Return to Monke

Both the players and the people of Aeternum are standing in awe as they are watching a large spacecraft land upon the entirety of the training grounds. At least, large from their perspective. In truth, the ship is actually quite small, roughly 100 metres long and 50 or so metres wide and about 20 metres in height. It's a small ship made for personal use, even then it would take a small team to properly operate the ship and would only be owned by the wealthier individuals amongst the stars.

A door on the side of the ship unlocks and slides open as a thin metal walkway extends itself to the ground. Emerging from the ship is a Zrathno wearing silver power armour. Compared to the large bulky power armour of Asterion, Zrathno's is sleek and thin, while also being free of rust and damage. This design makes it less durable, but it boasts higher flexibility.

"Hey there Princess, it's been a while since we last saw each other," Zrathno says, his voice slightly muffled by his helmet.

Using her little finger, Astur pretends to pick her ear, "What was that? Couldn't hear you through the helmet."

Zrathno, through Glacia, knows a bit about Astur's personality and can say with 90% certainly that she's just bullshitting him. But because he came with the purpose of asking for her help and that he came despite her not wanting him to, he opts to not make a fuss over the matter, removing his helmet and repeating what he said.

"Was it that long ago? Feels just like yesterday to me," Astur says.

"Perhaps it is not so long to long-lived beings. But for the short-lived humans, the span of nearly a year could be considered 'a while'," Zrathno says.

"Why do I feel like you subtly trying to call me old?"

"Not in the slightest," Zrathno says, lying through his teeth.

Since Zrathno consciously avoids saying and thinking Astur's name, she isn't able to peer into his mind to find the truth and chooses to ignore the matter for now. But not before mentally noting to find an opportunity to get back at him later.

Cutting straight to the chase, Astur asks, "So what are you here for?"

"Oh, the omniscient Princess needs to ask? Do you not already know?"

Because of a previous conversation he had with Glacia, Zrathno can't help but tease Astur in a death seeking manner.

If not for fear of her Grandfather coming to chastise her, Astur would a thousand times out of a thousand, try to beat Zrathno to death.

Astur grinds her teeth, "Just tell me already you cunt."

"The fox was right, you really aren't going to try to beat me up. I didn't think she was telling the truth."

It takes no longer than a single second for Astur to figure out what Zrathno meant. Adding another tally in her mental notebook to Glacia's name, Astur says, "Keep going and soon not even the Old Man will be able to save you."

"Alright, alright. Basically, my plan is for you to alchemically enhance my materials and then go find a peak mage and get them to magically enhance my materials. Then I'll use those materials to construct my next prototype mech. After I find better materials I'll repeat the process over again until I have the absolute best materials in the universe. Simply put, you'll be seeing me some more in the future. This is of course something I am more than willing to pay for."

In the grand scheme of things, Zrathno's proposal isn't bad for Astur. It wouldn't take too much effort to help Zrathno and in return, she can ask him for money or some other item that can help her, perhaps even a mech. But in Astur's mind, all she sees is a nuisance coming to bother her.

A minute passes without either Astur or Zrathno saying anything. From Astur's previous poor attitude towards Zrathno, many players are excited to see a fight break out. A couple of the players even tried to sneak onto Zrathno's ship during this time, only to be shot dead but an automated kinetic defence system, donating some EXP to Zrathno.

On the other hand, the non-Oulvgar are worried about a fight breaking out between Astur and someone who just descended from space, breaking their common sense of the world. For 95% of the people of Vopal, the idea of aliens and spacefaring civilisations is merely fiction. But seeing a true spaceship with their own eyes has shattered their view and are worried about what kind of advanced weapons might be on board. Fearful of such imaginary weapons being used against them with no chance of fighting back.

As for the Oulvgar, they have absolutely no worry in the world. More than content to go along with whatever Astur does, be it fight are peacefully engaged in conversation.

Another minute of silence passes before finally, Astur comes to a decision, "One for one. I enhance your materials in a single way and you give one favour. Another type of enhancement will require another favour."

"I can agree with the condition that if the favour is big enough it will warrant more than one enhancement. For example, if you want me to construct a mech for you, it would take several rounds of enhancements. But something simple such as money or some item I have or can obtain with relative ease, then that would be fine for a single round," Zrathno negotiates.

"That's fine," Astur nods, "By the way, where did you get this ship from? I don't believe this is within your ability to make, especially giving the ship the capability of interstellar travel, let alone intergalactic travel."

Zrathno scratches his head in embarrassment, "I wasn't really the one to make the ship. I mean, I made about 10% of the outer hull, but that's it. Uhh… would you believe me if I said a monkey made the ship?"

Hearing his response, Astur is left stunned for a moment. She had expected him to come across some kind of fortuitous encounter, but she wasn't expecting it to be a monkey.

"... Are you for real?" Astur asks.

"Yeah, I'm for being completely serious this time. That monkey is also the reason the ship doesn't need any more than a single person to run it. Honestly, I find it regrettable that I wasn't able to build the ship myself."

"Hahaha, you got beat as a Mechanic by a literal monkey!" Astur laughs.

"No listen, like, that monkey was a mother fucking badass. It turned my wristwatch into a god damn grenade launcher," Zrathno points to the watch on his right wrist.

He extends his arm out towards one of the training dummies on the field and presses down on his watch. A second later a small portal open above the watch and a grenade is thrown out towards the training dummy, exploding and obliterating the dummy and the ground around it into dust.

"Ok. What the actual fuck was that!" Ystur says, unable to keep her mouth shut any longer.

Astur ignores Ystur's outburst, but she is thinking the same thing as she pays more attention to the fact that the ground dummy and the ground around it were obliterated on a molecular level.

"How did a wanker like you get your hands on a grenade like that!?" Astur asks.

But Zrathno just shrugs, "The monkey made it."

"For… reasons, I would like to know where the monkey is," Astur says.

"About that, it disappeared after it was done with the ship. Vanished into thin air I tell ya. It showed up in a similar manner, suddenly appearing in my underground factory. At first, I tried to stop it when I saw it tinkering with what I had for the ship, but there was a physic field stopping me, but after a few minutes of visible progress, I left the monkey to its own devices and a couple of days later I came back to see a completed spaceship. The field was gone and I tried to approach but it vanished as I got closer. It didn't take long for me to figure out the monkey had tinkered with several of my small machinery, like my watch. It was there that I made my decision. I will reject my humanity! And return to Monke!"