Death Smith - Book 2 - Chapter 16 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Gore and spices Three days later. Late-April, 14 AR. Somewhere above the Irish sea. “We would once again like to thank you for choosing our airline and trusting us with your care,” the stewardess said, flashing a warm and inviting smile as she hovered near Lance’s seat. Her co-worker was not far behind her with a tray filled with beverages and snacks. Although the flight to Dublin was a short one, Lance was getting pampered in first class due to him being a Rifter. “Are you sure we can’t help you with anything else? Champagne, whiskey, company?” she asked, sounding both professional and slightly suggestive at the end. Naturally, the latter confused Lance, going from a male nurse in the healthcare industry to suddenly someone that was getting preferential treatment even in first class. The pilot himself had even greeted Lance when he had boarded the plane. ‘Her number! I should ask her number,’ the foreign and intrusive thoughts of Thomas echoed in his mind, growing in intensity until Lance suppressed it with the memory of him kissing Kate. More and more, feelings and memories of Thomas came bubbling to the surface, occasionally polluting his own thoughts, and steering his actions. “No thank you, I am fine. Thank you for taking such good care of me,” Lance said, giving them both a warm smile as he grabbed his headphones again, letting them know he was done with the conversation in a friendly way. He switched on his phone again and pressed play, drowning out the rest of the world as he lost himself in his music… or rather Thomas’ music. He was enjoying the songs Thomas’ had send Lance by email. He wasn’t sure if this was due to him honouring his friend's memory, or if the presence of Thomas lingering in his mind was affecting him in a more profound way. He opened his banking app and double checked the cash reserves he had, noticing the payments the GRRO had transferred for the debris collector job he had done at the Rift site. Since he had lost Thomas, he had gone through four more Rifts, netting him quite a hefty pay cheque each time. He had spent a lot of it on upgrading his equipment, getting a ranged weapon and supplies. But after all of that he still had plenty of cash left in reserve. Some of the reserves he had spent on renting a large van and a private place just outside of Dublin. He figured it would serve as his little ‘personal cave’ as he rested, trained Ash or other things he did not want the public to know about him. Lance felt the plane shake again, as his fingers gripped the sides of his seat. It turned out he hated flying. The last time he had flown anywhere was when his mom had taken him from the Netherlands to move back to London. He had remembered it as this marvellous adventure and an experience of a lifetime. Looking back, he might have suppressed certain elements of it. There was something worrying about sitting in a steel death-trap that was filled with flammable fuel while being high in the sky. ‘I prefer a Rift to this. At least there I have some control over my fate,’ Lance thought. Luckily for him, the flight from London to Dublin was quite short. Lance could see on the screen in front of him, they would arrive in a few minutes. Instead of looking outside and getting even more nervous, Lance simply remembered that he had a personal place, his own car, and plenty of spending power at his disposal in Ireland. And although his plan was to find the black market there and to get his hands on items that might bridge the gap between him and Conner, Kira, and Louis, it did not mean that Lance couldn’t enjoy himself while he was there. Lance had already tasked a broker to line him up with a job in Ireland to get his feet wet. With that in mind, he opened one of Thomas’ emails and opened a music file in the attachment, smiling as he noticed the title; Make a Little Money - Royal Deluxe. * * * * * [You have retrieved an item from the inventory.] “And done!” Lance said a few hours later, a mattress now dumped in the corner of the dirty room. He glanced around and noticed the horrible state the place was in. Seeing it for himself, Lance realised why the rent was so low. At one point, this place had been a butcher’s shop, but it had seen no activity in quite some time. Lance had agreed to rent it for a few weeks and was allowed make some minor modifications on the inside if it didn’t cause structural damage. The owner had boarded the windows up at one point, thus Lance had complete privacy. The best thing was that the meat hooks were still there and the water and drains still worked. [You have retrieved an item from the inventory.] A moment later the body of a Trihorn appeared, simply materialising in this world, and dropping to the floor. It was strange to see a monster here on Earth. Beyond monsters that appeared during an outbreak on Earth, Lance figured he was the only person who was able to store and retrieve monster corpses. After giving it some time, Lance nodded to Ash and pointed to the meat hook at the end of the room. “Just ram it on there,” he told Ash as he judged the distance from here to there, wondering how far it might be. The Trihorn was still in a decent state, having no visible wounds on the outside, beyond a strange bend to its neck after Lance had snapped it. As he had suspected, the creature had not rotted, even though it had been some time since Lance had joined the White Clovers for the second time and eradicated that Rift. ‘The inventory system indeed halts decay,’ Lance thought, remembering how hot or cold beverage stayed that way. [You have retrieved an item from the inventory 5x] One by one, Lance summoned his other companions, letting Alpha, Beta and Icarus slowly come into this world, afterwards Lance also summoned a bow and several arrows, placing them on a dirty table next to him. “Are you ready, Ash?” Lance asked his companion, watching him nod and give the hand signal they had practiced for the affirmative. “Good job. Now, try using words.” Ash paused for a moment before he spoke. “Y-es…” The word came out twisted and deeper than what was normal. It had improved a lot, but it was still strange to hear. “It… It is good enough for now, buddy,” Lance said, flashing Ash an encouraging smile as he watched him take a few steps backwards to create some room. Lance figured that the biggest reason for Ash’s speech problem was the fact that Ash did not need to breathe, meaning that for Ash to produce words, he would first need to inhale. That and Ash’s throat produced far deeper tones. The words then sounded strange and somewhat alarming. Still, Ash had come a long way and had already a decent grasp of simple words such as yes, no, monster, or danger. “Ready,” Lance said as he grabbed his bow and knocked a single arrow, remembering the lessons Daniel had given him. He had read all he could about archery the last few days, ever since having bought a bow in the Workshop. But nothing he had read could even come close to Daniel’s teaching. It made sense, seeing as the man had been a bow user for years and even had the Ranger class. Remembering the proper stance and his breathing, Lance aimed for a weak spot on the monster’s corpse, afterwards sending the first arrow towards it, only to hit the wall behind it and shattering one ceramic tile. “That did not count. It was just a warmup,” Lance said, quickly picking up the next arrow and knocking it. Already he could feel the gaze of Ash and the birds. Although they were without emotion, Lance’s own mind interpreted that as judgment in this moment. The second and third shots all hit their target, with one imbedding itself in the monster’s chest and shoulder. “That should do for now,” Lance said as he handed the bow over to Ash and helped him get into a proper stance. The bow itself was a normal bow, suitable for non-Rifters. It had enough strength to kill weaker monsters, so it would suit both Lance and Ash for now. Lance figured that training Ash to use the bow would allow more versatility in their tactics. To encourage Ash a bit more, he let the man stand much closer to his target, to get him used to hitting it and to build up more trust and familiarity with the weapon. It did not take Ash long to slowly start to get more accurate and start to hit the monster in vital areas. “Keep it up,” Lance said as he made his way over to a table with three rusty chairs. The place smelled, was in a horrible state, but it still felt somewhat luxurious to Lance. He had spent a lot of time in Rifts and had gotten used to the rougher lifestyle. He could still appreciate the cleanliness of his own apartment, but dirty environments did not seem to bother Lance as much anymore. Lance leaned backwards and propped his feet on the table as he pondered on what he would bring with him on his next Rift and how to prepare until that time. He had a bunch of empty crates stacked in another room’s corner that he would hopefully fill with parts harvested from monsters. It was the reason Lance had rented this place. ‘Instead of harvesting a few monster items and bringing them with me, I’ll spend the next few Rifts simply collecting monsters and harvesting parts from them in here,’ Lance thought, realising just how much more profitable it would all be. He would have to be careful and remove any traces of his activity here afterwards, but he figured he could increase his income drastically by doing so. Still, a low level Rifter suddenly having hundreds of monster items would be suspicious, hence why Lance needed to find the black market. As soon as he had that, he could find a fence or something to take some of those items off his hands. The only lead he had was the little market that was supposed be near Dublin. There were probably hundreds of these black markets across the world, but for now Lance only had this lead. Lance then spent the next few minutes watching Ash line a dozen more shots before Lance told the man to take a few more steps backwards and increase the difficulty. As Ash did so, Lance turned his head to stare at the birds, seeing them simply observe the two men with a curious expression. “Who gave you permission to slack?” Lance asked them as he kicked a chair hard, causing it to slide towards the other end of the room. “You guys know you need the practise. So, fly from this chair to the one in the back, land and walk backwards. Do this until I tell you guys otherwise.” Lance had to suppress his laughter at seeing the birds clumsily try to fly to the chair, only to walk in a wobbly manner back to the chair next to Lance. It was still far too humanlike, and his grey feathered companions would need all the nature documentaries Lance could offer them, but that they could already fly for a few seconds without dropping like bricks was a vast improvement. Provided Lance could deploy them in a Rift without getting caught, the uses he would get out of them would be unimaginable. Perhaps not the greatest fighters, they could still scout, distract, or back Ash up. Lance had read up about their vision, about how a crow had wide binocular vision, reaching an astonishing 60-degree angle. The Peregrine Falcon could spot a threat or prey from an incredible distance and maintain a sharp vision despite traveling at an immense speed. Just imagining their future uses was getting Lance fired up. “Alright, Ash. You can put the bow back on the table and retrieve the arrows. I’ll teach you how to harvest the monster parts,” Lance said, reassuring Ash. “Step one, find a knife.” [You have retrieved an item from the inventory.] * * * * * “God, I needed that,” Lance said, wiping away some crumbs of his lips as he leaned backwards, savouring the aftertaste of the chicken Lahmacun. The air contained a strange mixture of garlic, onion, tomatoes, red peppers and the unmistakable smell of monster blood and gore. Both Lance and Ash had spent an hour cutting apart the creature, carefully removing its pelt, the bones, tendons, and muscles without ruining to much of it. Often, they had failed this process, and Ash had even lost a finger at one point, but they were getting better at it. To celebrate their first day in Ireland, Lance had ordered middle eastern food, wanting to treat himself and Ash. He knew Ash did not need to eat, drink or sleep, but he occasionally tempted his pale companion into trying some things. Partially because of boredom and curiosity. “Good, right?” Lance asked Ash, seeing the blood covered man sniff at the garlic sauce drenched bit of food. Whatever Ash thought of it, he did not share his thoughts with Lance. Instead, Ash simply chewed on a small bit a few times before placing the fork back down again. “Whatever. You’ll learn to appreciate the finer things in life,” Lance said, ignoring the fact that he was defending his unhealthy snack from his emotionless companion. “If you are done, you can help the feathery bandits over there,” Lance said, pointing at the crows and the peregrine falcon that were busy dragging the bits of monster items into separate containers. Lance had sorted the items into separate piles, with one being the freshly harvested, and another being those that he had stored in his inventory and retrieved again, removing any other bits of it. If he didn’t, some keen observer would notice bits of tissue still sticking to a bone, horn, or organ, showing that Lance had harvested it outside of a Rift. Still, if he was careful, no one would ever find out. Lance watched the birds drag monster bits towards Ash while the man grabbed them. The monster parts were placed in zip lock bags to preserve them. Ash stacked them inside a sturdy metal crate efficiently, illustrating that his spatial awareness was also improving. ‘Even without the combat abilities of a proper Rifter, Ash is proving himself more and more,’ Lance thought as he cleaned up the table and threw away the rubbish. Afterwards, he helped Ash and the others finish packing up the remaining items and washing away all the blood and gore that had pooled up on the floor. The build in floor drain made this a simple task, with Lance even enjoying the straightforward nature of it. When it was done, he grabbed a small tablet and placed it against the wall. He had purchased the device in London for a few pounds, with it having no specific purpose other than watching movies or documentaries. He had taught Ash how to operate it, allowing Ash to play different bird documentaries and teach the birds how to behave more like birds and improve their techniques. All this while Lance could get some rest. “You kids have fun,” Lance said as he got on the mattress, his camp blanket offering some warmth that evening. He recalled the information the broker had provided for the Rift and the team he would be joining. The GRRO had marked the Rift as a level three, with other Rifters having cleared it a few times already at higher levels. It would be his first Rift at that level, besides what he had experienced with R.A.M. He wasn’t that worried, seeing as a level three Rift could still be cleared by a large group of survivors, provided they had decent equipment. With Lance now at level twenty-three, he was more than qualified to take on such a Rift. From what the broker had provided, the other Rifters were at his level or lower. The GRRO had formed a group for this Rift, making it a ragtag collection of Rifters that had little experience in working with one another. But their higher levels would hopefully make up for that. The reason for Lance to take this Rift was to both get used to the way the Irish branch of the GRRO did things and see how other Rifters operated. Lance opened his status screen and spotted the notification that he had three unspent attribute points. He had made it a habit to save those three points and spend them the night before his next Rift. This allowed him to spend them more wisely, seeing as he would know what attributes would play the biggest role for that particular Rift. ‘Jungle environment. Several types of monsters,’ Lance thought, going over the information on the Rift. [Perception:] [39] (+3) Lance figured the additional points to Perception would help in this Rift, allowing him to spot ambushes better, not to mention serve him well when he would field test the basic bow he had purchased. He went over his attributes once more, seeing the impressive number that each of them now contained. He had levelled up seven times during the last three Rifts. Three levels through clearing the Rifts, and another four from slaughtering the monsters. [Endurance:] [47] [Strength:] [47] [Agility:] [47] [Perception:] [42] [Wisdom:] [39] [Luck:] [39] The amount of experience he’d gain from level one and two Rifts had ground to a halt. It meant that taking on a level three Rift would be just what he needed to keep the momentum going. ‘Just a little longer, Thomas,’ Lance thought as he closed his status screen and closed his eyes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Author: Osirium Copyright: 2022 OsiriumWrites Released: 2022