Part 1 - A Slayer Descends

Listlessly staring at the ceiling, Urist’s face carried a frown as he felt weight on his sides and slender arms on his chest. If it was any other man, he would maybe be happy to wake up to two beautiful girls, but Urist just wanted to run away.

He really wanted to.

He could only sigh and hold back his tears over what happened. 

Well, enough mulling over it’s time to get the base prepared for the event tomorrow. Still, I don’t know how we should prepare for such an event called Primal Stone. Whatever we’ll cross that bridge when we cross it.

Mustering up his courage, Urist lightly shook the two girls to wake them up and escape their clutches. 

It didn’t take long for Uria and Uroa to wake up.

Rubbing her eyes, Uroa brightly smiled at Urist, “Good morning, Urist!”

“Good morning, lover. I see the coward is still here.“

“I told you I’m not a coward.”

“Until you beat me in combat you are. Now be a good little maid and get to cooking.”

Pouting, Uroa got out of bed, dressed, and headed out to join the cooks in preparing breakfast.

Urist watched her leave, then turned to Uria, “You know you don’t have to be mean to her. After all, I told them to run.”

“Oh save your breath. I’ll treat her however I want since you left it to me. If she wants to stand as my equal then she has to earn it. Heh, I forgot you were a gutless coward when it comes to commitment. Am I not enough for you?”

Leaning in, Uria whispered that last bit into Urist's ear, causing him to shiver.

“I… I just don’t want to hurt her.”

“Whatever. Just remember, although I don’t mind sharing you,”

Nibbling on his ears she continued,  “I’m number one.”

Shaken, Urist stayed still as she pulled away, getting out of bed and shaking her hips as she got dressed. 

She put on a little show for him before heading out of the room, then at the doorway turned her head. “Let’s get to work, dummy.”

Lying back into the bed Urist wondered, where had it all gone wrong? 

Life was so simple before, just trying to survive against hulking mutated rats. Now my love life is a battlefield. I blame Thar. I should increase his punishment. Whatever, I’ll deal with this later. Let’s hope today's recruits will be easier to deal with than the previous days.

As he thought that a mighty light shone followed by a thundering roar.

With a snort Urist donned his clothing, muttering under his breath, “Fucking hell, not one day that goes by is normal anymore.”

…

Entering the civilization room, Urist soon found the source of the disturbance. Inside the room currently stood a woman with tribal tattoos all over her body. She stood on one dwarf and had her hand around the face of another, lifting them off the ground. 

Dwarfs lay groaning in pain all over the room. 

"You dare capture the great Slayer Snorri, leader of the Brands? You all seek death!"

Seeing as she was about to crush the spine of the dwarf below her, Urist stepped in.

"Hey now, let's not get hasty. You say your name is Snorri, right? Well why you are here, is th--"

Throwing the dwarf in her clutches away like trash, Snorri dashed straight at Urist.

"Less talk, more fighting!"

Her tattoos shifted and lit up, the cyan markings somehow causing her speed to increase exponentially. Hurryingly, Urist summoned his flame robes.

Wildly grinning, Snorri’s tattoos shifted once again, turning more savage and giving off a bloody light.

Focusing all his attention on the speeding bullet of a woman, Urist knew what to do.

And that was to DODGE.

He'd only moved a few inches when a human bullet smashed into the wall next to him.

A large pressure of air blasted out from the impact, kicking up dust. Surprisingly the civilization room held and minimized the shockwaves.

Although Urist felt relieved that the room hadn't collapsed, he was annoyed. Gritting his teeth he activated his Staff Art: Disable, intent on stopping the fight as fast as possible.

White runes spread along his body and as he readied to risk it all, the woman laughed.

"My oh my, another Slayer! Why didn't you just say so? And here I thought I'd been captured for my secrets."

Her tattoos began to recede towards her face, collapsing under her eyes forming small teardrops.

"Sorry about knocking those hooligans out~. My name is Snorri. What is your name, fellow practitioner? Also, where are we?"

Urist quickly retracted his Disable spell, inwardly relieved that he didn't have to use it. Although he would be aching for a bit he wouldn't be in such a weakened state like before. An acceptable outcome if they could resolve this peacefully. 

Choosing his words carefully, Urist replied.

“My name is Urist. I’m the leader of this civilization, and we have much to discuss.”

…

“Wait. Did you say you created your own slayer art from scratch?! Man, you must be mad to attempt something like that without a senior guiding you. Most that try usually explode, though I have to admit that yours is pretty barbaric compared to my clan's standards.”

“Barbaric? But it’s so powerful? What’s so barbaric about it?”

Snorri just chuckled and shook her head, “I wanted to talk to you about that but I’ve been made to swear an oath not to spread its teachings. Well until I get married anyways. Though judging by the strength around this base, no one around here is strong enough to defeat me and take my hand anyways.”

“You can sense the strength of the people around you?”

“It’s a slayer art. I can’t go into details, but I can sense the strength of souls. The bigger and brighter the stronger. That’s all I can say. Also, now that I know that I’m stuck here I might as well make myself comfortable. I want a private room.”

“You're in luck, we’ve just finished up making those. I’ll talk to the room master and we’ll see where we can put you. Now I’d wish to discuss how you would like to use your strength to help us—”

Before he could finish that sentence, Urist was interrupted by Urmom charging into the meeting room.

“Boss! Something weird has happened with Sir Volt!”

 

Part 2 - Entering meditation

 

Urmom led the way out of the room, with Urist and Snorri walking side by side behind him.

"Tell me what happened in detail, Urmom." 

Urmom cleared his throat, unnerved by Urist’s stare. 

"Well Boss, we were practicing spearmanship with Sir Volt when he suddenly stopped and sat on the ground. We didn't know what to do, so we left him and decided to get you, Boss."

"You just left him on the ground?"

"His breathing seemed normal and thunder began to gather around him, so we couldn't draw close."

"Oh, could it be?" Snorri muttered.

"Do you know what's happening to Volt, Snorri?" Questioned Urist.

Pushing her lush blond hair backward, she mysteriously smiled, "I might, but without seeing it first hand I’d rather not say. Besides, it would ruin the moment if I said anything."

Although not satisfied by her answer, judging the way she acted it seemed that it wasn't something harmful. At least he could only hope so.

…

Out of the cave and into the open air, the first sight Urist saw was a pillar of lightning pulsating rhythmically. His eyes then fell lower, as a large crowd had gathered around the lightning pillar. 

Those in the front were sitting and those behind them were standing, but the crowd had one thing in common, for they were all in a daze.

Urist was about to speak when Snorri covered his mouth and held two fingers up to her mouth.

Confused, Urist let her drag him a bit away. When they had gained some distance Snorri spoke quietly, "We must not interrupt that man's enlightenment. In fact, we should study it while he's in such a state."

"Enlightenment?"

"You don't know what enlightenment is? How did you even make your slayer art without going into such a state? Whatever, the point is that when someone undergoes enlightenment they have a good chance of increasing their power dramatically. But in what direction is left to anyone's guess. Judging by the strength of his soul, he’s trying to break into Stage Five?"

"Stage Five? I’ve never heard of that, but I know he's a Peak Tier Three Magic Swordsmen."

"Oh, was he suppressing himself intentionally? Wait no, I can see the faint traces of a chained oath. Pity he won't break through to Stage Five without his soul cleansed of the fragments. At least he has a chance of reaching Stage Four."

"Cleanse the soul? What do you mean?"

"You don’t know such a simple thin-. Ah yes, I forgot about different worlds. Cleansing the soul means to wash away impurities. And impurities can be several things such as inner demons, chain oaths, soul poison, soul scarring, over taxing medication, and other things.

For that man over there, he has a few choices. He could start over from scratch in a different element, take a high-quality soul refinement potion, or soul sacrifice, which I wouldn't recommend. Necromancers are hard to come by and a crafty bunch. More likely to turn you into a meat puppet than to help you."

"Any other ways to help him?"

"There are, but I assume those would be out of your reach with your current strength. But if you come across them I tell you about them."

"Thank you for being so insightful, Snorri. I'll leave Urmom in your care as a guide since I wish to deal with this before someone ruins Volt's chance for advancement."

Smiling seductively, Snorri chuckled before leaving, "Anytime, Urist. It's been a pleasure. If you were stronger than me, well... I might fall for you, a madman who made his own slayer art. Ha. If only the rest of my clan could see this."

Snorri walked away with Urmom in tow, hoping to get a nice vantage point to watch Volt’s meditation.

For Urist he sighed, wondering if his life would ever be normal again... or was this now the new normal for him.

…

After telling the dwarfs to give Volt some space and marking the area off with a do not disturb sign, Urist headed over to the smiths.

Heading back inside the cave, he took a few turns to enter the smithing wing where the dwarfs inside worked hard... with the promise of tea and booze. 

These light oxygen crystals truly are a blessing, since when combined with the ventilation system they help the flow of air for the fire and the smiths. Although we have to make sure no fires can grow too big, it’s worth the risk with the production rate. Now, I wonder what the smiths need from me.

Entering the room, he saw one of the head smiths, Hot, teaching his apprentices how to beat the metal into the desired shape. Keeping the center thick, he spread the material thinner towards the end to make an edge for the spearhead. While changing the position of the metal and reheating it every so often, it didn’t take him long to finish the shape and quench it in water. 

Holding and inspecting his work with tongs, he smiled at the small group. “As you can see my apprentices, it isn’t that hard to make a good spearhead out of good materials. But this here is the true effort, to take shit materials and make it into a quality piece. Oh, boss! How long have you been standing there?”

Urist chuckled and waved off the panicked Hot, “I didn’t wish to interrupt your teaching session,  after all I feel we’ll need more smiths to help better arm our people. Now, you sent a messenger to me. What did you wish to speak of?”

“Ah, yes one second. I’ll gather the other heads and we can take this to the guest room. Apprentices, you are to go into self-study and make arrowheads while I’m away.”

“Yes, master!”

It didn’t take long before Hot gathered the others, namely Ajan, Baikm, Grim and another rune and regular smith.

Sitting in the cool room next door, the seven sat down with refreshments.

The first to speak up for the group was Grim, the Mechanical Adept. “Boss, I’ll be frank with you. We’ve been talking and we need to retake the mines up north.”

Confused, Urist asked, “Why? Isn’t the store’s metal enough for now?”

Grim shook his head, “Boss, you might not know this but the store's quality is quite poor compared to the mined metal you brought back. It takes double the effort to work out impurities in the ores from the store compared to the stuff from the mountain. We can show you examples if you want.”

Urist shook his head, “No, I trust you to tell me the truth. I wish we could retake the north, but we just don’t have the manpower yet to make an outpost up there. Also, with this weird event coming tomorrow, I don’t want us to make any rash moves. When it’s over we’ll decide on a course of action, although I am leaning on taking the north before the south. That’s all I can tell you for now.”

The six chewed on his words for a bit then looked at each other before nodding. They turned to Grim with light in their eyes, making Urist feel uneasy.

Grim nodded to his fellow dwarfs then opened his mouth, “Boss, besides the procurement of good metal I wish to ask your approval of a project.”

Urist raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Pray tell, what is this project.”

“I wish to make mechas.”

 

Part 3 - Mechas and Theory 

 

“Mecha? As in a big stompy robot?”

“I haven’t heard of the term ‘robot,’ but they are big and stompy Boss. You see in my world, we did battle in mana-infused suits. I was a head engineer for designing and crafting the death golems of war, and mainly focused on drafting experimental thoughts such as the pilot seat, alloy mixing, magic circuits, and mana fibers.”

“You can create such weapons?” Hope and great interest sparkled in Urists' eyes.

Grim could only shake his head and smile sadly, “If I had the tools, a workshop, and the materials, I could make the shell, sure. But without a Tier Four magic stone we can’t even make a small mecha run. At most we could craft magic stone gear, but I never studied that field so I wouldn’t know where to start. I just hoped to ask you, if you ever found such crystals, I hope you would think of my project idea and give it some thought.”

“Hm, if it’s the mechas I’m thinking of then I want you to design them on paper for the other smiths to see. I intend on expanding the forge later, so if we can plan around making mechas it would be great. Though I’d wish to see the designs before we commit to anything, understood?”

Hearing his reply, Grim bowed his head deeply, “Thank you, Boss, for listening to this fellow's selfish request.”

Seeing the man bow Urist motioned for him to raise his head. “You don’t need to do that, Grim. I wouldn’t be a good leader if I didn’t listen to my brothers' and sisters' requests. A courier will drop off the items you need to make the designs in your room. Is that all you request of me?”

“Yes Boss, thank you that will be all.”

The two shook hands and the group exited the room with the other smith leaders in tow. With a goodbye and a grinning group behind him, Urist got back to work.

Leaving the forge, Urist headed back outside to a small hut with two wind mages and a messenger sitting inside, lazing about.

Opening the door, Urist walked in, startling the two.

“Boss!”

“What do you need Sir?”

“I’m just checking on how you are doing in your new posts. It seems that… it must be boring if you're dozing off.”

“No! Not at all! Well… actually, it kind of is, Boss. I’ll be frank with you. Sitting here doing nothing while everyone works outside is pretty boring. We got a message from Hunter Team 01 that they killed more ferocious beasts and are heading back to base. And the newly created Hunter Team 02 is working on scouting the south. That new female lancer, Joy, seems to be leading the team well from their wind mage’s report. We already reported the messages to Ubel and Unicy. We would’ve also informed Volt, but he’s currently in meditation.”

Urist nodded, “Thank you for the report. I’ll be sure to have you guys rotated out more when we get more wind mages. In the meantime, I’ll think of a game you can play while waiting in between messages.”

“Thank you, Boss!”

“Aye, I was expecting punishment.”

“Oh? You want me to punish you? I mean if you insist you can join Thar who is tied up in a tree. How does a few hours of joining in on his woes sound after you finish your job for today?”

“N-no! Please don’t punish us, Boss! We’ll be better!”

“Haha! I’ll be going now, try not to sleep on the job anymore, alright.”

“Sir yes, Sir!”

After scaring the wind mages, Urist went up the stairs to meet with Ubel. It took him a bit, but he found him doing inspections on top of the newly constructed south wall that went all the way to the river. Currently, he was staring out into the unclaimed wilds, not paying attention to the dwarfs below and behind him clearing out the conquered piece of land.

Urist moved and stood next to Ubel, “You are a hard man to find.”

Instead of replying to Urist, Ubel asked a question, “So Urist, have you thought of what this event will bring? Primal Stone isn’t much to go on.”

Putting his hands in his pockets, Urist looked into the sky.

“No information I can really go on. The world chat has been equally confused about the meaning. Some think we’ll be fighting primitives. Others think it’s going to be a gamelike event, a race, or maybe it’ll be a prize we fight over. Many, many more guesses that Uria has been working through in her time scanning the boards.”

Ubel snorted at his response, “I didn’t ask you for others' opinions. I asked, what do you think will happen?”

Rolling his eyes Urist replied, “Testing me, are you? Very well, I feel that it’ll be a battle. Focusing on the word Primal, I feel that it means that at the roots it’s something that expresses the primal age, where unlike how language and diplomacy were for the civilized age, the rule of survival of the fittest reigned supreme.”

“And what of the meaning of stone?”

“I think stone means that it’ll be set in the stone age of the primal world. At the time where hominids first began to use tools. But I wonder if we’ll be the primitives or the invaders. Also, what would we be fighting?”

Giving a slow clap, Ubel flashed an ever so slight smirk, “Well done. You came to the same conclusion as me, but you still have a ways to go. Urist. I’ll give you my prediction right now. We’ll be neither the primitives or the invaders. We will be the tipping piece.”

“Tipping piece? Explain.”

“Well, my prediction comes from how you described Demon Descent not having the event tag after it.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”  

“From that, we can assume that we will be invaded and it won’t be an event. It’ll be permanent. And since we are not advanced but also not primitive we are in the middle. I’m leaning on being the tipping point of the natives.”

“Wait, natives? How does that happen? You mean the-- oh. You don’t think.”

“Yes, Urist. We won’t be taking the event here.”

With a dramatic pause, he pushed up his glasses.

“We’ll be teleported to another plane of existence.”

 

Primal Stone Event timer activated 1 Day 12 Hours 34 Min 

Mount Puff Event timer activated 15 Days 12 Hours 34 Min 

Treasure Hunt Event timer activated 29 Days 12 Hours 34 Min 

Weapon Fall Event timer activated 43 Days 12 Hours 34 Min 

Demons Descent timer activated 57 Days 12 Hours 34 Min 

Points: 20,621

 

Edited by: KuroYousei