Magic Breaker Ch 208 - 210 (Patreon)

Chapter 208: Reaching the Precipice

Somehow, the tower is in disarray. Patches of frost cover much of the furniture, water has gotten all over the books, and some parts of the floor is rotted with muck. There are arrows stuck in it, and bloodsplatters cover everything.

Truly, it’s a mystery who could have caused this problem. If I ever find who did this, I’ll make sure to let them know they’re a rascal for it. Truly, they shall know the utmost depths of my wrath! Surely.

When everything is said and done, Thatch climbs back onto the platform from the water, which is stained red around where he swam. There’s a hundred little cuts on him, which Delfine luckily heals. Sylves very slowly descends from the air, eyeing the oracle warily. Then, she smiles.

“We’ll be making a lot of bargain’s, you and I,” the faerie chimes chipperly, and somehow the words send a shiver up my back. 

Inu is already arms deep in the books, trying to find any that weren’t ripped into by Coldscar’s blizzard, while Opal picks up a few gems laying around. Sylves scavenges the dressers, and we even find a few tubes of paint for Thatch.

Guilt-free looting is nice, I think. I walk down onto the lower floors, until I find something interesting. A magic lab. There’s a few thin journals on runework, which I instantly pick up, but much more prominently, there are alembics and glassware. 

I tilt my head at the labyrinthine construction of tubes, beakers and spirals. And then, it clicks. This must be for alchemy. There’s mortals, dried herbs, heating plates, and everything else. A full bookshelf filled with old, dusty volumes on alchemy covers the wall of the room, too.

Delfine follows me as I explore, her eyes tracing my footsteps. Moving without a knee sucks. I have to constantly maintain a bit of focus on my prosthetic, to make sure it bends the right way, and manipulate my mana just so I can walk without falling on my face. Kuro helps, bracing my steps as I trial fingers over dusty volumes.

“How many can I take?” I ask.

“There is a time limit,” Delfine provides helpfully. “If we stay for more than another minute or two, the Ire will begin again. We’ve already found the exit, after all.”

“I see,” I hum. Then, I begin dumping as many books as I possibly can into my cloak, and the healer’s mouth drops open in surprise.

“Your cape has a dimensional storage!?” she asks.

With a shake of my head, I shatter her dreams. “Nope, it’s just alive. A shadow.”

“Ah. Shadow-storages are exceedingly cold, so I recommend not putting organics inside. Books should be fine, but they will decay at an enhanced rate,” Delfine explains. I don’t bother asking her how she knows it.

A quickly decaying storage, huh. Means there are some things I can store almost forever, but some that would just break apart quickly. Curious. For now, I toss about half of the bookshelf in, before I hear clinking and clanking metal from outside. 

“Oop!” Opal yells from above. “Holy hell, that almost took my head off!” they laugh. “Go-time, everyone!” Within a moment, there’s a soft pop next to me, and the echo knight appears, smugly holding onto a pouch full of gems. One by one, my friends quickly come in, and hop through the portal. 

At last, it’s just me, and the Ire wraps around me heavily. Mana crushes in on my pretty ruined body, and I welcome it for a moment. I unlatch my suppression loops, and see how far I can contend.

The monolith squeezes me. My own mana presses outwards. And in between those two forces, my body gets squished. They’re so even, using my skin as a barrier, the cells squeezing closer together. And then, slowly but surely, the monolith’s mana wins out.

It bears down on me with hatred. I see the knight coming down the stairs. With a small smile, I drop backwards through the portal. To the precipice.

My head lands on soft sand. The safe zone envelops me, and the floor snaps shut before the knight comes through. I take a long, deep breath, letting myself lay on the floor. Someone tries to talk to me, but I hold up a hand. “Not listening,” I say simply. And for a moment, I just live.

Because I’ve done it again.

I survived.

- - -

Eventually, when I’m ready, I sit up from the sand. I apply all my measures to stop myself from exploding, and I activate [Observation]. All around me, my mana brushes against figures, and I spot my friends, my team, my dead-weight, and the people who tried to kill me.

Coldscar still glares at me, sitting with crossed arms, but he’s also about to leave. I tilt my head at him. “Would you feel better if you cut off my ear or something?” I ask.

My voice comes out clear, the wound on the side of my face nothing more than a faded scar after the healing. Coldscar just stares at me, then clicks his tongue. “I think I sent my message,” he says. Then, he turns around, and leaves the precipice.

Once the gang leader is gone, I nod, then move to the tree in the middle of the zone. A voice calls out to me. “Are you going to keep ignoring me?” it asks. It’s the voice of an older man who sits on a rocky outcropping at the edge of the beach. He wears glasses, has shoulder-length hair in a short ponytail, a scruffy beard, and wears a loose suit. 

I shrug, then grab my coconut, taking a bite out of it. Healing courses through my entire body, far more potent than that of any of the lower floors. Not nearly enough to restore any of my limbs, but more than enough to do away with any lasting injuries. The residual rot in my leg disappears, some more burns under my skin vanish, and even my exhaustion melts away.

Kuro gets their bite, and then I sit. My eyes are fixed straight forward, but I can still see the old man, one leg lazily dangling in the air, his head resting on his other knee. “So you are, are you?” he asks, then sighs. His voice is calm. Wizardly, almost, but he sounds a little too petty for that. “Well, I guess I should have expected it. All the property damage you did.”

Again, I shrug. “Who are you?” I ask.

“Oh, you don’t know?” the man asks, raising an eyebrow. “Well, I suppose you were chased here,” he hums, scratching at his chin, and speaking with the cadence of someone who just loves to explain. “I am the owner of this monolith. I have some jurisdiction over what happens on the floors, and what rewards I hand out. And you can challenge me for ownership, I suppose. I wouldn’t recommend it, though.”

As he talks, I identify him, brushing my mana against him.

[???]

That’s all the system provides me with. Not even a title. How troublesome. 

He tilts his head at me. “Satisfied?”

“Not at all,” I say. “I’m a curious person.”

“You’re barely a person,” he huffs. There’s no heat behind the comment, a throwaway at best, and it still bothers me. “Let me tell you how much trouble you caused me. You broke my giant tree. You looted the entire castle, and left a bunch of traps I need to disarm. You befriend the thing in the dark, and now she’s crying to me about her mommy. Then, you take the pirate treasure, for me to restock. And now, you ruin what’s left of my own home after pilfering my library.”

I nod. All of those are true.

The man narrows his eyes at me. “Are you going to apologize?”

“Do you want me to?” I ask, tilting my head. What a silly guy. We made his job a little harder, yes, but that’s what running a monolith is. Sometimes, you get troublesome people, troublesome work.

He huffs, then chuckles slightly. “No, I guess I don’t. You did well. I got paid well for your excursion. But you could at least show some remorse.”

I look ahead, tilting my head in his rough direction, wearing the same deadpan expression as always. The man sighs for a long moment, rubbing his face, then shrugs. “Suit yourself, be as quiet as you like. Take good care of my books for me.”

“Where is everyone else?” I ask.

“Ah, them? I’m talking with them, too. This is just a projection. All of you are getting individual talks,” he says. Then he looks at me for a long moment. He sighs, hops down from his rock, and sits across from me on the sand. “Better?” he asks.

“Better,” I nod. “You look less like an arrogant ass.”

The man stares at me in surprise for a moment, then guffaws, bursting into laughter. “Hahaha! You’re as unafraid as ever, Ion. I’ll be casual then. As warden of this minor monolith, the Cloudward Obelisk, I congratulate you. You’ve climbed all the way up! On your first go, too. Very well done. This qualifies you for the sixth floor,” he informs me.

“Can you give me your name?” I ask.

His smile widens, pulling at his lips. “Warden,” he says. “You can call me Warden.”

“Are you human?” I ask, tilting my head.

Again, he grins. “No,” he replies. Then, he holds out a hand. “If you want more answers about me, I can’t give them. Respitia would have my head. She saw what Delfine did. The betrayal.” He tilts his head at me. “How strange that you managed to do it. Will you shatter all those chains, I wonder?”

I shrug. “If it doesn’t cost me anything.”

Warden laughs again, a loud, cheerful sound. “Haha! It already cost you a finger, a leg and two eyes, Ion.”

Waving my hand, I shrug. “They’ll grow back.”

“I fear they might not,” Warden informs me. “Your healing is infantile. Simple. I can make your reward about that-”

This time, I interrupt him. “Don’t need it.”

“Huh?” 

“Don’t need a reward about healing,” I say simply. “Not about getting better at it. Not an item that does it for me. I’ve already got all the tools I need.”

Warden tilts his head at me, mimicking the motion I so often make. “What in the Tower’s name do you mean? You have all the pieces?”

I nod, but refuse to elaborate. “Sorry,” I say pettily. “If you want more answers about me, I can’t give them.”

He grimaces for a moment, then smirks. “You sneaky devil. You remind me of my grandkids. Why I wanna tousle your hair, damn you.”

“We’re not that close,” I tell him.

“You’re right, we’re not,” he confirms with a sigh. “Keep climbing, Ion. You’re strong. Now, what kind of reward would you like? For your ascension, you’ve earned a reasonable favour from me. I’m not the Tower, so I can’t grant any request. But I can give you things within my capabilities.”

Hm. What do I want from this old man?

Chapter 209: How Far

“Give me the knight after you evolved it with the Ire,” I say.

“No,” Warden replies.

“Show me all the skill templates of the girl that hides in the dark.”

“Absolutely not,” he chuckles.

“I want the runes for every enchanted item you’ve ever seen,” I say.

Warden snickers at my suggestion, and shakes his head again. “Stop being ridiculous. I’ll give you reasonable things, Ion. Reasonable.”

“Can I ask for multiple smaller things?” I ask.

For a moment, he considers it, then nods. “Sure.”

“What does my shirt do?” 

By now, the dusky shirt has become a bit messy. Coldscar cut me too many times, and I don’t want to mourn the fabric yet. It’s too soft for that. And at my question, Warden actually smiles. “Why, it’s a simple enchantment,” he says. “It can eat more fabric to repair itself.”

My eyes widen. A self-repair enchantment. 

The old man grins at me. “Yeah, I thought you’d like that. You seem the type.”

“You decided on this?” I ask.

He nods.

I stare at him for a long moment, then sigh at his smug expression. “You can tousle my hair if you want,” I say simply. Without hesitation, the shameless old man reaches out and does just that, laughing all the while. He seems unabashedly happy to have given me something I like. “Can you give me essence on more self-repair enchantments?”

At that, he grimaces. “No can do. Above my paygrade.”

Humming thoughtfully, I stare at him for a moment. Then, I remember he gave me the shirt, and decide on a simple course of action. “I would like to use part of my reward to get your consultation on what I should ask for.”

Warden’s eyes flash, and his lips break into a wide grin, pulling at the stud in his nose. “Good choice,” he says. “I recommend you let me have a look at your mana-maze, overenchant one of your harvested vessels, and add a second chapter to the treasure-tome.”

“Are you sneakily just trying to stop me from exploding myself with my own mana?” I ask.

I stare at him. He stares at me. I stare at him. And then, he scratches the back of his head. “Ahaha, you caught me, you caught me. I thought, well, if you had more control over your mana, you likely could put even more points into it before starting to invest in heart. And by now, with the Tower’s memory, it’s likely to twist your future classes to give vessel only.”

For a few seconds, I think it over. Then, I shrug. This man knew I would want nothing more than a soft, repairing shirt. He even got one that suited my preference. If he recommends what he recommends, then I’m sure it’s good. So, I nod. “Alright, I’ll go with your suggestion.”

“Excellent choice,” Warden says. Then, his hand reaches out, and I see the most intricate manipulation of mana I’ve ever seen. The maze, Raven’s vessel, and the tome, simply unlatch from me. They’re stuffed with my mana, declaring my ownership, so that the Tower won’t simply dissolve them as it usually does.

And yet, he takes over effortlessly, stealing them from me. For a moment, his hand hovers over the mana maze, and I watch in fascination as runes crawl across its surface like living beings. Intricate mechanisms change inside it, turning it from a beginner’s puzzle-box to a monstrous training tool for mana. 

It doesn’t even grow, and yet, its complexity rises by orders of magnitude. I can see even from the outside. By the time just looking at it makes my head spin, when the runes are so small I can’t even feel them anymore, he nods in satisfaction. Then, he moves onto Raven’s vessel.

Threads of mana wraps around the core I made, and all my modifications are undone, unlatched. And then, he remakes it. It’s incredibly intricate, precise to a degree I can hardly comprehend. I think my eyes start bleeding already, even though he just started. 

Multiple layers of mana wrap around it, forming crystalline growths that fractal in on themselves. No matter how close I look, they’re the exact same, the structures becoming so tiny and intricate, they’re smaller than anything I’ve ever seen. And yet, they hold, perfectly stable.

The mana even shimmers with refractive colours when I look at it. What a monster. He must have way, way more mana than I do. I can’t wait to take a look at it. 

Enchantments sprawl across the surface and the inside of the core - and somehow, he makes ones that aren’t even runes. Fully realized, three-dimensional inscriptions weave into existence, little chambers in the crystal containing floating structures of mana, and locking it into place. There’s a tiny hum, like a resonance with the environment, and I can see that the core actually begins to absorb mana.

From the air.

[Job up! Core Controller 16 > 17]

Just looking at it levels my job.

When Warden puts it at the side, it’s almost impossible to take my eyes off of it. And then, of course, he reaches for the tome. This time, he even summons a quill of some kind. It’s made from a single raven-black feather as long as my forearm. He holds it leisurely above the book, and ink flows down into it.

The pages flip, and I’m almost entirely sure that, by this point, it has gone through more than a book that size should have. And yet still, ink spills forth, and page by page flips. Then, a moment later, the stream of writing cuts off. Warden hums, lays down the Quill, and gives a shrug as he looks up at me.

“I wanted to include another little secret or two but… ah well.” With small gestures, he pushes the items near me, leaving them for me to pick up. “I’m out of things to give you. Other than standard rewards, of course. Really, I stretched my capacity quite a bit here. Almost enough to draw the Tower’s Wrath, hah. So, other than this, here’s some money.” With that, he hands me a pouch of gold.

“Buy yourself an actual place to stay on the sixth. It’s more civil there. No one will try to kill you instantly. But you still shouldn’t show your healing too casually.” Then, he looks me up and down and smiles. “You probably will, though. And that’s fine, too. You’re gonna do alright for yourself. Climb more monoliths, Ion. Climb the tower. And someday, you’ll meet me again. Then you can show me how far you’ve come.”

“Snow,” I say. “You can call me Snow.”

He smiles. “Alright, Snow. You’re one hell of a person. Show ‘em all.”

And then, he vanishes, leaving me sitting on my own. What a miracle.

It appears, for one of the rare times since entering the tower, I met a somewhat reasonable person. What a silly grandpa. I snatch up the items he left like my life depends on it. Then, I take the money, and watch the world blur as the others show up again.

A moment later, the portal to the outside world appears.

- - -

Delfine steps out first. We had a short talk, but she cannot do much more for me right now. But she’s decided to be brave. To stand up to Respitia. She doesn’t tell me why, but I have a good guess.

I take a breath as I sit on the sand, letting the last moments of the climb linger. These safe zones aren’t really timed. We could stay here for… a while. A week, even, maybe two. Our supplies could last us that long.

Healing trails across my fingers. One of my pinkies is still missing. But, right now, that doesn’t matter. Because I have the pieces. Delfine was definitely pissed about how I did it - but in the end, the guards needed to die. It’s a shame and a waste of life, but they were there as much to watch me as to watch Delfine.

That’s how Respitia maintains her monopoly. People watch each other, and traitors are dealt with ruthlessly. All to maintain the “purity” of healing, apparently. 

It bothers me. All this posturing, the back-and-forth. The fact that Respitia probably knows what happened in the monolith, or at least a chunk of it. Spectating in here is harder, but by no means impossible. I know she was watching me for some parts. But, at the same time, sharing the information of what happened inside the mono with people on the outside should be vastly more expensive.

We’ll see how it plays out. At the end of the day, I can’t control exactly what Respitia will do. If she’ll send more people at us, if she’ll leave things be… If I’m lucky, I have enough Eyes invested in my survival that they’ll help me out, just a little.

[The Vesselmaker supports your experimentation. He says that if you die, it should be in a lab!]

How… incredibly uplifting. I snicker at the message, then shake my head, resting it on my palm. Healing leisurely crawls across my skin again. I’m still digesting it, but I have the final piece now. 

[Biological Restoration 31 > 32]

Letting part of my mind experiment with the spell, I turn most of my focus to the book. My friends are playing in the sand with their new items, having fun and playing. They deserve it. But right now, I really want the quiet. So I sit and read.

My shirt is repaired. Kuro hangs around my shoulders, and I can keep the sand out with just a few mana barriers. Things are looking… up, pun intended. I smile, and call up my status for the first time in a while.

Name: Snow Okiyama - Ion

Floor: 5 (Downpour) - 10

Class: <Vesselsmith> - 15 (III - Tier 2)

Job: <Core Controller> - 17 (III - Tier 3)

Mantle: Architect of the Assembled Archive

Lv. 98

Heart: 67 - Perpetual Pursuit

Power: 33 - Clinging Consequence

Vessel: 656 - Abiding Apathy

Authorities: Efficiency (Initiate), Defiance (Initiate)

Skills:

[Suppression lv. 35]

[Selection lv. 32]

[Solidification lv. 29]

[Deconstruction lv. 27]

[Inscription lv. 26]

[Biological Restoration lv. 32]

[Observation lv. 27]

[Vessel Construction lv. 15]

[Obfuscation lv. 12]

[Annexation lv. 11]

I smile, just a little. Seeing how far I’ve come makes me wanna see just how far I can go.

Chapter 210: Reunion

We leave the precipice a week after. Three other teams pass through in the meantime, but to them, we’re just nameless schmucks. None of us matter in the grand scheme of things, not to anyone of rank and name. Not yet we don’t, at least.

So, we step through the portal.

[Congratulations!]

[You have completed your first Monolith! As a reward, you receive one minor request.]

A blank, vast, whiteness envelops me, giving me a little more time to reflect on what I gained from this tower - not just the reward, but what I really gained. A bunch of skill levels, multiple enchanted items to study, a new epitaph, a 10% increase to all my stats, an opportunity to completely reforge my vessel while breaking a new mana threshold, giving Kuro a shadow-storage, the templates for multiple complex skills… and, much, much more importantly than any of that: A new shirt.

“Can I go to floor six now?” I ask the tower.

[You have received access to the sixth floor of the Tower.]

“Thank you,” I say politely. Then, bit by bit, the whiteness around me fades. I find myself in perfect darkness instead. A moment passes, then two as I wait for the world to come back. 

Then I remember I don’t have eyes.

Mana pours out of me, and I quickly build a picture of my surroundings in my mind. Footsteps approach me, and I turn in their direction, finding Elli heading towards us. “You’re back out!” they say happily. Their snake, still wrapped around their neck, sniffs the air and points its head at me with curiosity. “How was i-”

When they see me, their voice stops and their face falls. “Are you… what happened to you?” they ask, mildly scared by my appearance.

I look down at myself, a gesture that is entirely pointless given my lack of eyesight, but serves to play into the joke. “Oh, this? Dang, I didn’t notice. Someone must’ve stolen my leg. And my arm. And my eyes. It’s a wonder I still have both ears, really.”

Opal laughs at that, while Elli manages a strained smile. “Right,” they say. “You seem, uh, unbothered by it, mostly! Which is good. Did the guidebook help?”

“It did,” Thatch assures them with a smile and a pat on the shoulder. Then, he hands them a golden chit, and their face lights up even more. “Thanks for the advice.”

Meanwhile, their snake tilts its head at me, and I tilt mine back. Its tongue flicks out, tasting the air, and I feel a small pulse of mana from the motion. Mine brushes against its in return, and the snake looks at me, seemingly satisfied at the interaction. It nods at me, and I nod back.

Inu watches me with a small smile. “Getting along with another reptile?” she asks.

“Mhm,” I hum happily. “They get me.”

“You just like them because they’re perfectly happy to give you space,” she says.

I nod. “True,” I reply. “Never had a turtle complain when I put on headphones. Humans? All the time.”

That makes her chuckle, but in the end, she nods. “I get it,” she says. And I know she does. Not in a relatable way, really. Inu likes people, for the most part. But she understands how I tick, so she gets it. 

Once more, the snake’s tongue flicks out, and this time, I feel it brush Kuro’s mana. The shadow, currently shaped as my cloak, responds readily. Sometimes I wonder if Kuro, in this form, is their own mantle. Shapeshifting certainly is a weird power. 

“We’re heading out, Yuki,” Anna reminds me, using my other name again. Do I need it anymore, I wonder? Well. I kind of really do! Ion is still a wanted criminal by Respitia’s standards. And I don’t really wanna go by Snow to everyone. Now that I’ve started hiding my name and only sharing it with friends, I think I might continue to do so.

Focusing on the environment, and sending out multiple waves of mana, I follow the others. There’s some organisational stuff to take care of after all. Which means, I’m going to lock myself in a room until all those problems are solved some other way.

- - -

I do not get to lock myself in a room, because the problems do not get solved.

When we get to Zinc’s inn, there’s someone there, waiting for us. Multiple someone’s, actually, but above all, there’s Norman. He’s leaning against the wall, wearing a smug smile on his face while holding a piece of paper. I inspect him for a moment, without hesitation.

[Messenger - lv. 108]

For a moment, I almost lose my deadpan expression.

He outlevels me. 

If I had any pride, it would be hurt right now! Luckily, I have a stand-in for this experience.

“No fuckin’ way!” Opal complains, loudly. “There is no fucking way you’re higher level than me!”

Norman looks at them, at Sylves’ pouting face, and his daughter’s smile, and his smug expression turns into a genuine grin. In a single, swift motion that somehow eats up the distance between them, he wraps Inu in a hug. She squeezes him tightly. “Missed you, kid,” he says quietly.

It has been… jeez, about two months? Taking that into consideration, their pace of levelling is less impressive. I whisper as much to Opal, hoping it’ll shield their fragile pride.

“I missed you too, dad,” Inu whispers.

For a while, the moment lingers, then Norman lets go. He gives a thin smile, and holds up a piece of paper. “Let me tell your mom and Bay. They’re exploring for a while. We made it up a week and a half ago. How much trouble have you been causing? Crybabies was a dang notorious name!”

“Since when are you so cheerful?” I ask.

Norman rolls his eyes at me, then quickly scrawls three letters, then tosses them. Somehow, they fly cleanly out the doorway, rotate through the downpour, and disappear into the distance. His notification did call him a messenger - that must be his job, then. Hm. Neat. 

“I’m seeing my daughter again, of course I’m going to be cheerful,” he announces, pushing his glasses higher up his face. “It’s also good to see everyone else again, of course.”

Opal gives a relieved sigh. “Yes, it’s real nice,” they say. “I’ve been forced to be our resident thief in the meantime! And I’m not good at sneaking.”

Norman stares for a long moment, then snickers. Zinc shoots him a dry look. “You probably shouldn’t call me a thief in public.”

“Everyone in this place is a thief and a crook,” Sylves announces with a cheerful shrug. For a moment, she gets a few glares, but soon, those turn to laughs, and people toast for her. Even Zinc just rolls her eyes.

The power of a charming person terrifies me. Truly, extroverts are scary. But having the others here solves a few problems. First of all, they can babysit Jean and the healing agency. Secondly, we can sponsor their climb. We have the money now, after all. 

And more importantly than anything else: Bay can charge my headphones again.

Norman does look at me again, and finally seems to register the extent of my injuries. “What… happened to you?” he asks.

All I do is shrug. “Climbing stuff. It’ll heal.”

The man just stares at me for a long moment, then sighs and shakes his head. With his fingers, he pinches the bridge of his nose, and sighs. “What was I expecting… Will someone else tell me what happened up here?”

Inu smiles brightly, taking his hand and sitting at a table with him. “Gladly,” she says.

- - -

I sit in my room, and carefully hand Bay my headphones. They got jostled around a lot during our climb, but I managed to preserve them. My phone, equally, survived the trip. Both are out of battery though, and only making me promise to enchant some bombs for her, Bay recharges them.

Instantly, I click the glowing screen back on, entering my sim-code and then scanning my fingerprint to unlock the phone. The same familiar home-screen as always greets me, the default pattern of red and black the phone came with. But much, much, much more importantly…

My bluetooth clicks on. My headphones greet me with a metallic voice. Then, they beep for the connection, and I hit my play button.

The noise cancelling activates, and the outside world falls away. I stop bothering to scan the room with mana. Electronic noise comes through the speakers, and I lean against the wooden wall.

And, for a little while, everything is okay in the world.

- - -

Inu finds me hunched against the wall, treasure-tome in hand, headphones on my head. I don’t even hear her - the way I can tell someone’s approaching me is through the vibrations on the floor. For all the things in her favour, Inu isn’t particularly sneaky, especially not when she doesn’t bother to try.

With a swift motion, I pull off my headphones. “Yes?” I ask. 

She smiles at me. “We’ve found a place in the fourth ring,” she says.

“Oh. Does it have a library and secret tunnels?” I ask.

Inu’s smile widens, conspiratorially. “Yes,” she says.

My eyes widen. “No way.” 

“Yes way. We found a summer home that some falling noble family can’t afford anymore. Individual climbers were too cheap to get it, but banding together, we can afford it. Rent is-” 

“I could not care less, Inu,” I reply. “Group finances are not my problem. I have my allowance, yes?”

She rolls her eyes with a smile, but nods. “Yes, you have your allowance.”

“Then I am all with you. Secret tunnels,” I mutter to myself with a smile and a shake of my head. “Who doesn’t want a house with secret tunnels?”

For a moment, I see the smile on her face turn smug. Then, she leans in, real close to my ear, and whispers. “It has an alchemy lab, too.”

Her face hovers in front of mine, grinning brightly. “An alchemy lab,” I say quietly. “I’m gonna blow myself up - no. I’m gonna blow someone else up. Bay is gonna love this.”

“Once she can get to the next ring? Yes,” Inu says with a smile. “All we gotta do is get them there. And make sure we’re not killed.”

I smile happily. “I’m an expert in the not getting killed part,” I say. “Is the house ours yet?” 

“You were the last person I asked, so we’re ready to pay,” she says with a shrug.

Now I’m excited. “Alright then, housemate. Can you show me our new place?”

Inu smirks. “With pleasure.”