World Seal, Ch 8: A City Called Portal (Patreon)

At the Moonlight Relic.

Sam’s avatar looked up from his work on the Fourth Layer as he sensed an unfamiliar presence appear in the distance. It was just outside the Ice Sylphs’ wards at the entrance to the valley, near the high road that led down from the mountains.

It was surrounded by the distinct flavor of dimensional teleportation, but he could tell that the origin was from somewhere on Aster Fall, not anything from the Void. That meant that it was probably someone coming to visit.

It wasn’t clear what their intentions were, but they weren’t attacking the wards, so it was probably a messenger or someone else arriving early for the Conclave of the Moons.

There was still a month and a half left until the time he’d announced, but a few figures had already shown up, mostly emissaries who wanted to secure a good spot for their superiors, but no one truly powerful yet.

If this was a contingent from a major power, they would be the first.

Almost immediately, more signatures joined the first one until there were several dozen Second and about a dozen Third Evolution beings at the gate. There were also a few weaker presences in the First.

Whoever it was, they’d come in force.

If they caused trouble, he could respond quickly, but it shouldn’t be necessary. His parents and the Ice Sylphs could deal with them.

Now that Siwaha had opened the Gate of Winter, this valley was nothing like it was in the past. When he first arrived, the governor was the strongest warrior in the area at around Level 185 and the strongest Ice Sylphs had only been around 120.

The Ice Sylph hunting team had reached the middle of the Second Evolution now, but the real power was the Legions of Ice that had come through the gate. Thousands of years of Ice Sylph history had awoken at once.

In the sky above the valley, the Gate of Winter hung invisible, its pressure weighing down on everything like the touch of immortal frost. It was a massive rune formed from the intersection of twelve Ice ley lines here, and the root of power for all the enchantments in the valley.

Thousands of Level 399 Ice Sylphs had walked out of the gate, along with their ancestral allies, the ice drakes and the griffins, who were also at the World Limit. Their presence filled the valley and the Ice Sylph’s old fortress with power, bringing it to life for the first time in thousands of years.

The ancient ice palaces and the fortifications around the valley loomed like crystalline spears from the peaks. Icy battlements had risen up to cover the mountains around the valley, their walls shining with enchantments.

Whoever was knocking on the door...they could handle it.

A few dozen visitors wouldn’t even make a dent in their numbers, and if they thought they could have their way here, they would be quickly disabused. The thought made him chuckle.

In between his work, he had visited with some of the legions, sometimes accompanying his old friend Siwasir or Siwaha, who was still the leader of them all. The old Ice Sylphs had been sleeping for a long time, but to them it had all passed in an instant.

Their affinity to Ice was balanced by an equal affinity to Spring. They were full of energy and curious about the changes in the world since they’d gone to sleep. They were also strong supporters of his work at the relic.

They had decided to stay around the valley for now, and to announce their presence officially at the Conclave of the Moons, since nearly all the high-level forces of the surrounding countries were guaranteed to come for it.

After that, whether or not they spread out their hand to take back the old lands they’d once ruled, it was their choice. He had no interest in local politics as long as it didn’t interfere with his work.

It would be simpler for him if they did take over everything.

They’d already come to an agreement with his parents as the strongest of allies. Although they were an old race, the relic had been on the slopes of these mountains since the dawn of their people.

Seeing it finally come to life was as awe-inspiring to them as the Gate of Winter was to regular inhabitants of the valley. They were also sworn to the defense of Aster Fall as an edict of their Mother Goddess, and so they were instantly the closest of allies.

Some of them had already taken to living in the relic, preferring the novelty over their old ice palaces, and there was basically no separation between the relic and their own forces. They’d agreed to provide security for the Conclave of the Moons, taking it as their natural duty here.

If these guests or any future ones wanted to cause trouble, they would be quickly introduced to the power that the Legions of Ice had once used to rule this kingdom and the neighboring ones with an icy grasp.

Ice was a terrifying enemy.

He kept a sliver of attention on the visitors as he turned back to his work. It was better if he stayed as the mysterious High Artificer who was rarely seen. That way, when he did appear, the impact would be heavier.

He studied the repair in front of him, evaluating his progress on the relic. With so many of his avatars devoted to it, the Fourth Layer was almost done. It would only take a few more weeks.

The Fifth Layer would take another 2-3 months after that, and then about double that again for the Sixth, but things were moving along.

Once the upper Six Layers were complete, the relic would be able to increase the speed of its own repairs and accelerate things. The lower layers were not as important to its operation. They were mostly energy gathering arrays.

He was looking at something like ten months to finish the top half of the relic, and that might be enough to kickstart the main dimensional anchor. If he was able to create more avatars, it would be even faster.

One of his avatars was currently at Silverguard, keeping an eye on the fortress and working on the enchantments there, one was heading into the Deep Wild, and a third was finishing work on the dimensional gate at the city he’d named Portal.

The other four were here at the relic.

Compared to the decades he’d once thought it would take to repair the relic, the speed was incredible, but as soon as possible, he needed to move on to the next step of his plan to rebuild the World Seal.

For that, he needed Asenya, which was why as soon as his dimensional gate was ready, he would head into the Seal to look for her.

He glanced toward the Void as he checked on the progress of his main body. Then he shifted his attention to the avatar working on the gate.

***

On the Storm Plains.

Sam stood in the sky above the gate. Silver runes flowed along the city streets in glimmering streams, rising up from the lightning-infused astral stone as they converged toward the soaring arches.

Dimensional magic tended to interfere with the Seal unless it was on a low level, but he understood it well enough to build the gate without that problem. It helped that it was designed to access the World Seal itself, rather than going somewhere else.

He didn’t strictly need a dimensional gate to explore the Seal, but it had two main advantages over tearing through the world’s fabric himself.

Stability was the first one.

It was better to let the dimensional gate balance the energies of the transfer, rather than doing it haphazardly. His touch was light, but this would be less disruptive to the Seal, especially if the instabilities in it flared up.

The gate was designed to balance energy surges, which would leave his attention free to focus on more important things.

The other main reason he’d built it was that the gate was enchanted to summon back an avatar if it got stuck somewhere. That was a very important factor since the subdimensions of the World Seal were a snarled mess.

Even the laws of space and time were influenced, making time pass slowly in some places and quickly in others.

That might be one of the things that had trapped Asenya. Depending on where she had gone inside the Seal, time could be moving so slowly that it was basically standing still. For all he knew, she could be locked in place, barely aware that so much time had passed outside.

He could identify areas like that by comparing the flow of thought between his main body and his avatars, but an avatar that entered that type of place would still end up frozen like a bug in amber.

Even telling the avatar to self-destruct might not work if time was moving too slowly. That was what the gate was designed to prevent.

If he noticed one of his avatars was frozen, he could activate the enchantment to retrieve them.

Ripples of powerful but calm dimensional energy radiated across the central plaza, making the edges of the stones bend. The effect was the most intense in the air beneath each arch, where it shimmered with potential.

His hands rose as he crafted a complex silver rune that would act as the key to the gates. It glowed on his palm as it separated into two copies. One shot down to merge into the core of the plaza, while the other fused into his essence constellation.

As soon as the rune was in place, the entire city came to life.

Streams of mana from the sky and earth flooded inward from the connected ley lines, creating a vast roar as they began to fill the stones and charge the enchantments. Lightning shot along the stones, making the buildings glow.

The towers of the castle in the outer ring shone like stars, concentrating the mana from the sky as it sent it down through the walls into the city core. Thanks to the density of mana on the plains, it wouldn’t take long before everything was charged.

His aura swept across the city as he double-checked the enchantments, but everything was stable. They were handling the mana without trouble.

Silver runes floated in the air around him as he began to test the gate’s operation, flowing into the crystalline arches that towered hundreds of feet into the air.

Before long, the entire structure was humming with force.It glowed with astral energy as strands of silver lightning curled around the seamless white stone, traveling from arch to arch and down the massive pillars.

All around the city and out on the Storm Plains, the roads and buildings glowed as they channeled mana inward.

At the main intersection, where the two tallest pillars held up a five-hundred foot tall arch, a slice of silver energy appeared and then rotated, stretching into a flat plane. The surface was a pure field of astral light, revealing nothing of what was on the other side.

But that could change.

Sam floated down through the air and stood in front of it. It was twice as tall as him and radiated a sense of grandeur and power. He ran his hand across the support pillars and then studied the portal, examining the flow of essence through the enchantment.

“It looks like everything is working,” he said with a slight smile. “That means it’s time for the next step.”

Creating a gate on Aster Fall was one thing, but getting the World Core to let it function was another, especially when that gate was going directly into one of its most highly protected areas. Unless it allowed it, this gate would go nowhere.

Fortunately, that shouldn’t be a problem for him. He turned his attention to the World Core and reached out through his connection as High Artificer.

There was a flood of information as the connection opened his mind to all of the notifications that the World Core liked to send him, everything from the ambient mana in various regions of the world, to the damage notices on the Core itself that still hadn’t healed, to the various population numbers of races and how their borders had shifted in the last year.

Normally, the Titan Star filtered all of that information for him and dealt with the less important issues, which left him free to do his own work, but when he accessed the core directly, there was no avoiding it.

With his Intelligence attribute, it wasn’t difficult to handle it, but it was still a lot. He let the waves of information flow through his mind, noting various pieces that were useful, and then he moved on, requesting that it authorize the existence of the portal and grant it access to the World Seal.

There was a moment of delay as a wave of energy swept over him and across the city of Portal.

He felt the World Core assessing his reasoning, the construction of the gate, the enchantments he’d created to stabilize it, and the positioning of the city with the ley lines and ambient mana. Then there was a threat assessment as the core weighed the value of this gate and his plan compared to its primary purpose of balancing the energy of the Nexus.

After a moment, a pulse of approval radiated back toward him and he let out a quick breath. He had been fairly sure the core would allow it, but there was always a chance he’d missed something.

The World Core’s voice rang in his mind, accompanied by a chorus of pleasant silver trumpets. It was the real voice of the core this time, not its automated one.

Your request is authorized, High Artificer. This gate will be granted access to the World Seal, but locked to you alone. Additional layers of enchantment will be added to balance the necessary energies.

There was a hum of power as a flood of astral energy wrapped around the city, but it wasn’t in the visible spectrum. Only a thread of it was even in this dimension.

The rest of the energy sank into the connecting subdimensions, creating pathways into the World Seal that were as solid as stone tunnels.

As it finished, the arches he’d constructed shimmered as a few additional runes were added to them, bringing them into balance with the World Core itself. Then the core continued speaking.

City designation confirmed as “Portal.”

The dimensional key to access the World Seal is assigned to you alone. Furthermore, for building a Legendary-rank dimensional artifact on Aster Fall and incorporating it into the Storm Plains, with a plan that is intended to aid the world, you have earned merit.

Additionally, you have created a city that will balance some of the local wild mana and make this area more hospitable to life. Its future is promising and one day it may be a thriving city on the Storm Plains, restoring this area to a productive one. This is a worthy deed.

Rewards will now be assigned.

You are granted 5 Levels of Class and General Experience.

Congratulations, High Artificer. You are now Level 387.

You have earned the Title: Lord of Portal.

This is a Title of Nobility on Aster Fall.

[You are granted all rights, dignities, and authority over the city of Portal and its inhabitants, as well as a copy of the dimensional keys and authorizations to its enchantments. Authority from this title can be passed down to your heirs and subordinates, in full or in part, except for the dimensional authority to access the World Seal itself.]

You are granted the Trait: Dimensional Authority (World Seal).

[You are granted the authorization to travel to any region of the World Seal, as well as knowledge of its general structure, subdivisions, and internal connections. The routes within the seal are constantly changing as the subdimensions shift. You may travel there directly or with the assistance of a dimensional gate, such as the one you constructed at Portal.]

You are granted the Trait: Dimensional Guidance (World Seal).

[You will always know your location and that of your avatars within the World Seal, as well as their welfare and a general awareness of their surroundings. This will make it easier for you to retrieve them with the help of your dimensional gate. Be warned that some areas will be dangerous and are not under the control of the World Core. Enemies are present in many of them.]

Access to the World Seal is approved.

Journey well.

With those messages, the World Core’s voice faded away, leaving behind the traits and title, as well as a flood of experience.

It was the first time he’d absorbed this much experience with an avatar. He’d earned some experience from crafting at the relic and creating items, but not a full level yet.

Since this was an avatar and only made of astral energy, the experience flooded in like a river and then through the connection to his main body. It left a tingling sensation of effervescent bubbles in its wake.

It made him grin as he felt it arrive.

The transfer was almost instant at this distance, just a handful of seconds as the energy flowed along one of the astral paths to reach him. The grin turned into a chuckle as he saw the new title that the World Core had decided to give him.

“Lord of Portal, hmm?” he said as he looked at it. “Fair enough. I suppose I did build the place. Maybe I can find a few people to live here later.”

As the experience was transferred, he studied his avatar, but the strength of it hadn’t changed. He hadn’t expected it to. Avatars were exceptionally useful, but their main limit was that their strength was set at the moment of creation.

They didn’t improve on their own. If he leveled up and wanted to make a stronger one to match, he had to create a new one.

That was a good feature as well, since it allowed him to create avatars under the World Limit and prevent damage to the World Seal. And if he got experience like now, he didn’t need to worry about them suddenly evolving and breaking things.

He wasn’t sure he would call Avatar of the Stars his most powerful ability, since his aura abilities were more critical for his work, but it was definitely a key one.

He looked back up at the gate, studying the new enchantments that the World Core had added, as well as the two traits it had given him. It obviously knew what he was doing and was trying to help out.

The traits would make things a little smoother. The stabilizing enchantments would also help.

Now Portal was connected to the World Core and wouldn’t cause trouble with any properties of the core that already existed. It had basically been turned into a part of the world and its operation would be as smooth as possible.

He hadn’t expected the help, but it was worthwhile.

As he was studying the gate’s operation and planning out his first entry into the Seal, a commotion from his avatar on Sun’s Rest drew his attention. The new envoys who had arrived at the valley’s entrance were causing a commotion, which pulled his attention to them.

Words from one of the arrivals floated in the air.

“Make way for the Lords of Tower Reach! The Heroes of the Alabaster Palace, the Dimensional Scions, the Tower Mages, the creators of the elite Tempest Barbarians!”

More lines of bombast followed, listing out a dozen titles and accolades from the kingdom and other places, until it finally concluded in the words that drew Sam’s attention.

“The Hastern delegation has arrived!”

His expression turned wintery as he looked toward the entrance of the valley, scanning the delegates for the presences that he already knew were there.

His grandparents.

The Hastern family who had exiled his father and grandfather so many years before.