Raven stepped into the war room—or, well, what passed for one.
It was technically just a big round table surrounded by his chaotic little squad of weirdos, squirrel generals, and two princesses pretending not to stare at him.
He dropped a small box on the table with a dramatic thud.
Everyone stared.
Then he crossed his arms and declared, "Loot drop."
Alex gasped audibly. "Is it snacks?"
"No," Raven replied flatly.
"...Is it a cursed acorn that grants you the power of ’squirrel whispering’ for thirty minutes?"
"Again, no."
"Oh," Alex deflated, looking deeply disappointed.
Nibbles, perched majestically on his head, offered a consoling acorn pat.
Jessy leaned in, already sizing up the box. "So, what’s the haul?"
Raven cracked his knuckles. "Five items. All high-level. All ga-changing. Now, it’s allocation ti."
Clara raised a brow, calm as ever. "Sounds like you’ve been shopping at a flea market again."
"Close enough."
With a smirk, Raven opened the box.
Inside lay five items, each glowing with the subtle hum of absurd cosmic power.
The kind of stuff people would kill kingdoms for.
– The first was the Wildheart Symbiote.
Raven picked up a sealed test tube filled with a squirming, black substance that looked alive.
He turned to Alex. "This one’s yours."
Alex blinked. "Wait. ?"
"Yes. But you can’t drop it. The mont it’s out of the container and unbonded, it dies. And if it dies, you die."
Alex scratched his head. "Why would I die?"
"Because I’ll kill you, you dumb bastard," Raven replied without a change in his expression.
Alex gulped, then looked at the test tube. Then back at Raven.
Then back at the test tube.
"...Bro."
"I’ll tell you how to bond with it. It’ll boost your strength, agility, and tabolism, and also it might eat your enemies and cry if you cry."
Nibbles raised a tiny paw and nudged Alex’s forehead like a priest of squirrel rites. The ssage was clear: ’You have been chosen. Do not screw this up, idiot.’
Alex saluted, then he turned toward the symbiote in his hand. "I shall na you... Blargh."
The symbiote twitched.
Jake blinked once in slow approval.
– Second was the Inheritance of the Hollow Veil.
So, Raven turned to Jake.
He didn’t say anything.
Neither did Jake.
Raven simply handed him the glowing relic—an orb that pulsed like a heartbeat in silence.
Jake took it.
Nodded.
Sat back down.
They had a full conversation. Using zero words.
"I envy that," Rufus muttered.
– Third was the Aegis-X NanoCore.
Raven looked at Rufus.
"Full body magic armor for you," he said while handing him sothing that looked like a fist-sized, triangular disk.
Rufus’s eyes lit up. "You an like... cool armor? Like, with gadgets?"
"Cooler. It upgrades as you grow stronger. It has flight mode, shielding, scanning—basically a ch suit but on sacred steroids."
Rufus took it like a child accepting the last cookie on Earth. "I won’t disappoint you, Captain."
"Don’t make this weird," Raven muttered, his face scrunched in disgust.
– Fourth was the Magnetide Core Implant.
Jessy raised a brow before Raven even opened his mouth.
"This one manipulates magnetic fields. You’ll like it," he said, handing her a silver shard that pulsed faintly like it was listening to tal itself.
She took it and nodded. "Thank you."
"Wow," Alex whispered. "She’s like the female version of Jake."
Jake blinked again. Still approvingly.
– Finally, it was the fifth item, Resonant Core Fruit.
Raven held up a strange, pulsing fruit.
Vibration power.
It wasn’t explosive, but it was absolutely versatile.
He walked over to Clara and handed it to her without a word.
She stared at it. Then at him.
"Does this an I’m your favorite?" As she said that, she glanced at Selena and Siris, her expression smug.
Raven hesitated, feeling the eyes of the other girls.
But soon, he cald down, recalling how he always needed to be assertive.
"I don’t play favorites, Clara," he said without a change in his expression.
It was only when he felt the gazes of his other girls ease that he leaned forward a bit and whispered, "But if I did, you’d be dangerously close to that position."
Clara giggled with a rosy tint on her cheeks before she pocketed the fruit with calm and elegance. "Noted."
However, as the glow of the divine items settled into the room... the absence of three very specific glares beca obvious.
Selena sat like a goddess, her legs crossed and eyes closed, but her aura leaked royal-level offended silence.
Siris blinked several tis, tilting her head and looking inside the empty box. "Where is... mine?"
Lia’s eyes darted around, trying to seem indifferent—but her fingers were gripping her chair like a political hostage.
She didn’t want to show it, but she was also disappointed.
Raven paused, unable to answer the girls’ stares for a while.
Omni, still tethered to the sword in Raven’s hand, whispered helpfully, "Bro. Abort. Imdiate social crisis detected."
Raven’s eyes narrowed.
"Oh no," he whispered.
"Oh yes," Omni replied.
Looking at the three girls—Selena’s chilly smile, Siris’s blank disappointnt, and Lia’s noble pout—Raven realized sothing terrible.
He had ssed up.
He had thought that they wouldn’t need it as their cheats were already strong enough.
For example, Selena’s shadowy maw, which was sothing Raven still didn’t know about, was a strong ability.
Siris had antimagic, sothing others would kill to have.
Finally, Lia had literally awakened as a high-level healer. She could revive people!
If these people needed external help, then others needed double help.
"Yo, you can’t say that to them, bro!" Omni shouted in his head the second he caught the thought. "I’m tellin’ you—that’s a straight-up chaos button. You drop that, and it’s ga over, man. Real bad."
’I know!’ Raven yelled back as he realized the problem.
If he told the real reason, then he would be calling Clara baggage that needed his help, while Selena and Siris were strong enough to support him without any help.
That would certainly hurt Clara.
But Raven didn’t have much ti.
If he thought for long, then things could worsen, so he decided to play it safe.
"Okay, okay!" Raven raised his hands. "I didn’t forget about you three. I just—uh—your artifacts haven’t arrived yet!"
Siris blinked again. "But... I love you. Why do I not have sothing?"
"You’ll get it soon," Raven promised, his palms up like a rchant cornered by three debt collectors with glittery shoes. "I’m working on sothing specific. I want to make sure it suits each of you perfectly."
Selena’s smile turned more real. Clara, beside her, smirked.
"Well played," Clara whispered.
"...You’re lucky I don’t really care about these kinds of stuff," Selena muttered, gently bumping Raven’s arm with her shoulder.
Raven, however, knew better than to believe her words.
Lia looked like she wanted to complain, but she huffed. "...I want sothing interesting—if I can make demands, that is."
Raven made the ntal note, ’Find Lia an interesting artifact before she goes full tsundere.’
But of course, the mont settled for only a second before Clara’s calm voice rang out.
"So, Raven. Where exactly did you get all these?"
Selena chid in as well, arms crossed. "Yes. And don’t tell us you just found them under your bed."
Everyone looked at him.
Raven froze.
"...I..." he began.
That was when Omni jumped in like a true bro.
"HEY LOOK!" The sword shouted, vibrating in Raven’s grip. "Don’t y’all wanna see how the symbiote bonds?! It might burst into flas! Or sing a lullaby!"
Everyone blinked.
Raven shot Omni a grateful look.
Clara and Selena both narrowed their eyes for a mont. But then, their gazes softened.
They knew.
He wasn’t ready to share the source yet.
If he was, then his new best buddy, Omni, wouldn’t have stepped in at this mont.
However, they didn’t push.
Surprisingly, neither did the others, who had their ears perked the mont that question was asked.
Even Alex sohow caught on and nodded solemnly... before nearly dropping the test tube.
"Oops."
Nibbles smacked his forehead. Then he shoved Alex’s hand, urging him to open the tube.
The sealed symbiote inside twitched violently, like a creature eager to et its chosen idiot.
Everyone leaned forward, intrigued.
Jake even blinked twice.
"...Ti to find out what you guys actually got," Raven muttered, grinning.
Alex gulped, staring at the tube nervously before he popped the seal with a hesitant click—
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