By the time Jun blinked away the barrage of system messages, he was already being greeted with another round of chimes. Thankfully, these, at least, he knew what to do with.
*Ding!*
You have found enlightenment in the concept: [Crushing]
|Concept of Crushing| (1st Aspect)
Aspect of Kinetic Release
+5 to resonance.
*Ding!*
Congratulations!
You have formed a Single Aspected Mantra.
Mantra: [Iron Fist] (1st Aspected)
My will shatters bones.
Grade: (Poor Quality)
*Ding!*
Congratulations!
Your Mantra [Iron Fist] (Poor Quality) has evolved.
[Iron Fist] (Poor Quality) has become:
[Titan’s Fist] (Excellent Quality) +30 resonance.
*Ding!*
Congratulations!
Your resonance pillar has ascended.
Advanced from |Aged Stone| [30 of 30] to |Traveled Copper| [7 of 50].
As your horizons broaden, so too does your understanding of the path. You exchange hands quite frequently, and now, with time comes lived experience. You begin to make out shapes in the dark spots between the stars.
Your insight has transcended its natural limits.
18 CELESTIAL ESSENCE CONSOLIDATED.
Your insight has transcended its natural limits.
112 CELESTIAL ESSENCE CONSOLIDATED.
Your insight has transcended its natural limits.
112 CELESTIAL ESSENCE CONSOLIDATED.
Wow. Okay then.
After everything that’d happened, Jun couldn’t help but feel pleased with the amount of progress he’d made. Don’t get him wrong, he was still pretty miffed about the whole “temporary title” thing.
Of course he wasn’t entirely sure what “celestial dew” actually was—some sort of condensed version of celestial essence perhaps—but nevertheless, he’d take what he could get.
And what he’d ultimately gotten wasn’t anything to sneeze at. Of course, that then begged the question of, what in the hells had all that been?
For that matter, how had it even come to be?
Questions he was sure to revisit many many times in the days to come. In the end though, he was just glad there had been tangible results period, otherwise he might’ve chalked it all up to some oddly lucid fever dream.
Immediately following his completion of the trial, he had been summarily booted from the pantheistic workshop servers. It hadn’t bothered him overly much, aside from the general disorientation. After finding himself back in his little oasis beneath the world, all it’d taken was a thought to pop back into the workshop and then out again.
It would seem that he now had full run of the place. Something for which he was eternally grateful. It was an amazing resource, no matter how inexplicable, and he had the feeling he’d only just begun to scratch the surface of its trial system.
The hidden objectives he’d failed to clear were indication enough of that. Apparently, what it took to “clear a trial” wasn’t so clear cut as he’d believed it to be. Not only that, but, if he was reading into things correctly, the things he did there would have a cumulative impact on later trials, for good or for ill.
Refocusing on his surroundings, he found Ivory was still fast asleep. He couldn’t know for sure, but going purely based off of his own stomach, he didn’t think all that much time had passed.
Even though it’d felt like hours, maybe even days had passed inside, out here, it might only have been minutes. Glancing down at the other two fruits of enlightenment, he felt the flutter of anticipation and apprehension both.
He’d barely noticed it at the time, so immersed was he in the whole convoluted process, but he now recognized that what he’d done had been taxing in the extreme. To the point that the thought of jumping straight back into another session was daunting, even if the power another high quality mantra promised was tempting.
A rustling sound dragged his attention away from the fruits, giving him an excuse to put them off for at least a few more minutes. Shoving them into his dimensional bag and feeling a wave of primal relief in their absence, he looked up to find Ivory was finally stirring.
Rising unsteadily to a sitting position, she let out her body’s equivalent of a yawn. Tentacles stretched to half again their usual size, before—rubbing at sleepy eyes—she blinked up at him owlishly.
“You’re looking better,” Jun commented.
And indeed, she was. Although it was clear at a glance she was still far from peak condition, her complexion had lost its concerning grayish hue, and her eyes appeared far more focused than they had been in a long while.
“Mmm. I must say I do feel much better as well,” she stretched, then looked around in evident confusion. “I-! What-? Where are we? Jun, what happened? Does this mean we won? And…” she blinked at him several times. “Huh? You’re different! Whenever did you find the time to change, of all things? And whatever possessed you not to wake me when you did?!”
Jun felt a knot of tension in his chest ease with the rapid-fire questioning. If she had the energy for questions already, the ordeal couldn’t have scarred her too badly. It was what he liked to tell himself at least.
“In order of seniority: we’re still underground. I outran our pursuers. We didn’t win, but we didn’t really lose either. Uhh, while you were asleep? And because you looked like death. I think that was everything… Oh! And check out this place, huh? Pretty sweet right? I, uh, also bought you some clothes. You know, the kind that aren’t covered in rat goo?” he hesitated.
“Feel free to say no, by the way!” the words spilling out in a rush. “I’m pretty flush with coin right now so you can pick literally anything else. Well- not literally, its a fairly linear selection, but you know what I mean. Money is not an issue,” he cut himself off there before his mouth could well and truly get away from him.
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He didn’t know why, but he suddenly felt very awkward indicating the clearly identical robe. Why hadn’t he gotten it in a different color at least? He hadn’t really given it much thought at the time but having them prance around in matching outfits was more than a little embarrassing now that he really thought of it.
“I managed to find one in your size,” he added, as if that would explain away everything.
“Hmm…” she looked at him curiously. “Alright…”
But when she reached for the robes, Jun immediately slid them away. She looked up at him, her head cocked to the side in confusion.
“It’s probably best if you bathed first,” he explained. “No point in ruining them, and it’s not as if you’ll have to go very far,” he gestured behind her as if to emphasize his point.
Glancing to where he’d indicated, Jun got to watch as she fully took in the absurd majesty of their little hideaway. He was gratified to hear the small gasp escape her, even if all he’d done was stumble across the place by accident.
He was about ready to get up and leave the room to allow for some privacy, when she, surprisingly, demonstrated her blatant disregard for any and all rules of propriety.
Mistress Maisell would’ve thrown a fit.
He, on the other hand, merely settled on averting his eyes—he didn’t entirely know why—suddenly very interested in the flowing cuffs of his robe.
Unaware of his misgivings, or else wholly unconcerned, she quickly shrugged out of her tattered, blood stained kimono and leapt into the pool with a “whoop!” of pure joy—eliciting a tiny splash, and an even tinier ripple.
At first, he wisely decided to sit back and leave her to it, but when she didn’t reemerge, after what he deemed to be several seconds too many, Jun edged his way towards the crystalline pool, concern writ large on his features.
He peered down cautiously, ready to dive in at a moment's notice, only to find that Ivory was, apparently, having the time of her life.
Much like the aquatic beast he’d first taken her for, Ivory moved through the water like she’d been born to it—with as much, if not more adroitness than she ever showed in the air.
Upon seeing this, his worry soon abated, only to rise steadily as the minutes ticked by, and, in the midst of all of her somersaults and corkscrew maneuvers, she never once came back up for air.
Only once he caught sight of, then remembered the gills which showed prominently to either side of her neck did he finally allow himself to relax.
Eventually she did re-emerge—in an explosion of foam and water droplets—and then it was another ten to fifteen frustrating minutes spent trying and failing to recall just how he’d gotten the stupid robes around himself in the first place.
Only this time the process was made doubly impossible by the fact that the task was in miniature.
“There,” Jun sighed, tugging the last inane fold into place. “That’ll have to do. What do you think?”
Ivory looked down at herself, tugged at her loose sleeves, then twirled around as if testing her range of motion in the brand-new ensemble. He’d had to customize the garments a bit to accommodate her wingspan, and by customize he of course meant that he’d hacked two great rents into the back, just large enough to let the membranous appendages slip free.
“Hmm. It will serve, I suppose. So, does this mean we’re finished here? How long before we can set out again? We really should make haste, you know. If we’re to have any hope of retrieving our things, there can be no time to lose!”
Jun was immediately taken aback.
“Really? After the day you’ve just had… I would’ve thought hopping straight back into the thick of things would be the furthest thing from your mind.”
“I…!” she hesitated, suddenly looking very guilty. “Well… I never got to finish my book, now did I?” she finished, rather defensively.
“Even now, the venerable Li Minghua is the only thing standing between certain demise, and the fragile lives of her hopelessly incompetent charge- that is to say, charges. I mean really… it should be fairly self explanatory! Honestly, how in the yearning abyss is she supposed to protect him- that is to say, them if they simply refuse to heed her instruction? Especially now that they’re so much weaker than she is. They could get badly hurt, or injured, or worse…!” she shuddered, glancing up at him, and then quickly away again.
“So you can understand why it would be imperative we get underway immediately! Post-haste, you understand. Post-haste!”
“Uhh… no, I still can’t really say that I do. ”
Ivory growled in frustration. The way her “mouth hands” lashed in irritation, he had to admit, it was kind of cute.
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, Jun, but we’re trapped in a cave of all things. Do you know what caves have in great abundance? Damp. That’s what! Damp, Jun! Do you realize the kind of field day damp will have with our poor, defenseless, unattended books? Mildew, Jun! Mildew! I mean, this is serious! If we’re not quick, someone is sure to get hurt!”
Jun paused, considering. Were they…? Were they still talking about books? They were. Weren’t they?
“Is that what this is about? Look, I can buy more books, that was never really the issue. They’re super cheap, and there is literally an unlimited supply. I was planning on getting more of them once we were properly situated anyway.”
“But you can’t buy back your silly old scroll though, can you?” she retorted with an unnecessary degree of smug satisfaction. “And you’ll need it if you’re going to compete in that fancy tournament of yours. Tell me I’m wrong! The plan. Just think about the plan, Jun. And your mother! We can’t forget about her! All very important,” she gave a quick nod. “Why wait? We should go. Like now. As soon as possible.”
“I… suppose you have a point. Though, if worst comes to worst, losing the scroll? It wouldn’t really be the end of the world. Not anymore.”
A look of wide-eyed panic flit across her features.
“A-and you’re sure about that?”
“Fairly.”
In truth, he’d already written off the retrieval of his scroll and all their other valuables as a lost cause. They’d wandered too far off the trail, if a trail there ever was in the first place, for retrieval to be even possible at this point, let alone likely. Still, she seemed somewhat hung up on the idea and so he felt compelled to assuage her concerns.
“I didn’t want to jinx it, but… I stumbled onto something incredible while you were sleeping! I’m not completely sure yet, but I think it holds the key to… well, everything!”
Ivory’s face instantly soured at this revelation, a look of frustration writ large there.
It was so out of place, so oddly suspicious—like she had an agenda, and all he was doing was setting up roadblocks to its success—that it decided him on where this conversation was going to go. Had to go, if they were to continue to journey together, no matter how little he actually wanted to have the discussion.
“However, before any of that,” he made a point of setting his dimensional bag aside. “Ivory. I think it’s about time you came clean with me.”
“Huh?!” she flinched, suddenly very keen on looking anywhere but at him. “Again? But I just got out. You were there, remember? N-now you’re saying you want me to go back in? But-! Well, I suppose I don’t mind if you don’t mind—if you wanted to join me, I mean—but like I said, we really don’t have the time to frivolously waste on such things…!”
“What? No-! Answers! I mean answers! Come clean with-” he paused. “You know what? Never mind. The point I’m trying to make is that I know you’ve been hiding things from me.”
“What?!” she looked offended. “No! How could you think that!? I wouldn’t-! I would never…!”
“Ivory…”
“I… I have no idea what it is you’re talking about. R-really, now. Stop speaking nonsense Jun. You’re embarrassing yourself,” she said, her face the very picture of innocence.
“Oh really?”
Jun gave her his best no nonsense stare, the kind used to intimidate powerful people in their own homes and establish clear dominance in a room full of strangers.
That he was borrowing the technique from Lady Maisell was not a fact he let slip through their bond.
For her part, while she made a valiant effort, it wasn’t long before she wilted under the pressure. Her head drooped sullenly, but not before she gave a meek nod of acknowledgement. A pang of guilt stabbed through him at the sight, but he ignored it. Now was not the time.
“Good. Now, why don’t we start with the first thing, and then move on from there?” he said with far more conviction than he actually felt.