Gale put a hand on his chin, smudging his face with his own blood that covered his hands. His still sore body was ignored by the dopamine of seeing the three items he could buy.
The G Series caught his eye first. A shield that'd prevent him from getting… he looked down his body. From getting hurt like this. Could save his life next ti and make fights easier with defence.
But no. The knight's lessons echoed in Gale's head like Ms. Molly's multi-hour long naggings. The best defence was having no defence. All offence, he nodded to himself.
50 essence worth of damage didn't help the shield's value proposition. What the hell does that even an? How much is 50 essence worth of damage? It could be one bullet or 50 bullets or 500 bullets. It also had a duration of only 10 minutes. It wasn't very useful for long engagents like the one he just had.
"Guide, how much is 50 essence worth of damage?"
[Capacity of 50 essence worth of damage can mitigate another Dainv's 50 essence worth of spell.]
That wasn't helpful! Screw this guide. He'll go look at the other items just to spite this stupid Guide.
His eyes moved to the second option. Standard Arm & Shin Guards. It was simple and practical. Basic fighter equipnt if he used more of his body other than his Weber.
"Twenty-five percent damage reduction just by wearing them," he said, thinking out loud. "Double that if I pump essence into them."
It could be better protection than that stupid shield when activated, too. But the cost was a lot. Each hit would drain his essence reserve by 10, and he only had 200 total essence. Twenty hits, and he's empty. No more activating Phase Touch or his other skills, granted he only had 3 he could activate.
However, the guards synergized well with Dainv Combat Mastery. There'd be more options on blocking. Rather than allowing every strike to hit the Weber, he'd have more montum options if he got hit sowhere else.
The only problem with this was that both options still put him at lee range. That only leaves the last option left. The Weber X1 Ballista.
Gale hasn't fought from a distance before ever since getting this system inside of him. All three skills he had worked best close up. But over here on Earth, people fought differently. North Aricans used guns, and the Europeans used weird incantations that could shoot him from halfway down a warehouse.
Dad even told him he wasn’t talented in ranged combat, not being able to hit 3 targets in less than a second with a bow and arrow.
Last fight he had, he got stomped for not being able to close the gap between him and the Red Jacket woman. Technically, he could cut down trees planted all over the sidewalk, and make those into throwing spears.
Regardless, he needed a new capability. Ranged capability. That's it. That's the answer.
"What would you do, Guide?" Gale asked anyway.
[Insufficient context for optimal recomndation. Each option provides distinct tactical advantages based on anticipated threats. Shield provides reliable periodic protection. Guards augnt close-combat efficiency. Balista enables engagent outside standard operational range. Selection should align with highest probability threat assessnt.]
As always, Guide wasn't helpful. Then what gave him the best chance for offense?
It definitely gotta be the only thing here that could attack from a range. Gale reached over his back and patted it. Even though all 3 provided great reasons to choose them, the smartest choice was always offense.
[Weber X1-Balista]
[Purchase: Y/N]
Gale tapped on Y, confirming his selection.
The points were deducted from his account instantly. The gun materialized in the air and dropped after materializing, making him catch it mid air.
He held it up to his face, examining it. It looked like a long-barreled pistol with a green orb above the receiver. The handle had intricate curves while "WEBER" was branded along the barrel in bold letters. For sothing so small, it was heavier than it looked.
The trigger had a loop over it. He spun the gun with his index finger. Then, suddenly, he took it by the receiver and pointed it forward like the main character of a certain wild west movie.
"Hands up, bad guy!" Gale grinned. A chuckle started to form. That's what he'd say to the Red Jacket woman the next ti he sees her. She'll see.
Opening up the storage box, he put the Balista into the storage box. His gaze then swept over the facility, "Let's see what else is here."
This whole place was now just an ordinary research facility. Computers lined the platform, all of them with boxy looking monitors he's never seen before. Bunched-up cables ran along the floor and walls. More electronics sat on tal tables by the main platform where the big red switch was.
This wasn't like Ollie's labs at all. Not like Rachel's as well. No glyphs like the ones he saw in Lab 7 or magic circles that looked like they ca from a death cult.
"Guide, what the hell am I looking at?"
[Visual appears to be primitive incomplete private rift device.]
[According to userna Amazing Vianne's knowledge base, Private Rift Device Function: opens pathways to alternate spaces based on predetermined coordinates. Critical flaw: no coordinate function integrated. Analysis indicates default opening to hostile space, resulting in fatal consequences for operators.]
"So they built a door without knowing what was on the other side." Gale shook his head. "Smart. Without the magicky stuff too."
He moved back to the main control panel with the big red switch. Most made no sense. Luckily, pressing them all randomly made sothing work when Mia and them were in trouble.
Gale pressed a button labelled "INITIATE SEQUENCE."
Nothing happened.
He tried another one marked "POWER FLOW."
Still nothing.
Co on. Do sothing.
He flipped switches, turned dials, and pushed buttons at random, not caring what they did, not even reading, but the machines stayed dead.
"Piece of junk."
His eyes fell on a large red switch labelled "MAIN POWER" at the far end of the console. Of course.
He flipped it down, waited ten seconds, then pushed it back up.
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The room started up. Lights flickered on consoles. Screens blinked, showing strings of code and diagrams. The central pillar where the orb had been started to glow.
"Turn it off and on. Works every ti."
One by one, the machines activated. Fans whirred. Hard drives clicked. A rhythmic beeping ca from sowhere beneath the console.
The pillar glowed brighter.
"Guide, what's happening?"
[Detected: Class 0 rift opening. Caution advised. Dinsional barrier weakening at accelerated rate.]
The air above the pillar shimred, then split. This ti though, it wasn't just darkness. It was an orb-like window into another world.
Gale stepped closer, watching the rift. Through the opening, he saw a sky, dark and glowing with a faint red hue. The ground below was a flat cracked barren desert. There were no trees, no buildings, nor any signs of animal life. Only the mountains in the distance could probably be used as shelter.
"What the…"
The rift expanded slightly, edges stabilizing. The red glow pulsed, casting red light across the lab floor. The machines beeped faster, more urgently.
Sothing moved within the rift. A shape against the endless nothing. It grew larger, approaching the opening from the other side.
[Entity approaching. Prepare for potential hostile engagent. Threat Level: EXTRE.]
The shape beca sothing that took on the shape of a human, but it was covered with an oversized robe with a hood that concealed its face. It stopped just at the rift, looking inward to where Gale stood.
Gale imdiately took out the new gun from the storage box and pointed it at the thing. "Don't move, or I'll shoot."
The figure's head tilted. From the darkness of its hood ca sounds, but not any sound that he'd recognized. Not words, but a rhythmic low hum that vibrated through the walls.
Its voice grew louder. The monitors flickered. Code scrolled faster across screens. The figure's arms rose, spreading wide as if to welco him through.
Gale backed off, not knowing what's happening.
The being's voice rose even further, too loud. Every electronic device in the room stuttered. Screens cracked, and sparks flew behind the monitor's display. Cables on the floor glowed red hot. Red lights strobed, but the klaxon didn't blare.
The hooded figure leaned forward, reaching toward the rift boundary. Its voice reached a pitch that made Gale's teeth hurt and his vision blur.
Silence.
The machines died all at once. The rift collapsed with a sound like thunder. Red lights sparked and broke, leaving him in the dark of the night.
He stood still, ears ringing in the sudden quiet.
"What the fuck was that?" he whispered.
The thing disappeared. It could've exited its world into this place.
Breath of the Void expanded, stretching throughout the building, mapping exits and blind spots. Nothing, at least not the entity that he saw from the rift.
Tendrils suddenly tugged at him. The entrance. Two signatures moving at high speed, crossing doors, and their trajectory was directly to his location.
"Shit."
Two people. Coming his way. Too fast to be mundanes. No way he could outrun them in his state.
Gale jumped to one corner, beside the big red switch. He activated Distort, light bending around his whole body and leaving only a heatwave like distortion where he stayed if he moved.
The double door entrance to the greenhouse slamd open. Two n, sa height, sa build, sa face.
Twins.
One carried a long-gun rifle with a scope. Looked like so kind of sniper. The other held a pistol that even Gale recognized, a Glock, and a dagger at his waist. Their haircuts were in the sa short ssy fringe style.
The one with the long-gun chewed on what looked like cake and swallowed. He wiped the whipped cream from his mouth and looked blankly at the facility. The one with the Glock walked forward, always keeping his left hand near the dagger while his right hand was already aiming at dark spots within the facility.
To the untrained eye, the casual step of the one with the long-gun could be mistaken for an amateur. However, it was clearly obvious their footsteps were completely muffled, barely leaving an audible click against the concrete floor. If he didn't use Breath of the Void, he wouldn't have noticed them. Both were trained professionals, and both were Attuned.
"Kyle, skim the periter. Make sure we're alone," the one with the long-gun said.
Kyle circled around the central pillar. "Clear, Clyde, what's the play?"
"Jonathan wants us to search for docuntation. Anything about the experints they ran here," Clyde replied, eyes scanning the room and the main control platform where Gale was near.
"After all this ti?" Kyle frowned. "This place has been abandoned for decades. Probably already stripped everything useful."
"Orders are orders."
Kyle snorted. "Asshole."
"Can't argue with that." Clyde moved to the main console, running his fingers over the buttons. "But sothing's off. Soone's been here recently."
"How do you figure?" Kyle asked.
Clyde pointed at the console. "Look at these buttons. So don't have dust on them. And this switch was just used."
Shit. Should have just kept his hands to himself instead of playing with the console.
"Maybe local kids?" Kyle said. "This place is on all those urban explorer websites."
"Maybe." Clyde didn't sound convinced. He moved to the tal tables and drawers beside the main console. He opened all of them, but all of them were empty. Each step brought him closer to where Gale stood invisible.
Clyde's eyes swept over Gale's hiding spot by the corner near the red switch. He stopped just two feet away, eyes narrowing. One hand lifted, slowly closing in on him.
"Hey," Kyle called from across the room. "You really want to do all this work? If we don't report finding anyone to Control, we don't have to file the extra paperwork and do the dirty work."
Clyde's hand froze in mid-air. His head turned towards Kyle. "What're you saying?"
"I'm saying," Kyle holstered his Glock, "whoever was playing with the equipnt isn't our problem unless we make it our problem. And I'm not doing overti for this shit."
Clyde's hand slowly retracted just inches away from Gale's chest. "Right. Whoever's doing this invisible trick isn't worth the paperwork."
"Or the piss-poor pay we're getting," Kyle said.
"True that." Clyde slung his long-gun over his shoulder.
"So we're agreed? We ca, we saw, we found nothing?"
"Nothing but ghosts." Clyde gave the room one final scan. For a split second, his eyes seed to lock directly on Gale's. He grinned directly at him before turning away. "Let's go. There's a convenience store still open nearby."
They left the way they ca from, moving impossibly fast in the darkness of the asylum, not making any wrong turns. Only when Breath of the Void confird they reached the main entrance did Gale release his Distort.
He leaned against the wall, sweat dripping from his forehead, not from Distort's strain, but from the possible fight against those two. Attuned level, and he was in a shitty condition.
Standing back up, he moved back to the main console. He took the phone from the storage box and turned on the cara app. Flash briefly illuminated the room as Gale took several close ups of the main consoles labeled: "DINSIONAL APERTURE," "STABILITY," "BIOTERIC CONTAINNT."
These things made little sense to him. Better it be for soone who can make sense of this. Either Rachel or Ollie.
Next, he photographed the central pillar where the rift had appeared. Even though it was inactive now, the spot where the rift had disappeared had lingering signatures that he couldn't quite identify.
Analyze.
[Rift Residue]
[Description: Residue left by the destruction of a rift.]
[Knowledge base contains multiple use cases. Increase Core Class to unlock]
Gale clutched at his head as he crumpled his body inwards. Again with the Core Class increase! Fine. Keep your secrets with you.
His attention turned towards one of the monitors still intact. It flickered, still displaying the code on the screen. Gale took a video of that instead of a picture.
"Might as well be thorough," he said, taking shots of the connections between devices, the power cables, and the backup generators in the corner.
Checking his work and swiping through the photos and videos, the lighting wasn't great. Literally, no lighting, but they'd have to do. Maybe Ollie could do so kind of magic thing to make them better or sothing.
Gale pocketed his phone and moved to the lab wall. Then he pressed his palm against the concrete, focusing his essence on his entire self. The familiar feeling of being in a different plane from physical reality bit into him.
He ran, allowing himself to phase through the walls. Four walls to pass through was all it took for him to arrive outside. Walking towards the main gate of the fence, he saw the fresh car tracks from Andrew's car.
His apartnt was kilotres away, across the dark roads and then to the suburbs. No car and no money to call a cab.
Gale zipped up his jacket, hiding the worst of the bloodstains, and started walking down the road. Stones and dirt gave way to asphalt as he reached the main road.
Biggest problem now? Explaining how he ca back to life to his friends.
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