“Is this the so-called ‘beginner’s luck’ that Champion Octantis talked about?” A quirky old man was sitting on a table, swinging his legs as Gaius placed handful after handful of gems on what the Summoned would recognise as a conveyor belt. “First time into Heritage, and you got at least five hundred gems. You can exchange for anything right now, even a senator’s wife, and no one would blink an eye.”
Gaius chose not to dignify that particular remark with a response. Instead, he said, “It’s not just luck though. I killed my way through a horde of snowpyres for these gems.”
“You? Pfft. Don’t make me…” The old man’s voice trailed off. “That cloak of yours…I think I’ve seen it before.”
“Yeah, you might have seen Alexandre, Ziegler or Shirou wear them.”
The old man picked up a gemstone and peered at it. “Huh. These names sound familiar. I’ve heard of them before…are they famous Harvesters?”
“No,” Gaius replied nonchalantly. “Just the lecturers of Advanced Combat, Apothecary and Artificing respectively.”
“Oh. Just the lecturers—lecturers?!” The gem fell onto the table with a thud. “You’re a lecturer too? At what, ten?”
“Eleven, sir.”
“Night take us, even a boy without hair down there can be a lecturer? You the grandson of two Senators and the foster son of another two? Or did you kill a human Paragon and parade his head around the city?”
“None of the above, sir.” Gaius placed the last handful of gems on the conveyor belt, which promptly moved to reflect a grand total of 613 gemstones. “Also, I think the major just put up a special order for a blue ether core. I’m here to turn that in too.”
“Oh, so that’s what the new slot was about.” The old man glanced at a wooden tablet. “Wait, don’t change the subject!”
“I’m not,” said Gaius. “Basically, I defeated a lecturer in combat and he decided to hire me as an assistant lecturer.”
“The way you say it doesn’t do the feat any justice, boy.”
“Well, unless I get something out of being a lecturer in this building, it’s not something I would rather think about. For all the bells and whistles, the only lecturing I’ll be doing is with my fists.” Gaius took out the ether core.
The old man glanced at the small ball, and then did a double-take. “Hoh. It seems that you’ve found quite the treasure. Know you how to use it?”
“Well,” replied Gaius, “two of these things dissolved when I held them, leaving only a stream of energy behind.”
“That’s one use, for sure. No, this little baby can serve as a power source for your artefacts. Here, let me demonstrate.” The old man produced something that looked suspiciously like a revolver, and stuffed the ball in a hole where the cylinder should be. Pointing at a human-sized target a few metres away, he said, “Now, normally a shot from the Handcannon creates a thirty-centimetre hole, but with this pure power source…”
The old man pulled the trigger, and as a soft phut sounded, the human-sized target board blew up, scattering bits and pieces of wood and slime into the air.
“See? An order of magnitude stronger!” The old man raised the Handcannon and peered at the ball of energy nestled inside. “Still has five shots left, not bad. My assessment of this little baby is that it is worth ten gemstones. If you have any others, you can present them to me.”
Gaius forced a grin as he remembered the small bunch of ether cores he’d left back on Heritage. His heart bled slightly, even as he presented half of his ether cores to the old man.
“Eat your heart out, Congress,” the old man cackled. “This kid just swallowed one-third of the Exchange Coins economy. Now, boy, focus your mind onto the wooden triangle you just got, and just pick out what you like into your cart.”
Cart? Gaius did as he was instructed, and a long translucent list of items appeared in his vision.
“I love that look on your face. Every time a newcomer waltzes in, they can’t help but have their eyeballs nearly drop out.” The old man giggled, a tinge of insanity to his laughter. “Now, just think of whatever you want, and it’ll appear if we have it.”
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As Gaius immersed himself inside the interface, he noticed that the quantities of certain objects were dropping by the second. It seemed that the others had started buying whatever they wanted too.
His balance was 142593 points.
“Impressed with your savings? You should be.” The old man rapped his table. “Every gemstone is worth a hundred points. You got fifty-one thousand points from the ether cores and sixty-eight thousand, three hundred points from your gems. You were the first one who turned in your gems, which netted your every single bounty except for the bounty on emeralds, netting you another thirty-five hundred points. Add another ten percent on, and you get 142593 points.”
The old man had rattled his words off quickly enough that the only thing Gaius cared about was that his points seemed to be correct. “Now, go and buy the expensive ones. Since I’m here, I’ll be able to give you an explanation on the spot. Be honoured. Most people have to wait a day before they can claim their items.”
The list in front of Gaius shortened as he thought of a keyword, and after seeing the relatively small amount of points that his desired items needed, Gaius brought them all without hesitation.
“Medicines for Soldiers?” The old man looked at Gaius with a set of narrowed eyes. “Well, they do improve your body’s strength and constitution, but you’re perhaps one of the rare few who actually cared about your body over your qi cultivation.”
He indicated the various packets of medicine on his table. “All of them should ingested orally. Since they’re all different products, it should be safe to consume them in relatively close succession. Wait an hour or so, then eat the next one.”
Gaius nodded, and immersed his mind into the shopping list once more. Although he was burning to find out how that little triangle worked, he had a feeling that there were even more curiosities he could now obtain with his points.
“Mister,” said Gaius, “there’s a whole bunch of items that cost at least sixty thousand points. What are those?”
“Key equipment for combatants seeking to put up a fight against Lords and, for Lords, perhaps even Paragons,” replied the old man. “They’re called Engines. Even the cheapest of them allow one to fly, while the ones at the higher-end add more and more abilities. They run off a set percentage of the user’s overall qi store, which means that they will never become obsolete, and grow stronger as the user himself gets stronger.”
Gaius’ eyes had widened to the point that they were beginning to look like dinner plates.
“Yes, you can buy them. I recommend that you get the one at the top, the Stellar Core. It has a very simple name, but its abilities are far from being simple. You should have a hundred and thirty thousand points, by my estimation.” The old man licked his lips. “It’ll leave you with slightly less than ten thousand.”
A thought flashed through Gaius’ mind, and the six-digit figure in his vision dropped down to nine thousand. He didn’t even give it a second thought — after a second of checking through the Stellar Core’s description, his instinct had taken over.
“Congratulations, boy. The old man took out a key and plugged it into somewhere inside the counter, which promptly began to open up from the middle. There were five small compartments inside, the largest of which was actually made of metal, and as Gaius watched, the metal compartment opened to reveal a work of art.
A disk of purple crystal was embedded in an outer lining of gold. Gaius could barely see layers of layers of lines drawn in the middle of the disk, and his vision began to blur as line of line of the pattern carved within the Engine connected together.
Teardrops streamed out of his eyes, and it was all Gaius could do to tear his eyes off the Stellar Core.
“Flight. Barrier. Oxygen Production. Climate Control. Optical Illusions. Auditory Illusions. Active Camouflage.” The old man’s voice as he said those words were low and solemn. “The Stellar Core was something that Paragon Eisenhower ordered. It took three years for a team of master Aritifcers to create. But before it was completed, the Paragon fell, killed by the Constellation Taurus. By the request of his family, the Stellar Core was used to encourage Harvesters to work harder in collecting gemstones.”
“From today onwards, it belongs to you.” The old man took the small disk, and attached a silver chain on it. Without waiting for Gaius to respond, the old man stepped forward and placed it around his neck. The chain promptly shrank, stopping when its loop was just slightly larger than Gaius’ neck.
“Within a few days,” continued the old man, “you will have integrated with the Engine fully, at which point you’ll be able to command it with thoughts alone. For now, your qi will have to suffice. But once you’re able to command the Stellar Core with thought alone, you should be able to use it in Heritage.”
Gaius touched the disk that was hanging off his neck. It was cool to the touch, and sent small vibrations through his finger. It seemed that the Engine was busily working, now that it finally had an owner. “The Stellar Core sure sounds like a miraculous item.”
“It is an item of miracles. Make no mistake about this. Although all Lords and talented Knights are issued their own Engines, your Stellar Core will allow you to face off with Lords on an equal footing. Even though its abilities aren’t spectacular, its performance is just that high.” The old man drummed his fingers onto the counter. “And Ark City only has three Lords. With this Engine, you can be counted as the fourth one now, or at least a top-tier Knight.”
Gaius had a bad premonition at those words. He had a feeling that the Congress probably wouldn’t like the idea of a human using the Stellar Core.
But that was a concern for tomorrow.