When Desmond opened his eyes, he found himself lying face down on the couch. As he got up, Desmond could see light coming through the side windows. It looked like he had spent more than a few hours in the Soul Realm. Time was always difficult for him to judge there.

Desmond got up and went outside to his small backyard. It was a brisk morning with a clear sky. The winter chill was finally starting to settle in, not that it mattered to Desmond. With his Constitution the cold meant little. There were, however, dark clouds on the horizon. It looked like it was going to rain today.

Desmond took off his shoes and felt the cool earth beneath his feet. Maybe it was because of his earth affinity but he always found walking barefoot comforting.

Desmond moved his mana and reached inwards. The spell for [Living Armor] came to him like he had been born with it.

The earth around Desmond slowly rose, creeping up his body with a yellowish glow to it. Soon Desmond found himself entombed in a pillar of yellow glowing earth. After a moment, Desmond felt the spell complete and the earth seemed to harden in around him.

Desmond took a firm step forward, breaking himself out of the pillar of earth as it collapsed around him.

Desmond gave his body a quick pat down, trying to get off the earth and dirt that was still clumped to him. Desmond found his vision was largely obscured, so he reached up and took off his new helmet, then placed it in his storage ring.

Desmond loved plate armor, but mostly for its aesthetics. He found that because of his high Constitution, his natural defense was better than most over-the-counter armor he could buy. He could of course get enchanted armor, but then he would run into the issue of not being able to support it with mana due to the [Giant’s Blood] effect.

Desmond took a look at the new set of armor he had on. He was covered from shoulders to feet in a nice silver plate armor that had gold detailing. It looked very similar to the armor Lucel’s guard had on.

It wasn’t bulky like most full-plate armor, but had a more form-fitting style that didn’t limit his mobility as much. It looked fucking awesome, and Desmond was very satisfied with his new aesthetics. Now he just needed a weapon.

The guy he got this legacy orb from had a similarly designed silver and gold sword. Was that something he could summon as well?

Desmond focused again as he tried to cast [Living Armor] once more, this time focusing on a sword. Sure enough, the earth rose up in front of him until there was a small pillar there that stood about as tall as his chest.

Desmond felt the spell complete as the yellow glow faded from the earthen pillar. He could feel the sword inside as it was made with his own mana. He reached out and grabbed the earth where the handle should be and squeezed. The earth gave way easy enough and soon he felt the handle of the blade in his hand. With a strong yank, he pulled the sword free of the earthen pillar.

In his hands was now a wide silver great sword with a familiar gold detailing on the hilt and blade. It was perfect! Now he just had to know if it would hold up under his strength. Even if it didn’t, he could just summon a new one when this one broke. Wait, why did he still have mana to summon another one?

Desmond could tell he still had about half his mana pool. He didn’t know how much mana it was supposed to take to summon this armor, but this was the wrong amount! Desmond had been expecting to need to summon this armor in sections.

It was almost like [Living Armor] wasn’t affected by the negative mana efficiency that came with [Giant’s Blood]. Did the [Giant’s Blood] negative effect not apply to spells learned through legacies? He didn’t have enough information to confirm this yet, but this opened up new possibilities.

Desmond felt himself smile. He could finally use real magic, even if there were some limits to it. It looked like he would need to go legacy hunting in the future.

[Living Armor] only used about an eighth of his natural mana regeneration to keep summoned, so there was no reason for him to worry about needing to un-summon and then re-summon it.

Summon skills usually had a high upfront mana cost to cast, then a low upkeep mana cost. At least until you started to actively use the summon that is.

Desmond pulled off one of the gauntlets and put the affinity ring back on. Now all three of the yellow gems lit up when he moved his mana through it. This meant he now had a high affinity for earth.

Did the +1 raise his affinity by a whole level? That didn’t seem right as the difference between mid and high was larger than the difference between low and mid. This difference would grow exponentially as affinity levels got higher. If the +1 always gave a whole level then it would get terrifyingly strong very quickly. But he would need more orbs and a better affinity ring to truly test this.

Desmond walked back into the house just in time to see Riki come down the stairs. He could immediately tell from her expression and the bags under her eyes that she was in a terrible mood.

“Where did the armor come from?” Riki asked curtly.

“I’m finally starting to see some results from my soul experiments,” Desmond replied. “It’s a summon armor skill I got off one of Lucel’s guards.” Desmond wanted to go into a whole discussion about it but felt Riki would not be receptive to such a long-winded response at this time.

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“Cool, what are your plans for today?” Riki stated in a bland tone.

Really? He could now summon armor out of mana and it just gets a bland cool?

“I have to go to a meeting with Garrick around noon at the Lodge,” Desmond said. “After that, I want to pick up a few things for the house. What about you?”

“I’m going back to bed,” Riki continued in an irate tone. “Because of someone, I wasn’t able to get much sleep.” Riki walked up to the fridge and pulled out what looked like a piece of jerky before she took a bite.

Wait, what did he do to keep her awake? Desmond was sure his soul experiments had been quiet.

Hold on a second, is that a fridge? How does that even work? Does it use some type of ice affinity beast core?

It looked like one of those chest freezers and was in the kitchen area of the house. Desmond very was tempted to take it apart for research purposes.

“What time will your meeting be over?” Riki asked.

“Oh, it should only take a few hours,” Desmond replied. “hopefully.”

“Alright, I will meet up with you after,” Riki said in a slightly better mood now. “I need to pick up a few things as well.” Riki made her way back up the stairs.

“I’ll see you later then,” Desmond replied as Riki disappeared up the stairs. Whether it was his past life or his current life, Desmond just didn’t understand women. Hopefully, she will be in a better mood when they go shopping. Desmond left the house intent on taking the scenic route to the Lodge.

***

Desmond approached the Lodge’s main headquarters in the Empire. It was a sprawling complex of residential, administrative, and training facilities. The whole compound was collectively called The Garden by hunters. This was because The Garden was the place where almost all hunters took their first steps on the path to power. Desmond himself was trained here before he started hunting out in the Expanse.

Desmond’s target today was a large logistics building where he assumed the meeting was taking place. The whole compound was currently packed full of hunters so trying to find a staff member to talk to for confirmation was futile.

Desmond was currently looking at the long line outside the main administrative building. Actually, calling it a line was too kind, it looked more like an angry mob than anything else. Desmond was happy he didn’t have to deal with that. He quickly followed the main thoroughfare deeper into The Garden.

The pathway was meticulously well maintained, with beautiful flowers and trees to each side. It really lived up to its name and would have been tranquil if not for the shoulder-to-shoulder traffic. Desmond rounded a corner to see the source of all this chaos.

In the middle of the mustering yard, there were thousands of tents set up, with hunters traveling to and fro. By Desmond's best estimate, there were just under ten thousand hunters camping out there, and this was just the overflow that the city couldn’t accommodate.

It was surreal seeing so many hunters packed together like this.

The Lodge had better act soon or they were going to have a problem on their hands here. The higher-tiered hunter would have found accommodations within the city, but even these lower-tiered hunters would start to cause problems if you kept them in these conditions for long.

Desmond turned off the main road. As he traveled further into The Garden things quieted down. Soon he was standing in front of a massive four-storied structure that looked like an old university building. It was made of red brick and had numerous glass windows. It was in the general shape of a ‘U’ and there was even a clock tower at the center of it. This was the place he was looking for.

As he approached the building, Desmond heard a commotion at the door. With everything that was happening, it looked like the Lodge had increased security. There was currently an old man arguing with a guard at one of the side doors.

“What do you mean you are not going to let me in,” said the old man in an irate voice. “Do you even know who I am?”

“I don’t care who you are,” replied the guard in an equally angry tone. “As I’ve told you, without a hunter’s plate you are not getting through this door!”

“I want you to call over your superiors,” the old man continued. “They’ll be able to recognize me! Then you can finally learn what an idiot you are!”

“Sir, if you are not going to leave,” the guard said in a firm voice. “Then I’m going to have to escort you out of The Garden.”

As Desmond neared the two he was able to recognize the old man. It was Garrick!

Desmond almost broke out in laughter right then. An apocalypse class hunter being held up by a dark guard. There was just something funny about it. As a dark, the man was functionally more of a clerical staff than a guard. He was probably only put out here to stop the hunters from the mustering yard from just wandering into the building.

“I told you, I’m here for the meeting,” Garrick yelled. “Are you going to take responsibility if I’m late?”

“Without your hunter’s plate, I will need some other form of identification before I can let you in,” the guard replied sounding exhausted.

At this point, Desmond walked up to the two and flashed his purple hunter’s plate to the guard.

“I’m here for the meeting,” Desmond said to the guard.

“Dez? Finally, someone with some sense shows up,” Garrick said. “Can you tell this guard to fuck off already!”

Desmond looked at Garrick, then looked at the guard. “Is this old man bothering you?”

The guard sighed. “It’s nothing for you to worry about sir. Please go inside, I’ll deal with this.”

“What, b-but, wait,” Garrick mumbled as he was unable to come up with the proper words to express himself.

At this point Desmond couldn’t contain it anymore as he broke out into a loud laugh, startling the poor guard. “Sorry about that. The old man's with me. I’ll take the responsibility for letting him in. Come on now Garrick.”

Desmond walked past the guard into the building, leaving both the guard and Garrick stunned behind him. Garrick was the first to come to, as he quickly followed Desmond into the building. Desmond couldn’t see anything but somehow knew Garrick was giving the guard the middle finger as he passed by.

“You know you shouldn’t pick on the guards like that,” Desmond joked.

“What do you mean? That bastard wasn’t letting me in,” Garrick replied still sounding irate.

“You could have just gone around him,” Desmond said.

“It’s the principle of it,” Garrick stated. “If I go around him then it’s like admitting that I’m not supposed to be here.”

“So you choose to argue with him?” Desmond asked rhetorically. “I’m going to be honest. In the Lodge, most darks are just trying to get through their day without being fired by their boss.”

“I am his boss,” Garrick yelled back.

“Then fire him,” Desmond replied.

“Ahhh, that would be a hassle,” Garrick said in a much calmer voice. “It would end up passing by Richard's desk. Then he would come and ask me questions, and it’s just not worth it in the end.”

“Then forget about it,” Desmond said as they approached a large set of double doors at the end of a hallway. “Why don’t you have you're hunter’s plate on you?”

“Some of us don’t like being continuously tracked by the Lodge,” replied Garrick as they both stopped outside the large doors. They could hear arguing going on inside and then there was a smash. It sounded like a plate broke against the other side of the door.

“Do you know what to expect?” Garrick asked in a solemn tone.

“Nope,” Desmond replied as he looked over at Garrick.

“Good luck,” Garrick said as he placed his hand to open the door.

“Wait, isn't this where you give me some advice?” Desmond asked.

Garrick looked back at him with a large grin.

“You ass,” Desmond said as Garrick opened the door.