Shortly after Derus arrived at the front of the outpost, people began to pile at that same location. The mercenary outpost in this world doubled as a method of networking with outside information and as such, it was also their duty to delegate territory news to the residents even if they were considered to be an independent organization. It was an agreement for their operation with the king of the human country. Or so Farris explained to Derus when he entered the outpost and saw her busying about before they both moved to her office. On the way there, Derus noted that two guards guarded the sick bay which was still occupied by the girl Derus had brought back. The guards stood out from the rest of the people as usual with their metal armor.
After finding out about the significance of the dark pillar eruption from Farris, Derus decided against the idea of spending a week to create a mana system using the nanomachines. Remaining unconscious for such a long time in such conditions was unsafe concluded Derus who then decided to dedicate that time towards recharging instead.
Priority has been set towards gathering and storage of energy. Combat State has been locked.
During the recharging - active state, Derus would be unable to access combat state without accessing administrator mode. Limitations on perception are also implemented which is to the degree that the energy vision would be restricted. Finally, significant system aid in precision movements during combat would be limited to human levels. Finally, the angular lines running along the humanoid body and it's eyes stopped glowing. Changing like this in front of Farris caused her to crunch her brows at Derus in light confusion but at the same time, she did not bother with asking Derus unless the humanoid saw to make it a topic which wasn't at the moment.
"Thank you for the information Farris." said Derus who continued, "Do you have any records of this 'Flood' event?"
"You'd find that in Castle town, just head to the Mercenary hall or the city library. You'd find eye witness records in the hall mostly, not too sure about the library, probably history and theory." replied Farris.
"That would be sufficient. Which direction should I go to if I wish to get to this Castle town?"
"It's to the east- ah... just a minute." said Farris as she got up and went towards the shelves to pull out a map scroll. Opening the aged scroll across the desk, which Derus had snapshot immediately, Farris continued.
"This is the village here, just go east along this route and you'll reach Castle town. Ignore those two branching routes, those head to the other territories. You can probably find a carriage rider to give you a trip for a fee." said Farris who then rolled up the map.
Stolen story; please report.
"Thank you. I shall be heading towards the Inn now." said Derus as the humanoid got up and exited the office as Farris went towards the shelf to put away the map.
Reaching the Inn, Derus booked a single room for three days and asked that no one disturb unless it was an emergency. During those three days, Derus let the humanoid body sit on the bed and face the doorway whilst at the same time ran blacksmithing simulations using imainary materials and real materials. Also, at the same time, any memories associated with words and text were brought forward to compile an auto translation for the written text of this world.
Finally, three days later, Derus left the inn and started towards the eastern end of the village in the direction towards Castle town. The expected trip by a carriage was three days and those carriages travelled at a snail's pace compared to an old first generation car. With an unknown event occuring, Derus had no intention of taking that long on travelling and as such, on the road to Castle town, a humanoid could be seen running at a high speed. The expected arrival time to Castle town was several hours at most if the current speed could be maintained.
----------------------------------------
The vortex in the montains had grown in size, whilst the area around it had decayed. If one looked, they could see the vortex siphoning mana from the veins of the earth in a whirlpool. This vortex is what is known as the entrance to a dungeon, a space which is separated from the real world yet is influenced by it.
Currently travelling through the mountain range were a team of four, three men and a female, from the dwarf kingdom. Being dwarfs, they were as tall as the average ten year old human child but none would mistake this group with those of children. The woman carried a large shield on her back which, at its center, had a large gear and dull red orb. This shield was held in place by straps which had ran across her torso. The two men following on either side of her were equipped with crossbows that appeared to have scope lenses. The crossbows themselves were unlike anything which could be expected in a medieval world as they were made completely of metal with all moving parts made hidden in metal encasing. The man following behind them appeared to be old but in his eyes one could see a stubborn determination that refused to allow his body to yield to time. Nothing out of the ordinary defined the man in the back. He appeared extremely ordinary wearing cotton clothes and leather shoes. On the back of his hands however, were two rotating magic boosting sigils which required a great deal of control for its use.
The group was making their way towards the area where black pillar which had recently shook the land. The group travelled in silence, carefully observing the surroundings as the mountain life grew smaller the nearer they got. Upon reaching that desolate space, they saw a dark vortex, the size of an adult human, rotating slowly whilst absorbing mana. The group immediately confirmed it as a dungeon entrance from their experience and put themselves into battle formation with the shield bearer at the vanguard.
The vortex rippled as they drew nearer and a streak of black mana lightening shot forward before stopping and materializing into a four armed creature with a glowing single red eye and black wispy skin along with other creatures. The cyclops let out a roar that broke apart the surrounding dead vegetation before charging towards the unlucky group.