[Superhero level 13!]
[Skill – Sidekick Obtained!]
[Skill – Loud Voice Obtained!]
[Skill – Superhero Abs Obtained!]
[Skill – Secret Identity Obtained!]
[Skill – A Fraction Of My Strength Obtained!]
Huh?
I leveled?
I opened my eyes and looked up at Sibby. After I'd fallen asleep, she'd maneuvered me so that my head was laying in her lap again.
"Good morning!" She smiled at me.
"Good morning, Sibby." I laid there for a second as she gently stroked my head. I guessed this was her 'motherly' instincts coming out?
Still... it felt nice.
I closed my eyes and focused on my new Skills. I was a little surprised that I'd leveled from destroying A'ctelios Salash. After all, Sibby had done pretty much all of the work. All I'd done was sneak inside and confirm the situation... and also helped people evacuate.
Yeah. Fair enough. Those were 'heroic' things to do. Or, rather, 'superheroic'.
[Infiltrator] was part of my Class.
Hmm...
I felt along my stomach. I didn't feel any '[Superhero Abs]', but then again, I was made of pixels thanks to Gamer's Body. I wondered what effect, if any, the Skill could have? [Loud Voice] sounded self-explanatory. [Secret Identity] also seemed straightforward as an idea. Probably a Stranger effect when I was undercover?
That seemed likely.
[A Fraction Of My Strength]?
No idea what that was. It wasn't green, like most of the others. I still had no idea how I was hearing a color, or what it meant. The closest I'd come from research in Wistram was that Red Skills were bad, and Gold Skills were royalty. Orange were 'Yellat' Skills, and were about reputation - but somehow different from Gold.
I think there were also Blue ones, but there hadn't been any real details about them in the book I'd found.
Regardless, [A Fraction Of My Strength] was long, and longer Skills tended to be more powerful or versatile. That didn't help with telling what they did.
It wasn't what I was most interested in. That would be [Sidekick].
It was clear that was from Sibby doing most of the work. The real question was... did the Skill mean she was my sidekick... or that I was HERS?
I opened my eyes, to see her still smiling down at me.
Yeah... I could see it going either way.
"It's too bad you're too strong for a Class." It was probably one of the reasons people thought she was a Djinni. Some races didn't get to level. The most common theory as to why was that they were too powerful.
"Eh. I could get one, but I don't wanna."
Oh. That makes sense-
"What?" I sat up and turned to face her. "You could get a class? I'd asked if you had one before, and you said 'no'."
"That's 'cause I don't." Her eyes glowed slightly.
"But you COULD get one? How do you know that? And why don't you want one?"
She shrugged. "There's something that tries to connect with me when I form, but I ignore it. William said that was probably whatever entity that grants powers on this world trying to do the same for me. Of course, I KNEW that already."
"You did?"
"What else could it be? Everyone has powers and something tries to touch me like that?"
"And you... don't want it?"
"Why would I?"
"Uhm..."
Sibby gracefully stood up and ran her hands up and down her body in a way that threatened to trigger Gamer's Mind. "I'm perfect. I do what I want. I ignore what I don't. I don't need another 'power' to do what I want or to feel better about myself."
"That's..." Surprising. It also made me question getting levels from the Grand Design. Was I doing it just because I wanted power? Or was it because I was used to leveling from Optimize? Or was I just playing the dutiful host and providing data? Or did I really need mana to successfully leverage my power against other magic users? "A very healthy mind set, Sibby."
"Thanks!" She smiled as she spun around. "I'm going to go investigate things."
Sibby's form vanished in a blink as she took off across the plains and towards Oliphant.
Sibby ran across the plains. She could un-summon and re-summon herself to get to her destination quicker, but she enjoyed running. The feel of the wind as she passed through it without friction slowing her down. The air right next to her might be as still as air could be, but the particles in the space she moved through were displaced by her body.
It was an exhilarating feeling that she loved. Her power and dominance as she swam through the matter as if it wasn't there. Knowing she could do the same to anything she encountered.
Almost anything.
Those 'magic' things still stubbornly resisted her negation, but she'd get better. She'd already learned how to avoid the problem instead of crashing into it head-on.
It was like how she was currently running without friction or gravity slowing her down. She COULD be more forceful. She COULD ignore the air molecules so thoroughly that nothing was left in her wake.
Or...
She could be more subtle. Instead of seamlessly passing through the atmosphere, she could pass through the waves of reality completely. A whisper that only she could hear.
Not even Kevin could sense her actions when she didn't want him too.
Except through their connection, but she hadn't ever considered trying to break or ignore that. It was a part of who she was, just as much as her negation powers if not more so.
Why would she let another connection form? Why would she lower herself to something weaker than her?
Cauwine was different. She was a part of what Sibby was a part of - which wasn't the same as being part of Sibby.
The same way that William wasn't a part of her, not any more. Useful and fun, but not as... invasive in the same way that the connection of this world promised to be.
Yes. Invasive. That was the right word.
Sibby hadn't understood connections until she'd had Panda. After that, the things she could sense had expanded to include her bond with both William and her daughter. So she knew how complicated and multifaceted such things were.
William, of course, had a lot to say on the matter as well. How anything that gave you abilities you could control with your thoughts had to be reading someone's thoughts to work. How the distinction between reading and writing could blur. How a connection to a living Entity made people into its pawns.
His lecture had devolved into a rant after that, but Sibby had already understood the inherent risks of such a thing. She was, after all, an expert on connections.
She did consider letting the connection to the power granting thing happen... just so she could negate it... But it probably used magic, and Sibby didn't have as good of a grasp on negating magic as she would have liked.
Magic sucked. She liked the other world where it didn't exist.
The walls of the big city came into view and Sibby let light start to pass through her as she leapt! She could no longer push off the ground to increase her speed, but it was fun to sail through the air in a perfect arc to soar over the walls and land lightly on that roof.
Or... that roof.
She changed her mind as the first landing opportunity passed underneath her. She still had to let some friction from the air slow her down so she struck her target. It was hard being so amazing sometimes. She'd really had built up some speed back there!
Now... what to do? What to do?
Sibby leapt from roof to roof as she looked for something interesting. Being the competent huntress that she was, the Siberian didn't focus only on the ground. She also scanned the sky and the horizon. That was why she saw the green blur fast approaching.
A bird? A plane? No... it was a bird, but not a regular bird. It was one of those human-sized ones, and it looked like it was going to land in front of the north gate instead of simply going over the wall like Sibby had done.
The Siberian, for her part, raced along the roofs to see the green bird land. She got to the gate at the same time, and perched on top of the wall as the bird landed a little ways off and jogged forwards.
She was pretty fast even on the ground. She was also tall and thin, with white speckles highlighting her green feathers.
Sibby dropped down so she could get a closer look as the green bird bypassed the long line.
"I'm a-" The bird held up a badge.
"You're the Sky's Mirage." The guard held up a hand. "Our captain told all of us, and I recognize you Courier Chaita. Go on through."
The green bird girl, Chaita, bristled for a brief instant before gratefully nodding her head and walking past. Now that she was inside the city, she didn't seem to be in such a hurry. In fact, her route to wherever she was going was long and winding.
It was easy for Sibby to trail her from above.
Chaita first went to an inn. Then a bar. Then a restaurant. She didn't order anything, just spoke a few words with people and then left. Sibby was about to find someone else to investigate when Chaita approached the palace.
If nothing else, Sibby could go check on Nsiia while she was here. So, the Siberian jumped down and trailed behind the green bird on foot. There weren't any buildings close to either the palace or its inner walls.
Once again, the guard on duty waved at Chaita in a friendly manner. "I haven't seen him, Sky's Mirage."
The woman seemed to deflate slightly. "I see. Thanks for keeping an eye out."
"Empress Nsiia has stated that you are permitted inside if you wish to wait." The guard shrugged. "From my understanding, Archmage Pixel teleported directly inside of the grand hall when he arrived last. So he could be within and I wouldn't know."
Chaita closed her eyes, as if considering what to do next before nodding. "Then I'll ask someone inside."
"Good luck!" The guard smiled at her as Chaita walked past him.
"Why is it so hard to find him?" She mumbled to herself. "It's usually not nearly as hard to locate my target, but he clearly has a ward up. Not that I can blame him, but it's making my job a real pain..."
Sibby continued to watch as Chaita spoke with another guard. She was looking for Kevin! Should Sibby kill her?
Hmmm...
Not here, obviously, but Sibby was really good at being discreet when she wanted to. She just never felt like it.
But, the bird-person was pretty, and none of the people seemed alarmed. That didn't mean she wasn't a supervillain looking for Kevin. They tended to wander by a lot more often than she would've thought, and it was a fun little game to deal with them.
Not that Kevin needed protecting, he just didn't like to be disturbed.
Eh, Chaita didn't seem like a supervillain. So there was no reason to kill or main her.
Yet.
Instead, Sibby continued to shadow her as she left the palace and headed back into the city. Sibby backed away when she did. The small places where she let light through so she could see only resulted in slight shadows, since she still let most of it pass. Plus, she let all the light from behind her pass through like normal, so it wasn't like there were gaps in the air that most people would notice.
'Most' people wasn't everyone, and Chaita seemed more observant than most. She glanced at where Sibby was hiding and her brow furrowed. At least Sibby thought it did. Bird-people were different from humans and had all those feathers.
Not that evading detection was difficult for someone as skilled as she was. All Sibby had to do was cut off the light from her eyes and jump! She gracefully landed on a nearby roof, letting her body stop just before she passed through the slightly thicker waves.
Her power made the roof invincible, so it didn't bend or creak in the slightest. Sibby then let some light pass into her eyes and spun around. Sure enough, Chaita was looking at where she'd been and had missed her repositioning!
The bird-person gave up after a minute and resumed her trek through the city - with Sibby tailing her. They soon arrived at a building with a line of people at its entrance. Chaita once again skipped the queue and walked inside.
"Hello, Courier Chaita." A youngish Human greeted her from behind the large desk at the end of the room. "How may we help you today?"
Chaita moved past the tables and chairs that were scattered throughout the room. The people at them stopped their conversations and turned to stare.
"I'd like to speak with the Guildmaster, if he's available." Chaita asked.
"He JUST had someone enter his office." The Human teenager replied. "But, I'll go and-"
"No! No." Chaita held up a hand. "It's not something so urgent so as to interrupt a meeting." She'd been searching for [Archmage] Pixel for days now. Another small delay wouldn't matter, especially since it most likely wouldn't even help her find the reclusive magic-wielder.
She wasn't even sure he was still in Tiqr. [Guiding Winds] had been... erratic. It mostly pulled her towards Oliphant, but then had grown strong and blown her far to the South-West, as if he'd left the country. Then back towards the East, then to the South.
He clearly either had a Spell or Skill to evade detection... or had used magic to travel great distances lately. This was an [Archmage] that had killed a Djinni and fought a dozen armies simultaneously. She'd seen the broadcast on the Wistram News Network. She seen how effortlessly Pixel could move over vast distances. Trying to track him down was like trying to follow a cool breeze in the Zeikhal desert.
But... she had her message to deliver to him. She had to try. She was a Courier, and this was her job.
She looked up as the door to the Guildmaster's room opened and a monster strolled out!
It had long arms with thick claws, but the most frightful thing was its mouth. A maw of thin needle-like fangs seemed to stretch far too far back on its head.
Only two things kept Chaita from leaping to attack. First, the rest of the [Runners] in the room glanced up, and then away - as if the creature's presence wasn't anything of note. Second, that the monster was clearly blushing profusely and wringing its hands as if it was so nervous as to border on having a panic attack.
Plus, [Guildmasters] of the [Runner]'s Guild weren't easy prey. You had to have been a City Runner first, and that meant that each and every one of them knew how to avoid monsters, [Bandits], wild animals, and anything else they could find on the road.
And they had to do it on their own. No [Guards], [Soldiers], or other protection.
While that didn't mean a City Runner could fight off a monster like that, they could almost certainly run away. That, combined with the lack of reaction of everyone else - including the city-folk who were queued in line, let Chaita know her initial reaction was wrong.
She hovered between sitting and standing before deciding on the later. The Guildmaster would be available now, so she could go speak to him.
The [Receptionist] nodded at her and then jerked his head towards the office door that was still open. Chaita shut it behind her. "Good day, Guildmaster."
The man behind the desk eyes widened and he smiled at her. "Courier Chaita!" His expression fell as he realized what her return signified. "You still have not been able to locate our elusive [Archmage] I take it?"
"No." She shook her head. As she did, she thought she caught sight of... something to the side. Part of being a Courier was always being on the lookout for [Thieves] and other [Rogues]. The words of a [King] weren't the most valuable cargo, but there were plenty who would eagerly steal her entrusted letter if given half a chance. "No luck." There was no one else in the well-lit office. Her nerves must be getting the best of her.
"That's a shame. I know how valuable your time is." He drummed his fingers on his desk. "And none of the other [Runners] have any leads?"
"No." She sighed. It was slightly demeaning to ask other [Runners] for help, but that's what the guild was for. "None of them have seen him." She turned to leave before remembering the monstrous looking girl. "Who was that just now? The person that just left your office? She looked... unique."
"Laila?" The man laughed. "I guess you haven't spoken with ALL of our [Runners] yet. Then again, she just officially joined just now!"
"Really?" Chaita leaned in a little. "That must be an interesting story."
"Well, you wouldn't know it from looking at her, but that girl doesn't have a mean bone in her body." He nodded at the door. "Volunteered during the war."
"As a [Runner]?"
"Yep. She's fast too. Don't let her appearance fool you, she's not the fighting sort. Strangely shy for an Alterkind, but it takes all sorts I suppose."
Oh! An Alterkind! That explained it. Chaita didn't run into many of the rebellious String People as a Courier, but she'd seen one or two.
"I only caught a glance. I guess I didn't notice her stitches." The girl also had far smoother skin than most Stitchfolk. All the Alterkind Chaita HAD met before had been Hemps. It made them far easier to recognize, but she supposed that String People from all walks of life went through phases like that when they were young. "But getting her mouth done? That's risky."
From her understanding, modifications to a Stitchfolk's head weren't possible... but if they just attached a fanged maw...
"She had to have sewn it into her flesh." The [Guildmaster] completed her thought for her.
Chaita winced. "And I hate even getting my feathers plucked. Perhaps I should talk to her. Give her some advice as a [Runner]?"
"You could spend your time in worse ways."
"Yeah..." She sighed. "And I seem to have plenty of it until I track down my target." If only Pixel would build a tower like a proper [Archmage]. Then again, from what she'd heard, he had built one - only to have it demolished by a tier seven spell.
I focused on the new seed I was creating. It was clear that I needed a base in Tiqr, if for no other reason than having a permanent teleportation pad on Chandrar would be incredibly convenient. That way I could move any Earthers that made their way here to Wistram far more easily.
I'd decided on another underground base. For now.
Doing so would not only provide me with more discretion and protection, but it would also fulfill a second task.
If Teura was going to come to be my apprentice - such as it was, then she and any other Wistram [Mages] that wanted to could have secure place to study the Blight.
It wasn't hard for me to make living quarters. Or underground bases. Goodness knows I'd made enough of them even before I'd gotten Conversion from the Machine Army. Planting seeds to Craft blueprints was just so... convenient. By now I had enough confidence in my latest Trait that I wasn't really afraid of a 'gray goo' scenario.
If only the same thing could be said of my latest Perk...
I shook my head. Only time would tell and I was committed to my current path.
I lowered the seed into the ground and watched as it sank through the earth. The hard part was tweaking the Observe effect I'd added to it so it could differentiate between Blighted and regular land. I might be confident that normal usage of my seeds was safe, but I was less sure where magical curses were involved.
With Dragon's help, I'd even consolidated the design for my bases into a single blueprint. Air, water, food. My hideouts were entirely self-contained and even came with a large teleportation pad, armor, forcefields, and sensors - not to mention all the structural requirements that underground complexes needed to account for. It was perhaps my most useful blueprint - even surpassing the different iterations of my Cawthorne armor.
That was why it was the main component of the seed I'd planted in Roshal.
Of course, there were still limitations. While the bases were capable of Crafting, they were extremely limited in what they could actually make. I couldn't Craft something that could in turn Craft Tinkertech. If I could, I'd never have to make ammunition by hand ever again. Basic machines were fine, but it could only Craft one specific item.
However, if that one 'thing' was a full-course meal consisting of every food I'd ever Observed. And if I tweaked it so it could Craft only part of the finished product... Let's just say that Star Trek's food replicator had nothing on me - aside that I had to provide biomass instead of energy.
It did still sometimes return 'perfect' food that most people found inedible, but Sibby and I liked it even if it didn't grant powers.
I'd shaped the current seed so that it would burrow deep and then move under the blighted section. It would then expand to surround the area from underneath, while making sure to leave a good hundred feet of buffer. Just in case.
I might in time expand it to cover the top too, but that would need something different. Glass? A domed forcefield? I didn't know, and until I got a magical opinion I was hesitant to act - especially if I needed to sacrifice another Skill to make it Magitech.
The seed left a pixelized vortex on the ground, and I emptied my Inventory of all the random dirt, rocks, and metal I'd gathered. It wasn't enough. I'd need to provide a lot more raw resources since I no longer had a supply of Tinkertech I could use to satisfy the material requirements.
Speaking of which, I had a LOT of severed heads that were taking up entirely too much space. They needed to go, but I couldn't just drop them where anyone might be able to stumble upon them. No. It needed to be secure, lest some bizarre nightmare scenario happened.
I sighed.
I'd planned on placing this deep inside the base where it would be secure and couldn't possibly trap someone by accident. Plus, dispelling these things permanently was a real pain in the ass. Mainly due to how long it took - not that I needed to personally oversee the process or anything, but still...
I consoled myself that I'd be saving time in the long run, and took out the temporal grenade I'd Crafted. The zone of frozen time it could make was my greatest defensive tool. Actually, now that I'd lost my Golden Gun, it might just be my most potent offensive weapon as well.
Even if the first thing I did was Craft another one, using my last time grenade left me feeling vulnerable. Well... slightly vulnerable. I still had a plethora of other defensive options. It's just that living with the Siberian tended to keep my ego in check in terms of considering myself 'invincible'.
Not that anything so simple as a field of frozen time could stop Sibby.
Enough delaying.
I stepped into the circle of land the base would eventually surround, but still far from the blighted area, and detonated the-
Shit!
I'd almost forgotten about my magical items I had on me. My armor might have resistance(temporal), but they did not!
With Inventory incapable of holding them without mana, and my stack of Oversaturated debuffs... Well, things could've gone poorly. While I had the means to fix the stasis field, it took time and resources that I lacked at the moment.
Shaking my head, I tossed the glowing cube a few meters away from myself and watched as a section of grass turned gray and stopped moving. Alright. Thankfully I didn't need to ditch my non-Crafted equipment to clear out my Inventory. All I had to do was sit down and not move.
With each second I was still, Expansion activated and the range of when I could take things into my Inventory increased - as did where I could deposit them. One after another, I dumped the severed heads into the field of frozen time.
Each and every one of them was technically dead, otherwise I couldn't have Inventoried them in the first place. It was still important to keep them frozen. While in my Inventory or in the field where only shades of gray light could escape from, they wouldn't rot. It was possible that given their... origin, that they wouldn't decompose anyways, but it was better to be safe than sorry.
It was even MORE important to keep them locked in time if they could still perceive their surroundings in some way. If being transformed into a fleshy beast of burden didn't drive the poor souls insane, then being nothing more than a head would certainly push them over the edge.
Even if Riley or magic could eventually save them, it was still safer to keep them locked away like this. If they were beyond help? Then it was still best to keep them inside a stasis field - until I disposed of them, that is. It would only take a drop of Crawler's acid to melt the pile. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
I realized I might be a bit... paranoid about the whole thing. A'ctelios Salash had existed for how long as a hollowed out 'corpse'? Thousands of years? Tens of thousands? Its flesh might... change those that ate it, but there was no evidence of it spreading like a zombie virus or something like that.
On the other hand, it cost me little to be cautious. Case in point, dropping sand over the edges of the sphere resulted in an impermeable barrier that would keep anyone from seeing the heads, or being caught in the field of frozen time.
With that, I started teleporting across the plains until I came to where I'd fought Nerrhavia Fallen's army. Unlike the last time I'd been here with Sibby, there were [Scavengers] and other people poking around the remains. It would be inconvenient, but I could use Threat Sense to know if I was being watched, or if I was about to be watched as I teleported somewhere.
Picking up loot was a time-honored tradition, but doing so didn't scream 'Archmage'.
Thankfully, I doubted the other people that were wandering around and looking at what had been left behind were interested in the same things that I was. I needed junk. In fact, anything of value would probably be magic, and while I wouldn't call it 'useless', I certainly didn't want to experiment with using it as Crafting materials.
Then again... why go through the trouble of hopping around with Teleportation? I still had my Golden Sphere drone and I had Expansion. I sat down and let my Inventory range increase as the drone flitted invisibly through the air - letting me see and target the cloth, wood, and metal that were strewn about in pieces.
...
The first thing I Crafted with my new raw materials was a teleportation plate. It wasn't much - really just a location marker that I could include in my party so I could 'see' it and teleport to it from much farther away. Long jumps like that drained most of my MP, but it refilled quickly - and would be much more convenient than the multiple hops I'd made to get here.
Especially since I was going to be making the trip quite frequently for several days.
...
There. The second teleportation plate sat next to the pile of frozen heads.
Now I could jump back and forth with ease.
...
[Debuffs:
Oversaturatedx15]
I smiled as I looked at my status.
I'd spent the last three days scrounging for materials. Not the best use of my time, but it was necessary. On the plus side, I'd had little reason to spend mana on such a simple task, so my recovery was coming along nicely.
The first ranks of Oversaturated had taken the longest, but I was close to having two of them heal in a day! In fact, I'd say I was about halfway towards being healed.
The other good news was that the new base was completed. I had a few little things to do, like make another stasis grenade so I could store the heads in a more inconspicuous place and then set up the Resistance(temporal) pylons to start eroding the first one.
I should have all of it taken care of by the time the base's large teleportation pad was charged.
...
[Debuffs:
Oversaturatedx10]
The base was ready, but my healing rate had slowed down before reaching a soft limit. For several days I had healed one stack of Oversaturated in a number of hours equal to the total stacks. 15 stacks took 15 hours to heal one stack and reduce the total to 14.
However, that rate hadn't remained consistent. Worse, it had increased. It had taken a full day to heal the 11th stack. And now the rest just weren't going away at all. Still, I was hopeful that the guest who was arriving soon would be able to help me figure out how to repair the magical injury I'd suffered.
The pad glowed and a figure materialized on it. The Half-Elf held herself well, and had bright red hair. She stepped off the pad and looked around the hideout with hidden awe.
"Hello, [Mage] Teura." I extended my hand. "Welcome to the base I've made underneath the blighted area in Tiqr."
"[Archmage] Pixel." She smiled brightly. "I'm pleased for this opportunity to learn!"
Bios:
Chaita - The Sky's Mirage. A Garuda Courier with brilliant green feathers. Delivered a vital message for Flos during his first campaign. She is the only Courier that answered his request for someone to deliver a message for him. Hasn't had much luck in finding Pixel to hand over the message, even if she made great time from Relm.