PftA Book 2 - Chapter 10

Chapter 10 – Surprise Citizenship

“I’m earning Alliance contribution points?” I asked in confusion. From what little I’d learned from Robert, I shouldn’t be eligible. “How?”

Mage Stella smiled brightly. “You became an Atlantis Alliance citizen upon awakening and signed a system-enforced contract to support the Alliance during the reintegration and transition. That makes you eligible to earn contribution points.”

“So any beta tester that awakens—”

“You’re not a beta tester,” Stella said, cutting me off. “As of a week ago, you are a full Atlas employee. Since Atlas is a…subsidiary of the Alliance, it counts. I doubt many other natives will be offered the same opportunity. Some, but not many.”

I looked around the teleportation room we were standing in. “So, I can buy things with the points?” I asked before immediately redirecting to a comment she’d made a few moments earlier. “You mentioned augmentations? What are those? What kind of augmentations?”

Stella motioned for me to move a bit closer, though I knew it wasn’t required for her to include me in her mana net.

“Yes, but don’t buy anything yet. Pay attention,” the Space Mage said before surrounding me in Space mana. I already knew not to fight it, so she didn’t bother warning me. I watched how she encompassed me in mana completely, making a lattice of interconnected strands of mana that connected directly to her.

Upon arriving at our destination, Stella said, “You need to save your points until you earn 500. It shouldn’t take long since you are actively working toward the Alliance’s goals. There’s an IA augment you’ll need when you join my project next year. I’m not allowed to give it to you, but I was able to reduce the cost significantly.”

She’d mentioned working together already, so I wasn’t surprised by the comment. I did feel a hint of discomfort at the realization that I was slowly losing control of my schedule and how I spent my time. Granted, it was just for the duration of the contract, but it was still an uncomfortable realization. It was never a good feeling to lose control.

It was the biggest reason I’d never been into drugs or alcohol.

That and the taste. I’d never cared to force myself to develop a taste for something I inherently didn’t like. It didn’t make sense to me.

“How do I check my points?” I asked after agreeing to the Mage’s demand not to spend the points I earned.

“Have your IA access the information. You should be connected to the network already,” she said with a smirk.

I nodded and mentally nudged Lisa. She was always watching and listening, so there was little need to give further instructions.

“Twenty-one points,” I said when Lisa provided the answer.

“That seems a bit low. I know it’s only been a week, but your progress should have counted for more than that.”

“Umm, it’s only counting the Enchanting work I’ve done. I guess the rest doesn’t count?” I said hesitantly, watching the other woman to see her reaction.

Stella didn’t immediately reply. Instead, she looked at something through her interface momentarily before huffing and waving for me to follow her.

The next five hours were dedicated to learning how to move others via teleportation. The other Space Mage started by having me use Teleport to move both of us, then increased the distance to ensure I had no lingering issues.

Once she was satisfied that distance was no longer an issue, she transitioned to having me transport an increasing number of people. I had to take breaks between moves, but she seemed to have plenty of low-quality mana potions for me to drink to speed my recovery.

They were worse than I remembered, but that may have been due to the low-tier materials used in their creation. Or not. Aside from the reagents I used for Enchanting, I hadn’t done a lot of Alchemy since my second awakening.

I was glad that this time, it was my mana that limited me and not my subconscious assumptions and ingrained bad habits.

“You need to gain levels. Tier Two is the minimum for this kind of thing,” Stella said in annoyance while she waited for the most recent mana potion I’d imbibed to take effect. We’d expanded our travels to include several overseas locations, which was exciting, even if I wasn’t leaving the Atlas offices.

I’d always wanted to explore and see the rest of the world. I’d barely gotten a chance to visit other countries before the apocalypse, and I’d been too young to really appreciate it then. I’d have to come back with a disguise amulet and explore later. With how advanced technology and facial recognition was, not doing something to protect my identity simply wasn’t an option.

= = =

When we finally finished the training, I ducked into the bathroom before meeting with Robert for our first delve since moving to Florida. Being in an Atlas building, my mana regenerated quickly enough that I was able to recover in about half an hour, even without a potion.

Not that I could drink another one. I’d hit my limit a while earlier during the training. There were only so many potions you could drink in quick succession before they stopped working and became slightly toxic.

I pulled up my abbreviated status.

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Name: Emie Mercer

Level: 3 (31/700)

Profession: N/A

Affinities: Time, Space

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Health: 120 (2.4/min)

Stamina: 210 (8.4/min)

Mana: 96/200 (8/min)*

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Attributes

Strength – 9

Agility – 12

Vitality – 12

Intelligence – 20

Wisdom – 16

Perception – 13

Unallocated: 0

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Spells*

Skills*

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I probably should have added that last point to Intelligence or Wisdom instead of Perception, but I knew the attribute was important, especially when fighting alone. If you couldn’t recognize a threat, you had no chance of responding appropriately.

However, I hadn’t realized how quickly I’d blow through my mana pool with Stella’s lessons – not that I knew about them at the time. If I had, I might have invested all my points into Intelligence.

Sighing, I dismissed the screen and looked into the large mirror above the double sinks. I no longer looked too young to drive, which was good. I wasn’t sure if it was the mana from the suits or some interaction with the interface itself, but I’d visibly matured since my awakening.

I didn’t mind – it was the appearance I was used to. Yet, it sometimes made me pause when I saw my reflection or tried on clothes. Thankfully, the changes hadn’t been too abrupt.

The brassiness I’d hated in my hair for most of my youth was gone now, leaving it somewhere between light brown and dark blonde. I was tempted to add color, but it didn’t seem worth the effort, especially not when I spent so much time in a virtual world. My avatar had purple tips. That was good enough.

My eyes were also not the same as before my awakening, but the color shift was mild enough that it likely wouldn’t draw much attention. They were blue-green hazel before. Now, they looked more blue-purple, though the purple was harder to notice since it was so dark. It wasn’t enough to look unnatural, which was good.

I was glad I looked like an adult, even if I didn’t necessarily care for the added attention it sometimes brought. Though sometimes…it wasn’t bad. I still wasn’t sure how I felt about Rhona’s insinuations about Robert.

Did I like Robert?

He was nice and all, but I really wasn’t that interested in romance or starting something long-term. It wasn’t because I didn’t care about relationships. I just didn’t see the point in starting something when I had every intention of leaving after the portals opened. I was only contracted through the initial transition. I’d specifically ensured my contract didn’t extend beyond the first portal opening to avoid any delays in leaving.

Though I hadn’t met Ros and the others until a couple of years after the portals opened in the other timeline, the things they asked me to intervene in would happen much sooner. I didn’t want to risk being late by dealing with last-minute stuff on Earth. I could always come back and deal with that stuff later if needed.

Besides, staying on a low-tier planet would be a sure way of stunting my progression. I had no plans of doing that.

Aside from the big-picture stuff, I wasn’t sure if dating my guardian was the smartest idea. At the same time, I doubted he’d let me get hurt badly, even if things did go south. It wasn’t like I planned to spend the entire time celibate, but there were whole sections of the Junction practically dedicated to consequence-free hedonism.

I shook my head at the thoughts. It was pointless to really consider anyway. Robert hadn’t done or said anything to indicate he was interested in anything more than a professional relationship.

I washed my hands, just because, and left the bathroom. Though we met in the teleportation room, Robert seemed surprised that I would be the one teleporting us to another location. He probably expected Mage Stella to do it since she’d handled his relocation.

“When did you learn how to do that?” he asked with a smile. “I thought you couldn’t take people with you.”

“Mage Stella helped me figure it out. I’ll need to let my mana recharge before we delve, but I can go pretty much anywhere with a beacon. Do you have any preferences on location?”

During the training, Stella had taught me how to use Lisa to recognize locations, along with the associated rifts. Each beacon contained the requisite information. I just had to access it.

“Are we just doing one delve, or do you want to try for more? You mentioned pushing to Tier Two as quickly as possible when we talked earlier…” he said, trailing off.

“That’s still the plan. Stella and Rhona recommended it. I don’t have anything other than getting some real sleep scheduled until lunchtime tomorrow, so we have time to hit more than one rift if you’re okay with it,” I said, letting him choose.

“I’m fine with doubling up or even tripling if you want. You reaching Tier Two will make it easier for me to level since we’ll start working as a partnership instead of me serving as your backup. Tier Two is a significant increase in difficulty, so it’ll be harder to tackle as a solo delver. Besides, I wouldn’t mind earning some experience.”

He said it with a grin, but I recognized his comment for what it was – a friendly admonishment and a reminder not to be greedy.

“If the goal is to gain experience quickly, we should probably stick with the St. Louis rift since it was designed for experience gain while still providing resources,” I said as Lisa categorized the rifts based on the beacon data I could sense. “I’m not seeing a wave rift. That would be better, honestly.”

“You probably won’t. Those tend to be resource-lite. Unlike your game, the bodies disappear between waves in real rifts, so unless you can harvest as you go or quickly collect the mana cores, there typically isn’t much reason to challenge them aside from experience.”

“If we’re going to do the Space-dominant rift anyway, we might as well start there,” I said with a shrug. I put a hand on Robert’s shoulder. While it wasn’t strictly necessary, having some form of contact made teleporting others easier. “Don’t resist,” I added with a smirk.

I wrapped my mana around my guardian and shifted our location to match my target, pulling heavily on my meager mana reserves. Lisa automatically connected to the local network and sent whatever magical handshake was required to let everyone know who we were and why we were there.

“Nice. That’ll make things a lot more convenient,” Robert mused as he took the lead and headed toward the rift in the basement.

“Hey, Aruld!” I greeted the familiar guard/merchant when we entered the warded room.

“Welcome back. I didn’t expect to see the two of you again so soon. I thought you’d outgrown our rift already,” he replied with an easy smile. After nearly a year of regular interaction, Aruld had become much more friendly.

Robert and I spent a few minutes chatting with the larger man as we changed into more delving-friendly gear. I was already dressed in slim-fitting clothing, so it was easy enough to put my light armor on over it. Similarly, Robert simply donned his embroidered green robe over his casual clothing.

We progressed from small talk to discussing the minor changes in the rift as we finished, wanting as much detail as possible before entering the challenge. It was nothing dramatic, so neither of us was all that worried. As long as we were within the same tier, my manatech and spells should be capable of handling the mobs. My physical strength might struggle to keep up with the strengthened mobs, but my magic should be fine.

After waiting for my mana to completely refill, we entered the swirling portal and headed toward where the initial mobs were typically found. I defeated the first swarm of flying, bat-like mobs with only a little more difficulty than before. As we collected the remains, I turned to my guardian.

“I was wondering, how did you get this assignment, anyway?”

The Nature Mage tilted his head. “Guarding you?”

“That too, but I was actually wondering about the assignment overall. You mentioned that working for the Alliance on an assignment like this was something even nobles would fight for, so…”

“You want to know how an obvious commoner got selected?” he asked with a grin.

“That’s not how I would have put it.”

“Still, it’s what you meant,” he replied. “It was actually lucky timing. The Alliance bought out most of the contracts for the graduating class at my academy a couple of weeks before we finished. It wasn’t just my academy, either. Almost everyone with a former student contract of ten years or more was conscripted to work for the Alliance on this project instead of their respective academies. It was one of the few times where being the child of a rich noble was an actual disadvantage.”

He grinned widely at the thought of having an advantage over those who normally were so far ahead of everyone else. I could understand the sentiment.

We moved forward, but instead of leading to an exit, the tunnel dead-ended at a makeshift ladder. I looked up, noting a soft light from above.

“Let me go first, just in case there’s something dangerous,” Robert said, stepping ahead of me.

As he climbed the odd construction, I said, “I don’t know if it’s rude to ask, and sorry in advance if it is, but…Is your contract for ten years?”

“Twelve, actually,” he said after a slight pause. “I had to attend a preparatory program for a year before actually enrolling in the Academy-proper. Every year of attendance accrues two years of contractual obligation. If someone quits or fails out, it’s three years per, since they’ll be less capable and worth less to the school.”

He looked back at me. “The ones who didn’t make it weren’t offered a position on the expedition.”

We climbed the rest of the way in silence as the Space around us noticeably twisted. When I pulled myself out of the hole in the ground, I found the Spatial shenanigans had only been enhanced with the rift’s increase in power. Instead of only being a quarter of our normal size, we were now even smaller.

As the familiar astervespids homed in on us, I realized just how significant the adjustment was. Whereas before, the creatures appeared to be the size of a large cat, now, the angry hornet-looking mobs were equivalent to a medium-sized dog.

It was total garbage.

“How is that a fair increase in power?” I asked, motioning toward the huge creatures as they flew closer. Thankfully, instead of swarming all at once, they came in groups of five or so. Most were still level six, like the group of bats, but several level sevens were mixed in as well.

Robert shrugged. “If you want me to Entangle them, let me know.”

I sent him a nod of thanks. I didn’t need the assistance, though I had to make judicious use of Pause during the fights. After defeating the astervespids guarding the stairs – which didn’t appear to have changed – I returned to the previous topic.

“So…How many years do you have left on your contract?” I asked.

Robert stopped his descent and turned to look at me. “Why do you ask?”

I contemplated lying, but there was no reason to. If he had a detection spell, it would only make me look worse. It was better to be honest(ish), especially if Rhona was telling the truth about his interest in me.

“A few reasons. I plan to explore beyond Earth once I get the chance. I was curious whether you’d be free by then. I was also trying to figure out how old you are without asking ‘cause I feel like I should already know that after a year…” I looked away awkwardly.

“That’s…understandable,” he said after a moment of consideration. “I’m twenty-six.”

“That’s younger than I expected, even if you do look my age.”

“My village had an HT1 rift that everyone was trained to beat. It was hard to get outsiders to visit and delve it often enough, and the locals had all mostly outgrown it. They were happy to let us delve as much as we wanted. Only three of us awakened around the same time, so it worked out well enough.

“The bonus experience from delving over our level was amazing. I would have been able to pay off the upgrade easily just off lost experience if I’d known about it.” Robert frowned at the thought before continuing. “It only took half a year for the three of us to reach Tier Two. After that, I applied to the nearest academy that accepted Nature Mages. I was still fifteen then, so doing the preparatory year didn’t put me too far behind the kids of nobles and rich merchants. I only graduated five years ago, so I still have seven left on my contract.”

“That’s impressive,” I said honestly. “Wasn’t delving an HT1 rift as a newly awakened really dangerous?”

Robert huffed a short laugh before turning and continuing his descent. “There wasn’t much room for error, but we made it work. We had a Tier Two guide with us the first few times to ensure we didn’t all die – pretty much what I do for you. After that, we were just careful. It was only slightly more dangerous than what you’re doing right now,” he pointed out.

I chuckled. Robert was right. I was barely level three, delving into a newly strengthened HT1 rift. I had little room to say much. Twenty-six was a great age. It wasn’t too old for my current body or horribly young for my mental age…

Maybe just a little too young.

But I didn’t really feel thirty-three.

I had in the beginning, but now, I felt like an eighteen-year-old with a bunch of extra memories. It changed my perceptions somewhat.

Deciding not to think about it too closely, I focused on the delve and let the topic go. It was just too bad Robert would still be working for Atlas on Earth for years after I left. There was no way I could wait around for his contract to finish.

I had things to change and people to save.