“Now, who wants to see the rewards? Two times compensation and the reward for the rescue mission!” Atla said and clapped her hands.

“Wait,” Eik began. “Atla, I know you didn’t make the decision to release her back then, but this shit was not okay,” he said somberly.

Even as he uttered those words he knew that wouldn’t change the need to join the Nidafjeld Alliance in the slightest. The alliance could have given Menka Tokanami and early birthday present, a pony, and a card thanking her for scaring the crap out of the newbies, and it still wouldn’t have changed the fact that humanity would die without the Alliance.

They could not make a big deal out of this matter even though they had nearly been murdered on several separate occasions. They were nobodies. Until they became stronger and more properly integrated they had to make do on the bottom rung.

Eik hated that bitterly, the situation tying knots in his stomach. He hated that he had been made responsible for Earth’s continued survival, but more than that he hated that they were forced to subject themselves to the whim of the Nidafjeld Alliance.

He hated that the survival of his fellow humans hung on a thin thread called ‘generosity’ and ‘kindness’.

And Atla and Mikla couldn’t even be blamed wholly for this incident. Atla’s general competence as a government agent was questionable, but if her explanation of events was true then this incident wasn’t all her fault.

Despite their nonchalant approach to violence and danger Eik wasn’t automatically assuming that the two of them personally had bad intentions, but he had also come to realize that Atla’s authority didn’t stretch quite as far as he had initially thought.

She had seemed so all powerful when she touched down on Earth back then in the Central Square, but now the perspective had widened considerably.

As he sat there in the chair, staring into her eyes, he felt his own desperation for power grow. The power to bring down the B-rank monster that had put Olivia into a coma was not enough anymore. He would need to be much, much stronger than that.

He would have to bring the potential of the Worldbreaker to its peak. Earth needed to be able to survive and eventually thrive even without the support of the alliance, and Eik would have to make sure of that.

“I know it wasn’t okay. That should not have happened to you. I can only apologize and pay you your rightful compensation.”

“How about promising that it won’t happen again?” Michael suggested.

She hesitated. “I can promise that I will do my best to make sure that something like this doesn’t happen again, but the Nidafjeld Alliance is large. Unimaginably so. Right now you probably feel as though you’ve gotten a good sense of the place. You have not.”

They let her speak without interruption.

“This is the headquarters. That does not mean it’s the biggest base of the alliance, nor the most powerful. It’s simply the official one. None of our affiliated X-rankers live here. They might show up from time to time, sure, but that’s all. This is nothing but a place to gather for events, and to conduct and solve official business.”

“Are you saying the alliance can’t control their members,” Heath asked.

Her face took on a conflicted expression as she bit her lip and considered her answer. “Mmn, I hesitate to say that, but this is not a perfect organization. Neither is your Forest, though, as far as I’ve been able to tell. I am neither the arm of the law nor a judge here. I can only do so much.”

“So what do we do?” Michael asked.

She shrugged. “That Menka Tokanami attacked you even the first time was not something I expected. Something must have snapped in her brain. She always knew the risks associated with working in exploration and combat and encouraged her son to follow in her footsteps. I honestly doubt something like this will happen again unless you manage to piss someone off, which…” Her eyes wandered to Eik and he frowned.

“Shit…” he muttered.

***

“First things first, the money,” Atla said and pulled out a small pouch, its inner side lined with small sleeves that resembled those you’d have in wallets for credit cards on old Earth. “Originally they actually wanted to treat the incident this time and the one immediately after the rescue mission as a single issue, but I managed to convince them to bump it up to two counts for double the compensation.”

She pulled out a small, flat plate made of some unknown material, fitting almost perfectly in the hand. It was around half the size of a smartphone and about as thick as a piece of cardboard. She handed one to each of them.

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“What is this?” Heath asked as he turned it over in his hand. “Is this a coin? It’s way too huge to carry around. Do you have paper money?”

“We call this a credit slab. Give it a bit of time to recognize the signature of your energies and it should begin to respond to your touch.”

“Credit slab? Weird name,” Eik said with a glance at Heath.

“Totally,” the tank agreed.

A series on numbers appeared on the surface of the credit slab in Eik’s hand. “Hey, mine has something written on it now! 69,524!”

“That’s your balance,” Mikla said. “Credit slabs can interact with each other and exchange credit values from one holder to another. Pretty simple. You can use them both to buy and sell goods. You can also will your credit balance to show only when you want them to.”

“Eik has more than me,” Michael noted, eliciting a poorly suppressed grin from Eik.

“And more than me,” Heath chorused.

Mikla looked over their shoulders. “Yeah, we took the liberty of combining the compensations for Menka Tokanami’s attacks — 20,000 and 30,000 credits respectively — and the credits converted from your test scores in the Crucible. Test score rewards, with the exception of Michael who was F-rank at the time, have been heavily reduced. Congrats on E-rank, by the way,” he said.

“Is this a lot of money?” Sonja asked.

Mikla tilted his head from side to side as he considered. “I suppose it depends on who you ask, but I’d say it’s pretty decent to start with.”

“What’s the reward for the rescue mission, then?” Heath asked.

“Right!” Atla said and clapped her hands with a smile. “Wait here! I’ll go get yours first, Heath!”

The great tank hopped in place, impatience surging through him like a little horse about to go for a run across the field. “What is it? Is it something good?”

She threw open the double doors of some kind of large closet and reached in to pull out a shield. Carrying it as easily as if it had been made of dried leaves, Atla placed it on the long table for them to inspect.

“The smith named it The Captain’s Tower,” she said as Heath caressed the heavy metal with his fingers, eyes wide and popping.

“It looks amazing,” the tank whispered with deep admiration.

Into the thick metal was carved the warped visage of a helmeted man shouting in defiance. It looked significantly heavier than his old shield but he still managed to heft it without too much difficulty.

“It does, but more importantly is the effect it grants the bearer in battle.” — She rapped a finger against the surface a couple of times — “When you’re holding this, it will support your stance on the ground and provide you with stability and poise. You will not be knocked back so easily anymore.”

“That's insane” Heath said, looking at the precious item with a new wave of admiration. “Can we learn to make magical armor on Earth as well? Can I learn to make it?”

“That, weapons, and much more.” She went over to the closet again and retrieved a bow.

“Is that for me?” Sonja asked.

With a nod, Atla placed the bow in the archer’s trembling hands. The wood was smooth and polished well, the lights around the room reflecting brightly. The limbs were curved back, giving it a powerful appearance. It was unadorned, the glistening finish and flawless design decoration enough to make the weapon stand out.

“Thank you,” Sonja breathed as she took in the craftsmanship. “Does this also have a name?”

“It’s the Bow of the Squall. It will push your arrows to greater speed and power, as if carried on the billow of a tempestuous wind.”

Sonja nodded to herself. “I've been needing something like this..”

“Glad that it’ll be of help to you. Now,” Atla said and went back to the closet for a third time. “I believe it’s your turn, Michael.”

Michael drew in a sharp breath as she handed him a leather helmet. A studded band ran from the front and over the top to the back. A hard metal nose guard gave it the appearance of one of those nasal helmets, only, instead of chain mail, the aventail curtain covering the back of the wearer’s neck was a tough but flexible sheet of leather.

The healer looked slightly confused, not seeing the connection to his skill set like the bow and shield given to his teammates. “Thank you but… what does it do?”

“Although you will certainly learn to do this naturally once you get better with your abilities, this helmet will help you focus your healing and other similar abilities onto a smaller area for a stronger but narrower effect. Good for specific injuries.”

“Oh wow,” Michael breathed and put the helmet on so quickly that the nose guard ended up covering his right eye completely. Ignoring his blocked vision, he called forth the healing light in his hand and appeared to concentrate. “I think I can feel it. I can feel the focusing effect!”

The green light seemed to jump and flicker slightly, parts of the hazy glow growing thicker. “It’s difficult,” he said through gritted teeth.

“It’s still going to take a little practice to get the feel for it, but the helmet should help you get there a lot faster.”

“Thank you.”

“And now you, Eik.”

He held his breath, his heart pounding away as he watched her heft something inside the closet which must have been deeper than it looked. Eik gaped as she came back with an enormous black ball, a mix of confusion and disappointment running through him.

No, now that she turned over the ball, it became clear that it was a simple, black iron cauldron. Or rather, it appeared to be simple iron, but it could be made of anything, really.

“Why is…” he drawled.

“I noticed that you have been talking about wanting to get back into making potions and poisons ever since you first came here. I thought you’d like a method to get back into it even though you lost your shop. With this you can work on it, even on the go.”

“Thank you,” he said and grabbed his pack from the floor. He pulled out several mushrooms and samples of the glowing moss he had collected when they rested in the Crucible. “I can’t wait to see what I can get out of these things. Is it possible to purchase some kind of reference work about different plants and flowers, like an encyclopedia?”

“Yeah, we can take you to town — the rest of you too — if you’d like to take a look around now that you have money,” Mikla said.

Atla broke in. “And although it is not terribly powerful, this cauldron will also help to stabilize your ingredients and materials, making the creation process a bit smoother and safer. And volatile ingredients will be a little less likely to… explode.”

He ran his fingers around the rim of the cauldron and grabbed it by one of the ring handles, grunting as he lifted it from the table. “You said I can use this on the go… I’m not really sure that is the case. This is not exactly a light belt accessory, is it?”

She chuckled. “And so we get to the second part of your reward.” From the depths of her bag slung on the table she pulled out a rucksack. “This is a—”

“bag of holding!” Eik exclaimed.