"You've been proving very strong on your return to form. We're going to be blocking off Underworld from your real memories from here so we don't need to worry about time constraints as much, but we'll be taking more regular breaks. We're keeping Underworld and reality separate for you, but you can watch the data back from this side if you really want."
Kazu sighed, nodding in understanding. She wasn't allowed to be two people at once anymore.
"Okay."
"We have a little surprise for you inside, but since you won't otherwise know until after, I'll reveal it now just before you dive. Come on out~"
Ela's summoning words had Kiin appear with a porting animation. Kiin let out a cute greeting sound like a squeak. He settled in sitting on Kazu's shoulder. Kikuoka, Higa, Rinko, Asuna, and Shii were watching as Kazu smiled the brightest she had within the building.
"What are you doing out Kiin? It's been a while since you've popped out on your own. Ah, that tickles!"
Kiin started tickling Kazu's neck out of habit, snuggling up to her.
"Sorry, mama-Zu. I'll stop tickling if you don't like it. I missed you so much, mama-Zu."
"It's okay Kiin, I missed you too. Feel free to come out like this more."
Kazu was enjoying Kiin's presence and almost forgot where she was. She saw the smiling expressions of everyone present and blushed. They were happy to see her all flustered and happy to see Kiin.
"So what's this surprise you were mentioning, Ela-san?"
Ela just pointed at Kiin and her finger followed Kiin's movements.
"Wait, your surprise was Kiin? What about him?"
"Aunty El taught me a bunch of things like how to talk like this so I can support you in your job. I'm the surprise! I get to spend lots of time with mama-Zu even though you'll be a little different."
Kazu was smiling from ear to ear. She had tears at the corner of her eyes.
"Thank you, so much...this is the best gift you could have given me. I'm so happy you'll be taking care of me Kiin."
She gently scratched under his chin and he purred like a cat. Kiin was happy to be out. Even happier to be able to talk with Kazu and have a conversation. He had a feeling Kazu could understand him the whole time, but it was nice to be able to have a real exchange of words without any missed exchanges.
"Guessing he told you? That's right, he'll be joining you in there. I'll be able to communicate with him directly and he can help you through my words. It's so we don't risk your mind jumbling my voice into your memories and potentially jog outer memories while inside. A safe alternative to sending in another person since Kiin has limited knowledge inside and outside, and he can be trusted to not share things from outside, in there which would impact Underworld."
Kazu nodded and continued to focus on Kiin. Eventually she moved him up to her head when they were both satisfied and he perched like he was a bigger dragon on an epic cliff scene overlooking a massive landscape. Not the case of course but his way of perching on her head had gone from relaxed and curled up back in Aincrad, to imposing as if he could lay waste to everything below him. It was adorable the contrast of his size to his posture.
"Well, everything is ready if you're ready to go in. No time has passed there, so when you come back to watch what happened inside, you won't have missed anything. Have anything needed to be taken care of over the next few hours?"
"No, let's get going!"
Kiin let out cute roaring sound that made all of the female presence nearly squeal at the adorable sound. Ela only paused for a moment to appreciate the cuteness and lead Kazu out of the building to get her settled in with the vehicle. Asuna followed, Shii and Yui also tagging along. When they passed the lobby desk where Argo was typically, Argo followed them.
Ela swiped a hand near the back of the vehicle, and the back transformed a little, plates of metal frame shifting and moving out of the way and pushing out a platform which keenly resembled the medicuboids. There were many differences, but where it was important, it was the same.
"I made this over the last five days between everything else so you can dive in from the excessive safety of my vehicle's server. You also won't need to worry about taking off clothes or losing any with this one since I haven't included the fluid functions of the medicuboid since you won't be diving for more than two hours real time."
Kazu nodded, handed her bag to Asuna and laid down in the medicuboid. It closed on her automatically when she was fully in place. Kiin was laying down on her belly so that he would dive in safety with her.
"Is Kiin supposed to be in here too?"
"Yes that's how he's diving in. The server is too secure to get him in otherwise. Don't worry, you won't become a half blood elf half dragon, though that would be incredibly interesting."
Kazu pouted.
"That would be really cool, but just having Kiin with me is making me more comfortable."
Ela gave her a smile. The medicuboid was sliding back into the vehicle and the back door closed securing her in. The medicuboid gave off a soft glow, signifying that it was diving her and Kiin in. Time was still frozen there, so Ela and Asuna got into the front seats where everything lit up. From outside, all of the light would be off. Inside, all windows were filled with the information which Ela was monitoring. Asuna was somewhat able to keep up and understand everything, but at least one monitor was dedicated to keeping in contact with Kikuoka and his team.
Yui and Shii were sitting in the middle of the vehicle, both watching Kazu directly through the medicuboid. It was interesting seeing all of the information, and being able to see Kazu through the information. It was all relevant, telling how her body was reacting, how her mind was at the moment and everything else which could be imagined as her health was concerned.
Charles rushed to her side and pulled Kirim up to her feet.
"Are you okay? That was quite the fall..."
Kirim was dazed for a moment, but she nodded when she found herself.
"I'm okay, just need that rest..."
She pulled whatever energy she could from the mountains around them and used it to push herself to Kirii's home. She sat down at the wall just beside Kirii's bed and let herself just relax. She sat there for a while, perhaps a few hours. Long enough that her sacred task was more than pricking her to go teach her students.
"Would you like me to go fetch your students?"
Kiin appeared out of nowhere in front of Kirim and she stared in bewilderment.
"Who are you?"
Kiin flapped his wings a little and perched on one of Kirim's knees, looking up to meet her eyes.
"My name is Kiin. Think of me like a familiar. You summoned me subconsciously. I'm a part of you. I can help you when you are too physically worn out to do something, or I can assist you with magic. My specialty is healing and strengthening you physically."
Kirim was still in a bewildered state.
"I can sense that your sacred task is taking a toll on you, so shall I go fetch your students so you can alleviate your sacred task backlash."
Kirim nodded.
"Please, I would appreciate this. Will you be fine on your own?"
Kiin nodded.
"Aside from you, nobody should be able to see me unless you make me visible to them. Same with hearing though, so you might need to give me permission."
Kirim nodded.
"You have permission...or is there some sort of other process?"
He shook his head.
"That's all. I'll be back shortly with your students, though some may be back before me."
Kirim nodded and Kiin took off with powerful wing beats. For such a tiny dragon, he was well spoken. She didn't understand the use of the word familiar. Familiars took a significant process of preparation to summon. Kiin was incredibly cute to her though, so she was finding herself brush the details aside. The feathered appearance was new to her as far as dragons were concerned, and the purple colouring just made her feel like if she had a favourite colour, that would be it.
Alice appeared after a few minutes of Kirim thinking about Kiin.
"You needed me? This adorable dragon showed up to me and said you needed to alleviate sacred task burden?"
Kirim nodded.
"Right, that's my familiar. He was apparently summoned subconsciously, which doesn't make sense to be honest, but that gives me an idea of what to teach this time. Let's just wait until Selka, Eugeo and Kirii get here since it's a hefty lesson."
Alice nodded and she had a thoughtful expression.
"Just one question before everyone's here to learn it, what all can a familiar do? Your Kiin is flying around and telling us to come here right now, but what else can a familiar do?"
Kirim closed her eyes and thought about it a moment. She hadn't summoned a familiar since her mother first taught her. She didn't think it was particularly useful magic since she had Rithi, but it was turning out very helpful since Charles would have Rithi's help for a while guarding the tunnel between Rulid and the dark lands.
"Familiars are essentially an extension of their casters. They can have specialties, and they can be used for communication. Typically, they are unseen by others until given permission to do so. I forgot just how the triggering goes for it, but I assume some casters require a bit more than just saying they're allowed to show themselves to others. They are able to provide support, and sometimes able to complete you in terms of fighting ability. Imagine you're a physical fighter typically, your familiar could cover any magic needs during the fight according to mental communication between you and your familiar. It could also work the other way around. Familiars are embodiments of the mind and the thoughts you have at the moment of summoning them, I subconsciously summoned Kiin, which makes no sense because I would have had to have his appearance in mind before conjuring him. However, it has happened some times before in the dark lands that a familiar is summoned without reason, so him explaining gives sense to those occasions."
Alice was nodding the whole time, ideas obviously swimming through her mind.
"So does a familiar have to be a living form? Or could it be anything you can imagine?"
"Anything you can imagine. The larger or more combat centric the familiar, the more it costs you. I've not noticed any cost to have Kiin out, so he may just be barely consuming my residual energy. But to your question, a familiar could be anything from an insect, to a wolf, to a piece of jewelry or a cart. It can be anything you need at the time. Your familiar might never have the same mind, but once you know and are familiar with a familiar, you're more likely to keep the familiar in the very same state it was summoned. Same mind, identity and all."
Alice had excitement in her eyes.
Kiin returned with Selka, Eugeo and Kirii following behind her.
"I've brought them back. Is there anything else you would like me to do?"
Kirim shook her head.
"You can take a break now Kiin."
Kiin let out a squeak and settled in on Kirim's lap, curled up. He purred and Kirim instinctively went to scratch under his chin and pet his head before focusing on her students. She repeated what she taught to Alice, and began to explain how to summon a familiar. Eventually she had two methods they could use to summon a familiar. The first method was the typical method she taught, casting from the mind with a good amount of mental preparation. The second method was using runic writing so that less effort would be needed for summoning a familiar repeatedly, and it would be the very same familiar each time.
"Any questions?"
Selka had a question, speaking up while everyone else began summoning their familiars.
"Is there a way to summon more than one familiar at a time?"
Kirim nodded.
"I'll try summoning another two, but it'll be one after the other. Summoning at the exact same time is likely to make mistakes of some sort in the familiars conjured."
She closed her eyes, and imagined a wolf pup, and a panther cub. She had some sort of experience with each, and her very first familiar had been a panther cub. After getting the image of the wolf pup clear in her mind, she imbued the air in front of her with a little of her internal energy, and gave the energy the form of the fully imagined wolf pup. She opened her eyes and Kiin was still resting on her lap, while the wolf pup she summoned was looking up at her with a cute expression and barked like a dog upon being acknowledged. He sat next to her and curled up like Kiin was, resting.
"And now for the runic summon..."
She pulled a small scrap of blank cloth from her bag and imagined her first familiar panther cub a little older, imbuing the scrap of cloth with the runes to summon her easily at any time. She put a little energy in after conjuring the runes, and the panther cub appeared where the wolf cub had. She climbed up onto Kirim's opposite shoulder from the wolf pup and yawned. They would all potentially be exhausted just like her because of the physical strain on her, so the napping was because she was physically exhausted.
"Wow...and they're all so cute..."
Selka's admiration of them was cute in itself.
"Since they're small, young, they don't consume much energy from me, so keeping them all out wouldn't be a huge strain, but it's generally not a good idea to have more than one familiar perpetually out."
Selka wasn't the only one paying attention now, Eugeo and Kirii having broken their concentration to see the familiars she summoned. Having three out at once was already a leap, but a goal for them.
"If you want to just have familiars be pets, having several out which don't consume too much of your energy would be perfectly viable. But usually familiars are meant to be an extension of the caster which do something, have a job. If you summon them with the intention of being a pet, they will have very little they can do to offer you besides companionship to alleviate loneliness if you ever feel lonely."
Selka nodded, and she got to work on summoning her familiar, while Kirii and Eugeo returned to summoning theirs. Just as they got back to work, Alice summoned hers. A tiny blue bird appeared with a faint flash of light, and whistled a comforting tune, eventually chirping while sitting on Alice's head.
"I summoned my Bibic so support physical ailments, so that he can relieve some of your physical exhaustion. His ability works through chirping and song, so it's sound dependent. I conjured him with the intent to help with your current situation, Kirim."
Kirim gave Alice a smile in response.
"Thank you, I'm already starting to feel better. How is he doing with consuming your energy to keep conjured?"
Alice smiled.
"He's barely taking anything from me. Maybe it's just because of how much we've made my capacity for magic grow by exhausting it. I wonder what I should do for my second familiar...but for now, I'm just happy Bibic is doing his job well."
Her successful summon of Bibic got the rest of them more excited. In the end, everyone had at least two familiars out each. Alice had her Bibic blue bird as well as a white griffon cub named Gigi. Gigi was a physical fighter to cover that Alice was more magically adept. Selka was much the same, having a healing and supporting white scaled chameleon named Chichi, and a black furred kitten with wings for physical combat named Kukurm. Kirii had a dark purple feathered dragon pup named Azun for supportive magics, and a gray shelled flying tortoise which used ranged magic attacks. Eugeo's familiars were a white furred wolf pup named Wibeau who was a magic attacker, a chimera of a bird, dragon and dog with blue feathers, black scales and white fur for physical attack named Aemun, and finally a support in the form of a gemstone drake which usually appeared as a bracelet, but changed colour of gemstone to type of support. Eugeo's familiars were the most well rounded, as if he was planning to send them out and command them to battle instead of fighting battles himself, but he was definitely just going to use them per situation.
They all bound each familiar to a runic tablet they created. The tablets were small, durable sheets of metal with the runes carved in with magic. So they could keep summoning the very same familiar the next time they would summon them. The tablets were small enough that they could be considered cards, they were light, and they were easily put away in their pockets.
"There we go. Now...I think I want to teach you all one more thing. I've taught you how to make your own clothes without using magic, now it's time to create clothes with magic."
They were all ecstatic as she mentioned one thing which would immediately upgrade the quality of their daily lives. She made an example as she conjured a cute set of clothes from only using magic energy and time. She had been figuring it out for a while, how to create the fabrics and then just magically weave them into the shape of the clothes in far less time than the same work by hand would take. Less than five minutes and she finished making her new set of clothes. She pulled Kirii's bed sheet over her head to hide herself from showing her bare body to them and changed into the new outfit. After changing, she revealed her short sleeved long white tunic with a wide belt which had a fairly low cut neck, long hat which hung back over her hair of the same matching fabric, and white stockings which reached up to near her underwear. She had more casual polished black leather shoes instead of her combat ready boots she usually wore. The whole outfit was an entirely different aesthetic they weren't used to seeing on her. It made them all speechless.
"Now, I only made casual attire here which wouldn't be meant for fighting in. This would be rather simple to make-"
"How is that simple to make?!"
Kirii was completely red in the face as he asked. Kirim sighed.
"Let me continue. It's simple to make because using magic to create fabric is easier than to make minerals. All of you have mastered to some degree in creating minerals, so this should be rather simple in that aspect. I've also taught you the basics of weaving. You can approach this either in the very complex method of weaving it with the magic step by step, or creating the fabric in the shape of the clothing you're making immediately. That's how I avoided seams with these clothes. Creating the shape of the clothes with your fabric immediately makes it easier. If you do it step by step, you're more likely to have seams. It takes more energy to make clothes all at once like this, but it's much less than doing it in steps overall, because correcting mistakes costs more energy, and because you're expending more energy each time you start a step. The best method to prepare for this is to get as firm an understanding in making clothes as possible, so I suggest working with the weavers for a while if you're uncomfortable with making clothes straight away with magic. Since Alice has a talent for both weaving and magic, I'll ask you to try and make something similar to what I made."
Alice nodded in agreement to Kirim's suggestion, stood up and concentrated. She had an idea for a higher quality dress and the rest of the outfit along with it. She based her ideas on the less poofy casual attire Kirim had just made. She firmly held onto the image of the clothing in her mind, and put energy into it little by little, realizing that she could just instantly pour all the energy required into it and barely make a dent in her capacity. She pushed it out, opened her eyes and saw the outfit floating in the air in front of her. She took it in her arms and sat down. Kirim tossed Kirii's bed sheet over Alice's head and Alice got changed. The cute blue dress with matching loose draped hair ribbon and wide ribbon belt tied at the back, and long white stockings with matching shoes to Kirim's made her outfit absolutely stunning. It suited her perfectly.
Kirii, Eugeo and Selka were simply stunned, too worn out from conjuring their familiars and creating runic tablets for future summons of them to be creating their new clothes. At least for the time being, Alice and Kirim were able to show their quality of magically created clothes. The softness, smoothness and thickness of the clothes were ideal, something that couldn't be done by hand. Kirim's outfit had one secret benefit. It was enchanted to increase regeneration of physical exhaustion, so that putting it on would be perfect for situations where she would nearly pass out like back in the tunnel before.
Eugeo, Kirii and Selka left for the weaver's workshop when they were done, Kirim went back to the site for the school and got back to work, laying on the ground above and relaxing her body physically while her mind and the energy around her worked.
It was a busy day, and the busy days wouldn't end for a while.