Chapter 16: Finally we've arrived!
It's odd when I easily disregarded civilian casualties I might I incur during the prior engagement with the spear heroes.
Granted, during my old life servicing UNSC as marines, planet besieging could suffer cruel months when usually covenant would just glass the planet red but something holds them back or actually they just searching for the forerunner artifact inside a planet.
During that perilous time, supply up above would hardly come by. We desperately need to make and preserve every resource available.
Very often we need to force horrid choices such ruthlessly sacrificing the elder over food ration or abandoning a city packed of defenseless civilian to the plasma of aliens without any thought.
We were not Spartan or battle-hardened Special force who can run ablaze and save the day, we just some canon-fodder in the grand theater of brutal war.
What we could achieve was just grit our teeth as they burned in the fire of plasma.
To forfeit a thousand to save another billion souls, we uncover the harsh grim truth through the lengthy and tiring war that it inevitably makes me numb.
Then why as a person who understands the most about the concepts of cruel sacrifice I could easily disregard the lives that I swore to protect before?
Has this become arrogance? Is it because I conclude all of these people as primitives? I have drunk in my own power? Is this because I have become free from all of those peculiar obligations? Or this is the price of my reincarnation? A mental disorder perhaps.
The question is should I fight it? Should I concede to it? I don't know.
I was never decided something by myself everything would be planned by my parents or higher up, my course of life or decisions.
The only time I ever fight was when the time I love subcultures like anime, and going to the prestigious university back in reach, of course, my parents were too happy about my decisions enrolled in it.
"Altria, what do you believe of me?" I asked with a tinge of personal doubt, doubt to myself.
It had taken a moment before Altria answered listlessly, "I don't grasp Will…if you were allegedly not my master…I would personally instruct you to become an Alter…you demonstrate potential but…I merely think there's no need…you are natural."
I chuckled. I see that means I was barely hanging the frail thread of my personal morality before I become an "Alter" just like her.
"Just…perform what you desire to accomplish Will, I will observe you after all."
Don't think about it too much huh, Altria was under no circumstances a direct person when it typically comes to something other than delicious candies, battle, or something she keenly interested.
She was genuinely a passionate person, despite her cold demeanor.
Though I genuinely felt I sought the wrong person, you could say Altria has her own stories of how she became an Alter though I would save that for another day.
Still, when I peeked behind at Altria, her antenna was swaying gracefully and twitching about in the courses of the pleasant wind, at least I genuinely want to make her happy.
We've arrived at a humble village near the base of the mountain.
The ride here was surprisingly smooth despite the earlier err…complication.
Well, I merely hope news didn't travel fast here, and I mean what's the chance to bump important figures, who could possibly possess a fast communication magic item.
Near impossible! Drawing SSR limited gacha provides a bigger probability than meeting the only four heroes in the continent twice in a different place! Or so I genuinely want to say.
"Oi look isn't that the sword hero and his party!"
"What he is attaining here in this small, backwater, unimportant and obscure village?"
"Huh, isn't that obvious he is over here to subjugate that pesky dragon back in the mountain! And why do you have to span such length describing this village huh?" Shouted the man at his friend.
Yeah, I merely need to shut my metaphorical mouth for a minute before fate bitching around again.
BUT, too bad you won't get me this time!
We merely need to properly use our mob concealment skill, as long as they didn't know the news about the spear hero and not specifically search for us, we should be safe.
If that, however, didn't work, well we can indeed use the active camouflage along with presence concealment.
If not, then the only god perceives what will happen.
Taking a chance that the sword hero still recuperating from his journey here, we sneak our way to a forest east the village.
Hmm, the grand entrance was supposed to be precisely behind a picturesque waterfall in this impenetrable forest.
What I required was just to naturally follow this flowing river upstream, then I should have discovered it, that what granny told to me.
Walking in the small pathway near the stream, we found some monsters lurking around us though they promptly cut down the moment they show up their nose with a hail of swords.
A notice came out of my peripheral.
[You gained 240xp]
[Your party gained 180xp]
[Level up!]
WILLIAM CARTER: LV. 78 -> LV.79
ALTRIA PENDRAGON: LV.85 -> LV.86
Thanks to our foreigner class, the SS didn't impose a limitation on class-up at LV. 40. Though, with this, we didn't have any particular of benefit class other than the level limiter.
"Altria, do you gain any skill while leveling up in this world?"
"Hm, yes. I have unlocked X-san skill, stars of sabers…it merged seamlessly with my instant shadowless sword naturally making it…from C+ rank to A-rank"
Hee, if I remember right X stars of sabers skill was have C++ rank and both skill detail was a bit sketchy other than an upgraded version of instinct and causing you much faster and adapt better in combat.
"How about the noble phantasm?"
"Noble Phantasm…I didn't gain any other than X-san secret-calibur and you know precisely…I have properly managed to recreate Excalibur Morgan blast with…my necro-calibur before."
I know precisely it should be impossible for a servant to gain other servants noble phantasm even among their different counterparts, but she was unique for she was, in fact, a fully materialized heroic spirit inside a flesh body.
Therefore she naturally gained her counterparts noble phantasm or equipment as she possessed each of her counterparts legend.
A servant and heroic spirit were fundamentally different, for the servant was invariably only a minuscule portion of heroic spirit.
Though I merely say that, Altria was severely restricted to her berserker parameter and inevitably have to rigorously train or somehow gain a necessary condition to unlock her counterpart skill, parameter, noble phantasm, and equipment.
To add the salt on injury, we found she only has three counterparts rather than the numerous faces of King Arthur.
That is respectively mysterious heroine X, Mysterious Heroine XX, and Mysterious heroine Z.
Because they were fundamentally derived from different legend and a different universe, I knew precisely she was popularly supposed to be merely jokes and parody character in the game series of Fate.
Then again, all fate characters were merely a big fat joke, to begin with.
Nevertheless, I can't complain or should I say bluntly I naturally have to be grateful to her, with her skill alone she can be properly considered as a powerhouse among servants.
"Ah…I also gain XX-san holy lance armor Avalon and piloting skill…I forgot."
Wut!? I was surprised at the revelation.
Wasn't that at least utilizes the same capabilities with holy sheath Avalon and gains much better capability as an impenetrable armor? She has instantly become a broken Chara before I fathom it.
"Oh…when?"
"When we arrive promptly at this world…it is possible it has to do something with my foreigner class here…and it's only some specific part of the armor…I received."
"Conscientiously I can't think other than that is the necessary unlock condition for the armor."
Hmm, with this there were only the Rhongomyniad LR and Dun stallion II left.
Maybe riding skill could at least unlock Dun stallion? I mused.
If she unlocked Dun stallion II at least I can reverse engineer it and create my own starship rather than buying its expensive blueprint directly in the shop.
Hmm, if someone still wondering what Dun stallion II was.
It was, in fact, the ship of mysterious heroine X although it never showed up in the established canon and exists only as support skill known as backup-fire.
Intentionally breaking my musing, we have arrived at the falls, we can properly hear a deafening roar came from the north.
It must be undoubtedly the sword-hero, who was his name again? Ah, Ren, is it? or Itsuki? Nevermind.
Back to the falls, it was, in fact, a small 5-meter width waterfall. Pretty unremarkable for an apparent grand-dungeon entrance, then again they intend to hide it, so they must be pretty successful in hiding this for likely thousands of years.
Altria prominently uses her own personal magecraft or the force as she dubbed it to transport us to the cave behind the falls by instantly creating some kind of an invisible platform to walk on above the water.
She said she could make us float but it required more energy to expend on.
It was genuinely a unique power through the direct manipulation of surrounding energy wave and synced it with her brain wavelength, therefore, making her able to manipulate said energy, it also powered with her Altereactor or simplified known as her own special magic core.
I tried asking her to instruct me about it, but her response was "To walk the way of the force is to tread the chosen path of Alter" and it was the necessary requirement, to undoubtedly become an Alter.
I didn't want to voluntarily commit myself to Alternification, yet I think.
After a brief walk through the cave, we were greeted with an ancient room constructed of brown withered Limestone.
The cavernous room was engraved with numerous symbols, and there's stood reverently a grand entrance with a solid limestone gate.
It prompted me of the ancient middle-eastern structure like what they called again Babylonians? Or Egyptians? I forgot.
At the middle of the ornate gate, there's a descriptive epithet with many unique symbols engraved onto it though I could not interpret it. Maybe some kind of warning or rules, I thought wistfully while remembering accurately numerous adventures movie that typically featuring this kind of things.
Let's hope we will endure whatever this dungeon will deliver at us, I clapped my hand to prayer in front of the gate.
Altria tentatively touched some kind of button beside the gate as a big rumbling could be heard from the gate.
I hope I didn't sign our death warrant. Naturally, I would be nervous, when I know so little of the complex nature of the dungeon when my whimsical knowledge was from novel or movies I watched.
The gate started to open as it revealed a lasting ancient hallway devoid of any light, kind of creepy when there are many armored statues made of stone at both sides of the hallway.
As we stepped in, a louder rumbling echoed through the dark hallway.
With an awkward glance, I turned indignantly to the specific direction of the familiar sources, "Will, my Altereactor has struck the critical state, feed me."
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
Nyanmato
Nyanmato It almost two months and we have only reached 16 chapters. Writing reflect their writers, they said.
I guess this must be true, considering how lazy I am.
Nevertheless, Thank you for reading. Please leave your thought, comment, or review if you could.
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