“Been a while since I’ve done some testing,” Theo said to no one in particular. “Are you going to work with me today?”

    After having dinner, Theo and Tresk had retreated into the Dreamwalk. It didn''t seem as though it would fight against him tonight. After all, he had already created the potions he intended to test, so it shouldn''t have had anything to complain about. Of course, Trask had already summoned the image of the dragon she had tried to fight and was currently battling it, claiming that she could have beat it, ‘IRL’.

    At least she had agreed to set the scene near the ocean so he could test these potions properly.

    First was the easiest potion to test. Theo had to convince the Dreamwalk not to drown him as he walked into the sea. He had imagined a drop-off that would allow him to ensure the pressure potion worked properly. It wasn’t shocking when he moved around the depths—weighed down by a rock—and nothing happened. He could feel the pressure pushing in from all sides, but nothing else. But he wasn''t crushed by the depths.

    Just to put the potion through its paces, he swam his way to the surface, expecting to feel the effects of rapid depressurization. But once again, nothing happened. It was a delightful outcome to an uncertain potion. While he was in the water, he checked the Echo potion, which worked far better than it did on the surface.

    "Two down, two to go," Theo said. It was time to test the bombs. Well, he didn''t expect anything mind-blowing. It was always very important to know exactly how a potion worked, no matter how specific the description seemed. It could often react in unexpected ways.

    Goblins were always an excellent testing dummy. A small goblin appeared on the beach. Looking around in confusion, Theo had imagined it with no purpose. So it just stood there as he prepared to toss a Drown Bomb. It turned out that watching a goblin drown on dry land wasn''t as entertaining as Theo had expected. It was exactly as the potion described. The goblin seemed to be without air for a while before he un-imagined it.

    But it wasn''t as bad as the constrict bomb. The pressures of the deep sea could apparently do some seriously nasty stuff to a body, and the alchemist didn''t wish to remember it. It was a horrible day to have a perfect memory.

    With time left to screw around, Theo checked out his various core levels of interest. Right now, he was mainly focusing on his alchemy and herbalism cores, but something interesting would happen soon with his Tara’hek core. It had been sitting at level 39 for quite some time, seeming reluctant to roll over to level 40. While his other cores were bound to the maximum level of his two primary cores, this one just didn''t care.

    When his alchemy and herbalism skills leveled up, that would cause his personal level to increase as well. And that would give him access to an ability point, which he was unsure what he would spend it on. Of course, he hoped for an ability that made mana infusion easier for alchemy. He had put herbalism mostly to the side for now, but perhaps it was time to invest more effort into that.

    Tresk and Alex landed nearby. The marshling jumped down and placed her hands on her hips in pride. "I could have beat that dragon," she said, grinning. "If Elrin hadn''t come and taken it from under me, that would have been my kill."

    “Speaking of Elrin,” Theo said, "I''ve wanted to get all the throne holders together, along with him, for a meeting. Do you think you have time to do that tomorrow?”

    “Where we meeting?”

    “I think Kahak would be best. I don''t know if Kahar can travel outside of the Arbiter Citadel.”

    "Yeah, but can Fenian and Elrin travel through the void?" Tresk asked.

    "It should be possible," Theo said with a shrug. "Fenian travels through it often, even if it''s over the bridge of shadows. And Elrin has a special affinity with the shards. I''m sure it''ll be fine."

    "Or they''ll explode," Tresk said, nodding. "Anyway, yeah, I''m down for it. But does this mean you''re delaying bringing the rest of the space elves back?"

    "Just by a day," Theo said. "I think the healers could use more rest.”

    “Cool. I’m gonna kill another dragon.”

    ###

    “If that’s what you wish,” Elrin said through the communication crystal. “I’ll be in your town soon.”

    Elrin hung up before Theo could correct him. It was a city now, not a town, even if it was a tiny city. He sighed, looking across the table at Fenian and nodded. Theo, Tresk, and Fenian had gathered in the Marsh Wolf Tavern to have breakfast. Sarisa and Rowan were thrilled that they didn''t have to make food and had been sent off to do whatever they wanted on their own today.

    "What exactly is this meeting about?" Fenian asked.

    “Good to know more about the guy,” Theo said. “He always seemed like a brooding loner.”

    “Well, he had a family back then,” Fenian said. “His mother and father were alive when the swap happened, so I imagine they’re still here somewhere.”

    “Damn, that’s kinda rough,” Tresk said.

    “We made it work somehow. Do either of you know how this new-new world is going to pan out?”

    “I only have guesses,” Theo said with a shrug. “But I think all our realms will be different worlds. Travel between them might be difficult.”

    “I guessed as much. Any idea how much of our powers translate?”

    Theo tapped his chin. He really wasn’t certain. “How much of your power translated from the old world?”

    “Dunno. I have a system message that has been blinking for about 100 years that I’ve ignored,” Fenian said with a shrug. “From what Jan said, it combines your current class with the old one if you accept the message. The system placed him pretty high, so he got a head-start.”

    Theo didn’t think the system would do a one-to-one migration of their cores and levels. He had a feeling it would rewrite the system, taking the chance to make things right. The last time Iaredin was migrated, the system had been constrained by something. It was almost as though it wasn’t fully awake, which might have been why the space elves were able to steal the shards. But now that both the regular system and the monitor system were working correctly, it would restart everything.

    This could come as a total rework of the system, where everyone lost everything. Or it could bring over some stuff...

    “How different is the leveling system here compared to your time?” Theo asked.

    “A lot different. We didn’t have cores,” Fenian said with a laugh. “We were locked into one class that we could change through evolution. It favored gaining levels rather than going wide.”

    “That makes sense. My theory is that the system will reboot us once again. If we retain the core system, I think we’ll have something closer to the specialized main core and sub core system,” Theo said. “I can’t really guess if the system wants to keep seed cores, though. That seems like a system design to encourage destruction.”

    “You think so?” Fenian asked with a smile. “Yes, it is a devious aspect of the system that allows nations to rebuild overnight.”

    “This place has sixty-thousand years of history none of us here know about,” Theo said. “How messed up is that? How many lives came and went?”

    “Too many,” Tresk said.

    “And here we are! At a brave new frontier!” Fenian said, hosting his glass of fruit juice in the air. “We’ll reforge this world to make it better.”

    “I’ll drink to that,” Theo said, toasting with his tea.

    Tresk ate a sausage in celebration.

    Breakfast went well after that. It was nice having Fenian around again. Especially since there was nothing for them to do before Elrin arrived. When they were done eating, they went out and appreciated the statue the elf had commissioned for Salire and Xol’sa’s wedding. The stillness of the morning was broken when a shriek issued in the distance. The bells of the town rang.

    Theo spotted it and shook his head.

    “Hold on, I gotta call Aarok and his boys off,” Theo said, opening his administration interface. “Elrin is riding in on his dragon.”