Wednesday, May 1st, 2069

“So, our goal is to create a video that combines both the blue collar aspects of Mining, but also really highlights the fact that Mirage saved your lives by clearing a Dungeon?” Kristen asked, sounding excited.

“I’m not sure that’s the best course of action,” Mrs. Stovall interjected. “It might be worth it to make two videos. Carrot and stick. We could put culpability pressure on them by showing they abandoned the Mining Team—“

“That will only exacerbate the issue,” Geneva explained, cutting across Mrs. Stovall. “First, no other teams would likely want to work with them in the future, which would put a final nail in the coffin in terms of creating a grudge, so to speak.” Geneva gestured at me, almost to make that final idiom personal.

“Did she just threaten you?” Smegma asked. Clearly not understanding the saying.

“No, no,” Geneva laughed. “I’m just saying that Mirage would likely go belly up if they get a bad reputation—“

“Belly up?” Smegma asked.

“Stop interrupting, I’ll explain those idioms later,” I scolded, and got a look of appreciation from Geneva.

“—which would force them to shut down the guild,” Geneva continued after ensuring Smegma was in fact done asking questions. “That would likely make them act sooner. Instead, what we’re going to try to do—is paint them out to be a Guild that would do anything to try to save trapped workers. That’s what they were investing in, don’t you know?”

At Geneva’s final conspiratorial tone, I saw a look of dawning realization cross everyone’s face. I assumed I had the same reaction—since I, too, had been a bit skeptical of the final plan. I even began nodding—wondering if some of the donations that I was getting might even go to them, or some of the B-ranked Crystals I had. Would that help alleviate a financial burden or help return some of the perceived profits from Mirage’s ‘Permanent’ Portal?

“Doubt that,” Smegma said in answer to my thoughts. “Still, it’s a good thought—if you can afford it. Maybe sell one or two of them?”

“Sell one or two of what?” A few people asked in near unison. The shit eating grin that came onto my face couldn’t be helped.

All day in court, my Necklace of Holding felt like it had been burning a hole in my sternum. I wanted nothing more than to empty it out and take stock!

Smegma started making a noise that stopped me short of emptying my Necklace. The sound was like a wailing keen that reminded me of the threat of torture we’d heard the night before. It was such a horrible sound that Dave incredulously asked, “What the husk are you doing?”

“Sounding the lament. We use it to emphasize when something amazing is going to happen. You guys don’t have that?” Smegma answered, looking around the table. A few people had gone as far as to plug their ears, at the strange keen.

“No, we don’t!” Dave said.

“I’m thinking it’s probably equivalent to our drumroll,” I said, even as I moved out of the confines of my chair. “Maybe that has to do with the drums of war, or something, which would make it even more similar…”

“Whatever,” Dave said. “Just don’t do it again, please.”

The fact that no one laughed told me just how much it had bothered everyone else. I shrugged. It certainly hadn’t been that bothersome to me.

Once in the center of our rather small living room, I emptied the Necklace of Holding out. The vast majority of items were F-rank Mana Crystals—but it was the streaks of blue I kept my eyes on. Those B-Ranked Crystals, the three metallic pieces with varying glowing hues, two dragon scales and a heart scale.

People gasped, and my shit-eating grin returned, only larger. I hurriedly snatched up one of the B-rank Crystals and turned to Smegma. How much can I get for one of these?

“They're in pretty great shape. So, I can give you about fifty thousand mC for the Mana inside. Maybe as much as another ten thousand for the Spent Crystal.”

“Is that what I think it is?” Geneva asked.

“If you think it’s a B-rank Mana Crystal, then yes!” I answered.

“What?!” Kristen, Jarred, and my mother all shouted.

Turning toward the table I explained the situation to the people who had been in the caverns with a simple, “It’s what the pieces of that metallic yellow mural turned into when we got out. For the rest of you, we found traces of an ancient Naga civilization down in the caverns. They’d used high ranked Crystals to create lights—“

My happy mood fell, when I recalled just how much of this Crystal we’d left down there. Each room in the complex had a light fixture, for husk sakes!

A few people around the kitchen table cursed openly as they likely made the same realization I just had. Still, Geneva and Kristen looked around confusedly as they made it worse, unknowingly.

“What?” Kristen asked.

Geneva didn’t bother asking and just explained, “One of those can sell for a couple hundred thousand dollars, at a minimum! How many do you have?”

I took a quick count, just for myself. That one mural gave us at least twenty full Crystals—no, twenty-two including the ones I’d put in the Mirage Bag of Holding. That meant we’d given at least four hundred thousand dollars to the Mirage guild—and left behind in the Portal at least—I tried to do the math, but my brain stopped me. Telling me it was pointless to dwell in the past.

I won’t say that the reminder didn’t make me want to roll my eyes and shoot myself—for being so ‘wise.’ But since it was internal, my only recourse was to scoff, before answering, “Twenty.” All the shards had been put in the Mirage Bag, too.

My Mental Fortitude Skill chastised me again, and I reached up to tug my own hair in frustration. Only partially because I was beating myself up. I now had a rather big decision to make. I could sell all twenty and get one million plus mC!

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That would certainly buy me a Skill from Demonic Vault!

However, if I really wanted to get the monkey, which was the Mirage Guild, off of my back. I needed to sell some of them and reimburse them for their investment…

I thought back on what I’d seen of the enclosure they’d been building last night, but couldn’t even begin to guess how much that had cost. Turning to Geneva, I asked, “How much do you think the Mirage Guild spent on that Portal?”

It was her turn to make a face, Kristen too. I could tell that they thought that was why the others had been swearing, but didn’t bother explaining the misinterpretation. That didn’t really matter. Their faces meant they had bad news—and I took a deep breath to prepare myself for it.

Kristen looked to Geneva, giving her permission to speak. Geneva’s grimace grew before she whispered, “It isn’t how much they spent—but what they could have made.”

Sighing out my breath I asked, “And that is?”

“The last Low-Rank Permanent Portal that sold in our area, went for a little over two-million dollars,” Kristen volunteered.

Everyone started cursing, then. Me included.

“Surely, you don’t have to pay them back all of that,” Smegma stated. “Just give them a certain amount and claim it was the donations from followers. As a thank you for saving your lives or something?”

Geneva and Kristen nodded, as did Mrs. Stovall. Everyone else went quiet as they waited for the proverbial hammer to drop.

“I think they’d let it go for half of the amount for sure—maybe as low as a quarter,” Mrs. Stovall suggested.

Geneva and Kristen made motions with their hands to say that wasn’t a sure thing. Geneva explained the motion a moment after making it. “There’s no guarantee. But it's probably safer to aim for half.”

“So, sell enough of these to make a million, and we can’t even keep any of it?” I looked around at the Miner’s in the group, surprised to find them nodding at my suggestion. None of them seemed upset with that decision.

Willa saw my look and chuckled. “Your payin’ all our wages, kid. Plus, you ain’t the only one they’d be comin’ after. So, why wouldn’t we be okay with it?”

“Plus, we all Awakened Skills because of you!” Dave added.

Kristen, Geneva, and Mrs. Stovall stared first at Dave, and then slowly turned on me.

“That, is going to need some explanation!” Mrs. Stovall said calmly but pointedly.

With the help of the rest of the group, I explained the whole story to those in the room. My mother only delayed the telling once by fainting.

* * *

“Tomorrow, Mr. Varnish will start calling witnesses. I have his list here,” Mrs. Stovall said, as she slid a page over to me. Geneva and Kristen had rushed out after the retelling of the events down in the caverns, claiming the faster they got started, the safer I’d be. “Do you recognize any of the names?”

I ran a finger down the page, reading through each name. The first ten to fifteen I didn’t know, but somewhere around that fifteenth name the list changed.

Ayla Moody, the woman who’d offered her card to me, after Demonic Vault had ranked up for the first time. “I know this woman, well I’ve met her. She saw me ‘Awaken’ in the car at the mall. I think she implied an invitation to her Guild, or maybe she’s like someone who sources ‘talent’ for Guilds? I couldn’t quite tell. She gave me her card and told me to reach out after I’d been Assessed…”

Mrs. Stovall raised an eyebrow, made some notes and asked several follow-up questions. Then made a motion to continue. The next name wasn’t familiar to me, but my father, who was reading over my shoulder said, “Larry was a member of P-Cubed’s Mining Team. He was likely around when Brodie ‘Awakened’ his Skill after the Golem.”

I felt my head want to fall to my chest, but dutifully answered Mrs. Stovall’s questions along with my father’s help. The next name was another I ‘knew’. “Taz?” I asked, and followed up with. “The Guild Leader of the Lynx?”

Mrs. Stovall nodded and this time didn’t bother making notes. “The fact that he’s willing to show up at a trial like this means that Mr. Varnish and whoever is backing him, is spending huge amounts of money.”

“But why?” I asked, throwing up my hands in exasperation. “Why do all this? Varnish? The trial, and now Taz? What are they getting out of this?”

I stopped fighting gravity with my neck and allowed my head to fall onto my sternum. Right from the opening statements today, my stomach had started twisting—seeing Varnish work the jurors. Now, I was staring at a list of witnesses that made me acutely aware of the drastic difference between their side and mine.

Mrs. Stovall was certainly an excellent lawyer, but she wasn’t a Hunter. She’d made a great opening, but what were we going to do after that? I guessed we’d call witnesses as well.

My mom rushed to my side, thanks to my hanging head. Kneeling, she hugged me. Dave, Willa and Jarred joined my father reading over my shoulder, as I took a moment to collect myself. Sure, Mental Fortitude was encouraging me to ‘buck up’ but honestly, I needed to also come to terms with the situation—so I didn’t rush it.

“Surely, Brodie has some witnesses too?” Dave asked. That got me to glance up, and I caught the tail end of Dave motioning to himself and the others.

“Certainly,” Mrs. Stovall said, and passed over another sheet.

This one made it worse. Mr. Varnish had about forty names on his sheet. I—no we—had ten. Mrs. Stovall caught my eyes before my head could fall though. “Brodie, their witnesses are also ours. It’s called cross-examination. Plus, according to Sparkle Legion—you probably have a great many offers in your Direct Messages—from other victims of the cases down south.

“We would have spent Saturday evening and most of Sunday consulting on that. Now that you’re out, we should probably go through it all. Still, our witness list isn’t due until after Mr. Varnish is finished with his. So, this number will definitely grow and isn’t final!”

I nodded, and pulled out my phone for the first time in five days. Geneva and Kristen had assured me that they would give an update with the video, explaining why I had been absent to my growing following on SwiftGram. Still, seeing the notifications on the device was extremely anxiety inducing.

Three-thousand on SwiftGram alone. Fourteen-thousand on SmileBook, which admittedly, I had set to give push notifications for post likes. So hopefully it wasn’t that bad. Then another twelve hundred emails. Thankfully, there were only about ten SMS texts, all of which were from my mother, Sparkle Legion and Mrs. Stovall.

[I’m assuming you aren’t going to be selling the remaining fifteen Crystals and looking through Skills again tonight?] Smegma complained.

I gave him a look that I hope conveyed my distaste of that question. There was nothing I’d rather be doing. That, and discussing the Mana Batteries, and what they’d do for our company! It would be great if I could afford a Skill for a million mC, which was the most I was going to get, including what I had left in from inside the Portal. However, I doubted that amount would get me anything truly powerful.

Instead, those B-Ranked Crystals were going to have to be used in reserve. Some for mC as needed, and some for dollars—if my donations dried up.

“Fine!” Smegma said, when he saw my look. Then he looked to Dave like a needy little brother. “Want to play with the Mana Batteries, and your Cut Skill in the backyard?”

Dave perked up from behind my chair, but my mother slapped at him, and—ineffectually, at Smegma. “You will not be destroying my backyard, thank you very much!”

Smegma’s ears drooped and Dave hung his head sadly.

“Take it to the park.” Mom said with a sigh.

“Yay!” Dave cheered, shooting out of the house and leaving me with my next great adventure.

“Husking hundred yard limit,” Smegma complained as he stared longingly after Dave. “Why do I have to sit through this nonsense with you?”

I didn’t feel bad for the Demon in the slightest. If I had to sit here bored out of my skull—then so did he. Husking legal paperwork.