Eight

When she had gathered everything she needed, she placed them upon the table, sat before it, and let her mind wonder.

There were two low-grade mana orbs, blue, crystalized balls of pure mana glowing and shining a pale light. The memory she took from the dead homunculus made her aware that this, each of them alone, would cost 2,000 lixels. Next to the orbs, she had placed the crude gun, a thing crafted from steel with another low-grade mana orb slapped into its side like an accessory; it looked dangerous, dysfunctional, like it could break anytime, and she wondered if she should just scrap it for the orb but soon decided against it.

'It would be better as a deterrent.' The memories floating inside her core were all but entirely negative about the slums.

Finally, there was the Constructor in front of her, something she had originally thought she could use, along with her new-found skills, to make cores and sell them. However, the poor state it was in, the rustiness of it, told her that was no longer possible. No wonder the man, which she now knew as Lux, had only ever used it for repair purposes. Either way, it was a bust, the orb at the back of it, which powered it, was empty and had disappeared in light, the very reason he had rushed to buy more.

'You do it like. . .this?'

Rose sighed and tapped the black bracelet on her left wrist, twice, like a lady she once knew had done. Something she had only glanced out from inside a car yet had remembered as per being an homunculus—a being that did not forget.

There was a bleep and a screen rose infront of her. She couldn't understand the thing much and the memories she inherited from Maria didn't hold any information on navigating a pad. But, after some very intense minutes of tinkering with it, tapping here and there, she found herself having figured it out enough to be functional to her.

There were three things, specifically, she had wormed her way into.

Number one was a map, which she assumed currently showed the slums, it was 2-dimensional, blue, and flat. It only held a crude layout of the place and a blinking green dot located on top of a shoddy square which she assumed was the shack she was currently in.

The second thing was a bank account holding nothing but 200 lixels. 'I didn't expect much and I'm still disappointed,' the girl thought as she moved on to the last.

That, was a program connected to a dune-buggy.

'Alright.' She stood up, ready to move.

She was currently at a hundred percent charge, enough to last her 5 days if no accidents occurred. Then there were the 2 orbs which rounded up to 10 more days, and the emergency orb of the gun added to give her a total of 20 days, just a bit less than a month, if all went well. She wore the belt of the man, attaching the Peace-Maker, the gun, to the back of her hip and using her oversized hoodie to hide it. Then, she hid the orbs within the bin of clothing behind her.

When all was set and done, Rose took the almost entirely useless Constructor, it was a bit heavy, but it wasn't something her body couldn't handle. Worst case scenario, her core would simply pump more mana and strengthen her.

She entered into the rowdy streets of the slums. There were a couple stares thrown her way, but after an unkind, glare of her own, most left her body. 'They must see me as a frail girl,' she thought and took a left, arriving at the motor of the man named Lux, parked right slap dab there. She placed the Constructor within and entered the vehicle.

She had absolutely no idea how to drive the thing. However, connecting her Pad to it, a screen sprung up, and tapping a location on the map that seemed to align with a place Maria had visited plenty with Lux was easy.

'Let's see this Scrap Shop. . .'

There was a small beep, she leaned into the seat of the car, and it soon began to drive. Most people moved out of the motor's way as best as they could, the vehicle traversed slowly through the slums, bisecting crowds to make way with its automatic honking. When some failed to evacuate from its way, however, she felt the spark of mana and they seemed to be kicked with an invisible energy, bumping them from its path with ease.

She watched with curiosity as she passed buildings of all types of construct. From wood to metal to brick, however, no matter what, the closer she drove to the domed city of Alos ahead, the better they were. Even at the slow speed of the motor, it didn't take long before she reached half-way to the city and a building of blue-brick.

She hopped out of the dune-buggy and dragged the Constructor with her as she entered the place.

It was currently devoid of any other customers. Holograms of items floated around her in stacked, cuboidal boxes, and each of them changed to a different thing every few seconds. She went along the middle of the place, the path that had been purposefully made, to a white counter.

"Welcome, would you like a catalog or are you selling?" A man answered her. He was bigger than her, burly and fitted with muscle, and had tanned skin. He was bald but had a beard. Rose's eyes drew to the image of a brown circle on his neck.

She placed the Constructor on top of the counter.

"Ah!" He yelped in surprise when the thing clunked onto the desk and quickly bowed, "Miss Mage, sorry for my disrespect!"

'What disrespect is he on about?' She thought, noticing his change of altitude and his speed at bowing. Her core hummed and the reason for his alertness quickly sprung up. He thought she was a mage, well, she could connect to core and control mana to a finite degree, so he wasn't entirely wrong. She smiled, and decided it was better for her.

"How much can I get for it?" She asked.

The man looked over the Constructor and she watched as his initial excited expression soon devolved into a frown.

"A thousand Lixels at most," He said.

She raised a brow. "Nothing more than that?"

"I'm sorry, miss, my master doesn't allow it."

She couldn't bring herself to haggle at that point. No parts of her wanted to make trouble for another homunculus. It didn't feel right, especially not after seeing Maria's memories and killing her herself.

"Show me how to transfer lixels, then. That much is fine, right?" She asked.

He seemed puzzled at her request, though, tilting his head. 'Hold on. . .' Rose took a second to realize it was because her words did not seep through, they were null before his ears and it was simply because she wasn't human. Her request had sounded like an order but carried no weight.

He looked over her and his smile soon deepened. She worried for a moment, unsure if all homunculi could be trusted simply because they were the same as her, but he soon spoke up from his own violation.

"Tap your pad with mine and I will transfer it this time, miss. If you want to transfer money over to another person, you may simply get their account or do the same process of tapping bracelets while the Niri Bank app is open."

The lixels were transferred and her monetary funds jumped from 200 to 1200. As she left the store with some bit of contentment, she heard his voice shouting behind.

"Good luck! Miss!" He spouted words that meant more than one thing.

He had recognized her as an homunculus, she thought, that was a basic ability all of them possessed and there was going to be a future need to prevent such a situation again. And, she would need to be careful when talking with homunculi to not give them a direct order, certainly not in the presence of a human or her cover would be blown. That was a blunder, but she was learning.

The dune-buggy went back on the road. Yet, as she drew closer to the shack, Rose's emerald eyes narrowed on a group of men that stood at its front.