Cain moved SRI's magic circle to his chest on the 1st layer of the partitioned mana layers. He spent three more minutes on another round of tests to ensure the move didn't affect anything and nothing was glossed over. Once that was completed, the mini Bob dissipated and Cain laid down on the mat with his right knee bent. It was a habit instilled into him since this position was easier on his lower back.
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (5ms)
Cain: Are they going to call us over anytime soon? It's 7:53 pm
Cain: …do they even know to call us over?
Dresil: Let me finish this episode then I'll check for you.
Cain: Ok.
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Cain gazed into the starry night sky, their miniscule light dancing within his eyes. Guess I'll do some misc experiments now… Since mana can enhance the vitality of creatures, does that mean my physical enhancement is slowing down my aging somewhat? Let's grab some samples of blood from the party and myself then compare the telomere length …and I don't have a way to do that, heck.
—Dms: Cain and Bob— (73ms)
Cain: Can you view things on a microscopic level?
Cain: Need to check the length of some telomeres.
Bob: Telomeres?
Cain: Ye, idk either. All I know is that you can identify the age of a creature with it and it has something to do with DNA.
Cain: I don't know where it is though or how to view it, so we'll just have to look at a collective batch of samples for that one factor that changes.
Bob: Hmm… I can view things on a microscopic level with some focus, but it'd be best if you were to examine the specimens since you know what to look for more so than I.
Cain: Agreed, it'd be better than explaining what you see with words. I guess you could share your memories of what you saw, but there'd be little control there.
Bob: Agreed. So the next project is a microscope?
Cain: Not just any microscope. The combined length of chromosomes is around 200 nanometers. And there's 46 of these bois, but they come in pairs.
Cain: You can barely see the details of human hair with 100x magnification, and you're lucky if you can find an average microscope with that.
Bob: …how do you know this but not the specifics of a telomere?
Cain: We had a lab to extract DNA from a chromosome and expand it in my biology class.
Bob: I see… It'd probably be best if I just infused some of my power into a magic circle array to make a microscope fitting those specs.
Cain: Sounds good, how long would that take you?
Bob: It'd have to be worked on after I finish making the dimension to hold the star for Rex.
Cain: Understood. Can you make a dimension to store blood? It needs to be as cool as a fridge.
Bob: Do you know how cold that is?
Cain: Nope, just have Rex analyze my memories of getting food from the fridge. There should be plenty of samples.
Cain: I'll send you some samples of blood in a few minutes.
Bob: Understood.
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Now that that's done… Just need to program the tags of the party to collect some blood and teleport it to Bob. Cain created a temporary terminal linked to the party's tags. A temporary terminal is a type of terminal Cain just made on the spot. It's used for creating and executing spells on the spot then deleting the code of the spell from the magic circle, only saving the file to the digital storage to be executed later.
He programmed the terminal to extract a drop of blood from their arms or near an existing mosquito bite, masking the true culprit. He then used some mana to force a wound to appear on his thumb and extracted a drop of blood from it.
—Spatial Requesting Interface (SRI)— (730ms)
Cain: Teleport Blood Samples 1-5 to Bob. Keep them in a sealed mana net.
SRI: Processing request…
SRI: Allocating mana…
SRI: Establishing permanent mana net(s)…
SRI: Error: Existing mana net(s) detected, recognizing mana net(s)…
SRI: Calibrating mana net(s)...
SRI: Mana net(s) calibrated and configured (420ms)
SRI: Teleporting to Bob…
SRI: Error: Packages are being redirected, spatial authority has been temporarily revoked.
SRI: Packages delivered (275ms)
SRI: Spatial authority has been restored
SRI: Locating packages…
SRI: Packages located (30ms)
SRI: Packages are in a dimension tagged "Blood storage"
SRI: Total time: 725 ms
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Sweet, now for the last thing… Cain looked over at Dresil, who was leisurely binging anime on the side. He prepared himself for her incoming irritation due to the future interruption then attempted to get her attention. "Hey, Dresil." Cain called out to her but was ignored. "Dresiiiilllll…" There was still no response, not even a flicker of her eyes towards his direction. "Oi, Yggdrasil."
"What." Dresil snapped back at Cain in her moment of irritation. Not only was he disturbing the binge, Cain's voice was interfering with some of the audio from the show. She quickly came to her senses within the next seconds, realizing what she had done. She turned towards him, putting one leg on top of the other and resting her head on her right hand. "What's up, Master?"
Needless to say, her attempt to play it off coolly failed. Cain was expecting such a reaction though and brushed it off. "I'm blanking on methods to cover up my spells. I don't really feel like chanting anything and it'd be too wasteful of mana and time to just make magic circles for things that don't require them."
Dresil paused her anime and rewinded it by 15 seconds, something she had forgotten to do in the heat of the moment. She then shifted her pose back to normal, pondering about what to suggest. "Why don't you just say a word and amplify it with mana? There's this devil who can perform magic like that in the anime I'm watching."
Cain sits up, rotating his left leg and bending his left knee so it lies flatly on the ground while his right leg doesn't move an inch. He rests his chin on his right knee while thinking over the method. "...Good idea. What show are you watching?" He responds after some contemplation.
"Black Clover. I'm on episode 145."
"Damn girl, you watched 145 episodes in a few days? Is that even possible?" Cain abruptly changes his position while saying this to be facing towards Dresil, seated criss-cross applesauce. Dresil sits up straight and puffs out her chest some with pride; the sudden fast movements jiggles her bosom.
Cain ignores Dresil's obvious attempts and lays back down; she notes his reaction then continues the binge. Cain relaxes his head against his hands, looking up at the stars once more. Well… now what? If I lay here long enough I might accidentally sleep. Hah… so much for a carefree life, the past few days have been too busy. Oooh, maybe I can go to space in this life… Cain was snapped out of his thoughts by a sudden thought transmission.
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[Hey… um… Cain? You coming to dinner?] Veronica's wavering voice reverberated loudly within Cain's mind, startling him slightly. He adjusts the volume of the party's thought transmission circles then prepares to respond, only to be cut off by the next message.
[Wait! Veronica, why did you contact him with that? Weren't we only supposed to use it in emergencies?] Jacob's uncertain voice traveled with a tinge of fear. From the volume of the transmission, Cain inferred that Jacob accidentally activated the magic circle out of confusion, fright, or urgency in the moment.
[It's alright. You guys can use this whenever; I'll be there in a few.] Cain emphasized a soothing and calm tone during the message to prevent misunderstandings then sent this transmission to everyone in the party to ensure that they all heard it. He then sat up slowly, waiting for Dresil to check his memories of what happened and prepare to leave.
…and he continued to wait for two minutes. Although this doesn't seem to be a long time, nor a length to be impatient or worried over, Dresil's reaction to Cain's thoughts and memories were within a second to half a minute max. This led Cain to believe that she was too preoccupied with binging anime, thus he crumpled up a leaf that made up the mat he was sitting on and threw it at Dresil.
The crumpled leaf ball bounced off her head, then to the side. "Heyyy…." The annoyed Dresil glances at Cain, then skims through his memories quickly; knowing he wouldn't have done this without a reason. "Oh…" Her dumbfounded remark of realization brought a snicker from Cain. Dresil quickly packed up the leaf mats, absorbing the ones that were in a condition to be reused and turning the others into mana. Although it could not be seen due to the dimness of the night, her cheeks were slightly red from embarrassment.
Looks like she's been more lively and full of emotion today. Guess it's happening sooner than expected. Ah… I should make sure these thoughts aren't recorded or it could potentially mess with her development. Taking advantage of Dresil's distracted mood due to the embarrassment from earlier, Cain quickly overwrote the contents of his thoughts with things about the upcoming food as it was being recorded within the digital storage.
Cain then took this chance to see if there was a reason for Dresil's delay other than binging anime and discovered that after Dresil had finished exporting his memories, she set up a few functions that automatically uploaded his memories to the digital storage. This caused a delay of one to three seconds but was much safer and carried no long or short term risks, unlike their previous method. There was no need to cover up the reason for this action before it got recorded since it was birthed from curiosity.
Cain walked around the campsite to give Dresil room to clean up his area since she was done with hers. His eyes wandered over to the only entrance to the campsite; due to the dim light source Cain used his mana zone to perceive its functions instead. I should probably block it off since this campsite isn't that usable anymore… with the giant pit and all.
—Dms: Bob and Cain— (7ms)
Cain: Can you drop a boulder or debris from the rave onto the entrance and make sure it's secure?
Bob: Indeed. Can SRI not do the same?
Cain: It can, except I would have to secure it and I'm too tired to do so rn.
Bob: Understandable.
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A portal appeared above the exit, depositing a giant piece of debris. Multiple small portals cut out sections of the walls, floor, and the debris, swapping it with the material it just cut. Rex then used some of his mana to weld the pipes. When it was done, the debris looked as if it had poles of rock impaling the surrounding rocks around it, securing it firmly in its spot. Granted, because of the snug fit and the insertion of the poles, one could only see a giant piece of debris firmly lodged in place. Dresil finished cleaning up the campsite a minute or so after Bob and Rex were done blocking it off.
Cain walked around the pit back to Dresil, performing a complete loop around it from when he got up. Dresil merged into his clothes while he looked around ensuring nothing was left behind.
—Spatial Requesting Interface (SRI)— (3290ms)
Cain: Open a portal near Veronica and her party.
SRI: Dispersing mana…
SRI: Detecting open spots…
SRI: Calculating room…
Cain: Cancel operation.
SRI: Operation canceled.
SRI: Operation run time: (3029ms)
Cain: Open a portal on an open side of the entrance to the Adventurer's Guild, entrance facing inside.
SRI: Processing request…
SRI: Request processed (30ms)
SRI: Performing request…
SRI: Request performed (230ms)
SRI: Total Time: 260 ms
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Cain walked in through the portal SRI created and drifted slightly left once he entered the guild. The party members stared at him as if he was some sort of stranger as he walked up to their table; they sat in the same arrangement as yesterday. Veronica, being the closest to Cain, stares at his eyes for a solid minute, by which he is now about to take a seat.
"Cain?" She questioned the supposed stranger that was about to sit down. "Yeah? Is there something wrong?" He replied just as confused as the members, taking his seat with a bit of caution. Victoria goes back to eating, while Jared and Jacob look at each other then look back at Cain, completely baffled.
"I knew a beard could change a man's face, but this much is unprecedented." Victoria comments on the side. Cain's eyebrows rise slowly in mild shock. His hand navigates to his chin where he strokes his newfound beard. The heck…? No wonder I didn't feel the wind in my face much while running. I know my hair grows out fast, but growing a 5cm beard in 5 days is a new record… Dang… looks like I'll have to find a way to shave this everyday.
Several magic circles invisible to the naked eye form on Cain's face under his beard, within the first layer of the seven mana layers. Cain closed his left eye in which a terminal appeared on the inside of his eyelid, interacting with it using mana. He programmed them to release mana outwards until no hair was detected, then convert all of the hair inside the domain into mana. Cain programmed this to happen once every morning, with the exception of its activation right now.
The pulses of mana disintegrated his newfound beard, once again shocking the party, except for Veronica. She just stared blankly at him then continued to eat the food laid out on the table, completely numb to further small surprises from Cain.
The bystanders stared at him with looks of disgust; to them Cain just shaved his beard and spread his hair all around the inn. Victoria was no exception either, her emotions were just deeply hidden behind her usual smile. Cain noticed their looks and lifted his hand, that was still near his chin, up into the air then flipped it upside down.
Logically, since his hand was near his beard while he "shaved" it should have collected hair, thus hair should have fallen from his hand. Yet not a speck of dust fell. This elicited shocked surprises from the surrounding tables. Jared and Jacob stare at Cain with a hint of envy. After all, how could one just vaporize their beard without so much as a burn on their face?
"Relax. It's a technique my master taught me that burns every piece of hair. It's quite handy, especially for us hermits since we don't have much time to cut our hair or shave." Cain stated just loudly for the nearby tables to hear. Although he could've spoken loudly enough for everyone in the guild to hear, that would've been too obvious.
Thus letting the nearby tables spread what just happened to the others was necessary, even if some info might be lost, changed, or skewered during the travel. All that mattered to Cain right now was the party's relationship with him and preventing troublesome situations from occurring. Doing so would pave the smoothest road for Cain to ask them for help on later experiments while enjoying the life of an adventurer for his stay in the capital.
Jared and Jacob stare at Cain in disbelief, their faces begging Cain to teach them the technique. "I might teach it to you guys later if it can be done, although it's unlikely since you'll need the fire element. I'll ask my master if there's another way though, that is, if he visits." Cain says this while eyeing the food on the table; Jacob and Jared's faces light up. The amount of cuts they've accidentally given themselves using a small knife to shave were innumerable. Therefore this piece of news made their week, even if it was just a small chance.