by L. M. Kerr
Sophia simply stared back, her eyes steady as Micheal elaborated,
"It's a way to track and kill Golden Morenkai and gain vast amounts of Points in a short amount of time!" His eyes gleamed,
"A way that not only can be repeated, but can work multiple times a week!"
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Chapter 38: Track
"A way to track and kill these… Golden Morenkai?…" Sophia looked rather unconvinced as she stared at Micheal.
"How would you even know wha- ah." She cut herself off as she saw Micheal tap his head.
"Right. You're a Seer. Well, that's very convenient, if it's all true." She finished, crossing her arms.
"It is, and we can prove it right now!" Micheal walked towards one of the windows, looking out at the crowd of shambling Morenkai. He kept his movements slow, not wanting to catch any attention. The Morenkai had terrible vision, but that didn't mean he should be careless.
"Alright, here is what you need to do." Micheal began to explain,
"Your Fairy Eyes Ability allows you to trap someone in a world of your own design as long as they look into your eyes. As I'm sure you're aware, this Ability works on normal Morenkai despite their lack of visible eyes." While the Morenkai didn't have visible eyes, they still could see through some type of sensory power that was equivalent to a weak set of eyes.
Micheal continued, motioning at the window,
"The Morenkai are a unique type of being. Unlike humans, all Morenkai seem to have a very dim connection to all other Morenkai. It's why they don't mindlessly attack each other. They are not very intelligent and move instinctually, they won't attack one of their own." He nodded,
"However, not all connections are equal. Certain special Morenkai give off different wavelengths when compared to normal ones. Some, but not all, of the Abnormal Morenkai are like this…" His eyes flashed,
"And the Golden Morenkai are like this as well."
"All you need to do is activate your Fairy Eyes and send the Morenkai off in search of Morenkai that give off different wavelengths. With the confusing illusions your Ability can create, and normal Morenkai's low intelligence, such a thing should be quite simple." He finished, his voice confident.
"Once they find a special Morenkai, we can travel to its location and kill it! This is how you and I can gain a huge amount of Points in a short period!"
There was another, better method to find Golden Morenkai, one that was far less dangerous. However, that method required a large amount of teamwork and cooperation from many people, as well as time to set up, things he didn't have.
Sophia took in everything he said, her eyes widening. If what Micheal said was true…
"Assuming this is all true." She began, nodding at the thronging Morenkai outside,
"Why do you think I won't betray you? After all, it sounds like you need me far more than I need you." Her voice gave nothing away.
Michael smiled,
"The Morenkai you track will lead us to certain special Morenkai, but not all of those will be Golden Morenkai. Some of them are bound to be powerful Abnormals. And while you might not have realized this yet, there exist Abnormals that can resist your Fairy Eyes." He turned and looked at her, eye to eye.
"I know you have some type of protective Artifact that protects you from guns, but can it stop a relentless physical assault?" He queried calmly.
Sophia looked back, her mouth twisting ever so slightly.
From Micheal's original timeline, Sophia was known to be immune to normal bullets because of a rare, secret Artifact she used. There were many possibilities in the Shop, such that even Micheal wasn't sure what she had.
However, the fact that she became horribly maimed and crippled in the battles with the Black Flag Pirates led him to believe the Artifact could only stop long range attacks.
And, indeed, her reactions here gave it away. She did indeed have a weakness to a rushed physical attack.
"I, on the other hand, am a warrior." Micheal tapped on his Spatial Ring, withdrawing his Steelborn sword.
"I know you likely haven't heard, but I am an Irregular just like you. I came in this Wave, again, just like you. My particular powers give me an advantage when it comes to melee combat." He moved his blade around lazily. He snapped a finger,
WHOOSH
A Life Orb flew out of his body and floated in the air. He mentally commanded it to move around in a jerking pattern, as if smashing into enemies.
"Especially my telekinetic orbs." A second Life Orb flew out. He didn't specify that they could bring him back to life, keeping that a secret for now. He'd reveal that only if and when he came to fully trust her.
"With my brawn, and your capabilities to find the Golden Morenkai, we can split the Points we gain evenly by trading kills." It wasn't possible to transfer or trade Points in any way.
"So? Are you in?" He smiled, storing his blade and Life Orbs away.
Sophia blinked, and then shook her head, her eyes full of determination… to find her sister, to find the power she needed to survive, to not waste away or hide in fear.
"I'm in. I'll try it."
"Good! Get ready right now, then!" He returned, his eyes flashing,
"Let's jump to it!" Without hesitating, Micheal threw open the door to the outside. Almost immediately, several Morenkai that had been shambling by paused, their heads swiveling ominously.
"Welcome to the party, friends!"
.. .. .. .. .. ..
A short amount of time later, Micheal and Sophia found themselves standing atop the skyscraper they had just been at the base of.
They had run into a minor mishap, but nothing serious. Right after Micheal threw the door open, a solid half dozen Morenkai had rushed in. Micheal had backpedaled, ready to throw out any of his three Life Orbs at the drop of a hat. The Orb he'd lost when he'd regenerated, after the battle with the large group of Morenkai, had been reformed while he slept last night.
Sophia had come through, activating her Fairy Eyes. Micheal wanted to see a good look at her using her Ability, so as he fell back, avoiding interacting directly with the Morenkai.
A pinkish hue seemed to color the air around his new somewhat square-chinned ally. Sophia's eyes flashed with cool light and the air around her dropped to several degrees colder.
At the same time, almost all of the charging Morenkai had frozen up.
One of them hadn't, however, and continued to lumber forward.
"I can only affect 5 beings right now with my illusions! You'll need to handle the last one!" Her voice was strained as she spoke, as if concentrating.
"Oh, my bad." In his mind, Micheal still pictured her as the S Rank Demon Fairy. Right now, she was still in the midst of her growth, nowhere near as powerful.
As he thought that, a twinge of worry filled him.
'Did I treat Shin the same way? Did I give him too much to handle?' His brother in arms was a fighter that had stuck by him through thick and thin, it hadn't fully occurred to him that he would need to regain all that experience.
"Hup!" He put the thought aside for now and leapt forward with his blade and made short work of the Morenkai, smoothly cutting its legs out from under it and then stabbing its head, killing it. His movements were more graceful than before, his body able to handle more stress thanks to the increase in strength.
Sophia witnessed all of this as she glanced off to the side, while still keeping her Fairy Eyes Ability targeted on the 5 other Morenkai. When she saw the precision and ease that Michael dispatched the Morenkai with, as well as how easily he sliced it apart, her eyes widened with shock.
"Alright! Handled it! Now, let's send 'em off!" Micheal turned around after wiping his blade, giving her a nod.
Sophia nodded back and focused on her Ability. Gradually, she manipulated the illusion worlds these Morenkai were seeing. Since she didn't know exactly how the Morenkai interpreted the feeling of other Morenkai, she used her Fairy Eyes to change what they saw vaguely.
The instinctive m
inds of the Morenkai did the rest as they fell into the trap.
In only a few short moments, all five of the Morenkai left. In their minds, they now believed the special wavelengths they were tracking would lead them to prey, to humans, and not to special Morenkai.
And now, back atop the skyscraper, Micheal looked out over the edge.
"Which way are they moving? Do you still have a solid reading on them?" He queried.
"Yes." Sophia returned,
"I can hold them like this for at least 30-40 minutes. I can sense that three of the five are trying to move to a location that is too far. The other two, however, are moving to different spots that are somewhat nearby." Her eyes glowed faintly as she spoke, still active.
"Excellent! Cut the 3 that are too far lose, and focus on the nearby pair. Pick one and lead us towards it!" Micheal felt a tinge of excitement filled him.
Sophia paused for a moment, looking around. She raised her hand and closed her eyes in concentration.
"That way." She pointed off to the right, towards a rickety rope bridge that connected to another skyscraper.
"It's moving in that direction."
Micheal smiled, starting to jog towards the bridge.
"After it!"
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Chapter 39: Discovery
They followed the trail of the Morenkai as they meandered on through the central part of the Cluster. Each of the two Morenkai were headed in similar directions, though Sophia said they were slowly drawing apart.
One was headed farther to the north, to the territory of the Black Flag Pirates, while the other was headed to the south, towards the inner part of the central zone.
They opted to follow the one headed south. While the territory of the Black Flag Pirates was not constantly patrolled due to its wide size, Micheal did not want to encounter any of them yet. His actions here, especially in recruiting Sophia, were liable to anger them already.
While he didn't know the details on why Sophia caved and chose to join the Tobagin Party, he could guess that it had something to do with the Black Flag Pirates after hearing their attempt at recruiting her.
"Careful, there's a battle going on over there." Micheal's eyes narrowed as he glanced at the skyscraper past the one they had just arrived at.
A long, wooden bridge connected their skyscraper to a large, red one with 3 different entrance sheds atop it. On that skyscraper, a pair of warriors were currently fighting against a group of 5 Morenkai.
The two warriors were men. As Micheal looked at them, he could see brown fur sprouted all over their skin, with muscles bulging underneath.
"Werewolves." He muttered.
Of all the Type Abilities one could gain, the most popular Type Ability were the two cheapest ones. The Lesser Vampire and the Lesser Werewolf Types. These Abilities were somewhat unique in that you could directly upgrade them through the shop, to the normal Werewolf or Vampire Type, and to the High Werewolf or High Vampire Type.
Most Type Abilities possessed the ability to grow in strength naturally the more you practiced with it, and the stronger your Soul stat became. However, very few could be directly upgraded via the Shop and usually had a somewhat pricey upfront cost.
Due to the rather cheap cost of the Lesser Werewolf and Lesser Vampire Types, as well as their potential to grow, many would pick this Ability after they gathered the Points.
"Grrooowwwlll…" Micheal watched as one of the Werewolf fighters used a large grey sword to smash one of the Morenkai to the side. The powerful attack knocked the creature backward, but not before another Morenkai lashed out with a punch that slammed into the fighter's free arm.
crunch
Even from all the way over here, the audible sound of the bone breaking could be heard. The fighter seemed to ignore this as he spun around, bringing his huge grey sword to smash directly into the head of the Morenkai. The blow stunned and seemed to injure the creature, though not enough to fully kill it. The Morenkai were brutally tough to kill.
The duo continued to battle, gradually gaining the upper hand while taking several smaller injuries.
'The Lesser Werewolf Type Ability primarily focuses on Recovery and Strength. He should be able to recover from that smoothly given a little time.' He blinked, his face neutral.
Abruptly, his eyes flicked slightly to the left of the two Werewolves. He could just barely make out a figure crouched down against one of the sheds, watching over the two fighters as they went all out against the Morenkai. This figure had a long rifle in their hands and was watching the fight intensely.
What had drawn Micheal's attention, however, was something that just faintly set his sixth sense tingling.
The sniper had, for a split second, stared closely at him and Sophia. The movement was a quick, casual sweeping motion, as if he was checking the surroundings to look for other dangers. It was a move that felt oddly familiar to Micheal.
'A long-range scout, watching over two fighters as they trained to the north of the central zone…' Memories blossomed in his mind,
'I did the exact same thing once, as a fighter.' His eyes widened as he remembered some of his own experiences, the memories flooding into his mind.
The Saru Group liked to keep tabs on the Black Flag Pirates. They would station scouts that were ostensibly 'training' and 'hunting' in the areas near the northern half of the central zone. If the Black Flag Pirates wished to make any big moves, the most likely path they would take would be through the central area of the Stardust Cluster, and they were liable to be spotted by these scouts.
While cellphones didn't work, nor did anything that required the internet, the Saru Group had established a series of short-wave radio communication phones, enhanced by the Shop. The radio phones didn't work like they would on Earth, powered by some type of strange, indecipherable energy.
It was possible to communicate over a range of around 500 meters, which was more than enough to relay information back to the home base of the Saru Group.
'They're scouts for the Saru Group!' He reached this conclusion, his face giving away nothing.
'That said, they have nothing to do with us.'
"Let's go this way, around them Sophia. No need to potentially get slowed down." He waved over at a bridge to their right.
"Alright. We'll need to move a little quicker, then. It's still going that way." She motioned towards the center of the central area. The pair began to jog around the bridge, putting a wide berth between them and the fighters.
The Illusion-trapped Morenkai, down below, moved forward at its usual shambling pace. Sophia was only able to keep her power active as long as she was within a certain range of the Morenkai. Thus, she couldn't just send them all out and wait for the results.
Micheal was careful as he ran, staying alert for foes. They encountered a few stray Morenkai as they moved, ones he made short work of, suitably impressing Sophia.
While they had free time, Micheal decided to ask Sophia a few questions.
"So you are looking for your little sister, right?" He began, giving her a slight nod as they boarded a long steel bridge. A cool breeze swept over them as they moved, the noon light slowly shifting into the afternoon.
Sophia stared back at him, her eyes cool. She clearly didn't trust him yet.
"I'm a Seer, remember." He tapped his forehead,
"Perhaps I might be able to help you find her if you tell me about her."
She paused for a few seconds as she heard his words. She bit her lip slightly and then nodded,
"Alright." Her shoulder length hair fluttered slightly,
"Her name is Anna. She left with the First Wave, when all of this happened." Sophia's voice was carefully controlled, not giving away a hint of emotion,
"She looks a lot like me, but younger. She's only 13 years old and it's already been several months." Sophia sighed,
"She's the only family I have left in the world and I would do anything to get her back." Her voice cracked slightly. Immediately she seemed to
recede, her eyes full of distrust as she glared at Micheal, daring him to say something.
Micheal's mouth twisted slightly as he heard all of what she said, trying to avoid grimacing.
'She doesn't know about the time acceleration yet.' It had only been 3 days since she arrived, after all. There was no way she could know everything, especially with how she rejected most people trying to recruit her. He only found out about a week into his first time here.
While only a single month passed between each Wave on Earth, in the 7 Layers, an entire year would pass. If her sister was 13 years old when she was taken by the First Wave, she would be 16 years old now. 3 entire years would've passed…
'I don't know of any powerful Anna from the First Wave…' He mentally sighed. It would've been nice if her little sister had been a truly powerful expert or something along those lines.
Alas. 1,000,000 people had vanished with the First Wave. Only a small number of those would've become truly powerful, though there was a higher proportion of powerful experts among the First Wave than was average.
'A girl that looks like her named Anna, came with the First Wave, 13 years old.' He mentally tallied down what she said.
'I'll have to put in word with the Godfather Organization.' If anyone might be aware of her little sister's status, it would be them. The fact that the Demon Fairy of the Main Cluster had stayed insane in the original timeline made him believe they probably, and unfortunately, would have nothing.
'But what do I say now? I can't just tell her about the time gap right now… But when should I? Not telling her at all would be irresponsible.' He struggled to find a response.
"Hmm. I can't think of anything right now. But if I do, I'll let you know as soon as possible." He gave her a confident nod. Sophia merely nodded, her eyes returning to their hard, untrusting state.
They passed over bridge after bridge in mostly silence, traveling for several minutes. Along the way, Micheal occasionally felt as if eyes were watching them. The feeling only popped up every once in a while, making it impossible to tell whether they were being tracked or if it was just random people spotting them as they traveled.