It had been a few days since Mikayla had learned that she was Stranded in this world for the foreseeable future.

  She'd spent a lot of time just sitting and processing. Finally resting, after the whirlwind of activity that the past couple of weeks had put her through. Relaxation was a luxury that she vowed never to take for granted again, not after all that hiking and fighting.

  Anza had assumed command of the Goliath Guard's Cliffwatch branch, and was coordinating the medical personnel that were rotating in and out to take care of the drug-addled and blood-drained citizens of Cliffwatch, freed from the Regressors' grasp.

  Due to the loss of effectively the entire branch's personnel - Lahlee's purges had been effective - Anza had no issues assigning rooms for herself, Mikayla and Asika. Keldryn as a Cliffwatch resident already had accomodations, though he'd returned home to find his possessions looted by the cultists who'd been assured he wouldn't return from the suicide mission Lahlee had duped him into going on. Of course, no one begrudged him some counter-looting as he searched for what had been stolen.

  Mikayla looked at the gauntlet wrapped around her left forearm. It had once been Flyreh's, the personal armament of the psychotic collector who had been in charge of the blood cult that had held her and her friends prisoner. She'd taken it as a trophy, transferring her Black Knight Armour Core, Sword Core and Shield Core to it. The rest of Flyreh's armaments - a Hammer Core, two Scimitar Cores, a Cannon Core and of course the Brass-Beat Brawler Armour Core - were all still set into it, filling all eight of the Core Controller's slots.

  She hadn't decided yet if she would keep any of them, or just sell them. After all, she was broke. Brass-Beat Brawler was definitely going to go, the Scimitars too. But the Hammer and Cannon . . those had potential, if she was willing to put the time and effort into learning how to use them.

  Tit for tat was fair, and so Mikayla had no compunctions about scavenging some extra clothes from the cultists that had been killed or fled during their retaking of Cliffwatch. The various goodies Keldryn had been carrying for her had all been transferred into a Kaiju-leather backpack that Mikayla had claimed for herself, bigger on the inside due to the spatial properties of Kaiju flesh, and all of the possessions that Keldryn had been holding for her were now secured within. Including the rusted-to-oblivion Core Controller that had once belonged to Nocturnus Virralis, that she'd been using for the past couple of weeks.

  Her sentimental side didn't like admitting it, but Flyreh's gauntlet-styled Core Controller - now hers - was an improvement in every way. Sure, it had only eight slots compared to the nine that the metal flower had boasted in its heyday, but when only four of those were functional that didn't matter. And it was much easier to use; there were none of the damaged pathways and broken leads that had plagued her early attempts to learn to use Mana. Between the skills she'd developed and the gauntlet's ease of use, activating her Cores was as easy as twitching a finger.

  She'd practiced with them and tested them, made sure that her Sword could appear in her hand as quick as blinking, that all she had to do was spread her arms and want it to bring Flyreh's Cannon - no, her Cannon - out, ready to fire. It was something to do, something to keep herself focused on anything other the despair of her situation.

  And it was a reflex that would probably save her life, so, not exactly wasted time in any case.

  A familiar face leant in, pale skin framed with blonde hair and two orange-black vulpine ears emerging from his scalp. "Hey, Mikayla," Keldryn spoke softly. "How're you doing?"

  "Better now. I think," she nodded, forcing herself to stand up.

  "Good," Keldryn let himself in, doing a little twist to ensure his thick and fluffy orange tail didn't get caught in the door as he closed it. "I came to warn you, you're about to -"

  The door swung open. "Good news!" Asika beamed, following the foxkin into her room. As a faerie, Asika had crystalline blue skin and hair, and eyes of solid crystal which made it impossible to tell where she was looking.

  "What's that?" Mikayla raised an eyebrow, stifling a smile. The rambunctious faerie had quickly become one of her closest friends in this new world.

  "It's officially sorted and approved with both the mortals and the Cosmic Isles! You're both going to Cloudscraper Academy!"

  "Awesome," Mikayka forced a smile. It was hard to get excited about going anywhere but home. Still, Asika had worked hard to ease her passage, so a grateful hug was the least she could do. "I really need to figure out a friendly nickname for you, you so totally deserve one,"

  Asika smiled, patting her back. "What're friends for?"

  "I got you something, too," Keldryn somewhat bashfully admitted. "Figured you could use all the help we can offer. So, uh. Here," Mikayla stared in amazement as he hoisted an ovongular crystal the size of his own torso out of his bag, offering it to her. "It's the Kaiju Pearl from the Giant Roc. You should have it,"

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  "We could make so many Cores out of that," she murmured in amazement.

  "Yeah, a Pearl this big from such a strong monster is worth a lot of money," he confirmed. "But that's not the only treasure I harvested from the Giant Roc," He dropped the Pearl, and instead offered a small bag.

  Experienced by now with how every bag was bigger on the inside in the Kaiju Coast, Mikayla took it and peered inside.

  She blanched.

  ". . Keldryn. Did you cut out the Giant Roc's eyeballs and put them in this bag?"

  "That's right,"

  "Why?" She couldn't hide the disgust that laced her voice, looking away from the gross, slimy balls of flesh that still glowed with electricity.

  "It's for a Neidan, isn't it?" Asika piped up, bouncing on her toes. "Great idea! Those would absolutely make a really awesome Neidan brew,"

  "Okay, what's a Neidan?" Mikayla asked, folding her arms impatiently. Nocturnus had mentioned that word before, in passing. She'd never found time to ask for an explanation.

  "Something that almost all the really strong warriors have. I think the technical term is 'internal alchemy'. We would call it a constitution, but that's already a thing," the hyperactive faerie spat syllables like bullets from a machine gun. "Hm, how to put this . ."

  "A good alchemist can turn these eyes into a potion that gives someone lightning powers," Keldryn summarised.

  "Say what?!"

  "It's a little more complicated than that," Asika intervened. "But yeah. Neidans give a person elemental affinities, basically. If those eyes were to be made into a brew, it would give whoever drank it a similar sort of electrokinesis that the Giant Roc had. The main thing to keep in mind is that a person can only ever have one Neidan, and once you have one it's almost impossible to get rid of it. Getting one is a big power boost, but it permanently changes the makeup of your being. It can even be inherited by your children. Choosing a Neidan is one of the biggest and most important choices a warrior can make," She hesitated. "In theory, at least. In practice, they're rare and expensive, so people often just grab any Neidan they can and adapt their fighting style to it,"

  "So not something to do on a whim. Gotcha," Mikayla nodded. "But it'd give me some of the Roc's strength . ." She couldn't deny that it was a tempting thought. That Roc had been overpowered. "I'll need to do some research and make an informed decision," she decided.

  "Well, it's yours. Same with the Pearl. Sell it if you don't want it," Keldryn confirmed as Mikayla stuffed the massive geode into her bag.

  She paused, taking the small pouch that contained the Roc Eyes. "Is it safe to put a Kaiju leather bag inside another Kaiju leather bag? Putting two dimensional spaces inside each other won't cause a black hole or explode or anything?"

  Keldryn and Asika traded a mystified look. "No?" the fox-boy sounded baffled.

  "Why would it do that?" Asika asked.

  "Because spatial distortions interacting . ." Mikayla trailed off, realising that she was applying Dungeons & Dragons logic to real-life magic. "Nevermind," she decided, dropping the pouch into her backpack.

  She breathed a quiet sigh of relief when it didn't explode.

  "You've got a good chance of getting some use out of those, one way or another. Cloudscraper Academy is where the elites gather to be reforged," Asika reminded her. "It'll be easy to find a skilled alchemist serving the student body there who can draw out these eyes' potential. Or even a buyer who'll let you turn a tidy profit,"

  "Okay, if that was on the table why have we not been taking body parts to sell from every Kaiju we ever killed?" Mikayla questioned.

  "Quality matters. If I thought anything we'd killed so far was worth selling, I'd have taken it. It's all been garbage except for these eyes," Keldryn summarised.

  "Ah," Mikayla paused. ". . Does that mean the Giant Roc was only average-strength?"

  "It was a Tier 13. That level of strength is pretty much to be expected from a monster at that Tier," Asika confirmed. "Though, obviously, most monsters don't live long enough to get that strong,"

  "I get it," Mikayla assured her. She looked back at the bag containing the Pearl and Roc Eyes. "Are you sure you want to give this to me? You're not exactly rich,"

  "You need it more than I do," Keldryn asserted. "I've got my fighting style sorted out. You're still developing yours. If you do decide to use these rather than sell them, it'll be easier for you to put them to good use,"

  "I get it. Thanks," Mikayla beamed at him. She was hesitant to consider the prospect of changing herself so drastically to get stronger. But she did need strength. Well, she had time to think about it.

  "Oh, by the way, we didn't get a chance to talk about this before, but there is something we gotta discuss before you go," Asika nonchalantly added.

  "What's that?" Mikayla quirked an eyebrow.

  "Nocturnus Virralis," the faerie said with uncharacteristic seriousness.

  ". . oh, yeah, I guess we should,"

  It's time for the beginning of Book 2! We're going to school! But there's some cleanup to do before we get there.

  The pre-proofreading drafts for the entire first arc of Book 2 are available on Patreon! That's all the way up to Chapter 73! So if you want to find out who the girl in the new cover art is, head over there.