"Squeak?" The little fur ball seemed to ask. It apparently noticed the fluctuations in Magnus' emotions.
The shock and astonishment that Magnus displayed puzzled the little guy. It only fed the man a little fruit, so what was all the fuss?
"Squeak, squeak!"
The fur ball proclaimed a great prophecy, never heard before. A prophecy of worlds, so great, that it was astonishing to hear it from such a small existence.
Too bad Magnus did not understand it.
He instead thought that the fur ball wanted him to approach it, and so he did. He crouched down before the little being and studied it.
It had features akin to rabbits, though more circular. As Magnus allowed the little being to climb his hand, he discovered that its fur was fluffier than expected.
Its actual body was likely smaller than expected as well.
Thus, Magnus only had one verdict:
It was adorable.
The way it rubbed its little paws like a fly was cute too. Although it was an action with undertones of greed, the cuteness made up for whatever shortcomings it had.
"Squeak!" The fur ball said, "Squeak, squeak, squeak!"
"I… I can barely understand what you're trying to say." Magnus admitted, "You're leaving..? To where?"
"Squeak!"
"A city?" Magnus had no idea why he received a different variety of thoughts whenever the fur ball squeaked.
'Could it be because of a special ability?' Magnus thought, recalling certain language cheats he had read of in the past. 'The ability to communicate raw information… That should be it.'
"Squeak, squeak?"
"And you want me to come with you?" Magnus tilted his head, "Sure..? I'll come with. Is the city an exciting place to be in?"
The fur ball tilted its head as well, mirroring Magnus. It said,
"Squeak? Squeak."
Which roughly translated to,
"Exciting? Yes."
And that was all Magnus had to hear.
"Then let's go!" He said, with a wide grin that might have given the fur ball the chills.
.
.
.
While walking under a majestic canopy of greens, Magnus thought about what he could steal using Mirror World Thief.
"Should I try and steal that emerald ring again?" Such an idea crossed his mind, but he quickly dismissed it. He did not want to take any chances with an item that likely had special powers he was unaware of.
He then recalled Amini's rapier and other weapons, but those were not worth the trouble.
"Wait." It was then, he realised a possibility.
"Could I try 'stealing' one of those beasts that almost killed me earlier? I could assimilate it into the Hivemind and then, I would finally have an offensive ability."
Unfortunately,
"Klaris is too injured to use Mirror World Thief... Damn. I'm regretting his sacrifices now. I need to find a way to heal him. My wounds were healed by the fruit the little guy fed me, so there might be other fruits with similar effects." Magnus delved deeper into the world of thought.
Many beautiful forest scenes appeared before his eyes. He appreciated each one for a bit before the fur ball asked him to continue moving.
Rivers and creeks, canopies created by sky-scraping trees, natural bridges of earth over precarious ravines, and more.
Magnus kept his pace. He did not feel tired at all.
He felt mysterious energy circulate within him while his Spirit Energy reserves were full. They churned and sloshed around his body, like an ocean placed inside a container.
There were waves, whirlpools, and currents.
Magnus was simply astounded by such a feeling. He had never felt anything like it before.
Only,
"It still feels ethereal to me... Like it's not this body's Spirit Energy... But my soul's."
Magnus noted such a detail down with gusto. It was another observation made on the state of his powers, after all.
He also noted down the fact that this was the first time he felt Spirit Energy to it's fullest. He would review the situation later on.
This was because another fruit tree appeared in front of him.
"Hey Mallow," Magnus called out to the little fur ball. "Can we take these fruits? I need to heal a friend if that's alright."
"Not possible," Magnus heard Mallow's voice and thoughts with greater quality now.
The more he allowed Spirit Energy to move within him, the more he felt his soul becoming stronger.
"Why not?" He asked,
"It's not mine. You have to ask old man Gadrill."
Together with Magnus' growing perception and comprehension, he had also learned—through conversation—why Mallow had healed him:
It was because Mallow wanted revenge on a certain human who stole from him.
'These fur balls are very particular with permissions.' Magnus had thought when Mallow explained the rules of fur balls to him.
"So," Magnus saw another fur ball appear from the branches of the fruit tree,
"Is that old man Gadrill?"
Magnus could swear that Mallow's cheery expression suddenly turned into a scowl.
"It's not." Mallow replied, "It's someone worse. That bitch!"
Magnus choked.
Hearing the little fur ball suddenly break into swears was a juxtaposition he was never expecting to witness at that moment.
Mallow seemed to despise the fur ball called 'Jistill' very much. It hated Jistill's personality and guts to the bone.
Especially the way Jistill took nibbles of its own fruits even when it had yet to ripen.
Such a habit rubbed off of Mallow in the worst ways possible.
"So, what do we do?" Magnus asked.
"We kill!" Mallow roared.
It made Magnus choke again.
He couldn't just kill such adorable creatures without enough benefit—
"Oh, good gods..." Magnus witnessed Mallow grow in size. It was rapid growth that looked like a balloon being inflated.
Up until Magnus watched Mallow's limbs elongate. It turned into lion-like paws with claws that were more like an eagle's talons.
A spined tail flicked around like a whip from behind Mallow. It dripped with some poison that was very likely to be lethal.
Fangs the size of Magnus' forearm dripped with a similar substance, which had the human questioning if it was venom or poison dripping from the tail.
"Cough!" Magnus suddenly had a lightbulb moment.
"Don't kill him right away! I have a way to extract information from him if you need it!"
"Oho~" Mallow growled. A feral grin appeared on its face. "Then I will trouble you, human."
Roar!
Magnus could feel the Spirit Energy in the area go wild with Mallow's roar.
Gone was the cute little fur ball. What he saw now was a venomous lion getting ready for battle.
The other fur ball, Jistill, took on a more monstrous form as well. It roared, but its roar wasn't as strong as Mallow's.
It was weak.
As if Jistill had just emerged from a tough fight.
Crack!
The sound of the ground rupturing crashed against Magnus' ear.
Under the guiding forces of Spirit Energy, clumps of earth floated in the air as they primed themselves for flight.
Whoooosh! Whooom!
The air was pierced apart as the clumps of earth whizzed through like bullets. Their target was none other than the sorry Jistill whose wounds were now clear for Magnus to see.
Jistill commanded similar clumps of rock into the air in an attempt to fight fire with fire.
Unfortunately, in both mass and velocity, Jistill lost. Added with the fact that Mallow had the first move, things were instantly dire for Jistill.
Rocks pelted it like a shower of shrapnel. Spirit Energy bombarded the coating of similar energy it had put up.
Everything Jistill used to fight back crumbled like a sandcastle being washed away by the waves.
But, just as Jistill thought that it would die, Mallow instantly stopped its attacks.
"Why?" Jistill asked weakly.
"I have a human here who says I can get my answers from you."
Jistill shivered.
Humans were evil beings of cruelty. Whatever technique that would be used on it now was likely something painful.
"No... Torture... Please..." Jistill pleaded.
"Don't worry, there's no torture," Magnus replied with a smile as he began,
"I am the master and maker of the Hivemind. The mind behind minds. The one who stands above humanity. And the one civilizations despise."
Whoooom!
Both Mallow's and Jistill's eyes dilated as they felt an ominous power descend. The energy brought about by enslavement contaminated the air and descended upon Jistill.
"No! Please! Anything but a Spirit Contract!"
Magnus looked confused, "A Spirit Contract?"
But then, he had a guess as his grin grew larger. "Oh, don't worry, this isn't anything like that. It's the Hivemind. Something completely different."
Mallow gave Jistill a look of pity. With its greater abilities, it instinctively felt what was different between a normal Spirit Contract and this form of enslavement. Whatever power that the human had was a power it didn't want targeting itself.
If it one day did, Mallow would fight back with all it could.
"You brought this upon yourself, Jistill." Mallow consoled both itself and its archenemy.
.
.
.
Mallow looked awkwardly at the fur ball it once knew as Jistill.
"So, how do I transform..?" The thoughts of Magnus was being transmitted from Jistill's body.
"Aha, I figured it out."
Poof!
In the blink of an eye, the truck-sized lion turned into a ball of fur the size of a baseball. A rather bloody baseball, to be exact.
"So, my fear friend Mallow, I have taken Jistill's memories. What do you want to know?"
"I want to know what happened to Old Man Gadrill..."
Mallow then continued,
"About that time when..."
"Also about Hifu..."
"And then three years ago near the creek..."
.
.
.
Through Master of the Hivemind, Mallow gained closure to so many of the conflicts it had with Jistill. It learned about all the lies, the secrets, and the grievances Jistill either kept or told.
Many of those concerned Mallow, and so, Mallow's roars echoed throughout the forest for half a day.
When it was all over, Mallow said with a tired growl,
"Thank you, human. I had not expected you to have an ability like that. Is that the power of a Blessing that you mentioned?"
"It's no problem," Magnus allowed Mallow to transform back into its fur ball form and climb up his shoulder. "And yes, it was. Now, about those fruits..."
Mallow sighed, "The old man is dead! Killed by that bastard Jistill! There's no one to protect it, and no one to own it. You can take it, human. Nobody will mind."
"Nice." Magnus grinned and indeed took what he wanted to. He had two wounded bodies stored away in some pocket dimension that needed healing.
He decided to feed both Jistill and Klaris, giving half of the fruits to one and the other half to the other.
Although it couldn't heal them completely, they wouldn't die the instant they were summoned, which was good enough.
On top of that, it is to be noted that upon Jistill's assimilation into the Hivemind, Magnus could now command another four-line Curse's worth of Spirit Energy.
Magnus was pleased with such an outcome.
"Nourishing the Spirit is nourishing the body," He even muttered a proverb just to express his satisfaction.