Matthew looked at Matriarch Esen that sat in front of him for a few moments before he spoke

“I will leave you to your rest, Matriarch Esen”

The young Matriarch nodded and lazily waved to Matthew as she dismissed him, Matthew bowed a few degrees before he turned and walked out of the tent, his desire to stir up shit had been completely destroyed when he observed the young Matriarch casually violate several laws of physics by tearing apart physical space to open up a portal which she transferred the Data cube through.

Thus, he retreated gracefully.

“Sand prophet, let me lead you to your tent”

Matthew nodded to the young man that had guided him to the Matriarch’s tent after he had woken from his daze, he had many questions, mostly retraining to his new title as a prophet but the feeling he had in the pit of his stomach scream to him that handling any matters regardless to religion very, very carefully

‘...Especially now when I have suddenly become a prophet… How is the title sand prophet defined in the language data from the Data cube, Aea?’

[Language data registry of entry Nuactu for the title, Sand Prophet: Warrior, Fighter, Duelist, Leader, Pinnacle, Ideal, Visitor, Traveler from the stars]

‘That seems like what we've already experienced… Still traveler from the stars…’

[There's a high chance a first sand prophet or entity that spread this information was aboard the Mighty Endurance too]

‘And given the accommodations they have shown so far this entity was revered for some reason… Which makes that Data cube and other technology like it holy relics?’

[Most likely, please adjust your behavior according, master]

“This is your tent, do you have any requests for your meal, Sand prophet?”

“None in particular”

The young man bowed respectfully and left to fetch Matthew some much welcome food and water, Matthew entered his tent, the gray cloth tent was the same size as Matriarch Esen’s tent, the only difference was the lack of servants and embroidered rugs and carpets, the only piece of furniture was the simple tent bed that stood in the middle, Matthew sat down on the floor and began to focus on his new sense

‘Is any of the data collected from Alina applicable to my current situation?’

[Yes]

‘...Any you can share with me?’

[Not without the permission of the mistress, no]

‘...Great’

Having hit a wall with Aea at once since Alina was ranked higher on Aea’s internal totem pole than BlueArrow Matthew started to experiment on his own, the air, ground and everything else around him seemed to be completely saturated with some sort of energy, it flowed though all objects complex interconnected streams of slightly different energies.

If Matthew’s newly gained sense had replaced his vision, he would be assailed with maddening flows of different flashing colors.

‘Now then… A source of energy have been found, next question is how to exploit it’

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Matthew spent the next half an hour trying to manipulate the surrounding energies without much success, after the young servant arrived with a meal and large jug of water for him, he ate and drank before continuing his experimentation.

Around dawn, Matthew finally made a breakthrough when he turned his new sense inwards and found his own body completely empty of the energies he observed outside his body

“Hmm…”

After weighing his options for a few moments, Matthew decided to refocus his efforts on finding a way to draw in the strange energies

“The question is how…”

“I wouldn’t worry about that for now”

Matthew felt a chill go down his artificial spine as the voice of Matriarch Esen sounded out behind him, he didn’t need to turn around to know she wasn’t there or anywhere near him, she seemed to have transferred her voice to him via some sort of Mystic ability

“We of the Burning Embers rise with the sun, Sand prophet, wasting daylight is wasting coin… Please exit your tent so the servants can get to work already”

“...Yes, at once, Matriarch Esen”

Matthew immediately got up from the tent bed and wore his outer clothes he had taken off when he went to rest, as he got dressed Esen’s voice sounded out behind him again

“Don’t be so tense, the duty of the unlearned is to learn, and the duty of the 6 clans is to teach… Ignorance is only a sin as long as it is willful”

Matthew nodded and finished getting dressed before he left his tent, upon exiting he saw the whole camp was alive in activity, the tents were packed and moved onto floating carriages as the entire camp was quickly dismantled, as soon as he stepped out 3 servants that had waited silently in front of his tent gave him a bow before they began taking down his tent, it did indeed look like he had made them wait on him

‘Looks like I was too absorbed in my experimentation…’

With that thought out of the way and nothing to do, Matthew unsurprisingly went right back to experimenting, until Matriarch Esen’s voice sounded out right behind him again

“Please join me in my carriage”

Matthew snapped out of his daze and nodded, he didn’t need to look around much to locate Matriarch Esen’s carriage, it was the most decorated after all, he walked over and leaped the half a meter off the ground that the carriage hovered and landed inside, there Matriarch Esen sat with a paper scroll in her hand which she slowly unrolled as she read its contents with one hand and rolled it back up with her other hand, Matthew sat down as he waited for her to finish as she was clearly focused fully focused on her task

“...Send word ahead, tell Sigme to ease up on parchment purchase from the West, have her shift towards acquiring Northern timber and sell it to the Ascle clan at a mark-up of 20%, if they refuse increase the mark-up to 23% when they seek it out again”

“Yes Matriarch”

A messenger that kneed in front of Matriarch Esen rose to his feet after speaking before he exited the carriage and jumped onto a smaller hovering vehicle which Matthew equated to a hover bike when he saw it take flight and quickly carry the messenger into the distance

“Now then, Sand prophet, I thank you for your patience… Allow me to explain my role as well as the rule of the 6 clans in your future path”

Matthew nodded, he knew he wasn’t a prophet, but having slain a young warrior from one of the 6 clans in a duel as well as having learned the languages of the local area from what he and Aea suspected was a ‘holy relic’ in these lands, he certainly was the Sand prophet to these people, which meant he had to at least try and act this way, lest he were to be branded a false prophet

“Please guide me, Matriarch”

Esen showed a wide smile and began explaining

“Firstly, you are the 4th Sand prophet to rise from the sand, only one of the previous prophets still draw breath, your predecessor, the 3rd prophet of the sands, Lady Eilane is currently leading a campaign towards the far Eastern end of the Central continent”

Matthew’s expression showed a slightly crack as Esen spoke the name Eilane, the mention of her name brought forth quite a few unwelcome memories as well as clarity to how he had ended up on this godforsaken world

‘Right, I was…’

Matriarch Esen was about to continue speaking when she noticed Matthew’s focus had shifted inwards, his eyes no longer reflected the present, instead days past flashed through his eyes

‘Looks like that did the trick, this was way easier than we had expected, Aea’

[Affirmative, with this we should be able to consider the first steep cleared and move on to the 2nd step mistress]

-

Buildings of polished metal and crystal glass rose high into the atmosphere of Silgas-4, besides its location in the central administrative zone of The Trerubic Empire and its relative proximity to the Crown world nothing stood out as too special on Silgas-4, it was an upper middle class residential planet like many others but with its relative wealth came branches of every major interstellar mega corporation and branches of the Trerubic armed forces ready to fight for graduates from the many esteemed universities and training facilities on Silgas-4

And with competition came confrontation.

[Wake up order confirmed, user, wake up]

Matthew’s eyes snapped open as consciousness was forced upon him once again, he rose from the cold sleep pod like an automaton, then he began peeling off the sensors that were taped to his body as Aea’s voice sounded out in his mind

[Mission data reads standard neurological data harvest, class 2 weaponry and class 1 armor permitted, escalation to class 3 weaponry available at request]

Matthew didn’t answer as his throat was stuffed with a long plastic tube that had delivered him nutrients while he had been in suspended animation, after he pulled it out he asked

“What’s the pay like?”

[200 Credits, job offer and payment is non-negotiable]

“Which makes my current balance what exactly?”

[898.312.432.565.233 more credits is currently needed to balance user's current account, please take all the time you need to settle all outstanding payments, BlueArrow allows for a unlimited duration zero interest repayment for the lease of the Code Arrow 09 currently installed in the user]

Matthew didn’t offer any retort or complaint, over the last 120 years of doing ‘wet work’ for BlueArrow he had grown too tired to argue, at least when he was a Penance Marine the sweet embrace of death had offered salvation, now any injury short of being launched straight onto the surface of a star would simply add to his outstanding account, which only resulted in lengthening his indentured servitude to BlueArrow