PLEASE ENTER NAME : LEVEL 5
DAY 46 : F-DAY, SECONDWEEK, BOREAS, YEAR 1
HORUS 1 : HORUS 1 : COMMUNE
Exiting the backmost train car 50 times in a row, I very much appreciate the first new Sonar-accessible architecture in a week that isn’t a train car.
And for the first time in nearly that long, it can reach all the other people too. So many people… They’re all streaming out of one of the hundreds of other cars further up on this train, albeit with less efficient coordination than myself. Not that the other end of the train is anywhere near my Sonar’s range. But in the past month, I have learned to understand patterns.
Which is why, based on what I can see from this platform alone, it’s safe to conclude that everyone across the entire train station is looking at me. As well as perhaps a few hundred in the city outside. They all seem to be craning their necks to get a load of the level-Five Hero who took up an entire train car all the way from Central. It’s the first time many of them put together that it was actually crammed with a metric ton of Common armor sets that all together, aren’t even worth what any of the other passengers are wearing. But that’s okay, they don’t have to feel bad. Nor do I want them to.
In the interest of not ruining their day further, I quickly stop polluting their visage with such poor-quality equipment by spreading myself out from the train platform, and into different areas of said city. In just a bit longer than it takes the body carrying my head to walk straight through to the other end of Horus, my minimap fills in with the entire traversable area surrounded by a sheer cliff. There’s just one massive blank spot in the middle where I am to understand that one such as me is not allowed and should go away or be killed in five seconds. But that’s fine. I now understand exactly where I can go, as well as where I should.
So, I naturally head straight to where I should go through what I now thoroughly understand to be the royal capital of The Gale Kingdom. Horus the city, sits atop an elemental wind falcon the size of whatever a ‘continent’ is. The falcon is also named Horus. Or rather, the city is named after the falcon. The same goes for the largest, furthest region of The Gale Kingdom that encompases its nesting grounds. As well as the last of eight months per year. And even the letter ‘H’ in H-Day.
64 seconds per minute, 64 minutes per hour, 32 hours per day, 8 days per week, 4 weeks per month, and 8 months per each 256-day year. Apparently, the seconds and years on Earth are almost an exact match to The Gamesphere. But everything in between is that much lengthier to compensate, months being the standout as 50% longer than their Earth counterparts. Not that I understand that as anything like ‘context’. There are also four years per cycle. But cycles don’t seem to have an Earth equivalent. Perhaps a ‘presidency’? But that doesn’t seem quite right based on what I’m hearing.
It’s just that so many people in this apparently ‘Ancient Chinese Style’ metropolis seem to talk about nothing but the time, the weather, and exactly where they’re currently standing. I’ve learned so much about all three of those things since I left the train station. And the other two never seem to change. Not that I really know how the sky can be both clear and blue at the same time. But before I can find out more, the conversations I’m overhearing always become about a headless suit of armor walking around and creeping them out. I already know about that though.
So, moving on from each in turn, I gather myself to descend a massive winding staircase that apparently spirals downward around the city. Which, unless the sheer cliff beneath the stair’s edge is somehow misleading my Sonar, that assertion appears correct.
Some people pass me by while ascending the same stairs. The first of these involves a lot of awkward shuffling as both myself and the woman going up try to correct for each other in a surprisingly jumbled mess for the addition of only a single person. Once that’s all behind me, I resolve to avoid such things going forward by following myself in a single-file line down the outermost edge of the staircase.
But alas, one man still takes issue with my behavior. “Hey asshole, I can’t see the view-” Mid-word, he pushes the body holding my head off the edge of the staircase.
[ COMMON ACTION: RECALL HEAD ]
Head safely away, my body falls from Horus the city, into Horus the bird. Within said bird, that armor is cut to infinitesimally smaller and smaller shards that entirely disappear before making it anywhere near the ground of Horus the outermost region of The Gale Kingdom. Having been sliced far past the point of disintegration, that Body loses all ten of its allocated HP before almost immediately vaporizing on contact with Horus.
[ HP: 566/576 ]
Resolving to avoid angering others by inadvertently disrespecting customs that I don’t understand, I move my head to join the body in my room currently watching anime. Most of the rest of me keeps going down the stairs. It certainly doesn’t help matters that I also don’t understand the idea of ‘customs’. Civetta explained it to me several times, and it just doesn’t make sense.
Thankfully, the angry man seems to simply not like empty helmets, because he leaves the rest of me alone while I follow myself down the stairs. One episode of Naruto later, I reach the bottom. I’m still not sure why Oneshot insisted I watch Naruto and nothing else after he teleported me to Central Station, but there you are. With all he’s helped me, I don’t need a reason to fulfill almost any request. Let alone this one, which I quite enjoy given the relatable powerset of the protagonist.
Just then, for the first time since I left him to board the train, someone asks me a question. “Hey, you can’t… Wait, are these all you?”
[ COMMON ACTION: RECALL HEAD ]
Head appearing in my hand nearest the temple guard, rotate my wrist and thereby nod.
He doesn’t. “Sorry, I can only let one of you through.” He gives me a once-over. “You’ll want that to be the one holding your head, I’m guessing?”
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
I nod.
[ ARMOR DISMISSED: 48 ]
[ HP: 96/576 ]
The man’s eyes widen as all but one of my bodies crumbles to dust that itself disappears even before it can fully fall to the ground or be blown away and I lose over 80% of my HP. He just gapes at me in what even I can tell is horror before stuttering out additional information. “That… They could’ve waited… You didn’t have to… Are you okay?”
Oh. I actually didn’t know that. “Very well.”
[ COMMON ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 1 ]
He blinks at my newly re-summoned armor. “Aaand what’s that for?”
“To wait.”
“I… I see… Well, as long as it’s only one of you, come on through.” He seems unconvinced that I am ‘very well’ at all, but nonetheless waves me through the apparently ostentatious antechamber, and into a glass box at the center of a massive, many-petaled flower.
At least I think it’s glass. It certainly interferes with my Sonar like glass does. After it drops through the center of the flower, I can’t really tell what’s going on outside of this box. But eventually, it opens. Immediately, I realize there’s room enough to be comfortable. And I was in the box long enough for my HP to regenerate to full on its own. So there’s no longer any reason not to alleviate the situation.
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 3 ]
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 3 ]
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 3 ]
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 3 ]
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 3 ]
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 3 ]
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 2 ]
[ RARE ACTION: SUMMON ARMOR 2 ]
My MP may be nearly empty now, but that’s a small price to pay to be whole again. For every armor that I have active at a time, I feel the smallest ease of pressure in my mind. I’m glad to be rid of it, even when I don’t notice it’s there until it’s gone. But then I feel oddly incomplete until I get it back. But now it is. All of me minus the body in my room, the raid, and a few other places besides the entrance where I was stopped by that man. But now that I’ve exited… Where am I?
There doesn’t seem to be anything. Not even ground.
[ COMMUNION INVITE: HORUS — ACCEPT? ]
‘Communion’? That’s not how you spell ‘attunement’. I think… I’m not exactly an expert on spelling. I accept right away just to be sure.
And that’s when I see him. I actually see him. In the same way I see system-assisted media. Except instead of a disembodied viewing rectangle, in front of me, and what it turns out I’m standing on, is, as expected, an inconceivably large falcon. Green wind swirls in storm-made feather patterns like extra-long tornados, only each is closer in radius to a hurricane. Not that I have much experience with either. But Civetta taught me many things in our weeks together, including general sizes and shapes of natural disasters. Overall, I’m not sure what’s bigger between this falcon, and one of Your tetrahedrons.
But immediately knowing which of the two I prefer, I nod to Horus in acknowledgement.
Horus seems to like my nodding. In fact, he reciprocates. Even standing directly on his seemingly solid wind-made beak, my Sonar picks up no change. It’s only thanks to the communion that I can discern the colossal falcon’s head-bobs.
All of my bodies almost automatically nod to whatever a ‘rhythm’ is. I don’t try to make them do that. But I also don’t try to make them stop.
The big bird doesn’t ask a question.
I don’t offer an answer.
Eventually, he chirps.
[ ATTUNEMENT INVITE: HORUS — ACCEPT? ]
Oh. So those are different words after all. I accept this one too. Since boarding that train, I never had any other intention.
[ ATTUNEMENT GAINED: GALE ]
[ MOVEMENT BLESSING LOST: VAULT ]
[ MOVEMENT BLESSING GAINED: GALE FORCE — EFFECT: DIRECT AND SUSTAIN A LOCALIZED JET STREAM STRONG ENOUGH TO ALLOW YOU TO FLOAT ]
[ POWER BLESSING LOST: DASH ]
[ POWER BLESSING GAINED: GALE BALL — EFFECT 1: FORM A BALL OF COMPACTED WIND IN YOUR HAND THAT DOES LARGE FORCE DAMAGE, BUT NO PHYSICAL OR MAGICAL DAMAGE — EFFECT 2: DAMAGE DEALT ON IMPACT WITH ANY OBSTACLE DEPENDS ON FORCE APPLIED, DISTANCE TRAVELED, OBJECTS HIT, AND THEIR OVERALL MOVABILITY — RESTRICTION: HAND MUST BE AN OPEN AND EMPTY PALM ]
[ COMPOUNDING EFFICACY UPDATED — MULTIPLICATIVE: FIRE — ADDITIVE: FROST, JUICY, VOID — SUBTRACTIVE: GALE, SHINE, SURGE — DIVISIONARY: QUAKE ]
[ CLASHING EFFICACY UPDATED — ULTRA EFFECTIVE: FROST — SUPER EFFECTIVE: SHINE, VOID — EFFECTIVE: GALE, QUAKE — NOT VERY EFFECTIVE: FIRE, SURGE — INEFFECTIVE: JUICY ]
[ ATTUNEMENT MILESTONE REACHED: 2 — CHOSEN OF HORUS ]
[ MOVEMENT BLESSING UPDATED: GALE FORCE — EFFECT: LOCALIZED JET STREAM MAY NOW BE MADE STRONG ENOUGH TO ALLOW YOU TO FLY ]
[ POWER BLESSING UPDATED: GALE BALL — EFFECT 1: INFLICTS MAGICAL WIND DAMAGE ON TOP OF FORCE DAMAGE — EFFECT 2: FORCE DAMAGE INCREASED TO MASSIVE ]
[ ATTUNEMENT MILESTONE REACHED: 3 — PROPHET OF HORUS ]
[ MOVEMENT BLESSING UPDATED: GALE FORCE — EFFECT: LOCALIZED JET STREAM MAY NOW BE MADE STRONG ENOUGH TO ALLOW YOU TO SOAR ]
[ POWER BLESSING UPDATED: GALE BALL — EFFECT 1: WIND DAMAGE INCREASED TO LARGE — EFFECT 2: FORCE DAMAGE INCREASED TO COLOSSAL ]
Ah. I believe I have discerned the reason behind Oneshot’s choice in my media consumption.