Mornn
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Chapter 618 - Street rat roots
🕑 Added 2025-02-11 17:00:23 +0000 UTCSofia left the hospital’s care, paying five Orms for the treatment thus far, which the nurse took from her purse without really leaving her a choice. Sofia had hoped that she would find some of her things in ‘her belongings’ which the nurse had kept in a small lockbox she unlocked with an iron key, but sadly there was only a purse with a few coins and clothes that Sofia had never seen before, which weren’t in a great state.
She was waiting at the hospital’s entrance for the rain to stop. The one nurse managing the place was very busy and had not been inclined to answer many questions, so Sofia had gained little information about anything. She looked up at the houses and the cloudy sky outside.
It’s definitely still the same city. Hell, the money is named after the ‘Queen’. There’s even her face on the coins! The same as it was on that painting.
What I don’t understand is what this all really is. Have I become a tethered? Despite the stalkers everywhere there was not a single tethered in the city, which is an interesting detail.
Can’t be one big illusion or time travel I don’t think. I’m still immune to mind control and hypnosis, so that’s not it. It’s also not the regular light world or I would still have my mana and other things. But it’s still linked to it, as we were brought here by that dragon’s light breath and everyone has that disturbing blurry face.
It’s safe to assume Bookie, Pareth and Alith are also somewhere in here, since we were all hit by the light. Jumping up was a big mistake… I don’t even know what else we could have done at that point though… We should have probably just started digging again as soon as we knew our position in the city. Would have been much safer to just join the singer, the dead god, or the palace directly from underground…
I think I was a bit too excited at the idea of exploring a city so intricately linked with the deep…
Well, what’s done is done. If everyone else is here they must be in similar situations. Alith can manage easily, but that’s a bit scary for Pareth and Bookie. Hopefully they’re at least together, or Bookie will panic and Pareth will struggle due to his mutism.
I hope they’re safe.
Pestle is still there with me so at the very least Bookie is still alive.
What is curious is that she would have run out of lifetime long ago if I’ve been comatose for two days… Unless…
If time doesn’t flow here at the same speed! This must be a simulated reality like the trials!
We might not have become tethered yet! That makes me a bit worried for my real body though…
So now if my theory is correct, how do I leave?
Death is not an option, at best this is like Joah’s fake worlds and I’ll be stuck wherever I die, at worst it’s like the system trials and my real body will also die… What option does that leave?
I can wait for the fake world to expire. But on the off chance this fake reality has existed continuously since the fall of the real city, this might just never happen… If I managed to somehow interact with the real world and kill the host, that would let us out, but if it’s like Joah’s, we would all suffer heavy soul damage from the sudden shift, so that’s also not ideal. Not that I even have a way to do that…
That pretty much only leaves one option. Find the host, or whoever they built the fake world around, like Saria when Joah built the world around her, and kill them in the fake world…
Yeah that’s going to be a bit… I’m to go against the creator of this reality with no mana and a low level human body, accompanied by a flightless fairy?
Sofia contemplated the hopeless situation while counting the coins in her purse.
“Twenty eight Orms…”
Doesn’t sound like much. Sofia felt a true sense of powerlessness, a sensation she had not been nostalgic about, but on the bright side, she rationalized that with no mana in the air at all, she would only have to contend with other powerless mortals. That was a reassuring silver lining, trickery and merciless stabbings were, after all, ageless human ‘racial skills’ that Sofia was well-acquainted with. The rain is starting to let up. I should try to find the others, first and foremost, and a weapon.
Sofia quickly discovered that navigating the city without her mana senses was a lot more difficult than it had been in the real world, but after going in a somewhat straight line for long enough, she managed to find the border of the city confirming once and for all that this was not just a lookalike place, but the same city on the lake. From there, she walked up all the inclined streets she could find, getting as good a vintage point on the city as she could before the sun could set, giving her an idea of where exactly she was.
The playhouse, the god’s tomb, and the palace. The hospital I woke up in was around that side, so quite far from where we were in the real world…
It’s starting to get a bit cold… I’ll need to find a shelter for the night, especially if it starts raining again.
As Sofia tried to look for the poorest part of the city, which was where she had the best chance to easily find a shelter, she heard a strange sound coming from inside her robe.
“Pestle?” Sofia asked, pulling on her collar to look inside.
The fairy was still hiding under her clothes as the small being would probably be a strange sight to the people of the city, but she currently looked unwell. Sofia quickly looked around to make sure there was no one who could see her, and she pulled out the fairy.
Sofia couldn’t see the fairy’s face, but she was holding her belly.
“Are you feeling sick?”
The fairy shook her tiny head, but seemed to lack the words to explain her current predicament, then Sofia heard the sound again and understood the situation.
I’m getting hungry too…
For a second, Sofia wondered if maybe the fairies ate only plants, but she quickly dismissed the thought considering Pestle’s teeth looked more like a wolf’s than anything else. Running back a few streets, Sofia stopped at a street-food stall that was closing down, and managed to negotiate two grilled ‘Cierodia legs’ that had gone cold on the cheap for a quarter of an Orm, receiving a strange ‘three-quarters’ coin that looked like a C as change.
She walked away from the stall with an uncontrollable smirk on her face. Her fingers on the
leg bones, she could feel them.
A meal AND a weapon.
[Bone Dominus] works without mana!
Sofia ate a leg as she walked, and gave the other to Pestle, hiding in a narrow alleyway between two tall buildings.
“Don’t eat the bones, alright?”
The grilled leg was about half of Pestle’s height, yet Pestle devoured it all in about ten seconds, leaving only teeth marks all over the bones and not a shred of meat. Sofia looked at her with raised eyebrows as she munched on her own grilled Cierodia leg, which tasted like any other bird meat.
You ate more than your weight in meat… And your weight didn’t even change I don’t think… Where did that even go?
Either way, Pestle now looked satisfied, sitting down cross-legged on Sofia’s palm.
Sofia ate quickly, and started working on the two legs’ bones. She was basically working blindly, without her mana senses and her ability to feel bones greatly diminished. Her control over bones was also terrible, worse than they were when she had first gotten the skill. It was slow and tedious compared to her normal, but in about a minute she managed to reshape one leg into a makeshift knife, and the other into a basic lockpicking set.
Hopefully the locks here aren’t too different than the ones I know. The nurse’s keys looked relatively normal, at least…
It’s honestly a bit shocking that the technology of locks hasn’t evolved in thirty thousand years… Or human technology in general.
I could easily believe this place was a modern human kingdom…
Putting her critique of her own race behind her, Sofia refocused her thoughts on her immediate need for shelter, as night was starting to fall, and clouds were gathering in the sky above the city again.
Sofia found a house that looked abandoned before she could walk all the way to the poorer looking part of the city, so she stopped there and waited for night to fall completely. None of her multiple ways to see in the dark worked, but Pestle could see perfectly well, so the fairy was on guard duty while Sofia struggled in the dark with the lock of the house’s back door in an unlit alleyway.
She fiddled with the lock for a good five minutes before giving up, it seemed the locking mechanism was not so close to the one she was familiar with after all. In the end she had Pestle carve out one of the windows instead. Though the fairy couldn’t fly and was extremely weakened currently, it seemed her meal had given her some strength back, and her claws were still sharp enough to effortlessly slash through stone, let alone some thin glass.
Sofia plucked out the entire carved-out window without a sound, entered the house, and carefully placed the window back in place in a fragile balance, using a few tiny bits of bone to lock it in place.
The two-storey building was dusty and completely empty, as Sofia had seen from the outside. It was not great, but it was a lot better than spending the night outside under the rain.
Hopefully the others also have some shelter…
Comments
Emily Gurnavage
"trickery and merciless stabbings were, after all, ageless human ‘racial skills’" Too true, lol. In another story I was just reading some nameless soldier referred to humans as "monsters without fur". Similar vibe.
E
Not having infinity engine makes sense since her consciousness is truly separate from her body right now and infinity engine is part of her body's mana heart. Her having bone dominus must mean it is an aspect of her psyche rather than mana. Possibly hinting at a type of power we haven't really been introduced to yet. She was able to permanently bring things back with her from her simulated-reality trial such as becoming the Apostle of Sorrow. Wonder what she brings back from this.
Tejing
Fake world does make sense I guess... It's very weird that she can be robbed of her mana in any circumstance at all, though, given [Infinity Engine]. Shouldn't they all be immune to soul damage because of the Mark? I don't think forcibly canceling the fake world would actually harm them. Correction: getting as good a vintage point on the city as she could vintage -> vantage
E
Sofia is focused on finding a weapon when all she has to do is feed the gremlin
Cyclone001
I wonder how long Pestle will last and how much she can power up by eating. Can't wait to see where this goes.
Tom Asciola
Pestle is adorable in a terrifying way, much like most of Sophia's skeletons
E
Called it on this being VR. Still don't get how this doesn't trigger her mental defenses. Surprised bone dom still works. This simulation was intuitive enough to devolve her back to human form and basically devolved her to a state before leveling up, yet still has that one System-acquired ability.
Quentin Cozzi
Thanks for the chapter!
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
