The trek back to our base was mostly as easy as before, though we had to pause and stomp a few bugs that got in our way. While I was worried when I first spotted them, they were so pathetic that it was actually rather easy to put them down.

I also forgot how obnoxious Barry could get when you aren’t fighting with the absolute perfection of a master martial artist. I mean, I did learn something from his tips, but it still isn’t what I want to hear in the middle of a bloody brawl. Even when I threw a bug limb at him he gave me pointers on my throwing technique.

“I messaged ahead.” Eshya says as we get close to our base.

Ria is quick with the door, and we head back inside, into the light of civilisation. Nel stands to the side, her foot tapping at the ground, as she watches us.

“Didn’t you have work?” I ask.

“I finished.” She replies, “I thought to come down here and help with sorting out the spoils of our conquest.”

“How’s that going?” I ask.

“Not quite as productive as your own efforts this morning.” She says, “You two found it.”

“Thank Eshya and her expert tracking.” I say, “And the fact that he’s so open to the idea.”

“Are there students here in need of training?” He asks, walking into the room, “The facilities here are… disappointing.”

I’m still undecided on how to treat this thing. Does it have a consciousness? A soul?

Some moments it sounds like it’s expressing itself like a proper person, then a second later it’s back to its mechanical processes. I think that it’s mostly mechanical, and the ‘consciousness’ is just to make it seem affable, but this is ancient alien magic technology who knows what weird shit is packed into the ‘brain’ of this thing.

“Can we keep him?” I plead jokingly as Nel glances over the metallic figure.

“With this our schedule can move up a little faster,” Nel mumbles tapping a finger to her chin in thought, “I already have a few people coming to meet with us. Those who might already be dangerous enough to bring with us for the prisonbreak.”

“Nel?” I say, “Is there anything I can do? You’ve taken over so much of the work getting everything moving.”

“I’m fine,” She replies, waving me away, “It’s just that there’s always a dozen new problems to sort through the moment the last worry gets cleared away.”

“Just take it one moment at a time.” Eshya suggests, while Ria closes the door behind us, her interest suddenly focused on the machine that’s taking in its new environment.

“I do, it turns into one unending sequence of moments solving a dozen problems and cycling through the process of worrying about a dozen more.” She says, “Speaking of, I need to finish looking through the storage. I need everything valuable properly accounted for, especially as we start bringing new people here.”

“I’ll help.” I offer hopping right after her.

“I’ll work on these new Skills and,” She looks over at Ria who’s peering past the broken panels on Barry, to get a look at his insides, “I’ll ensure that our newest resident doesn’t get too badly molested.”

“Thanks for the date,” I call out to her, “It’s a shame we didn’t get any real fights though.”

“Next time I’ll bring some bait.” Eshya replies, drawing her sword and calling out to Barry.

“Did you two have a good time?” Nel asks, glancing over to me for just a moment.

“Yeah, it was terrifying, but kind of fun too.” I say, “Eshya’s really far more comfortable out there beyond the limits of the academy.”

Nel nods slowly, seeming a little distant as she thinks.

“She’s been forced to bury her nature for so long, it’s no wonder that she prefers the wilds to civilisation. I wonder if she’ll feel as constrained in another civilisation?” Nel says thoughtfully, stopping along the hallway to look over a preserved bone carefully stored beside others of similar appearance.

“You prefer civilisation, yourself?” I ask, peering over her shoulder to look at her notes.

“I do.” She replies, “I prefer honest civilisation, where there’s shared struggle towards a common goal. Worlds like this one, without the pressure make me feel uncomfortable, but down here it feels much closer to what I’d prefer.”

“Didn’t you once say that you wanted a quiet life, like that of a housewife or something?” I ask, thinking back to an old conversation, floating somewhere in my mind. I hope that I remember it correctly.

“I used to want something like that.” She says quietly, her hands still moving as she works tirelessly, “Now I know the lies in it. There is no real peace, only those who are privileged in that they are blind to the horrors and the violence that’s used to bring about peace.

“I want to know exactly what’s going on, and what can be done about it. I want the peace that comes not from ignorance but from awareness. Knowing that your enemies are dealt with, and that for tonight we can rest without fear of something taking us away.

“I need to know that we’re safe. That everything is going to be alright.” She shudders a moment before continuing her work without any extended pause.

“It’s frightening,” I say, nodding to her words. Trying to think of something more to say.

She’s not wrong, here we’re all under the constant threat of the welfare officers, and while they’ve largely proven inactive so far, the nature of their organisation is frightful. If they truly come after us, there’s nothing we can do. Not as we are.

“You haven’t taken the time to go and visit your family?” I say, and she pauses. For a moment she doesn’t even breath.

“Not lately. A few messages, that’s all.” She replies, “Even if I could be given passage, I can’t go back; not until I’m ready.”

“Ready?”

“Where I call home, we cannot ever break from the values instilled by the welfare officers. The community is struggling together to follow those rules and principals to gain further support and be allowed to be considered a greater civilisation. I have strayed from those rules and principals.”

“Didn’t you say something a while back about working around them. Traps and walls, and getting beasts to fight one another?” It was some time ago that she last spoke of it, but I do recall how she described working around those rules.

“That’s all necessary, and carefully considered.” She says, “I… My worry isn’t what they’ll think of me. It’s what I’ll be tempted to do. I know that I cannot interfere with their lives the same way as you did with Orsa, but if I go home I will not be able to stop myself.”

There’s clearly some details that she’s leaving out, specifics that she can’t say. I hope it’s nothing too awful, and more than that, I wan the power to change that expression for good. I hate that I can’t take away the villains that cause her whatever pain she feels right now.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask.

“I’d rather not. At least not right now.” She replies, “There’s little we can do but stir up trouble. Here, we can achieve something, so we will.”

I nod, feeling the familiar cold, burning passion building in my guts, driving me to action. Driving me towards seizing the power I need to change this universe. The next step is a prisonbreak, but there’s much more left to do after that.

“What are we doing with all this stuff anyway?” I ask, prodding at a colourful, framed painting. It depicts flowers, and fronds, and a few scattered feathers, all energetically scattered about, implying motion that a still image cannot easily capture.

“Trade,” She says, “It’s frowned upon but not entirely unfamiliar in my home, mostly for dealing with other nearby civilisations. How things work down here is little different. Most of these things are not useful for us, but they could be exchanged for services or resources that we later need.”

“Some of them would look nice put up on a wall.” I say.

“I don’t trust your sense of style.” She says, looking between me and the paintings, “We can’t bring any up to our dorm, but I’ll see it arranged that our home down here has an atmosphere superior to that of the degraded ruins around us.”

“So, you’ll do the redecorating?” I ask, “Is there anything I can do to help? Actually, there is that new Skill. It’s something that would be perfect for you. It’s called Multi-mind.”

“Yes well, I also have one for you. It should be useful for marking the collared beasts you wish to save.” She says, touching at my hand. I use that moment to pull from her Skill pool as well, quickly finding the one that she’s talking about.

~Skill acquired

~Tag

For a moment she stares into nothingness, but that moment passes quickly and she returns to her tasks.

“The tag Skill should allow you to mark a person, such that you can know their approximate position in relation to you. It does work off of their support device however so removal of that would invalidate the tracker. I developed it based off of a few Skills of similar nature in the library.” She says, as she works, pausing occasionally to check something on the invisible screen before her.

“You’re new Skill is also quite useful.” She says, “I can focus properly for once.”

“It’s especially useful for keeping up a couple of conversations at once.” I say, “Or for studying, or keeping an eye out for beasts.”

“Yes, I can see it’s potential.” Nel says, “I’ve been working through optimising the other Skills that we received, but this ‘multi-mind’ Skill is the most useful so far.”

“Aww you’re just saying that to butter me up, aren’t you? What are you after?”

“Well, I do need your assistance later.” She says, “I’ve invited a few of the potential recruits to meet us in the upper ruins. You are ultimately our leader, so I’ll need your input in who we’ll accept. It would do you well to ensure that they’re aware of how dangerous you are.”

“Ah, you need me to break a few arms, crack a few skulls, make sure they know who’s boss?” I ask, putting on a tough voice.

“If that’s what you want to do.” Nel replies, still marking things off on her notepad.

“I was joking.”

“I wasn’t’.” Nel replies. “If that’s what you want to do, I’ll support you. Some of the people who frequent these ruins are the rougher sort, so I wouldn’t be too surprised if violent communication were to work wonders.”

“Should I get Eshya?” I ask, laughing nervously.

“If you’d like.” Nel replies, “Though, I believe you should be enough. Though…”

“What is it?”

“Could you perhaps give more consideration to the males. You seem to focus your attentions on pretty young women, and while it’s not a problem yet, I want to ensure that you take this hiring process seriously.”

“I’m not that bad.” I complain, “I found Wally didn’t I?”

“Statistically, you do favour women.” She says, her words hitting the harder for her casual attitude as if she’s speaking of something like the weather.

“I don’t discriminate!” I cry, “I just find lots of talented women.”

We continue with this back and forth for a while as we continue to work cataloguing items. Nel finally accepts my help and leaves me to mark things down as she calls out what to write.

“We’ll need more food down here.” Nel says, when we’re halfway done. Apparently, we’re finishing here today as she’s planned to finish in a few more days’ time.

“Food? Who are we feeding?”

“Rudolf for one. He doesn’t head up to the surface often as far as I can tell. If it were just him, I’d leave him on his own, but after this prisonbreak we’ll have more hungry mouths that can’t just head up to the restaurant for a meal.”

“I didn’t even think of that.” I say.

“Well, a good figurehead doesn’t need to be smart.” Nel says with smile crawling up on her lips, “Just keep that pretty smile on your face and kill our enemies. That should be enough.”

“Hey now, I’m not just a figurehead.” I whine, “So, how are we getting the food?”

“There are beasts down here.” She replies, “Some students take to hunting them so they can trade their body parts. It’s expensive, but there’s also some food smuggled down from above, so there is a thriving market. Though it would still be best to have our own hunters out there as soon as is possible.”

“I’m not sure I’d want to eat anything that we’ve come across.” I say, thinking back to the horrible bug guts that we ate on our first trip down.

“The right cooking, and enough desperation, can make anything palatable.” She declares. “The upgrade to my support device came with an incredibly vast library of recipes, so I’m sure you have the same.”

“I haven’t checked.” I admit looking back through it as she’s said.

“Look into the chef, cooking, survival, and fire magics Classes, there are Skills that can be accessed as information sheets.” She says, “It’s quite extensive.”

“Quite a mess.”

“I’ve rearranged mine,” She says, pausing her step and looking up at the roof with a finger to her chin, “Give me a few days, I’d like to see if it’s possible to transfer our modifications between each other. If so, we wouldn’t have to individually rewrite our own systems.”

“That’s possible?” I ask, trying to think of the implications of this. It’s something of a strange thought, but eventually we might get to the point where we have system updates like with computers.

“It may be.” She replies, “I’ll explore the possibility, but already these devices will induce a significant societal shift across the many realms. You did well getting the support of whoever made these.”

“I wouldn’t say I have his support exactly, but we’re acquainted at least.” I say, “What makes you think they’re going to be that influential though? I get that they’re better than the last versions, but it’s not like we can instantly use more powerful Skills. The most powerful ones we still can’t use until we’re powerful enough for them.”

Nel’s eyes shine as she looks through the walls surrounding us and out into the wider expanse of the futures to come.

“Skills will become tradable commodities.” She says, “It won’t affect this empire too considerably, but trade is common enough outside of it, even if kept quiet.

“It’s also giving considerable assistance in developing magic to a breakthrough. Not only is there an expansive library containing all the information we need to study, but there’s also examples of the magic in the form of Skills. While you can’t use them until you’ve had a breakthrough, I’m investigating the possibility that they might still assist in pushing your understanding of the magic to the point of a breakthrough.”

“That’s a few steps further than I thought.” I say, trying to take in all the implications of what she’s discussing. “It’s still going to be a while before we get to that point. It’ll take a while to swap over to these new Chips, especially if I’m the only one who can pull out the older support devices.”

“A good point.” She says, “But we should try to anticipate what’s to come. If we’re the ones to spread these, we can use them to our advantage, in countless different ways.”

Our voices echo back to us as we walk through the hollow halls of our newly claimed base. We discuss further the details of what we might be able to do with these new Chips, and what we should do in the short term.

As it stands we’re gathering what we can to make more of these things, and we have intents to give them to our crafters, but we’re just too limited at the moment.

“It’s about time,” Eshya says, “We should have a few applicant ‘minions’ arriving shortly. Those twins you mentioned have responded positively when I reached out to them. Though Leai was upset to have lost contact with you.”

“Not like it was on purpose.” I reply, recalling the strange conversations I had with her.

She’s a bit crazy, but that’s a quality we’re after. Someone would have to be crazy to come along with us to break ‘beasts’ out of captivity, especially since we’re stepping on the toes of a civilisation that’s more powerful than I can even imagine.

Nel’s steps are quick, as she leads me up towards the surface. We step out into the alley before heading down a separate entrance into the ruins.

“You didn’t know about all of this stuff when you were studying?” I ask her, wondering about the holes in her knowledge.

“I was a good student.” She says simply, “I’m not even sure if it was the same where I studied. Whatever allows for beasts to survive under the surface here couldn’t be something all too common. At least, I hope not.”

Down through another mess of empty halls and rooms we enter into a closed space that has been cleaned, cleared, and set out with a few chairs. The stone door slides closed behind us, at a touch.

A small group of people are spread out in the room, turning their attentions from each other and towards us the moment we enter.

Leai rushes over to me with an exaggeratedly mournful expression, interrupting my thoughts.

“You forgot me!” She moans, wrapping me in her sticky arms, “You were one of the only people who kept talking with me. When you stopped messaging me back, I was sure you either hated me or forgot me.”

“I’ve been busy,” I say, throwing her into my contacts and sending a message.

K- Had to get my Chip swapped out for a new one.

L- Ooooh, that’s cool. You can do that? You can do that!? That’s crazy! Can you do mine! Do mine!

K- Later, there’s a few issues. That we don’t have many replacements.

L- Oh, I can get some. Is that what this is about? You need more support devices?

K- Yes, and no. Keep quiet about it until we know we can trust the others, yeah?

L- Okay! Let me know if you need me to kill them.

L- Just joking. Unless you actually do need me to.

L- Do you need me to?

K- Not yet.

She bounces around, happily as her sister approaches with a calmer demeaner. I’ve forgotten how unsettling she can be when we’re talking through messages.

Technically I know that she’s dangerous, and probably unstable, but I have the feeling that she’s reliable. I’m sure it’s possible she might turn against us, and do something to screw us, but I’d like to give her a chance at least.

“What did you call us here for?” her sister Seia asks, with a calm soothing voice. The long pale tentacles of her hair slowly wrap around themselves as she looks between us with sleepy eyes.

I look over at Nel, wondering exactly what she said to gather them here. She just shrugs and looks back towards me.

“How do you want to do this?” She asks me, “I’ll leave it to you.”

“Ah, well…” I pause to think, “Do you guys adventure around the ruins? The deeper parts where the beasts roam?”

“Yes.” Comes the grumpy reply from what looks to be a dwarf. The short, stocky man stands about as tall as my midriff but he’s thick as a barrel. The massive shield he’s carrying is larger than he is and glows with enough mana light to give away his strength. I have no doubts that he could stop a speeding truck with that thing.

“I do fancy a stroll through the wild at times,” Says an unnaturally tall person. He’s not of any race that I’m familiar with but he is tall. He actually has to crouch a little and still brushes against the ceiling, and the ceiling isn’t exactly short here. His multijointed limbs are comparably incredibly thin, but I’m not about to assume that makes them delicate.

“Growing girls do need to eat.” Leai says all too happily.

“Okay then.” I say thinking fast, “Hypothetically, who here would be interested in breaking a few rules? Quietly… or at least without getting found out.”

“No.” Answers the lanky man who promptly turns and leaves.

“Well, that’s one dealt with.” I say.

“Are you planning on fighting?” The dwarf asks, leaning on his tall shield. The battle-scarred etchings adorning the front make it seem that much more intimidating, and considering the Skillset he’d have developed for it, rightfully so.

“If things truly go to shit, sure. We’re hoping it doesn’t come to that, though.” I reply, “Worse comes to worse, we kill whoever we have to, hide their corpses, and make a run for it.”

“Sounds good. I’m in.” He says, his voice slightly muffled.

“You don’t need to hear more before making your decision?”

“No.” He replies simply, “I’ll listen if you want to talk, but anything that’ll bother the haughty twats sounds right to me. Before that, do you have any good drinks? Alcohol?”

“Nel?” I ask.

“I’m sure we have something in the storage.” She says, looking through the notes that we were taking earlier.

“Well then, what questions do you two have?” I ask, turning to the twins.

“Is it going to be fun?” Leai asks.

“Ah, it’ll be something interesting.” I say, “Risky, potentially violent, and more than a little crazy.”

“Yes!” Leai cheers, stepping back beside her sister.

“That sounds fun. What exactly is the goal here?” Seia says with a creepy smile rising on her lips.

“We’re busting some ‘beasts’ from captivity.” I say, “Breaking their collars, faking their deaths, and hiding them down here.”

The dwarf breaks out into boisterous laughter, as soon as he hears.

“You lot are crazy,” He finally says, “How are you breaking the collars?”

“She can pull them out.” Leai says, hopping on her toes. “That’s right, isn’t it? That’s why you got a new chip? You’re welfare officer decided to pull at your leash and you bit back! So cool. How did she react? Did you kill her?”

“She’s still around, and on our side. So don’t hurt her.” I say, “Also, how did you figure that out?”

“I’m collared.” She says pointing at herself, “Not many get their own personal welfare officer. Then you said you replaced your support device. Most everything was obvious after that.”

“Well, if you can pull out a collar, then it’s good to be friends with ya!” The stout dwarf says, holding his hand out to me. I take it with half a smile and give it a proper shake.

“Scouting starts tomorrow?” I ask Nel, our plans and schedule have been rather messy, but she’s been busy keeping everything in order.

“Yes, tomorrow after your morning class. The rest of our week should be free after that, but you’ll all be skipping a few classes, so you’ll need to be careful to attend properly afterwards. From what Adler’s said you can survive this much without too much extra attention but it’s still a risk.” She says.

“Right,” I nod, “How much time do I have left before my beast taming class?”

“Perhaps an hour?” she says thoughtfully, “It would give you enough time to get to class on time at least.”

“Alright, do you mind if we introduce Barry?” I ask.

“It should be alright.” Nel replies, harshly looking over the gathered recruits, “So long as they behave themselves and know not to share our secrets.”

“I’m not messing this up. You’re the first person I’ve heard of that can break a collar, and I might need a favour one of these days.” He says tapping his shield on the ground.

“I’m good with secrets. No one ever believes what I say anyway.” Leai whispers to us as if sharing a close secret, “I promise I won’t talk about this stuff with anyone. I wouldn’t mess with a friendship like ours.”

Our apparent friendship comes along with another tight, and slimy hug. She thankfully backs away before I have to throw her off.

“Well, let’s be off then.” I say, “Let’s go meet Barry.”

“Is this Barry working with us?” Leai asks.

“Yes, but no.” I reply, “He’s knows quite a lot of weapons techniques and is more than happy to teach you, but he’s useless in a fight. He just keeps dodging and blocking while giving the enemy tips on how to improve their fighting techniques.”

“Sounds like a fun guy.” Leai says, hoping along while wrapping a slimy arm through my own, “Let’s go!”

Careful of our brief visit to the surface, we escort them down into our base. They don’t seem to be particularly interested in any of it until we pass by the room with the stone throne.

The room is thoroughly cleaned, not leaving a trace of the bloody smell behind, but to me it only looks right with red painted walls. In fact, I might ask Nel later if we have any red paint around.

It really looked nice painted in red.

“I didn’t really pick this as your style.” Leai says, looking over the stone throne. “Too grand, but small.”

“It’s not mine. That’s left over from the last owners.”

“Oh, you’ve stolen land already?” She perks up.

“Isn’t this Orsa’s territory?” The dwarf grumps.

“Who’s that?” I ask, “I don’t think there’s anyone by that name living around here anymore.”

Nel barks a laugh a moment after my joke, repressing it quickly, but still a moment too late.

“That was… rather amusing.” She says, blushing as she looks away, “It’s rather uncouth to make such jokes of the dead, but then being the ones who killed them I guess it’s not so bad comparably.”

Leai laughs late as she seems to eventually get the joke, while the other two remain thoughtfully quiet.

When we eventually arrive at the newly formed training room, we find Ria harassing a rather perturbed Barry.

“If you aren’t here to learn how to fight, then take your polished stone ass out of here.” Barry grumbles before turning to us, “Ah, new students? I hope these have more spirit.”

“You found one of these machines?” The dwarf says, approaching Barry. “It’s not the worst I’ve seen around, not the best either.”

“They can talk?” Leai asks in surprise, “I always smashed them up before then.”

“He can teach you fighting techniques,” I say, waving to him, “Try not to break him, I don’t know anyone who could fix him.”

“I won’t. We’ll be great friends.” Leia says, hoping over to the machine.

“If he does break, I’ll take a look at his remains.” Ria says excitedly. Still watching the machine closely.

Our newest three recruits take a closer look at Barry, Leai quickly getting caught up in an advanced training regime. Thankfully, even crippled as he is, our mechanical training partner is able to put her through a few exercises to keep her busy.

“Well, they seem reliable enough.” I say, standing beside Nel.

“Kyra, when do you intend to have children?”

“Uh, excuse me?” I take a step back trying to figure out how exactly she made that conversational jump.

“I’ve been thinking about our relationship. While we’ve already discussed developing our own empire, and have some limited plans in motion towards that end, I still don’t know how you feel about our family and what our future might look like. When a couple intends to have children, is one of those things that deserves an early discussion.”

“Uh, we can’t have kids, can we?” I ask, trying to see if she’s pulling my leg. I cannot see a hint of this being a joke, though.

“If you’re asking about if it’s possible, then it is.” She replies, “There are many methods, but most I find repugnant and quite disagreeable. Some options are more acceptable to me, so I was wondering your thoughts on the topic.”

“I didn’t… you’re serious?” I ask just to make sure and she nods, “Then I’ll think about it. I’m not against the idea per se but the idea never even really came to mind.”

“Alternative, or controlled reproduction isn’t available where you come from?” She asks, “It’s not uncommon, most parents want to know that their child is the best that they can be, and ordinary reproduction leaves too much to chance.”

“Wait, you’re talking about designing babies?”

“You would rather make them blindly?” She asks.

“Again, I’ve not really thought about it.” I take a step back. “What about you? You want children I assume?”

“Yes, and I’d like to have your input with ensuring they are the best that they can be. There’s historical precedent to suggest that it’s better to have more input in designing children, and I’d like us to spend a good deal of time thinking about it before the time actually comes.”

“…okay.” I say, nodding slowly still trying to figure out what exactly is going on right now, “I’ll think about it.”

Hopefully this conversation will make more sense after a nap.

“This isn’t only with you of course. I’d like a big family, and Eshya, and Vii both have qualities that I’d quite like to bring to the next generation. Adler is… I’m still considering it.” She says, sounding almost businesslike.

“Are you wanting to add further to our…” Nel pauses a moment to think, “Harem works well enough, I suppose. It’s not at all unusual for leaders to spread their seed, and it certainly feels like you’re staying true to that stereotype.”

“I don’t know.” I say, my head feeling a little fuzzy.

“I’m not against it. I’d just like to know in advance to consider it in my plans.” She says, looking over to me, and wrapping her arm through mine and holding my hand tight. “I’ll ensure you don’t ever neglect me, however. That would be unacceptable.”

While heading up towards my next beast taming class, my mind swims with thoughts of a little red-haired baby with feathered wings, cat ears, vibrant elvish skin, and chitin plates.

I think I understand why it’s important to design your kids out here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Skills & Stats

~Mana Form:

Current mana density: 790 units

~Mana distribution:

Catagory Current Max. Skin 27% 27% Muscle 0% 12% Mind 0% 65% Cardiovascular 0% 11% Misc. 0% 10% Efficiency 27% 79%

~Favourited Skills:

-Chip Shredder

-Multi-mind

-Tag

-Mana surge movement

-Mana surge punch

-Reactive mana skin

-Infused delayed Casting

-Fire burst punch