“I’m still not sure where to go from here,” I told them. “Suggestions?”

  Blaze and Li-chen looked at me, then at each other, before glancing back my way.

  “I don’t know,” Li-chen said. “The books all assume an existing cultivation system that’s centuries old, with ancient sects that already know how to do it and teach it.”

  “I may be old, but I’m not that old.” That earned a laugh from both of them.

  “You aren’t that old, and you still have what it takes,” Blaze said.

  “You would know.” I gave her a knowing smirk. Her face went almost as red as her hair, and she hid behind her hands.

  Li-chen blinked, then seemed to realize what I’d implied. I gave him credit…he didn’t laugh…but he did turn away and look up like there was something fascinating on the ceiling. It's a bare ceiling. No light or fan. At least he didn’t whistle.

  I couldn’t help it…I laughed. But not for long. Blaze’s fingers twitched like she was on the verge of launching a spell. If she’d been a Water Mage, I think there would’ve been a tiny storm cloud hovering over her head. Not literally, but it sure felt like it.

  A minute of silence passed before she suddenly burst out laughing. The tension cracked apart and fell away. Both of us joined in.

  “Will, why can’t I stay mad at you even when you say the worst things?”

  I leaned back in my chair, resting my elbows on the armrests, and steepled my hands beneath my chin. “Vich kind of ‘vurst’ are you talking about? Bratwurst?”

  Li-chen blinked again, like he wasn’t sure what I meant…or maybe he didn’t know what bratwurst was.

  Blaze laughed and shook her head, her hair catching the light from the table lamps on either side of the couch. She dropped back onto her floor cushion, laughter still bubbling out. We let things rest for a while, the conversation drifting back to cultivation.

  Eventually, we got somewhere. Not far, but somewhere. If spellcasters could feel MANA to some extent…and those with MANA-based spells could feel it even more…that was our starting point. The hum of that realization lingered like an invisible faint blue light under my skin. It also gave me ideas for the next time I faced spawns that could cast.

  “TRANSFER MANA. Could it be used offensively? Yes. The Fenton did it to me. What would happen if I pulled MANA out of a spawn that could cast magic…or out of a person? Would it do to them what was done to me?” I asked.

  “I know it weakens people when I did it at the stadium and the convention center to refill my MANA.” I said. Blaze nodded. “That means a caster can’t cast magic until they refill. That might be a way to combat those damn Shamen. Take away their ability to cast CURSE spells at us.”

  “What about someone who can cast Level 20 or higher spells?” I continued. “Spell power and effects jumped sharply when Level 11 spells became available, even before any enhancements to the lower ones.”

  “Albert said REMOVE MANA was a Level 20 spell,” I reminded Blaze. “What would a Level 30 spell be? CREATE MANA?”

  Li-chen nodded thoughtfully. “The progression makes sense," he replied. People are finding logic paths in the rules. I’ve read about some. But there are also places where they don’t seem to be any patterns. The rules just say what they say, and that’s it. No explanations, no logic.”

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “What you mean is, no patterns that we see,” I said. “Some things seem to synergize when new things appear. We’re only seeing one piece of the pattern at a time.”

  They both nodded like they agreed with me. I wasn’t sure I agreed with myself, and I was the one who said it.

  “I’ve got an idea. I’ll contact people I know at the Game Response Agency. Not Peters…AnthroPaul. He’s the GRA guy who took notes on how the Irregulars handled our guild rules.”

  “Isn’t he the one who helped Shadow with her quest?” Blaze asked.

  “Yep, that’s him.” I answered

  “I overheard him talking to Shadow at the quarry while we were waiting for the World Boss,” she said. “About what they found at the Goblin camp. He said the whole camp was gone when they went back the next morning. They found the firepit and the midden, but that was it. Holes where, as he put it, ‘Goblin shit should’ve been.’”

  I nodded. “Makes sense. That means they were MANA constructs, but with more autonomy.”

  “Give me a minute or three,” I said. “Contacting him now.”

  [William of Brinsford:] [AnthroPaul] [Paul. I’ve got some questions for you, and I’m hoping you can find the people who can answer them.]

  “Message sent,” I told them. I reached for my coffee, only to find the mug empty. Shrugging, I held it out to Blaze, handle first.

  “If I have to think, I need more coffee.”

  She laughed and stood. “Yes, oh magnificent elder of the Mana Clan.” Still laughing, she rose from the pillow, and took the mug from me and crossed into the kitchen toward the coffeepot. It was at least five steps to the coffee pot. Yes, I was closer, but she was playing the acolyte.

  The air smelled faintly of roasted beans as she started a new pot, and I heard Blaze mumbling something. Probably thoughts leftover about the MANA tests she did earlier. I sat back, shaking my head, and looked up at the ceiling with what I hoped was a Why me, O Lord? expression.

  Li-chen laughed softly. Yeah…it was turning into one of those lifetimes.

  Then again, “Maybe it was one of those apocalypses?”

  Glancing from him to Blaze and back again, I realized I’d come to a decision without consciously doing it.

  “I don’t think we’re going to have a breakthrough on this now,” I said. “Maybe when we’re higher level. I don’t even know if the System wants us to succeed…or live if we do.”

  “Why do you think that?” Blaze asked as she returned and set my mug down on the caster beside me. The aroma curled upward, rich, earthy, and grounding. “Why would it care?”

  “Why would it care?” I echoed. “Maybe because we’re not following its plan.” I waved a hand vaguely. “I’m sure it has contingency plans for things and people not going the way it expects. It still allows what we think is free will, but it pushes us in the directions it wants. As long as we reach certain points, about when it wants us to, it might not care how we get there.”

  I sipped the hot coffee, letting the warmth chase away fatigue and clear my thoughts while they both thought it over.

  “You’re saying, if we go where it wants, when it wants, how we get there doesn’t matter?” Blaze asked.

  “Something like that, yeah.” I answered.

  “I think you mean…” Li-chen hesitated, brow furrowing. “Someday cultivation might happen. But the System isn’t ready for it yet, so it blocks it for now?”

  “Could be.” I glanced toward Blaze. “What do you think of that idea?”

  “It fits,” she said slowly. “There’ve been strange things happening…like that World Boss showing up before we could handle it without help.”

  “Help from who?” Li-chen asked. “Wouldn’t the First Mana Mage be the one to deal with it?”

  “The local National Guard artillery unit killed it,” Blaze said before I could. “Will told them where to shoot. He’d almost been killed by it before it appeared, so no one would let him near it. He directed things from the convention center. Pieced it together from a song he knew.”

  “It was Level 35,” I said. “None of the adventurers at the quarry were over Level 10. Even with the regular army there, their guns couldn’t do enough damage fast enough for people to survive. And, they were firing at a projection that ignored most of it.”

  “The real boss turned out to look like an ordinary black sheep,” Blaze added.

  “One black sheep among the twelve real white sheep,” I said. “So, I told the artillery battery to take a sheep shot and shoot the sheep.”

  Li-chen winced. “Shoot the sheep with a sheep shot?”

  I grinned and buffed my fingernails against my robe. “Yup. Turned out we had us a Fenton, Death Sheep from Hell.”

  He winced again.

  “The System didn’t just steal from books and computers,” I said. “It pulled from movies and music too. I only caught on because I’d heard the guy who wrote the song it's from it sing it at some of his concerts at SF cons I’d been to back in the day. It’s on YouTube as "Sheep Marketing Ploy", if you want to look it up.”

  “Uh… maybe later,” Li-chen said. “I’m not sure I want to handle something like that right now.”

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