Chapter 8 - Chapter 8 - Aftermath (5)

The weeks after establishing the Association went by rather quickly. School resumed as the situation was brought under control, and with that meant Connor and I were under double the pressure. Our futures on one side, and the lives and futures of every citizen of The United States of America on the other.

In my offtime I have spent a lot of time testing out the features of the system. With the boss soul i obtained from the dungeon break I was able to make use of the Skill to create a basic grenade constructor - it will fuse mana crystals with the [elemental flux] of monster drops. This is a complicated subject, but one can basically think of it as the dominent aspect of an item. For goblins, the Elemental Flux is Bios - the flux of life, for golems it would be Ferras or Calcus, metal and rock respectively. There are a total of twelve fluxes corresponding to Life, Death, Metal, Rock, Water, Ice, Fire, Electricity, Divinity, Corruption, Wholeness, and Emptiness. Im currently unsure as to what those last four are for, as the description of the item only gave me the names of Fluxes, not their list of ingredients.

Tonight, im finally assembling my first production line.

"You ready to meetup?" I shoot a text to connor.

'Yeah, backyard?' He responds after about a minute.

'Yep, see you in 10' I say and get a hoodie out of my closet - I'd rather not wait in the cold for this idiot to arrive.

I am halfway to the staircase before my mother stops me by leaning her head out of her door.

"Where are you going?" My mom asks as I head to the backdoor.

"Just to the backyard." I say flatly. She can know I'm a player, but she doesnt need to know everything just yet.

"Just the backyard? You've been leaving at absurd hours, fighting ACTUAL monsters without ANY concern for the family members scared sh*tless for your safety at home, and you even run a research lab now with NO parental consent. What the HELL is going on Ezra?"

"I…" I struggle to come up with the words to explain myself. I hadn't really thought about the way my family must feel. How would I feel if my mom has been doing the sams, or god forbid my sister?

"Yeah, but you want me to believe youre only going to the 'backyard', huh?" She laughs bitterly, "I am your MOTHER, and even I dont know whats been going on with you. At least try to show some decency in that regard. Goodnight, I cant deal with this anymore right now," She says as she closes her door and presumably goes to bed.

'Uh… maybe another night, actually. The production line is important but I dont think I should leave the house tonight' I text Connor before knocking on my Mom's door.

"Mom?" I ask

"I'm going to bed," She responds flatly.

"Alright, well… I'm not going tonight. You wont have to worry. Goodnight," I say before heading back to my room.