Chương 47: Chapter 40

Panting.

"I'm too fat to be doing all this strenuous exercising," I mutter to myself. Also, I'm realizing that tight leather makes you sweat a lot. Worse the sweat has nowhere to go, but down and into your boots. Taking a moment, I look back to see both Marie and Octavia are still safe, and sitting right where I asked them to sit. Seeing my gaze, Marie chooses that moment to wave excitedly for me as she cries out in her adorable faux-French accent, "we are rooting for you."

Just hearing her speak, I feel myself falling back into character and realize why I love this world so much. Yes, the locations and explorations are amazing, but they are only great due to the people you get to travel with. Seeing her enthusiastic response, I reply with my own kiss and a wave, "just a bit more my dear." With that I turn my back on the duo and look up at the excessively large chairs that are before me.

Well, first I follow the lines of power that run through the hallway and seemingly end at these two colossal chairs. For what good are having twenty-five-foot-tall mechanical death golems that come to life and try to chop you down, if you don't have a thirty-foot-tall chair to mimic the sitting posture of said twenty-five-foot-tall golems. While I'm here, I realize that this building is slightly different than I expected.

While there were a few standards that seemed to fit into all Ancient facilities, the excessive writing on the walls, the excessive number of mechanical golems that littered the walls of these opulent buildings, and even the faintly similar art styles that were seen in the runic designs that lined the walls, this facility had differences. The most glaring differences for the facility would have to be the correlation of power.

Rather than having ten or more interchangeable power cells, that would need to be recharged and used to fuel different aspects of the grand facilities. This particular building had two main power cells that would act as a primary and backup generator. Where are these backup generators? Simple, they are the giant and oversized thrones that the king and queens of the Ancients would have sat in, to rule the land. Because nothing signifies power like sitting on a giant nuclear reactor.

Nuclear reactors that are stuffed into oversized thirty-foot-tall chairs that are all for show. How do I know this is all for show, and that the people who likely used these seats are regular sized? Simple, they have intricate stairs and lattices that you are meant to climb up through, to get to a hatch that then allows you to sit in the throne of opulence.

Seeing the lattice work, and knowing that I will have to climb my big body up the narrow casing, I take a moment to just look around and realize the creators must hate my Karen, the avatar that I am in. First they had me run around and jump over, the statues, each of which is worth over a thousand gold coins to make, a value I gained from previous playthroughs. Then after all that running and jumping around, I am meant to immediately climb up a death trap chair that resembles an electrical tower gone wild.

Now I'm not afraid of heights, but I am more than aware that fat people have poor balance the higher from the ground we get, and again this just seems excessive, particularly as it looks like I might have to squeeze my way through the latch at the very top of this climb.

"Do you need some help?" Marie calls out, her voice echoing across the open hallway design.

"I'm good," I reply back, realizing that I've likely wasted enough time. Any more and I might expect Marie and Octavia to get anxious and come to investigate. While I'm relatively certain that the eight mechanical statues are all the traps here, I don't quite want to risk it, and instead force myself to climb up the increasingly tightening metal spire.

"On the bright side, if you fall, you can heal yourself," I mutter to myself, realizing that my Combat Support Magic is ideal for stupid wounds inflicted while exploring. Actually, it was from falling injuries that I got while exploring Ancient ruins with Karen that first prompted me to be come an expert at casting all of her basic level healing spells. With that somewhat sobering thought, I climb, only realizing halfway up that I can make this a whole lot easier on me. Perfect Dexterity Boost.

Perfect Strength Boost. Perfect Stamina Boost. In rapid succession I cast my spells, and suddenly my body is lighter, my movements are more fluid, and most importantly, I'm not as excessively tired as I once was. While I couldn't rely on my boosts during my fight with the statues, mainly because my Disruption Field would instantly remove the boosts, now that I was no longer in combat, it was stupid for me to not use my boosts. Moving quickly, I found myself at the metal latch, of course it is locked.

But this is not my first time playing this game, which is how I instantly begin to cycle through my set of Arcane Repair spells. So despite having to hold myself into position with my right hand holding onto my ladder rung for dear life, I raise my left hand up and focus my mind while casting in what has to be one of the most awkward poses possible. Break In, something clicks. Thinking that is enough, I push on the latch, to find that it is still locked into place.

Realizing I'm going to have to try another spell, I go to my next logical spell in this case. Factory Reset. I realize that this spell was stupid to cast the second it left my hand. Mainly because the emergency lights that had been lighting my way up this death trap of a ladder and lattice work death trap went dark.

Still, I did hear the click of the magnetic lock from overhead deactivate, giving me the opportunity I needed to push my way up and climb up the suddenly dark tunnel to climb out onto the oversized chair and pant like crazy at what had to be the most frightening moment of my life.

"Three fears, seriously, three fears, all rolled into one elaborate death trap," I mutter to no one, as no one is around to hear my muttered curses. But then my mind goes through the list of fears that were exploited, only to realize that I am correct. For that trap had everything: fear of heights, fear of tight spaces, and the pièce de résistance a self-inflicted fear of the dark for good effect. Still, the chair that I have landed is like landing on a leather cloud.

That is if a cloud could be made of leather and stuffed with the softest materials ever rolled upon, in an amount that could theoretically fill up a dozen beds. Still, the area is soft, and a great reprieve as I use it to sprawl out for a moment, as I can feel the thrum of electricity slowly cycle its way back into this opulent chair that also serves as a control tower for the facility.

Times like these, where I get to rest in random nicely opulent areas are moments that I love as an actual person who interacts with this world, while I absolutely hated them and found them unnecessary while moving around an avatar on screen. Still, this level of realism and level of opulence was something I had never seen before in the Ancient's storylines. My mind tries to come up with a rational explanation for why there is a sudden change, when I hit on the only answer that seemingly makes sense.

Only for that thought to be immediately dismissed at the frantic cry of Marie coming for me, her words so pure and full of fear that I can see her glowing from the distance, as her saintly aura fills her body.

"Madame Laurain? Madame Laurain?" Marie cries out, her voice filled with pure energy.

"I'm here," I call out, placing my hands out under me, as I search for ground in the dark that is slowly being eroded away by the lights of the building that are slowly coming back online. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. I am kneeling down, with one hand on the ground, while my right arm waves in the air, that is what everyone sees as the room chooses that moment to come back to life with the emergency lights flowing back on.

There is a mechanical whir, as the trap door that is right in front of me snaps shut, and locks back into place. The snapping so close that I can feel the wind pushing me back, as my mind almost lost consciousness for a moment, seeing the opening in the floor and implementing a bout of vertigo that I didn't know I had. Is that part of my avatar? Part of Karen's normal condition that I have taken on, now that I seem to possess her body?

Or is that just residual exhaustion filling in for me, followed by being caught off guard with how close I was to the open death trap of falling down an open stairwell?

"Good, how much longer?" Karen asked, the nervous edge gone from her voice, though I can now feel an underlying impatience that didn't seem to exist before suddenly emerging. Again, I felt that this had to be some type of timer at work, while I couldn't see the timer, I could feel Karen and Octavia's impatience running out.

"Not much longer, let me try to interact with the control system here," I begin as I stand up, my feet dropping underneath me as I all but sink into he foam seats, the way a kid would in an oversized bounce house. Just feeling the effect, I feel a slightly deeper sensation of nausea overtake me as I end up stumbling to the blatant control panel on the right hand side. The control panel is expertly crafted and could almost look like an ornate tray.

Had it not been for the rebooting of the system, and subsequent lighting up of the instrument panel, I might have missed it entirely. But now that I am here, and that I have seen similar panels in other Ancient facilities, it stands out to my sight. With a few awkward and stumbling steps, I trudge through the overly soft landscape and finally brace myself against the panel. Only to find that it is out of energy.

Well less than one percent energy, which is fine for me, as I just begin channeling a bit of my own energy into the device. Arcane Repair Current. The upgraded channeled form of the upgraded Arcane Repair Bolt spell that can serve as either an attack spell to bosses, or serve as a means of powering up Ancient fuel cells. I feel the current of energy swell inside me, then exit out my arms, through my fingers and pour into the control panel and the subsequently empty power cell under my seat.

How do I know it is flowing into the energy cell under my seat? Well, oddly enough I still have control over the current even as it leaves me and flows through an object, added to that is the fact that more and more lights attached to this chair are beginning to spark to life and I suddenly have a fairly good idea that my current is charging the latent batter. Also, the battery all but tells me that it is coming to life.

Remaining Power: 2% Within five minutes, I see the power spike all the way to 10%, which appears to be a needed threshold as that is when the panel truly comes to life, showing me a world of endless possibilities.

Remaining Power: 10% System Status: Offline (Insufficient Power) Connected Kingdoms: (None Available) Features currently unavailable: Friend or Foe Designations Teleportation Pads Mine: Crystal Mine: Gold Mine: Psi-Trinium Miners available: 0 Just reading out the panel of paths available, I paused as I tried to read the odd alien text of the Ancients once, then twice more. Each time, my mind told me that something amazing awaited me, if I continued to supply the power needed for this facility.

Everything listed was needed as I could designate my friends as being able to come in here. The Teleportation pads were also needed, as that would be the only way we could get back to the Love Academy on time, before the semester started. As for the mines, those were amazing that they were added in and were the first step towards making your empire a powerhouse. Just looking at the options, my heart fluttered as I realized that this could only mean one thing.

A thing that seemed to amazing, so unbelievably impossible that I dared not say it out loud, lest I ruin it for myself. Something so delicate that like silence, just saying it aloud would break it. Then the power readout rose once more and I began to see the true inner workings of the control chair I was on come to life and fill me with a promise that I had only dreamed about. Remaining Power: 15% Features Available: Unavailable (Must Have An Owner Assigned) Factory reset detected.

Designate new owner: Enter Name, provide bloodline sample, and set Kingdom priorities. That was it, the line I had always dreamed of, but had forever been denied to me, as we were always meant to play as Claudia Von'Roseblade. With this new feature, I could finally play as the Ancient Faction. Seeing this as my opportunity, I entered my name. Only to be hit with a blinking message that said my name was dismissed. I tried again, wondering if my bloodline or name was too lowly to be accepted.

I even cut my finger with a dagger and smeared my bloody finger over the readout panel. I could see the moment that it came to life, and began reading my blood sample provided. Processing. Then a flash, and I was once again at the start menu, with none of my data saved.

"Stupid glitch, accept me!" I cursed feeling that I was so close to having my own empire. Or the start of one at least. I was so close, but it looked like I was supposed to go and find something, maybe do something? No, that made no sense, as I was already here, cycling power into the device. What else needed to be done. For a moment, I thought it was broken, that I would need to leave and likely come back later to solve this puzzle.

"How much longer will this take? We will have to get back to the University eventually," Octavia's voice seemed to carry in the odd chamber. Hearing her voice I looked up at the oddly curved dome and realized that this was likely a sound chamber designed for just such a purpose as this spot allowed for the ruler to hear everything from a distance. Hearing Octavia speak, I felt momentarily flustered as I realized that if I could hear them, then they could likely hear me as well.

"We have time," Marie replied, seemingly oblivious to the fact that I could hear them speaking perfectly. Yet, it was only after hearing them speak that I looked once more at the control panel, and that's when I noticed something. Something blinking. Seeing the blinking component, I felt amazingly stupid for missing the obvious. Remaining Power: 24%: Time: xx/yy/zzzz Then there was a pause as the missing numerals next to time blinked, before showing the empty data sets once more.

"You've got to be kidding me," I mutter. Then I realized this world was built with the same logic that every device in my world had. Namely, when you lose power, the first thing you have to do is reset all your clocks to keep them from blinking at you in that annoyed way. Then, having nothing else to do I filled in the correct date. 02/01/XX37 With that, the blinking stopped, and the device was no longer in its repetitive loop of dropping all my information.

Enter name: This time, the panel didn't blink, it didn't stutter. I just entered my name into the required field. Enter Name: Karen Laurain From there, I pressed my still bloody finger on the blood tester. Bloodline: Awakened Survivor's Bloodline detected. Bloodline Accepted. Grade: Lowest Caste Class: Arcane Repair Accepted. Grade: Lowest Caste I felt kind of sad that I was deemed to be the weakest and lowest cast of Ancients remaining.

A categorization that was only made worse by the fact that I was effectively one of one, meaning I lost to myself, if this grade was anything to go off of. Yet, my momentary lapse of a grade was quickly dismissed by what happened next. With my name and bloodline both accepted, I was given the option that would forever change the trajectory of my life and time in this world. No leader detected, would you like to apply for the position? Without even thinking twice about it, I gave the only acceptable answer.

"Heck yeah!" For a moment, I thought that was all that was needed. I mean there were no other leaders here, no one to oppose me, it made sense that I should just be accepted, right? That was the logical conclusion at least, but the facility seemed to have a different conclusion entirely. Rite of Leadership test to commence shortly, difficulty increased due to lowest Bloodline Caste, and lowest Class Caste. Difficulty Increased by two tiers from Hard, to Impossible. It was at that moment that I knew I had messed up.