CHAPTER 48: SUBSPACE

When it was noon, the group of beastwomen all departed, heading back to their homes for lunch. Serena did the same, having to carry a tired, but happy Kiro.

The cub excitedly told her all about the new friends he made which made her glad. She’d been worried about him settling in well in this village, but it seemed things were working out as she hoped for them to.

By the time the pair of siblings got to the hut, Kiro had talked himself to sleep. Serena let him sleep, deciding to just eat later on with him.

Theo already told her to eat without him, saying he’d hunt something before Rico and him returned from harvesting materials for the fence. Rico and Theo still weren’t back, so after Serena put Kiro down to nap, she decided to test out the subspace she’d been rewarded.

She hadn’t gotten much of a chance yesterday, but now that she had some alone time, this was the perfect chance. Serena went over to her things and in a low voice said, "Activate Subspace."

[Activating Subspace...]

[12%...]

[69%...]

[100%...]

[Activated]

As soon as the message appeared, everything went blindingly white. Serena instinctively closed her eyes before opening them a second later to find herself standing in a tiny white room.

There was not a single door or window making it feel like she was inside some kind of box. Not to mention standing on her tippy toes would have her hitting the ceiling. A new system notification appeared before her.

[Level 1 Subspace had been unlocked]

[Subspace can be used to store non-living things for unlimited amounts of time and only the host may enter inside. Perishable goods will not go off when inside the subspace. Host can add items to the subspace by visualizing them here. To retrieve an item, imagine removing it.]

[Space Limit: 100 Items]

[Subspace can be upgraded through missions and coins. Would you like to upgrade subspace for 500 coins?]

[Yes] [No]

Serena pressed on the no button, feeling it was a bit expensive to upgrade right now. It was half her mission coin reward gone and she didn’t know how much the subspace would upgrade. She wasn’t going to gamble on this one.

For now, she could make do with a hundred items and upgrade as she needed. Hopefully through missions because she needed to save as many coins as possible.

"Leave subspace." Serena ordered, satisfied with the space.

The light flashed around her and a second later, Serena found herself back inside the hut exactly where she had been standing. She did feel a bit dizzy from all the movement, but it disappeared as quickly as it came.

Serena soon turned her attention to her things, slowly adding them to the space one by one. She left a few unimportant things around, like animal furs, not wanting to draw alarm to missing items.

It was a bit difficult at the start, but once Serena got the hang of it adding items to the space was easy. Once she had added everything into the subspace, Serena practiced taking them out for a bit.

***

By the time it was dusk, Serena, Kiro and Theo were heading to the village center for the bonfire party. Theo had come back mid afternoon and he and Rico had managed to get half the fence up.

Serena tried to help, but the two males wouldn’t let her.

Eventually, she gave up and after the beastmen spent two more hours weaving the willow stems between the wooden poles they planted around the perimeter, they had called it a day to prepare for the bonfire.

As the trio walked to the village center where the party was being held, a strong smell of smoke along with the scent of food whiffed through the air, making Serena feel quite hungry.

She and Kiro hadn’t eaten lunch thanks to her decision to eat when the cub woke up. Who knew he’d only wake up an hour or so before they needed to leave.

Still, it gave her a great excuse to try some of the food prepared for the bonfire party.

The party was in full swing by the time they arrived, making Serena’s ears ring a little from all the noise. She knew they’d be loud, but didn’t expect it to be this loud. Scanning the area she spotted a few familiar faces.

As did Kiro, who immediately tugged at her hand and exclaimed, "Sister, my friends are there! Can I go play?"

Serena glanced over to where he was pointing, pursing her lips. She didn’t mind him playing with his friends. The problem was the crowd. It was much more chaotic than earlier today with the whole village here.

Sure, the place was relatively safe and she didn’t need to worry about kidnapping, but Kiro getting injured was another matter. She could easily lose track of him in this crowd and possibly not know whether he was okay or not.

Before she could say anything though, another voice called out, "Well, isn’t that Serena and little Kiro!"

Serena turned to her left to see Wilma and Fay walking over to her. Wilma was waving at her with a huge grin on her face, making Serena wonder if she’d done too good of a job being friendly.

"Evening Wilma and Fay." Serena politely greeted when the two beastwomen got to Serena. "This is... my mate, Theo."

While they hadn’t done anything to make things official, Theo and Serena decided to keep up the pretense that they were mates. It made explaining things much less complicated.

Fay merely nodded her head nervously in greeting while Wilma exclaimed, "It’s nice to meet you."

"Likewise." Theo murmured.

"One of my mates are watching the cubs with one of Emma’s mates. Kiro should be fine." Wilma stated, turning to Serena and giving her a knowing look. "They’ll keep the cubs out of any trouble."

"Guess, it’s fine then." Serena sighed. She then turned to Kiro and murmured, "Don’t cause trouble and have fun okay."

Kiro eagerly nodded his head before he ran off to the other cubs. Once he was gone, Wilma turned back to Theo and Serena and asked, "Theo, you won’t mind us stealing Serena away would you?"