Chapter 42 – The answer to all things

“What do you mean he just forgot?!” John’s voice bounced around the videogame room. He had just sat through the most jumbled, oddly paced mess he had ever experienced and then the end was the most unsatisfying answer he could have imagined. The only thing worse than this would be if it turned out he was dreaming after all and he was one breakfast away from his usual extortion by a thoroughly uncowed Frank. “This is offensively bad!”

Aclysia peeked out of the box of materials that Jimmie had left them with. They had taken it along to Rave’s place, since they had been assured it was all junk. “Creator John, are you in need of defending?”

“No, just keep eating,” John ordered her. A bit too forcefully, but Aclysia lacked the proper understanding to misunderstand his tone.

“Affirmative,” Aclysia vanished back into the box. Occasionally, there was a rustling sound, when she picked a new piece up. The emotionless devouring of scrap continued. She wasn’t gaining levels with this, but at least she was gaining mass.

“You have no idea how much I’m enjoying your seething,” Rave grinned. She had spent most of the anime watching him instead. Now her elbow was on the backrest, serving as her support while she gazed at him. Those blue eyes were an argument for God’s existence… or Gaia’s favouritism. When she looked at the time, she sighed. “Kinda late now, so we’ll have to do the abridged version another time.”

“Does the abridged version have an answer?” John needed to know. His mind was quickly putting together a plan.

“Kinda? It’s parody though.”

“Good enough.” John did not need a great excuse to hang out with her for longer. He pulled out his phone and selected one of the two saved numbers. “Yeah, hi, mom. I want to stay at my girlfriend’s place tonight. Yes, we will be going to school. Yes, she goes there too… Love you too, bye.” He ended the call and put his phone away. “Problem solved, we are binging all of this. I’m not leaving without answers.”

Rave scratched him under the chin. “Ya know, much as I love ya being all firm and stuff, ya probably should’ve asked first.” She placed a kiss on his cheek, while the embarrassment overtook the anger. That had been a bit hasty. “I forgive ya tho. Before we do that, lemme show you the Abyss Auction though.”

“Uh, yes, let’s do that,” he agreed. They got up and moved over to the PC. From the incident in the forest, he already knew that it was an internet site. The PC booted up in less than two seconds. “God bless SSDs.”

“Nerd,” Rave chuckled. She entered a convoluted IP into the address bar by hand. John committed it to memory. Intellect should keep it there. He wondered how much higher he had to go for his ability to recollect to become flawless. “Alright, gotta get ya an account. Any wishes for the name?”

“I usually use Jeehan.”

“That’s stupid – you’ll be ‘the Gamer’.”

“Isn’t that really obvious though?” John’s doubt sneaked in his voice.

“Don’t matter. If ya think ya can stay anonymous on the Abyss Auction for 0,2 seconds, ya don’t know what you’re messing with. If it ain’t direct trade person to person or guild to guild, everything goes through the AA. They got more money than all the gods.” She put the name in, then instructed him, “Put your hand on the PC.”

“Alright?” John reluctantly followed her order. The machine hummed for a little bit. A progress bar on the screen appeared. “What is happening?”

“A technomancer is using the aura scanning parts in the PC to… scan your aura. Lowercase a,” Rave told him. “Your soul signature, if ya will. It’s unique so it's more secure than any password.”

“And they’ll always know where I log in from,” John posited.

“Yeah, but that ain’t really different from the rest of the big tech sites, is it?” Rave relaxedly tapped her heel on the ground.

John had no retort to that and the scanning eventually finished. ‘Guess I am unplugging all my microphones and stuff when I’m not using them….’

“They can only read your aura if the equipment is built for it though. You’ll probably need a new phone if ya wanna use it wherever ya go.” The scan finished and Rave gestured for him to stand up again. “Ya want books, right?”

“That would be a start. Something defensive.”

“Just defensive?” Rave asked and looked at him. “Ya know what I would do if ya had a mana shield or something like it right now?”

“Sidestep my attacks and harass me with swift blows until I’m out of mana?” John responded in a thoughtful manner. “Yeah, optimally I’d like something that does both defend and have some offensive usage but…” he glanced over at Aclysia “…I was willing to play on buying time and hope my Artificial Spirit takes care of it.”

“How about ya just get another familiar? There’s books on elemental summoning,” Rave put the words into the search bar. “Usually elementals are restricted to people with fitting Innate Abilities or ya need to do years of study…” now she glanced over at Aclysia, “…ya got that Latebloomer BS. If ya want defence and offence mixed, how about an earth or water one?”

All of this sounded right up his alley. An extra familiar would work nicely with the summoner route he wanted to go with. “Yeah, let’s go with an elemental.”

“What do ya say to the nice girl that gave ya the tip?”

John straightened up and looked around the room. “What nice girl?” he asked and was punished with a pinch to the backside. “Ow, okay,” he laughed and bowed down. “Thanks, Jane, you are the love of my life.”

“There ya go,” Rave purred and they went browsing.

They stuck to the beginner’s guides, everything else was out by default. Expectedly, that restricted them to a very small selection. There were the common four: earth, water, wind, and fire. On a slightly higher price bracket, there was light and shadow. Everything beyond that was advanced or very specific.

They were basically restricted to the basic four, with the money John had at the moment. Rave hinted she was willing to chip in, but he didn’t want to be indebted to his girlfriend. “Earth or water,” John mumbled. Each book was 25 grand. “Earth would probably be more versatile… we don’t hang out by the river… ever.”

“I mean, what do ya wanna see there, cargo ships drifting by?” Rave asked. “Anyway, ya gonna take the earth one. Girlfriend knows what’s best for ya.”

“I don’t remember giving you this privilege.”

“Don’t think I earned it, tiger?” Rave hummed and any resistance he may have had melted away. He was willing to see where this went.

“How do I pay though?” John asked, just as Rave clicked the instant delivery button. His inventory screen opened and he got a request for access by the Abyss Auction. “Huh? I thought I was the only one with this ability?”

“You’re the only one with that ability,” Rave said and turned to him. “Whatever exactly your weird mixture of stuff is. Ya ain’t the only person with an ability to hold money though. Ability to transfer money ain't new.”

He clicked confirm and then his acquired wealth dropped to a ‘mere’ 5000 USD. Still more money than he knew what to do with. Considering the prices on the Abyss Auction, he did not anticipate that feeling lasting.

A couple of minutes later, there were three quick knocks against the only window in the room. John turned to find a drone just hovering there. It was clearly magical, from the lack of rotors to the little tendril it used to tap against the glass. The package was secured underneath the body.

Rave opened the window, took the package, and the drone flew off. “Basic stealth enchantments – unless they fly into a car, mundanes won’t see them,” she explained and handed him the package. “There ya go.”

“Does stuff always arrive that quickly?” John asked.

“Nah, dad being the local manager just means this location gets free instant delivery. Normally it takes like three to five days. This way it takes 30 minutes max.”

“Right… the Abyss Auction has all this wealth, all this information… and it's not in the Divided Gates?”

“Oh the Abyss Auction is very strict about neutrality. They’re in it for the money. They’re one of the three great non-combat organizations.” Rave listed them off. “A, ya got the AA. Two, ya got the Fateweavers. Thirdly, ya got the Apothecaries. Ya find people affiliated with these three basically everywhere.”

While she said all of that, John pulled out the book.

He clicked yes and his brain was filled with knowledge.

To use that Skill he needed a summoning circle. That was what his new knowledge told him at least.

“Another book gone – so it worked?”

“Yes, I get it now… well, I get something,” John responded to her. “You wouldn’t happen to have an empty room somewhere? With a smooth floor? And some chalk or other kinds of removable paint?”

Rave just laughed. “What, ya forgot my dad is cray-cray? Might as well show ya those torture devices I was threatening ya with.”

They descended into the basement. John was feeling a bit anxious to find out what exactly was in store for him if harm ever came to Rave. He was shown a large, empty workshop. The stereotypical garage of a working man, except underground. Stuff was scattered about, paint and other tools stocked in shelves. A glass display was the only fully clean and orderly placed thing in the room.

John’s eyes sparked as he observed the contents. Figurines, hundreds of them, in varying sizes. A whole bunch of Warhammer 40k miniatures. The Space Marines were particularly pronounced, taking centre stage. “Wow! I’m absolutely unsurprised your dad made them Blood Ravens.”

“Oh… oh no…,” Rave whispered. “Ya… like this stuff?” she asked and gestured towards the workbench. A whole assembly of partly painted miniatures was sitting there.

“Yeah, 40k is aweso- Wait a second, you were threatening me with the fact that your dad would force me to paint miniatures?” John just realized and Rave gave him a grave nod. “Call your dad right now. Call him and tell him I almost got you killed. Immediately.”

Rave rubbed her temples. “Why did my heart pick a nerd? I could’ve guessed this would happen…” she mumbled. “Never been this dry in my whole life. Urgh!” she stomped off and grabbed a bucket of chalk from a shelf. “Here, do your thing so I can remember that you’re fun.”

“The Imperial Codex does not sanctio-“

“Stop, stop right now, or we’re not sleeping in the same bed tonight.”

‘Two days into my relationship and I have already received old wife threats. Not sure if good or bad,’ John thought. Since Rave seemed actually bothered by the 40k talk, he closed his mouth and got to work.

It was an interesting experience. He wasn’t terrible at drawing but doing a perfect circle and replicating runes without the slightest error by instinct wasn’t something he thought he would have been able to do before. The white circle completed, he put his hands on the edge. Careful not to blur the lines, he sat there calmly and activated the Skill.

Rocks crept up his fingers. His feet. His arms. They enveloped all of him in a hard crust, then the insides were hardened too. All of him became part of rock and stone. He was an unmoving object, in a way like Possession and yet completely different. Rather than his mind overtaking an object, he felt like was tapping into something greater.

The elemental plane of earth answered his call. A myriad of tiny, genderless voices echoed in his mind. Bit by bit, they were filtered out, until only one remained. “You wish to contract me?” it said, calm and innocent. Somewhat like Aclysia, he thought.

“Yes,” he responded, with no mouth and yet out loud.

“You wish to command a fragment of the earth?”

“Yes,” he answered once more.

“Then face what you seek to control.”

In an instant, his spiritual form collapsed into a pile of sand. He was a mere one of them, becoming part of a stream that was offered to the world. He was part of a vast desert, until the winds picked him up and carried him far. He felt how he lied on the shore of an unknown coast. He felt the waves wash over him. They claimed him, eventually, pulling him into the ocean. For an eternity and the blink of an eye, he was a drifting piece of sediment, moving and settling as the tides demanded. By happenstance, he eventually was caught up in an undersea volcano. He was melted and became the lava that shifted in the earth’s crust. In an eternity and a blink, he spewed forth. He cooled into rock and stone, an island on which life bloomed. In due time, he was ground to splinters, pebbles, and finally grains of sand again.

“Do you still wish to join us?” The voice asked, after eternity ended.

“I do.” He found his voice again and opened his eyes as a calm satisfaction radiated from the voice. In front of him stood a small girl who looked maybe four years old. She looked unknowing and uncaring, her earthy brown eyes empty, her brown hair unkempt, a yellow dress covering her carelessly. She was humanoid, yet not human at all. A piece of shaped clay.  

“I will be our piece of you,” she spoke quietly with the wisdom of a realm she now separated from. A grain of sand, separated from endless stone. “Greetings summoner.”

“Greetings.” John said and stretched out his hand. “In accordance with the ritual I offer you my name. I am John Newman and I wish to seal a contract.”

“In accordance with the ritual I hear your name and give you mine. I am Gnome and I accept your contract.” The elemental touched his hand. Her skin was cold and hard, despite its pale complexion.

“Summon me soon, John,” with those words, Gnome vanished, the ritual concluded.

“Ya made another cute thing… wouldn’t want to sleep with that though.”

“Yeah, not gonna lie, would have preferred a sexy Asian woman… she did look Asian… maybe she’ll upgrade with time? She’s a freshly splintered part of an elemental plane, maybe she needs time to become larger?” Putting those questions aside, he turned to Rave and wrapped his arms around her. “I still got the cutest thing right here though.”

“Ya lucky I like your corny lines, tiger,” Rave whispered into his ear. “Now, let’s go to my room and make out. SAO Abridged can wait.”