The Rock’s Purpose

Thanks to me being a regular member of the gym back in Earth, I pretty much knew the correct forms and what exercises I needed. While hiding under the small tree, I started to exercise.

Rather than focusing on strength exercises, I focused more on building my flexibility and agility. After all, my main goal wasn't to have a physical battle with the knights but rather to swiftly escape!

Still, I thought about practicing my punches or kicking on the tree but I stuck to my extensive workout. The reason being, the village was surrounded by silence and my kicks and punches would attract unwanted attention.

***

After finishing my workout, I sat on the ground to take some rest. If I were to compare with Earth, the managers would actually arrive at the stable at around 7 o'clock and take us to the mine.

'I could see some more guards now. Although they're far away, if they focus really closely in my direction, they would be able to find that a fifteen year old boy was out of his quarters during the curfew. The punishment for that was some serious whipping!

I had to stay vigilant and not get caught. Although I was nicely hidden by the tree and the dim light around me, which was like a full moon night, these guards were actually trained especially for the dark.

As I was resting, I took out the rock that Princess Josephine had given me. I was planning to use the free time to research more on the rock.

As soon as I took out the rock, I noticed that it was shining brighter than last time. It was bright enough to attract anyone's attention but only if they focused in my general direction.

Immediately, I turned around to face the wall of the stable. If the light was noticed by the guards, I would be done for!

I looked at the mesmerizing light of the glowing rock. That corner of the wall started to glow. Even my bony and skinny face must have glowed under the stone's light!

After noticing the rock for a few minutes and realizing that the glow of the rock was not changing, I placed it back into my inventory.

'I don't exactly know how it works but I guess I could atleast use it as a dim torch sometimes.'

After placing the rock back into the inventory, I whispered into the air, "Space 1, Slot 1, Eject first item normally!"

The bigger black vortex appeared infront of me. It swiftly started to turn into lines of three colors: brown, gray and red. Then, the brown line moved towards the opening of the vortex as it moved anti-clockwise and a half of a komita fell onto my hands. It's already been a week since I stored the komita in my inventory. It was now time to check its state.

I carefully looked at it while turning it from side to side. It looked to be in the same condition I placed it in the inventory. There was no decomposition or rotten marks visible on the surface. It also felt as cold as it was when I placed it inside the inventory.

I then brought the komita closer to my nose and smelled it. There didn't seem to be any problem with the smell too.

'So far, it has passed all the test, time to actually taste it and risk myself. I just hope that I could also consume the food from the inventory and they don't actually have some kind of radiation in them! Also, it seems that all the items in the inventory are stored separately and are not influenced by the other items that I store.'

Putting my thoughts and fear aside, I took a bite from the half torn, thick tortilla-like komita. It tasted dry, coarse and a lot like some very low quality bread. This was the actual taste of the komita. Therefore, it passed all the tests.

After finishing my 'breakfast', I was now pretty much sure that the time inside the inventory either passed very slowly or it stopped overall. The inventory was able to store plant products but I didn't actually try it on a living organism. Surprisingly, the village didn't have a single insect or any small animals!

After resting and making sure that I wasn't seen, I secretly moved back into the stable. I noticed that the six legged, three horned and two tailed Lakéquses, which were arranged in a row in the stable, were now awake.

After noticing their habits for the past few days, I realized that these monsters were rather calm and required very less sleep. They would only sleep for five hours a day!

It was already time for the slaves to wake up and finish their morning chores before the masters arrived. I swiftly moved through the crowd and went towards the Lakéquses and started to stroke their crest.

The slaves woke up one by one and after noticing that I was stroking the six legged beasts with a sad expression on my face, they left me to my antics. One after another they exited the stable and soon I did so too.

***

I finished my work early and came back to the stable, again finding it empty. I took out the rock from the inventory to confirm something.

'The shine has become dimmer; it has the same amount of glow which it had yesterday at this same time. As I thought, this rock can actually be used as a clock in this world! It glows to its brightest at the start of the day and slowly dims down as the day ends.'

After realizing its purpose, I placed the rock back into the inventory. I would keep checking it multiple times per day to confirm my theory and relate it's brightness to the time on Earth. Just like what I did today whenever I got some privacy.

Then I moved back onto the top of the roof via the tree after noticing that nobody was monitoring me for the time being. Although the guards and the masters have received the order to keep an eye on me, it was clearly evident that they were not doing a good job. This actually worked in my favor!

As soon as I climbed the tree, I looked at the plant I planted in the early morning today. The star shaped crown which was planted into the soil has now completely dried up.

From the two flowers, only one managed to develop into a fruit! The other one was in the same state that I left it in. The only difference being that its stalk had dried up.

I looked at the yellow colored apple like fruit. Its stalk was still purple and attached to the crown of the fruit which had a mesmerizing purple hue. The stalk had automatically broken off from the 'seed' that it grew out of.

I then carefully picked up the fruit. Then, I took out the knife from earlier and pierced the tip gently inside the gap between the crown and the fruit. It would be like separating the crown of an eggplant without damaging either the eggplant or the crown!

After I managed to separate the five sides of the star shaped crown from the fruit, I carefully made my knife cut through the joint between the crown and the fruit. I also had to slowly pull the crown away from the fruit while removing its connection.

After a few minutes of careful maneuvering, and constantly monitoring my environment, I was successfully able to harvest my first Starlight fruit without getting caught. The crown was able to maintain its purple hue which meant that the seed extraction was successful!

I then placed the fresh crown in a separate slot of inventory and brought out the bag of seven seeds that I had. I put the bag on the roof which was entirely made up of straws. Then, I mixed the soil and the remains of the previous plant properly with my hands.

The remains would act as fertilizer and aerating the soil was an important step before planting the seed. After properly mixing the soil, the top layer was smoothed out and four finger sized holes were poked at each corner of the soil.

I then took out four of the seven crowns from inside the pouch and placed them one by one in the same fashion as I did in the morning. After watering them, I held my shirt over them as my hands would not be enough to cover them.

Some of the stalks grew into buds while most of them gave no results. I quickly removed my shirt after the buds were born. After placing the fruit and the pouch back into my inventory, I swiftly moved back inside the stable.

Noticing that the stable was still empty, I took out the starlight fruit and took a bite. Although the fruit looked like an apple, it tasted nothing like an apple! The fruit was very sweet and had a nice chewy texture. It was as juicy as a tomato but it was not sour at all! It also left behind a nice creamy after-taste which made one want to eat more.

I looked at the inside of the fruit and it also had the same dull yellow color as the skin. The skin was very thin and edible, just like in a guava. Overall, the taste of the fruit was a pleasant surprise as I've not expected anything like this from this world!

I finished my fruit and soon after some slaves started entering the stable. The scenario was same as yesterday. Not minding those few slaves, I took a nap and then went to have dinner after waking up.

Everyone was constantly avoiding me everywhere I went but I had no interest in that. After finishing my dinner and going back to the stable, my third day of week 31 ended again with a dreamless sleep.

***