Second Genesis

’Fucking useless.’

Grey grunted as he slumped in a small nook, gasping for breath. Hemorrhagic Regeneration was pretty good at healing flesh, but it had a much harder time with bone.

Plus, for reasons he didn’t understand, the wounds he had gotten from Joaquin were tougher to deal with than other wounds he had gotten before.

’Even in death that pig is still pissing me off.’

Grey exhaled a breath and looked toward the ring he had gotten from Joaquin.

The space inside wasn’t very large, but there were two things that stood out immediately. Those two things were the white-gold spear he had used before and the other was the Priest Staff he had been using.

The spear was bent to a ridiculous extent, but Grey had still pried it out of the wall and taken it with him. Who knew, maybe the materials were worth something. Plus, he thought it would probably buy him time on them figuring out what Joaquin’s identity was.

Well, he hoped so anyway. He was betting on the Bishop staying in that daze for a little while longer.

The Priest Staff was similar to Sabrina’s staff, but better. Sabrina’s staff was in the tool belt, and if it could be sold for a nice penny, then Joaquin’s would go for more. He just had to hope that the outpost was finally open to outsiders.

’Maybe there’s somewhere in the city I could sell these, but that might get back to the nobles, and then they’ll be on my ass... Whatever, one problem at a time.’

Grey knew that he might be screwed already. That wasn’t just anyone he had offended. Bishop Calixan was probably the strongest existence in the whole city even if he took Baron Giyoto into account.

But he had a couple things going for him.

For one, he had been wearing the Skrill Mask. Someone as high up as Bishop Calixan likely wouldn’t know the connection he had with the Skrill Mask, and since Joaquin was dead now, there wasn’t anyone else who could easily make that connection who had been present.

He was hoping that Calixan was on such a high perch that he would either find it beneath himself to describe the assailant in great detail, or just gloss over such things.

Grey felt that there were pretty good chances of that.

If the timelines were muddied enough, maybe he could get away with saying he was with the squires at the time. But that was only if he could get to Baron Giyoto quickly enough to bridge the rest of the gap.

’Fuck me. Why are you so poor?’

There was basically nothing of interest in Joaquin’s spatial device. There was definitely no Cyber Core to take advantage of, but the rest of it was just food and water.

Grey expected everyone to be as wealthy as he was, but he was very much wrong to expect such a thing. His wealth only came from literal life and death. Joaquin might have faced some of that, but it was nothing even remotely comparable to what Grey had been through.

But still, Joaquin would have been ranked first if not for Grey’s looping ability. He definitely should have gotten a Rare item from the Tutorial, and during the Registration phase, he should have gathered quite a bit of material.

Unless the Producers targeted Joaquin as well—something Grey highly doubted—he should have a few decent treasures at the very least.

’Don’t fucking tell me...’

Grey sighed and pulled out the spear-turned-boomerang. Then he saw what he feared.

—

Name: Spear of Purpose.

Rarity: Rare (ENCHANTED)

Accepted Type: Resonant

Rejected Type: Recursive

Description: A blade of the righteous and purpose-filled. To right the wrongs of evil and stand tall before the ires of malevolence is the way of the Spear of Purpose, the way of its wielder, the way of a True Holy Knight.

Abilities: Pick two Core Stats and Harmonize them.

—

Grey frowned. He recalled from the tutorial that an Enchanted Treasure was almost like a mech-to-treasure hybrid.

The dividing line between treasure and mech was decided by how they interacted with your Neural Frame. Treasures communed with Neural Frames, but didn’t add to them.

Technically, so long as you weren’t amongst the Rejected Type of a treasure, you could still use a treasure to a more limited degree, though not as well as one amongst its Accepted Type.

By comparison, mechs didn’t have Type restrictions, but they did have Sync Rates and relied on Spirits. They functionally became an extension of one’s Neural Frame rather than just existing to borrow from it.

The nuances went further. For example, you could technically use a treasure of a higher level as well, but using a mech meant for a tier beyond your own was next to a death sentence.

Either way, an Enchanted Treasure was a nice middle ground where it had more of the flexibility of a treasure, while displaying some of the abilities of a mech.

Harmonizing stats was apparently a huge deal, so much so that it was a surprise to Grey that such a spear existed. It felt like it should at least be Legendary, so why was it only Rare?

’Is it because this thing is so damn flimsy?’

Joaquin had somehow bent it by accident, so it was possible.

It might also be a matter of repairability as well, which also fed into how flimsy it was.

Mechs had Energy Reserve limitations and durability limitations, though the latter was much higher.

Treasures had much more stringent durability limitations. The fact that Grey had lost his Rare Grade Skrill Chainsaw after just a few battles spoke for itself.

Maybe it was the case that after forming a Harmonic Stat with this spear, it wouldn’t last more than a single battle.

’Oh, so there is something else.’

Grey found that tucked away in the radiance of the Spear of Purpose, there was yet another vial. It was angled away from the box Joaquin had pulled that other vial out of as well.

’Maybe the box could be interesting too?’

Grey pulled out both of them.