by H. C. Mills
“Thank you for taking such good care of me,” I say softly.
Kaitlynn shakes her head. “You just focus on getting better.”
“Yes!” Dave mutters under his breath, moments before his Focus Crystal lights up again. The white glow that washes over me brings immediate relief of a discomfort I hadn’t realised I was feeling.
I feel his eyes on me so I turn. My nose gets a little stuffy when I catch his eye. “Dave, dude...”
He smiles tiredly. “You can thank me once you’ve made it through the night. Right now, you should trance, build up some more Lavi.”
I nod and close my eyes. However, it takes me a few minutes to calm down and slip into a trance.
By the time I come out, I feel almost human again.
“Status Window,” I croak.
I breathe a sigh of relief when I realise I’m officially out of the woods. A Toxic Energy Lavi consumption of 6.5 Onkh of Lavi per minute is quite manageable with Respiration level 3 and some simple food.
One thing’s for sure, I’m never underestimating that Moonshade Sap again! If it weren’t for Dave and that Blue Angel managing to bring my Toxic Energy level down by 4.4 Onkh overnight, I would’ve been done for.
Still, if there’s one upside to this whole debacle, it’s that my Toxic Energy Tolerance finally went up again.
I find Dave lying on the floor next to me, still clutching his Focus Crystal, and can’t help but smile. My hero. Better let him sleep, he’s more than earned it.
Especially since he’s not done Purifying me yet. Of course, we can probably take it a bit slower now that I’m no longer at risk of imminent death. Even if he only uses that Skill on me once in a while, we should be able to clear the 4.3 Onkh I’m currently still over my limit in a matter of days.
Kaitlynn is curled up on my other side, and even Alec is still out, snoring lightly in the corner.
The only one who’s up—aside from me—is Suri.
[I’m not sure which amazes me more: your ability to make fatal errors or your knack for somehow surviving them,] she chimes as I languidly stretch.
“Good morning to you too,” I whisper back. “No, ‘I’m glad you’re still around’?”
[Oh, but I am. You are most entertaining.]
“Gee, thanks.”
[You’re quite welcome.]
Ugh, insufferable woman! That reminds me, I have some beef with you still, my dear Suri...
I narrow my eyes and cross my arms over my chest. “By the way, Suri, why didn’t you teach me that Skill Dave uses, huh? If I could’ve purified myself like that from the Toxic Energy still affecting me after the First Trial, I could’ve breezed through the second one! Instead, you taught me this useless, suicidal Lavi-burning Skill that boosts my Strength for a whopping 6 seconds! Do you really have my best intentions at heart?”
[Radiate—the Skill he used—is a Yang Skill,] Suri explains calmly. [It requires Yang Qi and a Yang Focus Crystal, the latter of which you couldn’t have gotten until after the Second Trial, and the former of which you’ll never possess, as you are Yin.]
Well... shit.
Perhaps I whispered a little too heatedly—or maybe naptime was running at an end anyway—because Kaitlynn stirs and stretches. Then she inhales sharply and rolls over to look at me with wide eyes. Finding me awake and, well, alive, brings out a wide smile on her face.
“Good morning,” I whisper, smiling back as I study the upper half of her face. She has a slightly-upturned, button nose, and quite a few freckles that cover both it and her upper cheeks. Her eyebrows are brown, so I take it that’s her natural hair colour beneath the vibrant blue dye-job. My eyes instinctively travel down to her li—lower facial area, but I quickly look back up, because, well, I’m already more than familiar enough.
“Good morning to you, Miss Toxic Dragon Girl,” she whispers back.
I groan softly and apply my palm to my face. “And here I’d hoped we could forget about that.”
She chuckles. “In your dreams.”
This little brat. I like her already.
“You know, I don’t think we’ve been properly introduced yet,” I whisper, holding out my hand. “Hi, I’m Emma.”
“You’re right, it’s about time,” she retorts with a twinkle in her eye as she takes my hand and shakes it once. “And hi, I’m Kaitlynn.”
“Well, Kaitlynn, I look forward to getting to know you,” I whisper, not immediately letting go of her hand. Her skin is smooth and her hand feels warm in mine, but not sweaty. “Even though I feel like we’ve gotten to know each other quite intimately already.”
The way she flushes and averts her gaze as she pulls back her hand is all kinds of cute. Man, the guys must go crazy over this one. Especially with this outfit and the way her skirt is riding up ever so—whoa, okay, not going there. Anyway, I’d be jealous, if it weren’t for the fact that we’re all going to die anyway.
“Ehm, sorry about that,” she starts to whisper before I cut her off.
“Seriously, thank you.” I put my hand on hers and give it a quick, reassuring squeeze. “No need to apologise, you did what you had to. I’m sure the boys enjoyed the view, anyway,” I add with a wink when she looks up to meet my gaze.
She shakes her head. “No, thank you,” she replies earnestly. “For standing up to Bruce for us, and for, well, risking your life like that. It was...”
“Incredibly foolish,” I finish for her.
She giggles, covering her mouth in an attempt to keep the volume down.
“I was going to say heroic,” she finally whispers.
“I was trying to be heroic,” I reply morosely, “but like the idiot I am, I ended up shooting straight past it towards suicidal.”
“Stop making me laugh!” she laughs. “We’ll wake the guys.”
“I’ll try,” I promise.
But I’m totally crossing my fingers behind my back. Or mentally, at least. That counts, right?
CHAPTER 26
It’s a utility belt
KAITLYNN BITES HER LIP. “You know, we’ve actually met before.”
I blink, caught off-guard. “Have we really?”
She smiles kind of sheepishly. “You really don’t remember... well, I can’t blame you, it was like a week ago, and I’m sure I was just a face in the crowd to you. You, ehm, sold me a hotdog. Talked me into one, really. I was there with—”
“With Fat Misty!” I blurt out. Then I cringe. “God, I’m sorry. That was super-insensitive, especially since she’s probably—ehm, sorry about your friend...” I trail off, mentally kicking myself for the slip-up, but Kaitlynn seems to take it in stride.
“Yeah, her name is—was, Denise,” she whispers back sadly. “I’m not really holding out hope for her, not since the Second Trial, anyway.”
I nod. Sounds like the Trials are the same on every track like I suspected.
“She was a good friend,” Kaitlynn says, some liquid gathering in the corner of her eye before she wipes it away. “Anyway, she really liked your colleague, ehm, I haven’t seen him here yet either...”
I deflate a little. “Yeah, Josh kicked it in Hub One.”
Kaitlynn cocks her head to the side. “Are you sure? Have you checked through the Social System yet?”
“I’m pretty sure,” I whisper, suppressing the image of his lifeless gaze. “Wait, is that what you used to contact Dave? How does it work?”
“Oh. Well, it’s a system that allows you to contact other people in Hub Two, but only if they add you to their list.”
“Sounds neat. How do I use it?”
She shrugs. “Your guide will operate it for you, you only have to give them instructions.”
“I see. Suri?”
[It’s quite simple. You tell me the name of the person you wish to add to your list of approved contacts and I will send out a request for them to add you as well.]
Hmm. Sounds like you still need to actually meet people in person first, or at least learn their name.
I frown. “So it’s like a phone-call, except the receiver is the crystal inside my eye-socket, and the speaker pumps its signal directly into my brain?”
[Put crudely, yes.]
Sounds good. “Cool, can you send Kaitlynn a friend-request, please?”
[It’s called a contact approval request, but fine.]
Kaitlynn giggles. “Yes, I’ll accept.”
After a moment of deliberation, I ask, “And, ehm, is there anyone named Josh amongst the surviving participants?”
[There is not. I’m sorry.]
“I figured,” I mutter, before taking a deep breath.
Kaitlynn reaches out and squeezes my hand. “My condolences.”
I just nod. Frankly, I don’t want to think about it, let alone talk about it.
What I do want, is to settle my debts. That’s one thing my mother managed to hammer into my stubborn head. ‘We may lack money, young lady, but not integrity!’
I clear my throat. “Hey, listen, I was thinking I should reimburse you for your Blue Angel.”
Her eyes go wide and she holds up her hands in front of her. “Oh, no don’t be silly—”
I shake my head. “I insist. Though I’m not sure if there’s a system for this. Suri?”
[Yes, Emma?] Suri chimes.
“Can I transfer Trial Points to another participant?”
[Mmm. You can, but I would advise against it.]
“Why is that?”
[Well, there’s a fee: 50% of the amount you wish to transfer. Therefore, if you intend to reimburse the young lady the retail price of 5 TP for her Blue Angel, it would cost you 8.]
I frown. “Don’t you mean seven and a half?”
[Half Trial Points are rounded upwards.]
Of course they are. Bastards.
[Moreover, you can’t spend them until after Hub Two anyway, and who knows who will owe whom by that time.]
Right. I smile apologetically at Kaitlynn. “It sounds like I’ll have to owe you one for now. Transferring points is a less than ideal way to settle debts.”
“Look it’s fine really,” she whispers, shaking her head. “I didn’t even buy it: I still had it left over from the First Trial. I’m just glad I had it. And besides, you saved me first, you know,” she finishes, adding a wink.
Hold up.
I push myself up into a seated position and lean toward her. “What do you mean from the First Tri—were there Blue Angels growing there?!”
She covers my mouth with her hand, giggling again. Right, I was getting kinda loud there by the end.
Once she appears satisfied that I’ll be quiet, she removes her hand again.
“Among other things, yes. Is it really that surprising? I mean, there were a ton of things growing in the First Trial.” She frowns cutely at me. “Didn’t you go exploring around the oasis? I mean, they even taught us how to appraise things before the Trial, so I just kind of thought that was the whole point of the Trial: to familiarise you with the local plants, and how they can kill you or help you survive.”
“Right. Yeah, that makes sense.”
Wow. I’m an idiot.
Kaitlynn stares at me. “Yesterday, when you said you spent all of your time training your Toxic Energy Tolerance... weren’t you bluffing?”
I sheepishly scratch my neck. “Well, I mean, I may have exaggerated the effects of my training a little, but the bit about my actual process was pretty accurate.”
“You—how high is your Toxic Energy tolerance, then, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“Right now? Nearing 25%.”
Her mouth drops open. “T-t-twenty five percent?!” She scrunches up her face and closes her eyes. “Yes, I heard her as—no, I don’t think she’s ly—agh, Kai will you shut up already?! I’m trying to have a conversation here!”
What?
I must look rather weirded out because she blushes and launches into an explanation. “Sorry, my AI guy—that’s what I call him, Kai-the-AI-Guy—was freaking out a little. He can be rather talkative, so sometimes I need to shut him up. But wow, 25% is insane.”
Huh, so her—what was it called again? Personal Guide System? Anyway, her AI is a guy and apparently, he talks too much. Interesting. He sounds so different from Suri.
“I am pretty proud of it,” I admit. “But I still almost died from Toxic Energy poisoning yesterday.”
“Well, who asked you to gargle the sap of a Moonshade Flower?” she teases.
“Lego-ass did,” I whisper. “Or, well, more like he dared me, but that’s almost even worse. I mean, after that, I just had to, right?”
She’s covering her mouth with a hand while her shoulders move with silent laughter.
“Did you just call him Lego-ass?” she asks between laughter spasms.
I shrug. “I don’t know his name. To be fair though, I do know Bruce’s name, but I still prefer to call him Meathead.”
This doesn’t help with the spasms, obviously.
“I mean, the term fits, but... men are more than pieces of meat, you know” Kaitlynn manages to bring out after getting her laughter under control.
“Ugh, tell me about it,” I whisper, rolling my eyes. “Take that Lego-ass for example—if I’d bought a nice steak, and it gave me that much lip, I’d take it back to the pimp. ’Cause that’s not what I’m paying for, if you know what I mean.” I decide to give her a little break to wipe the tears of laughter from her left cheek. “So, what is your Toxic Energy tolerance, if you don’t mind my asking?”
She scrunches up her nose, still chuckling. “Ugh, don’t laugh, okay? It’s 1.2%.”
Wow, that’s less than what I had after Hub One.
“In my defence, I have a Yang affinity,” she whispers with a shrug.
Ah. That does explain a little. With her being Yang, her Tolerance for a Yin-type energy will naturally build up more slowly. Compared to my Heat Tolerance, it’s actually still pretty darn high.
We fall silent for a bit, but it’s a comfortable silence, broken only by Alec’s light snoring.
“Not to sound ungrateful...” Kaitlynn whispers suddenly, before trailing off.
I raise a brow at her. “Yes?”
She bites her bottom lip, then looks at me earnestly. “Please don’t do anything like what you did yesterday, ever again.”
I can’t help but laugh quietly. “I wasn’t planning on a repeat performance anytime soon. Why the request?”
Kaitlynn sits up and pulls her knees to her chest, which makes her seem all the more small and vulnerable. “Things got pretty scary once you’d finished all of the zirot juice, you know? You hovered at the brink of death for a while. And while having a Minor Lavi Crystal is nice, it’s not worth losing your life over.”
My brows rise. “So it really was a Minor Lavi Crystal he was chasing you for? Would you... show me?”
She turns to rummage in her backpack, pulls out a golf ball-sized crystal with a potent green glow, and hands it to me. “This is it. One of the three items we all need to level up: a Minor Lavi Crystal.”
I let out a low whistle as I study it. It definitely contains a lot of Lavi.
“Appraise.”
There’s that word again, unavailable. I guess they don’t want anyone to accidentally buy any objects we’re supposed to gather in Hub Two.
Also, they can be used to increase your Lavi Pool? This is good stuff!
“How’d you get it?” I ask as I hand it back with some reluctance.
“Well,” she whispers, carefully replacing the crystal, “there are these hollow tree stumps spread out over Hub Two—six of them—and once a day a single Blue-Scaled Trigot emerges from one of them for about an hour. People try to hunt it because it has a Minor Lavi Crystal lodged in its forehead.”
“Right, t
hat thing you said you killed before. What are they like?”
“Ehm, they’re roughly the shape and size of a Komodo dragon, maybe a little smaller, but they move much faster. They keep jumping from tree to tree and crawling on the underside of branches and stuff like that,” she explains.
The way she gesticulates and gets absorbed by what she’s saying is rather endearing. Whoops, I’m staring again.
“At least it’s not hard to spot, since it’s blue,” she continues. “It doesn’t really get aggressive unless you corner it, but it does have some mean-looking teeth. And horns. Three of ’em.”
A blue, tri-horned Komodo dragon, with a glowing green crystal in its forehead. I guess it’s not the craziest thing so far.
“Anyway, Bruce and—that’s right, he has a name, you callous monster,” she whispers, light-heartedly shoving my shoulder. “Bruce and his gang try to monopolise the hunt; the five of them split up and each guard one of the six stumps. When the Blue-Scaled Trigot appears, they signal each other and try to hunt it down together. When it doesn’t show up at any of their locations, they head for the one stump they couldn’t cover. I was at that stump yesterday, and when it came out, I took it down before they showed up, but Bruce decided it was still his, asshole...”
“You took it out by yourself?” I ask in surprise. “How?”
She smiles at me with a twinkle in her eye.
“You wanna see?”
To my surprise, the hut turns out to be perched on a branch high up in one of the humongous trees. Must’ve been quite a hassle to carry me all the way here.
We walk over the thick branches until Kaitlynn decides that we’re far enough away that whatever she’s about to do won’t disturb the boys.
She takes a white Focus Crystal out of her fanny pack and I stare at it. The fanny pack, that is.
“What?” she asks defensively. “It’s practical, okay?”
“I’m sure it is.”
“It’s also safer against pickpockets.”
