Barringstone [Westibule mountain chain], local time [1793.11.03]
Zeph groggily awakened, the sunlight was warming his face and penetrating his closed eyelids. He tried to squirm away, but the unforgivable light bombarded him from every direction. Left without a choice, he opened his eyes. It took him a while to place where exactly he was – the walls were utterly unfamiliar to him, and the soft sensation coming from below felt like a long-forgotten dream…
A proper bed was unfortunately a luxury in those regions.
Gru vibrated lightly in greeting, shaking away the rest of his sleepiness away. The light coming through the glassed window quivered alongside the moving leaves. A clear mountainous air, flavored by the scent of pine-like wood, cleared his mind.
And that is what I call a civilization, he thought, sitting up. The room was spacious, although lacking in the furniture department. The cozy, rural atmosphere was exactly what he liked about it, though.
He took his armor from under the bed and started to put it on. He was almost finished when Aisha banged at the doors.
“I hope you are not sleeping! You decided to go with me, I will not wait for you!” she stated loudly.
“Give me a second! I just need to put on some clothes!” he answered, taking his trousers from the table. He still used the clothing given to him by the knights. His leathers would do a better job at hiding the phosphorescence of Phleya, but the outfit was in the middle of being cleaned right now.
It didn’t matter – his futuristic armor was good at impressing the locals. The light-show was actually quite helpful in that regard.
He quickly packed one of the small backpacks with miscellanea he deemed useful, like some smoke/smell bombs, dry meat, and valuable plants. The pistols and knives, he always kept on himself. No one paid attention to his holster, probably thinking that inside was some utility tool.
He opened the doors only to see his companion with a raised fist and a surprised face.
“Took you long enough,” she said, crossing her arms.
“I had to prepare something for trade. I really need to buy a proper map,” he said, locking the door.
She shrugged. “If even I don’t recognize the locations,” she started, on the topic of materials he had to find, “the chances of us passing one of them are scarce,” she declared, heaving her warhaxammer and walking in the direction of the staircase. Curiously, the weapon was always by her side and nobody seemed to be perturbed by that fact.
He followed, mentally preparing for some bartering.
One of his easiest-to-solve problems was the decreased efficiency of Gru and the implant – the Source Net. He learned from Aisha that every System Shrine had a collection of materials ready for upgrades that people could take. But it only included upgrades unlocked by the nearby communities and individuals, while his were inaccessible to the population. He would need to find the materials himself and transport them to the Shrine for it to work out. His General Skill described many potential extraction sites for Makrun, the Mana-resistant metal he needed, but only in the context of nearby topography and landmarks. The Skill could show him directions, but didn’t contain a direct map or names – he suspected that would be a separate purchase, something he would like to have very much. If he had enough UP to buy it, that is.
The topic of unlocking the Exchange upgrades stirred another round of debate. It was a hard part of the economy here and dictated the differences between groups, countries, and species. To describe it simply, one only had access to upgrades that they, or their official community, could theoretically produce. Even potentially, which meant the blueprints for prototypes worked as well. It was impossible to sell or directly exchange access to the upgrades, they belonged to people or groups who managed to unlock them. The only exception was when an individual made their unlocked upgrade public for their official communities, like to their family or to the country. This, though, had to be a voluntary donation, which meant it required deep memory scanning, executed by the System. It did it for three reasons – firstly, to make sure it was a voluntary action; secondly, to re-check the learning process in detail and derive the best upgrades for the group, as well as calculate the rewards for the donator; third, as a payment for the overall service it provided in this matter.
The real exchanges were happening physically between people, by teaching others about the concept that unlocked the System’s upgrade. It could mean a simple lecture or the creation of a whole industry. This method had its own limits, mostly concerning the official affiliation of the teacher and local policies.
Not to mention, overall limits also existed. Many things were un-unlockable for others besides the one individual. Also, the System would never unlock upgrades technologically ahead of the community’s technology or civilization level. Some knowledge exchanges required official representatives to allow the unlocks. The list was long and convoluted.
But because of all that, Earthling’s access to certain upgrades was simply priceless – one of the reasons certain groups wanted to be in constant contact with them. Although, making it happen wasn’t that easy – if the System saw them as integrated into the society, most of the exchangeable upgrades would be blocked for them.
Anyway, System-provided upgrades were costly but sure. In the case of prototypes, for example, it was much safer to just use the System’s version, even if automatically granted General Skills provided all necessary knowledge to build one yourself.
After all, the System never made mistakes.
The first house they had to visit was near the hall, so it took them only a few minutes of walking to arrive. The house was similar to all others, nothing suggested a bedridden person was living here.
A young brunette woman opened the doors. She looked to be about twenty, but her hands sported many calluses, betraying years of hard, physical labor.
“Hello… oh!” she started delicately but stopped in surprise. “T-the Priestess! Welcome,” she stuttered, bowing down.
“Cut it,” said Aisha, waving her hand. “I heard you have a sick person inside?”
“Y-yes, it would be a… I m-mean, thank you for visiting us! He is in the next room,” she said, stopping herself from bowing again, and guiding them inside. “His condition is getting worse… Slowly. I d-don’t know what to do anymore…”
Zeph followed silently behind them, looking around. He was here only as an observer; the fact that nobody seemed to notice him in the presence of the Priestess only helped in that.
The house was well-cared-for, but the room the sick man was in was another story. The smell of ammonia, acid, and sweat permeated the air, even though it was evident the sheets and patient’s clothes were exchanged frequently enough. Near the bed’s side, a wooden bowl was laying, marred with dried remnants of vomit, some of it splattered on the floor. Pale marks on wood could be seen all around, indicating the places cleaned previously.
The man was convulsing slightly, even when unconscious, his body thin and sickly white.
Probably because of the awkward silence, the woman started to ramble about his condition and what she thought was the possible cause. It was a very chaotic description, marred with rumors and faulty logic, to Zeph’s dismay.
Aisha ignored it all and just looked at the patient. After a minute she interjected, stopping the flow of random words coming out of their host’s mouth.
“I don’t care, I am not a Doctor,” she started, looking at the woman. “It’s not my right to examine him physically. Now leave us alone – I need to make preparations for doing my part. It will take around an hour, don’t disturb me,” she said, looking coldly at the woman.
We didn’t even ask about her name, realized Zeph. I am not sure how to interact with people in such situations… Aisha was only called by her title, too. Maybe it’s alright to keep my distance?
The woman left the room with some hesitation. It was clear to Zeph that she hoped Aisha could help, and wanted to at least be a witness.
But his companion stayed distant, more than ever.
After they were left alone in the room, she took out a leather pouch from her pack and took a handful of multicolored leaves out of it. She held them in a cupped hand, near her face, but still concentrating on the patient.
After the white smoke started to whiff out of them, Zeph started to have doubts about staying in this place.
Whatever it is, it shouldn’t be strong enough to drug me out of my boots… But she has much more PE than me… And the window is closed… No, thanks to Gru, I have quite a strong toxin resistance, it should be enough! …On the other hand, I have different anatomy… Back and forth his thoughts flew.
If only he was able to learn the Air filtering Spell from Makani, but life wasn’t that easy. Without a proper book, it was hard to draw or describe such complex 3D construct. He would know, they tried it multiple times. On the other hand, the Matrix version he had access to required 16 Matrix space – a ridiculous amount. At least for him.
He decided to stay inside. Gru needed some pointers and wanted to see how a Priestess was working. Zeph could just return to the hall if he got high, too.
The hour felt much longer than it should. Zeph Mana perception was becoming more detailed as he inhaled the smoke, but no other side effects showed up.
Or he was unable to perceive them. He did feel quite relaxed and started to ignore most of what Gru was sending to him. He couldn’t understand this ‘technical’ gibberish either way.
Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.
After the last of the leaves smoldered away, Aisha finally straightened up and started to look around with unfocused eyes.
The strange thing about the whole situation was that she didn’t have to look around. Soul and Mana perception were working by proximity, not eyesight.
He called shenanigans, but it wasn’t a time to ask about it.
After a few minutes, she stopped and opened the window. Instead of glass, it had a membrane of some kind, but the clarity wasn’t that different. It seemed much more delicate and prone to damage, though.
He looked at her intently the whole time. Only after making sure the smoke was out, she sighed and answered, looking at him.
“Nothing.”
“Nothing what?” he asked, tilting his head.
“His physical state is not mirrored in his Soul. The links are clear. It’s a disease and nothing more,” she explained.
Links, another term he didn’t fully understand. It was, presumably, the parts of a Soul linking it to the physical body. The same parts responsible, mostly, for the leveling effect – breaking away when an entity died.
But what was the line between life and death of a body, and how could a part of a Soul link it to the physical world? He was sure examining those topics would grant him more Tabu levels, so it had to be left for later.
“So… What now?” he asked, unsure.
“The next one,” she said, shrugging. “What else can I do?”
The housewife didn’t like the explanation, but she was too scared of the Priestess to protest. Aisha just stated what she saw, and that was it.
The next patient had similar symptoms, but his vomit had traces of blood. That changed nothing in Aisha’s methodology. But again, she wasn’t here to check them physically.
On the other hand, Zeph became interested in the case. He wasn’t a doctor by any means, but he did work in the pharmaceutical industry – some knowledge still leaked his way.
During Aisha’s mysterious examinations, he started to do medical interviews with the family of the sick.
Two patients were awake and Zeph took his time to speak with them, to Aisha’s displeasure.
Memory loss, disbalance, sight problems – even blindness in the case of one unconscious girl. Those symptoms sounded familiar, if common in many cases of poisoning.
All in all, they managed to visit five people that day, a good record, taking into account how much information Zeph had gathered.
The afternoon came, and it was time for some light shopping and tourism. Sadly, his bartering attempts failed miserably as no shop here had what he wanted. A waste of time, all in all, if a relaxing one.
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Two days later, the duo was taking a stroll through the nearby woods, looking for plants and something to hunt.
Their quota for today was done and theoretically, they should leave the next day, after Aisha presented the Council with the official, written report.
But Zeph had other plans, he managed to finally formulate a diagnosis. He used a lot of time to meditate with his “Memories of the Earth” General Skill in the afternoons, trying to gather the pieces of knowledge into something comprehensive. He managed to acquire a lead after the first day of their useless mission in the village, after asking Aisha about the properties of Hydrargyrum.
He cut short the explanation about its Mana properties, which would tell him nothing with his lacking knowledge. But for all reasons and purposes, it sounded like they were dealing with mercury. He made sure by asking the families of the sick and the guards, so he was quite sure it was the elemental mercury or its isotope.
That stirred his curiosity even more, and he started to read his General Skill during afternoons and evenings. Especially because a further search of maps and other goods brought no fruits. The locals had nothing of value to exchange. As a result, he had a lot of free time after their errands.
As training the most basic of Spells – the Stabilization, could attract unwanted attention, he concentrated on the case instead.
But the worst part of the whole situation was, everyone knew mercury was toxic. Doctors and the Healer included. They made sure no one was poisoned by it.
Or at least, by the elemental and inorganic compounds – the basis of Zeph’s diagnosis.
“So, we are leaving tomorrow?” he asked, scanning the underbrush.
“Why do you even ask,” Aisha said in a monotonous tone. “Did you find anything interesting here?”
“Actually, we didn’t have so many luxuries for some time now…” he started, giving Gru a signal at the same time.
“Grraaar!” it vibrated, but the meaning behind the vibration was totally different. Gru, the perfect mediator in secret discussions. Zeph beat himself for a long time for not thinking about it earlier – they didn’t need Makani’s eavesdrop-prevention methods, no one could understand Gru except for him and Aisha!
‘Zeph has an idea of what is happening here’ was the meaning of Gru’s message. They planned it together using non-verbal exchange, which took some time. Aisha staggered after receiving the information.
“Gre!” it added. ‘Stop being stupid!’
Zeph almost facepalmed, he forgot Gru was still quite stupid when it comes to communicating.
“Can we, I don’t know… relax a little?” he pointedly said, glaring at Aisha.
She immediately fixed her posture, evidently understanding the hidden message. “You want to spend more time in this backwater?!” she asked in a surprised tone, showcasing her acting skills.
Damn, she’s quite good, he thought. Or exceedingly simple-minded…
“Why not,” he answered, shrugging. “It is the first civilized place we visited.”
“Grummm!” it vibrated. ‘All of the people here have similar Classes. Strange!’
He became paranoid after Gru explained that to him. It was too much to believe they were in a normal village, something suspicious was happening here.
He could almost see a lightbulb turning on above her head.
She nodded, crossing her arms. “And what do you want to do besides lazing around? There is nothing here! We should just move along, we had a terrible time already,” she said, indicating it would be better to leave this mess behind.
“I just want to gather some local biomatter,” he said, using a very generic word in Rui for a ‘plant material’. For the sake of security, he had to tell at least partial truths. Not like the indicated meaning was even close to what he imagined. “You may not know, but if I manage to cultivate a subspecies of arable plant resistant to vermin,” he continued, accenting the word, “We could make some good cash out of it.”
“Graaaara-ra-ra,” it recited mechanically after hearing the keyword. ‘I think we will be ambushed after leaving.’
Aisha’s eyes widened in excitement at that, but her verbal response was something entirely different.
“And what of it?” she asked, smiling crookedly. “You can acquire your seeds as well in other places,” she said with a ruthless glint in her eyes.
He coughed. “No, no. Look, not every source is the same. I need specialists, and they are few and far between. So, I would like to visit local cultivators…” he finished, almost mumbling at the end. He was sure she wouldn’t understand the metaphor either way, so he just gave up mid-sentence.
“Graaa, guuuuu” it continued to translate with some new vigor. ‘We would like to see the mine that was restricted for us. Prepared is better. Counter-pre-strike!’
She started to massage her temples. “And how do you even want to find any? Did you see any crops here?” she stated, nonplussed.
“Eh, there are at least two medicine-selling shops, and two Doctors on top of that. I am sure I can find someone or something interesting here!” he continued the charade.
“Grrrrrrr,” it silently vibrated. ‘He can use Mana rapture to hide! Distraction needed!’
“Are you stupid, or just plain stupid?” she asked, her eye twitching. “We don’t have anything valuable enough to trade for such information. Just clean-n’-clear what you can before coming back for more. We will be in a much better position then,” she finished, irritated by his obviousness and the little word game they were playing right now.
Zeph blinked slowly at that. Huh… Well, I never was a mastermind at tactical planning… he had to acknowledge with some embarrassment. Getting rid of possible stalkers before going back to the mines, without separating their party, sounded much more reasonable.
“W-well… I guess you are right, hehe… But I still need some time before we leave…” he answered awkwardly, scratching the back of his helmet.
She was not amused by his stupid half-smile. Her weapon’s shaft ‘rang the bell’, making use of his helmet. The sound was echoing in the forest for a good five seconds.
=========== Xim PoV ===========
They are interesting, alright. But I feel ashamed. Spying on a bumpkin and a lowly Priestess? Just what is the Council thinking? the woman thought, sitting on a tall tree a good 200 meters away from the pair.
The guy is too naïve for his own good, she noticed, listening to the conversation sent by her Soul-bond stationed near the pair.
It was evident straight away after his interactions with the locals, but after hearing the discussion, she had no choice but to believe he was mentally impaired. Who, in their right mind, would believe that a high-spec Classer would share their rare plants for almost nothing?!
Two other options still existed. Either he was a spy or was really a clueless outlander. The former was an even more ridiculous notion than her very first idea – spies should be inconspicuous, not flashing away with the most eye-catching armor ever seen in the land.
After getting a good look at it, even she was allured to add some light enchantments to her own armor. The visage was truly intimidating, a style she could appreciate.
And a style that was an antithesis to her line of work. She had to hide the idea deep inside the “future plans, future me” box, or finally change jobs.
She sighed. The dilemma! she sarcastically thought.
The fact that he presumably was from the continent didn’t help at all. She didn’t know enough about the residents to read him. It was a perfect cover, but at the same time, no one should be able to imitate such idiocy.
Right?
Furthermore, no agent even detected any lies from him when he talked to the folk. True, they didn’t have a proper Soul-specialist. Still, it was just ridiculous.
She was worried about his living armor, but the material was quite weak. They managed to probe it from a distance when he was asleep, it was not resistant to any form of attack besides the magical ones.
The fact it could vibrate, evidently to communicate something, was still surprising news, but it just showed their carelessness beyond the village.
What’s more important, even if it was partially sapient, the vibrations were unintelligible. She expected its quirk was laying purely in self-regeneration, all other possibilities were eliminated long ago.
The conclusion was one and the same. Who could behave like that and look like that if not an outlander? An answer she didn’t like very much for the sheer obviousness, but her pessimism and paranoia could do only that much. Facts were facts, even if her gut feeling helped her two times in the past.
She probably should trust the Head a little more, too. After all, she was the one to allow them this town in the first place. She was much better at reading and manipulating people.
Xim was spying on the pair from day one. Besides the strange questions the add-on spluttered around, nothing was out of the ordinary. The Priestess would be a hard nut to crack, they always are, but the guy could only bring some support in the form of unknown equipment. Which, he hasn’t had enough, most of his tools were mundane in nature.
They are weak… she concluded.
Their Veils aren’t enough to cover even two steps properly (AN: around 1.5 meters). Their preparation and awareness are lacking. Equipment is almost non-existent, except for the gear they always have on themselves. A free giveaway and a weakness, she summarized mentally.
Easy targets, she came to the conclusion, slightly excited.
===============================
It was the report day.
They planned to leave the village tomorrow before noon, after relaxing some more and eating their fill of local food. And, of course, after finishing their ‘war preparations’.
What preparation, one may ask? In Zeph’s case, integrating the Stabilizing Spell into his Primitive Enchanting brought up some unexpected results. He was collecting metal beads for some time now, and it was finally time to test the prototype in the field.
Also, he was suddenly very glad he didn’t manage to barter with locals – he never had to explain how his smell/smoke bombs worked. A small advantage.
Aisha had her own arsenal to prepare, too. He hoped she would explain some of those things to him after they leave.
Right now, they stood before the Council. Aisha was explaining her findings under the influence of a simple truth-seeing device, after presenting her report.
“…as an unofficial intermediary of Leilucia, I am declaring this case as free of Nether and Soul-infraction. You should proceed with physical examination only from now on,” she finished in a formal tone.
“Thank you, Leilatalo,” started the head of the Council, Nuri. “The promised donation is ready to be transported from the warehouse. Is there anything else we can do for you?” she asked rhetorically, following the standard honorific protocol.
“Actually, there is,” Aisha said, breaking the protocol. The Council members looked at each other in surprise. “We will stay in the settlement for one more day. For the sake of my companion, I want to set a knowledge trading, a temporary low-spec agreement.”
Judging by the faces of the Council, it wasn’t a proposition they liked.
Here we go again, thought Zeph. Politics…
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Interface: no changes.