Desmond was sitting in his dining room finishing up a nice breakfast. Riki was absent, she had left early in the morning to gather intel about the facilities that were going to be used for the 215th Founding Day Festival. This left Desmond with the task of getting them both on the invite list. So he would have to pay a visit to Garrick today. He also wanted to find someone to help take care of his house.
Now finished with his meal, Desmond stood up and grabbed his empty plate. Then there was a cracking sound, and when Desmond looked down at the source, he found that he had broken the ceramic plate in his hand. It would seem that the Strength orb was finally taking effect.
Desmond had found an epic flat Strength legacy in his storage ring. He didn’t remember where it had come from, but he wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He had consumed that orb about an hour ago when he woke up. If he remembered right the orb was:
[Immense Strength](Epic): +178 Strength.
This orb was almost twice the Strength as the one Desmond had removed to add [True Sight], and he could feel it. If he had to make a rough guess he would say his Strength had improved by almost 30 percent. But there was no need to guess now, it was time to finally put numbers to this soul stuff.
Desmond cleaned up the broken plate and then sat down on the couch in the living room. He pulled out a small piece of paper that had his notes and checked it. The diameter of his innermost orb which represented his Strength was 13.72 meters. It was by far the biggest of the layers and it should be even larger now.
Desmond laid down on the couch and closed his eyes.
***
Desmond opened his eyes and stood up on his soul glass. He carefully inspected the surrounding space, looking for any abnormality, but found none. He now had 3 floating purple orbs to go along with his gold and red ones, and they were once again giving him that familiar full sensation.
Desmond quickly looked at his sun and started to play with [True Sight] until he could get the new diameter of his inner strength layer. The new diameter was 14.84 meters. It had increased by more than a meter. But Desmond would need a pen and paper to do the math this time, so he quickly noted the new diameters for each layer and then laid back down on his soul glass.
***
Desmond sat up on the couch and pulled out his pen and a fresh piece of parchment. A little math told him that the new orb had 354 meters cubed more volume. So 178 stats were equal to 354 meters cubed then?
No, that wasn’t right. Desmond had to take into account [Giant’s Blood]. As long as [Giant’s Blood] followed the same rules as the other legacies, then it should be a four times multiplier to strength. So then 354 meters cubed of volume would equal 712 stat points, or in other words, 1 stat is equal to 0.5 meters cubed of volume.
Now this was under the assumption that the stats provided by legacies would go through the [Giant’s Blood] multiplier. But this seemed like a safe assumption given the strength increase Desmond was feeling, and if he was wrong he would just redo the math. From here the rest of the math was easy, and in a few minutes Desmond had a working stat page filled out for himself:
Strength – 3420 (base: 677+178)
Constitution – 2164 (base: 541)
Dexterity – 415
Intellect – 283
Wisdom – 476
This seemed to work well, other than Desmond’s Intellect being a little low, but he could live with that. Maybe he needed to go back to studying a little more. It had been a long time since he last went through the library. But on the bright side, he now finally had a stat page! With this, he could finally keep track of his progress.
Unfortunately, this came just as his banked experience was almost gone. Desmond would have to go out hunting again if he wanted to experiment more, but that could wait for another day.
In the end, the new Strength orb had increased his total strength by 26.3 percent. This confirmed Desmond's hypothesis that Legacies were the fastest way to see improvement. It was such a large jump that Desmond was going to have to spend some time getting used to his new Strength again.
Desmond placed his new stat page into his storage ring and stood up. He grimaced slightly as he got to his feet. The wound across his stomach had closed but was still a ways from fully healing. It looked like there was no hunting in his near future. Not that there was any game near the city that was worth his time. There is a reason hunters lived out in Lodge facilities deep within the expanse.
Desmond moved over and put on his summoned armor. It was time to pay Garrick a visit.
***
Ash slowly circled the market square once again. The place was finally starting to get crowded, which would work in his favor. His mark was a small bakery stand selling fresh baked goods. From what he had noted it sold mostly fresh bread to the servants of nearby manors.
Ash had noted that this market was almost exclusively used by the servants of the nearby estates. This would hopefully mean that there were no awakened nearby to get in the way. It was dangerous operating in this part of town, but in the poorer areas, the shopkeepers would never just leave products out on a table like this. It was a calculated risk.
Ash felt his stomach grumble again, a reminder that he had to act soon. He needed to bring back food or, he didn’t want to think about or.
Ash focused on his mark as he moved through the crowd. The stall owner was currently bartering with a well-to-do-looking butler. This would be his best chance to act.
He slipped through the crowd, mostly staying with the flow of people and using his short stature to avoid scrutiny. If anyone got a good look at his dilapidated clothes then it would be clear that he didn’t belong here and draw unwanted attention.
As Ash neared the stall he felt his heart start to pound in his chest. He didn’t like stealing, but he was getting good at it. He stepped out of the flow of people and quickly and calmly took two loaves of bread and put them under his arm before stepping back into the crowd. It was perfectly executed!
Ash didn’t want to look at the stall owner during the act, but from the fact that the conversation didn’t stop it would seem he the owner was none the wiser to his loss.
“Hey, put that back.” Came a firm voice from behind Ash.
The voice was feminine and clearly didn’t belong to the stall owner. But Ash wasn’t going to stand around and find out who it did belong to. He put his head down and started dashing through the crowd.
“Wait, that kid stole my bread!” Came another voice, this one likely the stall owner. “Someone grab him!”
The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.
Ash pushed through the crowd of people. From experience, no one should be able to follow him through a mob of this scale. His aim was a familiar alleyway on the far side of the market. His heart was pounding in his chest as he pushed through the mass of people and into the safety of the alley.
Suddenly, Ash felt a hand firmly grab his shoulder. To his horror when he looked back he could see the familiar armor of the city guards. Ash could tell from the silver design on the chest plate that this was an awakened guard at that.
Why did they have an awakened watching over this place? Shouldn’t they have something more important to do? Running into this exact situation was the biggest risk of operating in the wealthy districts.
“Hold up, Fredrick.” Came another voice as a second guard moved out of the crowd. “Did you get that gutter rat?”
“Yeah,” Fredrick replied as the second guard came to stop beside him.
“Damn, you awakened are really something.”
“I can’t believe they have me out here chasing down petty crimes,” Fredrick said with some anger seeping into his voice. “What are we even supposed to do with this, drag it back to the precinct?”
“Ah, if we took back every gutter rat we found then we would have no cells left for the real criminals,” replied the second guard. “No, just take what they stole then rough them up a bit, so they know not to come back.”
Ash’s heart sank. Could he even survive being roughed up by an awakened? At least it was better than being taken to prison.
***
Desmond entered the very grandiose building. The main lobby was decorated in a gold and silver theme with expensive paintings and vases scattered around the room. It was a very ostentatious display of wealth that only served to make Desmond uncomfortable. There were very few people in the large lobby and all looked to be employees going about their business. Soon Desmond was approached by a beautiful woman in a small black maid outfit.
“Excuse me, sir,” said the maid in a soft voice. “What can I help you with today?”
“I’m looking to purchase,” Desmond stated.
“Of course,” the maid replied. “Right this way.”
Desmond had just finished his talk with Garrick, and like he had expected the man was all too willing to get their names added to the invite list. It was clear Garrick was planning to send them instead of going himself, but that worked to both side's advantage.
“Just through here sir,” said the maid who was leading him down a hallway. “Please take a seat in this room and someone will be with you shortly.”
“Thanks.”
Desmond walked into the room and took a seat. Somehow this room looked even more gaudy than the lobby, and Desmond was starting to second guess if it was a good idea to come here. He could just hire a servant from one of those large companies, but that came with its own host of problems. Notably, spies! Desmond now found himself with a secret that he really wanted to keep hidden. So he had to properly vet the people he would be working closely with.
A man entered through the door on the other side of the room and made his way over to Desmond. The man had on an expensive suit with gold trim, and a pair of silver-rimmed glasses to
go with his salt and pepper hair. He looked to be around 50 but was still in good shape for his age.
“Welcome, the name's Henry. You're Desmond, right? I’m honored to have such a renowned hunter in my shop. I will assist you in any way I can. So, what kind of slave can I help you find today?”
The Empire worked mostly on a serf-based system and being a free citizen was generally considered a city folk thing. However, slavery was legal and prominent in some industries. Desmond didn’t consider serfdom to be much better than slavery, but it was notably better.
Unfortunately, the best way Desmond knew to ensure that a stranger wouldn’t tell anyone about his secrets was if that stranger was his slave.
There was no magic that forced a slave to follow orders in this world. The only real indication that someone was a slave was a chain tattoo on the back of their hands that could be removed by a skilled healer. But with a slave Desmond could ensure that no one would have influence over them. Slaves also tended to be extremely grateful when you freed them. Which, as long as they proved trustworthy, was part of the plan.
“I’m looking for a rucksack and a maid,” Desmond replied.
A rucksack was an individual used by hunter parties to carry their stuff when they were traveling through the Expanse. They were not always a slave, but it was a common practice.
“And I’m guessing you would like the rucksack to be an awakened, correct?” Henry asked.
“I want both of them to be awakened,” Desmond stated.
“Hmmm, a few good candidates do come to mind,” Henry stated as he looked deep in thought. “Can you give me any more specifics?”
“Not particularity,” Desmond replied. “I did want to look through them myself.” Desmond wanted to find someone with a good legacy. Almost always a strong legacy would lead to a strong hunter. He was looking for someone worth investing in.
Awakened slaves were significantly more expensive than dark slaves. This led to an awakened hunter industry of sorts showing up. When an individual first awakens they are not particularly stronger than your average dark, but they are suddenly worth a lot more. Strength only comes after they start getting experience or learning magic. It was technically illegal in the Empire to force someone into slavery, but that was enforced with mixed results.
“Of course,” Henry said. “But first, please let me show you some of our superior merchandise.”
This was no doubt some merchant tactic to upsell him and Desmond was absolutely intent not to fall for it. But as long as he got to look through the slaves he would let Henry play his games.
“Fine,” Desmond stated adding a little firmness to his voice. “But I don’t have all day.”
“Naturally, I’m a professional,” Henry said. “I have a good eye for these things, and I guarantee you will be impressed. Just wait here a moment and I will be right back.” Henry then got up and left the room through the same door he entered.
The man was laying it on pretty thick but Desmond didn’t doubt his words. Henry was definitely a skilled merchant to own a shop like this in a wealthy district. He probably also dealt with illegal slaves, but it was unlikely he would show them to someone he just met.
In less than two minutes the door on the far side of the room opened again and in walked a beautiful woman in a black maid outfit carrying a tray of drinks. Desmond was momentarily stunned, it would seem Henry really did know his business well.