Chapter 297

I stare at Ajax, while his father mildly scolds him. Though their hushed words aren’t all that there is. Much more is communicated in inferences. If I don’t miss my guess he is probably 14, but there is a well of youthful exuberance to him that would make me put him way lower if I hadn’t met him before the system in Pando.

Even with his back turned to me and addressing Ajax, I can almost taste his father’s exasperation at my actions. I’m way older and am still pulling the same kind of ‘prank’.

I look within Ajax’s body, trying to determine if there is anything more on why he looks so young, but I don’t notice anything beyond the normal variability so I don’t pursue it further.

Just one from the thousands of small curiosities never to be answered.

“Where were you?” His father asks, and the instant response in Ajax's brain is what draws my attention. I sense the cut connections as he tries to remember. Thousands of pathways leading to a blank zone. Incomplete mental circuits very precisely sniped. Inhumanly precise. Something that without context I wouldn’t even have noticed even with the perception field actively going through someone else’s brain. But I had seen this particular type of system shenanigans before. And he doesn’t have just one scar, but several almost atop each other. Erasures targeting something very similar that happened over time.

I take a step, flicking my ankle with a pulse of Life and while Qi glued that foot to the stone floor. I push so hard that it almost breaks. Anyone without the system would only see a blur teleporting the 17.2 feet from my starting position to Ajax. But I don’t even feel the distaste about using a few points of Life right now. There are more important things.

Touching Ajax's forehead and as we lock eyes I can see a hint of pain there. Pain that I know needs to be drawn out. Yes, exuberant youthful energy, but also something missing.

“You can see?” his entire demeanor changes as he realizes I’m not there to scold him like his dad. Tears pop on his tiny eyes and I grow self conscious, even if I know that I’m not the cause. I’m actually his best shot at uncovering clues about what the system erased. Arrogant as my assumptions may be, I push forward.

“What are you doing?” His dad asks, forcefully putting his hands on my shoulder. But with Qi gluing my feet to the ground, he might as well be trying to move a locomotive with his bare hands. Something possible for someone with high enough stats, but I barely pay any attention.

The mingling people stop to witness what I’m doing and the atmosphere grows uncomfortable. I look at his dad and then back at Ajax.

“You lost six memories.”

“I… six, are you sure? I tried to remember, but I can’t…” He spouts.

“Yes, there are six scars, likely caused by the system erasing your memory.”

He gets a little of his composure back. A hint of real understanding about the mental confusion the system had been causing. The chaos induced in his mind.

“I… was afraid of that. That is how many new pyramids I poked in the last month. It's good to know for sure.”

His dad startles at that and given the tight security I helped to get in place I understand that reaction. But even if his dad is partially lost in our conversation, he manages to catch the train mid trip and he knows I’m not there to make things worse.

My mind turns over the problem every which way, but we can’t do anything right here.

“Well, the system does tend to poke its head where it doesn’t belong. I guess I can probably stay another couple of days to help you figure this out. But the damage is gonna get worse if you just keep doing this the exact same way.”

“Abosuletelly not.” His dad tries to put an end to any discussion but I put on everything I learned and I say:

“Do you really want to deny him that? The chance to learn what is missing? He wouldn’t be completely safe even if you wrapped him in bubble wrap and stuck him in your cellar. We have a chance to figure out what the system did and why, so why not take the time to do that?”

He tries to refute my words, words that only a few other people understand as nobody is translating them from English, but words he recognizes the truth of.

Ajax’s dad forcefully breathes out, letting as much of the tension fade as possible, before nodding. “Tomorrow, now, we have other business to attend to.”

I think of forcing the issue, but that won’t help especially given that I have to think over what is the best way to figure out what has happened and to prepare.

The entire time I spend at the dinner, the discussions, movement and interactions hum in the background of my mind. Maybe there are interesting people to talk to in here and maybe I could have added the finishing touches to the treaty, but something else calls my attention.

The night ends with no further surprises and I head straight to the pyramids, entering each of them and going through the sensor logs. I find 3 occasions that must have been the points Alex crossed one of the more sensitive Life detectors. In the second one, he seemingly lost all control and let a full Life signature be captured in the central chamber. Though sneaking in on the pyramids is generally easier than slipping my notice with the perception field in place, even if I wasn’t actually paying attention.

A mild redesign of the shields and runic workings comes to the forefront of my mind to stop anyone from trying a similar strategy. Not actually trying to rain on Ajax’s parade, but if he could do it, who said the enemy couldn’t replicate the feat, if not do worse. There should never have been a single second that the shield is never fully open. There had been some pushback given the practicality of simpler designs and I actually settled for single layer shields, but better safe than sorry.

With a multilayer design that can protect the guards outside and be overwritten at any time in either emergencies or the occasional large supply dump. We shouldn’t wait for someone to break security, before trying to address the problem. We should focus on coming up with even harder ways to secure the pyramids. In between each of the sections, another thin shield will also physically check if anyone is accompanying the people making their way inside and last but not least I need to add a more sensitive detector even if this one will have atrocious range.

Stolen story; please report.

Just another dozen tasks before I head back Home.

I go up and down, rifling through everything on all the pyramids we had access to, but learn nothing new about his situation or how to unlock the pyramids. This is what the system must have erased.

The night advances and eventually, I head back to sleep miffed, but with enough concrete ideas to test tomorrow.

After a couple of hours recovering in a deep sleep, I rise before the sun and minutes after get to the pyramid. A quick scan reveals Ajax and his dad making their way through the city.

Even though they are kilometers away, I have portals available and this isn’t the enemy’s territory. So I open one large enough for both and invite them to the pyramid I’m in. The kilometers long jog instantly turns into a 1 second trip through the inner world and they are standing beside me.

“Handy,” says the dad.

“Yes, too bad I can’t travel through my own portals.”

“So even more ways you could have cheated,” Ajax says and I just grin.

“More ways than you could dream of. Now let's get started?”

“Yeah, but I already came in this pyramid. I doubt it will happen again on the same pyramid.”

I glance down at a runic contraption on his belt.

“You have logs?”

“Yeah, but they are only useful to record how good my stealth is.”

“Still worthy data. After the first major slip, I manage to keep a minimum stealth level running without my full attention.”

“Yeah, I caught that. You were in plain view in one of the pyramids. The alarm wasn’t raised because people knew it was you.”

“That is what I learned.” He says subtly ‘side eyeing’ his father.

“So, the middle queen’s pyramid ?”

“Sounds good, I haven’t cracked how to enter it yet. The security is too tight.”

“Go through the portal and I will meet you on the other side.”

Without waiting for him to say anything while I directly interface with the shield and drop it just in time for me not to ram it. I twist around pulling my propulsion rune into overdrive, while pumping steam out at unbelievable rates. Accelerating near the speed of sound in a second and then coming down to a running pace on the end doesn’t even strain my soul given the relatively low speeds, though if I cross into the supersonic, the strain would get to me even at much milder accelerations.

Barely 6 seconds later, I’m in the other central chamber, but Ajax is lounging as if he had long gotten there, even though I saw his trip with the perception field.

“Ohhh took you long enough,” says Ajax. His dad almost scolds him, but I just wave it off.

“That’s pretty lazy. The obvious joke and all.”

“I know, but it had to be done. The classics never die.”

“Now on to the important stuff,” I say in a more serious tone. “What did you do when you get inside the pyramid?”

“Usually, I just look around.”

“Do that again. Better yet, pretend you are sneaking in.”

“Uhmm,” I can almost see his mind turning the problem. He doesn’t want to give up his secrets, but considering how good his stealth is, his father probably won’t even learn the specifics. I simply nod at him and he fades from view, even becoming more intangible with my perception fully trained on him.

He moves to the corridor and I don’t give any indication I noticed what he did.

With incredible precision shielding the visible range, his Life signature, and even the mana he spends, he climbs on the walls and ceiling, looking around and tapping the shelves against the wall and runic devices we put there.

Both Mana and Aether meld in a thin coat formed through mechanisms I don’t understand.

It almost seems like almost phases out of reality. But the perception field still captures a tangibility to him. So I can touch him and any attacks would scorch his skin just the same. Partially it resembles a proper, high level stealth skill from the system melded with personal capabilities. It even reminds me of my ‘perception filter stealth, which caused people’s eyes to overlook my presence, which didn’t take even a hint of mana or Qi. After a minute, the effect of his stealth grows way less effective on me and I follow him in my mind’s eye without even needing my active attention. Though like a thousand other things I have no stinking clue how to replicate it.

After a minute, he climbs on top of the dome, right above the sarcophagus and that’s when I sense a shift in the air.

“There is POTENTIAL here. Like a system screen or something.”

His voice echoes from the walls in an indeterminate direction, but I ignore his dad’s reaction while trying to find his location. I simply stare at him Alex through his stealth trying to directly feel the change.

After years of practice, I could feel the tiniest hints of Aether from visible screens, but his powers manifested differently than mine, significantly differently.

“Try to increase the ‘potential’ you feel, but don’t activate the screen.”

“Okay. I can try.”

He moves around for a minute, before dropping to the sarcophagus and finding the path to greater potential. Like he turned up the gain on the microphone, the inaudible buzz in the background grows into something I can hear and feel and if only I reach out I will get it. But the system rejects me.

It’s clear, this isn’t for me.

My mind keeps driving faster and faster, as I gather my will and push to bridge that gap even if only in the perception field.

“More.”

Ajax approaches it ever so slightly, that potential comes closer to our reality, but it isn’t enough. This clearly isn’t meant for me, and I can’t even get close without interfering, but I push as I had so often done in the past, trying to cheat the system.

“More.”

“More.”

“More….”

Each time I can almost sense a flinch from Ajax. He hadn’t hesitated before, but now that he knows what is erasing parts of his mind he is afraid. But the pursuit of knowledge and my curiosity are too strong and I command once more.

“MORE!!”

As he moves, he trembles a few millimeters too far and crosses the threshold I have been pushing him to approach. The system descends around him. A target infusion, so brief and well delineated, it is all but impossible to notice. But I’m no normal person. The perception field and my sky high perception stat well over a thousand make that endeavor seem like it happens in slow motion.

His perception is distorted. For that split second, it’s as if time passes slower, and for the first time I feel the swirls of time mixed with space as the system as it teleported someone.

It’s subtle and this is the very reason I feel as if I’m instantly teleported when the system takes me. But my will covers the environment and I’m not going to just let it happen without doing anything. As everything that I’m and can achieve goes against the system, I realize how arrogant I have been.

I can do nothing to protect him. I don’t have even the mild ‘home ground’ advantage of working around my own body or the large boost that allowed me to stop anything that affected myself. Nor is this one of the mild or even average operations of the system, the system won’t be denied. Its response is to simply keep going, increasing pressure ever so slightly to compensate for all my power.

I’m like a kid trying to hold back a container ship taking away every single one of my toys, the contents of my house, and even the house itself. But my bare hands and the random piece of cotton twine aren’t enough to hold back a ship.

Seeing him turning fully intangible as the system teleports him, I try to touch his forehead once more and do the only thing that might have any effect on the following proceedings. A hint of my prised pure Aether and a few more flakes of soul scruff enter his soul.

It has to be enough.

A severing of connection and a decent portion of my finger skin is gone but I don’t let it bother me. Instead, I wait and prepare for his return.