The sun blared through the cracks of the doorway, its light trying to infiltrate into Cain's dim room. Dresil emerged from Cain's blankets and kneeled on the left left side of the bed. She created three clones and coordinated with Bob to send these clones on missions for Cain's breakfast. Although there was plenty of meat within the Snack Storage, Cain preferred to eat some type of fruit and possibly eggs in the morning. Without his vitamin gummies here, he couldn't just eat meat and dairy without severely lacking a few types of vitamins.
[Master, it's 10:50 am. Wake up and eat breakfast.] Cain rolled over to his side, away from the kneeling Dresil. Dresil shook reluctant Cain a few times to no avail. Her clones arrived through fresh portals from Bob then merged into Dresil. She brought out a few dishes they ordered from the Snack Storage and fanned the smell around.
Cain's eyes instantly shot open once the smell of food whisked past his nose. He yawns and reluctantly sets the blanket that was on his face to the side. He still refused to get up though and just laid there with his eyes closed for a few minutes. 'Fuck… I don't want to get up… hnnng, today's going to be so busy… more so than my first day here. Man… fuck this… but also the food… Dang it…' Cain slowly sat up and dispersed the sound proofing magic circles around his ears after his inner struggle.
He kicked the pillow that was under his legs to his hands and positioned it on the wall, along with the one that was under his head. Cain leaned back while staring at the food on Dresil's hands. She handed over the plates of food along with some silverware for Cain to feast on. He dug in without hesitation, emptying out 5 plates before checking the time.
'Huh… It's only 10:50am right now'
—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (5ms)
Cain: Why did you wake me up so early?
Dresil: I figured that the Master would sleep in and take a while to wake up.
Cain: Thanks. Got any more food?
Dresil: Yep.
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Dresil pulled out a few more dishes for Cain to feast on from a portal that opened and closed swiftly. He gobbled up each dish quickly, hardly having time to savor the taste. After he was done, he lazily got out of bed to go meet up with the party. Dresil changed the appearance of Cain's pjs to common pants worn by the average adventurer, as she had done every morning since. She walked up to Cain's side then merged into his clothes, her vines sweeping through his hair to tame the wild bedhead.
—Dms: Cain and Bob— (16ms)
Cain: Can you take the bow out of her storage and lock its coordinates a few centimeters from my back?
Cain: I think it might be too suffocating in there and this is too delicate of an operation for SRI.
Cain: I'll make a program to swap its coordinates so it rests above my lap, can you also ensure it won't happen roughly?
Bob: Understood.
Cain: How's Sinclair?
Bob: He's still trying to adapt to his new home.
Bob: *sends image*
Cain: Wow… that's some serious floof.
Bob: Indeed.
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—SRI— (363ms)
Cain: Open a portal in an open spot of the room Veronica is in.
SRI: Locating "Veronica"
SRI: "Veronica" found (23ms)
SRI: Processing request…
SRI: Request processed (300ms)
SRI: Performing request…
SRI: Request performed (40ms)
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SRI opened up a portal to the meeting room within the 2nd floor of the guild, revealing the party's shocked faces on the other side. Bob deposited Athena onto Cain's back and locked her coordinates during this moment. Cain double checked her positioning and created the program then entered through the portal. He greeted the members of the party while walking up to an empty chair. Jacob rolls out a map of Hellion Forest and pulls out some other tools for the meeting.
Cain detected movement of a carriage and some suspicious behavior within said carriage outside the guild. 'Fuck… they're here already.' Cain sighed and cutt off Jacob right before he was about speak. "Hah… Sorry guys, I'll be right back. If you have any errands to do, you should probably do them during this time. Unfortunately, I'll be awhile." Veronica looked at Cain with a face that pleaded for him to stay, but before she could say anything, he vanished from his spot.
{Author's note: This dm happens when Veronica is looking at Cain. 'Tis a struggle}
—Dms: Cain and Bob— (15ms)
Cain: Change my coordinates to those in front of the horses.
Bob: Are you sure? We haven't tested this method with a live specimen yet.
Cain: Yep. Since the travel time is only a few seconds, I just need Rex to provide me with enough heat so I don't freeze during the trip. Assuming its environment is similar to space.
Bob: Alright… I'll inform Rex, so you just focus on circulating the heat around your body.
Cain: Thanks.
Bob: We'll teleport in 2 seconds.
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—
At the gateway within the inner wall, the driver of an extravagant carriage followed the routine checks with the guards posted there. The guards bowed respectfully to the passenger then sent the carriage on its way. The young, teenage girl within grumbled about having to make a trip out to the "boonies."
She wore an extravagant purple dress with many, many frills. It wouldn't be an understatement to say that the dress was just one big frill composed of many small frills. The teenage girl was also littered with jewels of various sizes. From her ears, to her neck; her wrists to her gloves. Yes, even her gloves had jewels embedded within them. Intricate black patterns were also woven into the white silk gloves. Her blonde hair was even weaved into a pattern of its own. It was as if everything about her was trying to show off its superiority through its appearance.
The young girl looked out the carriage window with her dark blue eyes that had some portions of light green. "Hey, coach driver. How long until we get there?" She grumbled to the driver of the carriage. "Just a few minutes, Your Royal Highness. There are many people walking on the road during this time of day." He replied with a few drops of sweat trailing down his face. "Just speed up the carriage, those peasants will move out of the way." The young girl replied indifferently then started to complain about various other things.
The driver let out a frustrated sigh. Against his best wishes, he lightly whipped the reins of the carriage, signaling the horses to pick up the pace. The coach driver fired a variety of fire spells above the horses and slightly off to their side. They served as flares so the passersby would vacate the path before being run over. The horses looked up at the familiar flares going off above them. Like the many bystanders who saw the carriage, their faces also soured as slight frustration swept up.
The carriage drudged on, eventually approaching the guild. A mom and her child crossed the road, slightly before the entrance to the guild and roughly 50 meters away from the carriage. The young lad dropped his toy in the street and hurried to pick it up. The carriage was closing in on the child with roughly 10 meters of space in between them.
The coach driver spotted the young boy who looked back at him in fright. Every muscle was paralyzed due to shock. The driver pulled on the reins of the horses, hoping they would stop in time to prevent another accident. The horses reared in reaction to the driver and their attempt to not step on the young boy. But it was too late. The young boy was already directly under their hooves and was too terrified to move a single muscle. His mother cried out in fright, tears streaming down her face.
A sudden flash appeared between the horses and the child. Cain plopped out of the flash with a queasy face, kneeling over the child with his back to the horses. The flame pattern on his left arm gradually flared down from a violent red to its usual black color while he tried to hold back throwing up. 'Ugh… this messed up my spatial awareness too much. The center of my mana zone is relocating to where I am now… interesting.' The panicked horses' flailing intensified with Cain's sudden appearance.
Cain quickly created magic circles that could be used as a ground surface on the path of the horses' hooves; roughly a meter above the ground. Their hooves hit the magic circles with a thud, shocking the horses even more. Cain concentrated some mana into his left eye, dimming the rings and changing the brown background into a black void. Red threads pulsated outwards from his diamond shaped pupil as if there was a fire dancing within the void.
Cain glared back at the horses, unaware of these sudden changes. The horses froze in fright with their hooves still on the ground-circles. [Move.] He transmitted to the horses. Cain created a few more magic circles of varying heights to serve as steps for them. As per Cain's order, they slowly backed the carriage up while using the steps Cain created to slowly bring their front hooves to the ground.
All of the bystanders stared in awe, the coach driver was no exception. The passenger within the carriage yelled at the coach driver, "Why did we stop!?" The coach driver started to explain the situation while Cain tried calming down the little boy. He used SRI to open a portal the Mana Storage and then pulled out a few million mana to create 200 grams of tootsie rolls and a small bag to hold them in.
All of this happened above his left hand which he snuck behind his back while the horses were backing up. He presented the small bag to the young boy and opened it up. Cain took a piece of chocolate, unwrapped it, then plopped it into his mouth so the kid would know how to eat them. "It's chocolate." Cain said while chewing a piece. The child's mother stood behind her child, waiting for their interaction to be done. She rushed over to him the moment the horses backed away completely.
Cain looked up to the mom and said, "Don't let him have too much at once or his teeth will rot." He then gave the bag to the child and shooed the two away. The passenger stormed out of the carriage, yelling "Who dares interrupt this princess' carriage?!" The coach driver's heart nearly stopped at this moment. All he did was explain that they almost ran someone over and someone saved the child thankfully.
Yet, this pompous bitch is trying to find fault with the one who prevented an accident. To make matters worse, this was the person they were supposed to bring with them. Only the driver knew this and that was because he saw the change in Cain's eye, something that was reported to have been seen by Sig-gwong (Meal Ticket) when they tried to get basic information on Cain.
The driver looked at Cain with apologetic and pleading expressions while the princess stormed up to him. Naturally Cain understood, from the princess' and coach driver's body language, that he had done nothing wrong. "Mommy, is that guy going to get punished because of me?" The child Cain saved asked his mom once they arrived on the other side of the street. The mom looked back at Cain, noticing his left hand make a thumbs up then a shooing gesture behind his back. "No, honey. Let's go do our errands." The child nodded and the two silently fled the scene.
'I want to slap her… I'm going to do it… but the food… Dang it, heck this.' Cain sharply inhaled to calm his thoughts while staring down the princess walking up to him and making the gestures behind his back. 'Breathe… think about the food from the plans…' The princess froze the moment she saw Cain's left eye, which was still transformed. Her legs shook slightly as she tried to keep her voice from wavering. Her face contained fear that one would have moments before death.
"A-are you Cain?" She finally managed to get out after a few seconds. '...I can make do with this.' He thought while he retracted the mana from his left eye and nodded. "I am. Who are you?" The princess huffed slightly and puffed out her small dumplings while tilting her head back some. "I'm Princess Priscilla, the princess of this country!"
'...Her face is just so slappable. The top of her head is right at my armpit level, perfect height.' Cain thought to himself while judging the situation. "So you're here to bring me to the king right? Let's go." Cain walked past Priscilla and entered the carriage. "How dare you show disrespect to this princess!" She yelled after him while entering the carriage.
"If you want my respect, earn it. You should start by respecting others' lives first." Cain stated coldly, gazing out the window on the side. "Who? Those peasants? They're not worthy of this princess' respect." Priscilla harrumphed and stared at the other window. "They're the reason you can even be a princess in the first place." Cain retorted.
"How far is the trip, Mr. Coach Driver?" Cain hollered behind him and cut off the princess at the same time. He was sitting on the opposite bench of the princess, with his back facing the back of the driver. The driver felt honored to be called "Mr." by someone so much more powerful than himself, thus answering faster than some people slide into other's dms. "It's roughly one kilometer from here."
'...So if we go roughly 3 meters per second… then it'd take us roughly 5.5 minutes. Yep.. There's no way I'm staying in here that long.' Cain sighed while staring out the window on his right. 'I guess I can try making a portal on my own.' The carriage had just turned around and was now trotting towards the inner wall.
Cain read Priscilla's memories and extracted the location of their destination. Rather, it was the place the carriage departed from, but that wouldn't matter later since he also got the location of the throne room. Cain created a gate similar to the one he made to deposit the wolf fangs on his first day here. The coach driver suddenly halted the carriage to avoid passing through the unknown contraption.
—Dms: Cain and Bob— (4010ms)
Cain: Can you check to make sure that this portal is safe for us to pass through?
Bob: Understood.
<4 seconds later>
Bob: It needed some small corrections which I have already made.
Cain: Sweet, thanks.
Cain: Can you make a folder within the digital storage and put the info about the corrections and what needed to be fixed in there?
Bob: Understood.
--------------------------
"It's fine. I made that portal. It'll take straight to the castle." Cain told the driver then went back to staring out the window. The driver nodded and whipped the reins to move the carriage. Princess Priscilla stared at Cain with slight shock and wonder.
The carriage emerged from the portal to be greeted by a group of knights with their spears pointed at it. One knight quickly recognized the carriage and immediately kneeled down. He elbowed the knights around them to grab their attention, then pointed at the Royal Crest on the carriage. The surrounding knights quickly got the signal and all made way for it then kneeled down before the carriage completely exited the portal.
Princess Priscilla exited the carriage with her head held high. "This is how a princess should be greeted!" Several of the knights started to sweat in fear from this statement. Most of them were just glad they weren't caught. 'Pffft… If only you knew what they were actually doing here.' Cain thought to himself while leaving the carriage.
"Follow me, bumpkin. I'll take you to see my father." The princess stated, only to be frozen in place. Cain had froze her coordinates as an experiment to see if it'd work on living beings just as well. "Nuh uh. We're taking a shortcut." He stated while releasing her. 'Hmm… all seems good. Next one…'
—Dms: Cain and Bob— (10ms)
Cain: Can you teleport us to the throne room?
Cain: Since there was a mirrored space in the Dean's office, it'd be safe to assume they have some precautions against space spirits in place despite their existence supposedly being a myth.
Cain: I'd rather not cause a mess with SRI.
Bob: Understood.
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—Dms: Cain and Dresil— (8ms)
Cain: Unmerge from my clothes and walk with me.
Cain: Observe my actions for now. I'll ask you a few questions about them later.
Dresil: Yes, Master. Should I wear something formal?
Cain: Nah, just the usual dress you wear. It's a test for the nobles.
Dresil: Understood.
--------------------------
A portal opened in front of the princess, in which Cain "lightly tapped" her through. The surrounding knights immediately grabbed their weapons and pointed them at Cain, but the moment they aimed them at him, he was gone along with the portal.
"Well now what…?" One knight said while moving his spear in an upright position. "I'm afraid that's above our paygrade. Hey, Philly, you still got that deck of cards?" One knight responded then hollered his question. Philly ran up to the second knight, their captain, and presented him a pack of cards.
"Sweet. Let's go back to the barracks men and play a few rounds to take a load off!!" The surrounding knights cheered in unison as they marched off. The coach driver sighed and drove the carriage off to park it.