Chapter 520 - Disconnected

"Yo, Nat, you alive?"

Huh. That sounds like Dennis.

I open my mouth. "Fuck off."

"He’s fine," Dennis confirms.

"He is NOT fine! He’s bleeding all over, and even from here, I can feel how hot his body is! I swear I can see something moving under his skin!" Kim shouts.

"Kim, my boy," Dennis replies casually. "That is just Nat being Nat, this is probably his optimal state. I’d be more worried if he didn’t hurt himself for more than a day or two. Right, Nat?"

"Dennis, my boy," I mimic him, voice dripping with sarcasm, "it hurts to talk. It hurts even more to listen to your voice. So, one more word, and I’ll put you into my optimal state for a week."

Silence follows, and I sense the two of them leaving the room, their presence replaced by only two signatures: Biscuit and Noodle. Biscuit sits off to the side, feigning innocence—so exaggerated it feels suspicious.

Examining my body despite the pain, I notice strange sensations on my nose and belly, as if someone has been repeatedly tapping on them. Even the hair at my temple feels slightly wet, as though something very small had been biting and tugging on it.

Well played, Biscuit. Well played.

Meanwhile, Noodle lies near my bed, noticeably larger, his belly bulging out significantly. His eyes are closed in a satisfied expression, and I half expect him to open his mouth and let out a burp.

Keeping my eyes closed, I turn my attention inward, carefully observing my body without activating any healing marks. Damn. Who knows what would happen if my body started healing while my evolved trait is still applying? I can already imagine some horror-show scenarios. That also makes me wonder—how do people with his level of regeneration even handle stuff like this?

As always, my racing thoughts distract me from the pain, dulling it bit by bit.

I give myself half an hour to assess my still-changing body before stopping.

As I thought, the circuits are still there, but now they’re placed deeper into my being—and there are many more of them. Where I used to have pathways for channeling mana, there are now countless additional ones: stronger for moving larger amounts of mana, narrower for finer control. True to its name, this trait has evolved to reshape my physique, making it even more accommodating for mana than before.

The fun part? I’ll have to modify my constructs again. A lot of the pain and damage I’m dealing with now comes from my changing physiology clashing with my constructs that are no longer working properly. It looks like I won’t make it to my shift in Workshop Number 3. I’ll need to let Sophie know so she can come up with an excuse. Sorry, Leth—it’s going to take me at least a day to optimize everything.

Overall, it’s exactly what I expected: an evolved version of my old trait, now heavily influenced by my Primary Class, which specializes in mana. I’ll need a few more days to test it properly, but even now, I’d estimate it to be at least on par with Mana Wavelength Iris.

Slowly but surely, my body is becoming capable of channeling more and more insane amounts of mana, while my mana pool grows to equally absurd levels. It reminds me of that Lord from the Bastion—with his heart used to power the fallen floating island.

Surely, I’m not turning myself into the best mana battery ever.

***

Obviously, they wouldn’t let us anywhere near Exalia. We’re just newbies, after all, and it takes at least a level 8 technician to get close. Even Leth isn’t permitted, and his boss, Quent, only gets access under the strict supervision of level 9 technicians like Ito.

But damn, I want to see that thing. It’s already been long enough, so it should be about time, right? Right? I need more access. I want to use all this equipment and all these resources they have.

While Sophie talks with Leth—he called her over to share some information—I stand with the twins over the inner plating of a war armor that belongs to one of Champion Feroy’s disciples. As before, this is a replacement part.

Apparently, Champion Feroy has two disciples. Someone told me their names, but I’ve already forgotten. I just know they have smaller and weaker war armor than Exalia. Their names are Praxion and Ardenyx.

The inner plating we’re looking at is Praxion’s. Judging by the scale, this armor is probably half as tall as Exalia and slimmer, likely focused on speed—that’s just a theory that could easily be wrong.

As for the inner plating, it looks like a piece that would fit under the chest plate. It’s like a mesh or web, and that weird metal is slightly bendy, probably allowing for better absorption of physical attacks that would bend the outer plating. I also notice inscriptions using my eyes. These seem to take some of the impact and redirect it somewhere else through the armor.

It’s hard to say more since I don’t think we’ll see the full armor anytime soon. We only get small parts, and even if we figure out what they do, we can’t learn much about their full function.

Lumorans are very patient. Even before the Tutorial, they lived at least twice as long as humans. This war has already lasted 10 years, and they take their time with mercenaries, getting to know us better before allowing deeper access.

It says a lot—they’re clearly not desperate enough to be more open yet. But with this floor’s setup, I think we’ll eventually get there.

My plan remains the same: test [Empyrean Lance] and figure out what that skill does to mana to make it behave so oddly. The same goes for the Mana Wavelength Tyrant passive, which I activate once in a while to run tests with help from either the twins or Sophie. And I still have more tests planned for my evolved trait, with Lily’s help. Smartly, I cut off my hand before evolving the trait so we can run before-and-after comparisons.

Sophie seems to be done talking with Leth and heads towards us, holding a few mana stones, probably containing blueprints.

“You are currently looking at the leader of Level 7 Technician Leth’s assistants,” she declares smugly.

I don’t even have time to complain before she gestures for me to wait and, with that same smug smile, mimics Leth’s voice: “Assistant Nathaniel is talented, but he can be hotheaded, so I’ll rely on you, Assistant Sophie, to lead your group.”

“Bullshit.”

That makes her smile even more, and she mimics that voice again: “What? No, even Level 8 Technician Quent told me to be careful with Assistant Nathaniel. That weapon he designed and made is proof of his incredible talent, but I’m worried about what he would do with more resources and no supervision. So please, I will rely on you, Assistant Sophie.”

Huh. I find myself at a loss for words.

She checks to make sure no one is listening and then sends through the link, where me and the twins are, (But you know what? Screw Leth and screw Quent. We’ll be nice assistants for now, but later, when we get better access…)

Sophie lets those words hang in the air, and I swear I hear one of the twins whisper something about a Gundam.

***

All of the hired personnel stand away from the base on a nearby hill. Only the lumorans remain in the camp, packing things up and making preparations to move us.

It’s been almost a week since we joined them, and now it’s time to head near the 2nd front where Champion Feroy is deployed. What they’re preparing is a teleportation array around the entire camp—something pre-prepared and used to connect with another array elsewhere, moving tents, war armor, and people in the most efficient way.

I think it’s possible to move faster with less preparation, but apparently, they do it this way to hide our movement from enemy forces and reduce the chance of them messing with the teleportation.

Long ago, I’d have been like: “Just teleport, bruh,” or something silly. But now I know what even I can do to the remains of a teleport structure, so a Champion-grade enemy can do some really nasty stuff. Maybe redirect the teleport somewhere into space, destabilize it, and tear people apart, or teleport us right in front of the Absolute. Fun stuff like that.

Even so, they finish fairly quickly. It’s clear they’re used to this. The Angry Kittens, two more mercenary groups who work as technician assistants, and three more groups of stronger mercenaries who will join the battlefield all watch. It’s funny—there’s competitiveness between these groups, especially ours and the one consisting of thylarin since they’re also new to this technician assistant role.

I mostly just observe as they and the twins sometimes clash, trash-talking each other. It’s amusing to watch the thylarin try to tease us for having only one pair of arms.

We’re called back once the preparations are complete. As we enter, I keep observing, sensing the teleportation array linking to the web over Lumoran territory, a web created and defended by their Absolute against the opposing Absolute.

For the first time, I see Champion Feroy as well.

He steps out of his enormous tent—practically a small skyscraper. Like all lumorans, his skin is black, and his eyes shine golden. His crystalline features are far more pronounced than any I’ve seen on a lumoran before. Far too many to compare to others, and none of them concealed by clothing. Crystals adorn his shoulders, forearms, the sides of his neck, and even his thighs.

But two stand out the most: a large, inverted pyramid-shaped crystal at the center of his chest. Unlike the other lumoran crystals, it’s clearer, with a pale blue light swirling inside, giving it an almost otherworldly presence. The second is a circle on the inner side of his left wrist, made of the same material, also with pale blue light swirling inside. Its speed increases even more, shimmering light radiating into the area.

He wears simple white clothes, and his hair is pale yellow. Standing in the middle of the camp, he lifts his left arm toward the sky. From the circle on his wrist, a pulse of mana explodes into the area, lighting up the array and powering it with immense energy. He connects to the Absolute’s web, and identification checks run, allowing him to use it.

Another pulse of incredible mana and the ground under my feet shifts as the environment around us changes.

The mild weather is replaced by harsh cold and loud wind, threatening to blow us away, even with our powerful bodies.

Champion Feroy pulses his mana again. Some lights of a defensive array flare up, using more mana. The wind quiets and the cold becomes bearable, though still chilling even to me with my thermal energy. The weather is just that extreme.

We’re sent to our tent to wait while they re-establish the workshops and defenses. On the way, snow begins piling up outside, gathering between the tents and on top of them. As far as I can see, there’s nothing but snow and a dark, wind-blown sky. We’re nestled against a mountain, the rocky wall providing some shelter from the wind, but even so, it remains relentlessly strong.

“Izzy, heat it up, please,” Sophie asks before we even fully enter.

No one takes their jackets off. Instead, we huddle up in the living area as Izzy starts generating heat and Sophie makes some barrier to insulate us. It’s getting better as the camp heats up, but not enough, so having Izzy help is great.

“So I wasn’t the only one who was cold,” Maya says, sitting next to Izzy and pulling her closer, using her as a heating pad. Noodle, now smaller, coils closely around her as well.

Sophie just rolls her eyes at her sister’s antics. “Lily, you have the highest constitution here. Were you cold as well?”

“Yes! I thought I would never feel cold again, but that outside surprised me!”

“It’s probably the work of a Champion, either a lumoran’s to slow the monsters or the monsters themselves,” Tess says, sitting beside me and gesturing as she speaks. “I’ll try to find out, but I’m not sure how much they’ll actually share with me.”

With a sigh, I create a thermal pyramid—a contraption with empty spaces that I send kinetic energy through. It can now nearly perfectly mimic the sound of cracking firewood. Even the light is improved vastly, not constant but changing frequencies to feel more natural. I expand it a bit more and pump more thermal energy into it, adding to Izzy’s heat.

“Even if they’re at a higher level than us, how do they plan to fight here? Aren’t most of the mercenary fighters around level 350?” Min-Jae asks.

Tess reaches her hands towards the thermal cube to warm them up, “Likely some special equipment. And probably they fight only for a few hours. Do war armors have built-in heating?”

Sophie snorts. “At this point, we’re no better than boot polishers. But honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised, it wouldn’t even be that hard to implement.”

“But we are goddamn good boot polishers!” Dennis tries to defend our assistant technician team’s honor.

“Isn’t it better this way?” Aaron says. “We can learn gradually and improve before they let us do fancier stuff.”

Sophie doesn’t answer, just gestures at me with a nod.

Tess picks up on it, “Nat, please don’t do something stupid.”

To that, I deactivate my Mana Wavelength Iris and lean back, “We might have no other choice sooner or later.”

I pick up Biscuit and put him on my lap, then create a mana arm that extends and brings me his favorite blanket, wrapping it around him with only his small head poking out.

“The Champion just disconnected us from the Absolute’s web and cut off all connections. Even my ley lines leading back to where we came from are gone. At the same time, the Absolute’s web over this area started disappearing. Soon it’ll be gone permanently until the Absolute recreates it.”

“Oh boy,” one of the twins mutters. I sense them and Sophie doing their own checks, confirming what I said.

I continue, “Either they tracked us down and we’re disconnecting to hide, or…”

Tess finishes my words, “Or we were always supposed to disconnect.”

I nod and lean back, thinking of all the reasons why it might be.

***

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