Morning greeted me with the familiar noise of tramping feet and a marching song being sung into cool air. Muttering from an annoyed Richard in the next bunk over made me smile a little. Dinner had been a simple yet filling stew, and then the thankful leaders of Delta Company had shown us to the barracks where there reserve units stayed when they were on duty. The barracks were closer to small motels than the barracks I had seen during boot camp, but I had quickly realized the reason. Each room had the same floor space as a large tent, and the beds were the same size as travel cots with storage trunks at the foot. This would give the soldiers a familiar size room for when they were on duty. My thoughts continued to wander as I donned the clothing I had gained the day before. Sleeping in the skinsuit, even with the hole in it, was enough to satisfy what little modesty I had.

I kicked one of the posts of Richard’s cot and said, “If it is like any military unit in history, breakfast doesn’t last long.”

The mention of food earned me a glare from the larger man, but he pulled himself up and began getting ready as well. The group had broken apart after dinner the previous night, with the others indeed planning to join the ranks of Delta Company if they could. Lily’s task had proven even easier as we had been given access to the quartermasters of the company. We could resupply through them, and we were also given until the end of the month, when they were having the next group of reserves cycle through, to use the barracks. That gave us about ten days to get our bearings and begin our adventures. Lily and Richard had been given a voucher to take to the core merchant we had passed on our way into town. In effect it said that Azure Squad would cover the cost of one grade D class core of the bearer’s choice. It was going to be our first stop after breakfast this morning and I was looking forward to it.

We sat down in the company mess hall across a table from Lily to begin eating. As we started in on our food, a thick porridge with some kind of fruit that looked like apples but tasted closer to a melon, Lily said, “I picked the quartermasters brains last night. There is in fact an Adventurer’s Guild. What I was told was that the guild was the basis for Delta Company’s squads of irregulars. The way the story goes is that the soldiers usually had to be called in when a particular problem got too large. Originally the kingdom had most of its soldiers with Aethercrests spread about. When Delta Company was formed it was just people with Aethercrests, which allowed them to handle large difficult jobs. Now anything that is considered too difficult for a standard party is forwarded on to Delta Company by the guild. They either handle it themselves, or the guild sends multiple groups after the problem. It seems to work well, as the company gets plenty of combat experience and advancement points for use with their crests.”

I swallowed the current mouthful and asked, “Were you two going to stop in after we visit the core shop?”

She nodded and said, “Yeah, we need to find a couple of quick jobs so we can get some of the basics for a longer trip. A change of clothes would be nice; these are going to start to smell soon.”

“Three sets; one to wear, one to wash, and one for reserve,” I responded, “the reserve set should be whatever our nicest set is in case of a formal affair.”

Richard interjected, “That sounded like you were quoting something.”

Lily waggled her hand as she swallowed some of her breakfast before saying, “Not so much a quote as an old standard. I remember reading a book where something like that was stated. You had two sets of everyday clothes that you went to work in, one was usually being cleaned on the day you wore the other. The third was for festivals or religious observance. I think it’s where the term Sunday best originated. Plus unless we can manage to get bags like what Andre has we will be carrying it all ourselves.”

I nodded food taking priority over any verbal commentary I might add. Richard pulled out his voucher for the core shop and it reminded me of a question I had meant to ask, “Lily, do the quartermasters have cores also?”

She shook her head, “They have a few, but Davis had a better selection than what they have. We can get traveling supplies from them, kind of like a military surplus store, but anything beyond that we have to get in town like any other person.”

I nodded and spooned up the last bit of my porridge.

Crystal Cores was arranged very much like a jewelry store when we walked in. There were a multitude of glass cases with gems of every color on cloth that allowed you to see the different hues. The cases were labeled with the core types and grades, and each core also had a price tag below it stating how much it would cost. A smaller section of aethercrests made from what looked like steel and silver was in one corner with a sign stating that the customer could special order other crests. An elderly man in his sixties, moving with the aid of a cane but his graying hair still showing a few strands of dark red, looked at us with keen blue eyes before saying, “Welcome Pioneers, what can my humble shop do for you today?”

I grinned, apparently we weren’t the first of the players to stop by his shop, “Greetings sir, my companions are looking to get class cores appropriate to their crests, while I had hoped to look around a bit and maybe ask some you some questions regarding both cores and crests.”

“Let’s take care of them first, then I can tell you the same thing I told the others who wanted me to share all my secrets,” the old man said.

I suspected the conversation wouldn’t last very long so I smiled and waved the other two forward with the statement, “I think they are looking for physical ability cores. I suspect yellow or orange would work best if I understand how the color coding of the cores works.”

“Aye, yellows are straight physical abilities; while orange have magical effects. What kind of abilities are you looking for?” the old man responded.

Lily motioned for Richard to go first and he said, “Not knowing what my options are makes it difficult. Rumor has it you used to be part of Delta Company. What would you recommend for us? Lily’s class is an Archer while mine is a Warrior.”

The old man nodded with a smile and said, “Not too proud to ask for help, that’s good. You're working in a group so you need abilities that complement each other. You aren’t carrying a shield so most of the defensive yellow cores won’t suit you.”

Lily spoke up, “I thought the defensive abilities were green cores.”

I managed to speak before the store owner could, “If my understanding is correct, the green gems are physical abilities with support magic effects. You could likely find offensive abilities in the green cores, provided they are built around a support magic effect as well.”

The shopkeeper pointed his cane at me and said, “You are correct. Most of the defensive abilities do fall under the support magic category though, but there are a few that are purely physical in nature. Most of those are passive or reserve abilities, like many of the yellow cores. Now young lady, while I help him find his, you need to decide whether you want to go the purely physical route or not. I have a great many options for archers, but precious little patience to teach.”

Lily nodded as the man turned back to Richard, “For you I have the same question though. Do you wish the purely physical cores, or the hybrid cores?”

Richard said, “For now I think the purely physical cores. I am not a defensive fighter by nature, so if you have something you would recommend to increase my offensive options I would appreciate it.”

The man nodded and moved behind the counter. First he pulled out an item shaped like an old tablet computer, but with a polished wood backing and a “screen” of smooth crystal. At the top of the screen was an indent surrounded by a simple sigil that reminded me of an aethercrest. I stared at the little device, causing the old man to smile, as he plucked a yellow crystal from the case and set it on the indent. Text appeared on the crystal listing the four abilities within the crystal: Passive: Toughness, Action: Rock Breaker, Reserve Action: Rage, Evolving Action: Spinning Edge.

Lily was all but drooling at the device too and asked, “What is that?”

The old man smiled and said, “It’s a core reader. My family created the design when we opened this shop. It reads the abilities on a core and displays them for you to see. It duplicates the ‘Core Analysis’ ability reasonably well I would say.”

“And do you sell those as well?” I asked.

He shook his head, “Yes, but they are not cheap. I would recommend getting one of the Analysis class cores that will fit your crest. I’ll show you what I have after I help the lady.”

Richard had tuned out our conversation, but had questions of his own when the shopkeeper returned to him, “Can you tell me what these abilities do? I can get some idea based on the names, but I could be reading them wrong.”

“Of course, of course; that is the one problem we haven’t quite worked out on the device. When you use the ability to examine a core you are also able to get a sense of how the ability can be used. We haven’t quite figured out how to make that show up on the screen, but I digress. The Toughness ability is straightforward and makes you tougher and harder to injure. As a purely passive ability it does not require aether to activate, but increases the abilities of the crest. Rage is a reserve action, meaning that it will reserve some of your aether to grant you the effect; but what it does is a bit of a mixed blessing. It will increase how hard you hit with every strike, but it seems to have a negative effect on how much the user pays attention to their defense. In general you hit harder but will get hit harder in turn, which is why toughness was placed on the core as well. Rock Breaker is a common offensive action that increases the power of the attack made when you activate it. Spinning Edge is the interesting one here; it allows you to throw your blade out and it will ricochet back to your hand. It takes some practice to get right, but it gives you a ranged option. In addition since it is an evolving action there are alternate ways to use it depending on your own choices,” the man explained.

“I thought evolving abilities were affected by the abilities they were linked to?” questioned Richard.

“Bah, whoever told you that was an amateur. Yes, when you have an appropriate core linked along the lines to a core with an evolving action it modifies the ability. However, you can modify the ability without linked actions with advancement points. Take for example lightning magic, if you were to link an evolving lightning magic to this core the spinning edge would take on electrical properties. Or you could evolve it to do so without having to link a magical ability. There are a numbers of combinations that either haven’t been discovered, or are being kept secret, out there. As I was saying though, for a purely physical selection this is what I would recommend,” the old man said in a bit of an exasperated tone.

While Richard looked at a few other options I took the time to focus on my own evolving abilities. Summoning was different from what the old man said, but it had a descriptor that stated the summoned creature grew in strength. The fire magic however did have a few options in a skill tree format when I examined it. There were two initial options; the first option was to change the spell into an ability that would reserve the aether and add a burst of flame to my weapon attacks, while the second option reduced the charge time for the spell. I couldn’t see the options beyond that other than seeing that they were there.

I continued looking at the options for advancement while Lily took her turn discussing options with the storekeeper as Richard had settled on taking the core that he had suggested. With how helpful Chola was in the fight in the cavern I was planning to save all my initial advancement points to attune the ability to summon her to my crest. I noticed that the Spirit Caller trait I had earned, was now bound to the Aethercrest and I asked Richard, “Where did the passive ability you gained with that core go on your sheet?”

“Huh, oh it’s in the traits now. That’s odd, I would have thought it would stay in the abilities,” he responded.

The storekeeper looked at us sharply when he said this and I shook my head at him and mouthed after. He nodded and continued explaining core options to Lily. She settled on an orange core with the abilities Aimed Shot, Ricochet, the evolving action Elemental Arrow, and the evolving action Strider. Aside from the last they were all straight forward damage dealing abilities, with the last being a movement type ability that she seemed to think would come in handy.

As they left the old man introduced himself, “My name is Gerad.”

I offered my hand, which he took, and responded, “Michael is the name. You seemed a bit surprised there when we mentioned the passive abilities.”

He nodded, “Aye, you could say that. Most of the time passive abilities can be attuned to the Aethercrest, but I have never heard of them becoming traits. It seemed odd, and I can’t think of a reason why it would happen.”

“Maybe it’s the crest rather than the core?” I asked as the theory crept in.

“Unlikely, I’ve made every type of Grade A Aethercrest the kingdom has seen. None of them had the ability to instantly attune a passive ability,” Gerad said.

I pulled the medallion off over my head and placed it on the counter. From my conversations with Davis I knew that a bonded Aethercrest would not lose its bond to me if it was removed. I would lose access to the abilities it granted if it was more than a hundred feet away though. Yes, I had in fact tested the range during the trip, sue me.

His eyes widened as he examined the crest before him, “Alpha Aethercrests! Are you telling me that all of you have Alpha Aethercrests?”

I shrugged and answered, “I would assume so. Each of the others that Azure Squad helped had one, so the other groups probably did as well.”

“That is likely the case then. The only Alpha Aethercrest I have heard of before this is bonded to the Dark Knight Dietrich,” he said eyeing the crest hungrily.

I slow smile crossed my lips as I noted his avid stare. Not wanting to sound greedy though I instead joked, “You look like you’re a lion with a steak my friend.”

He started slightly then laughed and replied, “Aye, I guess that is so. Maybe if I had more time I could figure out what caused the passive attunement?”

I let the grin show as I asked, “How much time would you need?”

“I can’t say. I have never had the chance to examine one before,” he responded.

“Let’s make a deal then,” I started, deciding to get the ball rolling.

His eyes narrowed and he said, “I’m listening.”

“My companions and I are planning on picking up a job or two from the Adventurers guild. It is likely we won’t be leaving until tomorrow though. As far as I understand it you can’t sever the bond of an Aethercrest with its owner by force. That doesn’t mean I can’t leave it here for you to look at for the evening, provided I can reclaim it before we leave in the morning,” I said.

“You’re right and wrong about severing the bond. If you kill the owner of an Aethercrest you can collect it, but nothing short of that will work to my knowledge,” he began.

I shook my head, “One of the effects of waking up encased in crystal seems to be the ability to return from death. A few of the group we started with met unfortunate ends in our first battle, but their bodies and crests faded rapidly.”

“Then no, I don’t believe anyone could take this crest from you by force. So what is it you want for the chance to examine the crest overnight?” he asked.

I shook my head, “What are you willing to offer. I could ask for a something, but you could just keep asking any of us who come into the shop until someone agreed.”

“You have a point. I have coin, cores, and crests in my shop; along with the knowledge of them. To be honest though I am willing to negotiate to a point,” Gerad countered.

“How about this then,” I offered while looking at the price of most of the grade D cores and crests, “These cores normally sell for around two hundred numus, give or take a bit depending on the abilities. You’re selling the grade D crests for five thousand numus. Now I need to go by the Artificers Quarter to acquire a more appropriate weapon for myself so I need to earn some coin. I would like a reasonable amount of coin so that I can purchase the weapon and the answers to a few questions about class core combinations for unlocking new classes on the crests. I assume you have more familiarity regarding the costs of goods in the town.”

The old man smiled and he responded, “That is a reasonable offer, as well as one that shows some foresight. The problem is that the weapons sold in the Artificers Quarter can be expensive. I assume the weapon you are looking for is a form of firearm? If so I have a counteroffer.”

I nodded my head and said, “I was looking for a pistol. I noticed a few of the other pioneers had acquired them so I know they exist. I’ll hear you out on the counter offer.”

He pulled a holstered pistol out from under the counter and set it on the case, “This is my own personal weapon. My daughter made it for me and taught me the method. I will provide you with one like it, but I will require three days with the Aethercrest.”

A day was still fairly close to the twenty four hours we were accustomed to on Earth, but I doubted I could do without my crest for three days which I promptly informed him of, “It would be a bit difficult for me to gain any advancement points or be an effective healer for our group without the crest.”

The old man smiled and nodded, “True enough. Then how about 120 hours of the crest being in my possession in between your own activities? In exchange you get a pistol and belt for it, three magazines, and I’ll even answer a few questions for you.”

I nodded and said, “That sounds like a good deal, but I’ll need to know where to get ammunition.”

His smile grew wider as he said, “No you won’t, but you may want to look into an analysis type core while you’re here.”

I laughed and extended my hand again to seal the deal, “That sounds like a good deal. How do you know I won’t run off without paying my debt?”

He shrugged as he shook my hand and said, “If you tried to do that I would post a bounty at the Guild and forward a copy to my daughter.”

I laughed even harder and replied, “There is that. Now would you care to explain to me why the gun won’t require ammunition?”

Nodding Gerad slid the pistol out of its holster and dropped the magazine before showing both to me and saying, “There are pistols that use chemicals or aether to fire projectiles that require ammunition. There are even some that don’t require ammunition at all. My daughter however figured out a bit of a middle ground. The magazine is charged with ambient aether, it takes about twelve hours to fully charge. The pistol pulls that aether from the magazine and condenses it into a kinetic blast that it fires at a target just like a purely mechanical bullet. The downside is that the force depletes rapidly after about fifty yards. I made some improvements to the magazine that will allow you to charge it with your own aether if you need to. It still takes a few minutes so you wouldn’t want to do it in a fight.”

I tapped the white core attached to my aethercrest and asked, “One of the upgrades I have to my fire magic allows me to make it a reserve spell to add fire to my weapon attacks. Would that work with a pistol like this?”

Gerad cocked his head and said, “I don’t know. The pistol actually works like a crest and core to duplicate the basic Air Bullet spell, using the trigger and barrel as the aim and activation.”

Geard began looking through his core selection before finding the one he was looking for. He set the orange core on the analysis tablet before saying, “This core will give you the same ability without having to upgrade your evolving magic down that path. It actually has both the Air Bullet spell, as well as the Aetherial Weapon ability.”

I looked at the tablet and he was correct. The Air Bullet spell was listed as an evolving magic, while the Aetherial Weapon ability was a reserve ability. There was also a passive ability that reduced the aether cost of spells called Channeling, and an action called Flurry. I asked, “How much?”

“This one is normally two hundred and twenty-five numus. However I’ll sell it to you for one hundred fifty if you make a report about the ability combinations,” he offered.

“Deal, but only if you help me find a good analysis core. Our last team had a Scout, but he’s looking at joining the irregulars,” I agreed.

Three hours later I was left with one hundred numus in my pocket, the rest spent on the two cores which I attached to the Aethercrest. I was much richer in information though. I had gained the passive ability Analyze, which showed me basic information related to creatures and objects, when the core was attached. The core, a very pale blue in color, also contained Core Analysis and Crest Analysis which were channeled abilities that would give me details on class cores and aethercrests. The final ability on the core was the real prize though; it contained the Infuse Core ability. That core alone had cost three hundred numus. I had also learned of a number of crest and core combinations that would unlock second and third tier classes on an Aethercrest, but none of them were for my own Freelancer class.

Lily found me deep in discussion about the passive abilities on various types of Aethercrests, and she interrupted me with a sigh and a scowl, “I should have known better than to leave an information geek in a store that sells his drug. Did you spend all of your money before you found a weapon? Your mind is good, but if you can’t hold your own in a fight I won’t carry your dead weight.”

Gerad laughed at my sheepish expression and explained, “None of that now. The young man made a deal with me for an appropriate weapon, but it will take me until morning to finish putting it together. I’ve actually enjoyed our conversation, especially because the young man will be spending more money here.”

Lily couldn’t hold the scowl on her face as she said, “Well we found a job that looks interesting. Richard suggested we head out at dawn, will that be enough time for you to finish it?”

The older man nodded and said, “Aye, that won’t be an issue. I usually am puttering around down here around then.”

“I’ll get him out of your hair then,” Lily said as she grabbed my arm and started leading me to the door.

“Have a good day Gerad,” I said before we crossed the threshold, his laughter following us out.