Street Cultivation, page 5
Though he wasn't a power addict, he couldn't forget about the 100k elixir he carried. As soon as Rick got back to the apartment, he double-checked that everything was locked and then brought the bottle out. Getting two bottles changed his plans a little, but only a little.
To make sure that Melissa wouldn't find him in a pool of his own vomit, Rick poured a small glass of elixir first. It burned going down and he sensed the strength kindling within him like hot coals, but he only felt a little dizzy. So he sat down on the couch and gathered his nerve, preparing himself fully.
100k philosopher's elixir didn't contain 100,000 lucrim - that was only a marker of the quality. What the elixir could do was restore his strength up to his maximum generation rate. It was a better way to restore one's strength than serum, though the cost started high and only went higher as one's lucrima soul required higher quality elixir.
But his goal wasn't to restore himself to average, it was to push himself further. If he drank the entire elixir, for a short time his body would be burning with far more power than he could normally handle. Power addicts just enjoyed the rush and got a small boost from it, but the real gains came from trying to absorb the flood. If all went well, the elixir would expand the pool of strength he could control and boost his generation rate.
Before he could talk himself out of it, Rick tilted back his head and drank the entire bottle.
For several seconds he felt like living fire, his body shuddering involuntarily against the couch. He managed to get it under control, though the strength still raged inside him. Gritting his teeth, Rick demanded that the power obey him. All the strength he had, even the lucrim he had collected before, all went into smashing through his current limits.
Several hours later, his mind came out of the rigid training exercises and began thinking normally again. At some point he'd slumped over on the couch, though he hadn't vomited or drooled. Actually, his jaw was sore as if he'd been clenching it the entire time.
He didn't remember dropping the bottle, but saw it lying on the carpet, fortunately unbroken. They didn't have a vacuum, so broken glass was a real pain to clean up.
That simple thought brought him fully back. His efforts had been successful, though he wouldn't know how much progress he'd made until his lucrima soul recovered. Right now he felt completely drained, but that wasn't a problem thanks to the other bottle.
Rick drank that one slowly, not trying to blast open his power, just letting the tingling restore him. He guessed that this bottle was in the 70k-80k range, though he didn't have as much experience with high end elixir. Though it might help him a bit, the main benefit he hoped to gain was just restoring himself to full strength.
Before he finished the bottle, he became ravenously hungry. He got up and began to eat through what they had - a lot of it was junk, but it wouldn't do him any harm because right now his body was a calorie furnace. Only after swallowing several snack cakes whole and finishing the bottle on the couch did Rick realize how much of a trashy fighter stereotype it was.
Not that it really mattered. When it came time to meet the lawyers, he'd be ready.
For the rest of Thursday Rick did more recovery exercises, testing his new strength. By the end of the day after spending some time relaxing with Melissa, he felt stable enough to check his strength again.
[Name: Rick Hunter
Ether Tier: 19th
Ether Score: 196
Lucrim Generation: 17,400
Current Lucrim: 17,400]
[Rick Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio
Foundation: 8100 (Lv II)
Offensive Lucore: 3500 (Lv II)
Defensive Lucore: 6000 (Lv IV)
Golden Lucore: 10 (N/A)
Total Lucrim: 17,600]
He was in the best shape of his life and he felt great. True, the boost had cost him a huge percentage of his paycheck, and he wouldn't be able to get another boost like that without going to even more expensive elixirs. Still, after so long stagnating, it felt good to have broken through.
His ether tier and score remained unchanged, but that was only a matter of time. Just his progress from the elixir might be enough to raise his score above 200, which would mean fewer institutions would reject him. Combined with whatever he inherited from his parents, he'd likely see his tier increase as well. Perhaps enough that their lives would begin to turn around.
On Friday morning he helped Melissa get off to school, then spent an hour pacing around the apartment before he realized that he should just go. He might arrive at the offices early, but that was better than wallowing in anxiety. After spending so much on the philosopher's elixir, he decided to run the whole way, using the time to clear his head.
Most importantly, he let his pessimism reassert itself. Maybe this would change his life, but probably not. His parents had probably been close to penniless when they died, so whatever they left him would be minimal. He shouldn't get his hopes up, just invest whatever they left as best he could.
When he reached the address, he discovered that the law firm's office was an impressive building, but Rick barely had time to look at it. Instead, his attention was entirely absorbed by the parking lot. Amid the luxury cars and lucrim hybrids, there was a beaten red pickup truck with a nearly naked woman painted across the front.
That was his uncle's truck, and not the good uncle. Uncle Alan. Why would the lawyers have called him here too? Rick put aside all optimistic thoughts and rushed inside to find out.
Chapter 6: Inheritance Dispute
Though Rick's mind was mostly preoccupied with why Uncle Alan would be coming to a meeting about his parents' estate, he couldn't help but be taken aback as he entered the building. This was no small legal office, but the headquarters of one of the largest local firms.
He didn't know much about legal firms, but everything about the offices of Pine, Jade, and Swift Associates projected power. Lush but tasteful carpet, furniture that looked like it cost more than his apartment, lucrim crystals glittering in the windows... it all demonstrated that they had money to burn, and money meant power.
Trying to ignore all of it, Rick headed directly to the front desk, avoiding thoughts about how shabby he looked in a room like this. A woman sat behind a computer there and she smiled at him with no trace of scorn, however. "Can I help you?"
"Uh, I hope so. I'm Richard Hunter, and I received a letter from you guys." He held it out to demonstrate, feeling incredibly awkward. "There's supposed to be a meeting?"
"Of course, Mr. Hunter. You're a bit early, so would you mind waiting in the lobby?"
"No, but my unc - another family member appears to be already here. I'm not sure why."
The woman frowned and glanced at her screen briefly, then returned the same polite smile to him. "I'm afraid I don't know anything about your specific case, but I can assure you, things will begin at the appointed time. Please take a seat."
He was too nervous to sit down, but he did wander into the lushly-appointed lobby. This area was clearly for clients and visitors, so it included a wall with a number of ornate carvings chronicling the history of the firm. According to the official story, the Highest Pine, Jade Hand, and Swift Elegance had been combat sects without peer in the Midwest before they joined forces to create the modern firm.
Most likely the official story involved some exaggeration. Whenever any place talked about its history, somehow there were unrivaled schools and legendary martial artists everywhere. But that didn't mean that they weren't significant.
For one, everyone who worked there was stronger than him. Even the woman at the desk had a generation rate in excess of 50,000 lucrim. And when a well-dressed man who looked like he might be a lawyer walked through, Rick actually had to take a step back. His rate was 200,000 or more, so high that Rick couldn't even properly evaluate his strength.
To top it off, that power wasn't just granted in a lump sum like the Birthrighters. Oh, the lawyer probably got a significant Birthright Core from his parents, but it was dwarfed by the many polished cores within his lucrima. In his current state, Rick struggled to even aspire to such power.
Before he could get too uncomfortable in the lobby, the woman called his name and gestured him toward one of the doors in back. A young man guided him through the wood-paneled corridors, apparently not wanting to chat, and soon left him in front of a door marked with nothing but a number.
Swallowing, Rick pushed inside. On the other side he found yet another tastefully expensive room, though this one was rather spare. Plain carpet, and aside from the table and chairs, there was no furniture at all.
But there was no time to think about that. What mattered was that a lawyer sat on the other side of the desk, while Uncle Alan slouched on the closer side. He'd gotten heavier now, but the signs of the fighter he'd once been were obvious in his body. He wore blue jeans and a shirt with the arms torn off, showing both muscular arms and many scars from days pit fighting.
Only one chair remained, obviously for Rick. He walked inside slowly, eyeing his uncle, and paused long enough by the chair that the lawyer had to gesture for him to sit.
"Please, make yourself comfortable."
While Rick slipped into the seat, his uncle frowned at him. "Thought you wouldn't show up, boy."
"Why wouldn't I?" He swallowed the acidic words on his tongue, not wanting to seem childish in front of the lawyer in case that ended up affecting the results.
"Because you were always playing your little games," Uncle Alan said. "Never showed up when the family needed you."
It was more that he refused to allow the rest of the family to drag him down, separated himself because he didn't want Melissa to end up in a dead end life like so many of them. Rick knew that he should shrug off the insult, but found himself smiling bitterly instead. "When was the last time you visited my parents, Uncle? I assume you're just here to give your condolences, right? What they left behind has nothing to do with it?"
"Looks like you've turned into a smug bastard." His uncle's fingers gripped tightly into the armrests of his chair and he started levering himself up. But at that moment the lawyer raised a hand. Just a slight gesture, but he also flexed his aura as he did so. Unlike a visibly manifested aura, it simply rippled through the room, but the raw power of it was a wave of pressure keeping both of them in their seats.
Rick sat without moving and waited for Uncle Alan to calm down. When they both sat silently, the lawyer gave a flat smile and positioned a piece of paper in front of him before speaking.
"Since the two of you obviously have business of your own to consider, I'll be brief. Our meeting today is to distribute the belongings of the deceased. They were in some debt, so the majority of their belongings were claimed toward repayment of some of that debt. By law, however, surviving Lucores must be distributed to next of kin."
The lawyer lifted a briefcase onto the table and opened it toward himself. Still speaking, he removed two devices and placed them beside the briefcase. "Due to the unfortunate circumstances, there was significant deterioration and so we are left with only two viable Lucores. To wit, these."
Each device was a black square with four steel tines rising from the corners, arching together to meet in the center. The air quivered with the field they produced, and in the exact center of the space pulsed a nearly invisible speck of power. Though there was no difference between the two, they retained just enough familiar essence that he knew they came from his parents.
Those two cores were all that remained of his parents. Rick stared at them for a while, not sure what to feel, but then he needed to focus, as the lawyer swiped his hand through the air and created a lucrim display.
[Birthright Core
Family Designation: Hunter193
1108 lucrim]
[Birthright Core
Family Designation: Hunter193
1944 lucrim]
The larger one had been from his mother, the smaller from his father. He looked over the numbers, having long ago comprehended them, just trying to decide how to react. Though he should have felt more emotion, at the very least curiosity about how they had died, the information in the letter had told him what he basically expected.
His parents had lived lives that were simultaneously reckless and unremarkable. Now, they left him two unremarkable cores. True, they were significant compared to his current abilities, but they were nothing much for a pair of adults. Mike the Birthrighter's 100,000 lucrim core had probably been only a tiny fraction of his family's accumulated power.
"Not bad, bro." Uncle Alan reached out toward the cores, surprisingly eager. If he needed lucrim cores worth just 3000 that badly, then his situation really must be difficult. No wonder he was trying to steal what never should have been his.
Rick reached out and grabbed his wrist. "Why should they go to you? They were my parents."
"You're a damn boy! Would you even know what to do with that much power?" Though he scowled at him, Uncle Alan did pull his hand away. He sat back in his chair and stared at the cores, while Rick looked past them.
"The law on this matter is frustratingly vague," the lawyer said. "Though it surprises many clients, the law does not actually enshrine inheritance rights for children. Under most circumstances this is handled via a last will and testament, but our searches have presented reasonable doubt that any were ever created. As such, there is actually some uncertainty as to the distribution of the Birthright Cores."
Frowning, Rick did his best to stay calm. "I don't think I've ever heard of Birthright Cores not going to the children. Why wouldn't they?"
"While that is unquestionably the modern custom, there are also legal precedents that favor senior family members."
Uncle Alan grunted. "Yeah, what he said." He turned in his seat, staring Rick straight in the eyes. "Here's the deal kid: I'll let you have the smaller core and you can just walk away. I think I'm being pretty damn generous, considering how much you've brushed off this family."
Rick considered it for only a moment before he thought about what those cores could mean for Melissa. "No. You have no right to take them."
"Don't say I didn't warn you." The older man growled and pushed himself out of his chair, reminding Rick just how tall he was. "Then we do this the hard way. You're a junior member of the Hunter family and you're owed nothing. If you have a problem with that, you can take it up with me."
The lawyer sighed. "A ritual challenge, then. While this is not unexpected... please make it quick. We have more business to attend to today."
"Oh, it'll be quick." Uncle Alan cracked his knuckles and let his aura rise from his body. It flowed a muddy red and moved roughly, but it was as large as Rick remembered it.
With an odd movement, the lawyer made his chair and the table slide across the floor, soundlessly gliding to the corner and leaving the center of the floor empty. Fighting on carpet in a wood-paneled room felt wrong, but Rick didn't have a choice. There was no way he was backing down from this one.
Rick stood to his feet and took a deep breath. If there had ever been a time to spend all the strength he had been gathering, this was it.
Chapter 7: Family Conflict
Rick carefully pushed his chair out of his way, trying to maintain his focus. That was difficult when his uncle was blasting aura in all directions and snarling at him. Uncle Alan grabbed his own chair and hurled it single-handed, effortlessly sending it against the opposite wall. It bounced off the paneling without leaving a dent and tumbled to the ground.
Despite how nice it was, this room was clearly built to accommodate fights like this. But they hadn't been given any specific rules to this challenge... would the lawyer step in before anyone was seriously injured? The man was sitting back and watching them with a flat gaze as if he just wanted it to be over.
At that moment, Rick had his attention pulled back to the fight. His uncle began moving forward, striking one fist into his palm. "You're going to regret this, Dick."
"That's Richard to you, Uncle."
"It doesn't matter. I'm going to beat you so badly you won't even remember your own name!"
With that, his uncle lunged at him, crossing the room far faster than someone of his bulk should have been able to move. It was an impressive attack, fueled by lucrim with little wasted movement. His uncle wanted to take him off guard with a deciding blow right at the beginning, and it might have worked.
Except his uncle looked slow.
Rick ducked away, easily evading his wild swipes. He remembered that his uncle had always seemed like a monster, unstoppable in the cage fights where he made his money. Yet now he could see that though his uncle was strong, he wasn't the fighter Rick had believed as a child.
Every day at work, Rick had been training against people who outclassed him. Mike and the other Birthrighters had struck much heavier blows. Darin had attacked more aggressively. Lisa was far faster and more dangerous.
Though part of him began to believe that this might be easy, he didn't let himself get overconfident. Instead of trying to throw his uncle to the ground, he instead dodged to the side and then delivered several quick jabs to his uncle's stomach.
All he got was a grunt of pain, then his uncle let out a roar and charged at him. The blow looked clumsy and Rick started to automatically switch to a soft style and use his opponent's force against him.
Yet when he reached to grab his uncle's wrist, his instincts screamed that he was in danger. Rick leapt straight back, narrowly avoiding the sweeping claw that tried to grab him. He ended up skidding back across the carpet all the way until his shoes hit the other wall. His jump had taken him further than he expected - he wasn't entirely used to having this much strength.
