Galaxy's First Ruler

[...

Do you want to submit this data?

…]

Aldrich held his breath and nodded.

[…

Submitting request to create Item….

Optimizing Item…

Item 'Remote Link' is beyond your reckoning

Do you want to create another Item?

…]

"This…"

Not that Aldrich hadn't thought of encountering failure, but he didn't imagine that he would face the words "beyond your reckoning".

From what Aldrich had calculated based on the past experiments, the RECORD only presented him with such notifications in one case. When the current ExPs were incomprehensibly lower than the actual value required. Aldrich's silent expression and his motionlessness didn't go unnoticed by Sha's eyes, either.

Aldrich saw her coming towards him and couldn't think of anything to say. The jovial atmosphere from moments ago took a sudden turn, leaving him no way to pacify the raised expectations of the Shadow Homunculus. So he looked straight at her and did what his doctoral experience suggested that he do.

"Ah, Sha. Sorry, but this won't work."

Sometimes the truth was much better than nonsensical dilly-dallying.

Aldrich noticed Sha's lost expression, but a smile soon came upon her face. She approached him and took his right hand in her hands. Aldrich observed her behavior as she put his hand over her head and patted herself with it.

"It… ok… Daddy."

Aldrich felt the smoothness of her white hairs, but his eyes were already planted on the back of his right hand over Sha's head. There was a blue-colored tattoo on it, made of many runic symbols. As he looked at the tattoo, the corner of his lips arched up and the evil smile soon became a burst of resounding laughter.

HAHAHAHA!

"Hehe… Haha… HAHAHA!"

Not caring about the reason for such a peal of crazed laughter, Sha too started to laugh maniacally along with Aldrich. The pair of white-haired beings looked comical and painted a hearty picture within the ruined part of the Dungeon. He looked at the notification, which almost told him to stop thinking about the Item, but Aldrich gave a smile full of mockery and scoffed at the RECORD.

"Huh! Beyond my reckoning, my ass! I will make one by myself then."

Even Sha got carried away by Aldrich's words full of defiance, not caring a bit what he meant.

"Yes… Daddy… can… do… anything."

As Aldrich looked at the Rumok over his hand, he had come up with a plan to engrave the same Item as a Rumok on Sha's body. His Title gave him the ability to do such a thing, but the problem was the penalty had invalidated his Titles as well.

Aldrich had already obtained a Viscount Ranked Mana core from the first Plaza. The only thing remaining was to research and develop the Rumok and find out how many such cores it would be needing. Aldrich slid down his right hand from Sha's head and gripped her round face as if he was holding a basketball.

"Don't worry, I will make you an Item after getting out of the Dungeon. Now turn back into the mask."

Aldrich's hand wasn't overly big, but it was large enough to cover Sha's entire face. His fingers dug dip in her pinkish cheeks and his palm got pressed against her mouth. Sha tried to lunge at him again, hearing his words, but the hand on her face kept her from doing that. Sha reluctantly nodded and a few wet and mangled words escaped from her covered-up mouth somehow.

"Oikieuu… Dadyysss…"

Sha's entire body wriggled like countless worms as it twisted into itself. Aldrich put the Devil's Oldest Change on his face and walked towards the portal. The only thing he wished was to encounter the Elite in his next turn.

As the later he would run into the Elite Crawler, the more the Penalty he would have.

*

[…

You have entered the Plaza of Almenara

…]

Shouuuuuuuuu!

Cra-Crackk!

As Aldrich came out of the portal, a heavy storm welcomed him into a mountainous region.

The winds were exaggeratedly loud, and Aldrich could feel they also had an uncanny sharpness about them. There was low to no visibility, and the thundering dark clouds over his head added to its cause. In the distance, Aldrich could see a blurry yellowish light, like a beacon of some sort. But before he could analyze how far it was, a familiar sound attracted his attention.

Aldrich was also a famous lyricist back on earth, known for his use of out-of-the-box style in using a combination of ancient and modern words. Though anonymous, Aldrich kept himself updated with the music industry as per the time he had allotted to himself for such activities. So when he heard the notable unconventional off-beat rhythm, Aldrich got the shock of his life.

From the get-go, Aldrich had discerned the use of the key C-sharp Minor, one of the most popular keys in the history of music. Aldrich looked around and he could feel that the entire storm seemed to roil around as if led by the beats. The thunder in the sky added to the charm of the beats, not cracking in between the rhythmic sound. The intensity of the beacon-like light in the distance increased and decreased, and Aldrich could feel the sense of rhythm in that too.

"Sha, can you feel something?"

Aldrich doubted his Divine Sense after the battle of first Plaza. Until he would master this "feeling" through his Perception, he decided to rely on Sha for the time being.

"No… It… all… around… us."

Aldrich contemplated the meaning of Sha's words, but even after activating the Skill 3 Miles Shot, he couldn't see anything.

And he didn't get to wonder for long from where the beat was coming from, as a voice came to his ears which felt like it was hissing and singing at the same time. Even the howling of the unbiased stormy winds couldn't prevent the singer's voice from reaching the valley where Aldrich had found out he was.

"Go, go, go, go, go, go

Go, shorty

It's your birthday…"

Aldrich recognised the familiar voice, and couldn't help but exclaim.

"… the Fuck?!"