Before Bailey can elaborate, a massive earthquake interrupts us. The whole hut shudders like a leaf in a hurricane.

  We drop to the floor. Bailey dives under the table with surprising speed. Luckily, the hut is well-built, but even so, cracks spiderweb across the walls, making me wince.

  "Right then! Uh… maybe… maybe we should… call it a night," Bailey says, crawling out from under the table, dusting himself off. He looks a little pale.

  Bailey shows me where the bed is before heading out to rest in his vehicle.

  Another earthquake hits late into the night. After heading outside, Bailey is already out, looking down at the ground with a worried expression.

  "Goodness! Look at that! All that shakin’ today… this isn’t safe. Not anymore,” Bailey says, gesturing toward the widening cracks spreading across the ground. “Say… would you direct me to where Master Keyser kept his… cavern?”

  “I can show you where it is. But where will you be going after?” Looking into the dark jungle, I notice some small creatures flitting past.

  "Well now, can't rightly say about that just yet. But Petralis is likely the first stop – gotta restock. Then...well, then we'll see where the road takes us, eh?" Bailey returns to the hut and starts packing with renewed urgency.

  “Can I come with you?” I follow him inside. “It’s always good to have a companion, right?”

  Especially when the companion has nowhere to go.

  Bailey chuckles, shaking his head good-naturedly. "Just here for the grub, are we? Well, can't say I blame ya! As long as you leave a bit for me, you're welcome to tag along."

  We pack until dawn. As the moons fade and the sun rises, we load everything into his vehicle—a flying contraption that looks like a cross between a carriage and a dragonfly.

  "This little beauty set me back a pretty penny, I tell ya!" Bailey says, patting the side of the vehicle affectionately.

  After a smooth touchdown on a dry patch near the beach, Bailey proceeds to carefully set up a series of… well, traps.

  We return to where I’d hidden my submarine. Luckily, it’s still nestled amongst the seaweed.

  Bailey takes the controls this time. The submarine has a surprising number of functions I hadn’t even discovered, including a detailed map of the seabed and an autopilot feature.

  With Bailey at the helm, we return to Dr. Keyser’s cavern without a hitch.

  The earthquakes thoroughly rattled this place. There are even more spider-webbing cracks across the floor.

  "So… this is where he made his home. Master Keyser… he suffered a good deal here," Bailey says, a slight tremor in his voice.

  "There isn't much up here. All his work, or what's left of it, is in the lab downstairs," I say, gesturing towards the painting that conceals the hidden passage.

  "That's… that's… by the stars…" Bailey's eyes widen, and he takes a shaky breath. "That's it. The Anunnaki treasure…" He stares at the painting, practically vibrating with excitement. "That's… that's the one they've been searchin' for…"

  "What now?" I ask, thoroughly confused. "This thing is a treasure? Of the gods?!"

  “Aye… it is,” Bailey says. He freezes for a moment, then nods slowly. “There was talk of a painting. Stolen from the Anunnaki. They’ve been huntin’ for it for ages. Still are, I reckon.”

  "What's so special about it?" I carefully touch the painting, taking a closer look. It just looks like a normal painting. The gold looks a little… off, but that's it.

  “I never knew… not a thing,” Bailey says, moving closer and peering at the painting, even sniffing it curiously.

  “The materials… goodness. The finest you could find, I’d wager. All that gold… It's mixed with Adamantine. The whole frame, the canvas itself… Adamantine covered in gold. And there are other things in there too… rare stones, even plants, by the looks of it.”

  So… this Dr. Keyser is a master thief?!

  "So… should we take it? We could use some coin for our travels, you know," I say, smirking and rubbing my hands together.

  "No… no way," Bailey says, shaking his head in disbelief.

  “We could just, you know, take the frame and melt it down or something.” I try to pry a piece of the frame off with my bare hands.

  “That’s… no. That isn’t right. And how to work Adamantine, to shape it or anything… Those are secrets. Once it’s set in gold, it’s practically indestru…” Before Bailey can finish, my hand slips.

  The scale on the back of my hand scrapes across the canvas and along the frame. Sparks erupt, flying everywhere.

  My hair flares up, hundreds of thousands of strands, each one poking into the painting and frame. The entire artwork shimmers, bathed in a golden glow.

  The visions sharpen with each visit. My essence sits on a small iridescent platform, kind of like a tree stump, beneath the massive golden sphere.

  Iridescent strings intertwined with golden strings extend from beneath me into the inky blackness below, like glowing roots.

  Specks of lights rise along the roots. A few flicker and fade, turning translucent before falling back into the darkness.

  Most of the specks, however, transform into golden motes, drawn upward by the golden strings into the sphere’s warm embrace.

  The light from the iridescent strings intensifies. Radiating with energy, the roots multiply, growing thicker and stronger.

  Branch-like structures sprout around me, forming a small, glowing tree-shaped shell that envelops me.

  My essence in this dimension is trapped in a tree, and in the living dimension I am trapped in VAL. Why do I have two essences?

  If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  Then suddenly, I snap back to the living dimension.

  Bailey stands behind me, his face ashen, jaw hanging open, easily wide enough to accommodate a grapefruit, maybe even a small melon if he really stretched.

  “It’s… gone. All of it. Every last bit,” Bailey whispers.

  “You mean… the Adamantine in this painting… is all gone?!” I clutch a handful of my hair, which promptly reverts to its usual silver.

  “That… that was probably more Adamantine than anyone’s seen in… well, years. Maybe even a decade,” Bailey says, slowly sinking to the floor behind me, as if the weight of this revelation is too much to bear. His voice is heavy with despair. "That was a treasure...priceless history, priceless art."

  A quick check of my bag, however, offers a small consolation. The two gold-plated Adamantine bars are still safely tucked away.

  “I don’t know what Master Keyser made… but you… you’re something else entirely,” Bailey mutters, staring at me with wide, unfocused eyes.

  I can’t exactly tell Bailey about the higher dimension and the afterlife. Some things are better kept to oneself… at least for now.

  Bailey whips up a quick snack in the kitchen while we rest for a while.

  Turns out, the ingredients aren’t half bad. I’m just a culinary disaster in this world.

  Bailey crumples to his knees, at the corner where Dr. Keyser’s dust lies after we return to the lab.

  “Master Keyser… I finally found you… after all this time…” His voice cracks, tears streaming down his face.

  “But… you’re… gone…” He buries his face in his hands, utterly heartbroken.

  Eventually, the worst of his grief subsides, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.

  You will see him again… eventually… I think, though I keep the thought to myself. Death is a tricky subject, especially when you’ve glimpsed what lies beyond.

  Bailey carefully gathers all the dust into a prepared vase. He carries the vase to a secluded corner, digs a small hole, and gently places it inside.

  “Rest easy, Master… Thank you… for everything,” he whispers, his voice thick with emotion.

  “Whoa…” Bailey comments, shaking his head in astonishment. “This is something else entirely. This technology… it’s far beyond anything I’ve ever encountered.” He looks around, his eyes wide with a mixture of awe and bewilderment.

  There are a couple of books that I couldn’t understand before, so I show them to Bailey.

  “Looks like Luthrak writin’… or maybe not. If I’m not off the mark… could be about magic,” Bailey says, running his fingers lightly across the texts.

  He peers at the pages, his brow furrowed in concentration, until he lets out a sigh. “These ain’t your everyday instruction manuals, that’s for sure. And I’m just as lost as you – haven’t the foggiest what they’re tryin’ to say.”

  "What magic do you know?" I ask, my curiosity piqued.

  Maybe magic is another way to get my essence unstuck from this body, and possibly a faster one than cultivation.

  Cultivation in every novel is always long and tedious. Magic, on the other hand, is quick and efficient. Efficiency is key!

  Bailey explains that Luthraks can use some fairly basic stuff—physical enhancements, a bit of elemental fiddling—using Adamantine, though he has no idea how.

  Which, he adds, is precisely why they’re kept far, far away from any Adamantine mines.

  Humans, on the other hand, are magically inept and can’t use any magic at all. So humanity focuses on developing technology.

  So humans are all muggles… same as always.

  However, human technology advances extremely fast, thanks to the knowledge from the Anunnaki.

  Apparently, it’s come so far that it’s much more useful and accessible than magic.

  With Adamantine being so rare and far more valuable than, well, pretty much everything, even the Luthraks mostly stick to human tech.

  Magic is only trotted out for special occasions—traditional ceremonies, dire emergencies, and the like.

  The Anunnaki, though… Apparently, they’re the real deal. They’re the only ones who can truly wield magic.

  Although Bailey’s never seen it firsthand, legends tell of feats that bend, break, and outright ignore the laws of physics and reality.

  After Bailey finishes his explanation, he looks at me worriedly.

  "What you can do...that's not normal. It goes against everything. The Anunnaki...they won't like that. Unless...you're one of 'em. Otherwise, they might...want to...examine you...real close."

  Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble… Rumble…

  Another earthquake hits, and this one’s a doozy. The cracks in the ground widen into gaping chasms.

  “RUN!” I yell, grabbing Bailey’s arm and hauling him towards the gate. We’re almost there when the ground beneath us decides to collapse.

  Seriously? This stupid isekai! Talk about a cliché plot line!

  “Ahhhh!!!!!!” We’re suddenly weightless, plummeting into the abyss.

  Normally in novels, there’d be a conveniently placed lake or something to cushion our fall.

  A quick glance down, nope. Just solid rock rushing up to meet us. I yank the screaming Bailey closer, pulling him on top of me.

  I’m not sure how much fall damage I’d take, but I’m fairly certain Bailey won’t survive this without some… emergency cushioning.

  Channeling my Qi, I enhance my senses, waiting for the right moment before impact. I hug Bailey close.

  The instant before we hit, I channel my Qi into my arms and legs, pushing Bailey upwards with every ounce of strength in my hands and feet.

  Crash!

  My body slams into the unforgiving rock below, creating a small crater. Yet, still no pain. And I’m still conscious.

  Bailey flies up a short distance before landing on his stomach with a soft oof. He’s not badly injured, just fainted from the sheer terror of it all.

  I grab him by the torso and scramble to the side, dodging the rocks raining down around us. The earthquake finally stops.

  After a moment, Bailey’s eyelids flutter open.

  “That was… close,” I say, helping him sit up a little.

  “Thank… thank you… I… I truly thought… that was it…” Bailey gasps, clutching his chest. His hands tremble. “How… how did you…? My life… I… I owe you… I don’t know how I can ever repay you… thank you…”

  It takes him a while to recover. He’s understandably shaken by the near-death experience.

  I pat him on the shoulder. “I could really go for a good meal when we’re out of here.”

  Pushing myself to my feet, I glance back up the way we fell. “Yeah, that was a pretty rough landing. Glad that’s over.”

  Once Bailey’s finally over the worst of the shock, he pulls out a handheld device. A bright light illuminates the area.

  “We’re… a good few hundred meters down, at least. The air’s breathable, thankfully,” Bailey says, his hand steady as he points the small device around the chamber.

  “There’s gotta be a way out. Just… hoping we don’t get another one of those shakes.” He nods towards a faint draft.

  “Seems like the air’s movin’ this way. Let’s head that direction.”

  Closely trailing behind Bailey, a blue glow suddenly spills out from ahead.

  Up close, the glow emanates from a substance coating a large patch of the cave floor. It looks like someone spilled a bucket of luminescent goo.

  “What’s that stuff?” I ask Bailey.

  “Never seen nothin’ like this before. Never been this far underground neither.” Bailey kneels to examine the glowing substance.

  Poking it with my boot, the substance feels like clay and doesn’t smell of anything. “Well, let’s keep going then.”

  Bailey nods, and we skirt around the glowing patch. We continue until we reach a large opening in the wall.

  Bailey points. “There’s a draft comin’ from here. And it’s fresh air, too.”

  The opening leads into a tunnel, quite different from the cave we were just in. Bailey stops at the entrance. “Looks like someone dug this out.”

  I drag my fingers across some unusual, shallow markings on the walls. “Probably a long time ago. We should keep moving, before another earthquake hits.”

  Those markings definitely look like they’re made by pickaxes and chisels. Someone dug this a long, long time ago.

  Something else feels off. It’s too quiet. Besides the occasional drip of water and Bailey’s heavy breathing, there’s nothing.