Lurona city [southern shores of Fuminao Legacy Kingdom], local time [1793.12.26]
Aisha was the one to collect his corpse the next day.
They were going to discuss the gathering places of mercenaries working around the city and analyze the maps, so he had to wake up early.
Much too early.
Because the topic wasn’t a secret, they could speak about it in a library corner set up in one of the bigger rooms. It was used as a classroom for older children, although some toys were lying all around and on the shelves. Yula wasn’t separating the kids by age if they didn’t want to, so each class was a mix. Zeph suspected she also didn’t want to limit their mental capabilities – with Memory and Intuition PE, the differences between children’s natural capabilities were magnified and there was no reason to divide them by age alone. As a result, the classroom looked more like an unholy combination of a small, primitive auditorium and a playground. The tables were placed sparsely on different levels of the room but concentrated around one corner. The rest of the room was quite chaotic, but still mostly filled with writing materials and cabinets full of strange apparatuses.
They were perusing maps that Zeph left behind in the orphanage. He would take some of them with him this time, hopeful to be able to read more in his free time.
After a few hours, their peace was interrupted as the first children wanting to spend more time near Zeph entered the room. Thankfully, under Yula’s strict gaze they were behaving.
It was around noon when they finally finished. Their transport arrived some time ago, a little earlier than Zeph predicted. After the second breakfast, in which their carter took part, Zeph and his coachwoman said their goodbyes to the kids and the staff of the orphanage.
Even some tears were shed by the young ones, which made the whole scene a little more dramatic than it should be. To Zeph’s relief, none started screaming in indignation or anger. They were good kids. Zeph promised to show them around the Roaming Onsen Village at the New Year, promising it would be the funniest place they have ever seen.
On the way to the headquarters, Zeph made sure to skim through all of the maps to copy the text into his Notebook. After that, he started a tedious process of copying the maps themselves, trying as hard as he could to draw the outlines without major mistakes. It was a good exercise, especially when he discovered that Gru could help him multitask, as he sporadically consulted the Soul memory of the Notebook’s manual to learn new tricks in the art of stealing intellectual property.
But it was only the beginning of his training day. Testing how the bone implant reacted to his Willpower—the microscopic Spell constructs requiring Will-Magicules to form—should be possible now, after a day. He also had a few long lectures to read. Production methods, applications, and properties of Ferrum Obsidian and Planaria Ferrium Fullerene. As well as all the materials on the new explosives.
The mental strain from doing so much mental work in such a short time forced him to periodically stabilize his mind once again. He even trained his Notebook writing during all of this, trying to multitask as much as possible.
As a result, he spent more hours concentrating intensely without a break than ever before, beating all records from his younger days. Even during his studies, when his brain was in peak condition, thirteen hours of non-stop memorizing and training were the limit – anything more, and he would go into the spiral of decreased efficiency that at some point prevented his mind from recording any new information.
He knew, because he tested it extensively at the time. By any means, he was no genius; his mental predispositions were never poking above the curve set by his peers—except for some minor abilities—so he had to find the limits of his mind and body to abuse them properly.
But he just broke through that barrier. He would be proud, if not for the unexpected side effects…
===============================
Zeph slowly opened his eyes. His empty gaze landing on the dark ceiling.
It was impossible to tell the time in his underground cave of an abode, but to see the Wadokei hanging near the wall he would have to raise his head. Which was, truly, an impossible task right now.
“I feel like shit.”
“Grah!” Gru reminded him. The ungrateful parasite daring to slap him in the face, when he was lying with one of the worsts hangovers ever.
He had almost forgotten how it felt to abuse his body. Yesterday, he spent so much mental energy on stabilizing his mind and focusing on the knowledge, that he completely overlooked one very important detail.
He was still on the no-nourishment-whatsoever diet.
He regretted his past decision greatly.
Placing his hand on his forehead, he took a small reprieve in its coldness. Even if it was only a few degrees of difference, it still was a relief.
That fact spoke volumes about his state.
The previous day was hazy in his mind. He tried to supplement his brain with additional energy, but there was no reaction.
I overdid it again… he thought depressingly, only for the System to try to cheer him up.
[Willforce Morphon] property uncovered!
[Data completion] 90.2%! One of two [Body] [Unknowns] updated!
Displaying changes…
[Body]: Mental states don’t reflect on [Will]. Balances mental state between [Body], [Soul], and [Will] influence. Can forcefully and virtually [Redraw] the [Neural connection superstructure] by directly engaging [Will] to [Restore] or [Simulate] previous states of the brain. The process engages [Soul], [Will], and [Willforce] for information purposes. The process engages [Body] and [Willforce] for energetical purposes.
WARNING! The process isn’t engaging [Soul] and [Will] for energetical purposes! Make sure to eat well and stay sane when using it! Physical and mental health is important, and the process is straining them!
“Huh? They just needed to see the full extent of the side effects… and my suffering… or what?” he asked loudly, still in a slight daze.
“Grruum!” his companion congratulated, making him smile despite the pain.
“Thanks, buddy.”
The next half an hour he spent slowly climbing out of his bed, feeling numb and weak like a newborn lamb. But before he found enough strength in himself to stand up, another notification assaulted him.
Compatibility detected!
Reaction of [Planaria Ferrium Fullerene CON8795-XA65] [Bone implant] to [Will] and [Willforce] can supplement [Body: Neural Redrawing] property of [Willforce Morphon]! Engaging [Will] for energetical purposes can be supported!
Required knowledge confirmed!
Congratulations! Corresponding [Upgrades] and [Items] have been unlocked in the [Exchange]!
You have earned [Soul fragments]!
Congratulations!
[Seeded] [Class] [Force Generalist] is now level 4! (+1)
Zeph’s heart skipped a beat. The first few words made him believe the implant finally started transforming his Soul contamination. Only after reading further, he sighed with relief. Then, he started to smile widely. The Fullerene complex just earned itself a lot of points in his mind.
His grin widened even more when the second notification showed up. The reward from the System was enough to push him over the final stretch of level 3. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it reminded him what was to come. He immediately put his 2 free points into Flexibility, raising it to 19. He needed another 13 levels overall to raise it to the effective 50—thanks to the 20% bonus from his Willforce Morphon—which would put his Mana capacity slightly above 1300 Mana and his Matrix space at around 230, if his calculations were correct. That would be an important breakthrough. Not only would he gain Flexibility Energy Enhancement, but he would be able to finally use two of the three Tier 2 Spell Matrices that his Class provided, namely the ‘Thermal Channeling’ and ‘Enforced Ionization’. Even if he wasn’t sure what exactly those did yet, he could already see possible offensive applications for both.
The last Tier 2 Spell, the ‘Force Microscale Framework’, was on another level, though. The Spell required a tremendous 410 Matrix space and at least 2500 Mana capacity. Zeph wasn’t sure if he can achieve such high numbers before his Class’s first sub-specialization at level 33.
I hope ten days of leveling will be enough to finish my Flexibility… Even with Gru’s cheat, it will be close. We will need to fight high-leveled opponents, that’s for sure, he thought, looking at his Interface. He even configured a small summary of changes this time.
Name: Zeph Einar Perk: Precise Soul and Mana perception t. a. Race: Human (type 6671: 'Earthling') Passive Enhancements: Power 60 Intuition 188 Flexibility 19 Memory 65 Regeneration 50 Greater Willpower 66 Basic properties: Resource: Total: Available: Reserved: Matrix Space: 176 15 161 Mana Capacity: 660 648 12 Mana Generation [/s]: 115 88 27 Class: Level: Unallocated points: Matrix space taken: Force Generalist [Seeded] 4 0 141 Profession: Level: Unallocated points: Matrix space taken: Shaman 32 0 9 Soul contamination: Space (type: B5001) 5.22%, slightly increases [Matrix space] Will (type: H1) 8.71%, enhances interaction between Will and Mana Iron Isotope Alloy (type: ZW1) 5.13%, stabilizes I.I.A. ZW1 in Mana environments
This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.
[https://i.imgur.com/vE7IKa2.jpg]
Major upgrades:
Force Generalist [+1]
==> Flexibility [+2], Intuition [+2*2], Greater Willpower [+1]
==> Matrix space [+4], Mana capacity [+24], Mana generation [+2]
For the first time in weeks, he finally felt like he had made some progress. Sure, a few of his General Skills had leveled up during his time in the city, but that paled in comparison to what just happened and his yesterday’s progress. Not only ‘Explosives’ Skill was getting close to the Tier 2 barrier, he actually gained a new General Skill for metallurgy. Although, the Skill was at a low level because he only worked with mercury until now – his new knowledge required validation in actions. It was also named ‘Esoteric Metallurgy’, probably meaning that it was a consolidation Skill between the knowledge from Earth, his experiments, and what he learned from Ghrughah and P’pfel – not a Skill with basics of the craft.
He was also sure that yesterday’s experiments with the Fullerene implant were the trigger necessary to acquire it.
Zeph hadn’t found any interesting properties of the material during the tests. The implant was already saturated with Will-Mana and his Soul started forming links with it, officially accepting it as a part of his body and allowing some Willforce to sip inside. Despite that, he could do nothing to the material – his internal Mana manipulation was so bad that even oversaturation with Mana-L wasn’t enough to allow him to change its shape; all he could do was apply weak forces. It was unfortunate, but he was also unable to check if physical or alchemical properties had changed, what with it being a part of his bone and all.
He managed to discover how useless the Fullerene-Magicules were. At least, right now. They had formed naturally inside the implant, but it was too little to test on a macroscopic scale outside of his body. The only discernable effect of the implant was very subtle – he had a slightly strengthened sense of touch in his finger. Not only could he feel the finger pulsing with his heartbeat—something he initially ignored as it was swollen for almost a whole day—but it definitely became more sensitive to touch and temperature. He started with a simple pain test using a needle, as it was the simplest and most effective one. After getting positive results, he tried to feel the difference in other aspects. The difference was so small that he had to test it multiple times to make sure it wasn’t just his imagination, placebo effect, or self-deception.
“Okay!” he exclaimed in a much better mood, feebly slapping his cheeks. “Let’s get something to eat and visit the Shrine. It’s time to deal with the System.” Makani should arrive today but Zeph had no idea when, and the guy would surely have a lot on his head for the first few days. “In the evening, we have to decide on the armor!”
“Gra!” it vibrated with excitement.
“Right… you should probably try to assimilate the two new materials, too. Who knows if they can be useful?”
“Gra?”
“… No, I will ask Ghrughah to powder a small amount for you to take in. I am not sure if we can digest it directly, anyway. I am not going to swallow it,” he said with disgust.
“GrahRahRah…” Gru giggled, vibrating in pulses.
“Stop ‘viggling’, you bastard!” he shouted weakly, feeling pain in his sides as he tried to stop the natural reaction of his body. “No, seriously! It tickles!”
~~~
The System Shrine was visible in the distance long before they even entered its district. The tip of the black pyramid, rimmed with gold, was hard to miss. The building, as expected, had to be massive to accommodate thousands upon thousands of visitors, so Zeph wasn’t surprised by its size. What really stood out to him was the futuristic style, obvious even from such a distance. If Ancient Egypt could go into space, he suspected that’s how their spaceport would look, and he wasn’t even seeing half of it yet.
He definitely wasn’t expecting a Shrine to look like a masterpiece of alien technology.
It was situated close to the Administration Center of the city, not far from the massive walls. The district itself was walled off, according to his map, but he could not spot them yet as the buildings in the vicinity were getting pretty high, especially because each story was at least four meters high.
He put the map he was studying back in his backpack and concentrated on the views, looking through the big windows of Ghrughah’s carriage. He was a little too excited to focus, anyway.
This time around, he was accompanied by one of Kwan’s high-level guards. The guy was equipped with an always-active enchanted ring provided by Aisha. Zeph was in possession of a similar device, but more for show and for Gru’s curiosity than anything else. Aisha explained to him how the spy’s Skill worked, so he was sure he could at least detect it by himself, not even accounting for Gru’s permanently active Soul perception.
Well, at least if the spy would target them directly. Gru’s slip-up from two days ago was all the proof he needed to understand that detecting such techniques wasn’t simple.
Also, becoming complacent was one of the worst habits. No one knew what other Soul-related Skills the spies could be in possession of. Having an additional safety net wouldn’t hurt.
These silver rings were a mystery, though. Aisha vehemently refused to give any explanation, especially on how and where they were made. Such information couldn’t leak from the Temple. They were only instructed on how to use them. The artifact—for the lack of a better word; seriously, Zeph wasn’t even sure if it was created with the technology available at their stratum—was the first Soul-link-able item Zeph saw. Phleya didn’t count – the colony was alive. He wasn’t sure how it was possible to craft such an item, but Soul-link was a perfect tool for monitoring any machinations happening on the Soul level. If the artifact detected any change, the user would be informed directly through the link. Which, in the case of Zeph and Gru, was happening quite often. Gru had a difficult task of learning the difference between signals coming from the device as a result of their constant communication or Skills’ usage, and signals informing about the outsider influence.
That didn’t change the fact Gru mostly just played with the item, trying to copy its functionality.
Zeph would prefer him to focus on digesting and using the samples he gave him a few hours ago, though. But after ‘tasting’ them, his companion has become bored rather quickly. Maybe it was an instinctual reaction, maybe the fact that Gru wasn’t using normal testing procedures, but Zeph decided to allow his companion to choose what to do. He hadn’t expected much from it from the beginning.
After another half an hour of idle thoughts, they arrived at the district’s walls. They were maybe five stories high, going by Earth’s standards, and absolutely dwarfed by the buildings around.
No one stopped them at the entrance – that area was neutral territory, allowing all to enter. The walls existed only because the city wanted the Shrine safe in case of the main wall breach.
The gates resembled a tunnel; it took a good minute to drive through. Zeph wasn’t even surprised at the wall thickness anymore, as he knew the top was geared with all kinds of ‘modern’ weaponry powered by Manasolid farms. Those were placed inside and under the walls. At least, his ‘Lurona Technology Solutions for Curious’ map stated as much.
The buildings inside the district looked a little more… eastern in design. Which contrasted a little with the futuristic pyramid visible in the distance, growing ever bigger as they came closer.
Zeph risked a quick peek outside, opening a small window near the front of the cabin. The chilling air started filtering inside as he looked ahead. An almost straight, wide road led directly to the Shrine, sloping slightly downwards.
The view before him took his breath away.
Only now he was able to see the multi-layered structure below the pyramid. It looked like a black-and-gold wild beehive of gigantic proportions, lying flat on the ground. Its layers weren’t perfectly parallel to each other and protruded in places, as if the whole structure was a creation of nature. The sheer number of, supposedly, floors was mind-blowing in the context of the rest of the city. The lower levels were connected to terraces and multileveled highways, looking like a spider net from the distance.
Forty stories… No, I think even more, he tried to count, still in amazement. How is it possible I never saw it from a distance?! Even the Towers aren’t that tall… Shivering mightily from the cold, he pulled his head out of the window and slammed it shut. No thermal resistance for me, it seems, he thought sarcastically, winding up the heating to counter his blunder. He was sure the temperature outside was going below minus 30 Celsius as of late.
His escort took it all stoically, trying to be one with the background, as he was instructed to.
Zeph didn’t have the mental strength to deal with his silent guardian. The man didn’t want to talk at all. Instead, he occupied himself by checking, once again, the to-do-in-the-Shrine list in his Notebook. Initially, he planned to make a full copy of the Exchange entries to be able to trace how they changed over time, but after reading the Notebook manual in detail, he decided to concentrate on immediately important entries only. The Notebook wasn’t able to compare two ‘files’, so he would have to parse through all that data manually in the future. He never applied for a checker job and didn’t plan to waste his time like that. It would be easier to just write down what was necessary than collect an unknown number of Exchange records’ copies that he would never touch again.
As they closed in, the traffic started to slow them down more and more. Even with the raising number of lanes that started to split vertically from the main avenue, slowly forming the overpass network he saw from the distance, it still wasn’t enough for the population of the city. Zeph never checked the numbers, but even if he was sure the population density was much lower than on Earth, he knew from his maps that the city’s area contested the largest cities on his home planet. Taking into account that this Shrine was the focal point for the whole region, he wasn’t surprised by the number of people trying to get there. Even assuming that only a million people lived in its influence zone, and that each person had to visit only once per year, it was still almost 3000 visitors every day.
The walkways and streets were full of movement, even in the biting cold of the winter. Inns, taverns, and restaurants dominated the area. The number of information booths and rental carriages indicated that the place had become a tourist hub of the city.
As their carriage arrived before the behemoth of a building, Zeph could see long rows of doorless, arched entrances dotting the lower levels of the Shrine. The building was made from golden metal and obsidian-black stone, contrasting strongly with the roads, bridges, and walkways connected to it.
He looked up through the window. The bridges and terraces were converging, occluding the sky almost entirely. It was simply the most complex architectural achievement he saw, ever.
They drove through the entrance; a short tunnel opened into a vast hall. The ground was covered with snow, but he could see that the exit passages were clean and dry. Those exit points, leading further into the Shrine, were equipped with heavy lifting machinery, which was used by the personnel to quickly replace the skis of the visiting wagons and carriages. Axles with wheels replaced them. Some variants only required the removal of skis secured on the wheels. It seemed that in both cases, the underbody of the vehicles was designed to allow a quick and easy switch, as long as appropriate machinery was available. Zeph was seeing the process for the first time, his visits to other big buildings in the city never required them to change the skis.
Besides guaranteeing enough space for the lines that formed before the passages, the hall was also used as a parking lot. Their driver pulled to the right, where other passenger carriages stood near the wall. With a clank, a thick metal plate slid up from the front wall of his cabin, uncovering a small, barred window.
“It seems there is enough space for me to wait here. If it doesn’t take you longer than an hour,” their coachman said, looking back through the window.
“It actually may… but I expect to be back in two cycles at most,” Zeph said, unsure. Five Earth hours sounded like a reasonable timeframe. He wanted to discuss a few things with the System, too.
“Ah, I will go and find an inn or tavern, then. Using Shrine’s internal lodges is just a waste of time and money.” Indeed, looking through the window, Zeph could see that most of the vehicles were just dropping people in the hall and driving away. “I will be back in two cycles. If you don’t find me—it can be quite hectic here sometimes—check the closest station. The workers can direct you.”
“Sure,” he nodded. “I suppose you will go with him?” Zeph asked his guard while putting on his coat and backpack.
The man grunted in confirmation, nodding his head slightly.
“Well, see you later, then.” He waved, leaving the cabin.
As the carriage started to back off slowly to turn, he quickly walked through the nearby pedestrian entrance. The corridor didn’t have any decorations, just plain, metal-and-stone surfaces. He couldn’t even spot any pipes.
Zeph wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, so he just followed other people walking ahead of him. After stepping through another doorway, this one evidently enchanted to keep the cold air from entering, he found himself in a smaller hall with elevators and pedestals lining the walls. Everything was kept in the same ‘black with gold framing’ style, and each pedestal had a black hemisphere on the top. All newcomers were firstly approaching the pedestals and touching the hemispheres. Zeph did the same.
For over a hundred stands, there were maybe twenty visitors, so he had no problems with finding a free device. As his hand touched the cool stone, he felt a tug on his Soul, and a second later, his Interface flared to life.
We meet again, [Zeph Einar]. Welcome to our humble abode.