Flattened mountains [an unknown location in the new world], local time [1793.10.15 1793.10.06]
Somewhere in uncharted lands, deep in a wild forest, two humans were sitting near a campfire. The clearing was miniature and covered in shadows of the sunset. Sky could barely be seen through the canopy. It was the only time of the day when the sun had a chance to shine on the dilapidated landscape, going below the line of the ever-present storm clouds.
Gnarled trees around were lush in teal leaves only at the highest branches, all of them turned in the direction of the setting sun, reaching for every scrap of the light they could find. The ground was covered in miniature ferns, moss, and fungi. The colorful underwood contrasted strongly with decaying lower branches of the forest above.
The light of the campfire illuminated the vicinity like a beacon, but there were no animals it could attract. The forest was deadly for such creatures.
An everlasting but weak drizzle was drenching everything in this place, allowing for the light to reflect wildly all around. The orange hue of the fire colored the vicinity alongside a weak blueish light coming through the canopy, causing flickering, multicolored reflections.
The rain was also soaking clothes and stifling the fire.
“I hate this place,” the man said, tightening the cloak around himself. “You should have hired a Magistrus and be done with it,” he said to the woman sitting on the opposite side of the fire.
She was in the middle of drinking from a bota bag, the stench of alcohol could be smelled even from his position.
“Khaaa!” she exhaled after gulping for the last time. “What are you implying?” She asked in a slightly hoarse voice, leaning back against a sapling and making herself comfortable. Water was evaporating from her form, creating white flecks of steam that drifted upwards. “That I am a toritaro? Or maybe a kazotalo? I don’t have even a fraction of the money required to hire one,” she said, stretching out.
“Your Onji should have made the arrangements,” he said, shivering from the cold. “It’s no place for a Practitioner like me. And the chances are that we are here for nothing.”
She snorted. “Like Leilucia’s intermediaries would do that for me,” she said while placing hands behind her head and crossing her legs. “You already leveled once, isn’t that good?” she asked, closing her eyes. “Just relax, it won’t take much longer.”
“I really hope you are right,” he mumbled, sneezing immediately after.
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It will take longer than I expected, Zeph thought, looking at the water flowing away in three different directions.
He was standing in a vast, natural cave. Water slowly flowed through its center, leading deeper into the cave system. Big stone formations, like stalactites and stalagmites, decorated the space. The vegetation here was much larger and denser. Especially the fungi, some strange stemless variants the size of a bed were growing on the walls. Everything was either in violet-blue colors or absolutely white. And, of course, nothing glowed.
He had to, for the hundredth time, construct the Light Spell to see anything. This time, however, he was using a white version. For some time now, there were no traces of any creature.
Zeph was following the ‘Lesser Humidity detect’ to get here. He knew the flow of water should direct him downwards, and there had to be a water source the Talpa were using. The Spell was quite simple, he just used Fog cantrip in a spherical construct enclosed in, and filled with, the Space-Mana-Z. During his experimentation period, he noticed that Space-Mana-Z returned different information depending on the matter it interacted with. It was a conglomeration of information about texture, mass, state of matter, and some other things. He was, of course, unable to quantify anything or even untangle the complex signal. But by having two such Spells working at the same time, he could easily ignore all of the duplicated information and compare only the relative mass of the two spheres of fog. It was just enough to sense in which direction the humidity was rising.
Why he was not using ‘Mana Highlight’ to check Water-Mana density? As if E-Mana could travel such distances, not to mention how unreliable its density really was.
The tunnel system made by the Talpa was a big hassle, though. He had to clear two more nests before he found the natural cave system. Thanks to the ‘Lesser Sound detect’ and the ‘Lesser Life detection’ he was able to pinpoint the enemy position early and asses the Mana-X reach. This allowed him to plan and prepare, avoiding a chaotic melee. After killing a sentry, he lured the rest into a trap. Some tunnels, especially new ones, were narrow enough for only a single Bearat to fit in. He used that to funnel the chasing beasts and fight only one at a time. He used bombs more sparingly, and from further away, to not scare the whole group. Of course, the whole ‘trap tunnel’ was filled with bombs, but only for an emergency situation.
It was time-consuming, but he couldn’t allow himself to get wounded.
Thankfully, he didn’t have to use his pistol. Only 215 rounds were left, assuming every shell was in working condition.
“I am fucking tired,” he said while massaging his temples. “Let’s just rest here, I can’t see any Talpa traces, it should be safe enough,” he decided, coming closer to a big mushroom growing from the wall.
“Grum,” it agreed.
“This looks stable enough,” he said, looking up. Three more were growing close by, he could easily climb to the highest one. “But let’s be cautious,” he commented, sitting down.
“Gru!” it declared.
“Thanks,” he said with a small smile, and constructed the ‘Lesser Life detection’. Then started reading from his ‘Corora herbarium’, searching for information about this specific mushroom.
It took him almost an hour, Gru was keeping watch, resonating a little with his Soul to have some feedback from the Spell.
After making sure it was safe, Zeph started climbing up the mushrooms, quickly reaching the one 4 meters above the ground. They were as hard as the stone around, so he unfurled his overcoat to have something soft and warm to sit on.
He sighed deeply, releasing the Light Spell and relaxing a little for the first time in what felt like ages.
“Grrra?” it asked.
“I’m fine, just mentally spent,” he explained, closing his eyes. The echoing sounds of flowing and dripping water were soothing to his mind. “Tomorrow we will have to check all waterways, I am sure most are dead ends. I will need to come up with a method to mark the caves, too,” he complained a little.
At least I don’t have to condense any more water, he consoled himself.
“Grrrrar,” it advised.
“Well, the prodigious Soul-talent shows up again… I am unable to use Memory like that. It’s a shame I cannot safely send you my visuals,” he said, resigned.
“Greeaaar,” it indicated. “Graaau,” and then complained.
He instantly became speechless. “Your Profession has something like that? Isn’t it… overwhelmingly more advanced than my Skills?”
“Gre, Grrrrum,” it explained.
“Oh, good to know. The restrictions of specialization, I suppose. But how can we go around your zero-capacity problem? You can’t use my Mana.”
“Greee!” it agreed, complaining again. “Grararu,” it confessed.
He thought about it for a minute. “Hmmm… Well, I think it is possible to give you some temporary capacity… But experimenting would take the time we don’t have right now. Can’t you… I don’t know, remember what I am telling you to help me navigate?” he asked with hope.
“Gre,” came the negative response. It seemed that either Soul memory wasn’t working like that, or Gru had to get much better in using the Memory.
“A shame,” he said bitterly. “All right, let’s just prepare for some rest,” he said, removing his jacket to have some light and taking dried meat and fruits from his backpack.
While eating, he once more checked the notification he got after Gru’s Space contamination exceeded the threshold.
Leveling restrictions’ rule fulfilled. Conditions changed!
Current [Class] leveling speed reduced by an average factor of 11,8.
Until now, most of the Soul fragments they got were fueling the growth of Gru’s Space Soul contamination. Gru couldn’t set the exchange for the Soul fragments it got. As a result, Zeph’s part of the spoils was siphoned into powering it instead, drastically decreasing his leveling speed.
“What is wrong with this leveling speed?! I don’t understand this math at all,” he said, thinking intensively.
The previous, convoluted method of sharing Soul fragments between us should be gone now. I know why it decreased to such a degree; I don’t have to exchange Soul fragments in this horrendous 1 to 60-something ratio anymore. But why is it 11.8 now? Shouldn’t it be 1.8, or something like that? he exerted his brain once more in search of an answer.
“Graaa…” it vibrated helpfully. “Grrrururu,” and added after checking.
Zeph blinked a few times at that. “What do you mean more? And how long do you have the option to set your own exchange in the leveling restrictions?”
“Gaaaurrrr, Greeee… Ga?” It explained, unsure.
“Shit,” he summarized. “We really need someone to explain this stuff to us. But, again, congratulations on gaining enough sentience to fully interact with the Interface.”
“Gru!” a happy vibration answered.
“Let’s see…” he started to calculate in his mind. Gru told him long ago that around 0.2 of the Soul fragments were always given to him by the System in unchanged form. His Soul trick didn’t change that, he had to give everything to Zeph to allow for the exchange with the Space Soul fragments. But this resulted in Garuan Class leveling up seven times, prolonging the Soul contamination problem, as every time it got ‘non-elemental’ Soul fragments, the contamination percentage decreased.
According to Gru, after resetting its level, the System started sending more Soul fragments its way. A shame it didn’t find it strange until now. Math wasn’t its strong side.
“No, this still doesn’t add up. Even if now you take more than 0.6 of our overall Soul fragments, the factor still should be at around 8… We are missing something,” he said, and started to catalog every variable that influenced the factor until now. He found only one suspect.
Don’t tell me… The Space contamination still isn’t self-sustaining? Or maybe it just needs time to even out, and I am leveling too fast? Am I exchanging some fragments to keep it up even now? he thought, looking at his levels.
From only two nests, he leveled up his Profession two times. This is a ridiculous speed… But the Class started to lag behind.
He decided to drop the topic of the strange factor. He would need to ask for details from someone who knew more to be sure, anyway. Instead, he concentrated on the new problem.
“Gru, I don’t know if I expressed it enough, but you are a fucking genius. We totally broke the system,” he snickered. “Our leveling speed is at least one order of magnitude faster, than what the Interface suggested!”
“Grrrrruuuuururu,” it purred in self-admiration. It was proud, indeed.
“Ha! You finally learned how to receive a compliment,” he said, laughing. “But we need to set things more evenly. I have three level resets before me, how many your Class require, again? And from which level?” he asked, just noticing he didn’t ask about it. They were quite busy today, though.
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“Gwo, Gwen,” it vibrated.
“Wow, it’s the first time I see a Class that resets at 10. So, it’s my 18 levels for your 10… Let’s set the Soul fragments sharing at nine to five in my favor and tweak it at every reset.”
“Gru?” it deadpanned.
“Ah! Sorry, haha,” he said embarrassed, scratching the back of his head. “We should finish the resetting process at the same time that way. Just leave the math for me,” he explained.
“Gru!”
“Ok, then…” he mumbled and changed the leveling restrictions to share less with Gru. It seemed like he couldn’t set any drastic values and Gru had to accept the change, but that made sense. It would be bad if a Soul-bonded animal had to give everything to its master. At least, that was how he visualized the problem.
After that, he decreased the amount of Soul fragments his Profession was taking from 25 percent to 20 percent and helped Gru set up rules for exchanging Soul fragments to keep his contamination above the threshold.
This time, after finalizing the changes, he specifically asked his Interface to recalculate the factor again.
Current [Class] leveling speed reduced by an average factor of 3,3.
Much better! he happily thought.
“That is sorted out, so let’s concentrate on more exciting things,” he said, looking at his unspent points from his Profession.
After getting to 7 Power, he started to have problems with controlling his body. It wasn’t a critical condition, he experienced something similar when he boosted this Enhancement for the first time, but decided to leave the allocation of the new ones until he found a safer environment.
So, now that he found one, he increased his Regeneration to 3 and Power to 10.
Congratulations! [Power] [Passive Enhancement] milestones achieved! You have gained access to a new [Perk]!
After the initial vertigo passed, he checked the Perk.
‘Control and coordination auto-training’? Just at the right time, he thought, setting it as an active one.
At first, he couldn’t feel anything. Surprised, he moved his hand before his eyes. The movement was slow and restricted, similar to moving your hand underwater. Then, he felt different muscle groups in his arm start to twitch. This started a chain reaction and in a moment his whole body had a bad case of twitching cramps. It was unpleasant, to say the least.
I need to remember to never change to an ‘auto-training’ Perk while not in bed, he thought. Zeph didn’t want to try to speak before it subsided, he didn’t trust his vocal cords right now.
Lying down, with small problems, he concentrated on his hearing. The sounds around were slowed down to the point that he had problems understanding what exactly he was hearing.
He wasn’t sure if he had lain there for minutes or hours. He deduced long ago that Power also enhanced the speed of his thoughts, so his time perception was screwed for the time being. He sat up only after the cramps subsided, and the noises around became recognizable once more.
Chewing slowly on a dry fruit and relaxing for a while longer, he played with his Spells.
Only after his sound perception was back to normal, he constructed the ‘Lesser Life detection’ for the ‘night’ and went to sleep. They decided to keep watch, so Gru would have some sleep time only after Zeph woke up.
The air was humid and cool, but because of his armor and clothes, the conditions were actually perfect for him. He had some problems acclimating to the echoing sounds, but was tired enough to fall asleep after a few minutes.
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“There,” he said, moving away from the wall. He checked if the white X was visible, then started moving down the new cave, repeatedly tossing and catching the stone in his hand. He found a few normal rocks in the underground stream, probably brought here by the water. They were enough to leave whitish marks on the black walls.
He pocketed the rock in his bomb-holster and prepared for further exploration. The entrance, he had scouted earlier, but moving through the vast caves, without a good light source, was absolutely nerve-racking.
The Talpa’s tunnels were an easy mode in comparison, he only had to care about two directions and possible crossroads.
In the few hours that had passed after his rest, he already detected a few more Mana-O traces. Something he couldn’t see was stalking around, but his ‘Lesser Life detection’ never found any Mana-X. It had an impressive radius of almost 40 meters, in his head that should be enough in the enclosed spaces of the caves.
It wasn’t, and it made him extremely nervous.
Even if the Spell couldn’t ignore obstacles, it produced a wave that was bending behind them. He could still feel what was behind a stalactite, for example, if it wasn’t further than 25 meters away, and the Mana-X bubble should be quite spacious.
Yet, he felt nothing.
He strengthened his Light enchantment on the javelin, noticing the material deterioration was close to shedding the outer layer off of the wood.
After noticing the damage for the first time, he never placed an enchantment in the same place again, spreading the deterioration over the surface. This only prolonged the inevitable, his wooden javelin was close to shedding off its skin after two days of using it as a medium.
I wonder if I am doing something wrong? My Skill also doesn’t seem to improve at all… he started to inspect his javelin from up close, scratching at the damaged parts. He quickly found long strips, maybe a millimeter in diameter, that split off the javelin by themselves. This shape… Only cellulose fibers parallel to the Mana flow weren’t destroyed? Shit, I should have done long-term experiments with enchanting. I don’t have time now to improve on it now, he berated himself.
He decided to sacrifice this javelin for his Light needs. It was a low-priority weapon anyway. At the next stop he would need to whittle it some, though.
He looked back up, into the darkness ahead. The sparkling air around him was only illuminating maybe 15 meters ahead. It sucked all the colors, bathing everything in monochrome red light.
He sighed deeply and moved on.
He wasn’t creeping. Walking for kilometers while trying to be stealthy wasn’t conducive to fast travel, or for the well-being of his legs. Instead, he used his feeler every dozen steps, had Gru on Soul-watch, and stopped sometimes to construct ‘Lesser Life’ and ‘Lesser Sound’ Spells. He stopped using Harden constantly on his spearhead for the fear of damaging the knife. It was also time-consuming. If he was to be ambushed, he had better weapons to deal with it.
After half an hour of walking, he could hear a slight noise of falling water. He perked up at the sound, it meant there was an open way downwards. He sped up a little.
Coming closer, he could see a light mist suspended in the air. The sound wasn’t echoing, he was in a vast cave filled with stone formations overgrown with ferns. He couldn’t even see the ceiling.
He slowed down when the noise started to obscure anything else. The stones on the floor started to get slippery, stripped from vegetation by periodic floods.
Finally, he could see the opening. The sloped floor was littered with smoothed stones, suddenly ending in a black fall. He couldn’t see how vast the opening was, and wasn’t going to get close without safety preparations. Thus, he unbuckled his backpack and placed it on the ground. He wanted to take out his climbing equipment.
At that moment, a strong gust of wind hit him. It was enough to make him slide a meter or two backwards, in the direction of the fall.
He lost his balance on the slippery stones and fell backwards on the slope. He abandoned his javelin to grip his spear in both hands and tried to cushion the fall. He hit the ground hard, but didn’t lose his composure. Still sliding down headfirst, he twisted his body while gripping near the spearhead, and drove it into the stones to his left. The spearhead scrapped for a moment on the hard surface before finding purchase. His body whipped around, but he managed to stop himself from sliding into the pit.
Just in time for another gust of wind to hit him. He started to slide again. Simultaneously taking his combat knife with one of his hands, he flexed his back upwards and drove both weapons into the stones, again. Both were caught between loose stones, stopping him.
Not wasting any more time, he Flashed from the Matrix, just above his torso. Just in time with a Soul coming into Gru’s perception range.
He heard a wet sound of sucker pads peeling off and a low grunt. While Gru Soul whacked the enemy, he got his feet under him and jumped to the right, concentrating on his Soul perception. After rolling once, he scrambled for traction to move away and get up.
Just as he managed that, he could hear a whoosh and something massive hit him in the back. In the moment of contact, he could feel the air burst around and a monstrous quantity of Air-Mana flooding around him. He flew a good few meters before crashing to the ground, changing it into a roll by instinct. Thankfully, he was flung away from the chasm.
Whatever just attacked him was massive. And it used enough Air-Mana for him to actually recognize it from the sheer density near his skin.
They lost it again, Soul perception had an unpredictable range, but its maximum radius didn’t go above 10 meters. He dropped his spear and took out the gun, simultaneously constructing an Air-Mana-dependent Light Spell. He quickly changed Ignite for ‘Mana Highlight’ in his Matrices, and started the process of charging it.
The Light Spell finally finished, basking everything in a weak blueish tint, and he could see again. He was standing low on his knees, moving slightly in either direction in an unpredictable pattern, observing his surroundings and concentrating on speeding up the ‘Mana Highlight’ construction process as he had learned.
He saw nothing, the enemy had to have an advanced camouflage and be beyond the Light Spell's reach. He really didn’t want to allow it to get away, he could be ambushed again at any point.
He constructed Ignite to fire up two bombs and threw them down the cave in hopes of making it reluctant to leave, and started to construct a second, modified ‘Mana Highlight’ reacting only with the Air-Mana.
Nothing attacked him during this time.
Finally, more than 40 seconds later, the Matrix ‘Mana Highlight’ activated. The wave of Will-Mana flooded the surroundings, illuminating everything in colorful lights.
He quickly surveyed his surroundings, minimizing movements of his head and only moving his eyes around. Looking up, he noticed a conglomeration of white-blue light coming from one place. He immediately took aim and started firing at it.
The light effects lasted only for a second, but with his Power, it was enough time to actually aim before everything was bathed in the darkness again.
He fired three times and heard a screech followed by displacing sucker pads. He didn’t hear anything hitting the ground, though.
Two seconds later, he finished constructing his own ‘Mana Highlight’ and it exploded outwards. He started another Matrix version while taking aim at the highlighted monster again. He was trying to hit the head, shooting five more times in quick succession, even after the surroundings darkened.
He saw it again thanks to the still active Light Spell, even before he got the warning from his Soul perception. Gru Soul-whacked it again but they didn’t synchronize their attacks this time. It barreled directly at him, his shots immediately waking it up from the stun.
It chomped down on the arm he presented, pinning him to the ground. Zeph immediately used his other arm to fire into its underside.
After a few agonizing seconds when it tried to dismember him, throwing its head left and right, he finally hit something important. In the next moment, it tried to back up, screeching, only to fall down a few meters away, convulsing.
When he still tried to get a hold of himself, a notification showed up.
You have killed [Stalker Axotilian – lvl 84].
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
You have earned 3 [Universal Points]!
Zeph finished his second Matrix ‘Mana Highlight’ to make sure that nothing more lurked in the shadows. Then stood up, and started to take off his armguard while limping in the direction of his backpack. Something broke when he was smashed in the back, and his arm was bleeding profusely. He wasn’t able to move his fingers and feared that the Phleya would hamper the recovery process, so he removed the whole part of the armor.
After bandaging his arm, still high on the adrenaline, he decided to take a better look at the beast.
The color slowly drained from the animal. A white lizard, visually similar to an Axolotl, but scaled up to the size of a medium-sized dinosaur. It had to weigh at least a ton; its head was as wide as his torso.
It could have killed him easily if it wasn’t so cautious. All it needed was to drop at him. But, again, it probably wasn’t that intelligent. Even at level 84, it was bad at planning, it seemed.
As he analyzed, his adrenaline levels dropped, and he started to feel pain.
I hope my regeneration will allow me to use my arm soon… he thought before degrading into a worm squirming on the ground from the pain it felt. At least I know how to prepare for those creatures now, were his last thoughts.
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Fuck, fuck, fuuuuck! he screamed internally. I was not prepared for THIS! he thought, running through the tunnels.
The Myconids were slow, but showed up on every corner, evidently communicating in some way and trying to trap him.
It was his third day underground, and he already regretted his decision of delving into them.
They were immune to bombs, ignored the slashing damage, and just kept coming.
Increasing his Power changed almost nothing after the milestone, so he kept pumping his points into the Regeneration, but his arm was still out of order.
I need to hide! he thought, his panic increasing.
“Gru!” he exclaimed between heavy breaths. “I am begging you… Read my Soul memory… And explain to me… How the fuck that fucking lizard”—he took a pause to breathe—"was able to hide from me!”
“Gruru?” it asked suspiciously.
“Use what you want, just”—he sucked more air—“JUST DO IT!” he screamed.
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Zeph was sitting on a ledge. Deep in meditation. Every time a fungus got close to him, he slowly moved away.
All his perception skills were used to their utmost maximum.
He didn’t sleep for five days. Or, at least, subjective five days. He had a feeling it was much longer.
It was at least the 8th day in the caves.
But he kept his ‘Lesser Metabolic enhancement’ in overdrive to keep himself awake. He managed to somehow influence his Energy Enhancement to work with the Spell by adding Will-Mana to its fuel.
He wasn’t thinking about the consequences. He was trying to survive.
His Will was at the end of the Severe depletion.
His new ‘Mana masking’ Skill was of Lesser quality, but he could, at least, hide.
Hide from the army before him. The Myconids weren’t fast but were unrelenting. A whole community of the creatures kept him away from the exit, slowly scanning the environment.
The exit was close, he could feel it in the fresh air. Yet, it was so far.
He couldn’t move through them, he couldn’t attack them, he couldn’t distract them.
He couldn’t escape.
He was on his last ropes.
I don’t want to die here… But… What should I do?
Then, something impossible happened.
Permission to disclose your location is required. Contracted individuals are nearby.
In the case of granting permission, the average survival chances will rise from 0.2% to 96%.
We recommend an unconditional permission, for your own safety.
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Part of theI Interface (the Advanced Will statistics):
[https://i.imgur.com/fXTeokV.jpg]