Sam took the moment to order cleaning service, and to have his clothes sent to his room if they had it, as he left it in his old room before he was taken away.
It didn’t take many seconds before Janik replied that they’d be right there.
He jumped a bit as there was a knock on the door, but it was too calm to be anything besides the TAC workers, this was confirmed through the peephole. Since Sam had explained in the order what stuff he wanted to be cleaned up, the man outside came with a large pushcart.
Opening the door, the man introduced himself and repeated what they spoke about on the phone. They would register everything that was brought for cleaning, and it would be returned to him within an hour, or two in the case of Sam’s volume. This was highly official and signed off via contracts and everything, as this was a substantial amount of gear he was sent off with. But everything felt proper and was signed, confirmed through TAC and re-confirmed through the System, removing any chance of this being theft.
The man left with Sam’s hoard of items, he felt surprisingly defenceless but he still had his new gear in an emergency, and he kept the axe in case it was needed, cleaning that himself. As the newest weapon, it was also the least dirty weapon so it didn’t take too long.
Placing the axe in a central area of the small apartment he was in, it was always available within his reach. He didn’t expect to need it, but it didn’t feel right not having something at hand.
It didn’t take long before there was a panicked hammering on the door, looking through the peephole he saw Dia almost ready to punch the door down. Unlocking the door and opening it was the needed catalyst for Dia to fling it open the rest of the way and pounce on him, she proceeded to make a lot of weird sounds he hadn’t heard from her before as she rubbed her head against his face and neck like a dog who saw her master for the first time in months, having far too much energy for the situation. He didn’t try to stop it but found himself hugging her back, though she was somewhat hard to hold still, she returned the hug but kept rubbing herself against him. She repeated his name and ‘Zar’ repeatedly, focusing more on the latter word than his name.
It didn’t take long before a certain snake slithered her way in and somehow found a way to coil herself around Sam, pushing her head against his neck in her own, though much calmer, way.
Sam could hear the door close, seeing a relieved Janik standing there, just looking at this unfolding, not interrupting.
But, as the minutes dragged on and they finally calmed down, Janik finally crouched down next to them. “I think we need to talk.” He was smiling and looking honestly glad, but there was an undertone of seriousness to it.
Helping him up, Janik gave Sam a long hug before letting go and motioned for the central table and chairs. Dia refused to let go and was holding around Sam the whole time.
As Sam sat down, Dia climbed onto his lap and scrunched up against him, putting her whole head under his chin, against his throat, remaining there with a sad expression on her.
Janik chuckled as he sat down on the other side.
“Now... Before I tell things from my side, I need to know what happened...” Janik’s smile faded to a very serious expression. “You were gone for almost half a year, how long was it for you?”
Sam held around Dia as she sat on his lap, her tails wagging and stopping at regular intervals, she didn’t seem to know if she wanted to be happy or sad. He answered Janik’s question, keeping no detail hidden, explaining everything including managing to trigger the Ascendancy system to increase his Spirit, but he still didn’t know what stopped him from doing it whenever he wanted.
“Wait... so you got Appraise as an A-rank?” Of all the things Sam explained, Janik bit into that detail.
“Yes, it’s better than your C-rank one.” Sam casually commented to hint that he could see everything.
[ Janik Znai
Level: 21
STR: 10
DEX: 17
VIT: 16
SPT: 0
HP: 210/210
Damage: 220/220
Defence: 66 (+5 on natural ground)
Abilities: Fluidity, Vital Strike, Active Defence, Appraisal (E), Cumulative Strike, Duelists' Defence ]
[ Fluidity: Calculate melee of Dex as long as using (a) one-handed sword(s). ]
[ Vital Strike: Boosted damage calculation. ]
[ Active Defence: By attacking incoming attacks, the user can parry and deflect the attacks. ]
[ Appraisal (E): Can see basic health of targets up to +5 levels of the user. ]
[ Cumulative strike: Calculates total damage done at the same time, before calculating Defence. ]
[ Duelist's Defence: Wile unarmed or using Duelist weapons, gain +5 or +20% Defence. ]
Janik covered his body, taking care to cover his chest and crotch and turned to the side to hide himself, as if he was a woman who was walked in on while naked.
Sam chuckled, this dumb humour, oh how he had missed it.
“I haven’t tested the Invisibility yet, haven’t taken the time to, but I will do that before I go anywhere, right now I want to sleep for a week...”
“Yeah, I can see that. Your little friend there had some problems when you disappeared. Her English is good enough to properly talk to now, so that helped. But it took a while for me to convince you that you’d be back. As we found out last time: Elara can tell, but she still had problems, running around and looking for you everywhere.”
Sam understood her reaction, not understanding what this was, she might have had some separation issues. This felt logical based on how he found her on the island and how she reacted when he wanted her to stay behind.
“I’ll also say that I took a few thousand from your account.” Janik added with a wide smile. “She eats a lot, and they said that your lifetime free stay doesn’t extend to companions, she wanted to wait for you here for a while before I persuaded her to come with me.”
There was nothing Sam could say against this, he was just happy he took care of her.
“The kids love her, so that’s good.” Janik continued. “Though, the puberty boys struggled a little with her not liking clothes that much... It... err... took a while before I persuaded her to use underwear.” Ending with a chuckle, Janik sported an embarrassed expression Sam hadn’t seen before.
Sam remembered that time as well from his youth, he couldn’t fault them for having ‘struggles’ with nudity around them at that time.
“Well... I feel I should at least thank you.” Sam replied, though he wasn’t looking at Janik and focused on Dia, which was partly just wanting to look at her more, but also a certain feeling of inadequacy. “I’m glad you took care of her, of them, and should it happen again I hope that I can rely on you again.”
“What kind of request is that?” Janik replied, sounding offended and annoyed. “Of fucking course I’ll take care of them.”
This surprised Sam, he had his thoughts that Janik of all people wouldn't think twice, but at the same time, he had to confirm it.
“I’m glad to hear that, as a reward you can help yourself from the gear over there.” Sam commented, nodding towards the gear on the cart he had them bring up. “I’m fine with what I have, or rather when it’s clean.”
“A... are you sure?” Janik seemed hesitant, not that he wasn’t interested, he was, but he seemed uncertain.
“Yeah, I’m just going to sell it anyway, and if this helps you, it helps me through you. If we’re going to continue our grinding I need you on your best.” Sam turned this to keeping his party geared, which wasn’t wrong. He expected shit to get worse in the future, he wanted to speed up what they were doing, and due to that they needed to get geared up as well.
“I intend to relax a bit, spend some time with Dia-” Looking back at Janik, he could feel determination and anger build inside him. “-Then I’ll speed up progression, I want to stop this as fast as possible. I’m fucking tired of all this shit.”
“Yeah... I can tell.” When Sam specified that he wanted to spend time with Dia, he could see Janik’s face grow a grin as he intended to comment, but as the sentence was completed it changed to a serious one.
Janik didn’t comment, but got up and went to check the gear he could pick from. He used a few minutes to look over things.
“A... are you sure about this? This is some good gear...”
Sam chuckled, it seemed he figured out the cost of things. “Yeah. I plan on giving Dia some of it, but take what you want.”
“No, I mean... I just checked, the selling price of this chest piece alone would probably be around $800 000.” Janik looked almost in panic considering this.
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
“Then the buy price would be much higher, if you want it, take it.” Sam commanded. “Didn’t I tell you came back with like 6 000 of those crystals? If you’re afraid of money, I’m fine.”
“Yeah, I get it but... This...” Turning back to the pile, Janik was flustered.
“Consider it a loan, then, use it until you find something better and give it back to me, if that makes it easier for you.” Sam waved it off, he knew the value of something like this, and even though he was about to become quite rich, he didn't care, he wanted to give something back to Janik. Not only because it would increase the efficiency of their party, but he did, without question, care for Dia and Elara when he disappeared.
“I mean... what do you intend to give to Dia, so I don’t take that.” Sounding almost like he was looking for excuses to not take things, he at least brought up a good point.
“I wanted to give her the shoes, but I don’t think she has the feet for it.” Sam smiled as he gestured to her paw-feet at the end of her digitigrade legs. He didn’t imagine normal foot-based shoes would do well on her. “I have a headpiece for her off for cleaning, and I thought I’d give her the Phantom Vest.”
“Ah.. ok... That makes sense, in that case, I’ll take the shoes and the Titanplate, if... that’s fine... I can trade in my old armour, that... feels a bit better. ” He still sounded hesitant, almost like he hoped Sam would say no.
“Yeah, go for it.” He smiled in return at his almost insecure friend.
He got it, he really did. Though he didn’t know the cost of everything there as Janik did, Sam knew that the shoes would go for a few tens of thousands or something, and Janik just confirmed the chest plate to cost around 800 000, so it was a considerable sum given away, even to loan away.
The armour seemed forged of dense, rune-etched stone reinformed with steel bands. Its surface was a mosaic of smooth rock and intricate carvings.
[ Titanstone Chestplate - High-end C rank
Defence: 80
Immovable Fortress: Reduce knockback and Stagger by 20%
Stoneward Protection: Increases Physical damage resistance by 10%
Earthbound Vitality: Gradually restore 1% health over time when standing still on stone or earth. Effect triggers after standing still for 10 seconds. ]
[ Fleetfoot shoes: +20% movement speed ]
Janik used a few minutes to put it on and feel its weight and balance, changing tightness here and there as he stretched and bent around. Sam wanted to have Dia try on the armour he had for her, but she had fallen asleep in his embrace, so he decided to let her sleep. But he thought the armour would work fine for her.
“This... is a fucking good piece of armour,” Janik commented as he put it on. The shoes he just stepped into without much effort.
“Good, then I assume you’ll continue as my tank.” Sam smiled. Janik was a Dexterity fighter, but with his Active defence ability and now the bonus to armour on top of a solid set, he was turning into a solid wall.
Dia was more focused on dodging, at least that was how he was somewhat building her. She had a good armour set off to her, and with her very high Dexterity she should be good at dodging from beforehand, adding the Evasion from the hairpiece he intended to give her once it was cleaned, it should stack up to 20% with the armour. With her natural speed, this should work well as a skirmisher.
“I’ll admit I don’t exactly know where to go from here...” Janik broke the silence as he turned around to Sam.
“I think you’re overthinking this. I plan to rest before I go back out, for a few days or something. I’ll eat anything but sandwiches for that time. I’ll also spend the money I get from the crystals and the rest of the gear, after that I don’t know; we’ll go back to the second Floor and skip a few dungeons or something.” Even though he was tired and needed rest, his body was ready for a fight, as it had been every second the last two months, he kind of wanted to fight.
“Well, perhaps we can spar tom-” Janik pounded his chest as if he was testing the armour, suggesting a spar with Sam.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Sam commented, interrupting him. “My total damage, not counting critical this, is about 410, let’s say you can parry my two most damaging weapons, that’s still 330. If your armour avoids 100 of that, it’s still 230. And that’s without considering Static Charge, my passive electrical damage, and that I don’t pick you up and throw you, try to disarm you or attack your eyes and other sensitive areas. I can also become invisible now and...” Sam wanted to go on, but he started to realize that he was feeling arrogant and downplaying Janik’s skill and strength.
“Ah... yeah... well..” Janik rubbed the back of his head. “I suppose you are sort of dangerous like that... But, if it’s just for sparring I still want to give it a go, you can never stop learning!” Janik looked surprisingly pumped, even knowing that he’d most likely lose.
Sam chuckled, enough to wake Dia up, but she just repositioned and shoved her nose up next to his neck and fell asleep again.
“I suppose it can’t hurt if I can’t hurt you.”
“Oh, no, it fucking hurt last time, but as long as we’re in those rooms I’m fine.” Again looking pumped, Sam felt a second tone, almost like a hidden agenda in his words.
“Well, for now, I think I’ll rest, you’re welcome to come back tomorrow, we can eat something nice and just relax for once.” Sam smiled at his friend, they had been fighting and grinding dungeons together for so long, that they hadn’t gotten to just relax and spend much time together.
“I’d like that.” Janik replied with an honest smile. “I don’t get to do much relaxing, so I’ll take you up on that.”
“But... right now I noticed something else.” Sam realised something as he looked at Janik perhaps with an odd expression as Janik looked a bit uncomfortable.
“W.. what. Do you see cancer in me or something?” His uncertainty changed instantly as he motioned for his crotch. “Or did you just see something amazing~”
Sam chuckled. “Good joke, but no. You remember how I said that I found a weird roundabout way to display what data I could edit? I’m seeing that on you now.”
Janik’s amusement changed into extreme excitement instead. “Wait, you mean you can increase my stats?!”
This again woke Dia, this time it was Janik’s fault, but she didn’t seem to have big problems with it as Sam was still there with her.
“Yes, but only by one, most likely. I can also only increase your basic stats, nothing else.”
“Dexterity... please.” Holding himself back from getting too excited, Janik started staring into nothing as he no doubt looked at his Player Statistics.
Sam did his roundabout way of requesting and updating a number, giving it a +1, increasing his Dexterity to 18.
“Hoooolyfuck! It worked!” Janik was quite surprised, not something Sam could fault him for, this was a pretty good change even if it was ‘just one’, it was basically a better level up.
“You doubted me?” Sam smirked at him, knowing this was something a bit too good to be true from the start, so doubt it would just be the smart thing to do.
“No.. Yes... I mean... No.. I do mean yes. It just sounded a bit... much... right? First of all; Thank you. I appreciate it but it just...” Janik was at a loss of words.
Sam chuckled again, this was a surprisingly good feeling. “I don’t know when I’ll be able to do that again, I don’t know what limits when I can do it or by how much, but I’ll let you know if I see it again.”
“Oh, please do.” Janik stopped himself as he was about to say something else, pondering for a brief moment. “This... might sound weird but... Could you see if you can help Ethan as well?” His smile and happiness had turned a bit into worry.
Sam understood his worry, at least to a certain degree. “I’d be glad to, the next time I meet him.”
This statement seemed to make Janik surprisingly relieved.
They kept talking, and though the talk continued about his statistic editing for a while it devolved into dumb humour and talking about random things. Eventually, Dia woke up and absolutely refused to get off his lap, when he moved she followed him and climbed back on afterwards. Janik laughed at them a little, but not at their expense, it was more laughing at something adorable.
Eventually, they had spent the rest of the day together, Dia hadn’t spoken much at all, she just wanted to be close to him, but as Sam’s eyes were growing more and more tired, Janik seemed to notice and excused himself. Ordering that Sam should send a message when he woke up tomorrow, he promised dinner and relaxing, after all.
Sam headed for bed after Janik left, climbing into bed it didn’t take long for Dia to instigate something which woke him right up again. It seemed that sleep was down-prioritised in favour of something else.