Chương 100: Chapter 98 - Revelations.

"Oh hey Nythera, are you hungry? Help me fend off this feline and I'll give you a slab of this great beaut I found" Vargan gestured ecstatically at his animal-skewered contraption, the too-small flame struggling to cook the entirety of the critter.

"I'm good, do you really intend to eat that whole thing?" she asked"Of course, in the name of Dunsteel, this whole thing will feed my strength." Vargan flexed. One look to the side revealed Rowen cooking with a little pot on the floor, where a small alchemical flame burned.

"Rowen, where did you get a cook set?" the whole array looked like it was on the verge of falling apart.

"Ungavir sells these things cheap, he's not that far away and I figured with those two fighting over the kitchen this would be easier. If I make my own food, I can experiment with local ingredients, maybe I'll bring some back with me." the collection of plants and spices suggested Rowen was already picking which.

"Since when can you cook?" she asked.

"Well of course I can cook" he threw up an eyebrow "Father always said that cooking proved a man's real soul. Relying on servants for your every meal is a sign of weakness." Huh, he's more useful than I thought. She ducked into her room and shut the door, but the smell of burning flesh and half-cooked fish already permeated everything. Pulling off her gloves, she examined her missing arm and the mechanical structure. Well made, but it can't help me fight much.

If I'm going to get this much attention for it, I might as well turn it into a formidable weapon. A knife? No, a spear? No…. School life passed by quickly, every day a five-class struggle. Tessetian language came to both her and Nythera quickly, enabling them to further their studies in the other courses. Gladius' glares had not stopped, but he always kept a large distance with her. Rumors on the insane cannon woman quieted over the course of several weeks and her life reached a "normal" equilibrium.

She found a massive abundance of time in battle magics, never allowed to spar again and even practice targets were usually annihilated within 2 shots.

"You are too experienced with real combat to participate in spars at this level, and your skill is far too unorthodox for these students to deal with." Valek had told her, describing it as the "biggest headache student in the last thirteen years." Julian had yet to ever contact her and it soon faded from memory. A history of Aelthyr was open on her bed as she fawned over the pages. Yes! This is extremely useful, I knew it would pay off to study this world's institutions. Myrraval can be improved, dramatically.

With vigour she scratched out her own notes based on the text "... enhancing common citizens and freeing the slaves from each province allowed a higher productive yield. The enhancement process is carried out by regular dungeon runs for all professional laborers, beginning with artisans, the new quota system eventually reached the farmers, causing a tremendous boost in food yields and population. The duty-system for delver teams increased productivity by 20% within a year and 60% within three years.

Estimated total productive gains…" The crowning line convinced her. We need this in Myrraval, we have the delver teams and dungeons to do it.

"... It is hailed as one of the greatest innovations of this era along with the likes of the fluxcutter." It has everything, higher lifespan, doubled lifetime profession level, the tax gains alone seem astronomic. So those farmers we first met weren't ex-delvers, they were just common everyday farmers? Imagine if everyone on Myrraval had the strength to lift a boulder. Nythera giggled maniacally in bed. Myrraval will be a force to be reckoned with when I'm done with it. Look at all this free information!

"Feltonia, an overview: Transplanted to avoid conflict, Feltonians, or Cats, came from the Axis Dominion between …" Huh they really are from beyond this world, I wonder what other secrets Valerius is hiding… And if Myrraval is really capable of handling other races, I'm not sure how well that would go. Just how many more intelligent races are there? She turned on the array and sent Lance a bombardment of questions, fortunately she did not have to wait long for a response.

Lance (395): All going well, Grandport Halsbury sea walls are being made. Grandport new stone harbor part done. Trade with Karaveth is using all ships. Amplewoods now has separate deal with Karaveth, Fogtown is trying but lacks ships. Mayors are all asking for more flying ships, mostly for inter-island trade now. Groups of migrants are interested in forming their own settlements as well. Waketown's population has grown too fast. Wow, he's really gotten much better with the array, I'm impressed.

Nythera: Good, I have some more ideas to improve Myrraval when I come back, some big changes will be coming. But me and Rowen will need more time to research here, potentially up to three years, please inform the mayors we are otherwise indisposed. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Lance (395): The mayors wait with gleeful anticipation. Do you require support? Nythera: No, not yet, but scout the entrance to the wakepath where the obros-ka fell.

There was a small island with a tower. Report back the condition of the tower and island. I will contact you if anything else comes up. Well that's good I suppose, but if the migrants are looking at establishing their own settlements, there could be problems in the future. Nythera looked down at the stump of her arm. I need to get something to attach to this, and soon. I lost five ring slots and a glove slot for enchanted gear.

Those blasted rings of Xyrk take up an entire finger on my left hand, I can't believe they had the audacity to force three rings on one finger. Tap tap. Can I attach some kind of super weapon on the end? If I'm going to be the insane cannon woman, I might as well be the undefeatable insane cannon woman. Tap tap.

"Is someone at the door?" she called out.

"Hello Nythera, I was wondering if you would be interested in sampling a fine dish of Feltonian Speciality fish?" Valerius' muted voice came from behind the door.

"Oh, sure!" Nythera rolled up and joined Valerius in the kitchen, a double-tail green-silvery fish was already sitting in a too-small pan, its tail end sticking out over the lip.

"Where are Vargan and Rowen?"

"Oh those two? Out practicing, something to do with bladework." Valerius had an entire box full of nothing but spice mixes on the countertop, from which he was pulling out bottle after bottle.

"By Center, it's so hard to find the proper ingredients here, I have to use my stock of spices to make anything half decent. Proper fishstock like this deserves only the best you see." Teleporting spice jars flew around the kitchen as Valerius dropped pinches of spice on the fish in various locations. He sighed, his barrette drooping down over his eyes.

"If only we could reach the wider Everplane, we could get access to the finer spices. Did you know that this fish is actually from another realm? My people brought it with them, sadly the spices we are supposed to use cannot even grow here." A strange glimmer entered his eye. Nythera wore a strange look "So Valerius, just hypothetically, what is the everplane?" Valerius broke into laughter "Thats a good one! Hey Nythera, just hypothetically, what is a monoformic?" Valerius then laughed at his own joke.

Nythera's face hadn't budged.

"You're joking right, you know, the place we all live on?" Valerius' face began to transform to wide-eyed shock as she shook her head. Valerius turned back to his prize fish, teleporting it into the air to flip it, catching it back in the pan with practiced ease. He carefully seasoned it in silence. I wonder if I broke him?

"So Valerius, care to explain?" she waited expectantly.

"The infinite plane under the stars, the center of the known universe, filled with gargantuan realms many times the size of planets. The center of political, economic, and cultural power within the universe." Valerius listed off everything dryly, turning to look her in the eye.

"Where we live, right now. This is the Everplane. A tiny piece of it in a backwater realm, but this is still the Everplane."

"Huh" Nythera stood in silence while he calmly cooked the fish.

"Can you explain more?" she asked after awhile.

"We live in one of the many realms, ours is called the Land of Mist and Pillars, by center this is such a dumb joke, I don't know why I'm even entertaining you, there are several adjacent realms, but the most notable is the Infinite Blue, or the Great Blue, a realm of huge seas and ships, and of course next to that is the Axis Dominion, the biggest, richest, and oldest of the realms." Valerius let out a deep sigh.

"Come on Nythera, your royalty, this is basic education even the commoners understand parts of this. We are part of the Everplane, despite our terrible location."

"Really? It's that common?" she asked with surprise.

"Ok well, you're not joking, how could someone, especially educated royalty, or nobility at the least, not know something like this? There is something very fishy here." Valerius' eyes narrowed in suspicion. Valerius flipped the fish again. This could be a problem, has he realized the truth? I can't just execute my roommate with cannonfire. I mean I could but… I really don't want to kill Valerius.

"You are from the Far North, and while this realm and Aelthyr have been cut off for awhile, we are still in contact through the dungeon dimension channels, so how is it possible you don't know? It's not possible, and you're trying to prank me." Valerius hissed at her.

"Yeah haha, you got me it is a prank, though can you explain to me, as part of the prank, why we are cut off?" Nythera's fake laugh was painfully obvious. I really don't want to kill you Valerius, don't make me have to. Valerius stopped cooking and stared at her.

"What? Something wrong?" Nythera laughed nervously.

"Yes, you make no sense." Nythera pointed at the pan "the fish is burning!"

"Oh shit!" Valerius exclaimed, teleporting the fish off the pan in an instant, into the air, and then onto the table.

"No no no, not my fish!" Nythera brought out the plates and chopped the fish up under his careful instruction. Moments later both dug into the tantalizing meat, which had taken on some of the silvery hue from the scales. Damn this fish is good! I need to see if maybe we can import some live ones to Myrraval, the fish back home are far too… fishy by comparison. Valerius hesitated for a moment, and then spoke "You are keeping very strange secrets, very very strange, but I will explain for your amusement."

Nythera leaned forward to catch every word.

"The Everplane is a system of realms in the only habitable part of the Everplane, the rest being Flux-dense wastelands. Each realm has their own subsystem and distinct environment…" Every question she asked was met with "Even a peasant would know that" or "Even an uneducated Dunsteel brute would know that."

"Just how much information is your… country lacking? This is obscene. It seems like you lack even basic historical knowledge, like you grew up in a box… or, no it can't be." Valerius' eyes carried a dangerous, calculating gleam. He sighed.

"I'm not explaining the dungeon dimension, just pay attention in class. But I do have one question for you."

"Yes?" Nythera was eager to repay Valerius for all of his explanations.

"Where are you from? Because it certainly isn't anywhere on Aelthyr."