You have entered your Sanctuary, for each being in this world; their place of birth is a safe and welcoming place. You cannot be harmed here. All passive regeneration increased 10x while in your Sanctuary. Your Sanctuary expands in size with your soul’s capacity. Your current Sanctuary size is a circle of 7.17m radius from your point of birth!

This new sensation was inviting and gentle and tender. Is this what being with friends or family feels like? For someone who had never had anywhere safe to go, anyone safe to be with, constantly having to look over his shoulder for people trying to kill him, the feeling was alien and a little unnerving. Even after he died, he reflected, his new existence had been one of strife, adversity and danger on a constant basis. If he was not fighting for another meal or growth, then he was running from a dangerous predator. He had never been able to relax his mind entirely and be content, be happy with his lot in life. Now, at this moment, in this place, he felt peace? Is this what peace and contentment feel like?

He felt wet and wondered where the leak was coming from. Only to realise that the leak was him, it seemed he had started to cry. It was not a tear of frustration or fear or anger. This time, and for the first time, it was a tear of joy, a tear of happiness and finally, of hope. Could I have this? It didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem like it was meant for him. It felt like he had intruded on someone else’s happy place. He was just an observer. Did he deserve this feeling? The water was flowing freely from his eyes now, all three of them leaking profusely with no sign of stopping. Luckily the liquid was being quickly absorbed back into his body, only to recycled and leak from his eyes again.

”Ummm…do you mind if I stay here for a little while? I don’t mind just remaining on the table. You can keep me in the bag. I just-I need-ahem. Please?” Aarav spoke quietly, reverently. The peace of this place must not be disturbed by loud voices.

“Yes…of course, take your time.” Haemish clearly had no idea of what was going on with Resh but was also compassionate enough not to disturb his peace, as long as it didn’t interfere with his plans.

Aarav focused internally after those initial words, content to stay here without moving. He observed his surroundings. The shelves and cubbies of the alchemical lab were at once nostalgic and brand new. Aarav struggled to put words to the sensation then dismissed the thought when he realised words would never be able to adequately capture the feeling.

The three men that had been tasked with clearing the lab came in shortly after Haemish had left and begun bustling about emptying the shelves into bags and boxes, being expeditious in their actions. Aarav was simply content to observe while enjoying the space, gradually falling into more and more of a stupor. Then, just as they were finishing up, Aarav was scooped up and set on top of a stack of boxes and containers full of supplies, then promptly walked out of the room.

“Hey! Hey, what are you doing!?” Aarav yelled as he was removed from the sanctuary, then dumped on Haemish’s saddle once more. “Hey, come on! Take me back, damn it! Take me back! I want to stay there. Haemish said I could if I didn’t leave the bag.” His yells were ignored as the rest secured the items on their gryphon and Haemish’s. If I had known about this place before, I would have come here ages ago! And what the hell is Sanctuary?

If he asked Haemish about it, then he would know that this place was Aarav’s sanctuary. If he didn’t ask, he would remain clueless about what it all meant. Okay, what do I know? This is where slime me was born when human me died on Earth. At the time, I didn’t yet have any of my memories of human me, so I was just Slime me at the time? That much is a little bit clearer. The radius of my sanctuary is a little over seven metres which is a little larger than the lab we were just in. That place was gigantic!

Looking at his stats menu, he recognised the correlation immediately. For each point in his core fifteen stats, there was one centimetre added to the radius of his Sanctuary. So theoretically, I could have a space where I am protected that is like a kilometre wide? No, that’s ridiculous. I would need to have a hundred thousand stat points for that to be possible, no fifty thousand for a diameter of one kilometre. That’s way too much. I wonder what Haemish’s stats are like. That guy looks like he could handle a beating or Rion. He is massive!

If the last six months were any indication of how long that would take, it was essentially impossible. Still, a Boss Copycat Slime can dream! Stupid species with its foolish name. It still came with some advantageous abilities and perks. Come on, Aarav, focus up. Stop going off on tangents. Also, I should probably stop with the yelling.

He was still yelling when the man himself stepped out of the house looking no more burdened than when he had entered. Aarav looked at him strangely, curiosity temporarily assuaging his distress at being too ruthlessly ripped from his place of origin.

“So what is this place anyway? What happened, I thought you had been living here, but that lab looks completely new?” Aarav was grasping at straws, but he needed to know what had happened here sixth months ago. If he was right, something must have happened, and then Resh was born.

Haemish stepped up to his gryphon and, by extension, Aarav. “Umm, no need to scream. We will come back here soon enough. As to your question, there was a bit of an explosion, and my lab was damaged. What you see is after some repairs were done.” Taler let out a guffaw, and Haemish stared him down. He quieted pretty quickly after that.

Aarav was quiet and contemplative. Six months ago was the furthest Resh or Aarav’s memories stretched for this life. He had nightmares about his previous life, but he didn’t want to think about that right now. So that means that I was born in an explosion in that lab. He has given me information, should I? For now, I should just keep my cards close to my chest. I don’t know what he is planning.

Stuck in a moment of indecision, he decided that he could reveal something that might aid him moving forward. It would be an admission of weakness, but Haemish had extended an olive branch by letting him be in the lab. Especially once it became clear how much it meant to Aarav, without asking for anything in return.

“Boss Copycat Slime.” Aarav huffed out in response to Haemish’s earlier unanswered question. He also let out a deep unnecessary exhale at the same time. “And it is a species, not a class.”

Okay, cast the line and wait to reel in the marlin! Aarav had never been one for fishing, but this one worked in a pinch.

He watched as the leader’s face went through a series of emotions in rapid succession, starting at interest, moving through confusion, coming out at surprise before finally landing on excitement. This man shows his feelings way too obviously. Shouldn’t he be a little more stoic or controlled for a leader, more like Rion, so dignified? This guy is so academic, no military in his background at all. Then he simply said. “Thank you for your trust.” Aarav nodded, and that was that.

The three apprentices were already mounted and ready within the allotted ten minutes. Haemish took a moment to move between the mounts and gather up what they had secured to their steeds. He muttered something about being more secure and less bulky. Aarav couldn’t help but stare. This was the stuff of fairy tales and severe RPG gaming inventory systems. This unassuming man had a spatial pouch or pocket dimension or whatever it was. But as he moved away from Rion’s mount, the bulging containers and bags had all seemingly disappeared! The same happened again with Marteen’s, and then Taler’s each time his prediction became more of a certainty. This guy…!

As Haemish came back around to mount up, Aarav glanced at the pouch at his waist. “Is that it?” It seemed that everything this man did or owned was destined to shock the newbie. It was pretty overwhelming when every time you turned around, another known law of physics was being casually ignored, bent or broken entirely. Just the idea that a situation of the-inside-is-bigger-than-the-outside that occurred in C. S. Lewis’s books was just mind-boggling when he saw it for real. Can I go in there? Woah, what would it even look like from them instead? Is it infinite!? No, no, of course not. Nothing can be endless, can it? Either his one was huge, and he didn’t worry overly much about dumping everything and anything into it, or it was indeed infinite. I have to ask. This is too much. My mind is definitely blown. If I liked this world before, I love it now!