Chapter 68 - Restock

Maverick chuckled. Then the chuckle escalated into a laughter that soon grew into maniacal.

Max was too wide-eyed and shocked to even tell him to shut up. He was just breathing. Heavily. The musty air of the dark ruins felt fresh as after a spring rain. He was… alive?

Why?

“How..? What..?”

“Hehheh,” Maverick chuckled out the last of his laughter. Max could almost imagine him wiping tears of joy from his eyes, if he had any. “How did you like my new party trick, Maximillian?”

“I… Holy shit… I loved it.”

“Ha-haa!” Maverick said, still basking in glee. “It is a shame none of your friends were here to see it. You will have to retell the tale. Nay! I shall retell it. But you can be my prop. We have to rehearse. It shall be an epic tale. You will need to learn to piss your pants on cue!”

“I didn’t piss my pants!” Max protested.

“Maybe not,” Maverick said dismissively. “But it would make for better drama.”

“Screw your high-school plays for a minute,” Max said, starting to slowly collect himself. “What was that?”

“I’d love to tell you in great detail,” Maverick said. “But shouldn’t you do your henchman thing and loot these guys and get the hell out of this dead end?”

Maverick was right. Max nodded and got to work. He came up to the first enemy and to his delight and surprise it wasn’t just Cosmic Coins he acquired. There was a lot of stuff.

5x [Health Potion], 4x [Mana Potion] and 2x [Minor Stamina Potions]. Not to mention 5x [Rations] for which Max was most pleased. On top of that he got an assortment of items. Seven in total. After a quick cursory check none of the items were an upgrade for Max, but he put them in his inventory for later distribution.

“Holy crap!” Max exclaimed.

“Half of that is mine,” Maverick said. “Nay, two thirds.”

“You want me to put a silly little hat on you?” Max said, smirking. “You should have told me earlier.”

“On second thought, you can keep the stuff. But those Cosmic Coins are coming to papa.”

“I’m fine with that. As long as you don’t refer to yourself as ‘Papa’.”

“You drive a hard bargain,” Maverick said. Max could sense through their bond just how happy Maverick was.

Max hid the bodies in the corner of the room he had huddled in. The enemy would probably find them, but hiding them would probably buy Max more time than it took. After he was done with that, it was time to creep the hell out of there and find some hole in the darkness to rest and regroup. Max didn’t need to sleep yet, but he could use an hour or two to just rest and think.

*

“So are you going to finally explain how you saved our hides back there?” Max asked when they were sitting in a comfy corner of a room far away from the base of the enemy.

“Well, now,” Maverick started, savoring every word. “You are not the only one with the privilege of exclusive skills and abilities.”

“I’m… not?”

“My dear summer child,” Maverick chuckled. “Imagine how bad a look it would be for me if my sidekick was stronger than me.”

“Something happened when you were shooting at the enemy when we were escaping,” Max said.

“Very clever, Maximilian,” Maverick said. “I got a skill. [Semi-automatic Firearm].”

“Cute name,” Max said. “Why didn’t I get that skill, though?”

“Don’t get too greedy,” Maverick huffed. “It’s my speciality.”

“It used my Mana,” Max said. It was true. It wasn’t something Max had noticed immediately. He had been too busy being full of wonder at the fact that he was still alive. But now that Max had more presence of mind, he had noticed that Maverick’s ability had consumed somewhere between 150-200 Mana. Quite a chunk.

“I wonder why it used up so much,” Max said.

“It is of course due to my abilities being S-rank super unique power move ultimate abilities.”

“Of course,” Max said dryly.

“You will have to toss me more often,” Maverick said.

“I would have pegged you for the “Nobody tosses the Mav” -type.”

“I don’t get it,” Maverick said. “But I don’t like your tone.”

“I do agree that I should probably do that more, so you can use that ability and level it up.”

“After Semi-automatic should come fully automatic, if I presume correctly.”

“I think you do,” Max said. He was getting into a pensive mood. Was this why half the ICCB had been up his ass? Was this something they had foreseen or guessed to happen? Max didn’t know what kind of evolution was possible for Maverick, but it seemed to have kicked in fast after they had gotten to the Amethyst-stage of Cultivation. That got Max excited. If Maverick went through an evolution like that so fast, it wouldn’t be long until Max could add something potentially very interesting to his own arsenal as well.

“Alright,” Max said. “I think it’s a good idea that I take a little nap at this point. An hour or two.”

“Pfft. We are in the nexus of a battlezone, and you want to nap?”

Max sighed. “Just an hour or two, enough to keep me going.”

“You don’t need it,” Maverick said. “I can sense you still got some juice left in you.”

“I could use it. It’s money in the bank. We won't be sleeping tonight. It’s fair to assume our Cultivation is in a more advanced realm than any of the enemy’s. Which means we will need less rest than they do.”

“Oh…” Maverick said. “I see where you’re going with this.”

Max grinned before he plopped down and produced his hammock from the pocket space inventory. It would do well as a little cushion to rest his head against. Then he helped himself with some [Rations]. It felt so good to eat, it wasn't even reasonable.

After some fruit and jerky, Max rest his head. It was time to rest. “We’ll keep the enemy busy tonight.”