Recovering from the mentally exhaustive magic exercises, Siul watched the tribes get more and more experienced in the world. No new signs of conflict with the remains of Survivor or his tribe have appeared.
The world was accelerated a month at a time and the two watched the progress of Gaves' tribe the most.
Since the first "war" was fought in the subspace world, another year had passed. The tribes have long recovered and were only making their place in the world deeper everyday.
Looking at the expanding village, a newly hunted large dinosaur was being skinned and a few workers distributed its meat. Most of it was edible while other parts would be used to make tools or more dinosaur bait. Thin films of mana were utilized around bone knives, enhancing their sharpness to aid in the dissection through the tough hide and skin.
Tools made entirely out of mana were too weak and inefficient to use at their level. Using a tool covered in mana to enhance its sharpness was a much better and more efficient use.
The outskirts of the village and, miraculously, the light magic plant was still alive. A person tended to the plant and groomed its leaves while watering the plant. A stack of meat was placed near its base shortly after. Siul was shocked to find that the plant squirmed and seemed to be enjoying the attention it received.
"Is it actually capable of emotion?" Siul was creeped out by the thought. Never did he think he would come across an emotional plant acting like a needy dog from the way it wagged a leaf.
Looking back at the people chopping the dinosaur, its skin was handed to a few people that began to process it. The skin would then be used from clothing, armor, and even tiling in roofs.
Bon flew next to Siul as he idly watched. He looked at the box strangely before asking him a question.
"Bon, how do you, well, even use mana?" Bon was not an organic being like Siul nor did he have any obvious mana "outlets." Instead, Bon was able to control mana in and out of his body easily from the start.
"I don't have a mana pathway, instead I have a sort of mana storage container inside of me. It acts just like the mana pathway you describe, but it doesn't circulate mana and instead just stores it for my use."
Siul pondered the information. Mana stored in the loop would constantly saturate the body with every rotation. In this process, a small amount of mana was constantly used, but passively a lot more was collected through various means like the environment or mana produced in the body itself. Storing it the way Bon did, it would always be at maximum capacity and readily available for use.
He thought of the applications if he was able to make a structure like that in his own body.
"I have to figure out how to make something like that first..." He lamented before asking Bon another question.
"You can't store more mana the more vitalized your, uh, box body gets?."
"... I am not able to store more mana, but with how much I have right now, mana usage is far from a problem. I don't passively burn mana into aura either."
Siul looked at the pros and cons of the two methods. With one, the body got stronger while the other allowed for the storage of large amounts of mana with no waste. For Siul, an organic being, the circulation method is very suitable, but for Bon, it could not benefit from the process the same way Siul did, so storing mana was its best option.
Looking back at the village tribes, the two could only sigh.
"It seems like diminishing returns have finally appeared. The current civilization in the world is only utilizing the more basic application of mana like external and internal manipulation, but nothing really close to 'magic.' The current method they are using resembles that of cultivation." Siul watched a few people practice their sparring.
"The only reason we are stuck at this point in time was to make sure they would not go extinct, but they can now easily protect themselves. Extinction is not a threat." Bon added in.
Siul did not oppose the two sides of the magic civilization, but he would have much rather had a wizard world and then one that focused on cultivation at this point. A wizard civilization could discover many useful spells, but he doubted a world of cultivation would have much of anything resembling spells in its beginning stages and even farther. Not only that, but cultivation would undoubtedly take "longer" to nurture as the act of cultivation itself was a long process.
In the end, the two came to a decision. They would accelerate the world for a dozen years, or two.
Increasing the acceleration of the world, they watched the land below turn into a blur of colors.
[A human settlement has reached a population of 10,000! The dynamics of human civilization will only grow more complicated as time goes on.]
[+1 Achievement]
...
[In the path of magic, the first bottleneck has been broken by a talented genius!]
[+3 Achievement]
[The grace period for humans is no longer in effect.]
...
[Humans have formed a governing structure!]
[+1 Achievement]
...
...
They slowed down the world again and in the 34 years that had passed, they had accumulated another 12 achievement.
"So much?" The potent amount of achievement in those 34 years was enough to surprise them. Thinking about it, though, it made sense. The humans were surprisingly civilized, even more so after the grace period and so it didn't take long for them to make advancements that could be considered revolutionary.
They approached the location of Gave's tribe and found that it had more than quadrupled in population. Now, it truly resembled a town and had strong, outer stone walls.
The cave held all of the important buildings of the tribe while everyone else lived outside. It was not nearly as dangerous as it was 34 years ago. Many people roamed the streets from men, women, to children, and even a small four legged mammal resembling a combination between cat and lizard that walked around without a care in the world. There was also a larger four legged feathered creature that people walked beside, it looked like an eagle combined with a wolf. A few of the eaglewolves spread their wings and even flew in the skies as they played with each other.
On the outskirts, what looked to be more tame and stronger legged raptor-like dinosaurs were held in stables. A few workers inside treated them as if they were their most valuable possessions. Alongside the raptors was a more heavy duty mount that was larger and its body was close to the ground. Its skin sagged slightly, but beneath it, a high amount of muscle was still visible. Its whole body had the theme of wide and strong.
A few paths had been made in the forest and upon following them, the two found that two of paths led to the other two cave tribes and a few others led to settlements in the middle of the forest being protected by strong people.
All in all, the whole civilization was now truly connected, but it was still in a very rough shape. It had some amount of civility, but there was also the inclusion of strange aspects like the very militaristic feeling the towns gave and the odd sight of seeing this civilizations equivalent to horses and pets. There were also frequent areas or buildings in the towns that gave off the feeling of a fight club. Many people fought whether for fun or training and others would cheer them on.
From within a large building, there was an orchard of light magic plants that were tended to. Siul was jealous of the mana density inside of it. There was a large hall where people would meditate and in an offshoot, there were a few people actively doing experiments that were hard to tell the purpose of with a glance.
Just then, in a large wooden building covered in dinosaur skin, Siul saw a familiar face.
"Is that... The scout?" The man had stayed in Siul's mind purely because he was almost always at the forefront of protecting the village or doing some strange action with his advanced development of mana.
Now, the scout had a hardened look and showed off a wise, but stubble beard. A bone sword hung sheathed at his waist and he wore a fashionably practical set of armor. At closer look, the armor was meticulously crafted; most areas had at least a few lairs of a valuable dinosaur skin that he only saw used in small quantities everywhere else.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
He walked alongside an old man. The man exuded a sense of deep wisdom, but also a sense of pure joy and fulfillment beneath it. The scout and man toured the city while retrieving a large supply of meat before stopping at a very decorated building.
The building was small, but the stone columns were filled with depictions of a developing village. Flowers were laid out all around the humble building.
Walking inside, the scout took off all of his equipment and weapons revealing plain clothing underneath. The old man did the same. They then walked through a stone door and greeted a light magic plant resting peacefully in the middle of the room. A long line of text was laid very neatly on a stone stela.
The man siphoned some mana from himself before the scout followed suit. Afterwards, they sat the meat beside the plant and kneeled down. They said a few words to the plant before forming an image with their mana. The image was that of a star-shaped fruit with fire burning it.
After doing so, the two sat solemnly before leaving the building. Siul and Bon continued to watch the two, but theystopped at a lively tavern-like building and drunk their hearts out.
"What were they doing?" Bon was curious, but it was hard to tell what exactly they were.
Siul wasn't sure either, but he gave his guess. "They could be... Mourning the death of someone?" It was the closest thing he could think of. There was nothing sad about the process until the end. There was always a sense of endless solemn and respect while they in the building too.
They continued to look around the world, noting the significant cultural changes, but it was now that they truly came to their first problem.
"We can't speak their language." Not only had they now developed a writing system, but their speaking sounded a little more sophisticated too. There were many things carved in stone or wood and they could no longer guess many things as easily as before.
They tried to observe a few people practicing mana, but it was now that they realized that it heavily relied on the development of the inner body meaning they couldn't steal anything just from observing the changes outside their body.
Just like Siul's guess, the people really were cultivating and reading a prompt from earlier, a bottleneck had been solved by someone. A bottleneck that Siul hadn't even encountered yet.
They were blocked by a wall of language. It was either that they compromised now and tried to learn the language, or just let the world develop some more.
Looking at their achievement, the two found that they had a total of 27. Just 3 off from being able to purchase the rudimentary radar. They looked at each other with a knowing look.
They would accelerate the world until they got enough achievement to purchase the radar and then go from there.
With reluctant hands, the two increased the acceleration, but no prompt had come up. The world was starting to blur with its fast movements. They continued to wait.
[An evil presence of greed has grown powerful. Concocted from jealousy and desire, Survivor has risen to be a force to be reckoned with. It is up to the world and you to decide who will determine its fate.]
[+5 achievement]
They immediately stopped the acceleration upon seeing the achievement they were rewarded with. Siul's eyes widened at seeing Survivor's name being mentioned.
"Evil presence?" He was confused by what the prompt meant.
"It could mean justa super villain or something equivalent?" Bon noted Survivor's traits. There was no way Survivor would be able to live in a civilized world normally from what they remembered. They shuddered to think of the developments that the guy had made after... 157 years.
"How many years passed?" Siul had to look at the timeline again, but his eyes didn't deceive. It had taken 123 years for them to get even a single prompt to reward achievement, whereas compared to before, they had gotten many.
Looking below them, it was obvious to see that Gaves' town had turned into a full blown kingdom-like area.
"No way..." A little sadness appeared in their hearts. In such a short amount of time, 157 years had passed since the development of magic in the world. The survival of humans was dependent on them and in the end, they had succeeded.
"How is that guy alive?" Bon remarked a reasonable concern.
"Is it the result of cultivation? There is no way that the prompt would have mentioned a dead man..." The possibility of increasing his life span in front of him had Siul grinning.
Houses made out of stone, wood, and dinosaur skin were incredibly common. The hide was in abundance and used to waterproof the roofs of houses. A few formidable looking people patrolled the streets and were met with smiles from the children playing with a ball.
The closer a building was to the caves, the larger they seemed to get. Floating in and out of a few, they found that some housed big orchards of light magic plants and others were just normal houses.
To the disappointment of Siul and Bon, there was no castle in sight.
Following a few roads, there were many developed towns and the other three cave tribes were assimilated into this one unified kingdom.
Stopping to look at their stock of 32 achievement, though, Siul smiled. The two bought the [Rudimentary Radar] upgrade and felt the pleasant stream of information sprout in their minds.
They understood the workings of the radar and its uses. In essence, they could pay 1 achievement and describe an item or thing they wanted to find in the world, the radar would then give vague details that would get more useful the more achievement paid.
With an excess of 2 achievement, they decided that each of them would be able to use the radar once.
Siul asked first.
"An item to learn the language faster."
[There is no such item in the world; refunding achievement.]
"Hmm, so it can do this too?" Siul was glad at having his achievement refunded. If it went to waste, he would feel very cheated.
"A method to enter into the world in an accelerated state."
Just then, a globe appeared in front of Siul along with an area that was covered in a circle.
[Within a lair of maliciousness, a man full of greed lives in isolation. There exists a book with a particular method you look for, but beware, it is not for the most practical of use.]
"Oh?" The area shown in front of Siul was large, but it was not the biggest that they have had to search before. He remembered the rush to find the light magic plant.
"Bon, do you want to help me find this thing?"
Bon agreed. If they could retrieve the book, then it would make many things easier.
They flew up in their ghost-like form and headed to the large swath of land shaded in the globe. It was near the edge of the continent that they were on.
Within the world, there were three continents, but two of them were still yet to be officially explored.
Using his point, Bon asked the radar. "Where is this book?"
[A tower of stone, not above the trees. Your item is resting on a bookshelf in the deepest floor of all. It is worn and hidden secretly. It is bound in dark leather and its pages are worn through decades of use.]
"A stone tower?" Seeing the description, the two felt relieved. If it was hidden carefully underground, then they might have really given up then and there.
The two set their plan of action. Siul and Bon would go on one side of the shaded region and then practically carpet search the whole region until they found an inconspicuous stone tower.
It did not take them a long time either as just a few days later, Bon who had made the most progress had found it among a particularly large region of trees that were hundreds of feet high.
There were almost no signs of human touch in the area other than the somewhat brown stone tower. Bon had nearly passed it if not for the fact it didn't have leaves and was much wider than the trees around it.
"This is where the book is?" They remembered that it was hidden secretly.
Walking inside the tower, they ignored all of the ordinary bookshelves. They soon found themselves gazing at the sky on top of the tower. Throughout it, there had only been ordinary rooms that looked to be recently used. There was not much and so, they explored downward.
A spiraling stone staircase led far beneath the earth. There were a few offshoots every now and then, but they were not interested in them until they found the book. Finally, the staircase came to an end and a hallway of rooms greeted him.
They saw a figure wearing gray robes walk in a room with a few glass bottles filled with a dark liquid. Investigating the rooms, there was at least one person in each one making what looked to be a vile concoction. They moved to the end of the hall and took a turn, but there was no bookshelf in sight.
Wandering around the maze-like structure of the dungeon, though, it wasn't long until they found their target. A large double door laid at the end of the hall and upon going through it, a small library filled their sights. inside of it, there were a few robed figures reading books on a few tables.
They ignored the ordinary looking area and looked around until they found an inconspicuous door. Behind it, there was a table and bed along with a half filled bookshelf. On the bookshelf, they found their item.
"Is that really it?" The book was very thin, but it matched the description perfectly. They would have taken the book at that moment, but a man sleeping on the bed interrupted them.
They couldn't physically touch anything while in the observation mode and so, they had to wait until he left to take the book. In the meantime, though, Siul stole a robe from one of the top rooms of the tower and donned it before covering his face with the hood.
This was to make sure that he blended in as much as possible for the event that if he did somehow get caught, he would still look like one of the people working for the tower.
After a few hours, the man finally stumbled awake and walked out groggily. The moment the door closed, Siul entered into interaction mode and grabbed the book out of the bookshelf. As he suspected, it really was incredibly worn out and the leather on it was smoothed. There was a faint outline of words, but they had long faded and were no longer readable.
Just then, the door burst open with the man before yelling at him. With his back turned to him, Siul took this as his cue and entered into observation mode with the book in hand. Although he couldn't take the book out of the subspace world, it was still possible to put things with him into observation mode like he had done with light magic plants.
The man was now wearing a robe and appeared confused at the sudden disappearance of the intruder. Siul and Bon did not linger long and flew back to the Gaves' kingdom.
Siul excitedly opened it, but he was met with the disappointment of not being able to read it. Foreign lettering and characters filled the pages.
"Uhh, that's a problem..." They had come a full circle back to their initial problem. They were at a serious language barrier.
Accelerating the world just a little bit, he tried to enter into interaction mode, but he was met with the same prompt from before.
[Interaction mode is unable to be used due to the rate of time acceleration and the lack of a method to ensure the safety and longevity of the owner.]
"Come on, man. Just a few years... All I need to do is learn the language and you can deny me all you want after that because then I'll have a method to enter into the world."
As much as he didn't want to actually enter the accelerated world with his real body, it was necessary. There was too much time and things that could happen in the real world if he studied with was no time acceleration. Still, he left his biggest motivation of getting the experience to live in the subspace hidden.
The prompt slowly disappeared before a new one appeared.
[... Request accepted. Restriction temporarily removed.]
[Owner may enter into interaction mode once during acceleration. Max time acceleration. 1,000:1. Upon returning, restrictions will be returned. Owner will be automatically returned after 3 real world days.]
Siul smiled. He didn't expect his complaint to work, but he wasn't going to say anything else to mess up this chance. He turned to Bon. He knew that Bon wouldn't be able to join him and the box knew it too. Afterall, Bon couldn't even move itself even if it was an intelligent box.
"Sorry about this..." Siul wanted to bring Bon with him, but it just wasn't practical.
Despite this, Bon did not feel sad either as it knew its own limits. "Are you really sure you want to do this, though? I mean, it will likely take a year or two to even learn the language..." With the time acceleration at 1,000:1, one real life day would be a little more than 3 years in the subspace world.
"Yes, we need to do this." Still, Siul wasn't going to enter into the world immediately. He needed to be a little prepared.
Over the next day, Siul stole a few items of ordinary clothing and also a small sum of currency. The form of currency in the subspace world was of only copper coins. He also discarded the robe in case it was bad to be seen with it.
He then had to determine where he would actually enter into the world and viably integrate into its society. He looked at his traits and found that although he looked somewhat different, it was not much so. His stature was also short compared to people of the world. All of this meant that he wouldn't have to worry about his direct appearance that much.
Eventually, after a lot of thought, Siul determined that he would just enter into the world on the outskirts of a nice town and act like he had lost all memories and language. With magic being in the world, he hoped that the people would chalk it up to a vicious fight or experiment.
After getting everything ready, Siul went up to his room and slept. He didn't want to be tired when he would enter into the world.
The next day, he entered into the subspace crystal with a deep breath. Bon was already waiting for him.
"Are you ready?"
"Of course." Siul looked down at the place he would enter.
The world accelerated and Siul floated down. His heart beat rapidly and he felt short of breath. He focused on [Interaction Mode] and in the next moment, the ground was solid.