Even with our stopping earlier for the night, my head still hurt the following morning. Evidently I had drunk more than I thought had. That, or the barkeep punched up my beers. Anything was possible when it came to the amount of alcohol consumed.

We gathered outside of the barracks after an unsatisfactory breakfast, wondering how we were going to get to the ruins. Last time we had obtained a caravan, but that didn’t seem to be in the same picture even with Amalarys in the loop.

Alain had taken the time out to loosely inform her of our impending trip to the ruins, which she had signed off without any difficulty. Evidently her desire to not loose us overrode any other concerns. Perhaps we had more slack with Javier’s absence. Growing pains. We wouldn’t know without asking her, and bringing attention to it would likely end all of the free rein we’d been given. Ergo, we embraced the confusion in lieu of restrictions.

Any further chance for a lack of understanding was halted with Candace’s leisurely stroll up to us, her hair just as immaculately ringed as it was the prior date. She looked just as pristine as she did at our evening meeting.

“I just realized,” she said, closing the remaining gap in a series of quick steps. “I never caught your names.”

“I’m Perry.”

“Mia.”

“Vera.”

“And I’m Alain. Ready to get going? It’s a long trip over to the ruins. We still need to scrounge up proper transportation though… a detail lost in the throes of alcohol last night.” He wore a sheepish expression, embarrassed at his publicly visible inadequacy at the pub.

“Oh hush. I did some investigating after leaving and I’m pretty sure I’ve found the location you were talking about. It has a gate setup that I should be able to connect us to, given it’s only intercontinental gating that’s prohibited, not intracontinental.”

Our confused stares led to another excessive sigh. “Just find us somewhere private and we’ll get this over with, alright?”

Unwilling to argue with Candace, we hastened to an empty alleyway, my electroreception confirming no one else was nearby. She took the opening and muttered some words under her breath, a shimmering golden coin the size of manor window opening in front of us. “Come on then,” she said, stepping on through, nothing of her body remaining on the other side of the tear.

Mia hastened on ahead, leaving the rest of us to follow, unwilling to leave her alone with Candace who was still a stranger even if we were affording her some measure of trust.

The other side revealed nothing other than the door leading into the ruins, a site I couldn't help but associate with loss.

“This… this is incredible,” Mia said, turning back towards Candace. “How did you do this?”

“It’s just a simple gate. If you weren’t limited to your beast soul system you would surely be able to do this, but I don’t know if you have the capacity to learn such a thing. Again, my know-how of your system is quite limited. I wasn’t part of the team when the project was created, even if I’ve overtaken the department responsible for it years later. I honestly wouldn’t have even done any of the research if the tracker from this one’s activity hadn’t presumably activated the alarms,” she said, gesturing at me.

She sighed, evidently unused to dealing with people so unaware of things. “Honestly it was strange this location had a registered gate, but I suppose security encryption was different back then. This must be a product of Academy Cerul.”

She saw our dumbfounded looks and tugged at her ringlets, face growing pink. “Look, they’re the other prominent Academy back home. They focus on more biological magic. I think both of our Academy’s liaised on the beast soul project, but they were doing their own work on the bio weapons that used a similar foundation. Be that as it may, I’m pretty sure I can break the encryptions and get this facility running, if that was preferable.”

With our absence of understanding how to answer, she groaned, refusing to explain any further. “Just do whatever you will,” I offered. “We’ll get to the tutorial on the beast soul system shortly thereafter, I guess.”

“Finally. Let’s continue on then.”

She waved her hands, murmuring to herself as we descended the stairs into the many-doored room, looking no different from our prior passage. There wasn’t even any trace of our movements, the dust having settled over our prior pathing.

In stark contrast to our prior entrance, however, there seemed to be the quiet thrum of electricity in the background, the factory brimming with sensations it was formerly lacking. That was also followed by the movement already present from the start, spike feeders lining up behind each door.

“This place is already surrounded,” I said. “We could go back above ground instead and barricade the door. Much harder for them to funnel out of a singular entrance.”

“Oh, don’t be such a worry wort,” Candace said. She forcefully stated a word that warbled through the air, colliding with two of the doors. A shimmering golden brick-like conjuration layered up in front of the surfaces, walling them off.

“That should easily hold. My readings suggest whatever bio weapons are present here are weak, and while my constructs aren’t siege weapon strong, nor are those creatures.” She motioned for us to go down the other hallway, the one we had trekked through in the past.

“Candace, that one’s—”

“I know. Calm down, alright?”

She spoke another indecipherable word, and a floating cylindrical barrel appeared over her shoulders, terminating in a closed off end, with two spoked wheels on each side. She noticed us staring at the design, blushing at our intent analysis.

“That’s just a design choice, to make it clear what the spell does. We would never use wheels nowadays. Pointless. Vestigial, if you would.”

She pointed forwards and snapped her fingers, the small conjuration issuing forth a ball of golden light. It bore through the door, sliding neatly through the spike feeder on the other side, the body sliding to the ground. It was already dead.

We stared at one another, impressed at the effortless firepower from Candace. I didn’t know if my Swollen Fur would have the aptitude to hold up to an attack. If she ever felt like she was going to dispose of us, it felt like we would have a minimal chance of escaping. If we would even come out intact.

She continued on down the hallway, stopping to study the glass cylinders on the side. “I didn’t think the Ceruls would stoop this low.”

Her fingers trailed across the sides of the objects, glimmering golden lines spreading at right angles, crawling over the surface. “Ugh, just another element to report on when I’m able to get back home. I don’t like how big of a report I’ll need to make.”

It seemed like she was past the point of caring about our presence in her need to talk to herself. Her frustration had welled to the point that it overtook any other sensation. It didn’t make understanding her cryptic words easier, but it did mean that we didn’t have to pause as much for her to try and talk her way out of the verbal mess she felt entitled to clean.

“Let’s keep going,” she said, the glimmering light vanishing from the broken glass cylinders. We continued into the walkway over the large room below, Candace cursing under her breath as she took in the sight.

Beneath us the three tracks were moving, slowly bringing anything atop them down the length of the room. The spike feeders below ambled about aimlessly, not caring about the moving belts, those who had lingered on the strips falling off.

Unable to let whatever she had seen go, Candace summoned another construct over her other shoulder, and the cylinders fired shot after shot, the bodies below collapsing. Only one shot was needed at a time.

In seconds the room was covered in corpses, Candace’s magic effective at brutally dispatching spike feeder after spike feeder. She needed no assistance, not that any was asked for. She motioned for us to continue on into the room at the end, unwilling to face the massacre she had issued on the floor beneath.

We entered the room with the black surfaces, the screens dark no longer, all shining with the thrum of electricity. Candace made a motion and the screens alighted, strange white letters peeking out through the murky darkness. “Well, I certainly didn’t expect this sort of place in my investigation. You’re either the stupidest agent of the Ceruls, Perry, or you’re what I’ve been leaning towards, an unlucky native. You’re very fortunate to have passed my investigation.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

She leaned against one of the walls, a thin trail of golden light connecting from her hair to the wall of boxes. “Let’s get down to business. Why don’t you display your system for us, Perry? That’s what we’ve been waiting for, after all.”

I shook my head at her quickly buried attack on my person. There wasn’t likely anything I could do about it. She’d already displayed overwhelming power compressed into such small objects, with such a versatility of objects. Anything further she could do would be out of my reach. It would have to tabled for letter. I would forgive her transgression, but I wouldn’t forget.

I thought to the boxes, for them to be visible to everyone.

Third Tier fully vested. New attribute enhanced. Tail enables capacity to burrow.

I blinked at the box that was present, feeling both pleased with my new feature of competency, but confused at what it was trying to imply. It must have come about on defeating the city-tier spike feeder, while I was unconscious, and I didn’t have the right mind to look at the boxes for all this time.

Candace turned her head, staring at the display that was present for everyone. “That’s… vague. Is this the sort of thing you normally have to go off of?”

A collection of grumbles appeared, although I refrained from adding in. Normal wasn’t the right word to describe my interactions with with the boxes anymore.

“You don’t have anything else more descriptive? I could understand if this is why you’re so… behind. Evidently back then we weren’t quite big fans of properly documenting anything. A practice I’m glad we’ve moved past now. Do you have anything better to share, Perry?”

I thought about it quickly, deciding it was better to be as open as I could be. The more I could share, the more Candace could possibly teach me.

Technique: Swollen Fur. Proficiency: 40%.

Derived from the platypus’s natural fur, this technique exaggerates a regular feature into something usable in combat. Is there normally that much air trapped in the fur? No. Does it normally swell up to that size? Again, no. Did that matter to Perry in his imagining of the technique? No for a third time. This technique makes a dream into reality, increasing the volume of Perry’s fur, creating a pocket of air to help minimize the impact of physical attacks on it. The air inside is breathable, as per its derived nature. It produces a thick hide that can withstand a series of blows, scaling off of the proficiency. Current efficacy: 80% damage reduction, effective for 3 blows

“Well, that’s certainly more detailed, but even those details are sparse and lacking. If I was home I would look up whoever made the beast soul system and have a stern word with them, but I’m not, so I’ll just have to remember to scold them later. It does have some interesting implications. Do you have any other techniques to read that we can compare to?

I didn’t feel too enthused about laying myself bare like that, but on the other hand, I had seen all of Mia’s techniques. It was fair to her that she could say the same.

Technique: Electromute. Proficiency: 50%

Perry’s usage of his electroreception has attuned him to the flow of electricity to the extent he understands where to cut it off. Is a platypus normally able to do anything like this? No, but a platypus also doesn’t have magic. This technique finds an area and shuts it off from receiving electrical signals for a short period of time. The time taken scales with proficiency. Current duration: 5 seconds, contingent on opponent’s defenses.

“Well, that’s quite a frightening technique you have there, but it’s still lacking concrete details. It does have an actual time frame, so that’s an improvement from the other one you shared. What’s up with the meta-commentary on the creation of the technique though? For whose benefit was that in writing the system? I’m so sorry that this is an Academy Aranc work. Evidently we were far too sloppy back then. Do you have anything else to share though?”

I shrugged, summoning up my last technique. Might as well share it at this rate.

Technique: Direct Current. Proficiency: 35%.

Perry’s usage of his electroreception has attuned him to the flow of electricity. What was an attempt to understand others was instead discovering a channel to thrust electricity through. Perry can either summon it onto an object before it gets dispersed, or just let it fly at an enemy, filling them with potent voltage. Platypuses wish they had this as a defense mechanism. Efficacy scales with proficiency. Current Efficacy: 70%

Candace groaned. “70% of what? It seems like even your administrative rights can’t discern what the underlying numbers are. Whatever. I suppose this is enough to demonstrate for your friends. This is the beast soul system that was created and bestowed to everyone you know. A means of given beast like attributes and a channel to create spells derived from the beast soul. The consequence of using it? You’re cut off from any other means of learning magic, which is why it was meant to be gifted to… certain populations. Some of the testing was meant try and circumvent this, I’m sure, but I don’t think we found any other results. We abandoned the project when we decided that there were better processed to develop for war weapons.”

Her words trailed off there, eyes widening in shock at the casual revelation she dropped.

“Excuse me? War weapons?” Mia shouted.

But her rage paled in comparison to Vera’s. “I’ve stayed quiet all this time, but if you’re going to say such lies about the doctrine then I can stand back no longer. I don’t care if Perry has the ability to share what his boxes say. That doesn’t change what they mean or where they come from. They’re a gift from the heavens to protect us from spike feeders and other invaders.”

“I’m sorry… Vera was it? Vera, I’m sorry. I’m not meaning to attack your faith. You can forget everything I’ve just said if you’d like. I would prefer you all did.”

Mia turned to Vera, grasping her by the shoulders. “Vera, listen to me. I know this is apocryphal. Do whatever you need to do to compartmentalize it, as this woman here has shown us enough that we can’t ignore it any longer. Is it fully true? Who knows? Is it enough that we can’t ignore it? Yes. We need to know all we can so that we can sort the lies from the truth.”

Vera scowled and walked off to the corner, covering her ears, while Mia turned back towards Candace. “Sorry, I don’t think there’s any turning back there, Candace. I think we deserve some additional details.”

The blonde woman sighed, slouching over. “This is more work than its worth. I should never have taken this job. Can’t believe the reports I’m going to have to write when I’m home, but I guess that doesn’t matter while I’m still here. I’ve already said far too much, but I’ll try to build off of what I’ve shared in an appropriate matter.”

She pulled at her ringlets, biting her lips, eyes flitting about as though reading from an unseen script. “Look. Way back when the beast souls were developed, the threat of war was looming over in the northern continent. Therefore there were some contracts open for weapons to use, and Academy Aranc wasn’t one to be left out. We… unethically found grounds to do research. A formal education for magic can take far too long to create forces ready for war. Ergo, we wanted to see if we could create a shortcut for our armed forces to use, specialized skills that could be utilized at a faster rate.”

“We… vaguely succeeded. It’s certainly faster than my education, but still not fast enough for a proper timescale for war. We scrapped the project, and in the end, the bid was won by someone else. We weren’t the only ones aiming for it, of course. The bigger issue was there was a lot of unethical work put into the development of this system. Perhaps some trials that followed after. We paid a few fines and focused away from any biological component, and that’s paid dividends going forwards. The same can’t be said for Academy Cerul, who it seems may be still up to doing work on this project. I can’t say I’m a fan of that, but who would be surprised given they haven’t stopped working on biological magic.”

“Long story short, our intent doesn’t excuse our actions, thus causing whatever is happening over here. It looks like we weren’t thorough enough in our cleanup efforts, and for that you have our deepest apologies, although I don’t know if that will ever make up for the legacy of this project.”

It was a lot to take in, not even counting the context that was missing from understanding this. She spoke of a world that was so distant from our imaginations, a place that couldn’t even be reached, a time far beyond our own. For all that I had wanted to learn everything I could, I was finally being paid in spades, and yet none of it made sense. Maybe it would have been comprehensible to someone like Brunhilde, but I was struggling to swallow what Candace shared.

“Well, it looks like I’m done with this data dump, and I think that’s a sufficient amount of tutorial. It’s also proven to me that you aren’t the cause of the gating block, Perry. I’ve got some other research to do, but I’ll be in touch. Is there anything else you need?”

“Uh, transportation back to the city?” I asked.

She sighed, shaking her head. “That went without saying. I’d recommend being cautious in whatever further interactions you have with your system. It wasn’t very well tested, I can tell you that. So err on the side of caution, alright?”

I nodded, swallowing any other thoughts I had. She pushed at the air and the room darkened, leaving us to follow her back to the outdoors, her walls in front of the doors still standing. “I’m going to check out the other factories and get what I can before destroying them, for the record. I’d advise keeping your people away from here, alright?”

Another shimmering tear appeared, expanding to the size of a coin. She motioned for us to continue on through, the others going ahead while I lingered for a moment. “What’s the limit on this thing? Any thoughts on what would be good to do with it?”

“Honestly? Evaluate your friends, perhaps. More information leads to more options. Stay safe, Perry. I’m going to check up on you as soon as I’m done with some more of this work. Academy Aranc has some reparations to make, after all.”

She motioned for me to pass through and I exited, unwilling to fight with perhaps the most powerful person I’ve known. As I appeared in the alley, the gate vanished behind me, leaving me with the team once more, at a loss for words. We stared at one another, no words passing between us, confusion our common medium.

“Why don’t we think things over lunch?” Mia offered. We grunted, finding one thing to be in agreement. There was a lot to consider.