It didn’t take much longer before they left Morendia. During that ti, Alice had several encounters with Demor, mostly for the purpose of clarifying any confusion Demor had about her notebook. During so of these etings, Alice also noticed Ethan giving her a very odd look from the corner of her eyes. She ignored it. Giving information about Earth physics to Demor might not have been the best idea. Alice even acknowledged that it might not have been the correct thing to do.
But she also needed to halt the current crisis, and widespread understanding of basic physics could help with that. Alice suspected the System had a pretty good reason for hiding knowledge of how it accomplished so things, but Alice needed sothing to help keep the collapse of the System from killing everyone. Widespread beliefs and belief mana reinforcing the laws of physics would hopefully keep things to a minimum.
However, Alice was still taken aback by how interested Demor seed in her notebook. She had expected him to find it sowhat useful, but not anywhere near as exciting as he seed to find it. After all, A good chunk of what she had written down was already known to the people of this world. People in this world weren’t dumb. They had figured out most of the basic underlying laws of physics and plenty of information about biology already - they might not have had the detailed, precise asurents that people on Earth had, but they still had Perks and other ways to gather information. However, the way Alice had put together so bits of information, especially on the microscopic level, was definitely new to this world. In this dinsion, before Alice’s arrival, people had known that there were differences between viruses and bacterial infections, for example, but hadn’t known much about the differences. Alice’s notebook provided a rough guideline for how things like disease worked, which also outlined a few notes that weren’t very well known in Morendia. Far more important, however, was the fact that Alice had also included descriptions for things like atoms. Atoms were not known to this world, at least not in any aningful way. People knew that there were microscopic things, but Alice had provided a detailed description of molecules and atoms, and even had several examples of how things like water were constructed out of hydrogen and oxygen atoms. She had even included a brief description of quarks, although Alice’s knowledge about quarks was admittedly fuzzy beyond ‘quarks are the building blocks of atoms, much like atoms are the building blocks of molecules.’ Even that might have been a bit off - Alice thought she rembered reading an article about how quarks were only used to construct protons and neutrons, and she couldn’t quite rember if electrons were related to quarks at all. Still, she had done her best to write down what she rembered, and included notes about when her mory was fuzzy and might be incorrect.
This information didn’t exactly redefine Demor’s worldviews, but it certainly provided far more information than most people had access to and a level of detail beyond this world’s current abilities and knowledge.
Thus, Alice had to spend so ti discussing what her notebook actually ant with Demor, so that he could make use of the information. Along the way, Alice had also needed to deflect Demor’s interest in where, exactly, Alice had gotten that information. After all, as far as Demor knew, Alice was a [Scholar] that focused almost exclusively on mana and magic. It was one thing for Alice to present new and odd discoveries about magic to him - but it was quite another for her to give him information about physics and biology. It would be hard to disguise the fact that Alice hadn’t discovered the information she was giving away, especially after they had worked together for multiple weeks while getting the Artifact working. Claiming that Ethan or one of the [Scholars] he employed was also off the table. Demor wouldn’t fall for such blatant lies.
Alice had simply stated it was from sowhere ‘far away’ from here, and then done her best to steer the conversation in another direction. Demor had seed dissatisfied with this, and kept prodding her - but she still managed to deflect his questions, if barely.
All in all, it had been a sowhat exhausting few days.
Finally, however, it was ti to depart. They had done everything they could for Morendia, and they had left behind the Society’s System-statue. Alice hoped they wouldn’t regret leaving it behind, and that Demor would find a way to use that thing without hurting himself or other people - but at the end of the day, they had done all they could without compromising Illvaria.
“I suppose this is goodbye,” said Demor, as Ethan, Alice, and the others stood in front of Demor’s manor.
“I suppose it is,” said Ethan. He gave Demor a nod. “Thank you for the help you’ve given us. it would have taken us far longer to unravel the enchantnt components of this ss without your help. I appreciate the ti and energy you’ve given us.”
Demor cracked a grin at Ethan, though there was an underlying subtext to his facial expression that Alice couldn’t quite parse. It was almost like a frown, but mixed with amusent - almost like soone whose friend had just played a an-spirited prank on them.
“I wish that could have translated into a slightly better position for Morendia as a whole. I didn’t realize quite how bad things would get when I agreed to our paynt conditions - nor did I realize just how much that little lady has squirreled away in her brain,” said Demor, as he nodded at Alice.
Ethan grinned. “I picked a pretty good apprentice this ti.”
Demor sighed. “I suppose you did.” He turned towards Ethan again, and this ti, his gaze beca harder. For a mont, Alice thought the man would punch Ethan, or do sothing equally absurd - but her fears were unfounded. Instead, Demor snorted. “Rember this, Ethan. When all of this is over, you owe one. I’ve honored the agreent we made, and it’s clear that you ended up getting far more out of the bargain than I did. I’m not one to renege on an agreent. I simply lacked the insight to make a better deal. However, that doesn’t an I’m entirely at ease with it. You owe a favor after all of this madness is settled.”
Ethan paused for a mont, considering Demor’s words. Then, to Alice’s surprise, he nodded.
“That’s fair. Once we finish putting the world back together, I’ll owe you a favor,” he said.
Demor nodded. “You damn well better.” he said. Then, he nodded one more ti at Ethan.
“Stay safe out there. Don’t get killed by a pack of monsters or sothing stupid. I’m counting on you. At this point, I’m far from the only one that’s doing so.” Then, without another word, he turned around and walked back towards his mansion, as Alice watched him.
A mont later, Allira smiled. “I suppose that’s the end of that, she said, as she turned towards Ethan and Alice. “Shall we go? I think it’s high ti we returned to Illvaria. Then we can set up the artifact and check for news.” She gave the group a wide smile, while Ethan nodded.
“Yeah, we should see what’s happening at ho. I doubt things have gone too out of control - after all, my parents are still there, and they wouldn’t let the country fall apart. Especially after Alice gave people so much usable information. Still, even if I know that, I’ll feel much better when I see it with my own eyes.”
With that, Alice, Ethan, Allira, Jonathan, Cecilia, and Jonathan’s family began their journey back towards Illvaria.
* * *
The first two days of the journey were uneventful. Alice mostly kept an eye on Jonathan and the Class seed inside of his body, in order to see whether anything had gone horribly wrong or not. Even though it had already been a few weeks since Alice had installed her improvised Class seed in his body, she still wanted to keep as close of an eye on it as possible. To Alice’s relief, it didn’t look like there were any side effects from her improvised System class seed. That ant that during the night of the second day, after they set up camp, Alice decided it was finally ti.
“Jonathan,” she said, as she approached the man.
“Lady Alice,” he said, giving Alice a curious look. “I thought that you would be preparing to eat dinner, or go to sleep.”
Alice eyed the dinner that Ethan had whipped out of a storage Perk - this ti, it appeared to be so kind of chicken dish. She didn’t know what had gone into making the dish, but it slled heavenly - though Alice suspected Jonathan’s food was still better. Immortal-grown crops had a certain flavor to them that was just impossible to replicate with normal food, and while Ethan employed high-level [Chefs], they were far from Immortal cuisine. She shook her head, and sighed. Dinner could co when she was done with her current task.
“I think it’s a good ti to give your son his [Explorer] seed,” said Alice. Her words were quick and to the point. She had held off on giving Jonathan’s son his [Explorer] class seed because she wasn’t sure if her magic seeds had any dangerous side effects. However, it had now been almost two weeks since she gave Jonathan his [Fisherman] seed, and the man didn’t seem to have suffered any major side effects. Sure, her magic seeds still weren’t perfect - she needed to do a bit of broken mana cleaning - but that was a fairly manageable side effect, and also one that Jonathan was fully aware of. As far as Alice could tell, her Class seeds would need to have their broken mana filtered away once every few months - but that was a pretty manageable side effect, compared to literally going mad and losing one’s mind from class mana. Any competent mage could do broken mana removal - it was one of the easier jobs of a Mage, and didn’t even require a specific magic seed. Since that was the only side effect, Alice felt comfortable spreading her class seeds around a little more.
That ant that it was finally ti to make good on her original promise to Jonathan. He had done all of her ridiculous tasks without complaint, just to be a better guinea pig for Alice’s experints. It was ti for her to fulfill her end of the bargain.
“Are you sure? You still haven’t managed to fix the broken mana issue,” said Jonathan. “Are you comfortable with the seed? Do you think there are any other problems that need to be fixed with it?”
Alice paused, and thought about Jonathan’s words. Even though she had already thought about them before, when it ca to concerns from her patients, Alice wanted to always be willing to check her thoughts again. Finally, Alice nodded.
“I recognize that it would be better if there was more ti for testing. Truthfully, I would prefer not giving anyone else a class seed for several months, or perhaps even a year or two. The problem I’m running into is ti,” said Alice. “Once we return to Illvaria, with any luck, we’ll run into Murim, who will tell us… where we’re going next. After that, Ethan, Allira, , and so other people will need to leave Illvaria and head towards sothing important. I seriously doubt you want to co with us, because it’ll be way more dangerous than this journey. And the trip to Morendia was bad enough. Once I leave, I won’t be able to monitor you or your son - which ans that I won’t be there to help if sothing goes wrong. I want to make sure that if sothing goes wrong, I have enough ti to detect it and fix it - or remove the seed if need be. That ans we need to start now, so that I can monitor the seed while we travel,” she said.”I’m sorry that we don’t have more ti to examine potential problems - but I think this is the only realistic option for maintaining his safety. Especially in case I… well… don’t make it.” Alice liked to think about reaching Immortality, but that didn’t an she was blind to how dangerous things might be. The System was clearly designed to prevent people from ssing with it, so it would probably have so sort of security System. Adding onto that fact, they would be heading an unknown distance Northwest to go find the mainfra of the System, and there was no telling whether the Sigmusi empire would ambush them along the way. Alice didn’t want to die, but there was always a chance things would go wrong. She didn’t want to leave Jonathan and his son in a bad position if that happened.
“All right,” said Jonathan, after several minutes of silence. “Let’s… let’s get my boy his [Explorer] Class seed, so that this ss doesn’t get any worse. I’ve seen how hard you’ve worked over the past several weeks, so I won’t say anything like ‘if you do anything to my child, I’ll hunt you down to the ends of the world.’ I know that you won’t maliciously sabotage it, and I know that you’re trying your best. Even so… please be careful. My child is nowhere near as sturdy as I am, and I don’t want him to get hurt. I’m trusting you. Don’t make regret it.”
“I’ll be careful,” said Alice. “I can’t promise perfect results… but the reason I want to take this step is because I’m reasonably certain it will work. If I accidentally hurt a patient, I would never forgive myself either. I’m doing this now because I genuinely think it’s the safest path forward for your son. You’ll just need to rember to get a mage to purify his body of broken mana every so often - but it shouldn’t be hard to get the help of a few mages, right? You’re an Immortal.”
Jonathan sighed, but after a few monts, he nodded again.
Alice took that as final approval to start the process, and had Jonathan lead her to his son, Jacob.
It had been quite a long ti since Alice had interacted with Jonathan’s son. She had seen him around Demor’s manor, of course, but she hadn’t had much reason to actually talk to him. She was busy, and until now, she hadn’t had any reason to interact with him in much depth. That also ant that it had been quite a while since she last appraised his situation.
Jacob wasn’t looking too good. The uncontrolled [Explorer] mana in his body had grown considerably worse during the group’s journey to Morendia. However, at the sa ti, there was a strangely controlled focus in his eyes - one that told Alice that he hadn’t succumbed to class-mana madness yet. His [Willpower] must have been quite high, for him to retain his mind despite all of the [Explorer] mana besieging his will.
“Lady Alice,” said Jacob, as he did his best to give her a respectful nod. However, even though he managed to execute the nod, Alice noticed that the way his muscles moved didn’t quite line up with each other anymore. Nearly half of his lips were quirked upward, in a sort of self-assured, ostentatious smile - while the other half of his mouth still had a more worried tilt to it. His face looked like it was frozen between two wildly different emotions.
Alice wasn’t that familiar with the cultural expectations of what an [Explorer] was in this world, but she suspected that at least half of his mannerisms were from class-mana-madness, while the other half were his actual feelings. Being anxious about the foreign emotions and impulses assailing his mind seed much more logical, compared to the ostentatious grin.
“I’m here to finally fulfill my half of the agreent,” said Alice. “I’m ready to make a Class seed for you, to dispose of all of your extra [Explorer] mana and return you to normal.”
Jacob’s smile beca quite a bit less strange, as he smiled eagerly at Alice. “Really?”
Alice felt a pang of guilt. She had been waiting for so long, to try to make sure that her treatnt was safe - but she had also left Jacob to suffer, alone with his intrusive thoughts and behavior, for weeks. That had to have sucked.
“Yeah. Really,” said Alice.
“All right then. You already did it for my father, so… help out, I guess,” said Jacob.
Alice got to work.
She already had the process down from working on Jonathan, so she replicated it as best she could. As she worked, Alice did get an inspiration - a way to handle the broken mana overflow issue that she hadn’t found a solution for yet. She tried tweaking the way filtration and pure mana interacted with each other, by using math mana to ‘check’ for broken mana and then trying to filter the broken mana back into pure mana and then expel it from the body afterwards. {Safety Analysis} gave her the green light for her attempt, and after Alice expressed her idea, Jonathan told her to go ahead. When she was done, she had no clue whether she had actually succeeded or not. Apart from that, Alice just stuck to the previous process of creating Jonathan’s class seed, except that she was creating an [Explorer] seed instead of a [Fisherman] seed, and she didn’t have a library of Perks ready to copy. Alice did her best to deal with that by taking inspiration from a few perks she had understood in better detail - Perks that boosted attributes. It was a bit of a letdown to only be able to give Jacob attribute boosts, but they were, by far, the simplest Perks that Alice had seen, which ant she wasn’t stuck trying to cobble together a poorly-understood mana construct and hoping that belief mana would fill in the rest. Once the System was fixed, hopefully Jacob would get better Perk options, but being forced to grab a few attribute boosts wouldn’t kill him.
The process went without a hitch. Alice breathed a sigh of relief, although she resolved to keep an eye on Jacob as the group kept travelling. She had been forced to improvise a bit when it ca to Perks, after all, and she would need to see if anything changed over the next few days. Jacob had hit level 6 in [Explorer] and taken his first Perk, so Alice would have so ti to see firsthand how well her improvised Perk library worked. Jonathan had said he would temporarily shack up in Illvaria with the rest of the group, since Alice was installing safety precautions for Illvaria, and so he wouldn’t be leaving the group anyti soon. Until they reached Illvaria, Alice would be able to keep examining Jacob for any complications or problems.
She just hoped nothing else went wrong during their trip back to Illvaria, before they set up the Artifact and then left for the mainfra of the System.
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