Chapter 858 (1/2)

Arbor, Ajax, and Madelyn crouched around Naffur, who was vomiting noisily into a metal bucket.

“This is my fault,” Ajax said with a shake of the head. “A miscalculation on my part. I had not predicted he would appear. And to take his frustrations out on you-”

“No,” Naffur managed to speak in a few seconds of time where he was simply dry heaving. “I- I asked for this.”

Ajax and Madelyn seemed confused. Everyone except Arbor, who only shook its head sorrowfully. There was a reason that it had never asked its creator to teach it to fight. It could be seen by how weird Thorn had turned out how dangerous such a request was.

Madelyn’s friendship with Naffur warred with her undying devotion to the Ghosthound. “What… did he do….?”

Naffur winced at the memory. “Sparring…”

The group considered this word.

“But,” Naffur added, feeling compelled to give Randidly his fair due. “I did gain 50 Skill Levels in an hour.”

Arbor crossed its arms, clearly indicating it wasn’t worth the obvious suffering. Ajax rubbed his mandibles in consideration of such a trade. It was clear from the excited clicking that he had decided such a calculus of pain and Skill Levels was right up his alley. The worshipful gleam returned to Madelyn’s eye.

“Incredible, to achieve such results in so short a time.” She whispered.

Naffur vomited noisily into the bucket.

*****

Feeling rather invigorated from their all too short spar, Randidly headed South and West. Although he inwardly wanted to pull his hair out of his scalp at Neveah’s second and final request, she could sense his actions and would know if he skipped it.

It was, Randidly decided, profoundly annoying to be so intimately connected to another. Especially when your wishes ran counter to theirs.

But for Neveah, Randidly would go to some politically and tactically inconsequential flower garden and care for the plants. Despite how inane it seemed.

For all its inanity, Randidly also planned on contacting Ghost while he was there. And the task itself wasn’t likely to take longer than twenty minutes, meaning it was a relatively short diversion in the Orchard.

Besides, Randidly was curious about the Orchard, one of the few places in Zone 1 that wasn’t either a manicured gated community or an industrial ghetto. It tiptoed that line but felt real enough that Randidly didn’t mind.

What surprised Randidly the most was how big the city had gotten. In the six months since he had passed through, it seemed the city had swollen to double its previous size. Part of it was probably the constant need for cheap labor that the city used to throw up new buildings, and part of it was the fact that it was one of the few places in Zone 1 that was willing take in the refugees while the influx was at its height, but Randidly could feel something else in the air as he passed into the city limits.

The people he saw on the streets as he walked through the outskirts were gruff and dirty and hard at work. It was the sort of population that cultivated a very particular outlook. When enough of those people gathered together, it became a contagious ethos.

Randidly suspected that over time, such an attitude would morph into an image.

The scaffolding and steel shells erected at the edges of the Orchard looked like the bones of some ancient gods, rising out of the ground under the mid-morning sun. It was clear that this portion of the city had been carefully laid out, and soon would be an excellent area to live.

Unfortunately, the middle part of the Orchard was less impressive. Much of that powerful outlook was lost as Randidly proceeded deeper into the city. The “frontier” region of the Orchard swiftly became the inner city, where poverty and crime ruled. The main thoroughfares through the area where frequently patrolled by police, but Randidly could sense some of what was going on in the darker alleys, and he wrinkled his nose at it.

One of the less savory truths about the System was that its protection against diseases meant that HIV was a thing of the past. It took with it a powerful inhibitor against rampant injection based drugs and sexual promiscuity. Not that Randidly was particularly against these activities on principle; they simply seemed like a waste of time.

Besides, none of the people partaking seemed to be doing well enough in their lives to tempt Randidly.

It was something of an interesting question of whether drug use related Skills would be possible to develop. Randidly saw no reason why not. Was there a Drugdealer Class?

During his time in the seedier part of the Orchard, Randidly saw several people eyeing him and wondered whether someone would attempt to mug him. It didn’t end up happening, and Randidly was somehow disappointed. But when he looked at his dirty leathers and bare feet, he supposed that they couldn’t be blamed.

Honestly though, what did Randidly have on him worthy of robbing? Acri and Sulfur were one of a kind, but they were rather nondescript when not serving their function: Acri was currently a belt and Sulfur just looked like a thick grey bulletproof vest.

His ring was filled with rare metals, monster bodies, and training spears. And some engraving notes, which he supposed were valuable enough to the right people. Likely invaluable, to Ghost. But those were the sort of things that were impossible to spot.

So Randidly proceeded deeper into the city, moving from the more destitute areas to neighborhoods with flower shops and small houses with cramped little lawns. Luckily or unluckily for Randidly, his city streets event was coming for him: just not in the form that he had anticipated.

“Sir, we don’t allow begging in this neighborhood,” A gruff police officer said. He and his partner had made a beeline for Randidly as soon as they saw him peering over the low walls around the houses in the inner part of the city. It was clear from his tone that he didn’t believe for a second that Randidly was in the area for begging. But rather that he was here for a much seedier purpose.