Keith woke up groggily, noticing he still had bandages all over his body as he lay on a white bed. He gingerly touched his face as he struggled to sit upright, feeling the new skin that was most likely the result of the Health Potion or Kyle’s Necklace of Healing.
The door suddenly swung open, revealing Damian carrying a bucket of fresh water and a cloth. However, the sound frightened Keith, who immediately curled up into a defensive ball, an instinct developed from the days of torture under Makoa.
“Keith, you’re awake!” Damian quickly ran over, placing the bucket on the floor before reaching out in a hug. Keith instinctively recoiled from the motion, the trauma still hurting him deep inside mentally.
“Sorry… I just need some time…” Keith apologized for the sudden reaction while Damian nodded in understanding.
“It’s alright. I’ll be here if you need me, okay? Just call me on the arctech radio.” Damian said with a gentle tone, before leaving the room. As he closed the door behind him, his face curled up into a furious expression. Ilysian Punks, you fuckers!
Damian fumed as he stormed through the base, frightening the associates who walked past him. It was in the early morning before their regular physical training routine, but he was already heading over to the training arena to practice. If I don’t put in the extra work, how will I be strong enough to protect Keith?
He noticed two associates simply lounging about in a break room. “What the fuck are you two doing! Why aren’t you training?”
“Huh? It’s more than an hour till the training routine –“
“AND YOU THINK THE ILYSIAN PUNKS ARE GOING TO WAIT FOR US?” Damian roared, taking out his pent-up frustration of inability on them. “GET UP AND TRAIN NOW!”
He stomped as the associates grumpily complied, complaining about how they felt like they were in a military boot camp rather than a criminal gang.
However, when he entered the training arena with them, it was a complete mess, with multiple other associates grabbing arcite ore and placing it around the room. Dozens of arcite ore sacks were stacked in the corner of the room, with Kyle directing the associates around.
“Wh… what’s going on?” Damian was surprised, losing his prior anger in confusion. He also noticed a small midget in a cloak next to Kyle, who seemed to be giving Kyle advice.
“I’m improving our training conditions,” Kyle replied without turning back.
“Lord Kyle, more arcite ore put here. The flow is not right!” The small midget exclaimed in a growling and broken accent, making Damian curious as to who this newcomer was.
The midget turned around to reveal a goblin’s face, shocking Damian. “What?! You brought it from the Culdao Peaks?”
“I had to. Gulak has experience in making such a chamber. I’m sure it will do a good job, isn’t that right, Gulak?” Kyle smiled.
“Yes, yes, of course!” Gulak nodded vigorously, having already been reminded clearly of both Kyle’s and Sasha’s strength. If the chamber was designed wrongly, Gulak knew there would be immediate punishment not only to him but to the rest of his tribe.
“Damian, we need more arcite ore. Buy some from the workshops or factories nearby.”
Damian’s mouth was already agape at the amount of ore being layered into the room. “We need more?! This is already close to a few million rakels!”
“Yes. Buy another few million rakels worth.”
“But that will bring our surplus down!”
“Money isn’t meant to be hoarded indefinitely. Do you want to get stronger or not?”
Damian was about to retort but decided against it. Kyle was right; there was no point hoarding when there was an imminent conflict with the Ilysian Punks on the horizon. “Yes, sir.”
Kyle observed the rest of the operation, as more and more arcite ore was layered in. The training room was starting to look more like a naturally-formed cave than anything else. He glanced at Gulak, who currently had its eyes closed, apparently trying to feel the flow of arcia energy.
Damian dutifully brought back the extra arcite ore, completing the chamber. Gulak nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, yes. This is same as chamber! It is how we do holy tattoo!”
Kyle’s eyes squinted, realizing something he had missed while he was in the Culdao Peaks. He had performed the engraving on the slaves in their respective rooms rather than the dedicated arcia chamber. “So, the success of engraving depends on the environment?”
“Yes, more arcia in air, more power and easier!” Gulak nodded.
“Engraving? Like engraving objects?” Damian queried, still unaware of what Kyle exactly did in the Culdao Peaks.
[Sasha, come here.] Kyle used his direct communication channel via the Designate Follower skill.
Sasha immediately entered the chamber, saluting Kyle. “Spar with Damian. Use all engravings.”
[Yes, sir.]
“What? What engravings?” Damian was still utterly confused, not seeing any form of arctech equipment on Sasha. Without warning, Sasha threw a high kick at Damian, who instinctively blocked it with his arm.
In a fluid combo, Sasha delivered three to five hits, with Damian blocking in a defensive posture with his forearms. Her hits are nothing special, I don’t see what Kyle is talking abo..
Suddenly, Sasha’s right fist glowed under its bandage, with her throwing a straight punch. The resulting force sent Damian stumbling back, knocking him off balance. With a sweeping kick, Damian found himself hitting the ground hard, staring at the ceiling now lined with arcite ore.
“You… you have arctech engravings on your body? But how?!” Damian finally realized what was going on, but his mind could not figure out how was it possible.
He was not an expert on arctech design or use of arcia energy, but he had a sinking feeling that this engraving was extremely taboo. “Again!” Damian jumped up to his feet, preparing to spar with Sasha again.
Kyle did not stay to watch the two of them spar, leaving the chamber with Gulak. He led Gulak to another room, where Monica was handling prototype handguns that were handcrafted by the ten associates and assembled by Kyle. Only the vipers would be allowed to use the handguns, as Kyle did not want them to be too obvious.
However, there was still a surplus of two hundred handguns, laid out on a table. More was being produced on a daily basis, though Kyle was not planning to get the factory involved. Monica was inspecting each of them before nodding at Kyle’s arrival.
“I need the two of you to work together on this job. For every ten handguns, Distribute eight handguns to as many weapon dealers as possible. Don’t let them find out that you’re Seven Snakes. In fact, it would be even better if Gulak did the sale.”
“How much do you want them sold for?”
“Doesn’t matter. The objective is to get as many guns out there into the sector. If you have to give them away for free, do it.”
“What if they reverse engineer it?”
“They won’t, I have a failsafe built into them.”
Monica frowned. “What do we do with the remaining handguns?”
“Stash them deep, and put them in a thick metal safe. As deep as you can find. When Keith wakes up fully, get him to find a suitable location. Under no circumstances can the enforcers find that stash.”
“You got it. But if all of these get traced back to us, we’re dead.”
“You let me worry about that part. Gulak, before you go, did you bring the knife?”
Gulak obediently presented the taboo knife wrapped in a cloth to Kyle.
Kyle gave them a few more minor orders before returning to his office. On his table laid two other items – the sniper railgun he had used to attack Makoa and the ancient exosuit spines.
Now that Kyle had a method of improving the training rate of the associates, it was time to figure out how he could boost himself even more. He checked his statistics again.
The titles had been extremely useful to him so far, as well as the class skills and the mana points. However, he had yet to spend time checking out the strength or dexterity stats. With no description of the stats, he was unable to determine what those stats relate to.
The stats seems to be exponential in nature… Kyle surmised as he had been gaining stats with every level up, but it did not feel like a linear power up. He could clearly tell he was significantly stronger than he was when he first arrived, especially with the increase in MP. The charisma stats seemed to affect his looks slightly as well, but did not increase with levels.
He also noted he had a lot of free points from the level-ups, but he had been holding on to them due to his reluctance to rely too much on the system. If the class selection was any indication, if I dumped all my free points into a specific stat, it would most likely be extremely painful.
There was no doubt that for the upcoming fight, he would need everything he could get his hands on. Kyle decided to put all his free points into Strength, Dexterity and Vitality.
Kyle felt a slight surge trickle through his muscles, a rejuvenating effect coming over him. It wasn’t much at all, which was a bit underwhelming to him. Kyle clenched his fist, testing his new strength, but he only felt a little stronger than he was before.
The stats in the system are far too unreliable. Kyle shook his head in disappointment before thinking carefully about what had just happened.
My class upgrade was painful – almost ten hours. Yet seventy points of stats did not much of anything. What is the difference?
Before Kyle could contemplate any further, a Seven Snakes associate knocked on the door. “Sir, I think you should head to the new arcite training chamber. You should stop them!”
“Stop them?” Kyle was confused, quickly leaving the office and heading over.
In the training ring, Damian was desperately throwing jabs and hooks at Sasha, who nimbly dodged and twisted her body, avoiding the slow punches. The spar looked more like a mockery, where Sasha barely seemed to make any effort to move around.
Damian let out a loud roar before throwing a straight punch at her face. In a blink, Sasha grappled the arm and flung him overhead by using her body as a pivot, slamming him back first into the ground.
“Fu….FUCK! AGAIN!” Damian bellowed as he got straight up, unfazed by the sudden defeat and getting into a fighting posture again. Sasha nodded and continued the spar.
The same result was repeated over and over again, but Damian gritted his teeth and kept trying. However, no matter what strategy he tried to use, he could not beat the lady nor land a single punch on her. Is this all my training has amounted to over the last three months?!
The engraving on Sasha’s right hand glowed again, prompting Damian to avoid the hit. However, Sasha followed it up again with rapid activations, showing her prowess in using the engravings to augment her combat style. The fist landed on his forearm, nearly cracking his arm and sending him sprawling onto the ground again for the umpteenth time.
Damian cursed to himself as he winced and doubled over. How the fuck am I to protect Keith when I am this weak?!
“Enough.” Kyle’s voice wafted over the rocky chamber as he entered. “You’re far too driven by anger to train properly. You keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. How long do you want to be beaten up by Sasha? Days?”
Damian gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. “I need to be stronger. I will do anything to be stronger! Kyle, give me the engraving too!” He had seen over the course of his sparring with Sasha just how effective it could be.
Kyle frowned. “The process is extremely dangerous. The chamber now may increase the success rate, but you might either die or lose your mind.”
“It doesn’t matter. I might as well be dead at my current strength!”
“Are you sure?”
Damian nodded with determination, his eyes feisty and driven.
Kyle did not try to convince Damian otherwise anymore. It would be a good thing if Damian became stronger as well. “Sasha, clear out the room and prepare for the procedure.”
[Yes, sir.]
The chamber was cleared of associates, leaving only Damian on a surgery table of sorts while Kyle and Sasha prepared the necessary equipment. Sasha strapped Damian down to the table on all limbs, to prevent him from moving around. Kyle unveiled the Taboo Knife, polishing its edge slightly with a grinding stone.
“Do you want the same force engraving?”
“No, give me a defensive one.” Damian shook his head. He knew his body was not fast enough to perform counterattacks, so it was better if he played a more defensive role. “One that can block bullets.”
In a food market on the far side of the South Sector…
An armoured man weaved through the dense crowds, packed like sardines in an underground bazaar, a sleazy atmosphere thick with Euria smoke assaulting his nose.
The sound of metal armour clinking was drowned out by the din of the crowd as dealers sold all sorts of exotic goods and illegal weapons. He shoved his way through, with the crowd actively avoiding his gaze as though he was a god.
“Behold! Fifteen handguns of the highest quality here. Don’t think they are anything like your usual arctech pistols – these babies can shoot up to three times, even if you’re a normal human!”
The crowd which gathered around the stall was amazed, whispering frantically among one another. Small-time bandits, criminals and other thugs all jostled with one another to get a better look at the weapons.
“Limited availability, only yours for sixty thousand rakels!”
“Sixty thousand rakels?! That’s a ripoff!” One of the thugs yelled from the side.
“I’ll buy it!” A smuggler grinned and grabbed a wadful of notes out of his hands, handing it over to the dealer.
“Deal! Pleasure doing busine-“Before the dealer could hand over the gun, the crowd was physically shoved apart by the armoured man.
“This stall is now closed. Move along.” The armoured man spoke.
Immediately the crowd began to disperse, many not willing to contest him except for the smuggler who had just paid. “HEY! I PAID HIM; IT’S MY GUN! WHO ARE YOU TO-“
Before the smuggler could finish his words, the armoured man grabbed the smuggler by the head and slammed him onto the ground, finishing the smuggler off with a step onto the neck and cracking it clean.
The dealer was frightened, his heart palpitating as he quickly tried to run away. Fuck, fuck, fuck I can’t get caught by the guards of this black market!
However, the armoured man grabbed his shoulder in an instant, delivering a punch to the face that knocked out the dealer immediately. Retrieving the arctech radio slung by his side, he tuned the channel before speaking into it.
“Report: I have spotted handguns entering the black market. Put me through to Baron Cain.”
Keith woke up groggily, noticing he still had bandages all over his body as he lay on a white bed. He gingerly touched his face as he struggled to sit upright, feeling the new skin that was most likely the result of the Health Potion or Kyle’s Necklace of Healing.
The door suddenly swung open, revealing Damian carrying a bucket of fresh water and a cloth. However, the sound frightened Keith, who immediately curled up into a defensive ball, an instinct developed from the days of torture under Makoa.
“Keith, you’re awake!” Damian quickly ran over, placing the bucket on the floor before reaching out in a hug. Keith instinctively recoiled from the motion, the trauma still hurting him deep inside mentally.
“Sorry… I just need some time…” Keith apologized for the sudden reaction while Damian nodded in understanding.
“It’s alright. I’ll be here if you need me, okay? Just call me on the arctech radio.” Damian said with a gentle tone, before leaving the room. As he closed the door behind him, his face curled up into a furious expression. Ilysian Punks, you fuckers!
Damian fumed as he stormed through the base, frightening the associates who walked past him. It was in the early morning before their regular physical training routine, but he was already heading over to the training arena to practice. If I don’t put in the extra work, how will I be strong enough to protect Keith?
He noticed two associates simply lounging about in a break room. “What the fuck are you two doing! Why aren’t you training?”
“Huh? It’s more than an hour till the training routine –“
“AND YOU THINK THE ILYSIAN PUNKS ARE GOING TO WAIT FOR US?” Damian roared, taking out his pent-up frustration of inability on them. “GET UP AND TRAIN NOW!”
He stomped as the associates grumpily complied, complaining about how they felt like they were in a military boot camp rather than a criminal gang.
However, when he entered the training arena with them, it was a complete mess, with multiple other associates grabbing arcite ore and placing it around the room. Dozens of arcite ore sacks were stacked in the corner of the room, with Kyle directing the associates around.
“Wh… what’s going on?” Damian was surprised, losing his prior anger in confusion. He also noticed a small midget in a cloak next to Kyle, who seemed to be giving Kyle advice.
“I’m improving our training conditions,” Kyle replied without turning back.
“Lord Kyle, more arcite ore put here. The flow is not right!” The small midget exclaimed in a growling and broken accent, making Damian curious as to who this newcomer was.
The midget turned around to reveal a goblin’s face, shocking Damian. “What?! You brought it from the Culdao Peaks?”
“I had to. Gulak has experience in making such a chamber. I’m sure it will do a good job, isn’t that right, Gulak?” Kyle smiled.
“Yes, yes, of course!” Gulak nodded vigorously, having already been reminded clearly of both Kyle’s and Sasha’s strength. If the chamber was designed wrongly, Gulak knew there would be immediate punishment not only to him but to the rest of his tribe.
“Damian, we need more arcite ore. Buy some from the workshops or factories nearby.”
Damian’s mouth was already agape at the amount of ore being layered into the room. “We need more?! This is already close to a few million rakels!”
“Yes. Buy another few million rakels worth.”
“But that will bring our surplus down!”
“Money isn’t meant to be hoarded indefinitely. Do you want to get stronger or not?”
Damian was about to retort but decided against it. Kyle was right; there was no point hoarding when there was an imminent conflict with the Ilysian Punks on the horizon. “Yes, sir.”
Kyle observed the rest of the operation, as more and more arcite ore was layered in. The training room was starting to look more like a naturally-formed cave than anything else. He glanced at Gulak, who currently had its eyes closed, apparently trying to feel the flow of arcia energy.
Damian dutifully brought back the extra arcite ore, completing the chamber. Gulak nodded in satisfaction. “Yes, yes. This is same as chamber! It is how we do holy tattoo!”
Kyle’s eyes squinted, realizing something he had missed while he was in the Culdao Peaks. He had performed the engraving on the slaves in their respective rooms rather than the dedicated arcia chamber. “So, the success of engraving depends on the environment?”
“Yes, more arcia in air, more power and easier!” Gulak nodded.
“Engraving? Like engraving objects?” Damian queried, still unaware of what Kyle exactly did in the Culdao Peaks.
[Sasha, come here.] Kyle used his direct communication channel via the Designate Follower skill.
Sasha immediately entered the chamber, saluting Kyle. “Spar with Damian. Use all engravings.”
[Yes, sir.]
“What? What engravings?” Damian was still utterly confused, not seeing any form of arctech equipment on Sasha. Without warning, Sasha threw a high kick at Damian, who instinctively blocked it with his arm.
In a fluid combo, Sasha delivered three to five hits, with Damian blocking in a defensive posture with his forearms. Her hits are nothing special, I don’t see what Kyle is talking abo..
Suddenly, Sasha’s right fist glowed under its bandage, with her throwing a straight punch. The resulting force sent Damian stumbling back, knocking him off balance. With a sweeping kick, Damian found himself hitting the ground hard, staring at the ceiling now lined with arcite ore.
“You… you have arctech engravings on your body? But how?!” Damian finally realized what was going on, but his mind could not figure out how was it possible.
He was not an expert on arctech design or use of arcia energy, but he had a sinking feeling that this engraving was extremely taboo. “Again!” Damian jumped up to his feet, preparing to spar with Sasha again.
Kyle did not stay to watch the two of them spar, leaving the chamber with Gulak. He led Gulak to another room, where Monica was handling prototype handguns that were handcrafted by the ten associates and assembled by Kyle. Only the vipers would be allowed to use the handguns, as Kyle did not want them to be too obvious.
However, there was still a surplus of two hundred handguns, laid out on a table. More was being produced on a daily basis, though Kyle was not planning to get the factory involved. Monica was inspecting each of them before nodding at Kyle’s arrival.
“I need the two of you to work together on this job. For every ten handguns, Distribute eight handguns to as many weapon dealers as possible. Don’t let them find out that you’re Seven Snakes. In fact, it would be even better if Gulak did the sale.”
“How much do you want them sold for?”
“Doesn’t matter. The objective is to get as many guns out there into the sector. If you have to give them away for free, do it.”
“What if they reverse engineer it?”
“They won’t, I have a failsafe built into them.”
Monica frowned. “What do we do with the remaining handguns?”
“Stash them deep, and put them in a thick metal safe. As deep as you can find. When Keith wakes up fully, get him to find a suitable location. Under no circumstances can the enforcers find that stash.”
“You got it. But if all of these get traced back to us, we’re dead.”
“You let me worry about that part. Gulak, before you go, did you bring the knife?”
Gulak obediently presented the taboo knife wrapped in a cloth to Kyle.
Kyle gave them a few more minor orders before returning to his office. On his table laid two other items – the sniper railgun he had used to attack Makoa and the ancient exosuit spines.
Now that Kyle had a method of improving the training rate of the associates, it was time to figure out how he could boost himself even more. He checked his statistics again.
The titles had been extremely useful to him so far, as well as the class skills and the mana points. However, he had yet to spend time checking out the strength or dexterity stats. With no description of the stats, he was unable to determine what those stats relate to.
The stats seems to be exponential in nature… Kyle surmised as he had been gaining stats with every level up, but it did not feel like a linear power up. He could clearly tell he was significantly stronger than he was when he first arrived, especially with the increase in MP. The charisma stats seemed to affect his looks slightly as well, but did not increase with levels.
He also noted he had a lot of free points from the level-ups, but he had been holding on to them due to his reluctance to rely too much on the system. If the class selection was any indication, if I dumped all my free points into a specific stat, it would most likely be extremely painful.
There was no doubt that for the upcoming fight, he would need everything he could get his hands on. Kyle decided to put all his free points into Strength, Dexterity and Vitality.
Kyle felt a slight surge trickle through his muscles, a rejuvenating effect coming over him. It wasn’t much at all, which was a bit underwhelming to him. Kyle clenched his fist, testing his new strength, but he only felt a little stronger than he was before.
The stats in the system are far too unreliable. Kyle shook his head in disappointment before thinking carefully about what had just happened.
My class upgrade was painful – almost ten hours. Yet seventy points of stats did not much of anything. What is the difference?
Before Kyle could contemplate any further, a Seven Snakes associate knocked on the door. “Sir, I think you should head to the new arcite training chamber. You should stop them!”
“Stop them?” Kyle was confused, quickly leaving the office and heading over.
In the training ring, Damian was desperately throwing jabs and hooks at Sasha, who nimbly dodged and twisted her body, avoiding the slow punches. The spar looked more like a mockery, where Sasha barely seemed to make any effort to move around.
Damian let out a loud roar before throwing a straight punch at her face. In a blink, Sasha grappled the arm and flung him overhead by using her body as a pivot, slamming him back first into the ground.
“Fu….FUCK! AGAIN!” Damian bellowed as he got straight up, unfazed by the sudden defeat and getting into a fighting posture again. Sasha nodded and continued the spar.
The same result was repeated over and over again, but Damian gritted his teeth and kept trying. However, no matter what strategy he tried to use, he could not beat the lady nor land a single punch on her. Is this all my training has amounted to over the last three months?!
The engraving on Sasha’s right hand glowed again, prompting Damian to avoid the hit. However, Sasha followed it up again with rapid activations, showing her prowess in using the engravings to augment her combat style. The fist landed on his forearm, nearly cracking his arm and sending him sprawling onto the ground again for the umpteenth time.
Damian cursed to himself as he winced and doubled over. How the fuck am I to protect Keith when I am this weak?!
“Enough.” Kyle’s voice wafted over the rocky chamber as he entered. “You’re far too driven by anger to train properly. You keep repeating the same mistakes over and over. How long do you want to be beaten up by Sasha? Days?”
Damian gritted his teeth and clenched his fist. “I need to be stronger. I will do anything to be stronger! Kyle, give me the engraving too!” He had seen over the course of his sparring with Sasha just how effective it could be.
Kyle frowned. “The process is extremely dangerous. The chamber now may increase the success rate, but you might either die or lose your mind.”
“It doesn’t matter. I might as well be dead at my current strength!”
“Are you sure?”
Damian nodded with determination, his eyes feisty and driven.
Kyle did not try to convince Damian otherwise anymore. It would be a good thing if Damian became stronger as well. “Sasha, clear out the room and prepare for the procedure.”
[Yes, sir.]
The chamber was cleared of associates, leaving only Damian on a surgery table of sorts while Kyle and Sasha prepared the necessary equipment. Sasha strapped Damian down to the table on all limbs, to prevent him from moving around. Kyle unveiled the Taboo Knife, polishing its edge slightly with a grinding stone.
“Do you want the same force engraving?”
“No, give me a defensive one.” Damian shook his head. He knew his body was not fast enough to perform counterattacks, so it was better if he played a more defensive role. “One that can block bullets.”
In a food market on the far side of the South Sector…
An armoured man weaved through the dense crowds, packed like sardines in an underground bazaar, a sleazy atmosphere thick with Euria smoke assaulting his nose.
The sound of metal armour clinking was drowned out by the din of the crowd as dealers sold all sorts of exotic goods and illegal weapons. He shoved his way through, with the crowd actively avoiding his gaze as though he was a god.
“Behold! Fifteen handguns of the highest quality here. Don’t think they are anything like your usual arctech pistols – these babies can shoot up to three times, even if you’re a normal human!”
The crowd which gathered around the stall was amazed, whispering frantically among one another. Small-time bandits, criminals and other thugs all jostled with one another to get a better look at the weapons.
“Limited availability, only yours for sixty thousand rakels!”
“Sixty thousand rakels?! That’s a ripoff!” One of the thugs yelled from the side.
“I’ll buy it!” A smuggler grinned and grabbed a wadful of notes out of his hands, handing it over to the dealer.
“Deal! Pleasure doing busine-“Before the dealer could hand over the gun, the crowd was physically shoved apart by the armoured man.
“This stall is now closed. Move along.” The armoured man spoke.
Immediately the crowd began to disperse, many not willing to contest him except for the smuggler who had just paid. “HEY! I PAID HIM; IT’S MY GUN! WHO ARE YOU TO-“
Before the smuggler could finish his words, the armoured man grabbed the smuggler by the head and slammed him onto the ground, finishing the smuggler off with a step onto the neck and cracking it clean.
The dealer was frightened, his heart palpitating as he quickly tried to run away. Fuck, fuck, fuck I can’t get caught by the guards of this black market!
However, the armoured man grabbed his shoulder in an instant, delivering a punch to the face that knocked out the dealer immediately. Retrieving the arctech radio slung by his side, he tuned the channel before speaking into it.
“Report: I have spotted handguns entering the black market. Put me through to Baron Cain.”
