Their time on the station was like a vacation. It was safe besides seedy salesman selling their hometown specialities such as drugs or exotics. No one cared about a pair of Grandmasters when Kings were considered average and maybe even the weaker group. They didn’t go anywhere close to the residential area just in case problems found their way to them.
He noticed a couple of Cinderashians with their steampunk garb but they were individual strangers. As far as he could tell, they didn’t work for Gearhart. It was not common to see people from other Sectors so a few individuals that didn’t wear the flag or symbol of their Worldcore that could freely travel between sectors was a sign of their overall strength.
Xin even dressed up in a floral sundress with a straw sunhat on most days they went on walks and restaurant hunting. He had no idea where she got the dress or hat from. Did she go shopping when he rested in the bank?
Privacy was a big thing for people on the station, the only perception they used other than physical sight was ambient mana. But the station didn’t produce ambient mana since it was a moon without a Worldcore. Perhaps some elements but not what one would find on a normal planet with a Worldcore. So it was just ambient mana from people, items and all foreign objects. It was extremely obvious whenever anyone tried to spread their energy or skills for perception. An unspoken rule to keep one’s eyes to themselves and he wasn’t about to break when he liked privacy for himself.
He wore a white t-shirt, a bomber jacket and their techwear lookalike cargo pants with black combat boots. Xin wore a similar set. It was the most common looking set so they didn’t stand out but they were all high-quality goods.
The shuttle they boarded has a lot more personal space for each passenger, not individual cabins but still much better than the first shuttle they took. The shuttle would drive through a path where passengers would alight at different stops. About 3 dozen passengers got aboard before they left off.
“We’re not very sociable are we?” Xin’s hair had regrown quite a bit over the past three years but it was not quite as it used to be, her fringes now cautious red hot. The thing about being slightly richer than normal was that the people surrounding them were also either rich, strong or both.
“Why’d you ask?” The question had been a curveball.
“Everyone on the station seems to focus on making connections with people from other worlds while we just keep to ourselves.”
“We’re just doing whatever feels comfortable for us. We’re not merchants.”
“That’s true.”
At the outer edges of his mindspace, over a dozen green particles were circling about a bronze coin that was hazy to his view. It took a few particles to show 1 screen so this portable module of Eidolon Hex was only capable of opening 3 concurrent tabs. It appeared like the more of these particles on the job, the faster the connection or loading and having 1 tab open was enough.
In the depths of his mindspace, he was able to confirm that Dusk and Aegis were both alive in that their Will hadn't fully dissipated.
‘So the Core of a Domain or the permanent part of Will that doesn’t dissipate can last over a decade without complete degradation.’
Ebony didn’t have Welser’s contact because the butler couldn’t afford a portable module that could act as a callstone. Although it had that function, he preferred the callstone where there wasn’t a group of spirits acting as the intermediary to transmit voices. Even if they used a messaging system between accounts, it would all still go through the Eidolon.
Their new Myriad Bracelet by some weird coincidence had the design of branches with plum flowers carved out of the metal. His was made of an unknown composite that gave a silvery blue sheen while Xin’s had a red sheen but they were both silver in colour when they weren’t hidden. It seemed like they were made to match their robes.
With some form of binding, it should follow them if they ever were to be forcefully teleported. However, the spatial storage had left much to be desired. It was definitely bigger than the bag he was carrying but smaller than the upgraded bag that Kong Jing made for them. The ‘space’ was not a cubic volume, it was more like a donut. It wasn’t that bad, with roughly 15 cubic metres worth of space.
Ebony wore his bracelet under his prison cell that he shifted aside. The prison cell was the rarest item he had, the strongest shield and possibly weapon. Another difference between the Myriad Bracelets from Elcra was that this was thin and not as wide making it more like a flat bangle or watch.
The spirit of his prison would act out once in a while, but a soul roar was enough to quieten her down. He did try to talk it out of trapping him every single time but it never worked. She wanted to stop but always ended up driving herself to trap him and suck his mana dry. And she was indeed capable of absorbing every drop of his regenerated mana with ease. She was still a threat but Ebony already tested a few methods and was confident he could physically remove her from his arm. He just thought it was another one of his spoils from Cinderash.
Eidolon did not have many functions when it came to entertainment, visual or otherwise. There were more documentaries than movies for entertainment being sold.
The trip to Elcra would take over 2 weeks since their stop was the last. There simply wasn’t anyone else going over there. The shuttle had all the amenities from a bathroom to food and their seats could be reclined into a bed.
Most importantly, this shuttle had transparent walls for Ebony to see what was different about the ‘space’ here compared to the one he knew of.
“Hmm, it's not so special.” He commented when he saw the shuttle fly up and out of the artificial atmosphere that mages created. The shuttle didn’t even shake and their foothold never tilted when the vehicle turned or shifted.
There was a small sun to the west of the shuttle, a few asteroids but other than that…this was just space just without the few planets that he learned when he was a child.
“Ah ha, I hear you, my dear customer. Worry not, young man. You will see a spectacle soon enough!” The shuttle’s announcement cut through his thoughts.
Maybe due to a difference in shuttle quality or the ease of leaving the station compared to Teheil, there were no rules like staying seated during lift-off. As far as he could tell, the shuttle worked like a rocket and was in space by thrusters. Although probably fueled by mana.
Xin poked his shoulders twice before pointing to the open pantry.
“Go ahead.” Ebony remained seated. While waiting for the spectacle, he was back on the net in his mind.
“Tell me about Earth.” He paid the six-digit price for the information. It wasn’t that expensive all things considered.
“Earth…the Earth that you know, exists in another dimension.”
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Dimension?”
“That’s a separate piece of information. Anyway, that is a place where-how should we say this…it is a place where some special people send their descendants to…train? Grow up? Something like that.”
“Odd.”
“Okay, so you are from that Earth where mana and magic isn’t a thing correct?”
“Mostly.”
“But stories? Folktales? Religion? You know of Yggdrasil. You know of Elves, Dwarves, Yetis. Gods. You know the words mana, chakra, qi, aether. You know they are some ‘mystical’ energies.”
“That is true.”
“Some are implanted. Some are things humans just come up with. But to the people here, it is a place where they can choose to send their descendants too. There, there is no potent magic. Enemies cannot kill people’s descendants with just a snap of their fingers or a single thought there. I’ll give you more information, this is non-sensitive. You came from Earth, onto Elcra, are we right?”
“...”
“Don’t need to be so sensitive, there is one famous person on Elcra who had been on Earth once. We’re sure you know him, Oplot. I can’t tell you where he’s from or whose child he is but it is not rare for people of their…level, fame and power to send their descendants to Earth be it a temporary trip or not. First of all, not having full access to mana or other natural-born energies at birth is both an advantage and disadvantage. The disadvantage is when you finally get kicked out of Earth a bit after you turn of age for a Class, your skills that had to do with those energies lag and you have to start from zero. The advantage, you start from a purer state. Your energies aren’t affected by your birthworld and only by genetics. Were we clear?”
“You were. Elcrian mana has a flavour of their own and Mirellans has another. Mine doesn’t take those, and is already quite close to universal standard. At least, the baseline.”
“Most people don’t understand what that means and we wouldn’t consider your mana close to standard with those conversion efficiencies.”
“I see, basically strong people with a lot of enemies send their children there. Due to certain rules, I got teleported or kicked out in your words when I turned 15. Since the standard day and year are the same as an Elcrian calendar, 15 seems universal. But this…dimension’s time flow is different, hence Oplot who had been a similar age as me is now over 200 years old. As for why, maybe he came out earlier? Maybe he only visited and wasn’t born on Earth?”
“We can neither deny nor affirm your speculations. There is another thing we can tell you about Earth, you mentioned the flow of time. We can tell you that it is not static like the difference between a dungeon’s time and outside a dungeon. It constantly changes and the path or method that one is kicked out is random which also changes how time is perceived. Another thing to mention, the time that you or your predecessors went in might not be the timeframe that you think it is.”
“What?”
“Our thoughts exactly. If there were any lateness when it comes to your age, it's probably due to this changing flow of time so you might not be exactly 15 years of age when you got kicked out. Sorry, that’s not accurate. You were kicked out when you turned 15 but you didn't get fully kicked out until a proper destination had been set. That is the safety law God has placed.”
“I know I shouldn’t ask but…which God are you referring to now?” They say curiosity killed the cat, he hoped he wasn’t considered one.
“Oh, right. Any being who refers to God only refers to a specific individual. Most commonly known as the God of Nature who rules over-whatdidyouexpect, nature.”
“This isn’t taboo to speak of?”
“Nope, God wouldn’t mind or care. We mean, are you consciously thinking about what that colony of bacteria on the floor thinks about you? We doubt so.”
“I see. Anything else?”
“Oh, we’re talking like it's no secret but Earth isn’t known by many. At least, not public knowledge.”
“Do you really not sell information about people?”
“...yes, we do not.”
“But you have the information? If not Hex, maybe some other parts of Eidolon?”
“We can neither deny nor affirm your speculations.”
“Fine, if there’s nothing else you have to add, show me the list of information and the God of Knowledge is open to sell again.” Ebony probed the group of spirits no longer. They were like AI, programmed not to be able to do or say some things. Inflexible in some ways and flexible in others.
He secretly scrolled through an endless list of topics even after Xin pushed a plate of cut fruits into his hands.
Part of the spoils he never sold were seeds from Teheil and Cinderash. He learnt everything he could about those seeds and their growth conditions so it was up to him to open access to more ingredients once they were back home. Over a hundred types from various Worldcores who had stores on the station were also bought. Only fruits and vegetables that fit the human taste buds of course. His favourite so far was one of Teheil’s fruits, a watermelon-sized fruit whose outer shell was sold as armour material and the flesh looked and tasted like kiwifruit. Second only to frost plums.
“My dear customer, please observe outside your left. Fret not! Our defences will not let a mere school of titanium meteor skate fishes lay a scratch on us!”
Everyone on board gave attention to the left.
The few people standing by the walls shifted aside for everyone to view bright lights beaming towards a grey blob. Each individual skate fish was about as long as a blue whale and just as wide but there were hundreds of them. The distance didn’t impede Ebony from Appraising them to be a bunch of Kings amongst a couple of Emperors.
Without any sound or lights, the fishes suddenly turned onto their bellies. They were dead.
“No grade 5 King or Emperor can touch us and we may even be able to escape certain grade 6 Emperors!” The announcer referred to commonly understood power differentials and had nothing to do with individual duelling or destructive capabilities. Apparently, a fully operational Bellicose Savant from Cinderash was considered a grade 4 Emperor. As for how they graded it, it was extremely confusing be it by a person’s known skills or feats and the Nebula Watch had nothing to do with this particular perceived power.
“How did they die?” Ebony asked knowing that the announcer could hear him.
“That’s a secret!”
“Not much of a spectacle,” Xin muttered.
If the announcer heard her, there was no response and everyone returned to their seats or the 6 modules to Eidolon Hex on board.
Harpoons were shot at the upturned fishes and those that touched the harpoons wooshed into nothing, probably stored. ‘Where’s up?’ was a question he didn’t bother asking anyone.
“That’s quite a haul, they are roughly grade 4 on average but titanium meteor is hard to come by…” Ebony received a bit of information from some people chatting amongst themselves.
The further away from the station, the more often small attacks from weird space creatures came. And every single time, he wasn’t able to figure out how the shuttle or the people in charge of security were killing those threats.
Until two days later when the siren in the cabin rang out loud and red lights blared throughout the shuttle that shuddered violently once.
“Wa-” The upbeat announcer’s voice was cut off before he could finish.
Ebony grabbed onto Xin’s waist reflexively though her reaction speed was faster and she grabbed him first.
The alarms stopped ringing, the red lights went off and the reverberating vibrations settled down oddly fast after the sudden outbreak.
“N-nothing happened everyone. Just a system issue ho-however, I have an announcement to make. We’ll be making a detour. Schedules would be delayed by an estimate of…about 2 months.”
Rushes of complaints were thrown out almost immediately at the scare and the sudden decision for a detour but Xin and Ebony just slashed and punched out at the same time when something touched their shoulders.
“Hey! Is that really how you greet your sister every single time?” Ebony felt like his punch was moving forward without his body.
“Hello Sister Jing. It’s been a while.”
“Oh now you greet me prop-” The space mage was tackled by her cousin soon after.