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Ch81 Rate My Luck

  In hindsight showing her friends, a documentary ending in an RFG strike on Ruin’s oldest and most densely populated city was a bit much for their first foray into cinematography. In her defense all that was just history to her. The Fall of Sanctuary was what led to the rise of Mantel as the greatest city on Ruin, and that’s about all she cared about when it came down to it.

  “It wasn’t even that bad, you guys have Gold and Diamond rankers who could do the same,” Seras protested for the umpteenth time.

  A tired and slightly bloodshot Athena through her sticky roll at Seras’ head.

  Seras ducked out of the way only to be nailed by two other sticky rolls. She glared at Petra, and Dallas, “hey, quit wasting my apologies gifts!”

  Petra scoffed and tore into her remaining sticky roll, “its mine now and I’ll do whatever I want with it,” she said as she finished licking her fingers, “can I have another?”

  Seras rolled her eyes and another iron spirit coin manifested in her hand, “go wild, just quit throwing them at me.”

  She flicked the coin up and Petra caught it easily. The muscular Leonid then turned back to the stand and proceeded to buy a whole basket of the warm rolls with desert honey drizzled generously over the top. Seras eyed her own roll as she remembered her encounter with the desert bees on her first day in this world. Desert bees were another one of those naturally magical creatures that inhabited Pallimustus, what she had thought to be a terrific monster were really just another part of this world’s ecosystem. And their honey was absolutely delicious, and expensive.

  It required quite a bit of set up to attract and house the dangerous insects, but the return on investment was usually worth it. Back on Ruin after she had made it big Seras had bought one of the few remaining jars of real honey for a few hundred thousand chits. She had enjoyed the taste, but felt that it was a tremendous waste of money. This honey was far better, and certainly more affordable than what she had bought before.

  “What about a Rom-com?”

  “What’s a Rom-com?” Dallas asked.

  “It’s a romantic comedy, my favorite is Two Hearts one Pulse. It’s about these two guys who were in an industrial accident, and the cheap back-alley chopshop that pieced back together had to split their hearts and rebuild new ones from the old pieces. The twist is though that somehow their pulses are linked, so that when one is having something like a panic attack the other guy can feel it. This helps them learn about each other and grow close.”

  Athena stared at her intently, “okay, that sounds alright, how does it end?”

  “Well I’m not going to spoil the ending before you watch it,” Seras deflected.

  “How. Does. It. End.” Athena said more forcefully.

  Seras glanced away, “one of the guys had a gambling problem and his bookies decided to torture him until the other guy got the money, but they ended up having some sort of heart failure before the end.”

  Athena sighed, “is everything from your world so sad? No story should require a visit to a mind healer afterwards.”

  “What about a comedy?”

  “Would I need a thought healer afterwards?”

  Seras opened her mouth and then closed it as she recalled the details of the movie.

  “Seras, your world really sucks.” Dallas said after she gave up on trying to do another movie night.

  “I know, I just wanted to show you guys the things I liked about it.”

  Athena sighed, “well, the Rom-com doesn’t sound that bad, we’ll just need to warn the others first.”

  Seras perked up, “really?”

  “Yes, if nothing else I’ll join you. Now, have you found an awakening stone you like?”

  Seras turned her headw back to the limited selection the vender had set up behind a glass case. On this level of the shopping arcade of the Adventurer society there were only the most basic and common essences up for sale. Weapon essences, less popular animal essences, and some basic elemental ones were all up for grabs. But Seras found herself deeply underwhelmed by what was available.

  Part of the problem was herself. While she knew academically that there wasn’t a difference in power between cheap and expensive awakening stones she couldn’t really feel comfortable in her heart about picking up cheap stone.

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  “Not really, kind of a bummer they don’t have a Heidel stone up,” Seras said after a final glance at the selection.

  “Heidel is pretty popular out here in the deserts, at least for more middle class people. They’re really good for anything having to do with trade and hulling,” Dallas all this while staring intently at an essence for sale. “I’ve been looking for one too, I’d really like the essence itself like Uncle Dustin, but those are bought up by the big shipping companies almost immediately.”

  Seras huffed out a sigh. After learning that Buck had developed a hint of magic on his own she had really begun to consider getting a Heidel awakening stone so that she could properly bond with him and let him step into Iron rank entirely. But at the same time she wasn’t sure if she wanted a permanently bonded familiar like that. She loved Buck, but was that enough to dedicate an entire essence ability. She wasn’t even sure how long she’d stay with Dustin and his crew.

  Seras watched Dallas stare at the adept stone a moment longer before he broke away from it. In the time she had been gone he had picked up another essence with his wages. He had picked up a fire essence just like his uncle, and now he was wavering on which essence he should take to complete his set. A Heidel essence would put him on the same path as Dustin and get him the Outrider confluence. But he seemed to be personally leaning towards adept, which would give him a master confluence like Rohan.

  She turned to look at Athena who was very carefully not looking at any of the awakening stones for sale. She had been too often disappointed by her essence powers, and wasn’t ready to try for more to complete her powerset. “Any suggestions,” she needeled.

  “Magus,” Athena responded without turning her head.

  “That was rather quick.”

  She sighed, “its an obvious choice. What you lack at the moment is a proper attack ability. Your gun is good, but at higher ranks you’ll need either spells or special attacks to handle resistances. Out of everything for sale Magus is the best, I’d recommend picking up two to be sure. They’re a top tier common essence.”

  Seras turned back to the stall eyed the Magus awakening stone like Athena was recommending. She was right of course, if Seras wanted to fill out her combat powers then she’d need something like that. But then there was her soul disconnect to worry about. Did she want a combat power that would fill a gap in her fighting while increasing the odds of her soul strain going up, or did she want another crafting ability?

  She didn’t plan on getting into anymore dangerous situations, so a crafting ability might be a good idea.

  “Athena, if you had to rate my luck from one to ten-,”

  “-Two,” She answered without hesitation.

  She grimaced. “Well, that’s that, two magus stones,” she said to the stall owner.

  The blue skinned Runic man glanced at her and shook his head, “you can only get one at the discounted rate here.”

  Seras blinked, “wait, that’s the discounted price?”

  The Runic man nodded, “Director Arlee gives us vender’s some of the good common stones to sell, but with limitations on price and quantity.”

  That got Athena to turn her head, “that’s odd, usually the society lets the free market decide on that back home.”

  The Runic snorted at her, “and let me guess, back home all the nobles snap up the good stones at higher prices so that common adventurers can’t get any.”

  “Uh, well, yes, but that’s just the way it is.”

  The Runic nodded, “right, and that kind of system keeps the scales balanced towards the established powers. The Director, however, came up from a poor farming town and hates that kind of thing. He thinks it’s a kind of corruption, price capping the good stones out of common people’s ranges.”

  She scowled, “but that doesn’t really matter, no stone gives out bad powers. The Theory of potentiality and all.”

  The Runic man’s glare became deeper, he leaned over, “right, but how easy is it to make unusual essence powers work right. Tricky weird powers take more practice and dedication to get right, meaning its far harder for common adventures to succeed compared to easy powers. I’m not going to argue with you girl, the Director wants good stones like magus to be sold at an affordable price, and he says only one per person. That’s the rules. And don’t try to fool me by having the Smoulder boy buy one for friend either, I’m not a moron.”

  “Its fine,” Seras interjected, “my friend is from far and doesn’t get the way you do things here in Cupric, its admirable of the Director to try and spread advantages around for the common people. If only everywhere else was like that.”

  The Runic man looked contrite, “sorry, I was a bit short tempered there. It’s a newer rule and I’ve been having trouble with nobles all month long over this one. The Director’s gotten a lot of push back on his reforms. I suspect they’d of had him replaced if the continental council itself didn’t put him here.”

  Seras frowned, “I thought the conitental council didn’t like interferreing like that.”

  “They don’t, but I’m glad they did. Things have been hard for common adventurers since the last rebirth. It happens every time the aqueducts dry up, or so I’ve heard, but this time has been a lot more stifling. I’m glad we’ve got good people like Director’s Arlee and Dundee in the city.”

  Seras nodded, agreeing with both statements there, “if I can’t get two Magus stones then is their another one that might work for me. I need more oompf in my powers.”

  The Runic man tapped a finger, “maybe. You’re the girl Dan was talking about right?”

  Seras blinked, “Leonid guy, shorter main than average?”

  “Yeah that’s him, good old Dannias. Is what he said true, about you falling into the labyrinth after fighting those Omeda bastards?”

  “That sounds about right, so long as he didn’t embellish too much,” Seras agreed.

  The Runic ‘hmmed’ to himself, “my buddy Arron on the third floor has a Wrath stone he hasn’t set out yet. I can’t guarantee what price he’ll sell it at, but tell him I sent you and see what you can get.”

  Seras nodded, “thanks for the tip, I’ll do that.”

  She purchased the stone from the Runic man and went up to the third floor where a Leonid man with a weapon and armor stall was set up. Seras got to talking with him, told him who had sent her, relayed an abridged version of her time in the labyrinth, and ended up showing him the diamond hard capsules she had gotten from the Star Gliders. The transparent capsule that had protected the eyes on the Star Gliders were a unique and exciting bronze rank material that interested the Leonid smith.

  By the end of it Seras had traded three away for a two star awakening stone that was popular for its almost guaranteed special attack power.

  By the end of it all she was feeling very accomplished and just a bit giddy to see what kind of powers she might get. She converted the two stones into shards and slotted them into her.

  “Well, what did you get?” Petra pressed.

  Seras frowned.

  “Aw, were they bad powers,” Dallas guessed, “like your glowing finger or your expensive familiar?”

  She kept her mouth shut.

  Of the three of them only Athena noticed the single tug on the edge of Seras’ frown. She sighed and punch Seras in the shoulder, “quit pretending to be disappointed, I can see that smile your hiding.”

  Seras couldn’t suppress it any longer, a huge smile broke across her face and she began to laugh at the looks on Dallas and Petra’s face.

  You have unlocked the Avatar essence ability Enhanced bullets

  You have unlocked the Potent essence ability Armor Piercer

  Enhanced bullets (spell); allows for the user to infuse their ammunition with magical power. User can either increase the power of a bullet or add an elemental damage type.

  Cool down; one minute

  Cost; medium to high mana

  Armor Piercer (special attack); Allows the user to harden projectiles and increase the power behind their flight.

  Cool down; one minute.

  Cost; High mana

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