Nightmare Realm Summoner

After spending some time resting well outside of the gem-encrusted city, Alex and the others headed straight back home. The return trip to Mirrorwane went about as well as it could have. Claire took the lead on the return trip, having considerably better memory of the path that they’d taken than the rest of them.

They were forced to duck and hide to avoid powerful monsters a few times. But, overall, they didn’t get much resistance from the Mirrorlands. The only fights they got into were when the occasional monster caught them while they were resting and recovering between runs. None of the battles were all that noteworthy, and Alex fed every single Soul Flame he got right to Glint.

He was pretty sure it wouldn’t be all that much longer until he could advance the Glasmir even further. By Alex’s best estimations, It wouldn’t be long before Glint was 100% full of energy. But he didn’t want to go powering the monster up until it was overfilled to 200% capacity.

Then again, he had a fair amount of Soul Flames sitting within his Spatial Mirrors, including the Corrupted Scuttler’s. The Corrupted flame was definitely powerful. It had a lot of energy in it… but Alex wasn’t so sure he wanted to go feeding that particular one to any of his monsters.

The chances of one of them somehow getting turned into one of the stadium monster’s tools was low, but it wasn’t impossible. There were some chances that just weren’t taking a risk over. Besides, there was always the hope that he could somehow find a way to turn the soul flame against its master and use it to secure a really good kill.

Just because they hadn’t tried to fight the stadium monster this time around didn’t mean it was off the table entirely. He had no doubt that the System would reward anyone that managed to kill that beast pretty handsomely. It was well out of Mirrorwane’s capabilities right now, but things would be different in the future.

His thoughts were still largely on the fight when the forest surrounding the warped version of Mirrorwane made its return on the horizon of the Mirrorlands. Alex wasn’t even entirely sure how long their trip had been. A few days, as per his best guess. He didn’t keep track of exactly how long it took them to return.

They passed by a few Mirrorwane townsfolk on their way back through the forest and to the town, receiving nods of greeting as they passed. That was definitely a good sign. As confident as Alex was in the forces they’d left behind, it was good to know that the town was still standing and hadn’t somehow been blown into smithereens by some System bullshit.

The moment he passed through the Warped Embassy and stepped back onto 274-50, he drew in a deep breath. Alex certainly didn’t mind the Mirrorlands. They were a great place to fight and get stronger. But the thick, hazy power that constantly filled them wasn’t the most enjoyable environment. Nothing would ever completely replace 274-50’s fresh air — even with the vague smell of Mite’s necromancy projects tickling his nostrils from the distance.

“Man,” Derek muttered, walking out of the Warped Embassy to stand alongside Alex. “This kind of sucks.”

“Huh?” Alex blinked, then glanced over to the large man. He was picking at the weapons sticking out of his body. “What does? I’d say that whole thing went pretty damn well overall.”

“Not that,” Derek said. He let out a huff. “My stuff’s all busted, man. Look at my weapons. They’re not sticks, you know.”

Claire and Orchid exchanged a glance as they drew up alongside the two men.

“What?” Orchid asked. “What do weapons have to do with sticks?”

“Nothing,” Derek replied, as if that answered the question. “So you see my point.”

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“Not really,” Claire said.

“Think for a moment,” Derek said with a sigh. “Imagine you’ve got a nice stick. Then you break it in two. What do you have?”

“A broken stick?” Orchid guessed. Her gaze flicked down to her staff. Something told Alex her thoughts were drifting back to the previous staff she’d had.

“No,” Derek said. “Two sticks. You break a stick and get another one. It’s an infinite stick generator. But weapons are different. If you break a sword, all you’re left with is a bunch of useless sharp metal. Complete waste. You don’t get two weapons out of it, which is just bad design. And I got a bunch of my weapons broken. Stupid crab.”

“You’ve got Credits, right?” Alex asked. Now that Derek mentioned it, he did look somewhat less stabbed than usual. There were only half a dozen handles and blades jutting out of him when there normally would have been double that amount — if not more. “I’m sure Finley could get you so me stuff.”

“Yeah,” Derek said. His nose scrunched slightly in distaste. “I guess. But a few of these came from him. They didn’t last that long.”

“Buy better weapons,” Orchid said. “If you pay for cheap junk, then that’s what you’re going to get. But it sounds like you’re looking for something a little bit nicer than just a normal weapon. Something that sticks around.”

Derek paused for a moment. He squinted at Orchid. Then he grinned. “Yeah. You know where I can get that?”

“Make it,” Orchid replied, raising her staff in example. “Or have someone make it for you. That’s the best way to go about it. Buying weapons from a general merchant is usually just going to get you fodder. If you want something really good, you’re going to need to go through the effort — and cost. Nothing good is ever cheap. Either learn how to make monsters into weapons or make good friends with someone who can.”

“Maybe Mite can do something,” Alex suggested. “I’m sure he’d be happy to have a challenge, and God knows we’ve got enough corpses lying around to cut up and make into some Monster Hunter shit. Getting you equipped properly would definitely be in the town’s best interests.”

Derek nodded thoughtfully. “That’s a good idea. I’ll do that. Thanks guys.”

Then he ambled off.

“Doesn’t even pause for a second to relax after getting back after a pretty major hunt. We’ve been running for more than a day straight if you don’t count the short break we took,” Orchid muttered. “And he doesn’t even wait up for long enough to get something to eat or relax for a moment. There’s something seriously wrong with that guy.”

“You sound jealous,” Claire said, the corner of her lip curling in amusement. “Haven’t you ever heard that emulating those you admire is the best way to become like them?”

“Me? Admire him?” Orchid let out a derisive snort. “Absolutely not. He’s practically mad. Even amongst the greatest warriors of my Family, I’ve never met anyone like him. I can never tell if he’s a genius or a complete idiot.”

“Those two things are not nearly as mutually exclusive as some people believe,” Alex said. “But I, for one, am going to go do the one thing that I’ve been waiting to get at for a while — especially while we’ve still got time before the auction. The ticket is still blank. I double checked.”

“Oh?” Orchid asked. “A bath? A good rest? Both of those sound quite nice, actually. We really need to build a better system for that in the town, by the way. Cold water in a bucket is a painfully rudimentary way to clean myself.”

“I’ll ask Rhyss what we can do,” Alex said absently. “But no. Neither of those things. Cold bucket works fine for me. Just means we get to finish up and go back to stabbing things quicker.”

Orchid stared at him. “You’re kidding.”

“Yep,” Alex said with an unabashed grin. “I’d love a bath house. That’s definitely easier than trying to get proper plumbing running throughout the town… though I guess we should work on that as well. Don’t want to be working with latrines forever. A little comfort will go a long way for morale. I’m sure we can dedicate some basic resources to that. It definitely won’t be too difficult of a building to make. I’ll look into it in a bit.”

“What exactly is it that you’re planning on doing?” Orchid asked as the three of them walked deeper into the town. “Sleep? That would also be nice — but I do need to find May and make sure everything has been going well in her training. Something tells me she’s gone and done something I forbid her from.”

“Not sleep, no,” Alex said. He came to a stop in the shadow of a looming bone tower “And yes, you should definitely check up on May. I didn’t see her in the Mirrorlands on our way back. If anything, that means she’s probably gotten herself into something worse.”

“What is it, then?” Orchid asked.

Alex looked up at the tower looming before them.

“It’s been a few days since I did body tempering. I think I’m all adapted… so I’m going to pay the Forsaken Grounds another visit.” Alex grinned. “By the time this auction gets called, even without a disguise, I don’t want the Outworlders to be able to recognize me.”