Uchawi's tea shot out of her nose as She fell to the floor laughing. "You bitch! Turning our niece into a popsicle should have been my shtick!"

"Just as she sent us that nice letter too," said Asili.

"Ugh, I told you the pocket dimension was bullshit. Setting the temperature to 0 seemed logical at the time," said Mantiki.

"Does she even remember how to use Kelvin?" asked Asili.

"Using Celcius doesn't even make sense! Why would we have Vienna standard mean ocean water? Fine! I'll change it. Stop looking at me like that," said Mantiki.

"We can probably get rid of the pack of wolves that we spawned in to get her moving. I don't like introducing invasive species like that," said Asili.

"Just let me clean this up, and I will take care of it. We are running low on biscuits anyway," said Uchawi.

❖

Acerglyn stared at the bar top. She was back in the shrine. Had she teleported instead of going into the pocket dimension? Activating the skills was based on intent. Why would I want to be back here?

Ants were crawling between her eye and her brain again, so she checked her messages:

Hello Dear,

We are loving this Auntie thing. You are adopted. Or whatever it is you do to become someone's Auntie. Taken to the mall, so you are out of your parent's hair for the day? We would go shopping, but we aren't allowed to stop monitoring the System. Here's 10 DP. Treat yourself to something nice.

Ok, so maybe We are trying to butter you up after Mantiki inadvertently got you killed. That's an Aunties prerogative. We got the glitch worked out now. You should be safe going back in there. (Mantiki is yelling that it is a feature, not a glitch. Apparently, She made it so you can choose to set your temperature units to Kelvin instead of Celsius if you want to. Don't cave, dear. Kelvin is for dweebs.

I turned your corpse into a titan class space horror and sent it to interfere in an interstellar war half a galaxy away, so you don't need to worry about any clean-up. Your barrel stave exploded in the cold, so I remade it for you. I even fixed it up, so it's not got that rotten bit at the end. I know it meant something to you, so I made it good as new.

Oh, Asili wanted you to know that She's not cheap. She thinks any niece of hers should learn to stand on her own two feet. Four feet. However many feet you choose to have, remember to stand on them. If you don't have any feet, you know, this metaphor doesn't hold up for your species. You get it, dear. We have faith in you. If you had bootstraps, We are sure you would lift yourself by them. Maybe go with a nice pair of sandals, though. Keeping all that fur stuffed into a boot seems like a recipe for disaster.

We are glad to hear that you have decided to climb out of your funk and go on an adventure. Keep us posted, dear. We can't wait to see what you get up to.

Love,

The Aunties

Acerglyn checked the settings for her pocket dimension. The light color was black, and the temperature was 0 °C. Acerglyn updated the light to a cool white and the temperature to 16 °C. She did seem to prefer cooler temperatures these days, but freezing was a bit much. Though it was nice to know she could turn her room into a freezer if she needed to. Wasn't there something about food rotting in the description? I guess they still don't have all the kinks out. I wonder what would happen if I pushed this old bar into my pocket dimension. Technically my soul was bound to it outside. This is what they meant about being a jerk, isn't it? Sorry Aunties.

Acerglyn stepped into her pocket dimension. It was very peach. The flooring was lovely, and the cream-colored ceiling didn't have any popcorn. Things could be worse. Acerglyn grabbed her refurbished barrel stave to lean against and got to shopping.

She found that the minimalism she had been practicing suited her. Still, a proper bed would be fantastic. The choices were endless. She decided on a twin bed. At her size, she would still be swimming in it. There was no reason for something bigger. There were so many options. She could get a Hypnopod that would teach her things while she slept, but she did not know if she could trust that nonsense. A simple black wood frame would match anything. She wasn't sure what she would do with the walls yet, but this peach color needed to go. She ended up with a hybrid natural vinyl and memory foam mattress. A grey sheet set and comforter topped things off. Throw in a couple of firm pillows. Would a body pillow be cliche? This is the best 10 DP I will ever spend. 

Reality made a brief fizzling sound, like pouring milk onto rice cereal. Then, with no flourish whatsoever, her bed existed. I need to learn how to aim that.

Acerglyn foxhandled the bed into a corner and then nodded in satisfaction at her work. Why doesn't it have any shadows? Oh, light field. Ha, I get it now. Wait, this is going to make putting a fridge in here impossible, isn't it. Damn, did that blanket cost me points? Oh well, I'll still use it.

Acerglyn leaned her stave against the wall and lay down atop the comforter. Bliss. She decided to check what the shop had for adventuring kits next. I might as well be practical. Acerglyn spent another 10 DP. She got a kit with a backpack, a bedroll, a belt with a pouch and a camp knife, firestone, lightstone, whetstone, a canteen with water purification stone, a collapsable 10-foot pole, a tarp, a rope, and nested camp cookware set with a frypan, a pot, a lid, a bowl, a fork, and a spoon. Sporks are stupid. There were cheaper kits, but she was hoping these magic stones would be worth it.

She put a bit of her will behind activating the lightstone to ensure she understood how it worked. Ok, the way that is clashing with the light field is just weird. I'm not even going to try to understand what I'm doing to physics right now. These are easy enough to use. I'm getting a headache just looking at this stone, time to stop.

Checking out the System app store was next. I still have 34 points to spend. Wait, where did I get 2 DP? Does respawning take a day? I don't feel like testing it. Tonight, after killing ourselves ten thousand times, we're going to take over the world! The Animaniacs never thought of that one.

>> Set becoming a conqueror of worlds as your reason for The Path of Logic and Reason?

At least I was using logic this time. Still, no.

The God of Knowledge offered a subscription service that gave access to every published work in existence. The reviews said it wasn't sorted very well, and the reader tended to freeze up. Still, 40 DP every 30 days seemed pretty cheap. It would be nice to have something to read again. Wait, if the System isn't translating for me, do I even know how to read any of the languages in this universe? Is there a planet with a billion monkeys just hitting random keys and pushing out English light novels? Maybe I should hold off and save up my points for now.

The Golden Griffon's Galaxy Guide seemed like a good buy. It let you zoom down on every planet in the galaxy with various map filters. It even had a short write-up on all the things the Golden Griffon thought were important when it visited. That seemed to mostly be where to find the best barbeque and virgin sacrifices, but there were political and economic ramblings, and other useful information tucked in. The app also offered a mini-map that you could tack on to your overlay. If you helped the Golden Griffon keep things updated, you could earn DP and a discount on buying the guides for other galaxies. It took up most of Acerglyn's remaining DP, but she thought it was a steal at 30 points. No, Kuchachusha's abandoned shrine does not have a shuttle pad available. 3/5 stars. Idyllic, but run down. The pear apples were delicious.

An element identification app would give you details about what you were looking at in your overlay, but it cost 50 DP. Acerglyn decided to hold on to the rest of her points for now and try to save up for it.

Done shopping, Acerglyn dumped her new backpack out on the bed. She put the stones in her new belt pouch and tried to wrap the belt around her waist. This does not work with the tails. Maybe if I wrap it around my stomach? I could leave it here until I need it. That kind of defeats the point. Ugh, it's not that much effort to pop in here and grab things. Wait, didn't this robe come with a belt? Acerglyn undid the ribbon holding her robe together, then wrapped the new belt around her stomach and tightened it on. Apparently, that was how you did it after all. Now I've got a buckle and a pouch. I'm 100% more steampunk than a minute ago.

Acerglyn looked at the rest of the stuff on her bed. She didn't want to waste points on a shelf when she could probably cobble something together. If I tie off that rope to the corners of the bedroll, I can hang it from the ceiling like an industrial-sized shitty Etsy shelf. I should have got that ladder. Ugh, better crap to do. Acerglyn grabbed the backpack and the 10-foot pole and dumped the rest of it onto the floor. There was enough time to collect pear apples before dark, and she was leaving this place tomorrow.

Solar Plexus: The Path of the Absentminded 

Hey, look! Something shiny!

Path Progression: Onboarding

Progression goal: Get the Element Identification app. 

Your reward for the discovery of the path:

• You jump from one thing to the next without much care. Sometimes between one moment and the next, you have completely changed direction. Why waste time with all that transitioning? You can teleport to the places you have already been so you can do the things you just remembered you should have done.

Your reward for continuing the path and starting to learn its ways:

• You maybe went a bit overboard with the shopping, but you mainly got the essentials you needed. Instead of spending them on shiny things, you even managed to keep a few points towards your next goal. You go, you! We were going to give you DP for this, but now it would defeat the point. Instead, We are giving you a quest log app for free. It should help you keep your shit together.

That will be useful, but did they have to be a bitch about it? Sorry, Aunties.

Acerglyn went out to collect the pear apples. It was a far less violent affair than she was used to. The 10-foot pole felt like cheating. She just smacked them down and plopped them into the backpack. By the end, she was hitting them with the pole in one hand and catching them with the bag in the other before they even hit the ground. Once she had the backpack filled, she went back into the dimensional pocket to settle down for the night.

She decided to make herself some pear apple bread pudding. She just took some summoned pear apple cyser and poured it over the summoned pear apple loaf in her new bowl. It wasn't much, but it was different. It's nice to have a fork again.

She snuggled into her new bed and decided to check the new quest log before sleep. She didn't have any quests yet, but the app had a section for her progression goals.

The Path of Magic and Wonder: Find your sense of wonder.

The Path of Logic and Reason: Find your reason.

The Path of Eternal Nature: Find your community.

The Path of the Wandering Heart: Start your journey.

The Path of the Absentminded: Get the Element Identification app.

The Path of Kuchachusha's Entourage: Impress Kuchachusha.

The Path of the Immutable Soul: We have no idea.