Type Technic

The next day, Roko returned to the entrance of the sewers. The gate creaked open in the gentle wind. There were no signs that the Red Wind members that Roko had beat had washed up here though any traces of them had probably dried up by now. Roko found a nearby bench right next to the sewer entrance and pulled out another spatial seal from his backpack, sticking the seal to the underside of the bench. Checking that his bracelet was equipped, Roko took a few steps away from the bench before turning and walking back towards it. Once again, the space around him warped and faded past him until Roko stepped into the dark depths of the sewers once again. Turning around, Roko spotted the spatial seal he had used to escape yesterday and peeled it off the wall, returning it to his backpack. Having returned to the exact spot he had stopped at yesterday, Roko stepped back into the dank waterways and after taking a deep breath, he pulled out his notebook, map and compass. Returning to the last bridge he had crossed, he drew out the shape of the path he took as he continued walking deeper into the depths of the sewers until he reached the next bridge. Taking a moment to check his notes again, he crossed out the least likely pathways that he was on before continuing on. Roko expected another bridge to appear soon but to his surprise, he reached an intersection. Excitedly, he pulled out the map again and marked down all the intersections that the map showed. Cross referencing that with the pattern of the path that he had recorded, Roko finally managed to pin down his exact location.

"Looks like I'm somewhere on the northwest of the map." Roko muttered as he marked his position on the map, "I'm pretty deep into the sewers already. But that means that their base is very close." Roko traced a path to one of the few marks he had not made on the map, a mark of a star.

"Let's see how long it takes me to get there." Roko sighed as he stood up again, rolling close the map before he continued on to where he believed that star mark was.

The further into the sewer he went, the higher the ceiling became. No longer as claustrophobic as when he began, the rivers of sewage began to grow more distant as the pathway began to bend further and further up. At one point the river reconnected to a large reservoir, a giant lake underground where the waste of Cordis rested for a bit as it was purified. Roko looked down at this reservoir, a few hundred feet above it from his platform. The sewer now cavernous enough to see other paths and platforms, some wrapped around the walls opposite him, some rested at the very bottom, right next to the lake of sewage water. Roko couldn't imagine what series of tunnels and bridges he would have to take to get to those platforms.

"This sure is big though." Roko said as he looked around the giant cavern, "They said there was a war. Could this dockyard have fallen beneath the city during the war?"

Looking up, Roko could see the path bend in front of him, climbing ever higher until he could see what seemed like a building, standing tall underneath the city above and with light leaking out of its entrance. After checking the map, Roko was certain that it was the location that was marked as a star. Roko approached the building quickly but cautiously. Peeking carefully around the side of the entrance, he could see a collection of people bustling around a room furnished with a plenty of bookshelves and tables. It was a well equipped room for the researchers inside but it served little else. There were no signs of any creatures like that of the ones Roko had encountered in the Paramnesia Wildwoods being held or experimented on. Among the researchers were a small platoon of armed soldiers.

Roko retreated a few steps and hid behind a pillar as he considered how to handle the situation. He couldn't possibly take them all on. What's more, Roko did want to try stealing the equipment off one of them so he can actually be prepared for once. That said, all he had… Roko dug through his backpack and pulled out a pair of spatial seals, including the one that he had used to return from within the sewer and a few smoke bombs for escapes. Of the backpack that he had stolen from the knight, it was mostly rations along with the map, some torches and the staff that the mage dropped. Frowning, Roko tried looking around his surroundings. The building had a large open archway serving as an open entrance to the research lab. The path continued past the building via a bridge but that meant passing by the entrance unnoticed. Looking back, there was a bridge that Roko had to cross to reach the building as well. Roko looked down at his body, his eyes resting on his bracelet as a plan started to come together.

As the researchers bustled around the room, sorting through records in books and scrolls, a small sphere loudly rolled into the room, drawing everyone's attention.

"I'm looking for the Red Wind's underground base." Roko said as he strolled into the room, "Is this it or am I close?"

"Who are you?" The soldiers immediately readied their weapons, "What do you want?"

"I'm looking for the Red Winds. I hear this is their natural habitat."

"I'm not sure I appreciate your tone you bastard! Who are you? What do you want with us?!"

"Well, it's not much. Just want some stuff." Roko smiled as the smoke from his tool began to overtake the room, blinding everyone within.

"Dammit! He distracted us long enough for this? Where is he?!"

Roko walked inside the smoke filled room, drawing the staff he had stolen. In the smoke he spotted one soldier spinning around nervously as he tried to anticipate where Roko would attack from. Despite that, Roko managed to get close enough to the soldier to hit him first, striking him across the face with the top of the staff, knocking him to the ground with a pained thud.

"W-We're being attacked!" The soldiers cried, "Find that man and kill him!"

With a smirk, Roko retreated to the entrance of the building and knelt down, taking off his bracelet. He set the accessory on the ground and covered it with a spatial seal. The seal glowed warmly as Roko returned to outside of the building, his smokescreen now quickly running thin.

"There he is!" The soldiers' leader cried out as he pointed to the entrance.

"Thanks for the fun boys." Roko waved at them cheerfully, "I got what I needed so I think I'll leave now."

"Did he steal something?! After him!"

Roko walked off to the side as the soldiers all chased after him. As they passed through the entrance, they stepped over the activated spatial seal on the ground, quickly warping them away from the location. One by one the soldiers disappeared from the building and without an item like the bracelet to activated the seals at their exit point, the soldiers were stranded in the fields outside of Cordis.

Once all the soldiers had disappeared, Roko walked up to the seal and peeled it off of the ground, retrieving the bracelet before he turned to the room of terrified researchers. Silently, Roko walked up to the soldier he had knocked out and picked him up by the neck.

"I still have to dispose of this one." Roko said, "Until I've finished doing that, you're all free to run away where ever you want."

And with that, Roko began to drag the body outside.

Roko dragged the body back the way he had came. As soon as he left the building, the researchers all burst out of the room in terror, scattering in the only two directions available to them. Some of them ran further into the sewer, some ran past Roko to maybe get to the sewer's entrance. Roko simply knelt there with the soldier's body, looting it as they all made their escape.

"A sword and shield. Finally." Roko sighed as he removed them from the sleeping soldier, "And for his pouches..."

Roko pulled out two spherical objects, "What are these?" Roko turned them around in his hand and found what looked like a fuse, "A bomb then?"

The rest of the soldier's equipment seemed useless so Roko left the man on the side of the sewer passage heading backwards. Roko returned to the research building where he was surprised to see a woman sitting inside, lazily reading a book.

"Did you fail to escape or something?" Roko asked.

"Nowhere for me to go." The woman replied, "The Red Wind doesn't really interest me anymore."

"So you're just going to resign like this?"

"I certainly don't get any resignation bonuses so why not?"

"Then do you mind if I ask you some questions?"

"And what if I said I did?"

"I won't force you." Roko shrugged, "I like to act like I'm the good guy here. Helps me actually believe I'm doing the right thing. What about you? What do you believe you are?"

"If you want morality, go ask a philosopher." The woman sat up, not taking her eyes away from her book, "I just do my work."

"And that work would be?"

"Well it would have been research on those disgusting monsters but that's not what I want to work on so I quit."

"I see you're not afraid of your employers."

"What about you?" The woman snapped her book shut and turned to look at Roko, "The field test area is only a few corridors away. Are you not afraid that reinforcements will show up?"

"Fine, I'll get on that." Roko sighed.

Leaving the building again, Roko crossed the bridge leading deep into the sewers. Removing a spatial seal from his backpack, Roko found a dark corner to stick it on before returning back to the building platform and lighting one of the soldier's bombs.

"While I'm at it." Roko said to himself as he tossed the bomb onto the bridge and turned to walk to the bridge on the opposite side where he came from. Lighting the second bomb he had, Roko tossed the bomb onto that bridge as well. Both bombs went off with a loud bang, startling the soldier that Roko had knocked out awake. Quickly standing up, he noticed Roko on the other side of the now destroyed bridge. Roko waved at the soldier who scowled and ran off the way Roko had came.

"I'm back." Roko said as he returned to the inside of the research room.

"You blew up both bridges to this building?" The woman raised an eyebrow, "You've trapped me."

"I also trapped myself technically."

"After that spatial magic you used I'm fairly certain you could escape if you wanted to."

"True." Roko shrugged, "But that's enough about me. How about you?"

"What about me?"

Roko pulled up a chair and sat down on it, looking across the room at the female researcher, "Let's talk."

"I don't suppose I have much of a choice if I want to escape." The woman sighed.

"Like I said, I don't want to force you." Roko raised his hands peacefully, "If you want to leave, I will let you out."

"You really think you're the good guy here?"

"I'm no philosopher but I like to think so."

"..."

"What's your name?"

"Lavinia." The woman said as she put her book on a table, "I'll answer any questions you have."

"So Lavinia." Roko began, "What made you want to quit the Red Wind?"

"You're starting with me?"

"We're kinda stuck here. Why not learn about each other?"

"...Red Wind was generous enough to fund my research for a while but now they're on some ridiculous thing about controlling creatures of another world. I humored them up until now but I'd rather get back to my research now."

"What's your research?"

"Theorimari."

"The what?"

"Searching for the gods."

"You're looking for the gods?" Roko said, surprised, "The ones who abandoned this world?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"I want their knowledge."

"I can see you're not a woman of faith."

"There are many mysteries behind their disappearance as well. I intend to find out."

"Okay. You said you had no home?"

"I used up all my resources on my research." Lavina shrugged, "If you know of a good job for me, I'd like to hear it."

"Actually..." Roko mused, "How good are you at the basic sciences?"

"Good enough?"

"How do you feel about teaching?"

"What are you suggesting?"

Well, I'm actually here on orders of a school. You might have heard of it. Memoria Auspice?"

"The school for princesses?!" Lavinia sat up, astonished, "No. Of course Zadkiel would be behind something like this."

"I see you're well aware." Roko nodded, "Have you had contact with Memoria Auspice or Zadkiel before?"

"No. I've just heard about them."

"Then what if I offered you the chance to teach there? I don't think they have a proper science teacher yet."

"Mmph." Lavinia considered his offer sternly, "You're sure I can still do my research there?"

"Zadkiel certainly doesn't seem like the type of person to stop you."

"That is true." Lavinia nodded, "I suppose a chance like this doesn't come by often."

"I would think not."

"Very well." Lavinia said, "I'll be a teacher."

"Great." Roko smiled, "Then first we need to drive Red Wind out from under Cordis."

"So that is your mission?" Lavinia said, "I'm not surprised but why is this school business? Why isn't the king doing something?"

"Something about a traitor. Or maybe not a traitor."

"Sounds about right. I thought I saw some Cordis bigwig around the main site."

"Who is that?"

"I wouldn't know. He just had on a fancy Cordis uniform."

"Okay. Then tell me what this person, or the Red Wind, is trying to do here."

"There are these creepy creatures in the depths of the Cordis sewer. We're here to try to find some way to bring them under control."

"How's that going?"

"Not well. Though we have plenty of data." Lavinia gestured to the books and papers that littered the room.

"Sure there aren't anything more nefarious going on?"

"If there is, I wouldn't know."

"Fair enough. Then you know where they are doing this research."

"Yes. Though getting there won't be easy."

"Why's that?"

"Aside from the Red Wind soldiers waiting for you? The site has been hidden by an illusion. You won't be able to get there without someone who knows how."

"Do you know how to get in?"

"I wouldn't be telling you about it if I didn't."

"Alright. At least you know the way there." Roko reached into his backpack and pulled out the map he had been using, "This map seems to stop here."

"What's that?"

"A map I got off some Red Wind Knight."

"I see." Lavinia glanced at the map from afar, "Indeed, the main site is not recorded on any map we use you'd have a difficult time getting there on your own if you don't know the way."

"And can I trust you to lead me to it?"

"Sure." Lavinia shrugged, "Just don't expect me to do any fighting."

"That's fine. What can you tell me about what's waiting there?"

"Most of the soldiers are stationed there. There are monsters caged all over the place. Most of the researchers here escaped to the main site so they'll be expecting you."

"So much for the element of surprise."

"Also, the Cordis official might be there."

"Is he dangerous?"

"From what I can gather, he is a knight but that's not what makes him dangerous."

"What is it then?"

"He has a contract with a demon."