While I could try to ignore them, I had the distinct feeling I wouldn’t be allowed to leave until I agreed with what they had to say. Still, that didn’t mean I wouldn’t give refusal yet another try. I was going to fight tooth and nail to stay inside this city, where it was safe. Well, safe-ish.
So there was an attack that got through. That is to be expected, given everything I had learned about the monsters outside. The more time passed, the more the mana changed them. Strengthened them.
But now that an attack did get through, the whole city would be on alert for at least a couple of weeks. I would like to see a monster try to go through the toughened shell that was our wall to get to our chewy center. There might even be a push from the rich and powerful to clear the surrounding area.
“You are going to the academy.” The way my father said that made it seem more like a statement than a question.
Still, that didn’t stop me from acting like it was. “I’m good.”
“What do you mean you’re good?” His growl would have been scary if I didn’t know that he would never lay a hand on me.
“As I said before, I am good. I mean, someone has to run the shop when you all are out and about.”
“Well,” oh no, my mother sounded smug about whatever she was about to say. “I guess it is a good thing we will be closing the shop up for the foreseeable future.”
“You can’t close the shop.” My mind raced as I tried to think of a way to stop them. I latched onto the first decent idea and ran with it. “We still have jobs on the books. What would all those people think when we just cancel on them?”
“I guess it is a good thing we cleared all of the jobs in the queue, then, isn’t it?” Well, that explained what they had been doing all week.
“And the routine jobs we were scheduled to take care of?”
“I visited every one of them to apologize for the trouble and helped them find a decent shop to take care of them.” God, had my mother thought of everything?
“How about…” I started.
“Just give in.” Bert interrupted. “You are going to the academy, and there is nothing you can do about it.”
“I can always…”
“Leave home and get a job of your own?” My father was the one who interrupted me this time. “Too bad all of your offers for jobs and apprenticeships were all declined.”
“That isn’t even legal.” My voice started to sound whiny, even to me. Without any of those offers, there was no way I was going to be able to get a job. Not with the market so flooded.
“I emailed my old professor and asked them to pull some strings.” My mother smiled. “After we told him the situation, and that you were our son, he was very helpful. He even offered to get them to accept your academy offer for you.”
“Tell me you didn’t.” If they did, there was nothing I could do. I would have to show up at the academy or be dragged there. After all, the offers were contracts, and signing one was just as binding. Even if it is to go to a school and learn. You sign, you show up, or face the consequences.
“We didn’t.” Her words turned my legs to jelly. “After all, we didn’t know which department you would want to join. I am a bit partial to the Technical Department myself.”
“Don’t go with those geeks, you're too good with your hands to be stuck in a stuffy room going over theory.” The glare my mother shot at my father caused him to rush to fix what he said before she decided to fix it for him. “Not that there is anything wrong with that. It was one of those theory classes where we first met after all.”
I had to give it to him; that was a decent save. Not perfect, but decent. “And if I want to go into a combat-focused department?” I tossed the option out as it would be the fastest way for me to get kicked out of the place.
Bert exploded into laughter. “You, fighting, it hurts to think about.”
All three of us stared at him before joining in. Even if it was the fastest way back while still accepting their demands, that didn’t mean the image of me trying to use a weapon to hit anything wasn’t funny.
When the laughter died down a bit, my mother took the time to point something out. “You can only enter departments that have given you an offer.” Welp, there goes plan D, or was it plan F? All of my ideas to get out of this were going up in smoke without giving me more than a moment to take a breath.
“You’re not going to give up on this, are you?” I asked, resigned to the fact that they were not.
“Nope.”
“No.”
“Not a chance.”
The three voices practically overlapped as they answered. With a groan, I gave in. “Fine, but I will haunt the three of you if I die on this trip.” While that got a decent laugh out of them, I wondered what I had just agreed to.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
“Good,” Bert slapped my shoulder as my parents got to work packing up my mother’s equipment. “Because the train leaves tomorrow.”
My stomach dropped. “What the fuck!” They played me like a fiddle. Taking the time to set up the trap door and line me up before finally pulling the lever. If only I had managed to hold out for one more day. If I had managed that, I would have been fine. I would have been allowed to stay in this city. Yet I failed what amounted to an intimidation check.
“Oh, don’t be like that.” My mother grabbed the cables from my failed drone. “If you didn’t agree, we were going to drug you.”
“Figuratively,” my father coughed.
“Mostly,” she added. “And Bert here was going to help you get to your room at the academy once you arrived.” She almost sounded proud of this plan.
I clenched my fists, allowing the pain of my nails digging into my palms to help keep me centered. It wouldn’t do to scream at the pair of demons that were my parents. “That isn’t legal.” These two were going to be the death of me. Literally. “That is what is called kidnapping. Maybe we should get your head checked for worms or something, as that is not okay.”
“It was my idea.” Bert chimed in.
“Just whose side are you on here?”
“The side that allows us to stay together.” His words caused me to gag. They were the sweet words one used on those they fancied. Given how many girls the guy went on dates with, there was no way he felt that way about me. Thank god too, because that would have been an awkward conversation.
Of course, my mind decided to take that moment to generate an image of me in a princess carry as he walked into a bedroom. I shuddered at the sight.
“Oh, Bert.” My mother sounded chipper. “I didn’t know you felt that way about my son.”
It took a moment for her words to penetrate that thick skull. But when it did, he turned bright red and started to splutter. “I don’t. No. I have a girlfriend. Just. No.” The words didn’t stop as he turned and raced down the hall.
“We will see you tomorrow morning.” My mom called after him.
“I don’t know what his problem is.” My dad grabbed the reassembled drone as my mom hefted her bag. “The two of you would have made a cute couple.”
“DAD!” With that, I booked it out of the place and toward my one place of solitude. The salvage yard. Sure, they might be able to figure out I was there, but good luck finding anyone in that place.
I careened around the corner and down the hall to find myself staring out at crowds of people. Not the typical person wandering up and down the streets, but a massive work area for monster processing. From what I could see, it looked like the people harvesting and taking care of the monsters were taking this chance to show off their craft.
It was a bit of an advertisement, a show, and a way to keep everything centralized, all in one event. Like an odd gathering of sorts. Honestly, whoever thought of it was brilliant. Of course, the problem for me was the fact that it gave me a good look at what had made its way into the city.
Black Bitter Bats hung by their feet as a woman skillfully cut away the membranes of the wings. The force caused the bat to slowly swing. Still, even with the swinging, the bowl on the ground was large enough to catch the slowly dripping bitter liquid that the bat was known for. It was really only good for certain alchemy tinctures. Yet, while it wasn’t as effective as other materials, hunters loved using the stuff to keep monsters away from their camps.
The sight of an Earth Swimmer was too much to ignore. My feet stopped as I watched a pair work to chisel off the hard scales. While the rest of the creature was only good as bait, the scales made the creature worth the effort.
As its namesake suggests, the creature loves to swim through the earth. With every bit of earth it moved, it filtered it for materials to eat or to strengthen its scales. Ranging from iron to titanium, or even something rarer. It all depended on the composition of the area it roamed through.
With a final, heavy swing, the scale sheared off the underlying stone skin. It flew through the air for a moment before someone snatched it out of the air and gave it a good look. Given their equipment, they had to be a geologist of some kind.
They took a moment to go over every side before announcing their findings. “Iron, some copper, tin, traces of lithium, titanium, and” he stopped for a second to give it a second look. I was pretty sure that he was just playing up the whole thing. He knew what was there. Then again, showmanship was a decent part of customer service. “Magicite!”
Gasps and cheers rang out at the announcement. Magicite was one of those ores that mana sort of generated out of the surrounding stone. There was no way to predict where it would form or over what time period. Small amounts one month, a massive boulder the next. Its formation didn’t even seem to have a specific rock type that it converted.
And, given the typical range of these creatures, the new vein was close. Likely within a hundred miles or so. Close enough to set up a camp to harvest it.
As I moved toward the next setup, soft, warm air brushed against my ear as my mother spoke. “Just think, once at the academy, you can elect to have monster harvesting as an elective.”
I am sad to say this, but the idea of learning how to properly identify, remove, and store all the useful monster materials was kind of tempting. It wouldn’t even require me to go out and get the monsters. I could just offer the services to others. So it was quite safe. Of course, that meant that quite a few people were doing the same thing. But a person could dream, couldn’t they?
My eyes locked onto the nearest interesting creature. The state of its body caused me a bit of trouble, but eventually I figured out what it was. Corrugated Man Eaters were one of the ugliest creatures out there.
I am not just saying that. The textbook for my middle school basic monster identification class actually said that. Though it never did show any images of this thing to back up its claim.
Now that I got a good look at it, I really couldn’t blame the publisher. It looked like something stuck a bunch of meat together, cut it into a cross-hatch pattern, and added flesh. Thanks to its stretched-out state, anyone could see the thing’s innards without trouble.
A shrill scream rang out from a short distance down the road. It was quickly followed by another, then another. Within a couple of seconds, more than a dozen people screamed as the entire crowd shifted to run in our direction.
People decked out in armor and weapons raced toward whatever was causing all the screaming, but the river of bodies pushed them back enough that they were not making any progress. The whole situation made me wonder where any of the powered who could fly were. Then again, they were probably patrolling the wall to make sure that nothing else got in.
Judging by the screaming, they were doing a swell job. Finally, the crowd parted enough to allow me to see what lay beyond. What looked like a Yellow Blister Beetle was laid out on a table. Each wing was pulled to the side and pinned in place, allowing easier access to the thing’s back.
Small green worms flowed from the beetle’s back in a veritable swarm as the inch-long things chased after the fleeing humans. While I didn’t know what they were, I doubted it was good. To me, this was the kind of thing that screamed parasite, and I wanted nothing to do with it.
With the salvage yard on the other side of the swarm, I wasn’t going to be going there tonight. Nope. It was time to go home and pack. I just had to hope the academy was safer than this because this was becoming a bit excessive.
