“So, you couldn’t return?” Marcus asked, his interest piqued. He stood up, turned his chair to face Eric, and sat down again, this time near the edge. Leaning forward, he rested his elbows on his knees and cupped his hands under his chin. “Was it magic? On you or on Solace? Did you feel something each time you were moved, or was it teleported?”
“I don’t the answer to any of those questions,” Eric answered, his face showing uncertainty. “I couldn’t even approach people from here,” he added, remembering not only the time he tried to approach Alex but also the time he tried to approach the group of people that were near the lake. “Every time I did, I would be moved again.”
“What about now? How are you here?” Stella asked as she narrowed her eyes with suspicion, not entirely sure if she believed what Eric was saying. “What’s the difference this time? Did the problem just magically go away?”
“You have trust issues,” Eric said playfully, noticing the clear suspicion in Stella’s attitude.
“I just know you,” Stella said with an equally playful smile. “Now answer the question.”
Marcus clicked his tongue. “Let him speak, I want to know.”
Eric nodded lightly. “To tell you the truth, I think I just broke whatever was keeping me away.”
“Huh?!” was said in unison by the others.
Eric, noticing the others’ curiosity, quickly began to explain himself. “I got here about two—maybe three days ago,” he began. “This time, instead of just giving up after a few hours like last time, I kept trying and trying, until eventually I heard something like glass shattering, followed by a light fizzle. After that, I was able to walk here normally."
“When was that?” Stella asked, still not believing him entirely but showing curiosity toward his story.
“A bit after everyone left for the funeral,” Eric answered. “I actually saw you leave, that’s when I went to the empty supply storage and stole the ice cream.”
“And all of these are from dungeons in the city?” Alex asked, pointing at several duffle bags full of dungeon rewards.
Eric nodded in response.
“These are a lot of rewards. Just how many dungeons were there?” Alex asked as he kneeled down and began to open them. “Were they harder?”
“A bit, maybe?” Eric took a short pause. “For people at our level, no. Maybe these two would struggle,” he said, pointing at both Marcus and Stella.
Alex paused, then both he and Anna turned to face Eric. “You can tell how strong we are?” he asked, both surprised at what Eric had just said and a bit disappointed that the surprise he had planned was ruined.
“You can’t?” Eric asked, equally surprised.
“That’s right!” Stella exclaimed, snapping her fingers, and pointed at Eric. “That’s something I wanted to talk to you about,” she said, having remembered something from back when they were still at the gym. “You said you could feel the mana inside of you, even before you got the skill, right?”
“Yeah, why?” Eric asked. “What does that have to do with this?”
“None of us can do that—well, now I can, but I had to get a skill,” Stella said as she crossed her arms and continued, “So, what’s that about?”
“Really?” Eric asked as he turned to look at each of his friends, who answered him with a nod.
Eric was a bit taken aback by what his friends had just said. This made him think back to when he first got his skill and felt mana for the first time.
The more he thought about it, the more he confirmed that he hadn’t actually done anything special during or after mana initially entered his body. It was just something he could feel from the beginning.
“Are you sure you didn’t do anything else?” Stella asked, inching a bit toward Eric. “Maybe you got a title for being one of the first to level up or something,” she continued, offering up a possibility.
“No, my first title was about fighting,” Eric answered, still deep in thought. “It’s gone now.”
Eric only replied automatically, he was still deep in thought. Now he began to consider different possibilities that could explain why he could feel mana much better than the others.
Maybe because it was something external, he thought to himself. But then why wouldn’t I feel things like drinks? He quickly shut down any explanation that only offered partial answers.
“Bloodline?” Marcus asked, using his own experience to explain Eric’s unique traits.
Eric stopped thinking for a moment and remembered the system messages he got after he awoke in the city after fighting the rats.
Bloodline acquired!
Bloodline assimilation increased!
????????????????: 22%
“Hmm. It could be,” Eric answered, unsure of how possible that was.
He wasn’t sure because he didn’t know how much his assimilation was from before he had his body restored. Without knowing that, there was no way of knowing the influence it had, if any at all.
Eric was even cautious of assigning any responsibility toward the bloodline. If he did, he might end up missing something important.
He could easily blame the occasional surges of anger on the bloodline, but that wouldn’t solve anything. He could explain away his change during his speech by just blaming it on the bloodline, but again, did that help with anything? The answer was no.
“Forget all that,” Anna said, waving her hand as if dismissing the previous topic. “How can you tell our current strength?” she asked.
Eric, trying to dismiss his thoughts like Anna wanted, took a moment to accomplish it. “Mana—no, the processed mana, I can feel it somewhat,” Eric answered, clearly still lost in thought but making a visible effort to put all his attention on answering Anna.
“What more can you tell?” Marcus asked expectantly.
“I can tell that you have something around your heart,” Eric answered, pointing at Marcus’s heart. “Is it a core? It feels different from yours,” he said, facing Stella. “It feels far more refined, but it lacks a definite shape.”
“I tried something different,” Stella answered. “Want one?”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Eric took a moment and looked directly at Marcus for a moment, then he turned to Stella. After a moment of also analyzing her core, he answered. “Not yet,” he said, tilting his head slightly. “Finish your experiments first.”
Like that, their conversation continued. It would constantly switch topics, and one of them would have to remind the others that they were talking about something else for them to return to the initial topic.
Hours quickly passed them by as they went into further detail about their last few weeks, until finally, their conversation was interrupted by a knock on the door.
“Come in,” Stella answered, already knowing who it was as she had already gotten used to their knocking.
Lydia entered the small office, followed closely by Connor. It was clear from the way they were walking that this was more of a routine visit and not an important one. Both of them gave everyone a slight nod as a greeting.
Lydia was the first to speak. “The kids have been set up with the others, though only momentarily, they want to buy a personal house,” she said, her tone suggesting that it was more of a playful thing from a child and not a real request.
Stella turned to Eric, her expression stern. “How much did you really give them?”
Eric only shrugged and asked a different question. “How much do houses go for?”
“For now? Nothing. They’re all prototypes that will be demolished later on,” Stella answered. “People have paid, but their money will be returned if need be. We really just need the carpenters to gain more experience.”
“Oh! That reminds me,” Anna exclaimed as she reached into her pocket and took out a hub crystal. “Thought you guys might need it.”
Lydia eyed the crystal cautiously as a blurry memory surfaced. She recalled one of the figures who had fought the trolls retrieving something similar. Before she could ask what it was, Stella spoke first.
“Eric?” she asked with a tone of expectation.
Eric blinked a few times before finally snapping his fingers and exclaiming. “Oh!”
From his pocket, he took out three hub crystals. They were the crystals he had retrieved from the dead trolls.
Stella took one of the crystals, and after a few minutes of what was clearly sorting through system menus, she sighed in relief and handed the crystal back to Eric. “I can also do it,” she said with a smile, “but you should do honors, it’s your place, after all.”
Eric had already willed the correct system window to open.
Solace (Settlement)
Level 2/2
Crystals 1/2
Population 836/500
While looking at both the hub and upgrade windows, he quickly chose to upgrade his hub crystal. Again, the crystal in his hand became a stream of mana that travelled toward the hub crystal.
Solace (Hamlet)
Level 2/4
Crystals 0/5
Population 836/1000
While he contemplated the changes to his hub windows, he was flooded by other system messages.
Congratulations! Your Hub crystal has evolved from a Settlement into a Hamlet.
Store prices have been reduced.
New items are available.
Congratulations! You are the first to evolve your Hub crystal.
Your title has evolved.
Settler (C): You receive a substantial discount from the System shop. Building projects on your land are completed with greater speed.
Eric, especially driven by the mention of new items, quickly opened the store to discover what the new items were.
Class hub: Location to select a starting class. Cost:50000 credits.
Skill hub: Location to purchase basic skills. Cost: 100000 credits.
Random cultivation manual. Cost 82000 credits.
Storage Ring (small): Item used to store items within. Due to its low capacity and quality, food cannot be stored. Cost: 73000 credits.
Eric took note of each of the new items that interested him. With his current credits, even combined with the credits available in the hub, he could only get two of the new items. So, he began to weigh his options.
He didn’t even have to look at her to know that Stella was also quickly looking through all of her menus and taking note of the different items and prices.
“Prices are ten percent cheaper across the board,” Stella said, having finished her preliminary assessment of the new options available to them. “Class hub,” she said while looking at Eric.
“Was thinking the same thing,” Eric said, having finished weighing his options. “About 20 grand short of also getting the Skill hub,” he added.
The class hub wasn’t really important to the five friends, they already had their class, and some were even near their first class evolution. The hub was meant for everyone else in Solace.
With an available class hub, everyone in Solace can get an even bigger advantage compared to the rest of the world. Sure, some settlements might have used the hub crystal to give everyone a class, but the group was sure that more people knowing where the crystal was, would bring trouble later on.
The skill hub, however, was entirely for Eric’s sake. While he could still develop skills, he considered it to be too slow. He was still unsure of how skills worked and how they developed, the skill hub should help remedy skill acquisition.
One thing he was hopeful for, but he was sure wouldn’t be the case, was that the Skill hub would also allow him to purchase skill points.
When purchasing items from the system store, his titles never affected the amount of items he received. However, his titles did affect his credits. If he could buy skill points and if the System considered them currency just like credits, he would get an avenue of strength that was even greater than the dungeons.
“—that still leaves us about three thousand short,” Alex said.
Eric didn’t have to ask what they had been discussing while his mind was somewhere else. They were trying to make up for the 20 thousand needed to buy both the Skill and Class hub.
“Should I go ask Sam?” Lydia asked, facing Eric.
Eric narrowed his eyes. “Why are you asking me?” he said in a sterner tone, trying to be playful but sounding more serious than intended as he nodded his head toward Stella.
Lydia, a bit taken aback by Eric’s tone, quickly turned to Stella, waiting for a response.
Stella only nodded. Lydia was about to say her goodbyes when Eric stopped her.
“Connor and I will go,” he said, this time, his firm tone was intentional. “And let me see that ring,” he added as he extended his hand toward Alex.
Alex handed Eric the ring, not questioning why he asked for it. He was sure that if anyone would be able to get it to activate, it would be Eric, with Stella being a close second.
Eric grabbed the enhanced spear that had fallen to the floor and gestured for Connor to follow him.
As Stella watched Eric exit the room, a pit formed in her stomach. That sense of unease that she had more than gotten used to, returned, far stronger this time.
----------
Eric walked in front without saying a word. He handed the spear to Connor, who had also remained silent, and began to investigate the ring.
Just like Alex had said, it was a simple ring, there was nothing visually special about it. There was, however, a faint mana signature. It wasn’t faint as in weak, but faint as in “it’s all the mana that’s needed,” at least that’s how Eric interpreted it.
Eric deviated a bit from the most direct path toward the garden—not much, but enough that it would be odd if they came across other people here.
“Heard about what Lydia’s doing,” Eric said, finally breaking the silence but still fidgeting with the ring. “Know anything about it?” Eric asked, already knowing the answer.
“She began when some of the people near the supply storage said that they observed some of your people behaving strangely when the madman attacked.” Connor began to answer in a serious and direct tone, as if delivering a report. “It wasn’t long before she confirmed that one of the people they had singled out, was indeed behaving strangely.”
“Didn’t ask for a report, just wanted to know if you knew,” Eric said. “Got it!” he exclaimed as he turned and extended his hand. “Spear.”
When Connor handed Eric the spear, it immediately disappeared and the ring on his right middle finger shone for an instant. Eric began to clench and unclench his fist, expecting something to happen, but nothing did. He then continued walking but didn’t stop moving his hands.
“I can sort of guess what field you were in,” Eric said. “That’s why I need you to be there when whatever happens, happens.”
“Can you elaborate?” Connor asked, his expression changing for the first time to one of surprise. He can guess what field I was in? he asked himself.
“My parents were always direct and said that they always followed the path of least resistance,’” Eric said, his tone becoming somewhat relaxed as he talked about his parents. “Connor,” Eric’s tone suddenly became colder, much colder. No, not cold. It was indifferent. A jarring shift from a literal second ago. “Skip the hard stuff, just get answers. And if you can't, just get rid of the problem.”
Connor was taken aback, once more surprised by the young man in front of him. “Why don’t you handle it? It’s clear that you know what needs to be done,” he said, curious about the answer.
“I’m pretty sure that I’m the target, so I might not be able to,” Eric replied casually. “Aha!” he exclaimed, the spear in his hand once more.
----------
“He’s back. How?!” a figure in the forest exclaimed. “I strengthened each of the magic circles, the formation should have withstood anything. In that case,” the figure opened the weathered book, “let’s go all out. I can fix any problems that come from this. My friends will understand,” the figure said with desperate eyes.
The figure began to flip furiously through the book, a page already in mind. When the figure arrived at the desired page, incomprehensible words escaped their mouth.