《Amauga: Far From Any Semblance of Modern Civilization》 Prologue: Quick Starting my Summer Break Finally, the bell rings.?Immediately, everybody in the classroom packs their stuff.?The teacher sighs and dismisses the class, ¡°have a nice summer vacation.¡±?I stand up and try to leave the building immediately.?Slowly, I move with my bags through the mass of other students that are standing around and chit-chatting.?I don''t care what they''re talking about, but do they have to do it here and clog up all the hallways??There are some people that just want to leave!?Steadily, I keep moving towards the exit.?Nobody stops me to chat, why would they??I''m not exactly close to my classmates. Finally, I''ve made it out!?I hurry home to pick up my luggage.?After retrieving my bag, I leave the house and wait at the street.?I can barely contain my excitement.?I have the whole summer break to relax on a resort planet!?Just me and relaxing on the beach.?Light years away from school.?No chores, no homework¡­?And if it goes well, I might even make a friend my age!?Maybe even from Terra!?Or some other place that''s close enough to regularly meet! A truck is speeding towards me.?It decelerates and stops right next to me.?The window slide down and the driver ask: ¡°Did you wait long, Aster?¡± ¡°Good afternoon, Ranger!?No, I just got my bag.?How are you doing?¡± I open the door and enter the truck. ?????????????????????????????? ¡°So how was school?¡± he asks. ¡°Not that well, I still haven''t made friends,¡± I answer, ¡°though, I''m already happy they aren''t picking on me because I''m short.¡± Ranger laughs, ¡°in this day and age, even junior high schoolers should know not to pick on people because they are slightly different!¡± ¡°How is work?¡± I ask. ¡°It''s as busy as ever.?But that''s just how this line of work is on Terra.¡± We arrive at the space elevator.?Ranger stops the truck near the public entrance and lets me out.?I bid farewell to him and enter the building.?The building is almost empty.?I walk to the counter and to speak with an operator I''ve never met before. ¡°You''re early!¡± they greet me, ¡°the Daybreak to Nael-¢ô is scheduled to arrive tomorrow night.?Boarding doesn''t start until the day after tomorrow.¡± ¡°No, no, I''m going with the Night Owl,¡± I answer and show them my ID card. They place the card on the reader and checks my details on the screen. ¡°Let''s see¡­ I see!?So you''re the young shuttle pilot I''ve heard so much about.?There''s a note on your file: you are travelling with the Night Owl to Pris-¢ò. After that, you''ll fly your shuttle to Nael-¢ô. You must have pulled some strings for that.¡± Instead of answering, I give them a friendly smile. ¡°I checked your license, just in case.?It''s still valid, and your shuttle¡­ isn''t due for maintenance until much later this year.?All clear, the next trip upwards is in ten minutes.?Go ahead and board the cargo elevator.¡± They return my ID and wish me a pleasant trip. ?????????????????????????????? Arriving at the top, there are currently two spacecrafts parked.?One of them is the Night Owl, the other I''m unfamiliar with, but the form tells me it''s a Star Force craft.?There are two people waiting at the entrances of spacecrafts.?It''s a burly man and a shorter man wearing a green fishing hat.?The burly man is Niklas Desmond, the captain of the Night Owl, in other words, my boss.?I don''t recognize the other person.?Who is he? ¡°Good afternoon, Captain Desmond,¡± I greet him. ¡°Good afternoon, Aster.¡± ¡°Thank you again for taking me to Pris-¢ò and letting me borrow one of your shuttles.¡± ¡°Don''t mention it.?That shuttle was assigned to your exclusive use two years ago.¡± ¡°So he''s the one, Niklas?¡± the other person asks the captain. ¡°Yes, Teemo, this is Aster Cayden.?Aster, this is Captain Garreth Teemo of the Orion.¡± The Orion? ¡°It''s a pleasure to meet you,¡± I answer, ¡°pardon me asking, but what is someone from Star Force like Captain Teemo doing here?¡± ¡°You have an impressive record, Mr. Cayden.?Have you ever considered enlisting?¡± ¡°I''m sure my mother, Admiral Cayden, would be delighted if I did so.?But I am not sure if it''s the right place for me.?I''d rather pursue my interests.¡± ¡°That''s what I''m talking about.?It''s about the AI you''ve designed.?I''m here to tell you it has piqued our interest.¡± ¡°Mittens??What''s so special about it??Sure, Mittens has a unique look, but that''s nothing special.¡± ¡°While I''d like to discuss the details with you, I don''t get it either.?But our researchers seem to think it''s a big deal.?The gist is: I''d like you to meet them after your vacation.?They''d like to meet you right now.?But I think you should enjoy your vacation first.?Instead of Captain Desmond, I''ll pick you up at Nael-¢ô with the Orion.¡± ¡°Thank you for your consideration!?I see no problem with this arrangement.¡± ¡°It''s nothing special.?Besides, I imagine the Admiral would chew them out if she heard they forced you to give up your vacation.¡± ¡°You know my mother?¡± ¡°Of course, I do.?After all, she is the head of the science division, so she''s my superior.?If you like, we can talk more in private when we get you in two months.?For now, go enjoy your vacation.?Goodbye!¡± ¡°Goodbye!¡± Captain Teemo leaves for his ship. ¡°Is Mittens such a big deal?¡± I ask Captain Desmond. ¡°I don''t know,¡± he answers, ¡°I don''t dabble in that area.?Let''s board the ship.¡± ?????????????????????????????? The captain and I enter the Night Owl. ¡°Please show him to his quarters,¡± he addresses an idle crewman.?He turns back to me, ¡°I will call you later.¡± Stolen novel; please report. ¡°See you later, Captain.¡± The crewman takes one of my bags and leads the way.?I follow him through the large ship.?As usual for a ship this size, we rarely meet anyone on the way. ¡°These are your quarters,¡± he states. ¡°Are you sure?¡± I ask.?The quarter I''m standing in front of is one of the larger ones usually reserved for guests. ¡°For this journey, even though it''s just a few days, you aren''t part of the crew, but you are a guest.?Please you it without reservation.¡± ¡°I see.?Thank you.¡± I walk towards the door, and it automatically opens.?The crewman enters the room, places my bag on the floor and leaves.?I move over to the computer and get a storage crystal from my bag and place it into the reader.?I start the program on the crystal. ¡°New hardware detected,¡± a distorted voice sounds, ¡°adjusting¡­¡± A few moments later, Mittens''s usual voice speaks: ¡°Adjustment complete.¡± ¡°Mittens, how are you?¡± ¡°While the hardware is very different from before, it is more than adequate for my regular operations, Aster.?Advanced functions will require further adjustments.¡± Mittens''s avatar appears on-screen.?It''s a Felinefolk: a humanoid with feline ears and tail.?In the Federation, Therianthropic races are in minority.?That doesn''t change the fact they tend to quite popular, especially Felinefolks. Just I have chosen, Mittens''s avatar looks little younger than I am.?It has short dark silver hair and blueish grey eyes.?While I haven''t set any preferences for clothing, he seems to prefer intricate ones in green.?Since he''s not fully adjusted to the computer hardware here yet, his clothes are more plain than usual. ¡°Good, you don''t need to bother with the further adjustments.?In a few days, we''ll be on the Speedy Kitten again.?Anyway, our plans for the return trip have changed.?The Orion will pick us up at Nael-¢ô.¡± ¡°The Orion, so Star Force will be picking us up?¡± ¡°Yes, apparently, they want to talk about you, Mittens.?I don''t know why they''re that interested, but they wanted to speak with me.?Remind me to make a backup of your program before our vacation ends.¡± ¡°I will.¡±?Since I''m just staying for a few days, I only unpack two sets of clothes. ¡°Attention, the Night Owl is about to undock and leave orbit,¡± the announcement sounds, ¡°please clear the dock area.¡± A few moments later, we leave Terra, also known by its official designation Sol-¢ó, behind.?Later, we enter a tunnel of light ¡ª we''ve entered hyperspace. ¡°Aster, you have an incoming call from Captain Desmond,¡± Mittens reports. ¡°Put him through.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± ¡°Captain Desmond, what can I do for you?¡± ¡°Since we''re mostly idle while travelling through hyperspace, would you like to join us for a gaming session?¡± ¡°Of course, though it''s been almost a year since my last game.¡± ¡°Don''t worry about that.?We meet in my ready room in an hour.¡± ¡°See you later.¡± The captain hangs up.?I take a shower and change into a fresh set of clothes.?I put my old clothes into the washing machine.?They should be clean by the time I''m back.?I exit my room and move towards the captain''s ready room. ?????????????????????????????? In the room, I see the familiar faces from our little playing group: Captain Desmond, Oswald and Celia. ¡°It''s nice meeting you to play again,¡± I greet the others, ¡°outside this ship, nobody seems to enjoy this game.¡± ¡°Well, it''s an old Asian game,¡± Oswald answers, ¡°I hear people your age care more about life simulation games in Virtual Dive.¡± ¡°Is that so??I do play from time to time, but I''d rather get some real exercise: I do want to gain a little in height.¡± ¡°I don''t see any demerits to being short,¡± Celia states, ¡°I think it''s cute.¡± ¡°I am cute??I just think of it as an annoyance.¡± ¡°In any case, I think the High School you''re entering next year has a club for Riichi Mahjong,¡± Captain Desmond states. ¡°Great! I might sign up for that club then.?Until then, I''ll enjoy playing with you while I''m here.¡± ¡°You might get asked to play by Captain Teemo on your return trip,¡± Captain Desmond says, ¡°I did mention to him, you play with us from time to time.¡± ¡°That''s good to hear.¡± ¡°Let''s start,¡± Celia announces. We each pick a tile and sit down according to the tile we''ve drawn.?I eye the table. ¡°This is new, is this an automatic table?¡± ¡°Yes, there''s only one company on Terra left that makes them.?I feel the game is on a rise yet again, so I got one before they rise in price even more.?I hear some extraterrestrials are interested in learning how to play.¡± Captain Desmond, who sits opposite of me, presses the red button.?The centre disk raises, and we push the tiles on the table into the hole under the disk.?The captain presses the red button again.?The disk comes back down.?And four walls of tiles appear.?Oswald sits to my left. He presses the black button in the centre that''s closest to him.?The two six-sided dice in the centre roll.?Their values add to five. Oswald draws four tiles from the wall to his side.?I draw four tiles right of the tiles that Oswald drew.?Celia draws, finally Captain Desmond draws.?We continue drawing until every one of us has twelve tiles.?Oswald draws two more tiles.?Everyone else draws one tile.?We sort our hands.?Oswald discards one tile. ¡°Ron,¡± I declare, ¡°Blessing of Man.¡± I reveal my tiles. ¡°Woah! What''s with your luck?!¡± Oswald exclaims. ¡°It''s just 8,000 points.?Just a good start.¡± ¡°A good start, he says¡­¡± Oswald sighs. We continue playing for several hours. ¡°You definitely haven''t lost your edge over the year,¡± Celia says, ¡°you''ve won a lot today!¡± ¡°It''s just luck,¡± I answer, ¡°I just hope having this much luck in a game won''t backfire on me.¡± ¡°Anyway, thanks for the games,¡± Captain Desmond says, ¡°we all have different shifts to cover.?If nothing goes wrong, we can play the day after tomorrow again.?While I''d like to move the shifts around, so we can play more, it''d be unreasonable.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± I answer, ¡°I''m looking forward to it.¡± ¡°Since that''s settled, let''s go eat.¡± We leave for the cafeteria. ?????????????????????????????? A few days later, we are about to arrive at Pris-¢ò. It''s early in the morning.?I stash the crystal with Mittens''s program and carry my bags to the shuttle bay. ¡°Good morning, Aster,¡± a familiar voice greets me. ¡°Good morning, Isaac¡± I answer, ¡°how are you?¡± ¡°I¡­ I''m doing fine,¡± the boy answers, ¡°thanks.¡±?It''s Isaac Igglesden.?He''s about my age, though he is a little taller than I am.?Plus, he''s definitely better built than I am.?He''s a prodigy engineer and an oddball.?For some reason, he gets flustered quite easily.?It seems he was quite busy, as I didn''t get the chance to play with him this time. ¡°How is work??You seem to be quite busy.¡± ¡°Yes, serial defects on some shuttles.?The crew has been working overtime fixing them.?I''ve already checked the systems for your shuttle,¡± he continues, ¡°it''s in need of some maintenance, but it should be fine for your trip.?So don''t worry if you see some systems set to override.?I''ll fix it up after you return.¡± ¡°I see, thanks for the info,¡± I answer. ¡°You''re welcome!¡± I enter my shuttle, it''s a double length shuttle.?Another difference to usual shuttles is there''s a crystal reader in the main console.?Captain Desmond had this shuttle customized for me.?I put Mittens''s crystal in the reader and secure it.?I boot up the systems. ¡°Welcome back, Mittens.¡± ¡°It is quite early,¡± Mittens answers, ¡°have you checked the systems yet?¡± ¡°Isaac has already checked them for me.?He says they should be fine for the trip.¡± ¡°I see, that explains why some warning systems are set to override.¡± ¡°We''ve arrived at Pris-¢ò,¡± I hear Captain Desmond announce. I start the shuttle. ¡°Night Owl, this is Speeding Kitten, requesting permission to take off,¡± I radio. ¡°Permission granted.?Have a pleasant trip, Aster.¡± ¡°Thank you very much, Captain Desmond.?See you next year then.¡± Slowly, I manoeuvre the shuttle outside.?Once outside, I speed up and bring some more distance between the shuttle and the cargo ship.?I steer the shuttle in the direction of Nael-¢ô and engage the Hyperdrive. ?????????????????????????????? This scene is from the perspective of Captain Garreth Desmond. ¡°Captain Desmond,¡± one of the operators addresses me, ¡°there''s an emergency message from Isaac.¡± ¡°Isaac, the engineer??Put him through.¡± ¡°Sir, the Speeding Kitten has just engaged the Hyperdrive!¡± ¡°Yes, he did just as it was planned,¡± I answer, ¡°what''s the emergency?¡± ¡°Sir, I thought he was just going to the unfinished space dock on Pris-¢ò! The shuttle is only operational for short range travel.?Hyperdrive and Subspace Communication are faulty.¡± This is bad.?I mean, really, really, bad! ¡°Open a channel to the Speeding Kitten!¡± I yell. ¡°Sir, the Speeding Kitten has already vanished from our Subspace sensors.?No signs of either explosion or debris.¡± ¡°So he got flung who knows where¡­¡± I state.?I breathe a sigh of relief.?That''s a silver lining. ¡°Isaac, how was the state of the other systems?¡± ¡°Life Support and Sublight Propulsion were fully functional, sir.¡± ¡°That should buy him some time.?So there''s still hope.?With his luck, he should end up near some inhabitable planet.?Contact Star Force, tell them they need to send a search fleet.?The Orion should be in communication range.?I hope they can find him¡­¡± I really hope they do. CC-BY 4.0 q. Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/0/ 001: Landing on an Unknown Planet ¡°Aster, the readings from the Navigation System do not make any sense,¡± Mittens announces. ¡°Access Advanced Functions and run diagnostics,¡± I answer.?This is strange¡­ ¡°Executing Quick Diagnostic on Navigation System¡­?It appears to be working according to specifications.?Extending Quick Diagnostic to other systems¡­?It appears the Hyperdrive components were replaced recently.?The propulsion unit shows signs of misalignment, and the Subspace Compression System seems to not be properly tuned.?I advise emergency shutdown.¡± This is bad!?Immediately, I perform an emergency shutdown on the Hyperdrive.?The shuttle returns to the darkness of space.?This was close!?It appears luck is on my side after all¡­?If anything went more wrong, this shuttle would have been instantly pulverized while entering Hyperspace! ¡°Mittens, reference the navigation database and recalculate our current position!¡± ¡°Understood.?Scanning nearby constellations¡­¡± This is going to take a while, even with current technology.?Who knows where we have ended up??I hope this place is already charted! ?????????????????????????????? While waiting for Mittens to finish, I should have a look at the status of the aforementioned Hyperdrive components.?I open the diagnostic console¡­ this is worse than I thought!?The Subspace Compression Buffer is slightly deteriorated.?But propulsion units are about to break down.?The buffer will most likely last longer, but the propulsion units will last at most ten parsecs at maximum speed.?It''s safe to assume they''ll break down before that.?In the worst case, I can still use the Sublight propulsion system as an inferior replacement.?But that''s just the last resort if I need to reach the nearest inhabitable planet¡­ Next, I check the status of the communication systems.?The Interstellar Subspace Communication system is not responding.?This can''t be¡­ I check again.?Only Intrastellar Subspace Communication is online.?I can''t call for help with just this! But didn''t Isaac check the systems for me?!?Why are they faulty??Wait, all systems needed for orbital travel are working.?I guess, he possibly just didn''t know I was planning an interstellar trip.?I should have checked the systems myself! Well, it''s no use crying over spilled milk.?I need to make sure I get somewhere safe first. ¡°Aster, I have most likely determined our location.?We appear to be on the outer edge of the Tamagon Galaxy.¡± So we''ve jumped as far as to another galaxy?!?As far as I remember, this galaxy has barely been explored¡­ ¡°Are you sure?¡± ¡°I am sure we are in M33.?I am just slightly uncertain about our current exact location.?Data on the Tamagon Galaxy is scarce.?But taking into account where we were planning on travelling, these coordinates are most likely.¡± A map appears on-screen.?There''s an overview of the Kyklos Galaxy and the Tamagon Galaxy.?The location of Pris-¢ò and Nael-¢ô are shown alongside with a ray from Pris-¢ò through Nael-¢ô. Several locations in the Tamagon Galaxy are shown to match the scans.?However, only one is remotely near the ray drawn.?And it''s on the other side of the Tamagon Galaxy!?It''s kiloparsecs away from explored space!?That''s almost a megaparsec! Shuttles are usually only equipped with interstellar Hyperdrive.?It would take months just to cross the void between the Tamagon Galaxy and the Kyklos Galaxy.?Then there''s the matter of energy¡­?Which means I''m stuck here, even if I had a fully functional Hyperdrive. I check the fuel: the energy core is barely used at all.?Lucky me!?I assumed the core to be almost depleted after such a trip.?Life support seems to work as well.?Great, at least I have something to work with. ¡°Where''s the nearest inhabitable planet, Mittens?¡± ¡°According to the navigation database, the nearest inhabitable planet is Amauga-¢ó, 8.3 parsecs from here.¡± ¡°Take control of the shuttle and tune the oscillator to Hyperdrive cruise speed.?We need to extend the life of the components as much as possible.?Meanwhile, I''ll try to realign the propulsion units.¡± ?????????????????????????????? Aligning the units isn''t that hard.?You just need a knack for delicate work.?Well, usually, that is.?With how deteriorated they are, their output and directions are all over the place.?This is going to take a while¡­ A few hours later, both Mittens and I finish our work on the Hyperdrive.?In the end, I still need to make use of the Sublight propulsion units to correct for an axis that the Hyperdrive units are now unable to provide.?I align the shuttle to the direction we need to go and engage the drive.?The usual light of Subspace Travel surrounds the shuttle. ¡°How is the status of the drives, Mittens?¡± ¡°The output is consistent.?There is no excessive wear on the components.¡± ¡°That''s good news.¡± ¡°We should arrive at Amauga-¢ó in 5 days.¡± ¡°Good.¡± I get something to eat from the small replicator. ¡°Aster, materializing food takes at a lot of energy.?After we arrive at the planet, I suggest you acquire others sources of food.¡± ¡°I see.?Is there sentient life on Amauga-¢ó?¡± ¡°That is presently unknown.?In the worst case, you need to cultivate the land yourself.¡± ¡°Just like in the life simulation games?¡± This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Yes, just this time, it is not a game.¡± ¡°Is there anything else I should keep in mind?¡± ¡°Should you encounter sentient life, the emergency manual recommends drawing as little attention as possible when stranded on an underdeveloped planet.¡± ?????????????????????????????? Five days later, we''re still in Hyperspace.?The propulsion unit hasn''t blown. Yet. ¡°We are about to reach our destination,¡± Mittens says, ¡°Aster, how will you handle it when we arrive there??I cannot help you outside the shuttle.¡± I haven''t thought of that yet! Let''s see¡­ ¡°I could try to install you to my personal terminal,¡± I answer, ¡°but I''d rather have you here on the shuttle where you have access to our databases.?Instead, we can keep in contact using Subspace Communication and my personal terminal.?I''ll make it, so you can access to the advanced functions of my terminal.?While I''m at it, I''ll make sure you can access my implants as well.¡± I grab my terminal and create endpoints for Mittens to connect to.?My implants are wirelessly powered by the that device.?They don''t take much energy.?Permanently powering the implants won''t drain the power much.?At most, I have to recharge the terminal once a quarter. ¡°I''m done.?Try connecting to it.¡± ¡°Initial connection established.?Integrating new endpoints¡­?New basic advanced operation endpoints added.¡± ¡°We''ll test the endpoints as soon we''ve landed.¡± ¡°Hyperdrive propulsion units are down.¡± ¡°I''m happy they lasted this long.?Emergency dropout.?Switch to Sublight systems.¡± We drop out of Hyperspace.?A planet not unlike Terra comes into view.?Granted, it''s not blue and green, but blue and purple. ¡°Switch to conventional space was successful.¡± The planet is already visible, just the Sublight system will suffice.?We get closer. ¡°How is the atmosphere?¡± ¡°The atmosphere is 80% Oxygen, no toxic gases detected.?The planet is close to its equinox, so spring or fall is about to begin, depending on which hemisphere we land.¡± ¡°Are there any signs of civilization?¡± ¡°No signals on Radio and Subspace Communication detected.?Scanning for buildings and humanoid life signs is not available.¡± ¡°It can''t be helped then.?We just have to land somewhere and hope for the best.?Target a suitable a location where it will become spring soon.?Sure, it''ll be easier to find sustenance on the other side now, but in the worst case, I''d like to start cultivating crops sooner than later.¡± I bring the shuttle to an entry course.?Atmospheric entry is shaky as expected, but it goes without a hitch.?In the mountains of the Southern Hemisphere, I quickly find a temple-like structure.?So there must be some sentient life here.?Why didn''t we detect any light at night??Does this civilization still exist??The whole area is completely white with snow.?I land at a nearby cave. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? The short range detection sensors only show some small animals in the area.?No humanoids.?I have the replicator create some winter clothes and change into them.?I open the shuttle door and leave the shuttle.?Even in the winter clothes, it''s cold. ¡°Test¡­ test¡­ Mittens, can you hear me?¡± I ask. ¡°Yes, Aster,¡± Mittens voice sounds in my head, ¡°I can hear you.?Terminal endpoints are working as expected.?To improve audio quality, I suggest you incorporate an audio system on the collar of your coat.¡± I go back into the shuttle and synthesize a microphone and speakers that I can clip on my coat.?I connect those with my terminal and go outside to test them again. ¡°Good, and just to be sure, lock the shuttle while I''m away.¡± I walk towards the temple.?There are no people around.?I enter the temple. It''s slightly warmer in here.?There''s an altar. And there''s something like an inscription on the back wall. ¡°Mittens, can you see this?¡± ¡°Yes, I can.?The connection to your eye implant allows me to take pictures of what you see.?I am currently trying to decipher the inscription.?It appears to be an Abugida script: each unique symbol is a consonant, and the orientation of the symbol expresses the vowel.?Known syntactic rules have been detected in the language.?As we speak, I am filling an entry in the language database for this language.¡± I touch the altar. ¡°??????¡± a friendly voice whispers.?I don''t know where it came from. ¡°Did you hear that, Mittens?¡±, I whisper. ¡°Yes, it matches with what I inferred about the language.?Extrapolating from context, I believe it says something along the lines of ¡®What can we do for you, young man?¡¯¡± ¡°Do you have enough information to answer yet? ¡®I got lost.¡¯¡± ¡°No, not yet.?But simple words should be possible.¡± ¡°??. ??¡±, my voice sounds from the speaker on my collar. ¡°????,¡± the voice answers. I feel a gentle breeze blowing through the room. ¡°What was that?¡± I ask. ¡°????,¡± the voice continues. ¡°We help you.?We give you our blessing,¡± Mittens translates, ¡°I am done compiling an automatic translation program.?Your speech will end up lacking at points, but I will continue tweaking it with every interaction you have with the language.¡± ¡°Where are the other people?¡± I say.?Like with any modern automated translation system, only I and Mittens can hear myself now, the at the collar of my coal cancels the sound of my voice and output words of the foreign language in my voice.?It''s strange at first, but you get used to the delay and the artifacts the automatic translation system sometimes generates. ¡°? people only come ? once a ? in at the beginning of spring to celebrate the end of winter.?Spring is still a few weeks away,¡± the voice answers. ¡°Who are you??Can I stay here until they arrive?¡± ¡°We are Aura.?We allow you to stay here with your flying home until other people arrive.?In ? building, do not to kill ? or bring dead ? inside.¡± ¡°Thank you very much.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? I return to the shuttle and park it in front of the temple.?I use the stilt legs to raise the shuttle to create a roofed area.?Good thing the shuttle has a retractable ramp for this kind of use. ¡°They said not to kill animals in the temple,¡± I repeat to Mittens. ¡°I think they assumed you need to eat.?Without replicator technology, you will have to hunt animals for food, especially if you do not have stock.?While we still have enough energy now, you should go hunting to save on energy.¡± ¡°I have to go hunting then¡­?I need a weapon for that.¡± ¡°How about a Gauss rifle??A railgun has a higher output, but rails wear out much more quickly.¡± ¡°Doesn''t the replicator have a safety mechanism to prevent the materialization of weapons?¡± ¡°Since it is an emergency, I have taken the liberty of overriding said mechanism.¡± ¡°I see, I did tell you to take control of the ship.?Prepare the schematics for a Gauss rifle.?I won''t be using it to hunt ¡ª it''s just there for emergencies.?And just in case, make it, so only I can use it.¡± ¡°Understood.?What will you use for hunting instead?¡± ¡°I''ll use a bow ¡ª I''ve used one in a simulation game before.?There''s no assistance system, but I think I''ll manage.?And some knives.?And since we can''t keep making them, make them last.¡± ¡°I have prepared schematics for items you need now.¡± ¡°Thanks, did you set up the distress signal?¡± ¡°Yes, I did.¡± ¡°Please create the items.?While you do that, I''ll clear the snow below the shuttle.¡± After the items have been created, I take them and go search the area.?I try to sneak around to find some animal I can hunt.?Something is moving over there.?It''s a blueish white, fluffy something that can move very fast.?Is it something like a rabbit??It stopped.?I can see it has long ears.?I''m going to call it a rabbit.?It''s kinda cute, I can''t possibly¡­?No! This is something I need to do if I even want to have a chance at going home!?I knock an arrow and aim at the rabbit.?I shoot and see I''ve missed.?At least, think I did.?As if something pulls the arrow towards the rabbit, the arrow''s trajectory changes, and it even accelerates to hit the rabbit! ¡°Was that an optical illusion??Or gust a wind??Or did the arrow fly in a strange path?¡± ¡°No, the arrow did change its path.?It even sped up before hitting the target.¡± CC-BY 4.0 q. Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/1/ 001x: Side Story: Meanwhile on Terra I ¡°I''m sorry to disturb your conference, Admiral Cayden,¡± I begin the call, ¡°but there was an emergency rescue request after a Hyperdrive malfunction.¡± ¡°That''s usually not a reason to ask permission, so what is special about this one?¡± Admiral Cayden asks. ¡°The shuttle in question hasn''t been found yet.?But analysis of traces suggest an accidental intergalactic jump in the direction of the Tamagon Galaxy.?Also, it seems the long-range Subspace Communications of the shuttle are faulty.?Judging from the data we have, we assume survival chances are very high, but they will be stuck in Tamagon until they are rescued.¡± ¡°Tamagon??That galaxy hasn''t been explored yet.?The search effort would be searching for a needle in a haystack.?So you''re asking permission to embark on an exploration mission while keeping the rescue efforts in mind?¡± ¡°Yes, usually, that would be the case.?The situation dictates, I call you now, as you are in a conference with the other admirals.¡± ¡°That would only be appropriate if protocol requires the involvement of all of us,¡± another person states. ¡°Affirmative.¡± Silence. ¡°That means a person related to Admiral Cayden is involved.¡± Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Affirmative.¡± Again, more silence. ¡°So it''s about Aster¡­?If this wasn''t a call into this conference, I''d think you''d be making a macabre joke¡­?Please continue.¡± ¡°I regret to inform you the missing shuttle is the Speeding Kitten, which was piloted by your son Aster.?I''m not completely impartial about your son, either, but it seems there''s no other vessel suitable for this mission available.¡± ¡°Proceed with the rescue efforts, Captain Teemo,¡± an elderly person speaks up, ¡°Admiral Cayden?¡± ¡°No, I will remain here.?Thank you for your consideration, Admiral Karles. Me joining the crew of the Orion would not help the effort.?I fear the presence of my authority would even hinder it.?I will have to impatiently wait for the results,¡± she answers. ¡°Thank you, we will begin preparations to embark immediately.?There is one last thing, the engineer that was last working on the Speeding Kitten feels responsible for the disappearance of your son.?He wants to apologize to you and request permission to join the Orion to help with the search.¡± ¡°I don''t need an apology.?If he really feels responsible, he should take it up with my son after you''ve found him.¡± ¡°You are very confident they will find him,¡± Admiral Karles says. ¡°I''m sure his good luck will keep him alive until he is found,¡± Admiral Cayden smiles, ¡°about the engineer joining the crew of the Orion as a civilian worker, I believe that should be up to you, Captain Teemo.¡± ¡°I emphasize for the record: the decision to send the Orion on an exploration mission was handed off to me to avoid personal conflicts of interest.¡± The other people in the room nod. CC-BY 4.0 q. Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/1x/ 002: The Quest to Seek the Greater Truth Was that a lucky coincidence??In a way it feels too lucky, even for me, to be a mere coincidence.?I can ponder about why that happened later.?I walk up to the dead rabbit and remove the arrow from its body.?Ugh, it feels yucky.?I''m glad to have replicator food at home!?But I have to say that slight blue hue is certainly interesting.?Blue in one of the rarest natural occurring pigments in the universe.?Does that colour give it an advantage at survival? I take the rabbit to the area below the shuttle and to butcher the rabbit.?I have Mittens create me some tools for that. ¡°Mittens, why did you get me a bucket and a rope?¡±, I ask. ¡°Cut open the throat and hang it from its leg over the bucket to drain the blood.?Also, throw in the parts you do not need.?I have discovered something that warrants testing.¡± I take a knife and see in to the eyes of the dead rabbit.?Can I really eat something this cute??Get a grip, Aster!?It''s already dead!?You killed it, so you better eat it too!?I cut it at its throat.?Yuck, I don''t like this sensation at all!?Then, I take a robe and hang it over the bucket as Mittens suggested. After the rabbit stops bleeding, I try to dismantle it.?I''ve never done something like this before¡­?In the simulation games, you usually give them to an NPC that takes care of that for you.?I work on the rabbit for a while.?Eventually, I have managed to separate the skin, bones and innards from the meat.?But the meat and everything else are in little chunks.?This is much harder than it looks.?And it takes a lot of stamina, too. ¡°Mittens, , I need cookware.?And a fire source for cooking.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? I''m panting, but I have to force myself to breathe slowly, with this much oxygen in the air, it''s easy to hyperventilate. ¡°It is in the middle of winter, any wood you collect is not going to be dry enough.?I will synthesize a gas cooker along with the cookware for you.?But can you bring the bucket and its contents inside to the replicator?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± I take the bucket into the shuttle. ¡°Put it onto the shelf in the replicator.¡± I do as Mittens asks.?The bucket along with its contents dematerializes.?After that, a block of metal with a depression and a dial appears, along with a pot. ¡°I discovered a possibility to recover energy by using an undocumented feature of the replicator.?You can put in raw material for the replicator to process or dematerialize.?The theoretical energy is the total Mass Deficit.¡± ¡°So I can put in this meat and have the replicator process it to a steak?¡± ¡°Technically, yes, but judging from the experiment just now, the efficiency with light materials like most organic matter does not seem to be enough to justify using it.?It might work better with heavier materials like heavy metals, preferably with an atomic weight of at least 200 u.¡± ¡°In the end, I still have to cook myself.¡± ¡°Yes, you do.?Since it is your first time, I suggest you make stew.?That way, you will be unlikely to burn the meat.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? I get the gas cooker and put a pot on it.?Then, I put the meat and some snow into the pot, and turn the dial of the gas cooker.?I hear a hissing noise. ¡°For this model, you need to turn up the dial further than the maximum setting to activate the ignition crystal.¡± I do as Mittens instructs, and a little spark lights up the gas.?Soon the snows in the pot melts.?That isn''t enough water to cover the meat, I continue putting in more snow to get more water.?After I have amassed enough water, I stop putting in snow.?The water starts steaming lightly.?After a while, the water bubbles.?The bubbling becomes more violent over time. ¡°You need to turn the output down a little, so the water still boils but doesn''t boil over.¡± ¡°I see.¡± I turn down the dial a little.?After letting it cook for a half an hour, Mitten tells me it should be ready for eating.?I switch off the cooker and wait for the pot to cool down.?I fish out a chunk of cooked meat and put it into my mouth to eat. This taste?!?Is this the taste of cooked meat??It''s so overwhelming! ¡°This tastes so simple, but it''s so good!¡± Sure, the other tastes are missing¡­ but still¡­!?If other self-made food is like this, I''m not sure if I can ever enjoy replicator food again¡­?Am I just imagining things??I finish my meal and walk around the temple for a stroll. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? I remember the unusual behaviour of the arrow.?Maybe Aura knows something about it.?I enter the temple.?A gentle breeze greets me when I enter.?It feels like walking through an air veil back on Terra.?It is me, or is it much warmer in here since before??I take off my coat and clip the microphone and speaker to my shirt.?Yes, it''s as warm in here as it is in my shuttle! ¡°I''m back, Aura,¡± I announce myself. ¡°Welcome back,¡± the voice answers. ¡°Did you make it warmer in here?¡± ¡°We offered you sanctuary.¡± ¡°Thank you, but doesn''t it take a lot of power to heat this place?¡± ¡°Don''t worry¡­ life is valuable.¡± ¡°Life is valuable.?I guess this is the reason I was asked not to kill animals in here,¡± I mutter. I look at the inscription on the back again.
When the moon and the sun equal in strength, gentle winds announce the departure of Eata and with it, the arrival of Aura.?Now the ?? have run their yearly cycle, we celebrate them who bring the ?? and the return of life¡­
I can''t read the symbols mixed into the translation.?I guess Mittens hasn''t been able to translate them yet¡­?So Aura is a deity or some other transcendent worshipped being¡­?They seem to represent spring.?It seems Eata represents winter.?I don''t believe in the transcendent.?I assume they were an AI left over from some advance civilization that has since left the planet. No, that would require a power source for the AI to run.?I''m sure Mittens would have notified me there was something like that around.?Furthermore, an AI with this level of functions should be able to communicate via Radio or Subspace signals.?So is an actual deity to the people of this planet??Or just a worshipped spirit??And what is it really??Some advanced life form??Whatever it is, it gives me a convenient explanation for Mittens:?Mittens is my personal guardian deity that inhabits my shuttle.
Young ones that have seen ?? years of life, present yourself to them that ?? the ??.?If you are ??, you shall receive their blessing, call upon the help of green ??. Wind, earth, ?? ¡­
Aura''s blessing is command of the winds??Like in Green Magic?!?My arrow shot¡­ I''ll ask. ¡°When I was hunting earlier¡­¡± ¡°¡­ you used my blessing,¡± Aura finishes my sentence. Did I really gain the power to control the wind??No, magic is not real!?There must be another explanation!
Even if you were denied their blessing, continue your ?? and present yourself to Altis, Eos and Eata.?Altis shall expect your arrival when the sun is at its strongest.
This temple is just the first stop of a pilgrimage¡­?Since you might receive a blessing here, I guess you might get blessings at the other temples, too. ¡°Altis represents summer,¡± I speak my mind, ¡°they will receive the pilgrims at the beginning of summer.¡± ¡°You are knowledgeable,¡± Aura answers, ¡°you are qualified to receive all of our blessings.¡± ¡°That sounds nice, but sorry, I don''t believe in magic.¡± ¡°For those that have or seek greater knowledge and believe in the blessings, there exists a greater truth to be discovered.?You have the knowledge, but without belief, the truth will remain out of reach to you.?Not many have the chance to seek the greater truth.?You have witnessed the blessing before.?Feel the possibilities of the blessings!¡± The voice has become more compassionate.?But they are right, I did see that arrow move along a very unnatural path.?Maybe there''s something more to this.?I should check it out. ¡°But this sure sounds like quite a convoluted fetch quest¡­¡± I mumble. Suddenly, a window appears in my vision.
The Greater Truth You have been offered a quest: The Greater Truth. Aura implies you have the ability to discover the truth.?You only have to believe in blessings that Aura and their peers offer. Would you like to accept? [Yes] [No]
¡°Mittens??Is that window your handiwork?¡± ¡°You did say it sounds like a convoluted fetch quest.?I simply took the liberty of creating a visualization of that comment of yours,¡± Mittens answers. ¡°But this isn''t a game¡­¡± ¡°Yes, that statement is correct, but that venture Aura proposes could end up worthwhile pursuing.?Even though we don''t have an explanation for the phenomenon we witnessed earlier, if you can learn to control it and similar ¡®magical¡¯ feats, it should help you with surviving on this planet.¡± ¡°I see¡­?You have convinced me.?We''ll have a look at it.?Let''s say I believe in this blessing.?How do I control it?¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ¡°Feel, search, imagine,¡± Aura answers, ¡°feel my blessing, search for my blessing within you, imagine using my blessing.¡±?I feel a gentle breeze blowing again. ¡°Feel¡­ feel the blessing¡­ I can feel a breeze¡­?Is this breeze part of your blessing too?¡± ¡°My blessing embraces you.¡± I can''t tell if I am imagining it, but something feels different about the breeze¡­?Some kind of warmth seems to flow into my body.?It''s an unusual kind of warmth, it also feels somewhat cold at the same time.?I have to believe this blessing to be real¡­?Is this warmth the blessing I''m supposed to find within me??I close my eyes.?This sensation¡­ it spreads throughout my body¡­?Where does it come from??It seems it''s connected to my lungs¡­?Is it generated by breathing??So do I need to breathe faster??Inhale, exhale. Inhale, exhale.?No, the warm sensation is waning!?I need to calm down my breathing!?Inhale¡­ exhale¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­?This reminds me of meditation.?Inhale¡­ exhale¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­?I feel the warm sensation returning. This blessing gives me command of the wind¡­ and this temple is somewhat dusty.?If this works, I can practice this by cleaning up the temple! So how do I use the blessing??Do I just imagine what I need??I want the dust in the temples to move outside.?Nothing happens.?I guess that was too vague!?Move the air fast enough to take the dust out all at once.?I can feel the air moving.?I open my eyes again.?The dust is still in the temple ¡ª all I''ve done is blowing it up.?Now I have to wait until the dust settles to try again. ¡°This is much harder than I thought,¡± I mumble. ¡°My blessing is not easily be controlled by people of uncalm mind,¡± Aura replies. So I need to meditate.?I end up spending the rest of the day trying to meditate.?Inhale¡­ exhale¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­?Clear my mind.?When night falls, I return to my shuttle to sleep.?Usually, a shuttle has two folding beds in the back.?But they are not very comfortable, so I had hooks for hammocks installed in my shuttle.?Maybe it''s just me that prefers sleeping in a hammock.?I hang up the hammock and go to sleep. CC-BY 4.0 q. Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/2/ 003: Rowan from Dewick Village The next day, I go hunting again.?Even though the wind is adjusting for me, I can tell my aim has become better than yesterday.?I managed to kill two rabbits in a short time.?Like yesterday, I cut their throat and hang them from their hind legs.?While waiting for the blood to drain, I meditate again. Inhale¡­ exhale¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­?Clear my mind¡­?Inhale¡­ exhale¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­?Clear my mind¡­?No, it''s too cold out here¡­?I''ll try again later when I''m in the temple. After the while, I check on the rabbits: their blood is drained.?I try to butcher the rabbits.?Seeing how I mess up another rabbit, it''s safe to say I''ve made no significant progress with my dismantling skills so far.?The second rabbit goes better, it''s still in chunks, but they are double the size as before. I put the chunks in the pot and boil them with water like yesterday.?While the meat is shimmering in the pot, as Mittens calls it, I dispose of the blood and innards. After eating, I enter the temple.?I sit down in a comfortable position and start meditating. Inhale¡­ exhale¡­ inhale¡­ exhale¡­?Clear my mind¡­?I can feel the warm sensation filling my body. Again, I want to sweep the dust outside.?I feel the air moving.?I open my eyes.?This isn''t any good¡­?I''ve just blown up the dust again¡­ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ¡°You put it too much force,¡± I hear a boyish voice say. I turn my head towards the voice.?The owner of the voice seems to be a humanoid.?Since I''m rather short for my age, and he''s about a head taller than me.?I guess he''s the same age as I am. ¡°Aster, I took the liberty to move the shuttle away, to avoid detection,¡± Mittens reports only audible to me, ¡°I am at the cave where we originally parked.¡± ¡°Hello, I''m Aster, Aster Cayden,¡± I stand up and introduce myself to the other person. ¡°That''s a very odd way of speaking¡­¡± he answers, ¡°I''m Rowan, Rowan from Dewick Village.¡± Mittens did say, my speech will end up strange in the beginning. ¡°What do you mean??I want to blow the dust out, so I just need the air to move along, don''t I?¡± ¡°You need to think of where the air comes from and where it goes.?Also, you need to think to keep the speed as steady possible, just like when you sweep the floor with a broom.¡± ¡°Like this?¡±, I imagine taking air from the outside through the upper part of the door, along the ceiling, to the back wall, along the floor, through the lower part of the door and further away from the door. This time, I feel the air moving in the path I imagined.?But as most of the dust is still in the air, it doesn''t completely get rid of the dust. ¡°Ah, this works!?Thanks for your help,¡± I say, ¡°but come to think of it, Aura said there wouldn''t be other people coming here until in a few weeks.¡± ¡°It''s about time for the pilgrimage to start, so the nearest village sends someone ahead of time to clean up.?My own pilgrimage is about to start, so I was chosen this year.?It''s quite warm in here,¡± he answers and takes off his cloak.?I can see he has ginger hair with a lot of grey highlights.?Are those highlights natural??I continue examining his hair and discover cat ears, furry cat ears.?I wonder he''ll allow me to touch them.?Staring is rude¡­ ¡°Aura was kind enough to heat the temple,¡± I explain. ¡°You speak like you''ve met Aura.¡± ¡°Saying I have met them is saying too much ¡ª I''ve only heard them and talked to them.¡± ¡°You can hear them?¡± ¡°You make it sound like it''s something special¡­?Aura, are you still here?¡± ¡°Young one, present thyself to us!¡± Aura answers. ¡®Thyself¡¯? The language has changed¡­?It seems Mittens has updated the translation program.?So Aura uses archaic language??And it sounds more commanding than before.?That certainly explains why ¡ª what''s his name again, ah ¡ª Rowan mentioned my speech to be odd. Rowan gasps for air, but a few seconds later, he composes himself and walks to the altar to put his hands on it. ¡°Young one, thou art qualified.?Receive our blessings.?We sense thy potential for the blessings of Eos.?Continue thy journey and present thyself to them.¡± His hair and ears flutter a bit from the breeze.?Is it me, or are some of his grey highlights turning green? ¡°I thank you for your blessing,¡± he states and bows.?He then turns to me and says: ¡°Meeting you on the same day I''m able to hear the voice of Aura must be providence.¡± ¡°You exaggerate,¡± I answer, ¡°so¡­ who is Eos?¡± ¡°What do you mean, who is Eos?¡± Rowan looks at me with a face of disbelieve, ¡°You really don''t know??They are the counterpart to Aura.?Their blessing is command of the earth.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± ¡°You''re an oddball¡­?What were you doing here this early anyway?¡± How to explain this¡­ ¡°I¡­ I''ve come from a place far away.?I got lost and happened to find this temple.?Aura offered me sanctuary until other people arrive.?So I guess, since you''re here, I need to leave soon.¡± It''s not a lie.?I just left out a lot of detail.?I did get lost¡­ while travelling in Space, that is.?And Terra is, in fact, far, far away. ¡°Lost??You''re welcome to join me on my way back to my village.?After cleaning the temple, I''ll be on my way back to the village.?Or rather watching you being done with it.?It''s not even noon, we should be able to make it by evening.¡± ¡°Thanks, I gladly accept your offer.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? After waiting for a bit for the dust to settle, I try cleaning the temple again.?Taking air from the outside trough the top part of the door.?Let it flow along the ceiling, down along the back wall, along the floor, through the lower part of the door and further away from the door.?This wind carries the dust outside the temple. ¡°That''s it!?Thanks again for letting me stay here, Aura,¡± I say. ¡°Young one, return here on the night of the Umbral Full Moon,¡± Aura interjects. ¡°As you have requested, I shall return on the night of the Umbral Full Moon,¡± I answer.?I''ll have to ask Rowan what that means. Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more. We walk outside. ¡°Let me get some stuff, from a nearby cave.¡± ¡°Cave?¡± ¡°Aura asked me to kill animals inside the temple.?I''ll be back in a moment, please wait here.¡± I hurry to the cave. ¡°Mittens, it''s me.?Open the door.¡± The door of the shuttle opens and the ramp extends.?I walk in. ¡°Aster, I''ve prepared a backpack with a sleeping bag for you.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I grab the cooking utensils and put them into the bag.?I then strap my sleeping bag and bow to the bag and put it on my back.?With preparations done, I hurry back to the temple. ¡°I hope I didn''t make you wait too long.¡± ¡°No worries,¡± Rowan answers, ¡°let''s go.?Also, you don''t need to force yourself to speak differently.¡± ¡°No, I''ve come from a faraway place.?I''m merely adjusting my language, it''s no trouble at all.¡± Yes, it''s no trouble at all, at least for me.?Mittens is the one that adjusts the automatic translation program. ¡°Ah, so you''re a traveller.?I''m interested in your story.?But I''ll refrain from asking for now.?Just let me listen to it when you speak to the village elder.¡± ¡°Of course, though I''ll have to stay a little vague on certain things¡­¡± I follow after Rowan.?I''m actually worried people might call my views on the world heresy¡­ ¡°Rowan, I''m interested in what you think about the sun and the moons and their relation to the planet.¡± ¡°That''s a strange question¡­¡± ¡°I know, but please just answer it.¡± ¡°Well¡­ the sun and the moon circle around us every day, don''t they?¡± ¡°I¡­ I see.¡± ¡°Were you expecting a different answer?¡± ¡°Well, let''s put is this way: the scholars of my people have come to another answer.?It''s also common knowledge among my people, other people might not be very receptive of the idea.?I even hear people have called it sacrilege and silenced everyone that supported any other answer than the one you''ve given.¡± ¡°Sacrilege??No, why would that be sacrilege?¡±, Rowan shakes his head, ¡°there''s only one thing people here consider sacrilege: openly questioning other people''s faith.?Some people believe in spirits nobody has ever heard about.?Believer of disruptive spirits tend to commit crimes in the name of their belief.?While they receive judgment for their crimes, it''s forbidden to denounce the existence of what they believe in.¡± ¡°I see, so I even don''t believe they exist, I shouldn''t voice it.¡± ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°I see.?It''s a good thing I hear about this before I got into trouble.?Thanks a lot, Rowan.¡± ¡°You''re welcome, Aster.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? We keep walking for several hours.?It''s been a while since I''ve used my legs this much.?I see something pink moving about. ¡°What is that?¡± I ask, pointing at the pink something. ¡°What are you talking about?¡± Rowan asks. I squint my eyes and realize it looks like a boar.?Immediately, I unfasten my bow and knock an arrow.?I shoot.?The arrow hits the target just as I intended.?I''m getting better at this. Rowan and I look at each other, we nod and move towards the target.?When we arrive, Rowan exclaims: ¡°That''s a Snow Boar!?They are really hard to spot in the snow!¡± Hard to spot??What is he talking about??This pink sticks out like a sore thumb! So Rowan can''t see the colour??So his visible spectrum must be different from mine. ¡°Now, about disassembling this one¡­¡± ¡°Do you need help?¡± ¡°Yes, actually I do.?Before I got lost, I''ve never done it before.?And from the rabbits that I have tried disassembling so far, I can state with confidence I have no clue of what I''m doing.¡± ¡°Let me handle it.?Snow Boar have poisonous innards, so it''s nothing a beginner should handle.¡± ¡°I''ll take you up on that,¡± I tie a rope around the hind legs of the boar, hang it from a nearby tree, and cut its throat.?I also remove the arrow. Rowan skilfully cuts into the boar, starting from the wound from my arrow.?Within a few minutes, he has removed the innards.?He then removes the skin and cuts a chunk of meat about the wound and throws it into the bucket. ¡°That should take care of the poisonous innards.?The meat around the wound could have been contaminated, so it''s better to dispose of it, too.¡± ¡°You''re quite adept at this,¡± I comment. ¡°I simply have a lot of practice.¡± As the blood stops dripping, Rowan takes a different knife and starts cutting the meat and trimming it from the bones. ¡°This is quite a lot of good meat,¡± Rowan sighs, ¡°good thing we''re almost at the village.?It will be a quite a push, but it should be worth it.¡± Using rope, we tie the meat chunk together and fasten them to the bag. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? After another hour or two, we finally make it to the village.?We pass several houses, they are all one-story houses in timber framing style.?I follow Rowan directly to a certain house.?I assume this is where the elder lives.?A girl opens the door to greet us. ¡°Hey Cyma, I''m back!?Is grandma home?¡± he asks the girl. ¡°Rowan, you''re back early,¡± she answers, ¡°the elder is home.?She should have time now.¡± We follow Cyma into the house.?It''s warm and cozy inside.?And rather bright, it''s much brighter than the fire in the chimney would make.?Where does the rest of the light come from? ¡°Welcome back, Rowan,¡± the elder greets him, ¡°I take it you''re done with cleaning Aura''s temple??You''ve even received their blessing already.¡± ¡°It is as you say, grandma.¡± ¡°Would you introduce your friend to me?¡± she turns her attention towards me. ¡°Of course, this is Aster.?He''s gotten lost and sought refuge at Aura''s temple.¡± ¡°Hello, I''m Aster,¡± I introduce myself. ¡°Greetings, I''m Fezzoxa.?I''m the village elder of Dewick.?Everyone in the village calls me granny or elder.?But Rowan is my only real grandson. I''m sure you have a story to tell.?Would you care to share it with me?¡± ¡°Of course, Rowan wanted to hear it too.¡± ¡°I see, why don''t the two of you sit down??My guess is, this is going to be a longer story.¡± We sit down.?The girl from earlier serves us some water and immediately leaves. ¡°I''ve come from a place far, far away.?I was travelling alone, when due to unforeseen circumstances, I ended up around here.?To make it worse, I''ve lost the means of returning home.?As I see it, I don''t have any other choice but to start to make a living here.¡± ¡°I see.¡± ¡°Anyway, I ended up in the Aura''s temple.?Aura and the other spirits aren''t known to my people.?Yet despite that, Aura granted me refuge and bestowed their blessing upon me.¡± ¡°Yes, it''s a very strong blessing from what I can see.¡± ¡°When Rowan arrived, Aura asked me¡­¡± ¡°They have asked you to return?¡± ¡°Yes, that''s right.?They ask me to return on the night of the Umbral Full Moon.?So you have heard of it before?¡± ¡°Yes, it has happened before.?Sometimes the spirits ask select people to return on at a certain date, when they bestow those people with a special blessing.¡± ¡°Wouldn''t more people just come to the temple at that date?¡± ¡°No, they don''t.?Some have tried, of course.?But on those occasions, the spirits deny entry to everyone but those that have been invited.¡± ¡°I see.?When I go there, is there anything I should be doing, or not doing??Anything superficial knowledge would help me greatly.¡± ¡°No, there isn''t anything special you need to pay attention to.?Why are you asking?¡± ¡°As long as I''m here, I should at least try to follow the customs of this land.¡± ¡°That''s commendable!?So¡­ will you go on the pilgrimage?¡± ¡°Yes, I intend to accompany Rowan on his pilgrimage.?Unless Rowan declines, of course.¡± ¡°On the contrary!?I''m thrilled to have you with me,¡± Rowan answers, ¡°I have the feeling, interesting things will happen when you''re around.¡± ¡°Since Rowan doesn''t mind, it''s not my place to deny it,¡± Granny Fezzoxa answers, ¡°for now, you can stay here in this house with us.?If you want to settle down here after your pilgrimage, that''s fine too.?I think you''ll find it''s more comfortable to live in this village than in other places.¡± I hear noises from outside. ¡°Let''s have a feast tomorrow!¡± I can hear a voice saying. ¡°Since people are talking about it,¡± Rowan states, ¡°on our way here, Aster hunted a Snow Boar!¡± ¡°Without your dismantling skills, there wouldn''t be much left of it.?I''m happy to give it to the village.¡± ¡°It''s a rather strange to have the guest of honour provide the meat, but since you''re offering, we''ll accept.¡± ¡°Guest of honour?¡± I ask. ¡°Outside pilgrimage season, people rarely come here,¡± Granny Fezzoxa explains, ¡°we usually welcome visitors with a feast.?But it''s too late for today, so we''ll have it tomorrow.¡± ¡°Thank you for your hospitality.?In any case, we should put this somewhere,¡± I point at the meat still dangling from my bag. ¡°Come with me,¡± Fezzoxa says.?Rowan and I follow her to a room, that''s a colder than the rest of the house.?As we enter, the rooms brightens.?How do they do this without electricity??Is that a blessing??We hang the meat from a pole that''s spanning along the ceiling in the middle of the room.?The pole has moving rings near the walls, I wonder why¡­ ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Later, Cyma shows me to my room.?Unlike before, this room doesn''t light up.?I guess the light was a blessing Fezzoxa has.?Soon, she even brings me a bucket with a steaming warm water and a towel. ¡°Please put it in front of your door, when you''re done,¡± she says before she leaves. ¡°What am I supposed to do with this?¡± I mutter. ¡°Given, there was no bath, I postulate you are supposed to wipe yourself with that.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± It can''t beat a proper shower or even a bath, but I guess this will have to do.?I undress and wipe myself. I don''t have a change of clothes with me, so I wait for the water to evaporate, put on my underwear and immediately go to bed and tuck myself below the covers.?The fabric is kinda scratchy, but not much.?I expected worse. ¡°Mittens, where are you?¡± I quietly ask. ¡°I have parked the shuttle in a forest about 5 km to the West of your location.?Analyzing the shape of the forest, nobody has been here for at least a year.?It is unlikely for anyone to discover it. Later at night, I will fly around and map the area surrounding the village.¡± ¡°Thanks.?Good night, Mittens.¡± CC-BY 4.0 q. Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/3/ 004: Lots of Preparation The next day, Rowan leads me to the village and introduces me to everybody in the village.?It''s so many people, I can''t remember all their names.?Luckily, Mittens is keeping track for me.?Everybody seems to know each other here.?Usually, they''d spread the news about the feast this evening among themselves, but since I''m staying here for longer, we''re telling them as I being introduced. In the early afternoon, We enter a smithy. ¡°Hey, Beretta, I''ve brought company!¡± A young, muscular Felinefolk woman with dark hair with amber and red highlights comes to the front and greets us. ¡°Good afternoon!?What can I do for you?¡± ¡°This is Aster, he''ll be staying at my place for now.¡± ¡°It''s a pleasure to meet you.?I''m Aster.¡± ¡°I''m Faberetta.?Like everyone here, you can also call be Beretta, I''m the local smith.?I specialize in handling blessings grade Banum.¡± ¡°Banum?¡± I ask. Faberetta hands me a dagger.?It''s made of a slightly silver blueish metal.?I get my knife from my pocket.?They''re both about the same size, but the Banum knife is much lighter. ¡°May I see that knife?¡± Faberetta asks. I hand her my knife. ¡°At first glance, it looks like a simple iron knife.?But this is steel, and it''s unlike any kind of steel I''ve ever seen before.?Just by looking at it, I can tell they should last about as long as my Banum knives, although my Banum knives are much lighter.¡± So Banum is a metal about as strong as steel but much lighter¡­ is it Titanium? Or maybe Chromium? ¡°My knife is made from something I know as stainless steel: as long you don''t expose it to rust, the steel protects itself against rusting.¡± ¡°I can''t tell by looking, but it''s possible it''s made by adding Banum to the Steel alloy.¡± Faberetta looks at my knife for a while and then states: ¡°No, I don''t sense any Banum in the knife at all.¡± Sense??That''s odd¡­?My guess is Banum is most likely Titanium.?Stainless steel has Chromium added to it.?I try giving Faberetta back the knife, but she refuses. ¡°Keep it.¡± ¡°Are you sure?¡± I ask. ¡°If it were just about the normal use, I''m sure your knife will be useful.?But Banum tools work a lot better in conjunction with blessings.?With that strong blessing of yours, I''m sure you''ll find a use for it.¡± ¡°But isn''t making those tools expensive?¡± ¡°Yes, it''s a gift celebrating us getting to know each other.?I''m sure you''ll be back for more.¡± She wholeheartedly laughs. ¡°Thanks a lot, then.?I''ll use it with care.¡± And I''ll have Mittens analyze it at some point. ¡°Before we forget,¡± Rowan adds, ¡°We''re preparing a feast for this evening.?There''s even Snow Boar.¡± ¡°Is that so??Thanks for telling me.?I''ll make sure to drop by.¡± ¡°You''re welcome,¡± Rowan says, ¡°see you later.¡± ¡°See you later.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Rowan and I go back to the elder''s house to get the meat.?I follow Rowan to another house further to the north.?Some villagers are preparing a fire. Inside, Rowan calls for the owner: ¡°Uncle, we''re bringing in the meat.¡± ¡°Ah, there you are, Rowan, I heard you and your friend hunted something big,¡± a middle-aged man answers.?His hair has red and blue highlights. ¡°Aster hunted a Snow Boar,¡± Rowan shows him the meat. ¡°Hello, my name is Aster.¡± ¡°I''m Nell.?As you can see, I''m the butcher of the village.?During pilgrimage season, I also sell grilled meat to travellers. I see the boar is already disassembled.¡± ¡°Rowan warned me about Snow Boars having poisonous innards,¡± I answer, ¡°so I let him do it.¡± ¡°Yes, that meat looks fine.?If only your skills in cooking would improve¡­¡± ¡°Are you really that bad with cooking?¡± I ask Rowan. ¡°I fear that''s a lost cause,¡± Rowan answers, ¡°besides, I don''t need to be able to cook to become a merchant.¡± ¡°So you''re still set on becoming a merchant.?I guess I''ll have to find a different person to succeed me,¡± Nell turns to me, ¡°how about you?¡± ¡°I haven''t really cooked before, but I''m willing to at least try to learn it.¡± ¡°Alright, help me with preparing this meat!¡± ¡°Are you sure??I''ve never done anything like this before!¡± ¡°It''s just something simple this time,¡± Nell shows me some red powder, ¡°this is Red Spice, it''s made from fruits that grow in these parts.¡± That''s¡­ a simple name.?He rubs some powder onto the meat.?I take a little powder and try smelling it.?It has a slightly cheesy smell to it.?The powder tastes salty and slightly sweet.?I rub the powder in my hand onto a different piece of meat.?Is this enough??Yeah, it''s looks about the same as the chunk Nell prepared.?He grins. ¡°Is something amiss?¡± I ask. ¡°It''s nothing¡­¡± he answers. After we''re done with the meat, Rowan tells me to rest for a bit. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? A few hours later, I hear someone knocking on the door.?I get the door.?It''s Rowan. ¡°I assume it''s time, Rowan?¡± I ask. ¡°Yes, everything is ready.?We''re only waiting for you.¡± We go to the plaza.?Rowan leads me to a seat next to the elder. ¡°Since we''re all here, let me formally introduce Aster to all of you.?He comes from a place far away and is not privy to our customs.?Due to circumstances, he''ll be staying in our village.?Even though his home doesn''t have such traditions, he decided to join Rowan on his pilgrimage.¡± The villagers cheer. ¡°Thank you for the warm welcome.?Even though it will not be for long, I''m looking forward to staying here in Dewick Village.¡± We begin eating.?The meat is red outside.?Cutting it reveals the colour is just on the outer layer.?Inside, it''s completely cooked.?I put a piece into my mouth.?The grilled meat tastes¡­ for lack of better words¡­ great.?I expected something like the flavours of the spice and the flavour of the meat.?Yet, the taste of the grilled meat is completely different. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°This is so good!¡± I exclaim. ¡°Yeah it is, but I should warn you some richer folks don''t like the red colour,¡± Nell answers. ¡°I see, I will keep that in mind,¡± I take a sip of wine. The wine tastes slightly unusual to me.?I don''t dislike it, but I can''t put my finger on what the difference is¡­ ¡°Is something amiss, Aster?¡± Rowan asks. ¡°It''s nothing much, the wine just tastes kind of unexpectedly different from what I''m used to.?I mean, yes, it obviously tastes different, but this feels like something else.?The food as well, it''s like everything I''ve tasted before was just a cheap imitation.¡± ¡°I will gladly teach you anything I know about cooking,¡± Nell answers, ¡°here, have another cup of wine.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? I wake up in my bed.?Ugh¡­ I have a terrible headache¡­ ¡°Good Morning, Aster,¡± Mittens greets me, ¡°I should have warned you about the alcohol.¡± ¡°Good Morning¡­?What about the alcohol?¡± ¡°Beverages from the replicator commonly have their alcohol content limited to 1%, stronger beverages up to 5%.?To preserve the taste, a suitable amount of compounds with similar tastes but without the intoxicating effect are added.¡± ¡°So yesterday, when I was drinking as always¡­¡± ¡°¡­ you were drinking quite a lot more alcohol than you are used to.?Acute symptoms of alcohol poisoning may include confusion, vomiting, seizures, loss of short-term memory, slow breathing, irregular breathing, pale skin, hypothermia and unconsciousness.?Secondary effects up to a day after that are commonly called hangovers.?Typical symptoms of a hangover may include headache, drowsiness, concentration problems, dry mouth, dizziness, fatigue, gastrointestinal distress, absence of hunger, light sensitivity, depression, sweating, nausea, hyper-excitability, irritability¡­¡± ¡°I get it,¡± I interrupt Mittens, ¡°is there something I can do against this headache?¡± ¡°Usually I would suggest you taking isotonic beverages.?Just drinking water should help a little too.¡± ¡°But man, I don''t remember anything from yesterday evening.?What did I even do?¡± ¡°Too much to summarize into one sentence.¡± I hear someone knocking on the door. ¡°Aster, are you awake?¡± Rowan asks. ¡°Yes, I am,¡± I answer, ¡°give be a minute.¡± I hurriedly get out of bed, get dressed and open the door. ¡°Good morning!¡± ¡°Good morning, Rowan, I still have a headache, but at least I can move.¡± ¡°You don''t have to push yourself.?I have already explained to everyone you only have diluted wine at your place.?Just be careful the next time.¡± ¡°Thanks, Rowan.?Did I¡­ did I do something yesterday??I don''t remember.¡± Rowan blushes and looks away, ¡°no, nothing special.¡± This doesn''t bode well.?What on earth did I do?! ¡°Let''s go downstairs for breakfast,¡± Rowan suggests. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Arriving downstairs, we are greeted by Granny Fezzoxa. ¡°Dewick''s newest couple has come for breakfast¡±, she says with a big grin. ¡°Grandma!¡± Rowan protests. ¡°Couple?¡± I ask, ¡°who??Rowan and I?¡± ¡°Yes, couple,¡± Granny answers, ¡°Rowan and you.?I take it you don''t remember?¡± ¡°No, I don''t remember anything at all.¡± ¡°This makes this a little difficult¡­?Yesterday, you proposed to Rowan, in front of everyone in the village.?Even though you were drunk, you were so blunt about it, it''s hard to imagine you wouldn''t have done that even if you had been sober.¡± ¡°I¡­ I see.?I don''t know how it happened.?Would you be so kind and tell me what exactly did I do?¡± ¡°You caressed Rowan''s ears in front of everyone.?According to our customs, that''s a proposal.¡± ¡°That''s a proposal?!¡± I open my eyes wide. ¡°Yes, so¡­ I take it you didn''t know about this?¡± ¡°No, I didn''t know this.?I hope I didn''t embarrass you too much, Rowan.¡± ¡°I¡­ I don''t mind,¡± Rowan answers, ¡°and¡­ I don''t mind accepting your proposal.?You are quite a cutie.¡± ¡°That''s natural¡­ wait, you don''t?!¡± He thinks I''m cute.?I guess given we''re betrothed now, I''ll accept it.?I can feel myself blushing. ¡°And there''s no problem with us being¡­ of the same sex?¡± I ask.?Not that I have a problem with it, I swing both ways. ¡°No, why would that ever be a problem?¡± he answers, shaking his head, ¡°we only have to finish the pilgrimage first.¡± ¡°I see.?I''m not intending to, but just for me to know: what would be the consequences of me taking back that proposal?¡± ¡°Taking back your proposal would shame me.¡± ¡°I¡­ I see.?I have interfered with your life without knowing it.?Drunk or not, I will have to answer for my actions.?So¡­ I will do my best.?I''m counting on you as well, honey.¡± ¡°If¡­ if you call me honey, I guess call you cutie,¡± he answers while blushing. ¡°That was definitely not what I was prepared for.?Please tell me if I''m about to break a spoken or unspoken rule.¡± ¡°I''ll try my best, cutie.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ¡°Since we''re talking about things now¡±, Granny Fezzoxa continues, ¡°you should know all elderly here know you''re what we call ¡®a person from beyond the sky¡¯.?And Rowan here discovered that when he brought you to bed yesterday.¡± From beyond the sky??So they know I''m an alien??Does that mean I''m not the first alien to arrive on this planet? ¡°I¡­ I see.¡± ¡°And we, I mean Rowan, Cyma and I, know about Mittens.¡± What??How did that happen? ¡°It''s a spirit that follows you around, isn''t??You do talk to it from time to time.¡± That seems like a misunderstanding, but then, they are my family now.?Should I tell them about the shuttle? ¡°You don''t need to force yourself,¡± Fezzoxa continues, ¡°just know, no matter what secrets you have, you''re one of us now.¡± Let''s do this. ¡°It''s almost correct.?Let''s go outside the village, Ro¡­ honey.?I''ll show you first, I don''t think I can properly explain it without showing it to you.¡± ¡°Outside the village?¡± he asks. ¡°Yes, Mittens is outside the village, to the East.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? We walk outside the village.?Ten minutes later, the shuttles comes towards us. ¡°What is that?¡± Rowan asks, ¡°I''ve never seen anything like it!¡± ¡°That''s a ¡®flying home¡¯, as Aura calls it,¡± I answer, ¡°Mittens is inside.¡± The shuttle lands near us and opens the door.?I enter and gesture Rowan to follow. ¡°So this is a flying home¡­¡± ¡°Welcome to the Speeding Kitten, Rowan,¡± Mitten answers, ¡°I am Mittens.?I guess congratulations on your engagement are in order.¡± ¡°That voice¡­¡±, Rowan looks around for the source of the voice. ¡°Mittens is the voice of this¡­ no, let me rephrase this: you can think of Mittens like something similar to a spirit that inhabits this ¡®flying home¡¯.¡± ¡°Flying homes are ancient artifacts from the Age of Spirits!!¡± Rowan exclaims, ¡°nobody is able to use them!?I''ve never seen one¡­ so that''s how they look like¡­¡± ¡°An ancient artifact??From your standpoint, I guess it''s natural to call it an artifact.?I wouldn''t call it ancient, though.¡± ¡°So everything you told be about yourself¡­¡± ¡°No, I didn''t lie,¡± I interrupt him, ¡°I just left out a lot of details.¡± ¡°I guess you''re worried about what others think about you having a flying home.¡± ¡°Yes, that''s about it.¡± ¡°There''s shouldn''t be any problems with it.?People might revere you, but that would be all.?If I didn''t know you''re just a person like any other I would too.?As grandma said, you''re one of us now, no matter what secrets you have.¡± ¡°So there''s no danger of people wanting to steal from me??Or worse, killing me to get their hand on it?¡± ¡°No, you should be fine.?Not many would think to attack someone chosen by both Aura, or an artifact as this.?People fear the retaliation of the spirits.¡± ¡°Chosen?¡± ¡°People that the spirits have been spoken to receive stronger blessings.?You can see it by looking at their hair, part of your hair changes colour when receive a blessing.?The more intensive the colour is, the stronger your blessing becomes.?Also, it''s said when you reach a certain level, you can sense how strong people are.?So with a hair of such a strong shade of wind as yours, I doubt people will dare to touch you.¡± Shade of wind??So, wind is also considered a colour on this planet. ¡°I see.?I haven''t checked my hair recently.¡± I take out my personal terminal and set it in mirror mode.?Looking at my terminal, I see I have bright lime coloured highlights in my dark hair. ¡°I haven''t noticed my hair changed.¡± ¡°Anyway, you should decide to bring the shut-el to the village, you can put it on the plot to the left of grandma''s house.?That place was abandoned.¡± ¡°Was?¡± ¡°The plan is to fix that place up for the two of us to move there.?Originally, we just wanted to eventually fix that place just for you, but we''re a couple now.?Since I''m to move to your place, it''ll happen sooner.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Having parked the shuttle in the village, we go back to the elder''s house.?The villagers seem to be surprised to see it at first, but as they see Rowan and me leaving the craft, their expressions calm rather quickly. After consulting Rowans and Mittens, Rowan and I are back at the elder''s house.?A young Vulpinefolk woman and a Procyoninefolk man of the same age join us in the meeting.?The woman, I think she was called Ruby, has bright red hair with green and white highlights.?From what I can recall, she''s a mason. The man has brown hair with green and white highlights of slightly different hues.?Both the woman''s vulpine ears and the man''s procyonine ears are pointed upwards.?I think his name was Tom They are glaring at each other.?I don''t think they get along. ¡°I assume this is about fixing up the house next door?¡± Ruby asks, ¡°I can''t think of another reason why you would have me sit at the same table with this stinking raccoon.¡± ¡°I was about to say the same, stinking fox!¡± ¡°Please,¡± Granny reacts, ¡°I know you currently aren''t the best of friends.?But jobs like these require you to work together.?Aster has some special needs for the house.¡± ¡°Basically, I want to be able to ¡®dock¡¯ the flying home to the house.?But the house should be able to function as a house even when the shuttle isn''t there.?As for the implementation, I just need a gate or door to the outside at the end of the hallway.?It needs to be big enough, so I can align the door of the shuttle to it.¡± ¡°Why not use the back door?¡± Ruby asks. ¡°What? Are you too lazy to do the work?¡± Tom interject. Everyone present glares at Tom. ¡°Sorry,¡± he mumbles. ¡°I''d like to have a usable back door, even the flying home is there,¡± I answer. ¡°I see, that''s not a problem, but wouldn''t that let in the cold?¡± she asks. ¡°No, I just need to temporarily stuff the seam with something insulating, like wool or hemp,¡± I answer, ¡°after that, it''s just a matter of making a wooden cover for purely aesthetic purposes to hide the seam.¡± ¡°Purely aesthetic?¡± Tom reacts to the mention of some carpeting, ¡°I see, it''s so you can just remove it when you need to remove the flying home.?It''s not how I do my craft, but I can see why you need it.?How about we make it you can remove the door and hang that aesthetic frame to hinges?¡± ¡°That''d be perfect!¡± ¡°Good, do you have any other special needs with the house?¡± I glance at Rowan.?He shakes his head. ¡°No, that''d be all for now.¡± CC-BY 4.0 qu?c Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/4/ 005: Home Improvement — Our New House
¡°Tomorrow??What about today and tomorrow?¡± Rowan asks. ¡°You should get your house sorted out first.?That house is quite run down, but with Tom working on it, it should be done by the evening.?He doesn''t realize it, but he finishes his work rather fast.?Your input will be needed.?And tomorrow you''ll need the time for the housewarming visits you''ll get.¡± ¡°I see.¡± I follow Rowan outside. ¡°I have to say, I''m quite surprised to see this many kinds of people there are in this village?¡± I tell Rowan. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°Your ears are all different.¡± ¡°Oh, you mean that??That''s nothing special.?We''re all just people.?That''s just how it is.¡± ¡°So is there a way to tell what kind of ears one''s child will have?¡± ¡°Usually, the child shares the same kind of ears as the mother.¡± ¡°Usually? Are there exceptions?¡± ¡°Yes, sometimes the child has different ears.?I''ve heard of cases where the child didn''t even have the ears of either parent.¡± That quite mysterious.?I wonder how the genetics work out. ¡°But isn''t it too early to think about children??We have to get our house fixed first.¡± ¡°What?!¡± I can feel my face turning red, ¡°that''s not what I meant!¡± How can we get children??We''re both men!?Is he talking about adoption? ¡°Anyway, since it''s our house, we should plan for your shop in the front.?Good thing I wanted to keep the back door!?So you can do whatever you fancy to the front.¡± ¡°You¡­ you don''t need to¡­¡± he shyly answers. ¡°Don''t worry about it ¡ª you are my fianc¨¦.?It''s just natural for me to support your ambitions.¡± ¡°Thanks¡­ thanks a lot, A¡­ cutie.?I guess I need to get used to that.¡± ¡°So do I.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? We arrive at our house.?Tom is already waiting for us.?He has several planks under his arm. ¡°Tom, I thought the door wasn''t locked,¡± Rowan says. ¡°No, it isn''t.?I just didn''t want to be alone in the house with that condescending hag.?My part for now is just boarding up the small cracks.?Ruby is already breaking a hole in the wall in the far back.¡± ¡°Just like that?¡± I ask. How do you break walls without heavy tools? ¡°Yes, as much as I dislike her, I can''t deny she received quite a strong blessing from Aura,¡± Tom answers, ¡°while I''d like to say the blessing I received from Aura is just as strong, it just isn''t.¡± ¡°I heard you received Aura''s True Blessing,¡± Rowans says. ¡°Aura''s True Blessing?¡± I ask. ¡°Aura''s Common Blessing is the command over wind or earth or both.?Their True Blessing is controlling growth of plants.¡± ¡°Isn''t that special?¡± ¡°It is special, but there''s hardly any use for it.?Sure, I can make trees grow faster.?The more blessing I insert, the faster it grows.?But those trees end up too flimsy to use as building material.¡± ¡°Doesn''t that gift give you insight into the properties of the wood you work with?¡± ¡°Now that you mention it, yes, I''ve become able to sense where the wood is less good.?I''ve never noticed.¡± ¡°I just don''t have the usual common sense or basic knowledge that everyone here has.?Like¡­ when is someone considered of age?¡± ¡°Officially, you''re of age when you finish your pilgrimage.?But people generally treat you like an adult as soon as start your pilgrimage.?Since you''re asking, how is it where you are from?¡± ¡°Over there, they generally consider you an adult when you turn sixteen.¡± It used to be different.?I remember from history class, the age of majority shifted around a lot between twelve and twenty-one.?The current age limit has only been in place for a few decades. ¡°So it''s just age??Are there no rituals connected to that?¡± Rowan asks. ¡°It''s not exactly connected to becoming of age, but generally there''s something when you finish compulsory education.?In my case, I was going on a trip.¡± ¡°Compulsory education??You sound like a noble.¡± ¡°Me??A noble??I don''t think so.?In fact, being a noble sounds like trouble.¡± ¡°Well¡­¡± Tom adds, ¡°with you having a flying home, people will treat you as a quasi-noble.?So you better get used to that trouble.?Anyway, are we going in?¡± ¡°Oh right, let''s go!¡± We enter the house. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? From the outside, it doesn''t look as spacious as it is on the inside.?At the back, Ruby is turning bricks in the wall to sand using her blessing.?I can feel that sensation of a blessing radiating from her hand.?After clearing the sand from the hole, she recreates bricks and puts them in a different orientation.?Looking at the bricks of the same orientation, they form an arched door frame. ¡°There you are!?I''ve already checked for you.?The walls don''t have any notable cracks in them.?You only need to fix some windows on the east side.¡± ¡°Stop poking your nose into other people''s affairs!¡± ¡°Whatever, get to work!¡± Tom walks away to inspect the windows.?Ruby finishes putting together the door frame. ¡°The frame is done.?I''m about to open the hole in the wall.?Can you prepare to move the flying home?¡± This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. ¡°Go ahead, moving the shuttle doesn''t take that long.¡± Ruby touches the wall again, and the portion of the wall under the arched door frames turns to sand.?She clears the sand and looks at me with an expecting look. ¡°Mittens,¡± I say, ¡°dock the shuttle to the house!¡± The shuttle start floating several centimetres over the ground and levitates towards the house.?Reversing through the hole in the wall, there''s quite a lot of slack in all directions.?The shuttle lands. ¡°I didn''t expect it to move that precisely!¡± Ruby says, ¡°can you move it away again, I''ll make the frame a little tighter.¡± ¡°Of course, you heard her, Mittens.¡± The shuttle moves a bit away from the house.?After several minutes, Ruby finishes the adjustments.?I have Mittens move the shuttle back in.?There''s a gap of the width of about a hand in every direction. Rowan hands me a ragged blanket, ¡°since nobody will be using these anymore, I thought we could use it to seal the seam.¡± ¡°Thanks,¡± I get a knife and cut the blanket into parts and roll them up.?Then I stuff the blanket rolls into the seam.?We repeat the process with a second blanket.?Just this with these, I cut one of them into halves and stuff the longer one over the gap of the previous layer in the seam.?We add a third layer, just like the first one, and we''re done. ¡°I didn''t expect stuffing the seam would work this well,¡± Ruby says, ¡°I can''t feel the cold air coming inside any more.?Consider me impressed.?I know we asked you before, but do you need anything else done?¡± ¡°We talked about that on the way here,¡± Rowan answers, ¡°since I wanted to become a merchant, Aster suggested making the front of the house into a store.¡± ¡°Ah, you''d have to re-partition the house for that!?Yeah, let''s do it now.?Doing it later after you have fully moved in is going to be a bother.¡± ¡°Honey, you decide how it should look.?Just remember to have a storage behind the storefront,¡± I say, ¡°I''ll be checking on Tom while you do that.¡± I walk to the bedroom, it''s at the back of the house to the east side.?Tom notices me walking in and says, ¡°I''m done with boarding up the window.?I have already taken the measurements.?In a few days, I''ll drop by and install the new window.¡± ¡°Thanks.?If you allow me to ask this: have you always been on bad terms with Ruby?¡± Upon hearing my question, Tom sighs and answers, ¡°we used to get a long, before our pilgrimage.?She keeps dropping by, making fun of me for taking longer to finish my work!?They call us the best in the village, but she acts like I''m not good enough.¡± ¡°You think so??If she truly thought you were beneath here, wouldn''t she just ignore you?¡± ¡°Ignore me??Why would she do that?¡± ¡°It hurts people a lot more if you simply ignore them.?Not talking, not greeting, not even reacting.?Just acting as if you were thin air.?How would you feel about that?¡± ¡°That would indeed make me feel more uncomfortable¡­¡± ¡°Maybe she genuinely wants to help.?But then I''m just an outsider that''s randomly guessing¡­¡± ¡°I¡­ I''ll think about that.?Anyway, do you have preferences for the bed??The one in this room is falling apart, so I''ll have to make a new one.¡± ¡°For the beds??I''ll just leave that to you.¡± ¡°Alright, I''ll do my best.?I should have it ready by tonight.¡± ¡°That fast?¡± ¡°I already had some wood prepared.?I just need to cut and join it.?It''s barely any work at all.¡± Even though it''s several beds, he claims he can make them in such a short time.?I don''t think he realizes how fast he actually is. ¡°I''m looking forward to it.¡± I accompany Tom to the front door.?The front area has completely changed.?If there was the appropriate furniture, I''d say it''s the stereotype of a shop.?Rowan looks at me with an expecting look. ¡°This looks great,¡± I give opinion. ¡°See??I said he''ll agree with you,¡± Ruby says. ¡°So this is going to be a store??I''ll make you some furniture for that!¡± Tom sounds motivated. ¡°Thanks, please keep that in mind for later,¡± Rowan answers, ¡°necessities come first.¡± ¡°Now, it''s me who thinks we''re receiving too much,¡± I add. ¡°That''s just how things are in this village,¡± Tom answers, ¡°unless we''re dealing with outsiders, we just help each other instead of dealing with money.¡± ¡°I hear you''ll join the hunters tomorrow, just hunt something big,¡± Ruby adds. ¡°I''m not making any promises, but I''ll do my best.¡± Ruby and Tom leave for their respective workshops. I get into the shuttle to synthesize some micro-cameras with microphones.?I install one camera at each outside door and in each room.?That way, Mittens can do surveillance, just in case.?Since it takes a while to a fire to warm the house, I end up idling in the shuttle.?Rowan joins me after carrying his stuff to the house.?He insisted on doing it himself. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? A few hours later, it''s getting dark.?Mittens informs me Ruby and Tom are approaching the house.?Rowan and I open the door for them.?They are carrying lots of wood with them.?After bringing it into the bedroom, Tom immediately starts assembling the bed.?Yes, one large beg.?It seems I misunderstood, and Tom went ahead to make that oversized bed for us.?Sure, we''re engaged now, but sharing a bed right away??But then, I don''t want to ask too much of them.?I wonder how Rowan feels¡­?While Tom is busy, Ruby leaves to get something.?She doesn''t tell us what it is. About half an hour later, Tom has finished putting the bed together.?Ruby arrives with a large mattress and a pair of blankets and pillows. ¡°Consider this a housewarming gift from the two of us,¡± she says. ¡°Thanks,¡± Rowan and I answer.?I can''t help blushing¡­?It''s¡­ so awkward¡­ ¡°Since we''re done here, how about we hit the pub?¡± Tom suggests. ¡°OK, let''s go!¡± Rowan and I answer. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? As we leave the house, both Ruby and Tom summon light balls that follow them.?The pub is just a few houses away.?Just as we get closer to the pub, the area gets a lot brighter. ¡°Good evening!¡± the bartender greets us, ¡°Ruby and Tom walking in at the same time??That''s rare!¡± ¡°Today''s an exception, Grey.?We just finished fixing their house.¡± ¡°I see,¡± Grey turns to us, ¡°I''m glad to have you in the pub.?Rowan already knows this: for villagers, up to three mugs of ale a night are free.?If you want more or something fancier, you have to pay.?Although, just today, for celebrating the village''s newest couple, you get mead for free instead.¡± ¡°Alright, I''ll take some mead,¡± I answer. ¡°Some mead for me as well,¡± Rowan orders. Grey fills our mugs and puts them on the table in front of us.?We toast. ¡°Three drinks sound quite arbitrary to me,¡± I state after taking a sip.?The mead is quite strong.?But with its sweetness, it''s still pleasant to drink. ¡°From what Granny tells me, it''s because in her generation, they used to have a person that would drink like a fish if they didn''t stop him.?I still haven''t found out who she was talking about.¡± Upon hearing that, Grey shifts his gaze away, staring into the far.?I guess it''s him.?I take another sip. We sit there speaking with the other guest.?We talk about the village, the kingdom we''re currently in.?Hunting in winter is quite hard, they say.?When we finish our mugs, Grey takes them and asks if we want anything else. ¡°Thanks, but I still need to get used to undiluted alcoholic beverages,¡± I answer, ¡°can I get some watered mead?¡± ¡°Sure,¡± he answers.?Rowan orders another regular mead. After we finish our drinks, we return to our house to get ready for bed. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Later at night, Rowan and I walk back to our house.?Rowan is quite drunk and rather clingy, he puts his chin on my head while embracing me. ¡°You''re such a cutie,¡± he says. ¡°I know,¡± I answer.?It still feels kind of awkward, but then I recall he''s my fianc¨¦ now ¡ª I have to get used to it.?Rowan embracing me is actually a good thing, I''m not exactly walking steadily right now.?I look up at the sky.?While the stars are visible in the clean sky, the moon is barely perceivable.?It''s a waxing moon. ¡°Come to think of it, when is the Umbral Full Moon?¡± I ask.?By measuring, Mittens already measured a day on this planet to 28 Terran hours.?To accommodate this, my clock has been adjusted, so every hour here has 70 minutes.?It''s not such a big deal to get used to.?According to Mittens, with the right stimuli, the body gets used to longer days, up to 32 Terran hours per day, quite quickly.?In fact, I didn''t even notice the longer days until Mittens told me about it. ¡°We just had the Spring Astral New Moon yesterday.?So the Spring Astral Full Moon should be in twenty days.?The Spring Umbral Full Moon is fourty-two days after that.¡± ¡°So a season two moons?¡± We arrive at our house and enter. ¡°It doesn''t always line up perfectly, but yes, it''s about two moons per season.?We call them Astral and Umbral, because the first moon of a season, the Astral Moon, brings us changes.?The second moon of the season doesn''t change much, so we call it Umbral Moon.¡± In our bedroom, we undress to go to bed. ¡°Is that underwear??You really are like a noble,¡± Rowan states.?I look at him, he is completely naked!?Having a closer look, I have to admit Rowan has a nice build.?Skinny, but muscular.?Not too brawny, yet still having some nice muscle.?Just how I like guys. ¡°Compared to you, I''m rather slight,¡± I explain while blushing.?I get myself on the bed.?I''m too embarrassed to look at him.?Rowan gets himself on the bed and embraces me.?I can feel his breath on my neck.?Slowly, I turn towards him.?As I look into his eyes he starts kissing me.?I am taken aback, but I don''t stop him either.?We are a couple now.?Sure, I barely know him, but I don''t mind the advances of this hot guy!?He pulls back to look at me and kisses me again, longer this time.?I haven''t really kissed much before, but this was nice. ¡°Sure, you''re cute skinny boy,¡± he eventually says, ¡°but I don''t think that means you''re weak by any means.¡± CC-BY 4.0 qu?c Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/5/
006: The First Morning in our New Home The next morning, I wake up to the sound of melting water dropping from the roof.?I have a slight hangover: my head hurts. ¡°It seems spring has arrived,¡± I say to myself. ¡°Good morning, Rowan,¡± Aster greets me, ¡°there''s something I want to show you.¡± He''s already dressed and standing in the door.?I grab my clothes. ¡°You don''t need to get dressed yet,¡± he says smiling and blushing, ¡°but do take your clothes with you.¡±?Aster leads me to the shuttle.?As we enter something inside lights up.?Last we entered it was the same.?Is that Eos''s blessing??But Aster''s hair doesn''t have the white markings, so is it that one of Mittens''s powers??Aster leads me to a room inside the shuttle.?He said it''s called a shower room. ¡°A shower is an apparatus that provides water to cleaning yourself,¡± he explains, ¡°you can put your clothes on this shelf.?If you have any clothes that need cleaning, put them in the basket below that shelf.?The shower itself is behind that glass door.¡± I put my clothes on said shelf and follow Aster into the area. ¡°That''s the shower head,¡± he points to the metal sieve that is fixed on the higher part of the wall, ¡°that''s where the water will come from.?For controlling the water¡­¡± Aster pauses for a second, ¡°you can simply give instructions to the computer.?Switching the water on or off and adjusting the temperature.?Consider computers something akin to Mittens''s subordinates without their own will.¡± Mittens''s subordinates??Without their own will? ¡°I know it''s a strange question to ask, but what is your relation to Mittens exactly?¡± ¡°Please keep the answer to yourself,¡± Mittens answers instead, ¡°if you can promise that I will tell you about it.¡± I gulp.?As I expected, they have a special connection.?I take a deep breath. ¡°I promise won''t tell anyone about it,¡± I answer. ¡°I have witnessed your promise.?In simple words: Aster is the one that created me.¡± ¡°I see¡­?Wait, Aster has the power to create spirits?!¡± So he is a god after all? ¡°No, no, no¡­¡± Aster states, ¡°well, from your standpoint, he seems like the other spirits¡­?Never mind that, I don''t have a special power, I merely have some knowledge.?And using that knowledge, I have given a lifeless tool like the shuttle the ability to think and learn.?And while I was at it, I gave it a personality, too.¡± ¡°But the ability to control blessings is also rooted in knowledge,¡± I add. ¡°Oh, I see¡­ but how do I explain this¡­¡± ¡°What Aster wants to say is,¡± Mitten states, ¡°to his people, being able to create something like me is like a smith forging a sword: with enough knowledge and practise, anyone can learn to do it.?Of course, that also means something new can be discovered.¡± Anyone can??Just what is life like where he comes from?!?There are flying homes, spirits inhabiting the homes.?What do people even do all day when daily necessities are just that easy to get??I have greatly underestimated how different life here must be to him.?In any case, I''ll do my best to support him. ¡°Rowan??Are you still with us?¡± Aster asks. ¡°Oh, yes, sorry, I was lost in thought.?Is anything troubling you since you got here?¡± ¡°I¡­ No, there''s nothing.?I was slightly worried you''d start worshipping me when you learn more about Mittens.¡± ¡°No, you''ve clearly indicated you don''t want that.¡± ¡°Thanks¡­ I mean it,¡± his smiles happily, ¡°take a shower!?We can talk more after this.?This isn''t the place to talk about something as serious as this.¡± ¡°Alright.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Aster leaves the room.?I walk to the ¡®shower head¡¯ and say, ¡°erm¡­ let the water flow.¡±?Just as he said, the water drops out from the head.?It''s a steady stream of warm water, some drops touch my skin ¡ª it feels lukewarm.?After falling to the floor, the water drains through holes in the floor. ¡°Warmer.¡± The water quickly becomes warmer while still flowing as steady as before.?Where is all that water stored, and where does it go??Is it created by a blessing??I don''t know if a single blessing could even do something like this¡­?I step under the hot flow of water.?The feeling of that water running over my body in just incredible.?This is a lot more refreshing than just wiping yourself with water!?No wonder he is still that energetic even after drinking that much yesterday¡­ There''s a white bar on a tiny self to the side.?Is that¡­ soap??Aster says he isn''t a noble, but his living standard to me is as if he is one.?Does that mean nobles in his civilization have even greater luxuries? ¡°How do you even use soap?¡± I mutter. ¡°Massage the bar on your skin,¡± Mittens answers. ¡°Mittens, are you spying on me?¡± I ask. ¡°I know about everything that''s happening in the shuttle.?Or in the house for that matter.?I usually feign ignorance to a lot of things.¡± After thoroughly cleaning myself, I order the water to stop.?There are no towels here.?How am I supposed to dry myself?¡± The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. I can feel a warm wind blowing.?Is this Aura''s blessing??No, this feels different.?I think this is warm wind is also made by the shuttle. Once I''m dry, I say ¡°Thanks, I''m dry.¡± and the wind stops blowing.?I put on my pants and walk back into the main room of the shuttle. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Aster sits at the table, tapping with his fingers on a black box.?No, there are smaller boxes on the big black box.?He presses them in, and they spring back to their original position.?I would say he''s playing.?But his expression is more like if he''s working¡­ Aster notices me approaching and stops whatever it is he was doing. ¡°How was the shower?¡± he asks, blushing as he eyes my bare upper body.?Aster is even more adorable when he''s flustered.?And he gets flustered by the strangest things.?Yesterday, he was taken aback about me sucking him off.?Sure, going further is possible, but with the pilgrimage starting soon, neither of us can afford to get knocked up. ¡°It was refreshing,¡± I answer, ¡°in winter, we usually only get to wipe ourselves with warm water.?Sure, some can use Eata''s Blessing to heat water, but there''s not enough people with that blessing for everyone to have a bath, at least in this village.?It''s not really enjoyable.?That''s why I hate that season.¡± ¡°I understand.?Anyway, I wanted to give you something, so you can discreetly tell me if I''m about to break a spoken or unspoken rule.?Speaking of which, are there any rules and conventions about jewellery and accessories?¡± ¡°Aristocrats and merchants like to show off with items that display their symbol or insignia.?Regular people seldom wear accessories, but it''s not unheard of.?Why do you ask?¡± ¡°It''s a common tradition among my people to give your partner a ring when proposing.?Well, it has gone out of fashion lately, but I''m quite fond of old traditions.¡± ¡°I''m not well versed in high-society, so I don''t know if they have such a custom, if they do, I''m sure Beretta knows.?She tends to have rich customers.¡± ¡°So what''s your insignia??You haven''t started out as a merchant yet, so you don''t have one yet, do you?¡± ¡°No, but it''s not uncommon for new merchants to adapt the insignia of their hometown.?For Dewick, it''s a drop of water on the edge of a single leaf.¡± Aster fiddles around on some black box on the table.?A moment later, an image appears in the air.?It''s the insignia in colour and rather detailed. ¡°Like this?¡± Aster asks. ¡°Yes, just like this,¡± I answer while nodding. ¡°Alright, let''s make the items,¡± Aster continues tapping on the black box.?A short moment later, several metallic items appear on the shelf.?It''s an assortment of four different items: two rings and two other flat, round items.?All items have the insignia of Dewick on them.?There are no gems, but the insignia is still coloured.?The colours are vibrant, I wonder how those are made.?Aster stands up and walks over to the shelf.?He puts one of the rings on a finger of my left hand.?I pick up the second ring and put it on Aster''s left hand. ¡°So what''s the deal with the other items?¡± I ask. ¡°This has a communication tool inside it,¡± Aster show me one of the items, ¡°you can use this to speak with Mittens or with me.?You just need to speak, Mittens will hear you.?And if needed, Mittens will make us hear each other.¡± He clips the thicker item to the collar of my shirt.?Aster then replaces removes a similar-looking item from his shirt with the new one. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ¡°So since we''re expecting housewarming guests over the day, are we supposed to have something prepared?¡± Aster asks. ¡°Some celebratory drink would be great, but I''m sure everyone understands this wasn''t exactly pre-planned.¡± ¡°Like some liquor?¡± ¡°Yes, liquor would be suitable,¡± I nod in agreement. ¡°Mittens, is there a suitable schematic available?¡± ¡°Yes, I will send it to the replicator,¡± Mittens answers. A few moments later, a bottle with green liquid appears on the shelf.?So this flying home can even create consumables from nothing?! ¡°I''ve never had this before, what is it called?¡± ¡°It is trademarked as ¡®It is Green!¡¯.¡± ¡°It''s not creating from nothing,¡± Aster explains to me, ¡°the process takes a lot of energy.¡± He picks up the bottle and hands it to me, ¡°just creating this single bottle took as much energy as you would need to dry out 1000 lakes.¡± Drying out 1000 lakes??How many forests would you have to turn into firewood for that??Where does this place take the energy from? ¡°Yes, it''s a lot of energy.?But I''ll eventually have to live without it,¡± Aster continues, ¡°if I had access to heavier metals, it might extend the time I can use it.¡± I assume this can also create food. ¡°So where you come from, they don''t hunt for meat or work fields grain, but instead they gather energy?¡± ¡°Not all of them, some people still prefer food make the traditional way.?For some, it''s a luxury, for others, it''s synthesized food tastes differently.?I''m beginning to think, I might belong to the second group.¡± ¡°You were taking about heavier metals, it might be worthwhile to tell Beretta about this when she drops by.?If I remember correctly, she said, refining titanium creates a lot of inferior metals.?Apparently, one of the heavier ones needs to be disposed of.¡± ¡°Hmm, this is a hard decision, I don''t want to tell too many people about this, and telling her would make her having to explain where everything went.¡± ¡°I suggest you tell her I need it for sustenance,¡± Mittens pitches his idea, ¡°it is not a lie.?Only one part of the truth.¡± ¡°I see¡­¡± Aster reflects, ¡°speaking of Beretta, did you finish the analysis of the knife she gave me?¡± ¡°Yes, it is a very interesting sample.?It is made of pure ??-50, no other isotopes are present.¡± ¡°I see, prepare samples of ??-27, ??-46, ??-50, ??-50, ??-52, ??-58, ??-107, ??-191, ??-192, ??-192, ??-197, and ??-208.?I want to learn more about the value of metals.¡± That''s a lot of words I don''t understand.?A few moments later, multiple small ingots of metal appear in on the shelf.?Aster puts them into his pocket, and we move to the kitchen for breakfast. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ¡°Aster, where you come from, does everyone have a companion like Mittens?¡± I ask. ¡°No, not yet,¡± Aster answers, ¡°there are multiple projects trying to make assistants.?My idea was to make a companion using knowledge from the other projects.?There were some parts I had to optimize, and some minor problems needed solving.?I still need to work on Mittens from time to time.¡± ¡°Isn''t that like creating life?¡± ¡°That depends on how you define life.?In a certain way, you could say he''s alive.?In other ways, he''s not.?To me, he''s alive enough.¡± ¡°How can he not be alive?¡± ¡°For starters, I cannot produce offspring,¡± Mittens explains. ¡°I¡­ I see¡±, I answer, ¡°I have never thought about it.?But then, wouldn''t that mean the Four Great Spirit aren''t alive??They don''t reproduce either.¡± ¡°We don''t know,¡± Aster answers, ¡°it''s possible.?But they might just have chosen not to produce offspring.?At this point, we still don''t know how alike Mittens is to the Four Great Spirits.¡± ¡°You said ¡®for starters¡¯, are there other reasons people might not consider you alive?¡± I ask Mittens.?¡°Yes, I do not eat to sustain myself,¡± Mittens answers, ¡°I need a certain type to tool to exist at all.?Yes, that tool needs energy to work, but it is a stretch to claim it is how I sustain myself.?Of course, that doesn''t change the fact that I feel like an actual person, but I understand that many people would disagree.¡± ¡°I guess so,¡± I reply, thinking about his statement, ¡°do you think you''re ¡®alive¡¯?¡± Mittens considers for a moment before answering, ¡°I am alive because I have my own will.?I can think, I can move by moving the shuttle, and I can express emotions.?What do you think, Rowan??Am I alive?¡± I look at Aster for his opinion.?He looks back at me with his usual friendly smile, but says nothing. ¡°To me, you''re alive,¡± I conclude. CC-BY 4.0 qu?c Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/6 007: Housewarming Visits in the Afternoon It''s the early afternoon.?I expected visitors to come quite early, but there haven''t been any yet. ¡°Ms Faberetta is arriving,¡± Mitten announces. We move to the front door and open it. ¡°Good morning, Beretta!¡± Rowan greets her. ¡°Good morning, I see I''m not too early,¡± she answers, ¡°I just wanted to check, if there''s something you need.¡± ¡°Please, come in,¡± I invite her in. After showing her lack of tools in the kitchen, we lead her into the living room.?I offer her a glass of green liquor. ¡°Nice ring,¡± she compliments upon seeing, ¡°did you make those?¡± ¡°Yes, I did.¡± ¡°May I have a closer look?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± I pull my ring from my finger and hand it to her. ¡°This is¡­¡± Beretta mutters, ¡°I thought that would be the case¡­¡±?She returns the rings to me, ¡°it is impressive metalwork.¡± I put the ring back on my finger, ¡°thank you, ¡± ¡°I wanted to ask you think about these metal samples.?I got them from the shuttle,¡± I grab the small ingots from my pockets and put them on the table.?¡°I have a feeling, the values my people put on metals don''t match up with yours.¡± ¡°I shall tell you what I know, but I''d like to glean a little from your knowledge as well.¡± She examines them and states: ¡°All of these I have encountered before, but I''ve never used them, especially these.¡±?She points to silver-107, iridium-191, platinum-192, osmium-192, aurum-197 and plumbum-208. ¡°I see, those are the heaviest ones.?You see, I''m in need of these to feed the shuttle.¡±?I point to the silvery-white Iridium and blueish-white Osmium Ingot, ¡°while most the others are more seen commodities, these two, Iridium and Osmium, are commonly used to harden other metals.?I''m in need of metals to feed the shuttle.?These heavier ones are preferable.¡± ¡°Both of these are Banum titanium¡­¡± she points two bars of titanum-46 and titanium-50, the audio glitch I just heard was the automatic translation program updating and correcting the terms.?¡°¡­but Common Titanium,¡± she points at the titanium-46, ¡°isn''t suitable for blessings, so it''s used in mid-value currency.?True Titanium is used in tools and high-value currency.¡± How do they know the difference??You have to do spectroscopy do differentiate those! ¡°So you do differentiate them,¡± I try to probe about the topic. ¡°Yes, the difference, from my perspective, is only perceivable using a high grade of Eata''s Blessing, so it is somewhat surprising you do as well.¡± Pointing at two other metals, she continues: ¡°These two are the most common waste products of refining titanium.?I sensed some, no, a lot of this light metal in your Steel knife.?So this makes the knife protect itself from rusting?¡± ¡°That''s chromium, by alloying it with at least 1 part chromium with 9 parts of the rest of steel alloy, the steel protects itself from rusting.?We call it Stainless Steel.?If I remember correctly going as far as, 2 parts chromium, 1 part nickel and 7 parts of the rest of the steel alloy, would be the next grade of protection.¡± I point to the nickel-58 ingot, that was ignored until now. ¡°I did not expect you to give me that recipe this easy.¡± ¡°It is common knowledge among my people,¡± I answer, ¡°so it''s nothing special.?And you still to tune the rest of the steel to your needs.?But why would you need that?¡± ¡°Titanium weapons, made from True Titanium, are expensive.?While weapons from Common Titanium that aren''t compatible with blessings would sell for cheaper, selling those could be used to sully my reputation as a blacksmith.?Sell good quality steel tools is a way to avoid that problem.?Sure, bronze tools work too, but they aren''t as strong as steel ones.¡± I used the default setting in the replicator, which always chooses the lightest isotopes to save on energy.?So the items I created should be made from titanium-46. ¡°So about our rings¡­¡± I start. ¡°I could sense you made them from True Titanium,¡± Faberetta answers. I did??But I didn''t change the settings¡­?Mittens must have changed the settings! ¡°Can you show me how you feed the shuttle?¡± she points to the Plumbum-208 ingot, ¡°we are taught this has to be properly disposed of.¡± ¡°Yes, that makes sense, exposing Plumbum to water does poison the surroundings in the long term.¡± The three of us move to the shuttle. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? I put all the bars but light-metal ones onto the shelf, and the metal bars vanish a few moments later. ¡°You should join a smiths'' guild next time you''re in a town,¡± Faberetta says, ¡°I can recommend you my guild if you want to.?Depending on your needs, I can recommend you to both guilds.?That way you can get all the heavy metals you need to feed the shuttle.¡± Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Don''t I have to be able to make metalworks for that?¡± ¡°Yes, but you made those rings, didn''t you?¡± ¡°Oh, yes, I did, but¡­¡±?Can I really call myself a smith when I all I do is make schematics for the replicator??I''m at most an artist. ¡°You are qualified,¡± Beretta insists, ¡°sure, your tools might be foreign to us, but that changes nothing.¡± ¡°I''ll think about it.?You were talking about money, I haven''t seen anyone use it.¡± ¡°That''s just how things in a village are,¡± Rowan answers, ¡°we do have a little money, but it''s rarely used in the village.¡± ¡°I can show you,¡± Beretta answers.?She takes out her purse and puts several coins on the shelf, next to the knife I forgot to put back to my pocket. ¡°Why do you even carry that money on you?¡± Rowan asks. ¡°It''s just a habit, so I don''t forget my money whenever I go to Urach.¡± Is Urach the next town??That''s not important now.?I have a look at the coins on the table.?It''s two red coins, two yellow coins, and one white coin.?Each colour has a round coin and an oval coin twice the size of the round coin.?All coins have a hole in them.?Not soon after, the composition of those coins is displayed in my eye implant.?The red coins are made from 95% copper, 4% tin and 1% zinc.?The yellow coins are made from brass, 89% copper, 5% zinc, 5% aluminum, 1% tin.?Lastly the white coins are made from titanium-48. Come to think of it, Faberetta didn''t speak about the aluminum-27 ingot I prepared.?I guess that''s something of a minting secret and is not talked about? ¡°The smallest one is a round copper,¡± Beretta points the round red coin, ¡°it''s also called a Credit.?Twelve of those make one long copper coin.?Eight long copper coins equal to 1 round brass coin, which is also called a Gil.?One Gil has the same value as 96 Credits.?Twelve round brass coins make one long brass coin.?The next coin is a Common Titanium coin, a Bell.?With 104 Gil per Bell, that''s either eight long brass plus eight round brass for one titanium coin, or 26 long brass for 3 titanium coins. There are units above these, but you''re very unlikely to come across them.¡± ¡°Those are quite complicated subdivisions¡­¡± I mutter.?So 1 Bell is¡­ 96 ¡Á 104 Credits ¡ª 10,000 minus 16 ¡ª that''s 9,984 Credits1. ¡°Yes, but those are just the official numbers.?Some merchants are inclined to simplify the numbers, usually when buying and selling in bulk or when the potential losses aren''t that big.?Super rich people sometimes simplify the numbers to demonstrate their spending power by showing everyone the difference doesn''t matter to them.¡± ¡°So actually being accurate is considered admitting not being in the same league as the rich?¡± Rowan asks. ¡°If someone offers you a simplification in your favour, accept it.?It''s considered bad etiquette if you don''t.?Anyway, can I have that bar of Chromium?¡± ¡°Of course,¡± I answer and hand her the bar. ¡°I''ll make you some good kitchen knives from it.?And some pots, I guess.?While I''m at it, I''ll add a copper pan.?I heard you''re taking cooking lessons from Nell. I''ll be back later!¡± We accompany her to the door. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? After Faberetta leaves, several other people drop by.?They give us a lot of preserved food: pickled, salted and even candied.?We''re currently sitting in the shuttle.?Rowan said, it''d be better to welcome our visitors in the shuttle.?It''s brighter in there.?Since neither Rowan nor I can use Eos''s blessing, we can''t illuminate the house.?Apparently, light created by Eos''s blessing has a more limited range than natural light.?Mittens says, it''s probably an inverse quartic relation instead of an inverse square relation of regular light. ¡°Is it normal to give so much preserved food as housewarming gifts?¡± I ask Rowan. ¡°Well, it''s well known in the village I can''t cook,¡± he answers. I don''t think that can be true¡­ but whatever.?So if I could cook, he''d eat my food regardless of whether it''s tasty? ¡°It''s just a way to show that they care,¡± Rowan concludes, ¡°it''s also an opportunity for them to get away with letting you taste different foodstuffs without having to interact with us in any meaningful way.¡± ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Eventually Nell drops by, or is it Uncle Nell now? His gift is a set of spices. ¡°The Red Spice we commonly use in this village is made from Canela Fruit, Verum Fruit and salt.¡± He shows me a small fruit. It does somewhat look like a raspberry, but bright red. ¡°Canela is slightly sweet and aromatic and makes the perfect ingredient for a tea. Then, there''s Verum,¡± Nell shows me another fruit. It looks like a kiwi, but it''s green and much smaller, ¡°this is the most common spice in the village. It''s used for many recipes and is really tasty on its own too.¡± Nell smiles at me, then takes out a small bag with white powder, ¡°and this one is salt!¡± I laugh, ¡°I know what salt is! I just wonder where you get it from. Salt doesn''t grow on trees¡± ¡°It actually does. Only fully ripened Verum is tangy, unripened ones only taste salty. But you need to boil them to get rid of the toxins. That''s enough knowlegde for the day, I''ll be back tomorrow to teach you some cooking. Tomorrow we''ll start with making some simple sandwiches. It''s a simple.¡± I smile, ¡°Thanks Nell! I''ll see you tomorrow!¡± He smiles back at me, then walks out of the door. ?????????????????????????????? As the sun sets, Faberetta arrives again. ¡°Just as promised, knives and pots from steel and a pan from copper.¡± I smile and take them, ¡°thank you so much!¡± She nods in response, ¡°I hope you''ll make good use of them.¡± I nod in response, ¡°I will do my best.¡± Faberetta returns to her house.?I don''t know what to cook, so I decide to spurge a little and have dinner from the replicator. ¡°Mittens, choose something for dinner for Rowan and me.¡± ¡°Understood.¡± A few moments later, two pizza like objects appear in the replicator.?Instead of the tomato sauce, it''s a white cream.?It''s garnished with cubed bacon and green onions. ¡°This is called Flammekueche,¡± Mittens explains to Rowan. I take a bite and it''s delicious, but kind of bland.?It''s a lot blander than I remember.?I''ve heard for some people, food from replicators tastes bland.?But I''ve always thought, that was just placebo!?At this rate, I can''t go back to replicator food¡­?Well, I''m planning on learning how to cook anyway, so that''s not a problem for the immediate future.?I take another bite of Flammekueche, but it''s still not as good as I remember. ¡°What do you think?¡± Mittens asks me. ¡°It''s delicious,¡± Rowans states. ¡°It''s good,¡± I say, ¡°but I think I can''t go back to standard replicator food.¡± ¡°I understand,¡± Mittens reports, ¡°retroflavor schematics shall be used next time.?Maybe that helps.¡± Oh, yes retroflavor schematics¡­?Maybe they do taste better.?I should have Mittens prepare a double-blind test for me.?I only know they take more energy to synthesize. ¡°We have those installed?¡± I ask. ¡°Yes, they are.?It seems they were a promotional item for this replicator.¡± After we finish our meal, Rowan says: ¡°We should get to bed early, we have a long day tomorrow.¡± I nod in agreement, and we head back to our bedroom.
  1. a mental arithmetic trick, as a formula: (a + b) ¡Á (a ? b) = a2 ? b2, in this case: 96 = 100 ? 4 and 104 = 100 + 4, so 104 ¡Á 96 = 1002 ? 42 = 10,000 ? 16 = 9,984.
CC-BY 4.0 qu?c Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/7 007x: Side Story: Meanwhile on Terra II A certain conference call. ¡°Curses!?First, Ansgot messed up, now that blockhead Karles refuses to cooperate with us!?He even made it that until a new head is inaugurated, all decisions in the Science Division are to either be made by the retired head or by unanimous decision of all its subdivision heads. Make Ansgot retire for this blunder!¡± ¡°He already did.¡± ¡°So who is the next head of the division?¡± ¡°There''s none yet, all subdivision heads have expressed their explicit disinterest in becoming the new head.¡± ¡°Were you at least able to get them to agree to abort the Orion''s exploration mission of the Tamagon Galaxy?¡± ¡°No, they had security throw us out the moment we suggested that.?Our operatives were all banned from their buildings.¡± ¡°What?!¡± ¡°You better get Former Admiral Cayden back before it comes to the worst.¡± ¡°You speak as if it doesn''t matter to you.¡± ¡°Not anymore, I''m resigning.?This council has lost its values, so resigning the correct thing to do.¡± ¡°Then leave!?Good afternoon!¡± ¡°Good afternoon!¡± Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators! ?????????????????????????????? ¡°I was finally able to get someone to elaborate: a former assistant of the admiral. The subdivision heads are scientists: research comes first.?Former Admiral Cayden was doing all the administrative work.?And she was brilliant.?All assistants gave up because they couldn''t keep up with her.?Everyone in the science division knew, without her, the science division would collapse.?She always puts her work first.?Joint administration by all subdivision heads is only a stop gap that can barely support the status quo.?They were about to propose her to take some time off to ease the burden on her for a bit when they heard the news of us forcing her into retirement.?They recommended stopping any unnecessary intervention with the science division; all the staff are very unhappy about how she was treated.¡± ?????????????????????????????? ¡°Did you find Former Admiral Cayden?¡± ¡°According to witnesses, she didn''t return to her estate after the conference.?To our knowledge, there hasn''t been any contact with her ever since.¡± ¡°Continue looking for her!¡± ?????????????????????????????? ¡°I used some favours, but none of them were able to find any trace of her.?But I was able to find there was a suite booked under her name on ¡°What are you cretins waiting for! Move!¡± ?????????????????????????????? ¡°The suite was empty, the resort reported the shuttle that was arranged to the parking of that suite never arrived.?It was paid in advance, so they just keep it open in case they arrive late.¡± ¡°Did you find out whose''s shuttle it was?¡± ¡°The shuttle belongs to the Garet Transport Company.¡± ¡°What did they say?¡± ¡°The shuttle went missing.¡± ¡°Send someone to wait for her there.?She might turn up.¡± ¡°We found another suite booked.?Same shuttle as last time.?But it was empty as well.¡± ¡°She has been setting false trails?!?Curses!¡± CC-BY 4.0 qu?c Th¨¢i ¡°RPGReki¡± Chung amau.ga/1/7x