As Rory walked out of the restaurant with a large yawn, his arms stretched overhead, he glanced over to see his small companion once more seated on his shoulder.

"Enjoy the meal?" Rory asked.

"Yes!" The small fairy cheered. "Not as filling as eating cubes of metal or shoveled piles of dirt and stone, but it was way tastier! If only I could taste a-"

"You're not eating a person," Rory quickly said, cutting her off.

"Aww," The Star fairy sighed.

"That aside, unfortunately, it's about time I take you back to your room."

"Really? Do I have to go back?" Astra pouted.

"Yes. They probably would like to see you returned at some point, and that aside, my next location I can't really afford to bring you to, given I'm not sure I'd want to try taking you so far, and I might be gone a few days."

"Aww… Can we go out again when you come back?"

"Sure thing, kiddo," Rory said with an amused snort before frowning.

Kiddo? That came out a little too naturally.

"You promise?"

"No, but I'll do my best. Does that work for you?"

The fairy seemed to mull it over for several seconds before nodding reluctantly. "Fine. But I want another fancy treat. That metal you gave me was spicy and dense."

"I'll bring you something," Rory chuckled.

Having settled that, Rory made his way back to the forge with the little fairy in tow. Arriving, Rory winced as he noticed several figures all examining the door, bickering between themselves.

Whoops.

Making his way back and into the forge, several figures glanced over in his direction, eyebrows raised. Still, thankfully, the workers and apprentices of the forge were too busy and otherwise preoccupied to bother him. Locking onto Gil's aura signature, Rory quickly found the man, giving him a nod before jerking his head in the direction of Astra's room. Receiving a nod in return, Rory was soon once more in the space-themed room.

"All right, don't get into too much trouble while I'm gone," Rory said, lecturing like a responsible adult.

"Fineeeee."

Zipping into the center of the room, the fairy exploded into specks of starlight that converged once more, taking the shape of a pulsating star.

"I'm going to nap now. Bye-bye."

Ignoring how her voice vibrated through the room now that she was back in her true body, Rory quickly left, stopping by Gil on his way out.

"In a few days, I'll be here to work on some stuff. Gather your best apprentices or whatnot, and I'll give a demonstration on something I uncovered a while back."

"Roger that!" Gil said, thumping his fists together and lowering his head in a salute Rory had no recognition of.

Ehh, I'll let it rest.

Leaving the forge, Rory expanded his senses. While he had come to recognize many concepts and their aural signatures, several stuck out to him more than others. Blood was the number one on the list, and the only reason lattice wasn't number two was that it was rarely found in nature.

Number three was more like a family of concepts; spatial concepts had become something he could recognize distinctly after his time in the Trial of Space.

I think that's what it was called at least. Honestly, it's been long enough, and the name was minor enough of a point that I've mostly forgotten.

Sure, Rory had a potent memory, but that was only when he bothered to remember things to begin with.

And unfortunately, that was something Rory didn't do much of.

Name of the trial aside, his sensitivity to space and space-adjacent concepts made locking onto the signature of the Null Window rather easy. Finding it wasn't much more difficult, and when he did, Rory crossed his arms.

A little pretentious, not going to lie. I would have gone more for a train station theme, because trains are cool. This is a bit… too fervent.

If Rory had to pinpoint an exact location, it was something along the lines of the temples of Bagan, something he only knew of from old National Geographic magazines his grandparents had kept from three decades prior.

While it was a good 'base' inspiration, the designs weren't one-to-one, something that stopped Rory for a moment longer as he considered a new thought.

How does John draw inspiration from all these Earth-based architectural styles? He was like twelve when he came here. He couldn't have memorized them.

A question he would deign to ask when he eventually met the now-grown man once more, Rory pushed it aside as he entered the temple. Smaller in scale by a sizable degree than the Earth-based counterpart it was drawn from, Rory wandered past a single gateway that he could sense was meant to block people from entering freely without some sort of recognition source.

Rory, though, passed without problem. As the 'origin' of the settlement's aural affinity, akin to the base template that a more complicated design was founded atop, he was essentially invisible or otherwise able to override most defenses or security he'd seen so far.

Once inside the temple proper, Rory stepped up to the doorway, not bothering with any dramatics as he stepped through a moment later.

A moment later, Rory found himself taking in some new scenery. Electric blue and golden hues seemed to color everything, from the grass underfoot to the oversized pill bugs rolling around, being chased by children who gleefully shouted hot in pursuit.

Oh, that was the other aspect. It was as if Rory had stumbled upon a subterranean extension of Ehkorrus.

Huh. Seems like the Khan has made quite some progress in the time I've been gone.

Rory could tell that the entirety of the folded space hadn't been truly claimed yet, but from what he could get a feel of, it had to be at least twenty-five percent.

From his vantage point atop the teleportation pad in the middle of the small lake that the Khan called home, Rory glanced around. If Ehkorrus was large enough to accommodate a few thousand people, then this mini-Ehkorrus was likely closer to housing perhaps two or three hundred.

This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

Hmm.. No sense for the Khan. I'll have to check around.

Quickly leaving behind the entry area, Rory found himself investigating the small hamlet. It was, unsurprisingly, quite small. That aside, it seemed to have been a temporary housing area; most of the buildings were empty. Still lost in thought, Rory was only jostled free when he bumped into someone.

"Oh, sorry," Rory apologized as he glanced down at a short woman rubbing her nose as she looked up at him.

"Oh, no need, it was my fault, you probably didn't even notice me." The woman said with a sigh before frowning as she looked at Rory's face. "Odd, I don't recognize you from any of the meetings."

"Meetings?"

"Yes, the lapidarist meetings, half the reason we're all down here?"

"Oh," Rory nodded along as if he understood.

So, the Gem Crafters are shacked up down here. Why, exactly?

"Odd, though, I know most of my cohort. Are you new from the wave? Perhaps a new apprentice or something? I would say you look a bit old for that, but the last ten years or so, the waves have been spitting out more citizens outside the teenage spectrum."

"Heh, I guess you could say that," Rory stifled a snort, sticking a hand out. "Name's, uh,"

"Forgot? That's not too abnormal for newcomers." The woman said before grabbing his hand with her own. "Sasha."

"Nice to meet you, Sasha," Rory said. "Uhm, Bill. The name's Bill."

"Well then, Bill, let me show you around. I'm honestly a little baffled they dropped a newbie off here without any sort of supervision whatsoever. Still, with the chaos of the most recent wave, it probably couldn't be helped. Lord Founder above, am I glad that I didn't have to be anywhere close to the front lines."

Rory mentally held himself back from wincing at the mention of his 'title,' the gaudy and braggadocious name was something he wasn't much of a fan of.

Following Sasha, she briefly explained that the location was typically meant for crafters who had to work on things that the latent renewal affinity of Ehkorrus proper would interfere with; the additional buildings were there only because they had been hastily erected as a refuge in the face of the most recent wave.

As Sasha explained it to Rory, of the primary forms of crafters — blacksmiths, alchemists, and Gem Crafters, or lapadarists — it was the Gem Crafters who more often than not found themselves working on things in which the latent affinity of Ehkorrus would disrupt them. Their delicate work meant that splitting focus to isolate the environment would prevent them from succeeding outright. The aura permeating the Khan's territory, meanwhile, was more 'neutral' as far as crafting went, at least when in a latent form. Concentrated, it would take on aspects of lightning as Rory knew firsthand, but that was something he highly doubted any of the crafters had to deal with themselves.

Coming to a stop in front of a building made of golden wood, the woman proudly waved at it.

"And this is where we will be working. It's not a large building, I know. Still, it has several isolated chambers, so when you progress and need to work on more delicate or finicky things, you won't be disrupted. Now, that shouldn't be of concern for quite some time; the expected timeframe for an ascension as a crafter is several times longer than that of a combatant, with only a few exceptions. After you've graduated from apprentice status, we do sponsor personal projects to help push your ascension progress, but within reasonable limits, as we don't have unlimited resources."

"Uh-huh, you don't say," Rory nodded along. The woman was quite talkative, leaving Rory more than content to let her continue.

"Yep! As a fresh A1, it will probably be anywhere from half a year to a full year before you reach A2. After that, it can take another ten to fifteen years for A3."

A year for A2! It took me a week!

Rory found himself genuinely baffled at just how slow the rate of progress was compared to his early days.

I mean, logically I can understand, but to hear it laid out so matter-of-factly.

Ascension and the energy needed to progress were gained through the significance of an act. For Rory, where everything had been a universal first, even mundane achievements had meant sizable amounts of ascension energy compared to the tier he was at. Yet for the average citizen, spending your days crafting generic crystals was probably like trying to fill a bathtub one drop of water at a time.

And they don't lose their mind like that?

"Don't people get tired of wasting so long?" Rory asked, blurting the question out.

"Huh? Uhh, I mean, people occasionally grumble, work is work, and six hours of work five days a week can be a bit tiring. Admittedly, the last few years have required overtime shifts in preparation for the waves. Still, otherwise it leaves people time to live their lives."

Wild. Only thirty hours of working on things. I can't remember the last time I willfully took that much time off.

"Do people work on personal projects in their free time?"

"Oh yeah, though we recommend not overdoing it, burnout is one problem we want to avoid, and otherwise just the simple danger of messing with things you don't understand. Those who progress faster will often take some of their free time to work on pet projects, but it's not required by any means."

"Rightttt," Rory said, letting the word drag out.

Turning his head for a brief moment, Rory watched as a small group of children raced by, chasing another one of the golden bugs.

"About that?" Rory asked, turning to look once more at Sasha.

Doing so, he noticed the slight downward turn of her lips.

"Is something wrong?"

"Oh, what?" The woman seemed to come back to life a moment later, shaking her head and waving her hands. "No, not at all. Most of the kids are children of some of the crafters; they come along and play around here."

"And that's not a dangerous consideration, given this is the third floor of the Maw?"

"Not at all, it's perfectly safe here, it would take mobilizing far more people to draw attention here, plus we have the native inhabitants of here so watch over us. The Khan of Blue Lightning is normally not seen, but if something were to attack, he would appear, not to mention his clan of snakes."

"Clan of snakes?"

"Mhmm, a bunch of tier five, six, and even a few tier seven serpents. They usually don't hang out in this area itself, though."

"You said most of the kids here are the children of the crafters down here?"

The dark look returned to the woman's face, not of anger, but sadness.

"Kids whose parents haven't been accounted for. Chances are, they're orphans. When their parents never returned for them, it was decided they would continue to remain here until we had things organized and figured out, or so the orders from above state."

Rory let the words hang for a moment, thinking of the children who would never see their parents again.

My fault. They're still my people. I should have been doing more to look out for their well-being. Sure, I didn't have a direct way back, but I let that be an excuse to ignore Ehkorrus.

Again, Rory felt the discombobulation and disconnection of feeling bad about his actions, but not necessarily sorrow for the loss. They were his people, and he was a part of humanity, but for the same token, he felt removed, Astra's words ringing in his ears.

Perhaps I'm just not meant for an ordinary life. So, being presented with ordinary life, I find myself at odds with it.

Whatever the reason, Rory pushed the thought to the side.

"Question," Rory suddenly asked. "Do you know where Apsotolos is?"

"You mean the Chief Protector," Sasha said, her voice clearly carrying admonishment. "And not really. He comes here usually once a month and either trains with the Khan when he is around and active, or journeys out further into the unknown regions."

Hmm, now where would Apostolos head off to after informing me he was down here?

"Another question: Do you know the general direction of the domain of the Blight Lord?"

"The what?" The woman hissed. "Why would you want to know that?"

"Oh, just curious."

"Well, sure, if you travel opposite to the direction of the Oblivion Shore, you will eventually make your way to the areas contested by the warring Khans. That's not something any crafter should care about, though, as only our absolute elites ever dare pushing into those regions, given they're chalk full of low and even some mid-tier seven monsters."

Oblivion Shore? Why do I have a suspicion that…

"This Oblivion Shore, what exactly-?"

"Oh, that's an easy one, it's where Lord Founder defeated his Arch-Bane and Ascended to tier seven, the last tier before he left Ehkorrus."

"Right," Rory nodded, not at all surprised.

It did look like a weird shoreline.

"Speaking of Lord Founder, you might not have heard since you're a new arrival, but apparently, the Lord Founder returned just the other day. In fact, it's because of him that we survived the most recent wave!"

"You don't say?"

"Yes, truly extraordinary. I wasn't born when he left, so I've only ever heard myths about him. Some say he fashioned E.O.N. itself from clay before breathing a divine spark of life into it, after which he rested for a month straight."

"Hmm, doubtful," Rory snorted.

"Well, I know that might be hard to believe, who could even fathom the thought of E.O.N. not having always existed?. Oh, and then there is the story about how-"

The woman suddenly stopped, her eyes widening as neurons connected, and she glanced up at Rory.

Ahh, shoot, the jig is up.

"Well, Sasha, the pleasure has been mine," Rory said, giving her a short bow. "But it's time I make my departure."

Ready to leave in a flash, Rory paused for a single moment before a gem appeared in his hand that he flicked toward the woman, who barely managed to avoid dropping it.

"As an appreciation for the tour, there you go. It might be useful for inspiration."

And then, without another word, Rory made his escape, twisting the light around him so that a sudden flash of gold and blue briefly blinded the woman. By the time her vision returned, Rory had long disappeared.

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