The Dao of Magic

114 - Interests

"Every single simulation I run tells me that this is an incredibly stupid thing to ask, but why are you sticking around?" I need to ask this anyway as it has been bugging me for quite a while now. I see Rhea freeze mid-step as she thinks about the question.

"Why do you want to know this?" Her face is blank, not a single muscle is moving as she looks at me.

I shrug helplessly. "I can't read you. I don't have enough data about dragons to make an accurate prediction model. Everyone else, I can handle. And..." Am I really going to say this? My gut clenches very slightly in anxiety. That hasn't happened for a couple of centuries. "I want to get to know you better."

God, putting myself in a vulnerable position is hard. Ah well, alea iacta est. Wait, why is she smiling? That is not a response I saw coming. Is she smirking? There is definitely some smugness in her gaze now. Why do I feel like I lost somehow? Maybe this battle between man and woman is always there, regardless of species?

Can't do anything about it now. The ball is in her court now. And she apparently decides to do nothing with said ball. We just look at each other for a minute or so. The back of my neck is tingling hard now, so I decide to break eye contact.

Looking forward, I see a jungle. A green, purple, blue and yellow jungle. A very odd jungle. Most plants on the human and beastkin continent have angularly shaped leaves. This thick jungle has that and more. I spot all kinds of weird plants.

A very small dark beach separates the sea from the land. The lack of a significant tide must not be good for the formation of sand. The minuscule waves crashing into the shoreline are not helping this either. This is pretty underwhelming. I was expecting some magnificent shoreline, but this is just a small strip of dark stones immediately followed by thick jungle.

"We are here, I guess. Come, let's explore. The nearest source of soul radiation is coming from that direction." The insulation around my soul connection is still doing a wonderful job of blocking the radiation's influence and exposing myself to it allows me to pinpoint the source.

I focus inwards on my Tree necklace and immediately decide to ignore what is happening there. I am tempted to request a status update on what the fuck is going on, but focus on finding a clear place instead. That marching band has nothing to do with me. Nope, not going to react to that massive effigy statue. Just ignore that massive pile of food. Ah, there is an empty spot.

The Ascent disappears as I pull it inside Tree. I guide it to the empty spot and deposit it on the ground. More precisely, I tell Tree where I want it to land. Tree gained a lot of power recently, so I let it do the heavy lifting. Luckily, its intelligence is not developing just yet.

I feel a poke in my side and return my focus to the real world. Rhea is wiping seawater from her clothes with a slightly angry expression. Wind billows around her, drying the clinging fabric. It's a nice view, but why didn't she react on time? She's a braincore, after all.

"Try to form a qi construct you asshole."

I do as she requests and notice nothing special except a minuscule bit of instability. The pretty but useless formation hangs in front of us both, unwavering.

"Try to form a qi construct at a normal level of power and control, you asshole." She is even angrier now, for some reason.

I limit the willpower and volume of qi dedicated to keeping the pretty formation active to a qi condensing level. It immediately vanishes.

Ooh, this is interesting. I start a battery of tests, dedicating half of my brain to measuring what is going on. I wipe the grin off my face as I turn to Rhea. "Alright, so your water walking and protection constructs got destabilized by the radiation?"