Gao Xieren

The Heavens had never been kind to Gao Xieren. She was born to a family of poverty stricken farmers—serfs in all but name, unable to cultivate on pain of death under their magistrate’s laws. Her mother died during childbirth. Her father, while not cruel, was unable to fulfill his parental duties adequately. He refused to remarry, as was the norm, and thus created a far more unstable household with only one provider. There were many winters where they went hungry, numerous nights where she was certain she’d never see the next dawn.

That was her existence from childhood to adulthood. She had tried to change the course of her life several instances over that time, but to no avail. She learnt to read and write but could not pass the imperial exams. She caught the eye of a Young Master of a sect, but he was quickly killed and replaced, as was the typical end for those who bore the title. In the end, she found herself still firmly a mortal by the age of fifty five.

Perhaps her misfortune was not the Heavens’ decision but her own choices. Certainly, accepting the invitation to benefit from the foreign immortal’s ascension to the next realm had nearly cost Gao Xieren her life. The Sects cultivators had been callously cruel when trying to remove evidence. Drowning in that asteroid’s tunnels still plagued her nightmares.

The decision to defect from the Sects to the Corporations had been relatively unrewarding thus far. Rather than being a virtual slave as a farmer, she was now a virtual slave doing menial tasks. For a person like her, there was still no way to realistically advance in a timely manner on this planet. Cultivating the ambient essence was slow. The free rift delves offered to all Sect defectors were a death sentence to someone as physically old as her. She was also unused to actual combat. Accepting a contract to any of the corporations for help was also out of the question. The devilish people who tried to convince her to sign one had been too passionate, causing her to closely review the terms. While they were plain, they were demonic in what they implied. She would probably have been a real slave under them for centuries, so she had refused that one and any offered to her afterwards. As a result of these factors, she was unable to advance and languished here as she had in her homeland.

But perhaps her most foolhardy decision was the one in the present. As she crossed the entrance of the rift, it suddenly occurred to her that she had willingly entered the space with a dangerous man and no witnesses. If something happened to her here, any evidence would disappear along with the rift instance. She had agreed far too easily, eager to finally advance and improve her life with no strings attached. And now she was regretting it as she saw him turn around to face her while unslinging the mallet on his back. There was a sinking feeling of dread in the pit of her stomach. Who knew what a person from Gu was willing to—

“Here, take it.”

The man, Solace, quickly inverted the weapon in his hand such that the handle was facing her.

She studied his face, searching for any signs that it was a trick. But what she saw was the same as always. A blank countenance, dull eyes. When he looked at something, it was as if he looked through it. A stare that went beyond indifference.

It was that indifference that made her step up and accept the mallet, that lack of cruelty or passion.

“How quickly can you swing the mallet?” He asked her.

She hefted it. “Not very.”

He held up a palm. “Hit my hand with a strike that you can do consistently.”

She complied. The sound of the mallet head hitting his hand was more like striking stone than skin. His arm swung down and back a bit from the force, but quickly returned to its original position.

“Again.”

She did so.

“Again.”

Another strike.

She had no idea what he was trying to do or ascertain, but the third strike seemed to satisfy Solace.

“Wait here,” he told her before promptly entering the room further beyond in the rift.

That gave Gao Xieren time to take in her surroundings. It was a cold place with dim lighting. Filth and puddles of dirty water littered the cobbled floor. Altogether, an unpleasant space.

That was when Solace returned. In one of his hands he clutched the large dark cloth sack he had brought into the rift. There was something inside it. She flinched as the large round object rustled from side to side in fits and bursts.

“What is that?” She asked.

“It’s the slime. Kill it with your hammer.”

She hesitantly stepped forward, unsure of what angle to strike. She half expected the monster to break free and attack her.

“Now please,” Solace said. “There’s a lot more to kill.”

Gao Xieren swung a tentative strike, but the mallet head bounced. The creature lurched in the bag and she stepped back.

He sighed. “Harder, same as when you struck my hand.”

She tightened her grip around the mallet, a bit irritated with herself. She channeled that into her next swing. There was the sound of a pop, a sickening squelch, and then she felt it. A rush of essence, far thicker than the ambient stuff, entered her spirit. A well of emotions surfaced, foremost being elation. Finally… finally.

Solace quickly inverted the sack to dump its contents, spilling the monster’s gelatinous guts onto the floor.

“Good. Let’s go deeper.”

And that’s what they did. For the next several floors, the man would have her wait in the previous room as he collected the slimes in the next into the sack.

Watching him deal with the monsters was quite the sight. He nonchalantly moved around the treacherous floor, positioning himself in such a way it looked like the slimes were leaping into the bag by their own accord. He made capturing four look as easy as one or two. When a room doubled to eight, he halved the numbers personally with the mop at his side. No wasted movement and not a single speck of slime touched his person.

His movements were, she dared think, completely clean.

The rooms passed by in a blur, the only thing aiding her in keeping track was the size of the slimes themselves. They grew every four rooms.

When the slimes were too big for four to fit into the bag, she expected him to start killing them personally until there was a number that did fit. Instead, he had her wait three rooms back instead of one and he began to carry the slimes to her in pairs.

“You leave no essence for yourself?” She asked, confused when she noticed him bringing all eight slimes from that room. One needed to kill the monster to be rewarded with essence, afterall.

“In this rift, killing the boss gives roughly the same amount as everything before it combined. That, along with what I already got, will be my payment for this excursion. I looked at your essence gathering rate and it’s clear to me that you need a bit more in order to always be comfortable handling the door. ”

“This one thanks you for your consideration,” she said, clasping her hands and bowing.

“It was the deal,” he said simply.

And that was that. They progressed through the rift in silence, punctuated only by the occasional direction from the man to move forward or stay in a specific room. At one point, a slime had made it past him and somehow ambled its way all the way to her. She was not caught unawares, however, and dispatched it with her mallet in an underhand swing.

“Good,” he said, after sprinting back to make sure she was safe.

Eventually, they made it to a room sealed by far larger doors. The boss room, she was sure. But rather than enter, the man called a break. He cleared away piles of trash, setting down the slime catching sack and sitting on a dry area.

From his plastic bag, he pulled two small plastic boxes, the ones used by restaurants for a customer’s leftovers, as well as two water bottles. He handed one of each over to her along with a fork and spoon.

“This one thanks you,” Gao Xieren said, taking it and sitting on a dry spot nearby herself.

“Of course.”

They opened the boxes, fried rice with eggs and vegetables she did not recognize. It was moderately warm still and the two began to eat.

In the silence, she thought it would be a good time to talk to the man, understand more about him. Only, she didn’t know what to say.

“This one thinks the chef cooked the rice wrong,” she said. It was the first thing that popped into her head.

“Is it?” Was the response.

His voice was dry and she feared she had made an assumption which could give offense.

“Ah, did you cook it yourself?”

“No, it’s just from a place down the street from the complex.”

“Ah, well, the rice is cooked poorly. Dry and far too flaky even when considering that it was fried. One would think it was old and reused grain.”

“I don’t know much about rice.”

That gave her an idea, one to show a portion her gratitude for this whole endeavor.

“Then this one shall cook a proper meal with rice for you when we get back.”

“If you wish to,” he said, quickly setting aside his finished meal and drinking from the bottle nearby. He was a shockingly fast eater. “When you finish, let me know.”

Solace then closed his eyes as if meditating, effectively cutting off any more attempts at conversation.

She stared at him as she ate, thinking about how difficult it was to talk with the man. How the chatty boy living on the same floor as them managed it, she had no idea.

Many minutes passed as she ate, until she too was finished and let Solace know.

“Move back at least five rooms,” he said immediately. “Call out to me when you are there.”

She complied without question. But before she even crossed the fourth room, she heard his voice again.

“Actually, come back!” He shouted.

She returned, confused and about to voice it when she noticed that he was out of breath and his mop was slick with new slime.

Behind him, the boss room’s doors were ajar, but all she could see was two large puddles slime.

“It was easier than I expected,” he said by way of explanation. He gestured for her to enter the room along with him.

She nodded mutely as she followed. The pools of slime on the floor within were huge, inglorious corpses from what was effectively a swift execution by the man with a mop. It was eerie and a bit terrifying.

Solace walked towards a glowing green distortion and waved his hand over it. Several things dropped out and he bent to retrieve them. When done, he returned to Gao Xieren offering the things with a closed fist.

“The rewards from the rift, six mana stones.”

“Six…”

Six mana stones, six hundred of the Corporation’s credits, more than a week’s wages for her. She almost immediately accepted, but hesitated.

“Why give them to this one, do you not need them?”

“Of course I do,” he said. “But I would much rather have something else from you in exchange.”

She stared at him, unsure of how to respond.

“Yes…?”

“Instead of the stones, would you be willing to do this next week? And, if you can, find others who would wish to be carried through the rift? It would be the same deal.”

That was a request she had not been expecting, but one that she was more than capable of doing. Many of her coworkers at her job were also from the Sects and in a similar position as she.

“Yes,” she replied quickly. “I can certainly do that.”

“Good,” he said, dropping the stones into her palm. “Then this business is done.”

She watched as he took the mallet back from her before exiting the rift first. Despite her misgivings, it had all turned out well. The boy had been right, the man was reliable and worthy of trust.

—

I nearly botched that whole thing up.

Several times to boot. The first was when he had nearly taken too much essence for himself. The second was when he had allowed a slime to slip by because he was too focused on capturing them all rather than killing. Fortunately, it had all worked out and she had been willing to do it again

Sure, he could have taken more essence and a portion of the stones or employed some extreme practices of coercion, but that would have fostered a bad dynamic between them. He had seen the distrust in her eyes at the start and knew that he needed to change it. Otherwise, she might not have agreed to a second delve or be motivated to find others for him to carry. Now? There was another free weekly delve in his future and potentially more to be established.

Oh, and the food.

If he played his cards right with that, the lady might be convinced to continue providing him home-cooked meals. Possibly at a cheaper price too.

Back at the housing complex, he was met with a surprise.

“Solace, I finished the assignment!” Xu Wei’s voice came from Solace’s door before he could even set down his mop.

He opened the door. “Let’s hear it then.”

Xu Wei recited the alphabet perfectly, even spacing the words Solace had used as examples between each letter. It was mildly impressive given the short time frame. It seemed the boy was, in fact, motivated to learn the language. That, or he was just front loading a lot of effort in order to convince Solace that he was invested.

Only time would tell.

They scheduled the next lesson for tomorrow, the day that Edison had proclaimed as Solace’s mandatory employee break — whatever that meant. Before Xu Wei left though, Solace asked him a question.

“Xu Wei, are you currently using your free weekly delves at rifts?”

The boy shook his head. “It’s too dangerous for me right now. I’m waiting until I can afford to buy some gear. Why?”

“I’ve been trying to progress my cultivation at a faster rate. If you’re willing to sign up for your free slot, I’ll carry you through the rift. That way, we can both get some essence. Don’t worry, I’ve done it already without any real injuries, and—”

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“That sounds like a great idea, I’ll go sign up right now!” Xu Wei interrupted.

Without waiting for Solace to finish his spiel of assurances, the boy bounded to his own room.

Solace shook his head. For someone always so sleepy, Xu Wei was so enthusiastic.

He closed the door and turned to his monitor. There were a few things he wanted to research and double check. Then it was off to Edison’s.

Solace looked at the price to schedule a single delve. It was 500 credits for a Tier 1 rift, 700 for a Tier 2, 1000 for a Tier 3, 2000 for a Tier 4, and 5000 for a Tier 5. The price scaling was within what he expected when considering the fact that the jump between Tiers was generally double. Tier 1 and Tier 2 rifts were abundant on a Tier 5 planet, so their similar costs were also justified.

Wait…

The average Tier 1 rift rewarded six to eight mana stones, each of which could be sold at 100 credits due to the mana stored within each. The math meant that, technically, Solace could delve nonstop using just his profits.

There was a brief moment where Solace drew up plans to quit his job and just delve as often as he could, but a quick look at the slots actually available for purchase killed the scheme. They were few and far between. Apparently most rifts had blocks of time reserved for people affiliated with a corporation. And while Solace wasn’t against signing on with any of the businesses he had seen, the base contracts offered to a Tier 1 like him were generally unfavorable. It was far better for him to do what he was doing until Tier 3, when he got his T3 Talent, which would allow him to negotiate for better terms — like possibly being transported off of the planet to a higher tier one.

So for now, he’d stay the course, optimizing what he could and finding any opportunities he could to speed up his progress.

Solace turned off the monitor after checking the hour. It was time for work.

—

Ever since Solace had expressed interest in crafting, there had been an expansion of his duties. Besides cleaning and organizing, he was now an active helper in the preparatory work. Taking inventory of materials in storage, ordering more when needed, breaking down raw materials, helping her with craftings, among other things.

“Solace, I’ve got a new commission!” Edison called. “For a knife. It needs steel with four percent carbon.”

“Four?” Solace asked incredulously. “For a blade? That seems strange.”

“Yep, that was my reaction too.”

“But isn’t that just—”

“Cast iron? Yes, but keep in mind that some people have more use for strange materials due to Talents or other factors.”

“Right… but we don’t have cast iron,” Solace noted. “Should I just go buy a pan or something?”

“No. The metal needs to have certain properties for enchanting and its intended use.”

“Which are?”

She told him. The steel’s enchantments needed to have a greater efficacy than typical metals. It needed to be highly conductive and look like ordinary steel. And it needed to be incredibly hard; toughness could be disregarded. Effectively, the metal needed to be composed of a lot of carbon.

“Know how to make it with what we have on hand?” She asked after.

“No.”

“Well, here’s a hint: carbon leeches off steel during the forging process.”

He thought about it for a moment. “I think I know what to retrieve.”

“Meet you in the work area then.”

Solace made his way to the storage area—one of several, opened the door by typing in the passcode, and then entered. Within were rows of shelves laden with bars of metal and chunks of minerals. He grabbed the utility cart stationed near the entrance and began to load the cart with the things he needed.

Once done, he made his way to the workroom where he gathered a few tools and the weighing scale from the racks there before turning on the pump connected to a large case of glass — the vacuum machine.

“You get everything?” Edison asked as she made her way into the room. She scrutinized what he brought, mumbling it aloud. “Tier 5 low grade steel, Tier 4 smith-grade rowan charcoal, Tier 6 zinc-chromium alloy… Yes, this is all exactly what I would have chosen. The ingredients will average out to Tier 5 while being cost efficient. Excellent work.”

“Thank you,” Solace said.

“You even prepped the machine, huh? Ah, but it’s not quite right.”

“How so?”

“Well, first, tell me what we’re trying to do for today’s commission.”

“Four percent carbon to metal ratio,” Solace replied. “To make it, the alloy needs to be made in an environment where the oxygen won’t leach out the carbon. That’s why the work on the metal is done in a vacuum.”

“Right, but how do we cool it?”

“What do you mean?”

“A vacuum means heat can’t be conducted away from the metal, Solace. So what do we do to cool it without any of our precious carbon leaching from exposure to oxygen?”

He frowned. “I’m not sure. Manipulate water into the vacuum at the end?”

“No, we want it to cool slower.”

“A less dense fluid then.”

“Such as?”

It was clear she wasn’t proceeding without the right answer, so he stood and thought. There were many answers but Edison most likely wanted the cheapest and quickest solution that was still effective. A less dense fluid, so a gas would work. Perhaps something easily made.

“Smoke from the charcoal?” He said after only a moment.

“Ding ding ding! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!”

“Is that today’s meal?” He deadpanned.

“No it’s—” Edison sighed. “Forget it. Just turn the gas trap from disposal to collection and light a fire with half the charcoal, okay?”

“Alright.”

He moved the portion of charcoal underneath the nearby fume hood, flipping several switches to both turn it on and make it collect smoke. After attaching a specially designed metal container to the collection unit, he lit the charcoal with a match. He then turned to Edison and watched her work.

Normally, making steel was outside the purview of her shop since it was cheaper to purchase it than to maintain the equipment needed to make large amounts of it. But the amount of cast iron was relatively small and its desired properties specific, so it was better to make it oneself in this instance.

Edison first weighed the bar of metal and then the other materials on the weighing scale, using a hammer to break them into smaller pieces until she had the right amount of everything in neat piles. When finished she picked the steel bar back up.

And the room began to grow cold.

Rather than use tools, she began to use several [Skills]. One to manipulate the metal and make it float, another to draw heat from the surroundings, and another to create a flame above her palm—and below the steel.

In less than a minute, the metal began to glow bright red, and then slowly melted into a ball. It was an impressive sight, seeing such impressive power tightly controlled. Despite the fact that the melting point of the metals was thousands of degrees, Solace didn’t feel any of it.

“Latch,” Edison’s voice said, her voice slightly strained. The fires above her palms went out.

He moved to the vacuum chamber and opened one side of the glass. While he had been starting the fire, Edison had apparently reset the machine.

Molten metal was quickly levitated into the chamber. After which, Solace placed the other materials inside following Edison’s directions.

“Vacuum,” she ordered.

He hit the switch. It took several minutes for the container to be emptied of air. The moment there was a beep from the machine to indicate a perfect vacuum, Edison used what Solace assumed was a telekinesis [Skill] to lift all of the materials on the case and mix them together with the steel.

The small volumes of other alloys became tiny streams of chromatic colors as they melted and swirled. The rowan charcoal, almost pure carbon while still retaining the mystical properties of its original wood, glowed but did not burn as it touched the orb. The flecks of fiery darkness became homogeneous as she mixed everything together with her mind and her [Skills] over the course of many minutes.

“Is the fire done?” She asked.

He checked. “Yes.”

“Bring the smoke here.”

He disconnected the storage unit from the trap, carrying over the gas in a can. Without needing further directions, Solace attached the container to the vacuum using the tiny hatch on the case’s side designed for additions like these. He then released the smoke.

When gas expands, it cools. It was a property that caused an initially audible sound of hissing as the metal made contact with the smoke.

Edison began to manipulate the steel into the shape of a blade. A cast of her mind which shaped the cast iron. While it appeared simple to his eyes, Solace knew better. Her skill with the manipulation [Skill] went beyond simple shaping. She was capable of affecting the arrangement of molecules as they solidified such that the resulting blade would be as structurally sound as it could be. Normal methods required quick cooling, but it didn’t matter with Edison in control.

Seeing that the work was mostly done, Solace began to clean everything up. The remnants of burnt charcoal in the fume hood were swept up or washed away with a new rag soaked in water. The extra materials were put into bags for restorage.

“What next?” He asked the crafter.

“Enchanting,” she replied. “A few base runes on the blade.”

“What about the other parts of the knife? You said that enchanting needs to be done after all the parts’ spirits fuse.”

“For this work, the blade and handle need to have separate spirits for the desired enchantments. There’s a special laminate I will put between them to prevent spirit fusion despite being physically joined.”

“Alright, I understand. Is it physical or spiritual enchanting?”

“Spiritual.”

Solace nodded, moving to replace the current tools set out with her enchanting ones. It was essentially a stylus with interchangeable tips. The utensil was connected to an outlet, which was linked to the grid’s mana storage.

“Thank you, Solace,” Edison said as she grabbed a chair to sit. In her hands was now the cold blade of the soon to be knife.

“Of course,” he said, moving to leave the room before she started—as was normally the case with her enchanting sessions. “Call if you need anything.”

It only took seven steps before he heard Edison curse.

“JR’s beak! Solace, can you come back here, please?”

He stuck his head through the door. “What’s the problem?”

“The capacitor for the stylus is blown out.”

“What can I do?”

“Well, first, what’s your mana pool size right now?”

“100 units,” he lied. He could have more, but that was the standard for a person his Tier.

“Is it full?”

“Yes.”

“Good, come over here and take a seat.” She gestured to another of the foldable chairs leaning on a wall.

He did as he was told. He sat several feet from her and watched as she unscrewed the stylus into two pieces.

“Here.” She offered him the top half.

Solace looked at it dubiously. “Is this safe?”

“As long as you don’t touch that metal bit there.”

“Edison…”

“Kidding! Kidding! It’s mostly safe. A living spirit naturally resists changes like this. At the current mana… current, you’ll only experience a mild tingle if you touch the conductive bit.”

He took the stylus half. “What am I doing?”

“You’ll be my capacitor. Whenever there’s a sudden drop in mana fluctuation, just send a bit of your mana in. You know how to do that right?”

“Yes.” He had spent every once in a while messing with his mana. It was mostly pushing it out of his body at different places and concentrations.

“Excellent. So, you do that while I’m enchanting. Consider this training your mana control and detection for when you finally get a [Skill] of your own.”

“But what about me seeing the proprietary runes?”

“It’s fine,” she said with a wave. “This is just a one time thing. I’ll replace the stylus after this rush order is done.”

“If you say so.”

They began to enchant together. Solace closed his eyes to focus on the current of mana flowing through his part of the stylus into the wire connecting it to Edison’s piece.

“You know, it’s actually easier to see drops in current if you look at the stylus’ tip,” Edison advised.

“But then I’ll see the—”

“I said it was fine, right?”

“Alright.” He opened his eyes and watched her enchant.

The stylus was like a dimmer welding tool, making sparks when in contact with the knife’s metal. Except, no physical marks were being made. He accessed his spiritual senses to see that the lines were there instead. The dim light suddenly blinked and he immediately shoved a sliver of his mana through his fingers.

“Good!” Edison complimented. “Just like that.”

They spent the next while working through the rune. It was a complex thing. At some points, Edison would swap the tips of the stylus. It took Solace a while to understand that the rune was three dimensional, with the tips changing depth.

Forget learning the rune, I can’t even comprehend the geometry at my current Tier.

It made him question Edison's Tier for the umpteenth time. He had come to understand that people higher Tiered than him could, with some sort of technique, pretend to be a lower Tier than they actually were up to a certain extent. Examining her with his spiritual senses, he could currently perceive her as a Tier 5.

“Is there something on my face?” She asked, momentarily stopping enchanting to look him in the eyes. They were brown.

“No,” Solace replied.

“Then pay attention! This bit is crucial to the rune.”

“Yes ma’am.”

That made her chuckle for some reason, and then they resumed.

Eventually she moved onto the second rune, one which was on the actual length of the blade instead of the base.

“What are your plans for the future?” She asked at some point during the first layer of the rune’s inscription.

“Immediate plans, or long term?”

“Both. Either. Whatever you’re thinking about when getting through the day.”

“After this, I intend on going back to the housing complex and reading up on the mana side of cultivation.”

“So, studying as usual.”

“Yes.”

“And what about after? What is all of this adding up to? Surely you don’t intend to stay as an employee of mine forever.”

Solace stared at the sparking tip of the enchanting stylus, thinking. He contemplated telling her the truth or not and eventually shrugged his shoulders. “I’m looking for something, but don’t know where it is. So I’ll keep doing things that set me up for success as I search. Whatever that takes the shape of, I’ll do it.”

There was silence after that. Not awkward, more thoughtful. Then it was Solace who broke it.

“What about you?”

“Me? Ah, well, I’m here on this planet as part of a contract. I have to head a project for a rather big spender on this planet you see. After that, I’ll be trying to set up a solid commission based business.”

“You’re doing that already.”

“Yes, but not on the scale I want. Right now, I’m just running this shop to get my name out.”

“I see.”

They talked about other things after that, often inane things. And that was how the work went by.

But halfway through the second rune, there was a ringing from the phone which emanated from the room next door.

“I’ll get it,” Solace said.

“No, you stay here. I need to stretch my legs anyways,” Edison replied. With a sigh, she put everything down and stood up, exiting the workshop.

He put his end of the stylus down too, flexing and relaxing the muscles on his gripping hand to increase blood flow. Internally, he could sense that he had used roughly two thirds of his current mana pool.

I’ll have to tell Edison about my limits when she gets back.

Or, he could use his Talent to bolster his mana core in his spirit. A part of the boost would increase his regeneration. The issue with that, however, was that Edison might learn about his Talent if she was paying attention—which she probably was.

Before he could make a decision, however, Edison was back.

“Solace…” she said, a familiar tone of exasperation in her voice. “After answering the phone call, I checked my messages. Why are you delving rifts the way you are?”

He frowned. “What do you mean? Everything I’ve done is completely legal. I made sure.”

“I meant without proper gear!”

“Oh, that.”

“‘Oh, that.’” She parroted. “Can you explain to me how you work at an armory but delve rifts empty handed?”

“Rift,” he corrected. “Singular. I know how to do that specific one safely and so I do. Besides, gear costs money that I don’t have.”

“Then talk to me and we can discuss it! You have to realize at this point that I make profit off of commissions, not the low Tier gear on display. They’re loss leaders so I can get my name out there and more people through the door. I can’t have an employee of mine getting injured in a rift over something as silly as being undergeared.”

Solace honestly hadn’t thought about it that way. “Alright, I’m sorry. Can we discuss the pricing for a full set of mail, a medium steel shield, a shortsword, a full tang knife, and a glaive?”

Edison paused. “Wait, you’re agreeing with me just like that?”

“Yes? You’re right after all. So, what’s the pricing for—”

“Let’s… let’s talk about that after we finish enchanting the current knife, okay?” She said, visibly deflating as she calmed down. “That way we can also see how the gear currently fits you.”

“Alright.”

She sat back down and the stylus flickered back on. He picked back up his half. The remaining runes took another two hours.

—

Edison

“Thank you again, Edison.”

She waved her hand. “No problem at all. I’m doing it as much for you as for my business. Remember to take your mandatory break tomorrow.”

“I remember.”

“Good!”

She ushered him out of the shop. In his hands was a container of mushroom risotto which she had cooked for him as part of their contract.

“I hope you enjoy it,” she said with a smile.

“I will. Thank you.”

Edison watched as he left, walking down several blocks before turning a corner. The moment he was out of sight, her smile dropped.

“What am I going to do with you?” She murmured.

She walked back inside, past the gleaming racks of armor, weapons, and tools meticulously cleaned and arranged for optimal perusing. It was a work she could never have bothered with herself.

When she had first been tasked with offering a job to the incoming Sects civilians, she had only offered one spot, expecting whoever filled it to be like the ones she had met at a Corporations-Sects crafting competition. Those people were vain, quick to provocation, and nigh impossible to make them let go of grudges.

Instead, she had gotten Solace. Reserved beyond measure, a tireless worker, never raised his voice…

And so much harder to work with.

When he looked at something, anything, he looked through it. A ten thousand yard stare, as if the world around him wasn’t relevant or even real to him. It was something she had seen several times before on her home planet, in the eyes of the mercenaries so often exposed to the horrors of mortal combat. She hated it because it reminded her of the truth of the reality she lived in.

Of the eight governing Powers in the realm, the Corporations was the foremost in trade. But its main commodity wasn’t goods, it was manpower. Everything about the Corporations, from its society to the oft televised Chosen who served as role models, were designed to cultivate a population with as many human resources to exploit as possible as easily as possible. Planets were left at specific Tiers to optimize cultivation. Businesses combed planets for Talents or talent for combat, crafting, and other marketable capabilities. The Corporations was a war machine sold to the highest bidder while thinly veiled behind a veneer of free enterprise and genial facade.

She thought she had left the worst of it behind her when accepting the contract to create a prototype for a low strain teleporting device with her Talent on this tiny planet, but it had somehow followed her into the workshop.

So now, she tried her best to help Solace. When he had shown the slightest spark of interest in crafting, she made it as accessible as possible to him. To do otherwise was anathema. It meant accepting the cold pragmatism which left no room for the self beyond functionality and no regard for others beyond exchanges.

It would be a slow process, but she felt she was making progress. He’d be working with her for at least a year yet, so long as she prevented him from getting himself killed.

—

With his new gear, Solace decided it was time to try a Tier 2 rift.