[A/N: The previous chapter felt really short to me, but that truly felt like the right spot to end it, so instead of just continuing or bloating the previous chapter with pointlessly verbose paragraphs, I chose to just write this one as a quick little extra ahead of schedule. Next fanfic to get updated should be Yet Another Fate x Shield, since I have a couple of ideas for it. Then the overlord fanfic, then back to this one.]
Chapter 9
The girls talked about climbing over the enormous walls, or maybe just looking for an entrance along its length, but in the end decided they were indeed about ready for a quick bath in the river, followed by a long bath at home, and maybe a light meal before bed. So, they began walking south towards the river, and almost immediately noticed an small set of ruins, just a few mostly-collapsed walls surrounded by bushes and stunted little trees and grasses.
Upon approaching, they found the remains of an small campsite within its walls, as well as another dancing 'ghost'. Their bracelets informed them that they had learnt a new dance, but...
"The people of these lands really love their musical aerobics, do they not?" ~ Observed Luvia as she watched the psychic imprint jump and twirl in the air.
"Well, at least they keep fit." ~ shrugged Rin as she looked through the campsite for anything of interest.
There was an small wooden chest, and some silver coins inside it, as well as an iron hatchet.
"Hm, I think we have enough gold and silver to make some alchemical base now. I have been wanting to try some of the 'healing potions' recipes the bracelet suggests." ~ The dark-haired girl stored the coins and the tool away before looking around.
Cactii, small trees, rocks, bushes and grasses.
"You know, I could make red dye with the cactii flowers." ~ She said
"Oh? I wouldn't mind some variety. White is a good and proper colour for a fine lady's garments, but wearing nothing but it makes me feel strangely off..." ~ Luvia nodded as she helped Rin collect some red flowers.
"I think you look beautiful in white. Very bridal night of you." ~ Rin teased gently.
"Why, thank you miss Tohsaka, for that nice mental image." ~ The blonde made a point of looking at Rin from head to toes.
"L-luvia!"
"Hm~ I do want to see you wear some daring red silk underwear now. Let us collect some extra flowers..."
"Luvia!"
They did end up collecting as many as they could carry, though. All jokes aside, white everything did get more than a little tiring, specially in the wilderness, as even the smallest flick of dirt would stand out quite a bit on white.
Once they resumed their descent towards the river, they found that the easiest way to go down was down a natural ramp next to the ruins of the ancient water treatment plant, but what truly drew their attention was the tall black stone obelisk on one of its balcony platforms. It positively oozed magical energy, thick enough it would probably be a bad idea to approach for more than a few moments. As proper magus, of course, they couldn't leave well enough alone, so they slid, climbed and jumped unto the platform to take a good look at it. Their bracelets informed them that they had been attuned to it, but not much else.
"What do you think?" ~ Luvia commented while looking down from the platform over the now ruined darfari camp.
"About?"
"Some really amazing red silk underwear..." ~ then she added as Rin facepalmed to cover her blush ~ "On the bracelet, of course."
"Well, its just a tool, so it must have been assumed that this knowledge was so widespread it wasn't worth it to explain."
"I agree. Should we try messing with the obelisk some more? It really feels like it would be dangerous to linger, though."
"I am willing to if you want to."
The girls looked at each other, and nodded. They walked over to the obelisk, and tried touching it again, then promptly vanished.(1)
~O~
Shirou woke up as the day's first lights washed over him, and found Mei sitting close by, looking down the cliff towards the sea with a somewhat complicated expression. She was sitting in a lotus posture, the wind gently messing with her thin, long hair.
"Ah~ Good morning, Mei-san." ~ He greeted her politely as he began sitting up. ~ "Please tell me you didn't actually watch over me all night."
"I won't, then. But, it wasn't as romantic as that." ~ The beautiful strawberry blonde signaled with her head, and Shirou noticed that there were about a dozen extra people either sleeping or moving around them.
"Hm." ~ He nodded as he finally got up. ~ "Would you like some breakfast? I feel its the least I could do."
The young woman turned to look at him, eyes wide, then smiled and finally began to laugh, trying her best to keep it down so she wouldn't disturb those still sleeping around them. She eventually gave up, but nobody seemed to mind, either just getting up in silence or just rolling around to keep sleeping.
"The least you can do, is it?" ~ She wiped some tears off her eyes as she struggled for breath. ~ "Sure, alright. Your home or my ruins?"
"Ah... let's go to my place. Its not far and I have done my best to equip my kitchen as best I could..."
"Sure, alright." ~ She stretched a hand for him to pull her to her feet, and began walking with him.
"Why do you add san after everybody's name?" ~ She asked conversationally as they made their way down to the beach and began walking north.
"It... its a way to show respect to whomever you are speaking to. My language has a great many such rules. Let me think... sometimes you add sounds before a word to indicate a superior version, such as making a distinction between hot water and drinkable, clean hot water."
"Eh~ your language seems to have a lot of subtlety, doesn't it? And what is the difference with drinkable water? You mean 'not poisoned' right?"
"No, I... I guess you don't have germ theory. Its a bit complicated, but let me explain..."
They walked north along the beach, past the ruins of the enormous lighthouse that used to call lemurian ships home in ages past. Mei had suggested once that Shirou should move in and occupy the structure, but he explained that the reason his 'base' was at the river's mouth was because he wanted it to be easy to spot. He was waiting for friends, and certain one or more would come for him.
Germ theory was quite a concept, but the lemurian woman trusted the japanese young man. If he said it was like that, it probably way. It would certainly do no harm to tell her people about it, and hopefully see their overall conditions improved by it.
They made it to the base of the cliff atop which Shirou had built his base, and climbed up an ancient zig-zag road he had cleaned and fixed, marking the entrance to it with signs in his native language that, according to him, simply read "If I am not home, I will be soon. - Shirou" in preparation for her friend's arrival.
"Now that I think about it..." ~ Mei commented while walking up behind him ~ "now that the pirates are gone, you could really expand on this plateau. Build a nice place, you know? ...maybe even start a family."
"I... guess you are right. Now that I don't have to worry about them sneaking in at any time, I guess I could build some more structures. The bracelet has a wealth of knowledge on many things I'd like to build, like seed beds, bee hives, even trellises or a proper outdoor bath." ~ He nodded as he considered.
A nice outdoors bath overlooking the ocean from the top of the cliff sounded really nice, actually. He had experimented a little and found that the culture of yamatai built in a surprisingly similar style to his native Japan, so there was plenty of opportunity there...
He unlocked an small latch door, and invited Mei to step ahead into the surprisingly solid horizontal elevator leading from the plateau's edge to his base atop a tall rock spire. He had built there as a safety measure, with the elevator being the only way to reach the wrought iron door at the entrance, and numerous pikes sticking out of the walls and balconeys to discourage climbing. Honestly, they were high enough that even the non-acrophobic would have to think long and hard before deciding to risk it.
He opened the door, and invited Mei to go in ahead of him, then followed suit and closed the door behind him. He was about to bar it out of sheer custom when he realised it could be misinterpreted, and froze with his hand already holding onto the metal latch. He turned around, and found a very smug-looking Mei staring at him with her arms crossed under her breasts.
"I think I made it clear, I really wouldn't mind if you had ulterior motives, Shirou." ~ She smiled ~ "But you don't, I knew I was agreeing to breakfast and nothing more. You have an actual home, it only makes sense to bar the door."
He felt himself flush a little as he barred the door, and began showing her around.
~O~
Luvia blinked, and she was somewhere else. It was an enormous round room, with scroll racks dozens of feet tall, billed from top to bot with ancient scrolls, all of which emanated small amounts of magical energy. She was in the very middle of the room, standing on top of a large map sculpted on stone and painted to represent a variety of terrains, including jungles, deserts, tundras and volcanoes. She immediately turned in search of her friend, and let out a sigh of relief as she found Rin standing by her side, looking around with an understandable interest.
The psychic imprint of a giant floated towards the back of the room, calmly gazing down upon them.
"Do not be afraid, bonded one. I am just a shadow, a whisper of what once was. Before the fall, when my people raised nighted pillars of black stone to the sky, I was called the Archivist."
To be fair, it wasn't common for a 'ghost' to talk, and it took both magus by surprise.
"The archivist must have been quite strong to leave such an strong psychic imprint behind..." ~ muttered Rin softly, though mostly for Luvia's benefit, mostly ignoring the 'ghost.'
"The scrolls all seem to be magically preserved..." ~ Luvia's eyes almost shone with interest.
Of course, as a talented magus, the chance to gain the knowledge of an advanced magical civilization was basically a godsent for the Edelfelt heiress. Rin nodded, sharing the feeling.
"Wouldn't it be convenient if mister Archivist kept this place organised according to the Dewey Decimal System?" ~ Rin grinned as she looked at the hundreds of magically-preserved scrolls.
"What is this system about?" ~ The Archivist surprised both girls by asking a relevant question, rather than simply repeating itself like most psychic imprints tend to do.
""Oh.""
Rin was the first to recover. She looked at the ghost of the Archivist, harrumphed to clear her throat, and began to explain. "The Dewey Decimal Classification System introduced the concepts of relative location and relative index which allow new books to be added to a library in their appropriate location based on subject. Libraries previously had given books permanent shelf locations that were related to the order of acquisition rather than topic. The classification's notation makes use of three-digit numbers for main classes, with fractional decimals allowing expansion for further detail. Numbers are flexible to the degree that they can be expanded in linear fashion to cover special aspects of general subjects..."
The Archivist listened with rapt attention, making a few questions here and there, and sounding suitably impressed with Rin's descriptions of the massive libraries in her homeland.
"I had no idea you were such a bookworm, miss Tohsaka."
"Unlike a certain noveau riche, I have to care for my family's library by myself, you see?"
"Very impressive." ~ said the ghost ~ "In exchange, I'd like to teach you a little something."
The ghost waves his hand, and the bracelets informed the girls that they had learned how to craft a 'map room' that would allow them to teleport to and from the obelisks to it.(2)
"Furthermore, I will allow you to use the archives here. I believe our knowledge should survive our civilisation's fall... I will allow you to draw a scroll from the racks for each fragment of power you find and bring back to me."
"I guss those would be like a library card...?" ~ Asked Luvia while raising an eyebrow.
"You can use them to expand your mind and consciousness, learning a little more with each fragment you absorb. I value knowledge over all things, but cannot leave this place. Using the fragments is the only way left for me to acquire new knowledge nowadays." ~ The ghost sighed.
The girls looked at each other, and nodded.
~O~
"Derketo's mercy, Shirou, I can't believe the entire floor is a kitchen. What even are some of these!?" ~ Mei pointed at the... everything around her.
"It takes a lot of equipment and supplies to prepare a proper meal, you know?" ~ The young man defended his kitchen.
"Alright, what is this?" ~ She points at his mud furnace.
"That's a dutch over, for baking bread. Which by the way, I should get started on if you want to have some for breakfast."
"Hm. We usually have Yakira ask for Derketo's blessing and turn vines into honeybread."
"Alright, that is... neat."
Somehow, Shirou felt like an important part of travelling to other worlds, specifically, awing the natives with his superior white bread, was but a distant dream. All the same, he did want some bread with his breakfast, and they'd have to go all the way back to the shrine if he wanted to try theirs, so he started baking, breaking out the flour, yeast, salt and water. He wasn't sure how, but he found leavening plant seeds in a chest, and the bracelet helped him grow them with surprising ease, greatly enriching his table.
All the same, he made sure to ask, and since Mei seemed new to cheese, he added it and some spices to his bread for that little bit of extra flavour.
"What is that for?" ~ She asked while looking at an impressive looking machine that wouldn't have been out of place on a professional vineyard.
"Fluid press. You wouldn't believe how many uses it has."(3)
He brought out some sausages, eggs, and ham. Squeezed some fruit on the liquid press, made them into pulp and that into juice, after which he brought out the iron dishes, cups and tableware to serve his food in. With the bread ready, he finally sat across from a very amused-looking Mei and invited her to bite into it.
"...alright, I will admit it. It was really good." ~ She said after finishing her meal. ~ "I still don't think you needed an entire floor for it."
"Well, most of this stuff is for lunch and dinner. And a bit of it is for evening tea..."
"You are surprisingly spoiled, aren't you?" ~ She chuckled softly while supporting her face with her right hand.
"I prefer civilized." ~ He looked away.
"Yes, yes. Whatever you say." ~ She looks at her empty plate and sighs. ~ "If I was just a little bit more shameless, I'd drop by for lunch and... you called it tea?"
Shirou just smiled. A young and energetic female swordsman coming over for meals? Now this was downright homely.
~O~
Thankfully, they were transported together with their pets. Otherwise, making their way out of the massive undead infested building would have been a nightmarish experience. They emerged out into a massive plaza and noticed how the sandstorm had eroded the statues and buildings into nearly featureless blocks. And yet, a transport obelisk stood proud still, obviously an important part of the 'Giant Kings' ancient magical transport network.(4)
"Alright." ~ Luvia took a deep breath to center herself ~ "That's a good enough look at the city. Let's attune our bracelets to the obelisk and go back in to use the Archivist' map room."
"That was my plan too." ~ Commented Rin.
They barely made it 30' out of the building before the sands bursted with more undead. This time six sword-wielding skeletons and a large humanoid... thing. It looked like a cross between a dinosaur and a man. The girls sent the shellback forth towards the reptilian monster, and began kiting the sword-wielding skeletons into the large building, firing off Gandr the full time.
"Ah!" ~ Luvia cried out as the heavy blow of one of the skeletons blew her off her feet.
Rin leaped over and rammed on the skeleton's side with her shield before helping Luvia up in a hurry. The lobby of the archives was a very spacious room, but it was still a dangerous game to try and kite around the powerful undead. The only reason they went in was because it is the only place they know they could retreat to without running into yet more monsters.
Before they managed to take the skeletons down, they both needed bandaging to stop the bleeding from multiple sword cuts. Honestly, they took more damage fighting 6 grunts than they took from clearing the entire cannibal village and killing the acid-spewing demon slug. It was a nice surprise when Rojo ran back in, having already won its fight with the reptilian abomination outside.
"If we ever do explore this city," ~ started Rin ~ "remind me to do so with a turtle swarm ahead of us."
"Agreed." ~ Luvia sighed, and reached into her bracelet's inventory for some bandages.
They reached the obelisk, took one look at the skeleton patrols wandering the main street a stone throw away, and nope'd the fuck back into the archives, using the map room there to warp back to the obelisk on the water plant.
"I can't believe we still have to make it ho~ome." ~ Rin let out an actual whine.
"Cheer up, miss Tohsaka. It could be worse."
"I am not going to ask how. With our luck today, it may actually come true."
They quietly agreed, and just made their way back to base. A quick swim in the river (they still checked for crocodiles, though), and they finally made it home. Neither of them felt like making jokes as they both stripped and entered the water side by side.
"Rin."
"Hm?"
"Do you want to tell me your idea for the Wheel of Pain now?"
"Promise not to make a thing out of it?" ~ The black haired girl turned to look at her friend.
"Of course."
"I thought I would step into it and let you enslave me for a day."
"WHAT!?"
~O~
Author Notes: You can right click on a fragment of power to gain extra points for learning feats. With enough fragments, you can learn every feat in the game. They're also used to craft certain items, and undead minions, if I remember correctly.
1 – Yes, I know the obelisks are only arrival points for when you use the map room, and don't work as return/fast travel back to the map room, but they really should, dammit! It's a big ass map!
2 – Again, yes, I know you can't teleport from the obelisks to the map room, but you should be able to, dammit! I know that you can remove your bracelet to suicide and respawn on your base's bed, but it doesn't makes much sense in the story, does it? So I'm going to say you can teleport to and from the obelisks using the map room, instead.
3 – Really, it has so many uses. Look up the video FLUID PRESS TIPS & TRICKS | Conan Exiles |
though I will warn you ahead of time. The youtuber's voice is both nasal and squeaky, makes me cringe with every word.
4 – Yes yes, I know. "Actually teleportation is a true magic don't just bring it in casually blah blah nasuverse blah blah." The teleportation network of the giant kings is not something I came up with, alright? It was part of the story and its an important part of the game.
Demonas: Makes me think they are carrying around goblin waifus.
Rankin de Merthyr: Well, why don't you try joining a fan server? I'd say 95% chances they have emberlight and the right mod list to get it to work properly. Then just go back to your single player (if you want, obviously) and use that mod list for your own game.