Utopian System

After finishing their feast of impossible foods, Elio decided to thoroughly explore the statue's options. The sheer number of categories was overwhelming… weapons, armor, materials, and countless other items he'd never seen before.

"Let's check these systematically," he muttered, focusing first on the weapons and potions sections. Emberg floated nearby, its tongue coming out often with curiosity as it peered at the menu. Poison Stinger clicked its pincers impatiently, pointing at various glowing items. Your next journey awaits at empire

When Elio reached the invocation-specific section, something caught his eye. Special potions designed for invocation enhancement, armors specifically for spiritual forms... The prices were astronomical, one million points each.

The sight triggered a memory: that day he'd first merged with Emberg, experiencing the world through his invocation's form.

An idea began to form.

"Hey, Emberg..." Elio turned to his salamander companion, who was currently trying to juggle small fireballs to amuse Poison Stinger. "Could you... check something for me?"

Emberg tilted its head questioningly, accidentally dropping a fireball that Poison Stinger had to quickly dodge.

"Could you try approaching that door? Maybe... see if you can pass through it?"

Emberg's flames dimmed dramatically, the salamander backing away with an emphatic shake of its head. Even Poison Stinger seemed to cringe, hiding behind Emberg.

"Come on," Elio encouraged, "you're a spiritual form made of mana. If anything happens, you'll just return to the book, right?"

Emberg pointed accusingly at the door, then made an exaggerated dying motion, flopping onto its back with its tongue sticking out. Poison Stinger clicked its approval of this dramatic performance.

"Really?" Elio couldn't help but laugh. "That's a bit much, don't you think?"

Emberg rolled back up, crossed its arms (somehow), and turned its back on Elio. The salamander's flames sparked in what could only be described as a huff.

"What if..." Elio reached into his pocket and pulled out a treat from their earlier feast, a crystallized flame drop that Emberg had particularly enjoyed. The salamander's head turned slightly, interest clearly piqued despite its attempt to maintain its indignant pose.

Poison Stinger, seeing an opportunity for mischief, snuck up behind Emberg and pushed it forward with its pincers. The salamander jumped, shooting a small flame burst that the scorpion dodged while making clicking sounds that somehow conveyed laughter.

"See? Even Poison Stinger thinks you should try."

Emberg gave them both a look that clearly said "traitors" but finally, reluctantly, approached the door. Its advance was comically slow, each step accompanied by excessive checking in all directions for danger.

When nothing immediately catastrophic happened, Poison Stinger decided to join in, scuttling up to the door alongside Emberg. The two invocations exchanged glances, then simultaneously reached out to touch the door.

They couldn't pass through…

But the door moved.

Both invocations jumped back in surprise, bumping into each other and creating a small chaos of flames and clicking pincers. But once they recovered, curiosity overcame fear. Working together, they pushed against the door again.

It opened further, revealing a swirling portal that pulsed with otherworldly energy. The sight sent both invocations scrambling back to hide behind Elio, Emberg's flames nearly extinguished in fear while Poison Stinger's tail curled into a tight spiral.

"Wait..." Elio's eyes widened as he watched the portal. "That's it... That's the answer!"

He turned to Emberg, who was already shaking its head vigorously before Elio could even speak. "I can enter your form like before. So I can see what's inside!"

Emberg's response was to dramatically fall over again, this time with added flame effects for emphasis. Poison Stinger helpfully fanned the flames with its pincers to enhance the performance.

"Come on, you two," Elio couldn't help grinning despite the not so safe plan. "This could work. God said I would die if I enter but you guys are different, a mana construct..."

After several minutes of convincing, which involved multiple promises of future treats and one particularly elaborate pantomime where Emberg acted out all the ways they could possibly die, the salamander finally agreed.

Elio concentrated, preparing to merge his consciousness with Emberg's form. Before he did, he turned to look at his body, where Emberg would be in control.

"Don't even think about following us in my body," he warned. "That would definitely kill us."

Emberg, now in Elio's body, made an exaggerated innocent expression that wasn't convincing at all. Poison Stinger clicked its pincers in what sounded suspiciously like a snicker.

In Emberg's form, Elio approached the portal. The swirling energies seemed less threatening from this perspective, more like patterns of pure mana than an ominous void.

He was about to step through when he heard clicking behind him. Poison Stinger had moved to his side, its crystalline form reflecting the portal's light in mesmerizing patterns.

"You're coming too, huh?"

The scorpion's response was to give him a gentle push toward the portal, as if to say "enough stalling."

Taking one last look at his body (where Emberg was making a show of how not to walk), Elio stepped into the portal, Poison Stinger right beside him.

The world that materialized before Elio's Emberg spiritual form was unlike anything he had ever seen. An endless tapestry of green stretched to the horizon, but this wasn't the familiar green at the top of his world's vegetation…

Each blade of the alien grass had the same lighter color.

In the distance, tons of trees made a huge forest. Mountains on the horizon seemed to also have trees, and above it all, a sun that seemed both familiar and utterly alien cast its light across the landscape that felt like a sea of green to him.

"Beautiful…"

Elio wanted his world to be like this one.

Poison Stinger moved cautiously beside him, testing the ground with its pincers as if unsure the surface was truly solid despite its appearance.

Everything was new, every detail a revelation. The very air seemed to carry a strong scent of vegetation that somehow made Elio relax.

Then, in the middle of the plain, something appeared.

A small, green creature materialized from nowhere, about the size of a child but utterly alien in its features. Its skin was a verdant shade that seemed to shift in the light, its pointed ears twitching as it noticed them, its large luminous eyes filled with an intelligence that made Elio pause.

"What is that?" Elio found himself moving forward, fascination overriding caution. Poison Stinger tugged at his spiritual form, trying to hold him back, but the pull of this new discovery was too strong.