1% Lifesteal

Thor escorted Freddy over to their treasury, where Shawn's personal belongings were finally exchanged. The treasury was a sealed space that prevented outside tracking, meaning that they could take anything out without having to fear revealing themselves.

As for Shawn's gear, all the enchantments had to be removed. It was impossible to just remove the tracking runes and keep everything else—an item's enchantment was a gestalt, unified ether construct. It could only be removed all at once.

Naturally, this severely degraded the worth of the man's gear. Its value was further hurt by the need to cosmetically alter the pieces to prevent someone from noticing the armor. But the man had still been strapped with some quality stuff, most of it undamaged.

As for everything else, Freddy traded most of the stuff in the ring. He only kept the ring itself and the prime vestiges. There was a reason why many people carried loads of primes in their rings—they were among the most compact methods to store value.

If Freddy ever needed to vanish again, he'd rather do so with a collection of primes that he could sell for starter capital.

As for the elixir, Freddy traded all of it for a single large vial of second-grade water-affinity elixir.

With the help of his unique ring, he could relatively easily push through bottlenecks in his blood abilities. But his water abilities were another story. More precisely—Thousand Wet Hells. That was his most powerful and most difficult-to-grow ability, and it wasn't even close. It was also seemingly stuck, with him struggling to push it forward, which was a likely indication it was reaching a severe bottleneck.

There were many other things Shawn had in his storage ring, and as for those, Freddy didn't really need most of them. They were mostly basic essence-recovery and healing medicines. With those, Freddy decided to outright sell them.

He also ended up selling that katar he earned as his reward for the Fortress Dungeon run. Even if he wanted to use such a weapon, he'd make it out of his own blood. That being said, its price thoroughly shocked Freddy—Thor offered almost half a million dollars for it.

For a long moment, Freddy pondered whether he should take out some of the other stuff in his ring to trade it, too.

There was the cursed clothing that could be used to create a cursed item. But, he ultimately decided against selling that. He wanted to have it turned into a cursed item at some point, but that would no doubt cost a good sum of cash, and he wasn't in dire need of cursed armor at the moment, given that he had the trenchcoat.

Other than that, there were some of the last few things remaining from Janhalar's ring. The vials of blood were something he could possibly absorb to see if it had any beneficial effect, but the other two items were a complete mystery.

There was the glass vial with the two small shimmering beads and the chunk of dried flesh sealed inside a box. While he wasn't necessarily unwilling to risk consuming these items, he feared that that would simply be a waste. They were no doubt incredibly valuable.

While he wasn't that wary of Thor, he still didn't fully trust the man. The tracking implanted on his coat was still fresh in his mind. While relatively minor, that had been a violation of trust. It would take a while for him to get over that.

And with that, they were done with the trading for the day.

But Thor had another idea. "You know, I've noticed you don't have a vehicle or even a contact crystal. As for the contact crystal, I'd be willing to give you one for free so I can reach you more easily. But if you're interested in a vehicle, I've got some stuff I'm willing to sell." The man grinned. "Wanna check it out?"

Freddy chuckled. "Yes for the crystal. Not so sure about the vehicle, though. I don't have a garage."

"That doesn't have to be a problem," Thor said with a splitting grin. "Come—let me show you something."

Freddy raised an eyebrow and followed after the man.

They slowly made their way down into the basement of their headquarters, where they stepped into a massive garage. There were all sorts of vehicles there, from old-fashioned carriages to, surprisingly, more modern stuff.

Thor walked right past all of that until he reached a small room. There, he picked up a cube of black metal and took it out, placing it on the garage floor and showing it to Freddy. It was around sixty centimeters wide. The cubic object looked like rather advanced etherology, with numerous lines crossing through it, with what looked like tubes and gears covering most of the surface.

"What is this?" Freddy asked, feeling rather confused.

"You're about to witness something incredible." Thor bent down and touched what looked like a large button. He pressed it down, and immediately, the seams running through the box lit up with the pale light of pure essence.

To Freddy's utter amazement, the box slowly unraveled, taking the form of a motorcycle. It was sleek black in design, with large headlights and huge wheels. Its seat was quite large, too, allowing two people to sit on it without a problem—three if they really squeezed in.

Thor laughed loudly and sat down on it. "What do you think? Pretty damn cool, eh?"

"Cool does not do it justice, man…" Freddy muttered in a daze.

He bent over to touch the metal surface, feeling the cool metal on his fingertips. It was electric. He had always been a fan of Old Earth technology, and even etherology in general. Now that he faced something he could have only dreamed of seeing not even two years ago, he was blown away. For a long moment, he felt like a child again, simply admiring something he thought was pretty badass.

But that fascination rapidly deflated, however. "This has to be incredibly expensive."

"It is," Thor said with a sigh. "Brand new, this baby costs seventy million dollars. Due to the cost of import into the Northern Belt, you can easily slap another ten mil on that."

Freddy flinched. "I can't afford that kind of price.

"Now, no need to be hasty," Thor said playfully. "I would have been surprised to hear that you can afford it just like that. I have an alternative offer for you if you're interested."

"What's the offer?"

"You can rent it from me for a million dollars a month until you save the money to buy it off. I won't be an asshole; any money you pay for the rent will be knocked off the final price. How's that sound?"

That wasn't that bad. However, Freddy wasn't sure whether it was worth it. A million dollars a month was a lot of money. He could spend that money on resources instead. Not to mention the cost of fuel or possible maintenance.

"Oh, I should also probably mention that this baby has a one-star tzenekite core in both wheels. The cores can also save up to 50% essence if you want to really step on it."

Freddy's eyes widened slightly. That was the equivalent of two one-star satellites worth of tzenekite. With that, it could produce 2% essence every second, which should be more than enough to drive without worrying about fuel.

He could tell that he was grasping for justification to buy it.

But he did really need a mode of transport other than walking and taking the bus.

On top of the reasonable payment plan and the ability to store the vehicle in his storage ring, he could feel his self-control rapidly evaporating as he finally gave in. "Sure. I'm in," he said. And he was grinning from ear to ear.

"Glad to do business with you, lad," Thor said as he got off the bike and pressed a button. The vehicle compressed into a cube again. Thor looked at it thoughtfully. "Can you fit this in your ring?"

"Just barely," Freddy bullshitted. In reality, while it took up the lion's share of room in Janhalar's ring, there was more than enough space to fit it right beside everything else.

He picked up the cube, which was quite heavy, and stored it away.

Thor nodded at him. "Guess I'll see you later then. I've got work to do, so we'll catch up another day. Also, before you leave, I have a warning for you."

"Hmm?"

"Even if there's no evidence directly tying you to Shawn's death, the Gems might still try to target you."

"What? On what basis would they do that?"

"What basis do they need? That old piece of shit Caleb has lost two kids in a short period. He'll act against anyone he even vaguely suspects to have been responsible for their deaths. If for no reason other than to just vent his anger."

Freddy winced as he realized that that might mean that Valhalla would also be targeted. "Sorry about that. My actions were thoughtless."

"What's done is done. I'm just warning you to remain cautious."

"Don't worry about that. I always keep my guard up. But thanks for the warning, man." Freddy offered Thor a fist bump. "And thanks for the bike. And for the talk; just… thank you."

"You're welcome." Thor bumped his fist. "See you later."

Freddy nodded. "See you later." Then, he walked away, heading off to find Lucas and Hellen. Once he picked them up, they had a beer with Travis.

Travis, Freddy, and Lucas talked a bit while Lucas's mother sat silently beside them. Whatever she had talked about with the therapist, it had clearly left a rather major impact on her. They didn't bother her or ask any unnecessary questions.

Before long, they were heading home.

"What the hell is that?" Lucas asked as Freddy pulled the metal cube from his storage ring.

Freddy grinned widely at him. "You're about to find out."

***

Thor watched Freddy walk away. He sighed. "Fooled the others, my ass…"

Thor had been completely mistaken about Freddy's age. It was hard to tell the age of an archhuman based on their appearance alone, but gathering was considered a pretty reliable age indicator, at least for the minimum age of the person in question.

Only absolute monsters reached the peak of the second star before they turned thirty.

It was important to keep in mind that most folks stalled at the first star to gather up every bit of latent aura they could. Evolving a talent was essential for continuing to grow.

But not only had Freddy reached his current level at insane speed, he also didn't seem weak for his gathering. Not at all. Coupled with the man's bizarre self-recovery, Thor was forced to recognize Freddy as an elite among elites.

But he was still a young man. It was clear as day that Freddy hadn't yet learned how to cope with the darker aspects of life. In that sense, he desperately needed guidance before he strayed too far off the right path.

Thor decided to be there for him.

This was someone who he desperately wanted to keep on his side. His fists clenched as he remembered his deal with the adjudicator. The scar on his soul ached.

Perhaps Freddy might be capable of bringing some real change to the Northern Belt.

***

Lucas screamed as Freddy stepped on the pedal, speeding up even more.

His mother was also screaming, but she seemed to be enjoying herself.

It didn't take them long to reach the building, where Freddy folded the bike and stored it away.

"I'm never doing that again…" Lucas muttered as he struggled to remain standing on his shaky legs.

"Come on, don't be a killjoy," his mother said as he tapped him on his back. "When did I raise you to be such a coward?"

"Mom!" he shouted.

Hellen chuckled, and even Freddy laughed along as he prodded Lucas.

They went back to the apartment, had dinner, and then, finally, right before their eyes, they watched Lucas accept the prime into his soul.

His mother cried and hugged him tightly while Freddy looked on with a smile.

Absorbing a prime vestige was quite exhausting. Before long, Lucas was feeling too tired to remain awake. He excused himself and went to sleep.

Freddy and Hellen were left together in an awkward silence.

Finding nothing to talk to the woman about, Freddy was about to excuse himself, but Hellen suddenly spoke. "I've been a terrible mother, haven't I?"

Freddy paused. "Would you prefer me to spare your feelings, or do you want me to be honest?"

She chuckled darkly. "I have a feeling I already know what you'll say."

Freddy opened his mouth but then closed it as he slowly nodded. Then, he got up and turned to leave. But three steps in, he stopped and turned around. "You haven't done anything unforgivable," he said. He wanted to add something else to that, but he came up short. "Good night," he said as he finally walked away.

"Good night."

***

The next day, Freddy had a shopping trip to take care of.

He purchased a number of books he thought were essential for any beginner archhuman and gave them to Lucas. He tasked the boy with reading, practicing using his essence, and trying to develop a few abilities on his own.

Then, without further ado, he went to Valhalla's headquarters. There, he was given access to a training room. It was just a sealed room with metal walls and durable practice targets. There was nothing fancy about it, no gathering arrays or combat puppets. But it was all he needed.

There, for the next two weeks, he focused almost entirely on his abilities.

Sip by sip, he consumed the water-affinity elixir and, percent by percent, found himself breaking past the Thousand Wet Hells bottleneck.

He had finally managed to last through a full run of Thousand Wet Hells. From 199% essence to 0% essence in one run. This was an incredibly dangerous thing to attempt for anyone who wasn't Freddy. But even he was left literally torn apart, with numerous holes scattered through his body and even with a number of broken bones. He had even completely lost feeling in his legs due to a spine injury.

But his efforts had been rewarded. Not only had he broken past the bottleneck, but he felt his body reach an entirely new level of durability.

Despite his progress with Thousand Wet Hells, he found himself completely stuck with Hydraulic Throw. The "precise direction" rune simply refused to form, no matter what he tried to do. He was nowhere close to giving up, but he was starting to feel seriously frustrated with his lack of progress.

His other abilities were also continuing to develop. He upgraded the Blood Javelin to stage 1. Before long, Accelerate Blood Projectile followed. He upgraded it with a vestige of "trajectory." This made it so that the ability not only accelerated projectiles but also helped them resist any external forces trying to change their trajectory.

Anything the projectile struck also counted as an external force, meaning that this doubled as an indirect method to enhance the impact power of his javelins. Although that effect was pretty minimal, admittedly.

Soon after, he finished Crimson Spring, too, and for the stage 1 upgrade, he ultimately decided to go down the Purifying Crimson Spring route. His Absorb Blood was quite advanced, and it would be a shame not to use this to his advantage.

Speaking of Absorb Blood, it also reached stage 1. Freddy upgraded it with the generic concept of blood, which reduced the price from 5% essence per liter to 4% essence per liter and also made both the absorption and conversion of blood slightly faster.

His core abilities were also starting to reach a tipping point, but many of them were stuck at bottlenecks.

Gore Knuckles got stuck at stage 1—90% progress, but it seemed that the effect of Freddy's unique ring was enough to help inch it forward to completion, so he kept working on it.

But he couldn't say the same thing for Hydraulic Flex and Flowing Strike. These two were stuck at stage 1—90% and stage 1—95% percent respectively.

He was out of elixir, unfortunately, but he didn't feel he strictly needed it. A bit of action would likely help them along just fine.

Another ability that made notable progress was Abyssal Depths, which finally reached stage 1 completion. However, Freddy refused to upgrade it. He was already quite slow, and on top of that, the backlash he was suffering from Flowing Strike was becoming incredible—even with Thousand Wet Hells helping offset it.

It appeared that this was truly going to be a breaking point. Once he upgraded Flowing Strike and Abyssal Depths, he would have to make a choice.

Did he want to keep the ability as something he could tolerate using, or did he want to fully convert it into a self-destructive but insanely powerful trump card?

He wasn't sure.

Both options had their merit. He needed to thoroughly consider his options and the ramifications of both choices before finalizing his decision.

With every day that passed, Freddy cut his sleep time more and more. Eventually, he reduced it to only two hours of sleep. Pushing it any further than that impacted his ability to remain focused. But from what he could tell, he could live just fine on only 2 hours of sleep.

Even if waking up felt like he was getting tortured.

He got an invitation to another raid, but this one was very minor, with only a handful of guards. They saved a number of slaves that were being used to operate an underground food-processing facility.

Thor ended up "selling" this location to Grand West Enterprises, which produced most of the food in Repentawa. Those people were undoubtedly the ones behind the operation in the first place, and now, Thor was milking them dry for all the money he could suck away from them while keeping their equipment hostage.

No wonder the local powers hated Valhalla so much.

After a few more days of work, Freddy finally felt his ability growth slow down. It was time to return to delving and actively using his abilities again.

He wrote down his current progress:

GATHERING:

Second star—199% essence capacity

2-star satellite

TALENT:

1% Lifesteal: Dynamic-quality healing

SOUL CONSTRUCT:

Scythe: Essence Extraction

TEMPERING TECHNIQUES:

Blood affinity:

Lake of Blood: Stage 2—40% Progress

Crimson Mercury: Stage 1—70% Progress

Purifying Crimson Spring: Stage 1—5% Progress

Water affinity:

Adaptive Water Body: Stage 1—Complete

Thousand Wet Hells: Stage 1—81% Progress

Abyssal Depths: Stage 1—99% Progress (Ready to Upgrade)

ACTIVE ABILITIES:

Blood affinity:

Gore Knuckles: Stage 1—90% Progress

Blood Javelin: Stage 1—17% Progress

Absorb Blood: Stage 1—10% Progress

Accelerate Blood Projectile: Stage 1—5% Progress

Water affinity:

Flowing Strike: Stage 1—95% Progress

Hydraulic Flex: Stage 1—90% Progress

Create Water: Stage 1—53% Progress

Purify: Stage 1—0% Progress

Pressure Jet: Unfinished ether shell

Hydraulic Throw: Unfinished ether shell

Perished water affinity:

Perished Water: Stage 0—8% Progress

Ghosts of the Drowned: Stage 0—8% Progress

SPIRIT ABILITIES:

Blood Sacrifice

Leviathan's Fury

UNIQUE CURSED ITEMS:

Blood Ring: -6% essence cost, +5% power for blood-affinity abilities. Can be used to release Bloodshed. Attacks inflict minor bleeding.

He was brimming with strength. He was itching to return to delving as soon as possible.

But he had noticed something throughout the previous two weeks.

Lucas kept shooting him glances. With every passing day, the boy's desire to go and do a proper delve grew exponentially. He kept quiet to not bother Freddy, but it was clear as day that he didn't just want to stay cooped up inside practicing essence manipulation.

As Freddy put his gear on and prepared to leave, he spotted Lucas, who was sitting on the couch. The boy noticed that Freddy was in full gear and looked excited momentarily. Then, he calmed himself down and looked back at the book. "I see you're returning to delving…" he muttered.

Freddy sighed and shook his head. "Want to come with me?"

Lucas's eyes shot wide open. "Really!? I mean…" He deflated a bit. "Wouldn't it be dangerous?"

Freddy chuckled. "We'll go to the Fortress Dungeon. Unless something goes seriously wrong, you'll be safe there."

Freddy wasn't absolutely confident, but he had a 90% assurance that he could break the portcullis that locked the dungeon down. His Flowing Strike cost nearly 25% essence already. Besides, even if he couldn't, the odds of encountering serious danger weren't particularly high.

It was also a much better option than taking the young man deeper into the interspace. There was a possibility that someone would attack them there, but he was much less afraid of such an attack while inside the dungeon.

"But we're gonna have to get you some gear first," Freddy said, winking at him.

Lucas lit up like a candle. "Okay! Let's go!"