He looked at the counter.
His apartment had always been spartan, with just a couch, a holo player, and a single table. All of it had already been stored away in the cube. He wanted to take it with him. However, Doc Green had been very explicit about the rules. He was only allowed to take what would fit in a spatial bag.
He tried to slip the cube into the bag, but couldn't. No matter how hard he pushed, it was like they repelled each other. It made sense, in a way. It was common knowledge that you couldn't place a spatial bag inside another, and the cube held an entire dungeon.
The last thing he had to do before he left was take the forty gold coins to his sister's place. He'd already written the note.
Last night, when he'd tried to say goodbye, he hadn't expected to walk into a thirty-minute tirade about how he was making a mistake and that she didn't care if they lived on the street. The last thing she'd said to him had stuck.
"How much more are you going to let them take from you?"
When he'd offered his bonus, she'd thrown the coins back in his face.
"Keep it. You need it more than I do. They don't pay for your weapons and armor. That money means nothing if you aren't coming home."
It was absurd. He was, in essence, a god. Nothing could even come close to harming him on the newly inducted world.
But no matter how many times he told her, she gave him that same look. Like they were kids again, and he was trying to trick her. Tell her one time that she was adopted, and now she is skeptical forever.
He picked up the coin pouch and his bag and portaled into her room.
The sound of water hitting the cheap plastic tub was the first thing he heard.
He placed the pouch and the cube on her pink bedsheets, right next to her meticulously folded laundry. Taking one final look at the note, he set it beside her alarm clock.
This is becoming my signature goodbye, he thought with a chuckle.
Of course, when he'd done this before, it had been different. Back then, he'd been in turmoil, running from his problems and throwing himself into the only thing he knew.
This time, he was just short on time. The train was leaving within the hour.
The thought made him laugh again.
He could teleport anywhere he needed to go, but he still had to do normal things, like catching a shuttle with his new unit. When he'd asked if he could meet them there, the commanders had made it clear this would be done as a team.
The Earthbound Republic had no room for showboating glory seekers.
The water shut off, followed by the ruffling of a towel.
"Goodbye, little sister."
He flashed out of existence, leaving only a faint shimmer behind.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
There was one last person he needed to see off.
He checked his system interface.
[ System Quest: Goodbye ]
Description: See Dane off for his deployment.
It was probably an abuse of power to issue a quest to say goodbye through the Earthbound System. If he hadn't been rushing to get cleared for duty, he might have wrangled his old team together in person.
The sound of augmented locomotives shook the ground. There hadn't been bullet trains in America before the System. It was nice to know a literal apocalypse had been needed to spur investment in public transportation.
He scanned the crowd until he caught a flash of yellow hair.
"Good morning, sir," Lyra said, sneaking up on him.
"Good morning, Lyra," Dane replied.
He paused, considering his words.
Lyra eyed him for a long moment, then exhaled through her nose.
"The twins declined the quest," she said. "But they send their love."
"That's nice. What about Clay and Rachel?" Dane asked.
"They left about a week ago to look for Clay's family."
"That'll be awkward if his wife is still alive."
"I don't think so," Lyra said. "You can love someone even if they can't love you back."
She paused, as if she might add something, then decided against it.
"That's enough about them," she said. "Why are you keeping secrets?"
Dane huffed softly. "I didn't think this one counted."
"It did," she said. "If you were going to enlist in an incursion, you should've told me."
He tilted his head. "You would've tried to talk me out of it."
Her lips twitched. "No. I would've been packing this morning."
That earned a real smile from him.
"I'm serious," she continued, her voice quieter now. "I swore my allegiance to you, Dane. You don't walk into something like this alone. I would've followed you anywhere."
Dane's expression softened.
"You don't owe me anything," he said. "Not your loyalty. And definitely not your life."
She met his gaze without flinching.
"I know."
She paused. Dane saw her eyes glisten. She swallowed, and in a heartbeat, the emotion was gone.
Then she gave him a small smile.
"But I'd give you everything," she said, "if you ever asked."
The conductor's call cut through the moment.
Dane straightened and adjusted his pack. "Take care of yourself, Lyra."
She nodded once. "Come back in one piece."
He hesitated, then turned toward the platform. Halfway there, he looked back.
Lyra was still standing where he'd left her.
She took a single step back when she noticed him watching, hands clasped behind her back, posture perfect.
Tormund's perfect daughter.
Only after he disappeared inside did her smile fade.
So... The little Chronite had finally decided to get off the couch.
The Emperor felt it before, when he was just a little dungeon core; he remembered feeling his first intruder. It was a rat-like creature that had long been extinct. This was the same as that small scurry.
Interesting.
He had always enjoyed thinking out loud. It was indulgent, yes, but when one was the System, internal monologue and external narration were functionally identical. Reality would bend whether he spoke it aloud or merely thought it.
"You waited longer than I expected," he murmured.
Dane McAllister was not the first defier. He brushed his fingers over a cube that was a deep aegis blue. Several others were alongside it, creating a rainbow pattern. However, the boy had been the first to return from exile. If Dane were smart, he would have rallied the rest of the Shattered Reach and attacked. It had been too easy to grant Earth citizenship, undercutting his return.
The universe was his dungeon.
Not metaphorically. Everything that the Emperor brought mana to belonged to him literally.
Every star system, every causal loop, every constraint existed inside an architecture he had completed before most mortals had learned language. Worlds were rooms. Animals were his dungeonborn.
And his enemies? They were a welcome distraction from the monotony of expansion.
"Let's see how you fare when the other races in this incursion are given a different mission."
[ Emperor's Quest ]
Name: Incursion Realignment
Recipients:
-
Elves
-
Dwarves
-
Demonkin
Description:
This is the Earthbound's first incursion. They have earned their spot fairly, but still must be tested. Your mission is to eliminate them before they can complete their objective.
The stone golem that was the Emperor began to smile broadly. With this system quest, he could sit back and watch as his chosen races took care of the little rats.
There was another disturbance that was more than a little rat. He thought for a moment, then he issued a second quest, this time to the Dragonkins.