I can’t imagine the limit of the capabilities of our Master. Every time I am surprised even more. Glory to the System. We are under his powerful arm. What do you think, Sister?
Uyu appreciatively looked at her brother with such a look, as if she wanted to say something. Leil understood her and encouraged her with a nod.
She whispered almost noiselessly, “You are right, Brother, and it seems that Yar does not even know about his possibilities and their consequences: grandiose, epochal consequences.”
Leil started up with interest, slowly, as if an insect, as he moved closer to his sibling and whispered in the same tone, “What do you mean, my sister?”
Uyu paused but decided that Leil should know it first.
“Leil, take it,” she handed him a usual wooden stick, “Bite and be silent.”
Her brother had seen a lot in his lifetime, knowing full well that his sister would not offer anything like that without an important reason, and so he obeyed.
Uyu rose slightly and whispered in his ear, “The fact is, my brother, that all of our elf-girls, to whom the Master has changed the energy component, have full return of their reproductive functions.”
Stunned by such news, Leil spat out the stick and wheezed, “But how? Who knows? And you?”
Uyu shrugged, “I have. It seems that only the system knows how Yar did it. As those who are aware of that news. Anyway, all the girls of the clan know—it is impossible to hide it from friends. I’m sure, if earlier the Shadows respected the Master as an indisputable force, now they literally idolize him. They are calling him the Messiah. I am also ready to serve him faithfully. Can you, Leil, even imagine what will happen if the other elven clans learn about such a unique and powerful person?”
“I can imagine,” Leil wheezed while still being in prostration.
“Right, a complete change of everything. Many elves will not even hesitate, they will instantly go over under the guidance of the Master,” Uya summed up.
They fell silent, each thinking about their own. Finally, Leil whispered to his sister, “Uyu, you must be prudent. Immediately request an audience with the Master—such important information cannot be hidden. You know we can handle things without you.”
***
Yar, shaking his head, looked at the amusing fiery essence. ‘Burn’ was having fun without interruption. Its strikes, the height of the approach, the area of boiling magma, its temperature, and many other data reflected on the dome before him. As the owner of the tower, he approached the picture and turned to his fiery prankster.
“‘Burn’! Stop it! Fly into orbit. A lot of junk flies there, you need to burn it.”
“Yes, Master! A-ha-ha!” Burn roared in a basso profundo and flew up into the sky like a fireball.
“Phew,” Yar exhaled. “It stunned me somewhat, but I thought it would have been more difficult.” He waved his hand toward the now almost invisible form of ‘Burn’ as it disappeared above.
The Guardian of the Tower appeared and sat down on Yar’s index finger, clutching it tightly with its paws and squeaking, “Master, this is your creature. You must know: tell it to die , and it will die without hesitation.”
Although Mimi involuntarily caused Yar to smile and feel tenderness, he restrained himself and said as seriously as possible, “Thank you, Mimi. I will consider this information for the future.”
Mimi made a dead loop and twittered, smiling, showing its small white teeth. “I am glad to serve and be useful to the Master of the ‘Star Key’.”
“It is appreciated,” Yar said and looked at the dome zone, where the search for the Dark World and the Laboratory was ongoing.
He said confidently, “Find the lefars’ planet, Tyrr.” He didn’t even have time to exhale before a spinning greenish ball with the inscription ‘Tyrr’ and a lot of information appeared before him on the dome.
“Wow! Find the Recus’ School!” Yar commanded and he immediately saw the school from a bird’s eye view in real time. Construction work took place around the familiar man-made rock.
“Well done, lefars, you don’t waste your time. It looks like they must be working in three shifts.” Yar zoomed in closer, recognizing Ree and Ars arguing about something. The tower foresaw Yar’s desire, noting in green circles all recommended places for opening a portal at a distance of a yard near the lefars. Yar could not restrain himself, and so he shouted, “Portal transfer!”
***
The explosion flashed before his eyes, and he immediately heard the joyful and loud sound of Tria Ars’ roar.
“Ayur is at school!”
“Hooray! Hooray!” Voices sounded everywhere; it seemed that the lefars had gladly adopted this earthly word.
“Hello, Recus!” Squinting from the starlight, Yar shouted, his arms outstretched before him.
They embraced. Tegen Ree, threatening the lefars with all sorts of punishments, called on the entire school to stop the spontaneous jubilation that had arisen and continue with their work. The students were clearly unhappy, but they didn’t contradict their Mentor. All returned to work.
“I have a problem,” Yar said without preamble.
The lefars grinned.
“Again?” Ars said with a sparkling smile, almost bursting into laughter.
“We didn’t even doubt it. You, as the Master of Complications, are never without them,” Ree added.
Yar, taking the friendly jokes calmly, responded, “I have almost nineteen thousand people under me. They are all talented. I want to send them to the Dark World urgently.”
“Send them all! Don’t hesitate. We can handle it. I’ll wind the clock tomorrow,” Ree snarled confidently, looking at the building progress going on around them.
Yar embraced both lefars with a sigh of regret. “Friends, I’m sorry. I’m pressed for time. I must leave.”
“We know,” Ars said sadly.
“Yar, take care…” was all Yar managed to hear before he transferred back to the Star Key.
Chapter 20. Armor
“T here is no place like home,” Yar noted, feeling the positive impact of both the tower and the magical forest as he returned. “Guardian, how much time do we have before colliding with the light elves’ unit?” he immediately asked.
Mimi jumped out of the portal almost at the end of his nose, immediately filling the space of the dome with the buzz of its wings.
“A little more than ten minutes in real external time, Master,” Mimi squeaked and then rested on Yar’s shoulder.
“Very good, Mimi.” Yar walked around the edge of the dome, thinking on further actions.
“What do we have?” he mulled aloud. “Taking into account the internal ability to slow time by a thousand times over, it turns out that I will have almost seven days if I remain within the tower. Well, this time should be more than enough for me to do everything thoughtfully.” Yar had something to continue to think about.
Of all the upcoming events, the most exciting was the issue of placing the children. At first, Yar wanted to leave them all here, at the tower, in the hope that the magic forest could protect them. But remembering his future plans, he soon understood that it was too risky. He did a few more laps around the room and finally established his plan. His Guardian apparently liked the plan very much too — its fur stood on end.
Giggling and rubbing its paws, Mimi screamed in ultrasound, “Yuhuu! Bravo, Master! Oh, you’re dangerous! So very dangerous! Hehehehe! However, this is definitely feasible—according to the rules of the Intergalactic Gaming Code. That’s awesome!” There was another joyous burst of ultrasound.
The emotional Guardian made a hundredth dead loop, laughing intermittently, and this laughter resembled a creaking door in the dollhouse. Yar chose to cross to the opposite edge of the dome.
It was more than a little difficult to keep himself from the infectious fun, but Yar succeeded. Thank the system, he withstood, and he even asked his assistant, “Eva, please mark the location of all the unique people
, and about a dozen highly talented adults, that have the best leadership qualities—in your opinion.”
“Yes, Master,” the assistant replied, and Yar saw bright green marks appear on the map.
“Lyan, the armor of Prince Shadow of the Moon,” he commanded and immediately felt a change: an unrestrained lightness appeared, and his body felt as though it was weightless. The sense of smell and sensitivity was also clearly strengthened. It was impossible to describe in words what he felt.
Yar was then distracted by a sharp voice, “Your order is fulfilled, Master. The original armor is involved, and the stat points of the artifact are at maximum,” he said.
“Wait, wait, Lyan. Why is it the original armor? After all, as far as I understand it, I always wore an imitation. Am I mistaken? Explain.”
“Master, you have the original armor. Only my creator, Vey the Shamrock, can answer how it has been implemented.”
Yar could only shrug and admire this incredible armor.
Indeed, it seems like the original. He couldn’t disagree with Lyan because the armor radiated the highest authority and seemingly unlimited possibilities. Yar didn’t know who had created this miracle, but this did not prevent him from admiring the work of the ancient masters of the Moon Shadow clan.
The parade armor was probably created during the period of the highest point in the development of this elven clan, Yar guessed, touching the chain mail on his chest with excitement. When I have time, I will definitely ask Uyu to tell me more about its background. Now I have a lot to do.
The transfer of chosen talented people—including Arthur and Taisia—to the tower went without any tensions or complications. Yar got up from his chair slowly, so as not to shock the guys with his flying throne, because it was cooler than in the planetarium inside the tower. He approached his recently arrived friends.
The people viewed the fantastic environment around them with undisguised surprise and admiration.
“Great,” Yar spoke softly when he saw Machete among the people.
Yar looked: they were all visibly afraid, except for his friend from the meat corral, Taisia, Arthur and, it seemed, the youngest little girl, Alice. The clan leader approached them all, greeted everyone, embraced the children, and removed all of their negative emotions.
Then Yar spoke. “Friends, I welcome you again! Don’t be afraid of anything. Feel at home in the Star Key; while you look around, I need to set up some urgent organizational matters here. It takes literally five minutes. Then I will explain everything—including what is happening now and what is waiting for you ahead.”
Yar stepped aside and addressed the Guardian mentally, Mimi, can we accommodate thirty people in the tower for six or seven days?
“Master, we can accommodate all of them. If you allow me use of the Exchange, I must complete the tower with everything you would need: from food and clothing to attendants.”
Yar immediately responded, “Guardian Mimi is allowed access to the Exchange and a budget of one hundred million gold. Don’t worry about the money; take the best. I just want to add that the tower will require several specialists for professional work on the Exchange.”
The Guardian squealed enthusiastically and seemed to have lost its voice.
“Treasurer! Head of a warehouse! I want to see you,” Yar called.
“We are here, Master. Can we help you?” two creatures responded in unison. They seemed to be siblings: small in stature, with slanted, surprisingly attentive red-slit eyes. There was something birdlike in the jerky movements of their heads, in their flat, emotionless faces. Yar paid close attention to his feelings: no, these tower workers did not evoke disgust or other negative emotions within him, rather, on the contrary, he felt intuitive respect for both of them.
Yar did not know why he decided to ask a frank question. It came out subconsciously and tactlessly, and he even felt some discomfort and awkwardness in asking.
“What can you tell about yourselves?”
After a short pause, a frowning more than a little, the creature standing to the right and differing from its fellow with deeper red eyes, answered, “Master, we have neither names nor bodies. We don’t remember who we used to be. We don’t know anything except our skills. In our residual minds, we can only see that we once belonged to the skilchin race from the planet Triorra, and our skills indicate that we used to serve in large organizations.”
After another tense pause, the skilchin continued to talk. It was clearly a difficult conversation for it to manage.
“The skilchins are not warriors. The skilchins like numbers and never cheat—this is our dignity. The master elves decided that we would be even more effective in serving them without our bodies and memories. Therefore, they fully destroyed the skilchins, and a new creature appeared on the entity market in their place. That’s all we know, Master. By bowing down, we hope to earn ourselves our names by working for you.”
Yar could not restrain himself and swore while thinking, These light elves are bastards! It seems that these skilchins are not as simple as they seem at first glance. Not all information is lost forever—they have managed to remember or learn something—but they clearly have secrets.
Mentally, Yar asked the Guardian, Mimi, how do the tower workers develop?
Master, our level grows as the level of the tower does, which is equal to your development, only in special measures of calculus. I want to note that the twelfth level is very high. In addition, I can also say that there are individual growth levels, which depend on the quality indicators of the working place. For example, the size of the treasury is important for the Treasurer, the volume of the stored property and its value for the Head of the warehouse, the Guardian explained.
I see, Mimi. Thanks. Follow these instructions: when choosing a group to work on the stock exchange, take into account the preferences of both the Treasurer and the Head of the warehouse, and let them be skilchins , Yar ordered.
Yes, Master. They are the most expensive in the financial sphere, the Guardian squeaked cheerfully and joyfully in response.
Yar thought a little as he walked back and forth and then he asked his assistant,
“Eva, tell me: how many skilchins work in financial structures?”
Eva answered quickly as if she had been waiting for this very question, “Master, there are no such statistics in the system, and even more surprisingly, my requests are being rejected.”
Aha, here is another sign. Yar silently rubbed his palms. Looks like I’ve found another weak spot in the empire of the light elves.
“So, I’ll name you!” Yar turned to the beings who stood up, solemnly bowing their heads. “Treasurer, you will be James, and you, Warehouse Manager, you will be John. If you want to change these names, I won’t mind. Now, James, John, take the sub-report, warehouse and treasury.” Yar continued by making the necessary manipulations in his subspace repository, leaving only some vital things and money available for himself.
“Oh!” Both creatures gasped, having received notifications of the luxurious values now available to them, and both of them seemingly had gone to get lost in nirvana for the foreseeable future.
Yar moved over to his people through a short portal.
“Taisia, Arthur, have you examined everything as requested? I mean the shopping centers and customs adjacent to the airport.”
Both nodded, but Taisia spoke first in her amusing manner: with a sparkle in her eyes and talking about many things at once, seizing Yar by his hand, apparently, so that he couldn’t run away as she spoke.
“Yar, I don’t recognize you in this armor. You look like a real emperor,” she gushed, before getting to the facts. “There are many goods in the shopping center, especially in the customs terminals. The Shadows, Arthur and I looked in these, and in the three terminals everything was packed to capacity. You know, Tiel Gon is a qualified elf. He’s great!” She showed her admiration. “Yar, can I have hair like Uyu? All the girls in the camp admire them.”
; With difficulty, Yar managed to free his hand from this beautiful, persistent girl’s grasp. He had to promise that he would make her hair better even than Uyu’s.
“Ugh!” Yar exhaled with relief. “Thank you for your work, friends. Now, please support these guys—they were completely taken aback there.” He pointed to the candidates selected by Eva that were still stood around feeling confused and depressed.
Yar then quickly found Tiel on the tactical map. He noted this elf from the day he met Taisia and Arthur.
“Tiel!” Yar turned to the elf, who responded instantly.
“I am listening to your order, Master,” Tiel replied.
“Take all the free Shadows, collect all the goods in the district from all shopping centers and customs terminals, and gather all you find in a row. The ‘Star Key’ tower will then store everything you collect.”
“Yes, Master,” the elf shouted, already on the run.
The Shadows are gorgeous as always, Yar thought, in a better mood.
He inhaled, exhaled, and then addressed the Warehouse manager, “John, get ready for the arrival of these goods—there will be a lot of them. If necessary, call the servants. From my understanding, there seem to be four of them here. Let them work in the warehouse for you.”
“Yes, Master. Don’t worry; everything will be received, sorted and placed properly,” the Warehouse manager said confidently.
“Wow!” Yar exclaimed, pleased with his new recruit’s efficiency.
He was about to approach the people present in the tower, when the humming Guardian appeared next to his ear with a suggestion.
“Master, the room—the one that is more convenient for your upcoming conversation—is ready. I suggest you and your guests move there.”
“Okay, Mimi,” Yar answered simply. He didn’t even feel the blinking of light as they moved. Yar himself would have cried out like everyone else, but the current circumstances obliged him to keep an imperturbable silence.
Chapter 21. Alice
Dark Legacy Page 10
