106. Breakthrough (I)

Zane was to meet Evan and Avery in the 'Golden Garden.' It was named for the little gold-petaled flowers peppering its grounds, swaying gently in the breeze. It stood on top of a hill. From here you could see most of the Silicon Coven headquarters sprawled out below, a dotting of steel silvers and bright-blues.

Beyond that loomed the vast deepening blues of the San Francisco Bay. The Golden Gate twinkled in the distance, a suggestion of gold.

Lines of grills stretched down the field that made up most of the garden. Folk milled about grabbing glasses off trays, skewering simmering slabs of 'Drake flank' and 'Roc thigh'—all C-rank treasures.

Where was Avery anyway? Zane was just standing here, shuffling foot to foot, munching slowly on his meat slab. People were staring. Even more so than usual that was—some looked as though they were wondering if he was lost.

Then he spotted them marching up to meet him. Well, Avery was marching. Evan was scampering behind at her heels.

It took Zane a moment to recognize him. Avery had done a number on his hair. It was a mess of braids now, run through with little pastel flowers.

"Hey hey!" said Avery, waving enthusiastically. They were both carrying skewers loaded high with meats. She grinned. "So how're you finding the place? Funky huh?"

Zane nodded. It was a lot.

"Well while you were gone, here's what we've been up to! What do you think?"

And she proudly showed off Evan's new hairdo. Evan did a little 360. Zane was no expert in fashion, but…

"I know, right?" said Avery. Evan beamed. She gave him a little head pat. "He's been a very good boy."

Zane wasn't sure if Avery was aware, but in that moment she could've told Evan to run all the way down to the Bay and swim until he hit Hawaii, and he would've done it no question asked.

Then Avery started catching Zane up on everything that had happened since they had last met. She had gone through a big romp through the Midwest. Her friends led the major power there—it was structured like a roaming tribe. Since that region was much less populated, the dungeons tended to be much bigger by area. So the tribe went around dungeon-to-dungeon clearing bosses and she'd tagged along; she wanted to help. They cleared Yellowstone, a B-rank, with a massive party. The final challenge was two bosses at once, which Zane didn't know was a thing. Avery ended up redirecting one of the bosses' attacks to kill the other one.

"Ooh! Which reminds me—guess who has an Elemental Law! That's right. This guy!" And she jabbed a thumb at herself. She was quite pleased.

Zane blinked, then frowned, then inspected her and found it was true. She had the 'Elemental Law of Water.' Huh.

"Just broke through this week!" She said. Then she felt a little embarrassed, and winced. "... I know, I know…still Level 91, though… I'm working on it… I swear, I must be the only person who's been bottlenecked by essence, not Law." She frowned at her skewer, like it was personally responsible.

"You can do it!" chirped Evan.

"Aww thank you!" said Avery brightly. This earned him another head pat, which Evan was very pleased about.

"Where was I? Right! Elemental Law." Then she jabbed a finger right at Zane's chest, and turned up her nose. "Zane Walker, I hereby challenge you to a duel!"

"Let me break through first," said Zane helplessly. Everyone wanted to duel him today.

"Grr...Fine." She yawned. "Well, anyway. Y'know what you have to do after you hit Elemental? You have to do it all over again! Get a second Law. Then start putting them together, making combinations. Like, Light and Water make... I dunno... Mirage or something? At least that's what Z says."

"Z?"

"That's the other lunk I told you about! He's kinda like you. You should meet him, you'd like him! Only he's probably in a cave somewhere meditating for a week straight. Or in that Hell Array he keeps grinding. That dude has no life."

Zane had a feeling he knew who she was talking about. "Emeka Eze."

Avery perked up; she swallowed a chunk of juicy meat. "Hey, that's right! How'd you know?"

And Zane talked about the encounter he'd just had. Avery listened, mouth wide open. "No way! He actually talked to you? He's super shy, I can't get him to talk to anyone! But yeah, see? He's really nice once you get to meet him! People are just scared 'cause he keeps one-shotting everyone. That's his Signature Skill by the way, 'Touch of Death.' Anyway."

She finished off her skewer. She'd spoken the most out of all of them, and somehow she had also eaten the quickest out of all of them. It was like a magic trick. She set it on one of the spare tables; a roaming waiter quickly came to pick it up. Then she grinned. "Well, I'm off! My time slot at the Stormstruck Sea's coming up!" She gave him a salute. "Nice catching up! And it was nice meeting you Evan! See ya soon!"

"Mhm!" said Evan.

She gave him one last head pat and headed off. Evan waved enthusiastically until she faded behind the trees.

Which left just the two of them standing there.

Evan turned to Zane beaming. "I'm a good boy!"

"... Sure."

Evan was pretty much decided. He'd try to break through to Elemental, just like Avery. Then he'd take as many Quests as he could and clear as many dungeons as he could—help as many people as he could, really. If the Tomb Kings were still bullying people, he'd bring them to justice. That kind of thing. Usually, when he told people his dreams, they laughed at him or thought he was silly. But when he'd told Avery, Avery said it was awesome. This was all relayed to Zane in an excited flood.

A few things Zane noticed about Evan—he made friends quite easily. And once he was friends with someone, he had a lot of trouble seeing them objectively. For instance, they were going back to the hotel now, and Evan was just a bundle of warm feelings toward him. Zane was pretty sure the boy had never had a bad thought about Zane, like he thought Zane could do no wrong. Zane was a 'good guy' and also his friend, so of course it was the case. It was the same with Avery now.

Which was all well and good right now. But it took about an hour for him to be totally smitten with Avery. The thought occurred to Zane—what if someone with bad intentions got a hold of him?

As Zane frowned at him, Evan was humming, ambling along, oblivious.

It was a good thing he had people looking out for him, Zane decided. Zane would. Now Avery would too.

***

That evening, he found an A-rank vial of essence waiting for him on the bed, just as Elias had promised. An expensive-looking stained glass vase tied with a velvet red ribbon. He took it. At first, he drank a little too much all at once—and got scalded. Physically he felt nothing, but his soul singed; he jerked back a little. Then he took it slow, sipping it in. And at this rate, it felt more like a warm broth pouring into his soul, filling his head with sleepy warmth.

Soon—

𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝕌𝕡!

𝔼𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕃𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝 𝟡𝟠 -> 𝟡𝟡

He kept drinking. And drinking, and drinking—it must've been half an hour of just sipping. He spent a little more time digesting, letting the heat of it fade away, soak in.

He was getting close to a hard wall he felt. The bottleneck. The closer he got, the less the essence stuck. He stopped halfway through the bottle. He'd save the rest 'till after.

Then he tried to sleep. It was surprisingly hard. Usually he could close his eyes and he dropped like a rock. He'd be out in moments. Not this time. It was rare he got this excited.

He could feel just how tantalizingly close he was.

Soon he did fall asleep.

***

When he woke, the sun still hadn't risen. But it was close; the sky was lightening, promising the dawn. He felt good, refreshed. It was time.

He laid out his War Chest just to take a survey. There was the B+ ranked treasure Titansteel Worldseed—a steel seed the size of his head, veined purple.

𝕋𝕙𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕖𝕖𝕕 𝕚𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕙𝕖𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕘𝕖 𝕠𝕗 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕋𝕚𝕥𝕒𝕟𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕥𝕣𝕖𝕖. 𝔸𝕟 𝕚𝕞𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕤𝕖 𝕒𝕞𝕠𝕦𝕟𝕥 𝕠𝕗 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕝 𝕊𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕃𝕒𝕨 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕡𝕦𝕣𝕖 𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕖𝕤𝕤𝕖𝕟𝕔𝕖 𝕚𝕤 𝕤𝕥𝕠𝕣𝕖𝕕 𝕨𝕚𝕥𝕙𝕚𝕟; 𝕨𝕙𝕖𝕟 𝕔𝕠𝕟𝕤𝕦𝕞𝕖𝕕 𝕚𝕥 𝕓𝕒𝕥𝕙𝕖𝕤 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕓𝕠𝕕𝕪 𝕚𝕟 𝕓𝕠𝕥𝕙, 𝕔𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕟𝕘 𝕒 𝕡𝕠𝕥𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕤𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕝 𝕖𝕟𝕧𝕚𝕣𝕠𝕟𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥. 𝔽𝕣𝕖𝕢𝕦𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕝𝕪 𝕦𝕤𝕖𝕕 𝕥𝕠 𝕓𝕣𝕖𝕒𝕜 𝕥𝕙𝕣𝕠𝕦𝕘𝕙 𝕓𝕠𝕥𝕥𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕖𝕔𝕜𝕤 𝕚𝕟 𝕔𝕦𝕝𝕥𝕚𝕧𝕒𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟.

There were so many B-rank treasures he could hardly count them. Titansteel Leaves and bushes of Law Fruit…

He packed them up and got on his way.

It was still mostly dark out, though there was a light blush in the purplish sky. The stars were still out. Runed stone pillars glowed on the sides of the roads like streetlights.

Stellar Steel Crater was exactly as he'd left it, except the crowd was half its size. A fair few folk seemed to have stayed overnight. Just sitting there, eyes closed, legs crossed. Comprehending. It was nicely quiet.

Just then—'Psst! Savage Sage?" Zane turned to find a thin, freckled, nerdy-looking young man waving at him. He sat on the crater's outermost ring; he seemed to be in the middle of comprehending Law when Zane strode by. He felt quite nervous. His smile certainly showed it.

"Hi," he said. His voice cracked a little. He cleared his throat, tried again. "I'm Tommy—I'm a huge fan!"

"You are?" It was always a bit baffling meeting someone like this in the wild. Zane never quite got why anyone would be a fan of him.

"You're the highest-ranked steel user in the world!" gushed Tommy. "Back in my Safe Zone—I came from this town in the Rockies, see—I was the only steel guy. But since I've been here, at VGI I mean, I made a bunch of friends who're also steel users—we're all huge fans! No one in the world's cracked Elemental Steel. But if anyone's closest, it's you! You're our biggest inspiration!"

"Ah."

Tommy swallowed. "Just—y'know, just curious—can I ask what Law you're gonna work on?"

"The Magnetism one. Then I'll try for Elemental."

"All in one go?" gasped Tommy. "Wait. You're attempting a breakthrough? Right now?!"

"If I can."

Suddenly Tommy was excited. "Can I let my friends know? Please? They'd kill me if they missed this!"

Zane shrugged. Tommy ran off buzzing. Zane thought nothing of it; he didn't care either way. He got out all his Law Fruit and gulped them down in one big binge. Suddenly his thoughts came in crisp and clear and bright. Not a ripple on the surface of his mind.

He waded into the crater. He went past the outer ring, brushing floating steel flakes aside, stepping over silver veins. He went past the middle ring, striding for the meteor, and now those hefty Steel Laws were starting to make their presence known; they poured all over him, crushing over him. He had to fight for every foot of space. But fight he did, heading off those invisible gale-force winds, and he just kept going.

He stopped at the same place he stopped yesterday. The edge where the second ring met the first, where it was physically painful to stay. And there he sat. He took out those Titansteel Leaves and spread them around him in a tight ring with him at its center. Already he felt the Laws around him focusing, swirling over him, homing in like a tornado about to make landfall.

He took out the Worldseed. He closed his eyes. He reached out with his soul and called to it. And it flooded him with Elemental Steel.