“And finally, this is the Zwaray Keep.”

Lukas peered at what was his last sightseeing point within the town. For the better course of the day, he had been walking around town, with Tanya as his guide. Apparently the ability to comprehend and speak almost any languages didn’t quite translate to writing, or perhaps Inanna had not wired the spell that way.

Either way, he was stuck to remembering whatever Tanya taught him, since reading off signboards and banners was off the charts, not until he managed to learn at least one of the local dialects. The good thing was that his compatriot and guide was quite willing to explain everything he needed to know, including norms and the local culture, and much to his amusement, some weird fetishes that the locals happened to have.

It had been an interesting trip.

Tanya peered at the notebook in his hands. “I gave you that for a reason, you know. You haven’t taken a single note this whole time.”

“Yeah, well actually I was—”

“Too busy to pay attention?” She placed her hands at her hips and gave him a cold glare, not unlike a cop staring down a teenager that had crossed the speed limit and gotten caught.

“I have a good memory,” Lukas answered, tapping the side of his head with a finger. “I remember everything you said.”

Honestly, he was too busy trying to get accustomed to so many people around him. After the entire experience in the Crypt, it had become a conditional response for him to treat every moving thing as a potential predator or prey. Add to that the lights and sounds and other stimuli blaring down at him, it was simply too easy to get overwhelmed.

It had taken everything in him to simply ignore everything else and focus on Tanya’s voice.

The blonde raised a skeptical eyebrow at his comment.

“I swear, everyone’s a critic,” Lukas grumbled. “Haviskali’s divided into two parts— the main town and the dwellings. Most of the administrative offices are grouped around the Guild Hall and the Governor’s office, which is also where the majority of the work gets done. Nobles and aristocrats own large estates in the south along the shores of the Sea of Mone for access to trade routes. The military is centered around the north and the west, which is around where we are now. And finally, the eastern side is the mainland route, where most freelancers and traders arrive. That’s where the inn you stay at is.”

Tanya blinked. Twice. Finally, a small grin spread across her lips.She took a step back and tilted her head in fascination. “You really were paying attention.”

“I told you, I have a good memory.”

That wasn’t wholly correct. It wasn’t a lie either. The truth was that part and parcel of being an anomaly was the ability to retain and process large quantities of information. Lukas hadn’t quite realized it earlier at the Crypt, but his head should have exploded just from his attempt to scour through the Monster Prototypes in his Arrays.

And he had gone through them all at lightning fast speed.

Not to mention he knew them. All of them. Every detail.

“And modest too,” she chuckled. “What am I going to do with you?”

“I don’t think Banksi would appreciate you having your wicked way with me.”

“But you would?”

“It’s something to consider.”

As Tanya threw her head back and laughed, Lukas took another look at the town around him, taking in all the things that she didn’t mention. All in all, Haviskali was what he would call a poor man’s Utah. Imperialism was the law around this place, with the nobles having a significant say in the government while an elected Governor presided over the town’s affairs. It had a standing fraction of the Imperial Cobalt Army stationed in military outposts out west, to be called in case of civil unrest. Though, according to Tanya, they were just there because they didn’t trust the svartalfars of Zwaray Keep.

Svartalfars.

There were svaltarfars here. Actual svaltarfars. These subterranean dwellers of Nordic mythos mingled with Asukans while yokai hid in the shadows of the desert. And Elena was an elf, which Tanya told him was actually pronounced ‘Alf’. He wasn’t sure whether she fell into the Tolkien category or the Nordic, but that was beside the point.

This… this wasn’t just some alien world. It was a mythological carnival.

And he was stuck here for the foreseeable future.

“So these svaltarfars,” he began. “Apart from making weapons, what else do they do?”

Tanya shrugged. “All I know is that Svartalheim orbits around our world. Most bremetans used to call them dwarf giants, though they hate being called that. I just happen to take a lot of jobs from them and occasionally buy weapons, so I’m on relatively good terms with their species.”

“What kind of jobs?” he asked curiously.

“Mostly metal extraction. Come to think of it, those blades you wielded in the Class-3 anomaly would’ve fetched some real coin. Pity you lost them when it all caved in.”

“Yeah,” Lukas replied. Pitiful indeed.

“I hope you aren’t thinking of spending all your money on a fancy weapon, Aguilar,” Tanya sternly glared. “Svartalfars are worse than sacred prostitutes in that regard. You go in with a full pouch, you’ll return home empty-handed.”

“With a strong weapon, though.”

“Perhaps,” she relented, “but Asukans pride themselves on their ability to control kami and familiars. A weapons user is strong, but not always worthy of respect. If you want to go up the food chain, you’ll have to bind a kami to yourself.”

Huh. Interesting. “And can anyone get a kami?”

Tanya shook her head. “You need a really good soul capacity first. Most people don’t have that, and elves have it even worse. People like Elena have to make do with lower spirits as a result.”

Lukas tilted his head slightly.

ANALYZE (LEVEL 3)

Name

Tanya Shimizu

Species

Asukan-Yokai Hybrid

Total Soul Capacity

2095*

Used Soul Capacity

1771

Total Lifeforce Capacity

145

Lifeforce Production Rate

146/hour

Mana Symbiont

Ezzeron, [EVERFROST]*

Mana-Type

Wind, Frost*

Mana Production Rate

334 (Wind) 676 (Frost)

“A large soul capacity, you say,” he murmured. “And why is that?”

“Well,” the Frost-user replied, oblivious to his thoughts, “powerful kami require lots of soul capacity, usually in the upper hundreds to thousands. Most people can’t afford something like that.”

“Because they don’t have that much capacity to begin with?”

“It’s… more of a long-term investment,” the blonde explained. “Binding a kami is just the beginning. With every single level-up, the soul cap required by the kami would grow exponentially higher. It’s here that most adventurers fall short, except perhaps Mithril-class adventurers or higher.” She paused. “Speaking of which, what’s your soul capacity?”

“Enough for a kami,” Lukas grinned. “You think Banksi will let me try my hand at it?”

Tanya snorted. “I don’t see why not—”

The rest of her words fell on deaf ears, as another more relevant question rose from the depths of his mind. Between Tanya’s information about the svartalfars and kami and her own Soulscape, Lukas had nearly ignored something vital.

He had just subconsciously analyzed her.

It was supposed to be impossible, since all anomaly functions had been rendered invalid. The only way to reactivate them would be to—

“—listening to me?” Tanya was saying.

“Yeah, give me a second.”

Check Energy level.

The Screen responded instantly.

Current Energy Level — 24%

Lukas blinked.

“Is something wrong?” she asked.

“Uh, give me another second.”

Check Energy level.

Current Energy Level — 25%

“...”

What the hell was going on?

“Lukas?” Tanya asked, concern shining on her face.

“It’s rising,” he admitted in disbelief, dumbly staring at his screen. “It’s just… rising.”

Current Energy Level — 26%

“Rising? What’s rising?”

“My energy levels.”

Tanya looked confused. He couldn’t blame her.

He had barely been able to gain a single percent by sitting in the sun for days, and now it was climbing rapidly. The only reason would be if the Omphalos had suddenly latched onto a very powerful power source and was now drinking from it with all the zeal of a man lost in the Sahara stumbling onto an oasis.

“Well, that’s… good. Right?” she hesitantly asked.

“Yeah, but I never thought it would—”

Current Energy Level — 27%

“—climb up this fast. Like its absorbing—”

Current Energy Level — 28%

“—directly from some energy source around here.”

Lukas widened his eyes. With a nervous gulp, he looked down at the ground, which now appeared red. An odd sight, considering how the roads were carved out of—

He looked helplessly towards Tanya, whose face turned ashen from the realization. Cursing aloud, she grasped his arm and pulled him back—

But it was too late.

Two pairs of hands rose out of the ground, grabbed his legs, and pulled with unrelenting force.

Phasing through the ground was perhaps the most horrible experience Lukas had ever had. Considering how he’d been stabbed several times, burnt, and had his mind practically tossed into a blender by a goddess, that was saying something.

He and Tanya had both been pulled through the ground, as if the rocky crust had suddenly become jelly. Before he could even sense what was going on, the earth ground at every inch of his skin like fine sand, and his clothes did nothing to prevent the sensation. Worse, he could feel earth in his mouth, his throat, and even in his ears and nasal passage as he was dragged downwards, deeper and deeper until there was—

Air?

“Oof!”

He and Tanya were dropped unceremoniously onto a marble floor in a dark room, with Tanya landing on top of him, kneeing him in the groin. He’d have whimpered, if not for the fact that spears and javelins, long and sharp and glowing with runes, were pointed at them from all directions. Holding them were spindly humanoids with greyish skin, triangular faces, and large floppy ears.

Are these… svartalfars? he asked himself, doing his best to ignore the pain.

Neural Suppression Activated.

He nearly whooped in joy at the alert. It was working. It was freaking working. The instinct to check on all his Skills and anomaly functions overwhelmed him, but rash behaviour would only get him impaled by those pointy weapons in uncomfortable spaces.

“Um, hello?” Lukas offered. Truly, he was a master of diplomacy.

“Lukas,” Tanya hissed, “just keep your fucking mouth shut and let me deal with them.” Slowly, his blonde companion disentangled herself from him. “My apologies to your people. We were just—”

“Intruding.” The tone was acerbic and gravelly, the kind that made skin crawl. “Trespassing into our territory and draining the thirteenth wardstone is a blatant crime against the Svartalf nation.” A large, double-bladed axe shone in the creature’s hands. “The sentence for this violation is death by decapitation, to be carried out at once.”

The blade swung high.