***
Communications Officer Sato drank from his coffee pouch, rubbing his eyes as he looked around the large room filled with different workstations.
At every workstation, there was a Mirror of Communication with runes carved around its exterior. For three hundred years, humans had hid out on the fringes of Jukal space, using their limited and remaining technology to create homes in the asteroid fields of the Deq’ual system.
The first decades had been harsh and grueling; more people died than survived. Enough did survive that they could complete habitats, and humanity once again started to grow.
Sato had been raised on stories of the Jukal Empire. His grandfather, one of the first people to settle their home—Complex Three—had told him of the fighting. How they had come without warning, wiping out humanity as they went. Humanity’s fleets fought back, but it was a losing war. The Jukal had thousands of creatures; for every single human.
Grandfather Sato and their merchant fleet fled with their families to deep space, beyond the Jukal Empire’s reaches. They learned of Sol system’s destruction: the Jukal, after four years of war, bombed the sun and turned it into a supernova, destroying everything out to Jupiter. Then, they sent in planet busters to destroy anything bigger than a corvette warship.
Sato had lived off the stories and, like countless other humans, he vowed revenge. They used the Jukal’s tech and started trying to see whether there was anyone else out there to work with. They had come into contact with three other settlements but all of them kept information like numbers and locations secret.
They had been talking now for over a hundred years when Sato applied to be a communications officer.
That was when they first connected to someone who called himself a mage on a planet called Emerilia. He had heard of Earth but he said that only the “Players” talked about the planet. He said that the Players all said that they were from Earth. For years, they had pumped the man for information. The People of Emerilia came from multiple human sub-species, with all manner of names. The Players also came from these other races, but they were much stronger and they used the rebirth technology of the Jukal.
They also said that they were from the year 2049. They would disappear for a year or two and then reappear, once again saying they were from Earth and the year 2049. They were able to get a rough location of where Emerilia was. The mage acted as a link, passing them Jukal technology information. They would send him back a few magical ideas so that he was comfortable.
Sato had never seen anything like it. The entire colony benefited from the technology until they’d suddenly received a rushed message saying that someone was after him. After that, there had been no communication from him since.
Sato, as the communications officer for the colony, was responsible with trying to connect to the Mirror of Communication every few months.
He worked his holographic interface as the call went out. The runes flared in colors.
Mirror of Communication
Connection established with Communication Mirror Codename Emerilia…
Redirection, separate terminal discovered. Connecting…
Sato sat up. The mirror had never done this before!
Mirror of Communication
Connection established with Communication Mirror subset mobile device
Sato looked at the screen but it remained black. “The hell is wrong with this thing?” It was impossible to trace communication mirrors, so Sato wasn’t worried that the Jukal Empire would somehow track him down.
Light started coming from the side.
“Huh, I didn’t think that the Dwarven council was supposed to contact me for another few weeks,” a gruff male voice said as the screen moved.
Sato looked at a ceiling, and then at a floor, which looked to have scorch marks on it. It was flipped around and he found himself looking at a bearded man.
“Damn, it worked! I didn’t know if the connection bypass would work on that other mirror!” The man grinned happily, pointing at the mirror and then pointing Sato at all manner of different people. It was too fast for Sato to figure out anything more than general characteristics.
“Excuse me, who are you?” Sato asked, not really believing what he was seeing.
“Come on, let us talk in the conference room; bit easier than this stuff,” the bearded man said.
User David Grahslagg requests that you use the conference function. Do you accept this request?
Y/N
“Yes.” Sato touched the side of the mirror.
The communications room disappeared and he seemed to be in a comfortable-looking home, with two chairs in front of a fireplace that held a flickering fire.
“I’m Dave.” The bearded man from before, moving from the seats and holding out his hand.
“Sato.”
“Well, good to meet you, Sato. Sorry, I didn’t pick up those other calls—was rather busy at the time. You must be what is left of humanity.” Dave moved to the seats and waved for Sato to join him.
“I’m sorry, but how do you know these things?”
“Well, I have a very interesting friend who told me most of the information about Emerilia and its people.”
“Ahh, Alexanderi still lives? We were wondering why he had not contacted us again. We feared that he might have been killed off by the Jukal Empire.”
“Oh, I don’t know any Alexanderi and the place where I found the Mirror of Communication looked like it hadn’t seen a resident in some time. Sorry.” Dave scratched his head.
Sato had talked to Alexanderi for many hours and had missed those talks, but right now he had another possible source of information right in front of him.
“You said Emerilia and its people—are you not someone of Emerilia?”
“Kind of. I’m a Player,” Dave said.
“Shouldn’t you be conditioned to think that this is all a game then?” Sato asked, scared that he would lose his source of information almost as soon as he found it.
Dave laughed; it was a hard and cruel thing. “I was at one time, though I’m something of a special case. Thankfully, someone found me and told me about what Emerilia and Earth really are. I know the truth about Sol being destroyed, about the Empire sustaining such heavy losses in the war that they needed something to fight the aggressive species on their behalf. I know that humanity in all its forms was nearly wiped out and that you are probably one of a very few groups of true humans who survived. I know that I and all the People of Emerilia started off in a test tube, grown to populate Emerilia and play it.”
“So that is what Emerilia is? A place to test humanity?” Sato recorded everything Dave said; it was information gold.
“In a way, I guess. We were used in the beginning, without knowing it, to kill off aggressive species that were threatening the empire. Then, the Jukal Empire started watching; it got entertaining. Now, we’re just gladiators in the universe’s biggest coliseum.”
“Could you start from the beginning?” Sato asked.
“Well, I’m currently in some impressive dungeon. So, I need to get back to my friends. Do you have the ability to pull information from a Mirror of Communication?”
“Yes.” Sato nodded.
“Very well. I’ve got some notes that will be helpful. I don’t know when I’ll be free to talk again, but the notes detail everything I know and the history of Emerilia. We’ll talk soon. Hopefully, I’ll be able to help you out some. It’s about time we taught the Jukal Empire that we are not bugs that they keep around for their entertainment.”
Chapter 8: Old Systems
“So, what was that?” Suzy asked as Dave started to move again. He’d been sitting still, holding a mirror in his hand for five minutes or so.
He blinked a few times and stretched.
“Uggh, I can see that being really uncomfortable after some time.” Dave put the mirror away as he rose. “That was what is left of humanity. After the Dwarves gave me this thing, they said that I can connect
it to any other Mirror of Communication. Like the one I have back on the seeder. I did so and they called me up. Their timing is a bit bad, but now that I have their mirror’s codes, I can call them up whenever.”
“So real humans, from Earth?” Malsour asked.
“Well, I doubt that any of them would say from Earth, but yeah, not test-tube creations like us lot,” Dave said.
“What did they want?” Deia asked.
“Information. I sent them all I know about Emerilia and the different things that have gone on here. It might be really useful having people like that in our corner,” Dave said.
“We should be careful with them, just in case it’s some Jukal plot,” Anna added, tossing Dave two items.
He caught them, finding two rings.
Ring of Minor Health
+700 to Health Points
Ring of Vitality Fortification
+15% to Vitality stat
“Yeah, that might be handy!” Dave smiled. He was feeling pretty conscious about his low Health attributes. Most people put their stat points into Vitality as it was so hard to level up but as he hadn’t put in a single stat point anywhere and tried to not get hit as much as possible, it was growing very slowly.
“Everyone do a stat check and let’s see how we’re looking before we go any further,” Deia said.
Dave didn’t quite rub his hands together but he smiled as he opened up his notifications.
Active Skill: Archery
Level: Journeyman Level 7
Effect: Critical Hit chance increases by 28%. Ranged targets take 10% increased damage.
Cost: 10 Stamina
Active Skill: Sneak Attack
Level: Journeyman Level 4
Effect: When you are undetected in stealth, attacks will hit with 296% increased damage (Massive increased when hitting Critical area). May your aim be true.
Cost: (Attack 50 Stamina)
Active Skill: Stealth
Level: Journeyman Level 7
Effect: 57% chance to remain undetected (reduced in direct light).
Cost: 5 Stamina/second
Passive Skill: Night Vision
Level: Master Level 3
Effect: 89% increased night vision. 15% increased vision in magical darkness.
Racial bonus: Dwarves, even half-Dwarves, are at home in the darkness of mines and their empires dug underneath mountains. +25% increased night vision (+5% in magical darkness).
Active Skill: Inference
Level: Novice Level 9
Effect: 21% increased chance of understanding moves you’ve read in books.
Stat Increase
+3 Strength
+3 Intelligence
+4 Agility
+2 Vitality
Level 71
You have reached level 71; you have 340 stat points to use.
Dave pulled up his character sheet.
Character Sheet
Name:
David Grahslagg
Gender:
Male
Level:
3
Class:
-
Race:
Human/Dwarf
Alignment:
Chaotic Neutral
Unspent points-340
Health:
3,300
Regen:
2.24/s
Mana:
1,550
Regen:
6.60/s
Stamina:
890
Regen:
4.30/s
Vitality:
33
Endurance:
112
Intelligence:
155
Willpower:
132
Strength:
89
Agility:
86
“Nice.” Dave put on the Ring of Minor Health and then the Ring of Vitality Fortification. “I’ll take that.” He looked at the new Health point bar on his main screen, it showed a bar of 4,495. “Annoying that it doesn’t stack but that would kind of be cheating.”
It would still take just a few good hits to put him down if he had anything less than his armor on, though it made him less scared that some errant breeze might kill him.
“Everyone good?” Deia looked around as people were trying out different loot that they had received. Most had been thrown into their bags to be sorted through later. There was nothing of rare or unique quality, so it would be added to things for Suzy to sell.
“Well, let’s go and finish this dungeon off then. Anna, you’ve got point,” Deia said. The party moved into their positions.
***
Many miles away, a screen turned on. Lines of information scrawled across it.
Program start> Guardian activation protocol…substation H2983. Trespassers; breach recognized. Two forces at play.
Command system override…Portal connection possible, scouting force ready. Scout Guardian activated and online…Permissions criteria met.
In front of the screen, a large open area—not too dissimilar to the teleporting room that Party Zero had moved through—started to move. The semicircle at the front of the room moved; sections of runes dropped down and rose up to change the formation. The runes on the floor and walls glowed with blue light as the ceiling opened.
A skinny humanoid creature with black and gray armor covered with silver runes was lowered into its charging station. Sections closed over its body. It opened its eyes, stepped out of its cradle and walked toward the semicircle at the front of the room. The room seemed to buzz with energy as the runes became brighter than the Mana lights around the room.
“Commands understood; carrying out operation,” the scout guardian said. Its cradle and attached crane receded into the ceiling. Just before it reached the semicircle, a shimmering arch of energy snapped into existence, showing another identical room.
The scout guardian didn’t even pause as it headed through the portal. It closed the second the scout guardian made it through.
Scout Guardian en route…Mission: Find disturbance, observe, and report back with findings. Execute destruction protocols if deemed necessary…Shard will continue observations and overlook Guardianship of Aleph Master’s homes. Connections lost to 60% of Aleph constructs. Energy drain at 10 percent. New power sources required…Moving to Standby Mode.
The room’s lights and runes dimmed. The screen’s singular blinking icon was the only light in the entire massive underground complex.
***
Deia looked over a massive room. They had found the kobolds’ settlement. It looked like multiple transport rooms, like those that Dave had studied. The silver had been left alone on these runes, though one couldn’t see it with all the kobold homes that covered the area.
Multiple holes had been made in the walls, probably leading to other kobold homes. The small village had over a hundred kobolds in it, from levels 120 to 230.
Being underground would make it easier for them to gain levels in relative peace. She saw a fight between two groups of kobolds. They bloodied one another, but didn’t go so far as to kill one another.
There are always different ways to train.
Party Chat
Deia> I don’t think that we can take them all on with just us.
Dave> What if we hit them with some nasty sneak attacks like yours and Induca’s cannons and then my lightning balls?
Suzy> Do you know how stupid that sounds?
Induca> Someone’s got a dirty mind…
Deia shook her head, smiling as the conversation went well and truly off the rails.
Party Chat
Suzy> Hey! It was implied. Whose side are you on anyways?
Induca> Nothing is fair in love and war.
Dave> I feel something strange.
Deia> Really, Dave?
Dave> No, actually, it felt like a large power disturbance.
The lights flickered, as if hearing him.
Party Chat
Suzy> The hell wa
s that?
Malsour> Something that takes a considerable amount of energy. Portal?
Dave> That’s what I’m thinking but I can’t sense any of the portals nearby activating.
Anna> The Aleph are secretive. Do you think that they would have all of their portals out in the open? Or, that they would not have a security measure?
Deia> What kind of security measures are we talking?
Anna> If we’re lucky, a Scout Guardian. If we’re not, it could be a Prime.
Dave> The fuck is a Prime—like Optimus Prime?
Anna> A Prime is a massive automaton with the ability to fire spears from its hands and so heavily armored that it takes hits from a level 300 to just get through the armor.
Dave> That’s cool and all, but can they turn into a truck?
Deia> Dave, try to see if you can find this guardian. Anna, what do we do if we find this guardian?
Anna> We lay down our weapons and try to talk to it. Being marked as Aleph aggressors is not a good idea.
***
Connecting to substation systems… Life signs detected… classified as kobold… Group of other creatures also found. Signs of battle found. Integrating information logs. Kobold aggressive forces, party of Players, unknown objectives…Sub-code information… Players highly volatile. More information required. Kobolds harming substation systems. Classified as low Intelligence species, reasoning deemed unviable. Possibility to use Players to destroy kobolds. Performance impressive in prior altercations between groups. Connecting to Shard; uploading information.
For The Guild (Emerilia Book 2) Page 10
