Second Genesis

Grey looked down at the bent spear, then back up toward Ji, then back toward the spear, then back up just one more time.

"Are you serious? What the hell am I supposed to do with this thing?"

Even if the spear were whole, its durability was terrible. Grey didn’t care how strong that elixir Joaquin guzzled made him. Someone in the Proving Class bending a spear like that—not even with raw power, but completely by accident instead—was ridiculous.

That was the key, here. Joaquin hadn’t even bent the spear on purpose, he had just been trying to use it normally and his belly got in the way. How was Grey supposed to trust this thing to cut down enemies even if he fixed it?

"Study it." Ji said with his patented stupid grin. "There’s a lot you can learn from an item that has a Harmonic Stat slot available."

"In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t have time for any of this shit."

"Make time. You’ll have more than enough money anyway."

Grey shook his head and put the spear back. He once again felt like Ji wasn’t telling him everything, but he just let it slide for the time being. Obviously the guy wasn’t planning on being too forthright even after whatever had changed him.

Still, Grey decided to listen to Barkeep Ji. Did he trust the barkeep? Honestly, he couldn’t say yes or no too clearly. He did feel like Ji wasn’t lying, though. And the idea that his mysterious sponsor might be related to this somehow made him curious.

At the very least, he didn’t lose anything by not selling items he would be keeping anyway.

After he finished selling everything of the Vector Class, he ended up with 92 million credits. It wasn’t exactly the same as lying in a vat of gold or doing a cash spread, but seeing the pretty numbers in his status screen was cool.

To think he was complaining about the cost of rent just a few hours ago.

’Well, even if I had the money, it’s a matter of principle. Now...’ Grey rubbed his hands together.

There was no point in selling his blueprints at this point.

If he could sell the weakest blueprint in the Mechanical Jaw lineage’s tome for 25,000, a Prosthetic Mech blueprint would at least be an order of magnitude greater. If he tried to sell one of the stronger blueprints, to say that he would get billions was an understatement.

That vampire pimp Instance was really the gift that just kept giving. No wonder the Producers didn’t want him to enter the safe room early.

"Now, show me what I can buy." Grey said with a grin.

"The list is long. It would make more sense for you to decide what you need first, and then buy it."

"I need a Frame that can replace one I already have, or maybe evolve it into something better. It’s kind of dead weight right now."

"Improving a Frame is not a simple matter. Even if I gave you—."

"Hey, hey, I get it, you’re in a very giving mood with your advice right now. But the more I talk to you people, the more I realize that it’s better if I decide what I do with my Frames, alright? Just show me what I want."

The barkeep raised an eyebrow. "Alright. As Sir Temolt commands."

There was a flicker of pixels across Grey’s status screen, and then a shift as a list of things appeared. They were divided into two main categories. The first were Cyber Warps that could download Frames into your body, and the other were Skills.

"What happens if you download the same or a very similar Cyber Warp?"

"If there’s a lot of overlap, nothing. If they can cover for one another’s weaknesses, it is possible to get quite a powerful Frame built from several pieces."

"Someone told me that there’s such a thing as a ’Perfect Frame’. Is that really true?"

"Yes, but there are still tiers of differences between Perfect Frames decided by how far in tiers it can progress. The reason you felt [Branching Blood] was more powerful than your current Ability is likely because [Branching Blood] originates from a Frame of a far higher tier."

Grey nodded slowly.

What he really wanted to do was fill in the weakness he felt Magnetic Hero was leaving him with. But the problem was that he wasn’t sure how.

Right now, he had two buckets of Abilities without a "home". There were the metal abilities he had gained from eating Stella’s arrow, and then there was Wind Glider that had come from huffing grass.

"Okay." Grey said after going through the entire list. "I have a Frame called Magnetic Hero."

Barkeep Ji’s eyes narrowed. Grey had just said he had a Frame called Vampire Lord. Was he claiming to have more than one Frame?

A bloodthirsty grin spread along his features. Grey was so quick on the uptake it made him want to split the child’s brain open and see what was going on inside.

Grey was a lot looser with his words here, and there was very good reason for that.

Barkeep Ji himself was the reason.

Whatever Ji was doing right now, he was bending the rules—and he was doing it a lot. He had even managed to attack in a Safe Room without losing his head. So, Grey had made quite the gamble. He bet that...

The Producers either weren’t listening right now, or they were having a very hard time of it.

And he was very much correct.

"But it’s worthless compared to my other Frames. I have several metal-based abilities that aren’t combined with it, and a strangler of a wind Ability. Is there any way for me to combine magnets, wind, and metal with this combination of things?"

"You tell me. Does that combination sound like it makes any sense?"

Grey shook his head. "You people have no creativity at all. Of course it does. I think you people have so much fun torturing people that you lost all your imagination."