chapter 65
The time in the space elevator went by quite fast, and before I knew it, we stepped out onto the surface of the planet.
I took a deep breath in and was reminded of the city I used to live in—although this one did seem a bit cleaner. Testing things a bit, I found myself actually able to tell that this planet had less gravity than Earth, but not by too much.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of time to appreciate this new experience, as Thoron was already ahead of me, only briefly looking back and waving for me to follow him. It seemed like we still had a schedule to keep, so I started following him while still looking around.
There were a lot fewer dwarves here—well, not by numbers, because there were a lot more of them here than in the shipyard—but in their percentage compared to other species.
As we continued to move away from the space elevator, the avian species that called this planet home started to dominate the surroundings.
There didn’t seem to be animosity between the two species, but perhaps this avian species knew how to hide their feelings better. I’m pretty sure humans definitely wouldn’t have been happy with the kind of situation that happened to them and how the dwarves now ran everything.
The architecture of the place was also quite weird, as it was a combination built for both species to use. The bottom of the buildings was blocky and seemed incredibly structurally sound, with carved artwork covering the walls.
From the fifth floor up, the design changed to a more flowy architecture, with walkways connecting to other tall buildings and many window holes covering the entire place.
While the intelligent humanoids who developed on this planet came from bird-type animals, they had long ago lost their ability to fly—although, as I could even confirm with my own eyes, they could still glide quite well. No wonder they liked tall buildings, if they had a built-in way of avoiding fall damage.
The public transport system was precise. Only a few nations back on Earth would have been able to rival it. In only an hour in this large megacity, we had already reached an airport.
It was strange to look at the airplanes, as they were so similar to ours, but I guessed physics made design—even on distant planets—quite similar.
“Where are we exactly going?” I asked Thoron as we were currently waiting for our flight.
“Vacationing in a large city is not the most fun thing to do. So we're going to my hometown. It’s on one of the island chains quite close to the equator. It's actually quite perfect for a relaxing vacation. Also, my brother is there, and I’m sure he can help you get a delve into a portal. And help you with your other need as well.” That last part Thoron whispered.
One thing that had been holding me back from truly starting to work on what skills I wanted to acquire—and what build I would go for—was the fact that I still didn’t know how many skills I could have.
Turns out, there wasn't a machine that could tell you that. Only people with a certain gift could give you an exact answer to that question.
Thoron’s brother has his own adventuring guild, so they should be able to help me. Although his guild is quite small and only local to the island chain, I truly hope they have someone who can help me.
I was pleasantly surprised at how fast the airplane could travel. In only a few hours, we were already landing almost halfway across the planet. Thoron traded his window seat to me so I could admire this new world I found myself on.
In all honesty, I was a bit disappointed, as it looked really similar to Earth. But it also brought back happy memories, so it was hard not to have a happy smile on my face the entire time we were flying.
Thoron seemed incredibly happy as we exited the airport, but I stopped moving as I looked around. The airport seemed normal. The megacity where the space elevator was looked completely like any other city. This place, however, barely had anything I would call modern features. Even the streetlamps seemed to be burning some sort of fuel to give light. Why weren’t they using electricity?
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Thoron seemed to have figured out that I had stopped moving. He looked back at me and turned to take in our surroundings.
“Is it your first time?” he asked, more softly than I had ever heard him speak before.
“Why is it like this?”
He seemed to deflate just a bit.
“This is the reality of living anywhere where there is even a little bit of mana. There simply aren't enough strong people, or people with the correct affinities, to bring this entire planet to the electrical age.”
“Wait, but we’re only in a low mana zone—I’m certain I’m correct about that.”
“You are most definitely correct. Only places where proper advanced civilizations could thrive are in minimal or zero mana zones.”
“I bet you've read about this, but no one can really explain it better than just seeing it. This is the reality of the universe we live in. If there’s just a little bit of mana in the air, civilization’s greatest tool, that of advanced technology, becomes completely useless.”
Immediately, I took out my tablet, seeing that it still worked perfectly. Thoron started to chuckle at that.
“You are one of those exceptions. Your affinities allow you to keep advanced technology working. Although, at your current strength, there’s a good chance that anything above a low mana zone would start messing even with your bonded equipment.”
I took a few moments to take all of this in.
“So I guess it’s a good idea for me to get stronger before I leave?”
Thoron belly-laughed at that and seemed like he wanted to grab my shoulder, but with the height difference, it wouldn’t be possible, so instead he lightly punched my side.
“Come on, let’s go. I’ll introduce you to my brother.”
I still had a bit of a whiplash, especially when I saw animals being used as transport. Many were riding them, but they also pulled large wagons.
The buildings still looked quite normal. Once again, they were blocky and made out of rock, but there were a lot more wooden components as well. The contrast was so strong between where we had just been a few hours ago and this place, but slowly, I was starting to get used to it.
We soon reached quite a large compound.
“This is my brother’s adventurer guild. He has rooms for adventurers who come through here, and I’ve gotten us both rooms.”
As we walked in, I had another shock—the inside was once again filled with technology that seemed to be working perfectly fine. So, most likely, someone with the correct affinity was bonded to this location, giving protection from the mana.
This really helped me with the understanding of how the rest of the galaxy might look like and how things will work on other planets.
“Varkun!” Thoron yelled loudly as we had walked a bit further in.
A quite large dwarf turned around, and his look of anger immediately changed into surprise and happiness.
“Thoron, you rascal! I thought you weren’t coming for another week. It seems that this older brother still needs to teach you some respect,” Varkun said in a teasing manner while also walking toward his brother.
Soon, they met and gave each other what I could only describe as a truly brotherly bear hug. If things continued like they were, I bet one of them was going to pass out, but they separated just before that happened.
“Varkun, this is Remi. He’s the one I told you about.”
Varkun looked over at me and then looked me up and down, his eyes seemed to see everything.
“You can use technology. That will make things easier and safer. If you have your adventurer card, I can give you a good discount on your room. And of course, you can go and delve a portal as well. It would be easy enough to get you the escort you wanted if you are willing to fully buy out a portal. But we can discuss that later.”
“I’m looking forward to it. Nice to meet you.”
We shook hands, and it seemed like Thoron had told him how we started to shake hands. We grasped each other’s wrists, meeting halfway between our species’ preferred greeting.
“Oh right—you also wanted the skill slot reading. Khasindra, you're free right now, right? Are you up for a reading?” Varkun yelled toward the bar.
A short dwarf looked up. She still seemed to have clear eyes, even though there were eight empty mugs in front of her.
“Oh, so it’s him? A human? Yeah, I’ll try. Follow me,” she said, and Varkun pushed me to follow her. For a moment, I looked toward Thoron, but he gave me a small nod, so I followed her.
It didn’t take us long to reach a small room that looked like a therapy office.
“Come, sit down.” I did so, but before I could ask any questions, she continued.
“Just to make it clear, I cannot read your skills. Only machines and some other skills can do that. What I do is I can feel what affinities you have and how many skills you could have for those affinities.”
“Are many worried about revealing their skills?”
“It’s the biggest problem, yes. Fortunately, I can’t see them. Although in my line of work, some can. They either don’t do this type of work, or they end up in a bad situation. So, should we get started?”
“What do I need to do?”
“Give me your hand. It will take me a few moments to start the process.”
I watched as she took my hand, and then slowly, I could feel something starting to gather around her. She had her eyes closed, but soon she started to speak.
“I can sense three affinities. If you didn’t know, that means you have one-third the skill slots for each affinity. The first one I’m sensing is the Mind affinity. That’s a good one. For a three-affinity split, the average amount of skill slots for Mind affinity is 10.”
It took a few more minutes before she spoke again.
“Unfortunately, I have some bad news. You only have 7 slots—and two of them are already filled.”
That confused me a bit. Didn’t all four of the special skills I got also require Mind affinity?
“The next one is the Basic affinity. Now that’s really good. Not only does it usually have a lot of skill slots, it also helps—if skills are compatible with it—to take some of the burden off the other affinities’ skill slots. The average is 18 skill slots, and you have…”
Another long pause before she continued.
“You have 22. Congratulations. With four of them already occupied. Let’s continue. Your last affinity is Mechanist. That one has quite a low skill slot count, from what I remember. For this version, I believe the average is 5.”
The pause that followed was a lot longer than the others, and I could see she was starting to look exhausted when she finally spoke.
“That’s damn impressive. You have 12 slots, with one occupied. I’ve only seen double the average slot count for an affinity three times in my 30 years of working. If you can find the correct skills, I believe you could reach quite far. But I’m tired now,” she said while breathing heavily.
“How much do I owe you? And let me get you a few rounds of drinks as well.”
Immediately, the tiredness somewhat disappeared from her face as a stupidly happy smile greeted me.
“Now that’s how you treat a lady.”