Origin Seeker

With Aegis now invisible, Dream could always keep him equipped and safe. 

He would no longer need to worry about reacting fast enough, and if even Aegis wasn't enough to protect him, then he could only assume the world wanted him dead.

"An unexpected but very bountiful harvest. But I'm still not done with him."

[Indeed. We can still enhance his enchantments. Beginning now.]

With that, the globe network activated once more and pulsated with mana. Aegis also responded and his enchantments were changed, making him even stronger and more versatile than he ever has been.

This only took several minutes to complete under the power of the globe network. When it was done, Dream nodded in approval.

"Good. A class 4 should be hard-pressed to easily breach this armor. Should be, anyway. Won't know until I fight one. Anyway, there's one last thing we need to do. Ready Aegis?"

"Of course, my lord."

Saying so, Aegis formed into a solid sphere with a hollow center. Dream put his hands on the sphere and the network connected to the two of them.

Immediately after, mass amounts of mana were sucked towards the sphere. Dream began condensing the already dense clusters of mana into even denser clusters. It only took a couple of minutes for him to have a fog inside the sphere center.

"Nice. This'll be easier than expected. Let's keep going."

Dream continued and condensed more and more fog. Although it was easy at first, he soon had to put in more effort and stress himself a bit in order to start getting drops. They also had to sacrifice materials in his inventory for the necessary flux, enabling the mana to solidify.

The drops were small, but they came at a rate much faster than the first time they tried this. Within an half an hour, Aegis soon had a small pool of transparent liquid mana within his sphere center which he divided up and integrated into his particles. When the sphere was emptied, they continued and condensed more.

This went on for another 3 hours before Dream finally stopped. Aegis had reached his carrying capacity. Not to mention how although Dream could take the pressure, he was still trying to recover.

"*sigh* Finally done."

Saying that, Dream deactivated and dissipated the globe network. Aegis also turned into a cloud and placed himself on top of Dream's skin.

Dream looked down at his bare hand. Aegis was currently covering it like a liquid. And while he would be visible should he reforge himself into a true solid rather than a magically bonded particle solid, he was invisible otherwise.

"Hehehe...Nice. Very nice."

[Your material magic level has increased from 91 to 96. Only 4 levels to go.]

"You know what? I think I might have an idea on how to get those last levels. You know how back at the enchanted mountain I wasn't able to make liquid helium? Well guess what."

[You want to make liquid helium.]

"I wanna make liquid helium! It's always been such an interesting concept. After supercooling it to only a few degrees kelvin, it still isn't enough to bond the atoms, so they just become a superfluid instead. Zero friction. I wonder what it would be like to play with that liquid."

[All the scientists who have ever thought the same would be envious that you actually get to. It's more than possible. We can also make some liquid hydrogen, aka rocket fuel.]

"Sure. Let's get some now."

Saying that, Dream summoned out some hydrogen and helium gas tanks. After opening them and letting the air flow out, he began grabbing the helium gas, condensing it into a ball in his hands.

"Now, let's cool it and pressurize it."

Dream began to do as he said and the air was cooled to extremely low temperatures. It was also pressurized, and in only a minute or so, Dream had a small sphere of liquid helium above his palm.

<[Material Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Material Magic] has leveled up!>

"So cool!"

Dream let the liquid fall into his hands. But as it hit his palm, it sloshed around and began to creep out of the hand bowl he made. He put the liquid back into his hand bowl and settled it, but it still tried crawling up his hand and falling out as if it had a life of its own. This was the peculiarity of a superfluid, it seemingly defied the laws of physics!

[Two more levels.]

"Hmm...I doubt making liquid hydrogen would top me off. It's easier than liquid helium. Oh! I've still never controlled plasma!"

Dream suddenly remembered one of the things he had never been able to do. In order to figure out how Iris' fire skill worked, he wanted to try and manipulate plasma. But as he didn't have fine enough control over particles to do that, he was never able to experiment. But now he did. 

[Unfortunately we will only be able to create a partially ionized plasma. Fully ionized plasma requires temperatures around that of the sun, which we don't have the capacity to do right now.]

"That's fine. Now we need a neutral gas. Neon and Argon are two candidates."

[Let's go with mercury actually.]

Sophia summoned out a small container of mercury while getting rid of all the hydrogen and helium in the air. After putting away those unneeded tanks, the mercury container was opened slightly and a bit of liquid was taken out.

[There's actually a type of plasma called cold plasma where the atoms are colder than the electrons. Mercury vapor is one type of cold plasma. So to save on energy, we'll use this. Just heat the mercury until it ionizes.]

"Alright."

Dream understood and began heating the sphere of liquid mercury. This liquid took no time at all to turn into a gas which he took control of.

After it boiled, he continued increasing the temperature. The atoms became more and more agitated and put more pressure on Dream to maintain it's compression. 

But it wasn't long until he got results. The sphere of mercury gas gradually became so agitated that electrons began detaching from their atoms and scattering about the place. Though this was when Dream began having problems as he had to control these electrons. 

Many electrons escaped, but eventually Dream was able to decompress the gas a bit and dump more mana into the area, enhancing his control over everything. Soon, he had a clump of ionized mercury.

<[Material Magic] has leveled up!>

<[Material Magic] is Max level!>

"Hehe, yea."

Dream smiled widely as he achieved his goal, thanking the cluster of cold plasma in front of him.

"Max level skills. I guess I'm able to finally become a class 3."

[We still need to develop these mana pathways. You should consult Idona before you start.]

"Very true. But speaking of, where is she? It's already been quite a while."

[Not sure. Though knowing that she's most likely in a meeting, it would be best to just wait.]

"Alright. Let's put this stuff away then."

Dream settled the plasma and put it back into the container, then his inventory. Soon, everything was back to normal, and Dream was left sitting on the table alone in a sealed room.

"What to do..."

[While we're waiting, I got updates on Earth.]

"Oh yea. How's everyone doing?"

[Rather well. People are beginning to approach class 3 already. It seems like everyone on Earth has super fast growth speeds. Not sure why though.]

"What about the demons and monsters?"

[Also rapidly gaining strength, though in general it's lower than the humans, so the ones at the top of the food chain are still humans. Oh, and there's been a ton of new technology created as well.]

"I'm guessing everyone is having fun with enchanting."

[Very much so. All kinds of weapons including melee and ranged have been made for people at all levels. It's starting out kind of how we did by enchanting existing weapons. Though they've also been able to make other things. One of the most impressive was an incredibly efficient fusion reactor.]

"A fusion reactor. Very cool. I guess the biggest issue with that was the durability of the materials containing the fusion process. But now with enchantments, I'm guessing they were able to bypass that issue entirely."

[Exactly. Nearly every technology that's had problems with durability has had that issue negated. This included spacecraft, mining tools, robots, vehicles, buildings, and much more. To say that humanity is going through another technological revolution is an understatement.]

"This will only help them with the demons. I only regret not being there as well. While I'm living the isekai fantasy, they had the fantasy brought to their home. I wish I was able to experience it."

[Though it's debatable whether that fantasy would have come without you isekai'ing.]

"I am definitely not that cause. It's definitely a coincidence. Definitely."

[Sure, sure.]

Dream huffed. Did he look like a walking hunk of mana capable of powering the entirety of Earth? Of course not. He was just a normal dude who missed out on Earth being turned into a fantasy land. 

[Anyway, your sister and brothers have actually been approached by several guilds wishing to recruit them. Since they're considered some of the most powerful people in the world, they're obviously prime candidates. If they were to accept, they would gain immeasurable power. Not just financially either.]

"So they haven't accepted?"

[Not yet. As soon as I reconnected, I found out about it and told them to hold off for now. Apparently they've been getting recruitment requests for a few weeks.]

"Well you know best which of these guilds would be the best for them. Or if they should just stay out. I'll leave it up to your judgment as to what advice you give."

[Alright. I'll take care of them.]

"Thanks."

Dream and Sophia kept going through different happenings around Earth. They checked out the most powerful people, how everyone was adapting to magic, how far they've progressed, etc.

Though not long after Dream began diving down the internet rabbit hole, somebody entered the area.

"Ugh...Damn politicians. No, I don't care about how many class 2's or 3's are going to the meeting. And why am I being paired up with Keeba? I thought I was gonna go with Ciroc. Maybe I should just sneak away come time for the meeting."

Idona walked into the living area and plopped down on the couch, ranting about the various meeting she had. Dream just listened through the wall and chuckled on the inside.

He went over to the door and opened it quietly, walking out. After walking over to the living area, he peeked out from behind a wall and looked towards Idona.

"Ahem..."

"Who...!"

Idona, who wasn't on guard, rapidly reacted and flew off the couch, turning towards Dream. Her mana activated throughout her body and was poised to attack.

Dream just stood there with a blank face, though on the inside he was very worried about being attacked by another class 4 right as he recovered.

"Uhh...Please don't attack. I'm still not fully recovered."

"Y-you..."

After realizing who it was, Idona looked at him with wide eyes. Knowing that he was safe, Dream smiled to her.

"I'm bac-"

*Woosh*

Mid-sentence, Idona suddenly flew over and wrapped him up, almost bringing both of them to the floor. Dream stood there a little surprised, but didn't pull away. Instead he apologized.

"I'm sorry."

"I should be the one saying that. I didn't protect you."

"There wasn't much you could do."

Dream didn't want her to blame herself and returned the hug. After Idona calmed down, they pulled away.

"Sorry. Unbefitting of a class 4."

"You're fine. Don't take it as an insult, but I don't really see you as one anymore."

"Why's that?"

"Because we're partners now. Right?"

*Thump*

Idona's heart pulsed strongly at the statement. 

"Really?"

"Of course. I may have died, gone through hell, and rose again, but I'm back and you're still my partner. Call me greedy, but I like having someone so powerful by my side. It's a confidence booster."

"..."

Idona stared at him for a bit, her face turning a bit red. Dream looked back, wondering why she was staring.

"Do I look that good?"

"...Maybe."

"Say what?"

"Anyway, how's your condition? I noticed you're not at your previous strength."

Idona changed topics as she went back to the couch, sitting down. Dream followed and also lazily took a seat.

"I'm indeed still recovering."

"What about your stats? Nothing bad happened, right?"

"Nope. In fact, quite the contrary. I'm even more powerful than I was. I should be up to peak strength in a day or two."

"More powerful? How so?"

"Well, all my stats have gone up an increment besides strength I think. I now have A level mana. My skill levels have also gone up."

"You have A level mana? Like not A-, but A?"

"Correct."

"...I still can't believe you're a class 2. That's impossible."

"Well that won't be true for much longer. I've actually reached my class advancement as well."

"Seriously? You've been asleep for two months, how have you gained levels?"

"Remember right before I got hit?"

"...Oh! Those balls you brought out that exploded. I do indeed remember. It injured that class 4 quite a bit and made the battle very easy for us. So you got experience from that?"

"Yup. And since it was a class 4, I got a huge amount, enough to get me to the class advancement."

"And you're sure that it's the class 3 advancement and not the class 4?"

"Very sure."

"...Then I'm guessing you'll need to learn how to make pathways sooner rather than later. And we can also go over your class choices. But before we do that, I need to catch you up on the state of affairs in regards to the demons."

"Alright."

Dream wouldn't mind hearing a more detailed report about how things are going. Aegis can't hear everything going on after all.

Idona went through details about the destruction of the kingdom, the recruitment, how they rejected and their reasons for doing so, and the crushing defeat. She then talked about how all the Empires finally recognized the demon threat after that and have gone into wartime states to prepare to launch a war. Lastly, she talked about the intelligence that Aegis gave the which they submitted to the Empires, and the grand meeting that's going on to discuss plans.

After hearing everything in more detail, Dream fully understood.

"So this meeting, everyone is going?"

"Correct. Politicians, generals, and nearly every class 4 humanity has to offer. The people with the most attention on them though are the ones who have faced the demons before. This includes Ciroc and I as well as those 3 other class 4's. That, and you."

"Me?"

"Yes. Nearly every bit of intelligence the Empires have on the demons came from you. In these past few weeks, every major diplomat had wanted to meet with you to get more intelligence out of you, but we obviously didn't allow that to happen since you were the way you were. So Aegis instead gave us that intelligence and we submitted it under your name. Though despite this, you are still probably the most anticipated person to be at that meeting. I was worried about what to do with you being asleep, but now I don't have to."

Idona looked at him. While he had basically only just recovered, there was now a lot he would need to do.

"Get ready, 'cause you're going to be the center of a lot of attention."