CHAPTER 5: DUAL BLACKSWORDS

The next morning, Jim woke up early, by this time, Axel and Phil were still asleep, Denok was awake and was on the computer, glancing at the clock, it was six am.

'what's he up to?' Jim wondered as he stood and walked towards Phil with a yawn.

"Morning Jim." Denok greeted without turning to face him.

"You know it's a Saturday right? You don't have to wake up so early." He said. Jim nodded absentmindedly.

"What're you up to?" Jim asked while taking a peek at the screen, his eyes bulged when he saw what Denok was researching.

"Are those?..." Jim stuttered.

"Yes, They're ability orbs. I was surprised when I heard you didn't have an ability so I decided to do a little digging, my dad works at M-Tech, so you must understand why I developed interest in your case." Denok explained.

M-Tech was an organization that made researches on everything related to the scarls especially the meteorites, they are the number one company when it came to making weapons, ability orbs and the likes. These weapons are usually crafted from the body parts of beasts that have been hunted from other planets, they have proved to be more effective in fighting against scarls than mundane weapons. When scarls first invaded, humans were crippled because of their inability to fight back, nuclear weapons, bio weapons, guns, everything was useless against scarls but the weapons forged from these beasts retained the power of the beast when it was alive and could be activated when humans (with abilities) send their energy into them, however, for it to work, a weapon has to sync with your ability and it has to accept you, otherwise you'll just be holding unto a piece of metal.

"What have you discovered?" Jim asked curiously.

"Well aside from their ridiculously high prices, I also discovered you can't get one of these even if you had the money, you have to also have the necessary connections to go alongside it, that was how precious they were though I could contact my dad... But... "

"There's no need for that." Jim cut him short.

At this point, they barely knew each other, how could Jim let him contact his dad for someone he just met? He knew Denok meant no harm, but he felt he was being too kind. That's not a good thing In this world, if you're too kind, people are bound to take advantage of you.

"Huh?" Denok was startled.

"Why?" He asked.

Jim was silent for a bit before asking a question.

"How much does an orb cost?"

"Well, it depends, if you're trying to buy a D rank orb it's about three hundred and fifty million. That's for the lesser abilities, higher abilities like lightening, fire, telekinesis water and the likes of the D rank would cost you nothing less than five hundred million." Denok explained.

Jim estimated the little mountain of cash he had to be well over five hundred million, but if he was to take out that much, he wouldn't have much left, not that he cared anyway. He himself had done a little bit of research on ability orbs, if you manage to get one, it had processes which you will need to pass through before fully absorbing it. He had decided he would get one using the connections from Denok and his money, but he couldn't, not yet perhaps after the expedition, his mind was a mess right now, the last thing he needed was stress.

"I'll get one after the expedition is over, with your help, you said I needed money and connections right?, Well, I'll bring the money and you'll help me with the connections, I think this would work right?" Jim asked. While Denok nodded.

'There's no way he could possibly have that much money right?' Denok couldn't help but wonder.

They talked for a few some time and time went by swiftly, Phil and Axel had woken up and the first thing they did was vr gaming as they rejoiced for it being a Saturday, eventually Jim and Denok joined them with Phil winning most of the time as he praised his awesomeness each time.

"Hey losers, why don't you learn from me? Maybe you'll actually have a chance of being this awesome!" He laughed while Axel would roll his eyes.

"Just shut your mouth for once!"

Later in the day, Jim's uniforms and items he would need were delivered to him he realized he was in the same class as Axel. When Axel heard this, he thought it was perfect as his class was the best class among first years in the academy.

"Why don't I show you around?" Axel offered, it was in the afternoon, Jim hadn't been anywhere in the academy except the clinic, the dorms and the dining hall which they went earlier today. Jim was quite impressed by the food, it beat all his expectations as he wolfed it down, he hadn't seen Amy since then and was quite worried.

'I just hope she's fine.' he thought.

"Sure." He replied to Axel who was waiting for an answer.

"Great!, This is gonna be fun!" Axel said as he dragged Jim out of the room.

Thirty minutes had passed, Jim and Axel were currently in a shop that sold weapons, Axel was checking out a longsword that had a blue blade it was 1 meter long including the hilt which had a dragon pattern running up into the blade. While Axel was scrutinizing the weapon, Jim wandered around the store as he saw different weapons.

He had only ever used shortswords to train so he wasn't really well versed in other weapons, the weapons were arranged neatly in an orderly fashion so it wasn't really hard to locate the area for shortswords, he saw different swords with extravagant designs and their price was just as extravagant.

He observed them for a while before he sighed and turned to leave, as he turned, the dark glint of something in the corner of his eyes attracted his attention.

"Huh?" He walked towards where the reflection came from, what he saw left him puzzled.

On the wall hung a pair of dual shortswords the most unique thing was that the blades were all black including the hilt everything was pitch black, no engravings, no designs, nothing. At the bottom of the hilt of both swords, a black gem was imbedded, that was what must have gotten his attention. Looking at the details of the weapon, his eyes bulged and cold sweat covered his back, every weapon in this store had details and a price tag attached to them but none was any more mysterious than what Jim was staring at.

[BLACK DUAL SHORTSWORDS]

[PRICE: 75000 CREDITS]

[ABILITY: UNKNOWN]

[RANK: UNKNOWN]

[FORGER: UNKNOWN]

Jim stared for a few seconds before reaching out to touch take the swords, he held them by the hilt and swung them a few times, they felt light and sharp, he had heard of weapons choosing their owners, he didn't really know what that meant but he had expected a type of reaction when he touched the swords but nothing happened, other than the sword being extremely light, he didn't see anything strange, he wanted to place them back on the rack but for some reason he just couldn't. He felt compelled to keep them like they were his. Like they had always been his.

'Ok now that's weird. ' Jim thought as he took the swords, he'll never know when he'd need them if the need arises, it's better to at least be armed with something.