He turned his head around to see if there were any enemies nearby, but he was alone in a fully enclosed room, with a door to one side and a half-opened window letting in a bright shaft of sunlight. The area felt very familiar, even if he'd never seen it before. Such a luxurious private space back in Ost was only for section heads or the overseer's family, but then memories of this room burst into his mind, most centered on how it felt like a dump.
With a groan, he sat up, a hand coming up to block the excess light, his body feeling awkward and strange as he tried to set aside the jumble of confusing memories that clearly weren't his own.
I'm just a damn miner, the idle complaint bubbled up, replicating the private joke he’d often shared with his banner commander. I'd better get a private latrine and double rations for the rest of my life after this. It used to only be the double rations, but he figured he was due for a raise.
The sarcastic chatter felt better than dwelling on the death and suffering of Luna, an easy way to get some release after a re-centering breath. And what worked while waiting out Vikam patrols under a pile of his banner’s corpses would certainly work here.
He then noticed his hand was slender and fine, with none of the scars and burn marks from the workshop, and that his skin was pale blue. Not exactly looking forward to confirming what he suspected, Axl examined the rest of his body, then rifled through a table next to his bed to take out a small mirror framed in the same odd plastic as the room—wood, framed in wood.
"What the slit," he cursed as he confirmed what he vaguely felt, that he had an entirely new body. It was lean and tall, as opposed to his stockier, muscular build, and had blue skin. It was a relief that he didn’t have the nightmarish facial features of the Vikam, such as the lack of a nose and an eerily large mouth. But he did have the elongated ears and three fine lines on either side of his neck that felt strange to the touch. Gills, actual gills for breathing underwater.
I should make it double rations and triple water. Easier to laugh it off and carry on than anything else he could do right now, after all.
Axl still scowled at himself, the slender, almost effete youth in the mirror still somehow managing to look lovely. Despite his surprise, he had to admit this was quite the impressive disguise. It even kindled a faint shred of hope, an old instinct he thought was long dead, but now he couldn’t help but wonder what else Terrania could do, if Earth's neuromorphic system could pull something like this.
He must have underestimated Terrania, the Vikam invasion not as drastic as how it managed to usher in the golden age all those centuries ago and ensure humanity’s survival in the face of the apocalyptic Mana Arrival. Maybe it was just that Terrania’s touch was very light in Luna, especially in the remote mining outpost of Ost. The promise of a new golden age when Terrania managed to align the miracle technology of electrics to Mana not just a dream, after all.
The last time he thought like this was when Terra still shone brightly in the sky with Mana lanterns, before it just became a dark circle against the stars. How long has it been since Earth didn't light up her nighttime sky? As early as the 20th century, perhaps, when the electrics were first discovered, then again when the Arrival slowly chocked out all the old technology. Nearly two hundred years of painstaking progress wiped away in less than a month.
The idle thought made him tired to bone, the frantic retreats punctuated by brutal bursts of fighting of the last month no longer muddled by the dull despair of just waiting to die. Hope was tricky like that, but as much as he felt he'd be better off without it, he simply couldn't bring himself to let go.
He settled on taking a deep re-centering breath, enjoying the absurdly clean air. Axl knew he was far from the best man for the mission, even his time at the militia's training camp cut short because the war had escalated so quickly. Just a miner dressing up as a soldier. But he was more than willing to do his part behind enemy lines, remembering the name of the reward he got for setting up the beacon. Infiltration Rebirth, which probably meant he had to play the part of a damn elf.
Ready to get to work, he opened his quest log for his instructions, finding two waiting for him.
>>Terrania Quest (Ultimate Priority): Establish the Terrania Nexus.
>>Establish a Foundational Nexus for the Terrania Sub-System. Necessary attunement: Water, Earth, Metal, Void. Deadline: 3y, 07m, 26d
>>Terrania Quest (Unique): Oocile Infiltration.
>>Activate [Mana Absorb] on a nexus of Oocile.
Not one, but two quests directly from the central system of Terra. The thought filled him with pride, before only getting repeating quests from the overseers. Here he was, a simple miner from a small lunar outpost drilling for lunar fulger with a self-made rig, being directly spoken to by the soul of humanity itself.
His hand instinctively reached to his side to tap his cartridge neuromorph. But there was nothing there. Lilly was dead, the last thing this war took from him.
But he shook off all this nonsense and got back on track, studying his instructions.
The first quest was a surprise, that this mission would require so much time, not just a quick hit-and-run. It also meant he'd have to figure out what an attunement meant, never having come across the term back in Luna. He also guessed that a Foundational Nexus was some complicated nonsense, like how his last quest related to the Lunar Nexus, but he’d never heard the term before in Ost or the militia. Unfortunately, the quest gave him no more hints on that front. More immediately, it meant he'd have to figure out a good deal about how to blend in as a water-elf, if his disguise was meant to last years, the name of the second quest making it clear this was not direct combat, but espionage.
The second quest's goal felt entirely mysterious until another burst of memories flooded into his mind, of people meditating in front of the large statue of an orb as people passed it by, a mundane staple of his life. Or the life of this body he inhabited.
His name was Roken, and Axl delved into these foreign memories, realizing that Terrania didn't create an elf body from scratch, as he had previously guessed, but put him inside the body of one who already existed. Frankly, he couldn't tell which was more impressive. There was too much to go through, however, so he skimmed past a bunch of nonsense impressions, trying to focus on details of the area he was in and the location of that statue. A remnant of Oocile of ten thousand upturned palms, the Avatar of Balance, apparently.
Axl noted the title of his second quest with hesitation, since it implied that he was out to steal from some godlike protector. This was an entity Roken never thought about much, but was as pervasive to his life as the station air vent system and nutripaste rations were at Ost.
Before setting out, Axl opened the window a crack and looked up at the clear blue sky and wisps of purple clouds in the distance, together with the ubiquitous streams of skyward lines. This was the first time he'd seen an atmosphere outside a rented vid, and to be honest, he didn't see what the big deal was. It just looked like a tall ceiling.
More importantly, he was even more confused about his location now. Did he get sent to a Vikam planet? Or did they have massive ships with self-contained atmospheres and smooth artificial gravity? And why did a water-elf look so much more human than the Vikam?
Shrugging at the idle speculation, he put on one of Roken's sturdier outfits from his dresser and opened the door, then quickly shut it again. The tiny combination living room and kitchen outside wasn’t just in its usual messy state, it was blasted apart, a green mist pooling over from a massive hole in the wall.
"Oh, right," Axl said, the memories of the attack flooding his brain. He'd barely managed to return to his room and crawl into bed before passing out, hoping to recover from the poisoned fog. Seems like Roken never did.
Axl focused for a moment, trying to piece together any information Roken had on the Undead Legion and how to survive it, but the memories were panicked and hard to scan. He also tried to get more information on the Vikam, but that only drew up unrelated memories. It took him a moment to push the memories back, his breath jagged and rapid, his grip on the door handle too tight.
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He took a long, re-centering breath, realizing this wouldn’t be as easy as a casual stroll to the town square. First, he needed to get a weapon, then devise some way to fight back against the poison, as he was most likely already infected with whatever killed his body's previous owner. But an instinct wormed its way up from Roken's mind, a desire to look at his status window.
Axl frowned, unsure what that meant, but went ahead with the well-practiced thought, surprised when a window popped up before him. Not a notification from Terrania, but that same deeper-feeling notification that announced a level up or gaining a Skill. Nobody had figured out how to bring those up outside of those vanishingly rare contexts, even at the best academies of Terra that support Terrania, and here he was, able to do it at will.
Name: Xel-389b (Roken)
Level: 11
Class: (none)
Lineage: Water Elf (G)
Attributes
Strength: 5
Endurance: 7
Agility: 9
Perception: 8
Intelligence: 6
Wisdom: 6
Charisma: 8
Luck: 4
Free Points: 11
Skills: Mana Absorb (Uncommon)
Titles: Last Human of Luna (Terrania)
Quests: Establish the Terrania Nexus (Terrania), Oocile Infiltration (Terrania)
Achievements: Karmic Enmity (Vikam Elves), Transplanted Soul, Awakening Flood
Axl was a bit wary that his birth name was listed in the name tag, with his body's elven name in parentheses afterwards, pointing to his disguise not being perfect. If somebody managed to see this screen, they might be able to tell he was an infiltrator from all the information in there referring to his human origins.
He frowned at seeing Last Human of Luna listed there, as if it were something to be proud of, to brag about, and used to gain more power. But he tempered his anger, scanning the new information. Back in the Sol system, humans had only three Attributes, while this body had eight. Previously, he could only select one to increase every three levels, and now it seemed like he got one per level, since he had 11 of those as free points. But with this level of granularity, was that even an upgrade? It felt like increasing Physical before would boost at least three of these new Attributes, after all. But he didn't start distributing his points yet, wanting to get a sense of his body first.
Roken was no help, since he was Level 1 until he died. The memory felt shameful as it came bubbling up, something Roken didn't like thinking about. Axl grumbled, and he reached out to the Mana around him, turning on the basic sensing feature of [Mana Absorb].
He reeled back in shock, surprised the Mana was richer than any place he had ever heard about in Luna, perhaps even better than at the condensed Mana springs carefully cultivated back on Earth. How did this guy never manage to level? Roken seemed to know that you could use Mana to level, even if the details were foggy, and there was no way this amount of free Mana wouldn't be enough to at least gain some early levels. The thought brought Axl comfort, since it meant these elves weren't as impossible a threat as they seemed from the invasion. They had lazy and incompetent people like this guy as well. Venting hell, Axl had a hard time believing any human would stay so weak in this kind of environment.
He next scanned his achievements in more detail to see what they offered,
>>Karmic Enmity (Stable):
>>Form a soul-bound enmity with an entire lineage (Vikam Elves) while still in the G grade.
>>+9% damage to target lineage, gain a sense of their direction (Grade-limited).
>>Soul Transplantation (Consumable):
>>Survive a low-compatibility soul transplantation.
>>Choice of Mental Skill (Awarded by Terrania).
>>Awakening Flood (Consumable):
>>Gain 10 levels at once when entering G grade.
>>Choice of Skill (Awarded by Terrania).
There was a lot to unpack, but the first thing Axl noticed was that he gained a way to find the invaders. It wasn't listed as a Skill, but he figured it would somehow come up when he got closer to them. It was a bit confusing why Roken's memories didn’t include any of those, but it could be that the water-elves were one of the subsidiary people under the Vikam or, even better, that the Vikam were not the only power in their world, and he was sent here to rouse an attack from an entirely different front.
He immediately got a sense from the other two Achievements that he could will them to be used up for the reward they offered, but he held off on doing so until he got a better sense of what kind of Skills he'd need.
Lastly, he turned to his Title, something he really wished he didn't have.
>> Last Human of Luna
>> All Attributes +2, Call of the Void
The Call of the Void part seemed mysterious, and focusing on it resulted in nothing happening. The Attribute gain was obvious, and it would explain why his Attributes were higher than what Roken remembered. He wasn't sure why this one was a Title, and the others were Achievements, but he set that aside for now.
Roken also remembered that Endurance was a key Attribute that largely determined resistance to poison. Thinking back to the ominous green mist outside, Axl decided to place three points into the Attribute, bringing it up to an even 10.
He felt a surge of energy course through him, his breath deepening and muscles relaxing, as if his entire body was asleep and just now woke up. This was nothing like when he placed his single point in the Mental Attribute when he reached level 3 back on Luna, the effect clearly stacking far more. Maybe this was the real benefit of having more points to spread out?
Hopefully, this would be enough to deal with the poisoned mist that killed Roken, but if not, he still had eight points to dump into the Attribute. But he'd rather hold onto them and see if he could use them for something else, after all, Endurance alone wouldn’t help him kill any more Vikam.
Slowly, Axl opened the door to his ruined living room and left as quietly as he could, his steps creaking against the wood. How could wood be so noisy? But there was nothing outside but a blasted open wall leading to the narrow cobblestoned path outside. He stepped out, closing the door behind him as quietly as he could, monitoring his body for any effect of the mist pooling at his ankles. After a few tense seconds, he figured that either his Endurance was high enough to avoid the effect entirely, or at least greatly delay it. Either way, it should be enough to push to the statue of Oocile.
Axl rifled through the rubble, looking for a weapon, pushing away the remains of Roken's fire-pit and icebox. The runes on the icebox were still intact, the empty insides of the small crate much colder than the rest of the room.
Axl stared at the casual use of Mana with palpable hunger. He wanted nothing more than to sit down and spend a few days studying the simple squiggles that produced cold from nothing more than ambient Mana. The amount of inscription of Mana circuits that would be needed to obtain a similar effect back in Sol was several orders of magnitude greater. That Roken lived with this kind of gear and never bothered to figure out how it worked felt like a waste bordering on the criminal.
But Axl reluctantly put the ice box aside, now not being the time for this. Hopefully, the fact that a Level 1 nobody like Roken could afford magic like this meant it would be easy enough to find later.
After some more rifling around, Axl only managed to find a long cooking knife with a bent edge and a large crack at the base, and grumbled before heading out.
The narrow path outside was eerily quiet, the mist sifting in odd, almost lifelike patterns as he stepped forward, green fractals kicking up behind him in chaotic swirls as if displeased at the disruption. He turned towards a larger road and slowly crept forward, dagger in hand, flush against the wall of the intact building in front of him. When he reached 7th road, he stopped at the edge, peeking around the corner.
He saw rubble everywhere, interspersed freely with elven corpses of various skin colors. Behind the pile just ahead, a building was falling apart, the walls melting into a thick slurry.
Confused by the seemingly erratic destruction, Axl stared at the disintegrating house for a moment. There was a thin sheen of dark green moss spread along the damage. Pieces of wood were visibly rotting, and rock was falling off, the mortar keeping them in place turned into a liquid mess. He turned on the sensing mode of [Mana Absorb] and saw a deep Mana in the moss, but it had a sense of dangerous sickness to it, and he knew that his body wouldn't do well if he got too close to that kind of Mana.
Strangely, the Mana in the mist was very different, not only in that it was much less dense, but it seemed to have a shifting quality, obscuring more than seeking to damage directly. There was a small sense of poison in it, but it was a very minor component of the mist. Something still powerful enough to kill a Level 1 water-elf, apparently.
Axl heard a clicking sound in the distance, steadily increasing in volume, so he crouched low, only his head above the mist, barely a sliver of his face past the corner’s edge. After a few moments, he saw three creatures crawling down the very far end of the road, each the size of a large plate. They had four insect legs and a flat back like a crab's, each of the legs a long, sharp knife, their flat body sticking out of the mist. They looked like smoothened stones drifting down a river, as if they were a natural part of this mist.
Holding his breath, he waited until they passed, the clicking sound of their sharp legs against the cobblestones receding into the distance. It was a relief that they were so easy to detect, and that they apparently didn’t notice him from a distance, so Axl carefully left his alley entrance and slowly started towards the Eastern town square, where he'd find the closest statue of Oocile.
He kept his body low and moved as quickly as he could without disrupting the mist too much, pausing at each alley or open door in case more crabs passed through. Three times they did, all of them in small groups, and he hid every time, twice inside hastily abandoned buildings and once inside a shop that was slowly rotting from one side, next to the mutilated corpse of a wood-elf.
Axl reached halfway to his destination, what was normally a twenty-minute stroll taking over an hour. Then he paused as he saw a corpse further down a narrow alley. It was very different than all the other dead elves littering the town, those being civilians with everyday clothing, but this one wore full leather armor and had a sword by its side. Axl couldn't believe his luck at being able to upgrade his weapon, and eagerly approached the corpse. Its blue skin was similar to his, but very withered, with exposed muscle in large patches across its face and arms, and no eyes.
What could've caused this accelerated decay? Perhaps the moss? Or maybe the crabs had a Skill that could cause this much damage.
As Axl reached for the sword, the skeletal face turned to him. "Keep going, sapling. There's no easy loot for you here."