1% Lifesteal

It was a bright, rare morning where the sun shone above the gray city of Repentawa. The dazzling light pierced through the windows, illuminating a sight of breakfast and conversation.

Freddy and Lucas sat at the kitchen table, eating cereal. While they ate, they talked.

For the most part, they steered away from serious topics. At that moment, they were talking about the plans they both once had for their future, before their lives were suddenly thrown off course.

Both the men had a similar story to tell. They had planned to work and save money.

Although Freddy still believed he had always been running an uphill race, at least he didn't have family making things worse.

It wasn't just that he didn't have a mother gambling all his savings away; he was just plain living alone. It was much easier to control finances when one person was in charge of everything.

Freddy had lived a frugal and slow life, mostly staying inside and eating poverty slop. Meanwhile, Lucas's mom didn't let him do that, always insisting that such a pathetic life was not worth living.

While Freddy strongly disagreed with this outlook, she did kind of have a point. Numerous people saved money their whole life, only to either die before they became archhumans or to ascend so late that they had no hope of making any real progress before old age caught up with them.

Granted, this was pure hypocrisy coming from a woman who insisted that she'd "win big" any day now and get both herself and her son a prime.

Speaking of the woman, the doors to the guest room finally cracked open, and she peeked through. "Hey…" she greeted, looking a bit befuddled. "I… Hello! Good morning!" She tried being cheerful, waving and smiling, but it came across as rather forced. "Can somebody please tell me what's happening?"

Lucas chuckled. "Come sit with us. I'll tell you everything."

She looked down at the loose pajamas she was wearing and then slowly closed the door. The two of them could hear her gasp and loudly ask, "Wait, why is all our stuff here!?" A minute later, she walked out wearing an ordinary shirt and jeans. She walked up to the table and sat down, nervously wiping her sweaty palms on her thighs as she looked between Freddy and Lucas, not knowing who to ask first.

Lucas kindly explained the situation to her.

The woman was absolutely furious that the young man had tried delving as a mortal. Again, kind of hypocritical, but Freddy didn't find it appropriate to butt in.

After getting an elaboration on the deal between Freddy and Lucas, she simply looked between the two of them, looking confused. "What's the catch?" she asked.

At that, Lucas chuckled and shrugged. "I dunno." Then, he grabbed the spoon and continued eating.

The woman looked to Freddy for an explanation.

He sighed. "I already told you a hundred times, Lucas. There is no catch."

"I… Not to be rude," the woman said with a forced laugh and a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "But what do you want from us?"

"Like mother like son, I guess…" He sighed and chuckled. "Just think of me as an eccentric, lonely, wealthy guy who just happened to move into a town where he knows nobody so he befriended a random person and made him and his mother move in with him!" He clapped. "I take no more questions!" He got off the chair and stretched a bit. "But seriously though, I don't expect anything from you two. Hell, I don't even expect you to trust me.

"I have no plans to force you into anything. But if you want, you can stay here. I can get you both a prime and hire you as helpers on my delves. And… yeah, that's about it."

Lucas suddenly choked on his cereal and then looked at him with terror.

Freddy raised an eyebrow. "What?"

The woman brightened and grinned widely. "Oh, I'd love to! Lucas, say you want to become a helper!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Lucas yelled, raising a hand. "Freddy, man, we never said anything about making… my mom go delve with us!"

Freddy raised an eyebrow. "No offense, Lucas, but she is ten times more fit than you are. And that's a conservative estimate."

He winced at that.

"That's right, Lucas!" she criticized. "You are very weak!"

"Mom!" The young man groaned. "Ugh, it isn't part of my job to exercise all day. Oh god…" He buried his face in his hands.

His mom suddenly looked offended at that. "Well… okay then… if you're going to be like that… I can't believe you want to deprive your mother of becoming an archhuman. Do you not know how many years of youth that would buy me!?"

"I never said that!" he shouted. "I just don't… Never mind."

"Then what's the problem?" she asked him. "Are you ashamed of me?"

"I just don't want you to come with us, okay!?" the young man shouted. "What if you end up like…" His throat tightened.

"Well what if you end up like your brother, hmm?" she asked without a hint of reluctance and crossed her arms. "Do you think I'm happy to let you go down the same path?"

"Just for the record," Freddy said, raising a hand. "If you two delve with me, unless something goes very, very wrong, I doubt anyone will be dying. If I take you as helpers, it will only be to zones where I'm at least mostly confident that I can keep you safe. I mean, obviously, accidents can't always be avoided, but that's a reality you'll have to accept if you want to go down this path."

"See?" Hellen said, walking over to Lucas, who turned his head away. "Mr. Cliff said it will be fine!"

"I don't know…"

"Look," Freddy said again. "This is a discussion between you two. Besides, I need to first go earn some money before we can get started. I'd have to get you some decent primes, and on top of that, you'd need some equipment and maybe even a gym membership…" He mentally tallied up the money he'd need to get them on their feet.

While he was busy thinking, he failed to notice the shocked stares the mother-son duo were giving him.

When he noticed them, he raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong?"

"Uhm…" the woman muttered. "I… Not that I'm not grateful, but… isn't that going a bit far?"

"What do you mean?" he asked, genuinely puzzled.

"Freddy…" Lucas whispered, swallowing hard. "Just how much were you planning to invest in us?"

"Well… You'd need at least a million dollars for a decent talent and then maybe half a million for the—why are you staring at me like that?"

"That is an insane amount of money!" Lucas spat. "Seriously, why would you go that far!?"

Freddy laughed. "Why would I do anything less for someone I consider a friend? If I got you some trash talent and you got injured or killed, I'd feel horrible. And hell, even besides that, If I'm gonna hire helpers, I'd want them to be… helpful, you know?"

Lucas chuckled in disbelief. "I seriously can't believe this guy…"

"Lucas, don't be rude!" his mother chided. "Thank the man!"

"No," Freddy said, shaking his head. "I don't want, or need, any thanks." He pulled a pair of keys out of his storage ring. "Here are some spare keys for you two. Feel free to do whatever you want for today."

"Oh!" the woman shouted. "Crap, I'm late for work!"

"No, you're not," Lucas suddenly said, grabbing her by the arm.

"Lucas…"

"You're quitting your job," he said assertively.

"Honey… We can't just depend on Mr. Cliff for everything…"

"Yes, you can," Freddy said.

"What he said," Lucas confirmed, pointing a finger at Freddy.

"Look…"

"There is no looking, Mom. I'm done looking. Consider my eyes closed. I'm sorry for putting it this way… but I don't trust you anymore."

She bit her lip. "I already told you I'll quit."

"Uh-huh."

"I mean it this time."

"But you don't need to go to work," Lucas reminded her. "You're quitting your job and staying here with me."

"I can't just stay inside all day… I'll go crazy!"

"Then I'll go with you. Wherever you want."

She bit her lower lip. "Lucas…"

"I know what you want, Mom. Forget about it. If you really want to keep going this way, I swear to god I'll move to another city and you'll never hear from me again."

Her head dropped. "Can't I just go hang out?"

"Mom…"

"I have friends there!" she insisted.

"Those people aren't your friends. And I won't walk back on what I said."

"Sorry for butting in, but," Freddy started. "But Miss, you're addicted as shit. You look and sound insane."

The woman's mouth shot wide open, and she looked incredibly offended. "I… Excuse me?"

"You heard me. I can see that my friend is struggling, so I'll help him out a bit—if you go gambling even a single time, I'll kick both of you out." He winked at Lucas.

The boy smiled and mouthed, "Thank you."

Freddy flashed him a thumbs up and turned around, leaving the woman bewildered, and her son grinning from ear to ear.

"Anyway," Freddy shouted from the other end of the room. "I'm heading outside since I have stuff to do." He walked into his room and started putting his armor on. He walked back into the living room and waved. "See you guys later!"

"Bye-bye!" Lucas waved cheerfully while his mother sat there in stunned silence.

***

On his second-ever delve into the local interspace, Freddy had no interest in playing around. He was all business as he headed straight for one of the more distant realms—right where the danger started becoming serious.

He would need a lot of money for all sorts of things in the future. The torn clothes that had become a cursed material were still in his storage ring, waiting to be formed into a proper item. That would cost a tremendous amount of money to get done.

Then there was Lucas and his mother, the possibility of opening some sort of side business, purchasing ether- and ability-growth medicine, getting a membership in a large training center, or maybe even just building a private one—the path he had to walk was like a road where each step had a separate toll booth—and there was a truck that would run him over unless he started running.

He had spent some time studying the different paths he could take, and he learned quite a number of interesting things.

One of the things that characterized the interspace was that with every step away from Earth, the number of possible passage realms multiplied at an exponential rate.

Just within the first ten steps, there were thousands of different realms. Naturally, the real numbers were a bit limited due to things like inaccessible passages or realms too dangerous to delve into, but the number still grew at quite a rate.

By empire law, the first 10 steps of public passages like this were legally required to be open to the public.

In this case, when all the inaccessible realms were accounted for, Freddy had access to exactly 552 realms. Every single realm at the 11th step—except for the sealed ones—was claimed by one of the local factions. To enter those, one either had to pay the access fee or enter with special permission.

Out of the 552 realms, most in the first few steps were either harmless, low-level, or had been thoroughly plundered, leaving only 23 C-grade realms that hadn't been fully explored yet, and a single dungeon open to the public.

While this seemed like plenty, the reality was that the only reason those C-grade realms weren't fully looted was that they were either too dangerous or not rich enough in resources for anyone to bother.

Sighing, he picked one of the—relatively speaking—easier ones. It was considered quite poor overall, but there was a cave system with a decent number of quality herbs growing there. Few people went there because the cave was full of toxic gas that left people with all sorts of debilitating sicknesses if inhaled, and on top of that, it had a number of strange monsters that specialized in poison and acid attacks.

The way there wasn't that long—it was only seven steps out, most of which were through A- and B-grade realms. It only took him half an hour to reach his destination.

On the surface, the realm was a barren wasteland. Pale yellow rocks covered every inch, with a searing hot sun blazing above. The temperature was somewhere between 50 and 60 degrees Celsius. It was damn hot.

With his thick armor, Freddy felt like he would boil alive. But he was a tough guy—with his peak two-star physique, he could survive much higher temperatures than this.

On the surface of the realm, there were neither monsters nor delvers—just a bunch of scurrying bugs that hid under the rocks. It took only a brief walk to stumble upon an entrance into the underground cave system.

Although he was confident in his strength, he had to be incredibly careful. He had seen first-hand just how frighteningly dangerous caverns could get.

"Bloodshed," he called upon the spirit.

Red mist seeped out of his ring, and the little skeleton appeared, cocking its skull at him. "What is it, Master?"

"I'm gonna leave you in charge of taking care of the monsters here. When you kill them, make sure you don't break their bodies too much. Gather the corpses into a pile. I'm gonna pick them up once I'm done foraging."

"Understood."

Right from the get-go, the caverns were much colder than the surface. They were pretty dry, though, at least compared to the ones Freddy had seen on Faralethal. The light from the surface already barely reached him. He clicked a button on his helmet and a flashlight lit up on his forehead. He thanked himself for the foresight to buy such a piece of equipment. It was much more convenient than a handheld torch.

His little spirit friend ran off down a nearby path. Literally seconds later, Freddy heard a nasty screaming sound.

Bloodshed dragged a corpse back. It looked like a pale, sickly, green gremlin, with pointy ears and a horrifyingly ugly face. It had long claws and serrated teeth, and from what he could see, they were glimmering with a wet sheen of venom. Bloodshed had simply cut its throat, doing minimal damage to its body.

"Good job," Freddy said with a smile.

While Bloodshed scouted ahead, he followed behind it. The more the caverns sloped down, the more noticeable the thin haze of gray smoke became. Despite the fact that he was wearing a body suit that filtered the air he breathed in, he could still smell the rancid stink of sulphuric compounds in the air.

The smell gave him a light headache, but the gas thankfully wasn't immediately lethal. It would only severely fuck him up in the long term! Well, not him—he had 1% Lifesteal. Nothing could fuck him up in the long term. Except soul damage. And mental trauma. And perhaps some kinds of curses that couldn't be affected by his healing. But other than that, nothing. Except perhaps something else he might not be aware of.

Putting those disturbing thoughts aside, he refocused on exploring the cave. Specifically, he paid close attention to the walls and ceiling.

The plants he was hunting for looked quite similar to naturally formed stalactites and stalagmites. They were called spikeroots. The easiest way to tell them apart was by seeing the way they were oriented. Stalagmites and stalactites either pointed up or down, while these plants grew at various angles.

There were plenty of them growing there.

He took a small, sharp knife, and started nicking random plants. He could judge the quality of any plant just by seeing how his talent reacted. The ones of higher quality had greater vitality within them. This was a near-universal rule with extremely few exceptions.

The size and color of the spikeroots seemingly had no correlation with the amount of vitality within. The only thing he found the high-quality ones had in common were these veins that could be seen on the inside. The unripe ones had very faint black veins pushing through the green flesh of the plants, while the overripe ones had thicker ones but they were less defined.

Only the plants with thick, clearly defined veins were the best for picking.

The free space in his storage ring filled up surprisingly slowly. The specimens that were just right were rare, and he found himself nicking dozens of mediocre ones before finding even a single high-quality piece.

Hopefully, this meant he'd earn good money for selling the batch he gathered.

Meanwhile, Bloodshed was engaged in guerilla warfare with the local whatever-the-fuck-they-were-called. Venom gremlins, he decided. He would call them that.

The venom gremlins were practically completely powerless against Bloodshed. They weren't physically strong, smart, or fast. They relied on venomous claws and teeth. Naturally, that was almost completely useless against a skeleton spirit. They came in pretty big numbers though, and Freddy found himself helping out just to move forward faster.

As they made their way deeper, Freddy started finding pieces of spikeroot that were much, much higher in quality than those found higher above. These had a notable difference compared to the others—their flesh wasn't green, but yellow on the inside. Perhaps this wasn't even the same plant but a cousin of sorts? Maybe those growing higher up simply didn't grow well and were thus green.

At any rate, he kept making his way deeper. Eventually, he encountered a bit of an obstacle. These thick, dry bushes grew over everything, with small, sharp leaves growing out of the thin, veiny branches.

It wasn't difficult to move through, but it did cover the walls on all sides, making it very difficult to spot the spikeroot. The gray haze was also getting thicker, and it was starting to make it difficult to see far in the dark.

He sighed, wondering whether it was time to go back.

"Master," Bloodshed suddenly called.

"Hmm?" Freddy turned, spotting the spirit who had just returned from scouting up ahead. "Did you find something?"

"There are no monsters in the cave ahead. But there is a passage."

Freddy's eyebrows shot up. "Really?"

This realm was supposed to be a dead end. There were a few passages, but they were supposed to be sealed due to danger. Perhaps this was one of them. Unable to hold back his curiosity, Freddy made his way forward and followed Bloodshed's lead.

Soon enough, they arrived before it. The wall surrounding the passage was completely overgrown, and the passage itself was indeed sealed. As expected, it was one of the dangerous passages that had already been discovered. But it wasn't quite what he expected it to be.

He pulled out a machete and cleaved the bushes, revealing an old warning sign that had been hammered into the wall. The sign looked to be at least fifty years old.

WARNING!

ANOMALOUS PASSAGE

TYPE: ONE-PERSON INSTANCE DUNGEON (DETAILS UNKNOWN)

LETHALITY RATE: 100%

VICTIMS: 6 ONE-STAR ARCHHUMANS; 2 THREE-STAR ARCHHUMANS.

Freddy's eyebrows shot up.

Instance dungeons were rare. They had restrictions on how many times they could be entered, and usually, they had a maximum limit for how many people could join at once. Only one person at a time could enter this one.

The thing that characterized instance dungeons was that entering one was an incredible risk. From what he could see, this one wasn't really "sealed"; it was just walled off by a metal barrier that was already rusting. Nothing ever left instance dungeons, so there was no reason to fully seal them.

The main problem with instance dungeons was that it was incredibly difficult to tell what was inside them. The most reliable way to check was to send someone in and hope they survived to come out and share what they found.

This one had been braved by two separate three-stars. And both had died in the process. This was quite shocking. There were naturally many among the powerful who were ready to brave risk for a possible reward, but three-stars were the apex in the Northern Belt. He couldn't help but wonder whether those people were forcefully sent in after getting defeated and captured by their enemies.

Freddy cupped his chin as he hummed. While this was interesting, he had no intention to risk going inside. "Fuck that shit," he muttered as he prepared to turn around. Then, he noticed something strange. "Bloodshed?"

The skeleton was nowhere to be found.