As Freddy combed through all of Shawn's stuff for a long moment, he almost felt like throwing all his moral values away.
Not only was the ring quite spacious, making it already rather valuable even on its own, but it was packed with all sorts of goodies. From essence-recovery medicine to ability-growth elixirs to a decent number of primes that actually seemed to hold a good amount of value, it was every looter's wet dream.
The whole value of everything inside the ring, including the ring itself, almost certainly surpassed twenty, if not thirty million dollars.
As for the essence-recovery stuff, he decided to keep that for himself. But the ability-growth stuff would have to be traded somehow.
For ability-growth elixirs, there were three different grades.
First-grade ability-growth elixir had no affinity. It could be used equally with all affinities. That being said, it only had an effect during stage 0.
Second-grade ability-growth elixir was affinity-specific. It worked for stage 1 abilities.
And finally, there was the third-grade stuff. This was the most powerful and the most valuable form of ability-growth elixir. But it was also the most restrictive. It could promote the growth of abilities up to around stage 2—50%, and it was not only tied to an affinity but it was also tied to a micro-concept. If the ability didn't have the related micro-concept, the elixir would be useless.
While this was the last official grade of ability-growth elixir, it wasn't actually the most powerful. But everything that had power beyond this level had erratic requirements and extremely variable effects, making it impossible to fit into a clearly defined box. Such items were simply referred to as superior ability-growth treasure and were usually—and kind of arbitrarily—ranked on a scale from F- to S-grade.
With these types of treasures, there was another catch—using them negatively affected latent aura accumulation. But this could hardly even be called a downside. Losing a bit of latent aura in the short term meant nothing when better abilities meant you could earn even more latent aura.
That being said, extreme abuse of such elixirs was a bad idea—not just because of the latent aura cost but also because it had a chance of messing with the microconcepts of the ability in question.
As for the stuff in Shawn's ring, it was all second-grade stuff—and mainly of the dark affinity, except for a single vial of unholy-affinity elixir.
He'd have to trade this for something usable. And given that Shawn was dead, he'd have to be really careful where he sold this stuff. He'd probably have to trade it with Valhalla.
With that out of the way, he moved on to the primes.
While they were predominantly rather basic, they were by no means bad.
One of them, in particular, caught Freddy's eye.
"Hello there, little man," the prime called in a strange accent. "You better run, but you might not escape. It is very uncertain."
"What talent do you hold?"
"If you so choose to accept me into your soul, you will become quite fast. Certainly faster than someone who didn't accept me into their soul. If that someone also doesn't have a power that makes them very fast. Or maybe if they do but it isn't—"
"I get it," Freddy cut it off. "What about your affinities?"
"Earth and Water."
Freddy's eyebrows jumped at that.
Toughness of earth. Striking power and flexibility of water. And a talent that affected speed.
He cupped his mouth in contemplation. With water and earth, the best choice would be to hope for a metal affinity at the second star. The metal, earth, water combo was pretty much the best combination of affinities for a defensive fighter. But the talent was related to speed.
It would definitely be better if the talent affected striking power or defense, but this wasn't a bad match, either. Speed, power, and defense. This had everything needed to make a well-rounded fighter without any glaring weaknesses.
Many people were afraid of common talents. Who wanted to be common?
But this by no means meant that common talents were bad.
There were whole factions that only used common talents.
Besides, given enough latent aura, even common talents could flourish and evolve into something unique and spectacular.
His thoughts immediately went to Lucas. Freddy would much rather give the man a trusty talent like this than some niche bullshit that only turned out to be useless. Also, with such an incredibly generic affinity-talent combo, nobody could tie Lucas to this exact prime.
"Oh, yeah, didn't he need something from me?" Freddy asked as he slowly got up.
Before going to see Lucas, he took a shower first. He felt too filthy not to. In more ways than one. He put on regular clothing and draped the trenchcoat over it. It provided good protection even on its own while looking like a rather ordinary piece of clothing. With that, he left the room.
He found the young man sitting on the couch and twiddling his thumbs. He noticed Freddy enter and quickly turned around, nearly jumping out of his seat. "Hey..." he called meekly. "Are you still busy?"
"No, I got time. Sorry about that, by the way..." Freddy said, scratching the back of his neck. "I had something to confirm."
"No problem, just... Yeah, I... I have to tell you something."
Freddy turned serious. "Something wrong?" He approached the man and sat on the couch next to him.
"No... Maybe," the young man said nervously. "Just uhm... Remember what we talked about yesterday?"
"Your date?"
"No... About my mom."
"Yeah. Did something happen to her?"
"She... I didn't tell you this, but... For a week already, she's been going out by herself, and I'm—"
Freddy groaned. "She's fucking gambling, isn't she?"
Lucas tensed. "I... I don't know if she is, but..."
"Oh, God fucking damn it," Freddy croaked and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"She told me I can trust her," Lucas said with a whimper in his voice. "And I really thought I could, but I've noticed that she's giving me guilty looks, and even now..." He looked like he was about to start crying. "Are you going to kick us out?"
"No... I won't. Don't worry." Freddy slumped and patted Lucas's shoulder. "When is she coming back?"
"She should be back soon."
"Okay. When she comes back, we'll confront her together."
Lucas bit his lower lip and nodded.
The two of them waited, and half an hour later, Hellen returned.
She smiled at them at first but paused at the looks they were giving her. "Hey..." she said. "Did something happen?"
"Mom..." Lucas called.
"Hello there, Mrs. Black," Freddy said as he got off the couch. "We haven't talked in a while."
"Yes... Hello." She nervously grabbed her purse. "Is everything all right?"
"Everything is great!" Freddy said cheerfully. "In fact, Lucas and I have some news for you!"
"We do?" Lucas asked confusedly.
"We sure do, my man!" Freddy said with a wide grin as he pulled the prime out of his storage ring and threw it at Lucas.
Lucas caught it and stared at it. "It's... It's a..." He clenched the prime in his hands as his eyes flashed wide open.
Hellen put her hands to her mouth and rushed to sit beside her son. "Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god! Honey, I'm so glad!" She hugged her son, weeping tears of joy. Then she turned to face Freddy. "I have no idea how we'll ever repay this."
"You can be mad at me about the coat later. Shawn. Tell me what happened."
Freddy sighed and walked over to the chair. He sat down while Thor leaned against the work desk.
For a long moment, Freddy wasn't sure what to say. He hadn't been planning to keep it a secret from Valhalla. If he wanted to trade the elixir, he needed to be honest about the source.
However, he had been planning to say exactly how it happened. He'd bullshit them a bit. Or, that was the plan.
But for some reason, he didn't feel like it.
Fuck it, he thought. He would tell the man the truth.
Thus, with a sardonic smirk, he turned to face Thor. "I followed him into the passage and killed him while nobody was looking. I did it as cleanly as possible, leaving no evidence behind, including keeping tracking methods from giving me away."
Thor scowled. "You just... What? Why did you do that?"
Freddy shrugged. "Why wouldn't I do it? He's a piece of shit, just like all of them. Rather kill him before he stands in our way during a raid one day."
The man looked at Freddy in disbelief for a long moment before snorting and shaking his head. "Well... At least you played it safe, I suppose. But uh... You do understand what you did, right?"
"Yeah," Freddy said.
"Do you really?" Thor asked with squinted eyes.
"Of course I fucking do," Freddy spat, his lips curling into a frown as he looked away in shame. He pinched the bridge of his nose and then buried his face in his hands, rubbing it aggressively. "I've never done anything like this before," he muttered through his palms. Then, he dropped his hands, revealing a face morphed into a self-ridiculing blend of nihilistic amusement and remorse. "And I still can't believe I did that."
"Do you feel guilty?"
"What do you think?"
"I think you don't," Thor said coldly.
A scowl flashed on Freddy's forehead. "You're wrong."
"Am I really?" Thor said as he chuckled. "And what if I told you Valhalla punishes actions like these with ten years of imprisonment?"
Freddy's body tensed, his eyes opened slightly, and his jaw clenched.
"There it is," Thor said as he pressed a finger to Freddy's forehead.
"There's what?"
"The proof."
"So... What is it then? Are you calling me a psychopath?"
"Hey, I'm not the one who told you to go murder someone!" Thor said. "But no, I'm not calling you a psychopath. You're a narcissist."
Freddy scoffed. "Call me whatever you want."
"You know, your appearance and gathering don't fool me, Fred," Thor said. "You're no older than 25."
"I never claimed I was."
"You've fooled the others. But that's not the point." Thor sighed as he got on one knee and looked up at Freddy. "You're young. Hotblooded. There is no passion in the world stronger than that of young people against injustice—really, I've never seen anything that even slightly compares to it. But it easily misguides people. It turns their hearts dark and minds rotten. Look what you've done today... are those the actions of someone who fights for justice?"
Freddy looked away.
"Look at me. You're dehumanizing your enemies. In your eyes, they're just... monsters. And if they're just monsters, you can do anything to them. Because they deserve it. But that's just not right."
"Is it!?" Freddy shouted. "You saw the same thing. You've probably seen way worse!" Freddy rushed to his feet and slammed a fist into the desk. "How can you even claim that they're anything but monsters!? How!? These fucking..."—he gestured like he was trying to choke someone—"demons! Why should we ever give them any more kindness than they're willing to give others!?
"You know what, you're fucking right; I don't feel guilty! Why would I!? That motherfucker has spent his whole life treating people like animals! According to what bullshit reason does he possibly deserve to be treated any better!?"
Thor remained calm as he slowly got up to his feet. "I used to think the exact same thing," he said. "But..." He sighed and walked over to his chair, sitting down and staring wistfully into the wall as if his gaze reached all the way to the distant horizon. "Shawn was born in a family of scumbags. From a young age, he was desensitized to all of it."
"Ah, that excuse." Freddy smiled darkly. "My favorite."
"Hear me out, okay?" Thor asked nicely. "Anyway... He is someone who never learned a different way of life. Before killing him, did you ask him to change his ways?"
"Change his ways?" Freddy asked with a disbelieving chuckle. "Are you fucking kidding me? You'd what, just forgive him? Let bygones be bygones?"
"Freddy... When you paint people as monsters and give them absolutely no way out... they become monsters. When they know they can not and never will be forgiven, they won't ask or work for forgiveness. They'll double down. And in Shawn's case... You know, just a degree of separation is all it takes for people to excuse... anything, really. The man worked in management. Sure, he got hands-on here and there, but in his eyes, he was just getting back the money they were owed."
"You know damn well that's not just what he'd been doing!"
"I know that damn well. He on the other hand..."
"Oh, come on! That's idiotic!"
"Is it? And what about you?"
"Me!? What did I do?"
"You bought that treatment from Strata. That money is gonna fund more exploitation. And you even forced me to let that doctor go. Are you then guilty of exploiting people?"
Freddy scowled. "That's different."
"It really feels different, doesn't it? It's not like you had a choice after all. Your friend's life was at stake. That was the only right thing to do. But according to you, if you're born and grow up in a family of shitstains, and you learn to love those people from a young age, learning everything you know of the world from them, never even being given a chance to fix your ways, that's a sin worthy of death. No judge, no jury—straight to the executioner."
Freddy simply stared blankly as his shoulders slowly drooped.
"Look," Thor continued. "I'm not saying Shawn was a dumbass who didn't know what he was doing. And I'm not even saying that killing him was the wrong thing to do. But for your own sake, more than his... you could have asked. You could have confronted him and challenged his beliefs. Put his ass on the spot. Is he aware of what he's doing? Is he aware that he can stop? That he can be a better person?
"But we don't need to complicate things. Just tell me, how do you feel? Do you feel like you did the right thing? No need to muddy the waters with reasoning and logic, just listen to what your moral compass is telling you. How do you feel?"
Freddy averted his gaze agian.
Thor snorted and shook his head. "You feel like shit. It's as simple as that. You feel like absolute shit. And you wanna know why? Because you did something shitty. And that moral compass, the thing we all have somewhere in us, it's screaming at you. It's letting you know that you shouldn't have done that. I urge you to listen to it."
Thor got off the chair and walked up to Freddy. "You've stained yourself today. This stain can only fade; it will never fully wash off. I'm not really clean, either. I've regretted my fair share of decisions. Hell, if I had run into someone like you after some of these, I wouldn't have lived until today. But hey, look at me now," he said as he spread his arms wide. "I'm not a villain, am I?"
"I... I guess not..."
Thor smiled. "You got the man's ring, no? Let me see what he dropped."
Freddy burst into laughter as he looked at Thor with disbelief. "Okay, damn! That was a quick pivot!"
Thor chuckled. "Eh, come on, we've said what needs to be said, no?"
Freddy's laughter slowly died down. Then, he suddenly broke into tears. Uncontrollable sobbing overtook him.
Thor patted his shoulder. "I'm not gonna tell you it's okay. I'm not going to lie to you," he said.
Freddy nodded. "Okay. I get it." He wiped his tears with his sleeve.
"Good. Now come along. I'm sure you'd like to get rid of the stuff you picked up."