Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Matt I need you to check the staff bathroom. The water is really slow, Beatrice called out as she walked by.

Is it the hot, cold, or both, Bee? Matt called out from the maintenance room, where he was assembling a table. He got no response, as apparently, Beatrice had already walked off to return to the slow lunch crowd.

Matt decided to finish the table first as a bar fight last week had destroyed nearly half of the tables in the common room before it was brought under control. And they only had enough spare tables in reserve to make the common room not have too many gaps. So Matt had been making tables in all of his spare time to fix the common room and then get their surplus back.

If Benny wasnt such a tight ass with money and bought better tables instead of treating them as disposable, I wouldnt be playing amateur carpenter every other week. Or hire a bouncer.

Matt finished the table and grabbed his plumbing bag. As he walked through the common room, he looked for Beatrice, but she wasnt anywhere to be seen, and two customers were at the bar, clearly waiting to be helped. Matt didnt recognize them, so probably new customers.

Where is Beatrice? Must be nice to be able to slip out for a dozen smoke breaks just because you sleep with the boss.

That made him pause. Maybe she did earn the extra breaks. After all, no one else wanted to be near the man.

If Matt didnt help new customers, Benny would have his ass despite the fact Beatrice was supposed to be the one manning the common area.

Matt hurried over to the front desk part of the bar and greeted the guest. Hello, how can I help you this afternoon, sir and maam? Benny expected unfailing politeness to his guest and would side with any paying customer before taking the side of his staff.

Wed like a room, please, but we dont know how long were gonna be in the area, so what can you do around umm, say a two-week stay with the possibility of it going longer. The man answered, and Matt got a better look at him as he was lit by the bars brighter lighting.

He was tall based on Matts 510 at least 62, possibly 63, dark hair and gray eyes with a face that, while hard looked, used to laughing. The woman next to him was probably 59. The ponytail of copper-colored hair made her green eyes pop even more in the dim lights.

What took Matt by surprise wasnt their good looks. It was that these two felt far stronger to his spiritual sense than the normal Tier 2 and 3s that usually frequented Bennys. Even stronger than the Tier 4s, though that was beyond his ability to get a good sense of.

It made Matt nervous if these two wanted to start trouble. No one here could stop them or even would want to stop them.

If they felt slighted no one was there to greet them, I dont want to think about what Benny would do to me to keep in their good graces.

Yes, sir, we have a few packages that seem to be what you need. If youd like we have a room for a week and after that, its just pay by the day for the same rate. It does come with unlimited training room access and three meals a day. All for just 400 credits a week and then 60 credits a day going forward. Is that something youd be interested in?

It was the woman who answered him, Well take it. Can you show us to our room, please? Then to the training room. She swiped at the payment reader, and Matt saw the accepted immediately appear.

Yes maam Matt did as requested, and they only stayed in their room long enough to drop off their bags. Then Matt led them to the training room, where the woman looked around at the training dummies in obvious disappointment.

Why is she disappointed? The training aids are only 10 years old and updated with the newest software attack and defense patterns of tier 4 speed. Its one of the few nice things this place has.

Is there something wrong maam? These training aids go up to Tier 4, and the software was just upd...

Before Matt could finish, she cut him off with a No, its fine. I just forgot where we were for a moment

Matt decided to leave before she could take her obvious disappointment out on him. He had a sink to fix.

Only a year left. Keep your chin up. You got this.

***

The alarm went off at 3:55, and Matt was down at the training room by 4. He had two hours of practice time before Benny was up and would assign some tasks.

Matt started with a few warmups then used the variable bar to do strength training. Today was legs which meant he would be walking like a newborn for the rest of the day.

Using part of the PlanetNet vouchers Miles had given him, he had found a training routine that would be good for a young man looking to be a melee delver. It wasnt amazing, but it had been free and did not require proprietary supplements or a subscription to a sketchy website like so many others did.

As he completed each set, he recorded his weights and sets, trying to keep the fatigue at bay. Hed been working twelve-hour days with as much physical training as he could manage for the last year, and while he had clear results, he was bone tired. Even when he slept, he was tired.

Each rep was paired with the mantra of one more year.

After his weight training, Matt took his usual practice longsword down and started a Tier 2 combat sequence on the training dummy. It was faster and stronger than him at this setting, and with his wobbly legs, Matt would be adding to his ever-rotating collection of bruises.

Matt practiced in rounds of five minutes, trying to inflict damage while avoiding being hit as much as possible. Everything he read on the CityNet said that injuries were what stopped most low Tiered delvers.

With few Healers on the planet and fewer still that were public with their skill meant an injury could only be healed with mundane methods, and that meant months of recovery if it was bad. That meant months of not delving and not progressing. It meant months of wasted income and added debt.

I cant afford to get injured.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøv€l-B1n.

Its so shit that living on a low Tiered planet meant that anyone with a Talent in healing or a Talent healing skill was immediately snatched up by one of the guilds and brought off planet, which left only the lucky few that got a healing skill as a rift reward and didnt take that opportunity to join a guild and do the same. Or the few insane enough to sell such a valuable skill shard.

Can I blame them, though? I was going to do the same. Am I just bitter that I couldnt leave this backwater?

Matt thought to himself that was truer than he liked to admit.

The training aid landed a blow that brought Matt out of contemplation and back into the fight. With a pivot and an upward slash, Matt deflected the next blow and brought his sword down on the training aids collarbone. The blow was hard and clean enough that the lights flashed red, signifying a kill.

The aid had a programming oversight that didnt handle overhead attacks on its right side well. It was hard not to abuse it, Matt didnt want to develop habits that might get him killed, but an obvious flaw in an opponent was possible.

Matt heard the beep that signified his three minutes of rest started.

He picked up his water bottle and wiped the sweat off his face, and stretched. Stopping when he saw someone was in the other corner of the room.

Is it that late already? Am I late for work?

Matt quickly checked his pad and saw it was only 4:23. Looking closer, he noticed it was two someones in the corner, the man and woman that had checked in yesterday. The strong ones.

He didnt want any trouble, so he turned down the volume on his pad so the beeps wouldnt disturb the training duo. The last thing he wanted to do was piss off a customer, let alone a strong one.

Matt continued to practice in intervals. As a Tier 1, he didnt have enough essence or cultivation in his physical side to be able to keep up with nonstop high-intensity combat. At Tier 1, he was only marginally stronger than an unawakened.

Matt had gotten to see a recording of a competition where there were two Tier 15 participants during a lesson of high Tier cultivators in the orphanage. The combatants were so evenly matched the fight lasted over an hour of nonstop combat. Matts heart would have exploded if hed had to fight at that intensity for that long.

Cultivation was the journey of power and strength, after all.

Matt cleaned up his area and stored the training aid along the wall, preparing to go shower. As he walked through the common room to the staff housing hall. He saw Zephyr, an old man who had shown up two or so months ago. The entire time hed been here, he drank until he passed out on a table, woke up, and kept drinking.

Matt had taken it upon himself to make sure the grumpy old bastard got into his bed most nights and ate at least one meal a day. He recognized the look of loss and despair in the mans eyes. He saw it every time he looked in a mirror, saw it in the other orphans in his year.

He couldnt fix Zephyr, but he could at least stop him from killing himself before he got past whatever had broken him.

Come on, Zephyr, you need to sleep. And drink this. Matt shoved his water bottle in the mans hand and glared till he finished it off.

Alright give me your arm. He hooked an arm under Zephyrs arm and helped the man shuffle to his room. He grumbled nonsense at Matt the whole time.

A Tier 4 reduced to this is just sad. Who did he lose to end up like this? Spouse? Kid? Mother? Father? Brother? Sister? Some shitty combination of those?

Matt fished the key card out of Zephyrs pocket and dumped the old man on his bed. Before he left, he filled a glass with water and put it on the nightstand.

Why is there so much pain? Where is happiness?

Matt cursed at himself even as he started towards the old man. In the end, Matt couldnt just stand by. The trick would be getting close without attracting attention or starting a mad rush towards the party at the item identifier.

Matt got to Zephyrs table right as the item identifier beeped.

It grabbed everyones attention.

Analysis complete

Skill shard identified as [Cracked Phantom Armor].

Original skill description: Charge 200 mana into the skill, which, when activated, will block one blow that is detected to be lethal or can be activated at user discretion.

Cracked skill description: Channel mana into the skill to activate phantom armor, which will then block physical and elemental damage depending on the rate of mana channeled into the skill.

Rating: Detrimental - extremely niche / useless due to mana cost being continuous. Turning a life-saving skill into a costly defensive skill. Recommend Mage focus cultivation with an emphasis on mana regeneration.

Matt swallowed. No one would be killing for that skill shard but judging by the look on the party leaders face and the growing laughter of the crowd, a brawl was about to break out.

Matt grabbed Zephyr and whispered, Start moving. We need to move.

Before he could get Zephyr moving on wobbly legs, the man who had been pushed out of line spit at the party. Thats what you arrogant fucks get for cuttin...

That was all he got before the son of Brackus took the skill shard out of the reader and threw it at the man. While he dodged the projectile, the party leader took that opportunity to punch him in the face, and like that, both parties were brawling, and it immediately started to spread to the rest of the room.

People taking the opportunity to get aggression out or settle grudges.

Matt pulled Zephyr along, no longer trying to be subtle and just trying to find the edge of the fighting. He didnt want to get crippled by an errant blow.

They had almost made it when something hit him from behind. As he and Zephyr tumbled to the ground, Matt saw a gleam under a broken chair leg.

It was the skill shard.

Matts world slowed.

Matt looked at Zephyr and saw the man was completely out of it, eyes closed, mouth slack.

I have to take the chance. It may be useless for most, but I could use it. I hope this doesnt get me killed.

Matt quickly grabbed the chair leg and skill shard with it. As he pulled Zephyr to his feet, he raised the chair leg threateningly while letting the skill shard slip into his sleeve.

Matt carefully swung the chair leg at someones back and let that knock the wooded weapon out of his hands, then switched arms he was holding Zephyr with, trapping the skill shard in his elbow.

The feeling of the small crystal shard pressing into his flesh haunted Matts every step and made adrenaline pump through his veins like never before.

Matt got Zephyr out of the brawl and into his room, quickly dumping him on the bed before heading to the maintenance room. When Matt was closing the door and couldnt possibly be seen by Zephyr, and before he fully stepped into the hall and visibly to the cameras, he shoved his right hand into his pocket and let the skill shard fall in.

When Matt got to the maintenance room, he prepared to start making tables and chairs as a cover. Benny popped in not five minutes later once the noise died down.

Oh good, you already started. And I saw you getting the old man out of there. I cant charge him for rent if hes dead. Good work.

Matt resisted the urge to scowl when Benny made callous statements like that. He had practice. The comments were commonplace.

No problem, boss. Whats the damage? Do we need more tables or chairs?

Tables. People can eat standing up, but no one wants to eat on their lap. If they wanted to sit, they wouldnt use my chairs as fucking weapons. With that, Benny stomped out.

Matt let out the breath hed been holding.

He almost shit himself when Benny said, I saw you. Matt expected Benny to check on him, but if he had seen him steal the skill shard, Benny would have killed him. Useful or not, lazy as he was, Benny did treat his customers like they were his only source of income, which they were.

Matt knew that he shouldnt be checked on for the rest of the night. The spare tables and chairs were kept in a separate storage room, so there should be no interruptions while he hid the skill shard.

If the arrogant party complained that the skill shard was missing, which Matt bet they would, Benny would try and appease them by searching the staff. It was Bennys standard practice, so he could say he did his best.

Matt grabbed a finished table, wedged it under the door handle, went to the desk, and pulled out his pad.

It was an older model and had seen repair by Matt and the previous owners. Matt pulled out a shim and carefully pried off the back. He immediately ripped out the speaker. The sound was tinny and intermittently went out, so no real loss.

Matt carefully placed the skill gem into the newly open space. It was a close fit. The shard was longer than wide, thankfully, a little less than an inch long, and a quarter-inch wide at the middle.

Most of the cramped internals were taken up by the screen, the processor was small, and the mana battery was even smaller.

The skill shard nestled in just fine next to the battery. Matt grabbed a hot glue gun and, after it heated up, put a drop under the skill shard, stopping it from rattling and giving its hiding place away.

Matt closed the pad back up and checked to make sure it still worked. Nothing seemed amiss, and Matt shook it to see if he could hear anything move.

Not a sound. Perfect.

After cleaning up and putting everything away, Matt smiled and was about to get back to making tables when he saw the small speaker. He couldnt leave it out. It wasnt like anyone else came in here but leaving any clue to his theft was stupid.

He proceeded to smash the small speaker till only indiscernible powder remained, which was tossed to intermingle with the dust and debris already in the shop.

The evidence of his theft taken care of, Matt started making tables. He had been at it for about an hour when the shouting started, and Matt smiled. Shortly after that, Benny came in with the irate party leader.

As soon as he saw Matt, he started shouting, Did you steal it, boy? Ill fucking kill you if you took it.

Inside, Matt smiled. That was all he needed to hear. It was a question, not a statement.

Outwardly Matt put on a surprised face and stood up, asking, steal what, sir? I didnt steal anything. Benny would kill me if I did, and Ive been working here for over a year. Never stole a thing.

The man didnt seem to care. He had a wand in his hand that he was pointing at Matt.

Matt knew what it was; it was a mana detector. It only worked at close ranges but would find mana concentrations. Which meant a skill shard would be detected if it wasnt right next to a mana battery which would overpower any reading with unstructured mana.

Matt hadnt expected the man to have a detector like this on hand, but it was a standard tool used at the orphanage to check for any kind of mana contraband. Matt wasnt concerned.

Come here, Matt, let the man scan you. I dont think you took it, but if you did, say so now. Even if you swallowed it, the wand will detect it. Dont do something stupid. Benny looked bored and was clearly only humoring the man.

Matt, with nothing to fear, walked over and let the man run the wand over him, focusing on his stomach, shoes, and pockets. After a murmured curse, he started waving the wand over all the drawers. He found nothing and stomped out moments later.

Matt wanted to set up more of an alibi, so he asked Benny before he left. Wouldnt it be more likely that someone else took it and absorbed it already?

Benny looked tired and answered, Na, not that anyone would want to take that shit skill, but it takes days to absorb a skill. He looked at the tables Matt had stacked in a corner and said as he was leaving, thats enough for tonight, just go to sleep and finish tomorrow. All this over, a great life-saving skill turned into a shitty defensive one. Whoever heard of a channeled defensive skill?

As Benny turned the corner, Matt heard the murmuring turn to arrogant whelps who throw skill shards then want them back.

Matt was surprised Benny didnt try and get him to stay up all night to finish, he had before. Thanks, boss. Ill be sure to finish it up first thing tomorrow.

Not caring if Benny heard him, Matt took the excuse he was handed and fled to his room.