“Those in the dark should seek the dream, for it shall show the path forward. Combine knowledge from the sleeping world with the effort from the waking. Glory comes to those with luck and those with resolve. Seek not the easy path, for adversity is the way to immortality. Flail against the infinity of the inevitable with all your heart.” ~ Priestess of Nocturne Divin ?????? CT

Essen made the slow walk through the winding alleys and streets of the mismatched sprawl of buildings that make up the Shell without much issue. Wearing the sigil of the Coven was the warning and the smooth flow of his movements, the promise that told others he was an operator and not to be messed with, at least within the confines of the Shell District. There were probably still many who would take a stab given a chance, but at least in broad daylight, the threat of the Covens' reprisal remained enough.

Every arcology has an unofficial shell district, a hub of mercenaries and street samurai, mafia, and cartels that takes care of all the dirty business the corporations need to keep below the table. While Merioc’s underground was somewhat slow-moving and tame in comparison to some “upper tier” Arcologies, the “operator community,” as the corporate despots referred to it, still had plenty of business for those brave, stupid or strong enough to work the grey areas in between the corporate red tape.

Essens borrowed Aug beeped as he passed through the Eastern Entrance and passed quickly into one of the Grav lifts to higher levels of the Arcology, not wanting to get stuck in the Old Block waiting for the next one. Every arcology on Gaia was a collection of towers that were built in a sort of egg shape, with six blocks per level that were assembled in a twisting hex pattern. Four vast pillars of emptiness pierced the design, hosting the Grav lifts and allowing security hoverers quick access to any floor while twisting monorails and roadways connected the differing towers. Each tower typically had an overseer corporation, all tied to a particular member of the CCK.

In the Arcologies, someone's career and social status are directly reflected by how high they can live. Most towers averaged between one hundred and one-fifty floors, with Merioc having one-twenty per tower. Essen's pseudo-absentee parents were housed in the mid-levels, namely level 55. His mother had had to drop her engineering job when Essen was accidentally conceived, a combination of a bad batch of birth control that was recalled too slowly, the extreme levels of ambient Aether present in her workplace, and an all too healthy and open sex life resulting in an accidental sixth child and their only son.

Essen's parents were not horrible; they were good people, supporting those below them and avoiding the corporate ladder by being a researcher and engineer, respectively. They were tired of children by their fourth set of them, a set of twins five years Essens senior, and didn't quite have the heart or effort to put into a sixth child, especially one with abnormal health conditions. He had had a childhood characterized by slowly diminishing attention spans and gradually increasing allowance.

Essen had somehow both won and lost the genetic lottery, receiving a unique combination of recessive genes and having had extreme Aether exposure, resulting in having a special form of Albinism and what's known as the blessing (or curse) of Silverblood. His hair and eyes lacked any pigmentation, instead being a softly glowing colorless white that shifted in diamond-like glitters and rainbow hues under light sources. His skin was smooth and pale and would change between a slight sparkle and a metallic shine at times. These features, combined with his unique metallic silver pupils and blood, made him stand out much more than he'd like, even in a society where people develop crazy hair and eye colors.

Due to the circumstances of his birth, as well as the fact that his parents didn't find out about him until after the optimal period had passed, Essen hadn't been genetically engineered in the womb as was standard and therefore was much weaker and shorter than most of his peers, including the girls. He made up for the deficits in strength with speed and talent with Aether, but it just added to the pile of things that set him apart from his peers. Combat training classes were challenging because he was nearly always at a disadvantage.

As the Grav lift stopped on the 55th level, Essen began walking through the various market and leisure blocks to the residential one that held his house. The 55th level blended steel and nature, one of the few floors with bioengineered trees and grass spread throughout. Essen's house was a small two-story metallic structure with barely enough space for him and his parents, mainly because they were rarely home and didn't need the space.

As he approached from the walkway, he didn't see his father's levi-car parked out front, so at least he'd only have the fallout from his mother to deal with. Maybe she’d get distracted or have other business than to call him out for being out late. Walking a few feet up the short path to his door, an automatic ping from his Aug had it swinging open in front of him. Essen's hope appeared short-lived, though, as his mother called for him the second he entered the house.

“Nichalai, come here and speak to me for a bit; I've got some things to tell you!” Essen's mother shouted from the kitchen, no doubt having received notification of who entered. Essen dragged his feet past the carefully maintained decor as he moved toward the kitchen. His message ping went off as he entered the small kitchen/dining area of the house. Remaining himself to check that later he caught sight of his mother.

Essen's mother, Annlii Belmonte, was a short, thin woman with glimmering emerald green hair and eyes. She was tanned like she had been out in the light of Gaia's twin suns and wore standard corpo attire, a fitted black suit with a colorful undershirt, no doubt having just returned from a “day out” with the other corporate housewives whose children were still in primary schooling. She was currently sitting at their dining room table, doing some form of work on the display from her Bio-Aug.

Annlii glanced up as Essen entered the room, eyes widening as she took in his outfit before exclaiming in shock,” Sasha Nichalai Belmonte, I've been trying to get you into something that isn't monochrome for years. You only decide to wear the most adorable purple hoodie now? “

“Mum, it was a gift from Ava!” Essen responded by holding up the Coven branded duffle for her to see,” I forgot to bring exercise clothing, so she gave me a bunch of stuff with her logo on it.” Annlii thought Ava was Essen's tutor for physical education since it was once he started training with her that he managed to perfect his grades for the physical assessments in school.

“You should wear that color more, Nicha; it makes you look super cute!” Annlii was an absolute airhead about any subject other than her engineering work but still managed an impeccable, if unusual, fashion sense. Brusquely moving on without pausing, she said, “Anyway, on to what I needed to discuss with you.”

Annlii closed all her displays before turning and speaking,” Your father and I have decided to accept a remote posting now that you are out of primary schooling. Therefore we will be moving to live in facility housing at another Arcology. Lazaru doesn't let non-employees live there, so we arranged for you to go live in the Eysaluna Tower with your sister. It'll be an excellent chance to study and take the entrance exams for a military or corporate university.”

Essen was stunned, to say the least. He had been out of school for around two days, and already they were moving on with their lives. It was apparent They had been planning this for a while, having probably secured the new job months ago.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

On the bright side, he could keep working with Ava and the Coven if he stayed here, so he'd have some income to support his studies and exams. Plus, his third sister Misha was highly competent as a teacher, so if he got a token, he could learn from her.

“A-alright mum, when are you guys leaving? My graduation ceremony is the day after tomorrow, and I was hoping you'd attend and all!” Essen replied to his mum.

“No need to worry! We arranged it so you could leave right after your graduation ceremony tomorrow. Your sister will pick you up from there, and we’ll have your stuff shipped over. It'll be about a week till the next transport to Lazaru, so your father and I have time for all the moving processes and paperwork.” Annlii excitedly babbled at him,” You only have a year to prepare for exams, Nicha, and if you want to qualify for a rare-grade position, you need to study hard. “

Something about Essen's appearance seemed to catch her eye because Annlii suddenly stared hard at Essen’s neck before her expression brightened,” I see you've already purchased and installed a Bio-Aug, that'll guarantee you at least an uncommon grade position provided you can pass the testing!” she must have seen the injection marking. She then gave him a super tight hug, trapping his arms in an awkward position. Essen squirmed against her hold but given their super similar heights and builds, her engineered and modded muscles won out.

After a bit of struggle, Essen managed to get free. Feeling more than a bit overwhelmed, he also still had that message to look at and needed to tell his friends about his sudden change of address. Mumbling some excuses to his mother, he quickly escaped and went up to his room on the second floor.

Upon entering his room, he let himself fall onto his bed, exhausted from all the crazy things that had happened to him today already. He let his mind wander and rest for a few minutes before pulling up his messages with a small effort of will through his Aug.

RuCirrus: Essen, my friend, hit me up when you get a chance; I have an offer that involves giving you a high-grade token.

Essen made sure to read the message three times to make sure he had read it correctly. His friend Cirrus was the son of a significant CCK executive and had the connections and money to get him a token. The only problem would be what task he wanted to be done in exchange. Cirrus didn't accept bad deals; Essen knew he preferred deals that benefit both members equally but wasn't above using people to get what he wanted. Essen flicked his eye across the keyboard, typing back a reply.

Essentia: Hey Cirrus, I just got your message. I'm interested, but you’ll have to give me the details before I say yes or no.

Cirrus surprised Essen by messaging back immediately. The fact his response was that fast meant the offer was not only serious but important, possibly urgent.

RuCirrus: That's reasonable, Essen. My Father and Uncle have challenged me to obtain a specific item inside Nocturne. This item is super rare and hard to find in the human-controlled zones, but in the joint Oni/Elvar-controlled zones, it's pretty common. Your task would be to spawn there and purchase or harvest the item. Father has permitted me to use the entire run of family resources to attain it, but Uncle challenged me to do it for the lowest price in the shortest time. My brothers also received similar tasks, which might involve the inheritance battle.

Cirrus had two twin brothers, and all three constantly competed to inherit their father's position. Cirrus was a bit more talented than his brothers in business, but it was still anyone's game. His Friend must be trying to lock in his position by dominating this challenge.

Essentia: Sounds simple enough, but it's not like high-grade tokens are just lying around. I recently acquired a Bio-Aug through my side job, so it's pretty much just the token's price, and the lowest-grade tokens are still auctioned for about ten thousand credits minimum.

RuCirrus: It's great you have an Aug now Ess; that makes it cheaper for me. The reason I can offer a High-grade token is that it was a gift from one of my father's friends, but it turned out to carry a pair of curses, reducing the value below even common-grade tokens. The first curse is that your character is completely randomized, and that's on top of already being a hybrid-type token. The other curse shouldn't affect you much, it's the curse of the Hollow Empress, meaning your Aether capacity would massively increase, but you have to max out your capacity at every rank. That also means you'll need to acquire guarantees of the Elvar and Oni bloodlines needed to spawn where I need you to acquire the item.

Essentia: That means adding even more “curses” to earn the points needed to purchase the required blessings. It doesn't seem too bad. Depending on the token grade, it could also be horrible. I'd probably also need to purchase an absorption speed blessing to keep up.

RuCirrus: yeah, but I know how much you wanted a token, and one this highly graded, even with the fact you won't have much control over your character, would give you a massive head start. It's a toss-up if the pros outweigh the cons enough for you to go for it.

Essentia: Just how high of a grade are we talking about?

RuCirrus: It's a heroic-grade hybrid-type token.

Essen was beyond all thought at this revelation. A heroic-grade token! The grading system for everything from jobs to tech to tokens came from Nocturne and went like this: common, uncommon, rare, ultra rare, heroic, mythic, divine, and then galaxy grade. For tokens, the higher the grade, the more powerful the pool of races, skills, classes, and every other table that Nocturne pulls from. Even the basic skills would be much more powerful. All Dreamers also receive a cultivation method and some random auxiliary methods or the same rank. However, hybrid-grade tokens also fell into a subcategory, meaning your race and class choices were a mixture of two types.

However, the curse of randomization means the system would scan his soul and randomly assign compatible pieces to create his character. He wouldn't know anything about it besides the curses and blessings he added until he spawned in. Essen began to weigh the pros and cons of this. A heroic-grade token would give him a head start, but the things he would need to get the blessings Cirrus wanted would be much more expensive at the heroic grade, meaning more curses. Not all curses were truly bad; it's more of a trade-off, usually a minor benefit with an added rank-up requirement. Adversity was good for a cultivator, after all. Essen wouldn't know the curses he could accept until they were offered, either. Usually, intrinsic curses on a token meant more random auxiliary techniques, too, so he would probably not have to look for too many immediately, depending on what he got.

Essentia: Cirrus, that token is a hell of a lot more valuable than winning some family competition, even with the curses. Why aren't you using the token yourself or selling it?

RuCirrus: Well, I already have a token and cultivation method, and that token would require me to give it up for something random and re-work everything from the start. My father's friend who gave it to me also asked that I either use it or give it away, so using it in this challenge would fit the terms of their request. Take tomorrow to think it over; it's a large number of downsides for an offer, but also a lot of benefits. Just give me your answer at our graduation ceremony, so I can know if I need to find someone else.

After reading that and seeing the conversation had ended, Essen switched to the group chat with the other three of his tiny friend group included and dropped a message in there.

Essentia: Ayo, guys, good and bad news. The good news is that even though my parents are moving for their new job, I'll still be living in the Merioc Arcology. The bad news is that I must move to the Eysaluna Tower to live and train with my sister, so it'll be a much longer travel time to visit y'all.

Now satisfied that all his business was taken care of and having had a suitably exhausting day, Essen decided to put off the emotional processing or thinking on the deal for tomorrow and queued up his sleep playlist, letting the fatigue of his day lull him to sleep.