I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 55

I Somehow Got Tasked With Managing A Realm – Chapter 55

Smack! Smack! Smack!

Roll! Roll! Roll!

Dents formed on the training dummy's torso as Mr. Flippers could be heard playing near the wall behind me.

"You gotta be careful with that thing, Mr. Flippers. Tatton won't be happy if you break his crystal ball thing."

"Squawk~"

Despite my warning, the penguin continued rolling the glassy orb behind me.

"If you break it, I'm putting you in the barrel until we leave."

"Squawk!"

This penguin caused such a fuss when I tried to put him in it before, but I might regret letting him stay out.

We went to the training ground as per Tatton's recommendation following the delay in receiving our prize.

"Hah..." a sigh escaped my lips as I looked at the orb he was playing with.

Man, this is a weird feeling.

Since the ball had yet to turn green, it meant Rynn was still alive. Though I needed it to turn green to move on with getting my prize, I found myself dreading seeing the color change every time I turned around.

Ayla and Rathok are probably long gone by now... hopefully he's doing alright.

Smack!

I decided to silence my worries through training, but like usual, my mind couldn't stay quiet for long.

Tatton told me I needed to get as strong as possible, yet he couldn't tell me what I needed the strength for.

Smack!

A new dent appeared on the dummy which rapidly began to regenerate.

"Telling me to get stronger is one thing, but why did he have to say that?" I muttered with my brows furrowed.

What really had me stressing was his advice to use the time difference in my domain to my advantage.

One thousand years passes at mortal time for every day that passes in the Academy. Does whatever he wants me training for really warrant that much time?

Of course, I could adjust the rate of time in my domain to some value between the two extremes, but even at a middle point, hundreds of years could pass between every battle phase. Training for so long without any idea regarding the reasoning behind it was not something I was willing to do; I wasn't someone with unlimited motivation and there were people who I wanted to see. And besides-

There has to be a limit on how far training can take me, right?

Even when just dealing with my body, I expected there to be some sort of upper limit on how much muscle I could obtain. Sure, I had divinity and whatnot, but I was still a human at the end of the day.

With this in mind, I figured Tatton was more-so referring to obtaining strength through enhancing my skills.

But how the heck am I supposed to do that?

I knew practically nothing about martial arts, so whatever technique I threw together would be self-taught and likely extremely subpar, as evident by my basic swings at the training dummy.

Why are the only weapon options here so basic, anyway? This would be so much easier if I had a gun... wait can I make a gun?

Using domain creation, making one shouldn't be impossible. Although, I only had an extremely primitive idea of how one even functioned, let alone how to make one, I was sure I'd be able to come up with something given enough time.

But what's the point of making one if I can't even bring it out of my domain?

That was both the key limitation and the main problem holding me back from most of my experimenting: things made with domain creation couldn't be brought into the Academy.

Unless they add something new, only training with weapons already in the Academy would translate to anything meaningful.

I should probably ask Tatton about it-

"Squawk!"

I turned around at Mr. Flipper's call.

"Ah-"

My heart tightened as a bright green glow terminating from the orb at the penguin's feet entered my eyes.

"I guess it's time," I announced while feigning composure.

Rest in peace, Rynn. Thank you for everything.

After tossing the wooden sword I was using into a barrel, I picked up Mr. Flippers who was tightly holding onto the green-glowing crystal ball.

"Come on; let's go get our prize."

"Squawk!"

.

..

...

"I have a lot more in my pocket, so look forward to it," I smiled as I put the card away, "By the way, I wanted to ask you about what you said earlier. Did you really want me to train at mortal time? Also, should I limit myself to the weapons already in the training ground, or-"

"Mortal time might be a bit excessive, but I recommend training as much as you can. As for your second question, I am extremely limited in what I can say, so let me just say this: training with what is in the Academy may be more valuable in the short term, but your efforts will not be wasted regardless of what you practice using."

'Hmmm... Alright, thank you."

It was actually really good information despite his claim that he couldn't say much.

"If I'm gonna be spending so much time training, I at least want to be able to talk to people so I won't go crazy," I took the crystal ball out of the penguin's flippers and placed it on the desk, ignoring his sad squawk of protest, "Does this thing have a call function by any chance?"

"A call function?"

"Yeah, like a way for someone to talk into one and have their voice come through a different orb thing."

"... I do have some magic devices capable of such, but they would not work for what you are intending," Tatton leaned back in his chair, "To put it simply, they need a solid connection of mana to function. This works fine in this dense mana environment of the Academy, but this path would be interrupted when trying to cross the boundary between domains."

"I guess that makes sense..." I sighed.

It looks like magic has its limitations, too. A boundary between domains, though...

This was something we clearly hadn't been told about, yet looking back, it made sense for there to be something separating the domains from the Academy.

I originally figured we were just teleporting to like a hidden dorm-room type thing, but it's clearly something different.

Even after being a Seedling for over a year in heavenly time, there was still way too much about the Academy that was clouded in mystery. Still, it was precisely because of my lack of knowledge about how things worked here that I was unwilling to simply give up on my calling-orb idea.

"If it isn't possible to cross this boundary with mana, is there something on the science route that could do it?" I asked.

Tatton looked at me puzzled, "Do you have something particular in mind?"

"Well, I mean, can't we just make something like a phone?"

I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of my few connections to my life back on Earth.

"That is your painting-creating device, is it not?"

"... You've been spying on me a bit more than I thought."

"... It is my job to observe. Putting that aside, please elaborate on how that relates."

"Okay, so to start with, although this can take pictures, that isn't its main function; its real purpose is to call people from far away."

Despite not being able to see him under his hood, I could feel Tatton's eyes widen.

"You came from a world devoid of mana, did you not? So how could-"

"We used radio waves instead of mana," I answered, seeing where his question was leading.

"... Radiowaves?"

"Yeah, basically they're these... actually it might take a bit to explain."

Tatton's gaze shifted past me, as if finally realizing how long our conversation was taking.

"I see. It won't be long before we get a wave of Seedlings with the battle phase reaching its conclusion," he sighed while turning his attention back to me, "Do you remember where my office is?"

"I think so," I nodded.

"Then please stop by sometime before your class today. You can bring the girl if you desire," he offered, waving me off.

"Got it. I'll see you later then, Tatton."

"I will await your company, Jacob."

Rather than get off the stage, I spoke aloud after returning my phone to my pocket to be snug with my basic lifeform card.

"Return to domain!"

In an instant, a familiar dark room half-filled by a giant ice palace appeared before me.

"Squawk!?"

"I know, I'm not too thrilled to be back here either."

"... Squawk?"

I lowered the confused penguin onto the ground and pulled out my newly acquired prize.

"I want to get this in my realm as soon as possible to give my humans time to get used to it. There's still a bit of time before Julia finishes her battle phase, anyway."

I made my way over to my desk and slowed down the time to match that of my realm, "Let's see what they think of the fruits of their victory!"

"Squawk!"

Just as I was about to place down the card, I paused.

"... Would it be better to call it the vegetables of their victory?"

"Squawk!"

"Ow- don't peck me! It was a valid question! Okay, okay- I'm placing it."