The System’s Harvester

Mid Morning - Early Summer : Arlington, Virginia | United States

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- Eve Altera ~

"So you wish to bring Evren back to your kingdom with you?"

"I'm not asking." Standing firmly, just inside the office of a man named Alrek Occoro, I spoke coldly.

"Y..Yes, I'm aware.. however, we did get a message that you stole the Eye of Odin..." Anxiously keeping his gaze below mine with a cold sweat, Alrek spoke with caution. "I have no right to sit in on this.. however, it's quite likely the US will seek compensation for destroying such a precious artifact..."

"Since when did the US own the Archive?" Tilting my head, I wove anger into my tone. "If the Dwarven King wishes for compensation for me breaking his artifact, he will contact me himself." *Vwoom* Using a bit of my aura to lift up his chin, I made him look me in the eyes. "If the ISO wishes for me to repay damages to the spire, I will. However, the US won't be getting a penny from me. If your country's politicians have gotten that greedy you should leave before they bring doom upon themselves."

Grimacing slightly, his gaze stopped wavering. "The ISO is required for international stability. We must exist in order to keep countries out of conflict like this..." Waving away my aura, his expression stiffened with a fake smile. "We will do our best to prevent the US from doing anything, even if we must pay for their satisfaction. Is that enough, your majesty?"

-No wonder Kassaer took a liking to him.. he's like a fox...- Nodding, I turned to the door. "But before I leave, allow me to say this." Glancing back, the temperature of the room plummeted to the point that frost formed around me. "If you appease their greed, you will only delay the inevitable."

His expression quickly darkened before true honesty finally found its way into his voice. "We are aware."

Pausing to look into his eyes for another moment, I felt like I was talking to an upper manager of the ISO. -He won't be bad to get on good terms with...- Gently waving over my shoulder, I opened the door with my aura and walked out. "I greatly appreciate how you treated Evren, so if you ever need a reasonable favor, reach out to me through that little spy of yours."

Watching him jolt as the doors finally closed, and I walked down the hall with a pleased look. -If they need help preventing the government's collapse, I certainly wouldn't be against it.- All helping would mean is that I would get a piece of the pie. -I wonder if they'll finally give me that valley in the Rockies...-

Getting a bit ahead of myself, a wide smile spread across my face.

But while I was hopeful to get a piece of the pie that would follow the chaos, my smile was also fueled by something else.

*Ding!* As I reached the top of the elevator, my system updated with a quest.

"Holy shit..." -What is that penalty?!- It was the most severe penalty I had ever seen. -That might be worse than death...-

And while the objective was simple, being something I was already going to do.. the completion condition had me worried. -'Failure of Entity's satisfaction'...- It meant even if I did everything I could, if Evren wasn't satisfied, I would get hit with the penalty anyway. -It seems like the gods are anxious too...-

But while it made me a bit anxious, the completion condition also sparked an old sense of determination I hadn't felt in quite a long time.

I was a mage that was completely unrivaled in both knowledge and talent on Earth. If there were to be anyone able to complete this quest it would be me. -Auntie Evren is a more traditional fighter too...- Although it'd be a challenge, I was confident I'd be able to satisfy whatever she could throw at me, be it no talent, or an ocean of it.

However, that confidence quickly disappeared once I found how far that sea continued over the horizon.

"Wait, so.. how long have you been trying to learn how to control your aura..?" Staring at her with wide eyes as she grabbed her things and equipped her armor, she turned to me and spoke bluntly.

"A little over a day."

Staring into the massive volume of blue and green mana pouring out of the window as she directed it away from me, I suddenly felt a mountain lay itself on my shoulders. -I thought she was just using an artifact to conceal her aura...-

It was a sight that even I, the child of the person most people believed to be the strongest in the system, struggled to wrap my head around.

When I first entered the outskirts of Arlington, I noticed a distinct change in the air, the mana felt oddly stale, but I thought it was just because I entered the city. -Was that feeling from.. her aura..?-

Feeling a bead of sweat form on my forehead, my heart started thumping harder than it ever had before. -I.. might need to rethink how I'm going to teach her...-

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- Evren Lestir ~

"Hooh.. okay then..." Letting out an anxious breath, Eve averted her eyes for a moment.

"Is something the matter?" Calling over Bella as I kept my eyes on Eve, I grabbed the towels and higher quality cloth I told her to retrieve before tossing it all in my inventory.

"N-No, I apologize, I just.. had to rethink something for a moment..." Giving Bella a quick glance, Eve continued into the room with a somewhat forced smile. "In any case, shall we get going? We have quite a ways to run."

"Yeah." -I'd rather not waste any more time loitering around here...- Looking back toward Bella, I reached out and had her press her head into my palm, instantly moving her into the robotics section of my inventory. *Vwoop* "So, how long will we be traveling?"

"As short as a few hours if we really haul it." Turning toward the window, while Fiddling with her system, she started speaking more freely. "I can't say I'm certain we will be able to make that pace though..."

"Haha," She was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up. -She's just as confident as her mother...- "If you think you can outrun me, why don't you try it? You used to love racing me around the Oak." -Even if you were but a child back then...-

Pausing, her anxiety seemed to vanish and she turned back to me with a slightly competitive gleam in her eye. "A-Alright then! Just don't get mad when I beat you now!"

But unfortunately, that never happened.

After taking a moment to humble her, we began our rather long trek to the northwest, enjoying the incredible vistas while blasting past monsters so fast we killed them.

*D-D-D-Ding!* Looking at the slough of 'kill-confirmed' panels that popped up after we passed over a village of orcs, I slowed down slightly to let Eve connect us with a static tube of air so we could speak to one another.

*Vwoom* "Using your aura to run like that is pretty clever." At the time, I was using my aura to run just over the trees, connecting my feet to the ground from just above the canopy so I wouldn't have to worry about obstacles. "But you can also use your aura like a spring and throw yourself if you have something sturdy to connect your aura to."

-Huh?- "What? Really?" I instantly turned to her with a curious look.

But it turned out to be far more difficult than it sounded.

The thing was, whenever I stiffened my aura, it had no elasticity so it couldn't throw anything the traditional way, and could only really act like a medium for me to apply force through.

And while this was mainly because of a lack of control and knowledge with my aura, Eve actually had an alternative solution...

Essentially, if I created a bunch of pillars connecting to the ground, as if I was spreading out the impact of my step, or spread out my weight, I could quickly scrunch up the pillars, and launch myself forward or into the air as long as the ground was sturdy enough.

However, Eve forgot to mention that it wasn't just the ground that needed to be sturdy.

*CRRRACKK* *PUFF* The first time I tried it, it was like a black hole had been created beneath me. The trees were reduced to dust and the top layer of dirt, grass, rocks, and roots were compacted into the area right beneath my foot before suddenly exploding, as if the entire area was forced to implode.

But boy did it work. *WOOOOOSH* In the same instant that the fifty-meter-wide section of forest beneath me was reduced to a blend of dust, I found myself engulfed in the dense mist of a cloud. "Holy shit..."

Inevitably falling back to the ground, I quickly caught myself before trying again and again to try and get the hang of it.

But the repetition was good for more than just practice.

While doing it over and over again was fairly mentally taxing, the more I did it, the less of a headache things like reading my aura gave me.. even if the change was so slight I almost didn't notice. -Is the pain I feel not from mental strain like that mage thought? Why does it feel like I'm getting better?- Even after pushing myself to the absolute limit when fighting the wyvern, and bringing that unbelievable splitting pain upon myself, rather than feeling like my brain was getting slower and more sluggish, my thoughts somehow felt clearer and faster than ever.

But I couldn't know without testing, so for the rest of our journey, I ran with my eyes closed, guiding myself over the forest solely with my aura, reading it out as far as I could for as long as I could in order to try and replicate the pain I felt after using my aura to fight the wyvern.

And sure enough.. it really hurt.

By the time we crossed the heavily forested border that used to connect to Canada, barely an hour after we started running, I felt loopy to the point I was struggling a bit with my balance, and had an incredibly uncomfortable pulsating sensation moving through my head. "Ugh..." -On second thought.. maybe that wasn't a great idea...-

"Why are you pushing yourself that hard?" Panicking slightly after having watched my condition worsen for the last hour, Eve quickly closed the distance between us before hastily looking around and changing directions. "Here, just follow me!"

Not really questioning it, I followed after her, but it didn't take long for the endless, uniform forest we had been passing over to start growing.

In a matter of moments, the trees went from twenty meters to well over a hundred, donning wide canopies and massive overhanging branches that suspended entire buildings and structures connected to one another with wide rope bridges.

It was literally a suspended city. -Woah...- But while it was sincerely quite beautiful, I genuinely had no clue why we were here. -This definitely isn't the capital... So, why are we here?-

But as we began slowing down and eventually came to a stop before a stunning wooden building built into the canopy of one of the larger trees, things made a bit more sense.

*Tap-Tap* "Wait here." *Woosh* Quickly darting inside, Eve only took a moment to come back out with two massive bottles of red liquid with a blue mist floating inside it. "Here, drink this."

-Ah, I see...- We were taking a break. *Pat* Taking one of the bottles from her though, I hesitated before taking a sip. "What is this?" It reminded me of potions that were exceedingly common in the early system worlds, but they had almost no affect after a certain point, usually around level 50 or 60.

But it was a bit different. "This is called a mana elixir. It's just a common healing potion embued with a ton of mana. They're meant for people around level two hundred, but since we as ascended live off mana, it will help us too. It should help alleviate your headache at the very least."

"Wait..." I immediately tilted my head. "How did you know it was a headache?" -Did she guess?-

Quickly shaking her head, she popped off the glass bottle's cork and threw her head back to take a big Gulp of it. *Blub* "Haaah..." With a satisfied breath, she was quick to continue. "Considering it came after you were practicing with your aura for a while, I figured it was it was something ascended call 'mana strain'. It's basically when some part of your body, usually your brain, gets deprived of mana kind of like mortals do with oxygen if they dont breathe enough. It feels like a burning or searing sensation, right?"

But I had to quickly shake my head with a slightly confused look. "It feels like something is tearing..." Although my head did feel incredibly hot, it wasn't like she described. -But maybe this will still help...- However, as I stared at it, thoughts and theories blew through my mind before I inevitably just tossed it in my inventory. *Vwoop*

"Huh?" It made Eve a bit confused though. "You aren't even going to try it?"

Shaking my head, a smile found its way onto my face. "I just want to test a theory I have. Drinking it will just undo everything I just tried to replicate." -It might skew the results...-

Giving me a look as if wanting me to tell her what the experiment was, she stared at me for a moment before her posture finally eased. "Haah, alright then... Regardless, let's use it as an excuse for a break. You said you were in a rush to learn about mana anyway, right?" Seeing me nod, she quickly continued. "We are in one of my kingdoms satellite cities, cities near the border." Motioning me along with her, we walked up to a railing that overlooked all the surrounding, suspended structures absolutely packed with people trying to get a look at us. "It's not a city known for mana research or anything, but it is the location of something that'll definitely help you."

Tilting my head, I looked through my aura, but didn't see anything special nearby. "What is it?"

Smiling somewhat smugly, she puffed up her chest. "A mana well! The perfect place for a new mage to train and learn about mana! The one I wanted to bring you to is in the capital, but it might be better to use something a little less extreme to start."

"I-Is that so?" Mana wells were essentially accumulations of mana in the ground that have yet to turn into dungeons. In some of the worlds I had been to, they contained entire lakes of mana where I could even go for a swim. -They're the perfect place to learn about mana and all the time I spent in them was to just relax...- I felt a bit guilty hearing it from her.

But considering Earth's low mana level, I didn't expect much.

After following Eve across town, we made it to a large marble structure built on the ground and made our way inside. *Vwoom*

It was like stepping into another world. The mana level inside was completely incomparable to everything outside, being thick enough to feel a bit intoxicating, but as we travelled down a long spiral staircase, it only got thicker and thicker, to the point that it was visible, filling the air with a beautiful blue and green glow.

-Geez...- Staring at the beautiful flows of mana in the air with wide eyes, my expectations completely fell apart. "This is a much bigger well than I expected..." Eventually making it to the bottom, I overlooked the nearly hundred square meter pond of mana with a look of shock. -Earth doesn't have that much mana as it is though.. how did a well this big even form...-

I honestly didn't know what to even think.

But I wasn't given a single moment to even question it.

Before anything more than a question could rip through my head, every waking moment was consumed by lessons on mana and magic to the extent that I didn't even have the free thought to ask questions anymore.

When I had something I wanted to ask, Eve already had the answer, almost like she was reading my mind.

But while the progress felt kind of slow, it only sped up more and more the longer she talked, combining verbal lessons with visual examples, using the visible flow of mana in the air the show me exactly how I needed to do things.

The thing was.. I just had way more to learn than I thought...

By the time evening rolled around, I felt like I had barely even scratched the surface, and that feeling sparked a desire I didn't even know I had.

A desire that lit my curiosity aflame like a gas can being tossed into a campfire.

The desire to learn.

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