What lies in the heart.

"Interesting..." Muttered Konrad, looking at the sleeping monster with curiosity.

*What do you think happened to it, Daddy?" Asked Octavia similarly examining the shrunken creature.

"I'm not sure...I guess the size of the body was increased by the oversaturation of dark energy, and the expulsion of said energy, caused this shrinking phenomenon. It must have shrunk to keep up with the lower level of power..." Said Konrad while scratching his head.

He honestly didn't expect that to happen, but it was actually making more sense to him by the minute.

"Let's go back for now Octavia. I don't think there's anything we can do for now." He finally said.

*Weren't you supposed to train your Mana capacity?* Asked Octavia puzzled.

"Oh...Right... I guess i forgot...

You know...how about we go to the town instead? It was a long time since we just went to just stroll around and had fun, don't you think?" Konrad said with a twinkle in his eye.

There was no words to describe the sight of an overexcited slime wiggling happily in the middle of the forest. Konrad laughed seeing her clear agreement, and then the duo went away.

_________

It was a very fun day for the two of them.

As Konrad decided to relax today, there was no research nor training on the schedule, and suddenly, he wasn't sure what he was even supposed to do...

Thankfully Octavia came to the rescue, after proposing to eat icecream, before having a stroll on the beach. As it was the middle of winter though, the stroll was postponed for a later date because Konrad was already freezing from eating the icecream...

He was really curious how Octavia could be completely unaffected by the cold.

Konrad found out that She surprisingly couldn't be frozen, or at least her slime couldn't be, but only as long as it was connected with her nucleus. If she separated a piece of her body, it would just become a piece of slime with the properties it had upon separation, and this one could be frozen just fine...

Anyway...As Konrad was freezing, and his warming spell could do only so much for an idiot that ate icecream in winter, they quickly returned home.

It was still the middle of the day though so they now had to figure out something else that they could do to pass the time.

Konrad's gaze for a second lingered on the research notes and pieces of metal experiments of Octavia in her Undetectable Secret Corner, but he quickly rised this thought aside. They were supposed to relax and not research today... It was so awkward that just a while ago he was telling Octavia how important it was to take a break from time to time, and now he couldn't do that himself...

In the end though, with Octavia's suggestions, Konrad found himself in bed with a blanket wrapping him tightly, a bowl of snacks close by and a fuzzy drink close to the bowl. A small gelatinous ball of slime was wiggling on his lap, as one of those Echi isekai animes was running on his computer.

He wanted to ask since when Octavia was into this stuff, but it slipped his mind halfway through the episode...

That lazy day passed in a cozy and enjoyable atmosphere, as Octavia snuggled into him while watching the show. There wasn't much to say about the rest of the day since it wasn't much different. It was just...a lazy day...

__________

Anyway there few days passed, and every day, the Monster would become smaller than before.

Octavia worried that it would one day just simply disappear but Konrad had a different opinion.

That opinion was confirmed on the seventh day of their waiting...

Something changed with the monster, and it wasn't the size this time.

The creature was now only the size of a larger cat, and even though it was asleep, it's body was twitching and turning as the black energy continued to slowly seep out of it.

Konrad instantly approached the creature trying to feel the Dark energy inside, only to realize that it was almost completely gone!

The black mist that until now covered it's body in a dark shroud was now just a wisp of darkness that was barely visible. Its black leathery body was now as if covered in tar that constantly changed its consistency in waves that originated from the heart's direction.

The more the waves spread over the body, the more the creature changed. At first he couldn't tell for sure but slowly the liquid-like skin gave way to black fur, and the originally red, glowing eyes dimmed and changed, soon transforming into yellow cat pupils. A small purple crystal emerged from the Creature's forehead and the tail gave him the impression of being way too long...

The creature that appeared looked like a cat but it was slightly bigger and it clearly wasn't a normal cat. With its black fur, long tail, crystal on the forehead and it's yellow glowing eyes, it looked more like some fantasy magical creature...which it probably was!

"So I was right! There was something more to it that met the eye!" Konrad exclaimed seeing the transformation of the cat creature.

*Woah! What happened to it Daddy!* Asked a very surprised Octavia. Even though Konrad told her his suspicions, she was still shocked with the outcome.

Konrad wanted to reply but there was suddenly another change in the situation.

The creature started to thrash wildly in the air, before it suddenly cought out an unknown black mass that splashed on the ground and suddenly evaporated. Konrad could feel as the last piece of dark energy left together with that black mass. Whatever that was, it was evil...

The creature then stopped moving and Konrad worried that it might have died. It would have been a big shame so he quickly run to it and stopped the levitation formation. He wanted to see if the weird cat was still alive.

The small creature landed softly on the formation under it and Konrad carefully checked its pulse. He wasn't sure how to do it though but touching it's chest was enough to feel the low heartbeat of the creature. It was indeed alive so Konrad made a sigh of relief.

"What are you really..." He muttered before remembering about observe.

He smacked his forehead before activating the skill.

[• Shadow Cat •]

| Race - Magical Creature

| Class - Hunter

| Status - Weak

| Mana ~ 11/200MP

| Mana Regeneration ~10/min (5%/min)

| Blood Capacity - 550/700ml

________

| Stats:

Strength - 7

Perception - 27

Agility - 17

Intelligence - 9

________

| Skills:

- Shadow Movement

- Magic Effect Resistance (Low)

- Eye Of The Cat

_________

|Description: A magical creature of the supposedly extinct Shadow Cat species.

As a shadow element creature, and because of their possession of a special skill 'Eye of the Cat' that greatly improved their perception, a shadow cat belongs to the best hunter species. Additionally, the crystal on their forehead, allows them to focus their Mana with an improved precision, improving their ability to cast their inborn Shadow Magic.

Formerly under the XXXX was rescued from its faith by Konrad Caster.

After being- XXXX, The Shadow Cat gained the Magic Effect Resistance skill.

Its currently scared, awaiting for it's mana to recover so it could escape and look for a safe place to live.

_________

Konrad was reading the description with more and more amazement before finally reading the last paragraph.

He needed to read it again before realizing that the cat wasn't asleep, but it was too late...

Its sudden jump startled him, allowing him only to reflexively cast a Wind Push spell as a protection. It wasn't needed though, because the cat wasn't aiming for him but for his shadow.

He could only barely register as the cat sunk into the shadow and completely disappeared...

"..."

*...*

"Huh...Guess we saved a magic cat Octavia..." He said, receiving a smack on the head from his familiar.

"Ow! What was that for?!" He asked in a mock hurt voice.

*Because you were risking yourself again Daddy! You could have left it in the levitation magic and check it with Observe!* She replied annoyed.

"Oh...yeah. I could have done that i guess..." He said awkwardly while scratching his head.

"So...what do we do now with a magical cat on the lose?" He asked not remembering the more pressing matter.

*And do we have any way to track him, Daddy?* She asked.

"Uh...not really. I don't think I could catch something that can literally move through shadows...Damn i can't believe i let it run away, but who could have guessed that it would suddenly have different abilities and one of them be a counter to my sleeping formation?" He moaned annoyed. Such a fine specimen! It was an actual magical creature just like Tavy. What if he could tame it? Wouldn't that be awesome?

His eyes fell on octavia though, and he realized that he didn't really want to tame it. There was only one familiar for him and it was Octavia!

He shrugged his shoulders in helplessness and said-" Well nothing to do then i guess...Let's clean this place up and go home. If anything, we made a good thing by saving the poor creature so it wasn't a total waste of time. Who knows. We might even meet it again in the future!"

The duo left the forest as a pair of yellow eyes looked at their departing figures from the shadows of the trees.

//Ughhh i wrote this chapter while being completely exhausted and famished XD It might sound a bit messed up as I feel as if i wrote 'as' much too many times.... It's weird really. Why was it the most often used form of writing for me today is a mystery but dunno...Anyway I'm almost asleep and I'm making less and less sense so I stop this chapter here XD Hope you liked it even over how confusing it must have turned out to be.

ENJOY!!//

// After reading through the chapter the next day it wasn't so bad but I still had to make a few corrections XD hope it's good enough to please everyone.

ENJOY!!!///

_________

Current Status

[• Konrad Caster •]

| Race - Human

| Class - Magic Swordsman

| Status - Healthy

| Mana ~ 1073/1073MP

| Mana Regeneration ~107/min (2x5%/min)

| Blood Capacity - 6500/6500ml

| Blood Replenishment - 500ml/4daysx4 = 500ml/day

________

| Stats:

Strength - 24

Perception - 23

Agility - 26

Intelligence - 20

________

| Skills:

- Language Comprehension:

- [@π&¥@&€#∆££#&∆¶$

- Language Of Birds

- Health Regeneration: x4

- Mana Regeneration: x2

- Lesser Mana Affinity

- Space Storage: 14 m^2

- Observe: Basic

- Status Deterioration Block

________

| Soul Bonded Artifacts:

- Cooking Grimoire

________

| Familiars:

- Octavia [ Slime ]

________

| Description:

Konrad is a...

.

.

.

...Hard.

________

//Konrad's inventory list//

- Steel Broadsword

- Steel Gauntlets

- Steel Armour Chest Piece

- Compass Of Random Journey

- Map Of Revealment

- Medium Health Potion

- Floating Ice Prison formation

- Teleportation Formation (->Greece)

- Teleportation Formation (->Gacha Space)

- Teleportation Formation (-> School)

- Bunch of different experimental magic formations

- Smartphone

- few changes of clothes

- Jar of dirt

- two buckets of wet cement (for later)

- four empty buckets

- Pure Orichalcum = 21kg

- Orichalcum Ingot = 5kg

- Pure Mithrill = 6kg

- Mithrill ingot = 5kg

- Pure Adamantite = 7kg

- Konrad's favourite knife

- Konrad's personal Grimoire:

- Fire magic ( Fireball, Fire Wall, Fire Javelin, Fire wave, Heat adjustment, etc. )

- Light magic (Light Ball, Light Lance, Flashbang, Invisibility, etc.)

- Wind magic (Wind Ball, Wind Blade, Air Wall, Vacuum Sphere, sound muffling, etc.)

- Mind magic (Aura of ignorance, etc.)

-Water magic ({needs water} - Water Jet, Water blade, Water ball, Water Wall, etc.)

- Gravity magic ( Weight Manipulation,)

-Combination magic (Flight, Ice Magic,)

- notepad for quick observations.

- •Apprentice Tome Of Swords And Shields•(completed)

- •Advanced Tome Of Swords And Shields•(completed)

- bunch of different trinkets he thought might come in handy someday...

- Spelunking equipment

- Diving equipment

- Hiking equipment

- Climbing equipment

- Prize orbs:

[} User targeted Summoning (Another World Hero) {]

[} Common Gemstone Draw {]

[} Lesser Mana Potion {]

[} Lesser Health Potion {] x5

[} Pure Iron Dagger {]

[}Mana Capacity +1{] x3

[} Steel Gauntlets {]

[} Pure Iron Broadsword {]

[} Medium Health Potion {] x2