Of course, there was still paperwork. A moment after the six acolytes of Aeris were unconscious a rapid response squad appeared around Adam and Instructor Telgard.
“Don’t Move!” rang out from four of the guards as they pointed some very high-tech-looking guns in their general direction. Two each on the instructor and himself and one on each of the targets on the ground.
A minute later the six individuals were trussed up with some very impressive cuffs and links which immobilized their fingers and arms as they started to come to. They’d also tried to scream or talk but the response team had gagged them and laid them out. A guard would walk up, put his or her boot on the captive’s chest and they’d both disappear.
Once the prisoners were secure four of the guards walked over to Instructor Telgard and Adam, “Instructor Telgard, I’m Captain Branze. We’ll need to escort you both back to headquarters for a debriefing.”
“Understood Captain,” Instructor Telgard said.
Adam just nodded and kept his mouth shut.
Two guards flanked each of them. A moment later Adam felt the familiar tingle of a teleportation field and found himself stepping out of an alcove into a busy office with a lot of cubicles.
The captain led them over to a pair of cubicles that were beside each other and motioned for each to take a seat as one guard remained stationed nearby. The captain addressed Instructor Telgard, but it was obvious he was talking to both of them, “Someone will be with you shortly. We need to review the footage of the incident before we can take a statement. Luckily for us, the induction facility is covered by surveillance.”
After the captain turned away, Instructor Telgard turned to Adam and asked, “So, what happened back there?”
“Not much,” Adam said no committedly. “I didn’t kill any of them?”
“Adam, while we are having a hard time determining anything about you, the one thing that we were able to determine is that you do not have any classes and that your Level, or what some call base, or character, level is only level one.”
“Wait, you have Character and Class Levels here?” Adam asked.
“Yes, of course, we have Character and Class Levels. That is the basic measurement we use for all individuals and monsters. Every creature that can earn experience has a Character Level that increases,” Instructor Telgard said.
“Is the rate of progression 1,000 experience times the new level? You know, 1,000 experience for Level 1, 2,000 experience for Level 2, and so on?” Adam asked.
“Exactly right,” Instructor Telgard said. “Do you not have levels like that where you’re from?”
Adam considered how to answer for a moment before he said, “This will be the third system I’ve experienced, well there were more but the additional ones were all generated inside holographic universes inside the first System so yeah, this is the third actual system with leveling I’ve run into.”
“And you didn’t have Base and Class levels?” Instructor Telgard asked.
“One system had class levels. One had Character levels, oh wait, that was inside the holographic universe. The Multitude, the name of the first System I encountered, had a system of classes or ranks, including divine ranks.”
“I wouldn’t know about divine ranks or the ranks of Gods. Here the Gods are so powerful that nothing we have works on them. They’re more powerful than any technology we’ve ever developed and the spells we do have will not scan them or determine what they are. It’s one of the reasons we're so infatuated with you. Our technology shows you as human but the only spell that works on you is a divination spell that tells us your levels and classes, if any. When you filled out the initial paperwork it showed you as Base Level 1 with No Classes. Was that accurate?”
Adam didn’t see any point in lying so he just nodded.
“Well then, if you’re just level 1, how did what just happened, happen?” Instructor Telgard asked.
Captain Branze stepped back into the room just then and added, “Yeah, I watched the video, we’d also like to know the answer to that question. Additionally, wherever you stored the five swords you picked up. We need those as evidence?”
Adam smiled, “Well that’s good. I have some information you want, that you probably don’t know, and I also have some obviously magical items that I could sell for a profit that you want.”
Captain Branze looked like he was about to say something so Adam raised a finger and said, “Let’s not be hasty and start making threats when they're not necessary. I’m willing to trade information for information. In that case, I’d like access to an archive of your digitized historical information. Not sensitive. I simply want to learn about your world history as far back as it’s recorded. Also, not a book, digital please. Also, as much as I can get my hands on. I shouldn’t need more than a day to read all the files if that.
“Do you have any idea how much information that is?” Instructor Telgard asked.
“I have a good idea, yeah. I’ll be fine. As for the swords, this is the one that was used to attack me,” Adam said as he withdrew the black blade from his Shadow Vault and placed it on the desk. I’d have put it in a scabbard, but I didn’t grab those.
“What about the other four?” Captain Branze asked.
Adam grinned, “Let me be the first to share the information I have with you and then you decide whether you want to try to take the swords from me, or if we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement?”
“You don’t have any say…” Instructor Telgard started to say when he noticed that Captain Branze had held up his hand.
“Please, continue,” Captain Branze said politely.
“So, the quick and dirty that I’ve been able to piece together by my appearance here and my previous experiences leads me to believe that there are multiple Systems or multiple System entities throughout the breadth of reality or realities. During each of my previous incarnations, and this one my ‘base’ level, what I think of as Character Level, and the Class levels I’ve gained are reset to either zero or one, depending on where the leveling system starts. This usually resets my attributes as well, though I have unique abilities that seem to let me bypass or cheat that reset,” Adam explained.
“None of the other visitors that arrived through the portals in the forest ever described anything like what you’re telling us?” Instructor Telgard said.
“My guess is that they were from somewhere else within this System. In all my travels I have not met anyone else that has traveled between systems, well except for this one man, but I think he was a God of some sort,” Adam said.
“And what happened in the Arena?” Captain Branze asked.
“Did you know that this System has set a limit to the maximum any of your attributes can be?” Adam asked instead of answering.
“How do you know that?” Captain Branze asked.
“Because I received a detailed system message letting me know that,” Adam said as he willed the Warning he’d received to become visible for both of them to see?”
WARNING! The maximum natural attribute for this creature is 100,000. Any attribute above this limit cannot be raised by natural attribute training or leveling.
“Wait, what?” Instructor Telgard said with a look of surprise on his face.
Captain Branze looked thoughtful for a moment before he muttered, “What level would someone have to be to get an attribute that high?”
“To get one attribute to 100,000, forgoing all other attributes and not including attributes for class levels, level 25,000. To get all eleven base attributes to 100,000 from just your base level, that would be level 275,000,” Adam said.
“That’s not possible,” Instructor Telgard said.
“Yeah, not possible,” Captain Branze said as a look of shock crossed his face, “Wait, you would have only received that Warning if you had an attribute at 100,000…” he said wonderingly.
“A minimum of 100,000,” Adam affirmed.
“So, the Arena?” Instructor Telgard asked.
“I was letting off a little steam, that’s all. Nobody died did they?” Adam asked.
“No, no one died,” Captain Branze agreed, “Still, we’d like to recover all of the weapons you picked up off the acolytes you knocked out.”
“As I said, I’m willing to trade. A look at your history for the information I just provided and how about some credits for the four blades I still have? 25% of their current market value should be…” Adam’s voice dropped off as he noticed the look both men were giving him. Adam laughed as he pulled the four blades out of his Shadow Vault and placed them on the desk, “Yeah, I was just messing with you a bit to see what kind of rise I could get out of the two of you.”
“You want us to believe that you don’t care about the money?” Instructor Telgard asked.
“Believe what you want,” Adam said as he created a ten-pound block of gold and placed it on the table with his ability Molded Chaos.
“What!” Captain Branze exclaimed.
Adam smiled, “Keep it, if I need another, I’ll create it.”
“You can just make gold out of thin air?” Captain Branze asked.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
“I can make whatever I need out of thin air, but let's not get sidetracked. While you two think of all the questions you’d like to ask me could you make the database with your history files available?”
“I can, but you won’t be able to go through it for a while?” Captain Branze said.
Adam just smiled as he repeated, “If you could just make that database available.
While Captain Branze reached for the monitor and keyboard, Adam activated Technomancy and followed along. Once the database was available he started downloading the data into his mind as fast as the system could handle. Which was, arguably, pretty damn fast at 100 petabytes a second. Adam closed his eyes and massaged his temples for the 10 seconds it took him to download and absorb Gemma’s history.
Adam opened his eyes. Captain Branze and Instructor Telgard looked at him until Captain Branze asked, the information is right there, do you want to look it over?”
“I’ve already looked it over and assimilated it. Very interesting history for this planet. No planetary conflicts and your people seem to get along okay. The only thing of note that I noticed was the purge of the dragons, The files don’t really go into why that was required?”
It was called for by the Gods,” Captain Branze and Instructor Telgard said simultaneously.
Adam frowned. That sounded like a preprogrammed response. Using Captain Branze’s clearance as a template, he accessed the terminal and then bypassed his security clearance by creating a new security clearance. Technomancy allowed him to recognize and alter the coding as well as encode and hide the new clearance and identity he’d just created. Something had been off since he heard that the Gods ordered the destruction of the dragons so he was creating an identity that could bypass the highest restrictions because he wanted to go fishing for information in a couple of the more secure areas.
Once he had his identity, Adam created a search algorithm that looked for patterns around the time the Dragons were wiped out. As the data started coming in a pattern formed. And of course, it was easy enough to discern. Next, he sent out commands to do a breakdown of worldwide coverage with emphasis on areas with gaps in both satellite and carrier coverage. Supposedly there were enough carriers to cover the whole world so there shouldn’t be any gaps.
As his investigation progressed he discovered that nine of the carriers that were “patrolling” some remote areas on all three continents had not had a crew change in years. They moved back and forth between the nine remote areas but they hadn’t been anywhere else In a very long time. Also, there was no satellite coverage of those nine areas. Adam had sent requests for coverage but the satellites had been programmed to ignore all orders to photograph and look at those areas and it looked to be hard-coded into the satellites. He could fix that, but he’d have to visit the satellite or open a portal to bring it within range of his Technomancy ability. Each area was only about 50 miles in diameter but still, but it still caused Adam some concern.
Adam's thoughts were interrupted when Captain Branze asked, “Adam, what are you doing?”
“I’m trying to establish patterns from your historical information?” Adam said honestly.
“But you’re not even sitting at the terminal,” Instructor Telgard pointed out.
“Yeah, I’ve already downloaded and sorted the information you provided,” Adam said.”
Both Captain Branze and Instructor Telgard looked at Adam and then back at each other with an obvious air of disbelief in their gazes.
“Yeah, I get that a lot,” Adam said “Anyway, the first thing you should know is that in both the other systems I encountered, divine intervention was rare. Extremely rare. When I heard that the dragons had been wiped out by divine decree part of me was wondering how that would be possible. Especially when I heard the tale of the dragon that had been chased into the caldera. By the way, do you happen to know what type of dragon that last one was?” Adam asked.
Instructor Telgard looked thoughtful for a moment before he said, “The reports I saw from that era said it was a silver dragon, it dove into the lava and was never seen again. Everyone thought it died.”
“Yeah, and no,” Adam said definitively. “Most likely that dragon was an Adamantium dragon. It would have been just fine in the lava.”
“You mean like the dragon that flew out of the lava geyser?” Captain Branze asked.
“Not the same dragon, but yes, just like the dragon that came out of the lava geyser,” Adam said with a slight smile.
“What does that have to do with the Divine and the dragon hunt?” Captain Branze asked.
“Well, during my research I discovered that all historical reports indicate that Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper, and Adamantium dragons were targeted and hunted to extinction. Compared to the Red, Black, Green, Blue, and purple dragons,” Adam said then paused for a moment. “Purple dragons?” he said questionably. “I’ll ask about that later. Anyway, comparatively for every colored dragon that was killed, five times as many metallic dragons were killed. What is the major difference between the colored and metallic dragons here?” Adam asked.
“Historical records indicate that it was much more likely that colored dragons would be evil and less likely to work with the races of men and women than the metallic dragons,” Captain Branze said.
“Exactly!” Adam said. “When I realized that this pattern existed I started looking for other patterns. Did you know that you have 9 carriers that patrol the same nine areas of the planet? Did you also know that no one has been assigned to or transferred from those ships in over 100 years?”
“Wait,” Captain Branze said with shock, “Are you saying you hacked our military network?”
Adam nodded his head up and down as he said, “No, I didn’t say that. What I said was that you have 9 ships that have crew members that haven’t been changed since the last reported dragon sighting before yesterday.”
“You can just break in and look at whatever you want?” Instructor Telgard said indignantly.
Adam looked thoughtful for a second before he shrugged and said, “Yes. Yes, I can.” Anyway, I thought I’d let you know that, “Adam said as he had a file sent to Captain Branze and Instructor Telgard. “I just sent you both copies of the information I discovered. Before I head off, I just wanted to let you both know, that Yes, I am the Dragon that appeared at the top of the Lava Geyser yesterday. No, I’m not going to stay and talk, though I will be back, and we can talk then. I’ll stay in touch through your satellites. I have the frequency of your encrypted channels; it’ll be easy enough for me to contact you from this point on.” Adam said as he teleported straight up to an area that was clear of all air traffic.
As Adam appeared he used Molded Chaos to activate Flight and Obscure. He really didn’t see the point in turning those two effects into abilities again. They seemed to work just fine when powered by chaos. Adam looked around while he used Molded Chaos to create a data entry port for himself and connected to the satellite network. While Technomancy had a short range, compared to what he had before, it was nothing for him to visualize and download a virus using Technomancy that started acting as his eyes, ears, and hands within the digital network. Within thirty seconds he had a real-time map of all air traffic around him and current data of the areas he needed to travel to. He didn’t release a copy of Thor or Al, they existed elsewhere. No, this was a semi-sentient program that had minimal functionality that may or may not rise to full sentience depending on environmental factors.
Sure, he didn’t have nanites everywhere now. No, he couldn’t automatically know where everything was because he wasn’t linked to everything. But, he hadn’t started out with nanites back on Earth at the very beginning either. He could still create nanites to make minor modifications to himself to so that he could interface with technology but, it was much easier to do so with the chaos coursing through him. It also felt more natural to him. He wasn’t going to spread nanites into this Universe, dimension, or reality yet. He might, but not yet. Adam really wanted to delve into a few thoughts he’d had when that Aspect of Justice had tried to shred his soul. Something about that hadn’t been sitting right with him for a while. Not since his attack and the attacks against that had “killed” his friends and family.
Right now, though, Right now, he was going to go check out the closest location to his current position and see if the Dragons being killed by the gods had just been a ruse, and if so, well those that had created the ruse were about to have a very bad day. He’d make sure of it. Adam increased his speed to 2,800 miles per hour, just under Mach 4,
One thing about not having the Freedom of Flight ability anymore. Friction hurt. His body was sturdy enough to take the damage and his regeneration rate easily replaced any damage he took but he still had to consciously block out the pain. Also, he shredded his jumpsuit. He’d either have to come up with a material that could take the damage, or he’d have to fly around naked. Sure, he could fly around naked but there was nothing cool looking about that.
After a minute he slowed down and shifted back into his Dragon Form. He was still invisible, but he found his ability to fly, and the streamlining of his dragon form flowed through the air easier. Additionally, his scales seemed to dissipate any friction he generated. Not too shabby if he didn’t say so himself. Flying normally, he was able to increase his speed back to 2,800 miles per hour. If he wanted to, he could go much faster. With that thought, he altered course straight up and accelerated to his maximum speed.
That was a mistake.
The one thing about being an Adamantium Dragon that he’d failed to realize was that his scales were Adamantium which meant that he could take a lot more punishment than just his attributes allowed for. At the moment he decided to accelerate away from the earth at his maximum speed his vision narrowed to a single dot of light that disappeared as he moved faster than the photons of light could register against his vision. Adam shot away from Gemma at 7.46E+46 times the speed of light. That wasn’t as fast as he could go either. That was only how fast he could achieve before the Chaos in his system was exhausted and bottomed out. Truthfully he’d expected his speed to reduce when he reached the vacuum of space but the inherent nature of being an Adamantium dragon made the domain of space his playground which he could fly through as if it were normal air.
Adam did some quick math. He had traveled 2.4E+39 Light Years from Gemma. Well, shit. It was going to take almost two minutes to replenish his Chaos and then he’d have to max it out again so he could get close enough to Gemma to teleport back to the planet. He was way too far away to open a portal or try to teleport. Instead, he looked himself over, which wasn’t very hard since all the scales that were towards the front of his path, the leading edges of his wings, shoulders, and head, all seemed to be glowing. Other than a little bit of residual heat he seemed to be fine. If he tried moving that fast while in his human form, he’d probably evaporate, so best not to do that again. Also, navigating while moving that fast had been impossible. Maybe if he had a mapping ability, but no, right now he’d just slow things down a bit and use teleport or portal for long distances until he figured out how to have his perception beat the speed of light, which ultimately was going to be something he wasn’t going to be able to do, he just had a feeling about that.
Once his Chaos pool was refilled, he adjusted his target vector using the Heads Up Display he’d created and targeted the direction he’d come from. Because he hadn’t expected to travel that far he didn’t have an exact position of Gemma. If he was off just a little he’d miss by a lot but, still, he’d be much closer than he was right now. Adam increased his velocity for one second and found himself floating in space without any planets nearby. Two minutes later, after he’d refilled his chaos pool again, he teleported back to his position above the induction Arena in Athens on Gemma which thankfully had only cost him 10 million mana which meant that he’d been relatively close to Gemma, as compared to the distance he had just come back from.
This time he kept things respectable and headed toward the first location he wanted to check out which was in the mountains about 3,000 miles to his northwest. This first location was about 5,000 miles due west of where he appeared from the Lava Geyser. This time Adam increased his speed to a respectable Mach 8, or 5,600 miles per hour, and made it there in about 22 minutes. It was closer to 30 minutes because he grew closer to the mountains he slowed down.
While he was invisible his movement did disperse the air which left a footprint that could be tracked. He watched as the flying carriers along his path diverted course only to receive orders from UDC command to return to their patrol routes. It looked like whatever was running things did not want the carriers to see what was going on in this remote location.
This actually made sense as Adam slowed down and swapped back to his human form. When he was 51 miles from his target Adam saw a shimmer in the air that spread out before him around the circumference of the 50-mile radius. Utilizing the GPS Adam stayed just over fifty miles out from the center of the target area and began flying around the circle. He noticed the shimmer going from the ground into the sky at least three miles high. Also, the shimmer seemed to curve up toward a center point. So, the shimmer formed a 50-mile circumference dome with a height of about 4 miles at the center above the mountains and hills below.
Adam moved up to the shimmer and reached out. As his hand passed through the curtain of energy he willed his body to follow. As he passed through the field a ripple of energy was clearly visible which caused a red dragon flying nearby to divert its course and come investigate. Adam watched as it drew close and came to hover within fifty feet of him. The red dragon’s eyes darted to and fro as he looked directly at where Adam had emerged and all around. At about 300 feet long it wasn’t a juvenile, nor was it an ancient worm. Adam watched as the red dragon took two big breaths through its nose and then smiled before it said, “So, NOT dead. You cannot hide your scent from me Adjra. You can mask it in humanity and even change your sex, but I would know your scent anywhere. Have you finally come to join us, or did you come to die among your own kind?”