Elody passed me a glass of something fizzy. The carbonation tickled my nose, and I had to suppress my sneeze as I tried to sniff the drink. Not wanting to risk another sneeze, especially considering the dust I had built up in my system, I decided on a taste test instead. I liked it; it reminded me of some cucumbers I had managed to grow with my dad many years ago, but in carbonated drink form. I downed the contents in two large gulps.

  “I’m glad you like it. It’s one of my favorite things to pair with trescient sandwiches.” She set a platter of circular sandwich-like objects on the table in front of me and then refilled my glass.

  “It’s very good. Thank you for fixing up my arm. What I was trying to say before was that I was attacked by a guy covering his face. He wanted my mana orbs, but I managed to get up here with only a single stab wound, so probably a victory for me. But he’s still alive down there, do we contact the police? Are there police?” I said, turning to questions I had no idea the answers to, trying to cover the growing trepidation with a joke and half a smile.

  I reached for one of the sandwiches, seeing she had already done so, and bit into it. I didn’t know how to describe the combination of flavors on my tongue. I didn’t hate it. But unlike everything else I had so far, it wasn’t something I would have chosen on my own.

  “Yes, all training worlds tend to attract those looking to prey on the newly registered. If it’s any comfort, at least he only knew about your mana orbs. Had he learned of the experience orb, he might have fought much harder for your possessions. As for police, we don’t really have those here. The librarians will attempt to find him, though. He shouldn’t pose a problem for us,” she replied. It wasn’t exactly comforting, but at least he would be found, hopefully before he hurt anyone else.

  “Well, since we are on the topic, what is it? I know it’s powerful and apparently some kind of refined experience, but I don’t know what that means or even how to use it.” I pulled the orb out of my pocket again and placed it on the table in front of me.

  Her eyes quickly moved to it, the top two seeming to focus heavily on it. The deep purple was streaked with what looked like lightning arcs every few seconds. The longer it was the table, the quicker they seemed to come.

  Before answering my question, Elody finished her sandwich while her gaze stayed focused on the orb. “Normally, experience is collected into a person’s soul and then used by their connection with the system to enhance themselves in some way. This is usually called the soul-system bond by those who research the interaction, but you won’t likely hear the term used often. Some people are capable of siphoning off that experience into a physical manifestation and transferring it to another. This isn’t generally done outside of some extremely powerful factions, and even then, it is not often. Experience is lost in the process, and the question of who you’d take the experience from is another problem. Only extremely high-level people are capable of doing this, making the benefits almost non-existent. I know of a few exceptions where they have done so to empower their children, but it is a very risky move.” She paused and picked up another sandwich, taking a bite out of it.

  “So then, why does this even exist?” I asked, more confused about why I had the orb than before.

  “Do you know the name of the person who gave it to you? You don’t have to share that information if you don’t want to, but that may help me solve the mystery at hand,” she said after finishing her next sandwich.

  “Apparently, his name is Sanquar. At least that’s what I was told by the clerk when I showed him the insignia I was given,” Elody coughed on her drink when I said this.

  “I’m sorry, you’re sure they said Sanquar? May I see the insignia, please?” All of her eyes were focused on my left arm now. I opened my palm and showed her the same thing I had shown Pryte. Her eyes all went wide at the sight of it. “Well, that does actually explain a lot. What happened leading up to Sanquar giving you that orb?”

  “A faction of Orcs had attacked my planet. Pryte told me that they had won my universe as a level-one arena prize, I think. Anyway, during the attack, the bird, whose wing I had mended in the past, crashed through my window while being chased by one. Eventually, we were captured, and just as I was about to be killed, the world froze, and the bird spoke to me. He said he was giving me a chance to save the world, gave me that orb, marked me with his insignia, and sent me to the Spiral. I wasn’t given any time for questions, so that’s all I really know,” I explained. She nodded her head along as I talked.

  “That explains a little more. I think I can now tell you what happened. I can’t promise it’s entirely accurate, but I think I would be on it being reasonably close. Sanquar was, or I suppose is, one of, if not the best, fighters the Arena has ever seen. He changed the way the spiral worked for countless people and was on the way to changing it forever. The people at the top weren’t happy about that, and after some trumped-up charges supposedly involving theft and assassination, he was banished from the spiral to a universe without a mana flow. That experience orb there is likely everything he was able to personally cultivate in his own body over the millennia of his exile. I would guess, he one day planned to use it all at once and try to escape to a universe more to his liking without being caught, but giving it to you in order to give you a chance to save your world is entirely something he would have done in that situation,” she explained as though this should answer all my questions. It had not, not even remotely.

  “Okay, so the random bird from my yard is actually some hero of the people. That doesn't actually explain what use I have for the experience orb. Sorry, that came out grumpier than it should’ve. I only know what I do about the system and how it interacts with everything based on what I could learn in the past couple of days, so there’s a huge gaping hole in my understanding, likely bigger than that of what any average toddler knows,” I explained, hoping she understood my frustration with what had happened to me.

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  “Yes, that is a problem, and I don’t know entirely how to solve it. Generally speaking, people aren’t randomly thrust into the spiral. Usually, universes like yours are added to the spiral by some other faction through a reward of conquest, and as the ambient mana slowly bleeds into the newly added universe, eventually, your people will start to gain their own levels and abilities, allowing for proper integration. While frustrating, what you’re going through now is likely better for you though, than the alternative would be. If it’s any consolation, you are in one of the best places you could to bring yourself up to speed,” Elody said, and she had a point. Occupation and colonization of my entire universe didn’t sound like a great alternative.

  “Alright, I’ll concede that much. Pryte had said that giving away my universe had to be some screw-up due to a bureaucratic mistake. Do you have any guess how that would have happened?” I was curious about her opinion, but this one I understood. Things like this happened all the time on Earth, and we didn’t have untold years' worth of records for singular people that had to be kept track of.

  “So, your universe should have been without any ambient mana, especially any singularly powerful sources, but somehow that orb you have was created. Likely, no one double-checked that this universe was off limits, and it got entered in as a prize, and barely a prize at that. Other than this experience orb, it would have taken the Orc faction generations to actually do anything useful for them with your universe, which is probably why they were chasing after Sanquar,” she explained. I found myself agreeing with her thought process so far. At least as far as I understood, the missing linkage of knowledge still weighed heavily here.

  “So, how do I prevent the orb from interfering with my connection to the System until I’m ready to use it? How do I even use it for that matter?” I asked. That was the crux of the problem at hand. While I appreciated all the information, my chief complaint remained a problem. Right now, it was just a series of unconnected facts that didn’t help me towards my goal of saving the planet.

  “You won’t have System storage unlocked until level ten, and you can’t get to level ten without storing the orb, so that does create a bit of a problem there. How much do you trust me?” she asked with a shrug.

  “Enough that I don’t have much alternative. I’m guessing you are about to suggest putting the orb into your storage?” I asked. I was willing to do it, as it would not only let me gain experience, but it would also place it in someone’s safekeeping who was much more able to protect it than I was. I didn’t want anyone to realize I had it and hunt me down for it.

  “Correct, so if you’re okay with that, I can store it right now, and then we can move on to any other questions you may have.” I nodded and pushed the orb towards her. Sometimes you just have to make that leap of faith in trusting people. She put her hand over it, and it vanished. I felt an odd sensation inside of myself, almost like something had settled into place. Another topic popped into my mind first, though.

  “Any guess why the System hasn’t given me a core creation quest yet? So far, it’s sent me to read two books, both of which you called archaic. Considering the location of the second, it certainly seems like these aren’t popular reads.” I didn’t want to share my own possible conclusion, which could taint her own thinking on it. It was better to see what she came up with on her own.

  “Nope, trying to read into the whims of the System is a good way to go insane, though. Just keep in mind you don’t have to do all the quests it wants you to. You could always just form a core on your own. There are plenty of more modern books on the process.” I considered what she said, and while I might eventually end up doing that, for now, I wanted to see where this quest path ended.

  “You mentioned souls before. How do those work? Is this just something everyone has? We have a lot of religions on my planet, and most do posit that, but there is no connection to anything like this.” I had been wondering about souls every time the word had popped up, but I assumed it was just another word for inner self or something similar. The mention of the Soul-System connection earlier made me question my theory.

  “Souls are what make everyone unique, the singular lifeforce that gives rise to you. I don’t really specialize in any soul magic, so for anything more in-depth on the study, I recommend looking into soul orbs. It’s a bit of an esoteric field, but there is some research into it,” she explained. From what I understood of mana orbs, their colors represented their general types. Of the six I had received, two were green, two were white, one was red, and the final one was blue.

  The green ones represented some sort of body enhancement. The white ones would give me access to different elemental magics. The red one controlled aspects of life, which I had already decided would be the one I socketed once I had a core. I hoped to use it to deal with the problem of my age. Finally, the blue one allowed someone to imbue effects onto other people and items. They all sounded interesting from what I had read, but I didn’t know enough about long-term growth abilities or anything like that to make an informed decision, so life jumped out at me as the easy choice. I didn’t remember seeing a color for soul, though I also hadn’t seen one for experience either, and I knew that existed. These were likely covered in more advanced books than what I had thumbed through so far.

  “I have one last question that I want to bother you with today. I seem to have infinite questions, but the rest can wait. Is there any way I can check the System without having to go to the terminal in my room?” I asked, hoping there was just an easy way I had missed.

  “At level one, you unlock the mobile interface; likely, the experience orb was preventing that as well. With it safely in storage, you should now be able to complete a few more things at your terminal, and as my lunch break is about over, it’s a good thing that was your last question. I suggest you go give the terminal a try. If you ever need the orb out of storage, let me know, and as always, I’m here if you need any help.” She smiled as she stood up, clearing off the table before leading me from the room.

  The addition of a new universe to the Spiral during the times between expansion cycles isn’t as common, but it does happen. Every decade, a few such universes that are easily detectable and breachable through chaotic space are offered up as prizes. These universes generally have very little value but are useful to motivate some of the Arena factions when the prize pools dwindle.

  JRit’s History of Spiral Growth

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