274 Spartan series
The day and night cycle within Perilith was not the same as the Primeveil, although it was close enough. Every day at exactly 5:30 am the sun would rise within Perilith, and at exactly 6:30 pm the sun would set, without any deviation whatsoever - at least so far. That provided a solid thirteen hours for the teams to thoroughly explore the alternate dimension.
There were certain drawbacks to having to return every night, however. Ultimately, there would only be a certain distance they could travel to and return within a 13 hour time frame. At the moment, spending the night within Perilith, even with a night light there to fight away the darkness, had not proven effective.
Perhaps, over the next few weeks, they would discover an alternative way to circumvent this issue. They surely had to if they were going to achieve the objective of retrieving all of the six Sage level ingredients. Most likely, that would involve bringing in more teams of Neophytes.
None of that was any of Nero's concern, however. His one and only objective was to protect the four researchers who would go in with them.
About two hours after they entered, the team of Arcanists all returned, their protective gear clearly scuffed up, meaning that they had been in a fight. But none of them were poisoned or had massive burns, and all of them had returned, so a few minor scuffs were nothing to compare about.
Nero followed the team of researchers as they went into the interview room where the Arcanists would gather after a quick medical exam for debriefing.
"Alright Captain, what can you tell me about the situation inside Perilith?" someone asked the leader of the Arcanist team once they arrived.
"No notable changes to report," the Captain, a particularly tall woman, stated. "During our latest scouting mission, we conducted a survey of the area surrounding the cabin within Perilith. No new high value plants have regrown, nor have any high value ingredients been found within one kilometre (0.6 miles). Outside of that range, however, Marigold-Clovers and Humming Basil leaves have once again been spotted growing.
"We have brought back soil samples at 100 metre intervals starting from the cabin, clearly marked, and besides a small accident with a clew of newborn winged worms, all signs are consistent with our initial theory. It seems that whatever energy enables the rapid growth of high value materials within Perilith is being leaked, or perhaps used by the cabin to support the connection between dimensions. All other readings and samples remain consistent.
"Finally, there is one thing I would like to suggest strictly from a strategic point of view. We spotted a new hornet hive being formed about seven hundred metres south-west of the cabin, which might become a problem in the future.
"Exterminating the hive as Arcanists would be time and resource intensive, so instead we have only marked the location. Considering the roughly five hours left of daylight within Perilith, if the Neophyte team prioritises exterminating the hive today, their future excursions might be made simpler."
The interview lasted only a little while longer, but all-in-all there was nothing extraordinary to report, so the Neophyte team was given the go-ahead to gear up and go. Nero was reminded once more that his first priority during the excursion would be to protect the researchers. However, besides that, the researchers also retained the authority to pass orders to them, especially seeing how Vanessa was an honorary junior officer but they were all privates.
Nero followed a guide into the armoury, where he was given all the gear and equipment he would be using, as well as the cards he was mandatorily supposed to equip.
Beneath everything was supposed to come a pale yellow, skintight onesie which would protect him and his skin from sunlight and poison exposure, as well as maintain some pressure on his body so if he got small cuts or wounds, the bleeding would be suppressed.
Above the onesie came the actual protective gear, consisting of a completely synthetic, aetherically charged pants and chest piece. The aetheric charge meant that certain, aether conducting metals and alloys had been woven into the gear as strings, and would help protect them against some of the harmful and dangerous energies within the other dimension.
There were gloves, though they were mostly to protect the skin and had no other significant features. The air filter was inserted inside of a black facemask made of some alloy and shatterproof glass, which they were supposed to wear.
Once everything was on, Nero discovered that while his flames had granted him a small level of immunity to warm temperatures, and an immense immunity to the cold, putting on so much gear still made him feel warm. Considering that they would be in Perilith for thirteen hours a day everyday, he needed to ensure he stayed hydrated during the time he wasn't there.
Once he had everything equipped, Nero checked and confirmed the position of his six cards to ensure he remembered which of them was where.
There were four mandatory cards, of which he did not need the one related to illumination, so he could use more of his own. Name: Serene Wind
Image: A helmet of wind vaguely visible around a person's head
Type: Purification
Star rank: 0
Ability: [Surround the user's head with a barrier of wind which prevents simple poisons and toxins from infiltrating]
Name: Linen wraps
Image: A man wrapped completely in cloth, looking like a mummy
Type: Defensive
Star rank: 0
Ability: [Wrap the user's body in a grey material, similar to linen. The area of the body covered is proportional to the amount of aether consumption]
Flavour text: "When the purple plague spread, the healers walked the lands wrapped in grey," - Shaman Burrow
Name: Mud Fortress
Image: A hut made of clay from the ground
Type: Construct/Fabrication
Star rank: 0
Ability: [Use the earth beneath the caster to build a protective cabin]
Flavour text: "The storm comes unannounced, but it will always find us ready," - Shaman Burrow
Besides these three, Nero, of course, kept Snowflake and Radix Augmentation from his own collection. For the third card, however, he used one of the cards offered by Fordham base
Name: Keen Insight
Image: A man looking at subtle footprints in the ground, outlined in yellow
Type: Augmentation
Star rank: 0
Ability: [Directly increase the users senses]
Flavour text: "The ghosts of my past haunt me. No, this is not PTSD, these are real ghosts, and I can finally see them," - Maxim Dawnlight
Although its description was simple, Nero had been allowed to test the card when he expressed interest. The increase was far more than what the card made it out to be. Not only did all of Nero's senses increase, it somehow made it so that processing those senses was not mentally overwhelming at all.
Someone like Nero, who already constantly made use of all his senses to stay on the lookout for anything pertinent, felt incredibly overpowered when he used this card. Yet its one drawback was the immense consumption of aether.
Almost everything Nero did massively consumed aether. Both his innate abilities, as well as the cards he liked, were all bottomless holes of aether. It seemed fine when he was using them in the sense that they usually lasted him the whole fight. But if he had to be fighting for hours on end, and maintain vigilance for half the day, then he had to use his abilities sparingly.
If he didn't consciously make an effort to minimise his consumption, then he probably wouldn't even last an hour.
Fortunately, while he was limited to having six cards attached to his body, he could take his card case with him, so he could use restorative cards when needed.
The reason he didn't take seven cards like he did back at Lumina was because his gear actually interfered with card use, since it contained aether itself. Besides the six allocated slots, adding a card anywhere else would lead to a severe reduction in performance if he used that card.
Once he finished checking everything, and did a number of stretches to gain a better understanding of how limiting movement was in full gear, he grabbed a Spartan-II spear. The Spartan series spears all had a cold, deadly edge, narrow and sharp enough to pierce armour, hide or protective shell of cursed monsters.
Compared to the Victus series, which were more flexible, the Spartan series spears had a rigid yet strong body, with greater emphasis on the blade itself.
Choosing a different series spear also meant that he would use a different combat style. Compared to how he fought with the Victus series spear, making use of the spears flexibility to spin and swerve it around his body, not only using that as a way to gain momentum, but also to block and parry more easily when he was overwhelmed with numbers, fighting with the Spartan series was more straightforward.
The tough body of the spear meant that the body itself could serve as a great weapon to hit or smash enemies if needed. More importantly, rather than swirling the spear around as he liked to do, he would be focusing more on quick, precise yet powerful stabs.
The reason he opted for the change was because of the reports he read on the types of enemies to expect within Perilith. The Spartan series was much better suited to his needs. Plus, it also looked cool as heck, and the Spartan-II especially was much too expensive for him to get his hands on normally.
Only extremely well funded departments and facilities had them.
December release schedule