O.C. Saar
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Omega Release | Chapter 22: Poor Bastard
🕑 Added 2025-06-13 18:00:04 +0000 UTCWith my body aches all but forgotten, I hopped up and turned to the dead Lava Pangolin, frowning slightly. “I mean, we said loot, but there’s neither the time nor do I have the tools necessary to butcher this thing before the recycling swarms dissolve it. I do have time to pry off a couple of scales, though.”
I hummed to myself in consternation. It was almost a guarantee that these things were brought to live here by the Molten Fist Clan, so there was little to no chance of me being able to claim an exterminator’s bounty for my kill. I tried it anyway.
I stretched my arm towards the monster and gave the mental command to claim the kill. Immediately, the corpse started dissolving into the air.
“Wait, no, no!” My instinct was to run towards my kill and try to salvage what I could, but my memory of what happens when a man enters an active recycling cloud held me firmly back. I took a few steps backward, too, just in case.
“I wanted some of those scales! Damn it!” I stomped the ground, entirely unlike a petulant child throwing a tantrum. Hob started chuckling.
I looked down at his window, crossed my arms, and pouted. “What are you laughing at?”
Hob shook his head and got his mirth under control. “Oh ye of little faith,” he told me dramatically. “Behold, loot!”
A window opened.
[ASSETS GAINED]
[Pristine Lava Pangolin Scales] x3
[Metal-Infused Lava Pangolin Bones] x2
[Empty Lava Pangolin Core] x1
[High-Grade Pangolin-Steel Ingot] x15
I stared at the window in disbelief before letting out a loud cheer. “Hob, this is amazing. How did you manage to do that? Even if I dedicated myself to the task, I wouldn’t have been able to gain even a third of these materials before the recycling swarm forced me away!”
Hob grinned broadly. “You’re not the only one with skills. The gem gives me limited control over recycling swarms. I can’t tell them to do anything outside their pre-existing tasks, but I can speed the process up and influence it so that some recycled materials are attributed to us.”
I nodded approvingly and set off at a jog down the road again, constantly scanning my environment for any more dangers. I saw a couple more Lava Pangolins wrestling in the distance, but they were far enough away that they never noticed I was there. Still, the sound of their bodies colliding and their claws sliding off each other’s scales was loud enough that it reached me, and I shuddered.
I would have probably died if it hadn’t been for that lucky shot. I dismissed that thought and turned to happier matters. “So, what we get from the loot is random?”
Hob made a non-committal sound. “Mostly yes, sir. I managed to influence the swarm to prioritize the quality of looted materials over quantity, but that’s as far as I can go right now.”
I raised an eyebrow at Hob, a smile playing on my lips. “Right now?”
He nodded eagerly. “Oh yes, my skill states that as it levels, we’ll get better and more plentiful loot. And it's only Uncommon quality, so there is room for upgrading it.”
My other eyebrow climbed up. “We can upgrade the rarity of our skills? That’s awesome.” Magma bullet sounded fierce at Rare quality. I couldn’t even imagine what the legendary version of the skill would look like. I sure as hell planned on finding out, though.
After half an hour of jogging, I heard a dull rumble from somewhere ahead of me. At first, I thought it might have been the volcano, but as it got louder, I realized something was getting closer. Immediately, I scanned my surroundings for cover, but the best I could find was a charred log to my left. So, instead of allowing whatever was making the noise to grab the initiative, I ran up the small hill ahead of me, trying to get the higher ground and a good look at whatever danger was approaching.
Surprisingly, the sound didn’t come from another Lava Pangolin charging me, but from a chopper bike with one front wheel and a pair of tank threads. It looked awesome. It looked so awesome that, for a second, I missed the rider waving at me enthusiastically. I looked down at him, hesitated momentarily, and waved back.
He then turned his bike towards me and booked it. I did consider running, but without a vehicle of my own, it would be futile. There wasn’t enough cover for me to evade whoever this was. So, I elected to stand my ground and plaster on my face a pleasant smile.
Once the man was close enough, I could see that he was in his late 30s, burly and bearded. Just the type of person you would expect to ride a trike with threads. I liked him immediately.
“Hey there, stranger.” He said, sounding jolly. “What happened to you?”
I looked down at myself, seeing my shredded and singed clothes, and grimaced. “Lava Pangolin,” I said simply.
He chuckled good-naturedly. “Yeah, those buggers are pretty tough. Where’s the rest of your team?”
Team? “I, uh… Came here on my own.”
The man removed his goggles and blinked at me for a few moments. “You got away from a Lava Pangolin on your own? But your gear doesn’t seem to be above civilian class. Quite the feat there, friend.”
I chuckled. “If only. I didn’t run away. I killed the bloody thing.”
The man did a double-take. “You killed one? With your current equipment?” he let out a low whistle.
I waved my hand dismissively. “It was a lucky thing. I almost died in the process.”
“But…” The man hesitated. “Why did you go out of your way to fight one?”
I shrugged, confused at his confusion. “I didn’t. I was just walking down the road, and it attacked me. It couldn’t be helped. They are aggressive buggers.”
The man scratched his cheek with callused hands. “Okay… But why were you walking down the road to Fortress Reina to begin with?”
Was this man soft in the head? “To get to Fortress Reina?”
“You want to go to Fortress Reina, so you just started walking down the road?” the man looked incredulous.
“Yes?” I said, not understanding why the man sounded so perplexed.
He looked at me like I was an idiot. “Why didn’t you use the terminal by the entrance to call for a ride? Walking the entire way is tantamount to suicide.”
My eye twitched. “The what?”
“The terminal,” the man said, as if surprised I hadn’t noticed such an obvious thing. Then his eyes grew wide as if he had just realized something. “Oh, shit. Say, did you notice anything near the entrance when you first came in?”
I crossed my arms and huffed, trying to think back. “There was a plain black obelisk, but that’s about it?”
The man covered his face with his hand and let out a groan. “Great. Just great.”
I had no idea what this man was on about, but it was apparent I had needlessly wasted time. Before I got too annoyed, I decided to move the discussion in a more productive direction. “You mentioned something about a ride?” I asked him.
He shook his head, my voice breaking him out of his thoughts, and the man gave me a broad grin. “That’s right. Hop on!” he pointed his thumb over his shoulder to a second seat on his trike. “I’m Dinos, by the way.”
I nodded, smiling gratefully at Dinos, and hopped on. “Nice to meet you, I’m Raziel.” I patted the sleek black metal body of the trike. “You have a really nice bike.”
He looked at me over his shoulder, revved the engine a couple of times, and grinned broadly. “I know.”
We took off, the bike kicking up a massive plume of gray dust behind it. The noise of the wind was too loud for us to continue talking, so I just sat back and enjoyed the ride.
Around twenty minutes later, we were riding through a sprawling town at the volcano's base. Even if the rest of my walk had been an uneventful one, unlikely from the amount of Lava Pangolins we rode past, it would have taken me several hours to get here, so instead of grumbling about the wasted time, I was just grateful that Dinos happened to pick us up.
“Here we are,” he said as he parked his trike outside a severe-looking building. It was wedged against a sheer cliff, the structure continuing into the volcano's side. “Head straight in and state your business at the front desk.”
I got off his bike and flashed him a smile. “Thanks, man. I’m in a hurry, so I can’t stay here long, but I owe you a beer.”
He chuckled at me. “I’ll hold you to that.” Then, he rode off, and I was left standing in front of the building. I looked at the iron bars that covered all the windows and shrugged. I came this far. No use in backing out now.
I walked into the comfortable-looking lobby and gave the receptionist a polite smile.
“Hello, sir, how may the Molten Fist help you today?” he said, looking at me with a critical eye and a faint sneer.
“Hey. Sorry about my state of dress. Had to kill a Lava Pangolin all by my lonesome on the way here.” I said.
His countenance immediately shifted, and he broke out into a wide smile. “Understandable, sir. If you are here for permanent or temporary recruitment, we offer an attractive remuneration package for people of your capabilities.”
I nodded at the man, not wanting to interrupt him. “Unfortunately, I am not here for a job today. I need to speak to Yusuke.”
Immediately, the receptionist went back to looking at me frostily. “Sir, I am afraid Master Yusuke only accepts meetings through appointments.”
I snorted. “I bet he does.” The receptionist looked offended and opened his mouth to speak, but I continued before he could say anything. “I’m sorry, that was rude of me. Can you please tell someone in the fortress that Raziel is here?”
The man squinted at me but tapped on his terminal. A few seconds later, he raised his hand to his ear and started mumbling. “Yes, sir. That is exactly what he said. Tall, tanned, black hair and brown eyes.” He looked me up and down. “Sir, he looks like a vagabond, are you-” Whoever was on the other line must have said something to spook him because he paled and squeaked. “Certainly, I’ll send him up immediately.”
He stood up stiffly and motioned for me to follow him. We walked deeper into the building and the volcano until we reached a chamber so tall that I couldn’t see the ceiling. At the edges of the room were six heavily armed and dangerous-looking guards. From the moment I entered the room, their gazes locked on me and did not waver for a moment.
I tried my best to ignore them as I followed the receptionist to what I guessed was the elevator up to the Fortress. It looked like a giant, ornate birdcage with a solid floor made of wrought iron. The receptionist scanned something by the cage’s door, and it clicked open. “Right this way, sir.”
I walked into the cage, and the door closed behind me. As soon as it did, a blue forcefield flashed into existence around the cage, helping me relax a little. I turned to thank the receptionist, but he was already walking away. The forcefield dulled all sound outside of the cage, but I could still make out the man muttering to himself. “Poor bastard.”
Before I could ask what he meant by that, the elevator lurched and shot straight up. The gravity dampeners kicked in almost immediately, so I wasn’t flattened against the floor, but the speed at which this elevator was going made me dizzy. I saw flashes of chambers with lakes of lava, workshops where men and women toiled at their crafts, and what looked like verdant gardens, but the elevator was going so fast that I couldn’t get more than a vague impression.
The elevator shot out of the volcano like a cannonball and headed straight up for a small opening on the underside of the fortress. Just as I thought that we were going to crash into the flying behemoth and I was going to be turned into paste, the elevator slowed down and carefully navigated into that hole.
I sighed in relief as the infernal contraption started slowing down further. With an incongruous “Ding!” it lurched one final time and stopped. The forcefield flashed again and disappeared, and the door opened. I walked out into a room almost identical to the one below, except this one had a ceiling. The guards here regarded me with the same level of suspicion, so I gave them a wave and sauntered towards the door.
There, a man dressed in a butler’s outfit waited for me.
“Oh, I like him,” said Hob.
I tried my best not to snort and thought, “Of course you do.”
“Greetings, sir.” Said the butler in an accent similar to Hob’s. “I take it you are Raziel Ibicas?”
I grimaced and nodded. “That’s me.”
He nodded back. “Very good, sir. Please follow me.”
I did just that, and the butler guided me through stone corridor after stone corridor. This place was a maze. He stopped in front of a door with fading green paint and motioned for me to enter. “Right this way, sir.”
I opened the door and gaped. The small room had pristine white floors and was very well-lit, which contrasted with the more rustic interior of the rest of the fortress, but that’s not what stopped me in my tracks. No, what made me pause was the bathtub and barber’s chair in the room.
I turned to the Butler, who was looking at me without expression. “The hell is this?” I asked.
The butler was unflappable, and he answered readily. “To meet with Master Yusuke, you must be presentable. We kindly request that you wash the blood and soot off yourself. Fresh clothes will be provided for you to put on. Once that is done, ring the bell next to the bathtub. Our best barber will be on standby and help you look your best.”
“That hardly seems necessary,” I smiled frostily at the man. “I appreciate your offer, but I know for a fact that Yusuke doesn’t give a single shit about appearances.”
“Well, I do.” A female voice said from behind me, and chills ran down my spine.
I slowly turned around and awkwardly chuckled at the gorgeous woman glaring at me. “Oh, hey, Reina. Don’t mind me. Just popped in to talk with your dad.”
She wordlessly narrowed her slanted eyes at me and looked me up and down. Suddenly, I felt like a pipe rat in front of a hawk.
“You know what? You’re right! I do need to freshen up a little!” I said in a rush and fled into the room, slamming the door shut behind me.
