104 Days 17 - 27
{Author's note: Secure your brain cells and fasten your seatbelt bc we're about to do a speedrun here. Let me know your thoughts on the timeskip style. Depending on your reactions I may keep it for future skips of multiple days.
(Remember, Cain is technically the one writing the novel, refer to Ch.26, Cain's Dilemma for more info)}
[Master, it's time to get up.] Dresil attempted to rouse Cain awake with some light shakes. He stirs and turns, unwilling to get up when the sun has just barely peeked over the horizon. Warm sugar cookies wave passed his nose, jolting his eyes awake. Cain lunged forward to nab the cookies with his teeth, but Dresil pulled them away in the nick of time.
'Dang it…' Cain realized he was just baited to get up, his body currently halfway stretched out across the bed. He repositioned his back against the bedpost and feasts on the large breakfast Dresil prepared for him. Cain enjoyed the much needed food since he didn't get much of a dinner and skipped lunch due to the simulations; in fact, his hunger would have woken him up in an hour if Dresil hadn't.
—Group Chat: Cain, Dresil, Bob, and Rex— (29ms)
Bob: Congrats on 100 million soul power.
Cain: …already? It's only been two and half weeks since I've had 30 mill.
Rex: Damn dude…
Bob: Yep, the more you use SRI, the faster your soul power grows.
Cain: Ah, I see.
Rex: Ah, I don't see.
Dresil: And you never will /s
Cain: :kek:
Rex: :ded:
Bob: Although the dimensional functions of SRI are being handled by my power, the calculations are being performed by Cain. This prepares the vessel to accommodate the soul, thus increasing the growth rate of his soul.
Cain: Just think of it as getting a stronger container to shove more stuff in.
Rex: I kinda see it now… maybe.
Dresil: Just give it a few days and you'll understand.
Rex: yea-
Rex: …
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Cain smirks moments before chugging down his morning cup of soda. He reluctantly leaves the bed so Dresil could clean any crumbs left behind by his breakfast. She stores the memory foam mattress away as Cain does his morning stretches.
[Master… you forgot to dismiss the sound proof magic circles again. The party is also loading up the carriage outside the inn right now.] Dresil reminds Cain of the magic circles hovering over his ears. The blindfold leaf would've still been there if it hadn't been shaken off by Cain's lunge for the cookies… that he had yet to eat.
Cain dismisses the magic circles while finishing his stretches; Dresil merges into his clothes and attempts to comb his long, fluffy, brown hair down to be somewhat presentable. Cain uses SRI to teleport to the inn entrance when Dresil is done and greets the party. Their tired "hellos" and grunts of acknowledgement whisper through the morning dew.
"Last check foooraaaahh… ahem Excuse me. Last check for your things, make sure you didn't forget anything." Victoria stood on the carriage steps and hollered out to everyone, her announcement interrupted by a short yawn. She entered the carriage after her piece with Jacob close behind. Veronica hops on top of the carriage to scout for monsters on their journey, her usual role during the mornings as she's the only one awake and alert.
Jared cracks the reins of the carriage once he confirmed Cain entered, and thus the party left the capital for their two-week long journey. Sinclair would occasionally hop out his home dimension to trot alongside the carriage. Jared, Victoria, and Veronica swapped the control of the carriage on a 2-hr shift, with the next in line either on top of the carriage or next to the coach driver on alert for sudden encounters.
Veronica took her 2 hour lookout shift first, followed by a 2 hour break, then her coach shift. This reset the order to allow Victoria to be after Jared while also prioritizing the most alert member to take the first morning shift. Victoria was the only one to take her lookout shift on the coach bench, as Jared manned the horses right next to her each time.
The party encountered a few stray goblins, large insects, spiders, and enlarged small animals such as lizards, bats, birds, etc. The beatles, spiders, crickets, and various other insects were as large as a small dog; their freakish size spooked the drowsy Cain, causing him to instantaneously wipe them out into piles of ashes whenever his Mana Zone picked one up.
Thus the only time the carriage had to slow down was when a small group of lost goblins emerged from the bushes and onto the path. The enlarged animals that weren't run over avoided the speeding carriage or were taken down by Sinclair for a quick snack. There were some cases in which he plowed through several goblins to pass the time.
Cain occasionally stuck his head out the side of the carriage to observe Sinclair's fighting style to see if he could pick up on why the pup had little to no mana. His eyes detected its existence, yet it was so feeble there might as well be none at all. The pup absorbed mana just fine from the environment, yet each time it'd disappear into a dim, indefinite core, almost instantly consumed.
Since all functions of his eyes were active, Cain would get glimpses of the mana system that ran throughout the enlarged animals' bodies. Some had miniscule amounts of mana concentrated into a core throughout their bodies. Theirs was more defined and had less capacity than Sinclair's, yet his seemed to have barely taken form.
Cain surveyed the muscles of each small animal with his Mana Zone whenever they tried to abruptly dodge Sinclair or the carriage. Each time mana would pulse out rapidly from their mana core to explode the strength of their muscles to maneuver around Death's jaws.
Cain inspected Sinclair's muscles after confirming across various species that the mana from the core strengthened their muscles and increased their size to accommodate the increase in muscle and mana volume. He found that they were extremely dense in mana, the lack of element within allowed each muscle group to be evenly enhanced with no dominating characteristic.
'So the pup not only has no mana, but also no element… Although it seems like he can use and collect mana fine, it's just his demand for mana that vastly overshadows his intae leaving him with none to use…' Cain concluded then retreated back into the carriage. Sinclair ran through a portal to his den, his jaws clasped firmly around the 4th enlarged duck of the evening.
The caravan ate their lunch without stopping, maximizing the time spent traveling. Cain shared some of his fresh fruit and snacks since the party packed dried fruits and meat. He "napped" the rest of the way while the party maintained their gear, played roadside games, or ran along the carriage to keep the blood flowing.
When the sun cast a blanket of turbulent red and orange over the sky, the party searched for a nearby clearing to set up camp. Victoria and Jared cooked their dinner as Veronica and Jacob pitched their tents. Dresil's cavern rose from the ground faster than a major league's fastball, startling the members nearby.
They ate their dinner around the campfire; Victoria and Jacob shared some stories to pass the time. Veronica sat next to Cain, yet she couldn't attempt anything to get closer to him. The fleeting thoughts of having an "intimate" connection with Cain froze her every muscle, creating awkward, stuttered, back-and-forth movements whenever she tried to reach for his hand.
The night continued on peacefully with no significant events or anything of the sort happening before everyone went to sleep. To keep the numbers even and to prevent a needless break into 3 night shifts, Cain did not participate in said shifts.
——Day 18——
Nothing much happened today. Some minor monster appearances here and there. Veronica kept freezing up due to her nervousness again. Poor girl can't seem to overcome this hurdle. Well, I won't be helping at all since I've already done enough and showed her I'm interested.
Some metallic clangs, similar to the ones that occurred about two and half weeks ago, kept echoing throughout the continent. We thought it was just in the forest until Bob informed me otherwise.
——Day 19——
Same old, same old. Only thing of note was Victoria almost held Jared's hand. Jared was manning the carriage, but right when Victoria went to hold his hand, some goblins hopped out of the bushes. Jared had to jerk hard on the reins to bring the horses to a halt before they got injured by the startled goblins.
Needless to say, Victoria was pissed. It was quite the sight watching her wildly throw daggers at the little guys' skulls.
Rex finally created his fire spirit gem. I had Athena immediately socket it. It seems it'll take her quite a bit to digest it and get used to the sudden power up. I told her to play around with it until she could accurately control the temperature of a flame, combustion radius, explosion force, and various other factors.
...almost lost my hearing from her complaints that day.
The rest of the day progressed like normal.
——Day 20——
Same boring day. Veronica ended up staying far away from me today. Perhaps she was embarrassed from her failed attempts?
——Day 21——
I shared some scary stories I picked up from reading horror manhua. Jared wasn't able to sleep at all that night. Victoria tried to coax Veronica into making a move, it didn't seem to do much though.
——Day 27——
The past six days were so boring they didn't even need a journal entry. Although, Veronica is still having issues progressing our relationship; she keeps doing her awkward stutter dances, keeping her distance from embarrassment, rinse and repeat. It's quite hard not to laugh at her awkward attempts though.
Also, I did check the mana models of the prisoners' brains. There were some noticeable improvements, but not much.
I took the chance experimenting on implanting thoughts that would eventually lead to actions. I only tested it over the prisoners I have yet to touch. Some died, but meh. The thoughts I implemented were "We should play chess to pass the time." Followed by a sequence of memories of the prisoners learning about the game around their childhood.
The memories and thoughts were implanted smoothly. Theoretically, the prisoners won't even question whether or not those memories and thoughts belong to them because of how seamless it is. I'll have to monitor them for practical results though.
The chess game trend in prison is expected to pick up in 4 or 5 days. I'll be able to analyze the subjects' memories of their previous games to compare the different enhancements.
