Chapter Forty-Five

Harmony's eyes adjusted to a line of entrants, waiting for their turn to enter the chamber.

"You were there longer than Loap. I'll have to recalculate the number of uses a day once I get more examples to average out." Gareth half said to himself as the next one entered.

"Where's Loap?" Harmony asked.

"At the Obelisk, but you should go get some camp stew before heading over. Don't think we haven't noticed that without Adric to remind you, sometimes eating slips your mind." Gareth quipped.

The late-night meal was a mostly joyous scene. Eric had his perpetual scowl as he chatted with members of his clique, such as Yennifer or Ming, scheming for the next opportunity to vote her off. Other than that, winning brought good cheer. "We did it, everyone!"

"Huzzah!" Most returned to her announcement.

This time, Harmony took one of the larger spider bowls and filled it to the brim. Maybe if she needed to eat more food to appease her armor? The stew smelled like spiced chicken, rice, and a tangy yogurt sauce. Farming Kenny kept the food well-seasoned. Carrying the bowl with her to the Obelisk, she took a few bites as she traveled. Loap chewed on one of the long white roots they put in the soup as she stared up at it. Her armor was stashed away and replaced with her now almost ever-present nudity. The Obelisk listed the completion times for the red tribe currently.

"Does your warren all eschew clothing?" Harmony asked as she approached.

"Oh, they'd be more shocked than Tyler at this. Hopping mad, even. But they aren't here, are they?"

A rebellious little bunny, then. The beast kin generally used their language skills to avoid conversations about her home when it came up. Too busy to pry. The woman's experience with growth chambers likely surpassed Owsley's well-researched knowledge of academies she wanted to apply to.

"How accurate is the information in the chambers?"

"Did it say something worrying about Adric's condition?" Loap asked. "I'm afraid mine was in my native language. Translations always lack some nuances."

It was more the undead label, but she couldn't say that out loud. Then there was other information. Night, starving, which led to the question of whether the armor was a living being. "Something like that."

"Mostly. Chambers are rewards or gifts from higher beings. They bounce in time with those beings' perspective of a person's skills, levels, and other aspects. Like an inspection skill mapped out on an item and then displayed to the users. Eveningtide Academy built its own, but I wouldn't trust that one. Ultimately, it is a diagnostic tool, but as with language, words can have different meanings. It's true to what it believes is true. That does not mean it is perfectly accurate or knowledgeable. I'm pretty sure there is a way to make our chamber provide more information."

"How?"

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Loap stroked one of her ears. "Working on that now. Unlocking more of the obelisk. Winning more contests. Do I have permission to interact deeper with the obelisk? I already see changes I assume are from other tribes working on theirs. I'm pretty sure they are paired with each other."

That wasn't exactly asking. "Fine. You have permission to unlock its secrets." Accurate or not, the chamber could get her more answers.

Loap lept in jiggly glee.

Putting on a confident face, Harmony took a round of personally congratulating everyone on their victory. The words came easily. They deserved to be seen. What was a leader but a servant to the people? Only after that did she depart for her shelter.

After the long day, the competition, the fight, and the chamber and social rounds, Harmony was exhausted; just not enough. Too many questions raced through her mind, combating physical and mental exhaustion. Unequipping Night, Harmony paid attention to her bonded item as it disappeared and left her naked. It nestled within [Small Armor] on a level she couldn't detect. Eating all that food only left her feeling bloated and overstuffed.

"Any ideas?" She asked Hyacinth, who'd followed her to the shelter.

"Gweep."

She'd already fed him the impression of what was going on through [Familiar Bond]. His response, starving, was another form of hunger, and to solve that, you needed to eat. But what was her armor hungering for if not food? She flooded the paired skill with [Renew Spirit]. The healing energy recharged the skill and eased stress from the time in the stronghold and the battle with Felix. Did it do anything for Night? Repeat the process and enter the growth chamber to check for a change.

As she slid her bed time clothes, the spiderweb crafted gown ripped. "Ashes." The delicate cloth only lasted a few days before falling to pieces. "I'm going through these quicker than all those clothes destroyed when I got spooked."

That hadn't been an issue for a long time. Trading outfits in an emergency was useful, but with planning, she'd equip Night while naked before heading out. Could it be that simple?

Re-equipping Night, the nightgown disappeared. That she could feel inside of her. It was uncomfortable, like it usually was when she changed with clothes on, like it wasn't supposed to be inside her. Like she ate something gross. [Recall] compared this feeling with the other times. This was clearly the worst. Avoiding that feeling had been one of the reasons why she switched to planned usage of her armor. Maybe it was wrong to listen to those feelings? Putting Night away brought the gown back as a pile of white goop smeared over her body. "Ugh."

If only it were blood. That would have been quicker to clean. It took three applications of [Manipulate Dead] to peel the residue off, and she felt raw enough that she was sure a layer of skin went with it.

Not enough of a test. Time for more. The broken armor from today would take almost as much effort to make a new one as to repair the battle damage, and then splitting it with her unplanned growth spurt added insult to the injury it had incurred. The design was meant to shore up holes from the armor's changes that left it little more than pasted-on plates of armor and way too much skin. [Mend]ing it back together so she could slide it back on, and without the covering Night brought, she felt a little ridiculous wearing what was essentially a bare chested open crotch harness. Worse than any outfits she'd seen worn at any of the brothels. "Only have to wear it for a second." Night snapped back into place, pulling the outfit inside herself.

This was also a gut-twisting feeling. Less annoying than the spider-web gown. She lay back and let the sturdier material sit inside herself, filling the space that usually kept Night comfortably hidden in [Small Armor]. There were still several elemental crystals embedded in it. The most explosive ones she'd used in the stronghold, not to say there wasn't risk of energies merging inside of her, a part of her willpower was ready to use [Stride Before the Fall] if she needed to. The copy never carried anything over other than Night, and that included the outfits stored internally.

The feeling grew more uncomfortable over time, but nothing that hinted at her chest bursting open. Storing Night again, the harness came back in pieces. The spider bits little more than threads and elemental crystals in shards, drained of all energy. Was that a sign? The lack of any answer wasn't enough to fight off exhaustion. Now that she was out of outfits, Harmony let sleep take her.

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