14

They walked with a brisk pace in the small stretch of space between the end of the forest and the vertical drop of the chasm, where the unnaturally smooth stone was devoid of any form of vegetation or even blemish. The air was thick with mana and energy, which seemed to come from the depths of the earth itself. Just taking a peek down was enough to feel the tremendous heat coming from below, where the river of lava was evidently empowered by the energies of the mana.

“LAI? Is the mana-rich environment affecting our cultivation speed?” Charles whispered.

Yes. Automatic cultivation is at 2.43 times the previous speed.

It was good to know that here the process was almost two and a half times as fast as it was in the forest. Charles dismissed the false colored map of the area, which showed that in the forest the speed of the process was instead slower than in the city. The LAI was doing a good job at mapping the area and recording all the relevant data, but he had no idea how to interpret it just yet.

Eereen was walking ahead of Charles, at the edge of his field of vision on the side of the forest. All around, the landscape was monotonous and unchanging, with the thick forest of oaks and birches on the right and the gash in the ground on the left. The canyon filled with lava had been an interesting thing at first, but the thrill of the find quickly faded away until it was just another thing among the many. Small plumes of smoke could often be seen coming from the cavity, plumes which were then spread around by the winds and polluted the air with the toxic gases they were made of.

One such whiff of gas rose in the air and was coming towards him, spread large and wide by the wind. Charles inhaled and prepared himself to hold his breath, as the white cloud passed over him. In his vision, he kept an eye at the numbers and letters that displayed the current composition of the air around him, measured as best as the LAI could without using the suit’s power. He let out a sigh of relief as soon as the white cloud passed, and breathed in the fresh air that came from the forest.

Even though it was not dangerous for him here yet, the toxicity of the air still being within acceptable parameters, he moved a bit to the side where the air was not smelling of rotten eggs but was rich with the taste of the forest itself.

As the annoyance he felt when he had to hold his breath faded away, he thought about the lava that was flowing just next to him. He could do some experiments with it, see why it was carrying mana and maybe use it for his purposes. He already had a few theories swimming through his head: perhaps in this world the presence of energy generated more energy of another form, or maybe there was something that created it deep down below the plane. He was quickly reminded of the fact that he could not do anything to prove it by the charge indicator of his suit flashing red, so he returned to his idle state of absentmindedly watching the scenery.

A theory was always interesting to him, sure, but at the same time it quickly lost its appeal if there was no way to either prove it or to make use of it. For now, this was not only just a theory but also a useless one, one that mocked his inability to act upon it, to explore it just because he lacked the tools to do it.

Eereen slowed down until she was walking next to Charles, and she waited until he looked down at her face before muttering something.

“Uhm…” She said, looking at the distance with an innocent expression.

“Speak.” He replied.

“Do you have a name?” She asked, and averted his gaze as soon as he tried to look at her, an action that reminded him of how she acted back at his workshop.

“Of course, I do. What kind of question is this?” 

“It’s just that, ah, you didn’t say anything when I introduced myself.”

He looked at her for a moment. “It wasn’t relevant. It still is not, by the way.”

“Oh, okay.” She looked down at her feet for a moment, eliciting a sigh from Charles. He knew that he was being quite hard on her for no reason.

“It’s Charles.”

“Nice name!”

He didn’t reply, but only watched as the girl quickly collected herself and started to skip around. He was about to speak up, to tell her not to get too far without him because he had no intention to run after her, but a gurgling sound coming from inside the canyon captured his attention.

“Wait!” He yelled.

He stopped walking and stepped closer to the edge, without bothering to check if Eereen was still with him, and instead raised his gun and prepared some bullets from his storage ring. He needed them to be available as soon as they were needed.

He checked the magazine with his mind, the circuits of the gun talking seamlessly with his LAI. There was a tungsten rod in the barrel of the gun, one made specifically to be fired at maximum power, armed and ready to be fired. He also readied a few iron ones in case he needed to fire them in quick succession, and a couple of heavier alloy ones in case he needed to pack more punch. They had a mass of up to several kilograms and could be fired at supersonic speeds, bringing their kinetic energies in the range of the hundred of thousand of joules. Enough to burst a tank open.

As he considered all of this, he spotted Eereen keeping her distance from the lava, as if she was expecting something bad to come out of it.

And, Charles knew, it was very likely that something bad was about to come out of it. He knew where this situation was going, judging by his now almost comprehensive knowledge of the stories and the games from the 21th century. The narrative called for some action, and here it was.

From deep inside the chasm, right where the sound was coming, the lava burst outwards like a soap bubble and revealed a slightly darker shape moving inside the river of molten stone. It was not affected by the density of the flowing rocks, moving nimbly as if through water.

The thing stared right at Charles from inside its fiery bed, looking at him with eyes made of small diamonds that were brightly lit by its internal energies. There was a spark of thought, the seed of intelligence buried deep inside those eyes. The figure itself was made of half-molten rock and smaller, darker pieces of obsidian that were held together by the rest of its shapeless body.

Its shape shifted continuously, assuming ever different forms and with parts of it being periodically washed away by the flow of the river of lava, while other pieces attached themselves to it as if to restore the lost mass. Charles watched in fascination as the process repeated itself once again, until something resembling a face coalesced around the two gemstones that were its eyes.

“What is that thing?” He wondered, feeling the waves of mana come from its center and radiate through its body.

“A magma elemental…” The elf said in a low, small voice.

Charles turned around and saw her shivering next to the trees, trying to find shelter in the forest, which was the thing he knew she must have felt to be the closest to home. He, on the other hand, approached the enemy while keeping his gun aimed.

The elemental roared, emitting a sound so loud and piercing that Charles had to cover his ears and even took a step back. He aimed down the holographic sights of his railgun, and watched the elemental starting to move its body, climbing out of the lava river. It was several tens of meters below where Charles stood, but even from this far up it looked big and imposing, five to seven meters tall at the very least.

“If I shoot at it,” Charles asked, looking at the moving thing with interest and fascination, but without taking his aim off of it. “Would that be enough to kill it?”

The elf looked at the seemingly innocuous piece of metal in Charles’ hands. He was gripping it tightly, like a lifeline in the ocean, but his hands were steady and his eyes sharp. She thought for a while, the seconds ticking away never to be recovered.

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“Yes or no? Do I shoot at it?” His voice was almost drowned by the noise coming from the canyon.

“They are impossible to kill with arrows, but I think your weapon can do it.” The girl said in the end.

“Good. I’m not taking any chances. Stay back.” He said, and then took a step back himself.

Judging by how scared the elf was, this thing was definitely not peaceful. He didn’t want to risk a direct attack from a creature that could momentarily stun him by just roaring in his general direction. He sighed, and mentally turned the dial up on his weapon. But, before he could fire, the automatic protocols built into his LAI pulled his consciousness away from his body.

LAI hyperfocus, assuming direct control. Projectile inbound, composition is lava with magical enhancement of unknown nature. Possible dodging patterns: 362. Selection is influenced by presence of asset: elf. Attempting to maximize survivability of both host and asset. Enacting pattern 45. Damage to host: 0% probability. Damage to elf: 0% probability. Dodge completed; parameters reset. Incoming projectile has caused small fire, avoiding area. Calculating tactical response. Action: delete danger source. Powering firing mechanism. Detected different response from equipment: noting differences and preparing report. Firing bullet, maximum power. Projectile path is accurate, hit confirmed.

“There goes 5% of the total charge.” He muttered, then looked at the counter in his vision as it changed to 39%.

He was surprised for a moment to see that instead of five points it only consumed three in order to shoot at max power, another good thing of leveling up weapons, but the aftermath of a full powered blast from his weapon forced him to come back to reality.

For a very brief, almost imperceptible moment the whole river bed was visible while the lava formed almost vertical walls, displaced by the tungsten rod. At the same time the sonic boom created a shockwave that threw Charles several meters backwards and displaced the lava even more, showering the forest behind the canyon in small red smoldering droplets.

He got up to his feet, grunting and panting but ignoring the pain that came with the impact with the ground. He rushed to the edge of the canyon. There was no trace of the elemental. The suit protected him from most of the damage of the fall even without power, and did its job so spectacularly well that he was about to congratulate whoever built it. It occurred to him, a few moments later, that items improved with use by gaining levels. He brushed some dust off his shoulder, and registered the impression of words that the system transmitted to his brain with a smirk.

[Level up! New level: 145]

The encounter repeated itself several more times on the way to the other side of the canyon, but always with the same outcome. Even with the iron rods, the gun packed enough punch to execute the creatures before they could get dangerous.

Charles wondered for a while as he walked if the elemental was always the same one, inhabiting different bodies each time one was destroyed, or if every time a new one was born. And if that was the case, why did it always happen close to him? Perhaps they appeared even in other places, but he was not aware of it, or it was his presence, his brain waves or something else inside of him that triggered the formation of the elementals.

“Where do those things come from?” Charles asked, after a while the two spent in total silence.

“The mana in the lava makes them.” Eereen replied.

Charles grunted in acknowledgement, a bit disappointed at the lack of actual information, and accepted the fact that he would not get much more information from the elf. Meanwhile, the forest was slowly shifting into a more open terrain, now devoid of trees and richer in water while at the same time more desolate.

It didn’t take much longer before Charles noticed the steam and the foul fumes coming from underground.

“A phlegraean zone.” He said under his breath, looking at the pits of boiling mud that could be seen against giant upturned boulders in the distance. There was a rocky hill ahead, and there were rivers of steaming mud rolling down the hill slowly and steadily as if the ground itself was moving.

There, built against the hill, was a tower. It was completely made of metal, shining under the midday sun and reflecting the light like a polished mirror. There was a pillar of white, soft smoke coming out of the top like a cloud that extended high up into the sky, where the air currents deviated it from its ascent and made it twist and turn until it could no longer be seen.

As he got closer, he could finally take a look at the tower in all its glory. It was built in the middle of a field of boiling, steaming mud pits. There were piles of bones dotting the ground around it and its entrance, with many of the bones resembling human remains. There was no armor adorning the bones, no swords on the ground next to the craters. Nothing that would indicate why the remains of those men were laid to rest so close to the tower.

Nothing except a sight that only Charles could recognize. Bullet holes, and round craters and depressions in the ground.

“That’s it, that’s the place.” Eereen said, pointing at the tower.

Charles mentally asked the LAI to go on high alert.

“Yeah, of course we have to cross this whole volcanic caldera to get there.” He said, making no mention of the bullet holes and of his new theories about the place.

“What’s a caldera?” The elf asked, interrupting him while he was thinking about ways to get closer safely.

“It’s where the underground magma accumulates before a volcanic eruption.” He replied distractedly.

“So, you mean that this is a volcano?”

“It might be dormant.”

“Dormant? As if asleep?” She asked, scrunching her face.

“Yeah.”

“Do volcanoes sleep?” There was disbelief in her voice.

“Some even sleep for millennia between one eruption and another. And this here is what goes on while they are mostly inactive.”

She smiled, and looked up as understanding dawned on her face. “I see. This is a volcano, then.” She paused for a moment, looking around. “It didn’t look like one though.”

Charles stopped in place after his thoughts were scrambled once again by her voice. He looked at her with his arms crossed, and spoke loudly and fast. “Why do you even care? Aren’t you like a wood elf? Do you not live in a forest? Don’t tell me your forest is actually upon the steep sides of a volcanic mountain.”

“No, it’s not that.” She sighed, forcing the few tears that were forming on her face back to where they came from. “It’s just that the forest next to my home has a lot of those smokes that come from the ground and mud pits.”

“How is that possible? The forest must be dead.” He asked, his eyes fixed on hers. It was the tears that unsettled him.

“It’s dying. A lot of it died in the last few decades and now rivers of lava flow where the trees once grew.”

“Damn. Must be tough.”

“Does this mean that you can’t help us?”

“No, it does not. One thing at a time. Magnets first.”

It was then that the LAI sent him a notification, effectively taking his attention off of the conversation entirely. Apparently, the artificial intelligence had run its simulations and finally found a possible way to force the system into recognizing Charles as a valid target. All it needed to do was to mask its presence for a millisecond. It would shut down for long enough that the system would think that Charles did not have it anymore, and then it would come back online before anything bad could happen. That time should be enough, in theory, to trigger whatever method the system had to track people and give them skills and bonuses.

If he was successful not only would he be sure that the issue was indeed the LAI, but he also would have access to much better magic and bonuses on top of what he already had. If anything, there was no way to have it worse than he had it now, where he had no bonuses and no access to quests or skills.

He gave the mental confirmation to proceed, and felt the LAI shut down for the smallest of moments while shielding itself in a thick layer of his own personally attuned mana. It was enough, because by the time the LAI was online again, words had impressed themselves in the visual cortex of Charles’ brain.

[System initialization complete.]

[New individual, no previous records in database.]

[Scanning…]

[No information available. Error.]

[Null pointer exception. Creating new pathways.]

[Action decided: observe. Contain deviancy. Threat evaluation is 0.]

[New class gained!]

New class: Unidentified [unique, no level cap]: unknown

“Fuck.”

He stood in silence for a few minutes, now acutely aware of the fact that he evidently acted too rashly. If what he read was true, then he had just forced the system into taking proactive action for the first time in who knows how long, and actually made it take a decision based on the new data instead of based on predetermined decision trees.

If the system was intelligent and capable of doing that, then it meant that it was now watching him. Or it was trying to watch him at least, because considering what he read about his class it was clear that the system was having trouble following him closely.

He took a deep breath. Not all was bad, in the end. He had been lucky but now he knew that keeping the LAI online was paramount if he wanted to avoid having the system interfere with him too much. Coming back to reality, his eyes scanned the surroundings, and he was relieved to find that nothing had changed from before. The system was not actively trying to investigate his presence, at least for now.

“I got a new quest!” Said the elf, overjoyed.

Charles looked at her and saw her jumping in the air. He sighed. There it was, the timing was just too suspicious not to think that it was the system pursuing its own agenda through the quest system.

“I seem to be unable to get said quests. Care to read it for me?” He asked in an unnaturally calm voice, which made the elf look at him sideways before she could school her face.

“Uh, sure… it’s called ‘The mystery of the Metalmancer: The Factory’. It says to investigate the factory, whatever that may be.” She said the last part as a whisper, but the LAI heard it and relayed the information to Charles.

“And it offers rewards?”

“Yeah! Experience, and items for my village!”

A smirk appeared on the engineer’s face. “Well, then. If the system is interested in this place, then I will get to whatever it’s in there first.”

Eereen too was smiling, and followed Charles closely as the two of them approached the towering structure.