After an hour of slowly feeding rats to the slime piece by piece, all I’ve accomplished is slightly coaxing it up from the bottom of the pot. It crawls up the side a bit to pull the rat meat back down into itself, but its main body remains firmly fixed to the safety of the base.

  It’s annoying not being able to guide it out of my pot. Have I missed something? Actually, how is it even sensing the presence of the rat meat? It doesn’t have any eyes. Does it have a sense of smell? Can it feel vibrations?

  Stumped but still intently watching, I continue to methodically stick morsel after morsel against the side of the pot. The slime is docile. A moment later it vibrates excitedly as if reacting to something. Then it slowly sends out a makeshift slime arm to wrestle the food back into its main body. Something’s missing. Narrowing my discerning eyes, they soon begin to burn from the intensity, but I don’t stop. Something’s there, I know it.

  Oh, that’s it! With a pop, a whole new world opens up before me. The slime is constantly extending out tethers of arcane energy like tiny lightning bolts in all directions. After a new piece of meat arrives, it takes a moment for the random strikes to touch it. However, after contact is made, a storm of new feelers furiously reach out to cover the object, inspecting it. Then the slime extends along the path defined by the tethers and takes its prize.

  Ha, that’s interesting. Can I do that? Maybe if I keep watching it, I’ll eventually pick up the same trick. Is it still a song when a creature does it? Or only the big ones and us goblins? Big, deep questions such as these will make it hard to sleep today.

  Continuing to ponder my discovery, it dawns on me that the burning in my eyes has increased dramatically. Actually, it really, really hurts. What’s going on? I blink them repeatedly, ineffectively trying to make it stop. Keeping them tightly shut doesn’t work either. The pain only grows worse and worse.

  Is this that other new song? Channeling to the eyes? How do I make it stop? I slide down into the same sitting position that I used after exhausting myself on the pockets. Keeping my eyes shut, breathing becomes my sole focus. Stay calm. I can fix this. What’s going on? What’s going on?

  There it is! The channel’s extending from this core thing near my heart out to my eyes. That’s nice to know, but then how do I stop it? Squeezing my eyes to repel the flow does nothing. If that doesn’t work, then– oh! The core. That’s what’s sending the energy out, after all.

  As soon as the idea occurs to me, the energy instantly stops as if on command. Have I always been able to do this? The magic intro book did mention that maximizing the arcane potential song provides some kind of precision control over the distribution of this energy. However, without a teacher, I’ve been clueless on how to do that until now. What else don’t I know?

  I need more books to answer these questions. A new mixing pot too, if the slime refuses to leave this one. Is there anything else? I should make a shoplifting list. Oh! That’s why I got the papers and ink from the bowyer’s home. I need to practice my writing song. This is the perfect excuse to do it.

  Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.

  After a few minutes of aimless rummaging through spacial pockets and then setting them back up again, the paper and ink are located. Dipping a sharp claw into the ink, I then trace it gracefully across the page to generate letters.

  A pot for sure. Which books? Anything about magic. Especially very advanced magic, for geniuses. Especially spacial magic. And mixing. More advanced mixing recommendations would be helpful. Or general listings on collection combinations useful for compounding similar to the common beasts and monsters book.

  Detailing any other little things I can think of for the next ten minutes, I fill one of the pieces of paper completely with a list. I’m pretty sure I can read this too. Hopefully it doesn’t smear in the pack. All that’s left is to set out!

  Two weeks of methodical burglaries later, I’ve barely found any of the things on my list. I swear, I’ve been in and out of almost every living space in Vastra looking for ways to fix my ignorance and resupply. However, for the first time since arriving, it’s sinking in how extremely destitute this simple village dungeon is. The paltry selection that the big ones have available for me to browse here is simply not enough.

  As much as the thought unnerves me, the town dungeon of Tranas may be necessary to secure access to better treasures. Electing to steal all the coins I find now, hopefully this will secure enough bribes for the porters’ repeated transportation back and forth. Unfortunately, the complaining gossip on the street has skyrocketed as a consequence.

  This should be enough. After all, I’ve grown confident after lots more research and the disastrous learning experience of the dreadful Central City dungeon. The song improvements I’ve made will help as well.

  The paper and ink aided my writing practice enormously, and the constant research amongst the books has maxed out the reading song. With this, I’ve managed to etch “Vastra” and “Tranas” on some small pieces of stolen wood. These tokens should be useful with the porters to get me back and forth repeatedly without a problem, now that I have the coins on hand.

  I’ve also taken to closely observing myself whenever compulsively practicing. The payoff has been an explosive growth rate in my spacial training. It detracts from my situational awareness when on the street, but Vastra has become so second nature that there’s no real danger left to me here. The giant one still grabs me occasionally to do odd jobs, but that’s not so bad. After all, it also adds to my coin stock for the planned porter trips.

  Finally, before bed each morning, I hunt a meal for myself and the slime. While he feeds, I continue watching and studying as best I can. The feeler strands look so much more detailed now, and I’ve even noticed some energy seeming to shoot around inside of him as well. Who knew he would be such a good teacher? Better than any book I’ve found so far.