Boss Vage hurried his legs down the corridor. He met up with Tor Eyes and Mr Splint who were waiting for him in his private laboratory. “Where is it?” The moment he entered the room, he wanted to see the runaway creature.

“It’s over there boss.” Mr Splint directed his attention to the operation table where a sedated creature was lying hidden inside a sealed bag.

“Open it!”

“Right away boss.” Mr Splint carefully opened the sealed bag with the help of his partner, Tor Eyes. “Careful boss, it’s really flighty.”

“Step aside.” Boss Vage went closer to inspect the sedated creature. Lying flat on the counter was a dark 1 ½ meter long creature that resembled a centipede. “Yes, this is it alright. The Abyss Beast that will grant us the source of power to finally reveal ourselves to the world above. For too long I’ve been hiding underground. With this creature’s Abyss Script, reality itself will bow down to me! Ha-ha-ha!”

Boss Vage was veritably elated to be reunited with the object that would bring his future plans to fruition. “All that’s left now is to have this beast spit out what is mine. Stand back you two, I’m going to wake her up.”

Taking a step backwards, Boss Vage activated a transparent containment field that was situated above the counter. It completely sealed the Abyss Beast inside. Moments later, some vapours were released which gradually spurred the creature awake. As soon as it came too, it began banging its head against the corners of the containment field.

“Settle down beast!” Boss Vage utilized a Chain Script to prevent the wild creature from moving about frantically. Now that it was restricted, he could get what he wanted from it.

After some minutes of torture and inhumane experimentations. Boss Vage found out something alarming. “This can’t be…”

Mr Splint came along and asked, “What is it, boss?”

“It’s not here. The Abyss Script isn’t here.”

“But how can that be? It had it the last time we checked just before it escaped to the surface.”

“Could it have hidden it somewhere in the academy?” Thought Tor Eyes.

“It isn’t so simple to hide an Abyss Script.” Boss Vage made the situation a lot clearer to his ignorant underlings. “Though this beast is immature, it is not exempt from the natural law that binds its kind. An Abyss Script could never be separated from its original host for long which is why it is impossible to just stash it somewhere randomly. The only way this could work is if it already formed a contract with someone by allowing them ownership of its Kismet Coin.”

“Boss if what you’re saying is the truth then does that mean that the Black Kismet Coin that we’ve sought after for long has fallen into the grasp of one of those random unaware brats above?”

“It appears so. There is no other explanation why this creature doesn’t have the Abyss Script in its possession. Damn you two!” Boss Vage was upset that his underlings have failed him once again.

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“We’re sorry, boss. We had no idea the Abyss Beast could be so sneaky.”

“Can the excuses! I want whosoever is in possession of the Black Kismet Coin found and brought to me alive. That person probably has no idea that they’ve formed a contract with one of Vocabular’s most powerful Word Beasts. Before they realize, we must retrieve the Black Kismet Coin whatever it takes.”

“We understand boss.” Tor Eyes took out his Blue Kismet Coin. “With this exploration coin, I should be able to locate the host right away.”

“Go ahead and try it.”

Receiving the command from his leader, Tor Eyes released his intent inside the Blue Kismet Coin then flipped it above. The coin transformed into a swimming blue mist. It moved about for a while before returning to its master’s palm. “It’s no use boss. I couldn’t locate any trail of its existence.”

“That could only mean that the Black Kismet Coin energy signature is being blocked by a sealing object. Your Blue Kismet Coin can only react if it is in close proximity of the host.”

“Then how will we find the host, boss?”

“That is your job! The two of you get out of my sight. The next time I see you, you better have what I want or else…” Boss Vage didn’t have to finish his sentence, his underlings understood perfectly what would happen to them if they failed him a third time.

“Let’s go Splint, we have an entire academy to scour.” Tor Eyes produced another blue portal that he and Mr Splint disappeared through.

“Those useless bastards!” Boss Vage cursed aloud. “Just when I thought I was about to achieve the final piece of the puzzle, this happened.” He gave the captured Word Beast a displeased glance, “Curse you for being so damn sneaky! Why don’t you want me to attain a glorified status in Vocabular? Continue keeping silent, I have just the thing for you.”

Boss Vage imprisoned the Abyss Word Beast in a dungeon where he had similar creatures captive. Annexed to that area was a vast laboratory replete with various rare items and expert Wordsmiths. They had a production line that mass-produced illegal Powered Letters. These items were prone to many side effects, thus their core development was being rethought by a group of experts.

At another manufacturing unit, Boss Vage went over to converse with one of the lead Wordsmiths’ developers. “Professor Oreo, how are the duplicated Kismet Coins coming along?”

“Mr Vage, I must say that we’ve accomplished quite a bit since we last spoke. From the 2 original Kismet Coins that you gave us to work with, we’ve successfully managed to duplicate the additional properties of their core construct by 78%. Out of both of them, the Blue Kismet Coin produced more success rate, given the time that we’ve had to study its composite.”

“Oh, then we’ve made significant progress then?”

“Yes, Mr Vage, we have. However, we’ve discovered a significant drawback from our beta testing phase. Come over here let me show you.” Professor Oreo directed Boss Vage to a viewing window. Behind the glass were many teenage students who were suffering from excessive Compulsive Letter Depletion Syndrome. “As you can see by these obvious failures, their bodies are rapidly deteriorating into a decayed state.”

“What caused this?” Boss Vage enquired.

“Well, it was due to a certain unstable genome from the early development stages. We’re trying our best to find a workaround, but so far we’ve hit a dead-end. If we had the Black Kismet Coin of Realism that you promised then we would have already glossed over these continuous failures.”

“I’ve brought a new material for you to work with Professor Oreo. It is the progenitor of the Black Kismet Coin. My men recaptured it recently. Though it is missing the vital Abyss Script, I believe it can help increase the stabilization rate of your research.”

“Yes, it would be most useful to experiment on the mother of the Black Kismet Coin.” A sinister grin appeared on Professor Oreo’s countenance as he thought about dissecting the Abyss Word Beast. Boss Vage made sure to inform him that he needed the creature alive. “No problem. I’ll only take apart some of its detachable limbs. The creature is still young, I’m certain they will grow back."