Chapter 111: The Road to Rata Sum
I rose up out of the waters of Viathan Lake, glistening in the sunlight, pulling four dead krait behind me by their tails. The women of the fishing village, Triskellion Quay, waited at the pier.
"Oh my, Lord Grax." Spoke their leader, the mayor's wife, "With all the meat you bring to us, we just won't be able to take it all."
"Don't worry ladies." I grinned, "It may seem scary at first, but I am sure we will find a way to fit it all in."
"Why, I have already had to send my husband to expand the smokers three days in a row." the mayor's wife looked my body up and down, "It looks like we will need to send the men out for another day of construction."
"I am just doing my civic duty." I informed the crowd of hungry eyed women.
After all, before I got here this village was on its way from going from the last fishing village in the area, to a ghost town. Now all these hungry people who couldn't get food from the lake because of the krait have a whole new source of culinary delight.
And I don't mean all the dick I have been feeding these ladies.
"Ah, Lord Grax!" Shouted a gang of teenagers, "Another successful day slaying monsters and providing meat to the hungry. We can't wait to grow up and be just like you."
The boys said some more of that kind of stuff while they dragged the dead krait off to go be butchered and smoked to be eaten at a later date, seeing as fresh meat was in huge supply with my one man war against the sea lizards pulling in a bountiful harvest.
Our time in the Treskellion Vale and Viathan Lake came to its natural conclusion and we pressed on south, following the road atop the cliffs skirting the lake and into Caledon Forest, the safest part of the Maguuma Jungle and home to the Pale Tree and her children the Sylvari. If not for the Inquest I would put the Metrica Province as the safest part of the jungle, on account of Zhaitan's Risen constantly washing up on the beaches of this region, but a bunch of mindless and weak cast off zombies don't hold up as a threat versus the Hydra of Guild Wars.
The road through the Treemarch Estuary was a beautiful strip of causeway defended from the local Krait by the Lionsguard of Kraitbane Haven, a multi towered fort built on a small island in the middle of the river that fed Quetzal Bay. We wouldn't be going through the more scenic parts of this area as our path lead us straight to the Wychmire Swamp and just around the Twilight Arbor, the home of the Nightmare Court (Sylvari counter faction that reject the teachings of Ventari, the Centaur philosopher who tended the young Pale Tree alongside the Human warrior Ronan. They seek to purge all non-native thinking from the Pale Tree and the Dream of Dreams to bring about a pure Sylvari mindset. Ironically they are unaware that they are just slaves for the jungle dragon, Mordremoth and it is the teachings of Ventari that allow Sylvari to resist his influence.)
Though out of our way, I did snag a few Nightmare Courtiers for a snack and found their unique plant bodies to have a surprisingly meaty flavor. They were a functional plant recreation of the human form, and had all the organs and infrastructures of a normal human body. I'd be very interested to do a more scientific analysis of effects of consuming Sylvari, specifically their macro and micronutrient profiles, but there just aren't enough of them in the world for them to become a sustainable part of a balanced diet for any but the eccentric.
Too bad, as I bet they are great for heart health.
Our last leg of the journey through this region brought us to the Trader's Green and the Town of Cathal, a location full of structures grown from plants and fastened together. The Sylvari mostly used these shelters for their food stocks and dinner tables as despite the capacity for photosynthesis, the plant men are omnivorous and prefer to be outside mostly.
With no reason to stay in the settlement, we continued into the Metrica Province.
The theme of bad guys owning the borders continued as built into the cliffs alongside the path into the Province was an honest to God Inquest stronghold in all its shining glory full of Inquest Agents that attacked people traveling on the road so they can be used in experiments.
How do we know this? Well the guy shouting 'Fresh Subjects!' right before the little house elf looking mother fuckers swarmed out of their fortress to subdue us was a solid hint.
Too bad for them, this was a 'Fresh Meat!' situation and I always win those.
The fortress incorporated the Asuran love of cubes and anti grav magi tech. They especially enjoyed making cubes float with said anti grav tech, either in whole or in deconstructed puzzle pieces. Puzzle pieces being the third big theme in Asuran architecture.
I for one am pro all of those things, so I had a real fun time moving through the Inquest stronghold seeing all the neat little features that the Tryian House Elves love so much. Thank God that Asura love being in huge rooms and hallways despite being a diminutive subterranean species, so I had no problem navigating their base. Hell, I could move a company of Jotun through this base and those guys are both huge and stupid.
The Inquest themselves were substandard warriors, using their advanced tech to make up for their physical limitations, the greatest of this is their many many many golems. I looked foreword to learning golemancy at the College of Statics, then what the Asura are researching to improve their golemancy at the College of Dynamics, then learning why golemancy and all other fields of magic work at the College of Synergistics.
I sure had a lot to study once we get to Rata Sum.
After killing all the Asura, I made sure to take all their swag. Bags of Holding are fucking dope for guys looking to loot. I even considered prying up the floor tiles in honor of Meng Huo, but his story didn't really end well, so best not to emulate the guy.
The rest of our journey through the Province was smooth travelling despite the presence of enormous bugs and spiders giving me flashbacks to Tuchanka and the Insect Armageddon.
Good times.
Our last steps in the Province were though the town of Soren Draa, a location housing an Asura Gate (portal tech) to the new capital Rata Sum. Soren Draa was a large series of labs and demonstration fields for newly graduated Asura to show off their research projects, talent, and knowledge to prospective Krewes. The Krewe system is how the Asura prefer to organize themselves, and are temporary working alliances and corporations that form around a single task and dissolve after the task is completed with the various members going their separate ways in search of new projects and Krewes to join.
That temporary preference is common throughout the lives of the little creatures, as even their marriages are structured with a final separation in mind after a set amount of time or children. Hell, the couple will fight harder over who gets what research and equipment rather than who gets the kids.
It boggles the mind that these eggheads think they deserve to rule Tyria. Academics make even worse governors than politicians, due in large part to the fact that the typical academic is a poorly rounded person. Politicians tend to be round, it is hard for their crooked spines to straighten out under the weight of all that special interest money they are raking in, or better yet all the money they have embezzled, stolen, or betrayed their country for.
With all that going on it may seem strange that academics are worse than politicians, but that lies in the belief in ideas. Academics more than anyone else live lives that allow them to spend massive amounts of time playing out bad ideas without ever paying the consequences of them. If you don't believe me, how is that Women's Studies degree helping you in the job search.
A college professor can be a devout Marxist, despite the over hundred million people slain in the twentieth century by the Communists and the purge of collegiate professors carried out by Stalin and Mao after the Communist take over of China and Russia. Nothing like a person so sheltered and ignorant that they can espouse an ideology that if taken up by everyone else will have them dragged into the streets and beaten to death.
That is why academics are shit at running countries.
But the Asura are cool. They are going to teach me some neat shit.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
JManM
JManM Alright people, my updates are going to take a hit as I have family in town till Sunday.
In other news, I have updated the summary for the story. Take a read of it and let me know if you think I did a good job explaining the story without spoilers.
Chapter 112: Sunset
I put on my most beatific smile, one that would easily sell the smartyness, truthyness, and goodyness of our family at our meeting with the Asuran Council regarding our admission to the colleges. Despite Scarlet Briar, formerly Ceara, leaving a sour taste in the Arcane Council's collective mouth for foreign students, I knew I sold the benefits of our tuition like a slimy salesman convinces a naïve young teacher to buy a car she can't afford.
Assured of my success, I listened in on the deliberations using my super hearing after we were asked to step outside a sound dampening field.
"My word, that smile," one of the diminutive councilors stated, "the supernatural dread it made me feel is a phenomena we must study in greater detail!"
"It did feel like my personal doom was running its fingers down my spine." Another stated, "If we can weaponize that effect it will severely demoralize enemy combatants. I say we approve their applications so we can observe it in its natural form. Its not like these tiny Norn will have the mental agility to learn much before we figure out how to harness this newly discovered phenomena."
"All in favor of having these freaks stick around!" one shouted.
"Aye!" The rest agreed.
"No need to tally the nays. The freaks can attend the colleges!"
I took a deep breath to either calm down or stock up on air for a gout of divine flames, but just barely managed to keep from cooking these arrogant little cave rats. After all, they threw down the gauntlet, and I accepted the challenge.
Over the next six months I destroyed every academic record I could apply myself to and finished as the top ranked student in both the College of Statics in two months and the College of Dynamics in four months. I did this through a mix of being the smartest person to ever attend the Asuran Colleges - minus Jack who was roughly my equal but had applied herself to different fields - my own negligible sleep requirements, and liberal use of the Ring of Namira to stave off mental fatigue.
Not only was I smacking down these little rat men in their own games like golemancy, but I was also pushing the unification of my own various tech masteries into a merger with Tyrian magic and materials, including power armor, plasma cannons, and even nanomachines. As far as I can tell, orichalcum nanomachines are the shit.
But more importantly, far more importantly, I was working to break the curse on my crafting skills that turned all the work of my hands brutal. I grinded away day in and day out to create a single sword, and on the morning of my graduation from the College of Dynamics, I set about bringing the legendary Sunrise greatsword into the world. I'd gone through so much shit to make this happen, and in a secret mystic forge I combined the precursor weapon Dawn, with the Gift of Sunrise, the Gift of Fortune, and the Gift of Mastery. I watched as the angelic greatsword with a blade like a window into the morning sky came into being, the warmth of the rising sun filling the room and calling out to all of nature to wake and greet the day.
It was fucking glorious.
And then it spontaneously combusted and the golden angel wings of the hilt were replaced with a darker golden orichalcum runic head of Ormagoden, his tusks forming the crossguard and from the top of his head the blade that had once looked like a piece of the morning sky burned the orange, red, and purple of a setting sun. A leather and threaded gold hilt descended to a pommel that consisted of a quartet of conjoined skulls.
It was a vision of brutal glory.
"Fuck!"
After cratering the nearby wall with a few new dents from my fist, I took up my newly created Legendary Sword, and the same dimensional energy that formed the blade crept up my arm to the shoulder, encasing me in the burning sky that also formed a pool under me with each step. It was flashy as hell and I loved it.
On top of looking dope, the sword thrummed with power ready to amplify any magic I pour into it to create incredible attacks. A few test swings created trails in air that mirrored the sky my sword allowed us to gaze upon.
I made my way to the top level of Rata Sum, and lifted my hand… for a while. People were now staring at me like I was some kind of special idiot with a really special sword, but the moment Volendrung met my left hand a wave of godly aura washed over the assembled and the chrome of the hammer mixed with the gold of the sword and the sword mixed with the chrome of the hammer and both were made more beautiful for it. The plasma axe feature of the hammer activated and it shown with the same sunset as the sword, but the energy remained in the hammer rather than encapsulate my other arm giving me that A-symmetrical cosmetic effect that gets the ladies soggy.
I set out to recreate an artifact of Dwayna, ended up creating a divine relic of my own, and converted the Hammer of Might to my own divinity as well.
It was a good day.
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"The fact that no one figured out you were a god before today really shakes my faith in people." Zojja, a bald female Asura of legendary status and achievement told me as we sat in her lab after she had been assigned as my mentor upon my entry into the College of Synergistics.
"To be fair, I can't have pleasurable sex with Asura, and I haven't been fighting anyone since I got here, and you are all so wrapped up in your own work no one noticed all the neat stuff I have been making." I brushed aside the cynicism.
"So you are a god of sex, battle, and crafting?" Zojja asked.
"Pretty much." I answered.
"Great, another Human god running around." Zojja muttered, "Are you here to steal Asuran knowledge so you can give your favorite race another huge leg up against everyone else?"
"To be fair, my dear. I use to be a dragon-man, so you should probably be thankful to the dick head who warped me into this human form." I laughed, "Last thing you need is a dragon god descending on this world to speed up the desolation."
"I'll have to send him a thank you note the first chance I get." She nodded.
"You won't even find him in the afterlife after I got done with him." I said as I looked up at the ceiling, "I had four testicles. A great big quad!"
"I am sure there are many people that care about your loss of testicles." Zojja stated, "I am not one of them. What I want to know is what you are doing here in Rata Sum."
"The loss of my testicles was a crime against the omniverse." I spoke up against the atrocity, "And I came here to learn how the Asura do SCIENCE."
"Why?" Zojja inquired, "Why would a god be interested in Asuran research and technology."
"I want to fight the Elder Dragons, and they are more powerful than me. I can put the hurt on them no doubt, especially with my slick new sword and my empowered warhammer, but to actually win the day I need more." I answered, "So I either need to drag them down to my level, or find ways to get to theirs, and I chose magi-tech to get it done. Hell, Snaff's telepathic tech has already improved the speed at which I can develop new tech, and I am sure that Synergistics is where I will find the solution to infinite endless energy."
Seriously, Snaff was solid gold. The dude made technopathy a thing in this world and now I can program my nanoswarms hands free and even assume direct control like a Harbinger wannabe.
"Hold on, infinite energy and endless energy are two very different concepts and both are way beyond the current cutting edge of Synergistics research." Zojja sought to curb my enthusiasm.
"I picked up infinite energy decades ago." I told the Asura, "Even with my best efforts I can only get those batteries to last for twenty years, and the resources required to make them are not always available, but if I can fuse what I know with what the Asura know, even if I can't make a truly endless source of power, I know I will be able to greatly extend the lifetime of my power cells. After all, the best Asuran Tech is highly stable, capable of operating for centuries without maintenance."
"You have infinite power cells!" Zojja screamed.
"I could run the entire grid of Rata Sum for twenty years with a cell that fits into my armor." I nodded my head.
"Are you sure you can't have sex with Asura?" She looked at me with a familiar hunger in her eyes.
"Zojja. My cock is almost as big as your torso." I informed her.
"What about just the tip?" She shrieked.
"With some good lube we could maybe make it fit without too much tearing…" I theorized.
"Get your pants off!" my government appointed mentor shouted, "We are going to make the smartest babies ever!"
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
JManM
JManM
Happy Thanksgiving everyone.
Fun chapter of Grax flexing his academic muscles and our introduciton to Zojja who will be a major driver for the coming chapters.
Remember to drop me your stones and leave reveiws. Bonus chapters for every thousand stones and hundred reveiws, and you can also donate to me at
ko - fi . com / jmanm
In other news Kai_Uzumaki asked me if I would be willing to do a rewrite of my original RWBY story now that I am a more experiance writer. He happens to be my most vocal supporter, so I try not to disappoint the guy.
RWBY: THE KROGAN THE JACKED JAUNE'S LIFE will be updating once a week, and consists of Grax's thoughts getting flung accross the omniverse when Heracles smacked him in the head. This can serve as an entry point to my MC transmigrating into any character in the omniverse and the first to get the honor is Jaune Arc.
I'd say the first chapter of the rewrite is already a huge step up from the original, so pick up the story and let me know if you feel the same.
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