“More than three hundred…?” Tara gasped. “I’ve never met anyone even close to a hundred layers. Are you sure?”
“Yes, I am. I just counted it again. It is extraordinary. In my many lifetimes, I only gathered forty-one layers. But because it gets exponentially more difficult the more layers you have; I didn’t have the means to continue.” Anubis answered her. “However, there is a block on yours, and can only use fifty of them now.”
“That makes sense. Yesterday I overloaded it, and I made a breakthrough, so until then it was even less.” I wondered out loud. “So, can you help me control it?”
“I really hope you have some interesting things to say about the ancient world.” she said as she stood up again and disappeared into another staircase that led downstairs.
I looked at Tara. She was still in a bit of shock. Since I didn’t have much of a reference point, it didn’t hit me hard what these numbers mean. But one thing was clear: I still had much potential to grow. But it worried me, if at 50 layers I leaked this bad, what would happen at say, 300? Anubis came back up after a short while, carrying a small leather pouch in her mouth. She dropped it in my hands.
“Here’s my part of the bargain. Put it on and we can start with your payment.” I opened it, and inside I found a ring. It was made of black metal with thin silver Celtic style triangles and other shapes etched into it. I put it on my right index finger hesitantly, and immediately felt a tight pressure around my crystal in my chest. I almost fell over, but it soon faded, and the uncomfortable feeling disappeared. I pulled on my xin mentally and was surprised to find almost all of it blocked.
“This is awesome! Thank you!” I thanked her quickly. I couldn’t use much xin, because it was locked away, so I would need to take it off when I’m fighting, but it was a fantastic solution until I could get my powers under control myself. She looked satisfied with my reaction. The leftover trickle of xin I could still use, for example, for augmenting my body or creating enough heat for a fire but blocking that much was nothing compared to even before my crystal transformation.
“It blocks I’d say around 90% of your xin output, so your power level like this is now comparable to someone who has 5 layers. A normal person would’ve collapsed from blocking off the crystal, and it was used for dangerous prisoners to block their magic. I had no idea it’d come in handy again.” The giant cat explained. It had runic etching in it, which is a technique allowing ordinary objects to hold and create simple magic.
Anubis then led me next to the open window-wall, where a few chairs were set up for her human-sized guests. I sat down in one of the comfortable chairs. Tara sat down next to me, looking a bit more relieved now, and less stressed seeing as my xin leak stopped altogether. “So, lady Anubis, what would you like to know?” I asked her.
“Let’s start with history. Not much data is available for me to look at from before the asteroid.”
“I have surface level knowledge of history, but I could tell it to you since the formation of our solar system.” I told her nervously. Her eyes lit up. “Or would it be easier from the Big Bang… I’m more comfortable with space subjects anyways. So, around 13.7 billion years ago, from a single point of almost infinite energy, the universe started expanding.” I started to explain. I told her all I knew about the formation of the first galaxies, our solar system and Earth.
Anubis’ eyes were practically glowing. I guess this was all new and precious information to her. I continued to the best of my ability to explain everything I knew. Surface level information seemed to be enough, and she looked satisfied. I was at the industrial revolution when a sudden message from Neo snapped me out of my train of thought.
<You could propose to create a link between me and lady Anubis, and I could polish and collect the information, arrange it in chronological order, and I’d just need to scan your brain. Also, she seems like she has tons of information, which I would gain access to for us.> It looked like a perfect plan. I just didn’t know if she’d agree to upload my brain into hers. I stopped telling the entire story of our planet.
“Lady Anubis, I have a proposition for you. My friend Neo here could prepare a mental link between us, and I could just send the information gathered up by him to you. It would be faster and easier, and he could tell it better than I ever would be able to.” I told her Neo’s idea nervously. If she didn’t accept, that would be fine as well, I could just continue my storytelling, but my mind was getting tired, digging up all these ancient snippets of information and formulating them into sentences. She thought it over.
“Fine then, I can see you’re getting tired, and this would take several more hours like this.” She reluctantly agreed. I hoped she didn’t catch on to our little scheme of scanning her brain in the process, but if she did, she didn’t let any sign of that show. She was so hungry for my knowledge she didn’t even consider any side effects. “Make the connection.”
Neo raised up one of its tentacles and touched her forehead. She shuddered a bit from the sudden shock, but the connection was made successfully. I also felt my brain getting scanned, and I could practically hear the gears in Neo’s head turning as he organized all my memories into chunks that could be sent to Anubis. As it started, her eyes widened, and her eyes were making small movements as if she was reading something in the air.
“This is… all this knowledge… And you said you have more?” She asked me suddenly.
“Yes, history and geography weren’t my strong suit, it’s science. I have an in-depth knowledge of our universe, at least I had, before the xin asteroids fell. Most of it seems useless now.” She looked at me with a hungry, probing gaze. She really wanted to know everything.
“I understand. I’d like to buy it from you. You see, I’m a businesswoman, but first and foremost, I’m a collector. I collect all kinds of things here, you see. Ancient artifacts, xin crystals that have skills in them, rare or extinct animals, plants, and most importantly, knowledge. What you have is quite a rarity, and insanely valuable. So, I’m willing to give you my most prized possession in exchange for all the knowledge you hold. Are you interested?” She looked very eager. I don’t think I can refuse an offer like this. And also, why would I? I won’t be able to do anything useful with this much info anyway, and it’s not like I’ll lose it once I give it to her.
“What is this item you mentioned?” I asked her, my curiosity peaked. A weapon maybe? A seed of a rare plant, or an animal? Her eyes sparkled as she hurried down the stairs once more and disappeared. After not even a minute, she came back with a small crystal ball in her paw. It was weird how it stayed there, but her dexterity was outstanding. She put it down on the table in front of us. I looked at Tara with a question in my eyes that I didn’t even need to say to her. She just nodded reassuringly.
“It’s a core. It came from a species that went extinct long ago. It was a true monster. It turned everything in its path into ice, while the beast itself glowed from its immense heat. I’m certain that this crystal holds a skill which could be extremely useful to you. It may be the solution to your problem of needing a massive power source to fill up your crystal. With this, you could do it much more easily. So, what do you say?” I got a bit confused, but she was talking so fast and enthusiastically that it was hard to resist.
“But what does it do?” My interest had already peaked, but this sounded even more amazing now.
“It has the ability to turn heat and energy… into xin.” I heard the reply. This had almost infinite potential. I could go sunbathing and fill up my core? Sign me up.
“Why didn’t you use it for yourself?” It seemed like such a precious and valuable skill, that one has to wonder.
“Unfortunately, I’m not compatible with it. Now human, do you accept?” she asked impatiently.
“Yes, I do. I hope you’ll be satisfied with what I have to offer.” Her eyes lit up once again and gave me the relatively small crystal. As soon as I touched it, a buzzing feeling met my fingers. My skin greedily clinged onto the smooth glassy material, as if it were glued to me. I guess compatibility won’t be a problem.
I tugged on it with my mind, and as soon as I opened the gate, knowledge flowed into my head like a tsunami. Then it hit me, if I didn’t get this skill, I would’ve figured it out sooner or later. Because converting energy into xin… I was already capable of the opposite. But it saved me a bunch of time and headache, so I was grateful, I also didn’t even think of this idea before. I believed only xin in the atmosphere could be used or recollected from crystals. But xin seemed much more flexible now.
I tried it out, and suddenly the temperature around me dropped by several degrees, while I could feel strands of xin marching into my body in streams, filling up my crystal. It felt so good somehow, like having a feast after a day of starving. I had to stop before I accidentally froze everything in the room. But this could also be used as a weapon. What an amazing ability.
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