Chương 43: Chapter Forty-Three: Subject of Ridicule

I dub thee, DIC City. My short-lived shopping spree has revealed to me that everyone here is a complete dick. After a half hour of basically begging 'Locklan' from Locklan's Smithy, I finally emerge from the crappy shop with a pair of fire-retardant pants. That's all my meager wealth was worth in the end, and the pants themselves aren't even new. Locklan, a frumpy old guy who smells like sweat and body odor, fished these cargo pants out of his old work clothes that he wore about ten years ago.

[Blacksmith Slacks] – Uncommon < An old pair of fire-retardant pants that hold no other properties. Protects the user from extreme sources of heat. > The pants themselves are dusty, smell of mildew, and are barely recognizable as their original color. In their hay day they might have been worth something as an uncommon item, but now they just look like a fire fighter's slacks after a particularly intense blaze.

Despite the fashion store owner Leyette telling me that the man's smithy would be in my price range, when I arrived, the man took one look at my chip pile and told me to leave. After that, I was left pestering him over and over again to just let me have anything he had on hand that was heat resistant and could hold up for longer than a month. Locklan complained the entire time, but I eventually got him to exchange everything I had on me for the pair of glorified health hazards that currently keep me modest.

The old geezer even made me hand over my goddamn pants too. When I asked him what for, he said, "They look soft enough to wipe my ass with," and that was that. So basically, I got hosed and now stink of old B. O. As I make my way back to where Kathryn should be waiting, I watch my blackish-brown pants cause people to give me a much wider berth then before. Everyone passing me either holds their hands over their mouth and nose, or just outright look at me with disgust.

One particularly rude lady actually stops me on the street to berate me about keeping myself clean for the sake of other people's noses. Instead of arguing with her, I just mention that I'm working on my green aura which is an effect of my skill: <Stenchmaxxing>. When she attempts to tell me that it doesn't exist, I follow up with an extensive explanation of why I need to evolve the skill in order to gain the ability to summon flies to my position at any time.

After a few minutes of back and forth with me taking small steps toward her constantly, the woman finally relents and leaves me alone with some passing comment about why people like me are the reason this city is failing. Eventually, I arrive back at Leyette's Fashion and Design where Kathryn is waiting outside with a tote bag slung around her arm.

"Did you find what you were looking for?" She asks while attempting to stop her face from contorting at the sight, or should I say smell, of me.

"I really don't want to talk about it. This floor sucks. What do you think about heading back to the tavern?" Kathryn politely tries to hide the fact she is holding her breath and just gives me a stiff nod before taking off ahead of me back the way we came. For the sake of her own safety, I follow ten steps behind her and accept the oncoming walk of shame back to the tavern.

By the time we get back to the tavern and I successfully un-stinkify the pants, Wade and Nikki return as well.

"So how bad was it again?" Wade asks while wiping a joyful tear from his eye.

"I couldn't even describe it if I tried. His pants were so bad that some of the local guard actually almost arrested him for disturbing the public," Kathryn relays between small breaks to breathe in the wake of the group's laughter.

"They only let him go after checking his level and seeing that he was still Unclassed. I think they thought he was homeless!" The trio of idiots continue to joke around at my expense with Wade and Kathryn feeding the fire while Nikki can't even manage to catch a breath as she holds her sides and practically falls off the bunk bed she sits on. I say nothing in my corner as I continue to blast heat at my new pants with <Emit>.

Drying them isn't easy due to the heavy material they are made from, but I do my best to evaporate the rest of the water and soap I used to wash them with. It was quite difficult to get the reeking stench out of the fabric, but with a bit of help from the psycho Nurse Sella's chemical cabinet, I was able to erase the repulsive smell left over by Locklan.

The pants themselves now have various bleached areas that make them look even more ridiculous, but I don't mind the inconsistent coloring as long as they perform as expected.

"Sebastian man, get over here and tell us why you bought that garbage." Wade calls me over. Huffing a sigh, I leave my new garments to dry and walk over to the bunk they all sit around.

"I bought it because it's an uncommon item that is perfect for what I need." I grouse.

"Really? That thing is uncommon? Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that." The smirking boy says while craning to look at the hanging pair of pants. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

"Don't forget to mention it was all you could afford too." Kathryn slips the knife in even deeper while hiding a smile. I already know this is probably payback for my harsh words from earlier, so I try to take the onslaught of slander in stride. Also, I'm still positive she and the rest of them have no idea just how much money that was stolen from me when that fat guy took my Eclet or whatever the aquamarine chip was called.

Knowing that my ridicule could be a lot worse if they found out, I temper my annoyance and let them have their fun.

"I got the pants to help with my skills. Every time I try to go all out, they end up turning to ash and I'm tired of being half naked all the time." I admit while hoping they change the topic.

"Oh, really? That's actually pretty cool then, I didn't realize your skill was strong enough to actually make fire. Do you have <Pyrokinesis> or something?" Wade asks.

"Something like that. We all can't have lame skills like <Search> that let us become a wannabe Indiana Jones." Realizing that Wade picked up on my wishes, I attempt to shift the conversation alongside him to a more favorable topic. The more we talk about skills, the more information I will be able to dredge up on the others in the group.

Out of the three sitting here, I honestly can't imagine any of them being the traitor I'm searching for, but learning about their skills is also interesting to hear about for the sake of my own ability growth.

"Don't be jealous man! My skill is exactly why I was sent to follow Garf. With the help of Nikki's speed skill, we were able to tail the guy all the way to the castle without him knowing." The blonde boy boasts while Nikki scowls at him.

"Don't start selling out my information to this guy. The last thing I need is him bugging me to run errands like Vince does. Also, you better not have told him my skills just because you are buddies. What did we say about keeping that information to ourselves?"

"What's the harm in talking about them? I already told Seby about my skills, and he'll be able to make out the rest of ours probably by the end of the floor. That rule Vince talked about was in regard to other groups, not our own." Wade breezes by her complaints with ease. My old middle school buddy really is good at reading other people, as he calmly goads the other two girls into talking about their skills.

I've been bothering him since before the trainers arrived about him telling me what everyone's abilities are for my own curiosity, and it looks like the guy is finally attempting to help me out. The timing could not be better with my suspicions on the rise, so I do my best to help out his efforts.

"I don't think it's that big a deal either, as Vince already told me about <Empower> and <Harden> when I first got here. If it makes you feel more comfortable, we can do a trade. I'll tell you one of my skills if you guys will tell me one of yours. That way, you don't have to share everything, and you will have some information about me I haven't even told Wade yet. Sound good?" Just by the look Nikki gives me upon name dropping Vince's skills, I can tell that she is rethinking her stance on the argument.

Kathryn looks more than willing as well, and I sweeten the agreement even further by offering one of my skills to drive the deal home.

"I'm in!" The older girl says while clapping her hands together.

"Hmmm…Fine I can agree to that. But I'm not saying my skill first." Nikki agrees from beside her friend.

"Dang Seby, I didn't realize you were such a sweet talker! You might just make me spill both of my skills right now!" Wade exclaims. Ignoring his antics, I show no hesitation and offer up my end first.

"Sounds fair. One of my starting skills is named <Polarize>. I haven't figured out how to best use it yet, but so far it allows me to ignore any bright lights or flashes that could blind me." The others look at me with some mixed reactions. Nikki and Wade give me some bored looks, like they expected more. Kathryn is the only one with a thoughtful expression on her face, but I assume it's just another example of her being nice.

"So, like physics and North Pole, South Pole stuff? Isn't polarity like something to do with poles? I don't even know how that would work as a skill." Wade says.

"No, not polarity. Polarize as in like sunglasses or something, I think. I didn't get many physics lessons after I got pulled from school so I really only can attribute the effect to how sunglasses dim light." I explain.

"I'm pretty sure you both are thinking of the wrong thing. I took a classical optics elective class while I was in nursing school. Polarized sunglasses don't really dim light; they filter it. If your skill dims light for your eyes, I think it might have something to do with filtering rather than just messing with the sunlight glare." Kathryn speaks up while earning my rapt attention due to her take on the skill.

"For example, my skill, <Terraform>, let's me change the ground to some extent. I think it does more than that, because if it didn't, it would probably be called <Earth Manipulation> or something along those lines. I think the names are fairly important, as they can umbrella over some similar concepts." I fall silent and think about what Kathryn said while the others continue to talk about the nature behind skills and if there are some sort of rarity between them that we don't know about.

Nikki also mentions her skill: <Current> at some point and how it relates to her movement and ability to move with the wind or something along those lines. Honestly, I am too busy worrying about my own skill to care very much despite my entire plan to make the others talk about their abilities. I hadn't been able to get far thinking about what <Polarize> was supposed to do, so I offered it up as my one skill to share with the others.

Since it is not core to my current fighting technique or strategy, I thought it would be an easy out to gain some insight into the two girls' starting skills. I had not, however, expected Kathryn to offer up such an interesting piece of information for me to work with. I had already thought about the possibility of skills to have rarities, ranks, or something along those lines, so I'm not as interested in the current conversation as the others.

The specification Kathryn made about the nature of polarization has garnered my full attention, and I do my best to visualize what she was talking about in my head. Her hypothesis had something to do with the skill being some variant of filter. Thinking back, I vaguely remember Master Lirin mentioning something about the need for a filter as well, but that was in regard to me 'filtering' my mana to remove the radiation it produces in order to utilize my mana to the fullest.

We have already figured our way around that issue, so it isn't that much of a problem now. However, if <Polarize> actually has filtering properties, then maybe I could actually manage to do exactly as Master Lirin wanted. Maybe if I get the skill level high enough, I could filter the two energies in my body in a way that I could wield both mana and the radiation at the same time without having to drain myself of the kinetic buildup every time I want to use my mana. Oh yes. I like this idea.

I like this idea very much.

"Hey Kathryn?" I interrupt the ongoing conversation without reservation.

"Uh, yeah, what's up?" The slightly older girl says nervously while I stare at her intently.

"Can you tell me everything you know about polarization?"