INTERLUDE (XII)

  The underside was abuzz with news of a new supplier in town. A wealth of mana crystals, ability cubes, and sickly sweet training supplements flooding the black market en mass. Leaving established suppliers in an uproar. While those with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo—high governor of the lower tiers very much included—scrambled to apprehend the culprit.

  For a time, the underside resembled a kicked hornets nest. With peacekeeper patrols on every street corner. Surprise raids becoming a regular occurrence. And legitimate suppliers, on the up and up with Consortium law, making formal complaints through the official channels. Involving the topsiders in the ongoing search for this mysterious new player. Something which had only had reason to occur but a handful of times.

  And yet, no matter how hard they searched, or how ruthless their tactics, their quarry was never apprehended. Only their third party distributors who, just like everyone else, could only guess at the true identity of the supplier, and had no idea where all the goods were coming from. The male or female seemingly possessing the uncanny ability to vanish into thin air.

  And all the while, much to their great chagrin, the influx of finite systemized assets—the odd systemized weapon, item, or piece of equipment exploding onto the auction scene like a bundle of primed plasma grenades—continued to flow on unabated. The only question on just about everyone’s mind, how wealthy this mysterious provider had to be, to acquire such rare and expensive commodities in such high quantities? And why, if they’d gone to such great lengths to acquire said priceless assets, were they selling them on the market for so dirt cheap?

  +++

  Asha Na’Keer watched through her lone, jumbo sized holo-monitor, as the seedy underside elements unloaded yet another overly large pallet of supplies.

  Cracking the synthetic biopolymer lids open with sharp twists of their crowbars, they shoved the matte white material aside to reveal a neat assortment of guns, explosives, and ammunition. One of the scarred gangsters reached down to pluck free an army issued plasma rifle. The male grinning ear to ear as he hefted the deadly weapon appreciably.

  Asha’s stomach roiled, fear and anxiety making a mess of her insides. She had no idea how such stereotypical cutthroats and hardened criminals managed to get their hands on a legitimate sector travel key, nor how they’d bypassed the system blockade placed on all newly integrated worlds. Although, looking at the crude camp they’d erected overnight, it was clear that, whatever their connections, they were settling in for the long haul.

  Really, all she did know was that their blatant interference was bound to be noticed eventually. Sooner or later a quality inspector would pop his head in to see just what was going on, and it wouldn’t be long after that before her big secret was revealed. You didn’t successfully hide a cohort of high nobles unless no one was looking for them in the first place. The second someone took an interest in her insignificant little tutorial, the reveal would be near instantaneous.

  Which ultimately meant that, no matter how unprepared she still felt, Asha needed to act before it was too late. To speak with someone about what she’d found. Strike a deal. Try to negotiate. And Asha thought she knew who best to contact. Granted, it was still a massive risk. One wrong move, and she was dead. And yet, to do nothing would be to squander the incredible opportunity that’d fallen into her lap.

  Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, Asha reached for the holo-controls and turned off the massive monitor, plunging her into total darkness. Creakily rising to her feet, Asha navigated her way to the door, cursing when she managed to stub her toe on the way, before finally exiting her little observation cubicle for what felt like the first time in weeks.

  +++

  Standing at the very heart of the bustling Ra’ak Neerian camp, Purrsefone of Sands stared off into space.

  Unresponsive, unmoving, and with a dazed look on his feline features. And while, at a glance, he might’ve appeared lost in thought, or else taken by a particularly captivating daydream, the reality couldn’t have been farther from the truth. In sharp contrast to the contingent of wannabe soldiers currently absorbed in mere preparation, the creature was actively waging war. Granted, it was a war of the mind, not the body, though the contest was no less deadly for all that.

  Without surcease his shadowy appendages probed her stalwart defenses, eager for even the slightest advantage. A minuscule lapse in her attention. An opening with which to exploit, no matter how narrow, or fleeting. All he needed was the briefest toe hold, to brush even the smallest shadow cast beneath the dome, and the modest barrier impeding his way could be bypassed in an instant. Unfortunately, the little brat was far more formidable than he’d been expecting, even after her little display from earlier.

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  Countering his every attempt, dispersing his shadow claws with blasts of mana, sometimes before they’d even fully formed, with a precision that genuinely boggled the mind.

  Raw displays of power were one thing, but the exacting application and dexterous control she was displaying was another thing entirely. It left him wondering where exactly she’d learned something like that, or if this was merely another quirk about imperials he’d been unaware of.

  Unfortunately it was a truth he was rapidly being forced to come to terms with. That it wasn’t for nothing that his infantile opponent had been deemed preeminent by the concept of mana itself. Young though she may be, she was a fierce and capable opponent. The worst kind there was.

  Suddenly, the chime of a notification broke Purrsefone from his concentration. Tail lashing with irritation, he nearly tore the head off a nearby gangster just to vent, when the actual words of the message registered, and he very nearly fell to his knees.

  Your Progenitor [Purrenthkesk – The Merchant of Myriad Faces] Has Distinguished You With A Measure of His Deeds.

  Your Class [Shadow Stalker (Epic)] has become [Penumbral Conductor (Ancient)]

  Your Class Skill [Shadow Step (Uncommon)] has become [Penumbral PlainsWalk (Rare)]

  Your Class Skill [Shadow Hands (Rare)] has become [Penumbral Legion (Epic)]

  Your Class Skill [Shadow Gate (Epic)] has become [Penumbral Reflection (Ancient)]

  All prior skill levels have been reset to zero.

  +++

  Scaled feet casually kicked up on his desk—the polished slab of genuine timber dominating the center of his luxury penthouse office—Senior Financial Liaison, Borak Na’Sheer, paged through a takeout menu. Idly pondering what he should have for lunch, when, out of nowhere, disaster struck.

  His wrist device buzzed with an incoming call. Borak recognized the face of his ditzy young secretary, promptly yanked his feet from his desk, puffed up his neck frills ever so slightly, before finally answering the call with a languid…

  “Something I can help you with my dea-”

  His velvety tones and charming countenance were somewhat spoiled by the white-faced look of wide eyed panic marring the female’s normally pleasant expression. A strobing red light could be seen, reflected in her terrified eyes, while a loud mechanical voice announced something both dire and unintelligible in the background—sounding almost like a fire alarm.

  If only it had been something so inconsequential.

  “Mr. Na’Sheer, sir, there’s something wrong with the holo-screens! I-! I don’t know-! They won’t stop blinking and yelling at me! Something about an abnormally large withdrawal? Illiquidity something or other? Sir, I’m really really sorry if I pressed something I shouldn’t have! Please, pleasedon’t fire me! I really need this jo-!”

  Borak ended the call immediately, mind racing, while his fingers moved even faster than that. In no time, he’d pulled up his own work related interface and had ascertained the root of the problem. The senior financial liaison slammed his fist down onto his desk, splitting the expensive furniture cleanly down the middle.

  “Gutter loving, repo trash, slag brained mother-!”

  It wasn’t a common practice by any means.

  No in fact, it was safe to say that, until he’d come along, it hadn’t even been considered. And why should it have been? The idea of Consortium subsidized rewards, in addition, to the passives and actives naturally granted by system achievements, was as radical an idea, as it was generally deemed idiotic. It was only after he reminded his CFO, and he their directors, that almost all of the assets they’d “lose” in the exchange could, and would, be immediately recouped upon death, that he managed to sway a fair number of opinions.

  And only after he’d put forth a substantial sum of his own personal wealth as collateral, proof of his unwavering confidence in this project, did he manage to win over the majority. And thus, his proposal had been signed and finalized. It was official. For every systemized achievement of genuine note, a monetary incentive would be tacked on—at the Consortium’s expense—in the form of attribute points. A premium multiversal currency, exchanged primarily between the extremely rich and powerful.

  And let us not forget the randomized lottery tickets, another of his genius innovations. More of a solution born of convenience, than anything. After gaining access to the company treasury, and the vast wealth of attribute points held within, he’d immediately set to diversifying their financial portfolio. Investing in the asset least likely to depreciate in value: systemized weapons, items, and equipment. Even a few consumables thrown in there.

  It hadn’t been a significant leap in logic, then, to suggest they loan out said investments as even more incentive for the denizens of the new worlds to overachieve. After all, more overachievers meant higher grade classes, skills, and abilities for the rest of them. Finite resources, only naturally occurring on newly integrated worlds, which, much like items and attribute points, could then be recouped by the Consortium upon death.

  And all that said nothing of deeds.

  Ultimately making the upfront cost of a few items and attributes negligible when compared to the potential profits they could make in the long run. The only major concern in these early days, someone managing to withdraw far more than the Consortium could currently pay. But of course, the odds of such a thing happening were negligible. Barely worth considering when he wrote up the proposal. After all, they’d have had to earn upwards of a hundred thousand attribute points, and several tens of thousands of high grade lottery tickets, all in one go-!

  Transaction Alert: Large Withdrawal in Progress

  Total Withdrawal Amount: 2,000 [Rare] Tickets, 6,500 [Epic] Tickets, 17,500 [Ancient] Tickets, 25,000 [Legendary] Tickets, and 203,500 Attribute Points.