Chapter 21
Whatever Nerd
"And this is Mk. 17, known as the Beast. Essentially, while nano-armors do provide versatility in transformation, they lack the inherent durability of a true solid metal. This suit of armor does allow for transformations, but only with four set animal types because it is not a nano suit. The transformations are…"
"I get it, and I'm sure they're all strong for whatever occasion. But what I want to know is, what is that?" I asked Harry while pointing at a black and purple armor with strange tentacles on the back. It wasn't just elegant in design that caught my eye. Granted, the sleek black with purple trim was sexy, but there was a power radiating from it that felt odd and alluring at the same time.
"That is the Reaper," Harry replied. "It is a blend between Ironman, Doc Oct, and Nightcrawler."
"Who?"
Harry's expression on his floating body displayed a shocked, dumbfounded look. "How do you not know who those people are?"
"Why would I know them? I'm sure they're some lame cartoon people…"
"WHAAATTT? LAME! CARTOON!" Harry shrieked. "These are…
"Whatever, nerd. Look, Captain Picard, Jordie, uh, the android…" I tapped on my chin for a moment as if thinking of the name. "Right C3PO, and that large black alien… um… Teal'c right? And the rest of the Away Team would stomp your people."
"THAT'S. NOT. EVEN!" Harry started to screech but then activated a device, and I suddenly fell through a hole in the floor only to land outside on my ass.
"What the hell? Did he just kick me out of his lab? When did they even acquire this building anyway?"
"Uh, Zeke, what are you doing?" Jaxon asked, staring down at me.
"I pissed off Harry, and he teleported me out.
"Let me guess, you mixed up Star Wars with Harry Potter or something, right?"
"Something like that."
"I mean, how does he not see that they're the exact same story? Two orphaned boys, raised by relatives, grow up to…"
"Jaxon, I don't care. Help me up," I cut him off and held up a hand. He took it and hoisted me up to my feet. I just can't believe he short-circuited and booted me out."
"Yeah, he tried booting me like that once, but I own this building now and have total administrative access. I'm sure Harry can work around that, but he hasn't yet. You should've seen how worked up he got when I told him Indiana Jones was completely useless in Raiders of the Lost Ark. Dude started displaying an error 404 not found on his mini-display hehe. Ah, it was priceless."
"I see. I have no idea what that is, but okay. Anyway, what are you up to?"
"I went over that video you provided and have some counter-tech ideas I need to upgrade Molly with." Molly, his battlewagon turned flying fortress, was always evolving. I wouldn't be surprised if it became a fully functional spaceship soon.
"Well, don't forget to register with the Hunter's Guild. We will be heading out soon."
"Already did. I'm a 5-Star. Anyway, got to get to work. Oh, and Zeke, you should upgrade your arm with some of the new tech we discovered. You'd be amazed."
"Yeah, I'll look into it. Laters."
I would look into it, but after the planned raid. If I did it now, I might not resurface for a week. Instead, I went shopping. The trip and scouting would be tonight. Once we had a full plan in place, then we would attack the humans.
I knew I'd want various things for my prosthetic arm, but since I didn't know what technology was useful yet, I decided to shop for more useful things for this mission. Mainly, I wanted Skill Scrolls and weapons from the Second Layer. I mean, I'm confident in my own creations and, of course, my Soul Weapon, but I wanted to know what this Layer had to offer.
"Welcome to my humble shop," the Zabeen said. My name is Zel'tan, and this," he gestured all around, "is the Enchanted Weapon." He meant the shop, not just the items within.
"Nice," I replied and removed my hammerscythe. "Got anything better than this?"
His eyes lit up. "What a magnificent-looking weapon." He tried to take it from my hands only to drop it. The head hit the ground, and he barely held up the hilt. "Oof, so heavy. Why the weight and size?"
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"I'm very strong, and I thought a big, heavy weapon would be great against monsters," I shrugged.
"I see your point, but you put a lot of money into this creation. Powerful materials, Runes, and even a Core. Dangerous but effective. Let's see, I can beat the materials and the runes, but I'm out of cores, so you'd have to obtain that yourself, but even without it I could still create something a bit more powerful than this. Although, I'm not sure it would be worth the cost. However, this axe," he walked into the back and came out with a massive double-bit axe. The blade on each side was wide, dark metal, and glowed red along the edges.
I liked the axe's size and weight, and it felt great in my hands. The back end was obviously weighted to counterbalance, but the grip was amazing. It was almost like leather in texture but soft like cloth. Surprisingly, it clung to my palms, and that was when I felt the magic of the runes. This weapon wasn't thick enough for a core to host its own power, but I had plenty enough coursing through my veins. But this power felt like fire and lightning. Enhancing my strength and my skills channeled through it.
"It has a recall rune on it, in case you want to hurl it at your enemies. It flies really well."
"That's good to know." I gave it a few test swings and then asked how much. After paying, I headed to the scrolls shop. I was disappointed because it appeared that most of the valuable scrolls were either gone or this shop just didn't sell anything good. I found one scroll, though, that I wanted.
Identification:
Name:
Telekinesis S2-R1
Description:
Lifting objects with your mind costs Astra
proportional to size and mass at a 1:10 ratio
I walked away, floating a coin in the air and whistling a happy tune. Technically, small tricks like this could be done by manipulating my aura, but this was true telekinetic power. A long past fantasy of mine just became true.
~~~
VeLana stepped out of the registration office for a new business she wanted to open when suddenly she found herself surrounded by Lykaians. The biggest of them was in full transformation and felt powerful. Seeing the Five Stars on his badge meant he was at least as strong as she was. But the four others, also being a mix of Three and Four Stars, meant she was still overwhelmingly outmatched.
"If this is some kind of initiation ritual for Lykaians coming to the Second Layer, you better rethink this plan," VeLana said with clear venom in her voice.
"All royalty are to present themselves to the Alpha. You have been here long enough to have followed protocol, yet you have clearly ignored your duty. We are here to escort you, princess."
"You know who I am, but who are you?"
"I am Je'Takan, Royal Knight. Now come."
"The reason Je'Takan that I do not need to report to your Alpha is because I already belong to an Alpha currently on this layer. I am a Queen, not a Princess."
Je'Takan clicked his tongue. "There cannot be two Alphas. We are one clan. There are…"
"No problems. My father personally approved of his status. But I imagine that if you want to challenge us on this, your Alpha is burdened with proposing the duel. In person. Until then, I am off limits."
"What is the name of your King?"
"Ezekiel Conri, Six-Star Hunter."
~~~
That evening, we had a tasty meal. I put together steaks and something similar to potatoes using what I could find. Then we were off in the Mollymobile. On the way, we had to kill more than a dozen flying creatures, and by we, I meant Ferra and Akoth because they were always battle-thirsty. By nightfall, we approached the northwest mountain range that created the barrier between the two factions.
Due to the thin air, going over the mountain didn't seem possible, so Jaxon started a long, boring sequence of deep scans to find what tunnels were there. We knew there had to be some since the humans had found a way through. Going through the mountain tunnel reminded me strongly of that one Lord of the Rings movie, the one with the cave tunnels, obviously. Harry had us watch it recently, and I think it was the first one or maybe the second. Whatever, the point was that I expected to see a large lava monster pop out at any moment, and since monsters were a thing here, it was a concern taken seriously.
We made it through without being attacked, and as far as you know, I did not release a tense breath.
"Uh, Zeke? Why are you gripping the back of my chair? You're bending the frame," Jaxon asked.
"Oh, sorry, forget my strength sometimes…" I lamely made up an excuse. "Anyways, we almost there?"
"Don't act like a child. I've never been here; we're flying with only a vague sense of where to go. We're assuming the layout is similar to the layout on our side."
"Right, right. Remember, put us in incognito mode," I replied.
"You mean invisibility mode. We're not searching for porn."
"You know about porn?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. Harry downloaded all the data he had from your world's internet onto the mainframe within Molly and one day, I got a freaking virus, and the ship started moaning out of every speaker. Took me forever to purge the bad data. Your world is sick, Zeke."
I laughed uncontrollably for a bit, much to Jaxon's annoyance. It took another hour before we saw signs of human territory, and it wasn't good. On our side, we had our fortressed city and outside the walls was mostly natural terrain filled with monsters. Sure, there were some scores of battles when hunters took on powerful monsters. The aftermath lasts a while. But what we were seeing wasn't due to random battles with monsters. They scorched entire forests. Evaporated or harvested entire lakes. The humans did what we did best, destroyed everything and sucked whatever was useful out. It wasn't entirely inaccurate to call these lands dead.
Their city was on a completely different level of technology than our city. Oh, we had at least one very technologically advanced race within our faction, but their influence was only so much. Humans, being well, douches, took over their faction. As a result, their influence was absolute, and they had very advanced defenses. However, they were still less advanced than Harry. Harry wasn't just a bit of our Earth's more advanced technology; he was also a Divine Blessing. Essentially, a living quantum computer.
We, or I should say Jaxon and Harry, spent the day analyzing their defenses and slowly infiltrating their networks with nanobots and rootkits. They were installing what I thought were viruses but really weren't and slowly taking over everything. Then, we began our attack plans.