The seemingly endless dunes of sand that the pair of old colleges had waded through over the last 3 days slowly gave way to arid shrubs, this was a happy change since the soft sand made the already tiring event of walking even more of a chore, of course Matthew wasn’t all that annoyed with walking, to him, it beat floating around in outer space for a week role playing asteroids on minimal power settings to pull off a perfect ambush on a rebel station… The annoyance came from Doc that had gotten more and more grumpy since, as she so perfectly had put it 48 hours in

“Long walks through the desert with no supplies or breaks isn’t an appropriate pass time for a classy lady such as I”

‘...It feels like she’s suddenly a little too comfortable around me… Maybe the talk we had about retirement made her let down her guard a little’

[It is possible that a suspension bridge effect might have influenced Ms. Anastasia opinion of you master]

‘...Refer to her as Doc, I don’t want to open that particular can of worms without being armed’

[Understood]

Matthew glanced at Doc that walked besides him, her face was mostly blank except for the frown of her brows that slowly seemed to grow deeper and deeper, she seemed to have entered some sort of trance a few hours ago as she stopped complaining and focused her energy into walking instead, Matthew stopped looking at her and went back to scanning his surroundings for dangers and food as he asked

‘What is that suspension bridge effect you mentioned anyway?’

[The suspension bridge effect refers to the sudden physiological and or physical attachment, whether one-sided or mutual, between people being put into high stress, tenuous situations]

‘...That doesn’t sound anything like Doc though, she might be a hedonist, but I’ve never seen her show any interest in other people’

[Do you know the most common folly of intelligent biological life, master?]

‘...Let’s hear it’

[The belief that their so-called logical intelligence elevates them over the billion of years of biologically evolved instincts]

Matthew was stunned for a moment, even though this was quite the statement coming from a mechanical intelligence and certainly could have been worded less bluntly he didn’t really feel like he could argue the point Aea made

‘Fair enough, I will keep that in mind’

[Please do]

Matthew let out a sigh, he had a lot of things to keep in mind lately, for one there were the long scorched trail he left behind where he walked, then there was the nagging feeling of dropping everything in favor of breaking into a sprint North and now there was Doc’s change in attitude towards him, however he had not had time to deal with even one of these things before another was placed on his lap

‘I guess I’ll have to figure out the fire hazard first…’

Just as Matthew had decided to tackle his new Mystic powers, another problem sprung up

Quite literally too as the ground beneath his feet was kicked up as something sprung up around him from underground

‘Shit!’

Time slowed down for Matthew as he instantly went into overdrive, the ground beneath his feet had suddenly erupted upwards around him, never mind identifying the source of this sudden attack he didn’t even have time to confirm Doc’s safety as hurriedly leaped away from the large chitin covered claw that nearly closed around his legs, as he twisted through the air a large stinger came into as it rapidly closed in on his face

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‘No thanks…’

As soon as the stinger entered his range, he stretched out his arm and knocked it off course with a backhand smack, then before he hit the ground he felt a tingle go up his spine and punched down with his fist to propel him further instead of breaking his fall with a roll, this proved to be the right choice as another pair of giant claws erupted out of the ground where he punched a moment later, however he was helpless against the giant stinger that shot out after him, thought right before he got stung the world around him distorted and after a bout of dizziness he landed on the ground further away next to Doc

“Are you alright Major?”

Matthew shook the dizziness out of his head before he stood up, he looked towards the group of large scorpions that scurried towards the two of them, however before he managed to do anything else each and every scorpion were suddenly parted into two or more pieces, Doc let out a deep sigh a moment later before she sat down on the ground, her face pale, Matthew scanned their surrounds for a few moments before he relaxed his guard and spoke

“Thanks for the assist”

Doc simply waved her hand dismissively instead of answering as she was too exhausted by using her Mystic abilities to speak, while she recovered Matthew walked the scorpion carcasses and harvested a few of them for himself before he retrieved the rest for Doc to harvest

“Thank you, Major…”

With their bodies rejuvenated the two continued towards the city of Uliat and 2 days of walking later the two reached the outer walls a few hours after dawn

“Let me handle the talking, Major”

Matthew nodded, Doc knew more about the local culture than he did, plus there was something about the guards that manned the gate and had watched the two of them approach for the past few minutes while they handled the normal traffic of merchant carts and adventure parties that flowed in and out of the gate, something about it bothered him

‘Send a message to Doc and tell her to raise her alertness, Aea’

[Confirmed, message sent]

Matthew reevaluated his opinion on forming a local network between him and Doc, like the one he had with Alina and the infrastructure of their base, on one hand he didn’t trust her enough to allow it, but on the other hand she had been plenty docile so far, and if they were about to run face-first into a steel plate like he suspected it would expand their ability to coordinate

‘...Better safe than sorry I guess, Aea open a localized network with Doc and her 09’

[Confirmed, opening network with CR09-0000005… Localized network opened]

A moment later, Doc’s voice sounded out in Matthew’s mind

[What is it, Major?]

‘Something about the guards seem off, they’re looking at us like they’ve seen us before’

[... Yeah now that you mention it, what do you want to do, Major? All my major stockpiles of technology and materialize are in Uliat, but I have some minor ones scattered around]

‘... I feel like we’re walking into a trap… Are there any Mystic’s that are able to threaten us in the local area?’

[Not really, a few of the elders of the 6 clans would be annoying to deal with, besides that there are a few mercenaries and high ranking members of some other organizations, but those shouldn’t mobilize against us on their own, and they’re even less likely to mobilize with any sort of coordination]

Matthew closed his eyes for a few moments as he considered, on one hand he knew things could end like it had ended up North if he just brute forced it once again, but it felt like things would be worse if he let the local powers push him around without showing any resistance

‘...Let’s push though, I would like to say we’ll just conquer the city if things turn sour, but keep that as an absolute last resort’

[Understood]

The two continued to approach the gates, as they neared the other travelers quickly cleared a path for them, this was in part due to Matthew’s Mystic ability that superheated everything within half a meter of him, but some also recognized the elder of the Burning embers merchant clan, even though she looked rather worse for ware from the almost 6 day of trekking through the desert

“M-Matriarch Esen!”

One of the merchant carriage drivers recognized Doc and called out to her, a few moments later she and 3 other merchants from their carriage had exited and were now kneeling down in front of her, Doc that had switched back into her Matriarch persona showed a tired smile and greeted them all in turn

“Nesil, Tali, Celil and Mahmut… It looks like your caravan were delayed, you should have arrived here 2 nights ago, no?”

The female carriage driver Nesil who also led this caravan quickly responded as she lowered her head

“O-Our caravan were delayed because of my mistakes, please forgive me Matriarch!”

Doc flashed a cold smile and spoke

“That’s not true, you were delayed because the riffraff acted up once they learned my caravan were destroyed, no? Send me a report later, I’ll make send someone to pull up the weeds that tried to skim your profits, my dears''

“As you command, Matriarch!”

“Oh, could you vouch for us to the city guards, it seems like someone have told them lies about us, they’ve been glaring at us ever since we came within view”

The four merchants immediately rose to their feet, their eyes ablaze with silent fury towards the city guard, Nesil made a series of complex hand signals to the 3 men that nodded and brandished their sheathed swords before they walked over to have a ‘talk’ with the guards that had disrespected their Matriarch

“They look very competent for mere merchants”

Nesil shot a quick glance at Matthew and was about to chastise him for speaking to her Matriarch with such a tone, but Doc responded to him before she could

“You haven’t been with us for long enough to know this, but in this part of the central continent there’s a common saying about my clan, Sand prophet”

“Which is?”

“The merchants of the burning embers might speak softly, but most of them are more proficient in their dealings of blood than their dealing of coin”

A moment after Doc spoke out loud, her voice echoed out in Matthew’s mind

[Do you really think I spent the last 350 years on this ball of dirt without building up a base of power made of the most loyal soldiers and servants, Major? Now that we’ve met with members of my clan, it should be smooth sailing from here]