A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

Chapter 60: Back to ' Château du Cochon' (part-3)

A warning bell rang making every resident of Fort Genesis tense up, as Ciara quickly ran towards her guards as she spoke, "Report!"

One of the soldiers simply saluted her as she spoke, "Ma'am there has been an incident, the water inside the gorge has been increasing at an alarming rate, we fear there might be a spillover soon and various creatures might climb out and attack, not to mention the force of water flow has increased tremendously we fear the pipes and pumps might not hold."

Ciara looked towards the gorge as her eyes widen, the water was already spilling over the banks, "Move everyone to the Fort now and then close the gates, fast I want it all done by Yesterday.", as she howled out her command everyone sprung into actions.

The smaller village that had begun to form in front of Fort Genesis was quickly evacuated just in time for the water to arrive knocking on the now firmly shut doors of the base, Ciara looked down at the water as one of her subordinates arrived to report to her the unfortunate news, the pumps and pipes of the water system have gone offline and seeing the force of the water she doubted whether those pipes and pumps existed.

"Is everyone accounted for?"

"Yes Ma'am"

"Good I want to round the clock patrols, I want extra hands on the walls, the water level is rising and we do not know what might lie inside lying inside those waters."

Ciara looked over the wall as a headache began to form as the water began to rise slowly she turned back upon hearing some noise and found Zhan standing behind her.

"Commander, what could have caused this?"

Ciara shrugged at that as she spoke, "Who knows? So much water it can only be caused by severe flooding or some dam might have given out further inland."

Zhan's frowned at that before she spoke, "It really took some time to collapse then, I would have thought the devastating earthquake would have done taken care of any dams."

Ciara shrugged at that as she spoke, "Maybe it was constructed really well and it held out even after the quake and finally it gave out because of the damages it sustained, or something might have broken it."

Zhan visibly shivered at that as she spoke, "Sorry but I so do not want to face something that can topple a Dam on its mere whim.", a few hundred miles away from their position a certain dam buster sneezed in his sleep.

Ciara looked at her for a moment as she spoke, "Me too as such it was the natural disaster not some creature, or it can also be a cloud burst, and after all, with the change in weather anything can be possible."

Zhan nodded at that as she spoke, "You know you are rig.."

Whatever she was going to say was stuck in her throat as a loud bellow was heard from the gorge, their blood ran cold as they saw the largest and ugliest fish they had ever seen swimming along the water with its bony armour-like protrusions all over its body.

"What the hell is it?"

Zhan could not help but shout as out loud as the others quickly trained their weapons towards the gigantic creature.

"Don't shoot, I repeat don't shoot", Ciara shouted out loud as the soldiers lifted their fingers off the trigger as she continued, "Shoot only if the creature moves too close to the base for comfort otherwise don't, we do not need its attention and from the looks of it, it is making its way to the sea."

"What is that creature?"

Ciara turned towards the speaker, a short heightened person that came up to a little above her waste was looking at the creature with an equal measure of awe and fear.

"Master Jerbor, from the looks of it, that creature is not a native of your world."

Jerbor shook his head as Ciara spoke with a sigh, "That's a shame because neither it is in ours."

Meanwhile, Ryan rubbed his eyes and then blinked a few times but the words in front of him did not change no matter what he did, "How is this possible?"

HOST: RYAN O'CAHILL

STATUS: INJURED (HEALING)

HEALTH: 1017/1125(+0%/min REGEN.)(Health regeneration negated due to injury)

MANA: 1125/1125(+1%/min REGEN.)

CORE: WHITE(NO EXTRA BUFF)

LIFE-FORM TIER: 4 (0/500)

VITALITY TIER: 4 (200/375)

STRENGTH TIER: 4 (200/375)

AGILITY TIER: 4 (212/375)

INTELLIGENCE TIER: 4 (0/375)

Blood Points: 21489

Soul: 154

Perks: 1) Quantum Brain (Tier 1)(Rare)

 2) Eye of the blessed (Uncommon)

 3) Angeloid Lungs (Uncommon)

 4) Quantum Nerves Connectivity(Tier 1)(Rare)

 5) Blood Point Reduction (Tier 1)(Common)

Negative Buffs: 1) So...

He did not pay any mind to rest as at the moment it was irrelevant, but what stuck to him was the number of blood points and souls that he had gathered.

'How is this possible? It must be some kind of mistake, I do not have any Blood Points previously but now I have suddenly over Twenty Thousand not to mention the number of souls which are over a hundred and fifty, and if I remember I had only eighteen left so where did the additional hundred and thirty-six pop up.'

His brows furrowed in deep thought as he went over and over trying to discern the meaning of it, 'The only thing I killed was a dog, couple of screamers and spiders, did I manage to kill the soul eater, but even then it should not have that much blood points and neither does the number of souls add up to.'

'No way the explosion of the Oil Terminal, don't tell me the creatures that might have died is attributed to that incident, it is surreal if only.'

He promptly banged his head against the machine as he cursed himself, 'I am such a colossal idiot my kills are stored in the form of logs that are easily available to me.'

As such he promptly opened the log of his 'Ancient Stochasts' as he quickly went through it he let out a sigh of relief seeing his hunch correct as a smile blossomed on his face, "Lucky, the excursion to Navalach was not total loss filled with pain at least I managed to gain something from it."

An even bigger smile graced his face as he spoke with barely concealed excitement, "Well time to upgrade me."

Maralyn had just finished creating the potion for Ryan, as she entered his room she was hit with a sudden bout of magical energy making her stagger a bit, 'Damn it, I am so weak even such a low and pathetic amount is making me stagger.'

Before she remembered that her patient was in that very room from where the large or rather 'pitiful' burst of magic according to Maralyn that came from, as such she dashed towards the room only to find it empty except for a sleeping Ryan.

The burst seemed to have alerted others as Ylerias herself arrived swiftly before giving a deadpanned stare at the sleeping form of Ryan, she turned towards Maralyn as she spoke, "Keep on with his treatment.", with that she left.

"Is something wrong Lady Ylerias?"

Ylerias looked at the anxious form of Michalina as she spoke with a smile, "There is nothing wrong Michalina, Ryan simply moved to much higher Tier.", she vacated the place she murmured lowly but it was enough for Michalina to hear, "What a troublesome brethren of mine."

She looked a few of her fellow sisters as she spoke with a smile, "My fellow sisters it seems that my fellow baby apostle just underwent a huge jump in power and you know what it entails."

A grim look passed through the elves as they quickly dashed away while Michalina felt fish out of the water upon seeing theirs when all of a sudden Ylerias words came to her mind.

'We apostles have many enemies, especially the beasts that have been corrupted are more attracted to us, our scent, our meat are like some form of the drug to them, they would actively seek you out to devour you unless you are much stronger than them.'

'Though you do not have to worry, for the time being, the scent becomes more potent as one age and in your case, it has only been a few months since then so you do not need to worry'

Michalina frowned upon remembering her words, 'She meant with time, so that means either she omitted the fact that something happens when Ryan levels up or she has some hidden agenda, either way, no matter what I will protect my brother, even if I have to slaughter the entire camp.', as she vowed she balled her fist her eyes burning with anger before she took a deep breath to relax as she promptly made her way towards Ryan.

Ryan was gently awoken by Maralyn who apologized for waking him up and then forced him to drink a potion that smelt of socks that hadn't been washed for decades, and its taste was enough for him to throw up but Maralyn poured it down his despite his protest making him gag at that.

"Well, I have finished your treatment Your Holiness all you now need is to rest."

Ryan glared at her as he spoke, "Does it have to be foul-tasting."

Maralyn immediately bowed to him submissively as she spoke, "A thousand pardon your Holiness but unfortunately there is nothing I can do for the taste except offer you this leaves, if you chew on them it would remove any awful feelings of taste that might still be lingering, though I would like to point out that the herb was not so potent as such the taste was somewhat bland."

Ryan did a double-take at that as he spoke in disbelief, "What!? You must be kidding me."

"I kid you not your Holiness."

A frown marred on Ryan's face before he looked towards Maralyn as he spoke, "Why are you referring me as 'Holiness'?", by then Michalina had already entered the room she simply stood by the door watching the interaction between the duo.

Maralyn looked confused at that as she spoke, "You are an apostle, Your Holiness, as such how can I address you without using your proper title and on that note please forgive me for insolence for not recognizing the people of your station."

Ryan was thoroughly crept out at that he was not accustomed being treated with such reverence, he simply wanted to run as fast as he could and get as further away as possible from her, but alas his leg was still in the healing phase.

'I wish my powers were a bit more like the video games, a bit of level up and you are cured of everything with full health.'

"Maralyn please do not act as such, you are someone who has been helping me selflessly, so please stop apologizing and please stopping speaking with me so reverently."

"But, it is the correct thing to do, and calling you anything else would be blasphemous and would dishonour me and my fellow brethren, especially since you are an ally of Her Holiness."

Ryan felt a headache approaching as he spoke, "Please I am not comfortable with being referred to as such, I learned about being an apostle not too long ago."

"But,"

"You said that I am to be honoured right? Then I ask of you to please stop speaking with me so reverently until and unless I am accustomed to such a role and if possible please convey this to you others as well."

Seeing the hesitation on her face Ryan gave her a small smile as he spoke, "If you still have a problem then I can ask Lady Ylerias to permit you all to honour my request."

"Brother, I think you should speak with her as soon as possible, the other people must not learn about you being an 'apostle', they might not take it well."

Maralyn looked confused at that as she spoke, "Why would they not take it well? Being an apostle is the greatest honour."

Michalina gave her a small smile as she spoke, "Think of it in this manner, suddenly someone you do not know pops up and claims that they worship a different God or Goddess."

"Goddess or God whose name I do not know", Ryan supplied with a smile to which Michalina only gave a nod.

"And think how you would react if you are told to respect him, will you take it kindly."

Maralyn frowned before she acquiesces as she spoke, "I suppose you are right, I will speak with others."

Michalina gave a dazzling smile she spoke, "Splendid, and I thank you for helping my brother."

Maralyn stood up before she gave a small bow towards Ryan before she left soon after.

As she was out of earshot Ryan quickly spoke to his sister in a hushed tone, "What should I do Sis? If they all start to act as such it is extremely creepy."

Michalina waved off his concern as she spoke with a small but kind smile on her face, "Let them, we will simply persuade Ylerias to stop them from acting as such, though remember brother I will always stay by your side."