Book 3 – Chapter 16 – Mita Orono – Spare Change
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-Mita Orono-

“It's a long story, so long story short my second race advancement turned me into a type of enlightened robotics-blackzone manager race hybrid that possesses a vending machine and my third race advancement turned me into a straight up vending machine of an enlightened robotics. So yeah… 30% enlightened robotics, 20% blackzone manager…” answered Robby before narrowing his eyes and asking me, “So what the hell are you doing here Mita? And why the hell are you a freaking blackzone manager?!”

“Okay umm yeah, also a long story…” I replied with an awkward sigh before explaining to Robby my whole history with the Harbingers of the Black Skies and the weird fuck-up that resulted in me becoming an underling blackzone manager under his original self.

“So the other me has dealt with cults also? And repelled them?” 

“Yeah, did you deal with them also?”

“Not those guys, but some others. Both of them are representatives now.”

“You’re kidding right.”

“No, but it’s not like they were like the Harbingers of the Black Skies. Besides one of them was backed by a blackzone god that Zethuron was on neutral terms with and the other worships and uses something called asuric atmans and is backed by a friend of Reagan Road,” explained Robby, looking at a bit pissed about me mentioning his original self, as Jean went to buying a bunch of soda-potions from the remaining vending machine. Shit, didn’t mean to do that, I thought to myself with an internal wince as I realized I struck a nerve.

Perhaps we should avoid commenting that Robby is an alt-rhi,” commented Wlogwa from the back of my head.

Or that he is a doppelgänger,” quickly followed up Ulra.

Agreed,” I telepathically before focusing back on Robby and trying to change the topic, “Cult stuff aside, I got some mandala inscriptions for you.” Opening up the briefcase, I showed him the pair of school mandala inscriptions, Bottled Flowers of Vitas: Trinity Chapter and Bottled Flowers of Vitas: Sugared Chapter, and the synthesis school mandala inscription that used the two in its formula, Synthesis Bottled Flowers of Vitas: Sugared Research. I saw Ester raise an eyebrow at the trio of mandala inscriptions but stayed silent; Jean didn’t care at all, but I couldn’t tell if it was because he already saw them or was just too busy sampling drinks and cheesecakes.

“So Chef wasn’t kidding when he said you were bringing stuff to help with my lifespan, not that I need them too much…” muttered Robby, picking up the mandala inscriptions and accepting them.

“What about the cursed mandalas?”

“Didn’t Anachron show you the information on Cheesecake Emporos-Museum’s Board of Representatives?”

“Yeah, sort of.”

“Let me show you some more information, I shouldn’t need to get a vote on it,” commented Robby as he rubbed his brow. “But I can’t show it in front of your… spellmen friends cause they are definitely not authorized.”

“Then I shall recuse myself, I do need to speak with the other representatives on some formal matter. Jean, shall we?” noted the Glyirian spellman, catching the drift that he wasn’t exactly wanted right now, and motioned for the masked procyon to follow.

“Oh yeah sure! I want to see what other tasty monsters there are to hunt,” replied Jean with a stupid grin and a bit of drool before following after Ester. Finally, they’re gone, I mentally sighed in relief, glad I didn’t have to deal with their oppressive manalogical auras: even without the Enigma amplifying my manalogical senses, they were more uncomfortable to hang around Louella, especially when Ester wasn’t circulating a lot of radiance mana to be more appealing.

“Honestly how do you deal with those guys?” aske Robby the second the two spellmen were out of earshot. 

“No clue man, I never really liked spellmen in the first place,” I replied, scratching the back of my head. “And ever since I became a blackzone manager… they become so much more..”

“Overwhelming?”

“Yeah. I swear they are one of the worst pinnacles of mages to deal with. The blackzone manager in me just gets wigged out by them.”

“Same dude, it’s hard not to notice all the mana swirling around people like them nowadays. Only reason why I can deal with Teodora and Christopher is cause they are representatives and well the nicer two of the bunch,” explained Robby as he had his system assistant conjure up a translucent screen for me to read from.

“It’s like that with Louella, the spellman that Historie Pastoria Sweets just got as underling blackzone manager. And seriously, being around her is like touching a live wire and not in a good way,” I replied in understanding before taking the time to read over the Grand Key again: splits control over the connect Enigma, Cheesecake Emporos-Museum, between the the representatives so they were effectively all head blackzone managers via a voting system; granted shared usage of ten different spirits, including a legacy and a phantasma one; sharing of manalogical resources, including mana and even excess life force from everyone’s vitas vessels; and a few other bits and bobs in boosting the potency of the mandalas in its mandala formula and greater amount of manipulation and control over the blackzone. It really is an impressive Grand Key… but he is still definitely chained up by it. I mean seriously, basically one fourth of his mandalas are inscribed just for this.

“You should just get a Blackzone Sense Tempering sub-feature,” suddenly commented a voice I could only assume was Chef, Robby’s blackzone assistant, as a spherical drone made of crystal appeared. “And Robby should get another one so he stops quivering in his shoes when we deal with pinnacles of mages while in the kitchen.”

“Wait, seriously that is an option?”

“Of course, are you draft? There are a vast variety of spices and seasonings in the form of sub-features dedicated to improving system assistants, such as the System Assistant Drone-Body I am currently using. And my master here still manages to be scared off the manalogical aura given off by other pinnacles of mages despite having three Blackzone Sense Temperings.”

Interesting, a sub-feature that grants a physical body for interacting with not only the blackzone but also the blackzone’s nearby surroundings,” noted Wlogwa with a tinge of interest, properly picking up information on the sub-feature through that web of subconscious gossip he has with the other system assistants.

“Well I’m sorry that I’m not an amazing mage who can stand up to powerful pinnacles of mages,” complained Robby in proper Robert fashion. It was nice to see that he was still himself with all the shit he went through, cause from what he was telling me as we went to set up shop for him to try out his new school mandalas he definitely dealt with way more than Robert. 

Taking the chance to relax and catch up with Robby, I took in the sights of Cheesecake Emporos-Museum: it really was just a grittier version of Historie Pastoria with a weird flow of ambient mana, even down to the incredibly small amount of Subdungeons for the the total amount of areas it had and a variety of variants of monsters. The whole place was like a mirror to him and his differences with the original Robert, both in appearance and personality: the darker hair, thinner figure, sharper eyes, and that scar on his face that was definitely magical.

“So how have you been managing your areas?” asked Robby as we made our way back to Cheesecake Emporos-Museum proper.

“Pretty fine. All of my areas, other than my Subdungeon of course, have some pesky core-made monsters, but I’ve made some deterrents for them with some soybeans that denature curses and a tier 4.0 monster that hunts both of them now.” Yeah updating eagle & warrior enjoying setsubun was definitely a smart plan, now if only I could get some Aux cores to further control the populations of orthruses and pisceses. 

“Man I wish I was that good at stuff, although not like I really need to worry about cause the other representatives handle everything.

“You want to actually be good at being a blackzone manager? Are you sure you’re Robert?” I joked slightly, sort of surprised that Robby was actually interested in this sort of stuff.

“I’m more Robert than the other Robert, that for sure. Besides it gets boring just having to sit around all day, even with all the proxy devices I have,” shot back Robby, half-joking half-serious. “Although it's nice to have peace and quiet for potion making.” That actually tracked: Robert was the same with potion makings and he did have managing and hanging out at the resorts between delving, ingredient hunting, and greater gaming.

“Speaking of the other Robert, have you thought about meeting him? Or catching up with Margaret?”

“Not really. How is Margaret doing anyway?”

“She is doing great, she’s learning bane and boon spells to become a mage. And… well… we’re dating.”

“What?...” asked Robby, pausing and putting a hand on my shoulder. Before I could figure out what he was doing. The scar on his face started to glow ominous as his eyes turned bloodshot and I felt my vitas vessel start to get drained. What the hell?! Robby is a vampire?! I mentally yelped as Robert’s doppelgänger pressed, “You’re serious?”

“Yeah, geez. Don’t freak out so much,” I explained as fast as I could as Robby pulled away, stopping before he actually started draining my life force instead of excess life force. Robert wasn’t this bad about learning about it… then again Margaret was chewing him out when he found out.

“Sorry, it’s just seriously dude. Give a warning next time,” sighed Robby as he rubbed his scar.

“Okay, umm… you okay? Are you a vampire now?”

“It’s a side effect of one of my cursed mandalas, Facsimile: Vampyric Scar. Can’t fully get rid of the mutagenic strain of it cause the synthesis mandalas that build out of it, Life-Stealing Scar and Enigma’s Scar of Punishment. It just comes right back a day or two later if I cure it. They’re also the ones sucking away at my life force, excess and otherwise, and even my lifespan. My vitas vessel is all sorts of fucked up. Having two different school mandalas for Loathful Self-Punishment doesn’t help either.”

“Well at least you have the Bottled Vitas of Flowers to help with that now.”

“Yeah…” wistfully commented Robby, still rubbing his scar. Sighing a bit, I just let the rest of the walk to the Subdungeon at Robby’s Enigma’s birth point, Last Slice Cheesespire, be in silence.

I could understand his frustration and didn’t exactly want to press him too much: when you compared Robby and Robert, Robert was basically dealing with easy mode between all the allies of our Enigma and our various resorts and Robby was dealing with hardcore with how he was being used a figurehead and tool by his allies and dealing with the repercussions of failing a quest. And it was annoying cause just like with reclaiming the Penobscot’s tribal lands, I couldn’t exactly do much without the help of others. But who the hell was I supposed to get to help me? I don’t think Louella is going to be much more help… Ester might be able to help but I have no clue if the representatives of this place would stonewall him or not. And I have zero clue if I can get Robert or Ras to help… I thought, weighing my options. In my deep thought, I didn’t even notice Ulra summoning herself.

“Hi Robby,” Ulra commented calmly and sweetly, looking up at the blackzone manager also mulling things over and holding out some wrapped candy. “Do you want a piece of candy?”

“Yeah, I would,” laughed Robby awkwardly as he accepted the candy. “Nice spirit, Mita.”

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