This day I decided to take off. There were many things I had to test with the skills I learned, and also there was Blitzkrieg to push. He promised me something, and I was not gonna back down on it. She had suffered enough. I hated Mark from the bottom of my heart for what he did to her. I hated all of them, who abused their power, and tormented those weaker than them. And for what? Personal amusement?
I put the knife in my pocket and headed to Blitzkrieg's bar. One day they all were going down. One day. This simple object in the pocket made me feel like it could be achieved right here, right now.
Have you ever felt like that? Like payback to those who made you suffer is about to happen? But then you realize it will have its consequences, and it might actually ruin everything. Bring an even worse future, than what right now you are experiencing. The feeling of hopelessness is just overwhelming. So heavy, that your legs start shaking. Terrible feeling. If you never felt it, you are lucky. I hope you never experience such a thing.
But if you did. Then I'm truly sorry. Nobody should have experienced such a feeling. There is a saying, that what won't kill you, will make you stronger. It's bullshit. Life can beat you down so badly, that you won't be able to stand up.
Depressing, isn't it? Well, that was how I felt, even though I still could fight. But there was just so much going down around me, and it made me feel like an insignificant piece, a single gear in grad machinery.
I pushed those feelings out of my head, and instead focused on walking. Putting one foot in front of the other. There was no other choice. Of course, I could just give up, that was easy. But was It really a choice? I still had my chance. I still had a shot.
That is how I got myself in front of Blitzkrieg bar. I took a deep breath and then entered. As usual, music welcomed me, but this time voice was different. The song was, I believe, in french. Beautiful. I stood there for a moment with closed eyes and listened.
Finally, I opened them and went forward. There were fewer people, and they, for the most part, focused on eating breakfast. Some conversation took place. Rarely, but still, in the company of some women. This time fully dressed. Nicely, in skin-tight one-piece, sometimes they even had stockings on.
I didn't pay much attention to them and headed straight to where Blitzkrieg was having dinner with me. He was there, but I actually didn't pay much attention to him, because Aisha was with him. They were talking.
- Peter! Finally - he said as soon, as he saw me. - You made us wait for you. I hope your adventures went well.
- Is she free?
- As a little bird.
She looked at me and even smiled a bit, but didn't say a thing.
- Let's go then, Aisha.
- Wait a bit, Peter. I would like to talk with you first. Do you mind leaving us alone for a moment? - he turned to Aisha.
She gave him and, stood up, and went to sit next to a bar.
- Come Peter. Sit.
I did just as he said.
- She is free now, but I need a bit of assurance, that you will fulfill your part - he continued.
- I'm giving you my word.
- Well... That might be a bit too little Peter. How about we do this. I will take care of her, keep her safe and healthy, and you do your part? Then she will be free. It's the best thing we both can do for her. You know it all might go down pretty badly, and then there will be blood on the streets. Here nobody is gonna touch her. And when everything is resolved, I'll promise to let her go.
There was some sense to his words, but I had no doubts it was just a leash on my neck. I believe he also knew very well, that I knew.
- She was supposed to be free. That was the deal.
- Look Peter. I'm doing this for her. Do you want her on the streets when the hell will let loose? Do you want her to be killed for no reason? We will watch over her for you until Blue is gone, and then, when it's safe, you can take her whatever you want.
I wanted to say "Fuck you", but I couldn't.
- If you are lying to me, You are next after Blue.
He smiled.
- It's good that I'm talking the truth then. Now to important things. I want you to try and talk with Blue. Right now just to check if he will allow it. Not today, not tomorrow, but the day after. Just try, and see what his answer will be. If he says yes, then we will make a plan, if not, well... There will be a war. We will have to talk about it more when the time comes. For now, don't come here anymore. Contact me thru your friend Hatta. My people will inform him about everything. Well... if you didn't already - he smiled again.
I just stood up and headed straight to the exit. Stopped for a moment next to Aisha.
- You should be safe here. I'll take you after everything is done. I'm sorry it's taking so long, and you have to be with those people.
- I'm fine, Peter. Just be careful.
Outside I got this strange urge to punch something. Rip it apart. I wanted to rage, but the last remaining bits of sanity stopped me from doing it. Walking to the city center allowed me to cool off a bit.
I wanted to look around for Hatta but was actually afraid to be seen with him after I just returned from Blitzkrieg. Who knew if Blue was looking, or not.
I only had the knife with me, which was not enough to test the skills I acquired. So on a whim, I decided to buy yet another pudao, and with it and few stripes of beef jerky, I traveled to the part of the woods where wolves had their territory.
I needed to vent a bit. That was actually my primary goal. The secondary was to check if I will be able to heal a bite wound. It was already way after midday when I got there. I saw a few other hunters around on my way there indicating that this place was actively traversed. Howling could be heard from everywhere.
I was forced to go a bit deeper to find what I was looking for, but after a bit of walking, I saw the first wolf. He was actually running, probably to answer the call, but the moment our eyes meet, he stopped immediately. Sliding a bit on the forest litter. A low growl escaped his muzzle thru gritted fangs.
A bit of a staredown had a place. Like in old westerns. Then we charged at each other. He jumped, I swung. I almost forgot myself, but utilizing the full force in my legs I managed to dodge to the side while spinning and miss the hit. I never actually thought that someday I will have to push my body so far, to not hurt something.
We both rolled to the ground, and the wolf charged again. This time I just allowed him to sink his teeth in my forearm. They, surprisingly, didn't go too deep. After landing, and pulling me a bit down with his weight, he wiggled awkwardly trying to rip part of my flesh off, but just couldn't.
I slowly pushed the tip of pudao's blade thru his back, and he vanished into smoke leaving crystal behind. The wound barely hurt. I could actually just ignore it, and push further, but that was not why I was there.
I used a single heal instead. Some of the holes closed, but the rest remained, so I used another one. That was enough. Now I knew that this ability wasn't that great, at least not right now, but still useful nonetheless.
I still had two questions to answer. The first one was, how much of those heals I can actually use before draining my life force points. The second was, how do I regain those points back. Do I have to buy them in the device, or do they regenerate overtime? If so, then how fast?
To find answers I actually needed to have the device next to me. I decided very fast to spend the night in the city center and find out when nobody will be around. I hunted few more wolves, just to have some crystals for tax, and returned.
After a bit of bargaining tax collectors finally agreed to take two instead o three crystals as a tax. I had no idea how many wolf ones they usually took, so they could just deceive me. In the end, it was not important.
I used the device to check my condition, and there were full hundred life points ready to use, which indicated that I was regaining them over time. I bit my lip, and healed it quickly, just to check how much single-use was taking. It was twenty, which meant I could use them five times before running out of power.
I still had 348 882 points on my account. There was no reason to keep it, so I started investing. I put 10k points in heal, cleansing, and life energy, then 1k points in energy manipulation, just to discover the next upgrade of this skill was not 10k points but remained only a thousand. So I put another into it, and another. I kept doing so until the price finally went up to 10k. Overall, I bought this skill ten times.
I bit my lip again, and immediately healed, then checked status. This time the healing cost was only 19 points. So approximately ten upgrades gave me a 5% reduction in the cost. I decided to invest a bit more, up to 100k points, and then the possibility to upgrade this skill vanished.
I tested the heal again, and the cost went down by another point. Then I invested in the rest of my skills to have everything but manipulation, on the second upgrade. With still plenty of points left, I decided to upgrade weapon mastery to the third level for 100k points.
With the remaining 68 882 points, I decided to buy some food, and call it a day. There was no need to do more testing.
Day ended with 68 862 points on my account and 3 wolf crystals in my pockets.