I had hoped to get this out this weekend, but it isn't compiling properly so I need to do a little more work to get it to show up on e readers the way I want it to. I'm going to do one last proofread/formatting read this weekend, then hopefully hand it to Amazon around Wednesday for a release next weekend. In the meantime, I'll be uploading the first five to ten percent of the novel here.
The Ten Thousand Worlds orbited each other in a chaotic and constantly changing storm of swirling planets too complex to be fully mapped, even by the inhabitants of those worlds themselves. Even more wondrous than the planets were the creatures that lived there. They were inhabited by powerful and mysterious creatures, monstrous and beautiful.
Among those many worlds one was populated by a race of beautiful creatures I’d taken to calling elves. On one particular continent beneath a set of ice-peaked mountains sat a forest known as the Hearthwood. That was where I made my home, and where the people I’d come to call family lived.
Before I arrived, the Hearthwood was an unremarkable forest. It contained a few feuding tribes of elves and the monsters who preyed upon them. Enemies came one after another, seeking to dominate or destroy this little forest. A mighty clan arose from the feuding tribes, with the help of the companions I’d gathered. We used that unity to repel our invaders and began turning the Hearthwood into a place that was starting to catch the eye of the rest of the Deanian Queendom.
“The Hearthwood is certainly changing.” Sava sighed as she gazed at the construction around us. Teams of elves used magic to raise towering trees from the ground. They grew from seed to the size of a building in just a few days and quickly became big enough to hold homes and shops aloft on their massive limbs.
A set of more traditional stone structures were rising from the ground at the feet of the gargantuan trees as earth aspect elves used their magic for construction. With the number of elves manifesting from wisps in the Hearthwood every month there was a constant demand for additional housing. And that wasn’t even taking into account the number of traders headed to the Hearthwood from elsewhere in the hopes that they could trade for the valuable goods and services only we could provide.
“It’s all for the best,” I assured Sava, a matriarch of the Hearthwood Clan. “After all, I think it was our own daughter who approved expansion into this area.”
“Salica, our third daughter.” Sava nodded. “She’s been taking care of more than I realized while we were off in the capital. Truth be told, I think the substitute governing council we put into place while we went to the capital has done a better job than we would have. Our old system of governance was designed to keep a few hundred elves working together, not several thousand.”
“I’m the patriarch of the Hearthwood, and you’re one of our matriarchs.” I replied. “There’s no reason we can’t enjoy the hard work of our people and the success of our children.”
A small smile crept up the side of Sava’s mouth. “I’d feel better if Salica hadn’t zoned an alchemy district. She’s letting my competition set up shop on our doorstep!”
I laughed at that. “No one here would dare compete with you in a contest of alchemy. The elves of the capital tried that and failed. Truthfully, I’d wager a fair number of alchemists wanting to set up shop moved to the Hearthwood in the hopes that they could be closer to you and thereby hope you’d deign to teach them something.”
Sava and I spoke and enjoyed each other’s company for a while. Soon enough a bespectacled elf carrying a clipboard and pen approached me.
“Illiel.” I smiled as another matriarch of the Hearthwood Clan joined us.
“It seems one of the children found your original design for a water filtration system. They’re scaling it up to provide clean drinking water for the entire city.” Illiel explained.
“I thought that giant tower looked familiar.” I said as we all stared in the direction of a monstrous column twice as tall as I was. Earth aspect elves had reshaped the river so that most of the water flowed through the giant tower and into a large tank of drinkable water off to the side.
“Your original inventions have become something of a subject of study for the more scholarly elves among us.” Illiel explained. “You and Mac seem to have a never-ending flood of strange ideas.”
When I’d come to this world, I hadn’t been alone. I’d arrived with Sam, Dean, Mac, and a couple of elves. While I was separated from Sam and Dean, my AI companion Mac was still by my side and had been an invaluable companion for operating the ship that brought us here, known as The Wanderer. While we couldn’t get it to budge from its landing zone, it had plenty of other features. It was just making me work to use them.
“You don’t know the half of it.” I said proudly. “Where I came from there were cities that would make the capital of Deania look like a small village. Now that we’re finally safe and have some real elf-power to work with, I think we’ll finally be able to start putting some of that knowledge to use.”
“Then I’ll have to look forward to what the Hearthwood can become.” Sava said.
“You can do more than look forward to it.” Illiel said. “There’s a council meeting tonight. With Theo living in the capital, this is one of the few chances we’ll all have to be together in the Hearthwood again.”
I made my way up to one of the tallest trees left standing in the settlement. It looked like an ancient giant, casting half the town in the shade of its leaves. Truthfully though, the tree had been grown just a few short weeks ago and pumped full of so much nature zeal it seemed like the thing had been growing for a hundred years. Now it was more than large enough to hold a room as large as an amphitheater nestled between its branches, which is exactly what the Riverweed tribe had done to make our new council chambers.
“It looks like there’s more than a table in here.” I remarked as I glanced around. Sava’s sister Katiana was hovering around a massive circular ring-shaped table and smiled at my entrance.
“That’s because it is.” Katiana explained as she shot a glance at the rows of seats behind us. “We’ve had to expand the room several times since the original council last held a session.”
“What for?” I asked curiously.
“The Hearthwood Clan has grown significantly. The councilors can no longer perform the duties of their office themselves. Every one of us has an entire team at our disposal to keep the Hearthwood running smoothly and efficiently. There’s a lot of work to be done, but thanks to our recent victories many of our people are flush with wealth. Money is changing hands quickly as elves turn coin into strength by buying cultivation equipment or valuable potions from the alchemists we’re quickly becoming famous for. With money comes power, underlings, and people who want to be very involved in our political process.”
“What potion sells the best?” Sava demanded.
Katiana laughed. “The one-star Wound Mending Tincture sells the most bottles each month. But I think something like that is beneath your notice, Sava. After all, with Theo, you can harvest vitality and make as many two or three-star Vitality Potions as you want. Just one of those would earn you more than a hundred Wound Mending Tinctures.”
Elves rarely produced males, and human males were particularly rare and valuable to elves. I wasn’t quite sure why, but my human body produced vitality in abundance, which was a vital ingredient to elves both for their cultivation and for making more elves. The fact that Sava, Illiel, and the rest of the Hearthwood matriarchs were able to ascend to the true mage realm could be at least partially credited to the power they gained by tapping my body.
Not that the process of donating vitality had been painful in any way. Far from it. That was a task usually done behind a closed door and between a set of sheets. Given the elves natural beauty, I suspected most humans in my position would be happy to help elves cultivate in this manner.
Sava grumbled at Katiana’s words, but she knew it really wouldn’t be fair for a true mage and a four-star alchemist like her to brew potions meant for heartwielders and mage acolytes. Besides, with the potions in her repertoire she had a million better ways to spend her time.
The rest of the council, both new and old, filed into the room. Even with twice the number of people, the room still felt large. That’s when other elves started filling in. Some of them were elves I recognized, like Malla the tailor or Grotkins, our only hobgoblin resident. There were many faces that were entirely new to me though.
“What’s everyone doing here?” I asked curiously as I took my seat at the head of the table.
“This is a public council meeting.” Katiana explained. “Everyone seated behind us is a citizen of the Hearthwood, gathered to watch the council meeting. Most of them are influential shopkeepers with a stake in our local politics and they’re eager to hear what’s decided tonight.”
I shrugged and nodded thoughtfully. “Then it seems we’ll have to do our best to look like competent politicians.”
Katiana launched into a speech welcoming me and the matriarchs of the Hearthwood Clan back and explained that I wouldn’t be living here permanently for the foreseeable future because I’d made a deal with Princess Tivana to live in the palace with her. I would, however, have free access to the teleportation array in the palace and the one I’d set up in the Hearthwood, so I’d only ever be a short trip away. The matriarchs would be splitting their time between being with me in the capital, dealing with projects back in the Hearthwood, and dedicating themselves to their own cultivation.
That didn’t surprise anyone. Matriarchs of all the big clans spent most of their time either adventuring or cultivating. The actual governance of a matriarch’s clan was either done by a lesser matriarch or delegated altogether. For us, the substitute council would shift into a more permanent role, freeing up me and the girls to do as we pleased while the Hearthwood mostly ran itself.
“Now that the general business is out of the way,” Katiana said, “let’s get to what all our onlookers have likely been waiting for. Preparing the Hearthwood’s new infrastructure!”
I sat up a little straighter when I realized I’d been sagging in my chair. “I have plenty of ideas for our future expansion. We started on my proposal to build roads before we were even united as the Hearthwood Clan, and I see somebody’s already thought to start filtering water in mass so we can stop running buckets. We also have the beginnings of a school to educate the freshly manifested elves and flesh out the gaps between what they inherited in the memory fragments their wisps collected.
“That’s a good start, but we need to go far further. I want several freshwater storage reservoirs all over the city and I want water plumbed from them to Castle Mac and eventually to other buildings. I want to widen the roads so four good-laden wagons can pass each other abreast. We’ll have two lanes going one direction and two in the other. I also want sewage systems dug under the streets leading to somewhere away from our water supply and the land the city is on.
“In the capital, I ran into something called a transmission stone, which enables rapid communication from great distances. I heard there’s been some talk of resettling the old tribe locations? Those transmission stones would be perfect to stay in communication. I want as many as we can get and I want them networked so I can send a message from any one region of our forest and get to any other. Eventually we’ll expand this network to include all important facilities and eventually any private building that can afford their half of the infrastructure.
“Finally, I want this region of the forest cleared of monsters. The dungeon below is going to remain dangerous and the northern reaches of the forest will too, but there’s no reason we can’t push out anything too strong for an average heartwielder to handle. I want to tame the wild woods to the south and turn it into a place where even weak elves can walk about without needing to fend off monsters. I also want a group of elves constantly keeping an eye on the Shadowblade Beasts and the Sky-Touching Kilobeast. We have a deal with the Shadowblade Beast, but I still don’t trust it. The Sky-Touching Kilobeast doesn’t seem to be as intelligent, but if it’s going to be milling around this forest I want to know where it is at all times.”
Katiana blinked in surprise and I heard dull muttering run through the crowd at the sound of such an ambitious and extensive set of plans.
“That... sounds like it’s going to require an extensive amount of labor.” Katiana said. “We only have so many elves in the public work force at any one time. With the amount of money to be made in the dungeon and the forest, few choose to pay their taxes in labor when they can just give us Macmarks.”
“Then we’ll hire people to do this.” I assured her. “There’s plenty of Macmarks in the treasury.” After all, most of the money in the local economy would come back to me eventually.
Katiana bit her lip. “The price of labor has inflated a bit while you’ve been away, patriarch. As elves in the Hearthwood have gotten stronger their options have expanded. A Macmark a week will no longer cut it...”
I nodded then opened my Dimensional Storage, the secret pocket where I kept all my goodies.
An avalanche of coins spilled out, sparkling gold and silver. Spellhearts from lower-level monsters followed them. They were among the least of the possessions I’d gathered in the capital. As though the silver and gold were but a cushion, wooden boxes containing rare herbs spilled out, soon followed by potions, elixirs, and pills. We’d defeated the Demonstar Clan and I’d taken the liberty of grabbing the bags of holding at the hips of their deceased matriarchs. Zeal crystals followed after that, left behind for me by my friend Dean. Then came the weapons we’d looted back in Wood’s Edge and the private possessions of the true mages we’d killed before that.
To top it all off, there were six boxes containing aura fragments that had once belonged to true mages themselves. Princess Tivana had taken back the private collection she’d lent me for my own ascension to true mage. She had however plucked a few aura fragments from the air around where the Demonstar and Hidden Serpent matriarchs had died and passed them along to me. I, in turn, was prepared to pass them along to worthy elves from the Hearthwood.
The room went still and silent at the sight of the six aura fragments. The heartwielders squinted in confusion, more interested in the spellhearts and money, but the mage acolytes were riveted by the sight of the aura fragments. Those elves closest to the peak of mage acolyte were most interested. These aura fragments represented their own ascension to true mage, which would make them an unrivaled power in the Hearthwood. Excluding me and my matriarchs, of course. Just reaching true mage would guarantee them a comfortable life wherever they went, and the advancement would double their lifespans just as advancing to mage acolyte had doubled their lifespans before.
“Was the Patriarch always this wealthy?” one mage acolyte whispered to another. The hobgoblin Grotkins took in my mounds of gold and I knew he’d be offering me something to trade sooner or later. Malla licked her lips as she looked at the fine fabrics I had on display. Everyone else was too busy dreaming of true mage to think of anything else.
“And that’s just part of my personal collection.” I said. “I’ll be funding our new construction plans from my own wallet, rather than from the treasury. I think my daughter Salla would be furious with me if I started paying for massive pubic works out of the clan’s reserves.”
I got a few laughs at that. My first daughter by Sava had gotten a bit of a reputation for being a tight-pursed treasurer and a hard-nosed tax collector.
“Well then...” Katiana chuckled. “If our patriarch is going to fund these projects himself, I don’t think the council has anything to discuss. My proposal was to build a community plaza. We’ll just have to be certain to keep it out of the patriarch’s way.”
I described my ideas to Mac, who refined them a bit with his own encyclopedic knowledge. As both an AI and a dungeon core, Mac quickly identified the optimal locations for roads and what aspect elves to use for labor. I let him refine the entire plan for building the Hearthwood I envisioned. I myself had a lot of work to do and little time to waste.
Princess Tivana needed me back in the capital for a social ball by the end of the month, where I’d make my first formal appearance as her permanent guest. I wasn’t quite sure what the two of us were yet, but when a princess asks you to a ball, you don’t refuse.
Between now and then, I wanted to gather as many points as I could and upgrade rooms aboard The Wanderer. I was a true mage without any true mage spells, which elves likened to a tree without roots. I scoured the capital for appropriate true mage earth aspect spells only to turn up empty handed, so I’d be relying on the spells The Wanderer could provide.
Current points: 3150
Current Blood Crystals: 3360
Cultivation Chamber Level 4. Cost to upgrade: 1500 points.
Upgrade Cultivation Chamber to level 5?
Doing so will improve time dilation abilities to 5x and enable true mage level abilities for purchase.
Cultivation Chamber now upgrading.
Points remaining: 1650
“Thank you, Mac.” I said once the Cultivation Chamber was underway. He didn’t reply to me, which I assumed meant he was already busy seeing to the upgrade’s construction. I spent the time waiting for the Cultivation Chamber to reach the next stage by training patiently. I started going through an elaborate series of sword and spear forms.
The exercises didn’t do much for a body enhanced by both spirit and body cultivation, but they did help me grow accustomed to my power. I’d reached the third layer of true mage very recently after rocketing to that level from being stuck at the peak of mage acolyte for ages. I adjusted my strikes to swipe through the air slow and steady until I had a good feel for the power in my arms and legs.
I thrust the tip of my blade in the air over and over until it was hitting an invisible target no wider than the head of a needle. I felt the unsteadiness in my limbs ease as I learned to cut out the tremors and twitches I hadn’t even noticed I was making.
As I grew more proficient at performing the exercises I turned my attention inward. My mind cultivation made me capable of continuing my current set of repetitive motions without even thinking about them as I examined my body and magic.
My aura fragment had expanded past the first layer to the second and then the third. It had done so as quickly and easily as though it had always been that powerful and was merely repairing itself.
I should have been overjoyed at how easy progress finally was for me, but I couldn’t help but feel that something was wrong. The Pith of Iron Aura fragment I’d bonded with combined with the Sutra of the Living Earth and several other powerful aura fragments to create a hungry monster lurking inside me, ready to devour me if I showed a moment of weakness.
An elf probably would have collapsed under the strain it was already putting my body under, but I had the Blackgorge Fiendbody to strengthen my flesh, so the newly enhanced sutra was contained. But if I strengthened it again, would I still be able to hold it in?
