09

It took much more than 70MU to appraise the ring, but with the large supply of mana crystals that Charles had just acquired, it was not a major problem. The text appeared in his vision like before.

* Meyreen Ring of Holding [lv 352]. The most precious artifact of the Meyreen family. They are currently investigating its disappearance. The probability of being recognized is low, but you should be careful.

He stopped dead in his tracks. His eyes focused on the hovering box of text in his vision, going over each and every word carefully. Again, and again he read the words until he felt that he had taken in everything that the message could offer. He started sweating. His heartbeat accelerated. His mind fuming and racing to come up with the best course of action.

“This… this is the actual message, right?” He asked, voice perfectly still and composed. “You’re not shitting me, adding certain parts just to troll me?”

The LAI was stoic in its reply, a flat no.

“Then,” he said, the paused for a moment. “This means that the system is sapient. Prepare a list with the following items, then activate the hyperfocus and complete the tasks on the list with maximum priority.”

***

Giona watched the road below from his personal office on the second story of the guild building. It was quite the spartan space, an issue made even worse by the fact that he was rarely here in this town in the middle of nowhere. He had been here for barely a week, following a hunch more than anything else, but he was already grateful that he was here.

His gaze followed Charles’ figure as he left the building. Giona saw him stop in his tracks just as he left the building, gaze down on his right hand. He stood there, unmoving and muttering something to himself for several moments, then darted away with newfound purpose and extraordinary speed. His body was moving as if it was a perfect combination of speed, dexterity and strength, making the others look like toddlers who had just learned to walk.

The ring. Whatever it was that Charles saw, it had something to do with the ring on his finger. Giona had already seen that ring on his hand, back when Charles was in the office with him, but had dismissed it as something with little to no value.

Charles walked away in the distance, his every step was filled with confidence, and not a wasted movement could be seen as he danced in the middle of the large crowd of people that populated the square at midday.

The guild master turned his head, and scanned his room. “Go.” He said, then went back to the window.

Perhaps he was developing an obsession over this man, like he did back in his time with the others. Maybe he was seeing and connecting things just because he hoped that Charles could be his stepping stone towards glory once again, the tool that he could use to leave this ‘retirement’ on this desolate land behind and once again roam the universe free and unbound. Slay dragons, gain fame money and women. Like the old times, before he was left in the dust by the inexorable coming of new and powerful magic in the universe. Before he lost his edge over the competition and the foes he was supposed to slay.

His mind returned to the strange man who just left the guild in a hurry. It was as if another person was in control of the body, but that was not possible of course. Just what happened to him in those few moments when he froze in place?

The guild master sighed and went downstairs; it was time to do the routine checks on this guild branch. Perhaps he could take his mind away from his obsession. He’d also have to prepare for a prolonged stay in this town, something that was not planned in the beginning but now was obviously the smartest thing to do. He’d have to keep this Charles guy very close to himself. Once again, he caught his mind converging back to that man, and cursed inwardly.

Isabelle was working together with two other nondescript employees, dismantling body after body in the middle of a room filled with them to the utmost. He stepped into the room, but the three people didn’t even seem to notice his arrival engrossed with their work as they were.

“What are you doing?”

Isabelle quickly got up and wiped away some of the blood from her clothes. It made almost no difference with how drenched she was with the stuff.

“Oh, sir master sir.”

The master sighed. This woman was just awkward, but she was a hard worker and a very honest to goodness person. It was just that her mind seemed a bit jumbled at times, but he was not one to care about those things. In fact, he normally would not care about a useless branch of the guild such as this if not for special conditions.

“Why are you dismantling bodies?” He asked.

“An adventurer came and gave us all this stuff.” She replied, still catching her breath.

“I see that much. I am asking why are you even bothering with them, and didn’t have the person do it themselves.” Giona said, pointing at the mountain of bodies. “Who could even carry all this stuff alone?”

“Ah, it was the new guy. He is a noble, apparently, and has a storage ring. Quite a large one.” She said panting, while a small twinkle appeared in her eyes. “He killed all those monsters himself and offered to pay us to dismantle them. He even bought a large amount of mana crystals.” She said. “Now I have to get back to work, or we won’t finish before tomorrow morning.”

The ring, again.

“Charles? He has a ring and money to pay you to dismantle these… low tier things?” Giona asked, baffled.

He scanned the room and indeed only found very low leveled monsters from the dungeon, things that normally an adventurer would discard altogether. He could see why Charles took all the bodies if he had a ring, because with his strange cultivation technique he would never suffer low mana conditions in the dungeon and could easily store all the bodies. What surprised him was the sheer amount of dead beings, a number easily surpassing the hundreds. And how they died, the precision and methods used unsettled him.

“So, his name is Charles… good, good… Yes, he paid in advance with gold coins.”

Giona tapped his beard, disregarding the idiotic comments coming from the woman. Her goal was evident and it was disgusting, but understandable in this land. Back to the important things; this Charles was evidently more than he appeared. Perhaps his obsession with him had a valid reason to exist. This that Isabelle said just now was clearly odd, because there was no way the man would have all this stuff already, at least according to his story. The only possible explanation was that he stole the stuff from somebody, and judging by the fact that he now had a ring and gold to pay with, it was clear that he had not robbed some lowly scum at all. This could be a headache, but it also meant that the man possessed some hidden cards that allowed him to get away with it. It would be too early to act rashly.

“Okay, do your thing. We needed some of those materials after all, as almost nobody bothers with carrying all the bodies from the lowest floors.” He said dismissively.

Isabelle beamed him a smile. “Exactly what I thought! This way I could be useful to the guild and perhaps even gain the favor of a noble.”

“You didn’t do anything stupid, did you?” He asked her.

It was not because the man could be a noble, but even worse still because the man was a variable that he was still unable to predict well enough. If he had killed a noble to get their things, who knows what he could do to a woman who disrespected him. Giona didn’t want those kinds of headaches, but especially he didn’t want to upset the man over trivialities like these, not when he could gain so much from him. He had an otherworlder in his town and he was not about to lose him so easily.

Isabelle froze for a moment, then smiled uncomfortably. Giona sighed and decided to drop the matter and leave. She was still alive and was not even maimed, that would have to do for now. He left the building with a sense of unease that he had not felt for a long time. Not since he got transferred by the planar committee to the Zero branch of the adventurer’s guild. And yet, a low-level man who just got here from a place with no magic nor system was enough to send chills down his spine.

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The evening brought some clarity to his thoughts, but just as he thought that he could forget about Charles for a moment, Giona heard his door open.

“You have no idea what he’s doing.”

“I don’t. Tell me.” He replied, sighing.

“He’s insane. Running around town without pause from one place to another, he never stopped once. And that ring? It’s impossibly large.”

“I know. It’s not something he just found lying there.”

“I tried appraising it. It says it’s from the Meyreen family.”

“So he killed a noble. I knew he was strong, but this strong already…”

“What do I do?”

“Stick to the plan, for now.” He stopped for a moment, and then added. “I will need you to do more, soon enough. Just let me check on the portal first, see if it’s still there.”

“What about the artifact?”

“Do you have new leads on that front?” Giona asked.

“No…”

“Then, until we get a new lead to follow, that will have to wait.”

After the conversation ended, Giona set off with a brisk pace and reached the blacksmith’s shop, where he found Charles just as he was told. He approached him, switching to a casual stroll before he could be seen by the man.

“Productive day?” Giona asked, holding the door open for Charles to enter.

Charles did not stop nor did he look at the person who spoke to him.

“Acceptably so. Could have done better with more accurate information.” He said, flatly.

His monotone voice had something missing from it, as if it was not only devoid of emotion but of humanity itself. It reminded Giona of the Lich he slayed a long time ago, but without the sinister feel. Luckily in this plane there were no such things, or his retirement would be much more difficult.

“I could help with that. What information do you need?”

“I bought this land. Take me to it as soon as I’m done with this.” Charles demanded, handing Giona a document.

His voice was still flat, without a hint of emotion. He was not pleading or intimating, he was merely stating facts, recounting events that he was sure would happen exactly the way he needed them to. Giona wondered for a moment what would happen if he refused, but discarded the thought. It would be amusing, perhaps dangerous, but ultimately counterproductive. He was staying in this god forgotten place for a reason and he wasn’t about to burn it just for a good laugh or to conduct an experiment.

Charles did not wait for an answer and went directly to talk to the man at the counter, seemingly uninterested in the wealth of expensive swords and equipment on display. He bought hammers, nails, pieces of scrap iron and basically everything that was not already a weapon and that the old man was willing to part with. He even asked to buy the forge, but was refused instantly.

When he was done buying, he left a rather hefty sum of money to the man along with a few pieces of paper. There were designs on the paper, and the old man’s eyes widened as soon as he got a good look at what was on there. Giona thought that Charles would use whatever he had shown the man to his advantage to try and get the items that he could not buy, but instead he turned around and only motioned for him to lead the way to the plot of land he bought.

The plot was a square of land adjacent to the wall, situated in the farthest point from the gates and the roads. To get there they had to walk on overgrown, abandoned dirt roads and even go around fallen trees. Charles examined the flat space for a while, then took back his document, stored it in the ring and took out many tools. Then he started working, not minding the fact that it was almost dinner time. He started breaking and moving large boulders, much larger than he should be able to handle at his level with no class, in order to prepare a flat space.

And he kept working all the way into the night, well after Giona left to go to bed. The next morning the master went back to Charles’ land and found that he was already working, and that he probably kept working all the way through the night.

There were walls made of strange stone, with metal rods poking out of them in several places. Charles was building something out of wood with a cavity on top of one of the walls, and did not even register Giona as he arrived. He then took a large iron bucket and filled it with several powders and water. He mixed and poured the grey goo into the cavity in the wood, surrounding the poking rods of metal.

It took him five days before he was done, and every day Giona went to see what he was doing. After the first day he started helping out as well, earning a gold coin for his efforts which he tried to refuse to no avail. He had not worked much, compared to Charles at least, despite being very high level for this place. Charles just went on and on mechanically, like an automaton moving each item where it was supposed to go, never stopping for a break and with a strength that had no bounds. Again, at least considering the low level the man was supposed to have.

***

The LAI pinged at Charles’ brain, telling him that it was time to wake up from his sleep. The LAI had kept working well into the night while he slept, as the action it was doing did not require direct supervision. At level 55 that he was, he only was 1.7 times stronger than a normal person, so he had to make heavy use of the suit servo mechanisms. It consumed power, but also allowed him to work without stopping to rest even for a moment, thankfully.

The master of the guild was here already, Charles noticed. He had no idea why he was coming every day to help, but help was help and it was certainly appreciated. Not that he lacked the money to pay for the man’s efforts, even though the master tried to refuse. If it was not for the money, then Charles did not understand why Giona was even coming here to help at all, but he didn’t care.

He would let him work for free, only to have him come back later demanding to be paid. His reasoning was that if he wanted to help, then just take the money and shut up, or do not even touch the tools.

In any case, he was almost done now. He only had to smooth the concrete here and there where it leaked through the wooden casts, add the doors and windows and then it would be complete. He stepped inside the single large room on the ground floor. It was a rectangular space with windows on two sides, the door on another, and the hole leading to the forge on the last. He took out the large wooden table he had purchased and placed it along one wall, then organized all the tools he was carrying in his ring around the place.

He then took out the mana crystals and began to draw in mana to use the ring. He pulled the scrap iron out of it and made a big pile next to the forge, then took out the various ingots and minerals making other mountains of materials all along the wall. The wrenches and screwdrivers went on the wall opposite to the wooden table, where he also placed a huge steel workbench. Then the anvil next to the forge, and a few other things here and there.

“Impressive, I must say.” Said Giona from behind.

Charles had completely forgotten that the man was still here, engrossed as he was with decorating his place. He turned around and did his best to hide his annoyance at the uninvited guest, making a note on the LAI interface to buy a door as soon as possible.

“Not my best work, but it’s not my area of expertise. I had to make do.”

With the LAI’s tasteless construction style, he wanted to add. But he did not, because he was the one who asked the LAI to do the job as fast as it possibly could. Aesthetics were not the priority.

“Having such a large ring must have helped a lot.” He said.

“Yeah, it did.” Charles replied distantly.

He was taking out the coal from the ring in order to have the forge going, so that he could smelt the ammo for his gun. His suit was down to 5% power after all the work he did, and he still only had one bullet. Time was ticking, and his arsenal was not expanding yet. In fact, it had reduced to an all-time low. At least, with the forge going, he could have the ammo. The next step would be figuring out a way to have electricity and recharge his suit.

“May I ask where it comes from?”

Charles paused for a second. What were they talking about? The LAI stepped in and gave him the relevant information, along with a possible prediction of the motives behind the question. The ring, and the guild master was probably suspecting some sort of foul play. He took out the gun.

“Why.” He said flatly.

It was a different kind of flat than it was while the LAI was in command, this time carrying all the weight of the threat of a loaded gun.

Giona threw his hands in the air, a seemingly common gesture of surrender. The mana was not moving, the LAI reported, so the guild master was not being hostile yet.

“I’m not your enemy. I’m just curious. If you happened to steal from the wrong people, though…” He left the sentence there, hanging.

The LAI presented Charles with a long essay on its read on the man. It was way too much stuff to read all at once, though, so he asked the AI to just suggest possible answers. The man was being a bother, and his mind was already full of possible things to do in his workshop, soon-to-be lab. He decided to let the LAI take care of this bothersome person, he had other things to think about.

“I’ve got it handled. It won’t make it to your office to bother you.” Charles said.

Giona left, smirking. Charles was about to go close the door, before noticing that there was none. He punched the wall, making a small amount of loose concrete fall to the floor. 1.7 times strength, he thought to himself smiling. His smile turned into a frown as he thought back to the man the LAI labeled as Giona. What a bother. Evidently Giona had been helping out with the construction so that he could keep an eye on him. Fortunately, the LAI was in charge so he was sure that his body language betrayed nothing, but he would have to be quite careful around the man from now on. At least until he was powerful enough to just not care.

He eyed the forest edge, just beyond the limits of his plot of land, full of large oak trees and smiled to himself. He took the big saw and the axe and started walking towards the forest, whistling.

***

A creek flowed with fast, hurried icy water reflecting the passing clouds in the sky. Sometimes a man in a suit would come and momentarily stop the flow of water while holding slowly disintegrating crystals in his hands. After a couple times doing that, he stopped taking out the disintegrating crystals, cursing at himself because he realized that he could auto cultivate when he was in his land. A thing called LAI was instructed to do so whenever he was alone, and soon after all the free floating mana in the air got sucked into a swirling vertex of human tainted energy. The chirping of birds was interrupted by the occasional tree falling, then by the clang of metal on metal, while clouds of steam coming from the chimney of the sole concrete building in the town of Unica joined with the orange-red clouds high up in the evening sky.