================================

Chapter 014: I Know You

================================

Baluga, the rare Swordtail Heron with 20% Metal Element Attribute and 80% Fire Element Attribute to its bloodline, glanced over the little Siva.

Although the Terrans were smaller in size than the monstrously large Beast Races, and although they have weak bodies that couldn't even handle just a single attack from even a C-Ranked bottom feeder without the protection of their armors, they are still the most dominant race in this planet —or at least to the surface continents.

This is because Terrans, and their counterparts, are all gifted with the ability to adapt and multiply in population within just a single year.

And although there are Beast Races out there that can rival the Terrans' reproduction speed, the fact still remains that unlike the Beast Race, all Terrans are flexible little critters that given enough time will colonize a local area within a span of a few years.

In addition, they have [Magic].

Frightening and unfair as it might actually be, they are indeed the center of attention of this universe.

50% of all gifts that can be found in the universe are all given to the Terran Races as innate abilities.

The remaining 50% were scattered to the rest of the citizens of the universe; from plant lives with a few unique features, to the Beast Races and all the unique life forms with even just a single cell as the nucleus on their bodies out there... were included.

Baluga looked at Siva as if he was looking at a tiny insect; insignificant and not enough to catch his full attention... and yet, now that he looked at the man, he couldn't help but feel a little startled.

Those eyes, when looking at him, gave him the same sense of hate he had felt amongst the other Terrans he had met before.

Siva's eyes were the eyes layered with greed at his being —as if he was a prize to be kept, and not an Intelligent Life Form to be respected.

Baluga had reached his current strength and even awakened his ancient bloodline all for the sake of trampling anything that looked at him the same way Siva was looking at him right now.

He felt insulted. Very. Really... and utterly....

{WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT?!!}

Baluga's roar of anger sounded like a thunderclap from the heavens. He came in front of Siva with a single step and although they were still 10m away, Baluga was a 30m large T-Rex with a Swordtail, with a presence that emitted faint traces of Mana because of his awakened bloodline.

If Siva hadn't had the Beast Blood Pendant, he'd have been frightened at the sight of this one roar of anger. He then recalled that he had experienced the same face-roar back in that mountain top with Volt and Thorn when they first came to The North, meeting the water-type Dragonkin, Ice Giant.

Siva didn't say a word but he knew he had made a mistake when he let his emotions run before him.

The 500+ Herons felt the 'intent' of their Alpha and so they also roared simultaneously that the sound of it alone was enough to shake the land and scare the forest wind.

{I hate those eyes of yours. You think you can just come here and insult me? Make no mistake about this meeting, Terran. Once the Queen is done with you, you will be sure to become my prey!}

With a threatening growl and a pair of eyes full of its savage intent, Baluga delivered his words and then roared as he backed off. He led his pack back to the border of the forest where they were placed by The Queen... leaving Siva and the three Lapis Lazuli, and an entire gang of Sky Wyverns circling in the air as escorts, gazing at them wordlessly.

"This forest is really full of monsters."

—and Siva meant it in a literal sense.

It was a wonder when the Sky Wyverns assembled above his head, but Siva was more concerned just where all these monsters have come from.

Anazon Forest wasn't larger than Alexandria, only around 300km in total size. But if adding the deep mountain ranges and the inner forests deeper than the former Roman Empire's location, then perhaps he would have found the answer to his question.

After all, the Roman Empire's capital city was built in this very place... it was an empire of the ancient era, one of the Founding Empires that the Muans have built before the Dragon Age.

The territory of the Romans were large but due to time itself, its integrity deteriorated and the territory it once had became a dense forest with even the mountain which was once its fortress, now became a den of monsters that had attracted the attention of an Elemental Dragon.

—an Elemental Dragon that was one step away to becoming a frightening Elder Dragon!

As such, the size of the Anazon Forest and the actual size of this dragon's territory are two sides of the same story. Siva couldn't help imagining just how much secret this place truly has in it. Thinking of the history of the Terrans as written in the Book of Legends, he couldn't help but ask himself if the history about the "Original Terrans" vanquishing all the Dragons were actually true or not.

According to their history, the Dragons had hidden themselves after the Dragon War. Since then, the Terrans claimed this planet as their home.

'Were they really defeated?'

Now that he regained all his [memories], Siva was 50% sure that there was something else hidden in the history within the Book of Legends. Dragons wouldn't be defeated that easily, even if the Terran Races have their Rune Equipments with them for there are still Elder Dragons in existence within the Dragon Race's ranks... and all Elder Dragons were comparable in strength to an authentic Primordial God of ancient times! So Siva highly doubted the history the Book of Legends told in them.

But... that wasn't important right now.

He knew that there was no sense asking himself a question regarding events that he didn't see nor personally experienced... nor was it even important to know whether this Dragon Kingdom's power is as he had seen so far or not.

What's important right now is that the three Lapis Lazulis are escorting him... forcefully.

If he chose to flee and fight his way out of this, he would have been able to kill the two Lapis before being devoured by the last one —if not pressed by the horde of Sky Wyverns in the air while doing so.

In the end, he chose to comply with all the context clues given by the three's actions. He didn't float nor fly; he walked the way back towards the center of the forest on his own pace... trying to buy as much time as he can to finish at least one Liberty Drone from his Task Palette as soon as possible.

His BMA's 500m Absolute Domain proved really helpful at this point as he was getting more and more information about the 1km area around him.

The more he knew, the better his plan of retreat and keeping himself alive will be.

But the three Lapis Lazuli, especially that Narking, wouldn't allow him to go too slowly to better think of his plans thoroughly.

When he was slowing down from their usual pace, Narking would stomp his paws to the ground close to Siva's, and let the rocks and stones fly at him as if telling him that the next stomp will be where his head was.

Although he knew that Narking wouldn't kill him, it was still painful even to his imagination just being stomped by that large paw of his.

So Siva had no choice but to move on and use all and every possible tactics he can to stall for time without being too obvious. Thankfully, these three monsters do not have much understanding of the Terran Technology so they could only allow Siva to cross obstacles manually on his own pace.

Fifteen minutes later, Siva smiled widely when he finished the first Liberty Drone on his Task Palette ever since he got in this place.

Now that he finished it, he can at least make use of that globe of space on one of his extra hands.

'Good! Since it's been two days after I've unlocked the Time-Space Cabinet, I now have ten cabinets available for use. I should conserve at least six or so of them...'

Enables the Inventory Plus Ultra to or the local time flow of an item stored within the space of the Inventory Plus Ultra.

>Enable Time-Space Cabinet [UNLOCKED]

>>Enable Rune Support [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

· Limited to use 5x/day

· Unused "uses" will be stacked if not used (max 50 stacks)

· Opening and Closing cabinets costs 10,000slots

§ Closed cabinets are permanently lost and slot points lost will not be recovered

· Owner of the «IPU» is sole controller of cabinets unless cabinet options are specified

· Cabinet's internal capacity will conform to slot allocation ratio (1cubic meter 3slots)

· Can only set MAX of 3 rules per Cabinet

The [Time-Space Cabinet] ability granted by the Inventory Plus Ultra allows Siva to grant any item in his inventory to either keep its local time flowing, or stop it altogether to preserve its state.

To easily explain its perks, if you are in a meeting with an important client and want your fried chicken to maintain its crispiness even after a few hours of being unable to eat it immediately after its delivery, then the Time-Space Cabinet will be your best bet.

In other words, it just stops the local time for any single item as long as it was within the scope of the 'care' the [Inventory Plus Ultra] provides.

But, just by the Cabinet alone, it had limited uses.

Siva also has the [World Realm Utility] so the limits of the Time-Space Cabinet were expanded into an entirely large extent.

Enables the Inventory Plus Ultra to create a separate independent world that is governed solely by the user or unless specified by owner or other conditional options.

Unlocking each feature adds more utilization to the Inventory Plus Ultra, with the possibility of even having the ability to store an entire universe, or even wider, on its own.

>Enable World Realm Utility [UNLOCKED]

>>Enable Life Support [LOCKED 1/2000exp]

>>Enable Vegetation [LOCKED 1/4000exp]

>>Enable Aquarium [LOCKED 1/6000exp]

>>Enable Beasts [LOCKED 1/8000exp]

>>Enable People [LOCKED 1/9999exp]

Every upgrade unlocked in the Inventory Plus Ultra also increases the distance of its effectiveness.

Right now, it was already LVL-4 and with every one level, the distance of effect increases by 5 meters.

Siva can now recall and summon anything within a fixed distance of 40m from his location.

That said, he opened up two more "World Realms" inside the Inventory Plus Ultra, then used a "Time-Space Cabinet" to apply rules into it before pulling the 'mini realm' out of his Inventory and placing the completed hand-sized 'Spatial Orbs' with a space of 100,000slots in it 40m below where his feet was standing.

Now, he had four Spatial Orbs that cost 440,000 slots in total expenses, and although it was small when compared to his near-20M slots, it was still close to 0.02% of his total slots so it was still quite a loss for him.

With the two of orbs, he placed the first one at that location where he met the Swordtail Heron before placing the second in this location, close to a large boulder of solid granite rock.

As for the third, he bound it to the Liberty Drone in his arsenal and left it 40m above him, hidden in any plain sight, separated by the fabrics of space, away from any perception.

Seeing his handy work, Siva felt pleased.

When the two are combined to work, its application multiplies into a nigh-unlimited sum of possibilities.

Put simply, while on its raw state, the Inventory Plus Ultra is just an expansion of the Inventory of the players. But with these two abilities, it becomes more useful and mouth-wateringly awesome.

The [Time-Space Cabinet] allows the space inside the Inventory Plus Ultra to be edited to have rules in their spatial properties. With the [World Realm Utility], Siva can take away or separate that edited space from the Inventory Plus Ultra, then apply the [Time-Space Cabinet] ability to it... which creates a separate "independent space" outside of the Inventory Plus Ultra —the oblong spherical orb of Mana one of his hands was currently holding.

Given this ability, say, if one set the 'rules' for the Time-Space Cabinet to be an "external pocket for accessing a [separated spatial space from the IPU set up to be only connected to that (or more than just that) 'external pocket']", then the possibility of creating spatial artifacts are relatively easier than an entire history ego.

—and the creating Spatial Artifacts are just one of the said nigh-limitless uses of just these two sets of abilities because this is still using the resources available "from" the Inventory Plus Ultra. The [Split Dimension] Ability directly takes away "space" from the Universe and uses it as a canvas for the Time-Space Cabinet and World Realm Utility to be used to for the owner's intent and purposes.

'The Cabinet is a little tricky. Setting its rules isn't that hard but if the rules set are too tight, the entire Cabinet might become useless. But if it's too loose, the Cabinet can be easily stolen or used wrongly.'

—but the best use for this pair is an 'unlimited use' Teleportation Orb and Spatial Artifact core...

Siva was really beginning to love this gift. Even if he and Gabriel aren't in good terms, he will still not permit him to take it back away. While he's still not rich with EXP, he can't spend his slots willy-nilly.

Creating one Cabinet costs 10,000slots but though it was just a small amount compared to the millions of slots of the Inventory Plus Ultra, the fact that the EXP needed to upgrade and replenish all lost slots aren't easily gained is not enough of a joke to just be dismissed at carelessly.

The key factor to the uses of the Cabinet is that creating the rules to its uses almost had no actual limitations and conditions... in fact, the limits and conditions to its functionality is solely set by the creator of the Cabinet... he, Siva, himself.

And yet, the best part of it all is that it can be given away like an item to other people, while still being a part —or not— by the Inventory Plus Ultra.

'This should work.' Siva was satisfied with the setup he made with the first Liberty Drone. 'Now that that's done, I can at least preserve my life for the worst part...'

Siva knew his limits. Although he needed the Vajra for his BMA's energy supply, he knew that he was still not qualified to face an Elemental Dragon on a subduing mission.

For now, he could only endure.

—damn this scenario!

Siva cursed. Gabriel gave him a mission. If he can't complete it, Gabriel will have to break his promise to his teacher and take away Inventory Plus Ultra away from him because Siva had gone too far this time around.

Siva couldn't allow that. The 'IPU' was one of his valuable assets and without it, his entire plan's framework will collapse. He had already considered the IPU as part of his strength. Before he can take on a path once again and ascend to Immortality for the second time himself, he will have to embrace all powers and gifts he could, even if it means he'd be a lapdog or an errand boy for anyone.

—endure, god damn it, endure...

'Escaping is second priority, stopping the attack is the first... but how am I going to do that?'

He wondered then, Gabriel's senses can go so far as this place since he's now a True Immortal. Using that excuse, he should be able to at least stop the horde of monsters, if not the Dragon, in their plan to attack Maria by using his ability... so why didn't he do it then? This question bugged Siva now.

Given this question, Siva was —for perhaps is the fourth or fifth time already— thankful that he was cursed to live like an undead monster.

Just like how the Time-Space Cabinet's 'setting up rules' work, there was a choice to connect all the Cabinets to each another, or still directly to the IPU through the [World Realm Utility]...

Or just completely separate an entire set of 'Mini Realms' to serve as an external set to be made as items to connect far away 'spaces' together thru a node-like network of 'Mini Realm' Cabinets —just like how Gabriel connected the entire planet to his Magus Archive.

'Now that I think about it, that's how the T-Devices work... I see....'

Time-Space Cabinet = rules set up

World Realm Utility = take a 'space' from the IPU

Split Dimension = take a 'space' from the Universe

The Inventory Plus Ultra's abilities center upon the absolute control over the Laws of Time and Space under the rules of Magic and of Equivalent Trade.

Just like what was said in the Flavor Text of the item, Gabriel had taken away part of his very own essence to create the item and as such, although it wasn't even amounting to 0.1% of Gabriel's ability, it was still part of his power and can do what he can do —only in a much smaller scale.

And with the «Split Dimension» ability's explanation in its use, given enough EXP and time, there's also the possibility that the IPU can evolve to the level of Gabriel, being able to "devour" the Universe in just a single breath's time.

'Meaning, if Gabriel could train his power more, he can also do the same and even more. No wonder he was Janus' favorite student...'

—I won't let you take this away from me!

When Siva screamed in his heart, he made sure to apply the 'rules' to connect the Spatial Orbs with one another like a separate exit... with the last one, the one with him, being a "central station" of sorts, which will serve as the [ticket] to pass through the 'Spatial Orbs' he scattered in the forest.

By separating them far away from each other, he can "teleport" through the World Realm Utility's functionality on a single whim. And this was, again, thanks to the fact that he was cursed.

—thankfully, even while the World Realm Utility is still unable to support life, I, in my current cursed state, was technically a living corpse... I can safely pass through the mini realms without a problem...

Puppet?

Yes.

He was his own puppet in his cursed state.

(AN: well, there you have it guys! Many readers have pressed me WHY CAN'T I REMOVE Siva's curse already.... well, it's because I needed the entire story to reach this point first before I want to address the issue... the reason why I remained still and silent, and not answering your urgings for this issue is because of this chapter)

As heartbreaking to admit it as it is, Siva was really thankful right now that he was cursed.