Chapter 305, Legaia 3
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 3.0.5
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
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??/??/???? (Legend of Legaia)
There were a lot of things that Alchemist wanted to check on before they handled the Juggernaut. Some would be easy, some would be frustrating, some...
Some were basically just outside his door.
Just a bit to the west of where he'd set up the entrance of the demi-plane was a place where hunters went to rest and recover from their daily struggles. In the lightless twilight of the early morning, nobody was actually there as Alchemist tested the supposed healing waters that poured freely from a fountain.
It just ended up being water, unfortunately. Surprisingly pure water, yes, and very refreshing. But it didn't seem to have any magical properties that would restore someone's HP and MP.
As one Alchemist marked his research as a bust and headed back to start sanctifying the woods around the demi-plane doorway, another was in a location far to the north.
That Alchemist had practiced a bit of breaking and entering, sneaking into the palace of the kingdom of Ratayu under the cover of Standstill. A pair of guards, a few locked doors, not a whole lot really stood in his way.
The man sealed the doors behind himself as he entered the hidden, forbidden chambers underneath of the palace and inhaled deeply as he let go of his hold on Standstill. The air was rank, hot and humid with a mustiness that was far too organic for Alchemist's comfort. Overhead, as the mage plumbed deeper into the abyss, he noticed strange contraptions that would expand and contract slowly. With each expansion, the air around him moved.
The man shuddered in discomfort as he descended, passing through stairways and dark corners that confused even his sense of direction. Strange structures were attached to the walls and ceilings the deeper he went, large, pulsating orbs connected to thick, organic tubes. Eventually, after far longer than it had taken in-game with convenient scene transitions, Alchemist found the end of the facility. Near a truly massive berth was a small platform with a computer terminal and a treasure chest.
Kicking the chest open, Alchemist plucked the Evil Talisman, really just a chunk of bloody ivory, from the chest and stowed it in the inventory.
It was the very last item that could be collected in a playthrough of Legend of Legaia. In-game, it was a treasure without compare.
For Alchemist?
The console was far, far more important.
Alchemist wanted to get started working at it immediately; he had... ideas...
But there was one critical issue he needed to address.
Songi had suffered from a babality. Cort was currently occupied by being connected to a giant, massive beating heart. That only left one entity that the wizard didn't want peeking in on his activities.
Tieg. The creator-god of Legaia, the entity that sealed the Rogue Ra-Seru into a tower made of its own flesh and would go on to assist the group of heroic children in crossing the dimensional divide to reach the Seru-Kai. Alchemist didn't know if the entity was good, evil, something in between or else something incredibly alien.
And he didn't really want to find out.
The wizard looked around the berth, currently empty, and pursed his lips in thought. It was huge, massive really, but...
Four ward stones, the mage decided as he finished the mental math to estimate the cubic footage of the area. Set at equidistant cardinal points around the berth, four ward stones of Secure Cavern would overlap, slightly, and obscure Alchemist's actions.
The man chewed on the inside of his cheek as he considered that. It was going to take time to build the ward stones but, with Alchemic Bounty, he'd only need to build one and it would duplicate...
Running a hand down his side, over the crystalline egg he'd recovered the day before, Alchemist silently huffed.
One thing at a time...
He'd get everything done, he just needed to focus on one thing at a time.
-----
Tiffany woke up slowly, the same as she did any other day. The girl rolled to her side, curled up, then rolled back so she was in a sitting position without having to actually put in as much effort. She reached up with her right hand to rub at her face, her hand slipping over drool, as she reached out with her left hand to readjust the window so she could actually read it.
Her fingers, gloved in Terra, pressed solidly against the system window and the girl froze.
-- Welcome back! --
Tiffany's dry, tacky lips pressed together as she felt... something. A lot of things.
Nervous, excited, anxious...
Hopeful.
'Ah, good!' Terra's soft, airy voice called out to Tiffany's mind. 'I was wondering why the progress bar had frozen at ninety-nine percent. It looks like everything finished up while you were asleep.'
"Yeah," Tiffany agreed as she slid one finger up on the window, rolling the text up to reveal more. "I... kind of didn't expect it would actually do anything."
-- Some significant changes and improvements have been rolled out in Gamer β 0.3.05! Please read the notes below to familiarize yourself with the changes!
- Due to corruption of the source code, the extension [Gamer's Mind] has been rolled back to an earlier version. Its current stand-in, [Game Interface] still allows for you, the Gamer, to use any and all forms of skill books, contracts, spell tomes and more in the method you're already familiar with! However, it does not stabilize the user's mental state to better allow them to act as the cool, collected Gamer we all know you are. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
- Shop limitations: Some notable items did not meet the balance requirements we have in place and as such have either been removed or otherwise restricted. Such items, if they are already in your inventory or skill list, have been left untouched. We would, however, advise you to act with extreme caution in using them.
- Tweaking of the Skill Creation system. Some users may notice that the Skill Create system is no longer quite so generous. Extensive testing has revealed that inducing skill-up messages for basically every real-world interaction to be incredibly tedious and often does nothing to contribute to the overall experience for Gamers or Viewers.
- Security around the Gamer Kernel has been enhanced.
- A new tutorial system is currently being tested by a team of experienced Alpha Testers. Should implementation meet base metrics, you may encounter new Gamers using them during their first few days in whichever world they find themselves!
- User: Burningtalons has been banned. You know what you did. --
"...Huh," Tiffany mumbled as she scrolled up and down, the slobber along the side of her face drying. "What'd that Burningtalons guy even do?"
'Wait one moment...' Terra requested, the gems along the back of the glove glowing in sequence for several moments. 'Former User: Burningtalons committed REDACTED, REDACTED and REDACTED on multiple occasions. As well as supplying a key competitor with critical access to multiple System functions which has been used to create a pseudo-Gamer system that has been tied to both demonic and eldritch forces.'
"Oh. Fun." Tiffany had no damned clue what Terra had said. Literally every key word was cut out and filled with static.
So the administrator was being serious about whoever the Burningtalons guy is; they knew what they did but nobody else did. So that was... useless.
"Ugh..." Tiffany groaned as she rolled off the bed. She needed to get ready to get out and go... do something?
She had her system back. And, yeah, her heart was pounding in her chest at the thought of not being so fragile anymore. But... what did that actually mean for her?
Heading upstairs, the girl decided to think on it after she showered.
Fresh and clean, Tiffany glanced into the dining room and saw Kary watching over the baby, sleeping in a playpen, but no Alchemist. There was fresh fruit on the table but it looked like he'd left early today.
'Well, now that your system is fully restored, would you like to begin the TUTORIAL?' Terra asked as Tiffany eyed the angry-looking baby.
Songi hadn't accepted the Elixir of Youth that Alchemist forced down his throat with grace. The man had tried to fight back but Alchemist, when he wasn't playing nice, was not above using force.
The first time, Songi had gotten thinner, his muscles lost a lot of definition as he turned into a young teen. The second time, Songi had turned into a kid that was like seven or eight years old. The third elixir had left him as a pudgy, but mobile child. The fourth was the one that turned Songi into a crying, screaming baby.
"...Sure," Tiffany mumbled as she clenched her fist.
'Fantastic!' Terra needlessly praised the girl. 'As a Gamer, you should come equipped with a handful of basic, but critical, skills. Depending on the implemented settings, your first skill would be some form of Observe or Appraisal ability. Why don't we focus on the woman sitting in the chair and try using one of those now?'
Shrugging, Tiffany went ahead and used Observe on Kary-
-- ERROR! --
-Name: Error!
-Gender: Error!
-Level: Error!
-Title: Error!
-Attributes
--HP: Error!
--MP: Error!
--ST: Error!
--Strength: Error!
--Vitality: Error!
--Dexterity: Error!
--Agility: Error!
--Intelligence: Error!
--Wisdom: Error!
--Luck: Error!
-Threat Rating: Undefined --
Well... That didn't tell Tiffany anything. At all.
'It... would appear as though the woman is protected against external information gathering techniques,' Terra thought towards Tiffany, honestly sounding baffled at the window full of nonsense that they'd been given. 'Perhaps we should move on to another topic? You are already familiar with your status window, skill window and inventory, yes?'
"Yeah," Tiffany mumbled quietly as she left the room, Kary idly waving at her over her apple slices. "I've gotten pretty used to using those. What else are you supposed to help out with?"
'...Settings, perhaps?' Terra offered as Tiffany left the house. She kind of wanted to check in with Alchemist and maybe see if he was ready to go into the Juggernaut. With her system back in action and Terra on her hand, there was no way Tiffany could lose!
"Alright, so, what's the deal with the settings?" In the distance, Tiffany could vaguely hear a repetitive 'Ting'ing or maybe a 'Ping'ing noise. Following it led the girl to the workshop.
'The Settings-' A window opened in front of Tiffany, filled with a variety of options. Sound volume, background music volume, language, subtitles... '-allow you to change how the world interacts with you in a variety of basic but important ways. One option that has seen a surprising amount of use is actually subtitles.' And with that comment, the grayed out option lit up in white. 'Testing with our focus groups has actually concluded that many Gamers that are brought in on the 'New Game Plus' program seem to respond better to text rather than audible words. Information comprehension and retention rates often improve by thirty percent or more when these Gamers can 'read' what people say instead of just hearing it.'
"Ting!" A loud, almost metallic noise came from inside of Alchemist's workshop.
And a long block of text scrawled itself a bit below the center of Tiffany's point of view. She read it, more confused at its appearance than its words.
"Explanation: Ebony being used for commercial purposes is equal to high-grade steel but might be manufactured at a fraction of the cost using my methodology. While useful for military purposes, it might not adequately serve its function in the hands of Koriand'r."
"Ping!" An equally loud and somehow deeper noise broke through the walls of the workshop.
"Request: I would like to begin sampling and testing the material you intend on marketing. Offer: If this material proves adequate, I would be willing to purchase tools and rods made of it for my own purposes."
"Ting!"
Tiffany opened the door of the workshop and carefully poked her head in once she was sure none of the machinery inside was active.
The video Alchemist had shown her of someone being 'degloved' was... absolutely not something she wanted to experience herself.
"Negotiation: I actually have a multitude of other, non-magical metals that you might be interested in. Would you like for me to explain their properties?"
Alchemist was in the workshop, standing over at one of the tables where he kept a number of chisels and hammers. On the table was a slab of some kind of heavy, white stone and tiny, sharp chips from it covered the floor in front of him.
At another workstation, Cyborg sat with a pair of very fine tweezers in one hand while he was apparently digging through an open panel on his other arm. The guy even had Alchemist's magnifying-glass-on-a-stand thing set up overtop the exposed innards of his forearm.
The half-mechanical teen waved his sealed arm in the air in a 'go on' gesture and Alchemist stepped away from his table and over to Cyborg's. Tiffany watched him open a system window and begin to press at it before he reached into it and extracted a small bar of some kind of bright, silvery metal.
"Ting."
"Explanation: Mithral is a lightweight yet extremely durable material. The metal has a hardness that is equal to diamond, though it lacks the excessive rigidity that leaves diamonds prone to shattering."
Then Alchemist reopened his window and typed at it again before coming back with a bar of black metal that reflected a dull, violet light.
"Ting."
"Explanation: Adamantine alloy has a comparable weight equivalent to iron or steel but far outstrips even mangalloy steel in hardness. In its unalloyed state, adamantite is rather similar to aluminum in shear resistance but can handle impacts of impressive kinetic values."
Finally, Tiffany watched Alchemist open a new window. Not his inventory but instead he opened the shop. After a second, he typed in something, clearly hit backspace, retyped it, hit the backspace again and then had to retype it. Again.
This time, what Alchemist extracted from his inventory was a bar of metal that seemed to be pale violet.
"...Ting."
"Explanation: Obdurium. This material is extraordinarily rare for a multitude of reasons. It has a hardness value which is twice that of diamond, though given how subjective those measurements are I am afraid I cannot state how it properly measures up. Beyond the sheer hardness, it is also incredibly durable for its size and weight. Given the material properties, very few individuals have ever had both the skill and equipment necessary to work with it. Exceptionally expensive and far too difficult to work with."
"...Ping."
The sound didn't come from Cyborg's mouth or throat. Somehow, something inside of the man's chest was making the Pinging noise.
'I've never heard of a language that could be so dense...' Terra whispered into Tiffany's mind. 'I know of one that's close but those parasites are trapped in their own worlds...'
"Query: Is that the metal you'll be making Star's sword out of?" quickly scrawled across the bottom of Tiffany's vision, the subtitle translating what Cyborg had asked.
"Well, it is the right color," Tiffany said, announcing herself to the room. "It'd fit with her outfit, right?"
Alchemist opened his mouth, another Ting on his lips before he clicked his mouth shut. Tiffany actually watched as he needed a moment to shift gears to talk to her like a normal person.
"I... could," Alchemist agreed after a moment of hesitation. He looked from Tiffany over to Cyborg in uncertainty for a moment before giving up and shrugging. "So, how is Tiffany this morning?"
"Tiffany is good!" Tiffany told him as she crossed her arms behind her back. "Tiffany just got her powers back!"
"Oh," Alchemist mumbled and Tiffany could see the man's two brain cells smoking as he processed that. Then his gaze, already focused on her, sharpened. "Oh, that's fantastic! You're with me, Beast Boy and Kary for training today!"
"...I am?" Tiffany asked, unsure what to make of the sudden shift in his demeanor.
"Yes," Alchemist stated as he held one hand up and, somehow, a handful of spread cards appeared in his once-empty palm. "You are."
-----
Garfield was kind of not sure about the training thing he was being dragged to, today. The last time Alchemist had offered to teach him about how to transform into something, it'd been some giant, disgusting monster that had literally wanted to eat him.
It, uh... Garfield had turned that one down.
This time there was supposed to be some kind of werewolf? At least, that's what Raven had told him. Which sounded pretty rad, not gonna lie, but Beast Boy had a few questions on his mind.
"...Why'd you bring the baby?" Was actually a really big one on Beast Boy's list.
"I need to get rid of him," Alchemist answered in what was possibly the blandest tone possible. "I don't want to bring him back to your reality, or mine. He might have fleas."
Beast Boy stared, one eyebrow twitching as they waited outside the door for the girls to show up. He was dressed in his normal outfit, the one from the Doom Patrol. Alchemist had a pair of cargo pants on, a brown tee-shirt without any kind of logo or marks and a big, heavily stuffed backpack on his back.
"...Okay, but, like, how are you going to get rid of him?" Beast Boy asked as he leaned in to look at the little redheaded child held in Alchemist's arms. "You aren't seriously thinking about bringing him with us, right? That'd be, like, super dangerous!"
"Of course I'm not bringing the baby with us." Alchemist almost sounded outraged but Beast Boy could tell by the slim smirk on his face that he was faking it. "What would I even use him for? Bait? That'd be a terrible investment!"
Beast Boy's next question, another accusation built up around the dark smirk on the man's face was cut off when a tall woman with jade eyes stepped out of the door, covered from head to toe in dark clothes that Beast Boy would more readily guess would fit an assassin than Kar'Yashlan.
Right behind her, wearing a pink outfit with a jaunty pink cap and a pair of black swords hooked to her hips, was Player One. Something about the girl looked more dangerous than before and it took Garfield a second to realize that it was the confidence.
"Everyone ready?" Alchemist asked, one hand patting the back of the angry-looking baby pressed against his chest. Beast Boy shrugged but both Kar'Yashlan and Tiffany nodded. "Fantastic! We have a brief stop to make before we head up north. Should only take a minute or two."
"Where are we going?" Tiffany asked.
Rather than answer her, Alchemist held up a hand and the girl sighed before he snapped his fingers and-
Beast Boy had to blink a few times as his brain caught up with just how smooth the transition had been. They were in a room that had a lever in the center and what looked like a pair of fans on the side, with a pair of doors affixed to opposite walls. One was open while the other was not.
Alchemist led the group as they walked through the open door.
"Woah..." Beast Boy was amazed by what he saw inside. It looked like something Robin would have loved, with a dozen guys that were all practicing punches being led by some old dude up on a wooden platform, wearing a fancy looking robe. "Where are we?"
"Place called the Biron Monastery," Alchemist answered before the man walked ahead of the group and through the throng of practicing martial artists. "Hey, pardon me, Zopu? Is that right?"
The man atop the platform, wearing a red robe with a sun-yellow stripe down the middle that was filled with some Chinese or Japanese characters which Beast Boy couldn't read, looked down at Alchemist for a long moment. The man seemed to be debating something as he looked up from the dragon, to Player One, to Kar'Yashlan and finally to Beast Boy.
He spent a long moment staring at Beast Boy.
"Continue practicing!" the man barked out to the disciples in the room. "One-hundred repetitions!"
Then, he looked back down to Alchemist. He seemed to be debating something important for a long couple of seconds, probably what to do with all the newcomers, before he nodded sharply and walked to the side, off of the platform.
"I am Elder Zopu, master of the Drake sect of Biron Monks," Zopu told the group, introducing himself. "What is your business here, stranger?"
"Grim tidings, I'm afraid," Alchemist said to the man. Beast Boy could see the other monks throughout the room slow down their practice a bit to try and eavesdrop. "Rim Elm, to the south, has been attacked and consumed by a giant Seru. A few people managed to escape though I cannot say how many did not. I have something I need to deliver to you, can you hold him for a moment?"
Alchemist pulled the slumbering child away from his shoulder, waking him in the process, and gently held him out to the old man. Zopu, with surprising care for such an old man, accepted the child from the dragon and cradled him against his abdomen.
"Fantastic, thank you," Alchemist said as he crouched down and shucked the pack off his back. Once it touched the floor, Alchemist snapped his fingers-
And Beast Boy found himself, along with the rest of his group, standing in a field surrounded by mountains with tall, knee-high grasses blanketing the plains.
"...Did, did you seriously just..." Beast Boy wasn't even sure what he wanted to ask.
"Zopu touched the baby last," Alchemist said, gravely serious as Tiffany pressed her gloved hands against her eyes. Kar'Yashlan had her hand pressed against her mouth, likely hiding laughter over the whole ordeal. "Songi's his responsibility, now. Again."
"...I don't think that's how it works," Beast Boy said. He reached up, running his hand through his hair as he tried to wrap his head around what just happened.
"...Pretty sure it does," Alchemist disagreed. "Since it literally just worked."
-----
Master Zopu stared at the spot the oddly dressed warrior had just... stopped existing in. One hand held the babe tightly against him, half afraid it would disappear as well, whilst the other shakily reached down to the pack that had been left behind.
The elder was terribly confused as to what had just happened but the warning fit with the ill omens and foul winds that had started coming from the south.
Flipping open the mouth of the pack, Zopu's bushy eyebrows rose to meet his close-cropped hair. It was filled with sacks full of things like dried meats, well-maintained water skins, satchels of seeds and dozens of small but valuable tools. Supplies they were only just able to keep intact throughout the long decade within the Mist. Supplies they'd been told they wouldn't be able to get from the Drake Kingdom for some time as the people there were recovering from their own ordeals.
"Master Zopu!" a disciple called from the doorway. The same disciple that had missed the party of four colorful characters.
A man, built like a smith. A woman garbed as an assassin. A girl, dressed in the most ridiculous colors...
And the green Gobu-Gobu that had been docile and not trying to attack or rob them.
"What is it, Duwet?" Zopu asked as he waved to another disciple, to whom he handed the strangely quiet, strangely familiar child.
"Sir!" Duwet bowed deeply as Zopu picked up the pack that had been left behind. "Gala and his party have been spotted in the distance, coming from Rim Elm. How shall we greet them?"
"...Tell the kitchens to prepare enough food for the three," Zopu decided after a moment.
Gala, the former Master Teacher of the monastery, had been excommunicated due to his congress with a Seru. That it was a holy Seru, a servant of Rem, meant nothing to the teachings of Biron. Zopu's hands had been tied.
But, while Gala had been excommunicated, he had not been exiled or banished from the monastery. Gala was clearly fated for greater things, tasked by the gods to cleanse the land of the Mist and help bring peace back to the world. Zopu would not, could not bring himself to punish the man he'd raised since boyhood for the designs of the gods.
And...
It would be nice, Zopu privately admitted to himself, to catch up with the son he'd never had.
-----
Perhaps it was ungracious but Kary felt that the whole affair with the evil child had been more amusing for her love's utter lack of gravitas in handling it. It was trickery in its most base form, nothing more complicated than the simplest 'Gotcha!' that an imp might perform.
Half the demons she'd met would have simply killed the child as the most convenient option. Most of the others would have bartered the babe away, trading its worthless soul for something of infinitely greater value.
"So, here's what I'm thinking," her beloved said to the two children that had come along. "Tiffany, you're going to use the skill cards I picked up for you. And you're actually going to start using the skills in them. It's well past time for you to have some force multipliers in your arsenal that aren't just 'hits things fast'. You're also going to be working with Beast Boy, practice your Vera spell and keep him topped out. Got it?"
The man waited for the girl to nod at him before he shifted a bit to focus on the green-skinned boy.
"The werewolves here are incredibly agile and know some kind of martial art. I have no idea if that's instinctive but it means they're going to be an actual threat to you. If you're in actual danger, make sure that Tiffany knows." Alchemist nodded towards the girl that was practically hopping from one foot to the other. "She can handle everything here just fine."
"And for me, love?" Kary asked, drawing the man's attention over to her as he was in the process of extracting a handful of cards from his pocket. "What shall I be doing?"
"You'll be with me," Alchemist told her. He pointed out in the distance, past a rather unusual mountain shaped like a clamshell and towards the collapsed remains of a fortress. "I'll show you the arts Odin taught me while we dig through the remains of the base back there."
Kary nodded, quietly pleased that she would be spending some personal time with him.
Watching Player One eat several skill cards was a curious sight. She would hold it, focus on it for a moment and then it would fade away in a shower of blue-green sparkles. The girl ran through the various spells a handful of times, marveling at the power they provided with how little they cost.
And, though Alchemist said nothing, Kary could see that he was Mimicking the girl, that he was learning the spells she was using...
"...Let's leave them to it," Kary suggested, tugging on her lover's shoulder. "They know what they ought to be doing."
"...Alright," Alchemist agreed after a moment. His eyes lingered, not on the children but on a mass of gray fur that was approaching from the distance. "Let's go."
The duo turned to the north, walking on as a howl ripped through the air behind them. The distance was great, and beasts prowled the plains. It was a perfect opportunity for the woman to watch, to learn.
"...Calling the arts of the Dark Blade 'Sword Sorcery' is, at best, incorrect," Alchemist began as they approached the side of the massive clam-like mountain. "It's not magic, not in any traditional sense. It's more of an odd twist; it's magic adjacent in how it functions but it draws on stamina and strength rather than magic or faith. It can't be blocked by silencing the practitioner, which is a point for it in comparison to normal magics, but it relies on the wielder having a weapon that can handle the strain, which is a point against it."
A creature, almost impossible to discern from the environment, froze in the act of launching a wide haymaker at the back of Alchemist's head. It was a hideous beast, large and rounded with grayish, mottled skin that looked similar to the rocks and boulders littering the region. It had only one eye centered in its face and a pair of tiny legs but incredibly long arms.
The man reached out to the side and his greatsword appeared in his hand, the numerous Materia within its length glinting hungrily. The man cast one of the spells he'd just learned, ones she was sure she ought to pick up herself, and drew back his blade.
"To live by the sword is to die by the sword," Alchemist intoned as the colors around the blade faded and his shadow grew longer despite the strength of the sunlight. "There is time enough for regret in Hell!"
Kary licked her lips under her face mask and watched, she could feel the magic twisting about the blade as her lover swung. It did not hit the beast -it was just a bit too far away- but it completed the ritual of the spell.
And what a spell it was!
Beneath the monster, its own shadow became solidly black and, in an instant, the phantasmal blade of a crimson sword ripped up and through the beast! It tore, not at flesh, but at the vitality of the creature, ripping at it raggedly as though with the teeth of a saw. As the blade sank back into the ground, the stolen vitality surged up and into Alchemist through his own shadow.
Kary bit her bottom lip as the monster succumbed to the lethal exhaustion and fell to the ground, dead, the second that the Stop spell broke.
"That's a weird feeling," Alchemist mumbled with a shudder as he turned to look at her. "So, there are five key skills that Odin imprinted into his spear. That was the 'Sanguine Sword', which absorbs the life force of your foe. It also drains their stamina, it feels like, so that'd make it the 'core' skill to reset into. You've seen the 'Infernal Strike', which is the MP equivalent to Sanguine Sword. After that is 'Crushing Blow', which doesn't drain either life or magic but does offer a bit of range and it can occasionally inflict the basic Stop debuff while being the strongest single-target attack."
There should have been a brief lull in the conversation as Alchemist stopped to take a breath and gather his thoughts but it was interrupted by number of massive hornets closing in on them. Their bodies, easily the size of Kary's head, had stingers dripping with venom that were as long as Kary's forearm and their wings droned loudly enough to drown out any other noise.
As they approached, as Kary brought her scarlet sword up and ready to fight the small, nimble creatures, Alchemist instead swung his sword with all the force he could. From the arc of his swing, a wave of blue and black tore through the air and ripped through the hornets with contemptuous ease.
"That would be the 'Abyssal Blade'," Alchemist explained, a confused look on his face as he began to open his system. "It's supposed to eat a significant amount of HP to fire off a fairly wide area of effect. Normally, it's twenty percent. A whole fifth... of my MP is missing?"
"Well, that's unusual, love," Kary admitted to the man as she leaned over his shoulder to look at his screen. "Did you purchase a perk that would swap the damage over?"
"No... No, I know I didn't..." Alchemist relaxed his grip on his blade, letting it sink to the ground though he didn't release it.
Good. His swordplay was coming along nicely under her tutelage but keeping aware of one's surroundings was a lesson that often killed those which forgot it.
"...I think it hit Mana Wall," Alchemist explained as he looked into his status, at the number of buffs that were active on him.
"And, suddenly, I find myself quite curious about learning that spell," Kary admitted as they ignored the sounds of howling coming from somewhere behind them, back where they'd left Player One and Beast Boy.
The duo waited for a moment for the noises to come to a halt before they got moving again.
"...What are you hoping to find in this ruined place, love?" Kary asked as she gazed out to the distance, towards the collapsed building nestled into the mountains beyond them.
"Information about Juggernaut and how it fuses to things," Alchemist explained as the wrecked building began to gain definition. "If there's some simple solution to extracting the townspeople it ate, I'd like to know it now instead of later, after I've already re-invented the wheel."
"You're sure you'll succeed in freeing them?" Kary had to ask. The little she'd seen of the beast, it did not look to be a simple task.
"I could free them now," Alchemist admitted with a sad sigh. "I could cast ReRaise on someone and then just rip them free, teleport them outside of the beast. The shock and trauma would kill them, it just wouldn't stick and they'd be free. I just... want to avoid having to hurt people like that."
"But you will," Kary told her man, finality in her words. "If you cannot find a better solution, you will do that."
"...I will," Alchemist quietly admitted.
It was not an easy admission for the man, Kary knew that. The solution they both knew would work was a brute force method, a means of reaching the solution whilst damning the consequences.
Carefully, mindful of the wilderness around them and the hostile life that called it home, she wrapped her arms around her lover and pulled him close.
As bad an option as it was, it was still one more than the victims within the beast had access to. She was sure he knew that.
She also knew that, to him, being so limited was likely worse than having no options at all.
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
??/??/???? (Legend of Legaia)
There were a lot of things that Alchemist wanted to check on before they handled the Juggernaut. Some would be easy, some would be frustrating, some...
Some were basically just outside his door.
Just a bit to the west of where he'd set up the entrance of the demi-plane was a place where hunters went to rest and recover from their daily struggles. In the lightless twilight of the early morning, nobody was actually there as Alchemist tested the supposed healing waters that poured freely from a fountain.
It just ended up being water, unfortunately. Surprisingly pure water, yes, and very refreshing. But it didn't seem to have any magical properties that would restore someone's HP and MP.
As one Alchemist marked his research as a bust and headed back to start sanctifying the woods around the demi-plane doorway, another was in a location far to the north.
That Alchemist had practiced a bit of breaking and entering, sneaking into the palace of the kingdom of Ratayu under the cover of Standstill. A pair of guards, a few locked doors, not a whole lot really stood in his way.
The man sealed the doors behind himself as he entered the hidden, forbidden chambers underneath of the palace and inhaled deeply as he let go of his hold on Standstill. The air was rank, hot and humid with a mustiness that was far too organic for Alchemist's comfort. Overhead, as the mage plumbed deeper into the abyss, he noticed strange contraptions that would expand and contract slowly. With each expansion, the air around him moved.
The man shuddered in discomfort as he descended, passing through stairways and dark corners that confused even his sense of direction. Strange structures were attached to the walls and ceilings the deeper he went, large, pulsating orbs connected to thick, organic tubes. Eventually, after far longer than it had taken in-game with convenient scene transitions, Alchemist found the end of the facility. Near a truly massive berth was a small platform with a computer terminal and a treasure chest.
Kicking the chest open, Alchemist plucked the Evil Talisman, really just a chunk of bloody ivory, from the chest and stowed it in the inventory.
It was the very last item that could be collected in a playthrough of Legend of Legaia. In-game, it was a treasure without compare.
For Alchemist?
The console was far, far more important.
Alchemist wanted to get started working at it immediately; he had... ideas...
But there was one critical issue he needed to address.
Songi had suffered from a babality. Cort was currently occupied by being connected to a giant, massive beating heart. That only left one entity that the wizard didn't want peeking in on his activities.
Tieg. The creator-god of Legaia, the entity that sealed the Rogue Ra-Seru into a tower made of its own flesh and would go on to assist the group of heroic children in crossing the dimensional divide to reach the Seru-Kai. Alchemist didn't know if the entity was good, evil, something in between or else something incredibly alien.
And he didn't really want to find out.
The wizard looked around the berth, currently empty, and pursed his lips in thought. It was huge, massive really, but...
Four ward stones, the mage decided as he finished the mental math to estimate the cubic footage of the area. Set at equidistant cardinal points around the berth, four ward stones of Secure Cavern would overlap, slightly, and obscure Alchemist's actions.
The man chewed on the inside of his cheek as he considered that. It was going to take time to build the ward stones but, with Alchemic Bounty, he'd only need to build one and it would duplicate...
Running a hand down his side, over the crystalline egg he'd recovered the day before, Alchemist silently huffed.
One thing at a time...
He'd get everything done, he just needed to focus on one thing at a time.
-----
Tiffany woke up slowly, the same as she did any other day. The girl rolled to her side, curled up, then rolled back so she was in a sitting position without having to actually put in as much effort. She reached up with her right hand to rub at her face, her hand slipping over drool, as she reached out with her left hand to readjust the window so she could actually read it.
Her fingers, gloved in Terra, pressed solidly against the system window and the girl froze.
-- Welcome back! --
Tiffany's dry, tacky lips pressed together as she felt... something. A lot of things.
Nervous, excited, anxious...
Hopeful.
'Ah, good!' Terra's soft, airy voice called out to Tiffany's mind. 'I was wondering why the progress bar had frozen at ninety-nine percent. It looks like everything finished up while you were asleep.'
"Yeah," Tiffany agreed as she slid one finger up on the window, rolling the text up to reveal more. "I... kind of didn't expect it would actually do anything."
-- Some significant changes and improvements have been rolled out in Gamer β 0.3.05! Please read the notes below to familiarize yourself with the changes!
- Due to corruption of the source code, the extension [Gamer's Mind] has been rolled back to an earlier version. Its current stand-in, [Game Interface] still allows for you, the Gamer, to use any and all forms of skill books, contracts, spell tomes and more in the method you're already familiar with! However, it does not stabilize the user's mental state to better allow them to act as the cool, collected Gamer we all know you are. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
- Shop limitations: Some notable items did not meet the balance requirements we have in place and as such have either been removed or otherwise restricted. Such items, if they are already in your inventory or skill list, have been left untouched. We would, however, advise you to act with extreme caution in using them.
- Tweaking of the Skill Creation system. Some users may notice that the Skill Create system is no longer quite so generous. Extensive testing has revealed that inducing skill-up messages for basically every real-world interaction to be incredibly tedious and often does nothing to contribute to the overall experience for Gamers or Viewers.
- Security around the Gamer Kernel has been enhanced.
- A new tutorial system is currently being tested by a team of experienced Alpha Testers. Should implementation meet base metrics, you may encounter new Gamers using them during their first few days in whichever world they find themselves!
- User: Burningtalons has been banned. You know what you did. --
"...Huh," Tiffany mumbled as she scrolled up and down, the slobber along the side of her face drying. "What'd that Burningtalons guy even do?"
'Wait one moment...' Terra requested, the gems along the back of the glove glowing in sequence for several moments. 'Former User: Burningtalons committed REDACTED, REDACTED and REDACTED on multiple occasions. As well as supplying a key competitor with critical access to multiple System functions which has been used to create a pseudo-Gamer system that has been tied to both demonic and eldritch forces.'
"Oh. Fun." Tiffany had no damned clue what Terra had said. Literally every key word was cut out and filled with static.
So the administrator was being serious about whoever the Burningtalons guy is; they knew what they did but nobody else did. So that was... useless.
"Ugh..." Tiffany groaned as she rolled off the bed. She needed to get ready to get out and go... do something?
She had her system back. And, yeah, her heart was pounding in her chest at the thought of not being so fragile anymore. But... what did that actually mean for her?
Heading upstairs, the girl decided to think on it after she showered.
Fresh and clean, Tiffany glanced into the dining room and saw Kary watching over the baby, sleeping in a playpen, but no Alchemist. There was fresh fruit on the table but it looked like he'd left early today.
'Well, now that your system is fully restored, would you like to begin the TUTORIAL?' Terra asked as Tiffany eyed the angry-looking baby.
Songi hadn't accepted the Elixir of Youth that Alchemist forced down his throat with grace. The man had tried to fight back but Alchemist, when he wasn't playing nice, was not above using force.
The first time, Songi had gotten thinner, his muscles lost a lot of definition as he turned into a young teen. The second time, Songi had turned into a kid that was like seven or eight years old. The third elixir had left him as a pudgy, but mobile child. The fourth was the one that turned Songi into a crying, screaming baby.
"...Sure," Tiffany mumbled as she clenched her fist.
'Fantastic!' Terra needlessly praised the girl. 'As a Gamer, you should come equipped with a handful of basic, but critical, skills. Depending on the implemented settings, your first skill would be some form of Observe or Appraisal ability. Why don't we focus on the woman sitting in the chair and try using one of those now?'
Shrugging, Tiffany went ahead and used Observe on Kary-
-- ERROR! --
-Name: Error!
-Gender: Error!
-Level: Error!
-Title: Error!
-Attributes
--HP: Error!
--MP: Error!
--ST: Error!
--Strength: Error!
--Vitality: Error!
--Dexterity: Error!
--Agility: Error!
--Intelligence: Error!
--Wisdom: Error!
--Luck: Error!
-Threat Rating: Undefined --
Well... That didn't tell Tiffany anything. At all.
'It... would appear as though the woman is protected against external information gathering techniques,' Terra thought towards Tiffany, honestly sounding baffled at the window full of nonsense that they'd been given. 'Perhaps we should move on to another topic? You are already familiar with your status window, skill window and inventory, yes?'
"Yeah," Tiffany mumbled quietly as she left the room, Kary idly waving at her over her apple slices. "I've gotten pretty used to using those. What else are you supposed to help out with?"
'...Settings, perhaps?' Terra offered as Tiffany left the house. She kind of wanted to check in with Alchemist and maybe see if he was ready to go into the Juggernaut. With her system back in action and Terra on her hand, there was no way Tiffany could lose!
"Alright, so, what's the deal with the settings?" In the distance, Tiffany could vaguely hear a repetitive 'Ting'ing or maybe a 'Ping'ing noise. Following it led the girl to the workshop.
'The Settings-' A window opened in front of Tiffany, filled with a variety of options. Sound volume, background music volume, language, subtitles... '-allow you to change how the world interacts with you in a variety of basic but important ways. One option that has seen a surprising amount of use is actually subtitles.' And with that comment, the grayed out option lit up in white. 'Testing with our focus groups has actually concluded that many Gamers that are brought in on the 'New Game Plus' program seem to respond better to text rather than audible words. Information comprehension and retention rates often improve by thirty percent or more when these Gamers can 'read' what people say instead of just hearing it.'
"Ting!" A loud, almost metallic noise came from inside of Alchemist's workshop.
And a long block of text scrawled itself a bit below the center of Tiffany's point of view. She read it, more confused at its appearance than its words.
"Explanation: Ebony being used for commercial purposes is equal to high-grade steel but might be manufactured at a fraction of the cost using my methodology. While useful for military purposes, it might not adequately serve its function in the hands of Koriand'r."
"Ping!" An equally loud and somehow deeper noise broke through the walls of the workshop.
"Request: I would like to begin sampling and testing the material you intend on marketing. Offer: If this material proves adequate, I would be willing to purchase tools and rods made of it for my own purposes."
"Ting!"
Tiffany opened the door of the workshop and carefully poked her head in once she was sure none of the machinery inside was active.
The video Alchemist had shown her of someone being 'degloved' was... absolutely not something she wanted to experience herself.
"Negotiation: I actually have a multitude of other, non-magical metals that you might be interested in. Would you like for me to explain their properties?"
Alchemist was in the workshop, standing over at one of the tables where he kept a number of chisels and hammers. On the table was a slab of some kind of heavy, white stone and tiny, sharp chips from it covered the floor in front of him.
At another workstation, Cyborg sat with a pair of very fine tweezers in one hand while he was apparently digging through an open panel on his other arm. The guy even had Alchemist's magnifying-glass-on-a-stand thing set up overtop the exposed innards of his forearm.
The half-mechanical teen waved his sealed arm in the air in a 'go on' gesture and Alchemist stepped away from his table and over to Cyborg's. Tiffany watched him open a system window and begin to press at it before he reached into it and extracted a small bar of some kind of bright, silvery metal.
"Ting."
"Explanation: Mithral is a lightweight yet extremely durable material. The metal has a hardness that is equal to diamond, though it lacks the excessive rigidity that leaves diamonds prone to shattering."
Then Alchemist reopened his window and typed at it again before coming back with a bar of black metal that reflected a dull, violet light.
"Ting."
"Explanation: Adamantine alloy has a comparable weight equivalent to iron or steel but far outstrips even mangalloy steel in hardness. In its unalloyed state, adamantite is rather similar to aluminum in shear resistance but can handle impacts of impressive kinetic values."
Finally, Tiffany watched Alchemist open a new window. Not his inventory but instead he opened the shop. After a second, he typed in something, clearly hit backspace, retyped it, hit the backspace again and then had to retype it. Again.
This time, what Alchemist extracted from his inventory was a bar of metal that seemed to be pale violet.
"...Ting."
"Explanation: Obdurium. This material is extraordinarily rare for a multitude of reasons. It has a hardness value which is twice that of diamond, though given how subjective those measurements are I am afraid I cannot state how it properly measures up. Beyond the sheer hardness, it is also incredibly durable for its size and weight. Given the material properties, very few individuals have ever had both the skill and equipment necessary to work with it. Exceptionally expensive and far too difficult to work with."
"...Ping."
The sound didn't come from Cyborg's mouth or throat. Somehow, something inside of the man's chest was making the Pinging noise.
'I've never heard of a language that could be so dense...' Terra whispered into Tiffany's mind. 'I know of one that's close but those parasites are trapped in their own worlds...'
"Query: Is that the metal you'll be making Star's sword out of?" quickly scrawled across the bottom of Tiffany's vision, the subtitle translating what Cyborg had asked.
"Well, it is the right color," Tiffany said, announcing herself to the room. "It'd fit with her outfit, right?"
Alchemist opened his mouth, another Ting on his lips before he clicked his mouth shut. Tiffany actually watched as he needed a moment to shift gears to talk to her like a normal person.
"I... could," Alchemist agreed after a moment of hesitation. He looked from Tiffany over to Cyborg in uncertainty for a moment before giving up and shrugging. "So, how is Tiffany this morning?"
"Tiffany is good!" Tiffany told him as she crossed her arms behind her back. "Tiffany just got her powers back!"
"Oh," Alchemist mumbled and Tiffany could see the man's two brain cells smoking as he processed that. Then his gaze, already focused on her, sharpened. "Oh, that's fantastic! You're with me, Beast Boy and Kary for training today!"
"...I am?" Tiffany asked, unsure what to make of the sudden shift in his demeanor.
"Yes," Alchemist stated as he held one hand up and, somehow, a handful of spread cards appeared in his once-empty palm. "You are."
-----
Garfield was kind of not sure about the training thing he was being dragged to, today. The last time Alchemist had offered to teach him about how to transform into something, it'd been some giant, disgusting monster that had literally wanted to eat him.
It, uh... Garfield had turned that one down.
This time there was supposed to be some kind of werewolf? At least, that's what Raven had told him. Which sounded pretty rad, not gonna lie, but Beast Boy had a few questions on his mind.
"...Why'd you bring the baby?" Was actually a really big one on Beast Boy's list.
"I need to get rid of him," Alchemist answered in what was possibly the blandest tone possible. "I don't want to bring him back to your reality, or mine. He might have fleas."
Beast Boy stared, one eyebrow twitching as they waited outside the door for the girls to show up. He was dressed in his normal outfit, the one from the Doom Patrol. Alchemist had a pair of cargo pants on, a brown tee-shirt without any kind of logo or marks and a big, heavily stuffed backpack on his back.
"...Okay, but, like, how are you going to get rid of him?" Beast Boy asked as he leaned in to look at the little redheaded child held in Alchemist's arms. "You aren't seriously thinking about bringing him with us, right? That'd be, like, super dangerous!"
"Of course I'm not bringing the baby with us." Alchemist almost sounded outraged but Beast Boy could tell by the slim smirk on his face that he was faking it. "What would I even use him for? Bait? That'd be a terrible investment!"
Beast Boy's next question, another accusation built up around the dark smirk on the man's face was cut off when a tall woman with jade eyes stepped out of the door, covered from head to toe in dark clothes that Beast Boy would more readily guess would fit an assassin than Kar'Yashlan.
Right behind her, wearing a pink outfit with a jaunty pink cap and a pair of black swords hooked to her hips, was Player One. Something about the girl looked more dangerous than before and it took Garfield a second to realize that it was the confidence.
"Everyone ready?" Alchemist asked, one hand patting the back of the angry-looking baby pressed against his chest. Beast Boy shrugged but both Kar'Yashlan and Tiffany nodded. "Fantastic! We have a brief stop to make before we head up north. Should only take a minute or two."
"Where are we going?" Tiffany asked.
Rather than answer her, Alchemist held up a hand and the girl sighed before he snapped his fingers and-
Beast Boy had to blink a few times as his brain caught up with just how smooth the transition had been. They were in a room that had a lever in the center and what looked like a pair of fans on the side, with a pair of doors affixed to opposite walls. One was open while the other was not.
Alchemist led the group as they walked through the open door.
"Woah..." Beast Boy was amazed by what he saw inside. It looked like something Robin would have loved, with a dozen guys that were all practicing punches being led by some old dude up on a wooden platform, wearing a fancy looking robe. "Where are we?"
"Place called the Biron Monastery," Alchemist answered before the man walked ahead of the group and through the throng of practicing martial artists. "Hey, pardon me, Zopu? Is that right?"
The man atop the platform, wearing a red robe with a sun-yellow stripe down the middle that was filled with some Chinese or Japanese characters which Beast Boy couldn't read, looked down at Alchemist for a long moment. The man seemed to be debating something as he looked up from the dragon, to Player One, to Kar'Yashlan and finally to Beast Boy.
He spent a long moment staring at Beast Boy.
"Continue practicing!" the man barked out to the disciples in the room. "One-hundred repetitions!"
Then, he looked back down to Alchemist. He seemed to be debating something important for a long couple of seconds, probably what to do with all the newcomers, before he nodded sharply and walked to the side, off of the platform.
"I am Elder Zopu, master of the Drake sect of Biron Monks," Zopu told the group, introducing himself. "What is your business here, stranger?"
"Grim tidings, I'm afraid," Alchemist said to the man. Beast Boy could see the other monks throughout the room slow down their practice a bit to try and eavesdrop. "Rim Elm, to the south, has been attacked and consumed by a giant Seru. A few people managed to escape though I cannot say how many did not. I have something I need to deliver to you, can you hold him for a moment?"
Alchemist pulled the slumbering child away from his shoulder, waking him in the process, and gently held him out to the old man. Zopu, with surprising care for such an old man, accepted the child from the dragon and cradled him against his abdomen.
"Fantastic, thank you," Alchemist said as he crouched down and shucked the pack off his back. Once it touched the floor, Alchemist snapped his fingers-
And Beast Boy found himself, along with the rest of his group, standing in a field surrounded by mountains with tall, knee-high grasses blanketing the plains.
"...Did, did you seriously just..." Beast Boy wasn't even sure what he wanted to ask.
"Zopu touched the baby last," Alchemist said, gravely serious as Tiffany pressed her gloved hands against her eyes. Kar'Yashlan had her hand pressed against her mouth, likely hiding laughter over the whole ordeal. "Songi's his responsibility, now. Again."
"...I don't think that's how it works," Beast Boy said. He reached up, running his hand through his hair as he tried to wrap his head around what just happened.
"...Pretty sure it does," Alchemist disagreed. "Since it literally just worked."
-----
Master Zopu stared at the spot the oddly dressed warrior had just... stopped existing in. One hand held the babe tightly against him, half afraid it would disappear as well, whilst the other shakily reached down to the pack that had been left behind.
The elder was terribly confused as to what had just happened but the warning fit with the ill omens and foul winds that had started coming from the south.
Flipping open the mouth of the pack, Zopu's bushy eyebrows rose to meet his close-cropped hair. It was filled with sacks full of things like dried meats, well-maintained water skins, satchels of seeds and dozens of small but valuable tools. Supplies they were only just able to keep intact throughout the long decade within the Mist. Supplies they'd been told they wouldn't be able to get from the Drake Kingdom for some time as the people there were recovering from their own ordeals.
"Master Zopu!" a disciple called from the doorway. The same disciple that had missed the party of four colorful characters.
A man, built like a smith. A woman garbed as an assassin. A girl, dressed in the most ridiculous colors...
And the green Gobu-Gobu that had been docile and not trying to attack or rob them.
"What is it, Duwet?" Zopu asked as he waved to another disciple, to whom he handed the strangely quiet, strangely familiar child.
"Sir!" Duwet bowed deeply as Zopu picked up the pack that had been left behind. "Gala and his party have been spotted in the distance, coming from Rim Elm. How shall we greet them?"
"...Tell the kitchens to prepare enough food for the three," Zopu decided after a moment.
Gala, the former Master Teacher of the monastery, had been excommunicated due to his congress with a Seru. That it was a holy Seru, a servant of Rem, meant nothing to the teachings of Biron. Zopu's hands had been tied.
But, while Gala had been excommunicated, he had not been exiled or banished from the monastery. Gala was clearly fated for greater things, tasked by the gods to cleanse the land of the Mist and help bring peace back to the world. Zopu would not, could not bring himself to punish the man he'd raised since boyhood for the designs of the gods.
And...
It would be nice, Zopu privately admitted to himself, to catch up with the son he'd never had.
-----
Perhaps it was ungracious but Kary felt that the whole affair with the evil child had been more amusing for her love's utter lack of gravitas in handling it. It was trickery in its most base form, nothing more complicated than the simplest 'Gotcha!' that an imp might perform.
Half the demons she'd met would have simply killed the child as the most convenient option. Most of the others would have bartered the babe away, trading its worthless soul for something of infinitely greater value.
"So, here's what I'm thinking," her beloved said to the two children that had come along. "Tiffany, you're going to use the skill cards I picked up for you. And you're actually going to start using the skills in them. It's well past time for you to have some force multipliers in your arsenal that aren't just 'hits things fast'. You're also going to be working with Beast Boy, practice your Vera spell and keep him topped out. Got it?"
The man waited for the girl to nod at him before he shifted a bit to focus on the green-skinned boy.
"The werewolves here are incredibly agile and know some kind of martial art. I have no idea if that's instinctive but it means they're going to be an actual threat to you. If you're in actual danger, make sure that Tiffany knows." Alchemist nodded towards the girl that was practically hopping from one foot to the other. "She can handle everything here just fine."
"And for me, love?" Kary asked, drawing the man's attention over to her as he was in the process of extracting a handful of cards from his pocket. "What shall I be doing?"
"You'll be with me," Alchemist told her. He pointed out in the distance, past a rather unusual mountain shaped like a clamshell and towards the collapsed remains of a fortress. "I'll show you the arts Odin taught me while we dig through the remains of the base back there."
Kary nodded, quietly pleased that she would be spending some personal time with him.
Watching Player One eat several skill cards was a curious sight. She would hold it, focus on it for a moment and then it would fade away in a shower of blue-green sparkles. The girl ran through the various spells a handful of times, marveling at the power they provided with how little they cost.
And, though Alchemist said nothing, Kary could see that he was Mimicking the girl, that he was learning the spells she was using...
"...Let's leave them to it," Kary suggested, tugging on her lover's shoulder. "They know what they ought to be doing."
"...Alright," Alchemist agreed after a moment. His eyes lingered, not on the children but on a mass of gray fur that was approaching from the distance. "Let's go."
The duo turned to the north, walking on as a howl ripped through the air behind them. The distance was great, and beasts prowled the plains. It was a perfect opportunity for the woman to watch, to learn.
"...Calling the arts of the Dark Blade 'Sword Sorcery' is, at best, incorrect," Alchemist began as they approached the side of the massive clam-like mountain. "It's not magic, not in any traditional sense. It's more of an odd twist; it's magic adjacent in how it functions but it draws on stamina and strength rather than magic or faith. It can't be blocked by silencing the practitioner, which is a point for it in comparison to normal magics, but it relies on the wielder having a weapon that can handle the strain, which is a point against it."
A creature, almost impossible to discern from the environment, froze in the act of launching a wide haymaker at the back of Alchemist's head. It was a hideous beast, large and rounded with grayish, mottled skin that looked similar to the rocks and boulders littering the region. It had only one eye centered in its face and a pair of tiny legs but incredibly long arms.
The man reached out to the side and his greatsword appeared in his hand, the numerous Materia within its length glinting hungrily. The man cast one of the spells he'd just learned, ones she was sure she ought to pick up herself, and drew back his blade.
"To live by the sword is to die by the sword," Alchemist intoned as the colors around the blade faded and his shadow grew longer despite the strength of the sunlight. "There is time enough for regret in Hell!"
Kary licked her lips under her face mask and watched, she could feel the magic twisting about the blade as her lover swung. It did not hit the beast -it was just a bit too far away- but it completed the ritual of the spell.
And what a spell it was!
Beneath the monster, its own shadow became solidly black and, in an instant, the phantasmal blade of a crimson sword ripped up and through the beast! It tore, not at flesh, but at the vitality of the creature, ripping at it raggedly as though with the teeth of a saw. As the blade sank back into the ground, the stolen vitality surged up and into Alchemist through his own shadow.
Kary bit her bottom lip as the monster succumbed to the lethal exhaustion and fell to the ground, dead, the second that the Stop spell broke.
"That's a weird feeling," Alchemist mumbled with a shudder as he turned to look at her. "So, there are five key skills that Odin imprinted into his spear. That was the 'Sanguine Sword', which absorbs the life force of your foe. It also drains their stamina, it feels like, so that'd make it the 'core' skill to reset into. You've seen the 'Infernal Strike', which is the MP equivalent to Sanguine Sword. After that is 'Crushing Blow', which doesn't drain either life or magic but does offer a bit of range and it can occasionally inflict the basic Stop debuff while being the strongest single-target attack."
There should have been a brief lull in the conversation as Alchemist stopped to take a breath and gather his thoughts but it was interrupted by number of massive hornets closing in on them. Their bodies, easily the size of Kary's head, had stingers dripping with venom that were as long as Kary's forearm and their wings droned loudly enough to drown out any other noise.
As they approached, as Kary brought her scarlet sword up and ready to fight the small, nimble creatures, Alchemist instead swung his sword with all the force he could. From the arc of his swing, a wave of blue and black tore through the air and ripped through the hornets with contemptuous ease.
"That would be the 'Abyssal Blade'," Alchemist explained, a confused look on his face as he began to open his system. "It's supposed to eat a significant amount of HP to fire off a fairly wide area of effect. Normally, it's twenty percent. A whole fifth... of my MP is missing?"
"Well, that's unusual, love," Kary admitted to the man as she leaned over his shoulder to look at his screen. "Did you purchase a perk that would swap the damage over?"
"No... No, I know I didn't..." Alchemist relaxed his grip on his blade, letting it sink to the ground though he didn't release it.
Good. His swordplay was coming along nicely under her tutelage but keeping aware of one's surroundings was a lesson that often killed those which forgot it.
"...I think it hit Mana Wall," Alchemist explained as he looked into his status, at the number of buffs that were active on him.
"And, suddenly, I find myself quite curious about learning that spell," Kary admitted as they ignored the sounds of howling coming from somewhere behind them, back where they'd left Player One and Beast Boy.
The duo waited for a moment for the noises to come to a halt before they got moving again.
"...What are you hoping to find in this ruined place, love?" Kary asked as she gazed out to the distance, towards the collapsed building nestled into the mountains beyond them.
"Information about Juggernaut and how it fuses to things," Alchemist explained as the wrecked building began to gain definition. "If there's some simple solution to extracting the townspeople it ate, I'd like to know it now instead of later, after I've already re-invented the wheel."
"You're sure you'll succeed in freeing them?" Kary had to ask. The little she'd seen of the beast, it did not look to be a simple task.
"I could free them now," Alchemist admitted with a sad sigh. "I could cast ReRaise on someone and then just rip them free, teleport them outside of the beast. The shock and trauma would kill them, it just wouldn't stick and they'd be free. I just... want to avoid having to hurt people like that."
"But you will," Kary told her man, finality in her words. "If you cannot find a better solution, you will do that."
"...I will," Alchemist quietly admitted.
It was not an easy admission for the man, Kary knew that. The solution they both knew would work was a brute force method, a means of reaching the solution whilst damning the consequences.
Carefully, mindful of the wilderness around them and the hostile life that called it home, she wrapped her arms around her lover and pulled him close.
As bad an option as it was, it was still one more than the victims within the beast had access to. She was sure he knew that.
She also knew that, to him, being so limited was likely worse than having no options at all.
