New Horizons (Emerilia Book 4)

by Michael Chatfield

  After a few moments, she let her arms drop to her sides.

  “But it would be much more fun if we did.” He grinned, giving her a quick smile, and turned for their apartment door.

  “You coming, Councilwoman Ela-Dorn? There’s adventures to be had.” He gave her a roguish wink.

  For a moment, Ela-Dorn was once again a young Orcish maiden headed off on adventures with her friends, to reveal the magical truths of Emerilia and become the strongest mage of the Aleph, right beside her own Elven knight.

  “Who made you the leader of this trip?” She smiled and caught up to Ela-Gal as he opened the door.

  Chapter 21: Breaking Space and Time

  “Okay, I’ve got the Inference skill,” Malsour said. The spell he had been using died down.

  “Good. I’m going to need to remake my armor,” Dave complained.

  “Well, you did make it let out a surge of power into the phylactery to destroy it. How is it looking?”

  Dave reached into his bag of holding and pulled out the breastplate of his armor. Holes showed through the steels and different layers; even the Mithril was heavily damaged. The under layers had been melted from the intense heat of Dave’s magical coding, melting itself, so it could destroy the phylactery.

  The front panel that formed a vault-classed soul gem had also been destroyed. Other than the front breastplate of Mithril, he only had his back plate—that was also pretty damaged, but had most of its coding intact and the soul gem hadn’t been destroyed.

  “By Fire.” Malsour shook his head at Dave’s pained expression as he held the Abscondita armor in defeat.

  “Well, everything can be fixed.” Dave put the armor away and grabbed a book from the ruins of what had been the secured books in the grand library.

  A number of them had been destroyed by the fight that had taken place, but it was not as bad as Dave had feared. Most of the books were intact and they had access to everything up to Journeyman level through their relationship with Shard.

  Here, they were cheating the system by going right to the source and getting the Master and Expert level books. With the Inference skill, it would improve the amount of information they would both retain. Their librarian classes would help as well.

  They sat down among the wreckage and read the books.

  “Okay, I think I have a rough idea of how the positioning system works. They make it really frigging complicated though.” Dave pulled out a notepad, flipping through three books around him as he started to write out a Magical Circuit.

  He sent it to Malsour, who looked up from his book to check it on his interface.

  “Makes sense to me. The math is beyond me for the most part but it should work, in my mind.”

  “Good. Now, we just have to figure out how these things can punch a hole through the physics we both know. Simple.”

  “While it might not be simple; I think I am starting to understand a few of the theories in these books. I will need some time to think about it, though.” Malsour had a thoughtful look and returned to his book, making notes on his interface’s notepad.

  Dave looked to his stats. Well, if I’m going to start putting stat points into my attributes, I might as well start now. Might help me out with this a bit. I’ll take myself up to level 16.

  Dave had thirty points that he could put into his stats, being a single point under the level 17 threshold.

  Right now, I’m a pretty balanced Player overall, but balancing my stats is just going to mess me up later. I’m going to get a massive boost to my stats by completing this quest. Also, I use my smarts more than anything else.

  With my inference skills and magical coding, I’d kick my own ass if I didn’t invest it into my own Intelligence.

  Dave dumped all of the thirty points right into his Intelligence.

  He took a deep breath as everything seemed to become clearer to him. He was able to recount information faster and with more clarity. He remembered his physics lessons from back in high school. Different articles he had read on possible space drives, possible wormhole theories.

  He opened up his interface, knowing the exact locations of the information. He took pictures of the different stacks of information, reading hundreds of pages in the space of just a half hour, sending them to Malsour as he read.

  He felt the need to read everything within reach, to consume all of the knowledge. With his higher Intelligence, the more he read, the stronger he would become. Unlike a normal human brain that had a hard time remembering what they had done the day before, or a week ago, Dave knew what he had eaten as a four-year-old.

  All the cumulative knowledge of his childhood from Earth was just waiting for him to call on it. He took a breath, becoming tired from just remembering it all. He let out a sigh, getting used to his new level of Intelligence.

  “Two people are approaching—Ela-Dorn and her husband.” Dave stood.

  “How do you know it is her husband?”

  “They have similar compounds in the air around them. Two people of different races only get that if they have spent a lot of time together. They’re also holding hands.” Dave smiled.

  “What did you do?” Malsour asked, studying Dave.

  “I just put thirty points into my Intelligence. It’s a rush.” Dave laughed. He checked his character sheet and looked at his new information.

  Character Sheet

  Name:

  David Grahslagg

  Gender:

  Male

  Level:

  16

  Class:

  Dwarven Master Smith, Friend of the Grey God, Bleeder, Librarian, Aleph Engineer, Weapons Master

  Race:

  Human/Dwarf

  Alignment:

  Chaotic Neutral

  Unspent points: 501

  Health:

  15,300

  Regen:

  5.24 /s

  Mana:

  3,330

  Regen:

  13.50 /s

  Stamina:

  2,180

  Regen:

  10.70 /s

  Vitality:

  153

  Endurance:

  262

  Intelligence:

  333

  Willpower:

  270

  Strength:

  218

  Agility:

  214

  Malsour whistled out a tune, putting his book into his bag of holding as they walked out of the restricted area of the library.

  “I’ve got it,” Malsour said as they got to the main lobby. A pillar of materials formed from the walls that had kept the undead at bay.

  “Dude, as much as I get used to this place, this is cool as hell,” Dave said with a stupid grin as they were lifted up off the ground and lowered down into the lobby.

  Malsour laughed at Dave’s almost childish excitement.

  They stepped off, exiting the library’s lobby just as Ela-Dorn and her husband reached the top of the stairs in front of the grand library.

  “Ela-Dorn, what brings you and your husband here?” Dave asked.

  Ela-Dorn’s eyes thinned as she studied Dave. “How did you know we were coming?”

  “A man must have some secrets of his own.” Dave winked.

  The Elf with Ela-Dorn was tense, but he looked amused at Dave’s actions.

  “I am Malsour. This is Dave. Good to meet you.” Malsour offered his hand to Ela-Dorn’s husband.

  “I am Ela-Gal.” The High Elf tilted his head slightly as they shook hands.

  Dave brought his fist in for a fist pump. “Damn, I’m good. Was scared you were just going to be her boyfriend.” Dave shook Gal’s hand.

  “So, it was a guess?” Ela-Dorn asked.

  “Partly, but all things are in the end. Kind of like your damn teleport pads and the portal factory.” Dave rolled his eyes.

  Even though he wasn’t looking at them, he could tell through his Touch of the Land that they had tensed up.

  “So, what brings
you to the grand library? Is there anything we might be able to help with?” Malsour asked.

  “We were wondering what you are doing about the portal factory,” Ela-Dorn said, diplomatically.

  “Well, we’re figuring out how the teleport pads that are made in the portal factory work, so that we can work backward from there to understand just what the heck the different machines are do… I’m an idiot.” Dave slapped his forehead.

  “What did you do now?” Malsour asked.

  “My mastery of Magical Circuits! I don’t need to know how to code it; that’s the slow way. I can destroy one, then with my Intelligence, I will be able to understand what the heck is going on. I have the ability to understand whatever Magical Circuits I destroy. Sure, I might not know the science behind it. Give me enough time and information and I’ll figure it out. Well, you’ll probably figure it out before me—you’re more theory smart than I am.” Dave gestured to Malsour.

  “How did we miss that?” Malsour slapped his forehead.

  Ela-Dorn cleared her throat. “I must ask, what do you wish to do with the knowledge you gain about the teleport pads?”

  Thoughts whizzed through Dave’s mind as he held up a finger. “Sorry, one minute, brain’s still going here,” Dave said, feeling like there were only a rare few moments when he would gain the inspiration he was getting now.

  “Okay.” Dave clicked his fingers. “So, you lot studied portals to make teleport pads. Portals have power sources that are just entirely massive. They tap into the Mana streams running through Emerilia. They are also set. Which is why you had so many issues! I need to destroy a teleport pad right now!” Dave started to move toward the nearest teleport pad.

  Gal made to block his way. “Could you please answer the question?”

  “Oh, yeah, sure. I have about a hundred portals that are unlinked and under my control. If I can figure out what you did to make your teleport pads, I can maybe use it with the unconnected and untraceable portals and make them connect to not only teleport pads but portals on other planets. I would need the coordinates, but I could connect multiple portals together. Right now, we have point-to-point transference. You have one portal on Emerilia that connects to one portal in another area with creatures trying to kill you. Imagine if you could dial those portals up? Just like your teleport pads but in those hostile lands. Now that I have a higher Intelligence, I can see it now. I can compile all the information on the portals. They open at a set time and close at a set time. But if we have portals, we can go in whenever we want to, at any location, the portal on this side would be in locations of our choice. Supplies are a massive bottleneck when the portals start opening. You have all these vendors but they’re looking for the portals where people are going through the most to make the most money. It might mean that in a new portal location, Players could come back to Emerilia and have to travel days before they can get their supplies! We would just have to change which portal we’re connecting to. We could do what few have been able to do. We could farm entire planets!” Dave said, a massive smile plastered on his face as he saw his dream in his eyes.

  “How is that possible?” Ela-Dorn looked to Malsour. “Is that possible?”

  Malsour laughed. Dave was already writing notes down on his interface’s notepad.

  “One thing you’re going to have to learn, Ela-Dorn. If Dave says that he can do something, he’s going to do it.”

  “Do you really control that many portals?” Ela-Gal asked.

  “Dave does.” Malsour nodded.

  “How?”

  “I built my house on them.” Dave grinned, looking a bit crazed before he went back to his notes.

  Ela-Dorn rubbed her face, as if she were developing a headache. “Do you know what kind of resource those portals are? Just having one in your possession, not to say hundreds of them, all of them unsecured and not linked to one another—do you know what we could learn from them?” It was clear that she was starting to think on her words for the first time and was surprised by the results.

  “Ah, well, we already are Aleph Engineers. We do know quite a bit about you lot. Only makes sense that you know something about us. You know alliances work only if we both have shared interests and secrets. You are trying to make an alliance with us—signs are all there. I know that the rest of the Stone Raiders will be excited. You’re kind of like an awesome myth.” Dave’s face scrunched up. “Though you’re going to want to have us keep your existence a secret. Maybe tell the Demons and Beast Kin, make an alliance with them? Though that is a big step, if you ask me. You are a bunch of introverts as a group. Anyway, means we’re going to have to keep this entire quest a secret, which is going to suck because who doesn’t like to brag? Anyway, I can use a broken teleportation pad. I don’t need to destroy one that is in working order.”

  “Have you been spying on us?” Ela-Dorn asked.

  “Nope. Shard is a very loyal AI. He wouldn’t allow us to do that, even if one of us were married to him. He literally can’t. The Aleph come first and your protection is paramount,” Dave assured them. “For right now, since I just upped my Intelligence attribute, my mind is going through a bunch of changes. Means that I’m making all kinds of things connect. Also, means I don’t have much time till it slows down, so which teleport pad can I break? I’ll make another one if this works! Promise.” Dave gave his half crazed-excited smile.

  The Elas looked to each other.

  “If we lose a broken teleport pad, we can make it again. Having someone who knows how they work is rare,” Gal said.

  “Okay, on one condition. We get one unlinked portal to study,” Ela-Dorn said.

  “You’re getting the better side of this deal, but fine.” Dave held out his hand.

  Ela-Dorn shook it.

  “Now, which teleport pad can I destroy?” Dave rubbed his hands in excitement.

  “I have a candidate lined up. It is broken and out of charge, but it should be intact enough for you to understand the teleport pads,” Shard said from above.

  Dave clapped his hands together, making Ela-Dorn jump.

  “Lead the way, my finely runed compadre!” Dave took off at a run for the nearest teleport pad.

  “Good meeting you.” Malsour then chased after his friend, who was sprinting all-out. Their speed was incredible as they cruised through the street, both Malsour and Dave with wide smiles on their faces. The future was calling to them and it was filled with more possibilities than they had hoped for that morning.

  ***

  Dave put his hands on the teleport pad. It was cracked in places and had been half eaten by something.

  With his Touch, it seemed that most of the Magical Circuits were in place and although not functioning, he could learn what they each did.

  Magical Circuits

  You have detected (damaged) Magical Circuits. Do you wish to destroy them for the chance to learn their function?

  Cost: 1,000,000 Mana

  Y/N

  Dave moved up to the teleport pad, pulling out his burnt and disheveled back plate. “Yeah, let’s see what secrets you’re hiding.”

  The area around him lit up as the runes in his armor and on his body glowed with Mana rushing through him.

  He tilted his head up, his eyes white with power as his Mana destroyed rune after rune, burning through the Magical Circuit. Information flooded his mind, faster than he could comprehend.

  ***

  Ela-Dorn covered her eyes as Dave glowed with power surging through him. She gasped. She had never seen someone channel that much power through themselves before. Ribbons of colored light rose out of the broken teleport pad, weaving through the air and moving through his glowing white eyes.

  It lasted for five or so minutes before the light died down and the teleport pad crumbled slightly, burn marks where runes had been.

  “Ugh, that sucked. I think I’m going to pass out.” Dave fell over. A shadow leapt up to grab him so he didn’t smack his head on the ground.

  �
�Well, that was one hell of a show,” Ela-Gal said.

  “Does he know how to make the Magical Circuits?” Ela-Dorn asked Malsour.

  “I guess we’ll find out when he wakes up,” Malsour said as the shadows picked Dave up. “I’m going back to the grand library. Deia is not going to be happy about him knocking himself out, so it’d be good to keep him hidden for a while and I have some books I want to read.” Malsour smiled. “Want to join me?”

  “I’m interested in how much he now knows and I do have to check on my college. It looks like it’s fallen into disrepair while I’ve been gone,” Ela-Dorn said.

  “That’s fine. Just make sure you don’t pick up any loot. We’ve got Stone Raiders going through and pulling the loot together to sell later.”

  “Fine with me. I have one question, though. What is this rune coding Dave was talking about?”

  “I hope you have your notepad ready,” Malsour said.

  Ela-Dorn could see a familiar excitement in Malsour’s eyes. Reading and gaining knowledge was half the fun of her work; teaching another about it and seeing the spark of understanding in their eyes was the other half. She wondered how much she would be able to learn from Dave, Malsour, and the rest of the Stone Raiders.

  A sense of excitement replaced the one of foreboding.

  ***

  Sato stretched in his chair. Using the Mirror of Communication in its conference mode could leave him stiff after not moving for so long.

  Sato looked around the room, his mind focused on what his people had accomplished in such a short time. It was impressive to say the least. They were already in the process of working on a stealth scout ship to find Emerilia. The defeated and downtrodden looks of his people had now been filled with hope.