Chapter 271 - Solo Delving - Part 3 - Love, Peril, & Psionic Attacks!

Eric’s blade was already out, adrenaline flooding his system as he drew and struck before the other side of the portal had even snapped into focus, refusing to be surprised and swarmed and nearly killed… only to find absolutely nothing waiting for him save the crushing gravity, acid drizzle, and putrid stench of before.

“Beautiful form, master! Few things look cooler than seeing your idol wave his sword around with lava lakes and obsidian mountains in the distance! And are those clouds glaring down at us like the eye of you know who? Fucking epic!”

Eric pretended his bunny wasn’t snickering at him when she said it.

“Exactly. I’d far rather look dashing with a sword in my hand than look dead with a raptor tearing out my gullet.”

“Fair point,” his rabbit conceded. “So who put the local gravity on fucking epic mode?”

Eric snorted. “Hold on a second and keep an ear out.”

Lilly saluted with said ears while Eric whispered the words to two increasingly familiar rituals, and in less than a minute their were acid-rain free with a definite spring in their steps.

“Fucking awesome!” his rabbit declared. “You see, this is why I like jack-of-all-trade characters like you, Eric. Those quality-of-life skills that people ignore in game are absolutely everything when you’re actually living those games!”

Eric grinned. “Now if only it didn’t take me like thirty seconds of concentration to link some of those rune sequences together.”

“And that’s why you have spells derived from those runes.”

Eric nodded. “You got it. Runes for general utility, or if I actually have time to prepare a ritual casting. Otherwise, it’s spells to blast the shit out of whatever’s not willing to wait.”

Lilly snorted at that and looked ready to say something Eric just knew would put him in his place when she suddenly froze, cute little button eyes going wide as she turned around.

Then Eric felt it too. A shiver of endless possibility caressing his spine, knowing that he shouldn’t even be able to turn his head or look in the direction Bunbun’s ears were pointing. Absolutely certain that there had been no break in the obsidian overhang behind the crackling gate… and yet, now there was.

“Eric?”

“Yes, Bunbun?”

“Um… I might just be imagining it, but I think my ears are sort of picking up a distress call?”

And that was when Eric heard it, inhuman Perception picking up distant screams.

He didn’t stop to question it, or waste time with doubt as he raced through the crack in the stone wall that served as a narrow tunnel. Because he knew that if he hesitated for even a second, if he found excuses to delay and prevaricate… an infinitely precious possibility would be lost for all time.

So instead he picked up his pace, making full use of his Finesse when the obsidian stone turned to rough basalt and then rich volcanic soil, the putrid stench of methane gas and sulfuric fumes soon replaced with the rich, heady scent of citrus, tree sap, and pollen as the tunnel opened up into a primeval jungle, the lush thick canopy overhead completely blocking out any view of the brooding dark clouds he knew should be high above, for all that sapphire shafts of light still caressed the forest floor. The air was alive with the caws and cries of countless birds serenading each other over branches hanging heavy with a dozen exotic looking varieties of fruit, a soothing counterpoint to the distant screams and shouts barely audible through the thick of what could only be people fighting for their lives.

“Eric.”

“I know.”

“Raptors!”

Eric’s heart pounded with a fresh surge of adrenaline as he darted through the forest as fast as the undergrowth would allow, just knowing that he was about to slam right into the thick of it as he broke into a clearing, immediately taking in the sight of a handful of people fighting for their lives against a flock of Utahraptors that had them all surrounded. But more striking than finding a half dozen survivors wielding humming blades of bone white alloy or using exotic hand-held boxes that magnified the wielder’s shouts and roars throughout the hidden jungle valley, was that the young men and women fighting so desperately for their lives were just outside a massive vessel of sleek curves and exotic shimmering alloys. A towering vessel ship that looked like a cross between a massive 737 and NASA’s former space shuttles, covered in gun ports, blinking lights, and what looked like a ginormous plasma cannon right out of Eric’s avorite anime.

Only problem was, the ship seemed completely inert, save for that handful of blinking lights, and the raptors had successfully cut off the half dozen harried survivors from the ramp leading to the ship proper. A ramp several raptors were now racing up as the largest of the remainder took that moment to dart down and disembowel one of the survivors.

“Hanz!” A girl’s desperate wail rang through the humid air as the Utahraptor pack went in for the kill.

“Don’t think so, motherfuckers! Fulmen!” Eric roared as he burst onto the scene, the air crackling with silver-blue lightning that sent the farmost pair of raptors crashing to the ground, immediately grabbing the attention of the pack, just as he had intended.

Then Eric was racing forward as fast as his legs could carry him, drawing and striking with his blade of crimson fire as his bunny cackled and blasted their deadly opponents with repeated bolts of lightning from between her ears.

For just a heartbeat, Eric caught the disbelieving gaze of a pair of girls covered in silver scaled armor, before his view was cut off by the exceedingly irate birds that now surrounded him.

“Six o’clock! Three o’clock! Nine o’clock! Fuckers are surrounding you!”

Eric didn’t bother responding to Bunbun’s mental warnings, having known damn well he was jumping into death the second he had made his choice.

Bloodfire Strike critically strikes Shadow Raptor!

You have successfully ruptured Netherworld Resistances!

You have successfully shredded Tier 2 Darkscales!

You have decapitated your foe!

Eric’s blade was a dancing blur of fiery death, Eric roaring and hollering as he weaved and dodged around an entire pack of Shadow Raptors getting in each other’s way as they desperately lunging at him, snapping at the ground where he had stood, just seconds ago. Before erupting in shrieking caws as one collapsed, blood spurting from its leg stumps, its neighbor immediately springing back only to fall over with a caw of surprise, it’s sides ripped open as hot steaming entrails sizzled upon the lush tropical foliage they now fought and died upon.

But the fuckers were fast. Even in his fury, Eric had to give them credit for that. And when the remaining intact pair of high level Shadow Raptors turned and lunged as one, Eric knew he didn’t dare hold back, the brilliant crimson bar of plasma he wielded like a two-handed saber cleaving through the air as he pivoted around the weight of his own blade.

Implacable. Undeniable. Infused with the essence of cutting itself.

DOOMSLICE!

The massive shadow raptors were now fully committed, lunging through the air to pounce upon and devour their kill… before the closest collapsed in two perfectly sliced halves as the final theropod spun around to glare its fury at Eric, before blinking in confusion when it’s maw exploded in blood as a feminine voice filled with killing intent echoed oddly through the ether.

“Fragor!”

All that was needed for a furious Eric to seize the Vor, his blade windmilling forward to kiss obsidian scaled flesh that parted like parchment as Eric was showered with hot, caustic blood. And all he could do was laugh. Laugh as the terror and exultation of combat roared through him, laugh at how close he had just come to death.

Again.

Laugh as he raced back to the pair of injured Shadow Raptors, the air ringing with his furious words before either could retreat back through the thick undergrowth from whence they came.

“Hell Vines!” Eric roared as a massive trunk covered in thorns and flame burst from the ground beneath the injured Shadow Raptors before wrapping them up in tightly coiling vines covered in wicked thorns and flesh-searing fire, Eric now having the seconds he needed to cast his ultimate finisher as furiously struggling oversized lizards’ struggles grew ever more frantic until they both abruptly burst into flame.

Eric smirked at the scents of friend chicken and charred scales to go alongside the stink of smoldering leaves and vines sizzling and burning, Eric cutting off his spell right before the entire clearing would have been sent ablaze, his ES Space now up a handful of prize specimens as he shuddered with the rush of power five more high level kills had granted him.

Congratulations! You have successfully slain 5 Shadow Raptors of 65th level or Higher!

Experience (for 1 kill) shared with 1 Level 42 Psionic Warrior!”

Hell Vines is now Rank 8!

Bloodfire Strike is now Rank 12!

Bloodfire Strike is now Rank 13!

Unified Perception is now Rank 23!

Primal Adventurer has leveled up!

Primal Adventurer has leveled up!

You are now a Level 46 Primal Adventurer!

Eric closed his eyes, feeling a tingle of possibility even beyond the sweet, sweet rush of leveling up once more. A formerly hidden potential. A way to reshape reality with his will alone.

He had seen it in the gazes of the five stalwart defenders who had seemed to struggle with the crushing weight grinding down upon them all, bitter sharp words of killing intent, focused and channeled in a single handful of infinitely potent symbols.

He then opened his eyes and sighed.

Humbled by the fact that he couldn’t grasp that tingle of power he had tasted in the ether of possibility.

But the word itself. A word that the Psionic Warrior had used as a focus point for his gift was so much more than a triggered string of syllables and consonants, Eric realizing that the word itself held such sweet, sweet potential. A string of syllables upon which had been imprinted the will of thousands of Mind Mages from a realm Eric could barely conceive of, forging a linguistic catalyst incorporating the most destructive of all possibilities.

It was a word he would claim as his own. Now if he could just…

“Bossman, better look frosty! Super hot chick who can barely stand is hobbling your way!”

A glaring Eric snapped open his eyes… catching sight of a wan-looking girl with heart shaped features, a powerful looking physique covered by form fitting body armor of mesh and plates and what Eric was sure were elite super-polymers that just happened to look like Ivory Trooper armor from right out of Nova-Wars, and skin that shimmered and sparkled like gold glitter when the light caught it just right. And the way her copper-colored eyes filled with awe and gratitude widened with sudden fear sent alarm bells screaming through Eric’s mind.

He quickly wiped away his hot glare, letting that flash of almost insight fade as he focused on what mattered, the blanching girl before him.

“Are you guys alright? I saw one of your friend’s injured.”

Her look of fear eased as if she could genuinely sense his very real concern. Then she chuckled softly, flashing an almost rueful smile before inundating him with melodic words that flowed together in odd atonal harmonies he found both soothing and oddly jarring before lurching back as his entire world seemed to crumble around him before expanding in ways he never would have imagined.

He could only peripherally appreciate his rabbit’s sudden anxiety when a certain mental gift that had been too long dormant began working to forge countless billions of synaptic connections at an absolutely blistering rate as everything snapped back into focus, his Perception forever altered by the color and flavor of a language he had never experienced before this very moment, yet had served to broaden his conceptual horizons beyond anything he had ever experienced before.

You have successfully saved versus seizure! All cascade failures have been stabilized thanks to Vitality 230 points above minimum requirements!

Congratulations! Neuro-Linguistic enhancement has successfully integrated Kunskapsspråk into your cognitive lexicon!

Scholarship has been permanently boosted by 1 point!

You are one of the first five local Terrans to successfully incorporate a multiversal language into your lexicon! - (Stat boon has already been claimed.)

The Adept classes Universal Sage & Scholar are now open to you!

“Come, this way, Fatebringer. Let’s get you inside while we can.”

Eric shook away his daze, finding himself being dragged by a girl who struggled just to walk herself as they approached the mesh ramp leading to the portal to the ship proper. In addition to words she knew he couldn’t understand, she tried leading him through gesture, a soft hand upon his own, and what felt oddly like a gentle mental tug, promising food and warmth if he would follow her.

Then her eyes lit upon those of her companions, gazing at Eric with an odd mixture of hope, fear, and desperation. Before all their eyes returned to the young woman sobbing and groaning upon the top lip of the blank, a trembling hand futilely clawing at her mangled abdomen, strands of blue grey intestines spurting from between her trembling fingers.

“Kerstine!” Sobbed one of the three men, collapsing more than crouching before her, gazing at her wounds with wide-open, horrified eyes of prismatic hue. “We have to get her to sick-bay. She’s dying!”

“I know, Per,” said the soft voice of the girl next to Eric. “We’re going to have to do it carefully. With the gravity field off-line, we’re being crushed by 5 times Regia standard. If we weren’t already enhanced...”

“I know,” Per whispered. “But we have to try!”

Eric gazed at the young soldiers who were both so clearly human and so clearly not, with hair of platinum, copper, and silver, slipping in disarrayed locks from hastilly fastened helms, their eyes of metallic or rainbow hue filled with all-too human panic. Eric’s mind racing with how he could help, gut clenching at the agonized whimper coming from a dying Kerstine’s lips… when he heard it.

The distant screams coming from within the ship.

Per spun around, stumbling on his back, but still managing to gaze at the ship lock with a look of absolute panic. “Ingrid! Those bastards slipped past us!”

The girl still holding Eric’s hand squeezed it with inhuman Strength. At least high 40s, maybe higher, a tiny corner of Eric’s mind thought, as she jerked a nod. “I know. Angel’s mercy!” She glared at the others. “Mikael, Hans, drag Kerstine inside, then shut the lock! I’m going ahead. Catch up to me when you can!”

“Ingrid, there’s only one of you, you’ll be killed!”

“We have no choice! No one inside is combat trained, they can’t even handle this gravity!” She turned to Eric. “I know you can’t understand me, but please follow. Please help if you...”

Her eyes widened when Eric dashed right past her and through the gate, now making his way through multiple interconnecting corridors of chrome and steel broken up by the occasional discrete bit of green in the form of latticeworks covered in lush green vines with humidifiers cleverly concealed right behind them, the claustrophobic corridors lit with a soothing pink light that did nothing to ease the mounting dread in his guts when his Interface Map that he had spent long seconds linking up to the ship when the option came up to allow it pinged an actual ship nursery.

“Fucking raptors are egg stealers!” Bunbun hissed.

Eric clenched his jaw, blood roaring in his veins.

He didn’t know if these people were actually real or if he was lost in a fantasy of sorts that would cease to exist when he finally left this pocket realm. But considering that he had turned more than one dream to reality, in the form of a murdered father and son given a second chance and an entire realm pulled free of the quantum flux of probability… he wasn’t taking any chances.

Either way, the desperate screams of young women, the sickening crunch of serrated teeth ripping into flesh, and the shrieks of children were far too visceral, far too real, for Eric to treat as anything but the horror it was when he broke into a large chamber that could have come out of any futuristic day-care center filled with colorful posters on metallic walls, children’s toys, books written in indecipherable letters he didn’t dare let his Interface try to decipher now… and blood. Far, far too much blood from a pair of vacant eyed young women wheezing as their entrails were torn out and devoured by a pair of obsidian raptors a hell of a lot bigger than Eric that clearly enjoyed gorging on human flesh.

Eric felt a hot tightness in his diaphragm, a tingling fury in his skull as he gazed at monstrous death snarling back at him as the second bird rammed a too thin door that was all that stood between these terror birds and vulnerable screaming children beyond. Eric thought it a miracle they were even surviving the crushing gravity, meaning that power must have only recently been lost. He knew he didn’t dare unleash his lightning within this chamber, lest he fry the already dying pair of caretakers who didn’t look any older than him, and perhaps the children hidden beyond. So instead, he uttered the word he could feel echoing in his skull as it had from the moment he had first heard it in the ether.

A path to power not meant for one such as he to tread.

He sensed that as well.

Yet at that moment, tasting tragedy, despair, and the inevitability of death as the closest raptor darted for him, he furiously reached for the forbidden, smashing through barriers genetic and artificial to claim that terrible, glorious extraplanar word as his own.

“Fragor!” Eric roared before stumbling to one knee, paying an unexpected price as he grasped ahold of the forbidden and made it his own.

Shadow Raptor has been successfully struck by  Psionic Attack / Runic Spell – Psionic Rupture!

You have successfully mastered a concept alien to this quadrant!

You are attempting to access alien nodes foreign to Sylvan bloodlines!

Saving Throw versus calamity made!

Contender Status noted! You dare to walk Evelyn Death’s Path!

Evolve or Perish!

You have force-evolved a neuronal cluster – Genetic Mutation Noted – alien to your kin!

You have force-evolved a neuronal cluster Forbidden by the Terran Accords!

Vendetta Status to Bloodtear Syndicate noted! - You Contest Their Edicts!

Vendetta Status to Lythid Faction noted! - Prima facie evidence of Psions upon Terra has already been established.

Master Criminal Perk supersedes all Tier 1&2 Restrictions!

System note – Lythid fines paid by Bloodtear Syndicate equivalent to Tier 1 Restriction.

Inquisitorial Purge Decree successfully rescinded!!!

A dozen messages flashed past Eric’s stunned mind in the blink of an eye.

But that was all that was needed for the pair of deadly Shadow Raptors to focus on the true threat that had interrupted their feast. A threat they would deal with before a mortal could even blink, hissing and darting low with snapping teeth, eager to disembowel their foe who’s blow had only stunned one of them for a handful of seconds.

Before the lead raptor lurched back with a snarl as a stream of ice spears slammed into its throat.

All the hesitation that was needed for their prey to become predator once more.

As the closest Shadow Raptor found when massive jaws snapped for a coldly smiling Eric’s throat… before mithril flashed in a blur and the raptor’s shredded remains splattered against the back wall of the nursery.

Doomflurry has critically struck your opponent! - 25 Soul Points spent!

The final raptor squawked, spattered by the shredded obsidian scales and viscera of its kin as it tore out yet another gobbet of flesh from what was now a very dead childcare worker, before opening it’s vicious jaws wide and charging Eric’s way once more.

“Fragor!” Eric roared, the last Shadow Raptor abruptly stumbling back, Eric’s Find Weakness now pinging against multiple hairline fractures throughout his foe’s skeleton and organs so badly strained that the creature would have collapsed in shock, if it weren’t fighting furiously for its life.

Eric immediately halted, raising his mithril blade in Ochs, the point aimed right for the massive Shadow Raptor’s eyes. He then slowly step-slid back, coaxing the hissing, head-bobbing lizard to focus on him and him alone, before the theropod’s clawed foot could crush the one woman who was still somehow clinging to life. Even if she wasn’t long for this world, or dungeon, Eric would give her desperate panting form what little hope he could.

The raptor screeched so loud that Eric felt physical pain in the confined chamber as it leaped and snapped for Eric’s throat.

“Fragor!” Eric roared a final time as he swept his blade across his foe’s vicious talons a heartbeat before its skull exploded in a shower of bone and brain, Eric darting to the side as the massive creature splattered against the entrance, where Ingrid could be heard screaming with surprise. Yet both raptors were very much among the dead, collapsed in boneless heaps, Eric sensing that his repeated shouts had ruptured pretty much everything within the second monstrous foe.

You have depleted your Psion Pool. You are feeling muddle-headed! (-1 penalty to cognitive abilities until you’ve rested for 1 hour or longer. Penalty minimized – this is a nonstandard potency pool your brain does not normally access!)

You have successfully slain 2 additional Shadow Raptors!

You have invested 5 points in Finesse, Quickness & Perception!

You have invested 3 points in learning a Forbidden Word, Forbidden Technique, and accessing a Hidden Potency Pool!

Your Psionic Potency is now 1!

Your Psion Pool is now 12!

NOTE! Psionic Potency is alien to all Sylvan tribes! You may not develop this anomalous potency pool with level-up points!

Psionic Rupture is now Rank 2!

Runic Spell Forger is now Rank 8!

“Ulla!” Ingrid sobbed, stumbling over the raptor corpse Eric immediately put into storage, earning another awed look but no more than that as the still armored girl crawled over to her obvious friend. “Please hold on. It’s not too late, we’ll get you to sick bay!”

The panting girl flashed a pained smile. “That vile thing tore out my guts, sister.” She groaned and coughed, rainbow hued eyes widening with agony as spools of entrails continued to spurt between trembling fingers.

“Even if you could get me to sick bay with us all weighing half a ton, emergency power won’t last more than another day. You and I both know we’re not long for this world.”

Ingrid choked back a sob, before turning to the battered, yet still intact door.

“The children?”

“Still safe in their creches. But the gravity well, sister. If we can’t restore power and recover the graviton unit, their brains will begin to hemorrhage within a day. Two at most.” Ulla choked back an awful groan, crying out when her body began to spasm and shake. “The signal failed. There is nothing we can do. We’re as doomed as our world. Please… end the pain!”

Ingrid gazed at her friend with horror, tears streaking down her face as she sobbed and slowly raised her weapon.

Before she froze and gasped, Eric’s hand catching her wrist at speeds she could barely register, let alone prevent.

“Let’s see if we can help Ulla before we give up all hope. Did your friends successfully close the bulkhead?”

The pale-skinned golden-eyed girl gazed at Eric for long, disbelieving moments. “You speak our language!”

Eric grinned. “One of the advantages of a hostile System Interface implantation.”

“Good thing it doesn’t seem to be hostile anymore,” Bunbun snarked in English. “Because that was some major interference someone threw in for you, if you check your Interface messages.”

“Maybe because I’m entertaining it with a shit-ton of kills?”

“That would be my guess,” Bunbun conceded. “I mean, besides the shaping reality in your own image thing that you got going on whenever you claim another territory.”

Eric shrugged. “I think that’s any Contender’s prerogative.”

Bunny snorted. “Yeah… somehow I don’t think so. But hey, if we can find a fellow Contender not hunting for your head, maybe you can ask them.”

Eric’s words earned a confused blink from Ingrid as Eric effortlessly bounced between languages.

“I don’t know what you… but that hardly matters. You’ve gave us hope, even if just a flicker. And yes, the bulkhead is sealed, thanks to you. For all that horrors bang upon it even now.”

“Good,” Eric said as he turned his full attention to the crisis at hand, gazing at the girl wheezing and gasping, lying in what was now a considerable pool of blood, slick blue-gray entrails continuing to slip free of her shredded abdomen. Eric frowned, sensing she had only minutes before she fell into cardiac arrest.

“Where’s the sick bay?”

Ingrid gazed at Eric for long moments, but Eric had other things to focus on.

“I see that gravity hardly effects you at all, and I saw the way you moved. Perhaps you would be able to...” Her eyes widened with either horror in wonder. “How? How are you doing what you’re doing? No Psionic power would allow for you to...”

Sensing that she meant him no harm, Eric had no problem tuning her out as he closed his eyes, attuned himself to the dying girl’s rapidly fluttering heart and the blood within it, before whispering words of Dominion, compelling precious crimson life back into the container it was made for.

You have successfully reclaimed shriven blood! Blood has been purified! Blood has been returned to its original vessel!

Blood Mastery (Healing) skill check versus Critical Wounds made!

Critical Success!

You have successfully stabilized your patient!

Fibrin strands have successfully sealed all major vasculature ruptures!

Eric took a slow meditative breath, visualizing countless ruptured capillaries, veins, and organs being patched together with blood platelets and fibrinogen stored in every healthy person’s blood. He was awed anew at the body’s own capacity to heal so very many injuries, if only they had the time to do so before catastrophic organ failure leads to death.

Fortunately for the girl now in Eric’s arms as he was led to sickbay, a miracle of steel, chrome, and the most future tech medical equipment he could imagine, at least her vasculature seemed to adhere perfectly to Terran norms, even if her skin, hair, and eyes shimmered like exotic alloys and her mind was a tool and weapon far beyond his own. Eric then turned his attention from his patient to the actual regeneration pod filled with glowing green liquid he now found himself leaning over. A device that would have awed an earlier Eric, so futuristic and high tech it looked, Ingrid herself gazing at the device with desperate hope as he gently placed his patient inside it.

She flashed Eric an exhausted smile before turning back to gaze at her friend through the translucent vessel holding her. “Thank you, hero. Were it not for your incredible strength, Ulla would have had no hope at all.” Her expression grew pained, gazing about the chamber. “Yet we only have four additional pods, a single day’s worth of emergency power, and crushing gravity which will assure the death of most of the crew before too much longer.” She swallowed, hopeful golden eyes staring so intently into his own.

“That is, unless we can find a miracle worker from the ether itself, willing to dare the impossible.”

Eric couldn’t help but crack a smile at that. “Yeah, the odds of me showing up just when you need me… pretty fucking absurd, I completely agree.”

That’s when he heard it, a crash and a cry as Ingrid’s features paled.

“Oskar and Hans… they’re trying to bring Kerstin here! If they tripped and fell with this crushing weight...”

And Eric was off, daring back the corridors the way he had come, dismayed to find the entire cluster of survivors that had been fighting off the raptors were now in a jumbled exhausted heap, and poor Kerstin truly looked the worse for wear.

Eric didn’t hesitate to gently claim her from her panicked and clearly exhausted friends… but only after first using his mastery over blood to stabilize and repair dozens of internal hemorrhages in addition to the massive ugly wound that was her ruptured abdomen, clearly the favorite strike point of those Shadow Raptors.

Sensing that he had only seconds, he spun about on his heels and raced back the way he came, surprised to find even Ingrid was now looking the worse for wear, flashing him a weak smile as she pointed to another regeneration pod, trusting Eric to hook up the breathing mask before gently stripping the girl of her armored mesh and exotic weaponry, then carefully submerging her before sealing the pod and pressing the silvery buttons just as his new friend directed… not with words, but with shadowy images of what to do Eric understood was being imprinted directly inside his mind.

“Thank you, hero,” she whispered as the remaining guardians all stumbled into the infirmary, gazing at Eric with wide-eyed wonder.

“Does he understand what we’re saying?” asked an awed Oskar.

The youth named Hans gave a tired shake of his head. “I don’t believe it.”

Eric smirked. “Believe what you like, but yes, I understand you all just fine. First question. How many of you are on this ship, and what exactly do you guys need to restore power, gravity, whatever the hell it is you need to survive here?”

This earned a number of troubled looks, everyone gazing Ingrid’s way. She frowned and slowly nodded, Eric only then realizing they were conversing with their minds.

“The gravity is slowly killing all of us who lack internal Interfaces. The creches and support pods cushioning the Professionals and Children aren’t able to buy them anything more than time, and they find the experience a claustrophobic nightmare. Especially the children. For the rest of us… survival is a constant struggle.”

Ingrid shook her head bitterly. “We’re a colony ship, as you no doubt guessed. A ship that has been subject to calamity of the worst sort.” She gestured to the roof, waving her hand. “The valley you see beyond our ship was a last ditch effort to make use of the odd power loci saturating this world. As for our ship… almost all power was drained just stabilizing a non-lethal decent from the upper atmosphere, having no choice but to land after being pulled into the gravity well, our ship engine damaged by raiders that nearly spelled our end.”

“Save the fools didn’t realize it was warded by Psion-Knights!” Hans said with a certain fierce pride Eric could certainly appreciate, earning a bemused smile from Ingrid. “No, they did not. And they paid the ultimate price for their folly. Unfortunately, they were determined to take us down with them.” She sighed. “And they succeeded in their plans, overloading their core, nearly destroying our ship in the process.”

Eric nodded. “So you were forced to land in an extremely hostile environment, and you need a power source. Anything else?”

Ingrid gazed at Eric for long moments. “I don’t suppose you were summoned with the knowledge of tachyon drive repair in addition to impeccable combat skills?”

Eric smirked. “Nope. I have Rank 1 in a basic repair skill. That’s about it.”

She flashed a bitter smile. “Then we are well and truly… how do you say it in your language?”

For a second time, strikingly beautiful golden eyes became Eric’s world as the girl flushed prettily.

“We are absolutely fucked. That word fits this situation perfectly. Unless by some miracle you can...”

She blinked in surprise when Eric raised his hand, Hans glaring at Eric as if he had given grave offense before his blinked with awe when Eric took deep breaths, fingers squeezing the door frame so hard he heard it creak, visualizing the words to a spell upon which the Interface made clear no less than 300 lives now hung.

“Debilito, gravitas, plures, dies!”

Eric groaned as his interface pinged with a stream of happy messages, surprised to find himself toppling over as his Mana and Qi Pool crashed at an alarming rate.

Congratulations! You have managed to stabilize gravity well around Verstad Clan Colonizer! Colonizer and all occupants within will now experience gravity equivalent to Earth norms for the length of 1 local day! (You have no idea how long actual local days are. But who cares? Your magic is anchored to the sun itself! Too bad you can’t see heads or tales of it under so many sulfur-laden clouds!)

You have managed to complete Part 1 of the Hidden Quest: Lost Colony!

Experience Earned!

“Angel’s Mercy, he did it!” whispered a girl looking at him with wide copper eyes, pinning him with a gaze so filled with awe and reverence he felt it like a weight, bringing him to his knees.

“Careful, Malin. His mind is strange. He lacks our gifts!”

Malin’s lips widened in a strangely knowing smile. “I know. And he has been blessed with countless others, as all of his kind are.”

Ingrid furrowed her brow. “Malin, you know those stories and fables are nothing but fantasy. You’ve already been reprimanded once for failing to see the way of things. I care for you too much to further stain your record, but now is not the time to surrender to delusion!”

Hanz shook his head, his gaze also leaving Eric feeling both dizzy and nauseous. “I would normally agree, but think Malin might actually be right in this case, Commander. You can taste it in his mind. He is so...”

“Fragile?” whispered Malin.

Hanz nodded. “So we must be careful. Gentle touches only, Malin.”

Malin enthusiastically nodded, gazing at a nauseous Eric with a degree of awed devotion that he found almost as disconcerting as how easily she could stroke, massage, or crush his mind.

“I would never do such a thing to the faerie who would save us all.”

The entire group of youths froze where they were, Ingrid seeming to blush on all their behalves, before turning to Eric and flowing into a deep pivot that seemed a cross between bow and curtsy.

“I apologize for my teammates’ intensity,” she said with a gentle smile, her mind soothing his own like a cool raindrops on a hot summer’s day. “We owe our lives to the most unlikely of circumstances.” She had the grace to blush. “We owe our lives to you.”

“But you’re still down a power source,” Eric observed. “And that spell will only last until nightfall.”

Ingrid grinned. “Good thing the days are long in this shattered world.” Her expression grew strained. “But yes. You have granted us a priceless reprieve to the assault upon all our bodies. Our only hope is that our navigator can track down the portable gravity stabilizer units we were using to expand what would have been our eventual outpost.” She flashed a pained smile. “Because our trip down into a the anomaly of a 5.54 G world that actually has a viable if tainted biosphere and by some miracle isn’t a gas giant is one that can never be repeated.”

Eric frowned. “Come again?”

She gazed at him curiously. “Isn’t it the same with your own culture’s planetary outposts? Bio-stable planets tend to be blessed with similar gravity fields on their surfaces, regardless of differences in mass or atmosphere, assuming the magnetic field is also within a standard deviation of the norm.”

Eric blinked, when it suddenly clicked. “Oh, I think I saw a special on that once. About how Trekker fans doing skits wasn’t that far off the mark because most rocky planets or water worlds up to several times Earth’s mass would have gravity only slightly higher than our comfort zone because the increased area balances out the increased mass overall, so less gravity would be effecting any one individual on the surface. Assuming that the planet didn’t have an absurdly dense metal core, of course.”

Eric gazed down at the rubber-like padding of the ship floor. “And I’m guessing this pocket realm… or world… does.”

“Earth normal?” Ingrid’s cheeks dimpled in a rather charming smile. “That’s where your from! Wonderful. Honestly, Eric, we’re not sure why the gravity is so strikingly beyond the norm in a world otherwise quite amenable, perhaps too amenable to terraforming. There are so many anomalous energy fields here that our sensors are next to worthless right now.” She flashed a pained grimace. “It’s as if nothing even exists beyond ten miles in every direction, or perhaps it all curves about itself in 4-D space.”

Her brittle chuckle was reflected in the anxious smiles of her companions. “But you being here proves otherwise! Regardless, that’s the reality of our existence. If we’re to have any hope of continued survival here, we will need both to be a viable colony.”

Malin’s copper eyes locked imploringly with Eric’s own. “Can he take us with him, through the gate our sensors picked up?”

A pained silence held the room then, six pairs of eyes now pinning Eric where he stood, in the middle of a high tech navigation room right out of his favorite science fiction movies, before Ingrid broke the tension with a sad shake of her head. “You already know we can’t go through, Malin.”

“Because Remmy never made it back.”

Ingrid bowed her head. “Exactly.”

“According to the readings, he was instantly sublimated,” Per said with a sigh.

Eric winced at this, the easy out to rescue everyone in the back of his mind popped like the fantasy it was, now forced to take very seriously the very real predicament these people were suffering, if, indeed, they were real at all.

Eric frowned at the holographic image of the surrounding area now being displayed in a 3-D map on the screen before all the central seats in the navigation chamber they escorted him to, Eric making out the lush valley they were presently in, massive bio-engineered trees successfully trapping humidity in and filtering acid rain that would otherwise flood their little sanctuary. He then traced the path he had taken toward his portal and beyond, peering along the obsidian bridge between this sheltered island and the land just beyond, noting the lake of actual boiling lava nearby. As to how such a thing was even stable, and hadn’t parched the land or been cooled off to at least a surface crust thanks to the constant deluge of caustic rain that was still mostly water, he had no idea, though he was putting his money on it simply being the magical nature of the pocket realm he found himself in. He additionally made careful note of several brightly blinking lights showing up superimposed over what his own Interface designated as powerful hostile reds.

“The blinking lights denote possible power sources,” the youth named Hanz explained. “Fortunately, there is more than one, but the peril of attempting to retrieve any of them is a death sentence for any of us, despite our years of training.”

Eric blinked, suddenly getting it. “Monster cores. You guys need, what, Boss tier monster cores to get the hell out of here?”

Ingrid gazed at him curiously, then smiled. “Yes, I can sense what you mean.” She turned to Hans. “That’s what our Psybrain is recommending? Do you think the converter can handle it?”

“Most assuredly. Cyb hasn’t let us down yet. Fortunately, the converters were designed to convert most any power source. From Plutonium to anomaly cores.”

Ingrid then pointed to a blue blinking light, just a short distance from the green dot marking their own location. “Further in the biodome we were able to establish in this canyon is one of our external gravity generators, fortunately still intact.” She flashed a bitter smile. “It appears that the downside of forging a bio-habitat that is simultaneously able to cleans the air of sulfur and ammonia, trap and filter moisture, and provide nutrient rich fruit and buddings is that the more aggressive fauna have decided that it makes the perfect breeding ground for their own kind.”

Eric nodded. “So the Utahraptors have decided that this little oasis is the perfect nesting sight, and they’re clearly territorial, which means that they want you out, or even better, in their stomachs.”

“More or less,” Hans admitted.

Eric nodded. “So why haven’t you blocked the canyon entrance?”

Stefan gave a bitter chuckle. “Isn’t it obvious? We were doing just that when those abominations managed to steal or destroy the gravity generators we actually took off our ship, like the utter fools we have proven ourselves to be. What was supposed to be a few hours of hardship endured by a safely secured crew became a nightmare that would have killed us all, had you not by some miracle arrived.”

“And had those raptors not both been clever opportunists and actually had stealth capabilities, at least some of them, they never would have gotten their claws on a single one,” Ingrid said with an angry shake of her head. “If it hadn’t been for that awful cascade of mischance and folly we’d already have multiple security measurements in place.”

Eric winced. “Yeah, that’s a fair point. Name’s Eric, by the way. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”

All those present exchanged looks before doing their odd bow-curtsey in unison. “Thank you, Eric. We’re honored to know you’re name,” said Ingrid.

Eric exchanged looks with Bunbun as his interface flashed with several unexpected messages.

“Different world, different culture. Just bow politely back. And did we just get a System quest inside this orange tier dungeon?”

Eric frowned. “Maybe. Or maybe that portal really did jump us to a dying world and we really are rescuing a few hundred people from certain doom.”

Bunbun thumped his head excitedly. “Awesome. I always wanted to be a real life hero! Count me in!”

Malin’s eyes widened with surprise. “That creature is communicating with you. A full sentient.”

It wasn’t a question. Eric nodded. “She absolutely is. Her name’s Bunbun. Say hi, Bunbun.”

His familiar grinned. “Hi!” She greeted in perfect Kunskapsspråk.

“She speaks our language!” Hans hissed.

“Of course I do! I’m his familiar. You think you peeps are the only ones who can peer into his mind? His knowledge base is my knowledge base! I just don’t think he fully appreciates what that means yet.”

Eric flushed, really hoping it didn’t mean what he thought it might mean as he mentally accepted the pair of quests before him, Ingrid’s face easing into a relieved smile when Eric voiced his assent.

“Thank you, Eric. You don’t know what it means to us to know that you’re willing to help us in our hour of greatest peril. I would happily go with you. We all would, only...”

Eric raised his hand. “I understand. As impressive as you lot are with your epic Psi-Warrior classes with fifties in most of your physical stats, because you’re actually balanced, clearly your focus is on mental attacks, and five and a half times normal gravity means you won’t be dodging for shit the next time Utahraptors are coming to swarm you.” His gaze was almost pitying. “You guys came far too close to dying as it stands.”

Ingrid’s gentle gaze widened, cheeks flushing under Eric’s regard. “And you… you’re worried about us. You don’t want our deaths on your hands because your so skilled… so fast… that we’d just slow you down. You’ll actually fight better without us.”

Eric winced. “Now to be fair, I didn’t say any of that.”

She smiled and shook her head. “You don’t have to.” She sighed, clasped his hand, exchanged quiet nods with her friends who bowed in unison when she led a bemused Eric down several winding corridors to what were clearly sleeping quarters. “I can tell you’re tired. We all can. You’ve exhausted your limited Psions fighting for us, and you need to recover.”

Eric blinked. “Psions?” he said, when he found himself being gently tucked in the most luxuriously comfortable bed he could imagine, armaments and dirt effortlessly stored back in his ES Space leaving him perfectly clean as cool silk sheets caressing his frame when Ingrid nodded, stroking his hair. Eric smiled and closed his eyes, enjoying her soothing touch as her warm mind wrapped itself snuggly about his own and he knew that everything would be okay.

“Yes, Psions. It’s what you used when you stunned that utahraptor with your shout.” Ingrid paused thoughtfully, her soothing strokes turning to a shudder. “I don’t even want to think about… anyway, there was something different, something odd about your use of the gift.” Her gaze turned faintly pitying. “You’ve never fought with your mind before, have you?”

Eric smiled, somehow sensing her expressions perfectly, and her utter lack of hostile intentions, even with his eyes closed. “Nope, totally first time. And it wasn’t really a psionic attack. I was using a spell.”

This earned a surprised gasp. “You mean magic?” Her voice sounded oddly hesitant and rushed, and Eric felt an odd tension with those words, as if she feared being judged by the very question.

Eric smirked. “Of course. Mana and Qi wrapped tightly around a runic spell of power. It’s how I cast all my spells.”

Ingrid paused, now peering at Eric so intently he just had to open his eyes and meet her gaze.

“So Malin was right. All her wonderful wild dreams, that creativity and passion that drives her genius like nothing else… based on truth, not a child’s delusion. For you really are a faerie!”

Eric smirked. “Half-elf, maybe. I don’t know if that actually makes me a...”

She cut off his words with a kiss from golden lips that tasted of honey and spice.

“A hero who appeared just when we needed one. When we wished with all our hearts for one. A hero who fearlessly risked his life to save a clan he had no ties of kith or kin to. A man didn’t hesitate to come to the aid of a dying girl and an entire community in desperate peril.”

She flashed an impish smile when Eric’s dreamy half-doze became the hyper-awareness of a man finding himself in bed with a strikingly beautiful woman.

“Do you like what you see?”

Eric felt his cheeks blaze. “You know damn well I do. I can see it in the twinkle of those strikingly beautiful copper-gold eyes of yours.”

And her throaty chuckle was as human as human got.

“Good. Because I do to.” Hungry eyes gazed into his own when soft warm hands touched him in places that made him gasp. “You saved my life, Eric, and my future. So let me give you the greatest gift I can possibly give.”

“Ingrid...”

She silenced his half-hearted protestation with a gentle kiss, her whispered words sending tingles down his spine.

“We’re in a colony ship, hero. Do you know what that means?”

Eric swallowed, slowly shaking his head.

She chuckle throatily. “It means we’re here to serve as the founders of an entire colony, an entire civilization. And no girl would walk a settler’s path unless she’s willing to truly embrace what that means.”

And before Eric could say another word, he was struck with the weight of her pain, her grief.

The knowledge that the young man who had lost his life trying to enter the portal Eric had taken utterly for granted had been the man she had planned to worry.

Leaving her burdened with the crippling weight of loneliness. An agony made all the worse with the death of her father the captain, thanks to the pirates, which meant that she was also burdened by the perilous duties of command.

Only now did she find her crushing despair easing with the first faint flickers of hope, smitten by a strikingly handsome champion who had both saved her life and who genuinely fancied her, feelings his fascinating mind couldn’t hope to hide from her own trained psyche. His gentle smile promised her the bliss of escape, and joy, lost in the powerful arms of a man eager to hold and protect her for this one precious night… and if she could win his heart, perhaps for a lifetime to come.

Eric could sense so much in the strikingly beautiful telepath’s gaze, almost overwhelmed by her pain, her desperate hope, and the fierce joy she felt as their lips locked, their limbs entwined, and two souls became one.

“You totally know she wants to have your babies, right? These colonizing telepaths work fast! Must help if you can read someone’s mind. Especially since you’re a quick read!”

“Shut up, Bunbun… this is papa bear’s happy time.”

“Sure, hero. Enjoy your nap.”