Chater 6: Fat Stacks

Chater 6: Fat Stacks

“What the hell happened to your hair?” one of Calise’s bodyguards asked as he saw Isaac.

“Hydras are a pain in the ass. Good XP, though.” he replied with a wry grin. He’d thought he’d gotten all of that out of his hair, but that clearly wasn’t true.

“I don’t suppose that means you’ve got another Aspect for me?” Calise called jovially from within the room the bodyguard was standing in front of.

“ ‘fraid not. Maybe some other time. But I’m guessing that means you’ll take the Aspect?” Isaac called back.

“Already did!”

Once he’d entered the room, Isaac stopped for a second, stunned. Calise was currently standing in the table, looking like a, well, ghost.

“Uh, you do know you shouldn’t be overlapping with another solid object when the [Skill] ends, right?” Isaac cautiously asked.

You couldn’t manually end the [Skill] while within an object, but if you ran out of mana, it would shut off anyway, resulting in you getting ejected violently. As things stood, Calise could either get flung into ceiling and end up with a crushed skull as a result or get smashed into the ground with bone crushing force, neither of which Isaac wished upon him or wanted to be blamed for.

“Bah, don’t worry, I have the mana to spare.” Calise replied but did step out of the table and ended the [Skill] regardless.

“I’m certainly glad to have convinced you to buy one of the Aspects.” Isaac said, sitting down at the table.

“Actually, I’d like to buy the second one as well.”

At a gesture from Calise, someone stepped out of the door he’d entered through the first time, carrying a briefcase, which he placed on the table in front of Isaac and flipped it open.

Row after row of cash stared up at him twenties, fifties and a single stack of hundreds. A proper spread of bills that would avoid the attention drawing issue of paying with too many one hundred euro bills. Isaac could count the number of times he'd used or even seen one of the latter on his fingers. People just didn't use physical currency on transactions that would require them. Someone running around with a bunch of hundred euro bills would look a tad suspicious, so Calise had spared him the work exchanging them later.

Of course, getting caught transporting all that cash, across a border no less, would cause its own set of problems. But if it looked like anything would happen, Isaac could just use [Spectral Shift] to walk through one of the train's walls and hike to the nearest bus stop or train station while changing his face.

Some quick mental math, given the assumption that the kind of bill on top of the stack was the same kind that was below it, revealed that it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty thousand euros.

In theory, there were a million ways for that to be less cash than Isaac had asked for, but he doubted that would be the case. Even if he hadn’t been willing to trust Calise, he could trust in the other man’s self-interest. Cheating him right here and now would utterly ruin any and all chances of any kind of future deals, not to mention the risk of retaliation from the backers or organization that Isaac may or may not have.

Isaac’s lips quirked into a wry smile at the sheer cliché-ness of the situation.

“That’s twenty-two thousand euros right there, all clean cash, non-sequential bills. Ten thousand for each Aspect, as well as a little bonus for you, personally. I trust that will suffice?” Calise asked.

“Of course, thank you for your generosity.” Isaac said, looking the cash over one last time before he closed the briefcase back up and placing it on the floor next to him.

Then, he pulled the second Aspect of the Specter out of his pocket and placed it on the table between them.

“It has been a true pleasure doing business with you.”

Isaac stood back up and shook hands with Calise.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.

“I do hope you aren’t planning on leaving already, are you? The cooks have prepared quite the feast for us.”

Isaac briefly glanced down at his watch to make sure he wouldn’t miss the return train, then smiled at Calise “I’d be delighted to.”

On an invisible signal, or, more likely, the waitress had been watching and waiting from the other side of the door, a platter of meats, cheeses and bruschetta was carried into the room.

“Have you ever had a traditional Italian meal before, Mr. Holt?” Calise asked.

“I’m afraid not. I’ve been to Italy a few times on holiday before, but I mainly visited the typical tourist places.” Isaac said, truthfully.

“Ah, this should be a treat for you then.” Calise said boisterously, grabbing one of the Bruschetta and hunk of cheese, then eating them far more daintily than Isaac had expected.

“Would you like some wine, Sir?” a waiter asked from besides Isaac.

“No thank you, I still have to drive tonight.” Isaac waved him off. It wasn’t entirely truthful, but he really did want to keep a clear head in this meeting.

“May I suggest some locally sourced spring water, then?” the waiter offered and Isaac accepted, before focusing on the food in front of him. Soft cheeses, perfectly crisped bread with a satisfying crunch as he bit into it, mouthwateringly delicious smoked salami ...

“Wow, this is delicious.” Isaac exclaimed.

“Isn’t it? People like to hold up French cuisine as a perfect example of good food, but in my opinion, Italian food comes out favorably in comparison.” Calise grinned.

‘And has the same tiny portions.’ Isaac mentally added but held his tongue.

Thankfully, that had only been the first course, though.

The second course, which was apparently also the first official course of a traditional Italian meal, consisted of a Risotto that, while not as good as the Antipasti, was still excellent.

“How does someone get into the business of selling monster parts anyway?” Calise asked.

“How does anyone get into any business? There’s a need for something that is not yet freely available, you have a way of getting it and know of someone who would buy it. The rest is history. How about you?” Isaac said.

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 120/120

Stats

Fortitude

12

Perception

12

Strength

10

Agility

12

Magic Power

12

Magic Regeneration

17

Free Points: Stat, 0 Skill

Skills

Hundred Faces III

Stealth III

Power Strike V

Piercing Strike IV

Sundering Strike VI

Knives VII

Sneak V

Sweeping Strike I

Far Strike I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

[Empty Slot]

A glance at his status sheet put a smile on his face. His Health Status had cleared right back up and he’d also gained another Level in [Stealth] and [Hundred Faces].

Overall, his Level was not as high as it could be, given that he’d spent 2,000 XP on Aspects and would be spending another 1,000 to slot his Aspect of the Hydra, but his [Skills] were all looking rather solid.

[Sneak] alone had now reached the point where only the most professional normal human would have been able to match him. Part of the [System’s] absurdly enhanced learning under pressure capability.

Couple that with a [Knives] [Skill] at Level 7, those two [Skills] alone would have him a deadly threat in the pre-[System] world.

... maybe medieval times. As Indiana Jones had so thoroughly proven in that iconic scene, guns beat edged weapons quite decisively.

Now he’d board a train, finish writing his essay on the dangers of summoning, and go on a shopping spree in one of those new age shops. A lot of the higher powered summons required such materials and those kinds of shops were a surprisingly good source of them.

And then, tomorrow, Isaac could finally get on with his long term plan.