Tatiana didnÆt know what to say to this serious child so she simply smiled at him What could she say That this Class gave so much more to Health Mana Stamina and Stats That with this she probably could grow strong enough to actually fight and help the borderlands
So she smiled And then she shivered It really was starting to get cold outside
Senator Firefly sighed as he looked at another pile of reports Every day it was reports reports reports It was reports yesterday and more tomorrow Some days Senator Firefly wished he had RandidlyÆs blithe disregard for the administrative side of the work It couldnÆt be denied that without Randidly the speed of the OrchardÆs expansion would be extremely hampered If he hadnÆt worked for the construction companies there would have been days when not enough buildings were constructed to handle the influx of refugees
And if people had been forced to live on the streets their first couple nights they wouldnÆt be very quick to label this place as home And there was no way that the city would have bloomed the way it had without so many people firmly deciding that this place was their home They didnÆt even need to worry about the Unity Church stealing people anymore people left the Unity Church refugee camps and came to the Orchard
Contrary to his colleague’s fears the population of Senator FireflyÆs Distract was almost double what it had been previously and he still felt no threats to his seat in Congress The election wasnÆt for another month but it was good to keep an eye on things He was doing swimmingly on RandidlyÆs back
Which is why he allowed the other man to work with his hands while Senator Firefly read reports It was a good relationship
Senator Firefly stifled a yawn and read a report Very quickly he snorted and tossed it into a growing pile of papers Another missing persons report
The first dozen or so could be explained by this being a refugee town But now there were almost 40 people missing in the last 2 months Either there was a very dangerous criminal element already established in the Orchard or something was deliberately trying to target people in the city
When the first possibility of this being a concerted effort emerged Senator Firefly had thoroughly investigated those people who had been taken The initial theory was that people were after a certain type of Skill But even with GhostÆs predictive analytics they could not identify any commonalities
There was a possibility that Ghost had hidden something from Senator Firefly but
If the AI had they had a much bigger problem than simply people going missing
That gave Senator Firefly some pause but only to shake his head slightly He tapped his wristlet and initiated the call Morgan Yes can you let me know where Mr Ghosthound is
This was the SenatorÆs real fear That Randidly would be the one who encountered the kidnappers both for good and for ill He still remembered the furious movements in the darkness last week when the assassins had come for him in the night Only chunks of meat had been left by the time the morning sun rose
Perhaps the worst part was how immaculate Randidly was There wasnÆt a drop of blood on his clothes There were only the crimson footprints he had left as he walked away from the shocked and rattled Senator If the Ghosthound found the people who had done this There would be nothing left Truly it made sense in a lawless sort of way but for all the System arrived this was still the United States of America The rule of law still mattered albeit less so in the face of men who were more dangerous than armies
Uh he appears to be making ice cream to give out to people Morgan sounded harried The man had the Messenger Class but even he was run ragged trying to keep up with Randidly But it was the best they could do
Did Senator Firefly fear Randidly Senator Firefly dismissed the question immediately It was foolish to ask They were friends
And Randidly Ghosthound terrified him
Still it was impossible to tell if the assassination attempt had anything to do with the kidnappings To really get an idea they would have needed to let one of the assailants get close enough to see whether they tried to capture or kill Senator Firefly
Or one could have been left alive
Senator Firefly shivered and hung up the call Ice cream was fine So he shifted his focus back to the reports This time as Senator Firefly read his frown slowly became more pronounced
It was a report of a giant bipedal jackal Raid Boss Except it didnÆt attack anyone It just snuck into the cityÆs cemetery That was where it was found standing tall and monstrous before a small stone grave It hadnÆt even struggled when it was killed Some of the response team even said there were tears streaming down its cheeks as they killed it
Chapter 575
What the fuck Randidly hissed staring up at the screen in front of him Father Foster was calmly giving a speech about the importance of unity in the face of adversity Which was apparently a live speech Father Foster was currently emphasizing how important this was considering the recent attempt on President HowardÆs life
It was already a bad day Randidly had checked his Level earlier today and swore violently when he realized he was less than 10% from Leveling to 25 Somehow during the assault on the base he had gained almost 20% of a Level Which made Randidly seriously confused
One limit that the System had placed on Leveling was that killing other humans yielded almost no experience It was a surprisingly gentle allowance made by the System that took away an incentive to murder other people for power It was much more efficient to attack monsters to gain experience
When he asked Lucretia about it she theorized it actually had something to do with the different constructs of Aether and how people absorbed experience anyway Monsters were designed with an Aether construct that when destroyed produced easily digestible experience Humans obviously werenÆt and were therefore much less useful to kill
Then why had his experience risen so much There was an easy explanation but
It just meant that what he had killed werenÆt people But that made sense in a way because Father Foster was up there on the television even now If he had killed the person Randidly hoped they would have the good manners to stay dead Was it some sort of monster that could disguise itself
There was another problem Randidly realized watching the television The Father Foster on tv looked younger than the middle aged woman he had killed in that powerplant It was subtle and at first Randidly thought it could be attributable to makeup But
Shaking his head Randidly walked away from the screen and towards the main building of the farming compound While he walked he reached down with Plant Dominance and continued to expand and refine the facilities in the underground cave system beneath the place It was still being held back as an emergency measure but Randidly wanted it to be ready just in case Besides he believed he would spend some time forging in the deep darkness soon
These enemies giving experience caused him another headache If he couldnÆt kill them he needed to pull Acri and Sulfur back and use them in battle so Acri would absorb the experience to grow No more blowing them away with Skills
There was a tickling on RandidlyÆs neck and he spun around to find Tatiana walking towards him with a determined expression on her face Awkwardly Randidly stopped and scratched his cheek He supposed it was a disservice to her that he was purposefully not thinking about the fact she had kissed him and what it meant Especially after he had forced Neveah to reveal to her fiance that she was an imposter
Now here was Randidly an imposter in a few ways with a woman who seemed to have feelings for him Did he have feelings for her
But that was why he wasnÆt thinking about it As long as he could fool himself into thinking what they had was simply transactional he didnÆt need to reveal his deception But honestly how long had things been more than transactional between them At least a month perhaps more From the day they had met there was something there