(Y6, July 13th)

They crested the lip of a small hillock and stared at the spectacle.

In front of them lay a small, shallow bowl of bare ground. The packed earth was not what was incredible.

What was incredible was floating stones above the bowl.

They stared at the formation. Quandocor was the first to break the silence.

“I thought Northworld was exotic. But that’s beyond exotic. It’s fucking Hollywood live.”

Birkathane shook her head “It’s magic. We are all magic users already. What’s a bit more magic.”

She added “it looks like some of the old stones we have in my country. Those don’t float though, but it’s kind of the same.”

Vantegaard sighed “at least, I know we’re nowhere known.”

They both looked at him in surprise.

“This,” he explained, “looks like the Stones of Tarquar. It’s one of the best-known sites on Beta.”

“Wouldn’t that mean we’re on Beta?”

“I said, looks like. Because if this were the Stones of Tarquar, we’d have a village next door, and at least three inns next to this site. There’s a shit-ton of mages coming from all over Beta to visit the Stones because it’s widely believed that you can get all kinds of bonuses when trying to use magic there. It’s so bad at times that there’s even a police force to keep the peace.”

Birkathane looked all over the site.

“But this is a virgin spot. No one here.”

“Yes. Stones of… Fanduk? No, Tarquar was the guy who discovered them. It should be named for one of us.”

“But we discovered it together. Your Stones of Fanduk sounds way better.”

The monument seems to be three rings of stones around a central one. The outer ring was 6 equidistant large stones. They looked like standing stones from Europe, as Birkathane had said. Next came a circle of 7 stones that not only floated 5m above ground but rotated slowly along a circular path. There was even a slight groove under them as if they had worn out their path, despite not touching the ground at all. The central circle was 8 stones in 4 pairs, apparently arrayed according to the cardinal points, as best as Birkathane’s Absolute Compass said.

And the central stone was an obelisk. Where the stones looked like natural ones vaguely squared, the central was sculpted with various abstract symbols. A round cylinder with a pointed end and a flat bottom.

On Vantegaard’s Aetheric Sense, all the stones glowed with magical energy. As if the floating part didn’t spoil that. The outer rings’ ones all had tens and tens of Aether per, but the central obelisk had more than his sense could manage. And he even had leveled the skill already, raising the max Aether sense to 10. No, 11? Oh, even his Perception had increased.

Did that mean?

Copper Unadorned Ring (lvl 18), requires 28 Reasoning, +1 to the three highest skills.

Yes. So the common-looking item was anything but common. + skills weren’t always the best boost, but a triple skill item was good. Only +1 for a relatively low-level item. And yes, apparently, his sense would let him guess what the level of an item was, even if it didn’t do anything better.

“Guys. We have… incoming” said Quandocor suddenly.

“What?”

“My Sense Life and Death says… there’s something nearby. But… it says… 32? At that level, it’s +/- 2. So it’s massively powerful.”

“Not massively, but…”

They were interrupted as a swarm of swirling motes appeared next to the obelisk. In a second, it resolved as a column of sparks flowing up and down, as if a transparent cylinder was there.

“What the fuck is that?”

“Dunno. Some kind of elemental? A magic spirit?”

They backed off slowly. The spirit thing advanced slowly. Nobody wanted to start the hostilities.

“Ok, my Aetheric Sense says this is highly magical. 120 Aether or higher, whatever this means. And I just leveled the skill again so it’s really above that value.”

The cylinder of sparks slowly advanced, not letting them gain ground.

“Is that some form of a guardian?” asked Quandocor?

“I don’t know the story behind the Stones of Tarquar. At least haven’t heard anything about guardians. But… if you say it’s 30-34, it should be doable with us three now. Especially since we have real healing.”

“You bet” added Birkathane.

“So… do we go for it? Or let it chase us out?”

“Your choice, boss.”

“I’m the boss now?”

“Boss, mayor, same thing. You’re the expert among us. Whatever you say, goes.”

“Okay. On my three, we start. One… two… three…”

Cold Grasp did have a major effect. The column twisted and distorted for a while, before stabilizing. A whine started to rise, like an electrical engine running in the background. A spark jumped and Quandocor yelped.

“Fuck! That thing just ate 81 of my health in one attack!”

The whine started again, but Birkathane tried to punch in an Interrupt this time. Apparently with success, as the sound broke off.

Vantegaard tried a Jab, but his dagger seemingly did not affect whatever the entity was. Meanwhile, Quandocor was chaining Drain Lifes as soon as he could. But the ghostly cylinder had another set of attacks, and burn marks appeared on his hands.

At least, the man tried his Unseen Meditation. Miraculously, the distraction part took effect, and the ghostly menace turned its attention to another enemy, Birkathane.

Vantegaard backed away slightly until his Rock Darts could at least launch. Unlike the dagger strikes, those had some effect. Each dart tore away sparks, reducing the density of the sparkly motes in the deadly cylinder.

Meanwhile, Quandocor did a Pull Mastery. Birkathane immediately noticed a +3 Presence boosting her healing spells which she used liberally while trying to dodge and interrupt the thing’s attacks.

“+3 presence, thanks, Quan.”

“+3? This thing must have an enormous amount of it.”

“Anything is good!”

At least the unarmed strikes seemed to whittle the creature. The cylinder was shrinking under the assault. At one point, the creature switched to the source of the pointy rocks and advanced on Vantegaard.

Vantegaard backed. The thing advanced, but it was slowed enough by his fresh Impose Load that it was barely able to catch up. Vantegaard would have turned and Sprinted, but he dared not leave the thing from sight.

The creature turned again, returning to burn on Quandocor. Seemingly, his Drains and Deadly Punches had enough of an effect to promote him in threat.

The large whine started again, but Birkathane wasn’t letting it strike. The large attack stopped, the now thin cylinder tried to use his burning effects.

At last, the sparks blew away, showering all of them with motes of light before fading. The ghostly spirit was finally dead.

“Now, that was far too dangerous.”

“I agree.”

“Magical things are very dangerous compared to their rank, I’d say” concluded Vantegaard.

“No kidding. I have about 60 health left. One of its big attacks and I was a goner.”

“Leave me some time, I’m going to top you all.”

Quandocor pointed out to the ground, where lay a heap of translucent sheets, like some plastic covers.

“Is that???”

Vantegaard picked the silvery globe, feeling it reflect his hand’s heat.

“A Silvergate. Yes. It is.”

“We found a Silvergate?”

“Statistically, that happens every three months per person. We’re lucky.”

“We almost paid hard for that. This spirit thing almost killed us.”

Vantegaard found it weird that the Silvergate didn’t even register on his Aetheric Sense. If anything was magical, it should be that. But, for some reason, no. However, there felt a bunch of things that did register still on the ground in the heap of things.

Elemental Spirit Shard × 2 (lvl 15), rare component.

Elemental Spirit Cloth (lvl ?), strange-looking item?

Elemental Spirit Gem (lvl ?), weird-looking item?

From the Aether amounts, the cloth was probably level 25 and the Gem was 32.

“How do we share that loot?”

Vantegaard started “Anyone wants something specific? I have a friend… who is looking for a Silvergate. He was supposed to get one ‘soon’, but that’s been for the last two months. If you have no problems, I’ll keep it for him?”

“No problem with me? Quan?” said Birkathane.

Quandocor hesitated. Letting a new Silvergate enter the underworld was not good, but then, he had no reason to want it that he could explain.

“No. Good for me.”

“Dibs on the shards then. Sometimes, shards like those things are used in alchemy. If I ever manage to begin working on it…”

“Good for me.”

“What’s the spirit cloth good for then?” asked Quandocor.

“Probably crafting. Same thing for the gem. Clothing and possibly anything” opined Vantegaard.

“I haven’t any skill to use any of those for.”

“Then keep both. Maybe you’ll find someone to trade with.”

They made a temporary camp, as Birkathane alternated healing and meditating.

Quandocor pulled out one of his signposts and placed it, aligned toward town.

Fanduk

←

½ day

After that, Vantegaard went to examine the obelisk without its guardian. At least that was the official reason. The real reason was more complicated.

Warning! An intersection of Standard Leylines overwhelms and replaces your normal skill selection with an ambiguous Tier 3 Earth Magic skill. Resolve the leyline interference to prevent the reoccurrence of this difficulty. Other leyline configurations may still cause further problems.

Warning! A major configuration of Aether flows restricts and replaces your normal skill selection with the Drain Living Aether skill. Reorder the Aether configuration or acquire a substitute skill to prevent the reoccurrence of this difficulty.

This was… a massive complication. Not a bad one mind you, but a truly major complication.

Once he left the outer circle of floating stones, the so-called Aether configuration stopped interfering. However, he had only a single leyline nearby then. From his Sense, two standard leylines, and a minor leyline intersected… straight under the floating obelisk.

So, he had three fixed skills possible, since he already had the minor leyline one. The separate standard leylines would yield one tier 4 geomantic skill. The leyline combo would offer a choice of tier 3 skills. And the Aether configuration would give him another Aetheric spell.

How deep did this forcing choice run? And how come he had never seen it mentioned anywhere. Either there was something seriously abnormal with him, or he was unwittingly part of a conspiracy of cheating Gaters.

But the worse part was, he had enough points for one skill… and would fall short for a second. Let alone a third.

Objectively, though… if the floating Stones of Fanduk were an aether configuration, finding another one seemed close to impossible. While leylines were common. Or at least common in the area. Worst case, he could come back in a few days before recess, after having enough points for the rest of the skills.

Drain Living Aether

Tier 4 Reasoning

Action

Aether is a substance that many possess in abundance.

You can drain Aether up to your maximum; it will slowly release until you are back to your base level. Draining too much Aether can cause damage to the target.

Aether drain: 8

Aether burn: 1.08 damage/aether.

Cooldown: 1.84s

Skill level 8 (base 1)

Advancement: 0%

Weirdly enough, his Aether base had jumped from 69 when he got the new magical vital to 84 now. But the skill description did shed a bit of light on Aether. It seemed that he had some inherent Aether base, and draining others’ Aether would damage them. Presumably, until there was no Aether left to drain – or he was full. Then what? He would lose Aether… did that mean drained targets would refill? Also, the Living specification implied the possibility of draining non-living things.

No wonder Aether mages were considered odd. The mechanic of Aether seemed definitively different from what he expected.

Nothing bothered them on the return trip. The sun was still relatively above the horizon when the familiar tower rose over the plains, letting them know that home was close.

Dadanlong was outside of one of the major buildings, taking notes and making drawings. But alongside him was… a woman.

When they neared the town’s border, they got noticed by the two. Dadanlong waved wildly while the woman simply looked.

“Good, good! You return early. Got new people today! Great day for Fanduk!”

They shook hands with the woman.

“I’m Amanda. From Canada.”

“You sure you want to use your name? It’s considered dangerous.”

“It’s not my real name. I’ve seen what some of you consider a proper Northworld name, and fuck if I’m going that way.”

“Did Dadanlong explain to you about Fanduk yet?”

She laughed “In great detail. Even the five-year plan.”

“So, you’re in the middle of a new territory. Hope you like it.”

“Just because nobody’s been around doesn’t mean that. We might be in a corner no one goes often.”

“Actually…” started Birkathane.

“We’re back from a trip, and there’s something that should and will be a world-famous point just north. And it’s definitively unknown.”

“What do you mean, world-famous?”

“Have you ever heard about the Stones of Tarquar? On Northworld.”

“Yea, a friend mentioned that. A kind of pilgrimage point for mages. Some magical floating monument.”

“Well, it’s no longer unique. As of today, there are the Stones of Fanduk, which are similar.”

“How do you know it’s not the same… oh right. If it was the same, everyone would be passing thru.”

Vantegaard asked the ritual question: “By the way, what’s your meditation skill?”

“Let me check… Life’s Lessons Meditation. Something about Lifeforce, but I don’t seem to have any skill that uses that one.”

“Hm. Weird” commented Birkathane.

“Why?”

“Because it’s a druidic skill and a very good one for druids. But if you don’t have any druidic skill, it’s probably useless. At least, hopefully, you’ll find some skills to use that Lifeforce.”

“Well, I’m told the Setup is a lottery, so you get all kinds of random junk.”

“In the case of the Fanduk area, you also apparently always gain a Meditation skill. They’re normally not that common and very sought after. But everyone – and I mean, everyone – around here has one from Setup.”

Dadanlong added “True, true. Other newbie got Meditation too.”

“Another newbie?”

Amanda added, “There were a couple of people before. Some polish bow hunter and apparently, an Ethiopian spear wielder. Talk about stereotypes.”

“That’s a population explosion. When did you spawn?”

“Two days ago. I was in a forest, and I followed the border until I got to a large river canyon. Then I went… north I think, until a kind of natural bridge.”

“And you got the sign to town.”

“Yes. Oh, I was so happy.”

She turned, taking the rest of the town in stride.

“Of course, I’m a bit less happy to be in the middle of nowhere. But that’s good to have people around.”

“Did you pick a home yet?”

“Yes. Dadanlong here was trying to sell me the idea to stay in this inn of his, but”, she snorted, “I don’t think he’s finished making the rooms liveable again. Or beyond the project of being liveable again.”

She added, “The polish guy said to pick any home without a name sign.”

“I’ll make you one immediately” added Quandocor.

“Thanks a lot.”

“Do I need to pay?”

“Do you have some cash already?”

“I looked in my ‘home’. There were a bunch of small boxes, but one had those 8-sided coins in them. I know that’s the official money here.”

“Well, keep it. We need to jump-start a local economy if people keep showing up. You can always import stuff from Earth every recess, but there won’t be long before we have local things.”

“Ah, and he also said to pick a weapon in the armory in that tower. Since apparently, I have all kind of stab skills, I picked a Silvered Knife.”

Seeing the slightly pained expression on Vantegaard’s face, she hastily added: “Was that ok?”

Vantegaard shrugged.

“I guess it is. Consider that a founder’s bonus. At this rate, the armory will be empty in six-seven days.”

They all gathered at the “mayor’s” home.

“Fanduk, population 8 already.”

“We seem to have lots of people spawning.”

Birkathane, for once, had the answer.

“The estimate is that there’s something like 5-600 new Gaters every day. Maybe even more. If we only get half a percent of them, that’s still more than 2 per day. Maybe once the first of us spawned, that started a regular spawn in the area.”

“The intact homes are going to be good for a month, then. After that, I hope we have people with the skills to restore the rest.”

“You know, that money Amanda found… that makes me think.”

Vantegaard facepalmed.

“I’ve looked, but not that much. Let’s see if we have riches around.”

The hole in the wall was well hidden under the pantry’s lowest shelves. There was a tiny little cloth pouch. It held two dozen copper coins, a bronze, and two iron.

Vantegaard added it to the cash store from the tower.

“Ok, I think we should investigate every house in town. If there’s money lying there, someone will steal it sooner or later.”

Quandocor remarked, “Aren’t we doing the same?”

“No. I’ll keep a track of the amount in each house. Then, when someone lays claim to the home, their original money will go to them.”

“That sounds weird.”

“It’s a good and fair way to get coins into everyone’s hand. Normally, we’d land in a working economy, and we could sell some of our stuff and use that to buy immediately. But here, we have to jump-start everything. At least until we recess. Then, I guess, we can try to buy and sell in Northworld pieces-of-8 to inject more cash.”

“Others may do the same” remarked Birkathane.

“True. The economics of two worlds that aren’t… contiguous is weird stuff. Almost as illogical as international finance.”

You don’t say, thought Quandocor. And people want that to become more ordered, not weirder.

Birkathane added, “Does that mean we need to pay the cook for today’s lizard steak?”

“Nah. This cook does food for free for his friends.”

“Are we?”

“I think we are.”

“I’ll drink to that.”

“Fuck no. I still remember yesterday’s morning.”