EmEs_etherious
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Chapter 78- Trade
🕑 Added 2023-07-04 22:59:01 +0000 UTCWhen General Bradley saw the young healer’s eyes go wide with surprise at the sight of the liquid, he knew that Arthur had recognised it. He didn’t blame the kid, though. He'd also been shocked when he found out what the liquid could do when it was presented to the Mercantile organisation after their scientists had gone crazy over it.
A 'perfect catalyst' or something of the sort. The technical jargon was far too complex for him to commit to memory. What he did recall was its absurd price. The few hundred millilitres of the stuff he had with him probably cost more than the entire facility around him, albeit it had been created pre-system without ether reinforcing everything.
Arthur, however, didn’t know that yet, and though keeping the boy in the dark about that little fact would probably make his life a lot easier, something was telling the old General that it'd be in his best interests to build a good relationship with the healer in front of him. Those hunches of his were the only reason why he had lived to see some grey in his beard whilst in a profession where men died young, and Bradley would be a fool to stop trusting them now.
That was why the General decided to go against all the pieces of advice his colleagues had given him and only speak the truth to Arthur. Taking a deep breath, General Bradley began to speak, “ I’m sure you’ve already realised what this is. Some of our staff here managed to collect half a litre of the stuff when you were bought here. You wouldn't stop bleeding. What you don’t know, though, is just how valuable your blood is,” Bradley divulged, happy to see that at least now Arthur seemed to be a lot more invested in the conversation.
Arthur, meanwhile, was a little shocked at the revelation. Sure, he knew that his blood was a little special, what with the fact that it was one of his primary ingredients when making elixirs, but he’d just attributed that to the fact the system had poured so much healing affinity ether into him when he’d first died. It seemed that he’d been giving too little credit to the red catalyst flowing through his veins, and so he asked the first question that came to his mind.
“How much is it worth then?”
Bryan laughed at his query, surprising Arthur, who had forgotten that the man was even there. He really was too easy to overlook when he was standing beside the giant general. The old military man also seemed to be amused with Arthur's curiosity and chuckled.
“Always the same with the young nowadays. Not a word on why we thought it right to take your blood in the first place, just money, money, money. I thought you'd have stronger feelings about that.”
Arthur felt chastised at the older man’s words and smiled sheepishly. “Yes, you're right, but I don’t really care right now. It doesn’t change the fact that you now know what you do. You can't unlearn information, and it was my fault in the first place for bleeding out all over the place. I can hardly fault you for realising it was special stuff when you cleaned it up.” He replied.
Bradley just smiled. “I’m not sure you’ll still be saying that when you hear what the Farthing organisation offered to get their hands on it,” He explained. “Powerful skills, strange tools of magic, deadly weapons, Rings of Revival and even a few variants of an evolution fruit.” Bradley dropped the bombshell.
Arthur sat on the bed in shock as his brain short-circuited. It took him a moment to realise that he had his mouth open in wonder, and he quickly closed it.
I can get some new general skills, an actual weapon, and maybe even a rarer evolution fruit than the one the governments are going to give me. I only have four slots left for general skills after the Myriad Tongues Alyssia gave me, but I'm sure a mercantile organisation will have things I'd want.
Arthur tried to keep the excitement off his face but wasn't altogether successful.
And what’s a ring of revival? He didn’t want to get ahead of himself, but the item had the word revival in it, which meant that it probably had something to do with bringing back the dead. It sounded like something miraculous and ran the risk of rekindling the hope of his sister's revival that he'd managed to almost forget about.
Wait, wait, you idiot. Don’t start getting ahead of yourself. It could just be a fancy piece of jewellery, for all I know. He warned himself. Arthur wasn’t prepared to swallow the bitter pill of disappointment, so he tried not to get too excited. Instead of satiating his curiosity by asking about the specifics of the item, he instead thanked the old man.
“I’m grateful that you told me this when you could have just used any blood trade for yourself. God knows it would have been plenty easy."
Arthur paused for breath as he felt a micro tear in his chest close up. It itched like hell.
"But that’s exactly what I don’t get. Why are you telling me all this?”
General Bradley didn’t say anything for a few seconds before he sighed wearily.
“You sure don’t beat around the bush, kid,” he grumbled. “To be honest, I'm not supposed to tell you any of this, but something tells me it’ll be better if I got you to owe me a favour instead of getting greedy now,” General Bradley explained truthfully.
He wasn’t a man known for his deceit, and it hadn’t sat well with him to withhold information from Arthur when it had first been suggested. Arthur smiled a little bitterly. The General's explanation was something he could at least understand, but it made him a little sad that the man hadn’t just told him out of the goodness of his heart. Still, it was human nature to do something in one’s best interest, and Arthur couldn’t blame the old man for his intentions.
A gift with strings attached was something Arthur could deal with, even if it meant he’d owe the general one. After all, everything in life came with a price, something Arthur had to learn the hard way when he’d lost his sister, and he was prepared to pay practically anything if it meant he could avoid making those same mistakes again.
“So, I’m guessing this is why you didn’t care much about me just rejecting your recruitment offers without hearing them,” Arthur tiredly spoke.
General Bradley chuckled at his words and smiled at him.
“Like you, I don’t like beating around the bush,” Arthur stated. “So what is it that you want me to do?”
It had already occurred to Arthur that he could simply go to the Mercantile organisation himself and trade. He still had plenty of blood flowing through his veins, and he wouldn’t shy away from parting with a few pints of it. The reason why he’d dismissed the notion immediately was because he had no way to get into contact with them, but ultimately, Arthur wasn’t prepared to divulge the fact that he was, in fact, the supplier of such a valuable liquid.
Who knew what they would do to him? Bradley had also realised this fact, and that was why he was so confident that he’d get Arthur tied to him by the time he left the room. He needed a middle man and the general would fill that position for him. Going by the questions the young healer was asking, General Bradley thought his job was practically done.
Still doesn’t sit right with me that the kid's practically a paid mercenary instead of a loyal soldier serving his country, the old man mused. But at the end of the day, beggars couldn’t be choosers, and he knew that the world would desperately need Arthur's services, especially after what he’d found out from the Farthing Mercantile organisation.
It was just his terrible luck that it turned out that they would need the help of either a light or purification mage. The only powerful individual with a light affinity that he knew of was Kazi Alukai, and he wasn’t prepared to make a deal with that particular devil. Arthur, on the other hand, was the demon they had already worked with, and they might just have an avenue to work with him. It hadn’t been a hard decision when choosing between the pair.
There were probably some promising light mages within American territory, but he simply didn’t have the time to find such an individual. They needed someone with the right qualifications, and they needed them fast. Getting Kazi's help would be the work of other national leaders, not theirs. That was why General Bradley decided to answer Arthur's questions truthfully.
“It seems like you're reconsidering working with us,” Bradley spoke before slapping his palms on the table and looking over them. The wooden furniture groaned a little under the pressure it was under, but it held strong. General Bradley continued talking as if nothing was amiss.
“To be frank, we found out quite a bit from the alien merchants, and it turns out that we’ll need someone with a particular skill set to help deal with the side effects caused by the Silver Rose experiments,” he explained.
Arthur was bewildered for a moment.
“I’m sure you already knew this, but I only have the regeneration ability and water manipulation. Unless that’s what you need, I don’t really have the particular skill set you’re looking for,” Arthur stated, confusion evident in his voice.
General Bradley just smiled at him and said,
“No, your right. You don’t have the skills we’re looking for. At least not yet,” he explained.
Judging from the slight widening of Arthur’s eyes, it seemed that the healer had already started to figure out where this conversation was going. Striking whilst the iron was hot, General Bradley continued.
“You’ve probably already guessed it, but we’ve used some of your blood to trade for a general skill called Purify that has the prerequisite of the host possessing a light or healing affinity."
Arthur didn’t miss the fact that the man had said they used his blood, not will use, which meant that if the general had thought he wouldn't help them, he probably would have never heard about it from the man, and his blood would have been long gone from the Earth. The skill would have most likely gone to someone else, and he'd have never known better.
Arthur put that little slight behind him, there was no use worrying about it now, and there was nothing he could really do about it. Instead, Arthur decided that it would be best if he got some more information from General Bradley.
“So what exactly does this purify skill do, and actually, how in the world can you purchase a skill? As far as I know, skills are methods of using ether, not something that has a tangible physical form,” Arthur asked.
He was lying a little, but he really was curious.
He still didn’t understand how Alyssia had given him the myriad tongues skill. As far as he knew, no system existed in her dimension, which meant that magic skills were manually taught and passed down through the generations without the aid of the system automating the entire process. “Kid, your guess is as good as mine. All I knew is that they somehow crystalise ether into a specific form, which can then be absorbed by an individual if they have the right affinity for the specific skill," General Bradley explained whilst shrugging his shoulders.
That still didn’t really answer Arthur's question and didn’t explain how Alyssia had given him a copy of her skill. As far as he could remember, she hadn’t had any crystallised ether on her person or the one source, as she liked to call it. None of those things mattered right now, however, as Arthur was starting to get an idea of what General Bradley wanted from him.
“So let me get this straight,” Arthur said, “You want me to absorb the skill purify, and I guess somehow use it to deal with the residual effects of Silver Rose's experiments. In return, you’ll let me buy an item of my choice from the aliens.” Arthur inquired the military General.
It was Bryan instead that answered his question.
“Yes, that’s exactly what we’re asking for. Before any of that, though, we still have to pay you for your help against Shade,” he said, indicating the large metal box that was behind him. Arthur had wondered at what the container had inside of it since the men had entered the room, and it looked like he'd finally gotten his answer. It has my payment inside it, Arthur thought greedily as he ogled the box, almost like he would be able to see its contents if he stared hard enough. He did have one slight worry, however, which was quickly put to rest when General Bradley began to speak.
“I hope you don’t mind, but we took the initiative and used some of your blood to trade for a better evolution fruit instead of just giving you the normal variant we had planned. I hope you don’t mind,” the old man explained.
On the contrary, Arthur was extremely pleased with the news as that was exactly what he had been concerned about. He didn’t want to evolve with a normal evolution fruit when he found out that he’d be able to get a rarer one by trading his blood for it. After all, nothing fit Arthur's principles better than building a solid foundation for his future growth, and he was pretty sure that an individual's first evolution would be a pivotal factor in how strong they would one day become.
“No, it’s perfectly fine, almost like you read my mind or something, actually,” Arthur acknowledged, with a smile on his face. Bryan sighed as he felt some tension drain out of him when he heard Arthur's words. It had been his idea to choose new fruit for the healer, and he was glad that his decision hadn’t backfired on them. General Bradley reached behind him and picked up the steel container like it weighed nothing. Arthur guessed that the man’s strength must have been 300 at the least.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that, kid,” he chuckled, placing the box on the table. Arthur had to praise the craftsmanship of the furniture as it somehow managed not to break under the weight of the heavy container. Arthur wondered if it was from Ikea before quickly dismissing the thought. My Ikea bowl is special.
“We’ve also got your promised monster core here,” Bradley told Arthur as he pressed open the metal clasps holding the parcel shut. “It’s from the strongest monster we’ve faced, besides Shade, at level 153, in fact,” General Bradley added as he opened the lid. A beautiful, fragrant aroma suddenly suffused the room, which no doubt came from the fruit of evolution that lay within it. Arthur licked his lips hungrily and looked at the items before him.
He wasn’t disappointed.
