Chapter 517 - Lumorans

If you are a true man, there is no way you wouldn’t get excited by a cool thing akin to some sort of fantasy mana-or whatever else-powered power armor. We have seen it before: the Valorplate during the 4th floor—living armor that took over the body of a dead Champion and used his damaged heart to power itself for hundreds of years.

Even now, I have my own ideas to create one when I get to Earth. Something capable of resisting Champions and stuff. Not because I want it as a source of my power, but because it would be fun.

And I will totally name it Regalia.

Yes, I will shamelessly steal the name of my old skill and use it to name the item, not caring how much sense it makes. Or Valorplate. That one was also fancy.

But even that is far in the future, and currently what I’m thinking of is Exoria.

Tess doesn’t have much more info, unfortunately, just this: the Champion fought while wearing Exoria. The enemy waited until he left to attack the base and killed a few technicians who took care of the armor. The remaining technicians are busy or lazy and need more assistance.

Not gonna lie, I would prefer being a Technician rather than an assistant. Sure, I don’t know the difference between the two, but one sounds more important and with more access. I also have plenty of theories about why the hell that Champion would need so many people to take care of armor.

So, we've decided to stay here for a few days, keeping close to the outpost and focusing on some training. I’m also using this time to study the natives. The inhabitants of this world are lumorans, a race that was rare even in the Beyond.

Lumorans are humanoid, and their skin is black. Most of them have golden eyes. They have crystalline features embedded in their skin, something like half-transparent crystals.

Usually, the more powerful a lumoran is, the more crystals form inside their body. It’s quite individual, but most of the time they form around their shoulders and lead down to their elbows, or along the side of their necks, or just in their collarbones.

I haven’t interacted with any of them yet, but from what I’ve observed, it’s clear they take pride in their crystalline features. These crystals don’t protrude; instead, they lay flush against the skin, resembling a thick layer of paint despite their crystalline composition.

It might reach deep under their skin, but it’s hard to tell. I have a very strong suspicion they can serve as mana batteries, allowing them to store some mana—the more, the stronger the lumoran is.

It’s like a half-baked trait or form of body modification, but honestly, it’s quite aesthetic. The lumorans seem to favor clothing that highlights these crystalline features as well.

“Nat.”

I refocus my attention on Sophie and the practice Logic Core between us. We made it a few days ago. It is far from being as high-quality as the one connected to Fracture, but it’s good enough for practice before I start messing with that evil sword.

“Yes?” I ask her. “I kept working on the practice core even while thinking of something else.”

“I know, but I got curious. Into how many parts do you have your mind split right now?”

“Huh. Six.”

“You realize how crazy it is, right?”

"I don't. It's normal."

Her shoulders drop and she shakes her head. “Of course you don’t. So what are they doing?”

“The first does Mana Cycling. That one is probably the ‘oldest’ one, as it has to work constantly,” I say with amusement at that thought, “the second one talks with you, does most of the thinking, and deals with people or fighting with help from the others if needed. The third works on the core. The fourth does constant detection—mana, kinetic, heat, and such stuff. The fifth is working on arrays, creating their structures in my mind and keeping them there so I can activate them if needed. The sixth deals with the restrictive training emblem.”

“You can make more?”

“Probably a few more if needed, but each one would be weaker. Even though I can split my mind a lot, the problem is that my ‘mind power’ has to be split as well, decreasing efficiency. I can work around it a bit and strain my mind; that passive I got is amazing for that, but there are limits.”

"Totally normal group 4 behavior," Dennis calls out from somewhere in the corner, sprawled on the ground and unable to move thanks to the Burden Enhancement Inscriptions I created for him.

“We can split ours into two parts or maybe have five if we combine our minds,” Aaron adds, also lying nearby.

Huh. They shouldn’t even be able to talk. Is it time to raise the difficulty? They’re getting good at this and clearly showing off.

While I think about that, Sophie asks them, “Anything else you would want to show off?”

"Remember when that vyssari Champion we met called me cute?" Aaron remarks.

“She called me cute, not you,” Dennis corrects him.

"We have the same face, you idiot, so it applies to me too. Simple logic."

I gesture at Sophie to get her attention and ignore the twins, already used to filtering out their bickering.

"Do that thing you did to the core again, but twist the structure like this," I say, shaping a bit of mana in the air to demonstrate the structure I’m describing.

“Nat, the practice core is simple and working. You should learn how it works instead of already trying to modify it.”

“Just do it.”

Annoyed, she grabs it from the table and makes the modification. She was the one who made it, so it’s filled with her mana, making it easier for her to do changes. As she does them, the entire structure of the core breaks. A resonance is sent through it until, piece by piece, it disappears.

Sophie grins and gives me a look that clearly says, "I told you so."

“You did it wrong.”

“What?”

"You applied the structure I showed you incorrectly and didn’t adapt quickly enough when it started to destabilize."

"What am I, some Easy difficulty attendee?! I did exactly what you asked for. That structure is terrible. It redirected the mana flow, disconnected one part from the loop, and increased pressure on a nearby connection node."

“In translation, you applied it wrongly.”

“How the fuck do you translate it that way?” She raises her voice, annoyance clear in her tone.

Maya, sitting in the chair near the twins—who lie on the floor so she can kick them once in a while—calls out, “Tess, they are fighting over mana stuff again.”

"Did Nat already mention that Sophie’s abilities are worse than some pets noble ladies used to keep?" Tess calls out from another room.

“Not yet, but he seems about to.”

With a groan, Sophie leans back in her chair and starts working on the mana stone, creating another simple practice logic core. Knowing previous experience, it will take her a few hours.

“One day I will get out of you what the fuck that thing about noble ladies’ pets means,” she mumbles while doing so.

***

Today should be the day when Champion Feroy passes near this outpost, so every one of us is ready, all our stuff packed to either run or join that guy. Hopefully, if Tess’s conversation with that technician goes well.

As I observe the outpost, I think about how well the others cooperate. There are barely any fights between mercenary groups or clashes with the natives.

This world is at war, and the Absolute here takes it seriously—his forces severely punish anyone who does something that could cause problems on our side. Things like infighting are punished especially severely, and the groups were informed even before coming here.

Even demons, though rare here, seem to keep it together and rather go to dangerous fronts.

There are so many fun rumors: an Absolute Candidate Demon spotted on the 1st front; a crazy thylarin Champion fighting on this planet for free; a nameless human man who’s been in the war since day one, earning the nickname "The Immortal" after surviving countless battles; and lumoran Champion Owain, a disciple of the lumoran Absolute, single-handedly hunting enemy Champions.

It’s the kind of rumors that are shared to raise morale, to admire, whispered like legends. Just the things that make you feel that excitement, a hint of adventure combined with curiosity, and a healthy dose of fear somewhere far in the back of your mind.

We haven’t seen the invaders yet, we haven’t clashed with the monsters, so all these things are romanticized, feeling more like an adventure before reality slaps us in the face. No matter what we go through, it always starts that way.

With thoughts like these, I wait in our house near the wooden wall. It’s easy to spot the moment the Champion’s people enter the city. The atmosphere changes right away, and they deploy multiple checks even before entering—detecting all powerful signatures, counting people, searching for monsters, checking the number of active arrays and barriers, and many more things.

The speed and thoroughness they show are incredibly impressive. After that, just three lumorans enter the city, each of them with far more crystalline features than any of the lumorans I saw in this outpost, each of them with three question marks over their heads. Somewhere between 322 and 449.

One of them seems to be the boss here and heads towards the building in the center, one lumoran following him as a bodyguard, and the other one splitting off and keeping watch, walking through the city.

They all wear simple clothes, but each one of them has a mark made on the inner side of their left forearm. The mark is made of material similar to their crystalline features and forms a simple circle of white and pale blue color. Inside that circle, there is a thumb imprint.

Tess also waits outside the house the two lumorans entered, patiently waiting with Lily by her side. She waits until the leader of this outpost is done with the Champion’s technician, who is sharing information and asking for materials.

She gets called in soon enough and enters inside. The rest of the group goes into full attention in a moment, but no signal comes.

Just a minute later, Tess sends through the link: (Can you come here? You can teleport.)

I do as I’m told and move through the [Ley Line] connected to Tess. Inside are her, Lily, and four lumorans—two newcomers and two from the leadership of this outpost. The one I judge to be the technician looks at me, and for a moment his eyes pass through the air where the invisible [Ley Line] stretches and connects me to Tess.

He then looks at the Fracture on my waist. “You made it?”

From his tone, it’s obvious he knows the answer.

“Yes, with some help,” I confirm.

“Good, we will be taking them. Deal with documents and share information with HQ.”

“Understood,” the lumoran leader of the camp nods and bows. “Should I note the destination as the sixth front?”

“No, there are changes of plans and we will be heading to the second front. We will be leaving in 5 minutes, so prepare, and we will prepare a contract.” He waves me and the others off, making us stumble out of the house.

Oh boy.

***

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