Chapter 389 - Day MDCCLXXI, Part II

For I moment I considered going to the device and buying myself a new weapon. I could make it work with Ki, but then I decided there is no real point to that. and just shadow walked straight to the giants' territory.

I landed in the vicinity of the entrance to the dungeon, then used 'Shadow fusion' and, just to test it, 'Void domain'. It looked like a small explosion burst from my body, and suddenly everything got darker, as the void essence slipped through this world. The 'Void winds' were moving it like I was in the middle of some kind of blizzard, and on the horizon all around me appeared this wall or raging black smoke. It looked terrifying even for me. Like some kind of crazy natural disaster.

My body also changed now when I was approaching almost 60% of fusion with my shadow. My skin turned grey, and the veins on my hands got black. I could see smoke coming out of my body. My every step was living a black mark on the ground. The void essence was especially slipping through this trace.

I massacred the giants guarding the entrance. They had no chances. I even allowed one to hit me, but my body didn't even budge, glued to the void essence under my feet, and the tree that my opponent was using as a weapon, shattered into a million splinters as he smacked me with it with all his strength, living a broken piece in his hand.

I retaliated with a fireball to his face, then summoned my horde of shadows. They picked all the crystals, and the hunt continued.

I cleared the whole thing, except the boss, because he wasn't there. Facing such one-dimensional enemies was easy compared to the ghosts, and kinda pleasant. I had fun.

Then I visited the overgrown forest and spider lair. The whole hunt didn't take me a full day like it used to be, but only a couple of hours.

I was faster and stronger to the point I didn't even have to try.

With spare time, I went to clean up the ogre cave as well, and by the early evening, I had 55 620 000 points in a crystallized form in my vault. I sold it because I was gonna be the one to set up the pathway anyway. With what I had left on my account we were close to one-fifth of what we needed for the upgrade.

For a moment I wondered how much more we will need for that gate to earth, but there was no point in that, so I decided to just eat in the cafeteria, and then visit Hatta.

He was alone in his office, still waiting for others to show up. I just sat on the couch, while he was busy with some paperwork, and visits of his underlings, reporting.

It took around an hour for the first person to show up. It was Aisha, she knocked on the door, and entered without waiting for the answer.

- Hi - she said to Hatta and then spotted me. - Peter!

- Hey.

She rushed towards me, so I had to stand up from the couch to receive a hug.

- We were so worried about you. Why didn't you tell anything, and just left? And then you didn't even contact us. Fortunately, Hatta had those coins...

- Yeah... Sorry. I thought you might want to stop me and was afraid that Ki'rai would follow... Then I was busy with... stuff. 

- But you have it? A way to open the portal?

- Yeah.

She smiled, and tears appeared in her eyes. She quickly wiped them out and left me to sit on the opposite side of the table.

- Where the heck is the rest? - I asked looking at Hatta because I didn't want to watch her struggling with her emotions.

- Will is busy. The rest is out, but Ilja will come.

- What about Ki'rai?

- She is out. She got furious at you after Hatta contacted you, and she went hunting with others - explained Aisha. - If not for our little problems, Will probably would be out too.

- Little problems?

- We had few people who bought guns from the device and tried to take over the city. Hatta didn't tell you that?

- Oh, yeah... He did.

They stormed the academy and shot Nadzieja. Fortunately, Will and Amit both were there and helped.

- Is she...

- No. She is alive - Aisha interrupted me. - She is a tough woman. People call her 'Battle Grandma' those days. Even when she got shot she took down a guy. She shot him with a bow.

- Damn... - escaped my mouth.

- Yeah. There was a lot of cleaning up after that. We had to vote over our first law to ban guns. Then Daniel discovered that a bunch of people is overusing drugs. We didn't know what to do with them since this is a place of freedom for everybody, and even with the ban on guns, we had a lot of backlash from people. In the end, Marcella opened a special wing in her hospital for the addicts. Somehow we are dealing with them.

I nodded, then the door opened, and Ilja entered.

- Hi everybody - he said with a thick accent.

- Good to see you - I said to him, and when he finally got closer, we shook hands.

We talked a bit about what was going on in the city, still waiting for William. He came a bit later, clearly tired with dark circles under his eyes. After greetings e all sat around the table.

Then I explained to them what we will need to open the pathway to earth, and my worries about what might come after. I proposed putting a barrier over the gate to prevent anybody with guns, explosives, and electronics to enter.

You might wonder why the electronics, as they did, but I explained that we will be under attack from every direction after the world learns what the device can do. Governments and rich assholes might want to use everything they can to make any of work for them. I was afraid of blackmail. I was afraid of families on the outside. I was afraid of a lot of things, and my fears quickly got shared with others.

We decided to wait for the final decision, though. So everybody who had something to say in the city would have a voice.

My first day back in the city came to an end with 177 462 049 points remaining on my account, and 19 class points