Shortly after Sigmarus entered Duke’s room, he saw the muscular woman sitting on a couch off to the right. Other than the couch, the only furniture in the room was a large but simple bed, a desk littered with papers, a nightstand with an analog clock sitting on top of it, and a few chairs near the far wall. Noticing the early morning hour on the clock, Sigmarus couldn’t help grimacing at the thought of how long he had been stuck healing in the sewers.

Since Sigmarus was standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, Duke dragged one of the chairs across the old tile floor and set it next to the couch. Then, he pointed at the chair as if telling Sigmarus to sit there and plopped down on the couch next to the muscular woman, wrapping one of his gigantic arms around her shoulders as he did so.

For a moment, Sigmarus couldn’t help raising a brow at the couple, but he quickly shook it off and sat down on the chair Duke had provided for him. The metal legs creaked a little under his weight but held him more firmly than any other chair he had used in the past several years.

“Can I have this chair?” Sigmarus joked.

“No, I need all the chairs for meetings,” Duke immediately replied.

“Wouldn’t hurt you to have a sense of humor, would it?”

“Strange question, coming from you.”

“True. So, who’s this? Your woman?” Sigmarus asked, nodding toward the muscular woman.

“Yeah,” Duke replied, glancing down into the woman’s eyes. Some sort of invisible conversation happened there. After a few moments, she turned her head away. Duke shrugged, turned his attention back to Sigmarus, and said, “Sorry, she’s not good with strangers. Her name is Samara, and she’s been by my side since my days in Shingle Alley.”

Her? Shy? Really? Sigmarus couldn’t help thinking. The disconnect between her appearance and shyness made him uncomfortable. Duke’s last sentence caught his attention, though.

“You lived there, too?”

“Yeah. It’s just one part of my dark past. Anyway, let’s talk about…” Duke’s words trailed off, and he sniffed the air a few times before staring at Sigmarus with furrowed brows and asking, “Is it you that smells like shit?”

“I’d be surprised if it was one of you two.”

“...Considering you’re carrying that body around with you, I’m assuming something happened on your end as well.”

“Something happened here, too?”

Duke sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. Then, he explained everything that occurred over the last twenty-four hours in short and succinct terms. Afterward, Sigmarus explained his own experience. At first, he planned to leave out the details of how the Green Devil members broke his legs, but he thought it would be weird if the survivors brought it up later, so he briefly mentioned it. However, he left his explanation there, abstaining from mentioning anything about Chain or the apparatus. Still, just mentioning his broken legs earned a confused gaze and uplifted brow from Duke.

“...Are you sure they broke your legs?”

Giving Duke a thumbs up, Sigmarus replied, “I got some miracle drugs, so it’s all good.”

“Something better than sunshine, I hope,” Duke muttered, his brows furrowing with suspicion.

“Hmm… Are you familiar with the medical nano-tech used upstairs?”

“I’ve heard other fallen birds mention it in the past, but that’s about it.”

“Well, an old guy I met a while ago gave me some pills with a similar effect.”

“An old guy, huh? Was it Shad’s grandfather?”

“Uh… never met Shad’s grandpa before, but I doubt it?”

“Well, whatever. It’s not that important. If he’s not the one who gave them to you, would you be able to spare a few? We’ve got some guys with pretty serious injuries. Having some for the coliseum would be good, too.”

Rubbing his chin, Sigmarus thought for a moment, and then said, “I could probably spare five.”

“Oh, that’s more than I thought.”

“I’ll hand ‘em over to you later.”

“Gotcha. So, you’re good enough to leave with us tomorrow?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. I had honestly been worried last night that those bastards might’ve offed you.”

“They probably think they did.”

“They took that girl with them, though… that’s rough. Still, based on what you’ve told me, I don’t think they wanted it to go like that. Seth would never allow them to do something that could cut down on their profits.”

“Seth?”

“An asshole. Former branch leader for them.”

“Ah. I think they mentioned him at one point.”

“I see… I assumed it was him before, but that’s honestly enough to convince me he’s back… Well, for what it’s worth, I’m glad you’re alright.”

“What about Grace?”

“That’s… a good question. What happened on your end probably screwed up whatever Seth wanted to do with the girl, so it’s hard to say.”

Noticing the heavy tone in Duke’s voice, Sigmarus mumbled, “Nothing good, though.”

“Yeah. Nothing good.”

“...Mind if I head out for a bit?”

“That’s fine.”

“Thanks,” Sigmarus said, getting up from his seat. While walking toward the door, Duke briefly stopped him by adding one more thing.

“You should stay the night at the base tonight, by the way. You can move all your stuff here, too, if you want. Climbers and sub-leaders get the rooms in this building. There’s an empty one three doors down. You can put that casket in there for now.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that.”

With that, Sigmarus exited the room, leaving Duke and Samara to their own devices. He quickly found the empty room and checked it out despite having a lot on his mind. He flipped on the light switch just inside the door, and was surprised to see the ceiling lamp in the center of the room light up. In terms of size, the room was bigger than the living room in his dinky apartment by a few meters in both length and width. Inside, there was a bed, complete with endboards, boxspring, and mattress, that made his sleeping cot look like trash. There was also a metal desk similar to the one in Duke’s room. Aside from a thin layer of dust and some cobwebs, the room was surprisingly clean.

Nodding with satisfaction, Sigmarus walked out and retrieved Merci’s casket from the hallway and carried it inside. He considered putting it inside his inventory, but even imagining such a thing rubbed him the wrong way. Something about it felt rude. Besides that, there wasn’t a whole lot of space in his current inventory, anyway.

After setting the box on the floor next to the desk, he traipsed over to the bed and sat on the mattress. He rubbed his chin and contemplated his current predicament.

Although I’d like to help Grace get away from those assholes, it probably isn’t possible right now. Even though she’s just some kid I helped on a whim, I can’t help worrying. Kids shouldn’t have to go through such shitty things.

Sighing, he ran his hand through his hair out of frustration. After a few moments, he finally remembered the thing he hadn’t checked on for a while, his status. He quickly opened his status screen and studied it thoroughly since so much had changed.

Personal Info

Name: Sigmarus Grayson

Race: Human (Earth)

Spirit Root: Attributeless Freeform

Approximate Cultivation Grade: Fighter (Yellow)

~~~~~~~~~~

Attributes

Level: 2 Exp: 14/305

Strength: 21 Endurance: 21(+1) Dexterity: 24 Agility: 24(-1)

Intelligence: 9 Wisdom: 12 Perception: 31

~~~~~~~~~~

Stat Points: 5

Ability Points: 6

~~~~~~~~~~

Equipment

Old Shirt (Trash), Old Pants (Trash) Rugged Steel-Toed Boots (Ordinary), Ragged Boxers (Trash), Worn-out socks (Trash)

~~~~~~~~~~

Skills

Universe Apparatus Lv.1, Freedom Technique Lv.3, Freedom Palm Lv.1, Freedom Step Lv.1

“Finally, my stats went over twenty…” He mumbled. Then, he thought, What should I do with these stat points? Hmm… I’ll hang onto them for now and use them when necessary during the coliseum after figuring out how to allocate them. From there… Freedom Step? I think I learned it while I was in the sewer? Although I can kinda see it in my head, it’s really confusing. Let’s see…

Since he couldn’t totally comprehend the new skill from the basic understanding pumped into his brain before, he pulled up the description for it.

Freedom Step

{A mysterious movement technique of unknown origins. Even the lowest level breaks away from the boundaries of space, allowing the user to step whereever they wish depending on their own understanding of the technique and their origin energy reserves.}

{Distance(meters) before skill level 10 = Skill Level. Distance(meters) after skill level 10 = Skill Level + (Perception+Intelligence+Wisdom)}

{Upgrade Requirements: (5 AP * Skill Level + AP Cost of previous Skill Level) or Equivalent Training}

{Improves Dexterity and Agility a little with each level. Dexterity +1 and Agility +1 per skill level.}

After reading through the description, Sigmarus furrowed his brows and mumbled, “So is it a footwork of some sort, or fucking teleportation? Damn, this is cool.”

Impatience prompted him to jump up from the bed to try it out. He closed his eyes and mentally pictured the steps imprinted into his brain multiple times. A few minutes later, his eyes flashed open with determination. Based on his understanding, half of the energy used for the skill needed to swirl over his entire body while the other half went to his feet. He moved his origin energy all around his body until it covered every inch of him, but focused mostly on the soles of his feet. Then, he prompted the energy to cut forward ahead of him. Something cracked, though only he could hear it. Space itself rippled around him as he stepped forward… and tripped as his toes planted into the floor at a strange angle. He beautifully faceplanted on the old and dirty tile.

Grimacing, he rolled onto his back and sighed. Dizziness crept into his brain since the change in what he could see had been so jarring when he stepped forward. The difference wasn’t big, but it was enough to mess with his mortal brain.

I’ll practice it more later, He thought, sitting up and resting an arm on his knee. He then scratched his head and mumbled, “Guess I’ll go get my wrist-com now so I can ask Elizabeth if Grace is okay.”

Then, he sniffed his shirt and thought, Maybe I should find a shower first...