NOVEL WEB Chapter 65: Storage
No wonder everybody was scared to enter the Second Dimension, Tarkan thought.
He now understood why he couldn't teleport out of the dimension.
Unlike the First Dimension, where you had to spend a day before leaving, the Second Dimension allowed you to teleport out anytime, but only from a settlement. The guide hadn't mentioned it needing to be a human settlement. It simply stated that as long as intelligent beings created the settlement and it was considered safe, you could teleport out.
That meant he had to find a settlement before he could leave.
Now he knew why Rose was still in the cage and hadn't escaped from the pigs. If this were the First Dimension, she would've long returned to her homeworld.
And thank God he hadn't been impulsive enough to eat the pigs.
Moving toward one of the pig corpses, Tarkan used the crude sickle he'd used earlier to behead them and sliced the body open, as if searching for something. But there was nothing inside. He went to the head and split it open too, but again, there was nothing.
He did the same to several of the pig-human bodies and still found nothing.
Tarkan wore a surprised expression. Did he misread the guide? He checked it again and confirmed what he'd seen.
The guide clearly stated that, unlike in the First Dimension where you gained prime points by eating the creatures, in the Second Dimension every creature killed would have a crystal-like stone called a core inside its body.
And to absorb it, you needed an absorption technique. Without it, you couldn't absorb the core. And if a human ate the core without such a technique, they would burst from the inside out.
In simple terms, without an absorption technique, you wouldn't be able to grow stronger in the Second Dimension. This соpy wаs gеnеrаtеd frоm соntеnt аt МV|LЕМРYR.
And removing the core didn't mean the creature's body was useless, on the contrary, it was even more valuable than the core. Certain parts were required by potion masters to make potions and weapons for ascenders.
That meant the body parts could be sold for money or taken to potion or weapon masters to create gear for ascenders.
Tarkan didn't know why he couldn't find any crystal cores in the pigs' bodies. The guide hadn't mentioned any creatures without cores. But he didn't dwell on it too much, since the guide was just a basic summary of common knowledge for beginners. He knew a lot of things might not have been included in it.
Now, Tarkan finally understood why the Second Dimension required a sponsor or access to a high tier world. There were no resources in low-tier worlds.
He had searched all over Tharn and hadn't seen even a single potion maker. Everyone selling potions in that world was reselling items they'd bought from higher-tier worlds. And even those potions were just the most basic kind, minor healing and slight strength enhancement, made for people in the First Dimension.
As for weapons, it was even worse. He hadn't seen a single enhanced weapon made in Tharn. All of them were regular weapons with no special traits.
There was nothing in Tharn connected to the Second Dimension. It was like a graveyard when the subject came up. And anyone who could thrive in the Second Dimension was seen as a godlike being in tharn.
Tarkan guessed the main reason most people couldn't thrive in the Second Dimension was the lack of absorption techniques.
--
Time Manual (Level 1)
> Absorption – Extract energy while meditating according to the manual. (Timer can be used for faster absorption.)
--
And it just so happened that his Timer had given him a technique he could use to absorb cores.
Even though he didn't know how valuable it was, everything the Timer had given him so far had been abnormally strong. So he didn't doubt that the Absorption Manual would be extraordinary too.
--
[Storage – Store non-living things in time, unrestricted, as long as you have enough time.]
--
Earlier, he'd used the storage power unlocked by the Timer to store his mask when the pig was chasing him. To his surprise, it was very smooth and efficient.
He could store anything he wanted as long as he was in contact with it. Each use consumed one second of his Timer. But what made Tarkan happy was that retrieving the stored item didn't consume any time, which delighted him a lot.
And the last thing Aron gave him, which he said was a token of friendship, was a map. It had marked the safest route and highlighted dangerous zones on the path to the nearest settlement.
Slaughtering those pig-humans had been worth it after all, Tarkan thought happily.
He decided to set out the following day toward the settlement. He couldn't contact Slim and Ricky about his findings. The bracelet had no service in the dimension, but it could still do basic things like send money, perform transfers, and a few short-range functions within a mile of the user.
Now, rid of the depressed mood from earlier, Tarkan crouched near a pig and placed his hand on it, sending it into storage. But as he did it, he couldn't help frowning. Every time he touched a pig-human corpse to place it in storage, a second was deducted from his Timer.
Tarkan suddenly dragged one pig-human corpse over and stacked it on another, then activated the Timer.
Just like he thought, both corpses disappeared into storage at once.
Tarkan let out a sigh of relief.
--
After what Tarkan had said to Rose earlier, she had been sitting in a corner silently. Looking at Tarkan who was suddenly humming a happy song, crouching, and touching pig-human corpses which disappeared immediately after, her expression instantly changed.
First, she was shocked. Then surprised.
Then, all of a sudden, a determined look appeared on her face.
As if she had already made up her mind.
...
..
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