Inventions
Phesx Caolia sat in the main floor with Pheli. It was calm and quiet compared to the underground floor. They were at a small square-shaped table, drinking from a few glasses as the day soon welcomed its first lights. He now felt his right foot a bit heavy and fatigued from his right shoulder despite the red syringes. Fortunately, he only felt painful and sore.
“How’s that foot?” Pheli asked, supporting her jaw with her hand. Phesx closed his eyes and softly groaned, “It needs a week or two to feel normal again. I was lucky to be treated quickly.”
“Mhm,” Pheli lifted her left eyebrow and drank again, clearly not buying that. Phesx smirked ruefully from the left corner of his mouth.
The others had long returned to the HQ, leaving the 2 of them behind to rest. Phesx felt a bit better, but he needed further treatment. If his body could heal penetrated gunshots, he wouldn’t need medicine in his life ever again. Unfortunately, that was just not his body.
“We should get going. Now that you must rest again, you better get to bions and firearms.” Pheli said before standing up, helping him to his feet. Phesx groaned, passing his arm below her back and leaning on her. His weight was nothing for Pheli, who carried him outside.
Once again, Pheli drove his Myertha into the city, bringing a tired Phesx to the HQ. After the mission, Phesx received 8,000 credits, with 6,000 extra because of the guns the group amassed after the gunfight. The money spent for the guns and magazines was refunded, which mattered the most.
Phesx’s pockets neared the 200,000 credits mark. It was still a long way from the highest void bion he could get in the HQ, and he still had to invest on other things, but it was a beginning.
Once they returned to the HQ, Phesx and Pheli spent the rest of the day there, after being treated by another medic. He needed a skin partition to cover his bullet wound faster. It was costly, but nothing that would shy Phesx away.
Afterwards, Pheli ensured he’d learn his place in the workshop, making him work until late at night to complete some parts of bions she was making, some basic bions, and a few changes to small pistols.
The work was tedious, but after a hefty day of 2 missions, and being injured in the last, Phesx felt reassured staying in one place and in the quietness. In the end, Waleks didn’t dare charge Phesx for using his grenades with Pheli by his side, so Waleks just forgot about it.
Of course, Phesx’s wouldn’t forget. Although he understood his dumb actions gained him a good pass from Pheli’s circle, he still felt embarrassed about it. Without Pheli’s shot into the truck, who knows how ‘useful’ the suicidal submachine gun attack would have been. He just forgot about it as well,
But, just like that, Phesx did 2,000 credits from the parts, changes to the small pistols, and beginning to craft some more bions. Before, he had to make a few bions as fast as possible, with all the resources covered by the organization.
That was Phesx Caolia under heavy stress, with free resources, and a goal behind it. He gained no money from the products he made, as they would all be used for testing only, unless they were really good.
But now, it was other people’s money that paid to get their things repaired or changed. Phesx wouldn’t be left to repair things yet, as Pheli wanted to cooperate in those works with him until he got the hang of it. How could she not know Phesx’s bizarre nature when learning?
The only thing he could use his money for, which he treated more carefully than other people’s orders, was to create more bions, or if he wanted to experiment. But even as Phesx wanted, Pheli threatened him with not seeing her if he disobeyed and experimented early on. Besides, she said she wanted to help him invent a bion or two, how could he refuse?
… As time passed, Phesx continued meeting the old fart, Emer. It was a painful experience after starting to heal. However, knowing he was making double and sometimes triple what he’d do with his previous jobs, which he didn’t quit, except for moving things around a tall building, Phesx felt comforted.
Furthermore, he made that amount in a day, whilst it would have taken him a few days a week to be paid such. Adding the work at the farm as a worker, and not just watching the livestock, which Phesx was paid 1,000 a week to do, with free food supplies and some quality crops, Phesx would gain 27,500 credits a week.
Basically, almost the same he gained monthly before. The major income came from the workshop as a crafter, gaining approximately 17,000 credits per week. In total, Phesx could make 106,800 credits, ‘at the very least’.
. . .
It took Phesx until next month’s 2nd week to fully heal. With Pheli supervising him, she started showing him how to repair stuff in the first week. Naturally, he was barely showing good results by now, a week later. But that was fine, at least Pheli knew he wasn’t talentless and that she had to be patient. Besides, he bought her several big pizza boxes each week.
She wasn’t the only one, though. Emer received a few small pizza boxes from him every week, too, as payment for what he now understood the other Instructors didn’t have. Furthermore, Phesx felt Emer was the only one who cared about him, before and after becoming an Artista.
Cala, Mel, José, and Bael were all on their stuff, and the new batch of Artistas had been decided, with Riverlye recruiting to about 14,700 members now. Only Emer kept talking to him, training him, like letting him know his limits and push them before he could understand them.
Naturally, Emer became more ruthless and quicker to hurt Phesx during their training. And lately, Emer spoke the least amount possible, simply attacking Phesx after accepting a pizza box or demanding more. From then on, Phesx would spend some of the late night and most of the early morning being poked and bruised by Emer, whose strength only increased, surpassing Phesx’s thoughts… and experience.
Even if Emer was an unknown expert, possibly from a hood organization, be it from Lýmoca or not, he shouldn’t be this powerful as an old man, right? Emer was so old, after all…
No matter how Phesx thought, Emer would show his apprentice otherwise, and that his strength only continued to unfold before him. Phesx, on the other hand, had only just understood this. However, he also caught upon something else, something… quirky.
As Emer procured to speak less, Phesx had the strange notion it was because Emer was too tired to do so, maybe growing truly older, at last.
Nevertheless, Phesx made a few tens of thousands of credits by now, but Pheli would still not allow him to experiment. Today, he had long finished practicing with Emer, who increased his speed and strength behind his every move once again. And now, Phesx was learning another process of repairing, for the umpteenth time, with Pheli.
They were at his counter, a little bigger than his previous kid-sized workbench. With light glasses and a thin plastic-like mask protecting their faces, they welded a tiny thing with utmost precision. Well, Pheli did, as she knew she had to demonstrate a few times, with a few different approaches and methods to let him understand.
She was really patient.
“!” Suddenly, Phesx jumped his eyebrows. Pheli wasn’t paying attention, focused on the broken small pistol barrel to notice, but Phesx’s eyes shone as he looked at all the parts she told him about for the past couple of hours. He felt he was ready to try.
“Phew.” A few minutes later, Pheli stopped working, took her mask and glasses off, which were a bit dirty with cleaning and infiltrated liquid, which could be from the rain, oil, chemicals, and even mud, among others. She cleaned her forehead and looked up, only to see Phesx looking down.
“Did you understand, at last?” Pheli lifted her eyebrows, further widening her eyes in joy as Phesx rested his hands on the table, waiting. She bent over the counter, pulled a drawer open, and took 2 other parts of small pistols, “Show me.”
Looking at her lover with determination, Pheli received a nod before Phesx grabbed the tools from her side and started working. Pheli tilted her head, as he initiated differently from what she taught him.
It wasn’t rare, but one would usually need a few days, weeks, and months to get a personal idea in their mind. Phesx just went ahead, doing the steps as demanded, but with an approach of his own. Pheli walked around the counter to watch from every possible angle, ensuring he wasn’t fucking up again.
But what began supervising his work became silently praising his work. Pheli watched as Phesx repaired the damaged parts, some metal lids smooth and recovered as much as possible, perfectly functional, and a feed system rearranged and as functional as new.
When it was done, Pheli looked at Phesx and lunged herself at him after he took his mask off. With his glasses still on, Phesx felt his mouth lovely invaded with a pair of soft hands delicately landing on his chest. A pair of bystanders happened to walk outside after they finished their kiss.
Pheli opened her eyes, becoming narrowed and dreamy as she watched him pull her saliva trails into his mouth… before chuckling through her nostrils. Her cheeks blushed a striking crimson before she buried her face in his neck.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
“I give you a week more. Show me you can repair anything on your level, and we can start experimenting,” Pheli whispered ever so softly. Her words entered only his ears, vibrating throughout his neck.
“What about my crafter role?” Phesx smoothly asked. Pheli ‘punched’ his collarbone and surprise attacked him, nibbling and pulling a bit of his neck’s skin. Her following sultry words seemed more commanding than proposing, “You have limits in your profession, but you can do whatever to my body.”
“Gulp…” Never has Phesx felt so stunned, conquered, and weakened. He watched as her warmth left his body, and she walked to her counter, locking the entrance close from her screen. Then, as she pulled a tower from one of her drawers, and dropped her pants, showing how much her hips made her body react with each step, each movement.
Then, she released her hair outside her jacket before also dropping it, leaving only a long-sleeved shirt that didn’t last. Her hands high up, she threw it to the side while heading into the bathroom. Before walking around the corner of the entrance, her brassier and panties went off, showing her lover her explicit left profile before disappearing into the steam.
When did the bathroom start heating up? Nevertheless, Phesx took his shoes off like an idiot before following her into paradise. They had the workshop all for themselves.
Falling into seduction, wallowing within their passion. Only Pheli knew what kind of hell she sent herself to after incensing her man. But maybe it was because of his injuries these last few weeks that she missed him taking all control, using her for both their ravenous pleasure.
. . .
A couple of months passed by.
In addition to the crafter income Phesx enjoyed, when he returned to doing missions, his general income vastly increased. He took mostly individual missions that required him to move quick, with little preparation in some cases, and getting the job done as quick as possible in others.
With a schedule of 2 missions per week, since Riverlye is large, but there aren’t thousands of missions, and even if there were, other lagjs would receive them instead. Phesx gained from 5,000 to 11,000 credits per job. More or less, he’d gain 56,000 credits a month. Adding that to his already established income, he gained well over 150,000 credits.
With 162,800 credits a month, Phesx had more than enough road ahead to plan. He wasn’t that far off from what Victor Ruva gained monthly, and the latter as incredibly successful. Of course, his company overall gained much more, so much that Phesx and Victor’s personal income wasn’t even trash.
Phesx’s gains as of today in Riverlye, the year 1,024, 6th month had accumulated to a total of 516,600. In half a year, with his ongoing projects, he could buy that arm bion at last.
During these 2 months, Phesx finally knew the cost of experimenting. Buying components to craft bions was nothing compared to researching new bions. Some crafters or secret world’s people working with crafters mained bions that weren’t in the market, small or intermediate, that complemented them the most.
Phesx was just another of them, along Pheli, who started experimenting because of him and with him. If void and regular bion components costed him 15,000 credits a month, then experimenting cost him 40,000 credits monthly. His monthly expenses turned up to 66,500, adding the extra 300 credits he now uses for groceries, and 8,000 from pizzas.
That was 2,000 credits thrown away every week for his 2 people, Emer and Pheli. Nevertheless, he couldn’t be more satisfied. Thus, Phesx now gains 99,500 credits per month, basically, and has his bank account with 384,200 credits for now.
He occasionally goes to missions with Pheli’s circle, which gained him quite a few tens of thousands of credits after these 2 months, going with them 4 times in the first month after recuperating, and 6 times during the past month. However, he used them for his Myertha.
His baby wasn’t just a means of transportation anymore. In 2 of the missions he went with Pheli’s circle, he had to road-gunfight in the roads from one city to another, ending in quite the massacre and nearly damaging his Myertha to irreversible effects. The pay was good, but he had to prepare further.
Phesx was already used to doing that in his solo missions. When he had to escort-watch over people, he’d pay store owners, restaurants, and even intimidate some groups’ hawks to either not respond to their ‘leader’ or notify him of any suspicious movements.
It wouldn’t be as dry as that, as Phesx learned through his few missions with Pheli’s circle. If it wasn’t learning throughout the mission, then it was when questioning them, intrigued and making them feel a bit proud of being seen so high by a rising little star like he is.
Phesx would also create potential escape routes if he couldn’t find any. Palms, parks, sewers, roofs, through some neighborhoods with complex roads and parking lots, etc. Lýmoca might not be the futuristic sight of the world, but it wasn’t all dirt streets and metallic thin rooftops as many discriminated the Lys to be.
It was the same when it came to different missions, such as assassinating a random member of a criminal group, or a large, organized criminal group. Or when he had to gather information from people, and even businesses a few times. Some were easy, some were boring and quick.
The assassination missions weren’t solely towards criminals, or Riverlye would lose a large number of money over being moral and just. They also took missions to annihilate people in positions within rising companies, blooming businesses, or low-end leaders from conglomerates.
Naturally, those missions were taken by people who could be trusted with a wide enough experience to accomplish the task. Such as Pheli, and her circle. Phesx was heading that way, though. Although he was pretty new, his ‘tales’ in one of the highest Artista circles was well-known in Riverlye after a few weeks.
The other new Artistas couldn’t even hold a handle to Phesx. It wasn’t a surprise anymore when people thought of him like an exemplary Artista. Regardless, Phesx wasn’t far from being looked at like one would to people like Teon, Imán, and Pheli, of course, who was the weapons master.
Regarding his daily life in the world, Phesx continued to make his living a few days a week. Although he now has to be less everywhere around the city, but he still gained more than enough to just live and rent his cheap house every month.
Being a person in his 17s with good health, he didn’t need to always eat well, so his groceries purchases of just 1,500 credits a month were feasible. His record was clear, and he wasn’t suspicious, other than the obtained gains that far surpassed most people’s salary in the world.
Well, that’s so for those outside the secret world. If what Phesx did could be easily questioned and brought to the government’s attention, no one in the world could be in the secret world.
Furthermore, if the government did send someone to question whom Phesx worked with, the farm would just reply with the supplies they gift him. As for the money, it could be considered Victor Ruva’s ‘care’ for the boy. Not knowing how the payment was made wasn’t an issue, as the world was long past its time when they had to know everything their people did regardless of the situation. That was left behind in the 3rd order.
Phesx helped a little with soil preparation, ploughing, weeding, and adding manure. The blondie and her fiancé focused on the rest, with workers from around the outskirts who needed the job, knew and/or could learn how to, and wouldn’t mess things up. Unlike family, more often than not…
During this time, Phesx saw the farm expand, adding slightly more of the same crops for the next harvest, and adding just a few new ones that couldn’t fit in the farm previously. Furthermore, the blondie chatted up a few of her father’s pals to ask for a discount and started growing more livestock. Everything was going well for them.
Today, for example, was the wedding between the blondie and her fiancé. Out of pure respect for the old man, and to be polite in the world of the ‘ordinary folk’, Phesx accepted the invitation. Or… it could be said that it became a threat, which then turned into a reward by none other than Pheli.
At first, Pheli was somehow aware of the blondie’s preparations for a wedding. When she brought it up, Phesx wasn’t even told yet, but Pheli threatened him with prohibiting his experiments again. This was when he was still close to finishing his first, new void bion.
As time passed, and Phesx received the invitation, he accepted it, of course. More or less at the same time, he created his first functional, stable, repairable even— void bion. It was small, but it was ‘potent’ enough to make Pheli sweat when helping him.
Thus, Pheli brought him to shop. Only then did it become a reward to Phesx, who salivated with the few outfits Pheli proposed to wear to the wedding. Now, several days later, there he was in the wedding.
The family was invited, of course. Although the fiancé’s family was seated closer to the newlyweds. Phesx and Pheli watched from a corner slightly further away. Both felt better not being too close to others, for one reason or another, and thoughts with the same reasoning.
“Phesx!” The blondie walked to Phesx’s small table after freeing herself from all the attention. Her face was all smiley and reddened. Her fiancé followed behind, smiling even harder.
Phesx politely stood up, with Pheli doing the same. The blondie narrowed her eyes, analyzing the piece of masterpiece and beauty the young boy brought. The orange-haired beauty even looked a few years older than him. The blondie thought, ‘What a player, no?’
“I’m glad you could come. Phesx never said anything about you! Oh my heavensss! Would you look at that? You’re just perfect for him!”
Pheli’s decorum smile turned broad and genuine. She brought the blondie to the side to talk of stuff, stuff only men could wonder what it could all be about, leaving the men behind. The fiancé and Phesx nodded at each other before silently standing at the side.
The blondie enjoyed her chatting time with Pheli, who didn’t seem to bother being in a farm despite her magnificent aesthetics. When it was getting a little late, the blondie returned Phesx his lover. The blondie brought her hubby away, winking at Phesx.
Phesx slightly jumped his eyebrows. When he looked at Pheli, she was slowly walking towards him, holding a little bottle as a gift. When Pheli saw his curious expression and tilt of his head, she smirked. Placing her left hand on his right shoulder, she whispered with her lips moving, close to his jaw, “It’s strange, but the bride just gave us a gift. Haha.”
“One of her family members gave it to her, from a male cousin, I think. Should she be worried?” Pheli asked, rotating the bottle to examine it. Phesx grabbed it and jumped his eyebrows again, this time in amazement. He easily opened it and smelled it, actually probing for poison.
“Oof. This is a big, rich, tasty thing. I only heard about it from… my adoptive family from the voluntary foster care program.” Phesx said before bringing a couple of glasses from their small table. Pheli was surprised, she let him pour her a glass, becoming a little… timid.
“Victor Ruva?” Pheli asked, clinking her glass with Phesx before taking a sip. Phesx watched her drink it with a slightly dumb expression. He was slowly growing used to his woman’s beauty, ah.
Seeing his curious eyes, Pheli smiled and said after her eyes jumped, taking another sip. “Very well, I can’t deny it anymore. I started prying into your information even more after you brought pizza to me, nothing else.”
“Hmph~,” Phesx humorously blew air from his nostrils before holding her slightly by the waist. She wore a black-cloud-like A-line dress with a long ribbon covering her cleavage, neck, and collarbone from her right shoulder to her front. Yet, she had a slight gap below her right ribs. Phesx placed his hand there, feeling her skin, making her momentarily shudder from their trained bodies’ memories.
Pheli’s eyes sweetly narrowed as her indifferent expression turned towards him, facing him up close. Phesx devoured her celeste eyes with his impenetrable black eyes, captivating her. At first, Phesx didn’t want to say something, but his words came out just as they did in his second-first exchanges with her.
“Repay me. You’ve intruded into my past life. Now I will, to yours. Let me.” His voice echoed through her reddening ears.
…