The two-legs were dead.
Her chicks had been avenged.
There hadn’t been enough pain-noises for her liking, but that was alright.
Wasn’t it?
. . No, the Roc decided. It wasn’t. The burning-crackling in her gut that had made her want to hunt down the two-legs had disappeared. But nothing had come to fill the hole it had left inside her.
She felt empty. Drained. Like the world had lost all its colour.
Now what, she asked herself, and she had no answer.
She could hunt for herself with ease. She didn’t need to. The food she’d stockpiled for her chicks would last her for weeks. There was no need to find more. Doing so would be bad, actually, because if she killed more than she could eat, the meat would go stinky and not be good to eat. Waste was bad. Better to kill when she was hungry.
She could look for ground-crawlers to challenge. To grow stronger by besting them. But . . this weakness inside her. It might get her killed.
For a moment, she wondered if that would be so bad.
The mere fact that she hadn’t immediately dismissed such a stupid notion said a lot about how bad she was feeling. Perhaps there was nothing left to do but go back to the tall-nest and sleep. Perhaps she would feel better after the black-sky had come and gone.
Maybe the blue box would bless her with more chicks to raise.
<=====}—o
The setting sun painted the omnipresent clouds in hues of red, pink and gold. Most observers would have called it beautiful.
Mikayla was just grateful that it wasn’t more writhing black bodies. If she never saw an ant again, it would be too soon - and that included the regular ants she’d never particularly minded before back home. She’d never empathised more with the desire of callous children to use a magnifying glass to burn ants alive.
Even though it was getting late, no one had suggested stopping. Mikayla and Keldryn were united in their desire to get as far away from the Ser-E-Core ship as possible. Nocturnus had agreed when Mikayla’s Mana was capped out again and she felt able to bring him out to socialise.
The moon was high in the sky by the time she finally couldn’t go on anymore, collapsing against a tree. Keldryn joined her, glancing back the way they’d come. “I think we’re safe,” he admitted, and Bluebell emerged from his Core Controller to provide an impromptu couch. Even if it wasn’t real wool, the goat’s papery texture was still much softer than the tree, so Mikayla happily joined him.
Several minutes passed as she breathed in and out and let herself just process the day. From the horror game experience of delving into the depths of the derelict container ship, to their narrow escape and the subsequent three-way fight against the Giant Roc and the Ant King.
Sifting through her thoughts, she suddenly recalled something she’d noticed during the fight and put aside for later. “Hey, something’s bothering me,” she muttered half to herself.
Keldryn’s ears pricked up, and he cast an inquisitive glance at her, but Mikayla wasn’t paying him any attention. For the first time in a while, she opened her full profile.
[NAME: Mikayla
LEVEL: 15
RACE: Human
STATISTICS:
HEALTH: 1136/1200
MANA: 1476/1600
STAMINA: 451/1100
STRENGTH: 11
DEXTERITY: 11
CONSTITUTION: 12
CHARISMA: 14
INTELLIGENCE: 16
WILLPOWER: 17
UNUSED: 6
ABILITIES:
CORES:
LAPIS OF BLACK KNIGHT (CORE): Expend Mana continuously to conjure an Armour of the Black Knight. Enhancements: Goliath
RUBY OF SWORD (CORE): Expend Mana continuously to conjure a Sword. Enhancements: Goliath
TECHNIQUES:
CIRCULATION OF STAMINA (Basic): Expend Stamina continuously while meditating to accelerate the natural healing process.
FIRESTARTING PUNCH (Crude): Expend 50 Mana to wrap your fist in flame and strike your target with an inferno. Damage scales with Willpower.
STATUSES:
NONE
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EQUIPPED:
LAPIS OF BLACK KNIGHT (CORE)
RUBY OF SWORD (CORE)
ARCHAIC CUIRASS (ANTIQUE)]
ARCHAIC COTTON UNDERSHIRT (ANTIQUE)
ARCHAIC LEATHER HIKING BOOTS (ANTIQUE)
ARCHAIC CLOAK (ANTIQUE)
INVENTORY:
PHONE (0% CHARGE)
MAY YOU FIND ATARAXIA WHEN YOU NEED IT MOST.]
It really hadn’t changed much, except for the numbers ticking their way upwards. Keldryn had assured her that her levelling rate was phenomenal. She really owed so much to Nocturnus and the Black Knight . .
“Wait, hang on,” Mikayla frowned. She flicked her unused points into an even divide between Strength, Dexterity and Constitution.
[STRENGTH: 13
DEXTERITY: 13
CONSTITUTION: 14
HEALTH: 1136/1400
STAMINA: 451/1300]
Then she looked back at the Firestarting Punch and its ridiculous mana cost. She almost went to cast it just to see if it really cost that much Mana, but refrained. Mana was a precious resource, not to be squandered. “One flaming punch costs me fifty Mana?”
“That sounds about right?” Keldryn confirmed.
“But that’s two hundred seconds of sword time. Are you seriously telling me I can get three and a half minutes of sword time or one single punch?” Mikayla demanded in incredulity.
“What the Nexeus kind of master-work Core are you using that you can get that much ‘sword time’ out of that pittance of Mana?” Keldryn boggled, raising an incredulous eyebrow.
“Two things to consider. These Cores are designed by Carter and Astralia themselves. They are very well-made and extremely efficient, even if apparently the materials themselves are lacking,” Nocturnus weighed in.
“Oh, so it’s because these are top-tier and the technique is Crude,” Mikayla acknowledged.
“Top-tier . . I’m not familiar with that turn of phrase. Haha, but I like it!” he chortled. “And the second thing to consider is this; how many fights have you been in that have lasted such a long duration as three and a half minutes?”
“. . I see,” Mikayla considered.
“What about multiple fights in a row? Or a whole battle between armies? Like the one we just had with the Ants? Nexeus, any occasion when you can’t afford to sit for a few hours and recover between fights? Sometimes you need to pace yourself,” Keldryn reasoned.
“That’s what potions are for,” Nocturnus brushed him off.
“No, I think I’m with Keldryn, relying on potions for regeneration feels a bit too much like putting all my eggs in one basket,”
“Putting our what in what?” the Foxkin parroted, tilting his head.
“. . seriously?” Mikayla groaned. “It’s a saying about how you shouldn’t rely on a single point of failure with no backup plan,”
Nocturnus hemmed and hawed. “I suppose,”
“Well, why not just say that?” Keldryn muttered.
“. . Okay, that’s it. Tell me about some sayings and references you would use, native to this world. I’m sick of saying things that no one else understands,”
“Huh? Uh, sure . .” Keldryn trailed off, wracking his brains. “Let me think about that?”
“You described my plan to get the generator a few days ago as ‘dung-sniffing’? Something like that? What’s the story there?”
“Oh, sure, that’s a good one. There’s an urban legend about how if you roll in monster poop, monsters will think you’re one of them and not attack you,”
“Ew. Does it work?” Mikayla scrunched up her face.
“No,” he flatly replied. “Hence why it’s used to describe stupid ideas,”
“Probably should have guessed as much,” she nodded. “How about you, Nocty? You cuss like a sailor, surely you’ve got something,”
Keldryn mumbled something about not knowing what a sailor is, and no one paid any attention to him.
“Young lady, are you asking me to teach you to swear?” Nocturnus asked, stern disappointment creeping into his voice. Mikayla raised an incredulous eyebrow; was the old ghost really going to cast stones?
“Because it would be my pleasure!” he boomed, and Mikayla was almost relieved. That was the Nocturnus she’d grown oddly fond of.
“Great. Start with ‘starring’, you toss that out on the regular,”
“Oho! An excellent choice! That one dates back to the Star-Fight Hegemon and his nemesis, the Automaton of Stars! It was a strange creature that descended from the night sky and wielded the stars themselves as weapons, slaying hundreds of fearsome warriors. It finally met its match in the Hegemon, a legendary assassin specialised in poisons. They danced for days, and the Hegemon landed a million of the most slight blows imaginable, each laced with a deadly toxin. Eventually, the Automaton could take no more and succumbed. His feat elevated him to godhood, and he stands as the god of endurance whose shadow shields the world from the malign lights above!”
Mikayla raised an incredulous eyebrow. “I’m sorry, ‘the malign lights above’?”
“The stars are wretched things, held prisoner within the inky depths of the Hegemon’s shadow! All real men know that they are not to be trusted! They assaulted us once and would do so again if not for the Star-Fight Hegemon’s vigil!” Nocturnus howled at the sky.
“Okay, grandpa, maybe you should go back to bed,” Mikayla wryly suggested, then paused. “Keldryn, are there any local sayings about people getting old and senile?”
“Not really. People who live long enough to get old out here have earned everyone’s respect,” he denied. “Also, I’m assuming it’s an insult, but what’s ‘senile’?”
“Do you not know how people sometimes go kind of crazy or get forgetful, generally start losing their wits when they get old?”
“What? That doesn’t happen. Old people who’ve lived a long time and gotten to a high level are usually really smart and tough,” Keldryn shook his head. “Well, until they run out of vitality and waste away, but that’s just the body deteriorating, it doesn’t affect their mind,”
Mikayla blinked. “Is that because of the System? Enhancing Intelligence and Willpower? People just don’t get dementia or anything here? Wow,”
“Your world sounds terrible if such things happen to men simply because they’ve lived too long,” Nocturnus rumbled.
Mikayla just snorted.
“Well, whatever! Next, no warrior woman can be ignorant of the Healer of Spears! Her exploits are legendary and well worth swearing by, why, the order she founded centuries ago still endures to . . ah . . say, boy, is the Order of Hand and Spear still around?”
“Never heard of it. If it is, they’re not in this region anymore,” Keldryn shrugged.
“Stars, that’s a pity. Oh well, they’re still worth swearing by! Some of the finest healers the world ever knew, who turned the tide in many a war!”
Mikayla shuddered. “War was bad enough even in my world, I don’t even want to think about what it must be like with magic,”
Nocturnus let out a long, slow breath. “I always told myself, if you’re having a bad day, make it worse for your enemies. War can be glorious but also very grisly. Not all men handled it as well as I,”
“Yeah, I imagine so,” Mikayla nodded with a grimace. She thought for a moment, then her eyes widened and she exhaled heavily. “Oh dear,”
“What?”
“I just tried to picture what war between people is like when both sides are armed with Armour Cores,”
“We did wonder how that could go,” Nocturnus mused. “Astralia contended that infantry as a concept would be entirely redundant. Carter predicted a rise in the use of mobile siege engines to counter Armour Cores. I can’t wait to open a history book and find out what I missed!”
We have now reached the end of the third arc! Thank you to everyone who’s stuck with the story so far, it’s only going to get better from here!
To celebrate, I’ve got a special request for everyone who’s made it this far. All my reviews so far only discuss the first arc, and that makes me sad. If you - yes, you! - leave a review from this point in the story, discussing the second and third arcs, I will advance my schedule and post a bonus chapter! Please feed my need for validation and bigger numbers!
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