Kai's legs slithered like a gentle gust had pushed him backward.
The fist hit hair, making Kai narrow his eyes. Another fist followed, and he dodged it again by a hair's breath.
The guard under Kai's grip dangled like a cloth along with him. His finger tightened around the man's throat with every step he slithered, with every punch he dodged.
The man behind the fists noticed it too.
The punches stopped. The slithering stopped. The tightening fingers loosened.
Kai got the chance to look at the man then. The guards were already burly, but this man was the burliest. Thick arms, thicker face. A bushy beard lingered on his face, along with an anchor tattoo on his right cheek.
Kai didn't want to kill anymore. The thrill had passed and he had more important things to do.
"You are Marine Roland?" Kai asked.
"Who's asking?" the man replied, never taking his eyes off the purple-faced guard.
Kai reached into his pocket and took out the badge before throwing it towards the man. "You need better guards."
*
*
"When will the next battle be?" Kai asked, rolling the coin-like badge across his knuckles.
Roland, the Branch Captain of the Silver Hunter Guild, had been eying the badge since Kai had thrown it in his face.
"3 days from now, at evenfall," Roland answered, nodding at another guy. "We will ambush a Herb Gathering Party."
The guy, who Roland had nodded at, brought a map and spread it on the table between Kai and Roland. By now Kai had got to know many miscellaneous things from Roland, without losing a single Mission Credit.
"Once a week, the world outside the Wall comes alive," Roland told him. "Beasts, herbs, trees, water, and mines, name it and you can find it out there. These things are the precursor for the battles. The City is enormous, and to sustain it the Empire needs resources. You can guess the rest."
Kai could indeed guess the rest. It is all a game for the Systems. By limiting the resources, it forces the Empires to fight each other. This happens on each floor, like a boring, endless cycle. No wonder all Contestants long to return to Random Worlds. Here life is monotonous, but there… There is a world full of possibilities and opportunities.
"What do you know about the Stormborn Empire?" Kai asked the question that had been bothering him for long now.
"Don't order me!" Roland fumed, eying Kai and the badge, but answered anyway. "I am just a 1st Floor Contestant. I know little, other than what I need to know and what I am told. The only thing that is publicly known and discussed is that it wasn't always called the Stormborn Empire.
"Some 100 years ago, a Contestant ascended to the top and single-handedly toppled the last Empire."
What?! Kai could perceive absolute fear in Roland's voice. The guy, standing next to him, was shivering. "Do you know his name?"
"She…" Roland corrected. "Brienne Stormborn, the Empress of Justice, Balance, and Order."
For a moment, just for a fleeting moment, Kai had hoped to hear his father's name.
Alan Stormborn had disappeared right after his son's birth, becoming the greatest mysteries in Kai's life.
For another fleeting moment, Kai had wished to hear his mother's name.
But Brienne… Kai searched for the name in his family tree, tracing the last 1300 years of history of House Stormborn. There's no Brienne.
"Prepare a room for me," Kai almost commanded. "Tomorrow we will go to the Armory. You better not have any lack of Mission Credits."
Kai saw Roland gritting his teeth in anger and rubbing his fists.
But the badge turned out to be more powerful than Kai had imagined.
In a few minutes, Kai found himself in a big room. Kai didn't go to sleep immediately, though. There were a few things he needed to do before going back to the Random World.
This was as good a time as any.
"Chaos," Kai said, his voice booming within the room. "I want the Miscellaneous Rent Box."
…
[
Processing request…
Request Accepted
Request Nature: Miscellaneous Rent Box
Specification: A fourth of your Inventory will be reserved for miscellaneous storage.
Effect:
1. Contestant can conjure any container within this space
2. The combined capacity of all the containers must not exceed the limits
3. Only things with no Stats can be stored within the containers
Price: 100 Mission Credits
Warning: Price subjected to change with rise in Mission Grade
…
Do you accept the transfer?
]
…
With one flick of his hand, Kai took out the Hippogriff's legs and said, "Yes."
Immediately, he felt a corner of his Inventory graying out as if he didn't have full access to it anymore. It was kinda like having a drawer within a drawer.
Kai also noticed there wasn't any reduction in total Mission Credits for now. If the System won't get to deduct 100 MC before Random World's teleportation, then he won't be able to access the Miscellaneous Rent Box.
Kai eyed the legs the, each donning half-a-foot long steel-like talons.
It's a little complex for Items like these, Arlen had told him. The System will allow it to be stored as long as you can distinguishably tell it is or was an Item or a Magical Creature. So if you were to store only a claw of the magical creature, the Inventory will most definitely reject it. Unless the claw is itself an Item. Got me?
That's what Kai had been worrying about. Hippogriff was a magical beast, and its legs were rich in Mana. Before taking it to the smith, he'd rather store the flesh for later.
It was bloody work.
Kai manged to secure a dirk from Roland. He angled it perfectly, and cut through the muscles. On his left was a wooden chest. From the open lid, one could see strips of flesh.
Kai took a weary breath. He was exhausted.
When Kai was done, he put the wooden chest back into the reserved space of his Inventory. But when he tried to store the talons, the Inventory rejected them.
Ah! Kai nodded, concluding Arlen's info. He wrapped the talons in a huge cloth instead. Now, I must do that too…
Kai had been looking forward to this the most. Ever since he had seen Arlen taking out that vial, he had been looking forward to this moment. He thought for a moment, and the System turned his thoughts into reality.
Kai swept his hand, and a vial appeared out of his Inventory. It was the same vial Arlen had given him. And its purpose was also the same.
I can't depend on Light Neurotoxin too much in a battle, Kai told himself. It depletes my HP and MP and makes me incapable of using other Abilities of the Blood Essence. Its better to store it beforehand.
Kai resolved himself, focusing on the ever-present hotness in his chest.
Even after experiencing it many times, the heat still had an edge to it. A hot mist covered his entire body, and the tattoo of the Blue-tailed Boa Constrictor appeared on his right arm.
…
[
Skill Light Neurotoxin Activated
Time Limit: 30 Seconds
]
…
Kai's reptilian pupils shimmered in the well-lit room. The nail of his middle finger extended, turning into a serpent's fang.
Drip! Drip! …
Kai paled instantaneously. 5 colorless drops of the poison had brought down his HP by 25 points. The drop in MP was enough to make him dizzy. But Kai persisted. Assisted by the maniacal will of his, Kai managed to remain awake until his HP and MP returned to their original values.
The tiredness, though, kept piling on.
Another activation. Eyes bloodshot! 5 more drops. And Kai couldn't hold on any longer.
The only thing he could do before losing his consciousness was to send the vial back to the Inventory.
*
*
After a few hours,
"Why's the city so…" Kai was wearing a long black greatcoat that brought about the color of his white hair. They flowed down his shoulders like a waterfall of honeyed milk. His hazel gave him a ferocity unknown to the boys of his age.
None could deny that as long as Kai didn't show his true nature, he could be the most charismatic figure wherever he went.
Even in this place, young and old, all women couldn't help but take second glances at him. Some had controlled their emotions, but many blushed, their faces gaining the color of ripe peaches.
"… so unimpressive?" Roland followed Kai with a half unbuttoned shirt, showing his gleaming oiled chest, and loose pants. On his shoulders he carried a sheet of cloth, having Hippogriff's talons in it.
Men scattered at the first sight of silver helm's tattoo on his right arm.
"Yes." Kai was indeed unimpressed.
Accept a few signs of otherworldly power and the occasional stroll of Mana around him, Kai could scarcely say it was some kind of magical place.
Children were playing in the streets. Most were naked or had a piece of cloth around their groins.
There seemed to be no shortage of brothels, and the women were so open that one had even run at Kai with her breasts in her hands.
"What did you expect?" Roland asked, shoving a drunk man dozens of feet away. "It's all the same up to the third floor. Here lie the people who are too afraid to die, and too unworthy to ascend. The third floor would have also been the same if it wasn't for a Set Lord being present there."
"Set Lord?"
"A kinda noble of Empire," Roland explained. "The Empire chooses one among the Top-Class 3rd Floor Contestants and grants the title of Baron or Baroness. Over on the Order side they do the same. The current Set Lord of 1st Set of the Chaos' Valley is Baron Silvas. But he's about to ascend to the 2nd Set, I heard."
Empires were everything in the Primordial Tower, holding most of the power. Kai could imagine the lure of a noble title for a Contestant when he wasn't roaming the various Random Worlds.
Kai followed Roland as the burly man took a sharp right turn. . Two men were having a fistfight there, their nose was broken and their fists bloody. "10 Mission Credits," said one man, watching from a corner. "30 MC on the baldy," said another. A third well-dressed man rushed to them to accept the transfer.
Beyond them, Kai's gaze fell on banner fluttering high over the multistory building. Two silver longswords crossed behind a round golden shield upon a gray background. It was ancient, Kai thought, feeling a hint of Mana seeping out of it.
Thousand Armor Smithy!
This place was so big, and crowded, that Kai felt like he was a bee and the building was a beehive. The buzzing noise was anything but comprehensible. No one was looking or hearing anyone, but running from here to there always seemed to be in a hurry.
"Jack!" Roland shouted at a half-naked muscular man. His skin was black, and his big head covered up brilliantly for his short legs.
"Marine Roland, my friend," Jack shouted back, shifting many eyes towards them. "Still searching for One Piece, are you? Haha!"
For the first time, Kai noticed a twitch at the corners of Roland's lips. "Don't mock me, Jack," Roland said, shaking his thick hands with the guy. "I have brought you a customer. The one I told you about, remember?"
Jack's smile vanished, and he turned to look at Kai. "He?!" Jack said, his thick eyebrows crushing his forehead. "He is just a boy!"
Kai stared into Jack's eye, almost as if daring him to call Kai a boy again. But Roland shook his head and whispered something in Jack's ears. "OK, Ok! You don't have to remind me, Roland," Jack said, licking his lips. "Come with me."
Kai found himself standing in a spacious smithy with heat billowing out of hearth and many men and women hammering here and there.
"Let me see it," Jack said..
Roland put the bag down in an open area and unrolled the sheet.
The thundering sound of hammers vanished suddenly. Jack's jaw dropped, and even Roland looked rather shaken as he didn't actually know what was he carrying so far.
Jack caressed the talons. "Magnificent! I can make top Common Grade daggers out of this. I will be famous. Haha!"
Now that brought out Kai's fury.
What did he say? Kai's eyes narrowed. In one step, he towered over the armorer, lifted his chin, and looked into Jack's soul, making it shiver like never.
"Sabers." Kai's voice had a chill of winter rain. "I want Sabers!"