The 'lodestones' looked to be complete. They were small enough to discreetly fit one in each party member's easiest accessible pocket, being either under the forearm, within the chestpiece or on their belt.
There were two 'spells' wrapped around it. Or so, Zenith thought. One was easily visible to Zenith's sensors, but the other seemingly had no effect. Zenith was attempting to measure for differences in approaching spybots, but it would take a lot of time to register the affects of the energy, and longer to identify it. Supposedly, Zenith would have some of that time, but not necessarily enough.
It would need to employ Cade's help with this.
For their part, its charges were already aware of the general situation, just not precisely of the spells used. Zenith would be able to keep track of the seven stones, it would just need them to help examine them.
The party of potentially hostile adventurers walked back to the tent-town, and Mara disappeared into the crowds again, tracking them and trying to note down every person and spot that had a lodestone placed. The tiny tombstone-like items were a hard thing to keep track of, however, especially as Mara didn't really know many of the faces within her own Guild.
As the lodestones found themselves in various places, however, they soon found themselves carried off into loose pockets of dirt under the people walking about, doing chores, telling stories, bartering. Zenith had positioned itself directly under the tent-town, and was taking the lodestones near its vessel.
Mara spotted one such tablet fall conspicuously in front of her, sinking into the ground and heading off in Zenith's direction.
Ah. So it was acting.
Mara kept a lookout, though. The group had made seven total, and only three had been seen. Missing even one could be disastrous.
The adventurers were playing nice right now, but even a Guild investigation would very likely cripple the Valley Rangers in their current state. Despite packing heavy relative to most other nomadic groups, not hunting or trading for two full days was a significant hit to resource stockpiles. If the Guild investigation came without supplies to share, it may well last long enough for the Valley Rangers to need to start long-range trading for basic supplies, which was not ideal.
A witch hunt could possibly get ugly, but would have a pseudo-Guild investigation involved, probably.
A Crusade would simply be to wipe them out.
As the party neared the center of town, where Morval and Kenneth were calmly approaching them from, they paused in the dispersal of their tracking devices. Mara looked through the ground and saw four above Zenith's carapace.
...When had they dropped the fourth? Whatever - it wasn't important.
"Didn't find anything?" asked Morval.
"Nothing even worth our time." lied Sigmund.
"A shame. We were hoping we could get some materials from it of our own." said Kenneth.
"Like you would know how to use a starmetal." sneered Sigmund, his party continuing to walk past the pair.
Gilbred looked at Morval and gave an apologetic shrug. He couldn't really do anything about the situation, it seemed.
As they continued further, Kenneth turned away from observing them.
"He's absolutely fuming." he whispered. "I don't think he'll be holding any punches with his plan."
"Even if his party doesn't realize it somehow... he definitely plans on calling a Crusade."
"And that means we need to get moving." he continued. "The first step is dealing with the tracking."
"Zenith is gathering them already." added Mara, startling the pair as she seemed to materialize from a crowd beside them. "It already has four. I don't think it's doing anything with them, though."
"Zenith, you need to bring them to Cade. She's in the Fieldhall, but I'm assuming you already knew that." Morval said with barely any volume at all.
Correct. I am working on interim contact solutions. It appears my time communicating through this method is limited.
"What do you mean?"
Sixth lodestone collected. One remains. They are nearing the Fieldhall. I will have many questions and requests from all of you.
"Zenith?"
Time for an AI was usually experienced at the same rate as biological life, if such a standard could be made. The primary difference was in how quickly an AI could process the data and react to it. It was faster even than a biological's instincts, only barely slower than some of the quickest chemical reactions.
It still felt mind-numbingly slow waiting for the last lodestone to be dropped. When it was tossed through the open doorway of the Fieldhall, Zenith was not surprised by the positioning, and had a nearly invisible team of construction nanobots ready to catch it.
After that, the human party quickly made for a direction roughly northwest. From data picked up through observing conversations, that was the direction of the nearest human settlement, a trip of roughly two days for the Valley Rangers.
Estimates put the current velocity of the adventurers at half of that. So, four days to get out of the area. At most, two before the Guild should begin moving, based on what little information Zenith had on tracking.
Two hours passed as Zenith waited for the adventurers to move out of any potential range for eavesdropping. Then it made its move, shoving the enchanted tablets through the weakened stone in front of Morval. A quick one, he picked them up and moved into the Fieldhall to deliver them himself.
Zenith sent its newest creation after him, engineered using resources it had gathered throughout the past day and assembled within the void in its core segment, looking like a significantly smaller version of the Construction Tank with distinct differences.
The legs couldn't extend, and had much smaller claws. It wouldn't be lifting anything anyways, as the underside held a small array of pressure wave generators. Speakers. The upper end contained a small and effective set of sensors for visuals, audio, and subspatial energy, as well as an energy projector that would be nearly identical to the two currently inside the dark energy reactor. Without the benefit of a dedicated battery, the shield was far from perfect, but it could survive perhaps one of the medium-strength subspace projectiles that Cade had used during the Blood Moon battle. All of this was mounted on a rotating center to allow for easier directional focus.
Hearing the cracking of the ground behind him, Morval turned, thinking Zenith's wyrm-body was about to emerge in the center of the tent-town. When only a small, waist-height crawler emerged from the hole in the ground, which was rectified just as quickly as it had been broken, Morval was slightly confused. Then there was a short period of crackling.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Testing alternative contact method. Indicate approval if successful."
"...Zenith?"
"Yes?" responded the little bot, its current working title Relay Construct.
"...I think it's working. It's a little strange, though."
"I have no real voice, if that is what you mean to say. Vocalizations stylized like this were popular among previous companions." The bot was unmoving. Most of the surrounding tents had fallen silent, watching with various amounts of understandable emotions.
"Companion?" Morval asked.
"Yes."
"...Alright then. You can move?"
"Yes. We have other tasks to focus on. I advise you to control your attention." The voice was emotionless, seemingly with a complete disregard for its surroundings. If Morval were forced to describe it...
...it was like talking to a river? No, that's not quite right... like a waterfall. Unchanging, and ultimately extremely stable, but with a false sort of instability, a high-pitched rumbling sort of sound. That was the closest Morval felt he would ever get.
The four-legged strangeness that was ultimately part of whatever Zenith was passed Morval into the Fieldhall proper, clearly not needing directions of its own. Morval began to follow, making sure he hadn't dropped any of the tablets.
----------------------------------------
"If I had to guess... and just so we're clear, I haven't seen this spell before. But my educated guess is that it's an alarm of some kind." said Cade.
"What is its trigger?" said the Zenith-piece. Cade looked at it nervously.
"Uh... probably the enchantment inside. The tracking one." She looked at the six tablets still arranged on the floor in front of her. "If you dispelled that, or broke the tablet, they would know. Probably."
...
"This construct is not capable of surviving combat."
...What did that have to do with anything?
"I'm... not sure that is especially relevant-" started Lan.
"What you call raw mana. It would destroy this construct in sufficient quantities."
"That's what raw mana tends to do, yes." Morval stated. "But Cade said you used mana fighting the worm..?"
"Correct. But not in the same way you do."
"Okay, I think we should settle down about the tablets for now. Unless you want to keep studying them?" asked Itval. Cade shook her head. No use trying anything right now.
"We will trade questions." said the construct.
"Can you clarify?" Itval asked.
"You may ask the first question. Then I may ask mine in return. Repeat."
"And we, meaning you and us, will actually answer them." stated Mara. "Right, creature?"
"Insofar as it is in your best interest to know, I will answer. In fairness, you are allowed the same."
"How do you know our best- actually, no, that's a stupid question." Morval thought aloud.
"Yes, it is. Unless you have any objections, your first question begins now."
There was an awkward period of silence before Cade asked the obvious question. "If you know what's in our best interest, then... what do you think we should do about this?" he said, gesturing to the tablets.
"I suggest the best course of action as proceeding to move with haste. Which direction is up to you. Delay the arrival of whatever form the incoming threat takes so that we may have more time to dismantle the lodestones safely and truly disappear."
"Itval, pass us all some paper and pencil." said Morval. "I think we are all going to have to write down our questions. For later."
"That is a prudent idea." Itval reached into the pack at her side, pulling out a small bundle of paper and handing it to Morval, before reaching back in to retrieve six crude writing devices and handing one to each of the other five. Morval handed a piece of paper to each, keeping the spare pieces on the floor next to him.
"Please repeat your last answer, Zenith." asked Itval. Zenith did so, and they all wrote down a few questions.
When they were done, Morval turned back to the construct. "Okay, your turn."
"Where do you get the raw mana from?"
"It's... just part of our Stats, I guess. Something from the System." said Cade. "I'm not sure how you were able to utilize raw mana. No golem or construct I've ever heard of had access to the System, or the ability to wield raw mana."
The System. Of course. It always comes back to the System.
"Where or what do you come from? As in, what made you?" asked Lan.
"I was gonna ask next..." whined Kenneth under his breath.
"I am a construct of a type you do not appear to have the concept for yet. Past that, I cannot explain."
"Can't or won't?" Kenneth said quickly.
"Both." the construct said quicker. Cade and Mara, despite themselves, shuffled a little bit in their positions sitting on the floor. "I will count that as a separate question. I now have the right to ask two."
Kenneth hmphed and stared at the ceiling, with Morval and Itval glaring at him from across the small room.
"What else does the System provide you?"
And Itval thought she wouldn't be getting any chances to let her knowledge show.
"This can get to a pretty long explanation, so for the sake of time, do you want a detailed explanation or a short one?"
"I am fine with the short one, for the time being." the construct paused noticeable. "I will ask further details later. I will not count that as a separate question."
"Alright. Well." Itval took in a deep breath. "Everyone is born with the System, but it takes time to learn it, just like walking or talking. It tends to make its presence known by appearing as a sort of translucent paper in front of our faces whenever we want to see it."
"It benefits us in ways we can't really understand how it does, but the simple result is this; as we act in our life, we eventually gain a Class, which allows us to Level. When we Level we earn Stats depending on the Class, as well as Skills every 5, 10, or 15 Levels, depending on the Class. We can also have our Skills earn Levels depending on our use of them, but it's much harder to Level than a Class. When a Skill reaches Level 10, it is upgraded in a way, sometimes purely positive but sometimes highly positive but with an attached negative, depending on our use of the Skill."
Itval felt the urge to get up and start drawing in the air. So she did.
"This Skill I'm using right now," she said while drawing a diagram of a person's progression through the System, "is called Illusory Drawing. It's part of a subset of Skills that you earn through learning instead of from a Class." In a short time, she had drawn out the steps she had stated before in a line, with Skills splitting into three categories.
"That subset of Skills, known more commonly as Spells, is almost always reliant on mana to use. They don't Level, by the way." She labelled one of the categories Spell, and the next Class. "The second is the type I mentioned first, earned at certain Levels of your Class, influenced by your own actions. Sometimes they need mana, like a Spell, but they will Level with usage and evolve into specialized or, in rare cases, entirely new Skills."
She filled in the next category with the label Ability. "Abilities are the type of Skill that you don't learn or get simply because you Leveled. They don't require mana, and don't Level, but are usually fairly powerful Skills that you earn from System-assigned Quests or other rare events."
"Now. Stats." she took a deep breath again. "You are getting all of this, right?"
"Your actions will earn you a Class. Classes can Level. Different kinds of Skills can be earned through knowledge, Level thresholds, or unique circumstances. Skills earned from Level thresholds can Level on their own, evolving into a variant at Level 10. Class Levels also grant Stats." the construct shot back in rapid succession. "I will not count that as a separate question." Mara stifled a giggle in the corner.
"Okay. Good. Well, Stats; earned from Levelling your Class. They alter the effectiveness of your Abilities. They also affect you directly, as well. There are seven Stats." She drew out another seven lines from the Stats point in the eternally growing diagram. The others felt themselves falling asleep, aside from Morval. "Constitution, Strength, Agility, Perception, Wisdom, Intelligence, and Affinity. What they do is mostly self-explanatory, aside from Affinity, which is connected to our ability to use mana, including how much we can store."
She finished writing the last of the Stats down and turned to look at Zenith. "Those are the basics, the most important details."
"How do you turn mana into Spells? From your perspective." the construct said.
Did Zenith know how to use Spells, in its own way? Maybe.
"Using raw mana itself isn't too different from using a Spell." said Cade. "Some formulas can have the same result. You have to make the mana flow through a shape in a specific way and shape to make the desired Spell. The more complicated Spells can involve multiple inputs and outputs merging at certain points or not at all. But generally, once you are able to perform a Spell once, it gets added as a Skill, and so long as you have the Stats to successfully recreate it, the System will do it for you."
"Understood." There was a pause as nobody wanted to interrupt another's question. "Morval, Itval, and Mara have yet to ask sufficient questions."
"Then I will ask mine." said Morval. The construct spun its instrument cage to face him. "Why are you helping us?"
That was not a question Zenith wanted to entertain right now.