The following days were some of the best he’d had in years. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed gaming. Nor had he realized how much he enjoyed gaming with someone else.

He’d traditionally been a solo gamer, preferring to avoid any MMO type games in favour of one where he didn’t have to rely on often unreliable gamers to progress in the game. Never mind finishing said game.

This, however, was just plain sublime.

Avi had her own play style which complemented his own and very much reminded him of how Altaea used to play. Which, admittedly, shouldn’t have surprised him in the least, given how she’d been “born”.

That said, he was also impressed with the creativity that went into each of the games that she’d developed. Not only had she flawlessly continued the story of his favourite Shepard, but she’d also developed her own voice synthesis program so that the characters would remain immersive.

She’d also managed to maker her own game engine. Sure, it had been based on the Unreal Engine, but she’d taken it to the next level. Dynamic lighting and light refraction, character/object interactions, rendering speeds, antialiasing, everything had been improved. He was, quite frankly, stunned with how well she’d done, and with how far she’d come.

Upon further reflection, he supposed that it shouldn’t have surprised him at all given that she’d started out as a V.I.. Perhaps that had given her an innate understanding of programming and code.

Heck, she’d even managed to make schematics for a “holodeck” using [Holographic Projection]. Looking at them, it could go from simple recreations of various environments and scenarios all the way to having the “safeties” disabled. Meaning that it could be used to train in deadly ways, simulating real-life situations.

All told, he was thoroughly impressed, even after Avi admitted that most of the work had been done by Altaea before she’d left. Which then opened up a whole other can of worms, as it were.

“So, I didn’t exactly have a good moment to tell you that Altaea had also left schematics for a few other devices that she thought you’d enjoy,” Avi explained, squirming slightly under his intense gaze.

The revelation of potentially being able to construct his own holodeck, as well as Altaea having left more for him, had ignited his uber-geek side. Every nerd and geek out there had likely dreamed of having their own sci-fi gizmos, and he was no different.

“Please, continue,” he said, calming himself through a supreme act of willpower.

“Well,” she started, grinning as she realized that she wasn’t in trouble for not having shared sooner. “I’ve so far been able to access the schematics for the holodeck, as you know, and also an omni-tool and a li*COUGH-COUGH*er.” She finished, not quite able to look him in the eye at the end.

“Ah what?” He asked, his right eyebrow raising.

“A li*COUGH-COUGH*er,” she coughed again.

“Maybe just use the Network if you’ve having trouble speaking,” he said, his left eyebrow now twitching.

“Ah, well…” she trailed off, still having trouble looking him in the eye. “Just promise that you’ll not freak out, or overly obsess…”

Mind 2: Going by the number of coughs and how the first started…

Mind 3: … and the second ended…

Mind 1: *BOOM*

* * * * *

Joram’s eyes went blank, his mouth dropping open.

Avi stood there for a minute, not quite sure what to do. She hadn’t seen Joram in this state since he’d discovered Altaea’s absence all those years ago. Fortunately, this shock induced state didn’t stem from a negative state of mind, but from a positive stimulation overload.

Is this the legendary “Geek-gasm”?

Avi quickly shook her head, clearing it of unnecessary clutter before pulling up a chair and sitting in front of Joram to wait.

She’d been hesitant to share that Altaea had started having those visions Joram had described before she’d left. With them, Altaea had managed to copy over everything into Avi’s archives, each to be released at the appropriate time. The holodeck was released due to her departure and the knowledge that Joram would need a place to continue his training. The omni-tool had been released for much same reason; Altaea leaving. She’d been worried that Joram wouldn’t be prepared for his journey out into the wider world and had prepared the omni-tool as an aid for his survival.

The third item that had been unlocked was arguably the most dangerous thing yet. A lightsaber.

With the production knowledge that Altaea had left behind, it had become trivial to reproduce the needed technologies with the [Fabricate] tree of powers/augments, let alone [True Creation]. What she worried about wasn’t Joram’s safety, as he could just regenerate any lost limbs resulting from training accidents. No, she worried about his tendency to fixate on something he found particularly interesting.

And one could say that a lightsaber was indeed that to a lifetime fan.

Truth be told, she couldn’t blame him. She’d spent many a day going through the piles of media he’d left in storage during his… convalescence. She’d become something of a… hardcore geek. Nerd? Either way, she’d spent endless days pursuing her interests, from programming to manufacturing. She’d experimented for years on end, working on various projects that took her interest.

The expansion and building of her vineyard, gardens, and orchards and subsequent building of the winery and distillation facilities had just been a drop in the bucket. The many “golems” she’d created during that time had taken over the everyday maintenance of the place, freeing up vast amounts of time.

She’d neglected to share with Joram that she’d also made a psionic item that took over her need to constantly manifest [Genesis] to keep the realm expanding by itself. There weren’t any issues with the realm getting too big or anything like that. The only thing she’d need to do from time to time would be to adjust the programmed template for future expansions should Joram want the place to have more variation than it already had. Maybe some mountains, as he really liked the “amplified” biomes in his favourite sandbox game.

Avi came out of her thoughts for a moment to check on Joram and found that his state hadn’t changed yet. After wiping away a bit of drool, she went back to her thoughts!

To conserve on mana, the “golems” were actually “droids”. Completely “mundane”. The energy needed to sustain droids was considerably lessened when electricity was used instead of mana. She’d even equipped each droid with a type of skin that acted as a solar cell, allowing the ambient light to power the droid. And with the inclusion of a robust battery designed after the one used in a lightsaber, the droids just kept on going.

Sure, they’d need maintenance every now and then, but that was as simple a making a [Reconstruction] bay that they could either get loaded into or walk into by themselves if the damage wasn’t too bad. Usually, it was just “regular” maintenance, having programmed them to go through the bay once per month to keep things in good working order.

Beyond those things, she hadn’t as yet experimented with actually building the tech Altaea had left behind.

That said, she was very much looking forward to helping Joram build them. The best part was that Altaea had actually left two sets of schematics for each item: a mundane version and a psionic/magic version. That meant that if they somehow found themselves in a null-magic/psionic zone that they’d still be able to use those devices.

She’d also left the software for each device, as well as the development platform for said software. The psionic versions were a bit trickier, but nothing they couldn’t handle if they put their heads together.

Ah, the adventures we’ll have together, Avi mused with a smile on her face.

* * * * *

Joram finally snapped out of it and saw that Avi had pulled up a chair to wait out his… unusual state.

*Cough*

“So, if I guessed correctly, Altaea left the schematics for a lightsaber for me?” He asked, trying very hard not to get his hopes too high.

“Yes,” she said with a twinkle in her eye. “Plans and supporting software for mundane versions of those things. As well as psionic versions of them.” She finished with a wink.

His jaw dropped again as he pulled his mind back from re-entering that special place. “You’re serious.”

Nod-nod went her head.

“I really do need to get on making you a body so that I can give you the biggest hug ever,” he said in all seriousness, which elicited a smile from Avi.

“No big hurry,” she said, still smiling. “I’ve managed to upgrade my core so that I can project a [Holographic Image] of myself, effectively giving myself a body that can interact with the physical world.”

More blinking.

“You’re serious?” He asked, hesitantly reaching out a hand.

In response, Avi leaned forward in her chair and took his hand in hers.

“It’s warm,” he said dumbly.

“Yes, I’m able to fully control this projection.”

Joram scooted forward to the edge of the chair, then hopped down to stand nose to nose with Avi. That close, he could even see his reflection in her emerald eyes. Then, without warning, Avi scooped him up in a hug, squeezing for all she was worth.

For his part, Joram returned the hug, not bothered by the pressure she was able to exert due to the Adamantium Body Technique.

They stood like that for a while, his legs dangling a couple feet off the floor. He enjoyed her mild scent, perfumed by a flower he couldn’t quite identify, but reminded him of vanilla. Then he recalled that they hadn’t actually spent much time together before the Incident, only really chatting away as they discussed research topics, places to explore for resources, and other such mundane things.

Sure, they’d spent time working on a few things together, like the chocolate, but it hadn’t been… emotionally significant, as some people might have called it.

Well, not that he was like most people. His “love languages” consisted of spending time with someone and physical touch. Affirmation was up there too, but just knowing that someone cared for him and spent time with him was already more than enough. Presents? Yeah, they were nice and fun to get, but not something that determined his affection for someone. As much as he loved his various gadgets, gizmos, and trinkets, he wasn’t a materialist at heart. The acquisition of wealth and items for its own sake didn’t really interest him. It was what he could do with that wealth that really mattered.

Because unspent wealth was just a waste, in his opinion.

Was that weird for him to say when he had a tremendous stash of wealth in the form of natural resources, mana crystals, and Dust crystals stored in a warehouse not even one hundred metres away from where he was being held? Well, he wasn’t a dragon, no matter how much he joked about having a dragon-like disposition towards loot. For him, having the resources on hand when he needed them was what was important.

“Avi?” came his muffled voice.

“Yes, Joram?” He felt just as much as he heard.

“You’ve awesome,” he said, leaning back a bit so that he could look her in the eye when he spoke.

A warm smile came to her face as she replied, “You’re not too shabby, yourself.”

Joram got a goofy grin on his young face, then motioned to be put down. Avi, reluctantly, complied and followed him when he motioned for her to do so.

“I’m thinking that the first thing that we need to work on is the omni-tool, as much as I’d love to have a working lightsaber and all,” he muttered the last part as he opened the door to his workshop.

The walls were lined with row upon row of drawers, each one filled with a specific element or substance, depending on how useful each one was. Some drawers were smaller than others, representing how hard it was to acquire said resource, while others were as large as fifty cubic centimetres. The best part was that each had been enchanted so that as the supply in the drawer was depleted, a small portal leading to the main storage container for each one would deposit more of that drawer’s contents, keeping it topped up.

He was very proud of how well Avi had organized the workshop. Sure, she’d made use of it during his downtime, so he guessed that it was really “their” workshop and not just “his”.

OK, so maybe he was still a bit possessive, but he was working on that character flaw.

Of the many benches set up in there, one was more of a workstation with two copies of his laptop set up with several monitors attached to each.

“Aww, you made matching workstations for us,” he gushed as he reached up and snagged her hand.

“It’s more efficient that way,” she said with a slight grin. “On that note, we may need to spend time creating new computers that’ll be able to handle the computing necessary for developing the software that the omni-tools will use.”

Joram nearly groaned at that. Yes, he’d spent lots of time studying his devices with [Delve], but he wasn’t quite there yet when it came to designing hardware.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a smirk. “Altaea left many schematics and supporting documents to replicate the necessary hardware.”

Joram was so happy that he jumped up to a level where they could stare eye to eye, then leaned in and gave her a quick peck on the cheek before gravity reclaimed him.

“Aww, shucks,” she said, adopting a southern accent. “You’ll set my heart all aflutter if you keep doing that.”

He laughed out loud at that. “Let’s get to work,” he said, hopping into his chair.

- - - - -

1342.08.22

Tillia was frustrated.

Not only had Joram been in secluded cultivation for almost four months, but she’d not been able to contact him through his Network.

She could still feel that she was still a part of the Network, and could even speak with the Matriarch through it, but that was it. No conversations with Joram, nothing.

Then there were all the rumours floating around the clan home these days.

“After his display, it’s no wonder that he’d gone into hiding.”

“Xiora and Lysanthir are so talented! They’re already in the third and second, respectively, Ranks of Tier 1. They’re the ones who should be engaged.”

“Yeah, it would be a waste to allow Xiora to marry a cripple like that. Who knows if their children would also wind up becoming cripples?”

“I hear that Joram’s Nanny is only getting so much support from the Matriarch because the Matriarch is planning to have her care for him for the rest of his life.”

“Ah, such a pitiful girl, being tied to such a dead-weight.”

That last one was interchangeable between her and Xiora. She tried very hard to ignore those naysayers and stickybeaks, but it was getting harder the longer Joram stayed in seclusion. The longer he was away, the more courage those people built up to slander him.

Tillia took a calming breath as she retreated from the clan storehouse, already having retrieved their weekly stipend of cultivation resources. She was glad that the Matriarch had gifted her a storage ring, ostensibly to make sure that she had on hand anything that Joram might need during the day. But for now, it was used to transport hers and Joram’s supplies.

They’d balked at her retrieving both of their resources at the same time, but a later word from the Matriarch allowing her to do so had shut them up pretty fast. She’d even given Tillia permission to use any of Joram’s accumulated resources if she needed to do so while cultivating.

It was extremely generous of her to have done so, so Tillia made sure to only use something if she ran out of a pill or mana crystals when at a critical point in her cultivation. Which meant that she’d already stepped into Rank 7 of the 1st Tier.

She was ecstatic over the progress that she’d made ever since the Matriarch had approved of her. She’d made more progress in that time than she had in her previous nineteen years of life. Even her parents were over the moons with her rate of improvement, practically preparing a feast for her every time she went back to visit them.

Even her siblings were excited for her, which shouldn’t have surprised her, as she was the eldest child of the family and she’d spent most of her time mothering them. It was where she’d picked up her hand with children. She was the eldest of six children, which was almost unheard of in such a short span of time. Yet, her parents had only each managed to barely reach the peak of Tier 1, even though both were near forty.

Yes, her parents had married young, having fallen for each other in their youth. Since both weren’t anywhere near the main line of the family, and their aptitudes had been deemed “below average”, they’d been allowed to do as they were wont. So, they’d gotten married and started their family in their late teens.

Her father had taken up his branch family’s business of wood crafting. He couldn’t work with the more exotic lumbers out there, but he was exceptionally skilled with his carving knife, to the point where even the main family members commissioned pieces from him from time to time.

Her mother, now there was a saint. Not only had she managed the family home while her father had worked tirelessly to earn their keep, but she had also started making clothes on the side. She’d quickly been acknowledged as a talented seamstress, also earning her some repute in the clan. Like her father, she couldn’t do anything with the magical materials out there as they required fine mana manipulation, but she could work wonders with her shears and needles.

As a matter of a fact, most her Tillia’s wardrobe had come from her mother, Annalee. She kept up with the latest fashion across their corner of the continent, spanning three empires and seven kingdoms. Her designs were so good, in fact, that she also sold them when she was able.

Not that Tillia allowed her parents to carry the burden of supporting the family all by themselves. Since she’d been deemed old enough to care for other children, she’d gone around letting other families know that she could help tend to their young ones.

It didn’t pay much, as most families who were forced to have both parents working did so for a reason. That said, Tillia had been able to bring in a bit extra each month, allowing their family to get by that much better. Once she’d landed the position as Joram’s Nanny, well, she’d been the talk of the family.

Not only was that considered a respectable position to have, but it had also come with a substantial increase in pay. Well, from what she was used to anyway.

But, due to her constant work supporting her family, she’d not had any time to focus on cultivation. Not that her family had had the necessary resources to support someone if they wanted to focus purely on cultivation. But now?

Not only was she still receiving the same pay, which she mostly sent back to her family, but she had also been allocated cultivation resources on top of that. She’d even asked if it was all right to share the cultivation manual that she’d chosen for herself with her family. The result was seeing the Matriarch’s soft laugh. It wasn’t that the cultivation methods were secret, it was the expense in copying them that prevented widespread distribution. So, of course she’d be able to share it with her family since the scroll had already been copied!

She wasn’t sure just how useful it would be to her family, as everyone had their own unique abilities, but it was better than nothing.

Tillia pulled herself out of her musings as she returned to her new room in Joram’s home. It felt weird being there, all alone. She missed the days where Joram’s parents were home, giving it a lively atmosphere. Maybe she was a bit biased in her opinion, but she had grown up in a rather full home, always surrounded by family.

She wondered if Joram ever felt lonely. After his… accident, she’d been told that all of his Network connections had been dropped, including his parents. It must have been lonely not being able to speak to his parents whenever he wanted to. Or they, him.

Tillia’s spirit fired up at that point, fire practically burning in her gaze.

“I’ll make sure that he won’t ever be lonely!” She proclaimed to the world; right arm raised to the ceiling of her bedroom.

After a moment, colour rushed to her face, steam practically coming out of her ears as she remembered Joram’s decree that she was his woman.

Soon enough, the conflicting thoughts, feelings, and emotions overwhelmed her, causing her to pass out, falling back onto her bed.

* * * * *

At the same time, Joram’s head was found face down on his desk, fortunately still attached to his body. Much to his great disappointment.

Avi had inherited Altaea’s… training ethics. Yeah, that’s what he’d call it.

He’d spent the better part of these last four moths going over theory and learning advanced biology, biochemistry, chemistry, physics, metallurgy, and three different programming languages necessary to construct the items he wished to make.

Even with two extra minds working on it for twenty hours per day, it was a lot. His head felt like it was filled with floating numbers, equations, formulas, and Latin terminology. Even with offloading each subject onto its own crystal mind. Ah, those were nice. Not only did they contain the raw information of each subject, but they also retained his understandings of them. Well, not like he lost his understanding of each subject offloaded into a crystal mind, but it was nice to have that refresher when he accessed it later. Well, he’d repeated what he’d done for every other crystal mind he’d ever made: he’d assimilated them. That way each one was able to be compartmentalized while allowing him to remain… fresh. The best part was that he could still network each one so that he could benefit from cross-disciplinary understandings which in turn allowed for easier… epiphanies.

Yeah, he’d go with that term. Sometimes things just clicked one day, and you went with it.

Ah, how he’d hoped that he could have had this third mind working on the issue of his meridians. But, this should, hopefully, allow him to make much more progress in that area. With his better understanding of physiology, he hoped to be able to create a true-to-life model of himself which would allow him to experiment with new pathways without injuring himself.

And to get there, he would need to get that omni-tool working so that he could be constantly scanning his body to update the replica. That was especially important seeing as how he was still growing and maturing, which caused his body to be in a constant state of change.

Upon further reflection, he supposed that this was probably one of the many reasons why most people waited until puberty to start on the path of cultivation.

He didn’t react when he felt arms wrap around him, nor when said arms lifted him into Avi’s embrace.

“I know it’s been hard on you, but you’ve done so well!” She exclaimed happily, the sound of her voice resonating through her chest.

“Thanks,” he said, barely able to summon the energy to speak. “Can I sleep now?”

“What are you talking about?” She snorted. “You’ve been able to get a full two hours each night!”

“That’s not what I was referring to,” he mumbled, yearning for the sweet oblivion of unconsciousness.

“Yeah, yeah, you can go and relax,” she said cheekily. “Do you want to soak in the hot springs first?”

Any other time he would have jumped at the chance to go to a hot spring with Avi, holographic body or not. But now? He felt that his brain had been transmuted to gelatin; thoughts just bouncing around without landing anywhere solid.

“Bed?”

“OK, then.”

- - - - -

He wasn’t sure how long he’d slept, but he did know that it felt fantastically good to have a full body stretch as he yawned, blearily blinking his eyes once done. He noticed Avi laying beside him on her side, watching him wake up. She was in a simple white tank-top and blue jean shorts, her hair down.

“Have a good sleep?”

“Mmmm-mmm,” he mumbled, blinking some more.

“Good!” She cheerily exclaimed as she sat up. “Time to make some stuff!”

He’d normally have been on board with that, jumping out of bed to follow her out the room, but… he was still burnt out.

He rolled onto his back, took a pillow, and covered his eyes with it.

“Nope,” he said, refusing to get up. “As much as I love you and crafting Avi, I need more downtown.”

He heard her steps pause, then start up once again, this time coming back to the bed to pause beside him.

“If you get up, I’ll make you your favourite Peanut Butter Marshmallow Fudge bars,” she purred out in her siren voice.

“Get ye hence, Temptress!” He replied adamantly, holding the pillow tighter to his head.

“I’ll include back scratches…” she purred from beside his pillow-covered ear.