“Sarah, may I look at that sword you made?” Alex asked as we were walking through the town. After the disappointing event we decided to go to the Adventurer’s Hall and grab some quests. We wanted to get our levels up for next week.
I opened my inventory and selected the ‘Eldritch Mind Slayer’ and summoned it to my hand. “Here you go.” I said as I handed Alex the sword. She took the sword in hand and inspected it, looking over at all the runes that were inlaid on both sides of the blade.
“These runes make this sword look pretty badass. I might commission you to enchant my weapon at some point. Hell, I would say we should get all of our gear enchanted by you before the dungeon event next weekend. It would give us an edge.” Alex was idly swinging the sword while speaking to us. “Huh? It seems I can equip this sword. I somehow meet the requirements for ‘Touched by the Abyss’.”
“I was wondering that myself mom. You made such a good sword, but it has a specific requirement. Can you also equip it?” Yuki asked as she was looking at Alex swinging the sword.
“I don’t know. Alex, can I see that sword for a moment. I want to check something.” Alex gave back the sword and then I ‘equipped’ it. I seeing as how it gave me no errors, I gave the sword a few swings. “It looks like I can equip it too.”
Yuki stood there with an inquisitive look on her face, staring at the sword as if it would cease to exist if she looked away. “I want to try and equip it too.” Yuki said coming out of her train of thought.
I handed her the sword and she stood there for a moment before she handed it back. “I can’t equip it. The ‘Touched by the Abyss’ requirement turns red when I hold the sword and when I try to equip it, it says Action Blocked.”
“So only Alex and I can equip the sword.” I said as I looked at the sword, trying to find meaning in it.
“Um…this might be stretch, but considering everything that has happened it might not be.” Naomi started to speak. “Both Sarah and Alex had encountered a mysterious dungeon that had given them powers and mystical eyes, right? What if that was the touched by the abyss thing?”
“That makes perfect sense!” Yuki exclaimed while her fist hit her palm. “There are several things we need to figure out with how mom’s enchanting works, but I am in the mood for some adventure right now.”
“Before you go, I have something to give to Sarah.” A voice called out to us. I turned towards it and found Eri in her disguise standing by us. She opened her hand and a familiar floating ball appeared. “I am returning your spark. After your abrupt dungeon expedition, she needed to undergo the equivalent of mental therapy.”
“Hiya mom!” The floating spark said to me as it…no I guess she, floated to me.
I confusedly stared at Kairi for a moment before I was able to respond. “Why mom?”
“It is because of you that I have been given life now. So that makes you, my mom!” Kairi said with a cheery voice.
Alex burst out into laughter as I glared at her with no effect. “It looks like you have a little sister Yuki.” Alex said in between snorts. Yuki let out a small laugh, which was not helping my case.
“I have a big sister!?” Kairi exclaimed as she zipped over to Yuki and excitedly floated around her head as if inspecting her. I shot a glare at Eri, but she was nowhere to be found. This is why you don’t give AI godly powers.
I threw my hands in the air and let out an exasperated sigh. “Let’s just go grab a quest to do.” I said to everyone.
“Ok mommy!” Kairi excitedly agreed with me, eliciting more laughter from Alex and Yuki. Though I could also see that Naomi was about to burst as well. “Not helping Kairi” I said to myself as I stormed off.
~|~
A man of Japanese descent was sitting in a lavishly decorated office. He was furious as he had thrown a small glass of alcohol at a nearby wall.
“What does he mean by Naomi was exiled from the family?” he asked out loud to himself. “All these plans ruined because he couldn’t control his daughter.”
Moments later the man sat down at his desk and pressed a button on his intercom. Seconds later there was a ‘click’ sound indicating it was answered.
“I will be unavailable for the next hour. Reschedule any meetings.” The man spoke to the device.
“Yes Kaito-Sama.” A woman’s voice responded.
Kaito sat back in his chair for a moment. Looked over at his phone on the desk and tapped on it, initiating a call. His phone was connected to a neural implant that allowed him to take calls wirelessly. His company was still developing technology that would fuse man and tech together.
After a moment his call was answered. “Hello mother. There has been an issue.”
~|~
Somewhere else someone else was having a bad day. A man in military garb, visible rank showing he was a general, was furiously yelling at some other people. “What do you mean subject zero has escaped!? How did it escape on your watch?”
“We found the body of a scientist, drained of all her blood. We think after she fed, she regained her strength and used her powers to escape.” A man wearing a black suit said.
“Deploy your teams and track it down. It may try to go back to its family. Keep them under surveillance. If you need to make its family disappear. We need to show it what happens when you cross me.” The General said as he turned and left the room.
Thanks for the chapter.
Gods I loathe people with a perceived high rank they all seem to be assholes in fiction or real life.
That's only because its true.
3 basic rules of life:
Power corrupts.
Corruption seeks power.
Might makes right.
The funnest part is "Power Corrupts" scales to relative power rather than absolute power, often those near the bottom of the ladder get corrupted the most by the power they wield.
@Golanth Really needs to be a third part to the ancient saying, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." Should actually say, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, when moral integrity is absent."
When you have people of strong moral integrity come into power, they tend to be more like the Hobbits and have an uncanny ability to resist the corruptive influence of that power. A sense of duty and responsibility goes a long way to helping as well.
@Maddhawk It reminds me of truly ancient Greek saying, that the good man shall rather be defeated than break their principles
However, you don't really need moral integrity, if you can see precedenses being set with certain actions
Technically, smart evil overlord is at first glance indistinguishable from a moral man.
Like, allowing corruption makes one's domain weak. Letting it fester makes it harder to remove.
The rest is society they have to work with
@Maddhawk
Should actually say, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely, when moral integrity is absent."
While it's true that moral integrity fights corruption, this is a separate, Secondary Rule, and it tends to get supplanted by Fundimental Rule #2: Corruption Seeks Power.
The people higher up the ladder have an incentive to block the just and the righteous from climbing up beneath them. Not only to protect themselves, but if they know about a climber's hidden skeletons they have increased their own power and control. Remember:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkdfhBghVAE
@Maddhawk
The original quote is "Power tends to corrupt. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." The simple omission of the words 'tends to' completely changes the meaning behind it. Powers tends to corrupt moral integrity and when one has absolute power, that moral integrity is absolutely corrupted.
Not only that but alot of sayings have gotten skewed over the years. Like 'Blood is thicker than water', originally "The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb" and 'Jack of all trades, master of none', originally, "Jack of all trades, master of none, but better than the master of one"
@Golanth Lord Acton actually said: "Power Corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Personally, I've found that over the years as the person at the top (read as President) changes, it's those day-to-day petty bureaucrats that are our government's middle management that are growing more and more corrupt . . .
@EugeneTillory Bureaucrats get paid to deal with issues of governance. Not solving them. More issues, or complexity, means more bureaucrats. Its job security.
@Nimitz Bureaucratium:
An ultra-heavy element accidentally synthesized by political scientists. The new element, now known officially as Bureaucratium, is electrically neutral, having neither protons nor electrons, and thus has an atomic number of zero. However, it does have:
1 bossion
75 vice-bossions
111 assistant vice-bossions
125 associate assistant vice-bossions
It thus has an atomic mass of -312. The 312 mostly empty particles are held together by a strong, cohesive bonding force which involves the continuous exchange of clingon-like elementary particles called brownoseons.
Since it is electrically neutral, Bureaucratium is chemically inert. However, it can be detected indirectly by its ability to impede nearly every action with which it comes in contact. In fact it was precisely this characteristic (and its unexpected appearance) which led the research team to its serendipitous discovery. It was found that a certain reaction, which is normally exothermic and occurs in under one millisecond, was observed to be endothermic, requiring an energy input 3500 times greater than what was normally released, and took four days to complete.
Bureaucratium is a man-made element and does not occur naturally. It apparently is formed as a by-product of necrotic organizational processes. It is found in greatest abundance in government agencies, large corporations, large non-profit organizations and academia. In extremely minute amounts it may actually serve a useful purpose in normal reactions by catalyzing the full release and exchange of energy among the reactive particles. However, Bureaucratium seems to expand, at an alarming rate, due to possessing a heretofore never before seen property of "negative half-life." As it grows in size it eventually starts repelling, or on occasion absorbing, reactive particles. If left unchecked Bureaucratium will experience runaway growth and expand infinitely.
Unlike both naturally occurring and man-made radioactive substances which decay continuously due to their nuclear instability, Bureaucratium, although also unstable, undergoes negative decay with a normal doubling time of about nine years. This replication appears to occur as a discrete process rather than continuously, and is associated with periodic reorganizations which occur at more-or-less regular time intervals of approximately three years. At these times, vice bossions, assistant vice-bossions, and associate assistant vice-bossions exchange places, and roughly 1/6 of them generate additional Half-Secretarium particles, which soon quietly and mysteriously mutate to become Full-Secretarium particles.
Bureaucratium undergoes spontaneous chain reactions once it attains critical mass, at which point it is no longer controllable and consumes its host system along with itself. However, unlike nuclear fission and fusion reactions which are exothermic and release vast amounts of energy at criticality, Bureaucratium induces an endothermic process of fractionation and energy diffusion in which the system spins about itself in ever diminishing circles as it implodes, consuming vast amounts of energy. At this point, all productive reactions among non-Bureaucratium particles, as well as replication and mutation of Bureaucratium itself, cease as the system slowly disintegrates. Indeed, it has been found that Bureaucratium apparently cannot exist alone, having been found only in the presence of active particles from which it absorbs energy not unlike a parasite.
Research is currently underway to determine how Bureaucratium can be harnessed or controlled to prevent irreversible damage to productive host systems.
Results to date, however, are not promising.
@Maddhawk You sir deserve A Nobel Prize you have just discovered an element that is paradoxically useful and at the same time utterly useless and seems to only be disrupted by negative energy generated by great scandal or dead prostitutes, More research is indeed required so that we can further de-stabilize it's structure so that it's strength's can be harnessed for the good of our species.