Chapter 12: Money Moves

"Good- the stats I got from leveling up my previous ability were translated into the new one. It also looks like the class may have an actual naming scheme now, too. I wonder what comes next…"

Full of energy, Min sat cross-legged on the bed and grabbed his chin. The completion of his Class Advancement and acquisition of basic knowledge meant big things.

As previously stated, access to the Ena would be incredibly valuable on Planet Brighton. While he only had around 1k in the bank, that was still enough to sway influential figures. Min knew that even Han Xiao would do a lot just for access to the Galaxy and its resources. 

Anyways, this unique advancement had affected Min's plans. He was originally going to begin those freelance jobs immediately, but the desire to test out his new ability could not be suppressed. It's good to know your limits… right?

Min clapped his hands and hopped off the bed, landing squarely on his feet. "So, here's the plan. We're going to pull up to the cheapest training place we can find and partake in their services. Though I hate loosening the purse strings, the fine for destroying public property would probably be more expensive."

After a shower, he changed into some fresh clothes and left the apartment. After finding the cheapest training place that didn't have terrible reviews, Meng Min took a bus to its area. Closing the door following booking the room, Min stepped into its center and closed his eyes. 

As the thought of creating a bow appeared in his head, a foreign mental image followed. As one would expect, it was a bow, but its appearance was rather strange. The weapon looked as if two slim, orange-red phoenix wings were glued to a small, engraved stick of the same color. 

This was not the strangest aspect of its design, however. The bow lacked a bowstring- something most would think was a little important in archery. Deciding to expend the energy, Min could feel something conjure in the air between his stretched hand. Grasping it, the elf's eyes lifted open and observed the peculiar weapon. Its form was far more vibrant than he had expected: as if it were constructed entirely from plasma. Even the grip was like this. 

After playing with- ahem, familiarizing himself with the bow, Min tossed it to his left hand and held it forward. Inhaling deeply, he brought his right hand forward and pinched his forefinger, middle finger, and thumb together. Referencing the blueprint that formed in his mind, a shaft of energy began to form as Min pulled his hand back. Only having injected about 1 energy, the 'arrow' looked more like the ones painted on a road rather than those designed to kill.

He leaned back while still pulling the arrow to observe the bow's side profile. A thin string finally appeared when the arrow and bow's limbs were sufficiently pulled. This action took very little physical effort on his part. Min suspected that this was partially due to his strength as a newly born Super, though the bow being the product of a personal Esper ability definitely affected this aspect.

Upon ensuring his aim was decent, Min released the arrow. It sped toward the wooden training dummy and embedded itself within without penetrating the body. The projectile quickly dissipated into the air, leaving only the damaged mannequin.

Meng Min rubbed his chin while reflecting on the Esper ability's performance.

"Herm, it functions like a regular bow despite looking funky and being created from energy. This Esper ability will most definitely increase my mid to long-range capabilities, though I wonder if it'll be a burden during close combat."

The bow's twelve spine-like protrusions seemed to be sharp, so Min approached the dummy and used one of the bow's limbs to smack it. Surprisingly, the attack left a serrated gash across the wooden figure's face! Flipping his bow around, our elf tapped one of the many edges and confirmed its sharpness.

"So it looks like there's some melee potential for this weapon. Actual application will be a little awkward, but such is to be expected for something so far outside the weapon's primary functions."

It appeared that a sword would still be needed for the foreseeable future. While there was the stolen katana from the Arena, that weapon was definitely not going to hold up on Brighton. He'd need to find some way to either sell or trade it in for something that was not meant to be a cosmetic.

Shrugging, Min continued his tests until he had a good level of understanding of this Esper ability. Anything more could only be gleaned through actual combat or extensive training, with the latter not being worth the time investment given the current situation. So, after dispersing the bow, Meng Min left the training room and headed to work on those daily missions. They would be rather boring and uneventful, but nonetheless important.

And so, the next 13 days passed.

…

Swoosh!

A flash of light shot past the escaping burglar, who frantically clutched a bag of stolen goods tightly. This criminal had carefully planned out the amount and type of robberies they could do without making law enforcement bring out the big guns. It appeared there was a miscalculation, for the person on their ass was in fact a Super wielding a funky ass bow.

That bastard had been assisting law enforcement recently. Even though he was only a Grade E Super, bottom of the barrel at that, for a burglar like this normal, genderless, thin blue humanoid, it was significant trouble.

However, there was a reason this burglar required a Super to catch them. Slipping away without a trace was their specialty.

After entering an alley, the burglar made a complex series of movements before silently slipping through a thin crack in a wall that was immediately sealed after they entered. This led to a downward staircase without any entrance and with many tunnels leading different ways. Their house was only a short distance from this escape point.

The burglar quickly made it to their house and was finally safe. With a comfortable sigh, the burglar set the bag of goodies on the table and began to assess their haul. Manual assessment wasn't necessary these days, but for this criminal, it was a part of the enjoyment.

100… 200… 900 Enas! After double-checking the value with a scanning device, this fact was indeed true! They had successfully robbed nearly 1,000 Enas of goods from that quality utilities shop! As the burglar jumped in excitement over their haul, the motion-sensing lights turned on. But the room seemed brighter than normal.

"Huh? Why did the lights turn on in the other room?"

An elf of average height with a body adorned in scars entered the kitchen's archway and yawned casually. His messy, shoulder-length hair was reminiscent of a rugged bard's or bandit's. A loose, sprout-like man bun stood neither high nor low at the back of his head. 

With a light smack of his lips, Min held a hand up in greeting.

"Yo. Would you like to surrender now?"

The blue burglar froze in fear. How did the Super find their house? Even if they searched every house adjacent to where they had disappeared, the tunnels were well-hidden and required the destruction of property to access. That was something the police weren't willing to do, and they'd need evidence to partake in such a thing.

"H-How did you…"

"Oh, how did I find you? If you thought a non-super could outrun a super, then you are crazy. I saw you enter that wall and searched the adjacent building. When I realized that there was simply no way you could have vanished, I broke a wall and found your little tunnels. Them coppers should have a heyday with that: cuz there's simply no way little old you built them yourself."

The Super chuckled while moving some of his dirty blonde bangs from his eyes. This blue burglar knew that they couldn't beat a Super. So, since they didn't want to get their face caved in, they surrendered their illicit possessions without a fight. A law enforcement officer came up from the tunnel and approached the criminal with handcuffs.

After escorting the blue person through the tunnels, a law enforcement officer with a bushy mustache took the criminal.

"Thanks again for your help, Meng Min. Just… refrain from breaking property next time, okay?"

Min scratched the back of his head with a bashful yet cheeky laugh.

"This is why I asked for you guys to deal with any collateral damage. Where else will you find a competent Super willing to work for only 70-90 Enas a job? And besides- you can just take some of bro's money to pay for the repairs."

"That is not how that works..."

Though surprising, the average rate for a Super like him to do a freelance job was 100 or more Enas. The reason every Super didn't do this sort of thing was the unstable work availability and lack of any societal power gained from the position. However, this short-term work was exactly what suited Min's needs. 

He had only stumbled on this opportunity by chance, too. While doing one of the daily cleaning missions, he had intervened in a standoff between some criminals and law enforcement officers. The bushy-mustached fellow had approached Min afterward with this offer of work, to which the elf accepted after negotiating down the pay in exchange for some leeway on certain things. Like collateral damage.

Min and the officer walked out of the building while the officer manhandled the burglar. The two chatted for a bit before parting ways. The interface gave a mission completion notification, expanding Min's Exp reserves by about 2,000. 

'Mission rewards are more plentiful now, but I think that might just be my standard of strength being higher. My Ona did double after the advancement and I've used the energy training technique a few times now.'

He had gained about 15k Exp and 600 Enas in the past two weeks. The energy training technique had been used about 8 times, which in combination with his reserves after the advancement brought his total amount to about 12k exp. Such measurable gains both in material wealth and personal strength made Min feel accomplished. However, this growth would need to pause as the time to depart for Brighton was quickly approaching.

During the past two weeks, our Elf had created a long-term savings account since most of the Enas could not be used while on Brighton. It had a 3.27% fixed interest rate and was the type where withdrawing funds would be difficult.

Hastily returning to his apartment, Min grabbed the items he had 'borrowed' from the Arena. This equipment was better turned into Enas or more enduring equipment as they were really just display items.

With a quick bus ride to an arms store that had good ratings and accepted trade-ins, Min entered and put his duffle bag of equipment on the trade-in counter.

"Hello, I would like to pawn this stuff off to you. If you're in the middle of something, take your time. Ain't gonna get mad."

The cashier, a seasoned-looking fella with a name tag that said 'Mr. Blaken', was a little taken aback but nodded silently. He quickly finished typing into a terminal before moving his rolling chair to the counter and standing.

"Is it alright for me to look through the bag?"

"Yeah, go ahead. Don't need to ask in the future with me."

Min knew that there were probably regulations that he didn't know about, so he simply gave Mr. Blaken carte blanche. The flowery katana, skin-tight combat suit, and laser handgun were taken out and laid on the counter nicely. The cashier inspected the items to verify their condition and the like.

"So, where'd you get these from? A grandparent? Dead enemy?"

"H-Hehe… uh… I stole them?"

"You stole them?"