Leveling up the World

Chapter 995: The Final Piece of Knowledge

“It can’t be this moon!” Dallion said, once the initial shock had gone. “People would have noticed six more planets floating about.”

Or would they? Dallion remembered watching astronaut interviews as a child. One of the things that the people who’d been in space said was that it changed their perspective. It would be within Astreza’s power to place a limiting echo in every person born, preventing them from seeing any of the other Moons. If that were the case, though, it meant that humanity could realistically reach other inhabitable worlds at will.

“And I had hoped you’d be smarter than an ant,” the girl sighed, disappointment emanating from her. “You’re still looking at the obvious. If there were seven planets around the Moon, it would hardly remain a moon. What it did was to place itself in seven realities at the same time. In each reality there’s a planet—a different planet—with a different race on it. Dwarves, humans, furies, gorgons, and all the rest also have a moon in the sky—a single Moon. That’s how each of them can send people from themselves to the awakened world.”

Dallion kept on staring. Useless trivia popped up in his mind—random memories from his childhood days when he was interested in space.

By the Star’s logic the fallen south was in effect the Aitken basin—an immense impact crater on the far side of the Moon. Supposedly it was one of the largest impact craters in the solar system, and now Dallion knew why. By the same principle, the forbidden north had to be the moon’s north pole.

“What exactly did you do to find out?” Dallion asked.Alll latest novels at wuxiahere.com

“I guess I spoke too soon,” the girl’s attitude changed. “You are asking the right questions. Tell me, once you enter a realm, what’s the only way to see the real form of the object you’re in?”

“You leave the realm.”

“And how do you do that?”

“You just...” Dallion stopped. There were three ways he knew of: will himself out—using the guard skill ability when necessary— dying, or getting ejected by the owner of the realm. “Death, ejection, and doing it yourself.”

“In terms of the world, death and ejection are the same thing. Doing it yourself works, but there are serious restrictions. There’s one other way, though. You can go beyond the limits of the realm.”

Of course. The realms didn’t have limits—upon approaching them, the realm pushed people back, preventing them from ever getting there. Magic put an end to that, though. Thanks to it, a person could actually reach the limits of a realm; and with the correct spell—go beyond them. Dallion had done the same during his Academy trial when he and his classmates had traveled through various realms with the goal of obtaining Galatea’s Moonstone.

“You went through the aether bubble,” Dallion said. Just like Adzorg’s device did, he added mentally.

“The shield that keeps the void at bay. It was said to be impossible, but as long as you can control both magic and void matter, it’s surprisingly easy. Of course, by easy, I mean for me. It took me a while, but I was able to peek beyond the veil and found that I didn’t need the Moons to get to Earth. No one did. I could have connected all seven worlds and brought in an age that the universe had never seen.”

“And that’s when they stopped you.”

“It was more a warning than anything else. Even they know that’s what should happen. They just thought I was going too fast.” She shrugged. “I guess they want it to occur the “natural” way with hundreds of Architects doing their part. Or not. You can never tell what the Moons are thinking.”

“Is that how I get back?” Dallion asked, surprised at the eagerness of his own question. He had just heard the most universe-shattering revelation possible, to the point that he still wasn’t certain whether it was true or not. And yet, his instincts urged him to view it in a positive light.

“There’s something broken about you,” the girl noted. “I guess if there wasn’t, you wouldn’t have broken me out.” She paused, looking briefly at the void above them.

The sound of helicopter propellers was clearly audible now. Awakened were carefully examining the area, searching for signs of magic use. Given that Margaret was missing from her bed, they’d probably spend a while in the area, yet still find nothing.

“Astresa is the only one who could get you back directly,” the Star said. “You might try asking him, or blackmailing him with what you’ve learned. The alternative is to go there yourself.”

“As simple as that?” The question wasn’t meant to be sarcastic. After what had happened in the awakened world, Dallion could feel there was a catch.

“Oh, he won’t like it, of course. The rest of them wouldn’t, either. There’s nothing they could do, but Astreza might.”

Well, the woman said that it takes lightning for you to regain a skill, Aquilequia replied with a degree of guilt. And she was right! Look how many skills I helped you learn!

“A warning would have been nice.” Just like Aquilequia to remain as stubborn as before. In that way, she was worse than a cat. “Thanks, though. You did help a lot.”

Sure did!

“Why didn’t you talk before?”

Do you have any idea how difficult it’s to talk here? The bird and the kitten can’t manage it at all. Second to zapping you, talking is exhausting.

Clearly, Earth made companions weaker as well, though only to a degree. Nox seemed in great shape as ever, and Lux’s healing abilities were a lot faster... as long as they were done in the real world. If Dallion were to guess, he’d say that Aquilequia’s “zapping” was only powerful in his awakening realm. Learning Zoology must have helped him hear her better, though only her. There would be no way Lux wouldn’t chirp his head off if he could.

“Get some rest, Aqui. I might need you later.”

More skill learning? the dragon asked.

“Maybe.”

Two skills remained for him to relearn: herbalism and arts. There were a few trait abilities he still lacked—spark and line attacks, more specifically. Hopefully, he’d be able to re-acquire them as well. As the Star said, Astreza would do everything in his power to keep him from returning to the awakened world. In order to succeed, Dallion had to be ready for it. Also, for that, he’d need more than skills alone.

The first thing he did upon arriving in Glasgow was ask someone for his phone. Dallion only needed to make one call, but for it, he wasn’t going to use the touch screen. Instead, he drained half the battery of the device and used it to spread through the cell network. A few seconds later, he had found his target.

“Still alive?” Jeremy asked from the other end. He also was using magic.

“Did you finish your business?”

“Business? What business? I’d be lucky to make a few million. I told you, I don’t like this place much.”

“Lucky for you, we’re going back.”

There was a prolonged silence.

“You found what you were looking for,” Jeremy said with a touch of envy.

“Yes, but I’ll need some help to do it. And not just you. Call Kraisten and tell him to bring Alien and Katka. All of us need to talk.”

“Alien in the same room as me?” The former emperor laughed. “For that alone, I’ll arrange it. Just don’t break anything. I just got the house renovated.”

“Sure. Also, if you know anything that I can use for magic, get it. I won’t be able to pull off the next part with car batteries alone.”

“Why? Where are we going?”

“The moon. I’m going to the moon.”