45th of Season of Fire, 56th year of the 32nd imperial era

"What would happen if I grabbed one of those crystals and absorbed its energy?" Newt asked, gazing at the sparkly pinecones with undisguised longing.

"I would bite you for stealing." Magmin glowered at Newt viciously, and the youth backed a step.

"No need to be hostile. I was merely asking." Newt didn't disguise his dejection, but then he cheered up and changed his approach. "Is there something I can do for you to earn those crystals?"

"No! Mine!" Magmin hissed, its initial amiability gone without a trace. Then the gigantic pterosaur screeched, and the serpent coiled, shrinking into a ball the size of a human head.

"I will never defeat it," Magmin whispered, peeking out of its self-made shelter. "It is invincible. It can fly."

Newt looked at the snake, then shifted his gaze up towards the distant hungry shrieks. He immediately understood how to win Magmin over.

"How about I help you beat your heart demon? I bet we can't leave this place until you defeat it."

Magmin stared at Newt with despondent, empty eyes, before the light of reason returned to them, along with the distrustful glare.

"How did you get here? Did you stumble across the rock I am hiding under while evolving my realm? Are you doing something strange to my body?"

"No! What? Oh," Newt cleared his throat, buying himself a moment to think. "I'm here in the flesh, I can't do anything weird to you, I think. And, yes, there was this really big boulder near me. Huge! Very impressive. Very, very big."

Newt gestured with his arms, proving how colossal the rock was.

"Damn it! I should have chosen a less conspicuous location to advance, but I needed a solid shield against the sharpbeaks. They are out to get me."

Sharpbeak? That huge thing is a sharpbeak, one of the smallest pterosaurs? Newt bit his lip to stop himself from shouting at Magmin. Sharpbeaks were smaller than Magmin, almost certainly weaker, and had nothing in common with the behemoth circling above the forest in search of its one and only prey.

"I can help you fight the sharpbeak. I used to throw rocks at them when I was younger."

Magmin stared at Newt. "Are you telling the truth?"

The youth nodded. Sharpbeaks were a nuisance; harmless, flying vermin attacking his family's orchard, and he was allowed to throw rocks at them with a sling. The mature saurians were a foot long, with a wingspan of less than three feet. Even without a bodyguard, a ten-year-old with a stick could stand against non-evolved specimens. As for the evolved ones, they had better things to do. Such as surviving and, apparently, eating magmin snake hatchlings.

"You look too weak and lanky to me, you know nothing about evolution, and you are salivating over droplets of my realm. How could you possibly defeat a sharpbeak? It can fly!"

Newt shrugged. "A thrown rock can puncture its wing easily. They are very clumsy on the ground, and I bet you can finish it off without my help once it's land-bound."

Magmin opened its mouth, then closed it, flicking its tongue. "That does sound like a plan, assuming you can throw a stone hard enough to make a hole in its wing. No, there's no way you can do it, but we can improvise."

"You said I would grow stronger as I expand my realm. I could hit it harder, if I did that," Newt bluffed, recalling what his father had said about heart demons.

Once formed, they remained the same until you advanced your realm or vanquished them. No matter how much you rationalized, or how much you learned of the enemy's weakness, heart demons would remain just as strong as you believed them to be when they damaged your psyche.

On the upside, if the heart demon's source was an invincible entity, but you knew of only a fraction of their strength, or considered a trick they had played as the full extent of their might, their real power wouldn't matter, even after you grasped the scope of their invincibility.

As for letting them advance with your realm, you're better off staying put. Only the desperate would push forward without destroying all their heart demons.

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"Yes." Magmin hesitated, but another distant screech helped him reach a decision. "You are fortunate, your abhorrent amphibian form and physical weakness have evoked pity in this mighty reptile. I shall instruct you on how to expand and sculpt your realm. I'll even grant you some energy. In return, you will help me distract the sharpbeak so that I may defeat it."

Newt stared at the serpent puffing its elongated chest. The young man struggled to process the sight. Was Magmin pathetic or funny? Was he joking or serious? The expectant look and the short extra breath the snake took to closer resemble a balloon answered that question.

Magmin was serious, which made him all the more pitiable.

"Oh, wow, thank you." Newt forced himself to sound enthusiastic, but Magmin noticed nothing amiss.

"You're welcome." The serpent somehow grinned. "You may call me, Teacher. Now, for my first lesson, we must find a good rock for you to slither under. Then you can expand your realm and—"

"But, er, teacher," Newt interrupted his wise instructor. "Don't I need energy for that?"

"Right, right. Naturally, I was going to take care of that." The serpent outstretched its tail and two pinecones fell off their branches, landing into its grasp. Magmin flicked its tail again, and the gems flew towards Newt. The youth barely snatched them before they struck his chest, yet the force of the throw still made him stagger back a step.

"You need to swallow them," Magmin said matter-of-factly.

"Swallow?" Newt looked at the crystals roughly the shape and size of a hefty duck egg. They were pleasantly warm, and seemed to turn to mist on contact with his skin, resulting in a faint smoke lingering in Newt's palms. None of these were traits of real manarium.

"Yes, swallow. You open your mouth wide, like thish." Magmin ignored the magical sight of solid crystal turning to vapor in Newt's hand and demonstrated dislodging its jaw, then continued speaking incomprehensible words, which Newt translated to himself as a wordy version of 'just swallow.'

He looked back at the two crystals.

I'll choke or break my teeth on this.

Still, Newt had little choice if he wanted to grow his realm.

Magmin nodded and watched, overflowing with enthusiasm, as the youth opened his jaw so wide it made a suspicious click before he placed the gem into his mouth. The moment Newt closed his aching jaw, manarium dissolved, its mana pouring into his flesh. Half the current surged up, straight towards Newt's glabella, while the other half rushed into his heart.

Ethereal lava burned the flesh it passed, but caused no physical harm other than the searing pain. Still, the uncomfortable sensation was enough to make Newt scream.

"Right, you're probably water aligned, being a newt and all. Fire and earth energies inside my core might be a bit too much for you. Try not to die," Magmin said with some embarrassment, but no empathy.

The snake obviously felt little remorse about hurting Newt, what bothered it was the miscalculation it had made, and the wasted time the crystal would take to reform, should Newt perish.

Luckily for him, Newt was nowhere near dying. The pain passed after several seconds, and he was already sweating buckets. The only lingering mark of his momentary surprise were his trembling hands and wide-open eyes.

That energy was tailored for me, but I absorbed it too quickly. He realized, confirming his original suspicion. The red world around him was the remains of the deceased magma dragon's core, its first realm.

But why is the realm's guardian talking to me instead of attacking me?

Powerful beasts and mageknights left pocket dimensions behind after passing away. These manifestations of their realms forged of will and mana turned solid often contained treasure troves of knowledge, high concentrations of mana, and sometimes they even safeguarded artifacts potent enough to exist on the ethereal plain.

But other than bounty, secret realms harbored the deceased owner's unresolved heart demons, and in case of beasts, they also housed the so-called realm guardians, an imprint of the realm's owner shortly before they advanced their realm or perished. Mageknights also left their imprints, but they could be interacted with and they often remained intelligent and rational enough to negotiate terms with visitors.

This Magmin must be the magma dragon's initial form, the first step of its evolution all the way until it became a dragon.

"Are you alive, newt?" Magmin poked at the youth with its tail, and Newt nodded. "Never doubted myself for a breath! With my energy, you will become a tri-elemental powerhouse and face the sharpbeak."

Newt didn't believe him, but acted along. "Should I consume the other crystal, teacher?"

"Yes, yes, you eat them all, and I will provide as many as you need. You will feel the realm within you swell. Once it becomes uncomfortable, when you grow itchy, like shedding, that means the time has come for you to slumber beneath a rock and structure your realm."

Newt looked around, but other than the trees, there were no other features.

"Where can we find a rock?" he asked.

"There are plenty of hiding places all around us." Magmin eyed Newt one more time. "We might have trouble finding one big enough for you. Could you lose some weight? You know, become slimmer to slither under rocks more easily?"

Newt was gaunt, starved nearly to the point of becoming a human skeleton, and Magmin wanted him to lose more weight.

"I don't think I can get any thinner without dying."

Magmin tsked with its forked tongue, sizing up Newt once more.

"There are some larger caves near the top of the volcano." Magmin motioned uphill with its head. "You can squeeze into one of them and slumber safely. I will try to defeat the sharpbeak on my own while you are shaping your realm, but I must warn you, should I beat the demon on my own, I expect a payment for the trouble and losses you have caused me."

"Yes, thank you. I won't let you down," Newt said, overflowing with enthusiasm. "How many gems do you think I will need?"

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