A technomancer's journey in an apocalyptic world

The gentle rocking of the compartment always managed to lull Ryan into sleep, to him it felt as if he was lying inside a cradle that was swaying gently making him fall asleep, and he was grateful for his ability to fall asleep while dealing with the curse.

But, his beauty sleep was broken when he felt an itch at the back of his neck waking him from his sleep, and as he fully opened his eyes he received a new notification that made his eyes wide.

******

Blessing Received…

An unknown entity has blessed Alpha Raven 2.0…

Any medicine created inside Alpha Raven 2.0, will be 3X effective…

Time Limit: 3 days

******

Ryan was stunned for a moment before he let out a loud laugh, "Wonderful truly wonderful, it seems my luck has yet to run out."

Hearing his exclamation Michalina who was by his side quickly held his hand as she spoke with concern in her voice, "Is something wrong brother, are you feeling ill?"

Ryan sent a bright smile towards her as he spoke, "Never have I felt so great."

Michalina tilted her head as she spoke, "Are sure you are alright?", she then turned towards Maralyn as she spoke, "I think the blood loss is making him hallucinate."

Maralyn bit her lips as she spoke with a nod, "I think so too, the curse has yet to recede and he is laughing claiming to be alright, you might be right, he is hallucinating."

Ryan huffed as he spoke, "I just received a notification just now, a rather nice one."

Michalina send a curious look on her face as she spoke, "What did you receive Ryan?"

A large smile blossomed on his face as he spoke with an excited tone, "Someone just blessed us, and as such from now on any medicine made within the last three days will be thrice as effective."

His words brought a large smile to Michalina's face as Maralyn let out a content sigh before she spoke, "Your Holiness, do you know who blessed you?"

Ryan simply shook his head as he spoke, "I do not know who blessed us, all I know an unknown entity had blessed us and I am extremely grateful to whoever the entity is."

Maralyn nodded as she spoke, "The medicine you are being fed is barely keeping up, if it were normal wounds it would not have been much of a problem but the cursed wound bleeds too much before we can deal with it, not to mention drinking too much of the same type of medicine in a short span of time can lead to immunity thus lowering the effectiveness of the medicine drastically."

Michalina frowned as she spoke, "What of the side effects? Will there be an increase in the effectiveness of the medicine also increase the side effect as well?"

Maralyn sighed as she spoke, "In normal case, a medicine is less efficient because of the presence of impurities or the quality of the product, I will tell you before that we have mixed bag actually some of the ingredients are passable whereas the others are bad, and we are using them to make the medicine to our utmost ability trying to make it as efficient as possible, and now this blessing will help us greatly, though whether it would decrease the side effects that I know not."

Ryan frowned as he spoke, "Explain."

"You see the normal side effects of drinking too much of this medicine is nausea, stomach pain, and dysentery in some with the blood thickening in some rare cases, their chances of showing up can be decreased by increasing the efficiency which can be done by using better techniques and better ingredients, alas those are unavailable for us at the moment, and as for the blessing all I can hope that it decreases the chances of side effect showing up."

Ryan simply frowned before he spoke with a shrug, "As long as it increases the effectiveness of the medicine then I guess it is okay."

"You all seem to be in a good mood."

Ryan looked towards the speaker as he was greeted her with a smile, "So were you able to contact your patron God."

Ylerias let out a bright smile as if every worry and burden that she had, had been lifted off of her shoulder as Xuelong who arrived on the scene spoke with a snort, "You can practically feel the happiness radiating off of her, the skipping of her steps what else."

Ylerias huffed before she spoke with a small eager smile, "So is everything fine? Nothing unexpected has taken place."

Michalina narrowed her eyes as she spoke, "A few minutes ago our vehicle was blessed by someone who made it so that any medicine made would be three times as effective, but from the looks on your face My Lady, shall I hazard a guess and say that you know blessed the vehicle."

With a slight triumphant look on her face, Ylerias spoke, "My patron Goddess had blessed us, as she did not like how Ryan was being treated."

Ryan beamed towards her as he spoke with a bright smile, "If possible please convey my gratitude and thanks to her, and it seems she just became my favourite Goddess."

Ylerias simply gave a nod as she spoke with a large smile on her face, "I will certainly convey your words."

But before anyone could speak another notification chimed in as Ryan visibly pale upon reading it.

******

Curse Received…

God Avtis has cursed Alpha Raven 2.0…

Any medicine created inside Alpha Raven 2.0, will taste and smell 3X more disgusting…

Time Limit: 3 days

******

Ryan's eyes rolled back as he felt a bit faint while his mouth almost began to froth.

Michalina was once again by his side with her face full of concern as Maralyn quickly checked him but a frown began to form on her face as she spoke out loud, "I do not know there has nothing wrong with him, except the usual but why is he acting as such."

As Mralyn checked him over the two Apostles exchanged a worried glance as Xuelong kneeled by his side as she spoke, "Ryan get hold of yourself, and tell us what is wrong Ryan."

With an even paler complexion and a slight shudder he spoke, "He that bas…", he was about to call Avtis names but stopped in the last second as his will to live triumphed, he then began to speak as tears welled up in his eyes, "My patron cursed the Alpha, for the next six days any medicine made would smell and taste thrice more disgusting."

Xuelong simply blinked before she let out a bark of laughter as she spoke, "I see that is why my patron God even after being sympathetic to your plight refused to help to state it would be troublesome."

Ryan glared at her before he spoke with a groan, "That is no laughing matter, now I will have to eat even more disgusting stuff."

Xuelong simply patted his arms as she spoke, "Buckle up, no pain no gain."

A tired groan was Ryan's reply to her, as Ylerias stood in shock as she blankly stared at Ryan.

'Oh no I made it worse for him, not good.'

As the thought passed through her mind the Alpha Raven began to slow as one of the personnel from the cockpit arrived as he spoke with a bow, "Your Holiness, a town is in front of us and it looks deserted, should we try and forage for necessary items also a lake has been spotted nearby."

Xuelong frowned before she spoke, "I think we should after all the resources are getting low."

"So true not to mention we are in dire need of water, the tanks are almost empty are they not?"

As Ryan asked the person who happened to be Xuelong's subordinate the person simply spoke with a nod, "You are right Your Holiness we do not have enough water."

Ryan rubbed his chin as he spoke, "We should then park somewhere near the lake, though the place needs to be scouted first after all who knows what is hiding in the town and inside the lake."

Xuelong nodded as she spoke, "I concur with Ryan, Ylerias if you please."

Yelrias sighed as she spoke, "I will have it scouted within half an hour.", that she left.

Michalina then looked down towards Ryan as he spoke with a smile, "Well then why don't you take a nap brother, all this excitement had awakened you up from your earlier attempt."

Ryan gave a small nod as he spoke, "I will do so then, and please be careful and stay safe."

With his piece being said Ryan closed his eyes, but only to open as he sat up with his eyes wide open at the next notification he had received.

*******

Quest System Online…

Quest Received…

The most handsome, merciful, kind, benevolent, loving, understanding and humble being in the Universe, God Avtis has issued you a quest.

Quest: Find hidden stash in the town (0/5 found).

Time limit: 36:00:00

Reward: ????

Penalty: 

1) Extension of any previously received curse by two months.

2) Anything that Hosts feeds on will taste extremely disgusting for 2 months.

(P.S. Ten times most disgusting than the most disgusting thing host has ever eaten.)

********

Ryan did not need any incentive as he sprung up from his sleeping position only to fall headfirst towards the ground.

His fall was stopped as both Xuelong and Michalina quickly caught hold of him as Michalina spoke with a frown, "What are you doing Ryan, you should be resting."

Ryan simply shook his head as he spoke, "I got a quest, a quest that requires me to find hidden stashes in the town within 36 hours.", he began to slightly hyperventilate as Michalina quickly forced him to look at her eyes as she spoke, "Take a deep breath and calm down and now tell me, Ryan, what has happened."

"My patron gave me a quest, within the next 36 hours I have to search the entire town and find five hidden stashes, and failure would cause my curse to extend to two months, while another would be added which would make everything that I eat ten times more disgusting that the most disgusting thing that I have ever eaten for the next two months."

A pin-drop silence descended as Ylerias could not help but speak out loud, "Do you have any other information on what those hidden stashes are?"

Ryan shook his head as Ylerias sighed as she spoke, "Perfect simply perfect, with such low amount of information even I would not be able to find those stashes we have to at least know something."

Xuelong sent a pitying glance towards Ryan who immediately bristled at the looks being sent towards her, 'How dare she sent that look towards me I hate it.'

Ryan took a couple of deep breaths trying to calm him down before he raised his left hand as his gauntlet appeared which soon glowed as a metallic crutch appeared, standing with its help Ryan looked directly into Michalina's eyes as he spoke, "Micha tell Nigella to park the vehicle near the lake, make sure it is safe and then start refilling, I will take the Goliath out in the meantime, oh also tell her to engage reacquisition protocol, it would replenish some of the bullets lost."

With that, he began to walk towards his destination as Michalina called out to him, "Ryan where are you going?"

Ryan looked over his shoulder as he replied with a heat in his voice as his mechanical eyes whirled making a few of them be taken aback at the sudden intensity, "Where else but to get this farce over with."

With his piece being said he promptly left the compartment as the tell-a-tale sound of metallic thump caused by his crutch fading in the cacophony of various other noises.