Axel stood staring at the restored walls, his hand still warm from the energy. What else could he do with the mark? A faint, pulling feeling brushed against his thoughts—a quiet sense that if he poured even more aether into it, he could guide the mark to change and upgrade.
As he walked back toward the main trench line, his mind raced with the idea. What would happen if he really upgraded a house mark? Would it make the whole place tougher?
Up ahead, Jose looked up from his shovel, saw Axel coming over, and instantly turned his back, ignoring him completely.
Axel stopped near the edge of the dirt pile and cleared his throat. "Hey, Jose. If I fix this house completely, how many contribution points do I get?"
Jose stopped digging, leaning heavily on his shovel handle as he stared at Axel like he had lost his mind. "Points? For a house? Kid, houses don't earn contribution points unless the whole block gets leveled by heavy machinery. What are you even talking about?"
Axel crossed his arms, a smug grin spreading across his face. "I fixed it."
Jose blinked, shaking his head. "You... what? You cleared some dirt away?"
"No," Axel said, his smile widening. "I used my ability. Fixed the whole building right up."
Jose let out a dry, mocking snort. "Right. And I'm the commander of this whole basin. Show me."
Jose followed Axel back through the dust, fully expecting to find a pile of broken rocks and nothing more. But when they rounded the corner, Jose stopped dead in his tracks. His jaw dropped so low he looked like he might swallow his own tongue. The old, scarred, half-collapsed concrete house stood completely whole and solid, looking like it had just been built yesterday.
Jose's whole attitude flipped in a second. He grabbed Axel by the arm, his eyes wide and shining with frantic excitement, practically falling over himself to praise the teenager.
"Holy shit," Jose stammered, patting Axel's shoulder frantically and laughing like a lunatic. "Axel, my boy! I knew it! From the very second you walked into this sector, I knew you were meant for greatness. I'm telling you right now, you are going to rake in a massive pile of contribution points for this! A massive pile!"
In Jose's eyes, Axel wasn't just a rookie with a shovel anymore; he was a golden goose. Jose stared at him with total awe, already picturing himself climbing up the sector ranks and leaving the mud behind.
"Come on, move!" Jose urged, grabbing Axel by the sleeve and pulling him forward as they hurried back to the main camp. Spotting the sector leader standing near the supply crates, Jose waved his arms wildly. "Captain! Captain, drop what you're doing and get over here right now! You have to see what this kid just did!"
"Captain, you need to see this right now!" Jose blurted out, dragging the captain by the arm all the way back to the sector and pointing wildly at the restored structure. "The kid did it! He actually fixed a whole building using his ability!"
The captain frowned, stepping closer with a skeptical look on his face. He reached out, his fingers brushing against the solid, unbroken concrete. He stared at it for a long moment, shaking his head in disbelief. "It looks... newer," the captain muttered, his eyes wide as he inspected the clean lines and solid walls.
A massive wave of relief washed over the captain's face. The funds post-catastrophe were not much, and they had been dreading the heavy machinery and massive expense required to tear the ruined sector down and build it back up.
The captain turned around, looking at Axel with a sudden, appreciative grin. "Four thousand contribution points," the captain said, transferring the reward right then and there.
"Four thousand points is the absolute cap," the captain said, tapping the military communicator against his palm. "That's the maximum contribution limit allowed for any awakener on a single job. But since you saved our budget from crashing, I'm adding a personal bonus. You would get a larger piece of monster meat."
Axel blinked, his breath catching in his throat. Monster meat was a legendary delicacy. Even the wealthy families living up in the middle layer couldn't afford it on a whim, given how outrageously expensive every pound was on the market.
He stood there entirely speechless, his mind racing. His mother worked herself to the bone, earning sixty credits a day, and he earned 4 thousand credits from fixing one building… No wonder Ryan said forgers did not lack; his whole world tilted sideways.
The captain scanned the long row of broken buildings stretching down the rest of the section and sector, then turned his gaze back to the teenager. "Tell me, kid. Can you fix the rest of the buildings in this section?"
Axel let out a dry breath, shaking his head slightly as he checked his empty reserves. "I can do it," Axel said, "but I'm completely out of aether right now."
The captain's expression darkened into a heavy frown. He shook his head, looking down at the dust between his boots.
"I would love to hand you an aether stone straight from the supply stash," the captain said, his voice low and tight. "But I can't. Every single aether stone we pull off a monster gets hauled straight up to the middle sector officials. They take every last one before it even touches our hands."
With that matter settled, Axel turned his attention elsewhere. He spent the next hour learning how to check and use his new contribution points, guided step-by-step by Jose. Jose could barely keep still, a wide, manic grin stretched across his face as he stared at the updated sector ledger.
"Look at that number!" Jose whispered, practically bouncing on his heels as their section ranking ticked upward. "We actually jumped a few spots! Do you know what this means for us? You're making legends out here, kid!"
After taking a long break to let his drained energy recover, Axel walked back out into the open courtyard. By the time the afternoon shadows stretched long across the ground, he had focused his ability on two more damaged houses. Working with careful, steady breaths, he brought both buildings back to absolute perfection, their walls locking solidly into place.
Jose stood nearby, watching the final wall snap together. When a huge chunk of the remaining rubble vanished from the street, Jose was completely over the moon, throwing his hands up in victory and laughing out loud as he clapped Axel hard on the back.
The district ledger updated on the screen, and the numbers jumped. Suddenly, they shot all the way up to the top twenty thousand.
Jose stared at the screen, his eyes wide and bright. He looked like he wanted to jump out of his skin. From that moment on, Jose treated Axel like royalty, laughing loudly and practically offering to carry his tools and act as his personal chauffeur just to keep him happy.
The captain walked over, clapping Axel on the shoulder with a wide grin. "Don't worry about the cap for now," the captain said, keeping his voice low. "I'm going to go straight to the Warden. I'll talk to him personally so you get every single contribution point you've earned."
True to his word, the captain went to file the report, but he kept himself hidden for a bit. The upper administration wanted to double-check the structural integrity of the buildings first, making sure the repairs actually held solid under pressure before they handed over any more points.
At precisely seven o'clock, the harsh, blaring alarm echoed through the underground basin, signaling the end of the workday. Down in the upper-layer central yard, all the work teams lined up; the work teams that had performed well received their rations of monster meat, with the exact portion for each group strictly determined by their total contribution points.
The captain walked down the line himself, carrying a heavy, wrapped parcel straight to Axel. When the thick, rich cut of meat was set down on the table, its sheer size dwarfed every other ration handed out across the entire section. It was massive—far larger than anything anyone else received.
Jose stepped up beside the table, staring down at their towering pile of meat given to his section and then comparing it to the thin, meager strips handed to the neighboring teams. His eyes blazed wide, almost looking like they were spewing flames as he turned to stare at Axel with intense, overwhelming adoration.
Axel shifted uncomfortably under the heavy, blazing gaze, a cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck as Jose hovered over him like an overly devoted servant.
Around them, the other awakeners shot bitter, venomous glances at Axel's pile. They watched how Jose doted on the teenager, whispering among themselves out of pure jealousy, wishing they could soak up that same kind of pampering and praise. Standing near the front of the disgruntled crowd was Robert, his face twisted into a sour scowl—the exact same guy who had stood in the dirt and laughed out loud when Axel first arrived at the camp.