Chereads / The God of Machines / Chapter 31 - Back Where We Belong

Chapter 31 - Back Where We Belong

"Classifications are hard to estimate." Victoria began her explanation, understanding the value of Lua's question. "Most of the time, when events such as these happen, the Central Company reimburses the affected mercenaries. According to that logic, we should be getting a considerable amount of money."

Victoria stopped for a moment, catching her breath. She was still extremely exhausted. "If they intentionally tripped us, however, that's a different case. The Company will likely launch an investigation, and make sure if this incident was done with malicious purpose."

Lua sighed in relief after hearing they'd be getting reimbursed. It made him happy that at the very least, they weren't getting scammed out of their performance. Lua put the situation in a corner of his mind, deciding to ignore whatever would end up happening. He trusted the judgement of the Company.

During this adventure, Lua had not forgotten to keep both his father and Vision updated. He had taken measures such as sending scheduled mails to his father, and warning Vision by summoning him. Without these steps, he would no doubt be put under fire by both sides.

As expected, it took them nearly a day to make it back. The team collectively collapsed onto their beds, finally taking their well deserved rests. Lua however, was more than excited. He had finally decrypted another rune - how could he rest now?

In the cramped room, Lua found it difficult to be able to summon the Lord of Secrets. He thought it'd be especially rude to summon him in a place as disorganised as this. So far, Lua knew that some of the story at least included death and the Lord of Secrets. Perhaps it had included someone close to the Lord of Secrets dying - or perhaps he himself had died. Anything was possible on the level of Gods.

After he organised the room enough to be considered 'decent', Lua cut his finger on the tiny spikes of the glove. The blood that came out wasn't substantial, but it was enough. He quickly drew the eye on a piece of paper, letting the blood sink in for a moment. Knowing what to expect, he noticed when he was pulled into a dream.

The Vertical eye was smaller this time, finding a corner on the floor to barely fit into. This indicated that the Lord of Secrets could change the scale of his 'eye'. The Eye opened, drowning the room in its glory.

Unlike before, the Lord of Secrets had a rather calm demeanor. His ancient, booming voice filled the room.

"What is it?"

Lua cleared his throat, reciting the question he had pondered previously. He began to speak.

"Great Lord of Secrets, I apologise for summoning you yet again. However, I have a question."

The Lord of Secrets already knew what to expect from their last encounter. He sighed, making sure Lua heard his displeasure. In the end, however, he relented. "What is it?"

Lua proceeded to explain what he had discovered, with the scythe meaning death and the symbol that belonged to the Lord of Secrets. He was asking for a connection between the two, hoping the Lord of Secrets would fill in the gaps while he continued speaking.

After a bit more speaking, the Lord of Secrets interrupted Lua with his booming voice.

"Death is common. Anyone who wields enough power cannot evade death, either in themselves or on someone they know and trust. If you want to get stronger, you need to consider that you may end up in the endless list of fools who perished in their selfish quest for power.."

Lua pondered, understanding the weight behind the warning. He knew he couldn't play with fire, and needed to take this slowly and carefully before proceeding. He could very well end up dead. That was also the reason he had been working with the gem instead of directly heeding the documents. He wanted to do things the right way.

The gem warns me to be careful, then? I swear, there's got to be better ways to tell me these things instead of directly summoning a God.. Lua lampooned over the gem's inability to speak, then shook his thoughts away to focus on the Lord of Secrets.

Lua nodded, indicating he understood. "Thank you for your insight, Great Lord of Secrets."

And with that, the Lord of Secrets departed, causing Lua to wake up on his desk. He had successfully gained the insight he needed, decrypting another layer of the gem. He felt confident that he was ready to advance to Grade 11.

He looked at the documents his father had bestowed upon him, glancing at the important details. He learned a few things:

Evolution would begin to get substantially harder. The human mind could only tolerate so much change - it would need some time to accommodate the new powers between each evolution. This period of time would only increase with time, giving Lua plenty of opportunities to have a breather.

Lua trusted the gem. Perhaps it could find a way to decrease the time between the evolutions, or it could guide Lua to prepare better during the intermission periods.

Considering the power difference between 13 and 12 was minimal, Lua hadn't been affected too deeply by this. However, if he kept up that pace, the suffering would eventually catch up to him by Grade 10, causing him to lose his humanity, perhaps becoming a monster who only sought to survive.

The final thing he learned was that only consuming evolution materials would no longer be enough after Grade 10. He needed to do additional steps to evolve, in order to prove you were ready to advance. Lua's manufacturing of the glove could be considered an exercise, a prelude to what was to come.

He looked at the recipe for Grade 11, preparing for the worst. However, it wasn't as bad as he had been expecting. Additional to the ingredients from before, Lua needed to add 7 grams of Brass. Brass was relatively cheap to get, He could likely get this tomorrow, when he was fully rested.

Lua jumped into bed, excited for tomorrow.