Adam may have seed displeased with Professor Hendrick's over-friendliness to the aliens, but he wasn't dumb enough to drive a wedge between him and his only current ally. In fact, Professor Hendrick was the one to ask for his assistance in giving their side leverage in this trade, but Adam soon realized that the professor had run out of things that might interest Kahori and was hoping Adam would be able to provide more to exchange.
The aliens had the professor at a disadvantage, and if he didn't offer more, his value would plumt. Adam affird that the professor would still be the middleman, but if the aliens needed to trade, they would have to stop beating around the bush, especially with him now in charge.
But it turned out it was simpler than he thought.
"The aliens are after Runestones."
Adam declared to his inner circle after gathering them.
"Let guess, these are the source of runes." Kave smiled with confidence as it was one of his leading theories.
"I assud it was their currency, but they are cunning. Strip away their alien facade, and they'll just be like those door-knocking salespeople, money parasites."
"And those stones? What do we know about them?" gan asked.
"They showed a smooth fluorite Runestone of Recovery." Adam said, and looked at gan, "This is where you co in, Magpie."
"Oh, yeah. Ti for the Magpie to shine." Kave also agreed.
"Co on! Just because they are shiny things doesn't an I have to know anything about them." gan sighed with a tired face.
"You don't?" Adam looked at her doubtfully as he continued, "Do we have to bring up the Era of the Dark Magpie?"
"Anything but that!" gan pointed, deathly stares carrying power deep from within, "You'll die by a thousand cuts."
"Now, I am curious." Elena crossed her arms, looking with a wide smile at gan, but it seed that Adam and Kave wouldn't easily spill the beans on this one.
"Ugh! I like gemstones like any other woman on this blasted rock. Why is this a surprise?" gan sighed with a tired face.
"The Dark Magpie didn't just like gemstones." Kave exclaid.
"She was almost making a cult." Adam nodded at him, "Positive energy, chakras, spiritual roots…"
"Don't forget the scam reports that almost got us all rounded up." Kave pointed before exchanging a loud laugh with Adam, right before the two noticed gan glaring at them.
"You two will regret it." She said, dramatizing her tone as she pointed fingers at them.
"What matters is that you know your gemstones, right?" Elena interrupted the banter of the trio.
"I do." gan stopped stabbing the two with her sharp nails and faced Elena, "Adam, you said it's fluorite. Did you scan it with the System?"
"I did, but it was mostly information about the rune." Adam nodded.
"No quality information?" She asked.
"It said it was common." He replied.
"Makes sense. Fluorite is indeed beautiful, but it's pretty cheap. All the ones I saw ca from China, but it's the official state mineral of Illinois." gan said, and thought for a while before pointing, "If that was common, then we are looking at the sa five ranks of rarity we understood through your puppets' quality."
"Yep." Adam nodded, "We should expect Common, Rare, Epic, Legendary, and of course…" He turned to Elena and, with a dramatic bow, "Unique!"
"Thank you for the complint, sir." Elena smiled, fully getting into the mood of being part of this group, "The runestones, though, what is the relationship between the gems, the quality, and the runes?"
As Elena asked a very good question, the four were approached by Buzz, who whispered sothing to them, and the four looked at each other.
"Everyone to their position. Elena, I guess your question may soon be answered." Adam said, and turned to the large gate of the factory, gan to his left and Elena to his right.
Kave backed out along with Buzz as the two joined Stone above the rail. They took optimal positions for defense, and their motions started alerting those in the shelter.
Soon, the aliens would be coming. It was a ssage from the team Adam had positioned away from the factory, and he wanted to center himself in an advantageous position to face the leader of the aliens who was coming.
Right at that mont, Kahori and the professor ca down from upstairs and seed about to inform Adam of the arrival of the incoming delegation, but they were surprised to see him standing ready.
As they descended and the rest of the students who were ard with weapons gathered toward the gate, Candice approached Elena.
"Hey, I told the boys to be ready the way you said. The professor wouldn't be happy we're showing hostility to his valued guests." Candice added, looking at the professor, who was detecting the actions of his students with discomfort, "I just don't like that he spends that much ti with the aliens. Raj is okay with it, though."
"The professor is a man of passion, Ms. Candice. It has its advantages, but we need to be careful with him." Adam said, pleased that Elena was able to get Candice into acting defensively.
The professor asked him to create leverage, and this was the best way he could for the ti being. With a little bit of hostility, the salespeople would be the ones putting offers on the table.
Behind Candice, another face erged.
"Hey." An Asian young woman with green strands and an interesting assortnt of piercings and accessories walked over.
"Ms. Yuki." Adam smiled at the young woman.
"Is Sharp here?" She asked with a flat tone before continuing, "I can feel him around."
The question was startling, but Adam still nodded, "He's in the neighborhood."
"Alright." Yuki said and walked away with little interest in what was going on.
The others frowned, so Adam explained, "Sharp and Yuki seed to like each other, apparently."
"Our Sharp?" Elena asked and looked at Yuki's back with lecherous eyes, "Our resident serial killer has an eye for quality indeed."
"She can hear you, you know!" Candice said, and turned, "Once she awakened the system, her Senses skill turned out to be so animalistically high, it bordered on madness for a couple of days."
"God! How high?" gan asked.
"She said Level 11." Candice replied.
Adam and gan almost shivered from the revelation.
Level 11, huh! We thought there was a level cap for skills! Who would have known? Adam thought inwardly, making notes with the Sage. Rember not to stealth-fart around her! Don't think too loud, even! The Senses skill amplified 11 tis? That thing can detect cardinal sins.
Adam tried hard to suppress the Sage skill as it kept spiraling into intrusive thoughts before forcing himself to a question, a thod to make the Sage think of sothing else.
"So, she awakened? When?"
"The professor made everyone awaken once the alien lady told us how. He told us to circulate the runic artifacts for a night each." Candice replied and nodded her head toward the professor, "Even he awakened."
"That's a pretty good idea in my opinion. We'll do that at camp then." Adam decided, and it seed that both Elena and gan were in agreent.
"You think?" gan asked.
Adam was about to reply, but right then and there, they all heard the sound of sothing strange, as if sothing was beating a drum, making beat vibrations without an actual drumming sound. It reminded most people of how loudspeaker cones would vibrate in beats.
The professor gave a signal for the students by the gate, and they pressed the button to open the two sides simultaneously, creating a dramatic effect as the outside light shone brightly into the dark interior of the shelter.
There, sothing big appeared in the large parking lot in front of the factory. Not big enough to startle everyone, but it made everyone take a few steps forward just to encompass it in their vision.
"Is that… a flying saucer?" gan was the first to ask.
"Well, what do you know?!" Adam let out a single dry laugh at the large Unidentified Flying Object that was landing in front of the shelter.
Aliens were real; why not UFOs?
Suspended midair, the UFO looked circular from beneath as it gradually descended. Unlike typical movie scenarios where aliens beam down in a pillar of light, this craft was clearly landing.
The surprise, however, was its design. While its underside appeared sleek and distinctly alien, its upper half was a wooden, round cabin with an intricate and beautiful design, reminiscent of a closed gazebo with extended, curved-up roof rakes; the kind of aesthetic one might expect from a fantasy race.
As the UFO approached the ground, the soundless beats echoing from its lower half started to lose their effect. As it settled, the gazebo above started to open its doors one by one from all sides, and warriors ard with shields and spears erged, all in white masks lined with gold, looking sharply at everyone and everything around them. [A.n: UFO Concept Image in Patreon.]
Imdiately, Kahori walked forward with wide steps, knelt before the UFO, then stood up imdiately. There was no need to translate an inter-universal gesture of submission, for even the aliens knelt to their lords.
Adam watched closely as the alien warriors above imdiately walked to the front of the UFO, forming two columns leading down to Kahori. Their white armor and black capes felt strange, as if they were trying to hide so sort of power beneath them, but the sheer radiance of their artifacts ant that each of them carried many runes, and it felt overwhelming just to look at them.
"Spears and shields, huh! I thought they would use ranged weapons for all that technology." Elena said with a snort.
"They are ranged." Adam replied with a sensation swelling from within, "Energy weapons and spears at the sa ti. Shields as well. These are so elite units from the looks of it."
"How do you know?" She asked.
"Just a war gar's hunch." Adam replied and spoke to her in a flat tone, "Don't act stupid, we're clearly outgunned."
As he said, more aliens appeared from within the upper part of the UFO; however, they appeared non-combatants, wearing clothes similar to Kahori's. They looked close to her in appearance, but after a closer look, their facial features were a tad different, not an easy feat to tell apart unless one spent a lot of ti among their kind.
Those two Alfari seed more like servants since they greeted Kahori with respect. Each of the two servants then followed Kahori toward the group of humans, and holding fabric items, they stopped in front of Professor Hendrick, who was surrounded by Raj's and Ivan's groups.
"Master Sage, on behalf of Lord Kaimu, I offer you greetings." Kahori spoke, startling the professor, as her tone beca rather formal and official, not as friendly as he was used to.
The professor cleared his voice, realizing this was more ceremonious than personal, and spoke:
"On behalf of myself and my people, I welco Lord Kaimu to our humble shelter."
"Please, accept this garb as a customary piece of fashion to signify your status as a Sage for Lord Kaimu." Kahori said, clearing the way for the Alfari servant beside her, who approached him with a red piece of clothing, similar in fabric to the one Kahori wore, as she added, "It was fashioned specifically for human anatomy by the hands of Lord Kaimu."
"Oh, thank you greatly." Professor Hendrick heard that, and his expressions widened, accepting not just the clothing but the assistance of the Alfari servant who helped him wear it.
Adam's eyes narrowed. The Sage skill was buzzing in his head as the aliens turned to him.
A Red garb for a Sage, a Blue garb for a rchant, Soldiers wearing Black cloaks, and those servants in the back wearing Brown. Classification by colors: Typical!
"Vindicator Clay." Kahori stopped opposite Adam and addressed him formally, "On behalf of Lord Kaimu, I offer you greetings. Please, accept this garb as a customary piece of…"
"Step back, alien." Adam cut her off, an angry look on his face, "If I were to wear sothing customary to et your lord, it would be a tux, just like my culture dictates."
A few seconds' pause hung between the two groups, as Adam's and Kahori's eyes t. Adam knew a staring contest when he saw one, but against aliens without eyelids… yeah, he still wouldn't back down.
"Vindicator, it's an honorary garb that reflects the military nature and status of your title." She said, trying to convince him, albeit her tone was half-hearted, clearly not interested in this ceremony herself.
"My Justiciar Coat radiates the highest honor, alien." Adam replied.
No eyelids, no visible irises, but the eyeroll was nailed by Kahori's expressions and sigh.
"In that case, we follow the wish of the Vindicator." Kahori replied to Adam, sending the two servants away and stepping back herself until she reached the two columns ford by the UFO's guards.
She dropped to her knee in a quick motion and stood back up again, then cleared the way.
And it was then that humans laid eyes for the first ti on an Elden.
Not many words can describe a mber of the Elden caste—Rulers of Alfar—but as soon as he erged, there was light radiating from him, which he visibly suppressed by his will alone.
He walked through his guards, taller, stronger, and in more alien garbs than the rest of them. His appearance was similar to the Alfari's, but there were radiating patterns running across his skin and face.
His eyes were darker, almond-shaped, and narrowing at everything he glanced at. He wore sothing akin to a skirt, covering his lower half as he moved, but his upper half was exposed, topless despite the cold air. Around his arms, there was a translucent fabric that he pulled behind him, before suddenly pulling it over his shoulders like a scarf, and it changed colors imdiately, shifting between rose and blue in an animated effect that mimicked the waves of the sea.
As his feet reached the ground, he proved taller than even Captain Creed, yet thinner and leaner. There were patterns of muscles all over his body, but they were far from human muscles, as they looked arboreal and veiny.
His attention was imdiately cast toward Professor Hendrick, but before moving, he reached out to his long black hair that went straight from his head to the back of his shoulder, and he pressed an area between his hairline and forehead, causing a faint light to glow and dim.
"It's an honor to et a Sage!" He said, startling everyone.
This… he is not speaking with a translator rune! Adam shouted in his mind. It's English. Clear, plain English!
Everyone else had the sa realization for so reason, and panic slipped into their thoughts at once.
"An honor to et the people of this unfortunate world whose vast cities and intricate structures have defied what we know of marvels and architecture." The Elden spoke again, this ti taking a step inside the shelter, his guards following, but he gestured for them to stop, "My condolences on what befell your world, for I know how great that pain is."
He then stepped toward the professor a couple more steps:
"Sage, know that the Elden welco the counsel of your respected status, and offer you an office among the many Sages of our kind and the many allied races that fell victim to the horrors of the Rift."
Right with a recruitnt offer, the Elden Lord hit the professor and everyone else with sothing surprising.
"Thank you, Lord Kaimu." Professor Hendrick spoke, his hands joining together, but aid toward the Elden, "I'm afraid my place is among my people."
For that, the Elden replied:
"I expect no less of a reply from a Noble Sage." He said, and put on a similar gesture to the professor, "If one day our efforts bear fruit and this world is saved to fit our two races, I hope you pay a visit to the Fiya of the Rift!"
"I can't wait for the opportunity." The professor said, before ending his gesture.
Lord Kaimu put on a smile before looking through the crowd until his eyes found Adam.
"Justiciar Clay, don't let the customs of my followers offend you, for they annoy just as much." He said, and his smile widened, "I have heard a tale of bravery and of great romance that moved when my Envoy retold it. To brave the horrors with a band of heroes to find the soul you attune to is the greatest path we know. As an Artificer, my whole craft has been dedicated to people like yourself. Please, make use of my services as much as you can."
Adam frowned, usually turned off by over-friendliness, but this wasn't that. His mind raced, checking the alien's words for hidden anings, trying to decipher his intentions, but the Elden was nothing but honest.
"I thank you, Lord of the aliens." Adam said, then paused, feeling distaste at ending his words here, so he continued, "For what it's worth, I hope this exchange is fruitful for all parties involved."
Even with an alien like that, Adam couldn't quite be as unfriendly and cold as he was with Kahori, the rchant who would give bite-sized information.
Now, with her employer in the scene, it felt like a higher class of information would be exchanged.
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