《Sin and Misery (A HWFWM Fanfic)》 Cold, Blind, and Maybe dead Seras awoke to complete and utter darkness. The darkness was not surprising considering she had been dying in space just moments before. What was surprising was that she awoke at all. Her whole life Seras had been a staunch and unrepentant atheist, seeing no point in praying to Gods that were supposedly once alive but are now dead, nor believing in an afterlife no one could agree upon. To her; the most logical conclusion given all the evidence was that there had never been any gods, dead or otherwise. And that when someone died, that was it. No happy paradise or eternal torment afterword. Just spare parts sent to be recycled and a bit of goo that got cremated so someone could stick the gross jar on a kitchen shelf to collect dust. But waking up after dying in space threw everything she had -with very solid evidence- believed. Unless this was some sort of hallucination occurring in her final moments as her brain slowly suffocated. But if it was a hallucination, then why was it of a cold dark room? And why was she naked? She knew the later part only because of the slight breeze moving across her exposed skin. Well there was only one way to test the hallucination hypothesis. She sat there for a minute waiting for the illusion to end as her brain finally realized she was dead. Another minute passed. Five minutes passed. ¡°Whelp, either my experience of time has changed, or I¡¯m not hallucinating.¡± Seras said out loud. Her voice echoing around the room until it faded away. She waited another five minutes just to be sure. ¡°Even with adrenaline and a brain too stupid to realize I¡¯m dead this is taking too long.¡± She sat up. She felt the pricks of sharp pebbles press against her Smart Skintm (Now with twice as many nerves!) as she sat up. She ran her hands along the ground, feeling every bump and texture variation. ¡°Feels real¡± she murmured. She brought her hand up and realized that she still couldn¡¯t see anything. ¡°System, dark mode¡± she said aloud, and her vision filled with a dark green film. There was no ambient light sources around the room, but the slight heat her body shed from its internal systems was enough to outline the silhouette of her hand, and the slight acoustics in the room gave her augs enough data to create a rough outline of the rooms shape. She stared at her hand. All four fingers, plus one thumb, all about the right size. That was all she could make out with the little infrared heat her body was giving off. She opened it, then closed it. It responded perfectly to each command. She was tempted to turn on the lines of blue light that ran along her skin, but just in case there was anything else in here with her she kept them off. A naked women with glowing blue lines of light was something that would draw any unwanted eyes. She reached up and pressed her hands to her face, only to realize there was something still grasped within her other hand. Now no longer hidden by her hand the pinky-sized data-shard let off a light blue light. Not enough to use as a flashlight, but enough to see it without the night vision. This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. She turned the shard over in her hand a couple times. ¡°All that trouble, for this little thing. What makes you so special?¡± Seras asked softly, not expecting an answer. But as if in response to her words her HUD highlighted the shard and attached a floating tag to it. Technology Essence Well that was a stupid name. Seras had seen some dumb floating tags before, it was hard not to when everyone had the ability to apply them to their stuff, and had seemingly all agreed at some point to pick the stupidest names possible. But what the hell was a Technology Essence. If it was a shard on Tech then it should be labeled Essence of Technology, or maybe technology of essence. Seras fixed her gaze on the metadata of the shards floating tag. A little box of information dropped down. Technology Essence. Both the penultimate success, and first step in the research first began by Alfred Morris. A solid distillation of the strange extra dimensional energy first discovered by the crew of the Miraculous. Well that was strange. Who the hell would write a metadata tag like that. It felt more like an omniscient third person observer wrote it rather than some egghead scientist who had been on Volta station. Then again knowing nerds, it wasn¡¯t exactly out of the realm of weirdness for them. Still, she had to consult her long-term memory to find the name Alfred Morris. The man who invented the global net generator, capable of propagating net access across the whole world all from Biolite headquarters. A work of true genius that outshone all other inventions before. No matter where a person was, whether it was high above the clouds on a space station, or deep underground, they would have perfect net access. The most brilliant innovation in human history. Which had been promptly co-opted by mankind into a convenient way of watching porn nonstop. Truly the human race didn¡¯t deserve the marvels at their fingertips. Speaking of which. She should be able to access the net, maybe pull up her GPS location, call an acquaintance or two to pick her up. If she wasn¡¯t dead then she needed to get home. She opened her net access and it brought up the last thing she had been watching during the long space walk to Volta station. Porn. She was only human after all, even if she was technically more machine then meat a girl had needs, and there was nothing to do after the space shuttle had let them out. Before she could exit out of whatever the search engine found for her, two dreadful words appeared in the center of her vision. No Signal. ¡°How the fucking hell is that even possible?¡± she asked out loud, her confused voice bouncing off the rocky walls of where-ever-the-hell-she-was. The net generator had never gone down once since its inception. Without constant net access there would be anarchy in the streets as pissed off civvies went into net withdrawal and started a purge. For the first time in her life Seras opened up her settings for her augs and tried to find the tab for net signal. It took her a whole five minutes to realize that no such thing existed because no had ever needed to check their net connection in at least a century. She was about to go into net withdrawal herself when she noticed a distressing little notification in her setting screen. UPDATE COMPLETE. Seras let out a shaky sigh. That explained it. Her system updated overnight, and it was so fuckin full of bugs that it broke her net connection. Everyone knew you waited for the after launch ¡®hotfixes¡¯ that made things halfway functional before you updated. Great, this meant that once she got her net access back she would need to update her ad blockers, and anti-tracking software. As if this day couldn¡¯t get any worse. That¡¯s when she remembered that if she wanted to get the ¡®hotfixes¡¯ with a broken net connection then she would need to find a terminal. Which meant figuring out where the fuck she was, and why the fuck she wasn¡¯t dead! She made a fist a shook it upwards. Before she let it drop back down, knowing that there was no point getting pissed at soulless machines that ran her life. Or the soulless corpo jackasses who released crappy code that made her life harder than it already was. Since she had no net access she decided to at least open the update file and read whatever corporate buzzword bullshit they thrown together this time. It was always funny to read in a word-vomit sort of way. The last update had included the word synergize over a hundred times without ever actually using the word correctly. Outworlder Seras System V2.0.0. Update download 100% Hold on. That wasn¡¯t right. That should have been Biolite Operating System with Synergistic overdrive and Aggregate cloudify V96.39.55¡­ bullshit string of numbers that meant something to someone who wasn¡¯t named Seras ¡®Blackiron¡¯ Cross. Why was her name in it? And why was it only version two? What happened to Version one? She opened up the meta data of the update and was greeted by a screen that wasn¡¯t a barely coherent mess of corporate buzz words. But instead an incoherent mess of words she had no context for. Outworlder Seras System update V2.0.0 Racial traits updated. Special attack affinity-----------> Astral affinity Human Ambition-----------> Biomechanical physiology Human Essence gift-----------> Pocket space Human Essence gift-----------> Stanger in a stranger world Human Essence gift-----------> Net Connection Human Essence gift-----------> Blueprinting software ¡°What. The. Fuck. Is. This. The fuck is a Racial Trait, the Fuck is an Essence Gift, and the fuck is all that other shit!¡± Ch 2 Only the impossible remains Seras spent over ten minutes poking around the rest of her HUD, looking for other places that had changed with the update. She found that her map app had changed, now instead of the familiar pock marked and cratered surface of Ruin she saw a completely different world. One with six or maybe seven major landmasses divided by huge bodies of water. As opposed to Ruin¡¯s three remaining continents separated by massive inhospitable basins and one remaining ocean. The details were fuzzy so she couldn¡¯t really see where she was, the most she could figure out was that she was in the center-ish of a massive continent in the northern hemisphere. When she tried to access her street-view map it zoomed to reveal a box shaped room that had a narrow exit into a hallway. She would likely need to explore more to fill out the rest. Her ID page had changed as well. Before it had contained her personal info, Net ID, and other such things that she could quickly ping to a new contact or a cop actually attempting to do their job. What she saw instead, however, was something she would feel way too embarrassed to share with anyone. Seras ¡®Blackiron¡¯ Cross Race, Outworlder Normal rank, essences 0/4 Racial traits Essences Power no essence: normal 0/5 attributes Speed no essence: normal 0/5 attributes Spirit no essence: normal 0/5 attributes Recovery no essence: normal 0/5 attributes This had to be the nerdiest shit she had ever seen! Seras had always been a girl for the here and now, the physical and not made up. She could never get invested in the fake worlds of Holo-games anymore than she could suddenly become a true believer of the dead Gods. Something within her just felt repulsed by the idea of sitting on her ass spending time in a world of ones and zeros instead of living in the real one, no matter how shitty it was. But she had some friends when she was younger obsessed with that shit, so she had learned a bit by proxy. But games like this were supposed to have some sort of disconnect, a point were the graphics and sensations felt fake. That wasn¡¯t the case right now. She could feel every rock poking into her bare skin, the slight breeze wafting through the cave, she could even smell the vague scent of flowers. And not the fake lab made synthetic stuff, but the real ones grown in highly controlled greenhouses that filtered out the smog and carcinogens. It was all too real for her to be in a holo-game. And besides the fact that everything was too realistic, she had died! Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. She was in space, floating out a pressurized air lock, the helmet she was meant to put on before had been floating just out of reach as the heat was sapped away from her body and her lungs burned with a need for oxygen. She had seen the world go black, and had felt the end coming. Or, wait, actually now that she thought about it, there had been a moment of impossibly bright light, and then a sense of time passing but no memory of why. Did she actually die, or did something happen just before she died. Great! Now she knew even less than before! Well the only solution to ignorance was learning, and she had a lot to learn. Seras ignored the fact that her race was listed as Outworlder and not human, and focused on the ¡®racial traits¡¯ section instead. Astral affinity: An enhanced affinity for the astral, resulting from the astral energies your soul was bathed in during transmigration. Reduced effects of astral anomalies and attacks. Cost and side effects of astral abilities is reduced. Enhanced Transcendent damage. Biomechanical Physiology: The deep integration between yourself and your cybernetics has resulted in a unique physiology. No body form could be made not including inorganic cybernetics, resulting in a physical manifestation of your cybernetics. Vitality has been reduced in proportion to your remaining biomass. Healing/cleansing effects reduced by 90%. Immunity to poison, unholy, holy, afflictions and attacks. Power stored in your cells may be exchanged for mana. Natural system repair feature added, so long as the damage to your artificial limbs does not exceed the threshold of ¡®unsalvageable¡¯ your limbs will slowly repair. Pocket space: access to an extra dimensional space. Stranger in a Strange world: Language adaptation, the ability to convert Essences, awakening stones, and skill books into an appropriate format for absorption. Net access: HUD GPS upgraded to world map. Street view map upgraded to tactical map. Access to public and divine knowledge repositories. WARNING Divine knowledge repositories require permission to access. Blueprinting Software: The ability to recall designs and technologies you have seen before and create a plan to recreate or alter them. Okay. Someone was definitely fucking with her. What the hell even was a pocket space! As if summoned by her thoughts a light blue portal opened in front of her. Within was a boundless void that faded into a white mist. Sitting just within arms reach of the portal was a palm sized icosahedron. Okay, just because a magic looking portal appeared out of nowhere didn¡¯t mean she was buying this pocket space bullshit. It was probably just a hologram. It wasn¡¯t like she could reach out and grab the fancy paperweight looking¡­thing. She blinked at the very real sensation of her hand grasped around the mysterious object. She pulled the object and her hand out of the portal before it closed as if it had never existed in the first place. Seras looked at the object she had pulled out of the mysterious extra-dimensional space rather than think about the implications of such a space. It was palm size with a glassy exterior. Within Seras saw what looked like a miniature neutron star in the middle of a cloud of white sparks. But more strange than its physical appearance was the inexplicable feeling of potential and passion that Seras felt coming from it. Like someone had high hopes for her. A tag appeared above it. Awakening stone of the Celestial Book: a gift from an extra-dimensional entity. Requires one open essence attribute to be used. Would like to convert it into an appropriate format? Y/N Seras mentally chose Yes just to see what happened, and watched as the icosahedron shrank down into a pinky sized data shard. Just like the shard labeled Technology essence. Her mouth was dry. The rest of the strangeness she could explain away. It got a harder and harder with each explanation, but that was easier than accepting the impossible. But too many things were adding up. The racial traits like Astral affinity and Stranger in a strange world. The lack of Net access and the foreign world map. The pocket space that appeared out of nowhere and contained a memento supposedly left by an extra dimensional entity. Volta station, the station Seras had been hired to rob was supposedly dabbling with some sort of extra dimensional energy. She and her accomplices were supposed to steal the shard she was now holding and upload a virus that was supposed to wipe their servers clean. Then the station had exploded. But hard as she tried, Seras couldn¡¯t think of a reason for it to blow the way it did. It hadn¡¯t burst into a ball of flame, or ruptured along the pressure hull. It had exploded in an impossibly bright light, that was chased by nothingness. Had she been blasted into another world? It was crazy, and ordinarily she wouldn¡¯t even consider it a possibility. But when you rule out all plausible explanations all that was left was the implausible. The impossible. Or, maybe just the very, very unlikely, considering her circumstance. Ch 3 Magic and Monsters People didn¡¯t just get exploded into another world. Unless some did and Seras just never heard about it before. But even if dimensional travel was possible that didn¡¯t explain why she was naked. There were clues within the text of her racial traits, and further within the update screen as well. Her system had stated that her old essence gifts were changed into the new ones she saw. Implying that the previous traits had been attached to her race as human, but if they had changed did that mean she was no longer human? To be fair she had only been about ten to fifteen percent human after all her upgrades. But to have that identity suddenly stripped away from her and replaced with this ¡®outworlder¡¯ thing left her with a slight aching feeling in her chest. Seras shoved her feelings down into a little corner of her memory, with a note to sort them out later. For now she felt like she had been sitting too long. Language adaptation implied that she might have a use for speaking foreign tongues, which implied people. Hopefully. Her first task before she addressed the whole fustercluck that was whatever the hell had happened to her was to find somewhere safe. And while she had been just sitting in a pitch-black room fiddling with her settings, she had never confirmed whether or not she was safe. That meant exploration. Before setting out she did a quick inventory of all her assets, which was depressingly short. She was naked, with only two unknown shards in her hand, and couldn¡¯t actually see anything in the absolute darkness. Seriously, why had the strange Technology essence shard follow her across dimensions, but not her guns? Or her spacesuit? Seriously, why the fuck was she naked! If Seras had believed in any higher powers she think they were fucking with her. Actually, were there actual Gods? The Net access trait had mentioned divine repositories and a need for permission. She added that thought to the corner of her brain where she shoved all the other questions. It was starting to fill up fast. If she stepped out now, she would be naked, blind, and unarmed. But could she fix any of those issues right now? She rubbed the Technology essence shard with her thumb. One of the first things kids learned after they got their first aug was not to shove random and unknown shards into the neck slots. Easy way to get hacked and mobbed with ad-bots that lived in your own head. But she had seen the word essence mentioned several times. First with her old human essence gift (whatever that meant) and then in her ID page where it listed her essences as 0/4. Then again under her stranger in a strange world trait. Assuming that one was supposed to help her figure out what was going on and survive then she had to also assume that these essences, awakening stones, and skill books were something that she might need to find and use. ¡°Fuck it, shit can¡¯t get any worse.¡± Seras growled. With a thought the smart skin over her neck ports opened up, and Sera slid the Technology essence in. Pain, white hot pain like a million volts of electricity turned the black world into a white one, and she felt her knees buckle. It was like every nerve in her body was stabbed with a needle. In her haze she tried to turn nerve sensitivity off. But even with the signals being cut off from her brain Seras still felt pain. It was in a place she couldn¡¯t identify. Leaving her with no further questions about the soul¡¯s existence. There was no way to better explain why she felt like the core of her existence was being overwritten. ~~~*~~~ She awoke back on the floor, with no memory about finally collapsing, nor any idea how much time passed. Seras sat back up, expecting phantoms of the earlier pain to return. But strangely she didn¡¯t even feel a twinge of discomfort. If anything she felt¡­better? No, more like she felt more complete. Like something within herself had been yearning for something, but it didn¡¯t know it until she slotted that shard. Seras felt around her neck to pull the shard out manually. Only to find nothing within her shard ports. With a mental command Seras opened her ID again and scrolled down to the essence section. Essences The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Power no essence: normal 0/5 attributes Speed no essence: normal 0/5 attributes Spirit Technology Essence: Iron 0% 1/5 attributes Recovery no essence: normal 0/5 attributes Okay, she hadn¡¯t been expecting the pain, but the process had given her¡­ something. Actually, what did she get besides pain? It had bonded with the spirit trait, and she could now feel like she had tapped into some hidden reservoir of power. But how did that help her, what did it do? She focused on the Essence ability until a new screen appeared. Inscribe rune/circuit Allows the infusion of Mana and crafting materials into small objects to create magi-tech formations up to iron rank. Cost: Varies Cooldown: None Before she could even think question how the hell she even did that, she realized that with the ability an instinctive knowledge of how to use it had been slotted into her memory. It was like suddenly gaining a third arm and having full control over limb. With but a thought Seras infused mana within her finger and a soft blue light lit up the room around her. Giving her a real view of her surroundings for the first time. Despite her new glowing magic finger Seras was disappointed. Because with the knowledge of how to activate the ability she also had the understanding that she had no idea how to use it for its primary purpose. Infusing magic runes required a prior knowledge of how to do that, the same went with the circuitry. She had been given a chisel, but had no idea how to wield it to carve wood or chisel stone. And any amateur attempt at doing either was likely to hurt her in the process. So all that pain was pointless. She was still unarmed and naked. But at least she wasn¡¯t totally blind anymore. Though the light on her finger was hardly better than a small candle. Seras glanced down at the awakening stone still in her hand and considered it. The pain from the Technology essence had been enough to knock her out, and the power it had given her did jack-all. She had guessed that awakening stones unlocked new capabilities from her absorbed essence, but she had no guarantee of whether or not it would be useful. For all she knew the strange stone that had been mysteriously placed within the miraculous pocket space by an extradimensional entity was some sort of trap. At least she knew where the Technology essence had come from. With a thought the light blue portal to the pocket space open and Seras threw the shard into it without a second thought. As equipped as she was going to get Seras raised her glowing finger and began to examine the room. Based on the echo she knew that it was fairly large, but only now did she realize just how large it was. She had been laying on a large circular platform, the floor of the platform had a loose scattering of gravel and dust, and she found a few large rocks indented into the surface. Once she dusted away some dust and gravel she saw that it was made of a glassy black material like onyx or obsidian. Laid into the black stone was a rosy-gold metal that formed odd runes and strangely arrayed lines. The newly awakened power of her technology essence whispered in the back or her mind, this platform was some sort of formation circle. She found one rune with a large oval shaped part, within that open space she saw thin hair like lines that looked suspiciously like circuitry. And once she knew what to look for she saw many runes merged with elements of circuitry. Despite telling her that what she was looking at was a formation circle her technological essence gave her no further hints into what this circle was supposed to do. All it did tell her was that it was incredibly complex. Around what Seras assumed to be the front of the platform she found a set of stairs leading to a lower level. She went down the handful of stairs and began to study the side of the platform. The whole circumference of it was lined in more complicated runes mixed with circuitry that she had no hope of figuring out. Looking to the rest of the room Seras could make out some grand murals on the wall, but the colors had long since faded away, and what little light her magic finger produced didn¡¯t reach of the bottom meter of the images. The room had only one doorway, a massive frame designed for giants nearly twice her height. It lead to a long hallway, and to Seras¡¯ excitement she saw a pale light at the end. Careful not to rush ahead Seras placed her hand on a wall and followed it towards the light. It was a good thing she went carefully because halfway through she encountered a pile of rubble at about knee height, she wouldn¡¯t have seen if she had rushed toward the exit and would have fallen face first into the shard stones. She glared at the rubble and then raised her finger up to illuminate the ceiling. Above her the smooth stone ceiling was interrupted by a jagged scar where some of the stone had crumbled. It didn¡¯t look like the work of roots or water, and the blackened scorch marks hinted at the blast that had broken the ceiling. Stepping over the rubble Seras noticed something strange. In the center there was a patch where the stones had been shoved to the side in a roughly round pattern. The scene of a fight was painted before her despite the sparse evidence. She imagined people fleeing down the corridor, laying a trap for their pursuer. Only for it to shrug off the several tons of stone. It was hard to tell from the cleared patch of ground, but Seras imagined a pretty large creature. About the size of a small family hovercar. The rubble in the platform must have also come from the people who set the trap. Though whether they survived or not was unclear since she didn¡¯t see any corpses when she searched the room. Determined to not get caught in a fight given her unarmed state Seras walked softer. She didn¡¯t find any more rubble after the first pile and made it to the end of the corridor without any trouble. The whole time she had been walking the light had steadily gotten brighter and brighter, until she passed through the threshold and got a proper look at where she was. Her eyes widened at the sight before her. She was standing on a massive building in the center of a crumbling subterranean city. She saw concentric circular roads centered around the step pyramid building she had emerged from, following the arc of those circular roads were broken and burnt out buildings illuminated by green quartz like crystals that gave off a faint light. More impressive than the ancient city on the lowest level of the cavern were the buildings carved into the side of the chamber. It reminded Seras of honey comb patterns she had seen on old nature documentaries, made back when there were still bees. How had people even made those things? Above her she saw something even more impressive. Instead of a ceiling over head she saw the lip of a cavern above, and form the random arrangement of glowing crystals she could see that there was another layer of city above her. She zoomed her vision in and saw the lip of another city section above that. She was at the bottom of a massive cavern with a larger cavern stacked on top, with another larger one stacked above. She couldn¡¯t even confidently say there were only three levels since the light faded further up. Seras was born and raised within the megacity of Mantel, and she was no stranger to engineering marvels. But this place took the cake. It outstripped every mega tower or sublevel of the complex mess that was her home by an order of magnitude. How had anyone even carved a cavern of this size? Even with modern machinery it was nearly impossible to dig something like this underground. Seras had been so distracted by the marvel around her that she had forgotten the first rule of stealth. That it didn¡¯t matter how quiet you had been if you were caught out in the open staring like a slack jawed moron. A low growl behind her snapped Seras out of her stupor and she turned just in time to see a sleek black shape pounce on her. Ch4 Cavern Lurkers The beast pounced on Seras, and she couldn¡¯t move fast enough to escape its razor-sharp claws. They raked across her skin, and sparks flew from were claw met metal exterior. Seras had been knocked off her feet by the force of the blow. She only had a moment to gather her wits when a second strike came for her. This time the beast spat on her, and its green slobber blenched her open wounds. Cavern Lurker, venomous spit has been resisted due to ¡®poison immunity¡¯ from Biomechanical Physiology. The beast stood there watching Seras, as if waiting for her to react to the venom. Had she still been a flesh bag then its attack may have killed her then and there. But very little of Seras was still flesh and blood. She took its pause to assess her situation. Above the beast was floating a name plate Iron rank Cavern Lurker She knew by its dark fur and feline body that it was an ambush predator, with a strange hunting strategy. Usually, venomous creatures had fangs or stingers, but this thing had cut her open then flung its venom. That¡¯s when she noticed the slick black creature had no mouth to speak of. Just an overlarge snout. Was this goo snot? Ugh, that was way worse than spit. How did it eat? Did it eat with its big nose? Did it stop breathing when it ate? Didn¡¯t matter. Beyond its claws and venom Seras didn¡¯t see any other means of offense. It was small for a predator, coming up to her mid-thigh and lacking in much visible musculature. While it was still waiting for her to keel over and die from her wounds Seras shifted her weight onto her ankles and sprang forward with all the power her athletic grade tendons could manage. She could have gone for the more reliable military grade tendons, but Seras had always been dazzled by the high-flying flips of highball players. Even from her prone position Seras cleared the distance between her and the beast. Her left arm cracked forward with all the power of a bullet and buried her fist into the Cavern Lurkers jaw. She felt flesh cave beneath her metal knuckles, and the creature was sent flying back. ¡°Ha, if all the threats here are this weak then I don¡¯t need magic powers to deal with you¡± she quipped as she saw the Cavern lurker¡¯s form crumple against a wall. Only then did she see the other dark figures slinking out of the shadows. Mentally Seras updated her description of a Cavern Lurker from ambush predator, to ambush pack predator. ¡°Why did I have to open my mouth¡± she groaned. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. As the words left her mouth all five of the remaining beasts leapt forward. Two flanking her to either side while the lead snorted more venom onto her wounds. Cavern Lurker, venomous spit has been resisted due to ¡®poison immunity¡¯ from Biomechanical Physiology. ¡°That¡¯s not gonna work!¡± Seras roared as her legs snapped forward, and legs pumping like a piston, body slammed the lead Lurker. Seras slammed it against a wall and felt it go limp as its spine cracked. Then with a brief warning from her HUD she kicked against the wall and back flipped over the Lurker pouncing for her back. Her tactical advisor program had used the slight sound of scuffing stone to infer that an attack was coming, and had given her a warning just in time. It had cost her nearly half a mil to buy the program, and half the time it gave her false warnings. But when it did its job correctly it really came in clutch. The creature she had jumped over tried to copy Seras¡¯ wall kick, but it didn¡¯t get the chance to as Seras grabbed its hindleg to swing it at one of the other Lurkers. The two went sprawling and were tangled with each other''s limbs. The other two backed up half a pace, and Seras roared at them. Hoping to scare the beasts off in order to find easier prey. But either hunting had been lean making them desperate, or the Lurkers were too dumb to back off, because the two backing off stopped their retreat and instead launched forward. Seras ducked, and noticing that the other two had gotten awfully close to the edge of the step pyramid, decided to let gravity do the hard part of killing these things. She dashed forward, put her weight on her right leg, and with a powerful kick from her left she knocked the two dazed Lurkers off the side of the pyramid. They made a snorting sound as the they fell. The two remaining beasts had recovered from their leap and were now once again flanking her. She tried her best to keep an eye on both beasts as the prowled around her. But their instincts were sharp, and they knew how to best leverage their remaining numbers. The one on her left jumped, while the other charged in low to the ground. She could get one but not the other. In a panic and without any better ideas she opened her pocket space in front of the one low to the ground. The portal once again opened midair and the beast flew headfirst into it. she attempted to close the portal around its neck, but a pop up appeared as she gave the mental command. Object obstructing rift, clear the object to close pocket space. Because that would have been too easy. Whatever, it had earned her a few precious seconds to deal with the second one. As it pounced onto her she gripped both hands around its neck and squeezed. Her vise grip clamped down with the strength of an industrial claw, suffocating its air way, and surprisingly popping its head off its slender shoulders. Hot blood coated her hands as the beasts body fell through her fingers. Seras was reminded that for all the natural weapons these beasts had she was still a killing machine. Rebuilt to handle threats way above their weight class. It had been so long since Seras fought actual flesh and blood opponents that she forget how weak the flesh really was. She had replaced the last bit of surface flesh years ago, and had since only delved further into the world of cybernetic transhumanism. Her confidence bolstered she fixed her eyes on the remaining Lurker, who had just managed to pull its head free of her pocket space. It watched her more warily than before, its floppy oversized nose twitching as it like smelled the blood one her. It stepped. ¡°Oh no, you already had your chance to flee.¡± She growled before charging. It wheeled around, scrambling on all fours, and tried to flee. But Seras¡¯ ceaseless piston like legs were faster, and she caught up to its panicked sprint in no time. For once she was the one to pounce, and just from the weight of her chrome she snapped the Lurker¡¯s spine as she fell onto it elbow first. The beast now dead beneath her Seras stood and let out a sigh, her racing heart slowing down now that the fighting was over. Then she heard a sort of howl in the distance. It was nowhere near her. But it did remind Seras that she was still exposed. Rule number one of survivability: don¡¯t be seen. They can¡¯t kill you if they can¡¯t see you. Usually. Bombs and orbital strikes didn¡¯t really need to know your exact position to kill you, just a general area. She was exposed on this pyramid. Which left her with two options. Try to find another room within the pyramid, or go down into the city. She needed a weapon, and she needed it now. While there was no guarantee that the pyramid would have any, it was the closest structure she could search. But the idea of being potentially trapped in a room when something else decided to wander in left her uneasy. But with the cleared space around the pyramid, she would be exposed before she could get to the urban sprawl of the city where she could disappear. She looked down the side of the current level she was on and judged the distance down. To high even for her to jump. There had to be a staircase around here. Either on the exterior or within. That meant she would need to explore the pyramid regardless of what she chose. Her choice made for her Seras walked into the shadow cast by the glowing quartz and began to walk the perimeter of the pyramid. Ch5 Death essence On the other side of the pyramid Seras found a set of two stairs that hugged the walls of the lower level. They didn¡¯t lead straight down to the street level, so she couldn¡¯t use them as way to go all the way down. But she did find another giant-sized door at the start of the next level. With a mental shrug Seras strode through the door and into an open foyer, or maybe it was just some sort of waiting room. Seras had never been one for interior design, so she was a little hazy on the exact definitions. For all she knew she had just stepped in the parlor or salon. At one end of the room was a stone counter with several doors behind it. Carefully she stalked through the room, glowing finger once again illuminating her path. Seras still felt cheated by the fact that she had to go through all that pain for a glorified nightlight. The floor had a pleasant if unremarkable tile pattern, and for a strange reason Seras got the impression that she had just walked into government waiting room. Personally, she tried to interact with the city government of Mantal as little as possible. Hell, she didn¡¯t even pay taxes since Merc work wasn¡¯t technically a legal profession. But occasionally she had to wrangle the impenetrable bureaucracy that pretended to run the city, things like water and power required in person visits for some Gods forsaken reason. The bland tile pattern, the dirty beige plastered walls, and even the counter with attached offices all gave her the impression of a government building. Which made sense now that she thought about it. This big ass pyramid was in the center of the city, it was either a palace, a temple, or a civic building. Or all three. She checked behind the stone counters and within the offices but found nothing besides dust. Moving down the hall her impression of a government building was reinforced as she walked down the wide hall with several offices set off to the side. Seras checked each room but found nothing. No ruined furniture, no wall hangings, not even the odd corpse or piece of graffiti. It was like this place had never been inhabited. Moving on to another hall Seras found a stone stairwell and descended to the next level. There she found more hallways and offices, even some rather large rooms that might have been some sort of court rooms. She found another set of stairs and once again descended to a lower level. This level was a little different. Whereas the other levels had long winding halls this one seemed to be a self-contained set of offices. Like a company that only leased out a single level of and office building. Her suspicion was confirmed when she exited the offices and found herself on a balcony within a massive atrium. Looking down from the balcony Seras saw that the atrium went down several levels. Maybe even so far as the street level. Curious about this change of the standard room and hall format she explored some more. On the upper levels of the atrium she found little side areas that could have merchant stalls, kinda like a mall. Though once again it seemed that these had never had any occupants because Seras couldn¡¯t find even a scrap of trash. Just dust piling up in corners. There were plenty of stairs on each level, and even what appeared to be elevator shafts. No elevator though, that would have been too convenient. Once on the lowest level Seras felt a slight breeze, and she found that at one end of the massive room was a set of more giant-sized doors. This time there were several next to each other, obviously intended for the passage of lots of foot traffic. On the floor Seras found a massive seal etched into the ground. A sword, shield, and staff with the words ¡®Vestal adventurer society¡¯. To add to the strangeness of her already strange day Seras realized that none of the words she had just read were anything she had seen before. Mantalese was a combination of pictographic characters from their roots as an independent kingdom, as well as the blocky foreign alphabet used by the rest of Ruin. These words were all loops and curls, each letter firmly linked to the next. Must be that language adaptation. Handy. On the bottom most level Seras encountered something she had not seen before. Glittering black jewels, casually left in one of the corners. She crouched down to pick one up. Iron rank Dark quintessence. Crafting material. A distillation of darkness. She frowned. How do you distil darkness? It was insubstantial. Well, they had been in a dark corner that likely never saw light. They could have formed in the corner¡­ somehow? Another entry for list of strange shit. She checked the other corners of the room. She had no idea how she was supposed to use dark quintessence, but the meta text had labeled it as a crafting material. And her inscribe rune/circuit had mentioned needing crafting materials. Better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. She found more quintessence for a total of nine jewels in the other corners. And within the final corner of the room, she found her first real sign that there were people on this world. Well besides the whole strange, abandoned city. The sign came in the form of corpses. Hidden in a side hall that she had missed from the balcony were three, maybe four bodies. She said maybe because they were little more than skeletons and their bones were scattered about haphazardly. Some of the bones gnawed on and cracked open. The bones were a milky white color, meaning they had never gotten around to replacing their skeletons. Or worse yet, they hadn¡¯t replaced any of their meat with cybernetics because those didn¡¯t exist here. Seras shook her head at the idea. She did not like the idea of being stuck in a world with no cybernetics. Seras¡¯ examination of the bones relieved something strange. Two of the present skulls were definitely human, but the third wasn¡¯t. The third was massive, twice or three times as large as a normal human skull, and looked like a cross between a human and a toothy predator with enough bite force to crush steel. She could only imagine what it had looked like in life. The strange skull was another piece of evidence to the other world theory. As if the giant subterranean city and Cavern Lurkers weren¡¯t enough proof already. And that was ignoring the glowing finger she had gotten from the strange shard. Seras closed her eyes and once again pushed down her growing panic. She was going to have to deal with that eventually, but not now. She searched their bodies, or what was left of them. Their clothes weren¡¯t in any condition to salvage, all frayed strips and musty as hell. Even their footwear was ripped apart. Shining her finger around she did see a glint of metal and found a thick metallic chest plate made of some dark colored metal. It reminded her of the black metal of her old pistols, the ones that had earned her the nickname of Blackiron. Not a person in Mantal hadn¡¯t heard that name, and they said the name Blackiron with awe and respect. The chest plate was about the size of a whiskey barrel and would have slipped over her shoulders if she tried it on. So, it was no good for her. She scanned the object and read the name. Armor of Umbral Steel. Provides the wearer with sound muffling and obscures the sight of others. Stealth armor? Interesting. How did it do that? she saw some runic circles on the inside, were they magic inscriptions? There was a huge gash in the front, looking like it had been shredded by massive claws. Likely killing the wearer. She opened her pocket space and lifted the armor; bits of spine and rib bones fell out. Untouched by the beasts that killed them. Something else felt out as well, she threw the armor into the inexplicable space and bent over to pick up the palm sized object that fell out. It was round like a marble with a cloudy grey mist swirling within. Occasionally Seras saw skulls within the mist. Death essence: A magical distillation of death. Grants the wielder power over death. Would you like to convert in appropriate form. Y/N Before Seras could even consider whether she wanted to try absorbing the powers of death and red warning box appeared Warning. Death essence is listed as restricted by adventurer society. She frowned. That was new. She glanced back to the seal on the floor. Supposedly this must be like a branch office for the adventurer society. And they listed the death essence as restricted. Why? She focused on the term restricted until a new box appeared. A loading bar appeared with the words ¡®Searching term¡¯. Then a new page opened up, and Seras recognized her Net browser as it pulled up a page listed as restricted essence list. Essences listed on this list are restricted by the central council of the adventurer society. Any person who bonds one on these essences is barred from membership. Anyone who meets someone with a restricted essence is encouraged report them to their local branch of the adventurer society. A task force will then be assigned to eliminate this person. And list right at the top was the death essence. Followed by other names like corruption, animate, succubus, and vampire. Okay so first off, what the Hell? Seras thought she couldn¡¯t connect to the net on a different world. So, what the hell was this. She opened her ID page again and pulled up the racial traits section. Focusing on the Net connection ability. Racial trait: Net access: HUD GPS upgraded to world map. Street view map upgraded to tactical map. Access to public and divine knowledge repositories. WARNING Divine knowledge repositories require permission to access. Seras had understood the part about her GPS, and with a flick of intent she opened the street view map to see that it had filled in with everything she had explored, as well as a grid layout of the city around her. That would come in handy later. It even listed what looked like the city¡¯s name. Vestal outpost. Now she focused on the third thing it had listed. Access to public and Divine knowledge repositories. The restricted essence list seemed like something people wanted to make public. What else was public knowledge. She opened up her net browser again and tabbed to different page. This time however instead going directly to her favorite porn site she instead typed it out and made sure it didn¡¯t auto fill the exact web address. Only one thing showed up. Divine repository of Fertility With a thought Seras tried to open it. Access denied by the Goddess Fertility Right, she needed permission for divine repositories. So what if she just looked up public repositories. Restricted essence list (Adventure society) Monster Manual (Adventure society) Known essences (Magic society) Known essence powers (Magic society) Farmer''s almanac That was not a long list. Was there really not that much information that was open to the public. The idea seemed alien to her. Still, something was better than nothing. Setting the death essence in her pocket space she tried looking up her own technology essence in the known essence list. No match found Odd. Why wasn¡¯t it there? She pulled up the list and read through the long, long list of essences. There were elemental ones like water, earth, iron, and fire. Then ones with weapon names like sword, bow, shield, and oddly enough a harpoon essence. She didn¡¯t see a gun essence in there so maybe it was listed somewhere else. Then there were animal essences like duck, eagle, rat, wolf, and some animals she didn¡¯t recognize like Heidal, Valack, or Goat. She only knew they were animals since they were listed under the animal category. Then it listed more nebulous concepts like potent, might, swift, magic, and renewal. Which confused Seras. How would someone make an essence like that? Or were they like the quintessence, just forming in the right environment? That might explain why she found a death essence among some skeletons. What was the right environment for potency? More questions Seras added to her list. There was also a section for essences listed as confluence essences. And judging by the fact that this section included a list of known combinations with each confluence essence Seras guessed that once you had three you either needed to find the right kind of confluence, or it just magically appeared. Still, no Technology essence. Was hers rare? Or was it entirely unheard of? Seras had stolen it from a space station that was dabbling in dangerous interdimensional energies. So maybe it could only be synthesized by specialized equipment? More questions and no answers. But between the room, the forward from the restricted essence list, and the confirmation of people Seras had confirmed there were people here. Seras had no idea what these people were like, what their ideals or culture was like, but at least she knew she wasn¡¯t alone. The strange, ruined city that felt like it had never been inhabited had been cause for some concern. Ch6 The difference between bronze and iron Seras had decided to just toss the Death essence into her pocket space. She didn¡¯t want to deal with whatever trouble absorbing it would cause her, but also couldn¡¯t part with anything they might give her an advantage. Further into the hall she found a fourth or maybe fifth set of bones. This one looked like it had tried to flee and was run down by something. Seras noted how this one¡¯s bones looked finer, and more delicate than what she was used to seeing in humans. Maybe some sort of congenital bone disease? Odd that they out of everyone here hadn¡¯t gone in for at least plastic polymer bones. Odder still that they had come somewhere so obviously dangerous. Around this one Seras found something she was in desperate need of, a weapon. Around its body were the shattered remnants of a large stick, or maybe it was a staff at this point given its size. And in a rotting leather holster around its pelvis was a small dagger. The blade was leaf shaped and it had some intricate swirling designs on the blood-soaked hilt. The metal was a silvery blue color and had little wave like patterns in the metal from the forging process. She held it out in front of her and read the meta text. Sylvin silver dagger, iron rank. Enchanted to prevent corrosion, and dulling. Nothing special, so long as Seras ignored the fact that she was holding a magic weapon. She tested the weight of the blade, tossing it into the air twice before she was satisfied. It was quite literally better than nothing. She spent the rest of her time searching the ¡®adventurer society branch, but other than some more dark quintessence, she found nothing of note. She gave the skeletons one last glance before she left, idly wondering if she should toss their bones in the pocket space as well. But decided against it. She had no problem with robbing the dead given her current state, but drew the line at trying to use their bodies as weapons or tools. She¡¯d leave that to the chop shops. She left the massive doors at the front of the atrium and entered the streets of the ruined city. Glancing around Seras saw broken buildings to the left and right of her, each looking about as decrepit as the other. With no better options she walked to the left. The road was made entirely of hexagonally cut stone bricks. She saw more evidence of previous fights; the hexagonal bricks were torn up and some were even shattered in crater patterns. She didn¡¯t see any more corpses, so she didn¡¯t loiter around the battle damage. She had checked her street view map and was walking towards a main boulevard that began at one of the pyramids corners and lead to the city¡¯s edge, cutting through three of the seven ring roads. The street patterns were pretty, but Seras wasn¡¯t sure how efficient they were for traffic flow. Out of curiosity, and boredom, she zoomed her map out to better study the strange city. At the center of the city was the massive square pyramid with seven concentric ring roads centered around it. At the corners of the central pyramid diagonal roads began and cut through three of the ring roads. The fourth ring was then divided into two halves'', with the break beginning and the exact front and back of the pyramid then from there the last three rings were broken into sevenths, with none of their connecting roads lined up. Just getting from the outside to the center would have been a monumental chore. If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Why would someone make a city like this? Maybe that was why no one ever moved in. Seras was pulled out of her thoughts by the sound of scuffing stone. She closed her map and looked up to see a massive form strut onto the same road she was on. It was a massive beast with two large tusks poking out of its mouth, its body covered in sharp looking bristles, and six hooved legs. Tunnel Charger, bronze rank. The Cavern lurkers had been listed as Iron rank, same as her new dagger. This big boy was bronze, did that make it weaker since bronze was a weaker metal? Either way she had handled the Caven lurkers six on one while naked and unarmed. Now there was only one and she had a weapon. The creature noticed her and bellowed. Its feet tore at the ground and began to charge. Seras was readying herself to dodge and slash at its side as it passed when the feeling of a lead lined blanket landed on her shoulders. Bronze rank aura from Tunnel charger has suppressed your normal rank aura. All damage is reduced. Speed is reduced. Mobility is reduced. Seras read the pop up with fear. She didn¡¯t need it to tell her that her speed and mobility had been affected because she could feel the effects hampering her dodge. The beast had run far faster than she would have thought possible for something of its size, and the weight on her shoulders had slowed her down, meaning she wasn¡¯t fast enough to move out of the way. She pulled up her right arm to absorb the blow, and saw the metal bend and warp as the force crumpled it in. But that wasn¡¯t the end of it, the power of the beast had thrown her from her feet and sent her skittering down the road. Falling ass overhead. With her left arm she pushed herself up and she saw how fucked her right arm was. The metal of her forearm had caved in, and the fall had broken her elbow joint forcing the arm into an odd angle. Realignment is required for auto repair to begin. A popup stated. Gritting her teeth Seras grabbed her right arm with her left and forced it back into place. Auto repair in progress time to full functionality 26 hours and 42 minutes. Consume bronze rank monster cores to speed up process. ¡°OVER A WHOLE DAY!¡± Seras shouted at the screen. Thankfully the screen did not respond. That would be too weird even for today. The Tunnel Charger wasn¡¯t satisfied with just breaking her arm. It had arrested its speed and turned back around and charged. Seras jumped to her feet, and then, knowing that it was too fast for her to dodge leapt over its head. At first, she had been patting her own back at the idea. Her hyper elastic tendons were surely superior. But just as she was at the apex of her arc the beast hind legs rose up to kick her midair. Not fair! Thankfully nothing broke this time, but the kick did send her onto the ledge of a nearby building. Again, the beast skidded to a stop and glared baleful black eyes at her. It patted the ground twice and charged the building. Seras had almost made the mistake of thinking she was safe high above the beast. But the idea that nowhere was safe was finally sinking in. So instead of being caught flat footed as the beast blew through the lower levels of the ruined building, Seras had been ready to jump. The black bricks of the building rumbled as the upper levels and remaining walls collapsed inward. Seras just had time to see the beast get buried before she had to tuck into a roll on the ground. Seras got up and squinted through the dust, waiting with bated breath to see if it was dead. The rubble shifted, and the Tunnel charger stood up. Okay, fuuuck this. Like hell she was sticking around to fight this stupid thing. Rule number two of Survivability, if you can¡¯t avoid detection avoid confrontation. Buuut, she looked at the repair timer again. Missing an arm for over a day was too much. Presumably and bronze rank monster cores would come from a bronze rank monster. She could always hunt a less terrifying one later, but that was an uncertain possibility. It was a conundrum of a known quantity versus an unknown one. Seras gritted her teeth. This thing broke her arm, the least it could do was help her fix it. The Tunnel charger was up, but she could see through the dust and rubble that it wasn¡¯t unscathed. Its breathing was heavy, and it wasn¡¯t putting any weight on one of its six legs. It had the power to blow through brick walls, but was it durable enough to continue tanking the hits? Seras ran across the ground, her legs pumping like pistons. She wasn¡¯t fast enough to outrun the beast, but she wasn¡¯t trying to. In a blind rage the Charger lived up to its namesake and charged after her. But right as it was about to skewer Seras to a thick wall she jumped. Unable to arrest its momentum it plowed straight into the structural wall holding the building up. And once again several tons of black bricks fell onto it. But unlike before it didn¡¯t get right back up. Seras watched as it struggled under the weight of the concrete pillar it was wedged against. The Charger was in a bad position and couldn¡¯t properly push it off. But Seras knew that with enough time it eventually would. Not that she would give it the chance. Climbing over the rubble Seras unsheathed the knife and began to stalk towards the beast. It saw her approached and bellowed menacingly, or at least it would have been menacing if Seras didn¡¯t know that it was at her nonexistent mercy. She buried the blade into the shoulders just behind its head. It roared in pain, and she stabbed again. And again. And again. And again. She would stab it as many times as it took to put it down. Ch7 Stealth mode dont fail me now It had taken over a dozen stabs to kill the Cavern Charger, and that was with it pinned beneath a column. Seras didn¡¯t know what exactly differentiated a bronze beast from iron ones, but she had decided that she needed to avoid finding any more. Seras knew the beast was dead when the air of oppression around her shoulders vanished. After that her knife cut its skin with far greater ease. Seras cut open its skin and did her best the hack through its bones so that she could reach into its chest cavity. ¡°Now, if I were a magic core I¡¯d either be next to the brain or-¡± she stopped as her hand felt something solid near its heart. It took a little effort to pull it out of the still warm carcass of the cavern lurker, but eventually it came out with a loud slurping sound. She wiped sound of the viscera off on a clean part of the monsters hide and examined it. It was teardrop shape crystal with an orangish brown luster. ¡°I guess that¡¯s how they get their rank names.¡± Seras said out loud as she held the bronze monster core. ¡°Now how do I go about, oh!¡± A popup window had appeared. Would you like to use Bronze rank monster core to enhance auto-repair speed. Y/N Seras selected yes and saw the timer cut in half. She went from over one day down to just a half day. It was an improvement but still not ideal, could she speed it up further with more cores? Auto repair in progress time to full functionality 13 hours and 11 minutes. Consume 3 bronze rank monster cores and 10 iron quintessence to speed up process. Okay the requirements went up. Unless she got very lucky she was stuck with a broken arm for the next half day. Still, if she could find more cores and quintessence then she¡¯d have a good leg up on facing more beasts. One of her largest reoccurring expenses as a merc had always been getting her augs fixed up. And the price only went up as Seras added more and more high end augs. Her current gear had cost her nearly 150 million chits, which had been her whole life savings. Gear like hers couldn¡¯t be bought on the open market, only lifted off private armies or corpo-execs. Seras did her best to wipe the blood off her bare skin, but eventually had to give up and make peace with filth coating her skin. Glancing back to the road Seras made an observation that should have been apparent before, that walking on the roads left her exposed. The Charger had only seen her because she was out in the open like an idiot. With one leap Seras jumped up nearly a whole story, she caught the edge with one hand and pulled herself up. From there she climbed the next four stories in a series of leaps and kick jumps. It was hard with only one arm, but Seras had managed more difficult parkour with worse augs before. From above Seras plotted her route. She didn¡¯t necessarily know where an exit might be, but she figured the city¡¯s edge was as good a place as any. She ran along the roofs of the city¡¯s remaining buildings. She thought it was strange that someone had put gabled roofs on buildings in an underground city. There were even rain gutters, which left her wondering if it rained down here? Her assumption was no given all the dust on the road and roofs. But it wouldn¡¯t be the strangest thing today. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Seras had been making good progress towards the outer city section when something caught her eye. Nestled in the crook of one of the roofs Seras saw a small cube that gave off a small amount of light. At first Seras thought it was just another variety of the glow crystals, but instead she found a soft yellow glowing cube that wasn¡¯t fused to the stone structure of the roof. Awakening stone of Earth. Absorb to unlock the power of earth. Requires one unawakened essence ability. Seras blinked in surprise, then she called up her growing list of unanswered questions and went to the section regarding awakening stones. So far, she only had the one that was supposedly left by an inter-dimensional entity, and she had been wondering if that was the only way to get them. But between the essence power list she had access to and this stone she could now confidently say that they don¡¯t ¡®only¡¯ come from extra-dimensional entities. She had the feeling it might be like the Quintessence, just appearing in an environment. She had been contemplating the awakening stone when an oppressive weight landed on her shoulders. Her eyes went wide as she crouched down on the roof. Silver rank aura from Earth golem has suppressed your normal rank aura. All damage is reduced. Speed is reduced. Mobility is reduced. Strain from higher ranking aura has effected your remaining internal organs. Degradation 2% Seras knew in an instant that silver was higher than bronze, by a lot. It was like all her nerve connections went numb and an unshakable weight descended on her limbs. Her vision, despite being provided by ocular systems, went black and fuzzy around the edges, and the quality dropped to a grainy image. Her HUD was glitching, the icons blinking in and out of view. And the feeling in her gut was like a storm of acid and razor blades, tearing up her remaining organic flesh. Then she felt the ground shaking and saw the figure of a giant stone humanoid lumbering down one of the streets at nearly the edge of her view. Its misshapen head poked above the five story buildings, and Seras knew that if that thing saw her she was dead. In an unconscious move of desperation Seras activated the active camo feature in her smart skin. Her skin shade darkened, and the reflective quality that let her skin look like real skin faded away until she was just a human shaped smudge of darkness blending into the surrounding darkened tiles. Once the camouflage was complete a message appeared before her. Stealth mode engaged. Aura suppression has caused an additional power draw. Any attempt to activate abilities or aura powers will negate aura suppression. Degradation 4% The golem paused, and Seras realized that it might have been tracking her by her aura. Before today Seras had always scoffed when fake mystics said she had a potent corrupted aura and needed to by their crystals and meditation books to cleanse it. now if she had the chance she might actually buy a couple on the off chance that they might help her hide from the Earth Golem. Hiding was good, but not if they already knew your position. Seras slowly began to move away from where she had been, trying her best to avoid being within the Giant''s sight-lines. As she began to move the earth once again began to shake. The Golem was moving to where she had been. Degradation 10% Seras felt her mechanical heart begin to pound as time slowed down. Careful not to be too hasty in her retreat Seras slowly crawled to the next building. This building had already had half of its roof caved in, though whatever did it was long gone. She scooted all the way to the edge of the massive hole in the roof when the shaking stopped. Seras looked through the corner of her eye and saw the Golem right next to where she had been. It had moved so fast! Its light green orbs that were probably its eyes were fixed on where she had been. Seras felt a shiver crawl up her spine. Then, faster than she would have thought possible for a thing of its size, a fist fell on the place where Seras had been. Bits of roof, tile, and dust burst out in a small cloud that obscured her vision. When the dust cleared she saw the Golem standing before a pile of rubble. Its eyes scanning the heap that used to be a brick building. Then it turned away and began back down the street. Seras caught herself before she let out a sigh of relief. She was about to unclench her jaw when a putrid scent reached her nose and burned her eyes. The dried blood from the Cavern Charger was dissolving into a sickly rainbow-colored smoke that smelled like all the steps of decay had been distilled and packed it the shimmering smoke. Seras was used to awful acrid smells; one didn¡¯t grow up in lower Mantel without their fair share of poisonous vapors. What terrified her was that thing having a sense of smell. The slight cavern breeze blew the smoke its way, mixing it with the dust. Seras prepared her legs for mad dash just as the last bit of smoke left her skin. With the smoke no longer giving her position away Seras judged her chances at survival to be better than just a second ago. The smoke reached it, and despite not having a nose it turned as if could smell the smoke. But instead of looking at her hiding spot it looked at the rubble of the broken building, as if it thought the smoke came from there. It stared a little longer until the smoke passed and it turned back to its original path. Seras wasn¡¯t sure why the smoke had dissolved, or why the Golem had only looked at the rubble. But what she did know was that she had been lucky. Very, very lucky. Ch8 Cavern exit and the Labyrinth Before Seras stood and gaping hole, a fissure in the side of the cavern wall. After the Golem her flight through the abandoned city had become more frantic. She didn¡¯t encounter any more Golem¡¯s, or any other silver ranked monsters. She had seen a couple more Tunnel Chargers, and even the skittering shadows of what she assumed to be more Cavern Lurkers. But nothing terrifying like the golem. She wasn¡¯t sure if her heart could take the stress of a second Golem. Now she stood before a split in the cave wall, exactly what she had been hoping to find. But now she wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted to leave. Leaving meant dealing with unknown dangers. She wasn¡¯t even sure if this exit could take her anywhere, it could simply be a dead end, or the lair to something terrifying. But nothing ventured¡­and all that crap. Seras stepped through the threshold and felt a change in the air around her. It was¡­ less rich, and just a little harder to breath. For the first time Seras had realized that the air in the city was too clean, not nearly dusty enough to be cave air. Not like what she was breathing now. You have exited the Vestal Gateway Astral space. Strange. Seras checked her street view map and saw that the entire area behind her was no longer being shown. Instead it was labeled as an ¡®open astral aperture¡¯. While it listed her current location and the ¡®Labyrinth¡¯ She glanced back and looked through the hole to see the city still behind her. She stepped back through. You have entered the Vestal Gateway Astral space She stepped back through You have exited the Vestal Gateway Astral space. Weird. Seras felt the difference between the two spaces starkly. One was rich with something while the new tunnel was dry and dead feeling. Another entry for the list. Without looking back Seras strode down the tunnel. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. After five minutes of walking a turn in the tunnel meant she lost to light from the city, and once again lit up her finger. The tunnel eventually got smaller and smaller and Seras had to turn to the side to squeeze through the tight tunnel. Fifteen minutes of shuffling and pulling she came through the other end. The tunnel on this side was wide enough for two people to walk shoulder to shoulder. With nothing better to do Seras continued on. ~~~*~~~ Four hours after leaving the city Seras found the first thing of interest after hours of walking. Along one side of the cave Seras saw that the wall here was made of shiny gray little stones that appeared to be emerging from the stone itself. She pulled out her knife and pried one free. Iron quintessence. A distillation of iron. Once again she encountered a strange quintessence just emerging from the wall. This added further credence to her theory that it just appeared. She opened the pocket space, its existence becoming easier to just accept as normal as she used more and more, and began prying the quintessence from the wall. Supposedly these could speed along her arm repair, and potentially had other uses. The quintessence took some effort to pry out, but the silver dagger appeared sturdier than normal knifes and allowed Seras to use more of her arm strength. Quickly she had a routine for popping out the little iron colored stones. Behind the surface layer was a deeper layer of quintessence and once Seras had a good hole going the rest of the vein became quicker to excavate. Her knife however wasn¡¯t the ideal tool for digging, and even though it stayed magically sharp she wished she had a jack hammer or a drill. A hundred and fifty-seven quintessence later the vein appeared to be all tapped out. Seras wondered how much she could get for them? They had to be worth something right? She didn¡¯t waste half an hour on something pointless. Well, no point in regret. Her haul stashed away in the magic pocket space Seras continued walking. ~~~*~~~ Hours later a popup appeared in Seras¡¯ vision. Auto repair complete. Right Biolite recoil absorbing arm has been fully repaired. She blinked, she hadn¡¯t been walking for that long right? Nope, a glance at her street view map showed a great deal of revealed space. Miles worth of cave traversed and all she had encountered of note was that patch of iron quintessence and the occasional dark quintessence. She was up to 36 now. All that walking and she hadn¡¯t found the surface. How deep was she? She looked at her battery, 36% remaining. The active camo had drained her power faster than normal running. And it seemed the auto-repair had a high-power draw as well. If she didn¡¯t find a hook up soon her body would enter low power mode, becoming weak and sluggish. And if she ran out of power after that her body would go into stasis. Her limbs locking up, and reality fading away as she slept with no end in sight. Her only hope for waking up would be someone stumbling across her in this tunnel and deciding to power her up rather than take her vulnerable body to a chop shop to scrap her limbs. The thought scared her. Well, standing around would only further waste energy. She continued on. ~~~*~~~ At twenty percent battery Seras came across her first junction. Sort of. One was a path that continued along the way she had been walking. The other was a narrow vertical shaft. Climbing up would further drain her reserves. While the path ahead of her remained flat and might not ever start to go up. Seras closed her eyes and made her mind go blank, trying to here what her gut thought was best. For as long as she could remember her gut instincts had always been right on the money. Trusting it was how she had come so far in her career as a merc. It helped her know who to trust, what jobs were good or a trap in disguise, and most importantly what gear to purchase before a big job. Several times she found herself in an impossibly tight spot only find that the new chrome she had bought on a whim was exactly what she needed to get out alive. Seras wasn¡¯t one for superstitions, but every merc whether they were the zealous sort or unrepentant atheist like herself, trusted their guts. The difference between a good merc and a bad one was determined by their instincts and how well they listened. Seras used to scoff at the idea, but after nearly a decade of deadly contracts she had learned that maybe some superstitions were worth paying heed to. Seras frowned as she opened her eyes and looked up. At least if it turned out to be a dead end then climbing down would be easy. Ch9 Not the Bees! The climb up had been a lot shorter than Seras had been dreading. And what it led to was a massive chamber peppered with more tunnels. It even had some of the light crystals, and this time Seras took the chance to break off a forearm sized piece so the that she no longer had to hold up her finger. After hours of using it a light a pounding in head had developed, only getting worse and worse with time. She eventually found a new bar in her HUD options that could list mana, stamina, and vitality next to her battery percentage. After hours of constant use her mana was bottomed out, and it recovered slightly slower than her finger drew out. Her stamina also appeared to be linked to her power storage. She examined the light crystal. Luminous quartz, quartz with a high sensitivity to mana. Glows brighter and dimmer depending on the ambient mana. Ambient mana, now that she thought about it the quartz wasn¡¯t as bright as it was in the city. Seras wondered if the feeling of richness in the air was actually this ambient mana thing. Now equipped with a light that wasn¡¯t giving her a headache Seras examined the new paths before her. There weren''t any conveniently lit up with natural day light for her to choose, and none smelled fresher than the other. And her gut was silent on this matter. So that left only one way to find a way out. ¡°Eeny meany miny moe-¡°she said pointing at a different tunnel with each word. Her finger eventually landed on a tunnel with a luminous quartz cluster growing out of it. ¡°Good as any other¡± she murmured glancing back to her dwindling battery life. With her choice made Seras began down the tunnel. Fifteen minutes Seras noticed a gradual rise to the tunnel. Slowly getting steeper with every step. That boded well for her. An hour later Seras was somewhat regretting her choice as she was now on her stomach crawling through a tight space. Pulling herself forward with just her arms. She had to go into her settings and turn her skin sensitivity down to 10%. Her only consolation was that the tunnel was still going up and that she never had claustrophobia as a kid. Just arachnophobia. Stupid cockroaches, despite the poisonous air and acid rain those little bastards survived. One time in her childhood when she was still a meat sack a whole swarm of them chewed through the walls and swarmed her bed. She still sometimes had nightmares about that when she had her weekly shuteye. Wait, arachnophobia was for those extinct spider things, what was the word for insects in general? Just as she had the word on the tip of her tongue, she pulled through the last bit rock and emerged into a new cavern. And this one had a breeze. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. A dry breeze, but still tinged with the tantalizing scent of pollen. Seras nearly ran to the other side of the room when she noticed something odd. In the center of the cavern there was a weird¡­thing hanging from the ceiling. It looked to be made of dry grey paper and was shaped into a swirling basket shape, but with a hole on the bottom. In fact, now that she saw it, she thought it looked familiar. Hadn¡¯t she seen old movies with something like this in them? What was it called? She heard a low rumbling sound like the sound of a quad-drone, or many drones. A lot of drones. Holy shit she knew what this was! Bees the size of her hand came out of the nest, seemingly drawn to the light of her luminous quartz, and Seras¡¯ mind when blank with fear. More than when that damned Golem had been after her. They emerged in the hundreds until the whole room was filled with their buzzing. They swarmed around her and Seras wasn¡¯t afraid to admit she screamed like a little girl. Iron rank Desert Bee; soldier caste, has inflicted stinger venom. Biomechanical Physiology has resisted venom. Iron rank Desert Bee; worker caste, has inflicted stinger venom. Biomechanical Physiology has resisted venom. Over and over popup messages came up to tell that the stings were ineffectual. But Seras still felt the pain of each sting somehow bypassing her reduced nerve sensitivity. And more than that being swarmed by bees was driving her mad with panic. She pulled out the knife and sliced at the bees. Cutting down one only for ten to take its place. They were crawling over her skin, getting stuck in her hair. Then she saw one that made her eyes go wide. An arm length bee with glittering gem like skin Bronze rank, Desert Bee princess. It came at her, stinger aimed at her face. Seras didn¡¯t even bother with the knife, instead she blindly punched out with her arm. The bee wasn¡¯t expecting her to just punch it. It was dazed and fell to the ground, one of its wings damaged. Seras didn¡¯t think as she raised her quartz crystal overhead and slammed it down pointy end first. Then she did it again. And again. Until it stopped twitching. She was about to stab again when a white-hot pain pierced her abdomen. On her right she saw another giant bronze rank bee pulling its stinger out of her side. Unlike all the other bees who seemed to survive stinging her this one left its barb in her side and promptly died. Bronze rank Desert Bee princess has inflicted stinger venom. Warming rank disparity has overcome venom immunity. Bronze rank Venom has had its effects reduced by 90% Fuck, this was more than just pain. It was an insipid spread of pain that dulled her senses and caused the world to blur. Seras rose to her feet and stumbled. She saw more of the princesses come out, and a powerful feeling that danced at the edge of her vision let her know that there was something even worse lurking in the hive still. She also saw starlight and the night sky through a mouth shaped tunnel. Seras brought a leg forward, looking down to see it was covered in bees, constantly trying to stab her with their stingers. She brought the next leg forward. She drunkenly ran for the exit, desperate to escape at any cost. She got halfway through the cavern when another white-hot pain shot into her left calve. Bronze rank Desert Bee princess has inflicted stinger venom. Warming rank disparity has overcome venom immunity. Bronze rank Venom has had its effects reduced by 90% She cried out in pain and wanted to just crumple to the ground, curl up and cry. but she fought through the pain and panic and kept running, now with an added limp. She felt a sting in her arm, then her back, but she didn¡¯t stop moving. She made painfully slow progress the cave mouth and was able to look out. What she saw nearly broke her. The cave mouth ended abruptly, and thirty or forty meters down was a rushing river. There was enough light to even see a few boulders in the water. Seras wanted to sob, water like that was very likely to kill her. But she felt that strong presence behind her stir again. Silver rank aura from Desert Bee Matriarch has suppressed your normal rank aura. All damage is reduced. Speed is reduced. Mobility is reduced. Strain from higher ranking aura has effected your remaining internal organs. Degradation 23% Silver rank aura has enhanced the effects of Stinger venom. Venom resistance reduced to 10% Seras had no choice. She jumped. For a few seconds she was weightless, and she had a flash back to dying in space. That had only been less than a day ago, crazy. Then the weightlessness was gone and she was falling. As she fell her body turned and she saw the silhouette of a bike sized bee emerge from the cave. Its form barely more than a shadow against the¡­ moon. No, moons. And she didn¡¯t even see the faint band of ice, dust, and asteroids that made up Ruin¡¯s rings. So that confirmed it, she wasn¡¯t on Ruin anymore. At least she knew that much now, despite everything, she still had her doubts. One more thing to take off the list of questions. Her back hit the water and blackness enveloped her. Ch10 Naked but not afraid Dustin was astride his Heidel Jesse when he first saw the naked Celestine women. It had been a long day for him and his small caravan, monsters called Prairie feasters had appeared along one of his favorite short cuts through the desert scrubland of Salt Sands desert, so they had been forced to take a long detour. Which would eat into their supplies. Four barrels of hard tack had been full of weevils and worms under the first hand¡¯s span of food. His Nephew Dallas had been in charge of buying supplies for this run and the discovery that he had been swindled was a blow to his burgeoning confidence. It was a good lesson to learn that not all merchants were forthright about their product, and Dustin knew his nephew would never put off examining their supplies again. But it meant they had less room for delays. He had already made the hard choice to begin rationing their meals. For their noonday break they would only feed and water their Heidels instead of having lunch. For Dustin and the other fully essenced caravan guards it was an inconvenience. But to the normal rankers with only one or two essences it was a hard burden. They had to spend all day under the hot sun in the saddle with nothing to distract them from their hunger. And Dustin knew the accusatory glares Dallas was getting were only making the guilt worse. They were just coming to a little riverbank Dustin had marked on his map when the women stepped out of the shadows of a rocky overhang. Since Dustin was riding at the head of the wagon train he saw her first and felt his breath hitch. The women had light toned skin, unblemished, and impossibly moisturized looking for the desert environment. Her hair was a sleek metallic grey, with one side shaved close to the scalp with the rest folded over to the side in a sort of asymmetrical bob. Her face was almost painfully gorgeous, reminding Dustin of the supernatural perfection of silver and gold rankers. And those curves¡­ ¡°Well, if your done staring could you get me some fucken clothes.¡± The women growled, startling everyone out of their stupor. Dustin shook his head and dismounted, pulled off his dust cloak, and tossed it to the women. He was a little miffed about her rude greeting, but he had been in the wrong for staring. ¡°Thanks, wasn¡¯t sure about trekking through the desert naked.¡± She said as she threw the cloak over her shoulders allowing her some modesty Dustin had a head of extra height on her so the cloak went down to her knees. Though she was the kind of women who could have worn a burlap sack and make it look elegant and enticing. Her voice was husky and was curiously accent-less. ¡°Glad I decided to wait by the river instead of chancing it.¡± she said as she fastened the last button. Dustin tilted his head, ¡°You¡¯re a long way from civilization miss. Nearest rock is about a week¡¯s travel.¡± She looked curious instead of dismayed. Like an extra week would have been an inconvenience instead of certain death. ¡°Is that so? Danm good thing I waited then.¡± ¡°How did you get here, and what happened to your clothes?¡± he asked, dreading the answer. She wasn¡¯t the first person he found abandoned in the desert, though she might just be the strangest. ¡°Not sure, I woke up as I was with no idea how I got there.¡± She said bruskly. He winced; he¡¯d heard that one before too many times. Though usually those ladies were more shaken up by the experience. ¡°Well, we¡¯re bound for Karstess. If you want, I could have Petra search our luggage and find you some more comfortable clothing.¡± He gestured to Petra as he said so, who dismounted and stepped towards the Celestine. He saw her eyes widen at Petra and step back. Ah, there it was. So, everything before was an act, a show of bravado. Petra saw it too. ¡°Don¡¯t worry miss, your safe with us, and if any one of the scoundrels try something I¡¯ll knock their heads in myself.¡± The Leonid women boasted while raising a clenched fist. ¡°Uh, right, yeah.¡± The women said uncertainly. ¡°What¡¯s your name miss?¡± Dustin asked as she walked over the Petra. ¡°Seras, Seras Cross.¡± ~~~*~~~ The fall into the water hadn¡¯t killed Seras, neither did the rocks she was battered up against, nor the cold suffocating water itself. But after Seras had pulled herself out of the water at a calm spot in the river, she feared exposure and energy deprivation would. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. Seras had been in the water for who knew how long, she only knew that when she went in it was dark and that when she got out the sun was just rising. Much of her body had been bent and beaten out of shape and she had to endure another lengthy repair time before she could walk without stumbling. By the time the repairs were finished her battery had drained to 5% and she entered power saver mode. No more incredible feats of strength and two-story jumps. She had seen the grooves old tire marks had dug through the dirt and mud next to the riverbank, and the plethora of footprints in the mud. So, she assumed that sooner or later people might show up. Seras had made the ¡®tough¡¯ decision to stay and wait to see if any people came. If no one came in one day¡¯s time she would have to set out for the desert to try and forage for food. Despite her extensive power hungry augs Seras still had a meat and blood brain and she needed to fuel it the old fashion way. Much of her digestive track had been left mostly untouched to process food. Artificial replacements were just way too expensive and by far less effective. Unlike most people Seras had also opted to get a system that could convert the excess chemical energy from food into electrical energy for her systems. Thankfully, for the first time since she woke up naked in an underground temple, Seras had a bit of good luck. By the time the sun was high in the sky Seras heard the jostling of metal and the noise of people approaching. Seras had stepped out of her shady spot, only to be stunned by the sight that greeted her. Instead of rough welded trucks and desert rovers she saw old-fashioned wooden wagons being pulled by giant four legged two headed lizards. And if that wasn¡¯t strange enough, the people were even stranger. At the head of their little wagon train was a man in a broad rimmed tan hat wearing a large brown cloak with little tribal looking patterns at the fray. The clothes were something she had seen plenty of Badlanders wear before as they were ideal for the dusty deserts. What was unusual was that the man had skin like coal with jagged lines of red fire crisscrossing his skin and burning red eyes. Then there was the woman who the man had called Petra, a tall broad-shouldered lion/ women hybrid with a sleek body and a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. Seras now had her answer to what the beastly skull had looked like in life. Seras felt like she did her best to hide her shock and awe at the sight of these caravanners. And did her best not to stare too hard at them. However, Petra was obviously equipped with preternatural senses, because she had caught Seras staring three separate times as they went through her stuff while the others watered the lizard things called Heidels. ¡°What, never seen a Leonid before?¡± The lioness said in a sultry teasing tone. ¡°No, in fact I have not.¡± Seras said honestly. The lioness looked concerned ¡°How¡¯s that possible, it''s not like we¡¯re as rare as you Celestine¡¯s?¡± Seras blinked ¡°Celestine?¡± she said dumbly while pointing at herself. ¡°Yes you¡± Petra said with a point. ¡°What did you do hit your head.¡± ¡°Well yes, several times when I took a tumble into that river.¡± Seras said plainly. The lioness looked sheepish (if such a word could be applied to her) ¡°Ah, sorry. Didn¡¯t mean to-¡° she shook her head ¡°Forget I said anything.¡± Seras frowned ¡°Its not the first time I¡¯ve hit my head. Though with any luck it¡¯ll be the last time I jump into a raging river. Too many rocks for my liking.¡± She said with a wry grin, hoping to lighten the suddenly dower mood. ¡°Why¡¯d you jump into a river?¡± Now it was Seras¡¯ turn to look sheepish. Just the thought of those creepy bugs crawling over her skin, and the big ones jabbing her with stingers potent enough to affect her cyborg anatomy, sent waves of fear down her spine. ¡°I, uh, had to get away from some pests on my tail, the river was the only option.¡± Petra¡¯s ears flattened against her head, ¡°Right, well, anything you need to get of your chest¡­ ah, well I¡¯m here for you.¡± she said awkwardly and clapped Seras on the shoulder. ¡°Right, I will¡± Seras lied with a nod of her head. The clothes available weren¡¯t like anything Seras had ever worn before. The fabric rough in a way that told her they were made of natural material instead of polyester and nylon. They also lacked elastic waist bands and were instead held together by draw strings. They were an assortment and clean and tan colored fabrics of simple but loose cuts. Likely designed to let in the air flow to help cool off. Unfortunately Seras didn¡¯t sweat anymore, and the simple cooling features were wasted on her. And since they were Petra¡¯s they about five sizes too large. Still, they were a step up from what she had before, which had been nothing. Seras wasn¡¯t a stranger to open cuts and exposed skin, but there was just something wrong about running around completely naked. She shook her head and finished dressing in the blue cotton pants and the cream-colored shirt. Petra lent her a dust cloak to keep her clothes clean, one of the men offered her one of their broad brimmed hats that went over her ears. Soon the beasts had their fill of water and Seras joined the others who were in a circle animatedly discussing something. She had been changing behind some rocks, so she hadn¡¯t been able to hear what they were arguing about. ¡°What¡¯s the issue?¡± she asked. They turned her way, there was another man with the same burning skin as the leader, a man with dusky skin and malnourished delicate looking features, and to her relief a few other humans. Seras and Petra were the only females of the group. The leader spoke up ¡°Just trying to figure out whose Heidel you¡¯ll be riding.¡± ¡°This is ridiculous,¡± Petra spat. ¡°She¡¯s riding with me.¡± The leader sighed ¡°Petra, Warrick is already straining under your weight, we can¡¯t add another person to that.¡± The malnourished man looked at her ¡°Can you ride a Heidel, if you can then one of us men can double up and give you some space.¡± ¡°Nope, just bikes and hoverboards.¡± Seras answered. The malnourished man blinked ¡°Bikes?¡± ¡°Uh yeah, you know, vroom vroom.¡± She said while making the hand motions for driving a bike engine. The leader cleared his throat. ¡°That¡¯s a no then. We can¡¯t leave a novice rider with one of our Heidels, they¡¯d sense her inexperience and take her for a ride. She¡¯ll need to ride with one of the men.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the issue?¡± Seras asked. ¡°We, uh, don¡¯t, we weren¡¯t sure if you¡¯d be comfortable with that.¡± Seras laughed, these men looked like a rough sort, and yet they were being so bashful around her. She liked it, honest men were rare back home. ¡°As long as no gets handsy I¡¯m fine wherever. I am a bit heavier than I look though so maybe you should put me with your strongest¡­ uh Heidel.¡± Seras said, nearly forgetting what to call the two headed lizard things. ¡°That be Jesse, my Heidel.¡± The black skinned leader said. ¡°Will that be alright with you?¡± She tilted her head to the side. ¡°Depends, does that skin of yours¡¯s burn?¡± ¡°Not unless I want it too.¡± He answered easily. Her eyebrows rose at that. Was that an inuendo or a blunt statement? Another question for later. ¡°Then I only see one issue.¡± Seras said. ¡°And that is?¡± the leader asked. ¡°I never got your name, can¡¯t ride with if I don¡¯t know your name.¡± Seras said with a hand on her hip. He chuckled, and the flames burning within his skin brightened a bit. He held out his hand ¡°Dustin, Dustin Westbrooke.¡± He answered. She took his hand, and to her surprise didn¡¯t feel any burn. They were just warm with rough calluses ¡°Nice to meetchya, shall we go?¡± Ch11 Too Strange Their newest traveling companion was a strange one. Dustin had seen all sorts, nobles, merchants, bandits, outlaws, adventurers both low and high ranking. He had even the fortune to once do business with the vaunted Gelar family when he came across a Dimension essence. But Seras was by far the strangest. While riding he found her often staring off into the middle distance, not unusual given her circumstances. But her eyes lacked a proper thousand-yard stare that haunted his dreams. He had once hired a girl who had been through something similar out of pity so he knew the look well. Poor Phebe, at least she later took the bastards with her. Even if the Duke of Karstess covered up the issue as a favor to his dead half cousin. When he asked she said she was just watching a ¡®movie on my HUD¡¯. Like he should know what that meant. Then after a hard days of riding she hopped off his Heidal like her back wasn¡¯t sore from the extended time in the saddle. Even stranger was how Jesse reacted when she got off, it was like a great weight had been lifted off her broad back. Seras had even pitched in with setting camp, moving poles and oiled canvas for the tents with ease. When asked about that she said the this wasn¡¯t the first traveling with ¡®Badlanders¡¯, and that she ¡®knew the rub¡¯. During dinner when Dustin broke out the tack and dried meats there was a hungry glint in her eyes. Not unusual given how they found her. But she ate enough for three grown men, or one Petra. And the way she relished every bite you would have thought they had fed her the food of the gods. Dustin wanted to warn her not to eat too much since food was tight, but the vigor with which she tore into the food made him pause. In the end he didn¡¯t have the heart to stop her. Then there was the way she stared at the night sky. Her fine celestine features were so filled with awe and wonder one might believe it was the first time she had ever seen the stars or moons? She had talked and laughed with the other men during their meal as the sun was falling. But once night came an odd look came over her face and she wandered off to a flat rock away from the warmth of the fire. She sat with her legs pulled in tight and had her arms placed tightly around them. ¡°Boss¡± Flint said from his side. Dustin turned to his elven second in command. ¡°We need to talk about the girl.¡± ¡°Not sure we can call her that.¡± Petra said from Flint¡¯s side, ¡°I¡¯ve never seen any girl tell jokes that crass.¡± Dustin remembered, even at his age he couldn¡¯t help but flush at the downright filthy joke Seras had told over dinner. His nephew had choked on his tack when he heard it, and Dustin knew he¡¯d have to answer some uncomfortable questions later. ¡°Alright,¡± Dustin agreed. But let''s give her some space. It looks like she might be finally processing what happened.¡± They all agreed and wandered out of ear shot. Even Dustin with his bronze rank hearing wouldn¡¯t be able to know what was said. ¡°Something doesn¡¯t sit right with me.¡± Flint said, upfront and blunt as always. It was what Dustin appreciated the most about him. ¡°Things aren¡¯t adding up.¡± Dustin nodded ¡°I was thinking the same thing.¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know the first thing about her, and what we do know seems¡­far fetched. According to Petra she jumped into the river to escape her captors. You know what that river is like upstream of where we found her. Its swift, rocky, and falls down several water falls before it calms down. No normal ranker could survive that.¡± Flint stated bluntly. Petra licked her lips and crossed her arms ¡°I saw the look on her face boss, when I pushed too far. It was fear and dread. I believe her.¡± Flint turned on Petra ¡°Did she smell afraid?¡± he asked harshly. Petra blinked, and a puzzled look crossed the Leonid¡¯s face ¡°Well no.¡± Flint raised an eyebrow, ¡°See, maybe she¡¯s just a very good actor, but we both know that your nose doesn¡¯t lie.¡± He turned to Dustin. ¡°She¡¯s a killer, I can feel it in the way she sized us all up. I think she might be an outlaw and the whole kidnapped and raped story is a cover.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Petra still looked puzzled. ¡°Now that I think about it, I haven¡¯t smelled much off her at all. She doesn¡¯t even smell sweaty after a whole day in the sun. if anything she smells good. Kinda like flowers.¡± Flint ignored Petra¡¯s musing, ¡°We need to act before she tries someth-¡° Dustin cut him off with a hand to the face. ¡°Petra, what did you just say?¡± he asked pressingly. The lioness blinked. ¡°What, I said she smells nice after a whole day in the saddle. No one smells that nice after a day of riding.¡± ¡°What does she smell like?¡± Dustin pressed. ¡°Like flowers.¡± ¡°Any flowers in particular?¡± ¡°Um, no, just sort of like spring flowers, the kind that grow in places other than a desert.¡± Dustin¡¯s eyes went wide as he finally put the pieces together. He knew why something had felt off about her. She fit all the criteria, the outlandish attitude, the accentless speech, the floral scent, the curiosity about basic concepts, her reaction to him and Petra. The nudity. The only thing that didn¡¯t fit was the hair. Dustin thought that Outworlders were supposed to arrive hairless. Dustin Westbrooke had seen all sorts, nobles, merchants, bandits, outlaws, adventure both low and high ranking. He had even befriended a few outworlders in his travels. But never after they had just arrived, fresh as a newborn and primed to cause mayhem. ~~~*~~~ The time had finally come for Seras to finally start unpacking everything that had happened to her in the last day and a half. She had been able to fool herself into thinking everything was normal during their peaceful ride through the painted desert landscape. Seras had even fallen into an old habit of pulling up dumb action movies the watch on her HUD during long trips. She had convinced herself that these men weren¡¯t any different than the nomadic clans of Badlanders that roamed the wastes in between the small oasis¡¯ of civilization. Most outsiders never got any closer the Badlanders than the rifle barrels, but the odd chance of fate led Seras to finding and returning a literal busload of Badlander children. Thus earning their respect and hospitality. Seras had felt so at home around that fire eating food that had likely never seen a lab or factory that she ended up telling a few of her raunchier jokes. Those always went over well with the tough as leather Badlanders, but Dustin and his crew seemed more ashamed to hear it than amused. But as soon as the sun had descended, and the world went dark Seras was no longer able to keep up the illusion that everything was okay. She had been running with the idea that this was a different world than her own pretty much from the beginning. It had been the first rational seeming idea she came up with that fit her circumstances, and Seras had just ran with it. Never really fully confronting what that meant for her. But now everything was sinking in as she stared at the stars. There were so many! And not one of the twinkling little dots was a satellite or station. There were two full moons above her, moons that were both much larger than the pitiful rock orbiting Ruin. And she couldn¡¯t see any trace of an asteroid belt formed of blast debris from the planet¡¯s many craters. This was a whole new world. One that lacked all the technological advancement of her old one. She had asked about a power hook up and the men had looked like she just grown an extra head. She was supposed to go out in a blaze of glory. A legend that would be told for generations. Blackiron, the merc who was born in the lowest layer of Mantel, who had risen above everything, whose legend outgrew the world and ascended to do the impossible and rob Volta space station. Seras hadn¡¯t wanted to die on that job. If she had it her way Volta would have only been the start. After all, there were augs more powerful and coveted than her own military grade cybernetics. But if she had to die then Volta would have been her choice ten times out of ten. The reason corpos went into space was to escape the filth of Ruin. And she proved that even space wasn¡¯t enough to stop her! So what did she do now? How was she supposed to adapt to a new world filled with magic and monsters. A place where the Gods had yet to fight and die their divine war? A place with threats like that golem, or those fucking bees! Seras felt like she was spiraling. Which of course was when Dustin chose to intrude on her solitude. ¡°Seras, can we talk for a minute?¡± the caravan boss said, his skin glowing faintly in the dark. Seras sniffed and pretended that it was from the cold. Even with a nose that was made of silicon some autonomic functions couldn¡¯t be coded out. ¡°Hey Dust, sorry about that joke, didn¡¯t know it would be too far for your crew.¡± She apologized. He grimaced. ¡°It¡¯s fine, I was too stunned before. Never in all my days have I heard a joke that foul.¡± He crossed his arms over his vest. ¡°That¡¯s not what I need to talk to you about.¡± ¡°Alright, well, I¡¯m all ears.¡± His eyes narrowed. ¡°You¡¯re not from this world.¡± Seras blinked, and panic roared through her system. Mentally she checked her power reserves, 8%. Not much, but she could only fill her stomach so much before it burst. It would have to be enough to deal with Dustin and try to get away. Now that she had some starlight to work with her night vision would be more effective. Dustin and his crew had seemed nice. But Seras knew what people on her world would do if they found an extra dimensional intruder, let alone these primitive meat bags. Legends told of how impulsive and brutal people were before Cybernetics were invented to smooth over their rougher instincts. Seras forced out a laugh ¡°The hell Dust, where¡¯d that come from?¡± if she could talk him down for a night then she could bolt in the morning before everyone got up. ¡°Don¡¯t play with me.¡± He growled ¡°You¡¯re an Outworlder. You woke up naked and confused, no idea what is going on and now you¡¯re spiraling. You¡¯re not the first I have met.¡± Her ID had listed her as an Outworlder, and now she confirmed that it was an established phenomenon. How many others had been involved in robbing a space station that blew them across the dimensional boundary? Or were there other ways for it to happen? ¡°Alright¡± Seras said, standing up, hands twitching for where guns would have been. She cocked her head in an open challenge ¡°What do you plan to do now?¡± To her surprise Dustin let out a sigh. ¡°You have no idea how relieving that is to hear. We¡¯ve been assuming something much worse had happened.¡± ¡°Much worse?¡± Seras asked incredulously. ¡°How can it get any worse than this-¡± she stopped mid-sentence, then considered how a normal person might interpret her situation. ¡°Did you think I was drugged and raped, then dumped in the desert?¡± her voice got higher with every word. ¡°No¡± Dustin said softly. Seras almost let her outrage fade, but Dustin continued on. ¡°Petra said you escaped some pests by jumping into the river, we assumed that you had been kidnapped and escaped a bandit hideout.¡± Seras blinked. ¡°That¡¯s even worse!¡± her outrage flaring. They had thought that she, Seras, Blackiron, freaking Cross had been some thugs joytoy! Dustin nodded ¡°Indeed, it is.¡± Seras pinched the bridge of her nose. ¡°Bees, I was running from bees.¡± She groaned. ¡°You jumped into a raging river because of a few bees?¡± he asked with a wry smile. ¡°Hey! Don¡¯t you even start with me. They were all over me, and there were even some as big as my arm!¡± He blinked, ¡°Do you mean Desert bees, as in the monsters?¡± ¡°Yeah, those. So don¡¯t you dare judge me for taking the only out besides death.¡± ¡°You survived a swarm of iron and bronze rank monsters famous for their incapacitating venom?¡± he asked, his tone also rising in pitch and volume. The camp had heard their shouting and had naturally formed a crowd to gawk at her and Dustin. ¡°There was also a silver ranked queen in there, but I got out before she stung me.¡± Seras said, crossing her arms in pride. ¡°By the Gods,¡± Dustin muttered. ¡°What have I gotten myself into?¡± Ch12 Outworlder ¡°I was on a job, robbing this space station that was working with dimensional energies. The job went mostly as planned, I was in the hatch ready to spacewalk, but my helmet wasn¡¯t on. I was still putting my gloves on when the hatch depressurized, and I was forced out with the rush of air. I was dying out in the cold when the station went nova, next thing I knew I was naked in a pitch-black room and not dead.¡± Seras finished explaining around the campfire. Someone raised a hand. ¡°Yes, uh, Flint.¡± She said to the malnourished looking man with the slightly pointed ears. Her unexpected confrontation with Dustin had ended with her offering an explanation to the rest of the group. ¡°So, you¡¯re a criminal?¡± He asked bluntly. ¡°Technically no.¡± Seras answered. ¡°My world is in the late stages of societal breakdown, what little law enforcement there is wouldn¡¯t bother with someone like me.¡± He frowned ¡°So you¡¯re not a criminal because none of your worlds guards wanted to arrest you for your crimes?¡± ¡°Basically. Cops are cowardly bastards, little more than a gang with pretty uniforms and corporate backing. They mostly bully and rob the poor. So long as you don¡¯t kill one of their own then they don¡¯t really care what you do.¡± He exchanged a look with Dustin. Dustin cleared his throat. ¡°The sad part is, I can see some truth to your words. But this ¡®Merc work¡¯, it wasn¡¯t all robbery, right?¡± Seras frowned, ¡°That¡¯s hard to answer. For the most part Mercs are disposable tools of corporate espionage. Half my work was infiltrating secure locations to lift valuable data, that¡¯s what the Volta job should have been. But sometimes its other stuff. Sometimes punks will try to kidnap and ransom VIP¡¯s so I have to go in and rescue them. Other times its terrorist schemes that need to be handled on the DL. Sometimes it¡¯s actual criminals, cannibals, illegal chop shops cutting people up, or just good old fashioned serial killers. Whatever pays the bills.¡± Petra raised a hand, ¡°I¡¯m still stuck on the station part, you said it like I should know what that is.¡± Seras blinked; she had thought that one was self-evident ¡°Its big station hanging around in orbit.¡± ¡°So, like a floating palace, like the one over Calcit?¡± ¡°If its anything more than a twinkling dot on the horizon then we¡¯re not talking about the same thing. I don¡¯t know how well my translation ability works, but space stations are some 400 hundred kilometers in the air. In fact, they¡¯re so high up they¡¯re outside of the planet¡¯s atmosphere, so no air.¡± There were shocked gazes around the fire, Seras saw there were more questions on their tongues and mentally settled in for a long night. Dustin cleared his throat. ¡°I¡¯ve heard of this, though he called them something else. His word was space citadels. He said that his people had sky ships so advanced that they could leave the world behind. Is that how you do it?¡± ¡°Yup, took a rocket up. It was a long flight.¡± Dustin frowned ¡°That word didn¡¯t translate. What¡¯s a rocket?¡± Seras frowned; how do you explain rocket science to people without electricity? ¡°You guys don¡¯t have guns, so I assume you use bows and arrows?¡± Dustin nodded. ¡°Okay, so imagine an arrow, a big one as tall as a tower, that¡¯s what flies us up.¡± The young man with the same smoldering skin as Dustin looked in awe. ¡°Do your people build huge bows to launch them?¡± Dallas asked. He was a younger man with pitch black skin and burning embers for eyes like Dustin. Seras frowned ¡°No, it flies under its own power.¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°Explosions.¡± ¡°You make explosions big enough to fly to space.¡± ¡°Well actually yes, but that¡¯s not how rockets work, its like one endless explosion pushing it upwards. Actually, if I had a projector, I could play you a video of space launches.¡± Dustin held his hand up to forestall more questions ¡°We¡¯re getting off track.¡± ¡°Right, where were we?¡± Seras asked. ¡°You just explained how you got here, but where were you, and how did you survive the bees?¡± Seras really didn¡¯t want to talk about the Bees. ¡°Well, when I woke up, I was naked in a pitch-black room.¡± ¡°Were you bald?¡± Dustin interrupted. ¡°What?¡± ¡°Were you bald?¡± Seras frowned ¡°No, I had all my hair. Why do you ask?¡± ¡°Because the process is supposed to leave you bald as well as naked.¡± ¡°Maybe I¡¯m different.¡± He shook his head, his gold beaded hair braids waved about as he did so. ¡°No, it happens to everyone. You¡¯re not even supposed to have eyebrows. I know a Leonid Outworlder, he said that he was completely hairless, and Leonid¡¯s are fifty percent hair.¡± ¡°Hey¡± Petra protested. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Seras frowned. She had her hair from the beginning, did that make her transmigration special, or was it something else. She pulled up her ID and looked at the racial trait section. Biomechanical physiology. Maybe... ¡°What about tattoos?¡± Seras asked probingly. Dustin rubbed his chin, ¡°no, those stay with you. But only sometimes. And also, some scars.¡± ¡°Why only some but not others?¡± ¡°From what I hear the transmigration involves shunting a person into the astral. Sometimes it¡¯s a summoning gone wrong, other times it¡¯s a dimensional accident like yours. But the astral is a place of pure magic and no physical substance. So when you were forced out of your world your body ceased to exist.¡± ¡°Then how am I still alive?¡± ¡°Its got something to do with the soul. It can¡¯t be destroyed like that. so instead of dying your soul traverses the astral until it gets pulled into another world. And since you can¡¯t live as just a soul a new body is made from nearby magic. But just the organic parts, not hair or clothes.¡± But Seras¡¯ body was mostly inorganic, so how did that work? ¡°You said only some scars and Tats, why. What¡¯s the difference?¡± Seras asked. This time it was the skinny looking Flint you spoke up ¡°With magic healing almost any wound can be healed. Burned and melted flesh can be made right, diseased organs repaired, whole limbs regrown. But there are some wounds that go deeper.¡± He said. His voice was much like his namesake, flinty. He pulled at his shirt the showoff a nasty looking stab wound. ¡°When bandits came out of the desert to attack my family¡¯s ranch I stood with my Pa to hold them off until the adventures could arrive. We held them off, but I took an arrow to the gut. It pierced my liver, and I would have been dead if a servant of Healer hadn¡¯t been with the adventures that day. She fixed my liver, cured my blood loss, and saved my life. But no amount of magic could heal the scar, because it wasn¡¯t a scar on my flesh, but on my soul.¡± Seras considered the man. He looked so thin and weak, but now that Seras looked past that she saw a deep set determination. She could respect that. ¡°How old were you?¡± He scowled ¡°Twelve.¡± Dustin looked concerned, but kept whatever he was thinking to himself. ¡°Some wounds are so bad they mark your soul, and become apart of you. As for the tattoos I find that generally only those with a deep meaning to their owners survive the process.¡± Seras looked to Biomechanical Physiology. ¡°That tracks then, my hair¡¯s not organic, but it¡¯s a deep part of myself.¡± She looked to the men (and Petra) around her. They were an honest hard-working sort, and oddly enough Seras trusted them. ¡°In the spirit of honesty, I wanna show you something, but you gotta promise not to freak out on me.¡± Dustin frowned, wrinkling his brow. ¡°We promise.¡± He said slowly. ¡°Are you sure you won''t freak?¡± He chuckled, ¡°I¡¯m sure. I¡¯ve been around and I¡¯ve met plenty of strange adventurers. I¡¯ve even met a man with tentacles for arms.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°Really.¡± He nodded ¡°Some sort of essence power.¡± More questions for later. ¡°Alright, can¡¯t be weirder than that.¡± Seras said hopefully as she pulled up her sleeve to show off her arm. With a metal command she ordered the smart skin along her arm to split open, and with another command she opened up her arm compartment. Glowing blue lines along her body lit up, and she let her eyes unfucos until they lost their normal human look and became more camera like. Everyone around the campfire looked shocked, and the burning glow in Dustin¡¯s eyes brightened. ¡°By the gods.¡± One whispered. ¡°She¡¯s an automaton.¡± Another whispered. ¡°One with a personal aura, I don¡¯t think so. She¡¯s got a real soul not just a magic matrix.¡± Petra grinned ¡°Coool.¡± She said appreciatively. Everyone gave her concerned looks. ¡°What, look at it. its like that guy with an enchanted arm from a suite of armor.¡± Dustin¡¯s gaze was piercing ¡°What are you?¡± he asked with horror. Seras couldn¡¯t help herself ¡°A Biomechanical cyborg, the pinnacle of engineering and technology.¡± She said with a manic grin, she even put a little distortion in her voice to sound a little more machine like. Everyone fell silent. The sounds of the night took over, bugs chirped, and the desert wind rustled the low bushes. Dustin cleared his throat. ¡°I think we¡¯re going to need some context. I find that with outworlders context goes a long way to explaining their weirdness.¡± Seras closed her arm. ¡°My world is one that is far more advanced than this one. But its also dying, or maybe its already dead and we¡¯re just too stubborn to die. I haven¡¯t quite figured it out yet. To survive we needed to overcome the limitations of flesh, so we turned to something more resilient.¡± ¡°Metal¡± Dustin said slowly. ¡°You¡¯re a machine.¡± There was an accusation in his tone. ¡°Cyborg to be more precise. For clarity¡¯s sake about 90% of me is mechanical, with just my brain, digestive, and reproductive organs remaining. Everything else is nonorganic, which includes my hair.¡± With a mental command her hair rose up and twisted itself into a mohawk then turned hot pink, before letting it return to her preferred color and style. ¡°One of my Outworlder things involves my special physiology. I guess I was so intune with my chrome that it couldn¡¯t make a body for me that wasn¡¯t what I was used to.¡± They all stared with horror. ¡°By the Gods¡± Flint cursed. ¡°Why would anyone do this to themselves?¡± Seras turned her patented glare on him ¡°Because there¡¯s not really a choice. Its survival of the fittest, and evolution wasn¡¯t working fast enough.¡± Flint looked like he wanted to say more, but Dustin cut him off. ¡°While that is a pretty hefty revelation, we promised not to judge you.¡± Seras snorted ¡°You can judge me all you¡¯d like, I just didn¡¯t want you to freak out. I¡¯m already stressed enough trying to figure out how I¡¯ll live in a society that reacts like you do.¡± ¡°That¡¯s fair.¡± Dustin said. ¡°Back to where we left off you said you woke up in a dark room, where was it?¡± Despite their leader saying they were moving on Seras saw plenty of people didn¡¯t want to move past the living machine women in their midst. ¡°It was some sort of underground city. The place was massive. I was in the center on some sort of pyramid. I had to slowly work my way out of there until I came to a fissure in the wall.¡± ¡°Was that where you found the bees?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°No, that was after. I spent like half a day walking through some caves before I got to the bees.¡± ¡°All while completely naked, or did you have some clothes and then lost them?¡± Petra asked. Seras scowled. ¡°Naked, and also not the point. But yeah, after the caves I found the bee chamber and decided that the middle of the night was a perfect time for a swim.¡± Dustin glanced to Flint, ¡°Sounds like an astral space connected to the labyrinth, damn lucky that space was connected at the time.¡± Flint nodded ¡°Yeah, weren¡¯t there any monsters, other than the bees?¡± he asked towards Seras. ¡°Yeah, a pack of Cavern Lurkers, a Tunnel Charger, and an Earth Golem.¡± The shock and horror returned to their faces. Seras considered turning it into a drinking game. ¡°A pack of iron rank monsters, a bronze rank, and a silver.¡± Flint said, biting off each word. ¡°How are you even alive?¡± Seras frowned ¡°The Lurkers weren¡¯t hard to kill. Their heads caved in with one punch. The Charger was harder, but I had scavenged a knife, and it wasn¡¯t exactly the brightest light bulb.¡± ¡°Whats a light bulb?¡± Petra asked. One of the men whose name Seras had yet to learn elbowed Petra in the side. ¡°The name says it all, its like a Mana lamp.¡± He scolded. ¡°Then why not say that.¡± Petra complained. Seras frowned ¡°Because we don¡¯t have those. Do you guys use magic for lighting?¡± ¡°Of course¡± the man said ¡°What else would we use. Torches and glow-shroomes?¡± ¡°If you don¡¯t have mana lamps then how do you light things?¡± Petra asked. ¡°With light bulbs¡± Seras said slowly. ¡°Okay, but how do those work without magic?¡± ¡°Electricity.¡± Seras said with exasperation. ¡°Whats that?¡± She pinched the bridge of her nose. ¡°It¡¯s the same stuff lightning is made out of. Unless you have magic lightning. Non-magic lighting.¡± ¡°You bottle lightning?¡± Petra asked, her voice getting louder with each question. ¡°We¡¯re off track again.¡± Dustin stated. And everyone held their questions back. With a sigh he looked to Seras. ¡°I take it yours is a world without magic then?¡± ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Then that essence of yours, you picked it up in the astral space. Which one was it? A place like that would be the perfect environment for something sketchy like death or corruption.¡± Seras pursed her lips ¡°I actually had it from before. It was the thing I was supposed to steal.¡± Flint coughed, ¡°I thought you said it was a world without magic, how¡¯s that possible.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, I don¡¯t know how essences are made in the first place. Volta station was working in extra-dimensional energies, I think they somehow synthesized it.¡± And drink. Their eyes were wider than when she had opened her arm. Before Seras had been showing them something new and never before seen on this world. But this, it was like Seras just told them that everything they thought they knew was wrong. Like she had told them that down was up. ¡°Wh-what essence¡± Dustin asked. ¡°It said technology, but that wasn¡¯t on the essence list.¡± ¡°How do you have the essence list, you were naked when we found you? You had absolutely no way to hide that from us.¡± Flint asked sharply. His patience running thin after so many world-shattering revelations. ¡°First off, I have a pocket space¡± Seras said smugly while summoning the portal like it still didn¡¯t creep her out. The group stared at the hole into reality. ¡°That¡¯s not unheard of for Outworlders¡± Dustin said calmly, still trying to act like he had a handle on things. ¡°And second, one of my racial traits gives me access to public records and divine repositories.¡± Dustin¡¯s confident expression shattered. ¡°Di, divine repositories.¡± ¡°Well, not without permission. The ability mimics the net of my old world, so looking up things like essences is easy. Is it not supposed to be?¡± ¡°What¡¯s the net?¡± Petra asked. ¡°The information superhighway. A grand repository of all mankind¡¯s knowledge and a place where you can speak to anyone anywhere. A true marvel of science and engineering.¡± Seras said smugly. ¡°What, what would anyone do with all that knowledge.¡± The man next to Petra asked. ¡°Mostly porn, last I heard a good 60% of the net was porn related.¡± Dustin shook his head. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m calling it here. We keep getting sidetracked. Let¡¯s go to bed and try this again in the morning.¡± There was a chorus of groans. And Seras knew plenty of people would be tossing and turning with questions. As the others got up and walked away she saw too many sidelong looks. Disgust, horror, fear, they all looked at her as if she were a freak. She didn¡¯t know these people, but it hurt all the same. Seras glanced into the desert and considered her odds. ¡°I think I¡¯m gonna stay up a bit later.¡± Seras announced as she stood up. ¡°Oh?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°Yeah, I want to do a little more star gazing, we can¡¯t see ours anymore and I never really appreciated how pretty they are.¡± Seras lied as she turned her back on the camp. Ch13 Drowning with an anchor for comfort Seras waited until everyone had settled into their tents before she got up from her spot on the flat rock. She didn¡¯t turn back as she began to stalk off into the desert. ¡°No goodbye?¡± a deep voice asked. She turned and met Dustin¡¯s smoldering eyes. ¡°How¡¯d you know?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Our worlds are obviously very different places, but I¡¯ve found that some things are universal. Like lame excuses.¡± He said softly. He stepped past her and began to stalk off to patch of bare land further away from camp. Intrigued Seras followed. He sat on a rock and gestured to another for her to sit on. Seras sat and crossed her legs. They sat in silence for a long time. ¡°Why¡¯d you try to leave?¡± Dustin asked, breaking the silence. Seras didn¡¯t speak. Dustin continued. ¡°I don¡¯t think we¡¯ve conducted ourselves poorly. Petra maybe, but not all of us.¡± His voice seemed hurt, but Seras couldn¡¯t see his face so she wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°I messed up, you already guessed the whole Outworlder thing. But I should have kept the Cyborg part to myself.¡± ¡°Are you ashamed of what you are?¡± he asked. She scoffed ¡°I don¡¯t think I would have been reborn as I am if I was.¡± ¡°Then why?¡± She sighed ¡°I saw their faces. They think I¡¯m a freak. And despite myself I think I care about what they think. You¡¯ve been kind to me, unreservedly. More than you should for a woman you¡¯ve only just met.¡± ¡°And you trust us more than someone in your position should.¡± He pointed out. ¡°Yeah¡± Seras said bitterly. ¡°The worst part is I can¡¯t figure out why. I¡¯m not the trusting sort.¡± ¡°No, but we are. And that kind of thing usually has a way of going both ways.¡± ¡°You¡¯re straight with me so that I¡¯ll be straight with you. An interesting idea, but I know for a fact that it doesn¡¯t always work that way.¡± ¡°No¡± he agreed, ¡°but those who don¡¯t return that trust are not the people I care to associate with. At the last Rock we visited a merchant tricked my nephew into buying spoiled rations, they gained a short-term profit, but they have forever lost my business. And I¡¯ll make sure all the other caravan bosses in this region know about it.¡± Seras was quiet for moment before she blew a long breath ¡°Well that¡¯s a veiled threat if I¡¯ve ever heard one. You¡¯re saying that if I run I¡¯ll prove that I¡¯m untrustworthy and you put the word out about Outworlder Cyborg wandering the desert.¡± He chuckled ¡°Nothing so dastardly. But if you run now without giving my people a chance to come to terms with what you are then you¡¯ll be subconsciously implanting the idea that you don¡¯t trust them. That their shock was enough for you to turn and leave. It will eat away at them. They¡¯ll talk, likely over a couple drinks, and word of a metal women will spread.¡± Seras frowned at her feet. ¡°I don¡¯t like the idea of traveling with people who are afraid of me, or hate me for what I am.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. ¡°You need to give them time. We live in a world of magic and wonder. Monsters, flying ships, floating islands, and divine beings, but you are by far the strangest thing we¡¯ve ever seen. But give it time and you¡¯ll soon just be another curiosity in a very curious world.¡± ¡°What do you think might happen if word got out about me?¡± Seras asked, dreading the answer. Dustin considered the question. ¡°That¡¯s hard to say, a lot of dark powers have a habit of transforming their users into inhuman monstrosity¡¯s, things like the death essence, so the adventure society tends to equate the two. That man with tentacles I mentioned, he got into a lot of trouble because he awakened an ability that dramatically changed him. Ultimately, they ruled that his transformation was unusual but not nefarious. As for the magic society, I¡¯d imagine they¡¯d like to dissect you to advance their careers.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I was afraid of.¡± Seras put her head into her hands ¡°What the hell am I even going to do? What is there for me in a world like this?¡± ¡°Well for one there¡¯s magic.¡± Dustin pointed out. Seras gave him a flat, unamused look. ¡°I¡¯m serious. From your descriptions-your world sounds like a magicless place. I¡¯ve met two other Outworlders from similar worlds, there was an unmistakable joy in their eyes when they saw magic we consider ordinary. It¡¯s like their whole lives there was a piece missing, and when they came here they found that piece. You could work for me; help guard my cargo and slowly purchase the other two essences you¡¯d need to fully step into our world.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± Seras muttered. ¡°Magic seems strange, its, from my point of view its unnatural.¡± ¡°Like cutting off pieces of your body and replacing them with metal?¡± he jibbed. ¡°Touch¨¦¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± ¡°You people don¡¯t have Touch¨¦?¡± ¡°It¡¯s not translating.¡± ¡°Maybe it¡¯s too complicated. It means you have a point.¡± Dustin nodded. ¡°So-?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know Dust. That feeling you were describing, I never had that. I knew exactly who I was, how the world worked, and how to rise up. I fell into Merc work because I wanted to stand at the peak and become a legend. The kind of legend that people would be telling until the world ended. Like Ronnoc or Novid. ¡°I don¡¯t know those people.¡± ¡°They were the heroes who were alive during the Fall. Their legends have been told for eons; I grew up wishing to be just like them.¡± He considered her words. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about your world; it sounds like an awful place. But here, all our great heroes are adventurers, and to be an adventurer you need power, and power comes from essences.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know man, I absorbed one already. The son of a bitch hurt like hell, but pain¡¯s an old friend, it¡¯s what I felt deeper down that scared me. That essence was rewriting my soul. Changing me. I¡¯ve never believed in any of that soul crap before, but I¡¯ve always had a strong sense of self. No matter how much chrome I chipped in I always knew that it didn¡¯t change who I was. Magic¡¯s different.¡± He frowned ¡°I can¡¯t speak for what you experienced, but for me I feel like my essence only brought forth my better qualities. Made the core of my identity more solid. I don¡¯t know who I¡¯d be without them.¡± ¡°How do you know the magic isn¡¯t taking you for a ride.¡± Seras accused. She opened her pocket space with a thought and pulled out the death essence. ¡°You said essences like these change people into monsters. That they change people. Maybe they¡¯re just the ones with the most obvious outward change.¡± His burning eyes lit up brighter at the sight of the death essence ¡°Where¡¯d you get that?¡± ¡°From the city, don¡¯t worry my net ability warned me about it before I could absorb it.¡± ¡°You can access the restricted essence list as well as the normal essence list?¡± ¡°Yeah¡± Seras considered the essence once more, feeling the untapped power from within. She locked eyes with Dustin ¡°I had a look at that list, all those restricted essences turn their wielders into monsters. Vampires, Lich, succubae. What if the unrestricted essences just turn you into something less unsavory.¡± Dustin held your gaze before he cursed. ¡°Dammed Outworlders. Just when I think I have you people figured out you turn around and beat me over the head with a new revelation. I was always on the periphery of the chaos those other Outworlders caused, but now I understand what people mean when they say Outworlders bring nothing but trouble.¡± ¡°You¡¯re exaggerating.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not. Outworlders cause trouble no matter where they go. I¡¯ve heard some say it¡¯s because you don¡¯t recognize the contradictions your very presence brings. I think it¡¯s that the world isn¡¯t ready for living proof that the way things are, aren¡¯t set in stone.¡± He clenched his fists before he let out a sigh. ¡°No, I define my powers. The essence and awakening stones may have given me the power, but I am the one who shaped it.¡± Seras sighed. ¡°Maybe I¡¯m just talking out my ass. I don¡¯t know. I feel like I¡¯m drowning, and I can¡¯t see which way is up. And you¡¯re telling me my only hoping at seizing control is an anchor to make sure I sink deeper into this shit.¡± He shivered ¡°That¡¯s disgusting. Don¡¯t ever mention talking with your ass again.¡± Seras laughed ¡°Not what that means.¡± ¡°Either way, I thought Petra was crass for a woman, but you make her seem dainty.¡± Seras guffawed ¡°You realize you¡¯re talking about the lioness who belched so hard that she almost put our campfire.¡± ¡°Tooshay¡± He said with a smirk. Seras frowned ¡°Are you trying to say ¡®touch¨¦¡¯¡± ¡°Did I do it wrong?¡± ¡°Nah, it was perfect. I just wasn¡¯t expecting it.¡± He smiled softly, ¡°We can all learn new things, if you give us time.¡± Seras huffed, she had been convinced that leaving was the right choice, now she wasn¡¯t sure. ¡°Fine, I¡¯ll stick around a little longer.¡± ¡°Good¡± he nodded, ¡°but you don¡¯t get to ride with us for free, I expect you to pull your weight.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me Boss man, I¡¯m tougher than I look.¡± ¡°Theres one more condition.¡± He said, his tone shifting to something grimmer. ¡°Whatever you decide; whether you decide to try to swim for air or grab that anchor, know that there are lines in this word that shouldn¡¯t be crossed. Choices you can¡¯t come back from. I said that Outworlders can cause change, but they can also bring death. My home country once warred with an Outworlder who sought to conquer the world with an army of the dead. You want to stay with us then you turn that cursed essence over to me, and any others like it that you find.¡± Seras tossed the grey orb of death. ¡°All yours. Global domination is not my thing.¡± He glanced at it before it dissolved into ash and cinders, vanishing from sight. ¡°And that¡¯s the only one you found?¡± ¡°What? Do I look flush with evil magic stones, besides the tech essence that was the only other I¡¯ve seen.¡± Seras considered him for a moment ¡°I do have two awakening stones.¡± ¡°What kind?¡± ¡°One Earth awakening stone-¡± ¡°That would be expected for the labyrinth, they¡¯re the most common around these parts.¡± ¡°-And one Celestial Book awakening stone. That one was in my pocket space before I woke up, I think it was placed in there during the whole ¡®soul transmigration¡¯ thing.¡± His eyes went wide with shock. And drink. At this point if Seras had any actual booze she¡¯d be blitzed by now. ¡°Nothing but trouble.¡± Dustin muttered to himself. Ch14 On the road Dustin left Seras to her own thoughts, not bothering to explain what was so disturbing about a Celestial book awakening stone. Seras didn¡¯t care. As things stood she had no intention of diving any deeper into this magic crap than she already had. She stayed up watching the stars above until the sun rose and a new day began. The camp woke up at the crack of dawn and Seras jumped off her rock to go help with things. Like she feared some shied away from her presence, and Seras pretended not to notice. Petra on the other hand peppered her with questions. ¡°When did you get your first?¡± ¡°I was lucky and had a good air filter on my apartment, so I didn¡¯t need to replace my lungs until I was 14.¡± ¡°That¡¯s still pretty young, were you afraid?¡± Seras snorted ¡°Fuck no, your first bit of chrome is like a rite of passage. I was pestering Jonah about my transplant day for years. We had a big party; I even got my first taste of liquor.¡± As well as her first kiss, but that was private. ¡°You call your dad Jonah?¡± ¡°Jonah wasn¡¯t my dad. Jonah was the boss of our gang, my parents died when I was younger.¡± ¡°Oh, I¡¯m sorry.¡± Seras snorted ¡°Don¡¯t be, they were low level thugs who got mowed down by some wage slave in a failed mini-mart robbery.¡± She finished rolling up the tent tarp and stood up to see the sad look on Petra¡¯s face. ¡°Hey, no pitty. Life sucks and people die, that¡¯s the rub.¡± ¡°Right.¡± The Leonid women said. She was quiet for about a minute before she perked up with a new question ¡°How did you do that thing with your hair?¡± ¡°What thing?¡± ¡°You know, the part of the night when it turned pink and then changed style.¡± ¡°Oh that, right. Well, it¡¯s not technically hair.¡± ¡°Is it a wig?¡± ¡°What do I look like, a poor vagrant sticking a dirty wig on her head?¡± ¡°Then what is it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s technically nano-machines. Like really tiny metal bugs. They can change color and move around a little. Its how my hair looks so good at five in the morning.¡± ¡°Your head is full of bugs?¡± Even Petra looked creeped out now. ¡°Weren¡¯t you less judgy yesterday, why can¡¯t we go back to that.¡± Seras complained. ¡°That was when we thought you were a victim of disgusting perverts. Now that I know you¡¯re not I don¡¯t feel like holding back. Now do you have to feed your bugs, or do they eat your dead skin.¡± Seras grumbled to herself. She had a long day ahead of her. ~~~*~~~ Once camp was all packed up Seras hopped back on Jesse with Dustin. The Heidel didn¡¯t look pleased to have Seras on her back again, but was placated with an apple Dustin had passed Seras. They hitched up the other Heidels to the wagons and got back to their dusty trail. They were bound for a place called Karstess, a solitary butte in the desert that had been transformed into a stone city renowned for its alchemy. Dustin said that the Astral space beneath Karstess had unique properties beneficial for growing magic plants to use in potions, explaining why anyone in their right mind had ever settled in the middle of the desert. During today¡¯s leg of the journey they would be passing through a pass that had been supposedly carved by the battle of a powerful diamond ranked essence user and a similarly ranked monster. ¡°How does the ranking system work anyway. I¡¯ve seen monsters ranked and iron, bronze, and silver, is diamond after those.¡± This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Dustin chuckled ¡°Gold comes after silver and before diamond.¡± ¡°Okay, and the rest of my question?¡± ¡°That¡¯s harder to answer. Like all things in life its complicated with a lot of nuances.¡± ¡°Then give me the entry level pitch, there¡¯s plenty of time for nuance later.¡± He snorted ¡°Alright. Well just about everything falls into one of six ranks. Normal, for ordinary people with less than four essences. Then it goes iron, bronze, silver, gold, and finally diamond. Monsters, essence users, tools, weapons, rituals, all of it falls into that system.¡± ¡°Why those metals anyway. Assuming that each level is stronger than the last then shouldn¡¯t you at least choose stronger metals with each rank, like iron, pig iron, steel, titanium, and tungsten carbide.¡± He gave her a look, ¡°Three of are just iron alloys.¡± He pointed out. ¡°You know what I meant, why those metals.¡± ¡°It has to do with the color of the spirit coins associated with them.¡± A small flame burned in his hand, and when he was done there were four coins in his hand. ¡°The gem like one is a lesser spirit coin, lowest level and most commonly used for transactions. The blueish grey is an iron coin, the bronze is bronze, and the silver is silver.¡± Seras smirked ¡°No gold or diamond?¡± she teased. Dustin scoffed ¡°In all my time trading I¡¯ve earned maybe a few hundred gold in total, that¡¯s after being a trader for nearly fifty years. I¡¯ve not even seen a diamond ranked coin.¡± ¡°Fifty years! You don¡¯t look like a geezer.¡± He laughed, his mirth deep and pleasant to the ear. ¡°Essences extend youth and slow ageing. With my bronze rank I look only forty instead of sixty-six.¡± His smile faltered. ¡°How old are you? I assume your skin age doesn¡¯t match your actual one.¡± ¡°Twenty-five.¡± ¡°Never mind, I guess it does. Does you¡¯re, uh¡­skin¡­¡± he flattered for the right words. ¡°No, my body doesn¡¯t ¡®age¡¯. Though parts do wear out over time. I like to keep my looks close to my real age, but that¡¯s a matter of taste. I knew a thirty-year-old mother who kept herself looking the same age she got her first augs.¡± He frowned ¡°And the husband-¡± Seras waved a hand. ¡°Best not to think about it too hard. You were discussing the difference between rank-?¡± ¡°Right¡± Dustin said, a little too quickly. ¡°For people like you and me going up in rank is a manner of training and perfecting ourselves, so as we go up in rank our bodies become more and more perfect. Starting at iron you¡¯ll be at peak physical strength for a normal person, by bronze you¡¯ll step past the upper limits of normal ranked strength. You¡¯ll be equal in strength to a normal rank man who has spent his whole life training and working out, building their bodies with little care for health. And that¡¯s excluding essences that boost your attributes above normal rank averages. A might essence user will always be stronger than their peers, while a swift essence user will be faster.¡± ¡°Those are the power and speed attributes?¡± ¡°Yes. But there¡¯s nuance to that. A swift essence user will never beat the speed of instantaneous teleportation. Though if they don¡¯t have an astral affinity then the swift essence user might still get a critical hit in while their disoriented.¡± ¡°Astral affinity, that¡¯s one of my racial traits.¡± Dustin nodded ¡°Outworlders always get that one. But you would have already had that as a Celestine.¡± Seras frowned ¡°There¡¯s that word again, I was human before I got blown into another universe.¡± ¡°Human. Are you sure?¡± ¡°Yes, I¡¯m pretty danm sure I was human.¡± ¡°I just assumed from your hair and eyes¡­ nope never mind. You can change that sort of thing whenever you want. My apologies.¡± ¡°Its fine, so what are Celestines anyway?¡± ¡°They¡¯re another race you¡¯ll find around the world. Not so much here, but there¡¯s a whole kingdom of them to the south east of here. The Storm Kingdom is world famous for its adventures.¡± ¡°What do they look like?¡± ¡°They fall across a wide spectrum of colors and skin tone. But you can usually tell them by their metallic or gem-like hair.¡± ¡°Gem-like?¡± Dustin nodded. ¡°The royal family of the Storm Kingdom are rumored to have glittering sapphire blue hair.¡± Seras held a bit of her own hair. ¡°Should I change it to something more human-like then.¡± ¡°I wouldn¡¯t bother, you¡¯re an outworlder now.¡± ¡°Right.¡± She wasn¡¯t human anymore, she wasn¡¯t sure how she felt about that. ¡°So astral affinity helps somehow with teleporting.¡± Dustin grimaced ¡°Yes, most races have trouble with portal powers or astral spaces. Its like a momentary sickness that never quite goes away. You won¡¯t have that if you get a portal power.¡± ¡°Nice.¡± Seras said to herself. ¡°What about the other attributes?¡± ¡°Speed and power relate to your physical power while spirit and recovery are linked to your magic power. Spirit is your mana pool, while recovery is self-explaining.¡± ¡°Okay, my Tech essence is bonded to my spirit attribute. What does that mean?¡± ¡°It means you have the mana pool of an early iron ranker.¡± Seras pondered that ¡°Say I wanted to boost that up so I can use more, what would I do?¡± ¡°You would need to awaken your four other abilities for that essence, which require awakening stones. But once you have all five you can slowly start to ¡®exercise¡¯ your abilities to push them further. Or use monster cores to force your advancement, but that locks out normal progression and makes you weaker overall.¡± ¡°About that, you stomped off after I told you about my second awakening stone, is there something I should know about it?¡± He frowned and rubbed his chin. ¡°I don¡¯t know much, but I¡¯ve heard rumors of things more powerful than the Gods in the Astral. More powerful and alien to our sensibilities. I¡¯ve only heard of a few, and one of those is the Celestial book. Some sort of eldritch magic obsessed creature. Like a twisted amalgamation of the Goddess Knowledge, Magic, and Learning. That¡¯s all I know. If I were you, I would sell it for more normal awakening stones.¡± ¡°I have no concept of what¡¯s normal and what¡¯s not. Is there some sort of string attached to it?¡± ¡°No. the Gods can make essences and awakening stone for their followers, and they can revoke that power as well. But the Astral beings don¡¯t do that, or can¡¯t. The difference was never explained to me.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the issue?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, just a feeling. It feels like trouble to me.¡± ¡°But Outworlders are inherently drawn to trouble like some sort of karmic magnet. Would it be stronger?¡± ¡°Maybe, abilities tend to find their own balance. Supposedly there is no such thing as a weak or bad ability.¡± ¡°And do you buy that?¡± Seras asked, the hitch in his voice said otherwise. ¡°I don¡¯t know, I¡¯ve learned to make my abilities work for me. But I do know that nobles and wealthy adventures go nuts for rare stones and essences. If that thing went up for auction you could probably purchase your other two essences and half of your awakening stones.¡± Seras turned around, ¡°I already told you last night that I wasn¡¯t sure about this magic business. And yet this whole time you¡¯ve been acting like I¡¯ve already decided.¡± She accused with a finger to the chest. ¡°Can¡¯t blame an old man for trying¡± He said with a wry grin. ¡°Just watch me.¡± Seras muttered turning back to face forwards. It was fortunate that she did, because otherwise Seras would have died to the razor-sharp bone needle flying for her face. ¡°Monsters!¡± someone roared, and the wagon train flew into action. With a single hand Dustin gripped Seras by the shirt collar and pulled her off his Heidel. ¡°Get to the wagon circle. Grab a cross bow and try and hit a few.¡± He ordered before the flames within his skin flared to the warm glow of a furnace, and gold red armor formed around his body. Similar armor appeared around Jesse as the Heidel Seras had been riding burst into flames. Dustin, Flint, and Petra then charged off, kicking up a heavy dust and leaving Seras behind to join the defensive wagon circle. ¡°Fuck that!¡± she roared as she charged after them into battle against unknown foes. Ch15 Stronger than I look Dustin, The Blazing Outrider, charged into battle, Jesse his Heidel and familiar quickly galloped into a charge, hooves blazing with each step. Familiar Red gold scimitars manifested in in his hands as he faced the monster before him. Monster names in the Five desert region were often simple if accurate. And the monster before him were no different. Sand Rollers were an odd amalgamation between an Armadillo and a porcupine with a sandstone shell. Noticing their tracks was easy as they left great trails in the sand and cracked mud of the desert, but when they found a good hiding place it was difficult to spot them as they looked like just another boulder in the desert. The one facing down Dustin was on a slight outcropping of rock, the spines poking out of its shell flared as it flicked its tail to send more quills Dustin¡¯s way. Jesse was very used to battle and evading projectiles and swerved to avoid most of the incoming barrage, what Jesse didn¡¯t dodge Dustin deflected with a swipe of his blades. With Dustin closing in fast the Roller curled into a ball and rolled down the hill with more force than a rolling stone should have had. Jesse and Dustin had fought plenty of Sand Rollers and knew that swerving to the side was pointless as the monster could make outrageously tight turns. So instead, Jesse leapt over the Roller. They landed behind it and Jesse cantered around to face the now retreating Roller. His Heidel huffed disdainfully at the Rollers ¡®speed¡¯ and charged after it. Soon Dustin was side by side with the monster, he jumped up to a standing position on Jesse¡¯s back and slashed out with a special attack. A wave of fire slammed into the Roller and it was sent flying. The Roller unfurled to try and correct its fall, but the moment it unfurled from its protective armor wings appeared on the back of Dustin¡¯s conjured chest plate and he leapt into the air. Four more slashes laced with fire crisscrossed the Roller¡¯s soft underside before his wings faded away. Dustin landed back on Jesse and they moved out to the way of where the Rollers fell. The Roller made a roar that sounded like a barrel of bricks being tossed down a flight of stairs, then sent more quills at Dustin. Only for a wall of earth to rise up and shield Dustin. Riding his own Heidal Flint opened his hand and pushed his earthen wall forward. The Roller curled up to fend off the rock wall, but that was exactly what Flint wanted. With the Roller curled up he cast another spell, a dome of earth rose over the Roller and trapped it within its own shell. Ordinarily a Rollers Shell was too tough to pierce and Dustin¡¯s cuts had all been shallow ones. But Dustin¡¯s arial attack had done more than just cut the Roller. It had inflicted the Roller with a fiery affliction ¡°Burning Blood¡± which would slowly cook the Roller from the inside out. Flint¡¯s dome would exacerbate that process by further trapping heat and preventing the Roller from unrolling to cool down. The trapped Roller realized the trouble it was in and pressed against the sides of the dome, and with time it may have even succeeded. But Flint wasn¡¯t going to give it the opportunity. ¡°Mother Earth entomb my Foes.¡± Flint chanted activating a spell that turned the ground soft and pliable. The dome at the center of the soft earth sunk into the ground until it was completely buried, leaving the monster to slowly cook. It was a horrifying way to die, and Flint and Dustin had used it on more than just monsters. As soon as Flint began to deal with the first Roller Jesse galloped off towards Petra who was holding off a second roller. Rollers almost always manifested in pairs, so while the bronze rankers dealt quickly dealt with the first Petra who was in the peak if Iron was left to deal with the other on her own. Not that Petra seemed bothered. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Her Essences were Might, Sheild, and Earth, for a Fortress confluence. Most would consider a solitary fortress a bad combination for a Leonid¡¯s ceaseless endurance, but Petra turned the essence pairing for typical stalwart defenders into an unceasing and relentless advance. She didn¡¯t excel in powerful attacks, but her ability to repel enemy attacks allowed her to continuously push her foes back one step at a time. The ideal combination for a caravan guard facing down a large monster. Petra was clad in heavy looking granite armor with a shield of a similar appearance. She would arrest the Rollers charge with her shield and strike out with a brass-colored war hammer. With her Might essence she sent the Rollers back several yards, only to find itself pressed in by the rise of earthen walls. It¡¯s only way out was through Petra, and it knew that. It charged Petra again, only to be flung back once more. But this time as it was still staggering from the heavy blow a blazing figure appeared overhead. Dustin still clad in his brilliant armor had leapt off Jesse and let loose a whirlwind of fire based attacks. Each attack focused on one spot trying to pierce its tough hide. The two focused their efforts on the second Roller while Flint finished up with the first. The trio knew that Rollers almost always worked in pairs outside of a monster surge, which was why Dustin had felt comfortable leaving Flint alone. But just because Rollers only worked in pairs that didn¡¯t mean that another monster hadn¡¯t tagged along. Just as Flint had finished burying the first Roller, a suspiciously shifting patch of sand had drawn in close. Flint noticed the approach, but was too slow to avoid the opened jaws as the monster pounced on him. Sand skinned Raptors were intelligent solitary hunters, their skin could shift colors to better match with their surrounding and their soft padded feet made it hard to hear their approach. They were the reason Dustin¡¯s group, and many more like his, didn¡¯t allow their people to wander away from the light of the camp fire to relieve themselves without another person to watch their back. Too many wandered off into the night to never return. This one had obviously seen the Rollers ambush and had decided to lay in wait for them to begin their assault before it picked off an isolated member. Which in this case happened to be Flint. Flint as an elf had a strong affinity for spells, and his Earth Essence powers had all manifested as offensive. This left him lacking in self-defense. He raised an arm to keep it away from his, and the beasts jaws clamped around with bone crushing intensity. He felt the jaws clamp down harder and harder, and he feared that his mistake would cost him an arm. But the sound of a whipcrack and the agile figure of their new Outworlder tag along drew Flint¡¯s attention away from the Raptor around his him. He watched with stunned horror as the normal ranked women leapt on lizards neck, locked her legs around its neck, and gripped its maw with both hands. Flint felt the pressure on his arm halt, and then slowly loosen. He heard a high pitched whine coming from the women¡¯s metal arms as she strained against the bite force of a bronze ranked monster. He felt the monster¡¯s aura flare and suppress the Outworlders normal ranked aura. With the aura suppression came the loss of strength and Seras began to lose ground to the monster. Flint, his mind hazy with pain reached out with his own aura and forced the monsters back. Unseen their aura¡¯s battled. But Flint had spent nearly forty years training his aura, and he had reached the peak of control possible for a bronze ranker. Flint pushed the monster¡¯s aura back into its body and suppressed its power. Completely unaware of the invisible battle around her Seras continued to pry the monsters jaws off the elf until he could pull his arm out. With nothing to hold onto the monster began to thrash on the ground, repeatedly smacking Seras on a rock in an attempt to make her let go. Seras took the blows and continued to pull the lizard¡¯s jaws apart. She had spread it to its natural limits and she was now straining to rip the jaw open further. The Sand skin Raptor let out a gurgling cry of pain, but with its aura suppressed by Flint it couldn¡¯t stop her. With a disgusting ripping sound Seras ripped its jaw clean off, then proceeded to bash the monsters head in with its own jaw bone. She bludgeoned the monster until it stopped twitching. And just for good measure Flint cast a spell that lifted a large boulder and crushed the remains of its head. Seras huffed out a shaky breath. ¡°Whoo, that was tough. Think I strained my motors with that one.¡± Flint was nursing his arm and gave her an unamused look. ¡°That was a bronze rank monster, with bronze rank strength. That should not have been possible.¡± He accused shortly. Seras rolled her shoulder ¡°I¡¯m stronger than I look.¡± ¡°That is an understatement¡± Flint said flatly. ¡°Maybe, need help with that arm. I can carry you back to the wagon train.¡± He looked at his arm, ¡°Help me clean it, we¡¯ll need to wait for Dustin to do anymore.¡± The women¡¯s face blanched ¡°Clean it, like with soap and water? I¡¯m not sure if I¡¯m up for that.¡± Flint gave her a baffled look. ¡°You ripped apart a bronze rank monster with your bare arm, and you draw the line at first aid? You¡¯re covered in monster blood!¡± ¡°I can do field repairs, but dealing with the goo and icky grossness of meat is too much.¡± Flint¡¯s mouth gaped like a fish, then he closed it. He had no idea how to respond to that, which he was coming to realize was a common occurrence with the Outworlder. She was just too strange for him to accurately interpret. Ch16 Magic Circles Seras was surreptitiously not looking at Flint¡¯s mangled arm. He was holding it in place with his other arm but all the bones had been crushed and it was twisted too far to look okay. She had done some gross things in her career and had developed something of an iron stomach, but the sight of mangled meat threatened to send her breakfast all over the ground. Ripping an overgrown lizard apart, easy. Seras thought of it like tearing into a synth-steak. But first aid, nope, nu-uh, not happening. Which made her feel guilty considering the pain Flint must have been in. But trying to get her to help right now would only make things worse. Idly she considered helping out Dustin and Petra. But she didn¡¯t want to leave Flint alone in case anything else came for him. And from what she could see they had the fight well in hand. Seras had been expecting something more in line with firebolts and long casting rituals when she thought of magic, and that impression may have colored her opinion on the subject. But watching the three caravanners fight off the bulldozer seized armadillos was awe inspiring. Dustin had briefly flown through the air, slashing out with scimitars made of fire. Flint had commanded the very earth around him like it was clay to be melded at his command. And then there was Petra, tanking the power charges of the sandstone-colored monster without so much as moving back a single step. Seras suspected that if she put Petra in front of a freight train the end result would be a smashed locomotive and a bored looking Petra. Seras glared at the ability description for her inscribe ability. Inscribe Rune/circuit Allows the infusion of Mana and crafting materials into small objects to create magi-tech formations up to iron rank. Cost: Varies Cooldown: None She could have gotten a powerful ability like theirs and she wound up with this useless piece of crap. Unfair! Her mind drifted to the Celestial Book awakening stone in her pocket space, maybe it would give her something actually useful? Seras shook her head; magic was strange and something she was painfully ignorant about. She would not further expose herself to it until she knew more. Seras watched as Petra finally cracked the monster¡¯s hard shell. Dustin wasted no time slicing into the crack, fire bursting back with each slice until the monster stopped moving. With all the monsters dead, and the wagon train saved, Dustin wasted no time rushing over on Jesse. ¡°Are you alright?¡± He asked as Jesse slowed to a trot. ¡°Just peachy, only broke my arm in six places.¡± Flint growled. Dustin turned a glare on Seras. ¡°Why aren¡¯t you helping him?¡± he demanded. Seras opened her mouth to defend herself, but Flint spoke over her. ¡°Girl doesn¡¯t know a danm thing about first aid, and has a weak stomach to match her ignorance. She would have only made things worse.¡± He explained. Dustin frowned at Seras ¡°You don¡¯t know first aid?¡± he asked, like it was something everyone should know. ¡°I know field repairs and maintenance; first aid isn¡¯t exactly a skill in high demand where I come from.¡± Seras explained, her voice dripping in snark to cover up her embarrassment. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. Dustin looked back down to Flint. ¡°We need to set the bones before I can give you a potion, Seras keep watching him. I¡¯m going to fetch Garrette.¡± ¡°Yes sir¡± Seras said, relieved that he wasn¡¯t going to make her help out with setting the bone. Garette as it turned out was the man who had sat at Petra¡¯s side the night before. The one who had mentioned mana lamps. He was the groups medic and had a ¡®life essence¡¯ which was apparently good for magic healing. He set the bones with a sickening crunching sound, and even over Flint¡¯s screaming Seras wanted to vomit just from the sound. He then cast a spell that ¡®purified the flesh of disease and poison¡¯ before Dustin summoned an earthen ware jar. His hands produced sparks and embers as he conjured the jar from out of nowhere. He passed the potion down to Flint who chugged its contents in a single swig. The bones knitted themselves together under the magical power of the potion, and the teeth marks on his arm slowly closed. They then slathered on a fresh smelling ointment and wrapped it in bandages. Seras had been so intrigued by the process that she had forgotten her nausea. Garrett and Dustin helped Flint rise to his feet, and putting Flint¡¯s good arm over a shoulder, Garette helped Flint back to the wagons. Leaving her and Dustin alone. ¡°I told you to go to the wagons.¡± He said with a clear tone of accusation. ¡°I heard you, but I decided that you weren¡¯t putting my abilities to their best use. I¡¯m a fighter Dust, not a bystander.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a normal ranker with only a single essence and no combat abilities.¡± He shot back. ¡°No magical combat abilities.¡± Seras shot back, putting emphasis on the magical part. ¡°I¡¯m still a highly trained combat specialist with strength improving cybernetics. You can see what I did to that lizard with just my bare hands.¡± Dustin glanced to the lizard remains and grunted. ¡°I¡¯ll keep that in mind. After we finish dealing with the monster remains, I would like to see exactly what you can do. After that though, if you ever disobey my orders again, you¡¯ll be on your own.¡± Seras nodded ¡°Understood, as long as we¡¯re clear on my capabilities then I¡¯ll trust your judgement and situational awareness.¡± ¡°Good. Now, do you have a harvesting power?¡± ¡°Harvesting power?¡± He glanced at the monster remains ¡°the ability to harvest spirit coins and monster cores from fallen monsters.¡± ¡°Not that I know of. I had to cut the core out of the charger I killed. Is that something everyone gets?¡± He snorted ¡°No, no its not. It¡¯s a very uncommon ability that is highly sought after. Outworlders have a higher chance of getting them, along with identifying powers, essence absorption, translation powers, long distance communication, storage spaces, psychic linking, and occasionally a mapping power.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got some of those, but not the harvesting ability.¡± ¡°Shame, would have been handy. Whelp we¡¯ll just have to do this the hard way then.¡± Sparks filled his hand as a burlap bag appeared in it. He tipped the bag and started pouring a circle of white crystal sand around the dead lizard. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Salt, it makes a great medium for drawing magic circles.¡± He explained as he finished one circle and began another larger one. The circle got more and more complex as Dustin added swirls, runes, and little geometric shapes. Seras watched the whole process with rapt attention, somewhere towards the end Seras noticed something off about the circle. One of the runes looked wrong to her eyes. She tried to ignore the instinctual reaction considering she had no idea what was wrong about the rune, but as Dustin was finishing up she could no longer hold her peace. ¡°That rune is wrong.¡± She said before she could second guess herself. ¡°Which one¡± Dustin asked instead of scolding her. ¡°That one, the one the looks like two Heidels fucking.¡± He grimaced her description, but took a closer look at it. his jet-black brows drew together until he jerked up. ¡°You¡¯re right, I missed a line.¡± He said as he added another salt line. When he did the sensation of ¡®wrong¡¯ went away, and Seras was no longer bothered by it. He activated the circle and then stepped back. The monsters body released a rainbow-colored smoke like that of an oil slick, Seras recognized it as the same smoke that had come off her when the Golem was walking away. When the smoke was done a small pile of bronze colored spirit coins were in its center next to the bronze rank core. ¡°I usually link the ritual to my storage power, but I left it unlinked since this was your kill, not mine. That¡¯s where the mistake came from.¡± He explained. ¡°Yeah, thanks for believing me. I couldn¡¯t tell you how I knew it was wrong, just that it was, and it bugged me.¡± Seras scratched at her head. ¡°That essence of yours, ¡®technology¡¯¡± he said the word unfamiliarly ¡°you didn¡¯t say what kind of ability it gave you.¡± ¡°Inscribe rune/circuit. It says something about making magi-tech formations.¡± ¡°Magi-tech?¡± he said with a puzzled look. ¡°I assume its magic mixed with technology.¡± ¡°That word isn¡¯t translating. What is Technology?¡± ¡°Oh, wow that¡¯s a hard one to explain. One sec.¡± Seras said while holding up a finger. She searched her memory, the data she had downloaded to her drives. ¡°The dictionary definition is about using science and engineering the enhancing human life with practical, and repeatable effects. My body for example is a form of tech, same with those light bulbs I mentioned.¡± ¡°And science is-?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a broad thing, but its basically a deep understanding of the physical world around us, from the really big to the really small. How fundamental forces work like gravity, light, and electricity work. How planets form, what the stars are made of. Everything from the smallest bacteria to the largest creatures. Mountain formation, volcanic eruptions, weather, chemistry, everything you can touch or see. Science is about dissecting the world around us until we know everything about it.¡± Seras said passionately. Getting an education was never in the cards for her, but she had always been fascinated by the subject. She shook her head ¡°Tech is about taking that abstract knowledge and making it work for us.¡± ¡°It sounds a lot like magic.¡± Dustin pointed out. ¡°I¡¯ll have to take your word on that since I don¡¯t really understand magic. But my world is a world without any magic.¡± ¡°And this is a world with magic aplenty. It sounds like that ability is kind of like a bridge between the two. One part rune making, one part technology. Similar to the magic and Rune essences. Powers like that often give their wielders an instinctive sense for these things. They still need to study and train, but they have a slightly easier time of it. Flint and I have amassed a small library of magic theory books, maybe we could let you have a glance through them, see if any of it clicks.¡± ¡°Worth a shot.¡± Seras pointed to the small pile ¡°Want me to grab it?¡± ¡°Go ahead, I¡¯ve got another two rituals to start on.¡± He stalked off to where Flint had buried a monster and began to draw another circle, one that was slightly different than the first. Seras collected her spoils and then ran off after Dustin so that she could pester him with questions about the magic circle. Ch17 Essence Abilities While the people within the wagon circle had gotten out unscathed, the wagons were another matter entirely. Several quills were stuck into the side of them, and a few had broken the wooden wheels wrapped in iron. They had the spare parts to replace the wheels, but it would take hours to replace. So with some time to spare Seras decided now was a good time to ask a few questions. Seeing real magic, something more impressive than her glowing finger, had somewhat shifted her opinion on the matter. If nothing else she needed to learn more about this world. She approached Dustin and Flint who were resting to recover from their short battle, Flint more than Dustin. ¡°Something wrong?¡± Dustin asked as he saw Seras approaching. ¡°No, I just realized after your fight that I know nothing about magic. Nothing substantial anyway. I was hoping you might answer a few questions.¡± She said. Flint scowled at her but Dustin nodded before Flint could say anything. ¡°Alright, what¡¯s on your mind?¡± ¡°I need to know more about essences, and our previous conversation was rudely interrupted.¡± ¡°Fair, what about¡¯em?¡± ¡°Well for starters what are yours?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve got Fire, scimitar, and Heidal. For the Outrider confluence. It¡¯s a common essence for calvary men.¡± ¡°Were you a calvary man?¡± Seras asked, interrupting his explanation. ¡°No, I was just mentioning it offhand. I went for whatever common essences or awakening stone I could get my hands on, a lot of one stars, with a couple two stars. My first was the fire essence, my home kingdom is located within the caldera of a massive volcano so they¡¯re common enough. I was lucky enough to get a storage ability which started me down my current career.¡± Seras nodded ¡°That¡¯s what the sparks are? You using your storage power?¡± ¡°Yup.¡± Seras thought about that. He could just summon things to himself without opening it up. Could she do the same. The thought had never occurred to her. She concentrated on one particular item, pale blue lines appeared in her hand forming the outline of a shard, the space within the lines filled in and Seras was holding the Celestial book awakening stone. ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°Its that awakening stone I mentioned before.¡± ¡°Strange looking awakening stone.¡± He said suspiciously. ¡°One of my Outworlder things lets me convert essences and awakening into shards, I can then slot it in and absorb it.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a shard?¡± Flint asked, no longer capable of maintaining his silence. Seras sent a mental command to her smart skin and it revealed a seam in her forearm. Dustin and Flint flinched. The compartment in her arm opened up the reveal rows of tightly packed shards emitting a soft blue light. She ordered one to be ejected from its slot. Seras had once had a job that went so bad needed to lay low with no net access to prevent tracking. It had been three weeks of boredom that drove her mad. She had listened to all her downloaded music until she got sick of it, watched every movie and show until she knew all the lines, and even tried reading. After that she had decided to never again be in position like that again and had Petabytes of solid storage installed. She had storage in her arms, calves, neck, and behind her ribs. She passed the shard to Dustin, who then handed it to Flint. ¡°Hard light storage, that there contains about a quarter of the music I have downloaded. I can pull that information up whenever I want to access it. Think of it as an entire library in the palm of your hand.¡± ¡°Library?¡± ¡°Hard light?¡± Dustin and Flint both asked at the same time. ¡°Yeah, whole library, and a pretty large one too.¡± ¡°You said hard light,¡± Flint reiterated. ¡°Like light, but hard?¡± She nodded ¡°Yeah, solid light, its super good at storing information. Most of the light you see is what we call soft-light, its got zero rest mass and bounces around a bunch. Hard light is light forcibly packed together into a solid form. On its own it would just fade away as soft light, but in a special container it stays put. The growth of the net and information outpaced silicon storage so we¡¯ve been slowly switching over to hard-light over the last few years. I sprung for the Hard light shards because they could hold more a load data way faster than a normal shard.¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Flint shook his head ¡°I only understood a quarter of that.¡± Dustin looked at the shard. ¡°This is more of that Technology stuff you were talking about.¡± ¡°Yup. Anyway we take in new information with shards, I¡¯ve got quick access slots on my neck that I use for new ones. My Outworlder abilities transform essences and awakening stones into shards so I can slot them in. How do you absorb them?¡± ¡°With a ritual¡± Flint accused, as if magic rituals were normal and not something that defied logic. ¡°We¡¯re off topic again.¡± Dustin pointed out. ¡°Right, I just wanted to see if I could pull things out of my pocket space like you could.¡± Dustin gave her a look. ¡°You realize that its usually one way or another, not both. You can either open a hole into nowhere or summon and store things directly, I¡¯ve not heard of an ability that does both.¡± Seras shrugged ¡°guess that¡¯s just a me thing then, good thing I tried, or we might never know.¡± ¡°Right¡± Dustin said slowly. He passed back the shard and Seras popped it back in. They both looked noticeably less uncomfortable with it closed. ¡°So, the first two I get, but the Heidel essence-?¡± Seras inquired. ¡°All normal animals have an essence, mine funnily enough manifested in Jesse¡¯s saddle while we were riding. Danm near threw me off because of it. I was five years into my career and had only made enough to buy the scimitar essence, getting another essence would mean a confluence essence and that would greatly boost my prospects as a trader. And as far as essences go, Heidel, is a danm good one for a man who essentially lives in the saddle. I got a familiar bonding essence power and formed a connection with Jesse. After that the awakening stones came much easier.¡± Seras was beginning to notice that Dustin was much less a teacher and more a storyteller. His lessons coming through the experiences of his long and storied life. ¡°You said it manifested. How does that work?¡± They exchanged a glance. This time Flint spoke up ¡°Our world is full of magic, so full that it manifests directly. Mostly it manifests into unstable forms, monsters.¡± Seras blinked ¡°They¡¯re not just really big, mutated animals?¡± ¡°No, they¡¯re direct manifestations of pure magic. Like you, except they didn¡¯t have a soul to form around when they came into being so they break down after a while.¡± ¡°Like me?¡± Seras asked. Another glance. Dustin leaned in ¡°Seras, when we had a whole conversation about you being reborn into our world, what did you think your body was made of?¡± Seras frowned ¡°Either my original matter that had been atomized and pulled through to this world with my soul, or spare atoms leached from the room I was in.¡± Dustin frowned ¡°I only got a bit of that, but no. Nothing can exist in the astral that isn¡¯t either a soul or purely magical. Your original body stopped existing the moment you went in. and when you came out your soul needed a new vessel, so it pulled on a bunch of loose magic to rebuild your body.¡± ¡°How¡¯s that possible I¡¯m made of metal, are my limbs suddenly magical? Is there magic copper running through me now?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t ask us, we¡¯re just simple merchants.¡± Dustin held his hands up. Flint nodded gravely. ¡°In fact I think your mere existence would cause the magic society a greet deal of trouble since your particular manifestation would disprove about half of our magical theories.¡± ¡°You¡¯re telling me. I just gave you a shard full of more information than you can imagine, it and all its data are still intact.¡± Seras considered the implications and then realized she had been holding something when she woke up ¡°What about the Tech shard? Are you saying that it also reconstituted itself from a soul?¡± She had let that thing into her soul! Can a soul go into another soul? Flint shook his head. ¡°You¡¯re not listening, essences are pure magic in a stable form. It wouldn¡¯t have been effected.¡± Seras felt her face flush, ¡°oh. Right. Sorry that¡¯s just one hell of a bomb shell to drop on a girl.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a bomb shell?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°A multi-ton explosive you can drop from the air to kill a whole crowd of people.¡± Flint scowled ¡°That¡¯s awful!¡± ¡°That¡¯s war¡± Seras said bluntly. She was glad she was too young to remember the corpo wars. Flint didn¡¯t want to let it go ¡°You said ¡®people¡¯ not soldiers. Are the people of your world so depraved to needlessly kill civilians?¡± he accused. Seras met his eyes. ¡°Yes, yes we are. We have singular weapons that can wipe out whole cities in the blink of an eye.¡± She pointed to the pass that had been carved by the power of a diamond ranker. ¡°We make shit like that look small in comparison.¡± Flint huffed and looked ready to burst. Dustin put a hand up to stop him. ¡°Lets try to stay on track.¡± He said firmly. Flint glared at Dustin, but shied away when Dustin met it with unyielding fortitude. Dustin turned back to Seras ¡°Your reaction is pretty typical from what I¡¯m told, you¡¯re the first ¡®fresh¡¯ Outworlder I¡¯ve seen so I¡¯m still a bit shaky on how to fully get you up to speed.¡± ¡°Yeah, that reminds me. You¡¯ve mentioned knowing other Outworlder¡¯s, and hearing the stories of other. Are we really that common?¡± Dustin chuckled ¡°Anywhere else in the world and you would be considered a once in a lifetime oddity. But here in the Five Deserts you¡¯re just one more visitor from another world. You¡¯re still uncommon, but here enough people have heard about Outworlders to know a thing or two.¡± He explained. ¡°Why here, what¡¯s so special about this place?¡± Dustin glanced to Flint who still looked upset. ¡°You mind explaining this one?¡± Flint sighed ¡°Fine, your bad at the magic fundamentals anyway.¡± He turned a sour look on Seras ¡°The five deserts and some of the surrounding land have a higher concentration of Outworlders because the dimensional membrane here is more malleable. It means we get more Outworlders, Astral spaces, and other dimensional oddity¡¯s.¡± ¡°Why?¡± Seras asked, her curiosity peaked. ¡°You saw it for yourself, that cave system you explored outside the astral space is a special region we call the Labyrinth. It¡¯s a vast cave system beneath our feet that¡¯s impossible to map because the tunnels are always changing. Its an ancient natural formation that appeared some ten million years ago. It¡¯s one of the reasons this region is as settled as it is, and as dangerous as it is.¡± Flint explained, becoming more animated despite his obvious dislike for Seras. Seras frowned as she tried to recall the tunnels she had explored. ¡°I didn¡¯t notice any shifting tunnels.¡± ¡°It takes months for caves to close off or open up.¡± Dustin clarified ¡°But it¡¯s happening all the time, and everywhere so mapping is pointless.¡± Flint nodded ¡°A century ago the magic society tried to map out all the changes over the course of a decade, they said the end results bared a disconcerting resemblance to the patterns of the astral forces hitting bouncing off our universe. I barely understood one in ten of the words from that paper, but apparently it was big news for magic researchers.¡± Seras thought about that. ¡°So this labyrinth thing pulls in more Outworlders than anywhere else?¡± ¡°Yes¡± Dustin said. ¡°No¡± Flint said at the same time. They glared at each other. ¡°What do you mean no? It does just so.¡± Dustin said. ¡°No it doesn¡¯t. The Labyrinth is just a more likely place for stray souls to enter our world because its more permeable to loose souls, it doesn¡¯t pull anything.¡± ¡°Semantics¡± Dustin spat. ¡°Semantics are everything in the discussion of higher magical forces.¡± Seras laughed ¡°I¡¯m very aware of how contentious terminology can be. Back to the discussion at hand, this region has more Outworlders than any where else, what does that mean for me. Is there some sort of Outworlder Society I can go check in with to get situated?¡± Dustin grimaced. ¡°Not enough of you to form any society¡¯s, but there are enough to cause trouble. This region more than any other has seen plenty of Outworlders and the trouble they cause, a lot of places tend to have a harsh policy when it comes to Outworlders and trouble.¡± ¡°Would the city we¡¯re about to visit happen to be one of those.¡± Dustin looked apologetic ¡°Yes, Karstess has one of the harshest outlooks on Outworlders around. About a century back an Elvin Outworlder exposed a massive ring of corrupt officials and nobles. Bad enough that the Adventurer society took a rare personal interest in Karstess. Afterwards the bitter nobles tried to have all Outworlders killed on sight.¡± ¡°Which brought around even more trouble.¡± Seras surmised. ¡°Yup, the Adventuring society stepped in a second time and actually started beheading the bad actors. After that the only thing Karstess could get away with were harsh sentences targeted at Outworlders who break the law.¡± ¡°No loitering or jay-walking got it.¡± Dustin looked sympathetic ¡°Sorry, if I had any other options I would be taking you somewhere else. But this shipment needs to get to Karstess before the months end and we¡¯re already behind.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry about me. I¡¯m just happy you came along and have been so understanding. I couldn¡¯t possibly ask for more. ¡®Sides, I just need to keep my nose clean while I look for work in Karstess, can¡¯t be that hard.¡± They exchanged another look, maybe that should be her new drinking game? ¡°Look for work?¡± Flint asked. ¡°Well yeah, I can¡¯t leech off your generosity forever. Need to find work to survive while I get my bearings.¡± Dustin looked confused. ¡°I thought you were going to work for me?¡± Seras shied away from Dustin¡¯s hurt expression ¡°I¡­ thought about it. I appreciate the option, but I think I need to find my own way.¡± They had been nice, but Seras needed to get her own game going, and she couldn¡¯t do that wandering the desert. She was a Merc, not a Badlander. She had already rejected that life once before. Ch18 Signs of Trouble The caravan had been stopped for several hours, and wasn¡¯t able to travel as far as they had been hoping. Instead of pushing on until they had to stop Dustin called them to a halt at a small brook. He said that they were unlikely to make it to the next source of clean water so they¡¯d be camping here. Seras helped with the camp set up, chatting lightly with Petra and Garrett. ¡°So, you''re like a one women fortress?¡± Seras asked Petra. The Lioness scratched the back of her head, and Seras wondered if she ever cut herself with those claws. ¡°Something like that. My style is more mobile than most defenders.¡± ¡°More trash compacter than barricade then¡± Seras surmised. ¡°Trash compactor?¡± One thing Seras was having trouble with when talking to the caravan crew were all the refences and metaphors she peppered through her speech. ¡®Language adaptation¡¯ had its limits and she was still figuring out were they were. ¡°You ever shoved a bunch of trash into a trash can?¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± ¡°Its like that, but the size of a whole building. It presses the trash into a tight cube for transport.¡± Garrett looked thoughtful ¡°That actually sounds pretty handy, I know a few run down neighborhoods back home that could use one of those.¡± ¡°And where¡¯s home for yeah?¡± Seras asked. She had learned that talking to people about local geography helped add detail to her global map. The more she learned the more detail it added. The exact shape of places was still obscured but she now had a floating title of ¡°Storm Kingdom¡± over a set of islands to the southeast of where she was. The words ¡°Smolder Kingdom¡± had similarly appeared to the far north of them. ¡°A little Elvin Forest kingdom on the west coast. Just above that Draconian Empire. My family are all humans, so we lived in the slums of my hometown. I got really lucky with my Life essence. After I make enough to get a full set I plan to go home and set up a clinic, maybe join the adventurer society.¡± On her map along the continents long arcing western coast a marker for an Elvin kingdom appeared along the coast, to the south of that in a massive valley area the words Draconian Empire appeared. ¡°Draconians and Elves are another two of the races on this world? What do they look like?¡± Seras asked. Garrett frowned, ¡°Draconians are big, scaled people, supposedly descended from Dragons.¡± ¡°Like actual dragons, are those real?¡± Garrett nodded ¡°Yeah, they¡¯re one of the most powerful and intelligent inherently magical beasts. They¡¯re just as smart as us, maybe even smarter, some decide to settle and integrate with our society¡¯s, while others remain ¡®wild¡¯ for lack of a better word. You might see them hunting over the desert from time to time, I think Dustin is even friends with a few.¡± ¡°Nova, and these Elvins?¡± Garett looked confused ¡°Elves, or Elf for a single one.¡± He cocked his head ¡°You should know what they look like though, you¡¯ve met Flint.¡± Seras blinked ¡°Flint¡¯s not human?¡± He shook his head ¡°No, he¡¯s an elf. You couldn¡¯t tell?¡± ¡°Yeah¡± Petra agreed with Garett ¡°Its pretty obvious, elves are a lot more delicate looking when compared to humans, or you Celestines. Though all of you look pretty fragile to me.¡± Seras frowned ¡°I thought he just had a bone disease or was starved. Also, I¡¯m not a Celestine.¡± Petra huffed ¡°Well yeah, you¡¯re an Outworlder now, but you were a Celestine before that.¡± ¡°No, I mean that I was never a Celestine. I was human, my hair is just an unnatural color.¡± She blinked, ¡°Right, the color changing bugs in your hair.¡± Garrett took a step back ¡°You have bugs in your hair? Like mites or lice¡± he asked alarmed as he began scratching at his his head. ¡°No, I don¡¯t. They¡¯re tiny machines the size of lice, not bugs.¡± He scratched harder ¡°That¡¯s still creepy.¡± ¡°Just think of it like sand, sand that changes color and forms long strands.¡± ¡°So your hair is either tiny metal bugs, or magic sand?¡± ¡°Its none of those things, that¡¯s just the best analogy I can make. And you can stop itching yourself, they don¡¯t spread.¡± Seras then made a point of pulling out a strand of hair, only for the hair to dissolve it dust on the wind. ¡°They lose power when not attached.¡± Now they both took a massive step back. ¡°You too Petra?¡± Seras asked in mock outrage. ¡°Sorry, but hair that turns into dust is creepier than tiny bugs.¡± She said sympathetically. ¡°Its no grosser than the dead skin cells and dandruff you meat bags are always shedding.¡± ¡°Dead skin?¡± Garrette asked. ¡°Yeah, where¡¯d you think household dust comes from?¡± ¡°From dust!¡± he exclaimed. Seras shrugged ¡°Partially, most of its dead skin. I always thought it was super creepy.¡± Someone then called for Seras and Petra to help lift some heavy luggage out of one of the wagons, and their disturbing conversation ended there. They left Garratt with an expression of growing horror, and Seras chuckled evilly to herself. ¡°Serves you right for calling my hair gross meat bag.¡± She thought to herself. ~~~*~~~ Night fell, they ate a dinner of beans and meat, told jokes, and then went off to bed as temperatures fell dramatically. Once again Seras wandered off to sit and watch the sky. One of the moons was waning, while the other had just reached peak luster. Seras once heard that ancient Ruinites once made-up stories about the images the loose scattering of stars seemed to make up. She looked up the word in her head, Constellation. She called up an image of Ruin¡¯s night sky and compared the two. This one was very different to the one on her world, for one there was no disk of ice and dust around the planet to partially obscure some of it. For another there seemed to be more stars visible in the night sky. Back home Astronomers had said that the Red Scar galaxy was, but a dwarf galaxy compared to others in the local cluster. If Seras had to guess she¡¯d say that this world was likely in a bigger, more densely packed galaxy. Seras watched the cloudy white scar in the sky and assumed that it was this worlds version of the Red scar. According to the net entry about the Red scar, it was actually a sidelong view of the stars of the galactic disk, and was supposedly shifted red because a large nebula was distorting the light reaching them. This world must not have had a large nebula interfering with all the light reaching them, or maybe somehow magic changed the way the night sky worked. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°Can¡¯t sleep?¡± a baritone voice asked from behind her. Seras flinched as Flint stepped out the shadows, she hadn¡¯t even heard him coming. Seras tried to hide her brief scare with a small smile ¡°Don¡¯t need to. I only need to sleep once every week, more if I¡¯m pushing it.¡± He scowled ¡°That sounds awful. I don¡¯t need to sleep much either, but I still enjoy it when we¡¯re at an inn.¡± Seras shrugged ¡°To each their own. I never liked the idea of wasting a whole third of my life just laying there, not thinking, not working. Seemed like a waste.¡± Seras thought about what he said ¡°You don¡¯t need to either, is that a magic thing?¡± ¡°Yeah, having a full set of essences means we aren¡¯t burdened with as many of life¡¯s necessary tasks. We can survive on just spirit coins alone, we can go longer without sleep, and at higher ranks we don¡¯t need to breathe. But sleep is still refreshing, and spirit coins can¡¯t beat a good meal.¡± ¡°You wouldn¡¯t say that if you grew up with the food I had. It¡¯s why I try to eat as little as possible.¡± He scowled and sat on a rock next to her. ¡°I¡¯ve seen you eat, nothing about that is ¡®little¡¯.¡± Seras huffed ¡°That¡¯s different. Back home if I¡¯m low on energy I could just tap in for a quick recharge. But here I have no way of getting power like I used to. So to keep my body from entering low power mode I need to eat more to just barely get a small charge.¡± Even after three meals where she filled her belly as much as she could Seras was only at 12% battery. And being constantly on the verge of low battery was starting to stress her out. ¡°Can you survive with just a little less? Foods tight right now and the men might get bitter if you''re eating up all our rations.¡± Flint said, his voice accusing. Seras glanced at her battery bar. ¡°Maybe, it takes a lot to keep me going, especially if we run into more monsters.¡± He tapped his foot. ¡°Have you tried a spirit coin?¡± ¡°No, I just found out that it was possible to eat money, ¡®sides I¡¯ve only got a handful of bronze ones.¡± He reached into side pouch and passed her a blue grey crystalline coin. Iron spirit coin Seras popped it into her mouth. It dissolved in her mouth and felt like lightning across her tongue. WARNING. Potent magical energy is surging through your system. Increased strain on your magic matrix has resulted in a disconnect between your magical matrix and biomechanical physiology. Condition Soul/body dichotomy has developed. Senses reduced. Movement speed is reduced. Strength is reduced. Cognition is hampered. Time remaining 10min and 34seconds. Seras felt like she was experiencing all the worst parts of a high with none of the happy side effects. ¡°No¡± she slurred. ¡°bad, very bad.¡± The world spun and Seras fell. Emergency shut down engaged. Energy purge in progress. 10%,37%,58%,89%, 100%. Iron rank energy successfully purged. Restart in progress. Loading¡­ Loading¡­ Restart successful. Time elapsed 36 seconds. Someone was shaking Seras, she opened her eyes and saw Flint above her. ¡°I¡¯m fine. Stop shaking me.¡± He stopped ¡°You were having a seizure.¡± He accused. ¡°Impossible, I had a cranial implant put in to prevent seizures, strokes, and aneurysms.¡± Flint glared at her as she pushed herself back up. ¡°You were on the ground shaking and thrashing. Your aura was even fluctuating like a seizure victim.¡± ¡°Aura¡¯s flicker when you¡¯re having a seizure? You can feel my aura? Auras are real?¡± He sighed ¡°damn Outworlders, give me a heart attack one minute, and then pepper me with obvious questions after.¡± Seras scowled ¡°It was your damn coin, what did you think would happen.¡± ¡°Worst case, you¡¯d get a rush of power then feel bad afterwards, best case you regained ¡®charge¡¯ and stopped eating all our food. What was that about a ¡®cranial implant¡¯?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a thing in my skull, my brains still made of meat so I had it put in to prevent shit that could kill me.¡± He frowned ¡°Seems paranoid.¡± ¡°Life¡¯s short, and there¡¯s no way I¡¯m gonna let some unpredictable illness kill me. Doesn¡¯t it freak you out that one day your body might just fuck up and give you cancer, or that your brain might randomly decide to kill you?¡± ¡°No, but I¡¯m bronze rank, those things don¡¯t happen to us. Plenty of people live with those threats though, it¡¯s a part of life.¡± ¡°Yeah, well, I had a choice not to live with those threats. If I didn¡¯t die in space then I probably would have lived until I was a hundred and fifty. Or until something else killed me.¡± Seras said with a shrug. ¡°And yet you¡¯re concerned with wasting time on sleep. You realize that¡¯s the life span of silver ranker.¡± ¡°Really, do higher rankers live longer?¡± ¡°Yes¡± Flint said, as if that should have been obvious. Seras recalled her conversation with Dustin, he was apparently sixty-six but only looked forty ¡°How long?¡± ¡°Depends on the rank. Iron has a minimal effect, mostly just an easier time with aging if they don¡¯t rank up fast enough. Bronze slows things down by ten to twenty years, and we¡¯ll still be hale well into our twilight years. Silver is where the divide becomes pretty stark, if Dustin or I broke through we would de-age twenty to thirty years, and would remain that youthful until we began to approach one hundred. Even then we won¡¯t look over fifty even when we pass away. Gold ranker live for several centuries, and diamond rankers are supposedly immortal.¡± ¡°Immortality¡± Seras said with wonder as she thought about that, to never grow old, or die. Death loomed large over everyone on Ruin, even with all their advanced medicines and technology their population was slowly declining. Shrinking year by year. Natural deaths were rare and only seen in the ultra-wealthy. For most people they could expect either an accidental death, murder, or good old-fashioned suicide. Seras knew that she was born to die an early death, and she had always chafed at that idea. It was why she had been so obsessed with becoming the best Merc Ruin had ever seen. Sure the Merc life offered money, power, and respect, but it was the idea of becoming an immortalized legend that really pushed Seras to glide along the edge between life and death. Pushing herself into more and more dangerous jobs so that she could spend her credits replacing her weak flesh with the cold dependability of steel, and then doing it all again. Flint saw the thoughts behind her eyes, or maybe read her aura which she guessed was a thing she had to worry about. He scoffed at her ¡°Diamond is a long way off, especially for a woman who refuses to accept that she¡¯s in a world of magic.¡± Seras scowled at Flint, ¡°Who told you that?¡± ¡°Who do you think? I¡¯m his second in command, Dustin tells me everything. You¡¯re too afraid to grasp for power just because its magic and not some metal abomination.¡± Seras stood up. ¡°I don¡¯t need magic. I handled that monster pretty well on my own.¡± He stood up and met her glare ¡°You surprised it only because it was too distracted trying to eat me, and you only succeeded because I suppressed it¡¯s bronze rank aura. On your own you¡¯ll fail and die.¡± Seras crossed her arms ¡°The fucks your problem anyway. I saved your life and you¡¯ve been nothing but hostile to me. A little gratitude would be appreciated.¡± ¡°One doesn¡¯t thank a viper for biting his enemies instead of him.¡± ¡°You think I¡¯m a viper? Ready to turn on you at the first chance.¡± ¡°You were ready to ditch us in the middle of the night because we didn¡¯t immediately trust the metal freak in our midst. You were even going to try and kill Dustin when he confronted you about being an Outworlder. I¡¯ve seen people like you before, you¡¯re a killer, and you¡¯re only out for yourself. Dustin can trust you all he wants, but you¡¯ll never return it, not when it really counts.¡± ¡°Freak?¡± Seras asked incredulously. ¡°Yes, freak. You take the gifts the Gods gave you and squander them; you replace them with metal and wire and call it better.¡± ¡°There are no Gods where I come from, ours are all dead. They killed each other and left us with a ruined war-torn world. I am a killer, and I am callous, but I am not a freak. I¡¯m just the product of my environment. You wouldn¡¯t be any different if you had been born on Ruin.¡± Seras growled out. Flint eyes blazed in righteous indignation ¡°no I wouldn¡¯t, I would have tried to change things for the better.¡± ¡°Even if it killed you¡± Seras challenged. ¡°Nothing worth doing is ever easy.¡± Seras scoffed, ¡°It¡¯s been my experience that you can¡¯t put out an inferno by throwing yourself onto it. All you¡¯ll do is burn up and die young.¡± She sighed ¡°Whatever, I¡¯m not justifying myself to someone who has no idea what he¡¯s talking about. Let me enjoy the night in peace.¡± Flint glared at her a moment longer, ready to argue further, before he stormed off. Stomping back towards the camp. Seras felt her shoulders sag, and she collapsed back into a sitting position. She called up the alerts from when she ate the spirit coin and tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. Soul/body dichotomy. Harmful energies have exacerbated the differences between your normal rank magical matrix and your bronze ranked biomechanical physiology has resulted in a disconnect. Continued exposure, or exposure to higher ranked energies could result in your soul permanently being juxtaposed from your body, resulting in death. Potions, spirit coins, and certain rituals will have no effect until the Soul-body dichotomy has been resolved. Seras felt her heart skip a beat as she read the report over and over again. Was this a result of her body being rebuilt from magic, or was this a preexisting condition that she had never come across. What even was a magical matrix? ~~~*~~~ Flint did not notice Dustin approach and eavesdrop on his argument with the Viper. Dustin had spent years refining his aura control to a level Flint just couldn¡¯t match. Every day that man spent in the saddle he had been pushing his aura to the limit of its rank, while Flint reached a general level of proficiency and stopped. Even if he approached aura training with the same vigor tomorrow, he would never catch up to Dustin¡¯s decades of experience. He had only noticed Dustin when Dustin wanted him to. He had sent a spike of tightly controlled aura Flint¡¯s way just as Flint was deciding to show the Outworlder the power of a bronze ranker when compared to a metal freak. The spike had pierced his aura and forced Flint to think about what he was about to do. Flint turned away from the girl and stomped towards Dustin. Flint was about to growl at him for spiking his aura when the Smolder held up a hand and beckoned for silence. Flint knew Dustin well, and knew when the man was being his longtime friend, and when he was acting as his boss. This was Boss Dustin, the Blazing Outrider, the man who had helped Flint storm the stronghold of a silver rank bandit lord. Flint kept his mouth shut, and Dustin gestured back towards the troublesome Outworlder. Flint saw that ironclad defiance leave her posture and aura as she collapsed onto the ground and stared off into the distance. Flint had seen Outworlders do this before, it was usually some sort of invisible guide, be it a knowledgeable pixie or a floating tome. They were usually secretive about it so Flint and Dustin didn¡¯t ask. He felt the turmoil and bubbling panic in her aura, and Flint almost felt bad for pressing her. Almost. Her aura was an open book to them, and he had felt other things in it that set his nerves on edge. Dustin then led Flint away from the Outworlder. They stalked off into the night, though the darkness wasn¡¯t an issue to either of them as they both had ocular abilities that let them make their way through the brush. ¡°Its rude to eavesdrop¡± Flint muttered as soon as they were out of her earshot. ¡°I needed to make sure you didn¡¯t do anything you¡¯d regret.¡± Dustin said smoothly, his burning eyes piercing Flint¡¯s own. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t regret dealing with a person like her. I can see her aura; I can see all the death in it. The world would be a better place if we just dealt with her right here and now.¡± ¡°Or maybe the world would be worse because you never gave her a chance to be better. I can¡¯t see what you do, but I¡¯ve got a good feeling about her.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see it.¡± ¡°No? You heard it yourself, she¡¯s the byproduct of a harsh world, one that I think might be more deadly to the weak than ours. If her world shaped her into what she is, then this one might just change her for the better. Plenty of Outworlders take this new life as a chance to be the person they always wished they could be.¡± ¡°You think she can change?¡± ¡°I do, her heart isn¡¯t inherently evil, just hardened to the world. Self-interested and callous because no one ever cared for her. With the right influence she might just surprise you.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t see that happening.¡± ¡°Then stop antagonizing her and let me show you.¡± Flint scowled ¡°Why bother, she already tried to leave us once, and she plans to ditch us at the next rock. Let her be someone else¡¯s problem. We¡¯ve done enough.¡± Dustin frowned ¡°When you find someone in a bad spot and decide to help your responsible for their wellbeing. Whether that¡¯s an elf who was back stabbed by his own possie, or a woman who was buck naked in the desert after being reborn. I didn¡¯t stop at patching your wounds Flint, I helped you bring that bandit to justice and deal with the corrupt Ranger possie, And I won''t stop at clothing Seras and escorting her to civilization.¡± ¡°Are you deaf, she doesn¡¯t want your help. She wants to leave.¡± ¡°She¡¯s not used to generosity, and it makes her uncomfortable. But I¡¯ve got a feeling that when we leave Karstess she¡¯ll be there waiting for us.¡± ¡°She¡¯s trouble, more than we can handle.¡± Flint accused. Dusitn smiled ¡°Nothing worth doing was ever easy my friend.¡± Flint scowled as his own words were thrown back at him. He turned and promptly stomped off for the other side of the camp. If Dustin wanted to play mentor to an Outworlder then he could do it on his own, he wasn¡¯t getting any help from Flint in this matter. Ch19 Karstess After their fight on the second night Flint kept his distance, which was fine by Seras. In the mornings Seras tried to eat less, one because she felt bad for digging into the dwindling food supplies, and two because cramming that much food down her throat was exhausting. She ate just enough to bump her battery up an extra percent. Seras once again joined Dustin on his Heidel Jesse and he answered as many questions as he could. Their conversation swayed back and forth, between her talking about her world, to him telling her about this one. Seras was becoming more comfortable with the idea of magic and finding more essences, and awakening stones. But the idea still nagged at her mind. When Seras first absorbed the Tech essence, she had been naked, alone, and scared. Seras had slotted the tech essence in an attempt to eke out any possible advantage she could get her hands on. But now the immediate danger had passed, and Seras was learning that her augs gave her an advantage over most people. She could work with that. Seras could once again find her way and rise. She just needed time. That¡¯s what Seras told herself, but when they passed through the pass carved by the power of a Diamond rank essence user Seras found that her own words rang hollow. No matter how high she rose she could never be the equal to anyone who had the power to carve millions of tons of stone like it was wet clay. Immortality weighed on her mind. To be free of death and its inevitable embrace. It was a heady thought. Hours into their journey the rock walls that had boxed them in dropped away and they entered into a massive bowl-shaped valley. ¡°This is where it fell.¡± Dustin said gravelly. ¡°Where what fell?¡± Seras asked, dreading the answer. ¡°The diamond ranked monster. This region shouldn¡¯t have enough mana to manifest a diamond ranked monster, but the labyrinth complicates everything. We get worse monster surges than anywhere else in the world. More monsters, higher ranks than normal, we can even see diamond ranked monsters during bad surges.¡± ¡°Monster surges are that event where more monsters than ever spawn and go crazy?¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s a deadly time for civilians. Typically places outside the Labyrinths reach have hundreds of little towns and villages, small cities that rise along trade routes. Here only the most heavily fortified cities withstand the surge. That¡¯s why all the cities here dig into the sides of mountains, because anything less would be too little.¡± ¡°There¡¯s gotta still be towns and communities outside of the cities? A city can¡¯t survive on its own.¡± ¡°There are, mostly clustered near the cities themselves. And plenty try their hand further off, but those tend to be the ones who get wiped out during the surge. Small mining communities desperately trying to excavate a new vein of ore before the next surge comes to wipe their towns away. But for the most part the peoples of the five deserts hide in their cities until the surge is over, then the adventures clear out the monsters so that they can return to their homes. The last few however have been coming later and later, and that leads to mistakes.¡± Seras nodded as she stared off to the far side of the valley where another crack in the rock walls began. ~~~*~~~ They crossed the whole valley during the third day, the crew and Heidels were forced to endure the higher temps within the valleys bowl, and were haggard by the end of the day. Seras herself didn¡¯t feel the full brunt of the heat, a benefit of being able to adjust her sense for heat. And Dustin as a Smolder would have been perfectly fine even if it were twice as hot. There was a small pond where someone had dammed up a little creek, and the caravan crew cooled off by jumping in. Petra, who looked like a wet cat with all her fur soaked through, tried to get Seras to join them. But an explanation about electronics and water curbed her enthusiasm. It wasn¡¯t nearly as bad as Seras made it seem, she¡¯d be an idiot to let water kill her, but she didn¡¯t feel like jumping in. On the fourth day they crossed a broad valley whose surface had been repeatedly carved by the dried out bed of hundreds of braided streams that spread out from the mountains in big fans. Seras nearly got caught in a dried stream bed when a flash flood ripped through. She had heard the rumbling, but dismissed the sound as she picked out little blue ¡®water quintessence gems¡¯. But a warning from Petra gave Seras enough warning to jump straight out of the stream bed. Seras was impressed by how fast the water rushed through the stream, and how quickly it ended. When it was over she stepped back in to continue picking water quintessence, this time her hearing set to a higher sensitivity. On the fifth day the solitary butte of Karstess was visible. It sat about center in the middle a great flat golden expanse. It looked like a giant table of rock had been magically lifted hundreds of meters into the air within the sea of grass. She had articles on geology downloaded and ready to peruse, but something about this rocky block seemed uncanny. ¡°That doesn¡¯t look natural.¡± ¡°Its just a rock.¡± Dustin said. ¡°I mean it doesn''t look like it formed naturally. Usually buttes are carved by erosion, or are solidified magma chambers of long-gone volcanoes. That doesn¡¯t look like either.¡± Dustin turned to Flint at his side. ¡°Flint?¡± He scowled ¡°The girl has a point. The magic society noticed that many of the astral spaces located near the surface tend to have unnatural rock formations directly above. You know how Calcit looks like a massive slab of earth tilted upwards? We¡¯ve got evidence to suggest that the earth only began to rise after the astral space attached itself to our world about half a million years ago.¡± Dustin looked curious ¡°you learn something new every day.¡± He said as the rest of the caravan crested the hill and began to make their way down. ¡°Well let¡¯s get a move on then, if we make good time then we might make it just before night fall.¡± Unfortunately several roads had been washed out by flash floods from the recent monsoon season, and where the land dipped the roads became wet and filled with mud. Even with Flint and Petra¡¯s powers to command the earth, and the extraordinary strength of magically enhanced muscles, it took an hour each time a wagon got stuck. By the end of the fifth day they were only able to reach one of the smallest towns on the periphery of Karstess¡¯ influence. It was sundown by the time they arrived muddy and tired, so Seras didn¡¯t spend much time exploring the little hamlet. There wasn¡¯t enough room in the small inn for all of them so Seras ended up watching the wagons with Dustin, Petra, Dustin¡¯s nephew Dallas, and Flint. Some of the locals who knew Dustin came out to share their fire and tell stories, Seras had no context for anything they were talking about but enjoyed the stories all the same. Something to do with mud elementals and pig monsters. The sun set fully, and their guests left for their own homes, which left just the four of them. ¡°What can I expect from a city carved into a mountain like that?¡± Seras asked, jerking a thumb at Karstess. Dustin frowned. ¡°It¡¯s a pretty normal city for this region. Though the astral space below gives it a certain herbal touch.¡± ¡°Herbal touch?¡± Seras asked, deciding not to question how an extradimensional space could ever be considered a normal city feature. ¡°Yeah, the city gets plenty of water and plant quintessence from the space, so there¡¯s lots of greenery. But not normal plants like grass or flowers, just the plants that are good for alchemy or cooking. Gives the place a zesty sort of smell.¡± ¡°Why only those kinds of plants?¡± Dustin looked to Flint, who had been studying odd bits of magic off and on for years. Flint sighed melodramatic. ¡°Astral space¡¯s often affect the environments they¡¯re attached to, especially if people keep the apertures open 24/7 and extract tons of resources. This space manifested as a place overgrown with fungi and magical herbs, so any water pulled from it had a much more potent effect on the growth of similar plants. The people of Kartess realized they could start growing herbs and spices from their window sills and began planting them all over.¡± ¡°They grow even underground, how does that work?¡± ¡°Sun stones and solar quintessence in the roof.¡± He grunted. ¡°What are the cities like on your world?¡± Petra asked. Dustin and his nephew leaned in like he was interested, while Flint looked like he would rather not hear it. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Hard to explain, they¡¯re¡­bright all the time, even at night the city is lit up in neon lights. The building are made of glass and steel, towering hundreds of stories high, with glass bridges and parks suspended high up.¡± Flint scoffed ¡°Even with magic no one can build that high, I don¡¯t believe that a magicless world like yours could do it when we haven¡¯t¡± Seras scowled at him, ¡°Yes we can, concrete, steel I-beams, and millennia of architecture makes the process child¡¯s-play. I¡¯ve seen a building go up in just a little over a year.¡± Flint scoffed ¡°Sure.¡± Dustin glared at Flint. ¡°It is impressive that you can do all that without magic. Honestly when I first heard about worlds without magic I imagined people in animal hides banging rocks.¡± Seras huffed ¡°we imagine the same about worlds without science and technology.¡± ¡°We¡¯re doing just fine without it.¡± Flint grumbled. Challenge accepted. Seras cocked her head to the side. ¡°Oh yeah, tell me, what¡¯s the infant mortality rate? Because for us it rarer for a women to have a miscarriage than win the lotto.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a lotto?¡± Petra asked. ¡°A scam poor people buy into on the rare chance that they get the winning ticket and get rich.¡± ¡°Like a lottery?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°exactly like one, did lotto not translate?¡± Dustin and Petra shook their heads. Seras added it to the list of shit that didn¡¯t translate. ¡°What was that?¡± Dallas asked. Everyone looked around. ¡°What was what?¡± Seras asked, wondering what the kid saw. ¡°That look in your eye, it was like you were looking past everyone.¡± The boy explained. ¡°I¡¯ve noticed that myself.¡± Dustin added ¡°Thought it was a thousand-yard stare from some trauma, but now I¡¯m not so sure.¡± ¡°I was just amending a list of things that don¡¯t translate.¡± Seras explained. ¡°Like a mental list?¡± ¡°Sort of, it¡¯s a real list that I see though. You know with words and stuff.¡± ¡°Is this one of your Outworlder things?¡± ¡°Kind of, its just a function of my HUD.¡± Then she realized that HUD was on the ¡®Doesn¡¯t translate list¡¯. ¡°A heads-up display, it¡¯s a bunch of little icons at the edge of my vision that I can open up.¡± ¡°Open up, like a book.¡± Dustin asked. ¡°Something like that, I can open up things to read, or watch recordings, or do some quick math. It also tells me the time and day, and if I were back home I could check what the weather would be like or send texts to acquaintances.¡± ¡°And texts are like letters, but shorter, and you get replies almost instantly.¡± Dustin asked and Seras nodded. She had mentioned to him on the third day of travel how much she missed being able to shoot someone a text and get a reply within seconds. Her net withdrawal wasn¡¯t so bad with all the data she had stored, but the lack of social connectivity was starting to weigh on her mind. Dallas still looked befuddled ¡°So you¡¯re seeing things that no one else can see. And that¡¯s normal where you come from.¡± ¡°Yup.¡± Dustin clapped a hand on Dallas¡¯ shoulder ¡°Don¡¯t think of it too hard, all Outworlders sound a little crazy from the outside.¡± He turned to Seras ¡°Does your power also help identify things, some Outworlder abilities allow them to know certain things about objects?¡± Seras wanted to say no, but then she realized that she actually did have one. One she had just been dismissing as normal. The floating tags she was used to seeing over everything and everyone wasn¡¯t something that should exist in a world without computers or net codes. ¡°Now that you mention it, I do see floating name tags and stuff when I look at things.¡± Dallas looked wary ¡°And you¡¯re only now realizing it?¡± ¡°Where I come from its normal for people¡¯s name to be in a little floating box above their heads. Dallas Eugen Westbrook.¡± This prompted the boy to look over his head for any mysterious tags while everyone else laughed. ~~~*~~~ On the morning of the sixth day Seras got a proper look at the town. Mud brick walls with flat roofs that collected the rainwater into a barrel. Small windows high up on the wall with beautiful, glazed tile floors. Seras was used to tiles being uniform and white, but these ones were a riot of oranges, yellows, turquoise, and magenta. At the center of the village there was a water fountain that was brimming with crystal clear water. According to one of the village women Seras talked to, buried pipes from Karstess carried the water to the all the villages around it. The villages closer to the city even got to benefit from the strange properties of the water and could grow crops. This far out only prairie grass could grow so they raised livestock. Big lizard things with four short legs and a barrel chests grazed about, occasionally mowing. Even stranger than the lizard-cows were the weird, shaggy, dog sized, things that bleated and had demonic looking square eyes. Something called a ¡®goat¡¯. The lizard-cows Seras could get behind, but there was something profoundly wrong about the goats that Seras couldn¡¯t place her finger on. Another pleasant surprise about the village was that the villagers had cats and dogs. They weren¡¯t breeds Seras recognized from all old net vids she watched, but that was to be expected. To her utter delight the dogs and cat felt exactly like what she had imagined them to feel like. One white furred cat with large black donut prints in its fur decided to make Seras his seat for the morning. And it was the best thing Seras had ever experienced in this new world. ¡°Do they not have cats where you¡¯re from?¡± Dallas asked as he saw her contented expression. ¡°Uncle Dustin said Cats were a universal constant.¡± Seras frowned ¡°We¡­did. Not anymore. You can buy robot ones, but I don¡¯t think they¡¯re the same. Those ones are machines with a set order of instructions, they won¡¯t act up unless they¡¯re following orders, and no matter what you tell yourself they¡¯re not the same.¡± ¡°That¡¯s sad.¡± ¡°Definitely¡± Seras agreed. He sat next to her and scratched the cats muzzle, and it began to purr like an engine. ¡°Do you miss your old world?¡± he asked. Seras frowned ¡°You know, you¡¯re the first person to ask. Everyone else just expects me to adapt and forget about my old one.¡± He shrugged, ¡°They¡¯ve all been on the road for a long time, so I think they forgot what home sickness feels like. I¡¯ve only been away for half a year, so I get it.¡± ¡°Where is home for you anyway?¡± Seras asked, deflecting his question. ¡°Valis, it¡¯s a Smolder kingdom far to the north of here. We actually get winters there, but even when it snows there¡¯s plenty of hot springs and geysers to warm up in. Some are even cool enough for non-Smolders to enjoy.¡± He looked melancholic. ¡°Why¡¯d you leave?¡± ¡°My uncle is a kind man, he could have used all the earnings he made to make his business¡¯ flourish. Instead he spent his fortune on essences to send home, my father, my mother, all my uncles and aunties, even a bunch of my older cousins. He even sent enough monster cores to get most of them to bronze rank. I wanted to repay him, and maybe see some of the world he¡¯s been telling me about since I was a kid.¡± Seras smirked ¡°You still are a kid.¡± ¡°No¡± Dallas said defensively, ¡°I turned Sixteen last month. That makes me almost a man, especially since I already have an essence.¡± Seras held her hands up, which upset the cat and she quickly went back to petting. ¡°Alright, guess I was wrong. Hard to tell since you and Dustin are the first Smolders I¡¯ve seen. I was just lifting chits at that age and here you are with magic powers and seeing the world. Which, uh, essence?¡± Seras asked faltering at the last bit as she wondered if essences were considered private matters. Whether it was rude or not Dallas lit up, literally, his eyes blazed. ¡°It¡¯s the scimitar essence, just like Dustin¡¯s. When I passed the essence test he gave it to me as a gift before bringing me along.¡± ¡°Essence test?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a short ritual to test whether you¡¯re ready for magic or not?¡± he explained. Seras sat up, the cat then decided it had enough of her and left. ¡°What happens if you aren¡¯t ready and absorb magic anyway?¡± she hadn¡¯t taken any test before shoving a random shard in her neck. Dallas frowned ¡°Then I guess it wont work, or something.¡± He looked her way ¡°You¡¯ve got nothing to worry about though, the test is to see when a kid is old enough, not adults.¡± ¡°Oh¡± Seras said dumbly, she reached back for the cat, only to realize it was gone. She shoved down her disappointment. ¡°Well, that¡¯s probably enough stalling. Time to see this Karstess place.¡± She said as she stood up. Dallas stood up as well, a light smile on his face, before a sudden realization made his smile fall. ¡°You never did answer my question?¡± Seras knew what question he meant. ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know. It would be hard to ever miss a place like that. But it was still home you know.¡± ¡°Do you have anyone waiting on you?¡± he asked. ¡°No¡± not anyone who would hear how Blackiron died in a blaze of glory and feel sad at least. Everyone she considered a close friend knew what her life¡¯s goal was. And to the people of Ruin she had achieved that and more. It was only Seras who knew she had failed and was now hopelessly lost. ~~~*~~~ It was midday when they finally saw the gates of Karstess. They were imposing, standing nearly ten meters high, with carved stone columns thrumming with power. The doors themselves were wide open and carts, wagons, and foot traffic were flowing in and out. Instead of holding them outside to crowd the entrance way Dustin and his caravan were led inside to an impressively professional looking processing warehouse. Human men and women with dusky skin and silky black hair were waving glowing sticks over every nook and cranny of the wagons. When one wand lit up, they would draw out a new one and double check the area, checking things off on a checkboard. An imposing man with glossy black scaled skin, a long-pointed face, and a crown of horns instead of hair was ordering everyone about. Instead of shying away from the man, or at least looking unnerved like everyone else, Dustin raised his hand and greeted the man who was a whole head, shoulders, and chest taller than him. ¡°Is that you Dustin you little shit, I can¡¯t see anything under that hat of yours.¡± The draconian heckled. Seras decided that he must have been a draconian since that was the only thing he could possibly be looking the way he did. ¡°Azoss, it has been too long.¡± ¡°Not long enough you bastard¡± the Draconian growled ¡°I¡¯ve only just earned back what I lost to you after our last game.¡± ¡°I see, it must be weighing you down, I¡¯ll be happy to help your poor purse and take some of it off you again.¡± Dustin said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. ¡°This bastard!¡± the draconian Azoss roared, he glared at the rest of their group. ¡°I see some new faces.¡± Dustin¡¯s face lit up ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve been doing work in the Glass Sands, this one here is my Nephew Dallas, I¡¯ve been showing him the ropes.¡± He put a hand on Dallas¡¯ shoulder to bring him forward. The Draconian bent over and gave the young lad a discerning gaze, ¡°Well, Dustin¡¯s finally introducing me to this extended family I keep hearing about, he talks about you all nonstop.¡± ¡°He does?¡± Dallas asked guilessly. ¡°Oh yes, are you the one who took his Heidal on a joy ride, or the one who dug up an earth essence?¡± ¡°Those are my brothers sir, Austin and Pierre. They both married last spring.¡± The Draconian rubbed his chin. ¡°Yes, something about some Leonid girls right? Their father won the land in a card game and had no idea what to do with it.¡± ¡°That¡¯s them, Triss and Chriss, my brothers broke earth on the land and are on their way to getting it productive.¡± ¡°I heard it was all rocky.¡± ¡°It was, but my brothers are both iron rank with earth and plant essences. They made short work of it.¡± ¡°Yes¡± the Draconian mused and then glared at Dunstin, ¡°I was there when your uncle used the winnigs from our little game to buy those essences. He¡¯s a fool to spend so much on farmers and ranchers instead of his own company.¡± Dustin smirked ¡°I have my reasons.¡± He said mysteriously. He and the Draconian then talked for a little longer, only sparing Seras a dismissive glance. Seras noticed the displeased look Flint was giving the Draconian. Seras realized that Dustin¡¯s proud uncle act had served more than one purpose. The Draconian was so focused on Dallas that he ignored Seras entirely. It saved Seras from having to come up with a story, or interacting with the draconian at all. Once Azoss was done speaking with Dustin they were waved through the gate and allowed into the greater city. There the cramped stone room opened up, and Seras felt her jaw drop. She had been expecting cold passages, tight corridors, and an overall claustrophobic feeling. Instead the stone passageway opened up into a stunning lush city. The streets were wider than she had been expecting for an underground city were space should have been tight, and were hemmed in by imposing town homes that leaned over the street with each level. The buildings were carved from salmon and fuchsia colored sandstone, or maybe it was some sort of magic sandstone variant? Every window had a planter box that was overflowing with greenery, and fruit laden vines. And the whole city smelled like a spice market. As they continued along one side of the street homes fell away revealing a gaping chasm. The road passed right alongside of the chasm and slowly snaked its way downwards. And right in the center of the pit defying the laws of gravity, or at least as Seras understood them, was a pillar of water flowing upwards. She had to do a quick optic reboot to make sure she was seeing things right. It flowed up the whole length of the pit all the way to the top of the domed ceiling where it then pooled above them and flowed out to small streams where gravity took back over and it fell into large aqueducts. ¡°How¡¯s it compare to the cities in your world¡± Flint asked snidely. Dustin shot Flint a displeased look. Seras closed her mouth. ¡°It¡¯s certainly, unique, I have to say I wasn¡¯t expecting much, but count me impressed.¡± Dallas beamed ¡°Yeah, this is almost as cool as Basal.¡± Seras blinked ¡°Basal?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a big city to the east built around three big mesas.¡± ¡°Around like on the base, or like around the actual cliff wall.¡± Dallas smirked ¡°The last one.¡± ¡°Nova¡± Seras murmured to herself. They eventually pulled away from the corkscrew road around the chasm and onto a small Boulevard that led them to a warehouse district. They pulled up to warehouse with professional looking guards, and were then promptly let in. Seras then helped unload the wagons, her cybernetically enhanced strength allowing her to move the seriously heavy things along with Dustin and Flint. She had already gotten a peak at the cargo days ago, myriad quintessence, luminous quintessence, and a padded crate full of strange apparently magical devices. It wasn¡¯t much, but Seras was told that it was all extremely highly valued. That was Dustin¡¯s business model, exotic, expensive magical resources bought for cheap and then moved to another town where a contact of Dustin¡¯s would buy it all up. Dustin didn¡¯t even bother with the small quick trades, instead using downtime for adventurer work and training. It seemed like a prime target to Seras, but Dustin was smart, he dealt in things that were below the notice of silver rank criminals, and could more than handle the Bronze rank bandits. Between himself, Flint, and a diverse crew of odd powers Dustin could handle any but the most determined bronze rankers. It put a lid on profit margins, but that was still enough to give everyone a hefty payday. Even Seras, for the little she had been able to help out earned a bag of fifty iron coins. ¡°even if you were only with us a week you more than deserve this. He won¡¯t ever admit it, but if you hadn¡¯t stepped in Flint would be at least down an arm, or worse. Thank you, I hope our paths cross again when you¡¯ve found your footing. Until then Seras.¡± Dustin said after the work was done. She accepted the money and then offered a fist for Dustin to bump. ¡°Uh, I uh,¡± he said as he stared awkwardly at her fist. Seras rolled her eyes ¡°Your supposed to bump it.¡± she instructed. He did so, and Seras let her arm drop. ¡°Its been good meeting ya.¡± She said before tuning to leave. She had a city to explore, and opportunity to seize. Ch20 Power Sixth months before the Volta job Seras pulled off on the turn before Broadway freeway, slipping her bike past two cars that weren¡¯t going fast enough for her liking. Which was to say as fast as her bike could. She popped up onto the sidewalk and revved around the beaters, narrowly avoiding the pedestrians. There were some angered shouts, but Seras ¡®Blackiron¡¯ Cross didn¡¯t give a shit. Seras only slowed down to a less heart thumping speed when her destination. ¡®Sin and Misery¡¯ was a seedy looking place on the outside and was hard to find on any map. But any merc worth their chrome knew of it. holographic dance floors, booze to short circuit a liver implant, and some of the highest class joytoys around, were just a few of the dive¡¯s attractions. However today Seras was here for business, not pleasure. She slipped her bike, a sleek black Jetfusion 1800 S-series, into a VIP spot. A force field snapping up into place to prevent any street punks from getting any ideas. Down the alley, and into an abandoned maintenance tunnel Seras strode right up to the bouncer who was dealing with some overstuffed punk. His hair was neon green, and done up in spikes that went out of style years ago. His jacket was raggedy, and not in the good way, his shoes looked brand name but were obvious knock offs, and worse yet he kept his iron shoved down the waistline of his high-vis shorts. He was only sporting the bare minimum of chrome to survive, and he was all up in Rocker¡¯s face. ¡°The fucks wrong with you, I did a job for Jackle yesterday, let me in.¡± Seras couldn¡¯t help herself, and laughed, he wheeled around reaching for his iron, but she had her gun in his face faster than he could pull his little peashooter out. His eyes went wide. Seras smirked ¡°This bar¡¯s a place for real Mercs punk. Jackle¡¯s a third-rate burglar, and you aren¡¯t even that.¡± she jerked a thumb over her shoulder ¡°Fuck off, before Rocker here needs to clean your meat off the wall.¡± He stared at the gun, then at her. ¡°Blackiron.¡± He mumbled before he scooted around her and ran. Seras snorted. ¡°You really shouldn¡¯t let punks like that hold up the door.¡± She chided towards Rocker. Rocker grinned, exposing row upon row of serrated metal shark''s teeth. He crossed his arms, two massive titanium reinforced arm augs that could punch through concrete. ¡°I was planning to make an example out of him, send a signal to the rest of the riff-raff that we don¡¯t play around here.¡± ¡°I guess you¡¯ll need to find a new mark then.¡± ¡°Nah, he¡¯ll be telling all his friends how Blackiron held him at gun point for weeks. It¡¯ll do for now. And keep my doorway clean for a little longer.¡± Seras shrugged, she stepped forward, patting a hand on Rocker¡¯s colossal shoulder, and walked into the bar proper. The smell and noise of a busy bar hit her senses in a rush of air as the door slid closed behind her. In the little hall of the entrance way were bullet proof cases with the custom weapons of over a hundred legends. Nightmare¡¯s iconic glossy black mask, the hacker R3L1C¡¯s bulky tech gloves, and even one of Bankston¡¯s silver arms. It was a memorial to all the great legends who patronized Sin and Misery, and one day Seras would be among them. She had already donated a pair of black guns to the bar owner for when her time came. She had made it, now she just needed to make sure she out shown everyone who came before her, to become the benchmark by which everyone after was measured. Seras stepped up to the bar and a bald woman with and third eye implant in her forehead stepped up. ¡°Cross, it''s been a while, new gear?¡± Mystra asked with a mischievous grin. Seras held up an arm showing off a bicep, with a mental command the RGB lines across her skin lit up. the lines were a relic from the time before good smart skin became available on the open market and most augs could only simulate human skin in static patches. Now they were the maker¡¯s mark of high-end gear, each company having their own unique marks for their clientele to show off their wealth. Mystra¡¯s three eyes bulged ¡°Wow, is that?¡± Seras smirked ¡°Yup, full suite too.¡± Mystra crossed her tattooed arms ¡°Biolite, mil-grade Biolite. Is it the silver package?¡± ¡°No, I could only get my hands on the Bronze set, the silver¡¯s too well guarded.¡± Seras made fist ¡°But with this and few more jobs under my belt getting the silver is only a matter of time.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Leave some glory for the rest of us Blackiron.¡± Seras smirked ¡°No¡± she said plainly. Mystra threw her head back and howled with a deep throaty laugh, ¡°At least you¡¯re honest. Jake¡¯s already booked a private booth for your meeting, lucky number seven. Want a drink before you go in?¡± ¡°Of course, can¡¯t go into a meeting all stiff.¡± She set her hands on the bar, ¡°What¡¯chu drinking then?¡± Seras put her own arms on the bar and leaned in ¡°Do you even need to ask.¡± She asked softly. Mystra stood up ¡°One Blackiron coming up.¡± she turned and began pulling bottle, all from the top shelf. Whiskey so dark it looked black, vermouth, and three of Mystra''s special ingredients in unlabeled bottles, when it was done she shook the concoction and poured into a glass. ¡°To glory¡± Seras toasted before she downed it in one gulp. It wasn¡¯t actually her favorite drink, but when you had one named after you the flavor wasn¡¯t the only thing you savored. Seras set the glass on the table and sauntered to the side of the bar where the private booths were lined. She shot her ID over the door¡¯s computer and it slid open for her. Inside were three others, all just as heavily modded as Seras. The largest of the group, Heavy, waved her in. ¡°You were almost late Cross.¡± Heavy was a fitting name for the man before her. Larger than even Rocker at the front door, Heavy had built himself around the old altruism ¡°Bigger is Better¡±. He was nearly two tons of metal and raw power, and often found himself as the spearhead to their little team since there were few doors sturdy enough to withstand him. He was much taller than the booth and had to hunch over to fit. It would have been comical if he weren¡¯t so dammed intimidating. ¡°Come on Heavy, you know I¡¯m never late.¡± Seras said in lieu of greeting as she stepped in. Heavy took up a whole side of the booth, and the other bench was occupied, so instead she leaned against the privacy field like it was an ordinary wall. Seras glanced towards the rest of the crew and nodded. Each one of them exuded cold confidence, no fidgeting, no talking. Just calm professionalism. They waited. They waited some more. Their professionalism broke. Everyone had the glazed look in their eyes of people browsing the net when their potential contractor finally deigned to show. The rooms holographic projector flicked on, and the slightly blurred image of a corpo man appeared. His hair was jet black and slicked back, his suit crisp lines of black and white. He glanced around and them disdainfully. If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. A flash in Seras¡¯ vision signaled a net message from Heavy ¡°FUCK THIS PRICK¡± it said. This was going to be fun. ¡°Let¡¯s not waste anymore time.¡± He said, disregarding the fact that he was wasting their time by making them wait so long. ¡°Your target is Volta station, the Morris group has been-¡± ¡°Hold the fuck up¡± Heavy growled. The corpo glared at Heavy. ¡°Is there a problem, Heavy?¡± The man said the name as if it were an insult, and not the mark of respect that Heavy had more than earned. ¡°Yeah I do, the fuck is this hologram crap. You wanna make a deal with us then you do it face to fucken face.¡± The corpo sneered. ¡°That would be difficult seeing as I¡¯m not planet side at the moment. So unless you can afford a ticket to Terminus station then-¡° ¡°-Then this meeting is over¡± Seras finished for him. ¡°We¡¯re not working with someone who can¡¯t be bothered to show up.¡± His eyes flared ¡°Are you serious-¡± ¡°Yes.¡± Seras interrupted again. ¡°We¡¯re not some small-time punks, and this ain¡¯t a small time job. Volta¡¯s as secure as it gets, and you want us to even consider this then we need to know that you¡¯re serious about this. And a hologram and poor punctuality tells that you¡¯re not. You¡¯re too busy playing games and we won¡¯t be a part of that.¡± His fa?ade broke just a bit, and Seras saw the panic in his eyes. ¡°If your concerned about your payment-¡± ¡°No¡± Frost said, speaking up for the first time since the meeting began. Her whole style revolved around being cold and calculating to the groups boisterous energy, when she spoke it sent chills up spines. ¡°This is not some bargaining tactic. You failed to show us the respect we deserve as the best Mercs on Ruin. And now you need to pay the price. We¡¯re done.¡± She said with grave finality. Their hacker Spike, who probably had a backdoor to every system in Mantel, shut off the projector. He then went through the system to lift the recording of the meeting and sent it to the Corpos direct manager. With any luck that man would soon be a suit-sickle floating in high orbit. The booth was silent for only a second before the whole group broke into laughter. One year ago they wouldn¡¯t have been able to get away with this, but that was before they proved themselves to be the best of the best. They were at the top of their game, and nothing could knock them down. ~~~*~~~ Present day Seras swirled the dark amber contents of her glass. She had tried to describe a Blackiron to the paunchy man behind the bar, only to learn that half of the ingredients didn¡¯t exist on this world. The bar was the pits. Dark poorly lit interior, stained floors, and drunks passed out at the bar. It was an establishment to match her mood. Her second day in Karstess and she was finally beginning to realize how kind Dustin¡¯s offer had been. No one was hiring a mysterious woman with no references, an essence no one¡¯s heard of, and an attitude they thought was too haughty. At first she tried checking out this adventurer society place since Dustin¡¯s description of it sounded reminiscent of merc work. Seres had been told that you needed a full set of essences to join, but she had been hoping that her abnormal strength and above average skill would be enough to bridge the gap. She just needed to give them a demonstration. But they wouldn¡¯t even hear her out. Without essences the question of her application was a non-starter. After that she tried poking around the other guilds present. Everything from the artificers society to the forge society. But she found the door slammed in her face at each location. They were too busy prepping for some expedition underground, and couldn¡¯t spare her the time of day. After that she tried normal work, Seras was stronger, faster, and more enduring than your average laborer. But the employers who were willing to hire a women seemed less interested in what Seras could do on her feet, and more interested in what she could do on her back. It was insulting. And she let them know it. But apparently crushing man''s family jewels, while not enough to arrest her, was enough to get her blacklisted from every employer in the city. Some sort of commerce guild nonsense. Which led her here, to a bar where Seras had to push a drunk off his stool just to get a drink. Seras had been sitting there staring at her booze for about an hour, she hadn¡¯t even touched it. Just a week ago she had been at the top of the world, literally! And now here she was, another sad sop. Seras had held it together during her time with Dustin and his crew, but now, now it was harder. The emotions she spent so long bottling up were finally welling up, and if she still had tear ducts then she might be crying. ¡°Hey¡± a sluring voice said behind her, ¡°tha¡¯ booze is fer drinkin, not, not, for starin¡¯. Yeah¡± a large smelly man said as he leaned against the bar. His clothes were notably nicer than that of the average patron of this shit hole, but any elegance they were supposed to give him was ruined by the stains of beer and potential vomit. Seras sniffed, then nearly gagged. Vomit confirmed. Disgusting fucking meat bag. ¡°I bought it, and I¡¯ll whatever the hell I want with it.¡± Seras growled as uninvitingly as she could. ¡°S¡¯not even good booze. Let me buy you something nicer.¡± The meat bag said, ignoring everything Seras had just said. ¡°I¡¯m flush with cash sweetheart. Y¡¯see I¡¯m an adventurer, Bronze rank¡± he dragged raising his voice so the whole bar could hear. ¡°Dale Cowling.¡± Seras glared at Dale. ¡°Not in the mood Dale,¡± she warned. He continued ignoring her. ¡°I¡¯m so good, I killed a Sand skinned patptor, parptor¡­¡± ¡°Raptor.¡± Seras supplied. ¡°Yeah that. It was tough, me and the boys had to work hard to get it, but it was worth it to get this¡± he said while producing a metal cube. At a glance it looked like steel, then the light shifted, and it was copper, then it was gold, then a black metal. Metal Essence. 3 star rarity. A manifestation that grants the wielder power over metal Seras locked her eyes on the cube. After getting black marked she had gone to an auction hall to look at essence and awakening stone prices. It was hefty. The common one to two star ones ran into the several hundred bronze coin range, while the rarer three stars she saw were measured in silver coins. Seras had considered Dustin¡¯s advice about selling the strange awakening stone in her pocket space, but had a gut feeling that selling it was wrong. The man saw the look on Seras and grinned. ¡°Yup, I¡¯m going to be loaded after I sell this¡­ thing, whatever it is. Tonight might juss be the last time I come here.¡± From the lecherous gaze he was giving her Seras knew exactly what this asshole was after. She stood up ¡°Look, Dale, I¡¯m sure you¡¯re a truly awful person even when your sober. You¡¯re ugly, you smell, and you¡¯re not the smartest. But if your truly looking to stick your dick in something I saw a hole in a splintered wood over there.¡± The fat bartender coughed. Dale¡¯s eyes went wide with anger, after a few seconds for the insult to set in. ¡°You bitch! Do you know how many women would be crawling over each other just to be in your position.¡± Seras clenched her fist, ready to throw down, then let it go. She wasn¡¯t the top dog here, she couldn¡¯t just throw her name around and get people to back off. She was a stranger in a strange land, no friends, no allies, and no idea what the ramifications of her tantrum might be. She needed to be the mature person and deescalate. ¡°Look, Dale, I¡¯m not in the mood for dealing with people like you, just take your drink and go back to your table, and we can both pretend this never happened.¡± Then Seras heard the whispers. Dale¡¯s loud drunken outrage had drawn a crowd, a crowd that was now watching as some strange woman in their bar insulted Dale, and then told him to sit his drunk ass down before things got bad. Dale also heard them, and realized that his rep was on the line. ¡°Oh I know how to get you in the mood.¡± He declared. Then he moved, far faster than any meat bag should have been able to move. He made a low grab, a grab for something below the waist, something he had no right to touch. His other hand struck out and grabbed her chest. Reason and cool tampers be dammed, no matter what world Seras was in she would never let this slide. She gritted her teeth, grabbed him by the shoulders, and slammed her knee into his nethers with all the power of a jackhammer. His confident smile was replaced with a chocked grimace, and he let go of her. Seras wasn¡¯t done. A left hook from Seras cracked into his jaw and several teeth went flying. He stumbled back, staggered by the blow, and Seras followed up by lifting her bar stool over head and onto Dale. The stool exploded in a burst of splinters, dust, and mold. Seras still wasn¡¯t done; she felt the anger and frustration of a whole week burble up and overflow. Her depression was replaced with a white-hot rage. Dale became the embodiment of all her feelings and uncertainty¡¯s. He was crouched over so Seras stepped forward and brought her other up for a kick. Dale went flying across the room and people scattered as he landed hard on a table. ¡°You dammed whore¡± Dale roared as he got up from the wreckage. Then he began to change, his muscles bulged, his ugly rat like face elongated, and his stained clothes ripped. Before Dale transformed into a mutant wolf man, and his bronze rank aura descended around Seras¡¯ shoulders. Bronze rank aura from Dale Cowling has suppressed your normal rank aura. All damage is reduced. Speed is reduced. Mobility is reduced. Aura power, ¡®might of the Beast king¡¯ has boosted all beastly transformation powers and inflicted primal fear on all non-allies. Primal Fear failed to affect Biomechanical physiology. ¡°Oh fuck¡± Seras muttered as Dale charged forward. People were now in full panic as they felt the weight of Dales aura. The bartender bolted for the backroom. Seras leaped onto the bar to avoid Dales charge, Dale turned and swiped out with a clawed hand. Seras jerked back to avoid the swipe and struck out with her foot. Dale¡¯s reaction speed once again proved to be too fast for her as he grabbed her leg. Dale¡¯s wolfish face grinned as he yanked her off her feet and threw her across the room. Seras struck the wall back first, and felt the breath knocked out of her. Dale just stood there, clenching, and unclenching his fist ¡°Your fatter than look, don¡¯t think I could have thrown ya if I wasn¡¯t a might user.¡± He grumbled, his voice coming out garbled. The fight had sobered him up just a bit, but he was still stumbling around. Seras got to her feet, ¡°And your even uglier than I thought, didn¡¯t think there¡¯d be an essence for ugliness, but I can¡¯t think of any explanation for how unbelievable ugly you are besides that.¡± she quipped. His head jerked back towards her. ¡°I¡¯m gonna make you pay for that.¡± ¡°Doubtful¡± muttered as she went in for a charge. She fainted for the right, then came up on his left with another punch to the jaw. But under the aura suppression of a bronze rank essence user her punch was lacking, and he swiped out racking her chest with his claws. He then went in for a series of strikes, they came far faster than they should have, and increased in force with each blow. Chest cavity at 67%. Repair time 2 hours and 23 minutes. Chest cavity at 56%. Repair time 3 hours and 1 minutes. His flurry of blows then ended and he picked her up and slammed her against the bar. He then took a claw a raked it across her vest and shirt, exposing her skin. Dale stared at her chest and grinned sloppily. ¡°This could have been fun for both of us, but now I take whats¡­¡± he trailed off as he saw where his claws had ripped skin to expose metal and wiring, ¡°what the fuck?¡± Seras didn¡¯t waste this sudden opportunity. From where Dale had thrown her over the bar she could just reached one of the long-necked liquor bottles. She gripped it around the bottle neck, cracked it against the bar edge, and stabbed the now jagged bottom it his neck. ¡°Gah!¡± he roared at the bottle now stuck into his throat, he let go of Seras¡¯ neck and stumbled back. Seras stood up once more to see dale stumble back, high proof liquor now staining his chest. It gave her an idea. She hopped over the bar and started grabbing everything from the top shelf and flung them at Dale. Each bottle broke against his head and he stumbled back, Seras emptied the top shelf around the time Dale had finally gotten his baring and charged forward. Seras¡¯ leaped over his head and dashed to the little wood stove in the corner of the bar. This world had an equivalent to lightbulbs with mana lamps, it even had ways to heat of a room with fire quintessence. But the owner of this place was either too poor to afford to burn magical distillation of fire, or simply didn¡¯t have the magic array to do so. Instead he warmed the bar with small pot belly stove. Seras ripped the grate off the front and reached in to grab a hand full of burning charcoal. Dale had pulled the bottle out of his neck and charged forward again. Right into a fist full of embers Seras had chucked at him. The alcohol was high enough proof to catch fire from the ignition source Seras had given it, and soon Dale¡¯s whole body was ablaze. But as it would turn out, fire, multiple concussions, and even a stab to the neck wasn¡¯t enough to kill a bronze rank essence user. His claws grew to the length of Seras¡¯ forearm and began to glow, an essence powered attack. Seras was pressed against a wall and had nowhere to move. Dale¡¯s claw dug into her chest, and she felt it penetrate all the way through and pin her to the wall. Then she felt something just about every chromed-up cyborg feared, a power surge as Dale grounded out the electronics in her chest. The power arced up his claws and traveled through Dales body as the electricity flowed from positive to negative. His eyes went wide, then blank as the amperage killed him. His knees buckled, his transformation faded, and he fell to the ground. With his claws now gone Seras¡¯ was no longer skewed to the wall. But the surge had tripped every safety measure in her body, and she now her limbs were rigidly locked in place. Auto repair in progress. Time to full functionality 13 hours and 06 minutes. Consume 1 bronze rank monster cores, 25 iron quintessence, and 6 bronze rank spirit coins to speed up process. Blood, real red iron rich blood, was seeping through the wound in her chest. Seras had augs to help repair her organs and prevent internal bleeding, but all of it was pointless with her chest cavity ripped open. Seras¡¯ only hope for survival was that the auto repair worked fast enough to prevent her from bleeding out. She selected the sped up auto repair, and felt a draining sensation as she realized her mistake. The surge had drained her already low battery, and the auto repair would consume more. She watched in terror as her battery dropped from 6% to 3%. Then 2%. Then 1%. Energy levels are critical, engaging emergency sleep mode. Mental backup is being prepared. Mental backup failed. Warning, entering sleep mode without a mental backup could result in permanent memory loss and brain damage. Sleep mode engaged. The world winked out as Seras¡¯ consciousness was forcibly turned off. Ch21 This isnt your world Azoss led Dustin through the guard barracks at a brisk pace. Dustin and his caravan company had been in the final preparations for their departure from Karstess when a small detachment of city guards approached him. ¡°We found her passed out in the burning building. A fire essence user quelled the fire and we recovered her and the adventurers corpse.¡± ¡°She survived the fire?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°And by all accounts a bronze rank adventurer. A new, mediocre, and drunken bronze ranker, but bronze rank all the same. She was comatose when we got to her and had to call on a Healer acolyte. The healing magic seemed almost futile though, the acolyte said he stopped her internal bleeding and patched up her organs. But that was it, her ribs still appear to be broken, her arm twisted, and she was still comatose.¡± Dustin tried to hide his relief that the acolyte hadn¡¯t revealed more about the women than he should have. ¡°Comotose, not unconscious?¡± ¡°Yes. That¡¯s what the acolyte said, and none of the usual cures worked. Eventually the acolyte prayed to Healer for guidance and instructed us to feed her watered down low-grade stamina potions. After that her condition changed from comatose to unconscious and healing for about an hour before she slipped back away. We repeated the process until she woke up. that was about when I realized why the girl looked so familiar.¡± Dustin pinched his brow ¡°I can¡¯t believe she started a bar fight with a bronze rank adventurer. I thought she was smarter than that. What kind of punishment are we looking at?¡± Dustin asked Azoss. ¡°That¡¯s where things get tricky.¡± Azoss said slowly. ¡°From witness testimony and her own confession the girl appears to be the victim. The adventurer was thoroughly drunk and tried to take what wasn¡¯t his, if you know what I mean.¡± Azoss said leadingly. Dustin grimaced. He should have foreseen this being an issue. Seras was stunningly beautiful for a normal ranker. Those kinds of looks without the right background became a liability for normal rankers. He normally would have tried to warn her, but he had been so taken in by her confidence and resolution that the idea never crossed his mind. ¡°So it was self-defense?¡± Dustin asked cautiously. ¡°Ordinarily I would say yes and turn her free. But one of our more zealous young members noticed that she had no accent whatsoever, and that she smelled like springtime.¡± Dustin winced. ¡°So they¡¯re right¡± Azoss said as he noticed Dustin¡¯s reaction. ¡°You brought an Outworlder into the city?¡± he asked incredulously. ¡°I¡¯ll remind you that the Adventurer society put an end to any attempt to specifically outlaw Outworlders. As well as the Outworlder registration act.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t pull legal bullshit with me Westbrook, you know how the nobility get about Outwolrders. Fuck!¡± Azoss cursed ¡°this is going to be a shit show.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t have to be.¡± Dustin said vehemently. ¡°What¡¯s the society¡¯s reaction to all this?¡± Azoss looked at Dustin curiously ¡°They¡¯ve been oddly amicable about losing one of their own. It would appear that the adventurer in question had tried this same thing several times before, but the victims would never testify, and the Dillon¡¯s always swiped it under the rug. They¡¯re glad to be rid of him.¡± Dustin nodded ¡°The Dillon¡¯s, how are they involved?¡± ¡°The adventurer was on a team with their newest scion. They tried to press for murder charges, but all the witnesses proved that your Outworlder wasn¡¯t the one who started the fight.¡± ¡°And the Dillon¡¯s are only minor nobility, if that.¡± Dustin mused to himself ¡°What state was the adventurer in?¡± ¡°Hard to tell with the fire. Best we can tell however is that he threw her around a bit before she got lucky and stabbed him in the neck with a bottle. At some point he spilled liquor on himself, and the girl tossed some hot coals on him to set him ablaze. He then stabbed her before dying.¡± Dustin frowned at the story. He knew how strong and clever Seras was, so she would have put up a better fight than what Azoss was giving her credit for. But a one-sided assault worked to his favor. ¡°Then it seems pretty clear to me that a known rapist assaulted one of my employees in broad sight of several witnesses, and was lucky to escape with her life. The guard have my thanks for stopping the fire and healing her before further tragedy.¡± Azoss gave Dustin a sidelong look. ¡°I see¡± he said slowly ¡°And do you have the papers to prove she¡¯s been an employee of yourcompany?¡± ¡°Give me a day and I will have them for you.¡± The Draconian¡¯s eyes narrowed, and he leaned in close to Dustin. ¡°That¡¯s strange, since I know for a fact you keep all your paperwork in your storage space.¡± If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°Right now, only two people in this barrack know that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a big ask Westbrook.¡± Dustin nodded ¡°I know, but maybe after this we have another game of cards, get the lads all together. I¡¯m sure this time you¡¯ll see your luck has improved.¡± Azoss rubbed his chin, the idea of winning money was nice, but the idea finally winning was even more enticing. Maybe a thrown game from Dustin would finally break his years long losing streak. ¡°Alright, we¡¯ll hold her overnight, and you can bring in the papers tomorrow and you can be on your way.¡± ¡°Actually, it might be better to take her back now. The poor girl went through an ordeal and might need some emotional support.¡± Dustin suggested firmly. A lot could happen in one night, especially if you were a beautiful women who pissed off some nobles. ¡°Fine, take her and leave. See you tonight at Black Kettle?¡± ¡°Of course, first round is on me.¡± Azoss nodded, pulled out a key and turned to unlock a door. He paused mid-way ¡°There was one other matter.¡± ¡°Oh¡± Dustin said. ¡°The adventurer had a small pouch of coins as well as an essence of some sort. Ordinarily it would go to his family, but seeing as he caused your girl some undo harm its within my rights to see that it finds its way to your hands.¡± Dustin smiled ¡°that would be very nice old friend, I¡¯ll remember this generosity.¡± ¡°Good¡± Azoss grumbled as he unlocked the heavy iron door and opened the cell. The cell itself was painted a neutral white, lit by a single mana lamp on the ceiling. There was a table in the center of the room with Seras sat on the other side. There the Outworlder sat in a plain cloth shirt with the vacant look Dustin recognized as her watching a ¡®movie¡¯, which was like a play that someone recorded. She blinked and sat up, her gaze first went to Azoss and was suspicious. But then she saw Dustin and relaxed, then she went tense and averted her gaze. Azoss growled ¡°How did you get out of those cuffs?¡± he growled, and Dustin noticed the iron manacles bolted to the table. ¡°Would you believe me if I said they werent locked?¡± ¡°No¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°Worth a shot.¡± She said flippantly. ¡°Those were magically locking, how did you get out¡± Azoss growled. Seras brought up and hand, and with her other hand pulled on it until it dislocated with a sickening crunch, then she popped the joint back in. Azoss looked disturbed while Dustin wondered if this was another ¡®Biomechanical¡¯ thing. Learning the odd quirks of Seras¡¯ body continued to be both a source of interest and horror. ¡°You might find that padding the inside of the cuff would prevent anyone else from doing that, while also preventing it from digging in.¡± Seras commented conversationally. ¡°Or can make them tighter¡± Azoss growled. ¡°Or that¡± Seras acknowledged, ¡°But I know ways around that too.¡± Azoss turned to glare at Dustin. Dustin sighed ¡°I¡¯ll handle her, thank you for everything Azoss.¡± He harrumphed and left. Now just the two of them Seras¡¯ bluster disappeared. ¡°Hey Dust.¡± She said softly. ~~~*~~~ Seras was once again surprised to find herself awake in a strange place after being sure she was dead. She didn¡¯t get to be surprised for long as men in boiled leather armor burst in and began an endless round of questions. It wasn¡¯t the first time Seras had been questioned she had chosen to play dumb and confused. Four hours later and Seras finally had some time to actually think. She pulled up her memory of the fight and replayed it endlessly. She scanned every aspect of it to see where she was lacking. But as hard as she tried she couldn¡¯t find any glaring flaws, she had just been completely outmatched in terms of strength and speed. She had a slight advantage in flexibility, and better form, but in the face of overwhelming power she had been no match. Essences. Seras was the pinnacle of biomechanical engineering, the product of two hundred years of Cybernetic development from a technologically advanced civilization. But Dale had essences, and in this world those trumped everything else. Her one essence power had been so underwhelming that she dismissed the rest out of hand. She had seen Dustin and his crew perform incredible superhuman feats of power and strength, but she had thought that with her metal body she was at least their equal. But now that seemed childish and arrogant. Essences were power, raw, undiluted power. But they also represented a complete departure from her normal. They were unlike anything her world had to offer, and that lingering sense of foreignness held her back. Her concerns about the changes essences wrought on the soul were not unfounded, but she also realized they were an excuse for her timidity. After her fight she realized, truly realized, that essences were power. That magic was power. Of course it would change her, that¡¯s what all power did. But that had never stopped Seras before. So what if she changed, as long as she had power. She was at the bottom of pile in this world, but with power she could change that. Seras was the pinnacle of biomechanical engineering, and now she would achieve the pinnacle essence magic. She would wield the power of both worlds to become greater than either. Magic and technology. Magi-tech. Then the door opened to admit the scaley Draconian who had been the last person to question her, along with Dustin. They talked, and then the Draconian left, and it was just her and Dustin. ¡°Hey Dust.¡± She said, not meeting his eyes. Seras had claimed that she could make it on her own, and now only days later here she was. Ass kicked in by some drunken idiot, and locked within the local prison. ¡°Seras¡± he grunted. His usual friendly demeanor gone. They sat in silence, well she sat, he loomed. ¡°What the hell were you thinking, killing an adventurer?¡± He growled, breaking his silence. ¡°I was thinking that I wasn¡¯t going to let some drunk fucker have his way with me because he was an adventurer.¡± Seras shot back. ¡°Why didn¡¯t you run?¡± he asked. That rankled her hackles ¡°Because I don¡¯t run from drunken slobs.¡± ¡°THIS ISN¡¯T YOUR WORLD ANYMORE!¡± he shouted. ¡°you may have had power and influence there, but here you¡¯re a normal ranker, with no idea how things work.¡± ¡°I FUCKING KNOW THAT!¡± she shouted back. ¡°I got my shit kicked in by a man who could barely stand, I¡¯m only alive because he fucked up and stabbed into my power banks.¡± She looked at her knees. ¡°Its hard you know. Going from knowing my place in the world to this¡± she gestured to the room around her. ¡°I¡¯m not some underachieving loser whose been dreaming of being taken away from my old life and into a world of magic. In my world the people like that were the ones who never did anything with their life and spent their days wishing things would change without putting in the effort to work their way up. I was different, I mattered.¡± Dustin¡¯s eye bore into her ¡°I¡¯m sorry Seras, but you¡¯re not there anymore, I don¡¯t think you can ever go back. This is the world you live in now, and wishing things were different is just as pointless as you said.¡± ¡°I know¡± she murmured. He sighed ¡°Stand up, they released you into my care, we leave tomorrow, and you¡¯re not allowed to wander off until we¡¯re out of the city. I¡¯m going to be filing the paperwork to make you an official member of my company, from now on I¡¯ll be your boss. Do you understand.¡± Seras¡¯ head perked up ¡°They¡¯re letting me go, just like that?¡± ¡°From their point of view the whole thing was the adventurers fault, and you were lucky to survive. Being an outworlder complicates that. I can either claim you as my employee, or you can risk the courts.¡± ¡°What are my odds with the later?¡± ¡°Likely convicted for seducing an adventurer and sold off to serve an indenture contract. And women with your looks is likely to attract the shady types who want to buy your contract for your body.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s accepted here!¡± Dustin frowned ¡°We don¡¯t like it, but we can¡¯t stop it. Those are your options.¡± ¡°I can either wander the desert, or get sold into sexual slavery. Fuck! What kind of choice is that?¡± ¡°A pretty obvious one.¡± Dustin said levelly. ¡°Yeah, yeah it is.¡± Seras stood up and held her hand out. ¡°Well, I look forward to working with you, Boss.¡± She said, trying to force a smile onto her face. He shook her hand ¡°I expect good things from you. And no more trouble.¡± He warned. This time her smile was more genuine. ¡°That¡¯s the thing, I don¡¯t go looking for it, it comes looking for me.¡± Ch22 Metal Essence Seras kept to herself the first day she was back with the caravan. The shame was too great. She had said she was going to strike out on her own, and here she was not even two days alone and she had gotten into a life-or-death brawl with a drunken bastard and taken in by the guards. On the morning of the next day they loaded up their cargo and left the city. A new, strong backed Heidel had been bought for Seras, as well as new clothes, camping gear, and one of the broad rimmed woolen hats the people of this region favored. The long cotton pants, button up shirt, and embroidered vest that were also common weren¡¯t really her style. Seras preferred tight tops that exposed the perfect lines on her stomach with a matching leather jacket and skintight pants. But in this world that style would be scandalous and just begging for more assholes like Dale to harass her. Until she had the power to defend herself, she needed to try and fit in while flying under the radar. They left in the early morning from the south gate of Karstess, and spent the whole day moving further and further from the city. This close to the city the fertile magic that infused the water from Karstess was strong enough for farmers to grow crops even under the harsh desert sun. Seras wasn¡¯t very familiar with crops, most of Ruin¡¯s food was grown in massive vats and were heavily modified, but none of them looked like the pictures of old crops she had seen in old movies. There was a lavender colored grain crop that grew as high as her waist and was supposedly used to make flour. Then there were orchards of plump red fruits called apples, which were supposedly sweet and crunchy. The fruit made Karstess famous for its ciders. Seras got all this info not from the other caravanners, but from the farmer''s almanac she could peruse with her net access ability. It also provided a great deal of information on the weather and kinds of disasters in this region. Monsoons from the eastern and western oceans flanking this continent would sporadically hit the desert like a wall of water and wind, and then just as abruptly leave. Monolithic dust storms were also common, often hiding hordes of monsters within to prey upon travelers. Then there were tornadoes, deadly dust devils, and dry lightning storms that would set the dry brush ablaze. According to the almanac there was also just as much danger from below as above. The random twisting of the labyrinth could create sink holes and landslides with its movements. And sometimes a tunnel could open up just to discourage swarms of monsters that had manifested within. And supposedly entire hills could just rise up out of nowhere and sink just as fast. The only reason anyone bothered with a place like this was because of the abundance of astral spaces that made life possible and the rich bounties of the earth below. No other region on this world was as minerally rich as the five deserts. They reached the edge of the green zone just before sundown, and they stayed in another small town before they braved the long stretch of desert. According to Dustin they would be away from any signs of civilization for two to three weeks! That night Seras tried the local cuisine, which was delightfully spicey. One benefit she had gained from her fight with Dale was that she learned that she could use low grade stamina potions to help her recover battery charge. She was now sitting at 32%, which was the highest her reserves had been since she left the labyrinth. Unfortunately, the town they were in didn¡¯t sell any, as they were typically an expense only adventurers could afford. The next day they set out at dawn and began their long, long trek south to a small port city in the small western gulf. This time they were loaded up with magical weapons and armor that would be shipped overseas from the port. Seras rode next to Dustin, who was teaching her how to properly ride Heidel. ¡°You need to name him¡± He said casually, ¡°it helps with the bond¡± ¡°I know, I just can¡¯t think of any names. how did you think of jesses¡¯ name?¡± He smiled ¡°It was the name of the first girl I was sweet on. We were friends since childhood, but she always had dreams of higher education and joined the magic society as a researcher. I was still heart broken when I got my first Heidel and I named her after the girl.¡± Seras did the math ¡°Do Heidels really live that long?¡± ¡°Yes, but they wear out after a couple decades. Jesse here is special since she¡¯s a bonded familiar.¡± ¡°How does that work?¡± ¡°It comes from one of my essence powers. A bonded familiar is a critter with at least a little magic that you can form a lifelong bond with, Jesse here happened to be one in thousand when it comes to Heidel¡¯s and had a little magic of her own.¡± ¡°You put emphasis on the bonded part of the word, are there other types of familiars on this world?¡± Dustin nodded ¡°Yes, there¡¯s bonded ones like Jesse here. That one requires an essence power to bond certain types of beasts. Dragons and Phoenixes are popular amongst the nobility, but there are plenty of others out there. Then there¡¯s the summoned familiar. Those are either one time summons, or permanent summons. With the latter requiring a fortunes worth of magical resources but can be subsumed within the body for a nifty boost. While the one-time kind just need a circle and disappear after a while. Flint¡¯s got an earth Golem power.¡± Seras filed that information away for later ¡°We got off track. Names¡± ¡°Right. Do you know any famous Heidels from your world that might sound good?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t have Heidels. And I¡¯m not sure I want to pick a name from my world, that¡¯s still a raw wound.¡± He nodded ¡°Alright, then one from this world. Spirit is usually popular among girls.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a girl. I¡¯m a grown ass woman¡± Seras pointed out. ¡°Just a suggestion.¡± Later that day Seras got bucked off her Heidel, it sent nearly fifteen meters away into the dirt. Which was how Buck, got his name. ~~~*~~~ The caravan crew were no longer on tightly controlled rations, and Seras filled her belly with the sweet beans and sausage. While the group told stories around the campfire. Seras sat off to the side and just listened. Petra had tried to get her to tell the story of how she beat a bronze rank adventurer, but Seras waved her off. She really hadn¡¯t made a good showing of herself in that fight, the gap between bronze and her was simply too hard to broach. Flint continued to send the occasional scowl her way, and one of the caravan members named Haris joined him in showing his distaste for her. Night fell and Seras was resting against a rock when Dustin and Flint approached her. She sat up. ¡°What¡¯s up boss?¡± Seras asked as they approached. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. ¡°Just needed to have a talk about your future.¡± Dustin said. ¡°My future huh. Is this about the magic thing again?¡± ¡°It is, you need to face the reality that you¡¯re in a world of magic.¡± Dustin began. ¡°I can¡¯t agree more.¡± Seras interrupted. ¡°Half measures and¡­ what?¡± ¡°I said I agree with you. I was considered one of the most dangerous and capable people in my world, but I barely survived one drunken asshole.¡± Seras explained. ¡°A bronze rank asshole¡± Flint interjected. ¡°The fact that your alive at all is a miracle.¡± Seras nodded ¡°I got lucky. I stabbed him in the neck and set him on fire, and it wasn¡¯t enough. If he had stabbed anywhere else I¡¯d be dead right now. If the people back home heard that Seras Cross was killed by some drunk rapist, then my reputation would be ruined.¡± Flint scowled ¡°You would be dead, what use is reputation then?¡± Seras met his scowl ¡°It¡¯s everything. It''s how a legend lives on even after death.¡± ¡°She has a point¡± Dustin said. Flint frowned, but kept his thoughts to himself. Dustin turned back to Seras. ¡°So, you¡¯ve decided to embrace magic?¡± ¡°Yes, if I want to reclaim just a little of what I was then I¡¯ll need the power to do so. And that means essences.¡± Dustin smirked. ¡°Glad you think so.¡± Sparks appeared in his hand, when they faded a metal cube sat in his palm. Seras frowned; it was a little hard to see in the dark but ¡°Is that the essence Dale had on him?¡± ¡°Yup. Azoss gave me Dale¡¯s purse before I left. I think you should have the essence.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that, like evidence, they didn¡¯t want to hold onto it?¡± They frowned ¡°Its only right that criminal pays back his victims, even in death.¡± Flint said icily. ¡°Really? I guess that makes sense, in an eye for and eye sort of way.¡± Dustin held his hand out. ¡°This belongs to you, it¡¯s the only thing of value Dale had on him.¡± Seras took it. Metal Essence. 3 star rarity. A manifestation that grants the wielder power over metal Would you like to convert to an appropriate form Y/N She stared at, then gave the mental command at it transformed into a metallic shard that she immediately slotted into her neck. Once again Seras felt incredible pain. But where the last felt like a million volts of electricity being delivered to her every never this was like molten metal was being poured into her bones. It spread until it filled every part of her body, and then went deeper. Once again Seras felt the alien yet familiar existence of her own soul for a brief moment, only long enough to feel it being changed. No, not changed, more like aspects of it were instead being drawn to the surface. Then it was gone. She let out a ragged breath. This time Seras had remained upright, but only just. Metal essence has bonded with the power attribute. Your magic matrix has better integrated into your body. Your attunement with your body had increased. Soul/body Attunement at 5%. Increase the Power attribute to further improve attunement. Metal essence ability Structural reinforcement Iron 1: 0% Uses mana to reinforce any metallic objects and constructs from physical blows. Can enhance non-metal magical constructs for a higher mana cost. Cost: Low Cooldown: None Dustin and Flint were both staring at her in shock and silent horror. ¡°What?¡± Seras asked, trying to put a bit of strength in her voice to hide the exhaustion she felt. Flint put his head into one hand while Dustin sighed. ¡°Seras, we weren¡¯t intending you to absorb it. We were going to help you auction it at Florin.¡± Seras frowned, now worried she had made a big mistake. ¡°Was there something wrong with the Metal essence? I wouldn¡¯t think it would be on the restricted list.¡± Flint¡¯s head jerked up ¡°It was a metal essence? Metal, not iron, or copper?¡± ¡°It said metal.¡± Seras said. They exchanged glances with each other. ¡°Well, that might not be entirely a bad thing then.¡± Dustin said slowly. ¡°Seriously, what was wrong with the essence you gave me?¡± she was now close to panicking. ¡°Nothing.¡± Dustin said quickly. ¡°We thought it was one of the more common ones, like iron or copper. We were going to suggest selling it to buy a different essence.¡± Seras calmed down, ¡°What¡¯s wrong with copper or iron?¡± ¡°Nothing¡± Flint said, now removing his head from his hand. ¡°In fact both are excellent essences for magical craftsman. Smiths and artificers. With maybe a few combat abilities. We assumed that it wasn¡¯t ideal for you personally. Especially since we¡¯re not sure what confluence essence you might get with that strange technology essence.¡± He explained. ¡°The metal essence is a lot like the Iron and copper essences, but with a wider and more varied assortment of known abilities. You could get abilities from the iron or copper essences, or ones unique to the metal essence. Especially if you use less common awakening stones. What power did you get?¡± ¡°Structural reinforcement. It lets me boost the integrity of metal constructs.¡± Seras explained. Dustin rubbed his chin, ¡°not a bad one. Could be good for a front-line defender. Might let you reinforce a shield or armor to take bigger hits.¡± ¡°Or temporarily boost the power of a magic sword, a good support power.¡± Flint added. Seras quirked an eyebrow at them. ¡°I think I can do a little better than that.¡± she said confidently. ¡°How so?¡± Dustin asked. She smirked ¡°Because my whole body is metal.¡± Just like her last essence the Metal essence gave her an innate sense for how to use it. she could feel the power coursing through her wiring, her metal bones, and tingling across her smart skin. She held up an arm and activated her new power. Electric blue lines like that of a circuit board crawled up her arm, reinforcing it to take heavy blows. ¡°A personal defense power. Not bad.¡± Dustin said with a nod of his head. ¡°I know from Petra that those can be very useful. Flint here has to spend a small fortune on cloth armors, so it¡¯ll definitely save you on costs. And since its your own body it might allow you more freedom of movement.¡± ¡°Yeah, and I feel like I might be able to temporarily boost other things too, like I can touch it to make it stronger for a time.¡± Dustin nodded ¡°Sounds about right, a power like that usually finds itself linked to the user''s aura, which is still dormant in you.¡± Flint had pulled out a white stone tablet and was frowning. ¡°That seems to be the case. At iron she can touch objects, including magical constructs, and give them an added resilience. It''s just the physical right now, but at higher ranks she gains more resistances. Heat, cold and acid at bronze. Then necrotic, poison, holy and unholy at silver.¡± ¡°I¡¯m supposed to be immune to those last ones though, is my silver rank power set useless?¡± Seras asked. Guessing that Flint was just looking at the essence ability list she pulled it up and searched her new ability. It was listed as rare for iron, copper and forge essences to unlock, but only uncommon for her own Metal essence. ¡°No.¡± Flint said distractedly. ¡°You might be immune to them now, but by silver anyone with those kinds of abilities will be able to overcome those immunities. Abilities grow to cover the gaps in our powersets, covering up previous weaknesses. My own earth powers are only available in places with earth to work with, but by silver I can conjure land from anywhere, even in water or the air.¡± ¡°Nova¡± Seras said. ¡°What are its known confluences?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°Hard to say since she has an essence no one''s ever heard of. But confluences range from anything from crafting, defense specialist, front line specialist, as well as support roles.¡± ¡°Hold on¡± Seras said holding up her hands ¡°What¡¯s this about defense, frontline, or support roles?¡± Flint looked annoyed that she didn¡¯t know something he considered obvious. But Dustin stepped up to explain, ¡°Power sets tend to skew certain ways. My skills fall in the range of a combat skirmisher. Getting into combat, landing hits, then fading away. In large group settings people like me can be crucial for landing debilitating blows and chasing down fleeing enemies. Whereas Flint is a midrange spell caster, his attack abilities are potent, but he¡¯s lacking in self defense or speed. Petra can control a combat zone and tank hits from a foe while dealing back moderate, but unceasing violence.¡± ¡°So what¡¯s the best specialty?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Depends on who you ask. Some would say front line fighters, or powerful spell casters since they can deal huge amounts of damage. Healers and front-line defenders are also in high demand. The reality is that there are a million possible combat situations you can face, and there¡¯s always going to be someone out there who is best equipped for one while outclassed in another.¡± Dustin explained. ¡°I once heard it said that there are no bad powers or power sets, only bad adventurers.¡± Seras frowned ¡°I¡¯m hearing lot of things that implies teams are pretty common.¡± ¡°Very. A good adventurer can do some solo work where their skills are best suited, but to really face the tougher opponents you need a team that compliments your abilities while covering up your weaknesses. One person can¡¯t face all the world has to offer alone.¡± That made sense to Seras. In her old world she often did the biggest jobs with a team of other elite Mercs. They had to split the payment a few ways, but the jobs were always high paying. That said Seras did a vast majority of her work alone, relying heavily on a wide array of gadgets, weaponry, and of course her Cyberware. But now she wouldn¡¯t have access to that sort of equipment anymore, it was only logical that she might need to adopt a new way of fighting. ¡°Okay, I see a lot of entries for an ¡®Avatar¡¯ confluence in the essence list. What kind of role does that fill?¡± Seras asked. Flint shrugged ¡°It depends on what specific combination you use. Avatar is a common confluence, but one Avatar user will always differ significantly from another. Blood, bone and flesh creates an avatar confluence with abilities surrounding the body. While Vast, Potent, and water create an Avatar essence with oceanic abilities.¡± ¡°Why?¡± ¡°Theories vary. But the consensus is that Avatar users become the embodiment of greater transcendent powers or ancient heroes.¡± ¡°Huh, well what¡¯s next?¡± Seras asked. Dustin looked thoughtful ¡°Hard to say. We were planning to have you sell that essence and hopefully choose a set of essences you liked the look of. But that¡¯s sort of out the window at this point.¡± Seras frowned ¡°I¡¯ve got two awakening stones, should I use them now or wait?¡± ¡°That depends. Some power sets work best when you obtain all your essences. Having all of them helps them synergize with each other better.¡± Flint said. ¡°Then again, those two stones could grant her some combat abilities that she is in desperate need of.¡± Dustin pointed out. ¡°There''s no guarantee of that. she isn¡¯t human anymore, so she won''t have their affinity for special attacks. She could just as easily get a utility power, a crafting ability, or maybe a spell. I say it¡¯s better to wait.¡± Flint countered. Seras pondered her options. She could see the sense in both. But they had no idea what third essence she could get her hands on or what confluence it would result in. According to Dustin her Celestial book awakening stone would sell for a lot, which means that she might have her pick of essences. But something told her that was a bad idea. That awakening stone had been placed directly into her pocket space during her soul migration. During her unconscious trip through the astral she had only had the Technology on her, so she had to assume that it was meant to awaken a tech essence ability. Seras had trepidations about great eldritch horrors from beyond reality, according to Dustin very little was known about them. That said there was one thing they knew for certain; they were powerful. And that was exactly what Seras needed right now. She summoned the awakening stone. ¡°Are you sure about that one?¡± Dustin said cautiously. ¡°As sure as I can be about anything right now.¡± Seras said with a grim finality before she slotted it in. Ch23 Madness The shard went in, and once more she felt a great power surge through her. But this time it was gentler in its transformation. Ever since she had absorbed her first essence Seras had gained an awareness of a hidden reservoir within herself. A pool of power deep within herself that was her mana, a pool that was bonded with the strength of her Technology essence. She felt that pool surge. As the latent potential of her Technology essence was transformed a blue grey light emerged from her body. She felt a sickening surge within her soul, and transformation that was unlike the forceful reconfiguration of essence bonding. It was like something foreign and unknowable entity tapped on her soul and told it how to transform itself. When her soul was finished with transformation she felt a warm trickle of power flow into her mana pool, and she felt the pool surge past its original boundaries. It grew from a small pool into a small pond. Her reserves of Mana remained the same, but she could feel the trickle of power working to fill in the newly enlarged space. Seras opened her eyes. Outworlder Racial gift Astral affinity was transfigured to Astral wellspring. Astral Wellspring An enhanced affinity for the astral, resulting from the astral energies your soul was bathed in during transmigration. Reduced effects of astral anomalies and attacks. Cost and side effects of astral abilities is reduced. Enhanced Transcendent damage. Your soul is now more open to the power of the astral resulting in a higher mana recovery speed. Recovery speed varies depending on the strength of the dimensional membrane. The bounds of your mana pool have been greatly expanded. Awakening stone of the celestial book has bonded with Technology essence. Ability Spark of Madness: Allows the summoning of a bound familiar from the deep astral. Summons a Spark of Madness. Cost: Extreme Mana Cooldown: One Day Seras blinked, ¡°the hell.¡± She said out loud as she read the text boxes on her HUD. ¡°That¡¯s our line¡± Flint grumbled. ¡°Agreed, racial gift evolutions are pretty rare.¡± Dustin said. ¡°Do you know which racial gift was transformed?¡± ¡°My astral affinity.¡± Seras answered as she continued reading. ¡°It looks like all the previous abilities are still there, but I also got a boost to mana recovery and the size of my mana pool.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a good one¡± Dustin said. ¡°Only if she gets a lot of spells or mana hungry attacks. I¡¯ve heard of racial gifts like this that are somewhat useless for their users since they can¡¯t spend mana fast enough.¡± Flint explained. ¡°Maybe it came with a potent spell¡± Dustin mused. ¡°Did it.¡± ¡°Not that I can tell. I feel like a lot of knowledge just got forced into my head, a very intricate circle, and a list of materials. I think it¡¯s a familiar summoning power.¡± They exchanged a look. Flint cleared his throat, ¡°that¡¯s not supposed to be possible without prior ritual knowledge.¡± ¡°Well, maybe not¡± Dustin said, ¡°Awakening stones from great Astral beings are different from normal ones. It may have been specifically designed to only allow for summoning powers. Do you know the ability name.¡± Seras grimaced ¡°Spark of madness.¡± ¡°Well that just sounds wonderful¡± Flint said threw his hands into the air. ¡°Just what we need, a mad Outworlder.¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough Flint.¡± Dustin barked. He turned to Seras ¡°Don¡¯t let him discourage you, that¡¯s just the type of familiar you can summon, is there anything on it in the registry?¡± Seras did a quick search. ¡°None. I guess since it bonded to my Technology essence it isn¡¯t something you guys would have seen before.¡± ¡°No, I guess not. What are the summoning costs.¡± That was the part that really made Seras disappointed with the ability, ¡°Some four thousand iron spirit coins, as well as lightning quintessence, dimension quintessence, light quintessence, something could an Opal of portent.¡± Flint whistled. ¡°Congratulations, you have a familiar you¡¯ll never summon. The quintessence alone would bankrupt you four times over, let alone the Opal of Portent.¡± ¡°It can¡¯t be that bad¡± Dustin said. ¡°Oh it is.¡± Flint confirmed ¡°Opals of Portent are very rare, and highly desired. They¡¯re used in a lot of powerful magical arrays and artifice.¡± ¡°Then there¡¯s the dimension quintessence.¡± Dustin murmured. ¡°The one time I traded dimension quintessence I was able to buy enough essences and awakening stones for four of my brothers. Good ones too.¡± Seras felt her heart sink. That made two useless abilities. ¡°How many do you need?¡± Flint asked suddenly. ¡°Seven. Iron rank.¡± He frowned. ¡°that, might just be doable. Might. There are rare iron rank monsters that can be found within Astral spaces that might be able do the job. However they¡¯re hard to find and even harder to kill. The shadow hopper can be found in astral spaces abundant in darkness magics, they can jump from one shadow to another while spitting necrotic curses. Even if you find and successfully fight one it can just flee through the shadows. But they¡¯re known to give dimension quintessence.¡± Seras frowned ¡°Sounds tedious. Couldn¡¯t I just buy some?¡± A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. ¡°Not on the open market. That is one of the most desirable quintessence out there, right next to myriad.¡± ¡°Fuck¡± Seras cursed. ¡°Indeed.¡± Dustin agreed. ¡°Do you want to try the other awakening stone?¡± ¡°Not really in the mood anymore.¡± Seras said. She had gotten a good ability out of the metal essence, and she had been pretty pleased. But now she realized that she had been too hasty in accepting it, and was now robbed of the chance to try and coordinate her power set. And then the awakening stone that could have bought her a third and final essence and a bunch of awakening stones not only gave her an ability she couldn¡¯t use, but one with a tremendous price tag. This whole magic power thing was just a huge drag. ~~~*~~~ In the morning Petra somehow felt from Seras¡¯ aura that she had a new essence and pestered her all morning for a demonstration. What then followed was the whole camp taking a whack at her to test her durability. It was only when Petra had swung at her with a war hammer the size of her head that she took enough damage to require her auto repair to fix. ¡°That¡¯s pretty good for a first power, I¡¯m peak iron. Even with a special attack I only bruised your arm. Then again, I didn''t use special attack¡± Petra consoled. ¡°I don¡¯t bruise, I dent. That¡¯s why the power works on me at all¡± Seras corrected. ¡°What if I used it on you? You¡¯d get sturdier right?¡± Petra looked thoughtful ¡°Yeah, I would, wouldn¡¯t I.¡± stone armor appeared around her torso. ¡°Try to add your power to me.¡± Petra said. Seras obeyed, and felt her mana reserves drop by half as it was poured into the Leonid¡¯s amor. The stone-like armor was then covered in electric blue lines like that of a circuit board. The Lioness grinned ¡°Hey Flint, hit me with your stone spear.¡± She shouted. Flint, who was arguing with Dustin about something turned, saw Petra and Seras standing next to each other and put two and two together. He pointed a finger, murmured something under his breath, and a stone spear materialized in the air before launching forward like a ballista bolt. Seras just barely jumped out of the way it time before the spear hit Petra¡¯s breastplate. A small puff of dust and stone chunks engulfed Petra. But when it cleared she was standing tall, with only a divot in her armor. Flint looked shocked, while Dustin smirked. ¡°Nifty power¡± Petra said, ¡°Usually his pear makes a bigger dent, what was the mana cost.¡± ¡°Half my total mana.¡± ¡°And it only withstood a single hit. Not too bad for a first essence power. And it¡¯ll only get better from here.¡± ¡°How do you advance essence anyway?¡± Seras asked. Petra gave her cocky grin as her armor crumbled to dust. ¡°Well, how do people usually get stronger?¡± Seras frowned ¡°Usually you buy stronger arms or something, I doubt that¡¯s the answer though.¡± ¡°Uh right.¡± Petra said with an uncomfortable look. ¡°Training. Your muscles, your mind, and your magic. You work yourself to the limits of your power and then push through to the next level. Your metal essence bonded to your strength attribute, so if you want to push through to the next level you need to work out.¡± Seras cocked her head, ¡°Uh, just one problem with that. my arms aren¡¯t made of meat, they have a set strength and don¡¯t really get much stronger.¡± Petra frowned ¡°Huh. Then I guess you can¡¯t advance.¡± Seras threw her head back a sighed. ¡°That¡¯s just my fucking luck.¡± ¡°You could always rely on core advancement.¡± She offered. ¡°How does that work?¡± ¡°You absorb monster cores to fuel your growth, much easier.¡± ¡°Then why does anyone bother with the other method? Using cores seems way easier.¡± ¡°For one because cores are expensive, and you need a lot to get past each rank. But also they¡¯re not as potent. A monster core user will never fully master their abilities, and their powers are weaker too. And using them locks out natural advancement.¡± ¡°Oh, so it¡¯s a matter training versus throwing money at a problem.¡± ¡°Essentially.¡± ¡°Well fuck, that first method sounds right up my alley.¡± ¡°What if you tried too anyway?¡± Petra offered. ¡°What?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Why not go through the motions of normal training?¡± ¡°Why would I do that?¡± ¡°Because magic is weird and complicated. There may some obscure magic principle that actually allows you to advance normally, and you¡¯ll never know unless you try right?¡± Seras considered that. then she shrugged ¡°Fuck it, I¡¯m down.¡± Petra smacked Seras¡¯ back, ¡°That¡¯s the spirit.¡± Dustin made a sharp whistle, and they all went to mount up. ~~~*~~~ Once again Seras rode with Dustin throughout the day, he was still teaching her about Heidel riding. But after their noonday break Seras found herself riding next to Petra at the back of the formation. They had decided it made the most sense for her to ride next to Petra since her one and only ability was most useful for boosting Petra defenses. Unlike the journey to Karstess, their route now took them through endless flat scrubland. They spent the whole day following a dried riverbed, and the only indication that they were making progress was the shrinking mountains on the horizon. On the next day they continued their long march south when, abruptly, Dustin held up the whole caravan. He sat stalk still on his Heidal staring at the horizon. Then he cursed under his breath ¡°Flint, Petra, shelters now! All hands secure the cargo and the Heidels.¡± After that everyone flew into a frenzy, they moved with a practiced efficiency that implied they had done this before. Seras wanted to ask about a hundred questions, but she recognized now wasn¡¯t the time. She jumped off Buck and ran to one of the nearby wagons to help the crew push it into a freshly excavated pit Flint had formed with magic. In under half an hour the Caravan crew had created a small stone complex dug a meter into the earth. There was a large central chamber with a fire pit and chimney for the smoke, and two side annexes for the Heidels and waste disposal. They had thrown tarps over the air holes and exits, and huddled into the space just as a colossal dust storm hit them. Seras had once wondered what it felt like to be in the middle of a sand blaster, and now she no longer needed to imagine what it was like. Hurricane winds ripped at the tarps, making them ripple violently, and the sound of sand and dust shredding away at the outside walls was like the continuous scrape of nails against stone. Seras saw Dustin, Flint, and the healer Garret drawing intricate circles against a the walls. ¡°What¡¯s that for¡± She asked Garret. ¡°Aura masking, as well as other senses.¡± He explained. ¡°Why do we need it? Its just sand right?¡± He gave her a suspicious look, ¡°sometimes its hard to remember how ignorant you are of things we all take for granted. It is just sand, sand and sand elementals. As well Storm Wraiths and sand Shrikes. They¡¯re all common monsters that use sandstorms to hunt. The stone walls keeps us out of sight, and the rituals prevent us from being seen with magical sight.¡± Seras suppressed the indignation at being called ignorant. Garret just had a poor choice of words, and she was ignorant to a lot of things on this new world. ¡°Any way I could help?¡± ¡°Not unless you know ritual magic.¡± ¡°No luck there, how long is this going to take?¡± ¡°The ritual, or the storm?¡± ¡°Storm, I know the ritual will take as long as it takes.¡± Seras had a hacker friend on her last world. Whenever she asked how long it would take him to get into a system he always replied ¡®that it takes and long it takes¡¯. ¡°Don¡¯t know, no more than a week I¡¯d say, maybe less.¡± ¡°A whole week!¡± ¡°Yup.¡± ¡°Fuck, what are we going to do stuck in this little space for a whole week?¡± Garret looked over. ¡°Likely training, it¡¯ll be hard in this tight space, but its why most of us signed on.¡± ¡°You signed on to train, not, I don¡¯t know, make a ton of money?¡± Seras asked sarcastically. Garret laughed ¡°moneys a factor, but not the biggest one. Essence users, even ones with only one like me are in demand everywhere. There are tons of nobles, guilds, and private companies looking to hire essence users. They take you in, give you some training, help you fill out your powerset, and maybe provide monster cores for rank ups. But that kind of deal comes with strings.¡± Seras nodded ¡°I¡¯ve heard that before. All the expensive training you could want, but absolutely zero freedom afterwards.¡± Garret looked concerned ¡°Its not that extreme, usually just a long contract. Were you exaggerating, or is that really a thing on your world?¡± ¡°More or less. Most corps are less blatant about it since they still need to wrangle people to join in the first place, but once your in its basically a lifetime ordeal.¡± ¡°Why would anyone do that, that can¡¯t be good for society.¡± ¡°No, but its great for short term quarterly gains, the future can go fuck itself for all they care.¡± Seras crossed her arms. ¡°from what you¡¯re saying it sounds like working for Dustin is a better deal. How so?¡± Garret still looked concerned but he kept his thoughts to himself ¡°Well for anyone going into a trade or specialist position its not ideal, but for those of us who want to be adventurers it can¡¯t be beat.¡± Seras frowned ¡°Really?¡± He nodded ¡°Anyone can get essences and awakening stones, either through money, circumstances of birth, or blind stupid luck. But to be an adventurer you need skills, and that¡¯s not something most people can get on their own. You can train all you want, but without the proper instruction to guide your effort its just time wasted.¡± ¡°And working for Dustin get¡¯s you those skills.¡± Seras surmised. ¡°That¡¯s right, just look at what I¡¯m doing right now. Magic rituals and formations aren¡¯t just something you can pick up. The books are expensive, and the people who write them make sure to spread the useful spells across ten or twelve volumes. But Flint has all those books, as well as decades of practical experience. Then there¡¯s weapon skills, Dustin¡¯s been wandering the deserts for a long time, and he¡¯s been refining his abilities for a while. But the real draw is his aura control.¡± ¡°His aura control. What¡¯s so interesting about that?¡± ¡°Aura is invisible and ethereal. Without all your essences its hard to feel or read, and even with all those you need an aura power to really use it. But all that aside Aura manipulation is the foundation for all essence users, and finding good teachers is expensive. But Dustin offers that kind of tutelage to anyone who works for him, even practical demonstrations.¡± ¡°Is aura really that important?¡± ¡°It is¡± Garret said firmly. ¡°Its how essence users judge each other. It dictates first impressions, and the respect people give you. Finding anyone freely teaching aura control is hard, and finding one as good as Dustin is even harder. I get to learn all the skills I need to become a proper adventurer all while earning enough to buy my other essence and awakening stones. I even get to travel. It¡¯s a good deal all around. Its why we were confused when you turned Dustin down.¡± Seras frowned ¡°I didn¡¯t know enough to tell whether it was good or bad. I thought I could make it on my own.¡± ¡°And how¡¯d that work out for you?¡± he asked softly. ¡°Well I¡¯m back here aren¡¯t I¡± Seras said with a shrug. Garett frowned ¡°They didn¡¯t tell us what happened. But you came back pretty shaken up, it must have been rough.¡± He said softly. Seras turned away, ¡°got all that from just a glance?¡± ¡°You approached a caravan of men naked as the day you were born, and reborn, and acted as if us coming by was a happy little accident. You then explained to us that your from another world, and made of metal even though you had an idea how we would react. Then you faced down a bronze rank monster and tore its jaw off. We know confidence isn¡¯t a trait you lack, but you were very¡­ hesitant... and unsure of things after Karstess. All we know is you killed a bronze rank adventurer.¡± Seras stared at her feet. ¡°Let¡¯s just say I had a wake up call in Karstess. I think that was where I really realized how out of my depths I am.¡± He nodded and patted her shoulder ¡°I can¡¯t imagine what you must be feeling, until two weeks ago Outworlders were just rumors to me. But we¡¯re here for you. You¡¯re one of us now.¡± ¡°Thanks¡± Seras said softly. She then plastered on a fake smile ¡°now, tell me about this magic circle thing, what are these runes around the outside edge?¡± she asked, forcing the conversation away from where it had strayed. CH24 The Storm Once the storm had fully set in the crew Caravan crew had already begun to settle in for a long wait. Some pulled out books, others began to chat, and some began to exercise. There wasn¡¯t enough room for anyone to jog, but they could jog in place in-between pushups and weight training. Petra had pulled Seras out of her comfy corner and made her join in the workout. It seemed that during the duration of the sandstorm the caravan crew were going to guide her through the process of essence training. Step one was physical exertion. Jogging, stretching, and strength training. Matched with hand eye coordination and some strange dance that required her to make a lot of awkward steps and holding her arms at weird angles. With the exception of the weird dance Seras excelled at everything, as she had expected. Her body was a machine, and machines didn¡¯t tire, just wore out. She could keep up a jogging pace without slowing or losing form for as long as her battery did. When it came to strength training Seras matched Petra¡¯s best, and could even last longer. This was despite the fact that Petra had the Might essence boosting her strength, the physical fortitude of Leonids, and being at the peak of Iron rank. When Dustin saw that he lent Seras his set of magically enhanced weights. They looked like the same as what Petra had, but were heavier than they looked. It was after that when Seras finally felt something give. Pushing against the limits of her strength Seras got a notification. Biolite left arm Muscles have been overtaxed and are now at 76% of peak strength. Auto repair in progress, time remaining 3 hours and 1minute. Seras let the weight down and sighed. ¡°That¡¯s it for this arm, just got the alert that the strain exceeded its limits.¡± Petra looked curious. ¡°You get messages for when your arm''s tired? I just know when I¡¯m tired.¡± Seras frowned ¡°I don¡¯t get tired; I still haven¡¯t slept since coming here. But my body does break, and I get to know when that happens. Right now my arm is at 76% of its max strength, and it¡¯s going to take about three hours to repair.¡± Petra scowled ¡°That still seems very strange to me. You said the repairs were new thing, so how did you fix yourself back on your world?¡± ¡°I went to a chop shop to get things fixed or replaced. They have the right tools to fix me up. But I¡¯m not in the habit of intentionally breaking my body, we¡¯re only doing this to see if I can advance like you do. Personally I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll work.¡± Seras groused. She didn¡¯t feel physical exhaustion, but the workout had been a tedious waste of time. ¡°The theory is sound¡± Garret said across the room. he had finished his workout and was now reading a medical text of some sort. ¡°That¡¯s how ordinary people get stronger. Pushing the limits of their strength, shredding muscles, and then repairing them stronger. It''s also how Iron and Bronze rankers get stronger as well.¡± Seras frowned ¡°That can¡¯t be real, right?¡± then she did a quick search of her stored data. ¡°Never mind, I guess that is how you meat bags get stronger. That¡¯s weird.¡± She scrunched her nose at the thought. ¡°Yeah well, you said your arm was at 76% right¡± Petra said with a predatory grin, which was very intimidating considering she was a literal predator. ¡°That means we still have another 75% to go before we move onto your other arm, then the legs, then your core.¡± Seras groaned. ¡°Nooo¡± ~~~*~~~ Petra kept her word, and worked Seras until her body literally gave out on her. Seras slumped back against the rock wall when her body could no longer support her weight. She had just called up a dumb action movie to watch when a book thumped into her lap. Seras glared up at Flint. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± she asked. ¡°Primer on magic theory, you should read while you¡¯re recovering.¡± ¡°Repairing¡± Seras corrected before she glanced at the book in her lap. ¡°I can¡¯t hold it right now, mind if I store it away until I can?¡± Flint grunted ¡°Do what you want, just don¡¯t tear the pages.¡± Then he left. Seras opened her pocket space and chucked the book in, the moment it flew in an alert appeared on her HUD. She opened the alert. Unlocking the world around you, a primer on magical theory By Roland Dundee has been added to archived knowledge. Archived knowledge can be accessed at any time through the net connection ability. ¡°Huh?¡± Seras said out loud. Flint stopped and turned around ¡°What?¡± This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Nothing.¡± Seras said quickly. She opened her space back up and took the book out. Unlocking the world around you, a primer on magical theory By Roland Dundee has been removed from archived knowledge. She put it back in. Unlocking the world around you, a primer on magical theory By Roland Dundee has been added to archived knowledge. Archived knowledge can be accessed at any time through the net connection ability. Nifty. Seras had spoken with Dustin on her outworlder abilities, and he had told her about some of the other outworlder abilities he had heard of. Outworlders always developed abilities that were supposed to help guide them through their new worlds. One Dustin had spoken of received that guidance in the forms of prophecy, another could summon grimoires full of knowledge. Seras¡¯ net connection ability seemed to fit this general trend, but for some reason hers was blocked, incapable of accessing the greater wealth of this world¡¯s knowledge, limited to only what was public and widely disseminated through magical means. Apparently, the ability to view books in her pocket space like a net page was another facet of that ability. She checked her repair timer. Six hours, considering that her muscle strength was all down to ten percent, and she hadn¡¯t boosted the repair time Seras couldn¡¯t complain. It seemed that for strength degradation once a certain threshold was reached three hours of repair were required for a full repair, but after that every additional bit a degradation only added a few minutes. It meant she wouldn¡¯t have egregious repair times to sit through while they tested whether or not her strength could improve. The repairs did eat into her battery life though, and the diluted stamina potions she had wouldn¡¯t last forever. Once again, she found herself wishing for a quick power hook-up. five, maybe ten minutes of hooking in and she would be at full charge once again. With nothing better to do she cracked open the primer and began to read. ¡°Magic, that essence that drives our world forward and empowers us to face down monsters, is not of this our world at all, but rather it is of the astral-¡° The words were flowery, and wherever the author could have used one word he used ten, but it was interesting. Her eyes glossed over the formulas sprinkled throughout the text, as she had almost no context for them, and the text was riddled with tangential anecdotes. But it was informative. ~~~*~~~ Four hours into reading the primer Dustin came up to her. ¡°Good movie?¡± He asked, his smile was friendly, but his eyes were judgey. ¡°Magic primer, I found out I could read it with my HUD if I stuck it in my pocket space.¡± Seras explained. ¡°So, you¡¯ve been reading this whole time?¡± ¡°As much as I can. This Dundee dude needs to learn how to get to the fucken point, I¡¯m three chapters in and only about half of it is actually useful. The rest is anecdotes and flowery bullshit sentences that go nowhere.¡± Seras complained. Dustin laughed. ¡°Yes, I¡¯ve often felt that these dusty old texts could have been half as large while covering twice as much ground. But Flint tells me that doing so would be some sort of grave taboo amongst magic researchers. ¡®A simpler text would imply a simple writer¡¯ or something to that effect. You said your world has something similar to magic, this ¡®science¡¯ thing, are those books much like ours?¡± ¡°Technically your world has science too, I think you guys just ignore it in favor of Magic.¡± Dustin grinned ¡°Of course, why bother with science when you could just study magic to make the amazing possible?¡± ¡°Science is just as amazing, just look at me. I¡¯m the living byproduct of millennia of scientific study. But to answer your question, no. A science textbook is concise and to the point, with zero fluff. Where it might need ten words to describe a process it instead invents a new word to mean that exact thing and nothing else. It describes the fundamental forces of reality in the simplest terms possible since that¡¯s literally the aim of science, to take a phenomenon and distill to its basest principles through controlled testing and study. I¡¯ve got a book on gravity downloaded, and it describes what gravity is in the first five pages, the rest of the book is how it interacts with everything else. Whereas with this book I¡¯m five chapters in and he¡¯s still working his way up to explaining magical density.¡± ¡°He doesn¡¯t actually explain that until the second volume.¡± Dustin said with a contrite expression. Seras through her hands up ¡°Then what was the point of this one?¡± Dustin scratched the back of his head. ¡°You¡¯ve got me beat. What¡¯s gravity?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the things that makes things fall¡± Seras said with a hand wave. ¡°You guys probably have a different word for it.¡± Dustin blinked ¡°Not that I can think of. No one¡¯s ever put that much thought into why things fall. They just do.¡± he said pointedly. ¡°Wait seriously. You guys don¡¯t know about gravity, it¡¯s a fundamental constant of reality.¡± Seras stopped short as she remembered the upwards flowing water. ¡°Or its supposed to be.¡± Dustin shrugged ¡°I guess no one ever thought it was important enough to name. Is it really that big of a deal?¡± ¡°Like I said, it¡¯s a fundamental force, like so fundamental that if it was just a single decimal point different then there¡¯d be no reality at all. It¡¯s the force that allows the hydrogen fusion that fuels the sun, its what spins the planets around, and its what keeps our feet on the ground.¡± Dustin¡¯s eyebrows rose. ¡°That, I don¡¯t know how to take that. But we¡¯re off topic, again.¡± ¡°What was the topic again?¡± Seras asked as she added ¡®Investigate gravity¡¯ to her list of things to do. It was a new and ever-growing list of things that ranged from train, to get third essence, find summoning materials, invent electricity, and meeting one of these supposedly living Gods this world had. ¡°The third pillar of essence advancement, meditation.¡± ¡°Wait the first was working out, what was two?¡± ¡°The first isn¡¯t just working out, its pushing work limits through training. Exercise is just one aspect, there¡¯s also training your mind, and aura control. You can¡¯t really do the last one yet though; you need an essence ability for proper aura control.¡± Dustin explained. ¡°The second aspect is truly pushing your limits in a life-or-death ordeal. Which is commonly done through fighting monsters.¡± ¡°But it doesn¡¯t have to be monsters.¡± Seras said, seeing the hidden meaning behind his words. ¡°No¡± Dustin said grimly ¡°Sometimes other people can push your limits far better than monsters, but that isn¡¯t exactly reliable. And the adventurer society strongly frowns upon using war to push essence abilities.¡± ¡°Does that actually stop countries from fighting?¡± ¡°In a way. When war breaks out the society tries to intervene and find a peaceful solution as fast as possible. When that fails they cut off the contract payments and encourage the adventurers not engaged in fighting to pullout for a time. Monsters appear and they aren¡¯t cleared out, the local armies try to do the adventures job. But the nature of war means those very same people are also the ones campaigning. The economy starts to suffer. And one way or another the war ends. Its not always this cut and dry, but in general that¡¯s what happens, and the threat of that is usually enough to get both sides to the negotiating table.¡± ¡°I see. And this third pillar?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Meditation.¡± She snorted. ¡°What, like clear your mind and chant this mantra to fix your drug addiction.¡± She mocked. He frowned ¡°I see you already have some¡­ preconceptions.¡± Seras blushed, she had run her mouth without thinking. Back home it was normal to scoff at the dopes falling for ¡®meditation clinics¡¯. ¡°Sorry, we don¡¯t, I don¡¯t think our way of approaching meditation is like yours. A lot of people fall for scam clinics with their ¡®patented¡¯ 100% effective soul cleansing mantra¡¯s.¡± ¡°I take the clinics were fake.¡± Dustin surmised. ¡°It was all Heidel shit. Hope dangled on a hook for all the poor desperate chumps to chomp down and lose what little money they had left.¡± Dustin looked saddened by what she said, but he kept his words to himself. ¡°Well this is real. The training, the fighting, it¡¯s all to push your limits and bolster your power. The meditation is to guide that power, so it doesn¡¯t go to waste or overtake you. I spent nearly a decade refining my meditation sessions. Reading manuals, talking with adventurers, and just trial and error. It might not be as good as what the nobility teach their young scions, and it certainly isn¡¯t the equal of any adventuring academy like the famous Remore academy, but it¡¯s a damned shot better than nothing.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°Alright, lets get this over with then.¡± She said, not looking forward to a dull session of sitting and clearing her mind. Ch25 Progress It took six days for the storm to clear, six days doing nothing but training, reading, and meditating. Seras had never been one for mindless repetition, she had always filled her days with as much activity as possible. From mercenary work, weapon training, or her own gun tinkering. But oddly enough, Seras found that she quite liked the tedium of training more than she thought she would. Mostly because she could track her progress with her HUD Metal essence ability Structural reinforcement Iron 1: 23% Uses mana to reinforce any metallic construct from physical blows. Can enhance non-metal magical constructs for a higher mana cost. Cost: Low Cooldown: None One week of training nonstop had pushed her essence nearly a quarter of the way towards the next level. This was the result of her training and spending every spare bit of mana reinforcing the walls of the dome as a way of getting used to her new magic power. Petra even helped Seras test out the limits of her reinforcing her body by hitting her with her sledgehammer. Without Petra using any strength boosting abilities Seras was able to withstand the blows of a peak iron rank might essence user with only minor damage. It did however eat away at her Mana when she took the blows head on. But according to Dustin it was still a pretty impressive ability for a newly awakened essence. Something that could save her in a critical moment, or boost her allies'' defenses was a very handy ability. If only she could say the same for her tech essence abilities. Her first ability seemed to require a huge base of both technical and magical knowledge to use, which meant Seras had weeks of reading ahead of her before she could even attempt to use it. As for her other ability, the Spark of Madness, she couldn¡¯t even begin to advance that one until she gathered the materials needed for the summon, as well as learning the base knowledge she needed just to draw the ritual. She was beginning to wonder if maybe the Technology essence was somehow defective. Did the synthetic nature of it somehow fuck with whatever made the magic work, because according to Flint and Dustin, she shouldn¡¯t have gotten any of her abilities without the requisite knowledge to use them. Still, it was a good start for only a week¡¯s work. If her pace stayed the same then she would max it out in a little under a year. Which sounded like a lot when you added in the nine-teen other abilities she would need to work one. But in this case more essences and awakened abilities had a multiplicative effect on growth rate since they gave their user the power to start throwing themselves into adventuring work and fighting monsters. Dustin said most iron rankers with a good foundation spent about a year or two in iron rank before hitting bronze. Either way Seras was pleased with her first steps towards advancing, and couldn¡¯t wait to awaken all her abilities. With the storm petering out in the early morning of the sixth day the crew, and their Heidels, were ready to stretch their legs. Buck nearly ran off while Seras was still mounting up, there hadn¡¯t been much room for the Heidels to move around and they were clearly pent up and bored. The landscape outside had changed during their time in the shelter. The dried riverbed they had been following was filled in with dust and was hard to see the outline of. Any semblance of game trials through the brush was gone, and plenty of the short scrubs had been buried in dust. ¡°Keep an eye on the sand, plenty of monsters like to lurk in the new sand drifts.¡± Dustin warned before they once again began to move. That day they had to continuously rein the Heidels in so they didn¡¯t wear themselves out. Buck seemed to be especially displeased with this, as when Seras dismounted for a break the dammed lizard tried to eat Seras¡¯ hair. Stupid bastard ended up hacking on the nanite dust when her hair dissolved. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Close to the beginning of dusk Dustin held up the caravan while he and Flint went to poke a suspicious sand dune. The dune turned out to a big lizard monster with sand colored skin and strange rhombus shaped plates along its spine. Seras stayed with Petra and reinforced her conjured armor, as well as the wagons. In the end her efforts were pointless as Dustin and Flint expertly kited the big lizard until its own blood began to cook it from the inside out. The two did a sweep before declaring the area safe. They made camp early while Dustin and Flint drew a large ritual circle around the fallen monster. With the camp all set up and an hour or so from sundown Seras leaned back against her pack and kept reading the volumes of basic magical theory. Her HUD allowed her to read during the day which allowed her to get through the first volume and on to the second. After nearly four hundred pages of talking around the subject Dundee finally got around to describing magic Density and quality. Like the ranks ambient magic came in different levels, it started at low iron, meaning you most saw iron rank monster with a few rare bronze, then mid iron which just meant there¡¯d be slightly more bronze and the very rare silver, and so on. The density of the ambient magic was the measure of how often manifestations occurred. Most of the Salt Sands for example had a quality of low to mid bronze, but the density was so low that it was rare to see bronze rank monsters across the vast landscape. And the monsters that spawned in packs had lower numbers. The same went with the region called the Glass sands, low to mid bronze with an abysmal density. The other desert regions of the continent, the Gold sands, the Blood sands, and the black sands, were in the silver range of magic quality with a slightly higher density. The Five desert region covered nearly half of the whole continent and spanned a large number of mountain range, lakes, and major rivers. Not to mention the higher-than-average clusters of Astral spaces, both close to the surface and deep below it. The different deserts were named for the type of sand/dust prevalent. The Salt Sands, the desert they were currently traversing, was famous for its massive salt flats that could span far beyond the horizon. The Glass sands supposedly had crystalline white sand with an appearance like glass. While the Blood, Gold, and Black were also self-explanatory. Everything changed below the deserts surface. The Labyrinth was a massive ever-changing web of caverns that stretched across half the continent, from the gold sands to the south, and the artic taigas of the far north. The magic quality and density also had a habit of shifting around. One year a tunnel would be magic poor with only iron rank monsters. The next tunnels in the same area could be brimming with magic and silver rank monsters. It was both the life blood of the Five deserts economy, and a source of constant danger. Of course only a fraction of that was in the volume of basic magic theory, the rest she had learned through the farmers almanac (Which was surprisingly useful) and her talks with Dustin, Petra, Garret, and occasionally Flint when he wasn¡¯t being a bastard. She had tried speaking with the rest of the caravan crew about these things, but their interests were more¡­ ordinary, for lack of a better word. They liked things like magical mirage chamber battles that were put on in the bigger cities. Some sort of cross between holograms and virtual reality allowed for champions to face off to the death without actually dying. Frank and Chase were big fans of certain teams and would talk her ear off about this player or that champion. Seras was certainly interested, but the lack of real stakes seemed unappealing to her. Frank and Chase were both farm boys from some grasslands to the east of the five deserts, so unless her question was plant or animal based they were unlikely to know the answer. Rohan, a man with tanned walnut colored skin and turquoise beads in his hair, was from one of the local nomadic peoples, the Akemi. He knew a lot about different monsters of the desert, but had never spent the time to learn magic theory. During their week in the dugout dome he had pulled out a magic crystal that painted the domes ceiling in a dazzling rendition of the night sky. He said he felt uneasy without the stars above him. And when prompted he would tell Seras some of his peoples legends about how the stars got their names. Seras liked his stories, and didn¡¯t have the heart to tell him they weren¡¯t actually the souls of his honored ancestors and just big balls of flaming hydrogen. Though she now wondered if somehow the magic on this world fucked with the stars in ways her people never considered possible. Did essences and awakening stones manifest on the sun? Did monsters? ¡°Hey Seras, quit your gaping, chows on you tonight!¡± Frank called from the fire. There was a chorus of groans. On their second day in the dugout Seras had to cook meals for everyone, and seeing as it was her first time cooking ever the results had been less then stellar. Personally Seras didn¡¯t think it was too bad, you just had to peel the burnt layers off to get at the edible parts. This time instead of burning it to crisp she cooked it too long and the meat came out dry and tough as rubber. She also mistook salt for sugar, and starch for flower. The rest of the caravan grimaced as they took their first bites, and Seras surreptitiously turned off her taste buds and pretended to enjoy it. Petra finished her food and looked to the group. ¡°Alright, everyone who thinks Seras should be banned from cooking put your hand up.¡± Everyone¡¯s hand went up. Seras let out an offended squawk of protest, ¡°Its that bad?¡± Dustin put a hand on her shoulder ¡°Child, I wouldn¡¯t feed this to my worst enemy.¡± ¡°It has to some sort of crime to be this bad at cooking¡± Chase chimed. ¡°Not even fit for dogs¡± Rohan said while shaking his hand. Seras harumphed and crossed her arms, but on the inside she was happy. Not to be banned from cooking, which was actually a shame, but at the comradery. The week crammed together in the dugout had proven fruitful in her training, but it also allowed Seras a chance to slowly get to know everyone. From Rohan¡¯s stories, to Frank and Chases enthusiasm for mirage battles, to learning Garret¡¯s dream of being a famous adventurer. It made her feel just a little less lost. Ch26 The Ruined World Their journey took them south for three and a half weeks. They stopped for a few days to resupply and rest in a small fertile valley along the Wolfram River, a major river in the Five deserts region. The river was one of the very few that allowed for the cultivation of land out in the open rather than around one of the many rocky citadels of the five Deserts. The valley was like an oasis in the middle of the desert and survived as a major trade hub between the northern Slat sands, southern Black sands, the Eastern blood sands, and the Draconian kingdom along the west coast. The Wolfram Valley republic maintained its existence and power by carefully balancing the competing interests that surrounded it on all sides, and by being too far out of the way for anyone to conquer and hold. While Dustin took some time to secure them a barge going down river Seras explored the market with Rohan. Most of the interesting magical stuff was within the adventurer society complex. A large multi-story mall like construct. But there were still plenty of open-air markets with lots of cool stuff. Seras was mostly just trying to get a sense of prices so that she might better gauge how much her familiar summon would cost her. The answer so far was about a fuck-ton of money. ¡°Hey, is it just me, or do a lot of these people look like you?¡± Seras asked as she was examining a well-made knife. Rohan made a contemplative noise. ¡°I guess one might consider the Akemi and the Wolframites to be cousins of a sort. Tribes like my people roamed over this region for millennia. We have a name for every rock and river in this desert. Some grew tired of following the old dusty trails and settled in green places like this. But that was long ago, their tongue is not my own, neither are our stories or traditions.¡± Seras frowned ¡°And what about the Citadels?¡± ¡°Those are a newer endeavor. The unification of the Draconian tribes, and the formation of the Storm Kingdom had ripple effects that reached even into these barren lands. The demands for metal put a strain on their own natural resources, so many began to venture into the deserts looking for profit. It was a bad time.¡± Seras frowned; she¡¯d heard that story before. Stronger powers coming in to exploit weaker tribal peoples. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that. Did it get better for your people?¡± Rohan looked confused ¡°My people? My people are as they have always been, strong and free. The bad times were for the outsiders. Many tried to come in forcefully, take what was ours, and we and the other peoples of the Deserts responded in kind. The stories say that blood flowed like water over these sands.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Seras asked in surprise. Rohan looked offended ¡°Of course. My people know these deserts like the back of our hands, we even know ways to predict the movements of the labyrinth. And living without any walls to guard us means that we are always clashing with monsters. More of our people are essence users than the outsiders who hoard power in their richest families, and we¡¯re constantly pushing our skills day in and day out. The reason the Five Deserts are somewhat poor in adventurers is because my people are too good at killing them during our yearly migrations. We even have a few Diamond rank ancestors who travel our paths instead of exploring the wider cosmos. We could have resisted the outsiders for a hundred generations.¡± He explained. Right, magic. The way essence advancement worked meant that a tribal people who spent their whole lives fighting monsters would advance quicker, especially if they had powerful high rankers shielding them from the worst of it. Of course they would be able to repel invaders. ¡°So then how did the various city states of the desert form?¡± she asked. Rohan frowned ¡°While my people¡¯s knowledge is great, it doesn¡¯t cover everything. The outsiders had the magic to fortify their Citadels and could use the astral spaces to support their populations. So, the scattered cities survived and couldn¡¯t be forced to capitulate. But their scattered nature and fractious relations meant they couldn¡¯t unite against us. There was a stalemate.¡± ¡°What broke it?¡± ¡°Time, like all things. Generations passed since the first citadels and the newer generations didn¡¯t see a point in killing poor miners and desperate traders. A deal was made granting the people of the citadels amnesty, and small radius of land they could cultivate. In return their people were barred from settling lands that weren¡¯t theirs.¡± ¡°And everyone was just okay with that?¡± ¡°No, both sides hated it in their own ways, but some guarantees from the Adventurers society keeps both sides in check. And in the end I feel like it was all for the better. My people still get to live by our traditions, and the outsiders get to mine and work their metals in their cities. The Akemi even do a lot of trade with the cities, and our weaker members who aren¡¯t suited for our lifestyle get to move to the cities instead. Nearly a quarter of the city people are descended from my people.¡± You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. Seras smiled ¡°Alright, enough politics, do you think this knife is worth the price?¡± Rohan held out his hand and she passed it over, he examined it. ¡°No, I¡¯d say the merchant had overpriced this blade just because the hilt has some trash gold embellishments. A knife without the pointless glitter would work just as fine.¡± Seras nodded at his advice and searched for a new knife. It was a strange experience for her, judging the craftsmanship and haggling over the price. On her world everything was mass produced, designed to break in a few years, and had their prices set in stone. But Rohan had a deft eye and found her a knife that was as fine as a normal rank weapon could be. It even had a few enchantments to prevent rust and keep it sharp. They continued to wander about when they came across a shop that really piqued her interest. It was a small place, with a small stock, but was made out of stone and brick with glass windows and a magic device that worked like air conditioning. The shop was small but very nicely furnished, which is what drew her in. Within they found shelfs with books on them, but each shelf only contained one book proudly displayed in the center for everyone to see. Rohan made an intrigued noise. ¡°Ah, a skill book shop.¡± He said. ¡°Skill book¡± Seras asked. ¡°Yes, they¡¯re not very common since you need a skill or racial ability to use them, but for those who can use skill books it is an invaluable skill.¡± He explained. ¡°I can use skill books.¡± Seras offered as she double checked her mysterious stranger racial trait. ¡°You can?¡± he sounded surprised. ¡°Yeah, its and outworlder thing.¡± She explained. ¡°Ah¡± A wizened voice said. An old woman poked out of the back room, she had skin much like Rohans, but instead of turquoise beads she decorated her hair with large vermillion feathers. And she held a long-blackened staff that she leaned on. ¡°I do get a number of outworlders coming through. They always get an ability to use skill books, and they often find their way to me.¡± She said with a kind elderly smile. Despite her looks Seras got a tingling feeling up her spine. The woman was old, but had a sense of agelessness to her, like her skin age really didn¡¯t match her actual age. And despite looking very venerable her back was unhunched, her skin clear and unwrinkled, and her hands unbent by maladies like arthritis. And her face had an ethereal sense of polish to it. Rohan put a hand to his chest. ¡°Greetings Matron¡± he said respectfully. The woman smiled ¡°Greetings son of the Akemi, I see your people are ever big on respect and deference to your elders, even to women not of your people.¡± Rohan remained silent. Seras cocked her head to the side. ¡°You¡¯re a silver ranker, aren¡¯t you?¡± The women turned to Seras. ¡°You haven¡¯t been here very long then if you¡¯re not afraid of offending me. Then again Outworlders are always somewhat contentious to the tyranny of rank. Yes child, I am a silver ranker.¡± ¡°Neat¡± Seras chirped, which got her an elbow to the side from Rohan. The women¡¯s eyes crinkled in amusement. ¡°All is fine Son of the Akemi; I forgive any improprieties. Dealing with Outworlders is always an interesting experience.¡± She turned back to Seras ¡°So child, are you looking to purchase your first skill book?¡± ¡°I was, or at the very least I¡¯d like to get a sense of their price.¡± Seras answered. ¡°Hm, well you''re in luck. This old Matron happens to be fond of the tales outworlders tell. It gives me a glimpse into the wider cosmos. If you trade me a story of your world, then I¡¯ll trade you one of my books, on the house.¡± Seras felt her pulse quicken. She got a glimpse of just the iron ranked books, and the price for the cheapest of those was in the tens of bronze range. Making it several hundred iron, or several thousand lesser ranked spirit coins. Which was a lot. ¡°What would you like to know?¡± She asked tentatively. The Matron leaned on her staff. ¡°Tell something you consider foundational, to your world. A story that shapes everyday life.¡± Well that didn¡¯t narrow things down. That could be anything from the industrial revolution to the corpo-wars. She could tell the woman her own legend, the rise of Blackiron, but that seemed a bit presumptuous. There were just too many stories and legends on Ruin that changed the world. A thought came to her. ¡°How about how my world got its name?¡± ¡°And what is your world called?¡± she asked leaning in close. ¡°Ruin.¡± The lady''s face went blank, before she let a cackling laugh. ¡°Yes, that¡¯ll do, that¡¯ll do just fine.¡± Even Rohan looked curious. Had she not told this story? No she hadn¡¯t. Seras took in a calming breath. She wasn¡¯t the best story teller, but this is one everyone knew. ¡°Once upon a time the world was green and verdant place, with glittering oceans, flowing water, and crystal clear lakes. There were no rings in the sky girdling the planet, and the moon was twice the size of its current state. It was a golden age of building, art, and culture. But then the Gods went to war with one another. Both sides rose massive armies, gifted their warriors with divine weapons, and set the world ablaze with their war.¡± The woman leaned in ¡°Why did your Gods go to war?¡± Seras shrugged ¡°That¡¯s unknown, plenty of people have their own answers, but in the end no one knows anymore. We¡¯ve even forgotten many of their names, all that remains are their temples and artifacts.¡± ¡°What happened during this divine war?¡± the woman pressed. ¡°The oceans boiled away, the land heaved, mountains vanished, and new continent sized craters formed. People died in the millions. But the Gods promised a paradise for their followers after everything was done, after the enemy had been defeated.¡± ¡°Did they lie?¡± the Matron asked. ¡°Maybe, or maybe they intended to keep their word the whole time. There was a final battle, it blew a hole in the side of the world that stretched down to the mantel, the worlds fiery heart. In that battle all the Gods died, and we, the people of a ruined world were forced to start over on the few patches of green left.¡± Seras had always thought the story was just a myth, a legend told by peoples too primitive to comprehend what had happened to them after a meteor hit, or a super volcano blew up. But now she wasn¡¯t so sure. Here she was on a world with magic, where the gods were real, and the battles of diamond rankers could carve out whole valleys. She was beginning to suspect the myths and legends of floating cities and great creatures roaming the land were more than just stories. That maybe at one point her world had magic. And that real Gods actually did go to war and left them with a ruined world. The Matrons face darkened ¡°Not the usual kind of story I get, but thought provoking all the same. Take what you will, price is no issue as long as its iron rank. I must ponder your story.¡± The woman said before walking away. Seras let out a breath and reached for a book on formation magic. One of the priciest books in the shop. Tarkon¡¯s foundational formation, iron rank. Would you like to convert this skill book into an appropriate form. Y/N She selected yes and it shrank into a shard. And she smiled ¡°Should I use this now or wait?¡± Seras asked Rohan. He had a grim expression on his face, and his eyes looked concerned. He shook his head ¡°What? No, I¡¯ve heard they¡¯re pretty taxing to use.¡± He said quickly. ¡°Well then, lets head back then?¡± she said as she put her hands behind her head and walked out of the shop. He followed behind, but he continued to frown as he pondered on what she had said. Ch27 Soul/body disconnect After she got her book Seras returned to the room she shared with Petra, the only other women in the expedition, and immediately slotted the shard in. What followed was a feeling much like absorbing Essences or awakening stones. It was like someone took a thousand hours of lectures and diagrams and shoved them into her head. Golden images flashed across her eyes, a thousand magical formation diagrams. Words flashed across her mind, and her fingers twitched with newly programmed muscle memory. Rohan had told her that passing out would muddle the process of absorbing the skill book, so she forced herself to stay awake. But it was a near thing. Skill Book absorbed. Formation knowledge added to database. WARNING. Formation knowledge is incomplete. Develop foundational theory knowledge to complete gaps in knowledge. ¡°Oh fuck me¡± she groaned loud from the bed. That was a lot more than just ¡®taxing¡¯ Rohan. ¡°AH¡± a voice said from outside the door. ¡°Do you have a guest in there?¡± Petra asked from outside. Seras blinked and sat up. ¡°No,¡± she called back. There was a pause. ¡°Are you decent? Because it sounds like you might be¡­ ah.. indisposed.¡± ¡°What was she on about¡± Seras thought. Then she remembered what she had said after she finished using the skill book and face palmed. ¡°No¡± she called back ¡°I¡¯m perfectly fine.¡± The door cracked and Petra peaked through hesitantly, then upon seeing that Seras still had her pants on strode through the door. ¡°Good, I was worried with what I heard, didn¡¯t want to walk in on anything awkward.¡± Seras scowled ¡°Just a skill book, it was a little more intense than I expected.¡± Petra didn¡¯t look convinced, but kept her thoughts to herself. ¡°If you say so. Dustin says we¡¯ve got another few days before the barge departs down river.¡± Seras nodded ¡°Nova, I think I¡¯m done exploring the city, want to spend tomorrow training.¡± ¡°What, you¡¯re done complaining about low batter-ee?¡± Petra teased. Seras had to call off their training sessions recently when her power reserves crept down to low power mode. ¡°Naw, I think I bought enough low-grade stamina potions to last this time. They¡¯re a bit pricier than I¡¯d like.¡± Petra grinned. ¡°Good, no more slacking.¡± She quirked her head to the side. ¡°It¡¯s actually been long enough to start seeing some results, have you seen any improvements?¡± ¡°About that. my limits still remain in place, and haven¡¯t changed. But I¡¯ve been tracking the repair times, and I¡¯ve noticed the speed has been slowly improving. Its already down by ten minutes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not much.¡± Petra pointed out. ¡°Everything in small improvements right. Besides, I think the enhanced repair time applies to other things. Like if my arm breaks I think it¡¯ll repair faster. And if I boost that with monster cores and quintessence I might be able to one day make up for being unable to heal with magic.¡± Petra considered that. ¡°Yeah, that would be really good for you.¡± she shook her head. ¡°I¡¯ve really taken for granted how weird your body is.¡± Seras frowned, not this again. ¡°Its no weirder than yours, yours body is also made of metals, nonmetals, and goo. Mine just happen to be more refined and less squishy.¡± Petra shook her ¡°I still don¡¯t follow your logic. People are more than just an assembly of these ¡®elements¡¯ of yours. Theres more to it than that.¡± ¡°Not really, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, calcium, and phosphorus are like ninety-something percent of your chemical makeup. It¡¯s all about how those elements bond and interact.¡± Petra looked unconvinced. ¡°Whatever. Are you actually going to sleep tonight or just study?¡± ¡°Study, I just absorbed a formation skill book, now I need to build up my background knowledge to actually understand what I know.¡± ¡°Alright, just dim your eyes, the light distracts me at night.¡± ¡°Alright¡± ~~~*~~~ In an open field, while enduring hammer blows from Petra, Seras felt a breakthrough. She felt the limits of her reinforcement ability press against a wall, and then push through that wall. Structural reinforcement Iron 1: 97% has advanced to Structural reinforcement Iron 2: 02% Petra stopped hitting Seras as she held up a hand and smiled at the feeling of progress. Then she felt a sickening feeling spread through her stomach. She collapsed onto the ground and began to shiver and shake. WARNING. Potent magical energy is surging through your system. Increased strain on your magic matrix has resulted in a disconnect between your magical matrix and biomechanical physiology. Condition Soul/body dichotomy has developed. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Senses reduced. Movement speed is reduced. Strength is reduced. Cognition is hampered. The same message she had seen when she ate a spirit coin. Then she felt a rush of greater pain. Soul/Body dichotomy has developed into soul/body disconnect. Current disconnect 2% The pain did not leave her. It did not fade. Instead a constant aching feeling stabbed at her very soul. ¡°Seras. Oh Gods Seras.¡± Petra shouted. ¡°Please stop yelling¡± Seras croaked. She forced herself up despite the pain. ¡°What happened?¡± Dustin, who had run over from his own spring match, asked in alarm. ¡°I don¡¯t know¡± Petra answered. ¡°We were just doing our normal sparring when she collapsed on the ground and began shaking.¡± ¡°My, my metal essence ability advanced.¡± Seras said with a strained voice. ¡°Is that supposed to happen when an ability advances?¡± They exchanged a round of concerned looks. ¡°No¡± Dustin said slowly. ¡°You only get bad reactions at rank ups, but your still normal rank.¡± ¡°This happened before¡± Flint spoke up. ¡°When she took a spirit coin.¡± Seras nodded ¡°Soul body dichotomy. The power of the coin somehow gave me seizure, or at least the symptoms. It happened again with the advancement, but this time my body couldn¡¯t purge the energy, so it developed into soul/body disconnect.¡± ¡°What could have caused this?¡± Petra asked out loud. ¡°Isn¡¯t it obvious¡± Flint said darkly. ¡°It¡¯s a soul/body disconnect. Her soul is normal rank, and ordinarily her body would be as well. But hers isn¡¯t, her speed, strength, and durability are all on par with a weak bronze ranker. Her body is bronze rank while her soul and magic matrix is only normal. The power of spirit coins and essence advancement must have aggravated that uneven power dynamic.¡± His words landed like a stone on her. ¡°Then she just needs to reach bronze to fix it¡± Dustin offered. Seras shook her head. ¡°Won¡¯t work. To get to bronze I need to advance twenty abilities by ten levels. That one level had a soul/body disconnect of 2%. Even excluding the starting level I wont be able to get to bronze before the disconnect reaches 100%.¡± ¡°Which would mean death¡± Flint finished for her. Petra looked incensed on Seras¡¯ behalf. ¡°How is that fair? She has to reach bronze to fix the problem, but she¡¯s going to die before she hits bronze.¡± ¡°Its perfectly fair¡± Flint said. ¡°She gets a bronze rank body at normal rank, and its presumably the only reason she survived the Astral space and the Labyrinth. But people don¡¯t get to have a bronze rank body for no cost. Everything balances out.¡± ¡°Philips¡¯ theory of potential¡± Seras muttered. Flint nodded ¡°Exactly.¡± ¡°Excuse me, but what is the theory of potential?¡± Petra asked. ¡°It¡¯s a way of explaining why essence powersets always balance themselves out.¡± Flint said. ¡°Burgos Philips plotted all essence powers and powersets on a chart. He measured things like mana cost, casting speed, damage potential, scaling, and many other factors. He found that in general, with only a few outliers, all powersets fell within a certain range of power. With the abilities skewing one way or another, but always remaining within the bounds of their rank. That includes Racial traits as well. His research also found that people with abilities or traits that outstripped their rank were hampered with devastating side effects. Seras has a racial trait that gives her a bronze rank body at normal rank, but that over powered ability comes at the cost of other skills. That might be why she didn¡¯t get a looting ability unlike other Outworlders who always have one. It also puts an innate strain on her matrix and soul. When she came into this world her soul couldn¡¯t form a normal body so she got the one she has, at the time of her rebirth her body and soul were in equilibrium. But the addition of essences and abilities tipped the scales, and now she¡¯s suffering the back lash.¡± They were all stunned into silience. ¡°That a lot to come up with on the spot¡± Dustin said suspiciously. Flint frowned ¡°I¡¯ve found our Outworlder strange from the very beginning. When I saw body and abnormal strength I grew suspicious. I¡¯ve been researching since. That¡¯s why I gave her Philips¡¯ theory of potential, I was hoping she might connect the dots on her own. But now it seems that we¡¯ve found the draw back.¡± ¡°What if we found her a third essence, got her to iron rank? That should reduce the disconnect thing¡± Petra asked. Flint frowned ¡°I don¡¯t know. This has never happened before.¡± Dustin looked to Seras ¡°Is the pain going down at least?¡± he asked. ¡°No, its still there. I don¡¯t think its going to go away.¡± Seras said with a grunt. ¡°Do you think a pain-relieving potion will help?¡± Petra asked. ¡°No.¡± Flint said. ¡°What¡¯s going on right now is soul deep. No potion I¡¯ve heard of can affect the soul.¡± ¡°So what, she just has to deal with an endless pain that just keeps getting worse and worse!¡± Petra snarled. ¡°Until we find a solution I¡¯m afraid she will.¡± Dustin said. ¡°If it¡¯s a soul pain then there¡¯s no escape. Not even sleep will be free from it.¡± ¡°Its fine Petra. I¡¯ll just need to get used to it.¡± Seras tried to calm down the Leonid. ¡°Its not fine. Its fucken bullshit!¡± ¡°Its life, no one gets any say for how life choses to fuck us over.¡± Seras said, her voice lacking any emotion. ¡°This isn¡¯t some cruel God playing a prank on me, its just natural forces at play. Its like being mad at a storm.¡± ¡°Gods¡± Dustin said. ¡°If anyone would have an answer they would. A priest of Healer was able to figure out how to recharge up your body, maybe they will know how to help you.¡± ¡°Then we take her to the church of the Healer¡± Petra said firmly. ¡°The divine district is just a couple blocks over.¡± Flint and Dustin both shook their heads ¡°Not here¡± Dustin said. ¡°Why not, I saw Healers temple over there?¡± Petra asked. ¡°Not all temples are equal, especially in the case of Healer. He lets his temples have a lot of leeway with his edicts. Something to do with the freedom of choice. That often means that churches in isolated places like this become corrupt and less honorable than his big temples. ¡° Dustin said. Flint nodded ¡°The temple of Wolfram Valley is notoriously corrupt, and they like to decide who is and isn¡¯t worthy of healing depending on how ¡®pious¡¯ the person is. People who give the church regular donations are more likely to receive treatment than some strangers who rolled in from out of town. We once tried to have a snake bite treated here, but even though the spell would cost the clergy nothing to cast they refused unless we paid a ridiculous fee.¡± Petra frowned ¡°That was Frank right? Before I joined. Didn¡¯t Rohan say he sucked the poison out to save his life?¡± Dustin snorted ¡°Yup, he did it right there in the temple. He sucked the blood out of Frank and spit it on the priests robes. Nearly lost our heads for that one. But the Wolframites still hold to their old traditions of honor and respect, and they said Rohan was well within his rights to spit venom on priests who refused aid.¡± ¡°What about Briaxis?¡± Petra said, naming the last city the Wolfram river passed through before reaching the sea. ¡°No go as well, those priests are all Draconians, and we all know they get a little Supremacist-ee at the best of times. They¡¯ll refuse her on account of her not being Draconian.¡± Flint explained. ¡°God-damned god and his stupidly lax rules¡± Petra grumbled. ¡°Florin should be fine. They recently had a major sweep and purging of their ranks. They¡¯re our best bet.¡± Dustin said. ¡°And its not like she¡¯s going to die any minute. This is a growing, long term condition. If Seras can bear with the pain for a little longer then there¡¯s no issue waiting until we get to a better church.¡± ¡°Can you last that long?¡± Petra asked. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m already getting used to the discomfort.¡± Seras lied. ¡°Alright.¡± Petra relented, the furry in her voice and posture seeping away. ¡°But we should call off any more essence training.¡± Seras nodded. ¡°Alright. But I think I would like to keep the rest of the routine going. Maybe we can sub out essence training for weapon¡¯s training instead? I doubt I¡¯m going to ever hold a gun again, so I need to learn something new.¡± Seras said, trying to change the subject from her potential impending doom. ¡°Guns are those magic bow things you mentioned right?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°Sort of. They¡¯re similar in the same way a sword and dart are similar since they both have pointy ends.¡± Seras said cheekily. She had tried several times to explain guns, but they always either related it to a bow or a magic staff that fired force bolts. ¡°Then maybe Rohan can show you how to fire a bow, you should have the strength and accuracy for it.¡± Petra said. ¡°Maybe, but I was never much of a sniper. My specialty always sat somewhere between the frontlines or the middle of a fight. My style is very up close and personal. So maybe swords or scimitars would be better.¡± Dustin looked contemplative. ¡°A bow-like weapon useful on the front lines. I must admit I¡¯m curious.¡± ¡°Again, not a bow. Think of pistols more like knives, and rifles are like spears or lances.¡± ¡°I can work with that¡± Dustin said with a grin, then his his grin fell. ¡°But not today. Today you rest, and that means actually sleeping. Sleep helps govern your magic matrix, and that¡¯s going to be important for you from now on.¡± He said firmly. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll try to sleep twice a week from now on¡± Seras said with a shrug. ¡°No, every night.¡± Dustin commanded. ¡°Every night! That¡¯s ridiculous.¡± ¡°Seras, most people sleep every night. It aint right to go that long without sleep.¡± Dustin countered. ¡°Three nights, and only four hours¡± Seras said, her voice brooking no argument. ¡°Fine¡± Dustin relented. ¡°Yes!¡± Seras said with a fist pump. Ch28 Briaxis The journey down the Wolfram was very boring. There were plenty of interesting rock walls to look at, but not much else. Occasionally the barge came to a lock, like a real lock that she had seen in some canals. It used magic pumps to raise and lower the water to allow barges to travel up and down the sloping river. There were even some spaces that had been obviously earth shaped to look wider. It was an interesting feat of engineering, or magic engineering, was that a thing? Either way it was cool, and it once again signaled to Seras that just because this world went down a different path than her own she shouldn¡¯t consider them primitive or dumb. The cities within the Five Deserts were very underdeveloped by the standards of this world, and they still had fire-less lamps, cooling/heating formations, mirage chambers, and even something like a very early net with the magically updating catalogs like the essence list and farmers almanac. Seriously, that last one was super handy. There was so much information that went into farming on this world that farmers everywhere needed to know. They used magic to achieve a parody of what her world had achieved. She still felt her world was still more advanced, especially in terms of physical reality and fundamental forces, but that didn¡¯t invalidate what they did have. While Seras had been unimpressed with the first few magic theory books she had read she had quickly grown an appreciation for them. Dundee¡¯s first four volumes were almost entirely useless, but starting on volume five Dundee got his shit together and packed that tome with hundreds of theory¡¯s and formulas. It was dense and made her head spin. She¡¯d have to spend more time on this one volume than the four previous all put together. They even had their own form of data storage in the form of recording crystals. Video, audio, and it could even magically translate. This world was one technological leap away from creating a magic version of the net. There was even an analogue for cars, trucks, and planes. Water/sand/land skimmers used a combination of levitation and air propulsion to clip across large distances. The only reason Dustin and everyone else relied on Heidels for traveling the Five Deserts was because the density was way too low to work them without the right essence power. And as for planes they had sky ships that could haul a crap ton of stuff thousands of meters above the ground. All that was cool, but the trip itself was really boring. There had been a water elemental attack, and even a bright red crocodilian monster. But the private security the barge had on staff handled those without issue. Most of the time Seras spent sparring with Dustin or Dallas. Dustin had walked her through the basics of wielding a scimitar, and Dallas had proven an exceptional opponent despite the strength difference. Seriously that kid was good. Seras¡¯ prior experience came in handy at times, like with speed, spatial awareness, and accuracy. But at other times the years of ingrained training and instincts got in the way. Her footwork was a constant shit show, she would try to move how Dustin had showed her, but half way through a bout when her mind fell into the old grove of combat she would revert back to her old methods. Her previous style relied entirely on bracing for the kickback of firing pistols and rifles to keep her aim on target. Ducking under an opponent¡¯s weapon to get off a killing shot then flowing into the next. After the third time Seras had done it Dustin had her show him how she used to fight, using barrels to simulate a room of opponents and having her say ¡°BANG¡± whenever she went ¡®pulled the trigger¡¯ ¡°Its certainly interesting, and I can see how it might be very effective with weapons like your old ones. But I don¡¯t think it¡¯ll ever translate properly to blades. We need to force your body to forget the old so we can work on the new.¡± he had said. Which resulted in hours of endless footwork trying to overwrite her old muscle memory. But sometimes when she was alone Seras flowed through her old forms just to feel in control. To remind herself that she had once mastered a different form of combat that was entirely unique to this world. ~~~*~~~ The city of Briaxis was nestled within the final valley of the Wolfram river before it flowed out to sea. It was a broad fertile valley right on the edge of the Black Sands desert, gentle sloping black hills rimmed the wide valley of farm plots and canals with Briaxis in the center. The walls of the city were tall and imposing, black stone held up by great white pillars of monster bone. The southern sea was officially called the Black sea for the black sand beaches on its shores, but the locals had a different name for it. The Sea of Bones. Innately magical sea creatures called leviathans were a rare, if terrifying occurrence out on the sea. They were known to grow to gold of even diamond rank and ranged every corner of the ocean, from the artic oceans to inland seas. They lived by hunting many ocean-based monsters and helped to inadvertently keep the oceans somewhat safe. Little was known about their mating habits, or whether they laid eggs or birthed their young like mammals. But what was known were the locations of their graveyards. The Black sea was one of those graveyards, and occasionally their bones would wash ashore polished by the oceans bottom feeders. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Those bones were highly praised within the city of Briaxis, and the noble clans went out of their way to collect and use them in their architecture. Instead of wooden or steel bracers for framing the nobility of Briaxis used Leviathan bone. And those too poor to afford it often painted their own support elements to resemble the bones. The black colored bricks and white trim of the city architecture gave everything a strong monochronic feeling. The city was also strongly dominated by Draconians, a less common race, who traced their origins back to the noble dragons that ruled the skies. As such draconic themes featured heavily in Draconian architecture. Roof beams carved into a snarling reptilian maw, gables with ornamental spines, and pillars carved into a coiled snake-like flood dragons. All put together it created a very interesting first impression for Seras as they exited the barge and got their wagons moving down the stone streets. For the more seasoned members like Harris, Frank, Chase, and Rohan, this wasn¡¯t their first time visiting the Draconian city. But for Seras, Petra, and Dallas, the place was unlike anything they had seen before. Along with being a Draconian majority city with its own unique architecture, it was also the highest ranked magical area they had ever been. Sitting at mid silver with a moderate density the city was thrumming with magic. Towering Draconians zoomed up and down the streets on floating silver disks. A magical tram system ran over the main streets, suspending of invisible telekinetic fields of magic. And hundred different smaller things really drove home that this was a world were magic was woven into everything they did. Seras saw a stall selling fruit juice chopping and blending drinks in the air using more telekinetic fields of magic. Their caravan trundled along the throughfare to one of the giant silver disks and they fell in line to wait their turn. When they were allowed on Seras got an aerial view of the city. ¡°Stunning isn¡¯t it¡± Dustin said with a smile as their disk slowly floated over to the next hub area. ¡°Yeah¡± Seras said eventually. Dustin quirked an eyebrow at her ¡°A coin for your thoughts?¡± ¡°What kind of coin.¡± Dustin frowned ¡°Its usually just a lesser coin.¡± ¡°Makle it Iron and you have yourself a deal¡± He laughed. ¡°Alright one iron for your thoughts.¡± The amused smirk on Seras¡¯ face fell, she took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. ¡°I spent my whole life in one city. A city so vast and complex it would make this place look like a back water. One lit up in neon lights and million ads covering everything. It was loud, smelly, and dangerous. But I loved it. I thought it was the greatest city in the world, one that made all other city¡¯s inconsequential.¡± ¡°But now your realizing how small it actually was?¡± Dustin guessed Seras snorted ¡°Fuck no, it still out matches anything I¡¯ve seen here.¡± She fell silent organizing her thoughts, ¡°But I kind of wish I spent more time exploring my own world. I used to think Mantel was the only place that mattered. But now I¡¯m reconsidering that.¡± ¡°Ah, I see. You feel a sense of loss at not attempting to know your own world better.¡± ¡°And now I¡¯ll never get the chance.¡± Seras finished. Dustin gave her an inquisitive glance. ¡°You don¡¯t want to go back?¡± ¡°Is that even an option?¡± He shrugged ¡°I don¡¯t know, but it is something I often hear from other Outworlders. All the ones I¡¯ve met are either searching for a way home, or striving to achieve Diamond rank so that they might travers the Astral themselves.¡± Seras blinked ¡°I never even thought about it. I thought I was here for good. What branch of magic would I even need to study to make that possible?¡± ¡°Astral obviously.¡± Dustin said. ¡°Though the experts in that field are few and far between.¡± ¡°Thoughts for later.¡± Seras said. ¡°What¡¯s on the docket for our stay here?¡± ¡°I have a few essences I¡¯m going to be auctioning off. There will be an auction in two days. After that¡¯s settled we¡¯ll set out for Florin.¡± ¡°What are you selling?¡± He smirked. ¡°Several collections of wing, magic, and might essences.¡± Seras looked up the essence combo ¡°Dragon confluence?¡± ¡°Yup. The Draconians claim to be descended from dragons and take great pride in that. They go berserk for an essence combination like this, they¡¯re obsessed with it. Might and Magic are common essences that are always in high demand, and Wing is useful enough. But Draconian nobility go to great lengths to get their hands on these three. So much so that it¡¯s difficult to find any this close to the Draconian empire. But out in the glass sands prices are a little more reasonable, so I pick them up when I can, and find routes that take me down to Briaxis.¡± ¡°You said collections, are you selling them as a set.¡± He nodded ¡°Yep, on their own I can get four- or five-times market value, but as a set I can get ten times market value. Maybe more.¡± ¡°Wow, that¡¯s a lot. So what about the weapons we¡¯re selling?¡± He frowned ¡°They¡¯ll sell fine, they¡¯ll cover the costs we incurred on the trip, and even generate a little profit. But they¡¯re just an excuse to go to Florin, there we¡¯re going to pick up some dimensional storage chests, fill them up with quintessence and luxury items and take them north across the black sands and Blood sands to sell them in Basal, the adventuring capital of the deserts.¡± ¡°And these storage chests are only available in Florin?¡± ¡°That¡¯s where the magical material to make them is cheapest. They have a local monster that produces certain type of resin that can be used to treat a local wood.¡± ¡°So you buy that up and take it north to sell where prices are higher.¡± Seras surmised. Dustin shook his head, ¡°No, where prices are going to be higher. Theres an astral space near Basal that produces a similar sort of monster, but recently the apertures have been closing up, and the Labyrinth caves connecting it have been closing off. This happens from time to time with deep astral spaces. The price of dimensional storage items is going to soar by the time we get there. And along the way I can sell quintessence for a good mark up.¡± ¡°Danm. That¡¯s pretty savvy. How are you only in charge of a small company?¡± Seras asked as the floating disk arrived at the next hub and began to descend. ¡°I tried setting up larger expeditions before. But the larger the caravan the more tempting it becomes for higher ranked bandits, and without any silver rankers to defend it I only made enough to cover costs. Until I hit Silver myself this is the best I can manage.¡± ¡°And how far are you from Silver?¡± ¡°Not far.¡± He said with a smile. ¡°It¡¯s taken me decades of training and refining my techniques, but now I¡¯m only three abilities away from Silver rank.¡± ¡°Danm, that¡¯s a long time to be working at it. Does it normally take this long?¡± He frowned. ¡°If I had joined a good adventuring team I might have been able to make silver in only a decade. Not the best, but that¡¯s about the average for non-elites like I was back then. But not a lot of teams are looking for a skirmisher like me, and half my powers are more utility based. Storage, transport, endurance, they were all better for being a merchant than an adventurer. Especially given my lack of training. I could have made it work, but I wouldn¡¯t be making anywhere near the same amount of money I am now, and I wouldn¡¯t have been able to send as much home.¡± Seras nodded ¡°Yeah, I get that. I knew plenty of Mercs who realized they weren¡¯t suited for the dirty work our jobs required. They made better middlemen, making deals and setting up gigs. No shame in doing what your best at.¡± He smiled ¡°Thank you. Most don¡¯t understand why I chose a life in the saddle over adventuring.¡± She gave him a cheeky grin ¡°Well if you were shit merchant we¡¯d be having a whole different conversation.¡± He laughed. ¡°Well thanks, I feel so flattered.¡± The disk landed and their small party began to make their way to a Caravansary Dustin had used before. Ch29 Adventuring The next day Seras was in the stables attached to the caravansary when Petra came looking for her. Heidels required a hundred little things to stay healthy and strong. From scale scrubbing, claw trimming, teeth cleaning, to peeling off dead skin so it didn¡¯t develop infections. Seras could have left that to the staff of the caravansary, but Dustin had told her that doing this herself was important for forming a bond with Buck. And given that he had to constantly deal with her heavier than average body it was especially important for her to form a bond so he¡¯d stop bucking her off his back. Seriously if she wasn¡¯t made of metal she might have died by now. No wonder they had gotten him for cheap despite his size and strength. ¡°Seras?¡± Petra called from the entrance. ¡°I¡¯m back here.¡± Seras called back, the sudden outburst caused Buck to pull away from getting his teeth brushed. But Seras was stronger and held him in place. Petra walked into the stables to Buck little stall in the back of the building. ¡°There you are. I¡¯ve been looking everywhere.¡± ¡°Been here all morning. What¡¯s up?¡± Seras said as she dipped the brush back into the bucket. ¡°I took some jobs from the adventuring hall. Basic ones that shouldn¡¯t be too dangerous with me around. The guys and I were going to go out and handle them, wanna join?¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t the adventurer society like ¡®full essence users only¡¯, wouldn¡¯t you get in trouble for bringing us along?¡± ¡°Nah, I went in and asked for jobs best suited to people training to be adventurers. It¡¯s a common enough practice for two-star adventurers to take rookies out with them to get experience. I¡¯m liable for the jobs getting done in a timely manner, but as long as its done they don¡¯t care.¡± ¡°Two star?¡± Seras asked. Petra pulled out a badge with a iron colored Adventurer society seal. There were two stars on the badge. ¡°It¡¯s a sort of ranking system. I¡¯m iron rank, but I¡¯m known to be good at actually doing my job, so I got an extra star. It means they have faith in my skills as an iron rank adventurer.¡± ¡°So it''s like street cred, but you can actually measure it with these stars? How many are there?¡± ¡°Three for each rank. And every time you go up a rank you lose a star. Because the expectation for higher ranked adventurers is higher.¡± ¡°What do you need to do to get a third star?¡± ¡°Anything that proves I¡¯ve got good judgement and political sense. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever earn a third, at least not at iron. We move around too much for any one branch to accurately judge me. Anyways, are you in?¡± Seras frowned ¡°What kind of jobs? Not sure if my weapon skills are at a place where I feel good facing off against people.¡± ¡°Nothing like that. That¡¯s three-star work. Just a bunch of iron rank monsters infesting some farmer''s fields.¡± Seras thought about it. ¡°Would I get a cut of the pay out?¡± Petra smirked ¡°Of course your worried about the money. If you help on a job you¡¯ll get a share of the reward, and you¡¯ll get the loot of any monsters you kill.¡± ¡°Alright, I¡¯m in. I haven¡¯t faced iron rank monsters since those Cavern Lurkers. Let me just finish up.¡± She said as she moved to the other head. With Heidels both heads were considered one part of the same animal, and were somehow linked so that decision making wasn¡¯t hindered. But Seras had learned that the two heads often had subtle differences in their personalities. The right side was stubborn, but obedient once she took charge. The left side however was a glutton and needed to be bribed before it would do anything. She kept a crunchy root vegetable on her for this very purpose. You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. The head opened up and Seras began to vigorously brush its teeth. ~~~*~~~ They left the city out its southern gate and followed the river on a well-maintained road. They continued to travel south via Heidel until they reached the start of the delta¡¯s wetland area. They moved much faster than normal since they didn¡¯t need to worry about staying with heavy wagons. Buck seemed pleased to finally let loose, and Seras whooped with joy as he got up to a rumbling gallop. It wasn¡¯t like riding her old bike, but it was still a lot of fun. The first stop on their little tour was a sort of fish farm on the edge of the wetlands. Though instead of fish they grew these weird pink and yellow salamander things that grew to the size of a large dog. Some eel monsters had broken through the net that separated the farm from the wetland and had slaughtered the farmers whole batch of salamanders. Rohan and Chase took charge on this one. Rohan had a swift essence and a bow essence, with his Heidel he charged along the bank of the pond fired several conjured arrows into the water and dashed away when the Heidel sized eels charged at him. When they reached the bank Chase used his plant and water essences to drag the eels on land. From there it was up to Seras and Dallas to handle the up close and personal. On land the eels were slow and uncoordinated. But they had a stinger on their tails that they needed to watch out for. Dallas conjured his own Scimitars and hacked into the eels, each successive slash cutting deeper into its flesh. Seras had a scimitar Dustin had lent her, and she used her strength to hack into the monster¡¯s flesh. It was like trying to cut rubber. She got some way into its neck, but her inexperience with the scimitar got her blade stuck. She had tried to free it, but the monster¡¯s barbed tail came for her face. She abandoned the blade and instead pulled her new knife out. She back peddled hard until she was face to ugly eel face with the monster. Its black beady eyes glared at her with hate, so Seras stabbed for its eyes. It hissed like an enraged crocodile, and it tried to bash her with its bulbous head. But her reflexes were good enough to sidestep the attempt and stab for the other eye. Seras missed the eye but still slashed its face up good. Seras heard a call from behind and she dashed back to give Rohan the room he needed to loose half a dozen arrows into the eels face. It lurched back, and now riddled with arrows it tried to flee back into the pond. But a wall of earth from Petra cut it off. It slammed into the wall and was stunned from the impact. Seras took this opportunity to sprint forward, leap up, and come down on its head with her knife blade. It thrashed about, and she took a beating, but she kept her knife firmly in its head until it stopped struggling. Dallas had also finished decapitating his monster. And was huffing in deep breaths. Petra stood with her hands on her hips. ¡°Not bad, good teamwork Seras, the Shadow Eel would have gotten you if you hadn¡¯t let Rohan in to pepper its face with arrows, but you need to work on your blade work if you still want to work from the front lines. Can¡¯t have you losing your weapon every time you cut something tough. Dallas, good work cutting its head off, but I can¡¯t help but feel that it may have been excessive. It would have bled out from your couple attacks, and Chase could have kept it out of the water.¡± Dallas looked crestfallen at the chastisement, but Chase still patted his back. ¡°Its okay little buddy, we just need to work on that tunnel vision, need to always be aware of your situation.¡± He consoled. There wasn¡¯t much else to say after their fight. So Seras assisted Garret in drawing the looting ritual with a bag of salt she had purchased. Petra and Dallas then dragged the two eels over and activated the ritual. Twenty iron spirit coins got divided equally between the people who had done the fighting, and Garret checked them over for injuries. Then they told the farmer the problem had been handled and rode off for their next job. ~~~*~~~ The next job was for a pack of humanoid/dog like monsters called Margols. They had manifested nearby and attacked a farmers heard of creepy goat things. The farmer had then fled and sent word to the city. They were lucky to get the notice the same day it went up, otherwise they might need to track the Margol pack. For this one Dallas rode out on his Heidel to draw the pack of five away from the corpses they had been feasting on. His Heidel, Springer, was the fastest in the group and got the whole pack chasing after her. They charged past Rohan and Frank who rode up on Springer¡¯s flanks and loosed arrows and stone bullets into the Margols until they dropped. Margols weren¡¯t particularly smart, or durable, so it was easy to kite them with the Heidels until they dropped dead. Any time they tried to go after Rohan or Frank, Dallas wheeled around and slashed at the Margol¡¯s backs. Five minutes later they had five dead Margol¡¯s to loot. Fifty iron coins were divided four ways between Dallas, Frank, Rohan, and Petra the contract holder. ¡°That seems a little unfair.¡± Seras said. ¡°Those eels were way bigger than the Margols, but we only get about ten coins per monster. It seems more economical to fight a bunch of weaker monsters.¡± ¡°It would make sense¡± Petra said, ¡°If money was all we were after, those Eels would have wiped out more of the Salamander farmers and ruined plenty of lives. We stopped them before they could hurt anyone.¡± She chided. ¡°Besides¡± Rohan said. ¡°Bigger, stronger monsters have higher chances at bonus loot besides coins. These Margols are so weak you could only really get coins out of them. Those eels could have given us an awakening stone, or crafting materials from their barbs.¡± ¡°He¡¯s right. We would have at least gotten some dammed quintessence if we had a looting power.¡± Frank said. ¡°I heard Margols have dog quintessence.¡± ¡°What would you even use a dog quintessence for?¡± Chase asked. ¡°No idea.¡± ¡°Why didn¡¯t we get any of that?¡± Seras asked. Garret looked sheepish, ¡°Well, that might be my bad. Looting rituals can get the same loot as a looting power, but unless you get all the smaller aspects right your only likely to get the coins and big things like awakening stones or essences. I¡¯m not familiar enough with this region to get the circles right. If Flint was here he¡¯d flatten out the ambient magic to make a really good circle. I can¡¯t do that, and figuring out the specifics is hard.¡± ¡°Aw come on Garret¡± Chase moaned ¡°Can¡¯t you figure out all the hundred different little differences in the local magic to make sure we get our dog quintessence.¡± He complained sarcastically. ¡°Yeah¡± Frank joined in ¡°Don¡¯t you know how useful dog quintessence is?¡± Garret hadn¡¯t noticed their shit eating grins and thought they were serious. ¡°No, and you just said you didn¡¯t.¡± he said with a pointed tone. Frank threw his hands into the air ¡°And now we¡¯ll never know.¡± He said loudly. They laughed. Ch30 Florin True to its name, the black sands were a vast expanse of black sand, glassy black boulders, and the distant shape of black stone volcanoes ominously spewing smoke into the air. The processes of magic made the volcanoes on this world more stable and less likely to cause a mass extinction, but as a tradeoff they were also a more consistent threat to the nearby towns and cities. The volcanic Range of the Black sands, called the six sisters, regularly disgorged magma, ash, and even had a habit of launching flaming house sized boulders into the air to bombard unsuspecting towns. But on top of that the Volcanoes also had a unique ability of building up fiery magic and then releasing that power in a mini-monster wave. It was supposed to be quite the sight to behold. The mountains belching smoke, fire and lava spewing out, and then a massive aurora of rainbow light would envelope the mountains to create hundreds of volcano themed monsters. As well as enough essences, awakening stones, and quintessence to draw in crowds of adventures. The volcanoes each had their own cycle of activity and fortunately known of them were in a monster wave stage. So as Seras and the Caravan crew hugged the coast they were mostly left alone, there was the occasional monster, but Dustin and Flint handled any bronze rank monsters, and the iron rank ones were weak enough for the normal rankers to handle. It was still a week long march through arid coastline, with admittedly amazing views, and little else to do. Seras spent her time reading, she had finally made it past the fifth volume of Dundee, and she had decided to branch out into other subjects now that she had enough background to actually comprehend other magic specialties. The many magic fields were just as intricate and varied as the many fields of science. There were theories on magically generated storms, monster formation, magical metallurgy, alchemy, astral magic, soul magic, magical healing, and even magical botany. To her surprise the various texts she skimmed were peppered with concepts and numbers she was familiar with. They had a way of calculating Pi out as many places as they wanted, understood why the golden ration appeared so often in nature, and understood the basic idea of thermodynamics. Though they curiously lacked any concept of conservation of energy. It had impressed Seras more than it should have, she thought she knew better than to underestimate these people¡¯s knowledge. They had been studying bizarre phenomena for millennia, they were bound to discover certain fundamental truths. Then she read a theory on why the tides occurred. The author believed it to be grand field of fluctuating mana, but others had posited things like perpetual motion thinking that one large initial splash got the waters going and that they¡¯d been rising and falling ever since. It had her scratching her head. They were so advanced in some areas, and then in another Seras was embarrassed by proxy for their ignorance. A week and a half of trekking down the coast and away from the Six Sisters the crew arrived at Florin. The Wolfram was a major highway for goods and people leaving the continental interior, unfortunately the river didn¡¯t open into nice deep waters. Instead, the rivers delta was all marsh, wetland, and estuary, none of which were ideal for a port. So from Briaxis traders needed to decide weather they went west for Draconian ports, or within spitting distance of six active volcanoes for the next closest port. There were certainly better port locations closer to Braixis, unfortunately all of them were too close to the Six Sisters and their volatile tantrums to be viable. Which made Florin the next best option. After the lock and canal system had been completed along the Wolfram River the sleepy little fishing village quickly grew into a major trade port. On top of trade Florin was also a hub for adventurers seeking the fortune and challenge offered by a unique environment like the Six Sisters. The grey walls of the city rose up high and created a protective cup around the harbor, and rising above the walls were several towers with floating sky ships anchored to them. Each tower had several levels of gantry arms to link up with the incoming sky ship and a magically powered freight elevator to move goods up and down. ¡°I¡¯ve been meaning to ask.¡± Seras said as they got closer to the front gate. ¡°Why bother with overland travel when presumably a sky ship could do the same thing in a quarter of the time?¡± Dustin gave a curious glance ¡°Now don¡¯t go invalidating my whole profession.¡± Seras shrugged ¡°No offense, I¡¯m just curious about why I haven¡¯t seen a single sky ship until now.¡± ¡°Theres a couple reasons, but the easiest is that the magic density and quality is just too low. To get any where in the deserts Sky ships would need to burn spirit coins like there was no tomorrow. The second is that while there is a demand for goods out of the deserts its not valuable enough to justify a sky ship. Ships like that have high running costs.¡± ¡°Then there¡¯s the shrikes¡± Petra said. Dustin nodded ¡°The shrikes are the final reason. Huge flocks of monstrous Shrikes and Razor Starlings make crossing the deserts over air a risky endevor.¡± ¡°And that¡¯s not an issue here?¡± Seras asked. They had seen a flock of flying monsters on the horizon just yesterday. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement. ¡°Not enough of one to deter business here.¡± Dustin corrected. ¡°Makes sense.¡± She said. The guards at the gate were professional, but they didn¡¯t inspect the cargo with the same thoroughness that Karstess had. They were quickly checked and then waved through the gate. The city had three main thoroughfares that all lead directly to the warehouses and port facilities. They had entered the city through the north gate, which was the side that received the most incoming traffic and had a whole district dedicated to caravansaries and open-air markets. Within the district Seras got to see all the varied and strange races of this world in a whirl of activity. Groups of dark skinned Smolders like Dustin, hulking Leonid¡¯s like Petra, Humans in every shape and color, as well Celestines. During their journey people had often mistaken Seras for a Celestine, so much so that she decided to stop correcting people. This oddly gave her a odd sense of kinship with the exotic and stunning race. Seras even saw a new kind of people she had yet to encounter. ¡°What are those, with the blue skin and cool tatts?¡± she asked. Dallas looked over to where she was pointing, ¡°Oh, I think those are Runics. Not many of those in the five deserts.¡± ¡°Runics. Neat.¡± Seras said. It was then that she noticed that Dallas was gaping about with the same awe as she was. ¡°I take it this is your first time see Runics as well.¡± The cracks of fire on his skin burned a little bright, a smolder blush, ¡°Yeah, back home I had only ever seen other Smolders¡¯ as well as the odd Leonid. I remember thinking that humans looked so strange the first time I saw them, even though there are more of them in the world than Smolders.¡± Seras looked at the humans. ¡°Honestly, the humans here look pretty boring compared to my world. Dallas looked intrigued. ¡°What were your humans like, do they all look like Celestines as well?¡± ¡°Some. My look is a bit unique. Typically for people of means modding your body to look less human is the preferred style. I knew a women with an eye implant in her forehead, and man with four arms. I¡¯m a little weird in my sleeker more understated chrome. But I was always a fan of the saying ¡®less is more¡¯. With everyone trying so hard to be unique someone who doesn¡¯t look to be trying so hard actually stands out more.¡± ¡°That still sounds awesome.¡± Seras smirked. Most of the Caravan crew found Seras¡¯ stories from home either sad or disturbing. Dallas was the only one who actually seemed interested. She stayed with the crew until they found their caravansary and got settled in. But even as she brushed down Buck she was planning her route to the Divine district of Florin. She had gotten her metal essence ability ¡®Structural reinforcement¡¯ to 97% and knew it was only a matter of time before she got it to its next rank. The pain from her last one had never gone away, and she dreaded putting herself in further agony. The Temple of Healer had to have the answers she was looking for, and Florins Temple was well regarded for their fair and even treatment of everyone who entered its halls. Only once all the Heidels were in their stalls did Dustin come to get her. He had been to this city before and would be her guide to the divine district. ¡°Are you ready?¡± he asked. ¡°Ready as I¡¯ll ever be.¡± Seras said with a confidence she didn¡¯t really feel. ¡°Alright then.¡± He said evenly. Seras followed him out and down the street of the block they were on. Half of Florin¡¯s business was tied to the trade going out of the five Deserts. Much of that would find its way to the Storm kingdom Rimaros, but more found its way to other ports along the coast of the southern continent. The locals had built a much of their livelihoods around the trade flowing through their city and the moment they stepped out of the warehouse and caravan district of the city they entered into a bustling market with tall shops lining the walkway. They sold everything a passing traveler could want, from supplies, to home made food, to the luxuries that the life in the saddle couldn¡¯t afford. Like fine liquor, hot bathhouses, and even the company of young beautiful men and women. Seras felt her gaze drawn to that last one more than she¡¯d care to admit. It had been a month and half since she came to this world and in all that time Seras hadn¡¯t gotten to let off some pent up feelings. She might try and sneak away from the crew at some point to work out her frustrations, but that was a thought for later. Splitting the semi circle of shops around the trade district was the Divine square. There Seras saw the monolithic and varied architecture of this worlds many living gods. She saw the imposing and gold capped dome of Dominions temple looming over the square, the priest of which were dressed in fine purple robes with gold and silver embroidery. Then she saw the large mosaic murals of extremely erotic art that made up the exterior of Fertilities temple, which made her double down on her plans to sneak out and relieve her budding frustrations. Seriously, what kind of priest/priestess willing dressed like they were in a low brow porno? Then there was Healer¡¯s temple. It was almost humble in its appearance compared to some of the other eye-catching temples. While the building had a simple elegance, it was still one of the tallest buildings in the square, second only to Dominion¡¯s temple that had apparently built a tower on the dome of their temple to stand above all the others. With her target in sight Seras felt herself pick up the pace as she strode forward, Dustin trailing behind her. She was so set on reaching the temple she almost didn¡¯t noticed the brown robe priest that had stepped out to meet her. ¡°Miss Cross?¡± the elfin women said, her hair was pulled up behind her head in a practical looking bun, and while she looked physically young Seras recognized the look of age in her soft brown eyes. Seras blinked in surprise. She had been in the city less than a day and someone already knew her name. ¡°Um, yes?¡± she answered hesitantly. The women nodded as if that had been the answer she was expecting and had only asked the question out of curtesy. ¡°My lord is aware of your problem, and sent me to come greet you.¡± Seras blinked again ¡°Your lord? As in-¡± ¡°Lord Healer. Don¡¯t be concerned, he knows all the woes of the people who would seek his aid.¡± ¡°Okay¡± Seras said hesitantly. Mentally she was reevaluating her opinion of this world¡¯s gods. ¡°Then can you help me?¡± she asked eventually. The women shook her ¡°Unfortunately we do not have the answers you seek, I was sent here to guide you towards a different deity.¡± Seras tried to not let her disappointment show ¡°Which one?¡± ¡°The Lady Knowledge.¡± A strong male voice said to her side. Seras turned to see another priest. A Leonide man with a well groomed dark main of hair wearing only a white skirt around his waist. ¡°And who are you?¡± Seras asked, though she suspected she already knew his identity. ¡°I am the head priest of the Florin temple. Lennias Garth. Well met Seras the Outworlder¡± He extended a massive paw forward. Seras shook it. ¡°Okay, and how exactly do you know my name?¡± He quirked an eyebrow ¡°My goddess is Knowledge, she knows all that is of this world.¡± ¡°All as in-¡± ¡°Everything¡± Dustin answered. ¡°Every book, every event, every nook and cranny, and even our minds. Her divine domain is knowledge.¡± Seras was¡­ very unsettled by that. ¡°It is not an uncommon reaction.¡± Lennias said, apparently having either read her expression, or her mind. ¡°But the Goddess does not lower herself to spilling every dark secret within her domain. She only answers the questions of outsiders if she chooses to, and her priests know how to respectful of a persons private matters.¡± ¡°Riiiight¡± Seras said slowly. ¡°So your saying she has the answer to my¡­ issue.¡± ¡°She has answers to everything.¡± The priest said. Seras turned to the Preistess of healer ¡°And your god can¡¯t help?¡± This rankled the priest. ¡°He is the god of healing, but he knows that sometimes his aid isn¡¯t what a patient needs. What you need is answers, and that is what Knowledge offers.¡± She said sharply. Seras tried to piece out the logic in that statement. ¡°Okay¡± she said slowly, she turned back to Lennias ¡°Lead the way I guess.¡± ¡°Of course, and please Lennias is too formal, call me Lenny.¡± With that he turned and strode away. Seras balked at the Leonid. Because she hadn¡¯t said Lennias out loud, only thought it. ¡°This is going to be a pain in the ass¡± she murmured under her breath. ¡°I guess I¡¯ll just wait out here.¡± Dustin said as the priest led her away from Healer¡¯s temple and towards the Temple of Knowledge. Ch31 Knowledge The temple of Knowledge reminded Seras of old pics of libraries, back when there wasn¡¯t the net and people needed to store their information is thousands of paper books. While the word library had stuck around to the modern-day Seras had never once seen one in real life. She looked around and saw acolytes and priests hard at work, some perusing the shelves, some studying at tables, while others were scribbling notes. ¡°Why bother with the books anyway? Can¡¯t your goddess just port all the info into your brains directly?¡± He tilted his head in confusion until a strange look crossed his eyes and he nodded his head. ¡°I would recommend trying to drop the otherworldly slang from your speech, if not for the goddess then everything you said would have gone over my head.¡± ¡°No dice, I already do a lot to clean up my speech, this is how talk and I¡¯m not changing it any further.¡± The priest shrugged ¡°to each their own. And to answer your question, because our church venerates the pursuit and preservation of knowledge. An acolyte who had everything ¡®ported¡¯ into their heads wouldn¡¯t truly value the goddesses¡¯ gifts. It gives us a true appreciation for what we hold so dear.¡± Seras nodded her head, but didn¡¯t actually understand. If you could cut the hard parts out of a job then that just left more time to actually do something with all that knowledge. It was such a foreign idea to her that most of the people on this world didn¡¯t have a vast wealth of knowledge at their fingertips. She couldn¡¯t comprehend setting aside entire lifetimes just combing through books to extract the useful data. How did anything get done? Lenny paused in his steps and gave her a curious look. ¡°What?¡± Seras said defensively. ¡°The goddess just told me why you might find the way we do things strange. I¡¯m just intrigued by the revelation. Do the people on your world truly have unlimited access to all your world¡¯s knowledge?¡± ¡°Yup, I¡¯ve even got a sizable amount on me right now.¡± ¡°Fascinating. We have often wondered what it could be like if all the world had easy access to the things we did. Many believe that such a blessing would be the dawn of an enlightened era.¡± Seras winced. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a no. True giving the smart people access to unlimited knowledge and instant communication sped up advancement, but the stupid people also have the same access. And those outnumber the smart.¡± The priest looked confused ¡°Would they not have the ability to educate themselves, to elevate themselves to a higher understanding?¡± ¡°Yes, which makes what they actually do with that all the more tragic. At best they spend their time watching old cat videos or jacking off, at worst they scream conspiracy theories at the topic of their digital lungs. Hidden mushroom people under the surface, how the moons are actually alien eyeballs, or that the CEO¡¯s of the mega corps are actually a cabal of evil cultists. That sort of stuff.¡± Now Lenny looked sad. Seras felt bad ¡°I take you¡¯re one of the era of enlightenment dudes?¡± The lion man looked sheepish. ¡°Despite all my years and what I¡¯ve seen, I still had a small bit of hope.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not all bad. One upside to the net is that people born without the Chits for an education and a desire to learn can still make something of themselves.¡± That¡¯s what Seras had done. The Leonid gave her a soft smile. ¡°Yes, I understand what you mean. I was just an orphaned brat living on the streets, but I wanted to learn, so I found my way to the temple of knowledge. My story is one that isn¡¯t a rare one, but it is uncommon. I¡¯m glad on your world¡¯s people¡­¡± he trailed off and then looked very sad. ¡°I take it she just told you about my world.¡± Seras guessed. The Leonid nodded. ¡°Yes.¡± He said shortly. Seras nodded, Lenny struck her as an optimist, unfortunately people like Lenny didn¡¯t hold onto their positive outlook on Ruin. She had seen enough broken by the weight of a dying world to recognize the look in his eyes. Even if it was second hand. They walked through the stacks of books in silence, until they reached a place within the temples in sanctum. ¡°Through this door you¡¯ll meet the goddess.¡± Lenny said, his voice dripping with gravitas. ¡°Any advice?¡± Seras asked, an unconscious jittery feeling setting her on edge. ¡°Know that you cannot lie, know that you cannot hide anything, but while she knows all she cannot predict our futures.¡± ¡°Why not? Surely if she knows all then she could plot our lives along a chart or something.¡± Lenny looked amused. ¡°She knows everything about us, all that made us who we are. She knows our thoughts, conscious or subconscious. She even knows what challenges we might face. But despite all that she cannot accurately predict what people will do. Such is the nature of free will.¡± Seras gulped. ¡°Alright, that¡¯s, I don¡¯t know what to do with that, but thank you.¡± ¡°Of course. One last thing, while she knows your mind, and can see all your questions, you still need to ask them out loud. That is the way.¡± Seras nodded, and then without any outward signs of apprehension she pushed through the door. The inside was mostly unadorned. There was a statue on one side with candles. But other than that, there wasn¡¯t much to look at. She thought that the most sacred place of a goddess would be a bit fancier. Without any idea what she was supposed to do Seras walked to the only thing of note in the room. The statue was of an alabaster skinned women holding a thick book, and a little padded mat in front. Seras had no idea what they were for though. ¡°The basic idea is that you pray.¡± A soft voice said from behind her. Seras turned to look at, well, herself. Or at least what she would look like if she stayed a meat bag. She wore her hair in the same style as Seras, but instead of her glossy metallic color the women had mousy brown hair. The eyes were the same shade of hazel her¡¯s had been before she got them replaced, and her skin was a shade darker than Seras¡¯ and had all her old blemishes. The mole of her neck, the scar from the cut on her lip, and the small pock marked scars of a girl who had the worst case of acne imaginable. Seras¡¯ mind began to work. ¡°You knew I¡¯d be suspicious.¡± ¡°Suspicious?¡± the women said in Seras¡¯ own voice. ¡°I turn around for a second and then you appear, if you looked like anyone else then I might think you slipped through a hidden door without my notice. And if you looked exactly as I am now then I¡¯d assume it was some sort of essence power. So instead, you took the form of something only I would know.¡± Seras¡¯ face smiled, and the weird, mismatched dimples on her cheeks irked Seras. ¡°You¡¯re quite astute. You¡¯re right, I knew that you would be skeptical of any tricks so I chose this form.¡± Seras already felt a migraine coming on. ¡°So, I guess you¡¯re the real deal then.¡± ¡°Yes¡± ¡°Could you, could you chose a different form to take?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Does your own face really disturb you that much?¡± ¡°More than it should.¡± Seras admitted. The goddess then changed, it didn¡¯t happen in the blink of an eye. It was like more like Seras stopped paying attention for a moment, and in that moment someone new was standing before her. ¡°That is uncanny.¡± Seras muttered. ¡°Its why I don¡¯t often change the form I take.¡± The new women said. This one had lightly tanned skin with dark black hair pulled into a long braid. Soft brown eyes met Seras¡¯s own. She looked like a local. ¡°I¡¯m supposed to ask questions now aren¡¯t I?¡± Seras said awkwardly. ¡°Yes.¡± She answered. The big questions came to the forefront of her mind, but as much as she wanted to ask them she was afraid of the answers. ¡°Right, mind if I ask some smaller questions, before I ask about the big stuff.¡± ¡°If you wish.¡± The goddess said. Seras took in a deep breath. ¡°You kept giving Lenny knowledge of my world. Does that mean you also know about my world?¡± Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. ¡°In a way.¡± The goddess answered. ¡°I am not a goddess of your world like you¡¯re wondering. I only have sway over this one. But my domain is knowledge of everything in this world, when you came into it through that astral space you brought knowledge of your world with you. I know because you know.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re only a part of this world. But what about mine, do we, or did we-?¡± ¡°Yes, your world had gods just like Pallimustus.¡± ¡°Pallimustus?¡± ¡°That is the name of this world.¡± ¡°And you know that all from my memories?¡± ¡°Yours, and others from your world.¡± ¡°There are other Ruinite outworlders here?¡± ¡°No, you are the only one from your world right now. But you¡¯re not the first outworlder to get shunted from your world. Though the last one was a long time ago, back when you still called your world Vestal. I know what your world was like from his knowledge and your own, I extrapolated from there.¡± That meant he was from before the calamity. That meant that Seras was still all alone. Something about the Goddesses¡¯ word choice sparked an idea within Seras. What if she wasn¡¯t really a divine being but a- The Goddess sighed ¡°No, I am not some AI. I¡¯m sorry if the word extrapolate gave you the wrong impression.¡± Seras blushed. That was a dumb idea anyway, no AI would have the ability to read her mind or know what she used to look like. Religious skepticism seemed too deeply ingrained. ¡°Any more small questions?¡± the Goddess asked. ¡°About a million, but I can¡¯t seem to think of any right now.¡± ¡°Then on to the big questions,¡± the Goddess offered. ¡°Yeah, yeah,¡± Seras tried to collect her thoughts. Being a person from a different world left her with a lot of questions, but only a select few of those were appropriate to ask an divine immortal repository of knowledge. ¡°When I arrived here, I had an essence in my hand. It was from my world, which shouldn¡¯t be possible since my world doesn¡¯t have magic. Was it somehow defective?¡± Seras asked. ¡°No.¡± The goddess said firmly. ¡°The essence is not artificial, or at least not in the way you¡¯re thinking. What Volta station was doing was pulling at the dimensional membrane of your world and the Astral. That brought magic into a sterile environment of technology and metal. It could have taken many shapes, but the magic formed into a technology essence. The essence formed naturally, even if the environment was artificial. Your essence is not defective.¡± ¡°But the abilities I got. I shouldn¡¯t have been able to get those abilities without the proper knowledge and expertise.¡± The Goddess raised an eyebrow. ¡°True, you don¡¯t have any idea how formation or ritual magic worked. But your ability has a secondary aspect, it can inscribe magical runes or circuitry. You know nothing of runes, but have a great deal of soldering experience. That is why you got the ability you did.¡± ¡°And the second?¡± The goddess frowned ¡°That is a different matter. Without proper knowledge no amount of normal awakening stones would give an ability like that. But you didn¡¯t use a normal stone. That one had been crafted by the Celestial book specifically to give you that ability, it even included a token to invoke your racial gift evolution.¡± ¡°Token?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Yes, the Celestial book often blesses people with special tokens to give them greater mana. This just so happened to be included into the power of the awakening stone.¡± ¡°Do you know why it gave me that stone.¡± ¡°Not exactly. The Celestial book is of the Astral and is beyond my domain. But it often favors those who are likely to advance magical knowledge, it venerates exploration and discovery. Maybe it believed you would do something impressive.¡± The goddess offered. Great, now she had to deal with thew expectations of an eldritch being from beyond time and space. What would happen if she disappointed it? ¡°Okay, I just have more questions about that, but I don¡¯t think you¡¯d have the answers.¡± ¡°A rare occasion¡± the goddess intoned. ¡°Must get little exasperating knowing everything at all times?¡± The Goddess smiled. ¡°It would if I were mortal. But despite the form I take I am not. This form is just an impression upon the world. Not my true self. I have always known all, it is my nature.¡± ¡°Alright, next question, is there a way home?¡± ¡°What a curious way to phrase it, home. You do not think of Ruin as home, you don¡¯t think of anywhere as home. You had places you lived, and a place you were from, but no home.¡± ¡°You know what I meant. Can I ever go back?¡± The goddess met her eyes. ¡°As you are, barring any extraordinary luck, no. You will never return to Ruin.¡± ¡°What do you mean by extraordinary luck?¡± ¡°There is always a non-zero chance that you might end up in another magical accident and get shunted into the astral once more. From there you may by chance happen to return to Ruin, though the odds of that are so unlikely it be as well be zero.¡± Seras understood the logic. In life there was always a chance that everything could go as wrong as possible. A stray bullet from a gang fight could pierce the skull of some bystander, or a vent failure could let in deadly poisons and kill a whole apartment without anyone the wiser. But the odds of her somehow getting into another magical accident and finding her way back to Ruin was so unlikely it didn¡¯t bare thinking about. But something else in the goddess¡¯ answer stood out to her. ¡°As I am now? What do you mean by that?¡± The Goddess¡¯ soft eyes became steely. ¡°The time for dancing around the real reason you came is at an end. Ask your question.¡± Knowledge commanded. ¡°My issue, the soul/body disconnect, is there a cure? Is there some sort of way I can fix myself?¡± ¡°No¡± Knowledge said with grave finality. Seras felt her heart drop. ¡°But, that¡¯s. No, there¡¯s always a way.¡± Seras said desperately. ¡°Indeed. But fixing your issue requires power beyond mortals, the power of transcendent beings, divine beings.¡± ¡°Divine power, what do you mean?¡± ¡°Your issue comes from an imbalance between your soul and your body. When you came into this world your soul could not remake your body as it should have been, because you abhor the thought of your own flesh. So instead it remade the mechanical body you had before the explosion. But your body is too strong. It is bronze rank in power and ability and the process of rebirth changed the way your soul interacts with it. Your soul had found an equilibrium between your higher rank body and ordinary magic matrix, it could even maintain the balance when you began absorbing essences. But to reach the next rank you must push the limits of your essences; this disrupts the equilibrium. With every minor advancement you¡¯ll tip the scales, until one day you push too far and your own soul is ripped from your body.¡± ¡°But if I rank up to bronze the issue should be solved right?¡± The goddess looked sad, but she held her steely eyes of Seras¡¯ ¡°You will die before you reach bronze, no combination of essence or awakening stones will fix that. You will never advance to bronze, and the closer you get to that limit the more pain you¡¯ll put yourself in.¡± ¡°But you said my issue requires divine intervention-¡° ¡°Yes, but not in the way you think. I can offer you an artifact that will strip your soul of the essences you have absorbed and you can continue to live the rest of your life as an ordinary cyborg.¡± ¡°That¡¯s possible, just taking out my essences?¡± ¡°Yes, but only through divine power. And only with your own consent. And it would not come cheaply.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t think a goddess would have need for a poor outworlder¡¯s coins.¡± Seras spat bitterly. ¡°I¡¯m not talking about coin. The kind of power I would use to strip your essences out would be costly for someone not a member of my order. But if you were to join I would see no issue in giving this boon. Alternatively, we could go the opposite direction. Instead of stripping you of your essences I could remake your body as it should have been.¡± She gestured with a hand and another Seras appeared. She, unlike the other form Knowledge had used, was a perfect copy of Seras. Metallic grey hair, sharp silvery eyes, and fine-tuned features. But something about it made Seras¡¯ smart skin crawl. This form looked like her, but wasn¡¯t her at all. It was made of gooey flesh and blood, brittle bones and obtuse inner workings. This was the sort of thing she spent her whole life avoiding, years of slowly ripping off weak flesh for the sleek precision of metal. Seras reached out and poked its cheek. The flesh gave with no resistance, and Seras felt a warmth on her finger sensors. Her stomach churned with disgust. ¡°So that¡¯s it.¡± She said after a long moment, her voice was shaky. ¡°I either strip the magic out of my soul, or I abandon my body for that thing. And in return all you ask of me is devotion?¡± ¡°It is not so bad as you make it sound. I do not keep a clergy of impoverished slaves. I would provide you with your final essence, and even help you obtain the rest of the awakening stones you¡¯ll need. You can stay here and train, you¡¯ll have access to my vast collection of knowledge, and you can even start introducing ideas and technologies from your world. I will even lift the restriction on your net access ability so you can have all the worlds knowledge at your fingertips once more. And most importantly, you would finally have a home. No more running and hiding in forgotten basements, no more distrusting the people around you, no more fighting just to survive. You would have a place here.¡± That, that all sounded nice. Knowledge was right, Seras never really had a home. Ruin had never been her home, and she couldn¡¯t care less about the people there. Traveling with Dustin had been one of the nicest times of her life, and that said more about her life up until now than it did about how tasty trail rations were. Maybe Knowledge had a point¡­ ¡°You sneaky bitch!¡± Seras cursed. The Goddess looked surprised. ¡°Pardon?¡± Seras began to pace as she got her thoughts in order, she didn¡¯t know where the revelation came from, but as she thought through their meeting something became clear to Seras. ¡°You¡¯ve been manipulating me. From the very start of this meeting you¡¯ve been leading me to a certain choice. That stunt with my old body, the bullshit about how Ruin was never my home, it was all the manipulate me into making the worst mistake of my life.¡± The Goddess no longer looked stunned. Seras had only surprised her with that outburst because Seras didn¡¯t even know why she had said it. But as she got her thoughts in order the Goddess also got to see the truth her subconscious mind had pieced together. Knowledge smiled ¡°Even after all these years you mortals continue to surprise me. But you are wrong about one thing, it wouldn¡¯t be the worst decision of your life. I meant what I said. You would have a home, you would have a purpose, and with a personality like yours I¡¯m sure you would reach gold, or even diamond rank with your dogged persistence. Turning away would the worst mistake of your life.¡± ¡°It would mean rejecting who I am. This is me, this is the body my soul built because it couldn¡¯t imagine any other form. And you want me to give it up?¡± ¡°It is not as bad as you think. While normal rank bodies are as frail as you fear, the bodies of high rankers are a different matter. At a silver ranker you can regenerate any part of your body, even your head, so long as you have the power. And with magical healing now available to you there would be no need to fear disease or sickness. This isn¡¯t Ruin. Your flesh wont melt in the rain, rats and roaches won¡¯t cover your skin to feast on your flesh, your lungs won¡¯t feel like they¡¯re on fire with every breath. You will be normal.¡± ¡°Fuck you¡± Seras shouted as she wheeled on Knowledge; her temper rising with every word the goddess said. ¡°I am normal, I don¡¯t care what you backwards primitives think about me.¡± The consoling look in the goddess¡¯ eyes vanished, in its place was something harder. ¡°No, you¡¯re not.¡± She said, her every word landing on Seras with a physical weight. ¡°You¡¯ve been told of how the Death essence changes its user into an inhuman creature. Undead Lichs, Wraiths, Ghouls, Vampires, and other abominations. But did you know that there was a cyborg confluence? Death, iron, and Technology.¡± The image of Seras was replaced, in its place was a gross amalgamation of flesh and rusty machinery. It was still Seras, but it lacked all the graceful elegance of her own body. Instead, it looked like some mad mechanic had stappled machinery directly onto a person¡¯s flesh, wherever metal met flesh there was gross red and puss filled skin. It was horrifying. ¡°This could have been you, and it still could.¡± ¡°No¡± Seras muttered. ¡°No, no, no. You¡¯re lying.¡± Knowledge looked offended ¡°I do not lie.¡± With her words Seras felt something wash over her, something vast, no, something limitless. It pressed down on her and Seras knew that this was the power of divinity. It could squash her like a bug, or atomize her with just as much effort. She was small, and powerless before it. And more over Seras felt her nature. This was a being of incomprehensible knowledge and scope, she saw all at once, and knew everything that had been. And more over she did not lie, ever. Her breaths came in ragged gasps, she felt disoriented, and the room spun. In the face of all that Seras had only one reaction. She ran. She burst out of the room with no effort to hold back her strength. Lenny caught one of the door splinters before it could burry itself into his face, but he didn¡¯t stop Seras as she sprinted out of the temple at full speed. The light of the noon day sun nearly blinded her as she entered the divine square. Her eyes adjusted quickly, and she saw Dustin looking at her. The kindness and concern she saw was too much. She turned away and fled from him. ¡°Seras!¡± he shouted. She didn¡¯t turn back. ~~~*~~~ Lenny watched the girl run out of the temple. From her Aura the girl was practically on the verge of having a mental breakdown. From what the Goddess showed of the child he knew that it took an exceptional amount of stress to cause this sort of reaction. He did not chase after her, though he had wanted to. He stayed because a tall Leonid women stepped out of the room and stood next to Lenny. ¡°My lady¡± Lenny intoned to the Goddess Knowledge. ¡°I take it that went poorly.¡± ¡°It almost worked out. She surprised me. Despite all my knowledge you mortals hardly ever act the way I expect you to. It truly is a wonder.¡± ¡°So this reaction was to being manipulated?¡± ¡°Not entirely, though it did upset her. No once I saw that there was no chance she would accept I changed tack. I shocked her and pushed her into this state intentionally.¡± ¡°If I may ask, why?¡± The goddess smiled ¡°You know you can ask any question you like Lenny.¡± She teased. ¡°But you reserve the right to withhold answers.¡± Lenny added. ¡°Of course.¡± They were silent for a minute before the goddess answered. Lenny knew that unlike with other people his goddess didn¡¯t pause because she was gathering her thoughts, she paused because it was what someone else would do in this situation. ¡°My dear Lennias, what is the true power of knowledge?¡± the Goddess asked him. This was an ancient question, dating all the way back to the first days of their order. There wasn¡¯t a single answer to the question, it was something each worshipper of the goddess was supposed to ponder upon. Though there was a very common answer to the question that had arisen over the years. ¡°Knowledge is power.¡± He said with a wry smile. The Goddess chuckled ¡°Indeed. And you know there are many uses for power. Some are forceful impositions of will. And others are softer, a light touch that puts things in motion.¡± ¡°So that was you pushing her down a certain path. Why?¡± Her mirth faded. ¡°Because as she is right now she could become a great threat. The gods are not the only solution to her problem, there is another entity she could turn to, one that will offer everything she wants for a cost that she won¡¯t hesitate to pay as she is now.¡± Lennias did not speak. But he did not need to, the Goddess knew what he knew. ¡°Does that mean she could also be powerful ally?¡± he instead asked. ¡°Yes, she could. In general, Outworlders come in two varieties, the kind that die immediately, or the kind that survives everything the world can throw at them and become all the more powerful. She is brimming with other worldly knowledge, and more importantly she has the intelligence and ingenuity to make good use of it.¡± ¡°But if she will die as she is now, and her only option is to cure her issue is to ally with ¡®that¡¯, then what chance does she have to change her path?¡± ¡°Because, as she is now she will die, and there is no cure in existence¡­yet.¡± Lennias was a silver ranker who had served the goddess for many, many years. He thought he knew her ways, but this surprised him. ¡°If you knew a possible solution-¡± ¡°I do not know a possible solution, but I am Knowledge, everything that is or was is within my domain. But what could be is not. Someone with Seras¡¯ intelligence and drive has the potential to create something truly special¡± ¡°I see.¡± He said suddenly understanding her meaning. There was no way for Seras to cure herself at this moment, but that didn¡¯t mean one couldn¡¯t be created. Ch32 A Swift Kick to the Ass Five Years before the Volta job Seras strode through an alley, trash and refuse squished under her boots. A bum rose at her approach, but he saw the gun at her hip and wisely pretended to not notice. She absently scratched at her neck, the metal fingers of her cheap-ass arms came back with red blood in the tips. Dammed cheap fucking fabric. Her coat was supposed to keep the rain off her, but while the fabric looked right it obviously wasn¡¯t properly treated. She was going to make sure the tailor-made proper recompense. Then she needed to see about finally replacing the last of her exposed meat. Just her torso was left. She found herself at a metal door. She knocked out the code, then waited. No one came. She started pounding on the door. ¡°I heard you; I heard you¡± a muffled voice shouted. The door opened and the wiry form of Cash appeared with a gun to Seras¡¯ head. ¡°Easy Cash, I got the grub.¡± Seras said without even glancing at the pistol. ¡°Meat Dogs?¡± He asked. ¡°Yup, and just as a side, these things fuckin reek, I don¡¯t know how you stand them. They¡¯re not even synth-meat. They¡¯re just algae that smells like it¡¯s been boiled gutter water.¡± ¡°A fuck you, these things are delicious.¡± He said while withdrawing his gun and letting her step in. Seras wasted no time as she stepped in. The place was a rat-hole, and no amount of rat-thrax and air fresheners would fix that. Seras wished she had replaced her nose when she got face plate in. But Cash had needed money to pay off some punks so she had to settle with just a surface replacement and new optics. Some fucker had splashed gutter water on her with their bike and the acids in it were starting to make her go blind. ¡°Is the brat still cryin¡¯?¡± She asked as she set the food on the table and heard the distant wails. ¡°Yeah, little snot won¡¯t shut up, I even tried threats.¡± Seras sighed. ¡°You dumb ass, kid¡¯s six. Threats aint gonna work.¡± ¡°Well, what do you want from me, I aint no nanny.¡± He groused. ¡°Let me try, and if you touch my dumplings I will fucking end you.¡± Seras stepped past the little sleeping cots she and Cash had been using for since they started this job. She pressed the panel to the room that used to be their bedroom, and it slid to the side. The moment it opened a small body tried to rush out. But Seras had been expecting this and had stooped down to catch their hostage. ¡°Seriously, if the first time didn¡¯t work why would you think the fourth time would?¡± she asked the thrashing little meat bag in her metal hand. ¡°Let me go, I wanna go home!¡± the girl cried. ¡°Yeah, yeah, you¡¯ll go home as soon as your daddy pays up.¡± Seras said as she set the kid back down on the bed that had been hers. ¡°I brought grub, would you like the razzle-dazzle flavor, or Very Berry?¡± The six-year-old crossed her arms. ¡°those aren¡¯t flavors. My daddy said those are chemicals the poor buy to fill their stomach because they can¡¯t afford real food.¡± ¡°Your right, but seeing as you¡¯re the prisoner of poor people your gonna have to eat this or go hungry.¡± Seras shoved the razzle-dazzle flavored one in the kid''s lap. ¡°I want to go home. I want my daddy.¡± The child pouted. ¡°So I¡¯ve heard¡± Seras said in a weary tone. ¡°Look I told you, once the cops give up on finding you and your daddy pays up you¡¯ll be let go. Shouldn¡¯t be too much longer.¡± Seras said. It had already been six days, and the way the Mantle PD were stretched with the recent gang war they should be close to breaking. The girl looked down. ¡°And what if he doesn¡¯t pay?¡± she said for the first time. Seras scowled. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t he pay up, you¡¯re his kid.¡± ¡°He says I¡¯m not.¡± The kid muttered. ¡°What was that?¡± The kid looked up and glared at Seras ¡°He says mommy was a cheating whore, and that I¡¯m not his.¡± Seras felt a bad feeling in her stomach. That moment she heard a curse from the kitchen. ¡°Gods dammit!¡± Cash swore. Seras stepped out. ¡°What?¡± Cash looked pissed as he stared into the middle distance. ¡°Bastard just texted; says he¡¯s not paying.¡± ¡°Shit, really?¡± ¡°Yup, and I think he¡¯s serious. He said that when we kill the brat, we should make it quick.¡± ¡°Fuck!¡± Seras cursed. ¡°Fuck, Fuck, FUCK! What do we do?¡± Cash¡¯s face went blank, ¡°We do what we promised.¡± He said calmly. ¡°She¡¯s a fucking kid Cash, you said there was no chance we¡¯d have to actually kill the brat. You said it would be a quick and easy money.¡± ¡°For fucks sake Seras, I lied. There''s always a chance these corpo shits will just cut their losses and try to bang out another kid with a new wife.¡± He shouted. ¡°Okay, but we don¡¯t have to kill the kid!¡± she shouted back, trying to get him to see reason. Cash looked distant though. He pulled out his iron, a custom piece he had commissioned with a glossy black finish with blue glowing lines. ¡°Yes we do.¡± He said. ¡°Or else they never believe us the next time.¡± He stepped forward, raised his gun and¡­ and fell onto his face, a gaping hole were his brain used to be. Seras blinked at the smoking gun in her hand, the twin to the one Cash had commissioned for them. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. She didn¡¯t even remember drawing. She leaned down and picked up the gun from her dead friend. ¡°Come on kid.¡± Seras said, her voice a thousand miles away. ¡°Do I get to go home?¡± the kid asked in a fragile voice. ¡°Your dad just told us to be quick about killing you I don¡¯t think you want to go back.¡± Seras said sharply. Her temper rising. ¡°Oh, okay.¡± The kid said as she walked over to Seras. She put her coat on the kid and left the apartment, not even glancing back at her dead friend. ~~~*~~~ Seras had found a dark corner to collapse in. She had ran from Dustin in a panic, activating her active camo to suppress her aura. That was how she had survived the Silver ranked golem. The active camo somehow masked her aura, without the monster would have killed her. Maybe she should have let it. What difference did it make if Blackiron died in space or while fighting some monster in another dimension. Both would have been better than this. She didn¡¯t even know what it was Knowledge had said that made her react this way. Maybe it was the implication that she was a monstrosity, or maybe it was the fact that there was no cure for her. That with every step forward she would be putting herself in greater and greater pain. Maybe it was because all her efforts would always prove to be pointless. Ever since coming into this world Seras had one set back after another. The first essence power she got was useless, the skill and power she used to have was only barely enough to let her scrape by, and her attempt to strike out on her own ended with her skewered by some drunken asshole and shoved in a jail cell. And then when she was finally starting to accept her place in this new world, when she was finally accepting the idea of magic and being an adventurer, she found out that her very existence was incompatible with the power she had allowed into her soul. Seras pulled up her knees and rested her head against them. And then, despite how badly she didn¡¯t want to cry, hot tears found their way to the surface. It should not have been possible, she didn¡¯t have tear ducts, she shouldn¡¯t be physically capable of crying. It was likely some sort of magic bullshit that bypassed the physical limitation of her body. It just made her cry all the harder. ~~~*~~~ Night fell over the city, but Seras didn¡¯t move. She couldn¡¯t find the energy to get up. So instead she just stayed in that alley, crushed by the weight of the world. She used to scoff at all the bums who fell into an unshakable depression. The kind who could only find the energy to eat garbage just to prolong their misery. She used to think herself so above them, but now she got it. Seras was determined to stay there for the rest of the night, maybe even the rest of the week. She couldn¡¯t face Dustin and the crew. They had faith that she would find her way on this strange world, but she was broken. No amount of encouragement would fix that. Footsteps snapped her out of herself pity. ¡°Stay back fucker, or I¡¯ll blast your head off!¡± Seras snarled down the dark alley. She could just make out a short wiry silhouette. ¡°With what power?¡± the figure scoffed ¡°All you have is a glowing finger and an ability to make yourself more durable.¡± The voice was familiar, and the fact that he knew her only two functional essence abilities narrowed down the options. Seras flicked on her night vision and confirmed her suspicions. ¡°the fuck do you want, Flint? Flint stepped in closer. ¡°Is that how you treat someone who spent the whole dammed day searching for you.¡± Seras looked at her knees ¡°I didn¡¯t ask to be found.¡± She muttered. ¡°Too bad.¡± Flint shot back. ¡°After you ran off Dustin had all of us searching the city for you. Dustin and Dallas are searching the bars, Chase and Garrette are checking in at the gates, Frank and Rohan are checking the local lockups, and Petra is making sure you didn¡¯t try to buy passage on a ship out of the city.¡± Seras glared at the Elfin man. All of those options hinted at one thing¡­ ¡°If you were so sure I¡¯d bolt or cause trouble then why¡¯d you even bother trying to find me?¡± Flint glared back ¡°Because Dustin has certain views of responsibility. When he decides to help someone he makes dammed sure they can¡¯t refuse, especially when they¡¯re as lost as you are.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t ask for help.¡± Seras muttered. ¡°Yup, and that¡¯s why Dustin is so intent on helping yeah. You¡¯ve had a hard life, and he knows that people like you always shy away from healthy coping mechanisms or just flat out run away from support structures. He and I are geezers compared to you, and we¡¯ve seen our fair share of emotionally brittle loners.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a loner, I had friends before.¡± ¡°No, you had colleagues and associates. I bet you wouldn¡¯t even care if they died on ya.¡± ¡°I do care!¡± She snapped. ¡°Oh yeah, what were the names of your companions on your last job. Because while you¡¯ve talked at length about the station and how you got there I haven¡¯t heard you mention their names even once. They¡¯re all dead, aren¡¯t they.¡± ¡°We all knew the risks going in. We covered each other as best as we could but sometimes things don¡¯t work out.¡± Seras muttered. He was right though, she hadn¡¯t even thought about them once, her life had just been too complicated. ¡°That attitude is why your unworthy of Dustin¡¯s kindness. You don¡¯t even care about all the pains he went through to make you feel welcome. I bet you don¡¯t even know how often he¡¯s had to have talks with the crew over the things you say.¡± She didn¡¯t, she didn¡¯t even know that some of the crew had issues with the things she said. ¡°Yeah, well, I guess you were right.¡± Seras said in defeat, her anger and spite gone, in its place only weariness. ¡°I¡¯m broken Flint, I cant be fixed.¡± Flint walk forward and stood next to her. ¡°So the goddess said there was no cure?¡± his tone had far less venom in it now. ¡°Nope. I can either have my essences stripped out of my soul, or I can replace my body with something less monstrous.¡± Flint sat next to her. ¡°I¡¯ve never heard you think of your¡­ strange body as monstrous.¡± ¡°Knowledge showed me something. Lichs, vampires, Zombies, and wraiths are all aberrations caused by the death essence right. It¡¯s the reason the essence is banned and the users are to be killed on sight. Well there¡¯s a combo, Death, iron, and tech that makes the Cyborg confluence.¡± Seras put a hand to her chest ¡°That¡¯s what I am, just without the essences. Hell, I could have gone full in, Tech, metal, and Death were the first three essences I came across. Maybe I wouldn¡¯t have this soul crushing disconnect if I had used them.¡± ¡°You said the Goddess offered to replace your body, I assume that means it she would have made you a normal body. Why not take it?¡± ¡°Besides all the strings attached? Because I wouldn¡¯t be me. It would be like trying to cover you in fur and call you a leonid.¡± Flint looked uncomfortable ¡°there are people out there who do that.¡± Seras huffed a laugh ¡°We have those on my world too. We call them Beasties.¡± Flint gave her a look. ¡°We just call them strange.¡± He reprimanded. ¡°Would it really be that bad? You were human before.¡± ¡°Yeah, and I had to watch my body fail me at every turn. My skin became red and raw every time it rained, it sometimes even bled and then got infected. I had roaches break into my bedroom and try to eat me alive. I felt my lungs dying with every breath. Hell, I went blind just before I got some new eyes. If I hadn¡¯t already had the appointment scheduled I may never have gotten them replaced. The flesh is weak, and it will always fail you. Muscles snap, bones break, even the brain is subject to the whims of nature. I would never be happy going back to that. ¡°Cybernetics are like, my world¡¯s version of essences. Getting them makes you better in almost every conceivable way. They become a part of who you are. Would you ever go back to being normal just because someone called your essences unnatural?¡± ¡°I seem to recall you doing just that.¡± Flint muttered. ¡°Yeah, and I was fuckin wrong.¡± Seras shot back. ¡°I didn¡¯t really feel it with the Tech essence, but with metal I felt¡­ some sort of connection. I can¡¯t explain why, but I feel like I was always meant to find it somehow. Like it fills a hole in me I never knew I had. I can even feel the absence in my self where two other essences should be.¡± Flint was quiet until he nodded. ¡°We often feel the same way. Some of us who have only one or two essences start to feel that hole in a very uncomfortable way. I had my first essence for six years before I got the second.¡± Seras nodded. ¡°I feel like that giving up on any part of myself would break me, my essences or my chrome. But if I want to survive I need to make that choice.¡± ¡°And how does sitting in the dark avoiding your friends help you make that decision?¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t¡± Seras admitted. ¡°But facing any of you seemed like too much. I¡¯m not used to feeling, accepted, or even wanted. Not in the same way you guys show me.¡± ¡°Your parents died when you were young right. I take the rest of your life was devoid of any positive relationships after that.¡± ¡°I had a friend, but he¡­ we¡­ I¡­ it didn¡¯t end well.¡± Seras felt herself getting choked up remembering Cash. It would have been bad if he had died to someone else¡¯s hand, it would have been bad if he attacked Seras and she was just defending herself. But her shooting him in the back of the head to save a kid she barely even knew; it didn¡¯t even leave her with the deception of closure. She had killed him because he would have killed the kid, and Seras didn¡¯t want that on her conscious. It was a purely selfish decision that had haunted her for years. ¡°I don¡¯t want to know, every story you tell just leaves me restless. Your whole world is one grand tragedy.¡± ¡°Isn¡¯t that just how life works?¡± Seras asked. Flint scowled ¡°No, and its that sort of mind set that makes me hate you. There¡¯s more to life than pain and loss. But what I was getting at before is that you haven¡¯t had any positive connections in your life, no one to trust. And the idea of that scares you. I get it. Its easier to be a closed book and to walk through life alone than open up. But its also more miserable. Miserable for you, and everyone you meet. You reject their offers of friendship and keep yourself at a distance.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t do that-¡± ¡°You tried to run away that first night, and then you tried to leave us at Karstess. When Petra tried to be indignant on your behalf you shut her down, said that life sucks and there¡¯s no point in feeling upset. You still only know us on a surface level and we¡¯ve been traveling together for a month. You spend half your time with Petra, but do you know where she¡¯s from, do you know what she wants in life, do you even know her last name, or that Petra isn¡¯t her full name?¡± ¡°It isn¡¯t, I thought Petra was the full name.¡± ¡°Its Petracosta.¡± Flint said accusingly. ¡°You hold yourself back and try to bolt at the first sign of trouble. And not the easy sort of trouble like monsters or bandits, but the icky emotional kind of trouble. They¡¯ve done nothing but offer you friendship, and I¡¯m tired of watching them suffer from having it thrown back on them. So, you¡¯re gonna get yer ass up, and go back to the inn and tell them everything that happened.¡± Seras¡¯ head shot up ¡°Didn¡¯t you here me? I said I¡¯m broken. I¡¯ll always stay this weak, and if I make one misstep I¡¯ll die, and you be left with an empty husk of metal to melt down.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care.¡± Flint shot back. ¡°You don¡¯t get to make the choice to cut them off just because you feel like you¡¯ll hold us back. And frankly I¡¯m still not convinced that you wont find a solution.¡± ¡°Knowledge said there was no cure.¡± Seras pointed out. ¡°And what does she know!¡± Flint stood up. ¡°She is the Goddess of everything that is, not will be. You want to just sit there and let your condition kill you that¡¯s fine, but don¡¯t give me such a lame excuse. Plenty of things were impossible until someone went out and did them. You¡¯re always boasting about how advanced and smart your world is, use some of that ¡®technological superiority¡¯ and fix yourself.¡± Seras stood up, angry and ready to argue with the elf, when a hand shoved something into her chest. Seras looked down at the cube Flint had shoved at her. ¡°What¡¯s this?¡± she asked. Flint kept his back turned on her ¡°I never really thanked you for saving my life. That¡¯s my thank you¡± Seras blinked and looked down. Potent Essence, four-star rarity. An essence that grants the user the power of potency. Seras had learned over her time with the caravan crew what kind of price essences like this went for ¡°Flint I can¡¯t-¡± ¡°You can, and I wont take it back. Use it, sell it, chuck into the sea, I don¡¯t care. But that is the last time I see you try to give up or walk out. Understood?¡± Seras sniffed. ¡°Yeah, yeah I understand.¡± She didn¡¯t say thank you, because she knew Flint would just reject it. But she was thankful, thankful for the essence, and the swift kick in the ass his words had given her. She wasn¡¯t okay. She hadn¡¯t been okay since she arrived on this world. And maybe long before that. But she was Seras ¡®Blackiron¡¯ Cross, there was no way she was letting herself slump into a depression just because some goddess siad there was no solution to her problem. Since when did she believe in any Gods or Goddesses? Just because they were real on this world that didn¡¯t mean that had any right to her faith or trust. Ch33 Take cover She trailed behind Flint, as they walked through Florin¡¯s night life. People relaxed at restaurants, enjoying the cool night air while the bars were just opening their doors for the night. She overheard two people discussing the rise in tea prices, and even heard women gossiping about so and so. It was a strange experience for her. To her cities meant packed crowds, littered streets, and vagrants huddling in the alleyways. She saw a city guard in a bright purple vest, he met her eyes, and did something Seras had never seen from any law enforcement, he gave her a smile and let go about her business without any harassment. ¡°How would you have done it anyway?¡± Flint asked, breaking her out of her musings. ¡°Done what?¡± Seras asked, her attention now on the tall elfin man. ¡°How would you have ¡®blown my head off¡¯, that¡¯s what you said when I approached you.¡± ¡°Oh¡± Seras said. ¡°I couldn¡¯t have, it was an automatic response.¡± Flint glanced at her. ¡°Is it something you could have done on your world?¡± ¡°Well yeah, my old guns packed enough power to obliterate any chrome doomed punk, to say nothing of a meat bag.¡± ¡°Meat bag?¡± Flint said accusingly. Seras blinked, and for the first time she realized that the term may have been perceived as offensive. ¡°Ah, sorry. That¡¯s just what we called it back home. I guess I need to find a new way to describe people like you.¡± Flint shook his head. ¡°Back on topic, you said these gun things were like bows. I never heard of a normal bow that could explode a persons head.¡± ¡°I said they were like bows in the same way a sharpened stick is like a mighty spear. They both launch projectiles, but a gun does that at speeds impossible to watch with normal mark-one eyeballs. And it does so in entirely different ways.¡± Flint raised his eyebrows. ¡°How does it work them?¡± ¡°We ignite an explosive powder in metal tube, the explosion then pushes a slug out at speeds exceeding a thousand meters per second.¡± Flint blinked ¡°Is that right, did the measurements translate right?¡± ¡°I hope so, I don¡¯t exactly have a good way of testing that.¡± ¡°Then why are you even bothering with the bow or scimitars? Just make one of your gun things.¡± Flint said with a pointed finger. ¡°Its not that simple. This world has literally none of the components I would typical use when building a gun. No micro circuitry or superconductors, no transistors, no primer, and no flesh shredding ceramic bullets. And that¡¯s not including the precise machinery I¡¯d need to actually assemble the thing.¡± Seras said listing things off with her fingers. ¡°No 3d printers, no laser cutters, no diamond hardened drill tips, or rifling jigs.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what any of that meant-¡± Flint began. ¡°Hence my issue.¡± ¡°- But I do know that there are a lot of steps between a sharpened stick and a mighty spear. Are you sure there isn¡¯t something less advanced you could try and replicate?¡± He asked. Seras paused. She blinked several times. And then her mind began to work at the possibilities. She had been highly experienced in advanced tech-guns, guns that used an absurd amount of circuitry and micro-electronics to enhance every aspect of a gun. From muzzle velocity, to recoil reduction. Smart bullets that could fly around corners and explode when they detect penetration. But early guns had started off as little more than gunpower in a bamboo canister. How much of her experience could she apply to earlier gun iterations. As she began calling up her data on early guns a pop up appeared in her vision. Would you like to access blueprint archives through outworlder racial trait ¡®Blueprinting software¡¯? Seras made a mental affirmative, and a new window opened up showing Seras a large catalogue of various machines and weapons she had seen in her life. Seras realized that she had been ignoring a whole aspect of her outworlder abilities. She hadn¡¯t even glanced at it after the first time she noticed her racial traits. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. But this opened up a whole world of possibilities. Blueprints for cars, bikes, and guns were all laid out before her. And on top of that there were also a million other blueprints for mundane things like elevators, streetlight, or vending machines. They weren¡¯t complete, not by a long shot. The power seemed to work via her own understanding of these things and how they worked. ¡°Well?¡± Flint said, breaking her out of her revelation. ¡°I¡­ can.¡± Seras said, stunned by how dumb she had been. ¡°But would a gun even be a good idea against monsters?¡± Flint shrugged. ¡°No idea, I only have your descriptions to go off of. But if they don¡¯t then there¡¯s a pretty simple solution.¡± ¡°What?¡± He raised his eyebrows ¡°Make magic guns.¡± He said as if it should have been obvious. Seras frowned ¡°Magic guns.¡± she deadpanned. ¡°Is that even possible?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not a magic craftsman, but we have things like magic swords, bows, and spears. I¡¯m sure you can find some way to make it work.¡± Seras was still skeptical. ¡°Look, its just an idea. Your crap with the sabers, I doubt you¡¯ll find swords, spears, or bows any easier.¡± Seras sulked ¡°Dustin said I was improving with the sabers.¡± ¡°Of course, he did. What he isn¡¯t sayin is that you¡¯ll never be great with them. You just don¡¯t have the knack for¡¯em.¡± ~~~*~~~ ¡°-and then she showed me a version of myself if I had used the death essence and gotten the cyborg confluence. That¡¯s about when the panic set in.¡± Seras said somberly as she finished explaining herself to Dustin. They were in Dustin¡¯s room back at the Inn, it was just her, Flint, and Dustin. Dallas had been sent out to fetch everyone and let them know that Seras had been found. Dustin scowled ¡°Now that¡¯s just playin¡¯ dirty. Of course, a version of you that took the death essence would be an abomination, it does that to everyone. Its antithetical to life, it¡¯s an inherent corruption.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t think I¡¯m-¡± Seras began. ¡°-No.¡± Dustin interjected. ¡°I don¡¯t fully understand what you are, but I know you aren¡¯t like that.¡± Seras let out a breath she didn¡¯t know that she had been holding. ¡°Thanks.¡± He didn¡¯t ask any questions after that, and as the crew began to filter in Seras found herself slowly relaxing again. She didn¡¯t know why she was so afraid of seeing the kindness of the caravan crew again, it was something she would need to address later. For the moment she had more pressing issues. ¡°So Petra. I hear your full name is Petracosta, why am I only hearing this now?¡± Seras said in a jovial voice as they were gathered around one of the bar tables. The Leonid woman groaned. ¡°Ugh, did Flint tell you that. Petracosta is such an old lady¡¯s name. Petra is much cooler.¡± Seras grinned ¡°Hey I¡¯m an outworlder, I have no sense of what is and isn¡¯t old fashioned. But I think Petracosta is a nova name.¡± Garrette, who was leaning his chair back, gave her a quizzical look. ¡°Nova is like, your word for awesome right?¡± ¡°Nah¡± Seras said with a shake of her head. ¡°Nova is for when things are better than awesome.¡± ¡°Well, what¡¯s better than Nova?¡± Chase asked. ¡°I think we¡¯re getting ahead of ourselves here,¡± Frank interjected ¡°We need to know what qualifies as awesome, and then what qualifies as better than awesome. Cuz¡¯ there¡¯s a lot of wiggle room in that definition.¡± It was pointless dumb banter, but Flint was right about Seras holding everyone at arm¡¯s length. She had no idea how she would fix her soul/body disconnect. She didn¡¯t know how she was going to get by in this world. She didn¡¯t even know what she wanted to do with her life now. But this was something she could fix, the rest would come with time. Seras pulled out the potent essence. She had looked up the kinds of abilities it gave and the sorts of confluences it made. Since her tech essence was an unknown to this world that didn¡¯t help her as much as she would have liked. But what she did know was that it gave the user pretty potent powers. And something about that just¡­ resonated with her. ¡°Whats that?¡± Petra asked. ¡°Potent essence, I think its time I finally finish what I¡¯ve started. No more half measures.¡± Seras said. Potent Essence, four-star rarity. An essence that grants the user the power of potency. Would you like to convert into an appropriate form Y/N Seras selected yes, and the table watched in stunned silence as the essence turned into a glowing crystalline shard bursting with untapped power. She opened the slot of her neck and slid in the essence. The potent essence didn¡¯t hurt nearly as much as her tech or Metal essence, whether that was because she already absorbed two essences or something inherent in the potent essence Seras didn¡¯t know. She felt every motor, synth-tendon, and wire in her body with an acuity that should not have been possible. Moreover she felt them bursting with strength. The power settled into every part and wire of her body. Potent essence has bonded with the speed attribute. Your magic matrix has better integrated into your body. Your attunement with your body had increased. Soul/body Attunement at 7.5%. Increase the speed attribute to further improve attunement. You have awakened the Potent essence ability Limit breaker. Limit Breaker. 1: 00% Ignores the innate suppression of rank disparity. Then three shards emerged from Seras¡¯s chest and spun around her. Then the shards overlapped with each other and a fourth shard emerged. This one was a metallic black with blue circuit like lines glowing with power. Avatar Essence Would like to absorb the Avatar essence. Y/N No turning back now. With this Seras would become a magical being at the iron rank. She accepted the essence. Instead of slide into her shard port the Avatar essence flew directly into her skull, sliding easily through her forehead. Seras¡¯ head began to tingle pleasantly, and a warm comfortable feeling filled her limbs. Avatar essence has merged with you Recovery aspect. Your magic matrix has better integrated into your body. Your attunement with your body had increased. Soul/body Attunement at 10%. Increase the recovery attribute to further improve attunement. You have gained the Avatar essence ability Bullet control Allows for the control of fired bullets for a cost of mana, allowing greater aim and slight course correction. Cost varies Cool down: None You have absorbed 4/4 essences and have progressed to iron rank. Advance all essence abilities to bronze rank to reach bronze rank. Integrating aura sense 15%, 36%, 78% 100% Aura senses have now been integrated, you can now sense auras. Seras stood up and looked around the room. She had expected there to be some sort of backlash or need for recovery like when you slotted in new chrome. But Seras didn¡¯t feel that way. She felt powerful. She felt amazing. She looked up to see the horrified looks of everyone around the table. ¡°Did she just absorb an essence without a ritual¡± Chase asked. ¡°Yup¡± Frank affirmed. ¡°And now she-¡° ¡°Yup.¡± ¡°Everyone get back, take cover!¡± Petra roared as she scrambled out of her chair. Everyone followed her lead. ¡°What are you guys¡­¡± Seras trailed off as a new popup appeared. Advancing body to iron rank, purging toxins. And then she felt her guts twist and growl. Ch34 Avatar Essence Petra¡¯s boisterous laugh filled the little private bath as Seras continued to shrub at her skin with some of the inns steal wool. ¡°Its not funny.¡± Seras muttered. ¡°Yes, it is.¡± Petra countered. ¡°The look on your face when you finally felt it was priceless.¡± ¡°You should have warned me.¡± Seras muttered as she got a pop up alerting her that she had scrubbed her smart skin so hard that it now required an hour to repair. If it had been normal skin then she would have a huge rash. ¡°Warn you, how would I? You gave us no warning that you were going to just ¡®absorb¡¯ an essence and rank up to iron.¡± Petra said with a shake of her head. ¡°Then how come in none of our many discussions about magic and essences did this never come up?¡± ¡°Because its gross and no one likes to talk about it.¡± Seras scowled as she tossed away the ruined scrubber and picked up another for her other arm. As Seras had learned, whenever a person ranks up their bodies are purged of toxins as the magic helps them ascend to a more perfect state. That purge happens all at once, and completely ruins everything you were wearing, and everything else within the splash zone. The inn owner was absolutely furious, Seras¡¯ little fuckup caused everyone to clear out just to get away from the smell. He had said the floorboards were ruined and needed to be replaced. Dustin was currently talking him down. ¡°Besides, I¡¯ve never seen someone purge that much gunk. And that weird green stuff that bubbled through your skin, ¡± Petra continued. ¡°That shouldn¡¯t even be possible. Its not real skin!¡± Seras said as she finally got past the layer of bright neon green filth coating her arm. There was a knock at the door. ¡°Is Seras decent?¡± Dustin¡¯s muffled voice asked. ¡°No¡± Petra answered. A pause, ¡°Fine, just hand her this.¡± Dustin¡¯s hand then came through a crack in the door and passed Petra a bottle of some sort of liquid. Petra looked at it and made an impressed noise. ¡°Fancy.¡± She said. ¡°What is it?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Crystal wash.¡± Petra answered. Seras quirked an eyebrow. On Ruin crystal wash was a popular cleaning product for cybernetic limbs, at least it was until they realized that the company who made crystal wash engineered the chemical to make the seals in joints to break down faster so that their parent corp could sell more replacements. ¡°I¡¯m going to need some more context.¡± Seras said in a flat tone. Petra looked confused, ¡°What, its just cleaning potion.¡± ¡°Like a soap bottle or-¡± ¡°Nah, better than soap. This stuff will clean anything. Just one bottle and you¡¯ll cleaner than you¡¯ve ever been.¡± Petra extended the bottle to Seras. Seras quirked an eyebrow. ¡°How, is like some sort of universal solvent, or a sanitizer, or...?¡± ¡°Just use the bottle, you¡¯ll understand once you do.¡± Seras decided to trust Petra and lifted the bottle over her head and poured its contents out. In a wave of filth and goo all the nasty gunk clinging to Seras was washed off. By the end of it she was perfectly clean and smelled faintly of flowers. She didn¡¯t even have to scrub. She staired at the bottle incredulously. ¡°How? It cleaned my teeth, and I didn¡¯t even get any in my mouth.¡± Petra shrugged ¡°Magic.¡± ¡°Why even bother with baths then?¡± ¡°Because its expensive, especially out in the deserts. That¡¯s why I called it fancy. Boss must have had some squirreled away.¡± If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Well then.¡± Seras said at a loss for words. ¡°I guess I¡¯m done scrubbing.¡± She stepped out of the large patch of filth that smelled disturbingly like monster smoke. She opened her pocket space and pulled out a spare set of clean clothes. Since it was still late in the evening she decided to dress lightly in preparation for bed. On Ruin Seras used to just sleep in her under clothes, but after hearing plenty of complaints and startled noises from the men of the caravan Seras begrudgingly bought some comfortable sleeping clothes. Dustin was outside and gave her a short nod when she came out. ¡°Sorry about the mess.¡± Seras apologized. ¡°Its all good, a bit of crystal wash fixed the floor boards, and the owner has calmed down. That said I think we should retire for the night.¡± ¡°Hold on, I want to know what confluence she got.¡± Petra interjected. ¡°I¡¯m with Petra on this one¡± Flint said. Dustin sighed. ¡°Fine, but lets do this in our room.¡± No one argued and they followed Dustin up to his and Flint¡¯s room. The moment they saw Seras going into the boss¡¯s room the rest of the crew got up and followed them in. ¡°Alright.¡± Petra said as everyone squeezed into the room only meant for two. ¡°What¡¯chy get.¡± Seras glanced around the room. ¡°Tech, Metal, and Potent essences made for confluence of Avatar.¡± There was murmuring and grousing. Avatar was a pretty common confluence with lots of potential combos. Obviously, the crew were disappointed it wasn¡¯t some never before seen confluence. Honestly Seras was a bit let down as well. ¡°Alright hold¡¯up.¡± Dustin said raising his hands. ¡°While Avatar isn¡¯t a new essence by any means it is a diverse one. We don¡¯t know which way her avatar essence will sway.¡± ¡°That¡¯s right,¡± Flint added. ¡°Avatar essence users can be anything from front lines fighters, to control specialists. What was the first ability you got from avatar?¡± Flint asked as he pulled out the essence list. ¡°Its not on there¡± Seras said. ¡°I checked while I was scrubbing. The ability is bullet control, it somehow allows me to guide and correct the course of bullets in motion.¡± Rohan straightened ¡°Bullet control? Not ¡®guide the path¡¯, or ¡®chosen marker¡¯?¡± ¡°No, what are those?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Those are common bow essence abilities that guide the arrows path, some even make the arrow speed up in flight.¡± Seras tried to imagine her using the ability with a bow, but something within herself rebelled against the idea. Somehow, she had the innate sense that the ability would not be compatible with swords. ¡°No dice, it seems it¡¯ll only work on bullets.¡± ¡°Which means you really will have to somehow make one of your gun things.¡± Flint said. Seras nodded. ¡°Seems that way. Do you think there¡¯s any chance I¡¯ll get the ability to just summon a gun from the avatar essence?¡± Flint thought about as he searched the list. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t rule it out, but I¡¯m not seeing any such abilities for the Avatar essence. Granted I don¡¯t see anything like control bullets on here either. You should still see about making your own.¡± Dustin got a contemplative look on his face. ¡°Could you pass that here? I want to check something.¡± Flint passed the list to Dustin. And while Dustin looked for¡­ whatever he was searching for, Seras once again found herself trying to explain guns to the crew. ¡°No, its not a one-use weapon. The gun powder explodes, but the gun stays in one piece. Usually¡± ¡°I can fire it as many times as I want, so long as I have ammo.¡± ¡°Yes, it is incredibly loud.¡± And so on. ¡°Got it¡± Dustin called out. Everyone turned to him, he eld up the tablet and passed it to Seras. ¡°Shape metal?¡± She read out loud in confusion. ¡°Its one of the metal essence abilities, typically metal tends towards defense or crafting in its abilities. And this ability has recorded 65% chance to manifest if you use an Earth awakening stone. I figured it might be the best ability to help you make you guns.¡± ¡°Boss¡± Garrette said slowly. ¡°Seras is a fighter. I don¡¯t think she¡¯s going to need the abilities of a magic craftsmen.¡± ¡°She¡¯s a fighter, but none of the weapons or gear she¡¯s experienced with exist on this world. If she wants to use any of her world¡¯s weapons she¡¯s going to need to make it. And we all know she isn¡¯t good with our weapons.¡± Dustin explained. ¡°I wasn¡¯t that bad.¡± Seras muttered. ¡°Seras, at the first opportunity you dropped your sabers to instead stab the eyes of and eel monster.¡± Frank said. ¡°And you¡¯re no good with spears.¡± Chase added. ¡°You broke my bow.¡± Rohan muttered. ¡°I said was sorry.¡± Seras defended herself. ¡°See what I mean.¡± Dustin said firmly. ¡°What she needs is to make her own weapons.¡± Seras checked the other known combinations of earth and Metal. ¡°Couldn¡¯t it also bond to one of my other essences?¡± Dusitn nodded ¡°There is a chance of that.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t forget Florence¡¯s theory on essence compatibility¡± Flint said. ¡°While any essence and awakening stone can pair, there are certain essences that have a higher chance of pairing. Earth and metal have a higher chance of bonding, at least on paper. While potent and earth could bond, or any of your other essences, Metal has the higher compatibility.¡± Seras thought about it as she summoned up the stone. Awakening stone of earth. Absorb to unlock the power of earth. Requires one unawakened essence ability. Would you like to convert into an appropriate form Y/N ¡°Why the hell not¡± Seras muttered as she turned the yellow-colored stone into a shard and slotted it into her neck. The power surged through her and she felt it settle into her bones. You have awakened the Metal essence ability Shape metal Shape metal: Allows the user to manipulate the shape of metal. Cost: Varies. Cool down: None ¡°Got it in one¡± Seras said as she pumped her fist. There was a polite applause, and Petra pulled out a metal fork and passed it over. ¡°Try this¡± She said. Seras accepted the fork and focused her mind in it. She had a sort of feeling, like the fork was a long-lost limb that she had only just noticed, or like when her arms used to go numb and slowly woke up. With a little mental effort, the tines on the fork began to curl in on themselves, then she made it straighten put. Then she tried to make it squeeze in on itself and turn into a ball. But this time she felt like she was trying to lift a heavy weight with her pinky while at an awkward angle. She could get the fork to roll in on itself as if it had been bent, but she couldn¡¯t seem to work the metal like it was clay or putty. At least not yet. Already she had ideas on how to use this. ¡°It¡¯ll get better.¡± Chase said with a smile. ¡°This is the literally the weakest and most inexperienced you will ever be. Everything is up hill from here. Congratulations on reaching Iron by the way. Where did you even get that third essence?¡± ¡°Best not to say¡± Flint said quickly, cutting off Seras¡¯ own deflection. While Flint had gifted her with the final essence she needed to reach Iron, he obviously didn¡¯t want the credit. And Seras was okay letting things stay as they were. Dustin slapped his hands against his ¡°Whelp, its getting pretty late, were leaving day after tomorrow. If you have anything to do in Florin please go in groups, especially you Seras.¡± He said with a pointed look. Seras did her best not to look embarrassed. She was starting to understand the whole Outworlder¡¯s and trouble going hand in hand thing. ~~~*~~~ The next day Seras dragged Petra to every bookstore and blacksmith in Florin. She blew all her savings on magic theory books, technical manuals, and even a few skill books. Skill books wouldn¡¯t make her a master in any trade, but they would cut down on thousands of hours of training and learning. And with enough background research Seras could fill in the gaps in her abilities. The next day when they left Florin Seras had a pocket space full of books and head full of ideas. She and the crew left the city and all the bad memories behind. Seras didn¡¯t even glance back as they set out for their next destination, this time heading north. Ch35 Eat Lead Martin snapped the reigns on his Heidel again, urging the poor beast to run a little faster. But it was futile, no matter how they ran they would escape the Ostryx. The feathery lizard monsters were renowned for their unending endurance and ability to run down even the fastest of Heidels. If it had just been two or three he and his crew might have been fine. But five was to much for them. They cut the wagons and put on as much speed as possible. Dammit. Those Adventures said they cleared the Ostryx out from the road. There must have been a second pack of them. Martin glanced back and once more saw the Ostryx just a bit closer. He sighed, no getting out of this. He turned to his second in command ¡°Harry, you keep the crew together, get as far as you can. I¡¯ll buy you as much time as I can.¡± Harry¡¯s eyes were wide and wild. He knew that if Martin took on that many bronze rank monsters on his own he would not be coming back. But he didn¡¯t argue. He made an exaggerated nod. Martin prepared himself for what would ultimately be his last moments. While he was strong for bronze rank he would never hold up against that many at once. But he could buy time for his people, that would have to be enough. He turned in his saddle as best as he could, and was gathering his courage for one last stand. CRACK! A sound like two boulders smashing together echoed across the desert. One of the Ostryx¡¯ stumbled, and Martin saw a wound gushing blood on its flank. CRACK! Another wound appeared not too far from the first. CRACK! This time Martins bronze rank perception was able to make out the barest shadow of something small flying into the Ostryx. The monster couldn¡¯t handle the damage any more. It crashed to the ground and did not get up. Martin tore his gaze away from the Ostryx and searched for the origins of the sound. On a small rise was the shadowed figure of someone on a Heidel. Martin couldn¡¯t make out any details since the sun was to their back. But he did see the two other riders barreling down the rise and towards Martin. The figure on the left was a thin man, probably an elf. The one on the right¡­ Martin blinked in surprise. The right rider was burning with golden armor, and so was his Heidel. The Blazing Outrider. Dustin Westbrooke wasn¡¯t as famous as some bronze rank adventurers, but among the people who spent their lives in the saddle there wasn¡¯t a one who hadn¡¯t heard his exploits. Martin even met the man once in Basal. He had thought the man wouldn¡¯t live up to the reputation, but after one night Martin knew that he did. You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. If the Blazing Outrider was here then the thin man must have been the Earth Breaker Flint. The third was a mystery to him, but given that they had been able to take out an Ostryx at this distance Martin was willing to believe they were also strong. He faced forward. ¡°The Blazing Outrider has come to our rescue. Just hold on a little longer!¡± He called to his people. They all looked back just long enough to see the Burning Smolder with scimitars at the ready. Something about his men changed, the oncoming dread was replaced with hope. In no time the Blazing Outrider had caught up to the monsters and was already kiting their sides with quick slashes. While Matin¡¯s Heidel could only barely keep ahead of the monsters Dustin¡¯s Heidel was bronze rank and experienced the same boost in speed and ability of all bronze rankers. Flint was too far behind either, not close enough to draw attention, but close enough to start casting spells. Slabs of Earth rose in front of the Monsters and the Ostryx were forced to swerve to avoid the obstacles. This slowed down the monsters and frustrated the Ostryx. Martin Drew in a breath and summoned his own magical weapons. A steel mace appeared in his hand and he pulled on his Heidels reigns to join the fray. The first Ostryx he found within his range received a mace to the skull, and just for good measure Martin added his special attack [Unstoppable Force]. The special attack worked on a basis of momentum, and give the added bonus of being mounted on a charging Heidel, Martin¡¯s blow was truly devasting. The monster fell onto the ground in a heap. The chase devolved into a chaotic mess of Heidels, fire, and Earth magic. Martin tried the same attack on another of the feathered lizards. But this time the monster ducked and the lunged for his Heidel. The poor beast did not react well the monsters teeth, and in the process of dislodging the monster Martin was also thrown off. His Heidle, no longer being coerced into battle by Martin bolted, leaving Martin alone in the dust. He was on the outside of the fray, and the Ostryx was just picking it self up. The monster locked eyes with Martin and began to prowl forward. Each step was taken with obvious care as the monster watched for any sudden movements from Martin. These monsters could keep up with a galloping Heidel, there was no way he was going to escape. Martin hefted up his mace and readied for the lunge. It had been to close to the last time he used his special attack, but Martin had other abilities. Then, for a brief second the monster¡¯s eyes shifted, and whatever it saw made it hiss. Martin didn¡¯t have a chance to think before the monster leaped forward. He held up his mace and readied himself to take the monster¡¯s attack. He swung with his mace, but the monster ducked under the blow and went straight for Martin¡¯s neck. Martin¡¯s perception of time slowed down. His hearted hammered in his ears, and he knew if the monster tore his jugular that he would bleed out quickly because of it. His leg muscles bunched up as he tried to lean away from the attack, but it wasn¡¯t fast enough. He looked into the monsters eyes and knew the Ostryx would kill him. He also saw something else in its eyes, a dark shadow image. A reversed reflection of what the Ostryx saw, Martin saw his own pale face, and a hand reaching out behind him. Something tugged at his neck, the added force pulling on his shirt yanked him back just outside of the monster¡¯s attack, and time began to move at its normal speed. Martin was being dragged along the ground by his shirt. He brought his hands to his collar to try and give himself some breathing room. But before he could do anything else he was lifted away from the ground and up onto a broad Heidel¡¯s back. ¡°Almost lost you there¡± A husky female voice said in front of him. Martin looked down onto his savior¡¯s back. She wore a tan dust cloak, a broad brimmed hat with metallic colored hair underneath, and was holding her Heidel¡¯s reigns in one hand. But the most striking detail was one Martin didn¡¯t see, but felt. This woman was iron rank, moreover she was a fresh iron ranker. ¡°You saved me?¡± Martin said in shock. ¡°Well it wasn¡¯t Buck¡¯s hand that pulled your ass out of danger.¡± She retorted. ¡°Whose BucK?¡± She patted the Heidels flank ¡°This is Buck, bravest, meanest Heidel in the five deserts. Now take the reigns, I cant aim with only one hand.¡± She said as she passed Martin the reigns. It was awkward trying to guide a Heidel from the back, but Martin did his best. The women pulled up a long metal tube thing with a wooden rest she pressed into her shoulder. CRACK! The sound was even louder this close up, and Martin felt his ears ringing. But now he had an explanation for where the noise had came from. ¡°Danm.¡± The women cursed. ¡°I¡¯ve never down this during a galop. What I wouldn¡¯t give for some suspension.¡± She pulled a pin and the tube opened up and a brass cylinder popped out. She forced another cylinder into the breach and closed the odd weapon. ¡°Keep us straight, I need every advantage I can get.¡± The iron ranker ordered him. Martin had no idea what the weapon was or how it worked, but he did know that it somehow brought down an Ostryx in three shots. So he would trust the women. ¡°Control bullets.¡± The women muttered. She took in deep breath and slowly let it out. CRACK! This time martin looked back and was able to witness the monsters head burst and the rest of its body fell to the ground. ¡°Yeah, eat lead you over grown rat!¡± the woman whooped. ¡°Why would any one want to eat lead?¡± She laughed ¡°they wouldn¡¯t.¡± Ch36 Lets shoot stuff Seras was currently sitting around the campfire and was using the last but daylight to clean her rifle. It had done well today in its first real combat experience. The debut of guns on Pallimustus and she had killed two bronze rank monsters. Well killed one and crippled another for Dustin to finish off. She even got a chance to try her new ability while moving. Ordinarily the galloping of a Heidel would have been too much for ordinary shooting. But Control Bullets proved its worth. Granted it took her moment to reach out and mark the monster with her ability, but that was easy enough to fix. She just needed practice. Right now there was a radius where she could guide a bullet with pretty good accuracy, she could hit any target with three or four meters with pin point accuracy. As she chose further targets however the target grew wider, at ten meters she could guide a bullet into a fist sized zone. It would always hit within that zone whether it was the edge or dead center. Further out the landing zone became large and larger, until it was almost entirely useless. The best she could figure the power sort of corrected the bullets path, adjusting the errors in her shooting in little nudges. There were also more generalized limitations. She couldn¡¯t make the bullet swerve, she needed to be at least facing the right direction, and it the less accurate she was with her non-magical aim the more mana it required. There also seemed to be an increased cost for large bullets. The first rifle she had was made roughly like a six millimeter, she figured it was a good starting point. Unfortunately while the gun did work, it would only be good on normal ranks creatures. Iron ranked ones needed several bullets to drop with that caliber, and Bronze didn¡¯t even acknowledge the shot. So she had to redesign the whole thing with a wider and longer cartridge in mind. Even then it was barely a bother to the bronze rank monsters. When she rode out to retrieve the corpse of the monster she had first shoot she found that the bullets were only a few centimeters deep, and she had only been firing from a hundred meters out. Seras checked the firing mechanism and grimaced. Dusk and black power gunked up the inside. And the new firing pin she had made was cracked. Well, there was reason she had bought fine bristle brushes. She immediately got down to business. As she was brushing, she was mentally tweaking the design with her blueprinting ability. The ability worked like highly advanced engineering software with a large catalogue of similar designs. She could three dimensionally render the designs, digitally stress test certain components and even model the actual firing of the weapon. All very useful. Unfortunately, there were large gaps in what she could make versus what she had the designs for. While Seras had occasionally used a cheap gun from time to time she was more intimately familiar with high tech precision made weapons. None of which she could make here since she couldn¡¯t reproduce half the parts. She had to go back to designs from over two centuries ago to get a working product on this world, which meant she had to guess about some of the designs. The companies that made these guns didn¡¯t even exist anymore. Movement at her side caught her attention and Seras looked up to see the dark-skinned Martin had approached her. His skin was nowhere near as dark as a Smolders, but it was still darker than anything Seras had seen. It was like dark, rich, chocolate. Seras found the appearance quite stunning matched with the man¡¯s short, cropped hair and warm brown eyes. ¡°Ma¡¯am.¡± Martin greeted. Seras snorted ¡°No need for that, just call me Seras.¡± He seemed taken aback by what she said, but eventually a smile frowned its way to his lips. ¡°Alright, Seras. I just wanted to thank you. If you hadn¡¯t been there today, then I¡¯d be dead.¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Seras smiled, she had saved people before, but usually only if it was convenient. But today wasn¡¯t like that. Dustin had somehow felt the man¡¯s panic and came to the rescue. ¡°Its all-good Martin. Glad we made it in time.¡± She answered. ¡°A second longer and I would have tried to throw myself at the monsters to buy my men time. If you hadn¡¯t shot that one Ostryx I would have been killed before Dustin could ride in. that tube of yours is mighty impressive. Is it a modified magic staff or-¡° ¡°It¡¯s a rifle. No magic involved.¡± Seras explained. His face lit up ¡°Really? Then how does it work?¡± Seras smiled ¡°I use small cartridges of an explosive powder to accelerate a metal slug. The slug flies out at incredible speeds and buries itself in the target.¡± She had learned that when it came to Pallimustan¡¯s she needed to greatly dumb down the process. While these people had a firm grip on magical theory and even a bastardized concept of space-time and string theory they didn¡¯t have a periodic table, nor a solid understanding of reactions and the laws of conservation. It wasn¡¯t because they were ignorant, but just that the presence of magic made what Seras considered fundamental concepts hard to observe in nature. The existence of magical materials made any sort of periodic table impossible to compile on their own, and magic had the seeming ability to bend the conservation of mass and energy. But Seras knew that those concepts had to exist. Magic may have proven then to not be fundamental or unchangeable like her world had thought, but that just meant their understanding was lacking, not that the theories were wrong. ¡°That¡¯s impressive. Is the powder some sort of rare alchemical concoction?¡± Martin asked, genuinely intrigued. ¡°Nah, I had a small-town alchemist whip up the gunpower in an afternoon. The primer took a bit longer, but it wasn¡¯t hard once we knew the trick. Guy said he was using the byproducts of cheap health potions, which makes me wonder just how safe those potions really are if I can use the byproduct for a primer cap.¡± ¡°And the weapon itself.¡± Martin said as he leaned over to look into the mechanisms Seras was cleaning. ¡°A bit trickier. A magic blacksmith was able to forge the barrel with the rifling in less than five minutes. The smaller pieces are my touch, however. I have an essence ability that lets me shape metal. Came in handy with making the firing pin and trigger.¡± Seras demonstrated the claim by holding up a bit of metal and using her ability to make it fold in half before moving back into shape. ¡°Still, that is impressive. To make all of this from common materials. Did you come up with all of this or-¡± ¡°Nah, I¡¯m good, but there¡¯s far too many little fiddly bits for one person to invent on their own. The primer cap took centuries of refinement before proper breach loaders could exist. I¡¯m an outworlder and I¡¯m just trying to recreate the kind of weapons I was most familiar with back home. Not that it worked.¡± Martin stared down at the gun with a raised eyebrow. ¡°It seems to have worked just fine to me.¡± Seras shook her head. ¡°The rifle works, but its got a lot of flaws. I can already see that there¡¯s too much powder in the cartridge, which is leaving a black residue on the barrel. And right now I can only load one bullet at a time. Need to figure out how to get a magazine to work. More than that it just isn¡¯t strong enough. Those three bullets in the first monster were only skin deep, and Ostryx are rated pretty low for durability and defense. I couldn¡¯t even kill a rune tortoise with this thing, and that¡¯s an iron rank monster. And most importantly this isn¡¯t what I was trying to recreate, this is my back up.¡± Seras then concentrated and summoned up and handheld object. It was a pistol with a revolving chamber, it had a wooden grip and a hammer on top that she could draw back with her thumb. ¡°Weapons like this are what I used back home, it¡¯s called a pistol. The idea behind the design is that its small enough for more close-range fighting and can fire six times before it needs to reload.¡± She passed it to Martin so that he could examine it. It wasn¡¯t loaded so she wasn¡¯t worried about him shotting himself as he stared directly down the barrel. Not that it would do much. ¡°Did it not work?¡± he asked. ¡°It does, in a sense. The problem is that if I shot you, a bronze rank human point blank in the face, it would do jack all. It doesn¡¯t have enough power behind it. We had ways of making the pistol better on my world, but I can¡¯t recreate that here.¡± A magnetic railing inside the barrel to accelerate the bullet was out of the question here. Her attempts to make any sort of battery had been unreliable. Somehow the current would fluctuate wildly, either burning out the wire, or not generating enough current. All within the space of minutes with the same wire. Obviously magic density had an affect on electrical fields and the flow of electrons. ¡°Right now the pistol would only hurt a normal ranker, which isn¡¯t saying much.¡± Seras said dejectedly. ¡°Not to poke my nose into stuff I don¡¯t understand, but have you considered adding magic to any of these contraptions?¡± Martin said as he handed back her gun. ¡°I have, and I do plan to. I just don¡¯t understand the magic well enough to safely start experimenting with it. Besides, I want to have a better rifle before I throw magic into the mix. This is just the best I can do right now, I need my Metal shaping ability to rank up more to make the small parts.¡± What she left unsaid was that every minor threshold she breached brought her closer to death and would worsen the constant soul deep pain she felt. She had done the math, each minor threshold she reached added 2% to the Soul/body disconnect. She had confirmed this when she reached Shape metal 2. That meant she had 49 levels of minor thresholds before she died, with each additional level putting her in greater and greater pain. She needed to be judicious about where those advancements happened. If she ever wanted to find a fix she would need all the power she could get, but with the limitation of only 49 levels across the maximum 25 abilities Seras would only be able to get so strong. Her plan at the moment revolved around only ranking up the abilities that would be the most useful to her survival and eventual cure. But the issue with that was that she couldn¡¯t be sure what other abilities she might awaken. Or which would the most helpful. ¡°Still¡± Martin said, breaking Seras out of her dark musings on her struggle against fate. ¡°That¡¯s a potent weapon. I¡¯ve not even heard of an normal rank weapon that could wound a bronze ranked monster. If I could get a few of these I¡¯d be able to equip some of my men with a real means of fighting back. Can normal rankers use one?¡± Seras smirked ¡°Well that depends on the normal ranker. The issue with flinging out a slug at high speeds is that the force of the explosion goes both ways.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t follow.¡± Martin. Seras smirked and finished reassembling her rifle. ¡°Then how about a demonstration? Lets go shoot some stuff. Ch37 Aura of Ruin Seras set down a glass bottle on a rock some fifty meters away from where Martin stood. She then walked back. ¡°The rifle technically has of around a thousand meters. But without and scope and training your unlikely to ever hit anything that far out. So we¡¯ll start with this short range.¡± ¡°Alright¡± Martin said awkwardly. ¡°Relax, the worse thing you can be right now is tense.¡± Seras said as she stepped up to Martin. ¡°these two metal bumps on the end are your sights, line up the bottle in the sights, then slowly pull the trigger back.¡± Seras instructed. Martin closed one eye and then lined up the barrel, steadied his aim, pulled the trigger back, and¡­ CRACK! The barrel went straight up, and the bullet flew off to who knows-where as the recoil ruined his aim. ¡°Danm!¡± Martin cursed. ¡°You were not kidding about the recoil.¡± Seras nodded ¡°Yup. Back home we had a bunch of little tricks the reduced the effects of the recoil, but nothing I could recreate here. A smaller bullet would have less recoil but also wouldn¡¯t do shit against a monster, this is about as large as I can make the bullet before needing to redesign the whole gun.¡± He rolled his shoulder to work out the pain of the recoil, opened the breach like she had showed him and reloaded. This time he better braced himself for the recoil, shifting his feet, widening his stance. CRACK! This time the barrel stayed level, but the shot was wide. ¡°That¡¯s the second issue with trying to equip normal rankers with a rifle. It takes time to learn how to aim. And if you were fighting monsters you would be on Heidels, whose galloping would making aiming just about impossible.¡± This part was the truth, but not the whole truth. People could train, and iron rank essence users wouldn¡¯t have much trouble with the recoil. The reason Seras was trying to dissuade Martin from pursuing guns was because Seras wanted to keep control over the technology. Introducing guns to this world would have serious consequences, an while Seras wasn¡¯t sure if guns would ever fully replace magic weapons, she was sure that this world wasn¡¯t ready for this kind of deadly force. Essences were rare and expensive, and knives required someone to at least risk their own lifes in the fight. But with guns murder, at least in the normal to iron ranks, was stupidly easy. Seras had plans to one day sell her creations. But only after lots of refinement and proprietary enhancements. She wanted to make it into a fairly expensive commodity that was difficult to reverse engineer to fund her search for a cure. That said, she wanted to t least create a bit of interest in the weapon and that meant sowing seeds early on. ¡°Here¡± Seras said as she stepped up close to Martin. ¡°Use this hand to steady the barrel, and put the stock right here.¡± She instructed. Martin got a little stiff and his breathing hitched. But once Seras was done she stepped away and he seemed to relax. He pulled back gently on the trigger. CRACK! The bottle exploded. Martin smiled. ¡°Danm that¡¯s satisfying.¡± He quirked his head to the side. ¡°And loud. I haven¡¯t heard my ears ring since I hit bronze.¡± Seras had a system for automatically dimming her hearing to protect her eardrum. But she still remembered the near constant ring she had before getting them replaced. ¡°There¡¯s ways to make it quieter, but I¡¯m not at that stage in development yet.¡± He gave the rifle one last look before passing it back. ¡°Despite all the issues I¡¯d still like a couple of these, any chance your selling?¡± Seras smirked ¡°Not at the moment. Too many issues that need to be worked out, and this model is just a basic proof of concept. But when I¡¯m further along I wouldn¡¯t mind reaching out, any way for me to contact you?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Hard to reach me since I¡¯m always on the road. But when you¡¯re ready the Adventure society can pass along a message. It just won¡¯t be fast.¡± Martin said. She really missed texting. This would have been so easy if she could just give him her contact information. Martin scrathed the back of his neck ¡°So, I talked with Dustin and heard you guys were heading in the same direction. If you want I know an excellent restaurant, its in the entertainment district so we might be able to catch a play as well. Dustin said you liked watching plays.¡± What was he on about- oh. He was asking her out. Shit! ¡°Look, Martin, you seem nice. But ah, your not really my type.¡± Seras said, trying to let him down as easily as possible. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. He looked crestfallen. ¡°Ah, type?¡± he asked. ¡°Yeah, you¡¯ve got this whole having a penis thing going on, and I¡¯m not really into that.¡± Seras explained, trying to add a joke on there to relieve the tension. Martin looked confused. ¡°What?¡± Seras frowned, so much for subtlety ¡°I¡¯m not into guys.¡± She said bluntly. Comprehension dawned on him ¡°Oh. Well dang. I thought I had a good chance too.¡± Now it was Seras¡¯ time to be embarrassed ¡°Even if I was my life¡¯s a little too complicated for any sort of romantic entanglements. I¡¯ve only been on this world for a little over two months, and things haven¡¯t been easy.¡± Martin considered what she said. ¡°Yeah, I guess that would be jarring. I¡¯d only ever heard of Outworlders and the trouble they cause, I¡¯ve never even considered how awful it must feel to be torn from your home and abandoned on a strange world.¡± Seras gave him a reassuring smile. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been all bad. Dustin and his crew welcomed me in, and have accepted all the weirdness that entails. And the air here is a hell of a lot better than my worlds.¡± ¡°The air?¡± Martin asked as he looked around the desert. ¡°Does your world smell?¡± ¡°Like you wouldn¡¯t believe. And the air itself hurts to breath. So its been nice to get up every morning and suck in a deep breath of clean, albeit dry, air.¡± Martin nodded, though she could tell he didn¡¯t get it. ¡°Well, I had been hoping to give this to you during the date, but now seems as good a time as any.¡± He reached into a hip bag and pulled out a palm sized stone that looked to be made of glass fractured in thousand different ways. Awakening stone of Ruin 3 star rarity. Grants the user the power of Ruin. ¡°Well now, that¡¯s ominous.¡± Seras said out loud. ¡°Dustin said you have an identifying ability, what kind of stone is it?¡± ¡°Ruin. Grants the power of Ruin.¡± ¡°Is it a three star or four?¡± ¡°Three.¡± Martin nodded ¡°I knew it wasn¡¯t a two or one star, I¡¯ve seen enough of those to know them by sight.¡± He then did something that surprised Seras. He chucked it into the air and towards her. Seras caught it on reflex and gave Martin a puzzled look. ¡°Are you sure about this. Three-star stones go for a hefty sum.¡± ¡°You saved my life, twice. That¡¯s worth more then money. I got this from the one Ostryx I killed, its only right that it goes to you.¡± ¡°Martin. I was just following Dustin to try and get some kills. You don¡¯t need to thank me.¡± Seras tried to hand the stone back. ¡°Yes I do, as a man it wouldn¡¯t be right for me to hold on to that.¡± Martin crossed his arms. A clear gesture that he wasn¡¯t going to take no for an answer. Seras sighed. Would you like to convert into an appropriate form. Y/N Flint and Dustin had a serious chat with Seras about the need to be careful with which awakening stones she used. Since they had no idea which way her abilities might trend they needed to do careful research. But Seras had read many times that there were no bad abilities, just ones that took a bit of effort to use correctly. And there was something about using a Ruin stone that felt right. Seras was from the world of Ruin after all. It seemed appropriate. She selected yes and the Awakening stone turned into a shard. She made sure her shard port was facing away from Martin as she slotted it in. You have awakened the Avatar ability Aura of Ruin. Aura of Ruin: Enemies within the user¡¯s aura receive a stacking affliction (enfeeblement) whenever an attack is landed. Enfeeblement slightly reduces an enemies speed, and power attributes. ¡°Well danm.¡± Seras said as she read the description. Martin also looked intiggued. ¡°Did you just absorb an awakening stone without a ritual?¡± Seras waved it off. ¡°Its an Outworlder thing.¡± She felt like something had changed. It was like her special awareness just got a lot sharper, she could feel Martin and the waves of curiosity coming off him. As well as the slight sting of rejection. He had played it off well but he was still disappointed. Further out she felt other presences. Some lesser ones that radiated very muted and simplistic feelings, as well as three that felt like a steel barrier. So this is what aura senses felt like. Something noticed the shifting in her aura and turned its direction towards her. Back by the campfire Dustin stood up and began to walk over. ¡°So that awakening stone gave you an aura power?¡± he said in lieu of a greeting. ¡°Seems like it¡± Martin said. ¡°Is it just me, or is it a but strong for an iron ranker?¡± Dustin peered at Seras and nodded his head. ¡°Seems like those exercises paid off after all. Do you remember what I said about retracting your aura?¡± Dustin asked. Seras frowned, but eventually nodded her head. Nothing about Dustin¡¯s lessons should have made her aura stronger, but instead of questioning it he gave her a quick excuse. They would discuss it later. Seras closed her eyes and reached out with invisible mental fingers and tried to pull back her aura. It kept slipping through her metaphorical fingers, but eventually she got it retracted. Though it didn¡¯t feel like an unassailable steel wall like Dustin¡¯s. ¡°Good enough for now.¡± Dustin said with a grunt. ¡°What kind of aura did you get?¡± ¡°Aura of Ruin.¡± Seras answered. ¡°Well that¡¯s a bit on the nose.¡± Martin said. ¡°Yup¡± Seras agreed. ¡°It says it provides a stacking affliction called enfeeblement.¡± Dustin summoned up a tablet from his personal storage power. Seras had already looked it up on her own, but she didn¡¯t want to reveal to many of her strange abilities. ¡°Found it. Seems to me like this power revolves around slowly chipping away at tough opponents. Making them slower, weaker, and eventually it¡¯ll cause disorientation. At silver it even weakness healing powers and cleansing powers.¡± Seras considered that. ¡°Does that mean my abilities might trend towards afflictions?¡± ¡°Maybe.¡± Dustin said. ¡°But it also seems like it might favor a combat style with consistent, continuous attacks. You might be an endurance damage dealer. Or even a skirmisher like me. My aura makes my enemies more susceptible to fire and burning.¡± Seras was sort of hoping it would be the later options. She had looked up affliction users, and they were all about slow, inevitable, wasting deaths. Necrosis, hemorrhages, diseases, or even growing plants within their blood veins. Which was gross. Seras wanted no part of anyone that. ¡°Seras, Petra was having trouble with one of the tents, mind giving her a hand?¡± Dustin asked. Seras could read between the lines, and knew that he just wanted her to leave so that he could talk to Martin in private. ¡°Kay, see you later Martin.¡± She said with a wave. ~~~*~~~ Martin glanced nervously at the Blazing Outrider. The man had been perfectly friendly and helpful, but a part of him still felt nervous around him. Martin had only recently reached bronze and started doing his own trade runs. Dustin Westbrooke had been doing this for longer than Martin had been alive. ¡°Uh sir-¡° Martin began. Dustin held his hand up, his eyes going serious. ¡°So you went ahead even after she turned you down?¡± Martin gulped. ¡°She said she wasn¡¯t into men.¡± He said carefully. Dustin nodded ¡°I had wondered if that was the case. But even if she did I doudt she would have said yes.¡± Martin shifted uncomfortably. He felt like he was a teen again, he had experienced talks like this from fathers when he came to pick up the girl. Though he hadn¡¯t been expecting to get this from Dustin Westbrooke. ¡°She said her life was too complicated for that sort of thing.¡± Dustin¡¯s eyes bore into Martin¡¯s. ¡°And you still gave that stone.¡± He said slowly. ¡°Did she try to reject it.¡± ¡°Yes¡± Martin answered. ¡°Then why¡¯d you insist on it. Are you hoping to persuade her later on, or are you just looking for a favor.¡± ¡°Neither.¡± Martin said. ¡°As a man there are certain things you just gotta do. She saved my life twice, i¡¯d be a piss poor excuse of a man if I didn¡¯t properly thank her.¡± Martin said firmly. Dustin held his eyes for a long moment, then huis stern face melted into a smile. He patted Martin on the back ¡°You got a good head on your shoulders kid.¡± Martin blinked several times in rapid succession. That was a dramatic change in attitude. ¡°Uh, thank you sir.¡± Dustin hand remained on his shoulder ¡°Your new to running your own caravan. Otherwise you would have noticed that the Ostryx¡¯ attacks were too spread out to be one group. How about you ride next to me until we get to the next rock, I can give you some pointers and maybe teach you some trade secrets.¡± Martin was stunned. His last boss had never been so generous, and Martin was quickly learning that he just didn¡¯t have enough experience to make it in this business. ¡°That would be amazing.¡± ¡°Good¡± Dustin said as he patted Martin¡¯s shoulder. ¡°It would be a shame for a good lad like you to fail early on because no one showed you the ropes.¡± Ch38 Cupric The Caravan crested the small rise in the wide desert valley. And down below Seras saw the greenest expanse she had ever seen. Centered around and perforated rock pillar of stone was an irrigated and vibrant expanse of vegetation contrasting to the desert¡¯s drab browns and yellows. ¡°Welcome to Cupric. City of rebirth.¡± Dustin said. ¡°This is even larger than Karstess.¡± Seras mused. Dustin nodded. ¡°Cupric has several water based astral spaces below it. Ancient wells and irrigation bring that water up to the surface and irrigate the valley. This is the greenest place you¡¯ll ever see within the five deserts.¡± ¡°Dustin, this is the greenest place I¡¯ve seen anywhere.¡± Seras said pointedly. ¡°Why does that not surprise me.¡± Flint muttered bitterly. Despite the gifted essence Flint still hadn¡¯t warmed up to her yet and remained just as hostile. ¡°Is your world not a green one?¡± Martin asked. Seras was about to answer when Dustin held his hand. ¡°Honestly son the less you know about her world the better you¡¯ll sleep at night. For now, let''s just say they don¡¯t call it Ruin for nothin¡¯.¡± Seras grumbled to herself. Apparently, all her stories about Ruin left her follow caravanners with nightmares and restless nights. ¡°Why is it called the city of rebirth anyway?¡± Seras asked. ¡°The astral space under Cupric Rock isn¡¯t one that helps with surviving in the desert, it¡¯s a place of fire and lava, or so I¡¯m told. Only the local nobility are allowed access. They rely on those deeper astral spaces to survive out here. But the wells that feed the valley¡¯s irrigation rely on the Labyrinth to tap into those astral spaces, and as you know the labyrinth shifts and changes. Sometimes the water will disappear one year just to come back another, sometimes there¡¯s century in between the connection. When it dries up people abandon the city, and when it returns people flood in an continue farming like nothing happened.¡± ¡°Then there¡¯s the Phoenixes.¡± Martin added. ¡°Right¡± Dustin said. ¡°The rock in the center is called the Ariary, and its been the home to a clan of phoenix longer than we have historical records.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a Phoenix?¡± Seras asked. ¡°It''s an innately magical creature, like dragons. It¡¯s a bird that when it dies it bursts into flames and is reborn from the ashes.¡± Dustin explained. ¡°Damn, that sounds awesome.¡± ¡°Yup, and they¡¯re the reason that no one has dug into the side of the Ariary either. Instead, the people around here set lots of little villages with high walls, and use the irrigation cannels to move around.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the magic density around here?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Low bronze, so you¡¯ll see large packs of iron rank monsters and a smattering of bronze with the rare potential of silver.¡± Flint said. ¡°But we¡¯re not going to be staying long enough for you to do any jobs. This will just a be a resupply before we set off for Volkis.¡± Martin gave them a look ¡°You''re going by Volkis?¡± he asked in surprise. ¡°I thought you were going north through the Dells.¡± Dustin gave Martin a look ¡°Volkis is the fastest way to Basal. The Dells will mean traveling by the north roads, which should still be snowed in.¡± Martin looked sheepish, ¡°I guess you didn¡¯t hear the news. The Volkis path is blocked off.¡± Flint scowled ¡°Its open desert from here to Volkis, how can it be blocked off?¡± ¡°Toruachs. Largest heard I¡¯ve ever seen. They came south a few weeks back and don¡¯t look to be clearing off.¡± ¡°How large?¡± Dustin asked. ¡°Lots.¡± Martin answered ¡°They¡¯re blocking the whole route to Volkis. And I¡¯ve heard some people say they might be settling in for the birthing season.¡± Dustin looked worried. ¡°I¡¯m going to need to ask around about this one. If we need to wait for the snows to clear up north then we might be stuck in Cupric for a while.¡± Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. ¡°I¡¯m sure it¡¯ll work out.¡± Seras reassured. ¡°Its not like our cargo is perishable.¡± He made a noncommittal grunt. ~~~*~~~ As it turned out, they were indeed stuck in Cuprik for the foreseeable future. Seras had ridden out with Dustin and saw the size of the herd blocking the way. Massive lizard-like beasts, easily twice as tall as a Heidel, with one oversized horn on the nose filled the wide desert all the way into the horizon. Seras was baffled by the size of the herd. And so was Dustin. Toruachs apparently ranged all across the flat spaces of this continent, and had been a food source for the native tribes like the Akemi. Typically, they stayed away from the desert since there wasn¡¯t enough for them to eat. But despite that they were still drawn here, and beasts that large had to be eating something. Some weeks later it was eventually revealed that the unpredictable labyrinth had somehow disgorged tons of iron rank plant quintessence into the surface of the desert. Toruachs were a magical creature that had developed the unique trait of digesting plant quintessence as an additional food source. How they knew there was a ton of plant quintessence just coming out of the ground was beyond anyone Seras had asked. But with hundreds of thousands of colossal, territorial, beasts blocking the way the Caravan was effectively stuck in Cuprik. While it was bad for business to stay stuck in one city for too long it was beneficial to Seras. Life on the road was tough, and while she had endless hours to spend reading or training her aura control, she had no time to tinker with her rifle, or to get formation practice. In that regard the down time proved to be a boon for her. Though not all of her time could be spent on tinkering. Typically, with most cities the good adventuring contracts were capitalized by the locals, leaving only the annoying/easy jobs for people like the Caravan crew. But with the Toruach herd looming on the green valley¡¯s eastern flank most of the adventures were tasked with keeping the Toruachs away. It was a mandatory contract leveled on most of the area¡¯s experienced adventurers, which left a growing plethora of contracts for Seras and the crew. Rohan had been able to purchase a swift essence for a reasonable price as well as some awakening stones of the feet, which meant he now had a new set of abilities to grind and develop. And the others were hoping to get lucky and pick either an essence they needed or one they could trade in. Petra had signed them up for something called a road contract, a tour through all the nearby villages and outposts in the Cuprik valley. It was supposedly a punishment detail, forcing adventurers to give up their comfy beds and homecooked meals for time on the road eating spirit coins. Personally, the only downside Seras found in this style of adventuring was that she had to leave Buck behind. Bridges were few and far between in the irrigated valley, with basically no roads. So instead, they were riding and two person punts with a small magically powered propulsion system. Instead of a turbine blade like Seras had expected the device had three tubes on the bottom of the boat that somehow pushed water through it. Apparently, motors and fan blades were too complicated for magical engineers, and they instead opted for a system that used invisible force to push water. Seras wasn¡¯t sure if she was impressed or offended. The answer would probably depend on whether or not the magical system required less power. And maybe the cost to make the magical reeds. And maybe what kind of maintenance it required. And maybe¡­ Seras shook her head and resolved to just rip it apart later and claim that a monster destroyed it. The first monster they came across wasn¡¯t one they were expecting, it was some sort of furred ambush predator. Just as they were tying up the punt it tore out from the brush to pick off one of their members. Unfortunately it chose Petra. Even without her armor Petra was a heavily muscled warrior. She caught the beast teeth on her forearm and had a might enhanced punch ready to go. After that their team fell into a loose formation and began kiting the monster away from the underbrush where it was best suited. Already Seras¡¯ new aura power was showing its value. Aura ability [Aura of Ruin] had inflicted Lashix with [enfeeblement] Lashix had its speed and power reduced. With every strike the monster slowly grew weaker and weaker. Until it had slowed enough for an arrow from Rohan to pierce its eye. ¡°Is it just me or did that seem too easy?¡± Chase asked. Frank smacked Chase unside the head. ¡°Don¡¯t say things like that. You¡¯re just asking for Misfortunes curse at that point.¡± ¡°Is that an actual God?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Yup, twin to Fortune, or something like that. They¡¯re one of the few gods that are pretty fluid with their genders.¡± Seras raised an eyebrow at that. ¡°Is Misfortune one of the evil ones?¡± Chase and Frank exchanged looks. ¡°Not, entirely.¡± Chase said hesitantly. ¡°Luck depends on your perspective.¡± Garrette interjected. ¡°One man¡¯s fortune is another misfortune, and good things can come out of a bad situation. They¡¯re some of the more nuanced and fringe Gods.¡± ¡°Okay, we¡¯re definitely circling back to that.¡± Seras said as she reloaded her rifle. ¡°But to answer Chase¡¯s unspoken question; the reason it was easier was because of my aura. With a whole team ganging up on one poor monster the afflictions stacked up fast, making it easier to hit.¡± Rohan looked contemplative ¡°Is it the number of the hits or the power behind the strike? The answer might require us to change up our attack strategy.¡± ¡°Both¡± Seras answered as she looked through her log. ¡°On a mechanical level I think the aura works by seeping into cracks in the magical matrix caused by attacks. Small attacks make small holes, while bigger attacks create bigger holes.¡± Lots of essence abilities worked by burning mana to enhance the users own magical matrix. Strength and speed boosting abilities were really just mana surging into the muscles. And in the case of afflictions, they were like small packets of programed magical hacks that caused havoc within the targets magic matrix/body. That made afflictions with a low mana cost but required a direct insertion method via direct attacks. They gave her a collection of stunned looks. ¡°What?¡± ¡°You¡¯ve been in this world for two and half months, and you''re already casually mentioning a monsters magic matrix.¡± Garrette said pointedly. ¡°Yeah, and I¡¯ve been studying magic theory nearly nonstop since I got here. The magical matrix is a pretty foundational concept, and the effects of powers on the matrix has been readily observed for as long as people have been studying magic.¡± ¡°Its just, surprising.¡± Petra said. Seras rolled her eyes. ¡°Not that impressive. Anyway Garrette, can I help with the looting ritual. Need to get my practice in, and I want to test some of the magical tools I bought.¡± ¡°What kind of tools?¡± Garrette asked. ¡°Mana excluder to create a sort of null zone as well as mana lamps tuned to ignore the excluder, should give us a more effective ritual. I also bought a wand that supposedly tells what kind of quintessence a monster gives so we can fine tune the ritual.¡± ¡°How much did all of that cost you?¡± Frank asked in astonishment. ¡°Not gonna lie, I¡¯m currently broke, and that was after flirting with the nerd running the magic shop. But this is an investment, assuming nothing breaks this stuff should be good enough for any iron rank monster, and when I can I¡¯ll buy the gear for bronze rank monsters.¡± Garrette shrugged ¡°Honestly it sounds like your better set for this ritual than I am. Be my guest.¡± Serras nodded and summoned the ritual salt from her pocket space and began pouring out the circle. This was another aspect where her blueprinting ability came in handy, once she knew what kind of quintessence the Lashix would drop (plant quintessence) she could select a fine-tuned circle for that quintessence type, display an outline of the circle on her normal vision, and could follow it with extreme accuracy. After that it was only a matter of stepping back and letting the ritual do its work. When it was done they had ten iron rank coins to split five ways and three plant quintessence to sell off later in a city with higher prices. And that was just the start of their little road trip. Ch39 Iron Venom Ants ¡°What do you think?¡± Frank asked as they stared at the ominous mound. ¡°I¡¯m thinking you collapse it and suffocate them. Then we fight whatever comes out¡± Petra said. ¡°I don¡¯t, some of these swarm type monsters have bronze rank queens, are we sure this is something we can handle?¡± Chase asked. Seras raised a hand ¡°What even its an iron venom ant anyway?¡± ¡°It¡¯s basically a swarm of ant like monsters that can dissolve iron with their acids.¡± Petra explained. ¡°Okay, what¡¯s an ant?¡± Serras asked. Chase looked over ¡°Do you not have ants of your world?¡± ¡°If we did they¡¯re long gone.¡± ¡°That¡¯s actually a shame, they¡¯re really cool creatures, at least the non-monster kind. They make the huge colonies underground and collect seeds. I¡¯m not usually a bug fan but ants-¡± Seras held up a hand to stop him ¡°Hold on, did you say bug?¡± ¡°Um yeah.¡± Seras summoned something out of her pocket space. ¡°This here is a whole keg of gun powder and little lead balls. I light it, Petra throws it, and we take shelter behind an earth shield.¡± ¡°You just want to blew them up!¡± Chase asked incredulously. ¡°This is literally the only way you get my help on this one. Otherwise I¡¯m not going anywhere near the bugs that can dissolve metal.¡± ¡°You realize that we¡¯re just as vulnerable to a metal melting acid right?¡± Petra asked. Seras crossed her arms. ¡°Uh huh, cool story, but unless we¡¯re blowing them till kingdom come I¡¯m not getting near that hill.¡± ¡°You rode into battle against Ostryx, you can¡¯t tell me this is where you draw the line.¡± ¡°I would rather fight a hundred Ostryx than deal with a colony of monster bugs.¡± Seras said stubbornly. Petra sighed ¡°Alright, do you think it¡¯ll be enough?¡± ¡°If not I also have magical napalm I bought off an alchemist.¡± ¡°I know I¡¯m going to regret this, but what¡¯s Napalm?¡± Rohan asked. ¡°It¡¯s a sticky and highly flammable jelly. It sticks to skin really well and was often used on my world for-¡± Rohan held up a hand ¡°I don¡¯t want to know.¡± He said quickly. ¡°Actually, I¡¯m little curious.¡± Frank said. Rohan wheeled on him ¡°Then you and her can go out of earshot, I don¡¯t want to know anything about how this napalm stuff was used. I still have nightmare of this ¡®nook¡¯ thing.¡± Garrette nodded his head in agreement. ¡°Anyway, are we burning the bugs or not?¡± Seras asked. They all exchanged looks. ¡°Worth a shot. At the worst we¡¯ll draw them out.¡± Petra said summoning up her armor and shaping an earthen bunker for them. The rest settled in and began their preparations. Seras then lit the fuse at watched the fire sparkle down the wick. ¡°One; synergistic impact.¡± She began to count. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Um shouldn¡¯t you be tossing that.¡± Frank asked nervously ¡°Two; sustainable diversity¡± she continued counting, using dumb corpo buzz words to keep her counts slow. ¡°This thing, it wont kill us right?¡± Chase asked. ¡°Three; lateral expansion push.¡± ¡°that¡¯s getting really low.¡± Chase said, his voice going up an octive. ¡°Four disposable labor contractors.¡± ¡°She¡¯s going to kill us!¡± Just as they began to look around for an exit the wick got down to the right length and Seras tossed it. ¡°You guys really need to put more trust in me.¡± Seras chided as she was smirking mischievously. BOOM! Dirt roared up from where the keg had fallen, and the pinging sound of lead balls hitting ng their bunker made everyone except Seras drop to the ground. She peered outside and saw the first monster bug poke its head out. Some of its many creepy legs had been blown off and it was stumbling about woozily. Just for good measure Seras summoned a thin glass bottle full of a purple jelly, lit the cloth on top, and tossed it at the bug. Purple fire engulfed the mound, and she heard the monster screech. With the fire burning over the top Seras decided that when it came to bugs there was no such thing as too much fire. She threw another jar. Several more screeches joined the first. Seras honestly expected the explosions and fire to clear out the whole nest. But as she was learning modern weapons did not match up well to magical monsters. Ten meters from where the mound had been the ground burst upwards and the aura of a bronze rank monster descended on them. Still burning, and pissed off, was the bronze rank ant queen. It spit a stream of acid at their bunker as several other burning bugs crawled out behind their queen. They all bolted from the cover. Spreading out instinctually. The Queen spit more acid at them, but they had moved just out of range. ¡°Seras! Support me¡± Petra roared as she stepped up to the Queen, stone walls rising up to block the acid. ¡°You four take on the small fry.¡± That was all the warning they got before Petra charged forward. The iron ranked ants went to either side of the earth walls while the queen continued to spit acid at the stone walls, quickly breaking them down to slag. Petra swung her hammer low and a boulder shot up and into the Queen. The rock hit the monster in the weird pincer jaw and got the queen¡¯s attention. Seras stood behind Petra, making sure her aura power was covering the queen and holding up her rifle ready to fire the moment an opening appeared. While Petra was slowly chipping away at the queen from a couple meters out the men had split into teams of two. Frank and Chase used their elemental special attacks and manipulating powers to keep the iron ranked ants at bay while they cast several attacks in rapid succession. Rohan and Garrette had taken the other monsters on Petra¡¯s right. But whereas Chase and Frank both had both had attacks and area control, Rohan only had a bow he could fire really fast, and Garette could only heal the acid wounds. So while Seras still kept an eye on Petra¡¯s fight with the queen Seras was also firing into the crowd of monsters advancing on Rohan. She lined up a shot, pulled the trigger, and watched as the monsters eye exploded into goo. The shot didn¡¯t kill the monster, but it was greatly wounded. And the attack had let numerous instances of Seras¡¯ [Enfeeblement] affliction to take hold. She swiveled her rifle around, opened the trap for the next bullet, slid in her next bullet, and slid the bolt back into place. ¡°Petra, give an opening!¡± Seras shouted. Without pause Petra swung her hammer into the Queen and knocked it several feet back, giving Seras a clear shot. BANG! PING! The bullet bounced off the monster¡¯s tough exoskeleton. And ricocheted into the nearby dirt. ¡°Fuck!¡± Seras cursed as she opened the trap and slid in the next bullet. The monster was too tough for her bullet the pierce. Seras wished she had made some armor piercing bullets, but she had been unable to harden the bullet or create the metal jacket required for¡­ reinforcing the bullet. Seras got a crazy idea. Ability [Structural reinforcement] Uses mana to reinforce any metallic construct from physical blows. Can enhance non-metal magical constructs for a higher mana cost. It was metal, and if she applied the same to her rifle then maybe¡­ Seras didn¡¯t give herself any time to second guess her decision. she extended her magical sense and let her mana flow from her fingers. Blue circuit like lines crawled across the metal of the rifle, and she felt the power extend to the bullet as well. ¡°Petra, again!¡± Seras shouted, and Petra obliged. In an attack similar to the first Petra knocked the ant back and Seras lined up her shot. Just for good measure she extended her other ability [control bullet] and marked the queens head. She pulled the trigger and¡­ ¡°SREECH!¡± the queen let out a sound like ripping metal as a part of her head carapace broke up. Ability [Aura of Ruin] has inflicted multiple instances of [Enfeeblement] Bronze ranked Iron venom Ant Queen has resisted 11/13 instances of [Enfeeblement] Seras smirked as her makeshift armor piercing bullet did its job. Petra didn¡¯t hesitate to capitalize on the opening. She charged up a special attack [mountain splitter] and swung her hammer high overhead in a move that left her open to attack. The opening didn¡¯t matter, the queen has too distracted with spitting acid at Seras to see the death blow coming. The hammer landed on the exact spot Seras had cracked and used the weakness to break through the monster¡¯s skull, or whatever the bug equivalent was. Seras didn¡¯t have time to celebrate as she needed to leap up and away from the stream of acid coming her way. With the Queen dead the other monsters lost a part of the cohesion, they no longer attacked in coordinated strikes, and two even attacked each other. Without the queen commanding them it seemed the iron ranked monsters were much less dangerous. And with Petra freed up she was able to join in on Rohan¡¯s fight. Seras never found a chance to fire her gun as the battle was quickly finished up. Seras stepped forward to start helping out with the looting rituals, but a pop up stopped her in her tracks. Ability [Structural reinforcement] has reached iron 3 00% She felt the essence ability surge with power, and without conscious though Seras clamped down on the power. She felt the power within her struggle and buck, but she didn¡¯t falter. Essence progression had been forcefully stopped. Ability [Structural reinforcement] has reached iron 2 105% ¡°Oh that is not a pleasant feeling.¡± Seras muttered. It was like she was holding in a sneeze, but the feeling did not go away. Seras could feel that with just a thought she¡¯d be able to let go and let the power properly advance, but she wasn¡¯t sure if that was the right choice. She could only advance so many abilities before she was pushing up against the limit of what her soul could take, and Seras needed to be careful with what she chose. ¡°Are you alright?¡± Petra asked. ¡°I can feel something weird in your aura.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fine¡± Seras lied. ¡°Just holding off an essence advancement.¡± Petra quirked an eyebrow. ¡°Is that safe?¡± Seras shrugged ¡°No idea, but I¡¯ve got no other choice.¡± ¡°Alright, whats with that face your making?¡± ¡°Holding back the advancement feels like holding in a sneeze, or the need to itch, but like cranked up to eleven.¡± ¡°That sounds awful.¡± ¡°Yup. I¡¯m going to go meditate, see if that helps.¡± Seras said as she stepped away from the battlefield. She sat on a rock and began to run through the breathing exercises Dustin had taught her. Ch40 A bit of Trouble Time ticked by without Seras so much as shifting. She was so still it was like she was statue. Petra wondered whether that was good discipline, or just Seras setting her body to remain stationary. Much about her friends bizarre nature still both unnerved and intrigued Petra. But she knew how touchy Seras was about the subject. She often recoiled to some questions, either giving them an answer chocked full of words they didn¡¯t understand, or simply not answering at all. ¡°Does anyone else get creeped out when she does this?¡± Chase asked. Chase wasn¡¯t the smartest or most tactful man. He was an ignorant farm boy who had only limited experience with the world. He said he wanted to be an adventure to get money, women and power, but Petra was certain that he would have no idea what to do with those things once he had them. ¡°I¡¯m mean, I don¡¯t even think she¡¯s breathing.¡± He continued. ¡°She is.¡± Petra said. ¡°Okay but Chase has a point.¡± Frank stated. Frank was a lot like Chase, the two had been from the same village and were as close as brothers. But unlike Chase, Petra expected Frank would have been happy to spend the rest of his life in their home village, so long as his best friend stuck around. The two were so close the Petra suspected they were actually lovers, but she had never once smelled any sort of ¡®nightly¡¯ activities from them. Both spent more than enough time in the pleasure districts for Petra to confirm that they had a libido. Shame, they would have made each other happy if they were. ¡°Its no different than Dustin or Flint entering deep meditation. Just because you guys are crap at doesn¡¯t mean everyone is.¡± Petra scoffed. ¡°No not the meditation thing, the whole ¡®strangeness¡¯ swirling around her.¡± He said waving his hands about. ¡°Strangeness?¡± Garrette deadpanned. ¡°I mean, well, like all the weird things around her. She¡¯s a woman made of metal who fell out of her world in this ¡®space¡¯ place of hers. Which is a lot, but then there¡¯s everything else about her. The soul sickness that will kill her, the weird weapons, and now she¡¯s trying to hold back her essences. I¡¯ve never even heard of that before.¡± Frank explained. Petra didn¡¯t disagree. Seras was strange by her very nature, but then there was everything else she had going on. An incurable soul sickness that would kill her if she got too strong, one that supposedly had no cure Seras would accept. ¡°Fate swirls and eddies around Outworlders.¡± Rohan stated simply. ¡°But not like this.¡± Chase said firmly. Rohan quirked an eybrow. ¡°Oh, and you¡¯ve met many Outworlders?¡± ¡°No, but we¡¯ve all heard the stories-¡± ¡°Stories by their nature never tell the full scope of a person¡¯s life. I suspect that there¡¯s far more strangeness circling around Outworlders than the stories say.¡± Rohan interjected. ¡°But are we sure that staying around her is safe then?¡± Chase asked. ¡°We know Outworlders bring trouble, and we¡¯ve all heard about what happens to those who get drawn in with them.¡± Petra looked to Seras. Trouble indeed, they didn¡¯t know the half of it. But Petra hadn¡¯t left home to avoid trouble, she left to seek it out. Chase wanted money and power, Rohan wanted to become strong and respected, Garrette was only here until he filled out his power set and had enough money to set up his clinic. But Petra was here to seek adventure. She could have left any time to more actively pursue a career in adventuring. But she hadn¡¯t. Not because she wasn¡¯t strong enough yet, but because she was waiting until she found the right person. And she felt like Seras might be that person. She had tried adventuring with the wrong people and they had nearly gotten Petra killed for nothing. She was a defender, and she would gladly lay down her life for her friends, but what they had tried to do went beyond that. They had tried to use Petra as a meat shield and a distraction so they could pursue petty greed. She wasn¡¯t going to make that mistake twice. ¡°She is strange, and she¡¯ll probably cause us trouble, either intentionally or by accident. But that¡¯s fine with me, life¡¯s too boring without a little trouble.¡± Petra said firmly. ~~~*~~~ The power still squirmed against her mental grip, but Seras eventually quelled it into a state of stillness. It still wanted to burst through the small barrier in between minor thresholds, but for now it was being less forceful about its attempts. That was as good as it got for her. Seras opened her eyes and hopped off the rock where she was resting. ¡°Alright, that settled.¡± She said with as much carefree attitude as she could. In truth she knew that she was playing a dangerous game, one slip up and it might break through the barrier before she could stop it. Right now that wasn¡¯t an issue, but once she started pressing against the limitation on what her soul could take then a misstep like that could lead to death. ¡°Its getting late.¡± Petra said. ¡°We can either push on and then set up camp or we can start making our way to the next village. We were waiting on you to have the vote.¡± Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°I vote for pushing on. We¡¯re use to camping, and we don¡¯t know when we¡¯ll next get a chance to hunt monsters like this.¡± Seras said. Petra grinned ¡°You heard her boys, tie¡¯s broken, we¡¯re pushing on.¡± Chase and Frank groaned in unison. Seras looked around and then quirked an eyebrow. ¡°There are five of you, how was I the tie breaker?¡± ¡°I abstained as the leader.¡± Petra said. Seras shrugged. ¡°Is there enough time to go after any more monsters?¡± ¡°Maybe, it¡¯s a rune tortoise, which means it¡¯ll mostly be me hunting it.¡± Petra said. Seras nodded in agreement. Her rifle was unlikely to make much of a dent in its shell even with the armor piecing technique. ¡°Alright which way?¡± ¡°North Northeast.¡± Rohan said. Seras turned in that direction, but as she did so she noticed something odd. Rising a ways off from their next target was a plume of wispy smoke, a plume that was quickly growing. ¡°Petra, what¡¯s off in that direction?¡± Seras asked, apprehension tinging her voice. Petra followed Seras¡¯ gaze, and her eyes widened. ¡°The nearest village.¡± She said gravely. ¡°Is it a monster attack?¡± Frank asked. More smoke began to rise. ¡°I doubt it¡¯s a barbeque.¡± Garette quipped dryly. ¡°How fast can the punt get us there?¡± Seras asked. Even as she asked the question she was pulling up a map. ¡°I don¡¯t think that ones attacked to the irrigation canal we¡¯re on, we¡¯d need to back track if we took the punt.¡± Seras agreed, it would take too long if they went via the water ways. ¡°Garrette, Frank, Chase, you take the punt the long way around. Petra, Rohan, and I are going to sprint over land.¡± Chase looked shocked ¡°Are you crazy, the next village is four kilometers out?¡± She wheeled on him ¡°Rohan¡¯s swift essence will give him the speed to keep up, and Petra has the relentless endurance of a Leonid.¡± ¡°And you?¡± Seras scowled ¡°I am a machine. I don¡¯t get tired, I run out of energy. And since I hit iron I¡¯ve able to eat iron spirit coins safely.¡± Chase looked like he wanted to argue. But Seras didn¡¯t care to listen to whatever he had to say. Arguing would only slow them down. She turned back to the direction of the village and noticed that more smoke was rising. Without another word Seras lurched forward and launched herself forward. Each step launched her forward at speeds that threatened to bowl her over. The hyper elastic tendons in her knee joints and ankles contracted at speeds impossible for a normal rank person. Even iron rankers would be hard pressed to replicate her feats without snapping their own tendons. Synthetic leg muscles and power pistons pumped her legs as fast as a sprint Heidel. Seras felt her hair whipped back, and the shouts of Chase were drowned out in the rush of the wind. Petra and Rohan quickly fell behind her as they couldn¡¯t match Seras¡¯ bronze rank physique. For all the trouble being a cyborg in a world of magic and monsters caused her Seras had almost forgotten why she had spent so much time and money upgrading her body. Meat could never match the cold power of metal. It took vast amounts of magic to make a normal person her equal. Her feet ate up the ground and the burning village appeared before her. Building were burning, and men on Heidels wearing tan colored face coverings were storming through the village center. People burst through doors and dragged people out, the men tried to fight back, and the women struggled. But a whole village was no match for a brigands. As Seras approached she slowed down, just enough for her spot a low roof and leap up. In all the chaos no had noticed Seras¡¯ approach and a new feature of her active camo augmentation came in handy. Active Camouflage is engaged, your Aura is being masked. Any use of essence ability will cancel active camouflage for one minute. Somehow the process that made her an outworlder had warped the active camo augmentation. Normally it change the skin of her color to match her surroundings, and even had several features to block her presence from digital systems. Cameras, Cyber-eyes, and even motion sensors if they were digital in nature. None of that would be useful on Pallimustus since nothing here was digital, but somehow her new body knew that it would need to hidenitself from magical senses. That or the feature had already been built into her Biolite systems. Which seemed unlikely since her world lacked magic. This newly discovered feature was how she had hid from the silver ranked golem in the astral city space, and it was also how she had run away from Dustin without his aura tracking her. Seras took stock of the situation. She had run ahead of Rohan and Petra, and they were still minutes away from arriving. But as Seras observed the brigands at work she knew she didn¡¯t have that long to wait. They were methodically breaking in to homes and dragging people in an iron cage wagon hitched to several strong looking Heidels. And the cage was nearly full. Well first things first. She summoned up her Rifle, the gun materialized into her hands in a series of blue lines and sparks. She lifted the gun up to her shoulder and gave a mental apology to the poor Heidels strapped to the wagon. Maybe she could have hit the reigns or the hitch holding the Heidels to the cart. But right now she needed to buy time, and dealing with a dead Heidel and three other panicked beasts would give more time. She chose a Heidel at the lead so that the couldn¡¯t easily run off. BANG! The Heidel reared up and collapsed to the ground, a hole in its chest quickly spewing its lifes blood. The screech of the dying beast was horrendous. While her Rifle wasn¡¯t powerful enough to deal death blows to durable iron ranked monsters it was still more the enough to deal with a normal ranked creature. The three other Heidels began to panic, the cloaked figure that was watching the wagons ran up to try and calm them. But he was too late, before he could grab their reigns the beast began to buck and tried to bolt. The weight of the dead Heidel, as well as their panicked actions caused the top heavy wagon to tip over. Seras apologized to the people inside who were just as terrified as Heidels, but a tipped wagon would buy her more time. Even as she was watching the chaos unfold Seras was already reloading. There were a few men on Heidels riding around the village. They were corralling the people, running down any who fled, and keeping an eye for anyone coming their way. Ass such they were Seras¡¯ next target. The though of shooting out their Heidels crossed Seras¡¯ mind, but as she turned to the mounted men she noticed one looking right up at her, doing her the favor of standing still. She marked him with her power, which broke her active camo, and pulled the trigger. Humans, and the many humanoid variants of Pallimustus didn¡¯t have the natural toughness of iron ranked monsters. Only Leonid¡¯s had the bulk to shrug off a bullet of this caliber, and the Draconians who had scales to deflect them. Seras allowed a single satisfied smirk as his head whipped back at an unnatural angle. True, a normal persons head would have exploded. But a kill was a kill. Men pointed up at the roof and Seras, and several of them pulled out bows and launched arrows. But Seras was already on the move. She leapt across the buildings and pretended to be fleeing. The men on horses chased after her. Seras smirked, she summoned up another keg much like the one she had used earlier that day and lit the fuse. She wasn¡¯t happy with her makeshift grenade/bombs. While wood splinters and iron beads launched at explosive speeds would be deadly to normal people, they were noticeably less effective against magically enhanced beings. But what they lacked in indiscriminate killing power, they made up for in chaos. Seras had temporarily dropped down an alley between the mud brick buildings to draw the mounted men in, and just as the wick was close the bae she dropped the keg of gunpowder and leapt up onto a nearby roof. She had been just a second too slow however. Auto repair in progress time to full functionality 42 minutes. Consume bronze rank monster cores to speed up process. Several beads had buried themselves in her back, and quick diagnostic showed her upper back was peppered with shrapnel. But despite the injury the damage was negligible, and wouldn¡¯t slow her down much. She brushed the pain away to a corner of her awareness. She looked down at the two men who were crawling out from under their dead Heidels. She would need to give Buck extra apples to make up for today. She pointed her rifle down and pulled the trigger. One of the men dropped dead, a hole in his back blooming with blood. She opened the trap and slid in another bullet, she just slid the bolt back when a loud twang and a black blur pulled her attention away from her victim. Auto repair in progress time to full functionality 1hour and 14 minutes. Consume bronze rank monster cores to speed up process. Omeda poison has been resisted due to Biomechanical physiology. Even as Seras was turning she knew what had happened. There was an arrow in her shoulder, and another clothe covered men holding a bow on a roof three houses away. Seras locked eyes with her would be attacker. In response he let his aura loose. Bronze ranked power washed over her. Bronze rank Omeda aura is attempting to suppress your iron rank aura. Effect has been resisted due to [Limit Breaker] Despite herself Seras grinned. Ever since reaching iron rank Seras had wanted to match herself against a bronze rank essence user as a proxy rematch for her failure against Dale. Ch41 The Archer The bronze ranker¡¯s eyes widened as he realized Seras wasn¡¯t being suppressed. Seras for her part lifted her rifle and let her power flow into it. [Structural reinforcement] bolstered the strength of her rifle and the bullet as she pulled the trigger. Her makeshift armor piercing bullet flew through the air, and despite the speed of the bullet her bronze ranked foe had sharp enough senses to start moving to the side of it. He would have sidestepped the bullet completely, but [Bullet Control] adjusted the bullet¡¯s trajectory. It shifted midair and buried itself in his side. However even with [Bullet control] the attack had missed its mark. A small patch of blood began to spread on his side. The masked man looked down. ¡°Even with Bronze rank durability and my armor you were able to break the skin. And yet my own attack failed to draw blood?¡± there was a question in his tone. His voice was a bit higher than she was expecting, and the twinge of accent almost reminded her of Rohan. Seras let her own weapon dip as she reloaded. ¡°You need to go a lot deeper to draw blood from me.¡± Seras quipped, if the enemy was going to give her time to banter she was going to take the chance. She mentally gave the command to boost her auto repair. Auto repair in progress time to full functionality 35 minutes. Consume 3 bronze rank monster cores and five iron quintessence to speed up process. She then ordered it to be sped up a second time Auto repair in progress. time to full functionality 11 minutes. Consume 5 bronze rank monster cores and 10 iron quintessence to speed up process. And again. She would need every advantage against a bronze ranked essence user. Auto repair in progress. Time to full recovery 54 seconds. Further acceleration is no longer available. Good enough. Now to buy more time ¡°Release the people and leave now. I promise I will not chase you,¡± Seras lied. The man somehow managed to look amused under his cloak. ¡°You are strong outsider, but you cannot hope to overcome the tyranny of rank. Seras glanced to the timer. Just a little longer. ¡°Its pronounced Outworlder, not outsider. And maybe I can¡¯t overcome the tyranny of rank, but I¡¯m danm well willing to try.¡± ¡°A world walker.¡± The man said sounding surprised. ¡°Even still, while you are not guilty of trespassing on our lands you still side with these outsiders. Leave now and I will forget you were here.¡± The man commanded imperiously. Seras watched the timer hit zero and felt the arrow pushed out of her skin, and the beads in her back pinged against the red roof tiles. Seras¡¯ smirk widened ¡°it seems we are at an impasse.¡± Even as she said it the man lifted his bow and pulled back on the string, an arrow magically materializing just a scant moment before he let loose. At the same moment Seras began to lean back and called upon her [Structural reinforcement] power. Blue lines like circuitry crossed her body and as she fell back Seras shot another amor piercing bullet. Aura power, Aura of Ruin has inflicted [Enfeeblement] Though she could not see it the message confirmed that Seras had hit her target. She was currently dropping off the side of the roof, the moment her feet touched the ground she began to move. Rushing down the small side street away from her foe. As she ran she was reloading her rifle. She heard a twang, and saw three glowing arrows racing towards her. She tried to step around a corner to avoid them, but while one hit the wall the other two curved and continued to follow her. Her opponent obviously had a power similar to her own [Bullet control]. But while they were similar abilities, that meant that the ideas Seras had come up with for her own ability might be countered might be applicable. Seras turned and stopped dead in her tracks. While the arrows could track her movements, they still had too much momentum behind them. Her turn and stop were both sharp enough that the arrows did not have time to turn her way and were instead punched straight through a tan colored wall. The immediate threat avoided Seras had only a split second to step back as a wicked looking bone dagger came down on her. Her foe had another patch of blood blooming on his shoulder, and had likely realized that a ranged contest with Seras was more dangerous for him than her. Instead he had switched to close range. But fighting with a knife meant getting in close, and while Seras was no knife fighter she was a brawler. The masked man saw the punch coming but obviously did not think very highly of the strength or speed of an iron ranker, especially a fresh one like Seras. Seras could read in his movements that he planned on using his superior bronze rank speed and power to overwhelm her. But for all the downsides of being a cyborg in a world of magic, there was one immutable advantage that she had over other people. It was that her rank was not reflective of her actual strength.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. At normal rank she had the power and speed equal to a bronze ranker. While bronze was still low on the scale of superhuman ability when compared to silver or higher ranks it still took the Pallimustan¡¯s four magical essences, twenty awakening stones, and either years of monster hunting or monster cores. Whereas Seras got to begin that journey with Biomechanical augmentations. Her clenched fist buried itself into his jaw, and he let it happen assuming that the power behind it would be negligible against his superior rank. But without rank suppression getting in her way Seras could finally use her full strength against a foe. It let her bridge the gap in between Iron and Bronze, and turned this fight from hopeless struggle to an unlikely but possible bout. He stumbled back into the wall, and Seras used his momentary distraction to bring her rifle up to shoot him point blank. But for all the surprise of the punch to the jaw the man was obviously an experienced combatant. Even while blinking away the tears in his eyes he still reached out to the rifle and got control of the gun. He forced the barrel down, effectively making the killing power of her weapon mute. But Seras wasn¡¯t some rookie adventure. Before she even knew about magic she had spent over a decade as a solo Merc for hire. She had been in more than her fair share of back-alley brawls, bar fights, cage matches, and full on battle where the roar of gun fire filled the air as muzzle flashes lit the night. As he forced the barrel down Seras switched her grip and used her new hand placement to force the butt of the stock into the center of his face. Even with the power of her structural reinforcement at work the wood the stock still cracked from the force. But in return she had broken the man¡¯s nose and blackened an eye. Even still the man kept control of the gun, pointing the barrel straight down. Seras and the archer entered an brief struggle over the rifle, but a few seconds in Seras realized she wasn¡¯t get the barrel up any time soon. So she switched tracks. Instead of lifting the barrel up she got it aimed at his foot and pulled the trigger. BANG! The bullet went straight through his foot and into the packed dirt beneath them. ¡°AHHH!¡± the archer cried. Seras shut him up by once again burring her fist in his face. She repeated this again. And again. And- -a burst of wind coming from nowhere forced Seras away with so much force that her back hit the opposite wall. With the momentary distraction her enemy pushed off the wall and barreled towards. Seras got her guard up ready for the coming punch, but instead got a chest full of air so powerful it felt just like a real blow. Even with the punch of air the archer didn¡¯t halt his charge and followed through with his own punch. It hit her so hard that her optics glitched. She staggered away from the wall, her vision glitching and fizzing, only to feel a knife slash against her skin. It cut through her vest and shirt and left a long gouge in her torso, but the blade only got as far as that. The titanium alloy of her ribs kept the blade from actually doing harm. Auto repair in progress time to full functionality 4 minutes. Cannot consume cores to accelerate repair. Omeda poison has been resisted due to Biomechanical physiology. He kept coming at her, and in desperation Seras mentally reached into her pocket space and summoned a small handheld object. Her attacker assumed it was a knife and backed up to avoid the slash, only to realize too late what she was actually holding. Seras aimed the small revolving pistol at the archer¡¯s face and pulled the trigger. Her aim was spot on, the bullet landing directly on his forehead. However, as Seras had previously suspected, the small caliber of the pistol wasn¡¯t enough against the fortitude of bronze rank. The smashed remains of the bullet stuck to his forehead for a few seconds before finally falling to the ground. In the place it had been an ugly purple bruise began to spread, but nothing more than that. Seras used the chance to gain some distance, she huffed out a breath and lifted the pistol level again, waiting for her foe to charge at her again. The man for his part was breathing hard, and his eyes were dilated in pain. ¡°You, are a most painful enemy to fight world walker.¡± The man grudgingly admitted. ¡°Your no slouch yourself.¡± Seras admitted, a small smile pulling the corners of her lip. ¡°You are too strong to be an iron ranker, even if you are a might user. And my poison hasn¡¯t had an effect. How?¡± he asked. ¡°It¡¯s an Outworlder thing.¡± Seras said coyly. The man nodded. ¡°And to be able to match a Master confluence wielder shows how well you¡¯ve honed your killer instincts.¡± Seras thought about what he said. ¡°Wind, Bow, and Adept?¡± She asked. He nodded ¡°Yes. While I¡¯m not the best in a melee with my abilities you¡¯ve still shown your power. You have my respect.¡± ¡°Thank you, your the best fight I¡¯ve had since coming to this world.¡± Seras admitted. ¡°We could use skill like yours, why not join us world walker?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll pass¡± Seras said without hesitation. ¡°I don¡¯t do kidnapping.¡± Anymore. Seras heard a distant whistle, and a rumbling sound that reminded her of a rockslide. ¡°A shame, I had hoped to finish our battle.¡± The man said. ¡°But it seems I must leave.¡± The wind kicked up again and the man leapt up, the wind bolstering the power of his jump. Seras considered getting a couple of pot shots off on him, but let it go. It would only waste ammo. She wasn¡¯t a women of honor, but while the man was a kidnapper and her enemy he had shown her a certain amount of respect. And Seras kinda liked that. It was a nice change from her world where even your allies would turn on you given a chance. That said she hadn¡¯t rushed to the little village to spar with a random bronze ranker, she had come to help the people. She ran out of the alley, still clutching the weak pistol in her hands. She heard a twang and saw Rohan running along the roof tops rapidly firing arrows. And she saw Petra trying to trap the Heidel mounted men with her stone walls. But the riders were too nimble and darted out of her barriers before she could close them off. Seras saw the bloodied form of the man she had been fighting land next to another man holding the reins to an empty Heidel. He took the reins and swung up with a practiced ease Seras often saw from lifelong Heidel riders. He gave the village one last look, his eyes landing on Seras before he dug his feet in the Heidel¡¯s flank and galloped away. Seras cracked her neck and walked into the village square. ¡°None of those men had any prisoners, that means the villagers should still be in the cages.¡± She said in lieu of a greeting. Petra turned her way, and her eyes widened. ¡°What the hell happened to you?¡± She asked. ¡°What?¡± Seras asked. Rohan dropped down to the street. ¡°Theres a dent in your forehead.¡± He said with a pointed stare. Seras felt her forehead and frowned. Yep, that was definitely going to need some work. She opened her pocket space and pulled out a bandana she was supposed to wear during dust storms and tied it around her head like a Durag. She then pulled out her hat and put in on. ¡°How about now,¡± She asked? ¡°Its less noticeable. Still looks odd.¡± Petra said. Seras shrugged, ¡°It¡¯ll have to do.¡± These people weren¡¯t going to be looking too hard at her forehead. They walked to the tipped wagon. The dead Heidel was still strapped to the wagon, but the others had been cut free. The people inside were obviously panicked and were afraid when they approached. They were a mix of dark skinned humans, slightly lighter skinned elves, and sandy coated leonids. ¡°Its alright,¡± Petra said soothingly as she pulled out her adventuring badge. ¡°I¡¯m with the adventurer society. Everything is going to be alright. We¡¯ll get this cage open and start looking you over for injuries. We have a healer on the way.¡± Rohan stepped up to the cage of people, even on its side the thing was bursting with people. ¡°I don¡¯t have the key for this and it looks pretty sturdy.¡± He said after assessing the lock. ¡°Is the lock magical or nonmagical?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Non magical, but we don¡¯t have a key.¡± He said pointedly. Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°that¡¯s where your wrong, I¡¯ve got the greatest skeleton key in the world for normal locks,¡± she said smugly. Seras put her hand to the lock and reached inside with her mana. She had slowly gotten a sense that with her shape metal ability that she could feel the metal. It was a numb, muted sense, but she expected it to get better with time. She wasn¡¯t good enough to turn the lock mechanism into a smooth cylinder of metal, but what she could do was make the springs on the tumblers retract leaving the lock open and easy to turn with a simple knife jammed into the key hole. ¡°Tada!¡± Seras said as she opened the cage. Rohan gave her a concerned look. ¡°How long have you been able to do that?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking of all the ways I can use my abilities for weeks now. Opening simple locks was one of the first things I figured out. Now help me pull these poor folk out.¡± She said as she reached down and pulled an older woman up and through the bars above her head. ¡°There you, oomph!¡± Seras said as the women embraced her in a fierce hug. A damp patch began to spread on her shirt as the woman wailed into her shoulder. ¡°There, there.¡± Seras said awkwardly. Her face likely turning bright red from embarrassment. She had never gotten this sort of reaction before. Usually when she came across kidnapping victims they glared at her with suspicion and fear. But with Petra saying they were adventurers there was no suspicion from the villagers, only desperate unmasked gratitude. She got many reactions from the rest of the village people. Some hugs, lots of tears, an even the occasional numb shivering from those with thousand-meter stares. But all of them thanked them. And later when the rest of their crew arrived and could help handle the scared villagers Seras wandered off to ponder on the strange warmth in her chest. Ch42 Dillon Bannack The attack on the village, which she later learned was called Westend, was not an isolated event. Several others had been hit simultaneously, but it was only because of their intervention in Westend that the officials in Cuprik had any idea of the raids to the western edge of their influence. With the Toruachs to the east it might have been days before anyone noticed several outer villages going quiet. The culprits were quickly identified as the Omeda. Between Seras¡¯ prompts from the poison and Rohan¡¯s own knowledge it was an easy discovery. They were distant cousins to Rohan¡¯s own Akemi, or any other of the many people native to this region. They were once renowned and celebrated as warriors during the period of Bloody sands, the century long slaughter of outsiders encroaching on the Five deserts. But when the Diamond ranked ancestors of the Desert natives intervened and brokered peace the Omeda were the most vocal opponents, and tried to take matters into their own hands even after the Diamond rankers declared the matter settled. For that reason, the gold ranked elders of the Omeda were killed, and what was left of the people scattered and hid. Nowadays they were a minor power with only a few silver ranked elders who were less like the honorable Akemi and more like bandits and brigands. Killing, stealing, and raping as they pleased. Or that was how Rohan had put. Seras wasn¡¯t the most devout student of history, but even she knew that such a clean and simple story likely had many facets that were ignored in favor of a clean and simple narrative. With the Omeda threat looming on the horizon and threating the fringe villages of Curpik there was some talk about pulling the adventurers watching the Toruachs away to defend the boarders. But as the idea was being floated around several cloaked figures were spotted killing the Toruach Matriarchs and stirring the beasts into a frenzy before fading back away into a cave likely connected to the labyrinth. Then came the news from the north that wagon trains were disappearing, their cargo and crew never seen again. The whole fustercluck had caused the city to declare a halt to all outgoing caravans and many outside adventurers were given a standby notice. While adventuring was a mostly voluntary enterprise the society reserved the right to issue special missions in times of need. With most of the local adventurers needed on the east the city was going to rely on the more transient members like Dustin. Seras, for her part was enjoying the time to actually explore the city at her own pace. Since coming to this world Seras spent most of her time on the road, only spending a handful of days in several different cities. For a street kid like Seras, it was a dramatic change. Cuprik was arranged in a ring around the Airy, with eight main roads cutting to ring in nine uneven sections. Each section had its own slightly different feel from the other mainly as a factor of which noble faction held sway over the neighborhood. Some were better managed, and others had more traditionalist architecture. Or so she was told. To be honest, much of it was lost on Seras. While she had started out trying to get a feel for the city, she quickly lost herself in thought.Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. Seras had done and seen a great many things in her career as a Merc. She has scaled skyscrapers, traveled to space, and once found herself in the middle of a gang war that she ended by accidentally killing the bosses of either crew in self-defense. It was the bold sort of move that finally got some of the players in Mantel to pay attention to her. But being tearfully thanked by nearly a whole village was new for her. She had never really done jobs where that sort of thing happened. She was lucky if she got a pat on the back for saving a few lives. It shouldn¡¯t matter to her; they were dull ordinary villagers who would likely spend their whole lives in the same village. People like that would never amount to anything. On her old world they would be the equivalent to mindless corporate drones, or faceless thugs, and she had killed plenty of those. Not intentionally of course, people like that weren¡¯t even worth the consideration to kill. They had just been the useless bullet soakers in the way of her and her gig. But now¡­ ¡°Miss Cross.¡± A voice called to her. Seras shook her head and focused on her surroundings. The street was still populated with people going about their day, and the shadow of the Airy was just falling over this side of the city. She summoned her pistol into her hand and wheeled on the person who had snuck up on her. The man put his hands up. He was a well-dressed man, wearing the classic vest and button up preferred by the people of the Five Deserts. Unlike the broad brimmed hats, she had seen from people who spent most of their time under the sun his had a thinner brim and a round top. His skin was of a lighter hue more akin to Seras¡¯, and he was sporting a meticulously groomed mustache. ¡°Who are you and what do you want?¡± She demanded. The man did not look afraid. He glanced down at the gun in confusion. ¡°Really now, what have I done to deserve this kind of reaction?¡± Seras cocked back the hammer. ¡°I have only been in the city for a day, I don¡¯t know you, nor should anyone here have a need to know me. Your dressed like a shop owner so I¡¯m assuming your weren¡¯t sent here by some God. And if a friend of mine had sent you then you would have called me Seras, not Miss Cross.¡± He considered her words ¡°Even still, your reaction seems a bit paranoid.¡± ¡°Its only paranoia if they aren¡¯t out to get you.¡± Seras said bitterly. The man frowned ¡°And who¡¯s out to get you. Like you said you have only been here for a day, I doubt you would have any enemies. But to assuage your fears I¡¯m an associate of Mr. Martin. I financed his last expedition; one you played a part in salvaging from ruin. My name is Dillon Bannick.¡± Seras frowned, still unconvinced, but she let the hammer down and returned the pistol to her pocket space. ¡°Sorry, I just had a rough encounter with bandits on the outskirts of the green patch. I¡¯m still a bit jumpy.¡± The man smiled, and something about it set Seras¡¯ nerves on overdrive. There was something too knowing about that smile. ¡°Yes, I heard, nasty business. But that is not why I¡¯m here. Like I said I¡¯m a financier, I fund everything from caravans, mines, to forges. And Mr. Martin said you used some pretty unique weaponry.¡± ¡°So, you want to see my guns? Sorry, but they¡¯re not at a place where I feel comfortable displaying my work.¡± Seras said trying to wheedle her away out of this encounter. ¡°Yes, Mr. Martin mentioned that. He also told me that you intend to make them expensive, highly customized, and hard to replicate. That right there speaks to a mind with at least a smattering of enterprising knowledge. I was hoping to invite you for tea to have a candid discussion.¡± He gestured to a brick building with a private terrace area just across the street. ¡°You want to discuss my guns over tea?¡± Seras asked incredulously. ¡°Among other things. Mr. Martin would not tell me how you got the designs for these ¡®guns¡¯, but I have my own sources. And they managed to dig up an incident from Karstess where a grey haired Outworlder was temporarily detained after a drunkard caused a bar fire.¡± Seras was once again on guard. ¡°I see. And what do you plan to do with that knowledge?¡± She asked, her mind descending into somewhere cold and bloody. ¡°Miss Cross,¡± the man said soothingly, ¡°I intend to burry that report and hoard the knowledge for myself. It would not do to alienate a potential business partner like you.¡± ¡°And why should I believe you?¡± ¡°Because Outworlders represent a prime opportunity. Other worldly knowledge and expertise in a resource only a few ever truly appreciate. To be up front with you, I want to finance your research and development, I may even be able to get you some hard-to-find knowledge.¡± Seras kept her face placid, but inside her head she was running through all the possibilities. Slowly she began to relax. ¡°Alright, I¡¯m open to talking. But not tea.¡± ¡°Oh, then what¡¯s your drink of choice Miss Cross?¡± He asked pleasantly. ¡°Bourbon, all the way, top shelf or no dice.¡± Seras demanded. Bannick smiled, and for the first time Seras felt it was genuine. ¡°That I can do.¡± Ch43 Magitech Mr. Bannick placed the rifle back on the table. ¡°Marvelous, its design is so simple, but Mr. Martin assured me it was powerful enough to wound a bronze rank monster.¡± Seras sipped her drink, savoring the smooth burn of fine liquor. ¡°In concept it is a simple creation. It¡¯s the minute adjustments and tweaks that truly turn the simple concept into a deadly weapon. Unfortunately, it can only harm the weaker bronze ranked monsters, anything stronger currently relies on a specific essence ability of mine. Theres a thousand things I can do to make it deadlier by fractional amounts, and while that adds up over time its going to take magical integration to make a real menace.¡± She had relaxed around Mr. Bannick. It was easy with him providing the nicest drink she¡¯d had in a long time and swooning over her baby, but Seras¡¯ initial impression still kept her from fully trusting him. ¡°The same can be said of swords, spears, and everything else. But unlike those the function isn¡¯t instantly identifiable. Very few would understand how a thing like this works in the first place, and that number will be even less when magic gets thrown in. My question why hasn¡¯t you begun integrating magic?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve only got seven essence abilities to my name, and none of those are the typical magic formation abilities. I have one that might function like one, but unfortunately my experiments in figuring it out haven¡¯t been successful. It comes from an essence unique to my world and isn¡¯t on any of the registries.¡± Mr. Bannick ran his fingers along his mustache, ¡°which essence? Not all appear on the registries, I might be able to do a little digging to find some additional information.¡± ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t a known essence be on the registry?¡± ¡°The registry consists of essences found on this world, but Outworlders have occasionally introduced us to essences that do not occur on this world.¡± He explained. Seras nodded ¡°I get it, don¡¯t want to be confusing people with things that are barely understood.¡± She thought for a minute. ¡°Technology.¡± She said eventually. Mr. Bannick¡¯s eyes lit up ¡°Now that is one I¡¯ve heard of.¡± Seras was surprised ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Yes, from an associate of mine. It is supposedly analogous to the magic essence. Tell me, did you get the Magitech confluence?¡± Seras blinked. ¡°No, Avatar,¡± she said after a minute. Bannick¡¯s excitement turned to confusion ¡°Avatar? What are your other two essences?¡± ¡°Metal and potent.¡± Seras said. Bannick leaned back. ¡°Hmm. If I recall correctly technology, iron, and potent would have made a Magitech confluence. But I guess substituting metal gave you a very different result. A shame, I could have sourced some reference material for Magitech crafting.¡± Seras leaned in ¡°Now hold on. How do you have Magitech reference books?¡± ¡°An Outworlder centuries back transcribed all he knew on the subject. But it was complete nonsense to every magic researcher who tried to make sense of it. Kept going on about things like conservation of energy and electrons without ever explaining what those were.¡± Seras felt greed and desire bloom in her heart. ¡°I¡¯m not gonna lie, I need those books. And as many like them as I can get.¡± He quirked his head to the side, ¡°you have a Magitech crafting ability?¡± he asked. ¡°Supposedly. The issue is I don¡¯t know how to use it, the most I can do is make my finger glow. The ability is supposed to let me blend elements of technology and magic together, however while I have a strong idea of how circuitry and magic rituals work figuring out how to make them play nice with each other is proving to be a roadblock.¡± ¡°I know a portal specialist who can have those books here within the day.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°What¡¯s a portal specialist?¡± ¡°A magic user with an essence ability to create portals. They¡¯re expensive to use but sometimes having someone relay information half a continent away can save you more than you spend for the service.¡± Seras leaned back. ¡°I see, and what would this cost me?¡± The man smiled ¡°You wouldn¡¯t trust me if I said it was on the house would you?¡± ¡°Not even a little,¡± Seras deadpanned. ¡°Well, let¡¯s just say its not just me interested in your weapons. I am a part of a society of individuals with certain interests. And funding the growth of a magic tech specialist could prove to be a great boon to us down the line. It¡¯s an investment.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not sure how I feel about owing a favor to a shadowy group of merchants.¡± ¡°Not a favor, we are people who would be delighted to have the talents of someone like you down the line. This initial investment is to see if you can get yourself there. After that we can arrange a more formal agreement. And besides, can you really say no to such an offer?¡± Seras was tempted to say no for that remark right there. But any hope she had of finding a cure would likely rely on Magitech crafting. Her issue was a compatibility error between her technological body and the enhanced magic flowing through her magic matrix. Or it might be completely pointless and she would have wasted years trying to make a cure with Magitech crafting. But she wouldn¡¯t know until she began to delve into the subject. ¡°Alright. Do you have a contract at the ready?¡± Seras asked, her tone defeated. Bannack quirked an eyebrow. ¡°Most adventures I meet prefer a simple handshake.¡± Seras shook her head. ¡°You¡¯re not dealing with an adventurer, not yet at least. I¡¯m a Merc, and Mercs have contracts. The kind written out in painstaking detail.¡± He smiled, and Seras suppressed the shiver trying to run up her back. ¡°If that is the case I¡¯ll have my scribes draw one up. By the time its done I should have those reference texts on hand. Should I send someone to bring you to my office, or would like me to meet you at your current residence?¡± ¡°My place, I don¡¯t know the contract law of this world, but I¡¯ve got a man who can read things over and make sure everything is on the up and up.¡± Seras finished off the warm amber liquid in her glass before setting it down again. ¡°Then I shall meet you there in the morning. And Miss Cross, if I might offer you something to ponder. While integrating magic into the gun could prove difficult, the gun isn¡¯t the only part that can be magically enhanced. Fletchers have been magically enhancing their arrows with spirit coins and quintessence for centuries.¡± Seras glared at the merchant suspiciously. ¡°I¡¯ll take that under advisement,¡± she said noncommittally. The man just continued to smile pleasantly. When Seras stepped out of the bar the shadow of the Airy was just starting to pass over her section of the city. She thought about running straight to Dustin, but a sign with a feather and arrow drew her attention. She decided to see how a magical fletcher enhanced their arrows, just on the off chance Bannack was right. ~~~*~~~ Dillon Bannack leaned back in his chair and lifted another hand to the tall human working the bar. The man for all intents and purposes looked like an ordinary barkeep, just as they had intended. The man grabbed the same vintage he had given to Seras and sat across from Bannack. ¡°That went as well as we could have hoped.¡± The man said as he poured two fingers of bourbon in each glass. ¡°Indeed. Though I must admit I thought all the pageantry and preparation would prove to be over kill. But you were right, she likely would have dismissed me out of hand if I had approached her normally. And suggesting the tea shop first only for her to deny it did have a minute relaxing effect on her. Though I believe she is still very suspicious of me.¡± Bannack said before taking a sip of his drink, even this had been set up in advance. Portaled in from the coast just to give the girl a distant taste of home. The man nodded ¡°Seras ¡®Blackiron¡¯ Cross is not a trusting woman. All this preparation was necessary, but it couldn¡¯t have been possible if you hadn¡¯t looked into that report from your subordinate. Your thoroughness allowed us to finally pinpoint Blackiron¡¯s location and traveling companions, and your efforts have not gone unnoticed.¡± Bannack bowed his head demurely ¡°Thank you Lord Havre.¡± There was a lingering unspoken question in Bannack¡¯s tone, but it wouldn¡¯t be proper for him to question his superior. Lord Havre tilted his head. ¡°You wonder why any of this was necessary?¡± ¡°It is not my place to question-¡± Bannack began. ¡°But a good leader keeps his subordinates informed whenever possible. Secrets for secrets sake helps no one and only creates divisions. Our task here is already a difficult one, we shouldn¡¯t weaken ourselves for petty pride.¡± Havre sipped his liquor before continuing on, ¡°I have already told you part of the truth. Miss Cross possesses an essence that would not normally ever appear on this backwater world. Our lord noticed her passage through the astral and informed us of the opportunity she presented.¡± ¡°Are our ritualists not enough? Do we not have the knowledge granted to us by our lord?¡± ¡°We do, and the ritualists are good. But Miss Cross represents a chance to enhance every aspect of our forces not possible on this world. Though our lord is great he is limited by the others of his kind, he gave us more than enough to begin our endeavor, but the task before us is still going to be a challenge. We already failed to summon the vessels of our lords servant¡¯s, the astral magic of this world was too underdeveloped and our time frame is limited. If we can convince Miss Cross to join us though we might become the most successful and rewarded faction of our lords forces.¡± ¡°And you are sure she will be tempted to join us?¡± He quirked an eyebrow, ¡°did you not see how the chair groaned at her weight, or how careful she was with leaning her body on the table? That kind of mass is simply not possible for person of flesh and blood, she is like us. In fact I am told she is superior to us in some ways, more refined and elegant, though lacking in our raw power. And besides the Gods of Pallimustus we are the only other people on this world who can help her. Without us she will die, and when the time is right she¡¯ll see that.¡± ¡°Then we are trying to bring her in willingly?¡± ¡°Yes, with someone of her ability it is best to bring her in willingly.¡± ¡°My Lord, you are Silver rank, what threat could she pose to you?¡± Lord Havre smiled ¡°My dear Bannack, would you trust an indentured servant to properly keeps your accounts without skimming off the top?¡± ¡°No, I pay for top quality assistants who have more to lose by stealing.¡± ¡°Exactly. A person with Miss Cross¡¯ knowledge could be just as much trouble as she would be a benefit. It is best if she joins both voluntarily, and by her own desire. We left enough clues in those reference texts to hint at the higher knowledge we possess. In time she will see that we have everything she could want and will come of her own accord.¡± Bannack bowed his head ¡°You are wise my lord, shall I arrange for a suite for your stay?¡± he asked demurely. Lord Havre smirked. Behind him an archway of dark swirling oil rose from the floor. ¡°That will not be necessary. I have already done all that I can here and I am needed elsewhere. Make sure you keep this contract as ¡®clean¡¯ as possible. Barring any unforeseen circumstances, I expect we¡¯ll be welcoming Miss Cross into the fold soon.¡± Lord Havre stepped through the portal and vanished through the oily surface. The portal then sank down into the floor without a trace. Ch44 The Value of life Seras carefully poured the magically infused powder into the brass casing, as the powder poured in it began to sparkle with barely stable magic. Next to her Petra tensed. Maybe playing with magically infused, slightly unstable, and highly explosive gunpower in their hotel room was a bad idea. But after her visit to the fletcher, and later a back alley alchemical lab, had left her brimming with ideas. It started as a test to see if the fletcher¡¯s ritual could work with bullets, which it did. Taking the energy of the spirit coins and magically charging the metal of the bullet. Then she began mixing the gun powder with the unstable catalyst the alchemist had sold her with quirked eyebrows. And before she knew it she had the casing in the bullet press she had a blacksmith throw together and was making her very own magically enhanced munitions. Seras grinned at the first shell. ¡°I dub thee death.¡± She murmured, quoting the legendary words of the first gun smith. ¡°We need to test this.¡± Seras said. ¡°On what?¡± Petra asked. ¡°Well I need something with a magic matrix to see if the enhanced magical disruption is actually working.¡± Her eyes wandered to Petra as they were talking. ¡°You want me to stand in front of your boom-stick thing and see how much it hurts?¡± Petra asked incredulously. ¡°First off, its not a ¡®boom-stick¡¯. That name is dumb. And second, only a defense specialist would be able to survive and tell me how it felt.¡± Petra sighed. ¡°Fine, lets do this in the courtyard, and we should grab Garrette.¡± ¡°Really?¡± Seras asked. She had not been expecting her to acquiesce so quickly. ¡°Yeah, its not like it can hurt me.¡± The Leonid said with a shrug. ¡°I¡¯m going to make you regret that.¡± Seras said. ¡°Surrre¡± Petra teased. While Petra had been easy to convince Dustin proved to be less convinced ¡°You want to test how deadly your new weapon is by shooting your friend.¡± He asked with crossed arms. ¡°Well when you put it that way,¡± Seras muttered. ¡°No,¡± Dustin said, his tone broaching no argument. ¡°Ah come on Dust, I can¡¯t got into a fight without knowing what I¡¯m working with,¡± Seras complained. ¡°NO! I¡¯m not letting you shoot your friends. I¡¯ve seen what that thing does to bronze ranked monsters.¡± ¡°Hey,¡± Petra interjected, ¡°I¡¯m not some weak monster, I¡¯m a peak iron rank defense specialist. I¡¯ll be fine.¡± Dustin looked unconvinced. Flint looked up from whatever he was reading. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter anyway. We just got summoned to meet with the director of the Cuprik adventure society branch. You two need to shower and change before we go.¡± Dustin looked over, ¡°is it that pressing?¡± ¡°The letter said ¡®at your earliest convenience¡¯, so¡­¡± Dustin sighed ¡°So we clean up and run over as soon as possible. I¡¯ve got a bad feeling about this. Might even have to break out the crystal wash.¡± Seras was confused. ¡°The director sounds like a big deal, why would he summon all of us?¡± ¡°The letter only named Dustin, but it also requested the rest of his crew,¡± Flint said. ¡°My guess is that we¡¯re being given a special request. The fact that it is being personally given to us by the director can only mean its important.¡± ¡°So break out the clean boots and fancy hat, gotcha.¡± Seras said as she let the rifle fade back into her pocket space in a cloud of blue sparks. She would have to test it at a later date. Even she knew the director of the local adventurer society was not to be ignored. ~~~*~~~ Director Arlee was having a frustrating month. First the appearance of what seemed to be every Toruach on the continent had forced him to reposition almost every active adventurer on the boarder of Cuprik¡¯s east. While this ensured the beasts wouldn¡¯t overrun the farmland it also proved to be a massive headache for him. By their very nature adventures were independent personalities, and organizing them often felt akin to herding cats. Plenty of Cuprik¡¯s officials were questioning the choice to guard the boarder rather than just killing the beasts and throwing a city-wide feast. But Director Arlee knew better than that. He was a second-generation son of Cuprik, and before settling down his parents had been members of the Koda tribe. He knew how vital these beasts were to the survival of the native tribespeople of the five deserts, and a large-scale slaughter of one of the largest herds would bring down the ire of said tribes.Stolen novel; please report. He had already received messages from the tribal leadership hinting at what the repercussions might be. Then the Omeda raids began, and Director Arlee began to suspect that something greater was at work. Things like this don¡¯t just happen all at once without someone orchestrating it behind the shadows. Someone knocked at his door. ¡°Director, Mr. Westbrooke and his company have arrived.¡± Director Arlee took a calming breath. It was completely pointless for a silver ranker like himself, but he felt the calming effect regardless. ¡°Send them in,¡± he ordered. The door opened, and a bronze ranked Smolder male stepped through. His aura was so deeply touched by his life in the saddle that Director Arlee almost felt like he could smell the scent of ash and Heidel hair despite the crystal wash clean appearance of Westbrooke. The next was an Elf with a loamy scent to his aura. They were the bronze ranked leaders of Westbrook¡¯s unnamed caravan company. And the two names that Arlee had recognized from the report on the Omeda raid. While the two hadn¡¯t been present the clerk responsible for writing the report had saw need to include their names, and it was no wonder as to why. It was rare for bronze rankers to earn a reputation like they had, but few living in the Five deserts hadn¡¯t heard of the Blazing outrider and Earthbreaker. One was a skilled merchant well regarded for his morals and willingness to jump in when someone needed help. The other was infamous for putting an end to the corrupt rangers with Westbrook¡¯s aid. The rangers were first founded to be a force that protected the average person from banditry, but leadership had struck bargains with the many bandit lords of the Deserts in secret. Flint had been betrayed by his own possie and vowed to destroy the evil at the heart of the rangers. Since then, the man had tried on three different occasions to revive the organization only to fail and retire to become a caravan guard. Arlee could feel the power in their auras, these two were close to silver, very close. Maybe one, or two more minor thresholds each. Arlee knew the moment they walked through the door that h had gotten the right men for the job. The next couple of people to walk through the door were not as famous as their leaders, but Arlee reminded himself that these were the people who had been the first to respond to the situation. According to the report the three strongest, two iron rankers and a son of the Akemi, immediately ran to the rescue and were instrumental in saving the village of Westend. The Leonid was on the verge of bronze herself and had a sturdy, relentless, feeling aura about her. He had looked over her record and was suitably pleased by her performance. He was even considering to recommend her for three stars. The Akemi man was typical for their people. Though the emotions of normal rankers always felt muted to his senses he got a good feeling from him. Upright, respectful, but also hawkish in his alertness. The third¡­Arlee felt his eyes widen. He felt much death and misery in her aura, but not in the way of murderers. Her aura seemed constantly on guard and always looking for threats, it was aggressive, but like a mistreated animal. She also had the lack of refinement that was indicative of someone who hadn¡¯t been an iron ranker for long, or at least had only recently gained an aura power. And there was something else, something that felt almost¡­ metallic to him. Like he could taste copper or the smell of hot metal. It was odd. There was nothing on her in the adventurer society records but according to the report she had been the first to reach the village and was responsible for disrupting the Omeda just enough to force them to abandon their raid. The report even stated she did battle with a bronze ranker. He didn¡¯t distrust the validity of the report, his people were too good to add such a thing without total confidence, but he was curious as to how she had survived. ¡°Sit¡± Director Arlee commanded, letting them feel his aura just a bit to know that he was not to be resisted. The minor fluctuation caused most of the assembled people to pale. The exceptions being Westbrook as well as the Celestine woman. She took on the overwhelming power of his silver ranked aura and refused to balk, instead he felt her bristle. Interesting. The caravanners quickly shuffled in, Westbrook and Stone sat on the couch across from Arlee, while the rest stood behind. ¡°I believe you have an idea as to why I called you here today?¡± Arlee began. This was a tactic as old as bureaucracy, by asking the question Arlee put the burden of context onto Westbrooke. It would clue Arlee in on any details left out of the report as well as test Westbrooks intelligence. ¡°You¡¯re issuing a special mission to track down and eliminate the Omeda.¡± Westbrooke said succinctly. Good, Westbrook knew how to play the game as well. He soused out Arlee¡¯s intentions proving his keen mind while also withholding extraneous details. It could all be a coincidence, but Director Arlee had developed a great sense of character over his long career. But Westbrook wasn¡¯t entirely on the mark. ¡°Almost, I wish to issue you a special quest to track and retrieve the kidnapped civilians. Killing the Omeda for their crimes is secondary.¡± ¡°You want to rescue civvies,¡± the Celestine woman asked incredulously? Several eyes turned to her. Some looked surprised, Westbrooke looked disappointed, and the Earthbreaker sneered. Arlee for his part maintained his composure. ¡°My apologies miss, but it sounds like your confused as to why the adventuring society would want to retrieve kidnapped civilians?¡± Arlee intoned politely. The Celestine showed a slight blush at the attention directed her way. ¡°Sorry, I¡¯m not used to the prioritizing civvies over ending the threat.¡± The Earthbreaker looked appalled ¡°What do you mean by that exactly?¡± Westbrooke placed a hand on the Earthbreaker shoulder, Arlee saw Westbrooke expertly use his aura to send his partner a hidden message. A difficult trick, and one that proved Westbrooke¡¯s skill. It wasn¡¯t a technique for passing along worded messages, more like a predetermined code used only by those intimately familiar with each other. The Earthbreaker calmed. Westbrooke turned back to Director Arlee. ¡°My apologies director, Seras here is an Outworlder, and is still getting used to the way we do things.¡± He said smoothly. An Outworlder? Now that was portentous. Arlee became more assured in his decision to call upon Westbrooke. ¡°I understand. Even among other cities of the desert the preservation of civilian lives might seem like a strange choice. Miss, Seras was it?¡± The Celestine nodded her head ¡°Seras Cross,¡± she confirmed. Arlee gave her a polite smile. ¡°Well Miss Cross, tell me, what is a city?¡± She quirked an eyebrow. ¡°Is this a trick question,¡± Arlee shook his head, ¡°Well, its bunch of building and streets.¡± Arlee shook his head. ¡°That was what I was expecting. A city is not just buildings and streets, it is a collection of people. Ordinary, average people. Without those a city would feel like a dull place. Cuprik is a city of great prosperity and long periods of desolation as the waters come and go. But tell me, what becomes of the people when the wells dry up?¡± ¡°They leave,¡± she said skeptically. ¡°Many do. The well-established nobility of Cuprik hoard resources and settle into their fortresses during the long drought. And those merchants and lower nobility who have gathered their wealth leave for greener pastures. But the ordinary person, the normal rankers with no money. They stay. They can¡¯t afford to hire protection to leave en mass, and even if they did, they still wouldn¡¯t go. They stay in the desert and make their living as best as they can, they cover the fields in large tarps to prevent the good soil from blowing away, they mix their nightsoil into the soil to fertilize them for when the waters return. They find ways to survive the deserts during lean times. Many die, either starvation, monsters, or simple banditry. But the common people never abandon their homes.¡± The Celestine woman frowned. ¡°So they keep the soil from blowing away during the droughts, but others can take their place right?¡± Arlee frowned, did she really not see his meaning? ¡°Yes, others can take the place of the labor lost, but not the people. People are more than just their labors, they are their stories, their festivals, their traditions. Losing the people of six whole villages is a true tragedy to the cultural heritage of Cuprik, and if they can be rescued and returned then that should be the priority.¡± She blinked in surprise. ¡°Do you disagree?¡± Director Arlee asked. ¡°Ah, no. I just, I never expected to hear that coming from a person of power.¡± She said, and he felt the honesty, and puzzlement in her aura. ¡°Some don¡¯t see it my way, but that is why I am the director of the adventurer society and not them. The people of small, often forgotten communities are the ones who welcome outsiders in with open arms. They lose much in the years of drought and have much land to work. My parents were welcomed in like this, and I grew up learning their ways until I could call myself a proud son of Cuprik. I may have left to pursue a life of adventure, but I never forgot what¡¯s important. Adventurers, above all else, protect the people. Is it not like this on your world.¡± The faces of everyone gathered grimaced. The Outworlder opened her mouth, and then shut it. She did this several more times before letting out a weary sigh. ¡°No, on my world people are little more than tools to do used until they break down then discarded. A resource to be wrung out, every drop of life harvested. If you¡¯re lucky you¡¯ll make enough to afford a meager retirement, but that¡¯s assuming the best. Most die at their desks, or get crushed in a ¡®freak¡¯ industrial accident. And no one gives a danm about their traditions or stories. I¡¯ve seen whole neighborhoods purged for a few refusing to pay taxes.¡± ¡°Then you have my apologies Miss Cross, your world sounds like a truly awful place.¡± Director Arlee said. ¡°You don¡¯t know the half of it,¡± Flint muttered to himself. Ch45 I dont go looking for trouble Seras kept half an ear on the meeting, but wasn¡¯t really paying attention to the details. ¡°You¡¯ll be the leader of this expedition, and will be responsible for organizing it. I can have a list of iron ranked teams in the city sent to your quarters. But time is not on your side.¡± Dustin nodded. ¡°I understand, but this is going to be a big job to do on so little time. I trust that the compensation will be equal?¡± The Director nodded, and the red beads tied to his hair clicked softly. ¡°Yes, for any iron rankers you convince to join your expedition I have already approved a generous reward. As for yourself we can arrange a price, or if you¡¯d prefer, we can arrange a special payment. Essences, awakening stones, even special materials.¡± Dustin hesitated ¡°that¡¯s all well and good, but I¡¯m going to be relying on my people to arrange this whole thing. I think its only fair they earn a good price.¡± ¡°What did you have in mind?¡± he asked. ¡°I have several crew members looking out for essences to complete their set, and even a few looking for awakening stones.¡± The director shifted his gaze up to Seras, and she found herself shying away from his hard brown eyes. ¡°I can arrange a payment for those who help in the management aspects, but I can only guarantee the dispensation of essences and awakening stones to those who participate and do well. The society has a vested interest in seeing those with skill getting the resources they require after all.¡± ¡°That is fair. I don¡¯t believe everyone will be on board with this sort of risk anyway.¡± The director nodded. ¡°Adventuring is not for everyone. But I have a question for the Son of the Akemi.¡± Rohan perked up. The director met his eyes. ¡°Do you intend to join and fight,¡± he asked? Rohan held his eyes and nodded wordlessly. ¡°I believed as much.¡± He reached into a pocket and pulled out a small cube. ¡°I believe you were looking for this essence?¡± Rohan¡¯s eyes went wide as he leaned in. ¡°I have, but it¡¯s always snatched off the market before I can get one, too popular.¡± ¡°The society likes to purchase the most common essences for this sort of occasion.¡± ¡°This is too much director,¡± Rohan said with a shake of his head. The director eyes went hard, ¡°If you go into battle against the Omeda, you know they will try to kill you more than anyone else. The Akemi¡¯s steadfast dedication to the treaties earned their ire above all others. This is the most I can do for a promising young man like you.¡± Rohan nodded his head. Dustin picked up, passed it back to Seras, who then passed it to Rohan. Adept essence; bestows the power of martial adeptness to the user. With this Rohan had the last essence he needed to reach iron, and moreover would get the Master confluence. A well-regarded confluence for weapon masters. And the Essence combo Rohan had been dreaming about. Seras smiled to Rohan and the stoic warrior actually blushed. Seras glanced to the Director; a thought had come to her. He met her eyes ¡°Yes Miss Cross?¡± Seras frowned, it was only stray thought and likely not worth asking, but decided to ask her question anyway since he prompted her. ¡°I was just wondering; I heard you guys do some sort of weeklong test for new members, if I do this mission could I just skip all that?¡± The Director chuckled. ¡°The test is mostly to prove basic competency, allow young adventurers to interact with their fellow initiates, and dispense general advice of which way to grow their abilities. But I think if you do well with this assignment I could look into fast tracking your membership.¡± Seras nodded. She didn¡¯t have time to go through the traditional testing process. ¡°If that is all then I have other business to attend to.¡± The director stood up, Flint and Dustin followed his example, Dustin reached out and gave the director¡¯s hand a firm shake. ¡°Thank you for the opportunity, Director,¡± Dustin said with the same smile he used for all his friends. The director returned it. ¡°Thank you, Mr. Westbrook, for arriving when you did. Had fate not brought you and your people here then I fear more villages would have been lost. And Miss Cross,¡± Seras perked up and looked his way, ¡°if you truly wish to see your membership approved then I would recommend you keep our conversation in mind. A branch director doesn¡¯t often use his position to skip past the red tape for iron rankers. I would appreciate if you made the decision seem like an easy one to make.¡± Seras nodded. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. They left the office, and the moment they left Dustin pressed his hand against his heart. ¡°That was tense.¡± He muttered. Seras quirked a brow. ¡°You seemed to be taking it well.¡± She pointed out. Flint began to shake subtly. ¡°No he¡¯s right, another minute and I might have lost my composure. It not every day you meet someone at the peak end of silver. Especially not someone like Alder Arlee. I¡¯m just glad his bonded familiar wasn¡¯t here.¡± They walked out of the administrative section of the Adventurer Campus and into the grand bizarre area where magical merchants tried to hawk their wares and adventurers looked over the stalls while casually chatting with their friends. Seras saw quintessence of every variety, potions in every color of the rainbow, and weapons in every shape and size. Ruin had long left the era of cold steel weaponry behind in favor of firearms, but even Seras found herself impressed by the variety. From hooked sword things, sharpened metal disks, to twin sickles attached by a chain. She was very tempted to wander about and browse, but since she wasn¡¯t a member of the society she was barred from purchasing anything. An issue she was hoping to solve soon. ¡°I take it he¡¯s a big deal.¡± Seras said casually, her head turning as they walked to stare at sword taller than Seras. ¡°Your ignorance pains me.¡± Flint mumbled. ¡°Director Arlee is the kind of man you hear about in every city across the Five deserts. Where most directors are politicians and bureaucrats Arlee was able to take the office on the merits of his own adventuring career. As the rumor goes he was displeased with the way the previous director was doing things and forced him out of his job and took hold of the society by force.¡± ¡°So he¡¯s a tyrant who usurped the last guy.¡± Seras muttered. She¡¯d heard that story before, plenty of corporate take overs back home. Dustin shook his head. ¡°He¡¯s sort of the opposite. I had dealings with the last one, he was about as corrupt as it came. He once seized all my cargo, including what was in my storage space. Arlee beheaded the man, then beheaded about half the staff, and he did it without the continental council getting upset. He may have seemed mild mannered in our meeting, but trust when I say he has no mercy for the enemies of the people.¡± ¡°He wasn¡¯t even withholding his aura at all.¡± Petra muttered. ¡°Is that what that was¡± Seras asked. ¡°I thought it might have been some sort of magical suppression field.¡± Dustin shifted his gaze to her. ¡°It was,¡± he said slowly, ¡°it was aura suppression. And for someone in the iron rank it should have had bigger effect on you.¡± Seras shrugged. ¡°I mean I certainly felt something, in was like a giant was pressing down on me with their thumb.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re not disturbed by that,¡± Flint asked? His voice rising by an octave. ¡°It wasn¡¯t pleasant, but I sort of deal with worse every day.¡± She tapped at her chest for emphasis. Dustin glanced to her. ¡°Is it really that bad. You haven¡¯t brought it up since that first time.¡± Seras hesitated; it wasn¡¯t a good idea to show weakness. But that was back on her own world, these people were different. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯m up to 10%. The only time I get to escape the pain is when I¡¯m asleep, and even then its sort of always there. I don¡¯t really think there are words to describe how much it sucks.¡± ¡°10%, that¡¯s five abilities. Last I heard you had three in metal control, and one in reinforcement. What else advanced?¡± Dustin asked as they reached a magical elevator that brought them down to the ground level. ¡°Aura of Ruin went over the line after I fought that, Omeda Archer. I didn¡¯t suppress this one because I figured some stronger aura control would be a good thing.¡± Flint gave her a concerned look, which was strange for Flint. ¡°Suppress?¡± ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Petra said, ¡°Forgot to tell you in all the hubbub, Seras advanced her defensive power but somehow held it back from advancing. Said, it felt like holding in a fart.¡± ¡°Sneeze, I said it felt like holding in a sneeze,¡± Seras interjected. ¡°Oh right, that.¡± Petra said without a hint of shame. ¡°Unlady-like vulgarity aside,¡± Flint said ignoring Petra¡¯s affronted look, ¡°Suppressing the natural advancement of your essences is not a good thing. It puts strain on your magical matrix and might actually harm your soul.¡± He glanced at her side long, ¡°More than you already are.¡± Seras shrugged helplessly. ¡°I¡¯ve got no choice. I doubt Structural reinforcement will help me fix my problem, so I need to hold it back in favor of other essences.¡± Dustin sighed ¡°Speaking of which, did those books Bannack gave you help?¡± She pursed her lips. ¡°Maybe, I¡¯ve only had them for half a day after all. But I think this should at least let me get started.¡± As she understood things Magitech worked on a sort of slider scale. From either a mostly technical creation with some slight magical enhancements, to a mostly magical construct with technological elements. This ranged from her guns, which used a magic ritual to imbue the bullets with power, to taking a magical creation like the skimmer and strapping a motor and turbine to the stupid thing. But according to the unnamed author Magitech was best when both elements were fully incorporated together in equal measures, making a product that was more than the sum of its parts. However, Seras was still a long way away from that since she was still working her way through the first chapter. Thankfully the unnamed Magitech Artificer knew how to get to the fucking point and skipped all the pointless dross that padded out Dundee¡¯s first four volumes on basic magical theory. That said Bannack had delivered ten volumes that were each as thick as a brick and twice as dense. It was going to be a while before she was done reading, and Bannack had hinted at some greater knowledge down the line. ¡°So what¡¯s next?¡± She asked to change the subject. She could talk all day about how amazing the books were, but no one would listen, and she could have better spent that time reading. ¡°Next, I read through the files Director Arlee sent my way, then I get to spend the next few days assembling an expedition to hunt down the Omeda. It will take a few days, but that can¡¯t be helped.¡± Dustin said. Seras could already see his face scrunched up in concentration. ¡°Alright, then if we¡¯re done here I think Petra and I had plans to test my new ammo.¡± Seras said as she began to sneak off to the side. Dustin¡¯s head jerked around to face her. ¡°No shooting your friends!¡± ¡°Aw come on boss,¡± Petra whined, ¡°I can take a few puny bullets.¡± ¡°That sounds like a challenge,¡± Seras said with a grin. ¡°No!¡± Dustin interjected, ¡°that is not a challenge, and you are not shooting your friends, I can¡¯t believe I actually need to say this!¡± Seras snickered, ¡°Relax Dust, I¡¯m just teasing you, I actually planned on spending the day locked up in my room refining my grenades. The keg full of BB¡¯s and gun powder was not as effective as I had hoped.¡± Now Flint looked alarmed ¡°I hope you meant to say you plan on refining your designs, and haven¡¯t been making bombs in the rooms we¡¯re renting.¡± ¡°Not bombs.¡± Petra said with confidence. ¡°That¡¯s good-,¡± Flint began. ¡°-just magically enhanced bullets.¡± Petra finished. Flints eyes went wide. ¡°Are you insane!¡± Seras frowned. ¡°Not since I last checked. But then again that was before I died in space and woke up in a magic world completely naked and befriended a lion woman. I may be overdo for another mental checkup.¡± She said sardonically. ¡°Not funny.¡± Flint grumbled. ¡°You know you can rent out workshops to make your¡­ weapons?¡± ¡°Why did you pause before weapons?¡± ¡°You misheard me.¡± He said quickly. Seras decided to let it go. ¡°As a matter of fact I did not, where is are these rentable workshops at?¡± ¡°Magic society campus, there¡¯s a larger fee for nonmembers, but you should be able to pay it.¡± Flint explained. ¡°Magic society, that¡¯s like your version of a research lab/University, right?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what either of those words mean. But the Magic society is a collection of all those pursuing magical knowledge for the betterment of society. They fund magical research, help educate new talents, and organize and disseminate magical knowledge. Theres a branch in almost every city.¡± ¡°Is that where you get your books from?¡± ¡°Yes, as an associate specialist in Magical earth shaping, I get a slight discount, as well as access to some higher level text books.¡± Seras thought about it. ¡°I might want to consider applying for membership as well then. There¡¯s some books I want to purchase in different subjects, what¡¯s the bar to entry?¡± Flint glanced at her. ¡°There¡¯s a test you can take to prove you have the requisite knowledge to be a junior associate. I think you might be able to get a passing score on that one.¡± ¡°Have some faith in me Flint, I¡¯ve been soaking up magical theory like a sponge.¡± He shook his head. ¡°I was only making an accurate assessment. Despite your intelligence you¡¯ve only been here for a little over two months. People spend years studying to take the junior associates test.¡± ¡°Okay, but how much of that time is also learning how to read, doing basic mathematics, and then trying to scan texts like Dundee¡¯s for actually useful information?¡± For all the amazing innovations this world had in magic and the like, it was still lacking in general literacy and education. The Temple of Knowledge tried to dispense some basics, but it couldn¡¯t really compare to the education Seras was able to scrounge up through the Net. Flint considered her words. ¡°A fair amount of it.¡± He conceded. ¡°You¡¯ll be fine.¡± Dustin said reassuringly. ¡°The magic society is a great resource for anyone who wants to expand their horizons. They¡¯re just down the road from here, you should be able to see the doors and their seal.¡± Seras glanced to where he was pointing and decided to take the test today. ¡°Alright I¡¯ll go do that.¡± She said. ¡°Just try not to go looking for trouble,¡± Flint harangued. ¡°Hey! I don¡¯t look for trouble, trouble looks for me.¡± With that Seras ran off and barely heard Flint¡¯s pained groan. Ch46 Im not apologizing The magic society ¡®campus¡¯ was really just one five story building set within its own courtyard. In the courtyard just before the building there was a small patch of green grass around a little pond, with people wandering here and there. It looked quant enough, but her eyes were instantly drawn away from the little patch of nature to the beautiful geometric designs on the walls. Hundreds of interlocking lines and shapes forming a larger, more intricate pattern. It almost looked like someone had stacked multiple formation circles on top of each other for purely aesthetic reasons. Seras was so distracted by the patterns on the walls that she nearly missed the person in front of her. ¡°Hey, watch it!¡± A tall blue scaled Draconian shouted at her. Seras shook her head and returned to the present, ¡°sorry, just distracted by the patterns.¡± ¡°Patterns?¡± the draconian asked. For explanation Seras pointed to a wall. He looked over and nodded, ¡°null-formations,¡± he blandly. ¡°So you know what they are, could you tell me more?¡± ¡°What do I look like, some tour guide for wayward Celestines. I am of the upper echelon of Draconian nobility.¡± His haughty tone seemed to imply that it should have been obvious somehow, but to be honest he looked like any other Draconian she had met. Then again she wasn¡¯t to good at telling them apart yet other than height and scale color. Seras quirked an eyebrow, ¡°if you don¡¯t know you can just say so. I can just ask someone inside.¡± His reptilian eyes glared down at her, ¡°your trying to bait me,¡± he growled softly. ¡°Nope, I really just want to know about those patterns. You called them Null-formations, does that make them just broken formation circles?¡± ¡°Broken? Are you trying to tick me off Celestine?¡± ¡°Again, I just want to know about the cool art.¡± Seras knew that this might just cause trouble down the line for her, especially if this guy were actually important, but this was too fun to stop. Maybe Flint had a point about her and trouble. The Draconian pressed a hand through his neck spines, ¡°ugh, no they¡¯re not broken formation. The art style is inspired by the symmetry of magic formations, one stacked on top of another, with the angles and number of points each having intentional significance. It is an artform for only the educated to comprehend and critique due to the innate complications. Take that one there, see how all the intersecting lines seem to almost form a pattern, but not quite.¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the ratio of phi right?¡± ¡°No its¡­ the what.¡± ¡°Phi, you know, like the Rust Sequence, one of those irrational numbers we keep finding in nature. Where A+B over A is equal to A over B, 1.618 and onwards.¡± The Draconian gave her a grudging nod, ¡°you have strange words for things girl, but yes that exactly, each new shape on that is placed one and six rotations away from the first. Like the seed patterns in some flowers.¡± Seras stared at the wall with a new found appreciation, ¡°that¡¯s really interesting, and all of these are like this?¡± The Draconian smiled, ¡°Yes, and in the most complex displays like this one you can actually derive a mathematical formula from all the shapes, this one here is the formula for the Corvalis formula, as this is the Magic society responsible for that contribution.¡± Seras recalled the Corvalis formula herself, it was a formula that was essential in setting up higher rank magic circles. It was a short cut in calculations that used to take much longer to crunch, with the Corvalis formula you just punched in the variables in ambient magic and got your number. Seras smiled ¡°thanks pal, I appreciated that.¡± The Draconian stared at her a moment before nodding back, ¡°no, it was a pleasure, sorry about my rude first impression. I just had a poor meeting with the board, yet again my research lacks the funding I need to complete my theory.¡± Seras nodded in commiseration, ¡°funding¡¯s a bitch.¡± While she wasn¡¯t an academic mind, she still had a good head for tech and engineering. But her skills were held back for a long time due to a lack in resources. Heck that was her current issue as well, developing her guns into a viable weapon on Pallimustus would a long expensive journey of iteration. ¡°You don¡¯t look familiar to me, are you new around here?¡± ¡°Yeah, just got into Cupric a few days ago, I was just going in to take the associates exam.¡± He gave her a confused look, ¡°your not a member yet?¡± ¡°Not yet, I¡¯m self-taught you see, and my work is a bit¡­ temperamental at times. My traveling companions don¡¯t like me mixing volatile powders in our inn so they told me to take the exam and use magic society blast proof rooms instead.¡± ¡°Hmm, well if your advanced enough to understand Corvalis¡¯ formula then you shouldn¡¯t have any trouble passing. Just head in and talk to the receptionist, not the main desk but the little side one in the corner.¡± Seras smiled at him, ¡°thanks.¡± She considered just walking away, but that seemed a bit rude especially after the Draconian had apologized. She stuck a handout, ¡°Seras Cross.¡± He hesitated for a moment before accepting her hand. ¡°Ronan, of House Ignatius.¡± ¡°Pleasure to meet ya, but if you don¡¯t mind, I need to be heading inside.¡± ¡°Of course, good day to you miss Cross.¡± They passed each other by, and Seras smiled to herself. People on Pallimustus were certainly more pleasant than Ruinites. Sometimes on Ruin a brush up like that could go bad in an instant, guns out and tempers up in an instant. Here she could just smile and talk with someone and at the end they would leave on favorable terms with each other. It was nice.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. She walked into the expansive foyer of the Magic society campus and was treated to more of the null-formations she had see outside. Magical disks lifted people into the air and towards the higher levels, just like an elevator would on her world. She saw the main desk swamped by people wearing long impractical robes in every color. And in the corner just as Ronan had said was a smaller less busy desk. Seras walked that way. The elfin receptionist barely looked up as Seras leaned against the counter, ¡°complaints, book orders, and facility reservations are at the main desk. If you¡¯re here about a broken mana lamp or clogged up plumbing that¡¯s a city problem and must be addressed with the bureau of civic affairs in the Duke¡¯s manor.¡± Seras quirked an eyebrow, ¡°and applications to join the magic society as a junior associate?¡± Again, without looking up the Elvin woman reached under her desk and passed Seras a form with check boxes and spaces for her write. ¡°Fill this out to the best of your abilities and prepare to wait for a testing room to be set up.¡± Seras took the sheet and looked it over and saw a disturbingly familiar sight, a standardized form that seemed to suck out all the fun in the room just by existing. Somethings were universal it seemed, death, cats, and standardized forms. A quick glance over the sheet revealed some irregularities. Like the box requesting her race of origin, which was a weird way of wording it. Or the section requesting her to list her essences and essence abilities, but in very, very, small text it said the essence ability part was optional. Even the normal options like date of birth and place of birth would be harder for Seras. Did she list her first birth date on Ruin, or her second one her? ¡°Uh, I think some of these options might be non-applicable.¡± ¡°Please fill out all boxes to the best of your abilities, if you can¡¯t understand a simple form then you have no place here at the magic society.¡± She said all of this without looking up, she even turned a page mid-sentence. Seras frowned, but decided that it would be a bit much to ask for an outworlder specific form just for her. She doubted they even had one. Outworlders were well known in the Five deserts, but they weren¡¯t really that common despite their infamy. From Dustin¡¯s account there were only a handful of them in the entire region, and they typically settled in the adventuring city of Basal. It was a large concentration compared to the global population of outworlders, but that number likely didn¡¯t exceed a hundred at best. It was strange to think that in any other part of the world that Seras would be considered an extremely rare oddity. What would it be like to figure all this shit out with no one to guide you? She shook her head and went back to the form before her. She wrote down her essences, skipped the ability part, and listed her race of origin as human since that was her original race. For birthdate and place she wrote two, one the date on Ruin, and the other corresponding to her rebirth on Pallimustus. She wrote lower ward of Mantle; district eleven, and then Vestal gateway for the second place of birth. She finished the rest of the form and passed it back to the Elf lady. Finally, she glanced up and glossed her eyes over the form and frowned slightly, ¡°you left a whole section blank.¡± She said pointedly, finally looking up at Seras. ¡°I think you¡¯ll find that the section was listed as optional,¡± Seras quipped. She squinted hard at the paper, ¡°I might as well write vision enhancement powers, I can barely make that out. fine, but what about race, you wrote in the wrong race.¡± ¡°No I didn¡¯t.¡± She glared hard at Seras, ¡°Yes you did. I may not be able to read the tiny text, but I can plainly see a Celestine when I meet one.¡± Oh this again, it was starting to become annoying constantly being mistaken for a Celestine. ¡°No, I was born a human.¡± The first time at least. ¡°You honestly expect me to believe that?¡± she said flatly. ¡°Believe what you want, that has no baring on the truth.¡± She glared now, ¡°fine, go sit over there until I call your name. I don¡¯t get paid enough to argue with idiots about what race they are.¡± Seras opened her mouth fire back with something that might have been slightly speciest, when she recalled what Flint had said about her looking for trouble. This time she actually decided to close her mouth and not cause a fuss. Seras turned around and sat in one of the chairs around the desk. The Elf lady went back to reading and it was a solid five minutes before she turned back and slid her form into thin slot in the wall and the paper flew away. Half a minute later a Smoulder man stepped out and called Seras¡¯ name. She stood up and glared at the receptionist for wasting her time like that. She followed the Smoulder man into a hallway behind the desk and waited for the door to close, ¡°so, whats with the lady out there?¡± The Smoulder man winced, ¡°ah, had trouble with her?¡± ¡°She argued with me over my race, who even does that?¡± He sighed, ¡°yeah, she¡¯s not one of our most polite members, but we can¡¯t fire her. The side desk is the only position we can stick her where she¡¯ll do the least damage.¡± Seras had some things to say about ¡®least damage¡¯, but had another question instead. ¡°Why can¡¯t you fire her?¡± ¡°She¡¯s Pheonix nobility, the Caras family.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not from around here, is that a big name?¡± ¡°Pretty big, they¡¯ve been around for at least a thousand years, no diamond rank ancestors though. This whole section of the city is the Caras district.¡± ¡°Hmm¡± Seras grunted, probably a good thing she didn¡¯t say that snipy thing about Elf ears then. The Smoulder man opened a door to a small study room where a standardized test packet was waiting for her. ¡°Please use the pen provided as its ink is magical and essential in the grading process.¡± So instead of bubbles and machines to scan them they had magic ink. How did that work? ¡°Is this timed?¡± ¡°It is, three hours, good luck.¡± Seras nodded and sat down in the chair and cracked open the test. It was different from what she had been expecting, she thought it would be multiple choice, with a few written answers. Instead it was all written answers, but not short answers. Instead the test wanted her to the answer the question by writing, verbatim, the entire section from her text book correlating to the source, and then to cite the source. That meant Seras was copying down massive blocks of flowery, go nowhere, paragraphs from Unlocking the World around By Roland Dundee. It was asinine the amount she had to write for simple questions like Magic density. One question had her citing three different volumes of text because Dundee had split the explanation across all three. She, she may have snapped and started writing insults about the author in the bottom margin, but any one with sense would agree with her about a blowhard like Dundee. The second frustrating part of the test were the questions about things she knew Pallimustus had wrong. For example, memory of weight. It was an explanation to why huge things were hard to push even if you made it magically weightless. The issue was that what they were really experiencing was the difference between mass and weight. Something Pallimustan researchers didn¡¯t have a good grasp on because A; they didn¡¯t have a good understanding of gravity, and B; because they didn¡¯t have Thermov¡¯s laws of motion. So she was torn between giving the answer they wanted versus the actual answer. So she wrote both. She did the answer they wanted from her, and then wrote below how it was wrong and what it should have been. Seras had in her time on Pallimustus heard rumors about how the Goddess Knowledge didn¡¯t like people randomly spreading the knowledge of other worlds around willy nilly. But fuck that bitch, after what she had done to Seras she had no right to tell her what to do. Seras¡¯ head perked up and whipped around the room as she got the sudden feeling that some one was perturbed with her. She had no idea how she knew that, or why she distinctly knew it be ¡®perturbed¡¯ versus any other similar emotions. The feeling faded and Seras just went back to her test. That was really weird. She finished writing and knocked on the door, the same Smoulder man opened the door and glanced down at her finished test, ¡°already?¡± ¡°Yeah, would have been sooner, but the text I had to cite was written by the most long winded bastard I had ever read.¡± The Smoulder chuckled, ¡°oh I know that feeling. Which text books were your trained on, my master was fond of series written nearly four hundred years ago because he heard the author might have hit diamond, never mind that it was all out of date.¡± Seras grinned at the Smoulder man¡¯s commiserating with her suffering, ¡°I think mine are more contemporary, Unlocking the World, if you know it.¡± His smile faded away in a second, he glanced down and then back up at Seras. ¡°I see, please, uh, wait here for a moment.¡± Seras frowned at the sudden change in his demeanor, ¡°okay.¡± Seras flopped back into her chair and stared at the ceiling. It too had a null-formation painted across it and Seras admired the geometric patterns. ~~~*~~~ The Magic society director shifted in his chair as someone knocked on his door, he sat up, straightened his jacket, and smoothed back a loose lock of bright orange hair. ¡°Enter,¡± he commanded. A young Smoulder gentleman opened the door, one of the ash type Smoulders instead of the more typical flame or earth. ¡°Director, I, uh,¡± he cleared his throat midsentence and fidgeted nervously. ¡°My time is not so cheap to waste on you stuttering, say your piece.¡± He nodded, ¡°yes director. We had a new applicant come in today and there were, ah, a series of irregularities in her, ah, application and test.¡± ¡°The kind of irregularities worth reporting directly to the director,¡± he asked testily? ¡°Um, well sir I did start with my supervisor, then I went to his manager, then his manager, then your deputy director, and now you.¡± He frowned, ¡°give me the test and application form.¡± He took the two from the young man and glanced through it. The applicant, a human named Seras Cross, had filled out the form very strangely. She listed two birth dates, one he didn¡¯t recognize, and another that marked her as only a few months old. Two places of birth he had never heard of, and for her essences she had listed one that did not exist. Odd, but not worth bringing to the director of the Magic society. He began to thumb through her test booklet. He looked at page after page and slowly began to grow more and more enraged. Was this some sort of call out? Was that ignorant buffoon from Karstess trying to test his patience again? He let his aura waft out and cover the whole building and located the applicant who dared to insult him in his own branch. He vanished from his office and appeared directly in front of the girl. The girl, a Celestine woman with steely grey hair and eye colorations, snapped to her feet in an instant. Blue sparks flashed between her hands and a long metal tube thing was pointed threateningly at his head. Good instincts, too good for a fresh iron ranker like her. ¡°Who are you, and why have you come to insult me in my own branch.¡± He growled out as he slowly pressed down on her with his aura. ¡°I don¡¯t know who the fuck you are, but if you think you can push me around you¡¯ve got another think coming.¡± She growled back, her finger moving onto a small trigger mechanism. He didn¡¯t know what this weapon was, but she clearly put a great amount of stock in it if she thought it would be enough to even injure a silver ranker. He loomed over her, increasing the weight of his aura, still careful not to melt her brain. For now. ¡°I am Director Roland Dundee, the Director of the Cupric branch of the Magic society.¡± The Celestine looked surprised; she blinked in comprehension. ¡°Oh¡­ oh!¡± ¡°Yes¡± The woman met his gaze and held it. ¡°I¡¯m not apologizing.¡± Ch47 Mistakes were made Okay, maybe insulting some dude on an answer sheet was kind of a dick move. But in her defense the questions required her to write and reference her answers word for word. Not only did the test want to test her ability to memorize a bunch of crap, but it also wanted her to memorize the whole danm textbook and quote it word for word. After her sixth time rewriting Dundee¡¯s ridiculously long-winded explanation of what people here called the memory of weight Seras was a little salty. How was she supposed to know that the very same long winded bastard was the director of this one magic society campus? What even were the odds of that? His aura pressed down on her harder, and Seras was starting to get pissed. Who was he to suppress her? She was Blackiron, Ruin¡¯s most successful Merc. Her own aura rumbled and bucked against his. But she was iron while he was silver. No amount of anger would ever broach that barrier. ¡°Say that again¡± he said slowly. ¡°I, said, I¡¯m, not¡­¡± his aura tripled in strength. But [Limit Breaker] kept the worst effects at bay. ¡°apologizing,¡± she grunted out. His eyes flared, but then his aura vanished. ¡°I see, care to explain why?¡± Seras resisted the urge to take a deep breath. Instead, she summoned a small book from her pocket space. It was maybe a finger width long. ¡°I wrote this after I wasted nearly a month getting through your first four volumes of Unlocking the world. This is everything actually useful about those books. You need to learn how to get to the point.¡± Seras said while tapping a finger on the book. He looked at and then drew a circle in the air with his finger, where his finger went runes flowed out. When the circle was complete he reached his hand into the rune gate and withdrew a small worn book. He dropped it on the table next to Seras¡¯ book, it was just a little thinner than hers. Seras glanced at the booklet and then to her own. ¡°I take it you agree?¡± she said slowly. The director gave her a small smirk. ¡°It was an unfortunate requirement of my apprenticeship. Large texts full of flowery words and anecdotes are how you earn respect amongst other researchers, but I always preferred a simpler approach.¡± Seras sat back, the tension in the room quickly faded away. ¡°Back home we had a saying. ¡®If you can¡¯t explain it simply then you have business explaining it at all.¡¯¡± Roland Dundee stroked his wavy orange beard. ¡°I like that. But back to the topic at hand, why did you come to take a test that was obviously beneath your skill just to insult me in my own branch?¡± The aura came back, but not nearly as forceful. ¡°Would you believe coincidence?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Not without an explanation.¡± He said flatly. Despite his tone the pressure of the aura dropped by several degrees. ¡°I only came here today because I needed the ability to access magic society resources. Some of my¡­ okay most of my work is unsafe, in an explodey sort of way. And my travel companions didn¡¯t like me doing it in our Inn. That aside I also needed access to more advanced textbooks to further my research.¡± ¡°And the insults?¡± Seras shrugged. ¡°I was getting frustrated copying your flowery-ass speech. Seriously who makes a test that requires you to not only memorize facts but also the whole passage?¡± He glanced down. ¡°Magic textbooks are often full of loose details, and in the course of research you might find yourself skimming through dozens of books a day. Knowing the exact contents of your material is an important skill. Often times the wording can be tricky and misremembering it could be deadly.¡± He explained. ¡°That would not be an issue if everyone simplified things.¡± Seras pointed out. He grunted. ¡°Yes well, that doesn¡¯t seem to be an issue for you. Eidetic memory?¡± Seras looked away. ¡°Not exactly. At least not the way you''re thinking. I¡¯ve got a trait that makes storing knowledge trivial.¡± She opened her pocket space, tossed her rifle in, and withdrew Unlocking the World Around You Vol.1 ¡°I can read any books or other information in my pocket space without pulling it out. It doesn¡¯t even take up space with the pocket space. It just gets converted into pure information and is stored away for my convenience.¡± ¡°So you cheated.¡± He said with a look of disappointment on his face.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Maybe, if you consider memory cheating. It¡¯s all there for me to access just like normal memory, I just happen to be able to store it more easily and call it up with absolute precision. Not really different from Eidetic memory in that way.¡± ¡°And how much can you store, is there a limit?¡± ¡°We think it''s tied to the spirit attribute, maybe. But at the moment looking at what I have left, maybe a few hundred more books as thick as unlocking the world.¡± His eyes widened. ¡°That is a lot.¡± ¡°Yeah, text files are pretty small so it doesn¡¯t take up much space when compared to the information I brought from my world.¡± His head jerked downwards and stared at her. ¡°You¡¯re an outworlder?¡± he said in shock. ¡°Yeah, wasn¡¯t that obvious. I think I wrote it down on the application.¡± He withdrew the application. ¡°Under race of origin it says human, place of birth Mantel, date of birth¡­ you have two listed here. One I can''t understand and another for about three months ago.¡± ¡°Well Outworlders are reborn when they enter a new world so I figured two dates was appropriate. And I think you¡¯ll find the form says Origin Race, not race of origin. Which is a weird way to put it.¡± ¡°Its for the half breeds. People who are part of one race and another. They only get one so we ask for that instead.¡± ¡°So if a Leonid and a Smoulder had a kid the kid would only be one of the parents'' races. No Lion person with black fur and burning eyes?¡± ¡°They might inherit a racial trait or two but yes,¡± he heaved out a sigh, ¡°Miss Cross if you had told the receptionist you were an outworlder then we would have drawn up an appropriate form for you.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t even know that was an option. When I said some of the options were non applicable, she said to fill out the form entirely.¡± ¡°I see, and the essences you have listed?¡± ¡°What about them?¡± ¡°One of these essences don¡¯t exist.¡± He said pointedly. ¡°It doesn¡¯t exist on Pallimustus, since there¡¯s no tech here. But Ruin is a world of high-tech marvels.¡± ¡°And is Ruin where you studied magic originally?¡± He asked. ¡°No, we don¡¯t have magic. I think that essence might be my world¡¯s first essence.¡± He looked alarmed. ¡°How¡­ no you have that memorization ability; learning would be easy.¡± Seras was offended ¡°Hey, its not just my Racial Trait, I¡¯ve been studying the basics almost nonstop. This test just doesn¡¯t test working knowledge, only rote memorization, which is easier for me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s the next test, this one is only here to determine if an aspiring mind is ready to have access to more advanced materials. I will arrange for you to take the senior associates test, you¡¯ll find that one much more challenging.¡± Seras nodded, she¡¯d already been held up here for several hours and likely wouldn¡¯t be able to get any work done. Well she could just work through the night, but Dustin got cranky when she stayed up all night. Since she was here, and so was Dundee, Seras that maybe now was the time to seize on an opportunity. ¡°I can take another test, but first what did you think of my corrections to the test answers.¡± Roland looked up. ¡°Oh, those, scribbled nonsense. If you hadn¡¯t written the right answer flawlessly beforehand we would have marked off points for those.¡± Seras gaped. ¡°Nonsense, I just gave the truth to concepts you people have been wildly misunderstanding.¡± He looked disdainful. ¡°Miss Cross, you said it yourself, you come from a world without magic, what higher truths can your people know without magic?¡± ¡°We¡¯ve identified the basic building blocks and principles of reality, colonized space, built towers that dwarf mountains, and even pierced the dimensional membrane to allow in magic from the astral.¡± He did not look impressed. ¡°I do not know these achievements; you could just as well be lying. But I refuse to accept that an Outworlder who has been here less than three months could rewrite our foundational knowledge so easily.¡± ¡°And if that foundational knowledge is wrong? How much time and effort do you people waste on the higher concepts because your basic understanding is wrong?¡± Seras challenged. Dundee sighed. ¡°Miss Cross, the magic society has tens of thousands of researchers. Nearly a thousand of which are gold, as well as diamond rank patrons who aid in our development. Do you really think that one Outworlder knows better than all of them?¡± Seras leaned back in her chair and did not back away. ¡°Why do things fall back to the ground.¡± She challenged. He looked bored ¡°Things fall, that is simply what they do.¡± He said blandly. ¡°What causes the tides?¡± ¡°It is not fully known; the best theory is fluctuations in the global magical field. But testing such a thing would be too costly and not worth the reward.¡± Seras scrunched her nose at that. ¡°Okay, then tell me. Why does the world spin, why does it revolve around the sun? Why do the moons revolve around the world?¡± ¡°The phenomenon is called celestial tracks. Invisible to our eyes and current detection methods but plainly observable.¡± Seras growled in frustration a pulled out a pen and paper she began scribbling on it drawing serval equations, diagrams, and even short explanations. Her hands moved with unerring mechanical precision. ¡°There you go,¡± Seras said as she shoved the paper towards Dundee, ¡°the real answer to all those questions and more. Gravity. One of the four fundamentals of my world, and presumably this one as well.¡± Dundee glanced at the paper, and despite his earlier shown contempt he accepted the paper and gave it a curious glance. ¡°Is that all Miss Cross?¡± He asked. Seras wanted to say more, but ranting at the magic society director about the glory of science was probably a bad idea. Even if she really wanted to. ¡°I guess so, send in the next text.¡± Dundee nodded and left the room, using the door this time. Seras flopped back in her chair. ~~~*~~~ Dundee closed the door gently. It was impressive how fast his anger had left him. He had thought he was dealing with an arrogant young fool who came into his branch to issue him a blatant challenge. And instead, he found an Outworlder with a curious ability and bit more bravado than was strictly wise for long term health. He glanced to the aid who was stunned by his presence. ¡°Issue her the Senior associates test.¡± He ordered. The aid blinked. ¡°Senior? Not adept or proficient¡¯s?¡± Dundee shook his head. ¡°None of those tests will challenge her, give her the senior associates test. And then depending on her score extend her a line of credit for magical textbooks of up to bronze rank. Also make a mark in her record ¡®while Miss Cross is talented and driven she has an arrogance to her¡¯. Am I understood?¡± The aid¡¯s eyes darted to door then back to the director. ¡°Is she really that talented?¡± ¡°Miss Cross is an Outworlder who has been studying magic for less than three months, she comes from magically barren world and yet aced the junior test. Moreover, there¡¯s a brilliance in her eyes, passion like I¡¯ve rarely seen. Should she survive long enough she¡¯ll prove herself invaluable to magical research. On that matter dig through the archives and retrieve the Outworlder application.¡± ¡°What did you mean by survive sir?¡± Dundee gave the young man a soft smile. ¡°I meant exactly what I said. Outworlders can¡¯t help but find more than their fair share of trouble. Just look at what happened today, she came to take a test and accidentally insulted a magic society director. Outworlders draw trouble as easily as a corpse draws flies, but that isn¡¯t always a bad thing.¡± ¡°Should we offer her an official position then, try to shield her from that trouble.¡± ¡°No,¡± Dundee said with a shake of the head. ¡°Today very well could have ended with her bleeding out the eyes from my aura, I¡¯m genuinely impressed she stayed upright, and instead she ended up leaving me with a good impression of her potential. That¡¯s the thing with trouble, it can be good or bad. Besides, nothing we do could really shelter her from trouble, she would just bring it all down on our heads as well.¡± With his final words Dundee vanished from sight. Really, it was such a waste of teleportation. But it did make for a good exit. He was about to return to his writing, when he recalled the papers, he was still holding. He stared at them for a minute, well, it couldn¡¯t hurt to at least peruse them. Ch48 Alicia Caras When Seras left the magic society it was the morning of the next day. She now had the badge of a Senior Associate and had used the generous amount of credit to fill her storage space with a wide variety of magic textbooks in her pocket space. Seras made sure to skim them before hand to make sure they weren¡¯t packed full of fluff, but unfortunately some degree of useless padding was inescapable. By the time the attendant was finally finished with explaining to her all the tools and resources at her fingertips they were nearly falling asleep at their desk. Seras had the bad impression that the poor guy had been required to stay up late into the night to assist her. But he had left her with a good tip. ¡°Now that you¡¯re a senior associate you should consider looking ahead into what your specialization will be.¡± ¡°Specialization?¡± He yawned as he nodded. ¡°That¡¯s the next highest associates level from where your at. Once you¡¯ve begun to develop your advanced knowledge you should look ahead to where you¡¯ll specialize. No one but the very few magical geniuses can study all fields of magic, most pick a direction to focus their efforts.¡± ¡°What kind of fields are there?¡± she asked. ¡°Formations, magical healing, artificing, arrays, summoning¡¯s, astral magic, and many more.¡± Seras¡¯ mind caught on that last part. ¡°Astral magic. Is that space, or transmissional stuff?¡± ¡°The last one. Astral magic researchers focus their time on understanding the astral and how it interacts with our reality. I don¡¯t really know much more than that, but I will say its not a popular branch. Not many who go into that field really make many world-famous advancements. I¡¯ve heard that most branches use their Astral magic researchers for basic clerical work and drudgery.¡± Seras had then spent the remaining hours until dawn tinkering, she got maybe four hours of work out of the rented lab space, but it was some quality alone time spent with her guns. It reminded Seras of the old days when she would hole up in one of her armories and spend days tinkering with her weapons until the next job came. She hadn¡¯t really had the opportunity since coming to Pallimustus, but it was calming. Now more confident in her capability to hurt the bronze ranked Omeda archer Seras was walking with a slight swager. Maybe her confidence would cost her later, but Seras was happy with what she had made. Her good mood ended the moment she stepped through the doors of the inn and saw the place packed with armored men and women. The atmosphere was tense, and they had all been listening to a familiar Smolder at the front until Seras came in. They all turned to stare at her. ¡°This Inn is closed, adventurer society business.¡± A tall blonde Elvin women said coldly. A wave of bronze rank aura washed over her, urging her to walk back out of the room. Seras glared and let her own aura burble forth. It wasn¡¯t any near as good as the elf¡¯s, but that wasn¡¯t the point. Seras was tired of people trying to bully her with their auras. Dundee was forgivable given the circumstances, but this bitch? Fuck no! ¡°Miss Caras,¡± Dustin interjected his own aura wafting out and pushing both of their clashing auras away with ease. ¡°This is Seras Cross, another member of my crew and the one who fought the Omeda Bronze ranker.¡± He explained. The elf, Caras, sneered down her nose at Seras. ¡°He must have been a pitifully weak core user if she bested him.¡± Seras sneered back ¡°We were evenly matched, and I wouldn¡¯t call him weak since he withstood a bullet to the head.¡± The elf snorted ¡°Any bronze ranker could withstand the attack of an iron ranker.¡± ¡°Wanna bet.¡± Seras said, summoning her pistol to her hand. It was bluster, but Caras didn¡¯t know that, and as the adventurer eyed the strange weapon with wary eyes Seras knew she had fooled her. Upon entering Seras had quickly noticed how the iron rankers like herself had been pushed off to the side as the bronze took center stage. This did not sit well with her, maybe rank as a good indicator of power for other people, but Seras was strong beyond her rank and refused to be ignored or set to the side. She had to prove herself to these people, and the quickest way to do that was in a quick pissing match with the first person who challenged her. The Elf stepped back, but kept her eyes on Seras. Seras ignored her and stepped towards an empty chair near Dustin, she spun the chair around and sat on it backwards. ¡°Catch me up Dust.¡± The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Dustin had been watching the whole scene, but only intervened the once. He had let Seras handle herself and gave her a nod of approval. ¡°We just got news that the Omeda struck again in the early hours of this morning, two more towns on the periphery. I have sent out messages and these are the teams that replied the quickest. We were just going over the quickest way we can get there and figuring out lines of communication.¡± Seras nodded ¡°Do we know which way they fled?¡± ¡°Only a general direction.¡± ¡°Then the best plan sounds like sending in scouts and trackers to pinpoint the enemy while the main host assembles at point nearby. Once we know where the Omeda are then the full force of our expedition will be in place to strike.¡± They all gaped at her. ¡°What?¡± Seras asked. ¡°We¡¯ve been discussing this for an hour,¡± the elf said cautiously ¡°and it took us that long to come up with a plan. Did Westbrook send word ahead of time to you or-,¡± ¡°Its just the most logical conclusion.¡± Seras said with a shrug. ¡°This aint my first gig.¡± ¡°Gig?¡± the Elf asked. Flint cleared his throat. ¡°Seras here is an Outworlder, on her world she saw much combat and fighting. When it comes to killing people there aren¡¯t as many more experienced at her level.¡± ¡°The way you say it makes me sound like a murderer.¡± Seras shot back. ¡°You are.¡± Flint grumbled. ¡°Enough,¡± Dustin interrupted. He shot Flint a glare before turning back to Seras, ¡°Any other ideas?¡± ¡°None besides the obvious, pick out our fastest and stealthiest members, make sure to plot for escape routes, sabotage their wagons. And identify where the captives are being held so we can avoid hitting them in the cross fire. Oh, and identify the bronze rankers and see if there¡¯s anyone they all report to. Its unlikely a silver ranker is heading this enterprise, but we should still keep an eye out for one.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bit paranoid don¡¯t you think?¡± the Elf challenged. ¡°Plan for the worst, hope for better.¡± Seras said nonchalantly. Dustin glanced around and nodded. ¡°It seems like we have our plan, every second wasted is time they have to flee. Send me your fastest and I will coordinate the scouting mission while the rest of us gear up, we leave at eighth bell. Seras, I¡¯d like to have a word.¡± The crowd began to disperse, some grouped up while others immediately left to the inn to prepare. Seras stood up and walked to Dustin who activated an odd magical device that created a field of strange static around them. ¡°You certainly made your presence known.¡± He said in greeting. ¡°I didn¡¯t feel like being pushed around.¡± Flint looked unconvinced ¡°Be careful of Lady Caras, she¡¯s Phoenix nobility, and even bonded with one of their young.¡± ¡°I take it that should mean something.¡± Seras said cautiously. Dustin nodded ¡°The nobility of Cuprik are those the Pheonix clan deemed worthy of partnering with, adventurers of old with brave and noble spirits. Not everyone lives up to that expectation, but those that do and are given the right essences and stones to bond with their young. Alicia Caras is one of only five young scions who are bonded at this time, that gives her words extra credence and respect. Be careful of making an enemy out of her.¡± Seras nodded, understanding the implications of what he said. ¡°Why would someone like that come here anyway? I got the impression from Arlee that the nobility wanted no part in this.¡± ¡°No,¡± Flint said while shaking his head, ¡°what he said was that he didn¡¯t have the right to call upon the nobles to lead this expedition. Lady Caras came out of her own volition once she heard word that Dustin was assembling an expedition. We¡¯re fortunate she hasn¡¯t tried to suborn leadership.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Seras hummed thoughtfully. ¡°Anyway, I want to be apart of the scouting party.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t be serious?¡± Flint questioned. ¡°None of your essence abilities are suited to stealth.¡± ¡°No, but my active camo allows me to smother my own aura. And I have lots of experience in scouting and tracking.¡± ¡°Where did you get forest tracking skills? Your world has no forests.¡± ¡°No, but I¡¯ve done wasteland tracking before, and I know how groups like this think. Besides, you¡¯ve got no one to coordinate the scouts, and with that display I just put on I¡¯m your best bet.¡± Seras crossed her arms and met their questioning gazes. ¡°We have Rohan-,¡± Flint began but Dustin cut him off. ¡°Rohan didn¡¯t speak once during the meeting, and only just reached iron. He can¡¯t lead. Seras, are you really confident in doing this, or is this just bluster?¡± ¡°One hundred and ten percent.¡± ¡°Good. You and the scouts ride ahead, we¡¯ll be meeting up at the town of West Rock.¡± He pointed to the map and Seras nodded. ¡°So, they¡¯re fleeing into the surrounding mountains. Do these¡­ Heidel-Back Mountains¡­ have any viable passes? Might narrow things down.¡± ¡°No, no passes. We believe they might have found a labyrinth tunnel that leads though the mountains. That¡¯s the only explanation we have so far.¡± ¡°Alright, that¡¯s a bit harder.¡± Seras said as she began to plot out her course. ¡°By the way, what took you so long?¡± Flint asked. Dustin gave her a concerned look. ¡°Did you stay up all night tinkering?¡± ¡°Ah sort of. I was held up at the Magic society almost all night, only got a few hours of tinkering in.¡± ¡°Held up, by what?¡± Flint groaned ¡°Please tell me you didn¡¯t cause trouble at the Magic society.¡± ¡°Did you at least pass your test?¡± ¡°Did they throw you out?¡± Seras held up her. ¡°You guys need to have a little more faith in me. Of course, I passed my test. I did so well that the Magic society director came to speak with me personally.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t believe you.¡± Flint said flatly. ¡°I agree with Flint, did you really talk with the Magic society director?¡± ¡°Are you calling me a liar?¡± Seras said offended. They exchanged glances and then in unison said ¡°Yes.¡± ¡°Wow, okay, that¡¯s a bit hurtful. But if you must know I really did speak with the Magic society Director, Director Roland Dundee.¡± ¡°Oh Gods no¡± Flint muttered. Dustin was frowning ¡°Why does that name sound familiar?¡± Fint put his head in his hands. ¡°He wrote the books of magic primer I lent Seras.¡± He moaned through his hands. Dustin looked aghast and the fiery lines on his face dimmed, making him look pitch black. A smolder version of going deathly pale. ¡°You,¡± he said in a shaky voice, ¡°You didn¡¯t insult him right?¡± Seras suddenly found the ceiling to be very interesting. ¡°Seras!¡± Dustin pressed, ¡°Tell me you didn¡¯t insult a magic society director in his own branch.¡± ¡°I would¡­¡± Seras began, ¡°but I¡¯m not a liar.¡± She finished. ¡°Oh gods.¡± Dustin muttered. ¡°Its fine, turns out he agreed with me on all my gripes. He even let me take the senior associates¡¯ test after our talk. Which I aced thank you very much.¡± Seras said smugly. Flint pulled his head out of his hands. ¡°Senior, not novice or proficients?¡± ¡°Yeah, Roland gave me the senior test and I passed it with flying colors.¡± She pulled out the badge to prove it. Flint¡¯s eyes went wide, then he cursed. ¡°Damnable Outworlders. I spent years studying to get to this point and you get to insult the director and skip three whole ranks.¡± Dustin patted Flint on the shoulder. ¡°There there, it was your books that got this far.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t patronize me.¡± Flint grumbled, but didn¡¯t shake off Dustin¡¯s hand. Seras watched this and began to wonder how deep their ¡®partnership¡¯ went? ¡°Do you need anything else from me, because if not I left some grenades upstairs that I need to grab.¡± Dustin looked at her sharply. ¡°Wait, is that what was in the basket, those weird, ridged ball things were bombs? Petra said she knocked over the thing!¡± he looked stunned and nervous. ¡°It fine, those are just the shells, I still need to put the explodey bits in, I was going to finish doing that before I left.¡± He looked tired as he shook his head, ¡°just grab your things and go.¡± Seras ran up and grabbed the grenade casings and pins before she ran down to the stables to saddle up Buck. Ch49 Scouting Alicia Caras watched the young smolder boy argue with Westbrook. ¡°Uncle, I can fight,¡± The boy pleaded. ¡°You are not even iron rank and you only have one essence ability, you¡¯re not coming,¡± Westbrook said unflinchingly. ¡°This isn¡¯t fair, your letting Seras and Rohan come, and they only just gotten their last essences.¡± ¡°Rohan is a warrior of the Akemi and has been shooting arrows since he could pull back the string, and Seras has over a decade of combat experience. You haven¡¯t even been away from home for full year. You¡¯re not ready.¡± The younger smolder stomped off the sulk. Westbrook sighed and turned to Alecia, ¡°Sorry about that, he¡¯s my youngest brother¡¯s youngest son. You know how it is.¡± Alecia was an only child, but she nodded anyway. ¡°It is fine, though he brings up a good point.¡± Alecia had only been in the city for half a day before she heard about the Omeda and knew that she needed to be a part of whatever response the Adventurer society was planning. When she had heard that Director Arlee had tasked some caravan master with the job Alecia was resolved to take over. But the moment she felt Westbrook¡¯s aura she gave up on that plan, caravan master or not this man was the real deal. ¡°About Seras and Rohan?¡± Westbrook asked, getting to the crux of the matter. ¡°The Akemi I get. His people would be upset if we didn¡¯t include him despite the dangers. It¡¯s the Outworlder I¡¯m curious about. The boy said she only just got her essences, and I can feel it from her aura control, she can¡¯t have had her essence abilities for more than four maybe five months. Why include her?¡± Westbrook grinned, ¡°that right there is why. Seras has only been an iron ranker for about a month, and has only recently obtained her aura power.¡± No, that can¡¯t be right. Her aura was crude and unrefined, but it wasn¡¯t nearly that bad. ¡°You¡¯re telling me she progressed this far in only a month? I don¡¯t believe you, she resisted my aura suppression too easily for that to be the case.¡± ¡°Aura is a projection of the soul and the will contained within. While we can only actively control our auras once we gain an aura power it is possible to affect it in little ways. A person who spent their life hiding their motives and intentions would find they have an easier time withdrawing their aura. A person who spent their life tracking in the forest would better be able to pinpoint other auras. Seras spent her whole life fighting against powerful entities on her world, so she excels in resisting aura suppression. We all personally felt the aura of Director Arlee press upon us, but only she walked out of there without shivering.¡± ¡°So your saying she has a natural advantage in resisting aura suppression, that doesn¡¯t answer my question.¡±If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°I think you missed my point then. Seras doesn¡¯t have a natural advantage, she has a slight talent in developing those abilities, but it was her own efforts that got her so far. I don¡¯t like to use the word, but I can¡¯t think of any more appropriate. Seras is a prodigy when it comes to aura control. And matched by her years of combat experience, mercenary work, and the strange ¡®guns¡¯ she uses I would be remiss to leave her out.¡± Alicia raised a single slender eyebrow. ¡°You sound proud.¡± She observed. ¡°Maybe just a bit. Its nice to see someone you¡¯ve helped flourish. We found Sera naked in the desert, far from any civilization. She was trying to keep a lid on it but we could tell she was way out of her depths with everything. She had only one essence and was too afraid to use another. First time we entered a citadel with her she tried to break off and go her own way, that ended with a burned down bar a dead adventurer and Seras nearly dead from fighting bronze ranker. Now months later she¡¯s iron rank, building her ¡®guns¡¯, absorbing magic like a sponge, and volunteering for a dangerous job.¡± ¡°She fought a bronze rank as a normal rank and lived?¡± ¡°She got lucky a few times, but that only goes so far. She¡¯s got a decade of direct combat experience from her world, and by her own accounts she was one of the best.¡± Westbrooke¡¯s words made Alecia reassess the outworlder in a different light. Given the added context she wasn¡¯t too proud to admit that the women had risen several levels in her estimations. Though one thing kept playing on her mind, ¡°naked in the desert?¡± she asked. Westbrook blinked and shook his head, ¡°its how outworlders arrive. The only thing that can survive the trip is the soul, everything else gets obliterated. Their souls remake their bodies not their clothes.¡± Alecia noticed the rising temperatures near Westbrook. ¡°You seem flustered at the memory.¡± She noted. The caravanner cleared his throat, ¡°it was, ahem, quite the sight.¡± He admitted. Alecia smirked, ¡°Interesting. I think I might want to see for myself.¡± The caravanner blinked and Alecia smirked as she walked away. ~~~*~~~ Seras sneezed. It was poorly timed thing since she was currently creeping along a rough cliff face trying to get a better view of the Omeda camp. She and the other two scouts had tracked the Omeda into the mountains and to a rock outcropping shielded from view by huge granitic boulders and scraggly trees. Seras was the only person of the three scouts who could more or less hide in plain sight, so she was the one sent up the back side of their camp to get the layout. She was just glad they didn¡¯t insist on escorting her to the location, otherwise she would have had to explain to the two men why her power required her to strip down to nothing. Back home Seras would have had access to more advanced clothing options that would negate this downside entirely. ¡°I don¡¯t even have organic lungs. Or a real nose. The fuck was that?¡± She thought to herself. That literally could not have come at a worse time, because now one of their sentries was on alert and scanning his surroundings. Fucker was even competent enough to check the cliffs. Thankfully his eyes glanced over her, and his aura senses slipped right past Seras without a pause. It did mean she needed to be much more careful. The camp was set up in two rings, with wooden polls making up the walls. The Outer ring was the most well defended, clear visuals, watching sentries, and a half dozen formations she could divine from this distance. The inner ring was less well guarded it held some lean-tos, tan hide tents, and the cages for the captured civvies. And right in the center was an ominous chasm in the earth that went down into deep darkness. There were ropes and pullies set up by the side and Seras had to assume it was an entrance into the labyrinth. The grand magical cave network that ran under the entire five deserts. The strange place where Seras had first awoken. She sat and watched the camp for close to an hour before she had felt like she¡¯d seen enough. As Seras was slowly creeping away she saw one final oddity. A small group of Omeda returned to the camp from a secret entrance in the side Seras had missed, making the obvious gate at the front a false entrance. It was the Omeda archer and two others dragging a limp woman. Poor thing looked beat to shit and had a collar around her neck. Strangely enough she was the only prisoner wearing a collar. The camp became a busy place for a few minutes, and Seras witnessed several hidden archers emerge from out of nowhere, places she was sure she had searched. Magic fuckery. They all clustered around the beaten woman and talked. Then more chains were procured, and the women was moved into a heavy metal cage, much tougher than the other ones. Obviously, an essence user, though her rank was impossible to tell. But given the woman¡¯s height and lithe toned muscles under her warm brown skin Seras pegged her as a warrior. Especially given the beating she had taken. Seras had an idea as she watched the women stir to consciousness and smash against the bars. There was a path down from her vantage point, and given the right combination of essences it might be possible to sneak a small group in. She slowly worked herself back up the rock, taking one last look at the camp before she finally made her way back to the others. The women in the cage had pulled her knees up to her chest, her head was buried between them, but Seras could easily imagine the tears. Ch50 THUD! Athena¡¯s eyes had dried up long before night had fallen over the little outpost the where she had been beaten, collared, and caged. She was alone in a metal cage with bars think enough to lock a down a bronze ranker, let alone an Iron ranker like Athena. Not that it stopped her. Her upbringing had been a strict one with an endless procession of lessons, training, and even mock scenarios within a mirage chamber. Her education spanned any number of subjects from mathematics, magic, history, and politics. What it hadn¡¯t included was lock picking, something she hadn¡¯t considered an oversight until this very moment. A mundane lock would have been bad enough, but her captors had used several locking formations that Athena only vaguely recognized from seeing them on her families¡¯ grounds. They were the kinds of formations used on rooms Athena had never seen the inside of because the formations were just that good at keeping people out. Even her more precocious cousins failed at breaking those. It was all overkill for a defective iron rank healer like her, not that she had a way to tell the rude tribesmen who had captured and beaten Athena. They didn¡¯t speak any of the common languages she had been taught, nor did she have her translating charm on her anymore. That had been left in her room half a world away, an oversight she was regretting. Right now Athena was full of regrets. Athena regretted trying to go south on her own, even if this area was low ranked that didn¡¯t make it safe. She regretted running away from home, the decision had made sense at the time, but now she was having trouble recalling the reasons. And more over she regretted that her parents were now dead. For weeks now she had been wondering if there was something she could have said, something she could have done to stop them from leaving on their expedition. The logical part of her mind said that the life of adventures was a dangerous one, and that they knew the risks going in. That they hadn¡¯t gone out alone, they had a team of other elite adventurers by their side and decades of experience. But no amount of logic and reason could pierce the cloud of misery and doubt that had engulfed Athena¡¯s mind since the day their adventure badges went dead. Little tears were once again welling up in Athena¡¯s eyes when she heard a load ¡®BANG¡¯ and saw the bright flash of light towards the front of the camp. The strange tribal men in leather jackets jerked upright and began shouting. A second bang and a wave of fire had them running for the camp entrance, weapons drawn. Soon shouts of battle and the bright flashes of essence abilities reached Athena¡¯s ears. She was staring intently at where the fighting was taking place, she was so distracted that she didn¡¯t notice the person sneaking up on her cage. A hand reached through the bars and clamped around her mouth and jerked back against the bars. Athena tried to scream through the grip, but a sharp sensation against her neck shut her up. ¡°Good,¡± a husky female voice whispered behind her, she spoke in Athena¡¯s native tongue but with a curious lack of accent or dialect. ¡°Glad people react the same way to knives in every world.¡± The knife left her neck and the person relaxed her grip on Athena, though hand didn¡¯t leave her mouth. ¡°I¡¯m here with the adventure society, we¡¯ve been sent to rescue you. I¡¯m gonna get you out of this cage and then we¡¯re gonna spring the rest. But I need you to keep quiet. Can you do that? Nod if you can.¡± Athena nodded her head once and the hand released her fully. Athena whirled around to see a celestine woman with dark steel colored hair and eyes. She was wearing dark clothing and was quickly working on the cage door. Instead of messing with the lock she had instead gone to where the hinges were and began to saw at them with a metal wire. ¡°Dumbasses went all out on the lock and forgot about the hinges.¡± she muttered as her wire went through one hinge, and then then the next. She then held onto the cage door with both hands before it vanished into nowhere, little blue sparks came from the celestine¡¯s hands as she utilized a storage power. Athena stepped through the now empty doorway and emerged stood up straight for the first time in half a day. ¡°Give me your neck.¡± The woman ordered. ¡°My neck?¡± Athena whispered back in confusion. ¡°Suppression collar.¡± The Celestine whispered urgently. Athena bent down and the woman¡¯s hands gripped either side and pulled. Athena¡¯s eyes went wide. ¡°don¡¯t you have a key¡± ¡°Don¡¯t. Need. One¡± she grunted as the pressure mounted around Athena¡¯s neck. The metal of the collar deformed and bent, and at one point it was briefly choking Athena, and then all at once it all vanished with a sharp pinging noise. The woman made the bent halves of the collar disappear in a wave of blue sparks and grinned, ¡°they¡¯re designed for iron rankers, with iron rank strength in mind, I¡¯m just a bit stronger than that. Now come on I need you to help me get the others out of here, we¡¯re gonna funnel them out the secret entrance you were dragged in from.¡± ¡°The others?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Yeah, battle out there¡¯s gonna be a tough one, last thing we need is civvies in the cross fire, or used as meat shields. Gotta guy on the other side who¡¯ll cart them out of this dumpster fire.¡± She pushed and metal wire into Athena¡¯s hands and then she was off to another cage, as she ran her skin seemed to shift and change to match the environment. Some sort of stealth ability. For a brief second Athena reveled in the unfettered feeling of no longer being suppressed by the collar. Her aura extended out and Athena rushed off to the other cages. The people saw Athena and became animated, it looked like they wanted to shout, but one of the smarter ones silenced the others. Athena got to the cage and got the wire around the hinges and began to saw through just like the woman. The wire cut through the metal like it was soft clay, and in no time, she was slowly lowering the cage door and ushering the people inside to the false wall that lead to a short dirt tunnel that led to the other side of a hill. A second group of people were right behind the first, and Athena turned to see that the woman had just finished up with the third and final cage of people before an arrow sprouted from her shoulder. The Celestine hissed and dropped into a roll as one of the bronzes ranked tribesmen emerged from a shadow. He said something Athena couldn¡¯t understand, and the woman growled something back at him, then she threw and ball that had emerged from her storage space. The archer jumped back, and a brilliant flash of light burst out from the ball. Athena¡¯s own eyes were blinded by the weapon, and she was dozens of meters from the explosion, she couldn¡¯t imagine what it was like to the bronze rankers. But the Celestine kept moving as if it hadn¡¯t blinded her eyes and had drawn a long staff from her storage space, pressed it against her shoulder and used it to cast an attack spell. CRACK! She pulled a lever on the staff back and a small brass tube popped out, she slid in a similar one. Her stealth ability was canceled and her iron rank aura burst forth with aggressive defiance against the presence of archers bronze rank aura. CRACK! Another loud bang rang through the camp, it smacked right in the bronze ranker, and made him stumble a bit. But whatever initiative the Celestine had was spent, and he summoned a knife to his hand and ran in close. His bronze rank speed closed the distance in an instant and the fight was on. Athena had kept one eye om the engagement, and another the third group of prisoners. The last person had just ran through when the Celestine took a deep cut through her stomach. Though no entrails or blood spilled out from it Athena could still tell it was a brutal attack. In that moment Athena held the celestine¡¯s life in her hands. She could run to safety with the other prisoners and leave all of this behind, or she could use her abilities on the Celestine and get involved with a fight against a bronze ranked warrior. Athena was not an adventurer, despite her family¡¯s hope for her to take up the family tradition Athena did not have the temperament of a fighter, she couldn¡¯t live that life. Its why she tried to become a healer, unfortunately her abilities were broken and brought her only misery. The Celestine was a fighter, Athena could see it in her every movement. It reminded her of her cousins, aunts, uncles, and even her own parents. They all moved without any hesitation, they capitalized on every movement and held nothing back.This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it. She was the adventurer here, not Athena, she knew the risks coming into this daring rescue. Athena didn¡¯t ask for any of this. Maybe that more than anything else was why she did what she did. Because the only reason the Celestine was facing such a deadly threat was because she was here to save lives like Athena¡¯s. People who didn¡¯t ask for trouble but found it anyway. Just like what her parents did. Athena reached out and spoke the words to her spell, ¡°I claim your pian as my own.¡± The gash on the Celestine closed rapidly, just as a new cut appeared in Athena¡¯s gut and blood soaked her already stained clothes. She put a hand to her stomach and whispered her second spell, ¡°balance the karmic scales.¡± She felts the internal well of good karma within herself drain as the wound began to rapidly heal. That was her power set, a broken healers¡¯ abilities. Life, Magic, and renewal for an immortal confluence. The first awakened ability she got from her immortal confluence was the ability to transfer other wounds to herself. An ability that usually required an awakening stone of pain, harm, or flagellant, and it was her first from her confluence. An immortal healer who could only work by stealing the injuries of others for herself. But worse yet was that she couldn¡¯t limit the range of her abilities, and she took everything. The pain in her stomach was nothing compared to the brief crush of pain that shot through her. She felt her own aura tremble as fell to her knees with a scream of pain. ~~~*~~~ The girl had collapsed to the ground the moment Seras felt the cut on her gut close. More than that, for a brief instant Seras felt the soul deep pain of her Soul/body disconnect vanish. For a single second Seras realized just how used to the endless pain she had become. It never left her, and it never grew easier, but for a while it had become normal. That brief second was enough to let Seras feel just how stark the difference between the two states of being were. Then the pain returned, and in her brief loss of concentration Seras felt it grow worse. Reinforce metal 1 103% has advanced to Reinforce metal 2, 3% Soul/body disconnect has advance to 4% Seras didn¡¯t even have time to curse the girl for causing the lapse in Seras¡¯ concentration of holding the ability back. Now the pain had doubled at literally the worst possible time. The archer had seen the whole exchange and had paused in confusion for one blessed moment before drew back his bow to fire upon the girl. Seras took the second of distraction to leap back, lift her rifle and blast the bronze ranker point blank. During the fight Seras had noticed that he was now wearing some tough hide armor, magically enhanced to better handle her bullets. Meaning her first shot after the flash bang had been wasted, while the second did minimum damage. This one was better aimed, and it went straight through his hand. Blood and bone sprayed out, but it was enough to save the girl. The arrow had flown free of the bow an instant before Seras shot. The black feathered arrow flew forward with startling speed straight for the crying girl. Only to be swapped out for an armored blonde elf woman. Alecia Caras took the arrow with her golden shield as behind Seras the girl fell from the air and next to the chasm into the labyrinth. She thudded into the ground and Seras winced a little at the way her hand folded up. She wanted to help, but the Omeda archer was already wheeling around to stab at Seras. Seras dismissed her rifle and lifted her pistol for an eye shot, control bullet locked on. She pulled back, the hammer fell, and a bullet whizzed straight into the archer¡¯s eye. Her mistake before was forgetting how tough bronze rankers were and resorting to old tactics. Seras was an excellent shot, but even she hadn¡¯t been good enough to hit something as small as an eye while both her and her target were moving. And before she had jumped worlds a head shot was just as good. The archer screamed as blood spurted from his vision. Ten instances of enfeeblement have been applied to Komeru Omeda Her shot didn¡¯t kill him like it should have, or even stop the knife that slashed across her own eyes. Left ocular system is offline, nasal olfactory system is offline. Time to repair 49 hours and eleven minutes. Seras sped up the repair process, then did again, and again. Twelve bronze rank monsters cores, 129 iron rank iron quintessence, and five bronze spirit coins vanished from her storage space as the timer dropped to five minutes, not enough to help her. Then a second after she had done all that her vision and sense of smell returned, and the pain disappeared. Aura of the immortal is in effect. All healing abilities have been boosted, all regenerative abilities have been boosted, all pain has been reduced. Seras felt through her aura sense that the girl was still conscience and had once again taken Seras injuries away. A second after that another aura went over her. Aura of Pheonix is in effect. All fire abilities have been boosted, mana cost for abilities have been boosted, healing effects are boosted. And then more auras. Aura of the Inferno. Aura of the earth guardian. Aura of the master. Aura of the beast. Aura of the moon. The aura of her allies washed over her, and with them came the hostile auras of the Omeda¡¯s. Aura of the night is in effect, all vision is reduced. Aura of the mystic. Aura of the Eagle. Aura of penance. Aura of the master. Aura of the magister. All around her Seras felt an invisible battle of wills take place, bronze ranked auras battered themselves against the other bronze ranked auras while simultaneously trying to shield the iron rankers from suppression as the iron ranked auras did battle as well. Seras felt like she was in the middle of hurricane of power. She felt her eyes opening wide as her head began to spin with the effects. All her training before with Dustin felt like a child kicking around in the sand box compared to what she was feeling now. One aura above all the others stood out as it slowly pushed out smothered other bronze rank auras. With a firm but warm grip it latched onto and guided the other allied auras and organized the resistance against the Omeda. Warm as a long summers fire for his allies, and as hot as the inferno against his enemies, Dustin¡¯s aura slowly claimed ground in the ineffable battle of auras. He didn¡¯t have any formal training, he had no backing, no secret techniques. All he had was decades of time spent in the saddle and nothing else to do but train his aura. In that regard Dustin may have one of the strongest bronze rank auras around. Imagine what a man like him could have done with a better head start in life. In seconds the battle had engulfed Seras¡¯ position, whether that was from the Omeda falling back to use the hostages, or the adventurers pushing them back was unknown. All Seras knew was that things had gotten crazy fast, but her opponent remained. Komeru Omeda, continued to charge at Seras, only to be blind sided by a bronze ranked elf in ornate bronze armor. Seras had before only seen her round shield and bits of her armor. Now up close Seras saw that it had an overarching ¡®bird¡¯ theme. Long feathers were embossed around the rim of her round shield, little wings sprouted from her helmet, and the fierce visage of an eagle like bird was molded into her pauldron¡¯s. A red feathered cape hung behind her back, and her spear had vermillion feathers tied at the base of the blade. Caras reminded Seras of the hoplites of old, though with a distinctly different style. The archer jumped away from her and wearily stared at her shield and armor, then he sneered and two dozen black feathered arrows appeared in the air around him. The wind kicked up and the arrows whirled around Alecia Caras, though with far less speed than when launched from his bow. Seras dismissed her pistol and once again drew her rifle, she slid the bolt back, slid another bullet in and raised only to see four of the arrows coming for her. Blue lines ran along her arm in a circuitry like pattern as she braced for the attack. She watched her mana drop by a quarter as the arrows slammed into her exposed head. But it was worth it as only superficial cuts in her smart skin remained. Seras aimed and fired, the archer ducked, and the bullet had no time or space to course correct. It flew off and hit the iron ranked mage who had been readying some sort of spell to assist the archer. Komeru¡¯s eyes went wide as he felt the spell castors aura falter and fade away. He glared at Seras, but had no time for a reprisal as Alecia Caras moved with a lunging spear attack. Seras was already reloading her rifle and aiming at another iron ranker, a young women with a turquoise beads braided into her hair who was throwing out white bolts of energy that were healing the Omeda. She was nice and unguarded. Komeru roared with rage as the healer clutched at her side. Not a killing shot, but it held her in place just long enough to give Flint a chance to cast his spell and turn the earth into a liquid that entombed the healer. He tried to hit Seras with more arrows, but Alecia was now wise to that trick and rushed him to force him to change targets. Killing the iron rank mage and healer marked a turning point in the battle. The dozen or so iron rank warriors on the Omeda side lost their support, and were slowly overwhelmed. The loss of more iron rankers freed up some of the adventurers to put pressure on the five bronze ranked Omeda. Seras even helped with taking down a bronze rank mage with well timed shots, Komeru kept trying to take out Seras, but Alecia stood her ground resolutely, taking arrows meant for Seras. Their side was not immune to reprisal. Seras saw Petra take a blast of magic head on while trying to shield Rohan. Petra flew back with an awful thud that broke a wooden post, while Rohan was knocked head over heels by Petra being flung through him. Flint took an arrow to the chest for killing the healer, and would have been dead if Dustin hadn¡¯t ridden up at the last minute to cut down the attacker. It was a messy and brutal melee that could have gone against them in an instant if one factor had been different. Without the civvies to worry about the adventurers were allowed to fully cut loose. The camp was already engulfed in an inferno from Dustin¡¯s elemental attacks and the smoke would have choked Seras out if she had real lungs still. But as things continued to turn against the Omeda they began to get more and more desperate. Healing potions were drunk, as well as mana potions, and stamina potions, a frenzy potion, and one that gave an elf man onyx scales. Silver ranked spirit coins were devoured, and the surge of berserk strength the higher ranked coin gave them tore the Adventurers apart. As things continued to become more frantic, and another Bronze ranked Omeda fell a point of no return was reached. A Bronze rank Omeda woman in the center of their formation pulled out a gold crystalline coin and plopped it into her. She had been fighting with exploding fists and ground shaking stomps. With the coin however her pattern of attack changed, ¡°protect me while I destroy these curs!¡± she roared as booming energy began to fill her hand. Alecia saw it and cursed, ¡°rotten ashes, suicide attack! Run! She¡¯s an onslaught user.¡± She gave Komeru one last jab before she turned and dragged Seras backwards. Seras was of a mind to follow, when all of a sudden the pain returned. Her feet stumbled and she collapsed to the ground, a hand jerked her up and Seras was forced to stumble around as Alecia tried to drag her onwards. But the return of the pain could only mean one thing. Seras looked to the fissure in the earth and saw that the healer girl had collapsed to her knees, her face pale and clammy with tears streaking down her cheek. Throughout the whole fight Seras had forgotten the pain, and had unconsciously ignored its absence. Good riddance. Put the reprieve came at a price, it required the healer girl to step up and take all Seras¡¯ suffering. And more by the looking of it. Broken ribs from an impact meant for a Leonid, several dozen arrow wounds meant for Alecia, and half a dozen other injuries. She had taken them all while holding off Seras¡¯ pain. Now she was out of will power, and incapable of getting herself to safety. Seras had the chance to run away, get to safety. But at the cost of the girl. ¡°DEAD FUCKING GODSDAMMIT ALL!¡± she roared as her legs pumped beneath her to cross the battle field. In a blink of the eye she was next to the girl and throwing her over her shoulders as fast as she could. Which wasn¡¯t fast enough. Seras stumbled as a knife cut through her back and into her spine. A paralyzing blow if she were still meat. Instead it cut one of the connecting wires to her legs and the limb locked up. Seras turned and pointed her pistol at her attacker and saw Komeru with his knife. His eyes were wild. ¡°Why won''t you just die?¡± he roared with a second slash, and then a third. Gone was the fa?ade of an honorable warrior, in its place was a maddened beast. A cut went through Seras¡¯ neck and hot fluid began to pour out. But it wasn¡¯t blood. The man¡¯s skin burned as black, oil-like, cyborg blood coated him, and Seras felt her whole body losing strength. Internal fluid cycler has been punctured. Fluid levels dropping. A pop up alerted her Repair time 14 hours and¡­ recalculating. Repair time 15 hours and¡­recalculating. Seras watched in horror as the time kept going up, and her body continued to feel weaker. Still she couldn¡¯t help her response. ¡°The. The. Pinnacle of, en, en, engineering and science.¡± Her voice was crackly and full of distortions. Like a broken speaker. Since Seras was facing Komeru and had her back to the fissure she had a perfect view as the Omeda woman finished channleing her power and plunged an ord of power into the ground. With her strength already failing her Seras knew there was no leaping upwards to escape the ground tremor. That only left down. She let her knees go limp as she leaned backwards and into the fissure. The deep fissure. The deep fissure that led into a monster infested cave system. Seras was sure it would all be just fine¡­ THUD! Ch51 These things have a way of coming back around In the aftermath of the raid on the Omeda there was precious little to clean up. Mostly because there was nothing left but ashes and rubble. The spirit coin empowered suicide attack had shaken the ground so hard that the nearby granite cliffs had cracked down the middle, resulting in a rockslide. Any evidence or prisoners to collect was all buried beneath thousands of tons of rubble. Still Alecia loitered nearby, restless and unwilling to just walk away. Gravel crunched behind her as a tall ebony skinned Smoulder man approached her. ¡°There¡¯s a chance you know,¡± he said casually. Alecia glared at Westbrooke. ¡°A bronze ranker wouldn¡¯t have survived that fall, Cross was iron rank, carrying a second iron ranker. Even if she survived the fall then the rubble would have crushed her. And if by chance it didn¡¯t then she¡¯s still trapped in the labyrinth with no way out.¡± Alecia knew it was unbecoming of someone of her stature to snap like she had, but right now she was too emotional to care. Granted she had only known the outworlder for a day, but they had fought side by side. Literally. That meant something. If she had just told Alecia, or pointed to the downed healer she could have flown over. Or used swap teleport. Or, or-, ¡°You know, Seras originally awoke in the labyrinth.¡± Westbrooke offered. Alecia blinked and was pulled out of her spiraling mind. ¡°Really. I thought you said you found her in the desert.¡± ¡°I did, but that¡¯s not where she awoke. It was an astral space deep in the labyrinth. Some sort of stone city. Full of cavern lurkers, tunnel chargers, and even a silver ranked golem.¡± ¡°She saw all that down there.¡± ¡°No, she survived all that, killed the lurkers and the charger, hid from the golem, and made it out of the astral space and into the labyrinth proper.¡± ¡°She was lucky the space was connected to the labyrinth.¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I said.¡± Westbrooke agreed. ¡°Then I heard about the desert bees. She wandered right past a nest because her world didn¡¯t have any bees anymore.¡± ¡°No bees, then how do flowers get pollinated?¡± Westbrook¡¯s face turned grim. ¡°They don¡¯t,¡± he said ominously before letting out a sigh, ¡°I put a moratorium on tales from Seras¡¯ word because it gave the crew to many nightmares. But if you want to know more then you can ask her when she gets back.¡± Alecia gave him a long look, ¡°there¡¯s really not even a doubt in your mind that she¡¯s alive?¡± Westbrook smiled mysteriously, ¡°If a world like Ruin couldn¡¯t kill her then I doubt some rocks will.¡± Alecia turned back to the rocks. ¡°A shame she wasn¡¯t an adventurer yet, then we could use her badge.¡± ¡°That¡¯s something I¡¯m thinking to fix when she comes back. I think a recommendation to director Arlee would go a long way.¡± ¡°Hmm,¡± Alecia hummed, ¡°the adventurer society doesn¡¯t usually like that sort of thing. They like people to take their tests and go through the right channels, but if she doesn¡¯t get in on this then I think I¡¯ll get her access to my family¡¯s mirage chamber for additional training.¡± Westbrook tipped his hat, ¡°mighty kind of yah.¡± Alecia turned away from the rubble. ¡°We need to start returning the villagers to their homes, and cataloguing the missing. A shame we never learned why the Omeda were taking people in the first place.¡± Westbrooke shook his head and frowned, ¡°In my long years on the road I have learned that secrets like that tend to crop back up with terrible consequences. I dread the reveal on this one.¡± ~~~*~~~ Komeru stumbled down the mountain path. Ribs broken, hand still useless, ears ringing, and down an eye. But he was alive. How he was alive was still a mystery to him. He had been staring in shook at the terrifying metal world walker. Her black blood still stained his skin.This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Then he had been thrown up by the earth and blasted away like a leaf on the wind. Maybe it was his wind control, maybe it was the trees that arrested his fall, maybe it was the small creak. Maybe it was all three and a divine blessing. Komeru didn¡¯t know. He kept shuffling northwards. He didn¡¯t know where he was, but he knew there was another Omeda camp further north, though this one was also inhabited by their ¡®allies¡¯. He kept thinking about the metal woman, her voice haunting his mind like the lingering attacks of certain spectral type monsters who lurk in the dark. Komeru stopped as a shadow fell over him. He turned sharply, finding the dark figure with his remaining eye. ¡°You,¡± he croaked. Dillon Bannack tilted his head to one side and looked Komeru up and down. ¡°My she really did a number on you.¡± His words were muffled and distorted. His ears still bleeding from roar of a falling mountain. He knew why the war leader had chosen to end things the way she did, he just wished Kaita took him with her. Now he was all alone. Komeru tried to glare at the well dressed outsider, but the action aggravated his wounds. Bannack shook his head, ¡°that wont do, here my boy drink up.¡± He withdrew a crimson healing potion from his vest. Komeru took the potion and drank it down, instantly he began to feel relief as his wounds closed up. His ribs popped back into place, the hole in his hand mended, and even his eye grew back. The ringing in his ears quieted. ¡°Better?¡± Bannack asked. ¡°Yes,¡± Komeru grunted as he fell to the ground in exhaustion, ¡°that was potent.¡± He muttered. ¡°Indeed, silver rank. You won¡¯t be able to take much else until its worked its way out of your system. But by that time you should be back at our base.¡± He said. Komeru glared upwards, ¡°I¡¯m not going back to your ¡®base¡¯, I¡¯m heading to the northern camp. They need to know about what happened here.¡± Bannack gave him a pitying look. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that won¡¯t be possible. Your people were found out far too soon, and the Director of Cupric¡¯s branch made sure to spread the knowledge and coordinate attacks. The northern and northeastern camps were taken out by adventurers from the Dells, several silver ranks were involved. My people have already taken in the remnants of those camps.¡± Komeru felt despair at the revelation. The collection of townships that inhabited the Dells were weak, they shouldn¡¯t have had the resources to take out two whole camps. There were silver rankers in those camps He glared up at the outsider, ¡°you lie, they couldn¡¯t have been defeated so easily. What have you people done!¡± he roared as he rose to his feet. He tilted his head, ¡°no, well, it was worth a shot. Bringing you in peacefully would have been much easier if you had just believed me. Now I¡¯ll have to ruin another vest.¡± With that pronouncement something changed about the outsider¡¯s form, something under his vest jutted outwards, then another. His fine vest burst open and his chest opened up and strange machinery emerged. His torso distended, becoming twice as tall as it should have been, his knees let out loud metal groans as a third segment of leg appeared. His arms fell to the ground to reveal metal cord hooking itself into his shoulders. His arms then rose once more, if you could call them arms. It was more like a beaded necklace made of dozens of short metal arm segments Komeru backed away from the mechanical man. ¡°You¡¯re like her! You dammed cultists dogs, after we did what you wanted and brought you those outsiders! You betrayed us a sicked your minion after us.¡± He tried to summon his bow, make arrows manifest, or conjure his knife. But each time he felt his head pound with a low mana headache. He shouldn¡¯t have been this drained, there should at least be something to use. His mind flashed back to the potion with realization. It was more than just a healing potion, it was a mana poison as well, this had been the plan from the start. ¡°Funny you should mention miss Cross again. I would love to hear about how she fought and what she could do.¡± The metal monstrosity said, ¡°she is of interest to our lord. A wayward sister of ours, even if she doesn¡¯t know it yet.¡± Komeru¡¯s eyes went wide, ¡°if she wasn¡¯t yours then why let the adventures come at all, you had the power to stop them.¡± ¡°Uncontrollable factors. The Blazing outrider entering town and taking the contract, the Pheonix girl joining his raid, and miss Cross spotting your operation so early. A shame it went so poorly so soon after you began, but a captured bronze ranker will be worth dozens of normal rankers. Congratulations Komeru Omeda, you get to be apart of something greater than this whole universe.¡± His long arms struck out and Komeru tried to roll away, but his brief movement left his head spinning with nausea. ¡°Ah good, theeee poiiisoooon iss finally woooorking.¡± The words came out as long and stretvched out as Komeru¡¯s mind warped. The last thing he remembered was a long whiplike metal arm coming down of his head. ~~~*~~~ Deep underground Athena woke with deep pain lancing through her whole body. She didn¡¯t remember much after the Celestine picked her up, just falling, taking the pain away, more pain, then activating her ability, [immortality]. It was a potent ability the immortal confluence was best known for. Her parents spent a lot of money getting the right awakening stone for it. It was her trump card, or it was supposed to be. To get to the point where her own regeneration and self-healing could no longer keep up required immense amounts of damage, she had only used it a few times in training, each time had left her shivering with the memory. She looked around but couldn¡¯t make out much of her surroundings, just darkness. She began to reach about, feeling the ground with her hands, it was strangely soft and pliable, like grass but more matted. Her hands continued to search about until they touched a different sort a softness. A few more exploratory pokes resulted a pained groan. Athena¡¯s mind flashed back to the fall and remembered that the Celestine with the strange weapons had fallen with her. Instantly Athena¡¯s first aid instincts took over, even in the dark there were things she could do. She searched the Celestines body with her and hands, she slowly felt her out, feeling to make sure everything was intact. She pressed a hand to her neck and panicked when she felt no pulse. Where it not for the groan the Celestine had made then Athena would assume the woman was dead. But there plenty of different ways essences and magic could effect something as basic as a pulse. Feeling around her more she felt the woman¡¯s own hand clamped tightly against her neck and coated in an oily feeling liquid. Athena tried prying at the fingers to loosen the grip, but nothing she did was stronger than the death grip she had on neck. Fortunately, she wasn¡¯t closing off her airway with death grip. Further examination of the skull revealed that it was all intact, if oddly lumpy in places. Nothing felt broken, but Athena could have sworn it felt dented. Next she moved down, feeling at the women¡¯s body, putting any unprofessional thoughts out of mind as her hands searched in the darkness. Her chest and abdomen were just fine as her hands could tell, and she already knew one of her arms was just fine from when she found it clamped onto her neck. The examination of the other arm began fine, everything intact. Until her hands went just below the elbow and found the arm missing halfway down. Her eyes went wide, and she felt down further until her hand came into contact with something cold and hard. She lifted the object up in horror. Could she even heal an injury like this? Would her own arm fall off in response to the pain, could she regenerate her own missing limb¡­ The hand twitched, and as it did so it lit up with glowing blue lines. Athena stared at the now glowing hand and saw that it wasn¡¯t entirely severed. A long thin wire lead from the wrist of the hand back to the stump of an arm. But where there should have been shattered bone and blood she saw metal and wire oozing black blood. Athena screamed. Ch52 Were pretty common around these parts Seras awoke once more to complete darkness, but instead of an eerily quiet room in an empty city her ears were filled with a blood-curdling scream. It was the kind of scream to make your hair stand on end and turn white. It was the kind of scream horror actors wished they could emulate just a piece of. It was the kind of scream to wake the dead and drive Seras mad. ¡°Just shut up already, I¡¯m awake Godsdammit!¡± She looked around the cave and noticed the soft plushy feel beneath her. Probably the only reason she survived the fall. It felt like the world¡¯s shaggiest carpet. Seras noticed a stiffness in her neck and realized that her had had clamped down on the wound leaking the black oil-like blood of her metal body. She slowly moved her hand away, and let out a sigh of relief as no more of her vital fluids spurted out, though her fingers were now coated in the stuff. Getting this shit out was going to be a nightmare. Speaking of fingers, why could she only feel half of them? Seras looked down and saw the glowing hand on the ground, it had broken off her forearm about halfway down and was only connected by a single nerve-wire. She looked up and saw the pale face of the healer girl in the light of her arm. Seras met her eyes and saw her shaking. ¡°alright, I¡¯m about to do something. I need you to not scream, okay?¡± Seras asked the girl. ¡°What?¡± she whispered. ¡°No. More. Screaming.¡± Seras said slowly. The girl nodded. Seras turned on the rest of her glowing blue lights. The girl almost yelped but put a hand to her mouth to cover the noise. ¡°Good,¡± Seras said as she returned her gaze to her arm. She tried to send it a command and it twitched feebly. She tried to get it to close, instead it shook and only the pinky curled in. Not good. Seras thought about repairing it, but the moment she did a pompt appeared. Auto repair cannot repair Biolite arm because Biolite arm has been deemed unsalvageable. Reconnect or remove Biolite arm. Warning removing arm will result in permanently losing the limb Not good indeed. If Seras were back on Ruin then she would call the arm a dud and scrap it. But there were no mechanics on this stupid world, all it had was vast magical power, living gods, and clean air. The fact that it mentioned reconnecting it gave Seras hope. Back in the Vestal gateway astral space where Seras had been reborn her arm had been bent out of place by the tunnel charger. She had to bend it back into place for it to work. This was not the first time Seras had wondered how she would do more complex repairs, and in her endless hours in the saddle she had come up with a couple of ideas. She held up her finger and channeled her first essence ability through it to get a better look at the break, then when she realized how dumb that was she turned her finger of and pulled a mana lamp out of her storage space. She fed it a lesser spirit coin and aimed it at her arm. What a waste of an essence.This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. She saw where things had been snapped in half by her rough fall and was once again thankful the ground wasn¡¯t stone. As she saw the damage a part of her mind began to whirl as she used her outworlder ability Blueprinting software. At first it had seemed like her most useless ability, even less handy than net connection on a world with no net. That was until she had begun designing her first gun, before she began using it to draw up magic circles in her head, before she realized it could be used to examine the damage in her arm and began plotting out a way to repair it. Now it was the quiet unsung hero propelling her forward. She wondered if Net connection could do the same if Knowledge would just give her permission. The second ability at play in this was her metal essence ability, shape metal. It straightened the bent metal, it could be used to solder the wires together, and even force the nerve wire to retract until the two halves of the arm had come back together. She then tied it all together with a splint and tried to use her ability once again. Auto repair on right arm had been enabled. Time to full repair 864 hours and two minutes. Over a month for a full repair! That was the largest yet. Seras checked the bronze ranked monster cores in her storage space and grimaced. She had burned through everything during that fight, even with the healer girl. Speaking of which, ¡°you know its rude to stare.¡± Seras groused. The girl flinched, ¡°sorry, its just, what are you?¡± Seras rolled her eyes as leaned up and cradled her arm. ¡°The pinnacle of engineering, now can you make a sling?¡± The girl flinched, ¡°oh right sorry, is, is your arm really alright?¡± ¡°No, its gonna take a whole danm month to repair. But without monster cores I can¡¯t speed that up. Help me secure my arm so it doesn''t come apart, I¡¯ll give you some gauze.¡± ¡°Er, right, one second.¡± The girl said as she stepped around Seras and began to tie up her arm. ¡°So, is it an essence ability that made your arms metal?¡± Seras quirked an eyebrow, ¡°Do you know a lot of essences that make people metal?¡± ¡°No, but there¡¯s all sorts of essences out there. More than I could name and I¡¯ve studied a lot of them.¡± ¡°Fair enough, and there is supposedly a cyborg essence, but that requires the death essence.¡± She paused, ¡°you have a restricted essence?¡± Seras had expected her to become afraid or nervous by the comment, instead the girl¡¯s voice became low and dangerous. She felt a shiver crawl up her spine. ¡°No, that¡¯s just something Knowledge told me. I became a cyborg the old-fashioned way, excluding some outworlder shenanigans.¡± ¡°What''s that mean?¡± ¡°What shananigans, did that not translate¡­¡± ¡°No, the out worlder part. What''s that mean?¡± Seras was surprised, everyone she had met so far had an idea of what outworlders were. ¡°It means I¡¯m from another world.¡± ¡°Like¡­ another world, like the moons?¡± Seras couldn¡¯t help but laugh, ¡°No I¡¯m not from one of your moons, do people even live up there?¡± ¡°I¡¯ve heard of diamond ranks who¡¯ve been there, but no, not that I know of. So are you from one of the planets beyond the moons, I¡¯ve read about those.¡± Seras snorted another laugh. ¡°Okay, I think you¡¯re missing a few key details. Listen up, right now you are on Pallimustus, a verdant green dirt ball with two moons. This planet is revolving around the sun, as are other planets. Asteroids, comets, planetoids, moons, rocky planets, gas giants, ice giants, and maybe even another verdant world. Its unlikely but not impossible. That¡¯s your solar system, all held together by the suns gravity.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t what gravity means, but I¡¯m with you so far, astronomers have been using magic telescopes for centuries now. But I think you left out a few magical objects out there.¡± ¡°Magic space rocks,¡± Seras mused, ¡°gonna have to look into that. Anyways, that¡¯s what you usually find in a solar system. Lots and lots of space rocks, now I want you to imagine that every star in the night sky, and the millions of other stars you cant see also have some variety of those objects.¡± Her eyes went wide. ¡°You, your telling that every star is a sun?¡± ¡°More like the sun is just a star, but yeah. They come in a lot of varieties, some bigger, some smaller, some colder, some so large they collapsed in on them into an infinite all devouring void, others the just explode. We¡¯re looking at a scale so out outrageously large that the only measurement worth using is the speed of light. Back home a single lightyear was about twelve trillion kilometers, keeping in mind that our years were slightly longer than here. The nearest star to my home was 9.5 light years away, the next nearest star was about 13 lightyears in the other directions.¡± ¡°So you¡¯re, your from another star system. By the gods how did you even get here.¡± Seras held up a hand ¡°we¡¯re not done yet. Now stars aren¡¯t just randomly scattered about, they form clusters and those clusters make up disk like formations if you zoom out far enough. That¡¯s called a galaxy. Mine was about forty-thousand lightyears across with some twenty billion stars, and it was a small one. Most other galaxies are around three-hundred thousand lightyears across with millions of lightyears in between them.¡± Her eyes continued to get wider and wider, Seras grinned to herself, she had never had this chance to freak out the others. ¡°Now, zoom out even further and you¡¯ll find that these galaxies form clusters of their own. And clusters form clusters of their own. I think people on my world have identified about two-trillion in the observable universe, with likely more that we just aren¡¯t seeing. Now at some point that ends, maybe. Maybe a universe is infinite, maybe theres a hard barrier you cant pass, or maybe it just a trully blank void stretching into infinity. We didn¡¯t know. We were still dedating whether or there could be other universe. I however know for certain that there are other universes because I got shunted out of mine and into yours.¡± ¡°You, you, how?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t know for sure, I was in my world¡¯s outer orbit, floating outside a space station, slowly dying in space. The station in question was working with strange extradimensional energy, now that I¡¯ve been able to study magic, I think they were somehow thinning the barrier between our universe and the astral, this great infinite realm of pure magic and no physical reality. They used this to artificially create the conditions to form an essence, which I was sent to steal. Something went wrong, and I think they somehow fully punctured the dimensional barrier. I got sucked into the hole, my physical body ceased to exist, and my soul was left to ¡®float¡¯ through the astral until I somehow found my way to Pallimustus. This part of your world is more susceptible to astral anomalies, and can even let in stray souls from the astral without a summoning gone wrong. My soul reentered a physical reality it used local ambient magic to remake my body based on my soul¡¯s own interpretation of what I was. Meaning I was remade with all my cybernetic alterations since they are so core to my identity.¡± Seras stared at the girls dumbfounded expression and nodded in self-satisfaction. ¡°You really haven¡¯t heard of us, we¡¯re apparently pretty common around these parts. Ch53 It wouldnt surprise me Seras was laughing her ass off. She knew that she should be quieter, but she just couldn¡¯t be bothered. The girl¡¯s face was crimson with embarrassment. ¡°It¡¯s not funny. You just shook my whole understanding of reality.¡± Seras tried to get herself under control, ¡°sorry, but you¡¯re literally the first person I¡¯ve met who hasn¡¯t heard of outworlders. Even that Omeda archer had an idea of what I was.¡± ¡°Who?¡± ¡°That archer, the one we were fighting.¡± The girl looked down. ¡°So that¡¯s who they were, Omeda. They¡¯re one of the tribal peoples?¡± The mirth left Seras, ¡°yeah, they were like some sort of elite warriors during the bloody sand¡¯s. They weren¡¯t happy when their diamond rank ancestors made peace with the people of the citadels. Turned to raiders and bandits, or so I¡¯ve heard. Only just heard about them from my Akemi friend less than a week ago.¡± ¡°Why were they taking people then, why¡¯d they attack me?¡± ¡°Dunno, don¡¯t really care. I was hired to stop them and rescue the villagers, the rest is above my head. You were probably just a target of opportunity. I take it you were traveling alone?¡± She nodded. ¡°That¡¯s your answer, you were just there. They were strong, you were weak. That¡¯s all there really is to it.¡± She frowned, ¡°it can¡¯t be that simple.¡± ¡°Maybe, but realistically does the rest matter. Bad people do bad shit all the time. I was hired for the one job. Its up to Arlee if he wants to find out more.¡± ¡°But don¡¯t you care, aren¡¯t adventurers more¡­ I don¡¯t know¡­ heroic.¡± She said timidly. Seras turned away from her, ¡°maybe some are, but I¡¯m not an adventurer. Not yet. I was just helping out a friend.¡± Seras looked around and stood up, ¡°probably not the time to be chatting. Our way in is blocked, so we need to find another way. Must be in the labyrinth, there¡¯s gotta be another exit. I just hope that this tunnel¡¯s only iron rank, I don¡¯t want to face bronze rank monsters with one arm.¡± She looked down at the girl, ¡°you got any offensive powers?¡± She blinked, ¡°um, one or two, but they¡¯re situational. Most of my abilities are for self healing, and counter curisng.¡± ¡°Plus the one that let¡¯s you take on the wounds of others.¡± She looked hesitant, ¡°that as well. But I¡¯m not sure if I should use it on you. I don¡¯t get to choose what I take on-¡± ¡°And you¡¯re worried your arm might fall off, right.¡± Seras held her hand over the girl and manifested her rifle. ¡°Well here, I can¡¯t use this one handed. I¡¯ll show how to aim and brace yourself for the recoil. This way you won¡¯t be helpless.¡± The girl stood at took the rifle. Seras blinked several times as she realized that the ¡®girl¡¯ stood a whole head taller than her, and Seras wasn¡¯t exactly short. ¡°Danm girl! What do they feed ya?¡± She blinked several times in rapid succession, ¡°uh, food?¡± she said uncertainly. Seras hadn¡¯t realized it before, not with the girl¡¯s general timidity and uncertainty, but she was solid. Tall, with lean well-toned muscles wrapped under smooth almond colored skin. Seras shook her head, ¡°Looks like you could eat a Heidel and a half.¡± She remarked as she walked a little circle around her, appraising every centimeter. She reached out and poked the girl¡¯s bicep, ¡°Dead gods, your almost as solid as I am. And I¡¯m metal! You look like you walked right out of myth and legend. And this is all natural?¡± ¡°Its nothing,¡± She demurred turning redder. ¡°I know modeling agencies that would go to war for a natural beauty like you.¡± Seras retorted. ¡°And your only Iron rank. I¡¯m starting to feel jealous.¡± ¡°But you¡¯re even¡­ I mean you¡¯re. You look¡­¡± She was stumbling over her words. She couldn¡¯t quite match the brazenness of Seras¡¯s statements. Seras ignored it all. ¡°All modded, trust me I didn¡¯t look this good before I had work done.¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± Seras stopped circling, she looked up at the girl and quirked an eyebrow, ¡°I am a cyborg, the only part of me that¡¯s still organic is my brain and guts. Hair, skin, eyes, nails, muscles, bones, all of it is mechanical and cost a fortune. You think I¡¯d spend that much and not get a nicer face, smoother skin, a smaller bust?¡± The girl eyes darted down, then back up just as quickly. ¡°Really, smaller?¡± ¡°Sometimes less is more.¡± Seras said dismissively. ¡°And everyone on your world is like this?¡± She snorted ¡°hardly. Equipment that¡¯s both powerful and aesthetically appealing is rare, and most people prefer to pull away from human sensibilities of beauty. I knew a women with a third eye implant in her forehead, a man that was half dump truck, and someone who took her jaw off to replace it with a gas mask. Given a choice between power and looking human most poor people choose power, and that¡¯s evolved its own culture of non-human aesthetics. Its only the ultra-elite who can get both power and still look human. Honestly I¡¯m lucky I was outworldered after my upgrades, I used to have a second set of small arms on my back.¡± ¡°Really, that¡¯s, I,-¡± ¡°Yeah, they seemed like a good idea at the time, just made it hard to sit.¡± As Seras was talking, she had begun searching their surroundings. The cavern had a plush moss covering the ground, and creeping vines covering the walls and partially crawling up onto the ceiling. It was all too green for an underground cave. ¡°I like my current build a lot better, took me several high-risk high reward jobs to afford.¡± She continued. ¡°How much would that cost anyways?¡± Seras frowned, ¡°In my world it was about 150 million Chits, but that doesn¡¯t really tell you much. I¡¯ve done the math and have compared our currencies, yours has an interesting trait of becoming disproportionately more valuable depending on the rank. A bronze isn¡¯t really worth ten iron, its worth eleven. That makes things tough, but I think 150 million chits is anywhere from five thousand gold spirit coins to ten-thousand.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot of money for one person.¡± The girl said, she sounded daunted by the number, but it wasn¡¯t the flabbergasted disbelief the caravan crew had given her. Even Dustin had been unnerved. ¡°My world doesn¡¯t have magic. No essences, no awakening stones, no monsters. But we still have extraordinarily difficult jobs that need to be done, and for that you need exceptionally skilled and capable people. In that regard our elite mercs hold a position similar to silver and gold ranks in this world.¡± She looked the girl in the eyes, craning her neck to do so. ¡°And I was one of the best. Only corporate backed elites were better than me. And that¡¯s because their gear was better. They have the silver grade version of my equipment, while mines only the bronze¡­¡±Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. Seras trailed off as her mind made a connection that seemed blatantly apparent in hindsight. Seras had come into this world far stronger than she should have thanks to her augs, it gave her the ability to hit rank a bronze ranker. It was so potent that it had created an in balance between her magical matrix and body. Her body wasn¡¯t just super tough like Leonids or Draconians, it was bronze rank tough. Was that because it was remade with magic upon her rebirth, or had it been that way before? Her body was Military grade, the Biolite Bronze warframe to be exact. The direct upgrade from there was the Silver Warframe, with a rumored Gold in development. That couldn¡¯t be a coincidence. Right? The girl had watched Seras trail off and had waited patiently for Seras to snap out of it before asking her next question. ¡°is that why I felt so much pain from you? Because of your ¡®equipment¡¯.¡± Seras blinked and remembered the battle when the soul deep pain of her soul/body disconnect had gone away. ¡°Sort of. Ordinary pain I can just turn off if it¡¯s distracting me.¡± ¡°Then was that the pain you had turned off, or¡­¡± ¡°No, I said ordinary pain. What you temporarily took away was a soul deep pain. Honestly, I had forgotten what it felt like not to be in constant pain, it was such a surprise when it came back that I lost concentration on holding back an ability advancement. Thus doubling the pain.¡± The girl look haunted, ¡°I¡¯ve taken lots of pain from lots of people, but that was the worst thing I have ever felt. It was like something was racking a rusty blade against the center of my being, or like-¡± Seras held up a hand, ¡°trust me I get it. That¡¯s what I have to deal with all the time, even in sleep.¡± She ran a hand along the shaven side of her head, ¡°it¡¯s a condition called soul/body disconnect. Ordinarily people don¡¯t get to have a bronze rank body without corresponding enhancements to their magic matrix and soul. When I was remade my soul reconstructed my bronze rank body in this magical world and struck some sort of balance. A balance I fucked up by absorbing essences and stepping into iron. Now every ability advancement puts me in more and more pain. Until I hit bronze rank there¡¯s nothing I can do, but I¡¯ll die before bronze.¡± Her eyes went wide, ¡°are you sure, I¡¯ve never heard about anything like this before?¡± ¡°Got the truth from Knowledge herself.¡± ¡°Oh, um, I¡¯m sorry. That sounds, just awful.¡± ¡°Yeah well that¡¯s my life, a never ending series of shitty events. Just when things start going right something comes along to knock me down. Doesn¡¯t matter, I¡¯ve survived worse, I¡¯ll find a way to fix myself.¡± She perked up at that ¡°did the Goddess give any hints then, I¡¯m told Knowledge likes to leave little hints so that people have enough to figure things out for themselves.¡± ¡°No luck I¡¯m afraid. She said there was no power on this world that could help me beyond the divine or transcendent. I¡¯m just hoping she¡¯s wrong.¡± ¡°She¡¯s Knowledge, she can¡¯t be wrong.¡± ¡°She was once, she tried to lure me into her church. Exchange a cure for my loyalty. She knew everything about me and presented it all just right. Logically I should have agreed then and there, but here I am. Not cured, and not a priest. If she can have all the facts and still be wrong about me then there¡¯s every chance she could be wrong about this.¡± The girl looked contemplative, considering Seras¡¯ words. As Seras watched the girl something occurred to her, ¡°hey, what¡¯s your name?¡± The girl shook herself out of contemplation and looked down on Seras. ¡°What?¡± ¡°I just realized I¡¯ve been calling you ¡®the girl¡¯ in my head this whole time. We¡¯re both stuck down here together, so I might as well know your name.¡± She scowled, ¡°I not a girl. I¡¯ll be twenty next month.¡± She said pointedly. Seras cocked her head, was she really that old? Well, now that she was standing Seras guessed it was pretty obvious, maybe it was her demeanor that made her seem younger. ¡°My mistake.¡± That seemed to mollify her, she stood straighter and extended her hand. ¡°Right, well, I¡¯m Athena-,¡± She stopped herself and then started again-, ¡°I¡¯m Athena, it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you.¡± Seras logged the little pause away in a file that she was currently renaming. Some things about Athena were triggering her suspicious instincts. ¡°Athena huh, back on my world we had legends about a women named Athena, back from the fall. Does this world have those as well?¡± She frowned, ¡°Not that I know of, there¡¯s probably been an Athena or two who did important things though. My parents just liked the sound of it.¡± ¡°Right, well I¡¯m Seras, Seras Cross, nice to meet you.¡± Seras took her hand and shook it, just as Athena was about to pull away Seras¡¯ grip tightened, ¡°one more thing. I¡¯ve been pretty open about telling you all my secrets, but I¡¯d appreciate ya keeping them on the down low, okay?¡± Seras said with a threatening smile. She saw Athena shiver and knew her intentions had been received loud and clear. ¡°Okay. No telling anyone about the strange metal woman from another world.¡± Seras let go and snorted with amusement, ¡°I don¡¯t care about the Outworlder part, be a pain trying to keep that one a secret, I just don¡¯t want other rumors to get out. I¡¯ve been told that the Magic society would be very interested in pulling me apart to see how I tick. And I¡¯d rather not have to deal with the stares and disgust of the general public. I get enough of that from the crew I¡¯m on.¡± The girl frowned, ¡°why would people be disgusted? Magical prosthetics are a thing, you just have more than most.¡± Seras smiled wanly, ¡°if only it were that simple.¡± She then looked around and decided she had procrastinated long enough. ¡°Alright, time for brass tacks. Right now we¡¯re in the labyrinth, know what that is?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the magical tunnel system under this half of the continent.¡± She answered confidently. ¡°Correct, and do you know the dangers of it?¡± She looked a little less confident, Seras didn¡¯t need to hear her answer from that look alone. She raised her fingers to begin ticking down items. ¡°Shifting unmappable tunnels, seemingly random changes in magical density and quality, random varieties of monsters trapped down here until they start to go mad, and astral spaces within unknown dangers.¡± ¡°Random monsters and magic, are you saying we could run into silver ranked monsters here?¡± she asked in alarm. ¡°Yes, and worse. There are stories about gold rank monsters wandering around. I heard a story about a diamond rank spawn deep underground during a surge. That¡¯s what makes this place so unpredictable. We could get lucky and stay in low iron tunnels the whole way, or we find a gold and get squashed.¡± Seras pulled out and rod and set in midair, it slowly filled with a mix of iron and bronze colors, with just a smidge of silver. ¡°According to this density attunement rod we¡¯re in a bronze ranked zone. But that can change pretty fast.¡± Athena stared at the rod and paled, ¡°you said your body was equal to bronze rank though?¡± ¡°Right, that means I have the speed and power of a bronzer ranker, but none of the magic or abilities that come with the rank. I¡¯m also down an arm, lacking in effective weapons. And I only have about half my essence abilities, two of which are useless, and one is crafting based. The powers I do have are a defensive ability, and Aura power, an ability to resist rank suppression, and an aiming ability.¡± Athena nodded ¡°I¡¯m only mid iron, with fifteen abilities unlocked. Wound transference, self-healing, regeneration, anti-affliction, and an anatomy based perception ability.¡± ¡°Anatomy based?¡± ¡°I see bones, muscles, veins, organs, and even some nerves when I activate it.¡± She explained. ¡°You don¡¯t keep it on all the time.¡± She frowned ¡°no, its, well its unpleasant to see peoples bodies at work constantly.¡± ¡°Right, yeah, gross.¡± Seras agreed. ¡°Try using it on me.¡± She nodded. Seras waited to see if there would be any sort of visual indicator of her ability, but the most she got was an intrigued tilt of the head as Athena looked Seras up and down. ¡°I take it it¡¯s working to some degree.¡± Seras surmised. ¡°Yeah, I can see it all, but its weird. I can see wires, metal bones, joints and other stuff, but that¡¯s it. I can sort of tell what¡¯s organic, but it looks like its just a mass of red gloo.¡± She sounded very confused, ¡°it¡¯s almost like when I look at high rankers.¡± Seras wasn¡¯t surprised by the revelation; she had read in a magical textbook that high rankers stopped having organs and instead transitioned into a state of being pure biomass suspended against the bones and wrapped tightly within skin. That same text mentioned off-handedly that the same occurred in outworlders as early as normal rank do to their magical reconstruction. What she more concerned with was that Athena could see all her internal systems. She had long since guessed that her internal hardware was still fully defined instead of being loose biomass. Athena now confirmed Seras¡¯ long held suspicion that some sort of essence ability could expose her nature. ¡°Alright, what if I do this?¡± she asked as she activated her active camo. Athena bit her lip, ¡°your aura¡¯s gone, but I can still see you, I can even see your skin change pigment.¡± Seras cursed, there went her hope to use active camo like an unofficial essence power. She¡¯d need to integrate magic somehow to defend against perception abilities like Athena¡¯s. Millions of Chits wasted. While Seras lamented her wasted money she quickly pulled up her current info Seras ¡®Blackiron¡¯ Cross Race, Outworlder Iron rank, essences 4/4 Racial traits Essences Power Metal essence: iron 2/5 attributes Control Metal 0 : 53% Reinforce Metal 2 :03% Speed Potent essence: iron 1/5 attributes Limit brake 0 :97% Spiri, Technology essence: iron 2/5 attributes Inscribe circuit/rune 0 :00% Spark of Madness 0 :00% Recovery Avatar essence: iron 2/5 attributes Control Bullets 0: 98% Aura of Ruin 0:83% Two, maybe three abilities looking to jump up a level. After how tense that battle was Seras wasn¡¯t surprised. But that meant she had a choice. Either meditate and try to get them over the line for the boost in power, or hold off and try to face the labyrinth as she was. Seras looked down at her arm, the broken one. She let out a long sigh, ¡°alright Athena, we¡¯re currently in a one-way tunnel and nothing¡¯s come to kill us yet. I think the moss might be muffling any potential echoes, which is lucky after that scream of yours. It¡¯s the only reason I felt so safe sitting here and talking for so long. I¡¯ve got two, maybe three abilities that might advance after a mediation session, which is going to suck and bring my soul disconnect up to ten or twelve percent.¡± ¡°Should you wait then, there might be an exit nearby.¡± Athena said hopefully. Seras shook her head, ¡°nah, that¡¯s optimism, hope, don¡¯t listen to that trite. Expect the shitiest possible reality and you¡¯ll rarely be surprised.¡± ¡°That¡¯s bleak.¡± ¡°Maybe, but its served me well so far.¡± Seras retorted. ¡°While I¡¯m meditating I¡¯ll need you to stand watch. And also not stab me in the back.¡± Now she was glaring at Seras. ¡°I wouldn¡¯t do that, you¡¯re the person who rescued from some grisly fate.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°gratitude hasn¡¯t stopped people before, why should I expect it to now.¡± With that she closed her eyes and began to take deep calming breaths, slowly reached out for her power and helping it flow through her body, occasionally correcting any snarls or blockages. A sharp pain didn¡¯t appear in her side, so she took it as a good sign that Athena was trustworthy. Really Seras would have liked to trust her without suspicion, but she¡¯d literally been stabbed in the back before by people she trusted. Her mind flashed back to Volta, cold eyes glaring as Seras twisted the knife. The thought nearly interrupted her meditation and Seras had to refocus herself. She needed to be at her best to get out of this deadly situation. Ch54 Synergies Limit brake 0 :97% ¨¤ Limit Brake 1 :02% Control Bullets 0: 98%¨¤ Control Bullets 1:09% Aura of Ruin 0:83%¨¤ Aura of Ruin 1:00% Soul/body disconnect has progressed to 12% Soul/body disconnect has surpassed the first threshold; conditional nausea has developed. Condition trigger; rapid ability usage. The moment Seras opened her eyes she doubled over in pain, not that it did much. The pain wasn¡¯t in her stomach, it wasn¡¯t in her head, it wasn¡¯t in her muscles. It was everywhere at once, and nowhere. It was a pain that defied words. No, a pain beyond words. Even the word pain was not enough for what she felt. And this was on 12% of what she¡¯d face before the condition killed her. She wasn¡¯t sure how long she was curled up, only that when she could think straight a hand was on her back trying to comfort her. Seras looked up and squinted at Athena, ¡°how long?¡± she croaked. ¡°A few hours. Nothing¡¯s changed.¡± That was good news, and bad news. Good because nothing attacked them, Bad because it meant they would have to leave this tunnel to find a way out. ¡°Fuck, give me a few more minutes.¡± Seras said as she leaned back against the cave wall. The girl glanced to Seras¡¯ arm while rubbing her own, ¡°if it weren¡¯t for the arm I could offer to take on your pain.¡± Seras frowned. That¡¯s right, during the battle she had been able to use her essence ability to give Seras a brief reprieve. She wondered how that worked. Essence abilities weren¡¯t arbitrary effects. They were ways of using mana, the body, and other esoteric things to create unique effects. Shape and reinforce metal both worked by having Seras¡¯ magic infuse the metal, shape metal worked like a field of magic that made metal more plastic and bend to her will, while reinforce metal created a mana lattice to help support the structure that was there. There was always a ¡®how¡¯ to the ¡®what¡¯, it was just that the concepts and methods at play were incredibly complex and hard to map. There were theories that the first magic rituals began as a way of recreating essence powers, the most commonly known one being harvesting rituals. But hers was a pain that was soul deep, and the impregnability of the soul was a well-established and immutable fact of magic. Maybe it was because the root of her problem was a disconnect between the rank of her body and her magic matrix. The magic matrix was known to be linked to the soul in several key ways. Seras was musing over the potential revelations of Athena¡¯s power as a way to district herself from the pain. The pain was always there, but since it was soul deep there was a way to push it towards the back of her subconscious. The pain existed, but without observation it wasn¡¯t a distraction, but once observed it would be like it was always observed. It reminded her of that old analogy about quantum mechanics, Hamilton¡¯s turtle. Presumably if a turtle tucked its legs into its shell it would look just like an empty shell from above, thus one had to assume that a potential shell would or would not have a turtle inside, both potentials existing until you turned it over a observed the state of the turtle. It was a clunky metaphor, but a useful one for early quantum physicists. Seras reached a point where she didn¡¯t feel like she¡¯d stumble if she stood and decided that more time wouldn¡¯t help anything. ¡°Alright, we need to start moving now. No more waiting.¡± Athena looked concerned for Seras, ¡°Are you sure, I remember what just a little of that pain felt like?¡± Seras grimaced as the pain stopped being a background noise and roared to the forefront of her thoughts, ¡°just, just don¡¯t mention it. Its harder to ignore if you bring it up,¡± she said wearily. In reality Seras would have loved to just lay back and go to sleep, but even sleep wasn¡¯t an escape. Athena nodded, and Seras made sure she brought the rifle with them as they finally left the dead-end cave under the Omeda camp. This section of the labyrinth was coated in unnervingly lush plant life. Plush moss carpeting, ivy covered walls, and the occasionally glowing yellow lilies. It twisted left and right like some sort of snake, until abruptly there would be a steep slope they had to slide down. Were it not for her ¡®street view¡¯ map from Stranger in a Strange world, Seres would have wondered if they were even making good progress. With it she could track how far they had walked compared to how much actual distance they were from their starting point; she could even compare it to their place on the surface. She hadn¡¯t been able to do that before when she first arrived on Pallimustus, but given that she had arrived in an Astral space deep below the surface with no idea how to orient herself it was an understandable fault.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. As they moved Seras was scanning their surroundings, while also mentally thumbing through the book on Magitech Bannack had given her. The more she read the more she wondered at why the researchers here on Pallimustus hadn¡¯t further developed their own branch of Magi-tech. Sure, they had magic to match many of her world¡¯s modern marvels, but the complete lack of understanding in basic physics astounded her in some ways. They could store full images and sound in recording crystals, but not through the capture of light but through the environmental magic and aura impressions. What it stored wasn¡¯t data on color or light, but the imprint of everything around it. It didn¡¯t know color through wavelengths of light, it just knew the color. It was bizarrely backwards way of recording images to Seras¡¯ sensibilities, but really drove home just how magic had shifted the development on Pallimustus. Her understanding of light said that it was both a particle and a wavelength. But according to what she was reading it was also an expression of magic, a whole third state form. Water was just the combo of two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen. But here it was more, it was one of the substances that could form quintessence. Water quintessence was just one of many kinds of quintessence, like earth quintessence, dog quintessence, or myriad. But while there was a water quintessence both Seras and the author of this book noted a lack of hydrogen quintessence, or oxygen quintessence. Despite the existence of other elemental quintessence like iron and copper. Was it just that the conditions weren¡¯t right for it to form, or was there really none at all? Seras wished she could open her net connection and find the answer online. But even if it was known she couldn¡¯t just have the knowledge that easily. Her net connection racial trait required divine permission. She was lost in thought when a hand bared her path and drew her full attention. Athena had stuck her hand out and was holding Seras back. ¡°What?¡± she whispered from the side of her mouth. ¡°Don¡¯t know, but I think it¡¯s a monster, I can a long shape snaking along the wall.¡± She whispered back. Seras followed Athena¡¯s eyes to a spot on the wall that looked now different from the rest of the wall. But she didn¡¯t disregard her warning, instead Seras summoned knife into her hand, summoning it so the blade was between her fingers. She eyed a spot that she felt was too angular to be more ivy and threw the knife. She heard an enraged hiss and saw the vines shuffle as a monster rose up The monster was a long python with verdant green scales, with sprigs of what looked like ivy leaved poking out from its skin. Its jaw opened as it went straight for Seras. Iron rank brush python Seras¡¯ aimed her pistol upwards and latched onto the serpent with control bullets, not that she could miss point blank. Bang BANG BANG! One bullet got it straight on, and a thick syrupy blood sprouted out of a hole in its side. One bullet ricocheted off its scales. And the third put another hole in it. But the loud bangs of the gun and the bleeding wounds didn¡¯t stop the snake. It was coming for her, so she decided to meet it halfway. With her biomechanically perfected reflexes she struck out just as fast as the python, solid metal knuckles and a revolver smacked into the monster¡¯s head with blinding speed. It was so brutally fast that it dazed the serpent for one moment, all she needed. By the time it noticed the gun barrel just below its head it was already too late. BANG! The fourth shot went straight through its head, and it fell limp a second later. Seras turned to look towards Athena, a quip already on her tongue. She was just in time to see the second Brush Python barrel into Athena and slam her to the ground where it could better wrap around her. Seras heard the grinding of bones and crack of a rib before she could finish turning around. She raised her revolver and charged forwards, but a powerful whip of the serpent¡¯s tail sent her reeling. Half of its body was curled around Athena, whose face was contorting in pain and rapidly turning purple, unable to scream. The lower half was coiled up defensively around its kill, coils guarding its head and preventing Seras from getting closer. She gritted her teeth and fired twice into its flank. Both shots landing on the thickest part of its body, but doing little to put down the massive monster. Seras tried to pull back on the pin holding the barrel in place, but her broken arm refused to respond. Without pulling the pin back Seras wouldn¡¯t be able to remove the spent shells, nor reload the weapon. She was cursing the fact she didn¡¯t get a magic bullet making power like Komeru or Rohan had for arrows, and was about to send her gun back to her storage space to instead draw a knife, when a thought struck her. In that moment as adrenaline was coursing through her brain Seras had a thought. She could summon things into her hand, she could even decide how she was holding something, could she recall the bullet cassings while they were still in the revolver? And could she just summon new bullets back into the chambers of the revolver? Seras hesitated for only a second, in the end she gave into her instincs and tried to use her spatial abilities to reload her revolver. Blue sparks flew from her hand, but Seras felt the slight weight change as the gun was reloaded. She brought the gun up to her eyes and saw that the bullets were all ficing the right direction. She heard another crack and turned her attention back to the monster and took aim. This time she did something different. Instead of just focusing on a point on the monsters scales Seras imagined seeing through its flesh and focus on its vertebra. BANG! Another bloody hole, but it looked shallow even to her. She fired again. Still too shallow, the iron ranked monster¡¯s muscles were keeping the bullet from going to deep. Blue lines spread from Seras¡¯ hands and over the gun as she used Reinforce Metal. BANG! Deeper this time. But not enough. She fired again, and again, and again. All the while receiving notifications for her aura of Ruin. By the time she was out of bullets again she had stacked up enough instances of her aura affliction that Athena was able to fight back and get down deep gasps of air. Seras reloaded her weapon with the same trick fired six more shots. This time on the fifth shot something was severed in the monsters body, and its lower half went limp. Reloading as Seras ran forward, the monster tried to snack her back again, but it didn¡¯t realize that its lower body no longer worked. It began to uncoil from Athena, but with half its body now dead weight it wasn¡¯t fast enough. Seras put the gun to its head and pulled the trigger. The Brush Python went limp. And Athena began to squirm under its dead coils as she got away from the monster. Seras grabbed a coil and pulled it away enough for Athena to crawl out and lean against the tunnel wall. She was panting hard as she fought to re-oxygenate her blood, her face slowly losing its bloated purple look. Seras dismissed her gun and summoned a small vail of red liquid. ¡°Here, its cheap and tastes like ass, but should held with the ribs.¡± She said as she tipped the healing potion down Athena¡¯s lips. She greedily sucked it up and nearly regurgitated everything. Seras leaned down and lifted the girl¡¯s shirt and grimaced at the mottled purple splotches of bruising all over her stomach. Seras was just starting to regret only having weak health potions when she saw the bruises shrink before her very eyes. She even saw a rib ripple and slide back into place. Must be the self-healing Athena mentioned. ¡°Ah, could you stop staring?¡± Athena said, her voice soft and shaky. Seras looked up and saw that her face had turned a whole different color, and Seras realized she might be embarrassing the poor women. ¡°Right sorry, nice abs by the way. That¡¯s impressive given that they aren¡¯t plastic.¡± Seras let go of her shirt and stood back up, staring at the two dead monsters. Both nearly four to five meters long. While she had been a bit distracted Seras was still unnerved by how easily they had hidden from her. Their aura masking and natural camouflage was impressive. She then thought back on the fight and thought about what she could have down differently. For one realizing she could insta-reload her guns this whole time was a game changer. All that time she spent reloading her rifle, hell she would need to change the way she designed weapons in the future. There were synergies in her power set Seras had been missing out on. Instant reload was one, but bullet hardening matched with control bullets were another. All on top of her aura of Ruin slowly weakening big monsters that took several bullets to put down. She wondered if there were others she was missing out on. More importantly was that there were whole abilities she was just forgetting to use. Limit breaker was a boon, a condition she applied to herself that let her resist rank suppression. One that she forgot to use in the battle with Omeda. An ability she had gotten before her aura power but had lagged behind in development. She was just too used to her old way of fighting. A mindset she needed to break if she wanted to survive in this world. Ch55 Bad for her heart Seras was considering the monster bodies when she summoned up a large board and threw it down on the lush carpet of moss. She then began unfolding the board to make a large flat surface. Next she grabbed one of the monsters and dragged it onto the board, then the next. Manually coiling them up to make sure they took up as little space as possible. She looked down at the pile of monsters and bit her cheek as she thought. It would be tight, but she should have enough space. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Athena asked as she pushed herself to her feet. She was clearly shaken by the experience, but some sort of inner grit was fighting off the looming terror. That or training of some kind familiarized her with being suddenly overwhelmed by a monster and suffocated. Seras felt like Athena was a timid person so she was personally leaning towards training, but where would someone get training like that without being an adventurer? Her mind flashed to disturbing thought from her word, a job she tried really hard to forget. Some terrorist cult out in the badlands kidnapping nomad kids and raising them into child soldiers under a harsh physical regime with psychotropic substances warping their minds. Driving a bus full of traumatized glassy eyed nomad kids was one of the reasons Seras stopped sleeping. She shook her head, ¡°setting up a harvesting ritual,¡± she explained. ¡°You know harvesting rituals?¡± she asked. ¡°Of course, its free money. I¡¯m just trying to figure out the best way to draw this circle, I don¡¯t have much space to work with.¡± Her mind was currently running through several iterations of spell circle, looking for the best option. ¡°Why not chop them up, or do them separately.¡± She asked. Seras turned her gaze to Athena ¡°you¡¯re not familiar with harvesting rituals are you.¡± She looked embarrassed, she kicked the moss a bit ¡°no, I¡¯ve only ever seen looting abilities at work.¡± ¡°Yeah, well harvesting rituals are more nuanced. A looting power gets all of the monster at once, but with a harvesting ritual you need to either do it one piece or make several circles depending on monster size. But multiple rituals fucks with the ambient magic, making subsequent rituals messier or less effective. So if I can I¡¯d like to just do one big one.¡± Seras racial trait, Blueprinting software, came up with a good circle that would maximize loot. She pulled out several magical tools from her pocket space and began setting up. ¡°You sound like you know a lot about harvesting rituals.¡± Athena said conversationally. Seras grunted an affirmation, ¡°one of the guys I travel with, Flint, he¡¯s a pissy bastard but he knows his stuff. Especially harvesting rituals. Its another way of making profit as a trader. He taught me a thing or two once I got Dustin to harp on him.¡± ¡°You travel with a trader caravan?¡± ¡°Yup, they were the ones who found me buck naked in the desert. Took me in, showed me the ropes, and even got me on the path to being an adventurer.¡± ¡°Why were you naked?¡± she asked incredulously. ¡°Outworlders remake their bodies, not their clothes, I wasn¡¯t supposed to even have hair apparently. But I got a bit lucky in that regard.¡± ¡°I see, and they¡¯re the ones who taught you how to fight then?¡± ¡°I knew how to fight before I got here, they¡¯re the ones who should me how magic could help me fight better. Training, essence advancement, aura manipulation, that¡¯s all on them.¡± Seras felt Athena¡¯s aura brush up against hers, ¡°your aura is pretty good.¡± Seras smirked, ¡°had my aura power less than a month.¡± She boasted. Athena looked surprised. ¡°Then its really good.¡±If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ¡°Thanks, Dustin¡¯s an old man whose had nothing but time to work on aura training, and he¡¯s pretty good at teaching it. Had me doing the exercises before I had my aura power.¡± ¡°That shouldn¡¯t be possible, you can¡¯t consciously manipulate your aura without an aura power.¡± ¡°Sure, but you can develop the right kind of mindset beforehand, and that training slots in pretty well once you awaken an aura.¡± Seras explained as she began to spread out lines of salt. ¡°Aura is an expression of the soul, and even if its not a one to one equation your mind set still had some bearing on it. Dustin says that means some people excel more in other fields of Aura training. I¡¯m used to punching up, fighting back against shit I have no right facing. So I have an easier time pushing back against aura suppression, while I¡¯m sort of crap at aura stealth.¡± ¡°You felt pretty hidden to me back in the camp.¡± Athena commented. ¡°That¡¯s something else picking up the slack for me. I had an active camo unit before I got shunted out of my reality. I think that when I remade myself that part of my abilities developed an artificial aura masking ability. Either that or it was always there, though I doubt that. Auras are just mumbo-jumbo on my world, it¡¯d be weird for a piece of tech to accidentally also mask aura.¡± Her own statement forced Seras to pause in her pouring a consider what she had just said. She was beginning to have suspicions, but that wasn¡¯t enough to tip the scales one way or another. She returned to her task and finished drawing the circle. She then summoned up her mana excluders and mana lamps to smooth out the ambient magic. One final check and Seras enacted the ritual. 20 iron spirit coins have been added to your pocket space 2 iron rank monster cores have been added to your pocket space 7 plant quintessence have been added to your pocket space Iron rank bowie knife has been added to your pocket space 15 spent lead bullets have been added to your pocket space The monsters were turned into rainbow smoke and the materials were deposited into her pocket space. Seras and Athena had made sure to stay away from the rancid smell rainbow smoke, but a slight breeze through the tunnel was slowly blowing it their way. They both took slow steps back to avoid the smell. Seras let out an annoyed sigh. The materials were all basic monster parts, no crafting materials beyond quintessence, no awakening stones or essences, and the last two were just the weapons she had used during the fight. ¡°Nothing good.¡± Seras muttered. Athena looked at her, ¡°you have storage power, do you also get to know what¡¯s inside it.¡± ¡°Yup, Outworlders get unique racial traits on rebirth. I¡¯m told there¡¯s a bit of variation, like how some get harvesting powers. I got powers that replicate things I had in my world, mapping and directions, language adaptation, Biomechanical physiology with an added repair feature, blueprinting software that helps me design and test things like my guns and magic circles. And the last is somewhat useless, net connection. It¡¯s supposed to mimic the information super highway on my world, all of humanities knowledge at your fingertips. Mostly used for porn. But right now, I can only access monster registries, essence powers, and the farmer¡¯s almanac. Need divine permission to access more things.¡± Athena considered what Seras had said, ¡°have you asked for permission?¡± ¡°Yup, Knowledge shot me down.¡± Seras said as she collected her equipment. ¡°That would be the first Goddess I¡¯d ask, but she¡¯s not the only one. You mentioned porn, I know the church of Fertility has large stores of similar material. Their less provocative priests spend entire lifetimes adding to it.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°there¡¯s a Goddess for porn?¡± Athena cleared her throat, ¡°it¡¯s a bit more nuanced than that, but yes. Her church says it helps with fertility. And besides her there Healer, his church has been leading healing research since the dawn of time. And Dominion and Liberty both have extensive legal collections.¡± ¡°Isnt Dominion all about rulers and tyranny?¡± Seras asked. ¡°That¡¯s a misconception, why wouldn¡¯t Dominion like laws? They¡¯re one of the most effective way to control people. His clergy are very ¡®letter of the law¡¯. While Liberty prefers the spirit of the law. And both have conflicting views on what laws are good or not.¡± Seras was intrigued now ¡°any other¡¯s I should know about?¡± ¡°Hero¡¯s church chronical¡¯s legends and epics, mostly ending in sacrifice. My mother often read me those as bedtime stories, until I realized they were all true and shared my name sometimes.¡± ¡°And that name would be?¡± Seras asked leadingly. Athena¡¯s mouth snapped shut. Seras guffawed ¡°I probably wouldn¡¯t know if you told me.¡± ¡°If its all the same I would rather not say.¡± Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°alright, none of my business anyways.¡± She tapped the tips of her toes against the board and watched as it vanished. ¡°I really need to look into the these gods a little more, I never heard of Hero or Liberty. Is there a god for everything.¡± ¡°Not¡­ everything. But theres lots. The ones that really matter are the big ones since they tend to have sub-Gods. Like Revel having Vinyard, Brewer, and Orgy as subordinates.¡± ¡°There¡¯s a god of porn and orgies, I¡¯m loving this whole religion your world¡¯s got going on.¡± She shook her head, ¡°doesn¡¯t your world have Gods, how do you do things work for you?¡± Seras puffed out her cheeks and slowly blew air out as she processed the question. ¡°According to Knowledge the gods were once real. But now they¡¯re dead. There was this big divine war, left my world a mess. Wiped out all of civilization, burned off most of our oceans, and blew a massive crater in the side of our world. Goes straight down to the mantel. We call it Ruin now, but Knowledge said it had a different name once. I grew hearing religious wackjobs claiming that the dead gods would raise if we gave them our money and prayed really hard. Some even made their followers take some really nasty drugs so they could ¡®speak¡¯ to the gods.¡± Her tone said everything she thought about them in one. ¡°Why did your gods go to war?¡± ¡°Fuck if I know, something about divine paradises. Might have even been real if the gods were, but now they¡¯re dead and my world is Ruin.¡± Athena looked at her with big sad eyes, and before Seras could react she rushed her. Seras braced for an attack, summoning her revolver back into her hand. But an attack never came, instead the giant of a women wrapped Seras in a deep hug. ¡°Hey, what¡¯s, shove off.¡± Seras squawked. ¡°I¡¯m sorry.¡± She said, but didn¡¯t let go. ¡°If your sorry then let go.¡± ¡°Not that. I¡¯m sorry you grew up in such terrible world, I often think this one sucks, but yours sounds worse.¡± ¡°Yeah, well that¡¯s life, we don¡¯t choose how it screws us.¡± Serea muttered, but it sounded weak to her ear. ¡°Maybe you¡¯re right, but that doesn¡¯t make it right or better.¡± Seras took a deep breath through her nose and slowly let it out, then seeing no way out of the hug chose to hug back and make it end faster. It was doing weird things to her heart that wasn¡¯t good for her health. A long minute later Athena let go of her, and Seras was left awkwardly shuffling around. After poignant pause Seras eventually spoke up, ¡°your, uh, a lot more interesting than I first gave you credit for.¡± She said eventually. ¡°Why do you say that?¡± she asked. ¡°Well I thought I had you pegged,¡± Seras stopped as she tried to think of the right thing to say, ¡°but I¡¯ve been wrong before.¡± She said lamely. ¡°I really don¡¯t want to know what you thought, do I?¡± ¡°Probably not.¡± Seras turned back to the tunnel and gestured outwards, ¡°the labyrinth awaits.¡± Athena stepped forward, eyes scanning the tunnel, not eager to be caught unaware a second time. Seras followed behind and fiddled with her nerve sensitivity to fix the lingering sense of warmth. But nothing seemed to work. Ch56 Voracious They walked on for hours, and eventually Seras had to call a break. Both of them were iron rank, and could have gone on for longer. But they both needed to be hypervigilant as they moved through the Labyrinth, and that had a draining effect on their mental faculties. Even Seras needed to sit and rest. They slept in shifts, Seras going first. She checked her map again and was both pleased and dismayed by how far they¡¯d gone in a day of walking. The tunnel twisted, rose, fell, and seemingly doubled back on itself. The kind of thing that Seras wouldn¡¯t have believed to be natural. One trend, however seemed to be consistent, the tunnel continued heading east. ¡°Looks like we¡¯re still heading east.¡± Seras muttered out loud as they got moving again. Athena considered her words, ¡°I¡¯m not familiar with this region, is there anything important that way?¡± ¡°Not really, mostly a ton of desert and dry grass land.¡± Seras said while staring at her map. Cupric was founded around one of the huge rock columns that tended to form over some astral spaces in the five deserts. That column was in the center of a broad desert valley hemmed in by mountains. The Omeda camp had been in the foothills of the northern range, near some of the trails that led north to a region called the Dells. Before they received their mission Dustin would have brought them up through those trails in order to continue on their journey to Basal. But that wasn¡¯t their original route, they were supposed to follow a series of desert valleys to the city of Volkis before going north. But they had been forced to reassess their original path because herds of Toruach had migrated into their path and halted all travel to Volkis via Cupric. Somehow the labyrinth had disgorged a massive amount of plant quintessence. Seras kicked at the moss as she worked something out. ¡°There¡¯s tons of Toruach to the east, drawn in by a load of plant quintessence. It''s been forcing travelers north through the narrow trails and passes. And here we are in a tunnel leading east filled with plants.¡± Seras murmured. ¡°You think it¡¯s all connected?¡± ¡°It¡¯s obviously connected, I¡¯m just wondering if its intentional or coincidence.¡± Seras leaned down and ripped up a handful of moss. ¡°Where did all these come from anyway, we¡¯re underground? These can¡¯t be the best growing conditions.¡± She gestured to the tunnel. Athena shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t know, but magic makes things weird sometimes.¡± ¡°Hmm¡± Seras hummed. She didn¡¯t know why, but it struck her as suspicious. As they continued walking Seras began a list in her head and began writing down notes. Sometimes having an organized place to dump your thoughts into was helpful. Hours later Seras gave up on puzzling out some sort of reason and went back to the magi-tech manual. The current section was devoted to how magic could mess with electrical currents in fixed systems. An issue Seras had trouble figuring out previously. The manual essentially told her she either needed proper shielding to make the electricity flow like normal, or to accept the interference and work with it. The second option opened up a lot of interesting possibilities. However, Seras¡¯ reading was interrupted when her ears picked up a strange, new sound from far ahead. She held out a hand and began fiddling with her ear sensors. They could pick out a vast amount of sounds from very far away, but that often led to sensory overload, so she kept it tuned to the background. Now she isolated and boosted the noise. ¡°What is it?¡± Athena asked, her voice a little weird with her ears tuned for something else. Seras reverted her settings and gestured forwards, ¡°I¡¯m not sure, but I think the tunnel opens up ahead of us. The air sounds different that way.¡± ¡°Do you have a perception ability for your ears?¡± Seras quirked an eyebrow ¡°that¡¯s a thing? No, of course it is.¡± Seras lifted a hand and tapped her ears, ¡°My ears are a lot more sensitive to sounds if I want them to be.¡± ¡°I see, so it works like a perception ability, just without needing the awakening stone.¡± ¡°Something like that.¡± ¡°That¡¯s unfair!¡± she complained. Seras snorted, ¡°maybe, but it¡¯s like ordinary biology. Smolders handle heat better, Leonid¡¯s have endurance and hulking physiques, and human¡¯s¡­ what do we humans have?¡± ¡°Nothing at normal rank, we can run well enough, work hard, learn well, but it''s always middle of the pack. Humans are just adaptive and averagely capable, its why you can find humans in almost every land. We make up for it in our Racial traits, a faster essence advancement and a better chance for special attacks, as well as four unique traits depending on our essences.¡± She bit her lip and then added one more item to the list ¡°we also generally have better chance at inheriting non-human abilities if one of our parents are non-human.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°I¡¯d never heard of that one.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not really well known. Some people tried really shady breeding programs in the past. I only know because my mom was an elf, I got her life affinity instead of the special attack affinity. Its why I got the essences I did. Otherwise, the odds of inheritance are super low. And you rarely get the physical traits, though I met a Leonid with Smolder mom once, he had red eyes.¡± ¡°Right, well disturbing implications aside, the tunnel widens up. By a lot. I¡¯d say it¡¯s about the size of a city square, but that¡¯s all I got. I¡¯d say given the odds that there¡¯s likely to be some sort of monster in there, so keep your guard up.¡± Athena¡¯s face became serious, and she nodded once. ¡°Alright, I still have your rifle thing, not that I can aim it very well.¡± ¡°It¡¯ll have to do, let''s take this nice and slow.¡± They both crept forwards slowly, careful not to alert anything waiting for succulent humans to wander in. Well one succulent human and a very inedible cyborg. Some several hundred meters later they entered into the massive room, it was a roughly circular room, with a high ceiling and a massive plant in the center. The plant was tight tangle of thorny vines with thinner vines spider webbing away to cover most of the cavern, Seras was instantly suspicious of it. She looked around the room and saw two, maybe three other tunnels. It was hard to tell from her angle. But to get to any of them they¡¯d need to move past the bramble.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Seras pointed to the bramble and then at the mostly circular web of smaller vines; Athena nodded her head. She thought it was suspicious too. Seras tried to identify it, but at this current distance her power didn¡¯t seem to work. Seras pointed to the ground and indicated that Athena should stay here, she nodded her head. Seras turned back the bramble and summoned a grenade to her hands, her pulled the pin and tossed it in. As it flew it Seras stepped out of the tunnel and into the cave, the moment her foot landed the vines began to unravel and reach out for her. Just as she had planned. Seras had guessed that the nearest vines would be the ones coming for her, so she made sure to throw the grenade for that exact spot. As she began running to avoid the probing vines the grenade landed within the tight bramble cocoon, right where the vines had been. It exploded in a huge ball of fire that threw sticky alchemical fire jelly all over the monster. The bramble cocoon opened up as the vines flailed around, trying to shake off the fire jelly. Now the stuff she used wasn¡¯t actually napalm, but it was damn close. The alchemist who sold her this was more than happy to be rid of it as it was a by product of her stamina potion recipe. With the vines out of the way Seras could see the monster¡¯s true body. At the center of the vines was long stalk of bright purple flowers, they would have been pretty if Seras hadn¡¯t seen the bones and half dissected bodies of other weaker monsters and the occasional animal. She even saw some human bones in the yellow center of one of the flowers. Bronze rank Voracious Kudzu Voracious Kudzu has suppressed your iron rank aura. Speed, strength, and damage reduced. Boon: Limit Breaker, has been activated. All rank suppression has been resisted. Aura of Ruin has inflicted enfeeblement on Voracious Kudzu. Aura of Ruin has failed to inflict Enfeeblement on Voracious Kudzu. Aura of Ruin has inflicted enfeeblement on Voracious Kudzu. Aura of Ruin has inflicted enfeeblement on Voracious Kudzu. Aura of Ruin has failed to inflict Enfeeblement on Voracious Kudzu. With the magical fire from the grenade still burning the plant monster was slowly accumulating stacks of enfeeblement, but that didn¡¯t mean the monster was down and out. It seemed to have enough intelligence to understand that Seras was the one who had hurt it. Thorny vines reached out for her, Seras ducked under one, jumped above another, and a third she shot point blank six times it quick succession, each shot going up the length of the vine. Aura of Ruin has to inflict Enfeeblement on Voracious Kudzu Seras continued to run, and to her horror she saw several vines hacking at the flaming ones, cutting them off from the main body. Just as several vines fell to the ground, left to burn on their own a loud BANG, echoed through the chamber. Athena pulled the bolt back and fumbled with the trap to reload, not nearly as smooth as Seras would have. But smooth didn¡¯t matter, Athena had seen the opening Seras left and fired right into the flower stalk. One bud burst in a yellow gooey explosion, and the monsters let out a low moan of pain. Before it had been instinctively reacting to the danger of fire and the potential prey that was Seras. But now it was in pain and lashing out with rage. But Athena was still outside of its radius, and it seemed to only be able to detect things on its root network. So instead it redoubled its efforts to get Seras. Even with Enfeeblement slowing down its vines Seras was still hard pressed to deal with the sheer amount of them. She made a quick dash to the left, darted back, and then crouched down for an elastically high-powered jump. Seras went high into the air, nearly scraping the ceiling as she leapt over the flower stalk of the monster. She twisted mid air and latched onto a flower bulb with control bullets and fired, it burst and she changed targets, and again, and again, and- Something latched onto her and threw off her aim. The thinner, fast moving vine Seras hadn¡¯t noticed before was wrapped around her ankle, and felt little pricks as tiny roots infiltrated her smart skin. Voracious Kudzu has inflicted paralysis. Paralysis has been resisted due to Bio-Mechanical physiology. Paralysis failed to take effect. Seras tried to reach for the vine around her ankle, but had no time as it whipped her around and smashed her into the stone ceiling of the cavern. Her optics glitched from the force of the blow and she had to wait a whole three seconds as they rebooted. When they came back it was just intime for Seras to see the yellow center and purple petals of the carnivorous flowers. She tried to struggle, but the yellow center was stickier than hot tar. And worse, it was acidic. Acid damage has melted Smart skinTM , time to repair 1 hour and 2 minutes¡­ 1 hour and thirty minutes¡­ 2 hours and¡­ She heard another BANG, but I didn¡¯t hit anything vital. And worse yet the monster was closing itself off again to dissolve Seras. Seras struggled harder, but it only made her sink faster. The light was quickly being cut off as the vines closed, so she changed course. Seras summoned another pyro-grenade into her hands and popped the pin, but instead of tossing it she stuck it inside the yellow goop. Seras waited for an impossibly long few seconds, and then her vision flared with light. The burst of flames with the goop forced Seras outwards, until she smacked against the vine cocoon from the inside. The monster wailed, but the fire was all over its flowers and burning hot. It was too distracted by the pain to notice Seras laying against its vines. The vine cocoon quickly filled with smoke, and Seras tossed another one down onto the base. The moment the second one was out of her hands Seras summoned up the large metal ritual board to shield her from the alchemical napalm. Light flared, the heat intensified, and the smoke became unbearable. Fortunately for her she was used to more toxic air than this. The monster let out more pitiful wails, but without a means of handling the flames inside its cocoon it just tightened its vines as if it would held. But try as it might, it couldn¡¯t create a perfect seal to cut off the air supply. Seras occasionally heard the muffled BANG of Athena firing the rifle, from the pacing she guessed the poor girl was fire and reloading as fast as possible. Seras just sat and watched as the monster burned from within, until the strength holding it together faded and the vine cocoon slowly unraveled. She stood up and stumbled her way out of the cocoon, ¡°Seras!¡± she heard a shout and looked up to see Athena rushing towards her. Seras held up a hand, belatedly noticing the shiny titanium fingers. She pulled her hand back and stared at it, the skin had been melted off down to the wrist, her checked her other arm, but it was fine. When the Voracious Kudzu had stuck her into its digestive acid it was on her right side, leaving half of her body okay. Athena had stomped up to her and almost tackled her in a hug, but held off at the last moment. She looked vaguely uneasy. Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°its just a bit of skin off my arm, it¡¯ll repair.¡± Athena coughed, ¡°uh, its not just your arm.¡± Seras looked down and saw part of her shirt and vest were gone, and parts of her sides were missing. Athena tracked her gaze and then surreptitiously tapped the side of her pace. Seras lifted her hand to touch her face, and heard the click of metal on metal. Part of her facial skin was missing. ¡°Oh, uh, oops.¡± She said as an embroidered blue neckerchief appeared in her hand, ¡°help me tie this up.¡± ¡°Its fine, I can manage.¡± Athena lied while looking green. ¡°Well maybe I can¡¯t, just help me tie it off. It should repair in¡­ five hours! Fucking hells.¡± Seras cursed. Athena helped tie the neckerchief around her head to cover her missing face, and then helped her slide out of her ruined clothes and into a spare pair. When it all down Athena was looking a little more comfortable around Seras. ¡°I thought you were a goner there.¡± She said after a while. ¡°I know. Wasn¡¯t expecting faster tiny vines to get me. Thought I¡¯d be undetectable while off the ground, but of course it would know it was being shot. Glad the fire worked.¡± ¡°More of those weapons, the grendades?¡± ¡°Grenades.¡± She corrected. ¡°I was wondering what the burst of flames meant.¡± Athena said. They both turned back to look at the burning monster, they watched until its aura faded away and it stopped writhing, now it was just a burning bush with no life. ¡°Dead gods, I hope we don¡¯t find any more of those.¡± Seras muttered as she collapsed against a wall. ¡°Probably not.¡± Athena said as she sat next to Seras. ¡°But now we know why we didn¡¯t see any other monsters. This thing was cutting off the other tunnels, those two snakes like manifested in those tunnels instead of slithering in.¡± ¡°Fuuuck.¡± Seras moaned, ¡°that means were gonna be fighting more monsters as we go.¡± ¡°Maybe not,¡± Athena said, she pointed to a hidden tunnel in the ceiling where the smoke had revealed. It wasn¡¯t just flowing upwards, it looked more like it was being sucked upwards. ¡°Huh, you know, the last time I was in the Labyrinth I had to climb out as well.¡± Seras remarked. ¡°When was this?¡± ¡°When I first came into this world. I was in this Astral space deep below the surface, had to climb up for a long time before I eventually found an exit, it was unfortunately filled with angry bee monsters. Had to jump off a cliff into a river to escape.¡± She frowned, ¡°and you survived at normal rank?¡± ¡°I keep telling you, I¡¯m the pinnacle of engineering. It takes a little more than water to kill me.¡± ¡°Right, I really shouldn¡¯t be surprised. You survived being eaten by a bronze rank flower just a minute ago.¡± ¡°Yup, I had some really potent acid, my skin¡¯s supposed to be resistant to it.¡± Seras said while looking at her arm. ¡°Might have been a magical acid. They tend to work on things not normally weak to acid unless you have a resistance.¡± ¡°Yeah, must be. Makes me glad theres no magic on Ruin, otherwise acid rain would be a thousand times worse.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll probably regret this, but acid rain?¡± ¡°Yup, super nasty, part of why every needs to replace their skin. Overwise you¡¯ll melt or slowly succumb to blisters.¡± ¡°That¡¯s so strange, I¡¯ve never considered fearing the rain.¡± Athena said while shaking her head. ¡°Its not that weird. When its cold you put on a coat, when there are sharp stones your wear boots, and when the rain melts your skin and the air poisons your lungs you opt in for cybernetics. I got splashed in the eyes once and went blind before a Doc could replace them.¡± ¡°Your world is a very scary place.¡± Athena said ¡°and we have monsters.¡± Seras grinned under her neckerchief ¡°So do we, they just happen to walk on two legs and smile at you. Ch57 The Power of Greed Seras laid against the wall for an hour until the fire finally burnt itself out. In the end all that was left was soot and some withered vines. Seras once again summoned her metal board and unfolded it, she and Athena worked together to collect all the monster parts and ash. Seras wasn¡¯t expecting much with so little of the monster left, but every bit counted. While digging through where the plant had been rooted Athena found a huge green orb. It looked like an emerald colored pearl, but the squishy give to its surface reminded her of rubber. It was probably where the monster core was situated. ¡°And you said collecting the ashes was a waste of time.¡± Athena said with a cocky smirked. Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°I¡¯ve been wrong before, quit smirking.¡± She grumbled. Once a majority of the monster parts were together Seras poured the ritual salt. ¡°How come this circle looks so different?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Plant monsters need a different circle than animal monsters, same with elementals, constructs, and goops. The magic matrix forms a different sort of geometry in plants than others, one that sort of mimic''s plant cells.¡± ¡°Plant cells?¡± ¡°Cells are the tiny little things that make of living creatures. But animal cells and plant cells are different.¡± ¡°How small are they, these cells?¡± ¡°Microscopic.¡± Seras saw the blank look of her face and sighed ¡°for scale, you would have an average of thirty trillion cells. Likely more since your taller than some men.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a lot. What becomes of these cells at higher ranks?¡± ¡°No clue, haven¡¯t found an answer yet.¡± Seras finished pouring the last line and stepped back as the rainbow smoke emerged. 75 Iron spirit coins have been added to your pocket space 7 bronze spirit coins have been added to your pocket space 24 bronze rank plant quintessence has been added to your pocket space 1 bronze rank monster core has been added to your pocket space 1 awakening stone of Greed has been added to your pocket space Seras pumped a fist into the air ¡°fuck yeah, free awakening stone!¡± she cheered. Athena quirked an eyebrow, ¡°and all it cost was a near death experience and some skin.¡± She said sardonically. ¡°Bah, that¡¯s a pretty cheep price if you ask me. Do you know how much these cost?¡± Seras quipped back. ¡°No, what kind of awakening stone was it?¡± Seras pulled out the awakening stone and checked. Awakening stone of greed. Two star. Unlocks the power of greed. Would you like to convert it into an appropriate form, Y/N ¡°It¡¯s a greed stone, two star.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not bad, I¡¯ve heard good things about that one. A higher chance for mana and health leeching.¡± Seras nodded in agreement as she checked the registry. ¡°That¡¯s mostly what I¡¯m seeing, its got a good chance of bonding with my metal essence and giving me the power to suck metals out of the ground. That¡¯ll cut down on cost, and I might be able to synergize that with Shape metal to act as a bootleg conjuring ability.¡± She looked up and considered Athena, ¡°unless you want it?¡± she said hesitantly. Seras didn¡¯t want to give up on a free awkening stone, especially given what she saw. But she knew how hogging all the pay could create bad blood. Athena shook her head, ¡°No, my parents said it would be a bad idea for me to use any awkening stones right now. My last one was nearly three years ago.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°why¡¯s that? There an issue with using these too fast?¡± She shook her head, ¡°they didn¡¯t go into the details, just that I wasn¡¯t ready to complete my power set. And with how disappointing some of my powers are I¡¯m in no rush.¡± Seras frowned. ¡°Alright, well, I guess I¡¯ll use it then.¡± She said awkwardly. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. She looked back at the stone and selected yes. The little yellow stone turned into a small shard, with lines of golden light inside it. Seras slotted into the shard slot on her neck and gritted her teeth as power rushed through her. It wasn¡¯t as aggressive or painful as essences were, but it was still a lot. She felt her fingers prick, and the sensation of avarice filled her mind, drying out her tongue. It was like the feeling she got after a big pay day. You have awakened the potent ability ¡®bounty of greed¡¯ Potent abilities 2/5, awaken all potent abilities to advance speed attribute. Bounty of greed, spell. Channel your sense of greed through a fallen opponent to steal mana, vitality, or stamina. With an added benefit of looting magical materials. ¡°Dead gods dammit all!¡± Seras cursed. ¡°What?¡± Athena asked in alarm. ¡°It¡¯s a loot power.¡± She said bitterly. Athena looked confused, ¡°aren¡¯t loot powers really nice to have. Adventurer teams are always looking for some who can loot.¡± ¡°Do you have any idea how long I spent learning looting rituals, how much I spent on all this equipment. Some of its specialized just for harvesting rituals and can¡¯t be repurposed. The shop that sold me all this had an express no return policy!¡± Seras was wildly gesturing around with her hands, and knocked over the mana excluder. She jerked and caught it before it could fall, and then sent it back into her pocket space. Athena looked exasperated, ¡°so sell it to another adventurer at the guild, I¡¯m sure this sort of thing happens all the time. Sometimes essence abilities make old equipment useless. You probably got a looting power because you spent so much time and energy learning harvesting rituals.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°wait, what I learn effects what powers I get?¡± Athena hesitated, ¡°In a way. It¡¯s not a guarantee, but generally yes. For people who don¡¯t have weapon specific essences or awakening stones there¡¯s still a chance of gaining a weapon for a more esoteric stone. like if you train a lot with a sword but don¡¯t have the sword essence, you might get special sword attacks, or even a sword conjuration ability. Part of the reason essence powers are random is because your own abilities can influence them.¡± Seras considered this, ¡°that¡¯s why I got a bullet control power from my Avatar essence.¡± She murmured. ¡°Does this mean I¡¯ll get a gun power later?¡± ¡°Maybe, I have no idea what kind of essences would work well with guns, but it¡¯s a possibility.¡± Then she paused ¡°unless you have crafting abilities.¡± Seras paused, ¡°I have two so far. My first essence had a crafting ability I can¡¯t use yet, and my I got Shape metal from an earth awakening stone. and now that I think about it I have a racial trait for designing things.¡± Athena grimaced ¡°that might mean you get a more crafting oriented powers, unless you¡¯re really careful about the stones you pick. Unless you want crafting abilities?¡± Seras frowned and summoned her revolver, ¡°back on Ruin I was always a bit of a gun nut and tinkerer. I used a variety of weapons and custom crafted my gear. Having the right gun for the right job was how I operated. I had entire armories hidden around Mantel, dive bar basements, abandoned warehouses, bricked up subway tunnels.¡± ¡°So maybe that¡¯s the way you want to develop your powers?¡± she said probingly. ¡°I don¡¯t know, it¡¯s hard when you have no info on which way your powers trend. One of my Essences isn¡¯t even on the registry.¡± ¡°Which one is that?¡± ¡°Tech¡­ Technology. I¡¯m told its analogous to the magic essence, but for tech.¡± ¡°And what¡¯s tech?¡± ¡°Eh¡­ last time someone asked I gave them a pretty text book definition, but now that I¡¯ve been here a bit longer¡­ Imagine all the cool things magic lets you do. Skimmers, flying ships, mirage chambers. We have a version of all that, but its done without any magic. Its like simple machines, you know how an ordinary pully can lift things more effectively by using simple mechanics. That¡¯s what tech does, we have Bikes and Cars that are just like skimmers, but instead of being magic or essence powered we use a different sort of energy you can get from anywhere. We fly through the air with stupid ease, we can go around the world in less than a day, and do that with a thousand people crammed into a jet. For mirage chambers we have headsets that link up to your nerves and make you think your somewhere else.¡± ¡°So it does all the thing magic does, but differently.¡± ¡°Almost, we also do some things better than magic. I can¡¯t even properly describe how much data and info we have at our fingertips. The net is so vast and complex that its like a whole world of its own, some people even use those headsets I mentioned to dive into the net and zip through it like another reality. We regularly fly into space and have entire private stations acting like the most exclusive private communities. We¡¯ve got exo-miners on a nearby planet to supplement our need for metal. We have towers that are so tall they effect the weather on a macro scale.¡± Athena considered everything Seras had said, ¡°that sounds extraordinary. I wouldn¡¯t believe it if I hadn¡¯t seen you reattach a metal arm. I wish I could see it, it sounds fantastic.¡± ¡°Yeah, I wish I could show you some of the recordings I¡¯ve got.¡± Seras said. Its something she had wished she could with Dustin¡¯s crew, it would make things so much easier to just show them her world. ¡°Like recording crystals?¡± she asked. ¡°Sort of. One sec,¡± Seras muttered as she popped her arm open and pulled out a thumb sized shard. ¡°This is a shard, made of hard light for more compact storage. Its got the full length of hundreds of movies¡­ plays from my world. Thousands of hours, Tens of thousands. But it doesn¡¯t work with recording crystals or the image projectors you¡¯ve got. And I can¡¯t remake the same kind projector here since you don¡¯t have micro chips to read it.¡± She stared at and considered, ¡°you said your first Technology ability was a crafting one though.¡± She said probingly. Seras shook her head, ¡°not that kind. It¡¯s called Inscribe circuit/Rune, a Magitech crafting ability.¡± ¡°Then can you not make a rune circuit to read the, uh, shard was it, read the shard.¡± She said hesitantly. Seras shook her head ¡°Wouldn¡¯t work, can¡¯t get them to talk to each other, they speak different languages.¡± ¡°Then use a translation rune. There¡¯s a wide variety of them, some work on even body language like hand signs. Theres even a light based one, apparently some summons from the Astral have a light-based communication.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°really, but wouldn¡¯t it need to know what language the shard spoke to translate?¡± ¡°Why would it?¡± ¡°So it could translate. You know, pull from a word bank and compare languages.¡± ¡°Is that how your world does it, that sounds so tedious. Translation powers just translate, it¡¯s not that complicated.¡± She explained patiently. Seras was dumbfounded. It just translated? It just did the action with no rhyme or reason. Would it really be that easy? ¡°I¡¯m going to file that away for later. But we got way off topic.¡± She nodded ¡°right, where were we?¡± ¡°The way my power set will develop.¡± Seras prompted. ¡°Yes, so what are your other essence abilities?¡± she asked. ¡°Metal, potent, and Avatar.¡± She grimaced. ¡°Avatar¡¯s a hard one to pin down, especially with an unknown essence. There¡¯s so many kinds of Avatar power sets, from summoners, to conjuration, castors, defenders, and even mobility specialists.¡± ¡°Yup, and I don¡¯t really have enough of my abilities to really guess which way thing will go. Though Dustin says with Astral affinity and Pocket space I¡¯ve got a higher chance at dimensional powers, and since Astral affinity evolved to Astral wellspring, I might get some mana hungry powers. But that can range from rapid low-cost spells to big finishers.¡± ¡°Oh, that¡¯s a good evolution. Its considered second to the magic affinity Elves get. Though there¡¯s some debate.¡± ¡°Yeah, got it from an awakening stone of the celestial book. Knowledge said it made the stone give me that evolution.¡± ¡°What¡¯s the celestial book?¡± ¡°Some sort of Astral super god. Dustin called it an eldritch power from beyond space and time. It apparently took a liking to me as I passed through the astral.¡± ¡°So its like a divine awakening stone?¡± ¡°Nah, I looked it up at the magic society. Astral beings don¡¯t have as much control over their stones, they can¡¯t revoke them or use them against you like a god might. But they can specifically craft the power inside.¡± ¡°What power did you get then?¡± ¡°A summoning power, it¡¯s called Spark of Madness, I¡¯ll probably never get to use it because the cost for summoning is absurd. Dimensional quintessence, just to name one rare ass ingredient.¡± Athena grimaced. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s a tough one. You¡¯d need a really rich backer to summon it. Maybe the magic society might be interested if they get to study it in the process.¡± ¡°Thought about that, didn¡¯t like the sound of it.¡± She nodded in commiseration, ¡°from everything you¡¯ve told me it sounds like you have a really difficult path ahead of you. And that¡¯s not counting your soul condition.¡± Seras sighed, ¡°it wouldn¡¯t feel right if things were easy for me. Speaking of which, the rainbow smokes finished filtering out the hole, now we need to figure out how to get up there.¡± They looked up, and Athena made a little jump while reaching upwards. Seeing as the ceiling was at least two stories up it was comically pathetic. She looked to Seras, ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have a ladder prepared in your pocket space.¡± ¡°What do I look like a lunatic, who carries a two-story ladder? All I¡¯ve got is explosives, a ritual board, thirty pounds of white salt, thirty pounds of pink salt, some trail rations and seasonings, lock picks, magical garrots, Heidel care equipment, a spare saddle, and a small dining table and chairs.¡± Athena looked back up, ¡°think we could stack the chairs on top of the table?¡± Seras used her optics to compare the distance to the furniture in her pocket space, ¡°Maybe, no, we¡¯ll need to stack up a few rocks under the table legs. Look for nice flat ones.¡± Athena sighed, but obligingly pulled the remaining vines out of the way to expose the stone floor. Seras started combing the wall for stones. Ch58 A Seemingly achievable path Skull casing has been dented, time to repair 8 hours and 17 minutes. Seras groaned at the message. Athena looked down on her with a concerned frown, ¡°I told you the tower wasn¡¯t stable enough to jump on.¡± ¡°Shove off, I almost had it.¡± ¡°You were missing it by a good arm¡¯s span.¡± Seras scowled, ¡°Well I don¡¯t see any other options.¡± ¡°What if I stood on your shoulders?¡± Seras gave her a blank stare, ¡°you want to stand on my shoulders, while we¡¯re balancing on four chairs, a table, and several unevenly stacked rocks. You realize that while my head dents, yours would crack like an egg.¡± Athena looked at the dent in Seras¡¯ head uneasily. ¡°Okay. Well I don¡¯t think we¡¯re going to get up there then.¡± ¡°Probably. And now that I think of it. I doubt the Omeda were using that tunnel to get out either.¡± Seras muttered bitterly. ¡°I guess we should just be happy that it let out the rainbow smoke. I¡¯d hate to be trapped in a small space with that stuff.¡± ¡°Nah, it would vanish eventually. I tried trapping some in a bottle once for a stink bomb, no go. The jar I filled refused to hold the smoke for long.¡± ¡°Why you make a stink bomb?¡± ¡°For monsters with good noses. I punched something called a Kabra in the nose, it stunned it long enough for me to snap its neck. Thought I could make a cheap bomb that did the same.¡± Seras said as she began collecting the dining furniture.¡± ¡°Do you ever think your too casual about mentioning brutal violence.¡± She asked as Seras got the table back into her pocket space. ¡°No, but I¡¯m pretty numb to it. Back on my world we had these annoying things called ¡®ads¡¯, they using any evocative or shocking imagery they can to draw your attention. There was one for an energy drink called Surge where they actually drew up a guy¡¯s head for the commercial. Apparently, the actor didn¡¯t read the fine print of his contract.¡± She made a face, ¡°why?¡± ¡°To grab your attention.¡± Seras said blandly, as if the point should be obvious. ¡°I meant, why was blowing up someone¡¯s head the only idea they had to grab your attention?¡± ¡°Like I said, we¡¯re numb to it. I¡¯ve lived my whole life ignoring a thousand ads cramming up my HUD, but the Surge ad is one I remember.¡± She just sighed, ¡°From what I hear I don¡¯t think I would like your world.¡± Athena gave Seras a look of deep pity. Seras glanced away, ¡°yeah well, if it ever gets to be too much just let me know. Most of the crew have banned me from talking about Ruin already.¡± Athena scowled, ¡°why would they do that?¡± ¡°Too many nightmares.¡± Seras was now examining the other two exits to the caven, one was a cracked slit in the wall, while the other was suppiciouly round. She started pouring salt in a ritual formation on a hunch. ¡°Well, still. That doesn¡¯t sound right. As terrible as it is, it¡¯s still your world. I don¡¯t like a lot about this world, but I¡¯d still feel awful if I wound up on another where I wasn¡¯t allowed to mention monsters or magic.¡± She paused and thought for a moment, ¡°did you¡­ leave any one behind?¡± she asked cautiously, as if it might trigger Seras. Seras just snorted derisively, ¡°not really. My crew and I were all on the same station that blew up, if they¡¯re not here they¡¯re either in the astral, in another world, or dead. ,y money¡¯s on dead.¡± ¡°What about family.¡± ¡°My parents died after trying to hold up a quick-mart¡­ the equivalent to a small merchants stall. Shop keeper was former West-blood, a gang, he had a gun and got his shots off quicker than a couple of teen punk wannabes.¡± ¡°That¡¯s a bit harsh.¡± Athena chastised. Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°maybe, but I wasn¡¯t old enough to remember to them or care. They¡¯d already ditched me onto their old gang, the Black Bullets. They raised me. And then they lost half their members in a police purge, and the rest in the following turf wars.¡± Athena stared at Seras with eyes that made her feel uncomfortable. ¡°What about friends, you had to have had one?¡± Now Seras was starting to feel uncomfortable, the rest she had made peace with. But Cash was still an open wound, ¡°yeah, one. He was gonna shoot this kid, and but I shot first.¡± ¡°The kid!¡± she exclaimed. Seras turned to Athena, ¡°no.¡± she said flatly. She was confused for only one second, and then, and then her eyes became too painful for Seras to meet. She turned back to her ritual circle and changed the subject, ¡°what about you, how long has it been?¡± ¡°Been since what?¡± she asked. ¡°Since you ran away.¡± Athena froze solid, and then forced her body language to become causal, too casual. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you mean.¡±The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°You¡¯re a bad liar.¡± She deflated, ¡°how¡¯d you know?¡± Seras snorted derisively, ¡°wasn¡¯t hard, not if you know the signs. Seen people like you more than enough to recognize a rich kid running away from their family, either they¡¯re too strict, or boring, or trying to marry their kid off for a business deal. I¡¯ve seen all kinds. You tick some of the boxes, but not enough for me to pinpoint why. I¡¯m guessing that¡¯s more a cultural difference at play. And finally, until about a minute ago I only had well founded suspicions-¡± ¡°-but I gave myself away when I flinched.¡± She finished. Athena sighed, ¡°my aunt even told me to look out for that trick. It was quite literally in the textbook, you blatantly changed the subject, and while I was still suspicious about what you were hiding you caught me off guard with the question. How long have you been waiting to confirm your theory?¡± ¡°It was after the Brush Pythons, you struck me as a bit timid, but after being nearly suffocated by a monster you seemed fine. That struck me as odd, and then I started going over the facts. And things started lining up.¡± ¡°I¡¯m curious, what facts?¡± ¡°You¡¯re not a local, just about everyone in the five deserts have heard of outworlders. Given that these deserts cover a good third of the continent, and that places adjacent to the Desert would likely also know about Outworlders that means your far from home. We¡¯ve been together for a while, but you haven¡¯t once mentioned finding or talking to your family. My guess is that you hopped on a sky ship and chose somewhere remote to get away.¡± ¡°I could just be someone out seeing the world-¡± ¡°Nah, your too, softs not the right word but its close enough. You don¡¯t have the feel of an independent adult, you remind me more of Dallas, always taking cues from us older members of the caravan. You¡¯ve let me lead the entire time while we were down here.¡± ¡°You seemed like you knew what you were doing.¡± ¡°And I do, but I never got any pushback from you, even when I shoved a gun in your hands.¡± Seras looked up at Athena as she finished pouring her ritual salt, ¡°so wanna talk about it?¡± She opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again only to have no words to say. Seras turned back to her ritual and let her mana suffuse the circle, it began to glow and then so did the tunnel around it. ¡°Its fine if you don¡¯t. I¡¯ve been pretty open, but that¡¯s because nothing I say can come back to bit me here, if I were back home you¡¯d get less out of me since my secrets still matter there. If you feel like your reasons for running away are private I wont pry.¡± She smiled, ¡°thank you, its, its nothing serious. But I do want to get away from my family and the lives they lead, I just want to find a quiet life in a low magic zone where no one already knows me.¡± Seras glanced back, ¡°that¡¯s fine, by the way, I think this tunnel is earth shaped through magic. Might be what the Omeda were using instead of a shaft in the roof.¡± Athena stared at the suspiciously round and smooth tunnel ¡°Huh, it seems pretty obvious in hindsight. Probably could have skipped two hours of stacking and jumping.¡± ¡°Not the first time I¡¯ve gotten stuck on a seemingly achievable path instead of the blatantly obvious.¡± Seras admitted. ¡°You too?¡± ¡°Yep, most be another one of those little universal experiences, next to crime, war, and taxes. Can¡¯t get away from it no matter where you go.¡± Seras said as she gestured towards the tunnel, ¡°shall we?¡± ¡°Might as well, nothing else for us here.¡± Athena said as she walked forward. The distraction of the plant monster in the cave behind them the two continued to delve deeper into the labyrinth.¡± ~~~*~~~ ¡°What about cats?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Uh we used too, and there might actually be some up on some corpo-station, they¡¯ve built giant biospheres to conserve what¡¯s left of our natural resources. But interestingly our cats have different coat patterns than yours. We¡¯ve got cat with black fur and little white paws, and some have black and white stripes, my favorite are the ones with white fur and little black polka dots. Also, ours only come in black and white.¡± ¡°That¡¯s sounds adorable actually. Okay, you said no Heidels, uh what about¡­¡± They had gotten bored after walking for hours in a dark tunnel, and had begun to play comparing the less notable differences between their worlds. Their little game came to an end when the smooth earth shaped features of the tunnel suddenly changed. The mossy carpet and vine covered walls suddenly vanished, the rough red stone became gray and glittered. Seras put her hand to one wall and pulled out a small sampled of the material, the rock had little geometrical faces of gray crystals all stacked on each other. Poor grade levitational galena. A lead-based mineral with anti-gravitational properties prized in the construction of sky ships ¡°What the hell?¡± Seras murmured. ¡°What it is?¡± ¡°An anti-gravity lead.¡± ¡°Anti-gravity?¡± ¡°It makes things float.¡± Seras corrected. Athena looked around in astonishment, she picked up a rock and tossed it down the tunnel. The rock didn¡¯t float, but it went further than it should have. ¡°Is it a kind of sky stone? The stuff floating islands are made out of.¡± Athena wondered. Seras looked at her, ¡°you have floating islands on this world, like big floating rocks still in the atmosphere?¡± ¡°Yes, there are a few places around the world with them. But Rimaros is the most famous of them.¡± ¡°The storm kingdom? I read that they get intense weather patterns, nothing about floating islands, how big?¡± ¡°Huge. Like, a whole island. Several in fact. One of the wonders of the world.¡± ¡°Huh, I¡¯ll need to check that out.¡± Seras muttered, and after a moment she had another thought, ¡°is the Labyrinth one of those wonders?¡± She grimaced, ¡°not really. I¡¯ve read about it, but in the same way you read about mountains. They¡¯re there, they¡¯re big, they effect the lives of people in the region, but not much else. They¡¯re no Zartos.¡± ¡°Zartos?¡± ¡°Underground city, an absolutely stunning place.¡± ¡°The five deserts also have underground cities.¡± Seras pointed out. ¡°Right, but in magically poor regions. The five deserts are some of the poorest magical regions in the world, with only a few cities of note, hundreds of kilometers apart from each other. You can¡¯t even safely fly to any of these cities, not without silver rank guards. And the poor magic means that skimmers require specific essence powers to work and burn through hundreds of spirit coins. A slowly morphing cave system is cool on paper, but in reality that just means you get lost, or a tunnel you¡¯ve been exploring disappears.¡± She explained all matter of factly. Seras knew the five deserts were not a rich or populated place, but she felt that Athena¡¯s description was uncharitable. There was endless beauty in the desolate deserts, and each city Seras visited had unique character and quirks. The almost sundial like effect of the Arrie on Cupric, the grand bizarre of the Wolfram valley, and the lush abundant greenery of Karstess. She felt offended on behalf of the place she had spent the last few months traveling. ¡°Right, well, this tunnel¡¯s weird though, right?¡± Seras gestured outwards. Athena glanced down the tunnel and nodded. ¡°I don¡¯t know much about the varieties of floatstone, but I do know that its rare and valuable. Even if its poor like this stuff it could be used in warehouses for moving cargo.¡± ¡°You guys use magic floating metal for pallet jacks and forklifts?¡± Seras asked askance. ¡°Why not, it¡¯s simple enough to build, and it beats paying essence users to move heavy cargo. Why, what would you use?¡± ¡°Hydraulics.¡± Seras said flatly. ¡°Never heard of it.¡± Seras sighed, ¡°alright, the Omeda probably still used this tunnel despite the strange stone.¡± ¡°Right, they must have known where this tunnel system was and used stone shaping to link it with the plant tunnels. I guess the ore probably isn¡¯t good for the plants to grow in compared to the other tunnel.¡± Her words reminded Seras that they were standing in a tunnel made of lead, a magical lead, but still lead. She wasn¡¯t sure how heavy metals would effect iron rankers like them, but she was certain they weren¡¯t beyond lead poisoning yet. Fortunately the one thing a Ruinite was always prepared for was toxic air. Seras summoned a sleek black metal face mask from her pocket space, a purchase she had made after Florin as soon as she saw them. Iron rank filtration mask. Uses spirit coins and air quintessence to purify air in hazardous environments. It was a useful magic tool for miners and alchemists. The moment Seras saw them for sale she had bought a dozen of them for cheap. The part about these masks was that they used magic to affix itself to the lower face instead of straps that wrapped around the head. ¡°Put this on, I don¡¯t trust the lead.¡± Seras said to Athena. She took it the mask, pressed it to her face, and the magic held it in place. For a second Seras flashed back to her time on Ruin. Masks like these were everywhere, even with replacement lungs people had taken to wearing face masks and had even made it into just another accessory to complete a look. Personally Seras thought they were neat, the last person she had been involved with had worn one all the time when in public. Seras realized she was staring and turned away as she stuck her own mask on. ¡°All good?¡± she asked, her voice coming out crystal clear thanks to the magic engraved in the metal. ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ve never worn something like this before, it¡¯s a bit weird.¡± Athena said as she felt around her face. ¡°They¡¯re pretty common on Ruin. We made them just another fashion accessory. I knew one that could open up like an actual jaw, but inside it had these wicked sharp teeth. It was pretty Nova.¡± Athena shook her head, ¡°The more you tell me the less I can imagine how people on your world look, its nothing like any culture I¡¯ve ever heard of.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°how do you think I feel.¡± She gestured to her clothes, ¡°these aren¡¯t exactly what I¡¯m used to wearing. But people give me odd looks if I don¡¯t wear this silly hat, like I¡¯m walking around topless.¡± Athena looked at the hat, ¡°it does suit you.¡± She said cautiously. ¡°Thank you.¡± Athena nodded, ¡°much nicer than the clothes wear I come from, that¡¯s all bright colors and garish hues. Baggy instead of clean cut like yours, though it doesn¡¯t seem all that comfortable in the dersert.¡± ¡°Eh, you¡¯d be surprised. Apparently this style was originally a Smoulder fashion, from their kingdom up north. They¡¯re less concerned about the desert heat, and others have copied it but with magic to keep things cool.¡± Athena walked down the tunnel, ¡°there aren¡¯t many Smoulders where I¡¯m from, I know your knew to this world, but what are they like?¡± Seras followed after, ¡°Well I only know the two really well, Dustin and his nephew Dallas. But they¡¯ve told a lot about their homeland. Its apparently located in the cualdera of a super volcano, like 80 kilometers across. Its got all these cool lakes and geysers¡­¡± They walked and talked for hours longer, meandering from subject to subject. It was pleasant to chat with Athena and it made the time pass quickly, but all the while Seras kept an eye on their location and distance traveled. They were still heading east, and they had gone far. Ch59 The Shaft Seras stared across the massive void in front of her. The expanse was so wide that she couldn¡¯t see the other side, if not for her software mapping the space with acoustics, then she¡¯d have been staring into the abyss. Above she saw the occasional glowing yellow and fuchsia flowers of the tunnels they had first been in. There was a clean line above them where the glittering rock of the Levitational Galena ended and the overgrowth of the first tunnel returned. And some vines hung below the line and into the glittering cave. They stood on the ledge of an enormous shaft. The shaft was so large Seras could have stuck a mega tower in here and still had room. Below their ledge the shaft went down so far it almost seemed endless. With the exception of the upper part of the shaft everything was made from the Levitational Gelena they had been seeing since yesterday. Meaning that everything with the bounds of the shaft floated free of gravity¡¯s constraints. Though not perfectly. There seemed to be fluctuations in the strange anti-gravity environment, huge gray crystal clusters slowly rose and fell, some even moved across the open space as if caught by some weak invisible current. The crystal clusters ranged in size from a large Heidel, to that of a bus or train car. They reminded Seras of gray metal aragonite, or Stibnite. ¡°I take back what I said.¡± Athena muttered, ¡°this is a true marvel. Just look at the size of it! And this is all underground too, how far down does it go?¡± Seras looked down, she then looked to a nearby rock and kicked it over. It fell for about a second, then it just tumbled forward on a straight course, still carried down by its initial momentum. Then it hit an ivisbile current and began to tumble further from them before it began to rise upwards, then fifty meters above them it began to fall, then it rose again, until it joined the crystal clusters in their strange dance. ¡°Well that¡¯s a bust.¡± Seras muttered. ¡°It was a good idea, and now we know the effects not even.¡± Athena tried to console her. Seras felt an eye twitch, ¡°this really shouldn¡¯t be possible. This isn¡¯t how gravity works. At all. And I swear some of these crystals are pulling things in one moment, then pushing the next.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because these are pure floatstones. They¡¯re highly sensitive to magic fluctuations, I think just using an essence ability near then will cause a change. And look at how many are here, we¡¯re starring at a fortune in pure floatstone!¡± Athena marveled. ¡°We¡¯re also at the end of our tunnel.¡± Seras pointed out. She gestured outwards to the strange anti-gravity shaft, ¡°unless we see a sign saying ¡®exit here¡¯ then we¡¯re lost and all that walking was a waste of time.¡± They were standing in an alcove at the end of their tunnel, the gravity here was a bit weird, but not to scale of the shaft itself. They could see evidence of the Omeda¡¯s presence, and even some thick metal cages and the remains of a small camp, but little else. ¡°It looks that way. We had assumed the Omeda had a way out of the labyrinth through there tunnels, but I¡¯m beginning to doubt that.¡± ¡°Think this might be some sort of meet up spot?¡± Seras asked. ¡°Maybe, I don¡¯t know much about illicit activities, but I strikes me that the Labyrinth would make a decent meet up location for shady groups. Out of sight, hard to stumble upon, and stretching for thousands of miles.¡± Seras nodded, ¡°Yeah, I can see it. There were similar spots like this back home. Old tram tunnels that were abandoned, parts of the city that got built over instead of bulldozed, and old mining tunnels from centuries past that pop up in basements. Whoever the Omeda were meeting could take the prisoners and then disappear into the labyrinth. Theres probably at least a dozen other caves that poke into a shaft of this size. Both above us and below. Fuck!¡± Seras cursed, the sound traveling far and echoing back to her. ¡°Do we need to go back and try a different route?¡± Athena asked. Seras scowled. ¡°I don¡¯t know.¡± ¡°Should we try the roof shaft again?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know?¡± ¡°Or, maybe we can try to cross this space, find another route forward?¡± Seras was getting frustrated, unreasonably so she knew. But they had been stuck down here for days, she was down an arm, in an endless amount of pain from the abilies she had advanced, and was tired. So tired. Literally nothing in her life was ever easy. Why did it always need to be an uphill battle? Seras jolted as a hand landed on her shoulder. She turned and saw that Athena had walked over to place a consoling hand on Seras¡¯ shoulder. ¡°It¡¯s alright to not have all the answers. It¡¯s a bit selfish of me to expect you to always know the right thing. Maybe we should take a break to rest, eat, and let ourselves decompress. Then we can think of things more clearly.¡± Seras opened her mouth to snap a retort, but she recognized the action for the mistake it would have been and shut up. Athena was right, if that was all it took to set her off then Seras really shouldn¡¯t be making decisions right now. ¡°Yeah, yeah your right. Wanna walk back up the tunnel to bed down?¡±This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°And miss this view?¡± she asked incredulously. ¡°It¡¯s more dangerous out here in the open.¡± Seras stated. ¡°Just like the tunnel would be? Any monster coming down would have to be blind to miss us.¡± Seras scowled, but she really didn¡¯t feel like arguing. ¡°Fine, lets bed down.¡± Seras summoned up the bed rolls and aura tent for the night. ~~~*~~~ This was the third time Athena and Seras had slept together in the tight tent meant for one. Athena was just glad the strange Outworlder had two sleeping rolls, she wasn¡¯t sure she¡¯d be able to sleep otherwise. Then again it wasn¡¯t like separate bed rolls were helping. Seras said she didn¡¯t need to sleep often, even before the magic, but down here she had to take short naps to keep their wits about them. The problem was that Seras was not a light sleeper, she tossed, turned, kicked, and refused to stay on her side of the small tent. And she always had a pained look on her face. Her condition meant that she felt pain at all times, even when she was asleep. That was when Athena got to see just how badly it was effecting her. The Outworlder was good at masking her feelings and hiding behind a obnoxious grin, but when she was asleep all her walls came down. It was heart breaking to see, and even worse to know that Athena might be able to help relieve her burden if it weren¡¯t for the woman¡¯s broken arm. That morning, or the underground morning equivalent, Athena woke and knew that Seras was already awake. She knew this because the striking women wasn¡¯t sprawled all over Athena, drooling slightly as she rested. Athena got up and emerged from the small tent and saw Seras sitting on the ledge of the alcove, legs dangling over the side, watching the spinning clusters of floatstone. Athena opened her mouth to make a comment about how strange it was to wake up with a dry shirt, when Seras tossed a rock into the floatstone field. She watched as the rock shot forward unaffected by the pull of the world, then fell as if the rock just remembered it was supposed to fall, only for it to change its mind later and float back up. As it approached one of the clusters in drew in close, whipped around to the other side as if it were being tethered by invisible strings, and then flying off to the other side of the shaft. There was a soft click as it struck the wall, and Seras immediately through another rock, this one at a different angle. She watched a similar course of events, but instead of whipping around the cluster the rock was pulled directly onto one of it tall spear like growths. The moment the rock stopped moving Seras chucked the next rock. ¡°What are you doing?¡± Athena asked. Seras didn¡¯t react to her approach, she just waited for the rock to hit the wall of the shaft before she chucked another. ¡°Trying to figure out how these crystals work. I¡¯m close. I think there¡¯s two different kinds of magic at play. An attractive force, and a repulsive force.¡± Athena approached and saw as the rock approached the crystal cluster and was then flung backwards, like a pebble skipping off a lake. ¡°The long crystals, that look like stibnite, I think those ones attract. While the stubby pentagonal one¡¯s repulse. Like magnets, except with gravity.¡± ¡°I see, and is that helpful?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Maybe, if we want to navigate the shaft, I was just bored and curious.¡± Athens frowned and considered what Seras had said, ¡°what¡¯s Stibnite?¡± Seras finally shifted, she gave Athena a piercing look before she seemed to realize something, ¡°oh right, magic makes elements and minerals weird. It a crystal of Antimony from my world. Forms long gray bristles, like that out there.¡± She pursed her lips and considered something else, ¡°actually, even on my world people might not know that. Mantel started off as a mining outpost before it grew into the mega city it is now. It¡¯s still the largest mining and refining hub on the planet.¡± Athena nodded, though she really didn¡¯t get it, she still had no idea what Antimony was. ¡°So, are we going back or moving on?¡± Seras sighed, ¡°decisions out of our hands now. I checked my map when I woke up. The tunnel behind us closed in three different places.¡± Athena felt her heart quiver, ¡°was it a cave in?¡± ¡°Maybe, could just be the labyrinth moving. Might be that it closed one tunnel to open a new one. I only get to see the absence of a viable path. I checked the set of tunnels I traveled when I first came to the world, only a small segment extending from the city astral space is left.¡± ¡°Your ability lets you see changes in the tunnels?¡± ¡°Yep, I think it might be interacting with aspects of ¡®Net connection¡¯. Net connection is supposed to let me replicate the Net from my world, but I don¡¯t have divine permission for it to work. But on my world the Net also updated maps when roads changed, or when their were car accidents, or a terrorist attack. My map shows me where I¡¯ve been, and its location on the surface. I think the Net aspect might be telling me that its changed, but it didn¡¯t update the map because I haven¡¯t been to the new spot.¡± ¡°Sounds complicated.¡± Athena said. ¡°That¡¯s me, ten kinds of complicated and fucked up. I couldn¡¯t even get normal powers when I got shunted into a magical world.¡± She muttered. Athena stared at the outworlder and once again tried to imagine what it would be like to suddenly be so far from anything you knew or understood. She imagined herself winding up naked and hairless on the streets of Mantel. She¡¯d never been to the city, but from Seras¡¯ descriptions she imagined bright green toxic looking clouds, busy streets from over population, loud alien noises, and people killing each other in the street over any petty issue. She wasn¡¯t sure she could do it. But Seras had seemingly taken on all the strangeness and adapted, it was admirable. Athena hadn¡¯t turned off her vision power since Seras brought it up. ¡®Eyes of the Surgeon¡¯ was an interesting vision ability that had only a few entries in the magic societies, usually from Healing with Ministration confluence. Her parents had wondered if that meant Athena would one day be able to choose which injuries she took on. Mostly she just found it disturbing. To see a person¡¯s body in action, to bones move, muscles contract, and even the release of sweat. Of course, she couldn¡¯t focus on every aspect of the body at once, not until her spirit attribute advanced more. In that regard Seras was actually more pleasant to see with her ability. Sure, it was disconcerting at first to see the degree to which she had changed herself. But after Athena got used to it she found it was less unnerving than seeing biology at play. It was like watching pullies and gears at work, nothing disturbing about that. And since her ability was one of the first and most consistently used ability, she had it was also her only ability to reach bronze, which had the interesting effect of letting her see the nerves running through a person¡¯s body, as well as some of the signals being sent. She could see a person¡¯s pain through the ¡®sparking¡¯ of their nerve endings. She could see fear as a murky haze flowing through a person. And even arousal as a thousand little fireflies. Seras had all three this entire time. Pain, pain as her own soul twisted and screamed in her body. Fear at the constant danger they were in, even now Seras was tense and terrified despite looking calm and relaxed. And¡­ well Athena tried to ignore that last one. It wasn¡¯t fair to see a person¡¯s whole being light up in signals they couldn¡¯t control, and she refused to bring up how Seras¡¯ whole being fluttered when she finally noticed Athena¡¯s physique. That had been the most embarrassing moment in her whole life. What was more interesting was the Seras had no real biological organs. All Athena saw was the slightly pink blobs of biomass where Seras¡¯ organs should have been. Even mor curious was how the mechanical elements were hooked up to the biomass as if it were all still normal. Wires running through Seras¡¯ brain, some sort of mesh lining in the vague shape of a stomach, and hollow metal reinforced bones with marrow inside. Her eyes lingered on the metal arm still hanging in its sling. She could see the clean break along the metal born, torn wires, and broken artificial muscles. Some aspects of it had joined back up, and it and speed up a bit since Seras killed the plant monster, but the skin had still refused to close and the black blood that flowed through the rest of her body refused to enter the hand. If Athena tried to take the injury, she had no doubt her own arm would completely fall off. Whether or not it could heal from there remained to be seen. But a visit to a real healer would fix that if Athena survived the blood loss. She could do it. Take on Seras¡¯ pain and give her a good night¡¯s rest for once. All Athena had to do was let her arm get ripped off. She heard of warriors who would cut off a limb trapping them, but that was with the rush of combat and desperation. How many warriors could look at their arm in cold blood and swing an axe? For the millionth time Athena cursed her powers, cursed her essences, and cursed everything else for making her this way. And quietly she cursed herself for being a coward. Athena was about to say something else when both of them shuddered in unison. A bronze rank aura fell over their shoulders, a powerful one. She felt she was drowning in a pool of honey, her lungs struggling to pull in air. She tried pushing out with her aura to get a moment to breath, when a second one descended. ¡°Dead gods fucking dammit!¡± Seras roared as her aura surged forward with all the rage of a forest fire. Impossibly it seemed to be holding its own against the bronze ranked auras, or at least enough to prevent herself from being suppressed. ¡°One, fucking, moment, to feel sorry for myself. That¡¯s all I fucking wanted!¡± A small object appeared in her hand before she tossed it down to the two bronze rank monsters flying up at them. Athena saw the grenade start to shift from its original trajectory, but saw no more as Seras tackled her to the ground a moment before it exploded. She felt one of the auras shiver in pain, but neither faded in intensity. Like it or not they needed to fight two bronze rank monsters on their own. Ch60 Star Gliders Star glider, bronze rank creature. Monster index entry not found; all information has been provided by identification power. Weaknesses and associated powers unknown. The monsters had a long sinuous body, less like a snake, and more like a crocodile with no legs. Instead they had these long body length fins that moved in waves as they propelled themselves forward. Their bodies were a deep, almost vanta black color. Their eyes rather than appear on the top of their heads, were instead placed like the eyes of a fish on the side of their head, but were proportionally much larger than they should have been. From just a glance Seras guessed they might have a total 360¡ã of visual coverage, or at damn near it. They were also absolutely huge, one being the length of a bus, while the other was at least two and half buses. Oh, and one more salient fact. They were PISSED! The frag grenade did dick all but piss them off, with the smaller one taking to the brunt of explosive force. Small holes peppered one side of its enormous flank, and a glittering black blood like liquid onyx was bleeding out into the warped gravity field. They charged at the ledge where they had camped the ¡®night¡¯ before. For a moment Seras considered the tunnel, but the smaller one must have known her intentions because it veered off its charge and blocked off their escape. Seras summoned her gun, activated two abilities, [control bullets] and [Metal reinforcement], and aimed the revolver for the monsters giant beady black eye. Bang! Wing! Crack! The bullet hit the eye dead center but instead of a gooey mess of viscera and eye goop the bullet ricocheted off the diamond hard capsule protecting its enormous weak spot. The Star Glider whipped around and lurched for Seras with its jaws, she leaped backwards and escaped its grasp. Only for Seras to hit a patch of warped gravity and her trajectory changed mid arc. She spun around to orient herself as she was now standing on the shaft wall like it were normal ground. She had a moment of vertigo, but had to push it aside as the longer of the two went for her. Seras set herself and aimed her gun with one hand, blue lines flowed across her body and into the gun. BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG! She shot the longer glider dead center of its narrow head. Black glittering blood flowed out in little globules as they floated in free gravity, but the monster kept coming for her. Seras watched the glittering blood, then saw one of them fall sideways from her perspective and leapt in that direction. The Glider tried to whip around and snap at her, but Seras had tucked her legs in and begun to spin as her sense of gravity changed again. She was falling again, but this time she had an idea of where she was going. She stretched her legs a little, spread them out, and landed on the smaller glider with a heavy ¡®THUMP¡¯. The smaller Glider, which had been going for Athena, was not prepared for several hundred kilograms of cyborg to land on its back with so much force. And as such it fell into the rock of the alcove and skidded a half dozen meters, just passing Athena as it went forward. Seras saw her shocked expression, and in a moment of impulse she reached down and grabbed the woman and dragged her up. ¡°Hold on!¡± Seras roared as she commanded the spent casings to leave her gun and new bullets to enter. That was all she had time for as the Glider got up off the ground and roared as it realized it now had passengers. It bucked and twisted. But Seras had been riding to meanest Heidel in all the Five Deserts for months, and Buck had prepared her well for this. Damn cocky Heidel was getting extra apples when she got back. Athena surprisingly held on just as well as Seras, though she had the ability to plunge both hands into its hide and grip on that way. As it tried to buck them off Seras pointed her gun down and fired. Aura of Ruin has inflicted enfeeblement on Male Star glider. Male huh, did that make the big one a female? Did monsters have genders? If so why? Doesn¡¯t matter. All that mattered was that it bled. She fired all six shots, and got only one more instance of Enfeeblement. It had flown away from the alcove, and gravity was doing strange things to its blood as it flew. The Gliders themselves seemed immune to the warped gravity, but not their blood, nor the two passengers. Seras reloaded her gun and stuck the barrel straight into the deepest wound and began to fire again. Another two instances of Enfeeblement, but she realized her problem pretty fast. ¡°Not enough, I need more power!¡± she roared. A shadow passed over them and Seras looked up to see the whipping tale of the second glider coming for her. She tried to move, but without letting go of the male Glider she could only do so much. Not enough. The tail hit her square on and flung Seras right off the back of the Male Glider. She flew forward, felt a shift in gravity, then a second shift. As she tumbled, her guts churned, and Seras would have vomited if she had eaten more than just a spirit coin for breakfast. In one of her wild revolutions, she saw the second Star glider coming for her.This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. She aimed, thought better of it, then tossed a grenade instead. The monster had its jaw opened as it was snapping for Seras, so the pyro-grenade went right down the hatch. Fire burst from the monster¡¯s mouth, but that didn¡¯t divert its flight. It was still coming for Seras, mouth full of fire, and snapped down on her torso. She felt the teeth dig into her flesh and Seras screamed in pain. She fired a full revolver into its head, but it just clamped down harder. Tears streamed from her eyes and fucked up her vision. Seras didn¡¯t even have a chance to wonder how she could have tears with no tears ducts. She dismissed the pistol and got a hand on the monsters jaw and tried to force it open like she had when she saved Flint. But with only one arm she wasn¡¯t gaining any ground. ¡°No, no, no!¡± She cursed as the teeth went down further. ~~~*~~~ Athena heard the desperate cries from Seras and looked up to see a heart stopping sight. Seras trapped in jaws of one of the monsters, its long teeth digging into her torso and legs. She was struggling to force its jaws open with one hand, but she was losing the fight. The smaller monster was still trying to get Athena off its back, but she was clinging to it like a tick. But that meant she didn¡¯t have any chance to unsling the rifle on her back or find a way to help the outworlder. Accept¡­ But this was the worst time for that. She needed both hands to stay on. But Seras would die if she did nothing. Athena cursed all the Gods and creation itself as she reached out to Seras. ¡°I claim your pain as my own.¡± Her words seemed to resonate in the air, and Athena could almost saw she saw a wisp of red fly from Seras and to Athena. Pain overwhelmed her mind as blood burst from her arm and Athena¡¯s severed arm let go of the monster and flew off into the strange space. Moreover another sort of pain came with it. This one was so much worse than anything she felt during the fight with the Omeda. It was so much that Athena blanked out for just one moment. But that¡¯s all it took to lose her hold on the monster. ~~~*~~~ For an instant Seras felt like she had taken a hit of the most euphoric drug in existence. She stopped feeling pain, she stopped feeling constantly under pressure. She felt happy even. Her broken arm had even repaired fully, instead of the two weeks she was supposed to wait. Then she realized why. She snapped her head around so fast she might have broken it if it were still flesh. She saw Athena flying freely in open space, her arm now a stump, her torso full of bite marks, and her face wrenched in pain. The smaller glider had twisted in midair and was rushing for Athena, but in a stroke of fate she had flown near a crystal cluster and had been sucked straight down into the tightly packed growth of the spear like mineral. She had fallen just right to avoid impaling herself and was now wedged between two long crystals with the width of an old tree. She woke in the crystals and began muttering to herself. Seras didn¡¯t get to see more as the monster who had been trying to eat Seras turned away from the scene. Seras looked back down at her pinned body, met one of the monster¡¯s great beady eyes, and she spat. It had no eyelids to blink with, but Seras could tell it wasn¡¯t happy about the phlegm sticking to the hardened shell protecting its soft eyes. With the message clearly conveyed to the monster Seras began to struggle once again. Now that she had both arms available she was able to push and slowly force the jaws apart. The monster redoubled its effort, but with part of her legs freed Seras was able to press down with them and get more leverage against its jaw. The jaw opened further and Seres grinned as she saw the flames still burning within. She summoned a small keg in front of her, her last primitive grenade. Little more than a barrel filled with black powder and lead balls. It rolled into the monsters mouth, and she saw its throat ungulate as if it were going to swallow it. The keg rolled into the still burning napalm like goop and some of it stuck to it. But it wasn¡¯t burning quick enough, and Seras had just received an unwelcome message. Biolite left arm muscles have been overtaxed and are now at 86% of peak strength. Auto repair in progress, time remaining 2 hours and 11 minutes. She could hold the jaws open, but not without breaking herself. So Seras decided to gamble. The monsters jaws were now fully open with Seras holding it up by standing on her tip toes and her arms held high above her head. She removed her damaged arm and summoned her revolver again, immediately the force pressing down of her became unbearable, and she felt her arm bending out of place at her elbow. Seras raised her pistol and took aim at the keg. CRACK! BAAAAANG! The keg exploded and Seras was flung outwards at high speed as the monsters jaws were blown apart. Titanium alloy ribs, Biolite abdominals, and left mammary, have been damaged. Time to repair- The message was cut off halfway through as the wounds vanished. Seras was spinning about violently from the explosion, but she caught a single glimpse of Athena in one moment before she was out of view. Then she received another message. You have slain female Star Glider: bronze rank. The body is still within range of your aura and can be looted. Would you like to loot Female Star Glider: Bronze Rank? ¡°Yes!¡± Seras roared. ERROR. Looting ability ¡®Bountiful Greed¡¯ requires incantation to activate. Incantation, what was this shit? She didn¡¯t have time to figure out a chant in the middle of- Words rose from subconscious and found their way to her lips unbidden. ¡°Break; and fuel my rise!¡± she said. Two stellar corundum capsules have been added to your pocket space. Ten bronze rank spirit coins have been added to your pocket space. One hundred iron rank spirit coins have been added to your pocket space. Fifty bronze rank void quintessence have been added to your pocket space. Fifty bronze rank spatial quintessence. One Very large Star Glider hide. No monster core? Were these not really monsters, just naturally magic creatures? Seras had read about them, creatures that were almost all naturally magical, griffons, phoenixes, dragons, Xuan wu, and Leviathans. But these didn¡¯t appear in any registry. They were called Star Gliders, gave spatial and void quintessence, and had a natural way of moving through warped gravity. Where these native to space? Could magic allow something to survive and evolve in space? Why the hell were they deep underground? Didn¡¯t matter. They were after her and Athena, they bled, they died. That¡¯s what mattered. Seras felt her gravity shift as something pulled her in, she got her feet below her and narrowly avoided being speared by the Stibnite like spike. Actually, now that she could touch it. Attractive Stibium spear. One of the minerals categorized as floatstone or anti-floatstone. And the other one that seemed to want to push her away. Repulsive Stibium tile. One of the minerals categorized as floatstone of anti-floatstone Clank! A sound like breaking pottery rang through the shaft. Seras whipped her head up and saw what had made that sound, the smaller Star Glider was tearing at the floatstone spikes trying to get at the bleeding form of Athena, the scent of her blood driving it into a frenzy. Seras cursed and looked around desperately. The beast was trying to get at Athena, and unless Seras had something substantial to draw its attention it would gore the wounded Athena in moments. Her little pea shooter wasn¡¯t going to do shit against it. Seras pressed her hand to the metal spike and had idea. Seras used Reinforce metal on herself and struck the spike at a thinner spot, then again, and again. It broke off at the third and Seras gripped it and used shape metal on its tip to sharpen the point into a proper spear tip. She smoothed out bumps and made a cutting edge. The spike resisted her magic, and required more effort on her part to shape than it should have. Then again Antimony was a metalloid, not fully metal, not fully non-metal. But with Astral Wellspring Seras could eat the increased mana cost. When she had her makeshift spear she pulled it into her pocket space. She then braced herself against another spike and used it as a hand hold to force herself against the surface of the repulsive stibium and crouched down to spring off it. It was like pressing herself against a ceiling of a room, and when she launched forward it like falling, but with extra force pushing her away. Physicists would have an absolute field day with this shaft. Imagine if they could launch a rocket with this stuff inside it. Magic was so bullshit. But bullshit she¡¯d fully abuse to do whatever the hell she wanted. Seras soared across the space between her and the Male Star glider. She got pulled into the well off another stibium cluster, but her angle of attack was just right. So instead of falling she swung around it, picking up speed. It flung her right on course for the Star glider, Seras summoned up the attractive spear and pointed it down. The attractive force of the spear drew her forward, and the force of the cluster drew her forward. With both forces at play Seras accelerated even more. She barely had time to think, and almost didn¡¯t reinforce the metalloid spear fast enough. Her ability worked on metals and some metalloids so long the total percentage was high enough. That¡¯s why it worked on Petra¡¯s conjured stone armor but not the monster leathers Rohan wore. Blue circuitry like lines finished covered the makeshift spear a mere moment before it stabbed into the creatures hide. With all the force behind Seras¡¯s attack the spear went straight through the beast and into the crystal cluster. It roared, and Seras felt her aura shiver as its power pressed down on her, a death throw from a dying beast. She gritted her teeth as the hostile aura washed over her, even with limit breaker she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Then the worst happened. Athena passed out. All the pain came back to Seras in one moment, and with it a wave of nausea. Seras wavered one way then, then another, and despite having eaten only spirit coins for the last few days she felt her stomach heave. She may have blacked out for a moment, because the next thing she knew she was falling. The last thing she saw was a single prompt in her vision. You have slain male Star Glider: bronze rank. The body is still within range of your aura and can be looted. Would you like to loot male Star Glider: Bronze Rank? She reached out on instinct, ¡°break, and fuel my rise.¡± Two steller corundum capsules have been added to your pocket space. Ten bronze rank spirit coins have been added to your pocket space. One hundred iron rank spirit coins have been added to your pocket space. Fifty bronze rank void quintessence have been added to your pocket space. Fifty bronze rank spatial quintessence. One Very large Star Glider hide. One awakening stone of the cosmos. Ch61 The power of the Cosmos When Seras woke three things came to her mind on rapid succession. The first was that she wasn¡¯t dead, again. Which wasn¡¯t a bad thing. Not this time. Seras was now a magical iron ranker, half formed, and shooting for diamond. She didn¡¯t want to die until she reached diamond and beyond. Two that she felt no pain. Given that her last memories were of pain this was a welcome surprise. And third was softness. Her head was laying against something warm and soft, and Seras really didn¡¯t want to move. But the smell of blood wouldn¡¯t leave her alone. Slowly Seras opened her eyes and was greeted by a vision of stars. Thousands upon thousands of twinkling stars filled her vision. All colors, including a few that looked like they were made of many colors. Seras sat up, and gawked at the sight around her. It reminded her of her last minutes of life on Ruin, or rather above Ruin. An endless field of stars undiminished by light pollution. It was a pretty sight then, but now it seemed pale and pathetic to the beauty here. ¡°Beautiful, isn¡¯t it?¡± A voice asked, it sounded slightly strained. Seras turned and saw Athena sitting right behind her, her face was pale and her breathing was constricted. Seras looked down at Athena¡¯s tanned thighs where a small pool of drool could be seen. Seras tried to hide her embarrassed flush as she turned away. ¡°How long have I been out?¡± she asked. ¡°Half an hour, if that.¡± She answered. Seras considered her words. ¡°And we¡¯re still alive right? This isn¡¯t some magic afterlife or something?¡± she asked. Athena chuckled, ¡°not dead, yet. I think we fell into an astral space. A very strange one.¡± ¡°It looks like we¡¯re in space, but we can breathe, that¡¯s weird.¡± Seras muttered. ¡°Astral spaces can be anything. Abandoned cities, realms of fire, or floating rocks in the middle of nowhere with pretty stars.¡± ¡°Mhh, probably fake stars, otherwise this space would be enormous.¡± ¡°Or really tiny and close up.¡± ¡°Or that.¡± Seras admitted. Her mind flashed back to those last moments of the chaotic fight with the Star Gliders. Athena had used her ability on Seras to instantly heal her arm and take away the pain, it had given Seras the strength and clarity of mind to do what had to be done. But in the final moments of the male Star glider, it had battered them with its aura out of spite. That final act must have knocked out Athena because all the pain had returned to Seras in one moment, and the nausea¡­ It must have been the condition from after she hit 10%. Athena held it at bay all on her own, until she couldn¡¯t anymore. She had fallen, fallen into this strange astral space. Something about that struck as odd. Seras had fallen down the shaft, but Athena should have been fine, she was safe on her Stibium cluster. ¡°Did you fall in after me?¡± Seras asked. ¡°No,¡± Athena said curtly, ¡°I jumped in after you. A good thing too, you would have fallen headfirst on this rock.¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Okay, good for me, but why did you jump in after me?¡± ¡°You really think I would let you just fall into the unknown after we¡¯ve come this far together. I might be a coward, but I¡¯m not that craven.¡± Seras glared at her, ¡°it¡¯s just a strange thing to do for a stranger.¡± She quirked an eyebrow, ¡°are we strangers?¡± she asked rhetorically. Seras sighed, ¡°I guess not.¡± She looked down at her arm, fully healed, and all it cost Athena was her own arm. ¡°Thanks for the arm, it saved my life.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about all I could do to help.¡± Athena muttered. ¡°And thanks for the for jumping in after me. But you need to stop.¡± ¡°Stop what?¡± ¡°My pain, its gone, you¡¯re taking it in right now and are trying to hide it. Stop.¡± Seras met her eyes and refused to flinch away as all the pain returned in an instant. She clenched her jaw, but kept the strain out of her voice. ¡°It¡¯s my burden, not yours,¡± Seras stated. The color began to return to Athena¡¯s face as she took in several deep breaths. ¡°I don¡¯t know you can stand it. Just trying to handle for thirty minutes has left me drained.¡± ¡°It¡¯s just something I have to deal with, all the time.¡± Seras grunted. They both sat in silence. When Seras finally trusted herself to stand without falling over she stood and stretched out her legs. Her clothes were torn up and stained with the glittery black blood of the Star Gliders, proving they weren¡¯t monsters at all. Monster blood would have vanished in rainbow smoke when she used her looting power. She glanced down at Athena and checked her over. Unlike Seras, her clothes hadn¡¯t been torn up by the Star Gliders, just stained through with her own blood from the injuries she had taken from Seras. Seras summoned a spare pair of clothes and passed them to Athena, ¡°I¡¯m not as big as you, so it might be tight, but it¡¯s better than crusty bloodstained rags.¡± She said as she handed them over. Athena accepted them with her remaining hand and then awkwardly tried to undress herself one handed. Seras sighed and stepped in close to help her undress. ¡°No, let me do this.¡± Athena protested. ¡°I¡¯m gonna need to get used to this,¡± She said bitterly. Seras backed up, ¡°alright, I can respect independence.¡± She stared at the stump of a limb awkwardly. Seras scratched the back of her head with her repaired arm, ¡°you know, if we were back on Ruin you wouldn¡¯t have to adjust to the injury. We¡¯d just get you a new cybernetic one. I¡¯d even have like eight different suggestions.¡± She tried to smile. ¡°Oh yeah, like what?¡± ¡°Well, mine are built especially to reduce recoil, while still being better than normal human hands. But I¡¯ve seen some crazy ones. Hands with power tools for cutting or soldering, hands that split into ten extra fingers, and I even saw one that was a gun.¡± ¡°Like your pistol?¡± ¡°No, bigger, stupid thing was whole-ass cannon. Guy could only fire it once before needing a long reload time, but it blew a hole into anything he shot.¡± She laughed as she finally slipped her shirt off, ¡°those all sound awful. What would use the extra fingers for?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know, back home you¡¯d use them to type faster, or maybe surgery. But your powers make that pointless.¡± Seras turned and saw the blood staining her skin, and had to quickly turn her head away as her stomach turned. ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you have any crystal wash?¡± she asked. Seras summoned a small bottle from pocket space. ¡°It¡¯s a small one, so use it sparingly.¡± She said as she passed it off. ¡°Why so little?¡± she accused. ¡°Shits expensive alright, I don¡¯t sweat, and dirt washes out just fine. I only got a bottle because I had a little¡­ incident.¡± ¡°What kind of incident?¡± Seras grimaced, ¡°one of my outworlder abilities lets me absorb essences and awakening stones without a ritual.¡± She began. ¡°Right, I saw you do that with the Greed stone. You turned it into a shard thing and stuck it in your neck.¡± Seras nodded ¡°right, so, no one told me what happens when you rank up. So when I got my last essence I slotted it in at a table in a busy restaurant.¡± Athena cupped her mouth behind her hand to hold back her laughter, ¡°You didn¡¯t!¡± ¡°Yup, and since Outworlders remake their bodies out of garbage magic I had a very, very messy rank up.¡± Seras said. ¡°Gods, that¡¯s mortifying.¡± ¡°Yep, like crapping yourself in public, actually¡­¡± ¡°Stop, stop, I can¡¯t breath.¡± She wheezed. Seras smiled, she hadn¡¯t heard Athena laugh much down in the labyrinth. Probably because she snorted like a rutting pig. It was nice to hear. Her story reminded her of something. She summoned up the final thing she had looted from the Star Glider. An awakening stone. Awakening stone of the Cosmos, awakens the powers of the vast cosmos. Would you to convert to an appropriate form? Y/N There weren¡¯t a lot of entries on the stone. Some star-like weapon conjuration, a few summoning powers, familiar bonds, and some spatial or dimensional utility powers. No combos known between her Tech or metal essences. Some potent spells like ¡®solar fury¡¯ or the beautiful ¡®nebula shield¡¯. And a few bizarre avatar combos, like the avatar confluence for light, wing, and dimension providing egotistical powers like ¡®behold my glory¡¯ a boon that turned the user into a giant version of themselves with a blinding light and wings. ¡°What kind of stone is that?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Cosmos. Got it from the last Star Glider.¡± Seras was turning it in her hand. From one angle she saw a field of stars, in another she saw a burning pulsar up close, and then another reflected the rings of a gas giant. It was beautiful, almost be shame to use its power instead of letting it remain. Almost. The stone was in the highest bracket of rarity, though the entry noted that its scarceness was due to a lack of appropriate conditions. Cosmos awakening stones, as well as star, void, and vast were often only found in the remnants of star falls. A magical event caused by a comet drawing close to the planet. Along with a bright spectacle, special awakening stones and essences also fell from the comet¡¯s tail. Rarity did not always mean an increase in the specificity of powers, some conditions simply didn¡¯t exist on the planet¡¯s surface. ¡°Are you going to use it?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Yeah, I can see some good combos with my potent essence, I need the extra oompf.¡± ¡°Oompf?¡± she said teasingly. ¡°Ah shut it, you know what I mean.¡± Seras selected Y and transformed it into a shard. It shrank into a finger sized shard, one look into its surface revealed a scape as deep and endless as the stars above. Seras took a deep breath and slowly let it out as she slotted it into her chip port. She felt the now familiar rush of power as her soul accepted the shard, and for a minute the pain diminished. Seras had a flash back to her last moments on Ruin, floating freely, slowly dying. Stars twinklingly around her, and a deep black that filled her vision and Volta ripped a hole in the astral. She even remembered a single moment after. If she could call it that. Her soul had been bathed in an endless amount of magic in a realm without time nor space. Moments were just a construct of her material mind applying time to astral. Something had touched as she passed. Something old, and curious. Then she was back. ¡°Well? What did you get?¡± Athena asked. Seras read the prompt, stopped, read it again, and again. Slowly an uncontainable grin split her face. ¡°Now that¡¯s a proper magic power.¡± Ch62 A real magic power Seras and Athena waited as one of the many asteroids in the astral space drifted closer. In a real asteroid field, the distance between asteroids would be much further apart. Hundreds of kilometers at the very least. But in here the space between them was much more manageable at only a handful of kilometers apart. It finally drifted into range and Seras activated her new power. In an instant her form and Athena¡¯s winked out of existence, like an ancient television screen. And a moment late they were standing on the other asteroid. Athena stumbled for a step, but caught herself before she fell. Seras on the other hadn¡¯t felt none of the effects of her newest ability due to her original astral affinty racial trait. Teleport. Teleports target and one other to a distance within range. Range ranks up with each minor threshold. Cost High Mana Recharge time 1 minute. You have awakened three of five technology essence abilities. Awaken all abilities to progress to bronze Its range was pitiful since it was just a newly awakened Iron rank ability. Seras couldn¡¯t help but smile every time it worked, even with her head pounding from a low mana headache. This was a real magic power. Way cooler than her pocket space, shape metal, or her stupid glowing finger. But it was also a power-hungry ability, Seras¡¯ thought she could handle the headache after dealing with her soul condition. She thought one pain would outweigh the other, nope. She just had two independent kinds of agony a play. But with Astral wellspring the pain was at least fading at a decent pace. The ability seemed like a pretty inconsequential one at first, the little bump in mana and recovery she got wasn¡¯t much compared to the upgrades you got from ranking up the spirit attribute. But a little research revealed that the racial ability was a set modifier of her spirit attribute, meaning that with every rank up she would get more and more than her peers. Not that she was guaranteed to go very far into it. Spirit was bound to her tech essence, of the three abilities it had two were utterly useless right now. Supposedly there were no bad essences or abilities, and with the book on Magitech Seras could finally start to see some use for her first ability. Inscribe rune/circuit. She even had a few ideas she wanted to test out. But the other one, spark of madness, was a familiar power with an insanely expensive summoning cost. Thousands of iron rank coins in total expenses, the kind of money some people would never earn in their lifetimes. But now Seras had the coolest magic power she could imagine at the moment, and it alone redeemed the tech essence. The first asteroid they had been on was little more than a barren rock, maybe 500 meters in diameter, it was one of a dozen other similar sized Asteroids that were much more mobile than the massive island sized rocks with actual features. They had teleported from the first to a second small one and waited until it passed within range of the one they had just teleported onto. Seras and Athena both surveyed their new surroundings warily. The first asteroid they had fallen onto had been barren of any distinguishing features or vegetation. This one however was not so desolate. Strange neon bushes dotted the landscape, only instead of leaves they had long swaying fronds like that of a sea anemone. Tall stalks of narrow bright purple mushrooms towered over head, swaying gently through no wind could be felt. And thick vines of an ivy like plant covered the ground, only instead of a natural green these had an artificial looking red, blue and yellow coating that reminded of colorful wires. ¡°We should take samples.¡± Athena said in wonder. ¡°Samples, why?¡± ¡°Because I don¡¯t recognize any of these plants. If these are the kinds of plants that only grow in this astral space then they¡¯re a rare, and eccentric, commodity some alchemists and researchers will pay for. We should also note the conditions we harvested them in.¡± Seras looked around a saw spirit coins everywhere she looked. ¡°Your right, one sec.¡± she summoned up two iron rank knifes with simple enchantments, she passed one to Athena, kept one for herself, and began to tear into the foliage with quick incise cuts.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. They were exploring the Astral space, hoping they might kind any signs of an exit. But that didn¡¯t mean they couldn¡¯t collect samples while they were at it. ¡°So, how did you know about the plant thing?¡± Seras asked as she worked at uprooting the anemone plant. ¡°I had lessons on all sorts of things growing up. History, economics, and even herbology. Anything to prepare me for my future. You¡¯d be surprised how often adventures walk right past rare and valuable plants.¡± ¡°Uhuh,¡± Seras grunted as she pulled the bush up, ¡°so you being trained to become an adventurer?¡± Athena stopped cutting, and then cursed, ¡°you did it again.¡± Seras grinned, ¡°not intentionally, but you let it slip.¡± She groaned, ¡°yes, my whole life has been spent in preparation for life as an adventurer. My parents even spent a fortune to get me a pretty expensive set of essences, and even more on awakening stones when my first power turned out to be a dud.¡± ¡°Which one is that?¡± Seras asked. In lieu of an answer Athena held up one arm, the one missing a hand and half of the forearm. She let it fall at her side and went back to cutting. ¡°I had inherited my mother¡¯s life affinity, and I didn¡¯t have the right personality for a front-line fighter. So, it was decided that I¡¯d make a good healer. Any healer confluence would have done the job, but my parents had this idea in their minds. You can make a powerful, nigh immortal fighter with the immortal confluence, but the life and renewal confluence could also give you healing powers. Healers aren¡¯t normally tough, some get shields or summons, but a healer is a weak point in a team''s structure. But if you could make an immortal healer who healed herself and her teammates then you¡¯d have a healer who wouldn¡¯t fall until her whole team had fallen first.¡± Seras considered her words. She was new to the world of magic and essences, but that did sound like a good combination. ¡°Sounds pretty solid to me.¡± ¡°Exactly. Unless the first ability your daughter awakened was the kind that put her in constant pain and danger every time she used her primary ability. A self-sacrificial power set.¡± Seras nodded. ¡°I¡¯ve read about those, rare, but supposedly potent. Thought the ones I read of were about taking wounds and dealing retributive damage, or burning health to make mana.¡± ¡°You''re not wrong, but mine is riskier. I don¡¯t get to choose what I take, and I feel everything. I would turn the wounds meant for an entire team of people into my own, even if I heal faster than anyone else I would be in constant pain for every fight we entered.¡± Seras saw it now. It was just them down here, and Athena had only recently taken on Seras¡¯ injuries. But how many superficial cuts and bruises had she alone taken? She had been partially melted by the Kudzu, dented her head, and nearly got eaten by the Star glider. A whole team of adventurers would be far worse. But still, ¡°it¡¯s a powerful ability. Healing is supposed to be useless on me. The only bit of biological tissue I¡¯ve got is behind several layers of defenses. But your powers work on me.¡± Seras pointed out. ¡°That¡¯s because its not really healing, not when I take on wounds. It¡¯s a karma power, I take on your wounds like a martyr and generate good karma to enhance my healing. One of my human essence gifts transformed into a karmic affinity, or at least that¡¯s what the magic society examiner said.¡± Seras had bent over a cut away several of the brightly colored vines, they were filled with this gooey sap that got everywhere. She pulled out some jars to stick them in. ¡°And your parents weren¡¯t too happy about that?¡± Athena pursed her lips. ¡°They, well, it''s hard to explain this. But my family has a lot of experience with essence powers. They know you can¡¯t dictate a powerset, and how to work with what you get. But the way things were going meant I wasn¡¯t going to see a shift in how my powers developed unless they got some really specific awakening stones, which are the most expensive kind. So, they were working a lot, taking on profitable but risky contracts all over the world, and since they felt like I needed to broaden my horizons I got to come with. I¡¯ve been to almost every continent, even the Draconian one.¡± ¡°Which ones that?¡± ¡°The one on the bottom of the world, though they insist it¡¯s the top. Stubborn arrogant pricks.¡± She muttered the last bit. Seras heard that Draconians were a proud people, in some that became an admirable trait, in others it made them jackasses. It gave Draconians a bad reputation for became racial supremacists. ¡°If that¡¯s there continent then how¡¯d they get an empire on the west side of this one.¡± ¡°Colonialism. The mountains that make up there eastern border is the home to many of the continents native dragons, and Draconians like being near that sort of thing. The original kingdom they founded fractured some few hundred years ago, which lead to a period of internecine strife until the current emperor rose to gold rank and crushed his rivals.¡± ¡°Off track.¡± Seras noted. ¡°Right, we were just moving on, right.¡± She said hopefully. ¡°Haha, funny, no, you were about to tell me why you ran away.¡± Seras said with a fake laugh. ¡°I¡¯d rather not, it sounds stupid. Especially after getting kidnapped by the Omeda.¡± ¡°Alright, but I hope you know that what I¡¯m probably imagining is much worse than the truth.¡± ¡°I doubt that.¡± She said flatly. ¡°You¡¯d be surprised. I¡¯m guessing from your general traits that there at least a bit of eugenics involved.¡± Athena looked disgusted, ¡°that¡¯s revolting, no!¡± ¡°Yeah sure. Tell me, is the rest of your family generally like you. Tall, strong, hot.¡± Athena gawked, ¡°I¡­ I don¡¯t see how that¡¯s relevant.¡± ¡°Mmm hmm.¡± Seras said unconvinced. ¡°Its not like that, its just. We¡¯re all adventurers, good ones, we meet other good adventurers in our duties and things just work¡­ out.¡± Athena paused as she considered her words. ¡°Hah, your families totally some sort of eugenics breeding program!¡± ¡°We¡¯re not!¡± ¡°Its fine, at least your not inbred jawless freaks.¡± She had a puzzled look on her face ¡°jaw¡­less?¡± ¡°Its how the royalty of my word went. Years of inbreeding left them with the weakest jaw line I¡¯ve ever seen.¡± ¡°I guess without magic that sort of thing could happen.¡± ¡°It doesn¡¯t here?¡± ¡°The church of fertility has ways of preventing that.¡± She said dismissively. ¡°That sounds like you¡¯re speaking from experience. Were your parents cousins as well as eugenics babies?¡± She stuck her tongue, ¡°no, you¡¯re disgusting. My mom was an Elf! It¡¯s just a rumor I heard about a royal family once. And my family doesn¡¯t have a eugenics program!¡± Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°right, and just naturally the kind of perfect people on my world pay millions to fake.¡± She said sarcastically. ¡°You¡¯re a pig!¡± Seras smirked; she was just going to finish up with her patch of the underbrush when she came across something odd. She stopped and reached down to grab the mysterious object. ¡°What''s that?¡± Athena asked as Seras lifted it up. The object was dirty, with some plants already taking root in one of the gaps, but it was clearly a metal of some kind. Seras turned it over and part of the object flopped at the ball hinge. ¡°Is that a¡­¡± Athena said incredulously before trailing off. ¡°Yeah.¡± Seras confirmed as they stared at the metal object. It was dirty, rust in places, and splattered with flakey black blood, but still very clearly a metallic arm and hand. But of a cruder make than Seras¡¯ or any from her world made in the last century. It looked more like a giant doll¡¯s limb, or something from an android. Something designed to look human-like while still clearly not a real limb. How did it get here? Ch63 The Outpost They found the remains of the outpost an hour later; it was hidden well within the vegetation. But whatever magic rituals that were meant to assist in its camouflage was broken in places and that left parts of the exterior exposed. Seras and Athena approached the hole in the outer wall warily. They had watched it for any sign of life and found none, but that didn¡¯t mean there couldn¡¯t be any survivors here. The prosthetic limb had been the first sign of people they had found. The second was a crater in the ground caused by some sort of explosion, and the third came when they found a corpse. The man had been savaged and disemboweled. The issue was he wasn¡¯t flesh and bones, at least not wholly. There were obvious signs of limb replacement, his head for one hadn¡¯t been bone, instead it was a patch work of metal and wire. Seras even saw the remains of clockwork gears through one of his eye sockets. In the camp they found the ruined remnants of strange machinery. Aspects of both magic and technology blended together to accomplish some eldritch task. But what wasn¡¯t broken into pieces looked to have been melted down intentionally. ¡°What is this place?¡± Athena wondered. ¡°Some sort of secret research outpost?¡± Seras posited. ¡°With metal aberrations?¡± she asked incredulously. ¡°Hey, I take offense at that.¡± She rolled her eyes. ¡°Seras, these, things, are nothing like you. Even if you¡¯re both artificial in making. That would be like comparing a living person to ghoul just because they both had flesh.¡± Seras couldn¡¯t really fault that logic. The ''aberration¡¯ as Athena put it, was off putting to Seras and her sensibilities. She had seen some extreme body mods back on Ruin. Men with no faces, just a red glowing eye. Women with extra arms and a neck that could turn a full three hundred and sixty degrees. But this was just wrong. They ventured further in until they found the corpse of something other than the metal aberrations. It was the charred remains of something far larger than the first two Star Gliders they had battled, but still clearly the same species. That was just the first one they found. Two more were strewn across the camp, one had huge chunks ripped out its side, its truck sized skull cave in by some brutal impact. The third was so shredded up they could only recognize it by the size. And in between either of them was the ruined and melted remnants of a metal monstrosity to haunt Seras¡¯ nightmares. It stood of long girder-like legs, its arms were long whip like appendages with serrated teeth sticking out of each joint. And its head was little more than a macabre impression of a skull with wicked drill-like teeth. There were other Star Gliders around, some as large as the first two they had fought. Most much smaller and were likely the iron rank version of their species. ¡°So, the aberrations set up a camp in here for some reason. And then maybe pissed off the native Star Gliders, or maybe the Star Gliders are just that aggressive?¡± Athena guessed. ¡°Right, but who are the aberrations? Where did they come from? And why were they here?¡± Seras asked out loud. What she left unsaid was whether or not there might be more. These things and Seras were not the same, but they were alike. And a part of Seras yearned for that small connection. Being so far removed from what she considered normal made her feel a small part of kinship with these things. ¡°I don¡¯t know. I¡¯ve never heard of anyone like this besides you. You¡¯re sure they¡¯re not your people?¡± Seras shook her head vehemently, ¡°not a chance. Look at them, their construction¡¯s crude and shouldn¡¯t work, but it did. That means there¡¯s some major magic involved, and my world has no magic.¡± She approached the dead aberration and stared into the dim red orbs that served for its eyes. Then the orb flickered. Seras backed up in alarm as the aberration began to shift, its metal joints creaking loudly. It looked at her, and she saw the flickering remnants of a soul behind its cold artificial eyes. Then they felt an aura from it burst forwards, it crushed them with unshakable authority, a potency Seras had only felt from Director Arlee. Silver rank. Then the aura faltered, whatever stored power it had faltered, and dropped to bronze, then iron, before it winked out completely. The soul behind its eyes went out. But its flare hadn¡¯t been pointless, because all around the camp began to fill with noise. Metal creaking, the roar of what sounded like an engine, and the rumbling of dirt. Around them cog work golems began to activate and emerge from their hiding spots. Their eyes each glowed with a malevolent red light, and Seras and Athena were at the center of their ire. Eight golems were fully active and able to move about. While four other golems had shuddered a tried to get up, but lacked the functionality to do so But eight was enough since each of them were bronze rank. Seras didn¡¯t hesitate, she tackled Athena around the waist and used her power to teleport them out as far as her range allowed. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. They appeared back in the foliage outside the camp and tumbled to the ground. Neither wasted any words and just ran. They heard the sheading of metal and the rustle of foliage as the golems chased behind them. Seras clamped down on her aura as much as she could, not daring to waste power on her smart camo with its uncanny aura masking power. They ran together in straight line; they didn¡¯t know this area well enough to try and hide. Seras¡¯ ears began to pick up a crashing sound behind her, and from the growing noise she could tell it was gaining on them. Not enough time had passed for her to use teleport again, so all they could do was run harder. Seras knew that it would come down to a fight, so she prepared by summoning her rifle to her hand. Seras stomped down, twisted around, and as she was still sliding from the force of her run and sudden stop she took aim and fired. Bang! Ping! In the brief moment she had to shoot Seras had only aimed for the center of its frame, that proved to be a foolish decision. Because the center of its chest was fully protected by heavy plating, it had taken and deflected her bullet. And now she was left to stare down the charging golem as it barreled into her. It was a vaguely humanoid creation, but the legs folded the other way, and one of its arms had a dangerous looking saw attachment. Its head was mostly human, except it had no jaw or mouth. It looked like the entire jawbone section had been removed and the hole patched up with a sloppy weld. As ramshackle and uncanny as its frame looked it had the speed and power of a bronze ranker, all with the benefit of essentially being in full plate armor. In the brief moment between her shot and her observation of the golem it had closed the distance and was right on top of her. It swung down with the whirling saw blade, and Seras only narrowly avoided it by crouching low and rolling just under it. For all its speed and power, it was still an unrefined creation. It could run, chop, slice, and bend, but not with the same range or practice as Seras could. Her body was nearly top of the line and cutting edge, all from a world that had spent over a century refining and improving the art of robotics and human augmentation. Seras leapt from her roll and back peddled as the golem twisted all the way around and lurched towards her. She had just enough time to raise her rifle and shoot again, this time she aimed for the glowing red eye in its head using her [control bullets] and [structural reinforcement] essence abilities. Bang! Crack! This time the bullet wasn¡¯t deflected entirely, instead it hit the eye just a little to the left of the center. The eye didn¡¯t break, but the glass shattered into a dozen different slivers of glass. Its sight hadn¡¯t been taken out, but it clearly had some effect as it didn¡¯t track Seras as she slid past the charging golem. She slid the bolt back and fired again, this time aiming for its neck. She reasoned that to have the same range of motion as a human it would need to be less armored. It was evidently the right vein of thought, but Seras had made one critical mistake. She forgot there were more than one golem. ¡°Seras!¡± Athena screamed in warning. Her voice was so intense that it cracked as she tried to get Seras¡¯ attention. Even with the warning Seras did not have enough time to avoid the lance strike from the second golem, nor the jet of flames from the third. But it was enough to move just enough to avoid outright death. The lance went through her leg, and the jet of flames coated her whole right side. Biolite upper left thigh damaged. Repair time six hours and-, Biolite Smart skin damaged, 43% of total artificial epidermis inoperable. Repair time ten hours and eleven minutes. The lance hit right on the titanium alloy that was her bones and was fortunately deflected off to the side. The jet of flame however had completely burnt through her clothes and melted her smart skin, Seras couldn¡¯t even feel the pain as all the nerve receptors on that side of her body were destroyed with the skin. She must have looked like a vision of horror. Melted skin, turning black and smelling of burnt rubber, metal bones and black artificial muscles exposed in places. Seras knew for a fact that part of her face was gone because she could now poke her tongue out through where her cheek should have been. She could even feel the smooth surface of metal jaw bone with her tongue. Seras should have been horrified or terrified for herself. One flame attack from a bronze rank combatant had reduced her to this in a mere moment of inattention. But Seras had only one thought. ¡°Athena, don¡¯t heal me!¡± Seras shouted out, her voice a little weird as she was missing part of her cheek. This kind of damage was manageable, for her, but not Athena. She would be plunged into instant unending pain with her fleshy tissue exposed to the air. Also, Seras really didn¡¯t want to see a third degree burn victim right now. The Golems had both rounded on Seras and were staring at her blankly with their red eyes. If she didn¡¯t know any better she would say they looked confused, they stared at her exposed artificial muscles and metal bones and hesitated. Seras wasted no more time, she ran to Athena and once again reached out and teleported them away. She could have done this before when the two other golems had ambushed them, but Seras chose to take the attacks to give her and Athena a clean escape, rather than being forced to avoid death from three golems for another minute. Her teleports were limited, while the skill could eventually grow to have the power to move her many kilometers it was currently limited by her rank. She had only a few hundred meters to work with, but interestingly enough the ability was not limited by line of sight. If Seras knew a clear space she could safely jump to then it was all fair game. And while they had been exploring one side of the asteroid, there was a whole other side just below them. They fell head first into the underside of the asteroid, which was now the ground as the gravity here was weird. Seras rolled over and got to her feet as soon as possible and surveyed there surroundings. This side of the asteroid was much like the other, glittering stars, glowing alien plant life, but most importantly there were no golems. Yet. Seras didn¡¯t know who made these golems, but she could see more than a base robot¡¯s patterns. These things weren¡¯t programed in a way that she would recognize, they were too adaptive for that. And the fact that they actually paused and stared at her exposed machinery meant they had thought, not much given how she had tricked them, but enough. Seras wondered if they had an intellect like that of monsters. Monsters were born fully grown with their instincts fully realized, some were even reported to have human-like intellects. Those were the rare smart silver and gold rank monsters, far more deadly than other monsters because they could think. ¡°We need to move.¡± Seras said to Athena as the girl got off the ground. ¡°Where?¡± ¡°Away. Right now they¡¯re in a search pattern, we need to move further out, that way if we need to fight its only one. I think I can take one even with my weapons as they are.¡± Athena nodded, ¡°I saw that.¡± She looked at Seras and didn¡¯t flinch away as she saw how badly burned she was. ¡°Why did you tell me not to use my power?¡± Seras scowled. ¡°Now¡¯s not the time,¡± she retorted. ¡°Now is exactly the right time. I need to know if there¡¯s something going on that I need to be concerned about. Did the attack do more than just burn you?¡± Seras turned away from the woman and tried to gauge which asteroid was closest to theirs. ¡°Look, it''s just a bit of burning, I don¡¯t even feel it since the sensors are busted. It will repair in a few hours, not worth you taking on.¡± Seras couldn¡¯t see Athena¡¯s face, but the silence itself spoke volumes. Punctuated by the sudden influx of relief as Seras¡¯ pain vanished. Seras felt a tension in her shoulders ease, only to redouble as she realized what it meant. She wheeled around on Athena, ready to berate the woman, only to be stopped in her tracks by what she saw. Athena¡¯s own body now resembled Seras¡¯, but where hers was only ruined synthetics Athena¡¯s organic flesh bled readily from the wounds. Her cheek had a hole in it and freely bled, the blood dribbled down her neck and onto the intense, nearly charred remains of her skin. ¡°The fuck!¡± Seras snapped. ¡°What?¡± Athena retorted. She gestured to herself ¡°I heal faster than you, this kind of damage will be gone in an hour or two.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not the fucken point,¡± Seras snapped. Athena made to cross her arms, only for her remaining arm to fall past where a second arm would have held it in place. It looked akin to taking a step and not realizing there was a fall. Athena saw Seras¡¯ sympathetic wince and clenched her fist, ¡°then what was the point, huh? Trying to spare me from doing the only thing I can to help?¡± Seras scowled, ¡°maybe I was just trying to be considerate for once in my life, you¡¯ve already taken too much.¡± ¡°Fuck you,¡± Athena barked. ¡°Excuse me?¡± Athena seemed to regret her words the moment she said them, but whether out of stubbornness or persistence she chose to double down. ¡°You heard me. You wanted to be ¡®considerate¡¯, that¡¯s shit, and you know it. You just don¡¯t want to feel bad about me suffering for your mistakes.¡± Seras pushed her hands through her head in frustration, ¡°what do you think considerate means?¡± ¡°It means considering my feelings, not just yours.¡± ¡°You have said it yourself; you hate your powers, you hate how they make you suffer endlessly, you¡¯ve already lost an arm for me, what else are you going to take?¡± ¡°As much as I need to. Or have you forgotten that we¡¯re both stuck down here?¡± Seras glanced around, ¡°no, but I don¡¯t see what that has to do with this. I¡¯ll get us out of here, just need to find a place to escape these golems.¡± ¡°Yes, and when that goes wrong, or something else comes around, we¡¯ll need to fight again. Except only one of us is any good in fight, while the other gets to stand in the back and watch uselessly. You keep getting hurt, and I don¡¯t think it''s for a lack of caution. That¡¯s just what happens when two half-baked iron rankers try to survive in a bronze ranked zone.¡± ¡°Look, I get that you care, and I appreciate that, but I can handle this.¡± Seras pleaded. ¡°Seras, I watched you get snapped up by a plant monster, I saw some space whale thing chewing on you, and just now you had a hole in your face. My power sucks, it hurts everytime and you don¡¯t get used to the pain. But it¡¯s so much worse to just stand back and watch someone else fight and suffer when you could help.¡± Seras turned her back on Athena. By all rights she should be able to tell Athena ¡®No¡¯, that it was her pain. But the look on the woman¡¯s face was too much for Seras to reject. ¡°Come on, we need to move. That asteroid is closest.¡± She said without looking behind her as she began to move. It wasn¡¯t like Athena would just walk away from her now, like it or not they were in this together. Ch64 The Signal Sometimes she really didn¡¯t get Seras. They had only known each other for a short time, but it had been an eventful and trying week down here in the labyrinth. In normal circumstances that wasn¡¯t enough to get to know someone, but down here it felt like she had known Seras for months. With little else to do but talk and walk most days down here it was easy for them to fall into a comfortable sense of familiarity. And what Athena was coming to realize more and more was that Seras was a woman of contradictions. She was remarkably open for someone of her background, talking her ear off about this job or that target. Until you realized that while Seras talked a lot and seemed to trust too easily, she was also closed off. Almost impenetrably so. For example she¡¯d talk at length about the Volta job, the one that got her blasted out of her own reality. She¡¯d talk about rockets, the history of space travel and the growth of space born industry. She¡¯d talk about the goals of the job, the various corporate rivalries and policies driving the conflict, and even some of the corporate wars and weapons of mass destruction. But she never mentioned her crewmates who were with her on the job. Logic would dictate that they were unimportant to her, just some professional mercs doing a job. Except when Athena tried to push the subject Seras shut down and refused to talk about it. Given her trusting attitude and rough but friendly personality, Athena found it inconceivable that she wasn¡¯t close to them in some way. So then what happened between them? It showed in other ways too. She claimed to be a bad person, a cold-blooded killer. And yet time and time again she was risking life and limb to protect Athena from monsters. And then when Athena did the one thing she could to help, Seras got all stone faced and refused to talk to her more than necessary. At times it almost seemed to Athena like Seras was fighting her own nature. Two hours had passed since they awakened the aberration and the golems. That was nearly enough time for Athena¡¯s wounds to go from dead burnt skin to a red raw rash that hurt constantly. It was still too soon for her to use her immortality ability, but just the passive healing she had was enough to repair what would have been a debilitating and life alternating injury for a normal ranker. From her conversations with Seras about her ¡®auto-repair¡¯ racial trait Athena was far faster at healing unless Seras chose to use multiple bronze rank monster cores, and even then she was still faster. Normal healers were faster though. They could just fire a bolt of life energy and infuse vitality into their teammates. The only advantage over them Athena had was the extreme range and effect of her ability. No normal healer below silver rank could have helped Seras, but Athena could. Athena often wished she had gotten different abilities, or different essences. It always came up at her lowest moments. The deep-set loathing and fear she had for her own essence abilities. But around Seras, Athena was actually just a little thankful for her powers. If she wasn¡¯t down here with Seras then the Outworlder would have long since died, not from any one thing, but all of them. Seras couldn¡¯t get bronze rank cores faster than she took damage. Maybe if she were bronze rank, or at least had her full set of essence abilities and all the weaponry she could ever want. For the first time in her life Athena felt like her abilities were vital for their struggle, rather than a more cumbersome, less useful healer. Her upbringing told her that it was a rather toxic mindset to have and led to many various bad mental conditions like co-dependency or a misvalued self-worth. But for now it was nice to feel useful. She glanced down at the stump on her arm, knowing what the cost of her ¡®usefulness¡¯ was. It still looked wrong, to glance down and see no hand. Like she was seeing some sort of poor illusion or like she just needed to look harder to see her arm was really there. That was good though. If they could get through this nightmare and find a priest of the Healer then everything would be fine. It was rare, but sometimes a person internalized the wound too deep, and that could shift their own mental image that the soul used in the process of healing. It was already concerning that it hadn¡¯t healed with her first use of her immortality ability. The ability was supposed to work on missing limbs, but maybe she had taken too much damage, or maybe it wasn¡¯t strong enough for this. Athena was so lost in her own contemplations that she almost missed Seras¡¯ hand blocking the way forward. Athena paused and looked around cautiously. They were already on their third ¡®asteroid¡¯ thing, they had moved fast and used Seras¡¯ teleport nearly every minute as it became available. But even with that they were still concerned about the golems finding them. Seras had said it would be odd if they didn¡¯t have some form of magical tracking or detection. Seras had racial trait that made her immune to tracking, but Athena didn¡¯t. Seras caught her eye silently and pointed downwards, Athena glanced down the ridge they had recently teleported up and saw a single golem a dozen or so meters below them. It was the one with the saw blade on its hand, and it was standing on almost the exact spot where they had been before. Seras was also looking down on the abomination of metal, she turned towards Athena and tapped her on the face, right below her left eye, and then at the golem. Athena tilted her head to the side, consciously exaggerating the movement so that Seras could see she didn¡¯t understand. Seras frowned, and then the pupils of her eyes widened, nearly obliterating her grey speckled iris, then it contracted until it was a point smaller than the tip of a needle. Athena own eyes went wide as she finally understood what she was getting at. She looked back over the ridge and activated her own vision power. [Eyes of the physician] were a strange and often nauseating power to have, but more and more Athena was realizing the advantages of them. It was a clever and inventive idea on Seras¡¯ part, and she came up with it so swiftly too. Layer by layer Athena peered through the different compartments of the golem to search for any weak points in its design. If it worked on Seras then it would work with a golem. She saw metallic joints, running fluids, and wires running the length of its body. But it was what she saw below all the machinery that sickened her. Because deep within its chest, methodically convulsing to move its oily blood was a biological heart. It had wires and rods plunged into it, and she could even see a whole section that had been removed and replaced with ticking gears. Its head had a brain, but it was cut up into three segments, all separate from each other save for the metal spikes hammered through them. Throughout the whole golem Athena could see parts of a mutilated humanoid body mashed with grotesque machinery. It wasn¡¯t like looking into Seras¡¯ biomechanical anatomy. Hers had a sense of polish and precision that appealed to Athena¡¯s sensibilities. This mangled thing was a twisted mockery of Seras¡¯ anatomy. It was like the one time she had used her ability on the undead. It wasn¡¯t just a dead body that moved. It was a perverse mockery of life. She swallowed down her revulsion and tapped her heart, and then tapped three different spots on her skull where the segments of impaled brain laid in the abomination. Seras nodded and held her hands out, blue lines and sparks appeared between her hands and took the form of the strange rifle weapon Seras had brought into this world. She took in a single deep breath¡­ ~~~*~~~ ..and Seras squeezed the trigger. [Structural reinforcement] hardened the bullet, and [control bullet] made sure it flew true. With such a clear path to her target it would have been an embarrassment for Seras to miss her mark. Aura of ruin has inflicted enfeeblement on Converted Builder Golem. The golem staggered back, it stumbled back and tripped on one of the strange bush things. Seras didn¡¯t let up, she activated [Limit breaker] and then teleported down onto the fallen golem. She slid the bolt back and materialized a new bullet in the chamber from her pocket space. Bang! This one was aimed at the second spot Athena had pointed out on its deformed skull casing. Aura of ruin has inflicted enfeeblement on Converted Builder Golem. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. The Golem jerked, and it tried to raise its saw blade like arm towards Seras, but something about her shots had disrupted its motor process because all the limb did was flop about randomly. She slid back the bolt again and fired on the third spot. Bang! There was no third instance of enfeeblement. Seras felt its aura fade away as the golem lost power. It was dead. In the time after their initial scramble to get away Seras had been mentally kicking herself for all the mistakes she had made in that fight. Down here in the labyrinth she had been discovering the synergies in her powerset, but one moment of panic had caused her to forget everything she had learned. Magic was still new to her, and it changed many of the ways she fought. Seras would need to drill and train her new abilities once they returned to the surface. She reached out and chanted the incantation for her looting power, ¡°break, and fuel my rise.¡± Pieces of the golem vanished, and the pounding in her head abated. The repeated rapid use of teleport had depleted her mana pool, and were it not for astral wellspring refilling her reserves she wouldn¡¯t have been able to teleport as often as they had been. And then it happened (Gama)G=qvt/////000xx468761ingram\\\\561641671%@#811977 [fallen]dfgh%%!|&87LFT1 [enemy location]71991768) (8)&^%[broadcasting coordinates] It was a huge block of ceaseless gibberish that assaulted her brain, she could feel it flowing in without end. It was a netjacking. A focused attack on her own systems through her net connection. It had been a long time since she had something like this happen to her. On Ruin trained techies and jackers could exploit a person¡¯s constant connection to the net to attack their internal augs. Or an aggressive ad trying to get her to buy the latest cyberschlongtm. Instantly firewalls, adblockers, and malware hunters activated, but even she could tell that was over kill. This all lacked the focused pain in her temples that signified a jacking. It was the weakest, most ineffectual jacking she had ever seen. Her eyes went wide. ¡°Shit,¡± she cursed! It wasn¡¯t a netjacking at all, but it was something that had triggered her defenses. It was an unencrypted message being forcibly pushed through her net port and into her systems. Obviously she wasn¡¯t the intended receiver, it was a weird fluke that her hardware could even pick it up. But that just meant she had to be on guard for the real recipients. The other golems. Of course they had a way to communicate, she hadn¡¯t even considered the idea that something could have wireless communications on Pallimustus. The best they had were water link chambers, and Seras had little good to say about those from what she had seen. She didn¡¯t have time to wait for teleport to become available, she and Athena needed to be gone yesterday. She ran up to the cliff and jumped, she grabbed a hand hold halfway up and used it to pull herself up the rest of the way. ¡°We need to run.¡± Athena didn¡¯t balk or hesitate, she just turned and pointed. ¡°That way,¡± she directed, pointing up the hilly incline that would bring them in range of the next asteroid just above them. Seras ran and Athena chased after, ¡°I don¡¯t know how, but they¡¯re using a dimensional substrate transmission system to communicate. It¡¯s what we use on my world, I didn¡¯t think anyone on Pallimustus was advanced enough to do this, but I¡¯ve been wrong before.¡± ¡°So if we kill one the others know?¡± ¡°Yeah, though I don¡¯t know why I¡¯m only just now noticing this. It¡¯d be smarter to just link up and maintain instantaneous communications.¡± ¡°Maybe they¡¯re worried about people like you who can hear them,¡± Athena suggested. Seras frowned, she wasn¡¯t convinced by the idea. ¡°Maybe, but honestly the fact that I can has to be some huge fluke. If they used any other means of wireless communication like radio or something else then it wouldn¡¯t happen. It¡¯s like a deaf person trying to sign to a blind one. And that¡¯s ignoring the fact that these things are speaking in a way my systems can just barely decipher.¡± Athena opened her mouth to suggest something else, but in that moment Seras picked up another signal. It was the only warning she got and it saved both of their lives. (Epsilon)-///o=pdo 0000626876178 [target found]¡­ K=nnt%% [ambush strategy canine] Seras jumped on Athena, tackling the taller woman to the ground. Seras heard the air rush out of Athena¡¯s lungs with a wheeze, and the uncomfortable cracking of what she assumed to be ribs. But it was all a fair price to pay to avoid the energized whip that scythed through the alien foliage of the asteroid. This golem was also mostly humanoid, except it had an opaque red dome where a skulls crown would have been. Its jaw was permanently fixed in a gaping maw, almost giving the impression of a person screaming silently. And its arms were replaced with the long red energized whip cords it had tried to kill them with. Seras didn¡¯t hesitate. She pushed off from the ground, careful not to further hurt Athena, stepped forward to shield Athena¡¯s prone form, and tossed forward a fist sized object at its face. She then activated her [structural reinforcement] and braced herself for the next part. BANG! The grenade exploded right in the golem open jaw, the magically charged munition blasting part of its head clean off. It was a critical blow, but Seras didn¡¯t escape uninjured. Using a grenade in such close quarters with no cover would have been a stupid move for anyone less durable than Seras. Cuts from the shrapnel shredded her smart skintm and left her looking like someone had taken a buzzsaw to her face. And that was with her essence ability reinforcing her artificial limbs. Her pounding headache grew worse as [reinforce metal] devoured her meager mana stores. Mana has reached -7%. Converting power stores into mana. Seras watched in alarm as her energy cells drained of power, losing six percent for every one percent of mana. What a shitty conversion rate! She reached out towards the fallen whip golem, ¡°break, and fuel my-, Fuck!¡± Her incantation was cut off midway as a flames danced across her skin once again. Seras turned to face the flame spitting golem once again, and in her haste she almost missed the third golem ambushing her. ¡°Seras, down!¡± Without hesitation she dropped to the ground, just missing the twin blades whirling through the air. Seras rolled over fast before the flame golem could roast her a third time, she pushed herself up into a ready stance as her eyes darted around the battlefield. Two golems, one with flames, one with blades sticking out of its wrists, and one dead golem to drain. The dead one was dripping with oddly bright red colored oil, or maybe some other kind of fluid. And there was a crashing sound in the bushes. She darted to one side, careful to just around the flame golems seeming range of attack, the blade golem lurched forward and charged her. Seras waited until it was just in front of her before she put her foot down hard and killed her momentum while summoning her rifle. The blade golem stopped just as fast and was already slashing down on her, but it was so focused on her that it entirely missed the fourth golem to enter the fight. This one was a torso attached to a giant rolling ball that rolled as it moved. It would have looked cartoonish if she hadn¡¯t seen the red raw flesh of its torso with rusty metal arms haphazardly strapped to it. The torso wasn¡¯t some mechanical approximation of flesh, it was real, festering, mutilated flesh. Suddenly the red fluid seeping out of the whip golem made sense, it was blood. They weren¡¯t golems, they were cyborgs. Like her, and also not. They were the creation of some twisted mind that cared little for aesthetics of the health of the subject. Strength and power were the sole goals of these creations, and it showed. In the blur of combat Seras¡¯ mind conjured the image of the Westend villagers trapped in a cage, bound for destinations unknown, then the hand off point in the shaft, and then the outpost. This was what become of the kidnapped villagers. They were made into these¡­ abominations. ¡°¡± Seras couldn¡¯t say why, or how, but her outburst blasted through the same substrate that Net data traveled through. The same one the golems used to communicate. Of course her body came with ways to talk to the net, but usually in controlled ways, like texts or net searches. This one was different from that. It was the net equivalent of screaming at the top of your lungs on every channel. It was so ¡®loud¡¯ that the golems actually froze for a moment. Once again they paused and stared at her in confusion. Just like when they had seen her for her biomechanical nature. Seras cast out her hand towards the fallen golem, ¡°break, and fuel my rise.¡± Mana streamed out from its magic matrix and added itself to her own pool, the pounding in her head faded away. Light blue lines traced themselves along her skin as Seras set herself against the three golems. Running would have been smarter, but right now she was too pissed to be smart. That¡¯s the thing about Seras; she wasn¡¯t some cold blooded and silent merc. She tried, she really did, but it was against her nature. It got her into troubled more times than she could count, and when she was calm she always tried to play it safe, but when her metaphorical blood was boiling liker now it was hard to remember all the rules for survival. Some internal process must have decided that she was still an enemy despite all the signs that she was like them, because they lurched forwards in unison. Seras turned her gun on the one with a meat torso and unloaded into it. BANG! BANG! BANG! That was all she had time for before she needed to move again, Seras ducked under the blades of one golem and stepped past it, coincidently moving it into range of the jet of flames from the flame golem. The rolling golem she had shot up barreled into her and just barely managed to leap over it, just like the tunnel charger from way back when. It hit one alien tree things and knocked the whole thing over, root and all. That¡¯s when the last golem found them. This was mostly humanoid, except for the glowing arbalest that took up its entire right arm. It fired at her, then the winch pulled the cord back and another bolt materialized out of magic and fired again, and then a third. The modified arm fired faster than a normal crossbow, but slower than a bow. Which meant it was a slug when compared to her revolver. Seras summoned the pistol into her and fired three rounds, each one at a bolt. One shattered, the other was just deflected, and the third she missed entirely even with control bullets. The bolt buried itself into her shoulder and punched her back with the wasted kinetic force. As Seras staggered back two razor sharp blades went for her neck, she got an arm up to take the blow, but just barely. The blades went through her synth-flesh with ease but stopped completely as they were wedged into her titanium alloy bones. The golem jerked back trying to free its blades, but Seras had twisted her arm to better catch the blades. She saw the rolling golem barreling for her again and made a snap decision. She planted her feet in the ground, widened her stance, and twisted with all her might. The blade golem was lifted from the ground and swung right into the charging golem. The Golem¡¯s blades came loose as it knocked into the torso of the rolling golem and Seras leapt up to narrowly avoid the jet of flames whooshing for her back. As she twisted in the air she felt her wounds vanish, and heard a cry of pain from Athena. Seras didn¡¯t have time to worry about the condition of her companion, Athena was going to take her injuries regardless of what Seras wanted, the only thing Seras could do was manage the wounds she took. A bolt whizzed by her head and pierced the stone of the asteroid, Seras raised her gun and fired rapidly. Each one placed on the arbalest arm in hopes of breaking something. Nothing broke, but it wasn¡¯t wasted ammo. Builder golem has been inflicted with [enfeeblement] Builder golem has been inflicted with [enfeeblement] Builder golem has been inflicted with [enfeeblement] Success on all three shots, and the other golems had been accumulating [enfeeblement] as well. All according to plan. Seras had one magically enhanced grenade left, to get the best use out of it she would need to group up her enemies while also being quick enough to get free of the explosion. That¡¯s where [enfeeblement] came in. At first the condition didn¡¯t seem all that useful to her. What was a slight reduction in speed and power compared to a power that just did damage like Dustin¡¯s burning blood affliction? The answer was that it was both more and less useful than straight damage. In ordinary conditions it wasn¡¯t really that good, better to just kill something quick and be done with it. But in a long battle, or against a more powerful foe she couldn¡¯t drop easily [enfeeblement] came in clutch. As a fight went on her foe would be getting weaker and slower, while Seras didn¡¯t. Seras didn¡¯t get weak and tired, she was a machine, so as her opponent got weaker the gap shrank. Not great for opponents of her level of strength, but for those above, along with [limit breaker] and Seras could see just a hint towards how her powers might develop. In a way it made sense, since when had anything in her life not been a constant struggle against powers greater than her? Seras was leaping and dashing around the battlefield, constantly weakening the golems with well-placed shots, all while trying to get at three grouped together so that she could drop her last grenade. She was close to deciding that just two golems would be worth the effort when she felt a change in the air around her. New auras blanketed hers and the golems¡¯, they felt hostile and vengeful. And along with the auras a new ¡®message¡¯ came in through her net access. She hazarded to call it more than static, as the frequency had no words to it, but it was too harmonic. Too¡­ musical. It almost reminded her of the old recording of marine life that communicated in high pitched chirps and whistles. In all the noise only one thing came through in a way her system and translation ability could decipher. That was all the warming she and the golems got before a whole pod of Star Gliders descended upon them. Nearly fourteen, all bronze rank, and many had raw looking scars and clipped/missing fins. And they looked pissed. Ch65 The Great Escape For one second Seras was frozen with the sudden recollection of nearly being eaten alive by these things. Teeth shredding her inside, her vision twisting, and her useless pounding on its flanks. ¡°MOVE!¡± Seras snapped out of it and dived down to the ground. It was just low enough to avoid the maw of the largest Star Glider. The golems had not been that quick. One snapped up the flame spitting golem, and another rammed into the rolling golem. The other two golems had assessed the Star Gliders as a threat and went on with the attack. The arbalest golem unloaded three rapid shots, while the blade golem took and step back and slashed into the flank of one of the Star Gliders. Seras pushed off the ground but stayed low by maintaining a low crouch. She surveyed the chaos and made a simple decision. Get the fuck out of here. She quickly found Athena and began to dart over her direction. ¡°What the fuck is going on?¡± Athena hissed. ¡°I think the Star gliders use dimensional substrate to communicate, just like me and the Builder Golems. I couldn¡¯t get much, but I made out ¡®nest breakers¡¯ in their messaging,¡± Seras hissed back. ¡°Then the golems drew them? That explains a lot actually, if these things use the same sort of magic to talk then they might have attracted one or the other and fought. That¡¯s why the outpost was a mess.¡± Seras scratched her head, ¡°this one actually might be my fault. I was more or less screaming into the sub-realm.¡± It was embarrassing really; her old crew always gave her crap for being too loud. ¡°Why?¡± Seras pointed back, to where two golems now stood on top of one Star glider that was weakly moaning. ¡°Those things aren¡¯t robots, they¡¯re people. Cut up and twisted into these things. They¡¯re the people we were supposed to save.¡± Seras remembered the villagers of Westend and imagined them cut up and pieced back together like these ¡®Builder Golems¡¯. What were they even supposed to be building in this astral space? ¡°Yes, and?¡± Seras was stunned by the bland frankness in Athena¡¯s voice. ¡°You knew?¡± ¡°Not for long, but when I checked out the saw golem I saw that it had a human brain in it, cut into three pieces and ran through with metal spikes.¡± A crack appeared in Athena¡¯s fa?ade revealing how disturbed she really was by it. She shook herself, ¡°my question is why did you get mad?¡± Seras opened and closed her mouth. She didn¡¯t know why she was mad, something about seeing innocent people taken from their homes and used like that just pissed her off. Pallimustus wasn¡¯t like Ruin, on Ruin you were born into a system where you were expected to be used and discarded. Here it was different, and to see people who could have had a chance at happiness used like that hurt her on a primal level. The question was why had this never affected her before? Athena must have seen the turmoil from Seras¡¯ face, she laid a hand on her shoulder and gave her a firm squeeze. ¡°We¡¯ll circle back to this later, right now we need to figure out what¡¯s next?¡± Seras glanced back and saw that three Star Gliders were now dead, but so was the rolling golem. Seras looked up to the sky and saw two wounded Star gliders fleeing the battle, but instead of flying into the asteroid field they flew through a constellation of stars and vanished entirely. With a start she realized that the constellation must have been the exit to this Astral space. It was outside of her teleport range, and there was nothing solid to land on, but that didn¡¯t really matter. Seras glanced down at the dead Star gliders, destroyed golems, and got a wicked idea. ¡°I¡¯ve got a plan. Follow me and stay close,¡± she whispered as a grin broke out across her face. She nodded and stood with Seras. Seras watched the fight between the Star gliders and Builder Golems, the Star Gliders out numbered the Golems but were on the same rank of power. On paper the Star Gliders should be dominating, but just like when they attacked Seras in the shaft they had a limited capacity to fight their mechanical natures. They could gnaw on the golems, bludgeon them with their massive bodies, but then the Golems would just get back up again.The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. What Seras needed was more mana to power her teleport, which meant she needed to kill either a golem or Star glider. Her preference was to go for the golems, despite their higher durability. That¡¯s when she saw her chance, two heavily wounded Star Gliders ganging up on the Arbalest Golem. They pulled off its non-weapon hand, and it was leaking blood and oil from the wound. Seras lurched forwards and broke into a dead sprint. Her every step thumped the ground hard in order to push herself forward faster. She raised her rifle and fired twice, one shot hit the Golems head, and the other was aimed at the mechanism of its arm. The cord snapped with a thunderous crack, the end of the broken cord whipped around and gouged a deep wound into a nearby Star glider. The Golem turned its head and focused on Seras, it may have just been her, but she thought she could almost see horror and shock in its dead red eyes. The Star gliders saw that the Golem was fully disarmed and charged it in their blood frenzy. They fell upon it with open maws and wild abandon. Seras charged towards them and leapt high into the air, she flipped from the force of her jump and dropped a single silver hand sized object. The grenade fell into the center of the fracas and exploded with a thunderous BANG! Three auras faded away from the battlefield as two Star gliders and a single golem died from Seras¡¯ last grenade. She landed on the other side of the three corpses and raised a single hand and began to chant, ¡°break, and fuel my rise!¡± Blue ethereal ribbons of mana rose from the corpses and added their power to her meager stores. A slew of Quintessence, spirit coins, and other miscellaneous things found its way into her pocket space. She had no time to look over the loot, and dismissed the popup screens to the side of her vision for later. An enraged roar filled the space as the largest of the Star-gliders saw what she had done. It was the largest one she had seen so far, and its aura marked it as only a sliver away from silver. It charged her, and Seras charged it. The maw of the damn thing filled her vision, it opened its jaw and prepared to rip her to shreds with its long terrible teeth. Seras towards it harder. In the last possible moment when it seemed like the two would collide Seras lurched back and slid just below the thing¡¯s belly. While the Star gliders could fly around with total impunity, they had to keep off the ground by at least half a meter or else they¡¯d risk scraping their undersides. That was the gap Seras had ran for, the shortest path between where she had landed, and where Athena had taken cover. She slid at least three meters before her momentum ran out, but it was enough to get past the gargantuan Star glider and allowed Athena to run up to her. She pulled Seras up with a grunt, Seras glanced up towards the exit and saw exactly what she was hoping for, another injured Star-glider pulling back into the labyrinth. She pointed at it, griped Athena tight around the waist and teleported to her maximum range. Her mana nearly bottomed out again, and Seras¡¯ vision began to swim and glitch, the edges going dark. No, the condition, not now, she needed, she needed to grab¡­on¡­ Her vision went black, despite her attempts to fight it. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ And then it came back in flash. Seras jerked around; she saw grey glittery rock passing by her fast, and could feel the air rushing past her. She looked up and saw a strong tanned hand clamped around her bicep like a vise grip. She looked up the arm and saw Athena, with one arm she held Seras back from damnation, and the other held onto the injured Star-gliders¡¯ fin, all while wearing a pained expression. From the way her arm was it looked like Seras¡¯ weight might have dislocated her shoulder, and it was a true feat of determination that the woman was still holding on despite that. The Star-glider jerked, and bucked in the air as it flew up, trying to throw them off. But now that Seras was awake she wasn¡¯t letting that happen. She summoned up a knife and jabbed it deep into the beast¡¯s flank. It howled in pain and jerked more urgently, but her knife was in too deep. Seras pulled herself up and gripped the same fin Athena was holding onto. The woman sighed as Seras let go of her arm, she opened her mouth to say something, but the damn beast went into a barrel roll. Seras felt her already queasy stomach hit a critical stage and was thankful she hadn¡¯t eaten anything other than spirit coins lately. Seras tried to gauge the space around them but could only make out a small amount of this new space. All she could confirm was that this wasn¡¯t the first shaft they had fought in, as this space was an enormous bubble of distorted gravity and rotating Stibnite clusters. The space was so vast Seras felt like it could have housed five jumbo jet from her world, wing tip to wing tip. The largest kind of passenger airplanes with a capacity of twelve-hundred passengers all crammed on top of each other. She did catch sight of something promising though, a huge opening in the cavern, like a giant hand poked their finger straight through the stone. She used her free hand to slap Athena¡¯s good shoulder, she pointed outwards and mimed letting go, Athena nodded, looking fairly green herself. Seras held up a hand and tried to judge the best time to let go of the spinning Star-glider. She counted down for three with her fingers, and let go when she reached zero. The spinning of the Star-glider flung them off with incredible speeds, and they both flew towards that huge gap. The gravity distortions threw them this way and that, but both ended up hitting the walls more or less where Seras had planned. The strange gravity of the chamber stuck both of them to the walls and gave them a straight shot at the tunnel she had seen. They heard several enraged alarmed cries from the Star-gliders as they fell into the tunnel, which to them from their current orientation was like jumping into a bottomless pit. As they landed Seras realized why the Star-gliders had retreated to this cavern in the labyrinth, and why they had sounded so alarmed. All around them she saw broken Bulder Golems, and smashed eggs. The eggs were more like giant round boulders and were it not for them being smashed open she wouldn¡¯t have guessed at the contents. A final piece of the puzzle clicked into place just a smaller Star glider stormed into the tunnel. Seras and Athena ran for it, both of them charging for a tiny gap in the back of this tunnel as the Star-glider tried to snap them up with its long jaw. Seras felt the remaining cloth of her burnt shirt snag and tear away, her smart skin prickled unnaturally at how close she came to getting her head snapped off. They lunged for the gap and dove through, it was a space only big enough for a person to squeeze, so long and she was thin enough and ready for her skin to be shredded by rough stone. Athena was grunting ahead of Seras as she pulled herself forward. Seras, once again topless and crawling through a tight stone tunnel. She tried to turn skin sensitivity down like before, but despite sliding the slider all the way to zero she only felt her skin go somewhat numb, not anywhere close to what it should have been. The Star-glider tore at the gap with its mouth and tried to batter its way through but the stone was too tough. They slid through rock for five minutes; at about the two-minute mark Seras was beginning to fear that this chasm was a dead-end. But Athena claimed she could see a light and Seras chose to believe in her. When they finally pushed out of the thin crevasse it was into the familiar lush environment of the verdant tunnels they had first traveled through. They both fell to their knees, running their hands through the soft moss carpeting. They glanced to one another and laughed. There was nothing funny about going through all that trouble just to seemingly wind up back where they had started. Except that it was. To their overtaxed and stressed-out minds this was the just about the funniest thing they had ever encountered. Ch66 Are you a bad person? Seras stared at the map only she could see. According to it they had moved at least a hundred miles further east than when they entered the Astral space. There was a huge conspicuous gap in-between the shaft and the super-cavern. Almost like the astral space were supposed to be in that space. But according to astral magic theory these spaces didn¡¯t actually take up space in physical reality. There was a range of space where its apertures could be reached, but the astral space was not in this prime dimension. ¡°Well,¡± Athena asked? ¡°Sorry, just contemplating how weird Astral spaces are. That was my second and the physics of it all was confusing me.¡± Athena frowned, ¡°what¡¯s hard to understand? They¡¯re a separate demi-dimension attached to our own that run by their own rules. They¡¯re pretty common.¡± ¡°Was that a call back to what I said when I first met,¡± Seras asked? Athena scowled, ¡°oh, you mean that one time you told me my understanding of reality was fundamentally wrong. And also implied that interdimensional drifters were a common occurrence?¡± ¡°Was that a no or a yes?¡± ¡°No Seras, Astral spaces are common. There just another part of geography, like mountains or rivers.¡± ¡°You realize how weird that is right, we¡¯re talking about functional sub-realms. How has no one studied this before? I mean, beyond the average ¡®where is it¡¯ and ¡®what¡¯s in it.¡¯ The existence of these things would reshape my entire world¡¯s understanding of physics.¡± She shrugged unhelpfully, ¡°I don¡¯t know, ask an astral researcher. Now do you have any idea of where we are?¡± Seras was reluctant to let it go, but the shortness in Athena¡¯s patience, and her own mounting exhaustion reminded her that now was not the time for rigorous testing and hypothesizing. ¡°We¡¯re much further east now, we¡¯re no longer under the Heidle-back mountains and are on the silver plains.¡± ¡°The names around here are weird,¡± Athena said. ¡°And where are you from again?¡± She opened her mouth, and then paused, ¡°damn almost got me again.¡± Seras chuckled, ¡°most place names are simplistic when you get down to it. I¡¯m from the ruined world of Ruin, from the city of Mantle that was built on the giant crater that extends down to Ruin¡¯s mantle.¡± ¡°So does that make it easier to get out or harder?¡± Seras frowned, ¡°not sure yet. Theres less rock hanging over our heads now, but the tunnels could prove uncooperative and just skin below the surface for a while.¡± ¡°Well, there¡¯s still only one way forward for now, so we might as well start.¡± Seras nodded her head and dismissed the map. They had only just escaped from the astral space and the things hunting them and were now once again wandering through the green tunnels of the labyrinth. They both walked for hours in companionable silence. Normally Seras would have tried to fill that space with some inane chatter, but after everything they had gone through she was content to stay silent for once. Five hours in and they spotted their first monster, an iron ranked bushy hedgehog but compared to everything they had faced up to that point it hardly felt like a challenge. Seras shot it three times with her rifle and sucked up its essence to top off her mana. ¡°Plant quintessence, iron ranked spirit coins, and nothing else. Kind of lame,¡± Seras remarked. Athena got a contemplative look on her face, ¡°that reminds me, what did you get from all the other things you looted?¡± Seras huffed, ¡°why, worried about your cut?¡± Athena scowled, ¡°no, I¡¯m just curious.¡± Seres shrugged, ¡°nothing wrong with keeping track of your pay. I once had to put a gun to an employer¡¯s head before they finally paid me for my work. Cheap ass was trying to short me.¡± Athena rolled her eyes, ¡°charming,¡± she remarked dryly. ¡°Yeah, slimy prick. Kept saying he gave Cash my share, but Cash said he never got it.¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. ¡°Whose Cash?¡± ¡°Oh he¡¯s my best-¡­ he was my partner.¡± Seras had been so lost in the retelling that she had accidentally brought up Cash. ¡°I see, and you¡¯re sure he hadn¡¯t received your share and just lied about it?¡± Seras shook her head, ¡°No, not Cash. He and I were tight. He wouldn¡¯t have done that.¡± ¡°It just seems like the more likely option. I don¡¯t know too much about how things are on your world, but shortchanging the cold-blooded killers you hired sounds stupid to me.¡± Seras didn¡¯t like where this conversation was heading, ¡°anyways you were asking about the loot? A few fists full of bronze spirit coins, a smattering of miscellaneous quintessence, and some of the Golem components. But those are just listed as serial numbers. Like this one-,¡± she summoned up a metal cross between a plunger and foot-, ¡°this one is just XVB-T147785.¡± Athena didn¡¯t respond after a minute, so Seras turned back to look at her. The tall woman had crossed her bronze-colored arms and was giving her a flat unamused glare. Seras sighed, ¡°too oblivious.¡± Athena rolled her eyes, ¡°as obvious as a bosterian¡± ¡°A- a what?¡± ¡°They¡¯re magic so you probably don¡¯t have any. They¡¯re just very obvious.¡± ¡°Right¡­¡± Seras trailed off. ¡°Don¡¯t look at me like that, you use phrase and metaphor I don¡¯t know all the time,¡± Athena snapped. Seras shook her head, ¡°that¡¯s not, I wasn¡¯t, it¡¯s just don¡¯t want to talk about Cash if that¡¯s alright.¡± Athena nodded her head, ¡°that¡¯s fine, I can already put together some of the pieces from context.¡± They walked on, each step making a sort of rustling sound as they scraped the moss carpeting. ¡°He was your friend, not just a partner. You were going to say best friend even. And I take it someone killed him.¡± Seras grunted, ¡°on the money there.¡± ¡°Is the killer still on the loose then, or did you catch them?¡± Despite her mood Seras laughed to herself, ¡°I know exactly where that bitch is.¡± ¡°Even here on Pallimustus?¡± Seras couldn¡¯t help the wry smile that came across her face, ¡°oh yes, she¡¯s here, see her every time I look in a mirror.¡± That shut her up. From the lack of scuffs Seras could tell that she had stopped walking, Seras didn¡¯t stop. A minute later hurried steps signaled Athena catching up. ¡°Seras?¡± Athena said hesitantly. Seras waited patiently for Athena to ask why she¡¯d killed her best friend. A man who was basically a brother to her seeing as how they grew up together in the same gang. But that wasn¡¯t what Athena asked, ¡°why did you get mad, when you realized that the golems were mutilated villagers.¡± Seras scowled, ¡°answered your own question there,¡± she pointed out. ¡°No, I know why anyone would be upset by that, but why did you get mad. ¡°Should I be offended, I feel like I should feel offended?¡± ¡°But you don¡¯t,¡± Athena pointed out. Seras sighed, ¡°you have an annoying habit of being right. No, I¡¯m not offended, you¡¯re right to question my actions. Most people would care about that sort of shit, but I¡¯m not a good person, so why did it bug me?¡± she shrugged her shoulders as if to say, ¡®fuck if I know.¡¯ ¡°That¡¯s the thing though, you say you¡¯re not a good person, and all your stories back that up, but you don¡¯t feel like a bad person.¡± ¡°Then you¡¯re too trusting.¡± ¡°And you¡¯re not?¡± she countered. ¡°Seras, you joined up with the first people you met and have stuck with them despite having multiple chances to leave.¡± ¡°They¡¯re good people, I¡¯ve got no reason to leave.¡± ¡°Except that a less trusting person would have a harder time believing they were good people.¡± Seras shook her head, ¡°look I don¡¯t know how to explain it, but I had a gut feeling about them. Dust, Petra, Rohan, and even Flint, they¡¯re all good people, and they¡¯ve proved me right several times over now.¡± ¡°And has your feeling ever been wrong?¡± Seras¡¯ mind flashed back to the Volta job, little drops of red blood and black oil floated through the stations control room. One cold eye started at her in shock, the other side of her face completely blown off from Seras¡¯ iconic black pistol. ¡°Yeah,¡± she said after a long pause. Athena bumped her shoulder with her own. A familiar gesture for a person she had only known for a few days. ¡°It¡¯s not a bad thing; in fact I think it¡¯s your most enduring quality.¡± Seras scoffed, ¡°I think you¡¯re seeing what you want to see Athena. Do you know how many people I¡¯ve killed.¡± She shook her head. ¡°Neither do I,¡± Seras said. ¡°From assassination, to gang wars, to people just getting in the way, I can¡¯t honestly tell you how many people I¡¯ve killed. The only thing I can say with confidence is that between the two of us we don¡¯t have enough finger or toes for a whole tally.¡± ¡°Soldiers kill, adventures kill, my own parents have killed people.¡± She said all this with a shrug as if that was an acceptable thing to say. ¡°Our world is a violent place, and sometimes life is cheap. We do what we can to save those around us, and sometimes that means killing. Your world sounds worse, despite lacking monsters and dark gods. I can¡¯t imagine what kind of things you were forced to do to survive.¡± ¡°It wasn¡¯t all just survival,¡± Seras growled. She didn¡¯t know why Athena¡¯s attempts to validate her murders pissed her off, but it did. ¡°I killed for money, I killed because I was pissed and needed to shoot something, hell I once did it on a dare. Frost doubted my sniping skills, so I killed to prove how good I was.¡± Athena bit her lip, ¡°alright maybe you¡¯re not a good person, but I refuse to believe your just a ¡®bad person.¡¯ A bad person doesn¡¯t constantly put themselves in danger just to protect one stupid girl who got herself captured. You¡¯ve broken your arm, been melted, nearly disemboweled by a space monster, burned, shot, and stabbed. And through all of this you never asked me to use my abilities, you even tried to stop me. You¡¯re not a bad person.¡± ¡°I aint a good one either,¡± Seras shot back. ¡°You¡¯re not. You¡¯re¡­ something else. Not in between, but something else.¡± Seras stopped in her tracks and glared at Athena, ¡°don¡¯t do that. Don¡¯t try to sanctify me, or whatever you¡¯re trying to do.¡± ¡°Then quit lying to yourself,¡± she said obstinately. Seras glared at the woman, until her eyes drifted down and noticed the missing stump where a hand should be. Seras turned away and began to stalk forward, long quick strides taking her farther away from Athena and the uncomfortable things she said. Athena stood still for one moment, then started forward and caught up quickly with those long legs of hers. They walked in much less companiable silence after that, an awkward tension permeated the air. They kept it up for hours, long past when they would have considered bedding down, since that would have meant sharing a tent. They walked until Seras felt a change in the slight ever-present breeze of the labyrinth. Seras stopped and listened hard, it was barely audible even with her ears, but she heard the crick of bugs. The weird jumping ones that made noise at night. Seras went from standing still to a full-blown sprint in seconds, her feet pounded the slight incline of the tunnel rhythmically until she emerged from the tunnel and onto the surface. Real stars twinkled above them, and a cold desert breeze blew her hair back. A second set of footsteps approached her, and Athena broke out of the labyrinth as well. She looked around and began to smile, it was a weary, desperate thing. It fell from her face in a moment when she looked past Seras. Seras felt a powerful aura descend around her as a bow string creaked from being pulled back. She slowly put her hands above her head and turned to see her ambushers. Four men wearing dark raw hide clothes had bows trained on her and Athena, they had darkly tanned skinned, amber colored eyes, and wore dark feathers and obsidian beads in their pitch-black hair. And at their center was the reason Seras hadn¡¯t even considered fighting her way out of this. A single silver ranked Leonid woman with dark brown fur was staring at them with sharp predatory eyes. ¡°Fuck my life,¡± Seras muttered. Ch67 Akemi Seras reached towards the flat bread with her left hand. A furred paw swiped at it faster than Seras could perceive. She pulled her hand back to her and glared at the silver ranked Leonid. ¡°What now?¡± she snapped. ¡°Right hand, the left is unclean,¡± The women said plainly, a slight growl was present in her words. ¡°I washed, my hands are clean,¡± Seras protested. ¡°What does she want?¡± Athena asked next to her. Seras noted that she was eating with her left and hadn¡¯t received a swipe. ¡°She doesn¡¯t want me to use my left hand, says its unclean,¡± Seras translated. Athena frowned, ¡°then eat with your right hand. It¡¯s not a big deal.¡± ¡°It¡¯s about the principle of the thing,¡± Seras said obstinately. ¡°Seras, she¡¯s a silver ranker, we¡¯re iron. If she tells us to hop on one foot and yodel all our words, then we will.¡± ¡°What¡¯s a ¡®yodel¡¯.¡± She frowned, ¡°hard to explain, but it¡¯s a way of shout-singing across mountains.¡± Seras shook her to show she did not understand her, then she reached back out with her left hand, and received a second, harder, slap. ¡°Bitch!¡± Seras cursed. ¡°Just use your right hand, Seras.¡± Athena urged. Seras glared at the Leonid woman but reached out with her right and picked up the flat bread they had offered them and scooped in a large helping of the paste they had also provided. She took a bite and had to stifle a moan of pleasure from having real food. Spicy, roasty, with just a hint of nuts, it was good. Seras devoured the meal in several oversized bites. The Leonid woman nodded, ¡°good, now that you have been fed we can go over your story again World walker.¡± Seras glanced up to the roof of the tent they were in and sighed. After being ambushed and briefly interrogated by these tribespeople they were escorted to this tent disguised as an outcropping of rocks with magic. Chase and Rohan had told Seras that there were more expensive magical tents that the tribespeople of the five deserts sold. They had tried to tell her how amazing they were, but Seras only heard the exorbitant price tag and tuned out all the rest. Now she was reassessing her opinions on magical tents. This one could disguise itself as rocks, muffled aura signatures, and provided easy pop-up luxury while on the road. Magical heating arrays to keep the inside warm on cold nights, a magically see-through canopy to watch the stars, and dimensional storage for food. And if her eyes weren¡¯t deceiving her she saw a small bathtub in the corner of the conical tent. After a week of sleeping on cold stone tunnels, cramming themselves into one small single person tent, this seemed like the lap of luxury itself. ¡°I am an Outworlder, Seras Cross. I¡¯ve been traveling with a merchant caravan for the last few months since I got to this world. While out hunting monsters around Cupric we encountered Omeda raiders kidnapping Civvies from the town of Westend. Director Arlee then assigned us to hunt down the Omeda and recover the kidnapped. We found them, there was a fight, at the end of this fight their leader pulled a Jackmoll and blew herself up and caused part of the mountainside to collapse. Athena and I had fallen down a nearby entrance to labyrinth and were trapped underground by the falling rocks. We ventured further into the labyrinth in search of a way out. Now a week later we found an exit and were ambushed by you and your people.¡± ¡°What is a Jackmoll,¡± the Leonid asked? ¡°A guy famous for blowing himself and a bunch of rich people up.¡± One of the reasons all the corpos started moving to space. ¡°I see.¡± The Leonid took a sip of the sweet, spiced milk drink she had served them. ¡°I think you are not telling the whole story.¡±Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. ¡°Of course not, a lot happened down there, monsters, tunnels, walking and talking, there¡¯s too much to tell.¡± Seras leaned over to grab her own drink and received a lighting speed slap on her left hand. ¡°Fuck! Stop that!¡± ¡°That hand is tainted, use the other,¡± she said as if that explained everything. Seras glared and reached out with her other hand, ¡°I¡¯m left-handed, of course I¡¯m going to default to it.¡± ¡°Exactly, imagine all the filth you have touched with your hand, its why you use the other for eating.¡± Seras glared, ¡°first off I don¡¯t know what your implying, but if you mean what I think you mean then I would like to remind you that I¡¯m iron rank and haven¡¯t had to shit for a month now.¡± A hand bopped her on the head, ¡°speaking of such things over food is prohibited. And that¡¯s not what I meant.¡± ¡°Then what do you mean?¡± The Leonid quirked her head, ¡°when you swing the butcher¡¯s axe, is it your left or your right that holds it?¡± Seras started and sighed after a beat. ¡°I see now. Its still a pointless gesture, I¡¯ve trained myself to be ambidextrous.¡± The Leonid shook her head, ¡°it matters not, such things are symbolic, not literal.¡± ¡°Then why does which hand matter?¡± ¡°Because the left is your dominant.¡± She felt like they were going in circles now. ¡°Seras, what are you arguing about with a silver ranker?¡± Athena asked with a false sweetness in her words. It was the kind of tone that implied she would be smacking Seras soon if she didn¡¯t stop. ¡°Still the hand thing,¡± she translated. The silver ranker didn¡¯t speak whatever language Athena knew. Since Seras had language adaptation she was forced to be the translator for Athena. The silver ranker frowned, which on a Leonid was extra intimidating because of all the extra teeth. ¡°You explained why you were there, but not her. How does she fit into all of this?¡± ¡°Oh Athena, I don¡¯t really have the right to give away too many of her secrets, but she was traveling alone when the Omeda kidnapped her. I freed her from her cage, and she ended up falling in with me.¡± ¡°So you two have only known each other for a week. You feel more connected than that though.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°stressful situations have a way of doing that.¡± She sniffed the air, ¡°and you two aren¡¯t¡­ closer than that. I find that most odd.¡± Seras blinked in shock, ¡°yeah no. Not that I¡¯m opposed to it. But¡­¡± Seras glanced to Athena and remembered their uncomfortable argument in the tunnel-, ¡°no.¡± The Leonid woman chortled to herself, ¡°it is not a bad thing. Such joining¡¯s come with bad implications and sometimes make for bad breakups. It is something I am supposed to look out for and correct as a sub-tribal leader.¡± ¡°Uh, thanks?¡± The Leonid stopped laughing. ¡°I believe your story is true, even though you hold much back. I could force you to speak, but the honor of rank forbids such tyrannies.¡± ¡°Honor of Rank?¡± Seras questioned. ¡°It is not a thing the more¡­ urban people of the desert follow, but among the true people of the desert we know that the difference of rank is hard to surmount and could create all sorts of injustices. The honored ancestors saw all this and bound their people to a code of conduct for higher rankers. A single bronze rank man among normal rankers could do great harm, and a silver could twist a whole city to wicked ends in a land as weak as the deserts. Of course there must be rules for such things. Among the city dwellers such things are implicitly implied by the social implications and can be discreetly ignored, among the tribes however it is stated by law and tradition.¡± Seras remembered Dale and that stupid bar. If Seras had been a normal pretty girl then what was to stop a man like Dale? Nothing really, not in the moment. There were social implications like the Leonid said, but that meant fuck-all to men like Dale. But was a codified law better? Seras knew that laws only mattered if the person was caught and the law was enforced properly, plenty of room for wiggling out of it. But given how strictly this Leonid observed even the least of traditions¡­ Seras wasn¡¯t a lawyer, and this kind of thing was mostly lost on her. On her world and this, one thing remained true, if you wanted to be safe then you needed to be powerful enough to protect yourself. ¡°So what now?¡± she asked. The Leonid woman stared at her and sighed, ¡°I will take you to the main camp, there the elders will deal with you. I may be silver ranked, but I know my place is as the spear of my people. They will know what to do with you.¡± ¡°Are we breaking some kind of rule by being here?¡± ¡°You are, though you wouldn¡¯t have known given the dictate was put into effect after you fell into the labyrinth. There have been attacks on the Toruach herds here, and more than just the Omeda stirring up trouble. Poachers have tried their luck at stealing kills. We of the Akemi cannot allow this since the herd has decided to calf in region. We have told the people of Cupric that this land is now off limits until the herds have cleared out.¡± ¡°And people are listening?¡± Seras asked in shock. The Leonid made a fierce predatory grin, ¡°yes, because some of our honored gold rankers have returned home to enforce the edict. Only a single man in Cupric could challenge their might, and he knows better.¡± The Leonid gestured around the tent, ¡°World Walker you have spent much of your time with the outsiders, the people of the cities. But they do not rule these deserts, we do. They live only with our forbearance and because the price of blood grew too great.¡± ¡°Weren¡¯t you the one¡¯s winning that war?¡± ¡°Yes, and the killing was changing us in dark ways. Such slaughter wears away all honor, it is why the Omeda fell like they did.¡± An elbow drew Seras¡¯ attention away from the Leonid. ¡°You¡¯ve been talking for a while, what¡¯s going on?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Oh, so much, but the keynotes are that we¡¯re going to the main camp of the Akemi tribe. Then they¡¯ll decide what to do with us. We¡¯re apparently violating some edict cordoning off the Toruach herds. But we might be forgiven since we had no way of knowing.¡± ¡°Oh, okay.¡± Seras turned back to the Leonid Akemi woman, ¡°would we be allowed to contact our friends, let them know where we are and to arrange a pickup?¡± The Leonid shook her head, ¡°that is not for me to say. I am just a guard dog.¡± Seras stared at the lion woman. The very feline, lion woman. She saw what Seras was thinking and bopped her on the head again, this one left her head ringing. ¡°As a World walker you might not know this, but reducing Leonid¡¯s by our species association to cats is considered very rude. You smelly bald ape girl.¡± Cranial plating is dented, time to repair 8 minutes and twelve seconds. Ch68 The Tyranny of rank The small scouting party of Akemi tribespeople hadn¡¯t brought any Heidels with them, as the creatures might give them away. So a call to the main camp had to be issued for a group of outriders to come with spare Heidels, unfortunately Seras forgot to mention her weight to the Leonid woman. The mount she was given was an ordinary-sized Heidel, and it was not happy to have Seras on its back. Unfortunately for it, Seras was used to her Heidel trying to buck her out of the saddle and she clung to its back like a flea on a rat. She held on to the Heidel until the poor thing grew exhausted from trying to fling Seras off and grudgingly accepted her presence for now. She offered it some apples to hopefully make up for the heavy load. Oddly enough, the whole experience left her really missing her own Heidel Buck. He was an onery beast, but he and Seras had a sort of understanding. Her display of determination also won her a bit of respect from the Akemi outriders, who had cheered her on and offered encouragement. Compared to Athena who looked immensely uncomfortable atop her docile mare Seras had proven which of them knew how to ride. ¡°So, Akemi.¡± Seras said as an opening to conversation. ¡°I don¡¯t know if you know him, but I¡¯ve actually been traveling with one of your people. An archer named Rohan.¡± The Celestine with emerald green hair coloring glanced her way, ¡°I don¡¯t know this Rohan, we¡¯re a large people after all, but its not uncommon for younger normal rankers to travel with the outsiders. He must not have been skilled enough to receive any essences from the tribe.¡± ¡°Is that how you do it, the elders¡¯ horde the essences and dole them out to the talented?¡± She frowned, ¡°your tone makes it sound like a bad thing, but its only right for the most skilled to receive power. They in turn use the power to earn more essences for the tribe.¡± ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, it sounds very egalitarian. But let me ask you this, what happens if someone finds an essence on their own, who does it go to?¡± ¡°The tribe of course.¡± She answered. ¡°Don¡¯t you think that¡¯s a bit unfair to the person who got lucky?¡± She frowned and looked like she had eaten something bitter, ¡°I see your reasoning, but there is something you don¡¯t understand. We are the people of the desert, we do not hunker down and take shelter like the outsiders during monster surges, we face it out here in the open. The strong protect the weak, and that means they owe a debt back to the tribe. Life out here is dangerous, and we need the strongest to rise and protect future generations. There is unfairness with every system, but at least with our ways we don¡¯t create an oligarchy of the rich who buy essences and cores for just their family and those who swear to them.¡± ¡°Fair enough, besides people like Rohan can always earn money outside to the tribe to get his essences.¡± The celestine woman frowned but didn¡¯t argue further. Maybe it was a bit rude to immediately criticize the way their society worked, but Seras had seen enough corruption in her last world to recognize the ways any system could be swayed. They passed the time talking about less intense subjects. Seras learned how the children were raised by the wider community of the Akemi instead of the good¡¯ole nuclear family model. It took half a day of riding before they arrived at the main Akemi camp. Though the term camp felt disingenuous seeing as it was a city of enormous tents sprawled out over a barren plateau that was of little interest to the Toruachs. They had to ride up on a series of narrow switchbacks along the plateau cliff, and when they arrived at the top Seras and Athena were immediately blasted by all the noise of an active camp. Cook fires, drying racks, tanners, bowers, Heidel stables, and even a few impromptu smithies. For the two women who had spent nearly a week in silent cramped tunnels the experience was almost overwhelming. Seras looked across the small patch of campground she could see and her mind overlaid a different sort of camp on top of this one. Instead of tents she saw lean-tos with metal sheet panels for walls. She saw several trucks, cars, and even a heavily modified dump truck. And people with dark tanned skin in makeshift clothes, most sporting some sort of glass goggles for dealing with dust storms. She smelled grilling synth meat, and the tang of the spicy sauce the Badlanders loved. A radio was playing old songs in the background of her memory, occasionally stopping to fizz with static. She shook her head and left the dusty Badlands of Ruin to return to reality. ¡°This almost feels familiar,¡± she murmured. ¡°How so?¡± Athena asked. ¡°Badlanders clans were like this, sort of. There was more rusty metal and the smell of oil, but the vibes are the same here.¡± ¡°Badlanders?¡± ¡°They¡¯re the people who don¡¯t want to live in cities by Corpo rules. They take old, abandoned vehicles from abandoned land fills and fix them up, then they ride around the dusty Badlands between cities. They don¡¯t have the luxuries of city living, but they¡¯re free to live how they like.¡± ¡°You sound wistful,¡± Athena pointed out. Seras turned away, ¡°I, I had a chance to join once. I did this job and ended up with a bus full of kidnapped Badlander brats, when I brought them back I was welcomed with open arms. I ugh, pissed some people off with that job and needed to lay low, they offered to let me hang around until the heat died down.¡± ¡°Where you bored, or did you have a good time?¡± ¡°It was a mix of both, but it was nice to be around them. They have no one to rely on but themselves, and they trust each other. I liked that.¡± ¡°But you said you turned them down.¡± ¡°Yeah, I was so focused on my legend that I couldn¡¯t contemplate just retiring to a Badlander clan.¡± This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience. ¡°Your legend?¡± ¡°Yeah, you know, like the stories they tell after your gone. I wanted to be remembered, like Nightmare or Ronnoc, I figured it was the closest to immortality I would get. I did it too, no one on Ruin is going to forget about Seras ¡®Blackiron¡¯ Cross, not until the world ends at least.¡± Athena stared at her for a long moment before she sighed, ¡°your world really is an awful place.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Seras agreed. ¡°Are you done gawking world walker?¡± the Celestine woman asked, ¡°I need to bring you to the elders.¡± ¡°Yeah, just a bit of nostalgia,¡± Seras called back. The Celestine looked back and frowned but said nothing else. She led them through the messy campgrounds to a big tent in the center, one with wisps of pink and blue smoke drifting out of the top. There was an honor guard at the entrance, but they seemed to recognize the Celestine woman and let her through without challenge. Inside Seras and Athena were greeted by the familiar sight of an administrative center crossed with the tribal esthetic of the Akemi. Papers were being reviewed and responded to, but instead of a quill or pen they had a carved bone that they scratched the paper with. An arial illusion covered one side of tent with view of tiny black dotes moving about over irregular green patches, it took a solid minute for Seras to realize that these black dots were Toruachs. For them to appear so small the image must have been taken from high up, and for the black dot to span so far¡­ fuck, how many Toruachs were in just this image. It shifted and a new image took its place, this one from a different angle. More Toruachs. She fiddled with her hearing settings and caught snippets of conversation around the room, ¡°with this we should reach pre-war numbers¡±, ¡°Might need to cull the old bulls for the new generation¡±, ¡°More poachers on the southern,¡± ¡°finally recovering¡± ¡°when¡¯s lunch¡±. At the center of the tent, floating above the hustle and bustle of administration were several seated figures. They had magical fields around them that obscured their features, and no sound came from them despite obviously being deep in conversation. What was more curious was that she couldn¡¯t feel a single trace of their auras. Dustin had said Seras was good with aura projection and detection, better than a new iron ranker had any right to be. And though she knew she still had a very long way to go to reach the peak of an iron ranker¡¯s ability she was still fairly confident in her abilities. At close proximity to the Silver ranked Leonid she could feel the minuscule eddies in the world from her presence. These people she felt nothing. Nothing as in there wasn¡¯t even a hint they existed at all beyond what her eyes could show her. To her aura senses there was nothing there, nothing at all. It like they had edited themselves out of existence. Now that was skill. Their Celestine guide led them to a small silver disc and had them both stand on top of it. The disc rose into the air on invisible treads of magic and brought them level to the floating dais where the gold ranked Akemi ancestors were arranged. There were five here, but the fifth one was fuzzy, more a magical projection of presence. They looked her way and the magical privacy field seemed to dial back several notches, because suddenly Seras was able to make out their genders and species. Though something about the magic still kept their exact facial features indistinct. Not like a blur filter, it was more subtle than that. The one on the left spoke first, he was clearly both male as he was a hulking Leonid with a great bushy mane of hair. ¡°So you are our trespassers.¡± Athena jolted, ¡°I could understand that,¡± she said in surprise. The Leonid waved it off, ¡°translation magic is easy enough when we know the language. And the language of (name country with Vitesse) is globally recognized.¡± Seras quirked an eyebrow, logging that little tidbit for later. The woman next to the Leonid elder leaned in, the slight point to her ears marked her as an elf, ¡°in fact, you do look quite¡­ familiar to us. Are you here on family business?¡± Athena shook her head rapidly, ¡°no, this is all just a coincidence.¡± They shifted and looked unconvinced; it was the matronly voice in the center that spoke next. ¡°We shall believe you girl, how shall we address you?¡± her voice was soft but commanding, and just a bit familiar to Seras. ¡°Just Athena, please?¡± Athena pleaded. ¡°Then Athena it is.¡± The Matron said. Seras realized that they had somehow recognized Athena for her mysterious family and realized that she had been sidelined in the conversation. She stepped up and crossed her arms, ¡°to be clear, we¡¯re not trespassers. We fell into the labyrinth before the proclamation and had no control over where we came out. we have no intentions of poaching and just want to go back to Cupric.¡± They all focused on Seras, and she got to experience her first gold rank auras in this world. They wafted over her, pried deep, searched out her every secret, and left her feeling completely exposed. It was far worse than the silver ranked aura¡¯s she had clashed with, by a magnitude of a hundred. With those she could feel that any attempts to resist would be futile as she was matching herself against a titanic force, but these were on a whole different level. She could push and push all she wanted with her aura, but it was like trying to push against a mountain. This was the tyranny of rank at its clearest. Seras didn¡¯t stop resisting the unyielding weight. Not even if it was pointless. Four auras retracted, but a fifth remained. This was from the center Matron obscured in shadows. It tamped her down fully without a thought, like giant place its foot on a rat tail. ¡°And who are you World walker,¡± The Matron asked in her aged voice? ¡°Seras Cross, of Ruin.¡± The Matron continued to stare her down, ¡°then please, tell us your story Miss Cross.¡± Seras began to relay the same exact story she told the Leonid woman, but a slight increase in the pressure of the aura shut her up. It was like the air had been sucked out of her lungs. ¡°Not that. We can tell quite easily that you have glossed over much. I would hear it,¡± the Matron commanded. Seras tried to say something, not the full story, but to reword the first story in a way that seemed like she was revealing new information. But again though she couldn¡¯t speak. ¡°Miss Cross, I think you underestimate what Gold rank means. Even a silver ranker could easily feel your intent to hide and obfuscate, we however can see so much more from your aura. I can feel the new essences powers, the echo of those you fought, I can even feel the tension between you and Athena over a recent argument. I can even almost tell what that conversation was about, she has some ideas that have made you very uncomfortable around her, but you¡¯re trying to hide that fact. Now think a little bit more on what your next words will be.¡± The aura loosened its grip on her, Seras gasped and glared, ¡°your almost as bad as Knowledge. Theres this thing called privacy you should look in on, might make less of an ass!¡± A stunned silence filled the room, every conversation in the whole tent, and those outside of it stopped. The sudden silence in the tent had a physical presence of its own. Everyone stared at Seras with dumbfounded looks of complete horror. Seras realized belatedly that she was mouthing off to the human equivalent of a thermobaric bomb. Might not have been the smartest thing to insult her. Oh well, this was her hill and she would die on it if she had to. She suddenly felt like something was smirking at her exasperated amusement. It wasn¡¯t coming from the matron, and it felt like she was the only one who could sense this. She searched the tent for the source but saw nothing. This was just like that time she was taking a test in the magic society and had written explanations of grav-¡­ ¡°See, this is what I mean. Are you in my head!¡± ¡°I am in all heads, I know all that is of this world, including your thoughts. You really should be careful who you mouth off to.¡± Knowledge said into the tent, just her voice though. Seras lifted her middle finger skywards, ¡°this is exactly what I mean, fuck off!¡± The presence faded away completely, though now she was reminded that Knowledge always knew what she was thinking. What if she thought about really graphic stuff all the time out of spite? Or wait, would that compound her issues and attract Fertility¡¯s attention? Gods were fucking weird. Good thing hers were all dead. The Matron did¡­ something with her aura and drew Seras¡¯ attention back towards her. It was like something had made Seras want to turn her head, like when you had an intrusive thought and didn¡¯t stop yourself from acting on it. Auras were also fucking weird. ¡°World walker, your kind never cease to surprise me, but do not blaspheme in this camp again. Do it somewhere far from us so that we are not caught in the fallout.¡± The Matron commanded. ¡°I¡¯ll consider it, now are you going to let up with your aura or not?¡± ¡°Not.¡± She answered. Well, that fucking sucked. Not really much she could do to stop her though, not yet at least. Seras didn¡¯t stop her own pointless attempts to resist. ¡°I don¡¯t know what you want from us; we fought a bunch of monsters down there. I got lucky with a looting power early on and got a second stone from the next thing I killed.¡± The Matron leaned in ¡°You fought back against multiple bronze rank opponents. How did you kill them?¡± Danm, could she read that too? How powerful were gold rankers? ¡°I have been working on weapons from my world, they¡¯re more potent than this world¡¯s.¡± ¡°Show me,¡± the Matron commanded. Seras wished she still had a grenade, she could have pulled the pin and tossed it between them. Instead she summoned her trusty rifle, now bearing much more wear and tear from her struggles. A force lifted it out of her hands and into the air. The force spun it around and towards the Matron and squeezed the trigger. The gun went off with a loud Bang! And the Matron casually caught the bullet out of the air with two fingers. Seras hadn¡¯t even been able to spot her arm going from her side to where it was now, no more than she could have watched the bullet flying forwards. ¡°Hmm, yes, with the right essence abilities this might prove dangerous to the right bronze rank monsters,¡± she commented idly as the gun settled back into Seras¡¯ hands. She dismissed the gun and tried to hide her shock, though knowing the power of these gold rankers she had little chance of them not noticing. The Matron looked at the two of them, ¡°I would have your full story, with no alterations, I want you to tell it to the best of your abilities as you can recall it.¡± Seras glared at her harder, ¡°why, we¡¯re just two iron rankers, what¡¯s our story mean to you?¡± The Matron gestured around them, ¡°this surprising bloom of plants and plant quintessence is a boon to the Toruach herds and our people who rely on them. But we have no knowledge as to why this has happened, we are looking for clues. And I have learned over the course of my life that World Walkers have a habit of wandering into trouble, you appearing here does not strike me as a coincidence. So child of the Ruined world, tell me your story.¡± Ch69 It Certainly wont be boring Seras collapsed into the hot water and let out the weariest sigh of her life. ¡°Dead gods that fucken suuuuucked!¡± The water splashed a bit as Athena settled in front of her, ¡°it wouldn¡¯t have been that bad if you didn¡¯t curse out the Matron and a Goddess.¡± ¡°Bah, I have no regrets there.¡± The gold rankers had grilled them on their story until the sun had set, and then made them do it again. They had dug in on every little detail, like which Star-glider she had killed first and where its scars were. They had seemed especially interested in the outpost and the golems. Worse yet they had made Seras give up the strange components she had looted off the golems, and had compensated her with a handful of silver spirit coins and a pat on the back, along with a command to tell no one else about the camp or the astral space. When they were done the Emerald haired Celestine had shown Seras and Athena to a small tent they would share until someone from Cupric came to get them and then told them where the woman¡¯s bath tent was. Even this late at night there were a few Akemi women present, mostly young warrior types who had just returned from their duties watching the herd. Seras was somewhat confused as the multiple species represented in the Akemi people. Smoulder¡¯s whose presence in the bath rose the temperature by several degrees, lanky svelte Leonid woman, Celestines of every hair color Seras could think of, slender Elves that still looked malnourished to her, the obligatory humans who seemed to be everywhere on Pallimustus, and a few rare runic woman with blue skin and the rune like tattoos around their bodies. The only races not represented here were the Draconians, who apparently mainly came from a very southern continent, with a few exclaves around the world from previous colonial holding. And the Merfolk Seras had only ever heard of and never seen. For some reason when Seras imagined the Akemi from Rohan¡¯s stories she expecting mostly humans, with a few other races mixed in. But the Akemi were as diverse as any metropolitan population. ¡°Fine, but the next time you mouth off to gold rankers and god make sure I¡¯m not in the same room, or building, or city,¡± Athena grumbled. ¡°It wasn¡¯t-,¡± ¡°-Or continent,¡± she interrupted. Seras didn¡¯t respond verbally, and instead just splashed some water at Athena. She spluttered as the water hit her face and went up the wrong hole. Seras just leaned back even further. ¡°Hey there, outsiders!¡± someone called out to them from the other side of the bath. ¡°Unless you¡¯re bugging me to offer us some beers then I don¡¯t want to hear it.¡± Seras muttered with her eyes closed. There was a pause, and then something splashed in the water next to her. Seras cracked one eye and noted the brown glass bottle now floating next to her. ¡°Alright, let¡¯s hear it.¡± A Leonid Woman with light tan fur laughed, ¡°you really don¡¯t give a damn about what you say or to whom you say it.¡± ¡°Whom?¡± Seras questioned. ¡°See, that right there, I like that. Mouthing off to the great elders and a Goddess, you might be only iron rank, but you¡¯ve got diamond ranked balls on yeah.¡± Despite her exhaustion Seras cracked a smile, she sat up in the water and picked up the floating bottle. She raised it up, and the Leonid summoned another bottle to hand and they mined their bottles clinking across the pool. ¡°Seras, and this is Athena.¡± ¡°Linda, short for Lindascarn, that¡¯s Liz, and Leyley,¡± Linda said while pointing to two other woman. One Elf with pale, pale, blonde hair. The other a dark skinned Celestine with glittery diamond like hair and eyes, ¡°and we¡¯re team Dune-strider, adventures.¡± ¡°Not Akemi,¡± Seras questioned? ¡°I am, but these are outsiders. Liz is from the Elf Kingdon on the west coast and Leyley is from Rimaros. We work around Cupric and got tapped by the clan for poacher hunting.¡± Seras nodded, ¡°I get it. So, what do you want from us?¡± Linda laughed, ¡°hah, direct I like that.¡± The elf sniffed, ¡°you would,¡± she sniped. Linda rolled her eyes, ¡°quiet you.¡± She looked to Seras, ¡°I heard this rumor a week back, a big raid on some Omeda bastards I missed, and a missing adventure who was buried under a mountain. Now I hear about you two popping out of the ground and mouthing off to the great elders, so I¡¯m curious if the two stories might be related.¡±Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! Seras glanced to Athena, ¡°no, that¡¯s us.¡± Linda grinned, ¡°told you Leyley.¡± The Celestine sighed, ¡°I didn¡¯t doubt you, I just said we shouldn¡¯t bug them.¡± She moved her arms, and Seras¡¯ eyes were immediately drawn to what they were covering. Athena noticed and kicked her. Seras glanced back at her companion¡­ friend, and frowned in confusion. Athena also seemed to realize what she had done unthinkingly and blushed. Seras shook her head and turned back to the adventuring team of Dune-strider. ¡°Yeah, that was us, I can¡¯t really say much since your elders don¡¯t want us talking about it.¡± The Celestine woman frowned, ¡°didn¡¯t you mouth off to a goddess and a gold ranker, why do you care.¡± ¡°Because knowing my luck Knowledge might decide to tattle and then I¡¯ll be in real trouble.¡± She frowned, and then nodded, ¡°likely.¡± Linda shifted and leaned forwards, ¡°there¡¯s gotta be something you can say, any cool monster, any interesting loot, tell us.¡± Well, the elders did just say the astral space and the golems were off limits, so it should be fine to¡­ ¡°okay, so you know floatstone?¡± Linda frowned, ¡°maybe, its what makes sky ships work.¡± ¡°Right, so we were following this tunnel until we came to an enormous vertical shaft, I mean massive. Bigger than the main tent, by a lot. And it had these floating mineral clusters in the center.¡± ¡°Like sea urchins,¡± Athena added. Linda leaned in, ¡°Like fist sized clusters or-,¡± ¡°-Truck sized,¡± Seras corrected. ¡°Whats a truck?¡± Seras grunted, ¡°ugh, imagine a wagon, Heidel, hitch, and the actual wagon.¡± ¡°Wow, and they were just floating there.¡± ¡°Yup, they created this warped field of gravi¡­ uh, fuck how do I explain this to people how don¡¯t know about gravity?¡± ¡°They warped your sense of direction; they could make up down and spin you around to match.¡± Athena cut in. Seras snapped her hand, ¡°thank you. So it was a dead end, and we decided to camp there before we tried to back track, that next morning, or whatever the time was when we woke up, we were just talking when these two massive creatures come soaring out of the shaft¡¯s depths.¡± ¡°Monsters?¡± ¡°No, they were magical creatures, and they were pissed.¡± Seras cracked open the bottle and took a deep gulp, it was more like ale than beer, but it helped settle her nerves. Despite telling this tale ad-nauseum to the elders talking to the adventurers was more relaxing than tedious. For a minute it was like Seras was back in Sin and Misery, telling the crew about her latest solo job. They swapped tales, the Star Gliders, the Voracious Kudzu, and the fight with the Omeda. In turn Seras and Athena learned about how Dune-strider got their name, a poor nickname from their first outing as a group that had them getting lost and walking over the same dunes six times in one day. And some pranks they played while on a job. Linda laughed as she described Kent¡¯s, their fourth teammate, indignation as he woke up with something called a scorpion in his bed roll. ¡°Poor guy when to bed in just his trunks, and they weren¡¯t the thickest material around, the damn bug went right for his weak spot.¡± ¡°Serves him right for replace my coffee beans with decaf,¡± the elf said haughtily. Linda laughed and leaned back, ¡°your fun Cross, and you too miss no last name.¡± Athena rolled her eyes. Linda glanced their way and gave them a shrewder look than Seras would have thought possible, ¡°hey, we¡¯ve got a contract tomorrow, hunting sand raptors who have been attacking the herd. A few separate groups from the sound of things, you interested in tagging along. That rifle thing of yours sounds like it might be very handy out there. We¡¯re all close range fighters. And Athena, your healing powers would really nice for if we get into a scrap.¡± Athena shied away, ¡°they¡¯re, they¡¯re not exactly healing powers. I, I don¡¯t think I could just¡­ do it.¡± Linda shrugged, ¡°that¡¯s fine, and you Cross?¡± ¡°Would I get a share of the loot?¡± Leyley huffed, ¡°you¡¯re the only one here with looting powers, the better question is if we¡¯d get any.¡± ¡°I wont shortchange you.¡± Seras reassured, she leaned back and really thought about it. She had just gotten out of a deadly situation of being trapped in the Labyrinth, constantly on guard for any monsters that popped up. Did she want to put herself back out into danger like that? Absolutely. Hells yeah. 110%. At her core Seras was a thrill junky who got off by shooting her guns. It was how she felt in control. Plus she wouldn¡¯t mind seeing proper full time adventurers on the job. She glanced towards Athena, though she didn¡¯t need to. She didn¡¯t answer to Athena, except she kind of did. ¡°Sounds fine, first light?¡± Linda snorted, ¡°are you kidding, its nearly morning already. Don¡¯t you want to rest?¡± Seras looked around and noticed how empty the bath tent, ¡°shit has it been that long?¡± ¡°Time flies with good ale.¡± Seras raised her fourth bottle to that and then finished it off before standing up. She idly noted which eyes followed her up, and who turned away in embarrassment. She stepped out and summoned a towel, giving the last observer a wink. Leyley smiled back as Seras wrapped herself up. ¡°Just shout outside my tent when you¡¯re ready to go.¡± Seras said, noting that Athena had also stood up and was toweling off. They quickly dressed in the new clean clothing offered by the Akemi and wandered off to their tent. ~~~*~~~ Athena wasn¡¯t sure how she felt. The hide used in Akemi clothing was certainly soft, but she wasn¡¯t sure if she liked the style. Then again it was nice not to be wearing blood stained clothing, or Seras¡¯ too small extras. Those she felt like she¡¯d tear by breathing too hard. But these tan hides just looked awkward on her. She glanced to Seras and felt a spike of jealousy. It was unfair how she made anything she wore look natural. She knew that Seras had intentionally tweaked her features with her augmentations, but an Iron ranker shouldn¡¯t look that good. What would happen when she ranked up, would she get prettier, or had she reached peak perfection? ¡°Are you really alright to go back out after everything we went through?¡± She asked, her voice disturbing the tranquility of the night. Seras glanced back and up, and her heart did a little flip in her chest. ¡°Yeah, its not a problem to me.¡± ¡°Really?¡± ¡°Mm-hm,¡± She hummed. She was awash with jealousy a whole second time over, though this one came from a different place. ¡°But how?¡± Seras glanced back to watch where she was walking, ¡°it¡¯s like, you don¡¯t fear the office right? You wake up, clock in, sit at your desk and lose your whole day to pointless drudgery, and then go home to drink yourself into oblivion and do it all again in the mourning.¡± Athena tried to pull this apart in her head. Seras constantly said things that made clear sense to her and absolutely no sense to Athena. You could either ask ¡°what? What? What?¡± all the time, or learn how to pick apart Seras-ism¡¯s. ¡°You¡¯re saying that this is just another day to you?¡± ¡°Basically. Its my version of a day at the office. Danger, cursing, shooting, its all another day to me.¡± Athena flashed back to their time in the Labyrinth and recalled how calm Seras was. She had used that stability to keep herself sane down there. ¡°I wish I could think like that,¡± she murmured. ¡°Its all about exposer, you just got to get used to it. Theres still time for you to tag along,¡± Seras offered. Athena smiled, she appreciated the offer, but she still shook her head. ¡°I, I can¡¯t. down in the tunnels I could because I knew I had no choice. But this is different.¡± ¡°It¡¯s only different if you let it be.¡± Seras said with a shrug. She glanced back and frowned, ¡°you¡¯re being a lot more passive than when we were in the tunnel¡¯s?¡± Athena wilted, ¡°yeah, I, I don¡¯t know. I think the stress was starting to drive me mad down there, making me more¡­ forceful.¡± Seras sniffed, ¡°shame, you were at your best when you didn¡¯t give a shit.¡± ¡°Like you?¡± ¡°Yeah, like me!¡± she said enthusiastically. Athena shook her head, ¡°I don¡¯t ever think I could curse out a Goddess Seras.¡± ¡°Give it time,¡± She joked. Athena laughed and continued to follow behind Seras. She wasn¡¯t sure what would happen next in her life, her parents were dead, she had run away from her family and responsibilities and had wound up with a mad Outworlder. But she felt like if stuck near Seras everything might turn out alright. It certainly won¡¯t be boring. Ch70 Benediction of the Martyr She slowed her breathing; each breath came slower and slower. In this calm state Seras didn¡¯t feel the familiar desperation for air, it was almost as if she didn¡¯t need air to breathe. Absurd, but in this deep meditative state it felt like that. She idly guided the mana in her body, just like Dustin had taught her. In this state it came to her like second nature. An interesting development given that she wasn¡¯t secluded in a tent for a meditation session. In fact she was laying stomach down on rough stones under the dry desert sun. By all logic she should not have been able to meditate like this. There was a rock pressing into her side, a wafting scent of manure from millions of Toruachs, and the shuffling of Heidels and bored adventurers. But none of that mattered, because right now Seras was holding her gun. Her rifle was stretched out in front of her, propped up against a crook in the rocks, and it made all the difference. Seras was born to hold a gun; it was the only time when she felt right and the world made sense. Fears and anxieties tended to have little sway over her mind when she knew she could just blow her problems away. She exhaled one last time and stopped breathing entirely as she sighted her quarry. A bipedal lizard with mottled tan scales that matched the desert ground perfectly. It was crouched low to the ground and slowly creeping up on a young Toruach sow. She moved her finger onto the trigger and slowly squeezed, careful not to twitch the gun in any direction and ruin her aim. Crack! Through her aura, [control bullet], and vast distance at play Seras could feel the bullet as it soared over open air. She felt it drop slowly with the pull of gravity, felt a stray wind nudge it to the side, and simple restraint of air resistance. With her newfound powers Seras nudged the bullet ever so slightly to adjust for deviance caused by the wind. It was hard at this distance, like trying to lift a weight at the end of long stick. But she only needed a slight nudge. Seras was a long way off making bullets whiz around corners, but this would do for now. They were far too distant to hear the bullet hit soft flesh, they could barely see the sand Raptor suddenly flop over dead. But the Toruachs nearby saw it, they jolted, nearly broke into a stampede, but paused in time to see that the Raptor was dead. Control bullets 2 95% had progressed to control bullets 3 09% Seras gritted her teeth and took hold of the surging energy and yanked it back. Essance advancement stalled, control bullets 2 108% Dead gods that still felt weird. The deep state of meditation she had entered was enough for her essence ability to progress forward, making it the third such ability she was manually holding back. After all the teleporting around in the Astral space her newest ability had wanted to reach the next stage, as well as aura of ruin. She held those back the first night they had left the Labyrinth, and now she would need to hold onto another. Linda gave her a low impressed whistle ¡°damn, I didn¡¯t think you could do that, we¡¯re still like two kilometers out.¡± Seras breathed in and pushed herself off the ground. ¡°I¡¯m more impressed the bullet had enough power left in it to kill the damn thing.¡± ¡°Sand raptors are a bit weak for bronze rank, its during ambushes when they get deadly,¡± Leyley explained. She looked towards the distant dead monster, ¡°still, that¡¯s an interesting weapon to hit from so far and kill in only one blow.¡± The elf sniffed derisively, ¡°there are spells that can reach that far at our rank, and they take far less time to aim than this. One attack with three minutes spent aiming seems impractical to me.¡± Seras tried not to let her irritation show at the dismissal in the Elf¡¯s words, ¡°maybe, but this gun isn¡¯t really the best for these long-range shots. It¡¯s got enough power and range, but it¡¯s lacking in bullet stabilization and sighting.¡± She didn¡¯t even have a scope yet, all that was iron sights and some optical zooming from her eyes. ¡°If so then you must be pretty good,¡± Linda said. ¡°I just wish it was quieter.¡± That last comment was from Kent, the fourth member of team Dune strider. He had been skeptical about inviting a random woman his teammates had just met in the baths. ¡°Not everyone¡¯s got hearing powers like you do,¡± Leyley pointed out. ¡°Kent has a point, my ears are still ringing.¡± Liz said as she rubbed her ears. ¡°Says you, our ears aren¡¯t so sensitive or pointy,¡± Leyley teased. ¡°Watch your tongue,¡± Liz snapped back. ¡°Enough!¡± Linda roared. ¡°Ow¡± Kent muttered. Seras grinned at their antics; it reminded her a little of her old crew. Oh they¡¯d act like quiet, cool, professionals with a client. But the moment they were out of sight they¡¯d get rowdy. It was hard not to relax around people who have been through hell with you, hard not to trust them. Maybe that was the problem though. ¡°There are silencers, or there were on my world. My old Janzou was completely silent, and it had triple the range of that last shot. The bullets could even course correct on their own. I¡¯ve got an essence ability for that now, but before it was a real-life saver.¡± Liz looked unconvinced, ¡°I still think spells are better.¡± Seras¡¯ eye twitched, ¡°spells are pretty good, but how many people get the right essences, awakening stones, or natural mana affinity for spells. Anyone can use a gun, and we¡¯ve made one for just about every need. Small hand guns for close quarters, automatic rifles to fire a dozen bullets in a second, machine guns for mowing down waves of enemies, sniper rifles for long range, artillery that fires from over the horizon and obliterates land marks, even guns that can annihilate cities or hit deep bunkers.¡± ¡°Anything nonlethal, or is it all blood and death,¡± Leyley asked? ¡°Tasers, rubber bullets, beanbags, and tranquilizers,¡± Seras said ticking each off on her fingers. Leyley nodded in approval, which seemed to irk the Elf girl. The other two watching from the outside and wore tight expressions. Seras had no idea what was going on with their group dynamic here, but she didn¡¯t really care either. Dune-strider were alright, but Seras was mostly out here because she was frustrated by how completely the Gold ranked Matron had suppressed her and needed to blow off steam by killing shit. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. Linda sighed ¡°We better head down and loot it before it begins to dissolve, unless you can get it from here?¡± Seras looked at it and got a sense from her ability that she was out of range. ¡°Nope.¡± ¡°Alright, back to the Heidels.¡± Seras and the rest listened and mounted up and urged their Heidels into a trot. She had gotten a bigger Heidel this time, but the stallion still wasn¡¯t Buck and was uncomfortable with her weight. She sighed, ¡°gods-dammit, I actually miss that onery bastard lizard.¡± ~~~*~~~ Athena felt a bit adrift. In the labyrinth there was always a set path and a list of priorities to keep her focused, and when things got crazy she could rely on Seras to see them through. But now, now there was no insanity. Well, not the dangerous kind. Athena was walking aimlessly through a city of tents, pavilions, and portable magical structures. The Akemi had taken the hides of monsters and magical beasts alike and inscribed the material with formations as intricate as any high value leather working she had seen. Her education on artisanal matters like armor crafting wasn¡¯t the most thorough, but she had seen expensive leather armor from her parents and many cousins. Each tent here had the same sort of quality to them, and more impressive was how they seemed to magically link up and share the burden of the magical load needed to perform their intended purposes. There were nomadic cultures all around the world, from the oasis wanderers of her homeland, arboreal hunters in the far north, and even some people who lived entirely at sea on a fleet of canoes and larger ships. But to be frank Athena had never seen the appeal, cities simply provided a far better base for building up. But the Akemi of the Five desserts had blended the usefulness of civic infrastructure without compromising their values. It was an impressive feat. What impressed her more was how communal it was. Men and woman worked stew pots, bread ovens, and grills in a wide clearing where people came by to eat before getting on with their own chores and crafts. Private tents like the one provided for Seras and Athena seemed to be in the minority as most families packed into huge communal living spaces. And an array of older grannies watched and corralled a small army of children. They sat and talked over their sowing or embroidery, while occasionally getting up to intervene in the children¡¯s play. There was a sense of tight, close-knit, comradery and companionship between all the Akemi. One that Athena felt like she intruded on just by existing in this camp. She tried to walk on the edge of paths, out of the way of everyone, and was really just going in circles because she didn¡¯t have anything she could do. ¡°You, girl!¡± someone snapped. Athena jerked and looked into a tent where an old woman was standing, ¡°oh, I¡¯m sorry, am I in the way of something.¡± The old human woman leaned on her black staff, her skin was a deep mahogany color, and hair the perfect black of ebony. She felt old to her senses, but didn¡¯t look it. Her skin was smooth and clear, her fingers unbent, and her back unhunched. She wore clothing much like the Akemi, but slightly different. She had no way to describe how, but it felt like it was older, of an ancient style. She had red phoenix feathers in her hair and had clear, piercing eyes. Athena couldn¡¯t feel the woman¡¯s aura at all, and that told her that she was at least silver rank given the sense of age but the lack of senescence. ¡°I can¡¯t stand useless freeloaders,¡± she spat. ¡°Oh I¡¯m sorry, I-,¡± ¡°Don¡¯t be sorry, be useful.¡± With that the woman strode forward, grabbed Athena by the ear, and began to drag her along with an unshakable strength. No amount of struggling on her part would have been enough to break free, she¡¯d be better off cutting off her ear and hoping her immortality ability would be enough to grow it back. Given that she was still missing a part of her arm that might not be a wise course of action. She was dragged into a large green and silver dyed tent with an odd symbol on it. The woman dragged her in and pushed her forwards, there Athena saw the disturbingly familiar sight of a hospital in full swing. Men and women in green and silver colored robes rushed about the space, applying healing abilities, purging powers, and simple tonics to patients. The woman let go of her ear, jabbered something to an Elf man with auburn hair, and before Athena could protest she was quickly whisked away to the back of the space. There several women got her out of her clothes and into her own set of green and silver robes, and had a magical necklace wrapped around her neck. The moment the clasp closed the foreign speech of the Akemi suddenly became coherent. ¡°You, girl, this arm here, were you born this way or is this an injury?¡± One of healing woman demanded. ¡°Uh, injury, I have an immortality ability, but it didn¡¯t work,¡± Athena explained, still confused as to what was going on. The healer tapped her stump a few times and nodded, ¡°the ability must be too weak, or you didn¡¯t have enough mana at the time to regrow it. One second, this might sting.¡± And then a knife appeared in her hand and quickly chopped off a small section of Athena¡¯s remaining arm. Before she even had a chance to scream or feel the horror of what happened her open wound began to sting like a hot iron was being driven into it, and from that pain a new arm and hand grew back. She stared at it agog. It was perfect, it even retained her tan. It was like nothing had ever happened to it. Were it not for the line of red blood around where it had been regrown, she wouldn¡¯t have believed it. She glanced down at where the little bit of stump had fallen onto her and noted that while there was a small lump of flesh there wasn¡¯t a single drop of blood on these robes. ¡°Good, now Honored Grandmother said you had healing powers, tell me how they work and we¡¯ll make you useful.¡± The healer woman ordered. ¡°Uh, uh, the main one is [Matry¡¯s benediction], but I can also transfer afflictions to myself.¡± The woman scowled, ¡°what kind of healing abilities are those, it sounds more like a way to flay yourself.¡± ¡°Well, like I said, I have immortality, and other passive self-healing.¡± She spat, ¡°awful, just awful. Did you ask Lord Healer for powers like this, what kind of fool girl are you?¡± ¡°No, my parents got me the essence. They¡¯re just normal essence abilities, not divine. I¡¯m sorry, are you a priest of healer?¡± She bopped her on the head, ¡°of course I am, do you not see my robes?¡± Athena stared down at the robes, ¡°but Healers colors are plain browns, and beiges.¡± She rolled her eyes, ¡°that¡¯s because we follow the ancient styles, from when people first learned the healing arts. Green for the herbal poultices we were taught, and silver for the metal¡¯s purifying properties when fighting poison. We do not conform to outsider ways when we worship our lord, and a God has greater concerns than color schemes.¡± ¡°I just, I never knew other temples did things differently.¡± ¡°Fool girl,¡± she shook her head ¡°ugh, no you won¡¯t do. The robes will keep you clean, but I cannot have you distressing patients by mutilating yourself. What do you know of healing formations, poultices, and manual ministrations?¡± ¡°Uh, I¡¯ve studied healing rituals, but I don¡¯t know about the rest.¡± ¡°Fine, come with me.¡± She promptly turned around and strode out without looking Athena¡¯s way to make sure she was coming. Athena had no choice but to follow after her. She was taken to a normal ranked woman no older than Athena who was currently setting a young boys leg the hard way. Instead of just using magic healing to automatically set the bone she had the patient on a traction bench and was setting it manually. The crunch sickened Athena to hear. ¡°Sisa, this girl will be your assistant, her powers are all bad and she needs to learn and be useful.¡± The woman stated curtly before walking away. Sisa, a Celestine woman with opalescent colorations, moved the boy back and began drawing a quick magical circle. Her hands moved with the ease of long repetition and she had the circle done in under minute, she powered it with some iron rank spirit coins, and the bone mended in seconds. The boy¡¯s pained expression faded away, ¡°thank you auntie.¡± Sisa thumped the boy, ¡°I¡¯m not that old yet.¡± ¡°Yes big sis,¡± the boy corrected quickly before running off. Sisa sighed, ¡°fool boys, they know better than to break bones in sparing, and yet I see at least one come through every day. Too desperate to prove themselves warrior material and get their essences.¡± She looked Athena¡¯s way, and then slowly looked up to Athena¡¯s full height. ¡°you¡¯re supposed to be a healer, you look more likely to do the hurting,¡± she asked incredulously. ¡°I¡¯m just a bit tall, I¡¯m no good with fighting.¡± Sisa did not looked convinced, ¡°well then come along, we have far too many fools to see to.¡± Then, just like the first woman, she turned and walked away as if it were only natural for Athena to follow afterwards. ¡°So, why are you doing this?¡± Athena asked eventually. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t I, there¡¯s always idiots to fix,¡± she replied curtly. ¡°No, I meant, why are you doing this, you don¡¯t have essences.¡± She laughed, ¡°you don¡¯t need magic to heal. And it¡¯s stupid to try it all with magic. The really bad stuff needs magic, but broken bones, tummy aches, bruises?¡± ¡°What about potions?¡± ¡°A waste of time and resources. I could have given that boy a potion, it would have fixed him right up, but the waste of it all! Far better to set the leg yourself and use a ritual. Did you not see the size of this camp? Well this is the only temple to Healer here, and the essences for healing magic are both rare and expensive. Healers are always in high demand; I¡¯ve been on the waiting list for nearly three years now. Even after I proved myself.¡± They came up to an old woman who was coughing hard, Athena¡¯s [Eyes of the Surgeon] showed that she had some sort of sort of fluid that appeared in her vision as a smoky black color. Sisa put her ear to the old woman¡¯s back and ordered her to take deep breaths, after a minute of listening she got up and sighed, ¡°pneumonia, she¡¯ll need a purging power.¡± Athena looked at her and considered her options, ¡°I can do it.¡± ¡°You have purging powers, ones for disease and poison?¡± She wilted, ¡°sort of, my powerset is all about transferring the problems to myself and letting my nature healing and resistance take care of it.¡± ¡°So then I¡¯ll have a different patient at the end?¡± Sisa questioned harshly. She shook her head, ¡°No, a normal ranked infection will only survive in me for a minute at most. Even without my self-healing I¡¯m still iron ranked. We don¡¯t even get sick from normal things.¡± She frowned, but nodded eventually, ¡°do it.¡± Athena simply looked at the woman and activated her ability. In this case both [Benediction of the Martyr] and [life link], the infection vanished from the old lady and appeared in Athena. She could feel the existence of the infection in her, just as she felt it dying off rapidly. Her body didn¡¯t even activate her immune response, and she showed no symptoms of infection. That, that wasn¡¯t too bad. Just an activation of her abilities and one cured patient. It wasn¡¯t like the pain of taking cuts, bruises, and broken bones. Sisa felt the old lady, ¡°she¡¯s still too warm.¡± ¡°That will go away once her body realizes she¡¯s not sick anymore. She might need to drink extra water.¡± Sisa looked at her in newfound appreciation, ¡°not so useless then. Well come along, the back log is never ending.¡± Athena followed behind, her shock at the sudden reversal gone and replaced with interest. A way to help without flagellating herself, what a novel concept. Ch71 Not a Word They arrived back at the camp just before sunset. The contract listed six raptors but try as they might they could only find five. That meant a slight pay cut at the end, but a possibility they were prepared for. Contracts were notorious for being wrong on occasion, and no one had a way of confirming whether or not it was fully completed. Now that would be a handy power. The bustle had died down, but only by a little. People were still coming and going at all times, and the cook fires remained lit all day and night to feed everyone. Team Dune-strider and Seras were unsaddling the Heidels at a stable area, and Seras was giving her Heidel a good brush down for bearing her weight all day. Poor thing. If she went out again she might request a different one just to give him a break. ¡°I¡¯ll turn in the contract,¡± Linda announced, ¡°Seras, we¡¯ll have a runner deliver your cut to your tent if you want to find your girlfriend.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°my, my what?¡± Linda looked confused, ¡°the tall girl, you know, the one you were with?¡± ¡°Athena and I are not dating. We¡¯ve known each other for a week at most.¡± Linda shrugged, ¡°I¡¯ve gotten into shorter relationships.¡± Seras had no response to that, she decided that she might just leave them on that awkward note. As she was walking out though the sound of hurried footsteps following after stopped her. Seras turned and saw the Celestine woman with diamond colored hair running after her. ¡°Need something Leyley?¡± Seras asked. Leyley glanced back at her team, and Seras noted that Liz had a scowl as she turned to walk away. ¡°Sorry, I meant to ask about this earlier, but, um, your guns. I wouldn¡¯t mind seeing more of them. Do you think you might have time to show me how they worked.¡± ¡°You want me to show you how to shoot,¡± Seras asked hesitantly. Leyley shrugged, ¡°among other things.¡± Seras blinked, and then blinked again. Dead gods, how dense was she? Leyley was hitting on her, how had she missed that? Seras¡¯ mind flashed back to her last relationship. Dead eyes staring back at her in shock, blood flying through the vacuum of the space station. She shook her head, ¡°look, I can¡¯t believe this is the second time I¡¯ve had to say this, but I¡¯m not really in a place for a relationship right now. Life¡¯s crazy, and I won¡¯t be sticking around-,¡± Leyley held up a hand, ¡°I think your misunderstanding. I¡¯m an adventurer, we don¡¯t do long term relationships very well. But it does get cold at night, I wouldn¡¯t mind some company.¡± Now that, that was different. Dead gods how long had it been? Seras tapped her foot, ¡°so my tent or yours?¡± ¡°Yours, Liz does not like it when I bring company.¡± Seras grinned, ¡°well then, shall we?¡± The Celestine with glittering hair smirked, ¡°why rush, I was being honest when I said I want to know more about your guns. They look fun to shoot¡± ¡°A gal after my own heart, careful or I might fall head over heels here,¡± Seras teased. ¡°I¡¯ll try to restrain my charms then, but that¡¯s easier said than done.¡± She grinned. They both wandered off into the camp, so distracted by each other that they forgot certain things. Like how one might offend the feelings of a teammate, or that the other didn¡¯t have a private tent. Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. ~~~*~~~ By the time that Athena was finally released from the healing tent it was nearly midnight. And she only got let go so early because Sisa was still a normal ranker and needed to get some rest, though she doubted it would be the full amount she needed. She trudged through the camp, completely lost. She had no idea where the tent they were given was in relation to the Healer tent. So she was left wandering around aimlessly hoping one of the identical looking small tents would jump out to her as theirs. That¡¯s where she ran into ¡®her¡¯. The pale-haired elf girl from team Dune-strider, was marching around the camp in a huff, and nearly strode past Athena. At the last minute though it seemed like the elf, Liz, recognized Athena as she stopped in her tracks and wheeled around to face her. ¡°You, tall one, where¡¯s your tent?¡± she demanded. The wind began to blow her way and Athena caught a whiff of her breath. It smelled like the elf head stuck her whole head into a whiskey barrel. ¡°Why do you want to know where our tent is?¡± ¡°So I can kick that whore¡¯s ass.¡± Athena balked at the crassness, ¡°Seras?¡± Liz scowled, ¡°I meant Leyley, but her too.¡± Athena crossed her arms, ¡°I have no idea what¡¯s going on, but I¡¯m not letting you near our tent in your current state.¡± Mostly because she didn¡¯t know where her tent was. ¡°Look, your outworlder and Leyley went off to ¡®shoot guns¡¯, and she hasn¡¯t come back. I¡¯ve seen the way Leyley was eyeing her and I¡¯m going to knock some shame into that stupid Celestine.¡± Athena processed all of that and came to one conclusion. She did not have the patience to deal with this. Today she had been dragged into a healing tent, had a bit of her arm lopped off and regrown, been pushed into helping out at the healing tent, vomited on twice, and was currently lost. All that on top of the fact that she had zero time to process everything that had happened in the last week underground. So Athena smothered the whatever painful feelings she might or might not have over Seras and another woman ¡®shooting guns¡¯, and said, ¡°fuck off!¡± The elf blinked, ¡°what?¡± ¡°You heard me, I don¡¯t give any fucks about what you and Leyley got going on, but leave me, and Seras, out of it.¡± ¡°I thought you were the nice one?¡± ¡°Nice has limits, and I am well past mine,¡± she retorted. And then seeing the incomprehension still in the elf¡¯s drunken eyes Athena made a mistake, she tried to do one last nice thing for the day. She activated her abilities to try and sober the Elf up. The problem was she only used [life link] because she didn¡¯t feel like dealing with the Elf¡¯s likely hangover. The elf suddenly became sober, and had all the bad parts of intoxication with nothing to numb it. She swayed on her feet, vomited on Athena, and then passed out. she slumped onto Athena¡¯s chest, right in the stain of vomit. Her eye twitched, ¡°god¡¯s fucking dammit all!¡± ~~~*~~~ Seras was in a daze, the room swam around her, and she hadn¡¯t needed a drop of booze to feel like this. It had really been too long. Way too long. She felt, well she felt good in too many ways to articulate. Leyley was besides her, breathing much, much heavier than Seras was. Bionic lungs for the win. ¡°That, that was, wow.¡± Leyley said in between gasps. ¡°Speechless huh, been a while since I¡¯ve done that to a gal,¡± Seras said with a grin. ¡°Yeah¡­¡± Leyley answered. She eventually recovered enough to reach over to her clothes and dig out a stamina potion, she tilted it back and sucked down the contents within. Seras watched her back as she let the potion do its work. Long, glittery, almost luminescent hair fell past her shoulders and was plastered with sweat to her rich mocha skin. Celestine¡¯s were strange, though she and them shared a trait for exotic hair colors Seras knew that hers was fully artificial. Celestines came by their hair naturally. Exotic shades, impossible brightness, and either metallic lusters or gem like luminesce. There had to be some magic at play, just like with Smoulders and Runics. What would happen to these races if they were on a magicless world like Ruin, or would they even evolve there in the first place? Would their features simply dim into more human-like hair colors? She was so lost in thought that she was caught by complete surprise as Leyley rolled back over and propped herself over Seras with both arms. Seras felt something warm and soft press against her chest and she grinned, ¡°again?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not wasting any chances, you or I might be gone tomorrow,¡± she said with a sultry purr to her words before sliding lower and pressing her mouth against Seras¡¯ chest. ¡°You sound like ah¡­ ah¡­ a Ruinite.¡± Seras only just able to get out that last quip before she became distracted. Which of course is when someone pushed their way through the tent flaps and a foul odor entered with them. Leyley jerked up a turned back, Seras¡¯ couldn¡¯t see what she saw from her position, but a shout of ¡°Liz!¡± gave her a pretty good hint at who it was. Leyley hopped off from Seras and dashed across the small space and accepted a limp figure from a very irate Athena. Seras stood up, Athena¡¯s eyes darted to her bare skin, and she scowled before looking back to Leyley. ¡°I don¡¯t know where your team is set up. This one found me wandering around before puking on me and then passing out. Deal with her.¡± She growled that last part. Seras sighed, seeing that the rest of tonight¡¯s plans had been thoroughly derailed. She walked over to the pile of hers and Leyley¡¯s clothes and picked out the Celestine¡¯s clothes and handed them over before picking up her own. Leyley set her teammate down and quickly got dressed. She then looked down at Liz and crinkled her nose in disgust before digging around in a dimensional bag for a potion. She popped the cork and drizzled the contents over her friend and all the filth on the Elf broke down and washed away. Athena stuck a hand in front of Leyley, and after a long pause Leyley also pulled out another crystal wash potion and handed it over. Leyley flashed Seras an apologetic smile before shouldering her companion and slipping out into the night. ¡°Well, there goes that,¡± Seras muttered. Athena wheeled around on her and jabbed at her with a single finger. ¡°You!¡± ¡°Me?¡± ¡°What the hell were you thinking?¡± Seras looked back to where Leyley and Liz left, ¡°hey, I had no idea the Elf would find you specifically to puke on,¡± she said defensively. ¡°That is not what I mean. Did you even stop to think about me before you went and did whatever you pleased?¡± Seras¡¯ eyebrow twitched, ¡°I don¡¯t see why I should have. I¡¯m a grown woman and can fuck whoever I want¡­ with consent of course,¡± she added belatedly. Athena only got angrier, ¡°Not. In. Our. Shared. Tent!¡± she spat through gritted teeth. Seras blinked, and suddenly the background scent of the tent became very noticeable, ¡°oh.¡± ¡°What were you thinking, this is a tent, no walls, no soundproofing, nothing. Where was I supposed to sleep? You didn¡¯t even place a sock on door!¡± ¡°Not exactly a place for a sock,¡± Seras muttered as a sense of shame filled her. Athena poured a little crystal wash over her clothes, then tossed the rest over Seras¡¯ bed roll. She then strode right past Seras to flop into her own bed roll. The silence stretched between them painfully, but Seras had no words to make it right. So she sighed and laid down. ¡°So¡­um¡­¡± ¡°Not a word,¡± Athena snapped from her side of the tent. Seras shut her mouth. Ch72 Star Stories Ruin, three months before the Volta job Seras woke to the ever-pleasant sight of bare ass in the morning. No really, on a scale of one to ten this one was a solid nine and half. The only reason it wasn¡¯t a solid ten was simply because that¡¯s what Seras rated her own and felt nothing else could compare. ¡°Oh, a full moon,¡± she remarked. Frost turned her head and glared at Seras. The stark lines of mouth mask that replaced her whole lower jaw adding to the sharpness of her angular eyes. ¡°Your jokes a terrible Blackiron,¡± Frost said coldly. Seras grinned and sat up, ¡°sorry, just a bit witless from the sight.¡± The woman glared at her for a moment longer, before she rolled her eyes and turned away. Seras slowly rotated her shoulder and felt around her body. Not a single creak or strain, the fortune she spent on this new body was worth it. Everything felt so smooth, zero lag time. And the fact that she had finally gotten a full body conversion made it so that she didn¡¯t feel constantly exposed from having anymore surface meat to worry about. She walked over to look out through the hardened synthetic sapphire windows to the bustling city below. Even Seras didn¡¯t have enough power in her arsenal to break through a window like this, it¡¯s why they didn¡¯t need to drop the steel shutters at night. If only the view was as spectacular as the window¡¯s material. Even in the daytime Mantel felt dark and gritty. Thick impenetrable clouds of ash and smog blanketed the city in perpetual twilight gloom. And the dark building material of the city didn¡¯t help that image. Even the harsh artificial light from neon¡¯s and LED¡¯s just added a false cheeriness that had the opposite effect on mood. Still to look down on it all from the mid-levels of a mega tower was a luxury in itself. A bulky freight shuttle flew past the window, the normal roar of the engines drowned out entirely by the buildings soundproofing. Seras sighed and turned back to where Frost had disappointingly gotten dressed. ¡°I¡¯ve looked over the details Blackiron,¡± Frost began without preamble, ¡°I don¡¯t see it as remotely possible.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°even with the extra assets I listed?¡± ¡°Even with. We¡¯re not talking about a simple smash and grab. This is a heist placing us against the best security out there, and to top it all off the facility is up in the clouds. We can¡¯t do it.¡± Seras pulled up the image of what the assets they were after, ¡°they¡¯re really going all out to protect the silver grade augs.¡± Seras¡¯ heart yearned for the upgraded version of her current cybernetics. Biolite silver grade paramilitary tactical augmentations. A bunch of corporate drivel for what was the most advanced cybernetics in existence. The techies and nerds she knew weren¡¯t even sure how Biolite had made such powerful cyberware. Some of the leaked footage of Biolite enforcers in the Silver grade gear looked more akin to myth and legend than actual engineering. And Seras wanted it. She wanted it bad. More than she had ever wanted anything before. ¡°I can see why though. The lack of security on the bronze rank gear has led to far too much trouble for Biolite. You¡¯ve already nearly made back your investment with your¡¯s.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°rank?¡± Frost didn¡¯t do anything so obvious as blinked or turn away, ¡°misspoke,¡± she said. Seras didn¡¯t believe her. Reading Frost was like reading ancient Vestalan, but Seras had learned her tells over the years. You could tell Frost was trying to obscure her feelings and reactions by the movement of her chest, if it was still rising and falling you knew she was trying to hide something. Frost was about as different from Seras as you could get while still being the same species. She was quiet where Seras was loud. She hated just about everyone around her where Seras could actually find things to like and respect in a lot of people. And when it came to doing their jobs there was a single qualitative difference that set them apart, where Seras still felt a numb twinge in her chest when innocent people got hurt, Frost felt nothing. Their work still left the same number of bodies in the end, but people have told Seras that her reactions still showed she had a shred of humanity left deep down. While Frost was more robotic and calculating than Seras, despite being less machine. ¡°It might be time to rethink my earlier offer.¡± Frost said. Seras bit her lip, ¡°look, you¡¯ve made your case clear, but I refuse to sign away my freedom to become some corpo enforcer.¡± She had been receiving many offers from the big players in Biolite and other major corps. They were very generous deals, the kind that came with a luxury suite on a space station, and an arbitrary promise of surviving Ruin¡¯s death. Though Seras didn¡¯t see how. Deep space proved that most of the nearby star systems were lifeless, lacking in even terraforming candidates. As advanced as the stations were they couldn¡¯t live without the planet. Frost on the other hand was considering it. But she was holding off just because she lacked the same rep as Seras and was being offered a worse deal than she was. ¡°What about the other offer?¡± Frost asked. ¡°What the Volta job? We told them to shove it.¡± ¡°I think you¡¯re all being to narrow minded¡± Frost growled, ¡°they¡¯re practically on their hands and knees right now. We can press them for better terms. They want this job done, and their own people won¡¯t cut it. Imagine what we could demand out of them?¡± Seras crinkled her nose, that job sounded as rotten as an instameal restaurant. For the first time in a long time she thought of Cash and how much he loved those rancid ¡®meat-dogs¡¯ which included neither meat, synth-meat, or plant-sludge treated to taste edible. It had all the nutritional value of concrete mix, except concrete mix would be healthier than ¡®meat-dogs¡¯. She had told him all of that and still he ate them anyway. Kind of like her and Frost. But who was the poison Seras couldn¡¯t tell, the hardened killer who had shot her best friend in a moment of panic, or the one who had killed her own parents in cold blood by poisoning their water supply? Or maybe they were both just fucked up enough to deserve one another. Frost saw Seras digging her heels in on the matter and changed track, ¡°you¡¯re always talking about your legacy, your legend. But everything you¡¯ve done until now has been loose change to these corpo bastards, this would be different.¡± Seras glared sidelong at Frost, ¡°how stupid do you think I am? The crew¡¯s made our choice.¡± ¡°And if you would talk to them they¡¯d reconsider.¡± Frost countered. She glanced to the side in a rare display of emotion, ¡°they don¡¯t trust me, not on this. They think I¡¯ll set them up,¡± She admitted. ¡°Fuck, still? After everything we¡¯ve been through together?¡± She shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t blame them, I¡¯ve cut out other crews before.¡± ¡°But not us.¡± Seras insisted. ¡°It is what it is. We¡¯re Mercs, sin and misery.¡± She deflected. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. Seras smirked at the quote, it was one of her favorites, ¡°look this job is sketchy as hell. But I do trust you. Do you think there are guarantees we can make to subvert any double crosses?¡± ¡°There¡¯s always something, but nothing¡¯s guaranteed.¡± Seras sat back on the bed and started to shake her leg in agitation. ¡°Let me think on it.¡± She leaned over the bed and draped herself over Seras¡¯ shoulders, ¡°that¡¯s all I can ask.¡± Seras leaned back and tried to kiss Frost, but in that impulsive reaction she had forgotten about the face mask that had replaced Frost¡¯ lower face. She had no mouth for Seras to kiss, and try as she might that sometimes got to her. Like there was one last barrier between them. Oh well Seras wasn¡¯t one to judge someone for their personal choice in cyberware, even if that choice made it impossible to kiss your partner. ~~~*~~~ Seras was on the edge of the plateau staring over the sprawling mass of the Toruach herds. That was where Lindascarn found her. ¡°There you are.¡± The Leonid said with a false cheeriness. Seras glanced back and looked out over the edge again, ¡°I¡¯ve been doing some thinking Linda.¡± ¡°Dangerous habit.¡± ¡°Only to the stupid. They tend to convince themselves of all sorts of stupid shit, like being intelligent.¡± Linda laughed, ¡°cynical, but true.¡± ¡°I think I¡¯ve just about got things in order. The Elf¡¯s got a huge crush on Leyley. Leyley knows but doesn¡¯t want to change things or something, so she sleeps around to try and send a message to Liz. And Athena and I got caught up in all that shit last night.¡± Linda stepped up next to her and sat down as well, ¡°more or less.¡± Seras glanced back, ¡°you knew all this and knew what would have happened if you invited me out. Why?¡± Linda looked abashed, ¡°well, if you¡¯ll recall I thought you and the tall girl were a thing.¡± ¡°But we weren¡¯t, aren¡¯t.¡± ¡°Yeah well, I got word too late, and Leyley saw an opportunity.¡± ¡°I still don¡¯t get it.¡± Linda sighed, ¡°do you know how hard it is to manage a team and keep things from becoming anarchy. I¡¯m not the best leader around, but I¡¯m also the only option. Kent¡¯s too passive, Liz is stuck up, and Leyley jumps on any pretty girl she can find except the one head over heels for her because she¡¯s afraid of real intimacy. You and the tall healer girl had a good chemistry and I thought it wouldn¡¯t hurt to trial the two of you. But your healer doesn¡¯t actually like healing, and you¡¯re not actually off the market.¡± ¡°Her abilities hurt her. You saw her missing arm from the night before? That was her taking on one of my injures, and she lost the whole arm in the chaos.¡± ¡°No, no, I get why, but from the stories you told¡­ Mistakes were made.¡± ¡°Yup,¡± Seras agreed. Linda sighed, ¡°now for the hard part. I need to ask you to stay away from my team.¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t do anything wrong,¡± Seras pointed out. ¡°Which is why its hard.¡± Seras sniffed, ¡°yeah, fine. I don¡¯t need the drama.¡± ¡°Thanks, and tell you healer friend we appreciate her patience with Liz.¡± Seras snorted, ¡°trust me, patience is the wrong word for it.¡± Linda patted her on the shoulder, ¡°thank her all the same.¡± Seras sighed and stood up, she extended a hand to the young Leonid woman. ¡°It¡¯s been good meeting you Lindascarn.¡± ¡°Ah, don¡¯t say the full name, it makes me sound old.¡± Seras laughed and they shook hands before walking off. She wandered off into the camp trying to organize her thoughts. This whole thing felt like one chaotic distraction. One Seras had felt like she needed after everything that had happened in the Labyrinth, but now she was kicking herself over it. She put a hand to her chest and felt the pain that was always there. It hurt, it hurt so bad that most days she struggled to distract herself from it. She needed to find a cure. She resolved to begin actively searching for solutions and knowledge. She had been¡­ well not distracted, but unable to pursue the knowledge she would need. But now she had a magic society membership, and assuming all went well she would also have an adventure society membership. Not to mention the loot she could sell and the spirit coins she acquired. And then there was the book on Magitech. Seras had been reading it nonstop since she got it, and she was beginning to feel some confidence in making use of her first essence ability. If things went how she expected then it might go from her most useless to her most essential. Maybe. And then there was her other useless ability. [Spark of Madness]. Right now it was just taking up an essence ability slot and doing jack all for her. She would need every tool in her arsenal to fix her problem. Seras wasn¡¯t really paying attention to where she was going, just walking to help her think. She looked into one tent as her thoughts wandered, and stopped in her tracks immediately. She quirked an eyebrow at what she saw, a young warrior was shirtless and was receiving a tattoo from an old woman. The tattoo was all swirling colors and lines in a greater design of some bird spanning the man¡¯s back. Looking at it felt like a violation of privacy, like an intimate gesture that she couldn¡¯t understand. A group of other young Akemi warriors stood around the young man receiving the tattoo, they were all watching with rapt attention and quiet reverence. Obviously some deeply personal ritual was going on with the tattoo, one that was intentionally left open to the public but unseen by the man himself. That was all one thing, and maybe Seras would have considered sticking around if only to sate her curiosity, or maybe she would have decided that this wasn¡¯t for her to see and move on. But her feet were rooted firmly in place and her attention was focused not on the man getting a tattoo, but the tattooist herself. She was an old woman, or so her aura said, because her actual skin and facial features showed a woman into her thirties at most. She wore her long black hair up, and had several vermillion feathers hanging from it. She wore clothes similar to the make of the Akemi, but with an older, more ancient feel to their style. Seras recognized this woman, though it felt like a year had passed since she had met the old woman in the Wolfram valley. It was the same woman from the small skill book shop, the one that had gotten Seras¡¯ understanding of ritual magic kickstarted for the price of a story. Skill books could provide rudimentary knowledge and experience in a variety of subjects, and though most considered them inferior to actual study and practice, it was a good way to get a head start on those skills. Like with body builders, protein powders were a great supplement for muscle growth, but without the actual workout or proper form the supplement was just going to waste. The issue was that the last time Seras had seen her was some five hundred kilometers away from her. She stood and waited for the woman to finish her work. When the last ribbon-like line of black ink was added to the outstretched bird Seras was filled with a sense of soaring freedom built upon the ideas of ancient traditions. A bizarre thought to have when looking at a tribal tattoo, but she wasn¡¯t going to ignore it. Magic was at work there. The warrior stood up and turned around to look at his back in a mirror inside the open tent. He looked at the tattoo and a little tear came to his eyes; he turned back to the crowd and made a fist and screamed into the air. The crowd broke into cheers and clapping and the warrior was quickly herded away by the group, the tattooist completely forgotten. Seras stepped forward, ¡°Matron,¡± she greeted. The old woman turned to face and gave Seras a slight smile, ¡°ah the child from the ruined world. You¡¯ve come far.¡± ¡°As have you,¡± Seras commented. The woman smiled mysteriously, ¡°child, you have been in this world for long enough to know some of our great wonders.¡± She frowned, ¡°portal magic?¡± ¡°Among other tricks,¡± the Matron said with a mysterious smile. Seras grunted, she glanced around the tent and gestured toward the retreating group, ¡°what was that about?¡± The woman watched with slight amusement, ¡°an ancient sort of ritual. Dating to well before when the temple of Knowledge began recording history in raw hide scrolls. In those days it was all poetry and song. Not so much anymore, most of the new priests couldn¡¯t hold a tune to save their lives.¡± ¡°You speak like you were there.¡± She smiled mysteriously, ¡°memory and records still abide, especially in ancient tribes like those of the Deserts.¡± That explained it. The woman was talking about a time in history before any written traditions. While a Silver ranker could grow fairly old she couldn¡¯t have been that old. Only the Gods were that old, and maybe diamond rankers if they were truly immortal. ¡°And the ritual?¡± ¡°A soul crest.¡± The woman said as she began to wrap up her tools. ¡°Many places around the world have such magic, but in those places they are bought with money and privilege. Here in the tribes they are earned the hard way, like all things.¡± ¡°And what is a soul crest?¡± ¡°Hmm, hard to explain exactly. In a sense it is a drawn representation of a person¡¯s soul. There are magics to draw it out, and there are slight variations in the artist¡¯s attempts, but each one is unique and cannot be altered.¡± ¡°I see, but what¡¯s the point?¡± If it was so tricky then why waste time on it. She could see why a bunch of rich brats would want a special magic tattoo, but for a practical people like the Akemi it seemed frivolous. ¡°That¡¯s even harder to explain. For some in the world it is simply a mark of status, a vain attempt at glory. For those people it reveals the truth and they grow upset at what the crest reveals. But its in the revelation that the crest holds power. It is a way for one to see the shape of their soul and come to terms with what¡¯s there. Some believe that soul crests are an essential step in every iron ranker¡¯s journey to gold or diamond. But I won¡¯t explain why.¡± ¡°Do you have one then?¡± ¡°I do, though it¡¯s a personal intrusion to ask.¡± Seras jerked a thumb back towards the disappearing group, ¡°they saw the whole process.¡± She pointed out. ¡°Yes, that is a thing of tradition. In other parts of the world a master artist will only allow the recipient to see their crest, and then they chose to reveal it to those they trust.¡± ¡°I¡¯d still like to see yours if possible.¡± Seras pressed on rudely. There was something off about this old woman, and she wanted answers. The matron snapped her fingers and the tent closed on it own. They became shrouded in complete darkness until a faint multicolored light appeared above them. Seras looked up and saw a bird sitting in the eaves of the tent, though bird was a bit lacking for something so resplendent. It had the look of the ¡®hawk¡¯ birds Seras had seen over the desert, but unlike normal hawks this one had an ethereal translucent body. Like a spirit¡¯s form, and within its spectral form was the colors of an aurora faintly glowing within, changing and moving slowly. Seras turned back to the woman and saw that she had already removed her shirt to reveal the ink upon her back. Eight faces were there, one was angry, one happy, another sad, one scared, one mischievous, one cold and imperious, one defiant, and the final one was in the center and completely blank. Then her shirt was back on, the aurora phoenix faded away, and the tent opened back up as if nothing happened. Seras blinked her eyes at the rapid turnabout. It had taken less than a heart beat or two, and her mind was still in shock at it all. ¡°Have you satisfied your curiosity?¡± the Matron asked sweetly. ¡°No.¡± Seras admitted. She laughed, ¡°good, at least your honest.¡± She stood up straighter and gestured back towards a little table set up in the corner. ¡°Won¡¯t you sit with me and tell me another story, child of the ruined world?¡± ¡°Would I get another free skill book?¡± Seras asked. ¡°No, you only get one. But I will offer you a story of my own in trade. An ancient one, but one still told by our people. A foundational tale.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°one of your star stories, I mean like the stories about your constellations.¡± ¡°I see the young Akemi has been sharing some with you. Tell me, did he tell of the silver hand?¡± Seras vaguely recalled it. It was a collection of stars that might look like a single hand, it would slowly flip around from the perspective of Pallimustus depending on the season. ¡°Vaguely, something about a man hunting, but failing to catch his quarry, he falls into despair after failing, but he gets up and tries again. He always fails to hunt his beast, but he always gets back up, endlessly.¡± She nodded ¡°that is the modern interpretation of the original, but I happen to have the full story, as close to the original as we can get.¡± Seras shrugged as she sat down, ¡°well, maybe, why¡¯s it important?¡± The old woman smiled as she sat down, ¡°I¡¯ve been thinking long and hard about your story, of how your world was ruined. It remined me of this one.¡± Seras blinked and was intrigued, ¡°well then, be my guest.¡± The woman held up a hand, ¡°but first your story, what have you done since we last met.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°why not. It all started when I saw a fire on the horizon-,¡± Ch73 The Man from Vestal ¡°You see, long ago there was a young girl who had just finished earning her last awakening stone. She had felled a terrible bronze rank beast that was hunting the small children of the tribe. Her power manifested as a familiar summoning ritual, and her people rejoiced. They drew the lines, added the reagents, and readied the ritual according to the ancient ways. But a rival of the girl was jealous of her achievements, and so she sabotaged the ritual. One changed little line, and the fates of two people were forever changed. ¡°The ritual activated under the light of the moons, a hush fell over the tribe, and then things went wrong. Radiant three-colored light blinded all those present, and the wild mana caused many monsters to appear in the camp, causing chaos. But in the space where the ritual was to take place a creature of ashen skin and glowing red lines of power stood and loomed over her. The thing stood on two legs like a man, but he was not something she had ever seen before, because this creature summoned from the astral had two metallic silver arms. It reached out to her and she accepted the silver hand into her own and proclaimed him her familiar. ¡°Of course, no bond truly formed, as she had failed to summon a familiar and instead had stolen a soul away from his home world of Vestal. He was one of the first World-Walkers the people of the land had ever encountered. Though later they would learn of others who arrived and perished. Still the two entwined their fates together that day and would remain eternal friends. ¡°The people of the land debated long and hard over what had occurred, no outsider like him had ever been allowed into the tribe before. But the girl, still mistaken as to what happened, insisted that he must stay since he was her familiar. He was allowed to stay, but the elders demanded he would have to prove himself in the ways of their people. Fortunately, the man came to them with his essences already, and even had many abilities already unlocked. But they were strange to them, essences of another world, foreign to any found on this one. He did strange things with metal and magic, blending them together. Even stranger was his original species, he was of the Smoulder people, but a type that do not appear here. He claimed to be a ¡®slag Smoulder¡¯, and that his world had types like ash, smog, and steam. ¡°His was a strange world to the people of the land. All towering metal buildings, clouds of ash and smog, and of greed incarnate. He told of how they had smothered nature with ash and fire, and how the great disturbance had led to a draining of their world¡¯s natural magics. For his people it became harder and harder to reach Gold, and diamond was fading away into the realm of legend as their own diamond rankers left for more magical worlds in the astral. ¡°The man was strange to them, but he and the girl worked hard together. They became close, but never lovers. She helped him learn their ways, and he told them of how nature on his world had died. Many elders eventually listened to his stories and looked to the cities and civilizations just developing around the world and began to talk about the consequences of that path. His stories are a large part of why the people of the land eventually became the stewards of the land and nature, protecting it all as sacred. ¡°Eventually they proved themselves to the tribe, and they gained the strength necessary to begin wandering the deserts on their own. Wherever they went trouble seemed to follow. But with each tribulation and battle they pushed themselves further along. In time they learned that others like the man existed, but these outsiders were not treated kindly, either left to die on their own, or used as slave labor. The man took offense to both kinds of treatment and made a mission of changing things. ¡°He found others like him, none of his world, and offered them the help he was offered. He showed them the path forward and molded these lost souls into future heroes that we still know even now. Ukulane, the pass holder. Idena the slayer. And even Lithwen, who become one of the God Hero¡¯s sacred martyrs. He taught them how to better survive this world and to walk the path of the righteous, and for this the World Walkers would go from discriminated outsiders, to lost souls in need of help. ¡°The man showed the girl, his friend, the injustice of holding men and women against their will and changed her mind on slavery. As he fought for the World Walkers, she began to pursue a path of emancipation, so much so that she earned a place of respect in the temple of both Liberty and Dominion. One for the freedom she fostered, and the other for the power and authority she took hold of to ban such things. Her actions then are why the honorable people of the lands hold no sort of bondage or indenture like other places in the world. ¡°I could tell dozens upon dozens of stories. But then we would be here all night. Eventually the two, through much struggle and conflict would rise to the rank of Diamond. They were among the first of the people of the land to do so. They shepherded the people of the land with their powers and learned not to be king and queen over the people, but honored respected elders, guiding by way of example and mercy. In their time at the pinnacle they fought off great threats to peace with their peers, and even against more aggressive diamond rankers who thought to rule all. ¡°In time though the man¡¯s homesickness grew too great, and he began the pursuit of astral travel and knowledge. He learned how and began to explore the infinity of the cosmos in search of a single world in one of infinite realities. With great effort and time he found his home and returned to it. He used his power to slowly change things and undo the magical disasters that had depleted his world of its magic. But little did he know that his actions would have wider spanning consequences. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°There was a war on his world, fought between those who wished to carve up their broken home and remake a utopia, and those who saw the death and destruction of such a thing and fought to stop it. The man sided with those of the will to preserve, and called many of his allies in to help. Thus Ronnac fought the greatest war of his life, the one that would leave him shattered.¡± ¡°BUllSHIT!¡± The Matron stopped staring into the middle distance and focused her gaze on Seras. ¡°Excuse me?¡± ¡°You heard me, you can¡¯t be, he can¡¯t, you¡¯re talking about Ronnac!¡± Seras exclaimed. ¡°Indeed I am. That was his name, so great was it that it has remained unchanged over so many years, even on your world I presume.¡± Seras was shaking her head hard, ¡°you can¡¯t be¡­ he can¡¯t be the same. I grew up on his legends. What your saying would imply my world has magic, which it does not.¡± ¡°And you know this for a fact. It couldn¡¯t have once held magic, but now no more?¡± she questioned. ¡°Yes I do, and furthermore¡­¡± Seras trailed off as a memory resurfaced. ¡°No, you are the only one from your world right now. But you¡¯re not the first outworlder to get shunted from your world. Though the last one was a long time ago, back when you still called your world Vestal.¡± ¡°Yes, your world had gods just like Pallimustus.¡± Knowledge had hinted at somethings before, but she never said it outright. But¡­ Gods needed magic, her world had Gods, but now none. Therefore it should have had magic before. But that didn¡¯t mean the rest of the story was true. The old woman could have invented it for some reason. But then¡­ how would she know about Ronnac? Seras was sure she hadn¡¯t ever mentioned it around the old lady, she had just told her about the great war of the Gods, leaving behind and ruined world afterwards. She thought of the carved gorge she had once walked through, the product of a Diamond ranker¡¯s battle. That kind of power could explain a few things on her world. One more fact jumped out at her, the old lady had called the world Vestal, just like Knowledge had. Vestal, Vestal, just like the ancient dead language all other languages on ruin had evolved from. Just like the¡­ ¡°the astral space.¡± Seras muttered. The old woman looked up, ¡°hmm?¡± ¡°When I entered this world, I didn¡¯t emerge directly into the actual world but in an astral space deep in the Labyrinth. It had this whole abandoned ancient city in it, I was on this temple thing, and within it had a room labeled ¡®Vestal adventurer society branch¡¯ and my GPS labeled the astral space as the Vestral Gateway Astral space. Where does that factor into your story?¡± The woman frowned, ¡°I, I do not know. The stories told do not include such things. And for you to appear there instead of in the main reality of our universe. Tell me, what was the state of things in this astral space.¡± ¡°A mess, there were monsters roaming about, and some buildings were in shambles. I even found dead adventures.¡± ¡°What was the status of these dead adventurers?¡± ¡°Very dead.¡± The matron gave her a flat look and Seras elaborated ¡°almost nothing of their flesh remained, just bones. And I found a death essence in the armor of one.¡± Actually, Seras still had the armor, she summoned it from her pocket space and handed it over. The woman took it and looked it over. ¡°This, hmm, I know the material and style. This is only some three hundred years old. It was made in Karstess like this for a long time, it was one of the few metals they could refine at the time.¡± ¡°So then it¡¯s not ancient, ancient? Like Vestal ancient? How¡¯d they even get there?¡± ¡°No its not, and adventures do wander into strange places all the time.¡± Seras leaned back, her earlier denial had faded away completely as she convinced herself of the truth of the story. The old woman seemed to see this in Seras eyes and prompted her next question, ¡°do you wish to hear how it ends?¡± Seras laughed, ¡°I know how it ends, I lived it. Ronnac fails, the gods die, magic¡¯s gone, and the people that remain learn nothing. They continue to ruin what¡¯s left of their world until a fail state is reached. In this generation or the next life on Ruin will end.¡± The old lady sighed, ¡°yes, he did fail, it is said that the failure nearly broke him. Made him wish for death. But the reason the tale of Ronnac is still told is the same reason we attribute the Silver Hand constellation to him. First it rises, then it stands tall, then it pushes back the weight of the sky, and then it falls again. Ronnac did not die, instead he rose and trained and began again. The lesson is that the truest failures are both to not try, and to not try again.¡± Seras let out a long sigh before standing up again, ¡°I need to go and¡­ process this. Goodbye.¡± Seras turned to walk away before stopping in her tracks, ¡°what¡¯s your name by the way?¡± ¡°Novidara,¡± she replied. Seras nodded, ¡°thanks for that. I don¡¯t know what I¡¯ll do with the knowledge, but thank you.¡± ~~~*~~~ Novidara watched the troubled young outworlder go. She fiddled with her staff and let out long sigh. she was glad the girl ended up believing her story, she had a rough path ahead of her, much like Ronnac¡¯s own path. So many heart breaks and tribulations glossed over. Her last words though disturbed Novidara. She had lied only twice to young Seras so far, a record for a liar like her. Then again, the best liars were the ones who lied only once, but enough to change a person¡¯s fate. The greatest liar of them all was a Goddess who didn¡¯t lies at all. The Vestal gateway was opened again, troubling. Ronnac was supposed to have closed that one for good. No wandering souls should have penetrated it, and no adventurers should entered. It should have been bare to even monsters. Novidara also pondered the twisted golems Seras had told her and the others about that first day. That was the second lie, from their first meeting in the valley, the girl had asserted that she was a silver ranker, and she had gone with it. Novidara was much, much more than a nosey silver ranker. Though she was still nosey. Even couldn¡¯t tell such a bald-faced lie to deny that fact. Something had changed; the Vestal gateway would not have opened unless something had gone wrong in the astral membrane. And with these golems Novidara had a likely suspect. That did not bode well for them at all, something had to be done, but discreetly. The enemy was an ancient and canny foe and had made subverting disgruntled fringe folk into an art. They would already be deeply embedded everywhere if they were at this stage. Some small warnings would do the most good right now. No expeditions into all known astral spaces, not yet at least. Do that and they might go to ground to prepare for the real trouble to start, best let them slowly poke their heads up and receive her waiting blows. Novidara prodded her other selves to begin their work. The body in the bookshop jerked mid-sentence with a potential customer. The old story teller around a campfire in the Nara tribe paused in her retelling of the cavern breaker, before deciding to stop her story and instead speak of Ronnac. The old clerk in the employ of the Smoulder king in their volcanic kingdom paused in her reports and began drafting a new one of potential threats. And the dour Matron with the Akemi tribe elders paused in her observations and began to speak to the other elders. The people of the land would be ready for the enemy, Pallimustus would not go the way of Vestal. Never again. Ch74 Not this time A loud two toned whiny broke Seras out of her own brooding. It had been a week since she had spoken with Novidara and she had been trying really hard to distract herself. Hunts with the tribe outriders, studying the Magitech book, and even sketching out ideas for her first attempt at blending formation and technology. But nothing really worked. But that familiar call drew her out of her head, she turned just in time to see a massive Heidel charging her. She had plenty of time to dodge away, but instead she chose to set her stance low and take the impact head on. The Heidel hit her with a solid thud, and Seras slid back through the dirt a few dozen centimeters, but her stance did not break and she completely stopped the Heidels momentum. ¡°Buck you bastard!¡± Seras cursed, though there was no hiding her grin. Her Heidel in response leaned over and bit her ear, not gently, but not maliciously either. One of Buck¡¯s heads turned and saw something neither Seras nor the other head saw, because the Heidel backed away quickly. That was when the second bulky figure smacked into Seras. She and the furred figure went head over heels, and somehow through the scramble in the dirt the Leonid lifted her over her head and made a triumphant roar, like a hunter with a kill. ¡°Haha, I knew you were too stubborn to die!¡± Petra roared. ¡°Put me down you overgrown furball!¡± Seras yelped. Petra set her down but made sure that Seras was right before the trio of Flint, Dustin, and Rohan. The latter of which was looking around wistfully, these were his people after all. ¡°Have a fun adventure?¡± Dustin asked with a wry smile. ¡°You don¡¯t know the half of it,¡± Seras retorted. ¡°Knowing you its probably full of graphic violence and is deeply depressing.¡± Flint was still his standoffish self, but she was pretty sure the relieved look in his eyes wasn¡¯t her imagination. He noticed Seras smiling at him and forced his face into a scowl, ¡°did you at least gain some good powers from those new stones of yours?¡± Petra grabbed Seras by the shoulder and shook her a bit, ¡°yeah, spill it. Anything good, or are they more useless technology powers?¡± Seras smirked smugly, ¡°they¡¯re only so-so. Just a looting power and Teleportation.¡± The outcry of ¡®unfair¡¯ from everyone had Seras laughing so hard she was clutching at her sides and bent over at the waist. When she finally composed herself she noticed Athena on the outskirts of the cluster. Things between them had cooled off over the week, they were comfortable around each other still, but there was a weariness to it. Seras waved her over, ¡°come on over, quit skulking.¡± ¡°I was giving you space for-,¡± ¡°-none of that now, come on,¡± Seras interjected. They all turned to regard the tall woman, still wearing the strange green and silver robes of the Akemi healer priests. Dustin squinted at her, ¡°you¡¯re the girl she jumped in after.¡± Dustin was good with faces and probably remembered Athena even though he had only seen her briefly during a chaotic night battle. Athena shuffled on her feet, ¡°yes, um, I¡¯m sorry Seras had to jump in after me, you probably wouldn¡¯t have been so worried if she had just left me.¡± Rohan seemed to notice the robes she was wearing, ¡°are you a healer?¡± ¡°Of sorts,¡± she hedged. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Seras put a hand on her shoulder, ¡°her powers work more on a karmic level of transferring ailments to herself. They are potent self-sacrificial powers that saved my ass way too many times. She even lost an arm for me.¡± They all stared down at her two fully functional arms. ¡°I got better.¡± Dustin met her eyes, ¡°they were that effective?¡± he asked. What he left unsaid was that he was amazed they worked on her. Seras didn¡¯t have flesh to heal, at least not any that was easy to heal. She nodded. Dustin smiled and reached out a hand, ¡°well then it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you miss¡­¡± ¡°Just Athena.¡± She insisted as she took his hand. Neither Dustin nor Flint missed Athena¡¯s aversion to giving her family name, but neither commented at this moment. Seras glanced around curiously, ¡°hey where¡¯s the rest?¡± ¡°Had to leave the normal rankers behind, the trail here was really dangerous,¡± Petra answered. Dustin nodded, ¡°the Toruach are blocking the easy routes here, so we had to go up and over the Heidel-back mountains. Dangerous country, we were in a group of bronze rank adventurers and we still had a couple of close calls. Its what held us up.¡± ¡°And why they wouldn¡¯t let us leave on our own,¡± Seras finished. She glanced to her friends to make sure they were all okay. Dustin and Flint were the same as ever, though Dusitn¡¯s Heidel Jesse had a burn on her side. Rohan had bags under his eyes and looked very tired, and Petra¡­ ¡°Wait, did you rank up?¡± Petra grinned and stepped back to better present herself, ¡°what, can¡¯t you tell by how handsome I got?¡± Handsome was the right word there. Male and female Leonid¡¯s had a pronounced sexual dimorphism, with the males towering over the females by a good margin. Rank ups typically had a beautifying effect on, but not always. Some people became uglier, a reflection of their inner self. Petra however became more masculine, but in a way that still made it clear she was female. She was bigger, both in height and build, she had lost the slight bit of feminine sleekness she had before and became more like bulked up body builder. And something about her face had changed to look rougher. A thought struck Seras, ¡°you¡¯re not, like, going to slowly become a guy with each rank up, are you? Is that even possible?¡± Flint scowled at her, ¡°rank ups reflect the soul, why do you sound surprised.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°because I didn¡¯t expect you to have that here, back home it took some serious conversions to let a person do that. Costs a fortune. But you guys can just magic your way past that problem.¡± ¡°Essences ain¡¯t cheap. Nor are monster cores.¡± Flint grumbled. ¡°Fair enough.¡± ¡°Besides,¡± Petra interjected, ¡°that¡¯s not what¡¯s going on with me.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°just wondering.¡± Petra rolled her eyes, ¡°I¡¯m a lady, I just define it differently. I¡¯m not some demure little thing that gets shorter with every rank up.¡± ¡°You don¡¯t need to tell me twice, when you were wrangling me I got a whiff of your pits, stench like that needs crystal wash at the minimum.¡± Petra lifted an arm to check for her self. Tellingly everyone backed up a step when she did so. ¡°Not wrong. Is there a creek around I could run through?¡± Rohan scowled, ¡°this is an Akemi camp, and we¡¯re not backwards savages. There should be a proper bath tent around here somewhere.¡± ¡°That¡¯s less fun,¡± Petra grumbled. Dustin turned to Seras, ¡°which bunk tent are your two in, we might see if there¡¯s available space for some of us in there.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°uh, we didn¡¯t get put in a bunk tent, they gave us a private smaller tent. Rohan, Dustin, and Flint, all turned towards Seras and Athena, giving them an askance look. ¡°What?¡± Seras asked. Rohan looked between her and Athena before blushing, ¡°nothing, we just didn¡¯t know you two were that close already.¡± Seras was confused for a moment, until she remembered that the other tents around them were also smaller tents with only two occupants. Most of whom seemed to be intimately involved with each other, ¡°we¡¯re in the love tent, aren¡¯t we?¡± Rohan nodded. Seras pinched the bridge of her nose, ¡°that explains so much.¡± ¡°Like the sound proofing.¡± Athena commented. ¡°Or the mood lighting.¡± ¡°Did you two really not realize where you were?¡± Dustin asked, a wry smile on his lips. Seras glared, ¡°no, and we¡¯re not a couple. We¡¯ve barely known each other a few weeks now,¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t stop you,¡± Athena muttered. ¡°I said sorry.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t change anything.¡± They scowled at each other. Seras glanced back to her friends, ¡°its this whole thing, tell you later.¡± Flinted huffed out a loud sigh, ¡°I see you still find trouble wherever you go.¡± ¡°Like I said, it finds me.¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t stop you from being bait for it though.¡± ¡°Touch¨¦¡± Dustin laughed, ¡°alright, enough gabbing, I need to report into the tribe elders and get us lodging. You all can just explore the camp for today, we¡¯ll join up with the next group going back over the mountains. Save all the important talk for until I¡¯m back.¡± At that a warm maw bit her ear and Seras yelped. She turned and glared at the Heidel who had been patiently waiting for her to finish reconnecting with her friends, but now that it was all wrapped up he was anxiously shifting around. Animal auras weren¡¯t usually as defined or easy to read as people¡¯s but Seras could feel the pent-up energy and excitement of the beast. ¡°Has¡­ has anyone taken him out since I¡¯ve been gone?¡± Seras asked. Petra scoffed, ¡°like who. You¡¯re the only one who seems to enjoy getting bucked out of the saddle.¡± ¡°And there wasn¡¯t space on the mountain trails for that kind of thing,¡± Rohan added. Seras nodded, ¡°want to ride and talk then?¡± she asked. Rohan rubbed at his backside, ¡°if its all the same I¡¯d like to rest for a time, maybe I¡¯ll find my parents.¡± ¡°I¡¯ll come,¡± Petra said boisterously. Athena glanced at her robes and shrugged, ¡°I don¡¯t think the healers need me that badly.¡± Seras grinned, ¡°alright, just us two ladies, and Petra.¡± Petra shoved Seras. And she laughed. Slowly a little knot in her chest unwound, one she hadn¡¯t noticed until it loosened. Athena was fine, Seras could scarcely recall ever opening up so quickly to a person in her life. Even with Cash and Frost there was a sense of distance. But there were still some uncomfortable points of tension between them, things that felt too real. Things were different with Dustin¡¯s crew, with them there wasn¡¯t any of that. She could just laugh and bullshit her way through the day with them. It almost remined her of a different crew, her old crew. But she wouldn¡¯t let things end the same way, not this time. Ch75 No point arguing Mantle, less than three months before the Volta job. Grunt. Clink. Clank. Grunt. Clink. Clank. Seras watched with bored amusement as the heavy metal plating rose, and then slowly went down. ¡°I still don¡¯t see the point of this Heavy, you¡¯ve already swapped out your arms.¡± The man kept lifting the bar, his face filling with strain. ¡°Aint, huh, aint about the arms. Its about all the muscles I got left.¡± He said with a deep grunt. Seras watched with idle horror as the few remaining organic parts of Heavy¡¯s flesh twitched and spasmed. ¡°Then just replace them.¡± He let the bar down and slowly sat up, ¡°not all of us hate our meat like you do.¡± ¡°Its not hate, its just that steel and wire will always out preform that gooey mess of poorly optimized meat. How often do you have to do this just to keep up?¡± ¡°Twice a day,¡± he admitted. ¡°And there¡¯s the crux of it, hours wasted everyday, just to prevent your body from thinking you¡¯ve got too much muscle and starts eating your gains.¡± He frowned, ¡°I never went to school Blackiron, but I¡¯m pretty sure that¡¯s not how it works.¡± ¡°I may have exaggerated some of that, but the core still remains. Our bodies are hardwired to shed excess muscle when its not being worked on constantly. Machines don¡¯t do that, they keep their peak strength all the time. And they¡¯re far more efficient than meat.¡± For emphasis she leaned over the bench and lifted the enormous weight he had been struggling with. It wasn¡¯t a fair comparison since the bench press was designed for targeted workouts and Seras was using all her strength, legs, core, back, and arms. But it still got the point across. ¡°Point made Blackiron,¡± he grunted as he began to towel off. It was an interesting process since only some of his body was covered in sweat while others were completely dry. ¡°Look, even if I wanted to go for the full conversion I don¡¯t have the chits to make it happen. You and I both know full conversions are a whole different beast.¡± Oh, Seras knew. Letting people slowly work their way up to a full conversion by slotting in new gear piece by piece wasn¡¯t as profitable as making the individual augs incompatible with each other. If you wanted a full conversion you needed to buy it as one ultra pricey set. A proper full conversion was nearly 250% more expensive than buying all the individual cyberware. But damn was it worth it. ¡°I¡¯ve been talking with Frost-,¡± ¡°-Bad idea,¡± he interrupted. Seras scowled, ¡°she¡¯s our teammate,¡± Seras said pointedly. ¡°Yeah, and she¡¯s good with murder. Slit you¡¯re your throat and watch the life leave your eyes. But beyond wetwork I wouldn¡¯t trust her. That girl aint right Blackiron.¡± ¡°Anyone who makes it this far in merc work is piece of work Heavy. Nothin¡¯ behind us but blood and death.¡± ¡°And nothing ahead but fame and glory. Don¡¯t quote Nightmare to me, I get it. But even for a merc somethings not right with her.¡± ¡°Look, call me an idiot, but I actually trust her.¡± ¡°Okay, you¡¯re an idiot. What does the snake want us to do this time? If its another purge you can tell her to fuck off, the money ain¡¯t worth the nightmares.¡± Seras grimaced, ¡°no, it¡¯s about the Volta job.¡± ¡°We told that chump to fuck off.¡± ¡°And he¡¯s dead. His replacement however still needs this job to happen, and the kind of price they¡¯re willing to pay is appropriately conciliatory.¡± ¡°How appropriate?¡± Seras gestured to herself, ¡°enough for the whole crew to afford something like this.¡± Now he looked interested. Seras¡¯ upgrades had been enough to elevate her to a whole new level, on some level she almost didn¡¯t need the crew anymore. Not that she¡¯d ditch them. ¡°The hell is on that station?¡± He asked after a long moment. Seras shrugged, ¡°been looking into its specs and history. Alfred Moris used every resource at his disposal to make Volta. Something up there has the smartest nerds on the planet frothing at the mouth. They recently finished a new installation to the station, this giant modified particle accelerator. I don¡¯t know why though.¡± The Moris group was the most developed private space program on Ruin. But unlike all the other space agencies out there who are more interested in deep space mining and potential exo-colonies, the Moris group was solely dedicated to their research. Said research had already been successful in producing something as incredible as the Net generators and taking over the whole planet¡¯s internet access. The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings. ¡°This will be it then, the big one?¡± he asked. Seras grinned, of the whole crew only Heavy and she got it. Every one of them were going to die, it didn¡¯t matter how rich they got. Legends were the only real way to become immortal, to live on in hearts and minds until the end of the world. That¡¯s why she had approached him first. ¡°No one¡¯s hit any corpo in their glittery space palaces, this will show them that even sewer rats like us can reach that high.¡± Heavy nodded his head, he put out a fist for Seras to bump, ¡°to glory and fame.¡± She grinned, ¡°glory and fame,¡± she agreed. ~~~*~~~ Biolite artificial muscles have exceeded their parameters, repair time 2 hours and 11 minutes. Seras set down the weight, they thumped to the ground with a solid thud. Seras reached up and rubbed her sore muscles. Sore, as in they felt like they had gone through intense physical exertion and needed to rest. That shouldn¡¯t have been possible, they were artificial, she should have been able to just turn down their sensitivity and be done with it. But she couldn¡¯t, just like in the cave she couldn¡¯t just turn down her skin sensitivity. It reminded her of the time the magic poison of the desert bees bypassed her pain controls. Seras glanced around at her companions, ¡°well, I¡¯m not getting stronger, but somethings changing. The repair time is speeding up, and I have less control over my sense of pain.¡± Athena cocked her head, ¡°so you don¡¯t get stronger from working out, you just break yourself, get better at repairing that damage, and can¡¯t ignore pain. I¡¯m sorry Seras, but I think normal ¡®meat¡¯ has the upper hand on your metal in this case.¡± Petra let out a loud barking laugh, ¡°finally. She¡¯s been so smug about being a superior being. Glad we have one thing she can¡¯t match.¡± Seras scowled, ¡°Petra, those were your dumbbells. Magically denser than they should be. I just matched you rep for rep at Iron rank.¡± Her face fell, ¡°oh yeah. that¡¯s really unfair.¡± Athena grimaced, ¡°its not that unfair. That boost in power comes at a cost, as someone who¡¯s personally experienced it myself I wouldn¡¯t want that power for that price.¡± Petra glanced at Athena. Petra was big for a Leonid woman, and Leonids were usually bigger than humans, even still Athena was only a little shorter than Petra. ¡°You really can just¡­ take her pain?¡± ¡°Yes, it''s not fun. Especially right now.¡± ¡°I told you I didn¡¯t need you to take my pain for just a workout session.¡± In a single instant Seras felt the familiar pain return. It was like putting the very essence of her being in a vise grip while an army of thugs hit it with hammers. Her optics glitched and Seras stumbled. ¡°You were saying?¡± Athena said, some of the color returning to her face. ¡°A warning would have been appreciated. What if I lost control of my essence advancements again.¡± Athena looked away in shame, ¡°oh, sorry.¡± Petra glanced between the two of them, ¡°you two got really close down there huh?¡± Seras put her hands to her head and massaged her temples, though it didn¡¯t help. Dead gods this sucked! It was the day after the Caravan crew had arrived at the Akemi camp. The day before Petra, Athena, and Seras had gone for a long ride. One which predictably ran into trouble, a pack of Ostryx¡¯s. This time however, Seras¡¯ rifle had fared a lot better, both the bullet hardening and the magically infused powder dropped the monsters in one hit. They weren¡¯t the hardiest bronze rank monsters and were classed slightly below some iron ranked monsters in terms of toughness. It was still a mark of progress and a point of pride for Seras and her developing powers. Today they were evaluating her growth. ¡°Your strength hasn¡¯t changed much,¡± Dustin commented from the side, ¡°but that¡¯s to be expected. What¡¯s more impressive is how well your aura is developing.¡± ¡°Its still rough and unrefined,¡± Flint groused. ¡°Yes, but can¡¯t you feel that jump in potency? That¡¯s good growth for someone holding back her essence advancement,¡± Dustin countered. Flint nodded slowly, ¡°its uncanny really. And the other girl too, she¡¯s got the refinement Seras lacks as well as the power.¡± Athena blushed, ¡°I¡¯ve been training with my aura for a while though. Its not that impressive.¡± Flint scowled, ¡°take the compliment girl, I don¡¯t give them out often.¡± Dustin put a hand on Flint¡¯s shoulder, ¡°the girl¡¯s just humble Flint, gods know we could use more of that in our crew.¡± Seras had absolutely no idea who he was talking about, couldn¡¯t be her. ¡°So you¡¯ve accepted my suggestion?¡± Dustin nodded, ¡°I don¡¯t see a reason to exclude her from our group,¡± he glanced at Athena sidelong, ¡°even if she wants to keep her background a secret.¡± Athena wouldn¡¯t meet his eyes. Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°everyone¡¯s got secrets Dust.¡± ¡°Everyone except you,¡± Flint grumbled, ¡°for a supposed merc your far too open.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°they¡¯re not technically secrets, not on my world.¡± Plus she hadn¡¯t ever told them any of the real secrets. Cash, Frost, Heavy, all of them, they were too hard to think about. Only Athena had gotten one of them out of Seras, and she still refused to tell her the whole story. ¡°When do you think we¡¯ll be on our way anyways?¡± she asked to change the subject. ¡°Next group over the mountains leaves dawn tomorrow. So one more day of lazing about here.¡± Athena grimaced, ¡°I¡¯d recommend not looking too lazy. Otherwise you might be put to work.¡± Rohan nodded, ¡°she¡¯s right. No one gets to laze in busy camp like this. My parents have already roped me into chores and craft work.¡± Seras glanced over at him, ¡°how¡¯d meeting your folks go?¡± He shrugged, ¡°it was fine. They still don¡¯t get why I left, and they were disappointed with my essence choice. But they¡¯re still my family.¡± ¡°I¡¯ve been meaning to ask about that, why¡¯d you leave anyways? I¡¯ve seen some of the younger Akemi practicing their archery, and you¡¯re just as good as they are. Shouldn¡¯t you have been a shoe in for a warrior¡¯s essences?¡± He grimaced, ¡°its not that simple. The tribe always says that the essences are for anyone who earns them, but there¡¯s nuance. My parents are leather workers, normal ranked ones, the most I could hope to earn would have been an artisan¡¯s essences, not a warrior¡¯s.¡± ¡°Unspoken caste-ism?¡± Seras guessed. He grimaced, ¡°something like that. Warrior kids have warrior parents, and they¡¯re the ones who earn the bulk of those stones, they¡¯re also the ones who judge kids like me. Its not a complete corruption, but there¡¯s a thumb on the scale. But now that I¡¯ve returned with my own essences my people are claiming pride at how far I¡¯ve come, I¡¯ve been offered a few good awakening stones for my fortune, and they want me to return to join one of their teams.¡± He sighed. ¡°Is that not what you want?¡± He shook his head, ¡°I don¡¯t know, its all messed up in my head. What my people want, what I want. I¡¯ve missed home so much this past year, but I like being with the crew. I feel like I¡¯m being pulled in two directions.¡± Petra glanced around the at assembled people, ¡°well then why not form our own team then?¡± Rohan chuckled, ¡°funny.¡± ¡°Naw, I¡¯m serious. With the four of us we already have a decent composition, I¡¯m a mobile defender, you¡¯re a long-ranged marksmen, Seras can swap between close and mid-range, and Athena¡¯s a healer who can actually heal Seras with her weird Outworlder traits. We¡¯d only really need one front liner, and they¡¯re a pretty easy to find.¡± An awkward silence filled the air around them. It was Athena who broke the silence first, ¡°look, I don¡¯t think I¡¯m a good fit for any team. You haven¡¯t really seen what the full effects of my abilities are, but they aren¡¯t pretty. I¡¯m basically mutilating myself every time I use them.¡± ¡°You used them just now,¡± Petra pointed out. Athena held up a hand and began to tick off points as she spoke, ¡°yes, a pain I was familiar with, knew wouldn¡¯t do irreparable damage, didn¡¯t cause me to bleed, and even still I needed a minute to work myself up to the idea. In a real combat situation I won¡¯t have those luxuries. Plus I don¡¯t get to choose what I take on, and enough damage could either kill me, or make me slow enough to get hit by whatever we¡¯re fighting.¡± she took in a deep breath and slowly let it out, ¡°I¡¯ve had my essences since I was seventeen, and I¡¯ve had a long time to get used to them. So I can say with confidence that time alone won¡¯t let me get used to what I have to do to be an effective teammate. I¡¯d be more liability.¡± Petra nodded her head, ¡°I get it, I wasn¡¯t really considering how you felt.¡± Petra glanced towards where Seras was standing, an implicit question in her brown feline eyes. She sighed, ¡°look Petra, I¡¯m flattered, but with all my own issues I don¡¯t think I could commit either.¡± Athena blinked in surprise, ¡°really? I thought you wanted to be an adventurer?¡± ¡°Getting a certification to access adventurer society resources and forming a team are two different things. I think that once I get back to Cupric my efforts are going to be focused on researching a fix for my soul/body disconnect.¡± It was time to stop wasting time on side ventures and distractions, the pain was getting worse, and more and more of her essence abilities were crawling towards the next stage. She was currently holding back three, and that took a considerable amount of effort on her part. Rohan gestured outwards, ¡°see Petra, I don¡¯t think forming a team out of the caravan crew was ever a real option.¡± Petra deflated like a popped tire, ¡°yeah, I guess so.¡± Seras felt a twinge of pain in her heart for her friend. But that¡¯s just the way things were. No point arguing. Ch76 Returning to Cupric Once more they crested a small hill and got a proper look at the city of rebirth, it was in the late evening and the shadow of the Aerie had begun to stretch across the farmlands and irrigation ditches. Seras stretched her arms upwards, ¡°fucking finally.¡± Buck tossed his heads back in agreement. The journey through the Heidel-back mountains had been a trying and stressful one. The Toruachs had spread out to fill up any easy lowland passes and gorges, which meant the only way through was up and over the ridge of the mountain. Which coincidently was a high-bronze mana zone. You either got giant packs of iron ranked monsters, packs of bronze, or really strong singular bronze ranked monsters. And those were just the guaranteed options, because there was also the rare chance a silver-ranked one would manifest. Which it did. Seras was starting to wonder if she was an actual bad luck charm at this point, it seemed like anything that could go wrong always did around her. The rainbow feathered serpent that had harassed them the whole way down the mountain had been a frustrating thing to fight. All the pride and accomplishment Seras had felt over her current rifle had withered away while fighting that thing. She unloaded dozens of bullets into it, but A; a silver ranked monster¡¯s hide was too tough for most long range shots, B; even when they did penetrate they just got pushed right out, and C; with just the iron ranked magic in the bullet itself the damage it took was healed in moments. The most she could do the whole damn time was shoot for its eyes to try and piss it off while the ten bronze rankers in their group did the real fighting. In the end it was the exhaustion and Dustin¡¯s blazing blood affliction that brought it down. That was the power of silver rank, her guns could kill the weakest of bronze rank monsters, but silver was a whole new level. She doubted any weapon she could make right now would equal that, to reach that level of power she would need to delve deeper into magical integration. They rode down to the city¡¯s eastern gates, a grand extra fortified affair to better resist the monster surges. The walls themselves thrummed with magical power built to lash out against any monster who would try to besiege the city. The crew of Dustin¡¯s caravan naturally began to trot towards their inn, but Seras pulled away. ¡°I¡¯ll meet you guys there, I have business that can¡¯t wait.¡± They glanced to her in curiosity, but a nod from Dustin cut off any questions they wanted to ask, ¡°well stay safe out there, try not to attract to much trouble.¡± Seras chuckled, ¡°I wish I had a say in it.¡± She turned Buck and began to ride away. In her still developing aura senses she felt Athena trot towards her, but stopped when Flint held up a hand towards her. Seras was glad for that, she had a long night ahead of her. She and Buck traveled the empty streets towards the adventurer society complex in Caras district. Even in the falling night the building was still active. Adventurers coming in late to turn in contracts, some sparsely staffed vender stalls, and sleepy looking Adventurer society staff. Seras made her way through the main plaza to the closest receptionist. ¡°Turning in a contract?¡± the Leonid man asked sleepily. ¡°Not quite. I was one of the contracted caravanners on the Omeda raid, director Arlee promised compensation for my work as I¡¯m not currently a society member. I just wanted to leave a message that I¡¯m finally back in town.¡± The Leonid perked up, ¡°oh, oh, you¡¯re her huh.¡± Seras quirked a brow, ¡°I might be, depends on who ¡®her¡¯ is?¡± ¡°The one who fell into the labyrinth and popped up in the middle of the Akemi camp.¡± Not entirely right, but also not worth correcting. ¡°Yup, that¡¯s me, Seras Cross.¡± The Leonid nodded, ¡°the director left instructions with us for you. Something about skipping the test, a bit strange, but not an unprecedented action, especially with you Outworlders. It doesn¡¯t make sense to make you actually experienced fighters take the same test with all the newbies, especially if you¡¯re at a higher rank than iron. I heard a rumor of a test in Karstess that made a silver ranker ride along with iron rankers. Awkward.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°have you had many experienced Outworlders coming through here?¡± The Leonid hummed, which for him was really a low growl, ¡°a few in my time, four in total I think, three of which are dead now, one found his way to Basal.¡± Seras blinked in surprise, ¡°that¡¯s more than I was expecting. I hear about how common Outworlders are in this part of the world, but I¡¯ve not met another yet.¡± He winced, ¡°yeah, you people, that is to say Outworlders, have a high mortality rate. In general, Outworlders come in two varieties, the kind that die quickly, or the kind who thrive. But there¡¯s more of the former than the latter. And those who survive make their way to Basal since it¡¯s one of the big adventure cities for iron and bronze rankers. You¡¯ll find more Outworlders there.¡± ¡°Like that one guy you mentioned.¡± The Leonid nodded, ¡°Yeah, he was a strange one. A fellow Leonid, but he appeared in one of the water pipes that irrigate the farmlands and washed up completely naked and half drowned an irrigation ditch. It was the talk of Cupric when he appeared, he was already bronze rank and joined a team heading north once his hair grew back in. But get this, instead of your normal sandy colored hair he had dark brown fur.¡± ¡°Huh,¡± Seras vocalized. It seemed that while other worlds might have similar races those races came in different phenotypes. ¡°Hate to cut this short, but my night is packed with other meetings, is there anything I need to know though.¡± The Leonid tapped his chin, ¡°no, just be prepared for a short interview. The director, the deputy director and one other. Other than that just try to wear something appropriate.¡± Seras nodded, ¡°sounds good, thank you-,¡± ¡°Dan is fine. Good to meet you miss.¡± Dan then reached out and engulfed her whole hand in his fury one and gave it a single solid pump. Seras waved goodbye and strode out of the adventurer society for her next destination. All of Cupric was arranged around the central Aerie rock where the phoenix nobility of the region lived, that meant everything important here was arrayed in a close circumference of the giant rock. Seras exited the adventure society campus and walked anticlockwise to her next goal for the night. In the quickly cooling desert night the Divine square was a much less inviting place than it would be during the day. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Seras wished she had time to do this some other time, but the ever-increasing pain in her soul was slowly wearing away at her mind. It wasn¡¯t just a constant pain she had to deal with, but an overwhelming one that was slowly wearing away at her mind and patience. The longer it went on the worse she would get. She couldn¡¯t wait on anything anymore. She picked her first temple and began to approach without pause. A bleary-eyed Elvin priest greeted her at the door, looking confused but ready to assist her. ¡°Miss, my lord said you wished to speak with me.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°I thought knowing my thoughts was Knowledge¡¯s domain, how does he know?¡± The white robed priest cleared his throat, ¡°While that¡¯s true, a person in pain walking up to the temple of the Healer can only mean a few things.¡± ¡°Ah, right.¡± Seras gave the healer priest a small smile. ¡°And I guess sensing pain or injury is just something acolytes of Healer can do.¡± He frowned, ¡°Some of us can, but if I might be so bold, its readily apparent that you are in some amount of pain. All the signs are there.¡± He then gestured inwards, ¡°please come in miss and we¡¯ll see if we can sort you out.¡± Seras nodded gratefully and walked into the temple. ¡°What¡¯s ailing you if I might ask, our clergy can heal just about every malady there is.¡± Seras sighed, ¡°unfortunately I have it on good authority that you can¡¯t fix me, not easily at least.¡± The Healer priest frowned, ¡°are you referring to Knowledge herself?¡± ¡°Yup. I tried to visit your temple in Florin, instead a Leonid named Lenny met me and guided me to the Knowledge Temple instead.¡± ¡°And she wasn¡¯t able to cure your condition?¡± Seras paused, ¡°she made¡­ an offer. One that I couldn¡¯t accept. Offered to fix it all by stripping away the parts of myself that are hurting me, all on the condition that I become one of her priests.¡± ¡°Pardon me if this seems rude, but that sounds like a good deal, especially given the pain you appear to be in,¡± the Priest commented. ¡°Maybe to you, but to me it wasn¡¯t even an option. How much do you know about the Outworlder process, specifically in how our bodies are remade?¡± ¡°Quiet a deal actually, it is the prime example for soul based healing and other related topics. In fact, before Outworlders were more widely studied there was a greet deal of debate over how exactly healing magic worked. Your kind provided us with irrefutable proof that the soul remembers the body¡¯s shape.¡± Seras gave him a sidelong look, but chose not to comment on him already knowing about Outworlders. ¡°Right, but the thing about that is that it¡¯s based on self-image and body comfortability. On my homeworld I made changes to myself, fairly drastic ones, they followed me into this world, which would have been great if there wasn¡¯t a small quirk. My body got remade at bronze rank, with bronze rank magic and all that entails. But my soul and magical matrix were only normal rank.¡± The priest gave her a wide-eyed stare, ¡°how is that even possible?¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°I have theories. I¡¯m much tougher than a normal or iron ranker. I think maybe that translated into a bronze rank physicality.¡± The priest was already shaking his head, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but that can¡¯t be right. A normal ranker can be as strong as a bronze ranker without being bronze rank, there is a qualitative difference in the magic between the two. Even with the body reconstruction of Outworlders in play that wouldn¡¯t be possible.¡± Seras opened up a file document and added this into the entry labeled ¡®magic on Ruin?¡¯. ¡°How exactly might not be prescient, what I need now is a solution.¡± The Priest turned to her, ¡°are you request for Lord Healer to offer you the same deal as Knoledge?¡± Seras barked a laugh, ¡°no, not at all. No matter which God I ask it will always rely on me getting my body ripped apart and remade, worse yet it¡¯ll probably need some sort of invasive soul manipulation to work.¡± ¡°Your¡­ not wrong. If I might ask then miss, what do you want from us?¡± They were now before a statue of Healer, simple robes, a kind smile, and knowing eyes. ¡°Throughout this whole conversation you¡¯ve been quoting some rather impressive factoids and other such, can I assume this is all knowledge you have studied from some sort of divine repository?¡± The Elf frowned, ¡°Yes¡­ every church keeps their own stores of relevant knowledge. Case studies, patient info, and pure bio-magical research as well. Our temples¡¯ mission is healing the weak and ill, but our secondary mission is developing medical knowledge and practice. Each generation building upon the last.¡± ¡°You¡¯re God doesn¡¯t just tell you how to fix things?¡± He frowned, ¡°sometimes, but there¡¯s a lot of nuance to it.¡± Seras nodded, ¡°there always is.¡± She gestured backwards to the statue, ¡°I have an Outworlder trait, Net connection, it mimics the information superhighway on my world. Something this world lacks, all I can access are books I¡¯ve stored in my own pocket space, a few commonly disseminated things like the essence list, monster manual, and the farmer¡¯s almanac. To access more I would need divine permission. I was hoping to ask Healer if I might have access to those records you mentioned.¡± The priest stared at her for a long moment, a frown developing on his face, ¡°you wish, for all the medical knowledge our congregation has been putting together for the entire breadth of our existence?¡± Seras grimaced as she realized how arrogant that was. ¡°Yes, I know it¡¯s a big ask, but I need to find a cure. One that works for my needs.¡± The priest glanced to the side just behind Seras, but Seras kept her eyes on the priest. ¡°I can¡¯t stop you from asking miss, your free to pray to Lord Healer and see if he¡¯s in the mood to grant your request.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°like, pray pray?¡± The priest sighed, ¡°yes Miss, if you wish to ask something of the Gods then that is how it¡¯s done.¡± Seras¡¯ head tilted to one side, and then the next. ¡°Huh, I don¡¯t know why, but the idea that actually praying might do something just sounds so bizarre to me. Even though I know you have living Gods on this world. I can¡¯t help but have seconds thoughts about this plan.¡± The priest looked confused, ¡°what do you mean by ¡®living¡¯ Gods. Gods cannot die.¡± Seras shook her head, ¡°no, they just haven¡¯t yet. But on my world they have.¡± That seemed to shock him the most, ¡°that¡¯s, no, that¡¯s not possible.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°if you doubt me then look up the star story of the Silver handed man. He was apparently a real Outworlder from my world. Back when it was called Vestal and not Ruin.¡±¡¯ The priest¡¯s face went pale as he began to sprint for somewhere deeper in the temple. Seras sniggered to herself before turning back to the statue, which wasn¡¯t a statue anymore. The man before her was simple, elegant, but simple. Plain robes, ordinary brown hair with warm amber eyes, and a modestly handsome face. The only thing off about him was the ungodly aura around him exuding displeasure. Or rather, godly in this case. ¡°I would appreciate you not giving my followers crises of faith,¡± the God said. Seras scratched the back of her head, ¡°yeah, that wasn¡¯t my intention when coming in here, it just appears to be something that happens around me.¡± He sighed, ¡°you are living proof that much of what our followers hold as immutable is more fragile than it seems. It matters not, Charels is a good man, if he can make peace with this he¡¯ll come back better.¡± ¡°And if not, if he chooses to walk away from all this?¡± Seras gestured outwards. Logic told her that questioning a God in his own temple was not a smart thing, but she couldn¡¯t stop herself. The God ¡®hmm¡¯ed, ¡°it depends. Charels has many divine essences. If he wishes to leave I could take them away, though I usually don¡¯t do that. I think that so long as he continues to do good as he¡¯s always done then he¡¯s allowed his long sabbatical. Seras¡­ she didn¡¯t like that answer, but she couldn¡¯t say why. She was beginning to doubt whether there was a continuing point to Atheism on a world with living Gods. ¡°You heard why I¡¯m here then?¡± ¡°Of course, even if I¡¯m not Knowledge I still know what happens within my own temples.¡± ¡°Then will you help me?¡± Healer frowned ¡°that is an odd way of wording it. In my eyes the only way of helping you would be convincing you to reconsider Knowledges offer, or maybe finding you a God that works better for you. I know a few others are interested in you, Craft, Innovation, Fertility, and even Hero.¡± Seras recoiled at the last name, ¡°Hero? What the hell would he want with me? I¡¯m not... not one of his. Unless he¡¯s looking to deal with me for my sins¡­¡± Healer held up a hand, ¡°I don¡¯t want to infringe upon my colleagues and their intentions, but very few of us would have you hunted down for whatever crimes you committed on Ruin. Unless one of your victims arrived here on their own and swore an oath to Vengeance, but that is unlikely.¡± Seras rubbed at her temples, ¡°I¡¯m kind of glad my world¡¯s Gods are dead, you all seem like a complicated lot.¡± ¡°Theology is not for everyone.¡± Seras sighed, she walked up the alter where Healer had replaced his own statue and sat on the ledge, ¡°I¡¯ve said it before, I¡¯m not giving up who I am. Even if it kills me.¡± ¡°There are few other options.¡± Healer said from behind her. She blew up at a stray bang, ¡°maybe, but there are options.¡± She glanced to the right and saw that he was sitting next to her, she hadn¡¯t seen him move. ¡°It hurts, it hurts so fuckin¡¯ much. I can barely sleep anymore, and it¡¯s only at 14%. How bad is it going to get?¡± ¡°Worse, so much worse. The percentages your abilities gave you are accurate, what they fail to mention is that anything past 50% would put your body into a state of total shutdown, at 60% your mind will shut down to spare itself the agony. Beyond that I can¡¯t even find words that you would understand.¡± She shrunk in on herself, ¡°why, how? I can¡¯t even get to 100% before going comatose?¡± Healer frowned, ¡°not comatose. If this were all in the body then it would be, but this is your soul Miss Cross. Even when your body shuts down, and your mind goes blank, you will still have the pain. Please, I beg you child, reconsider your choices.¡± She put a hand to her chest, ¡°but this is me I can¡¯t give it up. I spent a lifetime working for what I¡¯ve got, I¡¯ve lost my best friend, my crew, and a woman I thought I could love. All I got for it was being blasted into another world where nothing is the way things should be. This is all I have left.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know what you went through before coming here, but I can say you aren¡¯t alone. You have Dustin and his kind crew, you have a great friend in Athena, and most importantly a potential at a future. Do you still need these metal and wires to feel connected?¡± Seras sat and didn¡¯t answer the God. He placed a hand on her shoulder, ¡°alright, I can see that you need more time. Rise, and I will grant you my blessing.¡± Seras stood, and surreptitiously wiped a tear away from her eye. ¡°I didn¡¯t get it before with Knowledge, but I can really see why people believe in you Gods, I kinda wish ours were still alive.¡± Healer frowned, ¡°yes, I feel for all those of your world who would need the kind of help only my kind can offer. But I know that your Gods didn¡¯t leave you totally alone. Charels was right in one thing miss Cross, Gods don¡¯t die, but it can certainly seem like that to mortals.¡± Seras logged that little tidbit away to a file deep in her memory banks. She stood before the God and bowed low, not as low as she could go, but lower than she had ever gone for anyone before. Ability Net connection has received Divine permission from the God [Healer]. Medical and biological research up to the silver rank is now available for your perusal. Ch77 The Hearing Seras didn¡¯t return to the Inn after her meeting with Healer, instead she ended up walking around Cuprik at night. Partly because she was deeply engrossed in exploring her new divine catalogue of medical research and biological studies. She was having endless fun with it and discovered to her chagrin that some of the things she claimed Pallimustus to not have or understand were wrong. The notes of healer priest throughout the millennia had discovered both plant and animal cells. A thing she claimed that Pallimustus was ignorant of. Their understanding was as developed as Ruin¡¯s in some regards, they had a full understanding of mitosis, cellular anatomy, and even a basic model of DNA. Though that last one was seemingly where their knowledge was a bit shallow. They described everything else common on her world from organ transplants to bone grafting, though all with the huge caveat of being less effective than just magical healing. Things like cancer research were entirely lacking because there was a wide array of essence abilities that just got rid of it. Basically, any anti-poison power or affliction resistance eliminated the cancerous cells as well. The second reason was that Seras didn¡¯t think she could sleep even if she tired. It had been getting harder and harder, it wasn¡¯t so bad after her increase in the strain, but as time went on it was becoming harder to dismiss or ignore. The moment dawn cracked the small tailors shop she had been eyeing opened up and Seras promptly walked in after the owner. She gave the sleepy looking Smoulder woman a quick explanation that most of her clothes were either, melted, ruined by blood, or burned away. The woman made a tutting noise about adventures being reckless and had a new basic ensemble ready in less than twenty minutes. The tailor had an essence combo made for tailoring and had conjurable needles and scissors that moved on their own with just a telepathic command. For mundane clothing she didn¡¯t even need much of her attention to get the job done, which left her with enough free time to chat with Seras. Seras told her about her little jaunt through the labyrinth and the dangers she faced and even showed the woman some of the Star-glider leather. And then when she heard Seras was from another world she proceeded to interrogate her for all the different fashions of Mantel. All of which she deemed as entirely too scandalous and inappropriate. Which Seras couldn¡¯t argue with, though she did miss it. The fashion of the five deserts wasn¡¯t bad, and Seras was beginning to like woolen the hat and vest. But she missed a good crop top with leather pants. With a more upscale outfit in her pocket space Seras made her way back to the adventurer society. She entered the campus and saw a different Leonid at the desk, this one was female and had a very polished svelte look to her, and the several magical rings on her fingers marked her as wealthy. Though Seras wondered why she was working as a mere receptionist. ¡°Hey, I¡¯m Seras Cross,¡± Seras said as she approached the counter. The Leonid looked up and seemed to scan Seras with her gaze, ¡°ah, so you¡¯re her.¡± She purred, less catlike and more like any other person to Seras¡¯ disappointment. ¡°I sure hope so, I take it you¡¯ve been told to look out for me?¡± Her eyes crinkled up in amusement, ¡°yes.¡± She said the second part more ominously. ¡°One moment as I send out the word that you¡¯re here.¡± Seras¡¯ friendly grinned never faltered, but below the counter she summoned a small grenade into her hand. It was irrational but this had all the hallmarks of a trap. ¡°Yes, go ahead. And by the way I didn¡¯t get your name.¡± ¡°Genevieve, Greenough.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°bit long and old-fashioned mind if I call you Jen instead?¡± ¡°Don¡¯t you dare,¡± she growled. Seras nodded as she hooked her finger in the pin. Not two minutes later a tall blonde haired Elf walked into the campus area, one that Seras recognized. She turned but kept the grenade ready behind her back. ¡°Miss Caras, now isn¡¯t this a surprise.¡± Seras had met Lady Alicia Caras after her induction into the Magic society, she had ranked the noble elf woman almost immediately with her usual attitude. The only thing that kept Seras from pulling the pin right then and there was that during the assault on the Omeda camp they had literally fought back to back. With Caras saving her life several times. The tall elf pulled a single strand of hair back into place and smiled slightly. ¡°Miss Cross, it is good to see you alive,¡± she gave Seras a smile and then glanced to Genevieve ¡°that will be all Jenny, thank you for passing along the word.¡± Then she turned and walked up the stairs without looking back once. Seras relished the aggrieved look on Genevieve¡¯s face before following after. When they were in a more private space Seras seriously considered putting a gun to Alicia¡¯s head and demanding answers, but she decided that nothing about this had gone that far. Yet. ¡°So, Caras, it¡¯s a bit odd that you¡¯d meet with me only minutes after I arrived, especially since I¡¯m only supposed to be meeting with the Director and co.¡± Lady Caras smiled, ¡°yes, the director, the deputy director, and one other. Who do you think that would be?¡± ¡°To be honest I hadn¡¯t put that much thought into it.¡± Caras nodded, ¡°evidently. I am the third member on your special hearing. As a non-affiliated third party who has witnessed your skills in the field, and a three star bronze rank adventurer, it only made sense for me to be here.¡± Seras¡¯ eyes narrowed, and she wiggled the pin out a little more, ¡°yes, but something strikes me as odd still. Were you the first person the director approached?¡± If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Alecia Caras turned and glanced down at the frag in her hands, she pursed her lips but said nothing. ¡°Miss Cross, I¡¯ll be frank with you. I¡¯ve had someone waiting to alert me for your return, though not for malicious reasons. Trust that I¡¯ll put in a fair word towards your skills and attitude. If your confirmed to skip the testing process then I would like to speak afterwards.¡± Seras¡¯ hand twitched, but she dismissed the grenade to her pocket space and relaxed ever so slightly. ¡°Well then let¡¯s be on with this.¡± She gestured forwards. Lady Caras nodded and led Seras up to the third floor and let her into a spacious and official looking place. Sitting at a long table were two other people, one was Director Arlee, the third was a man with blue skin and runic tattoos, and the third seat was empty. The Director and deputy Director stared evenly at Caras, though Seras got the impression that there was a bit of resistance to her being here. Though that could just be her own feelings. ¡°Miss Cross,¡± the Director began, ¡°first off let me congratulate you on surviving the Labyrinth, with an extra burden as well. I would also like to inform you that the Akemi leaders have alerted me to the classified details of your time below, and we will not be needing you to recount them at this time.¡± The deputy director nodded, but Alecia just pursed her lips in displeasure. She stared at Seras curiously, but Seras felt no need to tell her. The director¡¯s desires in this matter were clear. ¡°With that said I think we should press on.¡± The Runic deputy director nodded and pressed a blue tinted crystal. ¡°The official record of Miss Seras Cross¡¯ special admittance hearing has begun. Everything from here on will be record both audibly, visually, as well as an aura imprint of those within this room.¡± Seras frowned; this was like normal recordings from her world. But the aura imprint would give future viewers a glimpse into whatever her aura revealed here. The director cleared his throat, ¡°Miss Cross, this hearing is to see whether or not you possess the skill and mindset to be a full member of the adventurer society. This is a special precedent in place for people like yourself with a bevy of undocumented experience and ability. Can you state briefly who you are, where you came from, and what experience you do have?¡± Seras took a breath and let it out slowly. ¡°My name is Seras Cross, and I am an Outworlder from the world of Ruin, the city of Mantel specifically. It has come to my knowledge that the adventure society might have some sparse accounts of my world but under the name Vestal instead. This became evident to me through the star story of the Silver hand man, Ronnac. Another Outworlder from my world. Ruin is a dying world, every year the air grows less breathable, and the climate around us is already in run-away extinction. My parents were petty criminals who died early on and left me in the care of a gang. The black bullets. Said gang is now dead.¡± Arlee¡¯s eyes widened at the mention of Ronnac, while Alecia and the Runic remained carefully neutral. The Runic shifted his papers, ¡°would it be accurate to say you that you had a tough childhood.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°it was¡­ fairly normal by Ruin¡¯s standards, but here you would call it exceedingly traumatic.¡± ¡°Can you sum up why?¡± the Runic pressed. ¡°Do I need to for this interview?¡± Arlee nodded, ¡°it allows us to establish a background to explain attitudes in our members. At higher ranks your background and psychological profile might come into play in any promotion or behavioral hearing. Context as always is the key to understanding nuance.¡± Seras considered how to quickly explain her childhood. ¡°Well, to start I had no parents, only a gang leader and his subordinate¡¯s. I was raised amongst a gaggle of other kids my age and made to do work as early as six, petty robbery, lookout, and some minor arson.¡± The Runic shifted, ¡°so you were a criminal?¡± Seras shrugged ¡°I had no other choice. I couldn¡¯t leave, kids disappear off the street all the time, and we¡¯re lucky if we never find the aftermath.¡± ¡°Did your world have no orphanages, no foster care, or temple congregations that could take you in?¡± he pressed. Seras held up a hand a ticked off a finger at each point, ¡°Orphanages are little better than forced child labor camps, mining, sowing, and dangerous maintenance. Foster care set ups were abandoned a century ago for widespread child abuse and a lack of funding. And on Ruin the Gods are dead, so what little religion is left are more drug abusing cults than helpful institutions.¡± Seras sighed, ¡°maybe there was some alternative out there, but quite frankly, finding one on Ruin would be like stumbling upon a dimension essence in your backyard.¡± Alecia frowned, ¡°Miss Cross, my apologies, but your world sounds like an awful place.¡± ¡°That¡¯s because it is. The world¡¯s ending, the Gods are dead, and no one really cares anymore.¡± Arlee held up a hand forestalling any more comments, ¡°we could dig into that topic for a very long time. We have a schedule to keep. Miss Cross, after your childhood how would you categorize your professional life?¡± ¡°I was a Merc. A freelance agent who could be hired to do jobs. I was well known for infiltration, long ranged sniping, and extreme proficiency with firearms. I custom made all my gear.¡± The Runic frowned, ¡°So breaking and entering, assassination, and common violence.¡± ¡°To put it uncharitably, yes.¡± The runic ticked a box in his sheet. Alecia quirked a brow, ¡°none of that makes you sound very good. Are there any standout examples you can give us to cast a more favorable light on your work.¡± Seras shook her head, ¡°I can¡¯t. Any good I did was ultimately coincidental. I killed terrorists and serial killers, but that was for pay. I once saved a bus of children, but that was while working a job. The only thing I can say in my defense was that usually the opposition on most jobs were just as bad. Drug dealers, con artists, killers, rapists, thieves, corpo scum. But that¡¯s just how bad things on Ruin are. ¡®Good men are easy to find, you just need to check the gutter where their lying dead and worthless¡¯.¡± Seras quoted that from Nightmares treatise on Merc work. He was the forerunner who laid down a lot of what it meant to be a mercenary in the midst of a societal collapse. It had a lot of good quotes, Seras¡¯ favorite was his line about ¡®Sin and Misery¡¯. Arlee tilted his head, ¡°and yet I have it on good authority from Dustin Westbrooke and Flint Stone that you have in the past jumped directly into harm¡¯s way for people. Your friends in the caravan crew, strangers on the road, and you even volunteered for the Omeda mission despite the dangers. I even know that from your time in the labyrinth you experienced a severe outburst when you found the remains of the kidnapped village folk the Omeda were trafficking. Why?¡± Seras opened her mouth and closed it, ¡°I, I don¡¯t have a response for that. It¡¯s just that, here on this world I¡¯ve been forced to trust people with my life. And they¡¯ve been really good about not betraying me. That¡¯s new.¡± Jonah, Cash, Frost¡­ Seras squeezed her eyes shut. ¡°it¡¯s, easier to do the right thing here.¡± Arlee glanced to his Runic companion, but the blue skinned man just scowled. Arlee turned back to her, ¡°Miss Cross, you mentioned having an ¡®extreme proficiency with fire arms¡¯. Can you explain what that means?¡± Seras summoned her rifle into her hand, ¡°this is a firearm, a rifle to be exact. It can launch a roughly 45-gram metal projectile out at extreme speeds. With the force behind the bullet it can pierce through almost all normal ranked flesh with ease, and augmented with essence abilities it can pierce the hides of weaker bronze rank monsters. With magical enhancements and essence abilities I was able to bring down a bronze ranked creatures with tough armoring.¡± Arlee nodded indicating that he knew which creatures she meant. The she summoned a grenade, ¡°this one is a hand held explosive with an effective zone of a few meters, fragmentation, pyro, concussion, and gas, most things within its range aren¡¯t getting out unscathed.¡± The runic looked unimpressed, ¡°is that all?¡± he asked flatly. Alecia turned to him, ¡°deputy director I can confidently say that her weapons are very deadly for a bronze ranker, especially given that she made all of them from scratch with poor materials. I think given time they will only become better and deadlier. Miss Cross is already a senior associate of the Magic society, that¡¯s after not knowing magic prior to coming to our world.¡± The Runic looked grudgingly impressed. He turned to Seras, ¡°is there anything you would like to add before we finish this hearing?¡± Seras shook her head, ¡°you know what I¡¯m about. There¡¯s little else I can add at this point.¡± Arlee nodded, ¡°then we move onto our decision. I for one personally approve of Seras¡¯ abilities that¡¯s she¡¯s demonstrated. While her past, unsettling as it is, is the events of another world and shouldn¡¯t have hold on to our decision.¡± ¡°I disagree director,¡± the Runic countered. ¡°We have before us an admitted murder and criminal. Just because her sins are from another world that doesn¡¯t exempt its baring on her time here going forward.¡± ¡°Yes, but as we¡¯ve heard Miss Cross¡¯s world is a dangerous and rotten one. I feel like that is enough extenuating circumstances given that she¡¯s been nothing but noble since arriving here.¡± Seras tried to hide her wince at the last bit. That wasn¡¯t true, she wasn¡¯t a good person. ¡°I vote against allowing her to join.¡± The deputy director said with an unshakable finality to his tone. They turned to the tie breaker Alecia Caras. Alecia tapped a fingertip on the table, ¡°I find myself agreeing with a lot of what the deputy director said. Though none of her crimes will receive punishment here it may reflect poorly on the society if she returns to old patterns.¡± Seras sighed to herself, already preparing for the blow. While having an adventurer society membership was not a must in her future plans it would have made a lot of things much simpler. ¡°But while on the assault against the Omeda, when their chieftain was committing all their power to a suicide attack, Seras ran across the battlefield to save a single person. This left her and that person trapped in the labyrinth. Seras and this Athena girl then emerged many days later, both alive and whole, with the exception of a missing arm on Athena¡¯s part. That means miss Cross was defending her charge diligently the entire time. I think that is all more telling about what kind of adventurer she might be. I vote to let her skip the usual process and join directly.¡± Wait, what? Were her ears broken, or did Alecia just get Seras into the adventurer society? Ch78 Casual arrogance Seras was idly playing with the Adventurer Society badge when Alicia Caras finally emerged from the meeting room. Seras had been waiting for nearly an hour and had already went through all the official processing to get her membership in order. The badge itself was a small palm sized thing, but in the hour she had been fiddling with it Seras had felt like its weight had grown significantly. Or maybe that was just her own perception. Getting a membership was supposed to be a trivial step, one that she didn¡¯t necessarily need but would appreciate all the same. But something about that meeting had changed the way she thought about it. ¡°Have you been waiting long miss Cross?¡± the blonde haired Elf asked. The badge broke a part in a shower of blue sparks as it returned to her pocket space. ¡°Not too long,¡± Seras deflected. Alicia nodded, ¡°my apologies all the same. The Director and I had some things to discuss about your little journey through the Labyrinth.¡± ¡°Oh?¡± Alicia frowned, ¡°the Pheonix nobility are concerned with the wave of mobilizations from the Akemi and other tribes. They think you found something of significant value down there and don¡¯t wish to be left out. At the least a new deposit of floatstone is worth investigating. But the preparations on the Akemi side indicate great danger down below.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°I can¡¯t speak to any of that. Just about everything down there was deadly to two iron rankers.¡± Alicia looked unconvinced. ¡°Yes, well all that aside I¡¯m glad you decided to wait for me, I would like to extend a personal invitation to speak more privately.¡± There it was, the reason Alicia had helped her get her membership. ¡°And what would we discuss in this more private setting, because I¡¯m under a strict gag order from several powerful gold rankers.¡± Alicia pursed her lips, ¡°well that was part of my intentions, but not all of it. Despite the casual familiarity most people of the five deserts have with Outworlders your kind are still fascinating glances into the realms beyond this one. And above all that it seems to take a certain kind of person to survive the process. It¡¯s said that there are two kinds of Outworlder, the kind who die immediately, and the kind who rise upon above it all. I would like to get to know which kind you are.¡± ¡°But why though? Why does it matter to it matter to you which kind of Outworlder I am?¡± She smiled, ¡°because Miss Cross, no matter which kind you happen to be Outworlders are always interesting.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°I¡¯ll consider it.¡± The Elf dipped her head and produced a small copper token with an embossed Pheonix, ¡°thank you. If you make a decision then just pass this along to the Airey guard, they¡¯ll let you through without question.¡± Seras took the token and used her identification power on to confirm it was what she said. Token of the Pheonix¡¯s favor, a token for displaying a connection with the Pheonix nobility of Cupric. Alicia walked past Seras, the faint scent of Oleander tickling her nose as the Elf walked by. Seras watched the Elf leave before she sighed and began to leave as well. Her first stop before she left the campus was in the trade hall where she now had access to all the goods and services within. She did a thorough look through all the stalls before settling on one of the more upscale venders. There she made several inquiries into some rather specific materials she needed, chief among them was the materials needed for summoning her familiar. But true to Dustin and Flint¡¯s warnings the price on just the quintessence was out of her range, and the Opal of Portent wasn¡¯t even something the vender could consider obtaining. It was so valuable and sought after that it existed in a market of its own. It was on the same level as highly sought after rare essences like Dimension and Myriad. Such things rarely appeared on the free market and were often snapped up immediately if they were. The vender couldn¡¯t even promise to look into potential sellers for Seras, since just inquiring into that sort of thing apparently tripped several red flags in the world of rare magical materials. Seras eventually purchased some potions and more bomb materials from the man out of pity for wasting so much of his time. Her business in the Adventure society completed Seras began to make her way for her last stop. The Magic Society campus. The moment she stepped through the side entrance meant for associate members like herself she was stopped by a bland looking functionary. ¡°Miss Cross, you¡¯ve returned. The Director has requested a moment of your time at your earliest convenience.¡± He then gestured towards a side door. Seras frowned, ¡°now my translation power might be sending me, but it sounded to me like I might have a choice in when I meet with him.¡± The functionary smirked, ¡°a polite formality. In plain terms it really means to stop whatever you¡¯re doing and follow me right now.¡± Seras¡¯ frown turned to a scowl, ¡°this had better be good,¡± she muttered as a grenade appeared in her hand. She followed the functionary while fiddling with the pin on the grenade. She was led deep into the campus and behind eight different locked doors, each one with a very different and striking magically based key. The first key alone was several steps beyond Seras¡¯ knowledge of such magical locks. She was eventually led into a wide private complex. Just from the entry room she could see a private library, a personal lab, and well-equipped ritual room, with more locked doors leading to unknown rooms. The functionary then promptly pushed her through with a surprising amount of strength before closing the door behind him. She wheeled back around, but the door was already closed and locked before she could get one last look at the man. Seras was greatly alarmed because that meant the dull man she had dismissed with a glance must have been Silver rank, and she hadn¡¯t even felt a hint of it from his aura. She turned back around and kept her finger on the grenade pin, ready to pull it in second. She stepped forward only to feel an unexpected tug on her arm, Seras turned back around to see that without her notice Director Dundee had teleported behind her and was holding her hand in a way that prevented her from pulling the pin. ¡°I understand your trepidation Miss Cross, but I must insist on you putting this thing away. The explosion might destabilize some highly delicate projects and cause the whole Magic society campus to be vaporized in micro-seconds.¡± This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. Her eyes were wide at the second unnoticed intrusion from a Silver ranker in so short a time. ¡°I¡¯m really getting tired of people fucking around with me,¡± Seras growled. Dundee snorted, and didn¡¯t let go until Seras had vanished the grenade back into her pocket. ¡°I¡¯m afraid you¡¯ll have to get used to it until you¡¯re stronger.¡± Seras¡¯ eye twitch, ¡°yeah, until someone stronger than you decides to fuck with me.¡± Dundee looked sympathetic, ¡°yes, there is always a bigger fish in the see of power. Even Diamond Rankers have their own pecking order, even then I¡¯ve heard rumor of a step beyond Diamond rank. One wonders if there might be ranks among transcendents.¡± Seras scowled; she felt something with herself rankle at the idea of there always being someone stronger than her. ¡°Why¡¯d you have me brought here? I doubt it¡¯s for philosophical discussions.¡± The Magic society director considered her, ¡°well, it might. Follow me.¡± He ordered without waiting for Seras to acquiesce. He led her into one of the locked rooms, as Seras stepped through she was briefly astounded by the sheer quantity of hastily scribbled notes posted to every inch of spare wall space. There were even taped pages dangling from the ceiling like a string of beads. ¡°Holy murder board of all murder boards,¡± she muttered to herself. The director turned back to her for a second, ¡°none of what you see is to leave this room.¡± He ordered waspishly. Something in his tone made something click into place in Seras¡¯ mind. She looked at the director with clear eyes and noticed the small bags under his eyes, the slight green paler to his skin, and the odd ¡®neutral¡¯ scent that came from normal people using crystal wash. ¡°How long has it been since you¡¯ve slept?¡± He glared back at her, ¡°I think you already know the answer to that one.¡± Seras nodded, ¡°right,¡± she said to herself as she began to pace along the walls of the room. Most of the magical concepts in play went way over her head, as quickly as Seras had picked up the basics she was still a novice in the world of magic. What she did recognize was a single equation appearing over and over again, F=G(m1m2)/r2 ¡°I see you¡¯ve been looking into gravity.¡± Seras said slowly. Dundee scoffed, ¡°you make it sound so trivial. Do you have any idea what this represents?¡± He strode forward and put his finger on a set of papers, Seras walked over and saw dense mathematical and magical formulas, then below it all she saw a single much simpler set of equations with the term for gravity inserted in. ¡°This is the current formula for calculating needed to stabilize and open an unstable astral gateway. As you can see its incredibly complex and has many points where a single mistake might cause catastrophic failure. This second one is the formula simplified by the existence of a single term. Gravity. What would have taken hours of painstaking work simplified just like that.¡± Seras looked at it and nodded slowly, ¡°yeah, that¡¯s about right.¡± Dundee¡¯s eyes rose, ¡°do you have any idea what you¡¯ve done?¡± Seras turned back to Dundee, ¡°in broad terms yes.¡± ¡°This, this one term invalidates entire magical specializations. I know of experts who practice in just this formula alone, but with this ¡®gravity¡¯ term you¡¯ve made it possible for even students to calculate this out.¡± Seras shrugged, ¡°yeah, I get that, it''s like the invention of integral calculus made all prior manual attempts to calculate pi child¡¯s play. This one new term will simplify everything going forward. Would you like me to give you the formula for relativity as well? The Director gripped at his hair and yanked at it in frustration, ¡°you arrogant girl! You still don¡¯t see it! You have just ruined me, I will never again be able to do the basic calculations I have been raised on without ever remembering how worthless they all are. The brilliance of hundreds of men and woman invalidated by the casual importation of knowledge from an Outworlder!¡± Seras crossed her arms, ¡°I don¡¯t see the problem.¡± ¡°No, no of course not,¡± a little bit of spittle flew from the director¡¯s mouth, ¡°then tell me Outworlder, who discovered this?¡± ¡°Thermov, he also developed the conservations of mass and energy, as well as a few other big things. He was a brilliant man who died before he was forty from a freak sinkhole.¡± Dundee nodded, ¡°Yes, yes, he must be a very well-respected man on your world, but where¡¯s ours. Who will be our Thermov now that you have stolen this discovery from your world? It would be one thing if this was your work, but to casually regurgitate such a world-shattering discovery without ever being a part of those who worked tirelessly on such things¡­¡± he through his hands up in an explosion of frustration. Seras shifted uncomfortably, ¡°I, I never thought about it that way.¡± She was quiet for a moment before speaking up, ¡°but that doesn¡¯t mean there wont be other great discoveries here. There is still so much my people don¡¯t know about the universe, and that number has become much higher since I learned magic was apparently a thing. Your world already proves that some of the things I thought of as constants aren¡¯t so iron clad. The tides for one are nowhere near as high as they should be despite the added pull of two large moons.¡± Dundee¡¯s eyes went wide, ¡°tides, gravity, moons, of course, how could we, but, but, GAH!¡± he roared and stumbled away. Seras teleported behind the man and caught him before he could fall. ¡°Wow there, calm down, I really don¡¯t want to find out if Silver rankers can die of aneurysms.¡± He sat there and clutched at his head, ¡°do you have any idea how disheartening this all is,¡± the man muttered, ¡°I feel like smacking my forehead, but I know that no amount of smacking will ever make the urge go away.¡± Seras tried to swallow but her throat had gone dry. She had been so smug when she had given Dundee the gravity formula, as if the discovery something for her to be proud of. But he was right, Seras had done none of the hard work discovering it, nor had she been one of the thousands of physicists refining the model for universal gravity. It was just something she had grown up knowing without ever comprehending the amount of work and effort that went into discoveries like that. Worse yet she had just given it to a world who now never had a chance to discover it for themselves. She had robbed the future Thermon¡¯s, Iskalians, and Moriss¡¯ of Pallimustus. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I don¡¯t think I had any idea of what I was doing when I did it. But at the same time its only bound to get out now, unless you kill me and then yourself. Neither of us can ever approach our work without knowing these basic concepts.¡± Dundee slumped further until he was sitting on the ground. ¡°We¡¯ve had Outworlder¡¯s before, what I don¡¯t get is how this hasn¡¯t happened before.¡± ¡°It has¡± a soft voice said before them. Both of their heads snapped up to look at the woman now standing before them. This time the Goddess knowledge was a lightly tanned woman with light brown hair and green eyes. She looked to Seras and glared at the Outworlder. Despite her own feelings towards the Goddess Seras couldn¡¯t begrudge her this. ¡°My lady,¡± Dundee gasped. ¡°Hello Roland, Seras, I see you¡¯ve finally seen why I ask Outworlders not to spread their knowledge around so casually.¡± Seras looked down in shame, ¡°maybe, but I still don¡¯t see how you¡¯ve managed it for all the other Outworlder¡¯s who¡¯ve come before me.¡± ¡°Not all of them are blessed with the ¡®memory¡¯ you have, most have shaky understandings of these things. But when people as educated as you come, I have a little chat with them to show them the consequences of their actions. But I knew you wouldn¡¯t listen unless you saw for yourself.¡± ¡°My lady,¡± Roland Dundee interjected, ¡°will I¡­ will you¡­¡± The goddess shook her head, ¡°no Roland you won¡¯t be punished for Seras¡¯ mistakes, but I would caution against revealing all this as your own work. Not because of anything I¡¯d do, but because the backlash from the Magical community might be quite harsh. You could very well see you career going the way of Al-missou.¡± Dundee shivered. ¡°I understand.¡± Knowledge nodded ¡°that said, I know that you can never forget what you¡¯ve seen here. So I have a recommendation for you. Miss Cross has revealed something very fundamental to her understanding of the world, but you know that she isn¡¯t one hundred percent correct. My recommendation is to make it yours, push your understanding in a way that exceeds her own.¡± She turned to Seras, ¡°and as for you, I hope you¡¯ll be more prudent in the future. I won¡¯t stop you, but just know that your casual unraveling of current magical theory could have unintended consequences.¡± Seras nodded her head stiffly. The Goddess smiled, ¡°good.¡± She said before winking out of existence. Dundee looked around the room and slowly got to his feet, he waved his hand and a paper detached from the wall and flew into his hand. From the quick glimpse Seras got into the paper she saw a few hastily scribbled notes around some formation, the one that stuck out was a single ¡®not constant!¡¯. He turned to Seras and the page disappeared from his grasp. He glanced around the room and nodded to himself. ¡°I¡¯ll have a copy of all these delivered to you later in the week, but I¡¯ll keep that one to myself.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°what?¡± ¡°That reminds me, Miss Cross, what specialization were you planning on pursuing.¡± She blinked again ¡°What?¡± ¡°Specialization, it would be the next step in your journey as a magic researcher. If your to be taken seriously by the magic community you¡¯ll need a specialization. I can have more advanced texts delivered to you in any chosen field¡­ except astral magic. That one¡¯s a bit tougher to get ahold of.¡± ¡°What?¡± she repeated. ¡°The basics of Astral magic are available to the public, but more advanced texts are carefully guarded by a select few branches, and intruding on their work often comes with censure. Not that it stops the truly driven, Al-missou was one such researcher, he was from Karstess and had interesting ideas about Astral spaces. In fact, I think I have a copy of his work, I got it before they were all destroyed.¡± ¡°Hold on!¡± Seras snapped. ¡°What?¡± Seras gave the man a flat look, ¡°you were on the verge of a mental break down only minutes ago, but one word from Knowledge and your suddenly fine?¡± Dundee chuckled, ¡°ah, I see. Your right, I was close to going off the edge there. Which is why the Goddess directed my attention to a small idea I had dismissed before. I was upset by this fundamental shift in how I viewed the world, I was afraid there wasn¡¯t anything left for me to improve upon. Just the mass rewriting of greater works than my own. But this, well, I shan¡¯t say more just in case you get any ideas.¡± Seras¡¯ jaw dropped. ¡°I, uh, no. What?¡± He sighed, ¡°Miss Cross, Knowledge said it best herself. All this nonsense is something you have stolen from your world and cursed me with, but there¡¯s still a way to make the knowledge my own. To add to this great new field. Now I won¡¯t feel like such a fraud when I reveal it. Please don¡¯t go sharing gravity with any more researchers besides myself.¡± ¡°You, you were upset because you thought there wasn¡¯t anything for you too discover, but know that Knowledge confirmed there was your suddenly fine?¡± ¡°Of course, what greater pleasure could there be in research than the pursuit of greater knowledge. One can study all they want, but they won¡¯t ever make their mark on history unless they add to it. That is what it means to be a magical researcher.¡± Seras felt dizzy from the quick turnaround, she threw up her hands and cursed, ¡°fuck it, be a crazy bastard, I don¡¯t care, I¡¯m going to back to making my bombs like sane person. That was my plan anyways before you derailed my entire day.¡± She promptly turned on her heels and strode out, stopping only to kick over an empty trash can in his lab just to emphasize how she felt. But even as the first functionary led her through the twisting hallways of the magic society campus Seras couldn¡¯t help but smile to herself, ¡°pleasure from the pursuit of greater knowledge huh, what a load of crap. What matters is what you can make with that knowledge, that¡¯s what it¡¯s all about.¡± The bland silver ranker looked down at her and scoffed, ¡°ugh, artificers.¡± He said disdainfully. ¡°Nah, I''m an engineer,¡± Seras corrected. Ch79 A productive week Conductive metal wiring and liquified quintessence flowed from Seras¡¯ fingers as she traced a very rudimentary shape onto the wide metal board. When it was all said and done she leaned away from the desk and stared down at her handy work. It¡­ wasn¡¯t pretty. Her first attempt at Magitech engineering was as crude as all first attempts were. It was a board roughly half a meter across with several pieces of magic and technology roughly glued to it. And connecting the two different paradigms of mortal ingenuity was a simple magic formation drawn in both magically conductive material as well as electrically conductive. There was lots of room for improvement, but seeing as this was more proof of concept than a production model Seras was alright with the flaws. For now. ¡°Moment of truth,¡± she said to herself as she mentally commanded her arm to open up and reveal the compartment within. Seras pulled a single shard from the data port and slotted into her own rough recreation of a shard reader. Several multicolored lights flashed from within at rapid intervals, so quick it almost seemed like one ever shifting light instead of a thousand pulses of light. She waited, and waited longer, and waited some more, until the translation rune in the center of the board begun to hum with power, and then the magic projector on the other side began to project a cone of light and cast its image onto the wall of her rented lab. Seras stared for a long moment as the opening scenes of her favorite rom com began, the faint noise of upbeat music coming from the projector filling her heart with joy. It was working. It was finally working. Ten different attempts, over the course of four days of frustration, and it was finally working. Even better yet the image was coming out perfectly instead of the garbled staticky mess she had been getting prior. She looked down at the esoteric translation rune she had dug out from a very strange magic book. Every other conventional translation rune had failed to properly read the data on the shard and had given her very disturbing results. The version before this had produced a mostly coherent image, except for the fact that all the characters had the facial orifices swapped and had way too many legs that were far too short. How did that even happen? But in her ever-increasing desperation to make her first essence ability to work Seras was directed to a book of incredibly strange and inefficient magic circles. It was supposedly written by an absolute mad gold ranker who needed to be permanently suppressed for her own good. But during her permanent incarceration at an asylum she had begun writing incredibly strange books on magic theory that by all accounts shouldn¡¯t work. They were only kept because despite all that some of it did work, though the mad woman could never explain how or why she made them. She would have to thank the shifty looking clerk later for directing her to this. Seras chuckled to herself, as she stared down at the strange circuitry like magic circle in the work book. ¡°They were missing the other half, that woman somehow created a field of magic circles ideal for Magitech. How did she do it though?¡± Seras shook her head and turned back to the projector, softly smiling to herself. She looked down at her finger and summoned the blue glow of her inscription power, ¡°not so useless now huh, all it took was another Outworlder¡¯s notes on Magitech, hundreds of hours of magical research, and the rambling of a mad woman.¡± She dismissed the work book and Magitech projector to her pocket space and sighed. ¡°It¡¯s a good first step, but a long, long way off of what I need.¡± Seras stretched her arms above her head and began to leave the magic society campus for the first time in days. As she walked down the streets of Cupric she couldn¡¯t help the small skip in her steps, she looked up wistfully at the bright blue sky above and felt much lighter than she had in days. ¡°There she is!¡± ¡°Get her, quick!¡± Seras was completely unprepared for the giant strong arms that lifted her up and through her over a set of broad shoulders. Seras reacted quickly by teleporting away from the muscular Leonid trying to kidnap her, she began to summon her rifle but was quickly tackled by a second muscly figure. She squirmed underneath the iron grip of her captor when she suddenly felt their grip release her. Seras turned over off the ground and had only a second to realize why the second person had released her as the large rear end of a Heidel smushed her against the ground. ¡°Ha, you got her, good job Buck!¡± A loud and boisterous voice called out. It was a familiar voice. ¡°Petra, what the hell!¡± Seras roared out from beneath her Heidel¡¯s rear end. A foot tapped against her head, ¡°hey I¡¯m here too you know.¡± Athena chided. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Seras gritted her teeth, ¡°Buck, if you don¡¯t get you fat ass off me right now-,¡± ¡°-Don¡¯t listen to her Buck, she¡¯ll just try to escape again.¡± A young voice interrupted her this time. ¡°Wha-, Dallas!¡± Seras roared in outrage. A face appeared in her limited field of vision, the young Smoulder boy was grinning widely, ¡°hello Miss Seras, its good to see your alive. You should have at least said ¡®hi¡¯ before disappearing for a week.¡± Seras sighed, she hadn¡¯t seen the young nephew of Dustin since before she left to take care of the Omeda. She probably should have stopped by the tavern to at least say hello to the rest of the Caravan crew before she went about her business. ¡°It hasn¡¯t been a week,¡± she protested. ¡°Five and a half days is close enough,¡± Athena added. Seras silently fumed under her Heidel¡¯s ass, she sat there and waited until her cool down timer hit zero before teleporting again. This time she appeared on Buck¡¯s back and had her gun in her hand in less than a second. She looked around at her assembled friends, making sure each of them saw her scowl. ¡°Well for your information it was a very productive week, I got my adventurer society badge, met with both Adventurer and Magic society directors, two different Gods, and made a major breakthrough in Magitech.¡± ¡°Wait, which Gods?¡± Dalas asked. ¡°Whoop, finally got your badge!¡± ¡°What kind of advancement?¡± Seras smirked smugly at the three people below her. Said smirk was quickly transformed into a concerned scowl as she felt Buck¡¯s muscles tense beneath, ¡°don¡¯t you dare-,¡± was all she got out before her Heidel began to live up to his namesake. Seras clung on admirably, for about a minute, but somehow Buck had become stronger in her absence. Seras flew high into the air, and would have faced a ten-fifteen meter fall if a building hadn¡¯t mercifully broken her fall halfway through. Seras teleported back down to the street and punched the awry beast in the side, ¡°you fucking bastard!¡± They all laughed at her as Buck made a ¡®who, me?¡¯ sort of look. Seras blinked, that was too intelligent for a Heidel. She reached out with her aura and felt something surprising within the animal, magic, a lot of it, almost enough to reach into iron rank power. ¡°Dead gods, since when did Buck have magic?¡± ¡°It started after you left, Buck started getting really hungry and strong until one day he broke the stable he was in. Uncle says Buck¡¯s close to iron rank, just needs to bond with a rider. Just like him and Jessie,¡± Dallas said this all with an envious look. Seras stared at the Heidel for a long moment. Out of all her plans for the future, bonding Buck as a familiar hadn¡¯t even been on the list. She hadn¡¯t even considered it. She, she wasn¡¯t sure how she felt about that. Despite all the trouble she loved the damn beast, but did she want to create a permanent bond with him. ¡°I¡¯ll need to think on that,¡± Seras said eventually. Buck didn¡¯t seem offended, or at least that¡¯s how Seras interpreted the heavy lean into her. ¡°Hey, enough with smelly Heidels, whip it out!¡± Petra called. Seras blinked, ¡°alright, but its not much to look at. No different from yours.¡± ¡°Well, I think mine might be a bit bigger. Big hands and all that.¡± ¡°Nuh-uh, they¡¯re the same,¡± Athena coughed, ¡°you¡¯re talking about your badges, right?¡± Seras and Petra turned to the two of them, Athena had a slightly pink face and Dallas¡¯ skin was burning a bit brighter. ¡°Of course, what the hell would we be talking about.¡± Seras answered innocently. ¡°Yeah, of course,¡± Petra said, though she seemed confused by the two reactions to their unintentional innuendo. Did Petra not get it, or was she a better actor than Seras gave her credit for? Seras summoned up her badge and Petra reached into a pouch to grab one of her own, to Seras¡¯ chagrin Petra¡¯s was a bit larger. Probably to compensate for her much bigger hands. For a surreal moment Seras recalled that she was talking to a giant Lion woman, one with fur, claws, and bright white fangs. Strange how normal it felt to talk to what was for all accounts an alien, maybe it was due to how normal Petra felt. She shook her head. Dallas was looking at her badge with envy, the young man still wasn¡¯t a full iron ranker yet, though he had seemed to pick up a new essence since Seras had left. Athena stared at the little badge with a complicated expression before she caught Seras staring and smiled at her. ¡°Congratulations, is this why you were gone for so long, taking the entrance test?¡± Seras chuckled awkwardly, ¡°no, they had a special hearing for me. Apparently Outworlders with combat experience and power have joined up before and they made a way to wave the usual tests since it would be a waste of time on both our parts.¡± ¡°So you were gone for a week for other reasons,¡± Athena said flatly. ¡°Ah, it¡¯s like I said, a very productive week.¡± Athena didn¡¯t look convinced, ¡°Mmm-hmm.¡± ¡°I did a lot, come on, lets get back to the tavern and I can show you what I¡¯ve done.¡± Seras turned and mounted Buck in one smooth motion. They quickly made their way back to the tavern, chatting about small things, occasionally prodding Seras for hints as to what she wanted to show them. She gave Buck a quick pat down, gave the troublesome animal some extra apples, and returned to the tavern. Rohan, Chase, Garret, and Frank were all playing cards around a table. Dustin was looking over a map and plotting different routes. And Flint was reading a book off in a corner. The boys looked up from their game and greeted Seras with smiles. ¡°Our problem child returns from the great beyond,¡± Chase said teasingly. ¡°What tales she must have,¡± Frank added. Seras rolled her eyes at the two. ¡°Har, har, pack up your game, I¡¯ve got something way more entertaining to show you all.¡± ¡°Aw no way, I¡¯ve got a winning hand right here.¡± Chased complained. ¡°No he doesn¡¯t, he¡¯s a shit player.¡± Garret said. ¡°Oh yeah, well put your money where your mouth is, cuz I¡¯m all in now,¡± Chase shot back as he pushed his whole pile in. Garret met his gaze levelly and pushed his own pile in. Rohan and Frank both tossed down their cards and stood up. Chase laid down a trio of gold rankers and began to move for the pot. Only to pause when Garret laid down a pair of diamond rankers. Chase leaned back, ¡°bullshit, there¡¯s only two diamond cards in a deck, the odds-,¡± ¡°-Were on my side,¡± Garret interrupted. ¡°I¡¯m glad you fell for my bait.¡± Seras chuckled, ¡°nicely done,¡± She complimented. Garret shoveled the coins into his cheap storage bag, he stared at the haul with excitement. Likely trying to figure out what kind of essence he could buy with this. Flint looked up from his book, ¡°you''re back, what have you done this time?¡± his voice was bland despite expecting trouble on her end. Seras smirked, ¡°I have devised a way to finally show you people my home.¡± Dustin jerked, ¡°you found a way back home?¡± he asked incredulously. Seras frowned, ¡°no, not that. Remember those movies I was telling you about?¡± ¡°Oh I see now, you got it to work then¡± Athena said from beside her. ¡°Yup, took the work of a crazy gold ranker to finally get it right.¡± Dustin nodded his head, glancing between the two of them, ¡°you found a way to show us those plays of yours,¡± he surmised. Seras frowned, ¡°yes, but again they¡¯re not plays. Cinema¡¯s got a whole different narrative structure to it. And the one I¡¯m going to show you isn¡¯t like a play at all.¡± ¡°What are you showing us?¡± Flint asked. ¡°Its called a documentary. It¡¯s a series of recordings following the rise of the greatest Merc Ruin has ever seen, besides myself of course.¡± Athena looked interested, while everyone else was weary, ¡°who is it.¡± ¡°A Merc named Nightmare, he¡¯s a legend back home and inspired me a lot. I figure this is the best way to give you guys a look into what my home is like.¡± Flint and Dustin exchanged looks with one another, Flint sighed, ¡°fine, how long is this thing, do we need snacks?¡± ¡°About an hour, and hell ya, no movie¡¯s complete without snacks.¡± Seras frowned and looked around, ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you know where we could get fried pig skins or some salted crickets, those are the traditional foods.¡± They all gave her a look of pure disgust. Ch80 Nightmare The film began with one man fighting in the streets. Though the term man was one loosely applied to the figure on the screen. He was more machine than man, and unlike Seras he hid absolutely nothing. Wires, pistons, and turning gears all animated the man, almost like the clock work abominations they had found in the stellar astral space. The man faced off against an army of men and woman in black cloth armor all wielding strange versions of Seras¡¯ gun. Bright flares of light appeared from the muzzles of these weapons as the army tried to bring down the machine man. Rockets, grenades, and poison gas filled the streets. But nothing kept the man down as he moved around the street with enough speed to rival slower silver rankers. An incredible feat for just a normal ranker. Athena watched the scene with bated breath as she recognized so many of Seras¡¯ own reactions and maneuvers in this man. She saw where the strange Outworlder had first begun developing her ow style nearly half a century after this man had died. A voice began to speak over the violence, ¡°this is the first ever recording of the legendary Mercenary Nightmare at work, though this is far from the beginning of his career. After the end of the third corporate war medical prosthesis began to see their way into mass use across all sectors of society, and with the continued decline of the environment around us these prostheses soon became a necessity of daily life. But while many military engineers were looking into the more aggressive potentials for these cybernetics, it was Nightmare who first used a full body conversion to become a living weapon. And with him a new wave of guns for hires would soon find their way into our society. ¡°The fall of JDR headquarters in the ancient city of Sanctuary is often cited as the begging of the age of Mercs. In this first video you can see why. As one man waged a war against one of the then biggest corporations of his time his actions would inspire a generation of Mercs to come. The image then cut to a different scene, a small squat looking building surrounded by a crowd of very strange looking people. It was hard to tell at first, but the translation rune did its job a transformed the brightly glowing neon sign above the building into something readable. Sin and Misery. The scene then shifted to what Athena assumed to be the inside of the bar. Bright flashing lights, incredibly odd looking people wearing the skimpiest clothes she had ever seen, and lots of dancing filled the interior. But despite all the glimmer and flash Athena didn¡¯t miss that every person in this bar was armed with small hand guns, a more advanced version of Seras¡¯ own pistol. Everyone within looked rough and ready to resort to violence in a second. The camera focused on a man with neon green hair, an unhealthy tint to his skin, and a metal bracing around his lower jaw. ¡°Shit, you want to talk about Nightmare,¡± the green haired man said, ¡°what¡¯s there to talk about. Man was a fucking legend, aint none of us would be here without him. Though with his ancient ass augs I think I could take him.¡± The man wore a smug grin before a familiar voice behind him called out. ¡°Shut the hell up Jackle, you¡¯re a two-bit merc at best. Nightmare would wipe the floor with you, outdated gear or not. That man was something else.¡± A woman at a booth just off to the side japed. The people she was with broke at in laughter at the affronted look on Jackle¡¯s face. The video cut away back to a much brighter scene, this time it was of Nightmare fighting in broad day light. They appeared to be duking it out in a park of all places, eight hulking humanoid figures stomped around the yellow and dead looking grass on the city park. They swung around giant guns that quickly obliterated any cover Nightmare used, these guns seemed to have multiple barrels that spun around firing an insane number of deadly projectiles. But the subject of the film didn¡¯t seem to care, he darted from one to another, out maneuvering the hulking armored gunman before moving in for the kill. His machine arm opened up a bright flare of light and smoke burst out as giant metal canister flew out to hit one of the attackers. There was a bright flash and lots of smoke, but when the dust cleared the gunman was lying dead, with his whole metal chest blown out. The scene then shifted to a skinny man with a strange tool attached to his arm, the tool flared with bright light as it cut through the thick metal plate he was working on. ¡°You see the thing about Nightmare wasn¡¯t just how good at fighting he was, it was his skill as an engineer. The man worked with trash and scrap, nowhere near what the corpo engineers work from. They would spend half a billion chits to create a weapon to counter Nightmare, and next week he¡¯d be back with an entirely different kit. By the end of his one-man war I heard he had eighteen different bodies. All he had to do was keep his core heavily armored and escape, then he could come back with the right gear to win. I suspect he had a lot of help on that front, one man can¡¯t do all that work alone. Before they wiped Sanctuary he uploaded all his work to the net, it¡¯s what all of us back alley chop shops work from.¡± The image then panned to a wall full of mechanical limbs, there were arms, legs, whole torsos, and even wide array of different colored eye balls delicately displayed. All seeming to stare at the viewer, it was uncanny how lifelike they looked even outside of a body. Athena kept waiting for one to blink despite seeing how they had wires coming out the back. The documentary then moved into a section summarizing Nightmare¡¯s early life, from his childhood in an orphanage to his days on the streets working for a gang. All in the oldest city on Ruin, a place said to have been humanities only sanctuary after the divine war that recked their planet. Ancient buildings and stone streets were built over with monolithic towers that stretch to dizzying heights. The film covered a brief overview of the third corporate war, a war started over an ¡®asset dispute¡¯ that left millions dead and many more grievously wounded. Nightmare being one of those wounded soldiers after being pulled from prison to fight on the front lines. The roaring plains, rumbling tanks, and thunderous rockets sent a shiver up Athena¡¯s back. Pallimustus could produce war¡¯s just as deadly, but it never got this bad. The last time war shook Pallimustus like this was five centuries ago. And worse was that these were all normal rankers. In the end JDR was victorious over the Biolite corporation, not that it really meant much. The death toll and monetary toll in waging a global war was way too high. The documentary shifted to a woman standing behind the bar. She was dressed in long flowy robes with necklaces of brightly colored beads around her neck, and a third eye in the center of her forehead. ¡°The third Corpo showed just how expensive and inefficient traditional warfare was. In the wake of all this a new need for deniable third-party contractors was born. Now instead of armies, bombs, and tanks they could use guns for hire to disrupt shipments, steal data, or take out high-ranking executives. And thus and industry was born.¡± A young girl behind the lady with three eyes scoffed, ¡°Of course that¡¯s not all mercs do. They take money from anyone who¡¯s willing to pay. Gangs, criminals, terrorists. And if there¡¯s no work to go around they make it for themselves. All without any real consequences as the law turns a blind eye to them.¡± The three eyed woman turned back to glare at the child of about ten or eleven, but said nothing before turning back. ¡°The child¡¯s right. Mercs all seem glamorous, but don¡¯t forget that they are criminals. Even if no one¡¯s going to prosecute them. Nightmare was a bad man who killed lots of people before he went to war against JDR. Then again it¡¯s not like the corpo¡¯s noses are clean either. There¡¯s sin and misery enough for everyone.¡± Athena turned to Seras, the phrase striking her as familiar. The Outworlder¡¯s eyes never left the three-woman eyed woman and the girl. ¡°And yet you were the one to give us the work Mystra.¡± If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. Athena turned back to the movie and her eyes went wide as a new group of people were brought into frame. They were all sitting around a table in a booth that seemed too small for them. There was a giant of a man, his considerable mass coming from hulking muscle and thick looking plating. When he spoke it was with a deep basey voice that made her chest rumble. ¡°Glamour, glory, fuck all that noise. Only idiot bankers are out for that crap. We¡¯re here to make money, because their ain¡¯t no other way for people like us to rise up on this shitty world. I bet that¡¯s what Nightmare was after at first¡± Next to him, in an almost comical rendition, was a much smaller man. He looked mostly normal, brown hair, non-threatening features, and a slim build, oh and also a quarter of his head had been removed and replaced with metal plating. Where an eye should have been was a black screen with green text scrolling across it. When the man focused on the person recording all this a crude ¡®eye¡¯ made of strange blocky characters appeared. ¡°Indeed, Nightmare worked hard and partied harder. He had a penthouse in one of Sanctuary¡¯s mega towers.¡± ¡°Then he pissed it all away for some girl.¡± A cold voice said. This came from a gorgeous white-haired woman, and though she spoke from behind some sort of mouth mask her words were perfectly clear. The mouth mask itself was a cold blue color with little bars on the side that rose and fell in tune with her voice. ¡°Fucken idiot.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know Frost, if it were the right woman I could see myself doing all sorts of stupid stuff.¡± This voice came from the woman beneath ¡®Frost¡¯. Frost looked up and met the eyes of the woman behind her, ¡°Blackiron, promise me you¡¯ll never do anything as stupid as Nightmare over me. I don¡¯t think I could rest easily if I knew you were being a dumbass.¡± The woman smiled, familiar eyes crinkling at the side. She flipped her hair back and Athena got a proper look at her face. It was familiar, and yet in a thousand little different ways it looked wrong to her. It was Seras, but not the Seras she knew. Her hair and eyes were the right color, but something was subtly off about them. They looked less¡­ real for lack of a better word. As if they were a hyper realistic drawing that was off in its coloring and texture. She had her arms around the woman in her lap, but instead of looking normal like the current Seras¡¯ they were obviously mechanical, black metal with little blue lines glowing around them. In one hand was a glossy black pistol, and in the other was a bottle of some fruity looking drink. ¡°Aw come on Frost, don¡¯t you think its romantic. Man tore down a Corp with his bare hands because they were putting out bad meds. He worked so hard to afford the medicine only for it to be poison from the start. His story would just be another sop story if he hadn¡¯t proceeded to wreck JDR¡¯s shit over that, now he¡¯s the kind of legend no one¡¯s ever gonna forget.¡± Frost jerked a thumb up at Seras, ¡°you want a hopeless fool who believes in all that glory and fame nonsense then here¡¯s your girl. Blackiron practically worship¡¯s Nightmare like he¡¯s one of the dead Gods.¡± Athena, Dustin, Flint and the rest of them turned to stare at the real Seras. But instead of flushing in embarrassment like she should have been she had fixed her eyes on the cold looking woman teasing her. ¡°I forgot she would be here,¡± Seras muttered. She stood up, ¡°just need a moment outside,¡± she said hoarsely. They watched her go, and there was a quite moment in the room where everyone wondered if they should shut it off. But despite the oddity of it all everyone was spell bound to the projection before them. Athena stood up, ¡°I¡¯ll check on her, you all keep watching.¡± Dustin nodded to her and Athena walked out of the room, turning back one last time to see Seras in the film lean down and kiss Frost¡¯s forehead. Seras was leaning on a bit of railing outside, she was fiddling with her hat as she stared into empty space. Athena walked up and leaned against the railing, ¡°just to get this straight, you decided that the best way to show us your world and what it means to you was to have us watch a recording where you were apart of the making. I¡¯m not gonna lie, that¡¯s more than a little self-centered. Like someone giving you their own biography.¡± Seras glanced over, ¡°you have biography¡¯s here¡­ no wait of course you do. Any good ones I should read.¡± Athena shrugged, ¡°some, the best are the ones about diamond rankers. Though most kept any of the real secrets out of their works.¡± ¡°Most?¡± ¡°Draconian blowhards love to talk about themselves, they rarely leave things out. making them both informative and disturbing.¡± She huffed out a small laugh, ¡°I¡¯ll need to look into that.¡± Seras blew at her bangs, ¡°I really should have watched it myself before showing it to you guys. Dead Gods I nearly moaned in embarrassment when I saw that shitty nylon hair implant I used to have. Really should have sprung for something better.¡± They were silent for a long moment before Athena finally decided to just break the tension herself, ¡°so you and this Frost woman were an item. I take it things didn¡¯t end well?¡± Seras grimaced, ¡°no, not at all.¡± ¡°Is she still alive or¡­¡± ¡°Dead.¡± Athena was quiet, waiting for Seras to open up if she was ready. But the Outworlder didn¡¯t speak up. ¡°Alright, I think we¡¯ve been gone long enough,¡± Seras said as she pushed off from the railing. She was just putting her hat back on when Athena gripped her by one arm, ¡°hey.¡± The Outworlder glared back at her from under the brim of her hat, ¡°what, I¡¯ve got nothing more to say.¡± Athena pursed her lips, but ultimately decided now wasn¡¯t the time to press too far. ¡°I know, just know that I¡¯m here for when you¡¯re ready to talk.¡± She stared at Athena before she turned away, though to Athena her eyes looked wetter than usual. ¡°Yeah, keep waiting,¡± she muttered. Athena let go as Seras pulled away. She felt frustrated to be brushed off so easily, but she knew that getting the Outworlder to relax and open up was a war of attrition. Time was on her side, or so she felt. She followed Seras back in and saw that there was another fight taking place, this one was far more devastating. Several towers had crumbled, and a small rag tag group was facing off against an army of dark clothed corporate soldiers. But for all that they were outnumbered the rag tag Mercenaries were winning. At the center of the chaotic fight was one man, he faced off against armored titan¡¯s, swarms of gunners, and low flying metal vehicles, and nothing was working. When it was all over only Nightmare was left standing, the image of him shook as the person taking the recording began to crawl out from their hiding spot and approached the lone Merc. ¡°Mister Nightmare, y- you won, they¡¯re all dead. This, this is, you beat a corporate army.¡± The voice was shaky and obviously incredulous of the end result. A metal skull looked down at the recorder, it may have once looked like a human head before but not with the skin and hair had been burned back. Now all that was left was the metal frame work of a skull with unnerving glass eyes. ¡°Won? Won? Don¡¯t be a dumbass, I didn¡¯t win, I¡¯ve just forced them to a point of no return.¡± ¡°What do you mean sir?¡± the man behind the recorder asked. Nightmare looked up at the sky, sparks flew from his neck as he did so. ¡°Even in this new age of Mercenaries there exists a limit to what we can do and achieve. Even as we rise we are still little more than disposable contractors. I was promised medicine, I convinced myself that I was too useful to cheat, I was wrong. There is no moral line they wont cross for an extra chit, there¡¯s no limit of decency they won¡¯t violate, and there¡¯s no cost that¡¯s too unthinkable for them if it means maintaining control.¡± A small bright flare of light appeared on the horizon, growing brighter and brighter as something massive fell from the sky. ¡°No,¡± the other man whispered, ¡°they wouldn¡¯t, not Sanctuary. It too important, its too, too, this is humanity¡¯s first refuge!¡± The metal skull grinned, it was always grinning, but this time there was a hint of disdainful amusement in its expression. ¡°Once upon a time maybe that was true. But they¡¯ve already turned their attention away from this world. Our world no longer means anything to them.¡± ¡°You knew this would happen, why?¡± The skull looked up at the growing red blur, it almost looked like a comet, but it lacked the telltale tail, ¡°I knew this would happen, but I had hoped I was wrong. But they can¡¯t allow us to take back control of our lives, they need us cowed, and rebellion spreads if left alone. At least I could deny them Sanctuary.¡± ¡°We¡¯re doomed, all of us.¡± The skull turned back down to look at the recorder, ¡°Yes, we are. We always were. At least this death is on my terms.¡± The synthetic voice of the mercenary let out a long-garbled sigh, ¡°to all those watching, I have left all my designs and discoveries spread across the net. I did it in a way that¡¯s impossible to cover up. My weapons, my augs, and my scripts, use them however you want. But remember, to be Merc is to walk hand in hand with sin and misery, nothing behind but blood and death, nothing ahead but glory and fame.¡± He gestured up at the growing comet, ¡°and this is what happens when you try to reach for more than that.¡± That was the last thing they saw of the Merc Nightmare, because the person holding the recording device turned and began to sprint. It was all futile though, because the next clip they saw was of a long metal pole striking the earth and speed. Even from their new view kilometers away from the city of Sanctuary they saw the resulting chaos of devastation. A bright light engulfed their view, and then mere seconds after the flare had faded a wave of dust, molten glass and metal, and broken building hit the new recorder. The next image they were shown was from high up, they were so high up the mountains and rivers near the city were hard to tell apart from the rest of the landscape. The resulting crater had vaporized much of the inner city where once millions of people had lived, the vast swath of less densely packed city around the crater was laid to ruin. The narrator once again began to speak over the devastation and its consequences, but it was all white noise to Athena¡¯s ears as her brain struggled to process what she had just seen. They all were. It was only ten minutes later when Seras clapped her hands that they were broken out of their fugue. ¡°Alright, now that that¡¯s over what do you want to watch next, a romcom, comedy, maybe a kick ass actions flick?¡± They stared at the chipper Outworlder in utter bewilderment. Athena searched the other woman¡¯s face for any signs that she was just as horrified as they were but found none. It wasn¡¯t that Seras was heartless, Athena had seen just the opposite in the Labyrinth, it was that she was completely unphased by what happened. What had Seras said before, something about a man¡¯s head being blown up for a commercial and desensitization? Suddenly, it made sense. But while she understood how Seras could watch this without hyperventilating that didn¡¯t stop her from siding with everyone else when they voted on no more movies. That night Athena had too many nightmares to sleep. Ch81 Rate My Luck In hindsight showing her friends, a documentary ending in an RFG strike on Ruin¡¯s oldest and most densely populated city was a bit much for their first foray into cinematography. In her defense all that was just history to her. The Fall of Sanctuary was what led to the rise of Mantel as the greatest city on Ruin, and that¡¯s about all she cared about when it came down to it. ¡°It wasn¡¯t even that bad, you guys have Gold and Diamond rankers who could do the same,¡± Seras protested for the umpteenth time. A tired and slightly bloodshot Athena through her sticky roll at Seras¡¯ head. Seras ducked out of the way only to be nailed by two other sticky rolls. She glared at Petra, and Dallas, ¡°hey, quit wasting my apologies gifts!¡± Petra scoffed and tore into her remaining sticky roll, ¡°its mine now and I¡¯ll do whatever I want with it,¡± she said as she finished licking her fingers, ¡°can I have another?¡± Seras rolled her eyes and another iron spirit coin manifested in her hand, ¡°go wild, just quit throwing them at me.¡± She flicked the coin up and Petra caught it easily. The muscular Leonid then turned back to the stand and proceeded to buy a whole basket of the warm rolls with desert honey drizzled generously over the top. Seras eyed her own roll as she remembered her encounter with the desert bees on her first day in this world. Desert bees were another one of those naturally magical creatures that inhabited Pallimustus, what she had thought to be a terrific monster were really just another part of this world¡¯s ecosystem. And their honey was absolutely delicious, and expensive. It required quite a bit of set up to attract and house the dangerous insects, but the return on investment was usually worth it. Back on Ruin after she had made it big Seras had bought one of the few remaining jars of real honey for a few hundred thousand chits. She had enjoyed the taste, but felt that it was a tremendous waste of money. This honey was far better, and certainly more affordable than what she had bought before. ¡°What about a Rom-com?¡± ¡°What¡¯s a Rom-com?¡± Dallas asked. ¡°It¡¯s a romantic comedy, my favorite is Two Hearts one Pulse. It¡¯s about these two guys who were in an industrial accident, and the cheap back-alley chopshop that pieced back together had to split their hearts and rebuild new ones from the old pieces. The twist is though that somehow their pulses are linked, so that when one is having something like a panic attack the other guy can feel it. This helps them learn about each other and grow close.¡± Athena stared at her intently, ¡°okay, that sounds alright, how does it end?¡± ¡°Well I¡¯m not going to spoil the ending before you watch it,¡± Seras deflected. ¡°How. Does. It. End.¡± Athena said more forcefully. Seras glanced away, ¡°one of the guys had a gambling problem and his bookies decided to torture him until the other guy got the money, but they ended up having some sort of heart failure before the end.¡± Athena sighed, ¡°is everything from your world so sad? No story should require a visit to a mind healer afterwards.¡± ¡°What about a comedy?¡± ¡°Would I need a thought healer afterwards?¡± Seras opened her mouth and then closed it as she recalled the details of the movie. ¡°Seras, your world really sucks.¡± Dallas said after she gave up on trying to do another movie night. ¡°I know, I just wanted to show you guys the things I liked about it.¡± Athena sighed, ¡°well, the Rom-com doesn¡¯t sound that bad, we¡¯ll just need to warn the others first.¡± Seras perked up, ¡°really?¡± ¡°Yes, if nothing else I¡¯ll join you. Now, have you found an awakening stone you like?¡± Seras turned her headw back to the limited selection the vender had set up behind a glass case. On this level of the shopping arcade of the Adventurer society there were only the most basic and common essences up for sale. Weapon essences, less popular animal essences, and some basic elemental ones were all up for grabs. But Seras found herself deeply underwhelmed by what was available. Part of the problem was herself. While she knew academically that there wasn¡¯t a difference in power between cheap and expensive awakening stones she couldn¡¯t really feel comfortable in her heart about picking up cheap stone. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. ¡°Not really, kind of a bummer they don¡¯t have a Heidel stone up,¡± Seras said after a final glance at the selection. ¡°Heidel is pretty popular out here in the deserts, at least for more middle class people. They¡¯re really good for anything having to do with trade and hulling,¡± Dallas all this while staring intently at an essence for sale. ¡°I¡¯ve been looking for one too, I¡¯d really like the essence itself like Uncle Dustin, but those are bought up by the big shipping companies almost immediately.¡± Seras huffed out a sigh. After learning that Buck had developed a hint of magic on his own she had really begun to consider getting a Heidel awakening stone so that she could properly bond with him and let him step into Iron rank entirely. But at the same time she wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted a permanently bonded familiar like that. She loved Buck, but was that enough to dedicate an entire essence ability. She wasn¡¯t even sure how long she¡¯d stay with Dustin and his crew. Seras watched Dallas stare at the adept stone a moment longer before he broke away from it. In the time she had been gone he had picked up another essence with his wages. He had picked up a fire essence just like his uncle, and now he was wavering on which essence he should take to complete his set. A Heidel essence would put him on the same path as Dustin and get him the Outrider confluence. But he seemed to be personally leaning towards adept, which would give him a master confluence like Rohan. She turned to look at Athena who was very carefully not looking at any of the awakening stones for sale. She had been too often disappointed by her essence powers, and wasn¡¯t ready to try for more to complete her powerset. ¡°Any suggestions,¡± she needeled. ¡°Magus,¡± Athena responded without turning her head. ¡°That was rather quick.¡± She sighed, ¡°its an obvious choice. What you lack at the moment is a proper attack ability. Your gun is good, but at higher ranks you¡¯ll need either spells or special attacks to handle resistances. Out of everything for sale Magus is the best, I¡¯d recommend picking up two to be sure. They¡¯re a top tier common essence.¡± Seras turned back to the stall eyed the Magus awakening stone like Athena was recommending. She was right of course, if Seras wanted to fill out her combat powers then she¡¯d need something like that. But then there was her soul disconnect to worry about. Did she want a combat power that would fill a gap in her fighting while increasing the odds of her soul strain going up, or did she want another crafting ability? She didn¡¯t plan on getting into anymore dangerous situations, so a crafting ability might be a good idea. ¡°Athena, if you had to rate my luck from one to ten-,¡± ¡°-Two,¡± She answered without hesitation. She grimaced. ¡°Well, that¡¯s that, two magus stones,¡± she said to the stall owner. The blue skinned Runic man glanced at her and shook his head, ¡°you can only get one at the discounted rate here.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°wait, that¡¯s the discounted price?¡± The Runic man nodded, ¡°Director Arlee gives us vender¡¯s some of the good common stones to sell, but with limitations on price and quantity.¡± That got Athena to turn her head, ¡°that¡¯s odd, usually the society lets the free market decide on that back home.¡± The Runic snorted at her, ¡°and let me guess, back home all the nobles snap up the good stones at higher prices so that common adventurers can¡¯t get any.¡± ¡°Uh, well, yes, but that¡¯s just the way it is.¡± The Runic nodded, ¡°right, and that kind of system keeps the scales balanced towards the established powers. The Director, however, came up from a poor farming town and hates that kind of thing. He thinks it¡¯s a kind of corruption, price capping the good stones out of common people¡¯s ranges.¡± She scowled, ¡°but that doesn¡¯t really matter, no stone gives out bad powers. The Theory of potentiality and all.¡± The Runic man¡¯s glare became deeper, he leaned over, ¡°right, but how easy is it to make unusual essence powers work right. Tricky weird powers take more practice and dedication to get right, meaning its far harder for common adventures to succeed compared to easy powers. I¡¯m not going to argue with you girl, the Director wants good stones like magus to be sold at an affordable price, and he says only one per person. That¡¯s the rules. And don¡¯t try to fool me by having the Smoulder boy buy one for friend either, I¡¯m not a moron.¡± ¡°Its fine,¡± Seras interjected, ¡°my friend is from far and doesn¡¯t get the way you do things here in Cupric, its admirable of the Director to try and spread advantages around for the common people. If only everywhere else was like that.¡± The Runic man looked contrite, ¡°sorry, I was a bit short tempered there. It¡¯s a newer rule and I¡¯ve been having trouble with nobles all month long over this one. The Director¡¯s gotten a lot of push back on his reforms. I suspect they¡¯d of had him replaced if the continental council itself didn¡¯t put him here.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°I thought the conitental council didn¡¯t like interferreing like that.¡± ¡°They don¡¯t, but I¡¯m glad they did. Things have been hard for common adventurers since the last rebirth. It happens every time the aqueducts dry up, or so I¡¯ve heard, but this time has been a lot more stifling. I¡¯m glad we¡¯ve got good people like Director¡¯s Arlee and Dundee in the city.¡± Seras nodded, agreeing with both statements there, ¡°if I can¡¯t get two Magus stones then is their another one that might work for me. I need more oompf in my powers.¡± The Runic man tapped a finger, ¡°maybe. You¡¯re the girl Dan was talking about right?¡± Seras blinked, ¡°Leonid guy, shorter main than average?¡± ¡°Yeah that¡¯s him, good old Dannias. Is what he said true, about you falling into the labyrinth after fighting those Omeda bastards?¡± ¡°That sounds about right, so long as he didn¡¯t embellish too much,¡± Seras agreed. The Runic ¡®hmmed¡¯ to himself, ¡°my buddy Arron on the third floor has a Wrath stone he hasn¡¯t set out yet. I can¡¯t guarantee what price he¡¯ll sell it at, but tell him I sent you and see what you can get.¡± Seras nodded, ¡°thanks for the tip, I¡¯ll do that.¡± She purchased the stone from the Runic man and went up to the third floor where a Leonid man with a weapon and armor stall was set up. Seras got to talking with him, told him who had sent her, relayed an abridged version of her time in the labyrinth, and ended up showing him the diamond hard capsules she had gotten from the Star Gliders. The transparent capsule that had protected the eyes on the Star Gliders were a unique and exciting bronze rank material that interested the Leonid smith. By the end of it Seras had traded three away for a two star awakening stone that was popular for its almost guaranteed special attack power. By the end of it all she was feeling very accomplished and just a bit giddy to see what kind of powers she might get. She converted the two stones into shards and slotted them into her. ¡°Well, what did you get?¡± Petra pressed. Seras frowned. ¡°Aw, were they bad powers,¡± Dallas guessed, ¡°like your glowing finger or your expensive familiar?¡± She kept her mouth shut. Of the three of them only Athena noticed the single tug on the edge of Seras¡¯ frown. She sighed and punch Seras in the shoulder, ¡°quit pretending to be disappointed, I can see that smile your hiding.¡± Seras couldn¡¯t suppress it any longer, a huge smile broke across her face and she began to laugh at the looks on Dallas and Petra¡¯s face. You have unlocked the Avatar essence ability Enhanced bullets You have unlocked the Potent essence ability Armor Piercer Enhanced bullets (spell); allows for the user to infuse their ammunition with magical power. User can either increase the power of a bullet or add an elemental damage type. Cool down; one minute Cost; medium to high mana Armor Piercer (special attack); Allows the user to harden projectiles and increase the power behind their flight. Cool down; one minute. Cost; High mana Ch82 Error Bang! Crack! A corner of Petra¡¯s stone shield broke under Seras¡¯ barrage and the bullet cracked her armor. With her bronze rank mana resolve and greater power the shield reformed in seconds, but the point was that Seras¡¯ shot had broken through. All it took was three essence abilities stacked upon one another to break past the defenses of a bronze rank Fortress confluence wielder like Petra. It didn¡¯t seem like much, but this was a huge step forward in her power set. Previously Seras¡¯ guns lacked penetrating power against tougher foes. Beings like the metal abominations from the Stellar astral space could take dozens of Seras¡¯ shots head on. Even the Star Gliders thick hide and massive body mass were enough to cushion the blows from Seras¡¯ guns. But with her two new powers that wasn¡¯t the case. By hardening the bullet with [Structural Reinforcement] and stacking both the spell and special attack on one another she could break the armor of tougher opponents. And with control bullets she could even make sure the bullet didn¡¯t get deflected by hitting at the wrong angle. There was just one caveat. The incantations. ¡°Fueled by my might; slay my foes¡± and ¡°By my will Break,¡± when used back-to-back they slowed Seras down and telegraphed her attack. On the plus side [Enhance Bullets] enchanted the full magazine, it just required more mana for more bullets, or higher caliber ones. After paying the initial cost it would persist for a time afterwards. She could either spend a bit of mana to enchant the single bullet in her rifle, or a slightly increased amount to enchant her whole revolver. She would need to work out the ratio between mana consumption based on caliber and then determine whether it was more efficient to do a whole magazine or if the growth in cost was linear. Either way it did move up her production schedule for a magazine loaded Magitech rifle. She already had a few ideas saved with her blueprinting software. She might even be able to make Magitech pistols viable for fighting monsters and magical foes. [Armor Piercer] was a more straight forward power. It was a special attack that infused her weapon with magic and fired a high powered and magically hardened bullet at a target, there even seemed to be some sort of internal magic going on to disrupt magical shielding or reinforcement. So, it wasn¡¯t like firing a higher caliber gun with higher penetration. The only issue she needed to work out was things like over penetration. This power she couldn¡¯t scale back, it took a set amount of mana and did a set amount of damage. Over penetrating on a less durable foe would result in completer through and through penetration, which was less lethal than having a bullet stuck inside you. Especially if she ever worked out internal fragmentation to add more damage to the attack. On her world there were bullets with a specifically designed internal structure that made it pop apart once with the softer flesh of a person. And for fully modded cyborgs like herself there were corrosive acids and nano bots. There was room for improvement in all things, but Seras didn¡¯t let that ruin her elation over her new powers. ¡°Gods dammit Seras, I said no shooting your friends,¡± a gruff voice roared from the side of the field. Seras and Petra winced as Dustin marched over to then, his eyes blazing with fury. Literally. Seras looked over to Petra, ¡°I thought you said he had a meeting with the other Caravan crews?¡± Seras whispered. ¡°He did,¡± Petra whispered back. ¡°That was an hour ago,¡± he growled, ¡°I just got back, only to here from the owner you¡¯ve been causing a ruckus out here.¡± Seras checked her internal clock and winced; time had gotten away from them. ¡°Have you been shooting Petra for the whole last hour?¡± Dustin asked incredulously. ¡°Well, I wasn¡¯t shooting Petra the whole time. We did test it out on steel plates and boulders first. But I needed feedback on its effects against magical defenses.¡± Dustin looked out at the blown out steel plating and shattered boulders in the yard, ¡°and you thought after seeing all that that it was a good idea to try it out on a person.¡± ¡°Hey, I¡¯m a tough girl, tougher than some rocks,¡± Petra complained. Even as they tried to defend the sanctity of their decision making the two woman saw that it was a lost cause. ~~~*~~~ The end credits of the movie began to roll, so much text was scrolling across the screen that the translating magic gave up on translating the blocky runic characters of Mantalese. ¡°See, that wasn¡¯t so bad,¡± Seras said with a smile. She heard a sniff behind her and turned to a red eyed Athena with tear stained cheeks. ¡°No, it was beautiful. But why couldn¡¯t they just have a happy ending?¡± she moaned. ¡°It wasn¡¯t possible.¡± Flint said as he dabbed his own eyes, ¡°Rand and Guts were too deeply flawed as people for them to have a happy ending.¡± ¡°It would have been fine if the bookies just left them alone, they didn¡¯t even need to go that far. They had the money to pay them off,¡± Dustin pointed out, little trails of steam rising from his eyes. Seras shrugged, ¡°the world¡¯s not like that, you don¡¯t get to chose when someone with more power comes around and screws you over.¡± ¡°Did anyone think there were way too many gratuitous sex scenes?¡± Petra asked. She was the only one in the whole room besides Seras who was completely dry eyed, and that was only because Seras had seen it dozens of times. It used to annoy Frost. ¡°I thought it was fine,¡± Dallas mumbled, the lines of fire on his cheek flared a bit brighter. ¡°The scene behind the dumpsters was a bit much, and did he have a metal-,¡± ¡°Yup, they¡¯re pretty common on my world. Though most girls prefer guys with ones naturally that large.¡± Seras answered. It wasn¡¯t her thing, but she had heard plenty of gossip. Athena made a face at that statement. Dustin slapped his knees, ¡°whelp, that was certainly a lot better than the last one, I still wish it had a happier ending. But it¡¯s getting late, this old man is gonna head to bed. Don¡¯t worry about the volume though.¡± He got up from the couch and began to make his way upstairs. It wasn¡¯t lost on many of them that Flint followed Dustin up only minutes later. Seras snorted as her bionic ears suddenly stopped hearing the creaking of floorboards from their room. A telltale sign of privacy magic being employed. ¡°Its cute they think we don¡¯t know,¡± she quipped. Dallas nodded his head, ¡°yeah, the whole family back home even knows, I don¡¯t know why they hide it.¡± ¡°Flint doesn¡¯t look it but he¡¯s a bashful kind of guy,¡± Petra said. "The one time I caught them on accident he went as red as a flame drakes ass.¡± Athena covered her mouth to hide the loud snort trying to escape from her lips. Seras smiled at them all as she fiddled with the projector to set up the next movie. ~~~*~~~ Bang! Bang! Bang! Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Seras cursed and jumped out of the way as the charging monster barreled through where she had been. She held up her pistol and concentrated on the magic flowing through her, ¡°By my will, BREAK!¡± she roared as magic emptied out of her mana pool and into her gun. BANG! The crack of the gunshot was far louder than before as the special attack charged her little pistol with more power than it should have had. Two instances of [Enfeeblement] have been added to Sand Roller The crack in the Sand rollers shell was by no means a fatal or debilitating blow. The fact that two instances of Enfeeblement had been added to the already large stack of afflictions was the only worthwhile thing about that attack. Seras emptied the spent rounds in the revolver and replaced them with fresh ones. While the Sand Roller was still distracted she cast her spell. ¡°Fueled by my might; slay my foes.¡± Her mana dropped, but not by much. Pistol bullets were rather small after all. She ran forward and leapt high over the Sand Roller, she pointed her gun down and fired, each shot aimed at the crack in its tough shell. A jet of flames burst out of the of the shell as the power within the bullet ignited. Her hope was to burn it like Dustin had once done months back on their journey to Karstess. The heat flaring out from a crack in its shell baked the surrounding armor, and a long crack in its shell developed. But with lack of subsequent [Enfeeblement] afflictions told Seras it wasn¡¯t enough to harm the Bronze ranked monster. She landed and cursed as the Sand Roller curled up and began to charge her down. Seras summoned a small device to her hand and activated a small rune on its casing, she waited until the Sand roller was right on her before placing the bomb and teleporting to safety. BOOM! Scree! Her latest addition to her growing arsenal was a shaped charge with magical sticking runes that she could activate of the fly. The charge stuck to the shell and directed the force of its detonation directly towards its target. Seras had only teleported a dozen meters away so that she¡¯d be ready to hammer the injured monster with more bullets. That would turn out to be entirely unnecessary, as the shaped charge had killed the monster. ¡°Break, and fuel my rise,¡± Seras chanted. Ten Bronze rank spirit coins have been added to your pocket space One hundred iron rank coins have been added to your pocket space Five earth quintessence have been added to your pocket space Sand Roller Carapace has been added to your pocket space She turned to the waiting figures of Petra, Rohan, and Athena. ¡°Well I guess that proves it, the pistol is still not enough to deal with Bronze ranked enemies.¡± Rohan quirked an eyebrow, ¡°you know, most Iron rankers have great trouble dealing with monsters of our own rank.¡± Seras rolled her eyes, ¡°well that sounds like a waste of magic. If I can¡¯t punch up then what¡¯s the point?¡± Rohan frowned, ¡°you¡¯ll find that most well trained iron rankers to be less stupid than the monsters you have faced. If your strength and speed weren¡¯t already at bronze then you¡¯d be far less deadly.¡± ¡°But I am, if its gonna kill me in the end then I¡¯ll get every advantage from it that I can.¡± Rohan turned away from her pointed stare. He was feeling frustrated by her current power. They had both become iron rankers at around the same time, and he had about the same amount of powers as she did. But Seras was already punching into Bronze while Rohan was still working to adapt to his full suite of abilities. It helped that Seras¡¯ abilities all helped reinforce the fighting style she had already mastered. A wave of relief washed over Seras, and she found herself smiling before she realized what that meant. Her head snapped over to a suddenly very pale faced Athena. ¡°I knew it, you advanced your abilities again, a lot of them by the feel of it,¡± she said through gritted teeth. Seras averted her gaze, ¡°just the essential ones, [Shape metal] and [Inscribe rune/circuit]. I need them to be stronger.¡± As she finished speaking a wave of intense pain flowed back into her, and Seras dropped to one knee. She clenched her fist and slowly stood up. ¡°Sorry, couldn¡¯t hold it any longer, it slipped.¡± Athena said as she took in deep gasps of air. ¡°Its, oh fuck, nope, not fine. Fuuuck!¡± She groaned. Petra sighed and walked over towards Seras, with one arm she lifted Seras up onto her back with a grunt and began to walk back towards the small canal skimmer they bought. ¡°That¡¯s enough monster hunting for today, we¡¯ve already cleared most of the contracts we took, you need to rest.¡± ¡°I¡¯m, fine,¡± she said unconvincingly. Though she couldn¡¯t see it from her angle, something about Petra¡¯s aura gave off a feeling of her rolling her eyes, ¡°riiight, remind me, when was the last time you slept?¡± Seras shut up. ¡°That¡¯s what I thought, you need to rest. Do you still have that sleeping drought Flint bought you.¡± ¡°Yeah, it doesn¡¯t work though, I wake up feeling just as tired.¡± Petra and Athena exchanged conspiratorial looks with each other. ¡°Just try it again.¡± Athena insisted. Seras frowned, but she didn¡¯t say anything else. That night Seras got an actually restful nights sleep. But she couldn¡¯t pretend to not see the drained and pale look of Athena the next morning. In her head she knew that Athena had taken on her burden so that she could sleep, and while she wanted to tell her off Seras couldn¡¯t make herself do it. Something in her heart yearned for more of that peaceful oblivion she had felt last night. So she said nothing. ~~~*~~~ ¡°Alright, now pull the wire back, see that bolt there, yeah unscrew that one.¡± Seras gently coached Athena as she undid the last piece hooking Seras¡¯ arm into her shoulder socketing. Left Biolite recoil reducing arm has been disconnected from central nerve center. The little popup confirmed that they had done everything right. Athena rolled the table cart with her left arm away and pulled the next table cart up. On this second cart was a very simple magical armor piece, a simply articulated metal limb Seras had ordered from the magic society two weeks ago. She had heard it mentioned several times before that there were magical prosthesis out there, a temporary fallback for wounded adventurers until a good healer had time to see them. They were first developed in regions where magical healing had grown too expensive, and were a simple curiosity to the greater magical community. But to Seras this simple iron ranked prosthesis was her hope for a pain free future. After studying the material Healer had given her access to Seras had come upon this one possible solution to her issue. As things were Seras was in an impossible situation where her body was bronze rank while her magical matrix was only iron. Every step forward in her essence abilities brought her closer to closing that gap, while at the same time increasing the strain on her soul. She would die before she reached bronze rank, and thus could never fix her soul/body disconnect. But what if she could replace her body with iron ranked pieces? Her rebirth had seemingly made her body bronze ranked, and there were systems she could never replace without risking death like her spinal implants or the cranial augmentations. But an arm was much more doable. If she could safely replace bits of her bronze ranked body with iron ranked ones then maybe she could more safely advance her essence abilities and eventually step into bronze rank without dying. At that point she¡¯d just reinstall her normal limbs and live the rest of her life as a happy pain free cyborg. That was the idea at least. Today they were going to test that out with a very simply iron ranked replacement. Athena wheeled the second table cart over and began to slowly hook in her never wires into the small converter boxes Seras had made. Working off the same principle that allowed the magic projectors of Pallimustus read the data dense shard of Ruin, Seras was hoping they would convert her electrical nerve impulses into magical ones that would control the metal limb. When the last wire was connected Seras felt something with herself surge out into the limb. Her natural magical matrix reached out and touched the artificial one of the limb. Loud scratching, whirling, and humming came from the magical sensors Director Dundee had lent to her. These devices were the ones used in formations research to read the magical oscillations and feed from experimental formation circles. This was how new formation circles and runes were developed over time. Seras felt a prickling sensation in what her brain told her was her left arm, and she began to feel excited. ERROR Incompatible entity detected. REJECTION ERROR REJECTION ERROR,REJECTION, ERROR, REJECTION, REJECTION, REJECTION, ERRO¡­ Soul body disconnect has advanced to 30 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 40 percent. Seras¡¯ back arched as unimaginable pain ravaged her. Her mouth gaped open in a silent scream. ¡°No! NO!¡± Athena screamed in alarm as she began ripping the wires apart. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 50 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 60 percent. ¡°God¡¯s fucking dammit, NO!¡± Athena screamed. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 70 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 80 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 90 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 95 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 94 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 76 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 68 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 52 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 41 percent. Soul body disconnect has advanced to 30 percent. Anomaly removed, soul body disconnect has returned to prior levels Seras rolled off the table and began to hack violently, blood and phlegm came up with each convulsion of her chest. A hand was placed against her back and began to slowly rub in small circles. She wheezed until something churned in her stomach, Seras tried to hold it back, but no force of will would keep down the vomit fighting against her lips to burst out. The last memory she had after seeming to hurl up her remaining guts was of black spots swimming through her vision before she passed out in the pool of her own awful. ~~~*~~~ Athena was hyperventilating over the unconscious form of Seras. She only vaguely heard the aggressive wailing from the monitoring equipment Seras had borrowed. She looked down at the bloody and soiled Outworlder and felt an impulse to use her power on her, but then she remembered the awful scratchy silent scream she had made as everything went wrong. Athena had been forced to study a thousand different kinds of monsters growing up, and the one that had always stuck in her mind was the vile Phantom possessor, born from magical manifestations in areas with tons of death these monsters were almost impossible to detect until they found a victim to possess. Their victims were known to convulse violently, thrash about, bleed from their eyes, and twist themselves into unnatural contorted shapes. Seras had just reminded Athena of every nightmare she had of those spectral monsters as a kid. And her aura. Her aura had assaulted Athena¡¯s own with an echo of the pain she had been feeling. She couldn¡¯t do it. She couldn¡¯t help. She was an awful rotten friend because she just couldn¡¯t make herself reach out and help Seras. She hated herself. Bang! Bang! BANG! Three heavy blows rained down on the metal door to the borrowed lab as the security and medical staff of the magic society burst through. Magic research wasn¡¯t always a safe endeavor, especially when you concentrated so many experiments together in one campus. The security quickly secured the room and made sure there was no experiment going wild. At the same time the Healing staff leapt forward towards Seras without any pause, even after seeing the state she was in. They cut her free of her ruined clothes and hooked a leather breathing mask to her face as they searched her for any signs of injury. When nothing besides the missing arm jumped out to them, they pulled her onto a metal board and threw a cloth over her before rushing out for the nearest temple of the Healer. Two stayed behind and began to look Athena over, shining magical lights into her eyes and pressing a magical matrix reader into her skin. Shakily she pointed to the arm still on the rolling table, ¡°she¡¯s, she¡¯s going to need that.¡± Athena said shakily. They glanced over to the arm and quirked their eyebrows simultaneously. They turned back to Athena, and the brown-haired Elf healer spoke to her in a kind and patient manner. ¡°We¡¯re going to need you to explain this from the beginning.¡± Ch83 It cant get any worse ¡°Not dead, you¡¯d think at some point I¡¯ll stop being surprised by that,¡± Seras said as soon as she opened her eyes. ¡°To be fair, you do seem to try your best to change that,¡± A voice said from besides her. Her aura senses told her that there was no one else in this room, which told her all she needed to know about who was in here with her. ¡°You know, the lights in here are just like the washed out hospital lights back on Ruin, the smell¡¯s even pretty close.¡± She turned her head and looked the God in his eyes. Healer¡¯s soft brown eyes met her own, and she felt a sad kindness in them. ¡°There are a nearly infinite number of diseases and injuries, far less ways to cure them, but only a few ways to set up an effective hospital.¡± She laughed, ¡°I didn¡¯t know the Gods could joke.¡± ¡°You haven¡¯t met Revel, or a great myriad of other gods. Even Undeath can tell a good joke once in a while, though the punchline is usually necrophilia.¡± Seras sat up gingerly, expecting any shift to bring her excruciating pain. But there was none, not even a crick in her neck. Nor the ever-present soul pain she had grown used to. She looked on the other side of her bed and saw the collapsed and pale form of Athena next to her. ¡°She would not leave, and we would not force her given what she was doing for you. The residue trauma of what you went through was causing periodic seizures, and my priests couldn¡¯t stay here curing the damage. There¡¯s so many to heal, and to little healers to go around.¡± ¡°But she¡¯s passed out, how is it still working?¡± Seras asked the God. The God looked down at Athena and frowned, ¡°I think such restrictions were always self-imposed. She only needs to be awake to reach out, after that the link is formed.¡± He sighed, ¡°poor child, though she had the racial trait to support it her parents should have seen that she lacked the right temperament to an Adventurer. Their stubbornness has put her on a long and painful path.¡± Seras stared at her friend, she noticed the slight tremble in Athena¡¯s limbs and gritted her teeth. Stupid girl, this was Seras¡¯ burden not hers, she didn¡¯t have to be doing this to herself. Seras glanced to her side and saw that her normal arm had been reattached. ¡°Your friend helped walk us through the reattachment, and the disciples who witnessed your secret have sworn their confidentiality to me. Though Director Dundee is also now aware and might like to have words with you.¡± Seras clenched her fist, ¡°thank you. But why are you here? I doubt every dumbass who nearly kills themselves gets a personal meeting from a God.¡± ¡°It not as rare as you assume, I appear to many in need of reassurance, though I mostly let my followers take that roll. Its far less intimidating to the patient and helps reaffirm my followers convictions. It is a difficult role to fill in the world, always seeing people at their worst and suffering so.¡± ¡°Are you sure your name isn¡¯t Kindness or Empathy, because typically the doctors of my world are more concerned with shilling the sick and desperate for all they got.¡± He frowned, and Seras felt just a flicker of his divine aura, letting her see his displeasure with such things. ¡°Such things happen here as well, I recently needed to personally intervene with a congregation who had fallen too low. I do not like such things, but I rarely stop them by force either.¡± ¡°Is that not a kind of neglect or dereliction of duty?¡± ¡°It is, but to put my hand down and demand my followers obey would closer in line with Dominion¡¯s practices. My followers are free to choose, and with that freedom those who choose kindness are elevated far above the petty and greedy.¡± Seras frowned, ¡°I don¡¯t know. Freedom sounds nice, but that just leads to people choosing to screw each other over.¡± ¡°It is a contradiction, and far from your original question.¡± ¡°Right, sorry, I tend to wander aimlessly when I speak.¡± Seras looked down at her lap, ¡°It failed, I really thought it would work, the theory was sound.¡± ¡°Miss Cross, if the answer was that easy then Knowledge would have told you. And if you do not trust in that then trust that I would have.¡± Seras stared at her lap, slowly closing and opening her fist. ¡°It¡¯s the racial trait isn¡¯t it? Biomechanical physiology. It did more than just let me keep my augs, it made these augs my actual body. Is that why I¡¯ve been less able to turn down skin sensitivity and pain receptors?¡± ¡°Yes, when you reborn a separation still existed deep down in your soul. But as time goes by, as your body breaks and remake¡¯s itself, that separation closes.¡± ¡°I need to change the racial trait then, need to force it to evolve in a way that will fix me.¡± Seras said, each word coming out quicker and quicker as the ideas connected in her mind. A hand landed on her shoulder and she was shaken out of her own mind, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but it¡¯s still not that simple,¡± Healer said mournfully. ¡°But why not, racial traits come from the soul don¡¯t they, I just need to-,¡± ¡°Seras,¡± the God interjected, his voice and aura filled the room with unquestionable authority. ¡°It is true that Racial traits do adapt to your circumstances, and there are ways to put yourself in a scenario that encourages change, but that does not mean you can choose the shape it takes. Moreover, that will not cure you. The kind of power you need to integrate your soul, body, and magical matrix is the kind only a powerful transcendent being can provide. Even a diamond ranker would lack the right kind of power to help you. I know you rebel at Knowledges statements; you think you can find a solution that does not require a Gods intervention. You think that you know better than the Goddess of Knowledge, and that is arrogance beyond the pale of an Iron ranker¡¯s strength. Knowledge does not lie, nor do I. I let you leave that night hoping you would soon see reason, and instead you nearly ended your own life believing you were cleverer than the Gods.¡± Seras clenched her fists, ¡°it¡¯s not fair,¡± she whispered hoarsely. ¡°Has it ever been?¡± Seras closed her eyes and opened them, ¡°I need to think about this. This is something I can never take back.¡± Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original. Healer nodded, not calling out the lie in Seras¡¯ words. ¡°My door will remain open to you. There is much good you could do with my followers, magical healing can fix much, but I still see a place for biomechanical prosthetics in the future of Pallimustus. And if not I then Knowledge would still take you.¡± And then he was gone, not in a flash, not in blink and you miss it moment. It was as if he had never been there at all. The moment the God was gone Athena jerked and woke up to see Seras sitting there. ¡°Seras!¡± she cried. ¡°Hey Athena, I guess Healer was doing something to keep you asleep.¡± She was already half out of her chair before Seras¡¯ words seemed to register, ¡°lord Healer was here?¡± ¡°Yup, doing God stuff, checking up on me, calling me stupid and arrogant¡­ being right.¡± Athena shook her head, ¡°you¡¯re far too casual about talking to Gods.¡± ¡°Probably because a part of me still can¡¯t quite believe it. They feel less like Gods and more like really strange powerful people, but maybe that¡¯s just some lingering Atheism.¡± Athena leaned against the bed and bowed her head down so low that her face was nearly buried into the white sheets. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Seras turned away from the embarrassing sight, ¡°nothing to be sorry for. It was all my stupid idea, thinking I was cleverer than the actual fucking Goddess of Knowledge.¡± ¡°No, not that, I, could have helped, when you were thrashing, but I was too afraid. I¡¯m sorry. I¡¯m so sorry.¡± Seras looked back to Athena and saw that she had small tears falling from her face. Seras reached out hesitantly to try and reassure Athena, but her hand stopped just short of her shoulder. Seras let her hand fall back down to the bed, ¡°its fine, we all freeze up sometimes. You¡¯re helping now aren¡¯t you?¡± That was apparently the wrong thing to say, because Athena burst into full on sobbing and buried her head into Seras¡¯ lap, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, I¡¯m sorry, it hurts, and this all I can do.¡± Seras froze, unsure of what to do. For the first time since she had first felt the pain Seras realized that it wasn¡¯t just her burden, not really. Even if she was the person suffering directly all the people around her were hurting as well in different ways. Seras remembered the frustrated indignation in Petra¡¯s face when they first found out, Dustin¡¯s quiet concern, even Flint had grown less distant as he saw the pain she was in. She hadn¡¯t thought much about it until Athena came around and started taking the pain into herself. It seemed that more than the actual pain she took, the feeling of uselessness hurt Athena the most. Self-loathing, impotence, and sense of helplessness as the world set out to screw you and your loved ones over, those were all feelings Seras knew pretty fucking well. Which is how she knew without a doubt there wasn¡¯t a damn thing she could say to make it okay. ~~~*~~~ Seras stared down the expensive amber liquid in her cup before knocking the silver ranked booze. Silver ranked alcohol has exceeded poison resistance, condition intoxication has developed. She let out a low hiss through her teeth before refilling the glass from the crystal decanter. It was worth the price she paid to finally be able to get drunk. The temple had let her go, and Seras had to return to an inn that felt more like a funeral home with its heavy atmosphere. She couldn¡¯t take it. She had slipped out and found her way to the upscale bar Mr. Bannack had once taken her to. ¡°I don¡¯t usually like to pry Miss, but I don¡¯t get many patrons who can take silver ranked alcohol at iron rank,¡± the bartender said pryingly. ¡°Something troubling you?¡± ¡°Heh, troubling, yeah you could say. I¡¯m dying, every step forward brings me pain unimaginable and I¡¯ve only one way out.¡± Seras kicked back the next glass. Her link to Athena had broken as she left the range of her power, now the soul pain had an almost unstable feel to it. Like one little nudge could have it cascade again, no wonder she kept having seizures on the Healer¡¯s temple. She reached out to refill it again but a firm handheld the crystal decanter down, ¡°Miss, if you¡¯re dying then I don¡¯t feel quite right about letting you drink this,¡± the bartender said. ¡°I bought it,¡± Seras growled. ¡°And I¡¯ll refund you,¡± he shot back. She stared down the bartender but didn¡¯t feel a single bit of give in his amber gaze. She hung her head and slumped down. ¡°Whatever.¡± She heard the thick boards of the bar creak as the bar tender moved to the other side of the counter and sat in a stool next to her. ¡°Are you really dying Miss?¡± he asked. Seras didn¡¯t lift her head, ¡°yup, prognosis from Healer himself.¡± ¡°If you met with Healer then is there not a cure?¡± ¡°Yup, divine intervention, no other recourse.¡± She pushed herself up and looked at the bottle longingly, the bar tender sighed and poured her a finger¡¯s worth of bourbon. This time Seras only sipped at it, her stomach and head already reeling from the two prior glasses. ¡°Tried to fix it myself,¡± she murmured into her glass, ¡°the attempt nearly killed me and put my friend through a lot of grief.¡± The bartender was silent for a long moment, ¡°is the God¡¯s offer really that unpleasant?¡± he asked eventually. Seras sighed, ¡°maybe not, all I¡¯ve got to do is have the very core of existence changed, devote myself to a higher power, and leave all my friends behind in the process.¡± She sighed, ¡°it wouldn¡¯t be so bad if I got to still be me, but the Gods gotta scoop out all that to fix me.¡± ¡°That¡¯s, that¡¯s rough,¡± he said. He tapped a finger pensively against the polished wood of the bar, ¡°I¡­ know a little bit about such decisions. I had to do something that changed what I thought of as integral to myself once, I didn¡¯t like it at first, but now I feel fine about it. More than that I¡¯d consider it a core part of who I am as a person.¡± Seras looked at the man, there was something about this guy that struck her as familiar. What was it? He seemed, was, felt like¡­ oh, right, he was the same bartender that served her and Bannack the first time. ¡°Do you? Well I won¡¯t gainsay ya.¡± He scooched his chair a bit closer, ¡°so what comes now?¡± he asked. ¡°Now I decide which God I hitch the rest of my life to, the kind Healer who at least seems sympathetic. Or that manipulative omnipotent bitch.¡± She waited a beat for some sort of sign of divine displeasure. But nothing happened. The bar tender seemed to be waiting apprehensively as well, he shifted uncomfortably in his chair. ¡°I take you have a preference.¡± ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s not the one you think it is. Healer¡¯s nice, kind, and far more patient than I deserve. But I¡¯m no doctor, I¡¯m not that nurturing, I can¡¯t do what he or Athena does. At least with Knowledge I¡¯ll be able to further pursue my inventions. I want to see just what Magitech can do.¡± He pursed his lips, ¡°is there not a third option you¡¯d find more preferable?¡± Seras frowned, ¡°beyond suicide? No, the other Gods haven¡¯t approached me with any offers, I take that as an indication of their intent given the power at their disposal. Though I¡¯m a bit curious what a life devoted to Fertility or Orgy might bring.¡± ¡°I¡¯m told that the orgies get tiresome and perfunctory after a while.¡± He responded. His tapping fingers slowly grew in tempo before he seemed to come to a decision, then they halted completely. ¡°Can I be completely honest with you Miss Cross?¡± ¡°Shoot.¡± He didn¡¯t even look confused by the turn of phrase, which was strange. ¡°Well you see, there¡¯s been a great deal of deception here. This bar is a fake location, used mostly by the members of our organization. More over I¡¯m not a bartender. I came here in an effort to strike when you were at your lowest point and trick you into something. But I think a more honest approach might be what you need.¡± Seras¡¯ spine tingled and she slowly sat up and looked at the bartender more intently. He was an ordinary looking man, tanned skin, light brown hair, with amber eyes. But there was something too polished about his appearance, his jaw line was smooth and strong, his teeth perfectly straight, and his height and build were classically handsome. ¡°You¡¯re a silver ranker, or gold.¡± Seras said in alarm, a rifle materializing in her hands. The man smirked, ¡°just silver, our resources are limited and the five deserts don¡¯t require more than a silver ranker to handle.¡± ¡°What do you want from me?¡± ¡°Well, originally, we had hoped to cultivate you as a resource for Magitech. You see we were aware of your first essence. But now I want to offer you something more, a cure. One that will let you remain yourself while fixing all your problems.¡± ¡°Who are you?¡± He stood, ¡°My name is Lord Havre, and I am like you many ways.¡± As he said it his eyes changed, like a camera shutter opening the amber color was replaced with an artificial glowing red color. Seras¡¯ own eyes widened as she realized what had struck her as odd about Havre. It was in the way he moved, in the way he stepped and the floor creaked, it was all like her. For the first time since awakening in that astral space Seras came face to face with a fellow Cyborg. A sentient one, not like those metal abominations in the Stellar astral space. ¡°Dead Gods,¡± Seras gasped. ¡°How?¡± He smiled, ¡°how much do you know about the Great Astral beings?¡± ¡°Not¡­ not a lot.¡± ¡°Understandable, most don¡¯t, at least not here on Pallimustus. I¡¯ve been told that in many other universes we are well known and acknowledged. There are many in the great Astral, many relate them to Gods, but Gods are local beings and there are a set on every world with the magic to support them. The Great Astral beings are singular and represent forces in the cosmos far greater than the petty domain of gods. There is the World Phoenix who concerns herself with dimensional integrity, her followers often have a flamboyant and energetic power sets. The Reaper who oversees death and the passage of souls, where to even I don¡¯t know, his followers are often draped in shadow. And then there¡¯s Lord Builder, he is the being responsible for the creation of universes, every reality in the cosmos is his work. This one, yours, and many others. His followers take the aspect of crafting and engineering into themselves. Though we¡¯re very primitive to the designs that were incorporated into your own body we do have a better understanding of integrating magic into our new bodies.¡± ¡°So, so you work for this Lord Builder. what does that have to do with me?¡± He smiled, ¡°Astral beings are powerful and mighty beyond comprehension. But they still need mortal agents. And we are his agents here on Pallimustus, and we have a goal to achieve. We were hoping to use your Magitech crafting powers to enhance ourselves, but now I think you might find you have more in common with us than I first thought.¡± He waved his hand and doorway made of roiling black oil rose up, ¡°if you join me through this portal I can show you what I mean.¡± Seras stared at it for a long time, ¡°this might be the booze talking, but that almost sounds like a good idea.¡± He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small glass vial he then handed over to her. Potion of purgation; removes all poisons and afflictions. ¡°Really?¡± she said, unamused. ¡°To clear your head, I don¡¯t want you regretting any of your decisions and blaming the drink.¡± Seras sighed and gulped it down. Condition, intoxication, has been purged. She stared at the portal for a long moment before she sighed, ¡°fuck it, shit can¡¯t get any worse for me.¡± She took one step and passed through the oily black portal. Ch84 The Builder cult Seras had been half expecting to be covered in the slick oily substance of the portal, but magic didn¡¯t work that way. And with her Astral affinity she didn¡¯t even feel the momentary nausea associated with portal travel and teleportation powers. Seras stepped forward, looking around the cavern before her with quiet revery as a thousand familiar scents and sounds hit her all at once. Below her machines whirled, sparks flew, and crude engines chugged away down below. The scents of oil, burning rubber, and ozone tickled at her nose. And everywhere she looked she saw people with mechanical limbs and glowing eyes. Footsteps sounded out behind her and Seras saw Havre emerge from his portal. He sighed and tossed away his fancy wool coat and rolled up his sleeves. He looked at her and smiled ¡°Relax, you are among your kind for once.¡± To drive the point home his own body let out a series of hisses and steam as parts of his skin suddenly became less realistic and retracted in on itself like the metal shutters back on Ruin. Several creaks came from within his body and he grew by a handspan and his shoulders slid outwards to create a wider more triangular profile than the slim classically handsome man she had seen before. There was a raw, almost industrial bent to his body. Like a factory had shrunk itself down into the shape of a human. In his now fully exposed arms Seras saw pistons, whirling gears, and the occasional spark of electricity. A line formed in-between his eyes and the bit of nose dividing his eyes slid open to reveal a single red visor like band across the upper half of his face. He sighed and even his voice seemed more mechanical. ¡°I rarely go out into the world in my disguise anymore, it feels too stifling.¡± Seras stared at him and felt¡­ elation. Like for the last few months she had been among aliens and now she was among Ruinites. Even if they had a much more raw and slightly magical bent to their bodies, they were something that put her at ease. She looked down at her own arms and sent a command she hadn¡¯t used since that first night with the Caravan crew. Her own skin retracted around her joints to reveal black metal with a hexagonal patterning. Blue circuitry-like lines came to life along her limbs, and this time it wasn¡¯t just her [Structural reinforcement] ability at work. He looked at her appraisingly, ¡°hmmm, understated and elegant. Minimalistic even. I like it, though I doubt we have the capability to replicate it.¡± Seras shrugged, the exposed synth-ligaments bunching up with the movement. ¡°Styles back home could vary greatly. Raw metal, plastic and doll-like, to hyper-realistic fur. But this has always suited me best.¡± ¡°Yes, the freedom of choices one can make with their new bodies is well known to us. There is a man amongst our leadership who can unfold into a giant skeleton made of girders. Bannack was quite taken with it.¡± ¡°Bannack, is he like your recruiter or¡­¡± ¡°He runs our external resource gathering operations. By engaging with the commerce and transportation industries in the deserts he has been able to fund all that you see before you.¡± Seras looked around a watched with quite awe. Down below a team of workers with blowtorch and saw-like arms were working at a strange, almost familiar looking device. It looked like a tall pilon with an electric blue core. They were all being directed by an elderly looking Runic man leaning on a cane. ¡°Come I shall give you the tour,¡± Havre said and began to walk along the catwalk in the stone factory room. ¡°So what is this all for, what does a Builder¡­ temple-,¡± ¡°The proper term is cult, but that often carries unpleasant connotations. Please don¡¯t read too much into it,¡± Havre corrected. ¡°Right, uh, what does a Builder cult do? What¡¯s all this for?¡± As he walked Havre¡¯s head was swiveling around, not like a man with a flesh and blood neck, but like a camera on motorized stand. His head would smoothly rotate one way, and then in a second spin the other, with little care for the limitations, a biological neck would follow. ¡°A great many things Miss Cross. The Agents of Great Astral beings perform many duties across the cosmos. In cases where mortal greed and ambition has threatened dimensional boundaries the Cult of the World Pheonix intervenes, it is what prevents many interdimensional invasions. Sometimes it¡¯s more mundane, like people violating the core principles of a Great Astral being, like people interfering with the passage of souls or rampant use of resurrection in the case of the Reaper. And sometimes it¡¯s to spread an ideal, the Celestial book¡¯s agents often look for others who might share a thirst for knowledge and magical advancement.¡± ¡°And you?¡± His head swiveled towards her, and the moving metal plates that made up his facial features shifted into a smile. ¡°I cannot tell you everything at once Miss Cross, but our goal is centered around Astral spaces.¡± ¡°Astral spaces?¡± ¡°Yes, those are not creations of Lord builder. they are¡­ well there is a great deal of higher-level astral theory at play in their creation. But suffice it to say they are formed within the deep Astral, there they are innately unstable things, unless they latch onto a physical reality. When they attach themselves to worlds like Pallimustus they can either be naturally opened spaces, requiring no astral magic knowledge to enter, and will change the landscape around them. Many mountains, caverns, and even bodies of water, owe their existence to the appearance of an Astral space. They will even change the magic of the surrounding area.¡± They passed under a low beam and entered into a new hanger sized room, this one had several spider like brass and bronze vehicles being constructed. Havre didn¡¯t comment on them and kept them moving forward. ¡°And how do I factor into all this, you said you wanted me for my Magitech abilities, but you seem to have that in hand?¡± ¡°Ahh, yes from the lens of your limited experiments into Magitech it would seem like we¡¯re doing quite well. But some things can only be done with the right powers. When Lord Builder witnessed your passage through the Astral he alerted us to the opportunity you might offer to us. An essence that would almost certainly not appear on this world, and a being similar in make as us but more refined in many ways.¡± He shook his head despondently, ¡°we have only recently begun down the path of Biomechanical transhumanism and have so much to learn and refine.¡± ¡°So you wanted to steal my essence if you could and rip me apart for study,¡± Seras said flatly. His head spun around and stared at her with his red visor, ¡°Miss Cross, what do you take us for, Monsters?¡± She chuckled awkwardly, ¡°ah, sorry about that, I jumped to the least savory explanation I could think of.¡± ¡°A product of your flawed world and violent upbringing I¡¯d suspect,¡± he said to himself. He turned his head back forwards and continued on, ¡°we were told that you might be appearing, but even Lord Builder could not say where, his vision into physical realities is one of his few limitations. You were brought to our attention by Mr. Martin whose company we funded with start-up capital, from there Mr. Bannack created a scenario where you could meet and receive the Magitech primer. If you had shown improvement then we would have made sure another made its way to you, I wonder if recall a clerk in the Magic society pointing you to a strange product of a mad gold ranker?¡± Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. Seras blinked, ¡°that was you guys?¡± His head swiveled around and a flash of red light from the side of his visor made it look like he was winking. He swiveled back around, ¡°yes, some in the magic society who have grown frustrated with politics and research limitations have found their way to us.¡± ¡°What kind of limitations?¡± Seras asked. ¡°The kind monopolized by influential members. Astral magic, some branches of artifice, and some branches you would recognize as physics. It has made some people very powerful while limiting the advancement of world¡¯s knowledge.¡± ¡°Alright, and how does this relate to me and my issue, you said you could offer an alternative to what the Gods are offering?¡± ¡°Correct me if I had made a poor assumption, but by chance have you developed a case of a soul-body disconnect?¡± Seras halted in her steps, ¡°how did you-,¡± This time he turned his whole torso around, ¡°Miss Cross, if there is anyone on this world who would know about the dangers involved in magical augmentation, then it¡¯s us.¡± Seras looked down and sighed, ¡°yup, that was pretty dumb of me.¡± Havre chuckled, ¡°a healthy suspicion is a good thing, and I had a few advantages on my end. We had people who felt your aura projecting itself at full force through magical containment, and they told us it was screaming with pain unimaginable. Given our shared nature, your status as an Outworlder, and that, it was easy to deduce. How far has it advanced?¡± ¡°32 percent,¡± Seras admitted. She hadn¡¯t even told her friends the full extent. [Structural reinforcement] 3, [Aura of Ruin] 3, [Limit Breaker] 2, [Bountiful Greed] 2, [Inscribe rune/circuit]3, [Teleportation] 3, [Shape metal] 3, [Control bullets] 3, [Enhanced bullets] 2, [Armor piercer] 2. After her failed experiment that day all the abilities she had been holding back surged up. It was the one instance where she was happy her familiar power was too expensive to use, otherwise it might have jumped up a level or two. He flinched, ¡°Lord Builder has told me a little of the condition. That kind of pain exceeds that of soul attacks and most spiritual torture. You have my sympathy¡­ and my respect. That¡¯s the kind of pain that breaks lesser wills.¡± Seras kicked the grate beneath her, ¡°yeah, well, you said you had a solution that wouldn¡¯t strip me of myself?¡± ¡°I did, though Lord Builder is now telling me that altering it will take time, we will also need to cause a racial trait evolution of some sort.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°is, is your God talking to you right now?¡± An angry glint of red flashed through his eyes, ¡°Miss Cross, Lord Builder is more than any God, more than all the Gods of this world put together. Referring to him as such is more than a bit disrespectful and demeaning.¡± Seras didn¡¯t really get the difference, but she wasn¡¯t going to argue with a cultist in their own temple/factory place. ¡°Right, still new to all of this, sorry.¡± ¡°Apology accepted, and to answer your question¡­ well... follow me.¡± He turned and began to stalk forward much quicker. He led Seras into a hallway with smooth stone floors and fluorescent-like lighting running across the ceiling. He took her down a warren of twists and turns until they were before a thick metal door. Havre placed his hand on the door and several mechanisms within whirled and clicked, the door slid back and he led Seras into the strangest treasury she had ever seen. Strange tools, stacks of spirit coins, and several padded cases of essences and awakening stone lined the wall. As well as a hundred different unique looking magical crafting components she didn¡¯t recognize. He led her forward to a small collection of round objects. ¡°These are something entirely impossible to find on this world without the involvement of a great Astral being. These are their greatest gift only given to those of their respective cults. They are called star seeds.¡± He looked almost reverent at the small fist sized spheres. ¡°What do they do?¡± ¡°These are a tangible pact made between ones soul and a great Astral being. It is a creation that will link a soul to the a great Astral being. Moreover it¡¯s your salvation Miss Cross.¡± She balked, ¡°how would sticking more magic into my soul fix things, that¡¯s my problem to begin with.¡± ¡°Because, Lord Builder¡¯s star seeds have an external physical component. To use crude metaphor imagine this star seed as a port into your soul, existing half outside and half within, it will then provide a direct governable connection between your soul and body. Indeed it is this physical linkage to our souls and Lord Builder¡¯s own infinite power that allows our own Biomechanical transformations while retaining our essence abilities. This is how it will save you as well. The bond formed between your soul, body, and magical matrix will return to a harmonious state and cure your condition. The pain will go away, you¡¯ll be able to safely advance your essences, and more importantly you¡¯ll live.¡± Seras stared down at the small star seed and felt every artificial muscle in her body fill with the need to reach out and snatch the cure. Her mouth was uncomfortably dry, ¡°but, but Knowledge said only a God could help me?¡± Havre smirked, ¡°is that what she said exactly, or are you missing a bit of nuance? Knowledge could never lie like that.¡± ¡°¡­fixing your issue requires power beyond mortals, the power of transcendent beings¡­¡± ¡°She said transcendent beings; I thought that only meant Gods.¡± He nodded while smiling gently, ¡°yes, and Lord Builder is one of the greatest of transcendent beings, one whose followers are much like yourself.¡± Seras stumbled back at sat down hard. This was it, this was her way out, it was a cure that let her remain herself. ¡°I, I need some time to think, this is a lot, I thought I was out of options.¡± Havre¡¯s metallic face smiled at her, ¡°the cosmos is limitless and our choices similarly so. I can allow you time to think, but I must remind you Miss Cross that ours is a secret congregation. Most people would be horrified by the paths we have chosen to walk.¡± Seras thought back to that night she had revealed her true self to Caravan crew and how long it took for them to treat her like a normal person. Then she thought of Athena, who had been scared at first but quickly grew to accept Seras. ¡°Yeah, of course, you have my word on that.¡± Seras swore. ¡°Thank you, I can send you right back to the bar then if you¡¯d like, we just need to step out of this vault first. And if you chose to join us and our work then I¡¯d recommend putting your affairs in order, we¡¯re far from society and I can¡¯t promise my portal abilities to always be available.¡± Seras nodded and walked out of the vault containing her salvation. ~~~*~~~ Lord Havre watched quietly as the Outworlder once again hid her true nature and returned to the petty world of flesh and blood. Inside him the Builder¡¯s will questioned whether such a choice was a wise one, but for all his Lords infinite power he lacked a mortal perspective. True this night had not gone like he thought, Havre had imagined employing more trickery and double meaning. But when he heard what she had to say he knew that approaching her with as much honesty as he could safely manage was the best choice. She was like them, and yet she was forced to walk this world thinking she was alone, while everything around her told her she was wrong. An Aberration. She would join, he was confident of that. Havre was unlike many other leaders in the Builder cult here on Pallimustus, many were base power seekers and scorned wastrels using the Builder to enact revenge on the world. Havre on the other hand had been born to parents within the cult and had grown up hearing and believing in the Builder¡¯s great dream for a paradise. Granted he had still been timid about the upgrades to his flesh, but what person wouldn¡¯t be. And he had grown to love his strange form. The way he saw it now was that where others had no choice in how they looked or what they were Havre was free to choose and change at will. Havre returned to his office where a well-dressed gentleman was waiting for him. Bannack¡¯s disguise form looked as formal as ever, the literal picture of a businessman. But Havre knew a far fiercer form, one that bared little resemblance to Bannack¡¯s current form. Except for the mustache of course, even as a hulking titan of metal and deadly whips Bannack retained his twirled facial hair. Though in that form it was made from steel bristles and wire. ¡°Is it wise to just let her leave?¡± he asked Lord Havre. ¡°She has little reason to go shouting our nature to anyone, as far as she knows we¡¯re just an odd cult with the cure to all her woes.¡± Bannack paused before he spoke again, ¡°it¡¯s just not how I would do things.¡± ¡°Yes, and Miss Cross can sense that, that is why she did not trust you. Our initial report on her suspicious nature was wrong, she responds far better to open honesty than previously indicated.¡± He sniffed, ¡°Hmm, that might be Westbrooke¡¯s doing. Mr. Martin has been quite enamored with the man.¡± ¡°Then I shall thank Lord Builder and the Fates that she found Westbrooke, it has made recruiting her far easier. Did you find out anything about away team C?¡± Lord Havre asked, changing the subject completely. Bannack grimaced, ¡°our worst fears proved correct Lord Havre, sometime between their last meet up with the Omeda and the raid from the Adventure society away team C was wiped out. Evidence points to the local fauna of the Astral space possessing an unaccounted for ability to hear our transmissions. Star-Gliders as strong as Silver rank descended on the outpost and savaged the defenders. There were no survivors.¡± Havre didn¡¯t do anything so crude as curse, but he wanted to. ¡°In regards to the Omeda, how goes the conversion?¡± Bannack smiled ¡°we¡¯re halfway through, what¡¯s left are the stronger members of their tribe.¡± ¡°A process that is soon to be accelerated with a Magitech specialist, begin putting together another expedition to establish a base within the Stellar Astral space.¡± ¡°Yes Lord Havre, is there anything else you need from me?¡± ¡°There haven¡¯t been any more mistakes like from team B, have there?¡± Bannack grimaced, ¡°no, and in regards to the incident within the Verdant grasslands Astral space, we have determined the cause of that unfortunate spike. It would appear that in the ancient past the people of Cupric had tried to tap into and utilize the Verdant Grasslands like they do with their aquatic astral spaces. The formation work we uncovered was crude and in shambles, open circuits within a few of the formations likely reacted with our own work and caused the wide bloom of grass and grass quintessence.¡± Havre stared at Bannack for a long moment, pent up frustration over that incident still threatened to loosen his tongue and say unfortunate things. He sighed, ¡°though I am still disappointed with the failure I can see how it went undetected. That doesn¡¯t change the fact that it has caused the entire Akemi tribe to set up camp over our work.¡± ¡°Would that not be best though; the Akemi are a mighty tribe and removing them will make any subsequent operations within the Five deserts far smoother.¡± ¡°You are speaking of things as if we had already successfully reclaimed the Verdant Grasslands in the name of Lord builder. Should we succeed then I suspect we will be praised greatly, but failure has become exponentially more likely with an entire established tribe like the Akemi hanging over our heads like the executioner¡¯s blade. One misstep and out whole operation could be exposed.¡± Bannack nodded, ¡°My apologies if I¡¯ve upset you Lord Havre, I just tend to be more optimistic in my hopes for the future.¡± ¡°And that is why you are not in charge Bannack. Prepare for the worst, hope for better, that is how we¡¯ll be victorious in our mission.¡± ¡°Understood my Lord, shall I be off then?¡± Havre didn¡¯t do anything so sloppy as sigh, though he felt like it. He waved Bannack away, ¡°yes, be off with you. And make sure we have eyes on Blackiron, just in case she¡¯s decides to make the stupidest choice possible.¡± Ch86 Youre actually insane It was late when Seras returned to the Inn the Caravan crew had been staying at for over a month. At some point she going to have to learn its actual name. Her steps were light and airy, and she was even swinging her arms a bit as she went. She turned a corner and came face to face with a stunned and horrified looking Dustin surrounded by the rest of the crew. ¡°What¡¯s up?¡± Seras asked. Dustin¡¯s befuddled look turned to anger, ¡°what¡¯s up-, Seras you nearly died, bailed on us without a word, and then showed with more cheer and contentment in your aura than I¡¯ve ever felt from you!¡± Seras halted midway to the bar and considered what he had just said. As best as she could she tried to read her own aura, and while it was hard to parse your own aura she did feel a bit of what Dustin had felt. ¡°Did you, ah, you know?¡± Athena began hesitantly. ¡°Did you get your dick wet?¡± Petra asked bluntly. Athena punched the Leonid in the side, ¡°don¡¯t be crude, she doesn¡¯t even have one of those.¡± Petra glanced at her, ¡°oh, and how are you so certain? She could have had one installed.¡± Seras glared, ¡°I didn¡¯t.¡± Petra glanced at her, ¡°didn¡¯t have one installed, or didn¡¯t get it wet?¡± ¡°Both!¡± ¡°Then what the hell happened?¡± Flint asked. Seras scratched the back of her neck, ¡°uh, long story. But its not a problem, I swear.¡± ¡°Its drugs, that¡¯s to only possible answer,¡± Frank chimed in. ¡°Do you have any left?¡± Chase asked, They all stared at the two of them. ¡°Kidding, drugs are bad,¡± Chase said unconvincingly. Seras pressed her hand to her face, ¡°No it¡¯s not drugs, it¡¯s just, Dead gods I can¡¯t even say. I¡¯m starting to think that my options aren¡¯t so bleak. I¡¯ve my mind opened and I can see a way out for myself. Is that so unbelievable?¡± Seras felt her body suddenly untense all over as the pain momentarily left her. ¡°Nope, not drugs, I¡¯d be able to tell.¡± Athena said, her voice and face suddenly tight. ¡°Stop that, please. Its not so bad right now, so you don¡¯t have to do this to yourself.¡± Seras pleaded. Athena let it go and Seras felt her burden return. She took in a deep breath and let it out. ¡°See, nothing to worry about.¡± They looked unconvinced, but no one brought up any other explanation for her sudden optimism. She¡¯d really underestimated how much meeting the Builder cult changed her. It was like before she had felt alone in this great strange world, and now that she knew there were other people like her a weight had been lifted from her shoulders. She saw a stack of letters that Dustin had been reading and gestured towards them, ¡°what are those?¡± she asked to change the subject. Dustin looked down as if he had just remembered he was holding them, ¡°a couple of things. One¡¯s from the adventurer society telling us that we¡¯re officially on call for something, what that is they won¡¯t say. So now even if the passes open back up we¡¯re not allowed to leave.¡± ¡°That¡¯s strange. Isn¡¯t the adventurer society looser with controlling its members?¡± Dustin shook his head, ¡°Not Director Arlee it seems. He¡¯s a reformer through and through, and has the continental council¡¯s backing. But even then, this is a stretch for him, something big is happening. On the plus side he says the promised awakening stones are ready for us. he¡¯s got something interesting for each of us, including Miss Athena.¡± Athena blinked, ¡°but I¡¯m not a member of the Adventurer society.¡± Dustin glanced at her, ¡°does that mean you¡¯ll be turning down his generous offer?¡± She opened her mouth, and then closed it. ¡°No, but just don¡¯t expect me to use it right away.¡± ¡°The stone¡¯s your to use as you please.¡± Dustin said. Seras leaned in, ¡°when you say us, does that include me as well?¡± He quirked a brow, ¡°that is generally the accepted definition.¡± Seras grinned, ¡°I just wasn¡¯t expecting it after he fast tracked my admittance. I thought that was the favor.¡± Flint shook his head, ¡°even if it was you proved that you¡¯ve got potential when you were trapped in the Labyrinth. The Adventurer society likes to reward promising talents.¡± ¡°Gah, now I¡¯m regret having all my essence powers!¡± Petra griped loudly. ¡°Is there something you dislike about your powers?¡± Athena asked. ¡°No, but imagine the cool rare stone the Director might have gotten me.¡± Seras laughed with everyone else over Petra¡¯s antics. ¡°That¡¯s good, I¡¯ll probably swing by to grab it in the morning. Its been a long day though, I think I¡¯m gonna head to bed.¡± ¡°One more thing. Another letter from the Magic society arrived, one with the Director¡¯s seal.¡± Flint said pointedly looking towards an unopened letter on the counter. Seras looked at the letter and walked over to pick it up. ¡°Hope your recovering well¡­ like to discuss magic theory¡­ meet at your earliest convenience, huh, he probably just wants to see if I¡¯m alright.¡± Seras surmised after quickly skimming through the letter. Flint stared at her, ¡°and why would the Director of the Magic society want to check in on you in person? The last I heard you had written an essay insulting his magic primer books.¡± ¡°Wait, what?¡± Athena gave Seras a disappointed look. ¡°It wasn¡¯t an essay, just some disgruntled comments scribbled between the lines of my placement test. And that was all before he and I had a run in with Knowledge.¡± ¡°What do you mean you had a run in with a Goddess?¡± Flint snapped. ¡°Did I not tell you that one? It¡¯s not really that important. I had left him with a few formula¡¯s from my world and nearly gave the Director a crisis of¡­ faith¡­ science¡­ I don¡¯t know which one specifically. Anyways while he was freaking out Knowledge popped in and told me off and calmed him down.¡± Flint buried his head into his hands, ¡°nothing but trouble,¡± he muttered to himself. Dustin patted his partner on the back, ¡°there, there, it¡¯s not so bad.¡± The rest of the caravan crew speared Seras with very judgy looks, and she felt like that was her cue to teleport upstairs before things devolved even further. Really, it wasn¡¯t like she ever went looking for trouble. It just happened to find her, consistently, and often. Maybe she should buy them something nice as a treat while she was out? ~~~*~~~ The adventurer society was far livelier in the day than she had ever previously seen. Lots of people in exotic looking armor and colorful weapons milling about. Very few gave her a second glance in her mundane looking trader¡¯s hat and cloak, built more for keeping clean on dusty roads than fighting monsters. Though she garnered a little attention when she stepped up the Dannias the Leonid secretary. ¡°Yo, Dan, what¡¯s going on?¡± The Leonid grinned, ¡°Ah, the Outworlder, er, Sera.¡± ¡°Seras,¡± she corrected. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Dan snapped his fingers, ¡°Right Seras, sorry, hectic day. The Director put a large freeze on missions, and that there¡¯s going to be a big announcement.¡± ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± she asked. ¡°Don¡¯t know, but my cousin Linda is saying there¡¯s a similar sort of stir at the Akemi camp, so I think they might be related.¡± Seras blinked, ¡°wait, Linda as in Lindascarn of Dunestrider?¡± ¡°Ah, you¡¯ve heard of them.¡± Seras grimaced, ¡°yeah, she was trying to recruit me, but there was a bit of drama between teammates.¡± His eyes went wide, ¡°oh, that was you huh.¡± ¡°So you¡¯ve heard then?¡± He nodded, ¡°yeah, she didn¡¯t outright mention an Outworlder though, just a Celestine with strange skills.¡± Seras opened her mouth to correct Dan, but decided that it really wasn¡¯t worth it. Most people were going to keep thinking she was a Celestine due to her hair color, and changing it now might be suspicious. ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s me. Did you here how that ended, I kind of had my own shit going on at the time.¡± ¡°Yeah, she put her foot down and forced her teammates to have a heart to heart, now they¡¯re a full on couple.¡± Seras crossed her arms, ¡°huh, well good for them, at least they¡¯ll quit dragging people into their own drama.¡± ¡°What, nah, they¡¯ve got this open relationship going on, so they¡¯re causing trouble in a whole new way.¡± Seras closed her mouth. Dan shrugged, ¡°some people are just addicted to the drama, Linda says it¡¯s about small steps.¡± ¡°Forgive me if I don¡¯t hold my breath.¡± Seras said flatly. Dan laughed, ¡°don¡¯t blame you, was there anything else you wanted, because there¡¯s a line forming behind you.¡± Seras turned and stared at the line of adventurers forming up behind her. ¡°This isn¡¯t an information desk though, and magic hearing means they should have heard that you don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on?¡± Dan shrugged, ¡°eh, its just one of those things about groups of people. They see one person line up at a desk and they think there¡¯s a reason to line up as well.¡± ¡°But, but they¡¯re adventurers, shouldn¡¯t they be a bit more aware than that?¡± ¡°People are people, its best not to question it further.¡± ¡°Riiight,¡± Seras drawled unconvinced, ¡°well I received a letter from the Director saying that there was an awakening stone with my name on it?¡± Dan snapped his hand, ¡°oh right, that. Ah shoot, where¡¯d I put, ah, here it is¡± the Leonid said as he pulled out a piece of stamped paper, ¡°take this over to the desk that handles mission bounties, they sort you out.¡± ¡°Kay, thanks Dan.¡± Seras said as she turned away from the counter and moved on to the next. A few minutes later Seras turned away from that counter to see that another line had formed up behind her, she was shaking her head lightly as the first Adventurer began to press the payment desk for information about what was going on. What was worse was that after the first one had been turned away the next one stepped up and leaned on the counter in a fashion he probably imagined was suave and asked the exact same thing. Not for the first time in her life Seras was thankful she had never had to do any jobs in the service industry. If she had to deal with hoards of dumbass people she¡¯d probably commit an act of domestic terrorism and blow her job to smithereens. She glanced down at the awakening stone before sending it to her pocket space. Awakening stone of Adventure, three star, contains the power of Adventure within. It was a decent stone; she just wasn¡¯t sure if she wanted to use it immediately or hold onto it to trade up for something more specific. Though the powers it could unlock were generally pretty interesting. After only a few minutes of walking she had made it to her next stop, the Magic society campus. There was a small hubbub going on here as well, and now Seras was starting to get very curious. A clerk had noticed Seras the moment she had walked in and had once again guided her through the warren of secured doors to the Directors private laboratory. She was let in after a single knock and Seras was stunned into complete silence by the mess before her. The last time she had been here Dundee had contained his research and murder boards to a side room, that was not the case anymore. His whole lab was filled with chalk boards and red strings connecting between them and seemingly random spots. Most curious was the lines of taped on notes hanging from said red strings. At the center of it all she saw a chalk rendition of a sight Seras had only seen the once but remembered very well ever since. It was a stunning sketch of the reverse waterfall within the center of Karstess. Way back when Seras had first seen it her mind had been filled with awe and a sense of disbelief. Something like that shouldn¡¯t have been possible. Since then Seras had seen flying sky ships, floating disks within the city Briaxis, and the Stellar astral space and the colossal tunnels of floatstone outside its entry points. After all that she had been doubting her own belief in constants like gravity. Seras glanced quickly through his notes and began to try and parse where Dundee was trying to push his research. There was one phrase that kept appearing on every board, ¡°the inconsistency consistency?¡± she said aloud curiously. ¡°Yes!¡± A half crazed voice said from behind a board, Dundee quickly finished what he was working on and turned the board around. ¡°You were right about gravity being a constant, or supposedly. It only becomes variable when magic gets involved, just like all things. It¡¯s what makes magic research so dangerous in unpredictable.¡± Seras stared at what he was doing and realized she recognized what he had just written down, it was a value of speed, a value of nearly 300,000 meters per second. ¡°You figured out lightspeed?¡± Seras asked incredulously. Dundee blinked, ¡°the, the what?¡± Seras opened her mouth only for her mind to catch up with what she was about to do. She did her and Dundee a favor and shut the fuck up, ¡°nothing, forget what I just said, what is all this about?¡± Dundee stared at her intently for another long moment before moving on, ¡°all my calculations kept coming to one conclusion, that gravity was a constant, but I know that it isn¡¯t, I¡¯ve seen where it isn¡¯t. So I began to pull at the thread, trying to figure out why and when it fails to be a constant, the answer of course was magic.¡± ¡°Yeah, nearly lost my faith in science when I first entered Karstess.¡± He looked at her, ¡°yes, as you can see that¡¯s where I began my search as well, and what I¡¯ve noticed is that there¡¯s something there. And rate at which a constant like gravity stops being constant, I¡¯m close to putting it into a precise formula.¡± ¡°An inconsistency consistency, that¡¯s brilliant!¡± ¡°Its only the begging, I¡¯ve been using it and some other research to begin revers discovering other constants, that one you saw there was my first. You called it lightspeed?¡± Seras quirked her head, ¡°do you actually want me to answer that?¡± He frowned, ¡°no, no don¡¯t ruin this for me.¡± Seras looked around the room and really got a good idea for what he was doing. On her world they had discovered universal constants, hard lines in the rules of reality. Just a decimal in variation and all of reality would unwind. But magic seemed to spit in the eye of that very idea, it was something she had a hard time reconciling. But this¡­ Dundee was trying to put a value to the magic¡¯s ability to ignore the rules of physics. In her Magitech primer book, the one she had received from the Builder cult, it had almost hinted at the idea of the two paradigms being separated. One existing separately from the other, and the pure joining of them was what the book termed as ¡®true¡¯ Magitech. It was more than the some of its parts, and she was starting to see why. Seras wondered what a society with ¡®true¡¯ Magitech could accomplish. Machines that twisted reality to their own ends to extraordinary ends, and magic that let you step beyond those final limitations. ¡°Is this why you asked me to come by?¡± Seras asked. Dundee paused, and then seemed to realize who he was talking to, ¡°ah, no, you weren¡¯t actually supposed to see this, one second.¡± He waved his hands and the boards began to vanish away. Seras balked at that, ¡°what do you mean I wasn¡¯t supposed to see?¡± He was shaking his head, ¡°it¡¯s too much to trust to an Iron ranker. I calculated over a dozen ways to use it for terrible destructive means, I have to be careful with how it gets released to the world. In the right hands it could elevate us into a new era, but in the wrong it will mean devastation like we have never seen. Destruction¡¯s followers alone would go from a great threat to an existential one.¡± ¡°Then why am I here?¡± Seras asked exasperatedly. ¡°Why, why, why, oh, yes. Miss Cross, why are you using magic society resources to mutilate and torture yourself? Soul research is a banned study for darn good reasons and I don¡¯t want my branch implicated with such dark research!¡± Dundee went from oblivious to spitting mad in seconds, his face turning bright red. And his aura went from a manic fizzy background presence to a wall of unquestionable adamant around her own. ¡°Hold the fuck up! I¡¯m not trying to mutilate or torture myself, it¡¯s the opposite actually.¡± His aura relaxed just a bit, ¡°I¡¯ll be needing an explanation,¡± he said gruffly as wiped a bit of spittle from his cheek. Seras stared at him in shock, ¡°how the fuck did a mad bastard like you get put in charge of a magic society branch. I swear your danm mood swings are giving me emotional whiplash!¡± He looked chagrined, ¡°well, I¡¯m usually more composed, you¡¯ve been catching me in moments of passion more than is strictly polite.¡± Seras sighed, ¡°first off, I¡¯m not mutilating myself, well, not in the way you¡¯re thinking. Its, one of my Outworlder abilities. My body got remade in the image of what my soul thinks of as me, and that happens to include my Cyberware.¡± ¡°Cyberware?¡± ¡°Yeah, like magical prothesis, but way more developed.¡± ¡°Hm, I see, that explains the air tastes of metal around you.¡± ¡°You-, what does that mean?¡± He blushed, ¡°er, well it¡¯s my perception ability. I have a much greater sense of taste, I can even taste magic like a fine wine. It¡¯s an unconventional one, but something I¡¯ve learned to use well.¡± Seras gave him a sidelong stare as she turned, ¡°right, that¡¯s not totally weird.¡± ¡°Hmpf, don¡¯t change the subject. You haven¡¯t explained why I caught you without your usual arm and trying to hook in a crude replacement.¡± ¡°It¡¯s, its, well, that¡¯s a really long story. One that goes back to my rebirth on this world. To sum it up its something that went wrong with my rebirth, and now every minor essence advancement I get puts my soul in more and more pain. I was trying to find a way around it, but as you can tell that didn¡¯t work out so well.¡± ¡°I see, you have my condolences. Is it fatal?¡± ¡°Supposedly, but I¡¯m onto a cure.¡± ¡°Still, to have to deal with that-,¡± ¡°It¡¯s just another fucking bit of bad fortune in long string of it. I¡¯m starting to get used to it.¡± Seras lied. ¡°Has it really been that bad?¡± ¡°Oh you don¡¯t know the half of it. I go from dying in space to naked and unarmed in an Astral space. My first essence ability was a piece of shit I couldn¡¯t use until recently, and then I got a second one I can¡¯t even afford to use. I can¡¯t advance to bronze without unimaginable pain, and worse yet I need to hide a whole part of who I am.¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry to hear that.¡± Seras kicked the ground, ¡°well its not all bad, I got to make some good friends, and magic¡¯s pretty fucking cool. I even got to essentially cheat my way into the Adventurer and Magic societies.¡± He chuckled at that. ¡°Yes, well, I think any position lower than you current one would be a travesty.¡± He glanced around his lab awkwardly before glancing back to her, ¡°what do you mean by an ability too expensive to use?¡± ¡°Huh, oh, it¡¯s a familiar summoning power but the resources and costs are way out of reach for me.¡± ¡°AH, I see, yes I¡¯ve heard of such things happening, kept promising adventurers stuck in lower ranks until they could afford to summon their familiars. Which one did you get by the way?¡± ¡°A Spark of Madness.¡± He huffed out a small laugh, ¡°just what the world needs, more mad Outworlder¡¯s. I take that was from a madness awakening stone, or a Mania one?¡± ¡°Uh, no, those are awakening stones.¡± He nodded, ¡°yes, they¡¯re on the verge of being reclassified as restricted though. Which kind of stone was it.¡± ¡°Celestial book.¡± Seras said before she could think better of it. The Celestial Book was another one of the Great Astral beings, like the Builder. Then again there wasn¡¯t really anything innately illicit about either, it was just that her interactions with Builder cult had her paranoid. Dundee froze and slowly turned to her, ¡°ah, what?¡± Well in for a bit in for a chit. It would more suspicious to clam up about it now. ¡°Celestial Book. It¡¯s like some sort of super god from the Astral, not that I really understand the difference there. I guess it left the awakening stone in my pocket space as my soul was flying through the Astral. Actually, now that I think about it how is that even possible?¡± Seras was just beginning to ponder the implications when Dundee appeared before her in an instant and pressed his hands to her shoulder, ¡°you got an awakening stone from the Celestial book, a familiar power? Did it cause a racial gift evolution?" Seras blinked, ¡°yeah, how¡¯d you guess?¡± ¡°Great Astral beings will sometimes include their token within an awakening stone or essence. My own granted my greater mana well and magic affinity.¡± Seras balked, ¡°you, you worship the Celestial book?¡± He let go and waved off her words, ¡°just venerate, there¡¯s a difference. And yes, a small portion of us researchers do so. Oh don¡¯t look at me like that, it¡¯s hardly heresy, I¡¯ve spoken with Lady Knowledge herself on the matter. What was the costs?¡± Seras was starting to feel dizzy by how often Dundee¡¯s mood swung from normal to mania, she was beginning to wonder if he had used one of those ¡®crazy¡¯ awakening stones himself. ¡°Uh, two thousand iron spirit coins, as well as fifty lightning quintessence, seven dimension quintessence, thirty light quintessence, and an Opal of portent.¡± Dundee flinched, ¡°ah yes, I see now. Those Opal¡¯s are far too difficult to acquire-,¡± ¡°-yup, basically impossible.¡± Seras interrupted ¡°-I¡¯ve only got the two,¡± Dundee finished. Seras paused and stared at the mad orange haired researcher, ¡°t, t, two?¡± she asked incredulously. ¡°Yes, I got lucky.¡± Dundee tapped his foot pensively, ¡°I was planning to use one for, but now that I have my new project, hm, yes, yes, indeed. Come with me, we¡¯ll knock out the circle and see just what a Spark of Madness entails.¡± He began to stride for his personal ritual chamber. ¡°Hold on, what! Just like that?¡± Seras squawked as she followed after him. He turned towards her briefly, ¡°of course. Why wouldn¡¯t I?¡± ¡°Wha-, because, well, it¡¯s too much! Why do that for me?¡± He laughed to himself, ¡°Oh Seras, you have much about life and power to learn. I¡¯m doing it because I want to, and because I can.¡± ¡°You¡¯re insane, you¡¯re actually insane!¡± He grinned, ¡°ah well, I tried my best to hide it.¡± Seras laughed unbelievingly. She tried to squash that giddy feeling in her chest, but after meeting the Builder cult and now this Seras was finding it harder and harder to give up on hope for the future.