Carl's breathing was heavy, he had claimed as many of the worlds as he could, but it cost him all the DIV he had and that was unsatisfactory in Lillim's eyes...
"You may have taken the time to study your skills but your stats still elude you, rectify that. Even if their essence remains a mystery, knowing how to hasten the return of those resources after they are lost is vital."
"The System said it restores at one point a day though..."
"Yes the system, the same system that you always rave at for not being helpful or forthcoming. It said it restores at one point a day, but did it say that is the only way?"
That conversation is what led to this impromptu training.
Lillim's idea was simple, make him exhaust every resource at his disposal, then with all those other distractions removed he could focus on that single point of DIV.
The exercise took five hours, starting with the use of faction magic to drain his mana, then he had to spar against a Lillim and play tag with the limitless ball of energy that was Kitsunoko, though that was only because Kyubi wanted to wear her out a bit.
After his bout of laboured breathing, Carl collapsed. "Okay, nothing else but the one DIV..."
"Hmmm.... You're still talking, so I doubt that. If you don't have a thousand points of it in an hour we will try again."
Carl stayed put, focusing as hard as he could, but after an hour the point was still entirely solitary.
Lillim was merciless after that, they cycle repeated ten times, she had even deemed sleep a distracting luxury.
On the eleventh cycle without food, rest or encouragement, Carl finally felt it. An alien hum beneath the surface of existence.It was faint and barely noticeable. Strength didn't matter to Carl at that moment, he just needed something internal to hold onto, so that he didn't fall apart.
After the twelfth, Carl was no longer satisfied with that, he wanted more.
[ SYSTEM NOTICE : PASSIVE SKILL NEO REJUVINATION[1] UNLOCKED ]
[ SYSTEM NOTICE : SUSTAINED SKILL FOCUSED RECOVERY[2] UNLOCKED ]
[ SYSTEM NOTICE : ACTIVATE SKILL SACRIFICIAL REGENERATION[3] UNLOCKED ]
[ NEO REJUVENATION ACTIVATED ]
"Okay and just like that I'm back to half strength." Carl declared, though he regretted and rectified the lack of explanation when Lillim gave a "why do you think that is good enough" kind of look.
"Well then, since the other two recover over the course of a day, from now on you stockpile DIV in vials as we did before and then sacrifice mana to refill your DIV. When you run out of mana, continue with claiming worlds, then return... How many worlds have you got left to claim?"
"Promise not to punish me?"
"Carl, why would you try to make a liar of me?" Lillim chuckled with a disconcerting look in her eye.
Carl sighed with anticipation of impending doom. "Several have been claimed, they were erased from my mind, there are forty-five left to claim."
Lillim immediately smacked him across the head. "Then get going, have you written them all down you idiot!? You, Kyubi and I can divide and conquer and then we can pass them over to you."
After that the remaining worlds were claimed by days end, then Carl was immediately forced to finish stockpiling DIV and only then was Carl allowed to rest.
The next day however his routine started in earnest; Stockpile DIV, plan what each world could be used for, train to increase his recovery rate for all resources.
When the survey teams had finished on the first world, It was named Mirage.It turned out that it wasn't inhabited by aliens, but a creature that produced projections through complex electrical fields which were also strong enough to be recorded...
Carl then began construction of a forward base there, since its primary resources were interesting and newly discovered species and materials it was primarily outfitted with research and processing facilities.
When that was done he found himself in a routine that alternated between planetary settlement and training under Lillim, though it only lasted a couple of weeks before his ever increasing concern for Klaire reached a tipping point.
"I'm not doing this right now." The words were sudden and illicited a very aggressive response from Lillim.
"Klaire is fine! Stop your childish pining and keep going!"
"No Grandma. I'm done, I need to get my head straight before I make a mistake." The most infuriating thing about it, was that Lillim couldn't easily argue with that logic.
"If you make a mistake, you can make it right, but you need to keep improving. I assure you Klaire is growing stronger every day she is gone, Faylorna hasn't killed a member of house Bashe since she became the entity she is, I don't think she'll start with the greatest talent her clan has ever seen."
"I don't care what you think about it, not knowing is killing me. I haven't recieved a single message aside from the one where she told me to wait for her summons, but it feels like she should have summoned me already. Something's wrong, something Faylorna didn't expect."
"Why choose now to use that damn brain of yours!?" Lillim growled with decreasing humanity. "Yes. Fine. I admit I thought the same, after nine hours she sent a message, then to not hear anything from any of them, or even her mother in two weeks is strange, but-"
"But nothing, I need to know, I'm going."
"Damn you Carl, know that I can't go with you. If you do this, you do it alone and if you're wrong you'll offend the entire Bashe clan. Why not try contacting her mother first?"
"I did, she said the gate to Faylorn closed about a day ago."
"Closed? Impossible, no one can close that gate but Faylorna herself and..." Lillim's eyes suddenly widened and she called for Kyubi immediately.
The two of them completely unleashed their power, the effect of which was suffocating, the air felt like fire in Carl's lungs and his skin turned a sickly blue colour as his vitality was being drained by mere proximity to the source.
"Lillim, we should go before he dies..."
"The portal won't open..." Lillim responded and the two of them quickly smothered their power like a fire threatening to go wild. "...Carl, you are right to be worried. Nothing short of Samael could stop me tearing through realms, which means a being of his level or greater is barring passage."
"Dont tell me he is there, was Faylorna working with hi-"
"Don't be stupid brat! That woman would never sell out her kin, either he is acting on a whim or... Foolish woman and her damned curiosity, I thought my refusal to speak of it would have clued her in."
"What!? What did she do?"
"She must have started peering into Klaire's memories as she reforged her soul. She doesn't do it often, but she has a tendency to become somewhat obsessive when her curiosity is piqued." Lillim was furious, Carl had been right from the start and he didn't know anything about the woman, Lillim had known her for longer than the world had existed as it was.
"Carl, there is a very real chance that one is there, you have to give Levi standing authority to use all the mutations and evolutions she has saved at her own discretion. Unlikely but she may amuse or bore him enough he leaves them intact at least. Lillim, you go visit Nergal and see if any of them are there. I'll go to God and see if that blowhard knows anything, he may be arrogant but he is one of the most powerful beings and likely one of few who can open the gate."
"Fine..." Lillim huffed, perturbed by the idea. "...Make it clear he does it as a favour though, a show of good faith to Carl's faction, we can't afford to risk being in his pocket. Carl would turn to stone if we had to sacrifice anything. Carl, time works differently in the realms we are going to, as it does in Faylorna's, but you have to keep training and stockpiling and leave this to us."
Carl begrudgingly agreed, with Kyubi gone, he had to step up and take care of Kirsunoko anyway.
The little fox girl was happy to be able to drop the pretense for a while, she didn't understand why she had to pretend to not like him, her Mama-Kyubi had told her to act that way and play tricks on him when he first made her but she just wanted to cuddle and play.
Unfortunately, Kitsune were very good at sensing emotions and she could tell he was upset. Normally, that probably wouldn't be a problem, but she had grown to think Carl liked her playing tricks on him.
Inevitably this led to a very uncomfortable time for them both where Carl was concerned and upset, then Kitsunoko would try to play tricks on him to cheer him up, then he would get more upset and the cycle would repeat until their true feelings were so lost in the web of appearances and misunderstandings that Ewuinox had to step in.
"Girl, I do not understand the reasoning, but Lillim and Kyubi need you to pretend to not like the creator. He understands this and accepts it, but doesn't actually like you playing tricks on him all the time, though he does like seeing you happy. From my perspective it would be better if you played tricks on Gillian if you wish to cheer people up... It may adversely effect him, but he called me "Noxy-guy" so causing him equal discomfort is only fair."
Carl wrapped his arms around the flame-wreathed serpent. "Equinox, you are hereby designated as chief of emotional support, oh and I should probably say that you can just call him "Gil" if you want to irritate him back, no need to weaponize children.
[1] [ ANALYSE ACTIVATED ] [ PASSIVE SKILL - SSS-RANK = WHEN THE NEO PRIMORDIA REACHES TOTAL EXHAUSTION HE WILL RECOVER COMPLETELY, THOUGH STATS WILL BE HALVED FOR 5 DAYS. PLEASE NOTE : THERE IS NO LIMIT TO THIS SKILL AND PENALTY LENGTH IS STACKABLE ]
[2] [ ANALYSE ACTIVATED ] [ SUSTAINED SKILL - SSS-RANK = NEO PRIMORDIA CAN ENTER A MEDITATIVE STATE WHERE IN ALL RESOURCES CAN BE RESTORED AT A RATE OF 2000 PER 30 MINUTES ]
[3] [ ANALYSE ACTIVATED ] [ ACTIVE SKILL - SSS-RANK = NEO PRIMORDIA CAN SACRIFICE RESOURCES SUCH AS HP/MP/DIV TO RESTORE MISSING RESOURCES. PLEASE NOTE : 1 POINT OF DIV = 10 POINTS OF HP/MP ]