Xera was at her wits end. She was scrolling through the logs and reports as fast as she could. Josie was behind her, doing the same. He dealt with the drill, but what happened after? The Cosmic System blacked out all Jace’s activities while he was under the effects of Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3). Not even she could track him while it was active.
And right now, she was racking her brain, going through every file possible on those Black Hole Conclave members to try and figure out which Ascendant exactly he had dealt with. Ollie was on one of the screens, with a look of worry on his face as his whiskers twitched constantly. One indicator of his unease was his stillness – he was always moving around, even when not an otter and in his original blob-esque shape. But he was floating in the Starlit Sea, near-still, save for his whiskers.
"And you’re sure he had a big sword."
"Yup," Ollie muttered. "I think he was a Dervkork. He had a big build and a snout under the helmet. Or a Goyduk."
Cross-reference that species with the descriptor and-
"I got him!" Josie shouted from behind her. Xera turned in her chair and slid over to the other half of her command center. Josie read out the displayed information, "Brom Farkonen. Tier 3 Ascendant. Cosmic Power, Black Hole. Ascended Power, Supermassive. Member of the Black Hole Conclave."
Xera read through his action reports that were automatically logged by Ollie. He was injured, took Jace’s arm and then chased...but he kept getting injured? "Ollie, give me access to Jace’s current readout."
The otter nodded and waved his paws. Xera’s screen filled with Jace’s information. [Rending] Evolution? That’s one I haven’t heard of before. She opened a System search engine and looked for that same Skill Evolution name. It’s not in the System from prior use, so it must be newly created. The logs showed that this Brom was heavily weakened after his injury, constantly suffering and being weakened from the relatively minor blow. This...this...okay, calm down.
Xera leaned back and took a deep breath. "Dark Matter Blade (Rank 5) combined with [Rending] means that even if he barely nicks a target, they’ll expire eventually. Why didn’t he keep running?"
Ollie’s face screwed up and he buried his face in his paws. "It is my fault. I told him to stay and fight. He would not have been able to outrun this Brom Ascendant."
Josie turned to that screen, phased into it, and went into the Starlit Sea, embracing Ollie with her gelatinous mass. The otter hugged her in response. "He is fine. Just unconscious," the gelatinous Wayfinder said.
In a place known for predators. With an injury that was bleeding. Xera groaned and rubbed her temples. At least he achieved Tier 2. That’s a huge milestone. So even if he is attacked in his sleep by a Brontasp or Vyrknadine, he won’t be as heavily injured by their bites. She looked up at the display console at the two Wayfinders. "It’ll be okay, Ollie. But I can’t keep giving Quests out of the blue like that. I’m running short on resources here. I’m going to have to make a deal with some of the merchants to get more Boons ready-to-go."
Ollie nodded and looked at the screen, "I want him to get to The Eternal City. He needs to get some better equipment."
Xera nodded, "More defensive gear, I agree. He’s my only shot. No other worlds seem close to Cosmogenic Merging, so he’s my only Signer for the foreseeable future." She turned away from the panel and went to her living room, sinking down onto the couch and covering her eyes with her palms, using her other set of arms to manipulate a small touchpad that fabricated a cup of warm tea. She had taken a liking to the Earth beverage.
I’ve got less than a month to get him up to Tier 3 so that he will actually be able to do what I need him to do on Earth. She let her face go and used her upper set of arms to pick up a tablet and began scrolling through The Cosmic Corridor’s world log.
A place that affords lots of Stardust that can be easily accessed...maybe... She grinned. A world with lots of Complexes. Looks like I’ll be recommending a magic-oriented world. I wonder if Double-A is still conducting his event...
Jace let out a hacking cough as he roused. Immediately, pain set in, and he groaned as he writhed in the dirt. Damnit! He thought as the pulsing from his missing arm raced down his body. Fishing around inside his pouch, he grabbed one of the bottles of painkillers, popped the maximum dose into his mouth, and then fumbled for a canteen to wash it down.
Laying back on the ground, he waited for the pills to kick in. What the hell did you do that for? Jace thought. You got close to a guy who can control gravity. Stupid, stupid decision. You should’ve triggered a mine on yourself before going in to prevent his effects.
The ability to be detected by changes in localized gravity was shocking. Dark Matter Cloak at (Rank 3) was supposed to make him undetectable. He didn’t detect me or my weapon, then. He detected the sudden...absence of something and reacted to that.
There was a pop as Ollie appeared above him. "Are you okay?" Ollie asked as he floated above Jace, bobbing in place.
"Just waiting for the pills to kick in," Jace muttered. "And thinking about what I could’ve done differently."
Ollie breathed a sigh of relief and spun in a circle. "Well, I don’t see anyone. And the Ascendant’s corpse is still over there."
Jace forced himself to sit up and felt the dull pain of his severed limb acutely; a pulsing, throbbing, dull ache. Pushing to his feet, he staggered over to the corpse. "Dust him."
Ollie nodded and did so, flying over the body as it vanished into glimmering starlight.
<<<<<>>>>>
[Stardust Acquired: 50.]
<<<<<>>>>>
No gear remained as the body and all its parts turned to glimmering sparkles. Jace turned to the crater and trudged back, feeling a little better as the pills really took effect and the pain became negligible. Making it back to his arm took ten minutes, and he grimaced when he saw the limb holding the black sword. "I don’t suppose there’s a way to reattach it?" Jace asked.
Ollie frowned, "In The Eternal City? Sure. It needs to be fresh though."
Jace opened the messenger bag, shoved his arm into it, and then set the temperature to its coldest setting possible. He grabbed the sword, sheathed it, and then stood upright. "So, to Khrox, then. How far to the portal?"
Ollie pulled up a map of the world, "If you push yourself? 5 days."
Jace nodded and hefted his bags, cinching them down as best he could. "The...predators on this world won’t be able to hurt me as easily, right? Since I’m a higher Tier?"
Jace shook his head, "Eventually I’ll be going back there. But I know General Logistics has a lock on them. Here’s what I’m looking for. I want a sliverscreen that can’t be tracked. And information on someone who can put my arm back on. Offset my Stardust by the amount." He smiled, "And don’t forget the 25% Stardust I receive, and the 25% reduction for your services."
Quinn rolled her eyes and sighed but nodded curtly. "Fine. Give me a few minutes to evaluate all of this." She sat down in a chair behind the counter and went slack in the chair.
Greg walked up behind Jace, "Now that we have a moment alone...how’d you lose the arm?"
"Ascendant," Jace replied. "But he’s dead now."
"No shit?"
Jace nodded, "It was a tough fight. But I got the better of him." He frowned slightly as Greg’s eyes went wide. "What?"
The spider, Darrin, came out from where he was hiding behind Greg’s back. "I examined your information but found a block on it. From X."
Ollie flew over and cleared his throat, waving his paws back and forth. "Nothing to see here, move along."
Greg spoke, "Did you get a favor from someone powerful?"
"You could say that" Jace replied. "I’m not supposed to talk about it."
"All right," Greg replied as he flashed a smile. "Well, it’s good to see you alive and well. Mostly." He hiked his thumb back at himself, "I’ve got this nice gig getting me set up well. Level 4 already."
Jace chuckled, "Level 26 here."
"No shit?"
Jace nodded once more, "I’m Tier 2."
"But you didn’t choose an Ascended Power or Advanced Class? Why?"
"I have to reach Tier 10 to get Chroma back. And your Class progression is locked when you choose your Ascended Power."
Greg nodded in understanding as Quinn took a deep breath and jolted up in her seat. "Well," she said as she stood up fully and smoothed out her clothes. "The total of all this stuff is 4,380. With your 25% bonus Stardust from our...deal, that comes out to 5475. An information search for Ascendants with the Skills to repair your injury is 100 Stardust, with your 25% discount on services and purchases becomes 75 Stardust."
"So, I get 5400," Jace summarized as he tracked the numbers with relative ease. He did not get much schooling, but numbers came to him easily.
"That is correct. I’ll complete the transfer now." She looked up at Valerie, who flitted down from a small perch on the wall that Jace hadn’t even noticed. She tapped Ollie with her wing, and there was a flash of blue light. The bird Wayfinder then flapped back up to her perch. "And that concludes that transaction. Your Wayfinder has the knowledge required to reach the appropriate Ascendant for your arm."
Ollie nodded and wrapped himself back around Jace’s neck. "Yup! Got it."
She frowned, "As for a sliverscreen, I can’t get you one at this time that is untraceable."
"One more thing," Jace replied. "I want to know if you have or can get ahold of some type of repair kit for my magitech prosthetics."
Quinn nodded, "I can acquire a repair kit for magitech, magic, and purely technological prosthetics. It is automated, so you just set it up, feed in raw resources, and give it time to work. The full kit will cost 500 Stardust."
"With my discount?"
Quinn sighed, "375 Stardust."
"Deal."
She nodded, "Come back in a day and I’ll have it." Her hair flared with a golden glow, and her eyes took on the same hue as she manifested a Class Skill. A golden screen appeared above her, she signed something on it, and she flipped it around to Jace. He couldn’t make out the legalese, but at Ollie’s prodding, he signed it with his fingertip. "Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have business to deal with." Quinn left and went into a back room.
"After all that, you’re at 5380 Stardust total," Ollie said.
Jace turned to Greg, "Well...It’s good seeing you, man."
"Likewise. Come visit me sometime. I’ll take you out for a beer."
Jace nodded and left The Star Market, heading into Khrox. Ollie pulled up a screen in front of him, "This is Jonsar Velicole. A freelance Ascendant with levels in the Doctor Class and Surgeon Advanced Class. Focus on their face, and you will reach them in a minute."
Okay. Focus on them. Jace affixed the face in his mind and began walking towards The Eternal City.