Chapter 259: 259: Customer in Lines II
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He checked the rune alignment. He checked the chamber seal. He checked the barrel interior with a thin light thread. Everything clean.
Then he looked down at his own palm.
His void sense hummed.
He whispered inside, careful.
Nyx.
The bond-thread answered.
Nyx did not come out yet.
John hesitated.
This was risky.
But today he needed to know something.
If the amplification was unpredictable, he needed to understand why.
And Nyx’s skill window had included "Residue Trace" and "Digest Convert."
If Nyx could observe patterns, maybe it could learn.
John opened a small void slit in the air above the table.
Not large enough for anyone else to see from outside.
Just enough.
Nyx stepped out.
Palm sized. Quiet. Black shell with faint star specks.
It moved like a shadow that had learned to walk.
John watched it carefully.
Nyx did not wander.
Nyx simply stood on the table and tilted its head at the crafting table, antennae twitching as if it could smell the mana residue on the rune rings.
Fizz slipped into the back room immediately, because Fizz could never let John have one private moment without commentary.
He stopped midair when he saw Nyx.
"Oh," Fizz whispered. "The intern is here."
Nyx looked at Fizz.
Fizz bristled. "Do not judge me."
John said quietly, "No wandering."
Nyx tapped the table once with its head, then turned back toward the gun.
John took a class three beast core and slid it into the gun chamber with a click.
Nyx’s antennae lifted slightly. It could sense the stored mana inside the core like smell.
Fizz leaned in. "It is watching. It is learning. It is stealing my job."
John ignored him and lifted the gun.
He had prepared a test slab again. Thick stone reinforced with a secondary backing plate so it wouldn’t collapse into the floor this time.
He aimed.
He breathed.
He fed mana into the grip slowly, controlled.
The runes flickered and settled.
He squeezed the trigger.
The shot snapped out.
Pure condensed mana, compressed by rune channels, driven by the beast core’s stored energy, sharpened by John’s input.
It hit the slab and punched a clean brutal hole straight through, deeper than last time.
The backing plate cracked.
The slab did not merely break.
It split like someone had taken a giant invisible chisel to it.
John lowered the gun slowly, stomach tightening.
Again.
It was too strong.
Class three core should not do that.
Not with a circle three user.
Yet the output had the weight of a circle four strike again, maybe even brushing toward circle five for a heartbeat.
The mana pull through his arm was heavier too.
He felt the drain in his reserves immediately, like someone had taken a scoop out of his mana pool with a ladle.
Nyx moved.
It stepped closer to the gun’s barrel and lowered its head, antennae trembling.
A faint shimmer of residue —something John could not see with eyes but could feel with void sense— clung to the rune grooves.
Nyx opened its mouth and inhaled.
The residue vanished into its body like smoke into cloth.
Nyx’s star specks shimmered brighter for one second, then settled.
John felt a tiny pulse through the bond.
Not emotion.
Information.
Like Nyx had recorded the pattern.
The system chimed quietly in John’s mind.
[SYSTEM Notification: Nyx has absorbed residual mana imprint.
Pattern Storage: +1 (Low Grade)
Note: Nyx is learning void-linked amplification behavior.]
John’s eyes narrowed.
So the amplification had residue.
It had a signature.
It wasn’t random.
It was something in the rune alignment interacting with void affinity.
Nyx could learn it.
That meant John could too, if he was careful.
Fizz stared at the broken slab, then at the gun, then at John. "That is... not normal."
John said quietly, "No."
Fizz’s eyes gleamed. "That is a trump card."
John nodded once. "Yes."
Nyx stepped back and sat calmly on the table as if it had completed a job.
Fizz floated closer to Nyx with sudden enthusiasm. "Now that you are useful, I will ride you."
John’s head snapped toward him. "Fizz."
Fizz ignored him, lowering himself toward Nyx as if mounting a horse.
The problem was simple.
Fizz was ten times bigger.
Nyx was palm sized.
The moment Fizz tried to put even a fraction of weight on Nyx, Nyx simply... walked away.
Not running.
Not panicking.
Just walking slowly, calmly, stepping out from under Fizz like a quiet refusal.
Fizz landed on the table with an offended thud.
Nyx stopped two inches away and stared at him.
Fizz’s ears flattened. "It rejected me."
John’s mouth twitched, almost a smile. "Yes."
Fizz’s voice rose dramatically. "It humiliated me in front of no one."
Nyx’s passive aura brushed Fizz again.
Fizz flinched. "Stop judging."
John lowered the gun and wrapped it again. "Back to the void."
Nyx obeyed instantly, walking into the small slit and vanishing without fuss.
Fizz watched it go like a man watching a door close on his pride.
Then he spun on John. "We need to establish hierarchy."
John said flatly, "We need to survive."
Fizz frowned, then nodded as if accepting a noble duty. "Fine."
The back room door opened again.
Edda stepped in, road dust still faint on her boots like she had been moving fast.
Her eyes were sharp. Her face was calm.
But her voice carried urgency.
"John," she said quietly. "Info."
John’s attention snapped to her. "Speak."
Edda stepped closer, lowering her voice further. "Rich buyers are asking about rare mana tools."
John’s jaw tightened. "How."
"Black market whispers," Edda said. "Upper merchants. Small nobles. People with money who want toys that look harmless." She paused. "They are asking specifically about tools that don’t match common rune craft."
John felt the cold settle in his stomach.
The guns.
Even if he hadn’t sold them yet, the idea of them was leaking.
Or someone was sniffing the air around the shop, guessing.
Fizz hovered closer, ears up. "Rare mana tools. That sounds like us."
John ignored him. "Who."
Edda shook her head. "Not sure yet. But the question is moving upward."
John exhaled slowly.
This day had proven two things.
The shop had traction.
And traction attracted teeth.
He stepped toward the back room door, listening to the front noise again. It was still busy. Still loud. Still full of customers who thought they were buying simple steel.
Gael was holding the line.
Orna was scaring off fools.
Kel was writing like math was war.
John’s chest tightened with a strange feeling that was not fear.
It was momentum.
He had wanted stability.
He was getting growth instead.
Growth always came with predators.
John looked at Edda. "Stay alert."
Edda nodded. "Always."
Fizz floated up and declared, "And remember, we are Team Lord Fizz."
Kel’s voice drifted from outside the door, dry as ever. "Team Lord Fizz is currently drowning in customers. Less naming, more working."
Fizz puffed. "I will work by being inspirational."
John stepped out of the back room and returned to the front, face calm, posture steady, mind sharp.
The day was not over.
It was only the beginning.
And somewhere in the academy, somewhere in the city, someone had started to smell blood in the water.
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