Twenty new Hunters.

Forty-two more Haulers.

Enough weaponry and armour sets to outfit an army, and then some.

Ballistic was in a new era of unrelenting, unforgiving growth. For three weeks, Chase, Jenny and the office staff worked tirelessly to recruit enough capable and reliable people to fill their ranks. There were interviews to hold, assessments to attend and review, meetings to sit in on and licenses to apply for. Their in-house counsel, Marg, basically had to come out of retirement to work through the huge amount of work required of her and the two assistants Jenny hired.

Their expenses were ballooning, but so would their profits.

Once the truth of the Two City Break was reported in detail and the air was clear of accusations, Chase’s life became immeasurably easier. He still liked to participate in at least one Raid a day with the other four founding Hunters, but no longer did he have to hide his ‘Talent’. He and Marg negotiated a reasonably solid deal with the various Hunter-oriented government organisations that allowed him to use his guns at Raids. The only constraints were that in transit to each Raid, his weapons and magazines had to be unloaded and secured in keycode-locked boxes which only Chase could unlock and handle.

Having to load multiple forty-round magazines for the MP7 and seventeen-round magazines for the Beretta was a pain, but it was worth it to be on the right side of the law.

He was also permitted an extremely expensive license to acquire new weaponry.

That was the real win.

For starters, it meant that he could purchase the specially-made armour-piercing bullets that the MP7 used without having to sneak around The Market. This kept Herb busy, and allowed Chase to go all-out in Raids instead of shooting in three or four round bursts like he usually had to. He could spray down a mob of Noctants before they’d even taken a step.

Take that, Nebula.

As expected, his ‘opponent’ had gone radio silent after her aggressive declaration. He’d had a look through a few news sources to see if there were any large Gates being mysteriously demolished by a lone Hunter, but his search hadn’t borne fruit just yet. Whether she’d gotten bored of the mundane monsters in New Melbourne and the rest of Australia, or if she’d disappeared to do some training outside the confines of Dungeons, he didn’t know.

In the face of his own advancement, none of that mattered.

His first order of business once he and Jenny were done with their infinite admin tasks was to get some new armour. Even the few easy Raids they’d done since his hoodie was destroyed put him on edge. He was back to the days of being a glass cannon with nothing to protect him except for the capabilities of his two Tanks. It felt like he was tempting fate, which was an uncomfortable sensation.

Fortunately, Jenny was more than happy to allocate a significant portion of the Guild Treasury to his next purchase.

“Fifty thousand Credits,” she said, not even looking up from the papers she was signing. She’d adopted Chase’s office as her own, and the paperwork stacking up around the desk was astonishing. “Not an inch more. And if you come back with anything less than a brick wall protecting every part of your body, I’m going to kill you.”

She’d become extremely conscious of his position as the face of Ballistic recently, and protection was now the number one priority. It didn’t matter if the armour was too heavy for him to lift his limbs — if it stopped any monster from putting a scratch on him, then it was a done deal.

“Do we actually have that much to spend?” he asked. “Even after hiring all our new folks?”

“They didn’t get signing bonuses,” she replied. “They’re all here because they want to be like you, so don’t fuck it up and get yourself killed, all right?” She reached across the desk and jabbed a finger into his chest, emphasising her point. It made him feel like the prize pig at the show, though he was hoping to dodge the slaughterhouse.

“I’ll try to stay in one piece. I’ve something else for you to chew on, though. How, exactly, am I going to find a fifty-thousand-Credit suit of armour that fits my needs? It was enough of a chore last time — the guy only had like four or five options, and they were all kind of ugly, to be honest.”

“Ah!” She dropped her pen and wrangled a silver key from beneath a stack of reports. It opened a small compartment below the desk, and she rummaged around until she found a plain-looking, slightly tarnished medallion. “This’ll help.”

Chase reached across to take it. “Right…and what is this?”

She snatched it back, holding out her other palm in a ‘stop’ gesture. “This, is the key to the kingdom. I almost forgot about it, actually. Back at Majesty, the Hunters used to run into a similar issue: How do you get armour for your most elite Hunters that matches their specific needs?” She slid the medallion across the table, pointing at it. “That’s how.”

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He picked it up, turning it over to read the inscription on the back.

“Jester’s Lounge,” he read. “Do you take me for a fool?” He smiled at his joke. Jenny did not.

“Shut up and listen or I’ll knock your budget down to forty thousand. That medallion grants you access to an ultra-exclusive group of armour traders servicing only the most prestigious guilds in New Melbourne. Few of the big dogs set it up — they didn’t want the small fry snagging their high tier armours, even if they spent years saving up just to kit out one member. Bit mean and classist and what not, but with you there, you’ll probably bring the average net worth in the room down by a couple million.”

Now the medallion felt heavy in his hand. “How did you get this?”

Jenny grinned. “When I left Majesty, I figured they owed me some kind of…going away present. I bet Brad got in big trouble — he was supposed to keep it on his person all the time, but he basically sat around on his ass all day and made me do the work, so…”

“So you got what you were owed.”

“I did. I’ll send you the address.”

Chase got up to leave. It made him slightly apprehensive — whenever he walked down the stairs, he could feel the energy in the office change. It was like everyone suddenly became completely consumed by their work, and the chatter in the room ceased.

Being a boss is weird.

As his hand touched the oak handle, Jenny called him back.

“Hey, Chase?”

“What’s up?”

“I think you should take Kim along. And please, please buy yourself a nice suit.”

*******

For the first time in forever, the dimly lit, half-hidden staircase actually took Chase up, rather than down.

He liked the place already.

Jester’s Lounge was located down a series of alleys in Three City, just past a shopping strip dominated by an odd combination of bakeries, hardware stores and pubs. He supposed there was a joke to be made in there somewhere, or perhaps one hell of a day out. It took him and Kim a while to find it, but eventually they spotted a suspiciously well-dressed couple darting through the alleys, so they followed them.

“Lo and behold, Jester’s Lounge,” Chase said, walking up the stairs and pushing through a wide polished oak door.

They were both immediately struck by a plethora of sounds and smells. High voices jingled like slot machines as salespeople made their pitches to crowds of clients. There was tobacco smoke in the air, and gin or vodka mixed in there too. The carpet was cherry-red with a repeating clockface sort of pattern covering the room. It looked like it had been vacuumed and steam-cleaned only five minutes ago. Beautiful armour sets dominated the room in huge glass cases, the swirling signs of a magical security system evident on the glass. The whole room shouted opulence, though it wasn’t gaudy. Whoever had designed the place knew how to reel them in.

He almost walked right back out — his suit couldn’t possibly be expensive enough to stand up to scrutiny in this place.

“Time to put your money where your mouth is,” Kim said, grabbing him by the arm and pulling him into the room. She looked right at home, gliding through as though she owned the place. She wore a jet-black dress glittering with fake (though very convincing) diamonds dotted along her shoulders and down her sternum, where the material cinched together in a low-V that ended just above her belly-button. Only minutes ago, she’d commented how stupid of a design it was because she was utterly freezing, but now she seemed as comfortable in it as if it were her own skin. Already, Hunters and their partners or tag-alongs were drifting over to greet the newcomers.

And after they’d finished complementing the ‘flawless diamonds’ embedded in Kim’s dress, they turned to Chase.

Unfortunately, they recognised him.

“Mr Mendleton!” cried a large man he’d never met before. “I was not aware Ballistic had been offered a Jester’s Medallion. Please, tour with me! Let me grab you a champagne, shall I?”

“Oh, uh…”

“Sure,” Kim answered for him. “We’d love to. Forgive me, but your name is?”

The man beamed, taking Kim’s hand and kissing it.

“Raymond Everington, at your service. You may have seen me in the papers.” He chuckled, and his whole body shook. “My guild, Titans, gets up to a bit of mischief every now and then. Good fun, of course. Good fun.”

Chase struggled to stay upright when Raymond namedropped his guild. Titans was one of the most revered guilds in Australia, and their Leader was rumoured to be quite the monster. He’d taken the guild from a pack of travelling subcontractors to the monolith it was today, remaining at the helm the entire time. He was a top-performing S-Rank when Chase was still knee-high to a grasshopper.

“Mr Everington, I…” He paused, taking a breath to get a hold of himself. This place was where the best of the best gathered. It was where he needed to be if he was going to come anywhere near the heights that Nebula would leap to. Sure, he hadn’t been invited, but he belonged here.

“I’d greatly appreciate a tour of the lounge,” he said. “Though only one glass of champagne, mind you. I’m here to buy, and I need my head on straight if I’m going to do so.”

Raymond’s face split into a grin. “By golly, you’re as determined as they said you are! Not a moment to lose in your world, huh? Just like myself when I was younger, yes.” He paused, staring at Chase. “Anyway, keep your eyes peeled and follow me!”

Kim looped her arm through Chase’s. Raymond’s wide body parted the crowd ahead of them, leaving the two to wander through the lobby unopposed. The closest bar was on the far side of the room, bordered by pillars of marble and gold, but Raymond was guiding them into a different room.

A place of wonder.

Like the first armoury Chase had visited, this place had reams of armour sets zipping through the room on conveyor belts, displaying the sheer volume of inventory as if it were nothing. However, the shimmering armour sets in this room made the ones from his first visit to Palais de la Panoplie look like moth-bitten rags.

“She’s a beauty, eh?” Raymond jibed. “They say the boss in a twenty-five-metre Gate has a one in ten chance of hiding an armour great enough to go in here. Just think how many Raids it took to fill those conveyors. How many lives.” His eyes flashed as if he were jealous of those who had sacrificed themselves in the hunt for these artifacts. Their valour and glory was stored in this room, being auctioned off or purchased by those who may well follow their footsteps some day.

It was beautiful, but strangely sad.

“I’m just here so that I don’t make the same mistake,” Chase said. “Are there private rooms or something like that? I’d like to have a look around as soon as possible, if you don’t mind.”

Raymond raised his hand and snapped his finger, and three attendants immediately swarmed through the crowd to him. As they approached, he winked at Chase.

“My boy, Jester’s Lounge does not do private rooms. Here, they do private paradise.”