Whether it was the shallowness of the sleep or because he’d actually managed to fall into a routine of getting up early, August was the first person to wake. He sat up slowly, rubbing at his eyes in an attempt to clear away the grit. He was surprised at how good he actually felt, considering he couldn’t have gotten more than a couple of hours sleep in total.

He’d considered sleeping in the unfinished third hut, but at that point, he may as well have been sleeping outside where anything could see him. Thankfully, at some point of the night, Haiko had actually rolled over in her sleep, and she hadn’t moved much after that—the only part of her that was still within the two-meter radius range was a foot. Ladybug had moved even less and may have actually been in the exact same spot as she’d started in.

Putting that point into [Predator] had robbed him of the rest of his night and his original plan to use it to pick up some more runes. But there was enough light to see now, and there was more than enough time for his mana to regenerate before they needed it for the summoning—he opened his inventory, searching through the icons until he’d discovered what he was looking for.

The [Efkini Core] dropped into his hand, and he leant back as the thing burst into existence as a render inside his mind.

“What?” August winced, moving the thing away from his face. “Why can I feel it?”

August forced himself to focus on it, trying to make sense of the situation. The only things that had been detected up so far had been living things—and that included the monstrous centipede that had attempted to crawl into the hut last night. Rittan, Haiko, and Kalter all showed up on it, while Ladybug showed up in a strange kind of way.

August turned his mind towards the description of the cube, only to blank, unable to recall what it had said. Had he actually analysed it in the first place? He couldn’t—no, he’d picked the name up from analysing the runes on its surface and from the inventory screen. He’d never actually targeted the cube directly. He leaned back further, making sure to look at the cube generally instead of directly at the runes on its surface—[Analysis].

Efkini

Male

Level 8

Tame Progress – 0/80

Tame Resistance – 17

Trait – Danger

“Oh,” August said, staring at the result. “You’re still alive.”

For a moment, he couldn’t quite put together what that meant, other than he was still holding onto something that could kill him in less than a second. But it hadn’t killed him yet, nor had it tried to the previous time he’d removed it from his inventory. It hadn’t made any attempt to fire off its chains at all. Instead, it had been completely unmoving and inert since Ladybug had destroyed its shell.

Would it eventually start to regenerate its shell if he left it alone for long enough, or was it functionally dead from this point on? It might be the case that an [Efkini] only really died after the cube was destroyed, and the shell was just some kind of prerequisite for it to function.

“I really hope this isn’t the equivalent of locked-in syndrome,” August mumbled.

There was no real way for him to figure out if it was aware of its surroundings or not. Then again, he’d seen what they looked like inside the shell, and there were no eyes, ears or other sensory organs present; the runes on the cube were probably responsible for how it perceived the world, and if those were intact, it probably was aware—and if that was true, then maybe there was another path forward.

“[Tame],” August said, feeling his mana rapidly sink into the cube.

He felt Ladybug perk up from her place by the door, shifting around to face the door, either recognising the word or feeling the mana in the skill. He turned to study the still open screen detailing the taming progress of the other Efkini.

Efkini

Male

Level 8

Tame Progress – 7/80

Tame Resistance – 17

Trait – Danger

They were actually tameable in this state—provided there was some way for them to actually regain a shell afterwards, then this opened up an entirely new pathway of possibilities. There had been no safe way to actually interact with them before, and attempting to tie one of the agile creatures down long enough to actually tame it was just impossible. But now, any [Efkini] they managed to kill—or destroy the outer shell of at least, they could then tame afterwards.

That hinged on whether they could kill the monsters without taking any losses themselves. Still, Ladybug, with a little bit of help, had managed to kill one—and if this one ended up regaining the ability to move, then they were essentially doubling their fighting power. August dumped the small portion of his returned mana into the spell, bringing it up to—[10/80]. Ladybug let out a sad trill like she was suffering some great loss by not being involved in the transfer of mana, and August rolled his eyes at the noise.

Haiko shifted before sitting up, and more of her body slipped over the invisible border—it was just as distracting as it had been the night before. The cubes, at least, didn’t have multiple complex parts that all seemed to move independently of one another, each pulling at his attention. It wasn’t quite as overwhelming as being in the hut with the three of them, though, so he took some solace in that. He’d have to try and figure out a way to desensitise himself to it because otherwise, he’d have to resign himself to being unable to interact with anyone else—and that just sounded lonely.

He turned his attention to the runes detailing the surface of the cube in his hand and sighed—he wondered if he’d ever actually get around to collecting more of them. Every time he put it in the schedule, something came rampaging through to ruin it for him. Even now, his mana was going into taming the creature, and after that, he’d need to let it regenerate in time for the next summoning.

“Maybe I’ll find some time this afternoon,” August sighed.

Haiko stepped out of range, and he heard the sound of the hanging shade pulling back. A moment later, she burst back into existence outside of his own hut like a firework going off in his mind.

“August?” Haiko said through the shade. “Are you feeling better?”

“Morning, Haiko,” August managed, clenching one of his eyes shut at the feeling. “I’m feeling great.”