Luke now had his next goal, to find the settlement called "pleasure." However, he was currently standing on top of one of the tallest buildings in Azure London and he wasn't even certain that the place called "pleasure" actually existed. Still, those problems were not going to stop him. Nothing fit his new mantra of enjoying the apocalypse more than trying to find a place called pleasure.
However, preceding that, he wanted to make the most of his first problem and enjoy the amazing views of the city. He hadn't got to appreciate them with all the fighting he had done on the rooftop. From this high up there wasn't much of the city that Luke couldn't see.
Strangely from up high, it was hard to tell just how much of a wasteland the city had become. Nonetheless, one thing did stand out. A year ago the city would have been littered with a messy splattering of lights that rivalled the stars above. Now Luke couldn't see a single light on any of the buildings and it matched the lack of stars in the sky.
Luke looked out towards the southwest of the city where he had lived before the world went fully crazy. He hadn't been back there for a long time. It was now under the control of what remained of the legacy government. A faction Luke was not a fan of. They had failed to prevent things from getting this chaotic, but Luke didn't blame them for that, it had been an impossible task. What he did hold against them was that these days all they did was use what power they had left to protect themselves.
While Luke had been daydreaming, Ra had been busy. He landed in front of Luke and managed to gain his attention Ra then dropped what he had Clasped in his talons. Three shining blue crystals fell to the floor. Luke immediately recognised them as azure gems.
"Good job Ra! Did you take these from the Predator Pigeons I killed?"
"Kree" the Bird responded.
"That's fairly brutal but I guess you wanted to show your loyalty, huh." Ra bounced its head up and down in agreement and Luke stroked his head in thanks.
Luke really was very appreciative of the act. It was hard and time-consuming to harvest the stones from creatures unless you were good at it, which given how fast he had done it Ra evidently was. There was also no guarantee that all creatures would have one. Although the general rule was the stronger the creature the more likely it was, in fact, very powerful creatures tended to have larger azure gems. Luke didn't know for certain what caused it, but it seemed most likely that as things were exposed to the blue light and evolved, whatever was in the blue light that made the changes occur would solidify and turn into a crystal over time.
Any azure gem was very much worth gathering. Most of the Azure world economy ran off them. So if you had enough you could trade them for pretty much anything. One of the most influential factions in the city, the Delphinium group, had gained the majority of its power by becoming the biggest collector and seller of the gems.
The reason their power had snowballed was that people could absorb the gems to improve their abilities. It was even possible that if you absorbed enough you could sometimes gain more abilities.
Luke had gotten his hands on a gem a few months before and tried to use it, but he was unsuccessful as no matter what he did it wouldn't absorb. It had contributed to him believing that his ability had been faulty.
Now that he had the Completion system up and running he was keen to try again. However, before he could and as he took the crystal into his hand he got an achievement.
*ACHIEVEMENT UNLOCKED*
[Gemologist] Bronze Achievement unlocked for collecting 1 Azure Gem (+1 to All Stats)
Despite being a bronze achievement it affected every stat, which was very handy. He could also see that [Gemologist II] only required him to have 5 gems, which he was now just 2 away from and gave twice the rewards.
"You will not be able to absorb the Azure Gems like the other survivors. However, collecting them as you can see will bring you rewards on their own." Ava said. Luke was a little disappointed as he had greedily hoped that he would be able to absorb the gems while still gaining the stats from collecting them.
"So does that mean I have to carry these around the whole time?"
"No, once you have collected a gem, you can get rid of it."
A thought flashed through Luke's mind. "Wait, doesn't that mean I could collect them, gain the benefit, then sell them on after?"
"I guess it does," Ava said with a mischievous tone. It appeared he had come across an exploit of sorts.
With this new information, Luke, tired as he was, now had a detour that he wanted to make before he went to find Pleasure. He wanted to check if the wolves he had killed before had any gems. However, he needed to move fast if he was going to check. It wasn't just people that could use gems, creatures could also absorb them and grow stronger. He was now in a race to get back to the remains of the wolves before anything else did.
The issue was he was still on the 59th floor and although going down the stairs was going to be easier than going up the stairs had been, it was still going to take time he didn't have.
"Ra, any ideas on how to get down quickly?" Luke asked his companion.
The "kree" in response was a disheartened one. Luke had only been asking half seriously and felt bad that Ra had taken it to heart, so he made a mental note to find Ra something good to eat, which only reminded Luke how hungry he was.
"Actually, there is a faster way to the bottom of the building but I don't think you are going to like it," Ava interjected.
"Well, it doesn't hurt to hear about it either way."
"If you check your map you will see that next to both your marker and the throne icon there is another. What does it look like to you?"
Luke brought up the map and squinted his eyes trying to guess at what the icon represented.
"Is that a roll of tape? Can I craft something to get down?"
"Nice idea, but no. That is toilet paper."
"What do you mean toilet paper? How will that help? Honestly, I'm kind of done with toilet paper after what... " Luke paused. "No..."
"Yes."
"Surely not."
"Definitely yes."
Luke walked to the side and looked down the back side of the building to where the icon was indicating. He couldn't quite believe his eyes but sure enough right at the bottom, there was a huge pile of toilet paper. It was so large that if he jumped off he was guaranteed to land on it.
"Come on, surely that's not possible."
"It is one of the 'collectables' for each region. You don't have to attempt it if you don't wish to. But like everything it will earn you rewards and add to your completion percentage."
"How come there is that much toilet paper just sitting there anyway?"
"You just fought a giant pigeon that teleported you to a different land, which then turned into a hawk. And the toilet paper is a step too far?"
"You make a good point. Still seems weird that toilet paper is involved again."
"What can I say the completion system works in mysterious ways."
"Am I at least guaranteed to survive if I land in it?"
"Yes, it wouldn't be a very good collectable if you didn't"
"Uhhh, I guess that I better give it a go then."
Luke backed up from the edge so that he could get more of a running approach. As Ra watched on, Luke wondered if the bird could comprehend the idea that he was terrified of the height he was about to leap from or if a fear of heights was too alien a concept for a bird.
The jump was going to be a lot greater than the one that he had attempted earlier. The worst part, however, was that this time he actually knew how big the drop was. Luke couldn't help but get cold feet, even after fifteen seconds he still hadn't moved from the same spot. Eventually, he had no choice but to give himself a countdown. But before he did he checked one last time.
"You're sure this is safe Ava?"
"100% safe."
"Alright then."
Luke began counting out loud:
"Three.
Two.
One."
Luke sprinted full speed towards the drop so that he couldn't stop even if he wanted to. As he leapt forward into the air Ava spoke:
"Well maybe more like 95"
"What!??!!"