Silvinholm I

14th, November

Selene had one last look at her backpack and items she would carry with her into Silvinholm. There was almost no reason to bring the bag beyond looking as if they had supplies, being regular adventurers in most people's eyes. It was carrying an assortment of gear, a grappling hook, lantern, some healing potions, knife and utensils, a pot and pan and a small tent to name a few. None of it would really be used, it was just there to make the two women look like they had been camping and had to take care of themselves. Hidden away was always the empress's inventory with a vast amount of food, items and equipment that could be pulled out at a moment's notice.

Jeeves and the maids would be providing food to the two maids in a special pocket dimension hidden while they were away, with a special meal for Blue. He had apparently jumped into the helibot and wouldn't leave yesterday, somehow knowing his alpha was going to be gone for a little bit. Ash was going to be taken care of by Brynhildr, and Luna would be hanging out at the academy with Skuld, to the enjoyment of the students. This would be the first time they'd be separated, but it also meant they'd each get attention meant just for them without sharing. As long as Skuld and Bryn allowed them to hunt a little for small game, the wolves not going on the trip would be fine. They received a bath, however, to Blue's chagrin.

The main reason Selene had decided on only allowing Blue to come was that taking three wolves into the city was a great way of turning heads, especially if Luna showed up. With just one black wolf it would look like she was a ranger or maybe a druid. She had thought of putting a collar on him, but that would make him look fully domesticated, and not really fit in with a ranger's visage.

The dev wasn't attempting to go as any one class, as it wasn't certain there was any real class at all for adventurers. Clerics, maybe, or a wizard with an assortment of spells, but most of the others were probably just called something to differentiate themselves from each other. This was real life, not a class-based game where someone was stuck going down one path and couldn't learn to pick a lock while being a warrior.

The armor sets were complete, both of them rated as Epic quality tier, but looking like Professional to throw off any intrigue from the locals. The circlets both Selene and Hrist would wear dropped their levels to a sneaky 25, easily moving unnoticed as long as they didn't call attention to themselves by speaking oddly or starting a fight. Keeping their distance, writing down what they saw for later intel review, and attempting meetings with the nobility was the primary goal. Secondary goal was to gather seeds, books, magical items and maps, then get the lay of the economy in the city.

For the past three days, it was just the empress preparing for the trip, sparring with Hrist and teaching her as well as Brynhildr the Martial Arts styles and moves. Barring anything physical, there was also construction going on for an observatory ELT, along with three launches of shuttles to drop into LEO, Low Earth Orbit; a satellite dish array was also in the mix. This wasn't Earth, but it wasn't as if anyone else out there would understand if she explained what LEO meant, so she could call it whatever the hell she wanted. These satellites were for GPS, with a theory it might have an effect on her map.

Right now, her mini map in her Hud always showed her position and the direction she pointed, but it didn't provide any coordinates. If her hunch was correct, the GPS would give XYZ coordinates. A new module added to the fabrication units allowed all automatons to provide a full topographical update to the satellites, to provide constant and accurate information on where she was at any time, including her military. Previously she just saw green dots or blue dots depending on where they were on the map or if they were looking at citizens in one of her towns. Green represented the automatons, blue was a friendly, yellow was an unknown potentially neutral, orange was an unknown potentially hostile, and red was verified as hostile. Purple was a complete unknown, with a powerful reading, potentially mechanical or electronic. She hadn't seen one of those outside the empire, ever.

Another two satellites were going to be launched today before she left with Hrist, spy satellites set for GEO, Geosynchronous Earth Orbit. Much higher than the GPS satellites, they'd be spying on the surroundings and provide a very crisp layout of the land, people and provide delayed analytics, which could be beamed to the ornithopters to get a closer look. Despite it being delayed, the information was much faster than having ornithopters everywhere for surveillance, allowing the empress to position them much more effectively and use less of the flyers to get more information. The only reason it would be delayed intel was simply the satellite having to zoom into sectors and increase resolution to figure out what it was looking at, the actual transfer was instant due to Selene's {Communication is Key} ability.

There would be two more satellites launched later, one for astronomical observation and finally an OKKS planned. Beyond those, she wasn't sure just yet, though there was a plan for far more GPS to completely cover the world. Unfortunately, she wouldn't be there to see the launches until after the trip. There were times when she wasn't going to be there for certain ceremonies the dev realized, so certain events would have to take place without her micromanaging everything. That might be odd in some cases, with Bryn moving to take Puldoros Orchards and Werelosil Town. She trusted Bryn to give a decent speech, as the blonde was pretty good at talking to people. The shield maiden must have had far more experience with interacting with mortals than all the others.

"Ok… got this finished… the helibot is prepped to carry us part ways…" Selene started to talk to herself to make sure she wasn't forgetting anything. The backpacks were filled, the armor was ready to be worn, circlets were ready with no discomfort, a permanent pocket dimension was created with a house inside of it with three bedrooms and two maids. There were plans to get that replaced it with a mansion, but the whole deal was only going to be temporary at best if they were inside the city, though the pocket dimension would be used for other things later down the road. The two women would rent a room with two beds or maybe two rooms total, then sneak into the pocket dimension and sleep in rooms there. The main issue was there was no sun inside, so the whole place was dark without electric lights constantly running. That also meant it was difficult to tell if outside was night or day, so clocks were placed just about everywhere.

There was no time dilation effect inside, even if it was normally possible. The ground itself also could not support a farm, no matter how small it was. No sun with no dirt meant everything had to be outsourced.

The launch of the first spy satellite engaged in the distance, showing as a marker in her Hud as she looked up and saw… nothing. The whole thing was designed to be as stealthy as possible to make sure no one saw a massive fiery object flying up into the sky and away from the planet. The only reason she knew was the warnings in her Hud informing of the impending countdown. It would take roughly twenty minutes to reach its intended height to drop off the spy sat and come back down. The old space shuttle from the U.S. took eight and a half minutes to reach LEO, so the time required to get anything higher seemed about right, give or take a few more minutes. The engines she was using weren't necessarily faster, but they were far more efficient than previously used and much easier to control.

Turnie had figured out just how annoying Scooze is. While it wasn't lethal unless a massive amount was ingested, people did start to gain a resistance to it, requiring a larger volume to be smoked or drank. Apparently, it could be a liquid or a crystal form, with dilution not really having much change on the effectiveness. The healer had figured out a way to cleanse someone's system from the effect a while ago, but now she also had a detox serum to reset the body to a much smaller dosage of the drug. They hadn't introduced the serum in pill form until Selene could get back from Silvinholm and decide carefully if this drug should be allowed. The creation of Scooze seemed relatively simple, though it did require salt water for the cleaning process.

Once the algae was introduced into the ocean, the toxins that were floating around started to be cleaned up, but what was interesting was the spotting of merfolk popping their heads up from the surface and checking things out. They must have noticed someone was trying to fix what the pirates were doing and see if there was anyone around either to communicate with or spy on. It wasn't certain if they'd be friendly, but it might soon be required to enter diplomacy with them in some capacity. One thing she realized was there were no sub nautical automatons created other than submarines. Getting some flippers on them could help figure out what was in the far deeps of the oceans.

Tier 5 magic immunity had been developed, providing a new mixture to be layered into armor. From what a student advised Skuld at one point, which was told to the empress, the best wizards around used tier 6 magic, though they were very rare. That seemed to be a new goal now, making all of her military completely immune to what the Artinians could launch at them. There might be a legendary hero they have that could reach maybe tier 7, but that might be a one-time thing or just not even exist.

"Are you ready?" Selene asked Hrist, who was sharpening the new sword that was provided to her. There was no real need for her to do that, however it was something that was keeping her occupied while the empress reviewed what they had to bring.

"Waiting on you, just need to don the armor." The dev nodded as she headed upstairs to her room, took a quick shower and then armored up. Both women strapped the backpacks on and said goodbye to the other Valkyrja sisters, then to the two wolves staying behind. Luna and Ash both whined, unhappy they weren't coming with them. Despite Selene doing it once with Gold Pine, she had learned her lesson now. Skuld gave Luna a scratch behind her ears as Ash sat next to Bryn.

"We'll be back, don't worry. It's just a few days, a week tops." Blue just hopped into the helibot, this time expected to come with them.

"Don't scare the adventurer's guild too much you two" Bryn chuckled out. They just looked at each other and blinked.

"I'm hoping they won't even know we're there beyond asking some questions and getting out" Selene replied.

"All the same, if you get into trouble, remember, you don't need to hold back if no one else sees you" Skuld commented. Hrist and the empress both got into the helibot as they waved at the two other women, who nodded and waved back. They could see as the transport lifted off that the sisters walked to two other transports and headed to the academy and near Puldoros Orchards. Bryn was eager to take that place and prove she was a capable General.

The SF helibot flew over the Azaltos Mountains and headed to a halfway point that wouldn't be noticed by any travelers. The trip was boring and silent as Hrist just sat with her arms crossed while Selene checked her perks. All of them were upgraded to one hundred percent, which took a healthy number of computers being dissolved. It was worth it though, with a massive boost to her stats as long as certain criteria were met, mainly using specific weapons or armor. She had also gained fifteen levels, bringing her up to 160 now. That was one hundred fifty points available for stats, three hundred for skills. She also drank six Stat Potions and used six slap patches for a total of two hundred eighty-two stat points, not including the other twenty-two that were sitting around.

One hundred went into Movement Speed, bringing it to two hundred percent boost. Combined with armor and psionics, she had after images appear when she tested against Hrist. Another one hundred was shoved into attack speed, making it not fun for her bodyguard to defend against her. She now had to slow down a little to make sparring even, as long as she was wearing armor.

A final one hundred was placed in Psionic Power, to double the effect of any psionic abilities she had. Surprisingly, that had no effect on the Biomimetic Barrier, only what she cast out. It was probably due to the fact the barrier itself was connected in some way to her HP and Mana right now, with an almost certainty to get Rage or Stamina added very soon to the pool. The effect it had on Pyrokinesis was pretty impressive, causing a small crater instead of destroying a stuffed training dummy. Telekinesis could pull a slab of marble across the arena, with the dirt being shifted around by the block as it dug forward. The entire test was to see what would cause an issue with the movement of the slab, not if she could lift it and fling it through the air.

The last four points were dunked into Molecular Reformation Range, just because. For skill points she put fifty into Tracking, eighty-five into Dancing, one hundred into Driving and sixty-five into Zero Gravity. She could dance like a star, drive and win most races, track just about anything and move about while weightless. The only thing she worried about was once she had her first spacewalk would she lose her lunch. She had heard about people's bodies going completely out of whack for the first few days of being in space, not eating or sleeping well at all to no gravity telling them what to do naturally. Eventually the body learns though. Even though she had antigravity capability, creating gravity plates in a spaceship wasn't quite on the table just yet. Another tech tier would fix that hopefully, but until then centrifugal force would allow her to not have any long-lasting health issues.

Oddly, Dancing and Zero Gravity provided no abilities. Tracking, for obvious reasons, did. {Den Marking}, {Reacquire Target} and {Always Got My Eye on You} was gained for Tracking. Driving, for some amusing reason, gave only one ability, {Evel Knievel}.

{Den Marking} provided a mark on every spot already investigated on her map that had animals living in it. The whole thing updated as a passive ability, showing where bears were, mountain lions, gryphons, everything. It didn't work if she couldn't see the area or hadn't had something visit it yet, like her military or her new spy satellites. Given she didn't hunt much anymore, it could be used for national parks in the future, to protect the wildlife and warn hikers "don't go here, wolves and bears." It could also help zoologists to teach students in schools, to learn more about their world.

{Reacquire Target} worked literally like an aim bot program, allowing her to lock onto a lost target behind a wall or other cover. It had to be used as an active ability and had a pretty significant cooldown of an hour. Not that great for combat, at least after the first kill, but would make hunting take all of a few minutes at most. It seemed like it could be useful for sniping, knowing where a critical target was and shooting a round, correcting for wind and drop. This made her wonder if it could even compensate for Coriolis Effect in space. Orbital Sniping might be a very real strategy for any enemy who she didn't want to see an army at their front door.

{Always Got My Eye on You} worked on the principle of attempting to track someone or something in a crowd. No matter where that person would go, she'd be able to pick them out easily and continue to follow them, even if they were trying to lose a tail. This seemed like it was at most a gimmick ability, as she could just mark the target in her Hud and be done with it. It might have had an effect of always knowing what the target was doing, but that worried her if the person she was observing went into a restroom to relieve themselves or did… other things. It could give an early warning if whoever she was following caught wind of the tail and resorted to pulling a sword, attempting to create an ambush for the two women.

{Evel Knievel} allowed her to defy the laws of physics while driving a vehicle. There wasn't much else to explain about it, drifting always allowed her to regain traction, drive on two wheels, drive on an angled wall or barrel roll after launching from a ramp. While it wouldn't exactly come into much use beyond hobby stunt driving, as well as make Hrist have a brown pants moment as she barreled through the air in a muscle car, the ability did seem at least a little useful. Getting a chance to drive a convertible and feeling the wind in her hair on a coastal winding highway would be kind of nice without needing to slow down much.

"30 seconds to land" she heard from the helibot via coms as Selene nodded to Hrist and stood up. The bladeless fans made it a lot easier to not be moved or lose her balance inside, despite her Agility stat. As the transport descended and opened its doors, both women exited the vehicle and watched as it took off. A final "good luck ma'am" was heard from it as the helibot headed back to… a hidden air fleet. Majesty's Grace and 1st fleet were nearby, ready in case she needed assistance. The chances of that seemed extremely remote but having backup nearby at all times was playing it safe. The Orb of Experiences was left in the treasury. While it could be useful while inside Silvinholm, she wanted to play it safe and make sure no one could steal it. The artifact didn't have a maximum it could hold, so the amount of experience it had, combined with actions, could either make someone else a threat or blow them up, causing a disaster in the city.

Now, it was just Selene and Hrist standing in an open field with Blue ready to trot around, no real sound beyond a few bugs and a light wind. "Welp, time to get moving" she said as her bodyguard nodded in agreement. The small team started to run towards the city in the far-off distance, making sure they weren't moving anywhere near Mach 1, Blue being carried by Selene the whole way. They didn't want anyone to hear their approach, and a sonic boom wouldn't help matters. At their speed, they quickly reached the five-mile visual range of Silvinholm, slowing down and activating invisibility cloaks to mask their presence. Casting [Flight] was an option, but it wasn't nearly as fast as how they could move on the ground. Using her amulet to teleport there could have worked, but she wasn't certain they'd appear right in the middle of a group of people.

"Are we going through the front gate?" Hrist asked. Her eyes roamed the entrance, with two large metal reinforced wood doors. There were ten mercenary guards checking for contraband or paperwork surprisingly. They might have been looking at lists of what the traders were bringing in. The line was huge, reaching almost a mile back with wagons and people walking along with large backpacks.

"Nope. Not going through there. It will take forever to get inside. We'll be going in from a different approach." Hrist followed Selene as they headed around the side of the huge walls, reaching up to fifty feet in height. What the guards roaming the ramparts wouldn't know, was that two women leapt over the top, their strength and agility easily allowing them to bypass the fortifications and land as quietly as they could behind a small house via [Silence] cast. Blue was set down on his paws as they surveyed the small back area they were in.

"And we're in. Remember, be careful what you say, alright? It's better if we use fake names as well" the empress told her quietly as she peeked around the corner. There was a very small alleyway between the house and a line of other homes. It was a city after all, so most residential locations were crammed together to fit as many people as they could.

The whole idea of lawns and white picket fences would be completely alien to them…

"So… um… should I call you… Sel?" Hrist asked, not sure how to name her.

"What? No, nothing close to my real name. Whoever does that is guaranteed to be figured out… as long as the people aren't idiots at least… call me… call me Ilana. You can be… um… I dunno… got an idea?" Hrist looked up at the sky and thought for a moment.

"Bryn…ya?" she said, almost asking her empress if it was ok.

"Brynya. Well, ok. Yes, it works. Ilana and Brynya. So anytime you need to talk to me, use that name, alright?" Hrist nodded in agreement. They both snuck out of the alleyway and into a bustling street with hundreds of people moving everywhere. It seems they walked right into a side market, with small stalls on both sides of the road. Buildings seemed to tower almost as high as the walls that protected the city. While nowhere near as big as what Selene was used to, she was amazed they had the structural integrity to support the weight with middle age tech.

Despite what she was expecting, the city seemed to be fairly clean, with paid security at certain corners to protect the peace. The nobles probably thought crime was bad for business, so they enforced law, at least their laws that they thought up. That could have been anything from you shall not murder to slaves cannot be sold for less than a certain price. They both walked down the street slowly, looking at each stall. The weather wasn't overcast, with the sun shining. Shop keeps were yelling out to the people, to crowds, asking them to come in and peruse their wares. Most of it was food, two of the stalls were makeshift pens for livestock, one was jewelry. There was a group that were attempting to sell contracts for indentured servants, seeming to tell the women that slaves weren't normally a thing, except when paying off debts.

Hrist seemed to slightly scowl at the quality of the amulets and earrings. They were nowhere near fit for royalty in her eyes. Still, Selene checked them out as they moved from stall to stall, looking for anything that caught their eye for the grocery list. They also kept an eye out for anyone that looked to be either well to do or worked for the rich. Unfortunately, since it was a side market and not the main bazaar, it was doubtful they'd see anyone buying from here that was connected to the noble houses of Artinia.

The dev found cotton seeds selling for next to nothing. Apparently, there was very little farming being done near the city now, with most food imported from surrounding towns and villages. That was both an advantage and an easy way to cause the city to collapse if a siege every happened. However, due to the massive presence of mercenaries and adventurer's guild, it was probably suicidal for anyone without a large army to attempt it… or mechanized infantry. She was already seeing multiple security issues just walking through the small market.

Once they moved down another street and explored a little, they got a tiny bit lost. The empress pulled up her map, adding in the new spy satellite footage for a quick run down of the streets of the city. While they would still need a paper map bought to tell which building was which, she could at least navigate to certain places. Most people steered clear of them as they stood to the side of the road they were on, noticing their professional armor and swords. They either looked like rich noble's daughters playing adventurer or were deadly contracted mercenaries capable of killing people at a moment's notice.

Once she got the lay of the land, they continued weaving through the streets until they reached the main road carving right through the middle of the city, where the real merchant district was. The place was massive, with signs everywhere in a language Selene still didn't read very well. She had asked Giles to help with translating letters, and could figure out the basic words, but anything that was supposed to be exotic she couldn't make heads or tails.

"Brynya… can you read any of this? I can pick out Tavern and Inn, but… the rest of the words on the signs I can't figure out." Hrist stepped in front of her and squinted.

"Bookstore… Hair Salon…" the battle maiden started to name the buildings attached to the signs. There was a grocery store, books, barber, armor smith, blacksmith, specialty swordsmith, weaponsmith, magical items store, alchemist and quite a few others. Some of the shops had to be reached by stairs to get to the second or third floor of the buildings. There were so many citizens moving around it was difficult to see where they were going.

"Don't get lost, your ma… er… Ilana" Hrist told the empress as she smirked and raised an eyebrow. Both ladies walked down the street, looking into windows and shops to figure out what they needed to buy. The dev bought a pack of assorted seeds, some of which were normally considered poisonous if not treated properly. While not exactly food, the poisonous herbs could be researched later. At one point, Selene walked towards a bookstore, right next to a candy shop. Hrist seemed to gravitate towards the sweets it seemed.

"You can head in, I'm just going to take a look at what's on the shelves, I might be able to pick up some more history books." The Valkyrja bit her lip as she worried about her empress going into the store alone, but nodded in agreement, expecting to meet up with her right after. The dev checked through the books, picking ones out that might have been interesting, asking the shop keep what each one was to make sure she wasn't picking up a random romance novel. Some of the books were, in fact, very smutty. The fact that there even was a bookstore meant there was duplication magic available, at least for simple objects it seems.

Once she had a decent number of books stashed away in her backpack and satchel, she paid the shop keep and walked out. Hrist was still inside the candy shop next to her, picking out and sampling hundreds of different sweets. The empress stepped in to the store and watched as the merchant seemed a little too friendly, helping her partner test all sorts of delicious morsels.

She's going to be bouncing off the walls for the rest of this trip! I should have brought her into the other shop…

"Ok Brynya, what have you found that you want to buy?" Selene asked as she tried to calm down the excited Valkyrja. Hrist looked at her and blinked, realizing that the dev was there. She calmed down very quickly, but still wanted to buy things… the equivalent of half the store. "No, no… how about this. We're going to be in the city for a few days, how about you get a sample bag? We can come back later."

"Hmm… that does seem to be the best option… I'll take… those" Hrist replied as she pointed to a large selection of sweets in a glass case. She then bought some ice cream to top off the sugar overload she was about to have. As the ladies left the store, they saw a man get tackled to the ground by mercenaries, pulling away a bag from his hands and checking the contents. A woman ran up and kicked him in the leg, before one of the mercenaries handed her the satchel. She thanked him and watched as they carted the thief off to wherever their jail was. Selene couldn't say they weren't protecting the people. This was not like the Artinia she had seen at Eld Horn and in the western reaches.

As they made their way down the street once again, Hrist pointed to a sign letting them both know it was the adventurer's guild. It sat nestled between two large buildings, one was clearly the tax collector, the other seemed to be an armory shop. Blue sat down and looked at the building, then looked up at his alpha. "We should probably go get rooms before we head in there. I'd rather we not get stuck asking questions or listening in just to find ourselves out on the street for the night" the empress said with a smirk. They absolutely did not need them, as the pocket dimension could be opened in the back of an alley and closed, being completely invisible and the size of a marble in the corner, or on a rooftop away from prying eyes. The air fleet was also just within a few miles, they could easily leave and come back the next day.

"Understood" Hrist simply replied as she finished her ice cream. Selene had already given her a little speech that the sugar would spoil her appetite for later and could cause cavities in her teeth, but that was before the battle maiden learned about taffy and other confections. A bag of caramel popcorn was hanging from her backpack as she stood there. Interestingly, the Valkyrja all brushed their teeth twice a day, knowing to maintain their hygiene even beyond the norm of the citizens of Artinia or any other kingdom. The empress knew about brushing habits from history classes, about people chewing on bristly sticks and using those to remove plaque. Hrist's teeth were extremely healthy, probably more due to the fact she was a semi-celestial being than actual hygienic action. Sadly, Selene couldn't say the same for herself, as she brushed and used dental floss now that it was available. While using healing spells would repair damaged teeth, she didn't want to have to do that due to hygiene being low. Her subjects wouldn't say anything, however having bad breath would embarrass the living hell out of her.

Her small toiletry bag hidden on the top of the backpack was just for show, as the real bathroom soaps, lotions and conditioners were inside the pocket dimension.