Chapter 788 - Contraband (Patreon)

We are let into the city easily. There aren't even any guards. We each get a mark placed on us by the array. It reminds me of the Local King from Beyond, who did something similar in his tower, and it brings Spark, Marble, and Veil to mind. It also makes me recall the answer to the question of the number of times attendees have tripped over their own feet while trying to look mysterious or intimidating in the past 500 years.

Even now, the answer continues to surprise me.

As Tess carries Lily, I do my regular check on the unconscious healer and pinch her nose. There is no reaction even this time.

Once we reach further into the city, Tess wordlessly hands me Lily and then gestures at Izzy, at which point they split from the group and begin to talk to people. With an Empath and a link through which Tess can communicate with her, combined with her extroverted nature, these kinds of conversations are easy for them.

This time, Izzy seems to have no restriction on holding herself back and not reading emotions. She uses her ability, and soon we are quickly sent to the location of the Information Guild that exists there. Tess and Izzy head inside together, while Tess takes some of the less valuable items or materials we have for trade.

Just a minute later, they appear outside. "They don't accept items, so I have to go and sell some to get this planet's currency," Tess explains simply. She heads into another building before returning, handing us some money to buy ourselves food and drinks from a shop nearby. and then heading to the Information Guild.

The currency here is mana stones turned into the shape of coins, just with a hole going through the middle. Through that hole, people put a thread made of textile, mana, or valuable metals and let it hang from their waist. It seems to be some local way of showing off or a custom.

A bit of me wonders if the feylith might notice Izzy’s an Empath, but then I push that thought away. Tess surely considered that and made sure Izzy understood the risk. Another thing is that so far I have met only two Empaths: Izzy and Adrian. Even mind mages are more common than that, so Sophie likely would have a higher chance of being caught than her sister.

***

We wait for an hour. As Tess returns, she first heads into a building nearby where she once again sells more items, and then we follow her through the peaceful, albeit very busy, city. Feylith, humans, and selari move all over the place, some in even worse states than we are, so we don't attract much attention. Everyone seems to care only for themselves so far, and I allow myself to take this place in.

With how different it is from any Earth city, I'm enjoying it and wondering at what time of my life things like these will become a common sight. After all, I spent 21 years on Earth, and I don't think a normal city would excite me there that much anymore. Will the same happen in the System after 10 years, or is there just that much more to see that it might take hundreds? Only time will tell.

After moving deeper into the city and what seems like even richer parts of it, Tess rents us an entire floor near the top of one of the towers. This one oversees a circular park that surrounds it entirely and allows a 360-degree view of most of the city and the lake, with the flying ships nearby.

No one talks much as everyone settles in and goes to take a shower and change clothes. It takes longer than usual, as if everyone wants to wash off the feelings of the last few days on the ninth floor.

Once clean, we settle in the common room, which opens onto a terrace overlooking a few enormous trees, more towers, and the distant lake. Food is already waiting, probably ordered by Tess again, and we begin to eat.

Only halfway done with the food, Tess begins to talk. "There is just one healer in the city who could look at Lily. He will likely be extremely expensive, but I don't think any of us cares about that."

She looks around, and it is just as she said. In a way, it warms my cold, arrogant hearts seeing that. I know they would do the same for me, and at the same time, I realize I would do it for them.

“But,” Tess says, “there is also a chance she will handle it on her own and grow stronger because of it. There is also a risk that the healer will recognize her as another powerful healer, which could lead to serious complications, along with many other factors we have to take into consideration.”

"Izzy and Sophie said she looks fine, so we could maybe wait a few days?" Aaron looks at Lily lying on one of the couches. "I mean, she is likely harder to kill than all of us combined."

"Before I go to Beyond, I will leave my left arm to her. Maybe it is something she can use if truly needed," I say.

"How romantic," Maya laughs from the side, then leans back in her seat and looks at the ceiling. "Once Lily awakens, she will get angry at herself for being, according to her, so fucking weak, and go on her training spree."

"That does sound like her," Tess agrees. "As for the rest... I didn't try to ask for any information about the egg. This is where we need to be very, very careful. Any true, pure wyvern is easily a powerful Absolute grade monster when mature. I can see any Champion trying to get that egg to bond with the wyvern, or to use it for experiments. There are many people jealous of the white lightning some vyssari possess thanks to the bloodline."

“Now I want to do it as well,” Dennis says. “But knowing how these quests work, there are probably protections in place, or some event from the real world that the tenth floor is based on, which would prevent us from keeping it.”

(Food?)

“A wyvern is not a foo…” I begin, then stop. Like everyone else, I turn to look at Biscuit, who starts to wiggle his short tail and, by extension, his entire butt under the sudden attention. “Or is it…”

"He ate that weakened Champion deer, right? You guys must remember it too," Dennis begins to talk excitedly. "From that, he got these tiny antlers and went into a food coma. Do you think he would get cute tiny wings or lightning from a wyvern egg? We could time it so he eats it just as we complete the quest!"

"He can't just eat a baby that isn’t even born, even if it’s only the tutorial!" Izzy begins to protest.

"What if it is an evil baby wyvern?" Dennis asks her.

(Food!)

"You stay quiet and don't translate!" Izzy shouts and points a finger at me in anger. She then takes a deep breath and closes her eyes. When she opens them, her voice softens, "I know it’s all fake and just the tutorial. But there are some things I just don’t want us to do. I don’t want us to get used to them."

"It’s okay, Izzy. We will decide about that later, okay?" Tess says gently, and when Izzy nods, the blonde continues, "Thankfully, there have been no rumors so far about the hand of that Lycan Absolute we left behind. I’ve learned that the Absolute is not currently present on the planet. It is being handled by her disciple instead, a Champion who is far from this city. Hadon doesn’t have a Champion here or nearby either. The city itself is very wealthy and famous for its auction house, the inverted pyramid we saw, and for the flying ships built here. And by rich, I mean rich. Some ships they build are capable of space travel within this solar system’s planets or moons, while others are warships rumored to endure Champion strikes for several minutes."

When she looks around and sees no one is speaking, she smiles playfully. "What would you lazy asses do without me? I’ve rented this place for two months. I think I overpaid, but it was one of the few places available with a shielded lab where we can hide the signatures of the items we got and that fake wyvern’s hand. Tomorrow I’ll visit another Information Guild for more information. We’re rich enough for it. Another interesting fact: this planet has one Absolute and eleven Champions in total. The entire world is under the lead of that Absolute, who is a Lust subclass, and the eleven Champions serve her directly."

In the silence that follows, Aaron laughs awkwardly. "I know it’s lame to say, and maybe a bit dark because of the state Lily is in, but damn... it seems like we found her some competition."

Some of the group chuckle, others sigh, but I notice the gentle smile Izzy gives Aaron.

"This is all a good start, and all the problems we have are ones we can solve," Tess stands up energetically. "So, for now, Nat, don’t worry. Go to Beyond and just don’t get yourself killed on the 5th floor. Sophie, you as well, or Frontier will kick you out. Meanwhile, I’ll stay here for a week or two. Oh, and Maya? Want to go shopping with me? I want to find a nicer eyepatch than whatever I have currently."

Watching her, I realize how easy it was to forget she even has such a wound. I could ask what she did with her [Declaration], but since she didn't tell me on her own, I think she just didn't want to. I might learn it later, or maybe not.

I could probably stay here a bit longer, but I feel a need to move and do something useful. Like throwing myself against a Champion. It’s a normal thing to do.

I am normal after all.

Before leaving, as promised, I stop beside Lily. I move the Fragment of the Nameless Tree from the back of my left hand to my right, then cut my left arm and leave it beside her.

I let my passive skills combust and begin restoring the limb. It should take some time, but it’s not like I need it that much, I’ve long since grown used to quickly rerouting my Mana Cycling because of missing body parts.

I look at our healer and wonder for a moment. She is so powerful, yet a thing like this happened out of nowhere. Not even before my eyes. There was no build-up, no final boss that caused it, just a bunch of random, powerful monsters.

Before finally departing, I reach out, move a strand of hair off her face, and flick her nose. Then I move to the laboratory, which is, as Tess said, shielded and filled with equipment. It is clean, with sharp, modern surfaces and shiny metal. In one of the corners lies a light-blue scaly part of an arm, or a paw, whatever you’d call it.

It isn't even that big, maybe twice the size of a polar bear's paw, but even as a fake wyvern replica attempt, I’m sure there is power in it.

With a few more steps, I reach the table where the two pristine items we acquired are lying.

Ring of Preserved Stasis (Low Pristine) - A ring made of multiple interlaced colorful metals, with each section flowing into the next with precise symmetry. This ring can lock in any accumulated charge, energy, and stored effect in its current state. Charged energy does not decay, disperse, or destabilize over time. The wearer may hold fully charged techniques indefinitely until release.

Prism of Dimensional Friction (Low Pristine) - A cube that creates a field against interplanar jumps, teleportation, or phase-shifting abilities. Objects or beings attempting to cross space or planes using these abilities are detected and their abilities disrupted. The effect becomes stronger and the scale of the field larger, the more mana is used to empower the Prism.

I’m confident it shouldn’t be this easy to get Low Pristine items. It’s possible they are the limit of what you can get in the tutorial. If my information is correct, newbie Champions begin with Low Pristine gear. Ten million shards, that’s how much they cost at the cheapest in the System shop, and I haven’t seen an item with a higher rating.

Yet here they are, the two of them. Honestly, I just really don’t want to deal with them right now. Neither would be useful to me for the upcoming fight, so out of spite for how much trouble they bring, I flick them off the table. They fall to the floor and roll into the corner.

***

I say my goodbyes to everyone and even ask Biscuit to stay with the others for now. It’s partly so he can help them, and partly so they can distract him from what happened to the ferret. I give a last look at Blackie, who is just creepily standing in the corner, and head out of the tower using the elevator.

Without stopping, I head straight out of the city. After a few miles, I lift into the air, deploying Sneaky Mode and controlling my kinetic energy as tightly as I can. I shoot like a rocket toward where we came from, continuously increasing my speed and sending a sonic boom echoing through the area. A bit of my mana moves ahead, creating a transparent cone in front of me as I speed up further.

The country just flickers below me. Only when I fly higher does that change slightly, the countryside appearing to move more slowly. The flight likely takes longer than it could as I fly over lakes, zigzag between trees at incredible speed, and move through or over the clouds.

I don’t think I will ever get enough of flying like that, and I continuously channel kinetic energy to maintain it.

Only once I reach the place where we appeared do I shoot toward the ground, absorbing all my momentum and stopping the shockwave. I come to such a sudden stop that I’m sure it would evaporate someone with even much higher stats than mine.

A few things are missing.

The severed fingers from the Lycan’s left hand are gone. All four of them.

The Dusk Deer’s body has vanished as well.

Lastly, the severed right hand is now surrounded by a forest stretching a mile wide, with a tree at its center already rising to the height of a skyscraper. The mana radiation seeping into the area is overwhelming, to the point I consider it a small miracle no one has noticed.

Putting up my maximal effort from the start, I radiate my own mana to defend myself and fly toward where I sense the hand. Multiple trees get in my way as I reach that section, and I throw mana projectiles against them, only to be surprised. Some of the trees endure the attacks, while others begin to restore themselves incredibly quickly after being hit.

More of my mana seeps out of me and gathers over the palm of my hand. I begin to channel [Empyrean Lance], only to cancel it mid-cast to take over that mana and use it to fuel more powerful explosions. I throw these against the tree in the center and the multiple others surrounding it.

It requires half a dozen attacks powerful enough to hurt a monster between level 350 and 400, but I carve my way to the hand.

There, even more of my effort goes into simply existing within reach of the hand. The air feels heavy, saturated with a mana radiation so dense my skin itches with the sensation of a thousand needles piercing it.

I manifest a mana arm, pouring every drop of focus into keeping it stable, but the moment the arm touches the severed limb, it begins to erode. I have to pump a constant stream of mana into the limb just to keep it from dissolving into nothingness.

As I finally grab it, the backlash is instant. A surge of raw power rushes through the mana arm, slamming into my own body. It feels like molten metal poured into my veins. My vision blurs, and blood begins to leak from my ears, but I don't let go.

Clutching the "contraband," I use the Beyond Stay Token, and the building pressure disappears immediately with a relief that makes me drop to the ground with deep, shaky breaths.

When I look up, I fully expect Ruby to be here with me. Instead, the one who faces me is a huge ant with a black carapace that seems to absorb the light.

The Ruler of Diligence.

The Destroyer of the Ancient Armory.

***

Author Note: Just a quick update. I made a few small changes:

1st - I removed all uses of wyrm word and replaced them with wyvern. I had always meant wyvern, but somehow wyrm slipped in. Not sure how that happened. Anyway, so far you’ve heard a bit about dragons and wyverns, which are said to be weaker than dragons. Their blood was used in the creation of the vyssari race, the short guys with scaly legs and often elemental powers. Thanks to that wyvern blood, some vyssari can use white lightning (like Lyraen and Tess’s disciple) and a few other abilities.

2nd - I edited the part in the last chapter that said it was the first wyvern egg to appear in the past 500,000 years. It’s now the first to appear in the past 100,000 years.

As always, thanks for reading and for your support!