Friday came, and with it yet another Harvest. The beastfolk clustered in front of the Wooden Pavilion were even more boisterous than before, if that was somehow possible, and Gaius found himself longing for the Gatekeeper to quickly arrive and therefore shut everyone up. That odd man was just that overwhelming in terms of his presence…even if the little boy found him quite disturbing on a personal basis.

Of course, the heightened levels of activity had everything to do with the fact that virtually all the Harvesters were sporting new equipment and gear. Some of them were even wearing clothes that sparkled with gold and green, which drew the eyes of everyone present whenever they moved. Mai, for instance, was equipped in such a fashion that reminded Gaius of the ridiculously armed robots he’d seen before on Earth. He couldn’t remember the name of the series, but Tokyo’s advertisements were striking enough at times.

It probably didn’t help that she was posing grandly, changing her stance every so often to see which ones she liked the most. The peanut gallery — her flunkies — were also equipped, but their equipment was less flashy and, in Gaius’ opinion, more practical.

He probably wouldn’t say that to her face, though. He had the feeling that doing so might lead to a minor disaster for her followers. But at any rate, it did seem that the Harvesters here were equipped well enough to take out energy monsters a couple of times.

At that thought, the little boy could only feel a bit apologetic. If the exalted of Ark City knew that killing and dissecting snowpyres would net them ether cores, they probably wouldn’t have equipped their charges so well. After all, not every artefact was free to activate, like Nakama’s nameless bracelet, or had unlimited uses, like Gaius’ Auspices of Concealment. And although the energy monsters that spawned from small gatherings of gems were slow, their every hit contained immense strength.

But better that than having Harvesters die from being surrounded or killed by the snowpyres. At least the monsters made from energy weren’t all that clever.

Silence rippled through the crowd as the Gatekeeper finally appeared. His features were as hidden as ever, and the crowd unconsciously held their collective breath as he assessed the assembled Harvesters.

“Everyone here has probably been briefed by their sponsors, so I shall elaborate much. I would just like to remind everyone that ether cores are today’s top priority.” The Gatekeeper nodded at Campmaster Magnus, who took a step forward.

“Your sponsors would like to remind you that your life is the top priority. Don’t go dying, or at least if you are going to die, make sure other people can bring your body…or the equipment on your body back,” said the Campmaster, his cheeks twitching somewhat.

A wave of laughter spread through the crowd, thereby proving that only the Gatekeeper actually had the power to make others silent.

“Enough,” said the Gatekeeper, and the laughter died out instantly. “The path is open.”

A rift of blue appeared behind him. Time stopped for a fleeting moment, and then the crowd rushed towards the portal that led to Heritage, eager to test their newfound strength against their new hunting targets.

Which were admittedly rather limited in number. Gems apparently spawned every week in Heritage (Gaius himself found it somewhat unbelievable that the word ‘spawned’ was actually used), and only when a certain number were gathered together would these energy monsters spawn. Again, it was a matter of luck, which was why he felt sending in every single Harvester equipped by their sponsors to hunt them was overkill.

The propensity for conflict was also there, if two or more Harvesters quarrelled and fought with each other over the issue of ‘whodunit’ with regards to slaying these monsters.

It was somewhat odd that the Congress didn’t mention this.

The crowd had vanished into the swirling rift by the time Gaius was done with his thoughts. After exchanging a polite nod with Campmaster Magnus, he stepped into the rift.

“Wow, they sure move fast,” muttered Gaius.

Usually, the area surrounding the rift that led back to Heritage Basestation would have people lounging around, forming up in groups and chatting. Even last week’s Harvest, which had an auction after it, still saw some people taking their own sweet time with preparation.

But other than the somewhat-bemused sentries, there were no one left in the clearing except for him. It was a rather novel experience, but the little boy chalked it down to the fact that all the Harvesters realised that these energy monsters were actually endangered species. There were only so many, after all.

Gaius touched his backpack lightly. It contained around fifty odd ether cores that he’d gathered from the small army of snowpyres two Harvests ago. He hadn’t turned in any of them, having thought that they could be of use to him somehow, but he didn’t want to kill one hundred snowpyres today.

He wanted to return to the Library of Ancients.

Swapping out to his white lecturer cloak, he waved at the sentries and took to the skies. He’d exposed the fact that he had an Engine, after all, and given that no one had apparently given him flak about it, Gaius no longer saw the need to hide it from anyone anymore.

His body shimmered and vanished a minute after he took to the skies. It was a measure not intended for the snowpyres, who used heat to track others, but to assuage his own paranoia about being followed.

Gaius narrowed his eyes as he spotted the first group of snowpyres below him. Swooping down from above, two snowpyre heads blew up in rapid succession as he fired the Straight Shot in his arms, and before the small troop of monsters could react to this unexpected assault from above, another snowpyre had collapsed onto the group, its inwards shredded to ribbons by the short-range Breaker.

Unsheathing his silver-edged knife, the young boy pounced at the last two snowpyres. The first one staggered as Gaius rammed into its body directly, and then fell as he swept the monster’s leg out from behind. The tip of a silver knife emerged from the front of its throat, and before the snowpyre could even draw its last breath, Gaius freed the knife by slicing outwards.

The corpse of a snowpyre fell onto the ground, its neck half severed. The last one in the squad shivered imperceptibly, but before it could move a single step, the bloody knife had been embedded into its eye sockets, where the icy flames shone in place of eyeballs.

With a single contained flourish, the skull shattered. The small squad had fallen in less than half a minute, by Gaius’ estimate.

“I’m still in good form,” muttered Gaius, as he eyed the five corpses in front of him. He didn’t really like the next task, but as a Harvester tasked with retrieving a hundred cores for the Congress, there was little he could do about it. And even without his task…

The bloody knife glittered as the little boy got down to the gruesome task of dissecting the corpses to dig out the ether cores. Blood drenched the ground, turning it into a darker crimson as his knife continued to flourish.