The Pilot of Wrath

Chapter 51 – Interference

Matt was running through the grassy bottom of the valley. He was currently on his way to the area Franklin and Tobias suspected to have a valuable resource. He was taking advantage of the wide-open grassy area in his journey north and really stretching the legs of the mech. Echo had opted to wander a little, occasionally flickering back into visibility as Matt passed him. While he ran, he reflected on the previous day’s events and how it led to his current mood.

The housewarming had gone late into the night which led to Matt sleeping in for once. A choice he slightly regretted as Echo had decided to wander off and sniff out the offerings at the local restaurants. Matt was awoken by Tobias banging on his door and telling him about how his familiar had found out where one owner lived and acted as a rather scaley, toothy courtesy call. Thankfully the drake was able to communicate that he wanted the man to cook some food and not be the food.

After Matt had settled the bill and given a little extra to the dwarf for his troubles, he decided to get started with the day. He first joined Tobias for breakfast where he was given some very troubling news. A revelation that was beyond terrible for Matts future within the system.

“You know we are running out of this stuff?” Tobias said, holding up his cup.

Matt froze and looked at Tobias with shock. “How? We can get more, right? The Forge store or the exchange has to have some.” While stats made it so the coffee wasn’t as effective as it had been, it was still part of his routine and a little creature comfort that he would rather not do without.

Tobias shook his head. “As of right now, we don’t have a source. I am not sure about the exchange but that doesn’t matter since we don’t have access yet.”

Matt then started rummaging around in his storage ring, he was looking for a particular item and eventually found it. A bag of coffee beans that hadn’t been opened yet. He knew the beans had already been plucked, dried, roasted and then sealed in the airtight foil, but he still hopped there was a chance. He stood from the table and stormed out the door, muttering under his breath.

Echo looked to Tobias from where he laid nearby and growled a question. The process was also helped by him sending a mental image to the human remaining at the table sipping the rest of their coffee.

“How the hell should I know what he’s doing?”

Another series of images and trilling sounds.

“Well, you could go follow him. It’s likely that he will be terrorizing some innocent citizen and you are the subject matter expert in that field.” Tobias said.

Echo agreed that he was better at being big and scary, so he got up and stalked after Matt, turning nearly invisible as he went.

Tobias watched the drake stalk out of the room and shivered slightly. “God’s help whoever they are after.”

*****

It took a lot of Matt asking around and wandering into the various park areas to find who he was looking for. He remembered seeing the demoness when they had begun clearing the forest around the walls and pushing back the woody boundary. He had thankfully gotten her name while asking around.

“Madrith!” Matt called as he approached the now very startled demoness. She looked up and shielded her eyes from the sun as she looked out for who called to her. “Do you have a few minutes to talk?” He asked after getting closer to talk at normal volumes.

“Oh, Lord Matt.” She said with a deep bow. “How may I be of assistance to you?”

Matt took in the person standing in front of him. Her race was one of the blue skinned variety of demons, she didn’t have horns per se but did have a 3-centimeter-tall bony crest running along her head. That along with the nearly completely white eyes reminded Matt of a shark. “I hear your class has a lot to do with plants?” Matt said before adding as an afterthought. “And just call me Matt.”

Madrith nodded curtly before responding. “You have been well informed. What need do you have for a botanist?”

“Could you possibly find a way to grow these?” Matt held out a few of the coffee beans. “These are the pit of a small fruit grown on trees on my home world. This example has been picked, shelled, dried, and then roasted but I was wondering if you think it’s possible.”

Taking a bean from Matt’s open hand, Madrith examined it intently for a minute. “I don’t know. I have many skills to help grow plants of all types but this not just dead but also processed into… food?”

“A drink. It’s kind of like tea.”

“Hmm.” Madrith inspected it closer, completely focused. “I don’t know if it is possible, but I will try. I perhaps can manage when I reach E Grade. Maybe my next skill selection will have something?” She began to trail off at the end before coming back to Matt. “Ah, I will try but I c-can make no p-promises.“

Matt sighed heavily, he had assumed this would be the case, but it was still hard to hear. Her stutter at the end was telling of his visible disappointment. He pulsed his aura of honesty, sweeping her up in its radius. “It’s really ok, just do what you can.” He said in a calming voice.

Madrith nodded once, her jaw unclenching but Matt could still see her hand shaking slightly as she held it at her side. Matt then switched to trying to radiate calming and peaceful, seeing her visibly relax. He wasn’t sure what it was about some people and how they reacted to him, but figured it was how well they knew him. “Look, it’s really ok, just take your time. I honestly only have a slim hope that you can do it. Anything is better than I can do on my own at this point.” He said, really trying to sell that he was asking for a favor.

Bowing deeply again, Madrith finally responded. “I shall commit some time to it. We might get lucky none the less. If there is nothing else my lord?”

And there it was, the lord title coming back out. “Thanks, sorry for disturbing you. Just let me know if you have any success or need anything.” With that, Matt turned and walked away.

Madrith watched him go, waiting until her was well out of ear shot before letting out her breath and a shudder to go along with it. His aura was immense, despite not being overly refined. As a demon, she was rather susceptible to those emotions and knew that he was by far the most dangerous being she had ever seen. Just as she was about to relax and return to her work, a small flicker at the edge of her vision caught her attention.

The drake, which was the familiar of the young lord was getting up from where he laid in the grass. Madrith hadn’t even seen the beast despite it only being a few meters away. One of its slit pupil eyes flicked over to her and what she thought was a smile curled its lips before it faded from view once more. Another shudder ran down her spine at the sudden appearance then disappearance of the familiar. She vowed then and there that she would do everything to appease the monster known as Matt.

*****

Matt was on his way to the area that had been used as a firing range but had to swing by the forge to pick up Van on his way. He wanted to test his new skill and blow off a little steam. As he walked, he calmed down a bit after conducting an inventory and seeing enough coffee to have a cup or two every day for another half a year. After turning the corner near the hub, he was once again stopped in his journey.

The cities only orc walked out of the hub just as Matt was passing and instantly called out. “Hey Matt, I was just about to come looking for you. Got a minute?” Franklin asked.

“Yeah Frank, what’s up?”

“We might have discovered another potential resource point. Or maybe not a resource but likely something valuable.” Franklin was gesturing for Matt to follow him back into the hub, likely to what had become the command post.

“Alright, I can take a look.” Matt said. This shouldn’t take long, maybe I can finish this quick and get out to the range.

Matt generally like to take pride in the fact that he knew better than to be a wishful thinker. Murphy’s law dictated that there was no greater sin than even thinking in a positive manner when there were outside influences. The next 3 hours of Matt’s life was spent in the command post. At first it was only talking with Franklin and finding out about the potential site for another resource. That was soon interrupted by Jess and the commandos walking in.

The commando squads were going to the trial orb that Matt had discovered but wanted to plot a route and let the command post know. They then spent the next couple hours questioning Matt about the experience. He tried to be polite and sympathetic to their worries, but he quite frankly couldn’t be bothered to babysit them through every challenge.

Finally, Matt had enough. “Look, I don’t know what your trials will be like, it seems like a personal experience since the rewards are very personalized. You are going to have to deal with this one on your own. You know where it is, so get while the getting is good.”

Jess and the rest of the group all nodded along before finally walking out. Matt sighed heavily before turning back to his original conversation. “Frank, I can head out and check it tomorrow, but I have some things that I want to get done first.”

The orc looked at Matt for a moment before asking another question. “Do you want to take some people with you? We could have Rohm se…”

“Nope I can handle it.” Matt said, not exactly certain himself, but wanting the conversation to be over so he could get on with his other plans. And he almost immediately turned and left, waving over his shoulder as he went.

Matt quickly made his way back out of the hub and toward the forge. He was so close he could taste it. Without any more interruptions, he made it to where Van was waiting and quickly climbed in. He then made his way out of the gate as quickly as possible without stepping on someone.

His elation at finally exiting the city was quickly squashed as he saw the line of people at the firing line of the berm. It appeared Rohm was conducting some sort of testing or something. Matt could see roughly 50 people spread out down the line and taking aim at paper targets 100 meters away.

“Rohm, can I grab some space on the end or are you in the middle of something?” Matt asked after finally finding the commander mixed in with the troops.

“Huh, oh, sure. Just try not to get in the way of our target practice if possible.” Rohm said while waiting for the rest of the classers to finish. The assembled group then went down range to check their targets while Matt went to find an empty spot at the far end of the line.

He noticed it was where he had last practiced his meditation but most of the glass was gone, only the smallest fragments remaining. He briefly wondered where it had gone while Rohm’s group was still down range. He then wondered some more while they stayed down range doing… something. Nearly 20 minutes later, they began to wander back to the firing line.

Ok, let’s try the new skill. Matt thought to himself as he picked out a nice tree stump on the nearby hillside.

*****

The new skill was… interesting. It consumed stamina instead of mana but its rate of consumption was variable. It varied based on which weapon he used but also if he wanted to absorb all the recoil or a lesser amount. The more recoil he cancelled out, the more stamina it used.

The skill would double the rate of fire on his rifle, making a laser like stream of bullets when he also cancelled the recoil. With the Autocannon, the rate of fire was nearly 5 times greater than normal. Matt was initially concerned if the cannon could take that abuse. The action had to be straining to cycle at that rate of fire. Regardless, it held up and he didn’t detect any damage from the testing.

Matt would say the skill was thirsty when it came to stamina, but it was an absolute massive drain when used with the autocannon. He shouldn’t be surprised since that weapon had increased costs for everything, but it cost him 500 of the mech’s energy points to fire at the accelerated rate let alone cancel the recoil which brought the total up to almost exactly 1000 mana per second.

Now very happy about upgrading the energy storage capability of his mech, Matt was returning to his new house to rest and shower for the first time since he was pulled into the System. Fate or rather an obsessive god had other plans.

“Matt, I need you to contact me as soon as possible.” Tori had said in his mind after he entered the great room of his house. He promptly set up a ritual and was whisked away to meet with his patron. He was hoping for some insight into the latest resource he would be going to scout out but was sadly mistaken.

Matt appeared in a sort of lounge area off of a large office space. He didn’t know exactly where this was, but Tori was sitting on one of the couches and staring intently at a screen. A screen that was displaying a list of television dramas. “Good, you’re here.” The goddess said. “Which show should I watch next?”

Double facepalming and moaning into his hands, Matt sat down with his patron to discuss old television shows from Earth. He eventually gave her a list of movies but was unable to help with the television since he hadn’t really watched much. “Maybe have Weltgan reach out to Tobias. He has a better track record for picking shows. Actually, he picked most of our watch list when we did movies and stuff.”

Tori opened a portal and yelled through it. “Weltgan, get your prime over here, I need his advice.” The demon in question poked his head through and immediately spotted Matt.

“What do you need Tobias for that Matt can’t handle?” He asked, his smooth voice dripping with curiosity.

“Oh, come sit, you must experience television. There is this lovely sitcom about…” Tori began to explain what she had been doing for… however long. Matt just rolled his eyes and cancelled his ritual, returning to his body once again.

That wasn’t the end of it, however. Every few minutes, Tori would ask a question about a character or movie. She seemed to have trouble with how actors sometimes were changed between seasons of shows or how a movie seemed to be contradicting to the previous ones in the series. It seemed that his hopes for a quiet night had gone up in flames.

*****

So it was that Matt found himself back outside the walls of the city in the early morning light. The walls of Vil’ Krad were already out of sight by the time dawn broke. He was already most of the way up the valley and was approaching the northern edge and the area where the next resource should be located.

The trip hadn’t taken very long compared to previous missions and explorations. This time Matt had a location to aim for and the majority of the journey was in open field and rolling hills rather than dense woods and mountain sides.

As the edge of the woods and valley approached, Matt slowed and began looking for any indications of what could be out here. This was only the very edge of the search area so he would push deeper regardless.

Matt didn’t see anything, but he still moved cautiously to push through the undergrowth at the edge of the trees. He had only passed a few cattle like beasts on his trip but they either left him alone or ran as he approached. With an eye on his detection field, Matt kept advancing. After clearing a bunch of ensnaring vines, he could get a good look at this new part of the forest.

Calling it a forest was a bit of a stretch in Matt’s opinion. What he currently saw was a rather lush glade. There was mottled sunlight breaking through the hardwood canopy to splash onto the tall, vibrant grass. Wildflowers poked up in clumps throughout the meter high grass, adding a wealth of color to the scene. On the far end of the glade, Matt could see the glinting of standing water, likely fed from an underground spring since he didn’t see any creeks.

All that was secondary to what Matt’s thermal cameras picked up. Crouched near one of the large trees, a few hundred meters away, was a small humanoid figure. Matt turned off his thermal and went straight to a daylight camera and saw familiar blue green skin and green hair. “Son of a bitch. Ha! I didn’t think I would see him again.” Matt laughed to himself as he knelt down and dismounted from the mech. He had Echo stay behind since he didn’t want to spook the little creature.

After walking forward on foot, Matt could see the slightly darker green of the deep dweller’s hair poking through and looked down ever so slightly to see a pair of large brown eyes locked onto him. He very slowly removed his helmet and started radiating his calming aura out, hoping it would remember him. He then gave 2 short whistles followed by a hum, the name he was given in his last encounter.

After he finished the name, Matt saw the deep dweller pop its head up and tilt its head, looking curiously at him. Just then, a second deep dweller rounded the base of the tree and spoke in a very clear, high voice “Matt!”. The smile on its face was just as he remembered and now could see the difference between the 2 deep dwellers.

“Good to see you again little buddy.” Matt said as the tiny figure rushed over to him.