The faint light of morning caressed Jace’s face and he woke up. He pushed his way out of the hovel and stretched in the small dell, looking around for any signs of danger. Thankfully, his night had been without incident after the one predator came by. They must really range out far from each other, he thought.
He scarfed down a meal of the packaged rations and took some sips of the chilled water from his messenger bag. After putting everything into the larger duffel, he looped it around his shoulder and began following the faint trail of large, clawed footfalls of the creature that he had slain. The grey goo in the soil ensured that the indentation stayed quite visible, and even though he had no tracking experience, the trail was quite easy to follow.
Pop. Ollie appeared next to him and floated around, "Morning. Bad news."
"What’s up?" Jace asked.
"Well, a Wayfinder named Valerie wanted to talk to me. She is assigned to Quinn Cipher."
Jace smiled and nodded as he trudged along, "I know her. We met for a few minutes. Another street kid."
"Yeah, well, she has set up a shop right along The Cosmic Corridor and joined the Star Council. But that is not the important part that is bad news. Someone from Earth is tracking you down."
"Let me guess. They want whatever I was transporting."
Ollie nodded but looked at Jace with a quizzical expression, "How’d you know?"
Jace peered at the ground as the trail disappeared. Looking around, he saw a wet patch. "Damnit, I lost it."
Ollie flew up and pointed, "That way. They continue over there."
Jace followed the directions and responded to the question, "I was transporting something for General Logistics. I was one of the best covert couriers in the city. I’d bet that grey goop was some experimental prototype that a lot of companies were after."
Ollie nodded, "Quinn passed along as much. Something called Cyberconnect Integration Fluid, or CIF. It is supposed to make a prosthetic fueled by the user’s biological systems, instead of being reliant on external power sources. It was the foundation for more intensive cybernetic implantation. A milestone of sorts in Earth’s technology."
"Why did it harden and kill the one that bit down on it?"
"It was not designed for non-humans. Instead of being absorbed by the body through the skin, it hardened and became inert."
"I wonder if my body absorbed some," Jace mused. "It was on my arm and had hardened but vanished once I was injected with the serum." It does feel like...my arm, he thought as he ran his fingers along the magitech prosthetic. A little bit.
Ollie shrugged, "Possible. We would need a medically inclined Class to determine for sure." He scratched his chin, "Why didn’t these companies just hire an armored convoy?"
"Those are easier to track and heist," Jace replied. "A single street kid though? One who no one would ever suspect? Much safer. Plus, I had good rep." Jace glanced around for any predators before refocusing on the trail. "What’s coming after me?"
"A big hitter. Nebula Cosmic Path, Tier 1. In a heavy suit of armor from what Valerie said."
Jace clicked his tongue and frowned, "I don’t know if a sword can get past modern Earth armor."
"Maybe consider spending your next level choice on a new Skill. Something that will let you deal with armored opponents."
"A wise suggestion," Jace agreed. The grasslands ended and the ground maintained its consistency. "Why doesn’t it keep growing out? The ground is the same."
"Not quite," Ollie replied. "It’s mostly the weird soil with not much dirt."
"What happened on this world?"
"The people here created the equivalent of magitech nanites that did everything for them. Once the world was connected to The Cosmic System, someone decided it would be smart to give the nanites a hive mind. This gunk is their remnants."
Jace began trudging across the encrusted landscape. Thanks to the ground staying the same consistency, and due to the lack of grass and plants, the trail was quite easy to follow. A few hours passed in silence.
Jace spent the time thinking about how he would approach a den of these Vyrknadines sleeping. A good stab to the skull seemed to put them down, and he knew that if he got under them, he could stab upward into the heart as Ollie told him in the first encounter. If they live in a den or something like it, then I can find a choke point and force them to come to me one at a time. They’re predators, so they’ll protect their home and be aggressive. If I make my presence known, then I can try that method.
It was around mid-day when he took a breather to eat another one of the pouch meals. He took in the bleak landscape and felt a sense of exposure. I’m out here in the open with no cover. It’s not like the grassland where I could get onto the ground and hide. It made him feel vulnerable, having lived amongst skyscrapers his whole life and not being in such a wide, open space. He felt a ball of anxiety in his chest.
He picked up his gear and pushed forward at a faster pace, speed-walking along the tracks until the land began to slowly slant upward. There was not a mountain range, and when he asked Ollie to pull up the world-view map, he was able to zoom in and rotate it to make a topographical map. "We’re getting up to a ridgeline," Ollie stated. "Then there’s a bit of a crater."
"A bit?" Jace replied. "It looks like it’s ten miles across."
"I’ve seen bigger," Ollie smugly said. "It was made on my Aspirant that time, but I saw bigger." He shook his head, "He had such promise. I told him not to touch that metal sphere in the weapons factory, but no, he did not listen to me."
Jace grimaced, realizing that Ollie must have seen the deaths of hundreds of people he had grown attached to. Well, at the start, at least. The way the otter had greeted him led Jace to believe that his Wayfinder had lost all hope in any Aspirant he was assigned passing their Trial. "I’m sorry," he softly said.
"Don’t be," Ollie replied with a grin. "You have gotten further than any I’ve been assigned. Already that puts you near the top of my favorite people list."
"Who is above me?"
"Xera. And a few Wayfinders."
Jace smirked, "Do you have a crush on one of them?"
Ollie put on quite the bashful expression - which was odd, because Jace did not know that otters were capable of that level of facial expression. "Well...there is one. But I do not want to talk about her behind her back."
Jace nodded as he crested the ridge and took a deep breath. Before him lay a crater that was exceptionally large. "What caused...this?"
"A last-ditch effort," Ollie replied. "An attempt to shut down the magitech nanite swarms by taking out the center of the ’hive mind.’ It worked, and that is why you have all this crusted goop everywhere."
Jace looked down at the large bowl and spotted the tracks going down further. He carefully descended, ensuring that he did not lose his footing. The descent to the bottom of the bowl took him into the early evening, and as the three suns passed overhead and began to hit the horizon line, his vision shifted to the purple hue.
The bottom of the crater was filled with water. A silvery muck of water. All around he saw ancient tunnels - a sewage system or maintenance corridor at one point, once buried under the ground. "This whole place could be their den," he muttered as he drew his sword and activated the (Rank 3) Dark Matter Shield, and the (Rank 1) Dark Matter Blade.
[Current Progress: 7/10.]
[Time Limit: N/A.]
[Reward: Legendary (Skill Evolution) Boon.]
[Sender: Dark Between Stars.]
<<<<<>>>>>
"Dust them," Jace muttered as he sat down on the floor of the tunnel. "Please."
Ollie nodded and gave a small thumbs up with his little paw, "Yup!" He pointed his paws down both sides of the tunnel, and the various corpses turned into Stardust before flying into Ollie’s paw.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Stardust Acquired: 2100.]
<<<<<>>>>>
"600 for the big one - must have been a pack alpha - and 300 for each of the rest." Ollie smiled as he bobbed in place. "Current total is at 2115."
Jace nodded, "Four levels?"
"Yup!"
"Right. Okay." Jace rested the back of his head against the tunnel wall, chuckling at his situation. I survived without injury. And I got a massive amount of Stardust. Part of him wanted to level up right there, but another part, the street kid part, told him to hold onto the currency of The Eternal City. I don’t even know what my living situation will be like. Or buying food. Or entertainment options. I mean, sure, I want to get to Tier 10 which will take a lot of effort...but I need downtime here and there.
Ollie flew over and laid down in front of him on the tunnel floor, his silver outline like a drawing against the surface. "What are you thinking?" he asked with genuine curiosity and a tinge of concern.
"What’s my living situation going to be like in The Eternal City?"
"As a Signer, you can live in Xera’s faction HQ. It is the biggest spire at the center of the whole place. But that would mark you as her Signer. Right now, and as far as any other Wayfinder is concerned...you are just a free-agent Aspirant. Unless they know what Dark Matter’s symbol is or can do a System request-" He punched the air with his little paw. "-Which they will not be able to do with my otter punch in their face! They will not know who you work for. You will just be an unsigned Aspirant."
Jace nodded, "Think she’d give me a salary of Stardust for a place to live? Food? All that stuff?"
Ollie nodded, "I can talk to her about that as an alternative to stay at her headquarters."
"Good. Then let’s use all that Stardust. 4 levels."
"What do you want?"
"Let’s spend two levels getting Swordmage Stance up to (Rank 3) so that I’m a master with bladed weapons. The other two levels, let’s stay balanced and get Dark Matter Blade up to (Rank 3) as well."
"You sure? You wanted something to deal with that General Logistics person hunting you down. Something for armored opponents."
Jace waved the concern away, "We’re over two-thousand miles away from the portal. Even if they used the fastest car on Earth, they wouldn’t get here before my next level. I’m sure we’ll be fine."
"Yup! You got it." Ollie pointed his paw at Jace, and a flood of Stardust surged into the Aspirant’s torso. Jace felt a more intense but still quite pleasurable rush of heat through his body. He still felt tired, but he felt a little better as his muscles relaxed.
<<<<<>>>>>
Name: Jace Seren (Aspirant, Tier 1)
Power [Class Level.]: Dark Matter [Swordmage 7.]
Skills: Skill Name (Rank) [Evolutions.]: Universal Translation, Environmental Adaptation, Dark Matter Blade (Rank 3), Dark Matter Shield (Rank 3), Swordmage Stance (Rank 3)
Stardust: 115
Equipment: Swordmage blade, Swordmage starting gear, flechette pistol, flechette ammunition (x30), Wirecannon Arm, Runner’s Replacement (damaged), messenger bag, sliverscreen, survival knife, survival meals (x46), canteen (x2), medical kit, orange tarp (damaged), flint bar, flashlight
Boons: None
<<<<<>>>>>
Dark Matter Blade (Rank 2) - The entire blade from hilt to tip is rendered invisible.
Dark Matter Blade (Rank 3) - As Rank 2, and the blade inflicts those struck with a minor gravitational pull, slowing their movement.
Swordmage Stance (Rank 2) - The user becomes an expert with all bladed weapons.
Swordmage Stance (Rank 3) - The user becomes a master with all bladed weapons.
<<<<<>>>>>
The various System screens popped into his vision, and he re-read the new Skills. The Swordmage Stance should always be on just like before. I wonder if the new Skills cost me more energy. He glanced at Ollie, who was looking at him with keen eyes. "What?" he asked.
"You are getting strong, fast. Which is great! I have always wanted a strong Aspirant. At this rate, you will max out your Class at level 100 in no time!"
Jace smirked, "I like the optimism, but that’s a long way to go."
"Baby steps." Ollie floated up into the air and began to swim around, "Or, baby strokes, I suppose."