Chapter 369: Before Going In

Chapter 369: Before Going In

"A week," the shopkeeper said. "Five thousand down. Comes off the purchase price."

He turned the egg’s card towards Jin. The full price was 110,000 Credits.

Jin knew immediately that he could pay for the egg. That didn’t tell him whether he could keep it properly, and he wasn’t bringing a cold-dormant water beast home in Flicker’s spare carrier.

"What care does it need before hatching?"

The shopkeeper fetched a printed sheet. He explained the controlled storage and pointed out the conditions required once development resumed. Jin photographed the sheet and the breeder’s licence, then checked the lot number against the egg he’d scanned.

The man didn’t hurry him.

"Buying for yourself?" he asked.

"Possibly my sister. I need to check a few things first."

"Then don’t have me start bringing it out of dormancy today."

Jin looked up. "You can leave it as it is?"

"During the reservation, yes. That’s part of holding it."

That settled the immediate problem. Jin paid the deposit and read the slip before accepting it.

Brinecoat Penguin, lot fourteen. Reserved until the following Thursday at five in the afternoon. If he bought it, the five thousand would count towards the price.

He saved the terms beside his photographs. The shopkeeper put a reservation marker on the cabinet, and Jin felt a small rush of satisfaction that the egg would still be there when he returned.

Then he remembered the other price.

One problem at a time.

Outside, he called a hatchery service and asked for a care quote using the conditions on the sheet. At home, he checked the reply against his available Credits, adding the remaining purchase price, professional care, and an allowance for the first months of feed.

He could afford it without relying on another successful hunt. He would have less spare money afterwards, but the ordinary costs were manageable.

The enhancement remained a separate matter. Nothing he paid the shop would bring ten million Coins any closer.

Jin set the phone down and pictured telling Elsa.

She already had Breeze. She loved him, worked with him, and complained about the things he chewed. A penguin wouldn’t replace any of that. It would be another beast to care for, with different needs and an affinity that didn’t match her wind.

She could form an additional contract before Rank Two, as Jin had with Flicker, but the higher bond benefits would remain locked until she had the active slot and the beast met its requirements.

And none of those facts answered whether Elsa wanted a penguin.

He nearly called her anyway. Then he imagined saying he’d found something extraordinary and having to explain why he couldn’t promise when it would become extraordinary.

He put the phone down again.

For now, he had a week to think and an egg safely reserved. He could stop there.

* * *

Friday’s ordinary practice helped.

Jin worked through his Gravity Press casts, stopping when his control began to slip. Later came a careful receiving drill with Glitch and the beasts’ measured supplements. Flicker searched his empty palm after her pellets, exactly as she’d done the day before.

She seemed unconcerned that he had discovered a price large enough to spoil his appetite.

That evening, he opened the Engine and sent her avatar beyond the cleared cavern. A descending passage led into a damp chamber with water standing across its lower floor.

[Weeping Gallery]

[Objective: Guarded Cache]

[Guardian present]

He stopped her at the entrance. There was a broad shape in the water at the far end, and something glittered above it in the rock.

Jin’s thumb moved towards Glitch’s avatar.

Just see what it does.

He left his thumb where it was for a moment, then withdrew Flicker.

The unfamiliar territory that had killed Glitch after their breakthrough had started with curiosity too. He could be curious on Monday, when he had a full evening and a plan.

Over the weekend, he kept to practice and care. He checked the egg’s care quote once more, left the two untouched stones in their pouch, and wrote down what he needed to learn about the gallery.

On Monday evening, seated on the feed crate with the real Glitch asleep nearby, he began with the ceiling.

Flicker’s avatar flew slowly through the entrance. Jin checked recesses and dark patches before allowing her farther in. Nothing moved overhead.

The gallery ran north from two low entrance passages. Its floor descended towards the guardian’s pool. Along the eastern side, mineral crust bound a mass of old boulders into a retaining wall. Water trickled over a notch near the top.

An Engine marker identified a flooded chamber behind it.

The western side rose into a broad shelf, roughly three metres above the lowest floor. A rubble slope at its southern end provided a way up. At the far end, the shelf curved towards a cache recess in the northern wall.

Jin turned the view until he could judge the gap. The recess’s lower lip sat about half a metre below the shelf, within a careful reach from its edge.

The guardian lay beneath it.

[Platehide Newt — Guardian]

[Classification: Elite]

It was long and broad, its flattened body armoured in overlapping grey plates. The short legs extended outwards, leaving pale folds exposed where they joined the body. Even resting, it occupied most of the shallow pool.

The Elite label offered no comforting answer about how hard it could bite. Jin watched it lift its head at a drop of water, then settle again. Its neck reached farther than he’d first thought.

He adjusted the distance he intended to keep. Flicker’s avatar was stronger than the real bird, but that didn’t mean she could afford to be caught. He wanted room above the guardian as well as space around it, and a place for her to rest between attempts.

Jin didn’t send Glitch in yet.

He followed dark water marks around the lower walls. Several bands suggested the room had filled and drained repeatedly. Water passing through the entrance tunnels had left silt farther down their sloping floors.

He couldn’t tell how quickly the cycle ran. The trickle over the retaining wall stayed steady while he watched.

More worrying was a crack running diagonally through the wall’s lower crust. A thin thread of water seeped from it. Some mineral deposits crossed the edges, but one short section looked cleaner than the rest.

Already leaking. Wonderful.

He marked the wall and looked for somewhere the water couldn’t immediately follow.

At the shelf’s southern end, Flicker found an upper passage. It climbed away from the gallery and rejoined the approach corridor farther uphill. Jin checked its full length through the Engine view, including the narrow turn. Glitch’s avatar would fit, though he would have to go carefully.

The rubble slope below it looked stable. Jin brought Glitch forward just far enough to test the approach while the newt remained in its pool. Loose pebbles shifted under his feet; the larger stones held.

He withdrew the drake to the entrance and let Flicker settle on a high ledge.

There was a route up and a route out. Neither required passing the guardian.

Jin flexed his fingers around the phone.

If the water rises, don’t wait to see how bad it gets.

He checked the two Lives once, then sent Glitch onto the dry floor.