I apologize. I meant to get this up on Friday and got behind on my work. 

 

Chapter 172

Dream State

 

“So what is this?” I asked Sylvie.

We’re all getting ready for our next meeting.

Asakura is here with her, and me.

I then tossed the slave crystal to Sylvie that contained Rina inside. It wasn’t until we’d gotten home late last night that we’d noticed that the crystal with Rina inside it is changed somehow. We don’t yet know how much of that is the tampering of the witch, and how much of it is the slave protection system becoming active yet however.

And that’s something we need to know right away.

The slave crystals, or soul crystals (they don’t technically have to be treated as slaves) are interesting, and cool. You could say they are even beautiful to look at but they are an extremely rare and limited resource that I am still trying to figure out how to get. This was also partly why I haven’t acquired more bodyguard girls yet.

Sylvie catches it with her hand easily. Then she begins looking at it. It’s weird but, it doesn’t look like the normal slave crystals. She’s looking at it carefully with her eyes narrowed trying to pick up any kind of imperfection or detail no matter how big or small. Naturally we can see Rina inside it though, for now she’s in the form of ‘Patches the cat’.

“Huh? Why does it look different?” she asked turning it over in her hands.

“It what? What do you mean different?” Asakura asked.

“Well it does look different,” Sylvie admitted.

“Could that be part of the slave protection system activating?” I asked.

“Oh that’s nice. So that will protect us from people trying to steal us from you?” Asakura asked.

“I hope so,” I said.

“That’s a good thing,” Sylvie confirmed.

“Eh? Let me see,” Asakura joined in.

Asakura is now taking a look at it. “So do all of them look different or just this one?”

“Actually I don’t know,” I confessed.

“That’s something we should check on too,” Sylvie agreed quickly with Asakura.

Naturally I’ve left Cid the necromancer de-summoned in one of the other crystals while we’re studying the one with Rina inside it.

It’s strange that people can be summoned and de-summoned. I wonder why it’s like that. How can it be? It seems bizarre and complex, while I guiltily wonder why I’m the one who has access to it while others don’t. Even before now I’ve questioned how such an interesting overpowered ability can exist. Theoretically I still have no idea the limit to how many people I can summon and keep summoned.

“You know this does look different but I can’t put my finger on it,” Asakura said.

“It’s maybe because you aren’t a mage?” I wondered.

Sylvie is still looking over it, with Asakura hanging over her shoulder. Sylvie is sort of sitting in a frog position with knees bent and legs sort of splayed to the sides while on her heels. I’m in front of her watching them and hoping they can give me some clues.

“There’s something like I don’t know…codes and stuff like magic glyphs and language glyphs written all over the crystal inside of it that looks mostly solid but partly transparent too with some fade out. But the others didn’t have the writing and coding on the edges. Also this coding looks different somehow,” Sylvie said.

“This really is amazing stuff! It’s like magic technology research!” Asakura noted while also studying it.

“It is cool…but I don’t like that one of my teammates is unavailable while I’m trying to wage some war to get free of a witch,” I said.

“Yeah that part is hard. I want Rina to be OK too. If Rina can be trapped like that, then we’re all vulnerable. But that part about the writing and code is it writing or code?” Asakura asked while pushing up against me from behind and looking at it.

“Any ideas?” I asked Sylvie.

“Not yet. But I’m betting this witch is pretty powerful. What did her power feel like?” Sylvie asked.

“Actually I’m not sure? I mean, how do I put in words anyway even if I did remember?” I responded.

Sylvie’s frown got even worse, and she was even more worried. “If you can’t even tell or feel her power then she’s like way over us so far it’s like we’re ants to her. If she were in your level you’d feel like huge pressure, but for no pressure it’s like you didn’t see the sand because the beach was too big. Emperor witch maybe?” she bit her nail.

“That’s bad huh?” I said.

“Yeah, super bad,” Sylvie said.

“So how are we supposed to use this to get Rina’s form back?” I wondered.

“That’s the big question isn’t it. You say you need to level up that slave protection enchant but still there might be certain ways that work and some that don’t. There also could be a huge difference in effective techniques that are believed to work too,” Asakura noted.

“I agree with her on this,” Sylvie noted.

But to check the writing and code on the edges I used the verbal code to open the demon inventory box in front of me. With it now open I’ll be able to compare that other crystal to it. The box opens in front of me. Like always, it sort of is motionless in the air without having to be held. There are the inventory slots, but I moved to open up the hidden section that houses the other slave crystals.

There.

I pull out two of them.

There are two that aren’t activated yet.

I pull out the one that holds Haruka in it. As I do, I can feel a change in the areas of this dream state somehow making me able to feel in my mind that the room where Haruka was at before is now empty and vacant. In return now I’ve got her crystal in my hand, and it’s got the tiny beautiful human girl in it encased in that also tiny frozen crystal.

A tiny Haruka naked sleeping and peaceful in the crystal, and in my hand! Wow this is cool magic technology application!

Then there’s also the other crystal that’s empty that I have which I’ll look at next.

I wonder how I’ll use that one.

“That’s strange. I think I found something interesting,” I said heaving it.

“What?” both Asakura and Sylvie reacted? They know something is up.

“It feels pretty light weight still and is the same dimensions. The crystals now have a sort of cold feel to them. But I hadn’t felt that before. What does that mean?” I asked.

“Weird. Why would the crystals feel cold?” Asakura thought aloud.

“And they didn’t feel cold to you before? Are you sure? If there’s energy of course you would feel something,” Sylvie asked.

“I don’t think so. I don’t remember it. But what you said makes sense about there being energy stored in there,” I said.

“I wonder if it’s because you are at a new threshold of power? Or maybe too because you are sensing mana better than you used too?” she suggested but we had no way of knowing for sure yet.

“Let me see,” Asakura asked.

“It could be a number of things right?” I asked them both.

“Probably. In addition to before more of your power is changing and modifying,” Sylvie said.

I gave Asakura the Haruka crystal carefully.

“Hmm. I wonder…compressed energy in a super pressured state maybe, plus active mana?” Sylvie is carefully studying both crystals. She also held them up to compare to each other.

“So we are learning something. But does that even help us yet?” Asakura asked, looking at me but glancing at Sylvie hopefully.

“There is the crystal too that was repaired when I freed the fairy. It also had similarities to these,” I said remembering to show that one to them. It was empty but still maybe there might be something there which can help us out. I fished it out of the hidden area of the demon inventory box.

Then I held it up.

Until now I’d actually forgotten about the empty one that the fairy was in before. I should try to re-use it actually. There was also the one I’d made by putting together broken parts of a crystal, but I’m not sure if that one is stable actually.

“Oh, this has writing and code on it too,” I said in surprise referring to the empty one, but it’s like I suspected too.

“Eh?! No way!” Asakura is shocked.

“The code means it still has magic in it. The code would sort of fade away if there weren’t any magic left,” Sylvie finally concluded.

“So they are re-usable probably,” I stated.

“Good. So we have a tool? Or is it a weapon? Or can it be changed into one?” Asakura asked me.

“Maybe both?” I said.

We continued to try to work it out and see if we could read the code or decipher it. But its too complex.

I hadn’t expected an idea like that to come out. But it could be really useful if it means an upgrade of a skill, and not only about new weaponry. Is she right? Can the crystals be used to research magic and mana weaponry upgrades?

Sylvie wanted the three crystals to look at. So I lent her them. Now she’s holding all three of them.

But I don’t know if the writing and coding on this empty crystal was there before or only unlocked after I had achieved its usage somehow too. It could be like that is what I’m thinking.

“It’s so amazing that there’s someone inside there!” Asakura breathed looking at the three crystals.

Then Sylvie held up the two with code next to each other.

“Can you tell anything?” I asked.

She’s sort of trying to manipulate the way the light reflects on each of them; then, trying to hold it closer to her eyes. “Shun, these are both the same type of crystal meaning the empty one and the one with Rina the cat inside it,” she finally said.

“Wait they are the same type? But the coding is different,” Asakura said.

“That’s true. So how can they be the same type?” I asked her. “What do you think it means?” I asked Asakura before either of them could say anything.

She’s the best at figuring stuff out.

Sylvie is mouthing strange thinking noises for awhile like, “hmm,” and also stuff like, “is it like that?”

We didn’t appear to get anywhere but then Fox beckons me closer to give them back to me.

It’s when she gives them back to me that it happens.

Fox…err Sylvie, sort of juggled the one crystal while giving it back and forth to me. She hadn’t held onto it properly and then we both almost dropped it. She made a dive to recover catching it so it wouldn’t hit the ground but my fingers were also next to the edge of it while I’m trying to grab it too.

Then there’s a flash of light. The crystal isn’t on the ground. Where did it go?

“What? What was that?” Asakura asked.

“What?”

“where did it go?” I asked.

“I’m confused,” Sylvie said.

“Strange, what was that light?” Asakura said.

“What just happened?” Sylvie asked.

Then looking at Sylvie I’m somehow surprised.

“She’s pointing to my right because I’m on the sandy floor of the arena directly in front of her.

“Shun, there’s something there,” Asakura confirmed also pointing to it.

Forty degrees to my right is another blue screen popup. This one has exclamation marks in the coding too so I know it’s important.

“I think we better read that,” Asakura said, stating the obvious.

“What? A blue screen popup? Seriously this is so unfair, why didn’t it give me the blue screen,” Sylvie complained jealously, since it’s obvious this blue screen pop up is for me and not the other two.

The other two crowd around next to me. I couldn’t help but notice that both Sylvie and Asakura are both trying to snuggle into the side of me, one on each side even while we look at the screen. I can feel the warm touch of both of them there both with thighs touching, side boob, arms, and chest.

This is wonderful.

“Please, can you read it for me?” I asked Sylvie, seeing as how she’s the only one who can read the code like writing of the hieroglyphics.

“Demon Prince Simulation program active…DNA modification inventory box training tool has sufficient power to unlock special areas. Insufficient power for alternate dimensional rift access; Sufficient power for summoner class upgrades. Loading please wait…secondary slave crystal system active; initiating tier rank up of box form,” she read aloud.

“Uh oh…I don’t want the box getting stronger,” Asakura said.

“Me neither,” Sylvie said.

“Um,…it didn’t ask us for permission to do that?” I exclaimed.

The others had flinched too. We don’t like it when the box tries to do things on its very and we have no control over them.

“Um…we’re not blowing up or anything. That’s good right?” Asakura said nervously.

“Shit…it said Demon Prince Simulation program. That can’t be good Shun. We need to get some advise on this without them trying to kill us or steal it for themselves,” Fox said.

“Yeah I noticed it said Demon Prince Simulation program. Um…I don’t want to be evil. And I don’t want you to be evil either Shun,” Asakura said.

“Neither do I! Do you think I want this?!” I felt like ripping my hair out from stress.

“Sorry,” both of them said.

“What does that mean?” I wondered.

“It can’t be good right? I mean it said demon prince simulation? It also said DNA modification. So does that mean it’s trying to change and create demon princes?” Asakura has a worried look.

“Demon princes…I don’t know if I like the sound of that. But it always seemed weird to me that I can summon people but others can’t. And something about that seemed very strange,” I stated.

“Crap. There’s no such thing as a gift horse is there. We’ll pay for it some other way,” Asakura said worriedly.

“We’ll deal with it. And we are not going to let Shun become a demon prince either,” Sylvie said.

“I don’t want that either,” I confirmed.

“I’ve wondered about that too. That’s a power others would definitely covet and try to steal from you Shun. Plus we want to be an ally of justice right?” Asakura said.

“Yep!” Sylvie and I agreed at once.

Ally of justice tag is cheesy but works for me. I don’t want to wake up and think I’ve got only regrets.

“I’ll keep reading,” Sylvie said.

With her finger tracing the code she went over it carefully to make sure she doesn’t mis-translate even a single world.

Secondary slave crystal system ability acquired. This ability allows other slave crystals to be used to buff and be equipped by other slave crystals or the Prince owner himself in ‘equip slots’ via magic coding…

“That doesn’t sound too dangerous actually,” Sylvie said.

We both looked at her angrily.

“What? It’s not like making you drink blood or some other crap,” Sylvie defended herself.

“I guess you are right,” I admitted.

“Oh does that mean Shun’s a demon prince now?” Asakura said.

“Not yet. I don’t want to be a demon prince that sounds scary anyway,” I said.

“Yeah but it sounds powerful too doesn’t it?” Asakura asked Sylvie.

“Yeah, I don’t think know about that. But maybe it’s trying to throw as many challenges at people in the box and owning the box as possible to basically make a mess and whoever lives becomes a candidate based on survival of the fittest. It seems part of the box’s purpose may be to find ‘candidates’ for the title,” Sylvie concluded.

“It’s scary how smart you are,” Asakura said.

“But if there is a demon prince candidacy system. That could be like World War 3 bad,” Sylvie frowned.

“I don’t follow you,” Asakura said.

“What will happen when the candidates realize there are other candidates. And since they all want to be more powerful and be the highest rank…you get it now?” Sylvie said.

“Ah, that is bad,” Asakura scratched her head.

“But the point is that’s some freaking scary stuff. I don’t want that,” I said.

“Yeah neither do I,” Asakura said.

Her question on that scared me somehow. I feel uncomfortable and insecure and the feeling won’t go away.

“Quiet, she’s reading,” I said.

“This ability allows other stored slave crystals to be used to buff and be equipped by other slave crystal active summons, or the Prince owner. Prince owner and each summoned creature in the prince’s retinue can equip other crystals much like they’d equip rings, or necklaces in their soul. But all team members must be directly tied to the demon prince candidate in every way under a family based arrangement such as a m-m-m-mistress or w-wife, inheritance, or class familiar system. To work, crystal cannot be empty and must hold an actual living person inside the crystal. Then to work and equip insert the crystal into the person that is going to equip the crystal as if you were trying to stab the crystal into their chest. Equipped crystal grants 10% stat increase to all areas, based off the stats of the living organism inside the crystal. And up to five slave crystals can be equipped on Prince owner, but only two can be equipped currently on each summoned prince harem member,” Sylvie read.

“Oh, I get it now. When you guys fumbled that empty crystal, it accidentally triggered this ability because it thought you were trying to equip the crystal onto Fox when you dropped it and the flash of light must have been it falling into her soul as if she were equipped with it,” Asakura hypothesized.

“How did you figure that out? Even I didn’t get that,” Sylvie said as both of us are surprised at Asakura’s hypothesis which seems to be the only solution that works.

“And who knows if the 10% can grow if you level it up?” Sylvie smiled.

“That would be nice,” I said.

“Is 10% even that good?” Asakura asked.

“It is when you are wagering that increase against another person in survival. Plus if you can equip several of them…,” Sylvie said.

“That’s true huh. 10%...what could that mean?” Asakura mused thoughtfully.

“That’s possible right?” I asked Asakura.

“Maybe…but make sure you are in control and not the box. Even 1% loss of self control or loss of will power is dangerous with this stuff Shun,” Asakura stated simply.

“So…how do I check it to be sure?” I asked.

“Hmm, I think you have to cop a feel on my chest and feel the crystal somehow or pull it out,” Sylvie said. She’s also obviously hoping I’ll get her aroused. That thought makes me hungry. But she’s so tall it’s hard to feel up her chest or boobs anymore unless she’s kneeling down.

She kneels down.

Of course she wants me to give her some favor. Asakura wants favor too. Now both of them are next to each other. They also are trying to get me to fondle their nipples and boobs too at the same time. But I’m actually trying to figure out how to pull the crystals out or put them in, which somehow have a slippery ethereal like state.

It takes some time figuring out how to retrieve the crystal. But it’s kind of fun this way at the same time as I get to play with both of them while having a business excuse.

“That’s weird isn’t it? I mean how come only two on the harem members but five on the prince candidate?” Asakura wondered.

“Well it’s not that good if he only has 3 crystals and 1 of them is empty,” Fox said.

“We should get rid of the necromancer still,” Asakura said.

“And the only way to do that is to murder him?” I asked skeptically.

“Isn’t he already a murderer? If he is then its justice and our form of law in a lawless world, which isn’t the same thing,” Asakura said.

“Kind of late for that,” Sylvie,…I mean Fox said.

“That’s a good question,” I said.

I continue to feel around Sylvie’s chest. So far all I feel is warm wonderful flesh. I can’t put my hand in her body, and if I did, wouldn’t that technically be stabbing her? Wouldn’t she then bleed to death?

She is starting to breath hard as I feel up her boobs partly on accident, and partly to figure out how to get the crystal back.

“I was wondering too if the number of crystals equip able on each can change or go up?” Sylvie spoke her thoughts.

“That’s a good question. It doesn’t say?” I asked.

She shook her head no.

“But the amount of stat increases of 10% isn’t that kind of low?” I asked.

“In theory that’s change able too. I suspect 10% is just the initial untrained rate. When you master this ability and get it stronger it could probably go up is what I think. But with something like this, if you include the normal power ups of just getting stronger with a normal skill it’s scary how powerful someone would become. And don’t forget that’s 10 percent PER crystal. And you are still limited by flesh and blood physics limitations too, so that’s still good,” Asakura said.

“Yeah that’s probably true,” I noted.

“Either way I’ve never heard of anyone who has an ability like this. It’s very…very different,” Sylvie noted while scratching her head in thought.

So it’s a unique ability only that a demonic prince candidate could have. Do all of them have super cool abilities that are powerful or exotic?!

“That could add up pretty fast if it lets me equip up to five of them?!” I exclaimed.

“Seriously you are going to be so overpowered. I’m glad I’m with you and not some weak guy. Plus we have real love,” Sylvie rubs her hand on my check in a lover’s fixated look and feel. Then she reached out and licked the side of my face.

It feels weird. I’m not into licking.

I still am trying to feel up Sylvie’s slender chest, but no luck retrieving the crystal. Sylvie likes it too much when I feel her up too. And I still haven’t made progress yet.

“Try that…what was it…telekinesis to pull it out?” Asakura suggested.

“Ah! Why didn’t I think of that!” I exclaimed. I’m partly disappointed though because I like feeling both of them for any excuse possible. But at this rate we’ll never get any work done.

My telekinesis is weak but it wouldn’t have to be very powerful for a lightweight crystal. So I tried it. With a sort of plop sound and a flicker of low dull light suddenly the empty crystal pops out of Sylvie. Then I ended up pulling the empty crystal into my hand.

“This means we need more experiments to figure out how this works,” Sylvie said.

“I agree,” both Asakura and I agreed at the same time.

“You realize this doesn’t make you overpowered Shun. It means you are now officially super weak,” Asakura said seriously.

“What?” I am surprised by her mood change. Plus when we’d rescued all those dwarves lately I thought I’d become kind of strong. On the other hand Asakura is genius level smart, so ignoring her is folly. If she told you the sky is really red, that means it is, and she could do the math to prove it.

“Think about it. If this means you are a demon prince candidate, being artificially grown by the box. Then won’t there also be other demon candidates that you are competing with? And how strong are they? They’d also have more time to figure it out, so you’d have to assume they are way ahead of you in the game. And what do you think will happen if they discover there’s another candidate. And how does their society even work anyway? We know absolutely nothing about them other than they want this world too. And they are going to be like boss level. It means you are now like gone to Superman’s home planet and trying to compete against his people as an Earthling with just a few power ups. You have a huge disadvantage,” Asakura explained.

“I never liked Superman. It’s like he had everything already given to him,” I noted.

“That’s beside the point,” Asakura said.

“What’s Superman?” Sylvie asked.

“Don’t worry about that,” Asakura changed the subject.

…

I don’t want to infect her with earth nonsense and superstition. We deflected to avoid that question.

But Asakura’s perspective has made me think hard and clear of why it’s been so different from me.

Incidentally there are other changes too with my skills.

Circle of protection; (+5 feet additional radius, + 9% to energy defense field, +1% damage absorption)

Telekinesis; can be used within 10 feet of self on targets weighing less than 96 pounds or 96 pounds of force in action that can be applied.

Runic Mana Shielding +56%; can be applied by touch to team target, self, or any target within 21 feet of caster; Duration of up to 24 hours; cast range increase +1

Resistance to elements and magic, +65% bonus absorption rate above base; target must be touched to apply buff or within 9 feet. (Cast range increase +1, + increase to raw affectivity);

Demon Prince Slave Protection system active, +0%, range is the slave crystals themselves regardless of distance.

While it’s clear that not every ability has gotten stronger, the core abilities I use the most have changed a lot. If just the runic shielding and element resistance keep growing I’ll be super happy. I do wish my offense ability has increased but maybe it’s like that because it seems my build is based off an evil demonic prince version of a support and buffing class?

There are other things we’re doing now too.

Instead of only having sex all night in the dream state with Asakura and Sylvie, we’ve planned the night out doing real stuff and serious training. I want to give it my all and not just mess around either. With our recent discoveries we have to make it so they can defend themselves and me or vice versa, and nobody wants to be a burden to the group.

I spent several hours training on blocking spells using a combination of Sylvie attacking me with me only using dimension door, elemental resistance, and runic shielding with Asakura acting as a spotter. I’m tired, bloody, and sweaty by the time we’re ready to change activities.

We’re pushing harder than ever before since we know this city is now under siege by orcs. It’s only a matter of time before they get in, and when they do it’ll be a fire fight.

There are other things we did too.

I’d taken an extra job chit from the job board for an Egyptian translation job the night before. It was something we picked up as an experiment to make more money. The job is to translate an Egyptian transcript into dwarven for different parties. It could theoretically be done by Sylvie, or Sunghee in the dream state, for a couple of hours at a price of 1 silver per page. It’s not much but we’re trying to build skills, keep a low profile, and figure out how to get more funds with no extra risk. At the same time I’m trying to keep my mana tank full since we believe I could be attacked at any time.

That’s not a lot of change by traditional standards but if I can work out farming for money in this dream state while also resting then it may be possible for us to somehow make money from both the day and night team.

Sylvie managed to get about twelve pages in before the night was up while I practiced blocking and shielding techniques with Asakura.

We also after a break figured out more about how to use the crystals as the stat enhancing secondary slave crystals. With some experimentation any of the crystals can now be used as either primary slave crystals or secondary stat enhancers.

Currently because Ayumi had been sick and in a process of mutation we couldn’t equip hers currently, but we can equip Haruka’s crystal. I managed to equip Haruka and make sure that not only I can use her equipped for stat gain, but easily there’s no restriction on races or harem members being placed on other harem members. So Sylvie and Asakura in other words, could equip Haruka too.

But I’m nervous about having either of them equip Cid the necromancer just yet.

We haven’t verified if there are limitations to non-harem members. We also don’t know and haven’t proven yet if the person being ‘equipped’ has any memories of such activities. And that needs to be figured out before I equip either myself or the harem members with Cid and then have sex with either of them.

It would be very, very awkward.

We continue our research in other areas with trying to alter reality using a fusion of me and Sylvie working together and separately. The limited draw of me being able to pull at and use her alter reality because of the soul link seems to be stronger if somehow I’m touching Sylvie we find out.

We’ve changed our experiment however to adding vegetation and a water pool into the middle of the sandy arena. Right now it’s only small for the water pool, but it’s clear that the water is staying put and not evaporating or sinking into the sand because we pictured it staying there. The pool is only about three feet long, two feet wide and a foot deep.

Doing that much exhausted a ton of mana from the both of us, and we had to stop while we’re panting and sweating.

But will it always stay there or will it be gone next time I come back?

Should I line the bottom of the small pool with stones to be safe?

How big can we make the pool? And will we be able to turn it into a hot springs pool?

Because none of us has a water or fire element I’m also wondering if that’s why there’s such a limit to how much water we were able to make into the pool.

Will the water decay or rot because it was used through altering shadow into reality instead of getting real water? Is there a time limit for the shadow altered objects created from Sylvie’s ability?

We are also trying to figure out if there’s a way for crossing over and carrying over abilities from one person to another using the secondary slave crystal equipping ability system.

The biggest fear too now, is if this box was made to shape and alter people into demon prince candidates then who made the box? And will the other prince candidates be able to find me now? How much time before I run into trouble because of this? What other disadvantages are there that I haven’t discovered or thought of?

Near the end of the night another pop showed some progress on our training.

Dimension Door; 2 subjects +1 additional person locked that can be pulled through if touching caster; minor teleport with range of 400 feet. +60 feet additional bonus range ability unlocked.

Distance increased on dimension door but what I really wanted changed was for the number of people transferrable to change. We are trying to figure out if a teleport ability can be evolved from the dimension door but there isn’t any proof that’s viable.

There were some weird changes too.

After the discovery of what the demon inventory box actually is, the hidden section of the demon inventory box literally melted before it was time for me to wake up. It sort of like collapsed into a pile of goo and burned up crystal fragments at my feet. The rest of the box is unaffected and intact however, with the same number of inventory slots.

Both of the girls exclaimed in fear, afraid that I’d broken it.

Instead of having the normal massive inventory section and the section off to the right with all the slave crystals and slots for each crystal which is now gone, the crystals and their slots have somehow transitioned and been switched over to the normal status and skill blue screen system that I can normally open now; or rather that I’ve learned and figured out with extreme difficulty and adversity how to unlock. Then the edges of the inventory box where the hidden area used to be have reformed a fine edge that’s shaped like the other edges of the box and look completely normal.

What does it mean?

Did that mean up till now I’d only been renting this ability system? Is it more permanent? Can it not be taken away now?

When Sylvie and Asakura touched the slave crystals now in place in the blue screen areas they can now only do so if I allow them too, but before they could at any time.

I was about to call it a night when I also noticed there’s another really huge and shiny white crystal in the middle of the debris and garbage from the slave slot parts mess.

What is that?

I moved to pick it up.

It will be cool to try out these new toys actually.