NOVEL NEXT Chapter 021 – Go big or go home
The group had spent the entire day running around at high speed, which had taken quite a toll on Anna and Chloe especially. The two weren’t used to running around so much and were either quite lazy and/or had next to no stamina, which caused the duo to immediately pass out when everyone decided to end the day around a campfire in the middle of nowhere.
"Whoa, why is it so dark here?" Sophia, Steph, and Aura arrived a little late in the cottage inside the domain as they were collecting some tree samples for new biomes when the blonde noticed that their home was nearly pitch-black.
“Err…” At the same time, Maya came walking down the stairs while awkwardly scratching her cheek. She looked a little guilty for some reason, too.
“What did you do?” The tiger didn’t like her expression.
“Sophia,” Mira followed slightly after the cat-girl. “I think you made the safe zone around the cottage a little too small." Saying so, she walked towards the entrance door and opened it.
“Oh.” The tiger joined her and quickly noticed the issue when looking out the door. The rainforest had completely swallowed the cottage, and only a small dome around it was not covered in thick and overgrown plants. It was, at best, 15 meters in each direction before one needed a machete to keep going. Or magic. The same was for above the house, as the massive trees had also grown over it. “Well, I only thought about the mansion alone not getting destroyed." She looked a little awkward. “We really should teach magic how to interpret things more on its… their own! I don’t like thinking in a detailed manner to make it work!”
“We should really not.” The overseer shook her head. “Things would get out of hand basically in an instant.”
“Sounds fun!” Sophia liked the idea. “The same also happens if I don’t add enough details, so the result would be the same, anyway!”
“How about you put more effort in, then?”
“Not what I wanted to hear!” She was not a fan of Mira’s suggestion. “Well, I guess I’ll be doing some extensive gardening tomorrow.” Sophia looked outside again. “I like the idea of being surrounded by an overgrown forest, but this is a bit much.”
“I can still go wild on my project, right?!” Steph didn’t like the direction the conversation was going.
“Sure!” The blonde smiled at her. “Your biome will be thousands of kilometers away, so it will be impossible to affect the cottage here.”
“I’ll do my best to prove your assumption wrong!” Her little sister was very motivated.
“Don’t you dare!”
“I absolutely dare!”
“I’ll send Maya and Ari after you if you don’t behave, you know?”
“Anything but that!” The dog-girl started panicking after hearing the threat of her older sister. “Those two lunatics have no idea how to hold back and will destroy my precious work!”
"For that alone, I'll do exactly that, whether you overdo it or not.” The cat-girl was not amused and glared at Steph a little. “I’ll burn everything to the ground!”
“Ah.”
"I think I'll start with my biome a little further away from Steph's." Aura didn't want to be caught in the crossfire. "Just to be sure."
“That’s a good idea.” Maya smiled at her. “I have no idea how to hold back, after all.”
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After the topic was over, in one way or another, the group took it easy for the rest of the evening. As Anna, Chloe, and Ari were already out for the count, and Maya felt quite tired after having run all day, as well, they kept it short and went to bed in a timely manner.
The following morning started a little late, but once Sophia, Steph, Aura, and Chloe finished breakfast, the four immediately got going to play around in the blonde's domain.
“I can’t believe Anna’s still in bed because she can’t move!” The pink fox sounded rather smug when she said that. “So weak!”
“…” Aura and the sisters just looked at her while slowly shaking their heads.
“What?” She didn’t like their reaction.
“You sure are happy about your heightened healing and recovery that you were gifted by Mira and Fey when you were born, which has been boosted even more when my dear sister increased your magic by many times, huh?” Sophia put a hand on Chloe’s shoulder and smiled at her. “You know, I’m planning to let Steph with her biome a few thousand of kilometers away from the cottage here in my domain. How about we run there rather than using my portals to go there instantly? Let's see if you can still recover from that overnight."
“Sounds fun!” Steph and Aura had nothing against the plan.
“I AM DEEPLY SORRY!” Chloe immediately started panicking. “I won’t be so smug about it again! I won’t be able to recover from that at all! I’d be dead long before we arrive!”
“Ah, well, I can’t let that happen.” Sophia scratched her cheek while glancing at her sister. “I have the feeling that Steph here would be slightly upset with me, then.”
“Slightly, yes.” Her expression indicated that it would be more than just slightly, though.
“I guess you’ll live for another day.” The blonde smiled at Chloe. “Not that I’d ever let that happen, anyway. I like you way too much, after all.”
“G-Good.” The fox still wasn’t entirely sure how to feel. “Let’s just go! And with that, I mean taking one of your portals!”
“Sure~.” She had nothing against the plan and quickly opened one of her purple portals in front of the four. “It definitely is nice being able to use them by just thinking about the destination inside my domain. Let’s go to Aura’s place first.”
“Great idea!” The wolf liked that.
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“And here we are~.” After they stepped through the portal, Sophia held out her arms while overlooking the usual all-white nothingness of her domain.
“Where are we?” Aura tilted her head. “It’s impossible to orientate yourself in here.”
“The cottage is exactly 500 kilometers in this direction.” The blonde pointed to her right.
“How do you know?” The fox sounded slightly dubious about her claim. “I don’t want to be rude, but your directional sense is in the negatives.”
“I’ve never been this attacked in my life before!” She was deeply hurt by Chloe’s accusation.
“Shut up, sis.” Steph just slowly shook her head while looking at her.
“Hehe~.” Sophia let out a chuckle before continuing. “Anyway, I can feel everything inside my domain. I just know where it is. It's super weird but also pretty handy.”
“I can imagine!” Aura sounded impressed.
“I hope 500 kilometers is enough!” The blonde got a little more serious when she faced the wolf. “I like the idea of a massive pine forest and just how amazing it would smell, but the usual climate of these places is a little too temperate for me to be too close to it!”
“Sure thing, my dear.” Aura nodded a few times. “I want it to be as big as the eye can see and then some, but 100 kilometers in each direction should be more than big enough for that. Even if not, I could still expand it in the direction away from the cottage.”
“Sounds like a plan to me!” The tiger gave her the okay for the biome. “Here you go~.” While saying so, the area started to fill with purple sparkles before a 50 by 50 meters big area with two big pine trees, a few saplings, and some other greenery on a ten-meter-high patch of dirt appeared.”
“Perfect! Thank you very much!” The wolf was raring to go.
“Okay~.” Sophia liked her enthusiasm. "Alrighty, I'll leave the portal to the cottage open so that you can return whenever you’re done playing!”
“Thank you very much!”
“With this stage being prepared, let’s head out, girls!” She energetically raised her arm while smiling at Steph and Chloe as she opened yet another portal.
“Let’s go!” The duo did the same, and they stepped through the portal.
“Okay, dearest sister of mine, how nuts do you want to go?”
“YES!” Steph was very motivated.
“Why did I even ask?” The blonde rolled her eyes in return. “Anyway, we are pretty much exactly 3,000 kilometers away from the cottage, which is in that direction.” She pointed to her left. “That should be far enough to keep you away, right?”
“Well, if I hold back and focus on the other direction, it might barely work out…”
“Do you want to create a whole continent?!” Sophia got loud.
“Go big or go home!”
“Fair point, I guess.” There was little she could say. “Though, massive biomes are great and all, but just one biome the size of a whole continent, I don’t know. Kinda monotonous, if not outright boring, don't you think?"
“Sure, but a whole continent with many different cold biomes would not!”
“You’re the worst!” Sophia was not a fan of her plan.
“I love you, too!”
“Anyway, here you go…” She gave up and took out the patch for Steph they borrowed from the forest the day before. In fact, it was three of them. Each was the same size as Aura's, but it was just one for fir trees, one for spruce, and another for pine. The dog-girl wanted to have different needle-leaf trees, after all.
“Thank you very much!”
“Chloe, what about you?” Looking tired already, the blonde faced her instead.
"I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. I mainly wanted to come with you because I'm a big fan of Steph's continent of eternal coldness and wanted to help her out a little at the start.”
“You’re the best!” The dog-girl was happy about the support.
"Ah, I see. You two go big. I go home." It was too much for Sophia.
“Okay!”
Afterward, the tiger opened another portal leading back to the cottage and left without saying another word.
