"That doesn't bode well." I say in response to the ominous statement.
"No, it does not. Come on. I'll try and give you an overview of crucial knowledge, but first, where the hells did they-"
She is interrupted by a loud snort coming from behind us. We quickly turn back only to see a camel standing behind the corridor we came through, attached to him a wagon.
I look over to Miah, and she has an expression of disbelief.
"Well, I guess that answers your question. Come on, let's get your stuff back." I deadpan to her.
"I got to say, this past week, my luck has been very hit or miss." She says back as she shakes her head and makes her way to the wagon.
In it, we find supplies (which Miah surmised could last a week), a map of two continents (which Miah said she would explain), some furs and pelts(I noticed the wolf pelt I had been using before was there also), and hidden away beneath the pelts a crystalline octahedron.
"Ah! There it is, thank Null, for a moment, I was afraid I'd lost all my data. It would have been a pain to get it all back."
She looks back at me after hugging the crystal.
"Now let's solve that memory problem, shall we, or well, at least solve who you are." She says as she spins the crystal thing in her hand.
"I'm assuming that this is the 'shard' you mentioned before? How do I use it? I don't exactly see any buttons or anything."
"No, took us an embarrassingly long time to figure it out, but you just gotta whisper 'activate' near it. It'll first do a scan on you, so don't be alarmed by lights, then it will display some information about you."
"Huh, that's convenient. How does it even work, though? Is it a magic or DR thing?" I ask as she hands me the 'shard'.
"Neither." She deadpans back.
I look back at her.
"No, I'm serious. It technically uses a bit of magic, but we determined it's only to use its scanning magic capabilities. All its other features are just incredibly high-tech, and before you ask again. No, I do not know exactly how it works despite my DR. I know a few theories, but these shards are made with technology from the forgotten. It's knowledge that we have not yet fully understood."
"Ok, that's three times you mentioned the 'Forgotten'. What even are they?" I ask as I examine the shard more closely noting that it's not exactly see-through as there's a very slight delay on the things behind it.
But as soon as I ask I see her face light up from excitement and take a deep breath.
"I'm glad you asked, you see-"
I interrupt her, sensing a lecture incoming.
"A simple explanation will do, Miah."
She pouts, and it is very cute.
"Fiiine. The Forgotten is the name we use to refer to an ancient civilization that we presume was thousands of years ahead of us in their technology and understanding of the world. We call them Forgotten because even though what we did discover suggests they had their influence spread across the stars, we sort of only really discovered about them recently."
"How?"I ask in amazement.
"Well, current theories suggest that they were wiped by some sort of magical cataclysm, and while normally chalking something up to "it's magic" is not widely accepted by scholars, it's really the only thing that could have reasonably erased their presence so thoroughly since even though they had an incredible understanding of science and technology, their magic knowledge was a bit lacking."
I nod, processing the dump of information. I look back at the crystal and bring it close to my mouth, whispering:
"Activate"
The crystal begins to light up in a dim white light as it quickly flies out of my hand, floating in front of me.
"Uhhh, Miah? Is this normal?"
"Yeah, I told you it's going to scan you, so don't freak out about the lights. It's all common procedure."
As she says that, the light inside it brightens, and a beam of light shoots out of it tracing my body up and down. After doing that for another 2 times, the light retracts, and a soft *ding* sound resounds as it slowly floats back to my hands.
"Is it-"
I am interrupted by the shard as it lights up again, shooting out a holographic screen in front of me. In it, this is written:
Name: Sophia Empyrean
Titles: [Redacted], [Redacted], [Redacted],[Redacted],[Redacted],[Redacted],[Redacted],(Secdutress of [Redacted]), Forgotten.
Species: Empyrean
Age: [Redacted]
Sex: Intersex
Height: 6'10
Weight: 82.2 kg
Profession: Talun's diplomat
Balance: 250k
Status
Level: 3
Domain: Lust, [Redacted]
Range: 5 feet,[Redacted]
Hume level: 100-75
Strength: 12 (80%)
Dexterity: 10 (83.3%)
Constitution: 14 (70%)
Charisma: 20 (80%)
Magical Capability: Capable/30 Mp
Ok, there is a lot to unpack here.
"Ok... there is a lot to unpack here." I hear Miah say what I had been thinking.
She looks through the screen with an expression of disbelief.
"Alright, basics first," I say back to her.
"Right, basics...."
"I guess we should reintroduce ourselves. Hi, my whole name is apparently Sophia Empyrean, you can continue to call me Sophia."
She looks back at me.
"Uh, hi, my full ‘legal’ name is Miah Starborn, but please don’t call me Ms Starborn or anything, that would be weird."
"Now that that's out of the way, please explain what the ever living fuck this all means."
"I'll try my best? But you have to understand, Sophia, I don't have a single clue what the deal with the [Redacted] is and frankly I would be tempted to call it a glitch if those literally never happened to the status sheet."
She looks over my sheet again.
"But…Ok, let's start from the top. The name seems pretty self-explanatory, so I'll skip that. Title(s), plural. Holy Null, who the hells are you?"
I sigh.
"What kind of mess does it mean to have multiple titles."
"It's less of a mess and more of the fact you are incredibly impressive."
You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.
I choke. Miah seems to realize what she said and blushes, but she quickly regains her composure.
"Sophia, titles are registered in the sheet only when a large enough group of people recognizes something you did that merits a title. For example, the Ceasar of Cerialis has the title 'Emperor' because a large number of people from Cerialis believe him to be the Emperor."
She pauses at that.
"Sophia, he is the only known person to have more than two titles. It is incredibly rare for someone to be able to transcend the first title they get."
"How so?"
She thinks for a bit.
"Try and imagine you are inaugurated as Queen of the world, sure afterwards you may have slain a dragon or done something as impressive. It's still going to be the first thought for people to associate you with the Queen of the world. That title will superimpose any others you may have because it's something people will always know you for. Do you get why you having 9 whole titles is kind of a big deal?"
I gulp.
"Yeah, I kind of do."
It also brings to question why they are redacted or why only one is not, or why one is partially covered, but I think back to what the voice said and realize that it's probably related to my apparent choice in forgetting.
"Good, never show this sheet to anyone, it's not like you can get in trouble for it, but it'll raise too many questions I assume you don't have the answer for."
I nod back at her.
"Alright, next one. Species. I have no idea what you are."
I stare back at her accusingly.
"I'm serious. There are only about 8 species that are self-aware enough to be considered people. Empyrean is not one of them. I'm going to be honest. I thought you were a half-giant before."
"Half-giant, how would that even-"
"Domains can enable some weird things, Sophia. It would not have been the weirdest interspecies relation I have heard of."
As she speaks that, I see her face redden as her eyes dart to where my member would be.
I try not to make my smile too obvious because I'm still curious about something.
"Giants?"
"Oh yeah, so I should probably tell you the races? Right, There are 8 of them, and most can interbreed. There's the humans. They existed before any of the other races, except maybe the demonkin, but that's a tangent for another time, any way they were kind of the base model before the gods-"
"GODS?!" I ask as she just tries to brush past that.
I see Miah put a hand on her temple.
"Sophia, we'll be here all day if I have to go on a tangent about every piece of knowledge there is, but yes, Gods. All you need to know about them is there are 6 of them, and they each have a Domain, kind of like us, except much bigger and much stronger."
"How much bigger and stronger?"
"MUCH bigger and stronger. Can I go back to races now? This kind of knowledge will actually help you out."
"Yeah, sorry, carry on."
"So yes, humans were the base model before the Gods showed up and changed their followers to either resemble the figure of the gods or to help them deal with certain problems. Nowadays, finding a pure-blood human is exceedingly rare, but most of the population is still a mix between human and other races."
She pauses.
"This will take too long. Do you mind if I just speed through the rest?"
"If you think it'll be easier to digest?"
"It will. There's the Dragonkin. They have the tails, horns, wings, and scales of a dragon. You'll find that most of them live in Cerialis, which I'll explain later. There's the Beastkin. They have the characteristics of various woodland animals. You'll be hard-pressed to find a pure-blood of them, though, since most of them live secluded in Ellsmea. There's the Merkin. They have the gills, scales, and tails of fish. The majority lives in the Far Isles of Aegina."
She takes a breath.
"You with me still?"
"It's quite a bit, but I'm still hanging on."
"Good. There's the Elvenkin. They're usually a fair bit shorter than the average species and have these long pointed ears. Most of them live in Dunnsmer, but they're a fair bit more spread out than most. There's the previously mentioned Giants, and well, they're big, like 10 to 12 foot big. They mostly live in their sky-cities, but you'll find a few of their settlements on various mountain ranges. There's the demonkin. They usually have red skin (though I have heard they can come in all of the colors of the rainbow), horns, and tails. We got no idea where they are from, just that sometimes some of them arrive on the shores of Cerialis. They call their land Seirei no Kuni, which we have translated to as the Land of the Spirits."
"And finally, we have my species. The Planarkin. We were changed by Null so that our bodies were better suited to the volatile state that our country was in after the Second Elemental Incursion. We typically have aspects of certain Elemental Planes etched into our features. Like hairs of fire, skin of shadow..."
She looks directly into my eyes with a smile.
"Eyes of stars, things like that. The majority of us live back at A.D.R, but as you can see, there are some that enjoy a good adventure."
"Phew, that was all of them. Can I continue, or do you have any questions?"
"Only about a thousand, but I think I have to process that dump of information, so you may continue."
"Good. Next is Sex, Height, and Weight which I hope I don't have to explain."
"Don't worry. I think I know enough"
"Next is a weird one. Remember how I said these shards are made with Forgotten tech?"
"Yeah?"
"Well, turns out a few of the features are unknown in what they do. For example, normally, your profession and balance would just display: unregistered and empty. That yours actually say something at all may be a clue to your past, even if what they say is mostly incomprehensible."
"You don't think I'm-"
"Look, anything we say right now would be pure conjecture, but if you were going to say what I thought you were going to say, then yes, there's a real possibility that that would be the case. It would explain the one title you don't have completely or partially redacted."
Forgotten, that really doesn’t bode well.
"Continuing. Next is your status. It's just a way to signify what your body is capable of; baseline humans have an average of 12 in most stats, and I have already explained Hume levels to you, but your DR is extremely interesting, not just for its name but for the fact that you apparently have two, even if one is redacted, and I'll refrain from speculating on what the 'lust' one is exactly useful for, as names for DRs can be deceiving. Next is magic and as the Forgotten didn't know much about magic, all they have to display is if you are capable of using magic directly and your maximum amount of mana or as they write it mp."
She points to my Mp.
"We already knew you were capable, and 30 Mp is… fine as a start. This brings me to a stat I have ignored: Level. It's a way to quantify the amount of experience one has, that normally equates to how good someone is at combat, but you can also increase your level with other activities like Cooking, studying, exploring, and plenty of others."
"Basically, high level equals someone with a lot of experience."
"Correct, it's why you see old people normally have higher levels. Though just as a note of point, levels can be lost if you stop training or just neglect practice. The levels tend to drop. Anyway, the point is when your level increases, so does your magic. We don't know exactly why; something to do with how prepared we are to handle more energy."
She takes a deep breath.
"Holy crap, I think that's all."
I look over at my sheet.
"You said the average was 12 on the body stats, yeah?"
"Well, the study was conducted 5 years ago, so we don't know how much the average has changed, but yeah, about 12."
"The fuck does a 20 mean for charisma."
"Technically, it would be 25 since right now you aren't in your 100%."
"The point is that seems excessively high for something that should be rather subjective."
I see her looking over me with disbelief.
"Sophia, I don't know if have looked in a mirror, but you may be the most attractive person I have ever seen. It's actually almost intimidating how good you look. Even if I do have some biases, I think the shard is pretty accurate on that."
“Biases?” I ask more out of curiosity than anything (my heart definitely wasn’t beating faster out of anxiety shut up).
“Uhm, what I meant to say is… fuck, Sophia I’ll be blunt, you are basically every fetish I have rolled into one, and frankly I’d be suspicious if not for seeing your range.” She says that last part quickly.
Oh… ~Oh, that I can work with.
I grin.
"Oh, is that so? Then what specifically catches your attention?"
She looks downwards.
"Are you really going to make me spell it out?" She says blushing
"Spell what out?" I ask with a vulpine grin.
"Fine, look. Let's get the obvious out of the way, you are unbelievably hot, your body is fit to perfection and frankly, I feel like your face should be counted as a work of art I mean your eyes are like gemstones, your hair even unkept and messy looks straight out of a commercial, I feel like I could grind meat on those abs and those thighs are only outshined by that ass because damm, also you’re incredibly tall, like holy shit I think I don’t even come up to your shoulder, but most importantly you also don’t seem to be a dick.” She says quckly while also avoiding eye-contact.
“And what about the not-obvious ones?” I ask purposefully letting my assets jiggle and swing.
I can see her looking almost hypnotized at them but she shakes her head and through a frankly impressive blush says.
“and-And YOU HAVE AN IMPRESSIVE SET OF TITS AND COCK! THERE! HAPPY?” She yell fast with her eyes closed.
I lean in closer with practised motions, making sure she can feel all the things she likes.
"Well, I’m very glad to hear that Miah, but words are wind, and I’d rather feel those compliments."
I can see her fidgeting as the blush intensifies.
"Of course, we could also take it slow an-."
I’m interrupted as she jumps up to me and I have to catch her as she hangs on me and I don’t even have time to react as she plants her lips on mine.
But I quickly return that kiss with enthusiasm, making sure to really make her enjoy it as much as possible, I even lean in a bit on my Domain–at least I think it’s my Domain, could be that I am also just a natural at kissing– as I try to picture the best ways to kiss and am suddenly aware that a bite here, a bit of tongue there, and a grope here will reward me with what I desire. I do so following these instincts and I see Miah gasp out a moan as her eyes seem to take on a new color, the stars changing from these bright whites and blues to a more violet and red.
And with that, all my self-control breaks and I quickly bring her to the wagon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Half an hour later both Miah and I are gasping out and breathing rabidly as we lay next to each other cuddling despite the soaring heat.
But I learned a couple of things, first my Domain can do much more than give me a few hints on what to do next, because I don’t think I would’ve been able to fully penetrate Miah otherwise, at least I’m pretty sure a regular vagina cannot fit about 12 inches inside it, not without rupturing stuff and being very painful and uncomfortable for the receiver, and Miah certainly didn’t seem to be minding it all too much.
Second, using my Domain actively has a distinct feeling to it, it’s hard to describe but it felt like I was pulling at something and I could feel it give in after I put some more strength to it. But at least it’s useful to know that I’m actually doing something, especially when it’s hard to tell the results–at least I’m hoping, because I am not sure I’m ready to be a mother yet.
Third and finally, Miah does not have a lot of stamina, pointed by the fact that I stopped gasping a while ago while she still looks absolutely dead.
Eventually, though, Miah stirs back to consciousness and separates herself from me, complaining it's too hot (in more ways than one).
"Besides, it'll get dark quickly, and by then, we'll have to be ready to depart on our journey." She says while tiredly stretching her naked body.
"We're travelling at night?" I ask trying not to ogle too hard–she just said we had to move fast after all.
She sits back up and puts on her bra.
"Yeah, it's a way to conserve energy. Mornings are too hot for us to really exert ourselves without risk of dehydration or overheating. In fact, we should’ve probably been suffering some of the effects, especially after that session, but I guess you DR had us covered in that department."
I sigh, having lost the beautiful profile of her sweat-covered boobs.
"Good to know, but I think there's still something we have to do before we leave."
She tilts her head as she puts her panties back on.
"What's that?"
We got some cultists to interrogate.