That was consistent with how some of the mutations had manifested during the apocalypse.
However, the nature of this ability was considerably more unusual.
Unlike physical enhancements or elemental manipulation, Nex seemed capable of transferring matter into an inaccessible space.
'Interesting.'
Faust looked toward him.
"How large is this space?"
Leslie immediately raised her hand.
"We've tested that!"
Nex glanced at her.
"Go ahead."
She smiled.
"It's roughly a cube measuring ten meters in each direction."
Faust paused.
"Ten meters?"
Leslie nodded.
"Yes. Ten meters long, ten meters wide, and ten meters high."
Faust rubbed his chin.
'That's a thousand cubic meters.'
For a storage ability, that was an enormous amount of space.
"That's quite large."
Nex shrugged.
"Yeah. We can store plenty of supplies inside."
Faust looked at the bottles.
'And the objects can be retrieved whenever he wants.'
He considered the possibilities.
There were several questions he wanted to ask.
"Have you tried putting living creatures inside?"
Nex shook his head.
"Well, we tried once."
Leslie nodded.
"It was a monster."
"What happened?"
"Nothing."
Nex spread his hands.
"I tried to store it the same way I store other things, but it didn't work."
"Was the monster still moving?"
"Yeah."
Faust considered that.
'So living creatures might be restricted.'
However, one failed attempt wasn't enough to determine the exact limitation.
He decided to approach the problem from another direction.
"What about dead animals?"
Nex blinked.
"Dead animals?"
"Yes. Have you tried storing a butchered animal or pieces of meat?"
"Oh, that works."
Nex nodded.
"We've stored meat plenty of times."
Faust's eyes narrowed slightly.
"And what happened to the meat?"
"What do you mean?"
"Did it spoil faster or slower while inside?"
This time, Leslie answered.
"It didn't spoil at all."
Faust looked toward her.
"You're certain?"
She nodded.
"I've checked it several times. The meat inside stayed exactly the same."
Faust leaned closer.
"Even after several days?"
"Yes!"
Nex scratched his head.
"Yeah. It's pretty convenient. We don't have to worry about our food going bad."
Faust looked at the notes.
'No visible deterioration.'
He considered the implications.
If the meat remained unchanged regardless of how long it stayed inside, then one possible explanation was that biological and chemical processes were being suspended.
However, there were other possibilities.
The space might simply preserve objects through some unknown mechanism.
Or perhaps time inside it passed at a different rate.
Leslie pointed toward her notes again.
"My hypothesis is that time stops inside his storage space."
Faust nodded.
"That's a reasonable possibility."
Leslie brightened.
"Really?"
"Yes. But we can't confirm it just from the meat remaining fresh."
Faust looked toward Nex.
"We'd need a way to measure whether time actually passes inside."
Nex frowned.
"How would we even do that?"
"There are several ways."
Faust considered the matter.
"For example, we could place a mechanical clock inside and compare its reading after retrieving it."
Leslie immediately looked interested.
"Oh! I didn't think of that!"
"Of course, we'd need to make sure the clock itself isn't being affected by some other property of the space."
Faust glanced toward Nex.
"But that's something we can investigate later."
Nex nodded.
"Alright."
Faust returned his attention to the storage ability.
'If time really stops inside, the applications could be enormous.'
Not only could Nex preserve food and other perishable supplies, but he might also be able to store biological samples without worrying about their deterioration.
Even unstable materials could potentially be preserved.
'Depending on how this works, he might possess something far more valuable than he realizes.'
Faust looked at Nex again.
"Have you tried moving only part of a living creature into your storage space?"
Nex blinked.
"Part of a living creature?"
"Yes."
Faust gestured toward his arm.
"For example, instead of transferring an entire person, what happens if you try to transfer only a small portion of their body?"
Nex stared at him.
"Why would I try that?"
"To determine how your ability defines an object."
Nex frowned.
Faust continued.
"When you store a bottle, does your ability treat the entire bottle as one object? Or can you choose a specific part of it?"
Nex thought for a moment.
"I don't know."
"You've never tested it?"
"No."
He shook his head.
"Using this ability takes a lot of concentration. I have to focus on what I want to store."
Nex picked up one of the bottles.
"It's easy enough when the object isn't moving. But doing something complicated in the middle of a fight would be difficult."
Faust nodded.
'So concentration is another limitation.'
He glanced at the spear in Nex's hand.
'That could become a problem if he tries using it offensively.'
Still, the ability had considerable potential.
He looked toward Nex.
"I think there's a possibility you can store living organisms."
Nex raised an eyebrow.
"What? But I already told you it didn't work."
"Once."
Faust held up one finger.
"You tried it once, with a hostile monster."
Nex frowned.
"Well, yeah."
"That doesn't tell us whether the ability rejects all living organisms."
Faust glanced toward the bottles.
"Think about the meat you've been storing."
"What about it?"
"Meat isn't dead."
Nex looked confused.
Faust continued.
"Even after an animal dies, its body still contains bacteria and other microorganisms. Depending on the circumstances, there may also be viruses and other biological material."
He pointed toward the bottle in Nex's hand.
"If your ability automatically rejected everything alive, we'd need to explain what happens to those microorganisms when you store the meat."
Leslie's eyes widened slightly.
"Oh..."
"Exactly."
Faust nodded.
"Yet you can store meat without any apparent problem."
Nex rubbed his chin.
"So that means I can store living things?"
"Possibly."
Faust shook his head.
"It isn't proof. We don't know what happens to those microorganisms inside, or whether the space simply preserves the meat by some other means."
He paused.
"But it does suggest that the limitation might be more complicated than 'living things cannot enter.'"
Leslie looked down at her book.
"Maybe the monster resisted the ability?"
Faust turned toward her.
"That's one possibility."
He looked back toward Nex.
"Another possibility is that you simply didn't have enough power to transfer it."
Nex frowned.
"Power?"
"Yes. The amount of energy needed to move a living creature might be greater than what you currently possess."
Faust considered another explanation.
"Or perhaps your ability requires the target's consent."
"Consent?"
Nex looked confused.
"What do you mean?"
"Think about it."
Faust gestured toward the empty bottles.
"These objects don't resist you. You can move them whenever you want."
He then pointed toward the forest.
"But a living creature might be different. If your ability interacts with the target's consciousness in some way, forcing an unwilling creature into the space might require more energy."
Leslie nodded slowly.
"So if the creature agrees, it might work?"
"That's one possibility."
Faust looked toward Nex.
"We'd have to test it to find out."
Nex scratched his head.
"But where am I supposed to find a living things willing to let me put it inside some strange dimension?"
Faust answered without hesitation.
"You could try it with me."
"What?"
Both Nex and Leslie turned toward him.
Leslie reacted first.
"No!"
Faust looked at her.
She shook her head.
"Absolutely not!"
"Why?"
"What if something goes wrong?"
Leslie stepped closer.
"We don't know what happens inside that space! What if you get trapped? What if Nex can't bring you back?"
Nex nodded.
"Yeah. I'm not comfortable with that either."
Faust shrugged.
"I doubt it would harm me."
Leslie frowned.
"That's not the point!"