Hanging the original AR 3070 on his shoulder, Shiro started walking deeper in the rainforest together with Kal'tsit. Suddenly, she smiled, as if remembering something.
'It's been a long time since I came here.' she thought.
A thousand years ago, during the reign of the Kheshig Padishah of Reefsteep (Khaganate at that time), she made a friend. During their journey, she rose up to the throne of the Emperor and became the ruler of Sargon.
(Note: Khaganate is the term called for Khagan's ruler, much similar to Genghis Khan's title.)
She revitalized the economy of the empire within a decade. Sargon became too prosperous to the point that their capital is a city made out of gold.
As for that city? She made it due to her whims of wanting a literal golden city.
Sadly, she 'disappeared' due to 'that' incident.
"It seems like you're quite familiar with this place?"
"I used to come here in the past."
"You mean, a hundred-something years ago?"
She looked at him with her usual look. Though, Shiro subtly thought that something seemed different this time.
"I've witnessed Sargon's golden age myself."
"Ah."
Kal'tsit meant that she went here much more older than he had guessed.
"A city made out of pure gold. I want to see it once."
"It's already gone."
"Time Magic can still do its tricks. There's the True Magic, too."
To this, she only nodded. Those magics that manipulated time didn't exist in Terra, more so the reason why she was surprised by it.
Yes, she knows someone who could manipulate reality through metallurgy, but the concept of time manipulation is still far from what that certain someone can do.
That's what she knows, to say the least.
Suddenly, Shiro looked at a certain direction behind them, with looks full of bewilderment. It didn't take long for a pillar of fire to descend to the rainforest.
"Alien god."
"My luck did its work. We've only arrived just now and we immediately saw clues regarding them."
The power of 89 luck finally revealed itself outside of random spins. Kal'tsit called out Monst3r, who seemed to have regenerated from its self-destruction days ago, and ran to that direction.
Shiro didn't get left out as he applied reinforcement on his legs as he ran. His magic circuits lit up as his speed became faster and faster.
As expected, the results of it is much better than applying wind runes onto himself. Though, only by having an abundant mana would it be better than that.
"You're too fast! Just how strong is your body?!"
"I'm a doctor."
Right now, Kal'tsit is much faster than Shiro who has Reinforcement on. She also received full mastery Reinforcement as a reward, but chose not to use it yet.
Soon, they arrived in the place where the flame pillar had descended. Unfortunately, they saw nothing except burnt trees and soil. As for the main perpetrator of this, that individual is gone.
"That guy's fas-"
"Identify yourselves!"
A shout interrupted Shiro's musings. On the other side, dozens of people walked out. Some are wearing white coats, while some are wearing black combat uniforms.
The two of them chose to chat discreetly using the chat group upon seeing them.
[Private] Shiro: "Seeing on how they are well organized, they must be from an armed group."
[Private] Kal'tsit: "It must be them."
[Private] Shiro: "You got it right..."
On the navigation function, someone among the white coats is marked brightly. That marked person is a middle-aged feline man wearing thin silver glasses. From his looks alone, he's most likely the leader of this group.
[Private] Shiro: "Ferdinand Clooney, the director of the Energy Section. It's him."
[Private] Kal'tsit: "Be prepared to act. He might know of me."
As expected, Ferdinand really did recognize her.
"Wait a minute. Is that you, the renowned Head of the Ursus Laboratory, Doctor Kal'tsit?"
"You have such a long title?"
"Don't mind it."
While the two are whispering, a thousand thoughts ran on Ferdinand's head.
'Why is the famed head here? Isn't she on the run?'
'Wait, they went exactly to this place, the one related to the alien god..!'
'Is she aiming for the alien god as well? What about that companion of hers..'
In the end, he managed to keep those thoughts hidden.
"To whom may I owe you here?"
"We saw a huge flame pillar in the-" Shiro was interrupted when Kal'tsit patted his shoulder.
"We'll be straightforward. Stop what you're planning to do. Don't meddle with that thing."
Hearing this, Ferdinand only smirked with an "I knew it!" look.
"I'm sorry, but this is what must be done."
He turned back along with the others as they started walking away from here. At first, Shiro wanted to capture all of them just to be sure, but Kal'tsit prevented him from doing so.
"Ahem. Do we follow them?"
"No. We'll head straight to where that thing is sealed."
A realization hit Shiro as he heard that. In the end, Kal'tsit already knew where their main destination is!
"I thought we still needed to tail him. Well, this is convenient."
"Prepare to fight."
"We-wait, fight?"
She proceeded to explain the geographic features in this rainforest. Four tribes lived in this area, with them choosing a "Great Chief" every time the previous one passes away.
They had done this for these four tribes to have unity, enough to fend off against external influences.
"So as to say, everyone in this rainforest are warmongers?"
"There are some exceptions."
"I see. What a simple way of choosing their leader."
On the way to the tribe to Wilderness Will, Shiro took out some insect repellent and shrouded their surroundings with it. Even though they could not pierce through his skin, they're still annoying.
Unknowingly, a certain thick tailed Archosauria caught off this scent and found out about the two of them.
"Who are you?! Why did you trespass our territory?!"
A small female Archosauria, around 142cm, appeared from behind. Her pale skin and grey hair matched the black-colored attire that she wore.
Carrying a staff similar to a dreamcatcher(arts catalyst), she prepared to fight.
"...She's small."
"Who are you calling small?!"
Shiro, who for the first time saw a thick tail, focused on her appearance for a while. During his travels, he saw some Sarkaz, Feline, Forte, Kuranta, and Liberi. Each of them has a distinct characteristic that was similar to an animal's.
"Ah right, Gavial did have a thin tail..." He mumbled inaudibly.
However, he didn't expect for that female Archosauria to hear the word "Gavial" no matter how inaudible it is.
"Gavial?! You know Gavial? Did you meet her? How is she?"
"You are related to her?"
"I'm her... little sister!"
Shiro thought for a while as he recalled his interaction with her.
"First, I do know Gavial, but not that much. Second, I met her when I rescued a child. Lastly, she seemed fine from our meeting."
"Is that so?" She spoke as she recalled the day that Gavial departed.
Due to the so-called "Oripathy", Gavial chose the path of being a doctor to save lives. With that, she left Acahualla to learn more about it.
"I don't fully trust you yet, but thanks for telling me about her."
"That's fine. What's your name by the way?"
"Tomimi. You can call me that."
There seems to be a lot of telling and not showing, a lot of what Kal'tsit is saying isn't even being written in dialogue or in character. It feels like all the dialogue is just a back and forth without any character or personality being shown.
You also seem to be applying lots of mini time skips. What is the point of making characters interact and live if you don't show them experience anything together and only summarize rather then letting us actually see the interactions.
Also how does Shiro just "Notice" the difference on Kal'tsit's blank face? Does he read her facial muscles or the difference of how light shines off her eyes?
You also skipped two days worth of interactions.... why?
My main point is this; What is the point of bringing different worlds and characters to life if you don't actually let them live? What is the goal of the story then? To just watch them get stronger with no goal in sight? Since you don't have slice of life in the tags, does that mean you have no plans to include any long segments of them just hanging out or talking without the need of a mission or something similar?
What is the point of making a CHAT GROUP and not making them chat? Isn't that quite ironic?
Also the interaction is just weirdly paced.
"Ah right, Gavial did have a thin tail..." He mumbled inaudibly.
However, he didn't expect for that female Archosauria to hear the word "Gavial" no matter how inaudible it is.
"Gavial?! You know Gavial? Did you meet her? How is she?"
"You are related to her?"
"I'm her... little sister!"
Why would she give a stranger this information? This isn't how people talk or interact. You also used the word Inaudibly, which means she shouldn't hear what he said.... so many problems....
@TheWeirdMunchies Well, it's my mistake. What I meant there is that the line that came after the ellipsis is the inaudible one. As for their characteristics, it's due to their honesty. People living there don't care about schemes as they honestly duke it out to each other if they have a problem.
@TheWeirdMunchies Fair point. While I can use the excuse of me being new at this, I won't.
First of all, your main point is my intention. I made this fic for the other characters for them to "live", and to also show some of the unknown character developments/plots that the canon didn't delve into. You will be able to see these interactions once you proceed to the Aincrad arc, the time when I learned more about this type of writing. I also plan to create a bunch of "Side Stories" to include those interactions that you've said, in which there's already around 5 of them all throughout this fic (up to the current chapter). I'm not a fan of fast-paced stuff so I made their interactions to be more enjoyable while they transition with the "slice of life" chapters.
A good example is the Madoka arc. This is the arc where my skills in character development and pacing are tested. Most of these arc are all about their character developments that involves maturity, doubts, regrets, and so on. Hence, you will see more interactions there.
Even now, I feel some kind of regrets when I look at the earlier chapters, but the only choice for me is to move on with the current ones. I have a development for each character in mind, which makes their goal clearer once the story progresses further. I've learned a lot when I wrote the development arcs in Madoka Magica, so you might want to see that first.
Lastly, the only reason why the Chat Group isn't prominent during missions is that... they aren't usable during missions. Although, you will see more of it when they're outside the said missions.
Hope this answers your questions.
@IdleYoungMaster Yup, I am getting back into the pace of this story.
Maybe in the future you should give these chapters a relatively large touch up to connect the quality so that it flows better.
Still, very good, I hope you take pride even in these earlier chapters. With their flaws and all, they are still understandable and interesting enough to keep me interested! Keep up the good work!
Onward to the next chapter!~☆
Huzzah!