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Chapter 428 - Shopping Trip
🕑 Added 2022-04-04 13:00:10 +0000 UTC"So, can you explain to me how that spell works again?" Alex asked while they walked to a weapon store.
Hera understood that she wasn't asking about a spell by her tone of voice, and this was a deal they had when they were in public. It was one thing if they were high-level explorers and almost no one could attack them, or if they were famous and a lot of people were interested in their every move. However, if two random explorers who just started their life in the MAZE a couple of years ago went missing, not many people would bat an eye. Even the Guild would just chalk their disappearance off as another group that bit more than they could chew inside a dungeon or while fighting a monster. That's why they avoided openly talking about the legacy in public. In fact, that was the general consensus about it. Unless you had someone really powerful protecting you and backing you up no one would know if you had a legacy until you become a powerful explorer. From what she knew, it was easier to find people who had legacies past level 50. Then it seemed like either too much trouble to try to steal it, or they would be well known enough that if something happened to them, the Guild would start a full investigation.
Hera knew that there were thieves and other unsavory types among explorers, but they also had a generous sense of self-preservation. If they involve themselves in a particularly risky heist or assassination, it will be very hard to hide what they did from the Guild. One of the advantages of living in a world where magic was easily acquired and skills to track something, or someone, were easy to find was that any criminal activity wasn't that complicated to find unless they were hiding very well. There was a line in one of the detective shows that she liked that came to mind. 'In the MAZE, it's not about not getting caught. It's about not letting them know that you stole something in the first place.' Hera's mind trailed off thinking about crimes, and she remembered the terrorist attack in Union City. That had happened a while ago, but she couldn't remember hearing anything new about it. Sure the Guild wasn't going to give everyone consistent reports of what they were doing, not to give away their plans to the attackers, but something that big and that involved all the races should already have been solved.
"Hello, earth for Hera. Are you still there?" Alex waved her hand in front of Hera.
"Oh, sorry. What did you ask, again?"
"How does the skill work? Sorry, the spell. Do you have to just do something with the weapons to add them? I still don't get it," Alex gestured for them to turn the corner. She knew where the weapon shop was better than Hera.
Before replying, Hera glanced at Daskka, who was on her shoulder, to confirm if she could talk about the legacy without a problem again. She had already asked the question before, but since she knew something like the guide skill existed, she wanted to be sure, once more. The last thing Hera wanted was to lose some part of the legacy just by speaking about it. Daskka felt her question and gave an answer confirming that there was nothing to worry about. The legacy didn't have anything that required secrecy, not the way she was thinking, at least.
"I can go over the details later, But in essence, I need to know the weapon I'm gonna use. Think of it like getting used to new shoes. I was talking to her about it, and it seems like if I already kind of know how to use that kind of weapon, it's quicker for me to add them. So, it's like if I'm used to wearing running shoes, it's easier to get a new pair and walk around without a problem. But if I try stilettos, that takes a while before I can walk without falling," Hera explained.
"And that's why you want to buy more handaxes?" Alex pointed to the store a few hundred meters away. It was a massive department store, one that would sell everything back on earth, from groceries to clothing and electronics. But here, it would only sell weapons, armor, and the eventual magic item.
"Yeah, we talked, and it looks like since I always used hand axes, even a new one won't take long for me to get used to. We imagine it would be like a couple hours of practice, and then they are good to go," Hera glanced at Daskka to confirm if everything she said was right and got a nod in response.
They went inside the store to look for new weapons. The place was massive. There were eight floors, four dedicated to weapons, three dedicated to armor, and one with a mix of a food court and some stores that sold random knick knacks and other variety of items. It was like looking at gift shops at the airport. Yet, the weirdest part was that these shops were actually private businesses not directly affiliated with the main store. Considering that the department store had everything from custom orders to maintenance, and you could even ask the clerks to order something from outside, it felt a bit odd that they would allow their competition to sell their products here.
However, Hera's goal was the axes. While in the store, she looked over the vast selection they had, and thanks to Daskka, she could confirm that every hand axe had between 16 to 18% of familiarity, simply because she was used to using that kind of weapon. She couldn't confirm that herself because the legacy only recognized familiarity of weapons that she had already spent some time with, but that was a perk of having the herald. Daskka could make an educated guess on each weapon. Hera even considered looking for weapons that were a bit outside of what she was used to. Unfortunately, all those weapons would require between a few days to a week of constant practice and maintenance before she could add them to her court. It wasn't that she wasn't up to do the work, or that she didn't want variety in her court, but this was supposed to be a practice run. The next order of business would be going back to Boothudurn. Even after just a quick glance in the store, Hera already found a couple dozen different axes that struck her fancy. Now came the hard part, picking just three of them.
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"Excuse me, could you point me to Romeo Ballestar's room?" Becca was looking around the facility. It was a hospital that specialized in body reconstruction and physical therapy, which worked very well since most people who went through those procedures would require some assistance to recover their full range of motion.
"Romeo, do you mean the chairman? If so, could you tell me what your relationship with him is? We have a very strict list of people who could visit him," the nurse looked at Becca, recognizing who she was, but she still had to follow the rules. It didn't matter who she was talking to.
"Sure, I am currently employed by the chairman to be his PR Rep, and by extension the guild. Since he kinda went dark after that initial attack, I needed to see if he was OK. You know, to know what I can tell people," Becca awkwardly explained. When Romeo was admitted to this facility three months ago, he stopped taking her calls. That became a massive problem since she couldn't do some damage control without his authorization, and his lack of appearances or any official statements only made things worse. Just last week, she spent most of her time fending off all the reporters who were spreading rumors that Romeo had died because of his injuries. And if she was being honest with herself, that was something she was starting to consider.
"OK, just a minute," the nurse typed something in the computer, and after a few moments, she turned back to Becca, "I see you are on the list, Miss Swan. He is in that corridor. Follow the green line on the wall… Room 12," the nurse gestured to the left.
"Thanks, and I can stay there until?..."
"Visiting hours are from 10 am till 6 pm. But considering both of your positions, if you need more time we can arrange something."
"I don't think we'll need that much time, but thank you," Becca glanced at the hallway.
"Of course, and… may I ask you something?"
"Sure," Becca looked back at the nurse.
"Could we take a picture together? I'm a big fan," the nurse gave her a coy smile.
"Of course," Becca nodded. A quick picture later, and she was in front of room 12. It was on the corner of the hospital and kind of far away from all the other rooms. Probably because of his job. Big places like that tended to have more secluded areas for patients that required more discretion.
She was getting closer to the room when she heard a voice coming from inside.
"No, no, no, no. You can't do this to me. Not after all this ….. Do you think I'm kidding? I lost an eye and a leg for those people. It doesn't matter that I have my leg again. I did all that. I deserve this…. You wouldn't…. Fine, after this, we're done. Don't ask me any more favors, don't ask me anything. You stay out of my business, and I stay out of yours," Romeo was shouting, but if it wasn't for Becca's enhanced senses, she wouldn't be able to hear all that screaming from the other side of the door. Since this was a hospital, there weren't any privacy spells or anything like that in the rooms. The doctors and nurses had to be able to hear what was going on inside all the rooms just in case something bad happened.
Becca waited a few moments. She had never seen Romeo acting like that. In fact, the man seemed to be impossible to anger. Becca had heard some truly heinous comments about him and people disrespecting him and his family in a way that it's hard to describe. Yet, Romeo always was unwavering calm and warm with everyone. Whatever happened there was heavy, and it sounded personal. Becca considered him her friend, so she wouldn't press anything or show that she had heard all that. After all, Romeo was still in the hospital.
After about a minute or so, when there was no more sound coming from the room, Becca knocked on the door, "Romeo? Do you have time to talk to a friend? I brought gifts."
"Becca? Yes, yes, come in. Please. I'm going nuts here," Romeo's voice sounded normal. It didn't even seem that he just had a screaming match on the phone.
Becca walked inside, and this room was massive. There was a large television and three couches, and his bed looked like the equivalent of a king-size bed for a hospital. Not to mention all the medical equipment, a treadmill, and what seemed to be a very large bathtub. It wasn't the kind of tub you would see in a hotel or house but the type used in medical procedures, "Wow, they're giving you the full treatment, huh?"
Romeo chuckled, "You could say that. The leaders of the races wanted to thank me for protecting them, even if some of them seem to be a bit hurt that I acted first."
"Yeah, I don't imagine that they were very happy about that. Elves keep saying how we can never surprise them since they live for so long," Becca nodded and took a good look at Romeo. The man was in a hospital gown, but he seemed to be doing well. She could even see that the man seemed to have both feet, or at least, she could see the shape of the feet under the covers. However, he was still using an eye patch.
Romeo noticed how Becca was analyzing him and gave her a sad smile, "Don't worry, I'm fine. Heck, the leg is even better than it was before. They put some monster bone on me, and it's supposed to be even stronger than human bones, so good for me, I guess. The eye… that is an issue. The nerves and ligaments and whatever bio-genetic-medical mumbo jumbo that is in there is too complicated to replicate, and the shard kind of destroyed everything that was inside. To regrow my leg, they had to basically cut open the other one and use it as a base to make the missing leg work. It's how those things usually go, but it's really not something I would recommend to anyone. Doing that with the eye carried the risk of making me blind forever. The good part is that some dwarven kingdom is starting to toy with cybernetic implants. They were doing legs and arms, but since I saved one of their leaders, they kinda offered me a position in the trials for a cybernetic eye. And you wanna know something weird? I still can see notifications even when there's nothing here," Romeo gestured to his missing eye.
"Oh, I see..." Even if that was some interesting information, Becca was still worried about what she assumed was a phone call that she had just heard. She knew Romeo pretty well these days, and if it wasn't for the yelling, she would think that he was just fine.
"What's wrong?" Romeo stared at her.
Becca considered her options for just a moment. In the end, her worry was greater than anything else, "Are you OK? Really? You look mostly fine, but I heard some yelling before I got here."
"Ah, that…How much did you hear?"
"Nothing really, just yelling. And I know you're not the type to get angry easily. So, are you OK? Is there anything I can do to help?"
Romeo let out a long sigh, "I suppose you should be the one to know about this. I'm going on early retirement," The man gave her a smile but quickly, his face changed into frustration, "Off the record, they are forcing me out. They're saying that this whole debacle with the terrorist attack and how much they invested in the city is my fault. To the rest of the board, it shows that I don't have the 'necessary qualities of a leader. I hate this because it's what they always do. Liliana was doing a great job, but a single misstep, and they wanted her out. But I can't say I blame them. I should be tracking down the bastards who did that, but here I am, stuck in a bed. If it wasn't because growing back a leg works much better before your body completely heals. I would've slapped on a prosthetic and just kept going."
"I get that you're struggling, but why did you vanish? You could have made a task force, asked people around, I don't know, something. It seems like no one is doing anything about the attack."
"The rest of the board took away my chairman's powers the moment the attack hit. OK, I'm being dramatic," Romeo rolled his eyes, "It was a couple days later while I was still recovering from the initial blast. After that, they kind of cut me off from everything. They even prohibited me from calling anyone that wasn't my family. People could come here. They are not gonna stop that, but I couldn't contact anyone."
"Wow. The board sucks," Becca gasped after a long moment of silence.
"Yeah, they really do," Romeo nodded, a complicated expression washing over his face. After a moment, he looked back at the reporter, "So, what kind of gift did you bring me?"
Comments
Xaekros
Thanks for the ch.!
