The whole station felt as if it were brighter. No longer were they just sitting on the rim of inhabited space, trying to survive and avoid detection. They were improving themselves and becoming stronger. Tomorrow wasn’t as bleak as it was just a few months ago. There was hope, and hope was a powerful drug.
It’s also why everyone is pressuring me to let Captain Adams go and check out a few star systems, to check on the validity of Bob’s information.
“How does the crew feel?” Sato looked to Adams.
“They’re ready; they want to be let off the leash, sir.” She paused. “I agree with them.”
“The new corvette is operating well?” Sato looked to them both.
“There were issues in the beginning, but Edwards’s people went over it with a fine-tooth comb,” Adams assured him.
“Everything checks out on our end; she works better than we hoped. These runes are a lot more stable than we thought. They’ve decreased the number of moving parts by an impressive margin. There’s actually not a whole lot that could break that easily. The crew all has a basic understanding of magical coding. If anything breaks, they have the tools and materials to fix any issues. Also, with the Mirror of Communication, we can monitor them constantly.”
“What about the slip drive?” Edwards asked. The drive was old Human technology that had been adapted and upgraded with Jukal information in the war. Now, with their better understanding, they’d upgraded it again, trying to make it reach as far as possible while also keeping the corvette-turned-scouting ship as hidden as possible.
“Through the tests, we haven’t had a failure,” Adams reported.
“We worked the bugs out in the unmanned test vehicles,” Edwards said, as he and Adams eyed Sato.
A smile spread across his face as he let out a big breath. “Okay, fine! It looks like you’ve put my fears to rest or at least forced me to let this go ahead. Captain Adams, prep your crew. You’ve got three days’ leave, then you’re going to check up on this map and see if these Jukal installations are where they’re supposed to be. Edwards, I want that thing checked and rechecked. I think it’s time Humanity started to explore the stars once more.” Sato looked to his co-conspirators.
“Yes!” Adams jumped out of her chair and pumped her fist. Realizing where she was, she slowly sat back down, looking at them with an embarrassed face.
Edwards and Sato burst out laughing, and Adams joined in a minute later.
Chapter 8: Sound of Progress
Dave wandered through the testing area of the conference room he’d set up. People from all walks and races worked at their own tables. Carvers hummed as people talked or concentrated.
“Watch the depth at which you carve. If you go too deep, then you will create a weakness in the material you are working with. If those runes heat up, they can melt or burn through the other side and you might never see it!” Dave’s voice carried through the large room. People nodded, some writing down notes. Others continued on as they’d already understood this.
A pop-up blocked Dave’s vision.
Active Skill: Teacher
Level: Expert Level 1
Effect: You can teach people skills that you have prior knowledge of, up to your level of ability. Your students are 15% more likely to understand what you’re teaching them. Teaching on subjects you have a higher knowledge on will yield higher results. Teaching skills you have mastered or created give higher chance for students understanding your lessons.
“Ugh, this skill is so slow at leveling,” Dave complained. “Looks like I was right about the increase only happening when I get to the next grade level. Shiny fifteen percent.” As he was in his notifications, he checked out his latest skill.
Active Skill: Teleportation
Level: Journeyman Level 6
Effect: Understanding the theories of teleportation, decent understanding of teleportation mechanics.
I’ll show you decent mechanics, soon enough, Dave growled in his head. He’d talked to Ela-Dorn as they worked.
Many who studied the portals or made the teleport pads were only Apprentice or Journeyman level. No one actually built a portal or teleport pad by themselves. Each of them made a part, which came together and turned into a teleport pad. It had been why they created factory lines. From the teleport pads, it had spread to every area of Aleph manufacturing.
Dave understood a decent amount about the theories and with his background, he could understand it better than some Aleph who agreed it worked, but didn’t truly believe it or try to justify it with their own science.
It was like gravity waves. People on Earth, for the most part, agreed that they were a thing. However, not all of those people knew how the hell they were formed or why and where they were formed, but they could tell you whether the theories had been proved and give you a rough overview and some background knowledge. Moving across light-seconds instantaneously might sound really simple, but they were some of the most complicated systems ever created.
Fighting with a sword, you could become a master in multiple ways and fighting styles. With science, there was only one way: you break everything down until you understand it completely.
Dave didn’t have the time for that, so he was going to use some cheats.
An alarm bell went off, signaling the end of class. Many left the class, but several stayed around to continue working on their projects. Here in the mirror conference room that had been turned into a large building filled with various auditoriums, labs, and testing areas, they had access to resources and people that they wouldn’t have outside.
Reading and writing was common knowledge throughout Emerilia because of messaging systems. Math, biology, how to defend yourself or use magic: that was either passed down by family, or you went to a school for that. The cost of schooling in Emerilia was nothing to sneeze at. The nobles could do it, but a farmer or a simple laborer? They couldn’t afford it.
The academy gave them access to that and more. The various guilds had representatives who went around the school looking for talent that they wished to cultivate.
Dave smiled around proudly, hearing people talk about their different classes and the qualification fights that were happening all across Emerilia.
Every guild and most cities had gotten in on the Dwarven tournament, hosting their own so that only their best made it into the finals.
Dave exited the Mirror of Communication.
A new prompt appeared.
“Hmm, must not be able to do everything while I’m in the Mirror of Communication because the Jukal don’t know for sure what’s going on.” Dave opened up his latest notifications, alarmed by the number of them.
The prompts short-circuited Dave’s brain.
Quest Completed: Skill Creator Level 3
Personally teach 10 people your Skill (10/10)
Rewards: Unlock Level 4 Quest
+20 Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
300,000 EXP
Quest Completed: Skill Creator Level 4
Personally teach 50 people your Skill (50/50)
Rewards: Unlock Level 5 Quest
+20 Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
400,000 EXP (700,000 EXP)
Quest Completed: Skill Creator Level 5
Personally teach 100 people your Skill (100/100)
Rewards: Unlock Level 6 Quest
+20 Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
500,000 EXP (1,200,000 EXP)
Quest Completed: Skill Creator Level 6
Personally teach 200 people your Skill (200/200). Or help your students reach the level of App
rentice (1/1).
Rewards: Unlock Level 7 Quest
+20 Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
600,000 EXP (1,800,000 EXP)
Quest Completed: Skill Creator Level 7
Personally teach 400 people your Skill (400/400). Or help your students reach the level of Apprentice (5/10).
Rewards: Unlock Level 8 Quest
+20 Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
700,000 EXP (2,500,000 EXP)
Quest Completed: Skill Creator Level 8
Personally teach 800 people your Skill (800/800). Or help your students reach the level of Apprentice (5/50).
Rewards: Unlock Level 9 Quest
+20 Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
800,000 EXP (3,300,000 EXP)
Quest Completed: Skill Creator Level 9
Personally teach 1,600 people your Skill (1,600/1,600). Or help your students reach the level of Apprentice (5/100).
Rewards: Unlock Level 10 Quest
+20 Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+20 Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
900,000 EXP (4,200,000 EXP)
Quest: Skill Creator Level 10
Personally teach 3,200 people your Skill (2,579/3,200). Or help your students reach the level of Apprentice (5/200). Or help your students reach the level of Journeyman (0/1).
Rewards: Unlock Level 11 Quest
Increase to stats
Class: Skill Creator
Status:
Level 9
Effects:
+180 Intelligence
+180 Endurance
+180 Willpower
+4,200,000 EXP
Level 225
You have reached level 225; you have 261 stat points to use.
Active Skill: Teacher
Level: Expert Level 2
Effect: You can teach people skills that you have prior knowledge of, up to your level of ability. Your students are 15% more likely to understand what you’re teaching them. Teaching on subjects you have a higher knowledge on will yield higher results. Teaching skills you have mastered or created give higher chance for students understanding your lessons.
“Holy crap.” Dave stopped moving as his head reeled from the four hundred and eighty stat points.
“I think I’m going to take a nap.” Dave closed his eyes, using a simple sleeping spell.
He woke up only a few hours later. As he moved around, he could tell his perception of time was still off, but he slowly started to normalize out a bit.
“Maybe I should take a nap after gaining my stat points more often, instead of breaking Magical Circuits or fighting it out,” Dave muttered, moving carefully. His perception of time was still off, making him stumble as he walked.
“This is worse than that time in university when I drank jaeger for a day straight,” Dave got to the door. With each step he started to get better, with his higher stats while he was messed up, he was quickly being able to walk properly once again.
He used the railings outside of his room; after about a half dozen steps, he was starting to walk properly.
“Sweet! Not falling over! I’m running late, so that’ll help.” Dave ran out of the room. Sleeping and having his mental capacity taken up with work leveled him out better than he hoped.
He ran out of his apartment, jumping from the third-floor balcony. People were hanging out in the second housing complex. Everyone who wasn’t a Stone Raider was now in the first housing complex.
A number of them were walking through the corridors toward Terra. Everyone seemed in a festive mood.
Dave had a massive grin on his face as he weaved through the people. People yelled out his name in excitement. Dave’s grin grew into a smile as he waved at them all. He skidded to a stop in one of the corridors that had been cut out into what was now the growing city of Terra.
Malsour looked back from the corridor. Seeing Dave, his confused face broke into a smile. “Looks like we’ll finally get this thing moving,” Malsour said.
“How are we looking?” Dave asked.
“We’ve cleared out everyone from Terra. We’ve separated module one from module two. We’ve got the power plant shut down. Everything should be secured. Miners have been anchored, as well as carts. We have all the power we should need and a reserve,” Malsour rattled off.
“So, it sounds to me like we’re ready to spin this city like a top!” Josh walked into the corridor, his arm around Cassie. Their relationship had grown until it was clear that it was an open secret. They embraced it, something that various news services on Earth seemed to be going wild with. Dave hadn’t listened to those news sources in quite some time, so he didn’t give a damn.
“Hopefully not that fast.” Dave shook Josh’s hand as he got close.
“Thought we might as well come and see what you’ve gone and done now.” Suzy held Induca’s hand as Deia walked past them, wrapping her arms around Dave’s neck and giving him a kiss.
They shared a smile, Dave feeling the pride and confidence Deia felt.
Malsour cleared his throat.
“Hmm?” Dave asked, looking to Malsour.
“Well, I need you to rune the ‘on’ switch,” Malsour said.
“Fine!” Dave said. Deia released her arms from around Dave’s neck. He moved to the edge of the corridor before he turned to Terra. He closed his eyes, tracing the command circuits and coding that made up the module. He found the ones he would need; checking their settings, he found everything was set properly. It had been such an immense undertaking that he hadn’t been able to replace all of the Magical Circuits with coding.
He placed a hand on the wall. Using a heat spell and his conjuration, a silver button appeared, the coding hidden underneath it.
“Sorry, it’s not a big red shiny button, but that will work.” Dave put his arm around Deia while he waved for Josh to step forward.
“Well, this has to be one of the most expensive renovations I have ever been a part of! I think it’s time we moved in.” Josh pressed the button. The wall pushed inward and runes lined up as they sent a signal to Terra’s systems.
The air seemed to fill with dense Mana. Everyone’s hairs stood on edge as there was a steady but growing hum in the air.
Around the city, miners cut the last pieces of highly dense rock, freeing the city as it sat on the rollers around its circumference.
The hum increased in volume as the city started to slowly move. Everyone held their breath as the city started to turn, at just a snail’s pace at first but steadily increasing in speed, becoming faster and faster. The humming and the feeling of dense Mana in the air faded away. The city buzzed as it spun.
“Looking good to me,” Malsour said.
“Everything checks out with me,” Dave said.
“Rotation is stable and the rollers are working as designed,” Shard agreed. “Terra now has functional gravity,” Shard said, sounding rather pleased.
He must have been saying it to all of the Stone Raiders as they cheered, more than a few holding mugs high.
Dave’s vision was filled with different screens.
Quest Completed: Friend of the Grey God Level 4
Get the Stone Raiders’ Guild Hall functional
Rewards: Unlock Level 5 Quest
+10 to all stats (stacks with previous class level)
+400,000 EXP
Class: Friend of the Grey God
Status:
Level 4
Effects:
+40 to all stats
&nb
sp; Access to hidden quests.
Access to the Imperial Carrier Datskun
Quest: Friend of the Grey God Level 5
Protect your Guild from Lord Esamael’s forces
Rewards: Unlock Level 6 Quest
Increase to stats
Quest Completed: Bleeder Level 3
Get the Stone Raiders’ Guild Hall functional
Rewards: Unlock Level 4 Quest
+10 to all stats (stacks with previous class level)
+300,000 EXP
Ability to disable Jukal Link
Class: Bleeder
Status:
Level 3
Effects:
+30 to all stats
Ability to disable Jukal Link
Quest: Bleeder Level 4
Protect your Guild from Lord Esamael’s forces
Rewards: Unlock Level 5 Quest
Increase to stats
Quest Completed: Aleph Engineer Level 5
Help build 1 Aleph City
Rewards: Unlock Level 6 Quest
+15 to Endurance (stacks with previous class level)
+15 to Willpower (stacks with previous class level)
+15 to Intelligence (stacks with previous class level)
+500,000 EXP
Increased access to Aleph College Knowledge
Class: Aleph Engineer
Status:
Level 5
Effects:
+75 to Endurance, Willpower, and Intelligence
Gain access to Aleph College resources
Quest: Aleph Engineer Level 6
Create your own Aleph Facility
Rewards: Unlock Level 7 Quest
Emerilia Series Box Set 3 Page 11
