Novaris: Adventure in the Shattered Fang Continent

Novaris. Quattur (April). 905. AGC.

Nodel. Waxing Crescent 🌒. Day 6.

The short gnome was around half of Tesilim’s height, which probably put him at around four foot something. He wore old scholar clothes that were nothing like the classical wizard robes Tesilim thought a wizard would wear. There was also no pointy hat or a book with all his spells. Instead, the stylish deep blue and white robes looked comfortable, though at least he had a staff with light blue metal handholds and a purple orb whose inside flashed with bolts of lighting like a tesla coil. The gnome had a simple goatee of brown hair that matched his tan skin and wild yet styled haircut.

Apparently, haircuts were a thing.

Well, that's stupid. Of course, they have haircuts. Tesilim thought.

Either way, the most stunning feature of the gnome was his crystal eyes. The sclera was like dark blue sapphires. Literally. His eyes were made of crystal or gems. His iris were a lighter shade of blue with white dots for pupils. The weirdest thing was how his eyes functioned. The gnome's eyes didn’t rotate like a living creatures did. Instead, the iris moved around as if his eyes were just a screen and the iris were moving pixels.

“Nothing, I was born like this.” The gnome replied to Tesilim’s comment.

“That's kinda cool! So what do you want from me? You aren’t some sort of magic police, are you?”

“Nah, I was told that I needed to assist you in your journey through this world, so here I am.”

“Uh, I don’t know about that. I barely know you.”

“Yeah, that's fair. What if I told you I can teach magic faster and better than any book can? I will probably have you slinging spells by the end of the week. Also, I have a present for you, technically two.”

“Are the gifts magical items?”

“Yes.”

“Good deal. Come in.” Tesilim answered motioning for the gnome to head inside as he began walking to his study chair.

However, Alyx looked at Lili for permission before barging in, and seeing her nod, he proceeded.

Following Tesilim behind the counter, he watched with curiosity as he felt for the elf's soul and could feel the odd energy within the elf. Something else that was odd was Lili’s soul. There was something about how her soul function that was throwing him off. It seemed like any normal soul, but the flow of mana going into it just didn’t seem right. However, as he still wanted to be in Tesilim’s good grace to study him further, Alyx decided to stay quiet.

Tesilim, however, just stared at Alyx with an expecting and anxious look as he waited for his magical items. Not wanting to stall any longer, Alyx smiled at the elf before reaching into his bag of holding, pulling a pouch out, and quickly tossing it at Tesilim.

“Here,” Alyx said as he tossed the pouch.

Not waiting even for a second, Tesilim opened the pouch, saw the black void of nothingness, and grinned.

“Is this a pouch of holding?” He asked with excitement.

“Yeah, there are only two things in there, two dice, to be specific.”

Tesilim reached in, and sure enough, he felt two dice touch the palm of his hand and quickly pulled them out. However, the action reminded him of something, and he quickly presented his question.

“Wait. Is that a bag of holding?” Tesilim said while pointing at Alyx’s bag.

“Yeah, why?”

Tesilim’s eyes went wide, and a very founded worry based on a tabletop rpg made him question reality.

“Isn’t that dangerous! I thought putting two spatial containers within each other would cause an explosion and make a portal to a different plane of existence?”

“Nah. Okay, yes, but that only happens with the cheap stuff. If you do the magic properly, there isn’t a reason why you can't put a spatial storage inside another one. Though don’t do it too many times, or the whole thing implodes and disappears to somewhere.”

“Where?” Tesilim question again.

“I'm not sure. That's one of our greatest magical mysteries, and so far, no one has been brave enough to find out.”

The look on Tesilim’s face did not bring joy to Alyx.

Not seeing Alyx’s look, Tesilim just pulled out the dice. Both were six-sided dice. One was purple with yellow dots showing the numbers on each side, and the other was its reverse twin with a yellow body and purple dots. Inspecting them, Tesilim couldn’t figure out what they would do, so he asked.

“So, what do they do, and why did I get them?”

“Well, to see what they do, you must wait until you can identify them. As to why you got them, well, they were a creation between my two patron deities, the Goddesses of Knowledge and Magic, with assistance from the God of Chaos and Luck. According to them, you would probably like them, and they would help you on your journey.”

Tesilim just grinned like a maniac.

The conversation then shifted from the new magical items to the talk of magic as Alyx saw the book that Tesilim was reading.

“I see you got the beginner basics there. That's not a bad start and should help you start on your path to magic. However, before I continue, I need to ask about what's going on with your soul.”

When Tesilim’s soul was mentioned, Alyx saw the look he and Lili shared and decided to intervene.

“Alright, listen up. As your companion there can tell you I come from a rather influential family. Not only that, but I am a chosen of both the Goddess’s of Magic and Knowledge, and finally, I specialize in soul magic. Now, I was given a task directly from two gods to come assist you.” Alyx said, pausing to point at Tesilim before continuing. “Clearly, something is going on in the background, something that we aren’t aware of. And now that I am looking at your soul, I can definitely see something crazy is happening. So, if you wouldn’t mind hiding stuff from me, that would be great, as I can’t help you otherwise.” The gnome finished, a bit annoyed.

The two elves shared another look before they both sighed, and Tesilim spoke up.

“Alright, listen, I wasn’t always elven. In fact, I am not even from this planet. However, I managed to escape before mine got destroyed, but not before gaining something called The Blessing of the World Crystal, which is why I am now an elf and have this weird mana.”

Hearing the Blessing of the World Crystal caused Alyx’s eyes to widen, but he didn’t interrupt.

“Now, I have some weird powers that cause random stuff to happen when I spend this mana. I don’t know why it happens. It just does.”

“I see. Well. This is unexpected. We know that the World Crystal is somewhat sentient, but we haven’t heard of it directly interacting with us puny mortals. As far as we as a planet know, it only ever speaks with the gods.”

“So, what is this World Crystal thing? I have figured it’s probably at the center of the planet, but I am unsure what exactly it does.” Tesilim asked.

“The World Crystal is what creates living worlds like ours and is the reason why we came to be. In a way, it is a super god with very limited powers, at least after finishing its world. The only reason it would ever act is if the laws of reality are broken.”

“Wait! So, you’re telling me that Earth’s World Crystal could have saved our planet!? Was ours just a lazy crystal!?” Tesilim blurted in anger.

Sighing, Alyx answered. “No, it can’t defend itself like that. Reality is on a cycle, and apparently, not defending itself from being killed by an Eldritch God is part of it. Well, in truth, we are it’s defense. The thing made our planet and began all our species, which in itself is a defense, as if the crystal dies, we die because we no longer have a planet to live on.”

Hearing that, Tesilim deflated. Earth had let down its crystal, it was destroyed because they weren’t strong enough.

Seeing the elf deflate, Alyx decided to change the topic to the weird mana.

“Okay, so this mana causes weird things to happen. What else can you tell me about it?”

“Well, I have a special way of looking at it, which measures it in points. I gain one point every two hours. Once it reaches a hundred points, I have 24 hours to get rid of it, or it triggers something called a Chaos Event that causes something to happen. So far, it's happened twice. The first time, I got a good temporary buff that gave me lots of nice resistances, while the second, it made a portal to the inside of a local tavern.”

“Hmm, I see. Anything else?”

“Yeah, I have an ability that lets me spend points to boost the power of a spell. However, the downside is that it will initiate a Chaos Event regardless of how much I spend. Finally, the event can cause good and bad things to happen, but we have yet to get anything bad. Also, it's called Chaos Mana.”

Hearing the last bit, Alyx, who had been staring at the ground seemingly deep in thought, snapped up.

“Wait! You said, Chaos Mana!?”

“That's not possible! Chaos Mana is dangerous stuff. In fact, if it weren’t for our planet's barrier, we would all be very manaless right now!”

“What are you talking about?” Tesilim asked, worried that he was somehow going to destroy the planet. Lili, however, was pretending to be unfazed by the conversion while still listening attentively, as if she were hearing the most important information of her life.

“Okay, so, space or the Astral is filled with Chaos Mana, which, outside of causing random reactions that can bring new suns or barren planets into existence as well as a bunch of other stuff. Chaos Mana loves to absorb all other mana and turn it into more of itself. So without our planet’s Ethereal Barrier constantly fending it off, we wouldn’t have mana, period. The issue is that if you are right, and you are producing Chaos Mana, then you might start a chain reaction that might remove all of our mana!” The flustered gnome finished yelling in panic.

“Woah, woah, woah, relax dude! If that were true, then the planet would have been manaless for a while now. I spent like three weeks here already, and everything is fine.”

Hearing that, Alyx calmed down.

“That's true, but still, that's a bit worrying.”

“Nah, man, it's fine. As I said, two random things have already happened, and we are still good. Also, hold on, let me check something.

Then Alyx watched as Tesilim seemed to be staring at nothing.

Of course, he was staring at one of his abilities.

Chaos Mana: You can produce a trickle of Chaos Mana attuned to your being. Your Chaos Meter lets you know how much Chaos Mana is available. Once your Chaos Meter reaches 100, the Chaos Mana will trigger a Chaos Event if it is not spent within 24 Hours.

“Nah, see, my thing says it's Chaos Mana attuned to me, so that's probably why it's fine.”

Tesilim didn’t like how Alyx stared at him like he was made of gold.

“Fuck! I forgot this idiot is a wizard! Great, now I am going to get kidnapped and shit!” Tesilim thought worryingly.

Tesilim was right, and Alyx grabbed him by the hand and rushed towards the door while Tesilim yelled, “No, No, Nooo!”

However, thankfully, Tesilim’s charming princess came to the rescue and pinned Alyx to the ground before they were even halfway towards the door.

“Listen here, you gnome bastard, you aren’t taking him anywhere.”

Unseen and unfelt by the three individuals inside the shop were two masked and cloaked figures. They stood atop the small building, staring at each other. One wore a black mask with black robes, and the other a deep blue robe and gold mask.

“Now, now, let's not get involved in the affair of our juniors,” said the black-masked individual, pausing to see if the other would respond. Hearing nothing, he continued.

“See, he is fine. Let's not level this city for no reason.”

Then, in a blink, they both disappeared.