“So, Techniques are categorised into Faulty, Crude, Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, and Flawless, depending on how good you are at them,” Mikayla did her best to memorise that path of progression. She’d dismissed the Black Knight’s Armour to conserve her Mana and spent an hour focusing on her Circulation of Stamina, and the results spoke for themselves; the burns had either faded entirely or been reduced to minor bruises, and the bite wound had scabbed over until it was merely ginger to the touch, no longer impeding her range of motion.
After exhausting all of her Stamina - running low on that wasn’t as unpleasant as she’d feared, and it was ticking back up even now - she’d resumed a casual walk towards Astralia’s Spear, and resummoned the Black Knight’s Armour so that Nocturnus could continue telling her about how to navigate the world she’d found herself in.
“Mm-hm. Those upper tiers are quite something. Only two of my Techniques ever reached Expert, and none achieved the status of Flawless. It is merely a matter of practice and tutoring, though,” Nocturnus sighed, despondency creeping into his tone. “I can only lament that, under the circumstances, my teaching is so unhelpful. If I could only touch you, I could guide your channels and you could work your way up to Basic at least in an instant. You’d probably reach Intermediate with an hour of direct instruction,”
“Aw, it’s alright, don’t beat yourself up,” Mikayla assured him. The more time she spent with the ghost in her armour, the more weirdly fond of him she grew. “Honestly, I’m amazed at how good the healing was even with a ‘Faulty’ rank technique. Months of healing, in hours. That’s insane!”
“No foe would let you sit and meditate for an hour after landing a blow. It’s only useful outside of combat, and still very slow. Therefore, it’s Faulty. Once you get it up to Basic, you’ll be able to actively heal yourself while still fighting,” Nocturnus dismissed.
“Being able to heal myself like that at all is still pretty amazing,”
“If you say so. Well, whatever. You had a good thought in heading for the Spear,” Nocturnus assessed as Mikayla kept walking, making for the massive stone skyscraper in the distance. “Even if everything else around here has worn away, it survived, which means its durability enchantments have held up. There’ll probably be equipment there. Rations and potions, if the preservation enchantments have also lasted. And some better clothes,”
Mikayla rolled her eyes, looking down at her thoroughly ruined shirt and short shorts. “Forgive me for not dressing for monsters,”
Nocturnus made a grumpy noise, then continued. “And, if we can get up to the top of the Spear, we might be able to see far enough to find a nearby village. Rest assured, this world of mine isn’t all starring blood and monsters. There are wonderful things to see,”
“To be honest, the most wonderful thing I can imagine seeing right now is a warm, safe bed,”
The ghost just chuckled, appreciating the sentiment.
Idly, Mikayla browsed her profile, and her brow furrowed as a thought popped into her mind. “By the way. Since apparently this world runs at least partly on video game logic, how do I get a class? Because I’m not even seeing a tab for that in my profile,”
“What do you mean, ‘a class’? No matter what blend of nobility you had in your home world, it matters not to the System. We’re all peasants before the gods,” Nocturnus denied.
“No, not that. Like,” Mikayla wracked her brains to recall her brief forays into Dungeons & Dragons at her brother’s behest. “Like, Wizard, or Fighter, or Cleric, or . . what was the one that seduces bad guys?”
It wasn’t that she didn’t enjoy fantasy, but she’d always been too embarrassed to engage in the role-playing side of the hobby. Her more nerdy interests had always been something to hide, to be ashamed of, to squirrel away in books and binge-watch on lonely nights. Not something to share with people.
Ironic that her shame might turn out to save her life.
Nocturnus didn’t have a face, but she got the very strong impression that he was staring at her in bafflement. “I haven’t the foggiest what you’re talking about, girlie. But no, there’s nothing of the sort in the Ataraxian System. Sounds horrendous, anyway. Being a wizard by trade is one thing, but if that means not being able to starring fight? The Hero of Demons himself couldn’t sway me to make that trade,”
“Not like that, it’s . . doesn’t matter. So people just get stronger by increasing their Level and Stats, and develop their style by learning Techniques and getting powerful Cores?” she surmised.
“There’s more to it than just that, but in a nutshell, yes. There’s also Schema Locks and developing a Neidan. But you’re much too weak to worry about the former and we don’t have the materials for the latter. Come to think, you’re probably too weak for that, too,”
Nocturnus paused. “At least, that’s how things had been for centuries in my time, but seeing that Cores have been integrated so heavily, I cannot promise that my expertise will hold up,”
“Noted,” Mikayla groaned. “So, what, I need to kill more stuff?”
“Absolutely! All problems can be solved through slaughter!”
“Y’now, mate, I’m starting to think you might be biased,” she muttered, and a shiver ran through her body. “Say, is the armour supposed to protect me from the environment?” Why did she have to go from summer to winter? Her clothes were not made for this cold even before they’d gained several holes in them.
“Unfortunately, no. Astralia advised us to wear extra layers underneath our armour in conditions like these,”
“All the more reason to get to the Spear and scavenge a coat, I guess,” Mikayla kept working her way through the forest, drawing ever closer to the looming edifice above them. The trees began to thin out, and here and there she could see artificial-looking indentations in the ground.
“The foundations of Balmwind still stand. That’s oddly reassuring, even if I know it means little,” Nocturnus idly mused.
Mikayla drew breath to respond, preparing to ask if he still hoped to reclaim the ruined city, but was interrupted by a piercingly baritone screech that rang through the air. “What was that?” she questioned, turning her head upwards to search for the source. Some kind of monster bird? She did not like her chances against an enemy that could fly.
“Stay very still!” her ally’s voice barked, and she obeyed, freezing in place. For the first time, Nocturnus sounded worried. And that made Mikayla very afraid.
She’d stopped while looking upwards, her gaze trained on the collapsed uppermost section of Astralia’s Spear. So she was looking in exactly the right direction to see it, as it crested the peak and loomed over her.
It was the most massive bird she could have imagined, so big and so high up that she couldn’t accurately judge its size. It could rival a jumbo jet, at the very least. Its feathers were a mottled navy blue, with a black beak that ended in a wicked hook. Even at this distance, she could see its eyes, because they glowed with cyan energy that wafted into the air, creating the illusion of horns. It perched atop the apex of the Spear and leered down in her direction.
“What is it?” she mouthed, trying not to move her lips more than she had to, even if they were covered up by the Black Knight helmet.
“That is a starring Giant Roc. They were one of the largest monsters in the region before the Kaiju Collapse,” Nocturnus whispered. “I always wondered how big a Kaiju version of one would get,”
“Ah. Boss monster, then. One that I’m much too low level to fight,”
“Boss monster? Your turns of phrase are curious, but yes, I imagine that if it could speak, every beast in the region would obey its commands. It is most likely the apex predator in the ruins of Balmwind. We must not draw its attention,”
“Rest assured I wasn’t planning on it. Can I move yet? It’s not looking at us,”
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“No! Rocs are hard of hearing but can pick out a stain on a tunic from a hundred starring miles up. Do not move an inch until it is gone!”
Mikayla’s eyes darted to her mana bar.
[MANA: 84/1200 > MANA: 83/1200 > MANA: 82/1200]
“Will it notice if the Black Knight armour fizzles?”
“I suspect the only reason that it has yet to investigate the glowing suit of armour is because you’ve remained still enough that it is not certain whether or not you are a plant,”
[MANA: 76/1200]
“Well, we’ve got two and a half minutes until my Mana bottoms out again,” By watching her Mana bar during the trip, she’d concluded that the Armour of the Black Knight consumed twice as much Mana as her sword. One point got her two seconds. She hadn’t felt safe testing how much Mana putting either of them in Goliath mode cost. Maybe once she’d had enough time to rest that it finally regenerated all the way to the cap.
Nocturnus spat what sounded like a very rude foreign expletive. “We’re not far from the Spear. Keep your eyes on the Roc, and start running on my mark. It’s going to see you and chase you. Make for the Spear and get inside. Find an opening, but do not try to smash your way in or the wards will turn against you. Assuming they’ve held. If you find a small enough space, you should be able to hide from the Roc until it loses interest. Hold,”
“What if the wards haven’t held?”
“Then you’re starring dead no matter what you do. Hold,”
Mikayla focused on controlling her breathing. Hyperventilating wouldn’t help. She had to be ready to sprint, and being tense would only slow her down. “Hold,” Nocturnus repeated.
The roc turned its head, surveying a different direction.
“Now!”
She took off, twisting towards Astralia’s Spear and scanning the stone edifice for any way in even as she ran towards it. There was a noise, a guttural sound like the cry of a vulture being broadcast through an intercom, and in the corner of her vision she saw the roc’s wings spread . . and spread . . and keep spreading until they finally reached full extension, at more than twice the size she’d expected them to be. It took off, homing in unerringly on her position.
“Disable my armour, preserve your Mana! You can do this!” Nocturnus commanded.
“Right! Mana Assistance, Black Knight off!” The glowing translucent equipment faded from existence, and she scanned the wall of the tower, so close and yet so far, for any openings.
Glancing back upwards, she saw the Roc getting bigger and bigger as it swooped towards ground level. The trails of cyan energy in its eyes were leaving afterimages in its wake that burned themselves into her retinas.
Mikayla tore her eyes away and scanned the wall again. She couldn’t find any possible entrance into the safety of the Spear. The exterior wall had held up too well. She changed direction, starting to circle towards the right in hopes of finding a way in, glancing back up at the Roc.
Its eyes hadn’t been that bright before, had they?
She remembered the last time a monster’s eyes had started to glow, and the blood drained from her face. “Mana Assistance! Black Knight!”
The armour formed around her body mid-stride, and Nocturnus asked, “What happened? Are we safe?”
“Brace yourself!” Mikayla cried, turning away, shielding her eyes, and hoping desperately to survive what was coming.
A solid pillar of electricity erupted downwards from the Roc’s face, focused from its eyes and down its beak like a coilgun. It struck the ground two hundred metres away, and the point of impact exploded.
Arcs of cyan energy erupted in every direction, and the Black Knight armour sizzled as it intercepted the lethal bolts of electricity. The sheer force of the strike knocked Mikayla to the ground, and she crawled, forcing herself back upright even as white lines danced in her vision from the bursts of lightning flying around her.
The bolts struck through the armour, spraying her arms and back with electrical burns that the Black Knight could only do so much to mitigate, and Mikayla couldn’t stifle a scream. Gritting her teeth, she kept running, scouring the wall for any refuge.
The wind howled around her, and she had to look up to see what was happening. The Roc was pulling up, beating its impossibly huge wings to prevent itself from crashing into the ground, and oh god she hadn’t realised how big it was. Its body was the size of a cruise liner, its beak large enough to be used for industrial excavation. Mikayla had never felt so small as she did when staring up at a monstrosity so huge that she could probably crawl inside its nostrils.
Why did it even care about her? Was it just that desperate for any sort of food to sate its reservoir-sized stomach? She was an insect to it!
That was when the downdraft hit, generated by the beat of wings that would be the envy of windmills everywhere, a gale so strong that she could see trees being uprooted in the distance. Mikayla had no hope of retaining her footing against that wind, blown into the air and dashed against the side of Astralia’s Spear, only to fall several feet to the ground with a grunt of pain. The Black Knight flashed in protest as it absorbed the blows as best it could.
[HEALTH: 730/1000]
[MANA: 11/1200]
Mikayla stifled a whimper, searching her surroundings for any possible escape.
Her eyes fell on a hole in the wall that hadn’t been there a minute ago. A felled tree with a twist at the base of its trunk told the story; the Roc’s wingbeats had ripped a tree growing through the wall of the Spear from its roots, leaving a hole large enough for a person to pass through.
She didn’t hesitate to launch herself towards it. A quick look told her that those awful glowing eyes were already tracking her and preparing to fire again. Her hands found the edges of the crevice and she dragged herself inside - only to get stuck at the shoulders.
Growling wordlessly, Mikayla pushed and shoved, trying to squeeze herself through with increasing desperation. “Dismiss the armour! The pauldrons are stuck!” Nocturnus shouted in her ears.
“Right! Armour, off!” The Black Knight fizzled and she dragged herself inside, barely sparing a second to take stock of her surroundings. She was in a corridor, caked with dirt and patches of mushrooms, and didn’t have time to notice any more than that before she was running again. She was still too close.
The hole she’d just squeezed through erupted with an explosion of electrical energy. Seeing the flash and anticipating the strike, she threw herself behind a collapsed bookshelf for cover, shrieking, “Armour, back on!”
Describing the wall of light that came sweeping down the corridor towards her as a blast felt like a disservice. It was a wave of purging light that reduced the moss and mushrooms to ash, and washed over and around her. The wood of the half-rotting bookcase blackened and crisped from the sheer heat of the assault, splinters flying away as the electricity pushed around and through her, sending her several feet down the corridor with arcs of lightning bouncing around her body. The Black Knight armour disintegrated under the punishment, and she landed in a groaning heap.
White lines danced in her vision, and Mikayla rubbed her eyes to clear her head. The world span around her, but she flexed her Willpower and forced her spinning eyes to straighten out.
She braced for another attack, forcing her shaking legs to put more distance between herself and the aperture. But nothing came.
A moment that felt like an eternity later, she heard powerful wingbeats fading into the distance. Was the Giant Roc gone? Was she finally safe?
Mikayla couldn’t take it anymore and collapsed onto a nearby bench. Unfortunately, two hundred years of rot had eroded its capacity to hold weight and the plank collapsed underneath her, sending her crashing to the floor.
She groaned, the weariness of the incredibly awful day finally catching up with her now that she was in a place where - hopefully - there would be no immediate threats to her life.
[MANA: 0/1200]
[STAMINA: 209/900]
[HEALTH: 584/1000]
“. . how accurate is that, anyway? Am I forty-two percent dead?” Looking herself over, looking at the stinging electrical burns tracing random patterns across her exposed flesh, she believed it.
Breathing, she forced her leaden arms and legs into the position of meditation, and focused on her Circulation of Stamina, clumsily directing her energies as best she could towards replacing the burnt flesh with clean new growth.
After another hour of convalescence and trading her Stamina for Health, regenerating Mana all the while, she groaned and stood up. “Alright. I made it. Now let’s see what I’ve won,”
Looking up and down the corridor, she realised she had no idea where to start. Her tentative plan, exploring on her own and saving her mana to talk to Nocturnus only when she found something that she needed identified, died a quick death.
“Armour, on, thanks Mana Assistance,”
“Did you triumph?” Nocturnus bellowed as soon as the helmet had reformed around her head.
“I escaped with my life, that’ll have to be good enough for you, you bloodthirsty old ghost,”
“Survival is a victory in itself! Especially when faced with such a formidable foe. Although, inflicting a wound would have been better, just so that it wouldn’t forget you,”
“I am perfectly fine with that thing forgetting me,” Mikayla groaned. “Whatever, you psycho. I need directions. This place is the size of a skyscraper. Where did they keep the food?”
“Don’t bother with the lower levels. Even assuming no small pests got in, clearly this place is full of fungi. Find the stairs and make your way up to Astralia’s old workshop,”
“Huh? Was her workshop not the big collapsed section that the Roc is using as a nest?”
“No, no, that was the dangerous experiment area. We elevated it as high as possible so that if the tower exploded it wouldn’t catch nearby buildings in the blast. Astralia’s workshop is two-thirds of the way up,”
“That makes sense,” Mikayla conceded.
“Everything else is worth searching, but she was the best wizard here by a mile, and she had time to prepare while we were evacuating. If anyone’s possessions were going to endure the ages, it will be hers,”