Chapter 138: Anomaly

Rallaka stopped in the middle of his departure, as he tilted his head in confusion. "...Dianthe.. Your Water spirit, that Dianthe, right? What about her? Well.. I do sense some great potential in her, and she's probably just as freaky as you in terms of strangeness. I'm just saying this because I'm part of your entourage, and that I can tell when some things are different, but your spirit really is peculiar. In a good or bad way.. That kind of thing is dependent on each and everyone, but-"

"Rallaka, for God's sake, get to the point before I choose violence," Aria shook her head, feeling that she was starting to get dizzy hearing Rallaka's annoying rumblings.

Rallaka flew backwards as he cautiously hid behind the hanging lamp on the ceiling. 

"Ao? You can't hurt me! Well... now, in all seriousness.. Your spirit doesn't really move inside the space. It's like she is dormant and incapable of doing anything. However, she responds to your dangerous situations, and especially when you call her.. She wakes up in an instant and gets up like she wasn't just being a stone for an entire week," Rallaka confessed.

'..That is a bit strange.' Aria commented. Being immobile from time to time was one thing, because when spirits rested, they typically would not be able to respond to calls unless it was of a really high priority. However,  to the point of being immobile for all the time, doesn't that mean that Dianthe was resting nonstop when she was sent into the Summoning Space?

If that was the case, then what required the spirit to do that? Dianthe's energy should be filled with no more than a couple hours of resting in order to fully fill it to the max, and one of spirits' habits was to stop resting after they finished 'recharging' their power.

As far as Aria remembered, Dianthe of the past did not show this kind of tendency. She also had a couple sentient spirits here and there inside her space, so she purposefully told some to monitor movements and perks of the other summons in order to cater to them well. This time, she asked Rallaka.

The answer she got was quite surprising.

Dianthe. She knew that the Water Spirit had secrets, but what did it have to do with the amount of resting? What exhausted the spirit so much that it had to continuously sleep?

Aria was a bit unnerved, but she continued on to the next question, which was the condition of her other spirit Igna. "Is Igna well? I used his power and he doesn't seem to show any anomalies in my perceptions.. But how does he act around you?"

"Well~ Hays, this kind of thing.. I suppose it's because the System gave it to you as a finished spirit. Igna also doesn't have a personality.. At least not one that stands out. He is just there. He would be either dozing off or sleeping. Ahh, you better get me another companion inside the space! You're lucky that I can entertain myself well. If not, I would've became deranged by now! These two are like.. soulless beings, I suppose? Without a trace of emotions. Well, Dianthe reacts emotionally towards your condition, though," Rallaka said, simultaneously voicing out his discontentment.

As time went by, Rallaka became quite accustomed to this modern world and the System Aria possessed, just like his owner. Thus, he was able to describe some terms using the situational conditions and could forge theories with those new knowledge as well.

"...I see. Thank you for reporting this to me. Tell me if anything strange happens. I will also start expanding on my Summoning skills. The System reset my entire set of skills, so I can't really just start acquiring summons that I want. I don't want to pollute the space with useless creatures, so I am aiming for quite the high bar even for starters.. The System seems to project a slow progress down onto my path, but I actually think otherwise. I think that the System actually guarantees quite the fast pace of growth if this rate continues on with its rewards and all.. It's pretty balanced so far, but we can't say the same for the future, can we?" Aria sighed as she sent one last look towards Rallaka's way before finally sending him off for good.

Once the spirit disappeared from her sights, Aria began to lay down on the bed and concentrate on training her mental stability. Although she was already a complete expert in this field, she had to maintain the practice constantly so that she would be familiar with it and not make a mistake in the future.

Aria envisioned her mana pool glowing up as she moved the energy around and researched herself deeper. Her body. Her mind. Her soul. Her everything. What she was doing was a complicated technique that could only be done after one reached a high amount of understanding with oneself. For Aria, this matter was a piece of cake. She had been living inside her body for God knows how many years, and this was more than enough time for her to completely dwell on this matter for ages.

As such, she trained and trained until she fell asleep, continuing the training even in her slumber. Her mana circulated around. Although this process would waste her mana, it was worth it compared to the benefits it gave. It would sharpen her mind and body.

The next morning, she woke up feeling refreshed, as the training had caused her to stay sharp throughout the night. The sharpness retained itself even as she rose from her bed and readied up for the day, going downstairs as always after that.

This time, she came down earlier than Alena, who would usually be readied up way earlier than her. The child's self discipline was quite scary. However, unlike the previous days, Alena was nowhere to be found when Aria reached the dining room. She turned left nd right and finally spoke to one of the servants.

"Is Alena still asleep?"

"Young Miss is tired, so she asked you to wait for her ahead of time. She would like to rest for a few hours longer. She couldn't move her limbs this morning, so she is currently being taken care of by the servants and having medical attention be given to her," The servant replied with courtesy.

"..Is that so. Well, I am not too hungry, so I won't have breakfast.. I will probably just look for a snack if my stomach calls for it. If Alena wakes up, then tell her that I am looking for her. Tell her to get well soon as well. If she asks for my location, then reply to her that I am going outside for the time being," Aria spoke in one full paragraph.

The servant listened well and digested all the content for him to repeat the words to his master later on. He nodded and bowed as Aria left and went straight back up to her room to go out. She had been planning for this outing since she wanted to get in touch with the group that she once met a while ago.

Lichte. They were going to be her comrade in a couple days as well in the dungeon subjugation, so she had arranged a meeting with them today. They had called her and asked for her wellbeing previously, and they told her that a meeting before the actual subjugation would be ideal.

Aria also agreed to the offer, and thus, she was going to meet the lineup that she had subjugated a dungeon with before. Apparently, White Fox, who couldn't come last time would also be there, so she was quite expectant.

She did not take any forms of transportation and denied Alena's servants' offer to drive her to the destination. She left the location and went straight to their meeting place, which was a coffee shop located quite far from their base.

There was still an hour before the actual meeting, so Aria was not worried with being late. She sped up towards the location area, stopping in between the travel a couple times to catch her breath. This was part of her plan to train her body, and she did not exactly like using a car to move about.

Before long, with her speed, she arrived. There was still a couple minutes left before the actual meeting, but she was able to see a group of familiar people sitting inside the coffee shop that they arranged.

Aria checked the clock and the messages on her device one more time, making sure that she did not get the details wrong and that she was indeed more than ten minutes early to the meeting. With a brow raised, she stepped inside the shop and peeked from the door's crevices.

"Oh? Look who's here already. Punctual, I see? But sadly, we are even more prepared~"