He unlocked strand after strand, falling into a rhythm. Before he knew it, another year had gone by.
One day—"Senior Zane, Senior Zane!”
He knew that voice.
Zane turned, and sure enough, there Jin was, looking all spiffy in imperial white-and-gold robes. The kid splashed over and tackled him in a hug.
The kid had gotten to the top of his chest. But everything else about him was pretty much the same as Zane remembered from just a few years ago. A gold-feather badge over his heart marked him as a Saint.
The kid actually did it.
“Hey, kid.”
“I was looking all over for you!” said Jin. He looked up at Zane. “Y’know, I thought I would’ve caught up a little after all these years… now I just feel further away.”
Jin grinned. “I really will catch up, Senior Zane—you mark my words!”
“Sure, kid.”
“Or at least be strong enough to fight at your side and do you proud!”
“You don’t need to be strong to make me proud, kid,” sighed Zane. The only person he expected to be strong was himself. “You’ve already done me proud.”
This got Jin welling up again. “Senior Zane…”
Since they’d last met, the kid had gone through a lot. He barreled into the Capital like a wrecking ball. Lots of folks there weren’t happy to see this upstart province kid get his start alongside young masters.
“But I didn’t let it stop me!” said Jin.
The thing with Jin—unlike Evan—was Evan sometimes needed a pep talk to really get into something. But Jin just charged in headfirst.
This tended to land him in a lot of trouble. He told Zane about it as they sat there, munching on steamed buns.
“Then I said, ‘Don’t talk about my father like that!’” said Jin. “And before I knew it, we were in a life-and-death duel.”
Zane took a moment to chew. “What’d I tell you about letting this stuff get to you?”
“I know,” Jin said sheepishly. “I just got so mad, and I guess it kinda snowballed from there…”
Zane took a bite. “’S alright,” he said. “You have your whole life to work on it.”
“Senior Zane?”
“What’s up?”
“How do you keep so… I dunno… so calm, and unbothered, and stuff?”
Zane thought about it and shrugged.
“Temperament,” he said. “It’s just who I am.”
“Oh…”
“You shouldn’t try to be like me,” said Zane.
“I shouldn’t?”
“Be you, kid. That fire right here—” he tapped Jin’s chest. “It makes you who you are. Let it fuel you. Just learn to temper it a little, and you’ll go far.”
Jin gasped; he seemed rather mind-blown. Then he nodded very quickly. “I will, Senior Zane!”
They ate buns for a little while longer.
Jin perked up—“Oh!”
The little rascal had also gotten a girlfriend. He was quite enthusiastic about it; Zane had to help him with a nosebleed.
At first, there was some confusion when he described her—in Zane’s head, she was some kind of green rock.
But it turned out there were actually different kinds of jade. There was white jade too, which made a lot more sense.
Jin then got all amped up talking about working on his alchemy badge. He’d found this rainbow Spirit Root treasure that let him absorb every element. It made him a never-before-seen talent in the art, at least on the Sealed Demon continent. Jin was hoping to go far with it.
Zane handed him a treasure, a one-way line.
The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
“When you’ve done all there is to do in this world, when it comes to Alchemy,” he said. “Call this. Reina might have a job for you.”
“Senior Zane…!” Jin started tearing up.
“Alright, kid,” he said, patting him on the head.
***
Jin got quiet for a bit after he finished his bun.
“You alright, kid?”
“I was just thinking—y’know how I’m going to the Zodiac Continent?”
Zane nodded. The kid had pretty much maxed out all he could do on the Sealed Demon continent. It was time for bigger and better things.
“I was just thinking it could be a really long time before we met again… Senior Zane, if I didn’t meet you, maybe I’d still be in Littleleaf Town, getting bullied by Liu Yi…”
Zane shook his head. “Give yourself some credit, kid. You would’ve toughed it out. I just sped things along.”
“Still—” Jin sniffed. “I know you said you wouldn’t, but…”
He dropped to his knees and put his forehead to the ground. “Everything I’ve got, it’s ‘cause of you, Senior Zane!”
Zane blinked.
“Senior Zane!” cried Jin. “Will you be my master?”
Zane softened.
“…Sure, kid.”
Jin gave him one last hug. Then the kid was off into the unknown.
Zane watched him go with a strange feeling in his chest.
They really did grow up so fast.
***
Later that week…
Zane made a loop between his fingers, a string of light, and the sands turned to glass beneath him.
If he stacked his domain on it, then stacked on Radiation and Magnetic Hotspot… he was pretty sure nothing below Minor God could survive in his presence anymore.
The more he worked on his Concepts, the more he felt how they built—all buffing his Flare in its own way, making a wrecker of a Law.
Before he got up to all these shenanigans, he could pretty comfortably beat half-step True God. But the gap between half-step and True God was meant to be impossible to bridge.
By now, though, he’d stacked up so many Laws, along with his Limit Breaker, he thought he’d have a solid shot.
After he made the Great Circle and finished up his business in Astra, he’d make another run at Ragnos. Then he’d see.
***
A few days later, a letter floated down to him in a ball of light.
It was from Noughtfire.
Apparently, the old Sage had been inundated with offers—offers to do with broadcast rights for his next Ragnos run. After his performance at the Eclipse Stadium years ago, there hadn’t been much in the way of broadcasting. He’d mostly kept to himself, working on his Laws and heading out to the Wilderness, and so on.
In that time, demand for Zane content had only grown. He was the undisputed #1 on the Rising Dragon Ranking, after all—there were billions of Zane fans out there, and there was much speculation about just what shape he was in now, what progress he’d made.
Now, folks were offering some eyebrow-raising sums for the streaming rights.
“Normally, I wouldn’t bother,” Noughtfire wrote. “But a few offers include System Store Gold Coins.”
Zane vaguely recalled coming into contact with the System Store a while back—maybe he’d picked up a treasure at some point to do with it. But with his status within the Steelheart and Azure Flame Factions—not to mention Reina—he really wasn’t lacking for resources. He’d never looked that deeply into it.
System Store Gold Coins, Noughtfire said, offered rare and peculiar gifts—treasures that originated from outside the Dragonspire Galaxy, even, or permanent buffs you could only get through the Store.
System Store Gold Coins were incredibly rare, though. Only true whales had them.
The most promising offers were laid out before him. At the top was one ‘WRN Intergalactic’—led by one Elias Ventor, offering three SS Gold Coins.
…There was a name he hadn’t seen in a long time. He did get the sense Elias was something of a cockroach—the man just kept popping back up. But he had made a good sum off of the man before.
He wrote back that he’d have his lawyer read it over first and sent the message off to Reina.
***
One month later…
Zane took a deep breath, and a Flare erupted in his palm.
He let its Solar Winds run wild.
The sky changed color. Blues and violets and reds and whites, overflowing into one another, making auroras in the heavens—as beautiful as they were deadly.
Every cloud from horizon to horizon was wiped out.
The heat that scoured them would’ve one-shot Ascendants.
Concept comprehended!
The Concept of Solar Winds
Zane wiped a line of sweat off his brow and smiled.
The townsfolk saw it on the shore and shook their heads.
By then, Zane had been around long enough that they’d kind of claimed him. They were just proud their little town of Sunnyshore could host a world-famous master. No pirate had dared raid there in years.
***
That evening, Old Weng put on a little feast for their resident master. They all knew he’d go eventually, but many of the fishermen had grown used to thinking of Zane somewhere out in the deep blue, meditating against a palm tree, unlocking the secrets of the universe. It was comforting, somehow.
Zane ate many buns that night.
That left just one Concept to make the Great Circle. One before he could break through to Minor God.
The question was—where would he find it?
The next morning at dawn, he stood on the docks, studying the horizon.
He’d been here long enough to know that Astra would show him signs if only he listened.
So he sat down cross-legged and pushed Great Sage Mind as far as he could.
For hours he sat there, listening to the crashing of the waves, the cawing of the gulls, feeling the breeze on his face. Just keeping his mind as diffuse as he could. Spread far and wide…
Then he heard it. A sound in the far distance—Ping! Ping! Almost like steel hammering glass. A forge, maybe?
It came from the deep fog on the horizon.
He wasn’t quite sure what that had to do with his final Concept. But he intended to find out.
Only he quickly found his water-walking boots sparked out when he tried to forge through the mists. Astra’s mists were their own beast. They needed special enchantments.
He ended up at the local boating store, where he bought a rowboat with a hull scribed for mist-rowing.
“If you don’t mind me asking,” said the store owner, a stooped little old man. “Where’re you headed?”
“Somewhere that way,” said Zane, and pointed.
The owner scratched his head. “Looks to be the Raindragon continent, or thereabouts—though that’s a ways away… I’m sure you could do it, Master Zane. Don’t mean to doubt your ability, or nothin’. But it could be a while in a rowboat. There are ships that’ll take you there too.”
“Are there?”
“The Imperial Mark 10—finest ship in His Majesty’s fleet, so they say! Might be a good thing to start there. It’ll take you right where you need.”
Which was how Zane ended up making the journey to the giant port city of Alway.
But not before stocking up on a year’s supply of steamed buns.
