The Ghost Shepherd

The First Expedition (part 3)

Sly was following the instructions of his chip in order to find the core of the Draco but when he opened its skull, the smell that came out made him lose control of himself. Any other creature would have smelled the brain for what it was but to Sly, it was like freshly made caramel bread pudding. It was sweet and nutty and the temperature was just right, he couldn’t help it. The moment he tasted it, his taste buds went haywired and he ravaged the organ like it was going to disappear from his hands.

Lick… Lick

Sly licked his fingers in ecstasy while the contrast of the green blood against his white skin was almost like a work of art.

The member of Raol’s gang was mesmerized by the scene and lost his best chance to capitalize on the kill and had no other choice but to keep observing his target. He was a professional with many years of experience and the mission was just starting, he relaxed a little and kept recording his target so he could observe the video at a later time and find out more about what made the brain eating creature tick, it was fascinating..

Sly proceeded to check the base of the skull for the cores but they were inside their hearts. The cores were the size of his pinky finger and since they were from common Argonians they could be used either as the starter core for future hunters or as a material in different industries, especially the one from the 3 star soldier.

“How are we going to transport them?”

“The kills have been recorded so we no longer need proof to satisfy the government mission but you forgot to buy the tools for bone marrow extraction which is a shame because we need both the Marrow and the Core to sell it as a student enhancement. So... Do we continue hunting or take the body back and get it processed? ”.

Sly thought about it and walked towards the spirits that were still screaming and swiping their claws at the empty space and decided to try and communicate with them just like it said in the file.

The spirits felt the presence of a natural predator approaching and trembled before prostrating themselves before Sly that was really surprised at their reaction. He could feel the core desired to swallow them but he fought it with his will. Sly felt like he was having one of his arms do stuff by itself and he was trying to stop it from moving.

“Do you know where we can find more of your friends”

Swoosh

The Dracos were absorbed even before they had a chance to reply and after their spirits were processed, ethereal blue gas went inside Sly’s body and finished in the space between his eyebrows.

Sigh…

Sly was a little depressed, he could not control the crystal and the demise of the young spirit that warned him about the danger that was waiting for him still weighed in his heart. He felt that maybe he could have helped him accomplish some unfulfilled dream before it dissipated. In a sense, he gave the spirit a second death and sent him straight towards the circle of reincarnation.

There was no better teacher than experience and Sly was a prime example. After the last batch of Ethereal Gas from the Draco was absorbed, he felt closer to the Core and this gave him hope.

“Perhaps, I need more souls”.

"That is possible, the information from the Irakui's is really minimal so we are in uncharted territory"

Without information about other locations where they could safely hunt a few more Argonians, the thrill of the hunt died out a little and Sly decided to head back and have the 3 star Draco’s body processed for the Marrow. He placed the bisected body into his space folder and put the smaller draco on his shoulder before starting to run in the direction of the Bunker. In the corner of his eye, new data related to the effects that his range ability had on the Argonian and a video showing the difference in color to the one he sent towards the Puppeteer during practice were being displayed side by side.

“The abilities looked similar but they have different properties, the black Scythe definitely affected the physical realm and the alteration it produced was a phenomena of the darkness attribute.”

“What do you mean by the Darkness attribute?”

“It refers to the way the Umdali cataloged the abilities of the Argonians. A fireball for example has a fire attribute, and Ice lance have a water attribute, a mirage have a light attribute and so on. The abilities used by the Argonians altered the environment or the individual themselves to generate a specific result and the cores are the key to it. They act as a catalyst that makes it possible to control the desired changes within their specific attribute. If we quote the legends of the old, the Argonians are natural Alchemists and the core is the philosopher’s stone”.

“Alchemist...Philosopher's Stone… What the f**k are you talking about”

“Alchemists were individuals who tried to transform something through a seemingly magical process and their philosopher’s stone was thought to be a legendary substance capable of transforming a metal into something of a lot more value by receiving the appropriate amount of energy. Alchemists were nothing but fantasy and myth in many cultures but as old people say, there is always some truth in lies and this was proven by the Argonians and their cores. We used the cores to produce a seemingly impossible physical change and all it costs is a little bit of energy and the core does the rest, the Argonians are truly wonderful creatures.”

“Thanks to you, we are also playing a part in proving another myth that the Umdali race always regarded as false”

“Yeah... and what is that?”

“That there is a realm beyond the physical and the possibility of reincarnation”

“Cool!”

“Cool? It is amazing!!”

"Let's get back to the skill, so how can we replicate it? The ability is definitely worth using but take a look…"

Sly reformed his weapon and sent an Energy Scythe, however, it was back to ethereal blue and it went inside a tree doing no damage whatsoever.

"The energy fluctuations of your weapon are way different, even the color of the energy grid is now blue instead of jet black and there is no gas. If we follow that line of thought, then the core has two modes but we still need more testing to determine how to change it at will".

The Discussion continued for a while and as Sly travelled back to the safe house he didn’t encounter any problems, nobody tried to stop him or steal his catch which surprised him greatly. What Sly didn’t know was that he had already been marked as a target of Raol’s group and the Chameleon assassin from before had dropped his disguised and was now acting like he was also coming back to The Bunker but for other members of the dark forces, it was a clear message, he is our prey.

The processing center was one of the facilities that was run in the underground portion of the building. There was a ramp on the north side of the Bunker in a corkscrew style that led to the first floor and it was very spacious.

The underground or inside depending on how people looked at it, was 5 times the size of what the structure looked on the outside and it was similar to a giant warehouse, if a giant warehouse had flying machines and holograms on their main floor. The space also had stores along the walls and right across the entranced was the corpse drop off.

The stores available were very practical, there were weapon shops, Medicine and Enhancement shops, Space Folder Enhancements, and on the leisure side there was a bar and even a hotel and in case somebody had any questions, there was an information center right in the middle of the room.

“First thing is first, let’s drop off the bodies and see how much we can get for them. My bank account is in zeros”

The process was pretty simple, there was a conveyor belt at the back of the room with a scanning machine and a screen with various prompts; from processing the body for DNA to selling the body as is, selling cores and everything in between. After choosing an option on the screen and placing the body on the belt, the machine would evaluate the body of the Argonian and the government would pay a fair price that usually tended to be a lot lower than the one offered on a privately owned DNA Shop.

The money was a lot less but the hunter didn’t have to do anything else with the bodies and the credits would be deposited immediately.

It was the easier way to do things but many preferred to sell the bodies of one star soldiers to restaurants instead and the cores to privately owned industries.

“Hey friend, What are you going to do with that corpse? You are not going to give it to the government are you? I can see that you are new here, I can help you and it won’t cost you a coin”

“Ignore him” Said K.C

Sly kept walking but the tiny individual kept up with his pace, “My name is Blackie, I can’t hunt very well but I am the best fence in all of planet Alpha. Nobody in the entire Bunker can give you a better deal. I can help you free of charge this time and if you like my services, next time you have some merc, you can drop it off with me and I’ll sell it for you for a small fee, 7%”

“Sounds good to me said Sly to his chip”

“You SOB!!! that is too much, how are we going to get new Nanotrons if we are giving away our profits”

Sly felt a burning sensation on his arm and the words b***h appeared in blood.

Sigh…

His helpers were no help at all in anything but combat related stuff and as everything was happening, Blackie took the antics and the blood in Sly’s arms to indicate that the person beside him was a crazy motherfucker.

Gulp...

“It is not a scam, I can get my clients at least 15% increase in selling price, so by selling to me you would be actually gaining 8% more on your hunts, is a win win.”

“Prove it!!”

“Easy, Come with me”