I was currently flying through the swamp back to the villagers. The cruiser was faster than I expected, making it a pain in the ass to dodge all the dying trees around me. Emilia was nice enough to give me a crash course on how to handle the machine. That's where that relationship would end though. Watching her kill someone in cold blood and try to blame me for her actions. Then having her father put me in a locked quest where I had to do the same thing to Cooper or face the repercussions. I just didn't like their style of doing things. Plus, there was no way in hell I could take the negative to my stats. I'd have to do something really risky. So, I did. The only hang up was I needed an upgraded system mark to take full advantage. I bought the upgrade using Orin's shop disk.
"I thought I gave you a job, boy." He yelled with disdain as spittle flew from his mouth... Those words still replayed in my mind even now.
I promised him the quest would be completed within a week. Then sold Ten of the Solar Heart berries through his shop disc.
Bram was livid that I did it at first... Well, he still might be, but he sure wasn't letting me know. Now that we were out in the open, he hadn't said a word.
The evening sky was starting to darken completely by the time I made it back to the villagers. Luckily the tree was still smoldering by the time I arrived. Giving me somewhat of a direction to head towards. When I came to a stop, I almost went flying over the handlebars, but I quickly recovered from it. At first, I didn't see anyone, which made me throw the cruiser into the phantom lock token. Then the older man with the cloak stepped out from behind a tree.
"Thank the gods you've returned. We thought all hope was lost." He hoarsely said. Hopeful faces started popping out from everywhere in the swamp as people came out of hiding. They looked bad. I pulled out everything I looted and bought from the journey and passed it out. Many of them wept as they tore into the rations or guzzled down water. The scene moved me. My feelings surfaced, and a deep sadness washed over me. These people had lost everything, homes, possessions and even family. I would make this right. I walked up to the hunter who was currently drinking and told him to get the villagers prepared to leave. I also told them that they had a choice. They can return to Larksbury and fix the damage from the orcs. Or they could go to Hillgrove and start anew. I quickly told the villagers that I was their new lord. We planned to expand Hillgrove for everyone's benefit. After a few minutes of talk, most people decided on a fresh start at Hillgrove. With that I grabbed the glimmerstone out of my satchel and tried activating it.
Shit, nothing happened. My eyes widening and my heart clenched as I hit tapped, prodded and hit it a few times like that would magically fix the damn thing. "I'm not helping you on this one." Bram cut into my thoughts with his usual snark. "It's pretty simple." Of course he chose now of all times to be an asshole. If he wanted to be petty over the berry incident fine, but he could at least think about the innocent villagers. I gave him the opportunity to listen to the plan and he turned me down. I smacked it along the surface, harder this time and yelled out "Activate, you stupid thing." That did something. The sphere started to vibrate slightly, faint pulses of energy spewing out of it. I dropped it and stood up. I backed away slowly from it when a deep voice thrummed in my mind "Select town destination." I waited a few seconds and said "Hillgrove." There was a bright wide encompassing of all colors then a portal was opened a few feet from the glimmerstone.
"Alright everyone, follow my lead."
I took a couple of steps towards the portal when I heard something out in the distance. A low, distant rumble rolled across the sky like an avalanched buried in the clouds. My heart rate instantly spiked as the sound grew deeper and vibrated through the ground and rattling my chest. It felt as if the air itself was being crushed by an invisible weight. More than worried I started ushering the villagers through the portal. Most of them were able to make it through before the vibrations got heavy enough to shake the ground like an earthquake. The last one though was the hunter, just as he made it through a shadow fell across us, blotting out the sun. I looked up and my breath hitched realizing now what could be in Tier 4 of the transportation tab. A colossus of metal and darkness sprawled across the sky just over Thormer's distant landscape.
Holy Shit. Not taking another second to stare at it, I hurled myself through the portal. The weightlessness of the portal took me. Right when I got used to it, I crashed hard on the ground jarring my shoulder into a stone floor. The Larksbury residents stood all around me. Taking a look around I verified we were in the bottom floor of the Town Hall. I gathered the group around and headed towards the steps to ascend towards the first floor. Bram had decided to talk while I did so.
"What the hell did you see, Liam?" Bram must have felt my fear and panic through our link.
"I'm not one hundred percent sure, but it looked like some sort of massive spaceship."
"That is by far one of the worse outcomes. I told you not to flaunt the goods Liam. Now we are both screwed. You need to give the council the credits and we need to get to the capital as fast as possible. Finding my coin is the only way we could get off this rock fast enough to maybe avoid instant death." Bram rambled on with urgency.
That being said I quickened my pace and started taking two steps at a time. Thankfully Maribel was at the shop counter by the time we made it to the front of the town hall.
"I don't have time to explain everything. Where's your system mark?" I said hurriedly definitely not winning me any brownie points.
She looked worried and it only worsened by the time the Larksbury survivors caught up to me. She lifted her mark up and asked "What's going on lord? Where are we going to house all these people?" I backtracked. Without answering any of her questions I ran to access the town overview myself. I took the steps three at a time down to the cellar and accessed the overview. I pulled up the town upgrades menu and found a couple things I queued for instant building.
Instant Building Queue:
Multi Story Communal Hall:
This building comes with all upgrades the town has already purchased. This four-story building has enough room to house over 100 people. There is access to 60 Private bedrooms and 20 small suites for families. There is also 4 shared bathrooms on each floor. As well as a communal gathering space in the main entry.
Cost: 85,000
Artisans Hall:
This building holds the key to any crafters heart. Within its 12,000 square foot area it has a predetermined location for every crafter, smith, artificer and alchemist. It also comes with a library filled with selections of books on the many fields of subclasses one can take.
Cost: 125,000
I wanted to leave this place with strong foundations for future potential. I didn't want it to look like an outside force was involved. I took out my mark and paid the total. It came to about 300,000 after the extra expedited cost was added. Hopefully this would be enough for them, I closed the menu and ran back upstairs where Maribel was waiting. Before she could start asking a bunch of questions, I gave her a quick run-down of everything. She was rather furious by the end of my ranting, her eyes piercing into me like daggers. Her mark was shaking in her death lock grip and before she could say anything I moved. Touching my mark to hers I transferred another 200,000 credits. Her jaw practically dropped to the floor and all hostility from her wavered for a few seconds. I bolted towards the cavern before getting to the stairs, I turned and shouted towards Maribel. "You're in charge now. If anyone comes, you never met me."
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
Making it to the passage glyph, I felt a deep concern that the thing would have the same results as last time. "Bram, do you have the name of the capital?" I asked, completely forgetting to ask Maribel while I was up there.
"You know, as much as I want to see you go back up there and do the walk of shame, I can't. The name of the capital is Vanrik. Don't gamble; it's how I lost the coin in the first place." He said half embarrassed.
I just shook my head at the response and activated the pedestal.
Descender, please state the location you wish to travel to.
Bram cut in, "Wow, it learned manners; that's new. Before we get a move on, try something new at the capital, yeah? Exude some confidence and lean on the Descender title heavier it might help... Or paint a massive target on your back, but trying never killed anyone... Well, it has but you get what I'm trying to say."
I let out a deep sigh and said, "Vanrik."
A black wave of energy shot through the cavern and soon encompassed everything. The weightlessness of going through a portal hit me, but there was no pain this time, which I was thankful for.
Actually, feeling the ground beneath my feet after going through a portal was a nice change. The futuristic suits of armor and the men within them were not. Looking around further, I was in some sort of mana shield or prison depending on how you saw things. Aside from the men, the room had no other occupants, and the brightness was overwhelming. The white walls and floor made things worse. They reflected bright light from the ceiling in every direction. Two of them turned with what looked like rifles on their backs. For the first time, I realized they were talking to me. I brought both my hands up to show that I was unarmed. Bram's words from earlier replayed in my mind; I decided to try something out.
"I am a Descender, brought to you from the Goddess Nexa." Two guards knelt and bowed towards me without delay, taking that as a good sign. I said, "She feels a disruption in the threads. I'm here to support Vanrik in the upcoming battle." My voice was calm and deep, aiming to project confidence. Holy shit, Bram was right; I should've tried this in the villages. I let out a deep breath and started to notice another guard making a wheezing sound through his helmet. He locked eyes with the kneeling guards. Then, he slung the sci-fi rifle over his shoulder. It finally clicked what he was doing. It was laughter; I realized it a few seconds too late as he unholstered a pistol at his hip and shot me a couple of times. A sharp pain rippled throughout my body as I started convulsing. What felt like a million volts poured through every fiber of my being. My teeth gritted hard enough to notice the taste of blood through the pain. Then, after a few moments in that hell, unconsciousness took me.
"Liam, get your ass up," Bram hissed at me. Fluttering through my eyelids, I awoke in complete darkness. The only sign I was awake was the sound of water droplets on the floor, along with Bram's annoying voice. My hands were bound together by some sort of soft material that would not separate. I strained against them but yielded no results. It reminded me of the elastic workout bands people worked out with. The guards must not see me as a threat or were lazy because I felt the bow and satchel still on my person. Little did they know I had an actual Bram on my side. "Alright, I'm up," I said in a faint voice.
"I got the capitals mixed up."
"YOU WHAT?!" I snapped at him before regaining composure of myself. "Bram what do you mean you got the Capitals mixed up? Is the coin even here?" Worry started to take hold.
"Well, yeah, the coin is here, but Vanrik is definitely a godless city. They gave up on worshipping the higher-ups ages ago," he said, chuckling to himself as if he found it absurd.
I closed my eyes; this little asshole is going to get me killed. I took a minute to calm myself and responded.
"Alright Bram, thanks for fessing up, but how the hell do we get out of this now? Can you like get out of the soul gem and go find a guard to possess or something?"
"I could find a way out, but you need to think for yourself. That’s how we got into this mess."" So... I refuse to do that."
"I'm trapped here, Bram; what the hell am I going to do?!" I said, with my anger flaring up again.
"Something stupid, no doubt. Now quit your yapping and let me think."
Why the hell did I have to be stuck with the most annoying person ever? He reminded me of a frat boy that got cut loose to the wilds of adulthood. Unlike a frat boy, Bram had rare moments when a tiny spark of wisdom appeared. That was until he reverted back to being a smart-ass all over again. This was the world's way of punishing me for not getting my anger in check sooner. Pair the guy with anger flare-ups with a constant nag. It makes sense when you think about it. I noticed something while reflecting, so I looked closer. It seemed to be a tiny light source growing brighter, headed in our direction. I spotted a guard in tight metal armor as the light drew near. He looked like one of the guards I had seen earlier. The light itself seemed to be floating in the air next to him. Around the light, I could tell that we were in some sort of medieval dungeon. Rusted iron bars between stone walls were easy enough to pick out. He was a couple of cells down when two words came out of my mouth that I wished hadn't.
"Hey fuckface!" Bram shouted through me. The guard swung in my direction without delay and unholstered his pistol.
"Bram, you sack of shit," I muttered through gritted teeth, closing my eyes and waiting for the shock to come. A few moments went by and nothing happened. When I opened them again, Bram was doing jazz hands from the possessed guard. "TA-DA," he said, a broad grin spreading across his face as he reveled in his own cleverness.
"You're a dick... Can you please unlock the cell now?" I asked, mock pleadingly.
"Stand back," Bram said as he pulled the handle sheathed on the opposite hip of the shock pistol.
"I'm the idiot, but you're the one that's going to cut through metal ba... WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?!" I yelled out with wide eyes.
Bram pulled out the sword. He clicked something on the pommel. The blade transformed into a bright, shining laser in an instant. He zigzagged the blade through the bars with ease and a little over-the-top fashion. The bars fell to the floor. In one smooth motion, Bram turned off the blade, sheathed it, and bowed to me.
"Oh, come on, anyone could do that with a damn plasma sword!"
Bram moved back into action, freeing me from my bindings and tossing me the shock pistol. I then assisted him with putting his possession into the bindings. A quick shot of the shock gun, and Bram left his possession behind. Bram mentioned a few days ago that much of the multiverse is confusing. He said you could lose your mind searching for answers. He gave me a piece of information I still use now. If it doesn't make sense, chalk it up to "System Fuckery." Those two words had put most of the questions I had on the back burner or to keep pushing forward to figure out the answer myself, but now... Shifting from a fantasy world to a high-tech one was tough to grasp. Getting access to the cruiser should have set off more warning bells. I didn't know that I'd be facing people with actual laser rifles so soon. I needed to find someone with a system shop disc in this city to even the playing field.
"You're thinking too loud again, dolt. If you forgot let me remind you, you have a spectral bow. It's pretty much on the same "field" as laser rifles, if not better. I'm more surprised by the fact that you hadn't asked how I was able to get out of the soul gem, but whatever... Let's go find this coin before we die." Brams's voice filled my mind, and I thought I could feel a bit of hidden sadness in it.
"Sorry Bram, thanks for saving my life yet again." I said out loud just above a whisper, feeling pretty guilty for not caring about his hard work.
"Eh... It's fine, don't go getting all soft on me now. Get it together we got shit to do, before the guard wakes up." He rushed out while phasing back into the bow.
Glad that the awkwardness of that conversation was over, I hesitantly reached out for the light.
PRISMARK
A sleek, polished sphere that uses refractive technology to create a customizable aura of light. Its internal AI adjusts its glow based on user preferences.
Would you like to steal this Prismark from Private Melroy, Yes/No?
"You should really get into the habit of using your analyze skill before touching random things. It's common sense." Bram annoyingly reminded me. I just acted like I didn't hear him but stored that information for later. I confirmed the prompt, picked up the plasma sword, and we were off searching the area for an exit.