Chapter 592: Datamancers (1/2)
Zac once more got a weird feeling when he looked into Leviala's eyes now that she had woken up. Of course, that might be because of the way they looked. The girl looked like a normal, albeit frail, Caucasian girl, with a both short and lithe frame. However, her eyes dashed any chance of mistaking her for some random Earthling.
One of them was normal, though it seemed to contain impurities, small spots of darkness peppered about her sclera and green iris. But the other eye was completely white, to the point that it seemed that she was born without a pupil at all. In its place was an extremely dense fractal, and trying to understand it with [Primal Polyglot] could only provide him with one hint.
It was a curse, one aimed at the girl herself.
“I’m the one who should be thanking you for the warning before,” Zac shrugged as he handed her the bottle of water, trying to not appear weirded out by the odd appearance of the eye. “Are you okay? I didn’t know what was wrong with you, so I simply gave you a couple of different healing pills.”
“My soul is wounded, but whatever you gave me is really helping. The outside is really full of marvelous things,” she said with a weak smile.
“So I’m guessing you’re from Clan Cartava?” Zac said. “How did you end up getting captured?”
“The Lunar Tribe have kept a lot of secrets over the years it seems,” Leviala sighed. “We’ve always thought them muscleheads with limited understanding of how this world works. But they managed to sneak all the way to our domiciles without triggering any of our alarms. They used pathways that we had no idea existed and killed my guards before the elders had a chance to react.”
Zac slowly nodded. It wasn’t too surprising if the native forces finally started to make use of hidden aces they had accumulated over the past millennia now that the world was changing. No matter if it was to get out of this place or to seize the treasures of this Mystic Realm, now was the time to go all out.
It was a bit odd that these werewolves had wasted this opportunity on this girl in front of him though. It was almost a suicide mission to infiltrate a hostile faction like that, and he couldn’t see anything on her that was worth the effort. He had already searched her for Cosmos Sacks or other spatial tools, and there simply wasn’t anything on her.
The most likely reason was the parting words of the werewolf leader, but Zac had no time to worry about the key to immortality. He had a quest to complete. But there were some things he needed to understand before setting out.
“What is this thing?” Zac asked as he took out the small mechanism that he almost was struck by before. “A weapon?”
“No, they’re called restraint modules,” the girl said with a shake of her head as she took out an identical one from within her robes. “It locks your Cosmic Energy in place, which also restricts your movement. It was used to restrain research subjects long ago.”
“So it was something like that,” Zac whistled, though he wouldn’t completely take her word for it. “Then how are you free?”
“They lose their efficacy over time as the body adapts. But my parents also implanted me with a hidden blocker at birth and only told me and my grandfather. It contains an algorithm to deactivate restraint modules and some other things, and enough Base Power to connect with items outside my body,” Leviala said. “I was waiting for an opportunity to escape, but those werewolves were too vigilant. Luckily you came along.”
“Base Power? What’s that?” Zac asked as he put away the small mechanism.
“It’s the energy that this base runs on. All the tools we’ve looted in this world runs on Base Power, and it’s also required to interface with the base itself,” Leviala explained.
“Is that why this tablet won’t start up?” Zac said as he waved the thing he looted from the werewolf leader.
“Yes, these things require a fresh stream of Base Power to operate,” Leviala nodded before she looked at the disks lying next to Zac with a frown. “What are you doing?”
“I need to get to the other side, but the door those werewolves summoned is gone. You should have heard them before, they have captured one of our squads. I want to get them back,” Zac said. “How do I get that door to open again?”
“You shouldn’t go there. The Wasteland is in that direction,” Leviala said, her face turning a shade paler. “Besides, they should have been taken to the relay station. There are probably multiple squads waiting there to cross the Wasteland together. Not only that, the base might be protected by other means as well. I’m afraid that it’s impossible to save your friends.”
“Let me worry about that,” Zac shrugged as he poured out everything from the werewolf's Cosmos Sack on the ground. “Where can I get this Base Power? Does anything among these items contain it?”
“Listen to me, it’s a shame about your people, but we need to get out of this world. We are about to be trapped again in just a few days. The world is ending. Getting caught inside will only doom both our Clans,” she said as her odd eyes bore into his.
“We know,” Zac said, ignoring the discomfort of the stare. “About the trapped thing, that is.”
“You know? Why are you people still staying here then? The space treasure? You don’t understand the horror of that thing,” the girl said with fear in her eyes, a fear that didn’t seem faked to Zac. “Our Clan is ready to form an alliance with your leaders, provided that you help us out of this place. We left you a map to this forest before the storms returned. If you open a specific gate from your side, we can all-“
“I’m sorry, but we aren’t going anywhere,” Zac said with a shake of his head. “And neither are we letting anyone out. Now, these things, how do-”
“Why not?” Leviala blurted, and it was obvious she felt that Zac was a lunatic for wanting to stay in this place. “We know that your world is newly introduced to the world of cultivation, and we can help. There is much we have lost while locked in this place, but we can help each other to face the threat of outsiders.”
“Various reasons. But most the most important task our faction is dealing with is to hunt down a group of insectoid humanoids,” Zac sighed, slightly annoyed at the delay.
He knew that he needed the help of this girl if he wanted to use these machines though, as there was no time to go get his sister. So he quickly calmed down so that he could explain what was going on. He took out a picture of Void’s Disciple that they had captured when the Dominator had entered Site 17.
“Unless this man dies, then everyone, including the people of your Clan, will die. The same probably goes for a group of cultists that have entered this place. They need to be taken out as well. I don’t really care about that treasure, but our enemies do. That’s our way to hunt them down.”
Blank incomprehension was written all over Leviala’s face, but even more-so despair. Zac guessed that she had expected to finally be able to leave this prison of theirs pretty soon, but that door had suddenly closed right in her face.
“I cannot speak for my elders… But if what you’re saying is true, then Clan Cartava might be able to help you locate these threats. But can you explain what’s going on? I’m willing to act as a liaison between our forces,” she said after some thought.