Voice functions are now under manual control? I get my voice back? Snap, she’s still waiting for an answer. “...Um, hello.” I coughed. This could be going better. “I’m… Adam.” I said lamely.

She stared at me incredulously. “I… know? What happened to your voice?” She asked. Argh, I might have disliked the voice when I had it, but I sure appreciated not having to respond to prying questions now that it wasn’t there to stonewall for me.

I tried to collect my thoughts. “That was the voice of… some sort of control mechanism that Raz had on me. Look, I… I don’t know all that much. Raz popped up in my world last week, and basically kidnapped me. When I woke up, he told me that my body had died in my last world, and that there was only enough magic in my world to bring my soul here. He put that in this box, and told me to help Temsello manage the academy.” Putting it into words didn’t sound all that much more sane than I had expected it to.

She rallied herself. “Wait, so you’re not working for Raz?” She asked, confused.

“No, I’m not. I’m just… here. I’m assisting you guys with the academy because it seems interesting, and Temsello seriously looks like he needs the help. Raz put me here, but I’m choosing to help.” I said. Hopefully this would clear things up and remove some of the hostility towards me.

She seemed taken aback. “Oh, um, thank you. Do you really know nothing of Atako Lolona? I mean, the… control mechanism, you called it? It appeared to react to the words…” She said, apparently hoping I would suddenly recall something that would clear things up.

“Sorry, never heard those words before. I’m not actually from this world, you know.” I snapped out.

She furrowed her eyebrows at this. “Ah, yes, you had said that. So Raz can hop between worlds at will? Insane… from what Temsello had said, dimensional magic is incredibly powerful…” She murmured. While she appeared to be lost in thought for the moment, I walked over to the spot I had chosen for the dormitory. Land Mode.

Time slowed to a trickle. I began to pull the bricks out of my inventory. I set them down, and used a bit of magic power to force them into the ground, creating a section of floor for the dormitory. My heart sank. I was going to need to make a great deal more bricks than I had originally imagined. 24 half-meter cubes certainly seemed like a lot of stone, but I was going to need hundreds of these to finish a single floor of the dormitory.

There was only one solution, I was going to need to expand my mana capacity a great deal more, which meant losing out on the majority of the upcoming few days. I hadn’t had a dream since coming to this world, so entering sleep mode was like having a piece of time ripped away from me. I checked my magic capacity once more. Magic Capacity: 228/974

I nodded to myself. It wouldn’t be a large increase, but it would be an increase, all the same. I entered viewing mode to inform Arianne that I would be out of action for the next few days.

If I had a throat, I’d be swallowing right now. I hadn’t actually initiated a conversation with someone since coming here. “Arianne, I’m going to be spending the next few days increasing my overall magic amount by gathering territory. At my current pace, the building would take months to complete.” I explained.

She turned towards the space where my voice was coming from. “Hmm? Oh, okay. Wait, did you just put those stones there?” She asked, pointing at the newly created stone floor.

“Yes.” I replied. “I enter a state of slow-time whenever I work on construction or the like. It’s slightly annoying, in that I can’t interact with the world when it’s moving at normal speed, but very useful for projects that are expected to take time to complete. I just need to have a large enough pool of magic to draw from to complete the project within slow-time.” I know that I hadn’t actually earned these powers, but I was fairly proud of them. They were incredibly useful, and as far as I knew, I was the only one that was capable of using them.

“Fascinating!” She murmured. I could see her thinking about the applications of such power. I wondered if I shouldn’t have told her about that? Oh well, it was too late now, but I had better keep a tighter leash on my mouth in the future. I reentered Land Mode. I circled the border of my territory and expanded until I ran out of magic power.

---

Over the next few days, I spent every day spreading my territory. I covered nearly a quarter of the estate now. Then, on the fourth day, I awoke to a notification.

Consciousness is being spread too thin. Acquisition of new territory is currently deemed dangerous to your mental health. Suggestion: Refrain from gathering territory until your soul has had time to expand.

...What? This was a very informative message. Apparently, gathering territory spreads out my… mind? Soul? Something important. If I gather too much territory in too short a time, it can damage my mind, and my soul is apparently capable of growing.

I mentally shook my head. That wasn’t all that important at the moment. For now, I just had to remember not to expand any more. It was a pity, but…

Magic Capacity: 20466/20466

The exponential nature of the expansion was seriously powerful. No wonder Overminds had to be put down if they were evil. They held too much power as a species, and I doubted that they cared about mental degradation. Heck, maybe most Overminds weren’t mindless monsters to begin with, and simply drove themselves mad while trying to gain territory? I couldn’t say. Good thing I still had the helpful inner voice.

Time to see what I could get done with twenty times as much magical power as before! Finishing the dormitory should be a quick process now. Viewing Mode.

After rising out of the black chamber of my mind that I lived in, the first thing I noticed was that it was late in the evening, and apparently raining. Hmm, I wondered if that would affect any of my plans. I glanced around. A large canopy had been set up a little ways away, and there was apparently a fire and group of people talking around it. Had Temsello returned? With some of the teachers? It had only been four days, right? The man worked quickly.

I floated over to the group. Other than Arianne and Temsello, there appeared to be three other people. One, a tall, well built man with short black hair and blue eyes. There was also a woman with frizzy brown hair, and green eyes that held a mildly manic look. The last was a small child with a serious expression, gazing into the flames. Temsello was talking with the tall man, laughing occasionally, while Arianne read a book. The brown haired woman simply watched Temsello’s conversation. At my approach, the child looked up and gazed right at me. A chill ran down my spine. He could see me? I was a ghost! I shivered.

The kid made me nervous, but now that I had my voice, I needed to talk to Temsello. He needed to know everything that had happened to me since I met Raz.

---

Author Note: New people! I don't exactly think this counts as a cliffhanger, but if it does, then pretty much every chapter will be ending on a cliffhanger from now on.

Sorry about this chapter being a bit late! I'll try to post a second chapter later today to make up for it!