XelofBloom
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3.1
🕑 Added 2021-01-05 03:10:37 +0000 UTCThe System is proud to inform the User that an Inventory granted as part of a First Contact Protocol is of the highest spatial tier. This allows the same items to be stacked infinitely into slots, yet at the same time limits the number of slots to (User Level/2). In short, no, tracking something within the User’s Inventory is almost impossible unless a Mythic Beast or Dragon were the ones attempting to do so. Even then, the User would feel the influx of power searching for them and have time to take appropriate steps.
Eve finished reading the message from the System before having her paper bundle up all the clothing. Testing with a few of the paper-wrapped packages revealed her inventory did not distinguish between packages. She had altered her normal speech patterns to avoid easy identification if there was some way to record her attack and transmit them to other enemies. Now, the most important thing was to remove the physical evidence and eliminate traces.
This paper packaging inventory exploit is going to be so abused by me. Eve thought as she gathered all the clothing that Kudzu had stripped when taking the prisoners away, storing it all at once. While she was doing that, Eve made sure none of the wolf puppies were in life-threatening danger. Confirming they were all shaken up and in varying states of distress but unharmed, she continued stacking clothing into her inventory. Once the clothing was done, Eve gathered all the trinkets like earrings, good luck charms, rings, or anything else that might have value. Most of these items had a small glow of mana on them, so Eve carefully stored them from the maximum distance possible. Repeating the same for weapons and armor, eventually, only the two enemy mages' corpses remained.
Eve wrapped the bodies in paper before storing them, as she had a few ideas on what to do with them later. Lifting herself above the ground by levitating the paper that doubled as her evil sorceress ninja clothing, she cut the entire portion of the battlefield out of the ground with her paper. Eve made sure to go six meters deep to leave no stone unturned. Once the soil was removed, she wrapped it in more paper before storing that as well. Apparently, as long as something was a ‘paper package,’ it qualified to be stored in the same slot as all others.
“Kudzu cover the pit here with vines until you can shift earth around to smooth out the hole.” said Eve. Receiving acknowledgment from the plant, she moved on to the second most important thing after battlefield cleanup.
Puppy care!
Eve used her paper to gather all the twenty-three cages before saying, “Don’t worry, little ones, big sis has saved the day!”
Varying puppy noises from cheers, whines, and sniffles were heard. Eve slipped her paper into the cages before wrapping each of the little ones. As soon as they were all held in place, she shredded the cages into dust. Floating her little bundles of soul healing in front of her, Eve found herself the recipient of forty-six sparkling eyes.
Eve said, “Let’s get you all looked at by Uncle Kudzu, ok? He’ll make anything that hurts go away so you can keep growing big and strong!”
The white and black puppies that had sat on her lap when she last played with the little ones in the nursery demanded to be held. As soon as Eve had them tucked in against her chest, they turned and gave a few small barks and some non-verbal ear movements. Instantly the surrounding twenty-one other puppies relaxed, allowing themselves to be floated without further issue back into her house. Closing the door, Eve moved them all into the garden, where Kudzu started checking them for injuries with his mice's assistance. She noted there was now a stairway that went up and over the garden wall. Floating herself above the wall, she saw the surviving humans gagged and tied in makeshift thorn prisons.
Eve narrowed her eyes before saying, “Don’t worry. I’ll attend to you soon enough. Each one of you will get to have a nice long conversation with me shortly. I have so many questions that I’m sure you will provide the answers for given enough time. I assure you with no lies; everyone breaks. It is only a matter of how long you let the pain go on before choosing to stop it.”
That should be enough to get the groundwork started. Eve thought. Too bad the Sarge isn’t here. That guy could make stones weep with just a few quiet, calm, polite words. I’ll admit this wasn’t how I saw my interrogation classes being used, though.
Dropping back down below the wall, Eve busied herself with attending to the puppies. She made sure they were all healthy and cooked a meal in the kitchen for each of them. To ensure they all had food that they wanted to eat, she showed them various pieces of meat, vegetables, and spices. It was the work of a quarter-hour to make meals for everyone. Right as she started serving everything on paper plates, Kudzu informed her the Pack was outside her door.
Shifting the paper clothing she was wearing to a more casual look, Eve opened the door, the black and white puppies still in her hands, eating from hovering plates. Her eyes widened in shock as she saw a veritable flood of wolves had encircled her home. There was a tense moment before the little black wolf pup growled at the bigger adults. Instantly the tension broke as All-Right shouldered her way past the male wolves at the front and said, “Don’t you talk to me like that pup! The rest of you, shoo! Clearly, I was right again!”
Eve witnessed various colored wolves wearing what could only be called battle armor slink away as if beaten black and blue. The fearsomeness of the Alpha’s wife was on clear display. When only All-Right, Mudslide, and Fang remained, Eve, said, “Would you like to join the little ones for dinner inside?”
Mudslide attempted to say something, but All-Right’s tail whacked him across the snout before she said, “Of course! Thank you for taking care of the younglings while we were busy!” As they moved inside Eve's house, the female wolf continued, “You wouldn’t happen to have seen any humans pass nearby, would you?”
Eve smiled as she closed the front door behind the three wolves, closing and locking it behind her. “Of course, they are in a separate part of the house that Kudzu maintains for enemies. Follow me into the garden if you desire to see them.”
Moving into the garden through the adjacent nearby kitchen exit, the wolves saw all the little ones eating and roughhousing. This scene caused disbelieving looks from the two male wolves and a smug one from All-Right. Eve showed them the ramp over the garden's outer wall and let them see the prisoners in their thorny cages. There was a moment of silence before Mudslide said, “What will happen to them?”
Eve kept her face emotionless as she said, “I will extract all the information I need from them before letting Kudzu eat. His process of digesting meat takes a very long time to finish.” Her words were met with whimpers and struggling as those restrained rolled their eyes in fear. Unfortunately, the vines gagged them, preventing noise from disturbing her cute little guests.
There was a long pause after her answer before All-Right said, “The Pack relinquishes all rights to them. Human affairs should remain in human affairs.”
When it looked like Fang and Mudslide were going to say something, All-Right cut them off in a sweet tone saying, “Isn’t that what you always tell me, dear? Father?”
Both male wolves appeared to have choked on something extremely sour. Eve took note of the expert handling that was occurring in front of her. It was always good to never stop learning, as her mother always told her. She also confirmed that males of any race were rather easy to handle under the right circumstances.
Moving back into the garden, All-Right said, “Father and my dear husband will take care of the young while we talk girl stuff. I’ve heard rumors of each of them receiving custom meals like these little ones have, without me! Can you believe such ridiculous things!?”
“Perish the thought!” Eve said as she followed All-Right back into the kitchen. Setting the table for her favorite female Alpha, Eve whipped up a wolf meal before sitting at the table.
“Mudslide told me he gave you a copy of the scrolls Eve, is that correct?”
Eve nodded and said, “They were accommodating in explaining who was leading the expedition.”
“Give me their House.” All-Right said, her eyes flashing as her voice contained barely suppressed rage. A pork cutlet was savaged with brutal rips, sacrificed on the altar of appeasement.
“House Aitmurn.” Eve said.
“Rats!? Rats had the courage to step into our lands?” All-Right said, clearly shocked before muttering, “What insanity is going on in the old Empire?”
“I cleaned up the battle site. I used my Domain to vaporize the bodies and remove all traces.” Eve said.
“What about their souls?” All-Right asked.
Eve pointed up at the Six Samurai celestial iron sheets and said, “Soul Eaters, I found out in the middle of the battle. Quite a shock. The vibrations they make rip an unprotected soul to shreds. I thought it was just pretty music. Now apparently it is amazing beyond coherent words that I can form.”
All-Right eyed the Samurai Six floating over Eve with clear respect and said, “Someone taught you well. No, don’t deny it. No one new to the world like a firstborn child would know the things you do.”
There was a pause and All-Right a small steak before saying, “Are you a Dragon in disguise? Or related to one? Or one of the old Myths given flesh again?”
“Nope. I’m just a really lost traveler.” Eve said, her Celestial Body preventing any attempt by the female wolf to read her body language. It also kept her heart stable and her scent from changing. At the same time, she trusted the wolves, which only extended so far. The fate of all First Contact Protocol individuals was never far from her mind.
“You are not lying. Would you tell me what causes the random bursts of powerful aura around you then? It has worried Mudslide a great deal.” All-Right said, coming right out and asking her.
“Oh! I’m sorry, my brother left me notes on how to survive in situations like these. They have a variety of effects as a result of his power.” Eve said, acting contrite. Her message was two-fold. She was saying she was a lost traveler and saying her brother was as powerful as a Dragon. It killed two birds with one stone. Now there was a perfect excuse for all her strength and even more reason for the Pack to support her.
She didn’t leak this information to keep her gravy train of puppy love going. Nope. Not a bit. Eve wasn’t that kind of person. At all.
All-Right smiled at the answer before saying, “Your brother, he will find you eventually, yes?”
“Dead or alive, without fail.” Eve said, deadpan.
“Good, he will remember the Pack that aided his sister in her time of need then. We will combine Den’s. That way, the young are not separated from you. They have told me they do not feel safe without you around. Know that what you have seen of our world is not the whole, merely a piece. There are places where all work as one toward bright futures. It saddens me that you have been exposed to the darker side first.”
"When I first met the ferrets, I followed my brother's advice, and it worked. When I met the Pack, I almost responded with violence as well. It was only Polyglot that let me know your society was trustworthy in a way most humans are not." Eve said with a deep sigh as she ate.
Dinner continued with a lighter bit of conversation until the white wolf that handled the nursery arrived to take charge of the garden's disaster. Eve nodded agreement when asked if the youngling’s nanny wolf could stay over until the puppies were done recovering.
Once the wolves except for the nanny and the puppies left, Eve went into the prison. She sealed each of the prisoners in a paper box just wide enough for her to sit across from them. Moving to the first person, Eve sat down, forming a paper chair and a small desk. Picking up blank pieces of paper, she looked at the human staring back at her in terror before saying, “Let’s start, shall we?”
A vine dropped two small pods onto the table in front of her, one red the other blue.
“The red pod will cause pain beyond your wildest dreams. If you lie to me, if you raise your voice, if you beg for your life, I will feed it to you.” Eve said, her voice without inflection as she continued, “The blue pod will give pleasure beyond anything you can imagine. It will last for the rest of your life, I swear on the System.”
She saw the expression on the prisoner’s face change as he saw the System confirm her words. Eve then continued calmly, “Answer my questions without lying, with rambling, in a short, concise manner, expanding only when I ask, and the blue pod is yours.”
With a gesture, Eve had Kudzu remove the vine gag and said, “Let’s start then. What House do you work for?”
Eve listened as the prisoner answered everything, practically begging to tell her anything she wanted. As soon as she was finished, she did exactly as she promised to give the prisoner a blue pod. As his expression relaxed into a drugged bliss, she asked Kudzu, “How long till he dies?”
“In approximately six hours, he will expire, having experienced constant pleasure the entire time. This is a mixture I have high hopes in marketing as a valuable trade item; at least once I solve the dying part.” Kudzu said, his voice upbeat.
“Tell me when he’s about to expire. I’ll clean all the souls up the easy way. The bodies will be for you, Kudzu.” Eve replied before glancing up at her Six Soul Eaters and continuing, “I need all of you to make sure there is nothing left of their souls, ok? Eat well!” A humming noise of agreement met her request, and Eve gave a smile that didn’t reach her eyes.
“Ok, let’s get this done. I hope none of them choose red pod.” Eve said, shifting her clothing to look more like a dastardly interrogator. She might as well look the part. It would also help her to evaluate how clothing worked in this brave new world. Women only wore strips of cloth for all she knew, cut their hair short, or had a thousand piercings. Shrugging to herself, she moved on to the next prisoner.
Comments
Mr. Bigglesworth
Thank you for joining!
Tetsuki
Thanks for the chapter
