Chapter 6 : Knees weak, arms are heavy.
"My Beast Space!"
My body jitters with a comfortable feeling when my senses turn inward. The surroundings disappear from sight as the scenery around me changes. Looking inside I see a cube of space around 5 meters in all dimensions with golden runes dotting the corners and edges. Simultaneously they seem both incomprehensible and beautiful.
Refocusing on the real world I spot Orsouri looking at me worriedly. The cute little ball tilting her head while her whiskers twitch in a way that makes my heart melt.
"It seems I may have lost track of time. According to the Cultivation method, rather than opening new beast pockets for each beast tamed in the future the space should instead grow bigger and bigger allowing it to fit all the beasts in one dimension. You can hang out with all your friends in the future if you find me the next parts of the method!"
Squeak!
"Lunch? We just woke up silly, it's not…"
Glancing at the windows of the shack I come to a startling conclusion. I didn't just lose track of a little time. It seems 6 hours have passed. My stomach, in defiance of my earlier choices, then decided to protest at its lack of nourishment I had given it today in a way that almost certainly means it will go on strike should I ignore it again.
"Alright, I have an idea though! The beast space opened up! That means I should be able to store non-contracted entities within it according to the method. Sure I can't take them out but at least then I won't have to lug around your food, You can just pop inside whenever you want to eat! How does that sound?"
Squeak Squeak!
Orsouri in its infinite adorableness lets me know that it just wants food. It doesn't really mind where I store it so long as it can eat. Or well the mouse approximation of that at least.
I follow the method stated within the manual, starting to draw a small circle around the bag of food and line it with runes matching those within my beast space; a short chant later and the food is gone.
"While I can't use it as a storage space for things I need to use in the future, at least I can get around needing to carry around food. Besides, we need to start supplying it with things if it’s going to live up to the cultivation methods name! Are you ready to see your new home? It will be up to you to redecorate it in the future!"
A brief moment later I'm alone in the room receiving mental flashes of joy as Orsouri begins to gorge herself on food till she is full. The contentment in her thoughts was palpable before she decided to doze off near the sack. Her imagination is already running ideas on how to make her new house a home.
My thoughts turn to the unique cultivation method. Perhaps I can find more information on it in the Library? At the very least maybe I could read up more about the history of Treasure Seeking Mice. If I am to know how to evolve it further in the future I would need to be diligent!
.
.
.
The rest of the week flashes by in a blur days segmented to a strict schedule. Each morning waking up to find my cotton ball of joy sleeping atop me after having struggled out of my grasp during the night. Why doesn't it seem to understand the struggles and pains of a girl in need of something to cuddle.
Sigh.
The evenings ending up a slog of information about ancient beasts and what they looked like in the past before humans came to domesticate them and how some beasts had two histories, one from the world before the merging and one after. Funnily at least the librarian working there seems to enjoy me coming over. I remind her of her granddaughter so she enjoys taking my time whenever she can to gush about the old days and how much her granddaughter could have done better then the man she ended up with.
Apparently she also has a great granddaughter around my age.
The nights before sleep are taken up by cultivating diligently, letting my body grow more and more in tune with the world surrounding me. Through it I pushed the size of the Beast space to 10 meters in all dimensions. I feel myself about a quarter of the way to Silver Rank and my next beast contracting slot!
This particular evening an anomaly occurred.
When cultivating with the final soul gem left over the tome materialized in the air before me. The pages opened and flipped in a strange and magnificent way with a melodious hum playing around me as if nature decided to play a ditty. The light flitting from the pages is a chaotic symphony of splendor.
The Tome takes a while before settling down. It opened to the title page in an inviting and teasing way before staying still. My eyes focused on the page amazed at the special effects the Tome decided to take on its assumed evolution.
[Traveling Tome]
[F Rank -> E Rank]
[Option 1 : All things have a path to the heavens]
[Option B : To steal the moon is the greatest heist]
[Option Lastly : To Create one must first Destroy]
Well…. of course this ludacris book decided not to make things easy.
Rather than tell me what each option does it leaves things vague and mysterious. Not to mention the fact that the options aren't listed numerically nor alphabetically. And Lastly? Did you run out of clever listing schemes?
Dumb Tome.
Learn to be descriptive. You can tell I'm from another reality but you can't tell me what you do?
Without anything else to go on I could only settle with picking randomly. Much to my own dismay even that was hard to do.
"Stupid options without descriptions. Well, Option 1 seems like maybe the best option?"
Deciding to settle with that I tap the option letting the book dematerialize in a spectacular fashion. My heart skips a beat, palms sweating a little as my head throbs. The lights dim. Knees weak, arms are heavy.
.
.
Once again my thoughts tumble in the wide expanse of void. Things make just as little and as much sense as before. The rubber band is both stretching and contracting at the same time, though there is indeed something different. In the infinite expanse of darkness and blindingly bright light there sits a magnifying glass.
How useful, perhaps I can fail to comprehend everything around me while it's bigger! Great!
.
.
Eyes flutter open.
Once again the world comes into focus as searing pain rushes from the back of my head. The morning light hurts my sensitive eyes. My ears still ring a little.
It seems like a certain rapper who has a name similar to a chocolate treat visited my final thoughts before I passed out. Is that what happens when you get dizzy?
I am overjoyed I wasn't wearing a sweater.
Trying to think back to whatever visited my dreams is painful. And confusing. Mostly confusing as I'm pretty sure the pain might be from the mild concussion I subjected myself to.
I checked the ground and the back of my head for any blood before happily coming to the conclusion that while yes falling and hitting my head was painful at least it seems that I didn't break anything. The brain cells I lost were a small price to pay for whatever may be the benefit.
Hopefully.
[Traveling Tome]
[E rank]
[Description : This tome will have more accurate and interesting descriptions about things stored within it]
[Deduction : By using the mental, spiritual, and vital energy within the user the tome will deduce things within the tome. Caution, Deduction will fail if the user is unable to supply the necessary energy.]
"Mm? You wonderful thing. How could anyone treat you poorly? Tell me who sullied your name! I'll stand up for you! My cloud and I shall fight for your honor!"
Any amount of brain cells are worth paying for this. After a week I've reached a quarter of the way through the Iron stage but Orsouri is at her growth limit.
[Cultivation : Iron 1 Star (Maximum)]
The week of study has brought little to no benefits in understanding ancient Treasure Seeking Mice mostly due to the lack of importance they had in that bygone era. Apparently Mice aren't as flashy as Phoenixes, Dragons and Qilins. Also people were having such a hard time surviving that they couldn’t care less about treasure.
Who knew?
My thoughts rush as I imagine the benefits. At the very least there is one option that will be godly enough, using it to deduce evolutionary pathways!
My stomach growls for what I can imagine is the hundredth time in the past week forcing me to focus on the now. Getting ahead of myself is bad, food. Food first, afterwards we can try out the new feature.
.
A good hearty meal and nervous happy jitters later and I sat myself in front of the now clean and fluffy mouse, I had us both bathe before doing anything else. Some people say a good shower and a good meal will bring you blessings! Or was that, they are blessings? Either way!
Squeak!
"I know, I'm excited too! Let's take a look. What will you become! Deduce!"
My head feels light and the room spins a little, my body feeling weak and my dantian feeling a little empty. Gosh, it said it would drain energy but I have this little? Did I ask for too much?
[Deduction complete. 3 Routs deduced}
[Treasure Swallowing Mouse (Bronze Rank 1 star Maximum) : A Common Evolution Path, allows the creature to swallow all manner of golden treasures to harden the body. Estimated Status [STR (F+), AGI (E-), PHY (E-), MR (E-), SP (E-), Soul (E)]
[Ancient Treasure Swallowing Mouse (Bronze Rank 1 star Maximum) : A very uncommon path of evolution for the treasure seeking mouse. The mouse is capable of swallowing all kinds of treasures letting it draw power from them. It has a chance of earning the characteristics of any treasure it swallows. Estimated Status [STR (E+), AGI (E), PHY (E+), MR (E), SP (E), Soul (E)]
[Primordial Treasure Swallowing Mouse (Bronze Rank 1 star Maximum) : A rare path of evolution for the treasure seeking mouse. From Ancient times the Primordial Treasure Swallowing Mice are the bane of treasures. Any treasure that finds its way into the mouse will be assimilated into its being. Incredibly intelligent, these mice used to build communities ruled by the most intelligent and wise Mice. Estimated Status [STR (E-), AGI (E+), PHY (E-), MR (E+), SP (E+), Soul (E+)]
@someone.
@Kuma_kiwi
