Flattened mountains [an unknown location in the new world], local time [1793.10.22 1793.10.16]
The forest was quiet except for the low hum of the falling rain. The same as always, still like a picture.
The multitude of colorful flora was enjoying the touch of the water, slowly conglomerating energy to multiply once again.
A small disruption appeared on water aggregated by a cap of a concave mushroom. The waves started to appear on the surface, more regular with each second.
It was increasing in intensity, creating more and more waves, until something—
—Her enclosed-in-stone shoe crushed another one of the Silent Killers as she bolted through the deadly forest. She leaped through the air with each step, speeding up still. The distance of each stride would make any of the Earth’s horses jealous.
Her friend was flipped through her shoulder like a sack of potatoes, the other hand gripping her warhaxammer near the head. She was swinging it around to keep the balance while running. An enchanted lamp strapped to her belt showing the way.
“Slow down! I can’t clear the air that fast!” he screamed in high pitch, trying in panic to safeguard the Mana construct with his hands behind her back. “The stabilizing Spell is failing!”
“Just hold your breath and tap me when you manage to reconstruct!” she answered. “We don’t have time, he is surrounded!” she answered loudly, but slowed down a little.
“Surrounded?! By what?” It wasn’t pleasant to be waked up and manhandled in the middle of the night, but only now a creeping fear struck in all its glory.
“The Myconids! There is a whole hive there!” she answered, grinning and checking again the System notification.
“Thank Gods,” he sighed, but then immediately hold his breath as the Spell failed. He blocked his mouth and nose with his hand and tapped her two times with the other to let her know.
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Zeph was looking at the alien forms moving around, admiring the versatility of movements they executed.
Organs similar to eyes dotted their caps like colorful spots. Some even showed up on their stalks, which were always branching off at some height. Some near the cap, some near the bottom, but always consistent for each fungus. The number of branches was random, adding to the diversity of movements he observed. A strange conglomeration of different colors and shapes was mesmerizing. From the jellyfish-like to almost humanoid, they were moving in sync with each other, covering for each other.
Like ants, he thought, trying to stay awake.
The whole cavern’s floor was filled with Mana-X. He had no chance to move through it. His ‘Mana masking’ was creating a condensed buffer of Air-Mana-O, transformed from Mana-Z, all around his Mana bubble. He was using a complicated movement pattern of small amounts of Air-Mana-Z to keep it intact. In a sense, it was a more advanced version of the Air bubble cantrip. A much more advanced version, he only managed it thanks to his experience with the AMc. Or rather, with moving Ambient Mana by using his Mana.
But it could not be sustained in close proximity to Mana-X. He couldn’t directly control it, while Mana-X and Mana-Z could and were controlled. Air-Mana-O would just be pushed away if two controlled Mana sources got too close. His ‘invisibility cloak’ would be squished away.
He had a few ideas on how to improve it. He was also sure he didn’t want to try them right now.
He watched the mesmerizing movement of the hive like a nature documentary, trying to keep himself in a trance that kept him awake.
He couldn’t tell how much time passed after he blindly agreed to what the System proposed.
He was just happy his ledge was high enough. The violet light produced by his Light Spell near the ceiling seemed to just blind the fungi. He had learned about that too late.
It’s only natural, he thought, still in the observation mindset. They live underground. Not much high-frequency light is present he… his eyes didn’t open after he blinked this time. His head bobbed down and he almost lost control of the ‘Mana masking’, alongside his consciousness.
Keep it! he screamed internally, straining his eyes to not close again. He tried to do some advanced math in his mind this time, but his thoughts strayed just a second later. If only I could use it from the matrix… maybe I could have slept for… No! NO! Don’t think about it! his bloodshot eyes opened wide once more.
Black spots on the walls started to extend, abyssal arms reaching for his form—
He bit his tongue, hard, jerking up and almost screaming. Fuckii—he deeply breathed in, trying to send more oxygen to his brain—iiing depriiivationnnnn….
It was torture. Especially because he couldn’t communicate with Gru. The sound component was much more important than they have thought. And the fucking fungi learned to look out for the sounds.
How can they even hear, he started to think, his eyes slowly closing once again, ignoring his mental commands. Black spots were filling his view.
Before his head bobbed down again, he felt a fresh breeze on his face. This change immediately overloaded his brain and send him into an adrenaline rush, partially powered by his hallucinating mind.
At the beginning, he couldn’t find anything afoot. The only difference in the slow wind caressing his face.
Then, the world paused.
The Myconids stopped moving all at once. He wasn’t sure if he just fell asleep, was dying and his eyes malfunctioned, or if it happened in reality; the view was that much inconceivable.
After a few seconds, his doubts were dispelled, as the whole cavern moved in the direction of one of the tunnels.
In hundreds they moved, creeping out of other caves to join the one-minded flood of bodies, funneling into this one pass.
He couldn’t hear anything besides the hum of squishy steps, but after a few minutes, he could smell smoke carried by the breeze.
I hope whatever is happening there won’t burn out all the oxygen… we are in the caves for fuck’s sake! his indignation for using improper methods in such a place pumped some more energy into his mind. It’s good they are here, though…
He observed for a few more minutes. The smell slowly strengthened, until he started to hear distant explosions. They cascaded in an increasing frequency, and the flow in the cavern changed.
The explosions stopped, but Myconids started to flee. The whole stream of creatures, now much less dense, reversed as one, dispersing deeper into the cave system.
It lasted for maybe half a minute, then a blur moved from behind the last Myconids escaping the tunnel, flying above them. It landed horizontally on a huge one, breaking its stem in half but slowing enough to land on the ground, blocking some of the escapees.
He couldn’t see well from that distance, but decided to reconstruct the Spell to give off the white light instead, now that he wasn’t in immediate danger.
The Light Spell at the ceiling flickered for only a moment before brightening and illuminating the cave, restoring colors to the vicinity.
He was accustomed to low light, so the change was enough for him to see what was happening at the ground level. The figure was still just a dark shape, except for the occasional ray of light reflecting from metal pieces.
The person was wildly swinging a big weapon, something similar to a halberd, smashing and cutting the Myconids with ease. The short ones were smushed by the blunt part hitting the center of their caps, bigger ones had their stem cut off near the cap. The range of the weapon was impressive, especially when the person used it like a one-handed axe to cut in a circular motion.
The movements weren’t too fast, but that weapon should never be used with such speed and finesse.
The fight didn’t last long. another person showed up at the tunnel by the end, its form covered by a thick coat.
The one fighting earlier rushed for another tunnel but stopped mid-step, as if remembering something, and started to look around.
He could hear the distant voices. They were too quiet to understand, but he got the meaning.
He scanned his surrounding once again, this time also visually, and started to construct Light above his head after making sure it was safe.
After he finished, he started to wave his hand. But kept the Mana masking a little longer.
Both of them looked up at him. There was a little more animated discussion, and the person on the back trotted ahead, stopping a few meters between him and the fighter.
Zeph’s hand slowly stopped moving, and he tilted his head in confusion.
In the next moment, the fighter started to run in the direction of the second figure. Their stride longer with every step, drastically speeding up.
Why are they trying to—
He wasn’t able to finish the thought as the fighter leaped and bounced off of something near the cloaked figure. They jumped upwards, leaving behind an explosion of wind. It was almost 10 meters up, but she gracefully landed on his ledge.
Surprised by the events, he gawked at her. She was tall, at least a head taller than him. Fire-red, almost orange hair fluttered around her face as she landed, escaping the heavy hood. She wore mostly skin-tight leathers, strengthened in strategic places with metal armor. Only now he comprehended how massive was her halberd. Alas, it wasn’t a halberd at all.
“There you are!” she said in a melodic voice. It had a note of throatiness to it.
“Hello, I—”he stopped, noticing he was speaking in English, like with Gru. His whole Interface was set to English, so he forgot, but he should be using another language here. The same one this woman just talked in.
“W-welcome,” he started awkwardly, not prepared to have to switch so suddenly. He never once tried to speak in Cir, so even though he should be fluent, it was hard to find the right words and tone. “Thanks… for your coming.”
She smiled, placing a fist on her hip and scanning his sorry state with her eyes. “Only one broken arm? Not bad for a rookie. Not bad at all,” she said, laughter in her tone. “I had feared you would be quite badly mangled at this point.” The more he heard, the more his brain remembered. The language gears started to fall into place.
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“You should work on sleeping more, though,” she stated, coming closer.
In that moment, Gru sent a silent vibration. It would keep watch. It was hiding right now, so it will observe.
Zeph’s mind wasn’t able to understand what it meant by ‘hiding’, or what it was ‘hiding’ from. He had gone too far and wasn’t able to comprehend anything complicated. The relief from seeing the promised backup demolishing the hive made him unable to keep himself awake any longer.
He lost consciousness where he sat.
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She looked as, almost like on cue, his body plopped to the side. Eh? Not so though, after all. Or he wasn’t sleeping for the last week, she thought with mirth.
Not wasting time, she flipped him over her shoulder and looked down. The cushion was ready, so she jumped. The air bubble decelerated her fall easily and she landed softly on the black rock. She stood up. The guy was heavier than she thought he would be, probably because of the bag on his back, but not enough to really tire her.
“Thank gods it’s over,” her partner in crime said, slumping down. She noticed his mental state deteriorating, a typical side effect of abusing Willpower.
“Don’t be so glad yet, chibi, the hive-center is still alive,” she said regardless.
“What?!” he perked up, irritated. “Our objective is in our hands! Let’s just leave this hellhole!” he hollered.
“And leave this juicy, half-dead hive for some local monsters to finish off?” she asked, raising her brow. She struck the shaft of her weapon vertically into the stone, cracking it slightly, to accentuate how stupid an idea that was. He jumped a little at that.
“Get a hold of yourself, you are under Intuition influence. Both of us will get at least a Standard level worth of Soul from finishing a hive of this size,” she continued.
“B-but,” he started nervously, looking around. “Wouldn’t that be dangerous for him?” he finally found a compelling argument, pointing at the unconscious newcomer.
She sniggered. “Yeah, sure. Let’s go then, back to the mainland!” She exclaimed, exaggeratedly pointing to the exit with her arm. He started to smile, “you go ahead, just remember to clear the air rigorously!” His smile immediately collapsed.
He struggled a little with his own thoughts. With a half-smile on her face, she patiently waited for him to collect the missing pieces of his brain. This is a good tease material right here, she noticed.
Finally, he answered. “Right, right...” he slowly said. “We need to camp here either way… And I need a quick nap…” he concluded, looked around with dead eyes, and just laid here and there, between two dead Myconids.
He was out before landing, his behind up in the air.
She rolled her eyes, sighed deeply, and griped her weapon awkwardly with the already half-busy hand. Then she heaved the second flabby body to her other shoulder.
And they say that men are the stronger half. What a charade. And then, I am degraded to a pack mule. They will pay for this disgrace, she bitterly thought, fire in her eyes, while moving ahead in the search of a good place for a campsite.
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The drag through the dark caves was scraping at his sanity. Black shapes formed periodically from the all-encompassing shadows. Sometimes he found an underground river, only to lose it a moment later. It continued chaotically until he started to hear a silently echoing song.
But it was quite strange, the more he listened, the more irregular it was becoming. The melodic parts shattered by more guttural sounds. There was no melody, too.
The more he concentrated, the more awareness he gained. It wasn’t a song at all, it was speech. It was Cir language.
He started to slowly wake up at that realization, the last remnants of his nightmare floating away. For the first time in months, his awareness was as shitty after waking up as it was on Earth.
He slowly opened his eyes. Flickering light of a fireplace was reflecting from the black rock all around. Shadows of two people were painted on the wall.
“I feel like shit,” he said. In response, Gru sent him an amused emotion. He was silent otherwise.
He could hear the discussion had stopped, and looked to the side.
“I told you it shouldn’t take longer than three days. You owe me a gourmand feast,” said the woman in her rich voice, looking back at the cloaked figure. She was just like he remembered her, but now he noticed the symmetry of her face was a little off. The eyes were a little too big, her nose a little too petite. It was quite delicate and alluring, but sat at the very edge of the uncanny valley. It was hard to tell the color of her irises; they were almost white.
“I thought you got some brain damage along the way. It’s not normal to sleep that long,” said the man in an uncharacteristically high voice, ignoring the woman’s comment altogether. His green eyes bored into him. He shared the facial features of the woman, except for his square jaw and stubble forming into a goat beard. He was also a lot smaller and scrawny.
“Ah, yes. Thank you for the help, I was dying there from sleep deprivation… And other things,” he greeted them. This time he found his words easily, it was like using an odd dialect. The language itself was strange. Parts were melodic, parts raw and guttural, parts plain and neutral. It sounds more like an effect of smashing together a few different languages… Well, it is an ‘universal’… he idly thought.
He switched his mental gears to the Cir language in full. He would need to get used to it. He decided to change the language in his Interface later, too.
While he was thinking, the woman stood up and came closer. She placed her hand on her chest, and made a small curtsy.
“Aisha Zora Toritalo Leilucia. Pleased to make your acquaintance,” she graciously said. “And that is Makani Borre Tootalo Blackwind,” she spat out unpassionately, pointing at the man with her thumb.
He almost sputtered at hearing the guy’s name. It didn’t make much sense after translating to English, of course, but there was a pun somewhere when trying to hear it like it was English.
“Hey! If you are going to be this sassy, you should just leave my introductions to myself!” he opposed.
“Zeph Einar, nice to meet you two,” he said, sitting up. He didn’t want the bickering to continue.
Zeph was lying on his overcoat, his backpack was nearby, alongside other stuff. He wanted to look around a little but found the silence after his introduction quite strange, so he looked at the pair.
They stopped and were looking at him, as if waiting for something. Aisha even tilted her head.
“That’s it?” she asked after a moment of awkward silence.
“Well, that’s how we name ourselves?” he said, confused.
“No, no,” Makani immediately denied, shaking his head. “The third and fourth parts relate to your background, work, and society. Shouldn’t you be fluent in our language? It should be quite natural to name yourself properly,” he exclaimed.
Zeph thought for a moment. “The learning process didn’t have many cultural references, so it never came up. I think there is much to learn for me yet,“ he said, remembering his first conclusions about the new language.
Aisha plopped down, sitting cross-legged near him, and started to explain. Her pose reminded him of a teacher, especially the finger pointing in random directions.
“You can tell us later how your naming works, but for the sake of not causing trouble, you should remember how it works here. The first name is given by the System, a God, or a society leader. It bears the meaning of our life, or expectations towards it—”
Gods confirmed, he mechanically thought. Just great.
“—The second name we choose ourselves when coming of age, it represents the way of life or the philosophy of life that we choose. There are some suffixes to know who was your mother, but it isn’t important right now. It’s our official name, used in most normal interactions, but you should call the two of us by our first names, I will explain why later,” she paused, making sure Zeph understood everything. He nodded, and she continued.
“Third part is the name of your belonging in Laiu of the Cir language… yes?” she paused when he lifted his hand.
“What do you mean Laiu?” He knew there were a few different spelling systems in Cir, but that name never showed up as far as he remembered.
“Cir language was created from at least seven old languages. As a result, most objects have more than one word to name them. Some of the unused words vanished, most doubles split up to mean something slightly different. Two major dialects are still in official use. Laiu is one of them, the second is Rui,” she said, and started speaking using only words from those two, to give him an example.
In the meantime, Makani took out something from the fire, moved it to bowls, and passed one to everyone. Zeph’s bowels did a good imitation of Gru at that, the smell was very tempting. Still listening to Aisha, he viciously attacked the food, to the mirth of the two.
He understood the differences. Laiu sounded a little like Japanese, or maybe Chinese. Rui was much harsher; it had a lot of grunt sounds that were suddenly stopping. It was kind of similar to Scandinavian languages, in his mind at least. The main part of the Cir didn’t have a name, but it was responsible for creating this melodic feel he got when listening to it. It played nice with the Laiu, but Rui kept interfering, similar to other remnants from the rest of the old languages.
“I think I get it,” he said finally, after making sure he was able to distinguish which words came from which dialect. This was important. Laiu was used in bureaucratic matters, Rui in technical descriptions. He would need to train more in choosing proper words.
“Good,” said Aisha. “At least you are not an idiot.” She smirked.
“Heh, sure,” deadpanned the MSc in Bioengineering. “But why are you even explaining it to me in such detail? Don’t we have more important questions for each other?” He said giving back his bowl. Zeph, certainly, had a lot of questions.
“Because of many, many reasons, you should never disclose you came here from a System-less world. Or, for that matter, from any external world,” Makani said seriously and shocked Zeph a little with how much they knew. “The first thing that is going to give you away is how you use our language.”
“You two are no fun,” she said, resigned. “To the point from the beginning? I sympathize with your future life partners. Just make sure to make up for it with your endurance. Though, I don’t bear high hopes for that either,” she continued, propping her head with a hand.
The two looked at the strange lifeform beside them, then exchanged glances. Makani shrugged.
“We will, for sure, come to the topic of your thought process at some point, dear Zora,” he said looking at her. “But maybe we should speed up a little? You know, because we destabilized the whole local ecosystem just a day before?”
She rolled her eyes, but straightened once more.
“The third part of a name,” she started without preamble, sighing, “describes your belonging, the official kind. The kind where you represent a group and their honour, as a member. It includes citizenship in the city, official lineage, company membership, etc. It is possible to be granted the right to use more than one title of this kind, but trying to list them all will just mark you as a pompous braggart. You need to use Laiu expression. The first part comes from a type of origin, the second is a talo suffix. If you are representing the group directly in an official affair, the suffix changes to taro. The fourth part is just the name of the group,” she finished, losing patience a little along the way.
“So, you are…” he started, trying to change the Laiu words for the standard Cir, to describe it. “You are Aisha Zora ‘of temple’ Leilucia,” he said pointing at her. “And he is Makani Borre ‘of tower’ Blackwind?” he asked.
“Close,” Makani smiled. “I am Makani Bor ‘from Re family’ ‘of tower’ Blackwind. My mother’s first name is Reisha,” he supplemented.
“Oh, so that’s how the suffix works,” he said, understanding. “But Aisha doesn’t have it? And what of people that aren’t a part of… an organization?”
“I am an orphan,” she said blandly. “As the third part you can give the name of your village, the closest city, job, specialization, Class, or any other thing really. Just don’t use the Laiu expression, it’s reserved for more official circumstances. Also, don’t just give yourself a random name, your Soul will react strongly when you name yourself incorrectly… Well, I will not preach on that, just know it’s meaningful,” she shrugged, making the universal gesture of I-don’t-care-anymore.
Zeph stopped his wild imagination and thought for a moment. If naming himself with a random shit had side effects, he would rather do it right from the beginning. But he also wanted to have that part finished already to ask something more meaningful.
I would rather not disclose my specialization or Class... But there is this one strange expression that I remember… After not finding any theoretical problems with his idea, he asked, “Can’t I just be a tabitalo?”
“That is… a strange one,” said Aisha, not refusing it outright. It was, practically speaking, a good one after all.
On the other hand, Makani was deep in thought. She looked at him and decided to wait. The name was familiar, but her Memory failed her.
Zeph read the mood and was silent for a few minutes, too.
“Oh, I got it!” exclaimed Makani, finally. “It’s an archaic form for a specialist who broke his ties to the past. Or a person on their life-pilgrim… Or something like that. It sounds a little overbearing, but is grammatically and realistically correct in your case,” he summarized.
“Yes, ‘the traveler’ sounds overbearing, alright,” Aisha sniggered.
“Let’s just leave it at that, for now,” interrupted Zeph. “I am more interested why do you want me to call you by your first names? I suppose it has something to do with you being contracted?”
“Indeed. Our first names are known publicly already, so you can use them to indicate we are in a personal business relationship,” said Aisha, standing up. “As for the contract, we can discuss it along the way. Makani was right when he said we should start moving soon.”
“Oh, ok. Just give me a minute to check my… Interface,” he finished, after finding the right word.
She just shrugged and started to pack their things. Makani looked as if he wanted to ask something, but just shook his head and went to help Aisha.
Zeph concentrated on his Interface.
Ugh, so many changes… he thought bitterly, seeing so much blue, but not reading anything really. It’s a shame the Interface can only highlight what changed without giving numbers… But what if…
He didn’t want to generate a full report of the changes, most of them were non-essential and would just clutter the report to the point of a headache. But maybe I can generate a report for each panel separately?
He tried, and surely, it worked. Now, that’s what I would call a report!
Congratulations! Your [Class] [Force Generalist] [First] reset was successful!
Congratulations! Your [Class] [Force Generalist] [Second] reset was successful!
[Force Generalist] is now level 5!
[Profession] [Shaman] is now level 24!
…
“What the fuck?!” he screamed in English.