The shimmering orb of energy held Rue in place for an indeterminate amount of time.
Before she knew it she found herself evaluating the momentous achievement of escaping her birthplace.
13 years of dealing with the problems of the sump.
She started in the slave camps, refining loose material for the higher ups to use in their own projects.
She knew what was generally valuable, sometimes the hunters would come and take the slaves to faraway places.
The hunters were the way to escape the horrid conditions of the sump.
Day after day of hard physical labour with little nourishment that could be taken off of the occasional large monster cutup and mulched by the slavers.
Old man Gerald keeping us educated and sheltered from the brutality of the slavers.
The night of my escape being... the best and worst day possible.
Images flash one by one to Rue, years compressed into a film reel of vivid memories and buried traumas, the jar on her waist thrumming softly in the altered space.
"so this is your only catch this time, hmmm, Interesting." a voice called out from the darkness of that space before Rue realised.
She saw a young looking elf female gazing daggers towards her travelling companion of several weeks at this point.
"Yes, although if you did your job you wouldn't have a problem with the number Therisa." the barrel growled out towards the beautiful female.
A small scoff came out of Therisa "Oh really, what I see is a starved, half dea...d, what?!" the elf therisa turned and saw Rue who seemed to be healthier and stronger than what Therisa judged from... something.
Akyas chuckled at his apparent associate's shock and dismissal of Rue, "didn't look hard enough did ya?" he said with a horrid grin spreading across his cavernous maw.
"Thats unfair, how did she cloak her memories?! What did you tell her?!" Therisa accused Akyas.
"nothing you fool! your eyes have just gotten old, all things considered I don't blame you, this one is a once a generation genius!" Akyas proclaimed while getting to his feet and stretching to the sky with his index finger pointed heavenward.
The dismissive elf looked at Rue and blinked once more before licking her lips at Rue in a gesture that made Rue curl up.
"So "genius" what is your most rare skill then?" Therisa said questioning the now frightened Rue.
"uhh, I don't reall-"
System notice:
Skills of importance are from top to bottom.
Arcane magic technique
Survival
Mana control
Unique skills(3)
"so?" Therisa said expectantly
"Umm, Arcane magic technique followed by survival and then mana control."
Therisa stopped with eyes wide looking at Akyas who nodded.
"What level are those at?."
"levels 3 arcane magic technique, level 8 survival and level 5 mana control miss."
Therisa's eyebrows began to twitch.
"Not Miss." She hissed.
Therisa sighed before turning over and walking over to a wall mounted terminal
Strange symbols flew across the screen before a face was shown.
the voice boomed across the monitor "Akyas, you have done well with this find however this is not what we sent you there fore, report. Now." the voice commanded
Akyas nodded and replied
"During negotiations the head craftsman and shaman seemed to believe that my haggling was unsightly so they captured me and gave me a hexxed firearm." as he said the second half he retrieved the gun from nowhere and placed it on the surface next to the terminal.
"after that I wandered the sump for long enough that the toxins overcame my resilience to them and I passed out for a few days reportedly, where this native helped guide me back to the portal, After the first day however the shaman who was cursing me managed to spread a portion of the curse to this individual." Pointing at Rue,
"Through sheer stubbornness and ignorance she managed to resist the curse long enough to guarantee safety and stress the shaman enough to render them unconscious, all across the journey, Rue, put together many effective, if flawed, designs of magical items with bare bones materials and scraps which allowed for reinforced clothing, supply gathering and general convenience without input from myself nor any true understanding outside of what the skill itself automatically informed her."
Akyas pointed at my armguard "that artefact is only held together due to the fact that it was originally made of steel, It currently has the consistency of wood and functions as a high class mana control tool, barrier item and mana battery in one.
she also possesses an abandoned and old status system. Not even mentioning the three unique skills she possesses she has a broad range of integrated skills from pre-system learning. and during the introductions between us I agreed to sponsor her into the Hunters guild, and I intend to push her as far as I can." Akyas stated matter of factly.
Therisa stood stock still, stunned by the verbal report, before she could answer or even attempt to talk to Akyas, the computer blurted before her.
"These... If these feats were true..." the voice said in a daze, Therisa started back up at those words.
"Even You aren't stupid enough to think we would believe this drivel AKYAS?! What is the truth?!" she half screamed at the taller creature.
The computer crackled in "No... I think Akyas speaks the truth, Therisa, Let him through."
"S-Sir?" Therisa said freezing.
"Let. Him. Through. NOW." it said frazzling the words in emphasis.
the picture cut out, screen going back to the black and green text as before.
Therisa was stunned for a good 30 seconds before turning around to the two with a sour look written all over her face.
"I don't agree with this, However, The chairman seems to have faith in you Akyas. Take your Protégée with you." Spitting out the words like a snake to its venom.
The torn gash like mouth of Akyas curled into a fierce grin, he pivoted on his heels towards Rue and said "Now's the time kid, lets do this!" His voice excited and giddy like a child's perhaps even more excited than Rue.
Rue snapped into attention when Akyas called out to her and she nodded before following gingerly, hiding behind Akyas whenever something or someone popped out of a doorway, shuttle or opening of any kind.
Creatures of amazing and terrifying size appeared on such an occurrence that Rue thought that she might get used to seeing them.
Large six legged beasts as large as three scrap mountains, People walking without trying to exploit each other or kill each other, creatures of all sizes being ridden for comfort, large spaces holding nothing but clothing, not enchanted, not godlike craftsmanship, In fact several articles even Rue believed she could make better.
Eventually they made it to a large structure filled with smaller but still considerably big containers made from coloured metal.
Akyas spoke in a booming baritone in a foreign language before a large metal crate was slammed before us.
Returning to his ordinary tone and language he said "God I hate this place, anyways we're here." as he threw the doors of the small house open Rue questioned "Where exactly are we Akyas, this isn't what I imagined the hunters guild to look like."
Akyas stopped for a moment before giggling "Ha, the hunters guild isn't in this country, at least, not one that would accept a sump native into their ranks without any political movements, not that I have the power or authority to do such a thing, While I do have a position within the organisation, it isn't the best grounds to invite what the higher ups call 'filthily' savages into their organisation." he explained
Picking up several items out of the large room, clothing to replace the sewn sumpcat leathers with proper attire to visit a city.
Several weapons that he fitted into the overcoat and a bag that could probably hold several times Rue's body volume.
"Anyways, we need to take a portal to the next country over, you are probably going to be fine there since it has a few similarities to the sump, well, except the giant scrap mountains, they just got regular mountains." he explained.
"so, will I go there to be a hunter?" Rue asked
"that is up to you kiddo, I don't have a say in that, though I would imagine that the guild would prefer that you become a crafting specialist." he replied.
Rue was excited, exhausted and hungry all the same time.
Akyas finished packing the bag with various things, metals Rue had never seen, several tools made of what seemed to be hardened steel, and small packs of little yellow bricks, they weren't gold, too dull.
Afterwards Akyas led Rue to another large building.
after some more time and people Akyas spoke to another humanoid who had an arm of gleaming polished metal, and eventually one of the boxes of yellow material was handed over, the two talked some more then Akyas sighed and handed a second box, then the humanoid nodded and a door glided open. and there lay another blue shimmering ball, like a blue jewel of unparalleled size, Akyas said "ok kid take this with you." handing over the large bag, which to Rue's surprise weighed less than what it looked like it should.
"Ok" Rue answered and without looking back gripped the blue sphere of energy.
----------------------------------------
Akyas looked at the place where the tiny humanoid was, and felt for the first time like he was a bastard.
"good luck kid, you are gonna need it."
He turned back to the lexian who owned this teleportation booth.
"so the kid is going to bastern?" he questioned
a overemphasised reply came "I onlY dO propeR jobS, oH thinkeR, youR hearT haS growN sofT,"
"shut your flaps, and this didn't happen, comprehend me?" he said with a sour, well, apparently sour look on his face.
The partially mechanical reptile-esque creature laughed a thin and sharp laugh.
"s-s-s-s-s-s-s-s-S, of course Thinker, Though I don't believe that she will be able to hunt the beasts of bastern with only that peashooter that she constructed, though I suppose that isn't our problem anymore."
"yeah, my only hope is that this makes the kid give up on hunting immediately and go find old reliable, not that I think that kid would do it." Akyas said with a knowing grin on his face.
The humanoid blinked
"you think so, from where I am stilling I think she will go to being a craftsman quickly."
"yeah, but you don't know that little tramp like I do Vevenna." he retorted
Vevenna flinched when Akyas said her name
"It has been a long time since you said my name like that." she said giving Akyas a promiscuous look.
"forget about it, you already have all my cash."
"don't be like that thinker, It has been such a long time after all, how about I get us some drinks and catch up?"
And so Akyas sent Rue off and returned to his regular business, well, with a little more heart than usual.
But this isn't the story we are here to listen too.
----------------------------------------
During this little conversation Rue was being flung though time and space and arrived in the small city of Bastern.
A sheen of white-blue energy encompassed her before disappearing and revealing the grandeur of the room she appeared in.
large arched ceiling caught her attention, stonework rather than metal or the weird smooth but stiff material that other buildings were made up of, the walls turned into a rough looking black stone and the floor appeared to be glass but made of stone.
the whole room had a great deal of craftsmanship and beauty. Not to mention the senses of mana were running wild once they noticed the impossible quantity of magic flying here and there constantly. Rue was stunned temporarily seeing or sensing all of the ambient energy freely flying around the space, this place wasn't even close to the sumps in terms of life and mana.
what Akyas had said about this place being similar rang out as completely false in Rue's mind at this point.
But since Rue was stuck staring into the air the people nearby though that she was a country person who had never seen such advanced stone works, though someone took an exception to this bumpkin.
"OI WHO LET A FUCKIng CHILD IN HERE?!" a short bearded creature shouted out.
Rue flinched before a few heads turned towards her.
another individual walked up to Rue before crouching down and asking her quietly "Excuse me little girl, do you know where your parents are?" in a soft whisper.
"My parents died years ago." Rue replied honestly
the human's face crumpled for a moment before returning to a business-like face.
"so how can the Bastern branch of the hunters guild assist you?"
"I want to become a hunter please!" Rue said to the crouching guild member
The guild member blinked then said "Ok, well there isn't a age restriction on becoming a hunter but just to be sure but you are aware that Hunter fight monsters in order to sell their corpses for local currency as well as deal with local threats when they arrive?" the guild member said
the members of the guild began to talk amongst each other as the guild employee spoke to the person considered a child in their eyes.
"Yes, I understand, I want to be a hunter!" Rue said in a voice slightly louder than the guild employee really wanted her talking in.
the guild worker saw the look of childlike enthusiasm and wonder and dropped her
The hunter who called out about Rue looked like he was about to explode in frustration.
But he had no authority to deny the child's application.
"Hmm, ok so we have a testing procedure for your application, can you read and write?" the guildmember said ignoring the immense pressure building behind him.
Rues eyes glittered as the guild member didn't reject her application.
other hunters began to talk about Rue as she was taken away to the testing room.
----------------------------------------
Abodan was the instructor chosen, normally his brother was the one to do testing for new hunters due to the fact that he was univocally weaker than himself, Abodan didn't particularly care about the poor recruit that the guild was attempting to remove from their process.
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the guildworker led the poor recruit who couldn't have been older than 10 into the room. thin, naïve and unassuming.
Abodan thought these things for mere moments before he sensed the energies this child was blessed with.
Then he though that this would be a test of his family's technique.
----------------------------------------
Rue was happy to try her hand at the starting test, she had been told that the test would dictate whether the guild would accept her as a member, when she saw the instructor she thought that he was like some of the older slaves, weirdly she felt a strange power emanating from him, mana but darker and in a lot higher of a quantity than what Rue personally possessed, with the fateforged bulwark they were on roughly even terms.
"Ok Rue this is your instructor, he will create monsters for you to fight. you will fight them, if you are going to die the creatures will be desummoned and you will be failed, don't worry too hard since you can reapply in 3 months if you fail this exam."
the employee said in a loud voice "This is instructor Abodan, treat him respectfully please, Abodan if you would mind."
"don't worry this recruit will be thoroughly tested Diane, although I will ask that you activate the defences for me if you would mind yourself." he said in a gruff and clearly excited tone.
the employee nodded and went into a sideroom before the wall hummed with power.
"Ok kid, don't kill them instantly I need you to test against enemies head-on." The instructor said while emitting a purple fog, specked by black particles.
5
the fog accumulated and reformed though under the light of Rue's mana sense it was a maelstrom of energy that forcibly converted itself into a physical material.
gleaming white bones formed a full humanoid skeleton siphoning the purple fog, they eventually began to move as a core of energy was inserted within the bones and upon the activation of these skeletons a blue flame blazed within the eyesockets.
"Skeletons?" Rue said confused.
"Ha not mere skeletons girl, using normal magical energies can barely produce physical matter, these are semi-sentient magically generated monsters!" Abodan exclaimed excited for his magic to fight against the girl who's mana took the properties he spoke of naturally.
Then with the remaining smoke the 6 skeletons grasped weapons from the fog.
shortsword and buckler, rapier, bow, and finally staff.
then a hammer and greatsword was given to the remaining two and arrows were set by the archer's legs.
By this point Abodan was grinning madly as his entire mana pool had been emptied to produce these 6 monsters.
Secretly the "mage" had taken almost all of his mana, he had no doubts that the child could sense it however.
this is why he generated the defender, of course It didn't have a greatshield, it would cost too much, he imagined more skeletons would require better tactics, less could be brute forced which the child before him could do.
Rue herself evaluated the creatures before her, the two who possessed great weapons were physically stronger than the one with the rapier and the staff, the one with the staff possessed a greater supply of mana and seemed to be assisting the instructor with maintaining the other skeletons, and the one with a shield, as small as that shield was possessed a potent magical defences.
Rue had very little plans for how to approach this, given her normal tactics, or more accurately lack of tactics, she felt that the number would be a challenge if reverence couldn't kill the skeletons, the bulwark would more than likely hold indefinitely against a standard physical assaults so the real threat was from the rapier wielding skeleton and the "mage" type
"ok the fight will begin in." the employee said in a booming crackling voice.
"5"
"4"
"3"
"2"
"1"
"BEGIN"
Rue began by opening her left hand and projecting the stored energy within, a blue purple dome formed over her body, spreading out then contracting, thickening and deepening in colour until a dark purple lens covered Rue.
Abodan looked at the purple barrier with excitement in his eyes as the skeletons took the first attack.
the two skeletons holding great weapons stepped forward and with a quick motion pulled the full weight of the weapons into the purple shield.
the sound of shattering glass rang out.
the greatweapons exploded into many fragments grazing the skeletons holding them as Rue sensing a change in the weapon's energy had shot them pre-emptively with Reverence.
their attack now falling short the skeletons were in a prime position for a counter which Rue couldn't take.
An arrow flew across the room hitting the barrier with a dull Clack, Rue looked at the arrows noticing that it didn't have a head.
Before the barrier gave of an intense wobbling sound.
Rue felt the mana that formed the shield had destabilised and almost flung itself free, the mana was far too compressed for normal weapons to bypass so it seems that the mage decided to try disturbing Rue's control instead.
The rapier wielding skeleton dashed forward, stepped and delivered an instantaneous thrust.
it was so fast that neither Rue or Abodan could see the sword as it was thrust.
Moments before impact the barrier condensed into the sword's point forming a solid purple ball in mid air.
the thrust diverted downwards and the blade of the rapier was bent and imbedded itself into the floor despite the shielding to the room.
another arrow flew across the room, as this happened Rue was thinking of what to do when the arrow slammed into her right shoulder and she was pushed back a few meters.
then the arrow dropped to the ground and Rue decided to try something.
----------------------------------------
Abodan watched in amazement as the little child managed to destroy both enhanced weapons with a single shot from what seemed to be a scrap mana gun.
the swords weren't of a quality to survive anything the skeletons themselves couldn't but the way that the damage was dealt was particularly astounding.
'she is controlling the individual projectile's mana?! then on impact she compresses the mana to it's furthest point before letting it rupture in the direction of the target! Not only does this mean that her mana control ability is through the roof it also means that she is using her mana in the most efficient way possible in her attacks, I wonder how many points of mana it would take her to kill a skeleton? maybe 10-12 mana at most I would reckon."
Then the mana barrier began to warp and expand but didn't burst which only proved the point that Rue's ability to control that most potent of energy was tyrannical in it's complete and utter domination of the stuff.
And when the fencer stepped forward Abodan believed that the fight was over, the fastest skeleton that was positively glowing with the energy that the mage had given, if this didn't pierce that absurdly dense mist of mana that currently expanded in size to a thin miasma than nothing would.
After the thrust that bypassed the senses of either proficient magic user Abodan stood in a cold sweat.
In the moments that were before the thrust the child in front of him recompressed the miasma into the smallest available space and placed it so that the rapier would be deflected away from herself.
then he saw the arrow fly passed, and winced before staring wide eyed as the arrow bounced off her right shoulder,
No matter how many times he replayed it in his head, there was no mana there, and the arrow that hit her didn't have a head because it did far more destructive effects when the force transferred and converted bones into powder.
then he saw a purple fog start pouring from Rue.
Released at a prodigious rate emptying half of what Abodan had spent her mana began to take the shape of a large skeleton
the bones instead of being a gleaming white were a translucent crystal in colour as the chest cavity had a deep purple bordering on black crystal embedded within, the newly created creature stood at roughly two meters tall towering over the other skeletons who were around 160 CM or a little over a meter and a half.
the massive creature looked towards Rue for a moment as the other skeletons were stunned, then a pitch black stick slowly accumulated from the remaining fog that Rue produced.
----------------------------------------
Rue was sweating heavily, this was a difficult spell to pull off and it took a massive amount of mana to pull off.
to let her focus on other things she had spawned her own skeleton using the passion core unique skill her mana was already a physical existence, and to an extent normal mana was too, but creating substance to the massless energy was the problem that everyone except Rue possessed, The jagged crystal skeleton loomed over the inferior summons its body impervious to all of them and the mage too busy to deal with the monolithic lechatelierite being.
the two who first attacked Rue died almost instantly as the stick that Rue gave it cleaved them in twain with a quick swing of the arm from the large monster.
The fencer died next when the brute pushed it over and crushed it's skull and the three turned back into purple fog that the Mage skeleton absorbed then breathed back onto the other skeletons.
The shield skeleton's frame thickened and his shield expanded into a full wall shield the skeleton archer's bow thickened and the string tightened with a satisfying Thuom noise, the arrow fired crossed the room twice as fast as before and almost hit Rue before the giant creature swung it's translucent limb at the fast flying arrow, the arrow impacted the crystal forearm bones with a loud crack as the arrow split into many splinter upon those jewel born bones.
While the shielder was warding off her titanic creation, Rue condensed the energy held by the bulwark over the mage, constricting the lifeless wizard with a dense barrier, having to constantly reaffirm control over her own mana had become infuriating and Rue took several more pot-shots at the immobilised wizard.
The crystal skeleton couldn't advance on the shielder to far lest he expose his master to danger and the wizard couldn't destroy the crystal brute without damning himself in the process, given that the only creature stopping both his shield and ranger from deforming his last wish was that he had scrapped the two and created a second mage skeleton.
as these thoughts passed through the hollow personality attached to the wizard, it decided that a gamble was necessary and staked it's temporary existence on a single trump card.
The Wizard skeleton soon after was crushed and the mana that made up its being and body was within Rue's barrier.
Since the mana was compatible with herself Rue absorbed the mana and processed it quickly to regain the expenditure from creating the Crystal giant.
As she stepped closer she noticed that the giant stopped moving.
then it turned, looked at her, looked at its own arms before letting out a deafening noise from somewhere and charging Rue headon, Rue had seconds to give herself a barrier before she was kicked across the room and bounced off by virtue that the barrier wasn't fully compressed yet as such it muffled the rebound by absorbing some of the excess force.
by the time that the skeleton reached her the barrier was fully realised and ready for the attack of the beast.
The obsidian coloured rod handed to it by Rue herself came down in a beautiful arc its limbs mimicking a specific sword strike she had seen in her past.
Another deafening crash sounded as the walls buzzed to suppress the noise.
the thick mana shell surrounding Rue had a gaping hole in it, from a slashing motion.
Rue began to sweat profusely and rolled forwards while mentally repairing the damage done to the barrier.
SSSSSSStAAAKkkkKKKK
Another monsterous cracking noise rang out in all it's fear inducing splendour.
over the course of the next 10 seconds Rue spent it dodging for her life while both attempting to compress her shots for the Reverence and repairing the damage to the barrier.
Both ranger and shield skeleton didn't move as Abodan had cancelled their orders, his mage made a desperate play, one that was undisputedly the right choice, the skeletons that were left after Rue copied and improved upon his family's conjuration technique were useless against the barrier she had created, if she wanted to she could probably spread the barrier out and use the sense of her mana moving to prevent their motion, the giant skeleton of crystal on the other hand was so magically reinforced that it could put cracks in the horrifyingly dense cloud of energy.
Rue had learnt however, instead of creating a super hard exterior to the barrier like usual she had separated the compressed layers of mana to form a cushioning net to the barrier, this greatly distributed the force over the whole of the barrier. if she was honest it was dumb luck that she couldn't harden the mana fully when she was launched into the wall, perhaps a defect was produced by the constant interference from the mage, perhaps she just wasn't prepared to compress the mana that fast or maybe she just did it.
Point is that this beginners luck had given Rue enough breathing room to fully compress her personal supply of mana.
The crystal behemoth continued to pound down on the increasingly soft barrier until swinging into it felt like trying to stir stone with your finger bones.
the beast wasn't entirely stupid, once slashing was utterly ineffective it attempted thrusts.
A few managed to dent the softened barrier before its old master strode forth with an orb in her hand that sucked in light.
whatever was there it was so dark that it was impossible to make out shape based on the humanoid senses given to it by its creator but the mana senses within the crystal heart shook in fear.
the energy it felt was dark and oppressive, beyond merely dense at this point the mana had taken partial permanence in the physical world.
Abodan and the guild employee saw this darkened orb of energy and felt chills running down their spines.
eventually the barrier surrounding Rue faded from view but as the giant attacked a pitch black shadow shot up and intercepted the strike and the obsidian rod dissolved into motes of purple fog.
Shaking from the exertion Rue jumped lightly and tapped the black sphere into the skeleton's chest.
the sphere created massive fissures all across the chest of the skeleton as it was embedded into the chest, like a proper jewel to adorn a beautiful necklace, the orb was complimented by the clear portions of the skeleton as the purplish core thrummed its last.
"shouldn't have attacked me, that was your mistake." Rue said decisively
And as if to leave no room for argument the black orb burst.
Sound stopped existing for a few moments
"y-y-you..." Abodan was speechless, the guild employee said nothing.
Rue smiled as the entire room was clear with the exception of Rue herself and Abodan
then she collapsed.