Red tint overlaid my vision as I watched through the wyvern’s eye. It hoovered above the overgrown remains of what looked to have been an ancient city. Similar to the ones they showed in the history BDs her tutor had given her. Only, rather than the Egyptian ruins or an old castle in Scotland, this looked far older and… Cleaner?
Large stone block, almost symmetrical in construction, made up their foundations and the first three layers of their outer walls. Moss and grass grew wild throughout it all. While we were in a forest, not a single tree grew throughout the ruins. This granted me a clear overview of its layout while also discerning a clear road throughout that the emperor could fit through.
Though, I found it odd that not a single tree grew amongst the ruins. I wasn’t versed in plants - my interests lay in technology, so I was unsure if this phenomenon was natural or not. No chemical or radiological signatures were detected. In fact, the charts showed the environment to be closer to the filtered air in my house. No pollution. I had my windows partly down to let in this air.
It was crisp and oddly invigorating.
The difference between my world and this one was comparable to the corporate blocks and Vista Del Ray.
“Time to move…” I muttered to myself as I switched on the SUV. It rumbled to life as I had Yang pull the rear guard and put himself 10 meters behind to get us both room to work. The vehicle faced the statue. I carefully pulled around and began to make my way down the slope.
The road itself was a lazy right where it went down into a straight-away for a quarter mile. During this I found myself staring at the ruins. It was hard to imagine how the people of that time would have lived, given my experience with technology, life before it must have been hell. It made me slightly thankful for my golden spoon.
Clearing the ruins took less than 10 minutes.
I met up with the wyverns at the entrance as the road was overtaken by vegetation. I made the drones float up above and survey the way forward again. They found the remains of the road here and there. It banked off to my right where it began to follow a stream I hadn’t seen initially. Both of the drones floated towards it. Each kept a 50-meter distance from the other as they did, floating between the trees. Two minutes later, they returned and I moved forward.
The road was bumpy and uneven; yet, it was comforting at the same time. As if the feedback the ground gave through the vehicle helped tune it into my being. Similar to how you assimilated with your cyberware. Its hard to explain. Normal roads made me uneasy, but this? This felt… right, somehow.
We pushed past the treeline after a few minutes. The lush canopy hid us from the sky and cast thousands of tiny light dots across the hood and windows. One of the drones flew several feet above the water. It slowly followed a fish as it scanned it. I smiled at the sight.
[Warning: Movement detected – Wyvern 2—]
I pulled up the feed from the second drone. It was approximately 63 meters ahead… there were… Wolves? And there appeared to me little green men riding them waving something almost 30 meters ahead and bounding our way. It was an interesting sight. It was only as they approached the wyvern did I recognized them as goblins. Green, pointed ears, bald heads, and gaunt faces. Some had crooked noses, some had pug-like noses, and some were normal.
In the time it took me to identify them, they had cut the distance between them and the drone in half. Their gobbled voices were drowned in the chorus of barks and growls. Something flew out from one of the goblins – an arrow!
It slammed into the drone and barely missed its camera. The force sent the drone twirling. It stabilized itself just as the hostiles got within 10 meters. I forced the drone to ascend as another arrow cut the air where it had been a moment again. Leaves and twigs rained down around it as it pushed through the canopy. The hoots and barks drowned out the small whine of its anti-gravity lifts even as several more arrows flew up past it – it was returning to our immediate area.
Wyvern 1 positioned itself just past the stream, angling itself to shoot at the group chasing wyvern-2 on an exposed bend.
The stream wormed its way through the first. In that, whoever carved out the road had purposefully made several points where no trees existed between the road and the bend; creating textbook shooting galleries if an opposing force positioned itself on the bank. Wyvern-1tool such a position.
Since we were not detected yet, Yang and I moved up as close as possible. The robot took up a firing position on the edge of a patch of heavy vegetation. I parked the SUV behind him. Enough of frontend stuck out that I was able to create a decent cover and shooting platform.
“On contact, move left up the road. Wyvern-1 will open fire after you do, and Wyvern-2 will fly down and attack from above.” I ordered.
All three units beeped their confirmations.
Wyvern-2 flew past overhead and its pursuers rolled in arrows flying at it. Yang opened fire with its hidden small-ammo wrist gun. The shoots ripped into the first wolf and brought it down. It yelped and writhed on the beaten beat as the other wolves bounced off to its sides. It took a few seconds for them to register Yang. They all focused on the robot as wyvern-1 opened fire. Its smart rounds danced from its barrel and struck into the rearmost enemy. Wyvern-2 swooped in and also opened fire on the second-most rear. I opened fire on the closest to me.
There were six in total with four of the six engaged immediately. The remaining two were the innermost of their group. I gave a quick squeeze of the trigger, unleashing a barely contained spray of rounds into the wolf and goblin. The wolf fell face-first into the dirt. Its rider was ejected towards me but off to the side. I tracked it while I unleashed another volley to hit it midair as it tumbled end over end.
I realized that had been a mistake on my part. I missed most of the rounds as they cut into the trees beyond. Bark exploded, leaves fluttered, and most if none at all hit their intended target.
Once the goblin landed, it scrambled to its feet while I placed the reticle over its center mass. The saratoga clicked. I cursed while I dropped the magazine with my right and loaded a fresh magazine with my left. When I brought the weapon back up, the goblin had disappeared into the underbrush. Only a trail of greenish blood was left in its wake.
The rest of its group had been dealt with by this time. Both wyverns and Yang reported their targets were neutralized.
I kept my SMG raised while I ordered wyvern-2 to chase after the fleeing goblin. I kept it pointed at the downed hostiles as I approached. Wyvern-1 kept its position while Yang moved filled in between us two to create a quarter-circle as not to put any of us in any crossfire.
“Abnormal entities detected.” Yang’s AI spoke over our subnet.
“I’ve never seen a wolf before, so I can’t say if it is.”
“Unit Yang is referring to the green humanoids”
“Oh… Yeah, that’s not normal…” I said as I shifted to one of the wolves attempting to drag itself away. “Can you finish them off?”
Yang let out an affirmative beep, then walked over before decapitating the wolf with its mantis blades. Blood splattered across the dirt and onto the sandy river bank. I gave the order for him to do so for all the enemies, just in the event one of them was playing dead. Within a few minutes, the air was thick with blood.
[Message (M): Quite unnecessary to cut all their heads, was it not?]
I pivoted, gun raised. I saw no one, yet this person had seen me –
[Message (M): Don’t bother. I’m not watching you from the physical plane. I am Morgan, the Dragoness who Guides Souls - More aptly known as Death.]
“What do you want?” I asked gun still aimed into the forest around us.
[Message (M): I want nothing. I was to just send you this information.
//VIDEO.MANASTONE.EXTRACTION.webm –]
I was anxious about opening the attachment. But then I remembered I was in another world – it suddenly came to me that I hadn’t tried to contact anyone personally.
My agent brought up the Xi Long Emergency Line.
[// Contact cannot be reached — They are not connected to your current subnet. Routing to a third party net…
// No additional connections found.
>>[ CELES ] DETECTED
// You are currently connected to CELES subnet. Would you like to scan?]
I allowed it to scan the subnet I was currently on while I played the video. I doubted there would be any malicious content sent. My digital number was quite a long sequence that only existed on the Xi Long subnet. It was connected to a conventional number and any data that was sent to this number from the outside world would be vetted through the Xi Long Security AI and my own. If Morgan – Death – had my number, then it was safe to say that I was either naked to intrusions, or A had given them my number.
The video itself was… Bloody if not educational. It scrolled similarly to an autopsy BD from a medical school I’d audited for the company. It displayed a dead wolf on a stone table, one much smaller than the ones here, while an elegant woman with the deepest crimson red hair I’d ever seen stood over it. Her eyes had those signature reptile pupils. Her voice had a soft low pitch that made me want to listen. She used her long fingernail to slice the dead wolf’s chest open around its heart and slowly peeled back muscle and meat.
She then explained that manastones existed in all mana-born creatures, even ones who bred. The stones existed between their heart and lungs. No matter if their positions switched. They used their nail to slice through the chest cavity with ease before parting it. As she said, between the lungs and the heart was a rough and dull light blue orb.
She spoke. “This is the basis of extracting manastones. As I previously stated, they will be found in entities commonly referred to as monsters. A guide on distinguishing a monster from an animal can be requested, but we rather you seek this information out on your own. As for the stones themselves, they come in several colors, but only five colors you need to be concerned with. They come in five colors and three types: blue, violet, red, orange, and yellow. . From there, they are separated into concentrations which can be deducted through their stages. Lesser, mid, and greater – Lesser being the lightest and greater being the deepest of that color.”
This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.
She placed the light blue manastone on the table facing whatever was recording. Then she placed a stone I would call a normal blue next to it and finally, a deep blue one. With the three lined up, it was now apparent how this worked. The one pulled from the wolf was a light blue. From there, the color became concentrated while the last one was like looking into a deep vat of purified water. It shimmered brilliantly.
She continued. “To end this brief explanation, each stone has an assigned value in the marketplace. You’ve been given an inventory function that can store items at the thought while you touch them. You can also pull items from your inventory into your hands, or onto a surface within twenty feet of you. Converting stones turns them into a numerical currency our master simply labeled as points. Worldly currencies may also be converted, or converted to.
That is all.”
It ended as the scan finished up
[//Net scan completed.
>Net: CELES
>Subnet structure: CELES Battlenet
>Security: UNSECURED
>Connection Base: Orbital Laser Transmission Station 0001 (Arisaka M-2080)
> Found Users: 4
Administrator:
A (#:xxx-xxx-xx-xx-xx-xxx)
Human Resources:
F (#:xxx-xxx-xx-xx-xx-xxx)
M (#:xxx-xxx-xx-xx-xx-xxx)
Security Department:
Mercy (#:xxx-xxx-xx-xx-xx-xxx)
FUNCTIONS:
Market Data transfer for Self-Construction
Market Data transfer for Orbital drops
Market Data utilities
Text, Voice, and data transmissions
Global Positioning (Minor)
END REPORT.]
My contact book was updated with the information. A, M, and F… Why were they all using just their initials? Well, it didn’t matter.
The manastone information was turned over to Yang. I returned to the emperor while the robot did the dirty work. However, the wyvern returned without finding the fleeing goblin…
----------------------------------------
ORIGINAL CHAPTER
After having secured Yang and me, I’d accepted A’s deal. It was an offer to sever whatever bonds had come with the deal I’d accepted with Avery - or rather, Loviata. As well as upgrading my system.
The mentioned update also gave the UI a contemporary facelift. Instead of the ancient monolithic light grey boxes, with equally outdated icons; the new UI was sleek, darkened, and then simplified. Again, only three options existed. Mail, Maps, and Shops. But it also had a “+” at the end that allowed additional markers to be placed, or edit where the buttons went. Honestly, it was just a minor but appreciated change.
While I wanted to explore what other, if any, changes were made, I had the mail. Mail I had put off as I made my way through 20 F weather. The snow was thick and after 30 minutes of hiking, I was already done with this damn weather. So Yang had made a temporary shelter out of branches and brush to break the window. Then a small fire to warm me. Honestly, I was surprised the robot could even do that.
The baggy pants also had to come off due to it becoming wet with the snow. So I had to assume whoever commissioned them for the pack must’ve never experienced snow. Because there was no way this was how snow clothes were supposed to work.
w
[TO: A.
Can you explain all that you just did?]
The message for A was to the point. I needed to know what they did so I knew what was going on. The next one to deal with was Avery - or, rather, Loviata who was apparently presenting themselves as “Avery”... Whoever that was. They must’ve been some sort of important figure in this world if Loviata went through the hassle of impersonating them. Or maybe, Avery was just a persona the deity liked to present.
Yang assembled a shelter under my direction. Mainly by breaking off low-hanging branches to make a wind break in a small section where I cleared the snow. There was also a firestarter we used to make a fire.
The pants also had to come off since they were moist from the knees down. Now they rested on a stick by the fire. And with the break, I had no other reason to put off replying to the mail.
[To: A.
Please tell me what you did to me.]
A’s message was more to the point. I did not think on what I wanted to ask, because honestly, I only needed to know what was happening to me. Now, the real thought work was put into what I would say to Avery - or rather Loviata. I obviously did not trust A, but A did apparently reveal Loviata had lied to me about her identity. That in of itself was bounds to fully distrust her.
A, on the other hand, must be Loviata’s enemy. And a powerful what at that considering it managed to distort Loviata’s appearance and whisk me away. I could trust harming your enemy. I just had to ensure Loviata didn’t try and smite me for accepting A’s help. Hence why I took some time to reply.
[To: Avery (Loviata)
I am still in my old body. I don’t know where I am. I have no other information.]
I had wanted to confront Loviata before cutting that thought out. I couldn’t toy with beings stronger than me. Especially ones that could cross dimensions. With that thought ending, I set back out.
[From Avery (Loviata)
You’re hidden from my detection, can you describe where you are?]
I received a reply within ten minutes from Loviata, read and then closed it. I needed to see what angle A was coming from before I replied. How A went about all of this would determine my next course of action, or of course, what I could even do…
A’s reply came nearly thirty minutes later, ten minutes after my longs had begun to be bitten by the cold. I felt it was a good time to stop and put the pants back on.
[From: A
I broke Snaky’s little slave brand around your neck with my own brand. Why? Out of spite. It obscures your presence from Lovi and will allow magic to slowly integrate into your body. I say give it a few months for it to completely meld with your soul. Also, my brand makes both hers and mine visible. Kinda like tattoos. It also reinvented that stupid windows-wannabe system she made.
I made it cooler.
Also, if you make me regret doing this, I can kill you instantly.
Unlike the pretender, I can see you~
XOXO]
I cringed when I saw the last part of the message… I felt A was… A little unhinged.
“Why does that sound like a bluff…?” I sighed.
The air around me quickly began to smell like ozone and then a black orb appeared fifteen feet away from me and devoured a mature pine tree’s midsection. It then ate the rest of the tree as it fell into it, scattering snowflakes and needle leaves everywhere. It then disappeared. The whole event lasted less than 20 seconds…
Another notification came…
[FROM: A.
Don't test me.]
"I-I'll keep that in mind…" I muttered in shock..
With that, I no longer felt the desire to rest. We continued on our journey once we smothered the fire with snow. Only you can prevent forest fires… Well, putting aside that forests need fires to keep them healthy. Or so I read. It had something to do with the ground build-up or combustible material.
Apparently, yearly or bi-yearly fires prevented the larger and more destructive ones that destroyed the entire forest rather than burning away the materials on the floor.
But I never really had the chance to test that. Forests had basically disappeared from most of America before I died. Mainly the Wastes existed until you reached Canada. Even then, they were sickly there
The forest grew thicker and eerier. It set me on edge. There had been no mishaps, though Yang had detected abundant animal activity around us. All of them avoided us.
Not a single sign of humanity.
"Umm… A?" I asked. I figured if she was watching, I didn't really need to use the mail function. "You have a name or something?"
[FROM: A.
Don't worry about it~]
"Well, I want to know." I said as I fingered my holstered weapon. I started to grasp why people liked to do it when they were in stressful situations. It brought a sense of control. "You did me a big favor. I'd feel better if I knew your name."
A minute later, I received a message from A with only another attachment. I accepted it and watched as the system function disappeared. A reload symbol appeared for another minute before the system came back.
This time, A's messages were appearing in a chat box on the bottom left of my view.
[A: It was troublesome to keep using the mail system.
A: also
A: don't worry about it]
I took a few moments to gather myself as my annoyance grew. I wondered if powerful beings just loved to mess around.
"I'll continue to worry about it. It also seems shady," I said.
[A: Cute.
A: So cute I might accidentally spawn a black hole inside your brain.]
"Woah, Woah! I was just commenting on how it looked! You don't have to go straight to murder!" I sputtered and stopped.
[A: let's get something straight.
A: you're alive and free only because Loviata is someone I am trying to kill.
A: and allowing the summon she had planned to use to her own ends go free with her power was more than juicy enough.
A: Since I'm not making you do anything other than not work with her, you're getting the best deal out of this.]
"If you put it that way… then why are you still talking to me?" I asked.
I was genuinely curious, but A never replied. I felt… disappointed. I kinda felt A really wasn't expecting anything out of me, and I might have offended them afterward…
I continued onward. Half paying attention to the path and half mulling over the situation. To keep from falling over, I had Yang take the lead and I followed in its footsteps.
A big hurdle I had to get over was how game like this all seemed. It all felt so… unreal… the system furthered this feeling. Maybe it was … shock? I didn't know. My father tried to get me to see a therapist for the incident earlier.
I eventually stopped because talking brought extreme nightmares.
"Hey, A." I called out again.
[A: What.]
"I know you just did it to spite the other, but…" I hesitated for a moment, mentally kicking my own ass. "I won't feel right if I don't repay the favor…"
A reply came a few minutes later…
[A: Even if there is a high possibility of dying?]
"Well, that would depend… but maybe…?" I shrugged.
[A: if you really want to repay me…
A: 15 miles north up the valley is a large mining town.
A: A dungeon outbreak happened and the town is currently being overrun.
A: I don't need you to help them. It will be razed by the time you get there.
A: double your pace and you'll meet the fleeing people.
A: Escort them to the fortress 30 miles directly south on the plains.]
"Hey, if you know about it, why don't you help then?" I asked.
[A: My hands are tied with dealing with more dangerous entities like Loviata.
A: And Loviata is more directly responsible for this situation.
A: She's pulling something in this region’s capital and it's pulled a lot of mercenaries and adventurers from this dungeon.
A: monster overpopulation without culling = dungeon break = backwater town overran.]
"Don't you have believers who can help you?" I asked.
[A: Unlike people like Loviata who achieve their power through having more followers, I never needed them.
A: You can say that it was an oversight.
A: One of the many issues I'm working on.]
"Fair enough…" I nodded, then pieced something together. "Then I guess you're the real God of this realm?"
[A: Goddess, and yes.]
"Then I'm assuming you're Avery," I said. "That's what A stands for?"
[A:...
A: Yes.]
"I can see why you're being petty towards Loviata." I nodded my head. "That thing. With the people. I'll do it."
[A: Thank you…]