Masters

Chapter 10

"That must have been a Super Power. When two or more PK Masters with a degree of kinship use PK for the same general purpose, the Aura can end up mixing and taking on the combined properties of the Powers of its Masters and create something greater than the sum of its parts." "I guess that explains why it looked like a monster. The more I learn about Aura and PK, the more it seems that I have no clue what to expect from it." "That's pretty much the golden rule of PK."

Nick and Yohan were currently talking about the events of their previous mission in the commons area nearest to their room. It turned out that Mr. Workle posted that contract as a means of deterring the mystery bomber later revealed to be Louie. He hadn't anticipated that he was a professional Master. "It's probably for the best that he ended up dead. Masters can't be prosecuted for their crimes unless captured by another Master." "Yeah, but that doesn't make me feel any better about it." "Hey man, I'd be worried if you weren't shaken by killing a mortal for the first time."

It had been six days since they came back from Aoe'iei'ouy, but what had astounded Yohan was that it had taken less than twenty-four hours for Nick to completely recover from his burns. "I might look like a human, but I'm actually an amalgamate-type polyman. A doctor once told me that I have a bunch of different types of mortals from multiple tribes in my lineage, giving me a pretty unique biology. What this means for me is that I can recover from any small injury in an hour, and any big one in a day. I can even grow back lost limbs, organs, and teeth believe it or not! Hypothetically, the only thing that could kill me would be a severe injury to my head or neck." Their payment plus the value of the gold dust they'd brought back had brought their HC totals to eight hundred each. Apparently, ordinary gold dust didn't have much value on Helgram because it lacked supernatural properties.

Yohan's training had also had a breakthrough. He discovered that by using the pellets as a material, he could create a solid Aura construct of nearly any manner of object, but the amount of force each object could exert was relative to the number of pellets he used, which currently capped off at one hundred twenty a day. Each pellet used in a construct can exert as much force as Yohan's body can, which wasn't a lot considering his fifty-pound body weight. For each object to retain its integrity, it needs to remain in direct contact with a mortal's Aura. If it doesn't, it becomes as soft as gold and light as tin.

"Excuse me, gentlemen." A voice rang out from the nearest entrance to the room. A person came walking up to them with a body made of liquid metal in the silhouette of a human. He was wearing a light blue cuirass and had a face with two holes and a slit for eyes and a mouth. The voice itself sounded smooth and vibrated in an almost metallic manner. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am a humble goleman called Citro, and I have a proposition for you!" "What kind of proposition?" Asked Yohan first, surprising Nick. "It's no secret around here that occasionally, the teachers like to hide treasures around Helgram worth a substantial number of HCs to give some of the more daring students an edge. And I have just come into the possession of a series of clues leading to a treasure worth at least twelve hundred HCs. All I ask is half that amount for this little slip of paper." A note slid out of Citro's extended arm. "You're free to take as long as you need to decide."

"We've decided, and we refuse." Wha? Thought Nick to himself. Yohan shot Nick a look and he could swear he could hear Yohan telling him, Just go with it. "We have no way of verifying if what you say is on that paper is true or not. Plus, we could probably make that much on something way simpler than a riddle-driven treasure hunt. But we could reconsider if you could knock down the price to, say, two hundred?" "After what I had to go through to get these? You could go years before getting a teacher to like you enough to give you something like this. I can't tell you how many times I've had to bend over backwards to get where I am now. The lowest I can go is four-fifty." "Three-twenty-five." "Deal!" "So, how do we go about making the exchange?" "Oh, it's simple, now that we've made the deal all we need to do is shake hands." Citro extended a tendril and morphed it into a five-fingered hand, which Yohan grasped and shook.