Eramith
patreon
Book 2: Chapter 86
🕑 Added 2023-07-13 13:01:00 +0000 UTCWith everything he had to do in the city itself complete, it was time for Felix to set off on his journey north, towards The Lodge. His planned route was The Lodge, then east to Snowvale and Trelas on the same continent. If any of the anchors had degraded or the portals failed for some other reason, he would minimize how far he had to fly.
After that he would open a portal to Orselle then head east to Coastwatch and finally Sprouts. They weren’t sure about Lav’Gur just yet as their whole situation was still a little up in the air but, Felix hoped Noah would have a plan by the time he finished with the others. If not, he was confident they could all figure it out by then.
He started by flying up into the mountains, far enough from the city that he was confident they weren’t in danger then he repurposed his portal spell form to point towards The Lodge’s temporary anchor. Once complete, he channeled mana into the mold which he knew had minimal flaws right up until, nothing happened.
His mana stopped funneling into it entirely and reabsorbed what he could then sighed.
I guess this means the anchors already degraded.
Yeah or were otherwise destroyed.
What do you mean?
If the city leaders didn’t trust you enough to protect them or were cautious and threw the anchor far outside of their city…
Shit. It would be like a natural treasure with the amount of Starmetal I used to make them.
Exactly.
So some random creature probably gnawed them to bits.
If the city leaders didn’t fully trust you.
Damn.
You could estimate the distance and open a portal in their direction?
That’s… wouldn’t that cost more than my entire mana pool?
Close to it.
Flying it is I guess.
Felix quickly morphed and tried the portal to each of the different temporary city anchors but found that none of them seemed to function. With that settled, he flew up into the air and shot off towards The Lodge.
It took him almost two days to fly through the forest and make it to The Lodge up north. He though about flying over the forest but figured that would be boring so instead he flew directly through it.
Not only did he get in a lot of practice flying as he had to weave his way through the trees, but Felix also hunted as he flew. He only bothered killing creatures at around level 200 or so. Any lower and they weren’t worth the experience or even the stats from harvesting and any higher and it would be a waste of time for him to kill it. He did plan on going out and searching for high level creatures to fight once he was done with the portals but until then, he had somewhere to be.
He also spotted a handful of settlements amongst the trees as he flew that drastically varied in size. He knew they still couldn’t declare themselves as cities just yet because the vote was blocking it but he still found it interesting to see settlements outside of the major cities. Felix wasn’t actually expecting it only because he hadn’t even thought about it before. He didn’t bother visiting any of them and simply kept flying towards The Lodge.
He found The Lodge buried in the forest and built around a central grove area with a small lake that was fed by a river and surrounded by cliffs on one side. The houses were almost entirely made of wood as Felix had expected and were arranged amongst the trees like tree houses. There were some bridges so residents could walk between the buildings but not many.
For the most part, it seemed like people were happy to simply climb ladders, to reach any building they wanted to reach. Felix saw some people shooting up the ladders, pulling themselves up so quickly they essentially jumped. He saw others simply hop off from their buildings a dozen meters in the air landing gracefully on the ground below.
The city didn’t seem to have a wall of any kind and Felix couldn’t see any guards that were restricting entry. There were some people in the trees keeping watch but no one seemed to care when he simply flew into the city. He explored some of the shops and buildings in the city and was most surprised to see a temple but in general, didn’t see anything worth buying during his brief perusal. He headed straight for the one larger stone building near the lake in the middle and flew right up to the door, finally getting some dirty looks from the people around.
He had no idea where to find Jackie or her city planner but he figured the building right near the middle, the only one made of stone in sight, was the right call. Considering the dirty looks he got when he knocked, he was betting he was right. Almost a minute after Felix knocked, and just a few seconds before he would have knocked again, the door opened to reveal a short, somewhat pudgy man with dark skin, wearing long purple robes with an animated smoke imprint.
The man frowned at Felix, “Uh… hello?”
Felix nodded, “Hi, I’m Felix. I’ve come from Atalus with an offer. I take it you know about the anchor?”
The man’s frown deepened, “The what?”
Guess not.
He shook his head to clear it then cocked his head, “From Atalus? Sorry… come in, we don’t get many knocks here, let alone visitors from other cities.”
Felix nodded, “Hopefully we can change that.”
The man gave Felix a curious look then opened the door wide and invited him in. He directed Felix to one of the two chairs in the room then hurried off into another room. He came back a few minutes later with a tea pot and two cups. He poured Felix a cup before he could properly refuse then poured himself one as well.
The man took the seat opposite Felix, “So you’re here from Atalus? The major city right?”
Felix nodded, “Yup.”
The man smiled warmly, “I know Jackie’s met some of you at the world event and then more at the auction. I guess you didn’t go to those then?”
Felix nodded again, “I was there.”
The man frowned, “Oh. Wait… how did you get here then?”
As they talked, the man nervously looked at Felix’s cup multiple times hinting to Felix that something was up. He was curious though so, he gave it whiff and raised the cup to his lips. He didn’t actually take a sip, he just let it rest against his lips then put the cup back down. The man visibly relaxed and Felix struggled not to audibly sigh when the man in front of him was so bad at keeping a straight face.
Felix shook his head slightly, he couldn’t resist, “Anyone ever told you you’d be terrible at poker?”
“Sorry?”
“Nothing.”
Felix waited and mentally kept track of the liquid as just a tiny portion of it passed into his blood stream from his lips. He simply let it go and watched while it didn’t actually attack anything and instead simply sought to shift some of the chemistry in his brain. He had a good feeling what it would do so he manually directed his body to attack and metabolize the liquid then feigned taking another sip of the tea.
Felix decided to be a little cheeky, “This tea is excellent by the way, what is it?”
The man’s smile widened well beyond just being friendly, “Oh just a personal blend of herbs from my garden. I can get you some if you’d like to take it home with you?”
Felix nodded, “Sure, maybe after our meeting. I was hoping to find Jackie or her city planner, is that you by chance?”
The man gave a short bow in his seat, “That’s me. I’m Miron by the way.”
Felix smiled to be friendly, “Pleasure to meet you Miron. I’m here b-”
Miron held his hand up, “Hold on, I called Jackie back here just after you showed up, she should be here soon.”
Felix took a deep breath, “How soon?”
“Usually only takes her a few minutes.”
Felix took another sip of the tea and this time, he pulled all of it into his soul space through his tongue. Any of it that managed to pass through his tongue and into his blood stream, he simply forcefully metabolized. After Felix finished his cup, Miron stood up and walked out of the room for a few moments then walked back in and sat down with a smile.
Miron leaned forwards as if he was finally interested in the conversation, “So where are you really from?”
Felix just looked at him blankly, “Atalus.”
He frowned, “Who are you?”
“Felix Kade.”
At that moment, Felix heard a door opening but not the one he had come through. He waited a few moments then saw Jackie walk into the room from the back of the building.
“He’s the founder, leader, owner or whatever of Atalus.” She added.
“Oh Jackie.” Miron’s face immediately paled.
Jackie poured some of the tea into Miron’s cup to refill it then downed it in one gulp.
She sighed, “Why do you try this on everyone who visits?”
Miron hurried to explain himself, “It’s good experience and I couldn’t be sure I mean, how did he get here so fast if he was at the auction an-”
Jackie shrugged as she replaced the tea cup on the table, “Probably just flew over here. Wouldn’t take him more than a couple days?”
“Yeah just under two.” Felix nodded.
She nodded, “I take it you just destroyed the serum?”
Felix shrugged, “Didn’t actually drink most of the tea.”
She turned to the man and shook her head, “See Miron? You would have just been dead anyways.”
Miron scoffed, “Surely not. You were just a few minutes away, I’m sure I-”
Jackie just blandly added, “He’d just kill me too.”
Miron’s face paled even further, something Felix didn’t think was possible then he looked at Felix and fell back in his chair a little trying to get away.
Jackie turned to Felix, “So what’s up Felix?”
“Trying to set up portals between the cities. Remember the portal anchor we gave you at the end of the auction, it didn’t actually work so now I have to fly around. I take it you’re still interested?”
Jackie cocked her head, “That’s what that was?”
“Didn’t… they explain what it was to you?”
She shrugged, “They said something, I tried to listen but I don’t think they fully understood themselves.”
Yeah that’s… my bad.
“Sorry, we were a little rushed. You interested in having portals connecting our cities?”
“Yeah, I don’t see why not.” Jackie nodded then looked towards Miron, “Can you figure that out then? I take it Felix still has to head to all the other cities too?”
Felix nodded, “Yeah, I’d like to be on my way as soon as possible. Hey Jackie, quick question…”
She smirked, “The bow?”
“Yeah.”
She sighed, “I had been thinking I needed a better way to track down my prey for a little while now. As soon as I saw the bow though, I realized I didn’t want to rely on an item to do that. I want to track them myself.”
Felix smiled, “Gotcha, well thanks I guess.”
“Sure.” She shrugged then turned towards the back door.
“Wait wait hold on. You can’t just leave me with hi- JACKIE! I thought you were the strongest.” Miron whispered completely ineffectively in her direction.
Jackie crossed her arms and shook her head, “Nope. It’s him then his familiar then me, I think? Not totally sure, that one’s weird to gauge. Then it’s probably Amani or the weird the old guy from Coastwatch.”
“Han?” Felix offered.
She snapped her fingers, “Yeah, him. Martin’s also weird though so not sure about him.”
Felix cocked a brow, “I’m surprised you put me above my familiar, is that based on level or did you just put me above becauseit’s my familiar?”
Jackie shook her head, “Nah, it’s based on instinct sort of. It’s not level at all. I just look at something and get a feeling.”
Felix looked at her with just a hint of jealousy, “That’s useful.”
Jackie just shrugged and took a few steps towards the back door where she had entered through.
Miron scrambled out of his chair towards her, “Wait, Jackie! Are we really just gonna connect the cities? With portals? How does that even work? How do you know he won’t just kill me?”
Jackie chuckled, “I don’t. I just couldn’t stop him.”
Miron shot a glance back at Felix, “Surely if we work together and maybe call the gu-”
Jackie just kept walking, “Nope. Doesn’t matter though, he’s not gonna kill you, right Felix?”
Felix called over towards them, “Didn’t even occur to me.”
Jackie looked over her shoulder at Miron, “See? You aren’t worth the experience.”
Miron stood in front of her seemingly trying to stop her, “THAT’S THE ONLY REASON?”
Jackie just pushed him aside, “I don’t know and stop yelling. Ask him if you want, I’m heading back out.”
With that said, Jackie finally managed to leave the building and disappear. It took Miron a few more minutes to finally calm down but once they did, they were actually very competent. They very quickly adapted to the idea of portals in their city and set up the perfect place for them to be. Felix dropped the permanent anchor Henry had made and gave Miron some basic directions and the schematics in case they wanted to connect their city with the others.
He briefly tested and demonstrated the portal to Miron who, now that he had wrapped his head around the idea, actually seemed excited. With everything set up, Felix bid Miron farewell and flew off.
Felix flew directly east, using his map to navigate, flying over almost entirely water. It made for an extremely boring flight where he didn’t find anything on the surface to kill. By the time he hit the coast of the wintery continent he was aiming for, he could already see Snowvale and they had cleared everything out around them so there was nothing to hunt.
Felix flew in over the coast and shot towards the large metal walls of Snowvale but stopped short to dodge when he saw a series of spells fire off in his direction. He dodged fire spells, ice spells and lightning spells then a series of odder less specific spells like sound and light.
The sound spell actually destroyed his eardrums but he quickly repaired them with a burst of energy and mana. He didn’t intend on sieging the city and he didn’t have a good way of introducing himself so he was stuck with a bad way of introducing himself.
It seemed all of the defenses he was up against were automated so what he needed to do was trigger an alarm of some kind so a real person came to check what was happening. The best way he could think of to do that, was to either damage the wall or be loud enough to be worthy of investigation.
Felix thought about it for a minute then realized, there were probably real people manning the wall at some point. He knew Trelas and Snowvale worked together and Jack and Martin were friends so he assumed they visited each-other.
Based on that assumption, Felix circled the city towards it’s closest point to Trelas. He actually ended up finding the gate a little further than that, with a road heading more inland and less south towards Trelas. The gate was very similar to the rest of the wall consisting of a large metal door with enchantments on the inside, judging from Felix’s mana senses. He couldn’t actually tell what they did from this distance, he just had a general sense that they were there.
Unfortunately, he didn’t see anyone manning the walls as he flew, even around the gate they seemed to be entirely automated. Felix didn’t really see any other option so he started firing off a series of Force Balls at the gate. He tried to make them strong enough for anyone inside to hear but also weak enough that didn’t do any damage. He added some sound to the spell but the sound of the defenses that immediately targeted him were almost deafening.
Cannons, spells and machines all around the gate whirred to life and began targeting him. Felix wasn’t deluded into thinking he could just tank it all and even if he thought he might be able to, he wasn’t going to risk it. Instead, he backed up as far as he could and began practicing his long range spells. Up to this point, his range had been fine and he hadn’t felt the need for longer range, but this presented a great opportunity to practice in case he did need the range in the future.
He adjusted the initial velocity of the Force Balls as well as their density so the balls stayed in tact longer. He had a few that burst too quickly and a few that didn’t burst at all even when they hit the gate. He was starting to see some of the wisdom in using a spell list.
Felix suspected The System adjusted spells so they exploded at the right time always, independent of the range. He was also pretty sure he could just use some more complicated spell work to figure it out for him but that was something that would have to wait until he had more conditional spell nodes.
It took almost a half hour for the defenses to die down and at first, Felix thought they had run out of mana. He stopped his barrage of spells anyways and took a look at the gate. He had done some damage to it, small dents here and there but nothing major. A few moments after his barrage stopped, the gates separated down the middle and slid open. The two halves disappeared into the wall and revealed a familiar face.
Felix waved then shot over to wall and closed the distance, “Hey Martin. Sorry about your gate.”
Martin chuckled, “Hey Felix, don’t worry about it. The damage seems to be superficial but I’ll investigate it later. What are you doing here and did you fly here?”
Felix nodded, “Yeah I did. Unfortunately, it seems like the portal anchors didn’t work.”
Martin winced, “That… might have been my fault.”
Felix cocked his head.
Martin shrugged, “I couldn’t resist… experimenting.”
Felix chuckled, “Fair enough. You still interested in being a part of the portal network?”
Martin nodded enthusiastically, “Yes, I am veryinterested. Any chance you could teach me?”
Felix smiled, “I can give you what I know about them. I also have schematics drawn up in case you want to have portals to cities other than Atalus. For now, all the portals connect to Atalus because that’s where we’ll open them from and supply them with mana.”
Martin nodded along as Felix spoke, “So if I want a portal to say, Trelas, I just need to supply the mana?”
Felix nodded, “You also have to set up the portal… ritual. But, once I deliver them an anchor, yes.”
Martin smiled, “I am very in. Come on in I’ll show you where I want it.”
Martin led Felix into the city, though Felix was tempted to call it a compound. All of the buildings he saw seemed to be made of metal of different kinds though he was certain they were more complicated than that because if they were simple metal structures, they would be cold and unhabitable inside. Most of the buildings stretched a half dozen stories into the sky and each of them seemed to serve multiple purposes and house multiple citizens.
Martin led Felix to an area that with larger buildings that seemed to be workshops, forges and factories.
Felix spent an hour or so writing out and explaining portals as best he could to Martin. Though the mana cost would be astronomical for Martin, he still seemed to have some use in mind for them and Felix was happy to share.
Martin took the schematics as well but Felix was pretty sure he wouldn’t actually use them because he clearly had his own mana collection system set up throughout the city.
In Martin’s workshop, Felix felt mana coursing in through large cabling and channels from all over. Tracing it visually, he saw endpoints where Martin could simply reach over and access the mana whenever he needed it.
They talked about portals for about an hour then Martin showed Felix some of the other things he had been working on, at Felix’s request. It seemed as thought Martin was entirely focused on the fusion of machinery and magic. He had all kinds of buggies, snowmobiles, and a large variety of weapons. He had also been working on a plane, despite his previous reservations and a large mech suit. He had made a mech suit before, but said that this one was far more impressive.
The mech suit Martin was working on just had a skeleton and no actual internals yet, but it was at least 5 meters tall. After some discussion, Martin admitted the only way this was possible for him currently, was with the mana engine Felix had given him in the world event.
All the stuff Martin was working on was super interesting to Felix and incredibly impressive. He didn’t have nearly the mana control or senses Felix had and yet it seemed like he was close to on par with Felix as an enchanter.
On top of that, Martin was plagued by the same lack of knowledge Felix was which made it all the more impressive he was able to create all the things he did. Though they were rough and Felix was certain with more knowledge they would be far more sophisticated, they were still probably the most impressive things he had seen a human create. He strongly suspected that once his mech suit was online, Martin would be the strongest person on the planet, especially since Felix was leaving.
They talked about enchantments and machines for a few more hours then Felix bid Martin farewell and shot off towards Trelas.
Snowvale was surrounded by large icy plains and tundra with little to no vegetation. Though many of them seemed to be hiding or possibly below the surface, Felix found some creatures he could hunt down and absorb though they didn’t give him much in the way of levels. He was gaining a anywhere from 1 to about 20 in any given stat across all the creatures he had killed on his flight. He knew if he put himself in more danger he would gain more levels but for now, he was happy with just absorbing some stats.
As he traveled south, the barren tundra began to sprout some vegetation that eventually grew into a sprawling, snow covered, evergreen forest that seemed to cover the majority of the south end. Felix found a few more creatures there but didn’t have much time to hunt as he was already very close to Trelas.
In contrast to Martin’s mechanical marvel of a city, Trelas was far more rugged looking. The entire city seemed to be built out of a combination of ice and wood. The outer wall was made mostly of a hard, deep blue ice while the rooves and some columns holding buildings up were made of dark wood. There were no automated defenses as Felix approached, just normal guards that were incredibly welcoming even though they had no idea who Felix was.
From over a kilometer out they opened the gate and as Felix approached, they all greeted him warmly and even offered him a warm pelt. He refused as he was regulating his own body temperature with a basic heat spell and it was more than enough but he thanked them anyways.
The guards walked him straight through the city to a large squared off building made almost entirely of ice. It was at least 3 or 4 stories tall and as wide as three houses put together. The guard that walked him there knocked on the door then waved to him and headed back to their post.
Felix waited for a few moments then the door opened to reveal Jack.
As soon as Jack saw Felix his eyes lit up and he smiled wide, “Felix, what a surprise. You just come for a visit?”
Felix chuckled, at this point he was just running with the assumption that the anchors hadn’t properly been explained at all, “Any interest in a portal from here to Snowvale and Atalus. Or just Snowvale if you’d prefer?”
Jack cocked his head, “Yeah, didn’t you already give me an anchor for that?”
Felix nodded slowly, “Yeah… what did you do with it?”
Jack just pointed over to the inside of the building he was in, “It’s right there.”
Felix looked over and saw that the change in temperature had completely warped the cruddy inlay material he had chosen on short notice.
Whoops.
Jack smiled, “Both of those portals sound great by the way. That’s possible right now?”
Felix nodded, “Yes it is. I was just at Snowvale. Once I’m done here I’ll open a portal to Orselle and fly west to Coastwatch.”
Jack nodded along, “So you want to set up a whole transportation network then?”
Felix smiled, “Ideally we’d like to connect them all up.”
Jack’s smile widened and he slapped Felix on the shoulder, “That’s awesome. Yeah, I am super in. What do you need from me?”
Felix chuckled a little at how friendly and open he was, “For the Atalus portal, we’ll supply the mana and for the portal to Snowvale I suspect they’ll supply the mana. If you want any other portals, I can give you the schematics but it’s up to you to build them.”
Jack shrugged and nodded, “Fair enough. Can we go to Atalus then to another city from there?”
Felix shrugged, “Yeah, totally. I don’t see why not.”
Jack smiled, “Well, that sounds great to me.”
Felix couldn’t help but smile back, “Alright perfect, I’ll set it up.”
Jack smirked a little and leaned forwards like he was about to tell Felix a secret, “Any chance you could get me to Atalus when you portal out?”
Felix frowned, “Sure, there’s already a portal to Atalus in Orselle. When I teleport there, you could just walk straight through. Why?”
Jack offered Felix an innocent shrug, “I want to see your city. See the shops, enjoy the weather.”
Jack had Felix set up the anchor right in the middle of the city. When Felix asked why, he said he wanted the heat from the connected cities to warm the place up a little. Once it was in place, Felix opened a portal to Orselle’s anchor.
He had already tested what happened when two portals were opened to the same anchor and ultimately, it was rather boring. The portals simply opened back to back. If a third was added, they formed a triangle around the anchor. He hadn’t tried four or more but he figured they probably wouldn’t explode or anything.
As soon as the portal was opened, hot air rushed through the portal and washed over both Jack and Felix’s face. Jack basked in it for a few seconds while Felix simply stepped through. Jack followed just behind him and immediately stowed his thick furs until he was completely bare on top. Felix walked around the portal and pointed through the other side towards the green plains surrounding Atalus.
Jack looked through an marveled at the sights.
He took one step through the portal then looked back at over his shoulder, “Hey Felix, before I go. Any chance you could do me a favor? You know in exchange for dropping out of the bidding on the forge heart?”
Felix frowned because he wasn’t sure he actually owedhim a favor for that, “Sure, what do you need?”
Jack smiled, “I was interested in the forge heart not for the forging, we use animal based weapons mostly anyways. I thought I might be able to use it to warm the entire city up a little though. I know Martin has his fancy mana array which is cool but way too complicated for me. Any chance you could make a perpetual fan or something to pull air from Orselle into the city?”
Felix thought about it for a moment and even though he didn’t feel like he actually owed Jack anything for dropping out of the bidding, he was still inclined to agree. Jack was one of the friendliest and most genuine people Felix had met. He had played the political game a little bit when they first met but it was entirely in service of protecting his friend, Martin. Every other time Felix interacted with Jack, he was warm, sincere and always smiling.
Felix nodded, “Sure. Can I come back and set it up after I finish delivering these portals?”
Jack smiled and nodded, “Yeah of course. I guess I’ll see you back at Trelas then… probably. I might go visit all the other cities. If I’m not there, just set up the portal where the anchor is. If you need anything, just ask anyone and they should point you in the right direction.”
Felix chuckled, “Sure thing. Have fun I guess.”
“Thanks, I definitely will and you too.” Jack waved and walked through the portal to Atalus then Felix dismissed the portal from Trelas and flew off to the west.
There were some small islands between the cities but it was still ocean for the most part which meant Felix didn’t find many creatures to hunt. The two cities were actually the two closest to each-other on the planet so it didn’t take him more than a handful of hours to reach the port city of Coastwatch.
The city was very obviously designed around the massive docks right on the coast. There were hundreds of boats ranging from small personal crafts to massive ships with multiple sails.
The most impressive boat of all was a long ship that was relatively short and flat. It wasn’t the biggest boat by any means but it was reinforced elegantly with metal plating and seemed to float above the water, barely touching it. It only had one sail from what Felix could see but it also had oars and a whole lot of cannons and harpoons. It also had a name with a symbol next to it, The Clover.
He flew over the docks themselves and landed amongst the wooden buildings around the coast. He walked into the first building he saw with an open door and asked for Han. He was immediately directed back to the docks, to The Clover, the boat he had been so impressed by. He turned back around and walked over to the docks but the ship was gone. It had only been a few minutes and yet somehow it had disappeared.
He assumed it had just set sail so he flew up into the air and searched the water for the vessel. It only took him a few seconds to spot it racing through the water faster than he ever would have expected.
Felix immediately shot himself towards it from above. It took him a few minutes to catch up but once he did, he had to dodge a series of harpoons, one of which he was forced to block with a Mana Shield. It cost him an impressive 8 thousand mana to block but luckily, once he did, the vessel seemed to realize he wasn’t a threat.
Felix dropped down onto the vessel and got a few guilty looks but ignored them and headed straight for the captains chambers which he assumed were at the back. Sure enough, Felix opened a door and saw Han in a room at the end of a hall. He walked over to him and waited while he stared at a blank desk.
Han finally looked up and furrowed his brow, “Oi, yer Felix, ye?”
Felix nodded once, “That I am.”
Han fell back into his chair, “What are ye doing here?”
“Looking for you. Any interest in having a portal connecting your city to Atalus?”
“Sure. I can’t really say no to that. Ye can really do that?”
I know it’s my fault the anchors weren’t explained and protected but… damn. Wish I had thought of it sooner. Could have had Henry make the permanent anchors ahead of time.
“Yes I can. Do you care where I put it?”
“Nope. Just put it somewhere near the docks. Ye find free land, feel free to just drop it.”
“Sounds good.” Felix turned around and walked right out of the ship then flew back to shore. He looked around for a little while then just shrugged and walked to the end of the one of the docks. He placed the anchor on the deck boards and set it up then flew off to the last city on his journey.
Heading to sprouts, there were a couple more towns and not-quite-cities in the plains but nothing of note. Felix found a few more creatures to hunt but ended up ignoring a lot of them. He was so close to finished that he really just wanted to get to Sprouts so he could move on to everything else he wanted to do.
If Felix didn’t know better, he wouldn’t have thought Sprouts was a major city at first. The outer area he flew over was entirely rural and covered in farms. He flew over them for a half hour or so and found a denser collection of buildings in the middle but even they looked like cottages and barns more than buildings he expected to see in a city.
He wasn’t sure where to look for Otto because no building stood out among the others so he just found the first person and asked. He was directed to a large farm just a few kilometers away and flew over in it’s direction. He had to ask a few more times before he finally found it but eventually, he spotted the large Demi-Giant tending to his crops.
Felix dropped down but didn’t land because he was worried he might disturb the field.
Felix waved, “Hello Otto. Not sure if yo-”
“Felix, I remember.” He said without even looking up to see him.
Felix waited a few moments for Otto to finish whatever he was doing, “I didn’t realize farm work was so meticulous.”
Otto sighed, “It’s these stupid plants I bought at the auction. They’re supposed to produce fruit that boosts your energy recovery rate and strength but they’re so fickle.”
“Have you managed to try them yet?”
“Nope, this is the first batch. Most crops we grow take just a few days because of skills, spells and whatnot. These guys apparently could take up to a year normally. I’m hoping I can shorten that to a few months or less though.”
Felix nodded with respect and more than a little admiration, “Woah, yeah good luck.”
Otto clapped his hands together to get rid of the dirt, “Thanks. You make the trip for a particular reason or just to visit and say hi?”
Felix sighed at another person who had not gotten the proper explanation, “Portals, any interest?”
Otto smiled and nodded, “Yes. Very much so. We have far more food than we can handle and we need more people to sell it all to.”
Felix smiled, “Perfect, I know Atalus at least is interested. I have schematics so you can open your own portals to the other cities too, if you’d like.”
Otto shrugged, “Even just the one would be perfect for us but I won’t say no to more. I’ll have some of my more magically inclined citizens take a look.”
“Sounds good.”
Otto had Felix place the anchor just outside of the city center then offered him a meal in return. He was inclined to refuse just so he could get back sooner but Otto convinced him when he told Felix about the effects.
After just a few short minutes of cooking, Otto served Felix a large meat roast with cooked vegetables and some unidentifiable grain. It was one of the best meals Felix had ever tasted in his life and he wasted no time scarfing it down.
As soon as he had taken his first bite, Felix noticed the effects. Otto had said they would take about 10 minutes to kick in but Felix was very aware of his own body. As he swallowed each bite, the food dissolved far faster than any other food Felix had eaten and it immediately started to energize the cells it affected.
Instead of directly giving energy to them, it seemed to have an effect where it caused them to speed up their movements slightly. It created a lot more internal body heat and Felix even had to cool himself down but looking at his status sheet, it had also increased his agility by about 10%.
Otto said the buff should last for a few hours then it would gradually wear off. Felix thanked him for the food then opened a portal back to Atalus.
Walking over to the portal terminal they had set up, Felix found that Henry had already completed everything he needed to do so Felix opened the portals from Atalus to the other cities. He opened them one by one with about an hour between so he could make sure everything was stable. He also checked on his massive mana collection arrays and found that they seemed to be working as expected.
Maintaining the portals ended up taking far more mana than Felix had expected but luckily, he had made the mana collection arrays have enough headroom that they would be able to sustain them. The overall redundancy would be reduced, but it was still functional and the whole system would still survive if two of the arrays were damaged.
Felix gave all the information to Noah while they watched a small trickle of people pass through the portals to and from Atalus. Some cities like Trelas, had a large amount of people coming in, other’s like Coastwatch barely had any.
While Felix was away, Noah and Will had set up the foundation for an official police force, rather than Noah just directing people to deal with the random crimes that occurred. Their hope was that it would help with any unsavory visitors that came through the portals. Alan had also officially started as Spymaster but Noah didn’t give Felix any other details while they were standing out in the open.
With all of that done, Felix headed back to Trelas through the portal to complete the last errand he had agreed to. It took him half a day to finish designing and creating a permanent setup for pulling air from Orselle into Trelas.
He had to wait a day or so for Henry to finish making another permanent portal base and mana collection array to power it. In the meantime he practiced his spell formation and toyed around with his Persona body.
He was planning on looking into mana channels more seriously now that he had a practice body he didn’t care too much about screwing up with. Worst case scenario, he could just remake it. He only managed to complete some initial designs and very basic tests though with different forms of tissue. Through his experimentation, he quickly realized that he was going to need to find a creature with mana channels so he could replicate their tissue because he was having no success.
Once it was complete, Felix picked up the finished product from Henry and set it up in Trelas. The ventilation system didn’t help the entire city much but it did provide nice warm air to a large area in the middle of Trelas where Jack said he was going to put a park. After Felix finished that, he headed back to Atalus and met up with Noah and the initial council of Trenus.
The first council was going to consist of Noah, Amelia, Benjamin, Will, Alan, Henry, and a few more individuals Noah had hand picked to represent different areas of the city. It was a large council and theoretically, their positions would become more concrete later on.
For now, Will was the police captain, Alan the spymaster, Amelia the head builder, Noah the city planner. Everyone else’s roles or titles were still to be determined. Benjamin was going to be an ambassador of sorts and interface with the other cities to keep things amicable. The exact specifics of his role though were still not entirely laid out.
Felix officially handed over the ownership of the city to the council. He was considered an honorary member of the council for as long as he was on the planet but it was really just a formality.
They talked a bit about initial plans for the city and what they needed to do now that the portals were all open but Felix didn’t really pay any attention. He was completely distracted trying to figure out a way to manually modify and enhance his brain.
Nothing had changed and he was still unwilling to modify the cells too much, but he had a couple ideas he wanted to pursue. Unfortunately, he didn’t have a great way to test them because his Persona’s brain was essentially inert. It just received signals from his own brain and translated them.
Once the council meeting was done, Felix gifted Will his earrings that he still had but realized he had no use for. Will was police captain though and using them to interrogate people sounded like the perfect use case. He then flew himself far out of the city and opened a portal back to his continent.
He quickly found, using his soul bond, Nova and Endycor hunting together in the forest. He didn’t disturb them at all but he did offer Endycor the continent. He wasn’t sure how The System would present the screen to them but they immediately accepted so he assumed it was understandable. He checked his map and sure enough, the continent’s name changed to Endycor’s Demesne. With that done, Felix had no more ties to the planet in any way and was free to leave at any time.
