This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.
The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/itsdirector on 2024-10-28 13:29:35+00:00.
Chapter 73
Nick Smith
Adventurer Level: 7
Human – American
We watched the rain smash itself against whatever was protecting the clearing. It was torrential, covering the entirety of the otherwise invisible barrier, and I didn’t look forward to leaving once our business was done. We’d be soaked for the rest of the day, at least.
“So if you had to liken it to another smell, what would you say it smells like?” Rebis asked.
“The rain?” I asked.
“Yeah.”
“Hmm…” I thought about it for a moment. “There’s two smells. The one before it rains, which smells kind of like clear air and fresh water mixed together. I’d call it crispy and cold, but the cold isn’t a temperature thing. More of a feeling.”
“I… Right, no I think I get it. And the other smell?”
“Well, that’s the smell that you get after the rain. Kind of smells different from place to place, but it’s like the smell you get from opening a water skin on a hot and dry day. Like, moist, but in a good way.”
“I wonder if this is a distinction between humans and mer, or if it a cultural distinction,” Yulk said.
“Well, I read on internet that there were people who can’t smell the rain,” I shrugged. “So maybe it’s depending on where you live?”
“Why would you even need to smell rain, anyway?” Nash asked grumpily. “What purpose does that serve?”
I shrugged again. Never really gave it any thought, if I’m honest. But, if our current circumstances were slightly different than I guess it would have come in handy.
“I guess being able to tell it’s going to rain without seeing the sky comes in handy when you spend most of your time indoors,” I replied. “So you know not to go outside unprepared.”
“Wait, wait, wait. What’s the internet?” Gali asked. “Did you do a lot of fishing back in your world or something?”
The thought of catching fish with computer cables made me chuckle, but I proceeded to explain the internet to the best of my abilities. Yulk and Nash nodded along because they’d heard it before, but the others were absolutely enraptured. For fun, I threw in a couple of funny metaphors, like how we tricked rocks into thinking and we shoot electricity at each other through stretched out pieces of metal and glass.
“I find your society fascinating,” Larie said once I finished. “The thought of creating such things without magical assistance is mind-boggling.”
“Well, we had a saying back home. Any sufficiently advanced technology might as well be equivalent to magic,” I recited. “I guess whoever said that didn’t imagine a place like this existing, though.”
“Perhaps,” Yulk interjected. “Though, magic isn’t exactly unknown. It has rules and structure to it, just like the technology you describe. When one takes into account the Curaguard, one could claim that the very essence of magic is technological in nature. Just a technology that mortals are unfamiliar with.”
“I’d love to know exactly what the Curaguard is,” I said.
“Like we told you, nobody really knows. Unless…” Nash looked at Larie.
“No, not even I know much about it,” the lich shook his skull. “There are many that assume it is a higher being that is allowed direct interaction with mortals, and provides them with boons based on how accomplished that mortal becomes. Though, my limited interactions with it have led me to believe that it isn’t alive. Perhaps it is a remnant of the ancient civilization that created the steel golems that we’ve found in dungeons.”
A pang of nervousness grew in my stomach. Higher beings. The ones that are watching me for the sake of their entertainment. Is the Curaguard really one of them? Or maybe a machine designed by them? I know that I rely on it for my spells, but are my skills also part of whatever system it’s part of? Can they just pull the plug if I’m not amusing enough?
“We’ve discovered some literature in one of those dungeons that indicate that the golems are actually machines,” Yulk added. “They aren’t magical in nature, they are based on forge-craft.”
“Truly? How interesting,” Larie rubbed his jaw. “If it isn’t magical in nature, then anyone could make one, yes?”
“Probably not. It takes an understanding of things that will likely elude us for quite some time,” Yulk sighed. “The documents that were discovered described how to forge the metal plating and how to arrange the innards, but not what the innards are made of.”
“I see.”
“Probably wires and a battery,” I added.
“Power storage?” Yulk asked. “So they do use magic?”
“No, batteries use acids to create an electrical charge… I think. The electricity flows through the wires and cause the parts to move. It’s a bit above my knowledge level,” I admitted. “There’s different things that limit the amount of electricity that move through different parts which cause them to move differently, somehow.”
Yulk and Larie fell deep into thought. Before any follow-up questions could be asked, though, a soft pop sounded from behind us. A grumpy fae holding several stone tablets regarded us coldly.
“The deciphering is complete,” Veern said. “I’ve altered the tablets accordingly.”
“Thank you,” Larie said, rising to collect the tablets.
I stood as well and walked over. My heart began to beat faster and faster with each step I took. Would this be it? Will I finally figure out how to get home?
Larie handed me the first tablet, and I began to read.
–
I am Mikael Rodriguez, and I have been given this journal to document my experiments.
–
With everyone waiting patiently, I read the passage aloud. My heart felt as if it was going to burst. The person who wrote this was human, I’m certain of it. All of the odd names I’ve heard so far, and not a single one of them was even close to the ones I knew. Plus, it was originally in English…
“Well, what else does it say?” Rebis asked.
I cleared my throat and continued.
–
To comply with project security, I will be using a Vigenere cipher which will shift every entry. The keywords will be documented elsewhere, as appropriate.
I have just been revived from stasis, and do not know the current date. I’ve created a rudimentary calendar that I will use to mark progress. This is the first day’s entry. Or pre-entry, if you will.
–
“A Vigenere cipher?” I asked the arch-fae. “Was that difficult to-”
“Of course it was. I couldn’t even do it without the keywords,” Veern crossed their arms. “I had to take out some rather inconvenient debt to obtain that knowledge. Now read.”
“Okay. Sorry.”
–
Day 1
My revival went without any serious issues. The minor issues were simply a discomfort and confusion which should not have occurred. The pod I had been sleeping in has been adjusted. There are no answers for who adjusted the pods, nor how or why. An unfortunate aspect of this modification is that the data in the pods have been wiped. As such, there seems to be no proper way to tell how long we’ve slept for. All we know is that the modification occurred approximately four thousand years ago.
There are very few of us, and we have little in the way of aid from the local populace. Apparently, they have been exterminating us wherever they can find us. I’ve been given no explanation for this behavior, and I suspect that the actions of the surviving members of the Malos Organization are to blame.
I find myself frustrated with these conditions. These people don’t seem to know what has happened, or they simply won’t tell me. They estimate there are fewer than a thousand humans that we can rely on at the moment. The pods were supposed to keep us in stasis until we were long forgotten, but something happened four thousand years ago and many of us were revived.
Each generation revived replacements, and now we’re here. Hardly any of us left, and with a mountain of things we need to do to secure our future. First, we need to find a way to perform extradimensional travel. Next, we need to revive and gather the remaining humans. Finally, we need to escape from here. This is not our home.
The research required of me is odd. Demons and angels, or daemons and anyels if you use the local parlance, have knowledge of portals that we require. There have been several instances of extradimensional invasion, though typically on a small scale. We need to find out how they are able to pierce the fabric of reality.
–
“Well, that’s ominous,” Rebis laughed. “This is the cult, right? The ones that caused the daemon invasion? Guess they figured it out.”
“Keep reading,” Veern said coldly.
–
Day 4
Today, I received my first batch of test subjects and began my research. Dwarves and elves that have been living near an entry point for the previous daemonic invasion, a tear in the fabric of reality. We have a lot of data on baselines for these species, and given what I have to do to these subjects I doubt that I want to know how we got that data.
I have another journal for the raw findings themselves, but even a cursory vivisection reveals mutations. These tears in the fabric of reality actually impact the surrounding environment.
This provides a reasonable explanation for the monsters that one encounters on the surface fairly regularly, but we haven’t been able to find any sort of measurable radiation emanating from the tears.
Day 9
The previous days were much the same as m…
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