The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

’Traveler’s Rest?!’ Anser held the badge, utterly astonished.

He had heard of this place before, but only in passing, and did not understand its details.

Traveler’s Rest was located within the vast and boundless Astral Plane. It was a transitive plane situated between the Material Plane and the Outer Planes—said to be an endless silver sea, the final resting place of fallen deities.

Dungeons & Dragons is a multiverse, also known as the Great Wheel cosmology, comprising the Material Plane, the Inner Planes, the Outer Planes, the Transitive Planes, and the Positive and Negative Planes.

Toril, where Faerûn is located, lies within the Material Plane. In addition to the world inhabited by humans, it has two echoes: the Feywild and the Shadowfell. Together, the three form the Material Plane.

The Inner Planes include the four elemental planes of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water, along with the para-elemental planes between them.

There are seventeen Outer Planes, each corresponding to the nine alignments and their philosophical divisions: the Abyss, the Twin Paradises, the Chaos Sea, Mechanus, Mount Celestia, the Nine Hells, Pandemonium, Bytopia…

The Transitive Planes, also called transition planes, include the Ethereal Plane and the Astral Plane, as well as pathways to other planes of existence.

The Ethereal Plane lies between the Material Plane and the Inner Planes, while the Astral Plane lies between the Material Plane and the Outer Planes.

The Positive and Negative Planes envelop the rest of the multiverse; the primal forces of life and death they provide form the foundation of all existence.

To travel between planes, the most common method is through planar portals, followed by high-level spells such as Gate or Plane Shift.

Of course, some planes themselves connect to multiple Outer Planes, such as the Infinite Staircase, the River Oceanus, the River Styx, and the World Tree Yggdrasil.

The Traveler’s Badge carried the 7th-level conjuration spell Plane Shift. This spell could transport the caster to different planes. If one knew the sigil sequence of a teleportation circle in another plane, the difficulty of casting would be greatly reduced, and the destination would be more precise.

’What about the command word?’ Anser focused his mind on the badge and waited patiently.

Ordinary Identify could not determine the badge’s function or command word; it could only reveal that it was a magic item. Since the die could reveal the badge’s detailed uses, it should also be able to uncover the command word.

After a few minutes, the badge’s information flashed, and an entire page of text appeared—all in Netherese script.

’What a trap… what if someone’s illiterate?’ he muttered inwardly. After a quick read-through, he carefully stored the badge in his Avaricious Dragonhide Pouch.

From the description, Traveler’s Rest still seemed to be operating normally, allowing trade—but it could only be accessed once every seven days, with a maximum stay of twenty-four hours each time.

So he had to prepare thoroughly. What if he didn’t have enough money to pay, or saw something he wanted but couldn’t afford?

Aside from the ”Traveler’s Badge” and the ”Alchemist’s Potion Belt,” the two most valuable items on the Shadow Thief were the ”Shadow Armor” and ”Frostmark,” both of Rare quality.

”Shadow Armor” was a set of dark-toned studded leather armor. It granted +2 to Armor Class, and while worn, gave advantage on saving throws against the frightened condition.

”Frostmark” was a silver-white shortsword, about one and a half feet long, covered in frost-like patterns. It felt icy to the touch, with a faint chill emanating from it.

When attacking with this magic weapon and hitting a target, the target would take an additional 1d6 (1–6) cold damage. Additionally, after attunement, the wielder would gain resistance to fire.

In freezing environments, the weapon could emit bright light in a 10-foot radius, and dim light for another 10 feet beyond that.

When drawing this weapon, you could release frost to extinguish all nonmagical flames within 30 feet (9 meters), once per hour.

’These items… are highly specialized,’ Anser thought, somewhat alarmed.

He had encountered two Shadow Thief assassins before, and their equipment had been extremely effective against their targets—especially spellcasters.

These two items meant that a Shadow Thief master would not fear the Fear spell, nor his signature spells Fireball and Scorching Ray. The chance of a successful assassination would increase dramatically. There was no way this wasn’t deliberately prepared.

Aside from these items and potions, the Shadow Thief carried no coin pouch, nor any unnecessary belongings.

’The Shadow Thieves have deep resources.’

He suspected that before an assassination, they would apply for or borrow specific magic items based on intelligence about the target, increasing the success rate, and return them afterward.

Both items were very valuable, but almost useless to Anser—he was already immune to fear and had resistance to fire.

Still, they could be sold or traded.

He suddenly imagined going to Traveler’s Rest without enough money, getting detained by the owner, forced to wash dishes, pour tea for bizarre customers, or even keep them company…

Just thinking about it made him hesitate.

Neutrality and peace were just labels and titles—believing in them too naively would be foolish.

He stored everything in the Avaricious Dragonhide Pouch, removed his belt, replaced it with the ”Alchemist’s Potion Belt,” then informed Bratt to dispose of the body before teleporting back to the Union.

In the room, Kaleno relaxed slightly upon seeing Anser appear. ”Makaria of the Flamerule Mercenary Company is here. That Karisha is also waiting for you.”

”The bounty’s been distributed?” Anser asked.

”Yes, all settled. Councilor Quentin handled the casualty compensations, and Councilor Graham, along with the magistrates, arranged for the civilians…” Kaleno explained briefly.

”Mm.” Anser nodded and pushed the door open, heading downstairs.

In the reception hall, Makaria and Karisha sat facing each other in silence, like strangers.

When they saw Anser enter, both hurriedly stood up, smiles spreading across their faces.

In yesterday’s battle, Anser had displayed terrifying spellcasting ability. Whether it was instantly freezing over a dozen werewolves in an explosive burst, or effortlessly bombarding the werewolf leader to death with a storm of projectiles, none of it was something an ordinary spellcaster could achieve.

Some people’s combat power could not be measured by class level. Compared to him, even Iris’s genius halo seemed dim.

”Showing up so early to block my door—afraid I’d run away?” Anser teased.

”Haha, who would dare block your door now?” Makaria laughed heartily.

Karisha clasped her hands behind her back, smiling without speaking.

Anser opened the Avaricious Dragonhide Pouch. Bottles of holy water floated out like from a void, caught one by one and placed on the table—a gleaming white row, sixteen bottles in total.

According to the battle report, the Flamerule Mercenary Company had eliminated eighteen werewolves. Counting the two bottles paid as a deposit earlier, the number matched exactly.

”Count them,” Anser gestured, then sat back on the sofa.

Makaria picked up a bottle and gently shook it before her eyes, watching the platinum holy water sway within, her eyes lighting up. ”This color—I like it.”

As she spoke, she opened the box she had brought and carefully placed each bottle into cork-lined slots, securing them with straps.

Karisha, beside her, narrowed her eyes. She knew these mercenaries had been hired by Anser, but she hadn’t expected the payment to be holy water.

”If you drink holy water before the battle, your chances of resisting the werewolf curse might improve,” she shared—knowledge gained from years of experience.

”What about after being bitten?” Anser asked.

”Almost useless. The werewolf curse is a form of lycanthropy—a transformation curse. After infection, one changes from human to beast; it isn’t a typical negative energy curse,” Karisha explained.

”Pity.” Anser shook his head, then took out four more bottles of holy water and placed them on the table. ”Take these as well. I don’t have any stock left for now.”

He only made a few each day—this was all he had accumulated.

Karisha hesitated for a moment but did not refuse. This was too useful—at a critical moment, it might save a life.

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