There was something magical about walking through the wilderness at dawn. The faint light of the rising sun lent an eerie atmosphere to everything it touched, a blanket of warmth that made itself known in the chirping of pre-dawn birds.
It wasn't too hot yet and the chill of night had just departed, and though the temperature was steadily rising, the world was currently in perfect equilibrium. Arthur took a deep breath of the fresh air, savouring how it tasted, the sweet untamed nature it carried and the revitalising energy it infused him with. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face. It was moments like these as he basked in the serenity of unabashed joy, that Arthur felt truly alive.
His only qualm was the fact that he had no one to share this experience with, and he felt a slight tingling of regret that he socialised so little. Though Arthur behaved like a one-track machine most of the time, he was still human at the end of the day and so craved companionship. When was the last time I had a girlfriend? Arthur questioned himself. The unnecessary thought quickly popped his bubble of nirvana and the world around him lost a little of the magic that had just been there moments ago. Arthur sighed wearily, knowing that he wouldn't be able to capture that perfect moment again, no matter how hard he tried.
Such a thing could never be forced and Arthur tried to comfort himself with the fact that he had at least been able to experience it for a few scant moments. Looking down at his wristwatch, Arthur saw that it was twenty-past-four. He still had ten minutes to reach the destination that Alyssia had given him, though he would need to hurry if he wanted to arrive on time.
Arthur had overslept for once, probably due to the fact that he had evolved for the first time earlier that day and so, he quickly began to jog instead of continuing to walk at the leisurely pace he had been travelling at prior. His effortless run was done at a fraction of the speed he could actually exhibit and yet it would put most pre-system sprinters to shame. Perks of having over a hundred agility, I guess, Arthur thought as the trees whizzed past him. Thanks to his perception attribute, Arthur was perfectly able to observe the scene around him despite his incredible speed which was something he’d found difficult before. It was a subtle difference and one of the main reasons it was so difficult to find humans specialised in speed. As a species, they lacked access to the perception attribute and instead had to make do with expensive artefacts and potions to make up the difference. Still, it couldn't hold a candle to the real thing and Arthur reminded himself to thank the Alverin woman for guiding him towards unlocking it. He owed that woman a lot.
Sure she claimed to be in his debt for healing her brother, but Arthur didn't think their respective favours equalled out. And judging by yesterday's conversation, I'm gonna end up owing her more.
Within three minutes, Arthur arrived at the small clearing that Alyssia had set as the rendezvous point, a clearing in the woodlands one-hundred-and-fifty kilometres away from his house. He’d had to wake up at three to arrive here on time and only the last few minutes of the journey had been relaxing compared to the mad dash he’d had to do for an hour when he realised he wouldn’t make it on time.
True to her word, Alyssia was standing there, waiting for him and Arthur felt his breath catch when he saw the woman’s alien, ethereal beauty caught in the light. He quickly schooled himself, wondering why his thoughts were taking such strange pathways lately. Don’t tell me that evolving has sent my hormones into whack. Fuck that shit. I don't have time to deal with that nonsense now. Arthur cursed. He’d already gone through those terrible pubescent years once and Arthur wasn’t in a hurry to repeat that particular experience.
Taking a deep breath, he began to walk forward. Alyssia had no doubt sensed him from a long way away, curtsey to his crude aura control, though she didn’t turn around to look at him until he was standing right next to her.
“So you decided to come,” Alyssia murmured, almost too low for him to catch despite his enhanced hearing.
Arthur nodded his head in response, fearing that a spoken word right now would break the calm peace around him. It almost felt like he’d be breaking some unspoken rule if he made a noise. Alyssia finally turned around to look at him and Arthur reciprocated the movement.
Huh, I never realised how short she was. She always seemed so massive. Larger then life kind of person. Arthur was by no means a giant and yet his 6-foot frame towered a full head over the Alverin woman. It was strange what you noticed at the oddest of moments. Her pale yellow eyes were locked with his, containing the repressed predatory instincts that had first gripped him, though they’d stopped having any impact on him a long time ago.
“I’ve already told you a lot about what we’ll be doing today but there are a few things you’ll need to know about Loci of power before we do anything.” She stated gravely.
Arthur once again nodded his head, wondering what it was that Alyssia was about to tell him. She’s practically told me about everything already, he thought in confusion. What else could Alyssia possibly have to say, and more importantly why hadn’t she told him yesterday? Before Arthur's paranoid nature could invent a multitude of horrible reasons, he quickly gained control over himself.
The alien woman was about to explain. There was no point worrying about it now. If Alyssia noticed his inner turmoil, she didn’t comment on it, instead refreshing his memory.
“As I told you yesterday, a locus of power is basically a place of great significance and high ether concentration. They form when a planet evolves.” She paused briefly to see if Arthur was paying attention to her despite it being so early in the morning. When she saw that he was, she quickly continued.
“Due to how fragile the dimensional membrane becomes during such an event, these loci aren’t quite exactly a part of our reality.” Arthur nodded his head. This was all information he’d already learnt yesterday.
“It would normally take a few more months for such places to once again become visible to the people of your planet, but since I came from another dimension altogether, a tier two planet specifically, I took a few liberties and used something to find one of these loci ahead of time,” Alyssia said with a slight smirk on her face.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
So that’s how she knew about all this before the government even got a whiff of it, Arthur realised. In hindsight, such a thing should have been immediately obvious. Her worlds evolved twice. Of course she knows about the secret locations. Why humanity hadn't been informed about it during the tutorial was another question altogether, and one that Alyssia was just about to answer it turned out.
“You might be wondering why no one else is looking for these places,” Alyssia questioned.
“Yes," Arthur replied. "It doesn’t make any sense. The common people I can understand but I'm sure the people in charge are at least aware of their existence right?” Arthur asked, confusion and curiosity evident in his voice. Alyssia smiled briefly at him before replying.
“Well, it makes perfect sense actually. Only a madman would reveal the existence of loci of power before their due time, the system included. Some people certainly know, but they'll keep that information close to their chests, especially when they can't even use it yet,” she said the words with such conviction and belief that Arthur was inclined to accept her explanation there and then. Except that it just raised more questions.
“What do you mean only a madman? Are they really that dangerous,” Arthur asked wearily, reconsidering what he had signed up for. Alyssia laughed at the trepidation on his face and shook her head in amusement. Arthur had no idea why she found his reaction so funny and waited patiently for the woman to calm herself down. After ten seconds had passed, Alyssia finally seemed ready to speak.
“You should have seen your face,” she laughed, chuckling once again. “But to answer your question, no they’re not dangerous. Well unless your stupid, that is. No, the only reason why their existence is not revealed, is to protect the world from you,” she explained, poking her finger at Arthur’s chest.
When she noticed the obvious confusion on the healer's face, she quickly clarified, “Not from you specifically of course. What I was alluding to was the dominant trait that every sapient species, irrespective of who or what they are possesses. Greed. You see, I told you already that you gain some boost in power if you could conquer a locus of power, right? What I didn’t tell you, is that a very special reward awaits the first ones that do so,” Alyssia explained. It took a moment for Arthur to understand what the woman was saying but he blanched when he realised the point that Alyssia was trying to make.
Imagine if every human on Earth suddenly learnt about a limited opportunity to increase their power exponentially. It would be chaos, a rat race where everyone was pitted against each other, slaughter and destruction. And I would probably have been a part of it, Arthur morbidly realised. He now understood what Alyssia had meant when she said that the secrecy was to protect everyone from people like himself as Arthur had no doubt that he wouldn't have shied away from such an opportunity if it presented itself, consequences be damned.
Arthur took a moment to digest that information, before asking the question that had been puzzling him since Alyssia’s earlier statements. “And what makes you different from these people? You said there's no point looking for these Loci yet, but we're still here, so there's obviously something to be done,” he questioned. If the topic was surrounded by so much secrecy, it didn’t make sense that Alyssia would know so much about it. She was powerful, but she came from a tier-2 world at the end of the day. Most of the people sponsoring Earth were at least that strong. Why would she know more than them?
“Well, you see, my planet actually evolved for the second time when I was eleven years old,” Alyssia said.
Arthur carefully catalogued that snippet of information for later. Her world had already evolved twice, meaning that ether had been abundant on the planet for hundreds if not thousands of years. Alyssia experiencing that change, however, meant that she had a lot of hands-on experience with the turmoil such changes presented.
“What should have been a joyous occasion, however, quickly turned into a disaster.” Alyssia continued quietly, trailing off as she looked off into the distance.
Arthur knew that she must be recollecting whatever painful memories had been made all those years ago and so he waited patiently for her to continue her story.
“I didn’t tell you that they were supposed to be kept quiet about it for no reason. People go crazy for them. It's always resulted in a bloodbath when not carefully managed and can even weaken the dimensional integrity of a planet if things get out of hand enough."
"What happened to us was so much worse. You see, it somehow leaked to a nearby galaxy that our world had just evolved. It's different here with the system present, but my home world is very isolated. At least it was. That was when they came. The Igruls,” Alyssia spat out the name with venom in her voice and took a calm steadying breath. Arthur didn’t rush her.
“They obviously knew about the Loci that had just been generated and they came with their youth to steal our opportunities away from us,” Alyssia spoke softly. "They were a peak tier 3 galactic empire, already foraging into tier 4 worlds. We couldn't do anything."
Arthur had a little context from yesterday's conversation to understand what she was saying. She had told him that there was a restriction to how strong you could be to go inside one, and a locus of power on a tier-two world probably had a level restriction of around 250. They were amazing resources meant for a planet's new generations, a way to jumpstart them to heights their forefathers could never reach.
Arthur had gotten a gist of what had happened in Alyssia’s world and she didn’t need to tell him anymore. He was certain that the woman had purposely left out details, but Arthur didn’t press for more information. She had told him enough for him to understand her knowledge source, as well as her caution.
The Alverin must have fought back and then- Arthur didn’t finish that thought. Alyssia’s expression made it clear as day exactly how that must have gone. So I'm guessing these Igruls had the means to find premature Loci, coming from such a powerful background. No one interested in Earth would be so well established. At least I don't think so. And Alyssia somehow learned that method, I guess. He mused. Nope, it's not a method. That wouldn't make any sense, Arthur reasoned. Otherwise, it'd be far more accessible than it is and the strongest on Earth would've been told about it.
A rare item then. Something that can't be mass-produced, Arthur deduced. One that lets you find these locations prematurely and helps you access them. I'm guessing she managed to steal one somehow.
Not sure what to do to fill in the awkward silence that had developed between the two, Arthur choose not to say anything. A few minutes later, Alyssia finally started to speak again.
“Your world is lucky in that regard,” she said, smiling at him. “It seems that the system, or maybe the evolved planets around you, prevent such abuses from happening,” she explained, before mumbling something under her breath. “None of that matters though anyway,” she suddenly announced brightly.
“At least you know why I wanted you to come so quickly.” Arthur nodded his head slowly. He understood perfectly well. Not only was he a powerful healer, but more importantly, Arthur was a native of planet Earth. And judging from everything Alyssia had told him yesterday, that was about to become very critical once they challenged the locus of power. After all, the trials within one were always shaped by the myth and lore that was present on the planet. Why Arthur had no idea. Something about Ether trying to bring order to the chaos it was birthed from. Or at least that was what Alyssia had told him when he’d asked. If Arthur was being honest, he doubted that the dimensional traveller really had a better idea about the phenomenon than him. He shook his head, trying to clear his meandering thoughts.
They had a discount dungeon to conquer and he needed to learn how to stop kissing ass as Alyssia had so aptly put it.