Misbegotten Memories

Chapter 288

As the days passed, the ache in Hector’s soul reduced enough that he could function as a normal human once more.  Using his aura was still impossible, so entering combat remained out of the question.  There were other things he could do, though.

“How much for one of the fancy new elixirs I hear you’re making?”

Wayne rubbed his hands together with glee at the question.  “It took you long enough to ask for a sample, Hector!  Would you believe that Lords are buying my products now?  Not just Zara.  Well, she gets them for free anyway.  But lots of Lords are buying.  Well, three customers are Lords.  That’s still something, right?”

“Very impressive, Wayne.”

“Want to hear how I’m making them?”  The hope on Wayne’s round face was too precious for Hector to deny him, so he gestured for the man to continue.  “It’s incredibly exciting, Hector.  Observing the special elixir that you already know about, I proved the theory that cosmic energy becomes bound in chemical bonds that form in its presence.

“That’s what the mother does, by the way.  It isn’t cultivating at all.  It’s just a series of chemical reactions that transports cosmic energy to higher densities in steps.  No soul involved.  Which means… those steps can be replicated in a lab!  It’s very much a work in progress at this point, obviously.  I can’t whip up an industrial process to spit out level ten substances in a couple of months.

“What I managed, though, was to set up a bunch of Jinn tissue cloning incubators loaded with human stem cells.  They produce proteins completely compatible with Xian.  It’s a platinum elixir made without hurting a single person, Hector!

“That’s the very last step in the process, though.  There is a whole infrastructure to step up the energy density of the nutrients provided to the incubators.  Zara is purchasing level eight supplies so that we only need two increments.  We use blood plasma, powdered organs, and powdered bone from mammals as our base.  The incubators run on Tian where the ambient energy is higher, but we crank the densities even higher with a cosmic chamber.

“I’m not crazy about exploiting people like that, but Zara assures me they are paid well for their efforts.  That gets us a single step up to level nine equivalent.  We’re still working out how to improve densities for the next increase, but level nine platinum elixirs on demand is a resource revolution!”

Hector nodded along, impressed at his former rival’s innovations.  “That’s amazing, Wayne.  You are going to change the entire world of Tian.”

“I can’t wait for those stuffy Lords to realize they owe science and technology for their new gains.”  Wayne laughed.  “We’ll drag them into the modern era by their noses.”

“I assume a level nine elixir is pretty expensive?”  The System essentially covered any transaction Hector wanted to make, but he didn’t think he could ever be comfortable wasting money.  Credits were a resource to accumulate.  And maybe throw towards people he cared about – though not to make them stop talking about their emotions.

Wayne shrugged.  “We don’t sell the level nine stuff on Union Central.  The product that fails the quality assurance process all winds up at the cafe, though.  Since you’re still at level seven, I imagine you won’t object to a level eight platinum elixir?”  He raised a finger to correct himself.  “Level eight false platinum elixir, that is.  No killed human means no core.  My product is way more compatible than any animal based elixir, but the absence of a core means you need to supply a large portion of the cosmic energy from your own soul.  I assume that won’t be a problem for you, though.”

“I’m already interested in the elixir, Wayne.  What’s the price?”

“Well, I was hoping that instead of a straight purchase the two of us could barter.”  Wayne leaned onto the counter.  “I want the rest of your share of the Fufu flour.  I’m pretty sure I can feed it to the incubator as a source of carbohydrates.  In exchange you can have a double vial.”

He’d actually forgotten that he hadn’t used all the Fufu flour.  “Deal.”

Wayne sagged.  “That is a huge relief.  We already used your Fufu flour.  Sorry, I just got so excited to do the experiment and then it worked so I couldn’t stop myself.”

A few minutes later, Hector was holding a tin canteen that held quite a bit more than a double vial.  Apparently Wayne had expected Hector to negotiate for a larger dose.  He opened the cap and took a swig of the liquid.  “Do you think this is enough to get me to the peak of my current level?”

“Probably?  The elixir is mostly water and proteins.  I’d bet all the fish you ate after the Oceania stuff pushed the small amount of body fat you have close to the peak already.”

Hector tilted his head.  He’d never realized how similar Wayne’s scientific approach to body enhancement was to the cold forged method.  Only instead of targeting specific tissues, it was targeting specific types of molecules.  There seemed to be a lot of opportunity for synergy between the two methods.

For the moment, though, he had what he needed.  Hector returned to his room and downed the elixir in large gulps until the canteen was empty and his stomach was full.  Then he settled in to perform some serious body enhancement.  Before the potency of the elixir expired, his reserves dropped from just above sixty percent until they were below ten percent.

Survey Results

Type:  Xian

Level:  7

Body:  7.0

Mind:  7.0

Aura:  6.4

Domain:  6.8

Energy Reserves:  09%

It was a satisfying improvement even if it wasn’t quite accurate.  “My body aperture isn’t fully to the peak, you know.”

Do you realize that assessment numbers are rounded to the nearest tenth?

“Fine, I’ll stop whining.  I just want that seven point oh to mean that I’m done with my body, not that there is still a little bit of work to be done.”

After that, Hector turned his attention to restoring his energy reserves.  The speed of recovery using his externality proved annoyingly slow, so he went into the dungeon to speed things up with the miasma available there.  He camped out next to a door so that he could retreat fast.  His aura wasn’t up to the task of blocking a stiff breeze at the moment, making that precaution necessary.

The initial results were lackluster, as he had to continually return to the safety of the tunnel.  Other delvers shouted complaints as they ran past, convinced he was intentionally drawing in monsters with an obvious display to maliciously sabotage his peers.  Probably the only reason no one took out their frustration on him was due to the obvious power disparity.  Level seven was considered elite level on Union Central.

Soon word got out and the tunnel stopped disgorging fresh delvers.  It was just Hector, the monsters, and the machine gun turrets whenever he had to fall back.  Every time he ducked inside and flattened himself against the wall to watch bullets fly, he expected to receive an admonishment from someone with authority that he was abusing the dungeon.

Perhaps they didn’t realize what he was doing.  He was unique in being able to use miasma as fuel, so the people in charge of the dungeon may not understand that he was gaining something from camping outside the tunnel.  For all they knew, he might be luring in monsters to fight and using the turrets as his backup.  Come to think of it, he probably looked like a bloodthirsty Xian who couldn’t convince anyone to delve with him.  His fame as the Stalwart Xian had been short-lived and no one remembered the sobriquet other than friends.

His marathon seemed like it was soon to end as a suited up Jinn stomped down the moving sidewalk to enter the dungeon.  Hector was content with his gains, so it wouldn’t be a major inconvenience if he had to take a break.  The cyborg exited the tunnel, studied him a moment, and raised a hand in greeting.

“It’s been a while, Hector.”

“Conrad?  I didn’t expect to see you here.”

“I had to see what all the fuss was about when I heard a crazy Xian was causing mayhem.  You’ve done well for yourself on Aes, it seems.”  The helmeted figure looked around the glowing environment.  “Is baiting them in a new trick?”

“I figured out a way to turn miasma into cosmic energy.  Drawing in monsters is a side effect of restoring my reserves.”  Hector nodded to the cyborg special operator.  “How have you been?”

“I’m still in the fight.”

Hector smiled.  “So am I.  There isn’t much I can tell you, but the Reconquest is holding steady after some recent developments.  We’d been slowly losing ground for a long time.”

“At least something isn’t going horribly wrong.”  Conrad fired his plasma rifle at something too distant for Hector to identify, sending it crashing to the ground.  “The Coalition Army canceled its next tour of the unempowered worlds.  They are going to send out messengers to bring back every deployed soldier in the next few months.  I’m not sure what their strategy is, but it looks suspiciously like they are sacrificing a large part of the multiverse to protect the core worlds.  I don’t like it one bit.”

“I don’t like it either,” Hector said.  “Are things good in the dungeons?”

“That’s another cause for concern.  Svarga is turning over the responsibility for running the dungeon of South City to the local population.  There aren’t enough people willing to delve the four equatorial dungeons, so I don’t know who is going to fill in for the Arahants.  It certainly won't be my own people.  No one will give me any details, but something big is happening on Terra.  Whole regiments are being redeployed back home with no explanation.”

Hector shook his head.  “There’s nothing we can do about that mess.”

“Very true.  We can only do our best with what is in front of us.  Speaking of which, are we going to delve or lurk around the exit?”

His reserves were just barely above ten percent, but Hector laughed.  “Hell yeah, let’s make things interesting.”