BXBX NOVEL Chapter 386: The Job
Chapter 386: The Job
*Why does he want to know that?* Kat wanted to spend more time on the question, but Kamiko was already starting to shake under the pressure of the man's gaze so she simply answered him. "That's correct I do. Why?"
Boss took a long drag on his cigar and further confirmed that something magical was happening when it didn't burn down at all. "That's good. Good you are asking questions as well. This may be a punishment but never go into a deal unprepared…
"Right. I have a warehouse full of items that we don't know the purpose of. Anything that could accidentally kill someone is always automatically taken by D.E.M.O.N.S, so we know it ain't gonna kill ya, but I can't honestly promise much more than that.
"Having Succubus Regeneration though, means that this is much less of a concern. Certainly not everything will be deadly, or even painful, heck you might have something that blows bubbles at you, I have no idea. But that's the point. I have. No. Idea.
"I can't very well sell artifacts that I have no knowledge of. So, I'll be getting you to test them all out. Just poor some energy into it, press a few buttons if it has any, give it a good whack against the target dummy and see what happens. If you can't figure it out, put it to the side…
"Though" Boss' eyes narrowed, his eye sockets closing over the coins in a strange fashion. It was also at that point Kat noticed he didn't have eyelashes. "I want you doing this properly. If you don't even give it a go, I won't be impressed. I've got recording devices in the room. Just video, so you are free to chat, but if I see at the end of the day a lacklustre performance, I'll check the tapes to make sure you weren't just messing around."
Kamiko swallowed, and while Kat was still digesting the statement, Kamiko asked. "Um sir, er ar, Boss? Is there a reason you don't make use of the identifying service D.E.M.O.N.S has?"
Boss took another puff of his cigar. "I suppose you wouldn't know. I'll answer that question then you'll be on the job deal?"
Kamiko nodded, and Boss continued speaking. "Right, well, when you first get the item, if you don't find out what it does during the contract, D.E.M.O.N.S will offer you a pretty good deal to find out. However, if you just find it around the hub, or take it from a bankrupt business without a proper organising system, you have to pay through the noses to get them all identified.
"A lot of the things you'll find wouldn't be worth the price of identification. Take that bubble blower I mentioned earlier. A toy basically, a nice novelty for the kids. I could sell those by the hundreds, easily, and it costs more to identify one of 'em than it does to make a whole new set of ten from scratch.
"It's only really the good stuff that's worth identifying, because it's a pricing bracket strategy and they are WIDE brackets. I'm honestly not expecting you girls to find much worthwhile in the warehouse. If it was worth it, I'd have kept track or the previous owner would have. Still, maybe we get lucky, find a philosopher's stone or some shit, or heck, could find a teleporter amongst the broken junk that was misplaced. It really is a toss-up. That's why I ain't paying anyone to do it."
Kamiko nodded and stepped back in line with Kat. Boss nodded between the two of them. "That all? No more questions? Especially relevant ones?"
"How do we get there?" asked Kat
Boss nodded. "Behind my desk, you'll find a transport circle. Can't be using standard D.E.M.O.N.S teleportation to go anywhere other than the main room, so you'll need to be using that one to get to the warehouse. When I call you over the speakers, you are free to teleport out, but you cannot teleport in. By the way, I believe I have you for two days, so keep that in mind. If you find anything really noteworthy, you can brief me on it either tomorrow morning, or, tomorrow afternoon when you finish your second day. Any MORE questions?" said Boss, still seeming fairly happy about the whole thing.
When no more questions were forthcoming, Boss just jabbed his thumb backwards and went back to work. Looking over paperwork and comparing it with something on the screen. Kamiko and Kat shared a look before walking around the side of the desk and instantly spotting the circle in question. When they were situated in the middle, Boss hit one of the buttons Kat hadn't seen from the front that lined the bottom of his desk, and the Succubi vanished.
Kat had just enough time to blink, before the warehouse came into view. That's all it was really. She was a little disappointed after the grand showing that was made before, but there wasn't much to the place. She was standing at the back, in a little alcove that had been carved out for the teleportation circle, and was clearly only for Kat-sized passengers at that, so the cargo entrance had to be elsewhere.
In front of her was a wide-open area with a series of dummies that radiated out from the wall accompanied by semi-circular series of lines that ran underneath each dummy as well. The warehouse was maybe a hundred or so metres across from what Kat could see. Behind the dummies was boxes.
Lots and lots of boxes, all of a standard size that was about one wingspan wide stacked on top of each other, five boxes in one stack, that stretched as far as the eye could see. Which wasn't actually that far, on account of the boxes blocking a lot of the view, but Kat saw no obvious end. The stacks of boxes in the first row were all complete except for the two furthest to the right. There they could see a row with just one box on the ground, with one next to it only being two high instead of five.
Kat let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding and listened to Kamiko do the same. "What was that?" asked Kat.
"What do you mean?" asked Kamiko "The feeling? The type of demon he was? Something else?"
"Um… I guess the first two then? I mostly meant the feeling, I wouldn't call another sentient creature a what… but it's a good question." Said Kat.
Kamiko nodded and said. "That's good. Some people have problems with that. If you haven't noticed, this hub is mostly humanoid demons and beholders. Beholders kinda just… don't care? Some others do though, so the Hubs tend to separate demons that look drastically different if there have historically been problems. It's normally not, but I'm not someone who has investigated that much.
"Um… right to your questions though. The first part, the feeling, that was a high Rank demon in their element. You've probably not seen it properly before but when a high Rank demon is focused on a task that they find worthwhile their aura gets stronger but also less… hmm, it not quite sure of the words, but it has less effects?
"It just feels like a wave of pressure. It isn't really suffocating, but it holds your attention, grasps your eyes and prevents you from functioning entirely normally, by… shutting off is the wrong word, but requiring you to think about certain automatic processes if that makes sense.
"So if we'd remembered to breathe, we would have been fine, but we forgot and didn't restart it manually so we just held our breath instead. As to what kind of demon… I honestly have no idea. I've not seen anyone who looks like that before" said Kamiko.
*You know… I'm actually somewhat surprised Kamiko doesn't know. I shouldn't be, but for some reason I am. It's not like I know the nationality of every human on Earth, so surely there are plenty of demons Kamiko can't recognise on sight… but they are a lot more distinct… then again, with how they can mix heritages maybe it's easier to get weird combinations then I think.*
"Definitely Greed though right?" asked Kat as she started to move over towards the single box, believing it to be a good starting point for their testing.
"Oh certainly" said Kamiko "Whatever he is, he can't be anything but a Greed demon… well actually I guess he could be a Gluttony demon that needs to eat precious metals, but he didn't really give off that vibe to me. Plus, we are working in a warehouse to find interesting items to sell that he acquired."
*It's good to have that confirmed. Not sure if it's helpful, but I feel better knowing that. Boss is certainly the most… unique looking demon. I mean sure I've seen the beholders and they are their own kind of creepy, but there was a few of those. Boss just feels so… DISTINCT, yes with emphasis, that's how distinct he is. I wonder if higher level demons become more distinct looking? No, it's doubtful, I've already seen that Kamiko's youngest older system and their mother look quite similar.*