Amanda and Robert visited Yolania to drop some quests they completed. Exploring these realms was getting exciting and the thrill of adventure and romance enraptured the couple. Not to mention that they were growing steadily. With all the raiding, Amanda gained five or six percent advancement every day, most of it from the Fecking Puma Realm. In just a couple more days, she would reach a hundred percent progress. From there, she could either ascend to the third star or keep gathering primal Ether to get a better talent evolution.
Robert was already in that stage. He could get his third star anytime but saw no need to rush it, differently from the previous time, when he obtained Gwen's Grimoire. This would be definitive and he wanted a good talent evolution.
They quickly delivered the loot and got the quest payment wired straight to their accounts. Robert had a faint idea why they called these bank transfers "wired" back before the cataclysm and the word stuck.
"There's this new quest we received," Yolania disclosed. "The pay is really good. They want a weapon from this Dungeon, and the boss often wields it. It's a Light-affinity sword that has no material blade."
The bounty was anonymous, as were them all. When Robert saw the nine-digit bounty reward, he was hooked. They took it, and Yolania showed them a passage map to reach the place.
*
*
Robert and Amanda left the liminal void amidst a sparkling sea of stars. The surface underneath and around them was all gray rocks and dust, bleached by a relenting sun. The place had a rarefied atmosphere and even the couple of two two-star Archs had difficulty breathing.
They were on another moon. Not a space station.
(I would assume there's no such thing as space stations in-universe but I assumed too many things in the past only to be proven wrong by Robert Blaise three 1% Lifesteal chapters later. Like the Life affinity being capable of healing others. Know what? The next chapter will have a space station realm. #FlipTable)
"It seems to be a moon," Robert Blaze said, his voice squeaky as if he had inhaled helium. Which he did, because it was in the moon's atmosphere for comedic reasons.
Amanda extended her Earth Sense down and gasped. "There's metal underneath us. Processed metal sheets!"
"What?" Robert asked, not believing what he heard. He was making a surprised face for dramatic reasons.
"This is not a moon, it's a space station!" Amanda delivered the famous line while looking at the camera. She didn't know it was a camera. It was disguised as a rock.
(I lied. Twice.)
"Space station? As in that vanity vehicle that flew high above the world, was super expensive to maintain, and so lethal to inhabit, people could only stay there for a few months at a time and needed medical attention when returning?"
"Yes, that one," Amanda replied. "Pre-cataclysm people were so obsessed with getting out of the planet, that they dreamed of living in these vehicles. I wonder why. There's nothing up there."
"They believed they could find other worlds and strange creatures. Like in that story where the monster incubated an egg in a guy's chest and then killed everyone."
"Didn't the heroine survive?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"Well, that was a trend that died down pretty quickly, when the rifts opened and poured monsters like Halloween candy."
"Most likely because their electronics stopped working."
Amanda created sparks between her fingers. "Yeah. I mean, how dumb was it to make machines that ran on lightning? And not expect them to burn or explode?"
"To be fair, these machines burned or exploded quite often. And people used to move using cars propelled by exploding dead monster oil."
Amanda laughed, her peals almost inaudible because it was an octave or two higher.
"That was a hoax. Those din… dinosaurs, they weren't real. They were monsters that came to Earth in the previous Rift cycle."
"No, don't tell me you believe in that crackpot theory that the Ether on Earth comes and goes. Worlds are added to the interspace and they stay in the interspace. Otherwise, the Endless Hive conquer and hold strategy wouldn't work. Somewhere along the way, they would be cut off from their homeworld."
"I won't," she replied with a cheeky smile. "Shall we get started with this quest?"
Robert let her keep her mysteries if that's what pleased her. They went around, investigating the moon's surface. Space station, I mean. They wanted to find a way to access the underground.
His spatial senses didn't pierce the underground. Despite what Amanda said, Robert could only sense solid ground underneath him.
After a while, they found a hatch half-buried in the ground. Amanda made the rock, gravel, and sand move away, revealing a circular wheel mounted on the hatch.
"We should give it a spin if that's okay with you," Robert said.
He didn't wait for the answer. Robert grabbed the wheel and twisted it. With a metallic clack, it started to spin. The hatch opened to reveal a shaft and a ladder built into the wall. All surfaces were polished metal.
"This is manufactured," Amanda said. "But who made it?"
"Whoever it was, I hope they left some treasure for us," Robert replied as he started to climb down. The shaft was wide enough for their power armor.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
They reached a tunnel. A dull white light came from plastic panels built into the corners between the wall and ceiling, spaced evenly. Vents on the roof blew cold, fresh air down. The floor was made of juxtaposed square metal panels. Robert could see thick colored wires running behind the grates.
They picked a direction and started to explore.
*
*
The tunnels added up to a massive maze. Closed doors they had no idea how to open dotted the tunnels. But whenever they thought about forcing one of them open, Robert's prescience predicted their death in a fiery explosion. He shelves the doors as traps, to examine later.
Robert mapped the tunnels and found a pattern after an hour of walking down. The corridors formed loops, some of them leading to the center of the moon. They followed one of those and reached a circular hall with what looked like elevators.
As they approached, a glass panel next to the elevator came alive, with twelve symbols.
"Are these numbers?" Amanda asked. It looked like they were meant to dial the floor number.
Robert scanned the hall and around the elevators. When he found no matching glyphs, he pressed two symbols on the panel. The two closest elevators opened their doors. One had a man, the other had a bear. Was this place a puzzle Dungeon?
"Between the man and the bear, who do you choose?" Robert asked his paramour.
"Are they real?" She asked.
"Yes. Something is blocking me from seeing the magic inside the elevators but as far as I can tell it's a random man and a random bear."
"The bear, obviously," Amanda said. "If a fight breaks out, I would rather fight the bear. The guy could be an Arch stronger than us."
They went to the elevator with the bear. The animal didn't react until the doors closed. It reared on its hind paws but Robert just whispered, "Mind Blackout". He let iRobert add Poochline's treated imprint to the bear's mind. A few tweaks here and there, special care to make the bear mind its size, and it was domesticated.
"Woof! (Food Food)" The bear woofed.
Amanda laughed and petted the bear.
"I think I should take it to the island," Robert suggested.
"Sure, let's go get some sun, then we can come back and take the elevator to its destination."
With Robert's talent, they could be anywhere faster than the blink of an eye. He took both Bear and Amanda to the Puffbloom Islands.
After a few more tweaks to the bear's mind and a good chunk of meat to keep it entertained, they returned to the elevator. It hadn't yet reached the next stop.
*
*
The walls blocked Robert's spatial senses. But as the elevator door opened to the random floor he keyed in, he saw the corridor network expand before him. It contained moving chunks of metal he couldn't identify.
They approached carefully. The first "chunk" revealed itself to be a vaguely humanoid set of interconnected metal boxes. Robert saw enchantments running inside what he temporarily dubbed a metal golem. Its lower half was a polygonal pyramid covered in small lights. They blinked at random intervals and patterns.
"Rceefizrd, Suxaz!" The golem said, waving a clear and fancy plastic bottle in a clawed arm. Blue sparkling liquid sloshed inside.
Lightning crackled to his side. Robert raised an ar. "Don't attack yet. Let me learn their language."
He activated thought acceleration and comprehend languages. Then he repeated each word separately. "Pbeeidipg?" The golem raised the bottle. "Quvaw?" The golem pointed at them.
All that 2,000 IQ energy led Robert to a conclusion. The words meant "bottle" and "human". He was such a genius. Or "drink" and "person." Or "I'll throw a bottle-shaped grenade at" and "you, trespassers."
It was ducking hard to learn a language in five seconds, after hearing only two words, okay?
"Bhawaaghoulyah!" Robert exclaimed.
The golem scratched its head. "Jov Wape!" It said waving the bottle slowly, as if to display it.
Robert approached. He slowly reached for the bottle. The golem made no move to stop him. He twisted the cap and checked the contents. He took a sip.
"Blueberry soda," he revealed.
"No way!" Amanda approached and took a sip too. "It's a bit too sweet but at least it's carbonated and cold."
"Xayvewb!" The golem demanded, waving an open palm at Robert. A small hatch opened and a sequence of number glyphs appeared.
Robert's superpowered mind deduced it was demanding payment.
"Is it demanding payment?" Amanda asked.
Robert cringed. He took a hundred-dollar bill and put it on the robot's hand. He was overpaying for a soda but not for the availability premium of being served cold fizzy soda (despite being on the sweeter side) in a remote realm that could be a Dungeon. Thinking better about that, he added a second C-note. Then a third as the golem's tip.
"Xayvewb!" The golem demanded as it turned its claw upside down, dropping the bills to the ground.
Robert glanced at Amanda.
"I think imperial cash is worthless here. They only take local currency, " she said.
It wasn't like Robert wanted to buy spaceship parts of slaves and they never discussed payment before, but they did consume the goods. Robert shook his head and replied.
"No Xayvewb!"
"No Xayvewb?" The golem asked.
"No Xayvewb!" Robert confirmed.
They rolled for initiative. Robert, being a cheat character, got a negative number. Thankfully, the book said to consider it as one.
Robert saw the golem attacking them in his foresight. He blasted the golem with a void lance. The spell hit the golem and vaporized part of its chest.
The golem fell backward, the lights going off. It spoke one last sentence. "Lawa la vixwa, fafy." One claw curled into what could be seen as a thumbs-up. It went completely still, the Ether in its enchantments fading away.
He knew it was dead when he regained three points of essence.
*
*
They started attacking the golems as they appeared, taking the loot they were probably trying to sell them for cash they didn't have. If this place, which was probably both a space station and a moon (gasp!), had an owner, then said the owner should protect this place better. This was the law of the land when the most powerful people in the land could toss buildings at each other. The law in the Empire of America was enforced through the Empress' power and the four stars who were Her enforcers. It trickled down and as one climbed the steps of power, fewer and fewer restrictions applied to them.
That's how people could get away with heinous acts if they had power. One example was the organization that made Caroline an Arch well before the girl even went through puberty. It was illegal but they had two four-stars so the law kind of didn't apply to them.
Eventually, they arrived at a big room with a vaulted ceiling. The floor was carpeted and the ceiling was made out of glass panels and metal beams. Beyond the panels, a starry sky illusion made it seem they were outside despite the miles of moon base above them.
Comfortable chairs, plinths with some strange glass panels displaying moving pictures and advertisements, game and dining tables, a bar, and even a swimming pool composed this luxurious and comfortable leisure environment.
"Robert, this place is lovely!" Amanda said.
"I don't sense any danger, so feel free to explore," Robert said.
Amanda went between the gaming and leisure stations while Robert searched the doors along the polygonal walls. He found a booth embedded in the walls and entered the room. In a drawer, he found several colorful tokens with alien numbers written on them. They resembled poker chips. He took note of them and made the tokens disappear in his storage space with a wave of his hand.
Next, his fairy eyes noticed some enchantments running behind a wall panel. When he opened it, he found several buttons with labels in the alien script. iRobert copied the panel, adding it to the tridimensional map of the space station/moon in the Mind Palace. He also took note of the glyphs. Robert then pressed the buttons. It turned on several of the features in the leisure area, like lighting, air vents, the game tables, and even a glowing water fountain near the middle. Another made music play.
It was a mixture of Jazz, EDM, and nails scratching on a blackboard. Amanda shouted a complaint and Robert turned it off. However, the experiment allowed him to match the objects to the label.
The last button made doors on the other side open. Several rob— I mean, golems entered.
"zebibcavke ib lucise!"
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> MDW: I hope you can decipher the alien language before Robert can (though he moves at the speed of the plot).