The next morning, I’m finishing up the last of the Space ‘bags’ when Merlin shows up.

“Nash, can you help me with something?” he asks. I just nod and he keeps going: “Can you put a large mana battery inside my space bag?”

“Humm, what are you thinking?”

“Well, I made a battery of the right size for my…inventory, but the opening is not large enough for the disks.”

“You could break it up and feed it that way.”

“That will take forever. And if I have any choice, I rather keep to a more well tested design. At least while you don’t work out how to make larger spaces and my companion doesn’t get stronger.”

“Come on, what you are complaining about? You already got the expended version. Only you and Alex have them. A nice 4 cubic meter sphere.”

“Absolutely perfect for pretty much everything we are realistically going to be doing in the instance, but as for your Idea of taking stuff back home, that isn’t going to be enough.”

“I know, but we have time for that. I will see what I can do… about the battery I mean, give me just a few minutes to finish up here.”

“Ok. Meet you at the academy. The battery is there.”

I rush through the rest of my work before heading over to Merlin’s magic academy. After the brief walk, I move into the dirt field they use for magic training in front of the space allotted to the academy. Right beside the main two story building a 2 meter wide semi sphere sits atop a weird wooden tripod.

The rush around the place is a small sign of the changes as our population was finally seeing an increase. New students kept showing up as people moved in the village which cause the classes and schedule around the use of this prime real state piece to be pushed to the limit. Especially attendance for the A-class. Working hand in hand with Merlin is not only prestigious but also a good way of getting feedback that no one else could give.

Approaching the copper battery is a huge semi sphere made from copper disks. The entire thing must weigh about 15 tons. I see the mana tap as it is being recharged from the village's supply. As my perception field encompasses it, I pretty much confirm my suspicions, in not only weight but mana capacity. It is not hand engraved, relying on the bulk casting method and therefore has less storage, but even then it should hold no less than 100 thousand mana. That is dozens of times more mana than Merlin's mana pool.

“That’s a lot of mana,” I state the obvious as Merlin approaches me from behind.

“Yep. With it and a flying vehicle, I can go pretty much anywhere I want.”

“A lightweight vehicle like a speeder only takes about 2k mana an hour. This battery should be enough for at least two days of nonstop flight.”

“Closer to three days. Without any recharges, that is enough for over 10 thousand kilometers in a single trip.”

“With it, if I don’t come back in time from the trial you will be able to power the flying bus.”

“Yeah, that crossed my mind. Wait... you finally gave in? Flying bus.”

“Better than Air Force One or the other half dozen names people tried to give it,” I say kicking the dirt on the ground still miffed at the lack of choice for my own stuff.

We both go silent and I start the work. Extending my will and connecting with the seed Merlin put behind his ribcage. He is definitely not a squeamish old man, that’s for sure.

Working through the seed, I bypass the protections afforded by the system and take direct control of his spatial ‘Item’. The seed gives me all the access I need for me to leverage my raw power.

I force open a portal underneath the wooden support for the mana battery and let gravity do its work. Though as soon as the first disks cross the portal, the momentum gain is gone in the absence of gravity.

Just a moment later, the last of the disks gives a final loud clang and I shut off the portal.

Merlin grimaces at me with his hands blocking his ears.

“You could have warned me.” He goes over it inside his spatial item and seemingly finds everything in order after the abrupt landing. “It seems everything is ok. Thanks.”

“It’s nothing.” Feeling a bit sheepish, but not showing it.

“It saved me so much work and even increased the storage capacity by a small fraction per unit of weight compared to relying on a more modular design. So… not nothing.”

“Keep pushing magic research forward and give me access to your notes and we will call it even.”

“I already do that, but sure. Though I got to admit, you got us a treasure trove of information, so many interesting new lines of research from all the new runes. It will take at least another month to explore the surface of our new repertoire. Half the stuff we wanted to make now only needs a quick trip to the library and boom, a couple of hours and you have a design instead of taking us, days or weeks.”

“Yeah, so mana possibilities. I even thought of delaying my departure a little longer, but I’m not going to. I should have headed out already following my original schedule but I still have a couple of things to take care of.”

“Then I will let you get on with it.” Lifting his hand high in the air, he says in an imperious tone: “You are released.”

I look at him amused before letting out a chuckle. Turning around, I head on my way.

First stop: the Smithy. Need to take care of that before finishing up my preparations and then heading over to the trial. A few gold coins accumulated over there while getting even more familiar with the fine manipulation of Mana. Only reasons to smile.

Shifting my schedule mentally I conclude that finishing everything before sunset is on the table.

About three hours pass, still, before noon, when I only have one small thing to do. Something that usually consumes a few minutes here and there and was progressing nicely along, but was still limited in nature and I wanted to get in full working order before I headed over.

I pull the smallest chunk of gold from my pocket and start meditating. Just whirling away at it as I draw the fragments inside and incorporate them into the thin, long and flexible root network spread throughout my body.

Heading deeper and deeper within myself, I let my subconscious partially take over. Each and every single cell of this beautiful network needs to contain as much mana as possible.

A persistent thought comes to mind. Increasing the mass and adding a lot more living batteries throughout my body, even if only temporarily to store a lot more mana, but I don’t really feel comfortable increasing it any more than what I’m currently working with, and any time I think of trying to cheat the system even more blatantly, a chill comes out of nowhere.

I decide not to push my luck, concentrating on finishing my work with the remnants of the gold coin. Finally, I reach the saturation point throughout my body as I have pushed to the limit for now. And that will remain so while my understanding of plants doesn’t improve o I get access to better magical metals to replace some of the silver and gold.

If I push more metal into the individual cells than I already have, I would just kill them, instead of keeping the carefully balanced state I found.

Still, after so long I finally have almost 3 mana points that I don’t think the system will take from me.

It probably won’t make much of a difference, but at least I will have access to a smidge of mana. Working under these new and different constraints is a novel experience. Usually, I’m only limited by my ability to hold and handle mana, not the amount of mana available.

Still, a single magical spark with a little bit of light might make all the difference. Worst come to worst, it should help me in my search for actual control of mana, instead of relying on the system for that.

As I open my eyes, I realize I spend longer than I had expected, but still in time. The sun just is drawing down.

I open the prompt to glance at the button to take the trial, but as usual, a couple more small details pop into my head to deal with.

Resigned to start in another hour or so. I move to the first item in the dwindling, but the ever present list of tasks.

Connecting with the inner world, I find mayhem.

The wolf kicking and pushing rabbits all around it. Hundreds of their best combatants surround the wolf tearing up the nice and previously smooth grass patch in a corner of the inner world.

A single instant is all I need for me to start calming down as all that is wrong with my first impression starts processing. There is not a single broken bone, not a droplet of blood, nor any crippling blows.

No longer worried, I open a portal right above the wolf’s head.

“You almost gave me a heart attack.”

Fight, Fun

I get an undercurrent of his current thoughts as mental images as he slows down and the others stop sparring wit him. As he gets control of himself, he sends a familiar concept again.

Confusion

So I simplify my though and send it again.

You scare me. Fight bunnies.

Bunnies: learn, Me: fun. GOOD. Mutual.

Ok. I will leave for a long time, I believe you want to roam the instance.

Later, Now fight.

If you don’t leave now, stuck for a long time inside. Can’t talk to you.

His thought pattern goes haywire and he tries to understand what is happening by asking me why, but no matter how long or well I try to explain, our communication is too limited and he still doesn’t understand why he had to choose.

However, that doesn’t matter. He may not know why but he understands what. The rabbits don’t take any convincing, all of them are more than glad for the new addition after getting over their initial mistrust.

They are also familiar with being split apart ‘split apart’ from me and having a lot of time on their own during the trial. There are even a few advantages they could gather and stuff they could learn in the interim considering the ‘time dilation effect of the trial.

Happy with the way things turned out, I tie a mental bow on that situation and walk to my actual last task: the only occupied prison cell in the village. The pair standing guard recognizes me even before I come into full view and open the gate to let me in.

“This is a sweet gig right?” I ask trying to gauge their reaction and learn more than I could through simply asking a series of direct questions.

“Well, not much different than standing guard at the walls. It’s unlikely anything will happen at any given day, but…”

Good, they are paying attention.

“Yeah, it is a sensible precaution. He has been a model prisoner so far?”

“Outside of costing us a constant stream of mana, yeah.”

I move in watching him pretending to sleep. Even a few of his biomarkers on a cursory glance indicate that he is asleep, but I know batter. The all encompassing knowledge that the perception field provides me is not to be taken lightly. Not with someone who understands the human body as well as I do.

I could be totally wrong, but the twelve hour sleep cycle he keeps seems to be exaggerated as much as possible.

I call him out.

“Ahsjrahh.”

“Ahjrahh.” He replies immediately. Opening his eyes, he looks straight at my eyes. I move inside as he turns on a peak and constant thunder attack aimed at my shields. Restraining him so there are no surprises I touch his head and use my telepathy skill.

Do you understand me?

Yes. Learning your language. Will probably be able to talk soon.

To demonstrate just that, he speaks aloud: “Taak Englishhh.”

I let a small smile as I hear someone running over. A few seconds later one of the translator team arrives.

“He woke up? Ohh… Nash.”

“Hi. Just wanted to see how things are doing before leaving.”

He nods simply before taking sitting in the corner.

“If you can narrate your conversation. It might help us.”

I don’t see the harm, so I do exactly that. Repeating everything I say and his responses.

I will be leaving for a Class Trial.

Class trial?

Test to progress my class in level and rarity

He widens his eyes a little.

Rare inside here, soon… Expected of you. How long?

Unknown.

He grins widely.

No time compression, correct?

I nod returning a grin of my own.

Yes. Useful… under certain circumstances.

He looks at the members of the team arriving and them continues wiggling his eyebrows and sending a clear mental image.

Idea.

Tell me.

With the biggest predatory smile I have ever seen from any Goblin, he tells me:

Invite me and translators in Inner world.

I rock back before the totality of his statement sinks in.

WHY hadn’t…?? Why hadn’t I thought of that? It was so simple, I can’t enter my inner world for whatever reason, but other people should be able to, right?

We both grin on the same secret.

-----------------------------------------

Now I’m done. I could do more, but it is time, and can’t delay.

I won’t delay it any longer.

There are probably half a dozen things I’m forgetting, but I had to leave sometime, and now is the time.

I should take just a quick glance at my Checklist.

Full mana in the battery inside my body. Check.

Defenses of the inner world. Check.

Filled stomach. Check.

Wolf and Shaman yada yada. Check.

The teams of people that took the chance to travel in the inner world. Check.

Batteries and supplies inside the secondary pocket of space. Check.

Daily meditation for stat increases. Check.

A large stockpile of food for the rabbits in the inner world to supplement the slow production of roots and berries. Check.

I close my eyes ready to take the trial when someone comes over in a run.

Alex.

“Did you think you could leave without saying goodbye?”

“My god, man. Don’t do that to us.” Charlie says.

“Fine, fine,” I say.

Just half a dozen people show up, but each of them is dear in my heart.

They tied me to the instance and humanity in this new place. Even after just a few months, each of them dearer to me than just about anyone else back on Earth. How quickly things change.

At that moment, I know. They are the reason that even though I know that living alone has some advantages and hermit mode does wonder for my mental freedom, it is also boring and unsustainable to keep up forever, and so I keep coming back.

There is a liveliness whenever I’m around them. A kind of freedom that no distance for everyone could achieve.

Merlin and the way magic seems to bend to his will, Charlie and the calmness he exuded being able to see through people and tell them what they need to hear. Alex's childlike exuberance.

Greg and Richard also had their own charms, even if most of our interactions are more transactional.

Even the last addition to my inner circle, Burges, is still a friend even disconsidering the MRI and the fact he technically worked for me.

“You... I love all of you.” My throat catches and finally, I feel I'm ready, I'm eager to take the next challenge and I don’t delay for another instant. With a simple wave to my friends, I move my other hand touching the system prompt and I’m teleported elsewhere.