Outrun - Chapter 190

I collapsed onto my small bed, a stroke of pure satisfaction running through me as I felt the soft mattress. I’d spent way too long letting the water brush over my skin, even going as far as to ignore the interface popping up in my vision until now. All for this moment of relaxation. Of being sand-free for the first time in a month. My hair had been particularly filled with the substance.

I relaxed for a while. Unfortunately, the world wouldn't wait for me like the interface would. I finally looked at the transparent screen. I’d been busy the past month, and it showed.

「Tech - 8>11」

「Stealth - 10>11」

「Perception - 8>10」

「Firearm - 5>9」

「First Aid - 4>5」

「Evasion - 4>6」

「Cleaning - 3>4」

「Brawling - 3>4」

There was a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing so many of my Skills level up. Especially the ones that leveled enough to get a new Perk. Firearms, Cleaning, and Brawling specifically. The latter two weren’t super useful for me, but getting a Firearms perk would always be helpful.

It was nice seeing a Skill get five levels in one go too. It’d been since I first got the interface that I saw such a jump in levels. As it turns out, spending hours fighting off a mindless horde of Dune Walkers was a quick way to power level. Not that I ever wanted to throw myself into such a situation again.

It looked like Tech might pass Stealth soon, which was just awesome. Seeing it only jump two levels confirmed that Skills grew much slower at higher levels. And significantly at that. I spent far more time doing Tech-related things than shooting a gun and yet it’d only grown two levels.

Still, it was only a matter of time till I hit level twelve in one of my Skills and earned that Interface Upgrade or whatever the eidolons called it. I’d hit my goal of getting Tech up to Stealth regardless. I was now free to dump my next Skill Point into either Tech or Stealth at the next opportunity.

And of course, I had my Perk Points I needed to spend before that. I had no idea if Brawling or Cleaning would be of any help with their Perks, but I had high hopes for a good Firearms Perk. Dexterity was already insane in its versatility. 

Before heading into a two-day forced vacation, I left for my hidden speakeasy. For the most part, I spent the rest of the day repairing my broken gear and fixing any minor issues I noticed. 

That mainly meant my drone and the gauntlets. The drone I’d disassembled to get into the Back Archives, so it needed to be rebuilt from the ground up. Not too difficult of a thing to do, but it required quite a bit of time for the SITCH to print my parts.

The gauntlets weren’t that bad by comparison. They still worked just fine, though I had one fix and one change I wanted to implement. The fix was for the slight issue of feeding electricity back through the gauntlet into me when I used them.

To get around that small issue, I incorporated a layer of insulation between my skin and the metal. I also adjusted the pressure plate system that the thing activated off of, fixing a spot where it connected back into the gauntlet when hit with sufficient force. I hadn't punched with full might when initially testing it, so I'd overlooked that particular issue.

I tested the gauntlets quite extensively for a few hours. I didn’t want a repeat of self-shocking during a fight. The last time I tested it, I didn’t put the gauntlets through enough stress. This time I made sure to check all my bases.

While I was here, I also started printing parts for a sentry gun. I’d drawn quite a few designs on the latest gig, so I just had to port them over to the SITCH’s built-in terminal. It was a bit of a time-consuming process, especially considering the complexity of some of the parts.

I ended up settling for a design I denoted as a Briefcase Sentries. The idea was that I could fit two of said Sentries into a small briefcase. They weren’t super powerful by any means. Their small size affected the caliber of their guns. The plan was to use them for either surprise attacks or for distractions though, so their caliber wouldn’t matter all that much.

Their design required a lot of folding parts and interlocking mechanisms to stay small, so it’d take four or five days for the SITCH to finish printing everything out. The mag feed for the turret—which I set to be overhead like the Raijin P-490 Lia and Hampton—alone would take half a day to print. For each turret.  

Yeah, so I was basically done building stuff till all that finished printing. At least, building stuff with the SITCH. Could always make some plastic parts if I needed to, but I was down to just chill and relax for a week. 

While I was here, I dropped off the bird parts from that Aether bird back in New Tress City. I also looked over the things with Aetherial Perception. Now that I was free of the city and that horrid entity, I was once more free to use my Perk. 

Looking the stuff over, I couldn’t really tell much about it other than the fact it deeply resonated with the Aether. The feathers looked as though they were part of the Aether themselves, almost as if they were stuck between the two dimensions. I had high hopes for the feathers.

I’d definitely have to do quite a bit more research about everything related to entering the Aether before I messed with the stuff. I knew it was possible though. Aether Gates, while I knew next to nothing about them, were something that I’d heard about once or twice. Instantaneous travel through the Aeter, though there were only a few of them around the world. 

Speaking of, eidolons? You’d be the best source of information regarding anything to do with the Aether. One of you want to throw me a bone? Just this once? I’d really appreciate it!

I waited a few moments. No reply. Figures, I wasn’t really expecting-

「Request - Echidna’s Shrine - Received

• Visit Echidna’s shrine and offer a relic, enchanted item, Remnant, or Revenant.

• Reward: Access to Aether Jumping documents」

Oh… Echidna, eh? I’ve uh- I’ve never heard of them. No offense. There were probably dozens of eidolons I hadn’t heard of all in all. What even is an Echidna? Ah, wait, thank you! I’ll definitely do that.

As for what Echdna wanted… there were a few I could offer. That revolver I took from my underground vault was one. Still didn’t know what it even did. Or I could offer that celestial compass. It looked fine but I wasn’t really sure if I’d ever get around to actually using it. At least, I hadn’t used it yet.

That could wait for later though. I looked up Echidna on the Net. Apparently, echidnas were a mammal covered in sharp quills. It looked a bit like an hedgehog and was one of two mammals that laid eggs.

As for Echidna the eidolon? She was one of the few eidolons who had a public working relationship with the corporate side of the world. Specifically, with Mystech. Apparently, she was well known for creating and modifying anything magical. She wouldn’t be a bad eidolon to get to know, even with her corporate relations. 

I left my speakeasy, stopping by the gym to lift some weights on my way out. I had access, and I was here, so why not use the equipment? Sure, it wasn’t nearly as good as the Crusade’s equipment, which I also had access to. It was safe from the Inquisitor though! Or, at least, I hoped it was.

Unfortunately, that was basically it as far as outside activities went. I didn’t get paid until next week thanks to Athena having to find buyers for everything. With the SITCH busy, and my bank account momentarily low, I returned to my apartment and pulled up my stats.

「Name: Shiro Tsukuyomi

Traits: Fox’s Grace, Quick Healing, Insight

Free Perk Points: 1

Tracking - 7

• Stalk

Tech - 11

• Eidetic Schematic

• Corvid

Stealth - 11

• Fox’s Paw 

• Cold-Blooded

Sleight of Hand - 9

• Hidden Hands

• Ambidextrous

Perception - 10

• Aetherial Perception

• Technical Expertise

Net - 3

Melee Weapons - 5

• Throwing Weapon Master

Intimidation - 3

Firearm - 9

• Dexterity

• 1 Perk Point

First Aid - 5

• Calming

Explosives - 1

Evasion - 6

• Burst Step

Driving - 7

• Land Vehicles

Deception - 8

• Honest Face

• Master of Disguise

Criminology - 7

• Cues

Concealment - 8

• Lethargic Presence

• Hidden Weapon

Cleaning - 4

• 1 Perk Point

Brawling - 4

• 1 Perk Point

Accounting - 1」

Perks! Perks! Perks!

It was finally time to pick out a Perk. I laid down on my bed and settled in as I was sucked into the pavilion. The first Perk I wanted to grab up was for Cleaning. It was pure curiosity that drove me to it.

I arrived before the shelf, eagerly looking through the vast array of Cleaning-related Perks. Most of them were as I expected. Nothing too intriguing. Quite a few related to chemicals and cleaning with said chemicals. There was even one that would modify my body to generate chemicals instead of sweat, which was… interesting.

The idea of bleach or some acid pouring out of my skin was quite uncomfortable. It definitely had quite a bit of applications, but it wasn’t something I was necessarily interested in.

There were surprisingly few high-level Perks though. Almost every Perk I saw was achievable with the first Perk Point of Cleaning. It was almost as if no one had hit higher levels of Cleaning, so the eidolons never created higher-level Perks. That thought alone almost made me want to level Cleaning just to see what would happen.

Cleaning would be a skill I could power level too, though I wasn't sure if it was worth the time investment. I mean, I would be better off making stuff for Tech or going out on a heist. Speaking of heists, I was really looking forward to doing one. The gig with the Crimson Company hadn't quite scratched that itch- Focus up, Shiro! Perks now, plotting later.

Eventually, I settled on a Perk that wouldn’t provide any immediate benefits. Once I got the speakeasy up and actually running as a true bar though, it’d be nice to have.

「Squeaky Clean - Increase the atmosphere and mood of people in places you clean.」

Yeah, nothing too insane. Atmosphere and mood were two very important factors when it comes to bars though. With both good, people would be more willing to come back. Returning customers were paying customers.

Of course, that was in the future. I didn’t even own the building, let alone have everything needed to run a bar. It’d be a long time till then if I had to guess. But that was fine. Goals for the future were nice to have. It gave me direction past the day-to-day.

I took the scroll over to the easel and set it down. I was expecting a perfectly realistic painting, but what I found surprised me. It was a half-finished painting of a person cleaning the floor with a mop. Such a sight severely dropped my confidence in the perk. Was the effect half-finished too?

Unfortunately, I didn’t have long to think about it before I was kicked out of the pavilion and sent back to my apartment. It seemed it was one of the magical effect-type Perks as nothing too major happened. Which was nice.

Since it was an easy acquisition, I was more than happy to delve back into the Pavilion and pick another Perk. At least, that was until I heard my phone ring. Not my usual phone either. It was the Blue Crusade phone.

I reached for it as the screen flicked on, revealing five dozen missed calls from the inquisitor and two times as many text messages. The most recent was a minute ago and the one furthest back would’ve been a few days after I left the city. Did something go down?

I hesitantly reached for the phone and called the Inquisitor back.