Chapter Thirty-Three - A Long Night

I Reloaded and Reloaded over and over again through Friday night, doing more research, then buying access to the See Darkness cantrip to practice carving the path for it from my core out.

I decided to split my spells along my core, with more Nature-related spells to one side, and Void on the other. It would, hopefully, keep things somewhat more organized moving forwards. Fortunately, it didn't seem like direction mattered that much when it came to carving. A spell on the 'left' of a core could be cast in any direction as far as I could tell.

In any case, once I had three loops of practice under my belt, I took another two for guitar and French practice, then used a final Reload to return to my Save. This one I planned on having be the real one. That meant carving See Darkness from memory, then ordering a few things online.

First, a new laptop, but for real this time. The expense wasn't that big. A week's pay was worth it not to have to deal with my old clunker.

The rest of my cash would be saved for later. I was sure I could come up with something to spend it on. I was mostly eying some cyberware, ironically better eye-ware. My eyes had a pair of G-Gear 1598s model Bs sewn into my corneas. They were the only cyberware I had. They cost something like three hundred bucks, plus installation, way back when I moved to Fortress ENE.

They weren't bottom of the barrel. They had been bottom of the barrel five years before I purchased them.

In the previous long timeline, I'd eventually splurged for mid-grade sub-dermals and a pair of Orchid Lux Archer eyes. That had been a full eyeball replacement, with under-skin wiring going to a port at the back of my neck for recharging. Those had been $6,000. Four month's pay, basically, but I bought them on a payment plan and had them installed on the same day as the sub-dermals.

The idea back then had been to be tougher, with better vision, to maybe land a promotion at some point. That would mean being on the crews sent into the portals more often, which would give me a slightly better chance of hitting D-rank.

Well, whatever. New-past me was stuck with shit augs, and I really kind of missed my better eyes. Also, the faster connectivity and such.

There was some fear of interference between cyberware and magic, but it was minimal, and some could improve things. Now that I knew about the emotion thing, the fact that a lot of D-rankers had brain implants made a lot more sense to me.

I was not going to get emotional-regulation implants. Those squicked me out. And I wasn't sure if I was willing to chop off limbs for better versions like what Terry had.

If I lost an arm or two in a freak accident then I'd Reload them back. I'd probably keep it to more subtle cyberware.

I was eyeing some internals. Adrenal adjusters, pain editors, bone sheathing, sub-dermal like what I had but better, a backup heart... yeah, I could easily spend a million dollars on cyberware given the chance.

Right now, I didn't have a million, so I was setting my sights a bit lower. Sub-dermals and good eyes first. They'd both help a ton in any portal, then I'd see about getting the rest.

But first, gear... which I couldn't do anything about until the next morning.

So I laid myself down and went to sleep after pathing out both See Darkness and Soothe Minor Pain.

When I woke up the next morning, I could tell that I was a bit low on magic, but not so much that it was annoying.

I did my morning exercises, which sucked after spending a week without doing any sort of exercise at all. Strange, how I'd physically fallen out of that habit so quickly. Then I took a shower, got dressed nice and casually, and stepped out the door.

It was a long bus ride to the part of the city where Stranger-Danger was, but I tried to make the best of it by reading some French-English book. It was part of the translation package I'd finally bitten the bullet and bought in a real timeline. The text of the story was in French until I touched the screen and then the line would turn English.

I touched the screen a lot, but I think I was picking up a word or two along the way.

Getting off a stop away from Full-Auto Stranger-Danger, I walked over while taking in the neighbourhood. It was a bit rougher than where I lived. Closer to the industrial sector and the kind of place where people with nowhere to go sometimes found themselves.

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The outside of major cities wasn't exactly dangerous, but it wasn't safe. One breached portal could ruin a small town, even if it was just some lowly E-rank.

Those kobolds I'd fought could be taken out by one guy with a gun, sure, but what if they kept coming?

So, people flocked to the cities, especially the newer, walled ones. There were Fortresses like Fortress ENE across North America now.

Why was I staying here?

I could up and leave. I had family outside of the city, and as far as I was aware, the breach had been pretty localized. The rest of the world was fine, right?

But... crap, I had a few reasons not to. For one, this was a challenge. It was something I was in a unique position to tackle. For two, I wanted to live with no regrets. Or maybe fewer regrets. Leaving? Yeah, I'd have that weighting down on my soul until the end.

I was still thinking on that as I made it to Full-Auto Stranger-Danger. Jane was at the counter, reading a fashion mag of some sort. She dropped it, a huge smile blossoming on her lips as she saw me. "Beanstalk!"

"Hey Not-So-Plain-Jane," I replied. "Glad to see you're still hard at work."

Jane grinned. "You betcha. Come to finish what you started a couple of days ago?"

I blinked, entirely confused for a moment but... oh, right. That kiss. That felt like weeks ago to me. "I don't know," I said as I shifted my weight to one hip. "Maybe? Depends on a few things I guess."

"Oh?" Jane asked. "You know, usually I'm the cocksure one. And you are in my home turf, Beanstalk."

I sniffed. "Safe to talk?" I asked.

"Sure," she said. "No one's here. Do have a client in... thirty-ish, so if we have a thirst you'll have to come fast."

"Cute," I said. "I'm looking for some gear. I, ah, have a mission I'll be undertaking tomorrow, probably in the afternoon. It might be a bit delicate."

Jane leaned up on her counter, and I didn't fail to notice how much cleavage she was putting on display, and she didn't fail to notice me noticing, at least, that's what I think her smirk meant. It was hard to say, she was always smiling. "So, now I'm your gear doll? At this rate, I might as well be your fixer."

"If you're looking to be that, sure," I said.

"Oh? Mayhaps I have some plumbing that needs looking at?" she asked.

I sighed, but made it theatrical. "Jane, I'm going to be hunting down some kidnappers tomorrow. Four, maybe five guys. E and D rankers, at least. I'm also going to be running through a D-ranked portal, maybe with a civilian next to me."

Jane blinked. "Serious?"

"Yes," I said. "Don't have much more that I can tell you. If everything goes right, I can spill some more."

"You got a fixer, Beanstalk?" she asked.

"No. But I've got a gear doll."

Jane laughed. "Okay, okay, cool. So, budget on this big plan of yours? You know, Batman had a cool suit and all, but he was loaded. Same for Iron Man. If you want me to gear you up good, cough up the cash."

"Can you get ammo for my revolver?" I asked. ".454 Casull. I'll need... call it twelve rounds if you can get me something that hits hard. I'd like a decent first-aid kit, the kind of thing a D-ranker from a corp might carry."

"Planning on getting hurt?" she asked.

"It's for the person I'm un-kidnapping," I said. "They might need it."

"Oh, so you don't get hurt?" she asked.

"Only when I miss you," I replied.

Jane fanned her face. "Ohhh, that was smooth, Beanstalk. But yeah, I can get you ammo and an IFAK. What else?"

"Backpack. Something light. Lights. Glowsticks if you have them, otherwise just strap-on lighting that's decent."

"I've got just the thing. And it'll go well with your costume too. Though you don't want to over-accessorize."

"I'd never commit such a cardinal sin," I said. "Hey, since you're able to get a girl anything she wants, think you can get me some tickets to the Punk Pop Lady Killers next show?"

Jane rolled her eyes. "Not if it's just the one ticket, hotshot."

***