“What did I tell you?” Gavin said gesturing out at the crystal blue water.

  They were in the lee of a small peninsula, the coastline extending away from them in a series of meandering beaches and rugged hills. To the west forested hills jutted into the skyline contrasting the wide open ocean to the east. Several houses dotted the hills in the distance, but from their spot on the shaded beach they were completely alone.

  “It's a little cold.” Val said looking out at the ocean with trepidation.

  “Yeah, it's autumn, it's going to be cold.”

  “Autumn?” Judy asked, frowning at the ocean as if it had offended her somehow.

  “Yeah, it's the time of year where it starts getting colder, winter is the coldest part of the year, then we have spring and summer. Summer is basically just weather from your world.”

  “So you're really going to swim in that?” Judy said.

  “Yeah bro, we can regulate our body temperature and we've got more or less unlimited stamina. We could go swimming when it's snowing and not be bothered by it.”

  He punctuated his claim by jamming World Claimer into the sand and teleporting a dozen metres in the air above the water, letting himself fall backwards in a near perfect manu. A jet of water spurted up into the air nearly as high as he'd fallen accompanied by a loud whump. Gavin lay submerged for an uncomfortable length of time before his head bobbed to the surface.

  Sam, Val and Judy had somewhat hesitantly waded out into the water. They weren't used to the cold, especially swimming in the frigid water. Gavin was right that they could consciously increase their body temperature, but they could still feel the cold even if they weren't going to get hypothermia. It certainly wasn't a relaxing dip on a hot day.

  The team didn't last long in the frigid water, instead returning to the beach to dry off and relax over a picnic lunch. Gavin had restocked his supplies with as much food as he could reasonably cram into his inventory, and put on a lavish spread of earthly delights.

  “So, Gavin, what's it like being back? You don't want to reconnect with anyone else?” Judy asked, scraping jam over a scone.

  “It's- fine, I guess. I miss being able to go to the beach without having to fight off a dozen monsters, but I wasn't ever really close to anyone.”

  “What about your friend Will? You mentioned him a few times.”

  “Yeah.” Gavin sighed. “I should go see him, but it's gonna be awkward, especially because I'm just gonna leave again when we go home.”

  “Home being our world?” Sam asked, indicating her other two companions.

  “Yeah,” Gavin said, shoulders slumping “This place was never where I wanted to be, going to your world was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

  “Well, we need to figure out what we're doing with that sword first, if we're going to destroy it or not, if we even can destroy it, then figure out how to get home.” Sam said laying out their series of impossible tasks.

  Gavin's face brightened “Holy shit Sam. we’ve got to go to Mount Doom to destroy the ring!”

  “That would be a good point if we knew where mount doom was and if we had any way to get there.” Sam said, dampening the mood.

  “We could look for one of those portal anchors here, I assume there is one, or maybe we could make one?” Judy suggested.

  “We'd have to level up a lot before I'm strong enough to make one. The good news is with you guys here we can just spend the next twenty years training in the fortress and we should level up enough to get home.”

  “Im not staying on this planet for twenty years chained at the hip to you Gav.” Val said, from her spot where she lay in the sand with her arm across her face.

  “We'll find something, if there's anything actually magical on this planet I might be able to rig something up to detect it. The commander obviously thought the beacons we were using could pick up on the tower back in the unclaimed lands.”

  “We don't know if the tower was inside a beacon zone or not though, Geoff found it.”

  “Yeah, I'd like to know how he was investigating, it wasn't just sniffing out stray magic he must have had a method he was using.”

  “We can't exactly ask him, so there's not much point worrying about it.” Sam said.

  “I’ll brainstorm some ideas.” Gavin said, putting the issue to bed. “On another note, that sword produces every level of mana, which is gonna be real handy for crafting.”

  “So to sum up, we’re stuck here until brain boy figures out a way to get home, and otherwise we’re just having an extended holiday?” Val asked.

  “Yeah, that's about it. Man, theres nothing to do on this god forsaken rock and I’m about to be as busy as ever.”

  “You should fit seeing your old friend into that list of things to do.” Sam said.

  “Yeah, fine, whatever.” Gavin said, waving a hand dismissively.

  ***

  The team spent the afternoon lounging on the beach, they weren't in any special rush having an open ended timeline on their self appointed tasks. They hadn't had a break in months, the constant training and monster killing had begun to wear on them, especially with only one or no day of rest every week.

  Gavin, being Gavin, used his leisure time to work, or more specifically tinker. He was lying on the sand, turning over one of his affinity crystals in his hand while he worked to finish Judy's promissed gun after a drastic redesign over the past few days. He held the crystal to the light with his free hand, it was the crystal of the brood queen, something he'd looted from a giant wasp not long ago.

  “Does anyone know what affinity crystals actually are?” He asked no one in particular.

  “Hmm? Some sort of magical construct?” Sam said, lifting her head up to look at him.

  “Yeah, obviously. It's some sort of blueprint that tells your soul how to channel magic into an effect.”

  “Sounds like you already know?” Val said, not bothering to look up from her novel she'd bought days earlier.

  “Just curious about how it works. I haven't much bothered because I cant use them, but if I can figure out how to replicate them I can probably figure out how to make magic items that replicate their abilities.”

  “Or produce them to sell in bulk.” Sam said, gaining more interest in Gavins line of thinking.

  “Yeah, that too, I guess. Actually, while we're on that train of thought, I wonder if I can reverse engineer the divine powers we have, if I can figure out how soul crystals work I should be able to figure out how to turn soul powers into crystals..”

  “Just to make this absolutely clear Gavin, you will not experiment on your soul. At all. Ever.” Sam said, sending him a warning look.

  “Can't a guy catch a break?”

  “You can stick to figuring out how soul crystals work and using them in your enchanting.” Sam said.

  “Do you want to use Gavin's hypothetical, untested, experimental, soul crystals that he may or may not be able to shove into items?” Val asked.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  “Hey, when have I ever made anything dodgy? My stuff is legit.” Gavin said defensively.

  “Did you, or did you not blow your own hand off with your first gun?” Sam asked.

  “Well, yeah, but that was before I learned what I was doing, and it was only a couple of fingers, well, one and two halves.”

  “He also blew up his own wands in the guild test.” Val said.

  “You weren't even there for that.” Gavin protested

  “I was.” Judy piped up.

  “You were unconscious.”

  “Regardless, you've got a well established history of having a few dangerously unreliable prototypes every time you start trying to figure things out on your own.”

  “I can't actually argue with that.” Gavin shrugged, turning back to his work, eyes glowing as he inspected the crystal with his forgemasters eye.

  His vision power gave him additional insights into the properties of a held object, he felt like it was just not quite enough to figure out the puzzle. It appeared to be like a wiring diagram in language he didn't know, like looking at a motherboard and being able to identify what it was, even its basic components, but not how it worked on a fundamental level.

  He was sure it was something close to an enchanted object, with its own internal architecture controlling the flow of magical energy that would then build the mechanism that bound itself to the soul. If he could figure out how it worked he theorized he might be able to replicate it, but it was beyond complicated with his current level of magical theory.

  He guessed that the secret lay in his looting power. If that could turn a corpse into a crystal there must be a way to observe the process, if he could do the same thing without needing to destroy the power maybe he could just copy an existing power.

  “Gavin, what happened to those books you took from the tower?” Judy asked, suddenly remembering that detail in amongst the chaos that followed.

  “Oh, I've got them in my inventory, they're in a language I can't read. Can any of you guys read anything other than English?”

  “Common.” Sam corrected.

  “We're on earth now, it's English.” Gavin said flippantly.

  “Not me.” Val said.

  “No, common is pretty much used exclusively outside of isolated communities like in the unclaimed lands.” Sam said.

  “Hey Gavin, if you came to our world speaking common, what are the chances that your world has common because someone brought it here. If that's true then maybe those books are written in another language that someone here can understand.”

  “Not super likely, English has been evolving naturally over time for thousands of years out of a bunch of other languages, you don't even need to go back that far until it's unrecognisable.”

  “Strange, common has existed in our world almost unchanged since the beginning of recorded history.” Sam said.

  “Now that is odd.” Gavin said, frowning, “in all that time local dialects didn’t pop up? It didn't change over time?”

  “Soliece does a good job of keeping language in check.” Sam said.

  “Well, that's only a little terrifying.” Gavin said.

  “How so?” Sam asked.

  “She knows anything anyone's ever thought and she's literally the language police? That's a recipe or a divine tyrant. She can literally control the narrative of how people think about the world.”

  “How has free thought worked out for this world?” Sam asked.

  “Nope. Not entertaining that conversation, especially from someone who looks like a fantasy ubermensch. Free will is the-”

  “Yeah, we get the point.” Sam said waving him down, “Its not like she controls what people think.”

  “Yeah, it is.” Gavin argued “She knows what people think and she controls what information is allowed to exist, of course she controls what people think.”

  “And you want to go back to that?” Val asked.

  “Well, yeah, it's way cooler there.”

  “But that's where they tyrannical God lady is.”

  “It's not like that sort of thing doesn't exist here either. I'd take Soliece over Rupert Murdoch any day of the week. Just because someone does something shitty doesn't mean you have to cut them off, I'm just saying she deserves to be judged on the merits of her actions.”

  “It's a good we’re having this conversation here and not-”

  Gavin's tirade was interrupted by his phone ringing in amongst his pile of clothes. Irritably he plucked the device from the ground and answered it.

  “Moshi moshi” he said ignoring his companions looks of long suffering patience.

  “Gavin? This is-”

  “Mister Bartholomew, excellent to hear from you.” Gavin said warmly, “everything go okay?”

  “It did.”

  “Excellent when and where would you be comfortable meeting?”

  “I am having an armoured truck deliver your money to our office at mid day tomorrow, I assume that works for you?”

  “It certainly does. See ya tomorrow Theo.”

  Gavin hung up the phone, looted his clothes into his inventory, then dragged them onto his character sheet, equipping them in an instant.

  “That is such a bullshit power.” Val said, tugging on one of her new t-shirts over her swimsuit.

  “I mean, you had the option to get an inventory power and chose to make it so walking through mud didn't slow you down.”

  “That is a very important ability, at higher levels we're going to be dealing with area attacks that slow, and enemies that can reflect my own slow effect back on me, you'll wish you had it the first time a slime paralyzes you and starts eating you from the feet up.

  “Pretty sure that's why I got the teleport power, two of them even, and I can just copy your ability anyway.”

  “Don't make me beat you senseless.”

  “You wish. Come on, let's get back to the fortress, I want to start that new D&D adventure I picked up.”

  “What one? Didn't you just go and buy everything?”

  “Well, yeah, but I think we should try Descent into Avernus, it fits with the theme.”

  “The theme?” Sam asked.

  “Spoilers.” Gavin said, with a cheeky grin.

  Gavin had hidden the fortress inside a mountain not far from the city centre. They'd traveled north to the city of Whangarei, it was walking distance to several shops that sold some top tier pies as well as a track that crossed the side of the mountain for their morning runs. He'd hollowed out a significant chunk of earth, reinforced the space, summoned the fortress inside, and then filled it in. There were two ways in now, portal or a tunnel of hard rock that led to a door that opened out to a hidden back entrance I'm the trees.

  As they appeared back in the fortress he set the sword down on the dining room table, finally feeling some tension bleed away. While holding the sword he was extremely cognizant of its incredible power, that he could very easily kill himself or someone else with it. He couldn't be away from it for any length of time without his mana draining away completely while outside of the fortress while inside its energy suffused the building, returning it to a more than comfortable level.