The next day came too quickly for Aarav’s liking and with it a hesitant Boren, who clearly wanted to wake Aarav up but not overstep and scare him off. Aarav sighed, seeing Boren standing at the door and debating whether to come in or not. While morning breath was not a thing in this world anymore, being groggy when he woke up absolutely was. It took a few minutes before he could get it together enough to get out of bed and start moving.

He was physically fine, with no muscles that needed stretching and no joints to crack. Once he got moving, his mental capacity gradually came back as well. “Okay, okay, calm down, will you. Your bouncing around is giving me a headache.” It was too early for him to be starting with a headache already.

Aarav happily noted that his Health, Stamina and Mana were all whole. However, with potions being introduced, that was hardly an issue anymore. I will have to remind myself not to get complacent with these people's resources.

“Uh, right. Should we?” Boren asked, tempering his excitement somewhat; Aarav sighed at dampening his spirit. The world is a harsh place. Best he gets used to it now… It wasn’t the best way, but that much energy in the morning was too much.

“Yeah, come on. We should get someone to take your stuff from the other room to the l-“ Aarav started.

“Already done! Let’s go!” Boren said without waiting for Aarav to finish the sentence. “Time is of the essence!”

Aarav grunted, and they quickly made their way out and to the lab. Is this kid’s endurance higher than mine? Is it simply youth and lack of responsibilities? But then, shouldn’t I also be similarly unburdened? Aarav figured it was too early to be pondering such philosophical conundrums and put a pin in it for later consideration. “I wouldn’t mind some food, Boren. Have you eaten anything yet? Also, some water.” Aarav had hardly eaten or drank anything and realised that he couldn’t remember having anything at all since the fruit was in the market. He would need to watch that. So much had happened that it had gone out of his mind.

“Oh, of course. There is food there, do you want t-“ Aarav didn’t wait for Boren to finish, instead of dashing over to the table on the side where some food was sitting. He hadn’t noticed, but he grabbed all of it and dumped it back as soon as he saw it. Just dropping it straight into his maw and chewing surreptitiously. Bread and cheeses and some types of fruits and something that tasted like nuts, but Aarav couldn’t be sure. A lot of it was mixed with the fruits he knew. He would also need to learn more about hybrid fruits and vegetables. Who knew what was possible in this place.

A few attempts to chew later, they moved out of the room and toward the lab. Boren just stared at Aarav’s ability to consume food in awe. Aarav was pretty sure he wished he could eat that fast as well. The Slime was going to have to eat with some decorum if he didn’t want to be a bad influence on the boy. It would be a long road otherwise. Not to mention he was sure the boy’s parents would have some choice words for him if he taught the child poor etiquette.

Aarav could feel the food settle in his body and start to be dissolved and converted. If he were to estimate, he would say that the amount of food had been less than 400g. Perhaps he needed much more on the plus side of what a human would typically require. If he wanted to gain the body and size of a human child, he had a long way to go.

It would take about 45 minutes to digest it with Consume Blorenar and give him roughly 5,000 Exp. Something about gaining experience again after an eventful day of very little gained made Aarav excited. He couldn’t wait to get back to the grind.

The boys spent 20 minutes or half an hour getting to the lab simply chatting about inane topics, passing the time and getting to know each other. Then when they got to the lab, they found Haemish already there and examining what Boren had worked on. Humming and looking very pleased.

“Morning, Master!” Aarav called, followed closely by Boren saying the same. Now that he, too, was working under Haemish, it seemed the appropriate address. Usually, Boren would be going to his combat training now. Still, with the recent developments from yesterday, everyone was scrambling to understand what was going on. So training had been postponed for the moment.

“Ahh, good you are both here! Right, I have been looking into the things brought from your room, and I have to say, I am impressed with your progress. You have written careful notes on everything you have done, and it truly is magnificent, my boy!” Haemish positively beamed at Boren, who looked like he would melt from happiness at the accomplishment.

“Thank you, Master! I wait for your instruction!” Boren said, and Aarav nodded in agreement.

“Right, well, I have a list of things that need doing. Including some of the testing on these samples. First though, cleaning!” Haemish held out two brooms to both of them and motioned them to get to it.

“Wait, Boren, I’ll take care of this.” Very quickly, Aarav spread out and effectively absorbed all the dirt, dust and debris in the room. It took all of five minutes, and both humans watched on with fascination. “Collected another hundred grams of dirt and dust. You should make sure not to clean your shoes before coming in from the gardens, more for me!” Aarav said that it might have been taken as sarcasm from anyone else. Haemish snorted in response, and then the two boys started on the rest of the list Haemish had.

Aarav finished digesting and absorbing the food and dirt into his system throughout the day. He really needed to take in more. In fact, if he wanted to become the size of Boren, he would need to be working at his maximum throughout the day. They called for food, and Boren requested Haemish get at least five times more for him to constantly eat. He hadn’t Consolidated since he got here, but with the renewed freedom, there seemed no real point in hiding what he could do. They clearly were not going to just “get rid of him”. If they had intended something like that, it would have already happened. Over the course of the day, with food and other things constantly coming at him, he made some truly astounding gains.

Needless to say, he was guzzling Mana Potions like there was no tomorrow, but it wasn’t as if they had a shortage. In any case, the amount of Mana Aarav needed was negligible compared to some of the powerhouses present here. Lucky for him, no one wanted the weak potions he was receiving from Haemish. On top of that, they came with a much milder form of the addictive side effect, so he really was in no danger there. 1500 Mana over the entire day was a tiny amount by Haemish’s standards.

The tasks Haemish had set out for them ranged from cleaning the equipment to dropping various items into the Slime farm. Aarav handled all the cleaning duties for apparent reasons. It was a way for him to grow larger. While being a foot tall allowed him to move around unimpeded, it was not a very inspiring size. It seemed he had over-estimated his size. With his high density, even if he weighted a reasonable amount by human baby standards, his height was significantly smaller. I need to grow up fast! Boren had asked Haemish roughly what the size and weight of humans were as they grew up. It seemed like it was similar to Earth, maybe a slight variation, but on average, children were born smaller and weaker here, then grew with the system. Hence, their sizes varied wildly right from the get-go.

Apparently, while humans on Earth could be born at 3kg, that was completely unheard of on Blorenar. Here one was lucky if their baby was born 1kg, hence why Haemish had identified him as a four-year-old baby when he was a foot long. That raised a whole host of questions for Aarav, but he had more important things to think about at the moment.

The day wore on, and nothing much of note happened as they continued with watching, testing and waiting. Until Aarav received a message that he had broken through the 10kg barrier. There were some implications to this, and they were incredibly confusing ones.