Chapter 2

Chapter 2

After a long walk-in silence Jace finally saw the outline of a village in the distance, it was rather small, possibly 50 people at most, small wooden houses, and fields over to one side with various able-bodied people hard at work. Clearly it wasn't a hunting village but a farming one, finding this perfect to suit his needs he kept his eyes and ears open as he slowly made his way over doing his best not to be seen. Sneaking into one of the houses Jace quietly made his way to the bedroom and stole a top and pants, admittedly they didn't fit right but at this point he was just glad to finally have some cloths covering his body and a large empty backpack from the closet. "Vail is there anything in of worth or note about this village in your records?" He asks, wanting to know if there was any worth in staying here or not.

"Processing. According to records there was once a sword of unknown origin hidden in the head villager's home. After the fall of Abara, the sword had disappeared. The information in my storage indicates that the Sword may have been something not native to the original Abara world but due to lack of information I am unable to provide any more information." Vail tells him. "Can you map out the village and direct me to where its located?" Jace finally asks after some thought.

"Processing. Negative. Lack of information present resulting in the inability to direct you to the swords location." Vail replies causing him to sigh. "Great, but what did I expect, alright, the hard way it is." Jace grumbles.

Sneaking out the window and looking for the largest house in the middle of the village, figuring it would either belong to the chief or be a store house, either way giving him valuable goods that he would gladly take. Stealthily avoiding the few people who were still wondering around he managed to reach the building in a short few minutes, sneaking in though proved a bit harder as it was locked up tight.

Searching around the building he luckily found a cellar door with a lock and chain. "Alright you hunk of junk, will you be able to boost my strength a bit in the hand your leeching on to break the lock?" Jace quietly asks.

"Processing. Lock is made of basic iron suffering slight oxidization. Signs of age and wear are also visible. Use of the fully integrated Vail arm should be able to open the cellar door by exerting enough force to pulling the chain and breaking one of the handles." Hearing that it has the chance of working Jace grips the chains tightly in his hands and pulls it roughly, the chain clangs a bit and with a small squeaking scrapping noise one of the handles break off the cellar door.

"Guess you do have some use besides being a know it all for me after all." Jace says with a small grin.

"Affirmative. My directive is to aid you in any and all endeavors to ensure the survival of the planet. To facilitate that I have integrated all recorded knowledge form before our return and have fused entirely with your nervous system to ensure peak physical ability. The arm you allowed for my residency has been improved by 300% and its durability is without question. Had you allowed full assimilation your entire being would have been 500% stronger than any recorded being in my historical data banks." Vail replies getting a snort from Jace as he enters the cellar.

"Like hell id allow myself to turn into a cyber synth, I prefer being myself and in control so just be glad I even allowed you to take my arm." He replies.

"Affirmative. Well access and abilities are limited they are still within viable parameters. Option for further assimilation still viable mealy requiring verbal consent." Vail says.

"Yeah well keep dreaming, only time you will get that is if I'm almost fucken dead or there's a way to reverse it." He bites back well exploring the cellar, packing a few bottles of wine into the pack well opening one and drinking it as he went for the stairs.

"Acknowledged. Process to try and figure out a method for reversal of assimilation in process. Current progress 1%. Process will continue to run in the background to avoid unnecessary processing or memory usage. Note. Alcohol can impair motor functions and cognitive capacity. It is advisable to sto-"

"Oh shut up you asshole. If I want a drink I'll have a drink, do you have any idea how hard something like this was to find before coming back?" Jace says annoyed.

"Calculating. Difficulty of alcoholic beverage procurement estimated to have had a mortality rate of 86.37%." Vail says.

"God damn it, it was rhetorical you piece of junk. I didn't need a actual answer." Jace says with a sigh, inspecting the house but not finding much of value but taking some food from the kitchen before making his way upstairs and checking the rooms.

"Now if I was some kind of special sword where would I be? Vail can you do some kind of scan or something to try and find anything abnormal in the house? Ive checked everywhere so far but found nothing, I even looked in the bedroom closets and under the bed." Jace says in frustration, beginning to wonder if he had gone to the wrong house.

"Affirmative. Processing visual data that has been recorded from your own visual input and attempting to find abnormalities. Abnormality found. The left bottom post of the bed infront of you in does not match the other 3. Greater signs of wear are visible upon the surface joints connecting the round top with the rest of the post consistent with someone twisting it. Possibility of it housing something 86%." Vail says after a few moments.

"And you couldn't tell me any of this before because?" Jace asks, frustrated as he twists and lifts the round top of the post managing to pop It off with relative ease revealing the bottom of a hilt that the round part seemed to fit loosely over.

"You had not asked or specified me to do such a thing. Would you like for me to be more active in noticing inconsistencies for you along with my basic threat detection?" was the reply he received making Jace really want to slam his head against a wall.

"Yes, that would very much be appreciated. For fuck sake, couldn't those egg heads have made you with a bit more common sense?" Jace grumbled slowly pulling out the sword from the thick bed post and laying it on the bed to inspect it.

"Negative. My creators felt that if I had more personality and self-directive abilities there was a risk of developing a sense of self and possibly even emotions which would impair my judgement or risk the loosening of my shackles." Was the response that Jace received.

"Well, we will need to have a proper discussion about that later. For now, analyze the sword and tell me what you can about it." He grumbled back, drawing a small bit of the blade and rubbing a finger of his Vail hand over the handle, exposed blade and finally the sheath.