With the collapse of the commander, Maxi had lead the other Dreamers to reclaim a forward castle in the north. Holding castles kept safety at a high, as well as giving rewards to the people claiming them as well as those defending them. Even better, any territory that you protected counted for the rewards, so as long as you held the borders you would be earning a plethora of loot. The Final Castle truly served as a land of opportunity, but also was incredibly unforgiving. You could be assaulted from multiple sides, and holding on became quite difficult. Still, it was the key to accelerated progress. The zone around the Final Castle was called the Kingdom Zone, and it was indeed the best way to form your kingdom on Otherside.

Sariel decided to spend the rest of the day fighting minor skirmishes within the vicinity of another demon controlled castle to the east. Alone, it wasn't at all possible to reclaim any fortresses nor was it possible to eliminate any commanders, but it was worth the Spirit to keep culling the drones in the armies and backing off whenever the commander was alerted.

With the sun going down, Sariel decided to go ahead and claim the loot that he had earned from the previous fight. He was debating on whether to trade anything with the Dungeon Merchants, but decided to simply go ahead and use it. Once again, he crushed the yellow gems into yellow wisps, and the Omni Orbs sucked themselves into the Omni.

The Omni took one extra Omni Orb every transcendence, thereby making the burden of levelling the Omni much higher. Everything came down to resources, after all. Nevertheless, it was obviously worth it for an immediate 350% increase in damage. Which Aspects did he roll, though?

Interesting choices. Sariel had two options now; he could target even more survivability Aspects, or he could move towards taking offensive Aspects. Well, as of right now it wasn't even possible to add another Aspect; however, it was an option for another day. Sariel leaned towards wanting more aggressive options right now. What was certain was that this Take On Me Aspect was certainly never going to be used by him; taunting all the enemies made dodging nigh impossible, and Sariel's knowledge of attack patterns couldn't be utilized against so many enemies at once. Probably something worth trading for, or in the worst case, extraction.

Extraction was a simple process wherein three Aspects are dissolved into a new Aspect. Not a very popular choice, due to better deals being offered by the Dreamer Merchants, but it has saved lives in urgent scenarios. More interestingly was the transcendence for individual Aspects. However, that would be a matter for another time. Now was the time for inspecting the Omni.

Well. That was new.

---

After checking the new interesting addition to the Omni, Sariel was dragged back to the waking world by the passage of time. What on earth was that? He recognized the six Focal Points of which there were Aspects; namely Patience, Domination, Resilience, Forgiveness, Vengeance, and Mischief. But what did the words mean, and more importantly why did they show up on the Omni?

The crowd around the meeting place where he woke up was abuzz with conversation. 'Anyone else saw the Omni menu?' 'Yeah, what do you think that could be about?' 'What did it mean by Awakened?' Sariel sat down near the fireplace, taking a moment to listen to the Dreamers. 'I bet it's got something to do with those inner zones within! It's impossible to get there due to the high concentration of demons!' Yeah, no. Sariel had investigated it himself, and it seemed like the demons just liked to group up. 'Maybe it has something to do with the Final Castle? I heard that the northern region was lost?' It couldn't be that, either. Whilst he was spectating from above, Sariel hadn't heard any mention of anything like this even while the Final Castle wasn't yet constructed. It seemed like a completely new development.

Sariel stood up and made his way back to the shop. It wasn't unlikely that the Abyss had done something, and the System had reflected it. It would be a more efficient use of his time getting to opening his shop. A practiced and perfected process produced thousands of petals, ready to be mixed in a variety of different permutations and combinations. It had been just an hour, but Sariel was ready to open up his shop. Well, that wasn't exactly accurate; there were other aspects to running a shop than simply the product being sold.

An inquiry had been made into purchasing tables and chairs, and a woodworker had already delivered him his first request, that being a bar and a few barstools. Glass was nigh impossible to get his hands on, so he had asked the woodworker to deliver him a few shot glasses as well. He sorted out the other inner workings of the shop such as placing a fire for warmth, a separate fire for brewing, and so on. The final step was to fetch a bunch of water; naturally, it was mandatory to make drinks, and that he did.

The next step was to use a variant he called the Noisemaker. He didn't find this one on his own; he took the concept from a rivalling store that had popped up in the city. The Noisemaker variant created a very soothing aroma when burned, and it kept stealing Sariel's customers before he went in and sorted the situation out. All he had to do to announce his store was open was to rip the door off and allow the beautiful scent of Song to flow out of the facility, and he did exactly that.

---

'And I managed to take the building off my hands, finally!' Grantz, the middle aged man, sighed. 'Nobody wants to buy anything these days. The situation with Felic is a bit different. Now everyone's too scared.'

'Well, it is what it is,' Johann shook his head and looked at the sky. 'There isn't much of anything left to buy, now. Ever since old man Rupert went and offed himself, we haven't had any good music. No new musicians coming in either. The place is getting duller.'

'Those damned bastards on the other quadrants must be getting the good ones!’ Grantz walked back and forth whilst Johann simply sat and observed the clouds floating. ‘Well, I’m going to take a round across the island. Do you want to come along, or just stay over here?’

Johann paused. 'But have you picked up that scent? It's overpowering the air. What on earth is going on over there? Hey, wasn't that the direction of your old shop?'

'Damn, have they already burned down the place?' Grantz began running towards the store, and Johann sighed as he stood up to follow.

---

As Grantz approached the store, it became more and more clear that the scent was not in fact of charred remains, but instead of something unique. Johann trailed behind him lazily, before snapping into focus when the building entered his sightline. The door was neatly torn off, and was repurposed as an odd looking mat into the humble wooden square-looking building. 'Incredible architecture and design, Grantz. Every time I see it, I wonder how anyone could design something so terrible looking.'

Grantz sent a glare back. 'Shut up, Johann. You... Let's just go in.'

The duo entered the building to see a young, black haired boy with attention-grabbing golden eyes. He wore a black suit with a golden necklace matching his eye colour tucked into his shirt, and he wore a bored expression whilst staring at the ceiling in his chair. He looked up to match the gaze of the two inquisitive prospective customers. 'Welcome to Ascent, where we'll fly you higher than a kite with a single shot. What would you like today?'

'You're not talking about alcohol, are you, boy?' Grantz stroked his beard. 'Are you selling some variation of juice?'

Sariel put up a smile. 'It's not alcohol; rather, it is faux-alcohol produced with Song.' He bent under the counter and took a leaf out of a wooden jar, and both Grantz' and Johann's eyes widened immediately.

'Alcohol? There hasn't been alcohol on this quadrant ever! Damn, how much are you charging for a shot?' Johann whistled, his eyes fixed on the leaf that Sariel playfully kept back under the counter. 'Well, since we're a new business here, and since you two are good acquaintances, I'll be charging exactly how much you think my brew is worth.'

Grantz let out a laugh. 'Very well, then! As your seniors, we'll be trying out this Song mixture you got! What flavours do you have on offer?'

Sariel let on a genuine smile this time. 'I sell any flavour you'd like. What do you prefer? Spicy, sour, sweet, smoky, or mellow? Fruity, or floral?' He got out a metal test tube and filled it with water, swirling it around in his hands.

'Well, damn it all, give me a spicy one! And one for Johann here, too!' Johann seemed to want to protest, but simply sighed and nodded.

The newcomer took out a leaf and put it in the flask, and placed it in a hot water bath above the flames. After a quick thirty seconds, he pulled it out, placed his thumb on the test tube's opening, shook it around and poured it into the shot glasses. 'Here you go.'