It only took a week to get on everyone’s good side. They were as friendly as ever. I got allowed to use the boats just like old times and I had dropped off the mountain of weapons at the Yttroz Industries. They were very happy because just like almost anything, there was a shortage of weapons. This meant nothing to me, though.

  I went back to my house in Girai and sat down in my underground training room. It was time to attempt and get my buddies back, but there was something I noticed while hammering away for 2 months. I took out a thick metal block which was a special alloy that is extremely hard. But hard things break, while soft things change shape. I augmented my right fist and stared at the metal block.

  Kicks are my preferred method of dealing damage in close combat because my physical strength is unimpressive in a mythical context. My kicks pack more of a punch than my punches do, but a punch would do for this test. I tried to punch the metal block, but I chickened out twice. It was as thick as I was tall.

  I stopped chickening out and punched the metal block with all my might. Something cracked, but it wasn’t the metal block. I rolled on the floor applying frost to my arm and sent nature energy to it. Great I shattered my bones. I made a cast out of frost and it made me wonder if cutting my arm off would work better. Parts of my forearm had shattered into splinters.

  Nilah was looking at me in disapproval.

  What!? I needed to test something. Sword, please?

  She turned into her sword form, I grit my teeth and cut my arm off and applied frost to it. It didn’t hurt as much, as I had gotten quite numbed to losing limbs after the ‘Fairy Incident’. This shouldn’t become a habit, though. I reconfirmed that my physical strength was quite shit. I’m sure Raishin and Greg could shatter this with a punch. Now for my next test. I took out my tails. They were quite long in their compact form, but their true length was insane and impractical, normally.

  I haven’t seen my cousins use the full length either. Our tails act as our brains and limbs, but because it acts as our brains, we all get very protective and careful with them. I had been taught this in Hourai and also by Viridian and Hisui, to protect my tails at all cost. But.

  One of my tails shot at the block and pierced through it like it was butter.

  I noticed that our tails pack a serious punch. It is as if the physical toughness and strength we are supposed to have has been shifted to our tails. I used 2 tails and managed to completely crush the block. Why has nobody ever taught me this? I should have realized earlier, though. I had been kneading and stirring with my tails when I made the spirit vessel. Jyno had demonstrated that stirring or kneading for so long was unusual.

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  The maximum length of my tails is 9 meters, but they can also be made shorter than that with at it’s shortest 2 meters, which is the ‘compact’ size. I was still relatively clumsy with my 6th tail and higher, with my 9th tail being the clumsiest. My tails were like stereotypical high schoolers. My first tail is the strongest yet the dumbest, while my 9th tail is the weakest yet the smartest.

  My tails were treating this block as if it were made out of glass, it had broken into many pieces. I used fire magic to melt it and turn it into a blob and threw it in my dimensional pocket. I got a more malleable metal. It was a thick sheet, but my tails were treating it like it was made out of paper.

  I had always used them to pick up people, so they were also good at handling delicate material. I never tried to use them to their fullest potential at all. It terrified me a bit. What if I would augment them? I don’t have anything tough enough to test this out. I could’ve used Hablena as a punching bag if she was still here.

  Did you know this, Nilah?

  Nilah didn’t answer as usual. I still had the habit of talking to things and animals that can’t respond. I made illusions of various puzzles humans give to their toddlers to train them with dexterity and let my tails do them while I started to think of a starting point on getting my buddies back.

  I also needed to be prepared for anything, who knows what other fairies are lurking or strange things that reside in the dimensions they got sent to. I started by placing 5 illusion layers on my house and myself.

  The dimensional map revealed nothing useful, as expected. They’re probably not here anymore. I went to find the time map of this area and played it back to find the red hole my buddies had gotten sucked in.

  It was funnel-shaped. It curved and probably ejected them below our dimension. Whatever ‘below’ means in the void. Directions have no meaning, but at least it narrowed down a general area. I will be locating them from beyond our dimension, somewhere that isn’t mapped. I either needed a probe, investigate myself, or find a way to look into the void from here.

  A probe sounded like that would be the best and easiest idea. My tails were busy with physical problems, they could also work out how to make this probe in the meantime. It will probably take as long as coming up with the [Dimensional Anchor]. It will be easy to improve whenever it’s made, but the initial creation could be complex and take a while. Similar to the magic systems in the spirit vessels. That took ages, but I could recreate and tweak it in a heartbeat now.

  What should I do while my tails work this out? Have them continue getting more dexterous? What else can I do? The answer to this question refused to appear in my head, so I spent two more days getting my tails to become more dexterous.

  After that I went to improve my magic skills and the execution of my Dragonvein followed after my arm had regenerated.