Eric blinked back tears as the burning sensation left by the small purple berries he had just chewed was washed down by the astringent Pulyo fruit juice he had prepared before beginning today’s tasting session. Grimacing at the lingering pain, Eric spared a glance at the notification that had suddenly appeared:
Tsiryin Berry
Planet of Origin: Sovalem, Dirketar System, Nakaram Sector, Scaled Empire East
Characterized by its violet, pitted skin and strong spicy flavor, the Tsiryin Berry has been commercially cultivated as a flavor additive by several Dekulan and Human Clans native to the Imperial East.
Ingredient: ???
Forms: ???
Eric’s eyebrows rose: That description format was new, and it had quite a lot more detail than what Eric was used to getting from his God-Tongue ability. The name of the berry itself seemed familiar, though.
“Your God-Tongue ability has evolved to its third iteration, sir.”
“Excellent, Pig!” Eric said with a smile, wiping at his still-stinging tongue with a damp cloth. After three more days of peace and rest his AI was slowly returning to its former gregarious self, although there were still long stretches of time where Pig remained silent, leaving Eric feeling uncharacteristically alone in his own head.
Without further prompting, Pig displayed a window.
God-Tongue (General)
Effect 3: Gain general information regarding anything you taste. Anything you may have learned about the ingredient from other sources will be incorporated in the description. Warning: Be careful with information sources as false information may be displayed.
Further Effects may become available if certain conditions are met.
Well, it didn’t seem as if he had actually gained much but he was happy to see the ability improving even if by only a little. He just needed to taste more ingredients as well as begin trying to cook the library of recipes he had Pig store back when they had still been back in the Union. He planned to start with simple dishes, swapping out the Union-side ingredients with the closest System-verse analogues he could determine with his ability. He could hardly wait, as Osar’s glowing descriptions of the abilities of a Chef-adept had made him even more excited about trying to cultivate the rarefied art of food preparation.
This was why, apart from his other training sessions and self-imposed duties at the Abattoir, Eric had made sure to set aside some time in his day to read various culinary and culinary-adjacent books to broaden his knowledge base of potential ingredients as well as trying out his God-Tongue ability on as many of the ingredients they had in storage as possible.
Thankfully, he could now see that his efforts were bearing fruit.
Aside from his God-Tongue, Eric had been working on those abilities of his that he could easily level, practicing them both by himself and with the help of his companions. They had all quickly established that although sparring and mock-battles did give some progress to the growth of abilities, they were incomparable to the gains they managed during actual combat. So, during this downtime period, Eric and the rest of the team prioritized those abilities that were less combat-oriented.
Osar had repeatedly stressed the importance of getting each of their abilities to their maximum iterations before they consolidated their three cores and entered the Expert or Steel Stage of Gens Development. In fact, the Urgan had been encouraging all of the Terrans to select and slot in their Root Cores so they could all choose their Root ability and begin leveling it up as well. Eric understood the sentiment if not the sense of urgency, but was already feeling a bit overwhelmed by everything he had to learn, keep in mind, and keep track of. He wanted some time to consolidate his gains and create a cohesive style to utilize his abilities efficiently.
“Pig, can I please see the ability progression chart again?”
A slate grey window appeared. Pig had developed a method to provide information gleaned from the notification windows that Eric had already viewed, an ability that had come about as a result of all the hours the AI had spent experimenting with the interface system of the D-S battlesuit. It was a welcome addition to Pig’s repertoire, since now Eric could get detailed report packets without having to dredge through the mass of his past notifications, which faded away after a few days anyway. The window Pig had presented to him now was one such report, showing all the abilities and their current progress based out of information presented by Eric’s Gens Schema.
Auto-Map: Effect 2. Progress to Effect 3: 27%
Burden: Eff 3: Progress to Effect 4: 8%
Black Spot: Eff 3: Progress to Effect 4: 10%
Combat Style Evolution Seed: Inactive, gathering input
Dragon Sight: Eff 2: Progress to Effect 4: 88%
God-Tongue: Eff 3: Progress to Effect 4: 0%
Squad Net: Eff 2: Progress to Effect 3: 2%
Tendril Trap: Eff 2: Progress to Effect 3: 36%
Transparent Body: Eff 1: Progress to Effect 2: 5%
Osar had mentioned that the abilities at the Foundation Stage capped at effect ten, and that Eric would be given the option to combine many of them, as long as they were capped, when he finally merged his three cores into the single, smaller one that signaled the transition to an adept’s Tempered Stage, the same Stage that Osar was currently at.
The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Of all his abilities Eric had found that Transparent Body was particularly difficult to increase since it required him to be naked for the full effect. It had been impossible to use outside the Fortress when the Stage was still exposed to the void, but even with the atmosphere restored there was no way in hell that Eric was going to experiment with the ability. Instead, he would have to use his free ability upgrades on Transparent Body until it could transform into something that he could use.
The rest of the abilities, except the Combat Style Evolution Seed, were almost guaranteed to level up as long as Eric continued with his personal Quest to clear the Stage and revive the Obsidian Moon. Just battling the Chitterer Behemoth and the Oroghast Lord and their forces had raised his abilities tremendously, and he could expect to encounter more of the beasts as he strived to complete the Quest.
A quick mental prompt made Pig bring up the relevant window:
Accepted Hidden Quest Modified (AuthOrEd#46136): Revive the Obsidian Moon
Step 2 Objective: Clear the Stage and Claim Authority over the Level
Sub-Objective 1: Restore the Stage’s Atmospheric Envelope 1/1
Sub-Objective 2: Control Stage Districts 2/5
Sub-Objective 3: Clear Beast Lairs/Nests 2/8
Sub-Objective 4: Eliminate Stage Bosses 2/9
Sub-Objective 5: Recover the Red Level Access Key 0/1
Time Limit (Modified): Three Imperial Months (88:05:27 days remaining)
Step 2 Reward (Modified): Access to the Red Level, Access to the next Quest Level, Type-Relevant Expert Memory Stone x1, Transcendent Ability Ticket x1, Gold Item Tickets x5
You have already accepted this active Quest.
According to this, they had already gained control of two of the Stage districts, leaving only three more to battle for. This morning, Eric had already informed Luna that he would be meeting with her for a detailed planning session regarding the current status of the Stage and how the Vessel Interface and its small army of drones could help him and the team accomplish the Quest’s objectives.
Reminded of the other tasks he had set himself to do today, Eric swept the table clear of the bowls of tasting ingredients and various books, scrolls, and learning cubes. Finished, he then jogged out of the kitchen area’s wide doorway in the direction of the closest gym.
The gymnasium Eric entered a few minutes later was one of the smaller physical training areas available for self-improvement within the Officer’s Quarters. It had a small anteroom for warm-ups and changing clothes, and then a larger inner room with different floor sections; sandy, earthen, moving, as well as the more mundane hard- and soft-floors. A mirrored wall opposite the door completed the facility. It was a simple, elegant space that Osar had called a feraqa, a blade-masters room, where swordsmen could hone their deadly craft. There were larger training rooms in the Quarters of course, with the largest boasting both an indoor running track and a swimming pool, but for some reason the compact, self-contained nature of this particular gym made it the team’s favorite.
At the doorway of the inner room Eric stopped.
In the soft-floored section, moving in the dimly lighted interior, Osar was practicing his sword-play.
Stripped down to a black and grey undersuit, his ears covered by a blocky muffler, the big man was moving through an intricate dance, both hands on the long hilt of a beautiful sword that Eric had never seen before.
As Eric watched, the unaspected aether in the room flowed in small, contained vortices, glowing pearl when they touched the sword’s metal. Silvery runes along the middle of the blade flickered with silver fire.
Osar came to a stop, sword held straight before him, sweat beading on his broad face. He opened his eyes and saw Eric standing at the doorway. With a nod, the Urgan straightened, letting go with his left hand and slashing the sword down to his side with the right.
“Jad-Os.” The big man said, his voice low. “I have just finished.”
“It’s fine,” Eric said. “That’s a beautiful sword.”
“Lights.” Osar nodded in agreement as he spoke the word, and the room brightened. The big warrior produced a small towel and wiped at his face even as he handed Eric the sword hilt-first. The veteran soldier took the sword from the Urgan’s extended hand, marveling at how light the blade weighed.
“Its name is Cazjerul, the Unruly One,” Osar’s voice had dropped even lower, and he turned his back to Eric as he talked. “It was once the weapon of a great warrior woman of our people, an Areylan called Vreetai Sogales Arrantha.”
“Areylan?”
“It means woman warrior,” Osar said. “We Urgan are matriarchal, for it is up to the women to protect the tribe when the men go out to war.” The man gave a snort of what sounded like amusement. “Because they are the tribe’s protectors, our women are genetically faster, stronger, and generally bigger than the average male… but there are those among them that do not want the life at the Clan-cities and holds, and these become the Areylan.”
“And Vreetai, where is she now?”
“She is dead.” The words were harsh and blunt, and Eric could sense the pain behind them. “She died fighting in one of the Empire’s endless wars, the sacrifice for a political gambit that saw almost two entire Legions lost.”
Eric kept his silence, remembering his own long years of service and his own restless dead.
“The few of us who served under her that… survived… we swore an Oath on the System; that we would see those responsible for her murder dead, even if we die in the trying.”
“And that Oath remains unfulfilled.”
“It does…” Osar admitted, turning to face Eric. “To my eternal shame it does.”
Thinking, Eric handed Cazjerul back to Osar. “But you still intend to keep it?”
“Absolutely.” Osar said firmly, looking directly at Eric’s face, as if challenging him to say otherwise. Eric nodded, and the Urgan relaxed. The sword disappeared into Osar’s ring as he gave Eric a slight smile.
“It is why I agreed to hunt a dragon Jad-Os… The money I could have gotten from the carcass would go a long way towards advancing the timeline so that I can fulfill my Oath.”
“I see.” Eric said, impulsively placing his hand on his companion’s shoulder.
“Remember you also have us.”
[The drones are spreading through the Stage, Commander,] Luna was standing before a large three-dimensional hardlight representation of the Stage, showing the various divisions and known lairs. As soon as the meeting had started a small drone had handed Eric a round auto-helm to wear. As he put it on Luna explained that the device would help him manipulate the views and features of the map that she had prepared for him. [They are scouting out several areas that might contain useful resources and other important structures, as well as the places where our targets are holed up. Soon, we will be able to show every lair and major congregation of these parasites so you can eliminate them.]
Eric smiled at Luna’s phrasing, his mirth tempered by the fact that he and his companions would have to put their lives on the line to ‘eliminate’ the vermin that the Vessel Interface had mentioned. The map covered a very large area, a self-contained city as large as many of those Eric had visited and lived in while serving the Union’s interests. It was all surprisingly similar to the cities that Eric was used to, with facilities and buildings that, if you did not look too closely, looked like the ones in his so-called ‘modern’ reality of origin.
But along with that, came modern tactical problems.
Eric would have to look at the map again with Serra to concretize a plan of attack, since he knew the woman had a cunning mind and would be able to point out details that he might miss, but just from looking at Luna’s map he already knew how difficult the path to completely clearing the Stage would be. One matter in particular weighed heavily on Eric’s mind, especially since during his time commanding the Union Army they had often been dropped into battle from orbital platforms or ships.
“Is there a way to stop just anyone from landing on the Stage from the void, or will the Barrier stop them?”
[The Atmospheric Barrier will not stop void vessels passing through, Commander.]
“I see…”
[It will however, alert me if a vessel does pass through it.]
“That is something at least,” Eric said softly, stroking his chin. “And you can reach me anywhere within the Stage?”
[Yes, Commander: The increased levels of aetheric saturation within the dome will permit me to manifest anywhere within the Stage.]
“Very good.” Eric then looked over the hardlight map of the Stage and indicated an area on it. The autohelm worked perfectly, responding to Eric’s thoughts, allowing him to access its features intuitively. “I have questions about how we’ll need to approach this area here…”
Luna’s projection peered down at the map and the two of them discussed the next steps to take in order to fulfill Eric’s quest.
Outside, the light from the atmospheric dome began to dim as another night fell.