As I was wandering around the dead city in the 'alpha plane', I came across a castle.

Something about it was kind of familiar...as if I have seen a castle like it before...

Where was it again...?

Anyway, as it seemed to be somewhat important, I decided to enter it.

The gate leading into it had two armored corpses lying there, they were probably guards of some sort.

After entering, I looked all around but only found trashed rooms filled with corpses for the most part.

The dining room, the library, the throne room, they were all pretty much the same.

Just half-broken rooms littered with dead humans.

I thought there might have been some useful information in the library, so I wanted to linger at first...

But I realized I have nothing to eat and I will eventually run out of mana because I'm constantly creating air.

As such, I just rushed through all the rooms, looking for anything that seemed to give a hint about how to get out of this plane.

And in case I find nothing, I will return to the library and search there.

Eventually, I arrived at another door leading to some room.

It wasn't very different from the others, so I just opened and entered it without a second thought.

But what I found inside stunned me for a second.

Inside the relatively small room, was a big crystal of ice.

And inside of it...was a person.

It seemed to be an elderly female human clothed in robes.

When I realized what I'm seeing, I got even more surprised.

That was a magical crystal of ice.

This person inside probably froze herself in a desperate attempt to survive in this place longer...

But that wouldn't make sense...

A magical ice would dissipate quickly compared to just creating air to breathe.

So why freezing herself...?

Is she even still alive in that state?

Hmm...

Name: Aicyna

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Status: Sleeping

Level: 331

Health: 13/2924

Mana: 1/4442

She is still alive, though, just barely...

And it seems she used up all of her mana for freezing herself...

I still don't get why though...

I walked around and examined the crystal and the woman inside of it a little further.

And I discovered something strange...

The crystal wasn't decaying at all.

Or rather, it was decaying and regenerating back.

How is that even possible?

Elemental mana is supposed to eventually decay into pure mana and disperse...

Could the high concentration of mana in the surroundings be at play here?

After inspecting it a little further, I figured out the spell pattern had something to do with it.

It was set up in a way to automatically absorb pure mana from the environment and further empower the spell.

Which means, she could have been frozen for a really long time now.

How intriguing...

I never thought about adjusting the pattern to utilize the surrounding mana...

Anyway... she is still alive, so if I unfreeze her, she might give me some useful information.

Now, how should I go about this without accidentally killing her...

|= A little bit later =|

Just a little more...

...there we go.

I decided to first reduce the crystal's size by shaving parts off.

Since the crystal wasn't all that sturdy, I just used my hands to cut the edges.

And what I was left with, was a block of ice surrounding the woman.

Next is the tricky part.

I'm not sure how to guarantee her survival, but I'll try nonetheless.

With that said, I started creating fire mana to thaw the ice.

I started out slow, but soon found out the ice regenerated as soon as it melted.

So although it was risky, I was forced to put more power into it.

It took quite a while and I had to constantly interrupt the process to create more air.

But eventually, I managed to breach one of the vital parts of the spell, which made it regenerate.

With that out of the way, it didn't take long until all the ice was gone and I was left with just the woman's body.

Although she wasn't waking up right away, she was breathing so that meant this procedure didn't kill her.

Afterwards, I created some air for her and used magic to heal her.

But even after that, she didn't wake up.

In order to not waste time, I decided to carry her with my tail while continuing to search the castle.

After walking past more rooms with no significance, I discovered some sort of secret entrance in a wall.

It seemed like part of the wall, but there was a subtle boundary visible around it.

With just a punch of mine, it crumbled and revealed stairs leading down, in other words underground.

But after I did that, I heard some weak moans behind me.

The woman seemed to be waking up.

Realizing that, I put her on the ground and squatted down while looking at her.

She slowly moved her head from side to side and opened her eyes.

But when her eyes located me, her face lost all color and her body started shaking.

Oh...

That's right...

Weren't people afraid of me in the past...?

This might be a little problematic...

"Are you...alive...?"

I tried talking to her, but she was still shaking like crazy.

However, after a few seconds she opened her mouth and tried saying something.

But all I could hear was her teeth chattering.

I guess this won't work...

Hmm, what now...?

Unconsciously, I put my hand on my chin and shifted my gaze to the side.

But when I did that, I finally got a response.

"A-are you...

An...enemy...?"

When I looked back at her, she clenched her teeth and started shivering even more.

But...what a question...it's straight to the point.

If I am to assume the slime sent this entire city along with her in here, it's also its enemy.

In other words...

"Probably not..."

Even after I said that, her fear didn't disappear.

So, I tried continuing the conversation.

"Do you know someone...who goes by the name 'Lily'?"

When she heard that name, her brows furrowed and teeth clenched even tighter.

"T-that...monster...?"

Oh, it seems she knows that slime.

Looks like I was right...

This entire city has been teleported here by her.

"Yes...that.

That's my enemy...

If she's your enemy as well, then we are allies."

Her frown has momentarily disappeared before returning as she lifted herself from the ground using her palms.

Although she was still shaking, she managed to stand on her own.

And after that, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath...

Hmm...?

Why is she closing her eyes?

"I see...

T-then...let me introduce myself..."

It seems her speech has gotten a lot calmer for some reason...

"My name is Aicyna...

I'm the court magician of the Armundis kingdom."

Armundis...

I heard that somewhere before, didn't I...?

Hmmm...well anyway...

"My name is Reiza.

I have been flung in here just like you by that slime."

With her eyes still closed, she opened her mouth a bit and raised her eyebrows.

"Slime...?

That was a slime?

And also...what do you mean 'here just like me'?"

It seems like there is a lot I need to fill her in on.

She doesn't even know she is in 'alpha plane' now, whatever that even means.

|= Some talking and walking later =|

"I knew it was a bad idea to antagonize that thing...

They just wouldn't listen though...

And now...they are all dead..."

It seems like the royal family intended to put the slime under a blood contract, but failed.

When that happens, the slime sent this entire city into the 'alpha plane'.

"By the way...why do you still have closed eyes?"

"O-oh...that's you see..."

She seemed to be thinking for a bit, but eventually answered.

"Fear through sight."

What...?

"Well, it's something I was studying.

The idea that being afraid of stronger creatures only happens when you see them."

Well, it kind of makes sense...

But what does it have to do with anything...?

...

Oh...

"For some reason, if you keep looking, fear persists.

But if you don't look, you don't feel fear no matter how strong the being in front of you is."

Hmm...

"I can feel...you are a monster of almost the same magnitude as that slime...

If I look at you, I will feel fear.

So I have to close my eyes."

"I...see..."

When she puts it like that...

Something about that feels a little odd...

But I guess that's how things work.

"Anyway...who are you, really?

How did you get so powerful...and yet remain so young?"

...

"I..."

I decided to tell her about what happens when I die.

She was a little stunned and thought I was lying, but after I convinced her, she just stayed quiet and held her head.

Apparently that information shattered some of her prior knowledge or something...

Unfortunately, by this time, we were both getting quite hungry, so we headed down to the cellar, where the castle supposedly stored food.

We weren't sure whether that food would still be edible, but luckily for us, some of it was.

It wasn't anything spectacular, but at least we won't starve.

"Do you...happen to know how much time has passed in the 'real' world?"

She suddenly asked a question that seemingly came out of nowhere.

And I didn't even have a concrete answer to give her.

Mainly because my constant deaths made my sense of time in the real world very blurry...

"I don't know."

She sighed at my answer, as if she expected it.

But she isn't the only one who's disappointed...

I thought she might have some vital information, but she knows almost nothing.

All I discovered was the technique to use the environmental mana in my spells.

Admittedlly, it has a lot of potential and we could probably stay alive in here for quite a while if I use it for creating air...

But all of that is pointless if we don't find a way to return to the normal world...

|= A day later =|

So, after shutting ourselves in an airtight room, we slept.

However, we had to take turns sleeping, because the other person had to constantly create air to breathe.

Because of that, we were still quite tired, but instead of sleeping more, we decided it would be best to move out as soon as possible.

We then went on to search the castle for anything of use.

I wanted to stop by the library, but she told me she has read and memorized almost all books contained inside of it.

Though, there aren't any useful ones.

It's just fictional stories, some beginner magic guides and other unneeded knowledge.

After that, we decided to go outside and continue searching there.

During that, Aicyna would often briefly open her eyes to see the dead bodies all over the place.

And followed that by quickly closing them and clenching her teeth again.

She probably knew a lot of these people...

I felt a little sorry I can't really relate to her.

|= One more day later =|

We exited the city today.

Although all the libraries in the city might hold useful information, we needed to explore outside of the city at some point.

Since the city was transported in its entirety, there was no 'empty' space we could investigate.

The perfectly flat white board that extends indefinitely is something we needed to examine in detail.

Aicyna thought it might be the barrier that separates this 'alpha plane' from the 'normal' world.

And so, we tried to break it, move it, enchant it and anything else we could think of.

But it simply didn't react to anything.

I even took a risk and fired off an armageddon once.

But it did nothing, not even a scratch.

"...what an amazing power output.

You could wipe out an entire city with that..."

Hmm?

She was suspiciously silent after I used armageddon.

Even after I went to investigate the aftermath she just quietly followed.

Why is she talking now?

...also since when are her eyes opened now?

I thought she couldn't look at me...

"I probably could...

But that's not relevant..."

"That's...true...sorry.".

|= A few hours later =|

"A storage...?"

We decided to share any pieces of information, that might help us get out of here.

When she mentioned her theory about instantly moving objects at long distances, I remembered my storage spell.

It became useless when I got here, so I kind of discarded it, but now that I think about it, it might be the key to getting out.

"I could just put items in...

And then pull them out whenever I wanted."

Her gaze slowly shifted to the ground as she fell into a thought.

She often does that, I noticed...

"Hey...

Where do you think all of these items you store go?"

Hmm?

"The storage...?"

"No, but...

Where do they exist before you pull them out again..."

That's...

I never really thought about it.

It was just a convenient tool for me.

And since I couldn't modify the spell in any way, I never dug too deep.

"Could it be...here?"

...what?

"Look outside of the city...

There are items scattered all around.

Swords, money and so on...

It's all the things you would put in that 'storage'."

...

That's...

"Don't you think this 'alpha plane' is the 'storage'?"

...

That...

Would make sense...?

But in that case...

"Please, tell me more about that storage spell!

It must be the key to getting out of here!"

In those past few days I knew Aicyna, she never made such a hopeful expression.

It almost shocked me...

But she is right...

This...

This must be it!

Bonus:

Today, we will take a look at something, that appeared several times in the past, but never got much attention.

Variants.

What are variants?

It's when there is something in brackets after the race.

Such as 'Cataclysmic wolfman (prodigy)'

So far, the following variants have appeared in the story: Hero, Prodigy, Titan, Final remnant

Each of these have a special condition you need to fulfill in order to be turned into a variant.

And every one of them also has special traits, some of them positive, some of them negative.

For prodigy, we already know these.

Requirements: Evolve again in a short amount of time after evolving once.

Effects: Double maximum mana and intelligence and triple maximum intelligence cap.

For hero, some were also mentioned.

Requirements: Be summoned from another world.

Effects: 8x stat growth, partial resistance to magical attacks, affinity for light magic.

Now titan is a little different...

Requirements: Sleep or be in the same general area for a really long time. Time needed varies from race to race.

Effects: Double HP, MP, vit and str, but higher stamina usage, which results in needing more and longer rests.

The last effect is obviously the massive size, which doesn't just instantly happen. Instead, your body gets a growth spurt for a period of time.

And now...

The final remnant.

Requirements: Be the last living individual of your species as well as your pre-evolution and post-evolution species.

Effects: Eternal youth, cap on all stats lifted.

As you can see, someone did a good job on balancing things.

"Oh come on!

I thought it would be neat to have these 'rare' monsters show up once in a while...

And it would be lame if they just died of old age or were just really weak!"

Excuses.

You made your 'only' mistake immortal.

Only you could mess up this much.

"I was young and stupid, okay?!"

As if you still weren't stupid now...

"Hey!"