January 26, 2019, 6:32 pm.

Seeing that we have the ability to stop the System from purging Akilo is a huge relief. Not so great having less than twelve days to do so, but still.

"It's nice to see the System wants us to save Akilo so badly it's willing to give us an entire integration point," Rufka spits out.

"Yeah, that part of the reward is pretty crap," I agree.

Tipan shrugs. "It would seem the System thinks no further incentive is needed. Personally, I'm glad it's made it clear we have some recourse. Though it's hard to believe the System wants to wipe us out over a single person."

I start connecting to the bodies lying around us, preparing to loot everything as I say, "Wouldn't surprise Demo, I bet."

Tipan nods sagely, her mohawk bobbing in the sudden wind as everything not-rock (and even some rock from the Golem creatures) turns to blue dust. And an incredible amount of essence.

"Holy Hand Grenades!" I exclaim when I see the notification. In one casting, I've gathered over a thousand mana-essence. Twelve hundred and two iron rank essences and one copper rank essence, to be precise. And there are still more bodies on the other side of the compound.

"What's the problem kid?" Beth asks, rushing over to me. But I don't respond as I'm too busy laughing in disbelief. Beth gives me a solid two seconds before she clasps my arm, physically shaking me out of it. "Alexis!"

I try to stop. I really do… but I'm only able to gasp out weak wheezes. Once my giggles finally die down, I explain how much essence we just acquired. No one else laughs, though Beth does sigh in relief. "That's all? You had me scared we had another unexpected disaster on our hands."

Smoulder is nuzzling against my cheek as I finally stop. "Sorry, it's just. Here we are complaining about only getting a single point. But we each have hundreds. And it doesn't help because we don't have the time to sit around waiting for our attributes to go up."

"Well, it'll help a little," Tipan points out. "And there's no guarantee we'll be able to finish in a day, so we may well be able to use most of the points by then." She pauses, shaking her head before she starts laughing softly, "In fact, we could make use of the prisoners as an anchor for your teleport. Then we could Return to Raz's, ensuring Genitha is safe. While there, we can use the dilation chamber to accelerate our growth and recover our depleted resources. We'd be back in an hour or two. Maybe Genitha will even recover."

My laughter dies, replaced by silence as we all stare at each other.

I distribute enough for everyone to start increasing all eight of our attributes immediately. As soon as I'm done, Beth snaps at me to get the rest of the essence gathered though I'm already moving.

It takes several minutes and three small skirmishes with remnants of the Fallen force and a grounded draco-squid to gather up the rest of the essence. By the time I'm done, we have two thousand, seven hundred and thirty-three iron rank essence, not including the ones we already spent. Including Genitha (and Demo and Josh, though we haven't decided if Rose qualifies for Josh's share) that's three hundred and forty essences for each of us, with the extra thirteen going to me at Beth's insistence. We've decided to hold onto the copper to give to Genitha when she wakes up.

Talk about a massive power spike.

We do exactly as Tipan suggested, flying back to the prisoners. We may have forgotten it took half an hour to fly out, but no one complains. In fact, despite our windfall, we're in a sombre mood. Rufka flying with Genitha draped in her arms is a constant reminder we're not fighting on a level playing field. And our newfound wealth won't negate that fact.

It should help though.

We arrive where we left the prisoners to find that one of them has managed to work her way free of her head binding. Her otherwise grey and black stripes are only interrupted by black patches surrounding her eyes. If not for the trademark physique that marks every K'tharn as a predator, she would remind me of a raccoon.

"You're back. Not to sound ungrateful, but did you find a key? Getting these things off is a serious pain." She holds up her still shackled hands, shaking them in our direction.

Crap. I didn't even think to look for a key.

Luckily, Tipan did. At least, she has a key, so I'm guessing she did the whole 'look for it' part too.

After a brief introduction, we learn the raccoon-esque K'tharn's name is Balka of Clan Pantela.

Tipan gasps out, "The clan Pantela? How did you end up in chains?"

"My cousin opposed Minister Yelthen on her proposal to introduce some sort of 'unholy abominations' into the Flights. Then my niece tells me there was news of fighting in the council. Next thing I knew, our whole family was shackled in our sleep, then shipped off like a herd of wild vhethal."

"Minister Yelthen. Did Genitha mention her?" Beth asks.

"She's the minister of Defence. I've heard talk that they were considering retiring the position," Tipan supplies while starting to unfasten Belka's chains. Another prisoner with a spotted pattern, similar to a cheetah, pushes forward when Tipan gets Belka's legs free. Behind her, the same group of K'tharn who wanted to leave the prison first, surge forwards, demanding they be freed. Or at least they mumble and growl through their muzzles while shaking their bonds in Tipan's direction.

Unlike my solution in the prison, where I admittedly caved to their demands, Beth snaps out for them to settle down. "Now, everyone's going to be released. But since you can't be bothered to behave yourselves, you'll be unlocked last."

When one of the prisoners growls something, Beth puts a round through their manacles. It does cause one of their shackles to fall away, but it also strips away her fur and skin, revealing the raw flesh underneath.

"Or we could do it the hard way. If you're in that much of a hurry."

While the suddenly much less enthusiastic group falls back, cheetah-spots takes Beth up on the offer, sticking her manacles out. Beth seems taken aback, but adjusts quickly. She gets cheetah-spots to kneel down then carefully places a blast through each of her bindings.

Though this time she ensures she doesn't draw blood.

When the mask preventing speech comes off, her mumbling becomes clear, "Please, my sister, you have to save my little sister Athice."

"Hold on. Almost done," Beth tries, but the prisoner doesn't cooperate ignoring the rest of her shackles. Seems she just wanted to be able to talk.

"Please, they took her before you arrived."

"Lutha, calm down. They took your sister days ago." The first prisoner, Balka, tries to wrap her arms around the cheetah-spotted K'tharn's shoulders.

But she's rebuffed as the distraught sister turns her fists on her, violently screaming her denial. Still, she allows herself to be led away, still partially shackled. She sobs quietly to herself as Roberts shakes his head. "It's never easy to lose family."

"Maybe we can save her," I opine quietly.

"If we're lucky, perhaps. Though I fear Ivicka has finished with her by now."

Still, I take the time to approach the distraught K'tharn, getting her description from her. Unsurprisingly, the missing K'tharn shares her sister's spotted pattern though she also has a tattooed ring on her shoulder. Lutha (who will always hold a place in my heart as cheetah-spots, the original) also shares things her sister used to like. None of these details are going to help me locate her missing sister but telling me seems to make her feel better.

Which is good, since I'm not certain I'll see her sister unless she's already been turned into a Fallen.

And speaking of Fallen, we still have three Fallen prisoners to question.

A fact Beth appreciates now that we're taking the time to 'upgrade' before assaulting Ivicka's stronghold. She and Roberts fly off to pump them for information while Tipan continues releasing the prisoners and I create a temporary underground bunker. We considered evacuating them but decided there are too many to get everything sorted in a reasonable timeframe.

The bunker isn't my best work. The chandelier is a solid piece, not even able to rotate. But it'll keep them hidden and sheltered. At Smoulder's insistence, we include what's becoming her trademark bunny symbol at the entrance.

A couple of the prisoners stop to say a few words of thanks to the bunny sculpture before investigating further inside.

Wait. Are Smoulder and I starting a religion? Smoulder reminds me it's only natural for others to want to emulate her hotness.

Chuckling quietly at Smoulder, I make my way outside to where Rufka is nestled up in one of the nearby trees keeping watch. I watch her kick her toned leg, the carefree motion contrasting with the pensive frown on her face. Every few seconds, her gaze flicks to where her mum is resting on an earthen bed Tipan made for her.

Right. Am I a jerk for being able to laugh at a time like this? Or is now the perfect time to play a prank on Rufka? Yeah, she definitely needs a distraction.

Before I can think of anything though, Smoulder preempts me by hopping her way up to Rufka. She almost slips on the second to last branch, but Rufka notices her assent and subsequent slip, extending her bow to stop Smoulder's fall. Smoulder thanks her by giving her a gentle headbutt then staring up at her, her tail waving gently behind her.

Rufka lets out a small chuckle then starts giving Smoulder head-scritches. Seeing her smile, I just stand and watch them for a few seconds. Then instead of disturbing them, I check if Tipan needs assistance. I find her just in time to see her unshackling the last of the prisoners.

Huh. I guess they're technically not prisoners anymore.

Tipan suggests we dole out some food to the ex-prisoners which turns out to be well received. While a couple of them had storage tattoos, and some small amount of food stored away, most of them were divested of their storage items. Or just didn't keep much food in their inventory. Turns out, food is readily available throughout the Aetherium. Most people only keep a couple of snacks in their inventory if anything.

Point is, they weren't fed while being held, so there's a lot of hungry K'tharn who aren't used to being hungry. Once they're fed, I talk to Belka, the ex-prisoner who partially freed herself. She readily agrees to serve as our anchor point.

By the time we've finished handing out all the food, Beth and Roberts have returned.

We gather in the special teleport room I made in the bunker. Because if I'm going to make a bunker, of course there's going to be a room set aside for teleportation. It's got several rings set into the floor, clearly delineating the safety zone.

Before we teleport, I run through everything three times before I'm sure no one's going to be leaving anything behind.

This time when we arrive at Nexus point 392, my stomach doez a little flip-flop as I reassure myself everyone made it through okay.

We file into Raz's only a couple hours after leaving. Technically, it was a victory. But with Genitha being carried in Rufka's arms and the impending countdown to the end of Akilo. Well, it certainly puts a damper on our enthusiasm. Returning to find Raz's packed full of strange beings doesn't help much either, as we have to force our way to our table. Rose and Demo aren't at the table, off in the garden.

We earn more than one sideways glance as we sit down. One particularly large avian creature with spines rising through his feathers looks like they want to challenge us, but their eyes go glassy. Then they sit down with an audible thud.

Huh, weird.

We have a brief conversation with Raz where he supplies us with an absolutely massive amount of food. If we're going to be investing three hundred points over the course of a day, our bodies are going to need fuel. And he suggests we spend an extra period inside ensuring there are no ill effects. It's unusual for any user to have so many points to spend at once.

We don't commit to it, but he manages to get us to admit to giving it some thought. The real question is whether we should take Genitha inside. Roberts doesn't want to leave her unattended, but we don't know if taking her inside will hurt her condition.

Rufka decides that Genitha should come with us, overruling Beth and Roberts discussion.

We place Genitha's hands in position then discover the entire discussion was moot. She can't accept the prompt while unconscious. It's strange watching Raz spirit her away on an invisible platform through the crowded room without drawing a glance. Rufka grumbles beside me until they vanish up the stairs.

Raz also informs us that he'll see what sort of equipment he can procure, since we're all going to have several available slots when we come out. He does have good news on the Demo front. The System granted Raz access to an item to restore his leg. And with Demo's share of the loot, he'll be able to afford it no problem. That said, we give Demo's share over to Raz. He's our System assigned representative. If he's going to go bad on us, it's probably best we find out now.

I'm sure it'll be fine.

With every matter other than whether we should give any of Josh's share to Rose addressed, we place our hands on the table.

Then we're inside.

We spend an hour talking about the battle, what went wrong, how we can improve, that sort of thing. I try to listen, but I'm more focused on how I'm going to spend my attributes. Maxing out my Intellect and Spirit are obvious. And keeping Resolve and Perception high enough I don't experience the mental imbalance again.

I'm also going to bring all my physical attributes to at least thirty.

Which leaves me with… well, let's round off to an even one hundred and seventy. That'll still leave me with plenty of essences to use for other abilities.

I want to invest some of the fortune into Smoulder, but I know I should concentrate on my own attributes.

Still, setting fifty points aside for Smoulder will give her excellent gains without hurting too much. Besides, it's not like I really need Strength and Constitution. Which will still leave me with a hundred and twenty points.

With that in mind, I decide to increase Endurance and Agility to sixty each. Though I'm tempted to push Agility further. Ivicka's ability to react is frankly terrifying. And the negative effects of imbalance are supposed to be less for physical attributes…

Okay, so let's see then. Almost forgot about the point I put into each attribute earlier. Guess I've got an extra eight points.

I could give Smoulder more points or… I could further increase Perception and Resolve… Or…

Damn, I want to cap Agility. But we're not going to have enough time for my Agility to increase to sixty as is. Unless we stay here for a double session like Raz suggested. Even then I'd only be able to increase it by seventy-two...

So… by seventy-two it is then. Which with the point from earlier would leave it at eighty-nine. I think that'll do it.

And the rest of my points can go into Perception and Resolve.

Class

Cataclysm Seed

Level

Iron

2

ATTRIBUTE

VALUE

ADJUST

STRENGTH

1 > 30

(+/-)

CONSTITUTION

11 > 30

(+/-)

AGILITY

16 > 90

(+/-)

ENDURANCE

11 > 60

(+/-)

INTELLECT

100 > 125

(+/-)

SPIRIT

100 > 125

(+/-)

PERCEPTION

50 > 97

(+/-)

RESOLVE

50 > 97

(+/-)

Integration Points

0

Progression Points

0

Storage

4.39 > 7.54

Cubic meters

Bonded Armour

2/3 > 2/6

Or Agility can reach an even ninety, since I had one odd point left over. Which I could have used for Smoulder since I need three points for each five for her, but whatever.

I wish I could peruse Raz's armours while we're locked in here.

The table where we're discussing is being taken over by food as the hunger kicks in for everyone. It doesn't take long before Beth has the recordings playing again.

It's strange looking at the compound from before our assault. It seemed so formidable, but the only real challenge was Traxla. Who stopped fighting back after Genitha was taken down.

Wait… did she stop when Genitha went down. Or when I injured Ivicka?

No one can confirm or deny it either way.

Without magic, we spend most of our time trying to relax or adjusting to our physical attributes as they change.

Once my Agility reaches thirty, I'm able to do a cartwheel for the first time in my life. Rufka asserts it was probably a lack of prior effort on my part rather than my attributes improving. Which leads to an impromptu game of tag. Which Smoulder wins.

Despite needing to investigate Ivicka's Sanctum, and this Minister Yelthen, we decide to spend the time to let our attributes finish increasing in a second session. But we're taking a break to see what Raz might have found and to check on Genitha.

Rufka and I are cuddling on a table in the command room when everyone starts gathering. Another day and a half together locked away in what's turned out to be a relatively small space has truly emphasized the importance of unlocking our personal spaces. The bedrooms are sufficient for privacy, but only barely. Plus, the beds are uncomfortable.

Returning to Raz's, we find Rose waiting for us outside, a giant grin on his face.

"So, I heard you defeated Ivicka. Congrats!" Rose says holding his paw out towards me.

I've had some time to process, but the idea of high-fiving him after slicing Ivicka in half doesn't appeal to me. Besides... "We're not actually certain she's dead. No quest update."

"Wait. You're not sure we've won? Then why're you back?"

Oh em gee, I so do not want to handle this.

How do I tell Rose we got a massive haul of loot that we're not ready to share because he might not be the real Josh?

Yeah, this sucks.

I'm starting to sweat when Roberts steps forwards, "Hey, Rose. You've watched Star Trek, correct?"

"Yeah. I love TNG. Kirk was tons of fun too. Don't get me started on Enterprise though."

"Right. Anyway. Remember when Riker was cloned by the teleporter? Which one was the real Riker?"

"Both, technically. That was a tough episode can you imagine…"

"Indeed. That's why you're only getting half of Josh's share. Until we figure out if there are two of you, that is."

Rose stares at Roberts for a second before asking, "Wait? Seriously?"