11 Chapter 11

Jacquard didn't know whether to laugh or to cry. The moment he saw the energy that floated in the environment form a connection between him and the ganie that had somehow managed to send his hairs into Jean he felt a connection being established the two of them.

It was sort of like the connection he had with Jean—at least that what it felt like to him—albeit slightly weaker, and he knew that he would be able to talk with the ganie any time he wished to, at least in theory.

But things don't always go as expected. He tried to send a thought through the connection, hoping to get some feedback from the ganie but he got nothing. It wasn't like the feeling of when Jacquard was asleep and couldn't reply, at least then he knew that there was another individual on the other end. Rather it felt like there was nothing—or rather no one—to receive the thought on the other end.

He tried it a few more times, but still got the same result. Jacquard sighed, although he didn't really like the ganie it still would have been nice to have someone else to talk to. He watched the ganie for a while, but seeing that it didn't move from the spot where it was, although Jacquard still didn't feel it was safe, there was nothing he could do about it and so he turned his attention elsewhere.

Jacquard felt satisfied with the things he had gained from the dealings with the other ganie. He had payed close attention to what was happening when he released the pulse from his body, and although he didn't know why his body had sent out those pulses, he at least understood how the pulses had been sent out.

When the pulses had been sent out, Jacquard had discovered something unique going on. The akram that was stored within his body had been tunnelling its way out of his body before it was released as a pulse of akram.

Jacquard hadn't discovered this before because of two things, firstly the akram was leaving his body too quickly for him to notice it without him paying close attention to it. Secondly the pathways the energy used to leave his body had been temporary and had closed soon after the energy passed through it. But after studying his body while it was naturally using akram he was able to discover it.

Following that Jacquard soon came to a certain realisation; the solution to the problem of the mixing of akram of two different purities was the same as the solution to the problem of externalising it. He had to create a pathway that didn't pass through a jems, a pathway that led from his zebenisu out of his body. It was like making the pathways that allowed akram to flow into his zebenisu, only this time it didn't have to pass through any jems.

Jacquard was about to begin to form the pathway when the ganie began to move again. It ran once more towards Jean's foot, jumping and wrapping its hairs around the foot. It employed the technique it had used before, striking at Jean's foot with its sharp claws.

Jacquard felt apprehensive (as his lack of a heart preventing the said missing heart from tightening). He wished he could stop the ganie from doing what it was doing, but his hands, at the moment, were tied. He could only depend on the defence mechanism of his body to dispel the ganie. At least until he was able to establish some exiting pathways and maybe form a few skills.

Yet he was extremely surprised when he discovered that the ganie's claws had grown sharper. It had taken the ganie a few strikes before to break through Jean's skin, yet now with a single strike it had torn open an injury on the sole of Jean's foot. Its hairs rushed into the injury and the slime began to break down the skin causing the injury to widen, yet not a single drop of blood dropped to the floor, it was all absorbed by the ganie on his foot.

The pulse shot out, and without the additional ganie on Jean's body, the full force impacted the ganie on Jean's foot. It hit the ground with enough force to turn any ordinary ganie into a paste, yet the ganie displayed an extraordinarily resistant body, only hitting the floor with enough force to put him in a daze for a while.

Jacquard knew that he couldn't allow the ganie to absorb any more of Jean's blood, if he did who knows what sort of transformation the ganie would go through or whether Jean would make it out of here alive. He turned all his attention towards forming the path through which the akram would be able to exit.

He controlled the akram in his zebenisu to begin to form the path that allowed akram to flow outward, and as he was about halfway through when he noticed something strange. From the connection he had with the ganie he felt something forming. It was small but Jacquard felt that it was something extremely important.

He studied the ganie using the connection and using his natural 360-vision. His 360-vision showed nothing strange happening in the ganie yet when he examined it through the connection, he felt the empty space that was once on the other side was no longer completely empty. It contained a small… something. Jacquard didn't know any other way to describe what was on the other side of the connection.

He wanted to spend some more time to understand what was going on with the ganie, but he knew that he couldn't do so yet. Not until he had finished making the pathway, so he turned his focus back to forming the path.

Luck was on his side, by the time he was done with the pathway the ganie stood up and tried to jump on Jean's foot again. The moment it touched Jean's body the pulse shot out, sending the ganie flying before it could even get a hold on it.

Jacquard was shocked. He had never expected that creating the path would have such an immense effect of visibly increasing the speed at which the pulse was sent. What's more, after opening the pathway, he began to sense large amounts of information moving in and out of his body. The information that entered his body was immediately processed into things that he understood.

It made his 360-vision seem clearer, and he 'saw' more than he did before. He saw an aura surrounding the ganie and an aura coming from the surroundings. The auras contained the information that rushed in through the opening sort of informing him about itself.

Through the information in the aura, he could tell that the ganie had managed to absorb the energy within the pulse and was absorbing it. He could tell that the energy it had absorbed was transforming its body from inside out, strengthening its skin, its claws, increasing the density of its muscles. He could tell that the slime on its body contained many tiny organisms that could break down things into digestible substances. He could tell that they were getting stronger. He could tell that the ganie had been knocked unconscious from the pulse and he could tell that there was something going on within the ganie's consciousness, which he assumed was what he had sensed through their connection.

Through the information in the aura, he could tell that the walls of the cave were extremely old, and extremely tough. He could tell that the water that covered the walls was ground water. He could tell that the water had other things within it.

As he took in the information from the auras, he realised that he had stepped into the next realm of cultivation