Quest academy silvers, p.31
Quest Academy: Silvers, page 31
It was as if Sal had flicked a switch that read doom and gloom. Josh rolled his eyes.
“My old man would have me repairing shit the moment I stepped through the front door. No thank you. It makes no sense…it’s like they’re punishing us for that stupid fucking race at the start of the week.”
Sal frowned, not sure what he was getting at. “You mean like the ranks and stuff? It’s not permanent. We’ll be reshuffled in a few weeks, I think.”
Josh shook his head in exasperation. “No, the outings. They have one with the Paradox reclamation guild this weekend, but it costs like two hundred Q-Cred…which means that only the top ranked can go on it.” Josh gritted his teeth in annoyance. “So the only people who can get an ‘in’ with the guild are the ones who did well in a stupid test. How is that fair? How do they expect us to earn that much in a damn week?”
Another male voice called out from behind them on the stairwell. “Suck it up, Twitch! The academy doesn’t owe you shit…you could set up shop and start doing repairs instead of feeling sorry for yourself.”
Without missing a beat, or even turning around, Josh shot back at the other voice, “Fuck off, Anders! How many sales did your little pop-up shop get you so far?”
Sal turned to look at a black-haired guy walking behind them, shooting Josh a withering look.
“Thirty Q-Cred, which is thirty more than you’ve managed. When things ramp up, I’d say I’ll be able to afford an outing by the end of the month. What’s your plan?”
The two continued to bicker as they descended the staircase. A few others watched, but Sal kept to himself and listened politely, not wanting to get drawn in any further.
When they finally got to the lobby, Sal gave them a polite wave and tried to extract himself from the group, but Josh caught his attention.
“Hey, are you heading to the workshop? Was thinking of going there…wanna join me?”
A few of the others looked to have the same idea and started to stand around, but Sal just shook his head.
“Was up late last night…gonna go and catch up on some sleep. I’ll see you there another time, though?” He turned to leave, when he heard an unfamiliar voice ridicule Josh.
“Trying to suck up to the Rank #2 Silver, Twitch?”
Another voice piped up to add another layer. “Up late, ya hear that? Probably at the party too!”
Sal sighed as he made his way back to the dorms. He wasn’t in the mood to confront them, nor was he in the mood to play nice and head to the workshop. Classes were over, and he felt as though he had been chasing his tail for the last few days. He’d collect his new uniform from the workshop after getting some rest, and then he’d figure out what he was going to do for the weekend. With a glance to his right, Sal saw the black-haired guy from earlier but couldn’t recall what Josh had called him.
When they caught each other’s glance, he smiled and offered a hand.
“Anderson Royce. Anders works fine.” When Sal shook his hand, he jutted his chin backward to the group that still stood around the exit of the tower. “Don’t mind them, they’re just looking for someone to blame for their own shortcomings. Top of a class always looks like an easy target.”
“Salvatore Argento. Everyone calls me Sal,” he answered with a weary smile. It was nice to have a glimmer of positivity after the gloom of their descent in the stairwell. “Are you heading to the dorms?” Sal asked as they walked in the same direction, but Anders shook his head.
“Nah, haven’t eaten since yesterday, so was on my way to the canteen.”
Sal blinked as he realized that the same was true for him. “Mind if I join you?”
Anders smiled as he gestured ahead of them. “By all means. But you’re going to have to tell me what you wrote down in that class. I had so many ideas and it was killing me to pick just one.”
Sal laughed as he followed Anders to the canteen, now painfully aware of the growing hunger in his stomach.
***
“A bandage…bot?” Sal repeated between mouthfuls.
Anders laughed. “She said without any limitations! I don’t need to understand how it works, but…imagine if we didn’t have to rely on a Healer out on the battlefield? Something that could do like, emergency first aid, but better than the drones.” His arms moved around wildly as he explained.
“You could like, administer clamps over open wounds or…like, laser them shut or something. I don’t know much about Healing, but maybe it could save lives.” Maybe he finally heard his own pitch and realized how unfeasible it was, but Anders’s expression softened. “It’s stupid, but I wrote it down anyway.” His sheepish grin returned as he rooted around his salad for the remaining pieces of chicken. “So come on, you heard my shit one. What did you write for the personal project?”
Sal leaned back in his chair with a laugh. “No way, I’m not following that masterpiece. I’m team bandage-bot!”
Anders gave up on finding the chicken and gave Sal a deadpan expression. “That’s revolutionary bandage-bot to you.”
Sal chuckled as he slid his now-empty plate off to one side. He placed his hands on the table and took a deep breath.
“My pitch…is for a battle-bot.” When he caught sight of Anders getting up to leave, he laughed and called him back. “No, I’m serious. I saw some blueprints of a concept battle drone before, and well…I wanted to put my own spin on it. Imagine it had self-replenishing cores that could act as never-ending batteries? It could be equipped with the same lasers that break down essence-crafted gear—I saw them in the workshop. I’d say they could slice straight through a demon if they had enough power behind them.” Sal smiled as he explained his personal project as he saw it in his head.
“Maybe a kind of magnetic device that could pull out their cores? I’d have to figure out how to do the tracking for it, but I was thinking of remotely controlling it with a headset…but ideally, it’d be awesome if it could be programmed to just go out and attack anything it recognizes as a demon!” Sal thought that his idea would sound just as outlandish as the bandage-bot, but judging from Anders’s expression, he was very much off the mark.
“What’s your ability?” Anders asked suddenly, catching Sal off guard.
“Appraisal for the most part, but I’m learning how to Craft. There’s a lot to be said for understanding how things work and the qualities they have. What about you?” For some reason, Sal expected Anders to become defensive. There was something off about his body language, but Sal couldn’t put his finger on it.
“Sorry, Sal. I was just checking. Friend of mine works in the Credit floor, which is this big fancy auction area above the workshop. He was telling me that some big shot from our year was holed up in the blueprint office for the last few days and that they’re some kinda legendary Crafter. When you said you saw blueprints, and talked about that drone, I got thinking that you might be that guy.” Anders laughed as he leaned back in his seat. “Just scared the crap out of me.”
Sal shrugged. “Even if I was some legendary kinda Crafter, what would be an issue?” He kept his expression neutral, but he was dying to know why it had caused such a shift in Anders’s behavior.
Anders snorted and looked at Sal as though he were crazy. “Imagine my first pitch to them was a fucking bandage-bot!” He burst out laughing again, his salad now shifted to one side, much like Sal’s.
“Oh yeah,” Anders mused, as though he had forgotten. Picking a leaf of lettuce from his salad, he held it up to show Sal. “In an age of plentiful food, nobody told my ability.”
Sal frowned as he looked between the piece of salad and Anders, not connecting the dots. A few moments later, a stream of golden light blossomed from Anders’s fingertips, branching across the wilted leaf. Just as Sal was about to question what was happening, the color became incredibly vibrant as the leaf started to form and grow.
Anders’s expression was nonchalant as the fragment of vegetable furled and grew into a full head of lettuce, its roots entwining around his fingers. With a laugh of contempt, Anders deposited the lettuce onto the plate and untangled his fingers from the roots.
“I present to you, the most useless power in our current age!” Sal stared at the lettuce as Anders laughed. “Maybe we could get a drone to do vegetable deliveries?”
Chapter 42:
Outings
After spending an hour or so just chatting with Anders, it was finally time to head back to the dorm. He wasn’t going to waste the entire day by sleeping but justified that a few extra hours of sleep wouldn’t be a bad idea. The talk of invention had been a definite driver for him, and he wanted to jump straight into it, but it was a surefire way to burn out if he kept spending all-nighters in the workshop.
Upgrade’s class had opened his eyes to how Crafting was supposed to be approached, and his method of rushing head-on into it was fine for the moment, but not sustainable. He didn’t have the basics, and without the expertise of Martin, Gosia, and Upgrade, he would never have been able to finish the sniper rifle. Sal thought back to the old adage that if you only had a hammer in your toolkit, everything would eventually start to look like a nail. He didn’t want to rely on flooding a component with essence to get a result. Although he was taking steps in the right direction, he had a lot to learn.
Sal exited the elevator and got off on his floor. There was nobody around, which he was grateful for, as he didn’t really feel like getting drawn into another conversation. Maybe it was the effect of getting close to his room that made him all the more tired, similar to when you’re in running distance of the bathroom that you suddenly wonder how you’ve held it at bay so long.
He had barely managed to lock his dorm room door behind him when he flopped onto the bed with a smile. The warm light from the sun washed through the windows, and it didn’t bother him in the slightest. No amount of light was going to keep him awake, and just a few moments after that thought, he was out for the count.
***
He awoke with a start and panicked momentarily as his bedding wrapped around him and held his arms hostage. A few thrashes later, he was on the floor, fully awake. With a groan, he untangled himself from the blankets and got to his feet. The sun was still very much in the sky, which was a small relief.
He didn’t remember the last time he was able to wake up naturally, so he intentionally hadn’t set any alarms. But something had woken him abruptly. He checked his tablet and saw that he had managed to get around four hours of sleep, which put him in the late afternoon. A series of messages had come through and while Sal held the tablet, another two or three popped up on the screen.
Unread Messages: 64
Credit Floor: Admin (41)
Credit Floor: Vanessa (12)
Quest Academy: Admin (3)
Quest Academy: Upgrade (3)
Silver Cohort: Divinity (2)
Purple Cohort: Hannah (2)
Green Cohort: Anders (1)
Sal had to do a double take when he looked at the screen. There hadn’t been any notifications before he went to sleep, and he had no idea what was going on. Another notification rang out, bringing the Credit Floor: Admin number up by an additional one. After a few moments of just staring at the screen, he tapped open the new message and saw a slew of similar ones drop down below it.
Urgent Appraisal Request – Reavers Guild – Item 492 – Details Attached
Urgent Appraisal Request – Reavers Guild – Item 493 – Details Attached
Urgent Appraisal Request – Reavers Guild – Item 494 – Details Attached
Sal flicked through the list to see that the vast majority of them were requests for Appraisal work. He scrolled through them all to reach the first message that thankfully added some context for the barrage of mails.
Reavers Guild have successfully defeated a dungeon!
As a preferred supplier and Silver token holder, you have been given priority on the following listings. Please confirm your availability and capacity to conduct the following Appraisals, so we can facilitate in-house Appraisals and pass work onto our third-party network.
Failure to respond in the next twelve hours will result in forfeiture of the Appraisal work, which will then default back to the Credit floor.
We shall undertake the cataloguing of the 73 items looted from the Dungeon and send across details for your consideration. You can confirm via message or in person at the Credit floor.
With a shake of his head, Sal exited the chain of messages and checked on Vanessa’s messages. If she was messaging him, did that mean his cover as Myth had been busted? As far as he was aware, she wouldn’t know him as anything other than Myth in person, and he hadn’t interacted with her as Sal. With only the slightest bit of trepidation, Sal clicked into her messages.
Quest Academy: Credit Floor
Happy Friday! My name is Vanessa, and I work on the Credit Floor. I’ve had personal dealings with Myth in the past, and he spoke highly of your capability as an Appraiser. We’ve recently gotten a large amount of goods come in, and the Credit Floor is trying to push the work to our internal vendors.
Because of how great Myth has been to work with, I thought I’d send across the most exciting listings that could earn you some serious Q-Cred! I’ve seen on your file that you prefer to work down in the workshop, so I’d be happy to set up the listings for you in a private room. I hope you’ll forgive my direct approach like this, but I hope we can work together!
Sal clicked into the remaining messages and saw that they were all attachments, with some choice words from Vanessa about why she picked them out of the seventy-three listings. He had to give it to her—she definitely knew how to work people. A part of him didn’t care if she knew that he was acting as Myth, but it was somewhat fun to be leading a double life and getting paid twice. He was willing to forgive the fact that she was lying about Myth praising Sal, because it was definitely in his best interest to have Vanessa looking out for him.
A few clicks of his fingers revealed the listings that Vanessa had put aside for him, and he agreed that the quality looked high. With each listing he looked at, Sal’s smile grew wider. It was probably for the best that he had napped during the afternoon, because it looked like he was in for a busy evening. With a concerted effort, Sal exited the listings and looked at the other messages.
Quest Academy: Administration
You are required to report to the Headmaster’s Office on Saturday Morning at 9:00 a.m. to follow up on the effects of the Skill Master ability on Divinity Khan.
Quest Academy: Administration
You are required to report to the Doom Society, which will gather on Sunday Evening in the Sky Lounge at 7:00 p.m.
Quest Academy: Administration
Congratulations, you have been selected by Upgrade to take part in the Crafting Fast-Track Course. Please find more details attached.
Sal exhaled. He had gone a full week of not receiving a single message, to suddenly having everything thrown at him at once. The Doom Society was the group Neuro had spoken about, the ones who predict the calamities and put in countermeasures to stop them from happening. He didn’t know how much value he’d bring to the table, especially seeing as they already knew most of what he saw, but he was hopeful that he’d be able to contribute something. The follow-up about Divinity had completely slipped his mind, but he was grateful that they had at least taken it seriously. The last message about the Fast-Track course made no sense to him, so he clicked out and went into Upgrade’s messages for context.
Quest Academy: Upgrade
Hey Sal, just wanted to send on a message. I didn’t get a proper chance to talk to you after class today, but your ability…whatever it is, it’s completely changed my power. As thanks, next time you swing by the workshop, I’ll show you how to transform your gear into armor!
Quest Academy: Upgrade
I can’t believe you signed our names on the butt plate! You absolutely didn’t need to do that, but Martin and Gosia have been practically dancing around the workshop all afternoon. It was very considerate of you, so thanks for that.
Quest Academy: Upgrade
I’ve put your name forward for the Fast-Track Course. It gives you one-on-one mentoring with yours truly and pairs you up with some of our seniors. Don’t thank me, though, because it’s going to be hell! It’s designed to get you through the Foundation, Basics, Intermediate, and Advanced levels for Crafting in record time. I think that you have an extraordinary ability, and I want to give you every chance to reach the top! Okay, maybe you can thank me a little. ��
Clicking out of it, Sal moved to the last few messages. Divinity was asking which outing he was going to enroll in and to sync up with her before making any choices so they could go together. He wondered whether she knew that he wasn’t interested in the outings, and that by asking him it would change his mind?
After a few moments of going down that rabbit hole, Sal shook his head and blinked slowly. He’d drive himself insane if he started second-guessing everything Divinity said to him. She likely had much better things to do than looking at all the permutations of his decision-making on a Friday afternoon. With a chuckle at his own expense, Sal quickly messaged back that he hadn’t made any decisions and that he’d be spending the rest of the day in the workshop doing Appraisals for the Reavers Guild.
Next, there were a few messages from Hannah that pretty much asked the same question about the outings and if he was going to go on them. Her second message was asking if he’d like to hang out later that evening, which made him pause. He didn’t want to give her mixed signals, so rather than making an excuse, he sent her a screenshot of the seventy-three listings from the Credit floor and said he’d likely be in the workshop all night.
