Street Cultivation, page 39
"Typical." Malati brushed past some of the women to stand beside him, rolling her eyes. "I expected there'd be people here trying to sign fighting deals, but of course they just throw a bunch of paid women at us. Even though half the remaining team is female."
Rick had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to say to that, plus the women were still latched onto him. Before he could look too stupid, Granny Whitney appeared beside them with a sly smile. "No one here is that closed-minded, dearie. Look that way."
Several handsome and gratuitously shirtless men appeared behind Malati, smiling broadly. She gave a little laugh. "Well then, don't mind if I do!" Hopping into the air, she made one of the men catch her, then directed them to carry her off as she laughed.
Frowning, Rick glanced at the woman groping his bicep. "Is it true that you're paid to be here?"
She giggled. "We're here to provide companionship, sure, but we were the ones who chose you specifically."
"Then thanks, but no thanks." Rick pulled away from them and they whined, but they let him go. Granny Whitney saw and chuckled.
"Suit yourself, dearie. But I think there's no point being young if you aren't going to enjoy yourself a bit." She then turned around to one of the women and patted her on the head. "I'll take a private room and one of each, dearie!"
With that, Granny Whitney left the party, a scantily clad woman on one arm and a shirtless man on the other. Rick stared after her for a very, very long moment before deciding that he didn't need to think about that ever again.
He had more escorts eyeing him, so he went on the move. Even if there was no ulterior motive, Rick was troubled by their attention. This party was phrased as a reward, but it was a trap. Maybe some of the people there just wanted to recruit able fighters to their programs, but he had no doubt that they could also be ruthless. There had been a time when being a professional fighter had been a dream for him, but now... having seen the type of people who operated in that world, he didn't want to blunder into it.
However, without any reward, he was still dirt poor. Rick ignored his way through the party to the refreshments table, where he grabbed a bottle of philosopher's elixir. It was just 10k, but they were giving them away like they had no real value.
Maybe not to most, but he needed to restore his reserves. Pulling out the cork, Rick just drank straight from the bottle. Not classy, but if they were going to throw women at him, then they weren't going to object if he acted like a brute.
As he drank, he scoped out the room and found few familiar faces remaining. Alger and his team were present, clearly enjoying attention even if they hadn't been first. Tom was seated on a couch with his arms around two women, though he wasn't going off with them. Teragen was nowhere to be seen, probably having left to return to his training. He also couldn't find...
"Why'd you turn them down?" Emily appeared beside him, carrying a delicate elixir glass in one hand. She looked way classier than him swigging from a bottle, but he pushed that aside to try to focus on her question.
"Honestly... I feel strange being around someone who's paid to pretend to like me. I don't think I could ever get it out of my head."
"Hmm." She took a sip from her glass, eyeing him over the edge.
"I think I'm going to go pretty soon, but since Whitney took my reward, I need to take what I can get."
"On that note, I had something to give you." Emily slid a hand from her pocket, holding something out for him. When he extended his hand, she dropped a blood red sphere into it. "This was one of the rewards. It will help purify lucrima inefficiencies."
"You aren't giving this to me, are you?" Rick examined it, marveling at how heavy it felt in his palm.
"I don't really have problems with inefficiency, and I figure that I owe part of my reward to your work. It isn't fair that you had yours stolen."
Rick sighed. "That's the deal I made. But... thank you. This will make a difference."
"You're welcome, Rick." Emily gave him another of her slight smiles. For a moment, despite the uncomfortable circumstances and the party buzzing around them, he actually felt a warm connection.
Then another scantily clad woman approached them. Whatever she had been about to say, Emily interrupted it with a glare of death. The escort retreated rapidly, but the mood was lost.
"You're going to fight Mike soon, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Rick put the sphere away in his jacket and took a long drink. "In theory he can't cheat much and can't kill me even if things go wrong. Hopefully that will be the end of it, but I'm concerned that he'll bring his friends and just turn the match into a beatdown."
"Don't be." Emily turned away, refilling her glass. "I get the impression that his father is annoyed by the matter and wants it ended. If you can end the challenge decisively, that might actually finish it for good."
Now that he was past the tournament, older plans and concerns began to crowd in. His matches that day had been difficult, but what he faced next was going to be completely different. "That's my hope, anyway. I'll try."
"Good luck." With that, Emily moved away from him and disappeared into the crowd.
Rick stayed by the table for a while longer, drinking, then decided to just grab another couple bottles of elixir. Who was going to stop him, after all? He tucked them under his arm and marched out the door, ignoring offers of all kinds until he was back outside.
Without the lights blazing down on the arena, it was very dark outside. Though there were people heading to their cars, he felt mostly alone for the first time since the tournament began. Rick took a moment to just breathe, letting some of the stress melt away.
When he rubbed his wrist, he imagined that he could feel the absence of the tracking bond. There was still the matter of the faux leech, but he could figure that out later. He had fulfilled his obligations, getting out from under the threat of blackmail and the requirements of fighting in the Underground. That left him free to make his own path.
As he stared out over the parking lot, Rick realized he had a more immediate problem: how was he going to get home?
Granny Whitney was obviously busy and probably wouldn't offer him a ride anyway - they were done, after all. He considered bumming a ride from Emily, but they had parted on good terms and he didn't want to ruin it in such an undignified way. Some of the people going to their cars might recognize him, but he wouldn't embarrass himself by hitchhiking.
So the winner of the tournament's featherweight division wandered away from the arena, walking to take the bus home.
Chapter 54: Purifying Lucrima
"Are you telling me that your biggest injury was caused by stairs?" Melissa fell back onto the couch, trying to stifle her giggles.
Rick stared down at her and groaned. He was glad to be back, but as soon as Melissa had gotten over her real concern, she had to ask about the cut on his face. "Look, a bunch of people beating the crap out of each other in an abandoned factory isn't as glamorous as it sounds, okay?"
"Oh, but it should be! You can tell everyone that you received that scar while fighting the Bolivian ninjas that killed our parents!"
"Why Bolivia?"
"Are you telling me that Bolivia isn't known for its parricidal ninjas?"
"It's only parricide if you kill your own parents, so I'm going to say no."
Melissa grinned and sat up, moving over to hug him again. "Seriously, Rick, I'm glad you're alright. When you didn't call, I got really worried, even though you said that might happen."
"Yeah, I'm sorry about that." He patted his sister on the back and then shifted back to his side, relaxing into the couch. "Lisa updated you, at least?"
"Yeah, though that actually made me worry more. She said you were in really awful shape... oh, you should probably call her so she knows everything is okay. When we last talked, she was thinking about trying to go out to the tournament herself, though she decided against it."
"I need to talk to her anyway about purification rituals, so maybe I'll wait until the Bolivian ninja scars fade." Rick closed his eyes and was surprised how good it felt. He had felt exhausted the entire bus ride back, especially as the strengthening effect Granny Whitney used on him faded, but he hadn't let himself relax. Hadn't been able to.
"Wow, you look super tired. Can you finally rest for now?"
"It isn't really over. I only have about two weeks before I have to fight Mike. But... yeah, I need sleep. Sorry if I'm kicking you out the living room."
"Oh, I was staying up waiting for you. I'll be glad to finally go to bed too." Melissa got up and went to get his pillow, tossing it into his face. When she got out his blanket, she came closer, handing it to him directly as she spoke in a softer voice. "Rest well, okay? And try not to go overboard. I'd rather you surrender than be all brave and have something happen to you."
Rick mumbled his thanks as he slumped over onto the couch. The various subjects that had been swarming in his mind fell away one by one and then he was out.
It felt like only seconds, but then he was forced to open his eyes again. He felt a bit more rested, but that also meant that he felt new aches and pains from all the blows he'd taken the previous night. When he scrabbled for his phone, he hoped that he would find it was still the middle of the night... but no, it was already 10:00 AM. Even sleeping in hadn't been enough.
Part of him wanted to go back to sleep, but he knew that he would probably end up lying there half-awake for a long time and it wouldn't be restful. Instead he forced himself to go through his usual exercises and meditation. At least his lucrima was still in good shape. In fact, after facing so much combat, it was ready to grow.
Going through all of that had woken him up, so he stood up and stretched. For a moment he wondered why Melissa wasn't there, then he remembered that it was Monday and so of course she'd be at school. He had asked for Monday off work, since he'd expected he might need to recover, but he'd need to go to work on Tuesday.
That reminded him that he'd need to ask to get off work so that he could attend the ritual combat challenge. Because of course he did.
When he began walking around their apartment, he discovered that Melissa had left a note for him on the little table, complete with a drawing of a hamster punching a cat. It was actually pretty well-drawn and he found himself wondering when she'd taken up art. Though he smiled at the picture, he also felt a sense of loss that he hadn't even noticed that part of her life.
Hopefully things would be different soon, once he finally got past all this conflict. He'd survived his insane plan with Teragen and gotten free of Granny Whitney, which was a good start. Now he just needed to deal with all the impurities in his lucrima, get rid of the faux leech, and then hope it was all enough for him to fight Mike.
The last stage of preparation would be far easier thanks to Emily's generosity. Rick went to get the heavy red sphere from his things, only to find that it wasn't there. He flinched, desperately searching other pockets. Could he have put it in the wrong place in his exhaustion? Might Melissa have moved it somewhere? Was it possible that it had been stolen? He began to search frantically, coming up with worse and worse scenarios.
...it had rolled under the couch.
Brushing some lint off the sphere, Rick examined it carefully. This was a valuable piece of medicine, one that would make a huge difference for him, but he wasn't actually sure how to use it properly. Rick got out his phone and began checking around, eventually finding the name of the medicine and instructions on how to take it.
He learned the basics easily: shave pieces off the sphere, dissolve them into water, and drink the result as soon as the water changed color. That was good, since he didn't think he could possibly swallow something that large. But the online sources he found didn't contain very much about how to properly optimize the process.
After trying unsuccessfully for a while, he decided to call Lisa. She was glad to hear he was alright and he repeated some of the conversations he'd already had with his sister. It was good to hear her voice, though, and they arranged to meet up at the end of the week to work on the purification process.
The first thing he did after that was get the faux leech removed. Though he'd worried about it at first, when he went into the clinic, they quickly confirmed that it wasn't an official leech paying off a debt. Once that was determined, the old man in the cowboy hat easily removed it.
For the rest of that week, he focused on solidifying all his progress from the tournament. It had been a good test of all his skills, after all, even if it hadn't stretched his lucrima as much as the near-death experience with Teragen. In the end, he made solid improvements, but he continued eyeing the overall numbers and noting the discrepancy.
His overall generation rate was 35,600 lucrim, yet the total value of his lucrima portfolio was only 31,475. That left a gap of just over 4000 lucrim, which was no small amount to him. There was also the last aura leech, still formidable at -2453.
It would have been appropriate if he had gotten rid of the leech before the fight with Mike, but as he considered his options, he decided that it just wasn't possible. Not for someone with his resources, at least not without a miracle, and those were a bit scarce in his life. That meant he would need to take the expensive purification medication, only to cause more residual damage later when he got rid of the last aura leech. Not ideal, but it was the best option available to him.
Eventually he went to meet Lisa in the park as usual. When he saw her, he was surprised when she rushed up to him and hugged him tightly. "Oh, god, I'm so glad to see you're actually alright!"
"Uh, thanks." No, that was a dumb thing to say, but it was too late. Rick hugged back a bit, realizing that while the tournament was already firmly in the past for him, she hadn't seen him since then. Lisa pulled back and peered at his face.
"Huh, that's odd. Melissa said something about a huge scar from the tournament?"
Rick rolled his eyes. "That's a joke. I did get a cut, but it's mostly gone now." The only remaining injury was the burned hand-mark on his chest, which ignored all treatment.
"Yes, your lucrima is healthy enough that you shouldn't scar." Lisa set off down the trail, smiling over at him. "Today we need to find a new place, somewhere quiet where you can focus. I find it's best to do this sort of thing out in nature. I've only used purification medicine this potent a few times before, but the same principles should apply."
"We're actually doing it outside? I was under the impression that my body, uh, would need to expel a lot of impurities. And that the process could get pretty messy."
Now it was Lisa's turn to roll her eyes. "Those are mostly scams. They're as bad as the people who want to sell you really expensive methods of purifying your body of toxins, as if your kidneys don't exist. No, if you want to do it right, the process is a little different."
"But I saw videos online. People were in a pool and shed enormous amounts of black goo."
"Still scams - some of those companies actually get investigated by the government, though they're always moving slower than the advertisers. Often it's actually a trick - whatever medicine they give you has an active agent that reacts to water by forming that type of goo, thus giving the impression that you're purging your body of all kinds of things. I can show you debunking videos later."
"That might be interesting, but I believe you." Rick spotted a grove of trees near the end of the park, where the path curved back around. Not exactly an isolated retreat, but there were no picnic tables nearby and it looked peaceful enough. "How about there?"
"Yeah, that will do."
They got set up there and Lisa began filling water bottles from one of the public drinking fountains. It wasn't exactly training in a remote mountain waterfall, but it would do. As they set everything up, Lisa explained the purification process.
"As you fight or focus lucrim, especially when you use it to do things like get rid of aura leeches, some of your strength gets invested wrong. Instead of joining your Lucores, they form little clots that float within your lucrima. These don't do any real harm, but they represent part of your total potential strength that's being wasted."
"Can't they grow bigger and cause health problems?"
Lisa shook her head. "Those are lucrim blockages, and they're different things. Similar in nature, but you can't get rid of them in the same way. With those, the problem is that they're tough and fused with your main Lucores. With the tiny clots, the problem is that there's a ton of them and they're difficult to find."
"Hmm. So we can filter them out, somehow?"
"That can be done, and some schools have suggested it, but it's not a very efficient process. This baby operates by entirely different principles." As they headed back to their chosen location, Lisa hefted the blood red sphere in one hand. "This is going to send a steady surge of energy through you. It will melt your cores, and yes, you might be able to improve a bit from that. But the real benefit is that it separates out the different elements in your lucrima. The clots will float to the surface, where they're easy to identify."
Ah, that sounded more like what he'd read about. "Once they're there, I can burn them off?"
"Exactly right. It will hurt a bit, but with the clots gone, your lucrima will recover to use the strength they were wasting. In a few days, you'll be better than new." Lisa took out a knife and began carefully shaving off peels of the sphere into the first water bottle. As Rick watched her, he found himself smiling.
"You know, you should think about starting a vlog or writing a book or something."
"Huh?" Lisa was so startled she almost sent the next shaving to the ground, but she lunged out and caught it. "What do you mean?"
"You did a really good job explaining that. I spent a while looking on the internet and there were a lot of competing explanations, most of them confusing. A few might have been trying to make the process more mystical than it really is, but some were just bad at explaining. There's value in being able to do that well."
