Number One Dungeon Supplier

"ENOUGH! ENOUGH! I FORFEIT!" Sei shouted as the metal barrier cracked to see that Sei was hiding in a water bubble that had been formed only recently with literal foam and bubbles coming out from the big bubble itself. (It's a bubble on fire!!)

From the difference in temperature inside and outside of the said water barrier, the water bubble looked as if it was not able to maintain its shape. Sei was merely inside there because of the extensive wounds she had suffered. Muscles and bones were exposed from the burns and when she talked, it looked like her muscles were doing the talking.

Her eyes were also gone from the extreme heat that came from the explosion but the fact that her body remained intact despite everything else means that she was still able to hold against Pepper's explosions if Sei had fought Peppers at full strength at least half a year ago.

"You looked terrible, you sure you do not need to die? After all, you did mention that this is a dimensional instance and you should be able to resurrect again."

"I jest! I jest! Please forgive!" Sei said as she raised both of her hands as if to literally surrender in front of Ayse.

"What do you wish to do, Master? A temporary verbal contract would be better than nothing." Ayse still has her rifle aimed at Sei in case she decides to go back from her words.

"A temporary verbal contract for now, get her body back to the way it was and I will talk to Ryuli, not Sei." Jin agreed to it and thus the System began talking to Sei about the terms and conditions while Ayse was still holding the rifle barrel towards her. After a series of 'Yes, I agree', Sei and Ryuli had temporarily been inducted into the System and they teleported both Jin and Sei into the Luxury Healing Instance to get Sei treated for her wounds.

Milk came in and saw the horror that Sei had presented.

"Wait a minute, isn't this…?" Milk then saw that Jin was in his System Rider suit and Milk took a sniff at him. "This is Ayse, isn't it?"

"Yeap. And before you say anything, Yeap." While Ayse did not show her expression, Milk could already see that Ayse was smirking.

"Sigh. Okay. Give me a moment to heal her, you erm… guys can wait outside." Milk did not know how to address the System Rider since there were two people in it. The System Rider went out for a while and sat on a bench to rest as Jin started to praise Ayse.

"Wow… Ayse. I totally did not expect that."

"It was a long term side project for me to properly enhance Pepper's lack of …hmm how do we put it, mobility after casting?" Ayse replied.

"The crystals can be used for general energy consumption but we figured that if I can allow Peppers to have a backup in case her one explosion does not work, she would not be entirely useless," Ayse said as she picked up the bullet from the loaded rifle and allowed Jin to see it properly.

"Can it cause an explosion like right here and now?" Jin was worried that it was volatile in nature and Ayse laughed.

"No, Master. It cannot. I specifically built this with safety in mind. The rifle is the mechanism that allowed those explosions to go through. Without the rifle, this crystal is merely an embodiment of a highly dense magical energy. In short, Peppers can also take any of these crystals and use it to quickly replenish her mana in the event she really needs it rather than taking from the universal mana pool."

"Oooo, that's cool! Then she can do other magic if she wants to."

"That is akin to forcing her to eat vegetables if you want her to cast other magic spells." Ayse and Jin laughed.

"But no, we are actually keeping a huge stock of this in case something happens to the universal mana pool. Like if Peppers suddenly got cut off from the mana pool? Or what if the universe mana pool actually had a depth and it dried up? What about the universal mana pool is corrupted and any mage using it would be corrupted too?"

"That's quite a lot of hypotheticals to consider."

"SO FAR. Soooo Far, those situations were the extreme kind but upon learning that you people have internal magic circuits while other worlds tapped onto the universal mana pool I began to question why you guys have internal magic circuits instead. Did the universal mana pool leave you guys out or was it a natural unique trait that you Earth humans possessed? We have not traveled far and wide enough to know but I like to assume things."

"Things like you guys might have been cut off from the mana pool and thus have to create your own set of magic circuits to continue using magic. The fact that half of your world does that while the other half does not make me believe that this theory might hold some truth."

"So, you are doing this for Peppers? And ehh as well as those people who have to rely on the universal mana pool to get their magic powered up?" Jin asked

"Yes. Like we said before a long time ago, other people have limits to how much access they have to the mana pool, but Peppers had unlimited access to it. Without the pool, they would be useless. Thus, this crystal collection is merely a stop gap measure when things turn to shit and give us time to analyse. Maybe like… The pool is forbidden because a group of celestials is holding onto it. We just have to kill them and problem solved? Or something even more hideous. You get what I mean." Ayse explained and Milk suddenly popped out saying that it is okay to visit her now.