"So what type of material was the bone? You said it wasn't rock nor metal." Agus asks me after my explanation.
"Is that what you're thinking of right now? We've just been told about an animal so large that one of its tailbone is larger than the island we're on, and all you can think of is materials this, materials that!" Jennifer complained.
"Unfortunately, it didn't occur to me then to find out." I tell him, Agus muttering about knowing his priorities did not escape my ears. "I was kinda busy being surprised and was in a bit of a hurry to share the news."
"Well you better check the next time you're there." He chidded me with a look of disappointment.
"So what do you plan to do next?" Henry asks me now that Agus has quietened down.
"Well, I was hoping you can do some research on what exactly is a Torterrene." I say after some thought.
"Sure," he did not mention the fact, but I believe he already had plans to.
"Should we inform our allies?" Billy inquires.
"It's best we wait until we know more about the creature before deciding upon that matter." Henry tells him. I might have just told anyone who asked, but what he said might be a better option. So I nod along.
"Are you going to go back inside?" Jennifer asks me, referring to further exploring the root-like tunnels. Which; now that I know is inside of a creature, makes me think of nerves or veins instead of any roots. But I barely understand the human anatomy, let alone some gigantic magical creature.
"You should," Agus interjects, a hint of passion in his voice. "And I'll come with you! I wish to do an in-depth research on the bone in question."
"You know that it's surrounded by the regenerating rock-flesh right?" We have determined that the rocks are equivalent to the creature's flesh easily enough, regardless of what Inspect says. "So you would need to maintain an infusion of mana on the surrounding rocks, let alone keeping stock of your oxygen and consumption needs."
It may be interesting to know that Devourling Constitution had changed me more than simply allowing me to eat anything, as apparently, my body does not really need oxygen now; and the need for air had been replaced by consuming mana. Even the fact that I was not gasping for air under all that stone-flesh did not occur to me until someone brought it up in our previous discussion. Cool!
"Wait a while," Henry says. "I'll hopefully obtain some intel about the creature by then."
Knowing more and coming up with a course of action would be much preferable to going in blind. So I agreed, telling him to text me when he figured some things out. While I plan to busy myself with Mark of Returning. The spell is great for saving lives; but rather limited in how it returns us to a safe position, but in exchange we lose any progress on that venture. If I was the person who made it, I would make it more useful by giving it partial transportation functions at higher masteries. Like automatically leaving behind a new Mark when we were ported, or allowing more Marks to be placed, or a feature where we can connect more Marks with each other to increase distance... We'll see.
Within the first 5 minutes; by Inspecting the Spell, I found out that it is possible to move the return-point Mark by recasting the Spell whilst a previous Mark is active. This is achieved by spending some extra mana; 25, and indicating a new location where the Mark of the tunnel exit would be relocated onto… A little unsure of where to go from here, I absentmindedly focus on Mana Sense to observe the scenery outside my Rank 5 Tower and cannot help but notice the various mana Marks scattered everywhere, we might need to write up some rules regarding this. Though I wonder how all those tunnels do not clash with each other?
Through a mix of Mana Sense and Spatial Intuition, locating the tunnels at their respective Subspace was easy enough; All occupies one foreign Subspace, with a function that is rather similar to the one used for Blink. Just located in a different, slightly obscured fold within the void of space. I have half-an-idea that it is man made, metaphorically. They do not get entangled because rather than interact, they phase through one another.
After another hour and hundreds of casts, involving several innocent bystanders using my latest Buster Wand along with a strike of luck when in a fit of frustration I promptly spammed every sensory Skill I had; as a result another part of the Spells inner-workings was successfully decoded. Credits goes to Soul Sense, as the spell happened to be wired to our soul. This is probably why there are no interactions between the tunnels and the reason for why we may only have one Mark active. The answer had been here all along, be less angry, more thoughtful next time!
"Thank you everyone," I transfer the promised 100 Creds each to all 10 participants. Now that I know how the spell influenced my soul; in the simple form of leaving a very large mark that is attached to a soul's outer layers and taking up a rather large space—note that all creature's souls have an abstract form and the mark somehow adapts to it. Moving it onto another person is easy, a lot like relocating the return-mark—I paid another 500 Creds total to the 5 newly involved passersby. They almost refused the Creds, as getting a Mark with several hundred kilometers of range was payment enough, but I insisted since such an amount is nothing too much for me but might instead help them a tiny bit.
Next, now that I've noticed. I really don't like the way this Mark is occupying so much space around my outer soul, so my next attempt is to reduce its size. Turned out to be something also rather easily accomplished… Nothing yet from Henry, but the thought of him perusing foreign databases reminds me of purchasing language translation related stuff. Shopping time!
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
There are quite a few options, some sinister, or weirder than others; like a trait that allows a creature to understand another's language by swallowing their raw tongue—no chewing, or the cliché way of barbarically wrestling the knowledge out of a target's mind, and various others. I decided to stick with either a Skill or a Spell this time; after a quick browse, a few options managed to pique my interest.
Impart Language
Gift of Conversing
Polyglot
The first two being Expert Rank Spells and the last a Skill. Impart Language allows a spellcaster to share a known language with another as long as both the target and the caster already shares a language, while Conversing is more useful by allowing the spellcaster to both understand foreign language and allow their spoken words to be understood; two lesser version of Conversing is available; Gift of Conveying and Comprehending, they functions in the exact same way but each Spell only have one half the translating function; a separate one for understanding, and another one for being understood.
Lastly, the Polyglot skill; note that a cheaper lesser version is available. This non-lesser version is probably one of the best at its job, allowing anyone to completely master any select language at the cost of Creds, its only downside being the very expensive price tag—as the base skill alone costs a little more than 32.5 million Creds, not to mention all the languages sold separately—and that across the Multiverse there are billions, trillions of language... Imagine the cost of that!
The two spells on the other hand, cost a mere 747,500 together, as spells at their rank ought to cost. Not to mention I feel richer mana-wise than Creds-wise and it is always a good idea to save when you can. Impart Language has a base cost of 300 mana, sometimes more depending on the complexity of said language. While Conversing costs 1 mana for every word translated. I promptly decided to purchase both spells. Purchase, because as of now, I have no idea about how to imitate the Spells effect through my own Mana Manipulation.
Spell mastery rank up, Mark of Returning basic > Intermediate
Expert spell learnt Impart Language
Expert spell learnt Gift of Conversing
I kinda miss the numerous Skill levels awarded by my last Dungeon dive.
Blink! Now on the Tower roof. Mark of Returning—Quadholm is less than 200 kilometers wide so… 4550 mana and this tunnel will stretch for more than 250 kilometers, plenty enough. Micro Flight! Time to visit our allies for a cultural exchange.
—
"You have learn spell for learn language?" Erssoan asks me for the nth time when I told him about Impart Language, "oh, I have that also. But we not share enough language."
At that I grin. Gift of Conversing, the Spell can only be cast on myself. But it serves its purpose well, "can you understand me now? Try speaking in Elvish."
"Yes! Are you using Gift of Conversing? This Spell is expensive!" Hmm, 20 mana for this 1 back and forth. I suppose it can get expensive for lower leveled spellcasters. "I had wanted to purchase the Spell, but lacked both the excess Creds and Mana to use it effectively."
That was another 19 mana, I chuckle at myself for keeping count and finding the act entertaining. "Yes, well, can you attempt to Impart a language to me?"
He perks up and starts casting without another word, ending the cast by pointing at a point slightly above my glabella. Instantly, I feel like I have new understandings of the world around me, as in I've always known a rock is called batu in Indonesian and rock in English, but now it is also warve in Elvish. No process of learning, it's part of me with that simple point of a finger… At his request, I too imparted English onto his mind then dispelled Gift of Conversing. Both Impartings did not require additional mana besides the base cost. In Elvish, "thank you Erssoan! I think I'll go visit Minedora now… wanna join me?"
His face was answer enough.
So we ran—because he's not capable of flying, or teleporting… soon enough, as we were just about to cross over the river that separates Elven land from the Dwarves. A text from Henry informed me of the completion of his quest. "Wait, Ers!"
"Yes?" He asks, coming back to be within talking distance as he had left me behind when I abruptly stopped following him.
"I apologize but something urgent came up and I have to go right now." I explain, not really giving him the reason for my sudden need to leave. "How about we delay this?"
"Understandable, tomorrow then?" He said, visibly disappointed, not at me per-se, but at having to delay learning a new language. Probably. I promised to keep him informed, but made sure he understands that it might not be tomorrow… I feel bad, but knowing what the massive creature below us is a much more important course of action.
I trigger my Mark of Returning and now find myself back on my favorite rooftop. Everyone is currently gathered at the outdoor diner, they probably had just finished dinner. Blink. "Are we meeting here?"
"No," Henry replies. "Let's talk on your roof."
I grin, saying. "Oh my, what fine taste you have!"
—
"Welcome everyone, get yourselves comfortable." I say with my arms opened wide when all who are in the know have arrived, a silly attempt at mimicking cliché movie scenes.
"Okay, so I dug around The System Store and managed to purchase a few books that have mentions of the word Torterrene. What all the books agree on is that the creature itself is rare but definitely real, and we know that. Also that it's large, very very large. The smallest registered so far had been about 1800 kilometers long from head to tail." Henry started explaining seriously, ignoring my attempt to lighten the mood. "Eventually, after reading these books and gaining minimal understanding of it. I'm finally allowed to purchase the most basic Torterrene information package on The System Store. Some bestiary series that shares some knowledge of rare or unique creatures that may be found within the Multiverse."
"I believe Agus will love this." Henry added with mischievous suspense.