[This is going to be a shorter chapter than usual and it will also be about the extradimensional group going over all of their current possessions. For those of you who ignore side chapters this is more of an interlude, and for those of you who only read side chapters (I know you are out there) this won’t be the story of an apple tree or the story of a magical gay couple guilding a land-boat. Sorry. Maybe I’ll spam some sides when I get the chance. I dunno.]

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Kain’s mind plunged into the crystal. As sensation left his body, the world within the amulet faded into view.

‘This is a mess,’ Kain thought to himself. The once barren void Kain inherited from the dead was now filled with clutter he half-remembered collecting. Boxes made of Ethersteel were scattered around the void, all filled to the brim with leathers or furs or metals or books or fabric or anything else. Scattered with the boxes were many large books, amulets, biomachine corpses, and a few giant daggers. ‘Before anything else, I am going to have to take care of the mess…’ he thought with a sigh. For the next few minutes he mentally ordered the boxes and items around, organizing them into their own areas, and counting all of them. He was able to get rough estimates for every Duvalid and Duvalad box type as well as line the miscellaneous items up to observe. Once completed, he took a box of each type scavenged from the tower, as well as a giant dagger, and left the amulet’s world.

With a thud the boxes fell from thin air and landed on the floor of their shared room as Kain returned to his own body. Without delay, Luna opened the 5 boxes and revealed their contents. The first was a batch of Ethersteel, the second was a mixed batch of different metals, the third was a collection of random furs and leathers, the forth was a batch of grey fabric, and the fifth was a batch of giant spider-drones. Ythane peered into each of the boxes with a reminiscent gaze, “I see you took everything of importance,” she stated, “Good. It makes little sense to let such wealth waste away in some ruins.”

Luna nodded and peered into the Ethersteel box, grabbing a bar. “So, we can use this stuff for any big projects or the like, can’t we?”

“We can,” Kain agreed, “I got a rough estimate, but I’m certain that I have at least 100 boxes of this in the amulet. With all of that, we won’t need to worry about getting something else like it,” Kain added.

The other two nodded and moved over to the next box, which was filled with a mix of metals, “Hmm. Transmission metal, storage metal, and reproduction metal. If you were wondering what they were. If I am correct, you used the transmission metal and storage metal in your collector, so you know what they do. Did you test the reproduction metal?” Ythane asked.

“We did,” Kain replied, “We were messing around with it when Luna used her Ether to pick it up. The metal changed and… well, turned into a sort of catalyst for that type of Ether. So, what did you guys use it for?”

“We used it for mass production. It let us make automated systems to produce the Steel Legion. It freed up imbuers to either go into battle or perform other jobs. I don’t exactly know what phenomenon causes reproduction materials, but the prevailing theory has been that they appear in places with multiple conflicting elements; the same is true for transmission metal and storage metal because they usually appear in similar areas,” Ythane added as she walked by the crate.

“From what I guessed,” Kain began, “We have about 40 of those boxes, so we can use them if we want to make complex machinery.”

Luna nodded and opened the next crate, which was filled with leathers, furs, and other assorted textiles, “These will make a nice coat,” Luna said, “Ah! I can even take some of it and learn the DNA from it. Ythane! What animals did these come from? I’m really curious because I’ve never seen anything big in the forest,” she asked.

Ythane examined one of the leathers in the box, holding it up to the electric light in the ceiling, “Hmm… this one came from a giant charger bull. That one came from a giant spring ape. That one down there came from a sloth.”

Kain raised an eyebrow, “A sloth? Isn’t it a bit too big to be from a sloth? I mean, they’re smaller than me,” he asked.

She shook her head, “From my world, sloths were apex predators that ruled an area like a tyrant. That’s where the idea of ‘sloth’ came from, as they were known to be lazy after establishing a domain,” she explained, gesturing to the sickle-like claws that were still attached to the fur of the sloth, “They are quite popular as clothing among the Duvalid, as it is both warm and provides protection.”

While Luna gorged herself on genetic data, Kain and Ythane moved on to the next box, which was filled with the grey, soft, strong, hydrophobic fabric. Kain picked up a giant roll by strengthening his limbs, “Hmm… with the 65 boxes of this and 30 boxes of leathers, we should never be without clothing. Also, did you make the barrier strong enough to withstand all of this Ether density?”

“I very much did,” Ythane answered, nodding, “Nothing should get in or out of this room, even if the door is opened,” she assured, “Anyway, this is called vigrassa cloth. It has the properties of being strong, soft, durable, and absolutely unaffected by water, or any other liquid for that matter. It took a lot of effort to get this much, but it was worth it,” she remarked, sighing wistfully.

He chuckled, “I do remember its extreme unwillingness to stick to blood. On one hand, it is good that our clothes don’t get stained by blood. On the other, it makes my life a bit harder when using standard runes,” he said with faux annoyance.

Ythane giggled and walked up to the last crate, which was filled with the parts of a spider drone. She gawked at it for a moment before whipping her head at Kain, “Why didn’t you tell me you had this? Do you understand what we could do with these? We obviously can’t use them here, but if we are ever out in the wilderness, we have easy transportation. And, we can model smaller drones from it for use in cities. This’ll be a good option in the long run, Kain,” she remarked, “Anyway, is there anything else? You have that book shipment I ordered, the Giant corpse, and the unstable gems, as well as the contents of the tower library. What’s left?”

Kain recalled all of the miscellaneous items floating around the void of his amulet, “Other than the crates and books, I have a bunch of biomachine corpses in here that, for some reason, have not rot, some cooking tools, the guns I had at the beginning of all of this, and a few giant daggers. Anything important?”

She shook her head, “I do not believe so. Alright, let’s help Luna with her genetic collection; we won’t have anything to do for a while, since Gus is making plans, so we’ll have some free time.” Kain nodded his head, stored the shipments into his amulet, and help Luna collect genetic samples with Ythane.