66 Mistakes Were Made, Or Were they? (3)

Soon after, the rumblings stopped, along with the spawning of the books that now littered Zel's surroundings. If he wasn't so used to seeing new abilities from his many lifetimes, he would have been flabbergasted at the sudden appearance of the mountain of books in front of him. But when you've seen a man who can gigantify himself to reach fifty meters high, you just stop being surprised by the more simple displays such as this.

But now that Zel had more time to think, he looked at the book in his hand and the mountain of books in front of him. He calculated that if reading a single book would take him around half an hour or less, though it would place a burden in his mind due to using mana to speed read that quickly, then the mountain of books before him made him reach a conclusion.

Zel closed his eyes for a second and breathed out. He then tossed the book in his hands to the pile near him and shouted. "I give up! Emilia, get me out of here!"

"..." But seconds passed, and nothing happened, and when a minute elapsed, Zel knew that Emilia couldn't hear him. Perhaps she didn't have any control here, that's why she doesn't even know that he said something. Having thought more deeply as to where he is, Zel tested a few experiments.

First, he used his mana to create a thread. Normally, he'd take a second to make one and he used that as his baseline. But when before he even got to circulate the mana inside him once, a thread was already made. This one, however, isn't made of mana. Instead, it was made of an energy that Zel had only seen at one place before. A place closely tied to Emilia's abilities.

"This is my mind palace, isn't it?" Zel who was looking at the energy before him sighed.

Mind energy is a much faster power than regular mana, making it difficult to defend against if the enemy uses it unexpectedly. While mana can block abilities that use mind energy, most people won't even know they were under someone's influence until after they're either let go or someone saves them. Some don't even get to know because they'd end up dead before getting the chance to do so.

He knew that mind energy is cultivated in mind palaces, and he knew about mind palaces due to Emilia having one. Though he never entered his own, due to never having the chance to create one, he had entered hers before. As the consciousness that owns the whole area, he could conjure objects using his mind energy.

But it's not as if mind energy is unlimited or useful outside the mind palace, you'd need an ability related to mind energy to even use it outside of the mind palace. Just now, Emilia must have used that source of energy to create a mind palace for Zel. This made Zel more curious to find out exactly what that source is, and if his guess is right, then that is probably the most valuable possession they have right now.

"This place is so big, I didn't even think it was a mind palace earlier." Scanning farther into the distance, Zel was convinced that Emilia's mind palace wasn't as wide as his. But she had a lot more stuff in hers than he currently does right now. Last time he was there, she created a house from out of nowhere. She even had a bed inside that was quite soft and spacious, absolutely perfect to relax on.

'We even di-' But before Zel could finish his thoughts, he was once again shown another spectacle.

After the books came another scene, a vast array of symbols came to be from the pile of books and arranged themselves in the distance. The symbols that were congregating on top of each other seemed to have formed one, cohesive shape, the shape of a sphere. The hills of books repeatedly transformed themselves into these spheres that filled up his surroundings.

Some spheres were black as the night sky, some blue like the vast ocean, but a few were shining golden. While they looked much fewer than the mountains of books beforehand, Zel didn't immediately jump to do any tests towards them. He could see that the chaotic figures and lines that lay on the surface of these spheres were unique to each other. Looking closely, Zel could see a few familiar lines.

These were similar to what he had seen from formations and runes that he had the chance to interact with before. If he was to be given a choice, he'd rather not touch something that he couldn't understand. Though Zel didn't do anything to them first because he was cautious, it was also due to the buzzing noise in his ears that made him shiver. It feels like Emilia's trying to read his mind, but he didn't block it as he usually did.

(Zel, have you found the command core, yet? It's a golden ball of energy that should be floating around right now. Absorb that into your mind form and you'll have access to the Tower's console.) A welcomed Emilia's voice came to echo inside Zel's mind palace.

Zel was intrigued by the idea of a command core, could it be similar to a mana core? If so, does it store the source energy he saw before and allows those with it to manipulate the energy?

'Where is it?' While it was fun to speculate, Zel found himself struggling to even find the command core Emilia spoke of. The lack of means to communicate with her also added to his struggles. As he wasn't sure what would happen if he absorbs one of these.

(Those are just memory capsules, probably left behind by your previous incarnations. Don't worry about absorbing a few, just don't do too many, too quickly. The command core should have runes similar to the ones in your ring, inspect that first. I can't send you a mental image because your mind palace is too immature. I might cause some damage if it gets contaminated with my mind energy.) Emilia's voice rang inside the mind palace once again, it seemed that she could hear his thoughts since she was pushing Zel towards the right direction.

Zel looked around and saw three golden spheres, it seemed that they were called 'Memory Capsules' by Emilia. Of the three, one is placed north of him, another is south and the last is east. Since he was closest to the one in front of him, he went to that first.

"Oh, so there is a border." Though it seemed limitless before, Zel saw that there was a border to this place. The memory tablet seems to be in the edges of the mind palace since it met an invisible wall.

When Zel tried to place his hand on the border, he felt his mind energy depleting at a rapid rate. At the same time, all of his memories passed by as if he was back to that time. It started from when he was a young boy, to his first death using foresight, and it took him merely three seconds to undergo that experience once again. Childhood, adulthood and death, all in three seconds. But it didn't stop there.

He was already in his fifth life when his mind body flew back on its own. It seems that his years of training his mind made his body react on its own. But it wouldn't have lasted much longer since his mind energy was already at a third of its capacity. When it runs out, he won't be able to scan his memories like that until it fills back up.

"That was... trippy." Zel didn't have a headache like he would have when he wakes up from a foresight. In fact, he feels great, even having the ability to easily recall what happened in all of the lifetimes he just remembered. But as time passed, he forgets more and more of these memories until he finally retained only a part of it. The part that he wanted to remember got left behind while those he didn't find important were washed away.

"Brrr." Zel shivered in excitement as he felt more alive, remembering his life with Emilia was fun. It made him want to leave for Earth now and just have a vacation with her again.

"This could be useful, I should test this out more." Zel looked at the borders once again and saw it much more clearly now than he did before. There was a small membrane that constricts his mind palace, and outside of it is his 'memory archives'. A mind palace is just a space inside his thought process, making the time dilation here much slower than it would outside. After all, a mind is faster than the perception of our senses.

"So many things to learn! So little time." Zel pressed his hand against the membrane without letting his hand pass through.

This time, he didn't have his mind energy maniacally sucked out of him, but he did find it easier to remember things. It seems that only with practice can he really make full use of this mind palace. Zel smiled when he thought about how much fun it is to discover more interesting things, life just never ceases to be mysterious.