Mason restored his mana with his own blood for the seventh time that afternoon. A trickle dripped down his thigh as the Blood Rose Belt squeezed, dug into his scarred up flesh nooks. It always drained just a little longer than he’d wanted, no matter how he tried to predict and stop in advance.

The artifact seemed like an intelligent thing, mocking him with its unpredictability, somehow finding ways to make him flinch with unexpected pain. He clenched a fist and ignored it, and the exhaustion.

Turned out the belt didn’t just drain his physical body. There was some other form of energy it was stripping—some incalculable, undefined essence that wasn’t captured by any game meter. So it was dangerous to use too much and too long.

But he was safe in Eve’s tree. Far safer than he expected to be out in the real world and surrounded by enemies. He would never get a better time to test his limits, and he hadn’t found them yet.

“Again.”

Eve stared from the wreckage of a lightning-blasted tree with wide eyes. Even Demi gave him a concerned look.

“You should rest, druid.” The tree spirit shook her head. “You are pale. I can see the veins in your eyes. How you’re still standing after using that wicked artifact so many times I have no idea. But I suggest you…”

“The destroyer won’t be breaking for a nap.” Mason stood to his full height and gestured for another target. “I’ll go until I can’t. Not until I’m tired. Make another one.”

Eve frowned but grew another oak in the middle of her grove. Her magic protected it here just like everything else. Trying to destroy anything felt like lighting a fire with soggy kindling. But that was kind of the point.

Mason was forced to channel basically his entire mana bar into a lightning bolt. They had plenty new spells to learn, but for now they’d decided to just see what sort of base capability they were dealing with.

Because his primary class had a more physical focus, Mason’s mana pool was small for someone of his overall strength. Eve’s armor made his ridiculous stats add raw power, but mana was a fundamental building block for all magic. With his belt, none of them really knew just how much he could produce and use.

The answer to that question apparently changed how he’d be trained. It determined what sort of spells he could use and how much power he could channel into them and still complete—the overall complexity and power of his magic.

So he channeled another lighting bolt, not worrying about any other runes yet. Demi covered her ears as the mana gathered, the power growing in his hands as his Sleeves provided everything else he needed.

But as he stood there sucking away mana, a mixture of impatience and curiosity had him activate his belt mid-cast. The thorns dug in. The pain made him wince but it wasn’t disruptive enough to stop him.

He kept his foot on the mana pedal, drawing more and more as the energy in his hands grew from a crackling spark to a growing ball of white light. The noise rose, a hum on the air that soon drowned out any other sounds in Eve’s grove.

Some kind of breeze started. Little hairs rose up and down his body as his belt kept feeding the spell, the visual ball of his mana fluctuating up and down. He felt like he could keep going, but he heard Eve and Demi shouting something, and his hands were literally shaking as he tried to hold the power between them.

He turned his face away out of animal instinct, and released the power at the tree.

The oak vanished in the light in a blink, the released power blasting through into the wall of the great tree. The thunder that followed knocked Mason a step back, the crack and a wave of heat being swallowed by natural power that surged all around him like a flash flood.

He felt the great tree’s surprise through One with Nature, a kind of ancient stirring that considered waking as it detected an actual threat. But as the instant power faded, the tree calmed and rested again.

The light faded. Mason blinked away stars until he saw a huge, charred patch of burnt wood and bark where he’d struck the inner flesh of the tree. All that was left of the oak was a small, singed patch of exploded stump.

He glanced at pretty angry looking Eve. Then he grinned before he collapsed to a knee, and threw up.

**

After a lot of fussing from the two beautiful women, and ‘yes I’m fine’s—and then several minutes to figure out if it was true—Mason started his real training.

Eve accepted that his Rose belt was part of him and that she could assume he had a huge mana pool. After a lot of head shaking and complaints about his methods and muttering about ‘Cerebus-worshippers’, she told him she would assume he could handle any spell made for a powerful druid.

She assured him he could learn a great deal of spells. That there was really no hard stop except his memory and creativity. That every magic user had their strengths and weaknesses and limitations. And he was very glad he hadn’t wasted any power choices on spells.

“So I can…I don’t know, heal people? Use defensive or offensive spells like I see arcane casters use?”

Eve nodded.

“I don’t know what you’ve seen, but nature magic has many possibilities. I can teach you much, but our methods will not be the same. For me, all mana and power comes from within. You have this also, but you can use the world around you, any natural source. It was…wise, to bring Gaia’s new avatar. Her skill will help you. She mostly uses the world around her.”

Eve looked somewhat pained as she said it. Demi looked surprised by the admission but not at all by the fact. She gave him a nod and wiggled her eyebrows.

“Of course you’ll have do everything I say,” she added. “Very patiently. And be my obedient, humble student.”

He made a mental note to make her pay for that, but for the moment just smiled like a good boy. Then Eve sat him down like he was back in school and started casting spells.

She described her own method of creating rune patterns, but reiterated that she couldn’t ‘show’ him her runes. That the language of the gods was hidden and everyone had to see them on their own. To manipulate their size, where they were placed, and sometimes even how other runes interacted with them.

“But I can tell you which runes to use for a spell,” she added. “Healing almost always requires a water rune. One or two runes is easy, but add more and it can be very difficult. I mix a water with a tree rune in a kind of mesh, and…”

Eve’s eyes glowed with mana, and a kind of mossy growth sprouted over her body, then vanished.

“But the very same runes can produce a dozen spells. It’s all about how you shape them, how much mana you use, where you place them. And how it works for me very likely isn’t how it works for you. When you get close you’ll feel a kind of…tingle. After that you’ll feel ‘closer’ or ‘less close’. But the only path to the gods is your own.”

Mason took a deep breath, giving up the very slim hope he’d had that this might be easier than expected.

“If you’re thinking ‘this is too hard’.” Eve gave him a sad then bitter smile. “You aren’t the first. The Makers and their students tired of the difficult path to wisdom. They made their own magic, their own language, because they wanted rules. To define the undefinable. To specify what is general. To strip away the beauty and complexity until all that remained was…simplistic power.”

He saw a kind of fear in Eve’s eyes that he might be the same. He stood and walked to his ‘teacher’. He took her hand, focusing on One with Nature, hoping she could see his intentions and mind as she once had when he’d freed her from the Maker’s accident.

Warmth radiated up his fingers as they touched. He felt the link—felt Eve’s spirit melding with his own. Maybe he didn’t need words, but he used them anyway.

“I don’t care about power, Eve. I just need it to save this world. I wish I had a hundred years to learn it right, but I only have a few months. I promise I’ll spend every moment I have left trying.”

Her beautiful eyes watered, and she wrapped her arms around his chest and squeezed. He tried not to get distracted by how amazing she felt.

“We both will.”

Demi took a few steps towards them. Eve looked up and wiped at her eyes, eventually holding out a hand. Demi came cautiously, but she came.

“I apologize, avatar. I’ve not been myself since…I’m still thawing, I suppose.”

Demi smiled a little.

“It’s not easy for me, either. Trusting people. Or, you know, living tree creatures.”

“Then you are wise, as well as beautiful.” Eve smiled back. “Gaia would want us to remember our purpose. That our egos and desires are nothing compared to the value, to the gift of life. Like the one that grows in your belly now. That we are all part of the same divine spirit.”

Demi swallowed and met Mason’s eyes. He grinned and grabbed her hand, pulling her in closer to the three way hug. As both women’s soft bodies pressed against him, he refused to accept any responsibility for the wave of sexual tension he felt filling the air. Demi rolled her eyes at him, but he knew it wasn’t all his.

“Well.” Eve pulled back and looked between them before taking a breath. “Enough time wasted on my foolishness. Whatever you need from me, avatars, it is yours. I’ll do everything and anything I can.”

Mason winced and tried not to think of that as sexual. He really did.

“No more worrying about my health, then,” he said, keeping his hands to the most non-sexual places on sides and backs he could. “I’ll push until I can’t. Just do whatever you can to keep me going.”

His wording maybe wasn’t great if he was trying not to be sexual. But Eve nodded like she understood, raising her hand to cast some new spell.

“I’ll fill the air with a rejuvenating magic, and use what power I can. The gnoll tribes may be able to help as well. They have crystals and other trinkets.” She looked like she was ready to say something else but changed her mind. “You will want to wander, to clear your head as you learn. You can’t be stuck in here constantly staring at the wall and trying to see runes. You understand?”

He nodded, glad she was saying what he already assumed. It was a mental project, like studying, and he knew sometimes the best way to learn was to clear your mind and come back.

While he practiced he fully intended to keep his promise to Haley. To move between the great tree and Nassau, the fey and the rest of the world.

He’d train with his animals, with his new Wild Shapes, and his items. When he had time he’d check on the other players and make sure things were progressing.

But he believed in them. They’d be ready. They’d survive.

And then what? It was a thought he hadn’t allowed himself before. Would the game just ‘end’? Would roboGod say ‘thanks for the data’ and destroy them all? Would it just leave them to their new world and fly off back to…wherever the fuck roboGod went?

All he knew was that if they failed, they had no chance at all. It was the one thing he could control, and he had no intention of failing. He glanced at the timer constantly ticking in his profile.

Eight months. One week. Four days. Thirteen hours. Forty five minutes.

He’d use every one of them.