“I can independently manifest in this world, but in order to use my ice abilities, I must channel my power through you. All my previous summoners-”

“Wait, ‘previous summoners’?”

He looks disapprovingly at me for the interruption and I shrink back.

“Sorry. Go on.”

“As I was saying, all my previous summoners have cultivated their bodies to handle my power. It was remiss of me to assume you had gone through the same process. My presumption almost cost you your life.”

“How?”

“I channelled too much power through you and your body broke down as a result. It was only fate that allowed me to gain the resources to save your life.”

“Right, right!” I point right at his face, almost gouging out his eye. “I remember you made me eat something you found in that tier-2 zombie’s chest! I still have the taste of corpse in my mouth!”

“’Tier-2 zombie’?” Snowflake muses, ignoring my complaint. “I suppose that is an appropriate way to differentiate zombies of different power levels. All zombies have a ‘core’. The higher the ‘tier’ of the zombie, the more powerful their cores will be.”

“Cores?” I show him my phone and point at the bar in the corner. The number on it – 42 – is unchanged. “Are those what this is counting?”

Snowflake shakes his head. “No. Those are souls. They are different from cores in that they are intangible and are used to request goods and services from your Compendium. They can be gained from the death of any sentient being in our vicinity, regardless of whose hand they fall by.”

‘Compendium’, huh? Better than just referring to it as ‘the app’, I guess.

I take another look at the counter.

“Funny symbol for souls,” I mutter. You’d expect the symbol for a soul to be either a ball of light or a wavy teardrop, not a crystal. The thing about souls being gained from the ‘death of any sentient being’ to be used as currency in the Compendium was a little concerning. What was this, necromancy?

“The Compendium automatically collects souls, but cores must be individually collected. I have taken the liberty of storing the collected cores in the Compendium’s pocket dimension, along with your possessions.”

I tap the button with the satchel on it. My guess is right; the pocket dimension Snowflake was talking about is the thing I thought was some kind of inventory. The first few slots are now filled with the items I had on me plus the zombie cores. There are words underneath the boxes but I obviously can’t read any of them, except the number in【1級晶核】under the box with the picture of the crystal on it. I suppose those are the tier-1 one cores.

“First question, how do I put stuff in and take it out?”

“To take something out from the Compendium space, you simply will it and it will be so. However, to place something in, contact is required.”

I try it; my water bottle appears. I wash the taste of zombie out of my mouth before putting it back.

“Isn’t it kinda dumb to put everything in one place? What if I lose my phone?”

“That is impossible. The form your Compendium has taken is bound to you, and should you misplace it, you need only a thought and it will appear. It is also indestructible.”

I raise my eyebrows in pleasant surprise. A phone which needs no recharging, no searching for, and no fixing? Sounds like a dream come true. If only my glasses could be the same way…

“Why are there less cores than souls? Like, I know I ate one of the cores but there should still be more than 31 cores, right?”

“I cannot be sure, but I suppose it has something to do with how the zombies evolve. I imagine the absorption of other zombies would be necessary for evolution.”

I recall the mass of flesh leaking out of the tier-2 zombie’s eye and shudder. At least it doesn’t eat them…? Not sure if it mashing other zombies into its eye socket is better or worse, actually.

“All the souls would be consumed by the zombie as well, but it most likely had no way to process them, so they simply lingered within it along with the original soul until we came along. Of course, all of this is mere conjecture.”

“What do you mean by that? You knew so much about the other stuff.”

“I only know what I myself have experienced in the past.”

“Right, you said something about previous summoners before. What’s the story?”

“The story is one for another time. I have yet to explain the full damage done to you by my carelessness.”

“You mean it’s more than just me fainting and feeling weak?”

“Unfortunately so.” Snowflake dips his head. “I fear I may have crippled your cultivation permanently.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means unless appropriate measures are taken, neither I nor any of your future summons will be able to access our full power without causing you fatal damage. It is only the will of the fates that I was able to obtain the materials to save your life this time. You will also be unable to use any of your summons’ abilities.”

“You’re saying that I could be able to use cool ice powers as well?”

It’s a bit exciting, imagining being able to freeze everything in your way.

“Not without fixing your cultivation first,” Snowflake reminds me. “Currently, your body is weaker than ever before and even once you’ve recovered your energy you’ll find your strength and vitality are worse than before.”

I deflate. “Sounds like a bad time. How do we fix it?”

“By eating the cores.”

As soon as he says that, I’m popping one of the crystals into my mouth and swallowing. Maybe I should have hesitated, knowing exactly where they came from, but the need to bring my body back up to a point where I can run away from the zombies again is more pressing.

“Let me finish- you’ve already eaten one,” he sighs. I get the feeling that if he weren’t carrying me he’d be covering his face with a hand.

I blink at him. Oops. Was I not supposed to?

“You should be fine if it’s just one. Next time, please let me finish what I’m saying.”

“Sorry.”

“Meditation is an integral part of cultivation. Without it, the power from the cores would build up in one part of your body until you quite literally explode.”

Mm yeah, don’t like the sound of that much.

“Teach me how to not explode, please?”

“Later. Now is neither the time nor place. A stable environment is required.”