Chapter Thirty-Four: Heading Straight for a Fall
Marc awoke to darkness. Not the early morning, darkness before the dawn dark, but the you are buried in a cave one hundred meters under the earth kind of dark.
“Kira? Are you there? I’m blind. I can’t see.” Marc tried to contact his interface as the panic was quickly building in his chest.
《Oh, sorry about that. I was messing around with the upgrade. Let me fix that.》
“Messing around with the… Are you kidding me?” Marc responded, a hint of anger in his voice.
Marc blinked and when his eyes opened he saw the room he had gone to sleep in the night before. It was still dark, but just because the sun was just starting to rise. The early morning light cast a glow through the wooden shutters over the window.
《Forgot to turn on your regular sight. I’ve been busy. A lot to learn.》
Marc suppressed a growl. At least this wasn’t an icepick of pain through his skull.
“Okay. How did it go? What did the upgrade do? Oh, and no pain this time, thanks for asking.” Still a little irritated, but also getting curious about the upgrade.
《It’s amazing. This is incredible. I feel so much more power! Watch this.》
Instead of the old interface with pop-up boxes from the old RPG games he played as a kid, this new interface was much more like the one used by the Online MMORPG he supported at the call center. His Health, Stamina, and Mana were now represented by three lines up in the upper left corner of his sight. A green one for Health, Blue for Stamina, and Purple for Mana. This would make it much easier to monitor in real-time. He also saw icons in the lower right. By focusing on them slightly he realized that these were shortcuts to a few of his most commonly used skills, Inner Flame, Protect, and Clean were now there, but he intuitively knew that he could change this setup and adjust it the way he wanted with a thought.
There was even a toggle for his Privacy skill that was now active. He also knew that the icon would alert him if anyone was using any type of analysis skill on him. He concentrated on the icon and a new window popped up. This one showed his stats in a similar fashion to his old status window. Now however the window was labeled “Presented Status”.
He realized that he could concentrate on any entry in the window and edit it like a word processor. He could change his name, age, anything. He assumed this would work like a fake ID for anyone who had an analysis skill or item. He was looking forward to trying this out with Meservi later.
As cool as these new changes were, he couldn’t help but feel a bit let down. The last update had boosted the interface quite a bit, allowing him to have realistic conversations. As annoying as she could be, it was sometimes comforting to have a real conversation partner, and more than once she had been helpful by giving him information before he even knew to ask for it. This seemed like a cosmetic upgrade more than anything.
《I knew you were getting sweet on me.》 Kira’s standard sarcastic voice responded to his inner thoughts.
《Not done yet. Watch this.》
Standing directly in front of him was a woman. A blond and very pretty woman, around 30. She wore what looked like some kind of prom dress and had her hair tied up in ridiculous ribbons.
“What do you think?” The woman asked.
Marc fell off the bed and scrambled toward the door. A familiar laugh echoed from behind him.
He turned and the woman was now sitting on the bed, her legs crossed in a casual adult fashion, staring at him with a big smile on her face.
“You don’t like it? How about this?”
The woman disappeared in a Wonder Woman transformation flash and now on the bed was Mumay, the intern from the Guild the day before.
“Is this more to your liking?” She asked, blinking her eyes flirtatiously.
The voice is what broke the spell. This was not the soft and hesitant half-whisper of the poor girl he had just met yesterday. This was Kira. Kira’s voice. But not in his head. He was hearing her voice like a regular person. It was just coming from the body of a different person. The mismatch broke the illusion.
“Kira? But how? What?” Still struggling to put the pieces together, Marc stammered.
“Marc? Are you awake? Good morning! Come out when you are ready. We have breakfast!” The cheerful voice of Keri came through the door.
“Shhh! Use your inside voice.” Kira taunted him.
《We can still talk the way we did before. No need to say things out loud.》 Kira said into his head.
“And even if I speak like this, no one but you can hear me, or see me for that matter.” The doppelganger Mumay waved her hand at the mattress of the bed and her arm sunk completely into the bedding without disturbing the blankets in any way at all.
“It’s just like the old interface. But the graphics have improved don’t you think?” Kira-Mumay stood up and spun in a circle. “You couldn’t even tell right?”
Marc got to his feet and reached over, poking his finger towards the dancing girl. As his finger was about to touch her, the girl fell towards his chest first. To avoid a very uncomfortable interaction Marc fell backward onto his rear, an angry curse bellowed from his lips.
“Marc? Are you ok?” Keri’s voice came through the door, then a knock. “Marc? Are you awake?”
“Uhh, yeah. Fine. Everything is fine. Be out in a minute. Just getting dressed.” He stammered.
“Shit! Kira, what are you doing? Stop messing around.” He angrily thought at the laughing, spinning girl.
Fine. Now watch this!
Marc saw a new large window appear in his vision. At the top it said EQUIPMENT and filling most of the window was a full-body picture of himself. It was even dressed as he was right at that moment, currently wearing only his t-shirt and a pair of the shorts that Grenn had brought him.
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Marc examined the window. He saw some lines indicating his equipment slots. Currently, most were empty, except CHEST (INNER), and LEGS (INNER). His current wardrobe is accurately reflected.
“Try it out,” Kira told him, sitting back on the bed and staring at him.
“Huh, really?” He asked but again, he instinctively knew what to do. He thought about adding his jeans and hoodie, and instantly he was dressed. Then he thought about the local clothes he had been wearing yesterday and the clothes he was wearing were immediately replaced.
“Cool. Kinda gimmicky, but handy I guess.” He said, trying to poke Kira for messing around with him.
“Don’t try to pretend you don’t love it. I know what’s in that coconut on your shoulders.” She said making a kissy face and adding a seductive wink.
“Then you know I don’t like that. Can’t you use something else? And not the singer, please. I told you I want to forget that movie ever existed.” He begged.
“Don’t pretend. I know how you really feel. How about this then?” Kira-Mumay spun on her heels again with the blinding transformation effect, complete with sound effects this time he noticed. When she had stopped spinning there was a new face.
She was a young woman of indeterminate race. Brown, shoulder-length hair, copper skin, brown eyes, but with a hint of purple, as though she was wearing those cosmetic contact lenses. A more in line with Marc’s old world, maybe mid-twenties. She was wearing a white blouse with a black leather jacket and tight jeans, flats, and a large copper bracelet on her right wrist.
She looked slightly familiar, but even with his perfect recall, Marc could not place this new face. No movie star, teacher, or schoolmate. No one in the revolving cast of employees at the call center. It bothered Marc that she looked like someone he should recognize, but couldn’t recall.
“Who?” He started to ask.
“This old thing? No one. This is the look I chose. I designed it myself. Nice don’t you think?” Kira did some poses to an imaginary mirror.
Marc heard some shuffling noises from the other side of the door.
“Ok. You look fine. Stick with this. But not now, not with other people around ok? It’s distracting.”
“Your wish is my command, Master,” Kira said while crossing her arms. She violently nodded her head once and disappeared in a flash of light
《Better?》
“Yes, thank you.” Marc was about to open the door when Kira added,
《Don’t you want to wear your lucky underpants? You might meet more teenage girls.》
Marc was about to get angry when he stopped. Thinking about the underwear from his original wardrobe he recalled the stat increase they imparted. LUCK +1.
He had no idea what LUCK did in truth, but it was the only stat he had never raised above zero. That is without the addition of his stat-boosting underwear that is.
Considering the plan for today, he thought a bit of luck might not be a bad idea. He pulled up the Equipment window and swapped out the shorts he was wearing with a thought.
“How long have you been holding on to that one? Lucky underpants?” He asked Kira.
《FOR-EVER! You know how much it sucks to have the perfect joke, but you have to wait for just the right moment?》 She complained.
She keeps getting more and more human. Marc thought to himself as he opened the door and stepped out into the main room, already alive with the family getting ready for breakfast.
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They left the apartment after breakfast. The meal was delicious and huge. Keri kept refilling his dish every time it even half emptied. Eventually, he begged her to stop and Grenn helped smuggle him away from the table.
Sateem who kept pestering him for stories and information about his home country all morning and even started crying when Grenn told her that Marc would be heading back to the Witch’s Den, had immediately forgotten him when her mother suggested that she go play with her friends outside.
Keri handed him a large bundle of food, some pastries like the ones from the previous evening, some fruits he was not familiar with, and even two large sandwiches.
“In case you don’t have time for lunch.” She said.
Marc put the bundle in his bag without moving them in his storage space, not wanting this heartwarmingly normal gesture to be tainted somehow with rare magic. He would transfer them out of the bag later on.
As they left the building, Keri called out to Grenn.
“Don’t forget to straighten things out with that blasted Elf.”
Grenn grunted indeterminately and pushed down the stairs to the walkway below.
“I’m serious! You tell that Elf you are retiring! Tell him today!”
Grenn nodded then waved and proceeded down the stairs. Marc looked at the large man, but decided to let this topic go. It didn’t seem to have anything to do with him. Best to not get involved.
They headed back to the Guild Hall. About a twenty-minute walk through the city. Marc was scheduled to meet the Guild Head today. He was nervous, especially since Meservi kept repeatedly telling Marc that there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
All he knew about the Guild Head was that she was a woman and a powerful Earth Magic user. When he had first heard that, he had immediately wondered if she could help him unlock his Earth Mana. When he had mentioned it, even Meservi had seemed hesitant. For now, they decided, it was probably best to keep Marc’s true origin a secret. As a compromise, Meservi would take Marc back to the Witch’s Den after this visit and help him unlock his Air Mana. They would come up with a plan for his Earth Mana soon.
As they arrived at the Guild Hall, Meservi ran up and clasped Marc’s hands in greeting.
“Good morning! I trust you survived the ministrations of the indomitable force known as Keri. You must be exhausted! But well fed, am I correct?” The exuberant Elf spoke so loudly that several heads had turned in their direction.
Grenn sighed, then pushed the group toward the center of the Hall. “Let’s go.”
Sensing a cloud over the large man’s mood, even Meservi obediently followed along without protest.
They boarded the lifting platform again and rode up to the control tower. Marc saw more guild employees running around with documents and small objects, for the most part ignoring their small group.
Meservi then stepped his foot down on the platform a second time, this time far more gently than he had at the ground floor. The platform started moving again, but instead of going back down, it continued to rise, ascending through the ceiling of the control tower.
At the very top of the tower, there was a large room. A single room open in every direction to the view of the land beyond the wall. The room was rather small, only about a quarter of the size of the control space a floor below, but it still felt roomy as there were no walls at all, the ceiling held up by four intricately carved columns.
While the room was open, there was no wind or breeze at all. Marc wondered for a moment if there were glass windows enclosing the room, but as he had yet to see any glass used that way in the city, he assumed it was some form of magic.
《Correct. Not powerful magic, but an artfully crafted effect no less.》
On one side of the room was a large round table with sixteen elaborate high-backed chairs surrounding it. At the furthest chair, a single figure was seated.
As they stepped off the platform, the figure rose and walked around the table towards their group.
“Welcome Marc, I have been looking forward to meeting you. Meservi has told me much about you to make this a very auspicious meeting indeed.”
The entity in front of Marc exuded a strong sense of power and gravitas. At first glance, he was reminded of that fantasy movie with elves and hobbits. This figure was a spitting image of the Dwarves from the movie, except that this figure was taller than he was. Shorter perhaps than the average human in this world, or the Elves that he had seen in the city who like Meservi was even taller than Rynan, the tallest woman he had ever met. Still, he could not call this person short considering he had to slightly raise his eyes to match the eye-to-eye greeting.
Wearing almost identical gear to Grenn, the Head’s appearance lacked the flair and color of Meservi’s uniform. Just like the Dwarves in the movie, the Head sported wild curly hair, much of which had been braided into dozens of intricate locks, some of which reached nearly to the ground, even the ones from her… beard?
The voice that spoke was grave and rough, fitting the face that looked like it was cut from stone as well, and yet listening to it, it was decidedly female. Beyond what he would have ever assumed at first glance, this was indeed the Guild Head, a powerful Earth Mana user, a woman, and apparently a Dwarf.
“I am the Head of this Clearwater Guild Hall. You may call me Ba’eth.”