“What the hell happened to your hair?” one of Calise’s bodyguards asked as he saw Isaac.

“Hydras are a pain in the ass. Good XP, though.” he replied with a wry grin. He’d thought he’d gotten all of that out of his hair, but that clearly wasn’t true.

“I don’t suppose that means you’ve got another Aspect for me?” Calise called jovially from within the room the bodyguard was standing in front of.

“ ‘fraid not. Maybe some other time. But I’m guessing that means you’ll take the Aspect?” Isaac called back.

“Already did!”

Once he’d entered the room, Isaac stopped for a second, stunned. Calise was currently standing in the table, looking like a, well, ghost.

“Uh, you do know you shouldn’t be overlapping with another solid object when the [Skill] ends, right?” Isaac cautiously asked.

You couldn’t manually end the [Skill] while within an object, but if you ran out of mana, it would shut off anyway, resulting in you getting ejected violently. As things stood, Calise could either get flung into ceiling and end up with a crushed skull as a result or get smashed into the ground with bone crushing force, neither of which Isaac wished upon him or wanted to be blamed for.

“Bah, don’t worry, I have the mana to spare.” Calise replied but did step out of the table and ended the [Skill] regardless.

“I’m certainly glad to have convinced you to buy one of the Aspects.” Isaac said, sitting down at the table.

“Actually, I’d like to buy the second one as well.”

At a gesture from Calise, someone stepped out of the door he’d entered through the first time, carrying a briefcase, which he placed on the table in front of Isaac and flipped it open.

Row after row of cash stared up at him twenties, fifties and a single stack of hundreds. A proper spread of bills that would avoid the attention drawing issue of paying with too many one hundred euro bills. Isaac could count the number of times he'd used or even seen one of the latter on his fingers. People just didn't use physical currency on transactions that would require them. Someone running around with a bunch of hundred euro bills would look a tad suspicious, so Calise had spared him the work exchanging them later.

Of course, getting caught transporting all that cash, across a border no less, would cause its own set of problems. But if it looked like anything would happen, Isaac could just use [Spectral Shift] to walk through one of the train's walls and hike to the nearest bus stop or train station while changing his face.

Some quick mental math, given the assumption that the kind of bill on top of the stack was the same kind that was below it, revealed that it should be somewhere in the neighborhood of twenty thousand euros.

In theory, there were a million ways for that to be less cash than Isaac had asked for, but he doubted that would be the case. Even if he hadn’t been willing to trust Calise, he could trust in the other man’s self-interest. Cheating him right here and now would utterly ruin any and all chances of any kind of future deals, not to mention the risk of retaliation from the backers or organization that Isaac may or may not have.

Isaac’s lips quirked into a wry smile at the sheer cliché-ness of the situation.

“That’s twenty-two thousand euros right there, all clean cash, non-sequential bills. Ten thousand for each Aspect, as well as a little bonus for you, personally. I trust that will suffice?” Calise asked.

“Of course, thank you for your generosity.” Isaac said, looking the cash over one last time before he closed the briefcase back up and placing it on the floor next to him.

Then, he pulled the second Aspect of the Specter out of his pocket and placed it on the table between them.

“It has been a true pleasure doing business with you.”

Isaac stood back up and shook hands with Calise.

“I do hope you aren’t planning on leaving already, are you? The cooks have prepared quite the feast for us.”

Isaac briefly glanced down at his watch to make sure he wouldn’t miss the return train, then smiled at Calise “I’d be delighted to.”

On an invisible signal, or, more likely, the waitress had been watching and waiting from the other side of the door, a platter of meats, cheeses and bruschetta was carried into the room.

“Have you ever had a traditional Italian meal before, Mr. Holt?” Calise asked.

“I’m afraid not. I’ve been to Italy a few times on holiday before, but I mainly visited the typical tourist places.” Isaac said, truthfully.

“Ah, this should be a treat for you then.” Calise said boisterously, grabbing one of the Bruschetta and hunk of cheese, then eating them far more daintily than Isaac had expected.

“Would you like some wine, Sir?” a waiter asked from besides Isaac.

“No thank you, I still have to drive tonight.” Isaac waved him off. It wasn’t entirely truthful, but he really did want to keep a clear head in this meeting.

“May I suggest some locally sourced spring water, then?” the waiter offered and Isaac accepted, before focusing on the food in front of him. Soft cheeses, perfectly crisped bread with a satisfying crunch as he bit into it, mouthwateringly delicious smoked salami …

“Wow, this is delicious.” Isaac exclaimed.

“Isn’t it? People like to hold up French cuisine as a perfect example of good food, but in my opinion, Italian food comes out favorably in comparison.” Calise grinned.

‘And has the same tiny portions.’ Isaac mentally added but held his tongue.

Thankfully, that had only been the first course, though.

The second course, which was apparently also the first official course of a traditional Italian meal, consisted of a Risotto that, while not as good as the Antipasti, was still excellent.

“How does someone get into the business of selling monster parts anyway?” Calise asked.

“How does anyone get into any business? There’s a need for something that is not yet freely available, you have a way of getting it and know of someone who would buy it. The rest is history. How about you?” Isaac said.

“Hah, too true. My story isn’t any more interesting. The people want something, the government tells them they can’t have it, I supply it. The end.” Calise laughed.

“I suppose it really is that simple where most things in our line of work are concerned, aren’t they? Someone wants it and we are willing to provide it, and that’s all that’s to it.” Isaac added.

“Yet people automatically consider us evil, without ever considering the context or the very concept of supply and demand.” Calise said.

“If the government were to limit itself in what it forbade, we’d be out of a job. Mark my words, the same exact thing will happen with the summoned creatures. Some politician will give an order to stop all summoning, declaring it like the gods of old speaking from Mount Olympus and then pat themselves on the back for saving the entire world. Meanwhile, everyone who still wants to summon will just do it elsewhere and without oversight.” Isaac just sighed.

The same exact situation had happened with the Prohibition and quite a few other popular vices, though the United States’ attempt to outlaw alcohol was easily the most famous. There had been attempts to forbid summoning, but given that criminals were doing it, the police did it. Some countries’ militaries did it, so all the others followed suit.

Then people saw the governments literally raising an army of superhumans using means available to literally everyone and the embargo had been ignored in short order.

“Hm, that’s food for thought. What would you think of a hidden, well-fortified room where people can fight monsters to their hearts content, reaping the XP all without detection?” Calise suggested.

“Eh, personally, I prefer to just pick a patch of wilderness and draw the circle in the dirt. Gives me room to move. But like I said, that’s just personal preference. If you just add a few bars or something to make sure the monster can’t move freely while providing your clients long spears or something, I don’t see why it couldn’t work.” Isaac lied.

While it was very possible to ‘spawn camp’ your summons, there were precautions in place to make that considerably less effective. Any traps emplaced directly in the place the creature appeared would count as environmental damage and not give anyone credit for the kill, also denying them any XP.

Putting them in a cage too small for them to move freely in wasn’t penalized quite as stiffly, but it did come with a significant XP penalty.

However, neither of those things were included in the instructions, which meant Isaac shouldn’t know about them yet or be able to warn Calise. Not that he would have been willing to risk exposing anything by doing so. The success of his organization wasn’t truly Isaac’s concern, just so long as it didn’t collapse completely. He wanted a gateway into the burgeoning black market, not to unduly strengthen a criminal syndicate.

“I think this is the beginning of a very beneficial arrangement.” Calise announced, raising his wine glass “To a fruitful partnership.”

"To a fruitful partnership." Isaac echoed.

As Calise’s wine glass and Isaac’s normal water glass clinked together, the next course was served. Perfectly grilled venison and potatoes on the side. The two of them spent the next couple of minutes eating, but the food vanished quickly. After all, multi course meals did not lend themselves to particularly large portions.

“Now, I might have to leave tonight, but I’m sure to have more to sell in the future. I take it the method I used to originally contact you will suffice?” Isaac asked, wiping a little sauce from his mouth.

“Of course. That’s why we set it up in the first place.” Calise waved a giving hand “And I’m always happy to receive an interesting offer, don’t hesitate if you get your hands on something nice.”

“That, I will. It might take a while, but I will.” Isaac said.

“I don’t suppose you’d be willing to share which creatures are best to hunt for?” Calise suggested.

“Trade secret, I’m afraid.” Isaac shook his head.

As the two of them talked, the final course was placed in front of them. A truly divine tiramisu, thankfully with only a mere touch of alcohol. Isaac would have really hated to turn down this delicacy.

“I must say, Mr. Calise, it has been delightful meeting you. I’m afraid I must be on my way, though.” Isaac announced only after he’d practically licked his plate clean and got to his feet.

“Likewise, Mr. Holt. I wish you luck in your future endeavors and do drop by the next time you’re in town.”

The two of them shook hands and Isaac left, doing his usual [Stealth] routine to shake off any possible tails.

Once he’d reached the spot where he’d hid everything he hadn’t ben carrying with him, Isaac used [Spectral Shift] to retrieve his backpack.

Not wanting to walk around town with the briefcase after he’s shifted his face back, he tried to shove it into his backpack but found it to be too large.

After several long moments of trying, he gave up, opened the briefcase and just dumped the money in, longing for the spatial storage devices that would be developed soon. Some small part of him was tempted to just rock up to the developer’s house with all the materials he knew were needed and every scrap of information he had about the construction process, but he knew it was stupid.

Spatial storage devices had been invented by an otherwise unremarkable Brazilian high school physics teacher. Visiting him right now would make it abundantly clear that Isaac had knowledge from the future.

There were plenty of people from the other timeline who he could visit for help without raising eyebrows because their future potential was visible for all the world to see.

A slightly internet famous storm chaser who gained the ability to control the very phenomenon he’d been studying for so long.

A zoology professor at the forefront of research into the preternatural beasts the [System] had introduced into the world.

And so on. There were a lot people he wanted to deal with he’d only known in the other timeline, but he had excuses for that which other people could see and understand.

But there was absolutely no reason to go to Brazil that literally anyone else could understand.

Isaac just sighed and shook his head as he strode through the slowly darkening streets of Milan.

Name: Isaac Thoma

Class: Rogue

Species: Human

Level: 1

XP: 684/200

Health Status: Healthy

Mana: 120/120

Stats

Fortitude

12

Perception

12

Strength

10

Agility

12

Magic Power

12

Magic Regeneration

17

Free Points: Stat, 0 Skill

Skills

Hundred Faces III

Stealth III

Power Strike V

Piercing Strike IV

Sundering Strike VI

Knives VII

Sneak V

Sweeping Strike I

Far Strike I

Aspects

Aspect Skills

Specter

Spectral Shift

[Empty Slot]

A glance at his status sheet put a smile on his face. His Health Status had cleared right back up and he’d also gained another Level in [Stealth] and [Hundred Faces].

Overall, his Level was not as high as it could be, given that he’d spent 2,000 XP on Aspects and would be spending another 1,000 to slot his Aspect of the Hydra, but his [Skills] were all looking rather solid.

[Sneak] alone had now reached the point where only the most professional normal human would have been able to match him. Part of the [System’s] absurdly enhanced learning under pressure capability.

Couple that with a [Knives] [Skill] at Level 7, those two [Skills] alone would have him a deadly threat in the pre-[System] world.

… maybe medieval times. As Indiana Jones had so thoroughly proven in that iconic scene, guns beat edged weapons quite decisively.

Now he’d board a train, finish writing his essay on the dangers of summoning, and go on a shopping spree in one of those new age shops. A lot of the higher powered summons required such materials and those kinds of shops were a surprisingly good source of them.

And then, tomorrow, Isaac could finally get on with his long term plan.