Orion went to the other apartment while pondering Mai's disappearing technique. It seemed far stronger than just basic stealth and went to the point of making him forget about her entirely. It was both confusing and extremely overpowered under the right conditions. Assassination and subterfuge could come to her naturally, and no one would even remember what she did.
"She's pretty cold, though. I'll need a lot of time if I am to actually become friends with her and trust her in battle. After all, fighting alone leaves me with the glaring vulnerability of getting encircled or ambushed. With someone to watch my back, things would get a lot easier."
He reflected on his current situation while taking a shower, thinking of what they should do next. He couldn't gather a hundred million units of Origin Energy in a short time, which meant they would have to drag Nodoka along while making sure that she didn't end up getting hurt or hurting them. Both things were very important since he had no idea if she had any natural healing or not. If she got cut, that could be it; the wound might start festering before they could do anything.
"She won't really be an asset when fighting. Even if I could strengthen her, her mind has pretty much shut down. I need something like a stasis field to put her in. Something that can keep her frozen for a long time. That should make things much easier to handle."
Communicating with the gear, he quickly received a response that left him breathless and startled.
Knowledge: Runes of Space and Time
Origin Energy Cost: 1,500,000,000 Units
"One point five billion? The fuck is this number? Are you giving me the keys to the universe or something? Even killing all the zombies in this world won't get me that much Origin Energy. Can I just get support like before when he helped me make the sword? Hopefully that's not too expensive."
As he thought of what he wanted Great Red to help him create, he finally received some acceptable feedback. It was the simplest version of what was required, giving him the space to store a single living creature by means of binding. While it couldn't be used to store anything else, it would serve to take care of Mai's sister.
Blueprint: Stasis Necklace
Origin Energy Cost: 94,000 Units
"Okay…that's not an impossible ask. Considering my efficiency today and factoring in my improvement as I get even more familiar with swords, I should be able to gather this much in a month or so. That will help take care of Nodoka's situation, at least temporarily. I wonder how Mai would look wearing a necklace that I made… Heh."
His thoughts couldn't help but drift in an entirely different direction as he quickly provoked a physiological reaction because of those very thoughts.
"Definitely no…" He shook his head, abruptly turning the shower to spray cold water on him. "Unless it becomes a problem, I'm not doing it. And I literally just got her to agree to work with me here…"
As the cold water blasted him, he finally calmed down and wiped away all of the blood and grime.
"Is there anything such as magical self-cleaning clothes? I ruin everything I'm wearing to the point of leaving it completely unusable every time I go out."
Knowledge: Rune of Cleaning
Origin Energy Cost: 2,500 Units
"Hmm…" He frowned with some thought. "This is the second rune that has shown up. Is this the underlying system that is used to imbue creation with magical effects…"
Knowledge: Introduction to Runes
Origin Energy Cost: 50 Units
"I'll buy that when I have some surplus. I'm curious what all this runic stuff is about. Still, I've already encountered four types of dreams: Technique, Knowledge, Research, and Blueprint. They are all somewhat self-explanatory with their caveats. Techniques require integration with the body to train muscle memory. Research doesn't have a fixed time required due to being an uncertain thing entirely. I'm not yet sure if there are any limitations to Knowledge and Blueprint, but I'm sure that those two giant ass dragons will have found a way to nerf them as well. I don't exactly have a perfect memory. Maybe I'll just start forgetting knowledge if I don't record it. Blueprints are probably going to be a one-time use thing, like when Great Red helped me make the katana. I should use them as a last resort if something is too difficult for me."
Once he was sufficiently cleaned off, he sprayed a good scent that he found in one of the closets before getting dressed.
"Maybe I'm too much of a neat freak for an apocalypse…" he thought to himself while looking at the ruined survival bag. Especially its rain cover. There were splashes of blood all over it, and it was emitting a foul smell. He quickly pulled out the stuff he'd brought and tossed the bag in the trash, unwilling to use it again.
"With someone like Mai, dealing with supplies should also be much easier," he said to himself before pausing and frowning. "The language barrier is kind of annoying. She can speak English, but the next person might not …"
Knowledge: Japanese Language
Origin Energy Cost: 30 Units
"While it is an upfront cost, it should be very useful in the long run. I'm in Japan and am going to run into more Japanese people. I can't have Mai working as my translator all the time…Wait."
Knowledge: Rune of Translation
Origin Energy Cost: 30,000 Units
"Tsk," he clicked his tongue. The price made sense since the rune was essentially a universal translator. "I should have arrived with that imbued inside me. What kind of transmigration comes without the corresponding language support?"
He decided to delay going there by an hour and spent the thirty Origin Energy units to learn Japanese. He'd come to understand that the costs that he was seeing were more about compressing the amount of time he would dream into one hour than the actual knowledge. If something took a billion units, then that meant he would need fifty million years to learn it in the dream. That reference point came from how the swordsmanship technique took six months and cost him ten units. If this one took him a year and a half, he would consider that a solid assumption on his part.
"Thankfully, these are dreams. Otherwise, actually spending a year and a half learning would be enough to turn me into an entirely different person."
He fell asleep lying on the couch and started dreaming. This time, he had a personal tutor in Japanese who constantly drilled everything into him regarding the language — from the three different scripts, namely Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji, to the intricacies of multiple pronunciations for the same character, to the complex grammar governing words and sentences, and finally to the cultural nuances that one could only learn by living in Japan for a long period of time. It encompassed everything in the span of a single tutoring session that lasted a whole year and a half, accurate to his assumptions.
When he woke up in reality, the entire experience seemed to fade away like a short dream, leaving only the essence of the knowledge that he had gained without anything else.
Dream concluded successfully. Knowledge panel unlocked.
Alert: Current Physique is insufficient to hold the infused knowledge with full integrity. Please improve the physique to avoid unforeseen losses.
Minimum Physique: 7
Recommended Physique: 10
"While I would have preferred to know this beforehand, I have more than enough points to handle both the physique improvement while also maintaining a surplus to increase the matter limit."
Name: Orion Vaelor
Exile Gear: Infinite Dream
Specialization: Creation
Origin Energy: 24.38 Units
Physique: 3.46
Matter Limit: 8 KG
Techniques:
Foundational Swordsmanship (Integrity 100% — Integration 23%)
Knowledge:
Japanese Language (Integrity 100%)
"It's going to hurt like a bitch tonight…" His words weren't in English, but fluent Japanese this time. He didn't plan to improve his physique right now since Mai was still waiting for him, and they needed to discuss their plan for the future. From what he'd come to understand about the dreams, even if he lost some integrity for a technique or some knowledge, he could replenish that with a short dream that cost him a single unit or two of origin energy.
With everything prepared, he downed half a bottle of water to take care of his parched throat before leaving the apartment and going over to Mai's place.
As he started knocking on the door, it automatically swung open after the first strike, leaving him awkwardly in place with his hand raised. He felt a little guilty looking at the cleanly sliced locking mechanism.
"Come on in," Mai said, a hint of helplessness in her tone.
"Sorry about the door," he said in Japanese, looking at her sitting on the couch. "I'll dismantle the front door from one of the other units and install it at your place before the end of the night."
"It's fine," she shook her head, naturally shifting to Japanese. "You left your katana in Nodoka's room."
"I thought it would make you feel a little more assured with me staying next door…"
He saw her pause when her eyes fell on him. Suddenly, he stopped perceiving her presence even though she was right in front of him. Even worse, he didn't even realize it, as his gaze naturally went out of focus for a moment. After a few seconds of awkward silence, she finally said something.
"Did you consume your skill points for Japanese Mastery?" She asked with a frown. "I can speak English without issues. There was no need."
As he regained his focus, he tilted his head as a narcissistic thought streaked across his mind. Was she checking me out while using her concealment ability to keep me from noticing? Either that, or she doesn't have complete control over her ability, which I doubt…
"It's fine," he said, not letting his thought show on his face. "I'm in Japan. Most of the things here are in Japanese. Knowing the language will only be beneficial for me in the long run. Though…I don't know what these skill points you spoke of are."
"Do you really not have the system?"
"I told you, right? I'm not from around here. I get stronger by killing zombies. Can you tell me how the system works?"
"What exactly do you mean by that?" She asked with emphasis, crossing her arms with a hint of confrontation and putting one leg over the other. "Where are you from?"
"Can I plead the Fifth?" He asked.
She frowned.
"It's the Fifth Amendment. Bill of Rights…"
She didn't say anything and continued staring at him with a slightly intimidating expression as she leaned back. Despite having a much more slender and feminine stature that gave her a delicate look as opposed to Orion, her flat, almost dead look won against him.
"Fine, I'm from another reality," he said with a sigh, standing behind the armchair adjacent to the couch that Mai was sitting on. "I'm not from around here in the most literal sense. My understanding is a little limited, but I come from a place called Primordial Earth. There are more people like me here, and I am competing with them to kill zombies…"
He gave her a highly embellished version of the truth that put him in the same league as the participants from the Tower of Chaos. Just as she didn't particularly trust him, he wasn't going to abruptly trust her either. She might even be possessed by a participant, the possibility of which made him tread on the side of caution. While it was unlikely, considering her attachment to her zombified sister, he didn't want to risk it.
"I don't have the system because of a special situation, and instead have a different way to empower myself. I'm not really at liberty to share how it works. At least not yet."
His words put him in a mysterious position where he either had some special item or was part of a restricted experiment to someone who was from the Tower of Chaos. Even if it seemed full of holes, it would make sure that he didn't seem like someone acting directly against the Tower of Chaos.
"I opened up about my situation, giving you a bit of my trust. I hope you can reciprocate the same."