Inner Universe

Several hours after the synthesis, Astur wakes up in her room.

"This is… my room. Oh! What happened to the synthesis!" Astur instantly brings her body upright.

Checking her status, Astur finds a few new things in the System Interface. The first of which is the addition of a brand new skill, Inner Universe.

[Inner Universe (Passive/Active)]: Through physical contact on the skin, items can be stored and brought out from the Inner Universe. Both animate and non-animate objects can enter the Inner Universe, living creatures can resist if forced to enter. Time and space can be freely manipulated inside the Inner Universe. Passively gain a bonus to HP and all energy reserves equal to 1% of the energy output within the Inner Universe. Passively increase Vitality equal to 1% of the prior bonus and increase Strength equal to half the Vitality bonus. (Current energy output: 0)

This is the result of Astur's synthesis. Perhaps not quite what Astur had been expecting to accomplish, but nonetheless, it's a nice surprise, so much so that Astur is completely speechless. Using her soul as an anchor, an entire universe was created within Astur, even if in its current state it's merely an empty void. Currently, the only real use it has right now is as a glorified storage as per Astur's original intention.

However, the true use of the Inner Universe is for more than simply a storage space. As the name suggests, it functions as a real universe, capable of forming stars, planets, and even black holes. With enough resources and time, life can also sprout up. The nature of the Inner Universe is contradictory, with Astur's soul as an anchor, it's a closed space, but through Astur's abilities, it's an infinitely expanding space at the same time. It obeys the laws of physics while breaking them at seemingly random. Should life take form all on its own, it will likely be eldritch in both appearance and ability. The Inner Universe is similar to the universe Astur previously inhabited but is fundamentally different but it is also distinct from the universe she lives in now.

Astur is fascinated by thinking of the various applications of the Inner Universe. If she develops it well, she might be able to casually throw a star or black hole at someone in the future. But before anything such things can happen, Astur needs to think of how to fill this empty universe. The simplest way is to grab whatever she can and throw it inside.

"No, this idea isn't capable of accomplishing what I want. Perhaps if I already had a planet in there and needed to bring in inhabitants, but if I want to form galaxies this won't be feasible," Astur mumbles.

*Knock*

Entering Astur's room is Elizabeth and Kretea.

"It's good you're finally awake, do you have any idea how close you were to dying?" Elizabeth says with a stern voice.

"According to my calculations, I should have been close to 0 HP if I use game terms. But I'm alive and my synthesis was more of a success than I could have ever hoped for. As long as my instructions were followed, my life shouldn't have been in any real danger."

"This time your calculations were a bit off, Lady Astur. If not because I woke Ystur up and called Elizabeth over, I alone could not keep up with the consumption of Health Potions," Kretea says.

"..." Astur turns her head to the window, avoiding Elizabeth's eyes, "I had obviously been accounting for extra hands."

"Look me in the eyes and say that," Elizabeth says.

Turing her head towards Elizabeth, Astur opens her mouth but is unable to say anything. Under normal circumstances, Astur's face is quite thick and shameless, but in this case, she really did almost die. She greatly underestimated how much damage she would take from this endeavour.

"Well? Do you have anything to say?" Elizabeth asks.

"I'm sorry. I'll put more thought into it next time," Astur says.

"Excuse me? Next time?"

"Of course there'll be a next time, I'll just take more precautions. For the sake of progress, there will always be a next time. I can't exactly ask someone else to take my place, so I'll take the burden upon myself."

But this is mostly nonsense that Astur is throwing out in hopes of trying to convince Elizabeth and get her off her back. Sake of progress? Astur just thinks the result was very good and wants to see if she can increase the conversion of the Inner Universe's energy output. Taking the burden upon herself so others don't have to? Astur is just being selfish and doesn't want to share the spoils with anyone.

Kretea, in her simpleton state, easily believes Astur's nonsense. But Elizabeth is much more suspicious. With a good understanding of Astur's personality, Elizabeth is keenly aware that if Astur says something that sounds selfless and makes her out to be a decent person, then there is almost always an ulterior motive. The only problem is that Elizabeth can't figure it out right now.

"Explain it like I'm five, what did you get out of almost dying?" Elizabeth asks.

"Storage equals me," Astur says.

"Alright, this is my fault. Don't actually explain it like I'm five, just don't use any super technical terms like when you brought us over to the workshop in the beginning," Elizabeth sighs.

"Huh? But I understood what Lady Astur said," Kretea says looking at Elizabeth with a confused look.

"No way, is my intelligence lower than Kretea's…" Elizabeth mutters, much to the dissatisfaction of the person in question.

"That would be yes and also no," Astur says, "Kretea is indeed far superior to you when it comes to matters of combat and military organisation. But Liz, you're far more suited to sitting at the desk and acting cute-- I mean handling administrative work and other logistics related tasks. As for Ystur… the only thing she can really do right now is lazing around and acting cute, so you're much better than her in that regard. Speaking of which I still need to arrange some studies for her."

"Hmm… well, I understand what you're saying. Everyone has different strengths and weaknesses," Elizabeth says, "But don't try to shift the subject, what did you get from the synthesis."

"Tch," Astur clicks her tongue as her attempt to move the topic away fails, "Basically, rather than needing to carry a spatial ring around for storage, I am the ring. Look," Astur places her hand on the bedsheet as it disappears from view, as it is now floating within the Inner Universe.

"How much space is it?" Elizabeth asks.

"As far as I can tell, there are no limits," Astur says as she finally gets out of the bed and looks around.

"I put your clothes in the top drawer of the bureau," Elizabeth says. "This probably can't be reproduced, can it?"

"Realistically, no. If it was just me then yes, but for other people, it probably won't work," Astur says as she gets dressed.

This is only a half-truth. Strictly speaking, the process can be imitated as long as Astur is doing the synthesis, but not everyone can withstand sitting inside a boiling cauldron for more than a day. Moreover, Astur also didn't share the true nature of her new ability. This is something that Astur intends to keep a secret for as long as possible.

"Moving back to more important topics, I'll be going over to Dawn tomorrow. I want to see the situation there. After that, I'll go to Hadrow and inspect the situation over there. Liz, make the arrangements. Kretea, go find Ystur, I want you to make her study combat tactics and strategic planning."

As Elizabeth leaves and returns to work, Kretea is stopped just before leaving, "Hold on," Astur says, grabbing onto Kretea and pulling her closer as she lights a cigar.

"Borrowing my luck again?" Kretea asks, having gotten used to this now.

Astur sighs, "Yeah, but unfortunately not even you could get me this," Astur lets go of Kretea, "Alright, go find the little girl now."

With Kretea gone and with Astur as the only one in the room, she sits back down on the bed and blows out a puff of smoke.

"That would have been perfect for the Inner Universe, but over my entire time in this world, I still haven't unsealed it once…"