated perfectly in my mind. The walls around me warped into different shapes that all fit the prerequisites of the earth construct skill.

The book recommended studying different architectural layouts of buildings and other shapes and foundations that were unique to nature.

I could try that.

A giant statue of myself appeared in the middle of the street and I looked over it with a smile.

I’d practised this in the real world, creating figures and statues of the people in my life. I still had some of those statues inside my inventory, but the one in front of me was far more detailed, and well beyond what I could make in the physical world.

There was a reason for that. My mind didn’t give me experience, not literally, but I always remembered what I did in here, my imagination and intellect merging to show me the future of my skills.

Time also passed slowly inside my mind if I wanted it to. I could create buildings in seconds and explore them for hours with only minutes passing in the real world.

I heard a squawk above my head.

I looked up at the sky and saw nothing. The sound had come from the physical world. I grinned and pressed my hand against the statue, melting it into the ground.

Then I opened my eyes.

The rays of the morning sun glittered across my room accompanied by the sound of rain.

Gold was on my roof, staring down at me while his talons clattered against the wooden ceiling. I stared up at his large belly and purple and black feathers.

“Are you going to drop a regent on my head?” I blinked the drowsiness out of my eyes.

Gold puffed out his chest proudly and from underneath his wing a rock dropped down over my head. I raised my hand and the dirt around me rose to envelop it.

I couldn’t control a rock regent. Not easily.

The first time that Gold had dropped a regent into my room it had smacked into my head. The puffer hadn’t stopped trying to do it again ever since then.

The dirt brought the rock into my hand, and I examined it carefully.

It looked similar to the last rock that had exploded when I’d activated it. I moved it to a safe distance and looked at it cautiously.

“Is this one going to explode?”

Gold chirped at me and dug his talons into the ceiling sheepishly.

“Yeah. I’ll try it afterwards.” I put the rock into my inventory. “I want to study it a bit first, if you don’t mind?”

Gold shook his head and I smiled. He never minded when I studied his regents, although I’d also never learnt much from them. His way of creating arrays was intuitive, and I’m not sure he even understood all of what he was doing.

I could see the rock floating in my inventory, scratches etched into its surface in a complex weaving of symbols that was beyond anything I could do at the moment.

“Come around, I’ll let you in.”

The rest of the morning and afternoon was a flurry of activity as I prepared for the day. Unlike Unice’s celebration this was a casual event, which was a giant weight off my shoulders.

I inscribed more of the regent’s array for symbols class, and more papers. I also practiced manipulating metal.

Then the sun moved towards its peak, and I walked out the door and looked at my surroundings.

“So, you guys will be with me all day today, right?” I tilted my head toward the breeze.

“Yes, Master Silver.” A voice floated into my ears.

I turned towards the city as a chime resounded in the air, a portal opening up straight into Koshima academy.

I’d never seen my guards use the same portals that I did. I doubted that they did, because it would be hard to hide from me when there was only a straight corridor inside.

That meant that they had another way to get into Koshima.

Walking through the portal I quickly found myself in Koshima academy, the area mostly empty save for a couple of students coming in for weekend activities.

I made my way down past the guild building and through the entrance of the wall into the noble district. Amanda’s mansion soon came into view, a staff member letting me through the gate into the estate.

Gardeners milled around and tended to the elemental plants that Amanda had shown me. None of them spared me a second glance, and I could see why when I came closer to the mansion.

I could hear my classmates inside, and mana of different colours flew out of the door as spells were cast from within the foyer.

Fire gathered underneath me as I stepped up to the entrance and knocked. There was a pause inside, and then a shadow appeared behind the door, two hands opening it wide.

“Andross, hey!”

Alexis’ crimson hair flared brightly.

“Come on in.”