26

After Charles told her what to do, Aura’s machine mind began operating with perfect precision on a long series of calculations. The energy of the world stirred and moved along the paths she drew in the aether, following her directions down to the most minute detail.

She drew more and more mana from Charles’ mana pool, feeling the energy come to her naturally and without any friction. He was letting her do whatever she pleased with it, trusting her entirely in how she operated and what she was doing. Slowly, the seconds in the real world ticking away once every twenty of her own seconds, she organized the mana and weaved the spell.

So much mana! The spell costed much more than the returns it gave in terms of either information, or usefulness. But Aura didn’t say anything, leaving it to Charles to decide if this skill was worth using. She only had to wait for him to see just how expensive this was. He was not stupid after all.

Charles looked at the gun with interest, and felt the mana flow out of him and into the world. The process was certainly fascinating, but no matter how much he tried to gain an insight into how magic was being used to produce an effect, he still could not grasp it.

Charles Barlow’s railgun: level 5/15. Tier 1.

“Interesting. Although, I don’t get why it took this much mana for the spell to tell us so little information. Aura, did you mess up?”

The AI did not reply. Charles chuckled.

“Aw, come on, I was joking! You know I have complete faith in your abilities.”

I do. Aura said, her voice slightly amused.

“Do you have a theory, then? Why does this thing behave so differently than the other copied skills? It should have, at least, a defined mana cost and a defined effect, which it doesn’t.”

I am doing much more work here than with the other skills. My theory is that this is much closer to a spell than to a skill, given how much intervention it needs on my part. By comparison, using a skill is like clicking a button.

“I see. But, it must have some sort of component that stabilizes it, right? Otherwise it would fail like all the other spells I tried to use. If we can somehow isolate that component and add it to the other spells, then maybe…”

I get your point, I thought of this myself. I’ll see what I can do. While I do that, though, I’m curious about what you think about the level cap for your gun.

“Well, if the data you downloaded into my brain as soon as I got here is correct—” he lingered on that part for a while.

The AI seemed unfazed. The faint smirk on his face disappeared, replaced by a more serious expression.

“Well, I was saying. If that data suggests anything to me, then something interesting will happen when we hit the cap. Maybe a power up, a jump to tier two? Who knows? In fact, I wonder if my suit too has this peculiar feature. Can we appraise it?”

Aura, hearing this, began to weave another appraisal spell for the suit. Halfway through, however, Charles felt her stop the process, and the half-constructed mana vanished into nothingness. He was left completely dry.

“What happened?”

I ran out of mana, sorry.

“You knew it even before you started to cast, didn’t you? You cheeky AI.”

I didn’t. I swear.

“Yeah, yeah.” He laughed. “Good one. Next time don’t milk me dry, please, I need my mana to use the ring. I have a couple things I want to try but I have to wait because of you!”

***

The first light of day was beginning to filter through the dense canopy of the nearby forest. The diagonal rays of the sun were weak and did nothing to warm the cool air of the morning, and puffy little white clouds rose from the mouths of the two people standing by Charles’ door. A nasty wind was rattling the trees, blowing away the fragile clouds of vapor, cluttering the road with layers of dead leaves.

Giona and Eereen looked at each other, each daring the other to be the one to knock on the heavy wooden door. The impasse stretched for a little, secret eternity, and the two soon felt rather silly for their childish behavior. Still, Eereen felt she would be much surer about what to do if she were to confront a dangerous beast rather than that man. Giona, on the other hand, put on his best game face and decided to get it over with as soon as possible. The hardest part, for him, was to get the ball rolling. Once that was done, everything else came on its own.

“Ready?” Giona asked, looking at the elf next to him.

“Ready.”

He knocked. From inside, a clanging noise, then the door swung open, revealing a mess that was orders of magnitude worse than the usual chaos of the lab. Charles was in the center of the whole mess like the eye of a storm, scooping up things with his ring as he walked around the room.

“Please, come in.” He said with a smile.

Giona sat on a chair, opposite to where Charles was working. Eereen plopped herself onto the bed, eyes glued onto him. The trained eyes of the guild master swept the room, noticed Eereen’s behavior and then went on, looking around and cataloguing all the differences compared to how it was yesterday when he left. His eyes landed on a large machine, sprawled onto the table right in front of Charles. He could see pipes, wires coming from the generator, and a mess of monster cores and mana crystals dotting its circuit-like pattern.

“What is that contraption?” He asked out loud in disbelief.

Charles turned around to look at him, a proud look on his face. “Oh, this? I call this a MANAmeter. This is an alternative to the skill appraisal that we can use to gauge the level, and only the level sadly, of an item. You came at the right moment, because I’m about to turn it on for the first time.”

He approached the large and confusing machine. There were several switches he flipped, and then a soft glow enveloped him. He went to the other side of the machine and pressed the crude buttons, inserting a number.

“166: my level. First step of the calibration, done.”

Then, he used the machine on his railgun, and input another number into the terminal.

“There. Now it’s calibrated, and it’s ready to be used on unknown items. Let’s see how my suit does it.” He used the machine on his own suit, and a small needle moved along a logarithmic scale. It stopped just a little bit over the number three. “Oh! Look, it worked! Level three… not bad for how little I used its advanced features so far. What about the ring?”

He removed the ring from his finger, and put it onto a small pad. The machine whirred and slowly the cores and crystals started to emit light. The needle started moving, crossing the first mark, then reaching the hundreds, then the thousands, and didn't stop.

“Wait, this isn’t supposed—” before he could even finish speaking, the whole machine exploded. Pieces went flying everywhere, damaging the wooden furniture and toppling over a few of the tools on the other table. “—to happen.” He coughed.

“Well, that’s interesting.” Charles muttered.

“It sure is!” Giona said, suppressing a laugh.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I guess the ring was just too high of a level to be analyzed with that.” He beamed a smile. “Now, now. Let’s talk business. Something tells me you haven’t come all the way here to check on me, did you? Let me make a prediction, it’s about the elven village I for some reason have to save, is it not? Don’t worry, I remember about it. Now that my urgent business is over, I can finally help you. A promise is a promise.”

Both his guests looked relieved.

“Can you tell me about it?”

Eereen looked at Giona, who nodded. She cleared her throat.

“The elves of my village have been living in a forest for millennia. The village was founded—”

“Ah, no. I might even be cured of my former apathy, but that does not mean I will subject myself to this. Cut to the point, please?”

“Yeah, sorry. It all started quite some time ago. At first, we began to feel tremors and hear distant noises coming from a mountain. Now, there are rivers of lava that surround our village, the forest burns and powerful earthquakes split the land. The air is almost unbreathable, even with special-made skills it’s almost impossible to survive.”

Charles faced the other way for a moment. “NPC-level dialogue.” Charles muttered to himself. “I know Aura, I know, this is not a video game.” When he was done, he faced the two again. “I suppose relocating is not viable for some reason.”

“Us elves have always lived in our pocket dimension. We can’t leave the place; it would mean losing our identity!”

“And the whole pocket dimension suffers the same fate?”

She nodded.

“Well,” he said, a pensive look on his face. “This looks quite tricky. I surely don’t have the tools to deal with it at the moment, but I know of a way to get some more options. Give me a few days.”

After the two left, Charles quickly changed into some clothes he found inside the ring, courtesy of Giona, and left the lab soon after.

***

Giona walked all the way back to the guild, taking his time and actually looking around for once to take in the view of the city. More often than not what he saw was quite depressing, but he only sighed and trudged on. By the time he was near the guild, a small crowd had gathered inside, by the bar.

“Did you hear? A rich noble or some bloke is hosting a magic tournament in the central plaza, right in front of the dungeon!”

A man, clad in robes and tattered clothes, was gossiping with the surrounding crowd.

“A noble, here? I bet he’s here to chase after the guy who killed that party in the dungeon. The arcane user, nasty stuff that.”

The robed man did not reply. He only coughed once, and looked away.

“Might be true,” he said in a lower voice, face buried in his beer, “But, from what I gathered, he’s much more interested in the tournament. He pays people in advance for participating, on top of the prizes. Even if you lose in the first round, he will still pay you gold. Real, gold coins. Isn’t that stupid? How rich must he be?”

Giona creeped closer. He recognized that voice, although it seemed much different for some reason. The man, clad in his dark hood, locked eyes with him. A toothy grin appeared from under the hood, the white teeth shining in the darkness of his face. Giona understood.

***

The large plaza at the center of the city of Unica extended from the exit of the dungeon tower in a circle, with at the center a huge fountain. The fountain was broken and dry, with no water coming out of the circular opening on top of the small statues that populated its lower part, and with barely a trickle coming out of the large marble tree at the center.

The water below was green and putrid, baked by the sun even in this cold season. A chill wind blew a few lonely leaves across the broken white stones of the pavement. The air of desolation, however, soon became something much livelier.

Flocks of people converged towards the temporary wood structure right next to the fountain, and sat on chairs or just pressed against each other in an attempt to steal a glance at the mysterious figure that was sitting on his raised throne. Below him, three rows of combatants were patiently waiting for the signal to begin the ceremonial salute.

The noble was just looking at the crowd from his marble throne, as if waiting for the right moment. The throne was opulent and dissonant, oozing greasy richness against the broken background of a fallen city. The figure sitting on it seemed small and insignificant when put on top of such an oversized thing, like a speck of gold on top of a mountain.

The noble himself was covered in gold and jewels. He wore a large crown encased in diamonds and opals, and had a staff filled with emeralds and rubies. His glasses were silver mirrors that reflected the inquisitive looks of the peasants below.

He rose to his feet, and spoke in a booming voice.

“People of Unica!”

The crowd cheered.

“Are you ready for the event you were all waiting for?”

Everyone was standing, cheers and yells coming from everywhere. The fighters on the ring looked at each other, then at the sea of heads all around them.

“The tournament begins! May the best fighter rise above the rest, and conquer his rightful prize!”

The noble sat down. Below, by the ring, the judges and the many fake coaches-for-a-day each began to frantically move about, pulling and pushing the many C-rank fighters like they were little children.

“Too bad this shithole only gets as high as C-rank.” The noble muttered. “Aura, all ready?”

Yes, sir.

“Don’t mock me. This is necessary.”

Of course, my lord.

Charles brought a palm to his forehead in defeat. To be honest, he expected this to be embarrassing or humiliating for him, but it was not. If anything, it was the opposite.

The first two fighters were ready, and squared each other up as soon as the rest of the people left the arena. Charles gave the signal.

The fighter on the right was covered head to toe in a green hued plate armor. He had a long sword and a shield, while the other fighter seemed unarmed. In fact, he wasn’t even wearing any sort of armor to protect himself. As soon as the two saw the signal, they both bolted towards each other with great speed.

A skill. Charles nodded.

They were almost touching, when the unarmed fighter kicked off an invisible forcefield and vaulted over the head of the other fighter. The armored man spun on himself and swung his sword horizontally. The edge of the blade was quite far from where the nimble fighter was about to land, but as soon as the motion for the slash was complete, a large flaming edge appeared out of thin air and sped towards the other man.

His eyes widened in fear, and he used his invisible forcefield to support his weight, jumping high in the air on ever higher invisible platforms. When he was at the top of his ascent, he spun on himself and summoned little daggers made of stone. They cut the air with great speed, but the thick armor of the other fighter negated all the damage.

“This is boring.” Charles muttered. He rose to his feet. “Fighters! If one of you can finish the fight in one move, I’ll give you this!” He produced a large monster core.

Immediately, both combatants engaged with their best moves. The sword glowed in a golden light, while the very air around the two seemed to be comprised of little razor edges. The armored man coughed hard, and fell to one knee. The other fighter loomed closer, wielding a razor-sharp blade of compressed air. As soon as he was close, however, a blinding light cut through him, cleaving his body in two.

Charles rose to his feet from his throne, and clapped. Maintaining his noble persona, he congratulated the winner and tossed him his prize, alongside a generous amount of gold.

“Next!”

While the cleaved body of the victim of the previous fight was still being taken away, two new fighters entered the arena. Charles looked at them, then at the dead body, then at them again.

“State your names, please. The others didn’t, and it was bothersome. Also, don’t mind the dead guy. Try not to kill each other this time, or no gold for you.”

“Regurt!”

“My name is Brita, sir!”

He gave the signal to begin.

“These stupid peasants. They have no idea of what’s happening, have they? All the sweet skills we’re stealing.”

They seem to be rather disappointing so far. Aura said.

Regurt yelled, but the fight had taken quite the background role after the first few fierce blows. The two seemed to be quite similar in strength and none of the two was gaining the upper hand.

“Quite disappointing indeed, let’s hope for something better later.” He rose to his feet once again. “Fighters! Five seconds!”

Brita’s sword burst into blue flames. Regurt discarded his shield, and his spear’s tip became a bright prism of light. The light was blinding even from a large distance, and Brita was being affected by this the most. He swung his flaming sword around aimlessly, but was soon pierced by the glowing spear. The hit was not deadly, fortunately. “Or I would feel bad, you know?”

Would you? I’m pretty sure I know your brain patterns by now.

“A little? In any case, I need to do the thing.” He stood up. “Congratulations winner!” He tossed the prize. “Next!”

***

“Well then. That was completely useless.”

Giona faked a cough. “Didn’t find what you needed?”

Charles shook his head, then stared at the guild master. “I had hoped for some more, you know? It was all smoke, nothing more. Useless parlor tricks. Maybe a couple of those spells could be used in a fight, yes, but overall, they were quite disappointing. Fucking C-ranks.”

“And we lost precious time.” Giona added.

“I know! What can I say? I hoped to find some, you know, zero kelvin field that freezes everything around, or maybe someone who can turn the floor to lava, or… bah, magic is disappointing. I need to find another way, because I don’t think I can just whip up some magical MacGuffin and save the village in a few days. Should I travel to other planes, look for more powerful adventurers?”

“No,” Giona replied. “Even if I allowed you to travel via portal, which I can’t due to your arcane display in town, most B-ranks and above tend to keep their cards hidden. People know of their power, they don’t need a stupid tournament to prove it. And they don’t need money either.”

“My arcane display, eh?”

It’s all fixed now. You can use them as you please.

“Thanks Aura.” Charles looked at a confused Giona. “It’s my AI, get used to it.”

“Right… In any case, learning magic will take you too much time. Same thing for building a technological device, provided you even can. But not all is lost. I might know of something that could help us. And, coincidentally, it’s also related to your latest… ehm, expedition, as we might call it. The Metalmancer’s Castle.”