“I guess I’ll have to abstain from sleep until my things get here… Sad that I can’t farm sloth,” Rakna said while strolling on the roofs of Blacksteel where there wasn’t anyone to bother him.
[Rakna, may I bring your attention to something?] Alexa spoke up.
“Hm? What is it”
[Please take a look for yourself,] she responded and opened the HL. Rakna’s eyes brightened due to the contacts and an image appeared in his vision.
The second he saw it, his expression twitched. It was the images of him falling from the sky with his volcanic element surrounding him and the consequent regeneration of his arm. But what truly irked him was the voice being played along with it.
|| Sightings of Rakna Xiorra’s twin brother outside of Blacksteel! His name is yet to be discovered but a witness who happened to talk with him confirmed his identity! || It said and transitioned to the interview of the young man who had approached Rakna earlier.
“That little piece of shit…” The therian growled out and lost control of his mana, turning his hair back to red again. “I should have erased his memories… Where did that footage even come from?”
“{You underestimate how easy it is to take videos,}” Fray commented. “{There were many more people other than that man who were waiting at the station. They happened to see you crash and filmed you. Good thing though that your werewolf form wasn’t seen.}”
“Well, obviously! I made sure to turn back as fast as I could because I knew there were people! I just didn’t know they would be filming me! Fuck, it’s worse than Earth here… They probably only had a second to react before I crashed and they managed to film me anyway.”
“{Well, it should not surprise you. People here have far higher reaction times and most HLs have a continuous recording feature.}”
“Tch, my HL did do that with Verias now that I think about it…” Rakna groaned. “Awesome. I have a third persona going around the net now.”
“{Isn’t that fun? We should give it a name,}” Higure said amused.
“Karna,” he replied instantly. “If I had to give it a name, it would definitely be that.”
“{That was oddly fast and enthusiastic of you…}”
“Can’t help it when it’s such a perfect fit.”
“{But isn’t that the name of Wang’s Celestial Kindle?}”
“Yes, but it’s not really about that. Firstly, Karna is an anagram of Rakna, which works perfectly in this context. And two, Karna is the son of Surya, the sun god, in Hindu mythology.”
“{Oh, I see. It thus fits your volcanic star,}” Fray commented. “{Clever.}”
“Yeah, not that I intend to use it.”
“{Knowing you, it’s not going to go along with what you want but still turn out beneficial.}”
Rakna groaned and stopped at the edge of a skyscraper. He glanced at the ground and looked up at the sky with a hum. “Alexa, does Blacksteel have aerial defenses?”
[Affirmative. Blacksteel is the most secured city in the entire System. There are millions of cameras and high-level AIs monitoring the city. If they detect a threat, they will activate the defenses. There are many sensors as well. If large spikes of mana are detected, various contingency measures are set to be carried out.]
“Uh… so I guess launching something like Cataract into the sky is a bad idea?”
[…why would you do such a thing?]
“It’s an example, okay? I wanted to experiment a bit… I wanted to test the phoenix constellation.”
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“{In the middle of Blacksteel?}”
“Why not? But whatever. I’ll try it when I need to. Something I’ve noticed is that when I draw a constellation on the spot, the resulting spell seems to be perfectly adapted to the situation.”
“{That is a phenomenon commonly known as conception osmosis,}” Fray stated. “{It is when your mind bleeds into your mana parapsychologically and stimulates the spell or skill formation.}”
“Right... big words. Anyway, Alexa, initiate a transfer to the 15th Plateau.”
[Acknowledged.]
“{What are you going to do there?}”
“I’m going to try and promote to Rank VI. And practice my skills too,” he replied and passively opened his friend panel to send Allan a message. “There. I had almost forgotten to warn him that we were on standby for a few days.”
[Ten seconds left before the transfer. Since you left the 15th through the Pavilion, you will appear in the portal room,] Alexa informed him.
“Got it,” Rakna nodded and the light of the System engulfed him and transported him right out of Blacksteel, leaving the roof he was on vacated again.
* * *
He was dropped off right in front of the large portal and after getting his bearings, he walked out of the room and passed by the front reception. The Nymph sitting behind it lifted her eyes from her screen and froze on the spot when she caught a glimpse of him as he walked up the stairs.
Of course, Rakna realized why when he literally could see the news talking about him displayed on her holographic monitor. ‘This just goes to show how fast information spreads in the System. This incident happened barely over an hour or two ago, but I wouldn’t be surprised if every Plateau knew about it already.’
“{That is because the System has a custom network. It connects Blacksteel’s own one to any other compatible grid in other Plateaus. That is another one of the many things the Pavilion has done.}”
‘Well, it’s a pain in the ass.’
“{Says the one who took advantage of it to popularize himself.}”
‘The Obsidian thing is different, okay? At least, it was on purpose. Sort of,’ Rakna responded and started picking Quests on the board that seemed good for his level.
“{Well, you should have thought twice before using a spell that dangerous. It’s because you could not control the trajectory that you crashed in front of so many people.}”
‘But it was a nice spell though.’
“{It was reckless.}”
‘But awesome,’ Rakna shrugged off the lioness’ scolding and closed the board when he was done picking Quests. At the same time, he heard a ping from his inbox.
❮ ◈ ❯
> …how’d you know?
> Should’ve known.
> It’s fine. You can request items from your homeworld at the shop. The doses of Poraxidium the old man left to me in case of an emergency will be here in 48 hours.
> You could but I recommend you do the same as me. Train. More specifically, go and try to increase your Host Rank. I’m already Rank V and I will be aiming for VI right now.
> Sure. Same to you.
❮ ◈ ❯
Rakna closed the window and walked to the Pavilion’s reception. The Nymph employee stood up nervously when she saw him come over. “C-can I help you, Sir?”
“Yeah, you can. Is there any mapper in this village that you can point me to?” He asked.
“Y-yes! The chief of the guard, Fniera’vi, can help you. He is not a Host but he often patrols outside to be sure that no threat gets too close to the village’s borders. He could offer you some intel.”
“Ah, that guy, huh? Okay, thanks for the help,” he waved goodbye and was about to leave when the Nymph nervously stopped him.
“Ah, wait! Um… if it’s possible, may I know your name?”
Rakna groaned internally. ‘Déjà vu…’
“{Hahaha, just be done with it, devourer. An additional identity can be useful.}”
He rolled his eyes and looked over his shoulder. “Karna Xiorra,” he said and left without waiting for her to react. When he was outside, he looked for the man who had welcomed his group when they arrived in the Plateau. He searched him through smell and found him near the walls.
“Hey,” he raised his voice and Fniera turned toward him with a raised eyebrow.
“Yes?” He said then seemed to notice something. “You look familiar…”
Rakna sighed internally. He might as well commit. “I’m Karna. My twin brother came to this village a few days ago with a small party.”
The Nymph’s eyes lit up in recognition. “Yes, I remember now. Do you need something?”
“I was told to find you when I asked for a mapper. Can you help?”
“Of course. But the fact that I’m a Local doesn’t mean I don’t take any fee.”
“It’s okay. Can you tell me where the three closest Dungeons are for now?”
“That’s a pretty hefty demand. You’re going to do all of them?”
“Yeah.”
“All right. It will be 10 000 Talys for all of it. I will need it in cash.”
“Deal,” Rakna said and withdrew the amount from his balance.
Fniera received it and nodded after counting it. “Wait a moment,” he said and took out a map from a spatial ring. He drew a few things on it and handed it over. “I’m not a Host so I cannot transfer it to you but this generally works fine.”
Rakna grabbed the map and looked at it. The location of the village was marked in the center and three spots around it had been circled. Immediately, the System scanned the image on its own and updated the digital map in the corner of his vision.
“Thanks,” he said to the Nymph and gave the map back.
“You are welcome,” Fniera stored it back. “Be careful while exploring those. I assume you want to leave now, right? I’ll turn off the aerial defense for you.”
Rakna nodded and a minute later, he was standing outside the village, popping his joints. He gazed at the dark forest in front of him.
“I’ll grind until the Poraxidium arrives with an extra day or two if needed,” he muttered to himself and sent a message to Flavia to inform her as well as telling her that she didn’t need to worry about him if she saw the news.
“Okay,” he grinned and his aura was deployed, increasing the temperature around him. Pronos then stuck his head out from under the scarf with a yawn. “Finally up? How do you even manage to sleep so much in a day? You should be the one with Sloth…”
The little guy hissed groggily and looked around to see where they were.
“We’re in the 15th,” Rakna provided to him whilst popping his neck. “It’s perfect. Now that you’re up, we can start. Are you ready to go?”
Pronos slithered to his shoulder and nodded at his question.
“Then let’s see what this Plateau has to offer,” he cackled and shot off into the woods.