Mid Afternoon - Early Fall : The Forest of Giants | Temnota

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  "We'll be back in a moment, Eve." *SNAP* Letting go of the lizard's mouth as I hopped into the pool of blood with Bella, its jaws snapped shut, and in an instant, Bella and I were shrouded in complete darkness. *Splash* "Alright, Bella. Just follow me."

  *Snap* Snapping my fingers, a bright flash of light filled the lizard's mouth, illuminating Bella's slightly anxious expression.

  *Snap* But by the second, rhythmic snap, her gaze was overtaken with fascination, and by the third, she was closely following behind me. -Good...-

  Swiftly continuing through the pool of blood, we made it all the way to the back of the lizard's tensing throat before stopping and looking up at the slime-covered ceiling. *Snap* "Okay, you still have the blade I gave you, right?" *Snap*

  "Y-Yes!" *Vwoop* Popping it out of her inventory with a momentary, dim flash, she reached up and caught the blade in her mouth. *Tink* "W..what should I-"

  *Snap* Illuminating myself with a flash, I cut her off to point at the ceiling. "Climb up there, dig through the muscle, and cut its spinal cord."

  Almost immediately, her expression turned serious and stiff, looking up at the ceiling with a far more predatory gaze than I had ever seen on her.

  Although this wasn't a test, she seemed to interpret it as one. So, without a moment of hesitation, she trotted over to the side of the lizard's throat before slashing it, somewhat shallowly with her blade, and hooking her claws into the wound.

  Since her claws were far from sharp enough to dig through the tissue on their own, she had to essentially create a ladder in its flesh. -How clever...-

  Unfortunately though, after a few slices, the lizard started feeling it. *blub-SPLASH* Jolting, the blood in its mouth sloshed around, and the sphincter-like entrance of its throat started violently contracting. -Ah, didn't think about that...-

  Looking into the darkness deeper in its throat, I quickly threw up my hand and created a stiff wall with my aura before suddenly... *SPLASH* An immense wave of acid, mixed with the half-digested remains of some creature slammed into the back side of it.

  -Hm... Looks like he was eating the remains of something pretty substantial...- The flesh was old, but made of incredibly lean, dense muscle fiber, but while I wanted to try and figure out what other kind of creatures were in the area, it didn't tell me much.

  At least that was until I forced my aura into the wall of bile. -Feathers and eggshell...-

  The lizard had just recently feasted on a young, unhatched bird, likely within minutes of me catching him. -If he was able to snatch it, the mom couldn't have been around, but...- Squinting as I looked toward its mouth, I quickly propped it open to let my aura out, extending its range out closer to what it normally was. -I should keep an eye on Eve just in case...-

  But thankfully, my worries weren't so readily realized.

  After a few minutes passed, Bella had carved a fairly long tunnel through the Lizard's muscle, and had actually reached the spine, her first road block.

  Instead of asking what to do though, she started experimenting, using the back of her paw to fruitlessly try and crack it before cutting to the side to find where two vertebrae met, and sticking the blade into the joint.

  *mush* Rolling onto her back in the tunnel she carved along the create's spine, she carefully moved the knife into a cartilage-filled crevice before setting her paws on it and pressing as hard as she could. "Nnnggh-"

  But while the blade was slowly pushed into the cartilage as if stabbing into stiff jello, as the blade reached the rather thick spinal cord, it was just guided to the side, unable to cut through it as easily as it did the cartilage.

  -Ah.. one of those black threads must be in it...- And, unfortunately, that wasn't something she would be able to cut through. -Shit.. I didn't think about that...-

  Not knowing that though, she didn't give up.

  Trying to push the underside of the blade's handle to leverage the blade through the cord, she put her entire body into it, using the cartilage pressing into the dull backside of the blade to hold it still and rotate the whole thing like a big lever until... *Vwoop*

  My face was lit up by a kill-confirmed panel.

  The lizard finally bled out.

  However, the panel was something new to me.

  It was a panel asking me how much of the experience, items, and upgrades I wanted to give to Bella. -Hoh?- Even though she didn't kill it, the system counted her as a kill contributor.

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  And that was absolutely perfect for me.

  Maxxing the slider in a heartbeat, I hit confirm before promptly being presented with another panel displaying a warning about my decision: 'As the companion cannot receive all the allotted experience, the remainder will be transferred to you, unless directed otherwise.'

  It was a message I expected. Even I, a proper System User, could never exceed the daily or weekly experience limits.

  However this time, I was provided an option other than 'Close' at the bottom: '(Experimental) Force experience limit multiplier. (This will allow the companion to absorb several times their experience limit, but can result in the permanent physical damage or death of the creature) (Not Recommended)'

  -Hm...- Thinking it would give me more detail in the form of a warning if I pressed it, I tapped it without thinking. After all, typically, such 'gamble' options typically came with warnings.

  But this time that wasn't the case.

  *Beep* The panel closed instantly before my system's automated voice graced my ears. "Data gathered from 'Experimental' modes will be used for the betterment of future System operations. Thank you."

  -What?!- *VWOOM-CRACK* Jolting as the air instantly screamed from an explosion of mana above me, a shower of liquid mana rained out from the tunnel Bella bored, and I felt my skin crawl.

  Before I could even think, a rush of mana ripped past me and Bella's mana core exploded. -W..what just...-

  Looking up, I flooded the area with the densest aura I could, only to find that the liquid mana had liquified much of her body and the surrounding flesh...

  But she wasn't dead...

  After watching the liquid mana return to its typical, gaseous form, at the point where her core once resided, a massive, swirling vortex appeared and pulled it all back in, hastily reforming a flowing sphere of liquid like a growing star before solidifying into a larger, stronger, and denser form.

  Until finally. *Beep* "Multiplied limit reached. Remaining experience directed to host." Hearing my system calmly beep, I watched the remaining, massive currents of mana being directed into Bella suddenly turn toward me.

  -H..huh?- Feeling my reserve start to swirl and blend on its own, the intense wash of mana that surrounded Bella flowed into me like water falling into an endless reservoir before suddenly ceasing.

  -What the...- For an instant, my system had taken control of my reserve in its entirety. -Has my system.. always done that..?-

  I still can't understand how I never noticed. Perhaps it was the adrenaline or pain that blinded my senses after my few, appropriately leveled fights after I learned how to actually sense my own mana.

  However, after noticing it the first time, I would never fail to notice it again. -How.. unsettling...- My stomach quickly churned as my mind wandered, questioning if my reserve was really the only part of my body the System had control over.

  But before I could fall completely into that rabbit hole, Bella popped her head out of the hole above me with a look of concern. "U-Uh..." Her voice was crisp, as if coming from a person rather than some device. "W-What just.. happened to me..."

  Looking up the hole, illuminated by the dim light sneaking through the lizards mouth, I found Bella's whiskered face peeking down at me, with a bright white patch of fur covering a section of her head and one of her rounded panther ears. "I gave you max contribution for the kill." -I wonder if she knows her mana core reformed...- "Did you notice anything special?"

  Quickly crawling down the hole and dropping down next to me, she nodded.. but her response wasn't what I expected. "I.. felt something... And I don't mean technically with my sensors..." Looking down at her half-white paw, her eyes filled with skepticism. "I feel.. confused..."

  -Huh..?- Quickly checking my system, she was still classified as a robot, however, as I squatted down and forced her to look into my eyes, I no longer saw the mechanical array of light receptors at the back of her retina. -How fascinating...- "Well, I wouldn't let yourself get caught up on it for now... Did you get any items or upgrades?"

  Somewhat reluctantly nodding her head, she tried to shake off her confusion before opening her system as well. "I got a bunch of 'old artifacts', and.. twenty upgrades..?"

  -So she can view them herself... She really does have her own system...-

  As she looked up at me again though, her gaze was washed with confusion again. "Uh.. what are those?"

  -Huh?- Not knowing what she was asking, I tilted my head. "What do you mean?"

  "Uh.. at least to my knowledge.. on Earth we have things called skill enhancements which are similar.. but this is different..."

  -Ah...- She was talking about Upgrades. -I remember Eve mentioning something about them actually...- "They're the same as skill enhancements, but instead of only being able to strengthen system-registered skills, they could relate to anything, whether useful to you or not."

  "Isn't that bad then?"

  I was quick to shake my head. "Upgrades are more like passive ability enhancements, like improving how fast you can run, reducing muscle strain, or how fast you can throw something, whereas skill enhancements are only ever active when you use a skill, so I personally think upgrades are far stronger. However, upgrades seem to permanently allocate a bit of your mana to them whereas skills will just consume more mana when used."

  Generally, it made things easier for newer users. Rather than needing to figure out how to make use of new, random upgrades that were possibly outside of their comfort zone, they would just learn a new skill and enhance it over time, with the main downside just being you can only enhance skills after obtaining them.

  "Both have their tradeoffs, but at this level, I doubt skill enhancements will scale half as comfortably." -Even if you lose the convenience of mana and aura as a cost of it...-

  Turning back toward the lizard's mouth, I was quick to motion Bella along.

  "Anyway, take a minute to read through all the upgrades you got, and test 'em out when you get the chance." *Vwoop* Opening up her panel in my system, I quickly glossed over her level before turning somewhat troubled. -Only level eighty, huh...-

  Even after nearly killing her, she only went up sixty levels. -But.. that's to be expected given she was only level 20...-

  In an instant, she went from an above average human's level to a low-ish level monster on Earth, with upgrades that would let her fight into the low 100s. A substantial jump... Even if quite underwhelming given the creature she got credit for killing.

  As she would get higher level though, her experience limits would also increase proportionally, and while it would take a while, it was just a matter of time before she could stand more on her own without me watching her like a hawk.

  -I do wonder though...- Continuing to idly scroll through her stats, I found several other familiar oddities, from her mana stat not budging because of upgrade cost allocation, to the periodic warnings saying to assign a class.

  But just as I did with myself, I just closed them. -If she is to ever handle herself in my worlds, she needs to build a strong foundation.. much stronger than Eve...- But I didn't think that would be too difficult, it would just take time.

  However, finally making it through the lake of blood in the lizard's mouth, I threw its mouth open before letting Bella out and finding my gaze on Eve.

  Compared to many, she was already strong, so much so she was hailed as a humanoid close to immortality, but in a universe where there were monsters could kill her with a glance, I was worried such praise would be her downfall...

  Her foundation had already solidified.. so I wasn't sure if the seed I was planting could sprout through it. If it did, it would destroy the existing foundation to form a new, much stronger one...

  And if it couldn't.. she would be fated to fall... Just as her father did...

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