Street Cultivation, page 7
"Uncle Frank, my parents... well, you probably already heard. They left me a lot of debt. I assumed that would go away when they... is it possible that this isn't legal?" Still on the line, Rick rubbed his eyes roughly. No, a large firm probably wasn't going to do something explicitly illegal. He was rambling and needed to pull himself together. "I'm not sure what I'm going to do and I could really use some advice. Call me back when you can."
As he put his phone away, he noticed that it was already 4:30, which meant he'd been unconscious for some time. Perversely, despite the fact that there were much more serious problems in his life, he found himself frustrated that he'd lost his vacation day. He usually worked Saturday, and there was no way his boss was giving him a day off.
Plus, he'd need the money and training more than ever, to cope with the aura leeches. Yet where could he go from here? How was he going to help Melissa? For a moment he considered just sacrificing everything and converting all he had into a core for her. That might slow down her condition enough for her to live a long life. Yet he knew that too much would be lost in the transfer, especially since his lucrima soul had just been manipulated so much.
In fact, he had to consider that the debts might go to her next. He didn't think debts could be inherited, but apparently this was one of those things they never told poor people. No, the best way he could help her was to stay alive and work his way out of this. Besides, it wasn't like him to give up. Though he couldn't see the path through, he'd find a way.
While he walked home, his eyes wandered to the signs above the Branton Arena. Perhaps he could use his combat skills to earn more lucrim on the side. Obviously he couldn't compete in the Arena itself, and he knew that underground fights could be extremely dangerous, but he might be able to find something. His coworker Henry had mentioned participating in a few street fights, so maybe he would know.
The risk of injury, though... Rick went back and forth over the subject until he finally reached their apartment complex. Going up the stairs to the third floor, his entire body felt too heavy to move, but he forced himself to keep going. Just unlocking the door took a significant effort.
"Whoohoo, weekend!" Melissa grinned at him as soon as he entered. "I'm gonna get drunk and make poor life decisions!"
Normally he would have chuckled, but he was just too tired. Melissa immediately realized that something was wrong and her smile faded. She leapt up and helped him down onto the couch.
"You look pretty bad, Rick... what happened at the meeting?"
He told her the events without trying to hide how bad things were. There was no point keeping the truth from her or treating her like she was fragile just because of her condition. But when he finished, he saw the pain in his sister's eyes and realized that he'd made a mistake.
"I'm sorry... if it wasn't for me, you..."
"Don't say that." He put an arm around her shoulders and pulled her firmly to sit beside him. "Blaming each other... that's what our parents would do. And they're the reason we're in this mess, not you. We need to be better than them."
She stared at him sorrowfully for a time, then one corner of her lips twitched. "Good motivational speech, bro."
"I do what I can." He sighed and let himself relax fully back into the couch. "I'm gonna need to go to work early tomorrow, so we might as well talk now. Did you have a good week?"
"Mostly. There's this one girl at school... ugh, it feels petty compared to everything else."
"I've had a heavy day. I could use petty."
Rick sat back and talked with his sister, putting aside all thoughts of lucrim and fighting aside for a while. Just talking at home, he felt okay. There were plenty of people who lived their lives with less power or even greater debts, after all. If they could make it through, he could too.
Eventually he found himself getting rather sleepy. Melissa brought a blanket and tucked him in, but he couldn't go to sleep yet. Instead he forced himself through his normal exercises. It hurt, but it was even more necessary than usual after everything his lucrima had been through that day.
How many days of exercises would it take to build up enough to get rid of the aura leeches? He couldn't do the math in his head, but it would be a lot. But avoiding them would just make him fall further behind, and he couldn't allow that.
Before he finished his work, his phone rang. He considered ignoring it, then saw who it was and immediately picked up. "Uncle Frank?"
"Richard!" His uncle's voice was warm and resonant. "Sorry I haven't called lately, work has been busy. And I'm sorry to hear that you're going through such a rough time."
"Yeah, it's... things aren't great." He told the story again, almost the same as he had with Melissa. It felt somewhat humiliating to repeat it all, even though it wasn't his fault. But his uncle just listened thoughtfully and didn't cast any judgments. When Rick finished, Uncle Frank paused for only a moment before responding.
"I'm afraid they're right: all of that is completely legal. Some debts are discharged at death, but lobbyists have been pushing to restrict lucrim forgiveness for years. The good news is that you can definitely take care of these aura leeches. I'm not promising it will be easy, but you'll come out of it leaner and meaner."
"Thanks, Uncle Frank."
"I'd offer to come down and check on you, but I'm afraid work is going to make that hard. Though... would you consider taking a job here? You'd have to move across the world, but you and Melissa could move here and I could do better for you than that little gym. It wouldn't be charity, either - we need the help."
"That sounds tempting, but... it's the middle of a school year. I want to let Melissa graduate here."
"No, that makes sense. And I have to admit, it's hard to find good schools here." Uncle Frank was quiet for a while, then sighed. "Will you let me give you some advice? I think I have to insist on it, because I'll feel bad if I can't at least do that for you."
"Please, go ahead."
"If you just train normally, those leeches will be on you most of your life. There are people who get used to them, actually, but that's no way to live. What you want to do is invest all your lucrim directly into the leeches. You'll get rid of them much faster that way and you'll be able to restructure effectively once they're gone.
"Another thing: don't take any demonic bonds. I know they're usually harder to get, but the demons like exploiting weakness. I guarantee once your data gets sold, demon sects will come around offering you deals. Maybe even enough to to wipe out the debt entirely, but trust me, transferring it to a demonic bond is worse. Just refuse all offers."
The idea that they would prey on those who had little strength to give surprised him, but Rick realized that he shouldn't be surprised. They were demons, after all. Worse, they were demons organized into corporations. Expecting anything like mercy was foolish.
"Beyond that, just stay focused. You're a hard worker and a smart kid, so you'll dig yourself out of this."
"Thanks, Uncle Frank." He considered letting the conversation end there, but abruptly realized that he had another question to ask while he had his uncle on the line. "Oh, I had one more question. Have you ever heard of something called a 'Golden Core'? That's all it says in the app."
In response there was a long pause, so long he wondered if they had disconnected. When his uncle spoke again, his voice was a bit flatter. "It appeared after the other cores were implanted?"
"No, before that. I'm not sure exactly when."
"Richard... I can't tell you for sure what it is. Usually lucrima programs give color or metal names to cores that are unregistered. And it might not seem like it, but unregistered cores are bad news."
"Then it could be a problem? Should I get a specialist to check it?"
"No, don't do that. Just..." Another long pause. "Are you sure you don't know how it showed up?"
"Well, I can guess." Rick told the story about Mike and the other Birthrighters. Unlike usual, his uncle didn't ask any questions or make affirmative noises, just listened in silence. When it was finished, he sighed.
"Best case scenario, it's just a minor accident. Worst case scenario, you could get arrested for theft. Unless I'm entirely wrong, the 'Mike' you fought was Michael Maguire. His father is CEO of Maguire Incorporated, and it wouldn't be out of the question to think that he gave something experimental to his son."
"And it just... broke off in the fight somehow?"
"It's possible, not even that uncommon. A lot of Birthrighters often don't have great control, so these things happen." Uncle Frank sighed heavily. "I'm going to look into this further as soon as I can. Right now I recommend just not touching it."
Great, one more thing going wrong in his life. After what had happened that day, Rick wasn't even surprised. He and his uncle chatted for a while longer about less serious matters, but it was obvious they were both distracted.
As soon as the call ended, Rick lay down on the couch. Even tired as he was, it took him a long time to go to sleep.
Chapter 9: Picking Up the Pieces
When he woke up the next morning, Rick felt surprisingly refreshed. Oh, there were still three aura leeches inside his soul and his strength was still diminished, but he felt ready to take on this new challenge. Of course, it was his life, not just a challenge, but he wasn't going to back down.
It helped that Melissa was already awake, munching on a bowl of cereal in her room. When she heard he was awake she came out into the main room and they had a normal breakfast, not talking about anything serious and just joking with each other. Almost like it had been years ago, when they had been children with no other concerns.
Though Rick still resented his parents for leaving him with such a debt, he'd come to terms with it. He hadn't been born with a silver spoon in his mouth and he'd never been a Birthrighter, handed everything for free. It would have felt wrong to just be granted a powerful core in return for nothing - if he gained power, it would be power he earned himself.
Eventually, though, he saw the time and realized that he had to go. Melissa groaned and grabbed his arm ineffectually. "Are you sure you have to go? You can't get another day off?"
"Fat chance of that. If World War V happened tomorrow, Jimmy would still want me to come in the next day."
"And if the whole strip mall got nuked?"
"I'd have to put in overtime to rebuild it."
"Haha, I'm not looking forward to getting a job after I graduate." Melissa let go of his arm and just patted it. "Have a good time at work, then. But eventually we've gotta spend a whole weekend just lazing around like we used to, okay?"
"Yeah, sure." Rick smiled at her one more time, then grabbed his keys and headed out the door.
On his way to work he thought over the coming day. It was likely to be a fairly boring one, since he only had a few scheduled clients, not including Lisa. That meant a lot of time with walk-ins or trying to persuade new people to sign up. But it also meant he had plenty of time to work on his own issues.
It took him longer than normal to run to the strip mall, since he'd grown used to a bit of extra speed from his lucrima. The difference between 15,000 and 11,000 wasn't much - pocket change to many warriors - but it meant every part of his body was working just a little bit less efficiently. His foundation especially was struggling to maintain itself.
That was his answer, he realized abruptly. What he needed most of all was free lucrim to destroy the aura leeches, which meant he needed the fastest possible profit. Though it might not be easy to improve his foundation, it was definitely the least efficient part of his lucrima soul, hence the most room for improvement.
Rick cut off all extra strength to his body and forced himself to run the rest of the way on purely human stamina. He was already pretty frugal with his energy expenditure, using practically nothing compared to the people sprinting through special lanes or flying overhead, but he could improve. Every drop of extra power he could squeeze out of himself would go into improving his foundation and giving him an edge.
When he arrived at work, he found that Henry was sparring with Darin. Rick kept his eyes down and tried not to look at the difficult client, just checking in with Jimmy and changing into workout clothes. But he wasn't able to avoid attention entirely, as Darin noticed him on his way out.
"So, it's the little genius." Darin cast him a scornful look. "Did you get weaker? What could you possibly blow so much lucrim on so quickly?"
"Family emergency." Rick kept a polite smile on his face, though it was a struggle.
"Right, always a 'family emergency' with your type. Does that mean you knocked up some poor girl?"
Before Rick could answer, Henry hopped up beside them, grinning like he didn't notice any tension at all. "Great progress today, Darin! Look forward to seeing you next week!"
Darin grunted. "Sure, next week." He gave Rick one more look and then stomped out of the gym. That left it entirely empty, though the lull wouldn't last for long.
As soon as his client was out of sight, Henry glanced over with an apologetic shrug. "Just don't let him get to you. But are you doing okay, man?"
"Had some rough times." Rick did not want to explain what happened again, especially to coworkers. "I'm going to need to play catch up. Hey... I'm not sure how to ask this, but you do some fights on the side, right?"
"No need to whisper like it's something super illegal." Henry did glance toward their boss and lower his voice, though. "The cops look the other way when it comes to the underground fights, since we're sort of under the umbrella of legit organizations. It's a hobby, anyway - why?"
"I need extra lucrim right now."
"I get that, but... I don't know if I'd recommend it." After an awkward pause, Henry dropped his gaze. "Look, man, I won't lie: the lowest tier of fights is brutal. People aren't there to see skill, they want to see people kick the shit out of each other. And the way you are right now, you'd go in the lowest tier. I didn't get out until I managed that demonic bond."
Rick sighed and nodded. That was the answer he had more or less expected.
"And if you didn't guess it, you don't get any health care. Hell, Jimmy doesn't give us any health care." Henry said that part louder in the direction of their boss, who flipped them off without looking up from his magazine. "Now me, I'm on my parents' healthcare plan until I'm 25, so I just have to keep myself alive. But if I'm not pretty strong by the time I'm on my own... I think I'd probably quit. Just not worth it."
"Yeah, I can see that. Thanks, I was just asking." He had far too much to lose, so the risk didn't seem worth it. Instead, he'd just have to see how far he could get on his own.
Most of the rest of the day blurred past. In between sparring, or while outside trying to attract new clients, Rick did his best to search for new foundation techniques.
True, looking for lucrima techniques on the internet was not exactly glamorous. But his family had no secret arts, he couldn't afford access to the big skill databases, and he had no way of entering one of the hidden sects. The internet was the best he could do. Besides, everything was fiercely debated on the lucrim forums, so even if it was a bit difficult to sort through it all, he did get quite a bit information about many of the basic options.
By the end of his shift, he thought he'd made a good choice. He was usually experienced enough to have good instincts about these things, but just in case, he went over to his boss's counter and displayed the Wikipedia article about the technique on his phone.
"Have you heard about this one, boss?"
"Buffet's Buffer?" Jimmy glanced at the phone briefly and shrugged. "You could do worse. The problem is, everyone thinks they can do the technique, but most actually can't. Most people online who say they're doing the Buffer technique are just aura masturbating, basically. If it was that easy to make your foundation more efficient, everyone would do it."
"I get that, but most people online said that it's more likely to work if you've been exposed to heavy lucrim fluctuation."
His boss actually looked up at him for a moment, then grunted affirmatively. "Give it a try, kid. You'll probably hit the limit of what you can do with it for now pretty soon, but you won't waste your time until then."
Having his plan confirmed, Rick walked back across the gym to one of the meditation machines. They were nothing fancy, just metal contraptions with comfortable seats that allowed for either straight meditation or combined muscular exercise. Rick placed his hands lightly on the bars and pushed them just enough to feel tension through his body, then focused on the technique.
In the past when he'd tried to improve his foundation, he'd quickly realized that he was accomplishing nothing. It was just too central to the same power he was using to try to make the changes. Yet he was surprised to find that he almost immediately made progress, summoning his aura and then folding it on itself.
Getting beaten by arrogant Birthrighters... draining all his lucrim into his sister... fighting his uncle... enduring the aura leeches... Rick took all of those violent fluctuations in his power and converted them into fuel.
When he completed the exercise, he had partially condensed his foundation. His aura was just as strong as before, but it now required a smaller investment of lucrim to maintain that strength. Almost 200 less, according to his phone. That meant he could reinvest those lucrim into his cores, though instead he sent them toward the aura leeches.
They thrashed within him and then went quiet, sated by the surge of power. For a time he felt rather light and he knew that he was going to be glad he took his uncle's advice. According to the internet, the leeches partially fed themselves and partially absorbed power to pay off the debt. Just letting them drink normally, they'd barely pay off one lucrim a day, which meant it would take an absurd 26 years to pay it all off.
He wasn't letting those things stay inside his soul for that long. Lucrim he pushed into them were lost to him, but they got him far closer to being free of them entirely. In the long run, it would pay off.
