Interesting Characters

It was not hard to find our way out. Portals have a very unique energy to them. After the oversized Roc we killed, nothing else really posed a problem. Elias and Mila are talking about something right now.

"Only a single bottle?! For someone who's bragging, that's a pathetic amount." Mila seems unimpressed about something.

"Oh really, what's your record."

"I don't keep track of stuff like that. Look if you want to prove yourself," Mila digs into her bag and pulls out a flask. "down this."

Elias takes the flask and opens it. "Mila, this is gasoline… Nice joke I guess?"

"If you aren't going to drink it give it back." She snatches back the flask and downs it.

"Wait did you just…"

Mila starts getting slightly flushed. "As I said Elias you're weak."

I turn around and face the two. " What exactly were you guys talking about?"

"Elias was bragging about how much he can drink, so I proved him wrong!"

"Mila, I was referring to alcohol not gasoline, apparently."

"Wait, you drank gasoline?!"

"Out of everything strange you have seen, that's what you question?" Mila starts laughing. "It's not natural, I'll give you that. Sometimes it's hard to get test subjects so I experiment on myself. My body treats gasoline similarly to alcohol now."

"...what a fun party trick. When we get back, I'll show you how much I can down. Veronica is also invited, what do you say?"

"Oh, no thanks I don't drink, I've never really found any time to do so."

Elias seems confused. "Wait, what exactly do you do for fun?"

"Oh ummmmm..." What do I do? I never really have much free time… "I don't do much but I guess I just kinda sit and dissociate."

Both of them are stunned. "And you question me for drinking gasoline..."

"That's because that's normally dangerous."

Elias chimes in. "First, sure I guess Veronica. Second, why gasoline?"

"It's multipurpose!" Mila pulls out a flask, takes a few drinks, drops a spine into it, seals it, and throws it at an approaching Roc. "ember." The flask explodes.

I look at the resulting crater in a cliff face. "That just proves how dangerous it is!"

"Eh, whatever."

Elias chimes in. "Hey, we're almost at the portal. How about we hold a competition? The first person to make it to the gathering hall doesn't have to deal with the follow-up." He seems incredibly confident.

I can probably at least put up a fair game… "Sure, how about you Mila?"

"I'm down."

We step through the exit portal. "Ready?" Elias seems very excited. "Start!" He takes off running.

I don't want to fall behind so I take off with a Jump.

…

It's fairly close, we're neck and neck. My main strategy was to just utilize gravity and well-timed Jumps to get to speed, Elias is simply sprinting, and I have no idea what Mila is doing. Right now we are in the park surrounding the Hall. I build up speed by launching myself downwards from a large tree. "Easy." I quickly overtake Elias. I just need to keep up speed now. I launch myself out of the park. I'm in the clear, I can see the hall.

Suddenly a few spines imbed themself directly in front of the hall and they create a slide made of ice. I look up and Mila zooms past me, lands on the slide, and gets up. "Surprised?"

Elias makes it a few seconds later. "What…I lost?"

Mila dusts herself off. "Yeah, I mean you're just running on foot, you should look into other methods. Also, I'm impressed Veronica, you kept up a good speed."

I'm incredibly confused. "Wait, what exactly did you do?"

"Oh, easy. I just calculated the correct angle and launched myself with an ice block. Anyway, let's report in with Gwyn."

…

"So you guys killed the Mother Roc… Fine I guess that makes you guys Rank 2 now." Gwyn opens a drawer, digs around a bit, and pulls out a party popper. *pop* "Congrats." He brushes the resulting confetti off the table. "Anyway the quest reward and rank-up reward will be wired to your accounts. I do need someone to deliver the eggs though."

I don't have anything else to do… "I'll do it."

"Thank you, Veronica. Elias and Mila you're dismissed." They both leave the room. "I'll send you the order details. The order comes from the Corvid Dreamers, they are a part of Soma as you probably know. There's a portal there right outside of the hall. Thanks for volunteering!"

I leave the room.

…

The portal to Soma leaves me on a hill. I thought Abysia was gorgeous but this is just on another level. From where I'm standing the closest structure is a large almost palace of sorts built directly into a mountain. On my left, there's a large town situated within a valley and to the right is a large number of floating islands. There's a sign that says 'Welcome to Soma' which points to the palace and labels it as the archives and has a few more locations. Corvid Dreamers is listed towards the bottom and points to the right.

…

It wasn't a bad walk, pretty enjoyable actually. The Dreamers seem to be based out of a complex at the start of the floating islands. Inside is a cozy lobby of sorts, there are three hallways, one labeled shop, another labeled experiments, and the other labeled members-only. I step up to the front desk. "Hi, I have a delivery of seven Roc eggs."

The receptionist looks up from a screen. "Oh, do you have the order details?"

I pull out my Abyscreen and open up the file Gwyn sent me. "Here."

"Ah ok, go down the members-only hall then enter the door labeled 'Head Staff Lounge' while there ask for Rook."

"Thanks." I head down the hall. There are rooms labeled chemistry, optics, mana study, cafeteria, pain… ok? I find the door and knock.

A young man with black wings opens up the door. "Hello? May I ask why you are here?"

"I have a delivery of Roc eggs, they told me to ask for Rook."

"Oh I��m Rook, but I never ordered any eggs… Can I see the order details?"

"Yeah sure." I hand him my Abyscreen.

"...why is she like this." Rook sighs. "Follow me." He leads me into the lounge. There are a few scientists seated on couches and tables chatting. Rook walks up to another door. "This way." We enter another hall that has a variety of offices. We walk over to the office at the end of the hall. It feels immensely cold and unsettling. Rook knocks. "Your highness, did you order some eggs?" Your highness?

The door swings open inside is not an office but a full-sized lab. Standing behind a table there's a child with black wings looking at some flasks. "Hi, Rook!"

"Greetings, your highness." Rook bows. "We have a delivery here for eggs."

"Oh, they finally arrived!" The girl walks over. "What's your name, delivery person"

"Oh I am Veronica, I just arrived at Abysia."

"So you probably don't know who I am then… I'm Trem, leader of Corvid Dreamers and former princess of the space between reality." Rook leans over to her and whispers something to her that makes her incredibly intrigued. "Wait a second Veronica are you the one who can see mana?"

"Yeah? What about it?"

"If you want to help out with some experiments we'll pay you. Having someone who can see mana can be extremely helpful in recording data. Don't worry we won't maim and/or kill you."

"Huh ummm, can you please take the eggs?"

Rook chimes in. "Why did you order eggs anyway?"

"Oh, the shells are a good stabilizer for alchemy."

"Yes your highness, but why eggs? We have plenty of stabilizers in storage."

"Oh, I'm just hungry." One of the eggs floats up into the air and cracks open. Trem snaps her fingers and the air around the egg turns into mana and the egg instantly becomes cooked. "Hmmm, that's good." She swallows it whole.

"I don't know much about how you guys work but don't you guys actually have people who run errands for you guys? Why don't you send them?"

"...Please do not question my methods." The air starts to become stale and cold. "They have more important things to do."

Rook walks over and pats Trem on the head. "Enough your highness, she's new cut her some slack."

"..fine" Trem walks over to the counter and grabs a few flasks. "Here, some payment for coming out all this way."

I look at the flasks. "What do they do?"

Trem shrugged. "I don't actually know..." She tosses me a note pad. "Do let me know."

...why is everyone here off?