Once Chara was sure she had gotten far enough away, she slowed her pace slightly and began to look around. She was surrounded by many stone ns, stagmites, stactites, and many other iing stone formations.

  More cave… Chara sighed. She was beginning to get exhausted by the repetitive sery.

  Uedly, when she floated down to the chaotic cavern floor, she ended up entering something slightly curious. It was a stack of rocks piled one on top of the other. At the base, there was a more elongated sb pointing in the dire she was headed.

  Well, this is obviously unnatural. I wonder who stacked these…

  After the clearly manufactured stone formation for a bit longer, she lost i a moving in the same dire.

  A while ter, the silence of that area was disturbed by a cacophony of tumbling rocks and a very disgruntled spirit.

  Trying to run away? Hmph! Does she think she get away simply because I’m not restrig her movements? What a naughty spirit! She should be called a [Naughty Spirit] instead! When I find her, I’m going to teach her a lesson…

  As Chara had guessed, although the greater spirit’s area of dete was many times greater than her own, it still wasn’t that big. Not only that, but she really had gone and looked for her little escapee in the dire where they inally came from. In fact, the only reason why she had stopped, turned around, and immediately made her way here, is because her bond briefly suggested that there might be something here.

  She looked around, but there was only the stack of rocks. If there had been anything else here, then it was most certainly gone. However, that in itself was also a clue.

  Before she could figure out what was going on, her bond whispered to her once again. This time, it was from further up ahead. Upon remembering what was there, her mana briefly ged color and rippled in enlighte.

  Haha, I see! That little spirit is really too silly. No matter. Since she wants to deliver herself straight to my home, then I should give her a warm wele. After all, she will be staying awhile…

  As a curiosity spirit, it is only natural that she seh curiosity and i. This is especially the case when it is directed at herself. ing who stacked these rocks… naturally, it was her than Curiosity herself!

  In other words, when Chara was curious about who left behind a stack of rocks, she had unknowingly directed i at her pursuer, iently self-rep her current location!

  Once you arrive, I’ll make it so that you won’t be able to so much as think of anything else, other than me…

  ***

  Another one? Who is out here stag rocks in the middle of nowhere…

  Chara had entered aack of rocks piled up one on top of the other. Like before, there was a slightly longer rock at the base pointing in the dire she was headed.

  Unbeknownst to Chara, the rock at the base of the stack wasn’t pointing in the exact dire she was going. This was only an illusion caused by her limited perception. Without realizing it, she ended up adjustiraveling dire slightly to match the roation.

  After passing three more rock stacks, she started to observe a gradual ge in the enviro. As she moved along, the number anically shaped stagmites and stactites started to reduce little by little.

  Soon, the forest of earth spikes had receded pletely. What took its pce was numerous polygonal, geometrically shaped earthen structs, glittering with light mana.

  With so much light mana trated in one pce, the numerous crystals were miraculously able to push back the darkness, weakly illuminating the underground cavern with a myriad of colors.

  For Chara, this was truly a sight to behold.

  Ever since waking up, she had only known darkness. Although she could sehe different elements of mana, this was not truly color. Those hues merely inform her of an objective impression indicative of what they represent. As a result, they are entirely devoid of the beauty aion that es from subjectivity and f one’s own impression.

  Up until this very moment, she hadn’t even been aware that she could sense color. As she floated away from the dark and monoe forest of earth spikes and stepped into the colorful world of diamonds and minerals, Chara was pletely mesmerized.

  The little spirit floated around full of i. She couldn’t help but notiuch farther she could see, pared to when she was surrounded by darkness. That’s right, “see” and not “sense”.

  Uwaaaaaa~!

  Right now, if someoo witness her unusual behavior, they might have been startled and thought that she was some kind of reclusive cave spirit who had seen light for the first time.

  As a myriad of crystals sparkled and twinkled around her, Chara couldn’t help but immediately start pining. What the heck!? Since when do I have vision? Aaa! This pce is so beautiful! Uuu… Why couldn’t I have spawned here instead?

  After cursing her bad luck for a bit longer, she tinued moving again. As she floated down the crystal cavern, she observed all kinds of unique and iing light-based visual phenomena. Ambient lighting, translucy, refles, refra, fresnel. If something intersected between light and crystals, then it could be found here.

  Already beiively familiar with how light worked, she was able to better appreciate and uand the differences between light and vision when juxtaposed with the intriguing dynamiana and perception.

  Hmm… With vision, I see much farther. However, it requires light, I ’t see through obstacles, and low amounts of mana are barely perceivable…

  After thinking up to her st point, she was reminded of something else. When she had first woken up and still hadn’t figured out how to sense mana, her senses were stantly clouded by darkness and an indistinct fog.

  Could it be that what was clouding up my vision was darkness and wind mana? Hm… Si’s not so dark here, maybe if I close off my perception, the same thing wouldn’t happen again…

  She wasn’t sure, but the idea sounded pusible. She was kind of curious, but si didn’t seem very important, she threw it to the back of her mind for ter.

  Actually. I wonder what my refle looks like…

  Chara looked around curiously. A little bit further up ahead there was a crystal pilr with a retively ft fa one side. She floated over to take a look.

  It wasn’t very polished. Moreover, because she was looking at it head-on, the refle was hard to see. heless, it was still clear enough to make out the sediment and various other rocks scattered throughout the floor.

  However, there was no refle of Chara. In fact, there wasn’t a single refle of anything maed. Only the glimmering of the other crystals and anything close enough to catch a bit of their illumination.

  Chara sighed. I guess I wouldn’t be a very good spirit if I had a refle…

  She was just about to float away in disappoi when a sudden gleam caught her eye before disappearing immediately. Slightly fused, she looked into the crystal. After another sed, there was anlimmer, however, it came from the crystal’s refle, not its interior.

  Armed, Chara quickly focused on the area behind her. Since her vision was 360, she didn’t o turn around. Off in the distance, she could see something barely visible tumbling in her general dire, itently catg the light at just the right a was a diamond!

  How— How did she find me?!

  In a panic, she started to look around in agitation. Looking for the treacherous curiosity spirit that tried to kidnap her. Yet, what she ended up finding instead was many tumbling diamonds, all traveling in parallel, in the same dire as the first one she spotted, as if bing the crystal cavern for an escaped spirit.

  Uwaaaaaaaa!! There’s o hide!

  Chara was pletely petrified.

  The diamonds kept tumbling in her dire. Closer and closer… until it was close enough that she could se at the edge of her perception.

  Not mindierror, not adjusting its path, the line of precious stones single-mindedly kept rolling. Until it passed her pletely… a going. And going… Until it pletely left her perception.

  Soon, the lineup of diamonds had tumbled far into the distanohe wiser that they had missed their target.

  Scared me to death!

  Chara was pletely indignant. She was nearly scared silly, and it turned out to be all over nothing.

  Hmph, that curiosity spirit only knows how to bully! She make a fool of me even when she’s not here! Just you wait till I’m big and strong! I’m going to beat you up so hard, that yoing to gh the eer cycle and turn into a rain cloud! And then—

  Before she was able to finish her thought, the surrounding mana began to stir.

  Inexplicably, the earth and light element mana started to flow away from her dire. Simultaneously, the ice, wind, and dark element mana started trating in the area above her, causing the ambient light to dim.

  “Found you~!”

  maury