The Wanderer's Rebirth: Other Paths

Myra blinked as Asami dropped to the ground again as she stared at Joram’s… friend.

“Um, hi,” Myra said, not quite knowing what to say to the stunningly beautiful woman standing at Joram’s side.

“It’s good to see you,” Avi said, reaching out her hand to take one of hers. “I know this must be a bit weird for you,” she paused a moment when Asami barked out a laugh, then continued. “But if you’d like, we can all go somewhere a bit quieter to talk about it,” she finished with a smile that nearly floored Myra with its brilliance.

“Uh, sure. I mean, yes!” she said as her brain tried to keep up as her heart felt as though it was sinking through the floor.

Asami finally got up, staring at Avi all the while as though she expected the young woman to bite her or something.

Joram chuckled a bit nervously before leading the three of them outside and into the house. For some reason, she thought that he’d lead them to the bedroom, but was beyond relieved to see that he’d led them to his office instead where he [Summon]’d comfortable chairs for everyone to sit in.

She noticed that Avi sat to Joram’s right and Asami to his left, so that left her to sit across from him in the small circle of chairs he’d [Summon]’d.

“’So…?” she started, but really had no idea what she wanted to say.

Well, that wasn’t true. She had plenty that she wanted to blurt out, most of which revolved around who Avi was and what her relationship was with Joram. It also hadn’t gotten past her that Avi and Asami looked as though they could be sisters, if you ignored the hair colour and race of each woman.

For all appearances, Avi looked human. Well, not the crazy hair. She’d never seen anyone with hair that started as a rich gem-like blue that went on to change into a gem-like purple then onto a gem-like red that reminded her of red flames, or perhaps bright coals.

Avi’s face and skin tone were almost identical to Asami’s, though. In fact, she really wondered if the two weren’t somehow related to one another, though Avi stood about five inches taller than Asami. That aside, even their figures were basically the same, making her subconsciously cross her arms in front of her chest.

“Well, how to explain…?” Joram said, rubbing his chin in thought. “Well, let’s start with how I am what I am,” he said, then went on to explain how he’d arrived in their world in greater detail than he had before.

She wasn’t sure if she should accuse him of making things up, or if she should reflect on her understanding of the world. If a god-like being had just decided to stop by to look for her other selves, changed a random human into a being like Her, then she really had a lot to reflect on.

“So, you can give ghosts a body?” Asami asked, still looking at Avi as though she expected a surprise attack at any time.

“Um… no?” Joram said, though he was obviously starting to think about that now. “As I said, she’s kind of a part of me, and that’s why I was able to [Summon] a body for her that she can use so that she’d not stuck… in my head,” he finished lamely, even to her.

“So, do I have to share my spot now?” Asami asked bluntly, making the three of them stare at her in shock. “Oh, come on! I started by having you as my exclusive pillow, but then started sharing you with Myra. Now the three ‘gals’ are taking turns sharing your other side!” Asami said, frowning greatly.

“Now that there’s no more room around you, what’re we going to do? Make a bigger bed?!” Asami asked, fully exasperated at that point.

Myra understood her fully. She hadn’t been very happy that the three demons, or “gals” as Joram called them, had started taking turns sleeping in their bed as well. She could understand why, of course, but that didn’t mean she was happy about it.

In fact, she’d gone and gained another 6 Levels over the past two weeks in his new Dungeons because of it! That the three “gals” were also going into the Dungeons every day to level up only made her want to work harder at it. Though, with the younglings who hadn’t gained a Path yet, she’d needed to hold back on how much time she spent trying to level.

When Joram had presented her and Asami with the [Cure: Panacea] and [Heal: 3] Skill Books, she’d nearly been floored, not to mention how surprised Asami had been. But then she understood his intentions when he asked them both to help watch over any of the young women who wanted to start levelling. Of course, the three ‘gals’ had also been wrangled in to keep everyone safe, which for some reason annoyed her all the more.

“Umm, yes?” Joram said, looking at each of them as he spoke. “Unless any of you no longer wants to sleep in my bed, then I don’t see an alternative to just making a larger one,” he said, making Asami sigh theatrically.

“And what about poor Harumi, eh? She’s been waiting for a space to open up around you again. I’ll tell you, she wasn’t happy that those gals pre-empted her in taking the other side of you,” Asami said, shaking her head at him as though he was committing the gravest of crimes by denying a vixen her pillow.

Thinking about it, it probably was a grave crime to Asami considering how possessively she’d kept her spot on Joram’s… lower half.

She turned to Asami and saw the nine-tailed vixen stick her tongue out at her.

“Rude,” she said, then turned her attention back to a floundering Joram. “Why don’t you go and make more of yourself already, huh? That’ll solve a whole bunch of problems we’re all facing,” she said, crossing her arms as she pouted.

Joram stared at Asami, mouth open so far that Myra almost laughed.

“That’s not just ‘looking at the surface of a pond’!” he said as he began to frown at her. “Well, be that as it may, I think I’ll be ready to do that soon. It’ll take me a while to get used to things, though, so no funny business!”

“I promise not to be funny,” Asami said, holding up her right hand, palm facing forward.

Myra was once more confused by Asami’s actions, but it seemed as though both Joram and Avi understood what she’d done, as they both dropped their faces enough to hold a hand over their eyes. It was done with such synchronicity that she almost laughed out loud while Asami grinned at them both like the fox who’d gotten away with the hen.

“Anyways,” Joram said after a few moments of collecting himself. “I’ll first start by making a larger bed, one that I hope will be able to accommodate… people. And a fox. Maybe. I’m also looking into expanding the room, so hopefully that’ll give us enough room for everyone who wants to camp out in there,” he said, then shook his head again, obviously thinking of something that he chose not to voice.

After that, they talked more about Avi, and what her plans were. Which revolved around lots and lots of training. She wanted to test the theory that one could build up experience before choosing a Path, which sounded ridiculously dangerous to her even though Joram seemed to think that it was a fantastic idea.

At that point, Asami just about exploded.

“Are you insane? Do you think that the Great Protector will just allow that to happen?” she demanded, looking affronted beyond belief.

“Well, yes,” Joram said, shrugging. “It didn’t seem bothered by me, so why would it be bothered by Avi?”

Asami’s jaw worked for a while before she just “Bah!”’d the argument away and turned in her chair enough so that she wasn’t looking directly at Avi before muttering. “I’m not babysitting her.”

Joram just nodded at that, as did Avi. Myra still thought that it might not be a great idea, but decided to trust Joram’s judgment, which got her another tongue stuck out at her from Asami.

From there, they just basically talked about the Dungeon and how to best tackle it. Then came another shock.

“So, yeah, I’ll make some Skill Books for you,” Joram said to Avi, then began producing Skill Book after Skill Book until there was a huge stack of them sitting on a low table that Joram [Summon]’d to hold them all.

Curious, she leaned forward to read a few of the titles and found that they were mostly [Rare] Skills, some even having a higher rarity. She saw a whole stack of elemental books, along with [Regeneration], [Cure: Panacea], [Heal: 3], and even [Mana Well] and one she didn’t know called [Source of Power] that was a [Legendary] Skill!

“Just how many crazy Skills do you have…?” she inadvertently asked as she continued to see titles in the silver of [Legendary] and even a few golden ones that were [Mythic]-Class Skills.

“Umm, a few?” Joram said, not quite looking at any of them as he placed the last book on the table.

She looked at the spine and saw that it was written in an ink that looked silvery, but also had the colours of the rainbow slowly flowing through it, making her eyes hurt a bit as she tried to follow the colours. Blinking, she turned back to Joram with a mighty frown on her face.

“Why does she get the preferential treatment?” she asked, motioning towards the ridiculous stack of Skill Books that any kingdom would gladly wage war for.

“It’s because we’re one,” Avi said with a warm smile that threw Myra off until the words registered in her head.

“One?!” she choked out as her face lit on fire, making her dizzy.

“Stop teasing her,” Joram chided Avi who just shrugged back at him. “We’re not married. It’s because we’re… connected, spiritually,” he said, looking as though he was trying to find the right words for it.

“Oh, phooey,” Asami said, sounding both annoyed and disgusted by their words. “Their souls are connected. They’re basically one person, though different minds and personalities,” she said, then picked up a book and frowned. “Really? She gets [Regeneration], and we don’t?” she asked, giving Joram the stink eye.

Joram wisely kept silent as first one book appeared in his hand, then another. He then leaned forward and passed one to her and Asami before changing the subject.

“I’ve also been working on [Spatial Manipulation] as well as [Dimensional Manipulation],” he said, distracting her from the beautiful purple writing on her new Skill Book. “I think that I’ve gotten good enough to start making some items that I couldn’t before.

“Or, what I’ve been wanting to do, I can also expand spaces. Like my-our, bedroom. That way, there’ll be enough space for a larger bed… and anyone else who decides to start sleeping in there…” he muttered the last bit before continuing.

“That said, I can also make extradimensional spaces…. Um, things that can store items in a separate kind of space that won’t make that item heavier. Anyways, I’ll be experimenting with that tomorrow. I’m still working things out, so it may take a bit to get you a few new toys to play with,” he said with a grin.

After that, she just listened to Joram as he “geeked-out”, talking about things that she couldn’t understand, but still made her happy to see him so enthusiastic and engaged about something.

She just wished that he’d get that way for her.

* * *

*Day 24*

“I think I’ve got it…” Joram said through gritted teeth as he focussed on tying the extradimensional space to the Black Moss Stone ring that he’d created. Well, one of dozens of them that he’d created to experiment on.

“You can do it!” Avi called from a good twenty metres away.

Then the… space, seemed to slip a bit and went out of control, making his eyes widen in fright just before the ring exploded in his hand, sending him flying into one of the massive sequoias. He handed in a heap, winded, torn, broken, lacerated, bruised, and bleeding.

He blinked as he was hit with [Heal: 3], then used [True Metabolism] with the clarity the healing had provided him.

He blinked again as sight came back to his ruined left eye and shuddered at the feeling of stone shrapnel being pushed out of his body.

“You’ll get it, don’t worry,” Avi said from his side, patting him on the shoulder.

“Thanks,” he said, then used [Repair] on his clothing as M2 used [Cleanse] to finished cleaning him up.

“Do you think that it’s the material that’s affecting the results?” Avi asked as she walked back to his preparation area.

“Nah,” he said as he got up and followed her. “The stone seems fine with having me attach a house to it, so I don’t see why it would matter with a storage-type enchantment,” he said as he used [Telekinesis] to right the overturned table and to start gathering the scattered rings.

“Do you think that you should try using [Spatial Manipulation] at the same time? You know, tie it all together,” Avi said, as she also used [Telekinesis] to help gather up the scattered rings, though her use was still limited by her low Ranks in the Skill.

“You mean by adding a compression/decompression feature as items are stored and retrieved?” he asked, now wondering if he could do that with a bag of holding….

“Well, the dimensional tunnel that you’re trying to use might not be stable enough to support itself. Maybe if you tied in [Spatial Manipulation], you could help to stabilize both ends of the tunnel.”

“Hmm,” he grumble-hummed as the thought about it.

Avi probably knew much more about that sort of thing than he did. She was, after all, basically a soul-clone of Altaea. He was also reasonably sure that Altaea had also left her with copies of her memories, which meant that Avi was a wealth of experience. One that he should probably speak with more about things he was either worrying about or trying to figure out. Especially now that he’d given her every Skill that he’d gotten up until now.

After a bit more brainstorming, he decided to step away from the table for his next attempt.

For this attempt, he incorporated their knowledge of standard storage items, like bags of holding and portable holes. He didn’t need to reinvent the wheel, he just needed to… make it from another material. Yeah, that was a good enough analogy.

With M2’s help controlling [Spatial Manipulation], he got to work with [Dimensional Manipulation]. He still didn’t want to have the “opening” to the extradimensional storage space open all the time. Instead, he wanted the user to have to put in a point of mana to open it up to retrieve or store something away.

As he worked, he had a sudden bout of inspiration, and had M3 use [Mana Manipulation] to help nudge things to where he felt they should be when his control wasn’t good enough. It was a bit hard, mostly because he couldn’t see the mana, just “feel” where it was, and that wasn’t entirely accurate most of the time.

But as he thought he was getting it, a crashing sound from above distracted him, resulting in yet another explosion that sent him rag-dolling across the forest floor for a good thirty metres before he came to a stop.

Above the severe tinnitus in his ears, he could hear a roar, that sounded almost like words.

He shook his head, sending droplets of blood flying away as M2 manifested [True Metabolism] again for him while he used [Heal: 3] regaining a significant amount of his lost HP as his eyes and hearing cleared up enough to finally see the titanic dragon roaring at Avi by where he’d been working.

Gritting his teeth, he got up with a bit of help from [Telekinesis] as he called upon his mindbolt, setting it to the shoulder-canon setting as he quickly lost his temper.

* * *

Ina’Vaxchisa’Erys had absolutely no patience for fools meddling with the very fabric of reality. Her opinion of the foolish mortal was proved when what he was working on destabilized and exploded in his face, sending his body tumbling along the Great Forest’s floor, staining it with his blood.

She landed, glad that the foolish mortal had at least been dealt with. Then her focus turned to another foolish mortal, a human by the looks of it, as she slowly backed away from her majesty.

“Foolish mortals!” she roared, shaking even the boughs of the mighty descendants of the World Tree. “I shall not permit fools to meddle in things they know nothing of!”

As she verbally berated the foolish human, she felt a trickle of mana from her and recognized [Heal: 3] activating, making her wonder just how frail the human was. As she was about to continue, she felt a spike of [Aura] off to the side where the first human had been sent flying.

She turned her majestic crimson-black horned head to see what the moral was doing, then twitched as a bolt of something slammed into her side, sending pain lancing up to her wing. Before she could do more than register the pain, impact after impact lanced into her side, sending even more pain through her body, causing her to roar in fury.

As her eye landed on the human, he suddenly vanished in a twist of [Space], making her eyes widen in shock before she felt an incredibly heavy impact on her head, making her bow low for a moment. A moment that infuriated her further as she decided to activate her own [Aura], not caring at that point if she set the forest alight, as she could always snuff out any flames afterwards.

As Ina’Vaxchisa’Erys was preparing her mighty breath weapon to vaporize the insolent humans, another impact landed on her head, snapping her jaw shut as her head hit the ground, bringing blackness to her world.