Second Genesis

"Well I’ll be damned."

Grey didn’t know how to feel. This woman was absolutely gorgeous, at least as gorgeous as the Oracle lady had been. But what was he supposed to do about that lower half.

He was pretty open-minded, and had done some things during dry spells that he wasn’t very proud of. But even he wasn’t this open-minded.

Despite having those thoughts, he slid up to the bar and took a seat, smiling brightly at the woman across from him. He looked at her lapel and nodded.

"Nice to meet you, Breejah. I’m Grey."

The barkeep laughed, shaking her head. "Are you flirting with me, boy?"

"Flirting? I’m just introducing myself. How could I accost a woman at her place of work? That’s not very chivalrous."

Breejah’s smile grew brighter, the cherry red that coated them spreading smoothly and without the slightest interruption. There was a sparkling beauty in the depths of her ruby eyes that twinkled with mischievousness.

Grey had no reason to recognize this woman. But had he known that he had been watched by a certain spider woman of this race, he would have also known that this woman and that one were not the same.

What machinations might be going on in the background had nothing to do with him, though.

"Accost? Hoho," she giggled, "I wouldn’t expect a man like you to use a word like that."

"So we’ve gone from boy to man. It seems I’m moving up in the world."

Breejah gave a real belly laugh this time. "Enough. What have you come here for today? It can’t just be small talk, right?"

"Where’d Barkeep Ji go?" Grey asked. "Do you know?"

"Ah, you don’t want me anymore?" she asked with a pout.

"Course not. I just got used to that ugly mug. I didn’t know you could swap out barkeeps like that. He’s the one who’s been here since the beginning."

Breejah smiled lightly. "There’s been a light restructuring. You’ve cleared Chapter One so there are clearance concerns now—."

Grey tilted his head to the side as he seemingly caught onto something.

"You were sent by one of my sponsors?"

Breejah blinked in surprise. Somehow, she didn’t expect that sort of sharpness from Grey.

Had he made her comfortable on purpose? No, that didn’t make sense. There was no way. The way Grey’s eyes lit up when he saw her was just like any other teenage boy. It was impossible that his mind was fast enough that he decided the perfect way to act the instant he appeared.

"It seems you’ve already understood, then. I have indeed been sent by Muse Incorporated."

Grey’s gaze flickered and then glazed over for a second as he tried to recall.

Right, he did remember seeing Muse Incorporated on the list of the hundreds of sponsorship requests he had received. It was one of the more aggressive offers, but they also demanded quite a bit from him as well.

They basically wanted him to exclusively use their items, but that also meant that he couldn’t craft his own mechs, and that was just a ridiculous handicap.

They weren’t even a particularly strong company. The contract said something about starting him off at Epic items of an equivalent Class level as a guaranteed baseline. If he met certain benchmarks, they would get him Legendary items.

Granted, given how difficult it was for Grey to earn the Legendary and Mythical items he had now, this offer might actually not be that bad in the grand scheme.

He had to kill a Command Class threat just to get Vector Class Mythical items. That was just ridiculous.

So one might imagine how much harder it would be to gain Legendary and Mythical items at the Vanguard Class.

Barkeep Ji had already told him that there was a qualitative difference between Vector and Vanguard. Even Frantz only used the most ordinary of Vanguard Class items.

Still, Grey wasn’t a fan of the restriction.

What he was surprised about was how far they had gone. It couldn’t have been cheap to send someone in here like this. If it was expensive just to watch his livestream, how much money did they have to throw around to send someone inside?

Unless this was just one of the benefits high level sponsors got?

"Gotcha." Grey nodded. "How about some food, then. I’m hungry."

Breejah’s lip twitched, but she restrained her annoyance and did her job, bringing out everything Grey asked for until he had cleared what felt like two dozen plates worth of food.

Grey burped, patting his belly.

—

[Name: Grey Temolt]

[Name Affiliation: Disciple of Sir Trolley]

—

[Frame: Prometheus]

[Frame: Vampire Lord (Established Class)]

[Frame: Helion (Proving Class)]

[Frame: Last Paladin (Established Class)]

[Pending Quests: 3]

—

Stamina: 351/351

Sync Rate: 0.32%

Energy Reserve: 12,100.1/12,100.1 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

—

Sync Rate: N/A

Energy Reserve: N/A

—

Sync Rate: N/A

Energy Reserve: N/A

—

Sync Rate: N/A

Energy Reserve: N/A

—

STR: 538 (+100%) SPD: 568 (+100%)

DEX: 520 (+100%) INT: 293

END: 888 (+300)(+100%) PER: 255

—

Harmonic Stats: N/A

Free Stat Points: 0

—

Abilities:

Body

Resistances: Lv13(+2) Iron Veil; Lv8(+2) Helion Body; Lv13(+2) Last Bulwark

Combat: Lv13(+2) Heart Lance; Lv8(+2) Solarbrand; Lv13(+2) Last Sever

Enhancements: Lv13(+2) Hemorrhagic Regeneration; Lv8(+2) Solar Regeneration; Lv13(+2) Last Vigil

Mind

Resistances: Lv10(+2) Mental Fortitude; Lv13(+2) Abyssal Anchor; Lv13(+2) Center of Balance; Lv10(+2) Living Dawn; Lv13(+2) Last Endurance

Combat: Lv13(+2) Void Gaze; Lv8(+2) Helstorm; Lv13(+2) Last Coronation

Enhancements: Lv13(+2) Crimson Cognition; Lv8(+2) Helion Resonance; Lv13(+2) Last Sword; Lv13(+2) Last Paladin Spirit

—

’There really are no Free Stats. What a fucking scam.’ Grey shook his head.

He should have gotten Free Stats after killing Calixan, but they weren’t here. Did Chogh get them?

’Maybe I really should have killed him.’

Grey exhaled a breath and threw a disk onto the counter.

"Alright, I want to sell this thing."

Breejah’s eyes went wide for a moment before she quickly restrained herself.

Usually only the strongest managed to monopolize high level rewards like this. But she could already see several Mythical items on Grey’s person, and he actually wanted to sell one of them.

But still thinking she had a chance to convince Grey to sign with them, she restrained her desires.

"I would really advise you not to sell a Mythical Rarity item like this. Your best chance to receive something of equivalent value is an auction with many powerful characters. You should take this to a higher city."