"Do you understand it?" Tanya asked.

Tanya, Mrs Eceer, and Olena crowded around the small floating hand.

Assistant wobbled side to side; kinda.

Tanya looked between the monster core and Assistant. "What's it say?"

Assistant rubbed its fingers together.

"Money?" Olena asked.

"Paper," Tanya said, dashing around the room for paper and a pen. She thrust it at Assisstant.

Assistant hovered above the cupboard, smoothing the crumpled paper atop it and readying the pen. It made a hither motion towards the monster core, and Olena scooped it up and plonked it beside Assistant. Its pen bounced from the impact, creating a long squiggle down the page. It dove back in to write, swivelling between the core and the page.

This doesn't seem to work like any language I know about here. Instead of the words being symbols to represent concepts, all of the symbols create a feeling when you look at them and they string together to form concepts.

"All I feel when I look at it is confused," Olena declared.

"How haven't we noticed those feelings?" Tanya asked, looking over.

Mrs Eceer leaned in closer, peering through her glasses. "You have to be actively trying to understand it," Mrs Eceer hypothesised. "If I look at it as a picture, I feel nothing, but if I focus on a single symbol… It's very strange."

Tanya and Olena leaned in too. Tanya focused as hard as she could on the first symbol—this square with a chunk missing and an extra two lines through the opposite side. She started to feel this subtle crushing sensation inside, like she couldn't breathe as deeply.

"I feel nothing," Olena stated, deadpan. She withdrew.

"I just feel, uh, overwhelmed?" Tanya commented.

"This feels different from further down," Mrs Eceer said, pointing at the top line of symbols. The first one makes me aware of my entire body. Then the second is above me? God maybe? Then that third and fourth are a zapping feeling down my arms, and then this… numbness in my lips?"

I think it's a name, Assistant wrote.

Tanya glanced over before turning back to the core.

"Maybe it's The System's language?" Tanya said.

"But System talks in our languages?" Olena said.

"Oh!" Mrs Eceer exclaimed to Assistant, studying closer. "Person, title, then specific elements of naming, you think?"

Assistant stamped for yes. Even with its new language, that was still its preferred quick response.

Between the talking, Tanya tried focusing on it in different ways. Leaning in closer helped; further away was worse. Closing one eye was similar to just leaning in. If she went cross-eyed nothing changed, so it must be more complex than just seeing it. Minimising the amount she could see reminded Tanya of her overlay back when it was so overwhelming.

"Can I use this?" Tanya asked Assistant. Enthusiasm got the best of her, and she took the pen and piece of paper. Before Assistant could reply, she stabbed the pen through the paper and then put it back down, holding it between her and the monster core so she could only see one symbol.

Feeling flooded her entire body. It felt like if she closed her eyes, she would still be perfectly aware of where she was in space, like some coloured outline was around her in her own perception.

"Fuck yes. Try this, Olena." Tanya made another one, passing it to Olena.

She peeked through it, squinting at the symbol. "I feel something…maybe? Is like body?"

Olena what's your Concentration? Assistant wrote, holding it up in front of Olena, who, in typical Olena fashion, read it through the peeking hole, sounding it out one word at a time.

Tanya snorted.

"Oh! I check… 12," Olena said.

"20," Tanya added.

"41," said Mrs Eceer.

Tanya whistled slowly. "41 is insane."

"People always say 'Olena why engineering not take Concentration' and I say pfft force of Will more than enough." Olena clunked it onto the cupboard, narrowly missing Assistant and the monster core. Tanya grimaced, hissing through her teeth.. Again, the cannon began to whir and pop out different smaller cannons. Olena cursed, poking each one back inside just for it to appear again like some cursed game of whack-a-mole.

Tanya went against all her instincts and leaned over as the sound grew more and more high-pitched, light seeping out of every hole or crack in the shell. She smothered it with her jacket, trying to push down multiple of the smaller pop-ups at once. Mrs Eceer moved with a flurry of shapes in the air, creating a barrier first around the monster core and then around each of them.

Olena eventually tugged open the hatch and ripped a wire in half with her teeth. The light faded. Mrs Eceer's barriers popped one by one.

They were all panting.

Mrs Eceer's voice pierced the room. "Olena, take that thing—"

"Got it," Olena said, disappearing out the back door and returning without it. "Olga maybe have so much power that is an issue now. I fix. I fix." She chuckled, clearly embarrassed. "Uhhh, well, go on then, concentrators," Olena said, indicating towards the monster core. "Work it out."

Tanya let out a breath and a grin spread on her face. She might not have Mrs Eceer or Olena's crazy high numbers or Assistant's skill with deducing language, but that sure as hell didn't mean she wouldn't try.

Tanya started with the first line, even though Mrs Eceer and Assistant had already talked about it. She felt the same awareness of her body as before as she held up the hole in the paper to the symbol. The next was what Mrs Eceer had talked about: a heart-swelling feeling of greatness above her head, electric shock zaps down her arms, and a numbness in her lips that reminded her of getting local anaesthetic for the dentist. She moved slowly through the symbols, each one jolting her into a strange experience that it took her a while to even identify.

She analysed the feeling, seeing if it could speed her up, but settled on it being vague in the same way inner torso pain was—you knew it was there and deep inside, but weren't able to pinpoint exactly which organ the problem was in.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

By the time Tanya started on the main body of the text, she could see Mrs Eceer and Assistant were already comparing notes.

Tanya gave up on doing it symbol by symbol, deciding instead to speed through them and get both an idea of the sensations and also some overview of what the text looked like as a whole.

The sensations kept appearing, and she kept analysing them. It only took a few lines for her to realise there was a clear pattern in the style of do and do not. Many of the lines started with the same symbols, which focusing on them, gave her the feeling of good and bad and then drew her attention to the monster core. In reality, the feelings were more complex, with mixtures of toe curling dread inducing sensations for no and a wave of joy not unlike getting stoned for yes. Beyond that, it was more of a puzzle than anything. Tanya was pretty sure the first yes was what Assistant had been referring to. It was the positive feeling and then the monster core, and then a feeling very concentrated in her hands.

Tanya noticed that the monster core was the only object that the feelings drew her attention to, aside from Tanya's own body, which she found interesting. Some of them made her think of things through sensations, but she supposed that unless the language was magically able to see her surroundings, all it could be sure of was the core itself and the person perceiving it.

Tanya finally pulled herself away, feeling a pulsing in her head from how hard she'd been focusing. It was like all the sound in the room started again at once, the moment she drew herself away. She hadn't even been aware that Mrs Eceer and Assistant were still talking.

Olena was sat cross legged on the tattoo chair beside them, transfixed on the back-and-forth conversation. She leaned forward each time Assistant wrote, to see the text as soon as possible.

"So we believe this one is about magic in the ground, then?" Mrs Eceer affirmed.

And we know it's negative, so we should avoid putting it near magic in the ground? Assistant wrote.

"What does even mean?" Olena asked.

"Could be a their planet thing?" Tanya offered, slipping into the discussion.

"Hm, true," Mrs Eceer replied.

"What do we have so far?" Tanya asked.

Assistant slid over the list.

Person/ body, power/leader, electric shock arms, numb lips (A name? The System?)

Positive, monster core, touching/hands (Can touch)

Positive, take/carry, monster core, name from start, given/reward (Return to the person?)

Positive, monster core, watch, (Keep an eye on it?)

Negative, magic/ cast, monster core (Don't cast spells on it?)

Negative, sharp, monster core (Don't damage it?)

Negative, magic, ground, touch, monster core (Don't let it touch magic in the ground?)

Negative, touch, ???

"It seems to be some sort of rules list," Mrs Eceer said.

"Or, like, safety information?" Tanya added.

Mrs Eceer hummed.

"It sound, uhhh, how you say, business?" Olena said.

"Like, corporate?" Tanya asked.

Olena clicked her fingers. "Yes."

Mrs Eceer peered at it again. "Hm, it could, couldn't it? The tone is certainly up for interpretation. 'Don't damage it' could mean everything from a simple 'no cut' to a more complex 'no sharp objects near the monster core'."

"This isn't the language The System used for their shit. It called them, uhhh…" She flicked through her interface. "Hjokrtis. That's way more normal language sounding."

"Maybe they have multiple language like us? More people could understand this," Olena said.

The thought sent shivers through Tanya's spine. Even the idea they had language was a huge step towards how organised they were, but requiring a universal language because they had different cultures or even different sentient species? That was so much bigger.

"Especially when ya consider that they could have generally higher Concentration stats than us." Tanya thought aloud. "We don't know how we measure up to their average." She was already considering the fact that they had mini-bosses and bosses. In that way, they definitely didn't measure up.

Tanya skimmed the information again. "So are the question marks ones you don't know?"

"It's just that last one we are completely unsure of," Mrs Eceer said. "I feel nothing from it at all."

Assistant snatched back the paper, writing around the hole Tanya made. And I feel everything. It reminded me of person/body.

"Huh, that's really interestin'." Tanya rubbed her hands together. "Alright then, I'll have a crack at it."

She held up her strange little paper blinders and stared at the final symbol of the monster core. At first, it felt like everywhere, but then she focused deeper. It felt like pins and needles on her arms, legs, and back, but only in specific places. There was none on her head, aside from this slight twinge behind her ear and—

Her tattoos.

She remembered back to that first day, staring down at the corpse and thinking how similar its black ooze looked to ink. Heck, she'd described it as inky inside her head at every opportunity.

"Fuck," Tanya murmured.

The others turned to her.

"I think it might be ink."

The room exploded with noise. Mrs Eceer asked if she was sure. Olena said 'What' over and over again with different enough intonation, it sounded like different fonts. Assistant really was writing in different fonts as the writing grew more frantic. Assistant began thudding a finger against the paper to get Tanya's attention.

"I DON'T KNOW—I don't know, okay!" Tanya said.

They quietened.

"I can feel it in my tattoos, Assistant can feel it in their entire body and you—" Tanya began.

"Can't feel it at all," Mrs Eceer finished. Her eyes were glazed over once more, and it took Tanya a moment to realise that wasn't from Mrs Eceer's interface this time. She was just in shock.

"It would be unwise to jump to conclusions," Mrs Eceer began, "but if you are right, Tanya, what do we all think that would mean?"

"The monsters aren't creatures; they are made by someone," Olena said.

There was silence.

"Oi, System. Is what is impacted or created by you common knowledge?"

Error: Question not found.

Tanya tried again. "System, did you create the monsters we are fighting?"

I cannot directly create or destroy matter.

Tanya's mind raced. "So you didn't create the portals here either."

Affirmative.

Tanya's stomach dropped. "Then we are absolutely fucked."

They went around in circles for the next half hour. Tanya pulled apart every single piece of information she could remember about looking through the portal, even beginning to draw it, hoping it would jog her memory. Mrs Eceer was trying to deduce the best use of her remaining Restricted Questions for this, if it was even worth using. Olena was getting more and more frustrated as she tried and failed to read the monster core symbols, hoping that she could work out if it was a mechanical process or a magical one.

Mostly, the conversation just reminded them of what they didn't know.

They had no idea of the biology of this species, the technology level of this world, or even what they looked like. They had no idea how long The System had been in their world. And above all of that, they had no idea what these people wanted with it.

Which wouldn't have felt as bad if not for the fact that they now had a very comparable power scale. Tanya doubted these alien monster creators had a tattoo Class; it didn't line up, but they did seem to be using some sort of ink. Tanya could barely create one of the hounds, never mind the mini boss or above. Olena kept insisting on it being corporate language. At least if they had to pool their magic together, they weren't world-crushing strong. Tanya dreaded to think of the alternative.

"This isn't gettin' anywhere," Tanya said again. "Mrs Eceer, you aren't gonna shortlist from that many questions today, never mind choose one. Olena, you'll just go down into the negatives and give us all more problems if you keep at that fuckin monster core, an' Assistant you can't work out an entire language from half a side of A4, even if it is magical."

Mrs Eceer ran her hands down her face, sighing. "Oh, how I wish I could rebut any of that."

Assistant flopped onto its back, palm up. Tanya leant against the wall. Only Olena perked up.

"If we are being sad, we might as well do sad with electricity."

Tanya pointed at Olena enthusiastically. "Now that is the best idea I've heard in hours."

Olena scooped up the monster core again.

"Are we sure this is the best use for it?" Mrs Eceer asked.

"Nope," came Tanya's blunt reply. "But if we need another one, we can find someone to trade for it. This can keep The Wyrm and Needle in business a long time, an' fuck it. I want lights and warm water an' to feel human again."

"Here, here!" said Olena.

Mrs Eceer nodded. "Improving our work output is likely our best way of rivalling this other lifeform," she said diplomatically.

Tanya ignored the sinking reminder of their losing battle and shoved the monster core onto the tin dish. Sparks flew from the monster core, thrusting Tanya backwards into the tattoo chair. It forced the air from her lungs, but she had no lasting pain.

Mrs Eceer braced herself for barriers. Olena dashed over.

"I'm alright," Tanya wheezed, once she could catch her breath enough for any words to come out.

The orb shuddered to life, floating an inch off the metal and opening outwards like something from science fiction. The metal coating lifted upwards at various angles, and beneath it was just a white glow that thrummed slowly in no noticeable pattern. A sliver of light connected the bottom to the metal

Construct Unlocked: The Wyrm and Needle.

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