Chapter 4

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Chapter 4: Wind Runes and New Pets

The slime farm was thriving.

Tasha had moles dig out a room near the hall to place the summoned slimes. Gravel was evenly spread around the slimes, allowing them to thrive. These slimes, capable of turning stones into gold, did not disappoint Tasha’s high expectations. After experimenting with the best "cultivation" methods, two moles could handle the farm affairs, continuously supplying converted Blue Ore to the stone pools.

These miners that could work around the clock, surviving on dirt, were incredibly adorable.

Speaking of surviving on dirt, Tasha made an interesting observation during this time. Four of the five moles were quite content, but the first one created was different. It coveted every piece of Blue Ore, stuffing its cheek pouches to the brim, as if holding onto them would satisfy its cravings. After Tasha allowed it to eat Blue Ore once, it started taking unnecessary detours around the slime farm, even slowing down near the farm.

This reminded Tasha of her dog at home, who had discovered that allowing the kids downstairs to pet him earned him dog treats, so he would always walk in front of their door during walks.

Let’s call this clever little fellow Number One for now.

Tasha released restrictions on mole numbers two through five, allowing them to move aimlessly if not given commands. However, if she releases the restriction on Number One, it will head straight to the mine, dig out new Blue Ore, and eat it directly. Tasha poked Number One in their mental link, causing it to panic and quickly swallow the ore it was holding, adopting a defensive position indicating it was adamant about not spitting it out.

Tasha couldn’t help but chuckle and touched Number One.

She suspected that the unusual behavior was not because Number One was the first mole, but because its creation energy came from Tasha’s red core – which still had a crack in the ruby floating above the stone pool. Number One didn’t have any special powers (unless being a "big eater" counts), but since there was no shortage of ore now, Tasha didn’t mind having an extra mouth around. She decided to create a sixth mole, release the restriction on Number One, and keep it as a pet.

After devouring three pieces of ore, Number One slowed its actions once it realized Tasha wasn’t going to scold it. This mole, displaying typical rodent nervousness, sniffed the air cautiously. Tasha gently touched its core in her consciousness, giving it some sort of permission to retreat into a certain mine and fall asleep soundly.

They weren’t actual moles, with their bodies covered in hard rocks instead of fur. Tasha couldn’t physically touch them as she didn’t have a physical form. Nonetheless, mentally interacting with Number One helped Tasha relax, as if she had just petted a cat or a dog.

With the slime farm in place, the activation time for the airflow rune was faster than expected. Soon, Tasha was prepared to activate the third rune.

A light blue color swept through the hall, reminding Tasha of the faint greenish-blue color on a salted duck eggshell. In her mind, she envisioned airflow and various types of wind, knowing that flowing gases could penetrate the smallest cracks and create the most astonishing waves.

Tasha half-heartedly listened to the information in her mind. Having seen the exaggerations in the previous two cases, she understood that all the introductions popping up in her mind were exaggerated to the point of being comical. The creatures (or non-creatures?) she summoned were quite useful, but she needed to study their functions on her own, considering the gift of information in her mind as mere promotional slogans to be ignored.

The wind rune summoned a ghost.

She wasn’t sure if "ghost" was the right name for this thing, and couldn’t think of another name. The blue shadow floating in the air looked like a partly see-through mist, roughly in the shape of a person. Strands of light fog lingering and dissipating behind its head resembled long hair, but Tasha couldn’t find its face or even tell its front from its back. She spun around the ghost in a full circle, unable to find its face, hands, or feet. It was like a faceless figure draped in a robe, silently floating in midair.

This thing was a real ghost from a story, much scarier than the previous mole and slime. If Tasha had encountered it on a previous night, she would have probably run away, but now that she was already dead, there was no need to be afraid of a ghost she summoned herself.

Staring at the ghost in the ruins intensely and deeply, soon made Tasha feel dizzy. She blinked and suddenly noticed her field of view narrowing.

She felt like she was squeezed into a narrow space, realizing the ceiling was much higher than she had thought. It was somewhat like entering a red gemstone before, but now she could still see the outside, even if it was only one side. Tasha suddenly had a sense of up and down, left and right, and to see the back, she had to turn around… A few seconds later, she realized, this was just a normal person’s field of view, right?

As she realized this, she felt a strange dizziness, as if one eye had put on very strong glasses. It seemed like Tasha now had a second pair of eyes, with her vision divided into two halves – one half observing the ghost from an all-knowing perspective, and the other half observing the entire building as seen by the ghost.

A part of her soul seemed to be attached to the ghost.

It’s quite strange, while others may be possessed by a ghost, she could somehow possess the ghost, really making her a more exceptional monster than the ghost itself. Tasha chuckled, kicking her leg… uh, kicking the current beneath her body. The ghostly figure was lighter than a cloud, making Tasha feel like a rookie suddenly boarding a spaceship and accidentally getting shot out like a cannonball. Frantically trying to stop, Tasha collided with the ceiling.

Ghosts really can pass through walls.

Carefully lowering herself, she peeked out from the dark wall, now finding herself stuck to the ceiling. Astonished, Tasha looked down at the dark underground structure, with the only light source being herself. The ghost’s body emitted a pearly white glow indoors, with its moving form leaving a faint bluish trail. From the building’s perspective, everything appeared tiny like toys, only the ghost’s perspective revealed the true grandeur of the structure.

It’s like a big castle.

The buried city was so fascinating, even though it was no longer shining, even though only one hall remained, Tasha could still imagine its former grandeur. It would take dozens of people stacked on top of each other to reach the ceiling, and a single hall could fit several small rooms. Tasha wondered why this building had become the way it was now, what had buried a city underground? Natural disaster or human tragedy? In her original world, she thought only a natural disaster could cause such a scene, but in this clearly different place from the past, she wasn’t so sure.

It took Tasha quite a while to get used to this light and floaty body. After a week, she could finally move again, and who doesn’t love flying? She felt as light as a breeze, as nimble as a skylark. When she dove, she could feel the air flow through her entire body – except flying too fast would leave half her body behind on the way, but it was almost perfect.

Tasha tried to jump into a stone pool covered with a thin layer of light blue liquid that could not be penetrated. Compared to solid matter, this thing seemed closer to an energy form, on the same dimension as what makes up ghosts’ substance. She passed through spiderweb-like mine tunnels and got close to the working moles. If ghosts were really about the same size as ordinary people, then these moles might be much larger than real moles, as big as sheep. Tasha’s body could pass through these moles, and the other miners showed no response to her, while Number One friendly sniffed her palm. This mole stopped in confusion, apparently puzzled why its nose passed through her palm.

She played with Number One for a while, and the well-fed Number One was willing to chase after shadows madly. It seemed to know who she was and quite liked her. Tasha thought this was probably some kind of chick affection, otherwise this little guy, obviously remembering being beaten, wouldn’t be so close to her. The ghostly hand could pick up Blue Ore, so Tasha threw it away and had Number One fetch it back to her, like training a dog in the past. She tried to separate her requests from commands; a command from the core would certainly be followed, but what’s the point of controlling a machine? Masters and dogs playing fetch weren’t really looking to collect how many sticks.

For two creatures that never tire, they had plenty of practice time.

A few days later, they completed this game. Number One would spontaneously bring back the thrown ore and place it in Tasha’s palm, and Tasha would break off a bit to feed it. The mole shook its whiskers contentedly, gnawed the debris clean, and licked its nose.

"You passed," Tasha said. "I’m going to give you a proper name. Number One doesn’t sound right. Let’s call you… Ahuang?"

The mole blinked its round eyes, not knowing if it understood.

"Look, there’s no dictionary here to look up words, and no internet to search." Tasha shrugged, "I have to come up with a name myself, how about Little Yellow? Big Yellow?"

The mole eagerly nudged Tasha’s hand, wanting to play again.

"Let’s go with Ahuang." Tasha nodded.

And so it was decided.