Desmond walked out of Barco’s Workshop into a rainy evening. The weather had let up some, but the rain was still keeping most people off the muddy streets.

Desmond quickly found that his new cloak did a fantastic job of keeping the rain from getting under his armor. It was almost like it was made for this or something! Desmond smiled at his own joke.

“Hey Dez, did you hear the news?” Riki asked from beside him as he was walking down the street.

“Oh Riki, you’re late,” Desmond replied. “I was expecting you to show up hours ago.”

“Well, the Lodge just issued an emergency request to all hunters. So I’ve been a little busy,” Riki stated. “I’m guessing this has something to do with your meeting? I mean, I know this is serious and all, but I had been expecting the typical slow bureaucratic response from the Lodge. They have even paid us for the scouting already. That usually takes weeks.”

“Both the Lodge and the Imperial Faction seemed like they were expecting something like this to happen,” Desmond replied. “In fact, all the factions quickly supported action. Even the Morgans, though they seemed kind of forced into it.”

“So they know something, and they are not telling the rest of us,” Riki concluded.

“Or we are just not listening,” Desmond countered. “In the meeting, they spoke openly about the barrier around our world weakening.”

“Yeah, but that’s been going on for millenniums already.”

“But they were talking about it like it was an active threat,” Desmond continued.

“So something has changed,” Riki said with a thoughtful expression. “Well, I’m happy that I don’t have to worry about any of this, let’s go shopping.”

Desmond laughed. “This is something that we might actually have to worry about in the future.”

“Yeah, but the future’s not today,” Riki said with a carefree smile as she walked ahead of Desmond down the street. The rain seemed to part around her as it fell, no doubt some type of magic.

***

Desmond and Riki shopped around a large indoor marketplace, mostly buying stuff for their new house. The market was particularly crowded right now, likely due to the poor weather.

Desmond's current mission was to buy a new bed. That’s when a certain store caught his attention.

It was a beast core trader. Desmond had always sold his beast cores to the Lodge directly, so he had never actually been inside a store like this before. The window of the shop had the symbol of the Lodge on it, indicating that they were affiliated and would take LP as a form of payment.

“Hey Riki, I’m going to check that store out,” Desmond said gesturing in the direction of the beast core trader.

“Really?” Riki asked back. “The house is new, we don’t have to replace anything.”

“No, it’s related to the soul stuff,” Desmond answered.

“I guess I can see that. Beast cores and souls do seem to fit together,” Riki said. “Let’s go have a look then.”

Desmond and Riki passed by a posted guard and entered the beast core trader’s shop. The store was a decent size and had numerous bins and counters set up. There were a few other patrons and some staff inside, but it was mostly empty. The large bins set up around the shop contained tier 1 and 2 beast cores in the hundreds.

Desmond picked up a tier 2 beast core and held it up. It was about the size of a marble and had a slight red color to it, indicating a fire affinity. Desmond could also see a white orb inside it that took up most of the middle of the beast core. This was a legacy of some sort and Desmond knew that it wasn’t something physical, but something only he could see and interact with because of [Mirror to the Soul].

Beast cores were crucial to the modern world. An awakened like Desmond could use their own mana to activate an enchantment, but that’s not always possible. The fridge in his house was a good example, as Desmond is not always there to put mana in it, the fridge instead uses a beast core for mana.

Beast cores have the effect of naturally drawing in ambient mana, functionally making them a mana battery.

“What are we looking for,” Riki asked while looking at the tier 2 beast core Desmond was holding.

“Not sure,” Desmond replied. “I’m hoping that I will know when I see it.”

There were a lot fewer tier 3 beast cores in the shop, and they were kept in containers underneath a glass counter. The whole setup largely reminded Desmond of a jewelry store.

The tier 4 cores all had their own little glass box that listed out what beast the core had come from. Apparently, that was supposed to be important in crafting or something. It was when looking through these cores that Desmond saw his first glimpse of a rare legacy. They were still not particularly common, maybe one in fifteen had a rare legacy inside it.

“Is there anything I can help you with today,” asked a shop assistant who had approached them.

“Yeah, where can we find the higher tire cores?” Riki asked as Desmond was still looking through the glass at the tier 4 cores.

“Our shop only has up to tire 5,” the assistant replied. “And you can find our collection right over there against the back wall.” The young lady then pointed to a back counter. “Are you looking for anything specific?”

“No, we are just thinking of upgrading if we find the right one is all,” Riki said.

Desmond and Riki moved over to look at the collection of tier 5 beast cores. There were maybe two dozen or so of them safely stored behind thick glass. There was also a clerk standing behind the glass counter.

Here, Desmond finally found what he was looking for. A beast core containing a purple legacy. It was from a sawfang serpent, which had a water affinity. Or at least that’s what the little card next to it said. It was a circular blue crystal about the size of an apple with a small purple glowing orb inside of it.

“Excuse me,” Desmond said to the clerk. “How much for this one?”

“Oh yes,” the clerk replied. “We just got this one in. It was from a particular large sawfang serpent, hunted in the swampland to the east. We heard that this beast-”

Desmond cut the man off. “Save the speech for someone who cares. How much?” Desmond made sure to tap the purple hunter’s plate that hung around his chest, just to be sure the man didn’t embarrass himself further.

“Of course sir,” the clerk continued without missing a beat. “This one cost 7000 LP or 80500 gold.”

“That’s fucking daylight robbery,” Riki remarked. “I’ve heard of a markup but still, that’s insane. Surely you can give us a better price. We are both hunters here, so we know the going price for a beast core.”

All things accounted for, the price was reasonable. Riki was just blowing it out of proportion looking for a deal. The Lodge would buy tier 5 beast cores from hunters for around 5k LP each.

“I’m afraid I’m not at liberty to lower the price,” the clerk replied.

“Do you buy beast cores as well?” Desmond asked.

“Yes sir, we do.”

“All right, I’ll take it then,” Desmond said.

He didn’t know how the purple legacy inside the beast core worked, but it would be worth far more than the asking price. Even still, Desmond was going to haggle him down.

***

Desmond and Riki returned home after a successful outing. They had purchased many necessities for their new house and now had a fully stocked fridge and pantry.

Desmond had managed to haggle the stingy clerk down to 5.5K LP. He had done this by selling all the beast cores that were left in Ben’s storage. He sold the 10 tier 4, and 7 tire 5 beast cores for a total of 40k LP total. Minus the 5.5k, left him with 34.5k LP more than he had started the day with.

Desmond didn’t like using LP, but his wealth had recently grown to the point it was hard to keep track of. The ease of the LP system was starting to grow on him, so he decided that he was going to use the system more. Desmond would have to go to the accounting department at the Lodge sometime soon to find out his current balance.

Desmond stepped into the large bathroom on the second floor. Even if it was called a bathroom, in reality, it was more of a bathing facility with an attached bathroom next door. There was a massive tub that could easily fit six people and a washing area to sit and clean yourself off. There were also two large standing mirrors on the far wall.

In the Empire, it was common to clean yourself before entering and relaxing in the bath. Well, at least this was common for the wealthy.

Desmond was concerned with how they kept so much water on the second level of the house. But the builders must have known what they were doing as it hadn’t fallen down yet.

Desmond started taking off his armor but soon came across a problem. His chest guard had no latches or straps and appeared to be one solid piece of metal. Did he have to unsummon it? That felt like a massive waste of mana.

Desmond remembered back to how the armor had regrown on the guard when he damaged it. Was it possible to manipulate the armor after summoning?

Desmond ran his mana through the summoned armor and found that it was incredibly easy for him to shape. A moment later there was a loud clattering sound as the armor basically fell off his body. Desmond had split the armor almost completely in half allowing for instantaneous removal, the armor hit the ground in pieces. He might have gone a bit too far as it was going to be a pain to put back together later, but he would find a more permanent solution to this problem, tomorrow.

Desmond walked over and tested the bath water to find that the water was already warm. This was likely because of an enchantment powered by a fire beast core, but the builders had hidden the enchantment well, as Desmond could find it. It was likely under the bath itself.

Desmond washed himself in the shower before standing in front of one of the mirrors to look at himself. His dark blond hair had grown in to hide the scar across the top of his head.
His hair was still short and looked like a buzz cut. You could still see the end of the scar coming from around the middle of his forehead and ending just above his right eyebrow. He had hazel-colored eyes and a strong jawline.

What was Barco saying? He didn’t look anything like a bandit, anymore.

Desmond stood 7 foot 2 without shoes and had a muscular physique. He was buff without being overly bulky. He could have been a supermodel in his past life with this build.

Part of his physique likely came from [Giant’s Blood]. But no small part was because working out in this world actually felt rewarding, as long as you had the experience banked up. Every time you worked out you clearly felt the results. It made the process of working out enjoyable and maybe even a little addicting. Which was a feeling that was completely foreign to him in his past life where it always felt like a chore.

Desmond found himself making muscle poses in the mirror. Flexing so he could see his hard-worked on muscles. He particularly liked his pecs. He then heard a soft laughter come from behind him.

“Am I interrupting something here?” Riki asked from right behind him.

“Yes,” Desmond replied confidently. “But you’re always welcome to join u-” Desmond’s words were cut off as he turned to look at Riki.

Riki had clearly been standing there for some time. She had somehow gotten undressed and washed without him noticing. She was standing there warped in a towel that was too small for her. The towel could barely contain her large bust and only came down to about her mid-hip. Her wet dark drown hair had grown a little, almost coming down to her shoulders. Her milky white skin was damp from the steam. Her body was muscular but not bulky, and she was soft in all the right places. She was beautiful, and somehow she made the towel look even more sexy than pure nudity.

“Am I now?” Riki said as she pressed her body up against his in front of the mirror and did her own cute little muscle pose. It was too sexy!

“That’s good,” Desmond said. “But you got to put more gusto into it. Here let me help.”

Desmond moved behind Riki to help her pose. In the process, her towel finally lost the battle against her large bust. It had put up a good fight, but it was always going to be a losing battle.

The towel fell to the ground but neither Riki nor Desmond moved to catch it. Riki was staring up at him through the mirror with that look in her eyes, and Desmond couldn’t look away.