27 Goblin Gets Sidetracked

Entering the dining hall Jellal comes to a stop. Side tracking for a minute he walks not toward the entrance but back in the direction of his room.

He looks inside to find Meredith rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Seeing her still holding the doll he gave her his eyes soften. In the room with her, Evangeline is sitting on the bed surprisingly still awake while Sif lounges around as usual.

[Eva you know the rest of the prisoners are working hard right to trying to convince me to let them go right? With that being the case what are you going to do if I let them go? You said before that your family's on their way so I was wondering if I was still going to be stuck with you if everyone else leaves.]

[You're letting everyone go? That's no fair! I already said I would wait here for my family when I contacted them yet now I have a chance to be released so easily. Where's the justice in this cruel world?]

[The other prisoners are all working desperate to fulfil the minimum requirements for me to consider freeing them; every single one of them. What about you? You sleep all day doing nothing, yet you complain when you won't be able to leave with them. If you ask me that sounds extremely just.]

[How can you say something so mean? I never did anything to deserve such treatment. Meredith he's bullying me! Make him stop.]

Evangeline's complaining quickly devolves into soliciting help from Meredith. Making herself small she ducks behind Meredith's back, only poking her head out to stick her tongue out at Jellal.

[If everyone is working hard we should too. Let's go Eva!]

[No! You traitor, how could you betray me like this?]

Meredith grabs her by the hand and starts dragging her out of the room. Evangeline feigns putting up a struggle as she's pulled toward the dining room, leaving Jellal and Sif alone in the room.

[I'll be heading out for a while so you'll be in charge of watching over the prisoners. As long as they don't get out of hand or try to take my stuff I don't really care what they do so for the most part you can just lay down and relax.]

Leaving his room behind Jellal continues on his side quest. Stopping at the treasure room he loads up his item bag with random expensive looking things. He's about to leave when he remembers something he forgot to look into.

Sitting down he focuses on sensing the bag. He tries to distinguish the layers of space magic that form separate spaces for storage. He's able to sense his open layer just fine but is still unable to find any traces of the ones that belonged to the bag's previous owners.

Familiarizing himself with his layer he continues to search for any signs of overlapping that could possibly indicate a sealed pocket of space. Time passes slowly as he tries to find any clue he can use as a starting point.

Finally after ten minutes of meticulous examination, he notices a tiny patch of space mana that is nearly indistinguishable from the one used for his layer. Probing deeper he finds two other seemingly insignificant blemishes in the space mana. As his mana pushes into the spaces he feels a strong resistance coming from it.

'It's the same kind of resistance I felt when my mana interacted with Kira's. The level of pushback is much higher than I faced from hers though. When setting up a space it involves using the person's blood as a catalyst. Rather than just acting as a stimulus it should also binding it together to stabilize the space.

This should be great practice for separating an individual's mana from their magic. If I can pull apart a person's mana that's being used specifically to hold space together I shouldn't have any problems filtering out even an abnormally strong opponent's mana from their magic.

That being said I can't just force them apart. If I do that there would be nothing holding the space together. I'll need to use my own mana to stabilize it while simultaneously separating the other person's mana. Even if I do that it won't be permanent so I'll also need to find a way to fix the space back in place so it won't collapse.

I guess in theory I should be able to use my blood to bind it the same way I did when I set up my space. Unfortunately if things go south and the space collapses I probably won't get a second chance. Well, with two bags I should have more than enough chances to save at least one space.'

Jellal throws his spare thoughts to the back of his mind as he begins the operation. He thins out his mana and starts purposefully merging it with the space mana. The binding mana resists his takeover but he ignores it. Once his mana has fully permeated through the surrounding space he makes his move on the previous owner's mana.

He doesn't use force, instead choosing to slowly grind down the mana as if he were a river cutting through land and rock. His persistent approach pays off as his mana methodically takes the other mana's place stabilizing the magic.

Sweat forms on his brow as his concentration peaks. While he's using his mana to stabilize things he pokes his index finger with his thumbnail. A drop of blood seeps from his finger as he sticks his hand into the bag. He flicks the blood at the space he's currently stabilizing. The blood disappears into thin air as it's absorbed into the magic.

After carefully removing his hand, he gradually eases back his mana. Without his mana's support it begins to destabilize. Acting quickly he floods his mana back over the magic in a bid to re-stabilize it. His desperate action is for naught as it collapses despite his best attempts to stop it.

The space where it had been begins sucking in the surrounding space mana, threatening to destabilize the other layers of space magic. Jellal decisively uses his mana to isolate and normalize the area where the collapsed magic previously was.

The procedure goes much more smoothly than his attempt to take over the space. As things calm down he takes a deep breath, exhaling loudly as he wipes the sweat from his brow. Taking a moment he contemplates where he went wrong.

Staring at the bag he comes up with his hypothesis. With no real clues to go off of he can only move on and test his hypothesis with the next layer. Calming his mind he regains his focus in preparation for attempt number two.

Beginning the process over again he permeates his mana through the area. He follows the same procedure he used the last time until the point he successfully takes over the role of stabilizing the magic.

Once again pricking his finger with his nail he reaches into the bag. This time he flicks a drop on both the space and the bag before pulling his hand back. Just like last time, the blood is absorbed into the space. He carefully watches as the blood that falls in the bag reacts to the latent formation trying to create a new space. Without a gem to act as proxy and blood stabilizing it the magic collapses harmlessly.

Even though the blood he threw into the bag didn't stabilize the magic the way he thought it would, it did give him a greater insight into the way the bag works.

Squeezing out another drop of blood he sticks his hand back into the bag. The blood drops into the bag in the same fashion the last one did. This time Jellal focuses every spare bit of concentration he can muster as he diligently observes how the blood reacts with the mana and the structure it forms.

His concentration is so dialed in he even stops breathing during the half second the reaction is taking place. Forcing another drop of blood from his finger he controls it with mana as he tries to replicate what he just witnessed in the bag.

As the mana structure envelops the space magic he removes his hand. Keeping his magic in place as a stabilizer he carefully observes the magic to see if it has any noticeable signs of collapse. Feeling confident it will stay together he sluggishly removes his mana.

A few seconds after his mana leaves the layer shows signs of destabilizing. Holding himself back from trying to intervene, he watches the fluctuating layer with baited breath. Even though it wasn't stable the support and binging from the blood and mana on both the inside and outside of the space keeps it from breaking down and collapsing.

After a few seconds of fluctuation it eventually settles down. Just to be safe he gives it another minute of observation to make sure it is truly stable. Time seems to crawl by as he waits in anticipation.

Even after a minute there are no new developments. Seeing how things appear to have ended successfully he begins probing the space with his mana. His mana easily merges with the magic, increasing his confidence that the experiment went as expected.

Extending his senses inside the separate space he tries to locate any items he can as proof of success. Despite making his layer as small as possible with the resources he had on hand it's still slightly larger than the new layer he just took over. With this confirmation he withdraws his mana.

Unable to find anything interesting inside the new layer he can't help but feel disappointed. He reaches his hand into the bag planning on retrieving the little bit of money and potions he found in the layer.

His hand moves toward the space before slipping into the layer he created. His hand abruptly freezes as he realizes he never came up with a plan to get the items out of the overlapping pockets of space. If they were in different areas he could just change where his hand interacts with the magic. Unfortunately the bag was only designed to have one pocket open at a time with all previous ones being sealed off. Because of this design all the pockets are essentially stacked on top of each other.

A hamster on a wheel runs in his head as he contemplates a way to fix the problem. His internal lightbulb flickers on has he tries reaching into the bag a second time. Before his hand reaches the layers he connects his mana directly to the older of the two layers.

Maintaining the connection he moves his hand forward but it once again slips into the new pocket. With his first test failing spectacularly he moves on to plan b. After taking a long hard look at the remaining sealed space he envelopes it with his mana.

Rather than trying to take over the magic he once again tries to understand its structure. A few long minutes of examination later he pulls back his mana, ready for his next attempt. Rather than using his mana to control the older layer he opts to deal with his new one.

As he's about to begin he stops and takes out the items he had kept in the layer just in case something goes horribly wrong. Resuming where he left off he begins slightly altering the magic in an attempt to temporarily close the space.

When things go exactly how he envisioned them he's stunned. Considering the number of failed plans he's gone through when dealing with these bags he had already anticipated thing not working out. Pleasantly surprised he sticks his hand into the bag.

His hand passes by the new layer and at long last gains proper access to the old layer. He pulls out the items one at a time with a smile plastered all over his face. Piling the items up with the ones he took out of the new layer he gets himself ready for the next step.

Once again setting his sights on the final space he begins probing it with his mana. Before trying to unseal it he's determined to commit the structure of the magic to memory. If he had proper knowledge of the way the structures functioned he's certain he could recreate it on his own.

When it's firmly cemented in his mind he moves on to unsealing it. Using the same procedure that successfully unsealed the second layer he gets to work. Making a slight change he tries adding in extra mana to the support structures of the magic in hopes it won't fluctuate as much. The added reinforcement seems to pay off as it stabilizes faster than the previous layer.

His follow up probing reveals the contents of the third and final space to be money. The layer is a tad bigger than the first layer yet it just contains money. No swords, no potions, just money, a lot of money, but still just money.

The revelation leaves him unsure how to feel. He wants to be glad about gaining an unnecessarily large sum of money, but at the same time he's unable to escape the overwhelming disappointment from painstakingly opening up two spaces only to find a bunch of ordinary things and money. In the end he's left wondering if his expectations were set too high or if he was simply unlucky.

To get his mind off the pathetic turn out he fiddles around with the different layers. As he plays with them he becomes more accustomed to opening and closing them as well as how it affects which space he has access to.

If he wants to access the first layer which he made he only has to make sure it's open. To get to the second layer, which he unsealed first, he only needs to make sure the first layer is sealed closed. Getting into the final layer requires him to seal both the first and second layer. In this way he gains access in order of newest to oldest.

'Since I don't need to do anything special to get into the first layer I should reserve it for the things I'm going to be taking in and out often. The last layer is the opposite so I'll reserve it for the things I know I'm never going to need to grab on short notice. Second layer shall be relegated to manager of the leftovers.

I still have one more bag to go through as well! Depending on how many spaces it has I may be able to pack up a surprising amount of junk. Of course, that can also be a detriment since it'll be hard to keep track of where I put various things. I suppose if there are enough layers I can file things based off of which layer and bag they're in.

Regardless, dealing with two separate bags will be a bit annoying. When I figure out how those structures work the first thing I'm doing is making an earring version of it. After all, what good is it to have big ears if I don't put them to good use?

I should take care of the second bag before I leave for the city. Still, to think my side trip to close off the treasure room so no one can even try to steal something out from under my nose would end up becoming such a fruitful endeavor.'

After running to his room to get the second bag he returns to the treasure room. Examining the second bag he finds a total of five sealed layers. As he observes more closely he feels like something is off with the layers. Compared to the other bag this one's layers seem to almost be in contact with each other.

'Is there a maximum number of spaces each area can contain with the way they're structured? Even though the other bag's layers were overlapping it didn't feel like they were at risk of coming in contact with each other. I guess my luck in choosing which bag to open a new space in was quite good. I don't know what would happen if two spaces came in conflict with each other but it's certainly a dangerous bag of worms. Of course, a superior being such as myself would naturally be able to handle whatever happens and put that knowledge to use, kekeke.'

Being extraordinarily cautious he begins unsealing the layers one by one. Instead of stopping to check what's inside each layer he decides to put it off until the end to spare himself from any potential disappointment that could convince him to do dangerous experiments with the bag.

With all the layers open he begins going through them one at a time. It soon becomes apparent to him that only boring people without interesting things use such bags. Based on his anecdotal evidence he categorizes the bags users into two categories. The first are adventurers that carry around an excessive amount of potions, fearful of their inevitable demise. The second are extraordinarily wealthy misers that dream of drowning themselves in gold to escape the reality that the only people they call friends are the type of jerks that only care about their money.

Jellal designates bag one in its entirety to money; the higher the value, the higher layer. After piling it in his face twitches as he realizes he's almost completely filled up the bag.

He uses his original formula for the second bag with items put in based on how often he's going to mess with them. Running around the treasure room he fills the second bag in its entirety. All of its layers are bigger than any of the layers from the money bag allowing him to hold an abnormal amount of stuff.

With approximately one tenth of the treasure rooms goods stored in bag two he leaves the room. Using earth magic he seals up the treasure room like he originally planned and sets off for the entrance once again.

'Sidetrack over! Time to in(vade)-I mean visit the city!'