As they flew, Angel pulled up his System status sheet to see what benefits killing the Vyrg had netted them.

Name: Angel

Level: 71 [9%]

Status: Mostly Healthy

Information accuracy: 100%

Strength: 12

Intelligence: 29 [+4]

Nimbleness: 26

Toughness: 73 [+8]

Comparative Rating [Adjusted]: Threat

Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, Arteries… (100/100)

Element(s): Steel, Star Fragment

Magicore: (100% Attunement)

Features: [2/3]

Features

Liquid Metal [Repair]: Primary function – host modification and repair. Enables shifting of hardware and improves defensive capabilities of vessel.

Magicore Command: Primary function – mental influence over non-sentient Magitech. Usage drains magic at a rate directly related to the size and strength of the object this feature is used on.

Angel lifted his eyepiece, possessing the information and ignoring the twinge of pain that shot through him at the movement. The Vyrg had an understandably massive amount of magical energy. Even split multiple ways, the beast had given him six levels in the System’s eyes.

On top of that, he was pretty sure that he’d only gotten a small portion of the magic. Compared to the damage that Alison and Tilly had done to the Vyrg, his own attacks had been on the lighter side.

He let the thoughts simmer in the back of his mind, unsure as to how he should feel as they continued onward. When the sun started to dip toward the edge of the horizon, the group stopped to set up camp at the top of a large dune.

Alison was still asleep, but her face was untroubled so none of them wanted to bother her. Silver slipped her into a sleeping back and set the girl aside so he could sit down.

“You don’t have a System artifact, right, Tilly?” Angel said.

“I don’t. I was actually going to ask you if you could check how much stronger I got from killing the Vyrg,” Tilly said. “It felt like a lot. I’ve never felt a rush like that before.”

“You’ve never killed anything nearly that big either,” Silver said. “Watch yourself, girl. Don’t get addicted to hunting or you’ll end up dead.”

Angel flipped his eyepiece down while Silver lectured Tilly and examined the girl.

Race: Human

Name: Tilly Marshall

Level 21

Status: Healthy

Information accuracy: 98%

Strength: 6

Intelligence: 24

Nimbleness: 10

Toughness: 2

Rating: Weak

Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, chest… (100/100)

Element(s): None

He relayed the information to her. “I’m not sure what level you were before. I never checked, but if I assume you were around where Alison was, you should have gotten somewhere around thirteen or fourteen levels,” Angel said. “That’s quite the jump. And, before you ask, there’s unfortunately no sign of your Star Fragment. It might be something hidden from the System until it emerges more.”

“The System sure hides quite a lot of information,” Lilian mused, thrusting her huge sword into the sand and sitting down against the back of the blade. “After what we learned about there being someone who can modify what information the System can share, I have to wonder how much use it is at all.”

“I doubt they would have done anything to the System’s core functions,” Angel said. “We don’t know how much power this person has over the System, but they probably aren’t its sole ruler. It’s more likely that they’re hiding certain information while leaving every thing else alone. The real question is why they’re hiding it and if they’re working against us.”

“Well, if you think about it, I’m sure other people have discovered ways to access the greater parts of the System,” Silver mused. “You used a Great Catacomb because of the increased energy in the air, but I bet some Magistrates have ways to get to high energy areas too. That might mean this person is either a Magistrate or working against them. They may not even know about us. There are a lot of possibilities.”

“That’s true,” Angel admitted. “But I’m going to assume they do have something to do with us, one way or another. It could be wrong, but I’d rather be pleasantly surprised than go in hoping that there’s some neutral party and find out it’s yet another enemy.”

“That’s probably wise,” Lilian said.

A cold breeze passed through their small camp. Angel shivered. It had been getting steadily colder as night fell, and his lack of a shirt wasn’t helping at all. He slipped under his blanket, moving carefully to avoid aggravating his wounds any further. They’d started to heal, but it seemed as if the magically inflicted damage didn’t repair as fast as normal injuries.

“I’ll take first watch,” Lilian said. “I’ve done the least today.”

Nobody had any problems with that, and sleep quickly overtook the camp. The night passed peacefully and, the following morning, Alison had recovered. They had several encounters with monsters throughout the day, but managed to avoid fighting all of them.

Near noon they took cover in the shadow of a large dune as a huge Sand Wyrm passed overhead. It spotted something to the east and dove at it, giving the group to run as quickly as their artifacts could carry them.

That night and the following day passed similarly. A group of doglike creatures with spiked manes and molten red eyes ambushed them the following morning, but Silver, who had been on watch, killed them before Tilly and Alison could even get out of their sleeping bags.

“Add slaying an entire pack of whatever these things are to my legend,” Silver said, flicking blood off his sword. “Demon dogs, maybe.”

“There were four of them,” Tilly observed. “Is that really a pack?”

“Adding a zero never hurt anybody,” Silver replied with a snort. “Works great when you’re billing Magistrates, by the way. Half of them are so rich that they won’t even realize they’ve overpaid. The blubbering fool in charge of Brineview paid me almost ten times more than he meant to.”

“What if you get caught?” Alison asked.

“Depends where I am. If I’m trapped in the city at the time – which has only happened once – I apologize for my lacking mathematical skills.”

“And if you’re not trapped?”

“Also depends,” Silver said. “Are they using a telegraph to communicate? Or is there an agent I’m speaking with?”

“Agent,” Alison said as they packed their belongings up. “I get the feeling you’d just turn the telegraph off.”

“You’d be correct,” Silver said. He smirked. “I’d turn the agent off as well. Tragic falls from open chopper doors are all too common, I’m afraid.”

Alison paused midway through strapping her bedroll up. “Vanessa said you were kind of evil. Don’t you feel bad about killing people?”

“No,” Silver replied. “Not really. I don’t reckon I’ve killed many good men, mostly just folk like me. Compared to the Magistrates, I’m a saint. You couldn’t count the number of people they killed, directly or indirectly, if you had all the hands in the Barren.”

Alison frowned, but Tilly was the one that looked the most conflicted. Angel opted not to step into the conversation, instead taking the opportunity to use his System artifact and check how much stronger Alison had gotten from killing the Vyrg.

Race: Human

Name: Alison Adder

Level 27

Status: Healthy

Information accuracy: 98%

Strength: 4

Intelligence: 31 [+15]

Nimbleness: 2

Toughness: 17 [+15]

Rating: Laughable

Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, chest… (100/100)

Element(s): None

He filled Alison in on her level as they powered their artifacts up and set off once again.

“You know, we should consider seeking out a few monsters before we make it to Blackstone,” Lilian said. “Angel needs magical energy to avoid blowing himself up when using his Star Fragment, and getting stronger before taking on the Reawakening would benefit all of us.”

“I second the opinion,” Silver said, skating closer to them so they could hear easier. “So long as we don’t bite off anything too big to chew. Don’t forget that we’re in the center of the Barren. Imagine stumbling into a small group of Vyrgs. We’d be dead.”

“We’ll deal with whatever happens to try and stop us,” Angel said. “As much as I like the idea of hunting a bunch of monsters before getting to Blackstone, we have to be wary of what Silver mentioned. Not to mention we don’t know how much time we’ve got to work with. The Reawakening likely don’t have enough relics to power all the Buried Gods, and they’re stopped at a town. I think we know what that means.”

A somber silence fell over all of them. When every passing second could be a life, none of them felt like talking. With nothing left to say, they redoubled their efforts to get to Blackstone.