I pushed the gate open and stepped into a large open square surrounded by the two-story red tile roofed buildings that I had seen from afar. Moving around an ooze, I walked over to a bench and sat down. 

- Place looks nice, and big enough that I should be calling it a town, maybe.  

Several of the buildings had signs, none of which I could read. 

- The lack of education in my last life is a bit depressing. 

“Guess I'll just have to explore!”- Me 

I shook my head at my mouth's apparent enthusiasm, and got up to follow my own inner child. 

….. 

I rested on a large soft bed staring at the ceiling, thinking over what I had found. The buildings around the oval shaped “town square” where a combination of businesses and homes. There was an inn with 10 rooms on the second floor, the first was a small restaurant and the owner's suite. Next to that was the largest building, a mercantile. Only the front of this building was split in two stories while the back was a warehouse filled with bins, and shelves up to the ceiling. It also had a large open lot right behind the building, with a covered area that looked like an open-air butchery. Two narrow buildings sitting side by side seemed to be private residences, and given the craftsmanship, both had wealthy owners.  The second largest building appeared to be a public office. The first floor had a large vaulted ceiling above the entrance, with a gallery looking down from the second floor onto a reception counter and 8 slant topped desks. The rest of the main floor was store rooms with rows upon rows of shelves and cabinets for ledgers. The second floor was taken by two large comfortable looking offices. The last building was residential complex, with six separate suites. 

I was in the master bedroom of the slightly larger wealthy residence, which had an armoire, chair, and a desk to match the bed I was laying on. It was one of the few pieces of furniture anywhere I had found anywhere that I explored. 

- I think that only ‘things’ that have been in place for a long time become ‘reflected’ here. No tools, no cloths, no food, basically no stuff period. Guess it is livelier here than the endless grey plain of doors and Uglies from my first world. 

“Butt Nuts! No books. I wanted to learn to read. This is going to be boring.”- Me 

- Well, it's good enough to provide some protection while I experiment. I haven't checked the rest of the village yet either. Maybe I'll get lucky and find a really old library. 

I got up and sat at the desk as I pulled out the marbles from my pocket, putting aside the lizard mage, monkey, and extra-large marbles, and started processing the rest. The wolves and the boar turned out clear with small gold flecks. With most of the lizards I hadn't had time to zap them as they were de-rezzing, so they turned out just clear. I picked up one with gold flecks and passed electricity through it, trying different combinations of AC, DC, voltage, amperage, and frequency.   

- I wish I could remember more about electricity.  

I stopped for a moment with a stunned look 

“I can go back!”- Me 

- I don't think that I really thought about the possibilities of being able to reincarnate repeatedly. I really could spend a life time learning something if I wanted. 

I rolled the marble around my fingers for a bit as I thought, leaning back in the chair, staring out the window blankly. 

“Think about it later. I got marbles to play with.”- Me 

The electricity didn't seem to have much of an effect on the clear part, but it seemed to affect the gold flecks. I had noticed the power jumped from fleck to fleck, which lead me to discovering that high amp Dc would get the flecks to move. 

I continued to play. 

….. 

I popped a marble with a solid gold dot at its crystal-clear center into my mouth. This time I got a hint of something like honey as it dissolved, my hunger disappearing with it. That one had been the result of my first experiments with the marbles, where I had gotten all of the gold flecks to amalgamate into one solid dot in the center. The boar's marble now had a gold square, while the last wolf had a gold line from one side to the other.  

Two of the lizard marbles were now a very clear and a light blue colour that reminded me of really thick acrylic. They were also the result of passing electricity through them, although in this case it was a high voltage Ac.  

The next lizard marble was now cloudy, the results of passing a large amount of magic through it similar to how I processed the marbles in the first place. It had sparked some new ideas that I wanted to try when I was next processing a raw marble. 

The last lizard marble was an extension of the magic clouded one. I had learned that I could chain magicicles together inside of the marble, and a surge of power along that chain would create a white line to appear. This one had several 3-D wire frame shapes imprinted in its interior. It also had a lot of odd stuttering, fat, or very thin lines as well. 

- Can't go back and fix an error when you make it. 

I had also learned that the white lines conducted magicicles very well, which made me think of magic circuits. Seeing how easy it was to cross lines, make mistakes, and how hard it was to control the size I could imagine that was going to be a long experimental process.  

"But now I need to charge back up"- Me 

I had used up around 80% of the free magicicles between the fight with the lizards and all my experimentation. My internal system was looking a little bare. 

- And this whole completing a circuit through the ground with my lightening needs to be examined. 

I left my new room and went looking for phantom plants. 

..... 

I decided to stay on this side of the river and poke around the village on my way. The upriver side was mostly residences, all empty. There was also a large open paved area that looked like it might serve as open market. 

- None of the planters or gardens have anything in them. It feels like a suburb that hasn't been landscaped. 

 "Kind of eerie."- Me 

A graveled road followed the river's edge, and lead off into the huge grain fields beyond. Both the river and the road curved off to the right in the distance. 

I stood just past the last house staring out at the fields. I could see birds fliting around, smaller creatures moving the grains, and several dog-sized animals jumped up at the birds occasionally. It seemed a lot busier that my last life would suggest a grain field should be. 

"Wonder if there are squirrels out there collecting marbles?"- Me 

- There might be a lot of marbles laying around out there, but it would be a nightmare if I got attacked. 

A large dog sized skunk shuffled out of the grain field, sniffing the air. It looked in my direction briefly, then continued on its way into the village. I shuddered thinking about the repercussions of getting on the bad side of a skunk here. 

- Stink aside, there are no phantom plants here. Doubt that it's much different down-stream or away from the river. I might have to head back to the forest. 

I turned back into the village and headed to the downriver side, avoiding the skunks path. The downriver side of the village was taken up with warehouses and a large water powered grain mill.  

"Wonder if they mill the grain from other villages, or just what they grow here?"- Me 

A long dock ran along the river from the mill to a small tannery, after that was more fields. I looked across the river at a large water wheel and its accompanying buildings. 

- That looks like a lumber mill and seasoning house across the river. 

On this side of the village the road didn't follow the river, instead it turned slightly to the left, heading off into the distance. A short way down there was a small copse of trees along the river's edge. 

- All deciduous trees, maybe an orchard? There must be a side road off the main gravelled way past where I can see. Be interesting to see if there are any phantom plants. Is it a domesticated vs wild requirement to become a phantom plant? Age? Maybe even something like how an Aspen Forest is actually all just one tree. 

Loud cries from across the river by the lumber mill drew my attention. A huge sparrow chased an antlered rabbit around the edge of the mill. The jackelope bounced erratically, madly dashing towards the mill doors, while the man-sized sparrow skidded, pecking at its elusive prey. The jackelope made it into the door way, disappearing into the dark beyond. The sparrow slid to a halt outside of the door, its head rotating quickly back and forth as it examined narrow way, then it screeched and hoped from side to side. 

 "That's a really big bird!"- Me 

 The sparrows head whipped around catching sight of me across the river. 

- Oh yeah, you certainly mastered hiding and stealth in your last life, didn't you? 

I ignored my sarcastic self-derision as I ran towards the door to the grain mill. The huge sparrow screeched, spread its wings and tried to launch its self into the sky. All it managed were short half gliding hops. 

 "No magic bird brain! Hahaha!"- Me 

I yelled out, taunting, as I ducked into the mill door. The sound of the water wheel slowly turning accompanied the sparrow's cries. I ran up a steep set of stairs leading to the gang ways and grain loft that made up the second floor of the mill. A window by the river allowed me the see the sparrow hopping along the river bank, trying to jump and fly. 

- It really is bird brain. Maybe it's dumb enough to stick around long enough for me to try a few things out on it. 

I grabbed one of the heavy metal struts that supported the mills gears, and sent a leader down the shaft, through the mill stone and into the ground. Reaching down below the mill stone I found a slow-moving circular flow of free magicicles and even more that followed the stone foundations. 

- These are way closer to the surface than the roads, and these magicicles feel really heavy.  

I tried linking some of them into my leader. 

- The link like any other magicicle, but they don 't like to move much. I'll have to play with them later. 

 "We got some chicken to fry"- Me 

Linking the ground's magicicles into the leader let me stretch out many times further than I would normally be able to reach. Unfortunately, the river turned out to be a unbreachable obstacle. There was a strong turbulent flow of clumped together magicicles that ran in the river, and any time I tried to push a leader through, the current would carry it away. 

- Well, that worked till I hit the river. Water is really just really weird here. There is too much I don't know. 

I looked back out of the window, the sparrow was gone. 

"Okkkaay?"- Me 

- How long was I concentrating for? Did it actually manage to fly away? 

I watched for bit but the sparrow didn't reappear. 

"I bet you fell in, stupid bird!"- Me 

I climbed down the stairs, and sat next to the slowly moving mill stone and reached down into the ground.