The last of a gaggle of marshling babies caught fire. It giggled, rolled on the ground, then attempted to bite Theo’s leg. The alchemist scooped it up under the arms and held it at length. Each baby had adapted to Tero’gal perfectly, and he detected no issues with the way their soul bound to the realm.

“Into the cage you go,” Theo said, opening the door and tossing the marshling inside before the others could escape. “Hope you guys calm down a bit.”

“They’ll be fine.”

Theo turned to the matron designated to care for the marshlings while their mother was off doing whatever it was she was doing. She reminded the alchemist a lot of Whisper. Maybe that’s because she was a soft-spoken toora woman with a gray-white coat and blue eyes. Her name was long, but everyone called her Snow. Of the few toora he had met in his world, this woman had adjusted very well.

“Can’t thank you enough for taking care of the marshling babies,” Theo said. “I know they’re a handful, but once Sledge has time away from them, she’ll come back.”

“Not necessary,” Snow said, kneeling by the cage. She closed her eyes, and the screaming rabbled settled. After about a minute of whatever this was, each baby was completely calm. They gathered near the cage’s edge and stared at Snow as though she was holding something delicious to chew on. The woman then opened the door and each marshling filed out. “I have a way.”

“Or a hidden power,” Theo said, kneeling and extending his finger. A purple-gray marshling grabbed his finger and shook it before squeaking. “Seriously, you’re the marshling whisperer.”

Snow simply smiled, patting each marshling on the head before nodding. “Let’s start with the basics. Manners. We don’t bite. We don’t push. Most of all, we behave. Got it?”

Each marshling peeped a response in turn.

“Off we go,” Snow said, filing out of the small house with the babies in tow.

Theo could only watch in amazement as the animalistic children followed close behind the woman. He didn’t sense any mana usage from the woman, but there was clearly some kind of power going on there. Perhaps the toora had figured out how to develop their system fully within Tero’gal. Or there was something else going on that he wasn’t aware of. With a shake of his head, he teleported back to the mortal plane.

“All done,” Theo said, finding Tresk lurking somewhere in the manor.

“Did it go well?” she asked. “Is them babies okay?”

“Yeah, children are fine. A nice toora woman is taking care of them while Sledge blows off some steam.”

“Excellent,” Tresk said, rubbing her hands together. “Who are we going to migrate next?”

“What? No one. I’ve got too much to do.”

“Come on!” Tresk said, stomping her foot. “That was neat. We should do it again.”

Theo was under the impression that Tresk was going to head off on another adventure with Alex. Instead, she was waiting in the manor for Theo to return. Truth was, Sledge was closer to her than she would admit. Marshlings weren’t rare in Broken Tusk, but both were outcasts from their respective group. Tresk had never wanted to be a blacksmith and had fought desperately to become an adventurer. Sledge was an orphan who had to forge her own path, and it was hard not to see the similarities between them.

“We need to make more potions. And aren’t the games starting soon?”

“They already started,” Tresk said with a shrug.

“What? Then we really need to make the potions,” Theo said. “Like… A lot of potions.”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go spend ten thousand years in some boring paper place,” Tresk said, rolling her eyes. “But I’m bringing Alex this time.”

“Fine with me. Actually, let’s head to the paper realm and have a discussion. I’ve got some observations about the system.”

Tresk shrugged as though she was down for anything. After they had gathered Alex, the alchemist folded space and brought them directly to the paper world. The conceptual pressure of it all pressed down on them, up until the point where Theo extended his aura to protect them. Then it was time for a talk.

“I have some observations,” Theo said, clearing his throat. “Something the system said stuck out to me. When I talked to her about my overpowered potions, she said something about a person’s potential.”

“Okay, what are you thinking?” Tresk asked.

Theo thought back to what he had just witnessed with Snow. He thought about how King Leon had broken the defenses within Tero’gal, and the power people like ascendants had. In each example, they were operating outside the bounds of the system. Even the alchemist had worked in such a way, especially with his new skill. He wasn’t following the rules of the pop-ups exactly, but he was still operating with more power than he should have.

“The only answer I have is that the system we use to increase our levels is an interpretive layer,” Theo said. “Everything we know about the way a person advances in power is just one path. When I was in Tero’gal, this woman used an ability. No one in Tero’gal has abilities, because they don’t have classes. I know they’re working on something, but as far as I know there’s nothing concrete. Just rumors.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

“Could be that you’re wrong,” Tresk said. “And people just aren’t sharing.”

“You’re right. But I didn’t feel anything in this woman’s soul,” Theo countered. “As far as I know, she didn’t have a class. But what if I’m just used to looking for classes with our system, and she was using another system? Something more fundamental. What the system said to me keeps coming back. How could a person’s potential mean anything in relation to the system’s attribute cap if not because they can advance outside the system.”

Tresk rubbed her bald head, eyes pinched shut. “You sure?” she asked. “How does that work?”

Theo rubbed his chin, finding a comfortable log to sit on. “Maybe Alex is a decent example.”

“Me?” Alex asked, looking around and breathing a puff of fire. “I didn’t do nothing.”

“No, you did do something,” Theo said, withdrawing the required glassware to get to work. “You steered your development in more ways than one. And each was not part of the normal advancement presented by the system. You started with one affinity, fire, and gave yourself another. Then you changed your physical form by becoming a dragon.”

“He has a point,” Tresk said.

“What’s the point?” Alex asked. “What does it matter if our system is just a… what did you call it?”

“Interpretive layer. Something that lets us understand our true power,” Theo said.

“Okay, what’s the point then?” Alex asked. “Does it matter?”

Theo looked to the pale sky of the paper world. He wasn’t sure if it actually mattered, but that depended on if his suspicions were correct. Leon was the loose end, and there was absolutely no way he just found a pocket of the void no one was aware of. And the system was making no efforts to find him. Which meant he was outside the bounds of the system. The void was finite. It had an edge. That only left one question…

What was on the other side?

“Hardly matters,” Theo said, getting to work on the first potion. “Since I’ve done this before, it should take way less time. Maybe a half-year for each potion. So, strap in. We’re making five of every attribute potion.”

“I’m no mathmagician, but that sounds like a lot,” Tresk said.

“Count on your fingers if you need.”

Tresk did exactly that. Not that six times five was a hard math problem, but she was just a little marshling. No one would blame her.

“Five-hundred potions!?” Tresk shouted. “Just kidding. Thirty potions, which means fifteen years in this place. Okay, sounds fun. Hooray, did you bring something fun to do, Alex?”

“I did not,” Alex said.

“Sweet. How long will pass in the outside world?” Tresk asked.

“A few hours,” Theo assured her. “Now, I’m going to focus. I’ll see you in about six months.”

“Hooray.”

***

Tresk held on tight, riding Alex as they worked their way through the paper world. Last time, she didn’t have the company of the dragon-goose with her, making time pass quickly. With the added stimulation of her companion, time crawled. And it wasn’t a bad thing. This gave them time not only to explore this strange world, but discuss Theo’s theories.

They had been doing so for about five years, and had reached no new conclusions.

“Places like this give me the creeps,” Tresk said.

Alex banked to one side, giving them an excellent view of the expansive landscape below. Hills rolled far into the distance as groups of the weird monsters roamed. They were once again nearing the edge of the world where an impassable barrier waited.

“It is indeed creepy,” Alex said. “Look, that one is different from the others.”

Tresk nodded, watching as a larger, spider-like creature led a pack. Alex dove, releasing a torrent of fire that burned all the monsters to a crisp. Good thing the fire didn’t spread over the paper landscape.

With a sigh, Tresk borrowed a fraction of Theo’s power and sent her senses into the void. He had a different way of looking at it than her, but their views were close enough. The expansive blackness stretched before her, terminating only far in the distance. That was the place Theo thought about often. The end of the void.

Alex moved on her own in the paper world while Tresk scanned the void. She felt the void islands, the middle realms, lower realm, and even the heavens. There was something beyond this place and she couldn’t help but to think if Theo was hiding something from her. Often he did so to ease her mind, knowing she would worry too much. And he was right. She couldn’t think of anything else.

Instead, she did the thing she had been practicing all these years. “Land us over there,” Tresk said, pointing to a spot within eyeshot of Theo, but far enough away they wouldn’t disturb him. While they had to return to his aura every few hours, they could explore much of this world in that time.

“Maybe you’ll get closer today,” Alex suggested.

Tresk shrugged, taking a seated position and closing her eyes. “Feels like I’m trying to catch dust floating in the air. Every time I get close, it slips through my fingers.”

Alex hummed a response, yawning and she sat on the ground. “I’ll help as much as I can.”

And so Tresk began her meditative exercise. This was a fact made more difficult by her nature. She couldn’t help it if she was excitable and prone to fits of spasms when sitting still for too long. The first year she had tried this resulted in absolutely nothing. But by the third year, she felt something far in the distance.

“Now I feel it clearly,” Tresk said, taking in a steady breath and letting it out. “Can you feel it?”

“Barely,” Alex said. “Like a little speck of mana just out of my reach.”

“Exactly,” Tresk said, taking another deep breath. “So is this our potential, or the power source Theo was talking about?”

“Perhaps we’re going insane,” Alex said. “We’ve spent too long in this place, I think.”

“Nah, Theo was here for 30 years. We’ll be fine,” Tresk said. “Maybe if I just poke it hard enough…”

“Not everything can be solved with poking…”

Reaching out with an invisible hand, Tresk tried to poke the thing she felt. When it didn’t respond to a good poking, she instead snatched it and held it firmly where it was. Her body sagged in relaxation as something flowed through her. The system message that appeared caused her to jump.

[Unveiling]

Tether to local system removed.

Unburdening soul… Removing restrictions…

Unveiling completed. Local system notified. Grand System notified. Monitor System notified.

“What have you done?” Alex asked.