Eight days later.

It was relentless. Hunger was screaming, crying and whining about all the delicacies around him. Corn ran out before he broke the oath.

He seen the first two books in a store before. Just endless words, one after the other, all listing out pointless classifications. Useful, but it did nothing for wielding Magic. Maybe the fairy planned that.

In contrast, the last two books were priceless. They listed out hundreds of basic spell circles and even explained the meaning of the runes, what effects they had and how to imbue spell circles into wands. There wasn’t enough time to sufficiently memorise all of it, so in his desperation he scratched some of the runes into his skin, so as to not forget.

The bliss of learning Magic helped to last eight days without mana.

When he swam up to the gang’s office, no one was there. Silence reigned. He headed to the vault for a snack and found it shut.

Frustrated, he bit the metal door handle. He bit it down until his jaws hurt.

Enough! He was being stupid. He forcefully tuned out the Hunger and began to think.

The books had casually introduced five different types of mana. Unlike most mages, Corn ate mana and to him it was invaluable.

The first was basic mana. Whenever he pushed water mana from his nodes or froze the water mana to ice mana he was using basic mana. Because most of its mana leaked out quickly, by itself it was not satisfying. Inside the vault he had drunk lots of water mana and although his mana reserves replenished with time, he could feel his body get weaker.

The fourth was Devices where the mana was combined with other Stats. Mauled swords and armour were Devices: they combined mana with core. Unless he found a way to separate the two, there was no way he could eat them.

The fifth was mana stones that could generate their own mana. They worked as mana batteries for wands, staffs and all the other instruments that Corn was previously convinced that he needed to use the Stat.

Currently he was concerned about the third kind of mana: spell circled mana. Using runes, spell circles could make mana do different things.

Obviously he was well aware of spell circles. But he’d never assumed they could be objects. According to the texts anything mana made that leaked negligible amounts of mana were all spell circles. Just in a different form.

So the vault door that tasted wonderfully umami but could not be seen in second vision had to be a spell circle. He switched to third vision where he could see threads of mana and began to follow the path of each thread.

He had to be careful, eight days without food had weakened his body. If he over exerted, he might go blind.

The threads that made the door handle did circle on and on. Indeed, the threads were looping helixes. Technically that made them circular, like spell circles. If he guessed right, all he had to do was to break one of the spell helixes and then he could eat it.

Corn opened his mouth and used his front teeth to only nibble one thread. It broke. He pulled one end of the thread and slurped it up like a noodle. After swallowing the thread, he broke the next thread and swallowed it whole. He continued to feast on the door, stopping in between to allow for digestion.

Ahhh! The feeling of contentment was like no other.

Hmmm, did his mana reserves grow again? One of these days, he had to find a proper measuring device.

The second type was circled mana. Because the mana was bound by a circle, it did not escape as quickly as the first type and could last longer. But it did not have any runes and did not last as long as the spell circled mana. The book had mentioned contemptuously that they were useless.

Corn had a sneaking suspicious that most mana made substances he had eaten were the second kind. But since the book did not mention how to form them, it was no use.

To prevent himself from dozing off, he materialized an ice hook from the node in his left hand and studied it. As usual the threads inside were coiled haphazardly, but not one thread looped on itself. He summoned ice mana thin enough to only produce one thread. He kept manipulating it until one end touched the other. The thread fused and a circle of ice mana floated in front of him.

A spell circle!

It was months since he had obsessed over the spell circles that he had seen the Border Reserves mage cast. Finally! Finally he had could cast one too. The circle floated, fixed in space, just as the books had said it would. Spell circles lasted far longer than ordinary mana.

Someone shouted.

Corn stiffened. What was he doing? The entire gang quarters were empty, something was obviously going on. With his Hunger sated and his experimentation interrupted, he crossed the metal walkways and headed inside the corridors. Some of the corridors headed to the main sewage line but they’d need the Green System.

He walked to the nearest entrance to the sewage. The Screen was cracked, the doors broken and three guards stood in front of the door.

Someone somersaulted nimbly all around them, evading the flying projectiles and barriers that attempted to trap them. Wait, was that Alt?

Corn sneaked closer to the Guards and silently drew a spell circle. The runes looped in a way to ensure the mana thread was not broken. As he completed the inner circle he felt a weak connection form between his mana node and the spell circle. Using the connection, he pushed more than half of his mana reserves into the spell.

The instant he broke the connection, the spell circle exploded into shards of ice. The shockwave killed one of the Guards. The other two were pushed into the ground. The hobgoblin stabbed one in the neck and somersaulted in the air, using the momentum to sink his dagger into the other one’s neck.

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Alt looted all the three incomplete Life counters that lay on the ground.

“Leave me the two smaller ones,” shouted Corn.

“Shit, it’s you. You were still here? I thought you had left.” Alt stepped back.

“What do you mean? I never did see you two after you collected the lamp.”

“No shit. Remember the Freedom counters they retrieved from WarCode’s mansion. They’re missing.”

“What…how?”

“No clue. But in retaliation, the Guard took our base. I just came to collect supplies,” said Alt.

“Then let me help you.”

----------------------------------------

Two days later.

Care, Alt and Corn arrived at the balloon shaped glass building. The same building where Line sold the old man and more importantly where BlueEyes contacted the Enforcers. The Ministry of Slavery. They had come here to trace Wall’s location.

They headed to the entrance before Corn stopped, “I’m not coming.”

“Why not? We discussed this: the closer I am to BlueEyes, the easier it will be to track him,” the soul eater tilted her head.

How was Corn going to explain that he was cut off from the System without saying those exact words?

“That’s just it, I can’t take the chance that BlueEyes might backtrack me instead.”

She sighed, “I need both of you. If you can’t come in, let’s look at the perimeter of the building.”

Nearby, they found a park full of idle families. The rent around most Ministries wasn’t attractive enough for nobility and not affordable to people like Corn, who preferred to bunk at the gang base anyway.

Care lay on the thick grass. “If anyone does attack me, just use your Stats to poke my skin. I’ll wake up in 30 seconds,” she said and closed her eyes.

Using third vision, Corn could see the flow of Intelligence on Care’s body. A spirit popped above her head. The spirit stretched as though being sucked into a vortex and disappeared (most likely into the Abyss). He memorized the type of energy, it wasn’t everyday he got to see someone using Intelligence.

“Wouldn’t an alleyway be easier to defend?” he asked Alt.

“Nah. The terrain might be narrower there but we’d stand out among dem hobos and would be attacked. Over here, we’re hiding in plain sight,” replied Alt.

Alt was probably right. Both Care and Corn were wearing glasses, while Alt was wearing a religious mask to hide that he was a hobgoblin. Alt was lying down and popping in core crystals like peanuts. The three of them did look like they were picnicking and not like three crazies hunting someone to retrieve a ghost.

Now that the Guard had tracked down their base and expropriated it, gang business was all the more important. If it wasn’t for the oath, Care and Alt wouldn’t be here.

“Other than a place were dead souls go to, what is the Abyss?”

Corn saw Alt sneer through the mask, “You wouldn’t happen to have another dagger on you, right?”

When Corn shook his head, Alt smirked and said, “Then I don’t know.”

Corn sighed, looking at the families and envying their bliss. Did they not care about furthering their Stats or could they rest easy knowing that they would get the required knowledge from their betters?

They waited for two hours, chasing away a stray dog and two nosy kids.

Finally Corn saw a spirit enter Care’s body and she jerked her head up. “I tracked your ghost and her owner. They’re in Iridi.”

“Great, that’s where nobility live. Where in Iridi?” whispered Alt.

“Can’t tell, I’ll need to get closer.”

So the three of them took the sedan to Iridi. The streets were filled with carriages drawn by Beasts, riders on Beasts and other ridiculous looking rides that Corn was sure were equally expensive. Their sedan stuck out like a sore thumb and attracted a large number of guards enquiring their purpose.

Each time Alt rolled down the windows, Corn would hold his pretend wand and summon a few blades of ice to play with. The guard would meekly apologize and move out of their way. Care lay in the back and shuttled back and forth from the Abyss, guiding them to BlueEyes.

Until they reached a stupendously large block of concrete.

“Fuck,” they all swore simultaneously.

It was Voxy.

It was one of the most famous joints in Iridicrodium. The same place that WarCode was arrested. It would be easier for them to ascend a rank than enter Voxy.

So Alt parked as close as he could without getting them all killed and they waited. Corn let his mana vision wander around Voxy, Care wandered the Abyss and Alt wandered porn sites on his mini screen.

“They’re out, let’s go,” she said and jumped up and gave the next location to Alt.

“Where, where? I didn’t see them,” said Corn and munched into the salty ice blade on his hand.

“Do you see any windows and doors? All the entrances are through teleportation gates.”

“And you just found one, Care. You know how much money we can make for selling this info?” smirked Alt, flashing his teeth at them.

“That was hard enough, thank you. The entirety of Voxy was warded so tight even through the Abyss. You guys remember the plan? Ghosts are made up of three parts: the soul, the mind and the heart.”

“Intelligence, Wisdom and Charisma,” intoned Corn.

“Exactly, though most ghosts are sustained by emotional impulses, I’m guessing your friend has a strong mind and soul. The moment this slaver of yours dies, the ghost can’t be commanded by the slaver and that’s when we nab her.”

He was reticent when swearing the oath, but he had to share the relevant information to get Wall back. Of course, despite Alt’s insistent prodding, he refused to tell them what life as a Base Slave was like.

“And if there are any standing orders?” he asked.

“No worries, I’ll disrupt her soul.”

They reached an eighty storey skyscraper. There were no Eyes in the vicinity so the three went to the back entrance.

Corn went first. Using his third vision, he spotted three cameras and shot an ice spike at each one. Care went next. She hacked the screen next to the door and within ten seconds, the door swung open.

Both Corn and Alt headed up the stairs while Care took the lift.

When they reached the fortieth floor, Corn leant on the door and scanned the building.

“Come on, come on.” He couldn’t find her. He opened the door to the staircase, broke all the cameras and went through the hallways.

There, he found her!

She was in the room with a large glowing circle. A teleportation gate. Next to her stood a tall, lean man. BlueEyes.

He hurried back to the staircase, “Found her.”

“Alright, go ahead,” said Alt to his mini Screen.

All over the fortieth floor fire alarms began to blare. “I hate that sound,” swore Alt.

The residents of the fortieth floor rushed to the lifts. They had planned to block the staircase but not one of the residents even gave it a second look.

Alt peered through the glass panels, “Which one is it? Fat fuck, pointy ears, titty chick.”

“The tall lean guy, with blue eyes, next to titty chick.”

“Ok, block the fifth lift.”

One by one the residents filled the lifts and left the floor. All except the fifth lift which was stuck on the floor. As Corn and Alt headed to the lift, Corn could see ambient mana from a wand. “Oh shit, there’s a mage inside.”

“Who is it?”

“It’s titty chick.”

“Alright go titty chick.”

They went back to the staircase and headed up the stairs to prepare for a potential ambush. Alt gave the order and the lift’s doors pinged open. Seeing all the lifts empty, the people ambled to the stairs.

“Wait, where’s…”

“She’s with BlueEyes, along with fat fuck.”

“Awwwhh, not titty chick. You’re breaking my heart.”

They headed down. Their targets were at the doorway to the portal apartment. The two of them waited in silence as Corn pointed out their positions to Alt. When they were done Alt messaged Care and the entire floor went dark.

Alt ran with Speed, one second he was next to Corn, the next second his dagger was cutting through the mage’s neck. None of them were armoured in the slightest and were pretty stoned. They paid for that. Corn rained ice daggers at them, giving Alt the cover to head back.

Corn could see some weird energy flow through BlueEyes. He used that energy to stop the mage bleeding out.

“The mage isn’t dead, Blue…” but Corn was cut off as a stream of flames bathed the hallway.

A spell circle formed right in front of Corn. It was too fast. Alt darted to the ceiling but Corn couldn’t move that fast. So he opened his mouth and ate the stream of flames.

Ahhhhhhh! His tongue burned, but he was still alive. His mana reserves were refilled. He materialized an ice blade and sucked it to soothe his burning tongue.

Alt jumped back into battle.

“Waiyyytthh,”shouted Corn.