The fact that it was nighttime made things rather difficult for Freddy. He was supposed to form a new ability that day, but if it was nighttime, there was no way he could afford to use something experimental in life-or-death situations.
Thankfully, he had a solution on hand.
Taking a turn down a path he usually avoided, he started his journey. He was passed by a group of three people wearing the shiniest equipment he had seen in a while. They thoroughly ignored him, and judging by the fact that he couldn't even detect their power, it was likely that they were peak two-stars.
He hadn't seen them around anywhere before, but either way, they were of no interest to him.
It took him quite a while to reach his destination. He kept a brisk, hurried walking pace without breaking into a run, mostly to ensure he stayed as quiet and unnoticeable as possible. He only ran into one guard gorel that he swiftly dispatched with a kick to the head. Just to be polite, he threw the corpse over the wall and into the woods to ensure that a squad of gorels didn't gather there.
It could prove to be a minor inconvenience to the type of people heading where he was going.
After around an hour of travel, he finally reached it—the border of the realm. Tall, jagged cliffs surrounded the outer perimeter, and right at the end of the path, there was a metal door embedded into the wall.
Behind it was another passage, one leading into a far more dangerous area. To both sides of the entrance, two guards stood at ease, eyeing him cautiously. He waved at them and turned left instead.
As was the case with the first passage, the surrounding area of this one was desolate. That was because all of the gorel hives had been manually collapsed, and any attempt to build a new one would be stopped immediately.
There was still the risk of a stray deviant wandering around these parts, but he wasn't particularly afraid of that happening. In the same way most people avoided passages like the plague, monsters, too, instinctively knew that nothing good would come from lurking around the entrance to a dangerous area.
After around five minutes of jogging, he reached where he wanted to go. It was a clearing right beside the cliffside. Nothing interesting or unique about it. But to him, it was invaluable.
Because it was a patch of pure wilderness.
It wasn't a perfect solution to his lack of access to a forest. For starters, plants were few and far between here, and it wasn't like he was the only arch that needed some privacy.
But it would do for the time being.
First things first—he found a nearby stone, sat on it, then pulled out a notebook. He could just barely see the writing in the darkness of the night, courtesy of his two-star eyesight and the perception-boosting pill, so he refrained from attracting attention by using his flashlight.
There, written on the notebook's first page, was his new habit.
He had started more carefully tracking his progress; that way, he could tell how he was growing and where he was lagging behind. It also worked to give him a better idea of what he had access to.
He squinted his eyes as he read his writing.
GATHERING:
Second star—112% essence capacity
TALENT:
1% Lifesteal: Dynamic-quality healing
SOUL CONSTRUCT:
Scythe: Essence Extraction
TEMPERING TECHNIQUES:
Blood affinity:
Pool of Blood: Stage 1—3% Progress
Crimson Mercury: Stage 0—2% Progress
Water affinity:
Adaptive Water Body: Stage 1—Complete
Thousand Wet Hells: Stage 1—1% Progress
Abyssal Depths: Stage 1—9% Progress
ACTIVE ABILITIES:
Blood affinity:
None
Water affinity:
Flowing Strike: Stage 1—15% Progress
Hydraulic Flex: Stage 0—Ready to upgrade
Create Water: Stage 1—20% Progress
Pressure Jet: Unfinished ether shell
Perished water affinity:
Perished Water: Stage ?—? Progress
That Other Ability: No idea
UNIQUE (?) ABILITIES (No clue what these are exactly):
Blood Sacrifice: Stage ?
Indeed, this was the best choice for his first Hydraulic Flex upgrade. There was the possibility of using hydraulic pressure, but that would have simply repeated the mistake he had made with Flowing Strike and Abyssal Depths.
When one thought of viscosity, one didn't think of water. They thought of honey, syrup, oil, soap, or some other thick liquid. But that didn't change the fact that there were things more fluid than water. Air was one example.
Using the concept of fluidity on Hydraulic Flex lowered backlash, increased speed, and reduced the essence expenditure. There was no increase in power, but that was perfectly fine. Power came at a cost. And for him, he was already paying a bloody price for Flowing Strike.
If he continued down the route of ridiculously expensive Flowing Strikes, other abilities would need to be as cost-efficient as possible.
As he left the Netherecho, he gave his newly upgraded ability a test run. The change was immediately apparent. It used to have an awkward lag to it that made him stiffen up. Now, that was a thing of the past. In fact, he could keep the ability active at all times, and it felt perfectly natural as a passive improvement to muscle performance.
Obviously, that was a no-go if he wanted to keep his essence reserves from evaporating into thin air. Keeping it active while moving consumed around 0.5% essence per second on average. This meant he only had a few minutes total before running out of juice.
Using it felt damn good. It didn't strain his muscles as much, either, leaving him feeling almost like he had a nice stretch after using it.
So this is the power of not being a dumbass? he thought jokingly while staring at his hand in awe.
Still, it really put things into perspective. No wonder this ability had the reputation it did.
He finished his little training session by topping off his essence reserves. Then he headed into another hunt.
***
His third day of hunting went far better than his first two, finishing the count at 14,429 dollars. It was less money than the day before, but it was earned with fewer complications. He had kept his energy drink consumption to a minimum this time and tried a bit harder to maintain his stamina. No longer did he run across the quarries or sprint back to the lobby to sell his goods.
He did climb trees, though, keeping a meticulous track of all that was happening in the nearby area. Rather than sprinting back and forth repeatedly, he took his time to properly bag the corpses and carried up to ten at a time instead.
On that day, he saw two deviants—white and orange, likely light and fire affinity.
He stayed a respectful distance from both. The white one could possibly use Blinding Flash, which was a nasty thing to get hit by, and the fire one could use... fire. And he had no clue what their talents were. Either way, fighting them wasn't a good idea.
His upgraded Hydraulic Flex was a joy to use in combat, and Gore Knuckles, while still pretty useless, were becoming less and less fragile every time he used the ability. And it grew rapidly, making 52% progress in a single day of fighting. Most stage zero abilities grew swiftly when used by a two-star, and given how far he was pushing himself, the progress came as no surprise.
After dragging his final load, he walked over to the nearest bench and sagged. He was damn tired. Mentally more than physically. It had been a hard day of work, and he had no intent to exercise or study.
He reached into his bag and then pulled out his notebook. In reality, he pulled it out of his Storage Ring. He was just trying to make it seem like it had been in his backpack.
Just as he was about to write down his progress for the day, a person approached him. It was an average-height part-Asian man. At first glance, he appeared somewhat nerdy with his neat hair combed to the sides and bulky armor. At second glance, it became evident that this man was powerful.
His equipment was in excellent condition, but it didn't look new. There were many signs of repair, but they were subtle, clearly high-quality work. A lot of work, too. He wore a thick black jacket with a puffy vest over it, dark pants partially covered in scales, and boots that Freddy knew had to have cost at least a hundred thousand dollars. There was also a helmet hanging off his back.
He returned the notebook back into his bag and cautiously greeted the man, "Hello. How can I help you?"
"I apologize if this is a rude question," the man started in a clear, well-spoken voice, "but were you the man found unconscious outside the realm yesterday?"
"Why does that concern you?" he asked with a slight edge to his voice.
"Please, take no offense," the man insisted. "I'm simply here to ask about the woman who brought you inside."
His eyes narrowed. "What woman?"
"Excuse me?" the man asked. "Ah, you don't know?"
"The clerks told me that the person wanted to remain anonymous," he responded.
"That's a bummer," the man said, sighing.
"Can you at least tell me what she looks like?" He still had no clue who the man was talking about.
"Oh, right, sorry. It should be easy to recognize her—her skin is flaking off, and she looks swollen. Other than that, she is blonde and has purple eyes."
His eyes widened beneath the helmet as he nearly choked.
That's who brought me in!? That crazy bitch!?
He immediately feared that she might have done something to him, but... well, all of his limbs were still there. And he hadn't felt anything alarming.
The man talking to him suddenly turned around and shouted, "Hey! Miss!"
Freddy raised his head and spotted the woman they had been talking about. She looked considerably worse than she had when he'd seen her the day before and been in the middle of walking into the passage.
The man rushed after her, and she stopped, turning to face him. They were quite far from where Freddy was, so he had to strain his ears to hear the conversation. Without the perception-boosting pill, he probably wouldn't have understood anything.
The two of them had a quick conversation. The man introduced himself as Phillip Parker and told the woman to stop delving into the passage. She wasn't being banned necessarily—well, not yet. Apparently, she hadn't been bringing the corpses of the monsters she was killing back to the lobby. It wasn't forbidden to leave some bodies behind, per se, but she hadn't brought back a single one.
It wouldn't have been a big deal if she was giving the corpses to other delvers, either, but apparently, whatever she was doing to them made them rapidly rot away and decay in a matter of hours.
This was basically vandalism. Access to this realm was free because the hunting fee covered the price. Her style of hunting wasn't allowed.
She apologized profusely, saying that she would start bringing corpses back. The man gave her a stern but polite warning and walked away, advising her to take care of herself and telling her to treat whatever condition she had before it got worse. What a nice guy.
The woman sagged as she started turning around. Her eyes flickered in his direction for a moment, but she merely sighed and turned around, walking through the passage.
Freddy's fists clenched. What the hell was her deal? Had she not helped him to ask for whatever she needed in return?
A fury bubbled in his chest. This wasn't his problem, he told himself. She was incredibly suspicious, he argued. But his anger only grew. Because despite all the effort he put into stopping himself, his legs stood him up and carried him forward.
Moments later, he grabbed the woman by the arm. She turned around with a start, surprised at his appearance.
"Tell me," he barked. "What the hell do you want?"