Before heading to the arranged site, Freddy sent Bloodshed to scout the area first. Just in case.
Thankfully, it seemed that there was no trap. Thor was waiting in the corner of an alley, right behind a dumpster, with a hood pulled over his head, smoking a cigarette.
A car was parked nearby.
To be honest, Freddy was surprised that he'd be welcomed by Thor personally. For what reason the leader of a rather major local faction would do something like this, he didn't know. Perhaps he didn't trust Freddy, or maybe he just wanted to personally welcome him as a showing of good faith.
At any rate, Freddy was feeling a bit apprehensive.
"Thank you, Bloodshed. Come back now."
Freddy slowly walked over to the site. Thor noticed him without even looking and then gestured towards the car as he flicked the cigarette butt into a nearby dumpster. "Come," the man said.
Freddy nodded and followed.
They sat in the car, with Thor taking the driver's seat. They sat in silence for a while as they slowly drove out of the city.
Thor took a seemingly random turn off the main road and onto a barely-maintained dirt road. The car handled the rough road with ease, and before long, they finally approached a massive gate. The gate slowly opened, and they drove through.
As the thick forest started to clear, Freddy spotted four buildings. They were heavily reinforced, with a military-style look to them. To Freddy's surprise, he didn't remember noticing this place when he was looking over the city. It seemed that there was some sort of array set up to disguise the site as a random patch of forest.
There was no way in hell that this place was a secret to the other factions, but even if they knew where it was, it definitely wasn't easy to get inside. Thick, tall walls with barbed wire on top surrounded the entire site, with a number of armed guards patrolling around. Most wielded crossbows, with a few people using a real bow. They all had different weapons besides their ranged options.
Crossbows were quite useful. Their maximum power could never compare to the might of a well-developed ability, but they could be given to any random shmuck. Faced with a squad of mortals equipped with crossbows, even some two-stars had to be careful. If the bolts coated with poison or inscribed in some way, getting hit could spell real trouble.
"How do you like our headquarters?" Thor asked. "Pretty nice, eh?"
"It's... neat. Do you live here?" Freddy asked.
"I sleep here," Thor said with a shrug. "But during the daytime, I spend most of my days living downtown. Almost everyone else lives over in that building over there," he said, pointing a finger at the tallest of the four buildings there.
Out of the four, it most resembled a residential building.
"So you gather everyone here while you spend time somewhere else?" Freddy asked with a hint of judgment. "Doesn't that endanger the people living here?"
Thor grinned. "Without a car to hold me back, I can be here within a few minutes from anywhere within the city. Don't worry about the people living here. We have some tough motherfuckers on our side."
Freddy quirked an eyebrow. "What about that dungeon run the other day? You can't leave the dungeon early. What if someone had decided to attack Valhalla at that moment?"
Thor smirked. "Who says that I can't leave the dungeon early? Here's a tip—the portcullis that locks the dungeon isn't indestructible. Well, it takes a hell of a striking power to break through, but I can handle it easily." Thor pulled up to what looked like the main building and slowly left the car. "Enough about that. Come, we're a bit late to the meeting."
Freddy followed after the man. A massive metal door slid open, and they walked into the building.
Freddy was surprised by the interior. He had expected a cold interior of grey metal and floor tiles, but to his shock, everything was clad in wood. Wooden support beams up ahead, wooden floorboards, even statues carved out of wood.
The inside of the building was definitely expanded compared to the outside, which Freddy had already expected. The degree of expansion was undoubtedly a bit surprising, though, given the apparent length of the hallway in front of him.
They didn't go all the way down the hallway. They stepped into an elevator instead, which took them straight to the meeting room.
As they stepped inside, Freddy's footsteps momentarily paused. In a room decorated in wood, with armor racks displaying all sorts of weapons and armor spanning the whole round wall, twenty-some people sat at a round table.
Other than Thor, nobody was holding their aura back.
There were only three people whose aura could compare to Freddy's—Travis, the tall, blond man he met before; some brunette woman wearing red leather armor; and a short, bald old guy with nasty scars across his face.
As for the rest of the people, there were very few above halfway through their second star. Most of the people were men, with only four women present. Everyone wore heavy armor and sported scars across their skin. Their weapons were all within hand's reach.
While the aura pressure wasn't overwhelming due to the lack of people above his level, its sheer thickness was still uncomfortable.
"Damn, this is the new guy?" the woman in red armor sneered. "I can see my reflection in his pearly-ass skin from all the way over here."
That instantly made everyone present laugh uproariously, with even Thor joining with a light chuckle.
Thor finally waved them down to get them to quieten. "Now, now, I wouldn't underestimate this guy just because of his looks. Man got some special healing powers—scars just don't stick to him; ain't that right?" he asked Freddy with a tap on his shoulder.
"Yeah..." Freddy admitted reluctantly.
Frankly, he was feeling waaay out of his element. His palms were sweating, and he was struggling to scrounge up the confidence to raise his voice. These people were serious warriors who had earned the right to call themselves that through numerous trials.
While he had seen some real shit and overcome impossible hardships, he was still relatively young and inexperienced. It was hard to keep himself from feeling pressured.
"Anyway, this man is Freddy Cliff," Thor introduced him. "Freddy, meet the gang."
"Hey there, Fred," Travis greeted. "You already know me."
"A one-star imbuement is on its own as expensive as a one-star satellite," Freddy said. "And the material doesn't look cheap."
"Hey, I wouldn't give you a random piece of trash for your welcome gift." He turned around and threw the coat at Freddy.
Freddy caught it. It was super heavy, almost like it was woven out of metal thread, but it was soft and flexible to the touch.
"As for the enchantments," Thor said, "it has minor self-repair and major shock absorption. It can be worn over armor if you want to be extra bulky, but that will make you pretty damn heavy, so keep that in mind."
Freddy nodded as he looked at the armor.
Many people didn't understand the difference between enchanted and cursed equipment. But it was quite simple.
Enchanted equipment had modifying effects that applied to the equipment itself, while cursed items affected the user. On top of that, unless they were a part of a multi-piece set, people could only use two cursed items at once, while they could cover themselves in enchanted equipment from head to toe.
The enchantments on their own had a very limited effect. They could only hold so much energy, and once that energy ran out, their effect would vanish, and it could only be slowly replenished as the runes naturally gathered ether of applicable affinities.
With a tzenekite imbuement, however, the runes could recover way faster. The higher the level of the imbuement, the faster they could recover, but even just a one-star imbuement made a world of difference.
This had a major and a minor rune on it. A major rune could hold 30% essence capacity within, while a minor one could only hold 10%. With a one-star imbuement, it took 30 seconds for the major and 10 seconds for the minor rune to refill once fully emptied.
The runes would activate whenever he took damage. Shock absorption could help him deal with incoming damage, while self-repair would undo any damage the armor took. If the armor suffered more damage than the self-repair could fix at once, or if the armor was damaged while the self-repair rune was empty, that damage would stick around until it was manually fixed.
Still, anything short of significant chunks being torn out will be quickly taken care of.
He deliberated on it for a few moments, and decided he would wear the coat over his existing armor. It would further slow him down and make him even heavier, but the combined protection was definitely worth it.
"Keep that thing safe, you hear me?" Thor said with a smirk. "And I hope I'm right about you. Don't disappoint me."
Freddy nodded. "Thank you. This is a really great gift. I appreciate it."
"It's an investment," Thor scoffed. "I just hope it pays off. Anyway, we have some stuff we gotta do. There's a lot of time left until we have to leave, so until then, I'm gonna give you a quick rundown on some things you should know."
Freddy nodded.
They went back to the meeting room.
There, Thor slowly explained how they communicated, how they operated, what signs and codes meant what, what to do in specific scenarios, and so on. If Freddy hadn't been a peak two-star, this would have had to be weeks long training, but with his memory, he picked everything up as soon as it was explained to him. Still, the tutoring lasted for hours.
Eventually, they joined the others in the locker rooms to get ready to leave.
Freddy was once again surprised. The women were changing in the same room as the men. He didn't comment on it and simply kept his gaze away. Well, to be fair, it wasn't like there was much to see. Everyone was already wearing a body suit beneath.
Except for him, of course.
He slowly extracted his equipment from his storage ring and started putting it on. Before he could put his helmet on, he was given a small crystal device by one of the men. "What's this?" he asked.
"A communication device," the man said simply. "Just put it in your ear. Whenever you have to use it, pour a bit of essence into it, and it will light right up, allowing you to send a message to everyone wearing one. Don't use it unless strictly necessary. It's for important information only."
Freddy nodded and put the device into his ear.
Once he finally finished equipping his armor, he pulled the trench coat over it.
"Damn," one of the girls cheered. "Lookin' good, new guy!"
The guys also joined in on the jeering, making Freddy blush beneath his helmet. He pulled the hood over his head.
He got a good look at himself in the mirror. His bulky body, with the added armor and trench coat, made him look like a walking tank. He gave off an imposing yet professional feeling, like a bodybuilder champion grim reaper who had just arrived at a business meeting.
With that, their preparations were ready. They all climbed into large black vans and set off for the city. It was 11 p.m. when they left.
They would strike at midnight.
The vans were parked a while from the building, keeping enough space to not appear suspicious. Many of the scouts and snipers already got into place.
"Three guards are entering through the back, over and out," a man's voice came from the device in Freddy's ear.
Soon enough, another male voice came. "The prisoners are in the same location as previously confirmed," he said, referring to the basement. "One is currently under operation on the third floor. Fourth through seventh floors inactive. 26 guards on duty. Over and out."
As such, the time kept passing. Every so often, the scouts would update the situation, noting guard and prisoner movements.
Freddy waited in the van parked closest to the building, together with the rest of the vanguard. His palms were getting sweatier by the minute, and he felt like he was dying beneath all the layers of armor.
He was given refreshments by the rest of the crew. They handed him what seemed to be a special potion. It helped him cool down and relax slightly.
"Get into position," Thor's voice sounded through the comms. "We're going in. Over and out."