Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Ahem...

Cough, cough.

Hey!

Matt ignored Camilla for a moment longer as he and Liz slowly separated.

After staring into her eyes for a moment longer, Matt winked and turned to their unwitting third wheel. He had to admit, they had been at it longer than was polite.

Did you actually say cough? Couldnt you just actually cough?

Camilla rolled her eyes so hard, Matt felt it. I did the first few times, but I got tired of not being heard, so I started hamming it up. Can we continue our shopping?

Liz slipped under Matts arm, and intertwined her fingers through the hand that was draped over her shoulder.

Dont be a sourpuss. We never said anything about you when you uhh... Liz paused for a moment before shrugging. Well, we wont say anything if you decide to make out with someone.

With Camilla placated, they made their way through the shopping area. They wandered until they came upon a blacksmith who was toying with a bit of metal. His forge was cold and silent.

Matt called out to him, Hey, are you taking orders or? He let the end of his comment trail off into a question.

The man looked up and quietly called out, Nothing with alloys or enchantments. No mana.

Reaching back into his bag, Matt withdrew a pair of war hammers from the shop they had looted while still in the ruin.

Dropping them in front of the blacksmith, he asked, Can you help me figure out the best way to enchant them? Ill do the work, but I dont want to ruin them.

That piqued the mans interest, and he looked the weapons over for a long minute.

Are these rift rewards?

Matt paused. The man phrased it as a question, but his tone was a statement.

Yeah, how did you know? Ive dabbled in blacksmithing, but didnt see anything that would give it away.

The smith tapped the hammerhead with a calloused finger. Their internals are identical. It makes them great for beginners to enchant, no human variation to mess you up. That means, you can go with identical runic structures. Easy enough for beginners, so you should be fine, by my reckoning. I can help you, but no guarantee of it actually working. I dont have access to the towns mana reserves.

He scoffed and added, Good luck getting the prince to give you access, either. This is low priority stuff, sure, but it still sucks to be unable to work.

What are you thinking for the runic structure?

The man chewed his lip for a minute. Got any more rift weapons? Particularly Tier 6 ones, like these?The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

Matt just grinned at him. Maybe.

One weapon with the pattern for Tier 6 durability and strengthening. Can you enchant more? I can add a repair rune, but that will make the process a lot harder.

No, the two will already be hard enough for my skills.

Matt pulled out a war axe, and the blacksmith eyed it for a minute. He then asked, Got anything blunt left? Theyre going for a higher price with all the metal monsters running around.

Reaching back in, he pulled out a mace.

Perfect, here you go.

With that, Matt received a complex data packet that contained a runic structure that fit the two hammers. Looking it over, Matt was fairly confident that he could enchant the weapons. At least, he didnt think he would fail and break them.

Moving on, he caught up with Liz and Camilla. They were perusing a shop selling odds and ends and other sorts of things. They already had comparable versions of every bauble he saw, so Matt decided to go outside and look around.

They met up with the rest of their people shortly after a message interrupted their shopping, Juni asked them to gather so they all trickled into their bunk area. Matt expected to be given orders to go attack somewhere, but Juni had other news.

We have new scouting reports to go through, and they have all thrown a few wrenches into our plans. We will move tomorrow morning, but for now, just try and relax as much as you can.

When his information was passed, someone called out, Are you ok, Juni?

The man laughed, saying, Im fine. The prince is under a lot of stress, and lashed out yesterday. Think nothing of it.

At the skeptical murmurings, he repeated himself, Really. Everything is fine.

Matt and the others found themselves at a loss with the sudden free time, so he found an open area and started working out. He found Tier 6 chains piled to the side,and threw them over his shoulders while doing body weight exercises.

The extra weight was a strain on his muscles, but he had [Endurance] at full blast in between sets. He could feel that the constant training was helping. He worked out as much as he could, but with his increase in cultivation, his natural body weight was hardly a challenge. No matter the exercise.

He made a note to buy similar chains for his own use. He had worked out heavily in Travis and Keiths house, but in the last few weeks, he lacked the faculties to properly work his body. He needed to make sure that his cultivation didn't outstrip his natural strength with how quickly he had been able to advance with the stream of Tier 6 enemies.

He watched the horizon, and he forced out the fiftieth pull-up. The chains tried to pull him back to the ground, but he defied them, and gravity.

Dropping as he finished the set, he enjoyed the burn for a moment, before removing it and healing his muscles.

As a final cool down exercise, he went over his hammer forms. He had used the mace recently, but the spike on the rear of the hammer opened up some possibilities. He wanted to refresh his skills with it.

When he was done, he found the bathhouse, and quickly washed while sneakily filling their mana stone reserves in the hot water heater. He wasnt going to give his secret away, but he wanted to help where he could.

A part of him wanted to give his mana freely, and charge everything so people like the blacksmith could work. The man could surely work on forging new weapons, and even if he was unable to do that,he could work on enchanting. Any crafting at all would be helpful to the survivors cause.

Matt shook the thought away, and after drying off, wandered around. He finally hopped up on a rooftop, and pulled out the hammers that he had gotten enchantment patterns for.

Carefully reviewing it, he had to admit that the man was better at laying enchantments than he was, by miles. Either that, or his AI was better at planning them. That was a possibility that he hadnt considered. If the man had a crafting module, it could explain the ingenuity of his design.

Settling down, Matt centered his mind away from the turmoil of the day, and started to guide his mana into the appropriate forms and lines. He carved channels for power to flow into the items spirit.

He succeeded with the first one, and was about to start on the second when Camilla sent a message in the group chat.

I found an item my mace can use to upgrade, but the seller wants equal trade-in value. Can I swap some of my shares of the treasures for something he wants, if you have it?

Matt sent her his agreement, and she said that he wanted a Tier 7 seven ingot he had. Matt would have given it to her free of cost if she wouldnt refuse the charity; it had been by sheer luck that he had grabbed it. But with the restriction of he and Liz being on The Path, while Camilla was not, they had to be careful to avoid being called into question as sharing loot was highly scrutinized. She would need to trade with them to keep the AI watching programs happy.

After letting her know where he was, Matt waited for her to come to him, and they conducted a trade for a lot of her semi-precious Tier 6 materials. She kept adding to the trade until the AI said that they had a near equal value.

Taking enough time for the sun to appreciably move, he re-settled himself, and repeated the same steps he had with the first war hammer.

It was a nice item. He had to admit, a heavy head with a spike on the reverse side would do much better than his Tier 5 longsword. If he broke another sword, he would cry, so this was a good alternative. Liz would get the second hammer, as her spear was useless for its intended purpose of getting her enemies to bleed.

They needed to prepare for the impending battles as well as they could.

Hopping off his perch after stowing his two newly enchanted weapons he started wandering around the miniature city. Pausing for a moment as he watched the passing people, one of the buildings doors opened, and a person was tossed out into the muddy street. Matt didnt pay more attention until his AI pinged him the persons identity. It was Malcolm, who they hadnt seen since they had gotten separated in the ruin.

He pinged Liz and Camilla, quickly stepping over to the amateur adventurer, who was struggling to free himself from the cloying mud.

Reaching him, Matt was slapped in the face with a stench of alcohol and vomit so strong, it was burning his nose.

Are you ok, Malcolm?

The answer was obvious, but he was more so looking to see if he was coherent, rather than looking for an answer. What worried Matt was how the mans eyes werent able to focus on him.

Whore you? The words were so slurred, Matt took it as a no.

He looked at the door he had been thrown out of, and saw a sign that said Bar. Obvious, but he was glad the man didnt get thrown out of anywhere... worse?

Matt winced. That was more pointed than he wanted to hear. She was right, though. He was once again glad that he had given Liz the heart back on the training world. He could see himself sinking into the mindset that killing was the easy way out. He didnt intend to rely on her to be his moral compass, but it was nice to know that his partner wouldnt let him stray too far from the proper path.

He turned to Liz with his first smile in what felt like forever. His heart wasnt in turmoil, and he felt at peace.

Im not. Thank you for being willing to keep me on the straight and narrow. I dont want to need it, but thank you for being there for me.

He turned to Camilla and said, Killing cant be our first option. Its easy, sure, but this doesnt need death. Do you think Duke Waters would kill a man for something like this? I never met the man, but Ive seen the movies. He wouldnt stoop that low. But Camilla...

Matt waited until she met his eyes, and finished, We need to be better. That usually means taking the harder path, but we still need to do it. If you kill everything at the first sign of difficulty, how are you better than the trash you take out? We have both pushed our criteria for what is acceptable a bit too far, I think we both need to watch ourselves.

Camilla lowered her eyes and slowly nodded.

Turning, he squeezed Lizs hand and walked up to Malcolm. He pulled back his hand, and smacked him.

Hard.

The blow sent the man reeling and sputtering.

What the fuck, man?

For the first time, Matt saw life in the mans eyes.

Look around, Malcolm. Is this what you want? You said that you wanted to help and tried, but you couldnt make it happen yourself. Is this how you want to react to that? Youre just going to cower in a rift? I wont force you out, but ask yourself. Will doing this accomplish anything that you want?

Matt wasnt going to give a speech, and turned and walked out of the rift. Liz and Camilla followed through a moment later.

He didnt miss that Liz came out after Camilla.

Not saying anything, they went and got breakfast. Liz tossed the guards a few mana stones as they passed. He assumed that they were the reward for the rift. Not enough for them to care about, but enough for the guards tip.

Without talking, they made their way to the dining area. They each got plates of food and sat down.

They continued to eat in silence, until Camilla spoke up while toying with her spoon.

I think once this is done and the teleportation platform is open, Im going to go back home and return to therapy. Everyone said I rushed it when I decided to come out. I didnt agree with them. I thought I was ok. These last few weeks have shown me that Im not ready. I knew I wasnt perfect, but I thought I was good enough.

She spun the spoon in circles, and watched it reflect the rough wooden table.

I didnt want to be at anothers mercy. But this wasnt what I expected. I delved some rifts back at the estate, but I thought the exploration would make me stronger. I thought I could slowly fix myself. I was wrong. I could already feel myself slipping, as you said. But with what almost happened with Malcolm that was a harsh wake-up call. He didnt even threaten us or anything. He didnt deserve it like the others. It wouldnt have been right. I dont really know what is right anymore. I thought that if I was hard enough, everything would be ok. But I cant power my way through this.

She didnt say more, and Liz took it as her cue. Well, Im glad youre becoming more self-aware. But dont be too hard on yourself. This isnt the easiest time. I know Im going to have a good cry with my therapist, once this is over.

That got Camilla to smile, and Liz continued, Uncle Aiden will take you back with open arms. Im sure of it.

Camilla nodded at that. He was kind enough to make sure I knew that his home was my home. I just felt so stifled there. Its so... I dont know how to explain it.

Liz filled in for her, Like nothing is real or even matters when they can just wave a hand and solve literally anything. It makes you feel useless and without your own identity.

That perked Camilla up. Oh... I guess you would understand. I was only dealing with it for a couple of years, not my entire life. How did you handle it?

His partners smile was sheepish when she said, I ran away and joined The Path as soon as I could.

The two of them reminisced for a few minutes, while Matt just listened. It was weird to hear how living in a powerful persons house was. He had no frame of reference.

Camilla added one thing that struck a chord with him. It can be nice to know that the people around you can protect you when youre scared, but that shield can become a cage.

Liz had said something similar when she was still hiding her parents identities. She mentioned something about blankets being nice when you were scared but turned smothering when you want freedom.

The two seemed to bond more during that last conversation than he thought possible. It was only interrupted when Malcolm sat down next to them. All four of them looked up at the man in slight shock, but Matt was pretty sure that Aster was more interested in his plate of food, rather than why the man was out of his rift instance.

Malcolm didnt bring his eyes from his plate, and his hands were gripping his spoon with a white-knuckled grip.

You were right. At least partially. He glared at Matt and said, I could have done without the slap and just the words, though. But while you need to work on your motivational speeches, you make a good point. I can be of help, and it wouldnt be right for me to hide. Even with my lack of combat experience, I still have a useful Talent.

Camilla interjected at the mention of his Talent, You might want to hold that one close to the vest. You never know what hole you might fall into if the wrong people find out.

Malcolm actually smiled at that, contrary to what Matt thought.

No, Im safe enough on that front, I forgot about it in all the excitement, but Im a part of the seekers guild with this bad boy.

He wiggled his sleeve down, and showed off the armband that he had taken from the rift.

That didnt mean much to Matt, but Liz leaned in and looked around, whispering, Why didnt you say anything earlier? We thought you were a trap or something. If you had vouched for yourself with their backing, anyone would have taken you without suspicion.

Malcolm scratched his head. I wasnt officially a part of the guild until I got my item, and part of the recruitment is not telling anyone. They want people who can think on their feet in the field, not people who need a backer for everything.

Camilla asked the question Matt wanted to know the answer to. Whats a seeker guild?

Malcolm looked at Liz in confusion. Yeah, how do you even know about them? Most people under Tier 15 dont have a clue about them.

Liz waved it off nonchalantly, My parents are strong enough to know some of them.

Ah well. Dont feel bad, Cammie. I had never heard of them either, but theyre a group of people with Talents like mine. They contacted me shortly after I was awakened, and recruited me after I hit Tier 3 and had my second Talent. One of their rules is that you need to advance on your own, so it took a while to find people able to help me. Thankfully, I was able to find a few lost skill shards, and could at least help in rifts.

Matt and Camilla were both glaring at the man for what he was sure were different reasons. Camilla had started glairing when he had shortened her name, but Matt wanted to punch the man when he said that he found skill shards. Had he missed when they had turned into loose change at some point?

Anyway, when I hit Tier 5, they told me that I needed to find a particular item, and once I found it, I would be officially a part of the guild. They said that once I was in, they would get me carried to peak Tier 14. But I can help and use that as a way to keep myself safe. Im sure I can do something. It might not work with Tier 6 items, but all I need is a part of something to be Tier 5 or lower, and I can lock onto it pretty well. My Talent is a bit more broad than most, but it still has its own limitations.

Matt asked him, So what does the guild behind you do?

Malcolm shrugged and said, Find stuff, mostly. I dont know; Im barely a part of them.

Liz elaborated. They find stuff, yes. But they can be contracted to go on explorations to new areas, and find the best stuff there. Or if theyre strong enough, they can be used to find things like higher Tier worlds. But mostly, they dont work well for things like that. Theyre really good at finding stuff, though. Theyre also used in the higher Tier rifts to find hidden items and locate ores and such. The rifts after Tier 15 are massive, and they usually send in teams to strip them of useful materials, along with the delving team. Seekers make that easy.

She chewed on her lip and added, They can also help if you lose a planet or two and need to find them in a hurry.

Matt just cocked his head at her. How had her parents lost a planet or two? She just smiled like butter wouldnt melt in her mouth.

The others had seemed to gloss over her comment, so he ignored it as well.

Malcolm was saying, With the right questions, I can help quite a bit. I already located some of the replicators that the ruin has set down. And a Prince should know about the guild enough to not try anything.

Matt interjected with emphasis, That the fortress set down. The fortress.

Getting what Matt was implying, Malcolm nodded and corrected himself, The fortress set them down, and I can help. The prince of this place said that he wants to take them out first, and I can make sure we do exactly that.

He stood and looked at all of them, saying, Thank you, guys. For protecting me... and everything else.

To his surprise, Camilla called out to the seekers back, Hey Malcolm!

When the man turned around, she kept speaking. Dont get yourself into trouble. If you need help, message us as soon as you think somethings wrong. Dont let them slap you with an AI blocking device.

The man smiled and turned, but Camilla added one last bit. Oh, and call me Cammie again, and Ill rip out your tongue.

Malcolm paled. Are you uh joking?

Camilla just smiled at him.

Matt was confused enough, and he had no idea how Malcolm would feel after such an exchange.