1% Lifesteal

The whole value of everything inside the ring, including the ring itself, almost certainly surpassed twenty, if not thirty million dollars.

As for the essence-recovery stuff, he decided to keep that for himself. But the ability-growth stuff would have to be traded somehow.

For ability-growth elixirs, there were three different grades.

First-grade ability-growth elixir had no affinity. It could be used equally with all affinities. That being said, it only had an effect during stage 0.

Second-grade ability-growth elixir was affinity-specific. It worked for stage 1 abilities.

And finally, there was the third-grade stuff. This was the most powerful and the most valuable form of ability-growth elixir. But it was also the most restrictive. It could promote the growth of abilities up to around stage 2—50%, and it was not only tied to an affinity but it was also tied to a micro-concept. If the ability didn\'t have the related micro-concept, the elixir would be useless.

While this was the last official grade of ability-growth elixir, it wasn\'t actually the most powerful. But everything that had power beyond this level had erratic requirements and extremely variable effects, making it impossible to fit into a clearly defined box. Such items were simply referred to as superior ability-growth treasure and were usually—and kind of arbitrarily—ranked on a scale from F- to S-grade.

With these types of treasures, there was another catch—using them negatively affected latent aura accumulation. But this could hardly even be called a downside. Losing a bit of latent aura in the short term meant nothing when better abilities meant you could earn even more latent aura.

That being said, extreme abuse of such elixirs was a bad idea—not just because of the latent aura cost but also because it had a chance of messing with the microconcepts of the ability in question.

As for the stuff in Shawn\'s ring, it was all second-grade stuff—and mainly of the dark affinity, except for a single vial of unholy-affinity elixir.

He\'d have to trade this for something usable. And given that Shawn was dead, he\'d have to be really careful where he sold this stuff. He\'d probably have to trade it with Valhalla.

With that out of the way, he moved on to the primes.

While they were predominantly rather basic, they were by no means bad.

One of them, in particular, caught Freddy\'s eye.

"Hello there, little man," the prime called in a strange accent. "You better run, but you might not escape. It is very uncertain."

"What talent do you hold?"

"If you so choose to accept me into your soul, you will become quite fast. Certainly faster than someone who didn\'t accept me into their soul. If that someone also doesn\'t have a power that makes them very fast. Or maybe if they do but it isn\'t—"

"I get it," Freddy cut it off. "What about your affinities?"

"Earth and Water."

Freddy\'s eyebrows jumped at that.

Toughness of earth. Striking power and flexibility of water. And a talent that affected speed.

He cupped his mouth in contemplation. With water and earth, the best choice would be to hope for a metal affinity at the second star. The metal, earth, water combo was pretty much the best combination of affinities for a defensive fighter. But the talent was related to speed.

It would definitely be better if the talent affected striking power or defense, but this wasn\'t a bad match, either. Speed, power, and defense. This had everything needed to make a well-rounded fighter without any glaring weaknesses.

Many people were afraid of common talents. Who wanted to be common?

But this by no means meant that common talents were bad.

There were whole factions that only used common talents.

Besides, given enough latent aura, even common talents could flourish and evolve into something unique and spectacular.

His thoughts immediately went to Lucas. Freddy would much rather give the man a trusty talent like this than some niche bullshit that only turned out to be useless. Also, with such an incredibly generic affinity-talent combo, nobody could tie Lucas to this exact prime.

"Oh, yeah, didn\'t he need something from me?" Freddy asked as he slowly got up.

Before going to see Lucas, he took a shower first. He felt too filthy not to. In more ways than one. He put on regular clothing and draped the trenchcoat over it. It provided good protection even on its own while looking like a rather ordinary piece of clothing. With that, he left the room.

He found the young man sitting on the couch and twiddling his thumbs. He noticed Freddy enter and quickly turned around, nearly jumping out of his seat. "Hey…" he called meekly. "Are you still busy?"

"No, I got time. Sorry about that, by the way…" Freddy said, scratching the back of his neck. "I had something to confirm."

"No problem, just… Yeah, I… I have to tell you something."

Freddy turned serious. "Something wrong?" He approached the man and sat on the couch next to him.

"No… Maybe," the young man said nervously. "Just uhm… Remember what we talked about yesterday?"

"Your date?"

"No… About my mom."

"Yeah. Did something happen to her?"

"She… I didn\'t tell you this, but… For a week already, she\'s been going out by herself, and I\'m—"

Freddy groaned. "She\'s fucking gambling, isn\'t she?"

Lucas tensed. "I… I don\'t know if she is, but…"

"Oh, God fucking damn it," Freddy croaked and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Why didn\'t you tell me this before?"

"She told me I can trust her," Lucas said with a whimper in his voice. "And I really thought I could, but I\'ve noticed that she\'s giving me guilty looks, and even now…" He looked like he was about to start crying. "Are you going to kick us out?"

"No… I won\'t. Don\'t worry." Freddy slumped and patted Lucas\'s shoulder. "When is she coming back?"

"She should be back soon."

"Okay. When she comes back, we\'ll confront her together."

Lucas bit his lower lip and nodded.

The two of them waited, and half an hour later, Hellen returned.

She smiled at them at first but paused at the looks they were giving her. "Hey…" she said. "Did something happen?"

"Mom…" Lucas called.

"Hello there, Mrs. Black," Freddy said as he got off the couch. "We haven\'t talked in a while."

"Yes… Hello." She nervously grabbed her purse. "Is everything all right?"

"Everything is great!" Freddy said cheerfully. "In fact, Lucas and I have some news for you!"

"We do?" Lucas asked confusedly.

"We sure do, my man!" Freddy said with a wide grin as he pulled the prime out of his storage ring and threw it at Lucas.

Lucas caught it and stared at it. "It\'s… It\'s a…" He clenched the prime in his hands as his eyes flashed wide open.

Hellen put her hands to her mouth and rushed to sit beside her son. "Oh my god! Oh my god, oh my god! Honey, I\'m so glad!" She hugged her son, weeping tears of joy. Then she turned to face Freddy. "I have no idea how we\'ll ever repay this."

"Oh, I have an idea!" Freddy said with a raised finger as his voice darkened. "Maybe when you finally hit it big, you can just give me the money back!" He finished the sentence almost growling.

All the light escaped the woman\'s face as she heard those words. "That\'s… I… That\'s not very funny, Mr. Cliff."

"Really? I think it\'s fucking hilarious!" he said and laughed loudly.

Lucas looked at him strangely, almost fearfully.

Freddy caught himself. He saw the mother-son duo looking at him with fear in their eyes and felt himself deflate suddenly. He coughed. "Sorry about that. This should have been a happy moment." He looked down and grabbed a tuft of hair above his forehead. "Fuck me, man. Look, I… Your son is worried about you," he said.

Lucas suddenly nodded. "Mom… Be honest with me. Have you been going to the casino?"

"I… No, honey, please. I did go hang out with my friends, but…" She forced a smile.

"Don\'t lie to me."

She deflated. "A bit. For fun."

The disappointment and shame in Lucas\'s eyes was painful to look at. He averted his gaze and blew air through pursed lips. He forced himself to calm down, then turned to face Freddy. "You said I could choose my prime. What happened to that?"

"If you don\'t want that one, we can go and trade it. But I strongly urge you to just take it. It\'s a good one."

Lucas nodded. "I\'ll trust you then. Also… is that other thing you mentioned still on the table?"

Freddy wondered for a second what Lucas was talking about. Then, he remembered. He slowly nodded in approval.

Lucas nodded back and turned to look at his mother. "I want you to get help."

"But for what?" she urged, laughing nervously. "Honey, it\'s really not that serious. I\'m fine."

He raised a hand to interrupt her. "We\'ve had this conversation… so many times, Mom, I\'m sick of it," he said firmly. "I\'m so sick of it. And I can tell that you don\'t see it, but you\'re incapable of quitting. But you don\'t need this. We don\'t need this."

Like a fish on dry land, she kept opening and closing her mouth, looking like she was repeatedly trying to say something but always failing to find the words.

"I know you\'ve always wanted the best for us, Mom," Lucas said with a shivering voice. "But now let me do it," he said. "I\'ll work hard. I\'ll become strong." He lifted the prime in one hand and waved it. "We\'ve already made it big." A tear rolled down his cheek. "So please just stop… Please."

She stared at him for a long moment. The smile she kept trying to force finally crumbled, and she broke down into tears. "I\'m sorry. I\'m so sorry," she sobbed, pulling him into a tight hug.

Freddy let them cry it out a bit.

But internally, he was scoffing.

To him, this scene wasn\'t touching in the slightest. If anything, the sight of it made him feel sick.

He had seen an almost word-for-word interaction between two of his parents\' friends once; it was just between husband and wife. Not even a week later, he gambled away everything they had.

Tearful apologies like these were never the end of it.

As soon as the mood changed, people ran right back into old habits.

He could almost see the picture of himself crying in that shitty hotel, deeply regretting everything he did and yet there he was; same as always—worse than ever.

Although he didn\'t know whether it would actually save her, he had promised Lucas to get his mother some help. It was time to fulfill that promise. "I\'m sure you guys would like to celebrate tonight. But before that, I\'d like to take you somewhere."

***

Without a car, Freddy was forced to walk all the way out of town to get to Valhalla\'s headquarters. He stayed quiet about where he was taking them, even though they asked him a number of times.

Lucas\'s mother needed professional help. But Freddy would be damned if he took her to any place owned by Strata. Thankfully, Valhalla had its own mental health professionals.

They were allowed through the gate and were promptly invited inside.

Lucas and Hellen stared with eyes as wide as saucers, filled with shock and awe. They had no idea Freddy was connected to Valhalla. As they finally put the pieces together, Hellen looked stricken. She slowly shifted to Freddy and tugged on his shirt. "Mr. Cliff… Aren\'t these those…"—she gulped—"those terrorists?"

Freddy laughed. "Don\'t worry, lady, these are the nicest terrorists in town!"

She looked like she was about to faint. "Oh… I see…"

As soon as they entered, Freddy stumbled upon Travis, who asked about the two newcomers. Freddy explained the situation, and the man nodded.

Travis escorted them to the mental health professional\'s office.

Hellen was still shaken by the fact that they were inside Valhalla\'s headquarters, while Lucas looked on with an awe-struck expression.

"Here it is," Travis said as he pointed to a door. "I\'m gonna go now. If you boys want, join me in the mess hall. We\'ll have a few drinks."

"Sure thing, man," Freddy said as he offered Travis a fist bump.

Then, as Travis walked away, Freddy turned to face Hellen. "I can\'t force you to enter," he said. "Everything after this point is up to you."

"I\'m not sure about this…" she said.

"Mom," Lucas called, grabbing her arm. "Please. Just have a talk. That\'s all I\'m asking from you."

She slowly nodded. "Oh, god. I can\'t believe I\'m doing this." She smiled at Lucas. "I love you."

"Love you too, mom."

She took a deep breath and, with great reluctance, pushed the door open and introduced herself. The doors closed, cutting the sound off.

Just like that, Lucas and Freddy were left by themselves.

"Man… this place is so cool!" Lucas said, admiring the wooden interior of Valhalla\'s hallways.

"Yeah, I gotta admit, they do have a sense for aesthetics."

"Oh, thank fucking god you\'re here," a sudden voice came from down the hallway. A frenzied Thor jogged over to the two of them and rushed up to Freddy. "Just come with me." He briefly looked at Lucas. "Uh… I don\'t know you."

"Uh… hi," Lucas responded with confusion. "I\'m Lucas."

"Thor, nice to meet you, kid."

Lucas froze. "You\'re…"

"Never mind that," Thor said, turning back to face Freddy. "Your friend can wait for you here somewhere; you absolutely have to come with me."

Freddy nodded severely.

He left Lucas and followed after Thor.

They walked into Thor\'s office. It was neatly decorated, without any distractions, in the same rustic style as most of the rest of the building. The man didn\'t even wait to sit down before turning to face Freddy. "You killed Shawn Gem today. How the fuck did that happen and also please tell me nobody saw you," he blurted out.

Freddy scowled. "How do you…?" His gaze darkened as he realized it. "The fucking coat," he spat. "I trusted you when you gave me that."

"It\'s not a spy tool," the man rushed to justify himself. "It just has a safety feature that happened to give me a hint about what happened."

Freddy snorted. "Would have been nice of you to give me a heads up about that \'safety feature\'."

"You can be mad at me about the coat later. Shawn. Tell me what happened."

Freddy sighed and walked over to the chair. He sat down while Thor leaned against the work desk.

For a long moment, Freddy wasn\'t sure what to say. He hadn\'t been planning to keep it a secret from Valhalla. If he wanted to trade the elixir, he needed to be honest about the source.

However, he had been planning to say exactly how it happened. He\'d bullshit them a bit. Or, that was the plan.

But for some reason, he didn\'t feel like it.

Fuck it, he thought. He would tell the man the truth.

Thus, with a sardonic smirk, he turned to face Thor. "I followed him into the passage and killed him while nobody was looking. I did it as cleanly as possible, leaving no evidence behind, including keeping tracking methods from giving me away."

Thor scowled. "You just… What? Why did you do that?"

Freddy shrugged. "Why wouldn\'t I do it? He\'s a piece of shit, just like all of them. Rather kill him before he stands in our way during a raid one day."

The man looked at Freddy in disbelief for a long moment before snorting and shaking his head. "Well… At least you played it safe, I suppose. But uh… You do understand what you did, right?"

"Yeah," Freddy said.

"Do you really?" Thor asked with squinted eyes.

"Of course I fucking do," Freddy spat, his lips curling into a frown as he looked away in shame. He pinched the bridge of his nose and then buried his face in his hands, rubbing it aggressively. "I\'ve never done anything like this before," he muttered through his palms. Then, he dropped his hands, revealing a face morphed into a self-ridiculing blend of nihilistic amusement and remorse. "And I still can\'t believe I did that."

"Do you feel guilty?"

"What do you think?"

"I think you don\'t," Thor said coldly.

A scowl flashed on Freddy\'s forehead. "You\'re wrong."

"Am I really?" Thor said as he chuckled. "And what if I told you Valhalla punishes actions like these with ten years of imprisonment?"

Freddy\'s body tensed, his eyes opened slightly, and his jaw clenched.

"There it is," Thor said as he pressed a finger to Freddy\'s forehead.

"There\'s what?"

"The proof."

"So… What is it then? Are you calling me a psychopath?"

"Hey, I\'m not the one who told you to go murder someone!" Thor said. "But no, I\'m not calling you a psychopath. You\'re a narcissist."

Freddy scoffed. "Call me whatever you want."

"You know, your appearance and gathering don\'t fool me, Fred," Thor said. "You\'re no older than 25."

"I never claimed I was."

"You\'ve fooled the others. But that\'s not the point." Thor sighed as he got on one knee and looked up at Freddy. "You\'re young. Hotblooded. There is no passion in the world stronger than that of young people against injustice—really, I\'ve never seen anything that even slightly compares to it. But it easily misguides people. It turns their hearts dark and minds rotten. Look what you\'ve done today… are those the actions of someone who fights for justice?"

Freddy looked away.

"Look at me. You\'re dehumanizing your enemies. In your eyes, they\'re just… monsters. And if they\'re just monsters, you can do anything to them. Because they deserve it. But that\'s just not right."

"Is it!?" Freddy shouted. "You saw the same thing. You\'ve probably seen way worse!" Freddy rushed to his feet and slammed a fist into the desk. "How can you even claim that they\'re anything but monsters!? How!? These fucking…"—he gestured like he was trying to choke someone—"demons! Why should we ever give them any more kindness than they\'re willing to give others!?

"You know what, you\'re fucking right; I don\'t feel guilty! Why would I!? That motherfucker has spent his whole life treating people like animals! According to what bullshit reason does he possibly deserve to be treated any better!?"

Thor remained calm as he slowly got up to his feet. "I used to think the exact same thing," he said. "But…" He sighed and walked over to his chair, sitting down and staring wistfully into the wall as if his gaze reached all the way to the distant horizon. "Shawn was born in a family of scumbags. From a young age, he was desensitized to all of it."

"Ah, that excuse." Freddy smiled darkly. "My favorite."

"Hear me out, okay?" Thor asked nicely. "Anyway… He is someone who never learned a different way of life. Before killing him, did you ask him to change his ways?"

"Change his ways?" Freddy asked with a disbelieving chuckle. "Are you fucking kidding me? You\'d what, just forgive him? Let bygones be bygones?"

"Freddy… When you paint people as monsters and give them absolutely no way out… they become monsters. When they know they can not and never will be forgiven, they won\'t ask or work for forgiveness. They\'ll double down. And in Shawn\'s case… You know, just a degree of separation is all it takes for people to excuse… anything, really. The man worked in management. Sure, he got hands-on here and there, but in his eyes, he was just getting back the money they were owed."

"You know damn well that\'s not just what he\'d been doing!"

"I know that damn well. He on the other hand…"

"Oh, come on! That\'s idiotic!"

"Is it? And what about you?"

"Me!? What did I do?"

"You bought that treatment from Strata. That money is gonna fund more exploitation. And you even forced me to let that doctor go. Are you then guilty of exploiting people?"

Freddy scowled. "That\'s different."

"It really feels different, doesn\'t it? It\'s not like you had a choice after all. Your friend\'s life was at stake. That was the only right thing to do. But according to you, if you\'re born and grow up in a family of shitstains, and you learn to love those people from a young age, learning everything you know of the world from them, never even being given a chance to fix your ways, that\'s a sin worthy of death. No judge, no jury—straight to the executioner."

Freddy simply stared blankly as his shoulders slowly drooped.

"Look," Thor continued. "I\'m not saying Shawn was a dumbass who didn\'t know what he was doing. And I\'m not even saying that killing him was the wrong thing to do. But for your own sake, more than his… you could have asked. You could have confronted him and challenged his beliefs. Put his ass on the spot. Is he aware of what he\'s doing? Is he aware that he can stop? That he can be a better person?

"But we don\'t need to complicate things. Just tell me, how do you feel? Do you feel like you did the right thing? No need to muddy the waters with reasoning and logic, just listen to what your moral compass is telling you. How do you feel?"

Freddy averted his gaze agian.

Thor snorted and shook his head. "You feel like shit. It\'s as simple as that. You feel like absolute shit. And you wanna know why? Because you did something shitty. And that moral compass, the thing we all have somewhere in us, it\'s screaming at you. It\'s letting you know that you shouldn\'t have done that. I urge you to listen to it."

Thor got off the chair and walked up to Freddy. "You\'ve stained yourself today. This stain can only fade; it will never fully wash off. I\'m not really clean, either. I\'ve regretted my fair share of decisions. Hell, if I had run into someone like you after some of these, I wouldn\'t have lived until today. But hey, look at me now," he said as he spread his arms wide. "I\'m not a villain, am I?"

"I… I guess not…"

Thor smiled. "You got the man\'s ring, no? Let me see what he dropped."

Freddy burst into laughter as he looked at Thor with disbelief. "Okay, damn! That was a quick pivot!"

Thor chuckled. "Eh, come on, we\'ve said what needs to be said, no?"

Freddy\'s laughter slowly died down. Then, he suddenly broke into tears. Uncontrollable sobbing overtook him.

Thor patted his shoulder. "I\'m not gonna tell you it\'s okay. I\'m not going to lie to you," he said.

Freddy nodded. "Okay. I get it." He wiped his tears with his sleeve.

"Good. Now come along. I\'m sure you\'d like to get rid of the stuff you picked up."