Approaching Varya's outskirts, walking hand in hand toward the massive roads that perfectly blent with the slowly clearing jungle, David and Erin couldn't look weirder.
Dave had grown his hair so long that he would not be able to recognize himself; they had clearly never been as long and as crazily all over the place as they were at that moment. His complexion looked much pinkier and definitely much paler than his natural olive. He had also shed his pinky finger, for Fey had three fingers and a thumb.
"Gosh, I feel like an overstretched Oompa Loompa."
David had also managed to see the ears hidden behind their massive hair; Erin had shown them to him, and, he had to admit, they were very pretty. Slightly bigger than normal ears and pointy.
She had reddened considerably at his request of showing him how his ears were going to look, and only then she had explained it to him: they were parts meant to be hidden. "Sure, shame on showing your ears," he had said to himself, "but meat puppet and fanny in the air is regular administration."
Erin didn't really get what he had said, but she was already starting to abandon the idea of understanding him. Still, now they were traveling to the City, the only thing separating them was a border check that was actually meaningless for everybody knew that Fey didn't really have a proper dwelling.
Fiend
Level: 36
Fay
Level: 31
The guards, a Fay and a Fiend, both wearing blue suits, didn't even check them, they let them through with nonchalance, but Dave had to give it his all not to stare.
Yet they did stare at him but not in the suspicious way he believed, but for another reason.
"Am I really that weird looking?" He asked.
Erin chuckled, then apologized, "Sorry, it's just that, youngs are trying all these new vogues and fashions, that sometimes they just look really ridiculous."
"Well, what's important is that they didn't notice my level; this thing really works," he added, touching the little metal collar at the base of his neck.
"You thought it wouldn't? That Muffler was made by one of the Ancient's most capable crafters," answered Erin. The Muffler was the object that Erin had gone to retrieve from the City, the very reason for which she had left. It had the ability to show something different from the original wearer's level and race; the beholder's eyes would be fooled as long as the wearer was not examined with powerful magic.
Being a high-end product, it was quite hard not to pass an inspection with it; it also had another effect—
Curse Resistance reaches level 2. resist low-level curses with a 2% increased efficiency.
He had been wearing it only for a few minutes, and his body was already answering to it, for the object was made with Dark magic.
"So, are you sure I don't have to worry about it?"
"As long as your body is fighting the curse, you are fine; besides, it does not have a power on the wearer as much as the information that you emit about yourself, so just take the free Skill levels; the first ranks always come easy."
"If you say so—"
Curse Resistance reaches level 3. resist low-level curses with a 3% increased efficiency.
David rolled his eyes; he was indeed starting to worry.
However, there were other things to think about. Once the greater problem of passing through the border had been dealt with, it was time for David to gaze at the inner City.
Looking at Varya from the outside was one thing, but seeing it up close and personal was something entirely else.
Indeed even just at its outskirts, jungle and city started melting into one proper mixture of breathtaking architecture. The pleasant smell hanging in the air reminded him of the after rain's pleasant odor. He wasn't sure, but he might have heard it was defined as Petrichor, it hadn't rained during his trip, but maybe such an advanced civilization had other means to cause rain or generate such a phenomenon.
Still, the first impression had been more than positive to him. Roads and buildings were shaped in such a way that trees, climbing plants, and flora, in general, were allowed an almost complete growth, unhindered by the people's passage. The streets characterized by an absolute lack of vehicles were tight, and stores, and stalls with weird-looking food and objects of shapes and functions he had no idea about, littered the place, but most importantly, animals were given free rein, which as beautiful as it was, even Sourceborns manifested just as easily as it was for the regular animals to roam free.
"That is a Night Impit!" David just barely managed not to shout, "Don't give me a quest, please."
Scout Impit
Level: 26
It wasn't.
"No," said Erin, shaking her head, "those pests are much worse."
Indeed the Impit looked taller and somehow more intelligent, aware than the Night Impit he had fought. It was coming out from a manhole to the side of the road. The agile creature slithered out of the hole, stole something from a nearby stall, and got back from where he had come from.
"They are fully evolved Impit, they live in the City's culverts and come out to steal, and at times to do other nasty things, they are not easy to take care of, but they spawn continually which makes them a little plague that nobody can really erase," Erin said. "Youths hunt them down to level up, but they can be troublesome as well, for to hunt them down, they must descend in the sewers and Impits in general move in groups."
Dave kept staring at the now empty manhole, and Erin noticed it, "What is it?"
He launched a sigh of relief, "Nothing, I was just expecting the Source to give me some other weird quest; I really wished it didn't, thank goodness it hasn't."
The Fay nodded, "Don't worry, Davi, the Ancient will know how to answer some of the questions about your Title and Blessing."
Indeed, he needed answers and needed them fast, but more importantly, he needed to get clear of his weak Resilience; he needed levels for even with his twelve points, his Well filled by one percent every few minutes.
He mentally called for his Status just to check again on his modified stats.
Status
Name: Deviant (David Anderson) Son
Blessing: Blessing of The Source (Unique) – Resilience + 1 every Level
Title: Trespasser (Unique): Locked
Level: 3
Arcanist, Class level: 2
Class Perks: Source Sight
Attributes
Health: 100%
Stamina: 89%
Well: 26.8%
Alacrity: 5 (6)
Constitution: 5 (4)
Perception: 4 (6)
Strength: 5 (4)
Mind: 12
Resilience: 13
Charisma: 4
Attribute points: 0
It wasn't much of a modification, but he could still feel the difference. Indeed he had to spend a few minutes to get used to how his body had turned and to forget about the stinging pain.
"Do you have a Blessing that gives you free Resilience too?" He asked her, which still held his hand tight.
"Of course, we are all blessed with the Blessing of Arthan. It increases our Level and gives us a Resilience point each year," she answered.
"So do the Fiends have it as well?" Dave asked.
"No," Erin shook her head, then pointed at the Ring, where the birdhouses-looking building rose tall, "Fiends don't allow their children to be born on Arthan; they go back to their Native planet, Xaphi'rel, to give birth, unlike us they give birth, without eggs—it's kind of fascinating if you ask me, visceral—but they do so on their planet so that their kids can be blessed by its cycle."
"Mmm, which makes them level up in a different way than yours, right?"
"Indeed, they level up five times as fast as we do; of course, they don't live as long as us, although I believe there are examples of Fiends that defied old age, their emperor should be one of them," Erin said.
David nodded, too enthralled to analyze the alien—yet hitting very close to home—City that looked like a blending of eighteen centuries London and south-eastern Singapore.
"There are—are those monkeys on those trees?" he asked, pointing at a nearby building entwined into a giant winding tree.
"Yes, indeed they are; don't you have them where you come from?"
"Not in the City. Well, I guess some of them do, not mine."
Those were not actually monkeys but a very similar yet less intelligent species, similar to monkeys but closer to Fey, the A.S.U.T. had translated the equivalent of the words to the two speakers.
"Oh, well, not monkeys—they are much more naked," he turned to look at Erin, "it must be really one of your cousins," he said jokingly.
Erin looked at him, surprised, "Indeed, you are right; how did you know we shared biomaterial with them?"
"Just a guess."
"You keep surprising me, Davi. If only it was in a positive way…" she said, longingly, then turned toward him to give him a smirk.
"Ouch."
"Come on, let's speed it up, we still have quite a bit to go before we reach the Ancient's place, and I'm sure our trackers will be upon us soon," Erin said, "Let's make haste."
***
"This is the Ancient's house?" David asked, baffled.
"Yes, is something wrong?"
"This is a castle, Erin. There are even guards and towers" he said squinting, "weird-looking towers—but still towers," Dave noted.
"What did you expect? There are four Ancients in the City, which are all the Ancients in this region of Arthan. Did you really think we could leave them unprotected?"
"I had no idea what I thought, but I feel uneasy now. Am I going to meet a lord or something? Oh, I'm not ready for this. I mean, is it like the Queen but on a lesser scale? Damn, I'm starting to sweat."
"Davi—" said Erin shaking him from the hand, "Relax, the Ancient is really gentle; she's not like those kids you were scared about," she chuckled, recalling what David had told her about being scared about the Fey children and their "over the top" nosiness.
David worked with children, but small children, not almost teenagers, which in turn were really as old if not older than him. He already did not really get along well with teenagers, probably something he developed ever since he started getting caught up in bigger problems.
"Well, you don't leave, though, okay? I'm already alone on an alien planet; you are my only lifeline, so stay with me, pretty please?"
Erin chuckled, "You are worse than a child; come on, let's go."
They headed to the vast mansion that made him think about one of those Yakuza's houses he saw in anime, with Japanese gardens and vast spaces, only there wasn't much of a Japanese garden here since it was a proper forest.
A vast forest-garden paved among them and covered the wide spaces that the mansion's garden offered. The forest, for it could only be defined as such, didn't seem to lack anything of its defining factors, starting from the flora and ending with the fauna. Although the entrance in front of them was open, tall walls soared from the ground, they reached all around the massive forest that led to the mansion. They were not tall enough to cover the trees, but it was clear that they had been placed there to keep things in, more than out.
To reach the inane structure, David and Erin had traveled a lot. They almost reached the city's limit with the Ring, indeed even the Resilience Threshold had increased, and David could feel the difference in himself. Still, as they crossed over the border of the walls—covered in climbing plants—he could feel the uneasiness simply—melt away.
It was so sudden that it was clearly unreal, just as his trip inside of the Varia'ati's head.
"Is she doing this? Is it some kind of mental trick?" David asked, surprised.
"No, it's Biomancy, pheromones. You can learn to ignore them; if it had been Mind Magic, you wouldn't even have noticed, not until it was too late, not at your levels." She turned toward him, "But I noticed that you've been increasing your Mind, which is smart, just don't put aside the other Attributes, for Magicians need Constitution and Perception too."
"That!" said David, "Randy did it too! How do you know that?"
She smiled. "It's just one of the possible Perception Skills. You might get it too."
"Wait, you mean, I don't just receive those tied to my Class of choice?" David asked.
"Why would you? Don't you have all attributes at your disposal? You just have to develop it or find it in a Source Box naturally. You'll have plenty of chances of finding them by training here," Erin replied.
"Oh, so that's what I'm here for? Training? How? I mean, becoming self-sufficient is kind of a big deal, but I didn't think I would be doing it here."
"Don't worry about those details; you'll know everything sooner rather than later," once again, Erin squeezed his hand and gently pulled him forward.
Indeed, David had understood that the Fey was a very physical bunch, but he had the impression that she was really treating him as one would a child.
"Is it better to be treated as deviant or a man-child?" David asked himself with a sigh, "Somehow, the first seems more appealing."
"Did you say something?" Erin asked.
"No, no, please, let's get to the Ancient as fast as we can! Lead the way!"
***
As they crossed the threshold to the mansions' gardens, David and Erin were welcomed with a stone trail; it acted as a road on which to pass to reach the mansion, while—incredibly—all around them, the gardens were on an entirely different level than what David was expecting.
The rock trail on which they walked had handrails, probably a cautionary measure to protect them from the long fall that they would make in case they leaned out too much from the trail.
It had served David well, who was about to do exactly that for curiosity's sake.
"How tall is this?" He asked as he almost lost equilibrium, trying to look down on the depths that were the ground below.
For indeed, the trail was a tall structure reminding him of the Chinese wall, yet much, much taller. It ran from the garden's entrance and continued on toward the distant mansion.
At the side of it, the lush "gardens" were vast and dense, so much so that the light from the Sun—Arthan's sun turned out to be, unsurprisingly called "Sun"—penetrated through the canopy in dim beams and small rays. The forest seemed to have its own weird ecosystem as well; as Erin clarified, "Most of these creatures, except Sourceborn, were engineered by the Ancient herself."
"Alright, Erin, but how do I correctly tell a Sourceborn from an animal?"
"That's rather easy to tell, Sourceborns are simply not meant to be. You will feel the wrongness of it just by looking at it. The higher your Perception the better and more clearer you'll understand the feeling the Source will suggest to you," she said.
David nodded, still he would have to rely on his own sight and instincts to tell them apart because he felt no sense of wrongness from the Source. Still, as he looked at the lush garden-forest, it was clear that Sourceborn could be found there as well. Indeed one of the first he saw was the Voracious Waspers, buzzing around a nearby insanely tall tree.
No creature, Sourceborn or not approached them on the trail. As it seemed, there was a layer of protection placed by the Ancient on the stone trail.
"This is anything but a garden. It almost feels like Jurassic Park… I love that film."
"Fi-lim?"
"Of course, you don't have them," David chuckled, but deep inside of him, the cinephile governing his free-time had just died a little.
Still, they trundled on, for David loved sightseeing, besides, he had this nasty feeling that something was going to happen in regard to this over-the-top forest, he just could not shake away the idea of—
Erin interrupted his musing. "You are starting to turn purple, David. You'll have all the time for sightseeing, but if you hurry up, we might make it in time for the Ancient to take a look at you."
"You know," David said, pensive, "It's been a while since A.S.U.T. leveled up, I mean, I understand you completely now, but it has stopped leveling up. Why is that?"
"A.S.U.T. is one of the most complete Skills there are; the Source gives it to any Sapient, but leveling it up over thirty takes a lot of effort. It allows you to speak with everything that can speak; some say they can even communicate with things that shouldn't. I myself have only as high as level fifty-four."
"So, it's like a universal and automatic GoogleTranslate?"
"I don't quite follow, but—Sacred Arthan—you are just so peculiar, the Ancient will love you," Erin stated.
"I do am loveable, to some…some few, but few are still some…I'm getting confused; let's just move on."
***
Curse Resistance reaches level 4. resist low-level curses with a 4% increased efficiency.
To reach the end of the rocky trail at David's pace took them twenty minutes, in front of them, the Ancient's house-castle rose tall; beyond it was a set of gigantic buildings, the bird-houses he had seen from the outside of the City. Still, beyond that, the massive Fingers jutting into the sky were creepy yet fascinating at the same time.
A sort of shivering for the opulence, sheer magnitude, and power toward people capable of building such a thing as that City crept upon him; it had done so for a while and didn't want to let go.
Then when something he hadn't noticed from afar, but he was noticing now, happened, he stopped once more on his track.
"What is it now, David?" Asked Erin, halfway amused, half annoyed for the continuous delays.
"Those are spaceships...There are actual spaceships leaving this planet in this precise moment, coming out from the bloody bird-boxes?"
"Oh, yes. I believe I told you that Fiend went back to their home planet, no? Of course they would have spaceships? How did you think they found us in the first place?"
"I…I hadn't connected the two things. I have been in a pretty hard state of shock up until a few seconds ago—no, wait. I still am."
Shaking her head, Erin took him by the hand once more and led him through what was left of the trail.
The castle welcoming them had its doorway wide-open; a couple of guards blocked the way, but they simply nodded at Erin.
The castle seemed to be made out of concrete—or alien equivalent—however, it was wonderfully covered by plant life unknown to David. Indeed the walls were covered in bark. Stone or metal was there too, only hidden. Still, they did not stop, Erin let David in, and they found themselves walking on grass; the pavement was covered in it.
The insides, too, were segmented in branches, as if trees had grown inside of it and had taken possession of the place while still allowing breathable space for the inhabitants to freely dwell in it.
David's eyes met creatures of the most incredible kind, even chimerical creatures that were indeed mammals but head beaks and insects wings…and Fay, more than one passed and went their ways, nodding at Erin who nodded back and launching amused looks at David's.
"Oh, you could turn me back to a Human, since we've arrived, right?" David asked.
"No, it's too soon. We have not shaken your pursuers off; let's speak with the Ancient first," she answered.
They kept marching through the weird ensemble of wood, grass, and walls, and in a couple of minutes, they reached the first closed door they had found.
"Oh, intimacy, what an unknown subject," Dave said.
Erin shook her head, then turned toward him; Dave did the same.
"Alright. She said she wants to see you alone," Erin said. "So, try not to make me look bad, okay? I've doted on you," she said with a beautiful smile, caressing his head, face, and now pompous hair.
"What? You are not coming?"
Erin shook her head, "It'll be just for a few minutes until she sees what she has to see in you, don't worry, I'll be here."
David took a big breath, "Roy—what would Roy say? Relax—take it easy." He closed his eyes, "Then let's take it easy, why don't we."
He opened his eyes as a focused man.
"See you in a jiffy." Saying so, David turned to the doors which opened wide, by themselves.
"This is not scary. Kubrick invented it."
David stepped into the hall, and the doors closed behind him.