James took a deep breath - or rather, mimicked the action since he had no lung or respiratory tract - and focused on the target in front of him.

He was back in the sewers lair, three days after Pierce Evil's attack. After that Blake Black had left members of Mischief finally arrived, James had them discreetly guard the shop while Larry, Barry, Jeffrey, and Mark got to enjoy a nice day off. Although Soluble's former goons were initially supposed to act as the brothers' bodyguards, recent events had shown they needed more than that to keep things safe from more dangerous things than desperate thugs. After having the brothers and their guardians drop the injured kid at Doctor Drake's office, James quickly sent word to Techlord for more heavy weaponry and to speed things up for the shield research, but he knew he also had to be better prepared himself. For all his talk of training for more significant threats than simple animals with the ratlings, he hadn't been ready for someone to drop in out of nowhere.

James had spent the days after the encounter training with the ratlings in basically all he could do. He needed more tentacles, bigger ones, but also needed to be quicker and more precise. As Pierce Evil had shown, a horde of shadowy limbs wasn't worth much if the opponent could just evade them or take them out one by one quicker than James could regenerate. He also needed to improve his magic and find a way to counter or block weapons that could harm him, if that rapier had been as ineffective against him as a mundane knife was then he would have been much more brazen in his fighting.

As of now, James was training his magic alone while the ratlings slept. He had continued reading the magic guide and learned a few more spells, but right now he was trying to do something else.

In his Silhouette form, James formed a tentacle that he threw back before launching it forward at a circle drawn with chalk on the wall of black bricks, the appendage separated from his body and turned into a black blade that flew through the air, leaving behind it a trail of black smoke before it hit the wall and pierced it, the blade embedded by half its length in the black stone. James wasn't done, however, and with a flex of his mind, the blade exploded into a mass of wriggling slime that wildly struck at anything and everything nearby, which in the empty section of the training room meant it was grasping at nothing. Another flew and the mad slime turned into an urchin, every tendril it had formed instantly hardening and straightening before the tip curled to ensure anything pierced by the main body couldn't just slide off. James could tell the urchin was solid, probably not strong enough to break a bone but more than enough for simple flesh and organs. This gruesome technique would probably be reserved for feral creatures or people with high regeneration, there was no need for that sort of thing for regular people when a single tentacle was more than enough. He still needed to figure something out for armored foes.

James took in another deep breath as the urchin melted and rejoined with him, and this time tried something else.

James spread his shadow over the floor and dissolved, disappearing in the ambient darkness as it reached the walls and ceiling of the room before a dark blade burst forth and flew through the air at an incredible speed before it collided with the spreading shadows and disappeared in it before promptly emerging and flying through the air from another wall, using the momentum to go faster and faster each trip between two spots of darkness to the point even James himself had troubles following its trajectory, which was exactly why he used this technique - to learn how to control it enough to be viable in a fight.

Discovering this little trick had taken a very painful session of resistance training, and it was by complete accident that after having his "head" crushed like a watermelon he had instinctively popped it back out from his back. It hadn't taken long for him to have the idea to combine his ability to "become" a room with this new trick to create the bullet hell of a single blade he had devised. He was very thankful he had no stomach to empty after his first attempt, the blade was still a part of his body after all, and although it didn't have as much of "him" as his greater part did at the speeds it reached the vertigo was very impactful.

After half an hour spent getting used to the even greater speeds of this training session, James added a new attack to the whole mess - using the blade to cast spells.

Surprisingly, learning the magical equivalent of knife throwing had been pretty easy. James had expected the increased focus of forming a solid object with sharpness rather than bluntness in mind would be a challenge, but in retrospect, he hadn't had much trouble with his "spikes" and "shadow ball" spells, so why would a "throw spike" spell be that much harder? The only difficulty had been aiming it, and even then with his odd body and his experience with shadow balls, it hadn't taken too long to get used to it.

It hadn't been the only spell James had learned, far from it. He had a new fancy basic shield, a wall of shadowy energy he could manifest relatively quickly - he could have better results by solidifying his own body, but a little something extra to take the brunt of damage or to use at a distance was always welcome. He also could make a cloud of black smoke, and though it didn't seem that useful outside of blinding his opponents James had a few ideas related to the abilities of his body and how to fool people.

There was one last thing James had begun to train, although he wasn't quite sure it would work yet. There was definitely something happening whenever he tried, he could feel it, but so far all he had to rely on were his intuition, his experience with his soul space and meditation, and his link to infused items. James focused on himself and the various connections surrounding him and let himself go, slowly melting down to the ground like wax as minutes passed.

Breathe in, breathe out.

Down in the Sunken City, in the orphanage, a small black growth, barely the size of a coin, emerged from one of the dark stones in the basement.

"Boss!"

James broke out of his trance and awoke back in the training room and came face to face with Larry and Barry, clad in their new black and white matching suits. Where one had a black tie the other had a white one, and this pattern continued for the whole outfit. The tall lanky man and his shorter and broader sibling stood next to each other, their expressions hard to read. They didn't seem panicked, and if anything they were looking fine, but there was still some worry visible in their eyes.

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"Barry, Larry. To what do I owe the pleasure? I hope Runar's men haven't been a problem?"

"Nah, nothing to worry about boss. There's usually one hanging around but they know better than to test their luck. Nah, we're here about the kid, boss."

"Doctor Drake came by, she said she was worried about them. She wanted Guy to come to see them, but since he hasn't been around for a while..."

"Thank you for warning me. I'll tell him to come back up, as enthused as he is about the Sunken City he still has his duties on the surface. And are you certain all is well since the attack?"

"Boss, we're okay. We ain't kids."

"Barry, no need to be rude. But yes, everything is okay. We might need a new batch of products soon, our stocks are getting a little low."

"No questions about me?"

"Oh, tons. But we tell them what you told us to."

"That if they're asking questions, they're looking suspicious. And if they're suspicious, you'll drop by to pay a visit. Helps a lot that Runar's thugs that chose to leave are telling everyone you ain't worth angering. Thieves are too afraid of our guns to try anything now, too, that's nice."

"I do not think I share your enthusiasm there. We have dealt a great blow to Runar's pride, and I doubt he will lay low for long. The added workforce and Mischief are already working on improving defenses in the sewers, and the Shadow Commando is doing its best down below too. Have you looked around for surveillance and defense systems like I asked you?"

"Yes, boss. We asked Guy's guys, too. Nothing as good as the kid's work or what you can do so far. Turns out that when people have a trick to keep other people out, they keep it to themselves. The only thing of note would be contacting a big gang, but..."

"After what happened with Runar, they're being careful. Runar's guys are not the only ones staying around the shop all day."

"I might have to find an assistant for Techlord... Is there anything else of note you two have to report?"

"Some folks talk about rumors of the Patcher doing something, and that's never good."

"There are also a few people who dropped by the shop and said they were looking for work. We told them we'd pass the word."

Hiring more people? There are probably a bunch of spies in the lot, and even without that, I don't think I'm comfortable having more people come down here or to the orphanage... Well, I did hire the Shadow Commando right after they tried to capture me... But they were surrendering... Could I make a new base in the slums to throw off Runar? He already knows about the sewers, but since things have been quiet I don't think he knows where or what to look for.

"Larry, Barry, what do you think of those that came looking for work?"

"Mostly desperate guys and gals looking for hope, too bad at anything of worth to be valuable to groups or gangs."

"And spies!"

"And spies."

"Do you think you could make a screening to only recruit the destitute?"

"Uh... Maybe? A spy or two might slip in though."

"Don't worry Barry, I'm good with people."

"If anything, I want there to be a single spy among them. Not the best one, else they influence the legitimate recruits, but good enough that it wouldn't be strange to be fooled."

"Uh... Why, boss?"

"Oh! That's the part where he explains the plan!"

"We're going to make a new base, a hideout on the surface, in the slums. Some kind of hangar or warehouse, perhaps. All that matters is to fool everyone into thinking this new place is where we produce and stock our goods before they reach your shop, that way no one will look into how you always have products to sell or look for secret tunnels. We'll have proper shipments from this new site, guarded by trusted employees."

"Uh... Again, why, boss? And how do you plan to hide it from the newbies? Won't they have to be in the new place to do all the work? They'll notice something fishy is going on."

"Shush Barry, let him speak."

"We're giving our competition and Runar a new target, one that we will prepare exclusively for defense and storage so that even if it is lost we won't lose anything of value. I'll talk with Techlord to see how much we can do with it. As for the how... Well, I trust you both, but I think this is a case where it is best to keep you in the dark. Just hire people as you wish, Techlord and I will handle the rest."

"What about the money, boss?"

"What would you say?"

"If you just want people to do stuff without any value, maybe 10 Xerins a day? That's what most gangs pay their crate-movers."

"Offer them 15 Xerins."

"Sure thing. We'll leave you to it, then, boss?"

"Yes, yes. You're free to leave. Good work, both of you."

"Thanks, boss."

"Thanks!"

After watching them leave, James went to his pile of belongings in the corner of the room and retrieved them before going to Techlord's workshop, the large room he had initially dug and prepared for the genius teen had grown a lot to house the various components and equipment the tinkerer needed to keep on chucking out inventions. As he approached the door, James was very thankful the black bricks of the walls and the dark planks of the door acted as noise dampeners for this room, for even now in the dead of night the teen was at work. James turned into a shadow and slid in before reforming behind Techlord who was just finishing screwing shut a plate on a small circular metallic object with a black glassy bump in the center.

James faked a cough, and Techlord immediately turned around and pointed his right arm at James, a small barrel ending in a crystalline spike emerging from the gauntlet he was wearing and already creating sparks before the owner of said arm realized who had just surprised him in his work and put his weapon down.

"Boss? Right on time, I finally finalized the portable shield design. Its charge is pretty limited and it can only take one or two bullets before collapsing, but it should be enough for the shop. I already have a few ideas on how to improve the design for ourselves, but first I have those dozens of other tasks you dropped on me."

"You won't be happy then, Techlord."

"Oh come on! I'm only one guy!"

"Yes, which is why with your approval I think I'll start looking for an assistant for you soon. In the meantime, I have a few new projects in the works. Tell me, how well-versed are you in explosives?"

"Uh... I can make a bomb? I mean, I made the Techzooka, and you saw what it did."

"What about something on a... Larger scale?"

Techlord squinted his eyes behind the black glass of his mask.

"You're not planning on blowing up Runar's place, are you? I don't much about magic but I'm pretty sure that won't work."

"No, no. As tempting as it may be, we need to be sure of ourselves before such a tactic, and as you said yourself, we don't have the resources to outmatch his defenses, yet. No, I have something quite different in mind..."