An audino rushes out of the crowd. We both recognize her as the same one that had come with Ugo after the pangoro's test. She dashes to the zoroark's side, her chubby body bouncing with each steps, grim determination etched upon her face.
The zoroark convultions are getting worse at this point. his eyes have rolled back inside his head and spit is dribbling along his face.
Once the audino begins to inspect the fox pokemon, Princess immediately pesters the nurse pokemon in pokespeak. The audino, at first ignore her leader, but after the insistant asking, she snaps back at the florges, asking something akin to 'Let me work.'.
We both observe the situation unsure in what to do or if we actually can do anything. The audino casts Heal pulses after life dew, but results are sparse. After a couple, it seems she is able to lessen the zoroarks tremors if only partially.
Princess finally notices Knowledge symbol upon her aide's forehead and turns to us. She looks at us with a mix of worry and anger, her expression that of arrogant royalty ready to deliver a sentence.
What is the meaning of this? What have thy gods done?
Mewtwo and I are hesitant, but the thorny vines slowly growing from Princess head bouquet makes us speak. "That might be one of the answers..." I hazard.
Explain! Her though are akin to an order, filled with concerns and disdain at my half-answer.
"When we asked knowledge for the range of blessing, he told us Ozo would have his answer shortly after our return. If Ozo is indeed the name of your aide, then Knowledge has blessed him with the entire list of all possible blessing they each may gift any of you." I explain before adding in a slighlty somber tone. "It may also be a warning to be careful about what you ask for."
Princess scowls at us even more. The thorny vines around her head trash threateningly as she debates what to do. Until she sighs, and the thorns disappear from her vines. Instead, She creates a bed of vines. She slowly and gently moves her aide upon it and then and lets the audino continue her work. Said audino is thankful and redouble her efforts. The convulsions have abated even more, to the point that only small tremors continue to shake the fox pokemon.
Fine. It would be unbecoming of royalty to attack a messenger for the sin of their master. What else has thou learn then? Share with us. She orders.
We nod and relay what answers both Hunt and Knowledge gave us for the citizens of the Sanctuary. We leave the extra question we kept for ourselves out of the discussion.
Many ooh's and aah's leave the crowd, as well as a few disappointed growls and hiss. Especially on the part that states the Trio does not care about anyone that tries to impress them. Some ask for clarification, but most answers ends with us repeating ourselves.
Once all questions about the answers we got have been resolved, Princess dismisses the onlookers, leaving only me, Mewtwo, Princess, Ozo and the audino within the large throne room.
We thank thee for thy collaborations. When will thou take on another such trial?
We can both feel that Princess is part eager for more answer, but also concerned for it to turn up like what happened to her aide.
"We have not yet looked at the next sets of trials, let us look and we will give you our answer." I say, while Mewtwo summons the newly unlocked trials for our eyes only.
Four new trials have been unlocked.
Second Trial of the Hunter:
Test your wits and mind. Hunt me down again and claim your prize.
Be mindful, not all preys are harmless.
Goals: Hunt me, catch me, and remain the predator!
Rewards: 1000xp, 5 Exp. Candy XL, the meat of your prey,
[Enter Trial]
Second Trial of the Seeker
Seek the answer to the problem presented before you.
No sustenance shall be needed.
Only once you complete the Trial shall you be allowed to leave.
Task: Problem solving.
Reward: Knowledge for future use, 2000xp, 10 XP candy XL.
[Enter Trial]
First Trial of the Historian
Witness events of the past, and gleam answers from it.
No sustenance shall be needed.
You may review this trial as many times as you wish once you complete it.
Task: Observation, reflection
Reward: Awareness of the world, 2000xp, 5 XP candy XL.
[Enter Trial]
Trial of Chaos: Come chat with me.
Normal trial here, nothing special, just come have a chat.
Reward: More answers, or less, depends on you kids.
[Enter Trial]
We take a look at the new possibilities.
Hunt asks another hunt from us, but this time the prey might fight back. We feel confident we could do it right now, but might hold out. I still seem to suffer no mental backlash like Mewtwo, but He still needs time to recover, and I am more than okay in letting him rest.
Knowledge gives us two new trials, which, upon further investingation, seems to be the new norm for him. Two lines of trials stem from the first one, although they seem to need to be completed in order. We are both curious as to what past events we will be given to witness.
and finally Chaos... Chaos gives us the creeps. He is either being absolutely honest and we could spend some free time with him, or it could be the same as last time, and we risk destroying ourselves for potentially unlimited answers. We are definitely shelving this one for now.
We take a good look at the trials, then back at Princess. And we answer in unison. "Not for a long time!".
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Princess appears both relieved and disappointed at our answer, but not overly surprised. That is understandable, seeing how thou both returned from thy first trial. Codine, please look them over before they leave.
The audino bows her chubby body to the florges and bounces to us. She gestures for us to sit, and gives us a quick once over. At least she does so for Mewtwo. From what he tells me, she asks for him to rest and maybe eat a few razz berries as a supper, to help with mental recuperation.
Once she moves on to me however, she seems confused. She scans me with her extensible ear feelers at multiple points of my body, and each times she frowns. She tries a multiple times before asking me somthing. Although once she notices my confused expression at her cute growls, she turns to Mewtwo for help.
I am going to translate, it'll be easier that way. Mewtwo says to the both of us with a sigh.
Once Mewtwo give her a go sign, Codine the audino asks her questions once more. "Human, why do you have no heartbeat? Why are you cold as iron? Something makes weird sounds within your torso. Do you know what it could be?"
"Err... I am a machine..." I answer. I am surprised she did not catch on that when she came to treat me and Mewtwo last time. Then again, she did not approach me.
She tilts her head in incomprehension. "Mewtwo, help me here."
Give me your right arm. He asks me with a neutral expression.
I comply, and before I can ask him what for, he summons a psychic blade, and cut my forearm in between two pieces of armor. Thanks to his rather impressive growth, the act is now more easily executed.
I utter neither a cry nor a sound at the act. Only my facial expression changes as I give him a scandalized look and a silent why.
Here, that should give you a good idea of what he is made out. Mewtwo tell the pink and cream pokemon, giving her my freshly cut arm and ignoring my reaction.
The audino is equally concerned about my friend cutting my arm, and me not uttering a single sound at the act. She takes the offered limb with a slight reverence and inspects it. Her frown deepens when she looks at the cut side. Carbon wires, electric cables, half of pistons and mechanical parts are visible, all wrapped around two metal bones at the center of the arm. She only gets a about a minute to inspect it before it begins to melt into gray dust.
She panics and try to collect it even as it dissolves into finer and finer dust.
"Don't worry, I don't need it." I reassure her by waving my partially reformed arm.
Once more reassured, she observe the phenomena for its entire length, until only my armored gauntlet remains. She then look at the final phases of my right hand regenerating itself. She looks with fascination as cables, mechanical parts and wires rebuilt themselves along metal bones. Once the skin covers everything once again, her eyes sparkle. "Could I get another one? Please?" She asks us in cute voice.
I wince, but Mewtwo is already priming his psychic blade.
Doctor's order Astra. He declares igniting his hand with a psychic blade once more and cutting my right hand with smile. You don't have to enjoy doing that Mewtwo...
"Want the left one as well for comparison?" I propose, raising my remaining hand.
The audino vigorously nods and Mewtwo shrugs. I sigh, but wait for my right hand to regenerate. I am going to preemptively remove the armor this time.
Once both my forearms are nakes, I extend them.
Mewtwo cuts my right hand for the third time, but hesitate on the left. He looks at the light blue glass-like parts upon the top of my hand and forearm and asks a question that I should have . Astra, where is your inventory stored?
A question I should have asked myself some time ago already. Where is my inventory stored. I never questioned it. I can store materials, tools and all sorts of things in my inventory, but where and how are they actually stored? I know where my chips are, as I my shoulder opens with the slots, but where is my inventory, physically? Is it another chip? Something else? Is it even linked to my body at all?
"I have no idea... Hopefully not in my forearm." I joke.
What if it is though? Mewtwo stresses. What happens if we destroy it?
Yeah I can see his point. "Okay, let's try anyway, but let me empty it first." I propose.
And so, for the next dozen minutes, I proceed to empty the entirety of my inventory, to the bewilderment of all present minus Mewtwo. Each piles of ores, ingots and materials I get out have Princess and Codine's eyes grow wider and wider.
Where did thou find all these things? Princess finally asks, unable to contain her curiosity.
Mining, mostly. Mewtwo answers for me. And those are from your own donations. He adds as I start unloading piles of logs after piles of logs.
Codine goes to inspect the materials and once more seems confused.
"Why do they all look the same? Look your highness, they are completely similar." The audino brings two logs to the florges and the floating mermaid looks in confusion as well.
Those are indeed similar. No, those are more than similar, those are the exact same. She concludes. How can this be?
That's a weird quirk of his storage system. Everything gets in different but comes out identical. No idea why or how that works. Sometimes we ga- Ow! I chuck a stone at Mewtwo. Hey!
"Remember the village." I hiss, as I continue to unload piles after piles of pebbles.
Ah... well... yeah it... harmonizes everything. Mewtwo concludes his explanation. Princess knows I stopped Mewtwo from sharing something, but she does not press further.
When I move to the food, she does becomes suspicious once more as the amount easily dwarf what she knows she has gifted us. How did thou come into such amounts of produces?
"I can grow more by myself. Recent addition to my arsenal of abilities." I answer. "But those took me about four weeks to accumulate."
She nods, satisfied by my answer. That would make thee quite the granary. Something to keep in mind...
I shudder at that. It almost sounded like she was ready to sequester me to be a living farm. And to think I just stopped Mewtwo from sharing something similar when I just happily babble about such a dangerous capacity. Mewtwo even sends me an offended glare. Sorry pal, I'm dumb.
I finish unloading the inferium essence as well as the other kinds I have grown, and I am finally done. Princess looks at the pile of essences and picks up a handful. We saw someone attempt to cultivate something similar once. They claimed one could make anything out of them... When we returned, his farm had been trampled, and the dark god effigy stood atop his burned house. Was he right Revenant? And did they get punished for it? Will thou also attract the ire of he who looks above?
I remain silent. Another case similar to the legend of Marble city. Someone went too far along a path, and was punished for it. "Princess, I think we have both already incurred the Eziakophael wrath." Codine shudders at the mention of the name, "So I might as well dabble in all the forbidden paths I can if they allow me better chances at survival." I declare. "Anyway, my inventory is empty now." I add, and we look at the piles of materials now filling a good tenth of the room. It reminds me of Knowledge trial.
"Whenever you are ready Mewtwo." I tell him as I extend my arms. "Ah wait, pass me a pebble or two, that'll let us know what happens when we damage the storage part if it's here."
Mewtwo nods at that, and floats some pebbles my way. I store them, and he prepares his blade. I extend both my arms once more and he slashes down. Both limbs are neatly cut and caught by Mewtwo's telekinetic grasp, and we cluster around the audino doctor to see her reaction and what she can glean on my mechanical biology.
Codine eagerly takes the two limbs and inspect them. Immediately, she points out some differences. Some I had anticipated, such as the thicker plating on my left arm, as well as the thicker clusters of wires, some looking like glass fiber. She points out how the darker wires are in mirrored positions on each hands, positing that those might be muscle equivalent.
What I had not expected, and neither questioned was what was in the projector in my forearm, or on and in my hand for that matter. Mewtwo quickly dissect my left hand under Codine's request and guidance, and we witness what hides beneath the armor.
It is mostly clusters of microchips and tiny wires clustered around the inner projector. Beneath the glass lens are multiple tiny needle linked to each clusters. Those are the parts that must allow me to manifest matter from thin air, as well as dematerialize it. On the more bulbous glass parts on top of my hand as well as the forearm, we find actual printed circuits covering the entire inner parts of the projectors. Beneath the glass, millions of tiny reflective spots cover the inside cover the inner parts. They must be the one that allow for holographic projection visible to everyone.
The final thing Codine points out before my arms begin to melt once more is a very specific difference on my right arm. Within it are multiple hollow wires that she declares are almost organic in nature, and seems placed in a similar pattern as blood vessels in a human arm. She asks why I would only have them on my right arm, and I come out empty. I even try to look it up through the tutorial sections, but find nothing. Mewtwo then tells me somthing that he noticed, but is unsure if we should share. These cables seems to be following the tattoo I have on my right arm. I decide to keep this observation to ourselves.
As final test, I try to access my inventory, and actually can. The piece I stone I left in is still there, and I can still interact with my inventory, making us conclude the inventory storage is not in my forearm, and that I do not need hands to use my inventory, another thing I only share with Mewtwo. The inventory loccation not being in my arm is aa reassuring realization, but it does not help us narrow its actual location.
Once my cut limbs have fully dissolved, Codine asks for another sample. But Princess intervene. As much as we enjoy thy elation at studying such a being, it may be best to let them return to their dwelling today. My aide might also require thy attention soon.
As if on cue. The fox pokemon stirs with a groan. The audino rushes to the pokemon's side, and slowly eases him in a sitting position. Once he opens his eyes, he looks around confused. "Where is everyone?" He asks, and I look at Mewtwo.
What?
"Did you translate that?" I ask.
No? He just said 'where-'
"'Is everyone.' I understood him." I cut him.
Mewtwo looks at me in surprise, then at Ozo. The zoroark mane is sprawled all around him, giving him a mighty look. It would look mightier if not for the confusion in his face as his eyes dart from Princess, to Codine, to us. "What happened? What-" He stops and holds his head in pain. "I... I... I know... so... much... So much." He manages to mutter.
"Yeah I understood all of that." I whisper to Mewtwo.
The zoroark suddenly jumps to his feet, almost loses his balance, but manages to remain upright. Codine tries to protest at the zoroark actions, but he turns around and meets his queen eyes. "Your highness, I have an answer. I have so many answers!" He exclaims, taking a knee with one clawed hand on the floor.
Tis as the revenant and legend stated. Thou has been gifted by our new protectors. Rest my aide, and share thy knowledge once thou feels better. Princess orders.
The zoroark looks up, ready to argue, but Princess steely gaze silences him. He bows his head once more, and leave, escorted by Codine.
Thou should go as well. Thy help was welcome. Return to thine dwelling.
We both bow and, once I collect back my inventory, under the confused gaze of Ozo, we exit as well.
Once we are far enough from the throne room, we sigh in relief. Princess may not have pressure as an ability, but sometimes, it feels as if she does.
"That was eventful." I comment, breaking our silent ascent to the surface.
It was indeed. You have an interesting inner structure. He says, chuckling.
"Eh, guess the Trio did give me some pretty good looking internal parts." I joke.
We laugh as we return to the surface. We are greeted by the Sanctuary sun at its zenith. Two realizations hits us. Only the morning passed for the Ezian plane, and we have only a day and a half left before we have to exit the Sanctuary for our next raid.
"Hey, Mewtwo. Do you want to stay within the Sanctuary once the raid is done?" I ask him.
If they let us, I do not see why not. But we will need to expand the space we have. You know that little mana farm might be the smallest one we may have to create.
"Yeah, maybe they'll let us? We did help them quite a lot."
We will have ask Princess after the raid. Mewtwo concludes, and I agree.
Once we reach the cottage, we sit on the porch, and look at our pitiful set ups. Yes, Knowledge trial gave us access to parts we do not have yet, but it also put in perspective what we could have already done with what we have.
"I am going to try and semi-automate the endoflames." I declare.
I will return to my experiments tomorrow. Mewtwo says while yawning.