Braided Sky
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PftA Book 4 - Chapter 13 - Returning to Earth
🕑 Added 2024-11-05 06:05:56 +0000 UTC“You should be able to drop the disguise now, right?” Dad asked me as we stepped away from the small teleportation room attached to the Knoxville portal hub.
A glance at Master Kairos revealed he’d already returned to his normal appearance, so I quickly followed suit.
Neither of us wore our sect robes, though our civilian attire was enchanted with many of the same protections. In fact, my new clothing provided far superior protection against surprise attacks – something that I considered a necessity, given the current threat.
Master Kairos had acquired or crafted them; I wasn’t sure which. It was probably the latter since I didn’t think he had more than a passing familiarity with Tailoring or any of the related professions.
“Do you know exactly where Grandma and Grandpa live now?” I asked.
“I do,” Dad replied as he shifted Kaylee from his side to his back. The toddler grinned at the change and clung to his neck like a baby monkey. “We still have that flying contraption you made before you left. Do you want to ride together, or would you rather follow? I imagine you have your own form of transportation that doesn’t involve teleportation.”
“We should all be able to fit,” Mom interjected leadingly, making her preference clear.
I quickly counted the number of people in our group.
“Eleven is a lot to fit into the pod I made for you guys back when I was still Tier Three. Speaking of…” I removed a couple of models I’d outgrown from my ring. “Here, I don’t need these anymore and they’re a lot more versatile than the one you have.”
My parents’ eyes widened, and I could sense they were getting ready to refuse my offer.
“Really,” I insisted. “I don’t need them. I planned to give them to you guys anyway, even if you don’t necessarily need them within most Alliance cities.”
With an expression of gratitude, Dad accepted one of the credit card-sized slips of crystal. The new versions looked a lot more like the collapsed version of Ros’s original chariot that I’d shamelessly mimicked for my own personal use.
“Same controls?”
I nodded before handing the others to Mom, Justin, and Bell.
I suspected Bell could make something comparable already, but I didn’t mind giving one to her anyway. If nothing else, it would save her from needing to craft one for Amie when the time came for her to leave home in a couple of years.
Also, I fully understood that just because someone could craft something didn’t necessarily mean they were inclined to take the time and effort to do so.
“Yep. The basics are the same and there’s an interface link that’ll guide you for anything you don’t understand. That part’s new,” I explained, “though it’s pretty intuitive.”
The link wouldn’t work without an upgraded interface, but that wasn’t something that concerned anyone in my immediate family.
After shaping his new vehicle into something that resembled a large caliber bullet (or a wingless airplane), Dad flew us to the town where most of my mom’s side of the family had settled after the reintegration.
Grandma Katherine and Grandpa Paul, my mom’s parents, were waiting outside a relatively new housing complex when we arrived.
“Well, you don’t look a day older than you did when you left!” Grandma exclaimed when she saw me.
“And you look even younger than before!” I countered with a grin.
I’d given all of my living grandparents and elderly family members rejuvenation treatments before I left, though the effects were nowhere near as remarkable as they would be when I repeated the treatment with my new strength before leaving.
“Thanks to you! I swear, I haven’t felt this good since I was in my forties! Between your mom’s healing and you literally turning back the clock…” Grandma shook her head as she found herself without the proper words to express herself.
Understanding, I gave her another quick squeeze. “Family takes care of each other,” I replied. “I won’t always be around, but while I am, I want to do what I can to help the people that are important to me.”
And they were important to me, even if I was a little emotionally detached from the majority of my family members after so much time away.
Several members of my extended family lived in the same housing complex as my grandparents. It was a standard Alliance housing unit that could be found on any low to mid-tier world. It wasn’t one of the really nice ones, but Earth was still low-tier and quite new to the Alliance.
“Look who’s back,” Gabby said when she let herself into my grandparents’ home a little while later. Her burnt-orange/red hair had darkened into something closer to true red since I last saw her, though her eyes remained the same vibrant shade of green they were before.
I grinned at my cousin. “You’re nearly at Tier Four!” I exclaimed after seeing her level.
Gabby puffed up slightly. “Yep. Another six months or so and I should have enough XP to get there,” she said proudly. “Me and my team have been delving almost non-stop for the last few years. There ain’t nearly enough people to keep the harder Tier Three rifts cleared, so those of us strong enough tend to stay busy.”
“That’s great. Just make sure you’re safe,” I said.
“Yeah, yeah,” Gabby said as she waved a hand before plopping into a nearby reclining chair. “So, how was the dungeon? I have some friends who plan on trying their luck with it soon since they’re outgrowing the rifts on Earth. I told them I’d ask.”
I raised a brow at the comment. “What are you talking about?”
“Oh yeah. You probably don’t know if you just got back,” she said before leaning forward. “People started getting messages from folks who disappeared years ago, most of ‘em before the apocalypse even happened. Then these two people show up, claiming to be kidnapped from Earth and forced into a dungeon on some other planet.
“People were rightly mad when they found out, and those new nobles made a big stink about it with the higher-ups. Some Alliance bigwigs came down and announced that anyone who wanted to challenge themselves in the dungeon could, so long as they were Tier Four or below. Some folks got mad about them trying to take more people, but since nobody’s forcin’ anybody…”
The redhead popped a piece of gum in her mouth and started chewing. “Volunteers don’t get no special perks like the inventory you and the others got, but anyone born on Earth can enter the dungeon for the next fifteen years.” She paused. “I guess it’s closer to thirteen now.”
“Really?” I asked, intrigued by the information. I was also a little curious about whether or not my cousin would feel compelled to follow in my footsteps. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that possibility. “How do people volunteer?”
“They got a portal in Brazil. It opens once a month, but you gotta do the tower training before you can go through it,” she said before blowing a bright pink bubble.
“So, like going to any other off-planet location,” I said with a nod.
Gabby popped the bubble loudly. “I mean, I guess?” she said with a shrug. After a pause, she asked, “So, you got any advice? Those two that came back talked about it some, but getting another side is always a good thing.”
Not seeing any reason not to answer, I spent the next hour sharing my experiences in the Realm Dungeon with Gabby and answering the questions her friends had.
At one point, she even called them and put them on speakerphone by linking her interface to her Atlas Glass phone. I wasn’t surprised to see the device, considering they were considered basic manatech throughout the Alliance.
Eventually, Kaylee provided me an excellent opportunity to extricate myself from the conversation, and I happily joined her outside.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to discuss my time in the dungeon. I was just tired of only discussing my time in the dungeon.
Or my affinities.
It felt like those two topics took up almost ninety percent of the conversations I’d had with anyone since leaving the dungeon, family or not.
= = =
“You seem awfully serious since you came back,” Grandma Katherine tutted when I entered the kitchen the next morning. She was cooking, which wasn’t all that unusual, given her profession.
Having been a professional chef before the reintegration, it was only natural that she would gain Cooking-related skills and select Chef as her profession once she reached level five. While some people resolutely refused to level at all, I’d been able to persuade almost all of my family members to do at least the bare minimum to gain a profession.
Now, more than eight years since the reintegration, Grandma Kathrine had reached Tier Two and was well on her way to reaching Tier Three. She’d probably need a bit of assistance to get her alternate experience, but that was normal for non-fighters.
Between the rejuvenation treatments and her increased tier, Grandma Katherine looked like a woman in her early fifties, though she undoubtedly felt even younger. It was a significant improvement over the elderly woman she’d been before I entered the dungeon.
“I don’t mean to be overly serious,” I apologized. “I’ve just got a lot on my mind.”
“I heard about that,” she replied. “You might think we don’t know what’s going on with the rest of the Alliance, but them aliens have made sure we aren’t completely uninformed. We’ve even got beastmen running around now! I swear, I liked to have a heart attack the first time I saw one of them!”
“Yeah, they’re certainly different,” I said with a soft chuckle. “Most are pretty nice, though.”
Grandma huffed as she rolled out a bit of pastry. “I wouldn’t know, myself. Anna talked to one at the market the other day, and she said he was real nice. But there’s some on the TV causing problems, so they’re probably just like any other group of people.”
I shrugged. It was nice that she acknowledged demis as ‘people’ instead of using some derogatory term. I’d seen a few examples of other races (Earthborn and otherwise) refusing to do even that because of their appearance.
“So, was there anywhere you wanted to visit while I’m here?” I asked, changing the subject.
Grandma Katherine stopped for a moment and looked at me. “What do you mean? Like, traveling?”
I chuckled. “Yeah. I can Teleport. We can go pretty much anywhere on Earth as long as I know where it is.”
We could probably go anywhere in the solar system… maybe beyond.
Being in the dungeon, I hadn’t gotten a chance to really test my boundaries when it came to distance. Stella had mentioned problems going between two celestial objects – planets, moons, or similar structures. But now that I’d reached Tier Eight and gained Space Magic Mastery, I felt certain many of those limitations no longer applied.
“I wouldn’t mind seeing Hawaii,” she commented after a moment of thought. “I always planned to visit but never got around to it.”
“We can go there if you want,” I said with a smile. “In fact, you and I could take a quick trip after breakfast if you’d like.”
Grandma’s eyes grew wide. “Really?” She seemed to consider it for a moment before shaking her head. “No. It wouldn’t be right to go without the rest of the family,” she said before adding, “So long as you don’t mind cartin’ all of us around, that is.”
“Nah, I don’t mind,” I assured her. “I can take quite a few people with me now that I’ve gotten stronger.”
“You’re really that strong, huh?” she said thoughtfully. “Maybe the strongest person on Earth besides that pretty boy Master that ran off after you got here?”
I wanted to laugh at the comment, but I restrained myself.
Master Kairos had left shortly after we arrived at my grandparents’ house. He’d claimed he wanted to explore a bit, but I was pretty sure he just felt out of place. It wasn’t a huge deal since I’d Marked him and could basically track him as long as he was on Earth.
Maybe beyond.
Like with teleportation, I hadn’t really tested my limits since leaving the dungeon.
“I’m not sure I’m the strongest, but I doubt many people would give me trouble,” I replied before eyeing her more closely. “Why? Is something wrong?”
“Not like you’re probably thinking,” she said. “You were doing work for the Alliance before you left, changing rifts and getting rid of the ones that cause trouble. Now that you’re so much stronger, it’d probably be easy for you to help make things safer for everybody.”
She popped the neatly cut pastry dough into the oven before wiping her flour-dusted hands on the simple apron she wore over her clothes.
“It won’t be long before they’re done,” she said, nodding toward the oven. “I’ll start on the eggs if you want to go start waking people up. I imagine the jetlag coming from another planet is a little rougher than just crossing a few time zones.”
I nodded. The time difference was a bit pronounced. But luckily, I didn’t need very much sleep at my tier.
I wasn’t sure what to do about my grandmother’s request. Or rather, her statement. She hadn’t actually asked me to do anything.
Even if she had, I wasn’t sure what I’d be allowed to do to help. There were rules in place to prevent higher-tier individuals from doing too much on lower-tier planets.
There might be some exceptions for a native returning to a newly ‘reintegrated’ planet, but I’d need to check with Master Kairos (and probably the local nobles) before I did anything.
At the same time, I was not inclined to watch as lower-tier people died to rift beasts, and there were a LOT of those outside the town walls.
Maybe a little intervention was called for.
Comments
Procrastination
Ahh… thanks for pointing that out!
Mike
Thanks for the chapter! Hopefully all of the assassination plot can get resolved so as not to interfere with Emie going to Amie’s awakening ceremony and hopefully reestablishing their relationship. Don’t want to miss out on what has been motivating Emie for decades 😀🎉
Mike G.
You just save me typing all that up myself, thanks :)
Maric
"Master Kairos had acquired or crafted them; I wasn’t sure which. It was probably the latter since I didn’t think he had more than a passing familiarity with Tailoring or any of the related professions." Am I reading this wrong or should this be "former" instead of "latter"?
