The More You Know!

(A/N: Important note about the schedule updates at the end.)

"-so you just use some cloth then give it a smack, at least half the stuff that shouldn't be there will come out," Rin explained while shaking the unloaded bayonet, right outside of her vault where a workbench was available for everyone to use.

"The rest will probably leave too once you shoot it." She added while looking at the silver-haired girl.

"It's rather simple," Io commented while observing the complicated patterns and pieces of the weapon.

"Yup. Not all revenants have trained with weapons and these were made so anyone can pick them up and use them. But accuracy and that are entirely different things." The weaponsmith of the base was giving a crash course to Io.

Gun beats sword.

Such a simple fact changed once the revenants were created to fight the horrors that descended upon humanity after the Great Collapse. Now it became a debate only won by those who simply had more skill or blood code fit for their weapon. Coupled with the fact that most revenants don't have much trouble reacting to supersonic speeds, the debate became much more divided.

Granted, seeing and reacting are wildly different things when there is a new hole between your eyes.

The bayonet has become the newbie's weapon of choice since it was distributed during the Queen slayer operation. But it was soon understood that only those with high ichor count or special gifts could use it as their main weapon. The rest had to use it as a secondary or just not use it all.

So, many end up using swords, spears, glaives, hammers, or kanabos once they get comfortable enough with their gifts.

"And these lines?" Io's fingers traced the wild vein-like marks engraved in the weapon with her finger, just between the circuit paths where the ichor is separated from the blood of slain enemies for the user's consumption.

"Those are so we can improve our weapons using the queen alloys and haze. I'm not gonna drop the whole codex on yah since that only concerns the weaponsmiths. Better for you to see it for yourself when I'm working on a weapon." Rin waved it off and decided to just leave it for later.

"Very well." Io understood and inquired Rin in regards to the other weapons she had in her vault.

The weapons girl gladly told her everything Io asked and then some. 'Her voice is so nice.'

It wasn't everyday that Rin gets to talk about her hobby to a newcomer. It always has been Rin and Yakumo until they met Louis and Coco. Then Davis, a Cerberus officer, offered a deal with them once they became known. And among those people, she could only talk very little about weapons as they didn't share as much enthusiasm as her.

They always left such matters to the weaponsmith.

And she wasn't the only one happy about someone going out of their way to talk and learn about her weapons.

Adam was pleasantly surprised when Io showed interest in learning about the weapons Rin had. Though it shouldn't be a big deal as knowing how to use the weapons in the vault would ultimately just be Io trying to help him. Like an attendant should.

But it wasn't about that. It was about the fact that Adam didn't need to tell her to learn anything. Just as long as she goes out of her way to help and ends up socializing with the people at the base, he is happy.

Although he didn't know the kind of impact that the spar he had with Yakumo had on Io's mind.

'...he was smiling.' The main reason she was going out of her way to learn weaponry and even acquire information was because of how Adam has acted. The person she is supposed to help and alleviate the pain of was apparently enjoying being hurt. It boggled her mind how a bloodied and beaten Adam smiled while fighting Yakumo.

'...How do I help him then?' That was the question plaguing her mind. 'It's bizarre, is he fine with being hurt? Back then, he wasn't pleased when I was gravely wounded but this time it was apparently different… is it due to the severity? Because I became aware of my own capabilities? Or is my opponent the issue?'

He had a rather big impact. The Io who wouldn't bat an eye at the sight of seeing another attendant turning to ashes was trying to understand how her successor saw her and other people.

'And back then. If I listened to Anderson's advice I wouldn't have put Adam in unnecessary danger with the miasma… There is a lot to learn.' She was beginning to realize that there is more value in other people who aren't her successor by simply reflecting on hers and Adam's actions.

At the same time as Io was learning to handle weapons with Rin's help, Adam was sitting down beside the mistle at the entrance of the base.

With legs crossed and arms resting on his knees, he was seemingly meditating. Which wasn't far from the truth, it was just that he wasn't trying to find some kind of inner peace.

¶∆π√|©£€™

{B3L0₩}

$&π*¢√℅

A frightening voice drummed within his mind. Just understandable enough to comprehend one word out of the many untamed and unsettling roars it gave for answers when Adam attempted any type of communication.

It started when he was trying to use the training equipment for some strength conditioning but he felt a tug in his heart. It would usually freak out anyone since it could be a heart attack, but this just made Adam more excited than ever.

And the one thing that he could understand was that his BOR Parasite wanted one thing.

{3SsENCe}

It wanted more of Louis' blood. So while he got more of it and gave some of his blood to Louis to understand what the hell his artificial heart was doing, Adam decided to strike when the iron was still hot. And the parasite in his chest thankfully answered some of them.

'So my vestiges are in the depths?'

He wasn't given an answer. But another weird tug in his chest was a positive response… Somehow.

'Oh, well…'

And the creature in his chest didn't answer anymore.

'At least I was able to talk to one of you today.'

There was no sign of the other feminine voice in his head, no matter how many times he called for Cruz.

"Here." Louis came back with some documents in hand.

The sitting revenant took them and saw the scans of the mistle he was curious about. "So it is like a chimera plant of sorts…"

"That it is. Although I've yet to understand how they came to be." Louis sat beside him.

But between the thousands of words describing its similarities to all sorts of plants and the wonders of its genetic data, Adam's attention was attracted by one single fact.

"Structure matching to most fungi… that sort of explains it." Adam nodded.

Like any young adult in his generation, Adam has gone down the rabbit hole of looking at absurdly nonsensical and educative videos until 3 am. Truly, an example of a productive member of society.

Although that doesn't make him a researcher, he has gained an approximate knowledge of many things.

And one of those was how the fungus is fu#king scary if you think about it.

The brain is the most important part of the body… According to the brain.

The gray matter that works as a biological computer that processes the light which our eyes absorb from the environments, the thing that detects vibrations through small hairs on our body to make us feel our surroundings, the organ connected to our spinal cord to let us move our skeleton mecha protected by muscle and skin.

The one thing that determines intellect in nature… Or at least, it should be.

This is where fungus comes to tell humans that they ain't shit. This eukaryotic organism might as well be the representation of mother nature. Or, at least, its favorite child.

It works almost as the conductor of the complex orchestra that life has been playing for millennia.

For example, Ophiocordiceps Unilateralis. A fungus that somehow manages to seep into an insect's body and begins to grow on it to finesse its bodily functions. It doesn't colonize it to use the insect as fertilizer as most fungi do. This thing grows into its central nervous system and uses it as a means of transportation towards the colony of the insect where it can grow further and release its spores to spread itself.

Isn't it absurd how a thing that doesn't have a brain or nervous system knows how to take control of a being that does, an organism which it shares no similarities with? How does it know how to use it to further spread itself, to tap into the central nervous system of another being?

Can intelligence really be measured by humans alone?

It's not just this, but also an article that Adam remembers seeing about the fungus having something akin to electrical signals to communicate with each other.

'If I add some of the Shit's Wild factor that exists in this world like ichor, which is almost a magical substance at this point, it wouldn't be that crazy, would it?…' A few ideas formulated in his mind. 'Just hope that there isn't a The Last of Us situation out there…'

"Louis." Adam turned to the researcher. "By any chance, is there a theory that a revenant's consciousness is sent to a mistle before reviving?"

He could see those red ruby eyes widening when he voiced his thoughts.

"...are you a researcher?" Louis asked with curiosity and maybe even hope. Many people have just accepted the situation as is and don't bother doing research as he does.

At least on the outside. He knows that in the government facilities, there are other scientists. But they seem to be doing different projects.

Adam shook his head. "Just a curious fella."

"I see." Louis held in a sigh before answering, "it is a theory, yes. But it hasn't been proven yet. Once we die, memories will become foggy and any recent recollection is usually forgotten."

"Oh. Well, it's only a theory for now anyway." He shrugged off the mystery and gave the documents back to the man. "hold them for me. I'll be back in a sec-"

"wha-"

And our protagonist became particles by touching the mistle in front of a pale Louis.

…

It feels like I'm far away…

I could see-No, I could feel something being far away. A connection of sorts.

Maybe the Queen or Cruz…

It was hard to tell when everything around you was completely devoid of color…

Maybe getting in touch with a relic will make my connection strong enough to communicate with them. Just some blood isn't enough to make a strong connection I suppose.

My only guess as to why I heard their voice before is that the blue blood I consumed was still fresh in my system. If it isn't that then I don't have any other ideas.

Oh well, at least I have you with me, mister eldritch horror just within human comprehension.

"'Sup." I greeted the mass composed of darker matter than the void enclosing my surroundings. Its myriad of dark scarlet eyes, similar to mine, staring at me and past my soul. The horrendous teeth and other hideous bone structures grinding against each other, constantly changing shapes but never bothering in keeping one constant form, strangely, such actions never got in the way of the bloody eyeballs that kept their gaze on me.

"..." Cthulhu's demonic stress ball peered at me before seemingly going back to its creepy writhing…

And in the blink of an eye or many eyes for that matter, I suddenly found myself standing inside the caverns that I explored with Oliver right near a mistle. I never thought that I could ever feel relief by visiting this place again.

"All right then, keep your secrets." Seems like a few words were enough to drain the social battery of my new roommate.

"So… um.. teleportation has been confirmed… ehem…" I talked to myself to ignore the wrenching feeling that invaded my stomach.

"Hahaha…haha...ahhhhh…" Now that I'm back to a corporeal form, I could feel the trail of cold sweat drenching my back with a tingling feeling running down my spine refusing to leave.

Is this what people feel when they meet my eyes?

"At least it isn't the teleportation that kills you and creates a copy of you in another location!" I smiled shakily at this special feature.

My smile grew properly once I inspected my equipment and saw how it was still on me and didn't have any trouble using it. So at least my equipment won't fuse with each other and create an abomination made of metal.

"Everything seems fine…so… um… I probably should…" I stared at the mistle for a few seconds, taping my foot on the ground a bit too many times than I would like to admit. But I knew that overstaying my welcome would just cause distress to the gang in the base…

"You got this!" With my own words of encouragement, I touched the mistle and searched for the connection in the cathedral

The feeling of my entire existence somehow being sucked into the mistle as in a single second I was in a cold cavern and now I was in a space where I felt weirdly nothing was an outlandish experience. There was no warmth, coldness, pain, or any amount of discomfort.

I simply… was… but only at the beginning.

The exact same case occurred. Though I didn't try to talk this time, mostly because I felt my metaphorical balls somewhere up my nonexistent throat. It was just like an awkward elevator ride up to hell and your only company is the Devil after his visit down to Georgia.

I focused on my partner this whole time as I didn't have the courage to give it my imaginary back. Not gonna turn around with a horror piñata that has more than one boner.

"Who killed you?!"

This was the first thing Yakumo said once I materialized in the base. This man was ready to stack some bodies.

"He didn't die," Louis explained from my side, looking at me with those studious eyes as hundreds of ideas formulated behind them every second.

"Yup, I didn't die." I agreed with the researcher. "I just teleported."

"""""????"""""

I saw the confusion on everyone's faces… huh, almost everyone is here.

"Yami." I found the person I wanted to meet before our first expedition, "you got any advice to use this blood code?" Summoning some of the colorful slime, I looked at the stone face of the black-haired revenant.

He should be done mourning since I don't see him at the back of the church where the graveyards are that often anymore. So finally asking him about his brother like this won't cause an extreme reaction, I hope.

"...are you Jesus?"

…I didn't expect that one though.

______________________________________________________

Word Count: 2,541

Time for the heartbreak for anyone who reads this daily (Thanks, by the way.) Due to the fact that I'm writing this with an MC who knows the future and is actually planning of doing something with it, I will have to write in advance by like 5 chaps of what is currently published here, and guess what? I'm only up to chap 15. So I won't upload again until I have written chap 16 and have a solid idea of how to do chap 17.

I already have the end game planned in my head and I'm still trying to make the big bad not cringe. Juzo Mido always seemed cartoonishly evil to me. (Except for that one time I went into Fanfiction and found a oneshot where the dude straight ups r🦍s Eva and I haven't touched that place's Code Vein section since, but I digress.)

I will try to upload at least once every few days (Might be more than a week) and keep the chaps above 2k words.

And no, I won't drop this. I know how it feels when you find a fic you are interested and then the next day the title has [DROPPED] next to it. I was already that asshole once, not planning on doing it again. Just understand that I might switch it up in playing other games when I feel like I'm getting burned out of consuming only Code Vein content.

That aside, imagine beating Jesus' respawn time being one of your achievements.