"So this really is what you'd call a wholesome local culture."
From his vague impressions, You Yi had known that the Sarkaz did not live easy lives, but he had not expected it to be this rough. These conditions were practically on par with a primitive tribe.
Then something occurred to him. "By the way, how did you get those injuries? Did the escort job go wrong?"
In that situation, if he had not treated her in time, she very likely would not have survived.
He could not help wondering: if he had not been there, how would the original Wis'adel have made it through this disaster?
At the question, Wis'adel frowned and shook her head. "I don't know."
Then, gritting her teeth, she gave a brief account of what had happened.
"I took an escort job. Another mercenary squad invited me in. They said someone might try to hijack the shipment, so it'd be dangerous, and they needed extra hands to soak up bullets. The pay was good, so I went."
"I never ran into any hijackers. Instead, they suddenly turned on me for some reason. If I hadn't reacted fast enough and blown two of them up first, I probably wouldn't have made it back."
Even now, she still did not understand why they had stabbed her in the back.
Then again, in Kazdel, mercenaries stealing from their employers, working with outside forces, or changing their minds at the last second because they did not want to pay were all everyday occurrences.
There were simply too many possible reasons someone might want her dead. She could not sort through them all.
You Yi reminded her, "Why not think about whether you offended someone recently?"
Wis'adel gave a scornful laugh. "What kind of mercenary does every dirty job there is and doesn't offend people? But lives like ours are worth less than stray dogs. Who would spend money hiring an entire squad just to kill one wild dog that probably won't live much longer anyway?"
To hire a whole team just to kill her—how deep would that grudge have to be?
The moment the words left her mouth, her expression changed slightly.
Sensing the shift in her emotions, You Yi asked, "What, did you think of something?"
Wis'adel did not answer. Instead, she opened the bundle she carried with her and took out a palm-sized metal box.
The workmanship was quite refined, and it was even locked. In the past, she would have had no way to deal with something like this.
But now?
Her black-covered hands gripped the seam of the lid and twisted sharply.
Crack.
The internal latch snapped, and the metal box sprang open.
Inside was a layer of translucent gel, with two grooves carved into it. In each groove sat a perfectly placed rhomboid crystal.
Wis'adel picked one up and held it to the light for a closer look.
"That's it? Two lousy rocks?"
She turned it over and over for a while, then frowned, her voice full of disappointment.
Pretty, sure—but around here, a rock was still just a rock, no matter how pretty it looked.
Maybe this sort of jewel-like luxury item could fetch a good price elsewhere, but transportation was expensive, and given how other races treated Sarkaz, the chances were high she would just get cheated if she tried to sell it outside Kazdel.
It was tasteless to keep and a waste to throw away.
"No, that should be Originite Prime."
After studying it for a bit, You Yi spoke up in her mind.
He dimly remembered that, in the game, this thing had been premium currency. The shape was almost identical, though he could not quite remember what it was used for.
Still, since it had "Originium" in the name, and he could sense a remarkably dense concentration of energy inside it just from contact alone, its rough function was not hard to guess.
Wis'adel tossed the crystal lightly in her hand, puzzled. "Originium is everywhere. What's so special about this?"
"It's probably refined Originium," You Yi said, not sounding entirely certain. "Something like a highly concentrated energy source. Like a battery."
Her hand stopped mid-motion.
"Is it valuable?"
"It should be."
Wis'adel immediately put the crystal back in the box, closed it, and made to stuff it back into her bag.
"What are you doing?"
She answered as though it were obvious. "Selling it, of course. What else would I do with it? I nearly died for this."
She had clearly realized by now that the reason she had been ambushed was, in all likelihood, closely tied to these two pieces of Originite Prime.
And now that they were in her hands, there was no way she planned to give them back.
A thought flashed through You Yi's mind.
"Instead of selling them, why don't we use them ourselves? Didn't you want that hand cannon? We just happen to be short on energy for it."
He had already studied Wis'adel's body.
The Sarkaz had a far higher compatibility with Originium than other races. Her body already contained a fair amount of Originium energy. Raise the concentration much further, and it would start crystallizing.
Wis'adel herself had little talent for Originium Arts, which was why she spent all day fooling around with bombs. As a result, the only thing You Yi could really develop for her was something based on the Originium already inside her body.
His original plan had been to design some method of drawing out Originium energy and converting it into ranged attacks, but the problem of replenishing that energy had been troubling him all along.
The small amount of Originium in her body alone was nowhere near enough to support sustained output, so his first step had been to design a storage organ.
The problem was that acquiring more Originium was difficult, and absorbing low-purity Originium was far too inefficient.
But with these two pieces of Originite Prime, that problem would be solved for the short term.
"How do we do it?"
"Just hold them in your hand."
Without hesitation, Wis'adel placed both pieces of Originite Prime in her palm.
The black substance spread down from her arm, swiftly enveloped them, and the two crystals disappeared into the symbiotic suit as though swallowed whole. She had no idea where exactly he had hidden them.
"By tomorrow, you should see the prototype."
Wis'adel narrowed her eyes. "You'd better not waste my stuff. If I'm not satisfied, you're spitting them out exactly as they were."
You Yi gave a scornful laugh. "If I hadn't pointed it out, you probably would've tossed them aside as rocks."
Wis'adel gave a huff and did not answer.
She lay back on the bed, the dry straw rustling beneath her.
After lying there for a while, she suddenly frowned.
"That's strange."
"What is?"
"I don't think I'm hungry anymore." She touched her stomach. "I haven't eaten a thing all day. I should've been starving by now."
You Yi gave an indifferent grunt. "That's because I'm sending energy into you."
Wis'adel froze. "What do you mean?"
"In a symbiotic state, I can divert part of my energy to cover your basic consumption," You Yi explained. "Otherwise, with wounds that severe, just healing them would've left you too weak to move for days. How else do you think you could still be up and bickering with me like this?"
Wis'adel's eyes lit up. "So does that mean I won't need to eat anymore?"
"In your dreams."
You Yi crushed that fantasy without mercy. "What you're using right now is my energy. I don't even have enough for myself. I can cover you in an emergency, sure. Support you long-term? Keep dreaming."
"In the future, eat when you should, drink when you should. Don't expect me to raise you."
"Tch."
Wis'adel curled her lip. "Cheapskate."
Seeing that he had no intention of changing his mind, she simply rolled over with her back to the empty air—even though You Yi was on her body, so turning her back on him was meaningless.
Moonlight leaked through the crack in the door, drawing a thin line of light across the floor.
Lying on her side, she could not help studying the black symbiotic suit on her body in that faint glow.
At first, being wrapped up in the stuff had felt strange in every possible way, both visually and physically.
But in less than half a day, she found herself growing more and more used to it.
It was even... kind of comfortable.
The black substance clung close to her skin without feeling stuffy in the slightest. It seemed able to regulate its own temperature automatically, keeping itself within a range that felt just right for her.
And her whole body felt fresh and clean.
Both physically and mentally, she felt much lighter.
-------
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