Just Extra

Naviga crouched beside the eleventh box, her silver eyes fixed on the tiny sparkle nestled in the dust. The glimmer caught the faint essence light from her fingertips, reflecting like a captured star against the ancient wood. She reached out carefully, her fingers hovering over the object as caution warred with curiosity.

"What did you find?" Minerva asked, stepping closer. Her red hair caught the dim glow as she leaned over Naviga's shoulder.

"I am not certain yet, Miss," Naviga replied quietly. "There is something small here. It looks like a star, but it cannot be that simple."

She brushed away the accumulated dust with gentle sweeps of her hand, revealing more of the object. It was no larger than her palm, roughly circular, and covered in what appeared to be tiny white dots scattered across a gray surface. The pattern reminded her of the night sky, countless points of light against darkness. But there was something else, something that made her instincts tingle with warning.

Naviga activated her chip, the mental command as natural as breathing. The interface materialized in her mind's eye, invisible to anyone else. She focused her attention on the strange object, silently requesting an analysis.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the chip responded, but its feedback was fragmented and uncertain in a way she had never experienced before.

"Scanning... material composition unclear... detecting residual energy signature... warning: interference detected... analysis incomplete..."

Naviga frowned. The chip had never struggled like this before. Even when analyzing powerful essence cores or advanced talismans, it had always provided clear data. This hesitation was new and unsettling.

"Attempting deeper scan... material identified as organic tissue... classification: dermis layer... origin: unknown species... residual power level: extreme... caution advised..."

Her frown deepened. Organic tissue? Skin? But from what creature? The chip continued its halting analysis.

"Further identification... cross-referencing with known species database... no match found in Seven Sky Universe bestiary... detecting spatial anomalies in material structure... presence of void essence detected... conclusion: sample identified as void beast epidermis..."

Naviga's breath caught. Void beast? She had heard whispers of such creatures during her years of training, fragments of information from old texts in the Akerman library. Void beasts were not native to the Seven Sky Universe. They came from beyond, from the absolute emptiness that existed outside all seven galaxies. They were creatures of pure destruction, beings so powerful that even mentioning them was done in hushed tones.

"Analysis compromised... residual power within sample creating interference... unable to provide complete data... recommendation: extreme caution in handling..."

The chip's voice in her mind fell silent, leaving Naviga with more questions than answers. She stared at the piece of skin, understanding now why it looked like a fragment of the night sky. Gray base color with star-like white dots. That was the signature appearance of void beasts, according to the ancient records. Their hides were said to contain the essence of the void itself, each white dot a captured point of light from destroyed worlds.

"Naviga?" Minerva's voice pulled her from her thoughts. "You have been staring at it for quite some time. What is wrong?"

Naviga carefully lifted the skin fragment from the box, feeling its weight in her palm. It was surprisingly light, almost weightless despite its solid appearance. The surface was smooth but not slippery, with a texture that reminded her of polished stone. A faint coolness emanated from it, not the chill of ice but something deeper, something that seemed to drain warmth rather than simply being cold.

"Miss, I believe this is something "This appears to be skin from a void beast." Naviga said to Minerva.

Minerva's eyes widened, and she took an involuntary step back. "A void beast? Are you certain? How can you tell?"

"The appearance matches the descriptions from old texts," Naviga explained, which was true enough even if it was not the whole truth. "Gray skin with white dots like stars. And there is something else. Can you feel it, Miss? The way it seems to pull at the essence around it?"

Minerva extended her hand cautiously, her fire essence flickering around her fingers as she brought them close to the skin fragment. Naviga watched as her young lady's expression shifted from curiosity to caution.

"You are right," Minerva said quietly. "There is something wrong about this object. My essence wants to retreat from it, as if the skin itself is trying to consume it." She pulled her hand back quickly. "But void beasts are supposed to be impossibly powerful. The books say they can destroy entire galaxies. How is a piece of one here, in this abandoned laboratory?"

That was exactly what troubled Naviga. Void beasts were said to be threats to the five lower galaxies. Even the weakest void beast could devastate everything from the first galaxy up to the fifth. Only cultivators of the sixth and seventh galaxies had any hope of fighting such monsters, and even then victory was never guaranteed. The fact that someone had obtained a piece of void beast skin and brought it to this location raised terrifying questions.

"Someone was conducting experiments here," Naviga said, gesturing to the laboratory around them. "The research table, the strange machine, all these sealed boxes. This was not a storage room. This was an active workspace."

"But experiments on what?" Minerva asked, her voice tight with tension. "What could anyone possibly learn from void beast skin? And more importantly, how did they obtain it in the first place?"

Naviga turned the skin fragment over in her hands, examining it from every angle. Despite being severed from whatever creature it came from, the skin showed no signs of decay or degradation. It looked as fresh as if it had been removed yesterday, even though this laboratory had clearly been abandoned for years, possibly decades. The preservation was unnatural, another sign of the skin's extraordinary nature.

"The void beasts come from outside our universe," Naviga said, recalling the fragments of lore she had studied. "They exist in the absolute emptiness beyond the seventh galaxy. Sometimes they breach into our realm, but such events are rare and catastrophic. If someone managed to obtain this skin, they either killed a void beast, which seems nearly impossible, or they found the remains of one that had already been slain."

"Perhaps by a seventh galaxy magic cultivator," Minerva suggested. "Someone at the Transcendent Mage level might be able to fight a void beast. But why bring the skin here? Why conduct experiments in a hidden laboratory inside a spatial dungeon?"

The questions hung in the air between them, unanswered and troubling. Naviga looked around the chamber again, seeing it with new understanding. The sealed boxes, the precise tools, the careful arrangement of equipment. Someone had been studying the void beast skin, trying to understand it or perhaps trying to use it for something.

"Miss, we should examine this more carefully," Naviga said. "There may be clues in the other materials here that can tell us what was being attempted."

Minerva nodded, her earlier excitement about discovering the hidden laboratory now tempered by caution. They moved to the research table, where brittle parchments lay scattered across the surface. Naviga set the skin fragment down gently and reached for the nearest document.

The parchment crumbled at her touch, disintegrating into dust before she could read more than a few words. She tried another with the same result. Time and the ambient essence of the dungeon had degraded the papers beyond recovery. Whatever notes or records had been kept here, they were lost.

"The documents are destroyed," Naviga reported. "We will not learn anything from them."

Minerva moved to the strange machine, examining its tubes and vials. The glass components were intact but empty, showing no trace of whatever substances they had once contained. The metal framework was corroded in places, though still largely intact. Runes had been etched into various surfaces, but many were incomplete or damaged, making their purpose unclear.

"This machine was designed to process something," Minerva said, running her fingers along the tubes. "These channels would have carried liquids or essences. And these runes here, the ones that are still readable, they relate to extraction and refinement."

Naviga joined her, studying the machine with growing unease. "Extraction from what? The void beast skin?"

"Perhaps," Minerva said. "Though I cannot imagine what one would hope to extract from such a thing. Void essence? The power to survive in the absolute emptiness outside our universe? Either prospect seems extremely dangerous."

They continued examining the laboratory, checking each box methodically. Most were empty, their contents long since removed or degraded. A few contained mundane materials: broken glass vials, rusted metal tools, scraps of cloth that fell apart when touched. Nothing else approached the significance of the void beast skin.

After nearly an hour of searching, they reconvened at the research table. The skin fragment lay where Naviga had placed it, still emanating that subtle wrongness that made both of them uncomfortable. Minerva stared at it with a mixture of fascination and apprehension.

"We should take it with us," Minerva said finally. "Whatever this skin is, whatever it can do, it is clearly valuable and dangerous. Leaving it here would be wasteful, and someone else might find it."

Naviga agreed, though she felt a deep reluctance to carry such an object. The skin's ability to interfere with her chip's analysis bothered her immensely. If it could disrupt that advanced technology, what else might it affect? But Minerva was right. They could not simply abandon such a find.

"I will store it in my storage ring," Naviga said. The Hell ring was a high-grade storage artifact that she had received as part of her equipment when entering service to Minerva. It created a separate dimensional space where objects could be preserved perfectly, isolated from the outside world.

She picked up the skin fragment carefully, channeling a thread of essence into her ring to open the storage space. The void beast skin slipped inside without resistance, vanishing from sight. Naviga felt an immediate sense of relief once it was contained, as if a pressure she had not fully noticed was suddenly lifted.

"Miss, I think we should discuss this with My sister Minasa when we have the opportunity," Naviga said quietly. "She may know more about void beasts and what this skin could mean."

Minerva nodded slowly, her expression thoughtful. "Yes, that would be wise. Aunt Minasa has far more knowledge and experience than either of us. Though I wonder..." She trailed off, looking troubled.

"What troubles you, Miss?"

"This laboratory was hidden behind a magical seal that required seven talismans to break," Minerva said. "The location was concealed behind a waterfall, inside a mountain, within a spatial dungeon. Someone went to extraordinary lengths to hide this place and protect it. But from whom? And why abandon it afterward?"

Those were excellent questions. Naviga considered them as she surveyed the chamber one last time. "Perhaps the experiments failed. Or perhaps they succeeded, and whoever conducted them no longer needed this location."

"Or perhaps something went wrong," Minerva added grimly. "Something that made them flee and never return."

The implications of that possibility hung heavy in the air. What could frighten someone powerful enough to obtain void beast skin and establish a hidden laboratory? What could go so catastrophically wrong that abandonment was the only option?

"We should leave this place," Naviga said. "We have found what there is to find here. Remaining serves no purpose, and I confess this location makes me uneasy."

Minerva did not argue. She took one last look around the laboratory, committing the scene to memory, then nodded. "Agreed. Let us return to the surface and continue our exploration of the dungeon. We still have not found what we originally came here for."

They made their way back through the dark tunnel, their essence-enhanced vision lighting the path. The climb up the long staircase was tedious, and by the time they reached the chamber where they had breached the seal, both were grateful to leave the underground laboratory behind. The roar of the waterfall greeted them as they emerged from the cave, the sound almost comforting after the oppressive silence below.

As they passed through the waterfall's torrential cascade again, but she could not shake the feeling that they had stumbled onto something far larger and more dangerous than they understood. Someone had brought a piece of the absolute void into the Seven Sky Universe and tried to study it. The fact that this had happened in secret, in a place so carefully hidden, suggested purposes that were either profoundly ambitious or deeply forbidden.

What had they been trying to achieve? And more importantly, had they succeeded?

These questions would have to wait. For now, they had a dungeon to explore and their own cultivation to advance. But Naviga knew that the void beast skin would not remain a mystery forever. Eventually, they would need to understand what they had found and what it meant.

She glanced at Minerva, who was using her fire essence to dry her soaked clothing as they stood in the mist-shrouded cavern. Her young lady looked determined and focused, already pushing thoughts of the laboratory aside to concentrate on the immediate challenges ahead. That resilience was one of the things Naviga admired most about Minerva.

"Shall we continue, Miss?" Naviga asked.

Minerva smiled. "Yes...

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