Amazon Apocalypse 5: Chapter 24

When I gave her the okay, I expected Myrina to go on a rampage. Instead, she gave a speech.

“Ha! You frogs in wells! You do not understand the heights of the heavens! Watch closely, and in your last moments, this young mistress of the Supreme Heaven-Sundering Fate-Defying Magnificent Unrivaled Apex Clan shall demonstrate true skill!”

With a flourish, Myrina drew a sword I hadn’t seen her wield before. I blinked as I recognized it as one of the overly ornamental pieces of scrap I’d thrown away. The length of the blade was lined with thorns, and the body was inscribed with blossoming flowers. The idea had been to make a sword shaped like a rose. It would be bright and silver until coated with blood, which would stain the roses inscribed on the metal bright red.

It had been part of a side project where I’d been experimenting with shiny and bright swords covered in silver in case I needed to play a role like I had on Eowyn’s world. This one had been too gaudy for me, so I’d tossed it. Apparently, Myrina had found it and added it to her collection. And I had to admit, it suited her a lot more than it ever suited me.

“The Supreme Heaven-Sundering Fate-Defying Magnificent Unrivaled Apex Clan? What kind of laughable name is that? I’ve never heard of such an arrogant clan name.” scoffed the effeminate cultivator leading the gang of muggers.

Myrina’s reply was a punch to the face. The man went flying, and his swords clattered to the ground.

That was when she finally sprung into motion. I thought the sword unwieldy with all the embellishments. The thorns along the blade’s length threw the balance way off, but Myrina adjusted expertly.

When two disciples rushed her, she caught their weapons upon those thorns, twisted, disarmed them both, and then quite literally disarmed them as her follow-through strikes took their limbs off at the wrist and elbow.

Kicks, punches, and magical attacks flew all around me. I sighed, stepping to the left to avoid an attack that would have knocked my wig off.

I waited patiently for Myrina to finish up with the D-Grades and scanned the area for real threats. Our little scuffle was going surprisingly unnoticed. A few disciples in the area refused to meet my eye or scurried away when I glanced at them, but otherwise the ass-kicking Myrina was dealing wasn’t causing much of an alarm at all.

When we were confronted, I’d feared the worst, but maybe our disguises weren’t blown after all.

A few minutes later, the effeminate man who’d led the ambush against us was groveling at our feet.

“We have eyes but could not see! Forgive us, Young Mistress Supreme Heaven-Sundering Fate-Defying Magnificent Unrivaled Apex!”

“Young Mistress Supreme Heaven-Sundering Apex is fine,” Myrina waved her hand magnanimously.

Heads bobbed and groveled all around her, even those who’d just lost limbs. At the D-Grade, losing an army or leg was perfectly survivable, and the right healer could reattach a lost appendage easily enough.

When the fighting had finally stopped, other disciples came over to investigate. A few were C-Grades, and others made way for them.

“This camp is enough of a disaster as it is, there will be no more fighting,” one of the C-Grade disciples declared.

“So long as no one else tries to rob us,” I replied.

That seemed to settle things as far as the disciples were concerned. A few opportunists thought we were wounded and weak. We proved otherwise, and now others would know to steer clear of us. Everything had worked out surprisingly well.

Our cover was only blown with a single disciple in particular. Mimiko had come over among all the ruckus, and she alone recognized us.

“Honored seniors... uh... what are you two doing here?” she asked. She was clearly struggling to remain respectful after the incident we’d just caused. Her twitching eyebrows gave it away. “I thought you were going to wait for me to return with information?”

“And have you found anything?” I asked, readjusting my wig.

“Yes. There is a dig site near here. I suppose I can take you, given your current disguises. But your... ah... cores are leaking badly. If you walk around like that, people will think you’re about to drop dead at any moment.”

With Mimiko to make a few suggestions, I adjusted Myrina and my fake cores to be a bit more of an accurate representation of a living cultivator’s dantian. Then, she led us through camp. We took several turns and eventually came across a large camp. There were mounds of overturned earth nearby, which suggested a lot of digging.

The disciples here had been using hand shovels to excavate something the size of a building foundation. A single C-Grade was overseeing the dig, and when he saw Mimiko he waved to the pile of tools.

“Don’t stand there gawking! Grab a shovel and get to work!”

Shrugging, Mimiko went over to the shovels. Myrina and I followed, and we picked up some tools as well.

The digging area proved to be far larger than I envisioned at first glance. We walked past a trail of tired and dirty-looking disciples as we traveled into the hole, down a shaky wooden ladder, and toward the entrance of an underground cave. I was beginning to have a few second thoughts about coming all the way down here so quick, but if I went into the shadow realm and bypassed the dirt on top of us, I would hopefully be able to fly out reasonably quickly, even while carrying Myrina and Mimiko.

Down we went, and then further down still. We passed more dirty and exhausted disciples before eventually reaching the bottom, where the dig was still underway.

But I could tell they’d almost found what they were looking for because I could already sense it.

Just a few feet beyond one of the lower tunnels was a large metal structure. The disciples were digging mindlessly, but the moment I sensed it, I knew this was what they were looking for.

It gave off pressure in the Kindling the same way a planet bends gravity in its orbit. This was a place of power, and just beyond visible sight, I could see huge cables of power as thick as my torso running through higher dimensions.

It was like the System core I’d installed in my mystic realm, but far larger and more potent. Instead of infrastructure for a tiny mystic realm, this was infastructure meant to manage an entire world.

My mind went to all the toys and trinkets I’d tucked away in my mystic realm. How much greater would the toys and trinkets of the people who made the System be?

“It’s just a few feet past here,” I whispered to Myrina and Mimiko.

“You found what Elder Blackhand is looking for? Already? But we just got here?” Mimiko asked.

I threw her a wink, then glanced at Myrina. “Well? What do you think? We could go in now and try to steal the prize. Or we could play it safe and go home with this information, gather an army, and then assault this place in force. Maybe Prince Herius would like to know about this place. Though, if we tell him we’ll be splitting the spoils with the whole army. Should we call it off...?”

“Treasure! Let’s grab it now before the cultivators do. If we wait too long, it might be gone.” Myrina rubbed her hands together greedily.

“Treasure it is. Hold on tight, you two.”

I wrapped my hands around both women and swept them off into the shadow realm. The physical world faded away, and I pushed aside the rock and dirt between me, and whatever it was Elder Blackhand and the cultivators were digging for.

Smooth metal walls revealed themselves. They were unblemished by the passage of time, but I wasn’t sure if that would hold true in the physical world. I tried to push straight through the wall like I had the earth, but to my surprise, this strange alloy held strong against my will. Even in the shadow realm, this stuff wouldn’t budge.

But I wasn’t ready to give up. We returned to physical reality for a time while my ability cooled down, then circled the tunnels while I peered through higher spatial dimensions to peek at our target. Eventually, I found what I was looking for. An entrance.

There was a small opening in front of the door covered by dirt, and I took us through the shadow realm to get to it. I snapped my fingers and did some quick aethersmithing to make light for us. We were in a cramped, closet-sized space with barely enough room for all three of us to move.

“Ooh! A door. Stand back while I kick it down!” Myrina said in excitement, only to find she couldn’t get her legs up high enough to give the door a kick.

Truthfully, even if she could kick the door, I didn’t think she’d break through it. Whatever metal this stuff was made of, it was tough. Maybe someone had mined a neutron star for unusual materials that shouldn’t exist on a planet.

“Hold on. There’s a control panel here...”

To my surprise, I recognized the control panel’s design. I had thought an Architect artifact like this one would look like the control panels I’d seen on the abandoned city under my house, but instead, it was more like the control panels on the shard overrun with golems back in Crownhill. Those were the very golems Reluna and everyone else back home were no doubt scouting out for me at this very moment. Could this place be related?

“Hmm... I’m pretty sure this is some sort of alarm wire. Gotta make sure not to trigger it this time...” I muttered to myself as I worked. The last time I’d messed with one of these panels, I’d accidentally triggered it and brought down a small army of golems on my own head.

But I’d come a long way since then, and what had once been clumsy fumbling was now more like the work of an experienced technician. I still didn’t really understand what I was doing, but I knew enough not to short out the wrong wires or trigger an alarm.

About a minute later, the door slid open.

“We’re in!”

“Yes, treasure awaits!” Myrina drew her sword and charged forward, swiping her sword through the air just in case there was something behind the doors waiting to jump out at us.

I followed close behind, still powering the magical light illuminating our surroundings. Once again, it reminded me of the golem shard back home, though this place had more of an industrial feel for it.

The golem shard felt like a village of countryside cottages. Perhaps it was a countryside estate for a small and eclectic group of architects to get away from busy urban life on their core worlds.

This, on the other hand, was core infrastructure vital to their society. It showed in the metal the building was made of.

“I can’t believe it... this is a resource cache left behind by the ancient ancestors!” Mimiko looked around, eyes wide. “I never thought I would see the inside of one of these things. It’s said that a mortal can enter a place like this and leave a goddess, if only she knows the right buttons to push.”

I thought back to that dream I had of the early days of the System. If those visions had been accurate, the System really could take people straight to A-Grade, albeit at the risk of destroying their soul.

“Be careful. I don’t know what kind of defenses this place has,” I cautioned.

Myrina pointed to a metal box on the wall, then glanced at me. “Can I loot that?”

“Do you know what it is?” I asked. To me, it looked like some sort of cabinet.

Myrina shook her head. “No, but does that matter? It’s loot!”

I looked over the cabinet for enchantments and even figured out how to open it. Inside were a bunch of metal placards, each with unique symbols on them. I recognized the ancient writing, and pulling together what I knew from studying them with Reluna, I figured out these were name. These were probably security passes for workers in this facility.

I tossed one to Myrina and Mimiko, then gave Myrina the all-clear. She pried the cabinet off the wall and looted it.

That trend continued over the next few minutes as Myrina pointed at everything in sight and asked me if she could loot it. By the time we made it to the end of the corridor we entered, it was just a hallway that had been stripped completely bare.

The stuff she was taking was getting too big for even Morgathor’s Satchel at my side, so I ended up opening the mystic realm to let things into. I walked through to drop some stuff off at my tower when I bumped into Sakura and Bridget. Bridget must have finished a long shift at the mess hall, and Sakura was getting some paperwork done in my workshop, which was looking increasingly like another of Sakura’s office with every passing day. Maybe I really was going to need all the extra space the construction crew had made for me.

“We were wondering why the exit to Tinsburg closed. I take it you went somewhere?” Bridget asked.

I scratched my head sheepishly. I probably should have left the mystic realm back in the city, but we really needed the extra storage space.

“Yeah, after interrogating some prisoners, I got this quest, and it led us to a secret underground architect facility. You two looked busy, so I just went with Myrina.”

“Treasure hunting again?” Sakura tilted her head up from her paperwork. “You know... we really do need to fill out this tower. We hardly even have any furniture.”

“There’s furniture here! Come help me loot it!” Myrina waved to my other companions.

Sakura rubbed her hands together with barely contained eagerness. “Don’t mind if I do. I’ll never get tired of our little adventures. It’s basically shopping, but you don’t have to pay for anything.”

I shook my head. Back in Crownhill, I kept expanding my house, and my ladies kept filling it. Then I’d built a castle, and they’d filled that up too. How long would it be before they filled the entire Sanctum mystic realm? That, at least, was easily expandable. I just hoped it would keep up with them.

Pretty soon, Sakura and Bridget dropped what they were doing and joined us on our little adventure.

“I really hadn’t intended to turn this into a big thing,” I chuckled as Bridget and Sakura joined us. “It was just supposed to be a quick quest. Not even a full day.”

I opened the door to the next room, and Sakura eyed it like a house flipper eying a bargain bin.

“Not bad for an industrial look. We could really fill out Carter’s workshop with something appropriately styled. His wooden workbenches are a bit crooked.”

“Hey, I was still learning when I made those things!” I grumbled. She was probably referring to the workbenches in my barn back home, which were admittedly less than perfect. But that’s why they were in my barn. They were still perfectly functional, despite their appearance.

Nonetheless, Sakura, Bridget, and Myrina started dragging workbenches into the mystic realm. After that, all manner of appliances followed.

I focused on finding the traps, and in the process I found the light switch, which made looking through the facility much easier.

The rooms we were going through switched between an industrial zone to an office, complete with a break room. The girls really liked that, and they took everything that wasn’t nailed down. I turned around to scout out the next room, and when I returned they’d brought in more help so they could take out nails and take that stuff too.

“Carter, I hired your construction crew for a demolition job,” Sakura pointed to the manager of the construction crew I’d originally had working on the Sanctum pocket realm. At the moment, he was pulling off what looked to be wallboard, quite literally stripping the place to the bones.

I shrugged and doubled back to the entrance to add a few soundproofing enchantments. I tried to figure out how to close the door back up, but the place was old enough that getting it open had broken something in the mechanism and it was stuck like this. My enchantments would help keep the cultivators from noticing the construction site under their feet.

“Your people certainly don’t miss anything...” Mimiko muttered once we were away from Sakura, Bridget, Myrina, and the others.

I laughed. “Don’t worry about them. I just built a new place for us, and they’re eager to fill it out. Looks like it’s just you and me. While they’re digging up everything in sight, let’s see where the good stuff is deeper in.”

Mimiko followed me quite deeply into the facility, gaping in awe at random things that reminded me a lot of a microwave or a magic-powered sink. I was a little disappointed, but Mimiko seemed very impressed with my aethersmith abilities as we made our way through the facility.

“Your understanding of formations is truly heaven-defying, senior! Your eyes are all-seeing, and your wit is all-knowing!” Mimiko gushed.

I chuckled. “I know a thing or two. And just calling me Carter is fine.”

Though I protested, Mimiko seemed to know exactly how to stroke my ego. No doubt that was a valuable skill for any enterprising young cultivator hoping to move up in their ruthless dog-eat-dog world.

Just when I was thinking the quest was going to be a waste of time that only filled my new tower with junk, my quest updated for me.

We entered the next room, and I found myself overlooking a railing that led down into a pit. In the center of the pit there was a massive cylinder lined with tubes and gleaming metal. In a lot of ways, it resembled the obelisks back in Crownhill, Shadefall, or San Antonio. Only I could tell this one was far more powerful.

Quest Completed: Investigate the Eastern Plains

Reward: New Quest Available: Remove and Relocate the System Planetary Hub.

<Note>
I had something I wanted to mention, but I don't remember what. If you're seeing this, I didn't remember it before posting this.