R. A. T. H

Eight

When she had gathered everything she needed, she placed them upon the table, sat before it, and let her mind wonder.

There were two low-grade mana orbs, blue, crystalized balls of pure mana glowing and shining a pale light. The memory she took from the dead homunculus made her aware that this, each of them alone, would cost 2,000 lixels. Next to the orbs, she had placed the crude gun, a thing crafted from steel with another low-grade mana orb slapped into its side like an accessory; it looked dangerous, dysfunctional, like it could break anytime, and she wondered if she should just scrap it for the orb but soon decided against it.

'It would be better as a deterrent.' The memories floating inside her core were all but entirely negative about the slums.

Finally, there was the Constructor in front of her, something she had originally thought she could use, along with her new-found skills, to make cores and sell them. However, the poor state it was in, the rustiness of it, told her that was no longer possible. No wonder the man, which she now knew as Lux, had only ever used it for repair purposes. Either way, it was a bust, the orb at the back of it, which powered it, was empty and had disappeared in light, the very reason he had rushed to buy more.

'You do it like. . .this?'

Rose sighed and tapped the black bracelet on her left wrist, twice, like a lady she once knew had done. Something she had only glanced out from inside a car yet had remembered as per being an homunculus—a being that did not forget.

There was a bleep and a screen rose infront of her. She couldn't understand the thing much and the memories she inherited from Maria didn't hold any information on navigating a pad. But, after some very intense minutes of tinkering with it, tapping here and there, she found herself having figured it out enough to be functional to her.

There were three things, specifically, she had wormed her way into.

Number one was a map, which she assumed currently showed the slums, it was 2-dimensional, blue, and flat. It only held a crude layout of the place and a blinking green dot located on top of a shoddy square which she assumed was the shack she was currently in.

The second thing was a bank account holding nothing but 200 lixels. 'I didn't expect much and I'm still disappointed,' the girl thought as she moved on to the last.

That, was a program connected to a dune-buggy.

'Alright.' She stood up, ready to move.

She was currently at a hundred percent charge, enough to last her 5 days if no accidents occurred. Then there were the 2 orbs which rounded up to 10 more days, and the emergency orb of the gun added to give her a total of 20 days, just a bit less than a month, if all went well. She wore the belt of the man, attaching the Peace-Maker, the gun, to the back of her hip and using her oversized hoodie to hide it. Then, she hid the orbs within the bin of clothing behind her.

When all was set and done, Rose took the almost entirely useless Constructor, it was a bit heavy, but it wasn't something her body couldn't handle. Worst case scenario, her core would simply pump more mana and strengthen her.

She entered into the rowdy streets of the slums. There were a couple stares thrown her way, but after an unkind, glare of her own, most left her body. 'They must see me as a frail girl,' she thought and took a left, arriving at the motor of the man named Lux, parked right slap dab there. She placed the Constructor within and entered the vehicle.

She had absolutely no idea how to drive the thing. However, connecting her Pad to it, a screen sprung up, and tapping a location on the map that seemed to align with a place Maria had visited plenty with Lux was easy.