After all of the human units had gone home from their allotted assortment of work time, BA-998 activated precisely at 8 P.M. and stood. It manipulated its limbs to proceed to the job start point, where it obtained a trash receptacle and a trolly. Then it began steadily moving through the designated locations, removing the plastic bags from waste bins and placing them into its own, larger, waste bin to be brought to the disposal area.

BA-998 did not tire or hurry as it worked. There was no point in these areas. The movements it had chosen were the optimal speed, balancing the need to accomplish the job quickly with the need to avoid wasting time or effort with hasty mistakes.

Floor by floor, BA-998 continued to gather waste. Occasionally, it would take its larger waste bin to the waste chute and throw the accumulated waste down to the waste room to be sorted between being recycled, composted, or compacted. Then it would unfold another waste bag into its bin and continue its mission.

Very soon, BA-998 reached the top floor. The top floor was Special. Some of the human units whose role brought them to the top floor possessed Authority, which meant their directives could override BA-998’s mission. This override was limited to six-hour increments, but it was still very important that BA-998 not distract the Special individuals who worked here.

On the top floor, BA-998 knocked on every door before entering. Only when five seconds passed without a response would the automaton proceed into the room and accomplish its business. And to further reduce the time BA-998 spent in these rooms, it had streamlined its movements to near-perfect efficiency.

Knock.

No answer. Enter, proceed to the wastebin, remove, turn-

BA-998 paused and recalculated. It had turned too quickly and torn the waste bag. Waste was now spread over on the floor of this Special Room. it quickly lowered its body and used its arm implements to gather the fallen waste, mostly paper products. Luckily, there was no organic matter, or BA-998 would be forced to report this unexpected deviation to a BA devoted to cleaning, thereby starting a chain reaction of inefficiency.

Such an occurrence was not ideal.

However, BA-998 still paused as it picked up the waste. One of the paper products emitted a faint glow that definitely possessed the energy of human unit Engraving.

BA-998 felt nothing as it looked at this glowing symbol. However, the BA’s had all been briefed on certain unlikely protocols that might arise in the course of their duties. One was the propensity of the human units to engage in random behaviors. Their biological mechanisms carried out natural experimental actions without conscious thought, leading to the rapid accumulation of valuable data for the human units. However, there was an obvious drawback to such behavior: near-constant deviations from baseline norms.

So BA-998 was aware that some of these behaviors might result in something of value being thrown away by chance. As such, BA-998 carefully set the glowing paper product to the side, to be taken before BA’s who were specially trained to recognize the value of human items.

BA-998 replaced the waste bag in the Special Room and then continued to proceed with its duties.

*****

“Crap, how are you so good at this?!?!” Todd looked against at Randidly as he finished copying the standard exercises that Todd had given him and began to experiment with the limits of this “Scrawl”.

At the moment, about thirty sticks whizzed through the air around him in a complex pattern. Randidly was currently adjusting the size of his Scrawl Mark, to see if battery power made much of a difference to the functions.

Congratulations! Your Skill Scrawl of the Ghosthound (L) has grown to Level 122!

Randidly tried to keep his expression normal, as a stream of Level up Notifications popped up in front of his face. The duo had retreated from Kharon Academy proper to a thick woods on one of the less affluent dormitory islands that circled around Kharon Academy. Randidly had learned that his teacher's name was Todd and he was an orphan rescued from a Bubble City before their lessons had begun.

To his credit, Todd took his role as ‘sensei’ very seriously.

The kid had ripped a thick branch from a tree and showed Randidly how to form the core of his Scrawl Mark, which essentially let one supersede the energy connections of more typical Engraving. But by just using Scrawl on an inanimate object, you could add supplementary runes to provide typical Engraving effects.

To his surprise, Randidly had actually learned a Skill when he followed Todd’s direction. Rather embarrassingly, it was a Legendary Skill that bore his name. But even so, he wasn’t going to sneeze at the Skill Levels he was accumulating. With his Willpower, his deep understanding of how to manipulate Nether, and his experience using typical Engravings, power Leveling through this Skill was almost cheating.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Todd looked up at the flying platoon of tree branches and rubbed his hand. Then he began muttering to himself. “Am I just… the greatest Sensei ever…?”

Congratulations! Your Skill Scrawl of the Ghosthound (L) has grown to Level 123!

Influence +19!

Congratulations! Your Skill Scrawl of the Ghosthound (L) has grown to Level 124!

The activation for this Skill was actually quite interesting. A nucleus of energy was created that latched like a parasite onto the material. With its core’s unique structure, it was comically easy for a Scrawl Mark to hack into an Engraving. Of course, a powerful Engraving couldn’t have its course shifted by a weak Scrawl Mark. But it did make Randidly realize that there were some latent flaws in his Kharon Engine.

That thought made Randidly frown. It would be hard for anyone now to gather enough power to take control of my city. But in another ten or twenty years…?

“Ah!”

Todd’s scream had Randidly spin around, looking for a threat. But his Grim Intuition faithfully reported that there was no danger in the surrounding trees, just other groups of children. Randidly tilted his head and looked at Todd, who had fallen on his butt and was pointing behind Randidly. Faithfully, the student turned to look at the source of his shock.

A moss spirit giant, composed of perhaps a thousand of the friendly sprites, was crouching behind Randidly, watching him work on his Scrawl. Randidly had noticed the observation earlier and allowed the moss spirits to gather and watch his work. He had idly wondered whether the moss spirits would be able to learn Engraving. And in a way, it would address the problem of some powerful Scrawler hijacking Kharon, so Randidly had been slowly demonstrating for the moss giant.

“You… how are you so popular with the moss spirits…?” Todd blinked several and then hopped to his feet. Then he swaggered confidently over and poked his hand into the warm body of the moss spirits. Always willing to put on a show, the moss spirits around Todd’s hand exploded in a flurry of light and color. Todd nodded in satisfaction. “You must have lived in Kharon for a long time.”

“Well… Kharon’s my home,” Randidly said slowly. He sighed as he looked at the enthusiastic moss spirits continuing to play with Todd. “But… I guess I’ve been away for a while. And pretty soon, I’ll have to leave again.”

The moss spirits visibly dimmed at Randidly’s admission, but Todd nodded sagely. “Kharon’s just one city, right? It’s the best city in the world definitely… but we can’t just stay here! There is a whole world to explore! There is the Great Enemy that waits in the darkness! If we don’t work hard and just laze around here, we won’t be able to protect Kharon when that foe shows up.”

Randidly quirked an eyebrow upward as he snapped off another branch and began showing the moss giant how to use Scrawl. “The Great Enemy?”

“Yes, the Great Enemy! I’m not surprised you haven’t heard; it's a secret only know to the true patriots of Kharon,” Todd said seriously. Then he coughed into his hand and his expression changed to a worshipful look. “Randidly Ghosthound could not stay in Kharon… and most people just say that he went up to the Nexus and leave it at that. But have you wondered why Expira’s greatest hero would leave his home planet behind? Leave behind the city that he exhausted himself to build? It’s because of the Great Enemy!

“The Ghosthound was the only one on Expira powerful enough to contend with these dangerous existences. Anyone else would be annihilated when they faced these individuals!” Todd was building up some momentum now. His eyes shined with excitement. “But the Ghosthound didn’t falter, even though he had to fight these foes alone! Even now, he’s out there training tirelessly to protect us! That’s why we cannot waver in our dedication. Because he is not perfect. And when he eventually needs help… when that mysterious Great Enemy finally makes their way to Expira… we need to be ready.”

Influence +7!

At that moment, Todd burned as brightly as a beacon with the spirit of Kharon. Randidly’s chest felt warm. His expression as he looked at Todd was gentle. “...thank you. You do a great service to your world, Todd.”

“Hmph, of course. Who do you think your Sensei is?!?” Todd puffed out his chest and adjusted his glasses. But no sooner did he struck a pose than laughter drifted out of the surrounding trees.

“What a joke.” A teenage girl with long blonde hair stepped out of the treeline and crossed her arms. “Someone like you will never be able to help the Ghosthound, Toddler.”

Todd squinted at the girl behind his heavy glasses. His hands balled into fists.“Eileen Krouse…! My eternal rival!”

"Heh, us, rivals? Don't make me laugh." Eileen Krouse raised her hand and put it in front of her mouth, affecting a high-pitched and very fake chortle. "But you have been a thorn in my side for far too long, Toddler. Which is why I've brought Superman Bennio this time to tie you up! There is no way I'll allow you to steal that from me at the Under-Auction!"

Nearer to Randidly and Todd, a sixteen-year-old boy who was not wearing a shirt stepped out of the treeline. He looked lazily at the two of them and flexed his shirtless torso. Eileen laughed again, but Todd's eyes flashed.

"Student, you won't be a match for Superman Bennio. Distract them and then we can flee!"

Almost helplessly, Randidly curled a finger. His fleet of Scrawl marked sticks twisted around midair and shot toward the muscular teenager. The teenager seemed to realize what was happening and bounded forward, but Randidly expertly guided the various sticks to hit the boy's joints and adjust his center of balance.

While Todd was frantically putting a scrawl on a large carpet he had pulled from his interspatial ring, this Superman Bennio stumbled and roared. "Goddamnit, just fight fairly, you old piece of shit!"

Randidly's mouth twitched. Believe me, you really don't want that.