Compensation

I awoke to a reiteration of what Tyr told them. Earlier it was my head, now it's my back, just how many times am I going to pass out?

"Eliana's at early stage rank 2 and you're at mid-stage rank 2." Idris seemed to be telling Lucian who was slowly nodding at him.

"Rina and I managed to break through the first rank, it took some guesswork because we were trying not to have severe backlash." Then he pointed his thumb at Rai who's been twiddling his thumbs to the side. "But he seems to be stuck just before the breakthrough. I think that seeing backlash earlier made him scared so he keeps on stopping right before he breaks to 1st rank" Rai pouts to the side.

"Who wouldn't be scared, Vice Captain was practically bleeding!" He chimed.

"Did it look that bad?" I asked, sounding like I didn't almost die. Lucian raises an eyebrow at me and I purse my lips at him, lightly shaking my head to the side. He's scared already, so don't even. He rolls his eyes and I know he understands. If Rai can't break through it's going to be Captain's problem.

"Everything okay?" Rina asks me and I sincerely respond "Yeah. My head seems to be fine, it's my back now." I hold on to my waist feeling like an elderly with back problems.

"If your back hurts, you should imagine my legs." Luci's back to glaring at the world, his arms folded, seeming to expect that I would understand what he meant, so I look towards Rina for an explanation.

"You passed out on his leg, we couldn't move you because Tyr said that you were still gathering energy to replenish what you used up during the breakthrough." she calmly explained.

Normally I'd be cursing now, denying that such a thing was impossible. But near-death experiences change you. I stare at the floor and say "Thanks. I'm smart enough to know that you helped." Then I look at his surprised face. He probably thought I was going to start a fight. So that works better, hmmm.

He shrugs it off and I'm okay with that, at least I won't feel like an ungrateful wench.

"Idris, try for 2nd rank. Prepare the meridians to be as large as you can first. Then memorize a cycle that covers as many areas as possible. Only then should you try to free the blockage of your original abilities." Lucian directs Idris on how to reach the 2nd rank. Oh, I should have probably done that. I think and can't help but smile sheepishly.

"With the amount of energy you already had before this, it should be enough for the cycling. It will overflow so you need to refine as much of it as possible, scatter it so that it doesn't overload." It sucks but Lucian was right. I did the opposite because I didn't even take into consideration what I was poking.

They continue talking about possible methods of circulation and I motion to Rina to listen well. She's been a solid A-rank back in Solandis, so she should be very close to us in terms of progress. She'd be much safer if she followed that.

I move towards Rai because we can't just leave him like this. "Rai, 1st rank is almost innate to us so don't worry too much." I pat his shoulders and he looks at me as if trying to verify if I'm lying. "It's true. It's largely because we are not unfamiliar with the concept of abilities. 1st rank is similar to you circulating your mental power to drive a mecha. The difference is that this time, instead of circulating it into a mecha, you're circulating it in your body."

He seems to accept that explanation better as he contemplates trying again.

Just as Rai was preparing to give it another go, Tyr appeared out of nowhere. Again. This time I think we've been desensitized.

We all look at him and he says, "It's good you're awake. I hope they've told you about what we talked about earlier. I would love to repeat it but we seem to be lacking time." That catches us off-guard

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"You're probably unaware but it's been 3 days already. You've all been in limbo here for that long and we think that we could only probably afford to keep you for about 2 more days before we start encountering problems." He sighs and resumes, "You're still humans so being exposed to this much pure energy, even after we've tried minimizing it is harmful to you. Think oxidation."

As he explains, several large scrolls materialize in front of us, he's pilled them on the table and we all look at him, dumbfounded.

Seeing our confusion, he explains, "We can't give you items from here. They'll be considered artifacts and you know how bad that was. So I thought of using the remaining time for you to gather as much information as you think you can handle." He gestures towards the scrolls. "We've figured out a way to grant you access to the information once you managed to unlock the ranks and abilities needed to run it. But I realized that information is more crucial for survival, so I prepared these."

"Similar to your world's search engine, ask and it will show you. This is limited to knowledge relating to your old realm. Even our information about Eryndor is to the level of what Shen has shared with us. He left a progression system. The mainframe was protected and I could only add objectives and rewards to it."

This is way better than nothing. Think of it as cramming for a test.

"As for language and spatial abilities. Thankfully, your original realm was mental power heavy, as 1st rank or higher, you'd be able to use your mental abilities to sort out the language. Further developing this may allow you to converse with non-human entities." At this, we all look at Rai who's mortified since he hasn't reached 1st rank.

"Rai" Lucian lazily mentions his name and Rai trembles. "You have two days to break through or you're stuck with charades. You might even end up getting sold through some conspiracy." Lucian warns.

Tyr seems to pity Rai but he continues, "Regarding the space domain, generally those are considered high-level and unique. That's also how we intend to give you an avenue to gather information. Consider this as our compensation for the artifact debacle." He bows lightly and sincerely.

"We're doing this manually now because you can only access such complicated domains at much higher ranks." Tyr looks over at me and Lucian and I'm hoping it's not bad.

"It's good that both of you managed to get to 2nd rank. We think you'd be able to handle opening the most rudimentary space domains. Fair warning, they're going to be really small for now. Though they should expand with the growth of your abilities." I take a sharp breath because now I feel like almost reaching death's door was worth it.

"Will I also be able to use it if I hit 2nd rank before leaving?" Idris asks to which Tyr answers "Yes, you should be able to. Eventually, you should all be able to do it when your ranks increase. So you can opt to wait."

Idris looks toward Lucian and he suggests, "Try opening the space, we need to see how small it is. We need enough space to fit all our packs in case we land somewhere bad."

Agreeing to this, Lucian looks at Tyr, waiting for directions on how to use this, and I listen because I don't want to suffer this time.

"For now, imagine tearing into space, try something small first. This is something that would've only been available at around 7th rank, but this is made possible by your 19 years of mental tempering. So hide this well, as it might attract undue attention." Lucian nods and tilts his head, seemingly imagining what a tear in space should look like.

He uses his hand to slice the air and a space does appear. I jump and suddenly clutch onto his shirt. "Sorry, I instinctively associated it with a blackhole, I reacted instinctively." I pry my hands from his back and even then my brain still thinks that that's a blackhole alright.

Lucian looks back at me, surprised at my sudden tug and he recovers to say, "Use one hand and give some slack. I'll peer inside if I say pull back, pull me back." I don't hesitate and grab him again. Fuck that, however I look at it, it really looks like a black hole.

"Normally you should be able to teleport into your space, similar to how I keep on appearing and disappearing, but this is our current limitation. Eventually, you should be able to tweak your usage of time in the dimension but right now it's real-time. Might want to use it as a bag for now, it might be dangerous to go in if you can't fit entirely yet." I grip tighter because Lucian, the lunatic might just decide to jump inside to check. Not today, please.

He probably sensed my death grip so he just looked in to estimate the size. "Around 2 cubic meters." He tells us before closing the space. "Just enough to put several bags inside."

I contemplate this before turning to the other side to try. Noticing that I'm about to try opening my space, Lucian holds me by the waist. I look back nervously and just nod at him. Definitely not the time to fight with the harness.

Imitating his earlier motion while visualizing a tear, I realize that energy was seeping it from my palm. So this is how it feels to use energy from the core. I watch as the air before me splits and a space that is enough to fit my head, opens before me.

Space devices weren't new to us, but we don't put our heads in like this, so even this is a novel experience for me. I push my head in before fear takes over and I see a small space, like an empty cubbyhole. Ohhhh! this is very convenient. I gasp as I look into the tiny space. probably just 1 cubic meter but that's big enough for about 2-3 bags if I squeeze them in.

"Would it be possible to put live objects like living plants or trees in there?" I asked Tyr after closing the space. Tyr seems to mull over it so I first tell them that the space I have is about a cubic meter in size.

"Ideally yes, but not at this point. It's practically a bag right now and it would be difficult to put live animals inside a bag without ventilation. And since you're still unable to control the time in your domain, it is still unable to preserve live items. It will spoil in real-time. For now, your space is mainly for convenience and safe-keeping."

"That's fine, our main concern is losing our supplies or getting them stolen." This is still better than expected.

If we're able to use this as food storage in the future, that would be helpful. With this to look forward to, suddenly Luci has become more pleasing to look at. The faster he advances, the greater it will be for our stomachs.

"You're thinking about food, no?" Rina laughs, reading me well and I puff my cheeks at her.

"I have high hopes for the greatest refrigerator of all time." And I really do. I nod like a bobblehead.

Lucian looks at me like I've gone nuts but manages to hold in his response. He probably understands how big of a deal this is for us.

"I'll get to 2nd rank before we leave. If I do, we can probably fit all of these." Idris glances over at the bags probably doing mental Tetris.

"Great!" Tyr claps and this gets our attention. "If there's nothing else, you might want to start researching, we don't have much time." I was about to hit the books, er, scrolls, but I suddenly remembered something I've always wondered about.

"Sir Tyr." I stop him hesitantly, "Will our birth control shots work when we go to Eryndor?" Utter silence, and then Rai gasps, like I've just cursed at someone. They're all stunned at my question but this is a matter of life and death. "Sorry, but I need to know. Imagine going to a hunt and then randomly bleeding out because of your period. I can't accept that as my second cause of death." That reminds them that the point wasn't reproduction. Period, the main problem is our period.

Sir Tyr seems to be thinking about it hard, he probably realized how big of a problem that would be. "I don't think that Eryndor would reject your current constitution since it was from the human realm. It would be different if it was something from here though." He nods to himself as if re-checking the logic of his answer.

"Also from what I know beginning 3rd rank your physical constitutions would start changing, including the life span. Back then humans had a long life expectancy due to modern technology, but in Eryndor, cultivation allows for something akin to the fountain of youth." Tyr smiled, hinting at the implication. Immortality. If we can't control our damn periods by then I don't know anymore.

"I never really considered such a problem so even I'm caught off guard but I believe that at around 6th rank, this would no longer be a problem."

"Ri, how long is the effect of that shot?" I look at her seriously, since that's our time limit. "10 from what I know, but we took that 3 years ago." "Bitch we have 7 years." If this isn't motivation, I don't know what else would be.

"I should note that down since it seems to be a great concern. We've watched the humans of Eryndor and most have been clamoring to have children as early as possible." Now even Rina understands the severity of the issue.

"Really?!" Rai was almost standing, very surprised at this development.

"Pre-historic records report the same thing." Idris looks at Rai specifically, "Since the population is small, and humans are racing against fast multiplying predators, they are clamoring to increase the population. As we were told earlier, most people don't get to access their abilities, meaning their lifespans are far shorter and it's ingrained in them to strive for reproduction." Idris explained calmly.

"We can't use our moral standards to judge them. There is no such thing as too young or too old because most don't get a chance to get to that point to ask whether it's right or wrong. There's also the difference in abilities. Unlike back in Solandis, we should probably prepare to encounter extremely powerful teenagers or very young-looking centennials."

"If anything, the only good thing is that strength speaks. I know they don't have a concept of sexual harassment and that polygamy is all the rage there, but just because we can't really hold that against them, does not mean we'll have to take it sitting down." I look at Rina's hands and realize that maybe the gods foresaw this happening.

She probably realizes where I'm looking and laughs while raising her hands. "Well, these will be handy then." We both laugh. No use in being sad about it. We're the foreigners after all.

The guys look like they've eaten something bad, their faces grim and I say. "Sucks right? But we'll make do." I hand Rina a scroll so we can start. "We need to finish this fast so we can gather more energy. This is as pure as we can get so we need to maximize."

"So there's a downside to being pretty I guess…" Rai mutters to himself while slumping back against his seat and we couldn't help but laugh at that. But he's right. I have to work hard, my best friend is too pretty.

"Anyway, focus on handmade items. Prehistoric methods to make salt, oil, soap, sunblock, repellants, tools, clothes, and shoes. We'll also need basic botany and best agricultural practices. Then there's preservation and tanning, as well as construction and waterproofing." I continue to ramble off, just so we can have starting points.

There are so many things that we need but we must focus on the most immediate needs. The others seem to understand and they start looking.

"Idris and Rai, I suggest you guys cultivate first. You can study with us while recovering, you can save more time." I tell both of them and they agree.

Let's just imagine that the test is tomorrow, the do-or-die kind.