Nadia made the most of her remaining Active Camouflage, taking the most direct line towards the dense jungle. Her Flight Assistant had the drone circling her location, well outside of visual range for anyone on the ground, and it was feeding her the positions of anything moving within 500m.

Hey, Core. Got any other abilities besides Active Camo? Nadia directed her thoughts towards her new companion.

Core can unlock additional forms and abilities through material and Essence absorption, Host.

Essence? Nadia asked, confused.

When creatures that possess magic perish, their residual magical power is released into the environment and can lead to contamination, a phenomenon known as ‘miasma’. Core can absorb and harness this released magic to fuel growth.

That doesn’t sound so bad, I guess… 3 minutes left on Active Camo… I need to hide. She thought to herself, wary of the figures moving in the surrounding area.

Looking around, Nadia found a suitable tree and began climbing as high as she could. Most of the trees in the jungle were over 30m high, and after a considerable amount of exertion, Nadia was able to reach the upper canopy where she deployed her pack’s survival shelter.

The shelter deployed as a 3m x 3m x 1.5m tent with a solid square platform as a base, and the exterior patterned to match the canopy. The tent walls were fabric and could be opened up or replaced with netting, allowing her to monitor the surrounding area without being seen.

With her shelter deployed, she settled in to rest while the survey drone continued mapping the area.

Nadia had drifted off to sleep and it was late at night when she suddenly woke after hearing cries in the surroundings. Looking at the information relayed by the drone, the robed figures had gathered a large group of small humanoids and were forcing them into the temple.

The creatures averaged around 1.4m in height, with short fur varying from black to white to brown to orange and bearing a striking resemblance to cats and foxes.

From the looks of it, the ones in robes were holding a group of crying children, using them to threaten their parents and community.

Is all of this because of me? Nadia wondered. Her heart was racing and she felt furious seeing the events take place, reaching for the rifle she had brought from the ship. She opened up the tent wall that faced the temple, replacing it with netting that would allow her to shoot while remaining concealed, and set the gun up with its bi-pod.

Looking through the scope, Nadia’s HUD illuminated all of the robed figures in red, their positions still being tracked by the survey drone above. The robes had formed a loose perimeter, making escape unlikely for the small creatures, and Nadia decided she’d start from there.

You people are monsters. She thought, pulling the trigger. There was a pulse of light as the 3mm steel needle was accelerated by the gun to over Mach 5.

Crack~!

Her first shot struck one of the robed figures in the head, decapitating him with the force of the projectile.

She settled on the next target, firing again. Target, fire. Target, fire. Target, fire.

Every time she pulled the trigger, another of the robes would collapse and the repeated cracks of the needles splitting the air alerted the rest to the assault.

Immediately, the robed figures by the children tried to raise them up as living shields, and Nadia paused for a moment to designate those three figures with the targeting assist module. With each one marked, the rifle released a rapid-fire burst of three shots, taking split seconds to adjust in between for each target.

As Nadia watched, all three figures collapsed with half their skulls missing, at which point the rest tried to flee for cover among the trees.

Like a grim reaper, Nadia continued firing into the robes as they would attempt to regroup, eventually causing them to flee the area in complete panic. As Nadia watched, one figure had his rob caught on a branch, revealing the face and form of a human man.

Fuck. Nadia thought. ‘Flight Assist, have the drone track them.’

She put down the rifle and hung her head in her hands as she thought about what she’d just seen.

John… I hope you’re alright.

~

Nadia packed up her shelter and descended the tree, making her way towards the temple where the small humanoids had been held captive. Her approach was slow and cautious, deciding not to make use of Active Camouflage, hoping to keep it hidden for if things went badly wrong.

As she drew closer, she felt a surge of power rush into the suit, and she had a sick feeling in her stomach.

Core… I thought you said Essence came from creatures that possess magic.

Host is correct. Those that Host killed possessed latent, inactive magic. If Core did not absorb the Essence, the corpses may have Risen or contaminated the area.

But… they’re humans. Nadia thought, feeling depressed.

Many creatures have latent magic they cannot actively harness. Humans are not unique.

Releasing a tired sigh, Nadia continued forward allowing Core to collect the rest of the essence.

Level up: Exo Suit is now Lv2.
Ability gained: Linked HUD

With the alert, Nadia’s HUD flickered momentarily before new information suddenly became available. Approaching the small furry creatures, an overlay appeared, indicating their species was called ‘Mern’, and that she could now hear their words in English.

Core… are you translating for me?

Yes.

Will you translate my words for them, too?

Yes.

Okay, that was easy I guess. Nadia thought to herself as she waved at the apprehensive gathering of Mern.

“Hello… I’m not going to hurt you. Are the robed hunters holding any more of your people?” She asked, feeling somewhat awkward as they all stared at her.

“You… you killed these?” An older looking Mern stepped out from among the crowd, looking at her with doubt.

“Only monsters would threaten children.” She replied, her voice shaking. The elderly Mern nodded before he spoke again. “They came upon our village in the night, and dragged us all here demanding we search the temple for them.” He said, his tone sorrowful.

“If you have a quarrel with them, I imagine they will return before long. Their minds are consumed by greed.” He said. “Thank you, for protecting the children, stranger. I fear we cannot return to our homes… If they still stand, I expect to find them waiting there for us.” He sighed as he went to turn away.

“If you show me the way, I can help you with any remaining in your village.” Nadia suggested. “I didn’t save your children just to have them freeze and starve. I’m sure there are things there your people need to survive.”

“Thank you, stranger. I am Arus of Clan Oman, and this is my clan.” He said, gesturing to the group.

“I’m Nadia.” She replied.

~

As they drew closer to the village, Nadia held a fist above her head, signalling for the Mern to halt as she advanced slowly. The Mern stared in shock as her figure seemed to melt and vanish when she used Active Camouflage.

Moving forward at a steady pace, Nadia reached the village, and much to her dismay, she found numerous Mern women trussed up on the ground with more of the robed men ransacking the houses. Nadia scaled a tree quickly, positioned back within the forest as she began sighting in on the robs.

As if you people weren’t bad enough threatening children. She thought with disgust, taking note of a figure her HUD revealed to her within one of the buildings, who was preparing to assault a captured Mern woman.

Without hesitation, she took aim at the man and fired. If the sound of the shot hadn’t alerted the robed men standing guard, the screaming Mern woman certainly did and the robes quickly took up defencive positions, drawing various weapons.

Nadia took her time with her shots, killing the Robes as they began to panic, down from their original number of twelve to a mere six in a matter of minutes. The ones that tried to take hostages died immediately, leading the rest to turn tail and run, afraid to look back.

Returning to Arus and the rest of the clan, Nadia’s form seemed to materialise from nowhere.

“I got rid of the ones in your village. There are a number of your women captured there. Some of them may have been…” Her voice trailed off uncomfortably, and Arus’ face crumpled with sadness. “Let us not make them wait.” He said, walking forward brusquely.

After arriving in the village, the clan set about freeing the captured women. Despite Nadia’s fears, she had apparently cut off the only assault before it could happen, but she couldn’t feel too happy about it, imagining the trauma would remain regardless.

Stepping into the midst of the village, Nadia once again felt the warmth of Core gathering the essence of the deceased men while she stood alongside Arus.

“Thank you again.” He said. Nadia allowed the helmet of her Exo Suit to retract, revealing her face to the Mern.

“If I did nothing, I would be as guilty as them.” She said with a sigh. “This is not how I saw my first day here going.”

“First day in the Wildlands?” He asked, curious. “First day here. On this world, whatever it’s called.” She replied. The aged Mern was shocked at her response. “You’re from another realm? You should be cautious of who you say such things to… it is dangerous.” He said carefully.

“Not sure what you mean by realm,” Nadia admitted. Pointing up to the sky, she continued. “Me and another flew here in a ship, from past the stars. There was an accident, and our ship crashed. When I woke up, he was gone.” She said.

“There are stories, from long ago of people who crossed the Sea of Night… but to think I would meet one.” He said with a chuckle.

“Well… we didn’t manage it on our own. There’s a… let’s just call it a doorway. It appeared near my world 50 years ago. For 50 years, we’ve sent machines through that could tell us what they see on the other side, and every time it would be different… John and I… we were the first people from our world to go through.” She said, her voice trailing off.

“And now you’re in a foreign land, alone.” Arus voiced her thoughts.

“Basically.” She replied.

“Well… You’ll just have to keep going, I suppose.” Said Arus. “Giving up certainly won’t help your situation, so you’re going to be stuck figuring things out as you move forward.”

Nadia laughed, her black hair catching in the wind as she looked at the Mern. “Thank you for your words, Arus. I feel less like I’m going crazy now.”

Niraada

Here's the other chapter I was able to knock out. Updates might be slightly sporadic, but I'll do my best to keep them coming. The idea here isn't for Nadia to run around being a murderhobo, she's just having a bad day to begin with and wasn't about to watch some kids get killed. Things escalate.