Walking along the streets, Astor continued to learn. He enjoyed the moment as his curiosity got filled, but in the back of his mind, the cute cat’s meowing resonated. May the day go fast.

  On his way, he saw someone fall and helped them get back up.

  “Thank you,” the person said.

  [Crafter] class acquired.

  That was random. Also, the class wasn’t rare, so he was surprised he didn’t get the class prior to now. In fact, he used to collect a fair amount of classes during the epidemic.

  Astor made sure they had no injury and they parted ways, the person giving him a nice smile before going.

  People started screaming right behind him. He turned around. A crowd, previously thin, had grown disproportionate. He hated that, time to leave. However, when he was about to do so, more individuals gathered, pushing him back to where he was.

  “Can the gravity warper make me fly?” someone asked.

  It was person’s stand.

  “Of course!” the Helper attached the item to herself and activated it. She started levitating.

  Another asked, “Without mana? How does it work?!”

  And the crowd buried her with questions, again. Astor had a more important question for her: how many kids did she have to “help” in order to compensate for all the penalties she gathered? No great invention comes out of good actions, Astor knew that much.

  He got upset as his memories from the orphanage came back. Making a way through the ever-growing crowd, he slowly but surely got away.

  He bumped into someone. “Sorry.”

  “Don’t be, I wasn’t looking,” the person said. It was the tall guy with Hyakinth yesterday. Talk about a coincidence.

  “Man, why are there so many people out there? I’m not paid enough for this,” the guy went on.

  Astor walked as far away as he could to take a breather. Maybe his plushie could calm him down. He reached for his inventory; not there. Right, he gave it to the cats.

  Sitting in a corner, he wallowed a bit. It was the only other way for him to temper his emotions. From when he was a kid to now, that was his only constant, life becoming harder and harder to live through.

  Relaxed, he came back to himself and continued on his tour. Buying an ice cream, he ate it while listening to everything he could. Any clue would be nice to find the World Boss. And after a long time, he overheard a couple.

  “Hey, have you heard? The inventor of the gravity thing refused to get her item appraised.”

  “Why? If it’s recognized by the System it’d probably be a legendary, she should be glad.”

  “I don’t know, maybe she cheated and appraising it would put everything to light?”

  “Cheating? How?”

  “Maybe it was a very fancy looking talisman all along.”

  If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  “Stop, talismans are made once a week, why would anyone waste one?”

  “Whatever, people are weird.”

  Interesting, did the Helper truly cheated? Astor wouldn’t pass that through her; it’d be par for the course.

  Astor felt tired, so he decided to go back early, it was getting late anyways.

  Taking another route, to avoid the crowd as much as possible, he heard people yelling. The crowd ran away from something; but Astor couldn’t see. Curious, he flew up on a house’s roof to check. From one roof to another, he got closer to where he thought would be the center point of it all. The Helper’s stand. There, the surroundings were crushed, buildings crumbled down, and everything bent toward a single focal point: the gravity warper, which now looked like a black portal.

  It indiscriminately absorbed things. People used their skills to get away as fast as possible, but some weren’t up to the task and got sucked in, even with the help of others. Where did they go after traversing this strange black portal? Were they still alive?

  If Cayn was here, he could easily save people with his chains. As for Bel, she’d be strong enough to resist the gravity. What could Astor do in this situation? What he do?

  [Guards] arrived in force, Hyakinth’s acquaintance being one of the leaders. They carried away those in need, fearlessly.

  Astor should help too, he had a legendary item on him, what was he afraid of? Using [Arcane], one of the [Mage]'s skills, he copied Cayn’s chains. It couldn’t compare to [Protection]’s barriers, but it did the job. Saving one, two and more individuals, Astor continued, as much as he could.

  With time and effort, a perimeter had been put to delimit the zone of danger. They would be safe for now, but for how long?

  “Blue-eyes,” Bel said, coming to him. “Are you ok?”

  Astor nodded.

  “What’s happening?”

  He replied, “I think the gravity warper got out of control.”

  “The round ball thingy flying around from the purple-haired lady?”

  “Yes,” he answered.

  “I heard many were sucked in the thing, is it true?”

  “It’s true.”

  “Can they come back from that, or are they…”

  Astor tilted his head down for an answer.

  “I see.” She glanced at the black portal then spoke again, “Let’s go down and see what’s up.”

  Astor followed her. From afar, he noticed the damages. The whole street looked like it got blown up by an explosive spell. Ridiculous, given how small the item was.

  Bel talked to the familiar [Guard] of earlier, “Yo Leander, what’s going on.”

  “Bel! What are you doing here? Is Hyakinth alright!?”

  “Calm your horses down man, he’s in his room, chilling.”

  “Thank the System, I thought you were here to tell me some bad news. Don’t do that to me.”

  “Whatever, what's the round-y small-y dangerous thing there?”

  “An invention that has gone haywired, the culprit is there,” he pointed at the Helper, “she’s being questioned on how to shut it down.” He took a loud breath, probably to destress. “Anyways, who is your stunning friend there?”

  “It’s Blue-eyes, a party member.”

  “We meet again, Blueys.”

  “Hi.”

  “I think you two should get back to your inn before it gets messier.”

  Bel shook her head. “We can help though.”

  “What level are you?”

  “Forty-six?” Bel answered.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Come on, go back home.”

  Bel tried to justify her and Astor’s usefulness but got dismissed anyway. That was probably for the best, as it wasn’t a World Boss they were dealing with… Or maybe it was?

  ***

  Back to the inn, Bel jumped on a bed and sulked. While Astor pampered the cats. Cutest things in the world.

  It took minutes before she noticed. “Cats?” She got off her bed and approached them fast, reaching for some pats. The mama cat scratched her hand. “Hey!”

  “Be gentler,” Astor asked of her, “you want to be visible to them. Put your hand in their field of vision like this” —he put his hand under a kitten’s head— “and make sure to blink at them slowly to tell them you’re not a danger.”

  She did as told and it went smoothly. “Darn, you know your stuff.”

  “I like cats.”

  “Yeah… I know.”

  They spent the rest of the day playing with the cats and waiting for Cayn’s return. Astor tried to not think too hard about the incident and its ramifications. He could already tell why the Helper had to go visit the orphanage from time to time after all, there is no way that incident was an isolated one. She must have harmed more than one person to reach this point.

  No no no, he mustn’t think about that. Cats. Cats and kittens. Only those things should be in his mind right now— and Cayn too; where was he? Talking about him. Surely he was on his way home soon.

  It was late at night and dinner was getting cold. He was safe, right? Bel didn’t look worried. So maybe he had some errands to make before going home. Surely.

  Astor stared at the moon, hoping for the best, shaking away