Elemental Accords 1-10

Good Morning!

Chapter 10

With the boss fight over, we finished making our way to the supermarket. The fight with the bird seemed to have emboldened some of the women as they looked much more willing to tag along with me. Personally, I didn’t mind being surrounded by women, but it would likely antagonize any men that I came upon later in the game. Those that wanted the women for less than gentlemanly services, and those that would think that I was forcing them to service me. Either way, I felt it would become a headache down the road.

Walking carefully into the parking lot, we checked for monsters and other surivors. There were a few corpses here and there. Of both human and monster, goblins from the looks of it. From the looks of it, there appeared to have been some sort of battle and someone actually managed to put up a fight. If they had powers, the market might have already been looted.

“Let’s go carefully,” I said to the group as I checked over the nearest body. “The blood looks fresh. The winners of the fight might not be far.”

“You think they would attack us?” Rai asked and I shrugged.

“Morals are a lot looser in the apocalypse and we have a lot of women with us,” I replied honestly. I swapped my spear for my bow then snuck over to the market entrance. Peeking inside, I didn’t see anything obviously dangerous. I listened for a long moment and didn’t hear anything. I turned back to the group. “Teams of two. Even then try to stay within sight of another group. We’re going to test the limits of my Storage so bring everything to a center point in the store. Rai and I will keep watch. Lara try to make a list if you can.”

“On it!”

We made our way inside and the girls got to work. I could have just walked the aisle and put everything in my Storage myself, but I wanted the women to do some work, so they knew it wasn’t a free ride. There was only so much hand holding I could do before it didn’t help anyone.

While the women got to work, I looked through my Storage for something to transform with Midas’ Touch. I was hesitant to use it so early in the day, but not using it could result in me lacking the strength I needed when I needed it. For now, I could use it three times, might as well use two of them and save one for later.

With a thought, I pulled another sword from my Storage. I had a small collection of them from the pawn shops we’d hit. They were probably junk but once they were turned to gold they at least served as a weapon in this mad world. Touching it gently, the sword started to shine before the gold rippled like water up and down its structure. It got a bit heavier before it finished transforming.

Giving it a few practice swings, the transformation also served to improve its balance. Still, I might serve us well to find someone that knew a thing or two about actually creating weapons and crafting. I tied the sheath of the sword around my waist and left it out of my Storage.

“Aurum! We’ve got a good pile going if you want to get started!” Lara called.

“Yell if you see anything,” I told Rai then moved into the market. A small mountain of goods sat in the center of the center aisle. Cans and stuff that would last a few months made up most of the pile. I reached up and started pulling everything into my Storage. Like I expected, it was like a drop of water in an ocean. Soon the entire pile was put away.

“Gather stuff that will expire,” Lara said to the women once I was done. While I didn’t mind stuff that would expire, we would have to focus on eating it quickly. “I want to test if your Storage has a time altering affect. Plus, even if it goes bad, we can still trade it to survivors that are starving. They really won’t have much in the way of arguments against it.”

“I see. A bit evil of you, but beggars can’t be choosers,” I replied giving her a nod in approval.

“Exactly. I’m fairly confident that you’re going to be important in the future. Best to make it easier for you now,” Lara said with a grin.

“I’ll leave you…” I started to say when I heard a sound from the backroom. I held up my hand and the women all stopped and remained still. I pointed toward Rai and Lara nodded. I drew my new sword and crept toward the door. Glancing over my shoulder to make sure the others were a good distance away, I yanked the door open and rushed in.

What looked like an office spread out in front of me. I didn’t see anything in the morning light that was pouring through the window. A desk sat against the wall with some filing cabinets to the side that blocked one side of the room. I was about starting to think it was a rat or something when I heard a deep breath from under the desk.

“Come out. I promise not to hurt you,” I said calmly and as gently as I could. There wasn’t a response. “I know its scary, but trust me when I say that I will help you.” There was the shifting of something as if on paper then the chair was pushed out from the chair. Two kids slowly peeked over the desk at me. I lowered my sword and smiled. “Come on. We’re all friends here.”

A young girl and boy probably around the age of ten slowly stood up on the other side of the table. They appeared to be twins from their identical faces. The only way I could tell one was a girl and one was a boy was their hairstyle and dress. “You really won’t hurt us, mister?” the boy asked with his sister behind him.

“Nope. I only hurt monsters.” I put my sword away before carefully moving to kneel in front of them. “What’s your names?”

“Ruby,” said the boy with a steady if somewhat scared voice. He looked unharmed with a bit of blood on his hands and arms from scrapes.

“Anemone,” said the girl with a much weaker voice. Looking her over, I saw some blood from her side. Without checking, I couldn’t tell if it was hers or someone else’s. Thankfully, I have plenty of women that would be able to look for me.

“I’m Aurum. Let’s have you two meet my friends okay?” I said standing up. “A bunch of nice ladies that will take care of you.” I walked out of the office and waved Lara over. She must have heard me speaking as she was already on her way. “Lara. I think the girl is hurt. If you would check her over, please.” I handed her some of the medical supplies from my Storage.

“Got it!”

“Ruby, how about you come with me and get something to eat while she takes care of your sister?” I asked motioning for the boy. He gave me a glare and tightly gripped his sister’s hand before quickly shaking his head. Looks like trust was a long way away.

“It’s fine Aurum. I’ll look them both over.”

I nodded and carefully closed the door. Moving back into the store, I checked the other room just to be safe but only found a back stock. Other than a few cracks on the floor that looked like they might have always been there, this backroom didn’t look like anything had changed in the few days since the change. I made my way through the room and stored everything that I thought would be useful, which was most of the stuff.

By this point, I was reaching my limit. The skill reduced the weight by some degree, but it was starting to add up. I cracked my neck and moved back to the main room. “I really don’t think I can carry much more. Leave the rest for others,” I said to the women. They nodded and took a seat to rest.

Walking to the entrance, I checked in with Rai. “Everything is fine. I haven’t seen anything yet.”

“Good. We found some children in the backroom. Lara treating them right now. Looks like the girl was hurt.”

“Are you going to take them?” Rai asked with a nervous look.

“Of course. We can’t leave children alone in this hell,” I replied.

She sighed in relief. “That’s good.”

“Go and get something to eat from the supplies we’re going to have to leave. I’ll keep watch.”

“Alright!”

I watched her go before turning back to the street. Looking at the people that died in the parking lot, I didn’t see anyone that resembled the children so perhaps their parents weren’t among those out here. I had to shake away the naïve thoughts. For them to be alone like they were, they must have lost their parents early on.

“Well. What’s two more?” I mumbled before leaning back against the wall of the store.