Despite my expert guidance, Vee still failed to become the rock. On the positive side, she was making headway with her [Dimension Magic], and we began experimenting with finding a reliable way to use her portals.

Since we were inside the city, we kept the experiments to a minimum, such as not throwing explosive spell orbs through them, for example. Speaking of spell orbs, I made a massive discovery: now that I had my next level of [Rune Engraving], I could store more complex spells!

Access to the higher tier of magic certainly upped their potential, and I was closer to my goal of having the spell orbs contain debuffs. That way, I could create mines that weakened enemies that triggered them.

Perhaps I'm going a little overboard with the explosions, but I have resources to burn, and it's simply too much fun! I still want to check out that spot with the crazy ambient Mana from the mass detonation.

Then, it finally happened. While practicing with Vee, she suddenly seized up and froze, clearly deep in thought.

"Syl! I think I just got a usable spell!" Vee exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with excitement. "Although it has a horrible name!"

"As long as it's not 'create: dimension sword,' I think I'm okay with any name," I teased, a playful smirk on my face.

"It's called [Pocket Space], and if I understand correctly, it lets me store something in my Mana pool!" Vee answered.

"Not the worst name..." I mumbled. "It sounds similar to my own storage trait. Definitely useful then!"

We did not want to risk an unknown spell on something irreplaceable or valuable, so we selected a simple chair as Vee's spell target. When Vee began casting the spell, I couldn't help but notice similarities between it and the storage enchantment I had thoroughly memorized and practiced.

With a magical poof, the chair was swallowed into a purplish void and vanished from a spot. Vee squeed with excitement, and I couldn't help but join in on the celebrations. Then Vee began casting the spell again, almost in reverse, and falling out of the purplish void was our missing chair, except falling a short distance to clatter across the ground.

"Oops... I misjudged how it would come out," Vee said sheepishly.

"Who cares? That was really good! I bet that spell will be perfect for training your [Dimensional Magic] levels!" I said excitedly.

We dedicated a significant amount of time to trial and error with the spell, determined to understand its full potential.

I was beginning to wonder if it was just better than my [Core Storage] in every way imaginable when Vee made a discovery.

"Okay... So it looks like stuff stored in the spell is using up my Mana capacity," Vee informed me.

"What do you mean using up your Mana capacity?" I asked in confusion. "Like it's lowering your maximum permanently?"

Vee shook her head. "Only while something is stored... Like it's reserving the Mana."

"That's not too bad if it's recovered as soon as you withdraw it," I replied.

"I just wish I could understand the values..." Vee sighed. "I thought it might be based on weight or size, but if anything, storing one of my rings was far more taxing than storing the entire bed and dining table, chairs included!"

"Oh.!" I exclaimed, snapping my fingers in realization. "That's the dimensional weight thing! Probably..."

"So the ring has more dimensional weight... Because it's magical?" Vee pondered.

"I think so," I replied with a nod. "But it shouldn't matter too much if you simply maintain growing your Mana capacity,"

"Yeah... I'm working on leveling up that [Mana Well] trait so then I can combine it into [Soul Mastery] like you suggested," Vee replied.

"I'm jealous you will get to have [Soul Mastery] and [Body Mastery]..." I grumbled.

"Well, I'm jealous you can't be stabbed!" Vee countered. "I think that's way better than being able to combine a few traits..."

"True... Not having squishy vital organs and blood is definitely a boon," I admitted. "Although your evolution seems to have resolved some of that giant weakness."

"Yup!" Vee agreed. "I'm certainly glad most of my organs are safe and sound inside my personal organ dimension, or whatever it is."

"Pocket organs? Pocket viscera? Pocket innards?" I started making name suggestions.

"Please stop..." Vee grumbled.

I giggled. "Sorry, I couldn't resist."

Vee just shook her head.

"Actually... This spell is probably a great way to train any traits related to Mana's capacity and regeneration," I pointed out. "Having such a convenient high-usage spell on demand is perfect for leveling. My big ones are extremely flashy, not for indoor usage at all."

Stolen novel; please report.

"Right! I just need something with plenty of dimensional weight," Vee replied.

In the interest of experimentation, I pulled out Kappa and placed it on the table.

"Try storing this? It's probably extremely dimensionally heavy if I had to guess..." I offered.

Vee nodded and tried casting the spell, but it failed entirely.

"Too heavy?" I questioned.

"No... I don't think that was it... Maybe there's another restriction?" Vee suggested.

I nodded and we tried a few other things, but everything else was storable as far as we could see. While we were racking our brains trying to come up with the reason, I picked up something with [Tremor Sense]. Launching a tendril at the hole, I grabbed a tiny rat that had made its home in the walls.

"Try storing this?" I asked.

Vee nodded and attempted. The spell failed.

"Hey, that was the same way it failed on that slime core!" Vee replied excitedly. "So it doesn't work on living things, I guess?"

"Yeah, that makes sense," I agreed.

So my [Sub-Cores] technically count as living... What about separated slime?

I filled a canteen with ultra-dense and rich [Mana Slime] and placed it on the table for Vee. She began casting the spell and then started straining a bit, having to enhance the spell with additional Mana before the canteen finally vanished.

"Holy crap! What the hell was inside that!?" Vee questioned with shock.

"Just some slime..." I answered.

"Just some slime..." Vee replied back sarcastically. "I think that single canteen is reserving like an entire third of my Mana pool!"

I grinned and gave Vee a thumbs-up. "Sounds perfect for training, then! You can keep that and use it for practice."

Vee grumbled a bit but eventually nodded in agreement. It really was the ideal training item for this situation.

With Vee occupied, I focused a bit more on my own efforts. I had the [Fireflies] spell begging to be pulled apart. I grabbed all of my [Sub-Cores], aligned myself to Fire, and began breaking down the spell into its components.

My first success was the splitting component, which caused a single-spell projectile to become evenly distributed among multiple projectiles. I rapidly began placing it into my other projectile spells and making a variant of each of them. [Multi-Icicle], [Multi-Waterjet], and so forth.

I caught Vee staring in amazement a few times and let her watch. I even made sure to slow down when crafting the [Multi-Acid Dart] and make it much more manageable to observe. It wasn't often that Vee became so willing to learn and observe magic, so I had to capitalize on the chance.

Besides food, we barely left our room after visiting the merchants and must have lost track of time entirely. One day, Lukhek himself came knocking on our door.

"Err... I hope I'm not disturbing?" Lukhek asked curiously. "From what the innkeeper told me, it sounded almost like you were in some kind of secluded meditation for the last two days..."

"Oh... No, nothing like that, just some spell construction..." I answered relatively honestly.

"I swear if the Mage's Guild ever finds you, they might instantly make you one of their head positions!" Lukhek joked, followed by a hearty chuckle.

If they don't get upset that I apparently know their secret casting method... Sounds like Mage Guild training still can't beat Trixie's Bootcamp!

"So, any news on the assassin situation?" I asked curiously.

"It looks like your gut feeling was right; Tamnaeth is clean," Lukhek replied. "He not only had a full alibi, but he was actually shockingly enraged to find out that you were attacked. You'd swear you were his sister or something..."

"No relation..." I waved it off.

Lukhek nodded before continuing. "Anyway, he actually wanted you to stay at the embassy, saying that he didn't trust our security would be enough until the root cause was found."

"I don't think I could handle being effectively placed under house arrest..." I answered. "While I appreciate the gesture, I like my freedom."

"Aww... But Syl, think of the food we might get there!" Vee mentally protested.

"Good! Cause I turned the bloody bastard down!" Lukhek said with a grin. "How dare he insult our dwarven defenders! I even put some extra guards around the inn, just in case."

"Thanks for being so thorough," I replied.

"Of course! Like I said, we protect our own," Lukhek answered. "Still, at least he's also doing an investigation, and from what my eyes and ears have told me, he's either the best actor in the world, or he's being honest. From what they overheard, he mentioned something about a rival branch."

Lukhek shrugged, clearly not understanding what that meant.

I had no firm idea either, so I couldn't judge. Was a branch a family, an organization, or perhaps a nobility? There were too many possibilities.

"Also, Kaldrour Flintheart is looking for you; asked to set up a meeting tomorrow afternoon if you're free?" Lukhek asked.

"Yes! Thank you," I replied immediately.

Is it finally slime core time? I hoped.

After warning me to stay vigilant, Lukhek left shortly afterward. I began continuing my spellwork for some time after when there was another knock at the door.

A bit annoyed at the constant disturbance, I wandered over to the door to open it.

"Syl!" A shrill voice screamed with joy.

I was momentarily shocked when the tiny winged pixie bolted over and hugged my face.

"Trixie?" I mumbled.

"That's my name, don't wear it out!" Trixie giggled. "I missed you! I was stuck in so much politics and nonsense; it was ridiculous! They actually blamed me for being absent for so long? Like, hello? You could have sent someone to save me!"

"Woah... Calm down a bit..." I said, not expecting to be on the receiving end of so much unbridled energy.

"Wow, your Mana is even more ridiculous! I'm totally hooked!" Trixie exclaimed, making exaggerated sniffing noises.

Gesturing the tiny creature into the room, I closed the door behind us so we could have some more privacy.

"I missed you too... I was worried you weren't going to come. Also, I have a friend to introduce to you," I said and gestured toward Vee, sitting in her webbed-up corner.

"You made friends with a spider?" Trixie questioned.

"Not just any spider... She's like me," I replied in a hushed whisper.

"She's a slime?" Trixie asked, instantly switching to telepathic communication. Again, she proved her superiority with this ability by giving me no chance to even agree to the connection.

"No, she's actually a spider... Just she's also part of the whole [Experiment] thing..." I replied. "She can't talk aloud, so I've been using telepathy to talk to her."

Trixie nodded. "Great, I'll add her to the conversation then..."

I was expecting to hear Vee's mental voice, but instead, I saw Trixie frowning, almost glaring directly at me.

"What. Is. That?" Trixie demanded, pointing at me.

"What is what?" I asked curiously.

Trixie fluttered to my head and slapped her hand against my hat, causing it to flip up and fall unceremoniously to the floor.

"What is that!?" Trixie said, pointing to the hat.

Before I could answer, Trixie fluttered up and sat on my head. She took a moment to settle down before letting out a sigh of relief.

"Ah... Much better..." Trixie muttered.

Was Trixie upset with the hat's Fey origin or simply upset that it had taken her favorite sitting spot? I could sense a ton of confusion coming from my bond with Vee, and it looked like there would be a lot of explaining to do.