《Shattered realm》 Chapter 1 The great bird conspiracy What is bad luck? First I thought it might have been when my flight to Japan had encountered an unexpected bird to the engine during lift-off. Making the plane have to land back at the airport and me being delayed for 3 hours. Or perhaps the moment when, after a 7-hour flight of thinking of how to start a conversation with the cute girl next to me, right before landing I looked out the window and see another bird. Mind you not that bad in of itself but lets just say I had developed a bit of a trauma because of the last incident, which decided to manifest itself as the shrillest scream you might have heard in your life, making the flight attendant, the girl next to me and the whole plain start laughing after I frantically explain the reason that I screamed. Next thing I know I am being consoled by a 6 year old little girl that was sitting next to the window, and that I later found out was the sister of the cute girl that was sitting in the middle of us, "Don''t worry oni-chan the kamikaze birds can''t get you if you don''t show them fear, Amaya-one-chan told me after the first attack.". Between the little girl that was nodding sagely at me as if she had imparted the great truths of the universe and the feeling of embarrassment that had started to threaten to transform me in a tomato I just gave up any inhibitions I may have still had and just started talking to Amaya to try and hide my current emotional state. Father always said to make the most of the hand that you were dealt, and as the filial son that I am, I had decided to not disappoint him, at least not now. 20 minutes of talking later and an impromptu tag team with little Day-Nyoko we manage to convince her sister to go out on a date with me. Little Nyoko wherever you may be pleas know that you are truly a treasure. Oh sorry, I have gone on a bit of a tangent there, so what is bad luck? Perhaps it was the next day when I came out of a taxi to go on a date with Amaya and I see the most obese pigeon that you could imagine fly over my head, or perhaps it is the moment when you can''t find a Japanese person that can speak English when you are desperately looking for a bathroom to wash off an impromptu welcome gift from the local bird community. Honestly speaking I am starting to consider that this might just be a conspiracy of the birds of the world to get me in an early grave, to see me buried before my time be it by dirt or by shame. So after a lot of miming and digging up all the knowledge of the Japanese language that I have managed to acquire in my years of watching anime I manage to get myself clean and on the date on time. Now then you might think that this is the end of this little chain of misfortunes but I am afraid that you are sorely mistaken, right as our food had arrived and I picked up the boul of chicken ramen, yes I am that petty FU*K YOU BIRDS, I start feeling the world around me twist and turn. And here we are in the present, me sitting in the middle of, what I can only describe as, a battlefield where 3 people fight using swords, magic, and guns a bunch of robot birds. Perhaps the birds are really out to get me? And as I watch one of the giant monster robot, plain size, scary-looking birds makes a b-line for me, I am finally convinced of the there exists a greate bird conspiracy to kill me. As I was watching the giant monster coming towards me, considering if I should just eat the ramen as a last fu*k you to the world, my chest started feeling hot, seconds later I was experiencing the worst pain I had ever felt in my life. There I was falling to my knees watching the bowl of ramen fall in slow motion in front of me, my pyrrhic victory about to spill on the ground, and suddenly I hear a female metallic voice.
System initializing. Creation of Selium core in progress please stand by.
Strenght and hope start filing my body again as I hear the voice in my mind and the comprehension of the meaning of the words dons on me. Perhaps this is not the end but just a new beginning and the hardships of the last days were just the beginnings of my heroes journey. And then I looked again at the plane sized giant bird, that had gotten so uncomfortably close to me that I was only seconds away from being eaten alive by it. I came back out of my delusion enough for my instincts to kick in and with the world still moving in slow motion from my adrenalin rush I start my attempt at not dying. As my body starts moving I hear the voice once again.
Selium core completed.
Side effect detected.
My mind blanked out when I heard the last notification and the next thing I knew I was jumping up and to the side of the monsters giant mouth, that was threatening to eat me whole, one hand on the monsters giant head pushing myself to go above its body in an attempt to get on it''s back and as far as possible out of its reach, and my other hand was surprisingly somehow holding the bowl of ramen again with most of its content still inside. As I managed to land flat, and painful if I may add, on the monsters metallic back I realize to my dismay that there is nothing to hold on to and I start sliding off the creature that had started gaining altitude again after its failed attempt at my life. Looking desperately around trying to find anything that I may be able to hold onto for dear life, I notice in the distance one of the people that were fighting these creatures in the first place rushing towards my direction. When I finally slid off the monster and entered a free fall, the person rushing to me was close enough for me to make out her features. She was a tall girl, with raven hair and a heroic expression on her face, perhaps a bit biased of a description considering my situation but I digress, as far as I could tell she was around my age perhaps a little younger 18 or 19 she had a slender body fair skin and surprisingly unmoving considering the ridiculous speed that she was probably flying at. The most striking thing about her was definitely the 2 rectangular shapes that where coming straight out of her back and where spewing flames like some sort of future tech jetpack. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. ??Right as she reached my position she decelerated to be able to grab me without hurting my already bruised body, next thing I knew was in her comforting embrace. As I looked at the girls ruby eyes her face of utter concentration I could only avert my gaze so as not to distract her. Slowly calming down I take in my situation, first my now tattered and dirty clothes, my bruised body, the ramen bowl that somehow is still in my hands, half full, then the princes carry that the girl was holding me in and then finally at my surrounding, the ground was filled with the bird monsters, half-destroyed with apparent slash marks and puncture wounds that where leaking luminous green particles that evaporated into nothingness, but I could not see what I was looking for so I turned my eyes to the sky and the bird monster that was making a slow U-turn towards us surly ready to make another attempt at my life but I still did not manage to see what I was looking for. As I realized that my dignity was nowhere in sight I decided to just relax in the hands of the girl and enjoy what was left of my meal while someone else deals with this sh*t. Taking a sip of the soup I start trying to figure out how this system works I start thinking of possible keywords and commands that may trigger a menu or some sort of response, determined to try them out loud as soon as I get my feet back on the grown if my mental attempt dose not work. As I was cycling throw possible commands "Help", "Stats", "Side effect" nothing seemed to work, the mysterious system that was given to me not deeming it necessary to respond to me, at least until I reached the word that I had had the highest hope for all along "Menu". I knew that all my years of being a weeb will come in handy one day. Right in front of me lay a blue screen that reads:
Error f030a03 memory corrupted functionality no longer available.
As I proceed to unceremoniously spit out the ramen out of my mouth a sentence comes to mind that encompasses perfectly my current emotional state "Fu*k me", of course, I get a broken superpower all the heroes do but mine seems to not be broken in the usual way.
Foreign language detected. Analysing pleas wait.
Language determined to be English crossreferencing with database.
Automatic translation activated.
Well, I guess it at least has its uses. My savior noticing my antics takes a quick glance at me, a frown apparent on her face, and I can only smile wearily back unable to say anything because of the wind that is rushing by. Resign with my apparent weirdness she stops paying attention to me and glances to the monster that has almost reached us the girl having to slow down significantly so that I would not die in her arms. Following the girls gaze I also ended up staring at that stupid bird that is gunning for my life and a thought passed through my mind ''Just what in the seven hells is that thing?''
RX-hunting Hawk A remnant autonomous selium robot, from the shattering war, this self suficiant unit has reconstructed itself into a large variant, fast and agile it is designed to swallow selium sources hole to continue it''s functioning
Quest issued: Survive Description: You have been targeted by a Hunting Hawk that wants to consume you to grow its energy reserves. Survive the encounter. Reward: Armor Trigger
Oh, now that is more like it. The only question is what is an armor trigger. As my head kept filling with the possibilities my body must have shown my excitement because the girl looked again at me, and with a small smile on her face she said "Don''t worry this will all end in a moment just hang on tight I am about to make a sharp turn" Her voice soft and caring sounded clear even with the wind that was howling around us, and it quieted down all my iner fantasizing, without even thinking my hands wrapped around the girls neck and as I was enthralled looking at the girls ayes, we made a really sudden movement that I thought might split me in half. Just as we started moving the world started to slow down once again, as I was trying to figure out what is going on a luminous projectile flew past us at a slow pace, in my state of hipper perception I saw how the projectile pierced the Hunting Hawk and made a puncture wound similar to the ones I have seen on its brethren already on the grown. The world seemed to regain its normal speed and in my apparent daze, the red eyed girl had slowed down her flight speed and was preparing to land next to her other two companions. Just when we landed the girl put me very slowly down before the other two who I now could tell where two men one in his late 40 raven hair similar to the girl whit a stern face marked by the vicissitudes of life and a scar from his mouth to his ear telling stories of his past battels he seemed to be the father of my savior and the other man that was in his mid twenties whit a kind smile on his lips but the same piercing rade ayes that seam to be running in this family. But before I could take in more of their appearance a sudden notification interrupted my train of thought.
Quest Survive completed. Issueing rewards.
Suddenly a black sphere of the blackest black, that I had ever seen, materialized right in front of me and a rectangular object fell out of it on the grown. Before I could even complain in my mind about how the system had just thrown a possibly valuable item in front of a bunch of strangers, that may or may not rob me of said valuable item, I hear the girl that saved me say from behind me "Oh it seems you got a quest from the system that is quite rare!" In other shock, I try to ask how she knows about my system but instead of words what comes out of my mouth is the content of my stomach. The stress and fatigue hitting me all at once as I black out while falling to the ground, the last thought crossing my mind before the darkness enveloped me being ''I hope I don''t fall in the vomit'' Chapter 2 The winds of opportunity A breeze that seemed to come from nowhere was blowing on a group of people that were resting in a clearing around a fire. The clockwork precision with which it blew was a constant reminder of the wrongness of it all. It usually wasn''t noticeable when you were moving about but such things always had a way of nagging at those who ventured in the places with no anchors. "And the big, one." said a girl as a stronger gust blew past "We should have picked a better spot father." she said with a pout to the man who was fiddling with a circular device, complex vain patters where pulsing with lights all congregating in the middle of the device and where a single object lay bathing in a light that raized up and formed a holographic projection of the object and some data. "I am afraid that this as good a place as any that we may find the winds are blowing all over these planes, Leah" the man said not raising his head from the projection. "Ohhh I see, and I just thought you could not wait to look at the trigger that ower new friend had acquired." she said turning to look at the man who was sleeping under a blanket, cuts and bruises apparent on the exposed parts of his body. Tormund froze for a moment and caught trying to steady his voice before he spoke, but before a word could come out of his mouth the girl turned around again with a brilliant smile, that warmed his heart and made him forget what he wanted to say. "Don''t worry..." he heard her say "... I know you are just curious about the armor, and I am sure that our new friend will be really happy to find out what his new trigger can do." Tormund just smiled basking in the radiance of his daughter, some thoughts, that he would never admit he had, already gone from his mind. His state of bliss soon interrupted by a muffled chuckle from his son Jin who had been silent up until this moment. He braced himself for what he knew was inevitably coming. "Is there something you want to say, big brother?" Jin looked at his sister who was riling up for an argument and then at his father who seemed to have already capitulated to Leas wishes and decided that having a verbal fencing match with her was not worth it so he just decided to ask his father "So what did you find about the armor?" "It''s quite the unique one." said Thormund exited "Eight standard slots and materialization nods only at the hands with some sort of active swap functionality, I haven''t seen anything quite like it." he said excitement apparent in his voice. "That sounds unique but not that great of a design all things considered" Jin said. "You say that but eight slots is a lot more than normal and combined with the possibility of swapping them during lulls in combat it provides quite a versatile kit" Lea decided to join in the conversation, not a trace of her previous confrontational state present. "You both are missing the point" Tormud said, he glanced again at the last person in their group to make sure that he was still sleeping. "This model is not like the ones from the Peoples Republic of Denos..." "And it is not one of the models that the Kingdom of Lucitania uses ether" Jin said quickly realization dawning on him. "And Romava triggers don''t have slots at all." added Leah. "So the question now is where did the trigger originate from?" said Tormund excitement starting to fill him.
Quest issued: Rogue World Anchor Description: You have discovered the traces of a Rogue World Anchor. Discover the exact position of the Anchor to receive the rewards. Reward: ???
All three of them received the notification at the same time and started smiling. "Well that settles it" Tormund said with a small smile still tugging at his lips "Now all we have to do is decide who do we sell the location to after we find it" "The PRD is probably out considering how hard it is to get in the republic of the people " Jin said a tinge of disdain apparent in his voice "Or more importantly how hard it is to leave" added Tormun his face a mask of seriousness. "To be honest it is impressive that out of all that corruption and incompetence the only thing that they are really good at is their border defense, so how about the kingdom then?" said Jin. "Posible the current leader is quit shroud and has managed to rain in the nobles decades ago so except for the preparation for the eventual invasion of Romava he is not wasting money on much at the moment." pondered Tormun out loud "But the fact that he rained in the nobles also means that he has more resources to entrap us if he so chooses, what where we to do if all the trigger users of the kingdom siege us even after we escape to the ships, I doubt that the sealium powered riffle we found in the last expedition will be much of a deterrent to them."Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. "True but it should not be impossible to negotiate with them if we take precautions but if you are concerned about numbers we can always go to Romava they have the least trigger users and even if they where to wake up the princep his trigger is not suited for chaises" Jin said. Seeing her father and brother getting more and more enthralled in there plans Lea could not help but interrupt "I am afraid you two are forgetting that we have to find the anchor first, the debris field that we are currently in is not that small". Leas words hit the two like a bucket of cold water immediately dampening their enthusiasm. "And also..." she said turning to the still unconscious person. Jin and Tormun bout turned to look in the same direction as Leah taking in the appearance of the person that had definitely seen better days. "So where do you think he is from" Jin broke off the silence. "Black hair and tall, does not look malnourished so most likely not the Republic" said Tormund with a thoughtful expression "Did any of you see from what direction he approached the battlefield." "No" replayed Leah "and he was genuinely frightened and confused, I don''t see how he could have gotten so close to us without us noticing, also panicking people don''t run in the middle of fights without an active armor or even a trigger for that matter". "Well he does have a trigger now" Jin pointed out glancing at Leah "But I agree with your point he basically came out of nowhere. And then there are his clothes to consider, although they are in bad shape they don''t look like what the people from around hear ware". Standing up Jin went next to the unconscious man and stretched his arms forward as if ready to catch something "Well I guess it will be easiest to ask him personally" no sooner did his words fade that the man half stud up, heaving short breaths as if he was trying to calm down after a frighting nightmare. "Easy there you are safe now" Jin said holding the mans shoulders preventing him from standing up "Just sit down and relax you have been throw a lot." The man blinked confusion apparent on his face. He looked around taking in his surroundings until his eyes meting Leahs. With a smile on her face, Leah said "I am glad to see you are alright, I am Leah by the way and this are Jin and Tormund. What should we call you?" "Michel" he replied absent mindedly "I guess I should thank you for saving me... Could I ask where we are right now?" "We are close to the place we first met you, if you go past that hill you can still see what is left of the drone that tried to eat you" Jin said from the side taking a quick glance at his sister when he was sure Michel was not paying attention. "Nock it off. He is still scared and I can''t blame him I wouldn''t want to face one of those things without my armor on" came the voice of Lea. "Thank you!" came the weak reply almost a whisper. "I really thought I was a goner..." every word came out with palpable effort and before Michal could figure out what he wanted to say next he felt himself wrapped into a hug the girl that had saved his life before now there again for him.
"So how long was I out for?" Mikel asked a while later after he had eaten and calmed down somewhat. "Probably about an hour." came Jins reply "Not sure if you were with anyone but if you want we can help you get back to them." "...I am alone." Michel said after a pause a blank look on his face as he stared into nothingness. "You must feal lonely, but you must not dwell on it" came Leas reapply as she put a gentle hand on his shoulder. Jin and Tormun observing how the man they''ve just met visibly shuddered. "Where am I?" came the next question a bit more strength in the voice than before. "I think I may have gotten myself a bit lost." "On a shard in the middle of nowhere" came Tormuns reply is face stern and expressionless the usual self that he displayed in front of his family nowhere to be seen. "A shard?" came Michels reply, a confused expression on his face "I am afraid that I don''t know what that is, you see I come from a remote village and I don''t know much about the world.". After finishing his sentence Michel looked at the three people with a straight face just a tinge of expectancy betraying his actual mood. "..." but instead of the answers, he was hoping for he was only meet with blank gazes. "Did he hit his head?" Tormuns voice sounded. "No we checked when we were administering first aid." came Jins quick replay. They both glanced at Leah. "It''s ok if you don''t trust us, I understand we are some strange people that you don''t know and if you wish we won''t pry. We will be leaving this place soon and we can go ower separate ways soon." "I..." Michel tried to say but the words did not seem to come out and after a quick pause he managed to say "It''s not that I don''t want to tell you... but the truth is so out there that it seems more like a lie than anything that I could come up with and also I really don''t know anything about the world and I am truly lost and ..." his speech cut short by Leah before it could turn into more of a rambling mess. "I see. In that case, you may ask what you wish to know. As far as I can tell you are not a bad man..." she said turning to glance at the other two who were watching intently the exchange. "But I don''t feel comfortable letting someone that we don''t know anything about on ower ship" said Tormund finishing the sentence. "We will be here for a couple more standard days, you can ask us what you want to during this time and in exchange for some labor, we will give you the trigger that you received from the system as well as some supplies when we leave this place. Now we need to get moving we have already wasted a lot of time waiting for you to wake up." He said leaving no place for arguing. As Jin and Tormund started packing up the camp Leah pulled Michel to the side and said "Don''t worry, Father is a nice man he is just worried about me and my brother, as long as you tell him enough to satisfy his worries and prove helpful in the next couple of days I am sure I will be able to convince him to take you along" she said winking at him. "I... I don''t know what to say. I really want to thank you for all of your help but I feel that that will not properly convey the gratitude that I feel for all the help you have given to me." Michel said "...To be honest I really thought I would be left here alone for a second... well I guess I might still be..." he said deflating a bit. "In this life so full of adversity where you don''t know where fate will kick you down and blow you around, you must stand firm and work to a goal. So that this winds of fate and adversity may turn with the labor of your dreams in mere wind of opportunity " she said spreading her hands wide a small smile tugging at her lips while a strong gust of wind suddenly blue by. Chapter 3 Definitely a long day "I still can''t believe what happened and here you are telling me that that was not even much of a challenge." "Well they may be big and can fly but they are very relatively slow and we can fight from a distance if we so chose so there was no real threat to us. Have you never faces something similar before, droids becoming bigger as an adaptation is fairly common in the lower intelligence models." "Yeah I haven''t been in a fight since 8th grade and I can''t even remember what it was about." A boy and a girl were happily chatting while traversing some grassy hills, behind them were trailing two men who were whispering to each other. "So what do you make of him?" Jin asked his father. "Hard to say." replayed Tormund a thoughtful expression on his face. "That''s all? He is the oddest man I have ever met. He does not seem to have any awareness of his surroundings you don''t see that even in farmers, and don''t let me begin about how transparent his emotion seems to be. No one is that straight forward." Jin said. "Well, Leah made no indication that he was hiding anything as of yet and technically it is not impossible for someone to be like that. Young kids are usually like that untile the world beats it out of them or they die in some alley. But generally they don''t end up growing that old." came Tormuns reply. "So he is the luckiest man alive? I find it a lot more likely that he is hiding his true personality somehow." Jin said with a deadpan expression. "Well, he did survive a droid encounter with no armor activated so he might actually be." Tormund said with a teasing smile. "You should trust in your sister it is not that easy to hide your true self from her side effect and the chances of him having a side effect that counters hers is minimal." "But it is still a possibility" Jin did not relent. "Indeed it is, and that is why I plan to test him in the next couple of days so that we may determine what he is made of and to decide what to do with him." Tormund responded his gaze turning sharp. -------------------------------------------------- "So Michel is this the first time you have gone scaveging..." Leah said as Michel tripped over a rock and landing head first on the ground "I could not help but notice you seem a bit inexperienced at the whole outdoor activities." she said helping him back up. "Thanks, well I grew up in the city so I guess that I did not get to do that much fieldwork, shall we call it." he said with an embers chuckle "To tell you the truth I used to go with my parents out for hiking and picknicks a lot when I was little, before mom passed away. I guess me and dad unconsciously avoided doing the whole outdoor thing since then." "I am sorry to hear that. I hope did not bring back any unpleasant memories" Leah said. "It''s ok. It''s been quite a while since then and I have managed to get over it somewhat" responded Michel with a melancholic look. "So your family must have been fairly rich then. You don''t see a lot of people going for picknicks around these parts." Leah asked. "Far from it. We were not poor by any means but I would not call my family rich either, I guess we could be called your typical middle-class family. As for how people are around these parts... as you may have already been able to tell I am not local, and to be honest I was hoping you could fill me in on where I am and what those things that attacked me were." "Well, they were just some autonomous drones left from the war. They are just following there last order, which is in general just guard this place or maintain this facility, it is quite the common thing to meet them when you go scavaging. For example, the big ones that you saw are commonly encountered when there is a ranch with big animals on the shard." Leah replied while half nealing inspecting a bush that may be worth taking back with them. "Wait, why would robots care about a ranch wouldn''t they be centered around an energy source that may keep them working?" Michel asked confused. Leah just looked at Michel incredulous until her face lit up in sudden realization and she said "My bad you must have misunderstood me. When a scavenger refers to a ranch we actually refer to a fulser farm." When she only got a blank look in reply she was dumfounded "Wait you really have no idea what I am talking about do you?" "What is a fulser?" he asked with an awkward smile. "..." Leah just stared at him for a moment and after a sigh, she answered "It is an animal that is able to produce Selium, you were not wrong in thinking that the robots would be centered around an energy sorce. In ranches usually, there are two types of drones around one big type like the one you have seen they are responsible for catching and minimizing the fulsers into energy cells and another type that herds them around. Of course, this is not an absolute but it is common enough that you can think of it as the norm" "So the droids run on selium that they get from the fulsers somehow?" Michel asked still a bit confused. "How can you not know this? this is common knowledge." Leah asked incredulously "Well we don''t really have selium and fulsers where I come from, so I hope you will forgive me for my ignorance in these matters." Michel said trying to placate the girl, but all he got was a blank stare back. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.??"What do you mean you don''t have selium" she said with a raised voice that drew the attention of Jin and Tormund that were on a nearby hill surveying something. "The whole dam world is selium, the earth, the water, the plants, even you and me it all is selium now there is nothing else left" said with a slightly angry tone while giving him a stear. While Michel was trying to figure out what he did that had triggered the girl off Tormund arrived near them and asked "What is going on?" "He is unironically asking what selium is that is what is happening" Leah replied her voice still a bit raised. Tormund arched a brow and after pondering what his daughter said for a moment and said "I have actually met this situation before when I was still in the legion. A group of survivors that had ended up on an unanchored shard had decided to not tell their descendants about the war and it''s implications." "Why would anyone do that?" Leah asked still a bit shaken but a lot calmer "When you do not have the tools to do anything about your fate what would you do?" he asked. "But..." she tried to say but was interrupted by Tormund "Don''t underestimate what people would do for there family, so that they may live a happy life." Leah just looked down her fist clenched and slightly trembling. After things have seemed to have calmed down a bit Michel made up the courage to ask "...So..Sorry, but what are anchors?" "Not now." came the curt reply of Tormund. "We have spotted the fulser herd. There are about 20 fulsers and 4 droids herding them." he said addressing Leah and Jin "We will each take a droid down." "E..eathch?" aked Mickel "Is there another person in your group that is not here?" "No." was the only reply that he got back. Tormund simply threw a rectangular object at Michel and started heading for the hill he had come from. Michel barely managed to catch the object, the rectangular object almost falling to the ground. On closer inspection, the object was a grey rectangle with indentations for fingers, so that it may be better gripped. ?? Aside from that the 6cm object having no other defining features. Just as he remembered that this was the trigger he had received from his system Tormunds voice sounded "Stop standing there and come." As Michel made his way up the hill he was desperately trying to figure out how to use the item. When he arrived at the top of the hill the voice that he was starting to dread sounded again "I have placed a standard sward in a slot in your trigger so you don''t have to fight unarmed. Now at the 2 o''clock direction you can notice the dust trail of the heard " Tormund said not looking at Michel "the droids are boxing in the heard from all sides, you will be taking the droid closes from us, Leah the one on the far side, Jin the one on ower right and I take the last one. Let''s go" As he said the last word he and the rest had pulled similar rectangular boxes similar to the one he had albeit with different colors from there cloths and without any apparent specific action a light started to envelop them starting from the trigger. Next thing Michel new they had changed clothes into a tight-fitting getup and were sprinting towards the heard. "What... do I do now? " Michel said looking at his trigger desperately wishing to figure out how to start his. The next thing he knew his body was being covered in light starting from the hand that was holding the trigger, a prompt appearing in his field of view.
Activating selium armor
"I knew you would not abandon me when I needed you" he heard himself mutter while staring at the blue box provided by the system. Next thing he knew he was also dressed in a blue and black tight-fitting suit. His left shoulder being protected by a rectangular metal guard. "Well, I guess this is the armor now where is the sward."
ARMOR SLOTS
Slot 1: SL sword Slot 5: empty
Slot 2: empty Slot 6: empty
Slot 3: empty Slot 7: empty
Slot 4: empty Slot 8: empty
"Ok... now can you make it appear?" he said. After a moment he looked at his still empty hand and while wishing for the sward to appear he said "Please". No sooner did the words leave his mouth that a double edged long sword materialized in his hand. It was plain looking and the crossguard was the only thing that made it look any different from a sharpened metal rod. Before Michel could think more about it Tormunds voice sounded in his mind "Stop standing there and come." While Michel was trying to figure out how to use his armor Tormud and the others had traversed half the distance to the cloud of dust that was being stirred by the fulser heard. "This is going to be a long day, isn''t it?" Michel heard himself say as he started running towards the rest, almost tripping and falling as the armor moved at the speed of a car. "Definitely a long day" Chapter 4 The Beacon "You should not be so timid just go in and stab the drone." Jin said from his sitting position next to me. We were watching Michael fight or at least trying to fight the drone, father was tending to the fulsers that we had captured. While we made short work of the drones that were herding the fulsers, Michel had proven to not be skilled with a sword or with fighting, in general, to be completely honest. "Easier said than done do you see the sharp claws on that thing?" Michel said while engaging in a staring contest whit the drone "Those things could rip me to shreds if I am not careful.". I could not help but sigh my side effect telling me that he truly was afraid and not just spinning lyes. With a thought I willed the system to manifest the prompt that I have no down all the others had checked before the fight... well perhaps not Michel.
RX herding outreach A robot with a low processing capability that is used to heard fulsers. Its slender body and powerful legs permit it to run at high speeds whiles the claws that it is equipped with are used to scare predators form the herd. Determined to be no threat to Selium armor users because of the low density of Selium in its claws or beak.
Judging by the description and the look of the drone it most likely was using Selium do mimick the properties of some sort of steel, or at least what used to be stell, and that would not be enough to do any damage to any Selium armor since the densities that where employed in them where very high and the properties that those densities permitted where sometimes hard to imagine. So, in essence, the droid was just scary looking and presented no threat probably why father decided to make Michel fight one. After watching this standoff for another minute I could not help myself but say "Michel use the system to identify the drone." I could see confusion building up in him, with my side effect, which culminated in him asking "How do I do that?" "Just will it with your mind and it will appear." I could not fathom how he was so oblivious of the system and the world. In all the travels with my family, I had never met someone that new nothing like him. And as I watched his emotions I could practically see how he was trying to make the prompt appear the excitement when he succeeded, the shame when he most likely finished reading the prompt and finally the panic when the droid had taken advantage of his distraction and wrestled him to the ground. Before I could go help him I heard my father say throw the armor private commes his voice resounding in my head, "So what do you think of him?" His figure was towering next to me, trying to analyze the screaming figure on the ground. I looked up at him, at the scar that ran across his face and an involuntary pang of guilt could still be felt in my heart even after all these years. "He is as you see, as far as I can tell he is not faking any of it." "His stance is awful and the way he underestimated the power of the armor when he first used it make it pretty clear that he is not really a combatant" added Jin throw the commes while at the same time cheering on Michel to fight harder with lowed cheers. "I agree he is not a combatant so no threat to us..." but before I could finish up the sentence Jin finished it for me "So we should take him with us? You are beeing to kind again." he said whiles still cheering Michel on with a bright smile. "Jin you are beeing to callous again. Leah is right there is no need to leave him stranded here when there is no real cost to us." father reprimanded. "We still don''t know if he is a local, we don''t really know anything about him yet" Jin said in protest "From all you have seen do you really believe he lives on this barren rock? There is nothing but grass and droids here whit the occasional small critter. There is no way he would not be malnourished if he lived here and not to mention his personality and his ability" I said pausing to take in the screaming figure on the ground "I don''t need to know more about him to know that he needs help" I could see the resignation in Jins emotions he still wanted to disagree but he knew he would not win the argument. I sight another pang of guilt cursing throw my body I wish he had not changed, I wish he still that his cheerful personality had not been reduced to just a mask to hide the bitterness in his heart and to protect the wounds he was not willing to admit that had not yet heald. "Then it is decided, we shall bring him to an anchored fragment and of the offchance that he opens up to us, we will offer him a spot in ower scavenging operation. He is a trigger user after all and with a bit of training..." a desperate plea for help echoed in the background "a lot of training he will be a useful asset to this team" Jin sighed and leisure made his way to the fight where he casually swatted the drone to the side with a kick that sent it flying a couple of meters. The drone regained its balance before it even hit the ground and watched wearily Jin who was helping Michel get back to his feet. "You need to calm down" came fathers voice "you have to remember that the armor is not your real body no mather how indistinguishable it feels" Confusion was rising again in Michel, I could see it and could already hear the question that would arise so I decided to answer now to speed thing along "Triggers construct a fake Selium body inside them from the users own Selium reserve that is what is referred to as armors when you use a trigger your body is minimized and preserved inside the trigger witch gets placed somewhere inside the armor depending on the model." "The trigger can pretty much be considered indestructible as long as it is supplied with Selium in case you were worried about that" Jin added from the side. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. ??"What do you mean minimized?" but his confusion seemed to only grow. Before I could explain any further father cut in "You will see after you finish that drone. We will have to do it to the fulsers to transport them back since ower ship is not big enough to carry them all" And his confusion was instantly replaced by panic again "I still have to fight that thing?" "Yes." came fathers replay his words to the point and ignorant of any emotions, the legion training surfacing again as it always did when he was concentrating on a task. I could not help but sigh "You don''t have to panic you won''t get hurt and we are also here, to be honest with you this is the best opportunity for you to get used to your armor" I said as much to reassure him as I did to tell my father what his emotional state was so he would not push him too far. "O...ok..." came his hesitant reply determination starting to fill his body, I could also notice another misguided emotion when he was glancing at me... I should be careful about that one so that it may not sower our relationship in the future when he gathers up the courage but until then it will probably help him to push forward with a little prodding so I will let it be for now. And so began his training, with father explaining to Michel how to fight and Jin offering pointers from time to time all whiles Michel was facing the long leged herding drone. I deactivated my armor to conserver Selium and sat back down to enjoy the show
It was a couple of hours later when Michel finally managed to defeat the drone. He had gotten better at wielding the sword he''s swings beeing a lot more precise and his control over the armor was finally adequate. "Finally!" came his tired reply as he plopped down on the grown. "You forgot to pick up your loot" Jin said from the side. "Loot?" Michel perked up "Can something be salvaged from the drone?" "Yes." replied father "Although the body of the drone will evaporate as all Selium constructs do over time, it''s energy source will remain and can be reused" he said while leaning down to pull out the energy core of the drone who was slowly dissolving into moths of lights but before he could reach it Jin screamed "Duck" but it was too late as what looked like a long beam of light came from the distance and decapitated father''s armor. The armor started spewing light from the severed parts and cracking, next it exploded a comet of light shooting throw the sky out of the shards atmosphere towards where ower ship was anchored. The beam of light bent upwards and afterword starting retracting forming back into the shape of a sword blade in the hands of a humanoid droid. "Sh*t" I said while reactivating my armor meanwhile Jin who had his mid-range gun materialize while he was still trying to warn us was already firing at the drone. I prompted the system to see what the thing was already dreading the answer.
RX honor guard A highly intelligent robot that is equipped with slots. This robot used to be employed as a bodyguard for nobles in a kingdom in the past the proficiency of the robot in welding weapons varies depending on the hows that own it as it was a tradition to spar with this robots to improve there combat capabilities
And exactly as I feard the thing was slotted and had yet an unknown number of abilities and judging on how it had appeared from behind a hill right when our guard was at it''s lowest it probably was intelligent enough to lay in ambush for some time and observe us as the same time. I made the jets that I had in my two back slots come out and started flying towards the robot prepared to hinder it''s mobility so that Jin may get a shot. Whiles making my way toward the enemy I told Michel threw the comms "Start running you will only hinder us we will come to find you after the fight is over." after which I paid him no more attention as I had to focus at the robot that was evading most of Jin''s fire and blocking the shots Jin placed in his path. If it wasn''t for Jin''s side effect I am sure he would have been cut down already. I formed a volatile Selium spear from a slot in my armors hand and threw it at the robot. It managed to dodge the slow projectile easily but when the spear hit the grown it exploded pushing the robot airborn. Jin was firing his weapon at the robot who could no longer doge. But the thing was still managing to block the projectiles from Jin''s weapon with his sword. As it was only a matter of seconds till the dam thing would land again and we would be where we started I formed another spear in my hands and charged my trusters flaring up on my back. When my spear was moments from impacting the robot and ending its existence, the thing unable to attack me because of Jin''s suppression fire I hear Jin shout threw the commes "Watch out!" Next thing I know the robot materializes a transparent sheld from his other hand blocking Jin''s fire and makes his sword extend again making it hit the ground and pushing its body away from my spear and positioning itself so that I would obstruct Jin''s line of fire. Next whit the sword still embedded in the ground it kicked me in the side pushing me in the path of the projectiles that Jin had fired earlier to suppress the robot. Next, a voice could be heard in my head
Armor integrity compromised initializing ejection
And I started flying towards the ship surrounded by light as my father did before me. The fight ending in mere moments since it started After a couple of moments, I was next to the beacon at our ship steering intensely at it. Father came immediately in the room but before he could say anything, another moth of light landed next to the beacon passing threw an outlet that was connected to the void outside. "I managed to get one of its arms but that thing was tough " Jin said still trying to orient himself after arriving at the ship, dread started to overwhelm me as I was still staring at the beacon in the ship. "What is the mather?" father asked noticing my distress Turning slowly towards them I was pale as a sheet as the word escaped my moth "We never gave Michel the beacon''s key his armor won''t eject him out of that place."