ALL NOVEL Chapter 49: Stepping Through
The next day, I was standing in front of mister Liok again.
“Miss Bellum. How may I help you today?” he asked dutifully.
“I would like to exchange some currency,” I answered.
“Right, shouldn’t be a problem. Same bank account as usual?”
“Yes, same as always.”
“Right.” He marked something down on a small clipboard in front of him. “Then, how much would you like to exchange?”
I picked out the coins. I’d ended up with five silver, like everyone else, the rest going to maintenance and such. That wasn’t all my money though.
Since the gods kept track of contribution, there was an additional part to it. I could claim some amount of bounty just for killing monsters, without selling the parts. I couldn’t claim that money for the others, though, so it was usually part of everyone’s return-routine.
So, instead of just five silver, I handed mister Liok a whole fifteen. Despite that, I still stashed another three of the small coins in my inventory, adding it to the stash of money I kept for emergencies.
“Thank you, miss Bellum. That comes out to roughly fifteen hundred leons. The current exchange rate for copper novas is a little above one of them to ten leons, so you will receive a slightly higher deposit than that. Is that alright with you?” he asked.
I gave a nod.
“Right. Then you just need to sign once here. If you ever wish to convert the other way around I am obligated to inform you that we will need a Qi signature check or a proof of identity back on Neamhan,” he rattled off the last part, as though he’d already said it a dozen times. I didn’t doubt it, even though it was midday.
“Understood. Thank you mister Liok.”
“A pleasure, miss Bellum,” he said, then bowed and headed off into the back to register the transaction.
They had a special item there, created by a rather sizable investment, which allowed them to transmit exclusively written word back to the other side. They could write on a mirror surface, and said writing would appear on a similar board back on Neamhan. From there, the transactions would be processed.
Luckily for me, Foundational Exchange handled both fees and taxes, so all I had to do now was step through and receive my money.
Where they got their funding from was a rather complicated issue. I didn’t engage with it too much, but I knew it was a mix of income sources. Big sponsors with enough cash, that wanted to directly get items for Reflectors as though they were playing some sort of game. Products made from Edian materials that could improve quality of life on the other side. That, mixed with… less savoury bits, such as loaning money to struggling players, and allowing people to buy Edian currency with Neamhanian money in a legal… gray zone.
I sighed as I thought about it and shook my head, trying to focus on something else. Before crossing, I also approached the levelling altar in the gateway hall. It was unaffiliated with the divines, so I was more comfortable with it for now, despite its vague connections to the keepers.
‘Hey Jam,’ I thought at the intelligence as I laid my hand on the altar.
[Greetings, Fiona.] I grimaced at its use of my full name, again. [Your contribution this time is satisfactory. Monsters have been culled, and fragments reclaimed. Please understand that due to the fragments being absorbed into your gateway rather than returned as their own entities, they do not award nearly as much contribution as your first gateway recovery.]
Jam’s mechanical voice was jarring every time I heard it. Maybe I should instead go to the divines, but then I’d have to deal with them, too. Their advice wouldn’t be very objective. That was what I liked about Jam, the impartiality.
‘Understood, that’s fair,’ I thought back at it with a nod.
[Are there any abilities or items you would currently like to purchase?]
This was another way to make money. Converting contribution into items, then those items into coins. In fact, most people made the majority of their money this way. Usually, I would as well, but I was currently happy with my small apartment, and since the area wasn’t exactly great, rent was decently cheap.
‘Do you have any recommendations?’ I asked Jam.
[Any recommendations largely depend on your future goals,] Jam answered.
That was fair. I knew I had holes in my kit. Currently, none of my abilities really emphasized healing, stealth, scouting, or anything like that. But that didn’t really matter that much.
I’d ignored them before, because it just wasn’t exactly what my class specialized in. Also, I had a team to cover it. Being a perfect all-rounder wasn’t exactly effective in Eden, since all classes had things they were good and bad at.
Spearwoman, for example, was good at making me swing a spear. As trivial as that sounds, it did encompass decent methods of attacking, defending, and perceiving opponents. On the other hand, gateway was a much more mysterious class. It seemed to be a mix of mirror themed powers, as well as portals and maybe light.
‘Actually, Jam, what is my secondary class specialized in?’ I decided to ask.
[The gateway class allows manipulation of gateways.]
‘Could you be more specific than that?’ I asked, mildly frustrated.
[I have been informed that you are currently restricted from receiving further information, other than my personal recommendations and the entirety of the contribution shop.]
I gave a sigh, then shook my head. ‘Fine. I’d like to access the store, then.’
[Of course.]
As per the usual, I was hit with a heavy wave of disorientation, then nausea and almost staggered back.
“Fuck, that feels bad,” I muttered under my breath feeling dozens upon dozens of options and explanations appear in a corner of my mind that I hardly knew existed.
I took a few deep breaths to steady myself, then slowly ran through the techniques, first. It was a little like window shopping, or so I tried to convince myself. Somehow, imagining it as strolling down a street, gazing at things most of which I would likely never own, was nicer than accepting that it was foreign knowledge about mostly the art of killing that was shoved into my head.
Because that’s what most of these abilities were for.
Before looking at everything that was new though, I tried to find a beginning point in the chaos by just looking at the options for my first class that I was already familiar with. Things like [Enhanced Thrust] and [Killer Strike]. Some of the names were a little silly, and I shook my head at them.
Slowly, bit by bit, unfamiliar things became mixed in. Within the dozens and dozens of options, most of which only caught half a glance, new ones appeared. I must have unlocked them by meeting the criteria. Most likely, that was reaching a certain level in the class, or a stat or a prerequisite ability. For some, maybe it was killing monsters of a certain affinity, or interacting enough.
A few abilities were available to me because of spearwoman, but also seemed quite generally orientated for using Qi. There were more of those, now, most likely due to my growing familiarity with [Aura Suppression]. It didn’t necessarily need to rank up, as long as I understood the mechanics well enough.
Nothing really caught my eye, except a few abilities that promised to let me improve my spear. I still decided against getting any of them. My contribution wasn’t super high, so I couldn’t afford that much, and my spear already passively grew with my core capacity. Also, I could actively improve it by pushing Qi into it and having it settle there.
It was a very crude method of blacksmithing, but it worked. Eventually, if I got spear resonance higher, maybe I’d be able to figure out an ability by myself. My master always said to spend contribution points only on the things you couldn’t figure out yourself.
I sighed, and approached all the new options associated with the gateway class. It felt a little like a chore, because I kind of knew what was coming.
As per my prediction, the info slammed into my head like a freight train. With just the command to show me the abilities, my brain was already entirely overwhelmed. I grit my teeth and waited for it to settle a little. Just enough to where I didn’t feel like I needed a couple dozen painkillers.
Eventually - couldn’t say when because time lost all meaning at the altar - I finally found myself able to somewhat think again. I distinctly noted that Cass had sorted the stuff for me, letting me slowly go through it bit by bit. I sent her a small thanks, then moved on to browsing.
And there was a lot to go through. Dozens upon dozens of things, some of which were similar, much of which was very different. A lot of it was just weird. And the short explanations didn’t exactly help me, either. What exactly did “embrace the aether and learn to witness” even mean?
I shook my head at all the cryptic names, then kept browsing. There were abilities related to portals, which seemed like something I could have expected, though most of those led in between worlds, and very few seemed like the same kind of short range teleportation Liam could pull off.
Then there were the light-related abilities. Most of which were strange in the sense that they seemed to focus on mirroring things, rather than actual manipulation of light. So I could create illusions, only of things that already existed. One thing that did seem interesting was manifesting mirror images of myself, but then again, it seems like I could only get illusions for now.
Eventually, I decided to stop browsing. A lot of the abilities had simply been enormously cryptic, and Jam had just kept telling me that I wasn’t eligible for more information. It felt like the keepers were sabotaging me, and to be frank, they most likely were. They wanted my soul, and I wasn’t going to give it to them for free.
So, I moved on to the items section, simply looking through. A couple of them did catch my interest. Armor, which repaired itself, being high up there, but it just seemed like a waste to spend my contribution on it.
‘Any ideas, Cass?’ I eventually asked.
[Yes. I think you shouldn’t get anything just yet.]
I raised an eyebrow. ‘Why?’
[Your gateway is not complete, restricting my access to information from the network as well as our general knowledge about what the skills do. Also, we might unlock new ones once we get it fully repaired. Some of those might be very essential to the class.]
After a short pause, I nodded. ‘Alright, sounds like a plan. Thanks Cass.’
With that, I took my hand off the altar and took a deep breath, holding my eyes shut. In a moment, all the info inside my head was gone, sending me into disorientation again, and my headache didn’t exactly seem conducive to looking at bright lights.
After a couple moments, the sickness in my stomach settled. The altar had taken a lot longer to get used to than the gateways, and having it suddenly expanded so much was a very uncomfortable experience. Despite that, I now knew a good chunk of the new options. It would let me filter things out a lot better later, which I was thankful for.
Another deep breath later, I was finally headed back to the other side.
Well, out of the altar room and down the long hallway, at least. I was glad that new people didn’t get into Eden very often, having the floors clean was truly nice here.
After maybe a minute or two, I was at the end of the private hallway. Standing in front of the gateway.
For some reason, it made me uncomfortable now.
Nothing related to my new class, to be fair, but just… the prospect of it all. I knew that behind that stupidly smooth plane of glass were the keepers. And that I would feel their eyes on me. That they might even try to reach out. I knew that if any of them really wanted to, they could give up on the gateway, and not risk having me around. Just reach out and snap me in half like a twig. And I’d die. Just like that.
I took a deep breath, and forced my first fear down.
The second one was the mundanity that awaited beyond there. I would be in my dusty little flat, having to deal with shitty air and being unable to breathe properly. With the fact that all I’m worth is my money, and the fact that I cannot survive without little numbers on my bank account telling me I can get food.
And, of course, my family. I loved them, but sometimes, I also dreaded visiting. Okay, maybe I almost always dreaded visiting. But that's besides
the point.
Another deep breath later, I stepped through the mirror.
- - -
A/N: aaaand we head into Slice of life time~