by Sarah Lin
Despite the hideously moist heat, Rick kept a long-sleeved shirt on the entire time, as he didn't want to have a conversation with his uncle about the demonic bond. Maybe it would have been nothing. Uncle Frank certainly wouldn't have raged like so many in their family often did. But he would have noticed, and it would have shifted the conversation. At the moment, he preferred their comfortable family ties.
They spent the rest of the day without any set agenda, but their uncle had more than a few things he wanted to show them. He only pointed out a local museum he said was worth visiting, instead using their time together to go see a series of waterfalls. Though not usually Rick's thing, he could admit they were beautiful, and Melissa seemed entranced.
For the most part Rick simply relaxed, but he couldn't help but go through his exercises during one of their trips on a bus. He noticed that Melissa was doing something as well, her inner void seething in a way that was new. It was unclear if Uncle Frank was training as well, but there were a couple occasions when he had to step aside to take a call. Apparently even now he couldn't get entirely off work.
As the sun set, they visited a hole in the wall restaurant for dinner and ate slowly. At the end of the meal, Uncle Frank ordered some sort of local alcohol and seemed surprised when Rick ordered some as well. Melissa played at doing the same, and likely could have given local laws, but instead got some locally squeezed fruit juice. By the end of the night, they both followed her lead.
"You two need to get back, don't you?" Uncle Frank eventually sat back and laced his fingers over his stomach. "It's a couple hours at least, and sometimes the power goes out. Best to be in a hotel with a generator when that happens."
"We can't stay wherever you sleep?" Melissa asked. Their uncle only shook his head.
"It's just a little tent alongside other tents. Plus, there are a few shady types."
Rick hadn't been thinking about the length of the trip back, but now considered the darkness skeptically. "How cautious do we need to be on the way back?"
"Not very." To his surprise, Uncle Frank waved the issue aside. "The towns and cities are actually safer in this part of the country, so someone with your strength doesn't need to be worried. If you want to avoid getting into any fights, take a taxi. I can tell you the names of reputable ones when you go."
Melissa sat forward, watching him carefully. "Did you imply that it's more dangerous out in the wild? Does that mean we won't get to see your work?"
"Don't worry, it's not so bad as all that. No, I actually had a few secure locations to show you. I may not be able to narrate the history of every location, but they'll probably be different from anything else you've seen before."
"So we can see you tomorrow?"
"I don't know about tomorrow, but the day after, maybe. Let's set a date."
They scheduled the next time they'd meet, then finally headed back to their hotel. Though the day had been relaxed compared to many lately, it felt richer and fuller than most of them in a way that Rick didn't expect. In the taxi Melissa slumped against him and actually drifted to sleep.
He would have picked her up and carried her to bed... except he realized how incredibly suspicious that would look. So he poked his sister awake and kept her that way long enough for them to get back. She kicked off her shoes and fell straight onto her bed, while he cleaned up a bit and went through final exercises before retiring as well.
His sister began snoring, but he only fell asleep more easily.
Chapter 33: Ancient Ruins
Over the next week, the two of them met with Uncle Frank when they could, and just chatted or trained when he was too busy. The conversation didn't seem endless the way it had during the first couple days, but it was still great to be around family. Some of the ruins their uncle took them to were interesting, but they were all relatively close to nearby towns. Rick got the sense that the real work, and the most interesting finds, lay further into the jungle.
When it came time for him to participate in a Showdown event, he was surprised how much he resented it. He found himself feeling spite over tiny details: the arena was smaller, the crowds noisier, the events less tightly organized. But the truth was that he didn't care about any of those things, if they were even substantially different, he just hated losing time with family.
The events themselves went well, as usual trying less prestigious events to familiarize himself with new varieties of aura. H told him that Vietnam had a few truly formidable sects, but they tended toward the spiritual and few got involved with events like the Showdown. In any case, they didn't make an appearance and Rick was left feeling a bit like he'd wasted his time.
During his absence, however, Melissa seemed to have wheedled their uncle into letting them come along with him on a more exciting trip. It would take another few days, during which time he laid the groundwork, so Rick stayed at the hotel and focused on training. Melissa trained alongside him, performing a number of unusual experiments he wanted to ask her about later.
That seemed less interesting than finally being able to see their uncle's work, however. Rick actually spent a little while figuring out what to wear for the first time in months, since he needed to balance multiple factors. His defensive core would protect him from most things, but his clothes could still get caught on branches or torn up.
Eventually they headed out to meet Uncle Frank, though not at any of the usual locations, just a random street at the edge of the city. When they arrived, Rick finally understood: this time they were met with a vehicle. It flew in like a hovering beige brick, all unusual angles and metal frames. The seats themselves looked relatively normal, they were just surrounded by defensive structures.
"Ooh, is that a lucrim jeep?" Melissa headed forward as soon as it landed, examining it curiously. Rick was thinking of calling it a lucrim tank, but decided to keep that to himself.
"I do a lot of my work in this baby." Uncle Frank slapped the side of the car and then gestured for them to climb in. "This is a high end all terrain vehicle. It was top of the line when I bought it, and that was years ago, but I've kept it in good shape and kept tweaking."
"What makes it an all terrain vehicle?" Melissa hopped over the side to sit in the shotgun position, so Rick jumped into the back. "I mean, if they can all fly..."
"Mostly durability - it could plow through a jungle if necessary. I'm going to keep the barriers down, because the air conditioning doesn't work great, but it can close almost air-tight. I'm not saying that it could go underwater or into space, but falling into either wouldn't be an immediate disaster."
"Hmph! If you can't go into space, what's the point?"
The vehicle lifted into the air and they headed away from the city. They didn't follow any roads, so Rick expected to be in unoccupied territory almost immediately, but to his surprise there continued to be small villages beneath them. No one seemed to care about the lucrim vehicle floating overhead, so he just examined the landscape while the others talked.
"So far, this actually seems really calm." Melissa sat back in her seat, staring idly over the landscape. "Were you just lying about it being so dangerous to make us think you were cool, Uncle Frank? Because if you want us to think you're cool, just say you smoke marijuana."
Uncle Frank chuckled. "Oh, there are real risks. Usually not much worse than some of what you two have faced, but they do occur."
"Come on, I was joking, but I was serious. Uh... you know what I mean. What makes this job risky?"
"Several things." Their uncle was silent for a time, his hands on the wheel even though the lucrim vehicle continued without changing course. "First, there's a difference between jobs that are dangerous for the average person and jobs that are dangerous for a skilled professional. Many ancient sites have enough residual lucrim to serve as nests for lucrim-using animals, for example. They're a good reason that no one untrained should go out there, but they aren't really more of a threat than anything Rick would have encountered at his old job."
"The Peakless Wildlife Refuge is that dangerous?" Rick asked. His uncle smiled ruefully and shook his head.
"You've seen an aura bear. A creature that big that can generate aura? I'm not saying it's the most lethal animal or anything, but it's nothing to sneeze at."
"Ooh!" Melissa sat forward eagerly. "What is the most lethal animal?"
"In terms of total deaths per year, the hippopotamus. I know, you wouldn't expect it, but they're aggressive." Uncle Frank was silent for a while, almost as if he wouldn't continue, then abruptly did. "But in terms of killing people with Lucores, it's the South American emerald dragon. It actually isn't technically a dragon, but it looks similar. Anyway, it's fairly poisonous, but what makes it the most lethal is that it lives near cities and it doesn't flee humans."
That was mildly interesting, but nothing they couldn't get from a documentary. Before Melissa could ask more questions about animals, Rick spoke up. "If those are the dangers to untrained people, what's the real threat?"
Uncle Frank went silent again, then nodded, as if to himself. "When you two were younger I didn't talk about these things because I didn't want to scare you. But I suppose you're adults now. The real danger, as usual, is humans. The fact that the things we find are valuable means that there are people who might want to take them. Usually everything is peaceful enough, but not always."
"You mean there are lucrim pirates?" Melissa asked eagerly. That got a chuckle, but a weak one.
"Don't imagine them wearing eyepatches, but yes. Now, it's nothing too serious recently. Most of the time when a government is funding a job, there's just competition between researchers and freelancers like myself. But when sects hire people to search out obscure plants or ruins, those can fetch a high enough price that it draws less reputable types."
"But I assume we're not checking one of those today."
"Of course not. This one isn't actually a local government job, it's a point of interest for the Global Lucrim Authority. We already staked out the region and confirmed there was nothing dangerous, but the ruins are broken into many fragments that will require careful searching. You two can help with that, just don't touch anything."
Rick frowned at the mention of the GLA. "Why is it a point of interest for them? Is it a lucrim anomaly?"
"Not at all, but it's somewhat related. It's hard to explain." Uncle Frank was silent for a while, idly tapping his hands on the steering wheel. "Okay, think about it like this. Earth runs into lucrim as it moves through space. Sometimes there's a little bit more, sometimes a little bit less, but the differences are small, rounding errors. Usually."
"But not now?"
"For the past ten years or so, there's been a steady increase in lucrim... but even that is controversial. The thing is, there can be brief spikes, something to do with sun spots and solar wind. During that time, there have been more of those than usual. So some people think that there hasn't been any real increase, just a coincidental bunch of events raising the average. The numbers are arguable."
"Lies, darned lies, and statistics." Melissa nodded along, but with a puzzled expression. "What does that have to do with your job, though?"
"All that new lucrim is more intense, or maybe a little different from normal. It doesn't really matter for individuals or businesses, but the stuff is degrading lucrim and ether patterns in old ruins faster than normal. Suddenly a lot of groups that thought they had decades to find their old scrolls or finish an archaeological survey want it done ASAP. That means more work for me, but the field is also more crowded."
That was a much more indirect reason than Rick had expected, but he realized that he should have known. Everything in the modern world was increasingly interconnected, with cause and effect often separated by a dozen little systems. At least it seemed like the trip might be fun, and Uncle Frank relaxed once he talked about the interesting parts of his work.
As they spoke, they'd finally left civilized areas and begun flying over unoccupied jungle. When they finally stopped, Rick didn't see anything particularly unusual. As they circled, Uncle Frank pointed out that several strange hills were actually overgrown buildings. Eventually he found a place and stopped the vehicle just over the trees.
"You two jump down and I'll lock up," he said. "Just don't touch anything that looks built by human hands. There shouldn't be any dangerous plants or animals here, but we don't want to damage anything."
They nodded and then hopped over the edge, Rick jumping directly after Melissa in case there turned out to be any surprises. But they snapped through a few branches and landed on the dirt without any problems. The area seemed almost dead, actually, with the plants growing more sparsely and few animal sounds surrounding them.
Overhead, Uncle Frank jumped out as well, but not before initiating a process that left the lucrim vehicle covered in a shell of ether-enhanced armor. A way of preventing anyone from running off with it, presumably. Rick didn't know how expensive a vehicle like that was, but it had to be a pretty big part of their uncle's livelihood.
"Okay, kids, let's head this way. I thought I saw something good over there." Uncle Frank led them a short distance to one of the lumpy hills, showing them where to step and leaning aside from overhanging branches.
What they found appeared to be a shrine. It was overgrown by moss and small plants, and part of it had been broken down by a tree's roots, yet there was a strange beauty to it. The stone of the shrine had been carved extensively, the complex ridges and patterns clear even after age had eroded them. Rick and Melissa looked over it while Uncle Frank made a note on a small electronic device Rick didn't recognize. Some sort of special GPS, maybe.
"Okay, this one is good. Let's move southeast next." As he started away, Melissa stared after him in surprise.
"Wait, that's it? We don't... I don't know, extract it or investigate the inside?"
"This place is mostly important to historians and for scientific measurements." Their uncle cast her an amused smile as they began to move away. "Did you think that we'd be finding golden idols and ancient training manuals?"
"I mean, not really, but a girl can hope." As they trekked on, the trees parted to reveal an overgrown plaza and Melissa perked up. "Hey, that looks like some kind of ancient sect hideout! Any chance there will be something fun there?"
"Possibly." Uncle Frank made a note on his device and frowned. "We actually didn't think there would be any structures of this size, so this one might be valuable. Hmm... the stones appear to be damaged. They probably had inscriptions, but they're lost to time now. We can walk on them, but walk softly. I think there might be a basement underneath."
As they explored into the courtyard, Rick was surprised to see several large faces carved into the stone. The complex patterns of stonework looked similar to the small shrine they had found first, but there hadn't been any human features. These looked like normal humans wearing elaborate crowns, except perhaps for the eyes. He wasn't sure if there had been heavy damage to them or if there were strange patterns carved in the pupils.
Just when he was about to ask who had made them, Melissa spoke up. "Guys, there's a staircase going down over here!"
"Really?" Uncle Frank headed over toward her quickly. "Definitely don't go down. We should get a team for that."
"Ooh, why? Could there be traps?"
"Of course not. Even if they left anything like that, it would have degraded long ago - ancient people might have been able to create ether, but they were much worse at using it to enchant solid matter. Any residue would be of interest to lucrim archaeologists, not something we could notice."
"Aww... can you at least tell me that you've run into a trap at some point?"
"Actually, yes." Uncle Frank stopped with an odd smile on his face. "There was this tiny little Egyptian tomb, not related to any of their dynasties, and no one thought it would contain anything of great value. But the entrance had a pit trap that had been rebuilt several times, with almost perfectly preserved skeletons at the bottom. That's still
the most valuable find I've ever seen personally."
"A pit trap!" Melissa thrust both fists over her head. "I'll take it!"
Though Rick listened to their conversation with a slight smile on his face, he was fairly distracted. Not just with looking at the ruins and trying not to step on anything, but automatically sensing the area around him. He hadn't intended to, but being in a natural environment triggered his old instincts searching for lucrim anomalies. There was nothing of the sort, though the average activity around the ruins was higher than normal.
And then there was the massive source of lucrim hovering overhead.
Rick looked up in time to see the slim vehicle slide down to the other side of the courtyard. It folded back into a small bar, similar to his bicycle, leaving a man wearing camouflage. And carrying a gun.
"Looks like this was a good tip after all." The man smiled and lowered the weapon to point at them. "It's mine now."
Chapter 34: Lucrim Pirate
As everyone stared, Rick had a moment to examine the man threatening them. Though the camouflage had struck him first, the ragged belt and sandals suggested he wasn't military. Rick didn't know enough about guns to be sure about the one aimed at them, other than that it struck him as a bit old-fashioned... and heavy enough to fire lucrim bullets. Some sort of mercenary, then.
"Now, this can end easily." The mercenary gave them all an insincere smile revealing several broken teeth. "Lay down whatever weapons you're carrying, turn around, and walk away. If you never come back, I'll let you go."
"You two, get behind me." Uncle Frank stepped in front of them, one fist clenching at his side.
"Oh, you don't want to fight me, old man. Even if you can, do you think you're able to protect those dear children?"