System? Since When?

Kumi tried to open her eyes.

Though she succeeded, she still could not see a single thing around her.

'I'm still a bit tired. How long was I resting for?'

As she thought so, Kumi pushed her consciousness outward.

But, unlike all the other times where she would normally just find her soul floating around and look at her surroundings while making a few witty comments, this time something like a wall was blocking her.

Kumi could no longer project her soul out of her body.

'Eh?'

She tried again but the uncomfortable feeling of bashing her head against a sharp iron wall persisted.

'Damn. Am I fully inhabiting this body now? Hasn't it only been a month or so? I remember when just a small piece of my nail would almost make my body explode.

Isn't this growth speed a bit absurd?'

She was thinking of trying to exit again but threw the thought away.

'I'll just deal with it. What I hope for is that I stay as a girl when I'm fully born.'

As Kumi tried to move around a bit, she could feel the goopy stuff that filled the flask flow violently like she was in an ocean during a storm.

'Couldn't they have made it more comfortable? Did they even test the flasks or get any feedback?'

Reaching out her hand, Kumi could not even fully stretch it out as she felt her fingers touch something cold.

'Glass... couldn't they have made this thing bigger? God. This is so annoyingly imperfect.'

Slightly pushing against the glass, Kumi thought.

'But seriously, isn't this thing a lot more cramped than the last time I was in here. Back then I felt like I was in a nice pond now it's more like a slightly deep puddle.'

She pushed her hand against the glass a bit more, trying to stretch her limbs and find out how big the flask she was in actually was.

*Crack*

Kumi froze and quietly removed her hand.

'Nope. I will now stay unmoving until the lady in the office or anyone else gets their ass over here and fixes the thing I almost just shattered.'

And so, she stayed like that for a minute.

After said minute passed, she heard rummaging and a few troubled voices around her.

She could hear a large metal door open and she could now see slightly in front of her.

She was still floating in the same dark yellow liquid as before, now however she could see how the liquid inside the flask she was in was slowly flowing out of the crack she had made in the glass wall.

'Uh oh.'

Slightly panicking as she heard quite a few shouts and saw some colourful glowing spots that shone through the dark yellow liquid, Kumi instantly thought that it would be nice if the liquid could just get back in the flask and stop leaking out.

Surprisingly, it worked as the flask started to slowly be refilled.

As the flask was fully refilled, Kumi noticed that it was a bit more refreshing to soak in the liquid than it was before.

Ignoring that however, she focused on the voices around her.

...

"Deadbolt. What happened?"

Hilde spoke as she walked through a giant metal door.

"Boss. The walls of the flask have cracked. The reason is still unknown."

"Was anyone around at the time?"

"Just the guards surrounding the place. They heard glass cracking and called me immediately."

Hilde stared at the flask that stood on the metal podium protected by multiple hundreds of spells.

"It doesn't seem to have been caused by any outside force.

Though it would be hard to tell with some of the abilities people possess.

I believe it was caused from the inside."

"Boss, you mean...?"

"Yes. I believe they will soon be fully 'born'."

Hilde turned and left the metal-encased room.

"Add more guards, some padding and Defence increasing spells around the place."

"Understood, Boss."

As Hilde left the place, Deadbolt and the guards around the place started adding more protective measures.

The Lock, Pad also showed up to install a few Defence increase spells around the area.

...

'The boss lady sounds pretty important. She's about as strong as one of those Demon Lords from back then if I'm observing her right.'

Kumi thought as she slowly looked around.

She could barely see anything, at most she could see the glow of the spells surrounding her and the faint figures of the people walking below her.

'I feel pretty tall up here. Heh.'

Kumi thought before realising.

'Oh, wait. Yeah! I can basically fully understand what people are saying now! Pog!... what does p.o.g mean again?'

Throwing the thought away with a small shake of her head, she looked around at the room and at the faint figures that seemed to be working.

Not knowing that every glance she threw at the guards and Lock members around her sent chills down their spine, she fondly looked at the glowing spells around her with interest for quite a while before soon enough everyone left and Kumi returned back to resting.

Sometime later, Kumi woke up to light entering her vision.

Opening her eyes, she could hear the boss lady speaking.

"She should be ready tomorrow, maybe earlier. At that point, I will assign you to look after her as she grows capable enough to endure her training."

The person that Hilde was talking to nodded their head.

Hilde continued.

"Before I hand over the role of taking care of her, I will go to have her potential appraised, you and the Locks may come along.

If we are lucky, the System has already granted her a Skill or two.

It would be good to know those as well since you will be taking care of her, we don't want you nor the kid to get hurt because they used a Skill they shouldn't have."

As the person beside Hilde nodded again, they had a small casual chat as they walked around the room to check the place over just in case.

As they left, Kumi was still pondering the words of Hilde, the boss lady.

...

'What was the word she said? 'System'?'

As soon as Kumi thought that, a seethrough bubble-like screen appeared in front of her.

'What the hell!? Since when?!?'

[Universal Cultivation System]

[Attributes]

[Locked Until User Reaches <Master Rank>]

[Locked Until User Reaches <High-Grandmaster Rank>]

[Locked Until User Reaches <Immortal Rank>]

'What in the Burning Candy Corn Halloween Hell is this?'