In the silent room, Vale watched Kren adjust his glasses, noting how the older man's smile had vanished and his face was now a rigid mask, though his eyes burned with a sharp, contained light.
Without a word, Arvas lifted his hand, and a small potion appeared, the green liquid hovering above the table. Instead of falling, it expanded, filling the room and forming a second layer that sealed it off.
"There. No one can listen to us now, but they'll know we're doing or discussing something important," Arvas said.
Kren waved his hand carelessly. "Does it matter? We should have wiped clean all the spies anyway."
Arvas shook his head, the black hair covering his eyes sliding aside for an instant to reveal bright yellow eyes. "You know we can't do that. We can't alert them like that."
Kren scoffed. "What does it matter? They know something's going on already. Why should we pretend?"
"You know the reason," Arvas said calmly.
Vale observed silently. The Nyxori Alchemist Association was powerful, but their influence lay elsewhere—in the Hinterlands, where the Knight Assembly held sway. Their branch in the Athrimir Borderland was isolated, independent, but already backed by one of the Flagbearers.
Arvas and Kren sought to gain total control of this branch. Their plan was to buy the remaining Flagbearers' loyalty, cut off the Hinterlands branch, and rename the organization as their own. The ruin would provide the resources they needed to achieve that.
Kren sighed. "Finally, we won't have to work as slaves anymore."
Arvas chuckled. "We were slaves, Kren, but this time, we'll pull one over them. Indeed, we might be forever restricted to the Borderland here, but we can still pull strings. We'll be free, finally."
Vale could imagine the years of planning behind this—they had been kidnapped as children and forced to work for the organization ever since.
Kren continued, eyes gleaming. "This new kid will lessen the number of people we'll need to bring to the ruin. I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that core. Is that even possible?"
Arvas shrugged. "This is the Eternal Skies," he said as if that explained everything.
Vale listened carefully, analyzing every word. Kren hesitated before speaking again. "But why's he here? With a core like that, he shouldn't be in this place at all. Some Flagbearer should have directly snatched him up. What if he's directly under Steelclaw?"
Arvas snickered. "And what? He allows him to work in the mine? Think about it. If he were someone like that, he'd be part of the hunting and patrol team, not wasting away with dust. Why do you think he's trying to learn? He's a nobody who got lucky... a criminal."
Kren's eyes lit up with anticipation. "I should be able to learn something from him during our teaching sessions. I've not seen anyone as interested as he is. A pity."
Vale remained silent, absorbing their conversation, his mind analyzing the implications. The subtle green glow in the room trembled and then broke away a moment later, letting the outside noise seep in again. Any spy who had been listening would have known only that the two captains were lamenting about their finances.
☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆
Vale continued his daily work of breaking stones to reach the Starsalt, though his method had changed. Tasks that once took the entire day now took only hours, and he no longer carted the material himself—Tiber and Syla carried it in exchange for breaking their own Starsalt.
He worked to rebuild his lost strength and stamina, and with the food provided by the Nyxori, he knew it wouldn't take long. The rest of his day would be spent hunting monsters deeper in his tunnel to fill his core.
There were two main ways to fill a core: hunting monsters and drawing essence from the air through meditation. Hunting was faster, though dangerous, while meditation was safer but slower for advancement. Vale had bled more than ever before, even while fighting only imps.
He muttered to himself, green eyes gleaming as they scanned the darkness ahead, "Meditating is just for filling the core with essence, but hunting is for building the core for advancement. But why not just hunt monsters for both if it's available?"
Brown blood splattered his clothes and the ground around him. The imp bodies had disappeared after death, passing through walls—he was now on his fourth day hunting them and had begun to understand their pattern.
Vale smiled. "Right about now!"
He rolled downward, coming up with a glowing ball of essence in his right hand, which he hurled into the bellowing darkness ahead.
The attack struck the middle of the now-solid imp wave and exploded, releasing sharp, needle-like condensed essence that shredded the monsters into flesh rags.
At the same time, he turned his back to the translucent wave as another surged toward him, fangs glinting white in the dim light.
Vale lifted his hand, and a beam of energy shot out, sizzling in the air and burning through over half of the wave.
He grinned. "Imps are good for the core once you know how to handle them."