Funnily enough, the attendant didn’t seem surprised when I burst through the double doors, panting hard and wiping my brow.

  “I take it you’re hopelessly in debt?” She asked.

  “Pretty much.”

  “Don’t try to escape,” she sighed. “As long as you owe him money, he’ll keep care of you. Be a good little cash cow and try not to get into trouble.”

  A cash cow?

  Was she in debt too? Would I become like her, forced to work menial jobs in a video game of all things?

  I took a steadying breath.

  The debt wasn’t too bad. It’d make this life a little rougher, but it wasn’t any worse than losing an arm, and it’d just reset the next time I die.

  Sharon however…

  “I need to use the—”

  She rolled her eyes and pointed to the bathroom. “Go.”

  Thankfully, he hadn’t left.

  But he had been busy.

  Explosive blooms of flowers and trees coated the bathroom stall, eating into the plastic siding.

  “This place is disgusting," a bright green Sharon uttered. “A revolting maze of oil and metal.” he looked at me. “Mortal human. Why have you come here?”

  “Sharon, I have something of yours,” I started.

  The fairy squinted. “Strange mortal, where have you learned my name? Such a thing has great power over a being—”

  “My name’s Grind, Sharon,” I said. “And you told me your name.”

  “Do I know you?”

  “We met an hour ago.”

  “Huh.”

  Sharon rubbed the shifting prisms that formed his head.

  “You are?”

  “Grind.”

  “I am Sharon, one of the guardian sprites within the second realm,” Sharon said, puffing out his chest. “I am an amalgamation of all that was, and all that is. All of everything that matters, anyway.”

  “Nifty.” I pulled out the seed. “So, what’s this?”

  Sharon gagged, flashing a sickly color. “N-nothing. Nothing. Sir. Master. Human.” He cleared his throat, stooping low. “Mind if I take that?”

  “So this is like a genie’s lamp?” I asked, turning the glass over. “I noticed the seed broke open, but there’s nothing inside it. I assume you came out of it?”

  “Yes. No.” Sharon choked. “What would a mortal know of such fairy things?”

  I went out on a limb.

  “If I have this, then I have full control over you?”

  The fairy trembled. “What do you want for it? I’ll give you anything.”

  “How about a promise?” I asked. “You stay around me and don’t hurt anyone. Other than that, you can do whatever you like.”

  The fairy paused. “That’s not all, is it.”

  “Of course it is,” I said. “If you left, you’d just get captured again, wouldn’t you? You seem pretty valuable.”

  “That’s not it, though, right? What about my power?” The fairy growled. “Get to the point. How much are you taking?”

  “I don’t need your power,” I said. “I’m immortal.”

  There was a moment of profound silence.

  “Are you insane, or just stupid?” Sharon asked. “Do you have any idea how valuable a fairy is? Can you comprehend the power? Do you know how many people have fought and died for a fairy heart? The wars that have been waged?”

  Fairy heart?” I asked, holding up the glass box. “So that’s what this is called.”

  “Of all the ways to earn my freedom…” Sharon hissed.

  I tossed the seed.

  He caught it, dumbfounded. “B-but I haven’t even agreed to our deal yet.”

  “Oh, I don’t want it to be binding,” I said. “That tends to make things difficult. A promise is simpler.”

  “And you’re genuine about this?”

  “Yep.”

  The fairy slowly raised a hand into the air. “I, Sharon, solemnly swear to bind myself to this human. I will go where he goes. But I do not swear to obey him. I will live as I please, so long as it does not bring him trouble.”

  There was an explosion of energy, and the fairy lowered his hand.

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I sighed. “Didn’t I say a promise is fine?”

  “First thing to know about fairies,” Sharon grumbled. “Never trust an idle promise from a fairy. Fairies forget everything that isn’t about nature or magic. If you want us to remember our word, it has to be a pact. And I cannot afford to forget the terms that gave me my heart back.”

  Sharon turned orange, shrinking down into the seed, vanishing.

  “Hey? Sharon?” I called, shaking the container. “What’s going on?”

  Sharon reformed, this time with a stormy gray complexion. “Second thing to know about fairies…don’t bother us when we’re recharging, mortal. Put me somewhere far away from all this metal and oil.”

  Recharging—?

  The light in the room flickered and Sharon was gone.

  Now the seed was glowing.

  Recharging?

  I glanced toward the door, finding a man with his jaw hanging wide and his eyes locked onto me.

  “Y-you…YOU!”

  I blinked, stuffing the seed into my inventory. “Me?”

  The man jabbed a finger at the bathroom stall. “Do you have any idea how much that costs!?”

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  {Union Debt}

  [Current balance : -1,000,000,420 Qualms]

  [Union debt increases by [10.1%] every quarter.]

  [Good luck.]

  I left the union with a big grin on my face.

  Today, I made a friend.

  Now that I’d passed the evaluation, there was just a quick exam in a couple days.

  Until then, I could stay in my little apartment, living off the food the union provided.

  As long as I passed the tournament, things would be alright.

  Terror would start giving me additional resources, in order to get stronger so I could pay my debts.

  If I didn’t pass the tournament, I’d probably get thrown into jail for my outrageous debt, forcing me to end the run.

  That wouldn’t be so bad, actually.

  As long as my friends and family were kept safe, I could live and die however many times I needed.

  Of course, just because I could fail, didn’t mean I was going to.

  No.

  I was sick of losing.

  Each morning, I woke up, beginning simple training with my mental energy, before checking on Sharon.

  Since his heart looked like a seed, I bought a potted plant and stuck him in it. Within minutes, ferns and grasses crawled up the pot, exploding over the sides.

  I’d usually have to spend a couple minutes trimming it down or the accelerated growth would envelop my counter.

  Beyond eating, trimming the plant and sleeping, I spent every day training.

  And then it was time.

  Masters muttered to one another, standing in a booth over a massive metal ring.

  My opponent was chosen.

  He had poppy blond hair and dark brown eyes, with a brass nose ring, brass wrist cuffs, and a black uniform I didn’t recognize.

  The moment he laid eyes on me, the man sighed in relief.

  He stepped forward, smiling. “I’m Maxineye.”

  “Grind,” I said, glancing at his stats.

  {Maxineye}

  [Iron]

  [8050 Hp 4038 Str]

  That might be a problem.

  We took position.

  As before, it was a fistfight, in order to prevent serious injury. The fight ended on three conditions. Dealing three hits to your opponent, halving their total max hp, or knocking them out for five minutes or more. Whichever came first.

  But winning the fight wasn’t enough to study in the academy.

  Whether you were or weren’t accepted was entirely dependent on how you handled yourself during the fight, and what moves you used.

  “Maxineye, physical specialist versus Grind, mental specialist!” A union referee shouted from the field. “Lethal force is absolutely prohibited. BEGIN!”

  Maxineye blurred, spinning around the side of the ring, stopping his punch an inch from the back of my head.

  “Point, Maxineye!”

  I stumbled away, wiping sweat from my forehead.

  Note to self. The man’s faster than he looks.

  That was a non-damage strike. If the ref decided that a hit could not be dodged, it didn’t actually need to connect.

  But how had he moved so fast? Four thousand strength was a lot, sure, but I should still be able to see him, right?

  That was an ability. A sprint to close distance.

  The ref called and the fight resumed.

  I threw myself on the ground, rapidly using and disengaging Reach II to pivot inhumanly fast, whipping around his strike. Maxineye looked surprised, before shifting his stance, dashing back toward me.

  Little purple dots flicked to life beside my head.

  Fear manifestations.

  During my training, I’d learned quite a bit about each of my powers and how they worked together.

  Most importantly, I learned how to use manifestations.

  112x—{Extrapolate Metaphysical Abnormalities I}

  [Brass]

  [During combat, spend mana to generate an aura-based field. This field allows irregular mental activity, such as fear, depression, anger, loneliness, or hostility to manifest into temporary monsterlings that exhibit these traits. These monsterlings will then detonate after [30] seconds, dealing [Strength] damage multiplied by the rank of this ability.]

  There was just one issue. The ability used a ridiculous amount of mana. As a Dirt, I could only use ten mana per spell cast, resulting in a field less than a fingernail in length, generating harmless abnormalities.

  But I had a hundred and twelve harmless fields. And when abnormalities contact one another, they fuse.

  Even now, motes of mentality joined one another, forming progressively larger orbs.

  Maxineye stopped in his tracks. “What is that?”

  I ignored him, pooling mana into what was now a single orb over my head.

  “Seriously, what is that?” He asked, suppressing a shiver.

  The others in the stadium could feel it too. The dense, suppressing fear that hovered over our match.

  I grabbed the orb and pointed it toward Maxineye.

  “Attack.”

  The ability crumpled in on itself, releasing a blast of raw mana.

  It was so fast Maxineye could only stand and take it, flinging back into the area siding.

  {Maxineye : (-4014) 4036 Hp}

  [Maxineye has been afflicted with {Extrapolated Metaphysical Abnormality : Fear I}]

  He staggered to his knees, grabbing the sides of his head.

  Right about now, he’d feel suddenly paranoid and afraid, but not so much as to be debilitating.

  The ref walked to his side. “Can you stand?”

  “Ye-yeah,” Maxineye mumbled. There was a flash of light.

  [Maxineye has cleansed affliction {Extrapolated Metaphysical Abnormality : Fear I} with [Stoneheart III]]

  He forced himself up to his feet. “So? Any other tricks?”

  Funny thing about the ability. Once the fields stay open, they require a flat amount of mana to keep open, usually the same as the cost it took to open them. But while they stayed open, they continued pooling emotions.

  Meaning, I already had another three orbs at the ready.

  “GAME!” The ref shouted, raising both hands in the air.

  Maxineye paused, then sighed, walking off the ring.

  I clapped my hands, causing the manifestations to harmlessly implode. “I think this ability's starting to grow on me.

  Why on earth hadn’t I used this sooner?

  This is insane.

  The moment I get more exp, I’ll be able to create larger areas, increasing the power of this attack by a factor of ten.

  But that said—

  {Grind}

  [10 Mana : 20,002/112,002 Mana remaining]

  [Note : Restricted mana levels limit mana per ability cast.]

  —I’d be needing a whole lot more mana.

  There was a commotion up above as the masters talked amongst each other.

  The ref noticed, holding a hand over Maxineye.

  One of the Masters rose from his seat, grunting something unintelligible.

  The ref held a hand over me.

  Four of the eight masters rose from their seats. They nodded in my direction, before sitting back down.

  The referee let out a whistle. “Congratulations kid. You passed.”

  // {Notice} //

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