《The Discovery : Sci-fi meets Fantasy story》 Chapter 1: Discovery A 10-year-old girl was sleeping quietly in her bed. She has long blue hair, blue eyes and bright skin. She wore blue nightgown made of silk, which was one of dozens of clothing she had. The marble floor shined by the moonlight and the walls colored white. A royal princess, if you will. Her parents are beside her. The father was blonde, however he had blue eyes. He was extremely strong, packing a 6 pack and a large bulge. He was in his royal clothing and on his head lied a golden crown with red diamonds. The queen, much like her daughter had blue hair but had yellow eyes. She had an exotic body, wearing an exotic blue royal overskirt dress and wearing a crown made out of diamonds. She looked just like her daughter when she was at her age. They both were sitting on a long chair. They had finished reading their sweet daughter a story. The queen closed the book, put it on her lap and then rested her head on her husband''s shoulder. "What dreams do you think our daughter is having?", she asked. The king smiled. "Something wonderful." ... The howling of the wind opened her eyes. She was in her room, but without any furniture, only her bed and the door, as always. She had been here before. She checked herself. She was wearing the same nightgown she wore when she was put into her sleep. She got up from her bed and walked towards a dark oak door with a golden door knob. The door led her to the balcony of the palace. She looked over the railing. The kingdom was doing good as usual. People were going by their day as normal. However, when she looked up to the sky, she saw something. It was white, and it had a brown pupil in the middle. "This is new". The gust of wind got stronger and louder. She is at the balcony looking at the sky. She blinked. She is not at the balcony looking at the sky. She was in a white room. On her left and right were two men. They were sitting on a black chair. They both had a turquoise shirt and black pants, with a long purple cloth on their necks, going down to their stomach. They were both looking at giant rectangular painting of sorts. There was a small aqua ball in the painting, with green in the middle, and white on the top and bottom. The left side was darker than the other side. To the top right of the ball was a smaller silver ball. She wonders what this meant. But before she could think, the sound of the wind came. It grew louder, and louder and louder. She is a room with a weird painting. She blinked. She is not in a room with a weird painting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the vastness of space, a white spaceship for scientific exploration, the USS Meta, is arriving at a newly discovered system called the Ardon Star system. The reason is to study a newly discovered habitable planet almost the size of earth, which was found on 25th of September 12,583 HE. The USS Meta is over double the length of a football field (245m), though it is less wide (45m). The ship is made up of 6 vital parts; the command module, research compartment, communications compartment, drone compartment, energy compartment and finally the engine. Each compartment is about half the size of a football field. (50m long, 35m in width and 35m in height). Cubical in shape with smooth edges. All compartments are held together by a 1m long, 2m high and 1m wide bridge, in which the crew uses to go to other compartments. The ship was painted in a white coat, and is protected by 2m thick shield to avoid radiation, kind of like a bank safe protecting the money. Utilities include a Zera-7 drive that allows faster than light travel, Kobra-53 camera, 7000 series quantum computer, centrifuge, telescope array, 4 satellites, 5 rover probes, 8 repair pods, 4 collector drones, 7 EVA suits, 2 Li-dar bands, 1 Laser Communication Satellite dish (A new way of communication that was recently discovered by the U.S Military), and a fusion reactor. The command module is shaped as a sphere, with a diameter of 25m, or a bit less than the length of a basketball court. On the front is a giant camera, about 10m in diameter, for the A.I and its crew to see. On the side, it has a giant ring, about 2m wide, that acts as a side camera. On the back left and back right sides of the command module are bridges that connected the radiators. The second part is the research compartment, which is the first compartment. The top and the bottom of the compartment has a door to deliver captured species for testing. On the sides, 3 bridges connected it to the radiator on reach side. A sample of species are dropped off to do experimentation, recorded, then it is discarded by any means necessary. The third part is the communications compartment. On the top is a satellite dish. It is used to communicate with the drones that do multiple tasks. On the front left and front right on the compartment, are the final two bridges that connect to the radiator. On the middle and back of the compartment, are doors to 4 repair pods on each side connect to the ship, locked firmly in place, all tethered to the ship. The pods are spherical in shape, with an eye camera on the front. It has a radius of 0.5m. On its sides are mechanical arms, with the tip of its finger are multiple types of screw driver tips. The crew use these pods to repair any component that needs attention. When a crew member does in any deploys, the repair pods will leave the ship to do what it needs to do, then come back to firmly lock it back into its place. The fourth compartment is the drone compartment. There are various doors for multiple drones on all sides. One big circular door in the middle, two rectangular doors on the top a bottom of it. On the left and right are smaller circular doors. About 10 doors total on each side on the compartment. The compartment has a 3d printer and lots of materials in which it constructs the necessary drones on the go. This proved to be more efficient than piling up drones. They would all run on electricity, powered by the energy compartment. The final compartment is the energy compartment. Using a breeder type nuclear reactor, electricity is generated to power all the other compartments, the control module, the engine and more. A breeder type is used to make sure the uranium would be used for as long as possible. If at max capacity, the ship could stay on for 80 years nonstop, which is about 20% the lifespan of an average human. The engine is about 25m in height, 40m in width and 20m in length. It used plasma propulsion to move. Its 6 main propulsion exhausts are on the back, and on the sides, there are 3 vernier thrusters on the left and right side, and 6 on the top and bottom sides. It also has a combined 16 maneuvering thrusters on the engine, and finally 4 emergency engines. It can reach up to 70% the speed of light. The ship''s main target, a newly discovered planet called XEROX-H43. A planet with a theorized gravitational pull and an atmosphere to be similar to earth. It was the 27th earth-like planet humanity has sent an A.I ship to research and explore. When a habitable planet is spotted, a probe is sent to detect electromagnetic waves or anything anomalous ship is sent. When it is confirmed no EM waves or laser communication was detected, humanity sends a scientific research ship is sent to study and report its findings. Using this report, an appropriate human spacecraft will be prepared and sent over to take over to colonize the planet. Humanity has been doing this for over 500 years, and had managed to spread across multiple start systems, with over 80 systems under their belt. This specific ship belongs to the American coalition of space exploration. The scientists of the ship wore a blue shirt, with black trousers and a white lab coat, while the pilots and operator just wore the shirt with the trousers. The crew contained of 7 people; Mike Florence Jr, John Hamilton, Melvin D Rogers, Anna Williams, Carl Johnson, Robert Rockefeller and finally William Grant. All over 100 years old, and all looked to be in their 40s. Mike Florence was a geologist. He was the one in an expert in geography. His research helps the Federations of humanity to locate the best possible starting location of a colony. He was born in the state of New Jersey in 8th of March 12,462 H.E, 126 years old., He had black hair, brown eyes and bright skin. He had been a geologist ever since 4th of February, 12,487 H.E and is the most experienced geologist since 12,532 H.E and has 28 planets under his belt, 6 of which were habitable planets. You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. John Hamilton was the main scientist and captain of the ship. Born in state of Florida on 23rd of August 12,453. He was about 135 years old. He also had black hair, brown eyes and bright skin, but he had a thick mustache that made everyone jealous. He had managed to quickly rise up the ranks in the scientific community in America, and proved to be not just a great and competent researcher, but also a great leader. He had the most experience out of them all, going to over 50 planets and over dozen start systems. Melvin D Rogers was a drone operator. He had blonde hair, and blue eyes, and had the height of 176cm. Ever since he was born on 12th of March 12,458 H.E, he had a fascination with drones and how they worked. He worked for Lockheed Martin for 55 years, designing and making one of the company''s greatest military drones in America. Then, he moved to work at the pentagon and the U.S Space force in the Space Expeditionary force ever since. He had operated drones on multiple U.S ships. This was his 5th reassignment. Anna Williams was an Asian American, Japanese descent. She was born on 15th of June 12,460 H.E in California. She had short black hair and blue eyes and was about 174cm in height. She is one of the biologists in the ship. She had studied lots of alien organisms in her life and is a qualified expert in the field. It was also her that identified the first intelligent species, and innovated processes in her field which greatly increased efficiency in research. Carl Johnson was an African American. He was born in the state of Oregon in 17th of May 12,462 H.E. He had black hair, and brown eyes. 174cm in height. He had a goatee and a little scar on his face ever since childhood. His expertise was in single cellular biological organisms. He has a lot of experience, as he has travelled to 35 different planets and moons to find and cure new viruses before they became a threat. He was assigned to the U.S.S Meta for his experience and expertise. Robert Rockefeller was a Chemist. Born on July 7th 12,461. He had a part time job as a chemistry teacher, then did absolutely nothing for 6 years, and finally became an apprentice for a researcher. From there, he climbed up the ladder and was assigned to the U.S.S Meta. William Grant was born in Feb 14th 12,465 H.E. He had blonde hair, green eyes and a pale skin. He had the beard and physique of a Chad, making many men jealous of him. He got himself involved in CRISPER and Cloning. He was assigned to help the crew of the U.S.S Meta test genetics with an artificially constructed human body. The U.S.S META looked upon XEROX-H43 through its camera. The ship then started to slow itself down, coming to a full stop. DAVID and the pilots prepared to launch the satellite to XEROX-H43, then fired it. It zoomed across space, and was caught by XEROX''s gravity. The satellite instantly started taking images, collecting data and sending them to the mothership. "Phase 1 complete. Awaiting completion of satellite map to shift to phase 2." DAVID said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mirabelle has finally awoken from her slumber. This was the first time her vision showed that white eye and that weird room with a painting. She got up and sat on her bed. ''What could it mean'' she thought. The images she saw were alien to her. She was confused, and wanted answers. "I should ask the grandmaster about this today. I need to get ready though". The door to her room opened. In came a maid with glasses. "I see you have already awoken Princess, let me aid you to get dressed". Mirabelle obliged. She had hundreds of dresses to choose from, however she ended up going with her royal blue gown, aquamarine crystal heels and the little diamond crown on her head, a very fitting color for her. She headed down the halls of the castle. Passing the paintings of her great ancestors who lived throughout the millennia. Like her ancestors, they all had unique magical abilities. Magic and royalty are inseparable after all. Her unique ability is characterized as foresight, the ability to look into the future with abstract visions in her sleep. It is how the gods have intended it to work. She arrived at the elegant dark oak pair of doors. The doors to the dining room. The royal dining room had a long birch table, 6 chairs all facing one pair, a magical chandelier at the top. She took her place on the dining table. In front of her was a plate, a fork, spoon, and knife all made out of gold and a cloth they put on their laps before they eat. The middle was where they would put the large golden plates of food. However, it is still being cooked in the kitchen, and will be brought to them in about 10 minutes at least. She was early today. Usually, she would walk in with her family, but it was different today. When the doors opened again, came in the king, queen and the 2 other princesses and one prince. They were all stunned to see their youngest daughter to have arrived first. "Well, looks like someone was up earlier than expected", the queen said with a smile. They all went to their seats, and the servants delivered their food and they all dug in. Mirabelle and her older teenage siblings, Cora Lanchestor, Alesha Lanchestor and Marco Lanchestor, were going to the entrance of the palace. Cora and Alesha were twins, they both have short blond hair that shined like gold, with mesmerizing yellow eyes and bright skin. They wore a matching royal gown that filled envy with others. The only way to tell them apart is their voice, and the jewel on their crown; Cora had a rare red diamond while Alesha has an emerald. Marco was a tall, strong, blonde-haired teenager with charming yellow eyes. He wore a white royal suit with golden buttons and shoulder pads, white trousers with 2 front pockets, a leather and gold belt and leather shoes on his feet. They exited the palace, to be greeted by a carriage with 2 majestic white Liras, 6 foot white horse-like creatures with 2 gray eyes. The butler held the door opened for them. Mirabelle entered first, then the twin sisters and finally the prince. The butler closed the door, and the chauffer ordered the horses to start moving. They were all headed to visit the grandmaster at the magical academy, a place where only royalty and nobility go to. "Youngest sister, you seem to be bothered by something, can you please speak your mind" asked his brother. "Oh, it''s just that...", she struggled for words, thinking carefully if she should spill the beans. "Please drop the glass and speak your mind sister" he asked politely. "It appears our ocean pearl had lost her words once again. Despite the fact that she is only 10," spoke Cora. "Why yes sister, the pearl seems to have to go to retake her education", said Alesha. They both gave a little chuckle. Marco''s face formed a small sign of disgust at the sisters. "Please ignore them sister, please, tell me. No need to hesitate". Through the embarrassment, she found the right words. "There was an eye in the sky, watching all over the empire, then the sound of wind came and I was in a bright white room with a painting of a blue and green ball with a smaller white ball at the top right. Then the vision ended when the sound of the wind came again." ... "An eye you say?" the grandmaster said. They had arrived to the academy. Marco immediately escorted his sisters to the grandmaster. He sensed it was important to speak to the master of the academy when he first heard it, while the other siblings scrubbed it off and instead talked about the most attractive boys in the academy. The grandmaster looked outside the window. "An update to the vison I see, does anyone else other than you 3 know?". "No Master Valdemar" replied Marco. "Then I want everyone to keep this down. I don''t want any of the students to panic" said Valdemar. "What do you think it means Master Valdemar?", asked Mirabelle. Valdemar looked out the window, "I don''t know, but I think it means someone is watching us." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Mike Florence scanned the satellite map of XEROX-H43. The planet had only 1 giant continent located on the eastern hemisphere of the map. It looked like a compass, and about the size of Afro-Eurasia. There are hills scattered everywhere. The colder biomes of the continent are located on the top and bottom. Deserts were more prominent in the middle, while forests and plains take up the rest of the continent. The ocean was a cerulean blue, the dense forest a dark green, the flat plains a chartreuse green and the deserts a crimson red. Taking a closer look, he found number of weird structures in all continents, most packed together. Even some stone paved roads could be seen. The doctor immediately stood up, to press a red button. Alarms went off. The crew zoomed to the cafeteria; an emergency meeting. Chapter 2: The Eyes In Question The crew was at the cafeteria. They had all been gathered for a special announcement. The crew was whispering to each other. Everyone suspected that something important had been found on the planet''s geography. They all expected some anomalous structure, maybe something built by an ancient alien civilization. The silence steps in with Mike''s slow appearance. He made a small cough, took a deep breath, and with his usual stern face, spoke. "While scanning the map of XEROX-H43, I have managed to identify anomalous structures residing on the planet. The arrangement and layout of the structure indicates a city of an alien civilization residing on XEROX-H43. All seem to be in decent condition, meaning the civilization in question is alive. There are also other cities found throughout the continent, especially the desert. More research needs to be conducted in order to find out the nature of these buildings and how long they have existed." The silence faded in for a bit, until John stood up. "Are you able to pinpoint where they are in a technological development standpoint?". Mike looked at John. "In order to calculate their technological development, we need to get a closer look and gather information on them, however, I do recommend turning the cloaking mechanism on.", Mike replied. Everyone nodded in agreement. "Then, we should send in multiple drones. Melvin Rogers, this is where your expertise comes into play, you can deploy the appropriate drones necessary for the situation?" asked John. Melvin smiled, "Dr. Hamilton, I worked with Lockheed and the Pentagon. I have been in this situation before. I recommend you authorize me to deploy multiple SE-24s, a spy drone to monitor the behavior and appearance of the encounter of an intelligent life other than creatures in oceans, RVER-15s to collect samples of soil, water or any other material you want to analyze and finally KDR-66s to collect multi-cellular organisms, plant or animal. After the mission is done, I will disassemble the drones." "Authorization granted Melvin Rogers. Deploy the amount you think it would suit the situation". John turned towards everyone else. "Everyone, make preparations for testing of organisms of XEROX-H43. We got a lot of work to do." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Mirabelle walked across the hall as the sun shined the floor of tiles. She has decided to put the change at the back of her mind. She had bigger fish to fry. She enters a classroom. The front of the class had a large blackboard with complex writing using chalk, describing some sort of Ice Magic spell. The teacher''s desk was In front of the blackboard, facing the entire class. For the students were dark oak desks, with very comfortable chairs to sit on, all arranged neatly. The teacher was Professor Antonia Page, a 37-year-old tall woman with dark purple hair and green eyes. Her specialty is in ice magic and, like the other professors in the academy, is considered to have higher mana stamina than any other ordinary witch or wizard. "Princess Mirabelle, I hope you can explain why you are late to my class?" asked the professor. She was a bit disappointed that a student of hers was late to class. It didn''t help that there were rumors spread around by the other students that tanked everyone''s perception of Mirabelle a bit. "Forgive me professor, I was brought to Grandmaster Valdemar to speak to him about some classified information". The professor signed. "Alright, take your seat then", she pointed at the middle front seat of the class. The Professor starts to teach her students a simple ice magic spell called "Ice Pillar". It does what it sounds, creates a pillar of ice; the dimensions of the pillar depend on how much mana is used up for a pillar. The teacher extended out her left hand and turn to the table. There was an iron tray at the teacher''s desk. She pointed at it with her index finger and her lips started to move. "Fedala Querri!". A cyan blue magic circle appeared on the tip of her index finger, on the iron tray, a small ice pillar came up. She then looked at the class. "Alright, you all will be learning to cast this spell. We will start by trying to pronounce it properly." Meanwhile... As the door closes with the royal students leave his office. Valdemar walks to his bookcase. He took out his right hand and pointed at the case. Without muttering a single word, a magic circle appeared on the tip his hand. The bookcase opened slowly, without making a single sound. What revealed was a dark passage with darker secrets. He took a deep breath, and entered. As he went deep into the it''s halls, the bookcase closes. The mossy wooden floor creaked as he walked through the dark halls, with only his light sphere guiding him. The cracked stone brick walls had doors to both. They were wooden and rotten and nearly full of green. On the top middle of the door, was a number. It ascended has he went deeper. He stopped at one particular door; "21". He entered the room covered with cobwebs and dust. The room not only had books, but artifacts and treasures from long ago. Once used to be for battles and divine interventions, now rest forever in this cold dark place, undisturbed until now. He casted his light near the bookcase layered with dust. With a single magic spell, the dust whoosh away from the books, revealing numbers on the top. He took out a large thick old book with the number 17, and blew into the front. The dust shield moved to confirm it''s cover to be made out of black leather and the bold yellow letters in New Times Roman. "Book of Visions: The Eyes that soar through the sky" it said. A book dedicated to all the documented times Ferrians had visions of the future of Nalla. There was no order in which they appeared. It is recorded that generations could pass without one ever being hinted at. He started reading through it''s old torn saddle brown pages. Filled with tales and stories long ago, that happened on the continent. This specific book detailed all recent incidents of visions of eyes. "This would take a long time" he said to himself, as he continues to drown himself in the book''s content. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Multiple SE-24s are about to be launched at XEROX-H43. It is in the shape of a sphere about twice the size of a size 7 basket ball. It moves and flies without making a sounding using ion propulsion. The outer shell mostly made out of a pitch black tungsten and has a giant camera at the front. It''s main systems are cloaking mechanism, lidar, sonar, water repellency, infrared, force field, liquid nitrogen cooling, laser communication, emergency hidden radiator and hidden solar panels. It can go up to speed of up to 270m/s at the surface and the underwater, and up to 17,900m/s to enter space. It can stay operational for up to 1.2 years at max capacity without recharging through solar panels. When determining it''s underwater capabilities, it can only reach about 250m at max. Suddenly, when the door finished opening, they launched at the planet, one by one. They enter the atmosphere and starts heating. The liquid nitrogen starts cooling the outer shell down. As it continues it''s decent, the ion propellers start to kick in, and starts slowing it''s decent. It stops only 25 feet above the surface. It starts to communicate with the mothership to locate it''s position, sending footage of the planet. ... Melvin stared at the blank black monitor, patently waiting for the footage to be received to the ship. White text pops up on the screen, "SE-24 (005/005) successfully landed, initializing footage". The images and footage from the drones start appearing, along with the option to enhance a specific drone footage. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Enhancing SE-24(#001) View The drone looked down at a plain filled with diverse flowers galore, surrounded by a dense forest. The chartreuse grass was perfectly cut short, almost as if it was a garden of some sorts. There are dandelions with the flower to look like a tiny aqua cloud. Another looked to be a daisy with 17 petals with the colors of a rainbow with a daisy white carpel. The was a lot more, but the sound of someone walking caught the attention of the drone, two natives appeared behind. A long wood brown haired humanoid which looked young and slim came out of the darkness of the woods. It''s skin was a coffee brown with the texture of a tree, and some long green stems and flowers can be seen on it''s body. It had carbon black eyes and it''s cloths made out of leaf. Alongside it came a young bright skinned humanoid with pointy ears and long blonde hair. It''s eyes were white, and it''s pupils were green and it''s chest a bit bust. It wore a green tunic and blue pants. On it''s back was a long bow and a lot of arrows. Both the Elf and Kanori appear to be feminine in appearance. The first one kneels down and starts picking up the flowers and putting it into a basket. A conversation starts between them. The drone activates its recording function and sends it to the mothership to decipher the language. They then start heading towards the forest. The drone follows them. Initializing SE-24(#003) View In the thick crimson desert, the drone spots an artificial wall made out of the same sand that was on the ground. It hovers to find a large city, of a native species. Buildings were made out of crimson sandstone, all circling one giant castle on a small desert hill, moated around a purple liquid lake. The city was lively and busy. Vendors were selling and customers were buying. In the sky, magnificent purple lizards with wings were flying with their native masters on their backs. The drone starts observing the natives. Their skin were a wine red, with hair color either ink black, pearl white, shadow gray, or orange. Some were tall, some were short, but nowhere in the middle, but their most common feature, was there 2 majestic mauve purple horns. As for clothing, they all wore a black piece of cloth, a tunic, a shirt, a groom, or otherwise. The only difference was the shades of it. But most of all, their eyes where black, and their pupil glowed either blue, yellow or purple. The citizens were stepping aside when a carriage drawn by a violet purple horse like creature with plum purple eyes, surrounded by natives in metal armor, moved on the largest road of the native city. The carriage seems to be headed to the castle. The drone follows through. Initializing SE-24(#002) View Inside of the caves of the mountains are carefully sculptured homes inside the walls, with patterns and shapes to give it beauty and lit up with a torch that lead to a vent shaft that the exited the cave. The outside of these caves was a village made out of the hard wood and stone they could find. The huts all have a chimney, that spits out smoke. The natives of the cave, were muscular midgets with bright skin and intense amounts of hair. The males all have long beards while the females have long hair. Their lips and cheeks were thick. They wore a tortilla brown tunic or grown, depending on their gender. Their hair color were all different shades of brown, from chocolate, umber or tawny. There were lots of tree logs being carried by the dwarves, back to the village. Many people were constructing something. Most likely a ritual of some sorts. The drone continues to monitor the situation. Initializing SE-24(#005) View The drone levitates towards the native village. Most architecture were made out of a tawny brown wood and slate gray stone. Most of the land was covered with a moss green crop of some sorts. Some were carried off in a wooden cart on the dirt road. The inhabitants looked to be human, almost similar, with the exception of hair colors, eye color and height. Hair colors spotted to be shades of red, blue, green, yellow, white and purple. Main eye colors appear to be blue and yellow. It was as if the drone travelled back through time, for when humanity was once such a na?ve little species. A wonderful sight to behold. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As the sun is setting on the Empire of Novaskoska, the king in the imperial palace sat on his throne made of gold and the finest fabric in the realm. The room was long and tall and guarded by soldiers from his left and right. To the king''s left side was a wall with giant crystal windows that gaze over the entire kingdom. On the top, was a giant chandelier that lights the entire room. On the floor was a red carpet that lead up to the throne. Beside the king, was the queen''s empty throne. It was a bit smaller, but it was just as comfortable. The large wooden door opened. A messenger enters the room. He kneels down in front of his majesty and hands out a scroll with both his hands. The king picks up the scroll and starts reading it. It was from Grandmaster Valdemar. Your Imperial Majesty I request you to come to the Holy Cathedral of Gaica immediately. I have an extremely important matter to discuss. I will explain the situation to you privately as I do not feel comfortable in relaying it in this letter. My assistant would be waiting for you. Grandmaster Valdemar ... The king was on his royal carriage, being guarded by his knights. He looks outside while holding his head in his hand. The streets were almost empty as people go back to their homes, as the sun is setting. The king wonders what could be so important for the Grandmaster for him to request his presence; a lot of things. For his 12 year reign, nothing particularly devastating, yet interesting thing had happened, so he hoped whatever it was, he could gain some glory. When he arrived. He slowly stepped out of the carriage. The cathedral was a tall snow white building, that contained the statue of the goddess Kalina, the goddess that gave birth to them, and gave them the power of Magic, the greatest gift of all. The assistant was waiting on the stairs. "This way, your majesty." The king climbed up the great stairs made out of marble. The soldiers opened the door to the stairs revealing magnificent architecture in the pillars and breathtaking art at the top depicting a gorgeous women with large snow white angelic wings, cerulean blue hair with chartreuse green eyes wearing a white tunic giving a muscular man with blonde hair and aquamarine eyes and a leaf covering his dong a glowing sphere of pure light that represents magic. The hall was filled with oak chairs, On the end of the hall, was a statue of the goddess herself, fully colored. Behind her was a detailed stained glass with millions of pieces depicting her. They walked up to the statue. The assistance held out his hand. A green magic circle appeared on his hand. The statue moved backwards to reveal stairs that lead to a pitch black void of darkness. Then, the torches on the side of the wall glowed a bright blue fire. They both headed down to come across an old wooden door. Inside was a dark room lit by a light consuming darkness. The assistant conjured a sphere of light and went down the hall. The king followed along as the floor creaked. They entered a room which looks to be an office of some sort. It has much better lighting, thanks to the torches, and is much less dusty and clear of cobwebs, and even the floor was hard as stone. The grandmaster was sitting on a chair behind a wooden desk. The king took a seat. "What is it that you want to discuss Grandmaster?" The grandmaster looked at him grimly, the king sat a bit straight from this gesture. He was serious, more so than he had ever been. "The matter is of upmost importance, that it is better to keep it a secret from anyone else unless I say so." Valdemar takes out a black book named ''Book of Visions: The Eyes that soar through the sky''. He puts in on the table for the king to see. "This book contains all documented incidents of when an eye of some sorts appear in the visons of people with the magical ability known as Vision Foresight. Your daughter had one today." The king seemed unfazed. "The description of the eye in question she presented was that of a white eye with a brown pupil in the middle. Then she was taken to a white room with a strange painting with 2 men. There has never been such an eye, or even one with a painting!" The king''s heart skipped a beat. "Do you mean... that...." "Yes my king, we are faced with a Kacee event. A brand new entity to the realm is about to be introduced. Something that hasn''t happened in over 2,000,000 years. They will most likely come from the sky, as that is where they are shown to come from. Whether they are hostile or not, I cannot tell. We need more information, so I want your imperial majesty to grant me to be able to speak with your daughter more of the matter." "I shall grant you my permission." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Initializing SE-24(#004) View There were a native girl on the bottom of a waterfall, sitting on a rock. She looked to be about 7 years old. She had a gingerbread brown gown. Her hair was shortbread yellow in color and her eyes were aquamarine blue as ever. Her friends have already gone as the sun was setting. She stood up and slowly walked to the pool of water that she had bathed. She held out her hand and took a deep breath before closing her eyes. She held out her hand and.... nothing. When the drone considered leaving, a glowing lapis blue circle with a pentacle in the middle appeared. Water came out of nowhere and launched it at the waterfall and fell into the pond. The girl started jumping in excitement. Chapter 3: An Angels Limit I woke up lying on the ground in a strange, yet similar place. The sky was blue. The grass was green. There were plants and animals around me. Yet all felt twisted and alien to me. The sky was more lighter and the grass a bit darker. The trees, looked similar from afar, but alien up close, kind of like a close devient of the original. Same with the animals. I walked around the realm for anybody else other than me. I went far and wide, turning over every stone, looking behind ever bush, and only to find nobody else was there. I was confused. Why? Why was I left alone. I tried searching my fragile memory. I went deeper and deeper to only to find gaps of memory and return only with the realization that I was stranded alone on a godless planet, far away from home, unable to return. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The newly deployed RVER-15s roamed around the globe. Similar to the SE-24, carrying all the functions and abilities, however it was a bit larger, about 15%. It''s camera was smaller and was positioned more at the top on another spherical ball. Under the camera is compartment box that is used to store 50KG of extra weight. On it''s sides are 2 arms with 3 fingered claws to pick up anything. It also is given containers to place the samples collected. Once a day is coming to an end, the drones must deposit their findings to the mothership. RVER-15 (#003) has been given the instruction to find and collect materials of the planet. With only 13 hours to ascend to the mothership, it searched multiple ideal locations to collect them. Luckily, it found one. A large done made out of anchor gray stone bricks that protected a cave of sorts. The entrance was under the arch detailing coins and jewels but also skulls and bones. Using sonar, the drone calculated that the cave was vast and long, perfect to find exclusive samples. It heads into the dark cave. The drone uses night vision, seeing the gloomy grotesque creatures. Some were eyes with wings, some were made of bones of the innocent victims who were unlucky enough to encounter it. There was one in particular, one with lots of fur, it was somehow looking at the drone. It got closer and closer, sniffing the shell with it''s black dog nose then retracted suddenly. Howling and screaming, it ran with the others. They seem to be scared. The ones with the legs ran, while the one with wings flew. The drone continues it search. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Everyone was relaxing at the cafeteria, waiting for Melvin and John Hamilton to arrive. Anna Williams, Carl Johnson and William Grant were all engaging in a conversation with each other, while Robert Rockefeller and Mike Florence were both competing in a video game on their mobile phone. The door to the cafeteria slide open. Both Melvin and John entered the room. Melvin took a seat on his chair. John brought everybody''s attention to him. "With Day 0 coming to a conclusion, I would want you all to report your activities for today, and for Melvin, I want you to repeat the discoveries you have made by the end." Anna went first. "I have recalibrated and setup all necessary systems and equipment and can begin experimenting with the samples that will be delivered to the ship." The rest said the "Same". It was usual for not much to happen on Day 0. John turned to Melvin. "Any discoveries Melvin?" Melvin stayed silent. He appeared to be in a state of thought. John interrupted. "Melvin?" he asked again, while touching his shoulders. This caught his attention. "Yes?" "What have you discovered?" Melvin gave a sign. "A lot. It is actually better if I showed you all. No pausing." The crew sit straight at his words. Melvin recommended the crew to turn their face to the monitor. DAVID starts to play the crystal clear footage of the multiple sentient life habiting on the face of the planet. The was an eerie silence as they watched, and was only broken when the footage ended, only leaving off one. "What. The. FUCK." John said. "Not even a day in and this planet has delivered more mysteries than the first 5 years of exploring Alpha Centauri. I mean... like.. humans! On another planet! Along with multiple humanoids that appear to come straight out of a fantasy!" William said. "And those red-skinned, they look awfully a lot similar." said Robert. "Maybe we are living in a simulation?" said Mike. "What are the odds of this happening?" asked Anna. "Technically, 100% Dr. Anna" Melvin responded, The crew was in a state of shock. This was an unexpected discovery beyond their wildest dreams. They were struggling to construct sentences properly. Melvin gave them time to cool off. "Ladies and Gentlemen! I have one final footage I would like to show you. He plays the final footage. There was a little native girl on the bottom of the waterfall. She reached out her hand and chanted words in their alien language. A magic circle appeared, then a ball of water came out of thin air. It was then shot into the pond. All of it was captured, in crystal clear footage. Melvin turn to face the others. The jaws of the crew were wide open. An absolute silence has entered the room. They all looked at each other, contemplating what they have seen. Some thing, that might have been considered impossible, something that has been in the realm of fantasy and fiction for millennia, has just been overturned. "This planet... has more than it seems." said John. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Before the sun rises once more of the realm of Nalla. The voice of the mother wakes Shbell Ohmswart up from her deep slumber. An elven girl at the ripe age of 12. With hair that was looked and valued as silver, being as 2/3rds tall as a longbow, and gifted with her mother''s green eyes. She dashed out of her room, down the stairs and sat on the chair facing the table where they would eat. The table was round, held together with 3 legs. The chair they sat on was more of a stool. On the table was a round wooden plate. Next to them was a spoon, a wooden knife and a fork. All of it it made out a wood called Hallina wood, a cedar brown hardwood that grows in a small section of the forest they live in. Her mother was Shre Ohmswart, a blonde haired beauty with green eyes with a bit of bust to her chest. She usually go out with her Kanori friend with her green tunic and blue pants, while carrying her bow bestowed to her by her, now dead, great grandfather. Meanwhile Shbell''s father, Shlend Ohmswart, was a muscular, silver haired icon with aqua blue eyes. Well known in his kind for being stronger than steel, and attracts envy to keep the world going around. There were high expectations for Shbell. She sat at the table while her mother distributed the cooked food on her plate. The menu today was Kirana, a dish with a big blue vegetable of the side of the plate while all sorts of other greens covered the rest of the plate. The family all held hands together, and started to say a prayer before indulging the meal on the table. Once they had finished, they all prepared themselves to go to the great temple tree of the Kanori. Shbell was given a green gown as her outfit to attend the ritual. She cried asking why they has to attend. "As you know dear, today is the final day where some of our Kanori friends are nearing their time on this realm, so they have to sacrifice themselves in order for goddess Hmarlia to bring forth new Kanori to help us preserve nature. Since you are becoming a big girl, it is your duty to learn the sacred ritual." This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Shbell gave a stubborn face as her mother prepared her hair. Shre gave out a smile. She came close to Shbell''s ear to wisper. "If you act your best, you might get a new Kanori friend." Her eyes shined and glittered over the news. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Another batch of animal and plant life has been melted with the colorless fluoroantimonic acid. They have been busy building a database documenting the plant and animal life, along with it''s quirks, present in it, and there were a lot. So far shows that human body can survive on the planet with the plant-based food present in it, and there were a lot. Some were sweet, some were sour, some were spicy, and some were somehow salty. However what intrigued the scientists, were the animals. They all had a form reality bending properties that enhanced their abilities. For example, there was a silver white wolf-like creature with 2 goat horns, and a powder white mane. It''s senses and strength outcompete a normal wolf, not through biological superiority, but by utilizing a mystical power. Even stranger was that this peculiar one, starts to turn into dust when it dies. "You have any hypothesis or hypotheses?" Asked Carl. "One. The mysterious element is helping to channel out energy to break the laws of reality itself. I know Dr. Robert is currently researching the element, however, we seriously need a better research facility if we want to conduct meaningful tests and experiments." "Well, this expedition was supposed to document the planet on a surface level. To learn things like dangerous creatures, plants, or even primitive sentient creatures. However no one expected that the planet was filled with mythological wizards and witches." "We would have to eventually go back and report our findings. I am sure that the discovery of magic is more than enough of a reason for us to set up a research station." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the great giant tree of the forest, had a room with the large Kanori Flower. Being as tall as an elf, it has a large closed chartreuse bud, with it''s mocha brown twig surrounding it in a coil and firmly held to the ground with it''s roots. Windows caved into the walls, pouring sunlight into it, feeding it and strengthening it. The large wooden door opens, and income the elderly Kanori. They all surround the flower, smiling, before they close their eyes. Their skins starts turning into a ash gray, cracks began to appear. They slowly all broke down, leaving the corpses behind. The remains then glow green, spheres of green ball of light starts to replace the remains. They all rise and power the Kanori flower. The coil of twig starts to unravel as the flower bloomed, revealing a macaroon yellow carpel with its chartreuse green petals. There then was a light of emerald green, it slowly turned into a figure. It was tall and wore a tunic, it''s face feminine and it''s ears pointy. With a soothing voice, it echoed "Bring forth the seeds." Then, a small female elf, who was about 4 feet tall with silver hair and a pear of green eyes wearing a green gown brought forth, in her hand, a small seed for her small Kanori. The spirit however, looked above Shbell. Shbell became more nervous. The spirit looked down, and smiled at Shbell. She reached out her hand and casted a spell. The seed started to luminate. Shbell put the seed down. A small head appeared, it then grew larger, forming a body, arms and legs until it reached Shbell''s height. She smiled at Shbell, so she smiled back. They were now able to leave. After they left, Shre and Shled Ohmswart with their Kanori arrived. However, before the others could enter, the spirit asked to close the door, to speak to them in private. An unprecedented event. The people started to whisper and gossip. "Leader of the elven tribe, do you know of the outsider presence within this very room." The elves and the Kanori were stupefied. They immediately bowed down. "Kelleni Hetania. I apologize for my incompetence, where is this outsider so I shall expel out of this sacred chamber!" Shled said. The spirit casted a spell, engulfing the room with her magical light.... yet nothing showed up. She fired another spell, but still, it refused to appear. Leaving nothing except the stench of it''s presence for anyone to know of it''s existence. The elves and the Kanori was shaken. What was so much more powerful than a high spirit, that it could counter it magnificent magic? The spirit looked upon the elves. "The ritual shall proceed as normal." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A heavy breathing Mirabelle firmly knocked on the Grandmaster''s door. "Come in". Mirabelle slowly entered, closing the door behind. "Ah Mirabelle, come have a seat". She sat down, she was still breathing heavily. The headmaster asked her for a cup of Maretae, Mirabelle happily accepts. The grandmaster slowly poured the mint green maretae into the frost white ceramic cup from his tureen. Mirabelle gently grabbed the handle of the cup with 2 of her fingers. She started to sip her sorrows away. The tense room starts to be filled with a smoothing tranquility. Her breathing slows becomes more normal. "Now dear princess, has there been any new developments to the visions?" She placed the cup down on the table. "Yes grandmaster. A frit one at that!" "Was it the reason why you asked me for my strongest maretae?" She nodded in agreement. The grandmaster sat a bit straighter and took a deep breath. "Tell me. What did you see?" ... There was great gray smog that breezed through the air, the environment hard to breathe, and that nearly blocked the sight of the towers. Great ugly towers made of glass, stone and steel, that kissed the sky. There were metal beasts without legs that were either moving or stationary around these towers. Mirabelle''s obstructed view couldn''t fully grasp the details of it all. The wind starts to howl. Then she was there, at the center of it all. Everyone was a black silhouette, with eyes being of wither brown, blue or green. Some were skinny, some were fat, but all were miserable. There were some that shouted in the street, speaking a language that she could not understand. The ones who listen had started to glow a powder white. Then, behind Mirabelle, was a round portal. She backed away from it. Out came, a red-skinned, muscular demon with it''s 2 horns came out, with a blood-lust in it''s eyes. He grabbed one of them, and killed it with ease, then another, and another. The silhouettes all turned red in anger. They sent one black silhouette, and a fight broke out. The demon starts screaming in pain and fear. The silhouette broke his bones with noisy cracks, cut his arm like butter, broke his horns with ease, and punched his face until it split out blood, leaving his face deformed, nearly killing him. The demon with all it''s dwindling energy got up, and ran into the portal. Among the crowd, a phase starts to be delivered in a whisper. It was at first all alien, but slowly it became more and more familiar. "Terra is mad.". An eye then appears and flies straight into the portal. The black silhouette was to follow, but it closed before it could enter. There was a silence at first, the silhouettes start to turn pitch black again, then they started whispering again. "We will remember." The wind starts to howl. ... Mirabelle drank from her cup once again, calming her down. The grandmaster wiped his sweat off his forehead. "Thank you miss Mirabelle. You may go now." Mirabelle stood up and left the room. The grandmaster was in deep thought. He gets up, and goes to find answers again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ An elderly woman was sitting on the bench of the church in her village with her 7 year old granddaughter, waiting for the priest. The room was devoid of life, the white paint of the walls fallen, exposing the bricks that hold everything together. The marble statue of the goddess Nalla and Nallicia covered in green and black, with cobwebs as a dress or sorts. The stained glass of an angel shattered long ago. The door opens, and the old priest enters the long forgotten halls of the abandoned church. With his black cloak with holes, and an old torn book, he made his way to the front, and on the podium, which looked to break any minute. The priest looked around, seeing that only his friend and her granddaughter was only there, he skipped the first part, and straight to the ritual. Hellena went up to the priest. He put his hand on her soft aquamarine hair, and started the prayers. A magic circle appeared on the priest''s hand, and the statue of Nallica started glowing. Out came, a blonde beauty with large bright wings, a golden glowing halo, wearing a silver tunic appeared in front of the girl with her eyes closed. She looked down, and revealed her sparkling golden eyes. The priest stepped aside. The angel looked around the church, fuming at it''s insufferable condition. She turned to the priest with disappointment with in her eyes and placed on her face. The priest looked down to the broken tiles on the floor. "Priest of the church, my I question why the church looks so rumpty and depressed. A church, must always, be maintained at a proper fashion." "Kalla Enugami, I haven''t been able to accumulate the necessary funds to keep up with the rising costs and decreasing donations to properly maintain the church." The angel was not pleased with his answer. Suddenly, she detected something. She looked around, but there was nothing. It was invisible, only locating with the stench of it''s presence. She held her hands together. A light starts to come out her and engulf the room and slowly faded away. She looked at the miasma, but there was nothing else there. "Kalla Enugami, is there something the matter?" asked the priest. There was a long pause from the angel, who was done and now was in a state of thinking. "I have changed my mind, for I have decided to test the child of her abilities." The priest gave a sign of relief. The angel descended down to the ground, reached out her hand and touch her forehead with an index finger. A light emitted from the tip of her fingers, then as soon as it came, it fades. She pulls her arm back from the girl''s forehead and smiled. "This child, although a late bloomer, is gifted. She could have a wonderful career as a mage if she were to travel to the city." The elderly woman smiled. ''Something is wrong, I need to ask her.'' The angel thought to herself. Chapter 4: Meetings and Action The day has come. The castle was surrounded to the brim with people, waiting patiently for their king. On the top on the balcony, their blonde red skinned with a white suit of armor fitted with red mana crystals entered the light, clearing his throat to give a speech. The two besides him use a long blowing horn. The crowd goes silent. They then step back. "Subjects of the kingdom of Reizor! Today marks the 545th anniversary when our people were horribly massacred in the 4th realm, with it''s hideous abominations; abominations immune to our 6th senses. Some of these mysterious monstrosities have managed to enter our realm, acting as eyes for the creatures beyond, some have never been found." There was a pause before he continued. "This annual ritual, in which we gather all of our young brothers and sisters, is to not only help them identify these beings when found but also to remind the next generation to not be foolish enough to invade, or to be arrogant to think that they are the ones above, looking down at the rest. With that, we will start this ritual, with a heyluk of silence for the fallen ones." The silence falls on once again, with only the small gusting wind and the animals that roamed around that refused to be quiet. After the 80s was up, large doors to the castle swing open. The hall walls were decked out in paintings, paintings of the 4th realm, reserved for the peasants. One showed a land with great glass towers, filled with the corpses and skeletons of their brethren, being crushed my a gray metallic beast that walked like a caterpillar. They both moved on to another, which featured a great black dragon being ripped apart from an invisible enemy. There was another where a creature in black, that is slightly invisible, kills one of the lords with it''s black staff. The kings, along with their families and the rest of the elite, away from the peasants, being shown the relics sealed firmly behind expensive crystal clear glass. There was a the black staff in the one, there also was a rectangular device made out of a mysterious material and glass, which presumably turned blue when a button was pressed. There was a book with pictures on it, some even portraying their own species. ... Kerit, with it''s hickory brown dirty fur, a strong black dog nose, with irradiating red eyes, with lots of muscles on it''s arms and legs, making it fast dashed across the dark dungeon to the dungeon master, screaming "The Stench! The Stench! It''s Here!". He started banging the door with all his might, nearly breaking it. The door opened. He swiftly made it to the master''s room. He was sitting on his throne, wearing his pitch black enchanted steel armor with red mana crystals amplifying his power. All while wielding Bolejuner II on his back, a sword long large blade made out of the finest enchanted steel, that is said to cut through iron. "Kerit! What is with you? Have you gone mad to.." "THE STENCH MASTER, I GOT A WHIFF OF THE STENCH OF A CREATURE IN THE DUNGEON! THE ONE FROM THE 4TH REALM!" The dungeon master froze in place. He felt a cold breeze go down his spine, paralyzed of shock and fear. He started to breath heavily. A minute pass. He stands up and leaves the room. He walks down the red carpet to dark door, to a dark room, luminated by a purple sphere. He places both his hands, and starts to communicate with his majesty. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Angels with their white tunic and float around the divine realm with it''s glowing white skies and the sky blue lake that acts as a floor. Houses, magnificent classical houses with pillars and detailed art of it''s occupiers, shone as their light hits the powder white stone bricks levitate in the air, housing the angels. At the top, were multiple floating arches made by the same bricks filled with detailed statue art of the ones that above the angels; the gods, while the arch floating on the lake below lead to the mortal realm. Mala came out of the arch to the mortal realm and entered the arch gateway to the gods. There were multiple arches with diverse architecture with the name of the gods engraved at the top. One arch was made out of a tree, with blooming flowers, there was one with a mechanical door, one made out of aquamarine with flowing water acting as a curtain and finally the one with a renaissance architecture and the name plate reads ''Kalina''. ... On the smooth palm of Kalina''s hands was a cute Kinuwa, a fury brown animal with big fury tale and smoke black eyes that is about the size of the tennis ball, mostly found in forests. They were made solely to entertain the goddess. She puts it gently on the ground, and it blazes off into the tree in front of her in which it calls home. She wanted to play and pet more of the animals before going to visit her little Ferrians. Then, there was a tingling feeling, that an angel had arrived to her room. ''An angel? At this moment?'' she thought to herself. Condensing her angelic wings, her body starts to ascends and flies towards her home in the cool wind, in which her angels meet with her face to face. ''There must be something of importance for them to disturb my blissful moment.'' Her home, a palace, was a massive magnificent monument build by Ferrians long ago, that shamed even the greatest of royal palaces today, to honor her, decked out with many maids who willingly joined her as her personal maid. The walls were made out of the toughest stone bricks painted in white that shined across the land, and the floor made of marble kept warm with magic. There were many rooms, with many purposes. Her favorite, was the one with the steamy hot tub and the sauna, in which she stays a millennia for. A castle for a goddess indeed. The dark brown wooden door reinforced with gold opened, revealing Mala. She kneeled down in front of her goddess, and bent her head to touch the floor. Kalina raised her right palm. ''You may speak''. The angel raised her head. "Oh great goddess Kalina, there has been a creature looking down your children without permission, one had no smell that belonged to the other great gods. I used my holy spell to reveal itself, but it dare not budge." "Oh great goddess Kalina, please lend me your strength to force it''s hand to unravel it''s hideous mask." Kalina paused for a minute, digesting what the angel had just said. She decided to ignore it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The drip of water droplets to the small pond and the thumps of the alien creatures'' movements echoed throughout the cave as RVER-15 searches for more samples. It has been two hours since it had arrived, searching for ores to take back to the ship, while also collecting the loot left behind by the natives like chestplates, helmets, swords, bows or silver and gold. The glowing aquamarine crystal with shiny white edges luminated the front of RVER-15 (#003) with a blue tint. Scans indicate high radioactivity of sorts. It extended it''s right robotic claw for an arm, and yanked it off the ground. The compartment box came out, revealing the containers. It took out a thick container that was effective against radioactive material, and placed the crystal carefully. Then, a sudden noise from an alien beast was picked up. It initiated it''s cloaking mechanism, and continued it search. WOOSH. CRACK. An arrow nearly missed the drone. It started running to the drone. RVER-15 started to flee, deciding to return the luggage 4 hours earlier than expected. ... "It turned invisible again." said Kerit. With his new suit of armor, that was made of an enchanted black metal and powered my a mana stone, and a strong enchanted yellow bow that is said to penetrate steel, making him stronger, faster and more precise in his shots. He used his nose to follow, locate and aim to shoot and kill the creature. It had turned itself invisible, and seeming to be flying away from him. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Don''t have any weapons to fight I see." noted Kerit, breathing a huge sign of relief. He starts following it. It was swift and sharp, turning at tight angels while keeping most of it''s speed. However, it will take long for it to get out once for deep in the cave. Kerit got closer and closer, taking another shot. Woosh... Crack! Missed again. As it got closer and closer to the exit of the dungeon, Kerit got faster and faster. He aimed again. Woosh! Crack! Missed yet again. Kerit started to panic a bit. Luckily, he had some help. ... The creatures of the dungeon were relentlessly charging at the direction of the drone, slowing it down, a few somehow managed contact and even scratch the RVER-15. WOOSH! SCREECH! CRACK! Suddenly, the arrow shot by the chasing alien, came very close, with the sides of the arrow touching the outer shell, to hitting RVER, making a little screeching sound. RVER started accelerating, using all it''s computing power to predict and move in accordance to maximize the speed gained and minimize times to decelerate. WOOSH! CRACK! The creature missed again. ... Kerit took a deep breath and waited for the perfect moment to shoot his arrow. His companions start to be more and more aggressive, slowing it down, all while he was shots of getting closer and closer to his target. However, he sees it, the light at the end! He takes out another arrow, and steadily aim it at the creature. The creature will meet another large ambush in about a few seconds, this is when he would take his shot to kill the beast, concentrating as if his life depend of it. This was his last shot, and he knew it. As a final assault to slow it down, there was a surprise attack by a horde of demons, an unpredictable move, forcing the creature to slow a lot. At this very moment, he released the tread of the bow. The arrow swished through the air. WOOSH! CLING! It was a hit. Straight to the back of the creature. His face and moment filled with bliss and joy however, was short-lived. The arrow, failing to penetrate, fell onto the ground, and the creature fled. The arrow, despite being a direct hit, despite being one of the most sharpest arrow of all time, with all it''s high level enchantments, wasn''t able to penetrate it''s metal shell. He stopped in his track dropping bow. His faced turned grim and he starts to breath heavily. His kneels fall on the ground in defeat. The stench fades into obscurity as it exits the dungeon. "I..... Failed." he says to himself, before he starts to scream in anger. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The day was almost over for the crew, and it was time for the meeting before the next. Dr. William Grant had arrived at the cafeteria, and sat down at the table where the others were waiting for him to arrive. Dr. John Hamilton starts the meeting. They all go around, asking around what they did, and their findings. Dr. Anna Williams and Dr. Carl Johnson was up first. They have done research of the biological life on the planet. They gave Dr. John Hamilton a report of all it''s findings. The duo had found out that the life on XEROX-H43 was like a remix of what was on earth. They had also found the possible suspect for the mysterious powers these creatures have, the mysterious element that is found in the bodies of the fantastical creatures. "Yes, your hypothesis is very good. Hopefully we can analyze this mysterious element." said Dr. John Hamilton "About that" Dr. Robert Rockefeller interrupted. "I have already analyzed it, with Dr. Anna and Dr. Carl" "Oh.. Congratulations Dr. Robert Rockefeller. So what were your findings?" asked Dr. John Hamilton. "I have made DAVID write a detailed report of my findings, which you can read right here." Robert laid the report on the desk and pushed it towards John, "The basics of how this element, which I temporarily call element-337, grants it the life of XEROX literal sorcery is because of it''s ''radiation''." "Radiation?" asked William. "Yes, Radiation, but instead of destroying the DNA of the natives, it gives them the ability to cast real magic. For them at least." said Robert. "For them?" asked John. "Yes, because when it is exposed to the human skin in high concentration, it... well does what radiation does to our body, but in a magical way. Some parts might burn, some parts freeze, some parts get electrocuted and so on. It would eventually kill the human body. But only in very high concentrations, so the planet is still habitable." said Dr. Robert. John turns to Dr. William Grant and Dr. Mike Florence who had little to say, then he turned to Melvin D Rogers, who had his hands crossed, waiting patiently for his turn. "Is there anything else you have found out about XEROX-H43, Melvin?" Melvin took a deep breath. "Yes Dr. John Hamilton, I have. Now, can I have all your attention to the screen please?" Everyone turned to the screen. It first showed the insides of a run-down church, with a priest, elderly women, and a the little girl from before. There was a magic involved with circles, and then a woman with blonde hair, a halo and large wings with a silver tunic appeared. Melvin paused at it. "What is that?" asked John "Looks like an angel from that anime I used to watch as a kid." said Anna. Melvin unpause the footage. There was a conversation between the priest and the angel. Then, she looks at the drone, staring at it. It held its hands and a blinding light flashed in the room, then nothing. It then turned to the priest, telling that it changed it''s mind. The footage ended there. "Did that thing just.... looked at the drone? When it was cloaked?" Carl asked Melvin. Melvin nodded. Everyone was in a bit of a shock. Melvin let them cool off before he showed the next clip. This time it was inside a tree, with with the tree people and the pointy ears. The ''angel'' saw the drone, tried to reveal it, yet fails. They were stupefied, but not to the levels of the first clip. Then, there was the one with a RVER-15 drone, collecting a blue element-337 crystal. Then, an arrow, narrowly missing it, was spotted. A chase ensued, with the creatures seemly are able to coordinate well to slow the drone down. However, the arrow didn''t seem to be powerful enough to penetrate the carbon fiber shell. "Now there are more clips and footage of the other sapient life I wanted to show and discuss, but I felt that this was important." said Melvin. "Now as you know, the two ''angels'' seemed to have somehow spotted the drone, and shined a bright light at it, which did nothing. They then proceeded to ignore it. The creature that was chasing the RVER-15, somehow managed to coordinate with the animals to help slow it down, so it can shot the drone down WHILE IT WAS INVISIBLE." Melvin pointed out. Questions starts racing everybody''s mind. How did the 3 creatures see an invisible drone? Why did they shine a light at them? How did the aliens managed to coordinate such a move to slow down the drone in a short amount of time? There was so much they didn''t know. Everyone starts putting their hands on their heads, except for Melvin. Melvin stood up from his chair, cleared his throat. Everyone''s eyes moved to meet his own. There was a silence at first. "Now these clips, that I have presented, all show that this planet is unlike any other we have been to. We have found magic, human aliens, fantasy creatures, and more roaming and living on the rock, thinking it is all normal. This ship, this expedition, is not adequate to fully understand what it contains." He said. He takes a deep breath before he continues. "Dr. John Hamilton, I recommend, that we head back to Neon-17, to report our.... dubious yet factual findings to the AASE. They will then organize and set another expedition to set up the proper infrastructure and facilities to effectively research the fascinating beings on this planet, most likely us included, because we are the first ones to come here." John looked at everyone. They all seemed to nod in agreement. "Authorization granted. DAVID, head course to Neon-17, Jenvee star system." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A few weeks later..... Hellena had started her journey to be a mage a few weeks ago. The little girl was ecstatic, because not only she had been accepted to a prestigious school, but also to be able to get out of the tiny village to go to a place called Vinchescot, a city of wealth, a city of mages, a city of education. However, there was a problem. It takes a long and arduous journey across the dangerous rural roads to get there, where it is said that bandits would kidnap and sell little vulnerable children like her, to be sold off or used in inappropriate ways. However, despite the lurking dangers, she felt felt safe, most likely thanks to her grandmother''s friend being around, who vowed to protect her from any danger. It was nearing midnight. The pair set up a campfire, for Hellana to rest and sleep under, while her guardian would watch. She covered herself in her blanket, and pretended to sleep. How could she? Her mind was filled with the thought of being a mage ever since she got herself tested by an angel. It would take a while for her to go to bed. CRACK! An arrow spitted Hellena''s guardian in an instant, falling down, leaking blood everywhere. She knew there was danger. Hellena picked up her feet, and ran. Ran as fast as she could. Arrows were fired again and lands in front of her, slowing her down. Eventually, she tripped, and found herself surrounded by them; bandits, ugly bandits, whose thoughts only revolved around money and pleasure. They all look a bit thirsty. Hellena screamed, hoping somebody, anybody would come and save her. Their hands came closer and closer. PEW! A red light pierced the head of the leader, instantly killing him off. He falls to the ground. The bandits backed away and looked around but there was nothing. PEW! PEW! PEW! More starts loosing their heads to the red light, until all but one remained physically unharmed; Hellena. A teal blue light beam then starts shining on her. Her body and legs start to be repelled away from the ground. She was flying. Flying to the beam. She looks above, seeing parts of the creature that decided to kidnap her. From the darkness, she could only see the metal that made the beast. She disappears to the beam, and the creature blasts off to the sky. Chapter 5: The Ones From the Stars. (Part 1) The commander steps out of the starship, and looks onward the first U.S military and research base built of the planet. When word came that the natives of the planet exhibited sorcery, the U.S decided to send self replicating nanomachines to go and construct a base. Once a landing zone was secured, security and reconnaissance drones landed and protected the area while the nanobots were busy constructing the base. Resources and materials were send to the nanobots from space by mining the asteroid belt of the Ardon system. These are sent so as the nanomachines won''t attract the attention of the locals. The base has x key buildings. The vertical farm, the military command center and the research lab. The vertical farm, built from a strong steel frame, stood tall with green popping out. The walls painted ice white, combining two beautiful colors to make one magnificent building. It produced large quantities of vegetables, fruits, spices, and even fish and meat. These are then send off to the kitchens to be made into meals for the people living in the base. The military command center is where all operations will be planned at. It was much smaller than the vertical farm. The fossil gray wall with the repetitive glass windows gave a building a soul crashing look to it. It also holds the drone operator room, in which the people supervised the drones that was protecting the base. The research lab rectangular in shape, had ice white walls like the vertical farm. It was the area of 2 football fields and had a height of a 7 story building. Inside, it had the most cutting edge technological tools that scientists could ever work with, including the ability to map out the brain of any creature, cloning perfect copies of the animals, and even the ability to transfer information to the brains. There were other notable structures placed as well. Such as the multiple glass buildings, that housed all 6,500 inhabitants of the base. There is the air strip where the military store and launch aircraft that could easily move anything across the planet . The warehouse was used to store the ammo and weapons the operatives used. Worker drones started moving a large quantities of guns, vehicles and other pieces pf equipment to their designated place. The 650 crew in cryosleep were woken up to move into their rooms until further notice. They have just landed, and now needed to prepare before they first conduct their operation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was a bright beautiful morning. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and the farmers harvesting their fruits of their labor, with large fields of shinning yellow paddy, waiting to be collected. However, in this bright and blissful day, there is always one grumpy and stubborn enough to refuse the happiness lay in front. Tiana looked onward the waterfall where she first casted her magic. Despite her accomplishment, her parents have rejected the idea of going to the magical academy, not because they didn''t want her to go, but because they couldn''t afford to. She would have to help work in the fields until she gets married off to some other family for her to give birth to more children. She picked up a rock next to her, and threw it as fast as she could. The rock bounced across the river before it sand. Light footsteps came behind her. She looked around. What stood there was a fair boy with syrup brown hair carrying sparkling golden yellow eyes wearing a syrup brown tunic and two short lapis blue leggings. "Hey Sam." Sam sits on the grass next to her. "Hey Tiana, why do you look so sad?" he asked with a voice of curiosity. With a glum expression on her face, Tiana replied. "I can''t go to the magical academy. We are short on money." "Oh is that so?" He takes out a small brown pouch made out of burlap jute, and hands it over to Tiana. Tiana opens the pouch, and finds 25 silver coins in there. Shocked , she wants to ask how he got this much money, yet her vocabulary seemed to have evaporated into thin air. Sam ran a smile across his face. "Well, remember how my parent''s reacted when I said I became a merchant''s apprentice?" "Huh?" "Well, they gave me a disgusted face, and nearly disowned me. However, being an apprentice, I had done well for my age." Tiana looked at the pouch, then with tears flowing down her face, she managed to find a few words. "Sam... I... Thank you." she said, with a smile. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The teeming flat plains filled with flowers and protected by the forest held the children of the elves and their Kanori friends. Shbell was late as usual, being a chief''s daughter meant the abundance of work and training kept the people she called friends waiting. Just before the 7 were fed up, they heard distant screams from the only person they knew could do so. "WWAAAIIIIIIIIITTTTTTTT!!!!!!" She had arrived just in time. "Man, I never seen someone run so fast. What did Chief Shlend Ohmswart ordered this time?" The exhausted girl pointed her finger up, signaling them to wait until she had managed to finally catch her breath. "I.... I had to... to do.... lots of.... training.... for... self...defense.." Followed behind her were 2 elven women with silver bows and a bunch of sharp arrows. The group questioned their purpose. "Father..... says... that there is.... something watching me..... so he... assigned guards and... started training me for self.... defense." The group laughed it off. The boy with curly blonde hair grabbed her hand. She looked up to his dazzling emerald green eyes, making little Sbhell''s little heart pound. "Don''t worry here Sbhell, we are here, right guys?" Harya said. The others nod in agreement. ... Near the line which separates sky from space, an aircraft is soring through at hypersonic speeds. It was triangular in shape, and doesn''t look to have any means of propulsion, yet it travelled at hypersonic speeds; this was the Boeing T545, a hovercraft that can sustain up to Mach 40 speeds. Boeing T545s are made aluminum and copper alloy, which shields the interior of heat, and coated in a cloud gray paint to blend in with the sky. Ion propulsion is used to make it fly and hover in the air, and at max speed, it''s battery can make it fly for 12 days straight. The laser cannon fires an invisible laser that fries the electronics of any incoming projectiles or other aircraft. It cannot fire the power powerful red laser as it would drain the battery too much. Hidden cameras and sensors on the aircraft gives the pilot full view of everything that is going on. The footage is directed to the AR helmet he wears. This particular model, is fitted with a tractor beam, in order to efficiently abduct the natives, and anesthetics, to make them unconscious. The gun fitted is retractable, and can fire multiple types of ammunition. Invisibility was also fitted on to this model, as ''going invisible'' wasn''t that useful when cloaking on aircraft gave higher temperatures, making it susceptible to infrared vision. Smoke screen is also fitted, as to make sure natives won''t see the craft when abductions take place. Currently, the pilot is headed towards a flat plain, where he would isolate and abduct a native specimen for science. His victim? A humanoid alien with pointy ears, and silver hair. It is being guarded by 2 feminine natives with a primitive longbow. She is currently socializing with her native friends. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. "Approaching destination in ETA 40 minutes." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A close group of 4 walked along the dirt road. Equipped with swords and staffs and carrying bags of gold, they were headed back to their home town. These were adventurers, people who get to travel the world slaying monsters and helping townsfolk for a living. The party was occupied by Alfred Steward the Swordsman, Rey Windsor the Mage, Alika Saxe the healer and Halle Blois the knight. "On the plains, behind the Cantusilvae ring forest." "Should we check it out?" Halle said, with a repressed smile on her face. "Halle, you do know we are not fully equipped with the necessary equipment to do so." said Alfred. "I would like to add that we are all high ranking adventurers that have taken on the toughest challenges any party could face. Besides, aren''t you all a bit curious to what this mysterious being is?" Everyone else wanted to reject Halle''s request, but in the back of their mind, the lingering temptation and excitement of mystery held them back. It grew bigger and bigger. "Alright fine, let''s head over there." ... In a well lit room with white walls, with the front wall holding a large monitor, was filled with men on chairs looking at the screens molded to the table; drone operators. They all wore a formal, short sleeved white shirt with a blue tie, black pants and brown leather shoes and a pin depicting the American flag on the top left of their chest. It had been a boring week for the drone operators. They had done nothing other than watch and supervise the security drones that had been guarding the area even before planetfall. Sure, they were able to look at the nature and it''s beautiful scenery, but it gets a bit boring after a while. However, that is to change. *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* Sensors detect 4 entities near the Forest. "Picked up 4 natives headed towards base!". A blonde man came down, holding a white mug, with the words ''I love the sound of gunfire'', filled up with dark coffee. He takes a good sip of it. He tuned his head to the operator next to him. "Simon, assign a reconnaissance drone to monitor them." Said Melvin, taking another sip from his mug. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Shbell and her friends have been playing for about an hour and a half now. Many types of games have been played, however now they have switched been playing a game of Funa and Jeno for 25 minutes. The game is set where everyone else stands in a circle. The object of the game is for the Funa to catch the Jeno on the inside of the circle. When the Jeno runs in between two people, they join hands and the Funa cannot pass through. Shbell, thanks to the training her parents gave, was a fast runner. Anytime the Funa chases after her, she always manages to juke and outrun them. Whenever she is the Funa, she usually tires her opponent and catch the Jeno that way. The Funa and Jeno are nominated by the Elvan bodyguards that she brought with. The nominees for this game would be...¡­ Shbell and Harya! ... The pilot hovered above the plain, waiting for the perfect opportunity. He watched the group closely. The subject has now currently running away from her group, and is now being chased after by another native. He sits straight again. "Finally, an opportunity." he said to himself. The piloted the ship downwards. "DAVIS, prepare the gun with the anesthetic shots and smoke screen. Fire at the 2 subjects." ... The group can see the two run. Harya seemed to be able to catch up to her, only to lose it after she starts running again. It happened over and over again. She was giving an innocent, yet evil smile as she teased her crush. Eventually, she slipped up. The tip of his fingers reached Shbell''s back. Harya jumped as he celebrated in catching the one the other''s couldn''t. They started walking back to the group. However, the two starts to look dizzy, and immediately fell down. Feeling danger, the bodyguards ran as fast as they could. A cloud of gray came down and flashed a beam of light at Shbell. Her body starts magically levitate the mysterious gray cloud. One of the bodyguards took an arrow. She casted a spell, making the arrow glow, and shot at the cloud. *DING*. It hit it''s target, but the fallen arrow meant it failed to penetrate the beast hidden behind the cloud. *BOOM* Suddenly, as soon as Shbell disappeared off to the strange cloud, a strange creature flew out of the scene in second, not leaving them time to have a greater look at the being. They went to check up Harya. One of the bodyguard checked his pulse. Still breathing. In a flash of anger, they start punching the dirt ground. For the first time as their time in the Elite Elvan guard, they had failed. The last thing they heard from her, from anyone, was the laughter of joy that came from that innocent soul. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Cantusilvae ring forest. Known to be a large lust green ring forest, home to many plants and animals in the realm. The trees acted as a wall against the sun, providing shade to the animals from the sun''s heat rays. The small wind made the winds leaves rustle along with the birds chirping and singing a tune, keeping a sense of tranquility and peace. However, when the party plunged deep the forest. There was no melody waiting for them, no cute animals to greet them, only the howling of the creepy wind, violently rustling the leaves. The animals, who have called this place their home, seemed to have disappeared. Everyone''s heartbeat start to speed up. *Sniff* *Sniff* "I sense a nasty smell." Halle said, with a face of disgust. Everyone starts to pick it up. It got worse the more deep they went in. They all had second thoughts, but the mystique of what has taken place pushed them. The smell was staring to get more recognizable. The smell resembled a lot like Cadaverine, putrescine and a bit of Skatole. *Snap* Halle raised her foot to see what she had stomped; the carcass of a baby Kinuwa, crushed under the weight of her foot, and there was more. They spotted more. The ground covered with the cadaver of animals. Birds, lizards, mammals, all dead, nothing was spared. They all examined the bodies. There had been no wounds made, no blood had been spilt. They were all seemed to have limped over and fell on the ground. "What happened here?" "What could have done this?" "We should head back. Whatever we are facing, we are not well equipped enough to deal with." said Alfead. "But won''t we miss out on what might have committed this atrocious act?" "I would like to keep myself alive Ray! I have just retired and I ain''t never gonna go against a force that I never have heard about." said Alfred. "But what about honor Alfred, are you going to run away when a hostile being dares to kill off the peaceful wildlife of this lush forest?." said Halle. Alika nodded in agreement. "But....". The team has entered into a heated argument. On one side, the cautious leader insists on gaining better supplies before facing off a threat they have never seen before, while the others focus of the honor and glory, on how it is the duty of an adventurer to keep the population safe. ... The operators started to the wall monitor projecting the image of the native group. Melvin took another sip of his coffee. The translator wasn''t perfect, so they picked up most of the conversation held by the group. "Simon, send a combat drone. Let''s see what these natives could do." said Melvin ... The group was still arguing over whether they should continue advancing. However the by Ray. "LOOK OUT!" using his staff, he summons a shield behind Halle. Claps of thunder that erupted on the shield, braking it. A few small projectiles hit her, severely wounding Halle. Alika went in to try to heal her, but she had to take out what was inside before doing so. What she found were small metallic projectiles, that appear to have traveled at insane speeds, causing the holes in her body. "COME OUT BEAST! SHOW YOURSELF!" Halle screamed. Just then, a floating metallic creature, spherical in shape came forth. It had a black eye with a ring as a pupil that glowed a red hue that stares into the soul of it''s victims. On it sides it had two long pitch black arms with holes on it''s end. Though it moved by flying, it had no winds and made no sound, it just... does. Then, it suddenly stopped. Roy instinctively put up a azure blue magical shield, covering his team and the Halle''s body. Alika tried to heal her friend, but her heartbeat had already stopped, and her brain had gone to an eternal sleep. "What is that thing?" "It looks kind of like an eye demon." "How does it even fly?" From the top of it''s arms bursts of lights formed and small clasps of thunder was heard. Another, stronger magical shield was put up. Alfred, wasting no time, looked at his team. They all nodded. Using her magical staff, she beamed him with a yellow light, giving him increased strength and speed as long as he is being beamed. Halle dashed to the right, acting as bait. The creature focused on Halle. With it''s mysterious metallic pellets, it fired at the knight. Red wounds appeared out of nowhere, spattering her blood all over, covering the trees and grass. Her sword slip from her hand''s grip, and with a loud thud, she fell on the ground, facing the grass. While it was focused on Halle, he quickly jumped up the tree, using it to get closer, to try stabbing it''s eye with it''s sword. He managed to come close, but it was too fast, too intelligent. It''s great thunder claps ruthlessly mowed him down with it''s projectiles. However, this left another opening. Ray, seizing this opportunity, disintegrated his shield and, with his full might and mana he could gather, casted a spell. "Magnublom!" A large explosion engulfed the creature. A large cloud of ash was made in the aftermath. It fell on the ground, making a huge thud when it hit the ground. Alika quickly went to check up on Alfred, and Ray checked up on Halle. His entire body is enfolded with red wounds. His face disfigured, and even some of his brains exposed. "No No No No No No NO!" She went as fast as she can, pulling out the projectiles, putting back part of his brain inside, but it won''t matter. His heartbeat started dropping at a fast rate. With his disfigured face, he looked back at her, and made a smile. "She''s dead Alika! Halle is dead! She has no pulse!" ... Melvin smiled at the scene played by the monitor. "Great success boys, we found the mages of the group." He holds his hand on to his earpiece, and starts to dial the lab. "Hello John. I have found some natives that had a hard time taking on a lone security drone. I will be bringing them in." He then ends the call. "Send more drones to subdue the two natives before they escape. Then drop them off at the research lab. Order them to use anesthetics." "Yes sir." Chapter 5.5: The Ones From the Stars. (Part 2) The two were walking, attempting to flee the forest where they lost 2 great friends. Halle and Alfred, despite their experience and strength, were both brutally slaughtered by a single metallic creature. Alika''s face was still in tears, loosing the love of her life. The only thing they could do now is to is to go back to a city, and inform the adventurer''s guild on what had happened. From Alika''s good eyes, she spots more metallic beings. The two launched themselves to hide behind the trees. Taking a peak, a heard of 15 were looking around, searching for it''s prey. Ray and Alika started to sneak past the beings, by using the trees as walls to protect themselves. Alika spots more in the south. "They appear to be blocking us." said Alika "We should then go around them. If we try to run, it will catch up with us." Before they continued traversing through the forest quietly, they prayed to their god. "Oh Kalina. Help us." ... The monitor displayed the two terrified natives sneaking past the drones. Melvin orders more drones to encourage the two to take a right turn. Simon obliges. Melvin couldn''t just stop smiling. Exited at the prospect that he would be involved in catching two of the fantastical humanoids. The pair inched slowly towards a bald spot of the forest. He got more exited. "Simon, move drones in to engage, but not kill. Partially surround them so they can move toward the little grassy land." "Yes sir" ... The two had managed to not be spotted. They inched closer to what appeared to be the exit. Their heart beats faster at the prospect of sweet escape. Yet, Alika had a strange feeling that they were lured into a trap. However, there was no time to thing, as her little eye spots something move closer. "Ray, they spotted us!" The beings shot more of it''s pellets at them, destroying the trees that acted as a guardian. They were forced to make a run for it, to the path and onto to anywhere safe. Yet horror stuck when they all surrounded the two. Ray put on a shield, and Alika helped him with her magical strength. They were prepared, to meet their end, but strangely, the beings stared at them, not doing anything. *PHEW* A powerful red bolt of light, fully overwhelmed Ray, and disabled his shield. Two darts then hit the both of them. Alika felt nauseous and fell on the ground. The last thing she ever saw, was Ray, the metallic beasts, and a strange man in a dirty cloths. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In a private meeting room, the expedition commander Marquise Jackson, the head scientists John Hamilton and 2 other generals were in discussion. Marquise Jackson was a tall African American born in 14th September, 12,488. He wore his camo uniform, with a camo army cap, black buttons, and many ribbons and medals for his service and a jet black name plate. His two generals were Archer Peterson and Adam Perez. Archer Peterson, the space marine commander, was an Anglo-American born in 2nd April, 12,460. He wore a similar attire to the commander, with the only noticeable difference being that he held fewer ribbons and medals. He was transferred to the expedition team of Xerox mainly because he was chosen Marquise, who considered him perfect for the job. He had handled the giant, but rare bug species effectively on Roabu-223, a planet with an excess amount of oxygen. Adam Perez was of Spanish decent. Born in California in 24th of January 12,467. He is the commander of the expedition''s Air Force. This includes all manned and unmanned aircraft. He served in Boabu-223 with Archer, which is why he also was chosen by Marquise because he was recommended by Archer. They had a monitor pull out a map and locate every native settlement, by the approximate population shown off represented by it''s size, were located. They were separated to the identified native species of the planet and given a unique symbol. The alien human clones; named XRX-01-01 had a man''s face. The pointy eared ones; XRX-01-02 had a man''s face but with pointy ears. The midgets; XRX-01-03 had a short man. The living trees; XRX-01-04 a tree with eyes. The red-skinned and purple horned humanoids; XRX-01-05/ERTI- 01-01 face of a man with horns. These settlements all have a little eye symbol next to them that was either rose red, golden yellow or lime green. If the eye symbol is green, then the Nano-drones, or nanomachines as they are called, have managed settle and actively sending information about them. If golden yellow, the nanomachines have settled, and are ready to send information. Rose red meant that an insufficient amount of nanomachines have settled to send information. Commander Marquise stared at the 50 inch monitor. Many of the major settlements had a yellow indicator, while most of it was in red, no green indicators. The commanders'' faces formed a grin at it, feeling satisficed. "Not even three days into the expedition and we have already set up spy drones to conduct espionage." He said with his deep voice. He turns his head to his generals. "When will they be operational?" he asked. Archer looked at Adam. Adam coughed a bit before speaking. "Well commander. The Head of Drone operators, Melvin D Rogers said that once the A.I system is fully operational and ready to work." "Wasn''t it already operational?" "Negative Sir. It was only to secure the perimeter of the base." "When will it be active?" "The A.I systems will be fully active in about 5 days time. Which means by the end of the week." "How much of that time is for construction of the other operator rooms?" "About 3 days, sir." "Will there be human supervisors?" "Yes sir." Marquise turned to the scientist, John Hamilton. "So, Dr. Hamilton. In my briefing for this mission, the natives are said are able to do some... magical shit?" "Well Commander, we use the phrase ''Quantum psionics'' when referring to their abilities, but yes." "I see. Have you learned anything new about them?" "Well we suspect that there might be some attribute system involved, such as combustion, Dihydrogen Monoxide, Solid Dihydrogen Monoxide, Soil, Fast moving air, and probably more." "I''m sorry, what?" He asked. The scientist sighed. "Fire, Water, Earth, Wind , etc..." "Oh I see." The commander said with a smile. "The list IS incomplete, right?" "Yes sir, it is. We are currently trying to find a Quantum psionic academy of sorts, which has a high chance of existence here. Most likely among the native elites." "How many natives have been captured?" "Well about 2 hours ago I was informed by Rogers that he found two more natives. Couple that with the abduction of XRX-01-02-#1a, we are likely to have 3 by the end of the day. Take into account the one we captured at midnight today, so 4 in total. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. "Good. I think that leaves everything in order. You are all dismissed." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The great hall with many seats forming a line, sat many kings and grandmasters from many kingdoms all over the continent for a meeting in the Great palace of the Empire of Novaskoska. The letters were written by Grandmaster Valdemar, and signed by Novaskoska''s royal seal, meaning approval had also came from King Floyyd Lanchestor himself. They were all waiting for the arrival of the grandmaster and princess Mirabelle. The dark door to the hall was then opened, and in entered Grandmaster Valdemar and the Princess. Valdemar wore his fancy violet cloak, and Mirabelle wore her azure blue grown for the occasion. They went to their designated seats, next the to king. With her arrival, Grandmaster Valdemar went up to the podium. He placed his index and middle finger on his throat and coughed. A while magic circle had appeared. "I welcome everyone here who had travelled far and wide to be here today" ha said. His voice was heard throughout the hall. All thanks to the little magic spell put on. "A few weeks ago, Princess Mirabelle had a vision, a vision of a Kacee event." A collective gasp can he heard from the grandmasters, while their kings were left starching their head at his statement. "A Kacee event is when an entity from a far away place, form a far away world coming to our own. It happened 2 million years ago here on the realm of Nalla." The kings stood a bit straighter on their chairs. "I will now let Princess Mirabelle to take over the podium to let her describe the beings of her vision." With that, Valdemar let his two fingers go away from his throat. He steps down and walks back to his seat. Mirabelle got up when her father sat back down. She walked up to the podium, with a made putting a stool for her to stand on because of her height as a child. She executed the same ritual as her father before to talk. "It had started when I was 7 years old. The vision started when I wake up in the middle of a cold night. I then get off my bed, then walk up to the balcony." She said. The grandmasters'' jaws collectively dropped and eyes widened. "This vision reoccurred every night. For until nearly a month ago. When I walked up to the balcony. I saw it. I saw the eye. It was a white eye with a brown pupil. After I saw it, the wind started to howl louder and I ended up in a strange white room, with 2 men wearing a strange turquoise shirt and black pants. They both looked at a glowing painting of a ball. A small aqua ball at the center of the painting. It had some green in the middle and white on the top and down of the ball. Next to the ball was an even smaller silver ball. The wind started howling and the first strange vision ended there. The next vision was the eye''s origin. A world filled with smoke, and near hard to breath, dominated by these tall glass, stone and steel foreign structures, all over the place that overlooks the terrain. The ground meanwhile was covered in a black like rock with white paint and yellow paint on it, with metallic beasts either roaming around or sleeping on the sides. There were people there, yes. But they all looked like black silhouettes, indicating sadness and loneliness. They were many who were skinny, but more who were obese. Their eyes were all either brown, blue, or green. These... beings were roaming throughout the day when a demon suddenly attacked." A sudden ''Oh!'' was heard from the crowd. "This demon was very muscular, and had long purple horns. A very powerful one indeed. It tears through the people, who had turn red in anger. Then, they sent out a different black silhouette, which appeared to be armored. It took hold of it, and completely destroyed it with ease. The mighty demon was left to run away from the realm, while the others shouted ''Terra is mad.'' They tried to enter the portal, but as the black silhouette got close to it, the portal closed. They were then silent at first, but then they started to speak again, repeating the phrase ''we will remember'' over and over again." She ended her speech as she disabled her spell, took off her two fingers from her neck and went back to her seat. There was chatter among the kings and grandmasters. Kind Floyyd gets up from his seat and stands on the position. "Now, we know that they have hostilities against demons, we cannot be sure if they are hostile against us. Our main concern is whether to inform our citizens about this new entity." Many arguments broke out on both sides. Many argued against their public announcement of the threat as they all feared that panic could set on the continent. Others thought that informing the populous means that they could all work together with the people to take down this threat before it becomes a problem. After many back and forth was taken place for hours, in the end the decision was made to inform the public of this entity. They will all agree to send that they will start spreading the news after 5 days, when everyone would be back at their home kingdom. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ "This is Fox-con 1. Will arrive at base in 5 minutes." "Copy that Fox-con 1. You are clear to land at Runaway 2. Please stop at hanger 3." The T545 slowly descents down. It reclines it''s wheels and slows down. He then steered it smoothly on the designated hanger. He opens the door to the plane. Stairs are then placed. A humanoid worker drone, with metal parts with white coating, and a camera for a head, comes climbing up the stairs. They lift up a large giant glass cylinder, with a light cyan tint to it. Inside it contain a specimen for XRX-1-02, in a deep sleep, only woken when needed to. The pilot takes off his helmet, revealing his short black hair and brown eyes on his round face, and comes outside the plane. He begins to stretch himself in response to sitting for so long. He had completed his mission. He can now go take a break. As he walked, he saw another T545 was being unloaded, containing a brown bearded midget. ... Shbell woke up with a blury vision, yet, she knew she saw no a green field with her friends as she remembered last being in, but in a combatable daisy white bed, with a blanket over her body, in an endless white void, with no clear floor, roof or walls. She wanted to get down, to explore around, was afraid of falling into the endless pit of nothingness, never to be seen again. Just then, what was bellow glow blue, with square cerulean tiles coming up, placing itself on the ground. In a few minutes, the entire world now had a ground. The tiles changed color, to a sky blue. Gathering confidence, she stepped out of the bed, and into the ground. As her feet made contact with the floor, though it looked like a white tile felt as if she had touched grass. It was when the the void turned to a sky blue, and the ground tiles turning into a field of grass. She then sniffed. Her nose picked up a fragrance of flowers. Flowers started to pup up and bloom. As her vision sharpened, the trees start to be visible, surrounding the great green plain she played in. "Hey Shbell, is something wrong." Harya, the boy that made Shbell''s heart beat just a little faster, was standing behind her. She turned around. Her friends and bodyguards were there too. She looked for the bed, but there was no bed. There never was a bed. "Yeah, I am fine." ... The little alien was strapped on a simulation. The black headset on her little head, with blue tubes that connected to the computer, created a dream world using the information collected via footage of the behavior of the pointy eared natives, and her own views of the people surrounding her. "Doctor Hamilton. I am not so sure about this." said the busty blonde scientist next to him. He had a face of someone concerned. John slowly tuned his head to the rookie assistant. "What seems to be the problem?" he asked. "Well, when a brain scan was performed on Subject-XRX-1-02-#1, similar patterns with the human brain could be found. I am concerned that when this information to be released, malicious individuals will use it to violate basic human rights and attempt mass control of humanity." There was silence from John, he was thinking, thinking on how to respond. "We have a protocol in place for it. Don''t worry. Just continue gathering intel." "What about XRX-1-01-#1?" "The blue kid?" "Yes sir. What will happen to her?" "Well, we will be keeping her incapacitated for a while. We need to check to see how similar it is to humans that we are operating on." "I see sir." An A.I voice then spoke though a loudspeaker. "Dr. Julie Smith, you are requested to come to Room 12 to study subject XRX-1-03-#1." Hamilton looked over to his assistant. "Looks like you got to go take care of the midgets." he said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ It was a bright, beautiful day in the beautiful capital city of Novaskoska. A metropolis where people of all skills come to work. The tall giant white palace shined brightly down at the people, dominating the city skyline. Thousands of stone and wooden buildings lined perfectly to make a orderly and calm utopia. The 1,200,000 people were going along their day, like any other. Shopkeepers were selling, peasants were buying, and the slaves working to build the stone roads and building more houses. However, their day would be put on halt today. Over the last 3 days, a messenger, riding on a royal white lira came down from the royal palace give a message, the same message for 3 days straight. An announcement would be made today at midday. This was... unusual. A message that had this much of significance was only seen in the demonic rises and invasions. Gossip flooded the city with rumors, setting expectation very high for what was about to come. It is coming close to midday. People come near the palace to listen in to their king''s speech. Whispers and gossips becomes the background noise. Above the balcony, two trumpets blew their horn, silencing the commoners down below. The king, wearing a single breasted 5 gold buttoned blue azure suit with a golden yellow Epaulette and daisy white pants, comes forward. He held his fingers to his throat on his neck. "Citizens of Novaskoska, a month ago, my daughter Mirabelle Lauchester had a new vision. She saw, over the realm, an all seeing eye that is currently watching us all. These creatures had come from a land far far away, all the way to this world we inhabit." A collective awe came from the people. "These beings, like us, had fought a conflict with the demons before, but unlike us, they had managed to completely annihilate them off their realm. It is unclear to whether it intend to harm us all, but it is my duty, as the king, to inform and protect you from this mysterious being." Today, I will give you all adventurers a mission. A mission to report any strange sightings to the adventurer''s guild. We must find and know everything about this new creature, if it means it allows us to survive. If possible, bring these beings in, for the mages in the academy to study." ... Nanomachines flooded HQ of the native leaders'' speeches. The shocked and confused drone operators were calmed down by Melvin, who immediately got wind of the situation. There were many questions he wanted to ask, but instead, he commanded the operators to keep listening. Meanwhile, Melvin called up Commander Marquise Jackson himself. Melvin sighed. "What a day to start listening to." Chapter 6: Emergency Meeting It was supposed to be another normal day, like any other. As the Nano machines start picking up information about the natives, the operators were to sit back, drank their coffee and relax. In an ordinary day, the A.I runs through the tons of information sent to HQ. It will when translate and organize the information and pack it in a neat report. The only reason for it to disturb the operators when necessary. Today was not an ordinary day. As the Nano Machines send off the data to HQ, the A.I was flooded with potentially vast amounts of important information all around the planet, from many native metropolitan areas. It starts to translate the text, structure the text and hands it off to it''s human supervisors. Every monitor screen played the audio and video footage of the speech, with text used to translate what they were saying. Shocked and confused on how the natives could have possibly known about their existence and their covert operation, panic started spreading across the entire room, with chaos unravelling further every second, as groups of people would usually do. Simon, seeing it all unfold, takes an urgent call to Melvin. Melvin had been talking his morning expresso coffee, to get himself energized, in the cafeteria. When he picked up the call, he wasn''t expecting Simon to be in a state of urgency. "Sir, I need you to come quick! The operators are panicking!" Melvin wanted to ask why, but immediately figured it wasn''t the time. As he walked out of the cafeteria, gulping down his hot espresso coffee into his mouth, burning bits of it, he dashed to the Drone Operator room. By the time he had arrived, paranoia was starting to take hold, and madness was taking hold. Melvin and his words as the baseball bat, stuck the heads of disorder. He grabbed a megaphone he uses to gain attention of the operators in situations like this. "ATTENTION!" he shouted through the megaphone. The mob slipped into near silence. Melvin was took an iced water from the filter, to calm his how mouth down before continuing to speak. "Now, tell me. What happened?" he asked. Simon, the one who called up Melvin to stop the decent to disorder, spoke up. "It''s the natives sir. The A.I has detected and has been flooding about... well.... us." "What do you mean us?" "They appeared to have somehow found out about our existence sir. We just received the info, and more is coming our way." "Show me. Show me the translated clip." Melvin sat down on one of the chairs, and takes a black headphone to listen to, while Simon loaded the files for his own ears to hear. Melvin, holding onto his chin, listened to the clip twice. He is still, composed on the outside, but in extreme shock inside. He takes off his headphones. "Continue monitoring the situation. I will take a call to the commander." He gets up starts dialing Commander Marquise. He sighs. "What a day to start listening to." Marquise picks up the call. "Drone operator Melvin. What is it that you want to inform me?" "Well sir, the natives busted us." "Pardon?" "The natives have somehow discovered that we exist. Our precious plans need serious recalibration. We need to call a meeting so that we can discuss with the other heads of department." Melvin can hear the Commander''s annoyance from the other side. "Alright then. I will arrange a meeting in 3 hours, get a report of the situation ready by then." ... The well lit room painted white, had a long dark oak table in the middle, with a circular patterns and a black hologram projector in the middle. The multiple black swivel chairs used a hard cushion that it durable for long periods of time. This place was one of the many meeting rooms for everyone to sit while discussing anything important. Commander Marquise Jackson, General Archer Peterson and Adam Perez, Head scientist John Hamilton and Head Drone Operator Melvin D Rogers were all gathered, and now in a serious discussion. It was not expected to have an emergency meeting be assembled immediately so soon. But the situation regarding the natives forced the commander''s hand to do so. Archer Peterson, Adam Perez and Dr. John Hamilton were all a bit confused to why there is meeting so early. Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. "Gentlemen. I have gathered you all here for an important discussion. Just today, about 3 hours ago, I received a call from Head Drone Operator Melvin here. The natives of Xerox have figured out our existence, and their elite have communicated it to their people." Their jaws dropped a little as he released the info. Melvin tapped his white earpiece once. On the table, a hologram appeared detailed one of the native king''s speech on the balcony, with full translated audio, made using a voice generator, and video. They all stared at it, all in disbelief. "Any idea of how they got the info? Did you let any native loose?" Marquise asked Melvin. "No sir. We made sure we neutralized, or deceived any witnesses before conducting our abductions." "What about those... pointy eared things.." "XRX-01-02, sir" Dr. John Hamilton corrected. "Yes... what about them?" Melvin pointed at John when asked that question. "Sir, species XRX-01-02 have seem to have little to no friendly contact with XRX-01-01. Most are isolated in the thick forests, and the ones who have met each other seem to be hostile to one another." "I see. Well we need to rework or plans for the future, and we also need to launch an investigation on they gained knowledge in the first place. Any ideas anyone?" "We could use the Nano-machines. Plant them every where the elite natives reside in." Melvin suggested. "I though we already covered the metropolitan areas with the Nano machines?" "The Nano machines cover the general area where most natives live. There haven''t been any specific enplanement of Nano machines in the area of the elite, where the rulers hang out." "I see. Anything else?" "We could use one of our test subject as a trojan horse." Dr. John Hamilton suggested. The commander and generals leaned in. "Go on." Basically, we insert a brain chip that records and sends us data of our spy. We use it to get intel from their perspective, and record the brain reactions to know a bit of how it works. This way, we can record their view on an extremely advanced race, and also how their social structures and culture work and act in given situations." "Do you have anyone in mind?" "Yes sir. There is one we captured earlier, when we first arrived on this planet." John started to tap his earpiece. The hologram switched to a blue haired girl. "This is XRX-01-01-#003. Sex: female. She has been monitored throughout the early days from the U.S.S Meta. We have calculated that she was on her way to a metropolitan area to study quantum psionics. That is until she got attacked by some other natives, which we killed, and then abducted for use for experimentation. I suspect that they have been expecting her. If we are quick, we can drop her off at the area she is needed to be in. We can help her with memorizing and studying the native art of quantum psionics. Hopefully that would help her get her into more of the top academies of the native civilization." "What if she doesn''t. What if these primitives have some sort of caste or feudal system in place, which when I read the report, looks far likely." Marquise asked. "Well sir, we could intervene in the selection process. Perform covert operations to make her more favorable. Letters from nobles, implanted memories, and such." Archer proposed. "Where will we drop her off then? What about her... deceased relative?" "We can go with the excuse that she was attacked by some bandits, and somehow managed to escape." It went on for a while. The plan was tweaked multiple times as they all had different ideas they brought to the table. But by the end of the day, an agreement and plan was made. XRX-01-01-#003 would dropped off near a settlement, after getting into the psionic school, she would be ''incentivized'' to get close to the elite, to figure the best possible way to plant the Nano machines, to learn of their social structures and culture. But before the meeting could be officially dismissed, Melvin spoke up of a inconvenient problem that plagued them in the meeting. "Before we end this meeting I would like to add in one more thing." "Go on Melvin." Melvin turns his eyes and head to John. "Don''t you have some kind of easier name for us to use. The scientific name pretty forgettable, and I worry that there might be a bit of confusion. We all should use a codename for her. One that is more... memorable. Along with the native''s names." "I agree with Melvin." said Archer Peterson, while Adam nodded in agreement. Looking at the three, he looked at the commander. "Melvin''s right. We would really love a codename for these things." Marquise responded. Internally he and the other generals were relieved that Melvin came out about it. John sighed. "Fine." "Alright! We can do XRX-01-01-#003 for now. Any ideas?" "What is her name?" Melvin asked, looking at John. "What?" "I said what is her name? We can use that instead of coming up with our own, or something similar at least." Melvin repeated. "Well according to the brain scan, her name is... Heil.... laun... aww?*" "We can go with Hellie." "Fine by me." said Marquise. The others nod. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *Most similar native pronunciation in English. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 7: A Staged Encounter The night raids of the month have been extremely successful. The Kirugang bandits have manage to rob and pillage many villages of its gold and people for slaves that they could sell in the black markets of many cities, making thousands of gold coins. However, there was still one thing bugging everyone out, they haven''t heard from one of their teams in a month. It was at the beginning of the month, when the bandits spit up into different teams to capture any peasants dumb enough to travel through the night. However, one of them haven''t returned. They searched for them, but gave up a few days later. They couldn''t afford to waste their time to search for deflectors. Right now, the bandits are living the dream, buying booze, banging broads and all that. As the new month had arrived, they once again spit up, to cover a broader area, robbing any poor fucker that would be unlucky to cross paths. Due to the lower amount of people, this time, they all spit into groups of 4. One band, all with full grown beards, and a scar somewhere on their face, decided to patrol the forests. The group were on lookout for more opportunities. It was when they were scouting, using the trees as protection, one saw a cute little girl about 10 to 12 years old, with dirty cloths, a bit torn, walking along the dirt road, given shade by the trees. She looked tired, weak and hungry with nobody around to escort her, yet her cute beauty and her gorgeous aqua blue hair and eyes were all features they knew their boss wouldn''t dare resist. "Hey, what is that little girl doing there?" asked one of the bandits. "Hmm?" the other bandit notices her. "She looks to have blue hair. You know the chiefs like them natural blue." said the bandit. "Yea, we could get a handsome reward from the boss if we present her up. Easily make about 56 gold coins." "What what if it''s a trap?" the third bandit asked, cautious about the situation. "Good question. You think it''s a trap?" said the second bandit looking at the first and forth. "Maybe. But there doesn''t seem to be nobody else around." replied the original bandit. "Go check then." proposed the forth bandit. The first one was chosen for the job. He was the sneakiest of them all. After carefully analyzing the surroundings, and making sure nobody was around, he came back to the group. "There doesn''t seem to be anybody there." "If so, then what are we waiting for? Let''s pounce and get her!" Before they put a bag over her head, covering her face, she suddenly fell unconscious. Thinking nothing of it, they picked up long wooden stick would be used with rope to tie both her hands and legs to the natural pole, making it easier for the savages to bring them back to the chief. ... On the dirt path, a party of 4 were walking along the road. They have began their journey 3 years ago, though they did have trained for combat from before. The party consisted of Milo Sampson, the muscular swordsman wearing a large plate of armor, as it''s leader, Mark Wu from the mage a city far far away, wearing a weird red robe with a skirt, with sun patterns all over. Coline Hurst the healer wore blue robes with yellow lining and Leroy Cameron, known for being athletic and quiet, who only one who wielded a bow and wore a nearly black outfit, with his face being covered with a cloth. A distant scream could be heard from the other side of the forest. The group went on high alert. They all looked at each other, and nodded. Leroy Cameron, with his excellent physique, swiftly went from tree to tree, at the direction of the sound. There, he spotted four bandits, tied up a little girl to a pole. Though they all seemed to have a confused face, he chose to ignore it. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Leroy attached a small black pouch to his arrow, and aimed at the ground. He released the string, and the arrow swooshed fast to the ground. As the pouch collided to the ground, it popped, releasing a large amount of black smoke. The coughing bandits raised their swords, now high on alert. As the smoke cleared, they turned to run away with their prize, only for her to disappear. "HALT THIEVES!" Milo, with his incredibly deep voice shouted. The bandits find themselves surrounded on both ways. The bandits instinctively turned their backs to each other, forming a packed circle. Mark Wu, taking the opportunity, casted an explosion spell, taking out the bandits. They walked back to Leroy, and looked at the little girl. ... Melvin, along with the operators, have their eyes stick to their screens. It had been hard work making a long and multiple chains of plausible fake memories for the agent could response to when questions, intercepting a native criminal organization near any benevolent natives willing to take her in. They then had to find a way to nudge the group to go along the path that the group of native criminals went, so that they would eventually cross paths for the benevolent natives to pick up the spy for the operation. The invisible SE-24 fitted with a speaker, guilty for making the cries of the girl, watched over the group. Using it''s microphone, it taps to the natives'' conversation. Their words and phrases go through the A.I, translating and learning to translate better. Everyone was very still, waiting for the natives responses. Using voice synthesis, it mimic their voices, not to perfection, but recognizable, to English. The conversation was also typed out in a notepad, for any reviews for the high command later. The first native to speak was the one with the blue clothing. "What is he saying?" "He appears to reflect sympathy for the trojan horse sir." "Good. The others?" "Sympathy between the others could be detected. Though one is having a few doubts of the authenticity." "Initiate the wake up protocol then. Neutralize the toxins within her body." A few buttons were pressed. Orders were given to the A.I, and Phase 3 of Phase 1 of Operation Troy had begun. "Agent is regaining consciousness. Natives'' face indication reaction to be positive." "Dialogue is being exchanged. No questions are currently being asked. Native receiving a fruit. Purple in color." Melvin, still staring into the monitor, felt a bit suspicious. "Karl. Give me a signature on the Agent''s brain." Karl changed tabs to agent''s neurology. Signatures show that strange brain activity after consumption of fruit. Melvin''s heart start to beat faster. "Jake, status of the chemicals inside body. Check for increased Agent TG43." TG43, is a new chemical, discovered to be found in certain fruits on Xerox-H43. Ever since it''s discovery, Hamilton had been on a way to find a way to neutralize the chemical. Though nothing has yet to be found, it has been found out some agents could partially reverse it''s effects. "Natives are now asking questions from Agent." said Simon. Melvin smiled. "Initiate Memory switch. Switch memory name 1 to memory name 2." With just one press of a button, and a load of work from the A.I, something in Hellena''s brain, somewhere in her psyche, her consciousness or whatever, changed. "Sir, question regarding her name is asked. Agent responded with name from memory name 2." Melvin gave huge grin at the sound of Simon''s voice. ... "My name is Hellie." the little blue hair girl responded. A bit of a weird name sure, but the group was confident in it''s legitimacy. "Were you hungray Hellie?" asked Milo. "Yes sir. I was." Small questions like this go on with the three adventures and the girl. Leroy however, with his stinking suspicion that something was wrong, waited patiently for his opportune moment. "Well Hellie. What were you, a little girl, doing far out here going around in the forest alone where not many villagers nearby?" Leroy asked glaring at her, still wearing his black cloth as a mask to cover his face. "Well, I was headed to the city with my uncle. I was able to cast magic, so I hope to join the academy." Tears then start flowing through her eyes. "B... But then... some bandits attacked us and... my uncle lost his life trying to protect me. I ran away ever since..." Leroy felt an enormous block of guilt being dumped unto him. The other''s calm her down. Internally, everyone was disappointed in him, for questioning a little girl. "Don''t worry my child. You are safe now with us." Coline said while patting her back. "Hey, why don''t you come with us? We will help you get into an academy. Is that good?" Mark Wu proposed. Her tears have been wiped off with a towel. "You mean it?" She asked. The adventurers smiled. "Oh course we do." ... "Sir, they have agreed to take the Agent in. Maybe even help her with her entrance to the school" Melvin could not help smiling. Melvin start to dial Marquise. "Sir, I contacted to let you know, that Phase 1 of Operation Troy had been successful. We will shortly begin setting up the dominos for Phase 2." Chapter 8: City Carved from Stone Dalokol Runebreaker woke up to the ringing of the community bell that screamed in every room in every household. He got off his hard bed, and got off the bed, which used a hay mattress and brown cotton covering, sheets and pillows. The room was lit by sunlight, using lots of mirrors to reflect them underground. His wife, Germyl, about as muscular as him, had cooked him a nice morning breakfast. Soon, the children followed to the table. The wooden plates had contained a large boiled egg, roasted meat, vegetables and bread. The large egg was brown, with black dots all over. This came from a lizard-like creature that lives in the caves, called a Selitoc. It was rather large, with dark brown skin that camouflages with it''s environment. The roasted meat had come from an animal called the Pellicite. It was like a super strong pig with stronger bones than usual, and more calories and nutrients. The vegetables were made of purple and orange jenucans with the bread made of kekkolins wheat. Purple jenucans were a type of mushroom that glow violet in the dark, which is why it its given that name. Kekkolins wheat, is a very bright greenish-blue crop, that requires very little amounts of sunlight. It''s color comes from it''s high chlorophyll concentration, and ability to store mana. "How was work honey?" she asked in a deep voice. "I have a meeting with his majesty today at..." he looked at his golden pocket watch. "4 from now. A new project for the mana crystal mines. The palace wants a new line built in and out of the new willwaker crystal mines, and to discuss about the appearance of some Mysterious creature." "Mysterious creature?" "Yes, dear. Though I don''t know what, his majesty himself requested me to come." "But why you dear? You are the head of inzperian, a man who helps build mechanical structures on a day where he should stay, to teach his children." He took a deep breath, holding his annoyance. "Do not question his majesty dear. I am sure that he has his reason." he continued eating his breakfast, and attempted to shift the topic somewhere else. "So.... how is your studying going son? Mastered the concept of steam mechanics?" he asked Dulmir. He didn''t respond, but he did pause. "yes..." he said with a little nod. "Good... Good... So have you abandoned the idea of learning about some stupid her.." "They save lives father." he corrected. Dalokol''s face blew red in anger. "Have you forgotten your manors young man!" he shouted at him, so loud that the neighbors could hear a little faint sound of his voice. He kept silent, not wanting to further fuel the flames, but the father was not done. "How many times do I have to tell you to drop that worthless practice?" He took in a deep breath. "Our family is built on being the head of inzperian for the royal family! Your grandfather, great grandfather, and great great grandfather, and so on, have all built our family status on it. You expect me, for my son, to enter poverty chasing a stupid dream that never comes? How do you expect to earn a living?" "But father! I want to help the people of common, not to reach status. It bring me..." "SILENCE!" "Why can you not be like your sisters, Lyesria and Lyssris? They dedicate themselves everyday to be the prefect housewives for our race, yet you can''t sacrifice your life to preserve the family dynasty! Do you not realize how selfish you are?" Dulmir had back. No response. "Sigh. Well, I have to be going now. I might miss the Agertraws." This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. He got up, changed his cloths to a black cloak, and left the apartment, down to the streets. The place was lit up by many mirrors, bringing sunlight to the caves, which the streets are lit and the ponds of algae to gave the oxygen for dwarves to breath. It was a great megaproject, planned and built long ago, which the family had it''s first step into wealth came in. When the sun isn''t up, the kerosene lanterns take up the slack to illuminate the entire city, He walked down the stairs into the station and looked at the time table. He looked back at his pocket watch, and saw that he was only a few minutes early to station. He sat on the stone bench, waiting for the Agertraws to come pick him up. The Agertraws was a mechanical transportation system, running on a steam engine. It was invented by his very own family, his long distant ancestor, no less. Though the first ones used coal, the newest steam engine used by the Agertraws used a rare red mana crystal to boil the water. It acted as sort of a battery that keeps it running, and it could heat up the water very quickly. The Agertraws, had managed to connected the underground cave city, enabling people from one point of the cave city, to the other. He lived a bit further away from the center, so he needed to use it to commute to his place of work. The mechanical sounds of the Agertraws made him stand, along with the others. The metal beast then finally showed itself. The workers opened it''s doors to the passengers, with everyone let in. He took the 4th compartment, one that was kept for the top workers of his highness. It was lit by the kerosene lamps, and the seats made of rare blue cushions, unlike the wooden ones the peasants were stuck with. He goes on and sits on his designated seat stated on the ticket. His seat companion, was his long time friend, and chief ''pensaetop'' of the royal family. He was the mastermind behind the new designs and constructions of many government buildings in the city, kind of like an architect, with the characters being symmetrical, detailed, and utilitarian. The man wore a purple cloak, with a few rings on his fingers. A way for him to flash his wealth to everyone around. "Dalokol! How had it been!" he asked. The others turned to them as he spoke loudly. "Keep it down Morrak. There is no need to scream." he replied. Morrak laughed at his comment. "Alright. Alright. Sit down." "So how was your morning Dalokol, did your juveniles gave ya trouble?" "No. Well, except one." "Ah, the stubborn boy ain''t giving up on his hobby?" "Yes... Yes... He continues to squall on how he could reach great status with his path, while I have to berate him back to earth." "Delusional as always. You should take him to Gerthrun." "Gerthrun?" "Yes. I heard he has these psychedelic mushrooms, it could possibly be used to help... motivate him." Morrak requested. Dalokol thought about it. "I will make sure to check with him then." he replied. "You have any idea of that ur... mysterious creature?" Dalokol asked. "Talking about the Ferrians and the visions?" "Yes exactly. His majesty seems to be worried about whatever these creatures are. The speech was given on in many Ferrian cities a while ago, though I don''t know what was given in it." "Must be some sort of supernatural entity. Defying the laws of reality as we know it, or something with great magical power. Though I cannot understand why his highness is afraid." "Because, chief pensaetop of the castle, this never had happened before." said a voice from behind. "huh?" they turned around. A blonde-bearded dwarf, wearing a black cloak like Dalokol himself was standing behind them. He pulled out the "Vongrum! my friend!" Morrak said. "Mind if you two move. My seat is over there." "No worries. Would you like to join our conversation? I feel you could be of use to fill in the missing variables." "Yes my friend, please do! What is it that you want to talk about?" "About the unnatural beings." "Ah yes. My spies all over the realm had given me back my messages. I have been informed of the creatures long before both of you." "Well what do you know so far?" "There was a great meeting with many of the Ferrian kings. While I cannot give you all the details here, as per the orders of his highness who would like me to keep my mouth shut until the meeting today, but what I am allowed to inform you now is that, according to my intelligence, that such an event had never happened in this realm''s history." "Never?" Morrak asked to confirm. "Never." he replied. "What is worse, is that they are said to be capable to managing to exterminator the demons rather quickly, as from the Ferrian princess''s vision. At least, that is what is hinted." "That is rather a great accomplishment." said Dalokol. "It is, and this is why his majesty is so concerned about it. It is suspected that these beings are out here, in this realm." "Is that what we were going to discuss today?" "Yes, a part of it that is. Though I would not like for both of you to come in for the meeting, gravely underestimating this situation. His highness might not like it." The doors were now being closed by the workers, and the engine starts to grow louder. A large bell starts ringing slowly, indicating that it was leaving. The agertraws starts picking up speed, and enters the tunnel, headed towards the city center. Chapter 9: Meeting the Lord The agertraws come to a stop. The doors flung open. This was where Dalokol had separated from his friends. He now had to travel to a different station, with an agertraws that traveled horizontally. The city itself was designed on a grid basis and had a total of 8 floors with every building in the city acting as giant strong pillars holding it all together. Dakolol''s destination lied on floor 8; the deepest part of the city and where the mines lay. He went up the stairs and walked around the busy street of the city. He saw a small rental shop next to it, where dwarves like him came in and out with their elluics, which looked like a smaller version of a Dutch bicycle. They all biked on to the bike lanes, kept separated from pedestrians. The bike lanes were paved with polished granite bricks. Separated by a brick line of polished diorite. He did not need a bike today, as it was only a 15 minute walk. The buildings that surrounded him and the citizens were made of high quality polished stone bricks reinforced with steel framed to keep them high and mighty. Many do not have glass windows or paint. Instead as a substitute, they used wooden windows with bars, and a thin layer of different colored bricks to give color. There were some buildings painted, but those were more likely to be owned by someone wealthy like a noble, as a way to stand out from the crowd. He arrived at the other station. He looked at the time table, and saw he had to wait a bit longer for the agertraw to come back up. He went to find a bench, but found the ones for workers of royalty were being occupied by some lazy homeless hobos. His eyes lit up with fumes, as he grabbed the men and threw him across the hall. Nobody dared intervene. The men, in their old torn cloths, fled in fear. Dalokol took out a napkin and wiped off the bench off before sitting on it. After a few minutes, the agertraws finally arrived. He entered through the middle, and climbed his way up to the 4th compartment, where he will be alone, not that he cared. The mechanical beast started descending down, deeper and deeper. He took out a little black book about the size of the palm of his hand, with yellow text etched on the cover out to read. A way for him to pass time. It detailed of many old poems, teaching traditional dwarven values like respect, discipline and obedience. The book wasn''t thick, with only being 200 pages long, put was densely packed, with 1 poem on each page. The 8th floor was more baron and lifeless than the upper floors. There were lots of small houses dumped over, all made of cheap old wood extracted from the surface. The whole thing was all held together with soulless pillars made of gray stone bricks with reinforced steel, with a few cracks, held together the entire city up and about. The place wasn''t fit with the mirror mechanism, so their only light source was the kerosene lamps. He traversed across the smelly floor, to come up to a red building with glass windows. He entered, and found the place to be well lit. There was a receptionist on the front desk. Dalokol walked up to him and gave him his identification card, made of a coffee brown paper, held together by wood thick as toothpicks. It had a little drawing of him, though it is a decade younger. "Ah, Sir Delokol. Welcome. Please sit down and wait until Lord Emkum. I will call for him." Dalokol took back his card, while the assistant went towards the door guarded by the soldiers with steamersteffs; a musket, but instead of using black powder and a flintlock, they used pressurized steam to fire a pointy projectile at a ludicrous speed. Though they can only fire 1 at a time, it was powerful enough to tear through thick anything: potential invaders, the demons that lurked in the shadows, or the worst of all, disrespectful and rebelling workers. The guards knocked the door, then the door was opened. The assistant enters the room, and comes out with a man following, holding stacks of coffee brown papers. He more a purple cloak covering the dozens of golden rings and necklaces he wore. On his left eye was a monocle, with it''s frame made of silver, with a thin gold plating to match with the rest of his outfit. Dakolol stood up, and greeted the man. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. "Sir Dalokol. It is a pleasure to meet you. I assume this is for the new line right?" "It is a pleasure to meet you too Lord Emkum, and yes, it is." "Well then, please follow me." Dakolol complied. They both walked towards a doo, made of metal bars that looked like it fit in a jail cell. He opened it with his strangely shaped key made of steel, and went further into the mine. It was a bit of a long walk, but they came up to the beginning of the real mine covered in darkness. "We will be taking the agerbelle." Emkum said, pointing to the large automobile. It looked closed to an old Volkswagen van, painted in a mettalic black color, with tires made out of rubber and metal. The large exhaust, instead of hanging out at the back, was on the top left of the vehicle, which was powered by a steam engine. In terms of lighting, Emkum had to manually light up the Kerosene headlights and backlights. After the lead lamps shredded the darkness, Emkum opened the left door, and hopped on to the drivers seat. From the inside, he unlocked the right door and pointed at the door to Dakolol. Dakolol, who never actually rode in a vehicle before, hopped on. After turning the key, the steam engine and the auto boilers started firing up, and they were moving in a few minutes. "How is the family Sir Dalokol?" "They are doing well." he said with a smile. "Good.. Good... I heard your son had an interest in herbals? Wanted to serve the dirty commoners. Did you manage to..." "Well, I am working on it." "You should, would not love to fall out favor out of the royal family now?" "..." "Alright then, now to business..." he gives Dakolol the papers. "Now, the line dives deep into the Salovine mines, where all the goods are. I want this line so that they can efficiently deliver mined mana crystals back, where it would be carried off to be sold to my... customers." "Well Sir Emkum. It would mean that this mine would have to... generate enough revenue for the palace... to maintain such things. Does the mine have anything of value to be considered useful? Are there any mana crystals?" he asked while full-well the answer. All with a smile. "Why yes. There are said to be a few violet mana crystals, along with blues and greens. There is even a nice small purple mana ores coming up over this turn." He points his finger. "Well, there is... already a surplus of green mana crystals. There certainly isn''t a need for more cheap commoner gems. Just will flood the market. How many uh.. blues are there?" "Well, the portion is a significant amount. About 8 to 12% more than any other mines. The purple mines are already rare as it is. I would have to drive deeper in the agerbelle though, which is not recommended." "Are there any other safety concerns. Has it been checked?" "Yes, the palace brought in an inspector. It was all perfectly fine." "I see. Which institution did your lordship have used? I hope for a reliable and credible source." "The source I used, came directly picked from the royal highness himself. Besides Sir Dakolol would only have to worry what is and what isn''t part of his job, am I not correct in that assessment?" "It is always good to double check." He starts skimming through the papers given to him, completely filled with data that would make anyone''s head spin. He continued to stare at it for a hot minute, before taking his eyes off it, once more. "I will... uh... see what I can do. Can I have the paperwork please?" "I do not think I am in a position to do that." "Please my lord, it is important to inform his majesty..." "I have already sent a letter with all the information inside just today. I don''t think Sir Dalokol would have to worry much." "Very well then. Could you please turn around? I will be on my way." he said with a smile. As soon as he got out of the mines, the plastic fa?ade he held dropped. Dalokol''s walking speed started to pick up. When he got out of the building, he started to jog, then he started to run; run as fast he could possibly go. He checked his pocket watch. If he could make it in time, he would be able to do something about the report. Royal Meeting The large round desk with chairs made of wood had stacks of papers, pens and people sitting around it. It lay underneath a great Victorian chandelier which lit the entire room, covering everything with it''s yellow light beam. The old dwarven king sat upon his mighty throne, bored. He takes a sip from his golden goblet as he thinks of what could have been, ignoring the constant chatter surrounding him. With his each fingers occupied by 1 gold ring with emerald gems like his eyes, the thick bearded man with a rather small long nose wore a violet purple tunic with a black toga, and a gold crown on his head. He had forgotten what he originally wanted to be, but the challenges he had faced forced him to be the ruthless king he is today. Back then he had ambition; the drive to do something that deviated from the norm. Now he is just sitting of his chair, letting all his regrets wash over him. The gentlemen he was surrounded by all wore either black or purple cloaks as a show of wealth and power. All were heads of departments and trusted advisors for the king who oversees his city. "Your majesty?" Dalokol interrupted. He turned his head. "Yes? What is it?" "The head Pensaetop wants to know your majesty''s answer." "Oh... uh. What do you suggest Head Pensaetop Morrak, what do you advise?" "I advise your majesty to invest 2,500 gold coins they ask for." "Who?" "The church your majesty. They are asking for 2,500 gold coins to renovate all the churches to the new architectural style. It is projected to help increase the people''s faith in the church and your majesty himself." He grunts. "Fine. I Accept. What is the next line of business needs settling?" Dakolol coughed twice, "Me, your majesty." He picks up his papers on the table. "Lord Emkum requests his majesty for 8,700 gold coins to build a new long lines and equip them with agerkells to move in and out large mining equipment and ores collected. Though the mine seemed to be not be special as it seems, it lacks any materials that could justify the steep investment. I even investigated to see for myself if it had any blue mana crystals. It is increasingly unlikely that there are any." "Who gave you the tour?" "Lork Emkum himself your majesty." "Your majesty, I would like to add to this topic myself. May I have your majesty''s permission?" asked Jothar Darkcoat. He was the head of the Mines. He oversees a helps them a lot, and a long friend of Emkum. He wore a black robe like Dakolol himself, but his bread was much shorter, his nose larger, and his eyes were an emerald green. "You shall." he said. "I myself have sent off an investigator to report me his findings of Lord Emkum''s mine. According to his words. The mine has at least 12% more blue stones than any ordinary mine. On top of that, it has some of them most valuable rare violet mana crystals. I would like to question where the Head Inzperian got his information." Dakolol stayed quiet. He thought for a moment. "I think your man had mixed it up with a different mine. He might be talking about Lord Orilgoun Greatbow''s mine. It would be foolish of me to lie directly in front of his majesty." "Well, we shall soon see Head Inzperian Dakolol. Your majesty, I have brought the report on the mines right with me. Your majesty can read it from your majesty''s sharp eyes to confirm." he passed a red file and gave it to his majesty while smirking at Dakolol. King Adrom opened it up and began skimming though it. Stolen novel; please report. "Is this the report he himself made or was it written by you?" "The report was sent off by Lord Emkum to the castle itself today. I just received it only before the start of this meeting." "I will take your word for it then." "So what is your majesty''s verdict?" asked Dakolol. "Well according to this report, I will not be directing funds to Lord Emkum''s mine." "eh?" Jothar froze. "According to this report, the mines do not have anything noteworthy contained in it. It would not make any sense for me to waste my money." "Your majesty..." "You yourself said that Lord Emkum send it over to me. According to this report, there is nothing his mines can give. Am I wrong." Jothar opened his mouth, yet nothing came out. He sighed. "Alright your majesty." "Moving on. Is that it?" "No your majesty, there is one more topic that needs to be discussed. The mysterious beings." Adrom, in a long time, sat straight and put down his goblet down. He looked at Vongrum, waiting patiently for him to talk. It was the whole reason why he came to the boring meeting in the first place. Vongrum takes his papers and reads aloud to them. "In the following months, our spies have gathered that Princess Mirabelle of the empire of Novaskoska had a vision. It detailed that she saw ''an eye looking at the kingdom''. The following days, she described another vision, one where demons have invaded a different realm and got beaten back hardly. In her own words, there were said to be ''tall glass, stone and steel foreign structures, all over the place that overlooks the terrain. The ground meanwhile was covered in a black like rock with white paint and yellow paint on it, with metallic beasts either roaming around or sleeping on the sides.'' Now this was told in a meeting by many of the Ferrian kings in some castle. The announcement was given to the public 5 days after their meeting occurred." "These beings fought off demons?" "Yes your majesty, that was what they gathered." "There is a lot to unpack here. Does anyone know when this happen?" A minister with round glasses raised his hand. "This might refer to the the otherworldly demonic invasion that occurred 545 years ago." "Of course, the Head of Education Umduhr Herros would be the one to know of such historical trivia." Umduhr smiled, feeling a sense of pride. "Thank you Umduhr. Now sit down." "I would like to ask one question from Head Spumaser your majesty." "Go ahead." "Head Spumaser Vongrum, I would like to confirm a quote from the report. Did it say something along the lines of ''metallic beasts''?" Vongrum checks his notes. "Yes, I can confirm it does indeed say that." "Could that mean... They might be like... us?" he says as he uses his hands to point at him. Adrom turns his head at Dakolol. "Your majesty, I propose the theory that, the threat. the being that the realm is facing against might be in regards similar to us." "What do mean Dakolol?" Jothar asked. Everyone glared at him. "I apologize your majesty! I did not for permission from your majesty. Please have mercy." he said while kneeling on the ground. Dakolol and his buddies tried to hide his smile, while the others were in a neutral stance, still glaring at him. Adrom simply sighed. "Get up Jothar. You are forgiven. Now go back to your seat." he said. Adrom turned to Dakolol. "Elaborate your hypothesis Dakolol." "Well your highness. The beings we might be fighting might be a mechanical one. Similar to how we understand the world and try and use it. Like how many little components go into making an agertraw work, they might found out how to leave their realm behind." "What about the eye? Vongrum told us about something about the eye." "I am not sure about that your majesty. The most likeliest option is that they have a discovered something we don''t know of." "Could be. What else?" Another dwarf with purple robes raised his hand. His face was covered in a mask, and his beard shaven clean. "What is it Head of Education Umduhr Herros?" "Your majesty, I propose that they might have... a different reason for what these things are. From what I know, they might be the only being in the other world, correct?" Vongrum nodded. ...And since magic seems to be common among beings with intelligence, with ones that don''t tend to be driven extinct or into hiding like us dwarves. I propose these beings might possess enormous wisdom and knowledge of magic, and they might have compounded that with their mechanical wisdom and knowledge. Since most of our machinery requires a sort of mana crystal to function, they might have even more powerful mana crystals which they have available to create them. Or they managed to utilized existing mana crystals more efficiently." "That is all well and good Umduhr. Thank you. Anyone else?" There were more hypothesis thrown around. Some included metallic beings being the creatures from the other side. Some argued for Devine entities. All were respectfully debating and sharing their thoughts. On the surface, the dwarves that had metal collars with chains attached to their necks, connecting all to groups of 5. They were all either swinging their axes to cut down the trees or dragging the lumber to the ground. What they didn''t know was that high above them, a drone was chilling on the surface, trying to infect their city with recording nanomachines. Chapter 11: Getting Started From the shoulders of Leroy, Hallie pointed at the large gray walls of the city of Roesha visible in the distance. Leroy was carrying Hellie out of guilt, that he dared questioned the validity of a little girl''s statements, according to his friends. They had been walking for the past 3 days, eating whatever whatever they brought and fruits they could find on the trees. She awed at the large wooden gate that acted as a bridge across the moat. Many people whether on foot or with their caravans and liras crossed in and out of the city. The city was built mostly of wooden logs and stone bricks with trees used for shade. It was the middle of the summer after all. The further they went into the city, the taller the buildings had gotten. However, they never went past 4. "Wow! We are really here! Where are we going?" Hellie asked. "We are going to get you something to wear. Don''t you want to get off those torn ones for a brand new one?" replied Coline. "I do!" "Hey Hellie, can you get off me? We have arrived at the city, and I don''t want people spreading rumors about me." "Oh! Sorry Mr!" Hallie got down and walked among the street with the adventures, who brought her to a cloths shop. The building itself was 3 stories tall. The wall facing the street was filled with racks of gowns, tunics and pants to buy. The owner, a rather old lady with rounded glasses had just sold off another pink gown to a mother. "Come again! Oh, adventurers! How may I help you today?" "We want some new cloths for our friend here." Milo pointed to Hellie with his finger. She turned her head to look at the child. "Oh aren''t you a cutie?" she remarked. The shopkeeper turned to Milo once again. "I think I have just the thing for her. I just need her measurements real quick." she scooted over to the back of the shop, trying to find something. She came out with a brown measuring tape. After a few minutes, she takes out a small book, trying to find something that could work. "Well, I think I have found something. Hold on." this time she went up the stairs. Hellie presumed that was where most of the cloths were stored. Once she came down, she held a nice berry blue gown, with white lining, hinted to the both of them of it''s exorbitant price. The lady leaned down, with the two meeting eye contact. "Would you like to try this one on dear?" Hellie simply stared at it. The temptation to try it on was extreme. She turned to Milo, who had a was also examining the grown in the shopkeeper''s hands. "No thank you miss. I think the price is too expensive for us." "Oh don''t worry dear. Trying it on doesn''t mean you would have to buy it." she said with the sweetest face that they had ever seen. Leroy scoffed at it, believing it to be motivating for her to purchase something extravagant. Hellie looked on to Milo once again. He smiled at her. "I would like to see how it fits." "Alright." she said. She went into a dresser room of some kind. There she took off her old cloths, and fitted into the new ones given to her. Once she came out for everyone to see, all were smitten by her cuteness, even Leroy. "Well it seems to fit her perfectly. Don''t you think?" She asked the team. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. "Well, it does go with her blue esthetic." Mark remarked. "I sure agree with Wu here." Coline said. "Do you like Hellie?" "I do! It''s just..." "What is the problem?" "I don''t think we should spend a lot of money on it. We can try something else!" she suggested. Milo turned to the shopkeeper, to ask her for a price. She lifted 3 fingers. "3 silver coins." she said with a smile. While Hellie had a near heard attack hearing the price. Milo took out his money pouch to pay for her gown. "Wait Mr. Milo! You don''t have to..." before she could finish her sentence, he intrudes. "It''s only 3 silver coins. Here you go..." he placed the three on her hands. "Thank you young man. Come again!" The group then left the shop. "By the way, do you happen to know for a shoe shop?" Milo asked one of the group. "I think I know one over the corner. They have some of the best." Mark answered. "Well yes, she needs some good shoes doesn''t she? Need to find some to pair with that outfit of hers." Collen added. ... Melvin enters the drone operator room of Group 2. Ever since phase 1 of Operation Troy was a success, he had been to countless boring meeting on other Operations to get a mole to the natives. Get valuable information on them. One operation had been completed. He walked down to meet Simon, who stood there with a tablet in his hands, presumably holding all the information that he has gathered so far. "What is the situation?" Melvin asked. "Well sir. The agent has arrived to their destination. It is called to be the city of Ro..e...sha. They seem to be quite fond of the agent as they have purchased two expensive pieces of clothing; being a gown and boots." "How much in particular?" "4 silver coins. Unsure of it''s native name. The agent''s reaction to their spending indicates the amount to be significant for the common masses. The conversion rate is 100 copper to 1 silver. Unsure if this is the case with gold." "That seems a bit excessive. For someone who they all just met." "We could initiate a conversation to extract some info out of them." "Sure, that will do. Anything about the adventurers themselves." "We have learned a bit of their backstory. We are unsure of the one with his face covered. He seemed to be the most suspicious." "I mean their profession itself? Is their earning the average or is it higher than normal?" "From our reports, these specific group seem to be on the high end. Yet across the many samples we took, adventuring seem to be a lucrative profession. Most of them have garnered respect from the population, and they seem to be doing high risk tasks for high reward, on the surface that is." "How much?" "Unknown sir. We do not have the adequate information to make a proper judgement." "Well then, try to get more info out of them. I want a report of the conversation. Can I trust you with it?" "Yes sir. You can." Melvin smiled. "Good, not if you excuse me, I have to be somewhere else." "What is it sir?" "Well, Marquise wants to talk about some other agent. Those pointy eared ones. So I have to supervise group 7 in order to make sure that operation would run smoothly." "Where do I need to send the report to?" "To my office." ... The sun was starting to set on the village. The group had a lot of fun. Hellie was given a grand tour of the city by the group. Now it was time to go to sleep, and continue the next day. They arrived to a large inn, 4 stories tall and made of stone. A lot of rich people spend their nights here, and Hellie has the opportunity to experience it herself. Milo returned to the lobby, holding two golden keys in his hand which he showed to his friends. "I got the keys to our rooms. Now we need to know who should sleep with Hellie." he said. "Since Leroy is soooo fond of her, we should leave Hellie with him?" Coline suggested half jokingly. "I suggest two of us to be with Hellie, to protect her." Coline giggled. "Sure buddy I will volunteer. Who knows what you would do to her." Though Hellie was blissed and grateful of their kindness, she pondered why these people went the extra step. "Um..." "Say what you need to say Hellie. Stop wasting our time. " Leroy responded, who was the first to notice. "Oh! Sorry. Well... it''s just... why are you all helping me this much? I am not that important. You all have brought me to the city anyway, you don''t have to go this far..." "Tell me Hellie. Can you eat without a guardian by your side for very long?" Leroy interrupted. Hellie was a bit intimidated my sudden aggression. "No?" "Can you find shelter to protect yourself from rain and dangerous animals?" "Um... I don''t think so Mr." "Can you even hope to get into a magical academy without a proper guardian?" "I heard they don''t." Leroy turned to Milo. Milo smiled. "Listen Hellie, the reason why we are all here, alive and well, in this brutal and relentless world is because we people cared for one another, and showed us kindness. Have you ever heard of the 5th tale?" "Yes. It is where a family fed their boy because he had no teeth." "Exactly. That is why we are helping you. If nobody show kindness, then the Ferrian race will fall apart.