Chapter 37: Solo Fragment
Aegon had listened carefully and knew he didn’t hear wrong. From the mention of ’nine cloaked individuals’ he could already give a good guess who they were.
’The assassins?’
He had put his ear down and listened to these Farmers carefully and got some good intel which was that a group of nine cloaked individuals broke into a vault of classified items and stole something from there.
Now, the government has brought a new mission among every rank of Farmers to find and comprehend those people, and also bring back the item that was stolen.
There was going to be a gathering of farmers the following day for the entire breakdown from the Duke of the city and the farmers association chairman.
It was the kind of meeting a Farmer wouldn’t want to miss because a lot of top rank Farmers and people are going to be there.
Hearing this, Aegon instantly made his choice. ’I am going there tomorrow for sure.’
At the moment, the man had already reached the group of Farmers, spoke to them telling them he was currently attending to a customer and that they should wait.
Their gaze went to the direction of Aegon indicating they were indeed talking about him, then they reverted back their gaze and went to sit in a chair provided for waiting, in the lobby.
"Apologies, have you decided which you want to take?" The man rushed towards Aegon and asked.
Aegon simply pointed to the dagger.
"Yes, of course. But that isn’t under a promo so you can’t necessarily exchange it with ’that’ one of yours. You have to pay for it if you actually want it. But since it has been here for over a month now, no one wants it. I will give you a discount. How is that?"
Aegon nodded since that sounded like a nice offer. Who was he to refuse a discount, after all he was broke?
He hadn’t started taking missions from the association and there hadn’t started earning money.
Moreover, he hasn’t done much farming inside the Abyss to obtain resources and materials for sales and exchanges.
Hearing this, Aegon thought this was the best time to bring ’them’ out and asked, so he did just that.
"I don’t have much cash on my right now," he began as he placed his hand inside his bag.
The man stared at him weirdly thinking he was about to bring out another dagger.
At that moment, Aegon brought out a yellow glowing crystal which attracted the full attention of the man and the Farmers who were at the lobby.
The man seeing this, had his mouth wide open, his eyes sparkling in curiosity and anticipation.
He gulped a mouth full of saliva and asked. "W... What is that?"
Aegon brought it out fully; just one and held it in his hands.
"Oh this... it’s a crystal."
"Yes I can send that but where did you get it from? Where?!"
The man was so impatient which made him yell in curiosity and then Aegon asked.
"So you know what it is? What can I exchange it for..."
"Yes, yes, you can take the dagger for free. I’ll even add in a couple of things."
The man stretched both of his, saliva dripping from his mouth, to collect it but Aegon raised his right index finger at the man’s face and shook it continuously, saying.
"No, no, no... I need something better, something of the same value."
"Yes, of course."
"_"
Aegon was paid in ten of thousands as the man bought the crystal from him, while also adding the wolf dagger and some other items for free.
This transaction was beneficial to Aegon because he needed equipment if was going to enter the Abyss anytime soon, and also some cash if he wanted to rent a room.
After everything was gathered, Aegon was about to leave when the Farmers who sat down whispered amongst themselves wondering who exactly he was.
This was because the man had emphasized on how much that crystal was worth by looking and doing an examination on it.
They were baffled and wanted to speak to Aegon but after he got his equipment he immediately left the shop.
"_"
Now, Aegon was standing at the front of a convenience store. He wasn’t here to buy things but rather to rent a room for the night.
It was already the twenty first hour and it was getting cold.
Aegon entered the convenience store and asked the person sitting behind the counter for the room that was displayed at the front of the store’s door.
Above the store was actually some apartments that could be lived in and as the owners of the building they decided to take a part and rent the others.
Aegon paid for the room for a single night, bought some things else and also paid for them too.
He had cash now and was okay to spend it when needed.
"I need to rest. I am so tired."
"This way please."
The old lady that runs the store took him to the back and climbed a staircase to the fourth floor. There was no elevator.
Upon getting there, the woman gave him the keys of the third room on the same floor and bid him goodnight.
Aegon watched as the woman left, watching how she walked it was so obvious that she couldn’t continue walking the staircase up and down; they really needed an elevator.
"Hm."
After the woman left, he opened the door and was graced with a studio kind of room. It wasn’t big but not small either.
"This is great..."
As he walked into the room, he was graced with a bed almost the size of a king size, at his left was a place that could be called a kitchen
It was decent.
At his right was a door that said toilet/bathroom. And at the far end at his right was a desk and a chair.
Aegon nodded his head as everything looked great. He then walked in fully, closed the door and locked it.
He walked forward towards the bed, dropped his bag on the ground beside the bed and then he crashed on top of the bed.
It was soft.
He opened his eyes as he couldn’t just fall asleep, yes he hadn’t rested on a bed since all these started, but he still remembered his goal.
He raised his right hand up to the ceiling stretching it far but it couldn’t go farther to touch the ceiling. The room was chill with a well working air condition.
"I need to know..."
He had a system and abilities so he wanted to look at all of them and know what he’s got.
"System status open..."
A system window appeared above him with texts of different information.
____STATUS____
Name: Aegon Zoldyck
Job: Solo Fragment
Title: Monster Slayer [+1]
Level: ?
Talent: SSS-tank Void Sovereign
HP: 100
___________
MP: 22
Fatigue: 0
___________
Strength: 57 ^
Vitality: 41 ^
Agility: 38 ^
Intelligence: 35 ^
Sense: 28 ^
___________
Ability:
[Particle Execution - basic: Warp Fist]
[Colossal Gate - basic: Debris Storm]
____________
Skills:
Wolf Armor
ExtraSelf Clone
Cannon Spatial Blast
___________
Items Owned
Return Stone - "status": full charge
Wolfe dagger - "status": equiped
...
____END____
Upon seeing the full message, Aegon sat upright, his gaze still on the window.
"Job.... Solo Fragment? What does that mean?"
He thought of these and wondered in his heart if solo fragments would be anything but what it meant.
He thought about it but after a while with no progress he moved to the next text, he noticed his ’level’ was blank.
"Am I... unable to be ranked?"
He thought of this because it would only make sense. Before he was a nobody with no talent and afterwards he began to grow dramatically.
How would he be measured?
’At this rate it will only continue to increase, if it was measured it would constantly be changing.’
"But, am I leveling up?’
He thought of this and looked down at his stats, of course he was.
The system didn’t show him every time he did, but from his stats it was obvious.
"My strength and vitality are top notch, meaning I am able to grow. So I’m leveling up but the system doesn’t show me?"
He moved to the next stats and nodded his head.
"My speed has increased immensely too. Although I do regret that I was unable to get the speed of that massive monster I fought. Its speed was incredible."
Even without the speed of the massive monster, Aegon was still content with his current level of agility, after all he was able to keep up with the monster’s speed at the end.
He looked at his ’intelligence’ and ’sense’ then nodded but didn’t say anything about them.
He knew he had the brain, but the sense? He hasn’t used it enough to know about it.
Afterwards he moved to his abilities and nodded his head. Although there were two differences, if the basic was added it was four because he could interchange levels.
"I haven’t used the [Debris Storm] yet to know how it works, but considering [Colossal Gate]..."
Aegon didn’t continue since he knew how powerful the advanced ability was, so there was good hope for its basics.
He moved to the skills he had obtained and uttered.
"Skills from the monster. If I need more skills, I am likely to get them from any monster I kill..."
This was the general idea; the system had done it once, so he took it that it could happen again.
"That monster was an A-rank monster and the others were lower. Does that mean I can only get the skills of higher rank monsters?"
The words sank in, into his heart as he knew that was the only explanation. Then he moved to the item he had obtained.
"The return stone can be used again..."
His gaze moved to his bag. He wanted to reach for it and check how the stone was glowing now, but he was too tired to do so.
He reverted his gaze back to the system, then laid back down on the bed; the system window hovering above him.
"This isn’t enough," he uttered. "I would need to get a lot stronger if I truly want to go ’solo’ and accomplish the tasks ahead.
With this last thought, Aegon closed his eyes, the cool temperature of the room melted into his body as he fell asleep.