We all got new skewers. We were still decently hungry, and fighting does sure have a way of building up an appetite. Sitting down once we returned back to the roundabout, we were all pretty silent as we ate. A stillness hung in the air at the unspoken tension. The previous people that would inhabit the alley had all abandoned it the minute the fight broke out. The sweet scent of ink, despite the main body of it having disintegrated, lingered like a cloud. Eventually, Max broke the silence.

  “So… Y-Y-You said you weren’t here to a-aprehend m-me?”

  He looked nervous and flighty. Understandable since Deimos here was a Ranker and my job was about actively hunting down criminals like dogs. I tried to mollify him, “That’s right. We just wanted to… I don’t know, ask you about the cat.”

  Deimos followed up, “You said her name was Enpi, right? How did you obtain her?”

  I nudged him with my elbow, “This ain’t an interrogation, man. Chill it.”

  “Right, sorry. Sorry. We just didn’t see you as the… criminal type.” He offered, wincing at his words. For a smart guy, Deimos really could be a little dumb at times.

  “I-I’m not!” Max responded, and continued hesitatingly, “Normally. It’s just… Enpi, I found her when she was a kitten. I-It was about three years ago. I saw her near my family’s place. She was so small, a-and so weak. I-I-I couldn’t bear it. M-My family never found out, though it was close a few times.”

  I huffed a laugh, breaking into a full chuckle after a moment. Max looked at me, confused. Deimos just let a small smile creep on his face.

  “W-Why’re you l-laughing?”

  “No, hehe, it’s nothing. Just,” I smirked, “That sounds a lot like you.”

  His face turned a touch warmer from its normally cooler tones, and his ears flushed crimson. He looked down at his shoes, refusing to make eye contact. I just laughed all the harder. Deimos joined with a small, miniscule chuckle. I shook my head and put my arm around Max. he startled slightly before relaxing, “Yeah. That’s you. Our gloomy softy.”

  “H-Hey!” He said, looking up and blushing fiercely.

  I removed myself from him before a sudden thought struck that left me panicking. I used dark magic during the fight. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. Actually, add another i to that. Shiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiit. There we go. Perfect.

  That’s okay. Keep your cool Alex. He probably didn’t notice. There was a lot happening, he was crouched in a ball of panic, your dark magic blended in with his ink. He probably didn’t notice anything.

  … Yeah, I won’t be able to go on with my day. My heart feels like it’s about to explode.

  “So… Didn’t realize you could fight like that.” I said, steering the conversation to our fight.

  “Oh, I-I, uh, yeah.” He replied, suddenly uncomfortable-looking at the topic. Sorry, Max! Gotta alleviate my anxiety.

  “You know, you weren’t even looking around during the fight. How much of it did you even see? Were you just, uh, magically flailing?” I asked slightly too quickly, a bead of sweat that I really hoped Max wouldn’t see was now running down the side of my face. Man, it suddenly got really hot in this alley!

  “Oh, y-yeah, uh.” He trailed off, looking lost in thought, “I k-kind of just panicked. Before I knew it, I sorta just lost control. I couldn’t stop, I-I was too afraid. I couldn’t p-pay much attention to it.”

  Oh thank the gods! Deimos looked at me oddly, but I just shrugged it off. I’d tell him later.

  The rest of the day was considerably less dramatic. We ate. We joked. It was just a generally pretty good time. Max split off to go back home, and Deimos and I were walking back to the car when I saw something in the window of a shop.

  Used hoverboards! 50% off!

  It was a little poster put up in the window a magitech mechanic’s place. The owner probably found some discarded hoverboards lying around and saw an opportunity to turn over a profit. Trashed tech was pretty common on the outskirts of populated areas. Deimos stopped with me and we both looked at each other. He shrugged and leaned against the wall next to the window. How he had the balls to brush against things in clothes as expensive as his was a mystery that I’d never solve.

  I went into the shop, the door opening with an electronic jingle, and started looking around. Finding the hoverboards mentioned, the used ones were easily identified with their grime and rust. Also the green stickers that said thirty percent off. Those too.

  Looking at their prices, I winced. I could afford it. Easily, I could afford it. My couple days of stress hunting made my mouth water just thinking about the profits. Still, buying a hoverboard just seemed like such an extravagance. Deimos could still drive me around, renting one was always quick and easy, and walking was a breeze. What if things don’t work out here? What if money gets tight? What’s to stop this quick shopping trip from being the reason I can’t afford food down the line? I can always steal, but simply having money is such a nice feeling. I don’t want to give it up.

  Squashing the constant voices in my head, I turned around to the shop owner, “What can you tell me about those used hoverboards?”

  “Hm?” The wiry man grunted, looking up, “Well, they ain’t the prettiest things to look at, but I can promise ya they’ll get you where ya need to go.”

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  “Any differences between them?”

  The man looked at me with an inquisitive eye before putting down his iPhone 42b. Gods that thing looks old. He stretched as he stood, his height and stature making him resemble a fireman’s pole more than a human. He ran a hand through his hair, his greasy, slicked-back hair crackling with static more powerful than was natural, “Looking for anything specific?”

  We walked over to the hoverboards together, the overwhelming smell of oil and burnt hair wafting off him, “I’m looking for something for frequent use. Doesn’t need to be fast. It’s gonna be making mostly daily trips in and out of the city.”

  He spent a moment scanning over his products before grabbing one, “This should do just the thing. She ain’t pretty, but she should be reliable enough. You see this part here?” He asked, pointing at one of the many components that comprised the hoverboard’s underside.

  “I, uh, yeah?” I replied, surprised by the question.

  “This here is a Swift mk2! Well, not exactly. This is an alpha product put out by Hermes’ Wings back in… forty five, I think. The actual Swift is used in trucks for delivery companies. They’re real long-lasting, but they cost a pretty penny, y’know? The prototype’s got some similar specs on it, but it requires frequent maintenance.” He pointed at another part, “This here electro-arcana transformer is effective, but its waste disposal system ain’t too good. While this thing should run for days at a time, the buildup of magical residues are eventually gonna lead to a fatal malfunction in it.”

  “Uhhuh?”

  My brain tuned in and out of the rest of the man’s rant. It was actually pretty interesting, but there were so many buzzwords and concepts that I just didn’t understand that most of it flew over my head. Deimos walked in once, saw the man and heard his rant, and left. The guy was so invested in our “conversation” that he didn’t even notice. Eventually, the man realized he had been talking for… a while.

  “HAH! Sorry about that. Just don’t get a lot of moments to talk ‘bout all this stuff. You’re a real good listener now. To make up for your lost time, how about I throw in some maintenance equipment?”

  I had listened enough to realize that I simply didn’t have the tools to take care of the hoverboard. With this, I’d be able to more effectively care for it. Plus, I’d save some money. Saving money good.

  I agreed to the deal and walked out with my new ride. The equipment the guy gave me came with a primer on magitech, a charging station for the hoverboard, some hand-written notes on how to care for this specific piece of tech, and even a few extra tools meant for tinkering. There were even a few memory crystals! Though, those he offered at a discount as a bundle deal and not an on-the-house item.

  Memory crystals were monster cores that were either mind or illusion attuned and programmed to share or display certain memories or information. Illusion memory crystals were reusable projectors that spat out images for all to see. Mental memory crystals were meant to be shattered, but they instantly deposited information for the user. The mental ones, like the ones I now had, were generally cheaper. Cheaper didn’t mean cheap, though. The price did make me wince, but they would be useful in the long run. I felt a few cold tears running down my face as I handed over the money, but that’s neither here nor there.

  I set the hoverboard on the ground, turned the thing on, and watched as it hummed to life. Deimos was there too, and he watched my new ride get up and working, small clouds of dust being pushed away by the vehicle. Stepping onto it, my feet were locked in place by the pads on the top. It was a little heavier than the rentals I was used to, but it also just seemed stronger so… Worth. There was a deep, growl-like hum through it. Feeling out the weight distribution of it, I turned to Deimos, “I guess… I’ll meet you back at the dorm?”

  He nodded, “See you there.”

  Leaning forward, the startup on the hoverboard, my hoverboard, was slow. It sped up quickly enough, though, and soon, I was rushing down the side of the road, the wind sweeping my hair back. Now this right here? This was worth it!

  The next two weeks were calm. The first week was used to study the primer and get a handle on hoverboard maintenance. Magitech is really cool! And really fucking complicated! There were three memory crystals, each one needing two days recovery from the others to use. The information was just so dense that taking one crystal with all of it would brain-fry someone. I quite like not being a vegetable, so these multi-part crystals had my favor.

  The week after I spent time taking on new jobs and getting new gear. With the monster parts I’ve accumulated, I could actually get some really neat stuff.

  “So? How’s it? Fit well? Feel right?”

  “It’s perfect.” I responded to Deimos absentmindedly while still looking at my reflection in the mirror. The new armor was clingy and shifted to fit my body with ease. This was a multi-part piece composed of some of my earliest kills.

  The base layer of it all was part of the lizard with a high regenerative factor that I needed to use my dark magic to take on. The armor wasn’t technically capable of changing size. It’s just that when I put it on, microscopic tears would form and heal near instantly. It would heal and become larger as new hide and scales were formed. This healing factor was somehow applied to the rest of the armor, so it should last me much, much longer.

  Covering joints and more vital places was hardy wood from the squirrel monster during the “Zoo’s Opening.” The stuff was way tougher than wood, and it apparently had a high affinity with the lizard’s healing factor. The wood was actually modified and infused with the crushed core of a dog-like monster that would light the surrounding areas on fire and have the ability to run through them unharmed. The wood had taken on an ashy appearance and was now a gritty black with a high resistance to fire.

  The left arm had neither the wood of the squirrel or the hide of the lizard. The entire left sleeve was made up of part of the tail of the tree pangolin I hunted with Anna and Max. Deimos and I were back where we got my frog gear and were in the building’s designated test room. Sending a pulse of magic into the tail, it unraveled. Whipping my arm out, the tail shot forth and slammed into the training dummies with a sharp crack.

  Pulling the tail back and sending out another pulse of magic, the tail rewound around my arm.

  “Nice.” Deimos and I said in unison.

  My spiked knuckles were replaced with gauntlets of wood and lizard hide, both pitch black with the monster core infusion. While the wood in my armor was simply there for protection, the wood in these gauntlets were meant to deal damage. I pushed magic into my knuckles and a bright, white flame emerged from the wooden-plated parts.

  “Huh. Why’s it white?”

  “It’s white because you’re using your light magic to power it.” Deimos responded, squinting at the light “The lighting from your old stuff was also white, you just didn’t notice.

  “Huh.” I muttered. Pushing a little dark magic into it, the flames turned black. I threw a few jabs and crosses.

  “Interesting.” Deimos said, “It looks like your light magic makes the flames brighter and your dark magic makes them harder to track. I can’t… Hm. Yeah, I can’t keep track of your fists as well. Also, cut that out. Someone might walk in.”

  “Right.” I glanced around nervously as I cut the flow of magic. Deimos just shook his head while also throwing glances at the surrounding area.

  Shaking off the tension in my muscles, Deimos and I left. We got back to the dorm, but when we entered, there was a paper letter that had been slid beneath the door. Huh, déjà vu.