[Message received: Dr. Shedill]

[The kid has left the hospital. I have allowed him to go outside but only on a team mission and restricted within the Core Barrier.]

[Thank you.]

Picking up a data stone, Fria-al handed it to her servant.

"Take it to that same place. Quick."

"Yes, boss."

For months that kid had been stuck inside the hospital only allowed outside very rarely. Now that he had gotten the permission, she had no doubt he was itching to head straight outside and for that he needed equipment.

She could not understand him. He would rush to the outside without any hesitation despite the pain from his injuries.

‘He hasn’t even made a full recovery yet.’

“Sigh!”

She hated that but she was powerless. It had always felt like smashing her head against a wall, no matter how many times she tried but he did not listen. Despite that, she had to try otherwise the death of her dear brother would have been in vain.

The promise that she had gained this time was the first opportunity that appeared in front of her. She would not let it go. Just had to bear it for a bit longer.

'... surely he will see the magnificence of life…'

At any rate, he would need equipment. She would try to dissuade him from going out.

'... Your armor will take a few months to make. Why not go to the capital and you can check the alloy?...'

This time she could not nag him a lot. Though he bore with it, if he became annoyed, it would be difficult to get him to listen.

"I will be closing early, so please be quick."

Suddenly a liveliness filled the small space as those browsing the equipment quickly made their purchases and left.

Fria-al went back to her workshop. A new armor, almost ready. It just needed finishing touches. Next to the armor were a pair of blades and a rifle. It had taken many cycles to get this good, to reach a level of skill that he had no choice but to come to her. After all, she charged him nothing for her services aside from the base costs.

Adding a finishing touch to the armor she started testing it. It was nearly at the level he had been using but the cost to build had changed over these seven cycles.

While her body automatically went through the procedures, her mind ran wild. Simulating how their conversation would go, how she would try, how he would ignore her.

***

Objectively, the roads were wide and they became wider the closer he got but so did the stream flowing through them. Humans were everywhere and the bigger road felt increasingly smaller.

His steps matched the rhythm of the crowd and he moved undisturbed due to the threads coiling around him. As he did want to overload the core, there were only a few tens of threads but they were enough.

Anything that trespassed a certain distance, he instantly knew about it.

The vibrations he could feel from his feet increased not just because of the cargo trains that were below their feet. It started becoming louder and louder as various different sounds mixed and mashed into one.

Human talking, machinery roaring, and maddening whispers constantly followed him. They all mixed into a disgusting noise. His head hurt. He bore through like he always had to.

The dim lights suddenly brightened, their intensity such that it pierced through his closed eyes. A bright orange filled his vision behind his closed eyelids instead of the ever-present black.

'Agh…'

With a pain-filled moan, he closed his eyes. The light was painful, it had been so long since he had been exposed to such strong light. He staggered.

Alert.

Alert.

Alert.

A swirl. A forward step. A jump. A mid-air spin. His fall was delayed and by that time another pocket of space opened and he landed safely avoiding any collision.

He moved with the stream, occasionally peaking through his finger slits. It allowed him to grasp his location, and determine whether he was going in the right direction. If he had been okay, he would have just spread the strings and grasped the location of the lift, at the moment he was nearly useless.

Steady. A thought that popped up every time he sat on the lift. Slowly but steadily it moved, taking thousands across multiple floors of the settlement.

It would take some time before he was at his destination.

The Qi moved slowly, he noted once again. It had seemingly returned to its normal gaseous state but only in constancy. The usual level of control he could exert over it was not present. Just a single circulation took minutes to complete, something that had never happened before.

The core was still damaged. As he focused on it, his senses gathered to inspect the scars that were still present.

'Expected…'

It was to be expected. He had never before exerted it to such a degree.

'... And I still survived…'

***

Tink~

An old-fashioned bell chimed while the doors automatically opened. Stepping in he looked around. It was empty, something that was unexpected.

"You came after all."

A nod.

"How are you?"

Another nod.

"At least speak a few words."

Another nod and his steps headed towards one of the booths. A glare followed his back but he ignored it.

He only needed a temporary set of equipment. An armor, a set of blades, and something long-ranged.

"You are going out? In this state?"

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A nod.

"Why? Was it not bad enough already? Do you want to die now?"

Silence. He kept browsing. He would listen to the lecture that was going to follow, that much he could bear for this level of equipment.

"Inero-ie, answer."

"Doc..tor gav.e per…miss.ion."

He turned to look at his guardian.

"And? Will it kill you to wait a few more months? By then your new armor would be ready. How about it?"

She knew it would be useless. As useless as trying to terraform the land outside the Core Barrier. As useless as trying to create a foothold outside the Grand Formation. It did not do much to calm her heart. Normally she would have nagged him, taking out her frustration upon this stubborn brat but she had to be patient this time.

He turned back to the booth.

She lunged, hands spread apart to capture him. She had always wanted to do this.

Inero-ie ducked, followed by a roll. He moved to another booth and continued browsing.

"Maybe I should have just hardened my heart back then and… Sigh."

"Stay still, damned kid! I want to beat you up."

Again he escaped her grasp. She had higher cultivation than him. Back then and even now. Back then he had been inexperienced.

He amused her, sometimes letting her catch him. He could amuse her. He was too much indebted to her.

Holograms changed and with it the specifications of the equipment. There were many more models than he remembered last seeing and not just that, their quality was much higher too.

'Still a bit far from the equipment she had made for me…'

These were the mass-produced versions that she made to sell as a hobby. It meant that the new armor would vastly outperform the one he had been using. It also meant he would be that much farther away from his desire.

Stopping the needless browsing he instead filtered through the equipment he needed. All he needed was something that would allow him to wander in the Core Barrier.

'Hum!'

The Qi in the air had started bending. It was very slight but just that ability was abnormal. He had never encountered anyone this powerful before inside the settlement. The strings uncoiled, moving towards the sensation. It was dense and it kept coming closer.

Closer and closer.

'Why?'

A glance. She had been glancing at the door. Their eyes met. A pause.

'Did she really…'

He rushed towards the exit. She overtook him, blocking the door.

"Stop!"

Before she could close the door, he bypassed her, rushing out of the shop and into the crowd.

"Sigh…"

"Seeker Fria-al, what happened?"

"Inero-ie escaped."

Head tilting, he asked,

"Why? Did he find something problematic?"

"I didn't even talk about that. He just ran away. Maybe he sensed you, he is very sharp."

"Shall we follow?"

"He would have already gotten away. I will inform the other harvesters at the exit gates. They will delay him if he tries to go out. We can go talk to him then."

While Fria-al turned back to return to the shop, Knrama connected with the overall system of the settlement.

"He has yet to exit this building. Seeker, follow."

The crowd automatically parted as Knrama stepped forward. Fria-al followed behind.

Outside the building, they stood waiting, surrounded by towering structures similar to the building they had exited. Each housed many people having a whole ecosystem supporting thousands within while others were factories and others still were commercial hubs filled with shops.

Just like the settlement was divided into multiple floors, each floor was subdivided by these many towering structures, separated by the roads.

Dim light and towering structures. A maze that was impossible to navigate without a map.

'It finally happened.'

He had been expecting it. There had to be a limit to her patience and it looked like she had finally reached it. Maybe it was because of the condition he returned in, maybe because of the time he took to return. She had finally used force.

He did not mind it. She had been taking care of him since she had known that he was alive. Doing everything to make sure someone as useless as Inero-ie loved was loved.

If she had truly wanted it, she could have easily barred him long ago. When he had just escaped that accursed orphanage, he had been weak.

'At least she wouldn't have needed someone so strong but… where do I get good equipment from?'

It had been many many cycles since he had bought his primary equipment from someone else. Usually, he left everything with her because the madding noise constantly eating away his mind rendered him unable to do mentally taxing tasks.

He had stayed for too long, even the visit to the gravetower was proving useless.

Sanity. It was difficult to keep a grasp on it.

"Hello!"

A hand. Aiming for the shoulder. A plus of Qi flowed into his fingertips. A pause. A twirl to evade.

Swish

Fingers sharpened by hardened ice blades cut through–

'Ah'

He tried to stop, his Qi rushing into his arms forcefully stopping his swing mid-motion.

That dense sensation had suddenly appeared right inside his sensory field.

"Such ability despite being injured."

Inero-ie jumped back, his instincts screaming but he was no longer in the wide-open planes.

Alert after alert pinged him, warning him of the imminent collision.

"Hey what are you doing? Don't you have eyes?"

"Bastard!"

The crash disrupted the flow resulting in a chorus of complaints erupting.

Inero-ie did miss the opportunity. Slipping into the crowd, he tried to run away but he could sense that feeling, the feeling as the surroundings Qi was pulled towards that person.

'I should not have missed something like that… is the damage even more severe than I had thought…'

"Take it slow, Harvester Inero-ie."

"Wh..at do y..o.u w.a..nt?"

"Just a talk?"

"T.al..k?"

"Yes. I mean you no harm."

He could not shake him off so Inero-ie slowed down to a jog that transitioned into a walk.

The rush wore off him and the noises came back, stronger than before. He had to get out of the settlement.

"You brat!..."

Inhale, exhale. The burning feeling from overusing his lungs felt great. It cleared his mind for a moment, pushing the noise out but it came back like it always did.

There were so many things to take care of. Thankfully the equipment side would now be taken care of. Now he needed to retrain his body.

Amazing as it was, the regenerative did not bring back the lost muscle memory. With how usual it was for him to lose his limbs, he had been forced to develop a method to drastically speed up the process of retraining the body.

"Remember the promise you made to the doctor?"

A nod while he inhaled and exhaled.

"This person will tell you about that."

***

Fria-al's residence.

All of them sat around the table.

"Knrama Virria Mus-Draik. A pleasure to meet you."

A nod.

"Harvester Inero-ie, how long have you been in this field?"

"25 cycles… nearly..y."

"Seeker Fria-al told me you were obsessed with the outside. Can you tell why?"

"No."

Fria-al sighed at his blunt response causing Inero-ie to glance at her wondering what was happening. He could not understand the benefit of this. His time would be better spent in preparations for the outside.

Fria-al able to guess his thoughts shot him a glare.

"Humm… okay. Seeker Fria-al mentioned that so it got me wondering, would you like to gain access to a more exciting and rewarding place?"

"What..?"

"The Frozen Sea. Have you heard of it?"

His eyes opened wide as Inero-ie felt a sudden sense of clarity. He could feel it.

'Surely that forbidden zone will end me.'