I wasn’t able to fit the Barbearian through my portal, but maybe I can do it with a smaller form. I transformed into a frog, and spent nearly half an hour opening a portal. I had a great deal of trouble keeping it stable, so it collapsed several times. Each time, I had to start from the beginning of the process. Finally, when I managed to keep it open long enough to make an opening big enough to fit me, I hopped in.
Now that I think about it, I’ve never actually used this method to go inside my subspace before. My subspace is a part of me, so going inside of it feels a bit like I’m trying to swallow myself. Like an Ouroboros. My insides become my outsides, and it feels like my body is simultaneously expanding to fit myself in, and shrinking to fit inside.
My body couldn’t retain its shape through the process. By the time I was fully inside my subspace, I was already in my “subspace-entity” form. It’s a bit weird that this transition only works like that one way. Then again, I don’t think becoming that “subspace-entity” is possible in the outside world. At least it hasn't worked when I've tried it.
I looked around Rhannu’s bubble, and noted the changes. The space hasn’t increased noticeably since I’ve last been here. I guess I haven’t eaten any monsters since then, so there weren't any massive mana intakes I could have unconsciously spent to increase its size.
All of the trees I sent to the subspace were in this bubble in one form or another. Hopefully that means I’m able to consciously choose where things go, but it might just be a fluke. I'll need to figure out how to manage the subspace while awake.
Rhannu had already started to warp the trees into the shape of a shed. It was thin, not enough to be considered real shelter, but enough to keep most of the light from the void out. Now that I think about it, it’s also rather weird that the void is always so bright. Where is the light coming from? I don’t see any sun inside the void, and the void looks infinite. Maybe there are walls somewhere, and I just can’t see them. I’ll have to investigate this at some point.
As for the water and small mound of dirt, Rhannu seems to have mixed them together into some pool of mud that he built the shack next to. That must assist him at least a bit with eating and drinking. For the rest of his sustenance, there’s still a few deer and hogs for him to eat, though they may starve now that the fruits and vegetables have already been eaten. I should transfer some grass or something into this terrarium when I get the chance.
Rhannu was in the middle of some exercise ritual when I came in. Jabbing with his spear-arm until he could reach no further. Spreading his branch-arm until it could spread no further, then extending that as far as he could. Splitting his legs as many times as he could, making denser and denser walls of roots. Then, when he could stretch and split no further, he reverted his limbs to their normal shape. This continued until he was out of mana, and he laid down from exhaustion.
If Rhannu is exercising his powers, then he must be bored. There’s basically nothing else for him to do here. And the ambiance is still atrocious, especially for a Dryad. I still need to fill up the entire floor with dirt, make a pond, get an actually sustainable ecosystem going, and find something more entertaining for Rhannu to spend his time on. Maybe farming? Wine-making? Company? Would it even be moral to go around looking for the recently dead, then resurrecting them here without their permission?
Was it moral for me to do that with Rhannu?
Regardless, I’ll want Rhannu’s input on entertainment. There’s no need to make any decisions for him. But first, while I’m still in space-entity form, I want to check on the Spiderilla.
Now let’s see what we have he- Oh come on! Everything? This gluttonous, murderous brawn-for-brain killed everything that I kept in his dome. Now the only carnivores I have left are the foxes and the owl I left in Rhannu’s space. And that little fucker looks so satisfied, picking its teeth with a wolf’s splintered bone.
No, no. This is on me. I put multiple animals into the same cramped space as a territorial monster, and expected it not to go on a murderous rampage. Great thinking, Sylas.
Well, at least it won’t have to worry about food for a while. But if it can’t play nice with others, then maybe it doesn’t deserve so much space.
I’m going to need space anyways for when I start collecting more monsters. I was planning on having one space for dangerous animals and monsters, and one for everything else, and just expanding the spaces so whatever I put in there can coexist. Clearly that won’t work. I’m going to need to make separate, curated spaces for every monster species I collect.
I split off about 3/4ths of its space, making three more terrariums where I’d put other monsters in the future. For now, since I needed to keep something inside each terrarium so they don’t explode, I took a few things from Rhannu’s terrarium, using a portal to connect the terrariums as-needed.
In one terrarium, I put the Ostean Giant Flytrap, which was thankfully still alive, unlike all the other plant life in there. I had to scoop out some of Rhannu’s mud for it, and I’ll need more dirt and water for it in the future. I’m not sure about sunlight, but if it’s still alive now, it must be getting sunlight from somewhere. Maybe the void light counts? Convenient. Way too many things about this place are way too convenient. Something’s up, but I can’t put my finger on it. I’m too tired to think right now.
In the other two domes, I put the remaining locusts and a few of the Spiderilla’s kills (to its protest).
This left the Spiderilla just enough room to move around in, about 500 square feet. Significantly less than what it gave me for absorbing it, but it will get some of that back when it learns to behave. Or when I have more to spare. Okay, let’s be honest, I’ll give it back when I feel more forgiving. Maybe I’ll spend some time making the space more livable for it later. We’ll see.
I moved back to Rhannu’s terrarium before shifting into his form. Rhannu was still awake, but was clearly preparing to sleep. He fashioned a deerskin as a blindfold, and was about to put it on when I materialized from seemingly nothing, scaring him momentarily.
“By Vorfahr’s beard, Sylas! A little warning next time please. Where did you even come from?”
“Sorry, uncle Rhannu. Just came to check in on you. How have you been?”
I could see it in his eyes. This place was a prison to him. A prison of my making. Of course, he put it much nicer than that. “A little bored I guess. I can see you’re trying, though. Thanks for the trees, by the way.”
Leave it to Rhannu to always see the good in people, even where there was none. “Yeah, I can guess why. Any advice on what specifically I can get you? What are you interested in? What kind of a vibe do you want for this space?”
“Well, first and foremost, I’d prefer not to be sober.” Rhannu half-joked. “Other than that, way more plant-life. The herbivores, as much as I enjoy having them around, have already gone through what was here before. As for entertainment, can I get a few books, and maybe a river or pond to fish in?”
“Sure, I’ll have to get some clay for a riverbank, and I’ll need a lot more dirt to grow and keep plants in. I’ll get to it tomorrow, or at least as much as I have time for. Mind if I spend the night here?” I asked.
“Go ahead. I could really use the company. What’ve you been up to?”
I talked about what I’d done since I'd last seen him. He got a real chuckle out of hearing how Coeden nearly tore me a new one. Or tore him a new one? It’s his body, and the injuries transfer over. After catching up, we kept talking for a bit. Nothing particularly important was said, but he needed the conversation. A while later, we both drifted off to sleep.
I felt something rather strange again, just before sleep overtook me. Another bout of unusual mana. It felt different from the other mana I've sensed. Hungrier.
I paid it no mind, though. I was too tired to focus on it.
---
I awoke the next morning, and Rhannu had already left the shack. I went out, and found him doing his exercise ritual again.
That’s weird. He used all his mana last night, and he wouldn’t have had time to photosynthesize or eat his mana back in the time I’d taken my eyes off him. Unless of course he skipped out on sleep, but it isn’t like Rhannu to do that. So how had he gotten the mana?
Actually, now that I think about it, my mana has been refreshed too. But that’s not possible. The only type of mana that can force its way into you without another person doing so is…
My eyes grew wide, and I began to panic.
“Rhannu, the mana in here, it’s—”
“Un-aligned, yes.”
“Why is there so much of it? Have any monsters spawned? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“No, no monsters have spawned yet. If any had, I’d have taken care of them.”
“But what if you couldn’t? What if they spawned in your sleep, or were too strong for you to handle?”
“Then I would die.” He said nonchalantly.
I opened my mouth to reply, but I couldn’t find words. What do I even say to that? Does he really think that little of his own life?
Of course he would. I shoved him in a glorified box, and told him he’d have to spend the rest of his life here. Why wouldn’t he stop caring? All I’ve done so far is give him the bare minimum of what he needs to survive, but that’s no way to live a life. I have to try harder to make this place better. But that might take some time, and now we've got a more pressing concern. A monster might spawn here. A monster I won’t know about, and may be beyond Rhannu’s ability to handle.
I need to make a mana well. It shouldn't need to be big, just enough for Rhannu’s terrarium. Even an E class mana-well should work, though I don’t know how to make one. Maybe I can find some answers at Aurelia’s library? Surely it’d have something.
Also, there’s one other thing that I need to figure out. There’s something deeply wrong with my powers. Too many things are just too convenient or unusual about it. This has been nagging me for a long time, but I’ve been writing it off as just a rarity. But I can’t do that anymore. Not with the facts sticking themselves in my face.
If it were just resurrection, that’d be fine. If it were just the whole “infinite subspace” thing, that’d be dandy. A convenient source of light? Cool, whatever. Immortality? Rare, awesome, not impossible. Getting cool powers at 18? Incredibly rare, especially for them to be remotely useful, but not impossible. A source of neutral mana that I can use to replenish my own mana? Wait, no that's just straight up impossible, not just improbable.
All together, this combination of powers simply can't exist. Not naturally, anyways. Though I've never heard of any successful experiments with creating artificial powers in humanoids. Powerless wouldn’t exist if there were. The closest humans have ever gotten were Orcs, and they have major restrictions on how much we can influence their powers.
But if my powers can't exist, or are artificial, then why do I have them? Who made them? Who would have given me, some random powerless from some nothing town like Norbury, all these powers? And more importantly…
I have the ability to create a space, capable of sustaining life, that grows the more I put in it. I have the capability of resurrecting, so long as I have creatures to take care of. I have the ability to hide out in my own subspace. Even my deprivation only deprives me of my mortal body…
Why is my power so perfectly tailored to surviving the end of the universe?
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