The morning of the next day Uriel woke up to the annoying sound of Miss Dragonfang banging at his door and he barely had enough ti to put his shirt on before she barged in fumbling sothing unintelligible about the governor. Her voice sounded urgent, but Uriel took his ti getting ready.
"Enough yapping, I got it." Uriel yawned as he knocked on Luna's and dusa's rooms since not even that commotion would leak inside due to the professionally soundproofed alloy doors.
"Already?" Luna grumbled as she exited her room wearing her pajamas and holding a nasty looking doll Nika forced Uriel to buy for her.
"Put your clothes on, we must move quickly." Contrary to Uriel and Luna who stayed up late to celebrate, dusa went to bed early. Despite being fully dressed, her clothes were different to anything they've seen before. It was a skin tight jumpsuit with a long zip that went from her belly up to her neckline.
The closest thing Uriel had ever seen before was the protective gear formula 1 drivers used to wear, but dusa's stuck to her like a second skin and it was obviously thinner.
"Why don't you put so clothes on?" Uriel asked without even bothering to look to her face.
"First, my face is up here. Second, I have suits for you guys too." dusa pointed at her face while scolding Uriel with a tone so sweet he didn't even question how did she know he was peeking.
"I don't want to sound an, but that's a bit too daring for my taste." Miss Dragonfang placed her hands in front of her like trying to keep away an angry beast.
"Huh? I'm sorry, I didn't have enough orichalcum to make one for you anyway." dusa apologized as she walked to the workshop ignoring Miss Dragonfang who started begging for one as soon as she realized they were expensive.
"Why did you ask Luna to put her clothes on if you were going to give us these?" Uriel spoke directing a hesitant look at the jumpsuits in front of him.
"It's because these are supposed to be worn under your clothes, silly. I'll explain everything about our new gear so pay attention." She blindly patted the air right next to the table where the jumpsuits were.
"Uhm... Nika." Luna muttered.
"Right, I almost forgot about her!" Instead of going to her room and waking her up, Uriel used the statue to summon her just like he used to do with his jaguar. It worked exactly the sa with the sole difference being that the jaguar remained sealed inside the statue at all tis, while Nika could be anywhere.
It took Uriel nothing but a spark of flux to activate the statue depicting Nika and it was soon replaced by the real one.
"Get out of my room and don't forget to turn off the lights." Nika waved her hand in the airuntil she noticed the murderous glares from dusa and a different kind of glare from Uriel.
"Put this on." dusa threw one of the jumpsuits to the still hangover Nika who wasn't wearing any pants.
"What's the deal with this things? I don't think you made them like this as a fashion statent." Uriel asked.
"These are made from a highly resistant polyr that can withstand extre temperatures and they're reinforced with a thin layer of orichalcum. They're still pretty light weight and offer the sa amount of protection a basic armor would, but once we get our hands in another orichalcum vein I'll be able to upgrade them easily." dusa explained.
"I don't like armor, it hinders my movent. I can't use armor, it will rip apart when I shift. More importantly, basic armor is crap." Luna glared at dusa.
"You're wrong, this won't break if you shift. When exposed to flux energy, orichalcum will beco hard and brittle, but if it's drained of flux it becos flexible and after extensive testing I found a way to make it remain elastic. I won't bore you with the details, just know that before shifting into your won't need to take it off.
The best part is, it can be repaired with flux orbs!" dusa puffed her chest in pride.
"This is great!" Uriel cheered in an overly excited manner, not only because the armor was free and it's upkeep would be cheap but also because he really needed so armor. Due to his reckless fighting style he had been on the brink of death on more than one occasion and had been saved only thanks to the life essence drain ability on his dagger.
Even just a little protection during a fight could make his enemy receive more damage than him, turning it into a favorable exchange.
"This is... uhm... nice." Luna said after putting her jumpsuit on. She couldn't care any less about its asly protection or its looks, but wearing it made her feel soothingly enshrouded.
The only one who didn't appreciate the masterfully crafted armor dusa made for them was Nika who not only hated having her legs covered but she disliked its design and color that couldn't possibly be matched with short pants.
"You're not going to put any clothes on?" Uriel who had to wait outside the room while the girls got ready, asked dusa when she ca outside wearing only the jumpsuit.
"My clothes are waiting for in the hangar." She replied with a chuckle.
"How long are you going to keep the governor waiting?" Miss Dragonfang hissed to keep her voice down.
"Just call him back and tell his secretary we'll be arriving in half an hour." Uriel said dismissively.
"Huh!? I've been telling you all this ti, he's right outside waiting for you!" Miss Dragonfang spoke that sentence in a single breath that sohow sounded like a deflating balloon.
Uriel didn't expect the governor to show up himself, but if he cared or not didn't show since he neither reacted nor hurried his steps.
"Good, I was starting to fear you had second thoughts." Lister greeted the Dungeon Raiders, not missing their new outfit.
"Sorry about the delay, I honestly thought you summoned us to your office and took our ti getting ready." Uriel scratched the back of his head in feign awkwardness.
"I ca here myself to show my sincerity. I was so paranoid thinking you always expected the worst of people that I unwittingly did the sa. It was only after reading the contract you made I realized we are kindred spirits." Lister said.
"What do you an?"
"You may have asked for sothing unreasonable and we would have had no choice but to accept to your terms, instead you ask for fair compensation for doing a job while remaining a free agent. This will secure you an inco and your safety for as long as our relationship remains mutually beneficial. I must ask, where did you get that idea?"
"Ro was an empire just like our world governnt, it was comprised of several states with varied cultures and lords but their interests aligned when it ca to expansion or defense against barbarians.
The regular army was perfect for war, but too expensive to keep posted on city defense which forced the city lords to seek for their own protection in hiring commoners as rcenary troops to solve small matters over their territory. Of all the things you read about in your reports, there's sothing you overlooked. My passion for archaeology.
If you bothered to learn about that, you could have spared both of us a lot of trouble." Uriel's lengthy explanation made Lister wonder if skipping entirely on history lessons was the right call during his college years and he inwardly made a note to find out if what Uriel said was true as soon as he returned to his office.
"I'm truly regretful of my actions and wish we could have started our business relationship on a better note." Lister truly sounded regretful, but Uriel didn't miss the aning of his words. What the governor actually ant was he wished he reeled Uriel under his command instead of allowing him to beco what for all purposes was an equal partner.
"What is the job you want us to do first?" Uriel asked with a sly glare.
"Of all the services you claim you can provide, there's on I'm particularly interested on. You said you can get rid of the cryptids inside our city without causing mass hysteria, so that's what I'm going to ask of you.
As for your compensation, apart from whatever you earn by selling the flux orbs to the Cryptid hunting agency, I'm currently working on getting the information you want about Heavenly Sword, but we're currently not on the best terms with the army.
I'm calling in a lot of favors for this and I hope you find it a fair reward." At the sa ti Lister finished speaking dusa showed up from the ship's hangar, the many different gadgets she was wearing making a clanking sound impossible to ignore.
"I'm ready." She said, the only part of her body that could be seen through all the machinery were her legs and arms.
Reviews
All reviews (0)