Prologue
June 18, 2161
Geostationary orbit above planet Earth, Sol System
European Federation Starport Ad Astra
Lieutenant Commander Alexandra Rousseau, of the European Federation Star Navy, let out a loud sigh as she looked at the vista in front of her.
She was in the outermost layer of the Ad Astra spaceport, the old, but still serviceable, spaceport of the European Federation, one of the first of its kind to be tethered to the Earth below with a fully functional space elevator. Despite being well over a century old, and having the old ring architecture, as it was constructed back when artificial gravity was still a lab experiment, it was still one of the main hubs through which the European Federation’s numerous trade goods flowed. Thousands of tons of state-of-the-art computers, terraforming systems, and a vast array of technologically advanced components were shipped each day to the space habitats and colonies dispersed throughout human space, while raw materials and precious metals flowed back to the planetbound industry below.
It was also the second largest EFSN transit point. The freshly inaugurated “Ortu Stella” Starport had recently overtaken it, and for good reason, as it was the first EuroFed Starport dedicated only to military use, in order to accommodate the expansion of the EFSN due to the escalating tensions with their nominal allies, the United Interstellar States.
Alexandra looked longingly at the planet below through the armored glass wall, before smiling as she saw the vast array of bright, moving stars. Each of those stars was a ship or a station, from freighters to exploration vessels and battleships. Each represented the achievements of humanity ever since the first fusion thruster had been built and the hyperdrive had been designed.
She froze as a commotion erupted in the hallway to her right. She turned just in time to see what looked like a freighter captain, recognizable by the general air of roughness and authority common to free traders in all of human space, pull out a pistol and promptly shoot the customs officer he was talking to.
Alexandra barely had time to register what was happening before her training and neural implants took over. She threw herself down behind the row the seats she had been sitting on, kneeled, and in one swift movement pulled out her service pistol and opened fire.
She might have been an engineering officer who specialized in code (although she had no less than three engineering degrees), but she did receive basic fleet combat training, and she had been in enough tough situations over her fifty years of service to have...acquired some programs from the EuroFed Marine Corps.
The freighter captain ducked down as the magnetically accelerated tungsten pellet her gauss pistol fired hit the bulkhead, a few centimeters away from his head. He brought up his own weapon, before widening his eyes and ducking into the nearest docking airlock. Which, given the old, patchy freighter attached to it, was probably where he had come from originally.
“STOP WHERE YOU ARE! STATION SECURITY!”
Alexandra got up and turned around to see three station security guards, their own gauss pistols unholstered as they charged forward. One of them, a serious looking brunette, briefly looked at her before running past her as she quickly summarized that Alexandra was unharmed.
A great clang sounded throughout the room, and Alexandra turned around as the freighter undocked from the station. One of the guards shouted in his wrist communicator, stopping briefly to look at his colleague as she kneeled next to the customs officer and shook her head. He proceeded to yell even louder into his communicator.
Alexandra turned her head as the freighter let out bursts of pressurized gas to get away from the station...right up until a set of heavy blast doors opened and a large laser turret popped out, quickly turning around and aiming at the freighter, likely followed by similar weapons all over the station. The security guard had evidently contacted the station’s defense center, and they were less than happy about the death of one of their own. Alexandra wondered what the freighter captain had been thinking, as attempting to escape from one of the most heavily armed starports in the solar system would have been a suicidal proposition, even when the station security didn’t have grounds to shoot you down on sight for murder. The freighter suddenly stopped accelerating, and Alexandra felt her hair stand up all over her body as the familiar sensation of a hyperspace field washed over her.
NO! The station doesn’t have a hyperspace shield. If he jumps...
She just had the time to see a bright light before everything went dark.
*****
Alexandra opened her eyes, closing them nearly immediately as bright light stabbed through her eyeballs. She held up her hand in front of her face.
What? How...How am I alive?
She remembered the feeling of the hyperfield...then the flash. The freighter had activated its hyperdrive and taken a chunk of the station with it into hyperspace—she should have been vaporized. Hyperspace was pure energy, a literal dimension made out of radiation. Nothing could survive there without a hypershield—even the most heavily armored constructs were annihilated in a matter of seconds.
She opened her eyes, more cautiously this time, to take in her surroundings.
She was lying on her back, in the middle of a grass field. She saw a forest not far, and her ears told her there must be a stream somewhere.
Was she back on Earth? No, that was impossible... She would be able to see the numerous ships in low orbit in the sky as moving dots of light, even in the middle of the day. And the colonies in Alpha Centauri and Epsilon Eridani weren’t fully terraformed yet, and there was no sign of an atmospheric dome in the sky.
She got up, and suddenly realized that she wasn’t wearing her fleet uniform. She was in...a cotton outfit with leather armor on top?
What. The. Fuck? She made her way to the stream she was hearing on shaky legs, and looked down into the water.
Staring back at her was what she looked like in her early twenties, if she had started picking up medieval recreation as a hobby. She was wearing what looked like cotton pants and a shirt, accompanied by leather boots, a leather belt with...was that a sword? And a full set of light leather armor.
All she could do was stare in shock. She hadn’t been that old-looking, despite being over sixty years old (almost seventy really), thanks to rejuvenation treatments, but she’d still looked like she was in her forties.
She took a deep breath and focused. A system menu popped up in front of her, and she sighed in relief. Whatever had happened to her, her fleet implants were still online at least. She attempted to connect to a network, but failed, which meant that she wasn’t on a human planet. Or at least, nowhere civilized. Even the lowliest of mining colonies had a full complement of communication satellites in orbit.
First things first. Find out where I am, find civilization, and hopefully survive until I accomplish both.
To that end, she unsheathed the sword she had woken up with. It looked...okay? She wasn’t an expert in medieval weapons, but she had watched holovids on them, and the sword looked clean, wasn’t chipped, and didn’t look like it was made out of cheap pig iron. In fact, it looked like steel. A tentative finger touching and licking the bloody cut later, she’d established that it was pretty sharp too, and that she didn’t have the experience to judge it with her finger like they did in the holovids.
Well, not going to find anything by staying here.
She started walking.
*****
Alexandra looked at the town in near awe.
After a few hours of walking, she found a road and followed it. It looked well kept, and roads usually led somewhere. Unless you were on Mars, but that was mostly because the auto-road builder drones had gone nuts in the 2130s due to a solar flare. After an hour or so of more walking, she arrived at a town.
It looked as if it had come straight out of an adventure novel. She could see houses, orchards, and even some pens. Surprisingly, there didn’t seem to be any agriculture going on, with no fields to speak of anywhere. Still, it looked beautiful...and very rustic. Most of the buildings looked to be made out of stone, and some were even made of wood. One thing that stuck out, however, was a large building in the center of town, a three-story monster made out of something that looked suspiciously like concrete.
“Ya okay there, lass?”
Alexandra looked down from the building...and down...until she saw a tiny, heavily armored person standing in front of her, his hand holding up the visor of his helmet as he looked at her, concerned.
Barely topping a meter, he looked positively tiny compared to her meter and eighty. However, he gave an impression of...denseness. But that might have been the fact that he looked like he was covered in metal. Heavy plate armor, she realized as she smiled and answered in standard English, as he had addressed her in that language.
“Yes, I’m fine. Just a little bit lost I’m afraid. I got lost in the woods, and, well, I was not expecting to get back to civilization so soon. In fact, I’m quite relieved.”
The dwarf—or at least he looked like one—smiled. She had a sword and was in a medieval town, she might as well assume that there would be dwarves and elves. If she turned out wrong, she’d apologize later.
“Aye, wouldn’t want to get caught alone in the night in those woods. Ain’t many dangerous monsters around, but there are some that wouldn’t say no to some tasty human flesh. Ya an adventurer, young lady?”
Alexandra continued smiling. She’d discovered long ago that you usually found out more by playing along and asking questions than by stopping the person you were talking to, particularly if they thought you might be insane. And if her story didn’t sound insane to a medieval dwarf, she didn’t know what would.
“Well, I was hoping to be. Could you point me to a place where I might enroll? Like, say, a registration office please?”
The dwarf laughed.
“This ain’t one of the large cities, lass. There ain’t a registration office here. Just go to the adventurer guild hall and ask at the desk to register.”
The dwarf pointed at the concrete building.
“Oh. Thank you, sir dwarf,” said Alexandra.
The dwarf laughed and waved her off before walking past her and into the forest. Apparently, he didn’t think that being alone in the night in the forest applied to him. Then again, he was wearing enough armor to look more like a combat robot than anything else. Alexandra shook her head and walked off, towards the “adventurer guild hall.” At least, given the reaction of the dwarf, she knew she was correct, there did seem to be different “races” here, as he hadn’t corrected her use of the title.
She walked briskly through the village, refusing to stop and gape at every weird thing. If there was one thing she’d learned from making her way through the maze that was FleetCom in Paris, it was that as long as you looked busy and walked with a purpose (preferably with a stack of papers or a folder filled with data chips under your arm), no one would stop you from going anywhere. Except the marine checkpoint at the central Command Room.
She successfully made her way to the building uninterrupted, and opened the door.
The view nearly made her gape.
It looked just like an adventurer guild straight out of a book or anime. There was a desk, a bar, and tables and chairs scattered everywhere, with heavily armed people around them. A group of people were gazing pensively at what she assumed was a quest board. A few people looked at her, and she flushed as she realizing she was gawping. She quickly made her way to the desk.
The woman behind the desk looked fairly young, somewhere in her twenties as well, with honey-blonde hair and quite a beautiful face with brown eyes. She was dressed in a cyan outfit topped with some form of beret with a feather sticking out of it.
“Hello! Welcome to the Nardria adventurer guild hall! What can I do for you today?”
Dear gods, she looked genuinely cheerful. It must have been the first time Alexandra had met a receptionist who didn’t look bored to death or dead inside. Even the receptionist AIs used by wealthy corporations and some militaries sounded slightly off and bored in their cheerful replies.
“Hello. My name is Alexandra Rousseau. I’m here for information about signing up to be an adventurer...and well, information in general about adventurers, really.” She'd rather ask where the hell she was and what planet this was, but better to try to fit in, for now at least.
The receptionist looked cheerful...right up until she mentioned her family name. Then, her gaze and tone became studiously neutral.
“I see. You are from the Eris Empire, correct?”
Alexandra blinked and answered before she even thought.
“The what now?”
The receptionist looked taken aback at her answer and gave a good-hearted laugh, warmth returning to her look and tone.
“Oh! Oh, sorry, with your name, I just assumed... Sorry, you must be from one of the villages around here, my apologies.”
Alexandra was just confused, and the receptionist smiled.
“Sorry. Let’s start with the basics. My name is Cassissa Elaria, but everyone calls me Cassie. Which is going to include you,” she said with a mock glare, eliciting a smile from Alexandra. “And, well, since you seem to not have been that far from home before, the Eris Empire is...let’s just say ‘very arrogant,’ and Rousseau is a common family name there. I thought you might be coming from it, so I overreacted. I’m sorry.”
Alexandra shook her head.
“It’s alright. So, about my questions, Miss Cassie?”
Cassie rolled her eyes.
“Cassie will do. I work for a living, thank you very much. And well, let’s see... I suppose you’ve heard a lot of stories about adventurers, the daring heroes that take on monsters, delve deep into dungeons, fight evil, etc. Let me start with this: most of what you’ve heard is idealized bullshit.”
She looked expectantly at Alexandra, who just looked back at her.
“Yeah, I figured that children’s stories wouldn’t exactly be true. The real world isn’t exactly made out of good people fighting the good fight.” She’d never heard about the adventurers Cassie was talking about, of course, but if her years spent in the navy had taught her anything, it was that most popular stories about idealized organizations were even less accurate than most legends, which was saying something.
Cassie blinked.
“Fair enough. Anyway, adventurers, while most do have some ideals, are closer to mercenaries. They don’t take on monsters because it’s the right thing to do, but because they have bounties on them, and the materials they’ll get from killing them are usually worth quite a bit of coin. They delve into dungeons for loot and treasure, and they hunt criminals and bandits purely for the bounties. There are, of course, some other reasons, such as getting more powerful—which, by the way, you should take as universal here. EVERYONE wants to become stronger in this building, and that includes me. If you meet an adventurer that says no to more power, you probably need to start asking questions.”
Alexandra nodded.
“More...power?” she asked cautiously.
Cassie sighed, mumbling something about “Nobles and their fucking information blackouts.”
“One thing that the good old nobility of our deaaaaar Asarian kingdom is trying to keep a lid on, is that adventurers don’t only get money for killing monsters or going into dungeons. They get more powerful. Ever heard of people going into dungeons, and coming back stronger, healthier, and sometimes looking younger?”
Alexandra politely nodded, although she had absolutely no idea what Cassie was talking about, making a note about the name of the nation she was in, which was quite the useful bit of information.
“Well, they aren’t rumors or fairy tales. Everyone has mana, but a fact that nobles are trying to suppress is that the reason people’s mana slowly goes down is that it is slowly...synthesized, or transformed, if you didn’t know the word, into essence. Essence is...weird, but a simple explanation is that the more you have, the more powerful you are. You become stronger, faster, smarter, etc. This is usually measured by your level, which is just how much essence you have. Thing is, when you kill something, you absorb a fraction of their essence. That’s one of the main reasons why adventurers happily fight monsters.”
Alexandra tilted her head.
“Wait, wouldn’t that work on humans as well?”
Cassie froze, before leaning forward and whispering. “Look, don’t tell anyone I told you this. It’s not supposed to be in the introduction things, but yes. When you kill someone, you do absorb part of their essence. The closer their race is to yours, like killing dwarves and elves rather than lizardmen, the more of their essence you get.”
“Okay... So, what about signing up?”
Cassie smiled.
“That is pretty simple. What I need is three things. Name, level, and a payment of five hundred mana for various fees. Or, as most people do, you can pay fifty mana now, as interest, and five hundred later.”
Alexandra thought for a minute. The interest rate wasn’t bad, but she had no idea what mana was and if she even had any. She didn’t know her level either.
“Hum...I don’t know what my level is.”
“That’s simple, give me a second.”
Cassie leaned to the side, rummaged in her desk drawer, and straightened back up, holding what looked like a green crystal tablet with a small spherical bump on it.
“Alright. Put your hand on the bump, and it’ll tell me what level you are.”
Alexandra obeyed, and a lot of information appeared on the tablet, as if it was a screen. Surprisingly, the information was also written in English, although most of it looked like gibberish. What did “Matrix Rune Length” mean anyway?
However, it seemed to impress Cassie, as she looked at the level number at the very top and let out a whistle.
“Wow, level 26. You must be one strong girl, Alex. I can call you Alex, right? You’re not even going to be Clay rank, you’re going straight into the Iron ranks with that. Hell, if you had better gear I’d even put you in Steel straight away.”
Alexandra just nodded as she asked if she could call her Alex, before asking her question.
“Excuse me? Clay rank?”
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Cassie blinked.
“Oh, right, excuse me. Adventurers are divided into ranks that are a rough approximation of your fighting power. So basically, we look at your equipment, level, and for the upper ranks the quests you did in the past. Unlike what you see in the books, our ranks aren’t F, E, and up the alphabet, or Copper, Silver, etc. Our ranks are, in order, Clay, the lowest, then Iron, Steel, Copper, Silver, Gold, Electrum, Silvarium, Mythril, Malachite, Orichalcum, Adamantium, Eternium, and last but not the least, Divinium. There used to be ratings within each rank, but those were abandoned for a multitude of reasons. Mainly because most adventurers were bitching to us about their rating being one lower than their friend, despite having done the same things. It was an administrative nightmare to keep track of and no one was happy about it, so it was dropped.”
“I see... So I’d be jumping some ranks then?”
“Basically? Clays are little more than a random nobody with a sword, no offense. Irons are those with some levels or experience behind them. Steel are what you can start calling actual, professional adventurers. You’d qualify on level alone, but you don’t have any real gear. No offense, girl, the leather armor and the sword are quite good for Iron, but most Steel have at least some iron armor, or some magic items. Potions are also a must.”
“Okay...What next?”
“Well, I have your name, now the mana cost.”
Cassie held out her hand, palm down, and Alexandra automatically grabbed and shook it. Cassie facepalmed, laughing.
“I meant use the payment crystal, you dummy!”
Alexandra realized that Cassie had a blue crystal on her wrist, set up on a gauntlet nearly entirely covered in runes. Alexandra hesitatingly reached out, as she didn’t know if she had enough mana to pay even the small fee.
Cassie looked at something that appeared on her gauntlet as Alexandra’s hand made contact with the crystal.
“Well, it looks like you have...1,120 mana in reserve. Want to pay the whole fee?”
Alexandra nodded.
“Sure.”
She barely knew this world and had no idea of how trustworthy this “adventurer guild” was. The last thing she wanted was to shackle herself to an organization through debt, so she might as well pay it up fully now. She didn’t really know how to gain more mana, but she doubted it’d be that hard. She had a sharp intake of breath as she felt her energy being drained from her, as if someone had suddenly injected her with tranquilizers. The effect faded to a muted sense of tiredness in the center of her chest, and she felt...something, in the back of her mind.
Cassie winced.
“Sorry, should have warned you. Mana transfers in the hundreds and above usually do this to relatively low-level people.” She looked at her gauntlet. “Alright, all set, let me get your registration card and your badge.”
She proceeded to pull out a small card, quickly filling it with what looked like a semi-modern pen. She then pulled out another, very ornamented pen, nearly completely covered in runes, and signed the card. The card flashed, and she handed it and the pen to Alexandra.
Alexandra hesitantly took them before looking, unsure, at Cassie. It was obvious what she wanted her to do, but she had no idea of what that pen just did, and it looked magical.
Cassie smiled.
“Come on, don’t be afraid. It’s just a mana signature, to confirm the card is rightfully yours. I’m not asking for your soul or anything.”
Alexandra realized that this must be the equivalent of giving your DNA and implant code to a bank to open an account. The “mana signature” was their way to authenticate people. She promptly signed, and the card, once again, flashed. Cassie smiled, recovered the pen, and looked the card over one last time before handing it over to Alexandra with a smile.
“There you go! As for your badge...”
She leaned to the side again, rummaged a bit, and pull out a medallion on a chain, evidently made to be worn as a necklace, and pressed it to another crystal slate, this one a deep blue, that was already on her desk when Alexandra arrived. She picked up a pen with a strange tip and wrote on the slate. The medallion turned an iron-like color, and Alexandra, in stylized letters, appeared on it. She grabbed the medallion, which shone like the card did, and handed it over to Alexandra.
“Alright, just push your mana into it, and it’ll be linked to you. You do know how to push your mana into it, right?” Cassie asked as she saw Alexandra’s confused expression.
She sighed as Alexandra shook her head.
“All right. You need to close your eyes and feel inside of you. You should feel a fire in your torso, right at the center of your upper chest. Then grab that fire, and imagine you are slowly pushing it through your hands...”
Alexandra followed the instructions. She found the fire, and it felt...imposing, powerful, and also...like there was something greater behind it. A tenuous link to something else. She thought about investigating it later, and slowly pushed it through her hands. A light pierced her pupils, and she opened her eyes to a smiling Cassie.
“There you go! All done! Welcome, Iron-ranked adventurer Alexandra Rousseau!”
She gave her a mock salute, and Alexandra instinctively answered with a parade ground snap, which instantly froze Cassie. She shook her head, muttering something like “Her life before the guild isn’t any of my business,” before smiling at Alexandra, who was flustered at her slipup.
“Alright. Now, I’d recommend finding a party to join—it’s easier to take on quests with allies. Alternatively, you could just do some solo missions, although I wouldn’t recommend it. Anything else?”
Alexandra thought about it...then sighed. She was out of her depth, and Cassie might be able to help her. She leaned forward and whispered to her.
“Look, I...I need some help. But not officially.”
Cassie’s face went neutral again.
“The guild will not tangle with the law—”
“No, not that kind of help!”
Cassie looked at her for a second, reading her face, then relaxed.
“Alright, then what?”
“I’m...I don’t know how to tell you this, but I’m...not of this world.”
Cassie simply stared at Alexandra, her face inscrutable.
“Look, Alex. You seem like a nice girl and you’ve been pretty nice today, but I’m not a gullible idiot. Do you seriously expect me to believe that you’re an extradimensional? Since you’ve been nice today, I’ll let it pass, and forget you ever said that, if you get out of my view right now.”
Alexandra didn’t know what extradimensional exactly meant, but she was pretty sure she was included in it.
“But—”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake! Get the fuck ou—”
“Wow, what’s going on here?”
While Cassie hadn’t raised her tone, her furious expression had caught the attention of a curious adventuring party. A woman wearing purple robes and holding a staff topped by a purple sphere, who Alexandra assumed was some kind of mage, came forward with her teammates. She was quite well endowed, her robe clinging tightly to her curves for some reason, and had long, raven-black hair surrounding a fairly white face, missing the tan of most adventurers in the room. Her purple eyes looked in turn at Cassie and Alexandra. The medallion she was wearing was a strange, off-color gold. Having seen some fantasy materials when playing video games, Alexandra assumed it was Electrum.
Cassie sighed and looked at the woman.
“Hey, Berth. Sorry to worry you, but this woman”—she pointed at Alexandra—“is starting to slightly piss me off. She’s insisting that she’s an extradimensional.”
The mage looked at Alexandra.
“Look, girl. Cassie doesn’t really take well to jokes like that. You should apologize. She’s had a long day, and she isn’t up for this kind of prank, alright?”
“But, I am from another world!”
Alexandra couldn’t help it. If there was one thing that pissed her off, it was being called a liar. She knew the logical course of action would have been to apologize, go do some quests, and then mend her relationship with Cassie (it never pays to anger bureaucrats, especially the ones that virtually sign your paychecks and decide if you go up in rank or not), but she just couldn’t stop herself.
Cassie’s gaze became harder, and Berth looked at Alexandra with an almost pitying gaze.
“Alright girl, I will test you out to see if you’re an extradimensional. If you aren’t, you must promise to leave Miss Cassie alone. Do we have a deal?” she quickly said, forestalling a probably scathing reply from Cassie.
Cassie sighed and waved her hand angrily as Berth looked at her, muttering “Whatever.” Alexandra offhandedly thought that she’d probably mutter under her breath a lot less if she knew Alexandra’s implants allowed her to hear even the faintest of conversation perfectly, if she was close enough.
Alexandra nodded, and Berth came forward and landed a hand on her shoulder. Alexandra felt a warmth suffusing her as Berth softly said something that made no sense, even to her translation systems. It felt like when she had moved her mana around, but reversed, flowing from outside her to her...core? For lack of a better word, at least. Then suddenly, the warmth was gone, and Berth was staring at her, eyes and mouth open wide in shock.
Cassie looked at her, worried.
“Berth? Berth, are you all right?”
“Holy Divines! She’s for real! She’s an actual extradimensional!”
Cassie whipped her head around and stared at Alexandra, mouth agape. Alexandra was still confused as to what “extradimensional” exactly meant to these people, but this took a background place compared to sudden concern as muttering sounded throughout the common room, with adventurers getting up, looking at her, and walking towards the desk. Berth’s astonished outburst had gathered quite a bit of attention.
Cassie looked at Berth again, then turned towards a younger girl dressed exactly like her, evidently one of her colleagues, who had made her way over to investigate the commotion.
“Go! Go get Guildmaster Erik! Now!”
The girl nodded and ran off. Alexandra opened her mouth, but Cassie held up her hand, forestalling her.
“Later. I’ll apologize for my rudeness, but right now this is too important. Wait until the guildmaster gets here. This is way above my pay grade.”
A few seconds later, with a growing group of adventurers assembling a few meters away in an arc (more out of respect for Berth’s team than for her or Cassie, Alexandra realized), a graying man who looked to be in his late fifties burst out of a side door, quickly followed by the other guild girl.
“Yes? What’s so urgent?”
Cassie got up and gestured at Alexandra and Berth.
“Guildmaster Erik, sir! This woman here came to register in the guild, and claimed to be an extradimensional! I did not believe her, but Miss Berth here tested her, and, well, according to her...she is!”
Erik looked surprised and slightly disbelieving. He looked at Berth, who nodded, and made his way to Alexandra.
“Don’t move, girl,” he simply said, before muttering under his breath, “This better not be a joke.”
He grabbed her shoulder, and Alexandra felt the same warmth as when Berth had tested her...except that it seemed greater, more powerful, somehow. Erik let go of her shoulder, looking like he’d been hit by lightning.
“Dear Gods...”
He promptly turned towards Cassie.
“You, her, in my office, right now. Berth, I’ll thank you properly for your help.” He upped his tone. “And the rest of you, back to whatever you were doing! I will personally kick the ass of whoever tries to pester Dominique about this! Am I clear?”
A lot of subdued nods from the assembled adventurers answered him, and the guild girl, who Alexandra guessed was Dominique, smiled in thanks at the guildmaster. Cassie bowed at the guildmaster’s order as Berth simply nodded, grabbed Alexandra’s hand, and dragged her behind her as she made her way to the door the guildmaster had erupted from.
*****
“So, Miss Rousseau, do you know why you are so special?” asked Erik.
They were sitting in his office. It was fairly large, with a sizeable carved desk made from a wood Alexandra didn’t recognize, with a crimson carpet covering the floor, and a vast amount of what looked like trophies scattered on the walls. Some looked like trinkets, others were weapons and objects that practically thrummed with barely contained power. The biggest, however, was a giant Adamantium (if she didn’t miss her guess) double axe that was directly behind the guildmaster’s seat.
Alexandra shook her head.
“No, not really. I know that coming from another world would be quite unusual, but your reaction, and the test you used on me, imply that there’s something else to it. After all, I doubt you read through my mind to confirm the fact.”
Alexandra mostly knew that that was the case because her fleet implants had some rather...violent protocols for if someone attempted to access her memories, although it was more expected to be via someone jacking into her neural interface than actual magic mind reading.
Erik smiled, pleased.
“Good, good! You know how to use your brain, that’s excellent.” He laughed at her outraged expression. “Calm down, I’m not patronizing you, but you would be surprised how many extradimensionals acted stupidly in the past...and usually got themselves killed, equally stupidly.”
He looked at her for a second, stopping to let it sink in, before picking back up again.
“In any case, the fact that you’re an extradimensional is interesting, but not really because you’re from another world. Many extradimensionals have arrived in our world over the millennia, but despite all of the miracles your kind talk about from your technologies and civilizations, the ones who talk about it seem to have very little practical knowledge on how to actually recreate it. Although, to be fair, some have been instrumental in the progress of our own technology, and are considered heroes in several nations for their accomplishments. No, the reason most consider extradimensionals truly exceptional is because of your mana.”
Alexandra blinked.
“Excuse me?”
“Well, you see, it is quite simple. You do know that normally, most people lose mana over time, mostly due to essence synthesis?”
Alexandra nodded, and noted down the “mostly due to essence synthesis” in her reminders on her implants, as it implied that there were other causes.
“Well, not extradimensionals. In fact, extradimensionals continuously gain mana. Allow me to explain. Most places where life is possible have ambient mana, enough for people to absorb and live off of. However, to truly accumulate mana, they need more than this. This is where mana acquisition comes in. There is a multitude of ways to acquire mana, but it boils down to this: you can cultivate, which is a process that speeds up the process of absorbing ambient mana, although it usually requires great concentration, and you also need a cultivation technique, which are restricted or really expensive to buy and learn. You can also, which is the choice of most people, absorb mana from potions, mana stones, and even coins. Since mana is used as a currency, most normal people consider it a waste of good money. The last widely available solution is dungeons. When people head into a dungeon, the ambient mana concentration jumps up astronomically, which allows the people inside to actively regenerate mana at insane rates, and allows them to cultivate at truly ridiculous speeds. However, dungeons are fraught with danger, so they are not recommended if you just want some mana.”
“You, on the other hand, don’t need any of this! In fact, you are able to passively generate mana, wherever you are and whatever you are doing, at rates that ridicule even that of adventurers dungeon delving. This is what makes you truly special, as you will continuously grow more and more powerful and have virtually unlimited mana. It makes you the perfect adventurer, so to speak. Not even mentioning that you technically never run out of money as well.”
He chuckled, shaking his head.
“All of this means that you are quite exceptional. Now that means several things: first, I need to report you to the central guild headquarters. Second, you don’t need to go looking for a party—everyone probably knows that you’re an extradimensional by now, and they will want to try and recruit you, to latch on to your rising star. Third, and this is the problematic part, you will gather attention. The kind you’d rather avoid. There are powerful entities and entire countries that will pay fortunes to have you captured and force you to swear loyalty to them. In fact, this very kingdom might put immense pressure onto you to do just that, although they do try to be subtle about it, as angering the adventurer guild is not done lightly, and angering an extradimensional that might rise to be a legend even less so.”
Alexandra tilted her head.
“In my experience, forcing someone into service is hardly a good idea, and will usually end with a knife planted in your back.”
Erik laughed.
“In your world, I suppose it would be very true. Here? Less so. There are contracts and oaths that will force you to obey them once signed, no matter how much you loathe them or what you have to do. Additionally, most organizations that do this aren’t stupid. They will do everything to capture you and ensure that you swear a binding oath, but once that is done they will do everything so that you truly support them, showering you with riches, powerful artifacts, men, women, whatever it takes so you support them wholeheartedly. I can already see from your face that you know what the problem with that is.”
Alexandra nodded, horrified.
“Power corrupts.”
“Exactly. The extradimensionals that become like this either go insane from their bonds or become monsters, thinking themselves untouchable and above mere mortals. They become, for lack of a better word, spoiled, and an outright danger to everyone around them, expecting all to obey them at a moment’s notice. They’re even worse than the less savory members of the nobility, and that’s saying something.”
“I see...”
“So, I cannot legally keep you here. Oh, I could do it in practice, as I am far more powerful than you currently are, but I do not want to. Mostly because it would go against my principles, but also because it would send a signal to everyone that the adventurer guild is trying to do what I just described to you, and it would end very badly.”
Alexandra nodded. It would be like if a large interstellar corporation kidnapped a genius that had just made a phenomenal scientific breakthrough back home. Some countries (especially the Martian Republic) had a tendency to “nationalize” that kind of talent, but if a corporation were to do the same, half of the superpowers in human space would be up at them and tearing them apart in a matter of days.
“The best that I can do is to give you some advice and have Cassie here keep an eye on you. She might not look like it, but she’s a level 109 Silvarium-ranked warmage, so she’ll be more than able to keep you safe. She’ll help you find a good party that’s about your level. She’ll also serve as your bodyguard, more or less, as long as you are within the city. She, unfortunately, cannot formally join you on adventures, but your teammates should be enough to help you out in the wild, where those who wish you harm will have a harder time finding you.”
“Right...”
If she were being honest, Alexandra would have preferred having an entire platoon of marines to hide behind, maybe with a starship overhead decked out in void-to-surface weaponry to cover her, given the number of people that apparently wanted to capture her. However, she didn’t have those on hand, so a group of adventurers used to fighting monsters and hunting down bandits sounded about what she needed. She had no idea what a warmage was, but it sounded badass, and Cassie didn’t look like the type to take shit from anyone, so that was a plus as well.
“Well then, dismissed!”
Alexandra walked out of the room and into the hallway, followed by Cassie, sighing deeply as the door closed.
“Well...this is going to be interesting.”
Cassie smiled coldly.
“Oh, you have no idea. Dibs, by the way.”
Alexandra raised an eyebrow, but Cassie simply smiled enigmatically, before motioning her towards the door leading out of what passed for the guild hall's administration wing. Alexandra shrugged, and opened it, walking into the common room once more.
And froze.
Everyone was looking at her. Although the adventurers had evidently decided to take their guildmaster’s warnings seriously, and Dominique was left relatively alone, they were all “nonchalantly” hanging out as close to the door as they dared, in the apparently universal fashion of people trying too hard to not appear as if they were waiting for something, and ending up doing the opposite. Alexandra had the distinct impression of being a red, dripping chunk of meat tossed in the middle of an arena of starving leopards.
Then Cassie stepped out from behind her.
“Alright, so our dear new recruit here needs a party. Anyone interested?”
Alexandra’s last thoughts were a stream of expletives that would have made her old drill sergeant proud before the horde closed in.
*****
Alexandra staggered out of the guild hall, exhausted. Thanks to Cassie, she’d been able to join a nice party. Or at least, they seemed nice, and they were of a high enough rank (Copper) as to be able to protect her, without being so far out of her league that she’d be a spectator in combat. For some reason, Berth had said dibs, quickly followed by several highly ranked party leaders, until Cassie had given them all a wide smile, which had elicited a storm of muttered curses across the room. It wasn’t until Dominique had helpfully informed her that they were calling dibs on having first chance of taking her into their party once she (apparently inevitably) outpaced her current party, that Alexandra understood why.
As Alexandra neared the inn she had been told to rent a room in, she stopped. Cassie wasn’t behind her anymore, and all of her combat instincts, honed through the solar system’s (and beyond) most disreputable freeports, screamed “DANGER!” She put her hand on her sword’s pommel and began to draw it.
“Wow, wow, easy there! I’m not here to attack you! Sorry I spooked you, miss!”
A fellow came out of the shadows, his hands in the air and a friendly smile on his face. Alexandra recognized him from the guild hall—he was a Steel-ranked adventurer who didn’t seem to have a party, and he’d hung back as everyone had swarmed her. Alexandra relaxed a little bit...until she made eye contact with him.
She unsheathed her sword and automatically parried his dagger, her marine combat programs saving her from a probably crippling injury, then swung back, drawing a bloody gash along his arm and eliciting a muffled curse from him. A rictus appeared on his face, his expression switched to surprise, and he looked down.
He seemed baffled by the large spike of ice protruding from his chest, before collapsing, dead or very close to death, revealing Cassie, her right hand held up, palm open, while her left one gripped what looked like a very over-ornamented medallion. The medallion glowed brightly, but its light was quickly fading.
Before she was able to say anything, Alexandra felt a rush unlike anything she’d felt before. It was like if combat stims, sex, and good old adrenaline had all been mixed together and dialed up to eleven. She took a staggered breath, which she released as the rush dissipated. She felt...stronger, her mind was clearer, and she could feel her sense of balance improving.
So that was what Cassie had been talking about. The adventurer, who she assumed was a rogue, probably just finally succumbed to his wounds, and his essence, at least in part, had transferred to her. Of course, Cassie hadn’t mentioned it’d feel this good. It did explain why even the guild was trying to keep a lid on it though. If everyone knew that murder felt like the greatest drug ever invented, every junkie on the planet would turn into a serial killer.
“Are you okay?”
Alexandra snapped her head back up, looking directly at the concerned face of Cassie.
“I’m fine. Thanks for the assistance.”
“No problem. How did you know?”
Alexandra understood immediately that she was referring to how she’d deduced he was there to attack her.
“His eyes. I’ve met slavers before, they had the same look in their eyes...”
“I see...”
Cassie looked her over once more before letting the matter drop. She gestured to the rapidly cooling corpse.
“Well, he did attack you, so his belongings are yours by right of combat.”
Alexandra looked up at her, surprised, and Cassie let out a bark of laughter.
“What did you expect? Every adventurer loots their enemies, and with so much to gain from someone with expensive equipment, it’s no wonder the government had to put the regulation into place, if only to avoid being ridiculed by everyone violating the law.”
Alexandra debated whether Cassie was making fun of her for a second, before deciding that the attendant was deadly serious. She kneeled next to the body and began looting him. She had, unfortunately, all too much experience in doing just that. You didn’t get to do a peacekeeping mission on Vesta station (one of the larger asteroids in the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt) without becoming acquainted with shooting down lowlives and efficiently looking for proof of which of the myriad of gangs they were a part of and any illegal stuff they had on them that you needed to confiscate.
Cassie kneeled beside the body as well, after taking a look around to make sure they were alone, and gave her a hand. Together they quickly found three daggers, for a total of four with the one the rogue had held, a few coins, a crystal that looked valuable, several pouches’ worth of potions and vials, and a softly glowing amulet. They also found a small notebook and a pen. Alexandra opened it and sneered in disgust.
It looked like this wasn’t an opportunistic, one-time slaver. He had made a living out of it. There were entire pages of descriptions of people to capture or types of slaves that were wanted, with payments, contact names, and a delivery date and checkmark for every successful mission. Alexandra noted with disgust that some of the completed missions included children. Apparently even the slightest bit of honor or morals was completely foreign to that bastard.
Alexandra handed the book over to Cassie, before looking through the potions. Thankfully, they were very neatly labeled. There were four level 5 lesser healing potions, about a dozen level 16 lesser elixirs of dexterity, three level 20 lesser reflex boost potions, and half a dozen vials of ominously labeled level 40 average paralytic poison. She wondered why the level of every potion was included on top of a degree of efficacy, like “lesser,” filing it for later.
Alexandra heard the notebook snap close, and one look at Cassie’s face was enough to know that there was going to be hell to pay for the monsters that had allowed the rogue to operate with apparently free rein, and those who had hired him for his foul deeds.
After a short discussion, they both decided to drag the body to the guild and ask Erik for permission to sleep in the guild hall rooms, an honor usually reserved for gold-ranked parties and above.
Following a short discussion with Erik, as the few adventurers still up eyed the body and pretended not to be avidly listening to the conversation, they were authorized to stay there for the night, and a series of quests was put out to arrest (or, if impossible, kill) the rogue’s clients and accomplices.
Alexandra simply followed Dominique to her room, barely took a few seconds to take off her boots before promptly collapsing onto the bed.
*****
Alexandra frowned, then, with the ease of long habit, threw off the covers, not even stopping at the fact that she wasn’t under them (and thus was throwing nothing), and slammed her hand on her nonexistent alarm clock, before belatedly realizing that someone was knocking on her stateroom door.
“What?”
“It’s me, Dominique. Miss Raika wanted me to warn you that the rest of your party is waiting for you.”
Alexandra’s frown deepened. She didn’t know any ensign named Dominique on the Dawn Star, nor did she remember having organized a boarding or station party...
Then her memories caught up to her. She wasn’t on the Dawn Star anymore. She wasn’t the traumatized officer gazing over the ruins of Europa anymore. She wasn’t even in Human Space anymore. She shook her head, burying the memories of the scorched moon in the tightly locked vaults of her mind. It was far more reassuring to remember herself as Alexandra Rousseau, chief of engineering, scheduled to join the EFSNS Duty Eternal, with an eventful but unexceptional career.
“Right. Tell her I’ll be right there!” she yelled.
“Okay!” answered back Dominique, before hurried steps disappeared into the distance.
Alexandra smiled, shaking her head. This girl was far too excited for her own good. She really reminded her of those eager ensigns....
Nope, don’t go there, she told herself as she took a quick shower (she was very surprised yesterday when they had informed her that, indeed, they did have running water, and the concept of showers had taken quite the hold in their civilization) and dressed. Raika was the heavily tanned copper-haired woman that was the head of her new party. Better not have her wait too long.
Alexandra absentmindedly tied her long hair into a ponytail, buckled her sword belt, just as she’d have put on her pistol belt, opened the door, and stepped out.
She quickly navigated the hallway to the stairs and made her way down into the common room, where she was greeted by a wave of cheering and whistles.
“For Alexandra, hip hip hip! HOORAH!”
Alexandra stopped there, confused, her foot hovering over the next step as she just froze. She flushed and started moving again as everyone in the room laughed. She quickly made her way to the round table where her new party was sitting.
She grabbed a chair and sat down in front of the fifth pint of ale, obviously meant for her, as all the others had theirs in front of them or in their hand.
“What the hell was that about?”
Raika, covered in heavy leather armor, smiled.
“It’s a tradition. Sometimes, adventurers discover something that creates a whole lot of jobs and money for other adventurers. Sometimes it’s a dungeon, other times it’s a monster infestation, and in your case, a network of criminals. It’s then customary to greet them like this, at least once, as thanks.”
Alexandra blinked. That...made sense.
A man with a closely shaven face and head nodded from across the table.
“Yeah. You just made a whole lot of new friends, Alex. Not every day that someone comes with that kind of quest money and simply asks the guildmaster to let everyone in on it.”
The rest of the team nodded, looking at her admiringly.
Alexandra was just flat out confused, until she belatedly realized that it must be Erik’s doing. Instead of giving her exclusivity on the new quests like most adventurers would have asked, he’d made this up and announced to everyone that she was freely letting everyone in on it. He was helping her gain a good reputation and stacking the deck in her favor. Alexandra grabbed the pint in front of her and raised it into the air, raising her voice to address the whole room.
“You honor me too much, guys! We’d all have done the same. These people don’t deserve to walk free!”
“HOORAH!”
She lowered her pint, and drank it all, followed by nearly the entire guildhall. She lowered it and looked at the rest of her party, who, if anything, looked even more impressed now.
Alexandra smiled. She’d judged the personality of these adventurers correctly it seemed. They were like Federation marines—they were here for a paycheck, sure, but deep down, at their root, they were good people and had enlisted to help people and make the world a better place. Calling to that had cemented her reputation in their minds as someone who would do the right thing. That might lose her some standing around those who would be expecting lucrative offers out of her, but it would virtually ensure that the more idealistic parties would follow her without question if she asked for their help. Which was a definite plus; after all, with her unlimited mana generation, she wouldn’t have a problem buying off the greedy ones, while she could hardly do the same with the others.
“Well... That was inspiring. Are you sure you didn’t miss your calling? You should have been a military officer!” said the bald guy. He laughed, but stopped abruptly as Alexandra leveled a look at him that would have frozen a supernova solid. He gulped, and she relaxed.
“Sorry, it’s...a long story. Anyway, apologies, but yesterday was quite the rush, and I don’t believe we’ve been introduced?”
Raika nodded and started presenting her teammates.
“Right. Time for the introductions. The loudmouth moving mirror there is Thomas, he’s our ranged combatant. Crossbows, thrown knives, you name it, he can use it. He’s also quite good with his senses.”
Alexandra nodded. This world’s equivalent of a ranger then, albeit without the traditional bow.
“The cowled silent guy here is Fernand. Don’t mind his silence, he’s just timid. He’s kind of an odd one, as a close combat combatant and spell caster, but he’s one of the best alchemists I’ve ever seen, and he knows the wild well enough to live off the land quite comfortably.”
Alexandra smiled at him. He was, indeed, cowled, but a long black beard escaped from the darkness, and a pair of blue eyes met hers briefly, before the figure nodded. Given his sword and shield, was he an arcane fighter? Forget it, she probably wouldn’t be able to neatly put them into D&D classes. They were hardly likely to confine themselves to neat little categories like in roleplaying games, after all.
“And finally, the girl with far too much liking for pure white in a job that doesn’t involve many clean environments, Alyssa. She’s our healer and mage. Don’t be fooled by her innocent appearance, she can cast fireballs faster than cure wounds. Be wary of telling her to destroy an entire area, because you do not want to let her set the forest on fire.”
There was some wariness in Raika’s tone, and the innocent smile of the cute, bubbly young blonde woman in pure white robes next to Alexandra turned into a devious and slightly psychotic grin. Oh, great, a pyromaniac. And a healer. Alexandra dearly hoped she hadn’t heard of cauterizing wounds. There had been a weird...power to some of Raika’s tone. Alexandra guessed those were spells. Alexandra realized that they were looking expectantly at her, waiting for her to introduce herself.
“Right, I am Alexandra. I do not have any specialization that I could describe to you, but I do have close combat experience and reflexes to match. Apart from that, as you’ve surely heard, I’m an extradimensional, with everything that entails.”
They nodded and smiled, even Fernand, his teeth reflecting the light, creating a strange contrast. Alexandra was strangely reminded of a face floating in the middle of the air, kind of like when you did that weird mirror experiment with one eye with a friend. She shook off the image—she didn’t need to be reminded of Emil right now—and looked at Raika.
“So...time to get to work?”
Raika nodded.
“Yep. We were already doing this quest before you joined.” She produced a paper covered in writing and a drawing of what looked like a beaver, if its teeth had suddenly become pointed. “Hunting Treefangs. Several groups of them have made their nests nearby, and we have been hired to take them out before they devour the largest and most precious trees. We are down to three nests we need to clear, and then we’ll get paid. Don’t worry, we’ll split the rewards evenly.”
Alexandra held up and shook her hands and head.
“There’s no need to! I just came in!”
Raika simply shook her head, followed by a smile.
“It’s alright. We’ve all agreed on this. Plus, investing in a new party member is the right thing to do. In the end, we’ll benefit more by helping you get better gear and stuff early on.”
The rest of the team nodded, showing their support. Alexandra supposed it made sense; after all, she was going to pay them back by helping them take on even bigger jobs. Thus, she nodded, signaling her agreement, and they got up and left the guild hall. Her first quest as an adventurer was on!