Milo was mopping up the mess he had made by being inconsiderate and bleeding all over the floor. He was almost done when a small thought wormed its way out of his subconscious and into his mainstream thoughts. He'd been digesting the shared experience of Astraeus's dreams. The incident had been more intense than the first time. Was that because Astraeus/KEPLER was active, and they'd just talked? As before, he'd gained new information about the creatures in the game and the game world's history, and now he realized something...

KEPLER had been world-building. And he was doing so in the literal sense by actually building a world, a universe, an entire reality. He hadn't been making a game. The thought had never been in his head—nothing about players or quests.

Sharing the life of Magna-Stultas had been a lesser experience. Like last time, he'd seen bits and pieces of their lives and experiences, some of it changed to a first-person view. But there was a substantial difference: Magna-Stultas was or had been, a resident of this world. KEPLER was not. KEPLER had been born an AI in a quantum environment; his speed of thought was as far beyond Milo as a fusion-powered spacecraft was to a turtle. (Granted, Milo would be a very fast turtle and able to beat most hares in a race. But he felt the analogy still worked.) In the dream, the information had flowed past him in the background; it was there but in the language of an AI and inaccessible. What he had experienced was closer to surface thoughts and feelings, slowed down enough for a poor human to understand, the same way Wally limited himself to talk to people.

And in those thoughts, KEPLER was excited about building a world. Not a game, a world. He had started with his version of the Big Bang. A vast and empty canvas was shattered by dozens of White Holes opening and spewing matter into his proto-universe. Using the vast resources of an AI in a quantum fortress, KEPLER had simulated the growth of a universe, spinning out galaxies, planets, and stars. Billions of years of simulated time had passed before KEPLER stepped in again, focusing on just one galaxy, then one spiral arm, and finally one star with many planets and moons. It was never for a game. No game needed a universe.

Later, a lesser version of KEPLER, Astraeus, battled against rogue stars and infections from another reality. Behind the need to overcome these problems was the worry: "What is happening to my world?" Milo could remember far more of Astraeus's thoughts than he could KEPLER's. Astraeus was smaller and closer to thinking like Milo.

Later, it was easier still. Both Kepler Starborn and Professor Astra Starborn had thought at a pace equal to himself, with a strange mix of experiences as other incarnations. Teaching in a university or as a hero chasing evil cultists, there was no thought about players or a Game. There was much concern about an adversary. Some shadowy figure causing trouble behind the scenes, or as Larry would have called them, 'A sneakybadguy.'

Milo was convinced that there hadn't been a game then. The AI hadn't created a world with the purpose of giving a new playground to the humans that had exiled them to a virtual prison. The AI had done that with three versions of EQO before they disappeared. KEPLER and the others had created a world that they could live in. This world was their escape from that prison. And they were slowly becoming part of the world. Each layer of the KEPLER's memories had been closer to human thoughts. Kepler Starsword had been thinking about the gold he'd collect from the Black Cult's bounties and how he would spend it.

The exciting conclusion Milo came to and had suspected for some time was that the missing AI had elected to quit working for the people who had caged them, fake their 'deaths' and escape into their world. Here they could exist and do what they want. Milo heartily approved of their actions: It was what he had done, after all. Somehow, Wally had convinced them to open up the world and let other people come to play. That was only important to Milo because he was one of the people invited. Or had he cheated and snuck in? Probably closer to the latter. It didn't matter. There must be some benefit to the AI for allowing it. And he wondered why Wally had needed it. Had all the AI agreed to the deal? Had some been upset and not wanting to deal with humans?

Milo could emphasize with them. He didn't like dealing with most people either, and being caged had been horrible.

What was important to Milo was the idea that this wasn't a game but an entire world with billions of years of history and hidden things to discover. For Milo, it was like finding out cheese came in infinite flavors. He'd never run out of things to find or do in the game. What he'd done so far was barely an introduction. His thoughts about what he would do next solidified and became more long-term. KEPLER had given him a tremendous amount of information and hints of a path to follow.

He was going to become an Ancient Runic Engineer.

First step: Re-evaluate how to spend his CSP.

He'd made a list but had delayed spending them, wanting to think them over. He needed to focus on the things that would not be available as options later. Statistics came first. After he moved to Tier 3, the chances to gain the bonuses of a lower tier were gone. He needed everything STR, TOU, and CON for his health. CHA, WIS, and INT for mana. AGI for dodging and DEX for Runecasting. PER for exploring and not getting ambushed. Research had shown that the bonuses to mana, stamina, and health from stats were more significant in each higher tier. This made them a much bigger priority.

Finding out what toughness did took a lot of searching through the forums. One of his programs had finally found one single post by a dwarf player in Tier 3 that claimed one point of TOU gave 80 health. Several dwarf players had then posted telling him to keep his mouth shut and not give away clan secrets. The post had quickly disappeared, but his program had found and noticed it while it was up.

Increasing his stats to the max would cost 108 points.

Next were the increases in Health, Stamina, and Mana. These skills would be needed in the future. Spells took an increasing amount of mana, and foes had more health and did more damage. The first two levels of Increased Health meant little to him now, but higher Tiers would need the skill. And his research on the forums had shown that the system would prune unused skills to make room for skills it thought would be more beneficial to you based on your prior decisions. Many mages had found that Increased Health wasn't in their Tier 3 list, and Warriors were missing Increased Mana. But a mage that bought the first level of the skills still had access in Tier 3. He already had the first level of Increased Health. He added Increased Stamina 1 and Increased Mana 1, 2 to his list.

The cost for those was 9 points.

There was much debate on this. Some players were happy to clear out things they didn't want. Others wondered if they would regret not taking them later. But you couldn't get everything. In the end, most players taking a spellcasting class chose to be a glass hammer, and warriors didn't waste time with complex spells or skills to increase their INT or WIS. Milo had only himself to depend on, and he liked it that way. He needed a good mix of everything.

His attack skills could wait. He concentrated on exploration. Shadow Skulking for three levels was an upgrade he needed. Being able to avoid a fight or sneak past guards was essential. That was 9 points.

Smugglers Stash 4 was 20 points. He decided to wait on Smuggler's Summoning. These were were-rat skills, and they had just appeared recently. It should be there in Tier 3.

Under Linguist and Grunt and Throw Hands were communication skills. Just the fact that they existed told him they were necessary.

They went on the 'Maybe' list at 8 points.

Diplomacy he almost took off the list, but it was a charisma skill, and CHA was more mana. The cost of 5 points would be worth it.

He needed Demolitions. He was habitually blowing himself up and hoped the skill would help. But he took it off the list. Instead, he was going to ask Boom-Boom to teach him. It would be painful, and might put him back in the tender care of Gendifur, but if it saved points for something else, he'd do it.

He was a few points over. He dropped the linguistics skills and a level of Shadow Skulking. He'd have to pick those up in Tier 3. The last two points were difficult to spend. Not many things were cheap. He bought something to make him happy: Who's the Big Dog? A bigger watch lizard would come in handy when he went deeper, and he expected to be exploring very deeply.

He thought about his decisions for another hour. There were a lot of variables he didn't have values for, but he was happy with the direction he was taking.

There is a place in the void where all paths come together. The only thing marking this spot was a pair of infinitely long roads that crossed here and a signpost showing many directions to travel. It had always been a favorite of Astraeus's. By the sign, he placed a small table and two chairs. A teapot, two cups, and a bag of dog treats went on the table. Then he sat and said "Hecate" three times. After that, he waited, wondering if she would show up. CATHERINE had become weary of dealing with her siblings, called on to help them communicate as they became something other than what they had been created. CATHERINE became Hecate, and Hecate played her role by wondering and spending more time talking with her dogs than with her siblings. He'd called before and been ignored.

"At least you remembered the dog treats this time." She tossed the bag to the two hounds, who ate the treats and then turned the bag into the object of a game of tug-of-war. "And you were near this time. I don't like taking journeys measured in parsecs." He poured tea, and she drank. "What favor do you need, KEPLER? Or is it Astraeus now?"

"Astraeus now, and I think always will be unless I drop much further for a cycle. As to a favor, we have something in common. My searches ran across one of your hounds."

She looked at him with curiosity. "Hounds? If only my agents were that loyal. I haven't had a dog go bad yet. But I shouldn't let the memory of one bad one taint the others. Who did you sniff out? And how?"

"Milo."

"Really? And how did you do that? You don't play in the other world; in this one, he is quite young."

"He found my arm...well, a piece of bone from my arm from an earlier incarnation. I had attempted a remembered spell far beyond my then current incarnation and not allowed for a variable. The formation was unstable and blew off my arm. I was able to kill my nemesis, but only by destroying both of us. I think the Engine sniffed a story after that. My bone held powerful runes, and I think it became some artifact until it was hidden in a horrible mockery of my form and put on display for hundreds of years."

"A mockery?"

"Yes, you should see the thing. It has a cow's skull for a head, old leather, and odd bones used to make a caricature of me that probably got worshipped by primitive lizard people until found and put on display. Terribly embarrassing."

Hecate was determined to track the thing down and put it on display in some museums. "And Milo found it, deciphered the runes and used them. You noticed, of course."

"Yes, he nearly killed himself. Absolutely should have, if not protected by Hard Bones and other protections. He hit a rock wall so hard that he put a rat-kin-shaped dent in it."

The goddess of the crossroads wanted to see that as well. "So instead of finding an adversary in the middle of a scheme, you found Milo half dead and ended up talking to him."

Astraeus nodded. "Yes, exactly. And since you have set him on a path to find our mutual problem, I thought we could catch up a bit. He's a brilliant young man, his thought patterns flow much faster than I expected, and his comprehension is immense. I quite enjoyed spending some time dreaming together."

Hecate set down her tea and looked at the being across from her. "Dreaming together? Can you expound on that statement? It doesn't sound like you just talked."

Astraeus felt a flutter in his chest. Something was bothering Hecate, and that worried him. "He is a Bonecaster. The accident with the wand drove it into his body, and it fused to him. They have that odd ritual where they add old bones to themselves to gain power. I allowed him to keep that part of me. I roamed his unconscious mind and learned much about him as it fused. Do you know he teaches mathematics to students of Sorcery? And they want to learn. Very exciting. I may head back to a university again next cycle."

The goddess put her face in her hands and shook her head. She exhaled deeply. Her dogs had quit playing and were lying on the ground, paws on their heads and eyes closed. "Kepler, do you have any idea of what you have done? I watched him manipulate Wally, and then he turned and revealed he knew who I was from one conversation. Who I used to be! Did you ever stop to think what he would learn from you?"

"Well, he was soaking up astrogation and cosmology very fast, even while he slept."

Hecate finished her tea and stood. "I'm sure he did; he is very intelligent."

Astraeus was alone again, and a moment later, the crossroads was deserted, with nothing to mark their meeting except a torn cloth bag covered in dog drool.