Chapter 8: Weapons

Feeling her metaphorical pockets filled with credits, Empress decided to go shopping. She needed to replace her rapier. Also, now that she could create her own barrier bullets, she had no need for her Z21 barrier pistol.

She had already researched weapon shops online. Now it was simply a matter of going to the store in person. 

Empress teleported from rooftop to rooftop, keeping away from the streets. She didn’t want anyone to recognize her and attack her.

Eventually, the storefront came into sight. Empress discretely entered, avoiding the crowd.

“Welcome!” a green-haired girl greeted, “How can I help you?”

“I’m here to buy some weapons,” Empress admitted, glancing around the shop.

“Feel free to look around,” the girl smiled.

“Thanks.”

Empress looked around the shop, marveling at the dozens of items on display.

After skipping over the rocket launchers and flamethrowers, her eyes settled on a pair of gauntlets.

“You sell armor too?” Empress asked, pointing towards the metal gloves.

The girl laughed.

“Those are catalyst gauntlets.”

“Catalyst gauntlets?” Empress asked curiously, “What are those?”

“They’re special weapons that take on the properties of the user’s powers.”

“Can you give an example?”

“Sure!” the girl said politely, “A fire user would cause everything the gauntlet touches to burst into flames. A telekinesis user might cause everything they touch to float.”

“It all depends on the user’s abilities,” she shrugged.

“Can I give them a try?”

“Of course,” the girl said, hopping out from behind the counter. She briskly walked over to the gauntlets and handed them over to Empress. 

“There is a training room in the basement, but remember. You break it, you buy it,” she told Empress, a serious gleam in her eyes.

Vivian nodded her understanding, sliding the gauntlets onto her hands as she headed downstairs.

Her feet touched the metal steps as she descended, an aura of anticipation exuded from her.

The basement came into view. On one side of the room was a shooting range. On the other side of the room were various draining dummies constructed from wood and metal.

She stepped in front of one of the dummies and pounded her gauntlets together.

Her large smile appeared on her face. The gauntlets felt nice. She activated them, feeling intricate barriers surround the gloves.

She casually swiped at the dummy’s head, the gauntlet’s talons pointed outwards. The nails cut through the dummy’s head like butter, ripping it into shreds.

Empress’s eyes went wide.

“Barriers can be used to cut?” she marveled inwardly.

She immediately focused on conjuring some barriers. This time, instead of striking the dummy with the flat part of the barrier, she turned it sideways.

The barrier flew forward, striking the dummy.

Empress out a sigh of disappointment. The barrier struck the dummy and instantly collapsed, shattering into pieces.

She didn’t give up though. She tried layering the barrier and compressing it. However, it was no use. No matter what she did, she couldn’t manage to slice the dummy.

Empress frowned in thought. It was likely that the barriers were just too weak to begin with. She would have to level up her barrier mastery and experiment again.

For now though, the gauntlets would serve nicely. Her close quarter strength would increase dramatically. She speculated that if she fought with Rex again, she would be able to tear through his skin like paper.

After another thought, she punched out with them.  The dummy exploded into pieces of scrap, covering the floor.

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Ideas raced through Empress's head.  It seemed punching was just as effective as swiping was.

Excited to further play with her new toys, Empress skipped upstairs towards the main section of the shop.

“How much for these gauntlets?” Empress asked the shopkeeper.

“For you? Free,” the girl said mysteriously.

“What? Why?” Empress asked warily.

“Consider it a gift from ‘The Eternal Path’,”

Empress’s eyes went wide, “This girl is in league with Crescendo?!”

Vivian was unnerved, “Do they really want me just because I was first on the beginner leaderboards?”

She somehow doubted it, but it was apparent that they were keeping a close eye on her.

“Take them.  Consider it a favor,” the green-haired girl smiled.

Empress frowned, she really didn’t want to owe a favor, but the gauntlets were very tempting.

“How much would they cost normally?” she asked.

“They’re 5 million credits each,” the girl said, raising an eyebrow.

Empress choked, “10 million credits in total?!”

She felt a little faint, even her castle had only cost one million.

“Why are they so expensive?!” Empress asked bewilderedly.

“Negation powers don’t affect them,” the girl laughed.

Empress's eyes went wide.  Now she was even more determined to take them.

“Crescendo is trying to buy my loyalty and I’m going to let her go ahead and try," Empress smiled evilly.

Wiping away her hesitation, she slipped on the gauntlets and exited the store. She returned to her castle base, greeting her knight and Hilda

She then logged out.

A sleepy-eyed Vivian stared out her window in real life. She was trying to make a tough decision.

“Do I dare go outside? It’s been so long…” she struggled internally. Normally she would just order all the necessities of life from online. She couldn’t remember the last time she stepped outside the door.

However, she had an important reason to go outside. She wanted to learn boxing. Her health had deteriorated over the years and it was starting to affect her in-game performance. She needed to get back in shape. In addition, now that her primary weapons were her fists, she wanted to become proficient with them.  She had one other reason as well.

She found a beginner’s class online and headed towards the location. The bright sun shone down upon her, causing her to wince. She was tempted to run back inside.

Instead, she took a deep breath and continued onwards.

Eventually, she found her way outside of the boxing gym. She entered, immediately seeing an arena as she stepped inside.

A man walked up to her.

“Can I help you?” he asked in confusion, wondering what someone like Vivian was doing in the gym.

“I want to take boxing lessons,” she admitted.

The man looked at her, mouth agape. Such a scrawny and pale girl wanted to take boxing lessons?

“Okay, sure,” the man said after a minute of staring, realizing that he was being too judgmental.

“Sign this,” he said, handing her a waiver, “The fee is $100 a month,”

Vivian went pale at the price but nodded her head reluctantly.

“We can start as soon as you’re ready.”

Vivian took a deep breath after signing the paper.

“Let’s start now.”

Then her daily hell began.