050 Goodbye!

"Russo!" The project manager bellowed out from across the room.

A young man stopped typing his analysis of a new proposed development. He was irked by the interruption, but maintained a cordial facade as he raised his neck to look at the manager.

"I have something important I need to take care of, I'll leave the report to you." The project manager got up and left, leaving four other workers in the office.

"What an ass!" The other workers complained. The project manager always left early, leaving them to do most of the work.

Russo refocused on his work.

After ten minutes of typing, his cell phone rang. "Hello?"

A woman on the line rambled on about something. Russo got up from his desk and walked out of the office. Russo waited for her to finish before responding.

"Hi Ma, I'm doing well.... Work? It's fine, I've just started here so everyone here is nice...."

Except for that jackass. Russo aimlessly stared at the office across the hallway, a private office that belonged to the Antonio's Restaurant on the first floor.

"Uh-huh. Maybe... Ma, I'm fine, you don't have to worry.... No, I didn't take this job because of Nico.... All right, I'll try. Love you ma."

Russo hung up and returned to his work. By the time it was 5:30, he exited down the stairs and into the streets. There was a short line of people waiting in queue for Antonio's.

Russo walked across the street to the bus stop. He sat down and waited, occasionally looking back at the restaurant.

Russo looked at his watch, 6:00 PM.

"Why isn't it here?" Russo stood up and looked down the streets.

Cars and more cars, but no bus. He waited another ten minutes.

Finally, his patience wore thin and he hollered down a taxi. The taxi pulled over and stopped in front of him. He opened the door and got inside. Another person rushed in from the other side and took the seat.

"Miss, I called down this taxi first," Russo commented.

The young woman looked at Russo in amazement. It wasn't just because he had a striking appearance, but he looked awfully familiar for some reason.

A celebrity? She suddenly snapped back. Think, Grandmother first!

"Please let me take the seat with you!" She pleaded. "My grandmother is sick and I need to see her in the hospital."

The young miss looked out of place in the city. Her hair was a complete mess, she hadn't showered since she got off the plane and eyes were baggy from all the stress. The first taxi driver had scammed her by driving the opposite direction and she had been roaming around looking for directions to the hospital. She finally spotted a taxi and dashed toward it as soon as possible.

Russo reluctantly nodded and they both shared the cab.

"Thank you!"

She continued to fidget as the taxi drove to the hospital first.

Russo noticed that the girl looked a bit tensed. "Is it your first time in the city?"

She nodded.

"Is your grandmother okay?"

"I'm not sure." She impatiently looked at the road up ahead.

"Hey!" Russo shouted.

She snapped her head to look at him, but his face was distorted like some sort of clown. She wondered if he was trying to be funny.

"It works on my nephews."

She smiled. "Thank you."

Eventually, they reached the hospital. She paid her portion of the tab to the driver and got out of the car.

"Thank you again!" She politely bowed.

Before she closed the door, her eyes widened. "Ah, you're Gabe Russo!"

"I'm sorry, I think you got me confused with someone else. Take care."

****

A few nights before summer vacation, Nico took out a new crystal sound pendant from his pocket.

Nico had spent many weeks experimenting with the inscription on the crystals. He had been rearranging the route within the crystal, but still no changes. It actually caused the crystal to stop working a couple of times. He had broken three crystals already.

Nico rearranged the manaline of the crystal's internal structure, his Saturn ring.

The receiver crystal reacted to the change from Nico's aura.

The crystal died.

Nico rearranged the manalines to the original location. He felt like a surgeon reconnecting the blood vessels back to its original location. The sound crystal restored its original function.

Nico followed the enhancement instruction again. Maybe he was misinterpreting the directions. First he had to line the main branch and then the secondary branch, switch the lines.

He tinkered with the crystal again.

"What the f*** why isn't this thing working!?" A voice cried out from the crystal.

"Eek!" Nico backed away from the crystal, it wasn't his voice. "What the!?"

"Ah! A voice. Hey you! You there! Can you hear me!?" The man voice cried out again from the crystal. "Hold on right there! Don't you dare move! Who are you? Where are you?"

"Uh? You're human?" Nico asked.

"Of course, I'm human! I am the great Nil Eda! Now answer my question!" The voice erratically demanded.

Nico grinned with skepticism toward the crystal, but the name sounded familiar. "How do I know if you're not some evil devil trying to steal my soul?"

"What the f***! Why would I want to steal your soul?" Cried the voice. "You're from Kelsera? How do you not know who I am!?"

Nico remembered the inventor's name was Nil Eda, but he wasn't sure of this person's identity. "You can quit yelling, I can still hear you."

"Yeah, but for how long? Do you know how long I've been working on this communication device? 3 years! Do you know how long that is? This thing could die any moment!"

Communication device? Nico narrowed his eyes in curiously. Like a telephone? Nico examined the manalines, and recorded the pathway. The lines were very stable.

"It should be fine. So this sound crystal is also one of your invention?"

"Of course! I am genius after all. Anyway, tell me what you did to make your crystal receive my voice?"

"What do I get in return?"

"If you help me out, I'll give you a 20% split."

"50%."

"What!? No way, I'm the one making this thing work."

"No deal then. You can work on it for another 3 years if you want."

"30%! How are you going to help me out anyway? I'm the one with all the knowledge here."

"How do you know I don't have the knowledge? Maybe I'm more knowledgeable than you and you're the one that ends up stealing my ideas? Now that I think of it, if I can create a receiving crystal, I can probably work out a transmitter myself."

"What!? No, wait! 50% is fine, but you also have to continue helping me with my research."

"Deal. You can call me Salo, I'm in Launtel City." Nico didn't trust the voice completely, and although he didn't want to reveal too much information about what he knew, he was sure the voice knew a lot more about the inscription than he did.

"Launtel City? You're quite far away. Okay, if this crystal stop working, send me a message through the merchant guild."

"Okay," Nico nodded out of habit. "Where are you located?"

"You really don't know me?" The voice sounded surprised. "I'm in Gordon City."

"Huh?" Nico had heard it before, it was the Ashe homeland.

"What sort of country hick are you that you don't even know who I am!?"

Nico wondered if there was a way to shut it off. Nico altered one of the lines and the communication stopped. No voices could be heard anymore.

Thank god, the voice was irritating him. If he had to listen constantly to it, he would be annoyed.

The crystal started to blink. Nico thought for a moment, and reactivated the crystal.

"What the f*** is wrong with you! You're not going to say goodbye. That's beyond rude and shows no etiquette."

Nico rolled his eyes. "I didn't know, it's not like I've ever use this thing before. Goodbye!"

Author's Note: It's finally the last chapter of volume 1! I have a lot fun and a lot of stress writing this, mainly from the tournament arc at the end, ch. 28, and the orientation chapter. This is my first and last tournament I will never write in this lifetime. I absolutely hate tournament, I don't know why I even bother writing one in. I almost deleted the whole entire combat team idea, but whatever, it's finally over!

I still don't know how much of volume 1 I want to rewrite, or leave it as is until after volume 2. If you have any suggestions, things you hate, things you like, write it down in the comments. I try to credit everyone who contribute to specific ideas or filling up the plotholes.

Contrary to the title, it's not a goodbye, at least I hope not. Still writing and planning volume 2. It might get messy and convoluted, but I think I have warned everyone about throwing in the kitchen sink and jumping the shark, so keep your expectations low.

I'm going to be on "break" to proofread and rework the chapters. You can drop the collection if the updates annoy you. In the meanwhile, check out Eveofchaos's Birth of the Demonic Sword, J0ker's XP Grind (he's a slow writer, and it's magical realism like the Gamer,) or Reili's Nanomancer Reborn (if you don't mind female lead.) Ciao!