Chapter 38: First Investment Returns

Time sped by, with every consumable supply in the world, both solid and liquid, finally going bad and unfit for human consumption. Now, the only source of sustenance was through the system shop and by using Origin crystals.

The value of these crystals was skyrocketing, and people began to notice a helpful trend. Turns out the acquisition of Origin crystals wasn’t so random after all; what people began to notice was that mutants who possessed Origin crystals tended to be a little stranger than their peers.

It was easy to ignore at first, as no one was paying any particular attention and simply trying to survive, but as more and more people were forced into going on the offensive and taking down relatively ’safe-hunt-mutants ’, a lot was being discovered.

’Safe-hunt-mutants’ was a term coined to describe solitary mutants not in a horde, or away from other mutants. Mutants discovered in such a situation can safely be taken down, even by a group of non-trained civilians holding cold or blunt weapons. They were rare to find and were usually found in Skyrise buildings in big cities or in sparsely populated countryside.

People argued about the correlation between the mutants’ strength and the origin crystals, as well as sightings of some mutants who were acting in an unusual manner.

Like so, time passed, and soon it was 5 p.m in the evening. And as expected, the treasure boxes which had previously been swept clean, were refreshed again on the map, and their locations were also randomly distributed.

Damon wasn’t concerned about the random treasure box drops at the moment; unless it appeared somewhere in the building, they couldn’t get to it. It was getting close to the time his first returns on his investment would come in. 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

There were a lot of peculiarities to his request to Hazel, Sage, Nick, and Kora that they held off on doing anything for the moment. Now, he would soon be doing more suspicious things. He wondered how they would think then.

Brad and the other twin did not make it back until the day darkened to night, with the second twin guarding Tessa like a watchdog and preventing her from leaving the master bedroom.

As the complete twenty-four hours were reached, Damon felt a reconnection from the dispersed crystals he had felt before; only this time, it had more weight, and a quick look at his system confirmed the efficacy of his skill.

[Balance: 18 o.c]

Damon had not been entirely sure that it would work, even as every ounce of him told him it would. This caused him a lightness on the inside and a sense of peace. But that wasn’t all—

’What’s this?’

At that moment, Damon felt his other aspect of his class skill react to the increment of his origin crystals. The volume of this liminal space expanded by a minuscule, nearly imperceptible amount — but it did expand.

"So that’s how it works." He muttered aloud.

"what that, master Damon ?" Harvey stated, looking at Damon.

"It’s nothing. And... here." Damon said as he stretched out his hand to Harvey. Inside was an object that had the basic components of an auto injector, but though the material felt like plastic, it didn’t look like it.

"You did it, young master," Mildred exclaimed from the side, clear exuberance on her usually stoic face.

Harvey accepted the health injector, already knowing what it was, as another one materialized in Damon’s hands. Together, Harvey pushed the injector into his arm, while Damon pushed it into his chest, as the rest in the living room watched on with their mouths agape, several theories of what the hell was happening running through their minds.

The effect was instantaneous. Damon felt a mix of cold warmth run through his every vein; he could literally feel his torso being stitched back together in real time, and in less than a minute, the sensation stopped; the pain was gone, both in his face and torso.

Looking at Harvey, his previously pale face had regained warmth; safe to say, his arm had been healed, but sadly, the health injector wasn’t powerful enough to regrow missing limbs. Still, they both looked like they had just come out of a sauna, regaining all lost vitality.

Watching this all unfold along with the others, Sage couldn’t remain silent anymore as he asked in bewilderment—

"Did you just use two health injectors?. How?"

His question was valid. First, it didn’t make sense that Harvey and Mildred could so quickly obtain ten origin crystals in the short time they had descended to the lower floors yesterday, and second of all, they had all been gathered in the living room, together all day. Why delay so long and suddenly pull out not one, but two health injectors?

"Master Damon thought it best to use the origin crystals we gathered yesterday at this moment," was Harvey curt remark to Sage’s question.

Sage didn’t look convinced in the least, as he wasn’t the only one who shared this sentiment; only he did more strongly. He first thought the three of them were hiding something, and he didn’t like that.

Damon was contemplating whether to get Mildred an injector as well, but seeing she had only light bruises like the rest of the students, except Kora. He thought it best to do so when his points were more abundant. At the moment, the two severe cases, which were Harvey and himself, had been sorted, and with a thought, the remaining eight Origin crystals were redeposited into the one-day foxed deposit.

"Shall we get going then," Hazel announced. They had packed all the necessities required, and she was elated to see that Damon and Harvey had reimagined their health.

"Sure."

With Sage in the lead, and Hazel dragging Kora along, Damon trailing behind, now wearing a luxurious long white coat on top, a small bag of essentials as well as weapons packed and ready by Harvey and Mildred, and Leo resting comfortably on Damon’s shoulder, they made their way towards the exit.

They had debated whether to risk bringing Tessa along, but that would just put more of a target on their backs; besides, Hazel was always in private communication with Tessa, and confirmed Brad had not tried anything ugly with her. They could always return to rescue her once they are stronger.

As they disappeared through the door, the twin who was guarding Tessa peeked through the door, watching them go as he muttered—

"How do they have so many crystals?"