The tunnel wound around until I reached what I was hoping for, a room. Already, my new memories were cataloguing it all. Showing me where I was likely to find items of interest. I would check everything, of course, but it was nice to know that the knowledge, however vague, could still be helpful.
Moving from room to room, I filled my bag with any useful bits and pieces before my internal clock reminded me it was time to leave. I had been at it for around eight or nine hours, I would guess. I had enough that I was satisfied, but nothing that truly blew me away.
But I could take my time, I was lucky this Tidefall. Sometimes, there were only a few large tunnels revealed when the fog sank. Those cycles always led to a bloody harvest as everyone was forced into the same tunnels.
Happily, I had seen hundreds of entrances this time around. Making sure my bag was secured, I set off home, covering my tracks as I went. Rather than heading straight home, I sold off a few pieces of salvage, some metal scrap and a capacitor bank in exchange for nutria slime and some vitamin shots. Nearing home, I circled the area several times, keeping an eye out for anyone following me.
Slavers were a thing, and just across town were the slave pits, a death sentence for most people, especially a young child.
All clear, I started to climb up the outside of two nearby towers and there, tucked away, hidden from view, was home.
A nap and I was off once more. I couldn't afford to stay too long and was soon back out in the tunnels.
----
At first, I didn't find much of interest, mostly some scrap, but nothing truly noteworthy. I did find a few cronos and cogitators, which I traded for some valuable supplies, keeping the best chrono. However, it was the second month when I'd made a significant find.
I felt nervous at the run-up to the end of the month, uncertain about what would happen to my pulses, although if the trend held, they wouldn't really be pulses anymore, so maybe sparks were better. Sparks of knowledge or maybe knowledge fragments. Regardless, I wanted to know if it would happen again. Would I even gain another?
All these flashed through my head until relief washed over me. My fingers started to tingle, and a warmth spread out from my chest. Soon enough, the spark blossomed into existence in my mind.
Like before, it just hung there, inert until I interacted with it.
Like before, it resisted interacting with my body and if anything, even more so this time. If the trend continued, I doubt I would be able to force the issue in a few months. But with excitement, I guided the spark to the fragment I had made last time.
I had since decided that they were crystallised ideas which, when I thought hard about them, would sort of appear in my mind's eye, spread out like a web. Well, not quite yet, as I only had one.
Taking control of the spark, I pushed it into the scavenger idea. This time forcing it to focus first on Imperium technology, then narrowing it further to hive cities. Once it had taken hold, it worked masterfully, with a deluge of information which contained the same amount of information as last time but was far more specific and therefore far more useful.
I felt the clear difference on my next dive, with items and things springing out at me that I might have overlooked. Like the concealed maintenance hatch that I would have walked past without knowing it was there. Or a random scrap item that I would have ignored that was in fact, a valuable part of a data slate.
It was the second run that I came across the room. It was just a simple office with chairs and tables all around. But hidden in a drawer was the pistol.
I recognised it as a laspistol, similar to the many I had seen people carry in the settlement. However, it was far sleeker than those blocky designs, missing the bulky mag holder under the barrel and sharp edges that most of them had. Instead, it was a shimmering silver, with intricate patterns engraved into the metal.
Once I picked it up and settled it into my hands, I could've sworn I felt it shiver and mould itself to fit better in my hands. It might have been my imagination, but regardless, the gun felt like it was made for my hand. The temptation to fire it was almost too much, but flashbacks to some of the gangers I had seen have their guns blow up in their hands were enough to stop it.
Tucking it deep within a hidden section of my bag, I took one last look around the room before heading home with my prize.
I couldn't use the gun until I'd checked it out properly, and no way was I risking others seeing it. I knew little about guns, but even I could see it was special. Luckily, I would only need to wait a few weeks before I could use a spark for a knowledge fragment on it.
I was a little concerned that I was relying on the sparks so much already, but there was really no choice in the matter.