"Fuck…" I groaned as I walked into Baset's lecture hall. Jane and Iris were close behind me and following me like second shadows.
"I can't believe Lady Baset gave you a book report that you had to finish in two days." Jane said. .
"It's what he gets for being a smart ass…" Iris grumbled.
"I suck at book reports! I hate 'em!" I grumbled.
As we walked into the main lobby, the guardsmen that was seated at the security booth in the center of the room looked up and saw us.
"You three! Class is going to be in a different place today." He said.
"Here we go again!" I grumbled.
"Class will be held in the splicing lab on the eleventh floor. Take the elevator up." He said.
"Splicing lab?" Jane voiced. I shrugged, then followed the guardsmen instructions and headed to the elevator.
The girls and I got in and rode it up to the eleventh floor. When the doors opened, we were let out into a large and open room about the same size as the lobby and auditorium put together. It was mostly empty except for a set of shelves that ook up the entire wall on the west side of the room filled with what looked like vials of blood. The floor was covered in splicing circles, five of them in total. They were set in a circular pattern.
As we stepped out of the elevator, I saw Desmond and Astrid already inspecting the vials of blood on the shelves. They turned to look at us when they heard the elevator doors open. Astrid scowled at me when she saw me and stomped over.
"Chase!" She barked and then slapped me in my shoulder when she got close enough.
"OW!" I exclaimed and rubbed my arm. "What was that for?!"
"For worrying us all half to death! Why is it that every time something happens in this class, you're always in the center of it?!"
"Luck of the Irish?" I said with a shrug. Astrid slapped my arm again and then looked to Jane and Iris.
"And you two! If you ever leave him to find his way again, I'm not helping you find him! It's mostly your fault he got lost!" Astrid snapped.
"How is it our fault?" Iris demanded.
"You left him unsupervised!" Astrid grumbled. Iris looked at Astrid incredulously.
"We're not his keepers!" She snapped, then paused for several seconds and groaned, then placed her head on Jane's shoulder. "Oh my gods! We're Chase's keepers!"
"There, there…" Jane said, patting Iris on her head.
"Dramatic much…" I grumbled.
"Like you're one to talk, Chase!" Damon said, walking over to the group. "You disappeared for four days."
"I'm sorry, how many days were you unconscious during the Tolapo crisis?" I asked. Damon opened his mouth to say something but frowned and closed it, then stomped back over to the blood vials.
"You're never going to let that go, are you?" Astrid asked. I shook my head.
"Nope." I said, then walked over to the shelves of blood vials with Damon.
The elevator opened again and everyone turned around to see Baset walking out of the elevator with Nigel and Isaan flanking her and one other person I hadn't expected to see at the school in a million years by her side.
"Who's that little kid?" Astrid asked.
"BO!" I exclaimed. Bo's eyes lit up when he saw me and pointed to me while looking up at Baset.
"See! I told you he would know me!" He exclaimed. Baset smiled sweetly at Bo and placed a hand on his shoulder.
"It seems he does, I'm sorry for doubting you." She said in a sweet voice that seemed entirely wrong coming from her mouth. Baset looked up at me, and the sweet look disappeared. "Chase! I got called to the front gate earlier. The guards were saying that this young man was trying to sneak into the college and that he said he knew you knew you. Might I ask how you know him?"
"I'm one of his employees! Bo Kestrel! Chief of communication!" Bo exclaimed, proudly sticking his chest out and placing his hands on his hips.
"I gave you no such title!" I snapped.
"Well, I should be Chief of communication! Considering I'm the one that's been running back and forth between the college and the shop giving you updates for the last two days!" Bo argued.
"Gadget was the one handing me those reports!" I countered. "Besides, I hired your parents, not you!"
"How rude! You think I'm going to just let my evo wander from the silver city to the gold city by himself! And if you hire mom and dad, you're hiring me too!"
"You let that little trouble maker wander from the silver city to Gold City the day you had him steal my wallet! Why would having him sneak onto the campus be any different!"
"QUIET!" Baset yelled. Bo and I frowned but shut up. "So what I'm hearing is this young man is the child of some employees of yours."
"Yeah…" I grumbled. Iris grabbed my shoulders and squeezed so hard I felt my collar bone creak. "…OW! OW! OWWWWWW!"
"Chase…why is this the first I'm hearing of this?" Iris asked. Jane grabbed my other shoulder and squeezed as well.
"Yes, Chase, what's this about employees?" Jane asked.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! OWWWWWW!" I cried and tried to wiggle free of their grip.
"Less crying more explaining!" Iris snapped.
"Bo's parents run a shop, and I bought it and hired them to run it and hired an ex-gang member to act as security!" I summarized quickly. Jane and Iris froze but let go of my shoulders. I quickly rushed out of their reach and rubbed my sore collar bones.
"How could you do that without telling us or at least discussing it with us first!" Iris demanded.
"You left me unsupervised!" I defended. Iris scowled at me but didn't refute it, which somehow hurt worse than if she had. Jane walked over to Bo and smiled sweetly.
"Nice to meet you, Bo Kestrel. I'm Jane Yearwood, Chief of Logistics at Sho'lajah artifact company. I guess this makes you and your parents my first member of staff." She said. Bo stared up at her with wide eyes and a look of awe.
"O-okay!" Bo muttered.
'She won him over quick…' I thought.
"What's so important that you couldn't just send Gadget to inform me about it, Bo?" I asked, snapping him put off his little daze.
"Oh yeah! Mom wants you to know that she's in the process of acquiring some property for the company. If you have some time later She wants to show you them. Sin fought off some Red dragon remnants that tried to attack the shop, then tracked them down to a warehouse in the bronze city and took care of them. He found a bunch of machines that he thinks we could sell for quick cash, so he wants to show you that. And Dad has sorted a local to do repairs to the shop as well renovate it so he wants you to look over some plans and designs that he put together…also here's an expense report for materials that mom sourced." Bo reported then pulled a bill of sale out of his pocket and handed it to me.
I looked the bill over and then nodded. She'd spent a lot less than I had expected her to, but the expense report didn't say anything about the quality of the materials. I handed the report to Jane, and she quickly looked it over.
"I have questions, but I suppose I'll have to meet Bo's mom to get them answered." Jane said.
"Well, after class, all of you can deal with your businesses business. But right now I'm going to start class." Baset interrupted.
"So that means that you have to go!" I exclaimed and spun Bo around and started pushing him towards the elevator.
"Oh, come on!" Bo exclaimed and tried to get away from me. Baset stopped me and ushered Bo under her arm.
"Hold on, Chase. Today's class is one that your young employee could benefit greatly from." She said, then smiled sweetly at Bo. Bo smiled up at Baset, then looked back at me and stuck his tongue out at me. I rolled my eyes but looked up at Baset as she called everyone over to her.
Baset stood with Bo by her side, and Nigel and Isaan flanked her still as she stood in front of one of the splicing circles.
"I'm having class here today because it's come to my attention that two of you have agreed to a duel." Baset said. Jane and Iris both narrowed their eyes at me while Astrid and Damon looked confused.
"I was venting…" I said sheepishly. Jane groaned, then looked to Baset.
"Yes, Chase challenged me to a duel." Jane confirmed. Astrid and Damon's mouths dropped as they looked at Jane and I.
"And if I am correct, the terms of the duel is that in one month's time, the two of you will battle using evos that the two of you spliced. Jane's evo is spliced the traditional way, and Chase's spliced using a new way of splicing that he came up with." Baset said.
"Are you serious?!" Damon exclaimed, then turned to look at me. "You're seriously letting all this praise for being able to enchant items go to your head. You honestly think you can create a new way of splicing when splicing has been around since the beginning of humanity! The height of hubris!"
"Well, if anyone would know about being full of themselves, it would be you, Damon." I said. Bo laughed while Damon scowled at me.
"Yes! And it's brought to my attention the fact that we haven't discussed actual splicing much in class. So I'm going to rectify that today." Baset said, then looked to me.
I groaned and opened my backpack and pulled out my book report, and handed it to Baset. She smiled and checked to make sure I had written the correct number of pages. Seeing that I had, she smiled and handed the paper to Nigel.
"I'll have that graded and returned to you at the next class. Now, for a bit of refresher, what are the three things that every splicer needs in order to splice?" Baset asked. Bo raised his hand and jumped in place.
"Oh! I know! I know!" He exclaimed.
"Bo." Baset called on him.
"A splicing circle, some catalysts, and a firm picture of what you want your evo to look like in your mind." Bo answered. Baset nodded and patted him on the head.
"Correct. That's all you need. Now I can assume that everyone here except Chase and Bo have spliced before…."
"I've spliced before!" Bo interrupted. Baset arched her brow in surprise.
"Really? I wouldn't have thought a ten year old would have spliced yet." Nigel said. Bo frowned at Nigel then she crossed his arms.
"I'm ten and a half! And of course, I've spliced before. Come on out, Gadget!" Bo exclaimed, then stuck his tongue out and exposed his farm crystal. A crystalline structure formed and shot into the air, and Gadget burst out of it and landed on Bo's shoulder. He chittered softly and looked around the room.
"Well, who's this little guy?" Baset asked. She kneeled down and scratched Gadget's belly.
"This is Gadget. He's the first evo I ever spliced." Bo said. Everyone looked impressed even with Jane and Astrid.
"And what are his bases?" Baset asked.
"Capuchin monkey, Raccoon, and chipmunk." Bo replied. "When I made him three years ago, I used some spare cultures that we had at the shop. This made mom mad at first, but she was pretty proud when she saw I successfully spliced a tier three evo!"
"WAIT! THREE YEARS AGO!" Damon exclaimed. "You spliced a tier three evo when you were seven?"
"Yep!" Bo confirmed.
"There's no way…" Jane breathed.
"Yeah! There's no way a seven year old can splice a tier three. You'd have been too young to develop a mana system to deal with the mana cost!" Damon exclaimed. Bo puffed his chest out and smirked.
"I don't need one! I have a lot of mana!" Bo said.
"Yeah, I'd say his mana capacity is either a third to about half of mine." I spoke up. Everyone's eyes widened when they heard that.
"Can you splice another tier three if I provide you with the cultures?" Baset asked. Bo nodded enthusiastically.
"Yeah! There's been this one evo that I've been planning to make, but I haven't had the cultures." Bo said.
"Then I guess we can move onto the demonstration part of the class. There are plenty of cultures over there, pick the ones you need and splice." Baset said.
"Lady Baset, he's ten years old. Obviously, he's lying about being able to splice a tier three at seven. Only ten percent of splicers in the world can splice tier threes at full adulthood." Jane said.
"We shall see." Baset said, then looked to Bo. "Go ahead."
Bo smiled like a kid in a candy store and then rushed over to the shelves of cultures. Everyone sat and watched as he combed the shelves, looking for the vials that he wanted. He pulled two off the shelves. He searched around for a few minutes, trying to find the third, then suddenly frowned.
"I can't find human blood samples here." Bo said.
"That's because most splicers use their own blood if they need human DNA or someone they know." Baset explained.
"Oh…" Bo looked down at his hand and grimaced.
"You can use my blood. A small cut will heal instantly with me." I said. Bo smiled broadly, then rushed over to the splicing circle Baset was standing in front of and poured the vials of blood in their prospective circles. He then looked to me, and I walked over and popped my claws, then made a small cut on my palm and dripped the blood into the last circle. Satisfied Bo, and I stepped out of the circle.
Bo took a deep breath as I took a step back. I felt a little apprehensive about the splicing, but Bo saying he'd been playing out the evo for over a year calmed my nerves.
Bo took a calming breath, then clapped his hands together and held them out towards the blood samples in the center of the splicing circle. The whole circle glowed a bright green as the catalysts floated three feet in the air before mixing into a tight marble. The farm crystal in Bo's mouth glowed with the same green color as Bo started casting an axiom spell sigil.
Two beams of green energy shot from Bo's hands and struck the catalyst marble. The entire splicing circle now glowed as a wall of green light was raised around the perimeter of the circle. Bo cast a second axiom spell, and five orbs of yellow light formed in his hands and then levitated around the perimeter of the splicing circle. They circled faster and faster, changing elevation and speed randomly before one by one, they flew into the green field.
'This looks different than when Jane spliced…' I thought. A glance over at Jane told me she was thinking the same thing.
"Let's go!" Bo exclaimed, then started clapping in a rhythm that reminded me of a heartbeat. "Let's go! Let's go!"
For several minutes, nothing could be seen or heard happening inside the splicing circle when suddenly he sounded of a loud heartbeat echoed throughout the room. Bo smiled broadly and kept clapping. His clapping was now in sync with the sound of the heartbeat.
Bo started casting a third axiom spell happily, hopping from one foot to the other. A beam of white energy shot from Bo's mouth and struck the green field. The sound of the heart beat intensified and grew louder until everyone had to cover their ears. Then everything went silent as the field gave off a bright flash of light.
Everyone covered their eyes until the light faded, and we could sew the evo that Bo had created clearly. A humanoid evo stood in the center of the circle. It was kneeling on one knee with its head down. It stood at around five feet on that knee and had a stocky body. Its chest and lower body were covered in thick armor like plating that reminded me of an armadillo's, where there wasn't any plating. There was ashy green skin. It had a long mane of thick corse looking hair and two tusk sticking out past its lower lip about four inches.
"Yes! It worked!" Bo exclaimed. The new evo looked up at Bo and blinked a few times as if trying to focus its vision. The evo opened its mouth and let out a guttural cough. It made this sound a few times and then frowned.
"B-b-boss?" The evo stuttered. Everyone froze and looked at each other, then looked at Bo. Bo looked up, completely surprised that the evo had spoken as well. "M-m-maker? C-c-chief…chief!"
"It can talk! I thought only Chase's evos could talk!" Damon exclaimed, breaking the silence.
"Congratulations, Bo. You've successfully spliced a tier three evo." Baset said. Bo walked over to his new evo and placed a hand on its head. The crystal in his mouth glowed blindingly bright for several seconds, then went dull.
"What was that?" Astrid asked. The evo blinked again and then looked at Bo, it's eyes looked different now. They seemed sharper than they had moments before.
"Chief…your my chief?" The evo asked. Everyone's eyes got wider, and their jaws hit the floor.
"Did it just ask a question?" Iris asked.
'It cycled through different adjectives for leader then chose chief…it knows language already.' I thought.
"Yes, I'm your chief Bo!" Bo exclaimed. "And I'm going to call you…Gargesh!"
"Gargesh…Gargesh…Gargesh…Chief Bo has named me Gargesh!" He exclaimed. Baset walked over and patted Bo on the back.
"This is a great achievement Bo, have you thought of a temporary type name for it?" Baset asked.
"Temporary type name?" Bo asked.
"It's like a species name. You know, Steeds, titans, and thrads. Those are types of names. Since you created that one, you get to give it a type name temporarily in the hopes that it becomes an accepted type and gets a permanent one." I explained.
"Oh! Gotcha! In that case…Orkand!" Bo exclaimed proudly. "Since Gargesh got a type name, it's only right that Gadget gets one too. Gadget's type name is…Restiskill!"
"Good, now that the demonstration is out of the way, we can go into the technical processes…"