Luca DR
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Edge of apocalypse 68
🕑 Added 2023-06-20 16:41:33 +0000 UTCAlbert paced around the Lair, nursing what must have been the worst and most persistent headache he had ever had. If this was what happened after only one use of an unstable skill, he didn’t even want to begin thinking about what would happen when he inevitably would have to use more of them. Be it either to make more wands or because a fight would break out where he needed to use his new powers to survive and/or because otherwise it would all go to hell. He knew he would have to, sooner or later.
The system was not that soft as to give him some new power only for him not to use it. Besides, even if it was the case, his mother surely was not. He saw it in her face when he recovered from the backlash – unaffected by his resistances by the way – that as soon as she noticed the healing wand still had charge left, she was thinking about doing it again.
It made sense, and he couldn’t really blame her. Even though on the planetary front things had been rather quiet as of late (barring the revelation that the HDF not only was going to be useless in their fight against the Lithoid Pilgrims, but that it was probably going to help them and not the planet), the fate of the world was at stake, and she was going to do everything in her power to avoid catastrophe.
Albert just wished it would have been a stranger to force him to go through with all the suffering, and not his mother. The fact that it was his mother made it much more emotionally complex to handle.
Not to mention that she was on her way to brainwash his best friend right now.
Which meant that it was a good time to do something else and get his mind off the gutter. There were a few quests he wanted to get done, and that he could get done rather quickly.
He had received a very nice message earlier, and while he had been too busy to take stock of it before – with the brain hemorrhage and all – now he could finally allow himself to smile.
>From: transit global.
>Items ready for exchange. Pickup at Temalas City. Drop-off at Location 3 – Tokyo.
It was all a matter of teleporting, storing and teleporting again. Location three was already in the map from an earlier trip alongside Location two and four (Berlin), while Location one was Singapore.
Slowly but surely the whole world was going to be a single long-range teleportation away!
***
“Okay, ready?” Albert said, unloading the first set of crates from his inventory.
“Ready.” The Lair said.
It absorbed half of them immediately, but then Albert noticed that the rate of absorption was slowing down.
“Everything okay?” He asked.
“Low on mana.” The Lair replied.
“Why? What did you use it for?”
“I used a lot of energy to mine and transmute all the materials needed for a secondary house. For your grandfather.”
“Ah, right. Here, take these.”
The tinkling sound of a couple hundred mana crystals resonated in the empty space of the warehouse. It was a full inventory slot worth of them. Albert could literally feel the Lair recoil with surprise.
“Mana crystals? How do you have so many of them?”
“Every hour I regenerate enough mana to almost fill my whole pool even when I'm full already. I take the excess mana and make it into crystals. They last ten hours, even when in my inventory.” Albert explained.
“Oh, clever.”
“From now on I'll try to give you the crystals that are about to expire so you can use them.”
A short moment of silence followed. As the Lair absorbed the last crates, Albert examined his inventory. He had done his due diligence in the form of an afternoon spent in ‘fixation mode’ and tested all the ways he could use his inventory ability creatively.
(On a side note, he also realized that he needed to develop a way to quickly snap off of this mode, or it would become quite dangerous in time. He had become worse and worse at handling it, which was worrying. Especially if paired with a use of Analysis Mode, which only amplified the condition.)
Studying his inventory had been a very disappointing afternoon. The system didn’t seem to like the idea of using the inventory in any other way than how it was supposed to be used. That was, only the more ‘classical’ uses were allowed. Storing a crate? Sure. Storing a lot of the same item? Of course.
Storing a full lake of water in a single slot? Nope. Depositing ten tons of stone while in midair to drop them onto someone? Again, no.
The latter wasn’t too big of a deal because Albert could just extract the stone, lift it and teleport while lifting it. Which meant that he should raise his [Strengthening] a bit. If only he had more time!
As soon as the Lair was done absorbing, a notification saved Albert from spending too much time thinking about magic.
Quest: Coreful Setup II Complete!
· The Lair can acquire basic resources from its environment, but it can’t produce more complex materials.
· Provide the following:
o 100kg Glass scrap
o 200kg Plastic scrap
o 150kg Metal scrap
o 10kg Mixed electronic scrap
· Reward: Lair Control Room expansion.
“…aaaalright? How does it work?” Albert asked.
There was a sort of crunching sound coming from upstairs which he didn’t really like.
“Just go there.” The Lair said.
Shrugging, Albert teleported to the formerly empty Control Room. He paused, catching his breath as his eyes feasted on what he saw. He was, as many other people like him, a huge tech nerd. Always had been.
To say that the Control Room was like being in heaven was not an understatement. It took a couple of seconds for Albert to regain the ability to speak. Then he spent a few minutes examining all the high-tech equipment, computers, screens, consoles and hologram displays down to their most minute detail.
“This is some stuff.” He said in the end.
“Glad you like it!” The Lair replied proudly.
Albert couldn’t see it, but the Lair core in his room was shining with pride at the compliments. Both spoken and unspoken.
“That’s… something. Really impressive, Lair. Really impressive.”
“You also told me you have the AM-III glass, right?”
Albert’s face twitched. “Oh, right! Here.”
Quest: Leviathan Diversion II Complete!
· Acquire AM-III glass
· Reward: Minor ring of protection upgrade.
A faint light enveloped the steel ring on his right index finger. After the light died, Albert studied the artifact with interest. He wiggled his eyebrows as a smile crawled on his facial features, noticing the little glittering gems illuminated by the low sun filtering in through the Open Office windows.
[Ring of Protection: This Ring will protect the wearer from any incoming physical, magical or radiation damage until its charge is depleted. Once depleted it will take a few hours to recharge. In addition to shielding from damage, the Ring will also provide breathable air when in space, underwater or in hostile environment, depleting its charge in the process.]
“Oh… well. The day is officially no longer ruined!”
***
Sleeping in his own personal room in the Lair was the closest thing to a blissful sleep Albert had ever experienced. He had always had problems falling asleep in the past. At home, he would spend at least a full hour awake in bed, tossing and turning, thinking about the most disparate things until his brain shut down in literal desperation for sleep.
Here, in the Lair, Albert could finally understand how it felt to be a fast sleeper. He finally knew how people like Colin felt when they said that as soon as their head touched the pillow, they were off to dreamland. It was heaven.
Morning rolled over, and the Lair gradually opened the blinders to let some natural light in and wake Albert up. Soon after, while he was having breakfast (he had to bring milk and cereal from home, the Lair could still not make them from scratch), the Lair notified him that someone was coming.
Elves, he thought. Who else could it be?
He went downstairs to greet them, and as he waited, he took a good look at Lloyd’s new house up the mountain. It was a nice wooden cottage, very cozy-looking if not a bit far.
The elves got closer. He recognized Eurus and Elle with her mother. There were three more trailing behind them, but he had never seen them before.
“Welcome!” He said. “To my humble… uh… piece of industrial brutalist architecture that ruins the looks of your valley or whatever.”
Eurus laughed.
“Ugly like you.” Elle said.
Albert pretended to be deeply hurt, putting his hands on his hips and making a face, which made the little elf girl laugh.
“To what do I owe the visit?” He asked after a while.
“What, can’t we come and visit sometimes?” Eurus said.
Albert hummed, cocking his head. “Come on.” He said. He let them in and had them settle in the Open Office. Elle went straight to the sofa, while the others sat on the chairs at the central table. The Lair had not only created temporary stairs to get there, but had also provided water and some refreshments from the very furnished fridge it hid somewhere in its depths. Courtesy of Albert’s mother, who was clearly (sometimes) still a mother and not only a badass military woman.
“What is it?” Albert asked.
Eurus sighed. “Before I say anything… I would have never come to ask you for yet another favor had we not already tried everything we could and failed.”
“I understand, Eurus. You know I’m always happy to help in any way I can.”
“Thank you. It really means a lot. The matter is dire: the shield around Elvenhome valley… it’s shrinking, and fast. Already we have lost a lot of land down to the south, and it won’t be long until the edges of our villages are exposed to what lies outside.”
Albert hummed. The racial evolution quest for the Psionic trait had mentioned the shield, but among all the things he had to do, Albert had forgotten about it. He told Eurus.
“Don’t beat yourself up. In elven terms, although it’s no longer the case, you would be just a kid. From what I know about you, you are already being put through more than even I think I could handle.”
“Thanks…”
“All that matters now is that we find a solution. You live here too, after all. It might be selfish of us to ask you to be quick because our village is in peril, but you will have to get it done sooner or later.”
Albert smiled. This man knew how to make his gears turn. “I think I might know how to help you. I have a hunch.”
Well, the hunch was actually the Quest Albert was looking at. But the elves couldn’t see it, therefore he could at least claim to have been the one to think of a solution.
Quest: Racial Evolution – Psionic.
· Find a way to make Perception Level 5 usable.
· Plant the Iperborea Seed to restore the shield around Elvenhome.
· Cross to the other side.
· Return.
· Reward: Race evolved into Psionic Human.
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