“Meeting dismissed…” He said with the same cold voice as usual. Everyone present sighed and went back into different rooms, I realized that the room I got was the only empty one. Was he planning this all along?!

He looked at me and seemed oddly confused. “Something wrong?” 

“I have a lot of questions!” I said as I looked at him directly at his eyes. 

Uwaa… he was scary, those soulless eyes of his, it felt as if I would lose at any moment. But I won’t lose this one time. I need answers, why isn’t he killing me, why... just a lot of why's really! I continued to stare him down until he finally sighed. 

“Okay, come with me.” He gestured me once again, I was relieved so I took a bit to nod. I could tell he was rather displeased with me just by the little fluctuations on his expression, it was like trying to read a poker-face, it was possible but so hard…

We went down the stairs without saying a single word, frankly I doubted I could make him say more than a single sentence, I am sure he has said something like that. But it’s just… Well, I don’t know, he is simply a scary person. At least I am no longer there. 

He entered an office and so did I. It was a well-furnished place, I saw paintings and it had a carpet made out of animal fur I have never seen before, his desk had a lot of books, quills, inks, anything I could imagine without part of it being actual technology. His bookshelves were rather impressive too. 

He sat behind the desk and looked at me, waiting for me to do something. With slight nervousness I took a seat in front of him and faced him with determination.

“What did you want to ask, Leah.” The way he said my name was creepy, I didn’t like it.

“H-How do you even know my name?!” I cried out for an answer in panic. 

“I simply do.” How helpful.

“Then… Why are you treating me so well? It does not make sense…” I muttered although he still heard me.

“It’s an investment. You help, I collect.” Ha…

“I am pretty useless you know… I don’t know how can I help you and I almost died for no reason…” I burst his bubble. 

“No, that’s not the case.” He turned around and gave me a small tablet with a grid. “It’s a master board, I am sure you know how it works right ? Just a bit of blood.” I turned pale. 

“B-but!” I didn't even want to say why. 

“It’s your choice to look or not.” He said as he started to write documents on his desk, he seemed like a rather busy man. I guess he simply did not care after all.

I continued looking at the master board for a bit, it had the same nib for blood. I sighed in defeat and pierced my finger, and again… it was smothered in black. The tablet’s grid lit up as if letters were imprinted on it. 

“Eh…” The information was cleaner presented on the grid. And… “It went up?!” The overall stat mean went from 1 to 20?! How?!

[Stat mean: 13 + 50% Increase from title — Taboo Seeker — 19.5 rounded to 20.] Ehhh?! 

“Now you see?” He said as he still wrote on his paper. 

“I don’t understand…” I truly didn’t. The man simply brought his arm to the tablet and pointed at the SK tab. 

[Special Skill: Core sense. ⁠— For a fragile being, there is nothing like being able to see past the veil and sense the truth. ⁠— Marks home, and detects bad omens — lessens mental.] What did it even mean by bad omens?! And also, what is mental?

“I see… how did you know, was it through the tablet?” He shook his head.

“It’s a secret, but you are now working for me. So again, you are an investment.” Ha… “Well, you see now, right?” I nodded as he took the tablet from my hands. The man grabbed the tablet and just like before…

SMASH! 

It shattered on the ground into millions of little pieces.

“Why…” I asked with slight shock and at the same time I kind of saw it coming.

“Masterboards retain information, this information is dangerous.” Ha… Still… He got close to my face. “You understand what some people would do for this kind of skill?” I shook my head. 

“Well, I am sure someone like you simply doesn’t understand humans…” He said as he looked rather distant, I could see something rather grim in his expression. He blinked and returned to coldness. “Just wait for orders.”

“Yes…” I left the room. Maybe he didn’t have such bad intentions. I mean I could tell he didn’t want to kill me, but I still felt like there was something wrong about the ordeal. Maybe something was different. 

I stood there on the unfamiliar hallway, it was truly an unfamiliar place to me. I had a lot of things to think about, the skill calls me fragile and yet that person called me resilient… I don’t quite understand, I mean… am I the same as the sentient egg? I think so, and it cracked as soon as it hit the wall, but he was weakened, no? 

It’s weird… I don’t understand, how did I get so strong? Well actually, just judging by how I feel every time the collector stares into my eyes I suppose I am pretty weak. Apparently this is a small town based on what the guard told me that time… And if titles are based on percentages and stuff, doesn't that mean that the bigger the town the bigger the fish?

“I don’t understand at all…” I muttered as I started to go up the stairs and back to my room, but then I paused as I got an idea. “Since I am working here, maybe I should look around a little…” Indeed, this was my workplace! Although I had no professional experience in any field of the industry, but that didn’t matter… 

I justified my actions and looked around. The stairs descended into a square room with a door, the door was the office. The square itself was connected to a hallway and that’s it. It was basically a room with a hallway connected to it. 

I went through the familiar hallway, it was the same one in which I came from. I kept walking and arrived at the wall, I saw the room in which I woke up in, or rather the door to the room, but I wasn’t particularly interested in that. The hallway continued to both sides, but one side had a lot of light and the other one was dark and seemed rather eerie. 

Curiosity was stinging my brain. “I know I shouldn’t do it…” I was afraid of getting beaten up, but every time I recall it, the collector did not have such intentions. I mean, what was the worst that could happen from exploring my new workplace? 

I felt oddly happy that I no longer had to deal with stupid things, even if it only lasted a few hours, even if it was something like that. While at the same time I didn’t have my freedom at least I was treated in a humane way, without many problems, while I still did not know what I wanted to do, at least this gave me experience. If you could call it that. Even though I had no idea what collecting actually meant. 

Looking at the positive side of things I ventured into the unlit side of the hallway, maybe I would find something interesting. I kept walking by and the rooms seemed locked, of course I would try to open them. Stupid decision though… I kind of just wanted answers on what he meant by collecting. 

I approached the last door in the hallway. “Probably locked like the other ones…” I muttered in defeat as I twisted the knob on it. It made a rather ugly sound and it broke open with a lot of dust, making me cough in the process.

Peering inside the room, it was full of dust but I couldn’t see anything. I opened the door a bit more and saw something white that was close to the door. 

“Eee…” It was the hand of a skeleton… Sweat started running down my back, I was in a place I definitely shouldn’t be. 

“What are you doing?” I heard a cold eerie voice behind me. 

“Eek!” It was the collector!

Azrie

HOLY... TABLES... I HATE THEM! I thought it would look neater etc, have an actual story reason for why a table and then normal notifications... but wow, scribblehub editor was truly a nightmare. It looked all nice and tidy in my doc and then it just gets smooshed and wrecked in there, haa... Upsetting, that's for sure. Please be sure to favorite the chapter if you enjoyed it. 
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