Tsukuru walked down the hall, with Shizuka standing behind him. As they walked, everyone gave them a wide berth when they saw Shizuka.
"So." Shizuka replied. "Wanna explain how you suddenly got an Ability?" She asked, tripping her cap to shadow her eyes. "Last I checked, Mom had prohibited you from learning one." Tsukuru's eyes widened, and his head snapped to her.
"You knew about that, too?!" He snapped at her. Shizuka nodded. Seeing this, Tsukuru grit his teeth in annoyance. "What, was I the only one not allowed to know?!"
Shizuka shifted uncomfortably.
"So…I take it Auntie Laura finally gave you…the box." She replied. Tsukuru's face hardened. The box…the one that contained the chip that had given him his System.
"Yeah." Tsukuru replied. Shizuka glanced at him.
"And?" She asked. Tsukuru glanced back at her, before he scoffed.
"Forget it. You wouldn't even believe me if I told you." He muttered. "Logan sure the hell didn't." Shizuka raised her eyebrow.
"Try me." She replied. Tsukuru sighed.
Over the next ten minutes, as they walked to the Head General's office, Tsukuru explained everything to Shizuka. From the box's spring-loaded needle pricking him, to the chip flying in the air like an erratic insect, to him waking up after being electrocuted with the System. He left nothing out. Not even the System's Shop or his new "Haunted Knight Summon".
"I see." Shizuka said, tilting her cap. "Mom really was a genius, wasn't she?" Shizuka mused. "This 'System' sounds…intriquing."
Tsukuru looked at her for a long moment. He momentarily floated the idea of telling her how Quinn also had a similar System. But, he then thought better of it. In his eyes, it'd be the equivalent of throwing Quinn into the maw of a hungry Beast to save his own skin. And to be perfectly honest, it was his secret to tell.
The two of them finally reached a highly-important looking room at the end of the hall. It was guarded by a military officer on either side. When they saw Tsukuru and Shizuka approaching, they nodded, and opened the door. Inside the room, there was a large desk. Sitting at the desk was Head General Paul, still in his black-and-white tailored suit, reading the reports from the Ability Level Placement Test.
To his right was a woman in her early twenties with brown hair, pulled into pigtails. Like Paul, she too wore a suit. In her hands, she held a tablet like a clipboard.
As they stood in front of the desk, Shizuka cleared her throat.
Paul looked up, and his eyes locked with Tsukuru's. In Tsukuru's vision, the System's vector appeared over his head. A line extended from its left before going upwards and leading to a square showing a close-up photo of him. Lines of text appeared below it.
[Name: Paul Snealleart
Race: Human
Ability: Earth Element
Ability Level: 8]
Paul smiled. "Hikiko Tsukuru." He mused. "The boy who can make glathrium appear out of thin air." Tsukuru let out a nervous laugh.
Paul clasped his hands on his desk. "Let me cut to the chase." He replied in an all-business-like tone. "The military is willing to…compensate you for the use of your skills." Tsukuru raised his eyebrow in confusion.
"My…'skills'?" Tsukuru repeated.
Shizuka leaned in from behind him. "He's willing to pay you to create glathrium for them." She whispered.
"Oh." Tsukuru replied. He held out his hand. "Would this be enough?" He asked. Instantly, a System Message appeared in front of Tsukuru.
[Skill Video Creation has been activated.]
The sound of electronic interference filled the room. Head General Paul watched in amazement, as translucent, light-blue pixels appeared in Tsukuru's open palm. The pixels clustered together in a large, egg-like shape. There was a bright flash of light. When it faded, Paul's jaw dropped. In Tsukuru's hand, there was a large chunk of pure glathrium, roughly the size of an ostrich egg.
It had jagged chunks along the edges, looking as if it had just been excavated from a mining operation. Tsukuru felt his hand drop slightly. It was as if he was suddenly holding a 20-pound dumbbell for weight-lifting. A new System message appeared.
[-1 MC. MC: 19/20]
As he looked at the chunk of glathrium in his hand, the System's vector appeared over it. A line extended from the left of it, before going up to a square that displayed an image of the chunk. Text appeared below the square.
[Glathrium Alloy
Item
A chunk of Glathrium, a high-density metal of extraterrestrial origin. Highly sought after as a forging material.]
Paul stared at the glathrium chunk in Tsukuru's hand. He reached out his hand slowly to grab it, handling it with gentle care as if it was a fragile egg. Tsukuru found this quite odd as Glathrium was the hardest metal in existence.
As Paul held it in his hand, examining it, his secretary placed a flat, square device on his desk. Paul gently placed the chunk on the device. Numbers began to appear at the bottom, revealing it as a digital scale. The number began to climb, before stopping once it reached "10".
"Ten kilograms." Paul muttered in amazement. He raised his watch to his face, and began doing something on it, his fingers dancing on the screen. Before Tsukuru could ask what he was doing, he heard an electronic beep from his own watch.
Looking down at his watch, his eyes widened in shock, as he saw a digital message being displayed. "10,000 credits have been received. Current credits: 10,010."
Tsukuru stared at the message, before looking up at Head General Paul.
"I'd like you to provide another chunk of glathrium once a week." Paul replied, as the secretary placed the chunk in a box with a layer of cloth for the chunk to lay on.
"Yes…Yes sir." Tsukuru said, still dumbstruck, and unsure of what to say. With that, Shizuka led Tsukuru out of the room. Once they were gone, Paul pressed his finger
onto his watch, opening a com link.
"Tell Supreme Commander Oscar I will be arriving soon to meet with him." Paul said, trying to hide his excitement in his tone. "I have something to speak with him about." He said, glancing over at the box holding the glathrium chunk now in his secretary's hands.
Meanwhile, Shizuku led Tsukuru back down the hall.
As they walked, Tsukuru brought his wrist holding his watch up to his chest and looked down at it. In the lower left-hand corner of the screen, it displayed "10,010". His current credit balance. Seeing the huge number made him think back to his System's "Shop" tab, and how it had a "conversion" function that let him convert his real-world credits into the Shop's currency of coins, similar to the "microtransaction" craze that had appeared in video games in the late 2020s.
Tsukuru smiled. He looked from side to side. Fortunately, the halls were empty. Most of the students were still unpacking in their rooms. Seeing no one around except himself and Shizuka, he flicked his finger upwards, bringing up the System's UI.
The same column of translucent circles appeared. He pressed his finger against the icon that looked like a shopping cart, bringing up the System's Shop. The icon lit up bright, and the System's "confirmation" sound was heard.
A System screen popped up in front of him, displaying the shop. Like before, it only had four items, the Beast Dagger, and the three variations of Potions. Instantly, Tsukuru pressed his finger against the image of the dagger, the first square in the grid. It lit up brightly, and a System message appeared.
[Would you like to purchase the Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger? Costs 10 Silver Coins
[Yes] [No] ]
As Tsukuru pressed the "Yes" option, a new System message appeared.
[Convert 1,000 credits into 10 silver coins?
[Yes] [No] ]
Seeing this, Tsukuru grit his teeth in annoyance. 1,000 credits was one-TENTH of the amount he had just gotten from Head General Paul. But on the other hand, he really wanted a Beast Weapon. Tsukuru decided to just "bite the bullet", as it were, and pressed "Yes".
Instantly, the credit balance on his watch dropped from "10,000" to "9,000". At the same time, the second row in the "balance" section of the Shop's screen, the row for Silver Coins, increased from "0" to "10". A second later, the balance dropped back to "0", and the sound of a cash register could be heard.
Instantly, pixels began to appear in Tsukuru's hand. Due to them producing a light that illuminated the hall, Shizuka glanced over at him. The pixels began to cluster together into the form of a sword that was a few inches shorter than a shortsword, with a wide blade. There was a flash of light.
When it faded, Tsukuru was holding a dagger in his hand that looked like one, solid piece, looking as though it was made out of a glossy, black volcanic glass, rather than steel. The blade had a row of curved spikes going down the bottom of the blade, looking like the fangs of a beast. In the center of the guard was a black lizard's head, looking as though the blade was coming out of its mouth. To the left of the lizard's head, the guard had a thick, lizard's tail which curved downwards to protect the hand, similar to a pirate cutlass.
On the other side of the guard, it had a lizard's claw pointing downwards. The entire guard and handle looked like it had been molded into the shape of a lizard's pelt, featuring a scaly design. At the very end of the handle, where the pommel should be, it had a jagged triangular piece of metal, looking almost like an arrowhead.
Shizuka narrowed her eyes, as she saw the dagger in Tsukuru's hand. The Beast Energy coming off of it was unmistakable. It was a Beast Weapon. Meanwhile, Tsukuru looked at the new dagger in his hand. As he looked down at it, the System's vector appeared over it.
Like usual, a line extended out of the left of the vector, leading to a square in the far-left of Tsukuru's vision that showed an up-close image of the dagger. Underneath it, information was shown.
[Black Obsidian Dagger
Basic-Tier Beast Weapon
A Basic-Tier Beast Weapon forged using Glathrium and the Beast Crystals of the Basic-Tier Volcanic Lizard.
+4 Strength
+3 Agility]
Instantly, another System message was shown.
[The blueprints of the Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger have been uploaded from the System's Shop. You can now replicate the Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger using the Skill Video Creation.]
Seeing the new message, Tsukuru's smile grew. As he clenched his hand around the dagger, it began to change. All the groves and indents within the blade's guard and handle began to glow bright orange, like flowing lava, and even the blade began to change. It now had a flowing lava design, with glowing, orange spots and splotches running down the entire length of the blade.
A new System message appeared.
[Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger equipped.
Strength 11 [+4]
Agility 11 [+3] ]
'Not bad.' Tsukuru thought, as he looked at the dagger. He then thought about placing the dagger into his System. A new System prompt appeared.
[Would you like to place the Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger in the Weapons Tab?
[Yes] [No] ]
Seeing the message, Tsukuru raised an eyebrow in confusion.
''Weapons Tab'?' He thought. 'Not the System's Inventory?' Tsukuru then flashed back to when he had created his "Haunted Knight" Summon.
It had given him two pieces of Beast Gear, a longsword, and a set of gauntlets. They had been put in his Weapons Tab, as well.
'Huh, I guess Beast Gear doesn't go into the System's Inventory.' He thought to himself. He then thought the word 'Yes'.
Instantly, the dagger in his hand began to break apart into pixels. When it had completely disassembled, a new System message appeared.
[Basic-Tier Black Obsidian Dagger has been placed in the System's Weapons Tab. Stats have returned to normal.]
There was a tense pause, before Shizuka spoke.
"Was that a 'System' thing, or an 'Ability' thing?" She asked, adjusting her cap.
Tsukuru's only response was to let out a nervous laugh.
"Well…uh…remember that 'Shop' I told you about?" He asked, scratching his cheek. "I kinda just bought that dagger from it. And it cost me like 1,000 credits."
Hearing this, Shizuka was silent for a minute.
"Sounds like you got it at a bargain then." She replied, as she began walking forward. "Basic-Tier Equipment usually costs twice that much." Hearing this, Tsukuru remained stunned for a moment.
"Wait…seriously?!" He asked, before chasing after her.