With a little daylight left to burn, Wren decided to familiarize himself with his new abilities. It didn't take him long to realize that the Safe Zone didn't particularly leave him much room for exploration.

Warning

Actions deemed detrimental to Safe Zone ecosystem will result in expulsion. Safe Zone areas are for the use and enjoyment of all present and future SYSTEM participants. Additional penalties may apply.

Lovely. The SYSTEM is ran by bloodthirsty hippies. Whatever, I still learned a few things: All Tulpa consume exponentially more AE the farther they are away from me after a few feet and my elemental tulpas are still not much different from the little multi-color light balls they should be as sprites, though I can feel something like emotional feedback from them that seems to stem from my own. Combat Tulpa look ugly and scary and they seem to shift and change when I'm given new stimulus that fits them, (my fear tulpa was just a spider till I started thinking about being gored and now it has some, weird as hell, blending between Boar and spider now.) Spectral Servant can't be seen easily, (think it's vaguely human shaped though.) and after playing with Beast of Burden for a bit it changed to Spectral Transport after I figured out how to compress it to a hovering disk capable of supporting my weight with a little left over. The biggest discovery I made so far is that almost all of my Class abilities would likely be crap without Spacial Calculation.

Taking advantage of Troy's coma state, Wren decided to see what he could do with his Mendicant abilities.

I can't get over the awesomeness of Spacial Calculation. After only a few moments and I have a detailed model of this guys body to help me optimize the use of my abilities. Imagine what surgeons could do with this!What's this? Bone is growing over pins in his wrist. That would definitely mess with it's mobility. Well, this might be a little irresponsible but I'm pretty confident that with his fast healing I've got a bit of wiggle room for error. Here goes nothing.

A tool conjuring and a bit of ability exploration later, Wren had off the casts and was breaking down the pins. A small cyst of gas and fluid forming over the site gave him a bit of a scare till he lanced it to let it drain. The faint, strange scent that came off the seeping let him realize that the things he broke down with purification didn't simply disappear and could likely be dangerous.

That's interesting. The abilities I have may be clearly defined and separated but in practice I feel the use is far more complex and the different abilities I have can be used in combination and even merged, to some extent, giving better and additional results...This healing shtick is tiring. I'll jus...

As consciousness returned, Wren felt a strange phenomenon. Small bits of different 'flavored' energy flowed into him from somewhere that was both a part of himself and yet not to something that was inside of himself yet not. Losing himself to the sensation of it he noticed the presence of a 'flavor' of energy that was far more scant than the rest. Instinct driven need subconsciously focusing him more intently on this rare energy, he started to feel that this energy was primarily coming into him from a more distinctly 'outside' source. A source, his slowly waking mind realized, that was faintly shaped like a cheese curl, a people sized one that exuded a not so subtle warmth.

Wren's eyes shot open to a drool soaked arm connected to a wrist with a fading scar on it. His frantically kick-started brain began relaying even more jarring details with ever increasing clarity. Rhythmic breaths tickling the back of his neck followed by the twitch of something poking him in the back of his thigh had him jumping to his feet in record time, stumbling into the direction of a very much awake and staring Lilly who had a particularly smug and schadenfreude filled face and smartphone filled hand.

“That was soo cute. Definitely a keeper. Don't look at me like that. Who's gonna see them after the battery dies anyway,” said Lilly, looking ready to bolt at a moment's notice.

“Not another word, Pippy Lo-” Wren's words interrupted by pop-ups appearing near his peripheral vision.

Discovered: Bond Assisted Recovery (Race)- When in a state of rest near bonded individuals, released Essence may be passively absorbed

Discovered: Sub-dimensional Extension (Race)- A somewhat physical and spiritual space created at the inception of a Maelstrom Born entity that acts as an umbilical cord and filter to the Maelstrom in addition to storage for essence, extra-dimensional organelles and even physical items [current physical space, appx. 2' 5” in diameter, variable growth ]

Wren ignored the groggily stirring Troy. Replying with non-committal grunts at statements shot his way as he continued reading.

Beneficial/Negative statuses ending:

Exhaustion- Induced from Stamina overdraft

Sleep- Spiritual, physical, and mental fatigue mostly alleviated

Bond assisted recovery- Contact broken, rest state broken

Safe Zone assisted recovery- Designated allotment obtained for EE and LE

Various other information continued in mind-numbing volume till Wren figured out how to filter out non-essential and repetitive notifications. Closing the interface, Lilly's excited and Troy's complex gazes came into focus. Apparently waiting patiently, in theory, for him to finish what he was doing.

“Welcome back, Wren. Hehe. Can you make me a bonded too?” exclaimed Lilly.

I just barely figured out about this bond thing, Troy and you're already sharing it with others!? How the hell did you figure it out so fast?

“What? Why?”

“Dimensional storage perk, that's why!”

“I, I don't really know how. I'm not even sure why Troy and I are bonded in the first place!”

“This is totally not fair! Figure it out then. That's just too useful and it costs 500 reward points to get it from Achievement Redemption and that's on top of a prerequisite ability. That's not even mentioning the bit of an increase in AE and Stamina regeneration. You can even talk to us with your mind, Wren, your mind~. That's all kinds of useful.”

Wait, I can do that. How do I...oh, that's how.

Wren took a second to try it out. He concentrated on the feeling of connection with Troy and thought out, “Dude you're dick! I just found out about this shit myself and you're already talking to someone else about it!?” Troy flinched and the complicated look on his face grew a little deeper but didn't say anything.

With a heavy sigh, Wren bent his attention back to the interface. What little he could glean from the SYSTEM was that additional bonds could be established by mingling his LE with willing lifeforms.

Well, I don't really get it but it doesn't state anything about LE consumption so maybe there isn't a loss or it's negligible. At any rate, after getting an additional four percent total from the safe zone, I feel a little less panic. What the hell, why not. It might help me figure more stuff out about myself.

Putting his hand on her head reminiscent of trying to expel a demon, Wren tried to grasp the feeling of the 'flavor ' that the rare energy had given him. It took him a few tries but he finally pinned some of the loose particles down in himself and tried willing them toward his hand and into her. It wasn't that hard but no feeling of connection happened, at least not until he tried to pull them back, thinking about how the connection between him and Troy felt.

Holy shit!This feels like sticking a fork into a wall socket while rubbing a particularly satisfying one out, really good and really fucking bad at the same time.

Wren's EE bottomed out as a part of himself felt like it was on the verge of unraveling. Before devolving into full panic mode Wren started receiving notifications.

Warning: Eldritch Essence has fallen below 1%

Attention: Life Essence has fallen below 20% [current 12%]

Participants Lillian Easterbrook and Troy K. Rockgarden have relinquished their rights to EE and LE recovery assistance to you. Do you accept?

Dear Gawd yes, I accept!

“We just got a notification from the SYSTEM that you're low on stuff we don't need or can't use. Did you get our shares, old boy?” Troy drawled with a touch of concern.

Wren weakly nodded as he plopped down in a sprawling sitting position, his vision blurring, as Lilly and Troy began squawking something at him he couldn't quite hear as he was hit with a bout of dizziness, followed closely at it's heels by nausea, shakes and full body sweats.

This shit's getting old. I need to wise up before I end up fucking killing myself...again!

After a few moments of being picked up, jostled, and being laid down he started feeling a faint cool breeze and refreshing water dribbled between surprisingly parched lips. His eyes slowly came back into focus just in time to make out Troy trying to shove a peeled apple slice into his mouth while Lilly fanned him with his own shirt.

What? Cuddling me wasn't enough, you gotta hand feed me too? Fuck it, I'm hungry and, if I'm being honest, a little ungrateful.

Wren grudgingly relented and opened his mouth before beginning to mechanically chew, the crisp sweetness tainted with subtle saltiness made him bitterly cry deep down where no one could see.

“I think he's snapping back Lill'ums,” Troy chirped cheerily before continuing, “I'm really sorry Wren, old bean. I was just excited when I read it and thought it was a bit too good of a deal for Lilly to miss out on, her being a tried and true mate you see.”

Dude, are you apologizing or trying to throw me under a bus?

“Me too Wren. If I thought it would knock you for a loop like that I would have been a bit more patient.”

Lillyyy~ not that you wouldn't ask but be more patient huh?Your horns are showing under that halo little girl.

“ Honestly, I should be the one apologizing. We should be thankful I got off with a slap on the wrist kind of consequence. If I had messed up it could have very well crippled both if not all three of us for all I know.”

Yeah, chew on that you two!

“ Transparency is kinda important if we're to trust each other and get through, whatever this is, alive so I don't see anything particularly wrong with what you did Troy, although I'll have a promise from both of you not to share anything about us to someone else without asking first. And I specifically want to hear the word promise being said.” Wren demanded and they complied without any signs of hesitation.

“On a lighter note my life expectancy went up nine years,” beamed Lilly

“Yeah, I felt pretty good my self, right after Wren Tinkerbell'ed all over me. Well, until you guys started dragging me around again,” offered Troy

“Oookaay...On that note, let's break up this cuddle puddle. We're burning precious morning and we have no idea how far we are from our destination,” Wren proclaimed as he made his way to his feet, his cargo shorts sliding down to his ankles before he could catch them. No one said a word as Wren carefully bent down to pull them back up, buttoned and zipped them and grabbed his shirt out of Lilly's hands. Decidedly ignoring the sporadic chuckles of his companions.

Besides the apples, Lilly also managed to find some wild potatoes,which Wren decided to take the high road and hide his own bout of chuckles over, along with some carrots and wild onions before Troy helpfully showed how to use the dimensional storage he figured out while Wren was inspecting the obelisks. After the trio collectively decided to go west, following the nature trail leading from that particular obelisk, Wren amazed his teammates with a little conjurer assisted pottery making to take some of the spring-fed pool water. With one long last look to make sure they didn't miss anything, they stepped over the boundary completely unaware of what wonders or nightmare inducing terrors lay in wait for them.