Banished from the herd, I was actually a member of a very rare species. ~With the unique skills that only I can use, I can grow and evolve quickly. I will become an unrivaled monster~ - Episode 46: Understanding

Episode 46: Understanding

“(One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.)”

“What… are you doing?”

One morning, I was doing radio exercises in the flower garden at my dwelling. Paula, who had come to visit, asked me.

“I’m practicing a [Skill]. I want to use it in battle.”

The skill called [Dance] makes movements more agile during the act. I was experimenting, trying to figure out if I could apply this effect during combat.

I was going through one of the few dances I knew, radio exercises, while searching for moves that could work with my slime body and be useful in battle.

“I see… so that’s what you’re doing.”

“Alright, let’s get started with magic practice for today.”

“Y-yes, thank you.”

For some reason, Paula seemed a bit hesitant as I spoke. Since the day she came with Ergo, we had practiced magic together several times.

“Oh, before we start, I brought the thing you asked for.”

“Ah, thanks.”

As she said this, Paula pulled out an arrow. The arrowhead and the tail were wrapped in white cotton, like how fragile items are packaged.

“They said the tip is made of a special metal that explodes on impact, so make sure to unwrap the cotton before using it.”

“Got it, got it.”

As Paula explained, it was a special arrow that would explode on contact. I had asked Ergo to procure this for me. Apparently, it was incredibly expensive. So after analyzing it with [Replicant Form], I’d return it to Paula.

I carefully stored the arrow in my [Weapon Storage] to avoid any accidental explosions.

“Oh, by the way, your long-distance teleportation seems to be going well, huh?”

“Yes, I’m still struggling a bit with multiple activations, but there’s no issue with moving via [Space Hole].”

[Space Hole] is a magic that opens a hole in a different dimension. While [Space Storage] can also store objects, it can only target individual items. For example, if you wanted to store multiple weapons, you’d have to activate [Space Storage] for each weapon, which is terribly inefficient in terms of |Mana|.

In such cases, [Space Hole] is much more useful, as you can just shove everything into the hole once it’s open. Maintaining the hole also doesn’t require much |Mana|. So it’s far more efficient when dealing with multiple objects.

Some time ago, we had discussed whether [Space Hole] could be applied to teleportation magic. If you could open two holes, one near yourself and one in a distant location, you could move instantly through the space between the two.

However, there were two problems with this.

The first was that living beings couldn’t enter the other dimension. The second was that [Space Hole] couldn’t be created in a distant location.

The first issue was resolved easily with a bit of training. By making the two holes touch inside the alternate dimension, effectively reducing the travel distance to zero, living beings could pass through without actually entering the alternate space.

The second issue seemed solvable as her magical skills improved. In just half a day’s practice, she had extended the range of the hole by ten centimeters. It seemed like short-distance teleportation would be achievable soon.

But this alone wouldn’t be enough to achieve long-distance teleportation. So I brainstormed and experimented, and I discovered that [Marking] would do the trick.

[Marking] refers to creating an alternate dimension attached to an object in the desired location.

[Space Storage] is a magic that creates a pocket dimension tied to a real-world object, and this “real-world object” doesn’t have to belong to Paula. And it seems that distance restrictions can be ignored between self-made alternate dimensions. So even if they are quite far apart, Paula’s alternate dimension and the object’s alternate dimension can be connected with a [Space Hole].

When different dimensions are connected, the distance between Paula and the object becomes almost zero, allowing a [Space Hole] to be activated near the object.

By then merging the holes together, the long-distance teleportation hole is successfully created.

To be honest, I had doubts about whether she could connect alternate spaces from the town to this beast domain. But that was proven just a moment ago. If it’s a self-created alternate space, it might truly be able to ignore infinite distances.

In any case, thanks to that, we were able to start magic training early this morning.

“Today’s training will focus on deepening your understanding of [Space Storage].”

As you can tell from the fact that teleportation passes through an alternate space, Paula still hasn’t grasped the sense of interacting with the real world. Therefore, she needs to understand the characteristics of spatial magic more deeply. If she could interact with the real world directly, we wouldn’t have to deal with such complicated methods.

“Haven’t we done this before?”

“That was just a basic version. This time, we’ll dig deeper.”

Previously, we learned that living things couldn’t enter, forcing entry would cancel the [Space Hole], and the edges of the hole were too fragile to be used in combat. However, this time, we’re going to investigate more thoroughly.

“So, today’s training will take place here.”

“Isn’t this the same place where we measured the maximum capacity of [Space Storage]? Feels a bit nostalgic.”

I carried the girl on top of my body and moved using my chain-sickle to a river we normally use for fetching water, about five minutes away.

“First, take a look at this.”

I said, striking the water’s surface with the weight of my chain-sickle. Bubbles rose and drifted away with the current after the splash. I pointed to one of the bubbles with the weight and asked:

“What do you think that is?”

“A bubble, right?”

“Exactly. Now, do you think you could store that bubble using [Space Hole]?”

“I think so… [Space Hole]… There, I did it.”

As Paula activated the spell, a black hole appeared ahead of the bubble’s path. The bubble was sucked into it along with the flowing water.

“Good. Now, try releasing it above the river.”

“Okay.”

Following my instructions, Paula released the bubble into the river. It floated downstream without popping, prompting me to ask:

“Do you know what’s inside that bubble?”

“Air, right?”

“Exactly. So, that means you just stored the air along with the bubble.”

“Oh, right!”

“[Space Hole] can’t absorb living things, but air isn’t considered a living thing, is it?”

It seemed like [Space Storage] only had the restriction that “living things can’t enter.” So, I figured that if she believed it was possible, she could probably store air as well. My prediction was correct, and when Paula expanded the [Space Hole] again, a roaring wind began to blow. But it quickly stopped.

“The capacity is already full.”

“Alright, now try releasing it.”

“Okay… Wait, how should I…?”

It seemed that gases couldn’t be targeted by [Space Storage], and Paula was having trouble releasing them through the [Space Hole]. After a moment of thought, she turned to me.

“Katsu, can I borrow one of your weapons?”

“Sure, go ahead.”

“Thanks. [Space Hole]… Yup, looks like I can push the air out this way.”

She started tossing weapons one by one into the alternate space. Even though it was full, the weapons still went in, pushing the air out instead. After repeating this several times, most of the air had been expelled from the alternate space.

“Thanks, I’ll give this back.”

“No problem.”

As she returned the weapons, we discussed the situation.

“Why do you think only the air was pushed out? There’s still other stuff stored in there, right?”

“That’s because I was consciously pushing the air out. If what you put in has a larger volume, you can force other things out.”

“I see, so it’s something you can control… Oh, by the way, just to be sure, check if you can still use [Space Hole] as normal.”

“Okay, [Space Hole]… Yup, as long as I focus on not pulling in any air, it works just like before.”

Just like with some of my [Skills], it seems this aspect is flexible. Relieved that it worked fine, I let out a sigh of relief.

“By the way, did you expel all the air?”

“No, there’s still a little bit left.”

“Did its volume expand?”

“Nope. It barely takes up any space.”

“So, the density doesn’t change, huh? I kind of expected that from the torch experiment, but it seems that things inside the alternate space stay exactly as they were when they were stored.”

And so, we continued our magic training for the day.