Seras was laughing her ass off. She knew that she should be quieter, but she just couldn’t be bothered.
The girl’s face was crimson with embarrassment. “It’s not funny. You just shook my whole understanding of reality.”
Seras tried to get herself under control, “sorry, but you’re literally the first person I’ve met who hasn’t heard of outworlders. Even that Omeda archer had an idea of what I was.”
“Who?”
“That archer, the one we were fighting.”
The girl looked down. “So that’s who they were, Omeda. They’re one of the tribal peoples?”
The mirth left Seras, “yeah, they were like some sort of elite warriors during the bloody sand’s. They weren’t happy when their diamond rank ancestors made peace with the people of the citadels. Turned to raiders and bandits, or so I’ve heard. Only just heard about them from my Akemi friend less than a week ago.”
“Why were they taking people then, why’d they attack me?”
“Dunno, don’t really care. I was hired to stop them and rescue the villagers, the rest is above my head. You were probably just a target of opportunity. I take it you were traveling alone?”
She nodded.
“That’s your answer, you were just there. They were strong, you were weak. That’s all there really is to it.”
She frowned, “it can’t be that simple.”
“Maybe, but realistically does the rest matter. Bad people do bad shit all the time. I was hired for the one job. Its up to Arlee if he wants to find out more.”
“But don’t you care, aren’t adventurers more… I don’t know… heroic.” She said timidly.
Seras turned away from her, “maybe some are, but I’m not an adventurer. Not yet. I was just helping out a friend.”
Seras looked around and stood up, “probably not the time to be chatting. Our way in is blocked, so we need to find another way. Must be in the labyrinth, there’s gotta be another exit. I just hope that this tunnel’s only iron rank, I don’t want to face bronze rank monsters with one arm.” She looked down at the girl, “you got any offensive powers?”
She blinked, “um, one or two, but they’re situational. Most of my abilities are for self healing, and counter curisng.”
“Plus the one that let’s you take on the wounds of others.”
She looked hesitant, “that as well. But I’m not sure if I should use it on you. I don’t get to choose what I take on-”
“And you’re worried your arm might fall off, right.” Seras held her hand over the girl and manifested her rifle. “Well here, I can’t use this one handed. I’ll show how to aim and brace yourself for the recoil. This way you won’t be helpless.”
The girl stood at took the rifle.
Seras blinked several times as she realized that the ‘girl’ stood a whole head taller than her, and Seras wasn’t exactly short. “Danm girl! What do they feed ya?”
She blinked several times in rapid succession, “uh, food?” she said uncertainly.
Seras hadn’t realized it before, not with the girl’s general timidity and uncertainty, but she was solid. Tall, with lean well-toned muscles wrapped under smooth almond colored skin.
Seras shook her head, “Looks like you could eat a Heidel and a half.” She remarked as she walked a little circle around her, appraising every centimeter. She reached out and poked the girl’s bicep, “Dead gods, your almost as solid as I am. And I’m metal! You look like you walked right out of myth and legend. And this is all natural?”
“Its nothing,” She demurred turning redder.
“I know modeling agencies that would go to war for a natural beauty like you.” Seras retorted. “And your only Iron rank. I’m starting to feel jealous.”
“But you’re even… I mean you’re. You look…” She was stumbling over her words. She couldn’t quite match the brazenness of Seras’s statements.
Seras ignored it all. “All modded, trust me I didn’t look this good before I had work done.”
“What does that mean?”
Seras stopped circling, she looked up at the girl and quirked an eyebrow, “I am a cyborg, the only part of me that’s still organic is my brain and guts. Hair, skin, eyes, nails, muscles, bones, all of it is mechanical and cost a fortune. You think I’d spend that much and not get a nicer face, smoother skin, a smaller bust?”
The girl eyes darted down, then back up just as quickly. “Really, smaller?”
“Sometimes less is more.” Seras said dismissively.
“And everyone on your world is like this?”
She snorted “hardly. Equipment that’s both powerful and aesthetically appealing is rare, and most people prefer to pull away from human sensibilities of beauty. I knew a women with a third eye implant in her forehead, a man that was half dump truck, and someone who took her jaw off to replace it with a gas mask. Given a choice between power and looking human most poor people choose power, and that’s evolved its own culture of non-human aesthetics. Its only the ultra-elite who can get both power and still look human. Honestly I’m lucky I was outworldered after my upgrades, I used to have a second set of small arms on my back.”
“Really, that’s, I,-”
“Yeah, they seemed like a good idea at the time, just made it hard to sit.” As Seras was talking, she had begun searching their surroundings. The cavern had a plush moss covering the ground, and creeping vines covering the walls and partially crawling up onto the ceiling. It was all too green for an underground cave. “I like my current build a lot better, took me several high-risk high reward jobs to afford.” She continued.
“How much would that cost anyways?”
Seras frowned, “In my world it was about 150 million Chits, but that doesn’t really tell you much. I’ve done the math and have compared our currencies, yours has an interesting trait of becoming disproportionately more valuable depending on the rank. A bronze isn’t really worth ten iron, its worth eleven. That makes things tough, but I think 150 million chits is anywhere from five thousand gold spirit coins to ten-thousand.”
“That’s a lot of money for one person.” The girl said, she sounded daunted by the number, but it wasn’t the flabbergasted disbelief the caravan crew had given her. Even Dustin had been unnerved.
“My world doesn’t have magic. No essences, no awakening stones, no monsters. But we still have extraordinarily difficult jobs that need to be done, and for that you need exceptionally skilled and capable people. In that regard our elite mercs hold a position similar to silver and gold ranks in this world.” She looked the girl in the eyes, craning her neck to do so. “And I was one of the best. Only corporate backed elites were better than me. And that’s because their gear was better. They have the silver grade version of my equipment, while mines only the bronze…”
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Seras trailed off as her mind made a connection that seemed blatantly apparent in hindsight. Seras had come into this world far stronger than she should have thanks to her augs, it gave her the ability to hit rank a bronze ranker. It was so potent that it had created an in balance between her magical matrix and body. Her body wasn’t just super tough like Leonids or Draconians, it was bronze rank tough. Was that because it was remade with magic upon her rebirth, or had it been that way before?
Her body was Military grade, the Biolite Bronze warframe to be exact. The direct upgrade from there was the Silver Warframe, with a rumored Gold in development. That couldn’t be a coincidence. Right?
The girl had watched Seras trail off and had waited patiently for Seras to snap out of it before asking her next question. “is that why I felt so much pain from you? Because of your ‘equipment’.”
Seras blinked and remembered the battle when the soul deep pain of her soul/body disconnect had gone away. “Sort of. Ordinary pain I can just turn off if it’s distracting me.”
“Then was that the pain you had turned off, or…”
“No, I said ordinary pain. What you temporarily took away was a soul deep pain. Honestly, I had forgotten what it felt like not to be in constant pain, it was such a surprise when it came back that I lost concentration on holding back an ability advancement. Thus doubling the pain.”
The girl look haunted, “I’ve taken lots of pain from lots of people, but that was the worst thing I have ever felt. It was like something was racking a rusty blade against the center of my being, or like-”
Seras held up a hand, “trust me I get it. That’s what I have to deal with all the time, even in sleep.” She ran a hand along the shaven side of her head, “it’s a condition called soul/body disconnect. Ordinarily people don’t get to have a bronze rank body without corresponding enhancements to their magic matrix and soul. When I was remade my soul reconstructed my bronze rank body in this magical world and struck some sort of balance. A balance I fucked up by absorbing essences and stepping into iron. Now every ability advancement puts me in more and more pain. Until I hit bronze rank there’s nothing I can do, but I’ll die before bronze.”
Her eyes went wide, “are you sure, I’ve never heard about anything like this before?”
“Got the truth from Knowledge herself.”
“Oh, um, I’m sorry. That sounds, just awful.”
“Yeah well that’s my life, a never ending series of shitty events. Just when things start going right something comes along to knock me down. Doesn’t matter, I’ve survived worse, I’ll find a way to fix myself.”
She perked up at that “did the Goddess give any hints then, I’m told Knowledge likes to leave little hints so that people have enough to figure things out for themselves.”
“No luck I’m afraid. She said there was no power on this world that could help me beyond the divine or transcendent. I’m just hoping she’s wrong.”
“She’s Knowledge, she can’t be wrong.”
“She was once, she tried to lure me into her church. Exchange a cure for my loyalty. She knew everything about me and presented it all just right. Logically I should have agreed then and there, but here I am. Not cured, and not a priest. If she can have all the facts and still be wrong about me then there’s every chance she could be wrong about this.”
The girl looked contemplative, considering Seras’ words.
As Seras watched the girl something occurred to her, “hey, what’s your name?”
The girl shook herself out of contemplation and looked down on Seras. “What?”
“I just realized I’ve been calling you ‘the girl’ in my head this whole time. We’re both stuck down here together, so I might as well know your name.”
She scowled, “I not a girl. I’ll be twenty next month.” She said pointedly.
Seras cocked her head, was she really that old? Well, now that she was standing Seras guessed it was pretty obvious, maybe it was her demeanor that made her seem younger. “My mistake.”
That seemed to mollify her, she stood straighter and extended her hand. “Right, well, I’m Athena-,” She stopped herself and then started again-, “I’m Athena, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
Seras logged the little pause away in a file that she was currently renaming. Some things about Athena were triggering her suspicious instincts. “Athena huh, back on my world we had legends about a women named Athena, back from the fall. Does this world have those as well?”
She frowned, “Not that I know of, there’s probably been an Athena or two who did important things though. My parents just liked the sound of it.”
“Right, well I’m Seras, Seras Cross, nice to meet you.” Seras took her hand and shook it, just as Athena was about to pull away Seras’ grip tightened, “one more thing. I’ve been pretty open about telling you all my secrets, but I’d appreciate ya keeping them on the down low, okay?” Seras said with a threatening smile.
She saw Athena shiver and knew her intentions had been received loud and clear. “Okay. No telling anyone about the strange metal woman from another world.”
Seras let go and snorted with amusement, “I don’t care about the Outworlder part, be a pain trying to keep that one a secret, I just don’t want other rumors to get out. I’ve been told that the Magic society would be very interested in pulling me apart to see how I tick. And I’d rather not have to deal with the stares and disgust of the general public. I get enough of that from the crew I’m on.”
The girl frowned, “why would people be disgusted? Magical prosthetics are a thing, you just have more than most.”
Seras smiled wanly, “if only it were that simple.” She then looked around and decided she had procrastinated long enough. “Alright, time for brass tacks. Right now we’re in the labyrinth, know what that is?”
“It’s the magical tunnel system under this half of the continent.” She answered confidently.
“Correct, and do you know the dangers of it?”
She looked a little less confident, Seras didn’t need to hear her answer from that look alone.
She raised her fingers to begin ticking down items. “Shifting unmappable tunnels, seemingly random changes in magical density and quality, random varieties of monsters trapped down here until they start to go mad, and astral spaces within unknown dangers.”
“Random monsters and magic, are you saying we could run into silver ranked monsters here?” she asked in alarm.
“Yes, and worse. There are stories about gold rank monsters wandering around. I heard a story about a diamond rank spawn deep underground during a surge. That’s what makes this place so unpredictable. We could get lucky and stay in low iron tunnels the whole way, or we find a gold and get squashed.” Seras pulled out and rod and set in midair, it slowly filled with a mix of iron and bronze colors, with just a smidge of silver. “According to this density attunement rod we’re in a bronze ranked zone. But that can change pretty fast.”
Athena stared at the rod and paled, “you said your body was equal to bronze rank though?”
“Right, that means I have the speed and power of a bronzer ranker, but none of the magic or abilities that come with the rank. I’m also down an arm, lacking in effective weapons. And I only have about half my essence abilities, two of which are useless, and one is crafting based. The powers I do have are a defensive ability, and Aura power, an ability to resist rank suppression, and an aiming ability.”
Athena nodded “I’m only mid iron, with fifteen abilities unlocked. Wound transference, self-healing, regeneration, anti-affliction, and an anatomy based perception ability.”
“Anatomy based?”
“I see bones, muscles, veins, organs, and even some nerves when I activate it.” She explained.
“You don’t keep it on all the time.”
She frowned “no, its, well its unpleasant to see peoples bodies at work constantly.”
“Right, yeah, gross.” Seras agreed. “Try using it on me.”
She nodded. Seras waited to see if there would be any sort of visual indicator of her ability, but the most she got was an intrigued tilt of the head as Athena looked Seras up and down.
“I take it it’s working to some degree.” Seras surmised.
“Yeah, I can see it all, but its weird. I can see wires, metal bones, joints and other stuff, but that’s it. I can sort of tell what’s organic, but it looks like its just a mass of red gloo.” She sounded very confused, “it’s almost like when I look at high rankers.”
Seras wasn’t surprised by the revelation; she had read in a magical textbook that high rankers stopped having organs and instead transitioned into a state of being pure biomass suspended against the bones and wrapped tightly within skin. That same text mentioned off-handedly that the same occurred in outworlders as early as normal rank do to their magical reconstruction.
What she more concerned with was that Athena could see all her internal systems. She had long since guessed that her internal hardware was still fully defined instead of being loose biomass. Athena now confirmed Seras’ long held suspicion that some sort of essence ability could expose her nature.
“Alright, what if I do this?” she asked as she activated her active camo.
Athena bit her lip, “your aura’s gone, but I can still see you, I can even see your skin change pigment.”
Seras cursed, there went her hope to use active camo like an unofficial essence power. She’d need to integrate magic somehow to defend against perception abilities like Athena’s.
Millions of Chits wasted.
While Seras lamented her wasted money she quickly pulled up her current info
Seras ‘Blackiron’ Cross
Race, Outworlder
Iron rank, essences 4/4
Racial traits
* Astral Wellspring
* Biomechanical Physiology
* Pocket space
* Stranger in a strange world
* Net connection
* Blue Printing software
Essences
Power Metal essence: iron 2/5 attributes
Control Metal 0 : 53%
Reinforce Metal 2 :03%
Speed Potent essence: iron 1/5 attributes
Limit brake 0 :97%
Spiri, Technology essence: iron 2/5 attributes
Inscribe circuit/rune 0 :00%
Spark of Madness 0 :00%
Recovery Avatar essence: iron 2/5 attributes
Control Bullets 0: 98%
Aura of Ruin 0:83%
Two, maybe three abilities looking to jump up a level. After how tense that battle was Seras wasn’t surprised. But that meant she had a choice. Either meditate and try to get them over the line for the boost in power, or hold off and try to face the labyrinth as she was.
Seras looked down at her arm, the broken one. She let out a long sigh, “alright Athena, we’re currently in a one-way tunnel and nothing’s come to kill us yet. I think the moss might be muffling any potential echoes, which is lucky after that scream of yours. It’s the only reason I felt so safe sitting here and talking for so long. I’ve got two, maybe three abilities that might advance after a mediation session, which is going to suck and bring my soul disconnect up to ten or twelve percent.”
“Should you wait then, there might be an exit nearby.” Athena said hopefully.
Seras shook her head, “nah, that’s optimism, hope, don’t listen to that trite. Expect the shitiest possible reality and you’ll rarely be surprised.”
“That’s bleak.”
“Maybe, but its served me well so far.” Seras retorted. “While I’m meditating I’ll need you to stand watch. And also not stab me in the back.”
Now she was glaring at Seras. “I wouldn’t do that, you’re the person who rescued from some grisly fate.”
Seras shrugged, “gratitude hasn’t stopped people before, why should I expect it to now.”
With that she closed her eyes and began to take deep calming breaths, slowly reached out for her power and helping it flow through her body, occasionally correcting any snarls or blockages. A sharp pain didn’t appear in her side, so she took it as a good sign that Athena was trustworthy.
Really Seras would have liked to trust her without suspicion, but she’d literally been stabbed in the back before by people she trusted. Her mind flashed back to Volta, cold eyes glaring as Seras twisted the knife.
The thought nearly interrupted her meditation and Seras had to refocus herself. She needed to be at her best to get out of this deadly situation.