Saturday, May 4th, 2069

“I’m saying I’ll need an escort from the Gardener’s to the Cleaners,” I reiterated for the clearly-stupid Hunter.

As if to confirm my opinion of him, he stared at me with no comprehension on his face. Did he speak a different language maybe? It would be rare but—

“I cannot permit workers to move around in the Dungeon unescorted,” he said, slowly.

I blinked at him. Then I looked at the Gardeners behind me. We were just inside a Sective Agora Portal, and about to split up to go to our separate areas to work. Thankfully, I saw a different Hunter behind me, with the Miners, and moved to him.

“Hello, my name is Brodie, I’m the foreman of the crews here today,” I said in way of introduction. “I’m going to need to move from the Gardener group to the Cleaners after the first hour. Can you provide me with an escort to do so?”

This Hunter turned to look at me, then did a slow top to bottom, followed by the bottom to top assessment that spoke volumes. He was clearly questioning how I could be any sort of leader at my age. I knew I looked young, and on SwiftGram that helped me, I thought? But here, amongst adults—it was admittedly not a great look.

My dad stepped forward. “I’m the owner of Abyss: Portal Services and Consumables—he is, in fact, the foreman of the two other groups. Please do as he says!”

The Hunter finished his appraisal of me and gave my father a skeptical look. “The owner of the company is inside the Dungeon with us? And I’m the Dragon King!”

My father’s eyes narrowed, and he pointed across the field to Jagger in his far too expensive armor. “That’s the owner of P-squared, which is why I’m here to make sure we destroy them in Gathering!”

“Oh?” The man said and studied Jagger Vance. He clearly looked the part more than my father or I did. He turned his judgmental gaze back to us and seemed to come to a conclusion. “He’s just here to observe and you’re actually going to step up and work? I can respect that. Okay, give me a sec…”

The guard walked away to a gathering group of Hunters, and I sighed in relief. At least he had decided to get an escort for me. I looked at my father and he could only give a chagrined shrug. It was clear that even the Hunter Guards of Lynx were already catering to Jagger and his group of workers.

Just watching the man preen in his armor made my blood boil! Abyss would kick his ass today!

“You do realize that he has almost double the numbers in all of the Gatherers here, except Mining—where you’ve got a slight advantage. Which surprises me—” Smegma began but I interjected mentally.

[—Yeah, where did he get the extra Miners? Didn't they all join us?]

“—As I was saying he must have been hiring more Miners because of the Ten Specialists he contracted. That means he could have as many as a hundred other workers, according to the ten to one rule he went by in P-cubed.”

[Oh, shit! So, those guys weren’t there when I told them they’d all be Specialists…] I turned to my dad. “There are about twenty Miners that aren’t Specialists with Jagger. See if you can’t convince them to join our company.”

“Oh, okay. When we take lunch, I’ll try to chat with them.” My father then whispered a question, “I assume we shouldn’t tell them about the ‘Repair Mark’?”

I nodded in confirmation as a group of five split off from the congregation and moved in unison back toward us. The guard for the Miners was one of them, and the other four seemed to be made up of a Hunter and her Mana Banks. To my surprise, I recognized one of them—

Not the Hunter, but a dark-skinned beauty that was with him. Or what had been a stunning young woman last I saw her.

Eva walked along with the three other Banks, and she was nearly unrecognizable compared to when I’d met her in line at Armando’s photoshoot. She didn’t even look at me or her surroundings as she sluggishly moved toward me.

I swallowed bile as it rose in my throat. When she’d won the ‘picture of the day’, at Armando’s photoshoot I’d been so jealous—but now… I looked at her. She almost looked like a zombie. Her skin was grayish, where it once held a golden hue—her arms, once sculpted perfectly by a combination of muscle and grace, were now skeletally thin. And her hair! It looked like a rat's nest atop her head. Like she didn’t even have the energy to run a comb through it.

I stepped forward, ready to—do something…

“Don’t you dare, moron,” Smegma practically shouted. “There is nothing you can do right at this moment. If you cause a scene right now—you’ll not only accomplish nothing, but also hurt Abyss!”

Husk! I swore at myself, and the Demon for good measure. He was right, but that didn’t mean I had to like it. I was forced to swallow again as disgust at the decision I had to make tried to overturn my stomach. Another goal was added to my current list.

Get back at Mirage—Find the person behind Morgan—Save Eva!

“Save her from what, you idiot?” Smegma countered my internal thoughts once again. “For all you know she just started with this Hunter and she’s acclimatizing to it. Look at her other Banks, they are helping her and don’t look to be suffering under the Hunter… Maybe she was injured doing something else, or working for someone else and this person’s taken her in and is helping her out. You need more information before you go around full-cocked like an Incubus at an orgy.”

I finally tore my eyes off of Eva, and studied the other Banks and then the Hunter. To my surprise the Hunter was a female, as were the two Banks by Eva’s side. Smegma was right, the two other Banks looked quite healthy, but that didn’t mean he was right about her not needing saving…

The Hunter was clearly a caster of some sort. She wore light-fitting armor, and had both a wand and a large staff in hand. It actually looked a lot like the staff I’d had in the pictures taken with Armando. It had a blue gem at its head and was made from some sort of blackened wood. The woman herself was beautiful in the exact opposite way of Eva.

Where Eva was lithe and graceful, this woman was thick and sturdy. Short hair with shaved sides graced her head, and both arms were tattooed with half-sleeves that I couldn’t make out from this distance. They arrived at me and my father even as I studied the dark, black lines—trying to understand what I was looking at.

The Hunter held out a hand, “Hi, my name is Alexus Fawn. I’m told you’ll need an escort between our Gatherers?”

I tore my eyes off of Eva. Surely there was something I could do?

“Don’t you dare!” Smegma scolded. “Plus, she’ll be with you all day—at least husking confirm she’s being mistreated first!”

[Fine!] I mentally shouted back, and then turned a disapproving frown onto Alexus.

“That’s right!” I accidentally exclaimed. I didn’t bother correcting myself, and just spun away from her to return to the Gardeners and the stupid Hunter that they had.

“What’s his problem?” I heard one of the women behind me ask in a whisper. I tuned out any response, feeling my cheeks flush with both anger and a hint of embarrassment.

* * *

“What you need to find is a sapling tree, preferably Antikwa,” Smegma explained, as I stood in a field. The other Gardeners had already moved off to begin work as I prepared to show them some of the tricks ‘I’d’ promised.

I scanned the forest, looking for saplings in the heavy foliage. Alexus and the Mana Banks stood behind me. Three of the women looked skeptically at my back, with clear distaste for me after my earlier outburst. My fists clenched as I thought of the fourth. Eva, last I saw, still looked like she was barely able to stand on her own two feet.

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[The problem, Smegma, is that the canopies of these larger trees won’t let saplings grow.]

“Use your brain and check in the small gaps of sunlight, imbecile!” Smegma scolded. I frowned and scanned for a patch of sunlight. Nearly right beside the first patch of bright yellow I found, was indeed a sapling. I wondered only for a moment why it wasn’t in the sunshine, when Smegma scoffed. “You really aren’t bright. Sunshine moves!”

[God dammit, Smegma!] I responded, not in the mood for his taunting at the moment. I knew what was distracting me! [What do I husking do with the thing?]

“Carefully dig it up, and then place it and some soil from around it into the Gardening box.” I followed his instructions and wasn’t the only one who was skeptical of his method. Small snickers and questions sounded out from the Mana Banks behind me and I fought my urge to turn on them.

[Now what?] I mentally asked Smegma, venting some of my frustration on him.

“Take it back to the Gardeners, idiot! Don’t get all changeling with me for stopping you from ruining your life and destroying your company all on its first day.”

Standing up, I turned around and carried the box back to the Gardening area. The area was a clearing that was nearly a perfect circle. In fact, it was eerie in its symmetry, like it hadn’t formed naturally but was somehow stamped by some godly creature in the heavens.

“That’s ‘cause it was created by the System. Just like the Mines, and Monsters…” Smegma explained, his voice finally less scathing at my thoughts. Instead, he was introspective, like he once had asked the same questions.

The clearing had numerous plants, bushes, vines and grasses that were clearly not from Earth. While the trees of Secretive Agora could be mistaken for extremely large maples from the planet—these plants would be alien no matter what. Except for maybe on Pandora in that movie Advantor Fourteen: The Last Stand.

The grass was five feet tall and ocean blue. The vines were pink, and had purple flowers right beside yellow fruits, that could have been bananas if they didn’t glow. The bushes contained fruits, and nuts both—and one bush could hold every color of the rainbow. I shook off my returning marvel at the scene, and hurried to the bush area, as directed by Smegma’s orders.

“—shut that clap-trap of a mouth and get in them bushes, soldier!” He shouted in my ear, causing me to jump and obey. Once I arrived he continued in a slightly softer drill-Sergeant-esque voice. “Now, get out the shears, and cut exactly where I tell you and on the angle I confirm.”

It took several minutes to change the angle of the shears and find the perfect spot along a stem just in front of a purple bulb of what could maybe pass for overly large garlic. “Cut slowly and with the same force the entire time.”

I managed to follow his instructions thanks in large part to my Dexterity, or at least I thought I did. I figured there was just no way one of my Stats wasn’t helping my hand stay steady and slow.

“Move the other hand to catch the Grackle before it falls even a millimeter. But carefully time it for your hand to arrive as you finish the cut.”

Again—I managed to follow his instructions. The ‘Grackle’ didn’t fall at all, and I slowly brought it back to myself. The already fragrant air now hummed with what I could only describe as the smell of coconut-melon. It was a sweet smell but had a depth that spoke of vacation. I wasn’t the only one who noticed this change, and a few nearby Gardeners stopped to sniff the air.

Following their noses, their eyes landed on me. They watched as I continued to follow Smegma’s directions. Slowly, I brought the stem of the Grackle, which was cut at a steep—almost eighty-degree angle, to the sapling. With the same precision as before, I notched a matching ten-degree slot in the thin sapling’s trunk, and then cut off the backside of the Grackle’s stem-bark to expose green cells beneath.

Smegma continued to direct me and I slid the Grackle inside the intended slot “Press the sapling’s bark firmly onto the Grackle and then stem-feed a tiny amount of Mana to it. Because this isn’t an Antikwa Sapling you’ll need three drops of Mana or more.”

To my shock, at five drops of Mana, the Sapling not only healed around the Grackle, but also grew about one centimeter wider, now easily supporting the fruit's weight. The fruit seemed to glow as well, maintaining the aroma in the air.

“What did you just do?” One of the Gardeners nearby exclaimed as they rushed over to check on the ‘fruit.’ I did my best to explain, having Smegma explain some of the process as I went. Unfortunately, none of the other Gardeners had any idea how to control their Mana yet, but Smegma assured me that the Tree would pull Mana from the air, and have a high probability of accepting a transplant of more Grackles every five minutes.

When I was done, I showed the group currently tackling this bush, how to make the cuts to a sapling, and the matching ones on the Grackle. Then Smegma had me move onto what he called a KnuckleNut, which also was abundant on this Tree. As I moved to gather it, one of the Gardener’s held up a hand above my shears.

“Don’t bother. Those aren’t worth much,” he explained when I looked at him.

“Idiots! All of you Humans are morons. KnuckleNuts can increase Demon’s skin thickness and density over time. They only work up to the E-rank, but they have a great deal of value!”

“Thanks for your advice, but if prepared properly, these Nuts can improve skin density and strength,” I explained to the man. He lowered his hand while simultaneously giving me a stare that questioned my sanity.

I moved to bite my nail, as I realized I had no way of explaining how I knew that. A glance at Alexus showed she was staring at me and listening to the interaction intently. It was too late now, so I doubled down and followed Smegma’s instructions as I moved to cut clusters of the Nuts. This time, we didn’t fix them to the Sapling, and instead placed them in the soil around the tree.

We also didn’t have to make any specialized cuts, making the harvest of the Nuts far faster than the Grackle. I showed the Gardeners the method and explained that buried KnuckleNuts—

“They are called Farells, are you sure you’re thinking of the same Nut?” The same Gardener that nearly stopped me corrected my explanation.

“Yep. Yep. Sorry, I know them by a different name!” I blurted.

For the next thirty minutes, I moved around the clearing and showed Smegma’s instructions to the workers. I was sure I was drawing a great deal of suspicion with each piece of knowledge I ‘showed off’, but there was nothing I could do. Thankfully, Jagger’s group had been brought to a different clearing.

I still had at least fourteen other visible plants to address when Smegma vanished. I groaned, knowing what was happening. I had just picked up a new Skill. A quick peek at my Mental Universe confirmed it.

After some deliberation, I announced, “That’s all I have time to show you today. I’m going to go join the Cleaners now. Keep working as hard as you can. I’ll send back some lunch later.”

I placed my sapling with KnuckleNuts, Grackle, Versail Leaves, Basilia, Ocean Grass, Eden Root, Witch Hazel, Wizard Bark, and Yellow Gardle to the side for someone to collect, unwilling to walk around and find the Gardener with the Bag of Holding. I’d put it in my Necklace if it wouldn’t kill the thing instantly. I then turned to Alexus and grumbled, “Could you take me to the Cleaners now.”

Grumbling was the only way I could control my volume and somewhat keep my dislike of the woman out of my voice. Still, the two currently aware Mana Banks caught my tone and frowned deeply at me.

“What’s your problem?!” One of the two asked, no longer able to contain her frustration with my tone, and where I was directing it.

“My problem?” I questioned right back, my tone now joined by volume. Unfortunately, we were right in the center of the clearing, so everyone heard. As if Smegma could somehow hear me husking up, while making a Skill in my Mental Universe, he popped back into existence at my side.

“Kid, don’t do this!” Smegma shouted in my ear, after he only took a split second to put together the situation. But I ignored him.

“My problem?” I repeated, adding even more distaste to my words as I indicated Eva. “She’s my problem. I met Eva at a photoshoot a few months ago! She was lively, energetic and healthy!”

I paused to suck in a breath. Eva seemed to rouse herself for a moment, looking at me with confusion in her eyes. Her lack of recognition only fueled my anger as it boiled over what controls Mental Fortitude put in place.

“Now look at her. She’s a shell of her former self! You think I can just stand here while a Greed takes advantage of her?”

To my utter surprise, Alexus smiled sadly and moved to Eva. What she did next quelled my anger like a hot plate getting dunked into water. Alexus gently raised Eva’s chin to meet her eyes and coaxed softly, “Eva, did you hear that? This man knows you. Do you remember him?”

I stood stock still, at an utter loss at the disparity between Eva’s appearance and my assumptions and Alexus’ words. What in the husk was going on?

Something hit me in the cheek, and because of the surprise, I tightened my neck muscles, not moving at all as one of the other Banks slapped me. It was the one who had spoken out, and she had tears in her eyes. In a whisper she hissed, “Let’s move away from here and not put my sister on display!”

The others, including Alexus nodded, and the Hunter helped guide a still-confused Eva to follow. It took me several moments to even register the request, and a few more long seconds to actually relax my tense muscles.

“I told you, kid. You should have left it alone. Now you’ve got a horn in your mouth,” Smegma said, quietly.

[What is going on?] I asked, wanting an explanation.

“Follow them. You’ll figure it out.”

That got me finally moving, but thanks to Eva’s slow speed while being guided, I didn’t have to even jog to catch the four women. Once we were far enough away, and the person leading the procession—the Mana Bank who’d slapped me—found a large, flat stone and we stopped.

Eva was lowered onto the rock by Alexus, and the Mana Bank spun on me.

“How dare you say that word in front of her, without all the information. You stupid, little boy! Eva was just getting better and now look at her.”

Sure enough, Eva was shaking as Alexus held her. Any remaining spark of anger fled in that moment, and I felt like a cooling hot air balloon. I’d clearly misread the situation, and made it worse!