Luke slowly shook his head. “Nah, we aren’t even gonna try to kill the hydra today. We need better weapons and more fighters before we can attempt to kill a monster that big.”

  Bumblebee’s armor slumped in relief. “No cap. That thing looks like it can swallow me whole.”

  They turned south and started heading back to Bona Urbo. As they jogged Luke said, “Do you know much about hydras? If we are going to take one down I might as well build a custom weapon for it. For example, do you know if they have any elemental weaknesses?”

  “Nah, never fought one before. Cormac usually soloed monsters this big. He can get scary powerful when he has time. Or could anyway. I guess we’ll have to ice this sucka ourselves.”

  They headed back a different way than they had come here, so they ran into more monsters. A pair of Wizard Leeches tried to ambush them in scrub brush. They fell to a few simple sword swings. A grassy field revealed a towering Rock Bull. It took the rest of Luke’s ammo to take down, but provided a tier 4 core in exchange. They took out a swarm of Acid Mantises, but most of the three foot long insects were too young to house a core. They only collected three tier one cores from the bunch.

  They arrived at the estate village only four hours after they left, but Luke was exhausted. All that running and fighting had taken a lot out of him. His mana pool was full again, but the constant use was making him feel strained inside, somehow.

  When they got to Kruro’s workshop, Jinx was happy to see Luke, even happier when he climbed out of his mech to play with her. She liked batting around one of the monster cores they had collected today. She even tried to gnaw on it at one point. When Luke took it away after that, she wandered away.

  Kruro didn’t know much about monsters in general, so the hydra was a mystery to her. She did have some advice though. “You can talk to the Seer, he might be able to answer some of your questions.”

  “The Seer?”

  She did jazz hands. “The Seer is a position on the Lord’s court. He has a class that lets him peer deep into the magic of the system. His primary job is to keep track of titans and monster swarms. Anything that can destroy the estate. The Seer on Lord Edobar Falodun’s court is an older dwarf. He doesn’t range out into the field, not since I’ve been here anyway, but he should know more about monsters than anyone else in our community.”

  “That sounds perfect. I would love to talk to the Seer. Do you think you could introduce us?”

  She looked away. “I would prefer not to. I will not speak ill of anyone on the lord’s court, but there is a reason he is in the outer court when the position is normally one of the inner.”

  “Oh, ok. I don’t want to put you in an uncomfortable position if the guy’s a creep or whatever. Do you think he will talk to me if I just show up at his door?”

  She slashed her hands down. “No, you would need an introduction. Humans are not normally welcome on Edobar’s estate and I would need to inform Seer Theobaldine of who you are. It will not cause me any undue harm to meet with the man. It’s just that...” She trailed off and tapped the palms of her hands in turn.

  Luke thought he knew what she was getting at. “Perhaps I could compensate you for your time. Is there something I could give you?” Hopefully their cultures were similar enough and that wasn’t an insult.

  She smiled and said, “Well, I have heard farming is easier on your world. If that's true perhaps you could bring me a few Earth spices. I would love to try out a new flavor or two.”

  The tension fled from Luke’s shoulders. “I can bring you spices next time I visit, no problem. I’ll bring a whole rack.”

  “Good. Let me send a quick message and then I will change clothes. Clean off your armor and fix any dents, Luke. Bumblebee, you will need to stay here and watch over Jinx.”

  “I accept this solemn responsibility,” Bumblebee said without a hint of irony.

  Kruro rolled her eyes. She slithered over to the wall near the door. She opened up a cupboard Luke hadn’t noticed before. It was hexagonal and full of tiny two tone flaps. She flipped over several of them, some of them more than once, then activated a rune at the top. The array flashed and she closed the cupboard.

  It was clearly some sort of communication device. It was jarring for Luke to see. He had gotten used to them having a medieval level of technology and now he saw that they had mana telegraphs. What other technologies had he missed just because he hadn’t paid close enough attention?

  Luke got his toolkit while Kruro slithered down to her burrow. Despite using Repair Craft several times today, he had still picked up some cosmetic damage. And apparently looks matter today. He used a combination of magic tools and a towel and water to get his power armor back up to tip top condition.

  When Kruro slithered back up to the ground level, she was wearing a blue and red striped wrap, jangly bracelets and a sparkly emerald necklace. By now the communication box was softly glowing. She opened the box and the innards moved on their own. She deciphered a message from the tiny flaps and shut it once more.

  “He accepted and we are meeting in the central courtyard for lunch. You will be expected to pay, by the way.”

  “I don’t have any of the local currency actually. Can I trade you a monster core for some money?”

  She huffed and pulled out a pouch from the small of her back. “Here. Give the footman whatever he asks for. The spices you will be giving me are worth ten times that bag.”

  Interesting. Luke wondered how many other things from Earth were wildly valuable here on Kalibutan. He dropped the money pouch into his hip compartment and followed Kruro out of the runewright’s shop.

  Her long tail gave Kruro the ability to slither quickly through the paved stone streets. Luke had to speed up slightly to keep up. They left the outer section of the village with its stone buildings and entered a more vibrant part of the city. Each house or apartment was painted a different color. They all still had the same burnished copper roof, but other than that they were unique in form and color. Even the doors and windows were slightly different ovals and circles.

  The closer they got to the towering tree in the center of the village, the nicer the houses were. There were brighter houses, nicer window treatments, and accents of shiny silver and gold. There were also more people walking around calmly and chatting with their neighbors. The outer ring was mostly full of people rushing around and working.

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  Another change was the presence of elves. Thubanians, really, since elves were fiction. Although, they looked just like the Tolkien version. Tall, thin, pointed ears, and an expression of superiority. The only difference was that they weren’t all pale skinned, most had darker skin.

  It was another bit of evidence that portals from Kalibutan had been opened on Earth before. There was no other way the fiction could match up with fact otherwise.

  Kruro led them to an outdoor cafe. Luke glanced up to the skies. It looked like it would rain soon, hopefully they wouldn’t get caught out in it. A dwarf saw Kruro and excitedly waved her over. His expression fell a bit when Luke walked over in his power armor.

  The dwarf was bald with a thick white beard and the typical pearlescent skin. His clothing was black and reflective, a counterpart to his bright white complexion. As they walked up he said in elvish, “I am so glad to see you once again Uru Kruro of Runes. And who is this you are bringing along?”

  “Good to see you as well, Seer Theobaldine. This is Luke of Machines. He has need of your wisdom.”

  The dwarf laughed and gestured towards the table with his long arms. Kruro slithered up and lowered her upper body to his level. Luke started to kneel and then realized that would still be too tall so he sat down.

  “So, you are one of Seneschal Cormac’s pet humans. Do you speak the tree’s tongue?” Theobaldine asked once they were both settled.

  “No, so far I only speak English, but technology makes that less of a barrier.” Luke said. He waited for it to translate into Thubanian, then used Machine Bond to mentally switch the translation to Grunka, the dwarvish language. “I can also speak in your language if you wish.”

  The Seer’s eyes widened slightly when the speakers said the first sentence in elvish, but he slapped the table and laughed when he heard his guttural mother tongue.

  He responded in dwarvish, “Ah I see humans' technology is not without merit. It is good . You should still learn Grunka the proper way, with lots of spitting and cursing!” He slapped his knee at the joke. Then he switched to elvish and said, “We should continue in the tree’s tongue for Kruro’s sake though. It is not polite to exclude others, particularly someone as beautiful as her.”

  Kruro seemed uncomfortable and said, “Luke, I believe you had some questions?”

  “Yes. I am filling in for Cormac while he heals, at least for the monster culling. There is a hydra in the grove of Purpleheart Ents. I was hoping you could give me some advice on how to fight it.”

  Theobaldine leaned forward and stared at him. His eyes developed a piercing look. “Luke Moore, War Machine. Not yet at your first stage. I do not know your class, but I have seen war classes before. This machine you are wearing will not be enough to handle the adult hydra prowling around the blue valley. I recommend you wait for your master to heal and have him deal with it.”

  Luke was momentarily stunned when the Seer read off his name. He must have some system identify skill. The last sentence got his blood up. He leaned back and said, “He is not my master, and I can handle more than you think. Besides, I won’t be fighting alone. We are going to fight the hydra either way, the only question is if you are going to give us advice first.”

  The dwarf turned to Kruro and stage whispered, “This one’s feisty, I like him. Too bad he’s going to die soon.” Before Luke could reply, Theobaldine turned and asked, “How much do you know about this world’s ecology?”

  “Uhh, not much. Does it matter?” Luke asked, confused.

  A waiter came and delivered something to each person. It looked like a large walnut and had the top cut off and it was filled with salad and sauce. The other two pointed at Luke and the waiter loudly proclaimed, “One silver, four bronze.”

  Luke pulled out the bag and counted out the money. It was harder than he expected, even with his new levels in Machine Bond. He held back a growl and eventually handed over the coins to the waiter with his metal gauntlets. He was regretting wearing his armor to this meeting.

  The Seer said, “Yes. Ecology matters. Let me ask you a different question. Do you know why we haven’t simply exterminated all of the undesirable monsters?”

  “The thought had crossed my mind. I am sure there is a good reason it hasn’t been done yet,” Luke said. He picked up the huge walnut and used the single chopstick inside to scoop out the salad inside. He flipped open his visor and took a bite.

  “It’s because the world is alive. It lives and breathes. If we kill off all of the local wildlife, the world spawns more monsters to take their place. There is some randomness, but certain areas often have the same monsters reappear over and over again. It’s all part of the mana cycle that the world manages with its system.”

  This food was... not great. It was bland and the greens were limp. It wasn’t bad, but he had no intentions of coming back to this little cafe, even if someone else was paying. Luke put down his chopstick and said, “That word, spawn, can mean different things in my language. What does it mean to you?”

  Theobaldine finished chewing and said, “It means what it means. The world concentrates mana into one spot, and an infant monster appears inside. Sometimes adult monsters of the same type will care for it, sometimes not. Biologic life like me and Kruro here requires a much more enjoyable activity to create offspring.” He gave the naga a little eyebrow wiggle.

  Ew. No wonder she didn’t want to talk to him. Luke hurried to change the subject. “So you’re saying that monsters and mana are all part of the world breathing?”

  “Yes, it’s an immune system as well. There are currents to it, like weather or a host fighting off disease. I say all that to say, the apex predator in the Blue Valley has been left for too long. I know this because of years of experience here, as well as what my class tells me. It will be difficult for a newly chosen like yourself to fight it. Have some patience.”

  “A saying on my planet is ‘Patience is a Virtue’. I am sure you are right and it would be wise to wait. However, if I attacked with a team of two to six members, how would I bring down the hydra?”

  Seer Theobaldine gave him a sad look and sliced his hands downward. “You are ruining a fine afternoon with my good friend Kruro. If you wish to kill the Apex Hydra there, use distance and speed. Attack all at once from every side, it will have a brief difficulty deciding on which target to pursue. Brief, not forever. It has resistances to most elemental magics, including slashing or piercing damage. Its main weakness is blunt force, but if you get close enough to use a maul, you will die. That is all I have to say about the subject.”

  “Thank you for your wise advice, Seer Theobaldine.”

  “Whatever, leave us so we may enjoy the rest of the day without your doomed presence.”

  Luke was only too happy to get up and leave. He felt bad leaving Kruro with the old man and promised himself to get her some good food along with the spices. He followed the main road like a spoke to the outer edge of the village. He got a surprise when he drew close to the Runewright’s place.

  Jinx was padding along the road towards him. Luke flipped up his visor so she could see his face and hurried over.

  “Jinx, you little psychopath, you can’t just be wandering around an alien city. You gotta stay safe inside the workshop,” Luke said, mostly to himself since she couldn’t understand him. He scooped her up and carried her back to the shop. He rolled open the door and said, “Bumblebee, did you lose track of someone?”

  “Oh thank god,” he said and hurried over. “I couldn't find her and thought she might have slipped downstairs. I know Kruro wouldn't like it if I went down there and I didn’t know what to do.” He reached up and gave Jinx a pet. “Hey, wait. I didn’t open the door and all the windows were closed. How did you get out, you little fluff ball?”

  “She’s an escape artist. Don’t worry about it, she’s given me the slip too,” Luke said and placed the cat in her carrier. “Let’s head back to Earth, I think our shift is over.”

  Bumblebee hopped back into his power armor and Luke left Kruro’s money pouch on her obsidian worktable. They headed out and jogged through the forest towards the portal.

  Luke paused for a moment when he saw the scene of his battle from this morning. The slimes had found the bodies of the Stone Beetles and eaten a good chunk, including the cores. Their stone colored wing casings remained untouched.

  A thought slowly formed. If these insect parts were strong enough to hold up to slime acid, could he use them to make armor strong enough to finally hold up to a monster attack or two? A small smile stretched across his face.

  Today’s chapter title comes from The Usual Suspects (1995) A great example of good writing and great acting. Loved how the ending came together in that one.