BXBX NOVEL Chapter 81: I will hire you both.
"OH SHIT! {Fighter}!"
The art of freefall and parkour was something I found very cool, unfortunately it took patience and skill to repeatedly subject your body to physics and gravity.
I was currently falling straight down from over twenty feet. Even the best parkour practitioners needed a running start to perform a roll that would spread the damage of the descent.
In my situation, however, I couldn't roll because all my speed was directed straight down. If I locked my legs straight or tried to hold myself steady with my arms, I would break both the moment I hit the ground.
That was why it was safer to tuck your body in when you fell down the stairs or got into a car accident. Like a vehicle's shock absorbers, keeping your knees bent transfers the force to your joints. This was much better than breaking bones.
Still, no matter how you tried, the laws of physics and gravity were absolute. Even as I struggled to reorient myself, my feet slammed into the ground. A terrible impact shook my insides and even my balls.
"AHHH!" I couldn't help but scream in pain.
One unfortunate limitation of {Rewind} was its cool down. {Auto} took a day. {Save} took an hour, and I first used it in the Lone House zone. So, I couldn't use {Save} in the fort zone.
As a test of my abilities, I changed the way I fought depending on whether {Save} was available. Fortunately, I had yet to have a desperate battle where {Save} was in cooldown.
While {Rewind} itself only took 20 minutes to become usable again, without moving the {Save} point, I would be a sitting duck. Like {Regen} I should probably use my next evolution to address the problem of my immovable {Save} point.
Thanks to the regeneration from {Fighter}, I was able to get back up, albeit wobbly. Pain tolerance was something I hoped to get eventually. Then I started to wonder, if my {Fate} was slowly evolving, wouldn't the girls also evolve theirs? If they returned to my side, would the number of {Fates} I could potentially receive increase?
"Well, that can wait until we reunite. Aira, what else do we have to do?"
[Limitless, I would advise you to regroup with Reaper Joshua and Reaper Kimchi. Guarding the Soul Crystal would be the highest priority until the new defender arrives. A dispatch request has been issued, they should arrive in ten minutes.]
"Pfft. Reaper Kimchi? Why do you call her that?" I asked, chuckling loudly.
[Kimchi was the name Limitless used to refer to the Reaper named Angela Kim. I was just following your labels for clarity].
"Hahaha. Thank you, Aira. Knowing you can make jokes is a good thing."
[Understood. Each Reaper AI is designed to be a unique existence. I exist to assist you to the best of my ability. Unique to the mercenaries, the Death Seeker AI grows with our reaper.]
Following Aira's advice, I made my way back to the cliff where the Koreans were supposed to be. After about fifteen minutes, I found them covering dismembered bodies with white cloth.
'Are those their allies?'
Joshua, who noticed me first, waved and approached me with a handshake. It was only then that I got a good look at his face. He had a square jaw with small eyes that indicated his mixed heritage.
Unfortunately, due to Angela's influence, my mind kept remembering the huge member this guy possessed.
Unaware of my thoughts, Joshua shook my hand as he expressed his gratitude.
"Thanks for coming John. I really didn't think we'd make it through the night. Thank you again for this. Gela and I will certainly repay you in the future."
My eyes wandered to the bodies lying around and noticed that some of them were larger, like animals. Curious, I asked.
"Were they the other Formless who were transformed into horses?"
"Yes. Cattle are incredibly expensive in Hellsgate. It was much cheaper to find people willing to use the soulgear {Cavalry}. Of course, the only ones willing were Formless people like me."
Joshua then pulled out a necklace with a horse symbol on it. I then used {Reveal} and checked the soulgear.
___
Name: Liam Marshal (replica)
Rank: Wraith
Soul Capability: {Fate} 2/2 | {Kismet} 0/1
Souls available: 0 | To evolve: 400
{Fates}
1. {Stallion} Lvl 2 | Cost: 2 | Owner: Self | Sub: {Cavalry}
{Kindred} : N/A
{Kismet} : N/A
Soulgear:
___
"!!!"
Surprised, I almost lost my composure. The Soulgear was a replica of Liam Marshall's soulgem. The tailor mentioned that IRIS had returned his father's soulgem. From what I understood, these relics were part of a reaper's body.
Am I overthinking this? Soulgems were equipment that could use {Fates}. Unlike Soularms, which could only be bound, Soulgears could give a Reaper new abilities. But what if Soulgears were made from Soulgems? Wasn't that like using part of a human's corpse as a weapon?
There were so many things that suddenly clicked together. What if the reapers never really left Hell? What if it was only our souls that returned to Earth? That explained why we were similar to ghosts when we returned.
But what about the bodies that bled and died in Hell's Gate? If every reaper no longer had a body, it would make sense why they could only bring clothes with them when they were summoned.
'This is fucking insane. I can barely wrap my head around it. I should ask the girls later.'
Then I tried to gauge how much of this was common sense. Right now, the only people I trusted were the girls. If this information was somehow confidential, I might get myself killed by those who wanted to keep it a secret. I then quietly used {Reveal} on the well-endowed Korean.
___
Name: Joshua Hwang
Rank: Wraith
Soul Capability: {Fate} 3/4 | {Kismet} 1/1
Souls available: 1,114 | To evolve: 1,600
{Fates}
1. {Disarm} Lvl 3 | Cost: 1 | Owner: Self | Sub: {Maim}, {Disable}
2. {Lady of War} | Lvl 3 | Cost: 2| Owner: Angela |Sub: {Crushing Blow}, {Armor Plating}
{Kindred} : Angela Kim
{Kismet} : N/A
Soulgear: {Cavalry}
___
Ho? Joshua was also about to become a Phantom. His {Fate} seemed to focus on non-lethal power. Angela's was the exact opposite. With his {Fate} capacity almost full, he could only consume one more Formless {Fate}.
Although I was annoyed to see that he only needed 1,600 souls to evolve. Originally, I needed 5,000 to reach level 3, and now I needed 20,000 to become a level 4 Phantom.
However, Joshua's status explained the Reapers' common sense. No wonder Reapers thought they could only have two. If a manifested {Fate} always cost 2 souls in capacity, then that would be the only result.
Another thing I learned was that Kindred {Fates} no longer have a loan period. That would mean they are permanently available.
"Joshua, does {Stallion} ring a bell?"
"? Why would it? I don't know what it is, but this Soulgear only has {Cavalry} as its activation keyword. Are you asking about my {Fate}?"
"Never mind, did you find the defender and the rest of your allies? Where is the Soul Crystal?"
"Yes. It turns out that a D-rank undead stalker killed her and the others I saw a chunk of the stalker's corpse, so they must have taken out each other. There were five pairs of riders, and only we survived.
"Another dozen reapers served as the Phantom's guard. Everybody is dead. As far as I know, the Soul Crystal is hidden in the cliff itself, supposedly only accessible to the Phantoms."
Joshua pointed to a large piece of flesh that looked something like a dinosaur. My girls and I killed one during enlistment, so it looked familiar.
We could only do that by taking away its element of surprise. Seeing the carnage it unleashed here, taking the lives of over ten Reapers, it was certainly a dangerous monster.
As much as I wanted to leave. The new defender had not yet arrived, so I took a seat on the ground while the Koreans continued to retrieve their dead. The fallen Reapers had badly mutilated bodies, often missing limbs or heads.
"What are you two going to do now?"
"What it to you, white boy? We go home and fuck." The racist bitch replied again.
"..."
"We don't know right now John. Hardly anybody hires Formless like me. And Gela doesn't want to be separated."
"Of course Oppa! We are like Chimaek!"
"Chimaek?" I asked confused.
"She means chicken and beer. A staple for Koreans."
While I only spoke English, {Mage} and {Thief} had {Interpret}, so except when I was in {Fighter} or my classes were off, I could understand foreign languages.
"Is that so? What kind of jobs do Formless usually do?"
Joshua smiled shyly as he answered. "Well, normally Formless are in Production, Fortification, or Academics. Adventurers like myself are a minority. While Mercenaries like you are an anomaly. Though they would be surprised to see the power you wield."
Joshua's assumption was an easy one to make. However, if I only had {Rewind}. I would not be nearly as effective.
{Withstand}, {Carry}, and {Eat} allowed me to go beyond what a human could do. {Perceive}, {Listen} enhanced my senses to be on par with trained warriors. {Store} allowed me to create my own arsenal, while {Code} gave me the ability to augment my {Fates}.
The girls were as important to my fighting ability as my own {fate}. Seeing how Angela stood by Joshua and supported him made me miss them. I did not think of the girls romantically. But having allies gave me more resilience against mental anguish.
When we meet again, I have so many stories to tell. I wondered what they were doing at that moment. I hope they come back soon,' I thought subconsciously.
Knowing I needed to focus, I slapped my cheeks to drive away my loneliness.
"I'll hire you both. You have the look of a man who knows his way around a gun. I will arm you as long as you fight for me. You keep what you kill and have free reign except when I ask for you. Angela can come along," I suggested.
"Who says I work for you, white boy?"
Joshua took a moment before answering. "Do you need an answer now?"
"No, take your time, add me in Graveyard. I will call you in a week. Have your answer by then."
"Got it."
At that moment, a large sky beam fell not far from our position.
[Limitless, the new defender and his escort have entered the zone.]
I finished the handover procedures and said goodbye to the Koreans.
"White boy, still going? Not killed enough?"
"Don't die, John."
[Limitless, a new zone has been selected, please state your intent]
{Reaper NA20230799-FRM, John Smith reporting for combat.}