Error: trying to call NULL.

...

Again and again...

Even after hours of trying to modify the spell, nothing worked.

It either did nothing at all or just said the same old error.

When I peeked into the library, I spotted Aicyna, who seemed to be in deep thought while reading a book again.

This woman actually really surprised me...

She had a large variety of spell techniques and ideas I never even thought of.

I guess that's the advantage of not having to learn by herself from scratch...

Unfortunately, even if they were intriguing, none her plans ended up working...

In fact, I'm starting to think her initial guess was wrong...

Maybe the storage spell has nothing to do with this place...

But we have no leads other than this...

"Reiza...come look at this."

Prompted by the voice, I entered the library as she closed her eyes again.

What she showed me, was a piece of paper with some doodles on it...

It was two circles one above the other connected by a line.

The bottom one read 'alpha plane' and was further connected with another circle below it, which was crossed out.

The upper one had 'real world' written inside of it and was connected at the top by a circle with '?' inside it.

"This is...?"

"The diagram of...my theory."

Another theory of hers...?

She has a lot of these...

"This is what I imagine the world to be like.

Two or more of these 'planes' stacked on top of each other."

"Two...or more...?"

"Well...we know two of them.

The real world and this...'alpha plane'."

"Hmm..."

Not really sure where she is going with this...

We already know this place and the real world are separate.

But what makes her think there are more of them?

"My theory is, that your storage spell connects you with the plane one level below the one you are currently in."

One level below...?

What is that supposed to mean?

"In other words, when in real world, you will connect to this place.

However...

If you try to use it in this place, all you will get is that error."

Aicyna then pointed at the crossed out circle below 'alpha plane'.

"In that error message, 'NULL' must mean nonexistent...

Which means, there is no other plane below this one.

But that implies there might be other planes besides these two..."

She then pointed at the circled question mark above the 'real world' circle as she said that.

"I...see..."

...that is...an interesting theory.

But I'm doubtful whether it will be useful in getting back to the real world.

"Also..."

She then took her quill and draw another circle next to the 'alpha plane' one.

And followed that by drawing another question mark inside of it.

"I think it would be foolish to think these planes extend in only one dimension.

There could very well be another one not above or below, but on the same level."

...only one dimension?

I'm a little lost now...

Aren't they just different places?

Why does it matter if they are below or next to one another...

I don't get it...

Well, she probably knows what she's talking about...

So I hope she will come up with some sort of solution.

|= Some time later =|

"Merge them...?"

"Yes...if my theory is correct, that's all you have to do.

Act as if you are trying to 'store' something...but use the coordinates and direction of 'withdrawing' it.

That way, you should be able to send something back into the real world."

I still don't fully understand...

But if this really is the storage plane, then it might work.

What she's basically saying is...

When I normally withdraw items, I send them from 'alpha plane' into the real world.

But I do that from the destination of that object, the real world.

And when I'm storing something, I send an object from the real world to the storage, in other words, I am at the source.

My goal right now though, is to send an object from 'alpha plane' into the real world, but from the alpha plane.

So somehow, I have to combine and modify these two...

Which is a lot easier said than done.

Also...it's a little annoying I couldn't get her to learn this spell...

She just wouldn't get it...

Am I really that bad at explaining things?

"For now...just try to send a random object.

In the meantime, I'll try to search through more books just in case I find something useful."

Saying that, she left for the library and left me in her room to experiment.

|= A lot of failed attempts later =|

...

It's...gone...?

The piece of paper disappeared...

And no error?

Did I do it...?

I did it!

It must have been sent into another plane!

There's no other explanation!

...but I can't confirm if it was sent into the right one since I don't know how to call it back...

It would still be too dangerous to send ourselves...

Hmm...

For now, I'll go inform Aicyna.

After walking out of the room, I rushed toward the library and slammed the door open.

But at that moment, I saw Aicyna look toward me in shock.

That was followed by her face turning pale and a thud as her body collapsed on the ground.

...oh, I forgot.

She is always careful not to look at me.

I shouldn't surprise her like this...

I ran toward her and started creating some air so she won't suffocate while I was trying to wake her up.

It took a few minutes before she came to again...

But when she finally regained consciousness, we had a chance to talk.

"P-please don't do that...

My heart might stop beating..."

"...sorry."

...stop beating?

Why would that happen?

"A-anyway...

Seeing you rush in here like this...

I assume you made some progress...?"

"...yes.

I sent a paper into another plane."

When she heard that, a smile appeared on her face.

"S-seriously?!

That's great!

I thought it would take you way longer to do that!

You really are amazing!"

"...thanks?"

She is over exaggerating...

It's progress, but I don't think it's that amazing...

And also...

"...but..."

With just one word, her joy turned into worry.

"B-but...?"

"I can't check whether it went to the right plane.

If your theory is correct and there are multiple planes...

It could have gone anywhere."

"...you are right...

But even still, this is some substantial progress.

I can feel we are close to getting out of here..."

That's right...

But...

Will our supplies last...?

There isn't much edible food left in the cellar...

|= Four days later =|

"I guess this is it...

We have no other choice...

Either we do this or we starve to death..."

We finally ran out of edible food...

One would think a big castle like this would have plenty of food...

But most normal food was either enchanted with dangerous spells by the mana in the air or just outright destroyed.

I tried to release these enchantments, but they ended up vaporizing the food most often than not...

As for the progress on this spell...

All I can do is send a table-sized object back and forth.

...but I still don't know from where it is I'm sending it back and forth.

It could be the normal world we know, but it could also be somewhere entirely different.

However, we are out of time now.

We have to risk it.

If it comes to the worst, I can try to send us back here.

Now then...

"I will send you first.

And then I will follow."

"A-alright..."

She's quite nervous...

I don't blame her.

"Now then..."

With that said, I grabbed her hand and started preparing the spell pattern.

The target was Aicyna, destination another plane.

In a few moments, she started shining and a barely visible crevice in space appeared.

She was then transformed into light and pushed through it before it closed up again.

I found myself alone in the room again...

"...I hope it worked...

Now me..."

I thought making myself the target would be a little difficult, but it was easier than I thought.

Soon, my body started shining, and I started falling.

Unfortunately, just like when I was sent into this place, my view got warped and my body started hurting all over.

Luckily though, it was much more bearable than that other time.

In a few moments, I landed on my back and the view around me stabilized.

I promptly got up and looked around to find Aicyna lying on the ground.

Name: Aicyna

Gender: Female

Race: Human

Status: Unconscious

Level: 331

Health: 1453/2924

Mana: 4254/4442

...still alive.

But it must have been really painful for her, huh...?

After confirming my companion's safety, I walked toward her to heal her while looking around.

But as soon as my eyes parted from Aicyna, I noticed what the place where we were transported was.

Inside a wooden building filled with wooden tables and chairs.

On top of the chairs were empty plates.

And outside of the windows, I could see a mass of spiraling mana.

"Gluttony..."

...what?

After realizing I'm back at one of the trials, I unconsciously muttered the word 'gluttony'...

What does this place have to do with gluttony...?

With my thoughts confused, I finally walked to Aicyna and started tending to her.

Why do I feel like I have been doing this a lot?

Humans are really fragile...

Or maybe I'm just really sturdy?

As I healed her, I realized I don't have to create air anymore.

Not that I don't have enough mana, it was just really annoying because I had to do it constantly since it would always disperse.

Also...

This place used to be flooded with angels...

But now, there are none.

"U..h...."

Finally, after a while, Aicyna started to wake up.

"You awake?"

"Ugh...y..yes...

Did we...get out?"

"...yes and no..."

After she slowly got up and looked around she closed her eyes again.

"Where are we...?"

"I know where we are.

It's not 'alpha plane' anymore...

But I feel like it's not the real world either..."

I spotted her eyebrows furrowing before she spoke again.

"You know this place?"

"Yeah...

And I know how to get out."

"Then...we got out?

We did it!"

She showed a big smile while pumping her fist.

But her happy pose was quickly ruined by her growling stomach.

Come to think of it, we were running out of food on the other side, that's why we risked transporting, didn't we?

With that, I tried to pull a piece of meat out of my storage.

And succeeded.

But when I examined it, I realized...

Why is this piece of meat still edible?

Why wasn't it ruined like the food in the castle's cellar?

Was it because it wasn't there long enough?

Or maybe the alpha plane WASN'T the storage...?

...well, either way, it's food that we needed.

So I won't complain.

[Fire bubble]

"What the...

H-hey...

Is that the smell of meat?"

Since her eyes were still closed, she could only smell me roasting it.

"Where did you get it...?"

"...from the storage."

"...huh?"

Surprise and doubt both crept into her expression, but I quickly assured her.

"It's edible...for some reason.

No enchantments or anything."

"...are you sure...?"

"It also seems strange to me...

But it's just a normal piece of meat."

"Huh..."

With that, she put her hand on her chin and fell into thought...again.

But not too long after that, the meat was done grilling and we got seated at one of the tables.

I split the meat in two and gave Aicyna half.

But just as I was about to bite into the meat...

'Doubt' started growing inside me.

Like something was wrong.

But I had no idea what I was it even was.

The storage spell?

The meat?

Aicyna...?

I looked at Aicyna, who already bit into the meat and was chewing.

Am I doubting her...?

Why...?

Didn't sh-

But at that moment, I realized just what the doubts were about.

I understood what was wrong.

"Stop!

Don't swallow it!"

But it was too late.

As my yell only prompted her to swallow.

And at that moment, the building shook at its base.

"W-what?!"

The roof of the building started tearing off and soon a big hole was made.

Through that hole, no mana came rushing in...

Instead, a repulsive mass of flesh and meat poured down into the middle of the room.

As soon as it hit the ground, it started forming into something.

And slowly took shape of some sort of humanoid.

Type: Monster

Name: -

Gender: -

Race: Flesh golem

Status: Hungry

Level: 4000

Health: 500000/500000

Mana: 350000/350000

Bonus:

"Oh...

Wow...

She actually got out on her own..."

Technically, she wasn't alone you know?

You have to give credit when it's due.

"Yeah, yeah...

...

Oh...

But that means that now I have TWO individuals who can mess with the other planes..."

Yep.

Guess who gave her the means to do it?

"Ah....

This isn't good.

I'm experiencing deja vu..."

...

Hey...don't tell me you also gave storage ability to that slime?

"Ahahaha...

Now, wouldn't that be funny?

What if I picked an individual to have fun with...

Awarded it the storage ability...

And then it later got access to the other planes because of it...?

And not just once, but twice!

...and they both even have dual personality problems!

Ahahahaha, I truly never learn!"

...I thought you were on verge of despair because of that slime?

Also, what the hell are you doing?

I'm the one who is supposed to insult you!

"Ah dammit...

What the hell do I do now?"