Year 0 Month 5 Week 2

  —Vroom-Fwish-Flash-Tinkle-Tankle—

  There were no sound effects when holding a quest—in fact, it was the opposite: absolute silence and a single thought. Sometimes, though, Zephyr liked to make his own sound effects, imagining a roaring wind, tearing air, and crystals clinging. Give it a more magical feeling instead of remembering a forgotten errand. That was doubly true when the task was nonsensical. What is with these people?

  Letting go of the crystal, he almost grabbed it again; the task was so odd. Instead, he turned back to the receptionist, who handed it to him. “You want me to deliver this to a tree?” Holding up a small package.

  “A tree house.” She calmly corrected

  Zephyr was taken aback by the nonchalance. “Okay, seriously. I have to ask: Is it the whole squirrel thing? It’s not like I wear squirrel ears or something.”

  The receptionist raised an eyebrow, him realizing that the crystals floating around him were, in fact, in the shape of ears and a tail.

  -cough-

  The crystals shift out into his second favorite formation, a nebula.

  That’s actually fine, whatever, but it’s a serious question. Is this for a kid or something? I mean, if it’s in a tree house?”

  The receptionist seemed amused. “No. It's a legit business; their office is just in an odd spot.”

  “A tree house. It’s not a lemonade stand or something by a tree?”

  “It’s a full adult business with adult people.” Her smile was playful. There was something she wasn't telling him, and if the pattern with odd requests held, she wouldn’t tell him. This better be legit. He thought, looking over the address. It wasn’t too far from where they were, so he decided to give it a try. The job itself might only take thirty minutes.

  “It doesn’t require me to climb the outside of a building or up into the branches?”

  “No. It should not.”

  He stares at her for a long moment, not liking the should in that statement. “Alright. Weird, but ok.”

  #

  —Vroom-Honk-Fwish—

  Cars passed by on the street. A courier stands confused in front of an old, crumbling parking lot overgrown with grass, filled with cracks, and lined with trees at the back of the lot. There were several cars parked; all the cars were way too nice to be sitting in this kind of lot. This is the address. Where is this tree house? All he could see were the incongruities, and he stared at the back of the lot.

  Is it one of those trees?

  He spotted the sign before the rift. There, sitting in the trunk of the large old maple tree —its canopy covering a quarter of the lot and roots destroying most of the lot—was the rift pulsating with a thin printed sign hanging above that said:

  Hardwood Advocates

  -Under Construction-

  Does it count as a treehouse if it’s inside the tree? Then, something else occurred to him: Can you even set something permanent inside a rift?

  Curiosity warred with his sense of self-preservation. Well, this isn’t the weirdest delivery I’ve done.

  Zephyr was still half convinced it was a prank or something. People had been hiring him for all kinds of odd jobs, taking him to random locations like a park or a company picnic, where they all wanted pictures with him. One was inside a grocery store. Something he’d learned from clients with to much money, was they’d ask for the weirdest things, and they were kind of dicks.

  With a sigh, he made his way into the rift; the familiar feeling of being moved without moving washed through him. Suddenly, the world was different, smelling of wood and fresh asphalt. Instead of emerging from the tree as he would have expected, he found himself standing atop a massive parking lot filled with cars, construction equipment, and items that were impossible to fit through the rift.

  Does size not matter? Reflecting on how he entered, he touched the rift. In theory, it could be the size of a quarter, and it would still pull him in, or not. He hadn’t tested different-sized rifts, and Zephyr didn’t think Tim had done testing either. All the ones he’d seen were about the size of a person. However, upon closer inspection, it may not be size-dependent, considering the numerous vehicles and equipment.

  But that wasn’t the most surprising thing. It was a massive tree with a newly built, full-sized house constructed within its canopy. An ornate twisting staircase leads into the building.

  The entire scene was surreal, as it was an entire world all for a parking lot and a single building.

  It was odd, to put it mildly. Not to mention the nagging feeling in the back of his head urging him to help clean the lot and trim the branches. The place looked fairly clean. They must be almost done.

  That was not a reassuring thought as he passed more and more equipment. He had no idea what would happen, and if previous experience held, it would not be good. He could only hope there was some physical limit or they had a plan. Please have a plan.

  Attempting to put the terrifying thought out of his mind, he found himself at the front desk.

  “How can I help you?” A man towered over the desk, at least a head and a half taller than Zephyr.

  “Mythic Deliveries, Mythic messenger Ratatoskr delivering package for Hardwood Advocates”

  The man’s eyes lit up. “Great! Did you know you're the only one who brought it inside to us? Everyone else just left it outside. We've had to leave Frank outside just for packages. It’s not very efficient.”

  “Huh.” Zephyr hadn’t seen anyone out there waiting for packages, but it was none of his business. “I’m not surprised. Rifts are still a big unknown, and I can’t believe you're trying to build in here.”

  The man grew excited. “It’s a significant investment, and by doing it this way, we have a unique, one-of-a-kind office.” The man whom Zephyr was slowly suspecting wasn’t just a receptionist, said proudly.

  “So.” Zephyr couldn’t hold back his curiosity. “I have to know. How do you guys plan to ignore the quest?” That was the only thing that made sense for them to never clear the rift.

  The man laughed, “Oh, that. We aren’t. We are actually finishing it up today.”

  “Oh...” A sense of dread welled up inside him. “What happens when you finish with all this stuff inside?”

  The man looked confused, and Zephyr’s heart dropped when the man asked, “What happens normally?”

  #

  I should probably get out of here. Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to get out of there, but he saw these people completely oblivious to what might happen. He couldn’t in good conscience just leave them without at least a warning.

  At least he would have, if not for the world suddenly going quiet, the nagging feeling that had been present since he entered was gone.

  “Hey. I think they finished.” The man said excitedly. “What?” He saw Zephyr’s face filled with horror.

  Then, like a sudden, familiar pressure, it pushed upon Zephyr. A pressure that seemed poised to push him out and back into the outside world, except that the push paused. Grasping on something inside and around him. The all at once, whatever it grabbed was dragged out of him. A wave of something pulsed out of him, rippling through the rift, and everywhere it touched, things seemed more, more stable, more solid, just more real than before. Zephyr fell to one knee, feeling as though someone had kicked him in the stomach while he was running a marathon.

  —Thunk—

  The man across from him must have felt it, too, as he fell forward onto the desk, gasping.

  That was new.

  “What the hell was that?”

  “Don’t know. Guessing? You stabilized the rift.” Zephyr pushed himself up. “That was a lot different than when I cleared a rift.”

  That seemed to surprise the man. “What was that like?” He asked, skepticism filling his voice. Though Zephyr understood his point, many people thought he was younger, given his small stature, and assumed he would be taller by this point. So they assume I hadn’t awakened.

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Sudden influx of energy, and everyone and everything inside suddenly outside. Kind of the opposite of what happened here.”

  “Good that didn’t happen here.” The man said flatly. Zephyr could tell he did not believe him. “That would have been a massive issue. Especially for HR.”

  “And everyone inside.” A chill shot down his spine imagining how catastrophically it all could have gone wrong, A house suddenly falling on top of him as he and everyone inside were ejected out. “Well, good luck, and have a good day.”

  “You too.”

  Zephyr was already running; he needed to get out before something went wrong. Just because everything didn’t immediately explode didn’t mean there wouldn’t be some kind of delayed reaction. When he reached the exit, he came to a halt. It wasn't the pulsating rift he had come to expect. Before him lay a stable passageway leading back into the lot. One he could see right through, as if this wasn’t a separate space of its own.

  “What?” He lifted his hand to touch the edge but then noticed the door had no glow, nor did he. He turned, looking up, searching for his usual cluster cloud of crystals, only to find them greatly reduced to almost nothing. None of the completed quests remained; only the uncompleted jobs were left. Is that what it grabbed? Did this place absorb all his crystals to stabilize?

  Now pissed off, I’ll bill them for it. He stepped through the entrance and had an odd feeling of slipping through somewhere, as if he had turned to the side to leave—a different sensation than when entering.

  Despite his annoyance, Zephyr’s curiosity was piqued as he examined the exit, seeing the rift as normal, except that he could see inside, and the edges were less broken, smoother, as if the rift itself was integrating with the trunk. Permanently. He could touch the edge without being pulled in. He wondered, How they were going to get the cars out.

  Walking away, Zephyr pulled out his phone to make a call. “Tim, you’re not going to believe this.”

  #

  Tim appears below on screen, angled out on a stick. He stands in front of a parking lot, wearing his white lab coat. “Permanent rifts. The most recent phenomenon. One so recent I only heard about them today!”

  The video pans over to show a frazzled-looking man accompanied by a construction worker with a hard hat. Right next to them is a doorway in a tree that leads to another lot. A forklift was sitting right next to the entrance. “I’m here outside the first permanent rift created by Hardwood Advocates.”

  Tim says as he makes his way towards the two talking.

  “Frank, I don’t know if we can get this out.” The man in the hard hat says, looking uncertain.

  “Shouldn’t it work like when you went inside?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. We can try, but it might damage the equipment.”

  “Okay,” Frank looked thoughtful, staring at the entrance. “Okay.” Let's just get something big and try to put it through; then we can try the equipment.”

  “All right. I think I have some plywood technically too big to fit. We can try.”

  “Thanks, Jim.”

  Jim then moved back through the rift as Tim walked up. “Excuse me, sir.”

  “Huh? Yes?”

  The camera frames Tim next to Frank as he holds out a microphone to Frank, “What can you tell us about this permanent rift?” Tim looked closer, “Actually, I’d say this looks more like a glimpse into another world. There are no broken edges; it’s all smoothed out. You can even see through it.” Tim’s voice grew excited as he spoke.

  Frank’s confusion disappeared as he noticed the camera and quickly put on a big smile. “See, we here at Hardwood Advocates are forward thinkers who are not afraid to try new things.” He gestured to the realm. “We are the first to build and create an office inside one of these rifts. It’s perfect; it takes up zero space and only requires someone to walk through a tree. Were we can guarantee privacy while clients explore our liminal space.”

  “Wow. Fascinating.”

  —Click Click—

  Tim now had a clipboard in his hands, attempting to juggle the selfy-stick and a pen, “How would you describe the feeling of making the portal permanent?”

  “Um, relief?” Frank, seeing the clipboard, became guarded. “What is this?”

  “Oh, I’m Tim the Archmage—a YouTuber and researcher, and this here is a scientific marvel.” He said, gesturing towards the rift where a construction worker was walking in and out holding a large piece of plywood. The wood warping dimensions as it passed through. “Now, when you say relief, are you referring to it not expelling everything and everyone out or that the request disappeared?”

  “What?” The man’s eyes darted back and forth. “No, sorry. I will not be answering any questions.”

  “Oh. I’m sorry. Could I get a look at the permanent space?”

  “No cameras. This is a proprietary technique that we are not ready to unveil, and hence, it is closed to the immediate public. He put his body in front of the rift, trying to cover it.

  “But if I could just—”

  “No cameras, and no comment. Please leave the premises before I am forced to call the authorities.” His voice rising.

  “But this could—”

  The man in the hard hat came from behind Frank. “Sir, please leave,” he said.

  The video went blank. As Zephyr and Jake put the phone down, “Wow, they changed their tune real fast.” Jake commented. Before snarking, “I bet they think they can make money off this.”

  Zephyr, shaking his head, added, “Probably. That’s how they work. Notice how he initially thought he was getting free advertising. Then, the moment you said ‘researcher’ and ‘discovery,' he realized—money.

  Jake stood and began stretching. “So, we’re going to race or what?”

  Zephyr let out a long sigh. “Do we really need to? I thought we were doing s’mores.”

  “We are,” He said, pointing to a table and an unlit fire pit. “Just later. We have finally secured the pallets in a stable position, addressed the other obstacles, and installed all the necessary safety equipment.

  “But why am I racing Jake? We’ve done this before. We both know he’s faster.”

  “On a straight away, but I believe you might be faster over the obstacles.”

  “ I thought the pallets weren’t stable enough to be obstacles.”

  “They weren’t, but they still worked to line the course and were perfect for some obstacles. I was able to pay for the rest; I even got cameras installed everywhere.

  “That had to be expensive.

  Tim had a sly smile. “You’d be shocked at what you’re allowed to spend grant money on.”

  #

  “Welcome everyone back to Cultivating Magic, my little disciples. I am your magical host, Tim, the Archmagus of Magi. And here we are today with two of our returning guests.” Tim moves the camera to bring Zephyr and Jake into the frame. Both smirk as Tim puts the microphone in front of Zephyr.

  “Squirrel Ratatoskr. Tier two skill, long running, level eight. Body level one, six foot one inches.” Zephyr introduced himself flat and matter-of-factly, just giving his stats while trying to hold back a laugh the entire time.

  Jake followed suit. “Jake, aka Doaist Pete. Tier One Skill, Training, Level One. Fifth realm of body refinement. Eight foot one inches.”

  “It’s body level five, Jake.” Tim’s corrected off-camera.

  “Hey, you leveled up again,” Zephyr stated happily, ignoring Tim’s comment.

  “Same to you.”

  “So what does level five do?”

  “Oh, it’s fascinating— ”

  “Ehem…” Tim cut Jake off; the two were now laughing at ignoring the camera.

  “But you’ll have to wait like everyone else. We’ll have a video out soon. With a cocky smirk, “Now the real question, Think you can actually beet me?”

  “Who knows.” Zephyr shrugged. “I’m just thinking of the smores.”

  “Same. I got some caramel-filled chocolate.”

  “That sounds delicious.”

  “Yes, you heard that right, folks: our Daoist and Courier are about to have a race.” Despite them rudely ignoring you, my lovely students.” The screen changed to a zoomed out area set up in a massive square spiral. Twenty-five obstacles, spaced twenty-five yards apart, spiraling out from the center. Totaling a whopping six-hundred-twenty-five yards.”

  The camera cut back to Tim in front of the course as Jake and Zephyr took position. It’s a race for the century, folks. Our local cultivator versus our master of deliveries. Wait, I already said that.”

  Zephyr and Jake approached the starting line. Tim, standing off-camera, said, “Ready!” On your mark! Get set! GO!”

  At his word, the two shot off like bullets, both moving at speeds that would have put the Olympic sprinters to shame just five months ago, Jake quickly taking the lead. His every step, heavy and hard, left deep indents in the ground, covering meters at a time.

  The squirrel, by contrast, looked almost otherworldly. As his feet glided over the ground, his movements were smooth and quick, leaving no sign of his passage behind. It was as if he were skating across dry grass effortlessly, his movements smooth and effortless. Despite that, he was still falling farther behind.

  Jake was taller, his stride naturally longer, and—as he would say it— all the impurities had been removed, and he was at the peak of physical refinement. Not to mention he trained every day.

  Zephyr —The Squirrel— was still overweight, heavy, and, compared to them, short—much like his namesake. There was only so much technique could do to improve speed, and yet he was still surpassing what a person could do just a few months ago.

  The race was heavily in the cultivator's favor, at least until they encountered the first obstacle —a twenty-foot wooden tent wall with a seventy-five-degree incline. Jake hit the ladder, barely slowing him down to find the proper footing or handhold.

  “There he goes, our resident cultivator, hitting the first obstacle. Look at him move. That ladder was nothing.”

  Zephyr climbed up on the ladder mere seconds before Jake hit the ground. Instead of slowing, he jumped his foot and hit the first rung, and he scurried up the ladder as if it were flat ground.

  “Our resident squirrel, running up the ladder as if it didn’t even exist, eating away at Jake's lead.”

  The next three obstacles were a cliff-style run, quintuple steps—five angled steps that alternated from left to right over water —and a spinning barrel. Jake stumbled but managed to make it over; Zephyr had actually taken a decent lead, with each obstacle allowing him to draw closer to Jake. It was when he hit the fourth obstacle that Zephyr ran into his first issue—a standard set of monkey bars.

  Zephyr jumped, hit the first rung, and repeated the same issue that had occurred on the fire escape. his hands slipped, and he hit the ground and rolled.

  “Ooph, looks like our squirrel's lead might not last. He will now have to start the obstacle over.”

  Zephyr spun, returning to the platform, and carefully jumped, recalling his lessons from the previous time and taking his momentum into account. Slowly, he made his way across the bars, Jake swinging right past him halfway across, regaining his lead.

  “And there goes Jake taking back his lead.”

  The race continued like that, Zephyr catching back up at any obstacle he could run on and then immediately losing his lead when he encountered something that required his upper body. Making it a much closer race than either expected.

  Finally, Jake crossed the finish line, and Zephyr was stuck at the last obstacle —a set of rings hanging high, and he’d have to swing across. “And there it is folks Jake takes the win.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think I can finish.” Zephyr had fallen at least fifteen times. His hands burned, and he couldn’t even hold on to a single ring anymore.

  “And there you have it, folks. Despite his amazing movements and impossible balance, our squirrel has been beaten by our cultivator.” Walks up to Zephyr with camera and microphone, “Now, anything you want to say to the audience?”

  “Skills are amazing in one area. I think I focused too much on my feet when leveling. We need to incorporate some upper body movement somehow.”

  “Wise words. Now, from our champion Cultivator Jake — also known as Doaist Pete!

  A smug smile on his face, Jake replied, “Just cause your body refinement is high does not mean you're better than a skilled skill user. I train every day and still barely beat the squirrel. I don’t think anyone who simply increases their body realm could do the same. So keep training folks, and immortality will be yours.”

  “We don’t know that yet. But it could be. This has been your fabulously magical Archmage Tim, Ratatoskr, and Doaist Pete. If you liked the video and want to see more. Please like, subscribe, and hit that notification bell so that we can continue to bring you more of our amazing content. Bye.”

  * * *