Slowly, the fatigue gained from her battle with the poison tortoise left her body and she found herself able to successfully activate her motor functions. Making her way to her feet, she grabbed one of the many fragments of the creature's shell and sat next to the animal's corpse.

With an unnatural level of precision for an unmotivated adult, she used the sharp fragment of shell that had bonded with sand to cut open the corpse and extract anything that might have value. By the end of the operation her hands were a bloody mess, but in exchange for that minor inconvienence Hecate was able to receive the fruits of her labor.

[Poison Tortoise Glands- the glands of a wasteland poison tortoise. They continue to produce poison even after the death of the creature they belong to, a valuable source of poison that can be used in basic medicine and crafting.]

[Poison Tortoise Shell Fragments (Sand Bonded)- fragments of the wasteland poison tortoises shell. These fragments are as sharp as glass but just as breakable because of their molecular bond to sand.]

[Poison Tortoise Spines- the barbs of a wasteland poison tortoise. These spines are sharp enough to pierce armor but are unable to poison people without being connected to the poison glands of a wasteland poison tortoise.]

[Poison Tortoise Heart- the heart of a wasteland poison tortoise, it is recommended that you don't consume this object.]

After throwing the items into her inventory she turned her attention towards the oddity she found; it was a small orb covered in pointed barbs that was very lightly tinted green.

“What the hell is this?” Hecate asked to noone in particular.

Suddenly, the voice that would usually answer her rhetorical questions started to speak, though what it was saying was incomprehensible. I was an unnatural deep voice speaking nonsense overlaid with a radio broadcast noise, slowly the voice faded and Hecate was left in a state of confusion.

“...”

[Are you sure you’d like to log out?]

“yes.”

[Hecate has Disconnected.]

Back in the real world:

Katherine quickly opened her eyes and noticed the familiar scenery of her mother's office; a messy room with papers thrown all over the floor. “This room is just as depressing as always.” without missing a beat the young woman made her way over to her mother's desk and started searching through the many piles of paper for the concept ideas for Aether Online which were gifted to her from the lead designer who thought she deserved 'em’.

“Ah! This is it!” sliding out the piece of paper from one of the many piles, she took notice of the familiar orb only it was colored completely differently- The depicted orb was black with a purple miasma like flame spiraling out of it. A few centimeters below that lay the description of such an object;

Spirit Orbs- these orbs range from F rank all the way to SSS rank depending on the creature or monster they come from, our original idea was for these to be a way for skills to be transferred from a subjugated creature to its killer but those plans were recycled, and the use for these orbs became clear. They can be used to summon a familiar using a spirit contract, they can be consumed- and by doing so the consumer will inherit the spirit of the subjugated monster and can use their power accordingly, and finally they can possess items so that those items inherit the power of the creature (depending on the creature it comes from, the host, item, or familiar may display the personality of the original creature.) These orbs are very rare because in order to get them the subjugated creature must have lived long enough to develop a spirit. It's also possible for a creature to just give you it's spirit orb without it losing it's life- but if that is the case then the last two options that I previously mentioned become obsolete.

After reading the description of the strange object she found she clicked the lights off, made her way to her bedroom and passed out on her bed.

-----------------

“Shit!... Shit! Where the hell did she spawn?!? None of the enforcers have reported seeing her, damnit! If only these people weren't so worthless- Then I wouldn't have to do this shit myself!” a man frantically shouted as his enforcers reports came in.

“How dare they make me; their god, do the work himself- what's the point in controlling people if they can't get anything done?” the man pushed his rolling chair to another set of screens and started to type out a command.

{: Create World Quest-Contents: Manhunt. Player (Hecate). Custom Text: Deliver the player Hecate (Minerva) to a Null Enforcer. Create S-rank Reward upon completion: Dáinsleif.

Satisfied with his work the man slouched back into his chair and carelessly launched the code.