Without much of a choice, Lark accepted the update. A loading bar appeared above the SIM app icon and disappeared in three seconds. Well, that was fast.

Opening the app, Lark realized the user interface underwent some superficial design changes. There was now a menu screen with several tabs named: Current status, Monsters, Locations, Items, and Settings.

The ‘Current Status’ window retained all his information from before including his name, titles, stats, and unavailable skills—actually, he did have one!

“Alchemy - Life Skill - Rank F - User can craft simple potions, salves, and tonics.

Effects: As the user discovers and crafts more products, this skill will help produce more potent effects. As DEX increases so will the user’s flexibility in handling craft materials.”

His heart galloped as it dawned on him; he was an alchemist! And he could picture Wangshi praising him with adoration, “You’re an alchemist, Lark!” If only the Trinity Watch could print him a certificate, then everything could be all official, he giddied.

“Getting so excited over one simple skill?” a voice cut through his self-exaltation. Lark could imagine Sphinx sprawled over the workbench like a bored cat, wearing a long-suffering smile.

Lark snorted and carried off to the next screen, Monsters, which branched out to two tabs. One was N/A, while the other had Gushi’s name on it.

Nothing new was listed on Gushi’s status screen and skill set. But additional information was compiled under a pet journal, continuing off of Day 3, which recounted Gushi’s activities with Wangshi, learning propel, and so forth.

Unable to access the ‘Locations’ tab, Lark pressed on ‘Items,’ which basically was an itemization of the things he had scanned. Categories were separated by Magic, Spirit, and Quest. Going deeper, the items were ranked by rarity, beginning with the least common.

For example under Magic, the order went from Elven Spirit Recovery Potion, Elf Stem, to Deep Sea Chitin. Under the Quest tab, Lark guessed it kept track of the miscellaneous objects he had scanned such as Corn’s notebook, the portable Celestian alchemy set, and stuff from the kitchen.

For the last tab, Settings, Lark paused as he stared at the options for background music and available color options. With an unsteady hand, he pressed on background music and was immediately disappointed by the response he received: “No available playlist, go scan first!” Putting the BG music on hold and ignoring the color chart, Lark stretched his hands over his head, feeling the tension release from his back and shoulders. He rubbed the sides of his head and called Gushi over.

The last ‘voom’ from the automatic feeder stopped, and Lark could see his transparent slime hop over to him with a belly full of badminton birdies. Learning the skill, Slime Shield, was a temporary failure.

The fact that Gushi was unlike any slime Lark saw with the Wishes of the People organization both amazed and worried him. Aside from the obvious size differences and maneuverability, Gushi did not have a visible nucleus. Which meant, at least to Lark, Gushi only had one weakness: total obliteration. Like the slime bats he destroyed together with Sky and Mishka, the monsters only stopped chasing them after a complete splat down. The same thing would happen to Gushi if he didn't learn any defensive skills, hence the worrying.

“Let’s try again later, fella.” Lark leaned down and patted the top of Gushi’s slime coat. “It's time to release Wangshi from the time chamber now.”

The time chamber wasn't a special ability belonging to the slimes, but unique to Gushi’s innate Engulf skill. Luckily, Wangshi weighed less than 120 pounds.

Forming a donut ring on top of the leather cushion, Gushi’s silver coat glowed white as he materialized the caretaker - well more like spat out - onto the couch from its slime chambers. Wangshi’s sleeping body laid sideways while Gushi made an excellent lap pillow. Rolling out from under Wangshi, Gushi bounced to Lark’s side and awaited orders.

Lark patted Gushi and handed him one of the three Elven Spirit Recovery Potions. Immediately, Gushi transformed the top part of its body into an antenna and waved the silver bubble over the blue-green restorative, when it lit up into distinct blue and green halves. Since the potion contained both magical and spiritual essence, it made sense Gushi’s antenna would react in this way. But in the back of his mind, Lark wondered if the blue and green colors were only a coincidence.

In high spirits, Gushi wiggled and gobbled up the potion into its body. Upon absorption, the suds Lark was used to seeing clean Wangshi’s wounds, dispersed around the glass flask. The soap-like bubbles emitted wisps of smoke until Lark’s first potion completely dissolved and then he received two black boxes, notifying him of the changes within Gushi. The first box explained Gushi’s raised stats.

“The Elven Spirit Recovery Potion produced mild benefits on Gushi, raising its intelligence, magic, and spirit capacity by ten. Certain skills also experienced a rank up. Also, Gushi is extremely satisfied with this reward.”

Gushi
[Converted Buoyant Slime] 
Happiness: 100%
STR: 10
DEX: 16
INT: 31
MG: 24
SPRT: 12
LUK: 12

The following skill changes…

1) Engulf - Innate Skill - *Rank D. User can swallow and hold any material with an upper limit of 300 lbs. Effects: Absorption or storage.

2) Transform - Magic Skill - Rank E. User can modify up to one structure of their body. Effects: Lasts until skill canceled. Cooldown: 1 minute.

3) Patching - Magic Skill - Rank E. A quick fix. User can ‘patch’ up physical and spiritual damage. Effect: Pain-blocker, speeds up natural healing, recovers accumulated spiritual damage and restores spiritual stamina.

4) Perception - Life Skill - Rank E. User can sense an object’s nature within a 200-feet radius. User can track movement within a 200-feet radius.

Effects: Gushi's color changing antenna.

Silver - neutral

Red - danger

Green - magic treasure

Blue - spirit treasure

Black - Dark magic

White - Light magic

“Not bad,” Lark said, hugging his slightly stronger slime. While Gushi did its pudding dance on the coffee table, Lark pulled out the potion meant for Wangshi. Tilting his caretaker’s head back, Lark dripped the brew down the sides of Wangshi’s lips until the flask was nearly empty. Spreading the last drops of the potion onto Wangshi’s forehead, Lark watched the blue-green liquid seep into his caretaker’s wrinkled skin. More amazing than any skin care product, the potion penetrated through Wangshi’s dry, tough skin, softening it like butter. With a serious look, Lark quickly fanned out the liquid, rubbing the area under Wangshi’s eyes fervently. Like magic(cough), Wangshi looked ten years younger.

Perhaps, this was one of the unintended, but lucky benefits, Lark thought.

“Rejuvenating youth effect,” Sphinx muttered. “Not bad, but hopefully that wasn’t the only benefit.”

Lark sat criss-cross on the floor like a small child, waiting for Wangshi to awake.

 

---

 

Light sweat slicked down the black-haired man’s sideburns. Dressed for desert wear, the man had tan robes on and hidden light armor underneath that was causing uncomfortable friction. A thin, long sword hung sheathed by his side; the black as night sword cover overlaid his rolled up robes. The leather grip ready to be pulled out at a moment’s notice if he were not distracted by the greenish tint in the ebbing waters below. He stood on the edge of a bluff hovering over a once popular oasis. Now, there was a fusty-verdure tint to the water making it undrinkable and his sharp, green eyes couldn’t see past the surface. If he were to drop his sword into the water, there would a low chance of recovery.

This oasis was once the epicenter of a great civilization. Jade City was its name. Written in the annals of Celestian history as one of the most prosperous and thriving cities, Jade City was the place to be if you wanted elven grimoires, dwarven crafted weapons, riches. But that was all before the Astral apocalypse. Overrun by astral beasts, the once great city fell to ruins and now only decay remained along with the scent of fire.

If not for the rumors of ancient treasures or astral cores, why would anyone set sights on this arid land, he thought. Crumbling buildings and dry desert plants surrounded the lake, which no longer held the mantle to the name Jade Waters but instead was known by travelers as the Cursed Spring. Every so often, a rumor would reach the royal capitals in the north and south of a beautiful maiden luring travelers into the water. This so-called beautiful water maiden was described by every stretch of the imagination, and her appearance would change to the gossipers’ tastes from a striking hourglass body to having arms as thick as logs. In any case, whatever form the maiden took, she was able to bewitch innocents to their deaths. There were also claims that the rescuing parties would only find a small number of limbs, but never a complete body.

The man spat into the lake disgusted by the tall tales. But now he was living in one, helping to search for a high ranked officer of the Adventure Guild who went missing around these parts. If an adventurer with the caliber of two affinities, water and lightning, could get done in by a water maiden, what chance did any of them have? Yet there he was, dragged out to the rotting ruin by the orders of the main branch who enlisted to be part of the investigation team set up by the royal families. It wasn't a fancy mission where every elite group sent out their strongest players, but a show of support. A very flamboyant show. However, he wasn't scripted to be part of this play by the royal family, instead, he was ordered by the head of the Shi clan to protect Master Huan Shi from any potential dangers.

The young man sighed and rubbed the sand out of his left eye. Master Huan Shi was the second eldest child of the head. Master Yazhu Shi, the eldest by three years, accomplished more than a normal wind magic practitioner by being the reigning champion in hand-to-hand martial art competitions as well as dabbling in enchantments. Not to be outdone by his older brother who would be the next head, Master Huan Shi practiced two affinities: wind and water.

While the man judged Huan as part of the spoiled sort, he did have the talent to reach intermediate levels of both water and wind magic. And by being a water magic practitioner, it justified Huan’s reason to be chosen for this mission. The man sighed. Huan only relented to participate not only to best his brother but for the rare Celestial coins given by the royal family for partaking in royal missions. These coins were worth thousands of credits (if someone were stupid enough to sell them for normal currency.) The real worth of Celestian coins was to trade them in for valuables inside the royal treasury. And Celestia had two royal treasuries. One in the north, which was guarded by the northern royal family. And one in the deep south, guarded by the southern royal family.

At least that's what the man heard from rumors. And everyone dreamt of getting a glimpse of at least one vault! Stored inside were relics of the past and mysteries too dangerous for a simple adventurer to handle.

But the man also heard that his head clan member achieved a total of fifty Celestial coins in the past and made off with a treasured sword, which made the vaults sound less mysterious than before.

As for why he, a lowly branch member, could come along and get paid with Celestial coins was because he achieved outstanding accomplishments in the yearly Shi clan festival. In the main hunting sport event, he helped the head, track a rare Thunder Stag in the southern forests. While body-guarding beat butchering animals and cooking them for the clan, Wang Shi felt awfully nervous near the vicinity of the Cursed Spring. As much as he boasted to the other branch members about his prowess, he only accomplished two offensive C-ranked skills, Wind Needles and Wind Blade. From what he heard, the adventurer had several rank-A spells under his belt as well as magic tools. If he ran into the water maiden, he didn't know if he could even run away properly. Not that the chance of confronting the maiden was high due to their party’s nature, he still worried.

The investigation team of ten(not including himself and other servants and familiars) consisted of strong and well-known members. The two leaders from the north and south respectively were Silvina Wheatley, a Fire-sword expert (and rumored beau of the second prince/captain of the royal guard, Prince Balto) and Jaime Graham a rare Light Enchanter.

The other four representatives of the north were: Aulo Horn, a Metal-Spear expert, Dula Aapa, a member of the Alchemy Association, Vick Sparks, a member of the Adventurer Guild who brought the Cursed Springs situation to the royal families’ attention(and possible friend of the lost adventurer), and Huan Shi.

Salene Peyton, a well-known diplomat as well as a Water-Dual Blade expert, Arelli Ulu, a talented member of the Ulu clan known for their water experts, Henry Gullivan, an elite member of the Gullivan House, and Rhea Smyth, the only dwarf and blacksmith in their team, represented the southern faction. Arelli and Henry, both from famous groups were outstanding in their own right but likely held expensive treasured objects to bolster their survival. This is what the man suspected since he knew Huan Shi was given something similar by the elders in their clan.

Five from the north and five from the south. A balanced party sent to discover the cause of death behind the missing travelers and find the whereabouts of the missing adventurer; a rank B mission. Moreover, all these talented people were younger than him by a good two decades. The youngest official member was Huan Shi, at seventeen years of age.

In his forties already, the man felt the world rush by him, yet at the same time, it still presented challenges to him. He grabbed the hilt of his sword to calm himself. The metal warmed to his touch and the heart palpations lessened. His poor father, who had some connections with the dwarven blacksmiths in the city, gifted him this sword before he left. And his wife, Yaling, the only beauty in his heart, pulled together his desert garb, which protected him from the scorching sun and sandy wind of the Eastern deserts. He had yet to use the sharp sword on a monster, but he liked the way it cleanly sliced through desert cattle.

As he peered into the spring’s depths, lost in thought, a strong force of the wind pushed him in from behind.

Plunging into the murkiness headfirst, he twisted his body around to see who had pushed him into the unforgiving waters; only to see that it was the person he was tasked to protect, Master Huan Shi, who wore a very devious smile.

His eyes squeezed shut as the milky-green freshwater drilled into his ears, nose, and mouth. Struggling to resurface, Wang Shi kicked the water hard in the direction he thought was up when something yanked his foot.

 

---

Lark saw his caretaker’s hand twitch first. Then the eyelids fluttered intermittently as if he received electroshocks.

Worried, Lark clasped a hand over Wangshi's chest. Is it a heart attack?

“I believe he’s unlocking his memories,” Sphinx said. “Give it some time, his body is reacting to the magic in the potion.”

Frowning, Lark steadied Wangshi’s hand with his own and then he saw the magic seal that Tim left on Wangshi’s forehead surface.

“Scan!”

“Item: Rank D Magic Seal (uncommon)(enchantment)

Caster: Tim Wiles, high ranking member of the order: Wishes of the People.

The original enchantment sealed with a rank D magic sword was meant to provoke the meridians related to memory and provide misguided instructions to further corrupt Wangshi’s amnesia and produce fatal injuries. Upon death, the rank D sword would materialize next to the body, hiding any trace of body tampering and give an illusion of suicide.

Now that the seal has surfaced you have options on how to take care of it:

A) Order Gushi to absorb the seal. (Learn a debuff skill but lose the sword.)
B) Wait for Wangshi to overcome the seal’s enchantment (takes 3 days).
C) Unlock the seal by entering Wangshi’s Mind Space (dangerous but rewarding).”

While option A had fewer risks, Lark didn't want Wangshi to lose his precious sword. And he couldn't wait three days since the auction was happening tomorrow. Which came down to option C, the one that was giving him the most headache!

Lark asked Sphinx what he meant by ‘Dangerous but rewarding.’

“The Mind Space is the harbor to a person’s mental facilities just like the place where you and I could meet or what you referred to as the white expanse. Its dimensions and capabilities are easily changeable according to one’s current mood or state of mind so to speak. So, if we were to enter another person’s Mind Space, we could be seen as a threat and be exposed to Mind attacks. But that's if we are seen.”

“What would we be looking for in Wangshi’s…Mind Space?”

“Since he’s experiencing the past first-hand, we’ll be looking at glimpses of his memories. And in order to unseal the enchantment, we either need to wait for your caretaker to recover all his memories or we speed it up for him. To do that, we need to look for the sword used to anchor the enchant in the first place. Find the sword, we free your caretaker. Don't find the sword, and we can cause irreparable harm to his mind.”

Lark’s heart sped up when he heard a gurgling groan. Wangshi’s face paled and Lark asked in a hurry, “What's happening to him?”

“Nothing serious, just reliving the past,” Sphinx replied, disinterestedly. “You want to hear the benefits?”

Lark fiercely nodded and listened closely to Sphinx’s instructions.

An individual’s mental powers are interlinked with intelligence and spiritual capacity. Highly sensitive people tended to have a higher talent for mind skills according to Sphinx. Their awareness of themselves and others’ emotions also impacted their abilities and skill set. For instance, if a user could interpret a person’s fears and anxiety, that user could exploit that person's weaknesses and crumble their mind and spirit, allowing them to control that person’s body in some way such as the magic seal on Wangshi. The only way to defend against a mind or spiritual attack is by having a more capable Mind Space or with a spiritual treasure that protects the wearer.

As for exploring Wangshi’s Mind Space, all he had to do was touch the magic seal this time and Sphinx would handle the channeling. There were other ways of gaining access, but Sphinx believed they would give them a lower chance of success for obvious reasons. Lark could agree. He didn't have the best of stats or experience in this kind of affair.

After entering the Mind Space, Lark could learn about the state of affairs in Celestia, scan both items and monsters, find out about his caretaker’s past, and most importantly… discover the location of not just one hidden dungeon, but two and a world transfer gate.

Lark gulped. Somewhere in Wangshi's memories contained a clue that would lead them to another world. Before touching the seal, Sphinx advised Lark to wear Gushi over his head like a bike helmet. Incredulous, Lark asked why and Sphinx responded plainly, “Safety first.”