I might have been wrong when I said this ability was only utility based.
"Don’t you think so Bubbles? I asked.
Silence.
"Bubbles?" I called again after a moment, but was still met with silence. Strange, Bubbles had never been completely silent before. ’Could something have gone wrong?’ I thought. Who am I kidding?, of course there was something wrong.
Even though, I could still feel my connection to him, It was as strong as always, if not stronger. It just felt slightly muddy, or maybe distant, like talking to someone from a distance instead of face to face. So it was safe to say that he was at least not in danger.
Still, it was hard not to worry. I guess the little bastard had grown on me. Quite a change since I had once entertained the idea of killing the fur ball.
But still, worrying wouldn’t increase the mastery of my techniques.
I shelved the matter in an important place in my mind, and teleported down to the ground floor, or to the cafeteria to be exact. I hadn’t had lunch due to being overwhelmed by the urge to breakthrough, so I was kind of famished.
I didn’t know if the meal was the best I’d ever had, or if it was my hunger speaking. Or maybe it was the amount of points, after all it did cost me a whooping 30 points.
After that, I headed back to the dome. I paid for some alone time in a training room. Not surprising the training room was as big as the combat hall.
It had everything from dummies to automatons, an archery range, a gravity room, even a swimming press. And all of this costed only 10 points an hour. Significantly less than what we pay for a meal after it’s allocated time.
Now I paused, trying to decide what to start with, but then it occured to me, why start with one, when you can start with all.
With a mental tug, fifteen of me appeared. Some of my reflections would train with the dummies and automatons, some would try to swim against the tide and water pressure, while the rest would practice archery. I was no archer, but it wouldn’t hurt to try, plus, I wasn’t letting my points go to waste. And who knows, I might even be gifted in archery.
"Spread out you punks, and spam your techniques till you fade away!" I shouted for theatrics.
"You’re the punk!" One of my reflection snarled with a particularly nasty expression.
"Wanna get dispelled?" I grumbled. "Yeah that’s what I thought." I said when the reflection looked away.
Shaking my head, with a smile, I turned away.
While my reflections would be training in the other areas, only my main body would be hitting the gravity room. The reason was that while I could get the experience and even muscle memory of a reflection practicing the mirage steps continuously, I wouldn’t gain anything from my reflection being under two times gravity.
Only my main body could benefit from that. Which is why, I created another reflection before entering the gravity room. This reflection was made only for one purpose, to Instantly swap with me the moment I couldn’t take it anymore.
Once I got in, I went over to the controls, and set the gravity at 1.5 times that of the gravity outside, and to slowly increase by 0.2 every minute. The moment I confirmed my choice, a momentary force bore down on my shoulders.
I felt my limbs get heavier, and even raising my head took some effort. All in all, it was a comfortable weight I could start with.
I summoned my sword, and approached the dummies in the centre. I started by going through all the katas of the Darkfell royal sword style, I was momentarily slower than I’d like, but that just proves the training was working.
By the time a minute passed, I felt like the weight on my body had suddenly doubled, even though that wasn’t the case. My knees bent under the sudden spike.
"I’ll be damned." It was at this moment that I realized that a certain monkey tailed man must have been mad for training under 100x gravity.
--------------
**Somewhere in the Vorde continent.**
While my main body and fellow reflections were training their asses off, I had a more important thing to do.
Yes I had made this reflection two days ago, specifically before I even got on the train to Spira city. Although, I wore my featureless mask and changed my face to Mark Mywords’, before I made the reflection. So the face everyone would ever see was Mark Mywords.
I spent the past two days on an airship, soaring over the Kamar continent, and into the Vorde continent.
I did all that just to reach here. Silver city’s herbs and trinkets market. Or more specifically, the underground/black market beneath it that only a select few knew of.
In name, the underground market was illegal, but in reality, it was just a place for unscrupulous businesses. Specifically stolen items, and things that cannot be sold in broad daylight. It also had one of the best auction house of course, and it’s owners were some top nobles, which was why it was only illegal in name.
I sighted an inconspicuous looking door nestled within an alley. To anyone else, the door would be overlooked. But not to the person who modified the door from a giant bronze door, to an inconspicuous door.
That was what the author of the novel had written, I swear it. Until I edited the ’giant bronze door’, to ’an inconspicuous looking door’.
I walked over to the door, and knocked in three taps, followed by four, then two, one, and three again.
"Where is my cock!" A gruff voice asked from behind the door. On a normal day I would be like; What the fuck?!
But instead all I did was reply with; "Which one? the small or the big one?"
"Which do you think?" The gruff voice replied.
"If it’s the small one? it got stuck somewhere." I said.
"And what if it’s the big one?"
"It’s in your pants." I replied.
The other party was silent for a moment, before the door shifted inwards with a soft creek, revealing a descending staircase, and an old man. Though he wasn’t the only one, there were two more people with him. Another man, and a woman.
Those exchange of words we had were the code to entering this place. Even a little mismatch of the words wouldn’t allow you entry into this place.
"Here, wear this." The old man handed me a mask that I proceeded to slip into my face.
"Are you looking to sell something or buy?" he asked.
"Both please, if you don’t mind." I smiled behind my mask. "Treasure Auction House, specifically."
"Come with me." He nodded.
We descended the stairs, and soon came upon a wide opening. Just like above, it was another market here underground. It was like a small town in of itself.
Masked inviduals much like myself roamed the market. Vendors called out their goods. The gruff man led me to a particularly large building. Etched legibly at the front in bold letters were; Treasure Auction House.
He nodded at the gate guards, and motioned for me to follow. Inside, was a spacious lobby with much overrated luxury, filled with other masked individuals, and the staffs attending to them.
He led me to one of the staffs, a beautiful young woman clad in what left little to the imagination.
"I brought you a client miss Khloe." the man said.
"As per our deal." She said.
"As per our deal." he replied, before turning and going out.
All until this moment, I hadn’t said a word. I knew who this woman was. Khloe Margaret. She was going to be Alistair’s information broker and master of spies in the future.
But currently she was a broker on debts, trying to make ends meet, and I could take advantage of that, before she meets Alistair the coming weekend.
"Hello there young sir, I heard you have an item to sell." she said in a charming voice.
"Affirmative." I nodded.
"Would you be kind as to show the item so it could be appraised?" she asked.
"Of course." I said without hesitation. After I created this reflection, I had bought another spatial ring, and transfered some items.
"But it wouldn’t be appropriate to bring it out here, for fear of prying eyes." I mentioned.
"I see." She said, before she stood up. "Come with me." I followed her into some sort of private room.
With a wave of my hand, a large uniquely crafted golden stand materialized in the space between us.
"...."
It was one of the items I had gotten in that castle. I was gonna have to start selling those if I didn’t want to remain dirt poor. Plus, I would need the money from it’s sale, to purchase what I came here for.
"What might this be young sir? I’ve never seen anything quite like it before." she said regaining her composure.
"I’d be surprised if you had." I said. "This is an ancient architecture piece exceeding at least a thousand years. You can have your artisans appraise it if you’re doubtful." I mentioned.
I had no idea how old it really was, but I was sure it was bound to exceed a thousand years no matter what. The deadlands had existed for way more after all.
"I’ll do that right away sir." She muttered, her tone almost jovial. I could tell what was on her mind. If she made a sale this big, she would get a bonus, maybe even lower her debt.
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THANKS FOR YOUR SUPPORT.