Spirit Garden

"Huh? What kind of magic app game needs a computer in order to do a thing?", RJ couldn't help but think as he stared at the notification screen. As if detecting his thoughts, the text on the screen suddenly changed.

[One that needs way more power and memory than what this dinky phone can supply], it read.

"..."

[...]

"Hah! It sasses back!", Tatterhood said with a chuckle.

"Okay, so the app is sentient, of course it is...", RJ grumbled as he looked for a phone cable. After a moment of searching his drawers, he came back to a new message on the screen.

[You seem surprisingly nonchalant about this].

"In the span of a day, I was almost eaten by an ogress, rescued by a fairy tale, thrown into a lake sized soup pot and fought a flaming rat monster. At this point I'm expecting the dead to walk", RJ retorted as he plugged in the phone.

[Connection to desktop established. Hardware...is sufficient. Spirit Garden feature has been unlocked. Would you like to access your Spirit Garden]?

"...did it just sass me about my computer?", RJ thought. Ignoring the comment for the time being, RJ clicked [Yes].

A familiar feeling came over him as reality warped for him for the third time today. However, the warp came so fast that he didn't even have time to complain.

_________________________________________

"Huh...that was quick", RJ commented as he suddenly popped into existence. Taking in his surroundings he saw...nothing, well...not nothing.

The area around him wasn't a black void that left him floating nowhere, rather it appeared the space around him was a mild blueish and shifting around him like an ocean of energy. Meanwhile, he was left standing on some kind of invisible platform.

A moment later, Tatterhood shimmered into existence in her usual garb, her goat by her side.

"This is your garden? It's rather barren", Tatterhood commented as she looked around.

"Well, yeah. There's no World E-", RJ began to retort.

[Welcome to your Spirit Garden], a voice suddenly chimed in and interrupting him.

"Gya, magic voice!", RJ exclaimed at the sudden audio shock.

[The Spirit Garden is a pocket dimension accessible only to you, your familiars and, currently, up to one guest], the voice told RJ. At the mention of the word ,"familiars", a pair of metallic cards appeared out of the space. The cards shattered a second after, and the Zouyu and Wolf-Headed Ogress shimmered into being next to Tatterhood. After the two came into being, the Zouyu proceeded to hop onto RJ's head while the ogress laid down on its back in a lazy manner.

"Oh, so this is where you guys went?", RJ asked.

"Meow".

"Yes".

[In order to unlock the full potential of your Spirit Garden, please select a World Egg].

The space in front of RJ began to wobble and change as a large digital catalogue of eggs formed in front of him. In the upper right corner was a search bar, while the upper left had a drop-down filter menu.

"Wait a minute, isn't this part usually randomized?", RJ asked the voice. Back inside the Hell Pot, RJ read up a myriad of systems and features that were a part of the [Grimmemoria] app, among which was the information on what a [World Egg] was.

The idea of the "World Egg" was surprisingly global myth, with origins ranging from China to Persia to Africa. The general idea of it, is that the whole universe came from an egg that just appeared out of nowhere. From there, either a creator deity popped out of it and made the universe or the universe just hatches from it.

In the context of Spirit Gardens, miniature World Eggs are used to help establish their overall structure, capabilities and comfort for familiars. However, mages had no say in what [World Egg] they would be given to start with!

From what RJ read, this randomness was supposed to foster adaptability, expand cultural horizons and encourage mages to grow regardless of whether or not their chosen [World Egg] was incompatible with their abilities. Personally, he thought the force behind it was just bored and wanted to see what happened.

[Normally this process is random, but due to the user's handling of the {Corruption} incident, it was determined that the user would be given the ability to choose how their Spirit Garden develops], the voice informed him.

"Huh... alright. You guys have any opinions?", RJ asked Tatterhood and the rest of his familiars as he began to look through the catalogue of eggs.