Universe's End

Chapter 252: Future Talent

“P-patron?” The teenage boy said, his voice faltering.

Adorable.

“Like, you’d be teaching us?” The girl followed up a moment later.

“Not quite,” Rory laughed. “I’ll be leaving Ehkorrus for some time, so I won’t be around anyway. I was thinking along the lines of whatever teachers or mentors you two want, you’ve got it.”

“Seriously?” The boy asked.

“Seriously,” Rory said with a deep nod. “This lacquering stuff, that’s some serious invention by you two. In the future, when you two are a little higher tier, then I can show you a few things myself.”

The two kids looked at one another, their efforts at maintaining their composure adorably futile.

“Deal,” The two of them said in synch.

“Alright, well, while I said any mentor or teacher you want, I think to start off, I know who I’d like you two to have your initial training under. Roxy?”

Within moments, Roxy was gliding toward them, several rings and bangles adorning her wrists and fingers, making her look like a noblewoman.

Though when I think about it, she’s probably as close to a noble woman as possible.

“Yes?” Roxy asked, as if she hadn’t heard what was going on already.

“I’d like you to give these two some introductory courses and jump-start them a bit. It would be a shame to leave such promising future talent to flounder.”

“Of course, father,” Roxy said, bowing her head gracefully, her horns lowered like a crown adorning her head.

Oh, she’s really playing into it.

“Now, a quick question for you two,” Rory said, directing his attention back to the two of them. “Would you mind if I borrow this blade for a few days?” Rory asked as he lofted the sword.

“Yes, go ahead!” The girl said, as the boy nodded vigorously alongside her.

“Wonderful,” Rory grinned as the blade vanished into his inventory. The craftsmanship of the sword left quite a bit to be desired –just because it was made of gravite didn’t mean much if, in any real combat against a powerful monster, it would snap like a twig– but he couldn’t fault two untiered teenagers with less than twenty years of combined practical experience making a rather subpar quality blade. No, the real point of interest was purely understanding the lacquering process, something he fully intended to start incorporating into some of his own works.

In fact, this already changes some of my ideas, such as that flying fortress…

As much as Rory wanted to leave right away to examine the blade in depth, he remained long enough to give an ending spiel and hip, hip, hooray to everyone.

As soon as it was handled, he was gone in a blink, reappearing in the glow of the Ehkorrus central core. Using the single most secure location in all of Ehkorrus as a night light was probably a grave misuse. Still, Rory called the shots, so who was going to argue with him? Furthermore, the core room was where the natural pneuma was most dense, denser and more complex than even the latent pneuma of the Reverse Mountains, aside from the very peak.

Not that he specifically needed that benefit at the moment, it just felt good on his skin.

“Now then,” Rory muttered as he flicked his wrist and the blade appeared, surrounded in a red crystal sphere as Rory manifested a bound space around the weapon. Snapping his fingers, a magic circle appeared around the bound space, runes interwoven within the magic circle. “Let’s see if I can’t glean a little more out of you than those two kids even realized.”

Unsealing his cognition fully and taking advantage of the runes he’d projected within his magic circle for further analysis capabilities, Rory spent two days straight drinking every bit of information he could. There were better ways to divine information about the blade, but it would have required being willing to destroy the weapon, and Rory fully intended to keep his word to return it after only a few days.

His main takeaway after several days of perfect stillness was that there was far more to lacquering than met the eye; the kids had, more likely than not, accidentally stumbled upon a much broader concept than they’d ever meant to. It was equal parts physical and conceptual, a blending of the worlds. Unlike True Folding, which was the literal cramming of more stuff into less space, lacquering was essentially applying a final seal to an object, with an effect akin to the chemical alteration of the base components, much like oxidation. At least, that was half the story, because it also ‘conceptually oxidized’ things as well.

A promethium blade might normally be suited for fire, but with proper lacquering, one could potentially gain cold-based effects while losing some of the famed heat resistance. It was something inscriptions couldn’t recreate, at least not without being horrifically inefficient, and Akashic Records tended to adopt synergistic effects anyway.

“This opens up so many new ideas,” Rory finally said as he opened his eyes after two days of remaining in a trance-like state. “So many.”

Having finished with the blade, Rory took a moment to gather his bearings, locking onto a specific person before teleporting from the core room.

Irene, a rather tough nut to crack after so many years, barely startled when Rory suddenly popped into existence as she’d taken one step out of her home.

“You know,” Irene sighed. “You could have waited until I made my way to the city hall at least.”

“Sure,” Rory grinned. “But I like to keep you all on your toes.”

“Some would call that childish,” Irene pointed out.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

“But not you?”

“No, because I know when you’re doing it on purpose,” Irene snorted. “Anyone with half a sense of your personality knows that you purposely play into it. Alas, we all need a hobby of our own after all.”

“And yours?” Rory asked. For as long as he’d known Irene, she’d never had a ‘true’ hobby; it was closer to say her ‘hobbies’ were more like tastes of other fields, a way to understand as many things as she could to best be able to approach any situation.

“The insinuation that I may not have a hobby is quite the wound,” Irene, in an oddly humorous mood, pressed the palm of her hand to her chest. “And if you must know, for some years now my main hobby has been skill crafting.”

“As a hobby?” Rory asked, surprised, before following up with a more important question. “Wait… have you even managed any skills so far?”

“Sparingly few,” Irene laughed. “It is truly not something for these tiers, and yet there you are, having accomplished the impossible. I have managed three, at least. Lift, Scan, and Wash.”

“Doing what exactly?” Rory asked.

“Lift lets me lift things. Scan amplifies the range and effect of my ability to examine things, and Wash washes dishes.”

“You needed a skill for those?” Rory frowned, somewhat taken aback by the simplistic nature of the skills.

“No, but you must start somewhere when it comes to learning, and even with your explanations of the process that you’ve distributed in the past, academic and practical experience are quite different. Besides, I find the effort a taxing puzzle that I quite enjoy.”

“Like a sudoku person.”

“I’m uncertain what you mean by that. I have no interest in ‘honorable suicide’ or anything of the like.”

“Sudoku, not seppuku,” Rory corrected. “Wait, you know about seppuku?”

“I’ve heard Hao Lin Rong referenced the act on occasion.”

Ahh, that makes more sense.

“Ahh, I understand then,” Rory answered. “Anyway, Sudoku is a form of puzzle. A nine-by-nine, or well, I guess it can be larger or smaller, grid. You fill each column and row so that each number appears only once. There are a few pre-filled blocks, which give you the clues for the rest.”

“That seems incredibly simple,” Irene frowned.

“I mean, if you’ve got the cognitive abilities of an invested tier seven, then yes, I suppose so,” Rory sighed. “Hence why you can increase the grid count and…. What was the point of this all again?”

“My hobby,” Irene answered.

“Oh yeah, yeah, you just seem like someone who might enjoy some sudoku.”

“I will consider having some people develop the game if that’s the case,” Irene answered.

“You could always try printing it off onto some paper and distributing it. Maybe throw some news on there as well, oh, and recent tournament results,” Rory listed off his memories of a newspaper, mostly joking.

Irene, meanwhile, seemed lost in thought for a moment before crossing her arms and looking Rory up and down.

“That’s actually a great idea. Thank you, Lord Founder.”

“Bleh, with that, I’m scramming,” Rory said as he huffed out a sigh of disgust, vanishing a moment after.

As Rory vanished, Irene was left standing there, with a problem, since Rory had vanished before she could ask.

Name. I need a name for this.

Thinking for a moment, the woman snapped her fingers, looking self-satisfied.

“Paper-news.”

As Apostolos leaned back in his chair, enjoying his moment of peace, a knock rang out at the door, interrupting the rare moment.

“Oh, E.O.N. above, who is it?’ Apostolos muttered. Today was a day off for him, one that Irene had requested him to take. As much as he loved his family and his extended family, it was nice to have the place to himself.

So, a knock at the door was the last thing he wanted to hear.

“Yes?” Apostolos sighed as he answered the door. Standing there was none other than his only senior family member, Rory, with his arms crossed.

“Family out?” Rory asked, glancing at the house from the outside.

“Yeah, Violet is leading some training courses from low-tier adventures, and none of the grandkids are off from school or work, and the great grandkids are likewise not here.”

“Always have a bit of nostalgia when I think of just how large your family has grown,” Rory said with a whimsical sigh. “I remember that first day when you told me you liked burgers and were allergic to peanut butter.”

“It’s been a long time indeed,” Apostolos agreed. Well over a hundred years had passed since then.

“And now look at you, the family man, a leader of the city, respected and loved, and just shy of tier eight yourself.”

“I need the ascensions purely to stave off the wrinkles from all the kids,” Apostolos snorted, before slightly frowning.

“What’s wrong?” Rory asked.

“Well, comparison is the thief of joy,” Apostolos sighed. “Except usually it doesn’t run this direction. I was just thinking of you.”

“Me?”

“You’ve been around longer than I have. I won’t say family is the end-all, be-all for everyone, but seeing how much you love Roxy, I sometimes just feel a little sad that you never… You know.”

“You make it sound like I’m on my deathbed, ready to croak,” Rory snorted. “The reality is simple: I see all of Ehkorrus, the people here, a lot like kids.”

“I bet Mariah would want to interject there,” Apostolos joked.

“Ugh, please no,” Rory said with a forced gag. “I get it, she’s an adult, also well over one hundred, but that’s not the point. I don’t see her that way, never have, never will. Did she grow up quite a bit? Of course, I’d have to be blind to say no, but as much as she wants to be coy about it, it’s not happening.”

It was something Rory had noted for some time now, decades in fact, that Mariah had taken a keen interest in Rory, and not in the way he would have preferred. Unfortunately for her, it was exactly as he’d explained to Apostolos: the chance of him having any interest in any of the people of Ehkorrus was exactly zero, not since Viviann had passed away decades prior.

“She does fit the criteria of ‘a woman who will just straight up kill you,’ that you’ve mentioned,” Apostolos further teased.

“Yeah, I didn’t mean by dissecting me in my sleep,” Rory said with a roll of his eyes. “Anyway, let’s not have this pointless conversation before you start suggesting even more asinine options like Zoey.”

“I think I’d prefer to refrain from making jokes at the expense of other Founders,” Apostolos immediately said in a more somber voice.

“She’s not that intimidating,” Rory sighed.

“Maybe, maybe not, but in the end, I don’t have the rapport with her that I do with you, so I’ll just keep my mouth closed on the matter.”

“Boring,” Rory grumbled. “Anyway, I came here because-”

“Because you’re getting ready to leave, won’t be back for some time, blah blah blah, I know this song and dance. Hell, by the time you return, Tsarina might have taken the reins.”

“In the end, the fear she might take over came true,” Rory sighed dramatically.

Apostolos merely rolled his eyes before pulling Rory in for a tight hug.

“Don’t do anything too stupid.”

“Never,” Rory chuckled. “Since when have I ever made a bad choice?”

“You want just today or…?”

“Oh, shut up, smart ass,” Rory said before thumping Apostolos on the back and pulling away. “I’m going to visit Roxy, then I’m going to fetch Eia, and we will be off.”

“Have fun,” Apostolos said as Rory vanished a moment later.

“Never knows how to sit still,” Apostolos muttered once his older adopted brother was gone. His smile had likewise faded as he turned his thoughts to Mariah.

“Kind of wish he would give her some time of day.”

His sort-of-sister-in-law had been a bit… off for a bit, something that both Irene and Violet had noticed; the boys of the family hadn’t been quite as perceptive, but even they felt that something seemed a bit strange with her. She’d always been a bit reclusive, but that had only deepened over the years; the only times she wanted to make appearances were typically when Rory was somehow involved. It was at least a little troubling, but Apostolos wasn’t going to sit down with Mariah and hash it out with her; they weren’t exactly teenagers anymore, all of them were well over one hundred. As a significant figure of Ehkorrus, his primary concern was how it would affect her interactions with the city itself.

More importantly than that, though, was how it affected Violet, who always wore that troubled face whenever she returned from a get-together with the original generation.

“Well, it is what it is,” Apostolos finally sighed. “I just hope it doesn’t turn dramatic.”

Left on that thought, Apostolos closed his front door, with more pressing matters to attend to.

A big fat nap on his couch.