Parallel Vol. 1
Chapter 15: Cigars. Books and Paintings

Restricted Sector

Building 3

Level 5

Observation Room A

The door to the observation room slid open and a bearded, muscular man in his early forties walked in. He was dressed in a fitted brown suede suit and had an air of authority about him. Once he entered, all the scientists exited without a word, leaving only Akari and him.

Running his hand through his slick black hair, he walked up to Akari, who looked less than happy to see him.

“Nagato.” Akari kept his gaze on the machine in the next room.

“Nice to meet you too Akari.” Nagato pulled out a rather large cigar from his inner coat pocket, and snuggled it between his lips. “Got a match?” He had a rather light voice with did not match his intimidating stature.

“This is a no smoking area.”

“Give me a break. I’ve had to sit with the most tight-assed figureheads around the world for the past month. I deserve a smoke.”

Sighing, Akari pulled out his lighter and handed it to him. Nagato took a long drag on the cigar, swallowing the smoke. “Ooh, the good stuff.”

“That stuff will kill you.”

“Then I die a happy man.” Nagato chuckled and turned to the observation screen. “You finally let him out. The uppers are really uppity about this.”

“Still with the lame puns.”

“That’s why the ladies love me.”

Ignoring his colleague’s humor, he moved on to more important matters. “How did it go at the Expo?”

“Bad and good. Depends on who’s looking.”

“Explain.”

“For our purposes, everything’s going according to schedule, but the government is less than satisfied.”

“The Americans?”

“Not just them. The Russians and the Chinese stepped up this time. The Japanese have been left behind again. Won’t be long before we start receiving more pressure.”

“What did they bring to the plate this time?”

“The Americans and the British finally finished their battle suit prototype, turning their soldiers into every sci-fi nerds’ wet dream.” He snorted at the image of his fifteen year old self going goo-goo eyed over the suits.

“How’d they get it to work?”

“Most soldiers have chips implanted into their brains which they use to control their suits.

The downside is that they need to undergo augmentation to use the more advanced suits. That’s not all: They made several improvements to their mechs too. They now have improved mobility and response times, though they chose to scrap the humanoid robots. Ineffective, they were dubbed.”

“Wonder what that says about humans.” Akari sighed. Humanity had a really low opinion of itself. “And the Russians?”

“The Russians had the same idea, and came up with a new mech they call Neith. A manned spider-like mech that can jump three times its height and possesses a lot of firepower. Its legs can change properties, giving it the ability to scale walls, and traverse

various terrains. Oh, and guess the best part.”

“It has a bloody web?” Akari said through gritted teeth.

“Ditto! The damned thing has a web! Well, not exactly; It’s an elastic polymer which hardens when electricity runs through it. Nifty in disabling and capturing other mechs. Oh, and lest we forget. They have their very own battle suits! It’s much larger than the Americans’ though. Loses in speed, but its firepower and armor is unrivaled.” The smile on his face did nothing to mask the terror in his eyes.

“We will finish in time. Do not worry so much. It does not suit you.”

“This project has been going on for over ten years. In which time we’ve spent billions and only gotten one flawed success. Yet, you believe we will have multiple successes in the span of a year?”

“Shouyou does. That’s enough for the boss.” Akari’s eyes narrowed. He did not care for the half-breed much, but the boss trusted him over his own family.

“The young upstart.”

The two fell silent, each engrossed in their own thoughts. An alarm rang out from Nagato’s pocket and he pulled out his phone. “Time to leave. I’ve got a lot of asshats that need talking to.”

“Say hi to your wife for me.”

“Nope. Don’t want her falling for your ass, ‘Lady Killer’.” Nagato laughed and walked to the door. “You’ve got this right?”

“Worry does not suit you.”

“You didn’t answer my question.” The door slid shut behind the older man.

“I know.” Akari sighed, alone in the room with his thoughts.

Oblivious to what was going on outside, Syèl followed the strange elf to the lower levels of Mònòch. They stopped in front of a wall, and the halben placed a hand on it. With a soft grating sound, a piece of it slid upwards, revealing a tunnel.

“Follow.” The halben guided him through the dingy tunnel, silent throughout the trip. The tunnel opened up to a large underground cave, where several similarly robbed figures were hunched over tables, bowls and practicing spells. None spared the new entry any attention as he walked past them.

“You going to tell me where we are?” The elf leading said nothing. “Okay then.”

The cavern had several tunnels connecting to different sections. The halben led him to one of them: a poorly lit room with an exaggerated giant book in the middle of it. Several of the robed elves sat around, bowing to it.

“This is the book of the Damned. If you wish for power, then read it.”

“That’s over a thousand pages.”

“Nine hundred and ninety-nine thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-nine pages to be exact.”

“Are you kidding me?!” Syèl yelled.

“If it is too much of a task, I can teach you necromancy instead. But I assure you, with the power that lies inside that book, all the elements will be yours to command.”

New Quest

Book of the Damned

Underneath the mountains of Mònòch live a group of mages who devout their lives to the dark arts. Their entire doctrine lies around one of Ferulic’s relics, whose power they have offered unto you. Should you choose to accept this quest, you will be unable to learn any other form of magic until the book is finished.

Difficulty level: D

Requirement: Finish all 53 books in the Library within a month.

“Accept.” Syèl groaned, but the promise of power was too great to ignore.

“You accepted; Good. Here, drink this.” He handed Syèl glass vial with a black liquid in it.

“What’s this do?” Syèl asked eyeing the concoction.

“It will improve your reading and comprehension ability. Unfortunately, it only works with summoned.”

Syèl downed the bad tasting drink, and opened the book to its first page. As he flipped the pages, he noticed he did not gain any increase in his reading speed. Those sly bastards.

Syèl understood the purpose of the drink right then. They would be given to users, increasing their brain power temporarily, allowing them to process information at speeds close to his. This was just another of Genaco’s experiments; he wondered how many more there were, hidden in plain sight.

“What’s the catch? I don’t believe you’re helping me from the bottom of your heart.”

“No. You will join our cause and spread our teachings and wrath to the fools above who deem themselves better than us and call us heretics. We shall bestow our judgment upon the damned fools and bring glory to our Lord Ferulic ” His usually calm voice rose in a fevered pitch, fueled by his visions of grandeur.

“Uh-huh. Sure, I’ll do just that.” Syèl withheld a sadistic laugh that bubbled up his throat as he flipped through the pages like a man possessed, ignoring the pop-up messages notifying him of an increase to his vitality.

Across the continent, a daeben stood close to the gate painting the landscape. He listened to the chatter of incoming and outgoing adventurers, through which he learned of the events happening outside the city. His companion, a black wolf cub, hunted racoons a fair distance from where he was, but well within the reach of his arrows.

For the first few hours after his arrival, Kashi had drawn several cats, dogs and balls, but his skills and stats had come to a grinding halt. He decided to draw and paint the view to see if that increased his stats. He finished the painting and was quite pleased with the outcome.

Level up: Handicraft Skill [3]

Increases attack power with melee and long range weapons. (+6% ATK)

Increases attack power with fists. (+8% ATK)

Level up: Painting Mastery [3]

Enables you to create more complicated paintings.

Reduces rate of failure.

Kashi rejoiced at the message; this told him repetitive drawings were not going to increase his stats, and he would have to be original if he wanted to boost his skills. Done with drawing, he decided to make a meal for his little partner.

He prepared a recipe from the cookbook Yugo had given him. It turned out pretty nice, and the scent carried on the evening breeze to Kira who stopped her hunt instantly and ran to him.

His partner was not the only one attracted by the scent. Some adventurers walking back from their quests paused, their mouths watering from the inviting aroma.

“Could I have some of that?” a warrior asked. Barely tasteful rye bread or very expensive restaurant meals were what awaited him back in the city.

“Certainly. It would be my pleasure.” A sly grin crept up the side of the daeben's face; his purpose for camping at that spot was about to pay off. He poured a bowl of the soup and handed it to the warrior.

“Oh, this is so good!” he cried, stuffing his face. “How much is this?!”

“Oh, thirty bronze is fine if you bring your own ingredients next time. Consider this one on the house. I will also fix your armour for free if you wish.”

“Seriously! Thanks man, I gotta go tell my friends about this. Boy, will they be surprised. What’s your name by the way?.”

“Kashi.”

“Cashy, huh? Cool name. You really know what you want don’t you.”

“Wait wha-” His protest fell on deaf ears because the warrior ran off to call his friends and tell them of the cheap meal outside the city. It was all good though. Project ‘snowball’ had begun, and it had picked up its first little lump; only a little more until it became an unstoppable force of nature.

Just as he had planned, a few hours later he was ambushed by several users who wanted a nice cheap meal, and a free repair for their gear while they were at it. Through this he earned a nice amount of pocket change, while also increasing both his cooking and repair skills.

However, he only considered himself hitting the jackpot when a female user spotted the painting he ‘accidentally’ left beside him. “That’s quite the portrait. Could you do one of me?”

Not all users were as lucky as Kashi was to have a free bed to sleep in. The norm for users was to rely on either expensive hotels, or renting apartments. Most chose to rent rooms and that meant decorations were a must.

“A drawing is one silver, a painting is three.” He replied, hoping he was not overreaching. The average level of users should make one or two silvers not much of a problem, but humans could get stingy.

“A painting please,” she replied without hesitation.

“Large, medium or small?” He asked, holding up three sheets of paper. The first was the size of a small hand book, the second the size of a sketchbook and the largest was the size of an average easel.

“Medium.”

With a smile, Kashi stood up and asked her to take a sit on the grass. The setting sun cast a very nice glow on her fiery red dress. He started on his painting, blocking everything out except the image in front of him. It took a while, but he finally finished.

Level up: Handicraft Skill [4]

Increases attack power with melee and long range weapons. (+8% ATK)

Increases attack power with fists. (+11% ATK)

Level up: Painting Mastery [4]

Enables you to create more complicated paintings.

Reduces rate of failure.

He handed the finished work to the girl, who squealed in delight when she saw the finished work. This was a nice way to quickly raise his stats, with the only downside being the fact each painting took forever to finish, and he could not afford to fail anyone.

“Me too! Me too!”

Several cries from female users told him his snowball was getting much larger. He proceeded to draw a couple, though his stats began to reduce in the speed at which they increased.

When the crowd finally dispersed, with promise of returning the next day, he collapsed, worn out by all the drawing. But there was no rest for the weary. If he was to really tough out this month without fighting, then he would become the best craftsman he could be in that time. With that in mind, he pulled out his engraving knife and got started on the pieces of wood he had prepared.

He still had to rely on the auto-sculpt which meant he did not get what he wanted as much. However, his high handicraft skill assisted him, and soon he was dolling out small figures like rabbits, ferrets and foxes. This increased his sculpting skill to three but did not do much for his handicraft skill.

Satisfied with the progress on that, he placed the figurines next to him and pulled out the small papers and drew several portraits of flora and all the cute animals that could come to mind.

The sun rose in the horizon, announcing the start of a new day. Kira returned from her hunt and curled up next to him, then fell into a peaceful sleep.

“Now then...” He looked to the rising sun, which promised many adventurers returning from their night raids. “Let’s see how much I can squeeze out of these guys today.”

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