Chapter 19: Seventeen

A blue dune-buggy parked in front of a two story building amongst other cars. Though there were still the loud crowds, this area of the slums seemed much nicer than normal—cleaner. Here, houses actually looked like houses, although still small and made of wood, but it was smack dab in the middle of Walker's slum-lane.

She walked to the building's doors, which hung the sign 'Slumdrink' atop, and stood in front of two men who each had a gun at their hip. With a nod, she walked into the space.

The first thing she noticed was the smell of booze. Followed by how bright and clean the place was, then the ordered tables and chairs, food, and a counter with a bartender. There was a small, black box projecting a video of what appeared like a group fighting an ape-like beast. The occupants within the bar watched with interest, and when it came down with a slice of a blue wave of mana, they cheered, raised their glasses, clinked, and chugged. Most people were dressed informally, but almost all had some sort of visible weapon on them—swords, bows, gauntlets, guns—it was a wide array of weapons. The video moved on to another section and there a person was attacking a tower.

'Odd. . .is that a sport of some sort?' Rose thought.

She turned left and headed for a stairway that led below the shop. A male stood there, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, his burly figure stared her down.

"The king definitely eats his own shorts," She said. Exasperated at the new phrase Mare had included in the data she gave. 'What sort of odd kinks do these people have?'

The man moved aside with a nod and she descended the stairs.

"Sheesh, you sure took your sweet time getting here."

It wasn't long that she found herself in a room made of smooth lime before a snarky voice came over. She turned her head and saw a girl leaning against the wall. Short black hair, a jacket of red that accompanied a shirt of black which showed off her smooth midriff. She spotted cotton shorts and black stockings on both legs that entered into boots. On her hands were leather gloves with a metal plate about the knuckles and on her side was a satchel.

The female smiled. "Name's Elsa Mont, nice to meet ya, you?"

"Rose, just Rose," She replied in kind, "Did I really arrive late?"

"Truth be told, I just got here myself," The girl chuckled, shrugged, and pointed, "It's about to begin."

They walked forward. The room was bright and there were four people there sitting around a circular table, but two stood out the most. The first was a man of golden-blonde hair in the middle of the group, he dressed in what appeared to be a track-suit of blue that matched his eyes, wore a flip-flop, and looked to be in his twenties.

The second was a girl who had two curved horns sprouting from her black hair and a sturdy tail that wiggled from her behind. She wore black shorts and a black coat, strapped to her back were two sheathed blades.

'Dragonian race?' Rose thought.

One of the other two turned towards them.

"Finally, you both grace us with your presence." He looked them up and down.

"Nicholas. . ."

"Let me have this one, Reed." The brunette waved away the blonde. "Could you two show us what you have to offer?"

"Huh? Who are you? Are you the boss here? That's not what the data said."

While the girl besides her yapped on, Rose summoned her weapon. Eyes drew to it.

"A Gear!" They were mesmerized momentarily. Except for the dragonian girl who remained silent.

The man named Nicholas nodded and turned to Elsa.

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"And you?"

"And me? What about you?"

"Don't tell me you can't fight?"

"If I said so, what of it? Look at that clunky gun of yours!" She pointed at his hip, almost laughing at the horrid weapon there. "Whichever Mage made that is a disgrace, I could make something better with my eyes closed!"

"Why you. . ." He reached for his gun and stepped forward

"Nicholas—"

She had already closed the distance.

Elsa circled around the man, smacked his hands away from her face, and her fists shot out. One strike, two strike, three strike—her iron brassed gloves pummeled his face, left and right, right and left, and blood splattered with a final hit to his nose that accompanied the tune of the crunch of bone. Just like that, he fell to the floor, and was down for the count.

She shook her hands with exaggerated motion then turned to the leader of the group and smiled. "One less ripoff of a raider, am I right?"

Nobody laughed.

"He may have stepped out of line, and you both caused unnecessary tensions with each other, you had the right to defend yourself from his intended attack, but wake him up, he's not a fighter—he's the turret handler that will help us shoot down our target."

". . ."

Elsa grumbled but still obliged. When she smacked the man awake, she quickly clapped her hands together and apologized.

"Sorry about that!" She bowed.

Rose thought, at the very least, she was a genuine girl free with her emotions.

The brunette blankly stared at her as he wiped blood from his nose. ". . .let's just get started, Reed."

"Alright."

The blonde nodded and spoke to the group.

"We'll be raiding then smuggling products meant for Alos into the slums. Specifically, we'll attack one of the less guarded transporters. My informant tells me it carries a hoard of Rank 1 Armaments, a small loss at most in Alos, but worth everything here."

Rose had now aligned herself with Smugglers of the Slummers, or S.O.S, a terrible acronym that didn't fit the actual name of the group. The job was risky, and being caught by Alos would bring death or jail. However, the pay was good. It was at least 10,000 lixels and there would be a bonus both for how well she did and the estimated price of the goods—which she learned armaments could sell for hundreds of thousands. She took a breath and calmed herself, she needed this job so she could get on with the rest of her goals and not be bogged down simply by energy.

"Link your pads with mine and I'll explain the relatively simple plan."

Her core was currently at 40% charge—two days—and with the other two orbs in the shack, a total of 7 days. Her dune-buggy was better at 50% but, either way, she needed money and she needed mana orbs.

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