BXBX NOVEL Chapter 156: Are you Aira? [1/2]
I am sure some newbies would appreciate the supervision, but for experienced shooters, busy bodies were something we hated more than social media whores at the ranges.
It was around 8 a.m. on a Wednesday, so the crowd should be much smaller.
While I asked my {Fates} to think about how to fulfill my wishes, they had not yet moved. Which was a good thing because the last time they worked on my {Kismet}, I fell to the ground in pain.
It was barely a week ago, but the amount of pain I have endured since then has been enough for almost ten lifetimes.
When the place opened, I used the resonance of death and $10,000 to rent the premises for a day.
As I walked in, I had another idea for my {Kismet}.
"Guys, can you make my weapons return to my subspace when I drop them? That way, there is no danger of someone stealing them. In case I want someone to borrow them, I will just use {Retrieve} or {Withdraw}".
Obviously, the {Fates} didn't answer. But I kept talking to them anyway. I wondered if my new request was as difficult as the leveling system.
If the {Fates} could create a leveling system, it would be easier to integrate new {Fates}.
According to the girls, they would arrive in the country tomorrow, I wasn't sure if they would come directly to Arizona or go somewhere else. But I expected them to have evolved into Phantoms by now.
During the livestream, I noticed that the Sirens were using abilities that I was unaware of. The giveaway was Robyn walking on air. It made sense if you think about it. They actually got souls as prizes during the recruitment.
As opposed to me, who not only got shit for enlisting despite my performance but got saddled with a debt of 26,000 souls to boot.
Though such things no longer matter, as I have earned over a hundred thousand souls in just the last two days.
Anyway, my point was that some of my loaned {Fates} would expire after eight days. I had to either drink the blood of Bella, Liv, and Lilly or ingest their saliva again.
The first time I consumed Bella's saliva, it only gave me {Code}. The second time we kissed, she had evolved to level 3, which gave her {Shutdown}. If I locked lips with her a third time, I was sure I would get her 4th {Fate} as well.
And since the girls all wanted {Rewind}, it was already a given that we would renew our loans. This meant that in the worst case scenario, I would get only one new ability from each of the girls apart from Lilly.
That would increase my total pool of {Fates} from 28 to 34. If you add the level 4 ability {Rewind}, it would be 35 {Fates} instead.
So instead of going through the hassle of reworking all my {Fates}, I wanted a leveling system where I could just increase my {Kismet}.
"Heh, my list of requirements keeps growing. The guys have yet to respond."
Unlike the last time, where they had immediately reacted to my request, right now they had yet to create any new {Kismet}.
And it was not as if the {Kismet} slots were the problem. {Reveal} was created by combining four different {Kismet}. I believe this was done to save space.
So to summarize what I wanted, it fell neatly into five different requirements.
1. Create a system to manage my {Fates}.
2. Swap the {Kismet} classes to active and passive sets of abilities instead.
3. Gain the ability to level up {Kismet} instead of reworking it from scratch.
4. Find a way to improve bullet utilization.
5. Create a way to stow weapons when dropped for security.
I took out a Big Mac and German beer and ate in silence. It was a bad thing to eat nothing but fast food, but the fact remained that even conservatively, I burned more calories than Olympic athletes.
"Any time now, guys?" I implored.
At that moment, I felt my soulgem burn as if it had been thrown into a furnace. The sudden pain made me drop my food and slump to the floor.
"Damn, this is much hotter than before."
I clutched my hands and endured the searing heat. This was to rebuild my current abilities and transform my fighting style so I had to grit my teeth.
My breathing became ragged as the intense burning sensation spread throughout my body. Sweat ran through every pore as I pounded my fists on the ground.
This must be what it felt like to be burned by a star. I noticed the color of my skin changing shades darker as my tempering continued. Smoke rose from my limbs as if I was being baked.
"I have almost died several times! This is nothing! Bring it on!" I shouted.
After what seemed like an eternity, the pain finally began to subside. It was slow at first, as my organs were in pain, the slightest relief felt pleasurable. My feet and hand, as they cooled, felt the sensation of the cold sand and gravel of the outdoor range.
Of course, being in Arizona, there was no way the sand would be cool. But compared to the extreme temperature, it felt cold as ice. The more seconds that passed, the more relief crept up my skin, from my limbs to my torso, and finally to my heart.
When only my chest was burning, I clenched my teeth as my body collapsed to the ground.
"Come on, come on. Just a little more. This is nothing, David's blows hurt a lot more and I took seven of those. Suck it up John!" I argued.
The heat that threatened to drive me mad then gradually moved from my heart to my Soulgem. Like a forest fire, the burning sensation slowly spread from my chest to the side of my neck.