Chereads / Ruinous Future / Chapter 56 - Terrarium (XXIX) - A Personal Project

Chapter 56 - Terrarium (XXIX) - A Personal Project

Bell sat on the ground in her sub room with a stack of paper and a technique booklet. 

'Hmm.' She ruminated.

Bell was at a crossroads, both led to equally fortuitous endings.

'Well, one's guaranteed, I don't know about the other.' Bell thought as she cast her gaze towards the stack of blank papers.

Bell closed her eyes and thought for a while. After several minutes of deep thinking, Bell looked around for some sort of coin, which didn't take long. She toyed with it in her fingers, rolling it across her knuckles before flipping it with her thumb.

She caught it before it fell and pressed the coin against the back of her other hand. When she uncovered the coin, she found that it was heads.

'Experiments it is, then.'

Bell then picked the paper and booklet up before heading towards the desk. After setting them down and sitting down, Bell tapped her pathfinder.

"Look up videos on folding paper." Bell stated to the pathfinder.

A series of several window appeared before Bell, and each showed a different static image with a list on the final window.

The series looked to be instructions depicting how to fold a paper crane, and Bell began her first experiment.

"Can I copy the final product with Creation?" Was her hypothesis.

She based this question off of her ability to seemingly copy the external properties of an item. Her conjured weapons are serviceable, but Bell didn't know if she was copying the image of a sword or if she was actively recreating an entire item through its necessary processes.

'Oh yeah, I'll try to recreate the ingot, too.' Bell thought to herself.

With the half-forged dagger, Bell came up with another experiment. Creation, in essence, is creating an item from her understanding and imagination on what the item does. For a dagger or sword, the purpose and process of creating is quite easy to understand.

So, what would happen if her understanding on the earlier processes in the creation of an item is improved?

'On Monday... no, tomorrow... no, Sunday! I'll finish forging the weapon and use Creation again. Yeah...'

For now, Bell was going to conjure a recreation of a paper crane, then Create another one with her further knowledge on the process and contrast the two. Afterward, she'll do the same with the ingot, a dagger using the ingot as a base construct, and then go to dinner.

After dinner, she'll read the technique booklet, try to glean any useful information, then go to bed around 10pm.

'Sounds like a plan.' Bell thought to herself with a smug smirk on her face.

With that, Bell immediately got to work. With the familiar sensation of Stardust flowing through her body in an ephemeral nature to her brain, Bell felt her intuition grow while her bodily control slightly lessened.

Then, her imagination came to life in front of her, a paper crane emerging from radiant white flames in her open hand. Afterward, Bell deactivated Creation and thought to herself with an expression of deep thought.

'That's another thing... I can only Create something that I can personally hold. Will the range grow in the future?'

Bell shook her head of the question and began folding the paper along the pathfinders instructions. She had to burn and erase the first two pieces of paper, which was unfortunate. It was on her third try that she was proud of the end product.

After examining the two, Bell used Creation with her current understanding of the process of creating a paper crane. The funny feeling in her brain almost hindered her Creation, so Bell used Ruination to burn around Bell in a protective manner. This anchored her to her normal feeling of intelligence and control over her body.

With that, Bell was able to visualize herself folding the paper and then using Creation to conjure a mimic of the paper crane. After the paper crane emerged from the dwindling white flames, Bell began dismantling one at a time.

She started by unfolding the one that she had made, the memory of the steps still clear in her mind. After, she unfolded the one she had just created, it had unfolded in the exact same way that the first one did.

'Time for the big reveal...' Bell thought, her hand hesitating before she began unfolding the paper crane that she had first created.

To her pleasant surprise, Bell only had to rip one edge to unfold the entire crane. In the process of her first use of Creation, the fuzziness of the effects of using the ability had influenced her. At least, that was what was likely, and that very effect was the most unfortunate part of the experiment.

'Damn.' Bell thought with a "tsk."

With the first experiment finished, Bell checked the time.

[4:41 P.M.]

'Forty minutes?!' Bell looked at the window with an exasperated expression.

She then shook her head and looked for a home menu on the pathfinder. Despite having the thing attached to her forearm, looking like a vambrace more than a personal computer, Bell had never really thought about the functionality.

It was common for Bell to simply ask for something and for the pathfinder to pull up a window similar to what she was asking rather than Bell using the user interface effectively.

Then, Bell chuckled to herself.

'Jude and Torm are probably having it real bad...'

"Can you show me the home screen?" Bell whispered close to the pathfinder.

A window appeared akin to a home screen on her father's personal computer once.

There were icons lined along the bottom, a background, and a recycling bin icon on the top left.

After mindlessly tapping around the window, Bell found herself understanding quite a bit of the functions on a pathfinder.

Then, Bell thought of something.

'Right... I'll be able to upgrade this sometime around the final exam for Forging, right?' 

Bell then looked towards the pathfinder and imagined it being able to provide even more support than it already was.

She smiled at the idea.

Then, Bell shook her head, 'Let's get to work.' She thought to herself.

Bell pulled the metal ingot from her Forging class out of her pocket and placed it on the table.

'First, copy it, then use it to create a dagger, then finish the dagger and make a copy...' Bell thought of the exact process for this experiment.

So, she got to work once more. Bell began by activating Ruination, the gray flames starting to dance around her clothing in a defensive manner once more. Afterward, Bell activated Creation, her ultra-precise control over her body returning to normal levels. 

Then, Bell visualized the creation of a copy of the metal ingot, she imagined herself going through the process of forging it to this point. After the white flames left her hand, Bell placed the newly Created ingot next to the original.

'Now, time for the weapon.'

She hadn't turned off either of her abilities, simply allowing the flames to dance around her. Now, though, the white flames had something to do once more.

Bell imagined an ingot that she had created going through the rest of the forging process. Her imaginary hammer striking the blade into the perfect form, and it automatically sharpening itself.

After the white flames subsided this time, a bowie knife was left in her hand. It had no handle, though. After Bell placed the bowie knife down onto the desk, light rapping echoed into the room from her door.

'That's something for next time.' Bell thought, standing up.

She had the rest of her night to attend to before then.