It was the third day of Kat's journey and she finally found an issue with her memory. This one wasn't quite so scary to her, but it was a relief in some ways and a disappointment in others.
When she started with the list, it wasn't so bad. Arranged in alphabetical order, Kat simply glanced over the entries looking for things she recognized, and found… shockingly little that was familiar. This was to be expected because she had asked for the WHOLE list of races… which in hindsight was a mistake in a number of ways.
She sent off a message to everyone as was her nightly routine now, and got a confirmation from the others they'd seen it and that they'd start looking at the options. Kat wished she'd warned them properly at the time.
It was around lunchtime when it finally sunk in for Kat that this might have been a mistake to do things the way she had chosen. She finally ran into the list of elves, and realised, with a horrible sinking feeling that her list was much more than thorough.
It had each and every elemental variation of elf listed, as well as all the various half, quarter, and sometimes even lesser combinations that existed and more. By the time Kat was half way through the elf section, she shut it down and tried to go over her memories of the past twenty-four hours looking through names and found it a tangled mess.
If her normal memories were like a series of perfectly organised filling cabinets with broad categories for the cabinet and more specific for each drawer, then the memories of the list of names was like someone had looked at all of the files, died slightly on the inside… and then threw them out of the window. Before finding out from their boss that they were important, and so dragged the mangled remains back inside and found that some of the papers were mixed up in the wrong folders.
So of course, instead of doing the responsible thing and trying to put everything back where it should be, they walked up to their boss, threw the files in her face, and walked out the door without looking back. So when Kat went to find out what races she'd already looked over, she knew that the information was there but finding anything specific was going to be a time-consuming process, not only to organise things, but to clean up the massive mess that had been left behind as well.
*Let's just… file all that away and never look at it again. Even my slightly faded memories from when I was human are easier to look through. A bit of dust on the files is nothing compared to setting it on fire, mixing the ashes together and then saying that everything has been sorted, because it's all a pile of ash now.*
*I probably asked for the wrong thing anyway. I should have specified that I wanted the list of races Lily could be changed into rather than just.* Kat brushed the concern easily out of her mind though. She only asked for the list to give her something to do while walking, and wanted Lily to make the final decision. Even just learning about the issue with her 'perfect' memory was a big windfall for a 'small' amount of work.
Of course, the only person who would think that reading a near endless list of names for a day straight without stopping would count as a small amount of work, was, interestingly enough, Lily, who would probably read the whole thing twice over just to be safe.
It was shortly after Kat finished identifying the issues with her memory and around an hour after lunch when the scenery finally changed. At the very edge of Kat's vision, she could see the trees starting to recede, and at the end of the road, it split cleanly in two, with one going to the left and the other to the right, preventing them from continuing forward.
Of course, Kat's eyes were extremely good, and because she wasn't even running at standard human speeds, the night fell before she was actually able to make it to the crossing she spotted. It really drove home just how much better her eyes had become. *I… I didn't realise. My upgrades are more significant than I've been thinking. I can see basically forever. When you run at super human speeds as well, you don't notice just how far away everything is.*
As Xiang sat down Kat, decided to broach the topic. "We aren't too far from a split in the road Xiang. Do you know which way we need to go once we reach it?"
"Ah… no? Which way do they go?" asked Xiang
"Well, left and right, or North and South I guess" said Kat
"Hmmm. I suppose we should head North then. I've heard that the Shattered Flame Sect has its main base in the far North, so if we at least head in that direction we should be able to find something, even if it's just a more concrete direction to go in" said Xiang
Kat was gobsmacked. *Sooo there is a brain in that head of his. This might just be the first good idea that he's ever had since I've met him. It almost brings a tear to my eye to see such fantastic progress.*
Kat let out a sharp gust of air in place of a laugh before nodding at Xiang and hopping into the trees. These ones were a bit small, and it took some looking to find a good spot for her to rest but there was still enough to manage it before too long. Xiang, of course, had yet more crackers, and Kat started wondering if he even had any other options, but quickly moved onto composing her daily letter.
Sylvie got the standard, hello and short rundown, but Lily got a more in-depth explanation of what she was doing and her recommendation that she limit the list a bit in some way, explaining how it was beyond even her supernatural memory.
Of course, the reply she got much later on made her smile and remember that not everyone was an idiot like Xiang.
Hi Kat, once again thanks for the update. I was actually rather careful in my wording when I requested the list from D.E.M.O.N.S. I was also warned that the main reason I was allowed to even view it at all was because it was needed for that token of yours. Apparently neither of us are properly cleared for it really, or at least I'm certainly not as just a Rank 2 Accomplice.
Anyway, I didn't need to remember it all, I've started to make a big list. There are a few races I can just discard instantly, like those that NEED to live underwater or even a couple that I found out about that can only survive in the vacuum of space. So, I quickly made it so that things needed to be able to breathe air.
Then I removed anything that was taller than fifteen feet tall. I can deal with being inhuman, though I've been making a note about those, the main issue is that I'm sure I'll still be spending at least some time at home on Earth, and fifteen feet seems like the absolute limit.
Everything over eight feet I do however leave a mark signalling that as a negative against the race. Oh, and I also made sure that none of the races I could see would emit anything lethal. I didn't find any that met that description, but after the other few surprises I was absolutely sure that those exist.
Another thing, was I asked the system to make any that require more than a year of transformation time even when using the fastest transformation options. I… I'm not sure about that part. Especially if your lifespan is really what the system says, just a year shouldn't be too long but…
I don't think I really believe that myself. A full year or longer is a massive chunk of my current life, and I don't know what I'd tell my parents, or what you and the others would think. You… well, in a lot of ways you're the same Kat I've always known, but physically you've changed so much and… it kind of scares me when I think about how powerful you could become if I just left you alone for a year.
Anyway, I'm still working on the list, and it's probably going to take me a few days if not a few weeks. I haven't really gotten into it. I'll keep you updated, but I will note, I have more options than I think I need. I can probably find something perfect, or at least so close to it that the problems won't matter.
Kat sighed as she looked over Lily's message. She was already throwing herself into that list like Kat knew she would but… it seemed like such a big decision. *I can only hope Lily doesn't rush this.. Or pick some eldritch horror under fifteen feet tall.*