Chapter 417: Important. Consequential.

Chapter 417: Important. Consequential.

I take full advantage of my remaining time hereby pestering every crafter I meet for as much free information as I can get.

My D-rank Obsidian Black identification emblem may not be worthy of note, but having a damaged arcane ax helps. Some of the crafters definitely seem to be intrigued by it.

I also have the mana stones with Lissandra’s three mana exercises, her improvements on mana cycling, and a Restrictive Training Emblem. I'm sure they are worth a lot.

Like, a lot a lot.

So they stay as hidden as possible. Otherwise, I'm sure I would find an “accident” coming my way. The same goes for the arcane-grade alloy Nevan left me with.

That's why I’m only using the ax, and even that seems to be pushing the bounds of whatever unspoken rules guide this place, at some point I just become a newbie with some cool stuff worth enough to justify the consequences.

These unspoken rules seem to be the only reason this place isn’t completely lawless. However, I fully expect this to change from outpost to outpost, especially in the dungeon. There, you can find better facilities and stuff, but it's also more dangerous, and the guilds made most of the rules.

Of course, if you were to kill an attendee, you’d risk angering their handler. Handlers often saw their “person” as an investment. A talent they intended to grow. There was apparently a whole field of politics around the relationships between handlers, the forming of contracts, the trading of talent, and more besides. It's like we’re football stars and our handlers are playing the role of managers while the guilds act as their personal football teams.

Some of the higher-ranked attendees even get contracts from guilds and receive monthly or yearly salaries. The higher ranking guilds can even double the duration of your stay tokens. And if one did well they could even gain access to their facilities, contacts, and information.

There is so much, and I’m only scratching the surface.

Clearing my mind, I turn my attention back to the man who’s examining my Flamebearer.

“I can't fix it.” He says, shaking his head.

“Yeah, I expected that.”

“Listen here, you brat, it's not...”

I quickly interrupt him, “Don’t misunderstand, I didn't mean it that way. It's just that I know how difficult it is to work with these items, and after months of trying, I didn't expect it to be as simple as finding someone on the entrance floor to help.”

His eyes squint, but in the end, he accepts my explanation.

Damn, dealing with people sure is difficult. Tess, please help.

“Got it, so what do you want?”

“I got curious if it would be possible to change its shape. I would prefer a sword or maybe a javelin over the current one.”

That makes him laugh, and he returns the ax, the fires of his smithy burning behind him.

“What you want would be more work than just fixing the weapon. You would need to redo everything while adapting it to the new shape. In the end, you would only recycle the material the ax is made of, and everything else would be new.”

I tilt my head in surprise, “What if I melted the weapon just enough to change its shape while removing the damaged parts and repositioning the working ones?”

“Do you even realize how crazy something like that would be? With an arcane weapon? You could end up dropping the rarity, you could ruin the inscriptions, you could screw up the weapon’s balance. Not to mention the level of heat you would need to melt a weapon of this grade while retaining enough raw power to work the inscriptions and the skills to do so.”

“So it would be possible?”

“Did you hear anything I just said?”

“Sounds good.”

Locals, the descendants of people who got into Beyond. The most talented members of their tutorials - rounds of people chosen from millions, billions of people on the planet. Do their efforts leave a mark on their descendants? Are the locals more talented than normal people?

So far, from most of what I've seen, they don't seem all that strong, at least not here. But I know you can hire them for expeditions to the dungeons. As guild attendants mainly, but sometimes they will help you.

I don't think it's that simple though, and they probably come at a high price. But unlike those of us from the tutorial, the locals could spend tens, hundreds of years in Beyond. The amount of information they’ve collected in all that time cannot be underestimated, and neither can their value.

That's what makes me so curious about them.

Duncan is a year or two younger than me, at least that’s how he looks and feels, and upon reaching his anchor, I hide my presence as much as possible.

It's in the poorer-looking part of the outpost, even though it's still nice.

I train, shaping the mana inside my body, as I watch the timer tick down and observe the locals and attendees rushing about on their business. This time, I'm trying to count each of the different races I see while waiting to see if Duncan will leave the house he just entered.

When I count over 20 races, I stop.

There seem to be a lot of humans and other races with weird eyes, oddly colored skin, or any number of other small changes. Then there are the lynthari who have a pretty decent representation. There aren’t many demons, though each one feels more dangerous than the average attendee. Each has red eyes and horns.

The time we arranged for our meeting is growing close, and I glance at my feet and I wiggle my toes. Some time ago, I joked that I had probably lost enough limbs for Lily to build a Nathaniel or two. The thought of that is still as amusing as it is scary.

The flesh is weak, embrace the sanctity of blessed mana, Is that how it goes?

I lift my fingers and touch my lips, noticing the corner of my mouth twitch into the barest hint of a smile.

I’ve been having a lot of fun lately, haven’t I? As dangerous and dirty as this all feels sometimes, it also feels so beautifully real. Important. Consequential. I make mistakes, and I have to deal with them.

I do not regret making these mistakes. Because every time I correct one, there is that clear feeling of progression.

It's hard to properly explain. At least it is for me. But that's what makes it fun, the slow process of discovery.

The door of the house finally opens, and Duncan steps out, still chewing his food. His huge bag rests on his back, and he smiles brightly, turning back to the people inside the room.

There is a boy and a girl, both children about the same age as Isabella and Vega. Each wearing a clean set of hand-me-down clothes. There is a clear resemblance in the cast of their faces which all but confirms their status as siblings.

The way they look up to him reminds me of something.

Duncan says something, and with a serious nod, the kids close the door, and Duncan checks to make sure it's locked. Only then does he rush away.

I observe that house for a while and then, with a sigh, place an anchor inside, the house bare of protections against it.

Inside, the house is clean but mostly empty. Sending my senses through it, I avoid the children who are upstairs and seek out the kitchen.

The fridge-like appliance is broken, and there is just enough food for a few days. The water tank is running low as well and getting close to kicking the bucket, as is the stove whose mana stone might explode soon if not handled carefully. It's so simple to fix, it's not even a bother.

Quickly, within a few seconds, I find each non-working appliance and fix it, putting all of the food I have on me in the fridge and refilling the water tank with water from my vial.

I know how expensive the food and water are here in Beyond, and Duncan, even though he’s earning some shards, seems to need them for something else. After all, I can't sense the items I bought for him anywhere in the entire house.

Everyone has their problems, I guess, and he said as much, and it's not like I need food or water. I’ll be leaving Beyond soon, and I can last a day or two without it. It would just be too annoying to carry it all with me.

Teleporting away, I make my way to our meeting spot.