PftA Book 2 - Chapter 29

Chapter 29 – Sumi Amari

“Emie, can you wait a moment?” my boss said as Bell and I stood up to leave a few minutes later. “Artificer Vasilla is coming to get Bell to get her situated in R&D. I’d like to talk to you while they handle that.”

I glanced at my roommate, not for permission, but to gauge her reaction. Bell’s demeanor had been subdued since we arrived, and I wasn’t sure leaving her was the best idea. While I trusted Rhona, I wanted to ensure Bell felt comfortable separating, especially with all the shocks she’d experienced.

My roommate shrugged and sighed. “It’s fine. I wish I’d thought to grab my phone, though.”

“Oh,” I said before retrieving the device from my storage ring and handing it to her. “I grabbed it before we left.”

Bell gave me an odd look but said nothing. A few moments later, she was gone, and I turned back to Rhona. “What’s up? Is something else going on?”

The Administrator’s head bobbed back and forth slightly. “Do you remember a girl named Sumi Amari? You graduated from Junction High School together.”

“Sumi…” I said, thinking back. Immediately, the image of a girl’s face appeared in my mind. “Ah, I remember her. We had a couple of classes together, but we didn’t really talk. She was really into art, right?” I asked, thinking back to the drawings I’d caught a glimpse of in the girl’s notebook. Had I not increased my mental stats so much, there was no way I would have been able to remember something so random.

“Right. She’s very artistic,” Rhona agreed with a nod. “She’s also the only tri-affinitied person known to exist on Earth. There are probably only a couple of others in the entire universe.”

“That… sounds like a big deal?” I said carefully. And it did. It sounded very important. I just didn’t understand what relevance it had to me.

“It is. It is such a big deal that I, as my kingdom’s princess—” my eyes grew wide at Rhona’s statement “—have sponsored the young woman. It is only because of my existing relationship with Sumi that I managed to convince her to sign a contract with me – with my kingdom, actually.”

“What… So, are you like her Master now, or something?” I asked, stumbling over my words. Though I’d lived on Alliance worlds for over a decade, there was still a lot I didn’t know.

Rhona chuckled. “No. It’s nothing like your relationship with Elder Kairos, though I guess her connection to my kingdom would be similar? I’ve basically promised to take care of her and her sister, to include paying for both of them to attend any academy they can gain admittance into and providing for their basic needs for a century.”

“In exchange for what?” I asked skeptically.

“Her future children,” Rhona replied nonchalantly, causing me to gasp in horror. “It’s nothing so bad. I just phrased it that way to mess with you,” she added with a chuckle. “People on Earth donate eggs all the time. That’s essentially what we’ll do, even if she decides to eventually marry into the family – not that we would even approach such a topic before she was a century old,” she added. “Plenty of higher-tier women would be willing to mix genes with a tri-affinity Mage, even if none of the affinities are particularly strong.”

“Wait… what?” I asked, shaking my head. I was so confused. As far as I knew, two eggs could not be combined to make a viable zygote… However, if they were trying to make a female, two X chromosomes…

I shook the thought from my head. Magic could do some weird stuff, it seemed. Then again, science wasn’t too far off.

“And she agreed to this?” I asked.

Rhona nodded. “Enthusiastically,” she replied. “Sumi will be able to chase her dreams while being protected and nurtured, while also providing the same opportunity to the only person she really cares about. In exchange, she donates some genetic material to help potentially strengthen the royal family. There is no pressure on her regarding the offspring, though she won’t be totally cut off from them if she wants a relationship.”

My head spun a bit. The idea of selling… no, I guess that was the wrong way of looking at it. People diddonate sperm and eggs all the time, and they generally were compensated for it. It just seemed odd to me.

“Okay,” I said. “I’m still not sure what this has to do with me.”

“Part of the deal was that I’d ensure she reached Tier Two before the portals opened,” Rhona said with a smile. “She lives in California.”

“You want me to babysit her?” I asked curiously before realizing Bell would also need to level.

I wasn’t sure if she could see the realization on my face or if it was a Mind Mage thing, but Rhona seemed to sense my shift in thoughts. “I was thinking you could kill two birds with one stone, considering your roommate’s situation.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, especially if I added Elaine as the Healer. The poor girl had been ditched as soon as the others had gotten their hands on a healing wand – not that she seemed to care. But there were a couple of glaring problems.

“I can’t party with them. It would show my real level. It wouldn’t make sense for someone at level two to be their guardian, either. I wouldn’t be able to engage without stealing all the EXP…” I shook my head. That line of thinking only highlighted my lack of foresight. “She’s going to find out I’m hiding my status. I can’t explain it.”

Rhona smiled. “I actually have that one covered.” She handed me a small crystal on a silver chain. I could tell it was enchanted just from the mana patterns. “It’s a status spoofer.” Rhona paused and mouthed the word a few times before shaking her head. I felt my lips twitch at the sight. The same thing had happened to me more than once when I spoke in Common. Sometimes, words just felt weird.

I looked at the dainty necklace. “I thought faking your status was a big ‘no-no’?”

Rhona shrugged. “It’s frowned upon, but items like these are easily seen through by the people who matter. Guards are usually trained to bypass low-level identity-obscuring methods like this. They’re really only useful for interacting with average civilians. Even a trained Mage could tell your tier based solely on internal mana density unless you had a mana-veil.” She shook her head. “Those aren’t the people you are trying to fool.”

“So, why even tell me about the upgraded interface’s ability? Is it useless against Mages, too?”

“No.” Rhona shook her head. “The advanced interface version incorporates a strong veil. It would take someone much more powerful than you to break through. For example, if I attempted to Assessyou, which is my version of your Identify spell, I would easily pierce your false status. But anyone at Tier Four or below would have a hard time, even with an advanced identification spell. The power difference is what really matters.”

“Got it,” I said, nodding. I held up the necklace. “So, why give me this, then? Actually, why not give me this in the first place instead of mentioning the interface option?”

Rhona leaned back with a sigh. “You’d have figured it out anyway,” she said with a wave. “Besides, I could keep the information from spreading by telling you, at least for a while.” Rhona leaned forward. “I truly hope you don’t decide to share it when the NDA expires. The necklaces are one thing. They only work for someone at the same tier or below. The interface method…”

“I understand,” I said before directing Lisa to deactivate the obscuring effect and connect to the small crystal to give it the same effect. Seeing an issue, I said, “This only changes my level. It doesn’t hide my second affinity.”

I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It certainly made things a bit easier not to have to hide something else, but the paranoid part of my psyche struggled.

“There are items that can do that, too,” Rhona informed me. “But they are a lot more expensive since they use Arcane or Void mana. I doubt anyone will notice. If they do…” She shrugged. “You’re an Enchanter. They’ll probably think you were testing some new item.”

The Administrator handed me three matching necklaces. “Give these to your group. You’ll still want to use the Space Mage persona when you travel. You don’t want to show up on camera on the other side of the world when you should be here.”

“My group?”

“Right. Sumi, Bell, and Elaine,” Rhona said. “I imagine you’ll want the Healer to continue leveling as well.”

I raised a brow. “And you can’t read minds?” I asked with a half-smile.

Rhona grinned. “Not really. It just makes sense since you have been hanging out with her lately. I’m sure the next group to awaken would love to include her if you’d rather not…”

“It still doesn’t solve the issue of my level,” I said, realizing the necklace would only justify the false level if questioned, but not the issue of keeping my actual level secret.

“I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

= = =

My solution was to talk to each of the other women and get a feel for how much I could share. I told Bell the truth, including how long I’d been awakened and my fears that the government would try to use my family to pressure me into doing something I didn’t want to do if they found out. I was hoping that her feelings for Justin and Amie would be enough to motivate her to keep my secret – especially since they could now be used against her as well.

I wasn’t as open with the other two, though I made it clear I was at a higher level than what Identifywould return. The fact that I could Teleport all four of us to rifts across the world should have been enough to prove that I wasn’t magically weak. Elaine accepted it with a knowing smile. She knew me well enough to believe I’d been leveling in secret and would seek out methods of hiding the fact from the alphabet agents who’d literally stalked me when they discovered I was a native awakened.

Sumi, on the other hand…

“Really? I find it hard to believe that Rhona expects you, a normal Earth girl, to keep me safe in a magical rift full of monsters. We went to high school together.” She looked at me in disbelief. “How are you going to keep me safe?”

Rhona had given me Sumi’s home address and the address of her Junction studio, where she spent her ‘beta testing’ time working as a full-time Artist.

Which was pretty weird.

I’d opted to meet her in the Junction instead of just showing up at her house. It seemed my decision was the right one. I also understood where Sumi was coming from. It was hard to put your life and safety into the hands of someone, especially when you saw them as a peer.

It was also completely different fighting dangerous monsters in a game than it was to do it in real life.

“Let’s take a trip into one of the rifts, and I’ll show you,” I offered. “Also, it won’t just be me. A Force/Life Healer and a Light/Force Mage will join us.”

I paused, just realizing both Bell and Elaine had Force affinities. I hadn’t really considered it since I thought of Elaine as mostly just a Healer, even if it was her weaker affinity. I had to remind myself that she was still a service member capable of combat, even if she had taken on the role of a Healer.

Hadn’t I done the same in the other timeline?

“That doesn’t seem like a very balanced party, especially if you’re just supposed to watch over us,” she said skeptically.

It took a few more minutes of discussion and several messages to Rhona before the young woman would even accompany me to one of the virtual rifts. Once we entered the LT1 rift (because her character had gotten reset when she awakened the day before), I stepped back and had her fight the first mob on her own.

It was just a weak Granalian – they were slow-moving creatures similar to sloths (except not nearly as cute). They were easy to fight as long as you didn’t let them grab ahold of you. Once they latched on, they injected needle-sharp tubes into their victim and slowly dissolved their insides before sucking the liquified remains out.

Thankfully, my former classmate wasn’t completely helpless.

I quickly learned that Sumi preferred to fight from stealth, using her Light and Shadow affinities to hide while attacking unseen. She was actually a lot better at fulfilling the rogue role than Bell had been, though she used a bow as her primary weapon instead of daggers. Maybe rogue was an inaccurate categorization. Sumi was more like an invisible archer than an assassin or thief.

Mana Sight allowed me to follow her movements, giving me better insight into her fighting style. I’d probably need to make or acquire a few protection items since she often moved outside my immediate range, but I could also mitigate that with a few well-placed Portals.

“Let yourself get hit,” I said when one of the faster feline-type mobs managed to get close to her.

She must have made a sound because the feline immediately honed in on the archer and attacked.  Sumi cried out as she stumbled back, receiving a gash on her lower leg as she mostly dodged the creature’s claws. I immediately used Pause on the mob and Restore on Sumi.

“Why did you do that?” she fumed before stabbing the creature in the neck with a long dagger she retrieved from a hidden sheath on her leg. The armor I’d been borrowing from Rhona had several slots that would work for such weapons.

It was a shame I’d have to give it up now that Rhona had sponsored someone. She hadn’t mentioned it, but the armor had always been a loan. I’d bring it up the next time I saw her. Besides, now that I had sect robes that were functionally superior defense items, it didn’t make sense to hold on to the armor anymore.

“So you can see how effective I can be at saving you,” I replied. “Would you have really believed me otherwise?”

The girl huffed in annoyance. It hadn’t been nice, causing her to get hurt like that. But it was necessary if she was going to understand my value as a guardian. I could literally freeze an attacker in place if she got overwhelmed and erase her injuries if Elaine was unavailable for some reason.

“Still, you could have warned me or something.”

I shrugged. “Oh, one more thing,” I said, turning toward a cluster of trees after casting a Barrier. It wasn’t normally necessary with similarly-leveled mobs, but with weak trees? I didn’t want to risk collateral damage.

I cast Gravity Bomb, immediately followed by Bolt, and smiled as the area imploded and then exploded violently.

“Holy fu—” Sumi cut herself off as she stared wide-eyed at the damage. It was kind of impressive, but that was mostly due to my avatar being Tier Three and the rift only being LT1. Still, I felt like my message was received pretty clearly.

I was starting to feel just a little bit OP.