The morning light pours in through a nearby window. The beams hitting my eyes wake me from an alcohol induced coma. It feels as if something is banging on my head from both sides. I barely even drank anything last night. Why do I deserve this pulsating tension? Pulling a nearby pillow over my head helps relieve some of the pain. I finally open my eyes, and the pain intensifies. My eyes are going to pop out at this rate. I close my eyes once more. Somewhere in my efforts to combat the headache, I fell back asleep. This cycle continued on for the next hour or so. Each time I woke, I felt a little better, but then as soon as I started to move the pulsing and nausea came back with a vengeance. I finally woke to where I could move without wanting to die. I have no clue where I am. I was currently in a fluffy bed in a large clean room. Am I in a hotel? If so, this is a rather nice place. How did I get here though? Still examining my current situation, there is a knock at my door.
“Yes…, who is it?” I query, wondering who was knocking.
Opening the door was Gus.
“You’re finally awake, how are you feeling? You went kind of crazy last night.”, he says, closing the door behind him.
I thought I only had two pints last night, but according to Gus, that wasn’t so. It seems I blacked out after the second, had a third pint somewhere after that, and fell asleep in the cuties lap after that. I had woken up while they were still talking, and had a fourth pint. After finishing off the last pint of liquid courage I talked with the barmaid for a little while, to which Gus was surprised and impressed. He was scared I would say something about having multiple gems, but I was able to keep the whole conversation centered around her. Good job drunk me! Still though, I swear Gus drank more than me, so why isn’t he mentally and physically destroyed. His response was that I didn’t eat or drink anything else while I was there, and when he offered I refused. Sadly, I was probably already mentally checked out at that point.
Moving on from the night previous I questioned Gus as to where we were. I was surprised when he said that this sparkling clean place was his house. He doesn’t seem the type for the finer things. Apparently, he has a house in many of the larger cities he has done business in previously. Just how many houses did he have? Without me asking, perhaps bragging, he announces that he could have houses somewhere in the range of twenty cities. “Just how rich are you!”, I blurted out. He responds cheekily saying, “The correct question is, Just how rich ‘were’ you? Like I said, I got rid of nearly all my wealth. These houses and a few other assets are all that I still retain”.
Gus and I have a small breakfast together in his house. He forces me to drink a ton of water to help with this hangover. The hangover quickly fades into the background as time passes on. It still remains for most of the day, but at least I don’t feel like constantly dying. Leaving his house reveals just how large of a building it was. Just what kind of money did he have to have to afford not just one of these, but more than a dozen? I wonder if this plays a part in why everyone knows Gus, but also how everyone has mixed feelings about him. Have I hitched my wagon with an unsavory individual? These thoughts are interrupted by Gus dragging me towards the town branch. I had asked him what it was, but he said he explained it all last night. After a few minutes of begging him to go over it once more, he finally gives in.
We were currently on our way to the town branch, which was located directly behind the grand hall. Once we get there, both of us will enter the branch, and be able to see the next tier of upgrades for our respective gems. Along with seeing the available upgrades, we will also see the essence costs attributed with each. Most of these essences are mainly acquired from slain monsters. Adventurers will take the essence rich parts from the beasts they kill, and bring it to towns to be processed. He gave an example of adventurers who have killed a stonetail drake. One of the valuable parts that creature possesses are its scales. It normally takes around three carts to transport all the scales, which is a large operation for adventurers to carry out. Once they have all the materials it would be many trips to the branch to acquire all that essence into their gems, and it would also be a large logistical pain to try and transport three wagons of valuable materials to another city.
This led to processing of monster materials to become mainstream and widely accepted as the best practice. The process for extracting the essence from the material changes for each material, but the end product is all of one essence being put in a small container, normally an enchanted flask. Many of the benefits of processing these materials can be easily listed. In the end after processing you end up with more essence compared to the amount in just the raw material. The ratio varies for each material, but normally falls between a 20% to 50% increase in essence yield. Another benefit is that the half-life of the essence is much longer than in raw form. This is further enhanced by the enchanted flasks they are normally stored in. Lastly it is much easier for storage and transport. Three wagons full of scales once fully processed can result in 10 to 15 small flasks being procured of the resulting essences.
There also exist some negatives that come with processing these materials. The main issue with refining these materials is the cost. There are dozens of steps involved in the filtration process, and depending on the material being processed it can become more costly. In the example of the stonetail drake scales, for the scales to be processed they must be broken down into a granular powder to then be centrifuged. The main issue comes from how durable the scales are that just being able to put a crack in one requires a massive amount of brute strength. There are very few gems with base power capable of causing any damage to such scales. The main gem these processing plants rely on for such tough materials is the vibration gem. With enough vibration at the right speed, the scales will shatter into smaller pieces that aren’t as strong as the original scale. This is then followed by multiple more stages of brute force shattering till they are small enough for chemicals to induce the rest of the reduction. Only after being reduced to a granular state can they then be centrifuged, and have the essences within, separated out. The end product being the pure essences. All these processes lead to a heavy cost being involved. The more product you have the cheaper the process per essence. Ultimately, it is normally desired to go on farming trips and return with multiple wagons filled with materials, otherwise just sell the little materials you have to one of the local marketplaces.
Finally, we arrived at the branch. The foot traffic is just as heavy as yesterday, even though it is still early in the morning. The branch was what appeared like a large part of a tree that came out of the ground standing straight up like a pillar. The diameter of this branch was quite large, being the size of at least one of the residential apartments at the edge of the town. The strangest part about it was that there was no bark on it, but instead the exterior seemed pliant and squishy. Almost as if it was a liquid like skin for the branch. On further inspection, I could see people walking into the base of the branch. They appeared to be walking into a solid that, upon touch, became a pliant liquid where they entered, then returning to being solid after their disappearance. Some of the people who were going in were carrying a couple of flasks, I assume being various essences.
Gus and I stood by observing a multitude of varying individuals entering and exiting the branch. There were adventurers, common folk, business men, children, and elderly entering and exiting. Although, the mass majority of the people entering the branch were teenagers and adventurers. Most of the teenagers didn’t appear to have gems upon entering or exiting, and Gus wrote it off as mere window shopping for gems. It is a life long decision as to which gem you pick, and most people take quite a bit of time weighing their options. The girl I met at the library yesterday gracefully stepped out, exiting the branch. She was still wearing the same shabby clothing from the day prior. She starts walking over to us, like it was perfectly natural to do so. Gus gives me a look of ‘really another girl’, and instead of engaging he mentally checks out. It was just easier for him.
“Funny meeting you here. I’m happy I saw you, I wanted to apologize again for yesterday. My friend, Berett, was pretty harsh to you for no good reason”, said the girl.
“Oh…, don’t worry. It’s fine. I was practically done with that book anyways.” I mutter, in an awkward fashion.
“By the way, I don’t think I introduced myself. I’m Gaby.” she replies, to keep the conversation from petering out.
“Well…, my name is Kite. It’s nice to meet you.”
“I haven’t seen you around here before yesterday. Are you new in town?”
“New to town and new to this world, you could say”
“Huh, what do you mean?”
“Oh, I mean I used to live outside of the tree," I said, and her eyes lit up.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
“Wait a minute, Are you an Eternal?”, she said, looking like she met a star.
Before I could start up again, Gus enters the conversation.
“Sorry little miss, but we have business to attend to, and we must go now.”
Once we get some distance from Gaby, Gus starts up again.
“Kite, you need to be careful. You can’t just tell everyone that you're an Eternal, okay? There are too many different parties that have business with Eternals, and it’s not worth the hassle” he concluded.
Together we walked around the branch, where it was less crowded, Gus went on ahead of me. Touching the branch, he looks back towards me. His hand sinks into the now aqueous section. Turning back towards his hand, he walks forward vanishing into the structure. Gulping down any remaining fear, I step forward to follow behind Gus. Raising my hand, I touch the same area where Gus had before. Immediately, I feel a tingle go up my spine. A sound rings from inside my head. “SCKHKHCHKHSCHKHCSHKHS”. The sound quickly dies out, and I notice that the area where I am touching is still solid. “Why is it still solid? How do I get inside?” I ask myself, in my head. A voice appears in my mind,“WWoouulldd yyoouu lliikkee ttoo rreeqquueesstt aaccceesss”. It appears to be two of the same voice asking the question, and they are slightly out of sync. This is rather annoying. “Yes, please…”, I think to myself, hoping it doesn’t respond back. Luckily, the area where I was touching began to degrade to a liquid like state. Taking a deep breath and closing my eyes, I step forward till I am fully consumed by the branch.
I don’t feel the liquid-like exterior of the branch anymore. Am I inside? I open my eyes, revealing a bland room. The room’s walls, floor, and ceiling are all the same tan color as the exterior of the branch. There are no details to the room, and no one else is here. Turning around I see no exit, just more wall behind me. I really hope I'm not trapped here. Somehow the room is fully lit even though there isn’t a light source as far as I can see, and more peculiarly, I don’t even have a shadow in here. If I am trapped in here I think I will go insane long before I starve. Suddenly, the voice or should I say voices from earlier appear again, “EErrroorr DDeetteecctteedd, SSyysstteemm RReebbuuiilldd IImmmiinneenntt”. What was that? Is the two voices an error? If it fixes itself that would be a huge boon because this is really irritating. The sound starts up again, “SSystemm TTesstt, EErrorr DDeetecteedd, SSyystemm RReeeebuild IImminneeeent”. It seemed like it got a little better, but then near the end it just seemed worse. A few more seconds pass, and the voice begins once more, “System Test, Error Resolved, System Is Fully Operational”.
I don’t know what happened, but it seems to be working as one voice now. I walk over to the wall, touching it with my right hand to see if anything will happen. The voice rings out, “Select an action”. Multiple options became present in my mind, but the main three that interested me were: Gem Analysis, Gem Upgrade, and Exit. The last one must be my way to leave here, but until then let’s see what the other two options provide. I think to myself “Gem Analysis”, and the area I’m touching becomes aqueous like when I had touched it outside, and I insert my right hand in. Once my arm is elbow deep the area solidifies again trapping my arm inside. In my mind all the information I had learned previously, regarding the lens gem, reappears in my mind. Each technique I had learned from Gus appeared in my thoughts, and when I thought of one of the techniques, a quick “how to” guide popped up in my mind. Looking at one of the guides made my body go through the motions of controlling the lenses even if they weren’t there.
Another part that popped up in Gem Analysis was a feature where I could see recordings of when I had activated the gem previously. I could see hours of the trip with Gus where I was practicing using my lenses for the first time. The last recording lasted for only a few minutes, but I could vividly remember it without seeing it again. Remembering it in my mind accidentally made the recording play. My mind played the recording of the encounter with the badgerbear. That creature was as ridiculously fast as I remember. It rampaged down the mountain beside us in no time flat. I once again see that I had frozen, but in the moment it felt like an eternity where I couldn’t move, paralyzed by fear. In all actuality, I had only frozen for around five seconds. After being frozen, I was kinda awesome now that I see myself again in these recordings. I think if the badgerbear didn’t jump in that second where I had the beam aimed at him, I could’ve definitely injured it. The next move of blinding it was pure instinct by myself, and even still I’m amazed it worked. The following move of slamming my remaining lens down and making us invisible was also something I didn’t think I could do. Seeing a recording of it now really does make me a little proud of myself, and no longer ashamed of thinking that I performed poorly. The total time between aiming the light onto the badgerbear and establishing the invisibility setup was only five and a half seconds. I guess in relation to the whole time the fight had happened I did freeze for half of it, but who cares. I don’t think I could’ve done any better after I unfroze.
An interesting stat appears in my mind after finishing watching the recording. “Fastest Lens Control” is what is displayed. I think over to it, and it shows the part of the fight where I bring my remaining lens hurtling down towards the ground to set up the invisibility. I really did send that thing coming down super fast. Fast enough for the lens to get partially embedded into the ground, but not enough for the badgerbear to notice. I watch the clip through to the end of the fight and right before Gus decides to have us leave using his axe, and I notice a sound that I had missed beforehand. In the distance, the sound of a tree crumbling from where the badgerbear came from could be heard. There really was another one coming. Thank god Gus made his quick decision, or we would’ve actually been screwed.
Moving on from the Gem Analysis, I think to move onto Gem Upgrade. With just that thought, all the information from the Gem Analysis disappears, and is replaced with a very simple visualization of showing the lens gem with three dull gray gems above it. Thinking of the lens gem provided information, listing all the techniques, and limitations that I had already known about the gem beforehand, such as being limited to three lenses. Thinking of each of the dull gems above revealed a corresponding upgrade. From left to right the upgrades were listed as the following: light storage, additional lens, energy resistance. Each upgrade had various costs associated with each, but each one of the costs were associated with a symbol that I couldn’t recognize. Why was it that I could recognize the characters for the gems that I hadn’t seen, but I couldn’t recognize these. From what Gus had explained essences are needed to upgrade gems, so are these symbols different essences? I’ll just have to ask Gus when I get out of here. Aside from that the symbols also varied in size, with some being quite small, and others being nearly triple the size of the others. I really hope this is relevant to their cost and not an inconsistency of size for every symbol, because I think that would irk anyone and everyone to their core.
Seeing that I couldn’t upgrade anything right now, and I had already gone over the points of interest in the lens gem, I think it was now time to get my hand out of the wall. I had seen “Release” as an option earlier, so I thought it. Just like that, the area around my arm became semi-fluid again. The information from the gem also disappeared as I pulled my arm out of the wall. Well, I might as well see what’s up with the Goader’s Gem. I put my left hand on the wall, going through the same steps as earlier. Gem Analysis reveals basically the same information that I already had, and there were barely any recordings. The biggest thing that I found out was that each time I raised my voice, it did activate to the slightest degree. Most of these recordings only lasted for a second or two, but in that brief amount of time, I could notice if anyone was around a few of them would turn their heads in my direction. I really can’t make a hard assertion as to if the gem had an effect on them or if they were simply turning to see what the commotion was.
I moved on from the analysis, and went to the Gem Upgrade instead. It appeared relatively the same except the goader’s gem was displayed along with three dull gems above it. The three gems displayed the following: Increased Range, Increased Effectiveness, Rage Resistance. The last one, Rage Resistance, actually seemed kinda useful. Just like the lens gem the rightmost upgrade seemed to be a defensive upgrade measure, but this one seems purely mentally focused. Once again all these upgrades had costs of varying sizes and symbols of which none of them registered into anything I have seen previously.
Well, I think I am all done here. With the thought of “Exit” the area surrounding my hand once again became a semi-fluid substance, and I was able to walk through, somehow appearing outside once more. It seems around an hour or two had passed while I was in there, but It really only felt like twenty minutes or so. Gus is standing nearby and has an irritated look on his face, “What took you so long? You didn’t need to spend three hours in there”. I respond with a confused look as he starts to pull me along. “Well, now we don’t have much time, so let’s get to the guild quickly while party creation is still happening”. With that we depart from the branch, headed to the guild.