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2 months later.
It only took a couple of boat rides, traversing the whole country, and three homicides to get out of Undeb Dehulm.
My name was unchanged and so was my nationality.
Rodan wasn't a nation of loose treaties and laws like Galyscia on the other end of the continent.
Every corner you turned meant a camera would scan your face, sensors on the street would record your pace and fingerprints were the only way to prove your identity.
My life back in Undeb Dehulm felt like a place I had only read about instead of lived in.
The oppresive Geortarian regime was no longer on my back.
My workshop got shut down days after I left.
And my family still has shown no trace of their well-being, aside from my endless hope.
Jail was the easiest part of my escape.
The guard's face was one I could never forget.
His voice softened when he spoke to me through the bars, how he would try to hold my hand when handing me food contraband.
I wonder if he ever realized it.
That I only needed him.
I don't tend to think about his body much, the only remarkable trait of his were his muscular legs, that would almost threaten to tear his uniform's pants apart.
Although, his sounds don't seem to leave my mind.
The sound he made when on their last moments, he realized the actual role he had in my life.
But its more like a background noise.
Although the city traffic just drowns it out.
Rodan is a sharp contrast to the life I used to live.
The sound of waves crashing against the sand and with each other was now the sound of machine hum and vehicles.
Not to mention, the size.
They got us living like compressed gravel and rocks.
In my entire time living here I've never seen a single low-density residence.
Every building is ten floors tall or more.
Making me fit here better than I expected.
With so many people you bump shoulders with throughout the day, you start ignoring them completely.
The office floor I was in gave me a view to the city.
Its air had an empty feeling to it, not a breeze, not even the smoke from the outside that makes you cough.
Chairs were tucked in neatly, seems the evacuation was strict.
Rodan never demolished buildings unless there was profit in it.
Meaning they didn't do anything with this cursed building, they simply built upwards and left this floor empty.
The place seemed way to calm and neat for my mission.
I put my forearm before my face, its holographic screen popping up.
My old clock got lost somewhere along the way to Manaho, thankfully COMP systems are part of the basic government healthcare here.
It was a struggle to get the surgery due to my scales, but in the end there was now a chunk of metal in my arm that could also think.
Seems I got the address right.
174, Tallyon Corp, Docus province.
I sighed, half disappointment, half boredom.
Curses were the least impressive creatures around.
They didn't have claws, fangs or made funny sounds like the shapeless blobs.
Just bad vibes.
They made the air still, and darkness darker.
I walked deeper between the cubicles, my boots making soft thumps against the carpet.
Stopping near the center of the floor I closed my eyes and breathed in.
Mold, plastic, stale air.
A metallic taste in my tongue.
Either radiation poisoning or the curse.
Curses weren't predators.
Being born from compressed fear, stress and other unregulated emotions that had nowhere to go in large cities, they simply showed themselves as leftovers.
A level 1 monster at best.
But one of the most annoying ones.
Invisible unless you agitate them.
Irritation was the easiest tactic.
Thanks Kylliana for the info.
I pulled a metal chair out from a dark and dragged it slowly across the floor.
My first instinct was to throw it across the room, but the cheapest repair fee could be the double of my pay.
The screen echoed through the office, it even irritated me.
But nothing.
My goal here was to restore the office to a usable state.
"Fine..."
I drew my knife and sliced my palm without looking.
Blood welled up in an instant, dripping onto the carpet.
If I cleaned well enough, they wouldn't notice and I wouldn't get charged with the cleaning fees.
The scar healed in a moment, mana clumped in my palms after all.
A light above me flickered once.
"Hostility Detected" my arm COMP said, its robotic voice echoing through the empty office.
I noticed.
It felt as if the room has suddenly shrunk just by a few centimeters, enough to trigger the uncanny feeling in my brain.
The wall across me felt distorted, like my eyes couldn't agree on its actual depth.
I raised my hand on instinct.
[ Skill used: Appraisal lv. 1 ]
A moment...
[ Failed. ]
Too early.
"...tch."
Right, timing mattered, this was the most annoying part of curse requests.
Making them tangible.
The curse's body needed to fit within the space of your palm when fully extended relative to your vision.
Then to that value, you added the reach of your mana.
So my effective appraisal range was at around 10 meters at most.
I dragged my boot through the blood stain on the carpet, smearing it wider.
"Come on. Human blood right here, yum yum."
Human blood was a mere technicality, the correct term would've been 'Hir-Soger blood which is identical to human blood.'
The lights overhead flickered violently.
There.
Extending my palm again.
[ Skill: Appraisal lv. 1 ]
My vision tunneled on the distortion before me.
[ Appraisal Succesful ]
The ripple collapsed inward, something falling onto the carpet.
A small object rolled before stopping near my boot.
"That's it?"
It looked like a clump of twisted office supplies.
Paper clips, a calendar still stuck on last year, pens...
[ Minor Curse - Lv. 1 HP: 1 ]
"I didn't even have to use Stray Bullet to reduce its HP to 1... are these things really this weak?"
If all it required was slitting my hand and doing a well-timed Appraisal, I could make loads of money with this!
The payout for this request was 15 Skirlias, that's enough to cover today's food.
And Kylliana can cover the rent.
I'll note it down on my COMP after this.
The clump twitched, and I raised my gun.
My bullet hit it dead center.
The pressure vanished, and the lights came back on.
I stared up and grimaced.
"The light switch downstairs is down, so only Karkano knows where its drawing light from."
My COMP chimed.
[ Target Eliminated. Payout has been requested. This transaction will take 1-5 minutes, please wait a moment. ]
[ Skill: Appraisal has leveled up to lv. 2 ]
I pulled hydrogen peroxide out of my coat and a cloth I'd brought with me.
Pouring it onto the carpet and scrubbing until my hand ached.
Those cleaning fees wouldn't catch me.