Something annoying tickled in the back of Theo’s mind. He had to put all his focus into crafting the 30 potions. Well, he only needed to make 29 since he already drank the one that increased Intelligence. That long-term focus made time fly by, but there was still that nagging feeling. A poke every so often that drew him from his focus. Eventually, he allowed that concentration to fall away, revealing the paper world before him.

“What is it?” Theo asked, blinking away his stupor. “I should be working on these potions.”

“Okay, this is pretty sweet,” Tresk said, dancing on the spot.

It took Theo a moment for his eyes to focus, but he watched as Tresk moved around the area as a blur. She vanished into the shadows, reappearing behind him to deliver a playful chop to his head.

“Did you find drugs here?” Theo asked. “Did you bring drugs?”

“No! Don’t be weird. Okay, this is kinda hard to explain…”

“Tresk figured out how to disable the local system for herself,” Alex said.

Theo blinked a few times. His mind hadn’t quite caught up with what was going on. Once the gears started turning, he realized she must’ve been looking into his memories. “It worked?”

“Took a few years,” Tresk said, flexing.

“Five years,” Alex corrected.

“Yeah, five years of nonstop practice. But we figured out how to disable our systems,” Tresk said. “Pretty cool, huh?”

“That depends on the results,” Theo said, watching as she moved around with ease. “You’re moving as though you still have attributes.”

“Wrong. I’m even faster,” Tresk said. “The system is training wheels, dude. All that crap you suspected was mostly true. We think the system is a layer that helps you learn how to use this… what would you call it?”

“We’ve been calling it cosmic energy,”

Alex said. “Although I’m sure that’s wrong.”

“Yeah. We figured out that Alex has been doing this since the start,” Tresk said. “The way she added alignments and evolved into a dragon… She’s been tapping into the cosmic power since the start, so she taught me.”

Theo rose to his feet, groaning and stretching out his sore back. “You confirmed the existence of some energy, right? Something our bodies can absorb and use to become superhuman?”

“Supermarshling and superdemon, but yeah,” Tresk said with a shrug. “So the system helps us funnel that energy through class cores and stuff. If you break through that system, you can just freeball it. This is a lot harder than using the system interface, and I still have my class and all my abilities. There just isn’t an interface to let me know how to use stuff.”

“She’s underselling it,” Alex said. “We think your newest skill empowered the Tara’hek to unlock this path for us. It allowed us to see past the veil of the local system and tap into that yummy power we still don’t have a name for.”

“Since the description says it allows you to break the rules, it just made sense,” Tresk said.

Most of all, Theo was impressed they figured it out on their own. Sure, five years to figure out how to use some ability was a long time. But they had done it on their own and with very little information. The alchemist had to consider if this was something that would anger the local system. That statement implied there was some other system and searching Tresk’s memories he saw reference to something called the Grand System. He skimmed some more through her thoughts and found the path to exploit this new power.

“This isn’t technically more powerful than using the regular system,” Theo said. “Especially not for someone just starting out. Except for that one detail… What is it?”

“Yeah, you can increase your conceptual attribute cap,” Tresk said. “And you’ll become subject to ranks, which… Actually, those suck.”

Theo nodded. Right now, he had no intention to remove himself from the system’s embrace. Tresk was feeling adventurous, but he wasn’t so sure. Crafting his potions required the system’s help. He knew enough about alchemy to know he wasn’t skilled enough to work with these materials at a high level without the help of the system.

“An interesting concept to ponder,” Theo said, adjusting his position on the log. “Why don’t you work on it while I make the rest of these potions.”

“Yeah. Of course,” Tresk said. “I’m having a lot of fun.”

“Much fun,” Alex said.

Whatever information Tresk could glean from her efforts would have to wait for evaluation later. Theo’s concentration was broken, but he could get it back. He planned to meditate on this as he crafted his other potions… and there was plenty of time for that.

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Theo slipped back into his meditative focus, finding something interesting as he fell into that concentrated effort. Tresk had made some serious advancements with the technique of extreme concentration, so he drew from her experience. Days slipped by, but he probed this new path to power. The alchemist came to some conclusions.

Everything they knew as the universe was a bubble floating in physical space. The void was a layer of extra-reality used to help conceptualize where things were relative to each other in an area of real space. And the local authority that made sure everything ran smoothly was the local system, and the monitor system. Those systems might have done a lot of things, but the thing he was most concerned with was how they interpreted this ‘celestial power’ to give locals their training wheels to advancement.

Breaking past their current limits was a matter of tapping into that power and going beyond what they could do. Theo considered all this throughout the years, reaching a few more important conclusions as he wrapped up the potions. The impulse would be to chug those potions right away, going into a coma for a bit and coming out on the other side as an absolutely monstrous beefcake. Instead, he would check this new power out and raise his potential.

After all, the system said he would hit a cap. Since she rarely spoke idly, he figured that was a hint or a slip.

“Done,” Theo said, blinking away the years. His brows knit. He found himself in a house. “Okay. This isn’t weird or anything.”

Looking around the room, Theo spotted all the signs that this had been constructed from local materials. It was all drab, the walls styled in the same dull color as the rest of the world. But there was a fireplace, a rough-looking bench meant to be a sofa, some chair, a table, and so on. There were even open windows giving a decent view outside. The door swung open and Tresk stepped through with her hands on her hips.

“Took you long enough,” she said, marching over to fall onto the sofa. It creaked. “Well, took you about a quarter of the time you had originally expected, but you know.”

“Eight years?” Theo asked. “That’s not bad. I mean, eight years is a long time, but you know what I mean. Any progress with your new advancement?”

“Got all my potential capped at 1000,” Tresk said. “I had a lot of time to think. And you know who needs a beating?”

“Who?”

“Khahar. Since he likely knew about this and didn’t tell us. Which means he’s hiding more. And I’m gonna stab him,” Tresk said. “Gonna stab him right in his fuzzy face.”

Theo scratched his chin. “Khahar betrayed us? That’s new.”

“No, it ain’t! That’s par for the course!” Tresk shouted. “Actually, I’m not angry about it anymore. I was mad about five years ago, but then I got over it about a year ago.”

“We’ll assume he thought he knew what was best so he didn’t tell us,” Theo said. “And then we won’t say a word about it, because who cares? I’m just gonna steal your memories to learn how to cultivate this new energy. Okay? Okay.”

Tresk shrugged. “Yeah, if we could get the hell out of here first… that’d be swell.’

Theo offered her a concerned look. “You hanging in there?”

“No! I built a house out of paper stuff,” Tresk said, grabbing Theo by the hand and dragging him to the window. Outside there were three figures made from paper material. Were they supposed to be… marshlings? “I had a family! Look! That’s my son!”

“You’re being dramatic,” Theo said, waving her away. “You don’t suffer the effects of the realm when you’re in my bubble.”

“Well, we got bored so we went outside the bubble. Right Alex?” Tresk asked, sticking her head out the window.

Theo craned his neck, sighing as he spotted Alex’s family. A small group of dragon statues lingered in the distance. The dragon-goose herself was standing near them, using her massive claws to puppet one of the figures.

“We’re gonna miss you, mama Alex,” she said, doing her best to pitch her voice up. “I’ll miss you too, babies. I love you.”

Theo extended his aura, pulling them from the paper realm before things got weirder. “New rule. We’re not gonna come back here,” he said.

“That’s likely a good idea,” Tresk said, nodding along. “Back to mortal town?”

“Nope,” Theo said, folding them to Tero’gal. “Time for you to drink some potions.”

Tresk screamed with excitement as they arrived in Boar Hollow. Of course, Tresk would be the one drinking the potions today. Doing it in Tero’gal was calculated. After seeing how well Sledge adjusted after having her soul super-reforged, he was convinced consuming the potions would be less taxing. Or it wouldn’t work at all since this was another realm. But he was confident. Mostly. Maybe.

“Let’s crash at Sledge’s place,” Theo said, ducking into the nearest alleyway and weaving through the town. “This place is growing. We’ll call it a city before long.”

“Where is Sledge?” Tresk asked. “And the babies.”

Theo smiled to himself, finding the house where Sledge and her kids were staying. Opening the door revealed several toora sitting around, marshling babies jumping all over the place.

“Wow, they’re already out of the cage?” Theo asked with a laugh. “No more biting?”

“No biting,” a toora man said, a marshling cradled in his arms. “First children in the realm in a long time. We’re finding it hard to keep people away.”

“Good. These kids deserve something decently normal,” Theo said. “And Sledge?”

“Who knows?”

“Okay, we’re gonna use the bedroom,” Theo said.

A toora woman stuck her head out the window. “Is that your dragon?”

“Dragon-goose,” Theo said. “And yeah. Go pet her. She likes it.”

A few toora shared excited looks then dashed out the door. Theo heard Alex’s excited honk-roars as the people approached her. She would likely become a celebrity if she stayed in Tero’gal for long. Even the little marshlings stomped out to go see Alex. Once everyone was cleared out, Tresk and Theo found their way to Sledge’s bedroom. It was filled with wood shavings and various wood-cutting implements.

“She really only has the one personality, huh?” Tresk asked, jumping on the bed. “Okay. Potion me.”

“Right,” Theo said, withdrawing the first absurdly powerful potion from his inventory. He was planning to start with Dexterity. If anything went wrong, at least she’d have the attribute most useful to her. “We’re going one at a time. No fancy stuff, just drink the potion and report how you feel. The time dilation here isn’t strong at all, so I’d rather not waste time… But we gotta do what we gotta do.”

“Potion me, potion man,” Tresk said, holding her hand out and opening and closing her fingers.

The marshling took the potion and quaffed it without waiting. Her body went rigid, then she passed out. Theo clicked his tongue, coming over to place his hand on her forehead. He had expected a lot more than just that and he could only imagine the wild ride she was currently on.