[Celestial Repository Invocation—Rank I]

Effect: Connect your physical manifestation of Celestial Hoarding with the Aetherrealm through opening a personalized Aetherfold. Objects stored in this realm provide the same attribute boosts as those in your physical storage.

At Rank I, you are allowed to store 10 objects in the Aetherfold.

Aetheric Reaction Equation: 50% Casting Intention + 50% Mnemonic 'Access Celestial Repository' → Activate Aetherfold

50% Casting Intention + 50% Mnemonic 'Lock Celestial Repository' → Seal Aetherfold

Now back in his dorm room, with his roommate Greg soundly asleep, Fabrisse read and re-read the description of the skill to make sure he didn't misunderstand it.

Does this mean I now no longer have to stuff twelve rocks into my different back pockets?

Not like he'd ever minded it before, but after carrying the quartz for a while, he'd feel his back protesting and whining for some rest. Carrying a heavy load all the time might be the reason why he lost focus so quickly after casting a few consecutive spells, too.

He did what the System instructed: focus his intent on the skill and murmured the mnemonics:

"Access Celestial Repository."

Then he waited.

No aetherfold warped the space around him. His dorm room remained stubbornly ordinary, with the same unwashed mug on the desk and the same annoying snore from Greg.

Fabrisse frowned. That can't be right. The composition was absurdly simple. Fifty percent intention and fifty percent mnemonic. A child could do that.

He glanced at the text again and re-read the equation. He raised his hand this time, tracing a simple diagnostics pattern just in case the gesture mattered.

"Access Celestial Repository."

Greg's snore got louder. That was his only response.

[SYSTEM WARNING: Celestial Repository Already Engaged]

Huh? Then where could it be? His frown grew deeper, and he rubbed the bridge of his nose as he kept this voice as low as he could, "Alright. Let's test this logically."

Fabrisse reached into one of his robes for a Stupenstone, only to brush against nothing. His brow creased. His Inventory wasn't full, so maybe he'd left this pocket empty?

He dug further, fingers plunging down until he should've felt the bottom seam. But there wasn't one.

His hand stopped. For a second, he sat very still. Slowly, he pulled the hand back up, pinched the fabric, and tugged it open wider.

Instead of cloth, a strange, translucent pallor stared back at him. It seemed almost liquid fishbelly-white, like he was staring into a puddle of viscous milk, only that it wasn't milk but something decidedly non-milk. When he dipped a finger in, the surface parted for him without resistance.

He gasped. The Aetherfold mouth is . . . in my pocket? That's so . . . actually . . . that's really clever. Nobody would suspect if he simply dug his hand into his pocket and dropped stuff in there. He just needed to not drop ten rocks into the same pocket at the same time.

He checked the other pockets just to be sure, and fair enough, those ones were completely normal. The left-side pocket still held the three Trinav quartz, while one of the right-side ones still housed the Lodestone.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

So only one pocket had turned into an extradimensional storage gate.

[SYSTEM NOTE: You must leave one slot in your Inventory empty to access the Aetherrealm.]

Geez, thanks. You could've warned me earlier. So . . . what now?

The Eidralith didn't answer, so he had to use his brain. If the wording was to be trusted, then he could transfer his rocks from his normal inventory to the Aetherrealm and the boosting value should stay the same. To demonstrate this, he removed every rock from his robe pockets and only kept the exact twelve Stupenstones in his satchel.

[Celestial Hoarding: 12/12]

[Satchel Inventory: 12/25]

He cautiously plucked one of the stones from his satchel and dropped it into the fishbelly-white pocket. The moment the stone touched the surface, it sank without a sound. The fold just swallowed it without ceremony.

[Celestial Hoarding: 12/12]

[Satchel Inventory Slots: 11/25]

[Aetherrealm Slots: 1/10]

Fabrisse's eyes widened. He reached for another rock and fed it into the fold.

[Celestial Hoarding: 12/12]

[Satchel Inventory Slots: 10/25]

[Aetherrealm Slots: 2/10]

It works like intended. My Celestial Hoarding skill stays intact.

One by one, the rest followed: the rare Stupenstone, the strength ones, the normal ones. By the end of it, all that was left in the satchel was Gravelkin and a normal Stupenstone.

[Celestial Hoarding: 12/12]

[Satchel Inventory Slots: 2/25]

[Aetherrealm Slots: 10/10]

He stood up carefully, slinging the now much lighter satchel across his shoulder. It didn't drag him down anymore; no more uneven weight tugging at his robes, no clattering of stones knocking together whenever he moved.

Activating the Auditory Dissipation Field to make sure he wouldn't bother Greg's sleep (it was important to him), Fabrisse began pacing. He made a slow circuit around the narrow dorm room, then another, then another, testing the balance.

After five solid minutes, he stopped and exhaled. His pulse had risen slightly from the quiet exertion, but his shoulder didn't so much as twinge. There wasn't that annoying [FP Drop +15%] notification flashing like during that fight at the North Pond anymore.

"Huh," he whispered, almost disbelieving. "So that's what normal feels like."

He gave the pocket that now led to his personal Aetherrealm a little pat. "You and I," he murmured, "are going to make training a lot less miserable."

He sank into his bed once more, and was about to lie down when the realization hit him—a few seconds too late, like most good realizations tended to.

Wait. This is actually even more brilliant.

The Aetherfold didn't just save him pocket space, it also nullified weight. Anything stored inside didn't exist on the physical plane at all, which meant he could, theoretically, carry the Aetheric Practice Weights home without destroying his shoulders in the process. He could even store them, train with them in private, and put them back when done without any strain.

In fact, if each item took three slots, that meant he could haul three heavy things home at once before even reaching capacity.

He ran the math again in his head just to be sure. No, it really checked out.

For once, the System had given him something that wasn't just an overcomplicated manual or a sarcastic pop-up. This was actually practical.

He smoothed the blanket, tucking the hem under the mattress just the way that made the whole bed look less like a collapsed map and more like a place you could actually sleep. He folded his robe over the chair, set his satchel by the bed so the strap wouldn't snag in the night, and slid the small lamp down to its lowest glow. All the while, a question pinged through his mind.

How do I best exploit this?

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