It's you?

Kai was not sure what to think of the note that was under his stir-fry. He moved the bowl more and picked up the note, flipping it over to see did it say anything else on the other side.

But no, all the note said was 'do not sleep tonight'.

Kai swallowed.

Was this a threat? What was going to happen tonight? Was Anastasia going to show up and do something even worse to him that injecting him with a creepy Bloodline?

Or was it something else entirely?

Maybe something good will happen tonight, he would discover some way to escape from here, or maybe even get the chance to escape tonight.

Even though he said that he would give himself thirty sleeps to train, and only seven had passed, Kai wasn't going to reject any oppurtunity that presented itself.

The quicker he got out of here the better after all. While he had gotten used to the cold because of Soul Flame always being lit, that didn't mean he enjoyed it.

Same with the food. While the stir-fry he was fed by whoever visited him when he was asleep was much better than anything he could make himself, he didn't exactly want to eat stir-fry every day for thirty sleeps.

But an ominous note left for him while he was asleep... was probably warning him that something bad would happen tonight.

Kai sighed. He had only just gone through getting his first injection in over a year and now something was going to happen tonight. Why couldn't they just leave him to rot in this cell?

Actually, would it even be possible for him to rot, he was basically in a freezer, so wouldn't that mean he would be preserved if he died?

...

Sighing again, Kai done a couple of his wrist exercises to wake him up.

They were enjoyable to do, even though it took a little while to learn them.

It was all about the movements of bones, the way he controlled his muscles, various little things that all added together to produce big and meaningful changes.

Still, he couldn't do them as well due to one of his wrists being chained up, which was a shame. But Kai could still do it with his free hand.

He still wasn't sure why they had chained only one of his arms, it seemed kind of stupid. Surely chaining both arms would produce better results than only chaining one arm.

The only reason Kai could think of that they didn't chain his other arm was that they only had three chains of ice to begin with.

If it was only the First Lord that could make use of this ice, then maybe Castillian and Anastasia were relying on the things that were made billions and billions of years ago.

As for why the First Lord decided to create a fork using their incredible powers, Kai would never know, they were long dead after all.

But that left Kai wondering. If there was an indestructible fork... did that mean there was an indestructible spoon and knife to match?

Nodding, Kai picked up the same indestructible fork he was wondering about and began eating his stir-fry. Even though he was slowly growing sick of the meal, he could still admit that it tasted incredible.

After finishing up, Kai watched the tray, bowl and fork all disappear like they normally done when he finished. There definitely was some magic involved, as they only disappeared when he was finished, never when there was anything left in it.

However, to Kai's surprise, the ominious note did not disappear, it just fell down onto the ice floor.

Shrugging, Kai scrunched it up and placed it in the hole in the ice. He would rather not have Anastasia or anyone else catch a glimpse of it, just in case they ended up visiting him this sleep, or if it was them that would be visiting him tonight.

After hiding the note, Kai went about setting up Soul Flame.

The first time he attempted this, it took over an hour to get the flame to wrap around his body, but now he could get it done in about twenty minutes.

He always started from his hands. For some reason, he found it easier to start from there. He wasn't sure why, but he didn't mind.

He would carefully control the flames, slowly moving them up his arms to his shoulders, then he would move it down his torso and encase his entire body in the green flames. The final step was to cover his head, then he would be able to relax a little and start Statshifting.

Kai sighed and relaxed a little. As always, it took about twenty minutes this time, but he didn't feel as tired after setting it up this time.

He chalked that down to the extra 5% boost he got. It didn't lessen the time it took to set the flames up, it just lowered the amount of energy it took out of him to set up.

After the flames were set up, Kai closed his eyes and began to Statshift.

He had an idea of something he wanted to test out, something that could make Statshifting easier in the future.

Kai wanted to have pre made amounts of stats he could shift. For example, he would continuously shift thirty stats until it became second nature, that way he would be able to shift a large amount of stats at any given moment.

But he still felt that he wasn't ready for that, so he was going to start with something easier.

Right now, it took about two minutes to shift a single stat. By the end of his time in this cell, Kai wanted to be able to shift a single stat in ten seconds.

It was an outrageous idea, how was he meant to lower the amount of time it took to shift a stat by a minute and fifty seconds?

The answer to that was... Kai was being hopeful.

Even if he couldn't achieve that goal, his aim was to get as close as possible to the ten second goal in these remaining sleeps. It would open up so many possibilities in the future.

Imagine if he was able to shift thousands of stats in a single second. He could put them all into Strength to attack someone, then instantly put them all into Constitution if he wanted to tank a blow, or put them all into Dexterity if he wanted to dodge.

Or if he was using his Innate Ability, he could put majority of his stats into Mana and just use the bonus stats he get as his main attack force.

Kai smiled softly as he continued Statshifting. He was still a long, long way away from that goal. It wouldn't be any time soon he accomplished that, but he didn't mind.

Baby steps after all, he still had to escape this cell, find Petunia and find where whatever or the teleporter or portal was in this place so he could get out of here and go to another Dimension.

Preferably Genesis, as Kai was more or less certain by now that they were the Main Dimension that had been bidding on him.

Unless there were multiple bidding on him, but Kai still wanted to go to Genesis. They seemed like they would be the most welcoming.

Then again, he still had no idea what the other four Main Dimensions were like, he had only been taught about Genesis.

Time continued to pass as Kai continued to Statshift. The amount of time between shifting each stat kept slowly decreasing, by fractions of a second each attempt. It was all going to add up though, and that was all that mattered.

But as time went on, Kai faced a dilemna.

He continued to get more and more tired while Statshifting, making him want to fall asleep even though he had been warned against it.

He did take a break for a while, just daydreaming while time passed, but that just made him bored and want to return back to Statshifting.

It didn't help that he had his eyes closed while Statshifting, that just made him want to sleep more.

To be honest, Kai wasn't actually sure if he needed to close his eyes when Statshifting. It's just something that he had been doing since the beginning, and it made him think that it was easier. That was something he would probably experiment with in the future.

So Kai...

Yawned. He really was tired at this point.

Ah... a break won't hurt.

Stopping Statshifting, Kai kept his eyes closed and relaxed onto the wall, Soul Flame still active around his body as he-

Nearly jumped in panic from the sound of footsteps approaching him. Kai let Soul Flame die out and remained still. He decided that he would pretend to be asleep to see what whoever was coming would do.

The sound of footsteps continued to grow louder and louder until they eventually stopped in front of his cell. Kai then heard the sound of something being placed on the ground and scraping along the ice.

Opening his eyes, Kai-

"It's you?"

Saw the Third Queen pushing a tray of ice with a bowl of stir-fry in it through the gap in two of the ice bars.

The Third Queen's eyes widened as she realised that Kai wasn't actually asleep. Her mouth fell open, like a fish out of water, and Kai couldn't help but frown and feel confused when he noticed her shoulders start to shake, as if she was scared.

He was even more confused when the Third Queen dropped to her knees and bowed, her forehead pressing against the ice as her entire body trembled.

And Kai felt even more confused when he heard her speak.

"I- I greet My Lord."