Chương 59: Consumables

Evel's eyes remained on the book for a few seconds before pushing it aside. There was something else he had to do first, despite how much he didn't want to. With a flare of his aura, Eth materialized in front of him. When browsing through the items, he had seen various types of 'basics' books. Basics of summoning abilities, basics of elemental abilities, basics of aura abilities, basics of perception abilities, and the list went on.

With abilities manifesting in so many forms, and the boundaries between each blurry, it was difficult to tell exactly where everything fit. Especially Eth. Evel looked at the stationary hand ahead of him. Was it a perception based ability? Was it a summon? Eth zipped across the room then arrived back in front of him. Did I just command or move Eth? Although the results of them were the same, the implications of either would be drastically different.

If he was simply moving Eth, then it would be as if he literally had a third hand, floating around. On the other hand, if he was commanding Eth… Was Eth a creature? He stared deeply at the shifting wisps within the spectral hand. They moved around frequently, and it made no sense when he focused on them, but the moment he tried looking at the bigger picture, it was as if nothing had ever been wrong. Evel raised his hand and waved. Eth waved back. Had Evel commanded Eth to wave back?

A part of Evel felt as if he was using his right hand to wave to the left and he was just playing around with his two hands alone in his room like a lunatic. Based on the connection he felt, he just didn't know. If he knew somebody with a summon power to ask them what the feeling was like, maybe he'd be able to get answers. The only two summoners he knew were Juniper and that eagle guy Diana had shot down. Evel sighed. I might have to buy multiple books.

Eth zipped around at maximum speed for a few more minutes before the strain of the hand got to Evel, slowly fading away. Evel lay sideways on the carpet, emitting soft, pained groans through gritted teeth as he clutched his head tightly. Was this really the best way to train? If he stopped just before reaching the limit of his Energy reserves, then it would be significantly less painful, but for some reason it felt like a waste.

He felt himself getting stronger the harder he pushed his core, but in the end, it was all guessing. After a few minutes, he pushed himself up and forced himself to sit on the book by the table. His ability training was complete, and while he waited for Energy to trickle back in, he had a book to read. Basics of Consumables. The information was as dense as it was useful. Many of the specifics written down would never be useful for Evel, but it did an amazing job of laying down the basics.

There were four major categories of consumables. There was no word for the first category, but it contained all the items that Laymen could use. The stem-pack Albert had given him or even the Z-pills Arlo had offered back on the disk fell into this category. Overall, this category was the cheapest, but still could get fairly expensive for those in higher stages. A laymen stem-pack wouldn't have the same effect on a Core stage, and would have almost no effect on Weavers. The next category was Potions.

They served as a temporary boost for short bursts. They were a little pricey, and could expire, so there was a very tight window after buying the potion that you had to use. Of course, some lasted longer, some increased different aspects of your ability, some could heal you up instantly, and others would only increase the rate at which you naturally healed. It all depended on who was producing the bottles, and how much they wanted to charge.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation. Next was Elixirs, which were as simple as they were useful. They helped fill up your Energy reserves, and increase your rate of Energy recovery. This allowed for a longer, sustained use of your core. Unlike potions which had produced many outcomes, Elixirs remained stupidly simple. They were mostly used during or right before combat for the extra boost, or to supplement your training.

The final, and most exciting category was Ichors. Ichors had exactly one purpose. To push you further along your stage – essentially skipping some length of training completely. Their absurd price perfectly reflected their usefulness. 1000 credits for one Core Stage vial. The same price as knowledge about Weaver advancement. This item was no doubt the reason the rich families of the world could consistently produce individuals who could climb high. Evel closed the book and sat up from the chair.

He had mostly skimmed the more detailed information, but he had read all the summaries of each section in depth. He'd have plenty of time in the coming days to look further into it. Right now, he needed the guidance of a senior and somebody who had gone through the process. Evel was in an amazing situation with 1880 remaining credits even after this purchase. Albert did say to bother Avid as much as possible… After confirming with the manual, Evel pressed a sequence of buttons until he heard a beep.

The VTR, if Evel set it up correctly, now should be recording his image. Then, for the next few minutes, Evel asked every question that came to mind. He didn't ask anything that would directly be answered from the books. Avid was likely prohibited from answering those questions. Instead he asked more about what sort of information he could expect. Then, he told Avid about his plans for the circus. He paused after the recording stopped, finger still on the button.

It had been a long time since he'd let himself think about that place properly. After pressing a few more buttons, he got up from the desk and sighed. Hopefully by tomorrow, he could begin truly advancing to Weaver the 'proper way'. He quickly also sent some requirements to Acies to get an approximation on the prices he could expect. Evel took a sharp breath. There was one more thing that needed to be done before he could go to bed tonight. The hand appeared above his head once more.

His Energy reserves were nowhere close to their top, but Evel was planning to sleep soon anyways. After five minutes of exerting Eth to its maximum capability he lay flat on his carpet staring at the ceiling above him. Evel forced himself up from the ground and hauled himself on the bed. His body felt many times heavier than normal, but it was worth it. He would be sleeping anyways, so a little extra exhaustion wasn't something to fear. As his vision drifted away, so did the gnawing at his brain.

What replaced it was older, quieter. Spilled drinks, loud laughter, and a low roll of a drum in the open sky. He fell comfortably into slumber, thinking back to the better times. … On the eastern side of the Ichoris slums, a short brown haired man leaned back on his reclining chair, taking a massive breath of relief. Beside him, a copper haired man who was comfortably laying down on the couch caught the movement.

"Done?" Blake asked, pushing himself up to a seated position Graham grabbed the pile of clipped papers in front of him and threw them at Blake. Blake scanned through the pages briefly. It had thorough details on their tasks for the day, with a few extra added details for flavour. The corners of his lips slowly rose as he read through each page.

"Wow, these are detailed!" Graham snorted.

"Of course, I still want to be paid."

"You've outdone yourself again, you piece of shit liar!" Blake complemented. Graham stretched his arms wide, releasing a big yawn. Then, he got up from his seat and grabbed the papers back from Blake.

"So the story is straight?"

"We looked for information on Eth, the guards told us a few small details, we went further into the city and looked all day where we found nobody else who knew him." Blake recited, based on what he had read.

"Then we asked the next guards who told us he was a businessman just doing regular exploring looking for investments. Then we went and found Mateo who confirmed this story, then…"

"We met a random passerby."

"Yes! We met a random passerby who told us Eth was a business man with a bad temper, then we came back to base." Graham nodded, "Pretty much. Don't use the word businessman over and over and try to use the specific phrases I put in there should someone ask, but I doubt they would. Like most people this guy's probably some rich guy who's taking a look for himself if anything in the slums is worth anything and will eventually decide it's not." Blake shrugged.

"Sounds good to me." Graham took one final look at all the papers before walking over to his VTR. He placed them in the slot for books and pressed a sequence of buttons until the machine released a quiet humming. After a few seconds it was done.

"Wanna hit the bars?" Blake offered. After a few seconds of thinking, Graham shook his head.

"That paper killed my mood. We'll go tomorrow."

"Works for me." Opening the door to leave, Graham turned back once more.

"See ya in the morning." He replied through a large, wide yawn.

"Yeah, yeah. Close the door shut on the way out."