Chapter 58: Evolving my Ability, Again

The tunnel wasn’t dark. It had blue lamps attached to the walls, powered by crystals found inside the rifts.

There was no way to know for sure if there were traps in that place, but it wasn’t like we had the luxury of going slowly and looking for said traps. The librarian was closing in, so we had to move as fast as we could.

Ethan used his ability, making us invisible. After just 30 seconds of running, we were greeted by an open room with bookshelves inside. There weren’t that many of them. The restricted area only held important books, so quantity wasn’t its strong point.

"What do we do now?" Ethan whispered. "The librarian is getting closer."

"Hide behind something. Now," I said.

The bookshelves were the only cover we could use at that moment, so we went behind one of them, watching the tunnel we had just come through. A few moments after we hid, the librarian showed up.

He was an older man who looked like he was in his fifties. He stopped in the middle of the room, looking around. For a moment, his gaze landed on our hiding spot, but he didn’t realize we were there. Ethan’s invisibility had been enough to keep us hidden.

"I know someone is in here," he said. "If you’re using an artifact to keep yourself invisible, it won’t work. I’ll use my own artifact to reveal you. Give up and show yourself."

We didn’t move, of course. But we were scared as shit. The librarian certainly wasn’t bluffing about having an artifact capable of revealing anything that was invisible. Ethan looked at me, waiting for me to say something.

Should we just give up and show ourselves?

"Don’t say I didn’t warn you." The librarian took something out of his pocket, a small shiny star. "If you had given up, maybe you would have only gotten locked in a cell forever. But now? You’ll die."

Shit. This was worse than I expected. I had to do something before the librarian activated that artifact, or we might get caught. My heart was beating so fast that I could feel it slamming against my chest.

Tom was already sweating, his forehead and clothes getting drenched. He was on the verge of collapse. I grabbed him before he could move to reveal himself.

I had to try something. I summoned my cube, and the suction force pulled all three of us inside. We disappeared from that room.

My mind was aching so much I had to sit and place both hands around it. It was pulsating with pain, like getting smashed with a hammer over and over. The worst pain I had ever felt, even worse than getting the bloodline. Way worse, actually.

I couldn’t pull people into my pocket dimension, at least not yet. It was beyond my current capabilities. I was basically testing my limits by doing that.

Ethan and Tom scanned the pocket dimension, seeing that it was packed with the items we took from the treasure room. They instantly knew where we were.

"This is incredible," Ethan said, his gaze falling on Bob, who had been devouring the monster crystals nonstop. "What is that? A slime?"

I didn’t want to bring them there because of that. Bob had to remain a secret, but I couldn’t just enter the pocket dimension and abandon them to die...

Speaking of Bob, he saw how much pain I was in and came hopping toward me. He jumped on my head. I wore him like a helmet.

He was doing the same thing he had done when I was hurt before. Having him as a helmet made the pain way better, though it still hurt like hell. I wasn’t supposed to bring two more people into my pocket dimension.

"There are crystals that improve your ability," Bob said.

It was the first time he had ever spoken to me! I figured it was because he was wrapped around my head. It had to be that. My bloodline hadn’t matured enough for us to speak anytime we wanted.

"Tom, Ethan, look for crystals that improve abilities. You know what they look like," I said. "I think there are 10 in that pile."

Bob had eaten one, so the pile should have at least 10.

Tom couldn’t believe it.

"10? Do you know how expensive and rare these are? How do you have 10? Getting one is already pretty damn rare."

I was lucky to get one inside that treasure room. Back then, with the whole demon thing in our heads, I didn’t even realize it. I was just throwing things inside the pocket dimension and forgetting about them.

"Go find them!" I yelled. "Or I won’t be able to keep you two in this place."

Ethan and Tom searched through the pile of monster crystals, tossing aside the ones they weren’t looking for.

"It’s at the very end of the pile," Bob said. "Ask them to search there."

"At the very end of the pile," I said.

It took them one more minute to find the crystals. My head was hurting so much, and the pocket dimension was starting to crack. Cracks formed around it, and we could even see the outside. Faintly, but we could.

If things kept going in that direction, everything would fall apart and the librarian would see us!

They brought the 10 crystals over to me.

"I’ll help you absorb them," Bob said.

Bob was doing things I didn’t know he was capable of.

"Give me one," I said.

Tom handed one crystal over, and I instantly started absorbing it. This time, it was different. There was another energy inside my body, helping me absorb the crystal’s energy.

The difference was brutal. Before, it would take me a lot of concentration and around an hour to absorb one crystal, especially in a stressful situation like the one I was in.

But now, with Bob helping me out? Things were much smoother. It took me ten minutes to finish absorbing one crystal. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

The more I absorbed, the fewer cracks there were inside my pocket dimension. The power from the crystals was improving my ability.

"Give me another one."

Tom handed me another one, and another one. After absorbing three crystals, there weren’t any cracks in the pocket dimension anymore, and it started growing bigger. Way bigger. The pain hammering in my head was also fading.

After absorbing five crystals, the pain was gone. But I didn’t stop. Why should I? My ability was improving rapidly.

My pocket dimension was way bigger now, like twenty times its previous size. But that wasn’t the only difference. I could shape things inside!

Before, it was just a room with blue walls, literally inside my dimensional cube. Now, I could visualize whatever I wanted and change the interior!

It was no longer a boring cube but a forest with trees around us, soft grass underneath our feet, and a river flowing not far away.

The appearance was just one aspect of it. Everything felt real. The wind hitting our faces, the sound of water flowing, the birds chirping. It was just like a real forest.

Tom and Ethan looked around. They couldn’t believe it.

"Are we outside?" Tom said.

Ethan shook his head.

"No. This is inside his weird dimension. Damn, bro, your ability improved a lot with those crystals. Is it like A-Rank now or what?"

I quickly checked it.

"Yes, A-Rank."

It reached A-Rank after I absorbed all ten crystals. The improvements from now on would certainly be minor, as the difference between A-Rank and S-Rank was huge, but still, my ability was way better now.

I closed my eyes and controlled the pocket dimension. Wood planks appeared out of nowhere and flew together, taking the shape of a small wooden cabin.

"You created a cabin? Wow!"

I didn’t stop there. I wanted a pond with a small deck where I could fish. It was tiring to change the pocket dimension like that, but it was worth it. The place was much nicer, cozier, and I honestly didn’t mind living in there anymore.

The academy dorm was pretty lame compared to that place now...

And there was also another big change. I could now see what was happening outside! Even after more than an hour had passed, the librarian was still inside the restricted section, looking around to see if he could spot us. But he didn’t find us or anything indicating we had been there.

"Am I going crazy?" the librarian said, scratching his head. "That student lied to me? Damn it. I won’t get fucking pranked by a first-year student."

The librarian left the restricted section, the sound of his footsteps getting farther and farther away. Tom and Ethan were sitting near the pond on two chairs I had created.

"This is incredible, but tell me, what is that slime of yours? And how do you have so many crystals?"

"I can’t tell you the details, and I hope you don’t share the existence of this slime with anyone. You can even mention my bloodline, but don’t tell anyone about the slime. Please?"

"We won’t," they said.

I would have to trust them...

We waited a few more minutes before leaving the pocket dimension.

"Let’s dig up more information about the demons."