The Culling of Man: A litrpg adventure (Peril's Prodigy Book 1) by Craig Kobayashi (ereader android TXT) 📕

A black disk appeared in front of her and she began to pull out empty bottles one after another, handing them to the Necrologist with one hand and reaching into the void for another with the other. In total, she summoned six empty bottles from her inventory and Garath filled each with the high quality water streaming freely from the artesian well. Garath was tightening the lid on the last bottle when something occurred to him.

"Sharon," he said to the Naturist - who had found an empty five gallon jug that must have been abandoned near the well. "Have you used your Items panel to store food before this morning?"

"Of course I have," she said, grabbing the blue-transparent jug by its neck and dragging it toward the flowing water. "I've been putting a lot of things in there. That panel is better than any purse I've ever heard of."

Athios silently agreed, vehemently.

"Have you taken any food out since storing it?"

"No," she told him. "I'm holding onto them for a rainy day."

"Hmmmm," Garath hmm'd thoughtfully. He had been curious about the limitations of the Items panel and figured it was a good time for a quick test. First, he triggered his Inspect Ability on the filled bottle in his hand.

Bottle of Water

Type: Liquid

Quality: Superb

Item Score: 3

Volume:12oz

Rarity: N/A

***This high quality water was filtered by the Earth itself. You get the feeling that drinking it will invigorate your body and mind.

He then accessed his Items panel, wondering if he was wearing the same vacant expression he had just seen on Athios, and pushed the bottle through the black disk and into his inventory. It appeared as a little blue bottle icon on one of the grid spaces immediately but he closed his inventory and waited a few seconds before summoning and Inspecting the item again.

Bottle of Water

Type: Liquid

Quality: Superb

Item Score: 3

Volume:12oz

Rarity: N/A

***This high quality water was filtered by the Earth itself. You get the feeling that drinking it will invigorate your body and mind.

Garath gave an internal woot as the Items panel jumped ahead of the Profile panel for his second favorite (both below BeastScape). He unscrewed the clear plastic cap and took a long, satisfying gulp of the ice cold water. The purity of the water was definitely apparent based only on the taste, that much he expected. What he didn't expect was the small buff icon in the shape of a water droplet that appeared in the bottom right corner of his vision. He looked closer and more information was provided.

Hydrated: You have been invigorated by Artesian Well Water. Your maximum Mana is increased by 5% and your Mana regeneration has increased by (1) per second.

Time Remaining: 59 minutes, 58 seconds.

The Necrologist passed the information on to the Party, who each drank the well water to gain the buff in turn. Garath was pleased to see that the duration of the buff refreshed to a full hour each time he took a sip.

Sharon had filled the five gallon jug and was looking down at it with one hand held thoughtfully under her chin.

"There's got to be some way to get this into my panels," she speculated.

Garath and Athios stood together, watching her think while Warrion - apparently bored of waiting - equipped his daggers and was practicing spinning them around his index fingers. Sharon made several fruitless attempts to fit the five gallon jug into the hand-sized black disk, standing and backing away to look at it again with her hand held beneath her chin after each failed attempt.

"It's no good," Sharon finally decided. "Maybe if I could lift it, but I can't."

Having recently increased his Strength Attribute, Garath jumped at a reason to utilize and feel out his improved muscles. "Here, I'll pick it up, you open your inventory and I'll try to put it in."

He wrapped his fingers around the neck of the heavy jug and hoisted it easily into the air. He would have been able to lift it easily enough before he had dumped the three points into Strength, but there was no denying the obvious difference as he held it, one-handed, out toward the vacant eyed Naturist. When her eyes refocused, a hand-sized black disk appeared in front of her and she took a step forward - forcing the disk to occupy the same space as the filled water jug. The small black disk moved unhindered through the blue plastic containment vessel and into its contents. Sharon frowned.

"Try this, step back then put your hand on the jug and then try again," suggested Garath.

She did as instructed, backing away until the dimensional disk was once again outside the jug, then reached out to put her hand just below Garath's against the smooth plastic container. Again, she stepped toward the jug with her black disk between her chest and her outstretched hand. This time the black disk expanded as it reached the blue plastic exterior, growing in circumference until the jug disappeared into the tear in space. Once safely stored inside, the disk shrank to its regular size and disappeared at Sharon's command.

"How did you know that would work?" Athios asked.

"Lucky guess," Garath explained. In truth, he had read speculations on the Items panel in some detail on the World forums. In particular, one post gave him the idea - a guy named Tallahassee had commented on a popular forum that he had managed to get an entire box of Twinkies into his Items panel. The comment didn't say how, but Garath had been considering exactly how that may work ever since.

"Lucky indeed," said Athios.

"Lucky for now at least," said Garath. He laughed without explanation.

"And just what exactly is that supposed to mean?" Sharon wanted to know.

"Well we got it in there, hopefully your luck holds when you try to pull it out."

With step one the journey complete, the invigorated Party shifted again into the form of crows and took to the sky. Their next destination, the dungeon coined Aquawood