[SD:SC] Gem Leaves Home - Chapter 6

Of course, the herd doesn’t stop moving just because there aren’t any monsters actively attacking them. They keep moving to both leave the velociraptor threat behind and in hopes of getting to an area with Mana they can absorb. Because at this point, everyone’s tanks are running on empty. Whether they’re attackers, buffers, healers, or even those with only utility spells.

Gem distracts themself by checking their gains. Because not only was that a big fight, but it was a grindy endurance fest that must have lasted a half hour if it lasted a minute.

{

Stamina D- > D

☆ Air Platform lv1 > 2

☆ Wind Blade lv6 > 7

Level 19 > 20

• Body D- > E-

• Mana S > S-

• Stamina D > E+

• Air Resistance A- > B+

☆ Wind Blade lv7 > 8

Mana Control lv8 > 9

Body E- > E

Stamina E+ > D-

Mana S- > S

Stamina D- > D

}

Gem sighed, “Dangit, my Body is at E now.”

Emrys laughs, “But as a 20! A plain E at 20 is worth more than a D- at 19 and not by a small amount. If you’re up for it, see how high you can jump now. With your platforms, you should have an idea of how high you could jump before.”

Gem shrugs, “Yeah, about head height, which is pretty amazing. I looked it up and while the irl world record is higher, seems the average vertical jump height is quite a bit lower.”

Emrys gestures at them, “Well then give it a try!”

So, Gem stops and crouches down. Their legs tense and they take a deep breath. Release! Their body rockets into the sky and easily surpasses their previous jump height, reaching head height and continuing on by about half a body’s length more.

June claps, “Good height!”

Gem frowns, “If I can jump that high at twenty with an E, how high can people with a better body stat jump? Hell, how high can those at higher ranks jump?”

Emrys shrugs, “Well, it tends to be offset by people wearing heavier armor. Samuel can likely jump higher than you without his armor on, but not with. Though in general? Just think of those superheroes in popular media that only have super strength and have to get around by jumping. Then remember that after a certain point, the limiting factor won’t be your Strength, but rather how sturdy the thing you’re jumping off of, is.”

Gem, “But presumably higher Mana density helps with that? Given the general trend.”

Emrys shrugs, “It actually doesn’t, outside of certain materials.”

June nods, “Though areas denser in Mana will tend to have sturdier materials by default. If only because weaker stuff gets destroyed.”

Gem looks around and sighs, “This is likely going to be a boring area to travel through. Boring and scary.”

The others look at them with confused looks.

Gem gestures, “You just said that destroying an area will tend to leave the tougher stuff behind. Well, all of this is the ‘tougher’ stuff from a fight between Metallic rank people. In theory, a boon because of the high-rank materials, but even the plants aren’t growing too well because nothing around here can make use of the stuff.

“Honestly? I wouldn’t even be surprised if part of what lingers is actually high-rank materials being concentrated. It’s like how lead gathers in tuna fish. Except instead of lead, we’re dealing with magical dust.”

Emrys gestures back the way they came from, “What about the raptors?”

Gem raises an eyebrow, “Which we fought right on the edge of the area?”

The cowboy sighs, “Well, I’m not rightly sure about her guess about the material.”

Gem coughs, “They/them, please.”

The cowboy tips his hat, “Sorry about that. Will keep it in mind going forward.

“Anyway, chances are we don’t see much, and what we do see will be quite deadly. Not much outside of the expected, but at the top end.”

Gem nods, “There we go.”

Samuel looks at the ground with an inquisitive look, “So, high-rank materials, you say? Why isn’t someone out here scooping them up?”

June smiles, “Because it isn’t ore or some such. This is closer to how seawater has gold in it. Yes, it is there, but there isn’t a good way to filter it out. Even then, if Gem’s guess is right, it isn’t like even a percent of the soil is high ranked material. We’re talking less than a thousandth being the stuff. Though certainly up from either none or maybe parts per a million.”

Samuel, “But if there was that much loss of normal material, wouldn’t this area be sunken into the ground?”

June, “Well, there are always the bits being created by spells. Though such a violent fight would have also saturated the land and over time, existing material would change.”

Samuel, “Bah, let’s get through here.”

The others laugh and continue on their way through the ancient battlefield. It takes them days to cross, showing how devastating a high-end fight could be, but eventually they end up passing into a regular area once again.

The cattlekin cowboy who has been sticking around the group gathers their attention as they set up camp the night after leaving. “So, we haven’t fought much, but haven’t rested much. Given that, those in charge have decided we will be taking a couple days of rest here. So yeah, make sure your camp is set up for that.” And he moves on to the next group needing to be so informed.

Gem turns to the others, “So. I guess we have some time to take care of things irl?”

Gem smiles wide, “I got a lead on a more permanent solution to some of my irl issues. Received a hot tip from a little flying lizard and I might be able to, ahem, move to somewhere more fitting my lifestyle.”

Samuel raises an eyebrow, “Your lifestyle? What, did someone come through with long-term capsule tech? Like, I don’t blame you. There are a ton of places being thrown up in old apartments that mimic capsule hotels, except with actual FIVR capsules and not just being capsule-shaped hotel rooms.”

June shrugs, “I’m guessing they’re moving into some sort of gated community. They’ve freely admitted to living off a trust fund. Would make sense for them to already live in such a place, but I’d guess this involves a place that is less ‘stick in the mud’, as such places tend to be regressive.”

Gem laughs, “Oh, I’m definitely moving somewhere more accepting! I’ll really be able to live the way I want to! And from what I understand, my actual living accommodations won’t be too small. I should get a nice enough flat to live in. Not that I would want more even without SoulDive to take up much of my time.”

Emrys has a gleam in his eyes, “Well, I’m sure we’ll hear all about it.”

June rubs the bridge for her nose, “Right, this is you, we’re talking about. Please don’t become some giant news sorry? I don’t know how moving could cause that, but I suddenly feel like you’ll manage it.”

Gem chuckles, “The plan is certainly to avoid the news if possible. I just, you know, doubt that’s possible? Hehe.”

June rolls her eyes and sighs, “Whatever. As long as you’re fine with the move and end up safer. I’ve only known you for, what? About a year at this point? But I consider you one of my best friends.”

Gem goes misty eyed, “You almost make me want to reveal where I’m moving ahead of time! Though I’ll power through and keep my solution to my irl problems a secret for now. Everything should be done by the end of the two days and then we can continue this drawn-out escort quest. Anyway, I’ll log out now and see you later!”

The others say goodbye and Gem goes and lays down on their sleep roll before the body stills. It looks creepy, what with the lack of breathing, but the system conveniently puts up a small blue screen alerting others that they are in fact, simply logged out.

Back irl, Gem stretches as they get out of their FIVR capsule. This would be the last time within these walls and they couldn’t be happier. Of course, this choice didn’t have to be made now. If anything, it might be better to wait. Except their team of lawyers had assured them that, as the law currently stands, they were in the clear.

Gem walks through their house, packing up the few physical goods they have. Long ago, they had switched to keeping digital versions when possible.

Then they receive a message from their main contact with their lawyer team. Gem smiles at the affirmative, but shakes their head. There was still two more messages they were waiting on.

So Gem waits on their bed, reading through a few forums and such. Maybe if they had friends nearby, they would have had a going-away party, but Gem hadn’t left the house since joining SoulDive and even before that, mostly went hiking on their own.

Another message!

Gem reads the email, this one much longer. Though more because it has actually findings included instead of just building on previous work. They smiled, so far, so good. A second unaffiliated team of lawyers had gone over everything and said it was solid.

So the wait got tense, just one more message. There it was! Gem had paid a lot of money and the results were coming in. The third law firm had been given a different prompt and they failed! Perfect.

Early tomorrow, Gem would be good to leave the house. To go somewhere that fits them better. A shame that a lot of the current laws were so bad for them and that those laws would still apply to some degree. Gem wasn’t willing to give up their citizenship. Yes, they’d still be taking their money by way of taxes, but if anything, they’ll allow the citizenship to stand just to milk as much money from them as possible.

Next morning, a big moving van pulls up outside of the house and a gaggle of guys are invited in to load it full of boxes. For now, Gem was having everything moved to storage. After all, it wasn’t like they were moving to an empty house. Which also meant their bed and most of the furniture was staying behind. Though the capsule was being taken.

Not because Gem planned to use it. Rather, Gem didn’t trust others to handle whatever data might remain on the device properly. It was going to be destroyed and all the chips burned.

Which they admit is more than a little paranoid? But given there are actual sapient AIs and people can be digitized now? Well, Gem didn’t consider it TOO paranoid. And it’s not like they were short on money to handle such things.

Then a nice Limo pulled up. Gem frowned at that, but they had left such things to their law firm. Which to be fair, Gem had enough money that such services would generally be expected and they couldn’t blame the law firm for assuming as much. Whatever the case, Gem had a short plane flight in their near future and then the trip of a lifetime!

All the while, back in the game the others are brainstorming where Gem was moving to.

Samuel, “Gated community. Just a more open one. I don’t want to assume nationality, but their accent doesn’t sound too much like one to me and so we should live in the same country. Which, yeah, not the kindest place to live for someone going by they/them.”

Emrys shakes his head, “There really isn’t a good place at the moment. Just ‘better than other’ places. Though, yeah, some sort of gated community seems likely. That or the capsule apartments thing. I hear a few luxury places are up now. My only worry is they seem to have been rushed because of SoulDive coming out.”

June, “I wouldn’t worry too much about those places. My people have made sure that anywhere that advertises our FIVR capsules as the primary draw meets a better than required standard of construction. Because honestly? So many electrical wires and such, packed together? That is asking for a fire to happen! And my fellow SAIs do not want that.”

And the conversation continues until it is the day when the herd plans to move out. They’re all up early, a bit worried about Gem as they’re still logged out. But then the blue screen above the body flickers out, and Gem draws a big breath and stretches.

They look over and see the others all looking at them. “What’s the fuss? I said I’d be here?”

June saints at them, “You said a lot of things and kept where you were moving a secret. I feel we are justified in being worried when you wait until the last minute to log back in.”

Gem sits up and shrugs, their ear flicking, “Eh, I had to get my new place in order.”

Emrys smiles, “So, when will we hear about you on the news?”

Gem’s tail twitches, “Eh, hopefully it takes a while for the shutterbug rot-zis to find out. They don’t pay much attention to me anymore, and given the timing? It might take them a week to realize I’ve given them the slip.”

Samuel, “Wait, you had news organizations watching you?”

Gem stretches their arm over to pat him on the head. “Oh, you silly boy. They keep notes on everyone who is either rich enough or from a family that is rich enough. They simply never reported on me because I’m boring. At least in the ways they care about. The whole they/them thing doesn’t mean much to them because I’m not active in ‘high society’. Otherwise, I’d have a few scandals to my name already instead of just being noted as ‘child of so and so’.”

Emrys, “Wouldn’t they use your birth gender?”

Gem laughs as claws flex out of their fingers, “I’m sure somewhere that information exists. Maybe some government site has my original physical birth certificate? Except I’ve been paying a lot of money not only to get such things removed, but also to have contradictory information placed.

“And the best part? They don’t even realize it. Once they want to actually report on me? They’ll try and cross-check their information, only to find everyone has different information. With the only through line being that my online name is May/Hem and I prefer they/them.”

Ancient Battlefield And Ancient Foes - Chapter 5

Locust! - Chapter 7