Allen and Nera walked through the forests looking for where the shade-class specters attacked them. They eventually found it by retracing their steps. Although, it looked slightly different now that the Expanse had almost faded away completely.

They were disappointed to find that there were no specter stones here even though there should have been. The conclusion that Hache must have taken them while Allen and Nera were in the expanse with Harpe quickly came to them.

“I guess they’re also interested in selling specter stones. Harpe did call herself a Traverser.” Allen inferred bitterly. It looked like there would be no silver lining for this encounter.

“Yeah, it seems that way. At least you have that draugr specter stone so today’s not a total loss.”, Nera assured.

“You’re right. I think I’m going to hold on to this one for a while. It might be a good asset to have.”

“Sounds good for now.”, Nera looked around and observed that the Expanse was now entirely gone. She allowed herself a sigh of relief before walking away with Allen keeping pace.

***

After they left the forest, they headed to Trinket & Treasures to get patched up. Soon, they were standing right before the shop’s entrance.

“Why exactly do we need to go here anyway? Atelier City has free healthcare.”, Allen voiced. Nera turned her head back to him with a scowl.

“This place happened to be close by. Plus, we won’t have to wait in any annoying lines. It’s pretty convenient as long as you can put up with the lousy staff.” Nera responded.

“I guess you have a point.” Allen shrugged, wondering where Nera’s negative attitude had come from.

They went inside Trinket & Treasures. As usual, the shelves that filled up the main space of it were cluttered with metallic items of varying usefulness. They spotted Owlette sitting in a chair behind the counter. The automaton looked to be wearing some kind of navy blue royal uniform complete with silver shoulder pads, gloves, and a number of tassels.

She seemed to be playing a game of some kind on a handheld device when they walked up to her. She was so engrossed in it that she did not raise her head until Nera slammed her hand on the countertop.

“Hey! Look up! I know you know we’re here!” Nera yelled. This caused Owlette to look up disinterestedly from her game before lowering her gaze back to the device in her hands.

“I don’t mean just look up. We need you to treat our injuries. This is serious, Owlette.”, Nera affirmed.

Owlette looked up again but observed more carefully this time. She took note of the darkened area around Nera’s wrist that indicated it was sprained. Owlette also perceived Allen’s arm was broken due to it hanging limply at his side.

Owlette sighed. “Fine. I’ll patch you both up. I can’t focus on my game while being distracted by the miserable conditions you two are in.”

She got up from her chair and placed her handheld device in a drawer in the counter before turning around.

“Come to the back with me, so I can go this over with as quickly as possible.”, Owlette commanded in a dreary tone.

Her two soon-to-be patients followed her demands readily and walked past the counter and further into Trinkets & Treasures.

They passed through the main hallway and saw the peculiar metal structures that usually decorated the walls. Some of them resembled robotic animal parts. There were sights such as bronze claws, silver antlers, and golden fangs hung up around them. There were also other structures that looked like nothing Allen could compare them to. These seemed to be odd assortments of shapes clobbered together.

‘Is this really the best place to get medical treatment? I think we would have better luck with that at a roadside carnival.’

Allen pondered this right before remembering that Owlette had been the one to heal him from the brink of death last week. Allen placed his hand on the bandaged wounds he had from getting hit by Hache’s ax with Harpe being the one to send it straight into his chest.

‘Well, I guess she knows her stuff.’

Owlette abruptly stopped at an inconspicuous door and opened it up. Soon, everyone was inside. This place looked exactly like a hospital room. There were two medical beds that could incline. There was also a counter filled with all sorts of supplies for health treatment. Additionally, a large metal locker was on the other side of the room opposite to the three.

Owlette sluggishly walked over and tapped on the locker’s keypad to open it. This revealed that it contained several identical white medical coats inside of it. She took off her uniform, leaving a dark blue undershirt. Owlette then deposited the outfit into the locker before pulling out a white coat. She grabbed some sterile blue gloves from off the counter and looked at Allen and Nera with scathing eyes.

Her demeanor had slightly changed. It went from detached disinterest to ambivalent scrutiny.

***

Since Allen had the more serious injury, Owlette focused on treating his broken arm first. Nera walked out of the room to allow Owlette to focus entirely on this procedure. Owlette then quickly used the supplies in the room to get Allen’s arm in a cast.

“Try not to engage in any intense physical activity while you have this on. Do that and the fractured bones in your arm should be mended in about a month or two.”, Owlette flatly stated.

“Two months!? I don’t have that kind of time to be waiting around with a useless arm.”, Allen complained. From what the Necronomicon said, there were only four months before Allen became a specter. Not being able to make any good progress on getting enough money to buy the Theurgist’s Periapt was nowhere near optimal if Allen wanted to avoid that terrible outcome under those conditions.

“What? You got a new mecha assembly kit you’re itching to get both of your hands on?”, Owlette sincerely asked.

“No, I just got a lot of important stuff to do in a short amount of time, my part-time job and the activities given out by Diagram are all included in that.”

“I see, well those seem a lot less productive. And you think I can somehow heal you faster than you would naturally?” Owlette’s brow furrowed.

Allen nodded. “You were able to bring me to almost full health from even worse wounds in only a single night. Couldn’t you do the same now?”

“Nope, not possible. Anything I had that could have done something like that was already used up.”

“How?”, Allen asked as Owlette turned her back to her as she went to replace the gloves she was wearing.

“You.” Owlette turned her head three-hundred and sixty degrees to tell Allen this while looking directly in his eyes.

“What!?”, Allen exclaimed. The young man was startled so much he fell off the bed he was sitting on.

“I just said what I meant.” Owlette continued as she turned the rest of her body around to face the same direction her eyes were. It was incredibly unsettling to see and reminded Allen of her robotic nature. Owlette was unfazed by Allen’s obvious distress and kept talking.

“Last week, Nera came here a bloody mess and you even bloodier and messier.” Owlette then walked over to a counter and opened up a box with an assortment of vials in it. She pointed out four empty spaces one by one.

“I had to use every single drop of what I had left to keep you from dying.” Owlette elaborated.

“What was it?”, Allen questioned as he gradually got up from the ground after the intense shock he experienced just a moment earlier.

“Lesser Elixirs. Mystical potions that use Augmentation Craft to accelerate the healing process. I used four on them on you. It’s because of Elixirs that in magical society, your health almost completely depends on how much money you have. It’s not rare to see a rich Crafter live over ninety years. Not impressive to someone like me, but still…” Owlette shrugged.

Allen’s eyes opened up greatly at Owlette’s words.

“How much did each one cost?” Allen inquired with trepidation.

“It was 1083 dollars and 56 cents. So 270.89 for each one and the one to pay for them and the treatment was....”

“...Nera.” Allen interrupted, finishing Owlette’s sentence for her.

“Yep, she must’ve been saving up for a while. I wonder what she was going to use that money for before she did that.” Owlette put her hand to her chin in thought.

Her query did not do anything to make Allen feel better about what he learned. His gaze lowered to the ground from the guilt he felt.

‘Did I end up being a burden in the end after all? Looks like it’s going to take a little more to pay her back than I thought.’

The sound of Owlette’s voice roused Allen from his thoughts.

“You don’t have to worry though, I put the money to good use by buying that device I was playing earlier. You’d be surprised how many good niche games are out there. That aside, I expect that you would want to pay yourself this time.” Owlette told Allen.

The young man broke out in a nervous sweat and put on an awkward smile. There was no way he had enough money to cover the expenses for the treatment.

“About that…”

***

When Owlette finished with Allen’s injuries, she called Nera in to work on her injuries with Allen leaving this time. Owlette wrapped up Nera’s wrist with some bandages and gauze that was supposed to ease pain and reduce swelling. Owlette left the rest to Nera’s own excellent restorative faculties.

“Alright now that I’ve fixed you two up. I’m going back to the game I was playing. I hope you two have fun arranging my room as payment…or not. I really don’t care if you have fun, just be careful and don’t break anything.”, Owlette stated this and walked back to the front.

Allen and Nera looked at each other in surprise. They both had been planning to arrange Owlette’s room as payment by themselves.

***

It took them seven long hours to clean up the cluttered crypt of dvd sets, costumes, metal wardrobes, and figures that was Owlette’s room even with the two of them working together. Once they thought they were done, they had Owlette give it a lackluster glance over to confirm this and left as quickly as possible.

It was around the middle of the afternoon when the two parted ways and both went back to where they stayed. Once he got back to his apartment, Allen was so exhausted that he immediately went to sleep and did not get back up until the next morning.

***

Close to noon on Thursday, Allen was heading to a food stand near Coffee & Chronicles for his lunch break, it was called Le Sous-marin and it was known for having excellent submarine sandwiches. Overhead, the summer sun was shining brightly but there was a strong breeze blowing that kept the streets cool.

Allen had on his job’s uniform, a red collared shirt with a gold C&C symbol emblazoned on the chest of it and jet-black pants. It had been a massive hassle to get the shirt on with his cast.

Allen sighed. ‘Looks like Virtuoso work is going to be tough for a while. Although, it’s not like we’re getting any job requests or have heard anything about recent specter sightings. Well, at least that means I’m not going on any more harrowing experiences anytime soon.’

When Allen got to Le Sous-marin, he saw that a long line had formed in front of it. That was fine to him however since he had a whole thirty-minute break. Allen patiently waited for about ten minutes until he was the fourth person away from the front of the line.

‘I should be able to order soon.’ Allen thought as he started intently at the order of the person in front. They had three bags filled with food piled up on the overhanging counter. Allen figured that the person must have been ordering for multiple people.

That moment he thought this. A sudden strong gust of wind blew over the area. It tipped the bags over and caused the napkins stacked next them to be blown in the air haphazardly. Allen, reacting quickly, dived to catch the bags before they could fall to the ground.

“Gotcha!” Allen exclaimed as he caught one of the bags with his one good arm.

‘Wait, what about the other two?’

Allen looked up to see that the person who ordered the food, a tall young man with black hair wearing a gray shirt. The shirt had three vertical squares arranged vertically on the right side of the chest area of it. Similar to the yellow squares, he had yellow gloves and wore yellow goggles so thick Allen could not even see what his eyes looked like.

Allen stood up and handed the young man his bag of food. Allen then noticed to his amazement that this person had caught the other two bags as well as all the napkins that were scattered into the air in the same amount of time Allen managed to catch just one of the bags.

“Good reflexes.” Allen commended only for the man in the goggles to only nod silently.

“Alright...I’ll just get back in line now.” Allen chuckled awkwardly and handed him back the food. However, when he tried to get back in line, he found no one was willing to let him take back the place he was in. Each one of them stated that they did not even know he was in the line and that they all had places they needed to go to in a hurry.

It seemed like Allen would have to go to the back of the line again if he wanted to get something to eat but there would not be enough time before his lunch break ended.

‘So unfair! Is this how this city rewards a kind act!?’

As Allen complained internally, he heard someone call out from behind him.

“Hey.”

Allen turned around to see it was the young man with the yellow goggles again.

“I can give you some of my food as thanks if you want. It looks like you’re going to have to wait a while.” He continued to say to Allen.

‘I see. I guess there are some good people in this city.’

“Uh, that’s okay. I’ll just get something quick to eat at a convenience store.’ Allen remarked.

“Are you sure? I was just going to eat all this by myself. I have a pastrami sandwich, a club sandwich, a steak sandwich, an egg salad sandwich, a b.l.t. sandwich, a grilled sandwich, and a double decker sandwich.” The young man in the goggles inquired nonchalantly.

‘A b.l.t. sandwich would hit the spot right now…’

Allen sighed. “Fine, if you insist.” Allen accepted the offer with lukewarm reluctance.

***

A few moments later, Allen was eating the b.l.t. sandwich voraciously. He and the young man with the goggles were sitting at a table near Le Sous-marin to eat the food. It took Allen until he was already halfway finished with his sandwich to realize he had not even introduced himself to the person who was sitting across from him.

He looked up from his eating to see that the other patron of the sandwich stand was eating their sandwiches with a knife and fork. They had carefully cut up the sandwich into orderly small squares. They placed each square in their mouth one by one but rapidly. Allen dismissed this as just the man being a neat eater.

“So, are you on some kind of lunch break as well? My name’s Allen by the way.”

“Yeah. I’m Iyoto Hishida.” The taciturn young man kept eating his food without skipping a beat.

“I see. I work at Coffee & Chronicles which is about a few blocks from here. How about you?”

“The new building that’s being developed in that same direction further on. I’m working as a landscaper there.”

“Is that what the gloves and goggles are for then?” Allen asked out of curiosity.

“No.”

“Ah. Well, it sounds like an interesting job to have. A lot more interesting than working as a cashier at a coffee and book store.” Allen let out a small laugh.

‘I wonder what kind of building it’s even supposed to be. They went out of their way to use advanced reformation tech to make it, so it must be pretty important.’ Allen pondered to himself.

“Hey, you wouldn’t happen to know what the building’s for, would you?”, Allen voiced his curiosity.

“No idea. I’m just there to put topsoil down, plant trees, and trim hedges. I’m not told stuff like that and I don’t ask.” Allen was informed frankly.

“I can see where you’re coming from there. If it’s not your job to know something, that’s just extra work, right?” Allen asserted.

“You could say that. Moreso, I have no interest in things of that matter.”

“What about art then? This city is filled with it. Must be some art pieces you like here.” Allen inquired.

“Art, huh? Sure, you could say I appreciate it from time to time.”

Allen found the man’s lack of elaboration on barely anything odd. However, he had once been of few words himself, so he saw it as being understandable.

“Speaking of art, there’s a mural around here that I pass often.. It’s like this plane completely made out of glass and split into many different segments in a really cool way. It looks amazing. I think I remember hearing it’s name a while back. What was it again…” Allen trailed off.

“The Glass Plane Soars, that’s the name of it. It seems you don’t know what you’re talking about at all.” This came out monotonously and Allen did not sense a trace of disdain in the statement.

“Uhh, maybe that one is a dud. I don’t really have the best eye for the arts myself. What about the Misty Tower mural?” Allen knew that the Misty Tower was a famous art piece in Atelier City that was located in a busy location. Allen was sure that the young man would know about it and find it impressive as well.

“That one is also mediocre, it’s nothing but a hazy mess.” The art aficionado remarked as he got up from his seat. “My appetite’s gone now, so I’m going to get back to work. You can have the sandwiches I have leftover.”

Without any other words, the strange young man left in the direction of the building site.

‘Hmm, kind of rude but, hey, more food for me.’

Allen shrugged and began scarfing down all the remaining sandwiches, so he could quickly rush back to Coffee & Chronicles. It was around this moment, he got a call from Nera on his phone.

“Huh, really? Alright, I’ll be there right after work.”

***

It was 6 o’ clock on a summer day and the crescent moon illuminated the night sky with the help of what appeared to be an aurora streaking across the atmosphere. In front of Allen and Nera was a three-story dilapidated ash-colored building that looked to have been a vibrant green from the meager remains of its paint that had not yet peeled off.

They were in the Luminaire District of the Atelier City’s Underworld. This was a more run-down area then either of them was used to seeing here though. The streets and sidewalks had numerous cracks. Many places of business had boarded up windows and the residents themselves were wearing plain and rustic clothing, not at all like the futuristic style of the more well-off parts of the Luminaire District.

Nera’s phone buzzed with static before she closed it with a click and put it in her pocket.

“Does this look like the place?” She asked Allen who was standing beside her. She was not wearing her tracksuit jacket and had on a black tanktop with a purple piece of cloth around her shoulder that hid her “ace” tattoo. Her metal bracelets that concealed her gauntlets were around her wrists. There was not a trace of injury on any of her wrists any longer as well.

“Yeah, I can feel a bunch of spectral mana from here. It’s coming from all over the place, so there’re probably multiple of them. I can’t tell how many though.” Allen looked back at Nera after scanning over the building. He was wearing a plain white t-shirt with his cast keeping his right arm fixed in place over his chest.

“How’d you even find out about this place anyway?” Allen questioned.

“I heard about it from Evelyn. She said some people she knows here were talking about a lot of specters appearing from this building.” Nera explained.

“So that’s how. Wait, when did she tell you that? At R&R Lounge?”

Nera looked the other way bashfully. “..No. Well, we…sort of exchanged contacts the other day. Something about us being kindred spirits or whatever. …That’s besides the point, we’re just here to exterminate some specters and collect some crystals. You ready, lackey!” Nera shouted.

“Roger! Also, I’m not your lackey!”

***

When they went inside the building, the place was almost completely barren with wide empty white rooms all over.

“What was this place supposed to be anyway?” Allen pondered as he looked around.

“A museum. A pretty tone-deaf project to have here if you ask me. A bunch of pompous paintings in a place where people can’t even afford to get in.” Nera answered.

“What happened to all the art then? Did the specters get to it?” Allen jested.

“Nah, specters don’t usually take anything like that. It was probably the residents if this place didn’t just shut down immediately.” Nera responded ambivalently.

“At least that would mean someone liked the art.” Allen looked around carefully for any signs where the monsters lurking in the abandoned museum exactly were. Meanwhile, Nera took a different approach.

“Specters! Specters! Come out wherever you are so I can pulverize you!” Nera yelled in a sing-song voice with her hands cupped around her mouth as a makeshift megaphone.

“If they haven’t shown up already, I don’t think that’s going to call them out in the open.” Allen reasoned. It was no sooner had he uttered those words, when a rustling could be heard all over as shadowy creatures crawled out from the corners and crevices of the building.

In a matter of seconds, the two members of Virtuoso were surrounded by a horde of shade-class specters. Nera had a smug grin on her face which caused Allen to groan.

“What were you saying, lackey?”

“Shut it, I don’t think being a walking monster magnet is something to gloat about.” Allen tried to counter but was only met with snide laughter. He then surveyed the vast white room they were in. It was mostly empty except for several large ivory columns and a pile of broken boxes in one corner of it.

The specters had appeared out from both of these places as well as the sides of the wide doorless entryways into the room. There were exactly nine of them now. Allen looked overhead and saw a chandelier hanging from the ceiling ripped bare of all the glass on it. Already, his mind was whirring trying to find a way to take the best advantage of the environment.

He did not have much time to solely think about this before the specters all charged at them. Allen tried a mana-powered punch with the magical energy from the harmonica stylus he still had stored under his bandages. It was directed at the first specter to reach him, but he was instead thrown off balance due to not being used to fighting with his arm in a cast.

Fortunately, Nera had already felled the specter that reached her with a single kick and dashed in front of Allen to slash the shade-class specter in two with one of her now gauntleted hands.

She proceeded to decimate all of the remaining specters in a timely manner. Her legs and fist tore right through all the bodies like paper with a mixture of twirls and flips. She made the specters look like nothing but weak pests. However, Allen knew that could not be further from the truth. From their encounter with shade-class specters in the forest just the other day, he saw firsthand that they were incredibly dangerous.

‘Nera’s just stronger.’

In a few minutes, the only thing left were scattered specter stones. But neither of them thought it was over. Allen could sense another source of spectral energy left in the building while Nera could hear some kind of creature moving closer to them and fast.

The two’s eyes shifted from each of the room’s four entryways trying to pinpoint which one the specter would appear.

“There!” Allen and Nera both shouted in unison as a section of the wall burst open. A specter leaped through the debris. It was a wraith-class specter that resembled a giant monstrous lion with oversized fangs and a massive scorpion tail, a manticore.

Its scorpion tail started shooting out spikes out of its stinger. Allen and Nera quickly ducked behind a column as the manticore specter continued to fire the spikes. It halted its onslaught after they were both behind the column.

“Alright, you got any bright ideas on how to beat this thing.” Nera prodded.

“Let me check something first.” Allen picked up rubble from the wall that had slid over to them and then threw it in the air away from the column. Immediately, it was shot down by the fire of a spike.

“Yep, those spikes are fast and precise.” Allen pointed out the obvious.

“Well, that doesn’t help much. Hey, can you cover your entire body with mana strong enough to defend against those spikes?”

“Hmm, I think so judging by the strength of the last one.” Allen replied.

“Alright, how long do you think you can keep that up?” Nera asked another question that made Allen wonder what she was up to.

“I’d say about ten seconds or fifteen seconds at best.” Allen relayed.

“Hmph, that’s more than enough time then. You draw it’s fire while I go in for the finishing blow.”

“You want me to play tank. That’s not the role I’m used to playing.”

“Well, you’re going to have to do it this time. The role has your name on it and everything.”

“Fine, but make it fast. Also, there’s a chandelier above us you swing from to gain a vantage point from.” Allen stated as he covered himself in a cloak of magical energy.

“Are you ready?” Nera asked when she thought he was done.

“Yeah.” Allen assured as he peeked out from the side of the column. “Just give me a moment to mentally prepar-”

“Then, get going, lackey!” Nera commanded as she shooed him out from the protection of the column. Immediately, Allen was pelted with a barrage of spikes which he noticed were acidic as they fell to the ground. He then began rushing rapidly towards the manticore specter.

‘Any moment now Nera!’

As if on cue, Nera leaped high into the air up to the room’s chandelier then swung several times to gain momentum. Allen was just about to reach the manticore specter when she came crashing down with a signature attack.

“Magical Kick Breaker!”

The mandrake specter was promptly crushed under her foot as she came falling down, snuffing the motion out of it completely.

Allen stopped running and bent over in exhaustion and relief.

“For some I feel like that was payback for making you hold the draugr for twenty seconds.” Allen sputtered out between heavy breaths while Nera sat down on the remains of her defeated adversary triumphantly.

“Hmm, only a little bit.” Nera teased with her thumb and index finger close together in front of her for emphasis.

“That’s nothing though..” Nera announced as she then gestured at the many scattered specter stones around them. “Because we just struck gold!’

Allen sighed and grinned. He stood up straight to admire their winnings for the day. As exasperated as he was, he had to admit her words rung true. All they needed to do now was collect the specter stones and then sell for the highest price they could somewhere, wherever that was.

‘Maybe this monster hunting job isn’t so bad after all.’