Nihility [ Isekai • Dragon Evolution ]

When I woke up the sun was entering through the windows that I noticed were of a darker shade than during the night but that still allowed me to see the city itself, it just didn't let a lot of sun light to enter, but when I got up and approached them, I saw a small magic circuit on the side that when touched seemed to control how much light the windows blocked. Handy, I thought.

I stretched my limbs and wings, as they were still a little stiff from my sleep, looked at the bathroom, and sighed. I then transformed into the cat person form I had access to, which immediately halved my physical stats, and walked into the bathroom to use it and take a morning shower.

As I washed myself, I looked at the sink and saw it didn't have any kind of bathroom utensils– or even a mouthwash for that matter. Thinking about it right there, I haven't brushed my teeth since being reborn here, an entire month if you only consider the normal flow of time. I placed my hand over my mouth and exhaled for a few moments, then I quickly sniffed it.

I gagged. The smell was very strong. I needed a mouthwash urgently– Does it even exist?

[Dental hygiene is slightly different for every species. Humans use an extract of Iron Leaves to clean their teeth by brushing them with a cloth. Elves use a mixture of tree sap and copper dust, brushing their teeth with a cloth soaked in the mixture. Feline Therians chew the roots of a Sharvak tree as the mixture of the roots with their saliva breaks down residual organic matter. Canine The–]

I cut the skill short.

They have some basic dental hygiene, alright. But I wasn't planning on chewing the roots of some unknown plant just to clean my teeth. I needed at least a mouthwash. Maybe I can get the recipe for Listerine?

[Listerine is composed of water, ethanol (alcohol), essential oils (including thymol, eucalyptol, menthol, and methyl salicylate), sorbitol, benzoic acid, and sodium benzoate.]

… At least it didn't say it wasn't available, but it might as well have said it. I doubted I would be able to get my hands on sodium benzoate or sorbitol, whatever those were. Maybe a more rudimentary version of a mouthwash?

[Basic mouthwash can be created by combining equal parts of clean water and distilled alcohol, then adding 1/10 of the total weight of the mixture as crushed Manite leaves and 1/1000 of the total weight as salt. The mixture should be stirred and stored in a sealed container and let to rest for 48 hours.]

Okay, that's more manageable. I probably could do it, but I would to buy the alcohol, the glass, and these Manite leaves. I could cast water whenever, so I was set for that part. The 48 hours were also easily obtained by a simple use of [Time Manipulation].

I dried myself and tried to at least rinse with just water for now, opening the faucet and gargling a few times before putting on my clothes and leaving the room.

I walked back into the lobby and went to return the keys to my room when the clerk gave me a few items, saying it was from the elf whom I came with during the night. I raised my eyebrow at it, but accepted the small bag and went to a chair, where I sat and began looking at the contents of the bag.

There was a closed letter, a map, and a small pouch filled with coins that when I used [Mathematical Cortex] to count came out as 2 gold strips, 36 gold coins, 4 silver bars, 1 silver strip, 41 silver coins, 9 copper bars, 5 copper strips, and 25 copper coins.

Opening the map, it was the map of the region and had a few notes about the route I should take to avoid a few flying creatures towards the city of Grord. I closed it and stored it in the bag again. Opening the letter, I began reading it.

"Hello, Denaru. I'm sorry about leaving you stranded here, but with the mage's guild tracking me, the M.E.C. would be able to know your whereabouts through me in an instant, which I'm sure is already happening," The letter started.

"Because of this, I'll be leaving the city before the magic storm reaches it and go back to Flamecrest, at least they will probably lose your track there once Jack can't find you through his temporal skill. At least I hope so."

"I knew we wouldn't have much time together, and I thought I would be able to study you until we reached Dracona, but alas, it seems Zwriniz has other plans. Considering how you told me you can mess with Jack's time skill and were stuck on a time loop, I wouldn't be surprised if the God of Time wasn't paying close attention to you." The last line rang way too close to home because he was paying close attention to me, at least during the loops.

"In this bag you'll find some money I could give you, use it to buy clothes that can change size or that can be stored somewhere for when you need to dragon out, yes, I laughed about it as I wrote it." No comment about it. "There is also a map of the kingdom, and I marked out a route for you to follow towards Grord when the storm passes. Don't worry about the inn. I paid for a whole week's stay for you. Good luck"

Considering we only met for a few days, this letter was a lot more heartfelt than I would have imagined. I guess being the "lost kid" helped in gaining this emotion in him. Farahio didn't seem like a bad person, at least for what I've seen from him, but still, if he lacked a bit more care, I doubted he would have helped me until now, or even given me the things Farahio just gave me.

I looked at the lobby and then at the windows that let the sunlight in and illuminated everything in a golden hue from the morning sun. My chest tightened. Even if it was for a few days, I had someone to help me. It was different from Henry and his camp during the time loops, where I just knew what to say to get what I wanted, because nothing we did mattered, as in the next loop, everything would be reset again. Now? I was alone again. Things would be different if I didn't have a loving family and friends while I grew up in my past life. 19 whole years of growing surrounded by people, and now I was completely on my own. It scared me, more than I was comfortable admitting.

Putting those thoughts into a separate parallel thought, I got up and walked out of the inn. While I had a weird feeling on my stomach I couldn't quite describe, I knew I could at least find Leo again, and then I would see what I would do from there. It was a bit reckless, not having a plan, but it's not like I was the most careful planner in the world. I usually just went with the flow, and I was going to do the same here.

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I walked through the city in the early morning. The dark clouds of the magic storm were still a few hours away. I could see bright flashes of pure magicules that shone both in my normal vision and on [Magicule Detection]. Around the city, I could see that there was a magical dome. It had so much magicules into it that I barely could see outside of it. Several points in the wall seemed to keep the shield up, as well as some of the same light poles that usually absorb magicules were shooting them into the shield.

The people didn't seem to be too scared about it as they were slowly coming into the streets, looking at the clouds in the distance and moving onto their day. I wish I had their confidence.

I kept walking until I stumbled into a medicinal shop, which I entered. As I opened the door, a small bell rang on top of it, and an energetic voice came out of the back of the shop.

"Just a moment, dear client! I'll be right there!" The voice said.

I took the opportunity to look around. Seeing the different healing potions and magical herbs for sale, and their respective price next to their name on the shelves, reminded me of a small pharmacy back on Earth, except magic and more rustic, but it was still nice.

"How can I help, dear client?" The voice said once again, this time right next to me. Looking at it, I saw a human woman with no more than 20 years wearing a white outfit that had a resemblance to those lab coats.

"Hi. Would you have distilled alcohol and Manite leaves?" I asked her.

"We have Manite leaves, but for alcohol, you're gonna want to look in a tavern," she answered. "If you would follow me, please."

I followed her to another part of the store where they kept a lot of ingredients like leaves and roots. She moved to one container that had blueish leaves, and the little sign on its side said "Manite leaves - 3 Silver coins per gram."

"Here we have out Manite leaves, we also have Giroh roots, Keironih petals and Nightshade mushrooms, if you'd be interested." She said.

"Just the Manite, thanks," I said. "I would like 10 grams of it."

"Of course!" She said, already starting to place several leaves in a small wooden container. "It'll be 30 silver coins, please."

I took the 30 silver coins and paid her, then she handed me the container, which I stored in the bag Farahio had left me.

"Would you like something for your hand?" She asked.

"What?" I was confused. What did she mean by that?

"Your hands are shaking." She said, "we might have something for them."

I looked at my hands and, sure enough, they were slightly trembling. I hadn't noticed it before. It seems that pushing my constant thoughts of my encounter with Jack in two days to a separate parallel thought and forgetting about it wasn't a permanent solution. While my main focus was clear, my body still reacted to the fear and anxiety I was feeling.

I closed both my hands, trying to calm them down, then looked at the woman. "It's nothing. I just haven't eaten yet."

"Ah, I see. No problem, then. But if you need anything else for your health, we are the place to go!" She said enthusiastically.

"Thanks. I'll come back if I need anything else," I said as I left the store and then walked through the city without paying attention to my surroundings properly.

The city was darker than when I entered the shop, and when I looked up, I saw the entire sky was covered with black clouds that sparked with magicules. Some of them actually descended from the heavens and struck the shield like an angry god, only for the shield to redirect the impact and the magicules. Some of the magicules were absorbed, but the majority were released into the environment. There was so much magicules in each strike that the shield was completely opaque when seen with my [Magicule Detection] each time it was hit.

I walked and eventually found myself sitting near a small water fountain near the portal plaza of the city. The fountain was dispersing water in shapes that would be impossible to replicate on Earth. It was animating several animals that I had never seen, which were probably common on this world, before they jumped into the water and vanished, only to reappear a few seconds later as the water was pushed out of the pipes.

I looked at my hands again. They were trembling slightly again. Why was I feeling like this? It's not like he was the first thing trying to kill me. There was that snake when I had barely gotten out of my egg. The rotor fang, that fish whose teeth looked like a chainsaw. The water slime that almost killed me– thinking back, that was, I think, the first time I ever used [Elemental Breath], and it felt like I used more than I should have, which caused my affinity to time and space to become negative, as Farahio said it. Then the lunaspectra wolf, and finally the earthclaw weasel, which don't really count because it was defending itself, as it was me who initiated the combat.

I fought against all of them, and they were all trying to kill me, so why is Jack making me feel like this? I just couldn't understand.

"Why?" I asked out loud, not to anyone around me, but to my own skill.

[Information not available]

It's never available, isn't it? The things that really matter aren't available in the slightest, but the recipe for Listerine was just there for me to have it.

I closed my hands with so much force that I accidentally cut my own skin with my fingers. Space and time around my knuckles felt heavy as I unconsciously tapped into [Time Manipulation] and [Spatial Manipulation]. I sighed and then released both skills and opened my hands. Getting angry with my own skill isn't going to help, only worsen the situation.

I took a deep breath and released it slowly, repeating it a few more times until I had calmed myself enough so that my hands weren't shaking anymore. [Mathematical Cortex] is an amazing skill, allowing me to do quick math, speed up my mind, and divide my focus into various points, but there was a hidden trap that I fell into easily. Just as easy as it was to just create a new focus and push stuff into it, it was as easy to get sidetracked.

I looked at the Manite leaves I bought. Getting worried about my dental hygiene, now of all times? What a joke. I could very well keep my teeth healthy after the situation with Jack is resolved. I was splitting my focus too much and losing sight of the bigger picture. It was an unhealthy way to deal with it, but I didn't know anything better, and it's not like I could call my therapist across worlds to schedule a session.

I let out a heavy sigh. It wouldn't be today that I would deal with this. I was happy that I noticed now, before it could spiral out of control, but I just couldn't afford to stop and fix all my problems, mainly because my problems are trying to kill me. I– I just didn't know what to do. I was lost, alone, and afraid. I knew I would somehow survive the encounter, the temporal wave pulling me to the future told me as much, but I was still afraid.

I looked at myself once more, reminding myself that I would need to face this at some point, but unfortunately, that moment wasn't now. I pushed all these emotions into another parallel thought, my mind clearing the moment I did so. If I had to stay in this city for two days until I faced Jack, I might as well explore it.