So, anyway, let's bring up the memory packet for condensed stuff, since it's invincible, then for cloakium. See if I can't figure out what's going on. Probably not, given the fact that I've just been bumbling around trying to figure out how Stavch actually works. Actually, cloakium would be completely useless without the rest of the cloak. It'd just be a cloth version of condensed stuff. I could still work on making it, though, then work on a skill to control it. It should be completely automatic and actually instant, but blah.

He looked between the two flows for a while. Well, the only thing I can say for certain is that cloakium seems to be more like pure Stavch than condensed stuff. It's basically just got a very thin shell of Stavch around the normal stuff, while condensed stuff is like 30% extra stuff. No idea which is stronger. I'd put my bet on cloakium any day, though. This was made by chuuni.

No way he didn't already figure out the actual basics of Stavch that he could use to construct even more structures. Really wish I'd kept a significant enough fraction of his intuition to even get to where he started, let alone where he ended up. If I had to guess, I'd say condensed stuff is only invincible because System and not because it's actually made that way.

I really wish I had a guide telling me how Stavch actually works. With Raijingeki, it was simple, because it was just a language. There were only so many sounds you could make and you just needed to figure out the words, which you could manually construct from a relatively small amount of knowledge about the language. I really hope Stavch works the same way. If it does, I can't see how from the few structures I have seen. I'm sure the council will figure it out. Maybe the research group as a whole after I take on So'Ejan and don't need to hide.

Actually, good point. Do I have anything to do anymore? Well, kill So'Ejan and take over everything, yes, but blah. I mean in this cuddle/thought session. I've ruled out caring about Flash, I almost definitely wouldn't be able to make cloakium and then make it useful, and I already did time compression. It would take too long to evolve my image again. One of us already gave us color, and we have voice and hearing again.

We're still pretty numb. I'm sure another of us will figure out how to properly make nerves. Actually, that's kinda annoying, now that I think about it. Probably about as annoying as hearing probably was to figure out, maybe a bit more. System's still giving us a little feedback, though, so it's not like I'm completely numb. I guess I can work on feeling while I cuddle. It'll be nice to fully feel Melena.

Just as he felt like he was getting close, another Degritone came and granted him the power of touch. Not only did it make him able to feel Melena's body more than the bare minimum the System automatically gave all life, but his body became just as squishy as would be expected of a human. Melena readjusted slightly as Degritone's mind focused in on Melena's feeling.

He didn't get long to take in the sensation of her softness for long as an Immortal Troll appeared and collapsed on the ground before transforming back into a Degritone. This new Degritone looked at Degritone and Melena and, through screens, said, "I didn't think we'd be trading Melenas."

"Uh... we aren't?" Degritone sent through screens to stay quiet like Melena wanted, though she turned to this new Degritone.

"We are not. You might be a new timeline that split off some time between learning you were the primary Degritone and now you are not."

"Dang. How do we find what timeline we're part of?"

"Use your Stavch sight and look just under an inch below and two inches inside your head from your left ear. Since you don't have a body that you should be able to perfectly control, your eyes' positioning should not be a limiting factor. The weird almost orb shape is your timeline's base coordinates, excluding physical positioning," Melena responded.

"Thank you," the new Degritone said before disappearing.

Melena sat up on his stomach and Degritone took in the feeling of her butt for a few moments before noticing Melena looking at his face. He tilted his head, still being quiet. "You do not have to stay quiet anymore. I was able to get True Time Compression. Its limit seems to be reasonable for most people because my limit is only five thousand, three hundred, and thirty-two percent, only thirteen percent higher than my perception Skill's current value."

"So I should work on figuring out how to follow my consciousness to the AWH and create a cloakium barrier around... well, no, that would eventually cause it to disappear. Create a permanent portal to Flash Space, or I guess it wouldn't actually be a portal, but a reactive structure that-" Melena's finger was placed on his lips.

"You can do system-changing stuff later, or maybe one of the other yous will. We just had confirmation that a timeline split happened after you got here. We aren't sure how, but in that timeline, Duels found out you survived. He can't do anything about it, due to that you still being in my garden, but given the fact that the timeline was definitely split off from our timeline and not another one, it is highly likely ours will find out soon.

"While it saddens me to split off our cuddling, we need to begin training you to take on a Patron-level enemy. I am nowhere near strong enough, but Blades has agreed to help in a couple other timelines. He doesn't know why in any of them, but we should be able to get ours to also agree. In this specific instance, he is probably the best Patron we could get as a training partner.

"He's not a great instructor, but he is very much the second best in one on one fights. If you can consistently defeat him in spars, you will be roughly seventy to seventy-two percent of the way to beating Duels. If you can think of anything that even might help you defeat Duels, run it by us Melenas, first. We will try to figure out if it would lead to a system-wide change or not, and if it would be beneficial to Duels or not."

After a few seconds, Degritone nodded and said, "I'm surprised you're calling him by his patron designation instead of his name. Also that you could read that one dude's screens. I thought they were private."

"Given what he did, he is no longer worthy of being called by name. That Degritone sent that screen to both of us."

"What makes someone worthy?"

"Being a close friend, like the rest of my research group, and having not betrayed anyone to my knowledge."

Again, Degritone nodded. "So, on to training?"

This time, Melena nodded.

Part way through the endless sparring that the Patron of Blades called training, Degritone stopped in his tracks, tilting his head as he got decapitated. Again. As his body regrew under his head, he said, "I'm an idiot," and conjured a memory packet made of Mana in front of him, a memory of a tree he used to play on at his grandma's as a child. "Does this make you guys think of anything when you look at it?" He asked.

"Makes me think the training's not difficult enough if you have time to think of strange stuff," the Patron of Blades said.

"It does not. It is simply a green orb that, using a reference from your world, looks like someone took one of its vertexes and stretched it out to the side to make a point, then randomly threw tooth picks at it. Why? Did you think of something that you should have run by us before trying?"

"Yes and no. The memory packet, there, is just how my brain stores thoughts. Music, Chuuni, and I used them to communicate in the past, I just wanted to see if it also worked on other people, or if it was specific to my brain. What I want to try is to use it to be able to have perfect tier 2 images with basically no effort on my part. I'm not sure if shoving the memory contained in this packet would be detrimental by making the system change or something."

Melena thought for a few seconds before saying, "It should not do so. If it does, it would not be an emergency patch, and the next patch shouldn't be for another few years, though it has never been predictable. Show us what's in that memory packet."

Degritone nodded and, using the memory packet as a catalyst, thought of the full tree in great detail while trying to materialize it with the System. After a few seconds, nothing happened. "Ok, that doesn't work. Don't know why, as this seems like such an unlikely case, to the point that they probably didn't even think of explicitly disallowing it. Let me try with pure Stavch constructs."

"With what?" Blades asked.

Melena started explaining to him while Degritone worked on slowly building up a memory packets for a loop of movement constructs that would either rotate anything large enough, or cause anything small enough to spin around the center of the whole construct. He materialized the memory packet and looked at it. It worked instantly, no effort required. "Ok, that works. I guess the System disables image creation if you're thinking about that image because of an external source, and memory packets somehow count as an external source."

"Do you think it is important we figure out the exact cause?"

"Not really, but you can go ahead and put a couple on figuring it out. Also, I just had an idea for an attack, not sure how the System deals with raw Stavch attacks. Permission to try to rip my own arm off with movement Stavch constructs?"

Melena made a grossed out face, but said, "Go ahead."

Degritone created more and more opposing Stavch movement constructs, pointing away from each other, at his shoulder. It did nothing until well past the point where his arm would be ripped off without Health, then it became a drain on his Health that he was able to watch happen. At this point, he bent over so his arm would fly at the ground, rather than into the garden.

After his Health passed 80%, his arm flew off with enough force to completely embed itself in the ground. He turned off the Stavch constructs, checked his Skills and found no new ones, then turned back to Melena and said, "Well, it kinda works. It'd need more constructs than I can reasonably create fast enough to be useful in order to actually do anything to anyone, but memory packets can get around that."

"Use it on me," Blades says, holding his sword out at Degritone.

"Uhhhh, ok," Degritone said taking a couple heart beats to construct as many movement constructs as possible in that time. Nothing happened. As he kept adding more nothing kept happening.

The Patron moved their blade out of between him and Degritone, and the upper half of his arm turned to paste as the bottom half rapidly spun while being relatively slowly flung away. "Doesn't seem that effective to me," he said. "Only affected me when I let it."

"I'll work on it," Degritone said.

Degritone's Immortal Troll body explosively regrew his left leg into the stomach of the Patron of Blades, knocking him down. The Patron's body was almost entirely flaking and black. Degritone speared him with his sword and raised him up.

"Congratulations on your first win," Blades said.

Degritone shrugged and removed his sword while Melena came over and splashed a blue liquid over Blades. The liquid disappeared on contact, removing Withering from him. "Now, let's go again."

It had been a real-time hour since his first win, and Degritone never got anywhere near winning again. "Duels has found out in this timeline," Melena said.

Degritone was vertically cut in half due to the surprise of this news. "Already? Well, rip in paninis our ability to level me up, unless we go to a different timeline for it. Do we know if they can follow us yet?"

"Wait, I'm training this kid to fight that guy?" Blades asked.

"We do not, but we suspect he cannot. If he could, he would be able to enter my garden without my permission. We tested it in another timeline and directly using the teleportation construct like we do gets around that limitation on Patron realms, but not anti-teleportation Skills." She turned to the Patron of Blades. "Yes, Blades, he betrayed us. In a very bad way."

"Oh," he said in a low voice before turning to Degritone. "Then I'm gonna have to get serious about training this kid."

A Degritone appeared and handed the Degritone getting trained a memory packet. Once that one disappeared, another appeared. Then another, and another. Soon, he was standing in the middle of a knee-high pile of memory packets. "Looks like training's on hold for a second."

"What just happened?" Blades asked.

"I probably just got enough combat experience to beat you, at least somewhat consistently. I just need to actually go through these memory packets and absorb their memories for a while. Short break?"

Melena nodded and said, "Yes, take a short break. I will get Blades fully up to speed on what's going on, since he already heard that much."