20 – The night is dark

The elf village was pompous. Gigantic trees connected to each other with dangling bridges overflowing with green vines, little round windows overlooking the forest that gave a small glimpse into little apartments dug in the wood, everything surrounded with flowers, hedges and hanging torches. It was straight out of a fairy tale, carefully designed down to the smallest detail without leaving anything to chance. A myriad of elves clad in their hand-crafted leather armor milled about, carrying wood and jars, flowers and weapons alike. They walked and climbed the bridges with uncanny ease and grace, making it clear that their species was nimbler and lighter on their feet than humanity could ever be, even with the system’s help.

Among the many people, the Tower Climbers were easy to spot. They were like white flies, a sharp contrast with the rest of the people, so out of place to be almost comical. They were Tharlaxians, Humans and Torians, the other species of red-skinned horned humanoids.

Suddenly, with no warning at a moment’s notice, the village was plunged into darkness and a myriad of little lights of blue and gold illuminated the paths and houses like miniature stars. The atmosphere was ethereal and magical, and the lights danced and moved like flies across the canopy and tall grass.

Julian scanned the area and looked up. There was a brown star where the sun used to be, barely visible against the setting multicolored galaxy behind it.

“Why is it suddenly so dark?” he asked Cal.

“I have no idea.” He shrugged. “Light control magic?”

“Could be but… this place seems vastly more technological than magical.” Julian said, pointing up at the empty space above.

“How can you tell? There’s elves!” Cal exclaimed.

“It’s just a hunch.” Julian said, then began to enumerate things with his fingers. “Terraformed asteroid, climate control vents… other stuff that’s surely hiding below the surface.” He counted. Then, after a small pause he shooed his friend away. “Well then. Off you go, do your quests, I have stuff to do.”

“You do?” Cal was surprised.

Julian nodded. “I do now. I’ll try to build a small telescope if I can. Just need to figure out how to make glass…”

“What for?”

“I’m taking a good look at that sun as soon as night comes again.”

***

Julian fiddled with the thin metal foil, holding it up with a pair of clamps. Setting it aside after deeming it satisfactory, he went back to the small forge that was hanging above the fire. With enough Luck, the system was going to recognize the sludge inside as raw glass and allow Julian to Precision Morph it into a lens and mirror using the foil he prepared.

After Cal had gone off to talk to the locals in search of quest, in fact, Julian had immediately set off towards the river with only a torch and vague info from the elves on where to look for a sandy beach. Luckily there was one nearby, even though the quartz was not as pure as he would have liked it, but with even more luck it was going to indeed be enough to complete the last pieces he needed for his telescope.

He sat down at the fire, taking out some meat from his storage ring. It was beginning to spoil, meaning that time still flowed inside the storage space, roughly at the same rate as outside.

This is about as advanced as I can go, Julian thought, looking at the almost finished piece of technology. Calling it that was, in his opinion, close to blasphemy with how rudimentary it was, but without more advanced skills and more levels in Precision Morphing this was at the limit of what he could piece together in a couple of days.

Eventually the glass was pure enough that the system recognized the misshapen ball of opaque crystal as such, allowing for the skill to work on it. It slowly changed shape, and Julian tried to stretch the definition of ‘small’ as much as he could. Alas, however, the skill only allowed him to make small pieces from the raw materials, and the lens that came out wasn’t bigger than a hand. It had to do.

He waited for nightfall, then immediately pointed his telescope at the dimmed star.

“As predicted, night is fake.” He muttered.

***

Julian sat at his table, fiddling with his revolver pistol. He was chilling at a hanging bar built on one of the largest trees, some hundred meters above ground. It was a gorgeous place, made of bamboo and leaves, with glowing vines providing light and many little fires keeping the guests warm, while the dark forest stretched all the way to the curved horizon below.

He was waiting here for Cal to come back from his questing, as he did the day before. They had an agreement that he would wait for his friend to come back from his trip here, but it didn’t mean that he had wasted two days. He was only here at night, while during the day he ventured into the forest in search of loot, monsters and curiosities to later explore with Cal.

Making a tally of his killing and looting, he now had 32 F-Crystals, 8 F+-Crystals, a deep knowledge of the surrounding forest and its many interesting secrets, and a single magical bullet. This last thing was a system-issued item, as it came out of one of the glowing balls that were becoming increasingly more common but also more difficult to reach the higher in the tower Julian ventured. He had found other items, but they turned out to be food, rations or worthless things that may or may not prove useful down the line and that now used up way too much volume in his spatial rings.

It was funny to think that the village was the place he knew less about, after having explored the forest extensively, because he never bothered to stop for any longer than the time necessary to restock and resupply. After looking for decent armor, he had eventually decided not to bother with it, only buying a shirt. He had enough Vigor to survive most hits, and without the clumsy metal hampering his movements it was much easier to avoid taking hits altogether. He could have gone for leather, but he didn’t like the idea of wearing it.

He took out the magic bullet and fiddled with it. The system was giving him a hint, a blueprint to learn how to produce magical bullets en masse, once again sending mixed messages. Was it helping him, was it trying to kill him, or was it ignoring him? The little grooves on the metal pulsed light blue.

>Magic Bullet. Common+ Rarity. Bullet enhanced with shards of an F-crystal, capable of inflicting magic damage as well as physical damage. The Black Powder has been mixed with a small amount of crystal powder to enhance its explosiveness. Damage scaling: 20 flat physical + 15 flat magic damage

At this point his working theories were two: either there were multiple parties with different agendas… or the system had trouble understanding who he was and what his nature was capable of as a former scientist who was a master of engineering and technology. None of the two were satisfactory in the least.

Whatever.

With enough Runes for a level up, Julian had assigned a point to Mind before returning to the village, increasing his mana pool somewhat. He had briefly eyed INT, wondering if increasing it was going to make him smarter, but of course it wasn’t going to. It was only going to increase damage on INT scaling magic and stuff.

He had left the choice of a new skill for later, when he had time. Which meant now.

It hurts not to choose to increase my shit rings, but I want magic.

With considerable mental effort, Julian chose Sorceries, finally gaining access to magic. Soon after he did, Cal came back, stumbling up the winding stairs and plopping on the seat with a weary sigh. He was looking battered and bruised, definitely worse for wear, robes torn and dirty. Julian waited, but his friend didn’t seem to want to elaborate on why he was in this state, making him shrug. He was curious, but didn’t get time to ask before Cal asked for updates on the telescope thing.

“What did you see?” he asked with dripping curiosity.

Julian got up. Cal followed, leaning onto the wooden railing to look up at the sky. “That, my dear, is a huge-ass speculorefractor.”

There was a dramatic pause.

“A what?”