“Not the Flame Fiend Core that was burning there right?” Rick asked

“Peep!” she bobbed her head yes.

“But it wasn’t meant for you to eat!” he said, eyes wide and waving his hands.

He was planning to make a strong combat golem from the Fire Fiend beast core.

“Peep! Peep! Peep! Peep!” (I thought it was the one the Kings got for me. I won’t do it again!) She promised, unconsciously taking a step back, shocked at Rick’s outburst.

“I don’t want you to stop eating. Just-” he shook his head. “Just ask the next time.”

“Peep! Peep!” she nodded her head yes.

“If you understand it, it’s fine,” he said walking back to the shack.

“Peep! Peep!” (You can eat the one the Kings get for me. I ate yours, you can eat mine), she said in a whisper.

“This was the one,” Rick replied without stopping.

“Peep! Peep!” (then wasn’t it my food?), Pip chirped back tilting her head confused.

Rick ignored her and went into the room and fell asleep immediately.

 

---

After a few hours on sleep, Rick was up again. It was midnight. Pip was lying next to him on the bed, snuggled up next to his head

“So much for a regular schedule,” he chuckled as he pulled himself off the bed.

He groggily walked into the Transfer Portal Circle at one end of the room. Crouching to one knee, he touched the circle with his palm.

“Transfer”

A gush of wind blew along with a blinding light and in the next moment, he found himself standing in the bedroom of his house.

“Still works,” he murmured standing up.

As the flash of light from the teleportation portal disappeared, the house was engulfed in quiet darkness. He fumbled his way through the dark to find the candle.

After a quick change of clothes and after packing food for himself, he headed back to the Teleportation Circle and back to the Private Study.

“It’s tiring to keep travelling again and again,” he observed while catching his breath.

He sat down on the chair and quickly made a mental note of all the things he had to do.

“Important for my survival is to find out how to summon of course,” he noted. “Apart from that, let’s first check the map”

Although Hands had won the bid for the World Map that was auctioned at the Blessed Exchange, he had a copy of it recorded on the Lemegeton as well.

“It might turn out to be better than the original actually,” he thought. After all, the Lemegeton was better than God’s Evolution System.

Having made his mind, Rick instructed the grimoire to show him the World Map.

The Lemegeton flipped open to show him a coloured image of the world.

In many aspects it was not different from an ordinary map that he had seen in school, for instance, there was a four-point star at the top right corner designating the directions.

But what he saw on the map itself was completely new. There were no five continents and five oceans anymore. The world he saw before him, was truly one now, surrounded by one large ocean!

Before him, there was one giant continent surrounded by blue.

“What is this?” Rick gasped in shock. “How could this happen with no one feeling a thing!”

From his limited knowledge from school, he knew that even the tiniest shift in tectonic plates was enough to cause earthquakes and volcanoes.

“But now”, as said tracing his finger through the map, “somehow Africa, Australia and the American sub-continent were no longer divided by large swaths of oceans!”

There were no markers on the map as well. There was just one black spot on the map at the near centre of the map with ‘Rick’ written below it.

“Fine, I can verify it later,” Rick cleared his mind off the shock. Touching the map he said, “Show me the Forest Salvus”.

Immediately a second black spot appeared far away towards east from his spot, and below it, the name ‘Forest Salvus’ appeared.

“There you are,” Rick smiled, pleased. At least now he knew where his enemy was. Besides, the two were leagues apart and he could stay safe at least for the moment.

The map wasn’t like a digital navigation map. He could only locate a person so accurately on the map, for instance, the location on the map showing him covered the entire city.

“I was lucky Hands bought it,” he smiled in relief. Now that he had seen the map, its use was minimal with its low accuracy apart from becoming academically aware of the geography of the world.

“Or does it mean there are undiscovered lands beyond?” Rick wondered.

 

*Ding

 

A notification resounded.

 

[Congratulations!]

[You are the first person to discover the Changed World]

[Reward: 3 Blessed Stones]

 

"I got rewarded for finding out the world's geography has changed?" 

He touched his temple and called in the Status Screen.

 

[Balance: 19 Blessed Stones]

 

“Why hasn’t it decreased,” Rick murmured, getting suspicious of the authenticity of the map. There was no decrease in the number of blessed stones remaining. According to the description that Maya had given, each new person that is tracked on the Map would cost a quarter of a Blessed Stone, but now there was no change.

The page of the Lemegeton flipped to the next on its own accord. It read

 

The World Map incorporated into the Lemegeton is no longer bound to the rules of Exchange set up the Lower God.

 

Rick read it once, and then again.

“Hahaha!” he laughed aloud. He immediately decided to trace Samira and Dale on the Map as well.

After confirming their locations were nearby he leaned back, a smile on his face.

“Let's make the Golems now,” he said rubbing his hands foolishly.

Although the Flame Fiend Core was gone, the number of amazing things the golems could do was still amazing.

“I need golems that can fight, that can work in the garden and some that can be as well,” he babbled.

He drew out the pouch with all the golems and pulled them out one by one.

“Stinging Crow, Striped Rhino, Hummingmonkey, Slithering Sloth,…”