“Always interesting what environmental effects happen when I place Buildings,” John stated as they crossed the stone bridge that led them to the first of the Elemental Islands. His comment wasn’t actually in reference to the Earth Island they were about to step onto, but the Air Island in the distance. Reason being that there was a floating island hovering above the one he had placed.

They passed a Sentry Golem on duty, something that Lydia noted approvingly. “You’re minimizing the risk now. Good.” Obviously, John didn’t want a repeat of the fairy forest. After they had left, John had found several people harmed from events before he had made the command. One had an arm covered in butterfly bites, another had his hair turned into a thorny mess that had to be shaved off and the third had been bitten by the thing under the bed and couldn’t stop dancing until Undine healed the wound.

Even though he assured all of them that such things would not happen in the future, John doubted they would take another stroll through the Midnight Forest. ‘In like fifty years,’ it occurred to the Gamer, ‘there’ll be a couple of young people that walk through there like it’s absolutely nothing, thinking fairies are all fun and games, until they go somewhere and learn that it was all thanks to my presence… I have become pretty powerful.’

It wasn’t quite on the level of ‘translates a language to be understandable by everyone who hears it’ yet, but John definitely was progressing in making his corner of the world somewhere the usual rules didn’t apply to in the expected ways. Who knew? Maybe, in like one-thousand years, some people would start worshipping him like some worshipped Romulus. Maybe that would already happen in one year.

“By the by,” Rave spoke up, when they had taken their first steps on the island. “Can we talk about ya not getting through that maze?”

“What is there to converse about in that topic?” Lydia retorted, her eyes hardening. “Fairies and I cannot stand each other. Their whimsical ways infuriate me and to call their respectless assortment of harmful woodland critters with horns and teeth and other protrusions a court offends me personally.”

“Ya got history with Methenia or something?”

“One of her siblings, in all likelihood. I made one of my subjects banish a fairy court from his lands after they caused 3,2 billion dollars’ worth of property damage by causing a chain reaction that culminated in an explosion in a mana factory.” The queen crossed her arms. “I was told at the time to move my ‘iron smelling ass out of colour distance’.”

“I can’t say I am too surprised you don’t get along with fairies particularly well,” John admitted as they stepped through the forest. The ground was peculiar. Smooth and hard, brown stone that spilled around the trunks of the trees like a hardened glazing. Tiny earth elementals replaced the usual dirt found on forest floors, sentient pebbles that rolled around, with no higher intelligence to speak off. A few bigger stones could say a few words. Boulders with arms and legs waved and said a very slow hello.

None of the islands were particularly large. Maybe fifty metres, if measured at the broadest possible point. Sizeable enough to be worth a walk, but nothing one could successfully hide a lot on. Although elementals shaped like rocks were the most common ones, there was also a number of other things. Walking plants, pools of mud that slugged around and other earth-based beings all existed. The one John found most impressive (and unusual) was a being whose outline looked like a man, shaped entirely from gears and clockwork, walking around in correspondingly rigid motions.

None of them seemed hostile in any way. A few visitors were already on the island, looking around, climbing on top of boulder-shaped elementals, who laughed very slowly and jolly in response. Those that didn’t want to be interacted with made this very clear through hissing sounds or polite words. They behaved very much in line with human expectancy, which was why John looked at things a bit more relaxed.

If one got lethally poisoned by petting a cat that purred the entire time, suddenly grew spider fangs and ripped into the person’s arm, then that was unexpected and quite unfortunate. Sure, one should be aware that fairies were unpredictable, but John couldn’t fault people for being curious and then getting surprised by something that alien. In contrast, if a two-metre wide turtle that probably weighed a ton told a visitor to please not try to shoot a photo of its belly, then the person that got squashed by a sitting stone tortoise was in for a Darwin Award.

Numerous elementals gathered around him and Gnome, thanking them for this place. Elementals loved getting out of their home plane as the continuously assured existence there was (at least supposedly) quite boring. In the human world, they could experience such things as food and smell and other tastes of magic. With the right ‘design decisions’ they could even get to know what John’s elemental girls felt at least once a day. Something that was impossible between elementals while they were on their home plane. It all required a manifested body.

Normally, such a manifestation required a summoner. In rare cases, Natural Barriers allowed elementals to use the Faith inside to manifest themselves. In even rarer cases, such Natural Barriers weren’t populated by monsters, so elementals could freely materialize for as long as such a hotspot lasted. That could be for a few days or a couple hundred years. The Elemental Islands were a series of artificial hotspots. They worked mechanically the same way, supplying the power for the spirits to manifest themselves.

The amount of power handed out to that end was limited, which prevented these islands from getting absolutely swamped in entertainment-starved elementals. When John strained his senses a little bit, honed by Elementalist and Elemental Unity, he could feel all the spirits waiting in line. They couldn’t perceive anything happening on the Elemental Islands until they actually manifested, but they all wanted to be there.

Whether more artificial hotspots like this existed, John did not know. Lydia did, however. “I am aware of a limited number,” she stated, “some dating back to times so distant that we aren’t sure who made them in the first place. Stonehenge is the most renowned among those, it’s the only known place on earth where elementals of all kinds and fairies pour into the same barrier. Replicating that spell has been a universal failure. There is a general procedure that can be used to attract one of the six elements at a time. As such, this space is only special due to its cost effectiveness.”

She finished her explanation and the group reached the actual Building. It was a small temple in an ancient Greek style, albeit made with brown stone, rather than white. Through a wall of pillars, the group stepped and found a rectangle shaped basin, in which an earthy brown fluid gathered. It looked a bit unappetizing, like very fluid mud. John threw an Observe its way before anyone went ahead and touched it.

John checked the Attributes of the thing to get an even better understanding. Most of it was just flavour text, describing how this magic would behave in motion or that elementals could eat it to gain a spike of mana. Something that caused John to immediately urge Gnome to try drinking it and report on the strength of the effect. If it could be used as a potion in battle, to heal them or to give a general power boost, then that was important.

However, she reported that it was a minuscule effect when compared to the mana he was sending her every second. Maybe it could have been useful at earlier levels, but he had outclassed it by now. ‘Annoying,’ he thought, ‘but maybe it’ll get stronger at higher Tiers, making it worth my while. I should keep an eye on this.’ “Hey, Lydia, what is Terrium?”

“Terrium is…” Lydia began, only to stop when the explanation she wanted to start didn’t come. Furrowing her brows, she had to admit, “I do not know of this material. What makes you ask?”

“It’s mentioned in the Infused Material Attribute. If I leave some metals soaking in there long enough, they will turn into Terrium at a rate of 1 gram per 100 days,” John explained. “It will also naturally form if nothing is soaking in the pool at 1 gram per 1000 days.”

“U-uh,” Gnome swiped the last bit of essence from her mouth, to her it tasted as bland as still water. “Must be something really good if it’s created that slowly, right?”

“I do have a theory,” John responded, to nobody’s surprise, John Newman always had a theory. “Just need to get to the next shrine thingy to confirm it. Let’s move on.”

Across another bridge, and they found themselves on the Fire Island. Heat radiated from every surface, doubtlessly courtesy of the red crystals that reached out from everywhere. Observing them showed them to be decorative things only, that would crumble into useless shards if broken off, so John’s interest in them faded pretty quickly. Just like on the Earth Island, numerous smaller elementals came flocking to John and one of his elementals. Appropriate to the where, the who was Salamander rather than Gnome this time around.

There were safe paths over the island, but a miniature volcano in the middle of it fed a constant stream of lava. As it was a peaceful flow and no spouting of molten rock into the air, everything was as safe as lava could be, albeit still extremely hot. A cave entrance at the side brought them into a surprisingly large cavity underneath. So large that no magma chamber could have logically existed, but that hadn’t stopped any of John’s Buildings or general abilities so far.

Surrounded by ten pillars of falling lava was a circular crack in the ground that held a ruby red liquid. There was nothing worthwhile mentioned in the Observe. Every instance of earth was replaced by fire, with related adjectives swapped to keep with the theme. Only one thing caught John’s eye and made him shake his head with an unbelieving giggle.

“Oblivium,” he simply said. “1 gram per 100 days with base metal, 1 gram per 1000 days without.” Looking over to his other girls. “These things produce, albeit at an extremely low rate, the elemental metals that shouldn’t be producible.”

“…That’s ludicrous,” Lydia stated, raised a hand to her chin in a thoughtful matter, then put on her nicest, most seductive and non-serious smile. “Oh, my beloved John, would you promise me a trade agreement over these metals, that none but Fusion and Rex Germaniae may receive these priceless metals?” With every word of that question, she stepped closer to him, until she whispered into his ear and a stray strand of her auburn hair tickled his chin.

“What about the rest of Romulus’ empire?” he asked teasingly, even as he groped her nice butt. Sometimes he wished it was bigger, it was certainly the least impressive one in the harem, which just made it firmly above average. Tall bar and all that. Very nice to touch regardless and so soft that he wanted to rest his hips on it, while his dick was buried deep in-between.

Lydia, unable to keep the act up, switched back to her disciplined tone. “The emperor can certainly supply his own ambitions. You’re my beloved, perhaps you can allow me to profit from this, my most unwise decision at infrequent occasions?” Although her tone was back to the usual, the way her perfect, red lips moved so close to his skin and she pushed her curves against his body and hands was making him feel more warmth than the lava.

“I’ll think about it,” he earnestly promised. “But don’t take advantage of my love for you too often. I might get the idea you’re only doing these things to use me.”

“It wouldn’t be worth the hassle and the hit to my pride that being one of many girls is,” Lydia stated, and they kissed quickly. “Only genuine adoration could make me so foolish.” That was a declaration John neither wanted to question nor tease. Therefore, they just moved on to check out the remaining islands.

On the Water Island, numerous crystals served as springs for crystal clear water that flowed towards the Hudson in small to medium sized streams. A castle of those light blue gems formed the local shrine, the Elemental Essence inside, dripping steadily from a chandelier-like formation into a large bowl balanced on a thin pillar. One more Observe and John had the double confirmation, as it would produce Poseidury.

For the Wind Island, reaching the shrine was a bit more complicated, as it was located atop the flying island. John checked it out with only Sylph and Salamander in tow, the two elementals accompanying the Mandala Sphere. There was a metal cage, inside it a bright green liquid hovering in a spherical shape. Through Observing it as well, John learned the name of the impossible wind metal: Tempi (as oddly cute as that name was for a material).

The mountain split landscape of the Shadow Island was odd to behold. Black miniature mountains, that he had placed there just like he had in the Midnight Forest, had changed. The shadow their small spires cast were pitch black, many rocks no longer cared about the grip of gravity and just hovered about. One of those pitch-black shadows turned out to be the entrance to a cave. It was an interesting experience to descend into it. No matter how much John searched, his hands couldn’t find the walls. All the orientation he had was the light of the entrance and a dark purple pool that glowed softly in the darkness.

John felt like something was watching him, a presence like spider legs on his neck. Even though he had only met her once before, he recognized the Mother of Shadow’s gaze. ‘Seems like that one has a bit of an easier time looking into the real world,’ John theorized, since he had felt no such things at the other temples. ‘Either that, or none of the other Mothers are interested.’

Whatever it was, the Mother of Shadow didn’t say anything, as John went to confirm that this pool would produce Schattengarn. That one he was particularly excited about, given the legendary quality of his currently worn clothes.