Dark Matter Ascension

A few hours of drinking politely with the rest of the patrons, Jace excused himself to their restroom. Thankfully, they had indoor plumbing that Ollie explained ran on a gravity system that then funneled to a creature that ate waste far below in a cistern of the sewage system.

Reading the note, he got an address off of it, and Ollie pointed it out on his map. “Looks like it is a warehouse in the center of the very chaotic mess of buildings called the Cotton District.”

Jace ripped up the paper and flushed it down as well, and as he got out of the restroom, he was shocked to find the Yittka woman who had given him the note was leaning against the wash basin. “If you really want to prove yourself and get some Stardust in your pockets, I’ve got my eyes on a wonderful bit of…real estate.”

Jace walked over to the basin and washed up, “I’m listening.”

“In the next district over, the Veilshard Quarter, there are rows of townhouses.” She held her hand up, and in her fingers she was flipping around a series of small lockpicks. Her dexterity was impressive. “I find myself with a few different landlords I need to withdraw investments from. Too many for me to deal in one dormancy period. Say I give you the address of a landlord who owes me his investment. Would you be willing to meet up here in, say, two hours?”

“Sounds good. Am I knocking politely, banging with my fist, or gently tapping the door?”

She smirked, understanding his take on the underhanded terms. Effectively, was he supposed to use his charisma and pull off a con, should he break in, smash-and-grab style, or do a burglar routine. “Well, as long as you don’t draw the guards over, I don’t see any issue with any method.” She held out a small slip of paper.

Jace smiled, “Alright. Two hours.” He walked past her: grabbing the paper on the way out, went into the bar that was still hazy with smoke, and left the building. “Ollie, where is this place?”

The map updated and Jace went to the net, clambering up it with ease as he once more stood on the network. Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3). He vanished and began moving over the rooftops towards the building he was about to rob. Have to get in good with one of the five guilds in the city. Then, I can find some information and figure out where this cult is.

Dee was practically bouncing with excitement as they approached an enormous cliffside. Built into one of the walls was a massive set of two statues, sitting in bas relief as they stared out over the desert. Priam brought the sand sharks to a halt, and the creatures popped out of the desert sands. The Oslia got off the sled and went over to them, petting them enthusiastically as they rolled onto their backs and got belly rubs.

She hopped off and joined Priam, hearing him whisper under his breath, “Who’s a good girl? You are! Yes you are!”

She giggled, “You like these things, don’t you?”

“Yeah,” Priam replied with a grin. “It feels…right, being here. I guess what they say in Khrox is true; ‘the Eternal City is amazing, but it never truly feels like home.’ This place…I belong here.” He looked over at Dee as he patted the sand sharks’ tummy one final time before standing up. “I know I won’t be here forever, and there’s lots of desert worlds, but I need to visit this place…especially once we take down Wricen.”

Greg walked over with the enormous, iron-tipped, wooden pole. “Right, we have to dig their stake, right?”

Priam nodded and he stood up and helped wrestle the pole into an upright position. Dee got up to help, and the trio got it deep into the sand: enough that it wouldn’t go loose easily, but if the sand sharks were in real danger, they could pull away and uproot it. “Right,” Greg muttered. “Now for a Complex.”

Dee clapped her hands, “Yes! Finally we’re going to get to Tier 6 and Advanced Classes!”

Priam smiled, “Plus, we all get whatever reward The Cosmic System is going to give us.” He pulled out his small, metal rod and waved it. A golden honeycomb lattice appeared around every person, and the tiny, gold hourglass hovered above them for a second, before Quinn’s Skill ‘ate’ it. Still active, but not cluttering the air above them and possibly indicating the Skill to foes.

Greg took the lead as he pulled out a shark stick of metal. Fernaid, being a magic world, would not tolerate his firearms; they simply would not function. A light, blue shield symbol appeared above all of their heads before it was consumed by Quinn’s Skill: his Protector’s Vow (Rank 3) [Guardian’s Vow], activating. His body covered over with rocks and stone that grew reactive spikes, and finally a sphere of light-blue energy emanated from him in all directions. “We ready?”

Dee walked up behind him, “Yeah! Let’s clear this Complex!”

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[Quest: Clear the forgotten tomb of Yhan-vor-oth, the defiler of bones.]

[Time Limit: N/A.]

[Reward: Stardust.]

[Sender: The Cosmic System.]

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[Warning! You are about to enter a Complex!]

[This location has been marked by The Cosmic System as Tier 5.]

[Number of foes to clear out: 28.]

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Dee clapped her hands with excitement, “Awesome! We get to go blow stuff up!”

Priam frowned and walked up next to Dee as Greg faced the mammoth, stone doors and began to brace his shoulders against them. “Defiler of bones. I have a feeling this is going to be undead.”

Oh, I’ve never blown up undead before. I wonder how that’ll work?

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

Jace made it to the Veilshard Quarter with no issue. The network went all along the streets, and he saw a few other people traversing on both the higher passage and the street below. But it was fairly calm and quiet. Jace ran over to the house he was supposed to break into. Right. Payment. So anything valuable I can get my hands on.

The building was quaint. A five-story building made of stone bricks, with a few balconies. It was sandwiched on either side with no allies, so only the windows and balcony doors faced the front, along with a front door that was up a few steps. He did spy an entrance on the roof, and curling his legs under him, jumped across to it with ease. He landed very softly, and inspected the trapdoor that led down.

It was locked, but it looked archaic. I mean, how much harder than a lock on Earth could it be to pick? Jace knelt down and began going through the motions his mentor had shown him, practicing on a bank of lockers he had somehow salvaged from an old public school.

His eyes enabling him to zoom in, he examined the lock extremely closely. Oh, pin-cylinder. This is easy. Grabbing his pick and rake, he began picking the pins and applying gentle, gradual pressure until his sharp senses heard the characteristic ‘clicks’ he sought. Within thirty seconds he had picked the four-cylinder lock, and gently lifted the wooden trap door.

Pulling his body over the whole, he gently lowered himself down before landing softly. Not that he needed to, given his Dark Matter Cloak masking all sounds he made: but from habits. His mentor had shown him how to move quietly so as to not draw attention, and break into places owned by the corpos to take what was needed to survive.

The morality of the situation didn’t even come into play for Jace. Sure, these people were not corpos, and had done nothing wrong to him. But based on what he saw around him, they were well-off enough. He heard the light purring of a voice to his right, intermingled with a louder, more masculine snoring. Putting his head up against the wall, he definitely heard two distinct people breathing.

Okay so their bedroom is up here. He made a mental note to avoid that room, and explored the rest of the topmost floor. Finding a study with a desk, he whispered to Ollie: again, not necessary, but out of habit, “Can you stick your head inside the different cabinets and desks to look for traps?”

Ollie gave him a thumbs up, “Yup! Leave it to me.” He swam through the room, his spectral form going into the various objects around the room before he came back to Jace. “There is a hidden safe behind that bookshelf, “he stated as he pointed out a small row of books that were immaculately maintained.

Jace walked over and moved the books aside. Combination lock with no key spot. He frowned, “I don’t have a pick for this.”

“Good old, fashioned safe cracking then.”

Jace sighed and put his ear up against the safe. Closing his eyes, he began turning the lock and the clicks and thunks of the plates sliding over each other was extremely vivid. Louder than ever. I wonder if the NICIF in me know what I’m trying to do and are augmenting my hearing?

Finding the three numbers required was easy enough, and after a few attempts at various directions for the combinations, he finally landed on the combination and the safe swung open. Inside were a series of pouches and papers. Glancing at the papers, the language translated to him. Just insurance documents, birth certificates, and passport-like booklets. Don’t need those. He put those back.

The pouches he opened one at a time, finding plenty of gemstones; rubies, sapphires, and emeralds, with a few diamonds sprinkled throughout. I don’t want to bankrupt them, and I’d bet this is all of their emergency savings. He left the bag of diamonds and took the sapphires and rubies, shut the safe gently, and spun the lock. Replacing the books, he looked at Ollie. “Anything else in the desk drawers or cabinets that you think had valuables?”

“Nope,” Ollie said. He swam down and through the floor before popping his head up, “Looks like just more house down here. Maybe more valuables in their bedroom? It is not like they can ever detect you.”

True. “I don’t know how much this thieves’ guild wants for me to show my worth, though.”

Ollie shrugged, “Depends on how you want to depict yourself. As a gentleman thief who only takes a bit but doesn’t bankrupt his marks? A brutal bruiser who beats people up and takes their money? Lots of ways to approach it.”

I don’t want to be cruel just to make a point. Let’s start small, and if the lady isn’t happy with my results, well, I’ll know to get more next time. He hopped up and out of the hall, gently shut and relocked the trapdoor, and jumped back to the network to make his way back to the bar.

Quinn was watching the various screens, sipping on a lovely cup of chai, when there was a knock at her door. Getting up and going over to it, she saw Xera standing there. “Have a minute?”

“Sure,” she let the woman in. “Mind if I keep working while we talk?”

“No,” Xera replied as she stood just behind Quinn’s chair. “Watching my Signers, I see.”

“Yeah. The trio are headed into that Complex. Hopefully they get enough Stardust to all go up to their Advanced Class.”

“Hmm. I wanted to discuss that with you, actually. I am giving you exclusive access to a unique Class I’ve been designing. I call it ‘Reality Strategist’. It will focus on you being able to buff your allies from a distance as you do with your <Celestial Coordinator> Expansion.”

Quinn nodded as she set her mug of tea down. “Makes sense since I’m sitting nice and cozy here.”

There was another knock at the door. Quinn began to stand up, but Xera held up her hand. “It is a Star Council member…Leviticus Smith.” She looked back to Quinn, “I’ll be present if something untoward happens.” Xera vanished from sight.

Quinn shrugged. I don’t see what the big deal is. She walked over to the door and opened it.

The handsome asshole stood there with his arms crossed, clearing his throat with a slight cough. “You have a moment?” he asked.

“Yes. How can I help a fellow Star Council member, Levi?”

He pushed his way in and Quinn turned to let him past. He looked around the room and glanced at her computers briefly before looking back at her. “I owe you for helping out with Earth. I made some fuck ups, but your crew’s speed at taking down the megacorps really shocked the governments. I was able to threaten them with your crew to keep them in line and on the Star Council’s side.”

He handed her a small badge in the shape of a sun, with half of it being eclipsed by a moon. “This is your official badge of duty for the advisory committee. I’m heading up Earth’s integration into the Star Council, and Casey asked me to deliver it.”

Quinn took the badge and gripped it tightly. So tightly that it began to cut into her palm. She felt…satisfied. Finally. “Thank you.”

Levi nodded and left with a brief wave, “It’ll notify you when meetings come up. They can be attended remotely. But, I may call you directly with questions about Earth stuff. Later.” The door slid shut behind him.

Xera re-emerged from whatever stealth or cloaking field she was using, “And your goal is achieved.”

Quinn turned to her, and nodded, “I’ve wanted this for so long.”

Xera raised her eyebrow, “Power?”

“No. My whole life, my parents raised me to use my talents to help people out. Well, after I helped myself. It’s why I only did Webwalking gigs that went against megacorp actions that I did not agree with.” She held up the symbol. “This…this lets me be someone who can make a difference on a larger scale.”

Xera nodded, “I get it. Also, it is trying to listen to us: but it cannot while in this apartment. So whilst you trust this Star Council and what they want for Earth, they are trying to spy on you.”

Quinn nodded, “I figured as much. I also figured you had this place rigged against listening devices of any type.”

Xera nodded and chuckled slightly, “You are a smart one. Shame you’re still playing for the Star Council.”

Quinn sighed softly, “I care about Earth. If they’re going to be in control of it, I want a say in that.”

“Fair point. Well, if you will excuse me.” Xera left the room, and Quinn returned to her seat once more.

She checked the monitors. Jace is back in that bar waiting for the cat-woman he was talking to. The trio are in some type of antechamber. She took another sip of her chai as she kept her eyes glued to the monitors and the status screens.