There wasn’t only one regressor. There were two.
How?! Why are there two?! Are there more of them? Do they have a relationship? Do they have hostility towards each other? And the familiarity I feel from her name is making me worried. I can’t make heads or tails of her Status, there’s no useful information I can obtain- wait.
He facepalmed as he realised why her name felt so familiar.
Lucille Goldcroft! I know where I’ve heard that name before! She’s the crazy heir of Medallion! The largest incorporation in the world! How could I have been so stupid?! Her great-uncle is one of the most powerful people on Earth!
Randall bit his nails anxiously, and began to pace around a bit, the other forerunners giving him looks.
This is bad. Have I involved myself too early? I shouldn’t have been so hasty in approaching that man… but I can’t even see her class, stats, or skills, so how could I know whether it’s worth siding with her or not? Although for some reason her eye colour changed, and she’s wearing a mask…
He stole another glance, noticing she was looking at the floor.
I might be overthinking things. Who’s to say they even know each other? It’s possible the memories of the future they have are different. Maybe they could end up as allies, although it would be risky to introduce them this early. And I have yet to prove to the Hero I can be trusted. Besides, I promised myself that I would never, ever give anyone even a hint of my Origin Skill abilities. I can’t tell either of them there’s another regressor.
He took a deep breath, and let it out.
Let’s calm down. That ‘Hero’ is currently a known variable because I can see his Status, so I’ll stick with him for now. It might not be too late to jump ship later. And… maybe I can drop hints over time, because with Lucille Goldcroft’s Status……. she’s an unknown variable. It’s better to get rid of unknow-
He froze. Two golden, slitted eyes were staring directly at him. The serpent bond of the Medallion heir had raised its eyes and was staring at him, the snake not moving. Then, slowly, the dark-haired woman raised her vividly violet eye and stared directly at him too. Like he was watching a video in slow motion, the woman very slightly tilted her head. She gazed silently at him for a few seconds, then lifted her right gloved hand to slowly remove the leather mask from her face. He stared, stunned, when he saw the slowly rotating golden circle within her eye, mesmerizingly brilliant.
Then her lips parted in an unnervingly wide smile, and the winged serpent across her shoulders bared its fangs. With clear, exaggerated movements of her mouth that enabled him to easily understand the meaning of her silent words and emphasised gestures of her hands, she sent him a non-verbal message.
She pointed at him.
‘You’.
She raised her hands.
‘Can’.
She gestured to her eyes.
‘See’.
Then, she slowly lifted her gloved hands to outline the border of the Regressor Title box hovering above her head.
‘It’.
She narrowed her eyes as she finished her sentence, still smiling.
‘Can’t you?’
His heart pounded in his chest, his limbs stiff, as the meaning of her actions was made clear to him. Involuntarily, his eyes drifted over to the ‘Hero’ in the distance, and the dark-haired woman in front of him followed his gaze. His mind went blank when she returned her gaze to him, tilted her head to the other side, and then her strange smile widened even further.
At that point, Randall knew, with utter certainty, that Lucille Goldcroft was aware there was another regressor.
The woman with violet and gold eyes made a gesture to the snake on her shoulders, which slowly slithered down to coil around her arm. She held her arm out as the serpent raised its upper body high in her hand, hissing loudly. The rims of its two golden rises gained a red hue which deepened over the seconds.
Then Randall was struck with a deep, resonating sense of impending death as if he was going to be killed in near milliseconds. His heart thumped painfully inside of his chest as his limbs trembled with fear, cold sweat sliding down his face and causing his clothes to stick to him. He felt lightheaded as the breaths he drew became short and harsh in his chest, his throat feeling dry and rough. He clutched his head as a headache drummed a painful beat in his head. With pain-induced hyperfocus, he watched the woman move again.
She pointed one gloved finger at him, then smirked. She tapped on her lips to symbolise ‘Speaking’. Then she pointed a thumb at her neck and made a very slow swiping motion across it.
The counter in Randall’s peripheral vision ticked down to 00:00.
[The Forerunner’s Event will now begin. Please enter through the open doors to receive information on your purpose here in the Tower]
The black double doors with glowing geometric lines made a sound akin to the unlocking of heavy metal bolts, then swung open. The one thousand people in the room began to filter through the inky black wall of darkness on the other side, disappearing from view.
As he just stared blankly at the dark-haired woman, the snake around her arm hissed louder at him, hued irises deepening in colour. The woman’s smirk widened as she glanced at Randall, and gave the serpent’s head a gentle, placating pat. The serpent stopped hissing, and he gasped as he was released from the sensation of imminent doom, taking heaving breaths. Almost lazily, the woman returned the snake to her shoulders and then replaced her black mask.
With his limbs still frozen in place from fear, he didn’t move an inch as the woman came closer, heading towards the double doors. But as she passed him, she paused, putting a hand on his shoulder. She was still smiling, but her icy voice was barely loud enough to be a whisper, her serpent hissing softly once more.
“Randall Holloway. Do not interfere.”
And with that, she patted his shoulder once and walked onwards, leaving him standing there in clothes drenched by his own cold sweat, and shaking uncontrollably in apprehension for what his future held.
----------------------------------------
‘When do we kill him?’
Lucille was still smiling as she walked towards the entrance of the Event.
What could you possibly mean, Scytale? Why would we ever want to kill someone who hasn’t tried to hurt us yet?
‘’Yet’ being the important part,’ he replied mentally, lowering his head to give her a sideways look. ‘Leaving him alive could ruin all your plans, Lucy. His existence is a liability.’
Her smile didn’t change as she came near the doors.
Do you not have confidence in your killing intent?
‘Of course that’s not it.’ Scytale’s internal sigh leaked through the bond. ‘I just want you to explain why you don’t seem to be worried about this.’
She lost her smile and looked over her shoulder to give the man who had seen her Status another glance. He made saw her looking and immediately avoided eye contact. She turned back to the large open doorway.
I noticed him when we first entered the room. It was pretty easy to pick up on what type of person he was. He kept scanning the room, his eyes stopping on individuals with unique traits of some kind, and never lost his smile. That meant his smile was an act he put on, not a natural trait of his. And when we watched him interact with the Hero earlier, he acted in a disarming way, trying to ensure the Hero’s group didn’t find him suspicious. In essence, he’s a schemer. Someone who likes being in control of events, and being a part of them.
She shook her head.
And those types of people value themselves first and foremost. He would never, ever reveal his greatest strength by hinting at the ability to know the Statuses and Titles of people. Because they place themselves first, it means they’re also very cowardly when not in a position of power. And right now, I’m in a position of power, because I know what he knows, but he doesn’t know enough about me.
‘So, if we had to worry about him, it would be in many years where maybe he’s earned the strength to go against us.’
Exactly. But I’ll be asking Ravimoux to watch him closely.
She placed one foot into the pitch-black wall on the other side of the double doors. Now, let’s enter.
She stepped through, finding herself on a pure white narrow platform that extended forward for a few metres, before connecting to a circular white centre platform. The room was black and appeared infinite. They couldn’t see anything on either side of the walkway platform as a pitch-black oval floating in mid-space behind them shrunk and disappeared. Lucy kept walking until she stepped onto the circular platform. It turned clear at the same time a notification chimed.
[Welcome to the Planetary Simulation Viewer]
Slowly, pinpricks of light appeared in the distance of the endless space, until thousands appeared, in a replica of the Milky Way, revealing themselves to be millions of stars. Below the transparent circular platform was the slowly rotating giant form of Earth, its night-time continents lit up with twinkling golden lights of cities and houses. Two semi-translucent chairs appeared for Lucille and Scytale, allowing them to sit down. As they sat, another notification sounded out.
[In this space, all information about Earth and its future assimilation into the Tower is available to the User, as long as they request it. This includes knowledge about their future return to Earth in 4 years and 6 months.]
[The System waits to see what potential lies in those from Earth….]
There was a delay before a final notification appeared.
[The first planet of the 6th Realm: The Cosmic Realm]
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
With that last notification, Lucy stretched out her hands before her and decided to get working. She didn’t need to ask about her return to Earth, and so, she was going to see just how much ‘all information’ covered. That information would likely go unused, but it was possible that she could eventually use it for something. Scytale was just happy to see the hyper-realistic 3D documentary animation that was the space around them when she searched for information.
Now, let’s begin by asking about the collision and fusion chance of non-elemental mana-types with mundane weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force over these next few years on Earth.
…
“Ugh. Information overload,” Scytale complained. “I mean, the close-up exploding star simulation was pretty awesome, and because it was the System, it had no difference to the real thing, but all the long words you used made my head spin.”
He flickered his tongue near her head as they walked through the Capital City’s traffic.
“Like, what the heck is an astro-magnetised star-core reduction reaction?”
She turned a corner of the main road they were walking beside. “A type of star implosion caused by extremely strong artificial gravity.”
“So… a black hole?” he asked dubiously.
She shook her head. “It’s not a black hole.”
He went silent and hung his head dismally. “I give up. I surrender to my fate. I’ll never be good at this nerd stuff.”
“I’m not a-” She stopped talking, and just sighed, rubbing her temples. “Never mind. Anyway, we’re here.”
She came to a stop in front of a large, imposing building. Built out of dark purple and black brick, the massive structure had a long series of stone steps leading up to its open doorway, thousands of people in mage and wizard robes climbing and descending the steps with books, tomes, magical items, staves, and scrolls in hand.
Towering supporting pillars of glittering purple marble that had golden and silver engravings in the shape of powerful beasts made from runes held up the triangular roof, in a way similar to the Parthenon of Athens, and carved above the doorway was a scroll the length of a train - big, bold, glowing golden words that spelled out ‘ALL-AEON ATHENAEUM – CAPITAL CITY IMPERIALIUS AETERNIA’ painted along it.
Seven sky-high beacons of mana in the colours of green, red, blue, white, yellow, black, and violet soared up from its roof, the elemental mana gushing over the roof and down the sides of the building, a tantalizing scent coming from it all, and a sense of euphoria emerging alongside it. Lucy had to summon her spiritual energy to coat her body with enough of it to prevent the mana from flooding her body, potentially changing her affinity. The mana mixed, creating rainbow hues as elements fused to become mid-level elements such as wood, lightning, or lava. Scytale flapped his wings, breathing in the rich energy.
“Now that is an amazing sensation. As a magic beast, I’m loving it here. I wonder how many poor sorry Users they’re sapping for mana to keep those mana beacons burning.”
Lucille pinched her nose bridge as nearby mages shot him dirty looks. “Scytale, could you please not ruin my chances of fixing my skill before we even get inside?”
“I’d like to see who could refuse the money you can throw in their faces,” he replied cheekily.
She just sighed as she began climbing the steps. The humongous open double doors they were approaching were made of glossy black wood, the corner frames fancy ornamental designs of runes. The doors were large enough to fit twenty buses across, and three times as high. Their surfaces were carved with four giant runes, which Lucy knew meant ‘Knowledge’, ‘Secrets’, ‘Known’ and ‘Unknown’. Sometimes briefly, deep within the lines of the runes, they glowed with violet light. She walked past them into the crowded entrance hall. Powerful magical artifacts radiating mana were encased behind protective crystal on either side of the entranceway, golden plaques describing their abilities and historical value beneath.
In the centre of the entrance hall, set into the floor of dark grey polished stone with gold veins, was a giant bronze compass-like design. It had no arrows or needles, as the floor was perfectly flat, but dials spun and clock faces rotated within it. A magic array of dark blue arcane mana was perpetually being cast above it, enabling hundreds of people to cross through the array.
Most of the mages and wizards entering or exiting the building did just that, the array recognising their Archive orbs, and letting them through after documenting their presence, but if Lucille tried to walk past, she’d be lucky if she wasn’t incinerated by a fireball spell.
One side of the entrance hall was where the smaller population of non-factioneers of the Athenaeum were, lining up behind a glowing globe structure the size of a car. They left, gaining a glowing cyan rune on the back of their hands, where they would wait until a mage or wizard behind one of the many desks called for them. Unfortunately, that required casting a spell on the individual, and Lucy just so happened to be very immune to spells. Luckily, she had an alternative.
She walked up to one of the desks, which had little to no people waiting behind it. The wizard at the desk, a man with a silver beard, glasses, and a badge with seven stars on it, indicating his status as a 7th-circle wizard, looked up at her.
“This desk is for those who wish to purchase information from the All-Aeon Athenaeum’s Archives,” he informed her indifferently. “Only nobility holding Titles from the Aeternus plane may utilise this service. If you do not wish to purchase information or do not have the right status to do so, then please use another desk.”
“I don’t have a Title currently,” she told him, making him frown, but she continued, “However, this should be enough to prove my status.” She took out her violet pocket watch and placed it on the desk.
The wizard opened his mouth, likely to tell her to leave, until he glanced down at the pocket watch and paused, probably seeing its Item Sheet. “Excuse me,” he said, making her nod to allow him to pick him up. He adjusted his glasses to peer at the item.
Lucille tapped her fingers on the desk. “The Head of the Aurelian Commission holds an Honorary Count Title,” she said. Then she smirked. “And the Empire’s annual banquet is in two weeks.”
He raised his eyes from the pocket watch to look at her, probably understanding her meaning of ‘I’m going to be a Count in two weeks when I can then get you in deep trouble if you reject me now’. He placed back down the pocket watch and looked at Scytale.
“And the snake?”
“He’s a compeer bond,” she explained. “I believe he’s allowed in, according to the rules.”
The wizard nodded, having Inspected Scytale and found the status of ‘bond’ on his Inspection page. “As long as he’s a bond.” He pushed the pocket watch towards her so she could retrieve it, which she did, and he pulled out a sheet of paper with words written in silver ink. He grabbed a pen from beside him and held it out to her. “Your signature, and method of payment.”
She signed it and then wrote down her chosen method. When he pulled it back to read, he raised an eyebrow. “Deposit method? That requires you to have at least five crystalline tokens on hand, the excess to be returned after you have retrieved your information.”
She nodded. “I’m aware.”
He gave her another appraising look, but eventually let out a short sigh. He rolled up the contract and placed it in a small metal box which he locked by infusing the rune on the front with mana. Then he withdrew a small badge from a drawer of his desk, picked up the metal safe box, and passed both to her. He pointed to the other end of the entrance hall.
“That badge will allow you to pass the identifier array without issue. Take the badge and box to the fifteenth room on the left, where someone will take you to a private room to complete the trade,” he explained. “The ‘Watcher’ will sign a contract promising his silence on all seen or heard within that room once you have placed the deposit. After that, you may ask for what information you need, and the total cost will be returned to you, then taken out of your deposit if you wish to proceed with the deal.”
He paused and said one more thing. “The Athenaeum will take a base minimum payment of one hundred rose crowns if you do not wish to continue with the deal. Is that all?” he asked.
“Yes, thank you,” she replied, giving him a nod. He nodded in return and continued working on his documents. Lucy and Scytale moved past the identifier array, easily walking past the many layers of mana-circles that had risen to try to analyse them. There was no such thing as protection of privacy when it came to the Athenaeum storing their information. Too bad it wouldn’t work on Lucille, with her ‘pseudo-invulnerability’ to magic. Scytale… well, she’d have to escape the Capital’s Athenaeum branch quickly after the trade so she could avoid any mages or wizards asking to study her hybrid bond.
She continued walking, the wide hallway at the end of the entrance hall containing more ornamental magical artifacts hidden behind glass cases. Eventually, she found the fifteenth side corridor, which led to a small room where only one woman was working behind a desk. The woman looked up at Lucy, who showed her the badge. The woman nodded, standing up and giving her a slight bow. She pressed a button on her desk before gesturing to a door on the side of her.
“Please enter this room and wait until the Watcher arrives,” the woman said.
Lucille went and opened the door, entering the room beyond as the woman shut the door behind her. Two plush armchairs on either side of a table were inside, and she took up a spot on one of them as Scytale slid onto the back of the chair. She waited patiently for the ‘Watcher’.
After a few minutes, a man dressed in blue robes with dark hair opened a door opposite the one Lucy came in through and gave her a slight bow. He sat down in the chair opposite her.
“Good afternoon,” he said. “My name is Elron Farnelost of the Blue Order, and I will be the Watcher for this trade.” A white circle appeared horizontally above his palm, where a sheet of paper dropped out, covered in sentences of golden ink. He placed it down on the table and slid it forward for Lucy to read.
“This is the Ancient-ranked contract I will be using to promise my silence on who requested the information, and what information was requested. I will sign it as soon as you have deposited the five crystalline tokens in the sealed box.” He gestured to the box she held. “Could you please pass it for me to unlock?”
She passed him the box, where he tapped the glowing rune on the front with a finger. The box opened, and he placed it down on the table. Lucy opened her dimensional bag to withdraw five tokens, placed them in the box, and then slid back the contact after she had read it, making sure no loopholes existed in it. The mage took out a pen from his dimensional skill and swiftly signed the contract. He shut the safe box and then leaned back in the chair.
“Now. Before I ask what information you’re requesting, I need to inform you of several things,” he explained, intertwining his fingers, and resting them on his lap. “The older the information you request, the more expensive it will be, due to the mana required for the Archive to search back that far. The more forces involved in the information, the more expensive it will be as well. And,” he continued, “If this information is popular, and requested by others, the price will go down, due to other people knowing about it.” He gestured to her. “Any questions?”
She shook her head, so he nodded. “Then you may state what information you want.”
“I would like to obtain records of broken, incomplete, or unfinished Origin Skills,” she said. “Not ones that have been changed by the User undergoing a race change to undead or beastmen,” she explained, “But ones that have had strange lines in their descriptions, or required resources outside of typical Origin Skill primers to function properly. And, if possible, I want to know what those particular resources were.”
He tilted his head, considering the strange request. “Incomplete Origin Skills… hmm. It’s possible we don’t have anything on that subject, as it pertains to the System,” he said, to her nod, “Which isn’t known to make many errors, if at all, and is hard to study. You don’t mean Origin Skills with hard-to-raise awakening rates, do you?” he asked.
Lucille shook her head. “No. I mean Origin Skills that either have lines of System jargon in their description, specifically state something like ‘incomplete’ or cannot be activated at all.”
“I see,” he replied. He gave her a nod. “Then I will ask for this information to be retrieved from the Archive. If the event comes that there is no information on this topic, then we will only take the minimum cost out of the deposit, but if the Archive takes a while, we will ask you to return another day to retrieve it.” Then he shook his head. “Although, that usually occurs when there is an excess of information to search through, which I doubt is an issue in your case.”
He stood up and walked over to the door he entered through. He glanced over his shoulder to tell her one more thing. “The time to retrieve information from the Archive is typically half an hour on average.”
Lucy nodded, and he left, shutting the door behind him. She closed her eyes as she and Scytale prepared themselves for the wait. Slightly more than half an hour later, he walked in, three folders in hand. He placed them on the table between them.
“It seems there were three records matching your requirements. Due to being submitted quite a while ago,” he told her, “The cost of the information will be a total of two crystal tokens. Do you accept this cost?”
“I do.” She nodded.
He stood up and gave her a bow. “Then I will leave the room, and withdraw the required amount from the safe box. Use this device,” he said, putting a brass bell-like object between them, “To call me when you have finished reading, where I will destroy the copied records and return the excess of your deposit. I hope you find what you need in those records,” he finished politely. With that, the mage left.
Lucille picked up the first folder and set about reading it. The record revealed details about a man who failed to absorb the bloodline of a powerful magic beast to become a beastman and mentioned the strange way his Origin Skill description warped in the process.
‘But I thought you specified not to receive information about those who underwent a race change?’
I did. But technically, this person failed the race change, so he never underwent one.
‘And they still charged you for the information? Wow, what a scam.’
She placed down the first disappointing record and picked up the second. This one was slightly more useful. It discussed a special Origin Skill of a member of a dying human subrace on an outer plane that was conquered seventy thousand years ago. The User could use their Origin Skill, as their tribe had a method of pre-awakening Origin Skills using pseudo-elixirs made from purified monster parts, a method many unassimilated planes and worlds used.
But it seemed the User’s ability was unique enough that the System couldn’t instantly categorise it, especially as it was race-specific, and their race had few members. Unfortunately, all it took was less than a week before it could categorise the Origin Skill, so it never underwent ‘fixing’ of any sort.
Lucy sighed, putting it down.
I didn’t expect to have much luck, but this is pretty poor.
‘You still have one more. Read that first.’
She picked up the last one…… and paused.
Archive 18.10.792/17 A.S: Unfinished Origin Skill.
Documented Occurrences: 1.
Record Submitter: Faltin Summerel
Record Event Date (Estimation): 24.3.124/1 – 24.9.124/1 A.S.
Subject Name: Unknown.
On the 24th of March, Year 1124 after the Mystical Realm’s assimilation, reports of a high-noble heir of the 2nd Eternal Duchy, incapable of using or viewing their Origin Skill after the Tutorial were heard. A high-ranked wizard known for being a well-learned System Scholar came to the Duchy and was tasked with discovering what the issue was. Several months passed, and it was thought the wizard would be incapable of determining the issue.
The wizard then unexpectedly called in a water Archmagus capable of using the water-space fusion element of Maelstrom and then requested the presence of wizards or mages of each of the other four space fusion elements after that. The five space fusion element users of All-Aeon Athenaeum returned to the Aeonic plane soon afterwards.
The heir was then tasked with undergoing the first ten stages by the Duke of Medolin at the time, even without their Origin Skill. The heir returned from the Beast Realm, and it was reported that their Origin Skill was functional. Reports say the heir stated they were given a special catalyst or unique primer by the System once they had completed the final stage and received their stage rewards.
It is not fully known what exact item the heir absorbed, however, a few transcribed coded letters discovered several thousand years later in the Medolin Duchy seem to suggest the heir may have received a dimension core in their stage completion rewards. The identity of the heir, the subject of this report, is not known, but the most likely theory is that they were the founder of the Violet Order, who are thought to be the one responsible for founding the Artificers. This theory is supported by the fact they were an heir of the Medolin Duchy, also known as the Star Fall Astrum Duchy, the only magic-using duchy of the 6 Eternal Duchies.
The Star Fall Astrum Duchy is the place of origin for the high-level Astrum element, the element used by the most high-ranking Astrologers. The Astrologers are considered the highest-level authority in charge of both the Violet Order and Spatial Tower, with the Artificers not being under their direct authority, but having close connections with them. It is known the Violet Order is a relatively recent addition to the All-Aeon Athenaeum, as the absence of any mortal or nonmortal individual capable of using pure space element means having an order named after spatial essence sparked much controversy. Nonetheless, its creation enabled there to be more users of the five space fusion elements, which, ‘coincidentally’, were all used by the five Archmagus and wizard visitors of the heir in their youth.
‘Okay, lots of words, and you’re frowning slightly. Which means you’ve found something, or you haven’t, but you’re still looking at this, so…what did you find?’
Lucille put down the report and rubbed her temples. I think this is what I’ve been looking for.
‘That’s good!’
The item I need will be given to me by the System after I complete the Beast Realm stages.
‘Yay. Easy fix then-’
But the item is a dimension core.
Scytale paused and looked between her and the folder. ‘I… kinda see your problem, but remind me what those are again?’
They’re the objects used to create lesser dimensions. The grading scale goes from red to violet, the closer the colour is to violet, the higher the dimension. They’re very rare, found on newborn planes, and to create one artificially you need to use plane sources. A stronger plane creates a more powerful dimension core. Violet grade is enough to create powerful dimensions that could even hold the Institutions’ origin planes.
She sighed and rested her head against the back of the armchair. But my new Origin Skill has to have taken on some of the characteristics of my old Origin Skill, which deals with the soul and spiritual energy, so what’s the link between dimensions and the soul? I know for a fact that there is none, because the spiritual realm has no dimensions, being omnipresent, immaterial, and non-physical. How can dimension cores exist for something that doesn’t have any dimensions?
Lucille crossed her arms.
Then there’s the fact this means my Origin Skill seems to be a type of nascent dimensional skill.
Dimensional skills were incredibly, incredibly rare compared to the entire population of the Tower. Even with the fact demons and spirits were natural ‘dimensional existences’, capable of traversing the material realms through the immaterial realms, nobody was able to manipulate pure space element. This meant dimensional skills were only found in one realm. The realm that often gave magical abilities without elements.
‘But Lucy, you can see why you could get a dimensional skill, right?’
She looked at him and frowned slightly, but nodded.
‘The most important thing is that we can fix it. I say we stop thinking about all this and return home for a break.’
She shook her head wryly. You always tell me to stop bothering to think about things.
‘Doesn’t make it any less true.’
With that, she stacked the folders, pressed the bell device, and after getting her remaining crystalline tokens back, she and Scytale left the All-Aeon Athenaeum’s branch in Imperialius Aeternia, the Capital City of the Eternal Empire’s Aeternus plane.