Ep. 700 The Islands Part 9 (Patreon)

After stuffing myself yet again I take another nap, this whole being a child again is annoying. All my body wants to do is eat and sleep, but I have grown a few inches already. Hopefully, this infant stage won't last long, because if it does it will drive me insane.

When I wake up from my nap I am bursting with energy so I play with Nala. At this point she is still bigger than me, but it is still fairly even and a lot of fun. It is also very educational, it helps me get used to my new body a lot faster.

We quickly wear ourselves out and after about an hour of play we call it quits. With nothing else to do the two of us curl up next to Brightfire and use our cuteness to get petted. It works like a charm, Brightfire has no defense against this much cuteness.

After petting the two of us for over an hour Brightfire serves up dinner. We all eat as much as we want and then cuddle up together and go to sleep. In the morning, after breakfast, Brightfire looks around and then turns to look at me.

Brightfire says "Ash, do you really want to just sit here for days?"

As I look at her I should nod at her, but I really don't want to just sit here. However, I am already feeling sleepy after eating and I don't have the energy to fight it. So in the end I give her a nod to answer her question and then curl up to take a nap.

When I wake up I feel good, so I lead Brightfire and Nala to explore our surroundings. It is only a short exploration, but it helps with the boredom until my stomach ends it. We return to camp and have our lunch followed by another short nap.

After my nap I spend some time practicing my magic, I have tons of mana now. For some reason, even though I recreate several spells, my system doesn't add them. However, I can use my mana pretty much at will no matter what I try to do.

In fact, it is even easier to use mana now than it used to be, it feels natural now. Just for fun I use my mana to create clouds under Nala and Brightfire and make them float. Brightfire just laughs while Nala looks nervous at first, but she soon starts enjoying it.

Of course, I am only floating her a couple of feet off the ground right now. Still, it is important that she doesn't have a fear of flying because that is how we will be leaving the island. That is assuming that I grow up a bit so that shapeshifting stops causing me headaches.

When I end the game and take a look at myself I would say I am half again bigger than when I hatched. In reality that isn't much growth, but in only two days it is pretty impressive. Nala has also grown a few inches since she has been getting regular meals.

That makes me realize another downside of my new situation, I don't have sacred power anymore. Meaning I won't be able to help Haku or Nala evolve into sacred beasts. However, both Kechara and Asuna are evolved, I should be able to teach them how to help others evolve.

Kechara would probably be the best bet, since she can fly around and find mana beasts to evolve. Then again, I will go ahead and teach both of them, that way no one gets jealous. Although, now I am wondering if I will become a sacred beast again or something else.

I will just have to wait until I get to rank ten mana beast to find out, I guess. Speaking of that, I should probably start working on my core again as soon as my body can handle it. Considering how fast I am growing I have to be careful not to do anything that might mess things up.

Previously I didn't have to worry about it, I was summoned into an adult body. Now, not only am I in an infant body, but I have no information about my race at all. So, for now I am going to play it safe and not mess with my core at all.

However, that really leaves me with nothing to do to pass the time while I grow. Being bored is one of the things I hate the most so I start trying to think of things I can do. However, before I come up with anything useful it is dinner time, at least according to my stomach.

Brightfire hears my stomach rumbling and starts pulling food out of the pouch. The downside of having her holding the pouch is that she is the one choosing the dishes. Not that anything that comes out of the pouch isn't delicious, but I can't satisfy particular cravings.

This whole not being able to speak is getting pretty annoying to say the least. Although, I will admit that even to me the meow sounds I make are adorable. I still can't wait until I am able to speak normally again, or at least communicate somehow.

I have tried to figure out how to communicate telepathically with Brightfire, but so far nothing has worked. Although, I did figure out how to talk to Nala in something similar to the beast's language. At a guess it is probably just a cat specific version of the beast language.

Whatever it is, Nala and I are able to communicate in broad terms at least. She is still young so her thoughts aren't very complex yet, but it is still someone to talk to. I still haven't figured out how I managed to learn the language, it sort of just came to me.

My best guess is that it is a natural language for my new race and that is how I learned it. If that is the case then I am even more curious now about what an alpha beast is. Just knowing that it is an ancient type of beast is nowhere near enough information.

Unfortunately, the goddesses are not very useful when it comes to old knowledge. That isn't their fault, but their followers who lost the knowledge long ago. It makes me wonder if some of the human kingdoms have managed to retain that knowledge.

If I get the chance I will sneak into one of the kingdom's libraries and take a look. If they have kept a lot of the old knowledge, maybe I can steal it for the tower's library. I am sure that would make Yui happy, no matter how I come by the knowledge.

Brightfire says "Ash, are you full?"

A shake of the head is her answer as I go back to eating my dinner, I was distracted. Thoughts of stealing from the humans can wait until after I finish filling my belly. Of course, when I am finally full I am also incredibly sleepy, so my planning will have to wait.

One thing I can say for being an infant, I can't remember the last time I slept this well. Even the naps are incredibly restful, whenever I wake up I feel like a brand new person. In the morning when I wake up I feel better than ever, fresh and new.