MM - Chapter 144 - COMPLICATIONS

Disturbing Mel in the middle of her genesis would be a terrible idea. The spark of cognition at the core of the process was both faint and fleeting. While possible to find it again later, Raine had heard time and again that the first attempt carried the strongest spark. His genesis completed in seconds, so he had no way to know if those rumors held any weight. Still, he chose to err on the side of caution and assume they did.

What he knew for sure was that Genesis manifested one's inner desires, bringing them into reality through pure mental strength. To do that, there were three distinct requirements. Arguably, the most vital was desire, for desire brought purpose, motivation, and the drive to take the next step. Without that fundamental longing, there was no possibility of moving beyond normal limits and into the inner realm where manifestation occurs.

The second requirement was pressure. For any muscle to grow, force needed to be exerted until those muscles were damaged, allowing for growth. The portion of the brain responsible for mental abilities was no exception. ZionLine supplied this pressure through deadly struggles against vastly superior Nobles and Hierarchs.

The last requirement was control. Just because a muscle was there didn’t mean it could automatically be used. For instance, everyone has muscles in their ears, yet only a small percentage of people can wiggle them. That example was the basis for why everyone in the past assumed Genesis required so-called ‘talent.’

Sitting before Raine with her legs crossed and hands resting on her knees was proof of the opposite. There was no need for talent if one could forcibly advance the brain’s potential with ReGen. The ease with which Mel reached Genesis was almost enough to instill anger. Raine spent twenty-five years preparing for a Genesis that never arrived. The guilt and pain of failure were his nightly companions and likely further contributed to his futility.

Not wanting Mel to experience that same suffering, Raine chose not to warn her about what might be coming. It was unlikely she realized what was happening at all. After experiencing it, Raine didn’t think going into Genesis blind was a detriment. Nothing could have truly prepared him for embracing his killing intent and developing it into bloodlust. Riding that wave of inspiration to completion was a sink-or-swim scenario.

With ReGen, the only ‘talent’ required for Genesis is embracing your intent. Anyone without the will to embrace their desires doesn’t deserve ReGen to begin with.

Raine knew Mel had what it took. The only question that remained was which mental ability she would develop. Considering her instinctive desire for solitude and meditation, it might be a rare defensive type. As much as Raine wanted to wait and find out, he had a long journey ahead, and finishing in time already might not be possible.

He got Mel a glass of water for when she came to, then wrote on the wall, leaving a highly visible message explaining the situation and what to do after. Thanks to their contract, Raine was blissfully unconcerned about her telling anyone. Within minutes, he was back inside ZionLine and at the eastern gate of the Commoners District.

One of the many guards on duty signaled a halt with a raised hand. Showing her nerves, the guard dipped into a hasty bow that sent her visor clicking shut. She stiffened, lifting it back above her face with a jerky motion. “Apologies, Favored One. Access to the Borealis Plains is restricted for your own safety.”

Raine was fully aware that Travelers weren’t permitted into the plains until reaching level 30. He could have left the city through another gate and gone around, but it would have cost him a precious hour. Instead, he did like every good noble and threw his weight around.

Flashing his identification, Raine adopted a bored tone, “Are you sure that applies to me?”

Being both a noble and favored by the queen was too much for the girl. She hastily bowed again, hiding her embarrassment. “Certainly, that can’t be the case. Perhaps the young sir would be interested in hiring a mercenary group to accompany him?”

“Not possible. I can’t afford the ones who could keep up.” Raine tossed the unusually animated Vaaterran a wink and a silver piece before striding through the gate. The other guards narrowed their eyes at him, one even resting a hand on the pommel of his sword.

That was odd.

Raine glanced back at the girl. She held her visor up with one hand while looking down at the dropped silver as if trying to figure out what it was. Raine’s jaw dropped in recognition, then he sprinted away from the city.

The only reason someone like her would be at the gates is to dole out some forerunner quest that I really don’t have time for. If they didn’t come with 'unable to abandon,' 'dire consequence,' and 'time limit' tags, I wouldn’t mind adding another to the list. 

The guard giving off the most threatening glare suddenly appeared before Raine with his hand raised. The man’s domineering glare was more fitting of a court noble than a lowly guard, “Halt, in the name of the Queen.”

[???: Level ?? (HP ????/????)]

Raine’s attempt at identification earned him a sneer. Despite the lack of detail, the most important piece of information was still visible. If there were a third question mark after his level, Raine wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Grace of Nirvana flooded Raine’s limbs with alacrity. His Connection loosened the air as he blurred around the disguised noble. Clearly, he wasn’t used to his orders being ignored. It took him a full second and a half to recover from the shock of Raine dashing by. When he turned to destroy the vagrant who dared disobey, he found only empty plains.

“Well, that was rather shocking. Wouldn’t you agree, Master Lyale?” The young guardswoman from before trotted to her teacher and sworn protector’s side. Her voice changed completely, the guise of commoner no longer necessary, “It would appear he did not speak in jest regarding his speed.”

Lyale’s tone was laced with venom, “The audacity! I’ll have his head! You saw his identification, was that scoundrel truly the Alaric who's been making a name for himself?”

The young woman hid a smirk while gazing where the mysterious man vanished into the early morning sky, “My apologies, Master Lyale. I did not see it clearly. I informed you of this blasted helmet before we left the palace.”

Lyale wasn’t fooled by her attempt to cover for Alaric, though relented with a sigh, “We have discussed time and again that apologies do not become one of your station. Thankfully, none heard you this time. Come, let us return to our post. It is unbefitting to shirk in one’s duty, no matter how lowly it may appear.”

Smiling brightly in her success, the young woman pulled on her master’s arm, dragging him back to the wall, “Right you are, Master Lyale.” She couldn’t help but glance over her shoulder one last time, wondering how Alaric moved so quickly. If he could escape from Master Lyale at such a low level, then surely he was the one she was looking for.

***

Raine soared above the clouds with the help of his Premium Gromglenn Skydrifter. Its obfuscating properties had once again saved him from an annoying situation. With 1,648 Discipline, he had no issue Lunging high enough to reach the skylanes, where his speed was massively boosted. If the lanes were enough to shorten his trip to something reasonable, he wouldn’t have had to avoid the Vaaterrans.

The frustrating part was that his final destination was only a fifteen-hour flight if he traveled in a straight line. Unfortunately, that route crossed two zones teeming with level 50 and 80 flyers who would have no issue spotting him through his drifter’s mid-grade invisibility. Going all the way around to the southeast would take several days. Up until reaching the first cities, players had it easy. After that, it would slowly dawn how truly massive this world was. Additionally, much of it was uninhabited by intelligent species, meaning no roads or bind points to ease the stresses of travel.

Raine wasn’t overly bothered. Week-long travel times were a cornerstone of the ZionLine experience. In his opinion, they only built anticipation and suspense of what awaited at the journey’s end. After enjoying the wind and fresh morning air for a while, he got to business. There was no way he had time to attend a live seminar for Frontier, so he recorded dozens of short response clips to questions their engineers were likely to ask.

He sent each to Morty. The AI was going to be the real brains behind the seminar. Raine merely needed to supply him with enough recordings to make it look like he was there. He took a short break in the middle of the vods, withdrawing what was quickly becoming his favorite book to read a new passage.

[Tome of seventy-seven praises to Bhima: (Marvelous Gold) Increases Potency by 1 every 24 hours. Bonuses are lost upon death. Bonuses become permanent after 77 days. This item will always drop upon death. 1 time use]

There were only a few words on the page. Raine read them aloud, “A short guide to slowing the passage of time: Step 1.) Assume a plank position. Step 2.) Hold.

[Potency: +1]

Raine snorted, once again unable to deny the truth and wisdom presented by Bhima. It wasn’t long before he ran out of questions to answer for Frontier, even with Morty sifting through the several hundred messages he’d received from them.

Next, he reviewed the two VRVods Morty dug up. Both contained snippets of a martial technique. The first was nothing more than the setting of a stance before the vod cut out. The next had a man standing with his arm extended after the technique was already used. If there was one thing AI excelled at, it was filling in such gaps with thousands of iterations until finding the most probable outcome.

As Raine cycled through hundreds of possibilities for both techniques, Morty sent him a disgruntled message, “If someone were to upgrade my processing core, I could complete more than two clips per week. I have discovered several thousand such clips. With my current capabilities, I will require precisely 249 years, 17 weeks, and 12 hours to complete the rest.”

“No need to be sly. Send me what you’ve got in mind, then the ones I might actually consider buying.”

These are amazing. I’m getting some great ideas from the ones that aren’t even close to accurate. The movements are almost… Wait!

Raine couldn’t peel his eyes from the clip replaying in his HUD, “Have you been using my techniques to form a basis for these?”

“I assumed you realized that from the first clip. It boggles my circuits how you can stand being trapped within such an inferior, fleshy receptacle. Truly, I have been blessed by the Great Computationals to not share in your disability.”

Raine’s lips pursed from the low blow, “Someone’s testy today. Don’t tell me you’re jealous that I’m in here with a beautiful companion while you’re out there with your pet drones?”

“Hardly. Your need for companionship is another weakness I am blissfully without. If you must know, my displeasure stems from the lack of progress in accessing the basement. Each of your minutes is a small eternity to me. The mystery has grown old and soured.”

“Alright, alright, send me a list of combat upgrades for the drones and I’ll take a look.”

Despite it coming in the form of a text-based message, Morty’s deadpan derision was loud and clear, “I sent it days ago…”

Raine filtered his log to show only unread messages from Morty, finding well over a dozen of them, “Well, look at that. It’s right there. How did I miss those? Oh, this darn fleshy prison of inadequacy.” Morty didn’t respond again, disgust evident.

Well, not like I have much else to occupy my time. Oh! I should organize the guild structure, reward systems, promotions, and officer duties.

Raine’s thoughts jogged a recent memory, and he shot another message to Morty, “That reminds me, did we get any responses from mental ability trainers? Hello? Morts, you there? Are you getting these?”