Chapter 481 - Puppy (Patreon)

We appear in the cave deep underground, and at this point, it starts to feel routine—me finding holes and placing anchors in them. A few of my thermal cubes surround us right away as I start replenishing some of my mana, and they heat the surroundings as well as give light.

The first thing I do is check Fracture, but the sword appears to be sealed properly in its sheath. Aside from heavily worn inscriptions and a few more cracks on the blade, it seems to be fine—as fine as something so evil can be.

My right arm is still healing slowly, along with most of the areas the sword damaged on my body. Although it looks fine on the outside, I know it will take days before they return to their optimal state—maybe even weeks for some parts of my right arm.

My mana pathways are burned and slowly restoring, throwing off my mana control like in the old days. On top of that, weakened muscles and a damaged natural barrier have created vulnerabilities in these areas.

And that’s just from the side effects of holding the sword; direct contact with the blade would be far worse.

I check on sleeping Biscuit, confirming what I sensed, and for a moment, I push it to the back of my mind. Next, I check on the Witch. She is on the ground, still unconscious, a few of her arms missing and more. The trio of hell difficulty enjoyers seems to have beaten her up properly.

“I didn’t use [Disintegration] on her,” Lily says, seeing me look at the thylarin woman, “But we had to be… rough, before she started using stone or got in your way.”

She and the twins stand in front of me, also staring at Biscuit, who I still hold in my arms. It seems I’m not seeing wrong as they seem to notice it as well.

Biscuit is much smaller now, looking like a two-month-old puppy at most. His fur is all fuzzy and incredibly soft. Even his nose is shorter, his face rounder, and his legs seem shorter compared to the rest of his body.

Simply put, Biscuit is unbearably adorable, and I feel an overwhelming urge to squeeze and nibble him. I know it’s something perfectly normal, called cute aggression, but I can’t help myself as I hold that little pup in my hands.

Lily steps closer first and touches his small paw, and I sense her sending mana through him, checking on his state. As she does so, I notice that, unknowingly to her, she caresses and pets that tiny paw with her finger, her eyes widening, and she breathes faster.

“He…” her voice is pitched, and she coughs, “He is fine as far as I can tell. Other than this size, I think his mana pool probably increased rapidly in size, and there are some changes going on I can’t quite follow, but they don’t seem detrimental.”

As she talks, her interest grows more and more, and she moves her face closer. When Biscuit woofs in his sleep and twitches his leg, Lily squeaks, and for a moment, I think she might grab him from my hands, but she holds herself back and must squeak with another cough.

“Something in my throat,” Lily complains and coughs again.

“Sure,” I say, pulling away from her. I form manablock chairs for each of us, each modified for the most comfort over the past few months. They grab them, and we sit in a circle around the cube that flickers and, thanks to empty spaces and bits of kinetic energy I use, even lets out noise reminiscent of crackling firewood.

While the Witch’s unconscious body lies next to us, I start rubbing sleeping Biscuit’s small body against my cheek, “Everyone is fine?”

“Yes, I healed all our wounds, but yours might need a bit more time. You know I could have used [Disintegration] instead of you using Fracture.”

“Yes, you would probably break a single chain, maybe two if you sacrificed a lot. If I didn’t use Fracture, I would have to use black mana to get rid of her crown, and that would cause an explosion down there, likely not changing much. This way, I got rid of her crown and used up that mana before it became trouble; it was a perfect plan.”

“It didn’t kill the monster,” Aaron reminds me.

“I knew Biscuit was around,” I lift the corgi puppy, his tiny hind legs and fluffy short tail dangling as I move him from side to side, “I could probably try to push myself more and deal more damage, but I trusted him.”

Pulling him back onto my chest, I give him a gentle squish, feeling that urge to squeeze him even more and give him a playful nibble.

This is getting dangerous. Way too cute. I force myself to put him on my lap, and after putting my hand on his small head, it becomes even worse. That head is so small now, so soft, so fluffy.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Good.

“Of course, there were different ways to deal with it all, but overall it went well. My complaint would be getting assistance levels for killing that beast.”

“You said well, didn’t we want to free some of the prisoners to help us get out of Astral prison?” Aaron reminds me again.

“That’s true, but not these ones,” I say, sure of my words. "That thing was way too unstable to cooperate with and we still have three containment cells left. Tess knows about two and is trying to locate the last one.”

“If you think about it,” Dennis begins cautiously, “aren’t we going around killing beaten, wounded, or tortured prisoners?”

“Well, when you put it like that, of course it sounds wrong,” I reply with a shrug. “But understand this: whether it was with Caius or this prisoner, I never went in with the intention to kill them from the start. I’m always open to freeing them through a fair deal.”

“It’s crazy how these Champion-level prisoners can still cause so much trouble, even with most of their powers stripped away,” Aaron says, gesturing to the woman on the floor. “What about her?”

“We could just leave her here and do our stuff, but I think we can get something from her for saving her life.” After checking that she is not pretending to be unconscious, I add, “I want to ask her a bit more about challenges and using the crown. She seems to have some experience. She might also have some nice items we could take.”

“You don’t want to ask her more about using mana? Just crown stuff?” Aaron asks, as if suspecting me of something.

“Nah, I’m better than her in most mana-related stuff.”

“Imagine how good you could be if you ditched Whitey and focused on mana only,” Dennis provokes with a smirk.

"Imagine how completely dead I’d be if my mana got blocked like it tends to happen. Plus, this way, I can ignore my body’s stats, which will ultimately lead to more mastery over my mana."

“Imagine how good your control would be if you trained only mana to prevent that from happening,” he pushes more. Lately, he and his brother like to see how far they can get me before I punish them with harder training.

So I lean back in my chair and carefully pet the tiny corgi puppy in my hands, “Imagine thinking the conversations you have through [Connections] are private and someone can’t listen to them sometimes.”

“Imagi… what.”

“Imagine talking about very… well, private stuff while walking through the tunnels behind certain member of the expedition.”

“You’re bluffing. There’s no way you were able to resonate and join our private [Connection]. Not without us noticing.”

“Dennis, I don’t think he is. When he bluffs, he looks more confident.” Aaron says, the more cautious of the two.

While they talk it out, I move and stop in front of the Witch, “I know you are conscious.”

Hearing me, Melel lifts herself up, standing on her feet, and with the two arms she has remaining, she dusts off her clothes. The wounds she has aren’t life-threatening, but also something Lily won’t spend her mana on healing if Melel turns out to be an enemy.

Her yellow eyes observe me, Biscuit in my arms, and the sitting twins and Lily. Then they flicker toward the thermal orb, and her mana senses examine the cave.

She does so slowly, to avoid coming off as threatening.

Only then, without reacting to the situation or talking about what happened down there, she asks, “What do you want?”

Pleasantly surprised by such a reaction, I nod, “What do you have?”

***

An hour later, we find ourselves back in Hollowhole, following Melel, who leads us through her manor that has one of the highest walls in the city. She has all of her arms restored now thanks to Lily, and her wounds are healed too.

Her manor is empty; there are no servants, no other people. Melel lives alone within very dangerous sets of defensive arrays.

The interior of the manor is simple—no luxurious furniture or wasteful items. Everything is clean and minimalist, with large windows that let in plenty of light. The manor itself is smaller than I expected, with thick walls enclosing most of the interior and layered with even more defenses.

Most of the estate is dominated by a massive stone cube that towers over the the house, taking up nearly all the available land. It’s enormous, easily capable of fitting multiple huge buildings inside with room to spare, making the manor look tiny in comparison.

We pass through the cube’s wall only with her skill, the stone seeming to melt away to create a path for us.

Dozens of crystals on the ceiling mimic daylight with remarkable accuracy, and inscriptions on the walls even create the illusion of wind. A large part of the space is occupied by a lush garden, with trees, vibrant grass, a small pond nearby, and a cozy-looking cottage tucked into a corner.

This is where Melel lived for 10 years, storing mana in her crown.

Most of the inside of the cottage has shelves upon shelves with books and even more with mana stones storing information. There are some items, plenty of them likely only holding sentimental worth, some results of experiments.

It’s really messy inside but not in a bad way; it’s clean, lived-in, and radiates a feeling of coziness.

Without any word, Melel takes a small coaster and puts five cups on it. She doesn’t have a set, so each cup is different, be it in material, shape, or size. Adding to it, she takes a bottle from one of the shelves and wordlessly heads to the terrace connected to one of the doors.

We sit on the chairs she brings from the house, once again not a set, likely not getting visitors too often, and missing one, I make one with mana, which grabs her interest and she examines it for a while.

As we sit around the small table, she pours the drink into every cup and then, in front of us, takes a sip.

Lily is another one to drink, and when she confirms it’s fine, we drink as well. It all tastes very nice, fruity, and slightly fizzy, and it feels warm and refreshing. I quite enjoy it and take another sip while checking out the view the terrace offers, right at the small pond where, under the tree, a few books lie. Melel likely reads there sometimes.

No words come from the Witch, but I believe it's all intended as a silent thank-you for saving her life. I doubt she’ll say anything more, but this gesture speaks loud enough.

“How do you take such a small amount from the mana stored in the crown?” I ask a few minutes later.

Melel turns her eyes to me from the pond, “There are tricks and ways to do it. I had a feeling you would know about them.”

“Yes, I can do it too, but I was curious about the way you do it.”

Melel tilts her head, considering her words. “Think of it like this: mana in the crown behaves under its own set of rules, like a layered lattice. Each layer has a different response threshold, a kind of resistance coefficient, if you will. You have to tune into that specific frequency to access just one layer at a time. Otherwise, you’re effectively breaching the entire reservoir at once, which is wasteful and unstable.”

She gestures with a hand, tracing invisible lines in the air. “It's about precision extraction. With the right modulation—aligning your mana with the crown’s specific binding structure—you minimize the draw. It’s controlled, like a harmonic oscillation. Without that tuning, you risk releasing it all at once. Think of it as plucking a single thread from a weave, using resonance instead of force.”

“It’s like a valve, the more you…” Dennis interjects, mocking the words with a sly grin—then abruptly stops mid-sentence, mouth stuck open, frozen in place.

“Continue.” I tell Melel.

Glancing at the twins, Melel’s fingers dance subtly in the air, as if illustrating a complex formula. “The crown isn’t just a simple container; it's a resonant structure. When you tune into that structure precisely, you don’t just take mana—you prompt it to flow willingly, at the rate you set. It's a form of induced resonance, not unlike coaxing stone to vibrate at its natural frequency. The crown essentially lets its defenses down.”

She pauses. “But the trick isn’t just about knowing the resonance. You have to account for environmental factors, even minor shifts in ambient mana density. Most of it, the crown does on its own, but adjusting for those conditions is possible on your own and can increase control.”

A faint frown appears on her face. “Every time I draw, I also perform a recalibration of sorts, mapping the crown’s mana fluctuations to my own.”

This sounds fun, and it might take a while.

“Go and play around,” I gesture at the twins and Lily, and wait for them to leave, Dennis with his mouth still wide open, then I lean closer to Melel, “Repeat what you just said and imagine you are explaining it to a 5-year-old.”

***

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