It's been a while, but I'm back and kicking! Hopefully from now on updates shouldn't take this long to release. In any case, it's been a while so I might be rusty. Future chapters should get better than this, so stay tuned!

That being said, enjoy this interlude!

Normal Text - Descriptions, Narration, and Character thoughts

"Quoted Text" - Character Dialogue

Bold Text - Emphasis, mostly used within dialogue.

Bold + Italicized - System UI

Italicized - Items names, both inside and outside System UI

"Italicized Quoted Text" - Internal Dialogue

Interlude I - Making sense of this system!

Aether wasn't sure how much time had passed since he got the results of his first and latest Wish, but it was probably in the tens of minutes already.

Very clearly, he could see the results of his first pull. A few 3 star weapons, no doubt going to be useful later on, but also 2 characters.

The guaranteed 4-star Noelle didn't come as a surprise, if the banner's details were anything to go by. No, the real shocker was the 5-star Jean he randomly got.

The fact that the Acting Grandmaster of the Knights of Favonius now had free reign in his head notwithstanding, he slowly realized how severe the situation in his head would get the more characters he pulled.

He had no idea how many characters were available, but it had to be no small number. One voice in his head was hard enough, but two or more? Plus Paimon? Really?

Aether made a mental note to himself to look for this world's equivalent of aspirin. He had a feeling he was going to need a lot of it.

Finally closing the menu, Aether didn't feel like exiting the Wish menu yet. He decided to take the time to study the Wish system instead, because he had a feeling he was going to be using this thing a lot. Plus, it was gacha. May as well know how high your odds of pulling useless 3 stars are.

The Noelle banner, or Beginner's wish, as it was called, was the banner he wished on, judging by the Chances Remaining: 10/20 sign. He noted the three options below the original banner. Shop probably linked back to the Shop option he recently unlocked. History was probably a list of the results of his pulls. Details, however, was the option he selected. He read through the rules and details.

So a 0.600% chance of pulling a 5 star? That's, what? 6 in 1,000? 3 in 500? Aether silently hoped he didn't use up most of his luck on that pull. He needed that luck.

He checked through everything else. Guaranteed 4-star character once in 10 attempts…most of it flew over his head. What the heck were Masterless Stardust and Masterless Starglitter?. Sighing, he returned to the original Wish menu and checked the other banners.

He still had no idea what a Character Event Wish was, but judging from the design, it was probably focused on a singular featured character. The Time Remaining counter gave him anxiety, though…especially since it was at 1 day left, but then again, he recognized none of the characters in the banner…wait, was that Noelle?

Epitome Invocation was weapons focused, it seemed. Well, given how the system had given him a ton of weapons, he probably wasn't going to use this anytime soon. There was a red exclamation mark on an option on the lower left, something called Epitomized Path. He was immediately greeted by yet another screen with more details, most of which flew over his head. He idly selected the bow, seeing as Amber wielded a bow and could most likely use a better one eventually.

Wanderlust Invocation was apparently classified as a Standard Wish, and Aether noticed that the currency for wishing was a standard blue orb instead of the myriad blue-pink orb used for the specialized wishes. He still had a few leftovers, but he was probably going to save that for the Beginner's wish. At least this one had no time limit…

In any case, he had procrastinated enough. He took a deep breath mentally and closed the Wish menu, bracing himself for having to deal with the new characters…

The metaphysical space that was apparently Aether's realm was pretty nice, Amber had decided.

While it was slightly disconcerting not being able to move freely, she could just be there and watch as Aether did the hard work of walking for her. She liked exploring and all that, but being an Outrider meant that exploring was a daily routine, so she appreciated the break.

She was still confused about this "system", though. Not to the extent that it gave her a massive headache or made her want to freak out, no.

It just kind of flew over her head.

She could see the system that Aether was navigating, yet it still made no sense to her. It made her think of some of the futuristic technologies the people in Snezhnaya came up with, though she doubted any of them came close to whatever this was.

Aether seemed to be pretty familiar with it, though. Maybe she should get him to explain it.

She was just chilling in that sub space while Aether was apparently navigating the system and some new features when…

Obtained Noelle!

Obtained Jean!

Yeah, she witnessed that too. She couldn't hear Aether, though she noted how he didn't interact with the system for a solid ten or so minutes. Perhaps he was just as confused as she was.

Not that she had time to reflect on that, though. Because as soon as Aether obtained the two characters, they immediately came in.

"Ah! Miss Amber, I didn't expect to see you here!"

Noelle came in first. Or at least her voice did. She couldn't see her, but she assumed that Noelle's perspective was the same as hers. As usual, she was speaking in her formal manner.

"Noelle, nice to see you here! No need for the Miss, though!"

"Oh, but it's only right for me to address you as such, since you are my superior after all."

Amber mentally sighed as she knew that Noelle wouldn't change no matter what Amber would say. Noelle really ought to be promoted to a knight soon, she thought.

In any case, any conversation was immediately stopped when Jean's voice came in.

"Ah. Outrider Amber, Noelle. You're here too?"

"Yes, Acting Grandmaster Jean. I just arrived here too."

"Good to know. Amber?"

"Ahh, I've been here for a while now, Acting Grandmaster…"

"I see. As you've been here for the longest, could you tell us where exactly we are?"

"Honestly, I still don't fully understand it myself, but here's what I have so far…"

Amber proceeded to explain everything, including her entrance into the area she was now officially calling"Aether's Mindspace". How Aether had control over a strange yet incredibly advanced system. How they could switch in and out of the world under Aether's command.

At this, Noelle was confused, but she resolved to understand everything. Meanwhile, Jean was silent as she was pondering over all the information.

"So basically, that's all I know."

"I see. Thank you for the explanation, Amber. Though I would like to know more about this "system" you mention."

"Actually, you can see it right now."

Sure enough, Aether was currently navigating through it. Right now it looked like he was reading through the details of the Wish system. Everyone was watching him when Noelle suddenly pointed out something.

"Is it just me, or do I recognize some of the names in there?"

"What do you mean, Noelle? I don't see-"

"No, Noelle is right, Amber. I recognize some of these names."

"Which names do you recognize, if I may ask?"

"Let's see…Sucrose is Albedo's assistant. I'm sure you know Albedo."

"Chief Alchemist and Captain of the Investigation Team, right?" That was Noelle.

"Correct. I also know that Fischl is an investigator working for the Adventurers' Guild."

"Ah, if I may, Acting Grandmaster. Bennett is famous in the Adventurers' Guild for his…unfortunate experiences. He asked me multiple times to join the Adventurers' Guild, actually. I refused, though."

"Good to know, Noelle. And, wait…is that…Barbara?"

"I believe it is…" Amber paused as she realized the implications.

"...But judging from how the system works, there should be no danger posed to anyone here."

Amber made sure Jean would not get stressed by reassuring her that Barbara was safe.

"I see. Still, seeing our names in this system feels a bit surreal. I would have seen this "system" as a threat to Mondstadt had you not said that. Noelle, could you care to read out the rest of the names? I might recognize someone."

"But of course Acting Grandmaster! Aside from the ones we mentioned, we have Chongyun, Beidou…"

Noelle began listing the names of the 4 star characters available in the Beginner's wish. They did not find anyone new who they recognized. She struggled in pronouncing Xingqiu's name, though…

"No one new. How about the 5 star section?"

Noelle immediately obliged.

"We have…oh there's you Acting Grandmaster! Then we have…Kwee-Kwee and Ke-kwing?"

She was trying to pronounce Qiqi and Keqing.

"Then Mona, and lastly, Diluc."

"Wait..Diluc is there?"

"It appears so, Acting Grandmaster. Do you recognize that name?"

"Yes. He was my senior a while back, before he left the Knights after an incident…One I do not wish to speak of."

"Ah, apologies for bringing up something unpleasant, Acting Grandmaster!"

"It's alright Noelle. That was a long time ago already…In any case the past is the past."

In any case, any conversation was caught short as Aether exited the Wish menu and everyone got a full view of Noelle on the full cover of the Beginner's wish, wielding a massive claymore and everything.

"Noelle, that's you!" Amber cried out in a voice that was probably supposed to be surprised, cheerful, and encouraging at the same time. It was none of those things to Noelle.

"Ah…"

It seemed the exposure flattered and embarrassed Noelle at the same time. They didn't have time to reflect on that though, as Aether rapidly moved through the banners and…

"Wait, it's Noelle again!"

She was just off to the side, as another figure whose name was apparently Yelan was the main star. Alongside her was another figure with peach-red hair and…

"Barbara!" That was Jean.

Barbara was also featured on the banner, apparently.

"The time remaining reminder concerns me though. There's only just over a day left…" Amber made this comment not realizing that Jean would be stressed out upon hearing this news.

"What does that mean, though?"

Amber was pretty sure Jean was beginning to pull her hair out, even if she couldn't see her.

Amber wasn't sure what would have happened if Aether finally exited the menu and came in.

"Alright, I know you guys are confused but let me explain-"

"Aether, I explained the situation to parts I could explain anyway. Your explanation would also help…"

Amber interrupted Aether to update him on what had happened.

"I see, thanks for that. In any case, hello Acting Grandmaster, nice to see you here. And, I'm sorry, but who's Noelle?"

"Hello! My name is Noelle, maid of the Knights of Favonius. If you encounter any problems, feel free to call me for help!"

Amber again sighed mentally. While she liked how Noelle was eager to help out, she was slowly starting to see why Noelle wasn't a knight yet. She hadn't known Aether for more than a minute, yet here she was offering aid!

"I see, thanks for that Noelle. I'm Aether, just a traveler looking for his sister."

"Oh, sorry to hear about that. If you need, I can help look for her! What does she look like?"

"Uhh…I appreciate the sentiment Noelle, but we can handle that later. We have to focus on protecting Mondstadt first…"

Amber was pretty sure Noelle was doing the physical equivalent of "Oh shoot" when Jean came in.

"Aether is right, but again the sentiment is appreciated. In any case, Aether, could you explain this so-called "system"? I recognized a couple of names there…"

"Ah, sure. Basically, that part of the system you saw is called the Wish system. It lets you…how do I explain this? In exchange for a special currency, you can acquire certain weapons and characters…"

"You can acquire characters?" Jean was pressing Aether for answers.

"Yeah, that's how you guys are here…though you're also in the real world…"

Jean was still confused, apparently, because she immediately followed up.

"So I'm here, but I'm also still in Mondstadt…"

"Yeah, basically there's two copies of you. Feel free to freak out. I know I did when I came across that realization with Amber. Oh, the same goes for you Noelle."

Everyone was silent as Aether and Amber let Noelle and Jean process that information. Noelle could be heard freaking out, if the ragged breathing was anything to go by, and Jean was barely holding it together but forced herself to stay calm.

"Yes, it seems unbelievable. I don't get it either. But it's what we're dealing with now…in any case you guys can ask questions later. I'm still figuring this out myself…"

And with that. Aether started navigating his menu again, to the confusion of everyone.

Well, that could have gone better. At least he figured out that his fellow party members couldn't hear his thoughts at all times. The system let him consciously determine whether he could interact with them in the menus, but by default it was on outside the menus and off in the menus. Convenient.

In any case, Aether was checking out a few things. He checked the compass icon and was immediately greeted by pictures of Lisa and Kaeya. The section was titled Fate Foretold. It looked like they were sets of rewards he could obtain, if the text was anything to go by. But damn, he was getting Lisa and Kaeya as well? Looks like things were going to get confusing. The weapons looked pretty cool though…

He switched to Test Run and was greeted by the figures gracing the character banners from earlier. He still had no idea who they were, but the test run probably meant he could test out the characters before deciding to roll for them. He decided to do so some other time, though. He had to focus on other things.

Finally, there was a section simply known as the Umbralis Orchis Chapter. Again, that Yelan character was featured. Who was she?

Seeing as the chapter was unavailable to him, he exited that menu and decided to navigate to the character menu and organize his party's setup. He enabled his party members to speak, and was immediately hit with…

"Aether, what was that?"

"Aether, why was I on that Beginners' wish banner?"

"Aether, why did I see Lisa and Kaeya on that menu?"

Those questions came from Amber, Noelle, and Jean respectively. All consecutively.

"Guys, slow down!"

Aether wanted to scream but yet again resisted the urge to do so. This was going to be very common, if his experience with Amber was anything to go by.

"Alright. Amber first. That menu probably referred to the special events I can try out and participate in."

"Special events…?"

"Yes, but I still need to figure it out…" Aether was getting sick of saying that.

"Alright, Jean, your question. It looks like I can acquire Lisa and Kaeya from doing my next event…which is going to those three temples…"

"I see, which means they should be joining us soon. Hopefully you can brief them on the situation…"

"I can, but please explain everything first so I can instruct them properly."

"I'll do that later on, sure. As for your question, Noelle? The system was promoting you as an obtainable character from using the Wish system. You were apparently classified as a 4-star unit, which is pretty good. Oh, and you were guaranteed to come, which was another reason why you were featured."

"I see…Thank you for the explanation. I'm not sure if I should feel honored or embarrassed…"

"Wait, so if Noelle was a guaranteed 4-star unit, how about Jean? She's apparently a 5-star unit…" Amber was pretty curious about this.

"Yep. Jean is a 5-star unit. 5-star units are incredibly rare and hard to get. There was apparently a 0.600 percent chance of getting a 5-star unit, and there are 5 available 5-star units, so a 0.120 percent chance for you to appear…you were honestly a surprise"

"I see…but I still have a couple of questions. That Character Event Wish, why was there a timer on it?" Jean asked yet again.

"They're limited time banners. Basically, the featured character is only available for a limited time. If I had to guess, the featured character is a 5 star, while the characters on the side are 4-stars. Again, though, I'm not sure on that one…"

"So if the banner's time runs out, what happens?"

"The banner is replaced with a new one, with new characters and everything, if I had to guess."

"I see…I saw my sister in the banners, so I thought…"

"...No, she won't be gone forever. Might take a while longer to get her though. Hopefully luck is on our side, though I may have used up all my luck when you came."

At that moment, Aether immediately realized the nature and manner in which he worded the message and immediately panicked. Meanwhile, Jean was taken aback by the message, but nothing more.

"What I mean is, uhh, that-"

"No, no, I got the message…"

Awkward silence followed as Aether tried to distract everyone by navigating to Amber's character and pulling up the Weapons tab.

"Amber, which bow do you want? Raven Bow or Recurve Bow? The first one Elemental Mastery as a stat, the second one has HP percent."

"What?"

"Uhh, Elemental Mastery boosts your Pyro abilities, while HP percent increases your HP based on your max HP…I think…"

Amber was further confused as she did not understand the terms given to her.

Aether's brain struggled to word everything in a way they could understand. It seemed they were not familiar with the concept of character stats. Fair enough.

"Ok, think of it this way. Better pyro attacks or better survivability?"

"Oh, uhh, I'll take better survivability…"

"Recurve Bow it is."

Aether equipped the Recurve Bow on Amber, then navigated to Noelle's Weapons Tab. The picture of Noelle posing with the weapon, however, flustered her.

"Ahh..is the system…really like that?"

"Seems like it…In any case, you have a couple of options for a weapon."

"My weapon? You mean I'm fighting?"

"Well, yeah."

"I see….my fighting isn;t the best but I'll try!"

"Good to hear. Anyway, do you want the Debate Club, whose attacks hit harder, or the Bloodtainted Greatsword, which will make your special ability better?"

"I'll take attacks hitting harder."

"Debate Club it is!" Aether equipped the weapon and moved on to Jean's weapon tab.

"Alright, Jean, looks like we have a couple of choices…do you want the Iron Sting, which has a better attack, or would you like the Skyrider Sword, which will charge your abilities faster?"

"Oh, give me a second to think."

The silence was once again awkward. Aether really hoped they would forget the incident from earlier.

"I'll take the Skyrider Sword, thanks."

Aether equipped that, as he navigated to his weapon menu to give himself the Iron Sting.

"Unfortunately we're out of Artifacts, which would boost us even further, so we'll make do for now. In any case, we'll try fighting later."

Finally exiting the endless menus, he sighed deeply. At the very least, he made more sense of the system, but he could tell there were more headaches to come.

"Oh, by any chance, do any of you know a place where I can get headache medicine?"

"Headache medicine? Unfortunately no…"

Jean crushed Aether's hopes and dreams with those 4 simple words.

And just like that, Aether's journey with a full party finally began.

And with that, this interlude comes to an end! Experiments with Amber's POV at the start, then threw in some other stuff in the interactions. These interludes serve mostly to clear up any confusion with regards to the story, but if there are any more confusions I can always address them in the future.

As for other notes, I wanted to add Aether trying the test run feature, but I haven't figured out how to write that part. Maybe in the future with the upcoming Arataki Itto banner…

By the way, the Fate Foretold part is a new addition. I started an alt account to make sure Aether's new player experience could be portrayed as accurately as possible, but of course, I did not have the fortune of pulling Jean. Oh well.

In any case, updates should hopefully not take that long in the future. The support has been amazing so far, by the way! Thank you to everyone who decided to read this! Hopefully more to come. This story isn't going anywhere, that's for sure.

In any case, see you in the next chapter. And as usual, have a nice day.

-Author