“A Celestial level item!” Devin said.

  “The benefits of traveling with a god’s Chosen,” Milo said.

  Devin held the tea bag. “What can you tell me about this?”

  “Did you read the item description?” Milo said.

  Devin rolled his eyes. “Yes, I read the item description,” he said.

  “Then you know everything I know.”

  “I thought you were connected to the source of ultimate knowledge,” Devin said.

  “Universal knowledge,” Milo said. “I don’t just know things. I must access specific knowledge, and that has a cost. The cost of identifying a Celestial-level item is more than I can afford.” His nose lifted in the air. “’Milo, destroy your mana pools because I’m too stupid to read.’ Gods, the entitlement.”

  Devin sighed. “Whatever,” he said.

  Casey picked up the basilisk eye.

  Achievement Unlocked! Philosopher’s Stone (1/3) – Casey collected a piece of a Silver-level Philosopher's Stone!

  Devin whistled. “Wow! That’s got to be good.”

  Casey stared at the eye. “I didn’t know Silver-level philosopher’s stones existed,” she said.

  “Before today, I’d have agreed,” Milo said. “Devin’s transmutation Boost is quite powerful.”

  Devin shrugged. “I’m glad. I did literally nothing for it. That’s a hell of a cheat.”

  “This isn’t …”

  “A game,” Devin said. “I know. You keep saying that, by my class is literally called Gamebreaker.”

  Milo sniffed, but he didn’t dignify that with a response. Casey began collecting smaller bones and stuffing them into her bag.

  “I’m going to have to start taking reagents from everything we kill,” she said. “There’s no telling what kind of ingredients I’ll need going forward. It’s been so long since I was allowed to gather my own materials and experiment that I’ve gotten out of the habit.”

  “What does a Philosopher’s Stone do?” Devin said.

  “It’s a tool that allows another sphere to be used in a potion,” Casey nodded. “You can’t mix different types of mana - not in alchemy, at least - so we have to find workarounds for all potions except Matter-related ones. With healing potions, for instance, we use the patient’s Life reservoir. We spend a lot of time perfecting our healing recipes to draw the tiniest amount possible to heal a patient, so we don’t expend too much of their Reservoir.”

  “But how do you make a Matter potion access a Life Reservoir?” Devin said. “It seems like that would run into the same problem of mixing spheres.”

  “You do it by creating a magical construct that can transfer Life mana inside a body,” Casey said. “Like I said, it’s a workaround.”

  Devin tried to picture tiny machines draining Life mana out of his Reservoirs and repairing his wounds with it, but all he could think of was that movie with the talking antibiotic pill.

  “And a Philosopher’s stone would let you channel Life energy directly into the potions?” Devin said. “Would that make the potions stronger?”

  “Stronger and safer,” Casey said. “You could probably reduce the cooldown as well, although you’d still need a shorter one to deal with things like system shock and Reservoir overflow.”

  “I had no idea alchemy was so complicated,” Devin said.

  “If you think that’s complicated, wait until you learn about some of the other spheres,” Milo said. “Dimensional adepts spend decades doing nothing but studying tiny details.”

  “It’s not just healing potions, either,” Casey said. “With a philosopher’s stone, you can make mana recharge potions.”

  “Mana potions!” Devin said. “Wait, are they blue?”

  Casey gave him a look. “No. They’re the color of the sphere they refill. Why do you ask?”

  “No reason,” Devin said. He checked his interface. The approaching rebels were still a few caves away. They had a few minutes for one more question. He thought of the description of the ‘Cheat Potion’ they’d gotten.

  “What’s an oppositional sphere, and why does it sound so ominous?”

  “Probably the word ‘oppositional,” Casey said.

  Devin nodded. “Yeah. Probably.” He glanced at Milo.

  “Each sphere has an oppositional sphere,” Milo said. “Once you unlocked one sphere, you can’t access the oppositional one. You also can’t use Skills or items that draw from oppositional spheres.”

  “What are the opposites?”

  “Life and Dimensional, Elemental and Universal Knowledge, and Matter and Fundamental Forces,” Milo said.

  “I guess it doesn’t matter for me,” Devin said.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  “Not yet,” Milo said. “I suspect you’ll unlock a sphere very soon.”

  Devin considered. He wasn’t sure what sphere he’d pick even if someone gave him the full choice of options. Probably Fundamental Forces, but that was only because of his high Intuition. On the other hand … he looked at his ring.

  “I don’t know,” he said. “From what you’ve said, if I got access to the Matter sphere, I wouldn’t be able to use my ring or my shoes anymore.”

  “That’s true,” Milo said. “But you also won’t be able to get your own spells until you do.”

  “True,” Devin said. He’d have to think about this. “Anything else I should know about oppositional spheres?”

  “As Casey said, they don’t mix,” Milo said. “An adept who is facing an opponent with an oppositional sphere can counter them using their own energy.”

  “Now we’re talking!” Devin said. “What do you mean by counter them?”

  “Canceling out one of your opponent’s spells, for instance. Or draining their mana pool.”

  Devin blinked. “You can drain someone else’s mana pool?”

  “Yes, but it’s extremely wasteful,” Milo said. “The attacker will lose far more mana points than their opponent. There are Skills you can get that will help, but it’s always a net negative.”

  “You should tell him about Reservoirs,” Casey said.

  Milo sighed. “I suppose I should. Everyone has a small Reservoir of each of the six types of mana, even their oppositional ones. Technically, these are your Attributes – to be more accurate, they're what the numbers you see on your character sheet represent. You can think of them as pools of mana that are connected to the spheres. Among other things, they power your enhancements. Their connection with the spheres is just large enough to replenish the trickle of mana that’s used for enhancements and other things.”

  “So, you pull the power for spells and other things from your Reservoirs, and they recharge themselves from these spheres?” Devin said.

  “That’s not the way it works,” Milo said. “Mana pools and reservoirs are both connected to the spheres, but they’re two different things. For one thing, Reservoirs charge much more slowly, and it’s dangerous to fiddle with them.”

  “Why is it so dangerous?”

  “Your Reservoirs are elastic,” Milo said. “If you pull too much mana from them too fast, they can shrink. In extreme cases, they become useless. That can cause all sorts of problems, like never being able to access that sphere of mana again.”

  “Yikes,” Devin said. He frowned. “It kind of seems like you didn’t want to tell me about this.”

  “I didn’t,” Milo said. “I’m concerned you’ll try and use the mana from your Reservoirs. I can’t overstress how dangerous that would be, especially at your level.”

  “Since I don’t have any abilities to power, I don’t see what you’re worried about,” Devin said.

  “That’s a good point,” Milo said. “Forget I said anything.”

  Devin eyed him, then smiled. “If Reservoirs are full of mana, that means you can use them for spells if you really have to, right?”

  Milo growled. “If you want to commit suicide, there are easier ways.”

  “But the answer is yes?” Devin said.

  “The answer is no, because you won’t even have any spells without gaining access to a sphere,” Milo said. Then he sighed. “However, since I’m sure you’ll keep asking, you can use that power for other things, like against oppositional spheres. But it’s …”

  “Extremely dangerous,” Devin said. “So you’ve said.”

  “I can think of a dozen horror stories of people who have overtaxed their Reservoirs,” Milo said. “Most magical organizations and churches prohibit their members from attempting to use the Reservoirs for anything until Platinum level. That’s why you shouldn’t even consider doing it.”

  Devin shook his head. “You must think I’m really stupid.”

  “Not stupid, just impulsive,” Milo said. “I’ve studied your life, remember? I’ve seen you get told not to do something a dozen times by a dozen people and still do it. And I know the times you’ve really gotten in trouble was when you acted without thinking.”

  “You sound like my mom,” Devin said.

  “I’m serious, Devin. Don’t mess around with this. You’ll kill yourself.”

  There were several seconds of silence.

  “I promise I won’t do anything unless I’m sure it’s necessary,” Devin said. “The rebels are almost here. We’d better get our game faces on.”

  Milo sniffed but he didn’t say anymore. Devin brightened the crystal until the room was comfortably lit. They stood in plain sight in front of it with their weapons sheathed as the patrol arrived.

  The party was made up of a dozen men and women. All of them except one of the women were armed, and they wore a variety of armors. They looked from the intruders to the node and the bones of the basilisk.

  “Hi,” Devin said. He waved to the oldest man in the group. “General Landon, is it?”

  “Who are you?” Landon said. He was older than the others. He wore leather armor and had a sword on his belt. “How did you get in here?”

  “I think you should handle this one,” Devin said to Casey. She nodded and stepped forward to greet the rebels.

  It took less than 30 seconds before rebel patrol was treating them like visiting royalty. Devin knew she was charming, but this was ridiculous.

  While Casey introduced them, Devin studied the rebels. They seemed well trained and healthy. Devin was impressed that Landon had personally led the response party. Once Casey had introduced them and the patrol was escorting them back to the main caverns, Devin told him as much.

  “I wasn’t always a general,” Landon said. “I was a sergeant in the army for 20 years, so I got used to being up front.”

  Devin raised an eyebrow. “You mean Felle’s army?”

  “Yep. I joined up when I was a kid. It seemed better than breaking my back in the fields every day. Thank Wermer I was posted out on the border with Lushinka instead of in-country. When I retired, I came back and saw for the first time how bad things were. The local Prelate offered me a cushy post as a constable. I lasted less than a year. One day, a drunk noble’s son staggered into town and announced he was going to have his way with every woman in the village. He brought two bruisers along in case anyone tried to argue. After I killed all three of them, the whole village had to run.” He sighed. “Most of us were hunted down. I made it here, and I’ve been on the Patriarch’s most wanted list since.”

  The rebel patrol led the party back towards the surface and to the section of caves the rebels occupied. The cave system was enormous. The rebels had been here for years, but the part they occupied only represented about half of Devin’s map, which itself covered barely a fraction of the caves.

  Many of the caves were furnished almost like houses and looked more comfortable than the peasant shacks he’d seen.

  “Were you enhanced in the army?” Devin asked Landon. He knew the answer, but he wanted to see what the general said.

  Landon shook his head. “None of the common soldiers are, especially on the border. Nothing ever happens there.”

  “They’re not worried about invasion?” Devin said.

  “There hasn’t been a foreign war since anyone can remember,” Landon said. “Nobody’s strong enough to beat anyone else, and all the leaders have treaties with each other. The Patriarch’s been in charge since before my grandfather’s time, and the other monarchs have been around at least as long. None of them want to rock the boat.”

  “So, his army exists to keep his own people down?” Devin said.

  “Yes. The biggest threat to all the rulers in the region is internal rebellion. They all handle it differently. The Queen of Lushinka plays the different races off against each other. It’s the same in all the nations around here. Felle is the most direct. He smashes any threats with his enhanced. The knights are his biggest hammer. They’re all Silver level. Their squires are Coppers, and many of the officers in the elite units are, as well.”

  “How many enhanced are there?”

  “There are around two dozen Silver knights. I’m sure he has other Silvers, too. We’re not sure how many Coppers there are, but the knights alone are enough to crush any active rebellion. That’s why we keep our heads down and try to survive.” He looked at Devin. “Are you a soldier?”

  “Not unless you count strategy games,” Devin said. “I’m trying to learn, though.”

  Landon glanced at him. “But you’re enhanced, aren’t you?"

  Devin glanced at Casey. She nodded.

  “We all are,” Devin said.

  Landon looked shocked, but before he could ask any more questions, they reached the cavern where the leaders of the community were waiting.