Chapter 57: Peak C-Rank

[Investment Opportunity Available.]

[Target: Emily Ashcroft.]

[Current Value: B+.]

[Objective: Acquire the resources required to restore the target’s legs: Required Resources: 1/2.]

[Difficulty Grade: A.]

[Success Probability: 30%.]

Reinhard looked at the notification for a moment before letting it disappear. He was close to getting the last thing and then he can finally complete the mission. He only had to further increase his contribution.

So he worked.

The first problem arrived in the form of an artifact. Three researchers stood around a long table, arguing over an old black pendant.

"I still think it’s a defensive artifact."

"The energy pattern doesn’t match."

"Then what is it?"

The discussion stopped when Reinhard entered. One of the researchers looked at him. "Special Consultant."

"Gentlemen." Reinhard perched on the edge of the table, since the chairs looked uncomfortable. "What happened?"

"We can’t determine its actual value."

He picked up the pendant that looked like something a very sad grandmother would keep at the bottom of a drawer. Reinhard activated the Advanced Merchant King’s Lens, and the information appeared in his vision.

[True Market Value: 2,400,000 Credits.]

[Recommended Buyer: Eclipse Restricted Collection.]

[Optimal Use: Reading the records stored beneath its inner layer.]

Reinhard smiled and read the second line again, just to enjoy it. "It’s worth 2.4 million. And the best buyer is Eclipse itself, which means you’ve spent all this time trying to sell it to yourselves. That’s a very small circle."

The three researchers stared at him. "Based on what?"

"The Lens."

One of them frowned. "We already evaluated it."

"And?"

"We couldn’t find anything special."

Reinhard tossed the pendant into the air, caught it, and set it gently back in the man’s hands. "Then you should look again, and this time a little deeper. I’d tell you where, but I hear I ruin surprises."

The researchers exchanged glances, and Reinhard could already picture Lucien drinking his coffee very slowly while someone explained the situation to him.

After several minutes of additional testing, one of them finally found a hidden layer buried inside the artifact, and the whole table went silent. The pendant was not a defensive relic at all.

It was an information-storage relic, and the information inside it was valuable enough that the researchers immediately rewrote their evaluation, one of them writing so fast that his pen tore the paper.

Reinhard stood and brushed off his coat. "Problem solved. You’re welcome."

The second task came from an expedition team preparing to enter an old ruin outside the city. Their leader spread a map across the table and tapped it with two fingers. "We have three possible entrances."

Reinhard studied the map. "You’ve already sent scouts?"

"Two."

"Results?"

"Nothing useful. One of them came back and only told us it smelled damp."

"Damp is a start," Reinhard said, and slipped a hand into his coat to rest it against the Mirror.

Three possible futures unfolded behind his eyes.

In the first, the team ended up trapped beneath the ruins, and in the second, they walked out empty-handed, but in the third, they survived and came home with exactly what they had gone in for.

Reinhard pointed to the eastern entrance. "Take this route."

The leader hesitated. "Why?"

"It’s safer."

"How do you know?"

"You aren’t dead and seem to have gotten what you wanted."

The leader looked at his teammates, who looked back at him with the expressions of people who had all recently heard about the first expedition, and after several long seconds, he nodded. "Fine."

The team left, and several hours later, Reinhard’s communicator buzzed on his desk.

Expedition successful.

No casualties.

Objective recovered.

The third problem was a damaged magical device that the researchers had already spent half a day examining without result.

Reinhard took one look at it, activated Mana Sovereignty, and the mana inside the device turned into faint threads of light running through the metal. "You’re looking in the wrong place."

The researcher beside him frowned. "What?"

Reinhard pointed toward the center of the machine. "The damage isn’t coming from the outer structure." He traced the flow with his finger, following the threads. "It’s here."

The researcher checked, and his expression changed. "There’s a secondary mana channel."

Another researcher leaned closer. "I didn’t see that."

"Neither did I."

Reinhard shrugged. "You do now. You spent half a day on this, and I spent four seconds, so I think we should all take a moment to reflect."

Behind him, one of the younger researchers whispered to the person next to him. "Is it true the heavens sent him?"

"It’s in the incident log," the other whispered back, and Reinhard pretended not to hear, which was easy, because he wanted them to keep saying it.

The work continued after that. By the third day, a box of pastries had appeared on his desk with no note attached, and by the fifth day there were two. Reinhard, who had specifically been told nobody would bring him any, ate one with a quiet look of victory and asked no questions.

The nameplate on his office door now read Special Consultant, and every morning someone wrote (The Mirror Guy) underneath it in black marker.

He wiped it off, and the next morning it was back, and by the fourth morning he had begun to suspect that the marker was part of Eclipse’s security system.

...

The reports started piling up on Lucien’s desk. Three successful artifact evaluations. Two expeditions completed without casualties. Artifact recovery efficiency increased by twenty-three percent.

At the bottom of the stack, someone had stapled a small note that read, Consultant requests a snack budget, and Lucien read it twice, moved it to the approved pile without a word.

And asked his assistant to find out who had been emptying the cafeteria’s pastry shelf.

He leaned back in his chair and set his coffee down without drinking any of it. He had expected Reinhard to be useful, but he had not expected this, because the man’s value was not tied to any single ability.

It was the combination of a tool that could show the true worth of an artifact, an ability that could glimpse possible futures, an unusual understanding of mana, and enough combat power to survive situations that would kill an ordinary consultant.

Reinhard was not only finishing his assignments, he was making everyone around him better at their jobs, and Eclipse had started to notice.

...

Several days later, Reinhard was sitting in his office with a report in his hands when someone knocked. "Come in."

The door opened, and Lucien stepped inside, and Reinhard looked up over the page. "You’re getting into the habit of visiting me."

"I thought you’d complain if I stopped."

"I might."

Lucien chuckled and set a small black case on the desk.

Reinhard looked at it, then at him. "Another gift?"

"Call it an investment."

Reinhard raised an eyebrow and opened the case. He poked it once with one finger. "Do I eat this investment?"

"No."

"That was a very fast no."

"Reinhard."

Reinhard’s expression turned serious. "What is it?"

"Mana Breaker." Lucien folded his hands behind his back. "It’s a resource designed to break through the existing mana limit of a C-Rank Awakener."

Reinhard understood immediately. This was not money, and it was not a simple reward. Eclipse was investing in him, and it had decided that he was worth the cost.

Lucien smiled. "Think of it as recognition for your work. It’s usually taken with a medical team standing by, so you might want to..."

"Then I’ll make sure it isn’t wasted," Reinhard said, and swallowed it.

"...wait," Lucien finished, a moment too late.

For a moment, nothing happened, and Reinhard looked at him with mild curiosity. Then his mana exploded.

BOOM!

The windows rattled violently, the desk shook, and the floor cracked beneath Reinhard’s feet. Lucien took a step back and pulled his coffee off the desk, holding it against his chest with both hands.

Mana flooded through Reinhard’s body, and his Gnosis stretched wider with every heartbeat. His breathing grew heavy, his hands gripped the arms of the chair, and every part of him felt like it was being filled with pressure. Reinhard gritted his teeth as the Mana Breaker tore through the limits of his C-Rank foundation, and somewhere deep inside him, something gave way.

CRACK.

The barrier around his mana shattered, and a wave of pressure burst out of his body so hard that the air itself seemed to bend. The room trembled around him, and the pastry box on the desk slid slowly across the wood and fell off the edge.

Then everything went silent, and the pressure vanished.

Reinhard opened his eyes slowly, took one breath, and then another. His mana felt different, denser and cleaner and far more responsive, and his body felt lighter than it ever had.

He looked inward and understood the rest. His official rank was still C-Rank, but his real combat ability had moved somewhere else entirely.

He had Peak C-Rank mana and the strength of his body to go with it. Combine that with all of the rest of his abilities and it wouldn’t be wrong to say he was approaching B-Rank combat power.

Reinhard smiled. "Not bad."

Lucien stared at him. "That’s it? You’re surprisingly difficult to impress."

Reinhard looked at the empty case, then at the floor cracked beneath his chair. "Was I supposed to scream?"

"I wouldn’t mind."

"I’ll put the floor on the investment." Reinhard bent down, picked up the fallen pastry box, and checked it carefully. "Also, one of these is still alive."

Lucien closed the case with a click and shook his head, and when he looked up again, his face had grown more serious. "Now that you’ve reached this level..." He met Reinhard’s eyes directly. "Are you ready for a mission?"

Reinhard’s smile widened. "Finally."