We talked a bit even as I was distracted by all the nature around me. The trees, the flowers, the little lakes we passed by… All that would have been a very normal sight back where I had come from, but over here, in this sunless world where the green of chlorophyll was just not something that existed any longer under normal circumstances, it all felt magical.

The Icon was above us. A miniature sun hung in the sky, lighting up everything like daytime and even making the sky look blue. It wasn’t just an orb of light like a sprite or even a construction of magical strings like Hamsik’s gun.

This felt more like a tapestry woven out of innumerable threads of mana. A bunch of different shapes made from slightly different threads, all woven together to form one larger picture shaped like a sun. And it blazed. Whoever had created something like that had to be immensely powerful.

I thought I heard buzzing, saw something flitting around the flowers. “Are those insects? Bees?”

“Well, yes. Preserves are well maintained to simulate realistic conditions. Very interesting you know the exact species of insect. Although, now I’m curious if your Sacrifice would work on them.”

I frowned. “I’m trying not to Sacrifice living things, thank you.”

“Naturally. That would be illegal. Sometimes, I wonder why they haven’t illegalized an Aspect like that entirely, though I suppose it would then lead to the argument that half the Aspects people possess should be illegalized.”

That took me out. “Are there Aspects that are illegal to possess? What if you just get them without even trying? What do you do then?”

“Registered use. If you are found to possess a forbidden Aspect, while also actively using them, then you will be immediately taken into custody. Depending on the severity of your illegal actions, you may be consigned to immediate execution for the safety of others. You can register such an Aspect for strictly sanctioned and approved use, however.”

I grunted, not sure if I liked the idea of being restricted in that way. Then again, I could see why they would go to such length, especially when Linak continued.

“And yes, there are Aspects that the Council of Zairgon has historically deemed too dangerous to be legal.” He was rubbing his beak thoughtfully, with academic interest rather than any sort of disgust or distaste. “Aspect of Singularity is one I’m aware of. Even minor documented uses of it have been rather disastrous.”

“I… can see how that would be pretty bad. Though, you’d think you’d be able to control it to not be dangerous, but I guess I don’t know how it works.”

“It’s one of those Aspects that bypass the Natural Limit of Existence.”

We passed by a strange figure. A lanky, humanoid-looking person but with short, feathery wings and skin that was vividly silver. I did my best not to stare, even though I was pretty sure I had never seen that race before.

“What’s the Natural Limit of Existence?” I asked, trying to distract myself from the striking sight. At least we had received a friendly wave from the silver-skin and nothing worse. I lowered my voice. “And is that person taking care of this… garden? Uh, Preserve?”

“The Se-Targa possess Racial Aspects that assist with Icons, yes,” Linak said. “So they’re naturally in charge of things like this. And the Natural Limit of Existence is something you’ve likely already encountered, though I’m surprised it’s missing from your vocabulary. You must have seen how your Aspect’s effects are temporally limited, yes?”

I was curious about Racial Aspects now, but one question at a time. “Oh, I see. It’s the thing where your Aspect runs out after some time.”

“Yes. Without specific Augmentations, most Aspects have a limited duration of effect, even if they’re very tangible. That’s why creating water with a Water Aspect doesn’t increase the water supply and nor will it quench your thirst because it will disappear from your stomach before it can be digested. Same goes for Aspects related to metals, stone, wood, what have you.”

“But?”

“But certain Aspects can bypass it. For instance, use the Aspect of Heat to set fire to some wood. The original heat will eventually disappear, but the fire remains, yes? Therefore, we categorize Heat and other related Aspects as possessing limited capabilities of bypassing the Natural Limit of Existence.”

“And Singularity can do that?”

“It acts incredibly fast. So much so that every documented user has always caused widespread chaos in an instant, before they can bring it under control.”

We were walking down the path towards the end of the Preserve. Like the trees and everything, even the paths here were carefully tended. I could already think of other Aspects that would be outlawed within Zairgon. Powers that could manipulate people’s mind, for instance.

I still wondered how the Council decided on it, though, because I could see some of the cases being a fine line.

There were actual guards at the gate at other end of the Preserve. It was a smidge interesting that their uniforms were fancier than the ones I’d seen on Revayne and even her commander. Kind of funny how every little thing seemed to be geared towards making Ring Two different from Ring Three.

They definitely didn’t look happy seeing a cultist coming up to them, but as Linak had said, I was being accompanied by someone who did apparently belong in Ring Two, so it was fine.

And then we were in Ring Two proper.

It felt strange going back to what felt like the perpetual night of Zairgon—and the rest of the world—after coming out of the Preserve. But the difference from Ring Three was certainly night and day.

Where Ring Four was basically a set of run-down slums and Ring Three was the more worker-centric area where people lived in concrete apartments, Ring Two was definitely a lot more leisurely. The streets were wider, as were the sidewalks. Fancy shops and restaurants popped up like weeds, canals with gondolas flooded half the district, and the occasional residence I saw was almost always a manor that stretched across too much space.

“This is where the rich people live, huh?” I asked as we walked towards our destination.

“More or less,” Linak said. “Ring Two was specifically created to house Zairgon’s elite.”

“I see.” So this was where I’d find Brasvay and Drihawk. And Kalnislaw too, I supposed. “Kind of funny that it’s higher up. If the volcano ever goes off, this Ring—and Ring One, I guess—would be in greater danger.”

Linak gave me a weird look. “Why would the volcano… go off?”

“Well, it’s a volcano. Erupting is kind of their thing.”

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The way he looked at me made me feel a bit stupid, though I wasn’t too miffed about it. He wasn’t trying to be condescending on purpose. “The volcano is also controlled.”

“Controlled? How?”

“It’s Iconized.”

I looked down at the ground as I was walking, momentarily at a loss for words. “You’re saying this whole volcano is an Icon?”

“Not originally.” Linak squinted at me with interest. “You must be new to Zairgon. But yes, the volcano was Iconized over time by one of the original founders of Zairgon. Essentially, she took over the entire structure of the volcano and made it her Everlasting Icon.”

“Iconized… by one person…”

I shook my head. If I tried to remember, the thought wasn’t completely unprecedented to me. I had already heard that Icons were a large part of what was keeping Ephemeroth stable enough to maintain life. Icons in the seas and Icons in the clouds. Constructs and creations of immense power that literally made this sunless world a habitable planet.

With that sort of context, a single Icon making up an entire volcano wasn’t too far-fetched. Still. It was one thing to hear about it in an abstract sense.

It was wholly another to be walking on top of it.

We soon made it to Xokrist. One nice thing about Ring Two was that it was significantly smaller than the other Rings, so we didn’t have to walk for long before we made it to a wider, more open area kind of like the Mage Guild.

The academy itself was more of a gated campus boasting long buildings that reminded me of renaissance style architecture, just with a lot more pillars and flying buttresses and the like. Some of the buttresses were quite literally flying. And… so was a tower. All the structures had a very peculiar style to them. I was weirdly reminded of flowers again, because every floor of each building was wider and larger than the lower ones.

It didn’t look structurally sound on its own. But one, I was no architect. And two, the way most of the pillars and buttresses glowed confirmed that mana was absolutely involved.

“They really put the magic in magic academy here, huh?” I said.

Linak cawed out a short laugh. “I suppose that’s one way to put it. Wait till we go inside, though. You’ll realize what you said is an understatement.”

The guards posted at the academy gates were a lot more chill than the ones at Ring Two’s gates. They recognized Linak on sight, going by their smiles, and gave me a cursory once-over before we went through.

Linak took me to a small side room inside the academy. He was right about my earlier description being understated. I caught glimpses of floating lamps, paintings that silently greeted us and waved at us, suits of armour that saluted as we passed by, and we even took a staircase that was functionally an escalator but just magic instead of mechanics.

“Here we are,” Linak said. He put me in a room that was similar to the Artificer’s Guild, just a lot less cluttered. “Wait here a moment, please.”

He wasn’t gone long. I was debating with myself whether I ought to disobey his instructions and just take short stroll around—I was in an actual magic academy

, how could I not be tempted—but Linak returned before I was even done observing the little mechanisms that had been left in the room.

“We’re back!” as he entered.

I stupidly thought he’d be pushing a cart full of broken artifacts and whatnot, forgetting for a moment that we were in a magic academy. But no, he was levitating them all in behind him. Behind them. He wasn’t alone. A few other mages in robes had arrived with him, two of them wearing broadbrimmed, pointy hats as well.

Most of them greeted me with smiles, but one of the mages, an older Rakshasa with white horns, observed me sceptically at best.

“Friends,” Linak said, introducing me. “This is Mage Moreland, the mage who has kindly offered to take up our job offer. Mage Moreland, these are the other mages who have been working with me on a lot of the artifices you see here.”

“Nice to meet you,” I said. “I won’t lie, I was expecting more, uh, students to be working on the magical artifices.”

Everyone here was clearly an adult, if not older than me too. The Rakshasa definitely had to be older.

Two of the younger newcomers smirked at each other.

“We are students,” one of them, the thin Ogre, said. “We’re just graduate students, not younglings like you probably expected.”

“Oh. My bad.”

Now I was wondering what kind of research they did and if they were working towards whatever was the equivalent of a PhD here. Did they do things like theses and dissertations as well?

“I’ve already told them what you’re capable of, Mage Moreland,” Linak said. “So you don’t need to explain anything further. However, there is one addendum we would like to propose, if you would approve of it, that is.”

“What is it?” I asked.

“Originally, we would have handed you all the artifices that we wished to get rid of, and you would take them on your own, at your own discretion, after showing us the minimal proof that they would be taken care of.”

I nodded. It had seemed a bit odd. If they were paying someone to just take it away from them, why wouldn’t just throwing them away be enough? “Isn’t that a security risk? What if someone didn’t destroy them and, I don’t know, tried to resell them in the black market or something?”

“You cannot,” the Ogre said. “We have markers on every artifice that indicates its status. If they aren’t destroyed in time, we would send the Mage Guild after you.”

“Huh, that makes sense. But things are different now?”

Linak nodded. “My colleagues were intrigued—”

The other grad student, a young Rakshasa, elbowed Linak.

“Alright, alright!” Linak rubbed his feathered elbow. “We were all interested to see how your Aspect functions. It is a purely academic interest, I assure you. So here’s the deal. If you answer our questions about your Aspect while using it here at the academy to take care of the artifices, then we will upgrade the job rank from Iron to Silver. Sound good?”

“You can really do that?” I asked. “Pay an Iron rank what—”

“Even if we could,” the older Rakshasa professor cut in. “I still oppose the idea. This human mage clearly hasn’t undergone the right education to truly be helpful.”

“We won’t know for sure if we don’t give it a try, professor,” the Ogre said.

The older Rakshasa just scoffed.

I focused back on Linak, ignoring the professor for now. “So, you can do it? You sure you’ll pay me at Silver-ranked rate just for explaining how Sacrifice works? Without jumping through the Mage Guild’s hoops?”

Linak waved a dismissive hand. “Don’t worry about that. You’ll get your upgraded payment, assuming you agree.”

I didn’t see any bad sides to that, off the top of my head. They assured me that I wouldn’t be getting into any sort of trouble at the Mage Guild because of it. After all, the guild would happily take more money from their clients if offered.

So, after we agreed, we decided to get started. Some of the mechanisms and such were so broken, I didn’t even get anything proper from Sacrificing them.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Broken] Magical Artifact. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: Portion of mana spent on item construction now returned 2x ]

A small burst of glowing white threads entered me from the artifact after I Sacrificed it. The sensation wasn’t that noticeable. All I felt was the miniscule hint of mana exhaustion after using Sacrifice disappearing to nothing after it was done.

“Very interesting,” the Ogre said, observing me like I was a lab specimen after I told my audience what the blue screen had said. “You regained some mana from the broken artifice. Please, go on.”

While everyone else expressed their curiosity and interest openly, the older Rakshasa professor merely watched proceedings with a dubious eye. I ignored him and went on.

The following several artifices didn’t produce anything better. Sacrifice just kept returning mana to me. They were too broken. Too useless. Didn’t matter if it was a complicated music box or a glass sculpture that could change shape or even a cracked metal orb that was supposed to float towards whatever I was looking for instead of headbutting me repeatedly.

None of it really showed any interesting effects.

“I knew this was a pointless exercise,” the Rakshasa professor said, sighing in disappointment. Though that was aimed at his students. For me, he only held scorn. “I will not be paying for this foolishness. The money will not come from my grant.”

His other two grad students groaned at that.

I, however, wasn’t about to take that lying down. “What about that one?” I asked, pointing at a strange, thumb-sized dagger. More like a penknife, really.

Linak handed me the small weapon. “I suppose it can’t hurt to try.”

“Here goes,” I said.

I Sacrificed it.

[ Sacrifice

You have Sacrificed 1 [Minor] Bladed Weapon. Windfall bonus activated.

Reward: All blows with aggressive force will now possess a slashing effect for 10 minutes ]

I read through the notification for a couple of minutes. Then, smiling a little at the other mages’ curious looks, I made a punching motion towards the nearest window. At the peak of the punch, when my arm was fully outstretched, a thin, curled blade of compressed air formed and took off, cracking the windowpane.

“That’s the reward I got from Sacrifice,” I said. “A—”

An alarm went off.

“Oops.”