Over the next three years, Pi’ve involved himself in Tharthillion’s society increasingly more. It first occurred in a pub Pi’ve had joined Gaudol to. A merman had asked Gaudol for help with some simple lifting to build a new smithy. Gaudol had asked the merman if he would accept Pi’ve to help instead. He graciously did, and since then word spread to the general population of a new wizard eager to assist, and Pi’ve was involved in the everyday happenings of the common folk of Tharthillion.
Once Pi’ve had a project he was invested in, he would not leave until the project was done. When the current project was finished, other people quickly asked him to help on other things. Of course, Pi’ve could not help every person on every project, he had his own work too, but once in a while he would stroll the domes of Tharthillion to show his face, and maybe be asked for help. Sometimes the projects took many days; construction or removal of heavy objects for instance. Other times they were short, like helping an old baker deliver a basket of fresh bread to the school his grandchildren went to, or simply tying the shoelaces on a merman with a broken arm.
That is how he, three years after his last revelation in mana manipulation, was asked to help on a project that Pi’ve was not sure he was ready for. The job would consist of lifting a couple of statues up on a ledge high up on the outer walls of the building, and then the place large bell on a belltower. This was fine, he thought, but he was also asked if he could assist with something the merman called "containment of water", and he did not think he was ready for that.
’It does not matter if you think you are ready or not,’ Gaudol said. ’I say you are.’
’You have been wrong before…’ Pi’ve said meekly.
’What a statement!’ Gaudol said, clapping sarcastically. ’Of course I have been wrong before, but the fallibility of my past does not invalidate my belief now. You are to act on my belief this time, not yours,’ Gaudol said, and Pi’ve knew by the vigour of his words that there was no argument to have here. He just had to do it, and so he would.
The next morning, Pi’ve got dressed and went outside. It was a day like any other. There was no sun, so he did not really know if it really was day or not. Street lamps lit up the domes beside the paths and lamps hung on the ceilings beside the vines. Pi’ve begun his trip over to where the merman worked, where he was making a belltower. He had yet to hear what exactly the tower was to be used for, because that information he would not reveal before Pi’ve accepted the job.
The dome where the project was being done was farther away than Pi’ve would usually travel. There was no way for him to even get there without asking for directions, because the dome in question was over 50 domes away, Gaudol said. Eventually, Pi’ve did ask Gaudol for a map, and the map was incredible.
It was a four-sided map as maps usually were, but instead of land drawn onto the map, there were hundreds of domes from a bird’s point-of-view, or fish. Gaudol’s dome was at the very edge of the city, being a very small point on the map, yet you could see the dome, the garden outside in its own dome, and the subsequent domes which lined the way all the way to the palace of the king in the underwater mountain. All the tubes, which Gaudol had told him the tunnel-like structures connecting the domes were really called, were also drawn onto the map as thin lines. They were made out of something else than the domes, but they were also see-through. Larger domes had several tubes going out of itself into other domes, and sometimes taking the wrong tube could send you in the wrong direction.
Pi’ve went straight forward through Gaudol’s house into his garden, which had only one tube connecting it to a larger dome. This larger dome, which housed many buildings and some mounds, had several tubes shooting off in different directions. Pi’ve had to navigate through a rather more busy Tharthillion than usual— it seemed like it was market-day. He had to enter the tube to the left, which opened up to a dome a little smaller than the previous. This was where Pi’ve used to spend most of his free time, as pubs and inns were here, and they were popular. He passed a line of merpeople in this tube, but they saw that he was on his way to something important (everything was important as a wizard), so they made way. Once in this dome, Pi’ve had to take a tunnel which were in the middle of two others, on the opposite side of where he were, going at a slanted angle in relation to the others. After he had passed the many inns and the people bustling in the street, he then came into a dome with only two buildings. A smithy, and a house. It was probably one merman who owned both, yet the path went between the two buildings and he had no problem with people using it. These paths were free to use, even if it went through a dome were a single man or family lived.
Through varying sizes of domes, some being large enough for too many buildings and mermen to count, to smaller dome which contained only a garden or a single building and the people living there, Pi’ve used the map to venture further and further into the dome-system of Tharthillion, eventually ending up at the first set of stairs. He had traversed about thirty domes and spent the last forty five minutes walking at the time when the stairs appeared. He had looked for these stairs in the dome he was in, but other than there being stairs and a slanted roof, not much was different, so it was hard to spot the right entrance.
The stairs were made inside of the same tubes that linked the other domes, but this time, the tube went down a slope. Looking through the dome wall beside the tube with the stair, he could see a thousand or more lights, spreading over a circular hole in the ocean floor, and then rising again on the other side. The lights must be the streetlights and roof lights on the different domes. In the middle of the large crater he was about to descend, a large, round dome sat at the very bottom. It was hard to gauge how large it actually was, but it seemed absolutely gargantuan. On the leftmost side of the large crater, past the large dome in the middle, the dome-structures suddenly stopped appearing. Pi’ve looked at the map, and he saw that the dome he was going to, was the last dome before the large crater opened up to something like a ravine.
He walked down the stair, and when he came to the next dome, he saw that the ground had been made artificially flat in order for the dome to be able to grow there. He was then struck with the idea that this entire crater in the ocean could be wholly made by the mermen to help contain the growing amount of merpeople of a growing city. That was probably his task; to help them expand their city, into a new area. Of course, most of Thergiam was not in this crater, but this crater seemed to be the last major expansion of the city judging by the map. And, judging by the lights coming from all the domes, they were already all inhabited.
Another stair went down, and in this dome, there was essentially nothing, except tubes to the left and right, going to other domes on either side. These were homes… On the map, he could see the domes spread around this large crater on what essentially were ledges made in the craters sloping walls. The tube in front of him contained another staircase, and so it went for ten or so domes until he reached the lowest part of the crater.
The dome on the deepest part was one colossal dome. He had seen it on the map, and through the dome wall before he descended down here, but the scale could not be imagined from a map or through a distorted window. It was the uncontested, largest dome there was. This dome had probably been manipulated and given help of the merpeople to grow this large, still, it was almost too large to even comprehend. Pi’ve could not with confident say that he even saw the furthest walls on the opposite side of the dome from where he had descended. Like the dome outside Gaudol’s garden, it had mounds, and even one rising to the height of a mountain. It was not a large mountain, but it was not just a large elevation neither. One could settle on the term .
From the roof the characteristic vines hung, but other places, large cocoons hung, made of some wooden, or hemp material. Ladders, bridges and ropes connected these cocoons. Some even emitted smoke, and Pi’ve wondered if there were smiths and bakers who worked up in those cocoons some hundred meters high in the air. Just as he thought this, he saw a line of rope hanging from a platform up in the air, and it was being pulled up by a wheel spun by two mermen. Out from the canopies of trees that lined the enormous hill in the distance, a basket of three merpeople were being hoisted up. He now saw more clearly that on these bridges, there were indeed people going to and fro these cocoons. They really needed to expand their city if they were using the air as residential space.
Pi’ve still had some six domes to go through to arrive where he had been summoned. From where he entered the massive dome, the tube he had to enter was to the left. It took a good while to reach it, but once he did, he saw that this tube was much larger than the others he had gone through. The others had been large enough to fit one person in width, and some fitting two in width. This one had been carved large, and it could fit wagons going through them. Metal ornaments lined the tubes entrance. These tubes were not natural, he surmised, but had to be carved manually. The domes were then linked with these tubes. It was genius, really, but he did wonder why it had taken him so long to realise it. He walked through, and he could smell rock. Sounds of rock being hammered and broken reverberated through the tube. Soon enough, he saw a worker who looked like Eraol, the person who had hired him.
He was a stone mason, and together with several other, hammered out rock from the ocean floor. The rock in its impure form was then transported through the next tube. There they were carving the stones into large bricks, and then placed on wooden platforms with wheels. Once these wooden platforms had two layers of bricks on them, they were transported through the next tube to the next dome, where the bricks were given details, or adjustments if they were being used as corner bricks and such.
When the bricks were done, they went through the next tube, and the dome which came into view was large. No way near the size of the gargantuan a couple domes back, but still large. A building was being erected here, with a long body, two stories tall, and on the end there was a tower. Seven statues were standing by the stairs by the entrance of this building, and they were the ones that Pi’ve was going to lift up, he knew.
Looking up at the tower, Pi’ve could see an exposed bell-tower, and the bell-tower protruded through the roof, as if a mini-dome had been placed on the large dome to extend the dome only in that place. That was were the bell was going, surely.
Somewhere behind him a voice called ’Pi’ve!’. The same man in brown, leather shirt came into view from behind a pile of bricks. Eraol was his name. ’You made it. I am glad. What took you so long?’
’I needed a map. There are a lot of domes between Gaudol and here. Am I late?’ Pi’ve said. He hoped that he had not caused them to have to stop their progress because of him.
’No. Not late— Yes, I supposed that it would take some time for you to arrive here. It is no problem, but come,’ Eraol said. He began to walk towards the statues. ’These needs to be lifted and placed up there,’ he said and pointed up at the front of the building. ’You do not need to be precise, they just need to be placed there, and we can adjust them later.’
’I can do that.’ Once he had started, and with his newly found control of mana, Pi’ve did not take long before he had hoisted the statues up. They were probably 400 pounds or so each, and it did pose a slight problem for him, because he needed the mana to be perfectly shaped for him to feel that he had any control of the weight. Pi’ve wondered what was next once the statues were up, but Eraol was suddenly occupied with a carpenter and some lists he had to sign. Pi’ve decided to have a look at the building.
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The building was two stories tall, and still underdeveloped. At least on the ornamental side. The foundation and walls had been raised, but other than that, no windows were finished and little details had been put in place yet. He figured that the tower had been the first part of the building to be raised, as that was the part that seemed most developed.
He looked up at the tower, and he saw that the tower stood taller than the dome he was currently in, but then he saw that another dome had been grown on the outside of the large dome he was in to accommodate the height of the tower. He knew that up in that tower, were the tower protruded through the top of the main dome, he had another job to do, so Pi’ve went inside to see if he could get up the stairs. Once inside, he was greeted by the empty room of a vast hall. Some benches and tables were stacked by the walls, but other than that, the place was empty.
He found the stairs behind a door to the left of the main entrance of the tower, and started walking up. The spiral stair wound up three or four times— he lost count— and then he reached a platform. Here, four, sharp pillars came up from the platform and curved over him, and on the end by the sharpest points of the pillars were indents to hold rope or something of the like. On the floor in the middle of the platform was a large bell made of what seemed like pale, shimmering silver. It looked like a metal made of melted mirror. Four chains of the same material were on the floor, one for each of the pillars he guessed. The bell looked heavy, but what was his job here? Pi’ve heard feet on the stairs behind him, and soon the merman had joined him.
’Beautiful isn’t it?’ Eraol said.
’What is it made of?’ Pi’ve asked. He had seen ferinaril-chains before, and these reminded him of those, yet they were different. These chains were not made for holding wraiths or other incorporeal matter, but had some other ability tied to them. What was the purpose of the bell? It looked too special to be a regular bell.
’It is made of a metal called , or Pearl-Platinum. It is made of exposed platinum in underwater caves, which have come in contact with pearls of oysters. Caves of these kinds can be found everywhere, but these caves need to collapse, and then, once the pressure and heat around the conjoined pearls and platinum is adequate, they combine and form this metal,’ Eraol said, pointing to the bell. ’It is unique, incredibly rare, but serves many purposes for us under water.’
’What does it do?’
’Bells above water vibrate, creating sound which carry a long way. Stand too close to the bell, and it can be quite unpleasant. Bells do not work that way underwater, unless you have a bell made of pure Pershil,’ Eraol told. ’This bell rings, and it rings true. It creates vibrations, depending on how hard you strike it. Strike it and will either send a simple signal for the ears to pick up. Striker harder and you can send pleasant, or unpleasant vibrations to the skin. At the highest vibrations one can create heat that can incapacitate or kill those around it. All of this, while no sound enters into the domes.’
’But, then the bell should be outside the dome— in the water.’
’It will be,’ Eraol said.
Pi’ve did not understand the science behind the vibrations of the bell, but he did know that whales communicated underwater, and that their signals travelled farther underwater than sound could carry above water. It could be the same concept. Nevertheless, he was unsure what his job was. He had been unsure if he should even take this job, as it did pertain something about controlling water, and the uncertainty of what that meant, made him believe that it was something complicated; something he had not yet learned.
’Alright. So, what is my job?’ Pi’ve asked.
’Firstly, those chains must be fitted to the pillars, so that they hang freely,’ Eraol said, and Pi’ve did as he said, lifting the chains twenty feet up. They were about five feet each, so the bell had to be lifted fifteen feet or so to be fastened to the chains. ’Now, you lift the bell. Just wait, I have to get a ladder.’
While the merman went to get a ladder, Pi’ve focused on the bell, linking to it, and sent mana over to it. The bell was hard for his mana to get a grip onto. Must be the Pershil-metal is slippery.
When the merman came back again with the ladder, Pi’ve had a good understanding of how to lift the bell, and even with its heavy weight, the lifting went smoothly. He lifted it fifteen feet up, and the merman went around the bell fitting the four chains to the ring in the middle of the bell. Pi’ve then let go, and the bell hung freely. Pi’ve brought out a mana potion which he drank. Gaudol was an alchemist, and even if mana potion was not what Gaudol called them, he did produce them every now and then. Once his mana was fully replenished, Pi’ve looked at the bell. Where the small dome sat on top of the large dome, the layer of the large dome had been removed so that they could build the tower into the small dome, extending the bell outside the large dome. Surely the small dome had to be removed somehow to get the bell underwater.
’Be careful not to touch it. It rings so high-pitched that you won’t be able to stand it,’ the merman said, and Pi’ve backed away carefully, even when the bell hung over him out of reach.
’Now, we must submerge it. We must submerge it without flooding the whole dome, and this is how we are going to do that,’ the merman said, and suddenly, four merman with their fins swimming outside the dome came into view. ’Once they cut into the small dome, water is going to come in— do you see that there is no dome-material between us and the small dome? Yeah, essentially the floor of that dome has been cut away for us to build into the small dome, you see. Anyways, those men outside are going to cut the little dome off the large dome, and then you, Pi’ve, are going to hold the water from rushing in too much. Some spillage is fine, but it cannot become so much that we are washed away, or the mermen outside are sucked into the dome—,’ Eraol said looking at Pi’ve, occasionally pointing at what he talked about.
’Wait, wait, wait— you want me to hold the weight of the ocean?’ Pi’ve exclaimed. It was preposterous. ’Once you remove the small dome, there is literally just a hole in the large dome for water to rush in!’
’Are you not up for the job?’
’Hadn’t it been easier to create a dome outside the little dome which you are going to remove, and then let the water in once it is removed.’
’Had we thought of it, maybe. But even that would be a risk with no chance of correction once it fails. The extra dome could collapse, and then the weight of the ocean could strain the newly fitted hole under the bell, and there would be no way to stop the water. This is not the easiest way, sure, but it poses less risk.’
Pi’ve thought about it for a moment. He saw that the mermen outside was ready, and that he was the one to hold them up.
’Let me get into position. I will tell you when I feel ready,’ Pi’ve said, and double-checked his mana pool. He had all 520 of his mana, and he would not get any more prepared than he was.
Pi’ve stood under the bell, virtually shielding his own view of the place where the little dome was going to be removed, but it did not matter, because he would use the mana as his vision. He let his mana surge through his body for a moment to get a feel of how it flowed. He needed absolute control this time. His mana was eventually allowed to pass through his arm, and then into his staff. There was nothing he could link to now, as the little dome still on the roof of the larger dome was going to be removed, and there was only a hole where the water would enter. He had to guide the mana to a place where there was essentially nothing for the mana to hold onto— at least for a while.
The mana seeped slowly out of the staff, and Pi’ve guided it slowly in its pure form across the empty space between him and where the little dome was. Once he felt that he had the mana where it was supposed to be, he tried stretching the mana, creating a blanket of thin mana covering the hole into the bottom of the little dome. Over the next ten minutes, he struggled to hold the mana as he fed the mana layer more mana. It needed to be thicker for him to hold the weight of the water which would be flooding the hole. Once he was unable to get more mana to accumulate, Pi’ve motioned to Eraol that he was ready. He had to trust himself now, and the mermen, hoping that they did not just rip the dome away, leaving all the water above to just fall with all its weight on top of his mana. That would be catastrophic.
With large knives akin to machetes, the mermen outside cut the lower rim of the little dome, letting water trickle in little by little. When the water touched the mana, the mana disappeared where the water touched it. Pi’ve shouted for the mermen to stop, because he had to adjust. Of course, the mana cannot hold anything it is not made to hold— that is why you must link to things. While they waited, water still dripped down through the slits they had made, and Pi’ve concentrated hard on those streams of water. It tore through the mana-layer as if it was liquid metal against fabric. Pi’ve tried to get the mana already there to accept the water. He had to link the already existing mana to the water which came down.
After about eight minutes, the platform of the clock tower was fully wet, and Pi’ve’s shoes was drenched all through. Then, as the water fell down through the veil of mana covering the hole in the dome, some of it was held up by the mana. After only a minute more, no water went through the mana layer. Over the next minute, as the water kept adding up on top of the mana layer, Pi’ve felt the weight slightly increase, but it was still tolerable. He told Eraol to get them to open it up more. As they did, and more water seeped through, Pi’ve had to concentrate like he had never before to combat its weight and keep it water-tight. There was still something odd going on. The mana was still not really meant to hold the water. It had just been made impenetrable, but that would still mean that excessive weight would defeat Pi’ve. Pi’ve almost lost concentration thinking about what impenetrable, or at least more solid mana, could mean.
Now that the water covered the whole mana-layer, he focused all his energy to linking with this particular body of water. Suddenly he remembered that even if he managed it, he needed to keep an eye on his mana. He was on 306 out of 520 mana in his pool, and 170 out of 200 stamina. His stamina kept replenishing his mana even when using mana, essentially making his mana pool larger in practice.
After three more minutes, the mermen had created holes large enough so that the small dome was essentially filled with water. Pi’ve was holding the water inside the little dome, but once the little dome was removed, the weight of the ocean would tear him down if he did not link to the water, or found some other way.
Once his mana was down to 179, he felt a shift. It was instant. He could grab, or influence a small bit of water by using small mana strings in the mana layer he held up. It did not take long until his mana became familiar with the water, and Pi’ve knew then that he did not need to link to any particular part of the water; he could link to water— the substance itself— and then manipulate whatever part of the water around him he could reach.
Mere moments went by, but the mana consumption suddenly increased when this revelation occurred to him. It was like a switch, and suddenly he felt control over water around his mana carpet, almost like the water was a part of the mana. It was a part of his body now, but it was only the water around the hole. They had to act fast. Pi’ve shouted for the dome to be removed and the hole to be plugged. His mana was depleting quicker now, making the mana-regeneration from his stamina make no difference. Pi’ve felt sweat run down his forehead. The mermen made the final cuts to the little dome, separating the structure from the large dome, and they slowly pulled it away. Then, with under a hundred mana left in his pool, the mermen came with what seemed like nothing in their hands. It turned out to be thin, transparent strings, which they stretched over the hole made by the absence of the small dome, and after two minutes of laying this string mesh, they poured a slimy substance over the mesh. It coagulated quickly, and with 40 mana left, Pi’ve felt a hand touch his shoulder. Pi’ve lost control over the mana, panicked, tried to quickly spread mana over the hole again, before realising that the hole was covered without his help.
In the corner of his eyes, he saw the familiar scroll with the number five under it, meaning that he had five notifications from the Jin, the system. He was relieved.
’Great job, Pi’ve!’ the merman said. Pi’ve was exhausted. He barely heard the merman speak. He was so exhausted that he had the ridiculous thought that this was not worth it, but he had to scold himself as the thought came to him. Of course it was worth it, even if it was risky. He heard clapping coming from somewhere, and as he followed the sound, peaking over the edge of the tower, he saw some ten mermen standing giving him an ovation. He lifted his hand in acknowledgement, feeling pride overwhelm him. It was ten-folds worth it.
Pi’ve turned to Eraol, smiled and said ’I am done here,’ with whole-hearted conviction. He did not actually know if the merman had any more work for him, but this was where Pi’ve ended his work. If there was any work left or not, he did not care, for he was spent. He was happy with his performance, but he wanted to venture home now. He needed rest. He needed to unpack his new breakthrough. He even felt hungry, which was rare now that he was a wizard.
He went down the spiralling stairs of the tower, and opened his notifications.
Race [] has levelled up: lvl 13 -> lvl 14. +4 free points. Stat points from class [] has been allocated, +2 free points. Max health is increased with one (1) point.
Race [] has levelled up: lvl 14-> lvl 15. +4 free points. Stat points from class [] has been allocated, +2 free points. Max health is increased with one (1) point.
Skill gained. Open to view skill.
Skill gained. Open to view skill.
Profession available. Open to view selection.
