"Stupid fucking Elves! Rug munching midget lizard! Screw this whole god damn place!" Drake growled.
Having been healed by Norris and Vale, Drake decided he needed a little alone time. If being surrounded by strangers in what seemed to be some sort of weird time machine-like place that may or may not be real could be called alone time.
All around him countless people stared at him screaming and talking to himself. But Drake wasn't particularly concerned with that.
"I knew the times of old were difficult, but to be something like this…" his younger self lamented.
"You have seen nothing so far," Mir'phyra scoffed, "I am starting to understand how far back we have come. At least vaguely."
"Then why don't you share?" Drake grumbled.
Mir'phyra gave a toothy smirk but remained silent.
"Go figure, any chance to be helpful and maybe get us both out of here sooner, you clam up!"
"I doubt I could, even if I felt inclined to do so. It is clear that you are here to learn something of value. Who am I to impose? Though I am curious as to why Han is revealing to me the past. Especially the past of someone I am not familiar with," she mused.
"Maybe he thinks you aren't important enough to matter even if you do know," Drake sneered.
Mir'phyra's smile waned, replaced with a low growl.
"The liberator, is nothing like I remember from the stories. You squabble and show no empathy to the current plight of these people," his younger self reprimanded, "The liberator I knew of would not stand for such injustice!"
"Kid, she is no liberator, or help to any of us. She would sooner see all of us die for her own amusement than set anyone free."
"I am offended," Mir'phyra pouted, "I would see you die for much less than my own amusement."
"See what I mean?" Drake sighed.
"Are you done playing with yourself yet?"
Drake turned around seeing Ganeer once again. Apparently he had come to fetch him, what for he hadn't the foggiest.
"What's up Goliath?" he asked the tall golem.
"Who? You know you might be the craziest, non-mentally broken new blood I have ever met. You say the- Nevermind. Tan wants us all, now."
"Now..? I thought we had until tomorrow?"
But Drake began noticing the groups of people previously witnessing his mental breakdown, now running in all directions, gathering equipment.
Ganeer, gave a gravely reply, his exhaustion with Drake already seeping through, "Plans changed. Little twig wants us all to leave now. Which means we leave now."
Drake sighed, rubbing his jaw, remembering the strike from one of the little bastard's guards or escorts.
He nodded, scanning the surroundings as he followed Ganeer and his hulking steps. Around them the groups parted open, everyone at some point kneeling to someone and showing what he wouldn't call reverence. But more aptly, subservience.
So every squad really does have a Handler that's a Primordial..? He thought absentmindedly.
At least he did, until he spotted a woman in all white. White antler-like horns, flowing white dress, golden eyes, and gold lightning running up her body to form a golden choker around her neck.
Drake did a double take, looking at Mir'phyra, then to the younger Mir'phyra.
But there was more.
"M-Mother…?!" his younger self exclaimed.
Drake looked again, spotting a woman with deep raven hair, so deep it had flecks of purple in the glean of the light. Slightly lighter skin than the surrounding Asurans and much younger than he had seen her previously. But there was no mistaking it. It was Altoria, his supposed Asuran Mother.
"What the hell is going on?" he stammered, almost tripping over himself.
"The hell is what?" Ganeer grumbled, barely wanting to turn and stop for Drake, "Oh, you ogling at the Infernal Dragon's granddaughter are you? Best watch yourself, I heard she will crush you like a grape. That is if her little Asuran pet doesn't do it first…"
Drake was further confused, "Her Asuran pet…?"
He looked at Mir'phyra once more, his face full of conflicting emotions and thoughts.
Mir'phyra sighed deeply, "Altoria was once under my care as a handler," she flipped back her hair over her shoulder, "I was quite soft in my younger years and I grew quite close to her."
But just as Drake felt a tinge of empathy for Mir'phyra, her true colors showed once more.
"Yes…She was quite the fun toy…" she smiled, "Now I am quite sure where we are. That would mean…"
Mir'phyra looked over with a sinister leer at Drake, "You are in for such fun. It looks like I will be out of this place much more quickly than I anticipated indeed. And should the system be gracious, perhaps it will kill you permanently inside here."
Drake immediately got a foreboding feeling, but was forced to ignore it as he saw his younger self shoot off to chase after Altoria. Drake moved as quickly as he could to intercept him.
"She isn't real," Drake said firmly.
"But she is right there! If I could only talk to her for a moment!"
"She isn't really there. She's dead kid," Drake reiterated, feeling the taste of bile rise up from his stomach.
His younger self was already on the verge of tears. Drake couldn't technically interact with himself, but placing his body in front of his younger self seemed to have at least prevented him from chasing further.
"Sorry kid, but we aren't going that way."
Drake moved past his younger self and began to follow Ganeer once more. And as expected, his younger self joined after some reluctance.
Mir'phyra snickered as Drake gave her a death glare.
"The first thing I'm going to do when I see you outside of here. Is give you a kick in your meat wallet, you cunt."
"I do not know what that is, but I do look forward to seeing you," she said softly, "In fact I can't wait."
—-------------------------
Drake was still processing what he had just seen. Unsure of which questions to focus on in his head, with the list rapidly expanding by the moment.
He looked over his shoulder at his younger self, his head focusing on the ground. As well as Mir'phyra, who seemed to be in a better mood now that she had seen how much of a shock witnessing his mother had given his younger self and to an extent himself.
But Drake suspected that Mir'phyra was also hiding some of her own displeasure at the situation. The moment she had realized in small part where and more importantly when they were. She had begun paying far more attention to the surroundings than before.
So this isn't new just to me… She hasn't seen this I'm guess. Which means… Drake began, going down a line of thought only to be brought back to the present as they reached the group.
He looked around, not seeing the little prick that called himself the 13th Branch of Who Gives a Fuck.
Tan was standing in the middle of everyone, holding a small crystal.
"Good you are both back. We will begin the operation. As I have said, we have no information on where we are going or what we will encounter. Remain steadfast and ready for anything or anyone once we transfer. You all know how chaotic an invasion crystal teleportation is. Let us not have another Tessdar happen again."
Drake leaned over, whispering to Ganeer who had to bend down to listen, "What happened in Tessdar?"
"Mind controlling squids, nasty little things, leave a lot of slop when they latch onto your head."
"Was a nightmare for all of us to deal with. All they had to do was touch you and you were gone for hours," Gnobin added.
"All of us except for Norris," Vale snickered.
"Have to have a brain to control in the first place…" Silvester grumbled.
Tan cut them off, speaking up, "Everyone gather up, we leave now!"
With that everyone formed up quickly.
Drake felt a slight pinch of nervousness. With the rapid events unfolding he hadn't had a chance to absorb his new skill stones, or inspect his Mage class. But there was nothing to do, he would have to manage until he was given a chance to do so. And if worse comes to worse, he could always rapidly consume them as he killed whatever was on the other side.
Tan tapped the crystal in his hand. The crystal hovered above his hand for a moment, then slammed into the ground. The next moment a pulse of mana pushed against them.
You are being forcefully transported to: Thalith
You will be transported to a random area within the Invasion Crystal's influence.
Drake suddenly felt the ground underneath him vanish and the feeling of being transported similar to when he entered and left the Tutorial overtook him.
But only for a moment, as the next he felt his feet touch hard ground once more. He immediately readied himself for anything hostile.
However Drake was left astonished.
Everyone had transferred at the same time, however they all stood there dumbfounded. At least all of them except for Tan.
Drake had never seen the man since meeting him show any sign of being flustered. But this, this was a mad man going to town.
He and the rest of them looked on confused as Tan eradicated the surrounding monsters one by one with ease.
"Anyone else find this weird?" Drake asked, pointing at Tan going wild.
Everyone nodded together.
"Ever seen him do that before?" Kuuwei said, scratching his head.
"Ah, I know why…" Norris said, throwing a monster's corpse at their feet.
Drake inspected it with the others. He didn't have a true inspection skill, but a dead corpse could be inspected easily by the system's inspection.
Slime Mimic Level 11 [F-Rank]
A unanimous 'Ah' of understanding went out throughout the group, while Drake was still left confused.
"I don't get it?" he said dubiously.
Dolf pointed a finger at the corpse, "Tan has a big problem with any type of Mimic," then thumbed to Tan, who was still jumping from slime to slime with abandon, "He doesn't like things that imitate him, never has. And-"
Dolf pointed to a slime, its gelatinous body morphing into the form of a bipedal human. At least what Drake assumed would be one if Tan hadn't blown its jelly upper body along with its core to smithereens with a punch.
"That's weird…" Drake mused, "Do they mimic strength as well or does he just not like looking in a mirror?"
They all shrugged.
"I have not been around long enough to know. I only joined a few months ago," Vale hummed, "Maybe Ganeer would know."
Ganeer grunted, "Not sure, Tan's never spoken to me about it. But what should I complain for?" he shrugged, "I get to sit my stoney ass down and relax, while he goes apeshit on some monsters? Seems like a no-brainer to me."
He raised his arms over his head and leaned back on the nearest patch of grass.
"You're going to actually turn to stone if you don't get some exercise you know," Kuuwei sighed, sitting down next to him.
Ganeer waved a hand dismissively, "It's just a matter of time until it happens, I just have longer than most since I'm not full Stardust Golem," he scoffed.
Drake raised a brow, look over at Vale, his question on his face.
She smiled and licked her lips, putting a pinger on her chin, "Curious?"
Drake recoiled slightly at the response but nodded.
"Stardust Golems are immensely strong. Physically you would be hard pressed to find anyone or anything as sturdy as them, not even Asurans. The only problem is that they become brittle overtime if they do not Rank up. Eventually they all turn into stone."
"And then they will turn me into a nice garden statue!" Ganeer bellowed heartily.
Drake frowned, "Well that's awful and slightly morbid…"
"We all die sometime!" he yelled again.
Drake wasn't sure if he agreed with the sentiment, but he admired the man's attitude.
He looked around again, Tan seemingly finishing up, killing everything in the immediate area. Drake walked to the nearest corpse that had dropped a skill stone and picked it up.
Skill Stone: Mana Irregularity [Uncommon]
"Do you want these?" Drake shouted to Tan, however the man didn't seem to hear him or didn't care.
Drake bent down and picked up a few more, assuming Tan was fine with him procuring a few new skill stones for his Mage class.
Skill Stone: Regulation [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Observance [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Basic Mana Confluence [Common]
Skill Stone: Minor Element Control [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Minor Mana Absorption [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Osmosis [Common]
Drake couldn't help but snicker at the last few. It was something else to get new skill stones again, and it would seem that the slimes were more inclined to magic type stones just as he had hoped.
He pulled some of the other stones he had gotten from the Lions.
Subtree Skill Stone: Primal Subjugation [Rare]
Skill Stone: Fury [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Threshold [Rare]
Skill Stone: Sharpened Senses [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Basic Immunity [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Heat Resistance [Uncommon]
Skill Stone: Solar Conversion [Rare]
Drake gripped several of the stones in his hands, unable to keep the ends of his mouth from curling into a smile.
"Oh it's time for a skill montage alright," he whispered.
You wish to consume Subtree Stone: Primal Subjugation [Rare]
Confirm?