On the morning of the 14th, five people found themselves walking out of Wildwood City and towards Tesilim's chaotic spot. Of course, these five people were Tesilim and his party members, two of whom had finally been convinced to join in. It hadn’t been an easy feat, and it had taken Alyx, who showed up at the very last hour, to finally get the redhead and twin to go with them and experience another Chaos Event. Annoyingly, Alyx hadn't said anything that Tesilim hadn’t already said, and the gnome made the argument that the two would have to get used to the Chaos Events if they wanted to keep traveling with Alyx and Tesilim. He even told them it was a valuable training experience, as it would enable them to respond to unexpected situations they would encounter in combat.

  They knew it wouldn't take long to reach the chaotic spot, and considering they still had the whole day ahead of them, they took their time, choosing to talk and enjoy their time together as a team, rather than rush ahead. Expectedly, their conversation didn't stray far from the topic at hand.

  “Tesilim, what are you planning to do this time?” Alyx asked.

  “I was thinking about creating an illusion of a giant pile of gold,” Tesilim answered, the smile plastered across his face telling everyone exactly what the elf was thinking.

  “Wish you had done that the first time around, would have paid me back right then and there,” Lili told him teasingly.

  “That’s a good one. I don’t think a giant pile of gold can hurt us,” Rose stated.

  “Not unless it’s a giant mimic,” Arelion added, instantly getting everyone's attention.

  “A mimic? Have you encountered a pile of gold as a mimic before?” Lili asked, speaking for everyone, as they were all genuinely interested.

  “No, I haven’t, but you said this was supposed to be training. I know the likelihood is low, but a mimic or a golem made of gold are the only two things I can think of,” Arelion stated, like it just made sense.

  “He has a point, guys. I don’t know how else a pile of gold could hurt,” Rose added.

  “Well, the gold could belong to a dragon, and it might come hunting us if we took it,” Their gnome said, adding another option to the mix.

  “Yeah, that’s nice and all, but I have to remind you guys that my magic won’t turn the gold real, I mean, it might, but as we proved, the whole dragon incident was not replicable.”

  As they continued chatting, they soon arrived at Tesilim's chaotic spot. Once there, the party made preparations so they could let Tesilim do his thing. These preparations mainly involved having their shields up and being generally ready for whatever could happen. More importantly, the party shooed Tesilim away as if being farther away from them would really change anything. Either way, he didn't care and walked a short distance away as he got ready to begin the show, ensuring to glance over his shoulder once more to get the go-ahead from his four party members.

  With the go-ahead from his party, Tesilim began to chant his spell as he imagined a giant pile of gold coming to in front of him.

  “By mirrored thought and woven gleam;

  I shape the false, craft the dream;

  Let sight be fooled and senses sway;

  The world shall see what I portray.”

  Sadly, as he chanted, the meager amount of mana that he was feeding into his spell was unable to bring his image to reality. Instead of a giant pile of gold, what began to appear was a yellow-ish blur that did not rise more than one inch above the surface, creating the illusive equivalent of a giant pile of pee. At the very least, this enormous pile of pee didn’t last for long as Tesilim began to pour in all of his Chaos Mana. As expected, only a second later, the entire image began to rapidly manifest.

  The change began at the image’s base, as the blurry yellow color sharpened and quickly gained vibrancy. From there, the image expanded upwards and away from Tesilim until it had reached the size of a rather large cabin. Once it stopped growing, a ripple went through it, starting at the bottom and moving upward as the yellow pile of nothing turned golden, shimmering as if it were truly reflecting the light. Finally, the pile of gold underwent another transformation as yet another ripple spread across its surface, adding detail to the pile, with individual pieces created to such a fine degree that they even cast slight shadows upon each other.

  Tesilim stood there admiring the pile of gold until he remembered it wasn’t real, though from his quick glance at his friends, they were also impressed. Now, did Tesilim know the pile of gold wasn’t real? Yes, yes, he did. Did he have to touch the gold to make sure anyway? Yes, yes, he did.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Considering a notification had yet to pop, Tesilim walked the few steps to the pile and tentatively passed his hand through it. Sure enough, his hand passed right through, and almost like it had been waiting for him to touch the gold, the notification appeared.

  ?? Crystal Notice ??

  Warning! Chaos Event Imminent, prepare yourself.

  Rolling d20. 6. Rolling d20. 1.

  ??

  “Guys, it's coming!” Tesilim got out just before purple and yellow smoke blocked his view, then everything blurred as if he were looking out the window of a car, and finally everything went black.

  The party had watched as Tesilim approached the enormous pile of gold, which had them almost convinced that the elf had pulled it off and was now rich. However, once they saw him pass his hand through the pile, their hopes dwindled. Yet, their guard had not dropped, and right after their friend warned them, a cloud of yellow and purple smoke enveloped him, and they all heard an audible pop.

  After hearing the pop and seeing the smoke, the four adventurers stood there for a few seconds as their minds attempted to comprehend what had just occurred. Finally, as the pile of gold began to lose splendor, Lili recovered and called out, her tone still stable, as worry had yet to kick in.

  “Tesilim, dear, you okay!?”

  There was no response. Instead, the smoke where Tesilim had been shifted, as the breeze blew, and the party quickly realized Tesilim was no longer there. Instead, as they continued staring and the smoke completely cleared, they noticed that right where Tesilim had been standing, the ground was covered in paint. Purple and yellow paint, or was it dust? Maybe some sort of residue, it didn’t matter, Tesilim wasn’t there, and Lili was the first to take a step forward, a step that turned into a jog, then a full run as she bolted. It took a second for the rest of the party to realize Lili had sprinted off, and they soon followed.

  Upon arriving at the spot, Lili quickly examined the ground and found that the purple and yellow substance was dust of some kind.

  “What is it?” Alyx asked, not really expecting anyone to answer, as he also inspected the residue between his fingers.

  “Did Tesilim just turn into purple and yellow dust?” Rose stated, disbelief dripping from her words as she stared at the ground.

  “Well, shit, I think he did,” Lili added with a deep sigh.

  “What do we do now?”

  “That’s a good question, Rose, and honestly, I am not sure,” Alyx told the redhead.

  “Tesilim, you there? Sweetie, did you turn to dust? I really need to know, so I can start picking you up and putting you in a jar,” Lili said playfully, hoping to hear anything back. Sure, she had panicked before, but now, her mind had time to calm, and she knew that there was no way her elf would be dirt forever.

  Sadly, there was no response to Lili’s words, aside from Arelion’s, who had been processing shock and disbelief along with the rest of the party, just quietly. However, he had just had an epiphany.

  “Wait, so if he is dirt, does that mean all his stuff turned to dirt? Or does he still have his stuff? If so, can we use the rings?”

  “Holy crap! That’s a great idea, why didn’t I think of that!?” Alyx yelled.

  “Hello! Sweetie, you there!? It's okay if you’re dirt, I will put you into a jar and snuggle with you!” The other three heard Lili practically yell in their minds.

  “Uggghhhh, who is yelling so loud? Why is it so dark?” Everyone heard Tesilim say, via telepathy, his voice also groggy, as if he had just woken up.

  “Tesilim! Did you seriously turn into the dirt!?” Alyx called out in their minds.

  “What? Dirt? Where am I? Actually, Alyx, where are you? Where is Lili?”

  “We are here, sweetie, possibly standing on top of you,” Lili told him.

  “I can’t believe this is happening, he turned into dirt,” They heard Rose say out loud.

  “What do you mean, standing on top of me?” What happened? All I remember was seeing smoke, then everything blurred and went black.”

  “Right, we saw that, but we also heard a pop, and when the smoke cleared, you were gone; all that was left was yellow and purple dust on the ground. So, again, can you see anything? Our feet, maybe?” Alyx explained.

  “Huh, okay, well, I mean, I am getting something, it's hard to tell since everything feels kind of dull. Actually, hold on, let me see if I can…”

  The party waited with bated breath after Tesilim zoned out. Meanwhile, on Tesilim’s side of things, he was trying to expand his senses. From what he could tell, he had a sense of touch; it was muted, but there, more importantly, he had some sort of spatial awareness. This awareness had been expanding as he spoke with his friends, and now, as he focused on it, he forcibly expanded it.

  “Tesilim, everything good? Has the system said anything?” Alyx asked after a few minutes of silence had passed.

  “Uh… No, the system is quiet. Honestly, I should probably complain to the World Crystal, because the damn thing tells me things whenever it feels like it. Anyways, I don’t think I'm dirt,” Tesilim told the party, clearly untroubled by his predicament as his original panic disappeared.

  “Wait, what!?” Rose blurted in their minds.

  “If you aren’t dirt, then what are you, a rock?” Arelion asked in a joking tone, surprising everyone, but at that point, it was a drop in the bucket.

  “Yeah, if you aren’t dirt, then what are you?” Alyx asked skeptically, but it was clear the gnome's curiosity was piqued.

  “Tesilim, dear, we need you to answer, I need you to answer, because I need to know whether to start putting you in a jar or not,” Lili added, trying to sound sweet but also speaking with complete seriousness as she and the rest kept their eyes on the dirt.

  The party waited for Tesilim to respond, but the elf said nothing; he was focusing on his spatial sense. Then, right as the party was about to speak, Tesilim finally saw color as his semi-sphere of awareness saw light as it expanded more than a few inches from his location.

  “Aha! This is dirt, and yeah, it's purple and yellow. Hold on…”

  “Is that a foot? Is that why I feel so heavy? WHO’S FOOT IS THAT!? It's a golden metal boot! ROSE! MOVE YOUR FOOT!!”