“With the enemy of mankind on our heels, humanity's retreat to Alpha Centauri soon turned into a siege as work expanded on the main defensive station of the twin star system.

Our situation at Alpha Centauri was dire, with a seemingly unending horde of monsters relentlessly attacking us. The only respite we had was their inability to transport too close to a star's gravitational field. This allowed our defensive forces to regroup and fortify our defenses just in time to face each new wave rushing towards the Sol gate.

The battle was a monumental struggle. The Sol system, in a display of unity and strength, mobilized an unprecedented amount of resources and manpower to reinforce our defensive efforts at Alpha Centauri.

If a faraway alien species were to watch the twin star system during those long years, they would have been forgiven for concluding the stars had gone supernova.

Against the backdrop of the siege of Alpha Centauri, the never-ending endeavor to improve our arsenal of weapon systems, the understanding of the mysteries of the domains, and last but not least, the orphan program received vast resources to evolve their graduate's abilities to wage war outside the bounds of a planet's gravity.

Once again, the enemy would learn that the greatest catalyst for humanity's innovation and improvement has always been conflict.

Despite the difficulties, humanity would rise again and again. To free the oppressed was the driving force of our collective will.”

-Elistar Iscariot, Grand Magister during the second Kingfisher dynasty.

Whoever invented apple pie with whipped cream should be given a county or at least a barony. I let my spoon take a generous portion of the fluffy white goodness before sending it to divide and conquer the crisp walls surrounding the back of the pie slice. Before scooping up another mouthful of sweet, sticky apple filling with some crumbly golden dough and making sure no less than fifty percent of the mouthful was the delicious whipped cream that would leave my tongue coated with its fatty smoothness, I devoured another piece of my prize.

“So, Mira. How did the exchange go.”

I finally asked the girl who was clutching the musty-smelling pages tightly against her heart as if that would make the longing go away. The greedy glances she cast at the spoon entering my mouth and the heavy breathing gave away her nefarious plans.

I will defend this plate with my life! Get your own, wench.

“It went as well as could be. You won't get city prices here. Not wanting to go back to Murktown first hurts the numbers badly. I have the full sales list here, but some of it won't just sell in the fortress, and you decided to keep the best of the lot. It could have gone better. Now where is MY damn cake Alucard?”

It would seem she had planned a frontal assault then. That's fine; I have come prepared.

The thing is, I have come to understand something over the last few hours. I'm not a very likable person, but for some reason, people love Mira. Being the amiable person I was, it was decided that Mira should take over the negotiations when It came to selling my loot.

At least I had told her to finish off the negotiations, and she seemed happy enough to do it, or she was just sick of my company. Problem solved.

Signaling for the waiter who had been waiting patiently behind Mira for a minute or two now. I watched in amusement as he slid past her and placed down three plates of cake, one of them, of course, being a slice of apple pie. In case I felt a need to steal some of hers.

“Mrs. If you would.” The waiter said while holding out a chair for Mira, who at this point looked about to faint. She did take a seat, but not before saying, “It's Ms.”

“I will be back with another pot of coffee, Sir.”

“Excellent Adam. Thank you. My compliments to the pastry chef. The pie was excellent.”

Who would have thought I could find a jewel of culinary delights in a treetop?

“I'm glad you think so. Sir. I'm sure my mother will be delighted.” and with that, he was gone.

I looked at the lady across from me who was taking a bite from each plate in a left-to-right order. I decided to look at the sales list instead. No matter how badly it could have gone, it would be preferable to the horror show about to start across the table.

What the… 54 gold, 20 silver and 15 copper. “Mira, dear? Did you sell the transport teams?”

“Mphhhmppffff Mpheeh.”

“I mean, I'm not opposed to the idea, but did anyone tell them?”

Finally, having devoured down what seemed like an excessive amount of cake in one bite, she answered again.

“No, you nitwit. No one is selling the transportation team. It's the silks and the damn ability crystals that made up most of the sale.”

The ability crystals I could understand. Even if most of them were common, there had been quite a few rare ones in the mix. The problem with ability crystals was that once you removed them, they went down one quality ranking and with only being able to slot in four ability crystals at the first rank of Awakening, it was far from unusual to swap crystals as needed until you filled up your slots with greater or better crystals. Like the one, I was almost done attuning to my domain. With its clarity and size, I would be extremely surprised if it came out as something less than an epic ability.

The only one I knew about with an epic ability was the crown prince, and it gave him fury wings that allowed him to soar through the sky and control fire that was unparalleled. That was only what was common knowledge. His ability crystal more than likely contained a few more features no one, but his highness knew about.

Of course, I had kept three rare crystals for myself, but I would wait to ingrain them until the first one was done, attuning and ingrained in my spirit. I didn't want to mess up any possible boons I could get later. I could have sold them. They were the best of the bunch, but what they were supposed to offer was just too tempting to throw away for money.

I had some trouble understanding the value of the silks until I looked at Mira again and remembered that many Hunters spent months, if not years, inside the forest at a time. Why wouldn't they want to look good from time to time or if they met someone special?

I knew Mira had kept the three bolts of silk for herself. It still pained me, but she had gone above and beyond when dealing with the loot, and quite frankly, I planned to pay her five gold extra for the service she had provided until now, so if she wanted some silk, she got some silk. Remember to reward when it is deserved, or you will soon find yourself without good help.

That said, this was fifteen gold more than I expected to get in Murktown, so it made me wonder if I was in the wrong profession. Silk merchant was starting to sound very appealing.

With my coffee being refiled, I brought out a sketch I had been working on. An improved and more functional version of the tin can explosions. Still, they would be prohibitively expensive. The three main ingredients were not readily available.

I had cleared the entire fortress stock, making the three tin cans. I also sifted through memories of caking and turning the powder into more standard-sized grains by milling it. Still, it would need to be on a considerable scale to make it profitable for regular soldiers. However, I could already see many instances where these would be life savers for Hunters.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

When I went by the guild to get my coins for the Tampa and goblin ears, Trevor said he wanted a report and a draft of the munition, as I was thinking about calling it. A grenade it was not, not yet and considering what it eventually would become if I continued down that road, maybe never.

Still, I had 4 gold, 4 silver and 36 copper more than when I left to do the goblin camp in bounty, and Trevor paid me back the two gold I spent to make the tin cans.

The sales from the camp loot left me with a personal fortune of 91 gold, 78 silver and 58 copper after the transportation people had been paid off. I would need to stop by the guild and pick up cash since they acted as a bank and tabularium in the forest for a small fee.

So, that I was sitting on a small fortune for anyone but an awakened certainly made me feel more confident in returning to Murktown, even if it was a mere fraction of what I would need over the coming year. There were also a couple of things I needed to do before leaving the forest. Raid a dungeon and have my abilities implanted in my spirit.

Signaling that I wished to pay as one of the servers walked by, I also asked for two chocolate cake slices to go.

Then there was the issue with Egmont, Hartwin, Albert and Saskia. They seemed to have grown attached to me over the last few hours, especially the children, to my horror. At least litter-trained, according to Egmont, Hartwin and Mira. How Mira knew I just accepted as being one of those women's intuition things. Hopefully, we shouldn't have too many accidents on the carpets.

Slowly, I moved the rope along the ground, letting it slither towards my prey. I was calling it a rope, but it looked more organic, and despite its appearance of being smeared in thick tar, it was completely dry and allowed for superb gripping power. Sadly, it was a far cry from the magnificent tentacles from my dream.

Having felt how it was done in my dream, I had spent hours trying to recreate the feeling, but it was like using a muscle that wasn't there. In the end, I managed to bring at least one of the eighth tentacles I knew was there out of my back. The strength and gripping power it offered were far beyond what my body currently offered, so I planned on training with them until it became second nature. According to my memories, it was a mutation brought on by my connection to the dark domain.

While the potential the tentacles would bring to a fight was incredible, it was what I could do with them when they were fully developed, and I controlled them as I did my other limbs. Gravity manipulation.

The tentacles would allow me to create a field around myself where I was in control of gravity. It wouldn't be flying, but I sure planned on falling across the sky with grace. Just the idea removed most of my fear of heights.

Giving a light tap on her back with my tentacle, I quickly retracted it back into my body as she almost jumped out of her chair. Giving suspicious looks around, she finally settled on giving me an evil glare.

Looking as innocent as possible, I said, “Nice of you to join the living again. How's the cake? I need to pick up some stuff at the guild and do a round at the merchant's stalls. I plan on clearing a dungeon before the night is over. What are your plans for the immediate future, finding another group?”

The last part was said over my shoulder as I was already walking out and waving goodbye to the restaurant staff.

The sound of a chair being pushed back, followed by the rapid approach of boots, almost made me instinctively want to jump to the side, but I didn't think she would stab me in such a public place, right?”

Increasing my phase, I just made it outside before I was blocked by a pair of furiously heaving… personalities.

“Now, you listen here, Mr., after all that's happened, you're just going to walk away as if it was nothing?”

“I mean, sure, you have helped an immense amount, but we haven't really been out hunting together. What if we don't work well together when it matters?”

“Well, let's go do the dungeon you want to clear and see then, you arse. Do you hear how absurd you sound? You're going alone to clear a dungeon, and even worse, I'm agreeing to go with you. Now I'm wondering if I hit my head a bit harder than I first thought earlier.”

She gave me an all-too-familiar glare before continuing.

“I'm a healer, remember, and you seem strangely capable of destroying things. It's almost like you have a gift for it. If we just had a protector and a scout. We would be set for a damn fine group, don't you think?”

I just gently nudged her towards one of the stalls that sold a wide variety of knives and started browsing for some that would work for throwing. I had come to realize that using a bow was something that I wanted to learn and eventually master. I needed one that wouldn't break in the first five minutes of a fight. Unless I were willing to spend more money than I was currently comfortable with, the alternative was throwing knives and spikes, which would give me a nice new way to express my displeasure about someone at range.

From behind, I heard. “The truth is I will need to have a group I can trust around me as I try to become Awakened. Healers are very vulnerable because of how much of our time is spent on studying instead of training for battle. I need people around me that I can trust so I can grow, you know…People that I don't have to draw a knife on all the time for becoming handsy.”

She almost whispered the last part.

“Since you never mentioned what your affinity was after registering, I figured it wasn't all that good. Sorry, I shouldn't have said it like that. What I wanted to ask is if you want to join my team. I know I'm just a healer now, but when I get my powers, we can do bounties and quests that pay far better than the ones we have been able to get until now. You will even be able to reach the silver rank in a few years after I have Awakened. You get access to better services at the guild. I heard one of them is a treatment that will allow someone with just a normal affinity to Awaken, even if it's supposed to be really expensive.”

Taking the four throwing knives and twelve spikes, I found that suited me best. I handed over 22 copper coins for the collection and a leather belt that could hold them. With some help from the merchant, I managed to get the leather belt properly strapped from my right hip to my left shoulder. It was easy enough to fasten the knives and spikes once the belt was on. Just had to remember to grab them from the right end.

“No, Now let's drop by the guild. I need to pick up the money and have a word with Egmont.”

“What do you mean no? Didn't you listen to anything I said? We could be the start of a great time, Alucard. No more scrambling to get scraps, proper support and information. Not having to deal with strangers over and over while you pray, this one isn't a bunch of assholes.”

“I'm quite certain you have called me an asshole. More than once.”

“Not that sort of asshole. Asshole. What's the problem? Why can't we team up?”

“Number one. I don't trust you. Number two. I trust you to be you, and that makes you a liability. I don't care much about what you get up to on your own time, but during a hunt or a quest, you keep the leggings on. That sort of thing creates drama. Don't for a moment think I do not know why Balin decided to run a band of goblins through your group, even if things didn't go as he planned and don't insult my intelligence by claiming you don't know either. Number three. I'm a private person. There are certain things about my life I don't want to be divulged to everyone. Number four. I don't have one, but I'll think of something.”

Noticing Mira had stopped, I turned to look at her, and for a moment, I felt slightly bad for what I had said, but it was the truth. Even if it brought her to tears, she was a big girl in a big world, so I'm sure she will be fine. If she stuck around me for the next year, she was more than likely to get caught in the coming battle for my land, and it would serve her much better to come into my service once I had dealt with the issues back home.

Turning back, took a few steps between us and took her hand in mine, turned it around and placed ten coins in her palm. If someone had been watching closely, they would have seen the glint of gold between our hands.

With that, I turned around again and left for the guild. It may have been more than I had planned on giving her, and someplace deep inside, I found a slight twinge of pain at the way I told her off, and in some strange way, I knew I would miss her annoying voice for a while but that too would fade. That's life, though, and you can't always walk the paths you want.

As luck would have it, only one person was before me in the queue to reach Trevor, so not sure how much of a queue it really was, but I sincerely hated waiting in queues, so that it may have been just as well.

“You got it?”

“Yes, I made some recommendations that would actually make it worth buying, too, like using silver slivers when going werewolf hunting and that sort of thing. Until a proper production line is up and running, it will be more expensive than most will bother with unless they are desperate. That said, I'll agree to a contract giving me ten percent of the profit, after tax, if the guild agrees to keep the production in the guild and keep it secret. I don't want this to fall into the hands of any rulers…yet.”

“That should be fine, Alucard. It was more or less what was discussed by the Guild leaders; I'm sure I can stretch them to ten percent after taxes and not before taxes for exclusivity. I also doubt the leaders have a problem with the rest of it. Most will likely applaud the decision. Want me to go grab a contract?”

“No, we can sign and go through the particulars when I get back. I wanted to take on dungeon #277 before nightfall, so I needed to get going. I'll take the cash from the sales, though.” The last part came with a big smile from me. Loot!

“Sure, that shouldn't be an issue. It gives me some time to make the others fully in on the idea, too. So, #277? Not cleared past the 36th floor, so keep on your toes and remember to watch Mira's back, and she will have your Go hunt some monsters, hunter,”

Packing away the money, I gave him a final smile. He had been helpful until now, and I was almost starting to like the man. If I hurried, I should be able to get the provisions, and a few knickknacks bought that would make things easier. Egmont, Hartwin, Albert and Saskia would need a bit of coin and told to stay in a safe room until I got back. Oh, right, the children need their cake, too, and I would need to be done shopping in a short hour and reach the dungeon in three or so hours. Plenty of sunlight left.

“It's only me, Trevor. Mira is free again. See you around.”