The sentries eyed Gaius coldly as he drew close to the swirling blue rift. Other groups were lounging around the area, presumably making use of this time to socialise without fear of being observed by the political entities that existed inside Heritage Basestation, as the rabbit-eared girl Mai came bouncing over to Gaius.

“Ga—Lecturer Gaius.” Mai had a double-take when she saw him wearing the white cloak of a lecturer. “How was your harvest?”

“Quite fine, thank you,” Gaius replied politely. “Incidentally, do you know what this is?”

Gaius took out an ether core. “I found two of this, but after touching one of them, it vanished. “

The teenage girl narrowed her eyes, peering at the core. “I don’t think I’ve seen this before, though. Where did you get this?”

“Oh, it dropped after I killed a monster made of energy.”

“Dropped? Wait, you killed one of those things?” She blinked her eyes a few times in rapid succession. “As expected of a lecturer, I guess.”

“You sound surprised that I killed a bunch of those things. Why? They didn’t seem particularly tough to me.”

“To you, maybe.” The teenage girl rolled her eyes. “But these things are strong and have incredible regenerative properties. Maybe you could slice them ten times in a second, but not everyone can do that. You’re a real monster, Lecturer Gaius.”

The young boy glanced at the expression on her face, and then decided against telling her how he killed them. It would be too anticlimactic if he revealed that taking out the ether core inside of them would off them immediately. Letting her build up his reputation was a far better alternative.

“Well then,” said Gaius, “I’ll be heading for the counter first then. The gems are rather heavy, after all.”

He waved goodbye to Mai, and after a round of checks, the sentries let him through the rift. Light flashed once again, but other than that, it felt like he had just stepped across a door.

It had been a while since he’d seen darkness, and Gaius instinctively felt safer…until he remembered that he was wearing a white cloak. But in Heritage, darkness was an enemy for everyone there. Lieutenant Ornielle had explained it herself: people who weren’t touched by the light of Heritage’s sky never came back. Gaius didn’t want to test that theory out either.

Chasing the random thoughts away, Gaius looked around and saw Major Degurechaff waving at him.

“How was it?” Major Degurechaff asked, the moment Gaius came over.

“I got quite a few gems,” replied Gaius, before taking out an ether core. “By the way, do you know what this is? One of them vanished into my palm when I held it, so be careful.”

“Hmm.” The major produced a pair of tongs from somewhere somehow and gripped the ether core with it. “It looks like a condensed bunch of ether, enough of it so that it doesn’t disperse naturally. I’m not sure how this is produced, however.”

“Any thoughts on how I could use it?” asked Gaius.

“You could turn it in for some resources, I guess.” The major shook his head. “It’s definitely something I’ve never seen before. How did you get it?”

“It dropped from a monster made of energy.”

“You killed one of those monsters?” The major rubbed his nose. “I presume ‘dropped’ means that this thing came out from its corpse, then. Interesting. I didn’t know Energy Savages had anything inside them.”

“You sound like you killed one of those…Energy Savages yourself.”

“Indeed, I have killed one of those,” said Major Degurechaff. “A Harvester had captured one of them in a net, and then spent hours dragging it over. But it went berserk once it entered Heritage Basestation, so I had to use my qi to crush it into dust.”

He looked ruefully at the core. “I probably destroyed this plaything along with the monster. How frustrating. We might have made some new discoveries if I got this earlier. Go and trade this in at the exchange; I’ll facilitate it.”

Gaius looked at the little blue orb on his hand. “How much would I be able to trade this for?”

“The Exchange staff will explain how exchanging resources work, but I’ll set the orb as a first-class commodity,” replied the major. “Now, what other gems did you get?”

“Enough to fill my cloak, my back and my tunic.” Gaius shuffled on the spot, and gentle clinks filled the air. “Everything in a single day’s work.”

“That’s a lot.” Major Degurechaff glanced at the bulging tunic Gaius had on him. “Maybe I should send the other lecturers out more, if they meet the age requirement, seeing as the assistant lecturer could do that well.”

A foreboding chill ran down Gaius’ back. “…Just make sure not to use me as a reason, sir.”

“I hear you. Now, move along and claim some bounties. The resource exchange is that way.” The major motioned at to his left, at a stone building. It didn’t look impressive from afar, the only thing of note that being the wooden sign that had the words ‘Exchange’.

As Gaius walked towards the building, he belatedly realised that he was the first of the entire lot to head towards the exchange. It seemed that the beastfolk in general weren’t too fussed about who came first, despite the fact that there were special, limited quotas for certain gemstones. Was their nonchalance to such gains something specific to the beastfolk in general?

Up close, the Exchange building looked as dull as ever. The door tinkled as Gaius pushed it open, revealing a single counter. The boy turned his head, surveying the darkened surroundings cautiously, and then jumped as a voice spoke out.

“New here?”

Gaius nodded, looking for the source of the voice. He couldn’t find anyone.

“Don’t bother looking. Now, step forward to the counter and place your palm on the wooden plate there.” The voice sounded bored, which it had to be — Gaius could tell that he was undergoing a mundane registration procedure. “Good. Now, just hold it there for a few seconds.”

The plate lit up, and for a moment, the notion of a palm scanner ran through Gaius’ head. Truly, modern devices on Earth had been replicated…in concept only, unfortunately. The basis of Orb ultimately revolved around mystical means that Gaius still could not comprehend.

“Done.” A small wooden triangle fell onto the counter. Gaius instinctively looked upwards, but there was no opening that it could have fallen from. “Now, just pick it up and move to the box to your left. Slot your plate in, and then pour your gems into the slide.”

Gaius looked at the box in question, which reminded him of a rubbish chute. There was something odd about him treating the gems as stuff to be tossed into a waste disposal system, but Gaius opened his bag anyway. The air warped immediately, forming a miniature hurricane.

“Blighted Night, stop! Close the damn bag right now!” The voice erupted from above him abruptly. “You, go into this passage! Next time, if you have over fifty gemstones, declare that to me!”

Fifty? I think the speaker’s going to be shocked…Gaius looked at the gaping maw that had just opened, licked his lips, and then marched inside it.