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Chapter 576 Thunderstruck

"So, Bastion has been supporting his grandmother\'s medical care since the start of his gaming career?"

Altair kept his attention forward but nodded solemnly.

Kieran couldn\'t help but sigh. 

"Why didn\'t he come to us? Even if we couldn\'t find a solution to nurse her back to health, we could have at least ensured she was comfortable."

Altair shrugged. 

"I don\'t know. Sometimes, it\'s hard for us to ask for help. It\'s not like we can\'t understand the sentiment. Look at us — one a complete orphan and the other completely estranged from his father\'s family."

"Good point."

Still, Kieran felt it should be somewhat different for Bastion. He wasn\'t like them. Whereas they were dark, broody, and grappled with deep-seated trauma, Bastion was bubbly, outgoing, and talkative. 

Once Bastion and Nemean formed a united front, they became rambunctious blabbermouths who often relieved the tension in unsettling situations. However, Kieran recalled an apt adage to regrettably characterize the situation.

\'Sometimes the ones with the brightest smile are hurting the most.\'

Thinking about that, Kieran tightened his fist and suddenly sped up, bounding inside the Hall of Teleportations and sliding to a halt before Zaragosa.

The Gatekeeper lifted his head, casting an eyeless gaze on Kieran. Like always, his features were obscured by a strange, manipulated darkness until he pulled his hood down to reveal his inhuman appearance.

"Congratulations on your Step, Aatrox… and friend."

Kieran felt gratitude towards the praise but gave a wan smile.

"I appreciate it, Zaragosa. But we\'re kind of in a rush here. An emergency has come. Could you teleport us back?"

"Same as always? Aeredale?"

Kieran first nodded, then gave a slight change in destination.

"Could you link the portal to the structure with my aura around it? Is that possible? That\'s my shop."

"Possible?" Zaragosa smirked, standing before the grand gate with raised arms, spatial energies warping the fabric of reality as if a stone had been dropped in a puddle. Then, the inside of the gate began to swirl and take shape. 

He continued.

"When you know the Boundary\'s spatial blanket like I do, anything is possible. Go on, New Myth. You belong to the Hero\'s Sanctuary; thus, all of its perquisites are rightfully yours, free of charge."

Kieran thanked Zaragosa again, and Altair followed with an abrupt nod. Then, the two stepped through the gateway as Adept, immediately noting a stark contrast from their experiences as Novices.

Altair examined his hands and then looked toward Kieran.

"You feel that? Does it feel… a bit different to you? Like you\'re more solid or something?"

Kieran chuckled.

"Or something."

Kieran had an inkling of this new feeling, but he didn\'t want to misguide Altair. Until he could confirm the sneaking suspicion, he\'d much rather leave it as speculation. After all, becoming an Adept had not afforded much change to their Attributes.

A quick calculation told Kieran the Tier Evolution had provided 700 points across the seven General Attributes. It wasn\'t an even spread, either. Like the Tier Evolution to a Novice, it followed the trend of his Class to ensure his physique would complement his abilities. 

There was also the Type, but Kieran suspected that it didn\'t have as direct of a correlation to Tier as Class did. Though he still had many questions about the Priming, Advancing, and all these Steps of Ascension, Kieran kept them to himself.

When the time arose, he would pose the questions then.

…

The gateway\'s portal rippled a few meters above the ground inside the Aeredale. It widened a few paces from the Godhand Bazaar. Kieran and Altair descended from its opening, landing smack amid bustling movement.

It was as if they had fallen into the heart of a commercial state built around trade and barter. 

The Aeredale they saw today differed from the city Kieran or Altair were used to. Many cavalcades roamed the streets designed for transport while people traveling on foot walked the fringes of every pathway.

The two Adepts stared at one another in mutual disbelief.

What had precipitated this drastic change in Aeredale\'s economy? The Godhand Bazaar couldn\'t be solely responsible for this change. It was a fledgling operation at best, and the Profession workers failed more often than they succeeded in crafting items.

A month ago.

That had been over a month ago — Kieran\'s understanding of his own operation was outdated, justifiably so.

Still, Kieran couldn\'t wrap his mind around what had happened. Other than handling the Bastion situation, he also needed to refresh his grasp of Xenith\'s economy — mostly the players under the aegis of Zenith Online\'s game structure.

However, that was not his current focus. 

Kieran ignored the hubbub of the bartering crowd, selling off merchandise on stands, and entered the Godhand Bazaar alongside.

A crowd immediately gravitated towards him, but Kieran held up his hands.

"Not the time, folks. Whatever questions you may have, they can all be addressed at a later date."

With that message, he tore through the crowd with measured steps, climbing the flights of stairs until they reached the top floor, accessible to only those Kieran allowed it to be.

Then, Kieran and Altair initiated the Log-Out sequence simultaneously.

…

Sometime later — perhaps no more than a few minutes — the Blackcrim Series powered down, going through decontamination, emission, and a slew of other processes to ensure those that climbed out would be clean.

After all, the costly device had an internal clock to track how long the Pod had been in use without powering down. This was the least it should be doing for its price tag to be justifiable.

Then, Kieran and Altair sat up, groaning and complaining. Their bodies felt like they had gone through absolute hell.

Kieran, in particular, felt famished and enfeebled. As he touched his body, he noticed he had lost a tremendous amount of stubborn fat that clung to parts of his frame… and muscle, too. 

The heat exuding from his body told him it was likely burned away… or, more precisely, melted away.

\'I should have expected that damned Advancing to drastically affect my body. Dammit! Oh, why does everything hurt so bad?!\'

A thump was heard upstairs as Kieran complained in his mind.

Altair griped upstairs and fell out of the Pod, smacking against the ceramic tile beneath them.

"Monkey balls!"

Kieran didn\'t know how he could hear Altair swearing through reinforced flooring… but he could. Soon, he flopped out of his device and noticed the flashing "WARNING!!" message on the Pod. 

He had stocked the device with all it would need for at least a month, but according to the date on the message… it was exhausted four days ago.

Same with Altair.

Minutes later, the door to the research lab opened, revealing Lillian holding an armful of X-hancers with a troubled expression. She was mumbling things to herself but froze after locking eyes with Kieran.

"Kieran…"

Kieran chuckled weakly.

"Hi there, Lillian. Um, how about a little help here?"

Lillian stood thunderstruck, her grasp of the X-hancers unwittingly loosening. The vials clattered against the ground as she darted up to Kieran and wrapped him in a tight, trembling hug.