30th of Season of Water, 57th year of the 32nd cycle

"You are trying to trick me!" Magmin hissed. "If I climb to the surface, the blazing sharpbeak will attack."

Newt stared at the creature. I did not think of that.

"What if I brought its corpse into the tunnel? Or its head?"

Magmin hesitated. The lindworm looked like it was about to pounce Newt, but the question confused it.

"All right. Don't attempt to deceive me. I will be right behind you, and remember, you can't escape, little heart demon."

"I won't; I just want to help."

Newt wanted to say more, but there was no point. What he faced was an echo of Magmin, a memory made as he advanced his realm and shattered the barrier barring his path.

I wish you'd just wake up and be yourself again.

Newt honestly did, despite thinking that Magmin might try to devour him if he suddenly recovered his full memories. Torn, he could only remain silent.

Unsure about himself and his snake friend, Newt quietly crawled back towards the entrance, thankful for the inspiration the tunnels had offered. They, combined with what Obi had told him, were Newt's massive gains from the mission. Even if he ignored the mana he would get from adding side vents to his realm, the revolutionary idea of having a layered realm was more than worth it.

After deciding to temporarily ignore the conundrum of Magmin, Newt reached the exit, then went up the gentle slope, towards where he had slain the giant, burning sharpbeak. The ground beneath his feet trembled. Magmin was digging tunnels below, following close behind Newt.

Over an hour passed before Newt reached the corpse. The once-burning saurian had turned into a pile of ash and embers. Inside, volcanic rocks shaped like bones still glowed with heat.

The tremors beneath Newt's feet grew stronger, and Magmin erupted to the surface. The creature's grotesque maw twisted into a parody of a grin. It burst into cheers, tearing at the remains with its elongated claws.

"Seventy-nine years!" it shrieked. "You have tormented me for seventy-nine years, and now you're dead, you're finally dead!"

Magmin jumped into the embers and wallowed in them, growling with joy. "Free! Free! I am free!"

Newt observed the outburst with mixed feelings. He understood just how fear and guilt could twist and torment a person, or a snake for that matter. Newt's emotional dam bursting after a mere handful of years of suppression must have been nothing compared to what Magmin felt.

What were you like when you finally defeated the sharpbeak? You were at the fourth realm, maybe fifth? Did you shake the world? Did you roar at the heavens?

Newt respectfully waited until Magmin calmed down. There was always a chance it would attack, but above ground, with enough room to maneuver, Newt could obliterate the giant lindworm in a move or two.

"Thank you, little heart demon," Magmin said, still swimming in the ashes. "You may remain in my realm for a while. I can feel my realm barrier shaking. I'm about to break through, and I haven't felt better in ages. Thank you."

Before he could say anything, Newt was back in the old mine. The twin stars glowed in the dark, yet shed no light. They were brighter, promising Newt more, so much more. What did Magmin create in his fourth realm? Newt wondered, but stepped away from the pulsating stars as if they were his bane, not his blessing. But, unlike before, he did not fear defeat.

If I advance my realm now, with hardly any sculpting, I'm going to be the weakest fourth realmer ever.

On one hand, Newt was ecstatic with his progress; on the other, he had to confront Magmin, and see what was happening with the serpent. Conflicted, he closed his eyes and found himself in the volcanic landscape of his realm.

"Magmin, are you there?"

"I am," the empty air responded, "But my body can't stay for long in your realm, I'm locked in a dark void without a hint of mana. My realm has grown, but that's irrelevant now. We need to speak. What are those visions I'm seeing? Why are you in them?"

Newt bit his lip. "Magmin, do you trust me?"

"Not entirely, no," the disembodied voice said. "You have been keeping secrets from me, and they may be endangering my life."

Magmin sounded more articulate than before; his intellect had grown with the evolution.

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"Magmin, I believe I am your friend and ally." Newt spoke slowly, thinking about what he was saying and the implications of his words, and if he was Magmin's friend, which he believed he was, he owed him the truth. "If you really want to know, I'll tell you everything I know."

Magmin said nothing. The silence lasted, and the only thing Newt could hear was his own heartbeat.

"Magmin?"

"I don't want to know." Magmin sighed. "I'm not ready yet, and if my guess is correct, I won't be happy with what you have to say. For now, I'll meditate. We'll speak again once you're in the fourth realm."

With that, Magmin's presence disappeared, leaving Newt alone in his realm.

Newt also drew a deep breath and sighed. "Life is complicated."

He stood there, alone with his thoughts, before the spark returned to his eye and he looked downhill.

Just as expected, his improvement was huge. He dashed to the edge of his sculpted realm, and willed a palm-wide, inch-deep fissure into existence, sending it straight towards his realm barrier.

He sprinted after the line as it formed and stopped where it ended.

"Ninth layer, quite close to the tenth." Newt whistled. "I'll be able to advance in half a year of diligent mana gathering. Perhaps less."

Naturally, he would slack off on or even dampen his mana gathering and focus on sculpting his realm. He still had years before he was done.

Satisfied with his gains, Newt moved on to the next item on his agenda - digging down. With an exertion of his will, a six-foot-wide tunnel opened, heading straight down like a well.

Five, ten, twenty, twenty-nine feet, and then Newt sensed the barrier, just like when he first dug the volcano. If he dug any deeper, he would reach the magma.

"Well, I guess that answers two of my burning questions." Newt pursed his lips. "Magma is close to the surface, so making the side vents won't be too much of a chore. Unfortunately, Magma is close to the surface, so I can't have many layers of tunnels. Worse, the work would require a delicate touch if I want to turn them into runes, meaning I can't do it from up here."

Newt sat down, writing and drawing on the ground with his finger.

"The thinnest lines have to be two feet deep, maybe I could squeeze through a foot-and-a-half wide opening?" Newt tested it and found that two feet was the minimum width to move without risking getting stuck.

"The thick lines are seven times as wide as the thin ones, so those tunnels will be fourteen feet in diameter…" Newt quickly reached the conclusion that he would either have a realm split into two perfect tiers, or one with three levels riddled with errors where the two underground tunnels conflicted.

"Yeah, imperfect seals aren't really an option. They would leak energy, have a risk of blowing up, and if an overlap happened with two errors, their results might be random, or nullify the effort of a much wider constellation of runes."

So, Newt reached his decision with little consideration, better do things safely and perfectly than risk his realm imploding. The only way to add another tier was to halve the height of the tunnels, which was not an option, since he could not fit through the narrow ones, and they required a certain size to function.

"Now, how do I make the lava flow through them without disrupting the seals above ground?" The more Newt considered the logistics of his idea, the more he realized he would need a decade before he could enter the fourth realm. Years of careful consideration, of studying and drawing spell seals, of calibrated attempts and countless failures.

"Fifteen years," he muttered. "At least fifteen years, possibly twenty, if I don't shut myself off from the world and just read and draw.

"Potions might halve the time I will need to sculpt everything, but I have missions and other obligations, which might consume more time than the pills saved."

Not for the first time, Newt regretted Dandelion wasn't there. The man was a genius. Newt was certain Dandelion could finish the whole blueprint in a matter of weeks, maybe even less than a moon. And he would have done it too in exchange for Newt's latest discovery.

"Wait! Why wouldn't I reach out to him? He would cross the seas of fire and mountains of swords if it meant improving his own realm, and this discovery is more than payment enough. He might even owe me."

Newt's lips stretched into a smile. He had a brilliant plan and an excuse to meet up with his friend all at once. Giddy, Newt abandoned his current project, filled the holes, and then went to test out the volcanic side vent theory.

"There's one problem with this, though; side vents will accelerate the growth of my realm." Newt looked at the twenty-nine-feet-deep hole, and considered whether he wanted to grow faster. The answer was one solid NO. "But the increase in speed I get from a single side vent is negligible compared to the main vent."

Newt started working on the rune when he realized there was another problem.

"The lava has to go somewhere." The realization crashed against him with more weight than it had the right to have. "I've been in Magmin's realm for three-four hours, I've been here at least two more, I still have to make the rune, dig a proper channel, and the guys are waiting for me. I'm the host, and I need to be responsible, otherwise Teacher Stronggrow is going to nag at me. Worse, he'll clench his jaws in that pained way he always does and say nothing."

Newt always thought that stories about awakened shutting themselves in caves and emerging a hundred years later were pure nonsense, but suddenly that sealed cave sounded like the best place in the world.

Reluctantly, he left his realm and focused on the real world. Newt opened his eyes and slowly climbed out of the tunnels. Near the exit, dawn's orange-red glow greeted him, and Newt realized he may have spent a bit more time in the mines than he should have.

Good thing I decided to quit early; otherwise, I would've been late.

He hopped down the mountain, but instead of a series of jumps like he once did, he created a current of warm air on which he glided down all the way to the clanhold.

The streets were full of life at the early hour, people going about their business, heading to work, train, or eat, and Newt's friends were waiting by the gate.

Why are they there? They couldn't have guessed I'm planning to issue an inner student mission for them to find Dandelion.

"Hey guys—" He touched down, and Jasmine smacked him, fist meeting chin.

She yelped and clutched her hand while he stumbled back a step, stunned.

"What was that for? I'm not Obsidian!"

"Hey!"

"You might as well be," Jasmine snapped. "Your head is as thick and as hard as a stone. From now on, you're kidney stone number two!"

The woman marched back into the clanhold, leaving Newt dazed.

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