When he returned to Earth after his six-day voyage, Vincent had two unconscious passengers with him. Appearing in their hotel suite, he unceremoniously threw them on the ground.

  “Lila, come here. We need your healing!” Irene yelped. She had been warned of his return but not of the guests.

  “Hi, Vincent,” Lila appeared from the bathroom, her hair wrapped in a towel. “Goodness! Who are they?” she asked, leaning over the two bodies.

  “Don’t heal them yet,” Vincent asked. “Meet Drakhan and Kaelith, rogue Archetypes. “The ones who tried to murder Bella. I let them in the Vault back then, but since we had that mad dwarf trying to burn our cities—”

  “He did it again?” Irene asked.

  “Twice, but I chased him away. Anyway, I thought we could use some info, and I went to talk to those two. They were almost dead, eating bugs and licking the walls for water because they’re so dumb they didn’t figure out I left food rations and hydration for them.

  “I healed and fed them and proposed a deal: tell me what you know about other rogue archetypes, and you walk free. They accepted but jumped me as soon as they were restored.” Vincent stopped to a kick in the prisoners’ stomach, “Unbeknownst to them… hey, such a nice word… unbeknownst… unbeknownst,” he repeated the kicks. “Sounds heroic. Little did they know… wow… I speak in literature… neat.” At every pause, he hit the two repeatedly. “I think it’s because my mind is maxed. I have one of Bee’s rings, and as long I hit them, I have the plus mind combat buff.”

  “Can you get to the point?” Irene crossed her arms.

  “They had no idea how strong I had become. I saw their trickery coming miles away. OK, Lila, heal them only enough for them to wake up. Where is Vorrak?” The warg barked from the other room, rushing to lick Vincent’s face while the man tried to protect himself from the pet’s tongue. “Easy, boy, easy. I missed you too.”

  “Mercy,” Kaelith wailed from the floor, trying to crawl away.

  Vincent turned the woman face up with his boot. “A friend of yours burned thousands of people to death in Germany; another cut my arm—”

  “Are you wounded?” Lila rushed to him.

  “I can grow my limbs back,” he kissed her. “And you stupid fuckers tried to kill me twice. Hear me well. You’re in an unawakened world now, and your magic is gone. Mine is not. There will not be a third chance. You collaborate, or you die.”

  “What do you want to know?” the woman whispered.

  “Lots of things, but it will wait. For now, I’ll lock you in a closet with Vorrak. Try to escape; he’ll eat you. If I’m satisfied with your information, you might live.”

  “Love,” Lila fondled his shoulder, “people might hear them scream if you keep them here. We’re not in our Guild anymore, remember?”

  “Ah… Didn’t think of that… I guess I’ll leave them at the mercs’ base… All for the better; there are only woods there. Come, boy!”

  As soon as Vorrak melted in his shadow, Vincent jumped to the farm and locked his prisoners in one of the rooms with heating and running water. After leaving the Archetypes with rations for two days, Vincent returned to the hotel. He supposed Drakhan and Kaelith still had big physical stats, but without magic to use their skills, Vorrak was more than able to control them. One of the rings he had cut from his own was now on the dog’s collar.

  “What the fuck?” he gasped one back in the living room. The TV showed a fashion show. Brigid walked a catwalk with photographers everywhere.

  “She was noticed by a designer and asked to model,” Irene said. “Mom says Brigid’s a natural… Her gait is perfect, like if she has radar or something.”

  “I missed you,” he took her in her arms. “How are you?”

  “Fine!” she beamed. “I beat up three thugs who were trying to mug me. All by myself and with no ring.”

  “You didn’t take Vorrak with you?” Vincent frowned. “Don’t you remember the security protocols we talked about?”

  “You’re scolding me? I just remembered we’re mad at you,” Irene pushed him away. “You tried to pretend Lila was just a friend to impress that strumpet in the jury!”

  “We need the money, hon,” he complained. “It was nothing serious, just— Oh,” he sulked, seeing five Karma charges evaporating. He was now down to thirty-eight. “I’m sorry… It won’t happen again.”

  “Good!” Irene pecked his lips, gluing herself to his torso. “Bee said he has something to talk to you. He and the rest are in the lab they rented.”

  “The lab?”

  “The former electronics repair center next to your parent’s place,” Irene said.

  “I’ll be on my way then. Love you. Love you!” Vincent repeated the words a second time, louder, to be heard by Lila, who was drying her hair in the bathroom.

  After changing into casual clothes on the stairs, he proceeded on foot, jogging at a medium speed. Now that he was under the threshold for a trip, he had to use his charges sparingly. And the place was four kilometers away, which was nothing.

  The ‘lab’, a twenty square meters space, was overcrowded. Bee, Bella, Barbara, Karl, Ludwing, and Sven busied around a working table with a precision jeweler lathe.

  “Hi,” Vincent said, entering after knocking at the door.

  “Good timing,” Bee said. “We were testing stuff.”

  “What stuff?”

  “Tattoos.”

  “Really?”

  “Yep. A stable overload limiter, for now. People usually have a skill or use enchanted accessories to deal with stats overload. We found a way to make the enchantment independent of objects. Bella inscribes the spell on a diamond. I put a transfer spell on top of it, allowing the enchantment to move to a living target, where it becomes permanent.”

  “I’m the Guinea pig,” Barbara said.

  “I don’t get it,” Vincent shook his head. “Wouldn’t wearing the diamond do the same thing?”

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  “You don’t get it,” Bee mirrored his gesture.

  “That’s what I said!”

  “There’s a cap on how many enchanted accessories you can wear. One armor, a weapon, a pair of earrings, two rings, and a necklace—”

  “High-rank nobles can also wear a diadem or a crown,” Ludwing said.

  “Yeah, you wear those, I’ll pass,” Vincent grimaced.

  “Methinks you’ll be pretty, like a Disney prince,” Bella said, dead serious.

  Bee continued at the same time. “Now, if we add a tattoo—”

  “Oh, I get it!” Vincent exclaimed. “You get an extra accessory.”

  “Yep. And it acts like a skill, saving tokens for other stuff. Ready, honey?” Bee asked, taking a tiny diamond in a pincer. After Barbara nodded, he pressed it to her arm. The skin sizzled, and then a circle appeared on it.

  “It worked,” the Amazon said after taking the magical ring from Bee to check her Menu. “I have it in my list of skills.”

  “Well… let me know when you can paint some cool models, and I’ll get some tattoos too. What’s that,” Vincent pointed to a tall wooden box the size of a human being.

  “Our future project,” Karl said, pulling the lid apart. Behind it was a humanoid robot.

  “Err… what’s that about?”

  “I convinced an old friend to lend me one of his prototypes. This is the most advanced robot on the planet… Graphene, titanium, advanced ceramics, you name it. It’s a million a piece and destined for space exploration. And now…” the man turned toward Bella.

  “Have you seen Bella at work?” Bee whispered to Vincent.

  “Nope.”

  “Watch and be amazed.”

  The girl advanced toward the table while Sven jumped up on it. The spider tucked one of his legs into his torso and extracted the diamond holding the AIs. Bella took it in her left hand while keeping her right above it. A magic circle appeared under her fingers, interwoven with runes and geometrical shapes. The circle diminished and transformed into a beam that touched the crystal. A piece broke and popped out a second later, falling on the table.

  “Since she woke up, Bella can perform anti-magic,” Bee said.

  “It’s not anti-magic,” the girl protested, taking the piece of crystal and inserting it into the robot’s cranium, where a slit had opened. “I wave neutral Mana to break magic objects or spells.”

  And how is that not anti-magic? Vincent furrowed his brow in befuddlement.

  “I’m working!” the robot spoke, stepping out of the box.

  Vincent almost activated his Refuge. Stepping back, hand on his gun, he stomped on Barbara’s toes, making her groan in pain. “What the fuck is that thing?”

  “We discovered a way to separate the AIs into individual consciousness. Bella can concentrate them on one specific part of the diamond and cut it out,” Bee said.

  “It’s better than transferring us to another support,” the robot said. “Thank goodness I don’t have to dance anymore… no offense, Sven.”

  “It’s your loss, dude,” the spider chirped.

  “And who exactly are you?” Vincent asked.

  “Aelor, the Lone Wolf,” the robot said.

  “Aelor enjoys meditation and solitude,” Karl said. “The perfect type of personality for a space explorer. Imagine him going to the moon or the asteroids, then calling us when he finds something of interest, and you beam up and bring us the gold, diamonds, or whatever riches he finds. He keeps a part of it, of course.”

  “I want to start a video game design studio,” Aelos said. “All my games will be about Isekai.”

  “You have big plans,” Vicent said to Karl.

  “Being poor is annoying…” the man confessed. “Sorry if I involved you without asking, but—”

  “It’s OK.”

  “Space exploration could help us raise a lot of money for our plans, either on Earth or Stellarterra.”

  “So, the robot checks out. That’s a big plus,” Bee said. “Now, if only we could build spaceships…”

  “Would it help if I brought you a lot of scrap metal from an actual spaceship?” Vincent asked. “I destroyed an evil dwarf’s mining ship back on the Realm and left the remains on a junkyard near Sofia."

  “It will be fantastic!” Bee exclaimed.

  “Scrap metal is dirt cheap on Earth,” Karl said. “And I’m pretty sure we’d need a lot of advanced tech to build a spaceship. Luckily, when my friend sees the robot, he’ll—”

  “No, no, no,” Bee blurted. “It’s obvious you need a clarification.”

  “Here we go,” Vincent frowned at Karl, meaning: ‘You had to make Bee give us a lecture… We’ll be here for the day!’

  “First, you must understand the more one uses Mana, the easier it becomes to use it.”

  “Duh,” Vincent said.

  “It’s the same with materials. Their tier and magical properties will increase if they are exposed to Mana for a long time. On the Realm, a spaceship is bound to be made from at least uncommon steel, if not rare. If we repurpose magic materials, add a few enchantments and a power source, the robot could magically control the ship, add forcefields, propulsion, and so on.”

  “OK, I’ll get you some scrap metal on the next trip,” Vincent said.

  “Scan for the highest tier parts. We need at least Rare materials. And bring Jorge here. He’s the right person for this job.”

  “Museums and private collections should have Epic artifacts,” Ludwing said. “Some are still bonded to their previous owners, but if you deconstruct them, the bonds will disappear.”

  “Do you have such a collection?” Vincent asked.

  “In my Castle in Prague, yes.”

  “Goodness, you’re right… I forgot… We almost looted it… Well, do you mind if I take some?”

  Ludwing stared daggers at him. “If you intend to pay, for once.”

  “And bring me a power source,” Bee said.

  “Like what?”

  “I don’t know,” Bee scratched his head. “Look around… I detected such a source on Brigid armor but couldn’t find out what it was. It was round, that’s all I know. And it’s more powerful than a golem shard because Barbara’s armor doesn’t work without one of your rings. That power source must be what transforms a pod into armor.”

  “How strong is her armor compared to mine?” Vincent asked, remembering the fight against the Clockwork Queen.

  “The Raven’s Armor should be stronger,” Ludwing said.

  “He’s right,” Bee nodded. “It precedes the System; the craftmanship of those times is unmatched. However, the pods are destined to ensure survival, so if made in armor, they would enhance the vitality and strength of the wearer. And I strongly suspect they could be hermetically locked… thus, used as spacesuits.”

  “I’ll see if I can find the Clockwork Queen’s remains,” Vincent said. “And Scoundrell found a pod armor too, but can’t use it. It was bound to the first princess.”

  “Probably because his stats or level are lower than hers. You try it,” Bee suggested.

  “Yeah, of course,” Vincent said. “Say, guys… Have you heard about somebody called Fenros, the Silent Hunter?”

  Everyone shook their heads, shrugged, or said no.

  “I’ll ask the prisoners first thing tomorrow…”

  “Who?” Ludwing asked.

  “Two asshole archetypes, Drakhan and Kaelith. I left them at the base… I’ll need to hire a couple of guards… Never mind… Bee, Irene said you want to talk with me,” Vincent changed the subject, as the rest didn’t look very interested in the subject and were staring at the robot. Sven had climbed on top of the robot's head, and the latter was awkwardly trying to chase the small pest away.

  “Not with you, with the System.”

  The System: Tell Bee I can hear him.

  “He hears you.”

  “Can’t it talk directly?”

  The System: Not in an unawakened world. I could use Elkandaros to speak through the radio.

  “Why don’t you speak through the radio?” Vincent asked. “Sorry, System stuff.”

  The System: I don’t have a voice simulation. On the Realm, I make your mind think I speak, but I’m not really doing it.

  “It’ll use a subroutine,” Vincent said, extracting his radio from the storage.

  “Salutations to all, I’m Elkandaros, the Boundless Voyager,” the Grand Archetype said.

  “Hi,” Bee waved his hand. “I have an idea about how to upgrade the System. What about replacing all the minor Archetypes? Once back on the Realm, of course.”

  The radio remained silent for a few seconds. “That goes without saying. Most of the minor Archetypes are now gone. The System would like that Bee, Vincent, Ludwing—”

  “That’s not what I have in mind. Have you ever heard of social media metadata? What if we write you an app to collect data from the people of the Realm? An add to the personal OS, with options and settings for privacy. Basically, everyone who allows it would be an Archetype. The spectrum of your sentient personality understanding will grow exponentially.”

  “The System says he’s already able to collect such data and could upgrade the OS to include more privacy settings. The problem is processing and interpreting them for the proposed purpose. The System lacks the ability to juggle so many details.”

  “And if we’d solve that problem?” Bee asked.

  “The System asks if he won’t lose his own personality or mind if exposed to such an amount of data.”

  “There will be tests. Simulations run on our computers. Maybe fail switches, redundancies… I’ll need Vincent to bring some of the guys specialized in coding and hardware.”

  “The System is willing to try if this is what you think it’s best,” Elkandaros said. “On a personal note, this Personality imprint remembers how excited the original Elkandaros was about exploring and traveling. I would like to be installed on a robot as well.”

  “Maybe if we present my friend with some spectacular results, we can ask for more robots,” Karl said. “Err… Vincent… You think you could jump on Mars if you’d see some photos?”