"We have plenty more unearthed relics at this auction so be sure to come back tomorrow. Yet again, if you've purchased something then go back here to pick up your new items, but otherwise, this concludes today's auction."
The Meimanes slowly left the auction room save for the few that bought something. They went to the back, and Sil followed. While no one was looking, Sil summoned the demi-god tier beast crystals into his hands.
In the back room, there were a few Meimanes standing next to the displayed items from earlier, wheeling them in. Everyone who bidded went to their respective item, and Sil did the same to avoid suspicion.
"I knew this relic was going to sell for quite a lot," the Meiman standing next to Linda's armor said, fiddling with his hands, "it's gorgeous too, would make for a beautiful wall decor."
"About that," Sil cleared his throat, "I know that this is a rare relic, but how can I be sure it's authentic? Where did you find it?"
The Meimane didn't look too pleased with Sil's question, "You're not thinking of refusing to pay, are you?"
Sil held up his beast crystals, "I am, but I want to know if my purchase was indeed worth it, you know?"
The Meimane's antennas twitched, "It was found near a river. We believe that it drifted downstream."
Sil decided not to ask anymore questions, and instead handed over his beast crystals, grabbing the armor.
On his way out, he saw another Meimane in the auction room wheeling in a strange cube looking device. It was clearly busted and looked like older technology with its dirty metal gray color. Before he could look any further, the device was taken away from his line of sight.
'I feel like that's important somehow,' Sil thought.
He didn't know the reason why, other than some sort of instinct in him from his years of travel and some sort of feeling of potential power in that object.
—
Sil made it back to shuttle sooner than Layla. While he was there, he took out Linda's armor from his storage onto the floor, and detransformed himself back to human. He did a few stretches since using the transformation ability was like being in a very specific pose for a long time. Not only that, but the gravity was beginning to wear him down a little.
Layla came back to the shuttle spotting Sil sitting patiently for her.
"How are you holding up?"
"I'm doing fine," Layla replied, "practicing fighting with all this gravity is a workout."
"Well, while you were doing that, I found Linda's armor," Sil tilted his head to the crimson red beast gear.
"Wait, you found her armor?" Layla yelled excitedly, "This is great!"
"I have reason to believe that Linda may be on this planet. If her armor was found near the river then I suggest we go looking for her. She may have more information about this place."
"About that…" Layla lightly scratched at her cheek as she looked behind her.
Linda walked into the shuttle, her face stone cold and fierce as ever.
"Oh."
—
Linda got Sil up to date with what she had already told Layla. That was when Linda started talking about the information she hadn't mentioned yet.
"When I first arrived here, I made the mistake of being spotted by the locals. They hunted me down for a while, but eventually I ended up outliving them all. They only live for 60 years, and I'm now some urban legend to them now. Sure I can expect a few hostile planets, that comes with the job, but the way they hunted me down, cleaning up our tracks as they did… it's like they wanted to erase my existence."
"In the meantime, I've just been gathering information about this planet from afar, and practicing my ability. They seem to use a lot of human terminology, use credits as a source of income, and there's even been some technology that I'd expect the military to use."
"But why would they want you to disappear?" Layla asked, "It wouldn't make any sense. Both you and Sil said that they've sold human relics before in their auctions, so surely it wouldn't be because they want to erase the existence of other species."
"Perhaps they're attacking and looting the bodies of humans that have gone here before," Sil began with his theory, "It is likely that the military tried to set up a base here, but got attacked and killed by the meimanes. The meimanes then went and stole the military's stuff only to sell to this day."
Sil placed a hand on his chin, "When I was at the auction house, I saw weapons and beast gear, but also miscellaneous things like children's toys and decoration. This planet is strange, but we still know nothing about its celestial."
Linda and Layla looked at each other, they were a bit too caught up in the planet's mystery that they had completely forgotten why Sil was even here in the first place.
"Well, there's something I wanted to point out," Linda began, "While I've been stuck here, I've come across a few buildings. Facilities. They're heavily guarded, and the people of this planet cherish them greatly. Not only that, but the guards that were better respected at these buildings had markings on them— like a tattoo."
"A tattoo?" Now Sil was intrigued.
"I guess a tattoo wouldn't be the right word, it was more like… a marking, or a pattern, but what was on their skin was not a pattern," Linda closed her eyes as she scratched at her eyebrow absentmindedly, thinking hard on that moment, "it was an icon that looked like a bear trap, or a venus flytrap. Either way, it was toothy."
"A celestial marking!" Layla explained.
"Mind telling me more about a celestial marking?" Linda said as she raised an eyebrow.
"It's a sign that a celestial marked—" Sil paused not knowing if Linda was aware of the higher powers, "You know what a celestial is, right?"
"I know enough that they're powerful."
Layla's posture straightened as she prepared to explain the details, "Basically, a celestial has something called celestial energy and they can grant a specific person power with this energy. When they do, they have a marking on them similar to the ones you saw. These people are called dedicated followers, and they're quite strong because of the power they get from their god."
"Seems simple enough," Linda crossed her arms then nodded her head to Sil, "Continue."
"Layla explained it pretty well. I don't have much else to add other than that dedicated followers usually have a way to contact their celestial. This could be mental or physical, but more often than not, it's through something physical."
"Like an item that could summon the celestial in question, or some device not unlike a phone," Layla interrupted.
Sil was shocked, "How do you know all of these things?"
Layla just smiled as she placed a hand on her sword, "I had someone teach me the basics."
Layla then decided to get a chair for herself as sweat was starting to form on her forehead, "There's also something else I noticed. This gravity isn't normal. I've been on heavy planets before, but usually I'm able to get by with my ability. However, my MC cells can't keep up and I have to resort to using qi before it can replenish."
"I can't help but agree. My qi is also struggling keeping up," Sil added, "I'm doing fine for now, but the amount of qi I can naturally generate is being outpaced by how much I'm using."
Both Sil and Layla turned to look at Linda who seemed to be doing fine. With her being an undead, it was likely that gravity just didn't affect her as much as everyone else. Not only that, but she always had physical strength that was hard to outmatch.
"Lastly, I saw a strange device at the auction house today," Sil explained, "I don't know how, but I believe it's important."
"Was it a gray looking box?" Linda said.
"Exactly, it was rusted and old looking."
"Well your instinct would be correct. It is indeed a strange device, and it's definitely of human origin too," Linda began, "When I was sent here to investigate the planet, I did a bit of reading on the history of it, and those devices were one of the things the military made. I don't know what they did since all records of them were highly classified and kept hidden under wraps by not writing anything down, but Logan has told me that they were not of his invention otherwise they wouldn't be as—" Linda then put her fingers up to make air quotes, "'poorly engineered paper weights that create more problems than solve.'"
With all this information in mind, everyone was silent for a bit, thinking about what to do next. The first to do something was Layla as she slammed her fist into her palm, "We need a plan. If that device is as important as you guys say it is, then we should get it. Sil, you said you saw it at the auction house, correct?"
"Indeed."
"Then you can go to the town to get it and find that dedicated follower. Me and Linda will be looking into those strange facilities."
"Hopefully, with it being an auction day, the guards at the facilities are gonna take the day off to go bidding," Linda muttered.
Given that Sil was the only one of them who could transform and disguise himself as a Meimane, it only made sense that he was the one who needed to do this.
"Since you said that the dedicated follower was someone who was well respected on this planet, I may have to go undercover to get closer to one. Linda, do you know about the social rules of this place?"
Linda let out a single sarcastic chuckle, "Of course, I had nothing else to do other than wait to be killed."
Sil then opened a portal and took out a small blue rock looking gem, "It's a short range communication device, I only have two of these, so you and Layla need to share."
He tossed one to Linda, and Sil held his to his ear, "Speak into it."
"Testing 123."
Immediately, Sil could tell he heard Linda's voice from the crystal in his ear. It was quiet, barely perceptible to a normal human, but Sil, Layla and Linda weren't normal, two of them weren't even humans in the first place.