[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 122 – More Sweet Loot

Mel looked up from the [Revival Scroll] to see Charlie, in tightly fitted witch robes, striding across the open floor with a basket from one of the Grand Orders in her arms.

You gotta be kidding me, Mel thought sourly.

The rival Archon gifted embers, manuals, potions, and pearls to Sylvie’s team. Because of course Sylvie and Komachi would be the leader of that group, despite Sylvie being the youngest Magi. By the looks of it, Charlie even shared a portion of her Second Champion winnings with Sylvie and Hal too.

I had that idea first! Mel mentally screamed.

The short skeletal mage, Cal, nervously peered over the lip of the basket while Miranda loomed over it hungrily, casting the whole thing in shadow.

Buttering up a single team of Magi wasn’t a bad move to make, instead of all of them. Granted, Mel’s rival might have already secured their loyalty through familial bonds. As if to emphasize that point, Charlie was embracing a squirming Sylvie and Komachi.

Gwen growled under her breath, watching this go down, then turned away grumpily to stare intently at Thomas.

“What’re you doing?” Mel asked, annoyed.

“Was just wondering what he’d look like with a beard,” Gwen admitted. “Oh, right! This is your branch, remember?”

Gwen held the legendary kindling branch out.

Mel looked at it, then her. “You all sure? Heath technically needs it more.”

“But you’re the one who earned it,” Heath argued. “We’ve already talked about it. You’re the one who deserves the branch, Mel. Without you, we wouldn’t have placed in first. Hell, we probably wouldn’t have even survived. In case you forgot, I nearly died. Twice!”

Thomas lifted a finger. “Nearly got kidnapped.”

“It is rightfully yours,” Gwen told Mel with unexpected seriousness. “I have a knack for judging potential. More aspect skills are one of the best ways to tap into that.”

“Hold onto it for me then,” Mel said, pushing the branch back. “Once we’ve sorted through everything, I have some people to bring back. I want to–now what’re you doing?”

Gwen gave the branch a sniff. “What? It smells good!” She offered it to a soul aeder who had run over to investigate.

Also sniffing the branch, Komachi’s little black nose twitched this way and that. “Machi will remember dis smell.”

“Yeah, me too,” Gwen agreed with the little pobul. “If I ever catch a whiff of one again, I’ll know exactly what it is and go right for it.”

Komachi nodded sagely. “Thank!”

Seeing that Charlie had made a fatal error in only gifting her family, Mel enacted her plan. Using her superior agility and stealth, she slipped into each Magi’s room to leave a present. Doing it out in front of everybody would be crass. Charlie could get away with it because Sylvie and Hal were family.

Even Charlie wouldn’t be so brazen as to openly bribe people in front of others. Besides, this way, Mel could subtly flex that she was skilled enough to slip into their rooms without anybody noticing. Not that it was particularly hard. With so many people going over their own piles of loot, the Magi were distracted.

The wooly pobul was keeping Mel’s seat warm by the time she was finished, so she scooped her up and sat back down, placing Komachi in her lap.

Why is the seat warmer than when I was sitting in it?

Komachi whale-eyed whenever Mel looked at her, as if she knew what Mel was thinking.

“What’s next?” Mel asked as Gwen handed the branch back to Mel.

Thomas pointed to the clearly separated piles on the coffee table beside the gold-banded chest. “We already split everything up fairly,” he explained. “The realm seeds are being split between myself and you. Gwen doesn’t need them as much, and Heath doesn’t think he deserves any loot. Maybe you can get through to him.”

“Nope,” Heath said. “Listen, I was just some normal college kid until I met Mel. There are billions of people from Earth, how many do you see here?”

Mel looked around. This was a very different setup than any other person might experience. Hell, all of the top competitors were under one roof right here. Being part of that would be a tremendous advantage.

“Fair enough,” Mel said. “But after this, if you pull your weight, you get your share. No complaints.”

Heath smiled. “Deal.”

“You’re not normal, Heath,” Gwen said, studying a [Primal Coin]. “You have remarkable bravery and…an incredibly poor way with words.”

“Huh,” he said. “I kind of saw that going differently in my head. When people start off with, ‘Heath, you’re not normal’ it doesn’t usually end with a compliment.”

“You aren’t built for the normal society of Earth. None of us here are.”

Mel immediately crushed her [Fallen Realm Seed].

[Fallen Realm Seed]

(Copper Rank, Item)

(Rare)

Darkly glowing desiccated vines tangled around a seed of dwindling energy, which fell from a higher realm of power in the multiverse.

Imprint: Use to permanently enhance restoration and recovery-based effects from items and food by 1 tier, limited to a maximum of 5 tiers at Copper Rank.

Mel grinned to herself. “Feels good.” She paused. “Hold up…”

With a thought, she brought up the Emporium.

“Holy shit! I can still spend my Battle Points! Oh man, I have so many Battle Points.”

The turning heads and surprised looks told Mel that nobody else had thought to access the Emporium. All of a sudden, the room was a flurry of activity as people opened up their Emporiums and perused items that they thought were locked until the next trial.

Mel saw a brand new section labeled “Vagrant” which was the same as her new Standing. Elian had called that her “Authority Level” but hadn’t explained much. Unfortunately, she couldn’t gain access to it. Judging by the frustrated looks going around the room, she wasn’t the only one.

Mel turned her attention away from the distraction of the Emporium. Unlike the rare and valuable items, they had split the coins up fairly.

Everybody got a fourth. If the number couldn’t be evenly divided, they gave Mel a little extra.

“I don’t want any,” Heath said as Mel forced the coins on him.

“Too bad. Everybody needs money. This isn’t negotiable.”

She scooped up 50 [Copper Rune Coins], 25 [Iron Rune Coins], 3 [Mist Coins (Epic)], and 3 [Health Potions].

“I’m going to get a knowledge manual for cooking,” Gwen said. “I heard that if you’re gifted in this art, the food offers permanent enhancements.”

That snagged Mel’s attention. “What do you mean ‘permanent’?”

“Maximum health, stamina, and mana,” she explained excitedly. “So long as you share a bond with the chef.”

Mel extended her free hand and grabbed at the air like a toddler. “Gib.”

Komachi mimicked her. “Gib Machi.”

Gwen barked a laugh. “I’d love to. I just need to practice. I’m going to bring it up to Shrubley too. I think he can do it as well.”

“Are other things like that too?” Heath asked.

“Maybe,” Gwen said. “I heard you can raise the quality of armaments and even reinforce them. Jacob seems kind of familiar with that.” She looked around and leaned in. “And if we run low on coin, we can run some arcade gauntlets. They want Champions in there.”

“Hol’ up,” Mel said. “Money for playing games? Go on.”

“I don’t know too much since I’ve been busy ever since we got here, but I think they’re like an obstacle course filled with monsters, traps, and hazards that people run for entertainment and prizes,” Gwen explained. “There doesn’t seem to be too many rules in how you complete them. I noticed one Challenger jamming a lot of the traps, so maybe breaking things isn’t out of the question. That dragon guy just froze the whole course.”

“Oh yeah, that was on the viewscreen!” Heath said. “I think there was an ad offering extra coins and rewards to Champions.”

Mel pointed at Heath. “I’m delegating the task of finding an arcade that pays the most to you.”

Heath saluted. “On it!” He got up and headed to the door.

Mel watched him go. “...I didn’t mean for him to do it now.”

“You should use the branch on Life Aspect,” Mel overheard Adam saying nearby.

They were discussing how to use their legendary branch. Probably for Charlie.

“It’s the aspect you need most,” Almace pleaded.

“I need to advance,” Charlie explained. “Not necessarily with Sense as my highest attribute. A new skill for Mythic, Bone, or Fairy aspect may be superior.”

Jacob, meanwhile, was trying to push the Legendary branch on Shrubley who refused to accept it.

“I am but a lowly squire compared to your knightly stature!” Shrubley squealed. “I cannot accept such a tremendous gift from one so grossly incandescent!”

“Dang,” Komachi said. “Too bad that’s only for top three! Sylvie will get one next time.”

“I really figured you guys would do better,” Mel admitted. She opened her mouth, then shut it, realizing she was making some wild assumptions that she shouldn’t be privy to.

Not only about Hal’s battle prowess, but Sylvie’s as well. Neither of them were slouches, but Hal was the sort of person you could throw into a pit of monsters and he’d make a pyramid of their corpses.

She looked over at Hal, only to lock eyes with him.

“Bleh, was close,” Komachi grumbled. “Big sis is tricky. And Shrubley is amaaaaazing!”

Mel turned to Komachi, pocketing the remaining items. “Yeah?” She took out the [Revival Scroll], turning it over in her hands thoughtfully.

“Yis. Soul aeder like me share powers. Makes for stronk team with Sose.”

“So Sylvie has the same aspect powers as you?” Gwen asked, leaning forward with interest.

Komachi looked around, suddenly spooked. “I ain’t givin’ up secrets!”

Mel combed her fingers through her fur. “That’s all right, Komachi. We’re all friends here. No need to share Sylvie’s secrets. You definitely don’t want to spill the tea. It’d be too…dramatic.”

“Machi…?” the pobul asked tentatively. “Soap opera drama?”

“Super soap opera drama,” Mel whispered.

“Mel,” Thomas said. “Maybe instead of tricking Komachi, you should–”

“I can’t find a partner,” Gwen blurted out to Komachi. “I’m deathly afraid I will be forever alone.”

Komachi gasped. “Juicy drama!”

“Why did I just do that to myself?” Gwen asked herself miserably, putting her face in her hands.

Mel stood up with the [Revival Scroll] in hand. “Aight, this is too awkward for me. I’ll be back with some friends.”

Nobody stopped her as she made a beeline for her room and shut the door. There was plenty of space on the floor near the training dummies, so Mel knelt in the middle of her room and took out the crystals containing the souls of her friends.

“It’s been a long time coming,” she said to the shards of condensed soul energy. “So much death and fighting. Will you hate me for bringing you back? Will you want to leave knowing what I did?”

She sighed, her shoulders sagging.

Mel would tell them everything. She couldn’t keep the truth from them. If they hated her for it and decided to leave her–again–she would accept their choice.

At least her debt to them, however imagined it may be, would finally be paid in full. With any luck, they might find a new way of life here.

It wasn’t the same as Earth, but that wasn’t a bad thing in Mel’s opinion.

Earth was filled to the brim with inequality and corruption. At least here you didn’t need a massive bank account to do magic. Any person who worked at it could create magic that trumped anything a swipe of a card back on Earth could achieve.

Who cared if you had a super yacht when you could literally skate on water with magic, or summon a storm with your fingers?

At least here in the Seabrim Crater, they wouldn’t be in any danger. Nobody cared about them. They weren’t even competitors anymore.

And anybody who did know about them is dead. I made damn sure of that.

The ritual was surprisingly easy, the scroll explained everything that she needed to do.

It wouldn’t fail her. It couldn’t.

The scroll unfurled as Mel finished etching the runes and sigils with mana into the floorboards. There was a bright flash of light that stretched from the floor to the ceiling. The sound of breaking glass filled the room along with the sweet scent of honeysuckle on a warm summer’s afternoon.

One by one, her friends returned to the land of the living, hale and healthy.

Shane, Sabrina, Nathan, Maddie, and Bernard stood there together, as if nothing had ever happened to them.

Each of them flinched, looking around bewildered as if they expected more arrows to come streaking out of nowhere.

Only Sabrina seemed to understand what was going on. She looked calmly at Mel, tears welling up in her eyes. “Mel?”