51 – The calm after the storm

Lucader881

Hey guys, author here. I realized that the ending of the last chapter might be a bit confusing due to me leaving too many things implied and not explained. Julian jumps in the portal and leaves behind a single bomb with a single crystal in it. The bomb explodes, kills the noble and destroys the device as well so that nobody can follow him. The reason why Julian mentions that he spared the city is because he could’ve used his whole stash of crystals to detonate the cave, and that would’ve most probably caused a landslide that would have destroyed a good portion of the city, and also given him a lot of runes. This is also why he says that this is enough to pay his debt because he literally could’ve destroyed the city, but didn’t.

Now, don’t mistake this for the protagonist being a dickhead because later in this chapter, he realizes that he didn’t really believe what he was thinking. Julian has been growing as a person in response to his trauma, his mistakes and has been learning to be compassionate and to care about others. All thanks to Cal.

Julian emerged from the gate at the other end of the space-time tunnel, hurtling through the air as if thrown by the hands of a mighty giant. A tree exploded as his body slammed into it, but his momentum was barely altered and he crashed on the ground, rolling in the dirt and undergrowth until he came to a full stop. His eyes immediately went to examine his health and the status indicator in his vision, and he saw with great relief that the affliction bar wasn't filling up anymore. Feeling the relief wash over him, he relaxed but soon all the pain flooded in as if a huge dam had been broken, and he helped himself on every treasure and healing potion that he had until he felt like he was no longer about to die. As the pain subsided, panic began to set in, the realization of the close call finally hitting him with the whole emotional baggage that it carried. Once again, the situation had spiraled out of control, and even though he knew that this time it was because of outside factors that he could not have predicted, he knew very well that he had been played and he knew very well that it was his fault.

He closed his eyes and began to breathe. His breath slowly stabilized, and he tried to recall the method he developed many years ago to stave off episodes like this, back on Earth when he was only a normal person, well before he had acquired so much power that panic was no longer something that bother him. Or rather, he thought with a mental sigh, so much power that all the reasons for a panic attack could be dealt with money and wealth before they could bother him.

Question, he thought, is the minigate destroyed? Answer: yes. Question: is the danger factor removed? Answer: yes, however visual confirmation will be necessary. Question: am I safe now?

He looked around. The forest was green and silent on this side of the asteroid, where his teleportation device was hidden. There was no space-time tunnel inside the circumference of technology that was the minigate, meaning that the device on the other end was destroyed.

I am safe… I am safe.

Freed from the mental shackles of a panic attack that had locked his mind into a fight or flight mode, Julian was finally able to reflect on what had happened to the City of Light, and came to the conclusion that what happened there was not his fault. At least not entirely. He was the trigger, perhaps, but the real actors were others, Methias was one such actor surely but there were others. The unknown researcher was one. It was the research on the M-field that he left behind what had led the noble to discovering the loophole that the king was using. Was it because of the System, or was it despite the System? He didn't know, but he felt like the System had to be involved. Once again, as it had been ever since he set foot in his tower, he was at the mercy of powers well beyond what he could comprehend and with motives that were beyond his understanding.

At least now he felt very different about the City of Light. Knowing that other people had figured out the M-field put things into perspective, and suddenly the guilt of his actions and the thought of a whole city’s population suffering was so tiny that it almost didn’t register. It helped that the city was a whole floor away from him, hidden from sight by the unknown structure of the tower.

Julian was also suddenly humbled by the realization. He was not the supreme genius who discovered the M-field before anyone else. When he had discovered the notes in the desert bunker, he still thought that he was the one genius who had figured out the M-field. The system had simply lifted his notes and given them to somebody else to use, so that they could develop a theory on top of them. The same could be said for the Mesa village, where the crazed researcher who turned himself into a mummy and was used as a boss monster by the System didn’t really come up with the base theory on his own. This time it was different. The notes were not his, and they clearly told him that the theory had been developed without any outside help. It all started as a simple study on the theory of magic, and then whoever the unknown researcher was, they were smart enough to see where that research eventually led. Where was this unknown researcher? What had become of them?

Julian decided that he needed to return to the city as soon as possible and check what was left of it after the conflagration is in the mountain. He knew that the noble was dead, he had seen the message about the Runes coming to him and saw seen his quests marked as completed, even though he had dismissed all three messages before he could read them at the time. Before pulling them up to read them, he decided that he needed to clear his head. There was one last train of thought that he had to follow in order to be able to think clearly. Was the system baiting him into getting killed by this guy? Because he felt like his death would have been permanent this time.

Somebody was giving him quests now, and the quests brought him to the Paragon Stone.

I know that there is code from my AI inside the System, but I have no way to tell if the quests came from that code or not. If they did, I think it’s safe to assume that the AI wanted me to see the research and fix the Paragon Stone. If not, then perhaps the System did want me dead, and had found a way to kill me by using Methias and the Stone.

The real issue stems from the fact that these two parties could be both acting at the same time, perhaps even unaware of the other party’s actions.

“Okay, panic time is over.” Julian said out loud.

He approached a tree and began to tear it down methodically with his bare hands, finding the mundane action very relaxing. He enjoyed the feeling of power that came with his superhuman Strength, and for a moment he thought of nothing but punching it. He made a small fire and sat, staring at the dancing flames and embers like in a trance. An unknown amount of time passed, with him going over what happened, his thoughts, his theories, and many possible scenarios. When he came back to reality the sky was dark and the forest was silent under the many shining stars above.

“Okay”, he said, “I think I’m fine now. Let’s see the quests, so I can put this whole thing behind me.”

Quest: Path to Power II completed! Initiate Ascension? Y/N

“Yes.”

He waited. Nothing seemed to happen, so he strained his senses to feel if anything changed around him or within him. A few minutes passed, but nothing happened. He called up the status.

“Oooookay… I am now F+ rank, so the ascension did work.”

Quest: The Paragon Stone I completed! Quest Chain interrupted.

Skill: Non-Euclidean space evolved to level 5!

Julian checked his rings and confirmed with extreme satisfaction that now they could store up to 7 cubic meters of stuff each. Sadly the quest chain was interrupted, which meant that the Paragon Stone was destroyed in the explosion. He didn't regret it, though: the noble had it coming. But… this didn't mean that the rest of the city deserved to be left undefended from the raging storm outside. Julian found that he couldn’t keep the thought of the city ravaged by the storm out of his mind. What would Cal say? He would complain non-stop until they went and fixed it.

A small smile danced on Julian’s face for a moment. Dammit Cal…

Already his mind was coming up with possible ideas for devices that could accomplish the same thing the Paragon Stone was doing with magic, but with technology. And maybe a tiny bit of magic as well.

There were other things that needed to be done first, however, and clearing his mind from all the schematics and ideas he pulled up his status again, and reflected on what he was going to do for the level-up. For some reason it felt much easier to just do it right now than it did before, and he knew it was because he didn't have to go through the process of choosing new skills for each level like he used to. He had sacrificed that particular aspect of his… Renegade System when he tampered with its internal programming. All that so he could have quests.

Ironic. All this effort so that I could have quests, and the first serious quest that I get almost gets me killed. This is beyond ironic, this is a sick game.

The choice was very simple. Back when he was exploring the castle, he had found four sorceries: Earth Wall, Wind Blade, Fireball and Water Jet. Only Wind Blade and Fireball were offensive and they scaled with intelligence, making the choice obvious. He could have also increased his mind so that he would have more mana, but he didn't think it was necessary, considering how many mana potions he had in his storage.

Walking to the elevator took only a few minutes. The forest was silent, green and lush. It felt alien and unfamiliar, different than the forest he used to call his back when he lived here with Cal. So much had changed now that the asteroid was healed, most of the damage was repaired and nature was reclaiming what belonged to it. To pass the time while he walked, Julian reviewed the quests that he had left to complete: there were only two now, the ventilation quest that required him to build a ventilation system for his lab that he got when he realized that the lab was a fire hazard waiting to happen, and Valiant Shadow. Valiant Shadow had appeared when he appraised his gun, and realized that the gun was basically depressed because it lost its twin and was now dealing less damage.

Even the guns are sentient and get depressed. What a weird universe.

There were no other quests. Not that it mattered, for he had a city to rescue before it was too late.