Chapter 459 - On the schedule

For two to three days, I hunt around the camp and try to do side quests that could gain me some stay tokens.

With the twins, we experiment a bit and came up with a way to make some items to sell for extra shards, gaining me around 15 thousand more and some for the twins as well as I make multiple versions of each item. It takes plenty of attempts and failures, but the boys are eager to make some shards, already spending their share to buy themselves some stuff.

Lily and Biscuit seem to be saving their shards, and so far I don’t have anything I would want them to buy for my promised 50%. I mean, there are plans, but no time or space.

After I get back from Beyond, I will try to finally get myself a non-damaged arcane item, even if it means I will destroy some of the damaged ones I have.

I have plenty of materials and ideas, so I should be able to.

“Are you sure it will work?” Dennis asks me curiously.

He and his brother are watching me from behind the border, behind which mana can be restored. I, meanwhile, stand in the mana desert, directing my flames at the molds in the ground.

“Who knows?”

“Nat, tell me, did you use to take things apart just to see how they were working?”

“How did you know?”

“Just a guess.”

“Got it. And get back to your training, the orb will disappear.”

“There’s no way. I have it under contro...” He doesn’t have time to finish, and the evil orb near him bursts open, “…under control.”

His brother laughs. “Told you he would start changing them without letting us know! Nat, did I do well?”

“Better than Dennis,” I agree as I watch him handle the sudden spike in his orb, a new way I found to tortu... train the brothers.

Weakening the flame I turn my attention back to the mold and send kinetic energy towards the partially melted sand in the form. I modify the output a bit so it’s more akin to deep vibration, shaking the bubbles out of the form at high frequency.

Then I continue to heat it up. I do it slower than before, watching the surface and the color. Once in a while, I use kinetic energy to help the process, especially to release trapped bubbles.

The form is the shape of a simple dagger, a good form for testing as we’ve found over a few days.

“What are you going to add in today? Do you want another of my finger bones?” Lily asks, curiously.

She sits to the side, holding the mana stone with body modification info.

“We could try to add Biscuit’s whisker,” Dennis recommends.

(Asshole!)

“You know I didn’t mean it seriously, Biscuit! Nat, what did he say?”

“He called you an asshole.”

“Oh…” His brother laughs at him while Dennis deflates.

“We tried adding your thermal orbs, some random bones, and metals, but we are kind of restricted by being unable to add mana,” Aaron sighs.

“We did?”

“You did, but we supported you from a distance.”

“Sounds about right. I think this time I won’t add anything. Someone else might be able to get more out of this sand, but I currently can’t.”

It annoys me. I can’t inscribe it, I can’t add my mana to the mix. I can’t even use mana while making it.

And in the end, as the dagger cools down, the blade is still ugly. Somewhat.

The surface is nice and smooth, white-ish glass-like. Probably the best I’ve made so far. Just the description is the same as before and with its upper epic rarity and inability for me to sell it.

I pocket it as I’ve done with a few items from before.

“Won’t you make items for the others? The same way you did for us?” Dennis asks as he watches me put away the dagger.

“We won’t be meeting them that soon. Do you want to carry a few hundred items for a few months?”

“I guess we can come back later. But damn, even if we’re taking 50%, you still have a lot of shards saved in us.”

“Yes. I will use them to buy materials for crafting, testing, and stuff. Did you already use the detachment token on [Connection]?”

“Both me and Aaron did, but damn, Nat, it’s not a nice feeling removing a skill upgrade. We also didn’t use any skill upgrade for [Mana Manipulation].”

“It’s worth it in the end, and don’t worry, I’ll push others to do it as well.”

Somewhat sleepy-looking Lily yawns, “I used them even before this floor, when you first mentioned it, Nat.”

That makes me turn to the twins. “Why aren’t you guys a bit more like Lily?”

“We don’t have the Handy Backpack she has.”

“It’s a Chop Sack,” Aaron disagrees with his brother.

“No, it’s an Armory Bag.”

“Disarmory.”

Catching Lily’s gaze, I shrug and she copies me, adding another yawn. “I’ll go and sleep for a few hours. I also think the 11th variation of the healing mark is the best so far.”

“So no more veins growing on the surface of the skin?”

“Yup, I fixed that. Night, boys,” she waves and heads to rest.

Something nudges my feet, and I look down. It’s Biscuit.

(I require sustenance.) He uses words I haven’t heard him use in a long time.

Knowing what it means, I head to my backpack and from a secret compartment, I pick a sealed box from which I take a single piece of Archdeer jerky. Something that is becoming more and more precious.

Biscuit patiently waits, but I can see him tippy-tapping with his front legs, even jumping on them slightly.

“Paw,” I say as I squat in front of him.

He immediately lifts his right front leg, and I grab it, shaking it and then touching the soft beans at the bottom.

Feeling refreshed, I hand the jerky to him, which he gently takes into his mouth, then turns around, heading to his usual resting spot where he starts nibbling on it.

“Did you ever have a pet on Earth, Nat?” Unlike himself, it’s Aaron who asks first this time.

I shake my head. “Never. But I remember when I was younger, there was that boy who got a puppy for Christmas, and for a year or two, his mom often brought it with her when she went to pick that boy up from school.”

That memory flashes in my mind.

“The dog was always so happy, seeing that boy, and the boy as well. No matter if he got a bad grade, if someone bullied him, or if a teacher chewed him out. Every time he saw that dog, he would smile brightly.”

“That sounds nice.”

“Yup.” I stretch and activate burden enhancement inscriptions, forcing myself to move kinetic energy throughout my body. “It’s time for light sparring. Your goal is to keep up the evil orb while we fight.”

“I wish he wouldn’t use such names for these things. It makes me feel lame that I have so much trouble with it.” Dennis sighs, fixing his clothes and mana flowing through his body.

“We should have known what we were getting ourselves into when he named our group: group 4.”

The spar starts, and they don’t have the luxury of talking more.

***

Just two days remain until my Beyond expedition, and my training is in full progress. I cut down on some sleep with plans to take a bigger rest before I go to Beyond.

Be it day or night, all of us train, my companions also deciding to stay up for a few days.

As before, there is no hunting, only killing monsters when they attack us. This close to the Mana Desert, it rarely happens, and the place where we stay is unusually quiet.

Here on the 6th floor days are hot, with a sky that makes it impossible to see where the light comes from, as if it’s constantly stormy or the sky is covered in sand or something.

Day is also the time when monsters attack the most, the nights being cold but quiet. And these nights I like a lot, even as hostile as they are. It’s all because of the view that I still can’t get enough of.

It just looks like I can reach my hand and touch the stars. Myriads of them in the sky, mixing with purple nebulae that cover a huge part of the sky as well.

Sometimes I just like to sit there for a few minutes and watch it, thinking how real it is. How far does the tutorial reach? Did it remake only the moon, this Astral Prison, and anything beyond the borders of the planet is just even bigger fake? A projection thrown there? A TV screen? Illusion? Graphics loading only when we look at them?

Or does the system remake more? Back on the 2nd floor, old Liss said she couldn’t leave the planet, so it’s possible that it ends there. But there is also a chance it doesn’t.

On some of the other floors without aerial defenses, I will test it out. I’m curious if I could fly up to outer space and survive there.

***

A few minutes remain, and I fix the backpack I have, carrying my most important stuff. I have Flamebearer, I have Echo Gauntlet, I have a few weapons made from white sand, and plenty more stuff.

There are also a dozen or so healing marks all over my body, but most of them on my left arm. The current 12th variation is made so it can send a detection through my body to find the wound and send healing there.

The only problem could be if someone cuts off my left arm—not impossible—so there are a few more marks on other body parts, even though it’s more difficult for Lily to work there.

I endure the second long hug from Lily, having a suspicion she is milking the situation and might try it again.

“So, three to five days?” Aaron asks.

“Yup,” I confirm. “I will use one day only at first, and then use more according to how it goes.”

“Take care, Nat,” Lily uses the opportunity to give me a third hug, and I look over her head at the smirking twins.

Then I push that baby koala away from me and lift Biscuit, letting him lick my face a few times.

With a final wish of luck, I take a few steps and touch a nearby pile of boxes. Each one is made from melted white sand, sealed airtight, and impossible to open without breaking. Inside, there's nothing but a hollow space filled with unmelted white sand.

Yup, I’m using white sand to store white sand. There are a dozen boxes like that, each as big as my head.

“Later,” I wave and use one Beyond stay token, the environment around me changing.

And there she is, my beloved Lady handler, within this endless space, sitting behind that old wooden table.

I follow her eyes to the boxes with mana sand and can’t help but feel proud. It took a lot of testing to get it right and a lot of effort to create them and store the white sand within.

“You can’t bring it to the Entrance floor or to the dungeon,” she says resolutely.

Yeah, I never liked this old hag of an asshole lazy handler.

***

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