Chapter 109: Chapter 109

After Khagnio had inducted me into his little gang, I had been a bit afraid that I was now embroiled in the activities of a shady organization I had no wish to be a part of. But that wasn’t the case. Apparently, I just had earned myself the benefits of being a member of Riptide without actually needing to be an active member of it, which was apparently how it worked for everybody.

It wasn’t even an organization, as Khagnio assured me. I supposed I did remember him mentioning it was no bigger than an adventuring party. Yet the reverence with which those undercity crooks had mentioned Riptide made them sound almost mythical in a way.

Oh well. I was just glad it was honorary.

Later that night, I tried Sacrificing my sleep. Earlier, I had been incapable of doing so because it was an integral experience that Sacrifice had needed a certain Affix to interact with.

Now that I possessed Experientiality, I was ready.

Except, the problem with sleep was that I’d be unconscious. I couldn’t exactly set Sacrifice on some kind of timer to activate while I was conked out. Honestly, that sort of capability would be absolutely cracked.

Instead, the first thing I tried was Sacrificing my sleepiness. It had taken over a couple of months—which felt a little too long—but my circadian rhythm had finally gotten used to Zairgon’s. So now, as everyone else went to bed around the same time I did, I forced myself to stay awake and channelled Sacrifice.

“Come on,” I mumbled. “Give me something good.”

The threads buzzed within me, swarming my brain like I had bugs on fire travelling to my cranium.

You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Instance of Drowsiness. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: 1 full night’s rest ]

I blinked. Slowly, my lips stretched wide. I was wide, wide awake. No drowsiness, no sleepiness, not even the faintest need for sleep. Nothing. I was as alert as I was during the day, fully cognizant and conscious, not even a little tired because I had Sacrificed dinner instead of eating it.

No way. No fucking way.

It felt a little silly to be excited for Sacrificing sleep of all things, but I was alone right now, so I could grin as stupidly as my heart desired. I was thinking along the lines of what this implied.

If—a big if—I could pass this entire night without needing sleep for even a little bit, and if I could remain conscious and alert for the entirety of the following day at least up until it was bedtime again, then this was massive. People spent approximately a huge chunk of their lives unconscious. The recommended eight hours of sleep a day was one-third of a day’s twenty-four-hour duration.

But now, I had that third back. All I would need to do was Sacrifice my drowsiness before going to bed each night, and voila, the night would be mine.

I had thought I was advancing at a decent pace already. But now, with the power of no-sleep-needed in my hands, I could focus even more on everything I wanted to progress and thereby reach my goals even faster. I wanted to laugh maniacally.

Of course, I wasn’t stupid. Sleep wasn’t just useful for the physical rest, but also for the mental one as well, and I had a feeling my mind wasn’t going to be refreshed no matter how many dinners I Sacrificed.

I’d need to be careful about when I grew tired and be kind to myself. No point in pushing so hard to the point of burnout. Working hard was pointless if I wasn’t working smart too.

For that night though, I was way too excited to take it easy.

Speaking of Sacrifice, my success with offering my sleep up as tribute reminded me that I had another thing I needed to give up. I found the case with the supremely ugly necklace. Now that I was alone and could focus on it, the slight stench confirmed that the necklace “string” really did have to be some sort of gut or something. Ugh.

I focused my mana and sent it in, driving strands of white energy to wrap around the entire offending facsimile of jewellery until it was shining white.

“You stink,” I murmured.

You have Sacrificed 1 [Moderate] Gutstring Necklace of Vaporized Depths [1] / 1 [Minor] Rival Treasure [2]. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward [1]: Your Spirit has risen 1 rank.

Reward [2]: Increased progress towards new Path Attribute by 2x ]

Your Spirit Attribute has risen by one Rank.

I still wasn’t sure what exactly made Sacrifice determine which items got two different rewards and which got one. My working theory was that effort spent and emotional significance were key factors, just as they had always been. There was a big difference between, say, buying something from a merchant and acquiring something through a brutal battle.

The second reward also reminded me of my goal to gain Thauma. I needed to actively start working on it soon, especially now that I could gain it even faster, assuming the latest effect stacked with the previous one. So, it would be four-times accelerated when combined.

For now, though, I spent the rest of my night working on Gravity, on gaining my new Affix. By the time morning rolled around, I finally succeeded. I was really happy that my efforts with Gravity paid off.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

You have acquired a new Affix for your Gravity Aspect.

Affix: Granular Control ]

Yes! There it was, the last Affix for Gravity that I could get for now. A small part of me wondered what I would do with the Aspect when I hit Gold. But the rest of me was entirely focused on testing out my new little toy. I needed to check if the possibilities I had been cooking up in the back of my mind were actually going to work or not.

Time for my trusty old brick again.

Poor thing had taken a terrible heap of abuse from me over the past few days. Well, I consoled it by saying that it had all been worth it. Hopefully.

I didn’t drive threads of mana into the brick—I did indeed keep it separate from the rest of the debris so I could locate it pretty easily. Over the last couple of days, as I had practiced more, I realized that I had been thinking of it in the incorrect way, and I was thankful that I had made enough progress to attain the new Affix despite that.

Earlier, I had been trying to insert Gravity into things at an atomic level, but I hadn’t fully understood the application of that. What was the point in creating a gravity field on an atom, kind of like I was using Field Manipulation on it, when it was just stacked against another atom right next to it. That was how it worked inside solids brick.

They were already right up against each other. There was no point in trying to insert gravitational forces in there.

The only counter to that was that I could use the combination of Field Manipulation and Siphon to try and lighten the intermolecular bonds working in there. I blinked. Wait, there were intermolecular bonds, and then there were inter-atomic bonds too, right? And then intra-atomic bonds as well…

I was confusing myself. My chemistry knowledge was rusty, but I felt like I had just enough of an idea to try and take Granular Control in an even deeper direction than I was currently envisioning. Something to test later.

Right now, I used Field Manipulation on my gloved palm hovering over the brick.

Normally, when using Field Manipulation with Infusion as I was doing just then, the artificial gravity field I created would affect the entire object, regardless of size. But now, with Granular Control, I could modify the exact region of my target that the tug worked on, and with enough focus, I could ensure my gravity was stronger than the intermolecular forces of the brick.

I could—and did—deform the brick.

My eyes widened, beaming in satisfaction as I saw a lump form over the area where I was applying my artificial gravity.

I laughed. It really had worked. I was manipulating matter with just Gravity.

And then I felt the heavy pull of mana exhaustion creeping up on me. Sheesh. Was manipulating matter with Gravity at fine scales that expensive? Obviously, I had been practising with my Aspects all day more or less so that had added to the feeling of mana exhaustion. But the rapidity with which the hollowness had arisen concerned me.

Guess I’d need to test how much I could use Granular Control with a full tank before long.

It sort of made sense, though. Manipulating matter—manipulating the particles that made up matter—was no small feat. The bonds between atoms and molecules was incredible powerful, depending on the material. To overcome it, I’d naturally need to spend a crap ton of energy.

Once again, I was tempted to think of it from my Earth-tainted perspective. I made my mind accept it like I was weakening the intermolecular bonds just enough to rearrange a certain portion of atoms, before removing the “gravitational” effect to let it rest in its new state.

Thankfully, there were no physicists nearby to get a heart attack from my explanation. It was magic. I could do it. That was all that mattered.

Honestly, I’d have preferred to take the rest of the day to just figure out more of my new Affix. There was a lot I could test and experiment it on. How it worked on different materials and states of matter, what exactly occurred when I was displacing matter like that in solids, stretching the manipulation to its limit, and so on.

But unfortunately, I was supposed to be an active member of society. What a pain.

I had to meet and talk with the upcoming proprietor of the first Ration House on Ring Four. He was a Rakshasa like the one I had dealt with on Ring Three, but unlike that fellow, this one was a genial, kindly old man.

“You’re really willing to commute to Ring Four?” I asked.

“You don’t believe me, Cultist?” he asked back, his eyes big behind his thick glasses.

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. It’s just… unprecedented for anyone to come to work on Ring Four from Ring Three and not the other way around.”

“I suppose that is true. But I hear tell that things are looking brighter down here nowadays. Little by little, things seem to be improving. I feel rather proud of being a part of that movement.” Nᴇw novel chapters are publɪshed on N()velFire.net

Huh. Normally, people on Ring Three couldn’t care less what happened on Ring Four, so long as the people of Ring Four who performed the menial and laborious tasks of Ring Three—tasks that its residents wouldn’t—continued to show up.

“Well, if you ever need anything,” I said. “The Cult of the Sun will do its utmost to provide it. It’s the least we can do for pulling you out of retirement.”

He gave me a short bow, fist to chest. “I will remember it. Although, so long as you can assist in maintaining the operation of the Ration House, I will be satisfied.”

I nodded. The deal was that it was Ring Four who would need to secure a supply line of goods for the Ration House to pack and prepare for people’s consumption. Generally, on the other Rings, the Ration Houses were supplied by the Council of Zairgon. This was funded partly via taxation. However, with Ring Four being Ring Four, no such things as taxes really existed here.

Well, unless you had accounts and dealings on the other Rings like I did. Which meant yes, I got taxed.

The cults and everyone else on Ring Four were still allowed to buy their food from the Ration Houses all over. It wasn’t like Zairgon would let them starve. But the quotas they got were vastly limited compared to actual, taxpaying citizens on Ring Three, and they were almost never allowed things like multiple purchases in a short period of time and the like.

That all was going to change with Ring Four getting its own Ration House. But only if we could find our own way of securing the supply line.

So far, the plan was to use the money secured from fining House Kalnislaw. While the Council ostensibly oversaw the money, it had been distributed to the cults to see that it was properly used for Ring Four’s benefit. Said benefit, as we had decided together, was going to be the Ration House.

“I’ll see to it that the supply chain isn’t disrupted,” I assured the old Rakshasa.

He nodded gracefully, before leaving after exchanging farewells.

Later on, Aqrea reminded me that I had signed up for a Mage Guild class and I would do well not to miss it again. As such, I headed off at midday for the Mage Guild.

I realized something silly as I was walking out of Ring Four. I had been a PA in my last life, and now, I essentially had my own PA working under me. Funny how things turned out.

“There, I made it,” I said as I arrived at the Mage Guild receptionist’s desk. “I won’t be missing the class this time.”

Silhatsa looked at me a little nonplussed for a while. “Oh, right. You missed the first time you signed up because… well, never mind. But yes, you’re early! Good work.”

“I thought I’d end up coming later because, well, never mind. You don’t happen to a sell a map of Zairgon, do you?”

“No? Well no, of course not, silly me.” I smiled brightly at her. “Forget I asked.”

As I left, I was sure I heard her mutter, “Silly is putting it mildly.”

The nice thing about coming early was that I had plenty of time to get lost, which I did, somehow ending up at the fields instead of the classrooms on the second floor. I had no idea how that happened.

Eventually though, I made it to the room where I was supposed to enjoy the class on Augmentations. Except, along the way, I spotted a familiar figure.

It was the figure who spoke first. “Interpreter?”

Shit. I was blanking on the guy’s name. He was the Anymphea leader, which made it extremely odd for me to see him here. Plus, he also hadn’t used my name, though I didn’t have a handy title to reply with.

“Hi,” I said. “Fancy meeting you here, leader of the Anymphea.”

“Ascelkos is fine.” Thank the Banished Gods for that little revelation. “You are…”

“Ross Moreland.” I offered him the short, typical Zairgon bow with my fist to my chest. “Don’t tell me you’re going to be taking the class on Augmentations.”

“Oh, why yes. I am, I believe, a student like yourself.”

Now I was even more curious and confused. The leader of the Anymphea needed classes about things like Augmentations? Wasn’t that kind of basic knowledge?

That said a lot about my levels of knowledge. But hey, unlike said Anymphea here, I had been transmigrated to this world less than three months ago.

“I see you’re getting quite good at New Zair,” I said, taking proper note of the language we were speaking.

“Thank you!” Ascelkos said with a little bow. “Can’t have an interpreter around all the time, after all.”

I laughed. “True enough.”

We chatted a bit after that. Ascelkos revealed that he was mostly busy slowly bringing in the Anymphea into Zairgon. The problem, though, was that Ring Two was obviously not going to be anywhere near big enough to accommodate the entire conglomerate of tribes. Ideally, they wanted everyone situated within Zairgon proper before the Blight Swarm arrived

“Even Ring Three doesn’t have much free space,” Ascelkos said as we walked to the classroom. “So we’re trying to find solutions.”

I decided to take a small gamble. “Well, there’s one location that has a lot of free space to take in some newcomers.”