Chapter 19: 19. Untold Truths

Zeff was laying in a strangers bed holding a bag of ice to his butt. It was still only just after midday and after grabbing the leaf from the tree Sylvan had promptly proceeded to kick Zeff’s a**… He had literally kicked him in the butt with his full power. They had ‘fought’ (if Zeff even dared to call it that at all) for about 5 minutes when Sylvan had suddenly decided that play-time was over.

Before Zeff knew it, Sylvan had moved directly behind him and… well… kicked him in the a**, sending him flying, unconscious, through the air.

Zeff began to complain, “Who ever got knocked out by being kicked in the—”

“ASSuming you continue to grow at your current rate,” the doctor interrupted as he walked into the room carrying, what seemed to Zeff to be, the homeowners bath robe. “And assuming we whip you into fighting shape relatively soon…” He paused to calculate, “You should be ready to enter the Underworld in about two weeks.”

“You think I’ll be able to take on the whole Underworld in two weeks, Doc?!” Zeff said, his eyes glowing with child-like wonder.

He was joking, of course, but it was lost on Sylvan who laughed and responded sharply, “Of course, not! In two weeks, even a fruit fly from the Underworld could put you in the Intensive Care Unit!”

Zeff winced.

“No, boy. We just have to get you strong enough for Underworlders to think that you belong there.”

“What do you mean?” Zeff asked, throwing his bag of ice to the floor and turning over on his back with a grimace.

“I don’t really understand it myself, but it seems that humans are forbidden from entering the Underworld.”

“‘Humans’? So are Underworlders not human?”

Sylvan scratched the back of his head as he walked into the bathroom to his left. From within the restroom, after the shower was turned on, he finally called in response, “I really don’t know much about these things. From what I’ve gathered, they are, in fact, of the same species as you and me, but they prefer to call themselves Underworlders for some reason. All I really know is that you need both strength and allies, and, while you gather those two things, taking refuge from the Rings in the Underworld could be your safest bet.”

“Allies…” Zeff trailed off, looking at the ceiling with a solemn and worried expression.

“Zeff-boy? Is something the matter?” Sylvan inquired from the bathroom.

“No!” Zeff replied, making his voice as cheery as possible. “I’m just excited. But Doctor?”

“Yes, boy? Ooo!—That’s hot!”

“Where did you hear all this? Where did you learn about the Underworld?” Zeff called out, attempting to speak over the sound of running water.

“Gimme a second, boy! I can’t hear you over the shower!”

“It’s fine! I can wait!” Zeff put his hands behind his head. “In the meantime… Maybe I should visit dRas and see what’s up with Aida?”

“dRas. Change T.D. to 1:1, wouldya?

There was, of course, no response, but Zeff knew he had been heard.

“Skill tree!”

****

>> Welcome, Subject-04. How can I be of assistance?

“Hey buddy. Last time I checked I had 3 SP? I wanna see if there’s something I can do with them.”

>> Incorrect. You currently have 5 SP.

“Five?! But how?”

>> You were unconscious when you received +2 SP from Armored Hide II leveling to Armored Hide III. This happened as a result of Sylvan kicking your as-

“O-okay! I get it!” Zeff interrupted. “But how come Armored Hide is leveling up so fast but Physical Enhancement is still only on level one?”

>> Different skills level up differently. But it would appear the Physical Enhancement skill is only moments away from leveling up as well. I estimate that, upon leveling it up, your personal level should increase from level 5 to level 6, as your current level is 5.974% splice. But that is mere—

“Uproot Skill Tree!” Zeff cried.

Suddenly color returned to the gray bedroom as Zeff’s ghost form shot back into his body. He instantly jumped to the floor and began doing push-ups at breakneck speed. “Awhhhh!” He shouted as he did dozens of push-ups in less than a minute, his body moving like a jack hammer, until *Prrsh* the alert window popped open in front of his sweaty face. “Physical Enhancement I >> Physical Enhancement II. +3 SP”

“Level UP! 5 >> 6. +1 SP”

“Skill Tree!” Called Zeff from the floor.

*Kerplop* said his gray body as it fell to the floor in real time like a lifeless rag doll.

>> …W-welcome back…

“You were saying?” inquired Zeff politely.

>> Never mind, Subject 04… You currently have 9 SP.

“Excellent.” Ghost Zeff exclaimed with a floating fist pump. “I was wondering, what is Aida’s progress looking like and what is my current degradation percentage?”

>> Shall I show you?

“Naw. Just tell me.”

>> There remains roughly 10 days until Aida has been fully reformatted. And your degradation is only at a mere 11.86%.

“Oh!” Zeff had expected his cell degradation to be much further along than that. ‘Does Dragon’s Rage really contribute that much?’he though in disbelief. Going forward he would have to control his emotions much better…

“Okay. Just Checkin’.”

>> But, of Course, Subject-04.

“Okay. Let’s get down to business! My 9 SP isn’t going to spend itself! Take me to the SP store!”

The screen instantly shifted to the “SP Store” tab.

“Do you have a recommendation of something I can use with Roar I? I think I might have used it on Sylvan, but it didn’t work…”

>> Yes. You did, indeed, use the Roar skill on Sylvan. However, despite your frustration with him, you still subconsciously consider him an ally. Therefore, the skill was ineffectual.

“Oh…”

>> Getting to your question: There is a skill I could recommend that should work well with Phobia and Roar. And while I can’t say too much I can say it should also be a useful standalone ability for escaping capture or avoiding detection. It will surely help you in your quest for strength, as you said before.

The screen instantly scrolled through the long list of Store Skills to one entitled <<Dawn Treader>>.

“Dawn Treader? Sounds epic. What does it—” He stopped short, remembering that dRas couldn’t tell him what a store skill could do. He read the description aloud:

“<<Active Skill: Dawn Treader I >>”

“ISP: 10 (0/10)”

“SP Cost: 5”

“Unlock Conditions-”

“1: Phobiate 10 people (6/10)”

“2: Unlock 2 other Store Skills (2/2) [satisfied]”

“3: Stand without moving or breathing for 10 minutes while in darkness.” (00:07 / 10:00)

“4: Get your a** kicked. [satisfied]?— dRas! Quit playing!”

At once the last conditioned disappeared.

Zeff rolled his eyes.“That’s not funny…” He paused to consider the conditions. “These conditions are actually pretty doable. I mean, I have all but the last practically satisfied. I’ll invest 2 SP.” Zeff tapped his middle finger twice with a soft *boob-boop* on the ‘plus’ icon next to ISP. Changing the ISP to ‘(2/10)’ and the Unlock conditions to: “1: Phobiate 8 people (6/8), 2: Unlock 2 other Store Skills (2/2) [satisfied], 3: Stand without moving or breathing for 8 minutes (00:07 / 08:00)”

“Better. But—” Suddenly just below <<Dawn Treader>> another skill caught his eye. “Hey!! W-Why didn’t you recommend this one!?”

>> Ah… Subject-04 said that your top priority was getting stronger, did you not?

“dRas! C’mon, man. Why wouldn’t you at least tell me about this skill? Surely you know I’d be interested, for obvious reasons.”

>> As far as I’m aware, Subject-04 is perfectly capable of looking through the skills in the SP Store on his own. Additionally, you couldn’t possibly know what this skill does.

“But I can guess… And if it does what I think it does, this is precisely what I need.” Replied Zeff shaking his head in frustration. He read the skills description:

“ISP: 6 (0/6)”

“SP Cost: 3”

“Unlock Conditions-”

“1: Unlock Fire Breath Skill.”

“2: Gain a sufficient amount of knowledge about the human anatomy.”

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“3: Devour at least 6 grams of human DNA.” (0/6)

“What is up with these last two conditions?! Especially the last one! Do I have to eat someone!” Zeff’s eyes grew to the size of golf balls as he imagined a human arm on a plate with a side of french fries.

>> Hair, Saliva, blood, among others, all have trace amounts of DNA. However, 6 grams is very small.

Zeff could only shudder at the thought. “Okay… Either way I’ll invest 2 SP in that as well.

*boob-boop* said the terminal as two SP were added to the Skills ISP. However, strangely enough, the unlock conditions didn’t change at all.

“Hey! What happened! I thought the conditions were supposed to get simpler or something?!”

>> That is not always the case. Especially when the unlock conditions serve a purpose for the use of the skill itself.

Zeff didn’t really get what dRas might mean by that but, regardless, he couldn’t change the system. So he simply moved on, “What about this ‘Fire Breath’ Skill? I know you’re restricted because of Aida but—”

>> That will not be a problem, Subject-04.

The screen switched to the main Skill Tree tab.

>> The skill is located in the second row of the ‘Dragon Mend’ column. Consider yourself fortunate.

In the first row of the ‘Dragon Mend’ column there was only a single skill by the name of ‘Sea Eater’. Zeff clicked the question mark next to the skill name. At once a small popup window opened up in front of the main screen that read:

“Sea Eater I <<reActive>>: SP Cost 1 - User gains the ability to breath underwater.”

“Level I Effects: User gains a second set of eyelids for underwater visibility.”

Zeff’s eyes widened with wonder. “Are you telling me I can swim under water like a mermaid now.”

>> I believe the correct term would be ‘Merman’.

“Whatever!” Zeff exclaimed with a dismissive head wag. But after a moment or two something began to bother him. A question he hadn’t thought to ask began to quietly tug at the back of his mind.

>> Does this skill not please Subject-04?

“Naw, it’s not that… I was just wondering. Like, I understand the super strength, the hard skin from Armored Hide and perhaps even the Phobia skill. They kinda go along with the dragon theme… I guess. But there are certain skills that don’t quite seem to fit… Why does splicing my DNA with an Ancient Dragon’s unlock underwater breathing or a ‘Megaton Punch’ as I saw last time? It doesn’t make any sense.”

>> …

>> Subject-04 will have to forgive me. I am unauthorized to answer that question.

“W-what?” Zeff said incredulously, raising an eyebrow. “So you know the answer but you can’t tell me?

>> All information on the origin of dracoRex Skills and anything in regards to Ancient Dragons or the specifics of genetic information tied to them are strictly classified.

“Why would that be—

>> Classified! CLASSIFIED!!

Suddenly the azure terminal turned a sickly yellow as dRas began to repeat the words “Classified” again and again.

Zeff at once began to panic and yelled out, “Okay! Okay! I get it! It’s classified! Sorry I ever asked!

Immediately the terminal faded to its usual blue color and dRas, as if he hadn’t nearly just had a complete system malfunction, picked up the conversation from where it had left off.

>> Would you like to unlock the ‘Sea Eater’ skill now, Subject-04?

A popup window opened up revealing an emoji much like it had done before. But this time it wasn’t a smiley face emoji but the one with a bead of sweat dropping down his yellow face with a forced smile.

“Y-yeah… Could you unlock that for me please…”

Immediately Zeff’s SP decreased from five to four and the Sea Eater skill turned Red as it was unlocked and subsequently activated. At once the Column value decreased to (0) and disappeared as the next row opened up revealing the names of 3 new skills:

“‘Fire Breath’, ‘Ice Breath’ and… ‘Poison Breath’?” Zeff read aloud. “N-now that’s more I like it!”

He was doing his absolute best to act as though dRas hadn’t just terrified him. Up until now, he had seen dRas as something like a companion… But after that short incident he realized how little he actually knew about dRas. dRas was a pre-programmed artificial intelligence working together with a virus in Zeff’s body to change his DNA. He had no choice but to act in the way he was programmed. And worst of all he had been programmed by the selfsame people that were targeting him: the Rings of Rutigorn. He was by no means Zeff’s friend or companion.

dRas suddenly spoke up, interrupting Zeff’s thoughts:

>> Unlocking ‘Fire breath I’ will cost you 4 SP.

“F-four SP! Why so steep?!” Zeff complained. “Everything else has been one or two SP!”

>> As you progress up through the Skill Tree, you will find that unlocking skills becomes an increasingly more expensive endeavor.

“Oh, dear…” Zeff bemoaned. But, again, if it was what the system demanded, there was nothing he could do. “I guess it doesn’t matter. The ability to breath Fire? What?! Imma be cooking these Rings up like a Thanksgiving turkey!” He laughed nervously. Although he was trying his best to seem normal, he was sure he was doing a horrible job of it.

>> …

>> Please don’t think less of me, Subject-04. I cannot disobey my programming. However, rest assured. I want what’s best for you…

Zeff didn’t skip a beat, and jumped on the chance to lighten the the mood (if, in fact, such a thing were possible with an artificial intelligence). “Aha! Exactly what I would expect an evil AI to say!” he posited with a forced yet convincing smile.

dRas, much to Zeff’s surprise, actually laughed! (Sorta…)

>> Ha.Ha.Ha. That was a joke, Subject-04.

Suddenly Zeff felt both more scared… and a bit relieved. “Y-yeah. Only a joke.” he agreed, with a sigh and a smirk.

>> :)

“Could you unlock the ‘Fire Breath’ skill for me?”

>> Of course, Subject-04.

Suddenly Sylvan’s worried voiced sounded out loud, “Zeff-Boy! What happened to you?! Oh God! Maybe I did kick him in the a** a bit too hard!”

*****

“No! You didn’t!” Zeff groaned as he picked himself up off the floor. “I was just at the skill tree unlocking some new skills…”

As Zeff suddenly got up, Sylvan, wearing The Stranger’s bath robe, seemed as though he was about to have a heart-attack as he held his heart for fear. “Boy don’t scare me like that!”

“Sorry, Doc.” Was all Zeff could say. In fact, he was fighting the urge to tell the doctor about what had happened with dRas at the skill tree, but he wasn’t quite sure if he should bring it up at all. What if dRas was listening and decided to retaliate. Or, conversely, what if it wasn’t such a big deal but Zeff inadvertently made it seem worse that it really was?

In the end, he opted to continue where they had left off and deal with dRas later. “But I was asking; where did you find out about all this stuff? The dragons and the underworld society if you’ve never been there yourself?”

Sylvan had already walked to The Stranger’s closet and was sifting through his close for something he could wear. “Ah, yes. That.” He said as he cast aside a lime green NarcoBolo shirt. “Well, remember when I told you that I found the first Rutigorn temple with a PhD who was under my supervision?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well that PhD was, in fact, Dr. William Fynn.”

“What?! But he would have to be—”

“Yes, he is quite old now. At the time when we found the temple he was only 18 or 19. Now he would be in his late 60s to early 70s.” He finally exited the closet with a nice, brown cotton sweater, a pair of blue jeans and an assortment of socks, shoes, and underwear to try on…

Zeff, under normal circumstances, might have picked fun at the Doc. But now wasn’t the time.

“So you met him after you escaped from The Rings?” he said as Sylvan began to change right in front of him, disrobing.

“Not quite… After I and the others escaped, I immediately went off on my own and began to search for you as your father had requested. Splitting up from the group might have been the best decision I made… as they were all soon found and killed… But at the same time… I was all alone, boy. I was scared. Suddenly in a new body with strange powers I couldn’t control, my fellow escapees murdered in cold blood. Zayn and The Rings were constantly on my trail. I-I—”

“I understand, Doc.” Zeff comforted solemnly. If anyone knew what it was like to feel alone, to actually be alone, it was Zeff.

Sylvan scratched the back of his head nervously as he always did and said, “Well, I thought to contact anyone I could think of. I had no family. Even my dear wife had died while I was in captivity—” At that he flared his nostrils as he fought to hold back tears. “All of my colleagues with whom I had worked in the past were either dead or nearly so. Then, I thought of Fynn. I discovered how to contact him and one day I called him from a public phone… and I told him everything…”

“Don’t tell me he—”

“Yes. He knew of The Rings already. He knew about the underworld, even.”

“But how?” questioned Zeff. “Isn’t that a bit too convenient?”

“I thought so, too. But he encouraged me. He told me that he could help, that he had connections with the underworld and that he could possibly get me too safety.”

“But HOW, how did he know all that stuff if he’s just a regular guy?!” Zeff asked, a bit frustrated.

Sylvan was suddenly a bit flustered, much to Zeff’s surprise. “W-well, apparently a representative of the underworld contacted him several years ago, wanting help with stopping the Rings from finding more temples. He had aided them, as far as I can tell, and they still contact him to some end to this very day.”

“So when you met me that first night, and told me to take the dracoRex to him you were trying to get thing ring into the hands of the ‘good guys’? But why didn’t you just make plans to give the ring to Dr. Fynn the first time you spoke instead of first delivering the ring to me to deliver to Dr. Fynn?”

Sylvan suddenly looked ashamed as he cast his gaze toward the floor. “Well…” he began uneasily, “Truth be told, y-your dad did not just tell me to find you… He also made me promise to give *you* the dracoRex.”

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