Chapter 39: Chap. 32 : No Place for Old Men

Zoemie woke up, tired but content. One more week. It had taken one more week, but not only were Xajymzia's upgrades done, she also had made her spring shoes the day before, and the fusion had finished during the night. Now she needed to try them out and get used to them. But first, breakfast.

Zoemie teleported to the dining room, and served herself breakfast, which she ate while her knee bounced, thinking about what she was going to play next. She was definitely going to do another sword training session to integrate her new shoes into her fighting style. And I'm probably gonna need more than one session.

She supposed these three fuckers had been useful for something. She shook her head, dispelling the unpleasant thoughts. Instead, she went to her computer, deciding to play for a bit before she went to her bath, but deciding to go for her bath almost instantly, too antsy to actually begin playing anything.

She teleported to the bath room, soaking in the warm water for a bit. It calmed her nerves down slightly as she thought about her games. Zoemie wasn't sure what she was going to play today. Maybe I'll decide later.

It did feel to her slightly unusual to go to her bath that early, but, well, she couldn't stay in place. Feels like there's something under my skin. Once she was done with her bath, she dressed herself, teleported to her changing station, and changed into her combat outfit, including her new and improved spring shoes, before teleporting back to the training room.

Zoemie started walking around in her new shoes. They fit well enough that it didn't bother her, which she appreciated. "Makes things easier." Then she stomped her foot, before activating the springs slightly, her body lunging forwards a slight distance.

It took her a bit of effort to regain her balance as she landed. "This is really strong, but if it wasn't for that balance-boosting enchantment, I'd have fucking tripped over". That was a smart idea. Zoemie shook her head. "This is gonna require a lot of practice to get used to.", she grumbled, before looking at the strawman. "But, well, I kinda don't have a fucking choice, so..." Fucking bastards.

Zoemie started bouncing around a bit more, getting a better feel for the angle and power that would make her move around, going not just forwards either but also using it to jump backwards and evade potential enemy attacks. Then her back slammed against the wall, and Zoemie found herself on the ground.

"Ouch.", she grumbled as she got back up, thankfully more surprised than injured due to her outfit absorbing the hit. Gotta have to be more careful about that. "I need to figure out a method to jump around without hitting things." Right now it ain't too bad, but in an actual fight slamming myself like that could really suck.

Zoemie then pulled out her sword. "Okay. Power is speed squared, right ?" Let's try to put that into application. Without dropping the sword, if possible. Zoemie lunged forwards, trying to swing at the same time but not really succeeding and falling on her butt. "Shit. This is gonna take a lot of practice."

A part of Zoemie sighed. Do I wanna do that now ? "I mean, I'll need to do it eventually, and the sooner the better... right ?" She took in a breath. "Let's do the magic training first. With... let's go with wind, today. Haven't done that yet." Then I'll continue the sword training.

Zoemie nodded as she set up the chronometer and started channeling some magic. Maybe I should try to figure out some way of upgrading this place. "What could that even be, tho ?", Zoemie asked to herself, before shaking her head and refocused on her training.

She conjured blades of wind at a breakneck pace, the accuracy boost on her helmet making each of them land properly. While she had other spells in mind, including a large-area wind shear, wind blades, and elemental sword moves, she wanted to do one spell per session, so for now she was focusing on that spell.

---

Xajymzia watched with awe as her new arm cannon emitted a level of blast force she wouldn't have imagined for her body to be possible. She was fully upgraded and had had an extra day to reintegrate herself, and she was feeling stronger than ever.

Power was a heady thing, and there was something unhealthy within her that drew glee at the immense magical power she now possessed. So she was currently taking it out on the monolith while her charge tried out her new shoes.

With her upgrades completed and the large-scale scanner fully armed and operational, Xajymzia had reassessed her priorities. The Earth portal was going to be crucial, but it was also the hardest one to get done right now.

An enormous amount of preparative progress was necessary, as while she had powerful materials at her disposal, she needed to keep advancing in order to obtain the necessary batteries and frame designs. It would take her a lot of time and resources. Frankly, no idea where to start.

The fusion array to simulate Zoemie's abilities was even more complicated, but was also less necessary. Her upgrades were done, so there was much less need for it right now. Investigating the dimensional anchors had so far been fruitless, and so had been time magic, so Xajymzia was currently thinking about various things.

In particular, more weapons, particularly non-standard ones, such as chemical weapons. Xajymzia knew that her enemies were not bound by things such as decency or any form of limits. As far as they were concerned, any of her people no matter how small or weak had to be obliterated with overwhelming power.

So, she was going to respond in kind. She had thought about explosives or nuclear weapons, but she currently lacked the information about their exact design, while using magic to make Earth's already existant arsenal of chemical horrors more potent was by comparison cheap and easy.

She would prefer to not have to use them, but if nothing else making them before her enemies did could also grant her the knowledge to prepare appropriate defences. For Zoemie's sake if nothing else, as Xajymzia unlike her charge was likely to be immune to most of those anyway.

Xajymzia confirmed her choices for now. Try to break down the tasks required for the portal further, while making non-standard weapons and other utilities on the side for now, including a Potion Generator upgrade with her new materials. For that one, her arcanoengineering suite would make it pretty easy.

Dinner shall be eggplant goat cheese salmon pie, Xajymzia decided after a bit of thinking. Good. Everything for the day was settled.

---

Zoemie woke up the next day feeling okay. She didn't really do deep sleep, at least not that well. She opened up her computer, feeling groggy, reviewing her game plans for a bit, as an idea had come to her while she was in bed waiting to fall asleep.

So she decided to eat breakfast, test it out, and then take her bath, which is what she went to do, teleporting to the kitchen. After eating her breakfast and finishing her subsequent routine, she lied down on her bed, put her hair out her eyes, and focused on the game.

"Right. I've got everything on this save, now it's just about trying it out and seeing if I can make it work.", Zoemie mumbled as she set up the game for the boss fight. "The trick is that I can't turtle through this guy, he does too much damage with the double attack."

Plus the summons are a pain to fight. "So if I can't use status or debuffs, then we're gonna do that the classic way." Damage race time, Zoemie thought as she properly set up the boss for extreme damage combos. Just because I can't lower your defs doesn't mean I can't set up combos to slam your ass anyway, she thought at the boss.

"Alright. This worked better than I thought." Zoemie smiled as the boss went down, satisfied with the result. "I'll have to reword a few things, but as a basic setup it'll do." Note it down, then... Zoemie considered. Bath now ? She checked the time. Okay. Bath now sounds good. And then, more playing.

Alongside at some point a training session, this time for dark magic. Still gonna take some practice to get those shoes to work with me, but they definitely were a worthwhile investment. Zoemie nodded to herself.

---

Yuulvan travelled through the forest quietly. It had been quite a few years since he had last entered the Seaguard Greatwoods at this point of late spring into early summer. Most wouldn't dare, being afraid of both the monsters and getting lost. But the first wasn't much of a factor to a mage of Yuulvan's caliber, and the second...

Well, he could always teleport to his next destination, if he so wished. But he preferred to take the slow way, to enjoy the journey, to stop and smell the surroundings. He had already lived for centuries, anyway. Hurrying to his destination was always so unsatisfying.

The trees in the forest bloomed beautifully at this time of the year. It was an enchanting landscape of smells and sights, when one had the power to ignore the monster roaming in the forest. The light was both dulled and amplified by the leaves of some of the magic trees here, creating a feeling of background lighting.

One that feared not the monsters of the Greatwoods could simply lie down and take a rest at any time, the dance of light and shadow coming from the bottom of the trees' canopy creating a beautiful image. Sometimes, I wish I could paint. Maybe I should consider taking it up one day. Such sights deserved to be remembered for posterity.

He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of the smells of nature, and picked up a fruit hanging low from a tree. He was not hungry, right now, but he could put it in his dimensional storage. He simply advanced in the quiet, bright yet dark forest, letting his magic around him unfold like a vortex, telling and tasting his surroundings, before something awoke to his senses.

"A dungeon ?", Yuulvan noticed. That was new. There was no dungeon last time I came here. It must have been a recent development. He sharpened his focus. Is this... ? A strange feeling awoke within Yuulvan as he recognized something almost familiar about it.

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---

Zoemie borderline jumped out her bed as she felt someone enter her territory. She had finished her bath and was lazing in bed, and she instantly grabbed her mask from her storage, but it did not react strongly to the mysterious trespasser. Dammit. Zoemie would've almost preferred it did.

When she was dealing with someone who the mask reacted strongly too, it gave her a simple and easy way to deal with the problem by simply killing them, even if Zoemie hated killing people. But people whose the mask didn't react too, generally, needed to be dealt with in other ways.

Things like "negotiations" and "talking it out", and not so coincidentally I suck at these. She grumbled and shook her head, deciding instead to look at the trespasser from her bedroom, using her Warden abilities, and trying to figure out who it was and maybe even what they were doing around here.

He was an old man. He was the archetype of an old man, almost, save for him being beardless and having short, white hair. There was something about him that put Zoemie on edge., and it was his behavior. Zoemie wasn't sure, but the man had been smiling, and yet. Is he... tearing up ?

"Who the hell is this guy ?", she swore to herself, as she started putting on her combat gear and kept an eye on the mysterious old man. He was powerful, she could tell that much just by looking at him. Definitely more powerful than all of the adventurers that had come before.

However, he looked withered and, while not gaunt, was not of large frame either. He did not look physically powerful, overall. Probably an old mage of some kind, Zoemie thought. It would make the most sense considering his appearance and power level.

Zoemie sighed. No way around it, huh ? She got up from bed, preparing to deal with the mysterious old man.

---

There was a type of day that was Yuulvan's favorite. It was those days where an entire side of life he was not aware of was revealed to him, where he learned a whole paradigm of existence. He had entered the dungeon. He remembered they called these dungeons Teranjor. Yes, that is right.

That there were some left, was alone a cause for celebration. He would've remembered this day for that on its own. So when he entered, he did like was taught, all these years ago. Using old magic he had thought he would never use again, a gift from back then, he reached out to the web of knowledge of the Teranjor, trying to get more information about it. Jetuzran. That was the name.

And what Yuulvan saw there had shattered his mind. He could not understand a fraction of it, but it was here, and it was nothing he ever saw or even heard of before. He conjured an item, feeling off, and he looked at it. He had never saw it before.

It was a hollow box, porcelain white in color, with a side that bore a translucent black window that allowed one to peer inside. Complicated etches were on the side of the window, forming squares and circles that stuck out from the surface. They looked like no runes Yuulvan knew of. There was one particularly large one, and as he put his thumb on it, he realized he could press down on it.

As he did so, the front side of the box unlocked and opened slightly, allowing access to its inside. There was nothing of note in it, however, but a circular disk of a glass-like material that was notched inside of the box. He then looked at the surroundings of the box.

The most striking feature stood to him at this point. It was a long, ropelike cord that was made of a material he never saw before. Magical analysis did not recognize the material, but told him it was filled inside with a copper cord of some kind. Copper ? To turn copper into such a thin cord... The metallurgy involved must be quite impressive.

But why copper ? It ended in a strangely-shaped plate with two small rods poking out of it. He peered into the web of knowledge, the jetuzran further, trying to understand a little more, but shook his head, still too out of it for that. It would take him a while to recover from that, let alone properly explore it in its entirety.

---

Zoemie stared at the old man, dumbfounded. "Dude. That is a microwave. Why are you looking at it like that ?". She teleported herself to the entrance, hiding in the dark like she had done for the adventurers before.

Xajymzia teleported behind her, and they looked at eachother. "Do you know who this guy is ?", she asked, but Xajymzia shook her head. To be fair, I kinda expected that. Don't know why I even asked.

"No. But there is something curious about him.", Xajymzia said, something within her voice Zoemie couldn't place. "He can do things I would not have expected a human to be able to do. I cannot help but wonder where he learned to do such things ? It troubles me."

Zoemie nodded. Everything about the old man so far had been strange. Her observations had given her precious little intel beyond the fact he liked to stare at things and was most likely a mage of some kind.

He could do things that Xajymzia was not expecting a human to be able to do, but at the same time he so far had made no hostile movement. Still annoying, but... it seemed like she would have to talk to him. Get a better sense of who he was.

No way around it, huh. Okay. "Alright." She sighed, and started to channel, to teleport the old man to the entrance. He clearly noticed, but didn't actually do anything, simply letting her do so. He was clearly powerful enough to interrupt, so it struck Zoemie as strange.

He quickly rose his head and sat down, as Zoemie started walking towards him. Showtime.

---

Yuulvan did not have to wait long as the figure cut out of the darkness. He could feel... confusion from them. How strange, for he was very confused too. He had expected the guardian, the... Uujutzerja, to be the Warden, and the one meeting with him for that matter. That was the word, yes.

That said, the figure was definitely that of a humanoid, and judging by the skin color around their jaw, a human. "So. Who the fuck are you and what are you even doing here ?", the Warden asked after sitting down. "This is no place for old men."

"My name is Yuulvan, called by some the Ancient Wizard. I am travelling.", Yuulvan answered, not reacting to their hostility. "It had been a few years since I last went here through the Seaguard Greatwoods at this time of the year. The light and the trees create some beautiful views in summer. I did not know a dungeon had appeared in the meantime.", he continued.

The Warden grumbled. "Okay. Guess that makes sense, huh...". They looked at him. "There is nothing here, old man. Just me and my fortress of silence and solitude.", they said after a bit. Yuulvan couldn't help but be drawn towards their outfit. In terms of raw power, the Warden was strong, but not overwhelmingly so.

Taking their equipment into account, however, completely changed the story. This equipment is absurdly potent. Each and every single of those pieces was easily an artifact the likes of which kingdoms where founded around. He could not even wrap his head around how it had even been constructed.

It was like curses and items layered on top of eachother in ways he could not understand, so he decided to refocus on the conversations. "I can see that.", Yuulvan answered. "The lack of monsters should have tipped me off, I think.", he continued, before there once again was a bit of silence. Yuulvan decided to use it to reassess his priorities properly.

The Warden was willing to talk, at least, and judging by their lack of violent behavior was willing to let him leave. There was something that put him on edge, however, and it was the complete absence of the Uujutzerja so far, so he decided to ask about them first. "I must admit I expected the Uujutzerja to be the Warden here", he said.

"...The wha", the Warden was about to ask, before heavy footsteps and a presence made themselves known from the darkness. Well, Yuulvan thought, smiling. Just when I thought this day couldn't get any more interesting.

A figure cut from the darkness, and Yuulvan nodded. They... she had taken the general form of an hybrid. He could recognize it, somewhere between the typical grey-red-purple tint and a more beige-pink color of non-southerners. She was wearing a maid outfit, of all things and had long, stringy hair, that reminded Yuulvan of those almost female-only demon species with stringy, magical hair, onryos, he belived they were called.

He let out the breath he was holding, and smiled. Today is a good day. "Where did you learn of that ?", she asked while glaring at him, demanding if not forceful, the Warden clearly off-balance about the development.

"My apologies for any offense caused, ancient guardian. I found myself in the company of your people a long time ago, and learned much of them.", he answered with complete truth, in a language he had not spoken in a long time.

Going through the Greatwoods had been the best decision he had made in a long, long while.

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