Manufactured by TMI.

  I forced my focus onto the shower.

  Magical Shower (rare equivalent)

  Water pressure can be adjusted from a steaming mist to a raging torrent, and temperature can be changed from ice cold to just shy of boiling. Safety protocols will prevent the water from reaching a temperature dangerous to the user.

  Manufactured by TMI.

  Neither seemed all that special, but a couple of things stood out. The first was TMI, or Tad’s Magical Inventory. Something about the name Tad stuck in my mind, but I couldn’t say why. Then, it was listed as being manufactured. Also interesting. That implied a process, or maybe an assembly line. I would have expected it to say crafted by, if it said anything at all. Sometimes in the past, Identify had given me information about the creator of an item, but it wasn’t guaranteed.

  I pressed with all my strength as an Architect, but found that the only system for me to modify was within me, and that left me very little to grasp. Just as I was about to give up, a notification popped up, albeit one not anything like what I was expecting.

  New Quest: Find Tad

  As a System Mediator, you are tasked with making contact with Tad. This is a multi-stage quest.

  Timeline: Your absence from the Heavens will be tolerated for no longer than five years. The processes you have set in motion must be carried to fruition.

  Reward: An opportunity for a mentor and a chance to open inter-system negotiations.

  Apparently, the enchanter who’d made this was more important than I’d thought. I still had much to do in the way of stat adjustment and inventory maintenance, but I couldn’t help myself. A shower sounded divine, and it would give me a chance to see how the enchantment worked. I was already confused. I couldn’t see any runes and couldn’t sense any that might have been hidden inside. The mana didn’t flow through it in any way I could understand.

  I laughed as I realized this was how I would have looked at magitech prior to the arrival of the system. It would have been baffling. Still, it was odd. The few enchanted items I’d seen come out of the Hell System were largely like the ones I knew. The same was true for the items from the Divided Realms. There were a few differences in how they used what they called glyphs compared to how I used runes, but it felt more like the difference between French and Spanish rather than trying to speak English to a dolphin.

  As I thought about it, I realized the enchanted items that Cami wore had felt somewhat different, but I’d never paid enough attention to them to see if they were more like what I was feeling here or just another flavor of system magitech. I guess a part of that was because she was a demigoddess. I didn’t think she’d appreciate me scanning her repeatedly. Nico definitely wouldn’t have.

  I chuckled. I hadn’t recognized before how uneasy the power difference between us made me. That was something I’d have to assess later. Ryan was clearly more powerful than me, but I didn’t feel that way about him. Oh well. More things I didn’t understand.

  I took off the underclothes I’d worn to bed and approached the shower, tinkering with the knobs to see what did what, until finally I had the pressure and temperature I wanted. It brought the water to just shy of boiling, which given my Durability felt astoundingly good. It also pressurized the water to the degree of a commercial power washer.

  A low groan of pleasure escaped me. I hadn’t realized what I was missing in a shower, since I had undergone my transformation into who I was now. The ones on Earth couldn’t approach these levels of heat and pressure, and now I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to enjoy a shower that didn’t have them.

  A few seconds later, Selena stumbled into the bathroom. “Oh, that’s why you’re making all those sounds. Here I was worried I’d fallen short earlier, but it’s just a shower.”

  I laughed playfully. “Not just a shower. You have to try this thing out. It’s life changing.” While her Durability wasn’t as high as mine, she was long past the point of being bulletproof, so I didn’t worry about her.

  “If you wanted to shower with me, you could have just asked.” She winked as she stepped in, but soon she was making her own sounds of pleasure. The shower really was that good.

  I felt contentment swell within me. Even if we clearly had more growth ahead of us in our relationship, there was something so freeing about finding the one. My commitment to her had made her all the more appealing to me. I wondered if that was true of other men. I knew my dad had insisted my mom was the most beautiful woman in the world. She’d always said he was exaggerating or being a flatterer, but maybe he’d meant it. Maybe commitment did make a difference once you decided you’d found your one and only.

  That contentment soon had me humming under my breath, and that’s when it happened. My tune automatically activated Spirit Singing, and the colors I’d previously caught out of the corner of my eye flashed all around the shower. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was almost like the shower had a soul of its own. It certainly wasn’t a human soul, but whatever this was, it was soul-adjacent.

  I told Selena about my revelation, and we turned the shower off to see if the effect remained. It became fainter, and I only got brief flashes, but as long as I had Spirit Singing activated and was focused on the shower, I could see bits of color. I was about to go to the lamp, but Selena insisted that I dry off, saying she didn’t want puddles on the floor.

  Even better, she offered to do it for me, which felt like a very couple thing to do, and led to a temporary distraction. A short time later, we were both dressed and staring at the lamp in the bedroom. I activated Spirit Singing again and got the same effect, which only became more pronounced when I turned the lamp on.

  I felt like I was Encyclopedia Brown with a new mystery to solve.

  But I couldn’t spend the rest of my day singing to the furniture. I had to force myself away, finally making my way to the table to sort out the rest of my stats. I checked the notification for my Perception increase first.

  You have reached the third threshold for Perception.

  A synergy has been identified between Spirit Sight VI, Trailblazer’s Mind, Psi ability: Precognition, Infinite Polyglot, and your basic Perception. This represents a union of non-system, primordial, system, and infinite-based abilities with the physical world.

  A new level of basic perception becomes natural for you. You will inherently have flashes of precognition, spiritual sight, and a root understanding of the interactions you perceive. It will not always work for you, but the more you use it and the further you develop your Perception stat and associated abilities, the more benefit you’ll gain.

  Using Trailblazer’s Mind will now be 10% safer. Precognition has grown. It should have grown during your extensive use at the Battle for Galen, but the Heavens were unable to quantify it. Being outside of the Heavens has opened up further resources for analysis. This makes your quest to make contact with the powers of this universe that much more important.

  Precognition: 1 >> 3

  The title I’ve Got My Eye on You III has upgraded to level V. You will now gain +4 Perception with each level up. Further, your base Perception stat is now 15% more effective.

  I smiled. Any upgrade that linked my powers always made me happy. I knew I needed to streamline all the different system, primordial, and non-system aspects that made me who I was. Options were always good, but too many of them could hurt me. It was becoming more and more apparent to me that my path forward was going to involve a fusion of the elements of different systems into a single working build. The key term being ‘fusion’. I didn’t want a status sheet that was thirty pages long and took an hour to read.

  There was so much to unpack about this. Infinite Polyglot was probably the part that I understood the least. I didn’t exactly get what connection it had to the others, but something tickled my mind. I thought back to that green gem which had appeared when I was being destroyed by Gallarosa. I’d heard Lilly’s voice, then suddenly everything had changed.

  I put my fingers on the band around my neck, then willed my thoughts to her. “Lilly, can you hear me?”

  There was no immediate response, but I could feel her soul there, as certainly as if she’d been standing in the room. But it felt stretched, like whatever she’d done to help me had pushed her to her limits. As I tried to strengthen the connection, another option opened.

  Band of Vibrant Heart (Lesser Artifact)

  Do you wish to examine the Inventory for this item?

  I triggered my agreement.

  Inventory list provided, but access is not currently available.

  4 Fusion Grenades

  4 Portable Shield Generators

  20 various enchanted daggers ranging from Rare to Epic tier

  1 Balm of Gilead (Ascendant Quality Restorative)

  The list of various weapons, protective devices, potions, and other items went on and on. I’d need to ask Selena or Samvek about them. I couldn’t even access the items, let alone use Identify on them. Abel must have gone to a great deal of trouble to place them in here. I wasn’t sure what value they had if I couldn’t access them, but maybe that would change in the future.

  At the end of the list there was one other item. Without knowing how, I was absolutely certain it was that little green shard that had held Gallarosa back and opened up a portal to this other universe. It was clearly potent, but I couldn’t get a read on it.

  Somehow, my mind went back to Sunday School, back when my grandmother used to take me. It hadn’t made much sense to me at the time, but for some reason it echoed in my mind now. To the teacher, it was important for us to understand one point about God, even if we didn’t take anything else from the class. “Even a piece of God is infinite,” he’d said. Those words came to mind as I looked at the name of the last item.

  ??? Remnant of Eternity ???

  Chapter Five: Time to Look Around

  I glanced over at Selena, who was apparently content simply staring at me. “Have you ever heard of a Remnant of Eternity?”

  “It seems like I should have, but that’s probably something you should ask Lana about, or even your new father.” She turned away as if she’d said something she shouldn’t have.

  I arched an eyebrow in confusion. “Something wrong?”

  She blushed. “I realized it might be insensitive to call Abel that. I know you were very close to your father, and you didn’t lose him all that long ago.” She fumbled over her words as she added, “I’m sorry. All this relationship stuff is so new to me. I’m used to being blunt, but now I find I don’t want to upset you.”

  I grinned. “Ditto. We’ll figure this out together, and I didn’t take any offense. Actually, it makes me feel good that you had that thought. I don’t want you feeling guilty over it. It matters that you cared enough to second-guess it.”

  “Thank you. But to answer your question, no, I’ve never heard of one. Why do you ask?”

  I told her about the storage inside the band around my neck. I knew it was already a touchy subject with her because she knew it had Lilly’s soul in it. But if the question upset her, she didn’t give me any indication. A moment later, she confirmed it hadn’t. “If you think I’m angry, I’m not. I will admit, I didn’t think I was the jealous type, though I can see that being much more likely now that I have somebody I care about this much. But Lilly is just the spirit living in your necklace. And in at least one possible future, she’s going to be instrumental in saving you. Heck, she may have already done so with Gallarosa.” She walked up behind me and put her hand on my shoulder. “If it meant saving your life, you could wear a whole set of Lilly-infused armor and I wouldn’t care.” I turned in my seat to look at her, and she avoided my gaze. “Maybe not the pants,” she said.

  I smiled. “Okay, we’ll put that on the ‘figure out later’ list. I’m trying not to call it ‘saving for future Silas’ anymore because it occurs to me that if I can travel to other universes, a future me might be able to travel back in time. I don’t want to make him any angrier with me than he must already be.”

  She laughed. It was a simple, clean sound that brought a smile to my face.

  “All that’s left is to figure out what these soul gems are, and what the dragon dust did to me. Based on my notifications, absorbing that dust is what ultimately killed Tiamat.”

  “Well, gods live on multiple planes of existence at the same time. It’s why it’s almost impossible even for a group of ascendant beings to kill one.”

  I nodded as I pushed away from the table. “That makes sense. But you know what? Before worrying about this stuff, let’s explore the town. It must be around lunchtime. I wonder if Samvek is awake?”

  She stood up and grabbed my arm. “Only one way to find out. I know we may have to focus on getting home eventually, but it would be an incredible shame not to explore a new universe. Knowing you, by the end of our time here you’re gonna have a new class and ten new titles from an entirely new system.”

  “I don’t know about that. I’ve got enough to worry about. Even the time and life mana crystals I received gave me ideas about trying to create new cores inside me, like the spatial core. Don’t look at me like that. It may be impossible, but when has that ever stopped me?”

  As we headed out of the room, I sent a group message to see if Samvek was up. He was standing in his doorway, fully armored, a second later. I felt reality flex around us, and a moment later both he and Selena took on their human disguises. I wasn’t sure if she was truly altering them physically or simply creating an illusion.

  I pulled the door closed behind us and felt the latch settle with a soft click. A quick twist of the key locked it, and with a wave of my hand, the key went into Save for Winter. Selena fell into step at my side, her fingers brushing my arm, while Samvek took the lead without comment. If it was an illusion, it was an impressive one. They appeared to be as human as I was. If I really pushed with my Perception, I could see their true selves, but the more I looked, the more I began to believe that I was only seeing an afterimage of their souls. Selena’s power had altered their reality, but only on a physical level. They were human, but their souls weren’t.

  The stairwell spiraled down toward the common floor, narrow but solid beneath my boots. Each step was worn smooth at the center, polished by centuries of use rather than neglect, and the wood did not creak or flex as it should have. Mana saturation reinforced everything, lending the structure a quiet density with its enchantments. I could feel it in the rail beneath my palm, firm and unyielding, as though the building actively resisted decay. The longer I soaked it in, the more I knew I needed to learn what was making this tick, so I could incorporate it into my own designs.

  As we approached the bottom of the staircase, the smells of the inn wafted over us. Warm bread, simmered meat, and rendered fat mingled with soap and clean water. Voices rose in a steady murmur, unhurried and unconcerned, and the clatter of plates followed a rhythm that spoke of routine. No spellwork lingered in the air. No latent magic brushed my senses, at least until I could see the main room. Another of the magical lamps hung from the center of the ceiling, and I could see more bits of color flitting around it. This was going to be fun to get to the bottom of.

  When we reached the last step, I paused for a heartbeat and let my perception expand just enough to take in the room. What I found was almost unsettling in its normalcy. People filled the space, but none of them touched the mana around them, even unconsciously. The world here was strong, but the people simply lived inside it. My mind struggled to reconcile the two.

  The common room had filled while we were upstairs, shifting from quiet preparation to steady activity. A handful of tables were occupied by dock workers in rough wool and leather, their hands thick and scarred from rope and salt. It was curious to me that they were in this part of the city, but perhaps the lunch was simply that good. A pair of merchants sat near the window with ledgers open between them, their voices low and careful as they argued margins over bowls of stew. Near the bar, two travelers nursed cups of cider, their cloaks damp from the morning air. I used Identify on everyone who struck my interest, and each time it came back with rather mundane classes—merchant, material handler, accountant, and so on.

  We took a table near the wall, close enough to the hearth that I could feel its warmth but not so near that it drew attention. Samvek sat with his back to the plaster and wood, his eyes tracking the room out of habit. Selena settled beside me, her posture relaxed in a way that would have been impossible for her not long ago. The bench creaked faintly under our weight, then stilled, the mana-soaked wood absorbing the strain without complaint.

  A serving girl arrived with practiced efficiency and set down bowls of thick stew and a loaf of dark bread without asking. She smiled. “Ten coppers per meal for guests of the inn, but the Mistress told me to put it on your account.”

  I thanked her, but I was already focused on the food. The scent alone made my stomach tighten—rich and grounding, and the first bite confirmed it. The meat was tender, the broth heavy with root vegetables and herbs, and the bread had real substance to it, dense and satisfying. Even the food here carried a subtle weight, as though the mana in the world had settled into it. That wasn’t far from the truth—I felt a tiny infusion of mana enter my body as I ate the food. There was no notification about a buff or anything, so maybe it wasn’t significant, but it felt odd, in a pleasant way.

  As we ate, I let my perception drift, careful not to push. The room remained stubbornly mundane. No hidden spellwork. No passive enchantments woven into clothing or skin. Through the window, I caught sight of a small patrol of Lawkeepers passing in white and gold, their presence marked by that same buried authority I had felt earlier. A moment later, two figures with worn weapons and reinforced gear crossed the street in the opposite direction, their auras faint but unmistakably different. Adventurers stood out here, precisely because no one else did.