Chương 19: Mr. Red.

Red.

She pulled on [Aether Culverin] with all her might. Come on Come on Come on. The Aether Culverin half formed and sputtered out again. Fuck! I knew evolving the skill would do this! Damn it! Nythera backed up and Talvik launched off her shoulder.

"Hey can we talk about this? I've got no problem with you guys, I'll just go on my way home." She laughed nervously. Aether Culverin once again began materializing, this time behind her. Just a little more time… The man pulled back his cowl, revealing a gaunt face with a big bushy beard.

"[reveal]" he said, voice filled with system authority. That's the guy who chased me before! That bastard nearly caught me while I was trying to find Edwin's!

"Heavy-Ordnance Siegewright Commander Lvl 21, what class is this? I've never heard of anything like it, but still a mere level 21. Let me end it for you, nice and painless." He brandished his sword. Nythera stepped to the side, revealing the cannon behind her.

"FIRE!" She commanded, the cannon thundered straight into the enemy. He was sent flying into a building on the far end of the street, ending in an explosion. How did he know my class and level? An Assessor? Shit this is really bad. She ran down the alleyway he had come down. The clash of steel behind her faded.

"Oi come back here bitch, Damien wants a word with you!" Someone shouted from behind. How is he not dead? She just kept running, never looking back, ducking and darting into unknown alleys. From one twisting alley right into the next. She passed by Borris' shop briefly, but the constant changing of direction left her confused and lost. Stamina 43/270 She stopped in a small cul-de-sac, catching her breath.

[Red's Emporium] sat before her, an odd looking shop, the sign was crudely etched wood, as if carved out with a pocket knife. The flux concentration around the shop was absurdly thick, as if it was a dungeon on the street. What in the burning blazes is this? Nythera approached the door, there were no windows to look in. The walls were entirely grey stonework and it appeared about 2 or 3 stories high, but with a flat roof. It did not match any of the surrounding architecture.

Nythera heard shouting in the distance "Where is that bitch" and loud footsteps. She pushed her way into the shop and slammed the door shut. The sound of rain completely vanished.

"Welllllllllllllllllll Another traveler enters my emporiuummm, welcome to Red's fantastical emporiummmmmm" A voice traveled from the counter. Dusty shelves packed full of oddities and trinkets, rings and baubles, arrayed in no sensible order. An entire corner was full of rods, staffs, staves, and even lances, thrown into a barrel haphazardly. Clear as day, there was superheated flux concentrated on the left side of the room while the coldest flux she had ever seen swirled in a blizzard on the right side.

The path forwards to the counter was… absent of almost any flux. She strode forward to the counter.

"Hello, I am interested in buying any useful goods you might have." I am not interested in being cast out back to those hounds!

"Weeeeeeeeeeee…. Have all manner of goods in Red's Emporiummmm. Browse to……. Your hearts contenttttt. I am Redddddddd. Merely find a trinket of interest and bringggggg it to the counterrrrrrrr…." Red, dressed in all red clothing watched from the counter, pupils a strange shade of orange.

"Stay on the hotttttttttt side. You are not meant for the coldddddddddd. Child of Fireeee and Steeeeeeel." He said as soon as she moved to one side. This is kinda creepy, welp. You know what they say, don't look a giftshop in the door. Nythera walked over to the hot side of the room, and immediately sweat. The high flux levels were making it hard to examine any of the items properly. A barrel of staffs and rods at the far end of the room sat enticingly and she immediately banked for it.

The heat quickly ramped up, the flux density so thick that she could barely see past it after just a few steps. Her throat dried, and her mind felt faint. How the Hel hasn't this whole shop burned down? The shelves appeared completely normal, dusty trinket-filled shelves. She retreated back to the first two rows where the heat was tolerable.

"Iffffff you collapse, I will not saveeeeee you from yourrrrrrrrrr greedddd." Red warned. God I wish I had Talvik here, this man is insane and this shop is insane. Might as well see if he has anything interesting. The blast of heat had largely dried her garments at least. Nythera strolled between the shelves, examining each and every item. I have absolutely no idea what any of these do.

"Do you have any descriptions? How can I know what these do?" she called out to the shopkeeper. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

"Fate's Handddddddddddd is your guidanceeeeeeeee." Red said, content to say nothing useful and grin like an idiot. Nythera scanned the items with her flux sight, they were all incredibly dense. One of the jars full of baubles was particularly full. She rifled around through it, the heat painful to touch. She eventually gave up and just dumped out all of the contents onto the shelf. Flux was dense in every item, but one in particular called out to her. It was a small, crude ring.

The closer she looked, the stranger it got, the surface moved as if it was flowing metal. She picked it up and brought it to the counter.

"Welllllllllllllllll that's not supposed to be therrrrreee." A look of surprise painted his face.

"What's this one do? How much does it cost?"

"It's…" Red stopped, hesitating as he looked at the item. He stared straight at her.

"Three authorityyyyyy""Huh, three authority? As in the authority stat? I can't sell that, that's my stats, what are you even talking about?" Nythera demanded.

"It's threeeeeeee authority. I cannot telllllll you the effecccct." Three authority? What the fuck is this guy on about? … wish I had Talvik here to explain this shit.

"Fine, I don't need authority anyways, but how am I going to pay you?" [Purchase for 3 Authority?] [Yes] [No] What the fuck is this? He has a system-backed shop? Nythera stood, mouth agape. I really want that ring, I've never seen anything so…. dense before, so much flux packed into one tiny item, it has to be good! Nythera selected [Yes] before her better judgement could stop her. Authority: 116 > 113 It… actually took my authority?

Red pushed the item into her hand and smiled "A pleasureeeeee doing businessssssss."

"Ok, what's this ring do?"

"Itsssss time for you to goooooo." He twirled his finger. Nythera saw flux burst out at such intensity as to be blinding. It grabbed her and pushed her straight out the open waiting door. She fell onto the slick cobbles, and turned around to yell at the shopkeeper. But the store was gone, in its place, another typical house of Grandport. By Kronan, what was that? Did someone hit me with a poisoned shot? She put the ring in Boxy, not yet ready to test it. I need to go find Borris and get back to Edwin's.

There was no sign of footsteps in the downpour, which hadn't relented in the slightest. She ran down the road from the cul-de-sac, this time ignoring all the alleyways. Quickly coming upon a fork she took the path away from the mountains. She trudged her way through the downpour until she came up on a familiar street, shops lined the side. Borris' place is just a bit further! She hastened her pace. She pushed her way into the shop and slammed the door.

"Borris!"

"Aye that's me, no need to yell." the smith pushed his way out of the back to the counter.

"I have a new item I need you to appraise right now." Nythera said, striding right up to the counter and slamming the ring down.

"You know I usually charge for this sort of thing." He sighed and began his analysis of the ring anyways.

"Where in Kronan's bloody fist did you get this thing? I've never seen anything like it, it's… dangerous, you should get rid of it." Borris whispered.

"What are you talking about? Do you have any idea how much this cost me? I can't just get rid of it." She pouted.

"This item… did you have an encounter with a strange shopkeeper? That charged stats for items? Half his shop hot, the other half cold?" Borris asked.

"Uh, yeah… how did you know? Met him before?" She stared in puzzlement.

"Lass… he's a local legend, he charges insane prices and gives out cursed items, this is no different. Count yourself lucky, you never actually put it on." Borris explained. He wrote something on a small piece of parchment.

"What do you mean? Are the items a trap?"

"Aye, just have a look at what you bought. The curses on these are strong, I couldn't take this off with a regular frack hammer either, but even if I could, this one leaves a permanent mark." Borris said, pushing the paper and ring back to Nythera. [Ring of Volkion (Cinder Tier)(Cursed): +3 attunement, +48 flat flux regen per day, Wild-Subskill Synthesis: Flux-Condenser: A pool of Hyper-Flux equal to 1% of your flux pool with 1% of your regen is created. Flux regen increases by +1% per level. Additional Effect Added upon Skill Synthesis] This… is amazing!

"This is fantastic! Why would I ever want to take it off!" She exclaimed, trying to restrain herself from putting it on immediately.

"It force-synthesizes a wild-skill lass, with an additional effect, that effect could be anything, it could sap health from you constantly till ya die. It could blind ya. You have no idea and no control over that additional effect." Borris looked at her like a parent would an overeager child.

"Although, admittedly this is one of the better items I've seen from Red's Shop." He confessed. Caution is not something I can afford… To the wind with it. She put the ring on. Heat rushed through her arm, she felt like she was burning on the inside. This feels amazing. The heat settled in her core. Borris stood mouth agape.

"Do you ever… think things through?" he asked.

"You know that your heat is really stacking up, you need to be careful."

"Yeah yeah, if I spent all my time worrying, I'd never get anywhere." Nythera said.

"I'll be back for my fancy new weapon in two days." She called out as she left. Flux-Condenser (lvl 1) (0 tokens) A pool of Hyper-Flux equal to 1% of your flux pool with 1% of your regen is created. Flux regen increases by +1% and stamina regen decreases by 1% per level. Level cap: [Resonance] - [Endurance].

"Kronan fuck it! This is amazing!" She giggled to herself, the downpour all around her having no effect on her quenching her excitement. My resonance is at… 136! And my endurance is at only 27, this skill can level over 100 times already! 100% more flux regen would be… life changing. Flux: 3, 944 Hyper-flux: 0/39 Wow, nearly 4, 000 flux at level 21? I wonder how high I can get it? As she pranced her way home happily, unaffected by the rain, she mulled over the possibilities.

Regeneration of flux is usually capped at just 5 per day per point of resonance, but with this? I could get it to 10, which would give me my entire pool daily! She smiled. Pushing through the door into Edwin's house, she called out merrily "I'm Home!" It was dark inside and strangely quiet.

"Nythera? Is that you? Where is Talvik? Are you ok?" Shelly asked, coming from underneath the kitchen table with a frying pan wielded in two-hands.

"Whats going on, why were you hiding under the table?" Nythera asked.

"A Kronan priest came by and warned us that there might be… uninvited guests." Edwin came out from inside a cabinet, bomb in hand.

"I'm fine, the Assembly of Kronan came and rescued me and I was able to escape the pursuer… but there is one thing that might be a tiny little problem." Nythera said, looking away.

"Nythera, what the fuck happened?" Shelly demanded.

"Well one of the guys chasing me was… an Assessor. He got my level and class and who knows what else." Nythera confessed, her voice got quieter as she went.

"Shit, this is really bad, we need to tell Lance immediately." Edwin said. Wow, Edwin curses? A knock sounded at the door. Blood drained from all of their faces.