-Robert Fayn-
It was finally time to make use of my empowerment to my Sins of the SteelStar system slot and account: only took two weeks worth of brewing to yield a practical cornucopia of different DverStar brews. Alcoholic potions were always up my alley and the fact the mana source connections for the multi-system slots were Dreaming-Tonic and elemental plant made it all the easier to exploit; the Gamer Tech and elemental oil also helped a little bit. Not to mention with these two empowerments, I could get a DverStar variant SteelStar as early as rank 4 instead of the usual rank 7 if you did it without empowerments. I have zero clue when I will hit rank 4 though, I mean I am level 19 right now and about to turn to level 20… maybe I should get another empowerment so I could aim for a DverStar variant for my next SteelStar, I mentally planned as I went to organizing the brews in my proxy inventory and tidying up my self-hub ship’s new brewmaster-apothecary station. Of course I had to deal with all the bullshit with these Vraglix bashers and the ascension event for one of my alt rhi’s spirits first.
“You ready?” messaged Blazehopper over friend chat, ready for me to teleport over to his self-hub ship.
“Yup, all ready.” I replied back before activating the warp and letting my proxy body get whisked away. The VoxView streamer’s self-hub ship was even more impressive in person: the place was expanded in size even beyond what was standard for a rank 5 self-hub ship and was decked out with amenities, including the bullet manufactorum that was a part of Blazehopper’s empowerment for his system slot’s connection. Taking a good look around, I noticed someone else was in Blazehopper’s ship beside the two of us; getting a better look at him I realized it was his younger brother and fellow VoxView Streamer, Pendramug. Surprised to see him here, I asked the two of them, “Pendramug?”
“That’s me,” replied the stubbled Blazehopper-look alike with a smile and a thumbs up. It wasn’t hard to tell why everyone joked about the two’s ages: between the thick dark stubble, shorter hair, and slightly thicker yet still bean pole figure, Pendramug looked like the older of the two despite only being 23 and five years younger than Blazehopper. “But you can just call me Percy since we’re not streaming.”
“Okay… Ummm, wow. I was not expecting this,” I commented aloud, still trying to process why Blazehopper’s brother was here: he did also stream Sins of the SteelStar also, but he streamed way more in the terms of proxy MMOs and indie video games.
“So this is the Robert you were talking about, Harvey?”
“Yup, he’s LazyMuseumManic from our streams,” explained Blazehopper, walking over and slapping me on the back. “And he’s the reason why we get to check out Starport Cyber!” Trying not to look too flustered, I shifted my gaze to the front window of Blazehopper’s self-hub ship and noticed that he was already in the artificial world cluster: its black hole glowing violet and illuminating the various satellites around it. “So is Sous going to be joining us today?”
“No, he’s busy with Umi and the others,” I answered awkwardly as I tried to recompose myself. “Everyone’s stuck hands on decks right now. Even Draceld is chipping in a bit…”
“The SteelStar Supremacists?” inquired Pendramug with a slight frown, obviously already given the details via his brother.
“Yeah, they are one of the groups causing problems… So, well… we’ll be meeting up with some of the members of the Goltinium Spellman Nine in Netro Road.” That got the two of them excited, but it was no surprise since not only did Blazehopper have experience with them cause of Tala’s kidnapping but because they both were from the Endless Strip also.
As Blazehopper went to setting up his ship’s teleportation pad to warp to the welcome pad in Netro Road that Louella told me she, Micah, and Jean would be waiting at, I went to dispensing out the DverStar brews for him and Pendramug. Hopefully they would help with whatever the spellmen actually had planned for us: most of them were simple healing and internal reserves refilling potions, but I had a few boon granting ones in the mix, including one that came in pairs that created a spectral bond between the two drinkers that allowed for pushing and pulling. I still can’t believe I can do so much stuff with fi magecraft in potions, I mused to myself, impressed with my handiwork: this was definitely a step up from using fi magecraft to improve the blending and bonding steps in potion making.
Unsurprisingly, Blazehopper went with his ruby system cast model, a crystalline phoenix-themed SteelStar with phantom flames, while his brother made use of his own sapphire oldmark cast model, toting soft dark blue scales and elaborate fins. It was kind of cool to think that between the three of us we had the classic red-blue-green colour scheme, but compared to the Blazehopper and Pendramug I was clearly outclassed. A rank 1 versus a rank 4 and a rank 5… I don’t even know why I bother to compare myself to them.
Arriving in Netro Road, it didn’t take too long to find Louella and the others: between the elegant plate skirted yellow SteelStar of Louella, the metallic bronze gear-covered SteelStar with a spirit halo on its arm of Jean, and the violet visored SteelStar with blaster drones and scoperifle of Micah, the three of them stuck out like a sore thumb. Which said something given how exotic and diverse the denizens of Netro Road were and how common proxy bodies, simulated bodies, and SteelStars were here on Ring-1. Tapping the barrel of his scoperifle, Micah commented,
“You know, I wasn’t expecting you guys to be on time.”
“Hahaha that’s perfect! You owe me a hundred credits,” laughed Jean in follow up, forcing the other spellman to do a quick account-based trade to transfer cash.
“So Louella, you want to give them the lowdown or should I?”
“I should be able to handle it,” commented Louella, obviously rolling her eyes or whatever constituted for eyes in her SteelStar before looking over at me and the two VoxView streamers before explaining everything. I had already knew that the three of them were running interference with the SteelStar Supremacists’ communication network while the other secret half did raids on their outposts; honestly served those assholes right, having to rely on exchanging data drives cause they couldn’t risk the Game System or their proxy pods picking up their criminal bullshit. What I didn’t know that Louella, Micah, and Jean were going to be raiding an outpost themselves and wanted our help since both Blazehopper and Pendramug were competent gamers when it came to Sins of the SteelStar with years of experience each.
“So you want me to help… Louella and Jean cause a distraction while you, Robert, and Harvey infiltrate the outpost to destroy their weapon caches?” inquired Pendramug, already readying himself by pulling his weapon of choice, a spellblade, from his proxy inventory.
“Pretty much, just shoot up the place and trash whatever you can,” dismissively commented the gun toting spellman.
“Wait, wait, wait, why am I in the infiltration team? I’m not exactly the fastest person here,” I interjected in confusion. I mean seriously! I’m using a Technologia of Holts model here, they are known to be slow. Does he want to leave me behind as deadweight or something?
“Because you’re a walking fortress with the ability to sense magical bad luck, duh. Remember, we’re dealing with criminal racists with a hard ‘r’ that don’t use friend chat or proxy inventories cause they are too afraid of being banned by the children of the locale and reported to the authorities.” Them being afraid of getting banned? That was a shock, especially since it’s not like permanent bans existed for system slots. Although the getting reported to the authorities made sense: most of these SteelStar fanatics were probably basement dwellers in the first place. “So are you in or are you out? We can’t sit around all day waiting for you to decide.
“Jesus christ dude, chill much? I’m not backing out,” I snapped back before sighing in frustration: what was this guy and his attitude. I swear its like he plugged in with a stick up his ass.
“From what I can tell from observing him and input from his housemates, Micah has always been rather brash despite being one of their primary psionics,” noted Sous from the back of my head as Louella went to showing us the route to the SteelStar Supremacists' outpost all the down on the bottom layer of Netro Road.
“He is often rather rude, but you shouldn’t let that get to you,” chimed Sal to follow up.
“I know, at least I don’t have to deal with his manalogical aura right now also,” I telepathically sighed backed to my two system assistants as I followed Louella and the others toward our destinations. Getting the chance to take in the surroundings, I realized just how freaking huge this megalopolis was: each layer was probably about seven hundred feet in height. Reagan’s pamphlet did mention them being over two hundred meters in height, but it was definitely another thing to experience in person.
“Wait, so we’re going past the traders’ market to get to the traitors’ market? Isn’t that a bit confusing?” asked Blazehopper as we moved down from the middle class third layer to the seedy layer two: from the looks of it, most of the bottom layer was going to be straight up slums and dungeon-like distortions.
“I’m pretty sure it’s cause we are hearing it in English, not whatever language is native to here,” I noted, tapping my Lance of Branches nervously: I hated having to deal with these SteelStar Supremacists and all these Vraglix bashers in general, last thing I wanted to get hit by a nasty thing of murderous forbidden magic like Neo Draceld Z did.
“Makes for great puns though!” laughed Jean, already shifting through the DverStar brews I gave him and the other spellmen to see if there was anything he could drink now.
“Jean if you want a drink so bad, just drink this,” I told the masked procyon, tossing him one of the connection paired potions before swigging down the other half. Even through the SteelStar’s deadened sense of taste, I could cleanly taste the flavors of banana, dried berries, and alcohol. And as Jean gulped down his own, I got a strong aftertaste of green and low-attribute manas mixed with other chromatic manas and Halo System-altered manas: it was as much energizing as mana usually tasted as it was cloying and hunger inducing. Does he always think about food or something? I internally muttered to myself as I watched the spectral bond form between our two SteelStars.
“Ooo, we’re soul brothers now!”
“That’s not how this works…”
“Soul brothers?” asked Blazehopper, interested in what was going on. Holding up another pair of potions, I told him to drink. Thank god, I made sure to prep ten pairs of these things cause things were definitely about to get interesting.
