145 - Getting Permission

I was casually strolling down the street on my way to Lophan’s office, flanked by the entirety of team Nimma. I felt a bit like a VIP of sorts, strutting about town with his security detail in tow, and in some ways, that wasn’t too far off. By now, pretty much everyone knew who I was and what I’d done. The formation of the first asphon country was kind of a big deal, and everybody was of the opinion that it was all thanks to me. If Nimma and her team weren’t around, I’d constantly get swarmed by asphons wanting to thank me. Thankfully, their presence managed to ward off the masses. Instead, people were calling out to me in thanks everywhere I went.

To be honest, I didn’t feel like I deserved their gratitude. At least not to this extent. Sure, they benefited greatly from me doing my quests, but at the end of the day, I’d done the quests for mostly selfish reasons. As far as I was concerned, they’d helped me just as much as I helped them, so being thanked so profusely just felt wrong. I had brought up my thoughts over breakfast, but was told that was just how things were. In the eyes of asphon society, I was a hero, advancing them one step closer to achieving their ultimate goal.

I tried not to think about it too much, but it was difficult with somebody shouting their thanks every few seconds. In my opinion, I was merely some battle junky that stumbled into providing some benefits to my hosts, not a hero. 

Trying to ignore the occasional thanks, I engaged in some banter with Orbos and Andrius, which helped somewhat. To my relief, our destination wasn’t too far away and we got there in short order. We entered the impressive building that served as the seat of power for the newly minted king. Well, it was the office building I’d visited many times before. It didn’t feel quite fitting to host a king, but the country had existed for a mere few days, so expecting a grand palace would be a bit much. Even then, I’ve been told that there were currently no plans to build anything resembling a castle, citing the waste of limited space and resources as the main reason.

We walked through the familiar halls, and I couldn’t help but notice that things were busier than usual. At least twice as many asphons were milling about busily, most likely dealing with the increased workload that stemmed from having to set up the logistics for a country. We were largely ignored, but there were some friendly waves here and there, and I was pretty sure I heard somebody grumbling about having to work more, but couldn’t be certain due to my still tenuous grasp on the language. Eventually, we stood before the door to Lophan’s office, and his secretary ushered us through.

Lophan’s office was a mess, to say it lightly. Stacks of documents were piled onto his desk, boxes of even more decorating the available floor space. Orbos accidentally knocked over a stack of said boxes with his tail as he entered, cursing and apologizing while trying to collect the scattered papers. The commotion caught Lophan’s attention, and his head appeared from behind the mountain of documents on his desk. 

“Gary!” Lophan exclaimed happily, immediately squeezing past some obstacles to come greet me. “I have been waiting for you, please, have a seat…”

He shuffled to the couches, moving the boxes that had taken up residency to make some space for us to sit. I couldn’t help but think that he was happier for the break from the bureaucratic nightmare, rather than seeing me. After some rearranging, we eventually managed to sit down in the same constellation we usually took up when accepting a quest. I only knew Redax was present and close to the window thanks to my void feelers, since he was hidden behind stacks of boxes.

“I hope the rewards for completing your quest have been acceptable?” Lophan asked as his secretary brought in some tea for us, careful not to knock anything over in the cluttered office. “I know we’re pretty happy on our side.”

“All in all, I’m happy, yes,” I grabbed a teacup with a tentacle and brought it to my secondary mouth, taking a sip with no regard for the heat. “At first glance, I didn’t get much, but in terms of quality, I made off like a bandit. May I ask what you got?”

“We’ve gotten the right to ask for a favor,” Lophan said, unable to keep the happiness out of his voice. “It may not sound like much, but it essentially means we got a blank check for anything short of freedom. We’ll have to consider what we’ll use it for carefully, but depending on what we do with it, we might take another step towards our goal.”

“I’m happy to hear that,” I smiled, taking another sip. I was genuinely happy for them. The asphons were imprisoned on this world, for no real fault of their own. Had been for an incredibly long time. I wanted them to succeed, so they could enjoy freedom once again. “Now, I can see that you are a busy man, and I wouldn’t want to keep you from your work…”

“Oh, don’t worry, there’s nothing urgent right now,” Lophan interjected as he took a sip of his tea. Everybody in the room fixated him with incredulous stares. “Well… maybe a thing or two… or three…”

He seemed to wither under the pressure of his obvious lie and sighed. “Alright, I’m incredibly busy. Have been ever since the country got formed, and I will continue to drown in work for the foreseeable future. I’m sure Garreth is laughing his tail off while he lets me do all the work. I almost wish we didn’t win the tournament…” He winced, sat up straight, and shot me an apologetic look. “Of course, we’re still grateful! Massively so. I did not want to imply anything… It’s just… so much work…”

“Don’t worry, I understand,” I came to the man's rescue before he dug the hole any deeper. “I’m only here because Nimma mentioned you wanted to thank me in person. And well, there’s one more thing.”

“Ah… yes,” Lophan nodded, putting his cup down. “I think I know what this is about.”

“I would like to ask for permission to descend,” I stated, the act of saying it out loud putting a certain finality on my thoughts. “I have completed all the necessary objectives, and all that remains is to get the go-ahead from you, Lophan.”

“Of course, of course,” Lophan waved his hand, and a system screen popped up in front of me, confirming that I had fulfilled the descent conditions. “You’ve done so much for us; withholding this from you would be wrong on all kinds of levels. I must ask, though, are you planning to stay for a while? Or will you be leaving immediately?”

“I don’t think I’ll leave immediately,” I let my eyes wander over the friends I’d made during my stay, reluctant to simply leave them behind like I was discarding an old toy. “There are still things I can learn from you guys, and I think I earned myself a bit of a vacation. If you’d have me, I’d like to spend some time relaxing before descending. That being said, if you have any knowledge of what waits for me down there, it would be appreciated.”

“Please, feel free to stay for as long as you’d like,” Lophan offered. “You’ll always be welcome here. But I’ll have to disappoint you about sharing information about the eighth layer; I’m afraid it’s impossible. We do know exactly what awaits you there, but the system has put a ban on telling travelers about it.”

“That’s okay, I understand. Wouldn’t want to get on the bad side of the system,” I backed off easily, once again wondering about the system in general. Just what was it? “I guess I’ll have to go down blind, which is what I’ve done for every other layer. I’d say I’ve done well so far, so I have little reason to doubt it’ll be different on the next one.”

“For what it’s worth,” Nimma piped up for the first time in the conversation. “I think you’ll do just fine down there.”

“Fine?” Orbos scoffed. “He’ll blast through the layer like a natural catastrophe. The smart money is on him.”

“Oh, for sure,” Andrius nodded. “I know I’ll make some easy money that day.”

“Shut it, you two,” Redax’s voice carried over from the window. “You’re playing a dangerous game.”

I gave Orbos and Andrius an odd look, but they kept acting as nonchalant as ever. The atmosphere got a bit awkward, though, as everybody seemed to wait for something to happen. Had the two of them attempted to give me some kind of hint? If yes, it went a bit over my head, but that was to be expected if they had to be as vague as possible to skirt the rules.

Then, I suddenly remembered the odd event I hadn’t been allowed to spectate that took place some time ago. I, the traveler, was the only one who wasn’t allowed to see or hear any of it, and there had been betting going on. Was the event connected to the eighth layer? And the asphons could bet on the outcome?

“Moving on!” Lophan seemed to sense that I was connecting some dots that I shouldn’t and grabbed my attention. “Is there anything specific you’d like to do during your stay? I’ll be happy to organize anything you need.”

“Well, aside from taking it easy, I’d like to spend some time in the libraries, get some more meetings with the experts I already talked to, and maybe talk to some of the asphons that took part in the tournament. I would also like to see if I could develop some kind of fighting technique, aside from just… casting spells really hard while keeping my distance. Is there anybody who could help me with that?”

“Hmmm… the main goal of magic-based fighters is usually exactly what you said,” Lophan tapped his chin. “Keep your distance and make sure that you can cast your spells while avoiding enemy attacks. Having a particular fighting style is usually only needed if they plan to engage the opponent at melee range, which isn’t exactly your cup of tea, as far as I can tell. But I’ll happily recommend you a few asphons who could potentially help you with exploring your options, at least.”

“I’d appreciate it,” I said while slowly getting off the couch. “Now, if there isn’t anything else you need from me, I’ll take my leave. I have the strong suspicion that there is quite a bit of work waiting for you.”

“Don’t I know it,” Lophan said sadly, looking sadly at his empty tea cup, then the ridiculous amount of boxes full of documents littering his office. “I guess you’re right, I should get back to it. But if you need anything, don’t be a stranger. I’d even welcome a social visit, if only so I can take a short break without Linny threatening to tear my head off.”

“Thank you. For everything,” I said as I turned to leave, Team Nimma in tow, leaving the poor man to his mountain of work.

=========================================================================

It was a month later when I finally decided that it was time to move on.

At first, I had tried to spend most of my time relaxing, doing recreational things with my friends, and just taking it easy in general. It was kinda nice to let things go for a week or so, not having to chase after a goal, constantly fighting for my life, and take life at my own pace for once. But I could quickly feel myself becoming antsy. Back when I was still human, I had been lazy. If I wasn’t out gambling, I was wasting my life away in front of the TV or trying to scum my way into more money to gamble away.

Turns out that spending months upon months fighting for survival, having to be vigilant at all times, changes you in more ways than simply shifting your addiction from one thing to another. After the first week, I realized that I could not take it easy anymore, at least not for extended periods of time. I needed to do something. Of course, the first thing I did was find something to kill. I joined Team Nimma on a cleanup mission around the city and got my fair share of fighting, even though it wasn’t very exciting due to the massive gap in strength between me and the regular monsters of the seventh. At least it managed to scratch the itch.

After getting some advice from my asphon therapist, I tried channeling my urges into other, more constructive things as well. That meant I spent a lot of time in the various libraries together with Andrius, polishing my use of the Asphon language, researching more about manual spellcasting, and taking a deep dive into their magic literature in general. A lot of the magical theory felt a bit redundant since the system assisted with spellcasting to an almost intrusive degree, but Andrius assured me that knowing that stuff would help me down the line. At the very least, it should help me with my endeavors in manual casting.

I also did some testing of my new abilities together with the experts. Together with the mutation expert, we took a more detailed look at my newly mutated crystal symbiotes. The quest reward had shot them up by four tiers, for which I didn’t get to choose the direction, like when I did it manually. Turns out the upgrades were pretty linear in nature, enhancing what was already there in terms of environmental protection and defensive properties. But the symbiotes also got the ability to greatly enhance my restorative properties. It didn’t quite reach the level of the dragon I fought, but minor damage I received could be repaired within seconds with their assistance. Larger wounds took longer, but still healed at a respectable pace.

That was all nice, of course, but it didn’t really help with my issue of getting killed in maybe two or three hits from the monsters that actually were a threat to me.

As for my new spell, the skill expert was extremely excited at the opportunity to witness, analyze, and categorize an SSS-tier spell. He wasn’t the only one, though. Team Nimma tagged along, as did a whole gaggle of researchers and a slew of asphons who were simply curious. It wasn’t every day that you got to see a spell of that level in action after all. It was also at that point that I learned about concurrent casting.

High-tier spells, especially SSS- and EX-tier spells, usually came with a ridiculously high MP cost. Most, if not all, mages had trouble fielding the required MP for their own spells, yet another thing that set me apart from the others. My Gluttony skill, combined with my status as a traveler, allowed me to have much higher attributes than someone at my tier was supposed to have. Add to that some specific skills that increased my wisdom, and I had become a literal MP machine. 

For most, concurrent casting was really the only way to cast these spells. It was apparently an A-tier skill that a lot of mage classes got in the higher tiers to help them with casting their spells. The skill allowed them to link with other mages and use them as a sort of mana battery to cast their spells. It sounded like a lot of work for a single spell, but the spells at that level were definitely worth it. The power a single spell like that could bring to the table had the potential to not only tip the scales in a fight, but flip the whole table. Monsters didn’t get the skill, usually, but rather were able to cast them in a limited fashion due to some evolution benefits.

As for me, while I could cast the spell on my own, it wasn’t really viable in an actual fight. The cost was insane, and unless I was certain I could end the fight with this one spell, casting it was a big risk. For starters, even though I had the magical singularity passive as well as a casting-focused build, casting the spell took me a while. Almost five minutes to construct the spell matrix, and another five to pump it full of the required mana. Oddly enough, the ten-minute timer on the casting made it a fantastic ambush spell, due to my turret passive activating after ten minutes of not moving. 

I cast the spell four times over the last few weeks, twice with and twice without letting turret activate. All four instances of the spell completely obliterated their target, as well as a decent chunk of the buildings that dared to be too close to the epicenter.

When the spell was finally cast, an almost invisible force magic started spinning into a construct above the target's head, coalescing into a giant spear. The thing was almost laughably big, the tip alone being the size of a medium-sized monster. As soon as the spear was fully built, it descended upon the target with a vengeance, impaling them while inflicting the bleeding and pinned status. The status effects didn’t really matter, since the tier seven monsters I tried it on were reduced to paste the second the spear landed. With turret active, the spell stayed mostly the same, but the collateral damage increased a lot.

All in all, the spell was pointless at my current level. It felt like the system had given a child access to a nuke and told it to have fun. It would surely be incredibly useful in the future, but right now, it was mostly useless.

It was a fun month, and I enjoyed my time with the asphons, but somewhere out there was an entire society of people like me. The Traveler Initiative. There was just one more layer separating me from the goal of my journey. All of my struggles so far had been to eventually get off this planet, and I was this close to getting there. During the month, I increasingly felt an odd pull, wanting me to continue my journey. And now it was finally time.

“Lophan has told you several times already, but you’ll always be welcome here,” Nimma said as we stood in front of the system-indicated elevator, which just looked like an unassuming wall for now. “If you ever find a way to visit, be sure to do so. We’d be happy to host you again.”

“I think I should easily be able to visit, once the ban on teleporting gets lifted,” I replied happily. “Well, maybe I’ll need to upgrade my teleport spell once or twice, depending on how far away my next destination is. But I’ll definitely come visit as soon as I can.”

“We’ll hold you to that,” Andrius said seriously. “It wouldn’t do for you to forget us.”

“Yeah, if we ever escape from here and learn you’ve become some sort of bigshot outside without visiting your friends, we’ll come and pay you an unfriendly visit,” Orbos elaborated, earning him a playful punch to the shoulder from Nimma.

“Don’t listen to him, he’s just spouting nonsense, as usual. You have no obligation to visit, but it would be nice, still.”

“Agreed,” Redax said, coming dangerously close to his daily allotted word limit. “We’re friends.”

“Right, this definitely isn’t goodbye,” I slapped a tentacle on the wall, causing a hidden door to open, and a familiar platform to be revealed. “So I won’t make this any harder than it needs to be. I’ll see you guys soon.”

True to my words, I stepped into the elevator, which activated as soon as I stepped on it. I had spent a lot of time with the four of them, and everything that needed to be said had already been said. We all knew that we’d see each other again, so no one was sad. Even then, I had to wonder how long it would be until I did see them again. It could be a few months. Maybe some years. Decades? The doors closed with finality, stopping my ruminations as a rumble announced the start of my downward journey. 

Yet, I couldn’t help but chuckle, recalling Orbos’s final words I happened to catch before the doors closed fully.

“So, I assume you guys emptied your bank accounts as well, right? To bet it all on Gary, I mean. I’m telling you, it’s the easiest money you’ll ever make.”