Chapter 37: Dimention

“No….No way. Evan, do you mind letting me hold onto this for a while?!” Anne exclaimed.

She held the USB drive reverently, as if it were a holy grail.

“I knew you’d be interested. Yeah. Go ahead. I look forward to seeing what you can figure out with it. I’ll come back occasionally to help and check the progress of our research.” Evan said.

“This data! Oh my god, we can further Core cross dimensional research! We can make experiments like experiment #6/90235-6:539 possible!” Anne yelled happily.

“Exactly my thoughts. It explains a bit of my research on dimensional mana, as well. I had no idea it leaked across like this. And it explains why we can actually use magic like this. I mean, I’m not in my real body right now, yet I can still use my mana as if I was. Don’t you find it kind of weird?” Evan asked.

“Wait! So…. mana is connected to a person and not their body?” Kane exclaimed.

He shot his head towards Jessica.

“I..I-I was right?” Jessica asked.

“What?” Evan asked.

“Oh. Jessica is incredibly interested in mana. Our little genius girl already has a core, too!” Kane gushed.

“Kane….I….don’t you two suck at using magic?” Evan asked.

“Yeah….” Anne said.

“What kind of.......?” Evan asked, inspecting her mana.

He didn’t see a core.

“Wait, what did you mean when you said that she has a core? I don’t see one.” Evan said.

Kane grinned mischievously.

“Why don’t you try to figure it ou-“ Kane started.

“It’s because of her category.” Anne said.

“Anne, did you have to spoil it?” Kane asked.

“He wouldn’t assume that he was wrong, he would have just thought you were being an idiot. Evan, her core has to do with a subcategory of light magic.” Anne said.

“You mean… image refraction?” Evan asked.

“Yeah. But as you can probably tell, it’s a bit more powerful than the usual type.” Anne said.

“In what way?” Evan asked.

“Well…. when I said it was a subcategory of light magic, that was just what we used to assume. It’s what all of the information we could understand pointed to. This USB drive may hold a lot more validity for one of Jessica’s theories.” Anne said.

“What do you think it is now?” Evan asked, leaning forward.

“Jessica, could you explain it for me?” Anne asked.

Jessica looked flustered.

“I-I-I…..a-alright. We-well….my theory was that it can move things between two places…” Jessica trailed off nervously.

“And in turn allows something to be in more than one place at the same time, right?” Evan asked, raising an eyebrow at her intellect.

“Mhm….w-when I use it, the world turns…..weird and gray. Nobody can see me. Time seems to stop, too.” Jessica said.

“So…. it affects space. Or….yeah, I see what you were talking about, Anne. This might have something to do with why mana can travel between realities.” Evan concluded.

Jessica stared at him.

“Th-that…. I never thought about that….that-that...that makes more sense than M-my original theory…” Jessica said, doing some calculations in her head.

“Your daughter reminds me more of myself than either of you two….She's quite smart.” Evan said.

“She was raised on stories about you. Somehow she looks up to you. I feel bad for her.” Kane said.

Jessica stomped on his foot.

“H-he… he’s a hero. I think it is respectful to l-look up t-to him. H-he saved us a-all. All you’ve done is be m-mean to him si-since he arrived.” Jessica said.

“Hey Kane. It looks like your daughter’s on my side.” Evan grinned.

“Everyone is. You united the entire world by convincing people to join your side.” Anne said.

Evan shook his head.

“No. I helped them.” Evan said.

“Your help is what convinced so many people. Do you even know how many people owe you their lives?!” Kane asked.

“Other than a very small percentage of the people that Evan mentioned, mostly the ones who live in the wastelands, I’m guessing everyone does. You, me, Jessica...every last living thing in this entire dimension…..” Anne said.

“....Let’s just go back to talking about magic.” Evan said.

“Fine. Humble bastard. What did you mean by mana traveling through dimensions or whatever?” Kane asked.

“Well, for one thing, watch this.” Evan said.

He used some magic, making sparks fly, and creating a small rainbow in the air.

“Okay? So? You’re using mana.” Kane said.

“This is a digital body, Kane. It’s a projection of my consciousness into this dimension through your goggles. Meaning I can take my mana with me anywhere.” Evan said.

Kane thought about it for a second.

“Is….is that important? I don’t know the mechanical applications for that. I admit it sounds cool, but….” Kane replied.

“It means we can transfer energy between realities easily, right?” Anne asked.

“Yeah. The previous setup was shit. But that’s still not the cool thing. Well, the energy part is close. Anne, what kind of energy is mana?” Evan asked, grinning.

“Huh? It’s a…..universal…..energy…..type... holy shit. We can use this place to bring in infinite resources to the other side if we make mana generators here.” Anne realized.

She was too shocked to even raise her voice.

“Yup. Now, I know it will probably create a strain on you, so I won’t force you to, but I’ll ask you. Anne, can you help me build generators?” Evan asked, expecting nothing.

Anne thought for a moment, then shook her head.

“I wish I could help. We don’t have the manpower needed to build something like that. Our resources may be infinite, but our population barely rises, and most people already have jobs. This place is both peaceful and not peaceful. There’s a strain on the relationship between the countries here. If any side lets up, a lot of people might die.” Anne said.

“Figured. Then, I’ll-“ Evan started.

“Don’t. I know how you’re going to try to solve this. We don’t need to unite the world here. It’s rather beneficial for me to have other countries that manage themselves. And I can’t handle the workload that comes with managing the entire world.” Anne said.

“Fine. Then all I can ask is for updates on how your research is progressing .” Evan said.

“I’ll do what I can. How much longer are you going to stay here for?” Anne asked.

“Me and lime are leaving as soon as possible…. we have real bodies. We need to take care of them. The timer I set on the workshop's biological stasis field is probably going to end soon. I had planned on staying longer, but we got caught up in the dimension I told you guys about. So we have pretty much the rest of the day, and that’s it. We will visit often, though. You don’t need to worry about not seeing me again for an entire four centuries.” Evan said.

“The day’s almost over…..” Kane sighed.

“Yeah, sorry about that. It was extremely brief. We should be waking up in just a few hours, so a little bit before midnight. Next time I’ll set the biological stasis for longer.” Evan said.

“Wait. Is that why we were stuck in the other dimension?” Lime asked.

“Yeah. Even if we could log out, we wouldn’t be able to do anything except think. Our bodies are frozen. It’s like the opposite of the stasis tech you rescued me from. I’m an idiot for setting them up with timers. It’s another thing I have to work on. So much to do….” Evan said.

“Well, we still have a few hours. It’s not an immediate goodbye. I’ll make dessert-wait. Evan, if your bodies are digital or whatever, why can you eat?” Kane asked.

“Kane, you’re the one who made the goggles we’re using. You tell me.” Evan sighed.

“.....Is it deconstructing the food on a molecular level and releasing it into the air?” Kane asked.

“Bingo! Well, mostly. Anyway. Kane. I’ll make some dessert too.” Evan said.

“That's fine, but we don’t have any hot cocoa ingredients.” Kane said.

“I can just transform stuff into the ingredients using mana. Rearranging stuff on a subatomic level isn’t that hard. Controlling it properly might be, but it’s used in a lot of different magic. It helps with spontaneous chemical reactions, or other similar stuff. It helps make magic, magic. Though, passing it through a core category is definitely the best way to use mana. So it’s more of a party trick.” Evan said.

“Then why not just use creation magic?” Anne asked.

“About that. It’s weird. I can’t seem to use creation magic properly in this dimension. I noticed it when we got here. I can try, but it might be because I’m still a little bit tired. Can’t get a clear picture in my head.” Evan said.

“Then let’s go to the store and get some actual ingredients, instead. I don't want you accidentally blowing up my house.” Kane said.

“I’m fine with that. I’ll get to see the second world up close. Lime, do you want to come with us?” Evan asked.

“Yeah. It sounds like fun to me!” Lime said.

“Anne, are you coming?” Evan asked.

“I’ll stay here and watch over Jessica while you guys are out. Besides, if I did come with you guys, it would just cause a commotion.” Anne said.

“We’ll be back soon, then.” Kane said.

They left, and headed towards the market.