Bending over to grab the piece of paper, he unfolded it.
There was very little writing on the paper but there was enough:
‘Cruth Hilery – deceased
Steven Heckler – deceased
Austin Smythe – deceased’
Only these three names were written in the paper, one was the restaurant owner, presumably one was the man in the tavern and the other we don’t know of.
About to put the paper away, a wisp of golden light wrapped around the paper.
It pulled off the top name gently, from right to left until it vanished into golden sparks.
The two names below shifted up one place and the golden light writ one more name in a graceful manner at the bottom of the note-form paper:
‘Steven Heckler – deceased
Austin Smythe – deceased
Ollie Crackshaw – alive’
“Ollie Crackshaw,” Flo muttered to himself wondering who he was before shifting his attention to the panicked Cath.
Hopping down onto the streets, he grabbed the fallen snake-like machine and sat on a chair beside it.
As he waited for Cath, he inspected the contraption.
He didn’t spot many differences and would wait to get home before taking it apart.
Not long after, Cath turned the corner, no longer running but absolutely exhausted.
As she spotted Flo, relief brushed over her face painting her with a beautiful smile unlike any other.
Cath floated towards Flo and she kept the blessed smile on her face.
Now very close to Flo her mouth opened wide, “Are you okay, you’re not hurt are you?”
“I’m fine, this thing ain’t and the killer is fine,” Florian responded as factual as possible..
“So where’s the killer,” she said, finally catching her breath as she spoke, removing the most urgent matters from her duties, ticking them off as completed.
“He escaped because I’m too weak,” Flo stated, seeming not disappointed in himself, “he’s either a machine or in the gold or platinum realm because even peak silver realms can’t reflect my bullets,” he sighed as he finished and stood up.
“Are we gonna stop chasing him then?” Cath questioned, a slight annoyance crossing her face.
“We have to unless you can kill a gold stage.” Cath pouted in response but didn’t put up any other form of refute.
Florian glanced up to the now vanished sun and in its place the moon bathed Birnam in a sea of soft comforting moonlight, “I think this calls to an end of our day?” Flo asked whilst staring at the moon in deep thought.
“Fine then, but don’t forget in two more moo—in two more sunrises, we go to the dungeon together, bye bye,” she walked off, leaving her parting statement.
Flo smiled but didn’t look at her whilst she departed.
He began to mutter to himself while playing with the snake-like contraptions in his hands, a stifled laugh was thrown from his lungs.
His eyes wandered around the snake-like machine.
He stopped smiling, his eyebrows tightened, trying to break open the snake.
Then his head shifted to the fleeing Catherine, exactly at the same time she turned back, the beautiful smile still adorned her face and accompanied it was an audacious wave of goodbye which Florian reciprocated but much more tamed.
Catherine finally disappeared from his eyesight but before heading home, he went back to the Union building.
Entering the building he went to the front desk, where the ginger was.
Emily wasn’t there unfortunately.
Florian quickly requested for 10 stage 12 iron cores, costing him 120 shards:
[Job – Adventurer
Currency – 80 Shards 0 Sols 0 Eclipse Shards (Owes 250 shards to All Gunnery to be paid within 86 sunrises)
Life Core Element – Blood
Weapon Body – Gun Body
Innate Body – Marksman Rifle
Current Level – Advanced Beginner Gun Body
Realm – 7th Stage of Iron Core Gathering Realm.
Realm Stabilisation – 7th Stage of Iron Core Gathering Realm
Companion – None
Location – Brimnar City
Date – 17th Sunrise of Summer of Year 4032 (in 2 sunrises – Catherine dungeon meet)]
Gathering the life cores into his pocket, he traveled through the city streets with the stench of rotting food emanating from multiple stands as the gracious moon continued to rise.
Making it back home, he greeted Biland with a “hello” and “goodbye” before retreating to the solitude of his attic.
Inside his bedroom, he placed down the snake-like machine onto the floor next to the other pile of items.
Then he laid down on his bed after stripping himself of his top layer.
Grabbing all the cores he ate them in a few bites.
An insane amount of essence rushed through his body, causing large bumps to appear across his skin as his veins tried to jump out from his blood.
Black spots visibly stained through his skin as the life essence continued to surge through his body.
Many moments and gasps later, his lungs calmed and his skin returned to a near-normal state:
[Realm – 12th Stage of Iron Core Gathering Realm.
Realm Stabilisation – 7th Stage of Iron Core Gathering Realm]
As his eyes wandered over the green plink’s screen, he felt his life essence reach the maximum capabilities for his current core but his stabilisation is lacking.
He sat up and gazed out the window, obvious exhaustion covered his body, his hair ruffled and his face left a mess from the overwhelming intake of power.
Flo’s mouth creaked open, voicing his thoughts:
“Peak of Iron, now I need a bronze core.
But stabilising comes first,” a sigh resonated throughout the room, he continued to speak, “Ollie Crackshaw, he is most likely to die but oh well.
I’ll get revenge for you one day.
That day isn’t too far away.
…
Light whimpered its way into the cramped attic as Florian woke up.
Picking himself up from his bed: he yawned, he stretched and he rubbed his eyes awake.
Some time later, finally gathering energy into his body, he crawled to the pile and grabbed the snake-like machine—re-crawling to his bed, he laid down as he started to pull the contraption apart.
Some parts fell out more easily while others required multiple twists and turns along with lots of force.
Around 30 minutes later, hundreds of carbon miniature black pieces slept around Florian all very similar to the contraptions he stole from the sun cultists lab.
But some shattered from his blood bullet and others left with a part missing.
The only interesting piece of the snake-like machine was the core; its core similar to the balls Florian found in the lair, a colour he has never seen an element have before, “it could just be another affinity I haven’t heard of before, I mean there is a lot of them but they aren’t infinite.
Unless these are artificial like the ones from the Aurelias’ mechs.
But unlikely.
The Sun Church isn’t that advanced are they?” Florian flooded himself with a sea of questions that conquered his mind but very little answers seeped out.
The orb is almost rotten in colour with a strange orange mixed with a moldy green, “it could be fire mixed with a plant affinity or a toxin affinity?” Florian asked himself but of course he couldn’t produce an answer.
A sad pitiful laugh left Flo as he realised how much he doesn’t know.
Moments later, not bothering to piece it back together he threw all the pieces into the pile, extracting the undamaged pieces and another core.
This one was the most special of the 5 cores he had, not counting the core he just got.
It was the colourless core.
He placed the core gently into a small circular holder and then attached the other components around it.
After a while all the pieces came together to form a perfect replica of the snake-like machine he shot down.
The only difference was this beast wasn’t alive.
It didn’t move, it did nothing.
He hit it against the bed’s edge, searched for an on button but nothing was working.
“What’s the chance I need to make this my companion to work?” He asked himself, a sigh accompanying the question.
Not willing to give up, he attributed the failure to the core and so he deconstructed the machine and replaced the core with an orange core.
All connected once again with the new core, there was still no reaction.
Once again, deconstructing the machine, he grabbed the core from the one he killed, “Please don’t be a companion beast,” he said in an almost begging tone not wanting to fight it or let it escape.
Placing the core into the circular holder, so far there weren’t any differences.
Rebuilding the machine, it came together to form the snake-like machine.
Florian’s whole body perked up as he felt a small tickle on his palms.
The small slit on the face of the beast pulled open, its pure black eyes stared at Flo.
Is it hostile?
Is it friendly?