Chapter 110: Team Dork
Nara was at the sparring grounds of the academy, re-establishing her normal routine, when she saw a familiar face she did not expect to see.
Since Erin Nisei’s betrayal, her friendship with Vallis was strained. Erin Nisei had not implicated her family in the betrayal, and they were not held responsible. If they had the slightest indication of aiding and abetting her, the Continental Congress representative, Zinnia Helianthae, would have dealt with them, but Erin Nisei was clean in her dealings. She was removed from her position, and a new Nisei took her place, some sort of cousin named Jules Nisei.
Nara didn’t hold Vallis responsible, but as expected, it was just so awkward: Sorry, my aunt told the cult-adjacent alien invaders about your secret soul magic invention which you had been specifically keeping secret, which caused you to be abducted by a gold ranker who proceeded to try the very best to mentally break you through mental and physical torture over the course of half a month.
The consolation prize, if any, was that they didn’t attempt soul torture; It was another line The Advent seemed to have. Nothing could match up to the prowess of an eldritch-like immortal intangible concept with power and consciousness. It would have been a futile attempt. Still unpleasant, undoubtedly. Nara wasn’t sure that was something you could get used to.
But it wasn’t Vallis she spotted, who, after recent events, was busy with family matters.
Zariel stood a pace from the training ground, waiting patiently for Nara’s bout with Encio to end. She hadn’t been using a suppression collar during their spars anymore; it wasn’t as if they had to, it was just better for beginners. Essence users often sparred with their powers, once they had sufficient control. Mirage chambers were always available, and actual sparring minorly progressed abilities. A healer on hand was enough to stymie any dangerous mistakes.
“Zariel, it has been some time since I last saw you. It’s been…” Nara trailed off. It hadn’t been long since she last saw Zariel, just under a month. Her delirium dreams had stretched time like a hot summer day with nothing to do. “Did you want to talk about something?”
He nodded, then removed a flask from his dimensional inventory. He gestured, so Nara held out her hand, and he set a flask within.
She stared at the flask which encapsulated a nebula-in-a-bottle. The colors were gentle yet intense; soft golds, light blues, silvers, pastel pinks and purples. Specks of darker colors rimmed at its edges where the light was less concentrated, magentas, dark violets, and burnt oranges.
Her Guide told her what it was before she needed to ask.
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Item: [Nebula Flask] (iron rank [growth], legendary)
Classification: Item, Vehicle, Bottled Clouds
A nebula within a flask. A variation of the Cloud Flask. The nebula-cloud material is extremely adaptable, suiting the user’s needs.
This item is unbound.
Use the energies within the nebula flask to create buildings and vehicles made of nebula light and dust.
Available forms are restricted by rank.
Items contained within the cloud construct when it is returned to the flask are stored in a dimensional space and cannot be recovered until another nebula construct is formed.
Available forms (Iron): Nebula house (grand), nebula house (adaptive).
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“It’s very beautiful,” Nara said. “Thanks for letting me take a look at it.” She held out the flask to hand it back to him.
“You are mistaken, Nara. It is payment for the information you have given to me.”
“It’s not my information,” Nara protested. “It’s my world’s information. I did nothing for it.”
She had invented nothing for her world; she wasn’t a great mind. She wouldn’t compare herself to the Einsteins, the Teslas, and the Stephen Hawkings. To even have the chance to shake their hand would have been her honor. And for all the nameless scientists out there that painstakingly researched the inconsequential, the small discoveries that compounded into the foundations of science, she was not their equal either.
“I cannot give a gift to your world, so I must give it to you, as your world’s representative. I have heard from your companions that you have been seeking a cloud flask,” Zariel said. “It is not the same, but an artificer of my world has produced something similar.”
“This is the sort of stuff made by diamond rankers, Zariel. I don’t think what I gave you is that valuable.”
“The Supremes of my world cannot stay during mana droughts,” explained Zariel. “The lack of mana starves them. Instead, they leave us with artifacts and other resources to exchange in our dealings with individuals. An individual artifact is inappropriate in a trade with an organization, unless it has priceless value and expansive use.” He held out the flask, and his smile contained a hint of humor. “This is not that. It is restricted to a single individual, and thus only used in individual exchanges. Moreover,” he continued, “It is a luxury item that consumes vast amounts of resources for growth. It is inappropriate for anyone of my world to have. For resource rich worlds such this, it is an appropriate gift.”
Nara could not deny that she wanted it.
Zariel sensed her reticence. He waited patiently for her to explain; she had words within her that wanted out.
“Have you heard of my recent run in with The Advent?”
“That it happened, yes. I know not of the details of your tribulation.”
“There was an Illusae there that saved my life. Would you happen to know her name?”
“She is Lieke-gema Zoet-zi’el.”
It was a mouthful, but Nara would remember it.
“She saved my life. When I was at my worst she pulled me back from the brink,” Nara paused, her eyes misty. “And I have no way to repay her. I want to repay what she did for me somehow. I still don’t think I deserved her sacrifice, but it doesn’t change the weight of her choice. There’s no way to know what she would have wanted, so I turn to you. Her representative.”
“As you are the representative of your world.”
“There’s always John.”
Zariel chuckled, then held out the bottle again. “My people have determined the value of your information and determined that this is the best of what we can offer you. A trinket for the information that may one day pave a new path for my world. By your generosity, let it wipe my debt clean.”
“Okay,” Nara said. She finally took the flask, holding the pocket side nebula up to the sun to admire sunlight scattering across stellar dust.
“I have heard from John that you are the most likely to posses a method in the future to traverse the dimensional boundary to cross into your world. Nara, I present a proposition with the weight of Lieke-gema’s, life.”
“What is it?”
“I would like a single one of my people to cross with you to your world.”
“Okay.”
Zariel furrowed his brows. “It is unwise to agree so readily. Have you considered the repercussions my people may have on your world?”
“If you ask me what the weight of Lieke’s life was, then it’s a life for a life. I don’t really know how else to value it. I don’t really want to value it, but I think it’s a good place to start. This issue is if you’re comfortable with sending a single person. My world may not have magic, but it has it’s dangers.”
“It is unnecessary to agree, Nara. Lieke-gema made her choice not for prospect of gain. Nor is everyone on my world so kind as she.”
“I know. This is all for my own self-satisfaction.”
“Perhaps we should have this discussion at a later time when you are of sounder state, after due consideration. I apologize if this was premature.”
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Zariel had proposed the deal on the basis of Lina’s sacrifice yet was unwilling to leverage that guilt beyond a limit. He wanted consideration, not blind agreement.
Both he and Lieke, such kind, considerate people. Nara wanted to help them, and their world.
“Please wait a moment,” Nara said. “We’ll set some terms for cooperation. Like uh, so and so can’t summon a bunch of other people to my world, or if they start killing innocents, I’m going to throw them back dead or alive. I’m just saying I’m open to the idea, and a relationship with your world may be beneficial for my world. I don’t have the expertise nor the authority to hammer out those terms, but your representative can with someone with more political authority. My magically barren world would benefit from the high efficiency magical technologies your world has. It’s almost a match made in heaven. I’m not being entirely thoughtless. This can be a good thing for my world, I’m just the chauffer with the opportunity.”
“This is not a decision made in guilt?”
“Guilt and thoughtfulness, it may be both. But this is all pretty wasted; I don’t have a way to travel to my world yet.”
“That is the case,” Zariel concurred.
“It seems impractical for you to pose a deal for something that cannot be accomplished yet.”
“This is a matter that necessitates ample consideration.”
“Well, let’s leave it at that. You’re registered with the Adventure Society now?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll send you a message through the society when I have any updates.”
“Update?”
*****
“A nebula flask?”
“Take a look.”
Nara handed the flask to Encio, who overturned it in his hand.
“My family has some cloud constructs, but not a cloud flask. Even my grandfather cannot buy one unless there is one available for purchase. However, they are typically not purchasable; they are traded. Like Zariel did with you.”
“Traded?”
“At diamond rank wealth is pointless. They trade artifacts and favors instead. At diamond rank, crafters have considerably more value.”
“How else do you get your diamond rank sword and armor, I guess.”
“You won’t need it. I will need armor,” Encio said, pained over the future inconvenience.
At low ranks opinions with adventurers was mixed concerning weapon and armor conjurations. On one hand, they were instant and could be conjured directly onto the body; especially useful for those without inventory powers, or those who couldn’t afford a large enough dimensional bag at low ranks. They didn’t need to be repaired, and just needed to be reconjured to summon a brand new set, and they couldn’t be stolen.
On the other hand, they took the slots of abilities. While 20 abilities was a lot, equipment could be tailor made and purchased. Some viewed armor and weapon conjurations as a waste when you could gain another ability instead.
The opinions were balanced in a fifty-fifty until diamond rank, which didn’t matter since a bare percentage reached that rank. Finding a diamond rank crafter for equipment was difficult in and of itself, on top of whatever they would charge for their services. Whereas armor and weapon conjurations were essentially growth items that became stronger as they ranked up.
“Well?”
“Well what?”
“Let’s try it out!” Encio exclaimed, rare in his enthusiasm. “I haven’t seen a flask in action before. And this flask type doesn’t exist in this world. It’s one-of-a-kind. An out-worldly flask for an outworlder.”
Nara’s glare couldn’t help but be tinged with amusement.
“Zariel said it’s the same, just a cosmetic difference.”
Encio looked at her, “You are excited right?”
“I am, I am.” She placated. “Let’s go.”
They rode the underground subway to the port of the city. Zariel had provided Nara with a user guide, written by its creator. It was written in its creator’s language, but that wasn’t an issue for Nara.
“Man, I’m going to be a goddam polyglot on Earth. Maybe I should do one of those You Tube videos where I constantly switch languages with someone. A language battle. Maybe…” she said, looking smugly at Encio, “A battle you cannot win.”
“How’s that fair.”
“Magic isn’t fair.”
“I can’t lose if I don’t fight,” Encio said with his curved smirk.
“Now that’s very un-sportsman of you.”
Like most large cities in Erras, Sanshi had its fair share of trade. Sanshi’s stone was too typical to be considered for export, but monolith tree wood had its fair share of international usage. Sanshi teas, textiles, jewels, and silks were also common exports.
Part of the port was portioned for commercial use, while the other side was reserved for recreational and residential use. Since adventurers regularly traveled for both leisure and for work, pleasure craft that doubled as homes were commonplace. The road from bronze rank to silver rank and silver rank to gold became increasingly long; Staying in one city for several decades unless an adventurer was raising a family or helping the family was out of the norm.
While cloud flasks were the most famous for their visual spectacle, luxury, and rarity, there were other varieties of semi-transformative and portable bases. Chelsea, who specialized in wood-based vehicular crafts, no doubt had her own.
She rented a large location with the port authority for residential purposes. As they walked down the port towards her lot, she passed various house boats, floating houses, duo air and sea ships, and pleasure crafts.
“Here’s the spot,” she said, finally stopping in front of an open ocean lot. The nearest spaces of Sanshi’s harbor had already been rented.
“What does the booklet say to do?”
“Just uncork the bottle and wait 10 minutes.”
She had already bonded with the flask. All that was left was to use it. She conjured a simple table for the flask and two chairs for herself and Encio. She popped the cork with celebratory anticipation. She didn’t have to worry about the cork getting lost; It itself was made of nebula-cloud. From the cork, two images appeared: one was an indication for the grand house form, and the other for an adaptive house form. She selected the first form on the strange cloud-stuff touchscreen, and the flask initiated it’s slow transformation.
The two watched as streams of glittering mists slowly flowed from the flask, expanding and forming in concrete shapes. Nara felt she was a cosmic traveler, sitting beneath a nebula dust cloud that should by all rights span massive swatches of space. She raised her hand and felt the colorful glowing dust trickle past her fingers unimpeded.
“It’s magical,” Nara said breathlessly.
Nara thought that she would be a far too simple person if this was enough to restore her joy for magic, but she was a simple person. Her curiosity hadn’t been fully restored, yet she felt the childish tickle that once caused her head to turn at the mention of a new and exiting magical object return.
“God, I really am so basic,” she said mock-despairingly.
“There are too many complex members on this team already. We’re missing our team dork. Luckily, I know just the person,” he said with a teasing smile.
“I’m not the dork!”
“Who else is the dork? It’s not me, not Sen, and not Aliyah.”
“There is no dork. Does there have to be a dork?”
“Aliyah told us you’ve been making vulgar jokes.”
“Rarely!” she defended. “Isn’t John the dork?”
Encio gave her a look.
“John’s not really a dork,” she admitted, “He’s a…grounded teddy bear.”
“And who does that leave?”
“Eufemia?” Nara said, playing dumb. She sighed, “Okay, I’m the team dork.”
After ten minutes had passed, a mansion of cloud, mist, and stars stood before them floating on top of the sea. It was partially on the sea, and partially attached to the pier. The nebula flask was a variation of the cloud flask, and had similar qualities. The material everything was constructed from resembled clouds but had a silver-blue hue. It had more of a mystical and misty quality than the bright and fantastic constructions of a typical cloud flask. Small flickering stars and lights danced within the cloud when inspected closely, and crevices seemed filled with the colorful nebula colors, accenting the structure with splashes of color.
“Which form is this?”
“The grand form.”
“Flashy,” Encio said with the snootiness of an art-critic. “I approve.”
They ventured inside. The interior was lit with lights that felt more like starlight than the light from glow stones or electricity, and it was at a strong enough level that it did not strain Nara’s eyes. Clearly, it was designed for habitation. The furniture such as couches, tables, countertops, cabinets, and doors were all made of the same cosmic cloud stuff.
“It could use some interior decoration,” Encio said appraisingly. “It’s a little barren with not much else.”
Nara flipped through the manual, “Apparently if I add quintessence to it, it will adapt various other features. I can even grow plants here.”
“How does that work? It all gets sucked into a bottle.”
“You’re asking me?”
“You’re right. I could hardly ask the team’s dork.”
They investigated more. The cabinets were dimensional storage spaces, which meant that for its size, the cloud house had a lot more living space since storage space was hyper-efficient. There were at base 6 rooms, but Nara had the flexibility to change the layout, although she’d need to re-manifest the house. If Lawrence was tagging around or if she wanted to host guests, she’d need more rooms.
“Apparently, as I use it, it’ll start to adapt to my preferences.” Nara held out Nirvana in sword-form, re-examining it. “Are all growth items like that? Nirvana won’t do that. I think.”
“Cloud houses are known for their adaptability,” Encio said. “I have no idea if it applies to all growth items. I don’t have one,” he clarified.
“You don’t? I’m a little surprised.”
“Ability sets fill weaknesses at silver rank. Many view it as a waste to find a growth item before then.”
“You want something that doesn’t double up on what your ability set will do later.”
He nodded. “And, you’ll have more practice and funds then. You’d have a better idea of what you want to get, if you can get it. They’re some of the most expensive pieces of equipment; they’re often crafted with essences or other extremely expensive materials.”
“With essences? Oh shit. I might be carrying an entire essence user worth of essences in equipment.”
“You’ve generated far more than that with your loot ability, so if you complain to me how your equipment is expensive and you’ll feel bad, I’ll start laughing at you and hold it over your head for the rest of your life.”
“Fair enough. Thanks for the advance warning.”
“I live to inform.”
“No you don’t.”
Encio grinned.
They stepped outside of the nebula house, and Nara set the bottle out to suck the house back in.
“Shall we give form two a spin?”
She selected form two this time from the selections offered to her, and the nebula flask repeated the process of constructing reality with tangible magic.
The nebula flask construct took the form of a small Sanshi lakeside pavilion, except it was on the sea rather than water. It had decks that extended over the sea, even forming a small, self-contained sea-water pool. The glittery star matter was concealed, looking as ordinary as the stone and wood buildings the rest of Sanshi was constructed with. As to how it floated on top of the sea, completely stable, Nara asserted it was magic. Like Eufemia’s own mimicry abilities, the material was still made of cloud stuff. It wasn’t actually wood or stone, but disguised as so.
Encio rapped a table with his hand, “This feels realistic.” He walked over to a couch and sat on it, then sighed indulgently. “This doesn’t feel realistic. It feels like a dream.”
“Lemme try.” Nara bounced herself onto a couch. It had the same dreamlike quality; impossibly soft and comfortable, magic memory foam. It was like the astral constructs she conjured; magic was flexible in texture and form.
“It does look ordinary,” Nara said. “As much as house built on the sea is ordinary, and not some pretentious rich guy’s multimillion dollar mansion about to be destroyed with a mudslide.”
“You’re the pretentious rich guy in this example? Not me?”
“For once Encio, you’re not the peak of luxury. How ever will you survive?”
“I’m losing my identity,” he sighed wistfully, swooning onto the couch like a courtly maiden.
“And to the dork. What horror!”