Time Twister - 74 James' Disappearance

James Corde’s mansion, Callows City.

Since James had left his clan home and established his company, he had been living by himself, with him was his younger sister, 11, who was in her second year of tertiary school.

When James had separated from Xander, he headed home, cooked dinner for her sister, and put it on the fridge, leaving a note by the dinner table for her to see. He then headed to his study room, where he moved a certain book and opened his panic safety room. He removed his communicator and turned it off, before going inside.

Inside the panic room, there were 2 communicators that were encrypted and were not connected to the main servers of Eteria. James opened one of them and after it checked his identity, he could control the interface and dialed the number Xander had given to him.

He took a deep breath as he was typing the number, and when it was ringing, he breathed a sigh of relief. He waited for it to be picked up, and it rang 6 times before being picked up.

A deep, masculine voice resounded, and no hologram of a person appeared in his watch.

“Hello? Who’s this?” There was a hint of curiosity and playfulness in the voice, making it quite mysterious for James to recognize who the person was.

“Hello, sir? I’m a friend of Xander, and he told me to call this number if I wanted to get spells and materials related to my element?”

“Hmm… another one by that boy, eh? Ok, lemme see where you are in… Huh, planet #3458, near the Galactic Empire… ‘kay, got your exact location.” The call ended, surprising James.

Planet #3458? Galactic Empire, what’s that? Before he could even ask, the call ended and wanted to dial again, but when he turned a bit, he could see a silhouette of a person standing by the closed door of his panic room, inside. This surprised him and caused him to panic for a bit, even making him go into alert mode.

“Hello. You are?” the silhouette said after a few seconds of tense silence. The voice matched with the voice James had heard.

“J-James, James Corde. A friend of Xander.”

“Ok, let’s get this quick, according to my deal with the kid, I let you pick 3 spells of a certain element. What element are you getting?”

“Luck element, sir.”

“Luck, eh?” the figure began to open his own communicator, one that looked more advanced than what James had ever seen in his lifetime.

“Ok, I have around 13,317 Luck-based spells ranging from Master to Sage rank. You choose which one to get. Just remember, don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

He tapped a few more things, and James’ communicator rang, and when he saw it was a transfer, he accepted it. He was not surprised the mysterious figure was able to hack his communicator even if it was not connected to the main servers. He saw the list of spells and the effects of each spell listed. He was going to read them one by one when the figure’s deep masculine voice echoed in the room once again.

“You only have 30 minutes to choose which spells you want. After that, you must choose 3 spells. Once you have chosen, you have to sign the non-disclosure binding contract with your own magic energy combined with a bit of your life essence.”

Once he heard this, James didn’t panic, although he was surprised, he began to filter out the results of the spells. He filtered out Sage and Master rank spells, limiting it to Legendary to Divine rank. He then checked for offensive, then non-offensive, then supportive types, getting one spell from each that best suited him. This took a total of 30 minutes.

After the time was up, the mysterious figure chuckled and said, “Time’s up,” and the file in his smartwatch was forcibly erased, leaving no trace behind. James then looked at the figure.

“I have decided what spells to get: Lucky Smile, Touch of Unluckiness, and Switching Luck.”

“Hmm…1 legendary, 1 Demigod, and 1 Divine-rank spell… ok. Sign this contract please, and you will receive the spell models and videos and written documents related to the spell.” The figure handed James a nearly translucent document, with the terms and conditions clearly written. James, being a business-savvy person, began read each section carefully and asked for clarifications. This took up around 10 minutes before he nodded and bit his finger, causing blood to ooze out, and began to sign on his name written in the contract.

Once he did, an overwhelming power began to surround him and diffuse straight to his body, filling him with power. He recognized this situation, as he had entered cultivation paradises before, so he began to absorb them frantically and generate his magic seeds. He managed to reach Elite-9 after 15 minutes, and the seeds he formed were as large as a mango pith.

When he opened his eyes, he saw the figure still there, waiting. On his hand was a simple file transfer storage, which James immediately took from the figure’s outstretched hand.

“Thank your eminence!” James said wholeheartedly, bowing 90 degrees at the figure. The latter remained silent for a few seconds before speaking again.

“The deal has been completed. If you want more information or guidance, ensure you have the proper amount of Universal currency before calling. Also, stop calling me sir, I’m not that old. Call me… Homer.” Homer smiled, before fading from existence in front of James, who looked mystified.

Back at Xander’s villa, an indescribable figure was facing Xander, who was smiling back at the figure. Xander snapped his finger and the figure facing him faded away as if it never existed in the first place.

He headed to sleep, wondering when Alexa would also contact the number he gave her.

_________________________

Not far from James’ house, a man in silver clothing was standing by the balcony, observing the situation in James’ house. He was the representative sent by the Corde family to monitor their descendant who ‘left’ the clan due to the clan war, along with his sister, uncle, and grandpa.

Truthfully, no one ever leaves their clan, unless unanimously decided by everyone in it. Even in death, you belong to the clan you grew from. Their grandfather died last year, and his uncle was currently a Demigod-2 magician working for another large company. When the war between Bykis and Corde clan was over a year ago, they wanted to round up the descendants, to strengthen their foundation once again.

However, James initially refused to do so, because of his experience with the brunt of the war and the bit of hate he had for the family for not protecting his parents. Although his uncle attempted to persuade him, it fell to deaf ears. James didn’t realize that without the influence of his uncle and his clan, he wouldn’t have a smooth journey in developing his company. He only realized this when two weeks ago his uncle was severely injured by that magical wave that hit every single demigod in the Ete continent. It was said out of spite by one of his cousins, who had some sort of rivalry with James because he was more successful than he was.

After his uncle began to recover and was able to regain consciousness, he said to him that he was willing to return to the family, but he wanted to stay in Callows City, along with his younger sister, until they have both graduated college. The clan allowed it, provided that there would be a guardian supervising him and his sister.

The observer, a distant relative of James’ uncle, noticed the strong fluctuation occurring in the house, specifically, in the study room where James resided. He wanted to go and take a look, but when he was about to move towards the house, dangerous, ringing alarms of warning rang in his very essence.

He double-checked the situation by accessing the cameras and surveillance system in the house; everything was locked down. He also checked the life signatures in the house, showing two people that he recognized: James and his sister, Jameel. However, he sensed a powerful concentration of power nearby where James was in, albeit muted, it was most likely the source of his alarm earlier.

Yet, try as he might, he didn’t detect any foreign parties’ life signatures present, confusing him about the reading. After a few minutes, he decided to head over, and saw nothing was amiss; James was merely studying and looking at business documents inside the study room. Even his sister was just listening to music while eating the food she reheated. The powerful concentration of power was nowhere to be seen.

The observer was puzzled and contacted one of the grand elders in the family, briefly explaining the situation. The grand elder replied to summon James to the main headquarters of the clan for questioning; he is free to use force if he resists. The observer nodded, and the communication ended.

Immediately, he headed to the study room’s balcony, opening the window, causing James to turn around his head.

He asked coolly, “Oh? Sir Reginald, what might be the cause of your visit today? Quite late at night, don’t you think?”

“Save it, James, the grand elder Alphonse summons you to the main headquarters. Will you come willingly or do I have to use force?” Reginald coldly responded, distant from James, with his eyes showing a glint of glee.

“Okay, I’ll go then,” James said, before thanking himself for placing the data inside the panic room rather than putting it in his daily communicator. He stood up calmly and headed to Reginald’s direction, who merely grabbed his hand and they began to fly, heading towards the headquarters. Of course, James was able to send a message to his sister and his friend Xander that he was not going to be able to attend tomorrow’s class because he had to go to the headquarters of his clan.

__________________________

Xander woke up to the bright sun shining. It was 7 am, and he finished eating and taking a bath in an hour and left for school. He checked his communicator and saw that he had some new messages, most of them were advertisement while one was from James, telling him that he won’t be able to attend class. He raised his eyebrows, but he didn’t react much.

If he doesn’t return in two days, I’ll probably go there and have to rescue him probably, Xander mumbled. He also viewed the past night and saw some details that he missed, such as the Demigod-1 guarding and observing James from afar. He also saw that 15 minutes after he left, he entered the house and brought away James. He commended the latter’s calmness and quick thinking, putting the data storage in his panic room, rather than his communicator itself.

Xander arrived in school in 15 minutes, and he headed to his first class. He talked and socialized with some of his classmates that were already there, practicing active Magic meditation, giving them guidance and examples, and clarifying questions and ideas that they had about it.

After another 40 minutes, classes began, and Xander once again continued to play around with his communicator, reading different papers being published in both Eteria and the Galactic Empire. Once in a while, he would comment at his friends’ performance, giving them tips and things they could improve on. All of them easily caught on what Xander was trying to say, allowing them to have a faster progression than others.

This continued until the end of the class, where he said goodbye to his classmates and headed to the next classroom, where he arrived and entered the cafeteria in the 2nd floor. After he got his food and sat down, he sighed, because the four friends that were present entered the cafeteria and ordered food as well, and sat down in the same table as him.

They ate in silence, with the girls talking to each other once in a while. Midway to his meal, Alexa asked Xander where James was. Xander nonchalantly replied,

“Oh, he was taken last night by an observer from his family to go to the headquarters. The observer seemed to notice that he contacted the number I gave him, I think. Sigh, that’s why I told him to do it when there is zero surveillance.” Xander shook his head in disappointment. Alexa and the others who were listening were confused.

It was Alexa who clarified the situation, saying it was a number Xander gave that can help the two of them to get the appropriate pseudo-spells for their magic seeds. She didn’t bother lying because she did trust these group of people, for some reason. Maybe because the past few days they had been training with one another, and a sense of camaraderie was formed.

It was Valerie whose eyes gleamed upon hearing this. After all, she hasn’t broken through because she was still deciding what her last spell should be, the same with Carly.

Before they can say anything, Xander raised his hand, stopping them.

“I can tell you the number, but give me 1000 SCPs first~ You gotta pay up like what those two did.” After saying that, Xander continued to eat, but the two girls didn’t hesitate to transfer the SCPs to him. Xander, seeing the points enter his account, immediately sent the two of them the number.

“You get 3 spells maximum from that person from your selected element. Only from one element you choose, so select carefully.” Xander muttered as he was chewing the juicy beef steak he was having for lunch. Faykes was curious, but he had no use for the person since he was already a Master class anyways. Seeing his nonchalant face, Xander rolled his eyes and pointed his fork at Faykes, who was puzzled by Xander’s actions.

“You! Do you know the important part of breaking through to Legendary Class? Hmm?”

“Er, talent, and the necessary self-made spell circles?”

“Correct, but that’s not complete! You need the talent to combine all the magic seeds and the spell circles you have into a Magic Sphere! They should not be conflicting, or else they would collapse and you would fail the breakthrough! So how do you improve compatibility?”

Faykes thought about the question for a bit, but he shook his head and shrugged. He really didn’t have any clear idea of how to do it. Xander took another bite and said,

“Remember what Ms. Lim told us in our first lesson. It’s the class of your magic spell! The higher the class, the harder it is to combine, but the stronger the magic sphere produced! However, she didn’t mention this, but I think, once you reach the 81st class for your magic spell circles, It would have perfect compatibility! Why? It’s because it returns to the origin!” When he said this, he made a demo.

“For example, have you seen the number of concentric circles when I cast a spell?”

“Yeah, you produced them during the first combat training for elemental control. I remember seeing so many stacked circles that I wasn’t able to count them.” Valerie exclaimed, visibly upset and surprised. Carly nodded, agreeing with what she said. It was quite an eye-opener during that time.

“Oh that, that was an example of an 80th class spell circle, a derived effect from my pseudo-spells. But do you know how I derived such a high-level class spell?”

Xander’s friends inched closer, hoping to hear his words much more clearly. Xander responded,

“It’s because all of my pseudo-spells and Master-rank spells are perfected, reaching the 81st class.”

He saw the looks of confusion, and rolled his eyes, before raising his finger in front of them. From that finger, a single dot of light appeared, spherical rather than merely a period.

“This is one of my pseudo-spells, [Golden Light]. Observe it closely.” When they began to inspect the dot of light, they could see the moving runic writings all over it, twisting and transforming into different variations and combinations, as well as forming new points of interaction within the sphere from one surface to the other surface point.

Was this… a Magic sphere? But it’s a pseudo-spell, it should show concentric circles! Seeing their confusion, Xander shook his head and canceled the spell.

“When a spell reaches the 81st class, the structure of the spell circles forming the spell becomes similar to Magic Sphere but is actually more superior than one. You can even say that a Magic Sphere is based on the 81st class of a magic spell. Now, look at the same spell again, and tell me what’s different.”

Multiple balls of light appeared on top of his fingertips, each having a different color, or having more than 1 color, upon further inspection, all of them were flabbergasted. Each spell was still the same spell, but they had minute differences that resulted in different conformations!

“Once you reach 81st class of a spell, your imagination is the limit. You can literally derive tons and tons of spells that your spell’s element/s are above. But how do you even reach this class? Talent? Complexity? No. It is by the accumulation of knowledge.”

“You need a high amount of spell references as well as high comprehension concerning the elements your spells have to continuously perfect the spells you make beyond Mundane class. Which goes back to what I said to you, Faykes. READ, LEARN, DIGEST.”

Upon hearing these words, Faykes’ eyes suddenly glowed, and he remembered the advice Xander gave concerning the Overtures he had. It really was true. Knowledge is an important thing.

“Which is why, Faykes, while you are at the Master class, use the most of your time to reach the pinnacle for your pseudo-spells, as well as your Master spells. I’m telling you this because once you reach Legendary class and form your Magic Sphere, the opportunity is completely lost. Got it? Information about spells, researches about the elements, why do you think people highly value these? Because it’s the foundation of a strong magician, undefeated in the same bracket, or even capable of cross-stage or cross-class fighting.”

“The person whose contact number I gave out is an example of that; you need knowledge if you want to be strong, or at least enough time to learn everything on your own through experimentation.”

Upon hearing this, Faykes didn’t hesitate and transferred 1000 SCPs to Xander, and the latter smiled and sent him the number as well. For the girls, on the other hand, they were given a different perspective. The idea of reaching the pinnacle of spells, reaching the 81st class, or coming as close to it… It allows you to derive other spells. This is why during the Elite Class, not only was spell-scribing the focus, but also the increased and deepened understanding of the elements and the selected pseudo-spells themselves!

Xander and the rest continued to eat, but besides from Xander, others were quite giddy and wanted to try out what they understood from Xander’s short lecture. After eating, they headed downstairs where they began to talk to others, and Xander, as usual, headed to his mat and slept after greeting his classmates and short conversations with them.

The class proceeded normally, with Xander undergoing Magic meditation to further improve his body’s attributes. After class ended, he waved goodbye and left the campus, arriving home in 20 minutes, with the traffic quite bad.

He was about to enter the Laboratory when he received a message, from James. It was encrypted, and Xander decrypted it easily, revealing a single sentence: Help me save my sister. At this, Xander sighed, as he knew that James must be suffering right now. No matter, this can wait until I visited the laboratory and Eden.

Checking around, no fruit development had begun, and the trees of destruction have gained an additional leaf once again, withered like the rest. He harvested the grown fruits and the newly-compressed elemental crystals. He didn’t touch the metal and crystal deposits, because they weren’t that good quality yet.

He exited that place and headed to Eden, where he then did his things, lasting 30 minutes in the outside world. Most of the older citizens have already reached Demigod-1, and his contracted sprites and magic beast have already reached Demigod-2. When he asked the two who wanted to leave, Sam and Pan, if they were ready, they changed their minds once again. They were quite focused on the building of Snowflake city and creating a stable foundation.

Pan’s additional reasoning is that the sprites and magic beasts have learned to create food dishes for the past 500 thousand years, diversifying the culinary food available.

Xander couldn’t help but nod in agreement with their statements. He was initially surprised to the sprites and magic beasts creating different kinds of cuisine, but it kind of made sense, since there were many non-sentient beings in the sea and in the land, as he had released more and more species of plants, animals, and sea creatures into the Garden.