Once her stomach was sated, mostly by vegetables as she wasn’t desperate enough to eat raw meat and too hungry to figure out a way to cook - “Her butler had Techniques involving fire that he used to cook for her,” Nocturnus had unhelpfully explained - Mikayla finally checked what was beyond the fourth and final door in Astralia’s quarters.
The first thing she noticed was the shelves covered in dust and decaying materials of unidentifiable provenance. It seemed apparent that this had been some kind of storage room. But if that were the case, why had the preservation enchantments failed here and not anywhere else?
That question was immediately answered as, halfway around the room, she found a door hanging ajar with the fading daylight shining through it. A quick glance outside showed that it led onto a balcony overlooking the world outside, and she could see for miles. “Alright! With this, we can -“ Mikayla was cut off as Nocturnus shushed her. “What?”
“Something forced this door open from without. It might yet be inside. Sword out,” he commanded.
Mikayla’s eyes widened and she nodded. “Mana Assistance, sword,” she commanded, the silver-red blade popping into her hands. She surveyed the room again for any sign of a threat. Since nothing had popped out as she circled the left side of the room, she warily advanced down the right-hand aisle.
But nothing jumped out at her, no immediate threats. The only thing that hadn’t decayed into dust besides the metal shelves was what looked like a massive, glossy round rock the size of her torso, resting on a shelf that was only barely large enough for it.
“What is that strange stone? It looks familiar . .” Nocturnus rumbled suspiciously.
Mikayla leant over to inspect it more closely.
Of course, that was when it uncurled, revealing a face full of snapping mandibles, and lunged at her helmet.
Mikayla screamed, trying to guard her face, but the pillbug’s reflexes were too quick. Its fangs would have gone straight into her eyes and mouth, if not for the protective visor of the Black Knight. It still latched onto her head, hissing and chewing on the hardlight armour, for the two seconds it took for her to swing her sword and decapitate it.
[YOU HAVE EARNED XP POINTS FOR KILLING A PILLBUG!]
[LEVEL UP! CONGRATULATIONS, YOU ARE NOW LEVEL 5!]
The corpse crashed to the ground, and she shoved its head off her visor. “Ah, I remember now! We used to send children to get their first level by removing pests from gardens. The baker’s yard was full of those things,”
“A pillbug. That was a pillbug. Not a nuclear pillbug, or a super-massive pillbug, just a regular garden variety pillbug,” Mikayla digested.
“Well, they weren’t always that big,” Nocturnus shrugged.
“. . I hate this place,”
Heaving a ragged breath, Mikayla turned back towards the door leading outside. She poked her head out and cast a wary glance around for any hint of the Giant Roc. Fortunately, it was either asleep or out hunting, so she cautiously stepped outside to investigate the balcony.
The view was breathtaking.
She could see miles and miles of forest, laid out like a massive map. Trails of broken trees marked the passage of massive monsters in days past, and in the distance she could see a mountain range rising above the forest. “Ah, wish we had a charger for my phone. I would totally make this my screensaver,”
“Do not get distracted. We are searching for our next destination. Be prepared to take cover the second you see any sign of the Giant Roc,” Nocturnus commanded.
“Yeah, yeah, I got it. We’ll do a lap and then head back inside,” Mikayla decided, starting to walk and scanning the horizon for any sign of human habitation.
She had the mana to spare for conversation, and Nocturnus had mentioned a name before that she was curious about. “By the way, who’s Yevgenia?”
“Oh? I haven’t mentioned her yet, have I?”
“Nope. You said there were five heroes? Including yourself? Nicholas was a king, Astralia some kind of super-witch, and Carter was the king of the dwarves, right?” Mikayla wished she had something with which to take notes. Where was her phone when she needed it?
“All true. Though Carter would box your ears for calling him a king, even if that’s what he was in all but name,” Nocturnus chuckled. “And then there was Yevgenia, the Rosebush Huntress. Me and her were brought along because we were warriors. See, we were each leading a convoy of refugees, from our various nations. Nicholas brought us together. Astralia designed the weapons, and Carter forged them. Me and Yevgenia were the brutes who took up arms and slaughtered our foes,”
A regretful chuckle escaped his lips. “She wasn’t like the rest of us, she was no leader of men, yet they flocked to her anyway just because she made them safe. She was a killer, a huntress and an assassin. She told me once that she used to kill men, but started going after monsters because she no longer felt the thrill of the hunt from killing people. The rest of us fought the Kaijus because we had to, but she fought them because it was fun. Haha, what a woman,”
Mikayla stifled a smile. “She was special to you?”
“I wanted her to be,” Nocturnus’ voice was tinged with melancholy for what might have been. “I thought she would join me when I rode to reclaim Balmwind. Even if all the other three turned me down, I thought surely she would . .” He sighed. “Perhaps I knew her not as well as I had thought,”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Mikayla didn’t trust herself to say anything, simply nodding sympathetically.
They completed their lap around the balcony, finding other doors that Nocturnus explained led into the quarters of other wizards. Mikayla guessed that despite her prestige, Australia’s rooms only took up about a quarter of this floor of the Spear. But this was cold comfort compared to what they did not find.
There was no sign of civilisation anywhere on the horizon that they could see. No villages, no artificial landmarks. It was all forest and tundra, with only the occasional Kaiju large enough that they could see it even from such a vast distance.
“. . Well. Crap,”
Nocturnus sighed. “This is disheartening,”
“. . Oh well. It could be worse. This is a pretty great spot to camp out for a while. We’ve got a bed, heating food -“
“No. We must gather as many resources as we can carry and make ready to leave. We cannot stay here for long,” Nocturnus rumbled.
“Why not? There’s food, shelter, heating, everything we need,” Mikayla reminded him.
“There’s also the Giant Roc roosting above our heads. The longer we linger in this region, the more likely that we will attract its attention again and not be so lucky as to escape a second time. We will run out of food sooner or later, and it would be preferable to have some rations remaining, to bring food with us rather than rely on hunting our dinners. Not all Kaijus are safe to eat,”
“Okay, ew, yeah,” she nodded with a wince.
“You must learn the techniques of Mana Engraving as quickly as possible, create more weapons, and make ready to leave. We have a long journey ahead of us, and must make the most of this respite,”
Mikayla sighed, but nodded, staring at the distant horizon. “Right. Well, let’s get going,”
As they re-entered Astralia’s quarters, Nocturnus piped up again. “While we search, I want you to try to trigger the Sword Core without using Mana Assistance,”
“Huh? Why? Mana Assistance is great,”
“It’s for children. It’s a training tool the System provides, to help little babies learn how to grow accustomed to the feeling of using mana. If you’re still using it by the time we return to civilisation, people will think that you’re some kind of cripple or retard,”
Mikayla’s eyes opened wide. “Whoa, you can’t use that word, it’s offensive,”
“What? Retard? Since when?”
“Since . .” She trailed off, realising the futility of trying to explain political correctness to a two-hundred-year-old ghost. “Nevermind. Where I’m from, it’s a slur used to insult a certain demographic is all,”
“Ahhhh,” Nocturnus considered this. “How distasteful. Very well, I shall refrain. Putting that little diversion aside, my point stands. Learning to use my equipment without Mana Assistance is vital to your long-term growth. Feeling the flow of mana is a necessary part of clearing the first Schema Lock, and once you have mastered it, you will be much more effective in combat. Your Techniques and Cores will no longer be mere tools, but as good as part of your body,”
“Alright, alright. I’ll try,” Mikayla hummed. “You’ve mentioned these Schema Locks before. What are they?”
“Milestones of growth, standardised by the System. The expectation is that you have developed enough control over your body to clear the first Lock when you are Level 25. The second by 50, and so on and so forth. Of course, if you’re talented enough, you can do them earlier and receive the resulting boost in power sooner, but . .” Nocturnus trailed off.
“I don’t have any chance of that, do I?”
“None at all. If I thought it was a viable option, I’d have told you to do it already. Putting an end to your reliance on Mana Assistance is the bare minimum for you to reach that step at all, let alone early,”
Mikayla nodded, the news was expected but still disappointing. She stifled an instinct to rail against the prospect of staying in this world for long enough to need to worry about plotting out her growth; making her way out of the wilderness at all would be an ordeal. Finding a way back to her world was a pipe dream at best, and she was forced to admit to herself that she might be stuck in the Kaiju Coast for a long time. “So, what’s next? We search the rest of the tower?”
“Post-haste! Onwards! Perhaps we shall find more easy levels!”
Mikayla weighed how much she’d hated the pillbug jumpscare against the knowledge that she was now level 5 and had two points to distribute. The thrill of getting stronger quickly won out over cowardice, a feeling that was redoubled with her next decision. “Two free points to Willpower. Let’s go!”
<=====}—o
While Mikayla was searching the Tower for anything of use, up to and including the XP of soon-to-be-dead insects, there was a light blinking a long way to the south.
During a routine checkup of the ancient artefacts in the custody of the White Skies Institute of Thaumic Research, it was Apprentice Derrick Meister who discovered the alert flashing on a magical device known as the Rainmirror. The Rainmirror could trace its provenance to Astralia of the White Skies herself. It was a piece that was considered an antique, something that had been long considered redundant but kept on display for its historical value. “Master! Master!”
“What is it, boy?” Master Guerns had taken the job of antique caretaker for the White Skies Institute to escape the stress and enjoy his retirement. Not to be shouted down by apprentices. He was a stooped little man, armed with a cane that tapped out a beat on the floorboards as he hobbled towards the Rainmirror and wondered what Derrick had done this time. “What did you break?”
“Nothing! It’s the Rainmirror! Something activated it!”
Guerns peered at the reflective display. The Rainmirror really did look like a grid of reflective surfaces, and for years the sixteen squares had only mirrored the face of whoever stood before it. But now the bottom-left panel had manifested a glowing alert. “This says . . the wards on Astralia’s quarters in Astralia’s Spear have been deactivated? What?”
“Astralia’s Spear? The abandoned tower in Balmwind?” Derrick recalled.
“You’ve kept up with your studies. Good boy,”
“But no one’s been there since the Collapse! It’s too dangerous!”
“Evidently not for someone,” Guerns murmured. “We have no idea what Astralia might have left in her quarters. Her records all state that she didn’t expect to be gone for long, let alone never return. She might have left experiments. Artefacts. Dangerous prototypes. We’ve no way to know,” He was already shuffling away, his cane tapping out its staccato rhythm as he moved. “Someone needs to be sent to investigate. We must send a message to Dean Wujing, have him call up an agent to investigate the region,”
“Of course, sir! I’ll go, spare your knees,” Derrick volunteered.
“Yes, yes, go on then. We must ensure that this is dealt with quickly. Only a thief of great skill could have bypassed the defences Astralia would have placed on her own quarters. Who knows what dastardly machinations the perpetrator could be plotting right now?”
<=====}—o
Mikayla heaved a sigh of relief, staring at the remains of another pillbug. “Huh. I didn’t get a level that time?”
“You can’t expect every kill to earn you a level!” Nocturnus bellowed. “By the time I hit the eighties, it took me days of unending glorious slaughter to eke out a single level! You’ll get there!”
“Alright, alright. Scan!” Her pupils dilated as her first System function came into play, highlighting no items of interest - again - but there was a sleeping pillbug at the edge of her range. “Maybe this one will get me a level!”