Rummaging through her pocket, Velistraine pulled out a small, golden contraption that looked oddly like a pocket watch as she kept staring up at the sky. She'd taken the ring and had splayed a map of the world on the table she'd dragged out of his home, and was now trying to approximate the directions of the three remaining orbs.

Eying the device in her hand she rotated the map a little, then tapped it while Henry peered over her shoulder, trying to see what the compass was displaying. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be mechanical and most likely, it was working on some divination enchantment and projecting its content straight in her mind.

"There," she said. "The middle one is likely pointing at the Emerald Isles. So Atall's corner. The right one could be anything between us or the Reach. Or past it. But considering the history of the place, I'd bet my hat it's in there, in the middle of the Pillar and everything else that god forsaken land contains."

Henry peered curiously at the map. While he didn't think everything on the parchment was to scale, it was interesting to see how large the Reach was compared to everything else. And how… empty the whole map was. The map was centered around a series of islands and archipelagos that bordered a single bifurcated continent. Not a lot of details were on that side of the map, aside from a few dotted names near the edges and golden circle near the coast. As for the rest, it was all water, with four golden circles spread out somewhat evenly.

There are five pillars in total, Henry hummed. Velistraine continued, looking up at the sky for a moment.

"So. We got one in the Isles, one in the Reach. And the last one is that way," she said, tracing with her finger over an empty stretch of ocean that was only interrupted by one of five golden circles. "There's no land in this direction, unless we go all the way around. But there's another pillar. Either way, it's likely underwater."

"What are we starting with?" Maurice asked excitedly as he floated himself above the table. Zerathstra shrugged, scratching his head while Arisia observed intently as Velistraine tapped the map, an excited glimmer in her eyes.

"That bastard Atall first. Just in case. We know exactly where that one is so we better get it over with first. Unless one of the other two is closer. We'll be able to tell if we watch the angles for the ring's paths. Then we'll go from there. Do we bring them all back here or?"

"I'd appreciate it. I'd love to see what happens when they're all together," said Arisia.

"Probably safer as well," mumbled Zerathstra. "Considering the forces at play, it'd be better if we're together. In case it summons something. Or if it teleports all those present somewhere we can't follow."

Henry nodded. "That's probably better. I can maybe shorten the trip by then with a few Shadow hops. It might be rough but by then, I should probably be able to handle it. Especially if we can meet some A-ranks on the journey."

Velistraine clapped, a wide smile on her face. "We've got a plan, then."

***

After a quick session of catching up, Velistraine, Zerathstra and Arisia all trailed away to let Henry get some rest, which left him alone with a slowly levitating crab.

"Ready for a new journey, Maurice?" asked Henry, laying back on the lounge chair.

Maurice came to a stop right in front of Henry, the water of the pool lapping at his dangling legs. "Yes!" he said, raising both claws as two of Henry's Octominds raised their arms in concert. They'd latched on to Maurice's shell and were just goofing off with the crab as Henry eyed them both, lids heavy. Maurice had shrunk in size, curiously, which told Henry he was getting more comfortable with playing with his mass.

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

"I love Thalis," Maurice began as he landed at the edge of the pool. "But I want to see the other places too. How was your fight by the way?"

Henry would be lying if he said he wasn't curious as well.

"It was fun. Painful, but fun. I didn't really get much out of it when it comes to new Skills, but I'm pretty sure both Lightning Discharge and Lightning Dash are ready to upgrade along with a bunch of others. I just need to take a few hours to go through the process. I'll do it after my nap."

"Right… we don't have access to the System to do it for us, anymore," Maurice mused as he produced a kraken roe and turned it around in his hand while Maurice nodded.

"Exactly. Shouldn't be too difficult, though. How about you? What have you been up to? I was surprised you didn't want to join to fight the lobster."

"I wanted to! But I needed help from Arisia for something. Also… lightning isn't fun," he said, drooping a little. "I have the resistance and everything but…"

Maurice trailed off, shuddering, and Henry chuckled. "Fair enough. It's not fun most times." Henry sunk resting his head against the weaved fibers, closing his eyes for second. "So? Did you get what you want from Arisia?"

"Yes! But it still needs work. I'll show you when it's ready."

Henry cracked an eye open and eyed the crab a little. "Hmmm… alright then," he grumbled. Then closing his eye, he continued. "Alright I'm gonna take a nap. I'll see you later."

"Okay! Bye!"

Henry smiled as Maurice zipped away, with Henry's two Octominds raising their arms as if they were riding on a roller coaster, and Henry's consciousness slowly drifted away.

***

Henry wasn't exactly sure how much time had passed when he'd woken up, but it was in the early hours of night. The soft purples over the horizon told him it had been barely an hour since the sun had set, and feeling rested, he began pulling on his stash of cores.

Let's do some upgrading, then, he thought once he made sure everything was fine through his Octominds' vision and memory.

Guiding his consciousness inward, he assigned two Octominds to isolate the area in his soul that held Lightning Discharge and Lightning Dash, then with the others he slowly scanned the rest of his abilities for what else was ready to take the next step.

Voracious Grip is ready to move on to B-rank. Maw and Fortitude of the Trickster as well. Spiteful Detonation is only E-rank but I feel like it could easily jump to C-rank. Toxic Ray isn't ready to upgrade from D-rank, and I still need to mess with it a little. Echoing Arm and Summon Illusions aren't ready to get past D-rank… but Siphoning Touch is. Mana Nexus is ready to go up to B-rank. Telekinesis is ready as well. Identify?… feels ready. Domain and Pathfinding are both going to stay in C-rank. They need a little more time.

With his list established, Henry drew on the mysterious energies held within the cores and started drowning the abilities he felt had matured enough with them. He still had to work on them one at a time, just in case he ran out of tokens. But concentrating on holding the energies felt a lot easier than it had been the first time.

In the end, and after a handful of hours, all the abilities he'd singled out had upgraded. All but Spiteful Detonation, who'd successfully upgraded to D-rank, but it wasn't ready to move up to C-rank. It felt close, though. He'd bet he just needed one or two fights with the explosive Skill to see it upgrade.

Getting up from his chair, Henry stretched his arms above his head as his remaining Octominds orbited around excitedly, one of them landing on top of his head. Henry looked up at the dangling arms and smiled. "How about you start looking into changing Toxic Ray a little? I want to be able to use my own venoms through it. Try… working with a bit of conceptual essence of Predation and Thaumaturgy. Create a one-time Skill with it, and we'll see if we can patch that in Toxic Ray."

The Octomind in question acquiesced and faded away, disappearing back within Henry as it went to work.

"Let's grab a bite to eat, then," Henry mumbled to himself as he walked back toward the busiest part of Thalis, and two days later, they finally set sail.

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