The chatty rich lady did not talk about the Nebula Watch much. The topic between the woman quickly transited to her favourite beauty salons and shopping districts on the station.
“I’ll go ahead.” Ebony tapped Xin’s shoulder before he walked towards the module when it was finally his turn.
Monkey see, monkey do.
Ebony nodded to the person who bowed to him after turning away from the module and placed his hand on the neon green screen. It was similar with going into his mindspace but more visual.
A glowing green cluster of particles moving about a centre at slow speeds appeared in his view, he knew to close his eyes now. The view of the clutter of particles cleared up and expanded the moment he closed his eyes.
“New life signature detected. Greetings, I am Eidolon Hex. How should I address you?”
“Ebony.” There was nothing around the glowing cluster but it was getting brighter.
“Mighty fine. Ebony, can I assume you would like to register with me? Do I need to introduce myself further?”
“Yes to both, if you don’t mind.”
“We shall do both concurrently. I am a group of spirits created by my master and their friend with the involvement of the one and only God of Just and the God of Knowledge. A Eidolon Nexus account, that is hmm, sort of like a confirmation of your identity recognised throughout the cosmos. My sibling Eidolons would be in charge but this account of identity is backed by the God of Just. I would require some information from you to create your account. Shall we begin?” Flat screen images appeared around the cluster of spirits when it talked.
“I would like to ask about the privacy of shared information.”
“Beside me, you and the God of Knowledge, your personal information you share is known to no one else.”
“Hmm? What about the God of Just and your master? Or that ‘friend’ of theirs.”
“The God of Just does not have access to this information. My Master could indeed pry the information out of me, but they couldn’t care less even if, say, you were another God. I am unaware if my other creator can access such information past the agreements that they’ve made with the God of Knowledge. Right, the God of Knowledge also has the Law of Secrecy and Mysteries so you do not have to worry, I cannot divulge your information to anyone. Even other Gods.” A big red cross over a lip appeared on all ten screens around Hex.
“I see. Then let’s go ahead.” He half trusted this because he already knew a bit about it from his clones.
“I will need all your names if you have more than 1. Your Class and Level. Your biometric data, a blood sample is fine and even better if you can inject your mana or any energies you master into it so I don’t have to gather multiple sample types. Your birth World. And the name of a guarantor, anyone who has an account with me. I will confirm with them if you are who you say you are.” Hex used the screens to depict what it needed one by one.
“Other than a form of identification, what can I do with an account?” He didn’t get too eager and asked for more information.
“My most used function is as an information sharing platform. With access to my Module, you can access the biggest market. Ah, an alias will be used but your evolutionary rank must be public. Most people only buy from within the Sector but you will have access to every possible market. Within your Sector, Galactic Region, or even other Galactic Region. However, we highly advise not to stretch your reach that far. There is a system similar to a reputation value, and with your evolutionary rank, no one is going to trade with you from another Sector much less the Galactic Region.” Hex showed him what he recognised as a web page. The UI seemed neat and user friendly but the top right had a blank where his account or username should be.
“So if I want to know about the regions…” Ebony was very confused about how space worked here.
“You can buy that information directly from me. Maps are one of the many things I handle and the God of Just confirms the information I sell to be true to my knowledge which you can say is confirmed by the God of Knowledge. My prices are Just.” Images of stars and planets were shown across the screens Hex was in control of.
“Other than a market and information, I hear you also control a bank?” There were other things he could have asked but this was the most recent one that came to mind.
“Yes! 99.9935% of account holders have a bank opened with me. Linked to your account is a value that represents your monetary net worth. With me, Eidolon Hex, we deal with mana. Depositing universal standard mana ores to any of the Sector’s stations which has a Main Module, I will convert that to an equivalent value. Yes, you will have to go to the ‘bank’ for a monetary withdrawal or deposit. If you buy and sell information with me, I will directly consume the mana or increase the number in your bank account and you don’t have to go to the bank unless you want physical withdrawal of your money.” Hex suggested that other Eidolons handle other types of resources besides mana.
“How do people transfer their money with each other without access to one of your modules?” Ebony didn’t remember seeing any of the Eidolon Nexus modules when Mirellans traded.
“The Myriad Bracelet silly! That is technology that has been spread to every World, natural or artificial, young or old. Once creatures are detected, Myriad Bracelets would be placed around the world for their inhabitants to use and possibly reverse engineer if intelligent creatures are born. You must have heard of, if not own one yourself. Don’t worry, the Bank module is very affordable.” The Myriad Bracelet came into play again but he already knew that it wasn’t Elcra’s or an individual's invention long ago.
“Can people buy information about other people from you?” He wanted to buy information about his parents if names were enough to identify them but, he already knew the answer to this question. If Gods couldn’t get information out of the Eidolon, it was foolish to think this was up for sale.
“Hahaha, if you propose a deal sweet enough for the God of Knowledge, who knows? But it won’t be me selling the information then, you would have to trade with the God of Knowledge.” Hex’s answer caught him off guard a little.
He forgot that Hex was programmed and created in a certain way. Flexibility was not its forte. But its creators?
“Alright, I think I understand the gist of it. Let’s get this going before my turn ends.” Ebony’s bioclock told him he still had plenty of time but he didn’t know how long the registration would take.
“Right right, you’re using a module on a shuttle. Your name?” The group of spirits was more than aware of his physical location.
“Ebony Rime, Wumu.” He was not even familiar with the second part of his own name but since he remembered it, he accepted it. It wasn’t even on his Status.
“Oh shoot, give us a moment.” The cluster of green particles sped up their circulation around their core.
Ebony raised his brows.
“Uh, it’s gonna take us a while. Come back later!” Abruptly disappearing, Ebony was left with blurry green vision before he opened his eyes back to the cabin. Facing the module in front of him, he tapped and placed his palms on it twice more but there was no response. Looking to the right, he saw Xin busy with the Module so he was the only one being ignored.
The number above the module he used changed and it was back to 1. When no one walked up to touch the module for 2 minutes, it cycled to the next number.
‘The internet AI just hung up on me…’ Ebony had a funny thought but was also, once again surprised at the effect of just mentioning his name. Looks like his father was right to save that message in his watch. His name meant something, especially in the Gia language. On Elcra, he mentioned a few times before he knew about the message he was left but it never brought about any reaction from people.
Obviously, Elcra or Elva simply didn’t know since they were not well connected with other worlds. Only through visitors from the World Dungeon or maybe the Spirit Realm.
Returning to his seat, Ebony pondered on the possible reasons til Xin broke him out of his intense focus with a cold canned drink pushed against his face.
‘Canned drinks, I’m seeing more and more familiar items.’
“Heheh, I wanted it more chilled.” She handed one over before having trouble figuring out the packing.
Ebony took it over and managed to figure out the slightly different metal tab design before she poked a hole in the can with her finger. It was more of a pluck and pull than a pushdown. As far as he could tell, tin or aluminium but thick and each was about 2 litres. Meaning even canned drinks had spatial technology woven into them.
“How did you afford this?” Ebony recalled they were practically penniless. Without his mana senses, he had to look around before he saw the dispenser with a screen above that scrolled through a list of drinks. The dispenser was just a cylindrical hole in the wall and was not obvious.
“That auntie gave it to me.” She pointed to the merchant lady she talked to who was now at a different seat chatting up one of the stronger Emperors aboard. Ebony recognised him, he was a middle-aged fighter who used extendable electric whips and hidden weapons.
When he challenged the man, he was forced to stay at the edge of the whip’s range even with Phantom’s Flicker advantage. A very impressive fighter that his martial arts couldn’t get around. Those whips were more than just electrically charged as well, it was also a heat weapon. Common, but effective.
“Did you manage to complete the process?”
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“Yup, E-HEX-uh, I didn’t look clearly at the stretch of sixteen numbers. I looked at the ‘internet’? thing too. They sell recipes!” Over the course of the past few years, he got used to Xin’s even more drastic swap in personality depending on her state of mind. However, he knew she didn’t change. Her habits, traits and emotions were just more pronounced.
“I didn’t, it kicked me out. I’ll have to try again later.”
“Aw, we won’t get numbers one after another.” She threw her back against the chair and took a sip of the orange liquid.
Ebony did the same. It was sweetened orange juice and was quite refreshing despite the overwhelming sweetness that he didn’t like. Unfortunately, he didn’t receive any notifications about special effects so it was just a normal drink. He saw numbers of Gia language on the screen but he had no idea of their equivalent value.
Whatever it meant, he now owed the sociable merchant lady 🜋4500. It was not a big number. He didn’t know the equivalent value in mana ores but he knew his ticket’s price was 🜋2,880,500 each. Estimating from the many Ancient quality materials they sold or traded, the drink still feels overpriced but he honestly didn’t care about the small change.
“Passengers, please get back to your seat. The shuttle will pass through a compressed spatial tunnel in approximately 5 minutes.” The announcement came after a light bell and the assistant had to get the users of the Eidolon Nexus to snap out of their internet usage by tapping on their shoulders.
Without any fuss or accident, they soon found themselves arriving at the Sector’s station. He had been unable to connect to Eidolon throughout the trip and had to do with guiding Xin through how to navigate websites. Since the ‘internet’ was fundamentally different from what he knew, they had some trouble communicating because he couldn’t see what she was seeing. Xin did not understand technology easily.
They alighted in a hangar for similar ejection shuttles like the one he came on. When they were about to walk down the stairs and were about to land on their destination, he quickly found that his view was completely erased from the modern hangar and changed to a grassy field. Ning Xin was still beside him but everything and everyone else disappeared.
“Unregistered one, Scarlet Rhael Ning Xin. Assist us in our duty. By the Law of the God of Order, you shall have your threat levels classified before you are allowed to step foot onto a Sector Station.”
There was no one around, only voices in their heads. Ning Xin confirmed that she heard the same words with a glance between each other.
“I presume you’re part of the Nebula Watch. How are we supposed to do that?” He was cautious of the seemingly all-powerful Nebula Watch.
‘They say no God claimed this area of space but I've been hearing of so many Gods the past two days’
“We have 2 forms of classifications. Individual threat, we don’t require you to have this classified. And your Hazard rating, which we’ll be testing. A destructive test. This is an illusion, that is your target. Your body is physically present. Do your best to destroy anything and everything in this illusion. Tell us if you need anything to be conjured to best showcase your powers.”
“How will you know if we’re trying our best or not?” Before the shuttle announced their arrival, she had already dyed her hair red with mana and lifeforce.
“After your performance, we will ask if that was your best. If you lie, you die.” The voice in their head did not change their tone.
“What if, I don’t know how destructive my spell can get? Can I use everything at my disposal, this cube for example, is my weapon. And I have-I should have a permanent Domain back home that could strengthen me further.” He was not being truthful. Dusk was a permanent Domain, but having Dusk around might not necessarily strengthen him any further. It could act as an additional source of mana, additional computing or processing power for spells which may help but not neccessarily increase the buff he got from a Domain which depended on the strength of his Will.
“Yes, use everything at your disposal. Only mobile ability, immobile abilities or territorial spells do not count unless you can summon it to you. Whatever the cost is, even if the cost of using a destructive spell is your life. We don’t require you to use spells that call upon a God or use up your life, but you would have to tell us if your performance is under your maximum potential. We can even change the terrain if there is anything that can empower you.”
“The terrain is fine. It’s just a bit small. The edges of my senses tell me it’s barely a hundred kilometres…whatever that is in the units you use. You need to multiply that by, I don’t know. I have a lot more gravity mana at my disposal today.” Ebony was cooperative. Other than the Nebula Watch being reasonable, it was also because he was interested in his destructive capabilities.
“The illusion generated emulates Legendary soil and earth. It is harder and more durable than you think.”
“I know, I tried digging my feet into the ground before I asked.”
“How much bigger do you estimate this space needs to be.” The Nebula Watch was unfazed, merely stating and inquisiting. Just like Ebony.
“Hmm, I honestly don’t know. But if it's this small, we would have nowhere to run once my spell is released.” Ebony didn’t need to run. By his simulations, the additional gravity mana from his cube would be able to strengthen his Quelling Vortex by a lot. But it was thanks to the excess gravity mana that he could spare some to protect himself. His manipulation evolving also meant he could remove himself from the effects of his spell. Without Xin’s fire and blood, he didn’t have to fear hurting himself with ice or vibrations.
Xin would be the only one who needed to run.
“We will prepare a more suitable illusion. How about Scarlet Rheal Ning Xin?”
“We’ll have to find out. We can do it separately right?” Xin knew even less about her destructive capabilities. She hadn’t used mana for a long time so her magic skills and spells were definitely lagging. However, he was a bit uncomfortable that the red haired version of her didn’t want to let him see what she could do for real now.
He was most interested in finding out if she could use any new skills concerning Intent or life force. Since her focus on Teheil had to skew towards them more, it was clear that she specialised even more.
“Of course, we will move you away when the second illusion is ready. We just have a question for both of you.”
“Go on.” There was indeed a reason they were put together.
“Would you say you are capable of combined spells or skills that bring about greater destruction?”
“Together? Exponentially.” Ebony replied with confidence. Xin’s destructive capabilities were actually quite low in comparison since she was a fighter and less of a mage but with him conjuring a container, their simple spell was quite impressive when it came to destruction.
They weren’t even able to say ‘see you’ before Ning Xin disappeared. It slightly irked him that they could ignore magic resistance to such a degree.
‘Did they say this is an illusion…they are not telling the full truth.’ Ebony was not familiar with illusion magic but he was quite confident he wasn’t in a proper or complete illusion.
“Done. As you can see, please aim at the centre.”
Ebony didn’t know how or why but the speaking voice changed the illusion’s terrain where he was in the air above a deep crater. Within the crater was a target, with rings drawn around. The target was a scarecrow and one was placed every few hundred metres. It stretched on further than his sight could go.
‘Even if they Appraise, or use a higher tier version, they would think I’m a martial artist and gravity mage at best. Did my words lead them to believe otherwise or is their Identify so high tier they can see my skills?’ Ebony didn’t even sense an eye on him. Unlike when someone else tries to use Identify or similar inspection skills.
In any case, his simulations were just simulations. He needed real-world data anyway.
Ebony took ahold of as much gravity mana he could from the cube floating beside him. He opted to leave the mental process of running his Unique Skill alone. Forming the outlines of a sphere the diameter of a coin, he fixed that blueprint and cast Gravity Quelling Vortex with more gravity mana than he ever handled. His cube still had plenty to spare but he no longer had the mental muscles to pull more.
He quickly reached his limits and was a bit disappointed. ‘I doubt it’s anywhere close to the density of a black hole. My Intelligence isn’t packing enough punch to compress this any further.’
When the vortex reached the maximum output his mind could control, it took less mental power to hold the spell in place. It took far less time than before where he had to drag gravity mana from hundreds of kilometres away from him to cast the spell. He even left ambient gravity mana alone this time. His spell was a separate entity.
“Impressive for a Gran-”
Ebony subconsciously shut his ears and focused. Not even the Nebula Watch’s mental voice could reach him if he didn’t want it to. Since the Nebula Watch wasn’t attacking him, they didn’t even get as far as Mr Guru in his mind. However, that may be due to his Core Skill evolution.
He found that he couldn’t directly conjure ice inside the incessant whirlpool of gravity. From a hundred metres away from the black black, he conjured his frost flames. There was no point compressing it since the gravity spell would do it for him, better than he could. His coin diameter spell was stable. There was no longer any wind or suction so he had to manually cast a thread of gravity to drag his flames to touch the black coin. It was his perfected sphere.
During the flame conjuration, he packed and reinforced the gravity vortex with his Will. Surrounding him and the black sphere below his feet within his Domain, he started to program the spell for its actions after he released control over the spell.
‘It’s a destruction test, I’ll assume I should maximise both distance and power but to an optimal degree. So spell, you should try repelling my mana as far as you can but not at the cost of uncompressing mana. Then quake my flames over. After that, my flames need to dig deep. Dig deep, then explode at…10% power to shatter frozen earth and use that to spread deeper and further, rinse and repeat. Okay, now consolidate this thought and inject it.’ Ebony’s usage of Will was broke down into plan, condense and implement.
Ebony continued to conjure flames and feed his spell for five minutes before he took another look at the spell below his feet.
‘I’m not quite feeding it fast enough.’
Another ten minutes passed with him conjuring flames and feeding his greedy spell.
‘The spell is changing colour. Wait, don’t tell me I can saturate the gravity vortex with flames. How much mana have I spent--ah’ The rate that Ebony was feeding the vortex was already his fastest. His mind didn’t have any spare mental processing power to conjure more flames. He already surrounded the sphere by metres of flames conjured concurrently.
When he sensed his mana chassis, which was a bit numbed since there was a factory running inside, he noticed he wasn’t spending as much as he was recovering. Even with all his mental power at work.
‘Can I call myself a mage with BIG spells now?’ He was not used to spells with long casting durations.
The more flames he fed the vortex, the more processing power he had to allocate to maintain the stability of the sphere and that reduced the rate he could feed the spell. Ebony upped the intensity of Will he used to maintain the spell instead and stopped Mireloom. Reallocating that mental processing power to speed up the creation of this spell.
Twenty minutes later, he had the sphere between the palms of his hands to maintain the spell with better focus and force his flames in more directly. It was a light cyan sphere that constantly whirled and froze Ebony’s hands and face off from the proximity of the spell.
‘Looks like my simulations are a bunch of nonsense now.’ Ebony didn’t bother simulating new possibilities right now. He needed every morsel of mental muscle and energy. He didn’t even maintain a Domain over his body and compressed everything, all his Will, to hold this spell together.
‘Now, what can I do to strengthen this further? I can’t lie to them right? But…I still have mana and this gravity vortex is already spitting my flames out at me. I don’t have enough Will and mental power to jam more flames inside. Is this my best?’ The spell in his hands was not in the shape of a plum fruit, it didn’t even have an ice shell. An ice shell would collapse with gravity at his disposal and it was a waste of mental power now that he could stabilise the gravity not to consume surrounding gravity.
The spell was saturated with freezing flames and stabilised. To his surprise, it was not generating heat from pressure, only giving off an intense chill. He had the leeway to wipe the frozen sweat off his forehead now that it freed the mental power he was using to feed the sphere.
Then it clicked.
He should just cast a second.