Chapter 43: Master Damon

Damon was woken up from his short nap by the clamor coming from the living room; hearing familiar voices, he knew Mildred and the group were back already. It was a very short nap- barely two hours- but it couldn’t be helped, and even his skill had been reset with a subtle expansion to his liminal space.

Checking his balance, the expected change had occurred—

[Balance: 16 oc]

There was no point in thinking much about it; he would be redepositing everything soon back into his skill. But first, Damon had to confirm if he could receive more to invest from Mildred and Harvey, so he went into the living room.

As usual, they all looked exhausted with lingering bruises, but there was nothing severe. They needed rest, so Damon didn’t waste time as he pulled Harvey and Mildred aside, sharing with them what had happened with Kora earlier, and that the others might be suspicious as well.

There was also the benefit of having them give over their crystals if they came on board; this was the way to grow his crystal holdings the fastest. Of course, he would have to edit some of the minor details. Harvey didn’t look too convinced by the idea, but at the end of the day, he and Mildred still came on board with letting the group know.

They returned to the group, and Damon announced—

"I have something to share with everyone. Actually—"

"I am also an awakened."

Kora didn’t look surprised by the declaration; she seemed more interested in what Damon would say next. As for Hazel Sage and Nick, they had varying degrees of reactions. Hazel smiled beautifully; genuinely excited; she didn’t look shocked, both also didn’t seem like she had a guess, almost like she expects something special from Damon.

Nick’s mouth was wide open, throwing curious questions repeatedly at Damon; clearly, he was also excited. Sage had a look of realization on his face, as if he was finally putting the pieces of the puzzle together in his head.

"Let me guess.... You can increase the quantity of the origin crystals in your possession, and it is time-based?"

Sage was right on the money. He was intuitive to a frightening degree when he was curious about something. To his remark, Damon simply nodded—

"Something like that," he confirmed.

"Wait... is that really true?" Nick blurted in equal parts shock and excitement. Even the others in the room, try as they may, their excitement was seeping through; a small smile was even beginning to form on the corner of Sage’s mouth.

"Yes, it’s true. Though there are some limits."

"The duration is twenty-four hours, and I can’t touch or use these crystals during this time."

"The return is only fifty percent of what is put in; and though i am an awakened. As you can see, for some reason, i am even weaker than a regular human" Damon explained, doing his best to water down the efficacy of his skill, just to be safe.

"Still... that’s insane." Sage blurted. Everyone could almost see the gears turning in his head.

"So... say you put in fifteen crystals.... You get seven twenty-two point five at the end of twenty-four hours.... And if you redeposit that...."

"You never have to lift a finger ever..." The more Sage murmured his thoughts out loud, the more Damon could see the young man’s eyes glistening. He began to look at Damon in a completely different way; traces of awe and something else in his eyes.

"This goes without saying. This is master Damon’s secret, and it must never leave this room." Harvey said as he stepped forward, looking every single person in the eyes meaningfully, as they all nodded in understanding. This was a secret too ridiculous to believe—

Damon was essentially a perpetual engine that minted Origin crystals daily.

With everyone on board, the gains for the day were then tallied. The group had raided three floors before returning. Floors nineteen to twelve were already taken care of by either Brad’s crew or the team formed from the residents’ group chat. The good thing was, they had started posting the floors that were cleared and safe in the group chat, so the team went straight for the floors that hadn’t been reached yet.

The floors they cleared were the eleventh, tenth, and ninth floors of the building. Through these clears, they discovered that not all mutants were growing stronger; just a select few. This was good news, but still it begs the question: why and how are they growing stronger? And one other discovery made and confirmed through the chat channels was that the stronger mutants have something in common.... It was almost an absolute certainty that they would award an origin crystal when killed.

They were getting stronger; it was concerning, but all it took at the moment was just more effort and repeated strikes to bring them down. Basic hot weapons like pistols were slowly losing their efficacy, but just as some of these mutants were getting stronger, there were awakeners getting stronger as well. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Through clearing those three floors, which contained more of the stronger mutants, Mildred and the team managed to gather a total of six origin crystals in that short time.

With everyone now onboard, four of those crystals were transferred over to Damon through a simple trade exchange. Luckily, goods that are privately exchanged and traded does not require execution cost like the publicly trades ones that both needed a listing cost and an executions cost. And soon enough.... Damon’s balance was updated.

[Balance 20 oc]

The remainder, two origin crystals, were used to purchase exactly two bottles of 50ML water. It was unanimously decided that they would rest for a while, drink some water, and try to clear two more floors to see how many crystals they could get and use them to purchase what they would eat that night. If they were unlucky, they were all ready to sacrifice one night and sleep in hunger for the future benefits Damon’s compounding returns would provide.

Damon instantly made the deposit. The team rested for a while and drank some water with everyone, and soon they were ready to descend the lower floors when Sage’s words stopped everyone in their tracks—

"I think someone strong should stay with Master Damon."

Damon, as well as everyone else, was flabbergasted by Sage’s comment, thinking—

’Did he just call me master Damon ?’