178: A Company of Fools: Grand Opening I

"It's all finally coming together." I said to myself as I gazed up at the shop.

I was standing across the street looking a the newly installed sign across the building the read "Sho'lajah artifact company" in bold cursive writing, just below that in a smaller font read "Treasures fit for a King." The new slogan for the shop. It came to me in a dream, and I was quite proud of it.

A little over a month had passed since my duel with Jane and scruff with the high fire dragons and Justice technologies. A lot has changed in that time. The shop was fully renovated thanks to Gargesh and the other Orkands. Turns out that orkands loved to work and would work for days on end of you let them. Bo had to yell at them a few times for not taking breaks and resting, but it was thanks to that work ethic and rive that the shop was ready to open so quickly.

Dean Baxter and the college held up their end of the deal I made with him the day of the duel and sold us that factory space at the edge of silver and gold city. Last week, they even managed to supply us with all the techno-splicing equipment I requested to stock the warehouse and replace the tank that was broken in the lab. Thanks to that, my shaping research kicked into high gear.

The warehouse wasn't the only property that I've acquired either, apart from the apartment building thar Haws, Louie, and his family, Madilyn, as well as the Kestrels were staying in. I also acquired an old steed stable about a block away from the shop and a large vacant building. The building we were in the middle of turning into a training slash testing facility for evos. The stable Gargesh and a few orkands worked together to fix up and even managed to repair one of the damaged carriages inside.

"Chase?!" Jane called put from the doorway of the shop. She was dressed in a knee-length black sundress that had Sho'lajah artifact company embroidered across the chest in gold thread. A uniform of sorts that Jade had made during her spare time. Everyone in the company had a uniform. For the girls, they had the dresses. Guys had black dress slacks and dress shirts that had the company name embroidered over the heart in gold thread.

"Yeah?" I called out and started across the street.

"Why are you just standing out there? The Ascreds are going to be here any minute!" She snapped.

"I was admiring the fruits of our labor." I said teasingly, earning a slap from Jane on the arm when I got close enough.

"Hurry up and get inside! Everyone has been practicing for days now, so at least show some effort!" Jane grumbled and pushed me inside.

"OK, okay! No funny stuff, got it!" I replied.

The inside of the shop had massively changed. With the Kestrels deciding to live in the apartment building instead of the shop, the living quarters at the back of the shop were no longer needed. So Gargesh and the orkands just demolished the whole thing and expanded the showroom. It was now twice as large as before.

Just as you entered at a desk to the right sat Angie. She decided to take up the role as receptionist and greeter, not wanting to stay at home all day with KC while Louie worked at the warehouse. KC sat in a little play pen behind the desk so Angie could keep an eye on him.

Beyond the desk stool, several rows of wooden display cases. Each case had a different type of jewelry inside. One had rings, another bracelets and Bangles, another necklaces, and another earrings. None of them were enchanted, but all of them were crafted by Jade and made with a quality that rivaled jewelry made my so-called masters in the gold city.

The walls had racks and cases filled with different items. Some handles to be enchanted with a spell like shadra blade, others whole weapons like spears and swords, and bows to be enchanted with any spell the customer could think of On racks in the very back of the shop we're clothes but not just any clothes, armor for evos. While nothing more than simple leather or chainmail armor, it was designed specifically for the modified version of the Ogrest that I had created to give to the college as part of our deal. There were plenty of paces to sneak an enchantment on them away from sight.

I sighed and proudly stuck my chest out a little. The shop looked great. Once people started to hear about it, things were going to get busy.

"Okay, Chase, do you know what you're going to say when Caspian and his brother get here?" Jane asked.

"I welcome them to the shop, Yada Yada, exchange pleasantries, bla bla blaaa, then show them around." I said. Jane narrowed her eyes at me and poked my chest with her finger.

"No Yada yada or bla bla blaaa! You have to look professional Chase, as the owner of the company you are the public face of it. How you act reflects on the company." Jane said.

"If that's the case, then the company already has a terrible reputation." Bo said.

Iris and I looked towads the back of the store and saw Bo walking into the showroom from the backroom. The back room was now a storage closet plus the entryway into Jade's workshop in the basement which was fully stocked with all the silver smiting tools she need plus two orkands that were her personal evos and assistants.

"He's right about that." I said, earning a slap from Jane.

"Don't joke about that!" Jane griped. Iris walked out of the backroom and saw Jane slapping me and shaking her head.

"Refusing to take this seriously?" Iris asked.

"Of course!" Jane growled, shooting me a dirty look.

"I'm being nice, I promise!" I said, holing my hand up. Iris and Bo walked over to join the group.

"Chase, just don't mess it up! I'm heading to Moldworks to deliver those parts that Haws asked for." Bo said, walking out the front door.

Moldworks was the nickname that Louie, Haws, and Bo were calling the warehouse since it was where I was mass producing shaped evos.

"Jane, just calm down and don't let him get under your skin. The kid has always been good at that." Angie said, flashing me a knowing smile. I smirked back at her and leaned against the reception desk.

"Regardless of how I act, people are going to flock to this store. Where else can they buy custom enchanted items?" I said. Jane sighed and rubbed her temples.

"That's true however I would like our company to give a good reputation." Jane groaned.

"Well, it looks like our guests are here." Angie said, pointing outside.

Everyone turned around in time to see a steed carriage come to a stop in front of the store through the window. The drive of the carnage quickly opted out of the driver seat and rushed around to open the passenger door. Four men stepped out of the carriage. I recognized three of them, Hideyoshi Ascred, Caspian Ascred, and Dean Baxter. The fourth man was totally unknown to me, but based on his obvious Asian descent and the military uniform, I guessed he was Oda Nobu, Hideyoshi's fiancé.

Jane rushed over to the door and opened it. She flashed a smile at all our guest and went put to greet them. It was a part of the showy pitch that she wanted everyone to put on. While I thought it was ridiculous, Jane was passionate about it, so I was going along with it. Iris, Angie, and I watched as Jane went through her whole speech about how the new shop was the beginning for the company and then started to lead everyone inside. Seeing everyone heading in Angie stood up and smoothed out her dress.

"Hello, welcome to Sho'lajah artifact company." Angie said with a polite smile as Jane led our guests inside. Caspian nodded in Angie's direction while everyone else looked around at the shop.

While I will admit it's not on the same level of elegance that you'd find in the gold city but for the silver city, at least it's elegant.

"Welcome, nice to see everyone again." I said to the dean and Ascred Brothers. Hideyoshi, ever prim and proper, gave me a slight bow before motioning to Oda.

"Nice to see you again, Chase Kingston, This is my fiancé, Nobu Oda." Hideyoshi said, motioning to the man beside him. Oda bowed politely at me and then looked me up and down, he has a slightly disapproving look on his face.

"Something wrong?" I asked. All eyes turned to Oda.

"You're a lot younger than I was expecting…I figured whoever was wise enough to resurrect a lost and forgotten art would be older than a child." Oda said, almost scornfully.

"Oda hush!!" Hideyoshi chastised, glaring at his intended. Oda huffed and looked at me with a smug look of superiority.

"If you have a problem with my age, then you can leave. I don't care whether you believe I can make enchanted items or not and am not wasting my time giving you a demonstration just to kick you out of your power trip." I said with a huff.

"Power trip?" Oda grumbled and glared at me. I ignored him and looked to Caspian and Hideyoshi.

"Caspian, I'm sorry it took so long for me to get back to you, but I finally managed to finish the first part of your request." I said, ignoring Oda entirely.

"Hey, don't just treat me like I'm not here!" Oda exclaimed and stepped forward and grabbed my shirt.

"ODA!"Hideyoshi exclaimed.

"Mr. Nobu unhand Chase right this instant!" Dean Baxter demanded. Jane, Iris, and Angie all sighed and took a step back, Angie even grabbing KC.

"Don't kill him." Jane said. That simple phrase pissed Oda off even more since he thought it was aimed at me.

"You think a nobody like him ca…" Oda was stopped mid-sentence as a long elastic object whipped out from the shadows of the store and slapped him across the back of the head. Oda stumbled forward, letting go of me and grabbing the back of his head. "...what the…"

Oda's whole body suddenly seized up and drooped to the floor. I casually brushed Oda's hand from my shirt and looked over in the direction that Oda had been attacked from. In the shadow of one of the display cases by the window hid the security system of the shop, a new evo that I had shaped earlier this week: Acridcroak, the duality.

The acridcroak was a recreation of the Toxigal that justice industries was testing. It looked almost exactly like a Toxigal, which looks like a slightly larger poison dart frog coveted in slime. The only difference was that the Acridcroak wasn't covered in slime, and its eyes were attached to eyestalks like a slug, allowing it to see everything in three hundred and sixty degrees around it.

"I wasn't talking to you." Jane said, then walked over to Dean Baxter and the Ascred Brothers. "I'm so sorry about that. Our security system is very touchy when it comes to Chase."

"N-no, it's alright…" Caspian said, looking between Oda and the Acridcroak's hiding spot. Hideyoshi crouched down to check on his fiancé, the man was still conscious, just paralyzed.

"Don't touch him, or you'll be paralyzed too." I said, then snapped my fingers. The acridcroak that attacked Oda hopped out of its hiding spot and jumped across the room onto my shoulder. I reached up and petted his head, and the evo let out a loud, satisfied croak. "This guy's tongue is covered in a special slime that paralyzes. It's better to let us treat him first."

"That was what attacked just now…?" Hideyoshi asked.

"Yeah…fix him up Day shift." I said, then extended my arm out to Oda.

Day shift hopped into Oda's back, and a thick mucus started to form on the acrkdcroak's skin. A few seconds later, the mucus started to evaporate, and a white cloud covered Oda and Day shift. The cloud glowed in a dazzling rainbow light for a few moments, then dissipated. Day shift hopped straight up onto the ceiling and crawled back towards his original hiding place.

"Impressive…" Dean Baxter said with a smirk.

Oda sat up and groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. He glared at me and curled his upper lip.

"How dare you attack a son of the Nobu family!" He snapped. I rolled my eyes and looked to Hideyoshi.

"Not marrying this one for his brain, I see." I said, then shook my head and looked back at Oda. "You grabbed me first. You can't complain when my security system perceived you as a threat and neutralized you. You're lucky it was Day shift that attacked you. Had it been Night shift, you'd have been attacked with a highly fatal poison that would have killed you in a matter of seconds. She doesn't play when it comes to employee safety."

"And now you threaten me! The insolence! Do you have any idea what my family is capable of?" Oda snapped. I sighed again and looked to Jane and Iris with an annoyed look on my face. Jane sighed and made a sweeping gesture with her hand, giving me the go-ahead to act a fool.

"It shouldn't matter what your family is capable of. What you are capable of is what counts. Though given the fact that you keep brandishing your family name around like a shield to hide behind and excuse you shitty manners, I can guess that you aren't capable of much. Those lieutenant bars on your shoulder were probably given to because daddy paid off the right people, weren't they?" I said with a sneer. Oda's face turned bright red, and he clenched his fists.

"I WILL NOT STAND SUCH DISHONOR!" Oda bellowed.

"Then sit down for all I care. It's not like you can do much anyway!" I quipped. Oda pulled off the right glove of his military uniform and threw it at me.

"I challenge you to a duel!" He yelled and pointed a finger at me.

"Oda you…!" Hideyoshi started. Oda spun around and slapped Hideyoshi back-handed, making him stumble back and fall into his brother, who caught him quickly. Caspian glared at his soon-to-be brother-in-law and helped Hideyoshi up.

"HOW DARE YOU!" Capsian growled.

"Shut up, Caspian! You and your pathetic brother have no right to criticize me! Your family needs my family's money to keep afloat! Without me, the Ascred name will mean nothing!" Oda barked, then turned to me. "Now, are you going to accept my challenge or run away like a scared brat!"

"Fine…" I said with a shrug and walked around him, and headed to the door. "…outside, we just finished remodeling, and I don't want my floors stained with blood."

Oda followed me outside and into the middle of the street. Dean Baxter, The Ascred Brothers, and the others all followed suit and watched from the sidewalk.

"You're the challenger, so pick the form of combat." I said. Oda walked over to the carriage he arrived in and jerked the door open. He pulled out a Japanese katana and secured it to his hip.

"Trial by sword! We fight until one of us is surrenders or is incapable of fighting." Oda said.

"Swords, huh?" I said, then scratched my chin. I channeled mana into my void pocket enchanted ring and stuck my hand inside the pocket dimension to feel around for a weapon. In the past month, I had amassed a lot of crap, mostly enchanted items prototypes that hadn't quite made the cut but also some quality ones that I wanted to keep for myself. I eventually found a sword and pulled it out.

It was an Egyptian Khopesh, a sickle shaped sword that was based off of a battle axe. Jade found it at an antique auction and cleaned it up a bit for me. It was one of the enchanted items that I kept for myself because the enchantment was so good. It was called Sho'uragu or Star's vengence in Torapos.

I held the blade up to the light. It was an ebony blade with gold etchings depicting the Egyptian god Ra and a deep crimson runes running down the blade. I took a few swings with it to check the weight, then nodded and turned to Oda.

"Ready!" I said. Dean Baxter stepped forward and held a hand up.

"I will act as referee. Now, you two are aware of the rules of the duel. You keep fighting until one of you surrenders or is incapable of fighting." Dean Baxter said.

"Yep." I said nonchalantly.

"Of course!" Oda replied. Dean Baxter nodded and then dropped his hand.

The moment Dean Baxter's hand dropped, Oda charged me with a burst of speed I wasn't expecting. He grabbed the handle of his katana and drew it quick as lightning severing my left hand in one fluid strike before kicking me in the stomach and knocking me back a few feet. Oda looked triumphantly at the dean and the others and sheathed his blade.

"That's the end of that!" He proclaimed proudly.

"Are you sure about that?" Jane and Iris asked in unison.

I stood up and looked over at my severed hand and frowned. Getting it cut off hurt like a bitch buy compared to having my arm and leg severed the pain wasn't that bad. My mana went to work immediately and started channeling flesh attribute mana and regenerating my left hand. Once fully regenerated I closed it a few times then walked over and picked up my sword, throwing my severed hand to the side.

"Well that was a shock." I said nonchalantly like getting my hand severed was nothing new. Oda turned around and saw me standing back up with a fully intact arm and hos eyes widened.

"I CUT THAT HAND OFF!" He bellowed.

"And it grew back. So I can still fight, we going to do this or what?" I asked. Oda's face turned beet red and veins started building on his forehead.

"HOW DARE YOU MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME!" Oda exclaimed then rushed me again.

I was prepared this time and channeled volt attribute mana throughout my body. I jumped back in time to dodge the draw slash that was aimed at my hand again and channeled mana into Sho'uragu. I dashed forward at Oda as the axiom spell sigil formed in front of the blade and coated it in a red energy. Oda blocked my attack just barely because of the speed I was traveling and was knocked back. Before his feet touched the ground I took another step and closed the gap swinging again and slashing him across his gut.

"AAAAHHHHHH!" Oda screamed loudly and fell back grabbing his stomach. I rolled my eyes and reared the blade on my shoulder.

"Oh please! The blade didn't even cut you!" I snapped. Oda stopped freaking out and looked down at his stomach, he was indeed uninjured however there was a red mark along his belly where the blade cut him. He frowned for a second before the mark disappeared.

"You bastard! You think you can make a fool out of me!?" Oda snapped.

"I don't really have to, you do a good enough job on your own." I quipped. Oda jumped to his feet, he was gripping the hilt of hos sword so tight I could hear the handle groaning.

He charged at me one more time, aiming again at my left arm which held my sword. I sighed and did nothing as the sword passed through my left arm just above the elbow. A red mark appearing where he had slashed me. Oda looked confused as to why my arm was undamaged.

"What the…" He muttered.

A split second later blood gushed from his left arm as it was severed just above the elbow and dropped to the ground. Oda screamed and fell to hos knees grabbing the stump of his arm.

"FUCK! FUCK!" He bellowed then looked up at me in shock and confusion. "How!?"

I raised my sword up to the sun to admire the dark abyssal gleam of the black metal for a bit then smirked at Oda.

"You ever hear of Karma? Buddhist believe that all actions have an effect on what happens to you in life. You do good things, good things happen to you. On the flip side, you do bad things then bad things will happen to you. I like to think of this sword here as Karma, you see it's enchanted with a special spell that links anyone slashed with the spell to the holder of the blade. Basically swapping physical presence in the universe. So whatever happens to the wielder of the blade actually happens ti whoever is cut by the blade." I said with a cocky smirk. "Pretty cool huh? Made that enchantment by accident if you can believe it."

"CHEATER! USING MAGIC IN A TEST OF STRENGTH!" Oda bellowed.

"Now you see I don't remember anyone saying anything about not using magic or enchanted items? Do you guys?" I asked turning to Caspian and Hideyoshi. Caspian looked vastly amused at Oda's suffering, which told me he'd been biting his tongue a out his behavior for a while now. Hideyoshi looked conflicted, like his sense of duty was compelling him to speak up in his fiance's behalf but his pride was urging him to silence.

"There was no such rule spoken Lord Nobu. Nor any restrictions expressed. " Dean Baxter spoke up. Oda glared at the dean then glared at me.

"You fucking coward!" He snarled.

"I'd be more careful who you sling insults at…" I said then then slowly ran my blade down the length of my right arm leaving a bright red mark. "…any injury that I receive is sent to you."

Blood spurted from his arm as a deep gash appeared in the exact same place that I cut. Oda screamed and glanced down at the gash then back up at me fearfully, the reality of his situation finally setting in.

"Now, do you surrender or do I need to keep going?" I asked then sat down on the ground and aimed the sword at my leg. "Losing a leg is extremely painful and inconvenient, trust me."

"I-I surrender! I SURRENDER!" Oda bellowed. I smirked and looked over at everyone watching. Jane sighed and walked over to the shop door and held it open.

"Day shift, come heal him before he bleeds out." Jane called out.

A few seconds later the palm sized Acridcroak hopped out of the shop and over to Oda and jumped on top of his head. It croaked a few times before its body coveted in slime and then that slime evaporated into a mist the engulfed Oda and Day shift. The mist glowed in a golden light this time and a few minutes later it dissipated revealing a new fully healed Oda Nobu. Day shift croaked again before turning back towards the shop and hopping inside.

"Thanks Day shift!' Jane called out.