"The inner barrier now covers out a little past the orchards. You can wander around anywhere inside that area."

Core says "That's fantastic! I've been able to watch the city, but now I can see it with my own eyes! Thank you so much, Ash!"

"You're welcome, Core. Oh, once my mana is full I should be able to give you a proper name. Do you want to think of one or should I? Keep in mind that my naming sense isn't the best."

Core says "I should probably come up with one myself. At least from what Lizzy has told me."

"Haha. That figures. I did a really bad job when I was coming up with a name for her. She has never let me live it down."

Core says "Well, can you blame her?"

"No, not really. Anyway, go explore the city. I will find you once my mana is full. Oh, before I forget, here is a set of shapeshifting clothes."

Core says "Thank you, Ash, for everything!"

Core hugs me as tight as she can and then leaves her room for the first time. She is so happy that she goes skipping down the stairs, but it is a great thing to see. She can finally satisfy her curiosity, something that I can completely understand.

Before I get caught up in anything else, I head into the castle and find Bella. I tell her that Lin isn't very likely to come out of the library unless forced. She simply tells me that she is already aware of Lin's personality, but she thanks me for thinking of her.

After that conversation, I head down to my workshop to try and finish the kids' new collars. This time there are no interruptions and with a few hours of work I manage to finish them. Then, I leave the castle and head down to the city to try and find the kids.

However, I have no idea where they might be, so I decide to try something else. I head to the main square where the golems are working and start taking out pizzas. The elves and beasts that are around happily start eating and soon more are attracted.

As expected, before too long the smell of pizza brings the kids running to me. I wait until they have eaten their fill before I take them aside and give them their new collars. I spend a few minutes explaining how all the features of the collars work.

Of course, the kids insist on testing out everything, but once that is done they go running off to the castle. The reason is that they can pick the foods they want their pouches to be able to produce. That way each of them can have a pouch that makes their favorite foods.

Although I did tell a small lie, I told them that the table in the castle is the only one they can copy foods from. I mainly did that to prevent them from constantly bugging me and Lin for our pouches. Besides, the table in the castle has every food that we have found, so they can get what they want.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

I can't think of anything else that I need to do currently, so I head to the library. It only takes me a minute to find Lin and then I tell her everything that I have done. As usual, once I am done Lin goes right back to the thing that I tried to hide.

Lin says "What did you do to piss off the dragon?!"

"Nothing! I didn't piss him off. I just didn't like something he said and spoke without thinking. He is at most a little annoyed with me, it will be fine after some time passes. I hope."

Lin says "I guess that's true. If you had done more than annoy him, you would have gotten more than a headache! So, what's your plan now?"

"Next, I will be visiting the tower. There are a ton of things that I need to talk to Yui about. Are you staying here? You should know that Yui copied all the magic books for her library."

Lin says "Yeah, I will stay here for a bit. To be honest, I am a little afraid of losing myself in the tower's library."

"Alright, I can understand that. You probably will, but we will be there to pull you out occasionally. Is it okay if I give Yui all the new books or do you want to do it?"

Lin says "You can. It was your idea to collect them for her and you did most of the work. I just copied books for you and I got my own library out of it."

"Okay. Since there is a portal in Core's room I will be leaving the castle where it is. Oh, I warned Bella that she will have to come here if she wants to see you."

Lin says "Thanks, but I already talked with her about it."

"Alright, I will be in the tower if you need anything."

Lin smiles and says "Well, there is something you can do for me before you go and there is no one else around."

Recognizing that smile, I scan the library to make sure that there is no one else inside. Then I use a small amount of mana to lock the doors before pushing Lin down on the table. We spend a few hours together in the library and then Lin goes back to her books.

I leave and make my way back to Core's room, but she still isn't back from exploring. Then again, she has spent her entire life in that room, I don't blame her for not wanting to come back. Unfortunately, her prison only got larger, she isn't really free yet, but it will be a while before she realizes that.

There is no way that I am going to tell her and ruin her enjoyment of the city. Since she isn't around, I just go through the teleporter to the tower. It takes me a minute to get over the nausea from the teleporter, I had forgotten about that since it doesn't happen with my gates.

Yui says "Ash! It is so good to see you again! I am glad that you managed to survive your latest adventures!"

"Hello, Yui. It is good to be back, but why do you sound surprised that I survived?"

Yui says "Well, from the way Myria explained things it sounded like it was only a matter of time until your curiosity killed you."

"That was her exaggerating things because she was mad at me."

Yui says "Are you saying that you didn't come close to dying at any point in your adventure?"

"Well, no. I did have a few close calls, but it wasn't that bad. Besides, my gains on this trip far outweigh the dangers that I went through."

Yui says "Myria would only tell me bits and pieces and it was hard to get details from the kids. How about you start at the beginning?"

"Alright."

I move to the lounge area to sit on a couch as I start telling Yui everything that happened on my trip. As I am talking, Yui's summoned sprites bring me tasty drinks, I had forgotten about them. I need to check the library later for information about spirits and summoning magic.