Chapter 187: Karna Xiorra (1/2)
”I guess I'll have to abstain from sleep until my things get here… Sad that I can't farm sloth,” Rakna said while strolling on the roofs of Blacksteel where there wasn't anyone to bother him.
[Rakna, may I bring your attention to something?] Alexa spoke up.
”Hm? What is it”
[Please take a look for yourself,] she responded and opened the HL. Rakna's eyes brightened due to the contacts and an image appeared in his vision.
The second he saw it, his expression twitched. It was the images of him falling from the sky with his volcanic element surrounding him and the consequent regeneration of his arm. But what truly irked him was the voice being played along with it.
|| Sightings of Rakna Xiorra's twin brother outside of Blacksteel! His name is yet to be discovered but a witness who happened to talk with him confirmed his identity! || It said and transitioned to the interview of the young man who had approached Rakna earlier.
”That little piece of shit…” The therian growled out and lost control of his mana, turning his hair back to red again. ”I should have erased his memories… Where did that footage even come from?”
”{You underestimate how easy it is to take videos,}” Fray commented. ”{There were many more people other than that man who were waiting at the station. They happened to see you crash and filmed you. Good thing though that your werewolf form wasn't seen.}”
”Well, obviously! I made sure to turn back as fast as I could because I knew there were people! I just didn't know they would be filming me! Fuck, it's worse than Earth here… They probably only had a second to react before I crashed and they managed to film me anyway.”
”{Well, it should not surprise you. People here have far higher reaction times and most HLs have a continuous recording feature.}”
”Tch, my HL did do that with Verias now that I think about it…” Rakna groaned. ”Awesome. I have a third persona going around the net now.”
”{Isn't that fun? We should give it a name,}” Higure said amused.
”Karna,” he replied instantly. ”If I had to give it a name, it would definitely be that.”
”{That was oddly fast and enthusiastic of you…}”
”Can't help it when it's such a perfect fit.”
”{But isn't that the name of Wang's Celestial Kindle?}”
”Yes, but it's not really about that. Firstly, Karna is an anagram of Rakna, which works perfectly in this context. And two, Karna is the son of Surya, the sun god, in Hindu mythology.”
”{Oh, I see. It thus fits your volcanic star,}” Fray commented. ”{Clever.}”
”Yeah, not that I intend to use it.”
”{Knowing you, it's not going to go along with what you want but still turn out beneficial.}”
Rakna groaned and stopped at the edge of a skyscraper. He glanced at the ground and looked up at the sky with a hum. ”Alexa, does Blacksteel have aerial defenses?”
[Affirmative. Blacksteel is the most secured city in the entire System. There are millions of cameras and high-level AIs monitoring the city. If they detect a threat, they will activate the defenses. There are many sensors as well. If large spikes of mana are detected, various contingency measures are set to be carried out.]
”Uh… so I guess launching something like Cataract into the sky is a bad idea?”
[…why would you do such a thing?]
”It's an example, okay? I wanted to experiment a bit… I wanted to test the phoenix constellation.”
”{In the middle of Blacksteel?}”
”Why not? But whatever. I'll try it when I need to. Something I've noticed is that when I draw a constellation on the spot, the resulting spell seems to be perfectly adapted to the situation.”
”{That is a phenomenon commonly known as conception osmosis,}” Fray stated. ”{It is when your mind bleeds into your mana parapsychologically and stimulates the spell or skill formation.}”
”Right... big words. Anyway, Alexa, initiate a transfer to the 15th Plateau.”
[Acknowledged.]
”{What are you going to do there?}”
”I'm going to try and promote to Rank VI. And practice my skills too,” he replied and passively opened his friend panel to send Allan a message. ”There. I had almost forgotten to warn him that we were on standby for a few days.”
[Ten seconds left before the transfer. Since you left the 15th through the Pavilion, you will appear in the portal room,] Alexa informed him.
”Got it,” Rakna nodded and the light of the System engulfed him and transported him right out of Blacksteel, leaving the roof he was on vacated again.
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He was dropped off right in front of the large portal and after getting his bearings, he walked out of the room and passed by the front reception. The Nymph sitting behind it lifted her eyes from her screen and froze on the spot when she caught a glimpse of him as he walked up the stairs.
Of course, Rakna realized why when he literally could see the news talking about him displayed on her holographic monitor. 'This just goes to show how fast information spreads in the System. This incident happened barely over an hour or two ago, but I wouldn't be surprised if every Plateau knew about it already.'
”{That is because the System has a custom network. It connects Blacksteel's own one to any other compatible grid in other Plateaus. That is another one of the many things the Pavilion has done.}”
'Well, it's a pain in the ass.'
”{Says the one who took advantage of it to popularize himself.}”
'The Obsidian thing is different, okay? At least, it was on purpose. Sort of,' Rakna responded and started picking Quests on the board that seemed good for his level.
”{Well, you should have thought twice before using a spell that dangerous. It's because you could not control the trajectory that you crashed in front of so many people.}”
'But it was a nice spell though.'
”{It was reckless.}”
'But awesome,' Rakna shrugged off the lioness' scolding and closed the board when he was done picking Quests. At the same time, he heard a ping from his inbox.
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<Allan River> Rak… are you in Full Shift?