“Hob… Why is my skin all gray and shiny?”
“Ah… I'm sorry, sir,” Hob winced, “When Varhas Corax shot you, the bullet hit directly in your chest and damaged the gem. An automated emergency preservation protocol kicked in, and the gem absorbed the bullet to save itself - and you.”
“That’s why I survived getting shot?” I asked, astonished. “How?”
“Well, the bullet’s thermal and kinetic energy was used to power the protocol’s mechanisms, giving it enough energy to send out a healing pulse. The material of the bullet was integrated into the regeneration process that replaced your missing flesh, creating something stronger. It also encased the gem in a protective… cocoon of sorts.” my friend explained.
“A cocoon?” I asked, alarmed.
He nodded. “This is an automated process meant to protect the gem, so it can and will happen again should the gem be damaged, sir, and there is little I can do to influence, let alone stop it.”
I sighed and collapsed back into the pillow. “That does not sound good.”
Hob shook his head. “It is safe to assume that it is not, sir. From what I could grasp of the process, the preservation protocol is programmed to escalate. The more it gets triggered, the stronger the reaction will be.”
“Right, so, every time it gets damaged, it will take more me to protect itself?”
“I believe that is the case, yes. The gem has integrated itself into your sternum, and so far, the cocoon of altered flesh has not spread to any of your organs, but I cannot predict the result if it does.” He sounded concerned.
I sighed. “Right, don’t get shot in the middle of the chest. Gotcha.”
Hob nodded happily. “I would say that is sound advice for everyone, regardless of their situation. And if it helps, the cocoon appears to be quite sturdy, so even if you did get hit, it would take a significant amount of force for an attack to make it through the new defenses and to the gem.”
I snorted and nodded. “Well, that’s something.” I looked down again.“At least the glow has gone away, too.” I shook my head and chuckled. “Ah well, throw that in the ‘worry about later’ pile.”
“Very well, sir,” Hob said, and a tiny white box appeared in his paw. He threw it over his shoulder, and it landed on a pile of white boxes that appeared behind him, in his window.
I blinked, incredulous. “Do… Do you actually have a ‘worry about later’ pile?”
He turned to me with a smirk. “You mean you don’t?”
A laugh bubbled up my throat. Hob chuckled, too. We laughed together for a minute. It felt good. It was good. Unfortunately, we still had work to do.
“Right back to serious matters.” I took a deep breath and got my mind back on track. “Varhas and Orelia.”
Hob hummed. “What can you tell me about Varhas Corax?”
“More than the public knows, but less than I'd like. What little information I have of Varhas is what Silver could remember before she ran away and the scant few bits of information I managed to find while investigating him.” I said, a little of my bitterness seeping into my voice.
“Anything might help.” Hob shrugged.
“Well, starting from publicly available info, Varhas Corax used to be a famous bounty hunter some thirty years ago. Specializlized in hunting down rogue Fluxborn for some reason.” I shifted around, getting more comfortable in the bed.
“Rogue Fluxborn?” Hob asked.
“Yeah, any Fluxborn found willingly working against the guild or grossly abusing their powers are marked as “Rogue” and are hunted down. It’s why you don't have Codebreakers hacking into and stealing everything and why Fluxborn can walk around freely and live Topside and Underside despite many people fearing their powers.” I looked at a nearby Terminal that Zuri and Silver had left for me and connected to it. “The oversight helps put regular people at ease.”
“I see, and Varhas hunted these people down.” Hob mused. “I wonder why.”
I shrugged helplessly, “Beats me. As far as most people are aware, for 16 years, he was one of the most famous rogue hunters in the outer ring. Then, one day, he disappeared. Five years later, he returned with a Cardinal mark on his forehead. He started working for anyone with enough coin to hire him while indulging himself in casual murder, tracking down Fluxborn Topside or Underside, even those not marked as Rogue, and killing them.”
“As far as most people are aware?” Hob raised an eyebrow at me.
“Yeah,” I grimaced as I browsed through my contact list. “Silver told me the truth, or at least what Varhas told her when she was a kid. Roughly a year after she was born, her mother, Geona, was killed in an accident. From what she remembered of him back then, Silver said that for as long as she could remember, Varhas was a depressed alcoholic, but he tried his best to be a good father to her.”
“Then… What happened? That does not sound like the lunatic we faced.”
I clicked on a familiar name and started composing a message. “Silver turned out to be a Fluxborn. When she was 6, her Metalweaver powers manifested. It made Varhas go into a murderous rage. The last thing she remembers of her father is him screaming at her that she is a tainted monster and chasing after her with a knife. The timeline lines up. Silver got away and made it to the Orphanage, and her father turned Cardinal.”
“Why does he hate the Fluxborn so much that he would try to kill his own daughter?” Hob said, looking troubled, crossing his little pangolin arms.
“No idea, pal,” I grunted, delighted at the prompt reply I received. The fence I used to sell some of the less-than-savory loot I’d find during missions was still active and willing to trade. I wrote a list of the loot we had earned during the previous mission.
“Ah, if it’s okay, please don’t sell the [Compressor Core] and the eight [Unity Function Badges],” Hob interjected, pointing at two items on the list I was about to send out. “Need them for my project.”
“Uh, okay,” I said, a touch more curious about Hob’s project. Eh. Whatever. I deleted the items from the list and sent it out. “Where was I? Ah, right. His hatred for the Fluxborn. Something tells me that Orelia might know.”
“Orelia Silas… She was Master Yorathan’s mentor, was she not?”
I nodded. “That’s right. Orelia was Yora’s mentor and my mission broker. Met her about five years before you were created.”
“How did you meet? Master Yorathan never talked much about her.”
“I don’t quite remember the details to tell you the truth.” I looked at the reply that had just come in with a grimace.
The fence was playing hardball. I reminded him that a positive relationship with me was much more valuable than whatever few extra credits he could pressure out of me.
“One year before I moved out of the Dojo, she came to pay me a visit. Said she’d heard of my exploits and wanted to become my broker. Made a lot of offers that sounded almost too good to be true, especially for someone who'd only been running missions for a year at that point." I felt a sour taste in my mouth at the memory. "What sealed the deal was that, it turns out, she was a powerful Codebreaker. When she learned that my brother was one, she also offered to mentor him as long as I signed an exclusivity clause with her for all major contracts. Yora was only 8 and already far ahead of his peers. I couldn’t refuse the opportunity to give him specialized education or the resources Orelia was offering.”
An apologetic reply arrived, and I smiled widely. Feeling satisfied, I hit the “Accept Offer” button at the bottom of the message. The equipment Hob had looted disappeared from my inventory, and 3 gold coins, 6 big silver coins, and 2 small silver coins appeared. I felt my [Barter] skill proc, and 3 small silver coins, 6 big copper coins, and 2 small ones were also deposited in my inventory.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
And I got a notification!
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[Skill Level up!]
[Barter] Level 1 to Level 3
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“Nice,” I muttered under my breath. “So,” I turned to Hob. “Orelia. After the mission to kill Varhas went sideways, she disappeared. Haven’t been able to contact her since.”
“That’s an issue,” Hob hummed.
I shook my head. “Not at all. Now that I’m back in the game, I need something to do. Hunting down Orelia and getting some answers out of her is a decent long-term goal. My brother’s death is partially on her, and now I know there was more to it than just taking down a dangerous killer.” I gritted my teeth, an ember of rage igniting in my chest. “She’ll talk whether she wants to or not.”
“That sounds like a good plan,” Hob said in a pacifying tone. “But don’t get worked up. You are still healing. You have at least a day before you are back in fighting shape.”
He was right, of course. I took a deep breath, taking in the sterile scent of the infirmary. “Yeah, thanks, bud.”
“I do believe the Omega situation is also worth investigating, sir,” Hob said, adjusting his bowtie.
I nodded in agreement. “Yeah. Seeing as the [Alpha Slayer] and the [Omega Slayer] titles have the same effect… Actually, what is that effect? What the fuck is “synchronization” supposed to be? I understand the other stats from the ancient games we played, but this thing is different. All I know is that it has something to do with the knife my arm ate.”
Hob grimaced and scratched the back of his head with an awkward expression. “Truth is, sir, I am not entirely sure what this statistic is. I know that you have it and that the achievements provide a bonus to it, but I have no idea what its effects or underlying mechanics are. I don’t really know why it consumed the knife and is leaving other equipment untouched, either.”
“Right,” I huffed. “One more for the pile, then,” I smirked as I watched Hob conjure another small cube and toss it behind him.
“Back to the Omega situation, both Alphas and Omegas have those numbers next to their names… So, let’s go with the theory that they are connected somehow.”
“And so is Toriklas.”
“Yes. I hold him responsible for what happened to those kids and poor Sothog. Aren, too, and who knows how many more we don’t know about. He has a lot to answer for.”
“This is quite a mess.”
“Yep.”
“Let’s see if I can do something about it…” Hob said, with a mischievous glint in his eyes.
I raised my eyebrows. “Oh?”
Nothing happened for a few seconds, and I was about to open my mouth when a window opened up.
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[REQUEST APPROVED]
Generating Missions
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[The Broker’s Truth]
Track down Orelia Silas and find out the truth.
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[The Butcher’s Fate]
Discover if Varhas Corax is still alive. If he is, fix that.
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[The Shard’s Machinations]
Figure out what Ignateous Toriklas’ plans are.
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[The Alpha and the Omega]
Discover information about the Alpha and the Omega creatures.
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[The Gem]
Grow Stronger.
“Awaken, Apostate of Rust.”
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I grinned in incredulous glee. “That’s… Wow. Getting approval to generate a single system quest usually takes days. You managed to generate 5 at once? If we get system rewards for completing these, it might be your most overpowered ability yet.” I smirked in amusement at the last mission generated. “You didn’t need to request a quest for getting stronger, though.”
Hob looked at me with a strange expression. “I… Didn’t, sir.”
I looked at the last quest again. The only one with extra text.
I opened my mouth, trying to figure out something to say.
I couldn’t.
I closed my mouth, then the window. “Nope. Not going to think about that right now. I’m starting to get a migraine.”
“Understandable, sir.”
At that moment, Zuri walked into the room, eyebrow raised, arms crossed under her chest. Why was she holding a fluffy-looking pillow? “I think that is enough chit-chatting with the voice in your head. You need rest. Here, I brought you a fresh pillow.”
I grinned mischievously at her. “If you are going to act like my nurse, I’m going to have to ask you to start dressing like it, too.”
Zuri looked at me with wide, incredulous eyes, let out a single guffaw, grinned, and threw the pillow at me.
It hit my face with a pleasant “poof,” muffling my own laughter. It smelled like jasmine.
…
Zuri stayed there for a few more hours while I slipped in and out of sleep, my HP slowly filling back up. Silver, curiously, never showed up. By the next day, Zuri had been called back to her clan, and I was well enough to leave.
I put on my clothes, thankful they hadn’t sustained enough damage to overpower the self-repair function.
Feeling hearty and whole and with a plan in mind, I walked out of the Orphanage. A voice stopped me as I was about to head to the elevators.
“Razel... Wait...”
Silver. “What’s up?” I asked, turning to give her a faint smile.
“You…” She stood next in front of the doors to the Orphanage, fiddling with her dress and staring at the ground, bags under her eyes. “You didn’t speak with Aren yet.”
What? Was that it? “I wanted to look into something before I went to talk with him. I wanna bring him some good news. I had an idea that he might like, but I don’t want to give him hope for something that is not a sure thing.”
“Ah,” she said, hesitating. “That… makes sense. Yeah.”
She was not acting like herself. “Silver, what’s up?” I asked, slowly approaching her.
“I… Nothing… I just… Here...” She looked up and held out a tiny object. A tiny, black, flat object that looked like a crystalline guitar pick.
“Uh… A [Black Token]? Why are you giving me this?” I asked, raising an eyebrow in surprise.
“Because… Because you saved Aren. You risked yourself for a Fluxborn child, and that cannot go unrewarded.”
“Silver, are you serious? I know there are rewards for those who help Fluxborn children, but this reward is…” I struggled to find the right word before settling on “Disproportional.“
“Look,” Silver opened her mouth, but it seemed like she struggled to say whatever she wanted to, so in the end, she just sighed, “Being forced to sit idly by didn't sit right with me. Please, just take it as compensation.”
“Silver, seriously, thank you, but I-”
“Just take the damn thing!” She snapped, cutting me off, her eyes flashing with something fiery, but that lasted for only a moment, and the exhaustion set back in. “Please…” She whispered.
“… Okay,” I said, slowly and carefully picking the black token out of her fingers with my forefinger and thumb. What was up with her?
She looked at my expression and seemed to come to her senses, closing her eyes and taking in a deep breath. “I’m sorry… I… I’m just…” she slowly let the deep breath out, “Really stressed.”
“Okay…” was all I could say.
Silver turned and put her hand on the door. “Razel… I… I’m sorry.”
I opened my mouth to ask her what was happening, but she hurried through the doors, slamming them behind her. I heard a click, and a green light next to the door turned red. She’d locked the doors.
“What the fuck?”
“Yes. What the fuck, indeed,” Hob sounded equally as confused.
But hearing him curse was so jarring that it somehow helped. I think he did it on purpose, the cheeky bugger. I looked down at the token.
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[Black Token]
Rank: N/A | Level: N/A
Description: “Perseverance” series Navigation Chip
Durability: N/A
“Erlösung. ملاذ. Perseverance. 望む.”
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I stared at the tiny item helplessly. “I mean… It’s the real thing. Chips can’t be faked, tampered with, destroyed, or created. It's why they are trusted as these forms of currency. Nobody has managed to make a counterfeit one or affect any changes on the token, and every single person that attempted it died.”
“Well…What do we do with it?”
“First, we have to hide it, and then… I… guess it's time to call in some favors.”