With the Anymphea now finally gone, the streets opened back up so we could finally get going. There was a bit of a rush as everyone had been forced to wait, but I let the river of humanity carry me along until I was well into Ring Three.

I wondered just how much the people around me were keeping up with things. When Brasvay had visited, the news of the Blight Swarm had been shocking, but no one had seemed surprised by the mention of the Anymphea. People hadn’t reacted much now either, so it suggested they were aware of what was going on.

The obvious reason was probably that they had seen the Anymphea come in on another day, maybe before the meeting I had attended with the Councillors. But no, that couldn’t be right. That meeting had happened very early in the day, so the Anymphea had likely arrived while most people were still sleeping. So it was more likely this was the first public appearance of some of the Anymphea.

Then how else could they have learned about the new additions to Zairgon?

There might have been rumours going around. Others had seen the Anymphea and had blabbered about it to people who probably shouldn’t have known, which had propagated the news out through Zairgon.

My thoughts distracted me enough that I got lost a few times. Of course, I’d have gotten lost anyway, but wondering about how news travelled in Zairgon definitely didn’t help my sense of navigation. Because I was sure I hadn’t intended to end up at the Ration House with the gangly, old Rakshasa proprietor.

At least I got my answer about the news system in Zairgon at the Mage Guild.

“We get newspaper deliveries through the Pipe Missives,” Silhatsa said when I asked her. “You can do a weekly, daily, or even a monthly subscription. Although, I will be honest, most people don’t bother with it. You can learn enough just from talking with others.”

Hearing subscription in a world like this was so odd, it took me out for a moment.

“I can see why most people don’t care for the news, to be honest,” I said.

“Oh really?” Silhatsa asked. “How so?”

“Well, back where I’m from, news was pretty big.” Silhatsa already knew about my summoning so I didn’t have to bother hiding anything. “But it also got overwhelming sometimes. Imagine every single piece of news from all over the world bombarding you all the time.”

Silhatsa grimaced. “That sounds rather difficult to balance.”

She was right. There was obviously something to be said for staying informed and not hiding away from the state of the world. But still. It could get a bit much at times. “Right, balance is important, but very difficult. It’s hard to maintain a good state of mind when the news thrives on selling shock and anger. Pretty sure I’m not alone in getting a little tired of it.”

Silhatsa nodded in commiseration. Honestly, now that I was talking about it, I realized getting summoned to another world had a nice social media detox benefit that was extremely underrated.

She helped me sign up for the Mage Guild class on Augmentations in a couple of weeks, which I promised I would attend no matter what. I wanted to see what else I could learn about Augmentations that I hadn’t already, but really, the more important thing was that it would fulfil the Path Interaction class’s prerequisite requirement.

We chatted a bit after that. It was nice to catch up. Apparently, she was a little busy nowadays because the Mage Guild was preparing for a festival.

“A magic festival?” I asked. “That sounds, well, magical I guess.”

“It is!” Silhatsa said. “It won’t be happening for another few months or so, at least, but it’s certainly going to be amazing. Make sure you attend, Ross. I’m certain you’ll find something you’ll enjoy a lot.”

“What goes on in a magic festival?”

“Lots of things. You can think of it like taking the Mage Guild operations into a more public setting for a few days so that everyone in Zairgon can enjoy it.”

She went on to expound how people set up different booths for different kinds of exhibitions and displays. The Mage Guild also collaborated with other related guilds such as the Artificer’s and the Alchemist’s Guilds to open up more booths. There was apparently also going to be a tournament of sorts.

“It’ll be a lot of fun,” Silhatsa said. “Even the Guildmaster will attend.”

I smiled. So even the mysterious Guildmaster who apparently liked to adopt disguises in order to observe the guild businesses in secret would attend. “I’ll be there. Although, I’m guessing it’s less fun setting everything up.”

Silhatsa made a face but laughed too. “You don’t know the half of it.”

It was nice talking with her, but a couple of mages were standing a bit behind me to avail themselves of the receptionist’s services. I didn’t want to cause a holdup, so I excused myself and decided to wait for master Kostis.

I didn’t have to wait long. After maybe five minutes of sitting on the second-floor gallery and appreciating the giant sprites the Mage Guild hosted, I found Master Kostis half-walking, half-slithering towards me.

“Ross, my boy!” Kostis said, taking the seat in front of me. “It has been a while. You’re looking… well.”

Which implied I hadn’t looked well the last time Kostis had seen me. That was fair. It had been just after Escinca had died, after my brutal fight with Glonek, and I was pretty sure I definitely hadn’t looked well then.

“And you’re looking… shiny as ever, master,” I said.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

He hissed out a laugh. His scales did indeed flash, almost as bright as the few spots where the scales were replaced with tiny jewels. “I do pride myself on remaining in tip top condition, yes. But enough about that. Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

There was so much to say. I didn’t hide anything, revealing every bit of my progress with my Aspects, Attributes, Affixes, and Augmentations I had achieved so far since the last time we had exchanged correspondences.

Most importantly, I mentioned my progress with Threaded Reinforcement. That was what made Kostis’s eyes light up the most.

“Ah, fantastic,” he said, his mouth parting to reveal his small, snakelike fangs after I revealed how I had Sacrificed an instance of Threaded Reinforcement to gain a little boost. “Later on, you might be able to reinforce your weapon. It will allow you to more easily imbue your chosen Aspects into said weapon, and you won’t even need the right Affix to do so.”

That was interesting. I didn’t have Infusion for Flare, but if what Kostis said was true, then I could still turn my mace scorching, bursting hot with Threaded Reinforcement.

“You should pick a specific day for your mana implosion,” Kostis said. “Since undergoing the implosion is how your core is going to awaken.”

I knew that, but it was still kind of worrying that I’d have to go through with the detonation part. “I’m guessing there’s a way to contain that…”

Thankfully, I didn’t have to remind Kostis that the Weave had warned me about the multiple-league wide radius of the blast. “Part of that containment procedure comes from Threaded Reinforcement. Then there are other, more external ways we can reduce the blast impact.”

“Like what?”

“Well, for one, it will be good to buy some potions and runes and perhaps some pills. Some of them should be available at the trade workshop here. Then we could consider choosing a location where the fallout is less likely to matter.”

“A location, huh...”

I began wondering what kind of location that might be, though I figured that would be a significant distance away from Zairgon proper at the minimum. I doubted there was some sort of specific structure somewhere within the city that helped contain exploding mana cores.

Kostis mentioned some of the resources I should be looking to get and I tried to commit them to memory. Because even if we did decide to head to the trade workshop together to see which of those we could find, not all would be available, so I’d need to remember them to procure them elsewhere, like the academy.

We discussed some of my Aspects and Augmentations as we walked.

“It’s definitely harder ranking up my Silver-ranked Aspects than my Iron-ranked ones,” I said.

Kostis chuckled. “As is to be expected. I hope you’re not letting that daunt you too much.”

“No, but it’s just a bit disappointing to see some grow so while others stagnate.”

Well, they felt like they were stagnating in comparison. It wasn’t objectively true, but still.

“There are ways to assist growth,” Kostis said. “Though in the end, patience will be your closest companion.”

“Right. I got Enshrined Growth as my Fervour Augmentation. That should help, somewhat.”

Kostis hadn’t heard of that Augmentation so was rather intrigued to learn more about it. I was happy to tell him how I had acquired it and that it was already helping me rank up Ritual. Hopefully, I’d see dividends in other Aspects eventually too, though that would be harder to come by since other Aspects weren’t really shared between me and the other cultists.

“That would indeed be a primary way to hasten your progression, Ross,” Kostis said. “Making judicious use of Ritual and Sacrifice. Most people do not have access to such a delightful combination of rewarding Aspects and so much mana, so you’re in good hands, I think. Worry less, my boy.”

I sighed, then laughed a little. “Yeah sure, I’ll try.”

The trade workshop was one of the busier parts of the Mage Guild, besides the main auditorium where everyone hung out of course. People were busy buying or selling all sorts of things, from runes and potions to severed monster heads that were still growling or chittering.

We wound our way through the various magical paraphernalia on offer till we started locating the things we needed. One of the first was the runes.

“Those are some rare ones,” said the moose-headed woman who was today’s rune-seller. I had learned her kind, the ones with the animal heads, were called Theriocephs. “Runes of Condensation are rare, and I haven’t sold Runes of Redirection in ages. Most people don’t even use Redirection after their second academy year. Better to go with the potion variants.”

“The Rune of Redirection would be for a special case,” Kostis said. “I thought they would be helpful to control massive amounts of mana.”

“Ah, I would have thought you’d already have a ton of control over it, Master Kostis.”

Kostis motioned his head at me. “It’s for my young apprentice here, actually.”

The Rakshasa eyed me. “Ah, a growing lad.” I didn’t mind the adjective. He was a bit old, I supposed. “I might not have what you’re looking for but you might be interested in some Runes of Growth.”

“What are those?” I asked.

Turned out they were exactly what they sounded. Runes that helped rank up Aspects, though they were only really effective at Iron, and to a lesser extent, during Silver. From Gold onwards, they were practically useless.

I brought a few. Couldn’t hurt to test them since every little bit helped.

“Thank you,” Kostis said politely and we moved on after I echoed the sentiment.

We didn’t have much better luck at the potion stall either. They were only going to get the next batch of Fortification Potions in five days.

Interestingly, I did learn about Potions of Aspected Growth, which could turn mana into their Aspected variant within the caster’s body, which would supposedly help with both Threaded Reinforcement and for growing whichever Aspect was used. I brought some of those as well. Unsurprisingly, they were pretty expensive at three gold a pop.

Even if I wasn’t really getting things that would have helped with my mana implosion, at least I was getting some handy stuff.

“I swear they used to be more stocked with useful things,” Kostis muttered as we headed out. “Maybe they’ve degraded over the years…”

“You sound like you haven’t been here for a while, master,” I noted.

“Well, when you’re nearing Onyx like myself, the more regular methods of acquiring necessary resources rarely have what you need.”

That made sense. “Then where do you get the things you need?”

“Usually, higher-ranked dungeons. Things that are the most valuable are rarely found through regular means. Occasionally, you might find what you’re looking for at an annual auction at say Claderov or when one of your contacts hears a rumour of a specific resource or artifact making the rounds, but dungeons are your best bet.”

Hmm. That sounded like later ranks needed a lot more adventuring to grow quickly enough. Although now that I thought about it, Kostis didn’t seem the adventurous sort, nor had I seen or heard him go on things like dungeon delves.

“There are many paths to keep growing at a steady rate, Ross,” he said, seeming to sense my thoughts. “You just need to find them.”

I thought we were done for the day and we would part afterwards. Satisfied with what I had learned and accomplished at the Mage Guild, I was about to say my farewells and express my gratitude. But then I remembered something.

“Can you tell me what you know about the Blight Swarm, Master Kostis?” I asked.

And I spoke at the same as Kostis said, “Now, tell me about your plans for Manifestation.”

We both stared, then Kostis laughed.

“Now, now, you owe your master some answers first,” he said. “And then I’ll answer all you want to know.”