75 - Shameless

“What do you mean you lied?” I ask.

“I knew exactly what happened. After our very first meeting, I instructed one of my subordinates to try to recruit you. I emphasized the importance of recruiting you and doing so before anyone else could, and that was his brilliant plan. I did not instruct him to do specifically what he did, but I was also aware of his tendencies and failed to give him proper instruction on how to recruit you in a more friendly way. In fact, in a way, I may have been hoping for him to do exactly what he did, and that it would work, because that would make things easier for me.

“Obviously this information is going to make you think less of me, but I felt it needed to be said because despite all this, I still want to recruit you, and I thought you would value honesty over any other desperate measures I could take. Just so you are aware, the subordinate that did that has been punished. I have honestly been trying to get rid of him for a while and finally had an excuse. However, I will get in trouble with the main family if he is dead and I don’t recruit you. Not in that much trouble, since I’m more important than him, and he did break the rules of the Floor, but it won’t be pleasant either.”

“...And after all this, you still think there’s a chance I’m going to join you?”

“I thought if you knew my selfish motives, you would trust me more. Or at least you would trust my word more. I don’t expect you to trust me. I just hope you believe what I say. I was hoping we could perhaps come to a more transactional agreement instead of something as vague and nebulous as sponsorship.

“Also, please take this,” she holds out her hand to me, holding a small wooden box. 

I don’t reach for it.

“It’s a gift. An apology gift for the incident in the north.”

I think for a second longer, then grab it. If it’s really free, I’m not gonna complain. 

I open the box to find a small metal sphere within. There’s an odd oum inside, but I don’t really know what it is. I pick it up to examine it, but as soon as I touch it, Trinity appears in my lap, and she snatches it out of my hand before disappearing back into her voidspace.

“It’s more of a gift for her, I suppose,” says Nadia as I blink in surprise. “But since you are bound to her, a gift for her is a gift for you. It won’t provide immediate benefits, but possessing the void core will benefit you all the way through 5 star, most likely. It’s a very valuable item and you should never tell anyone you have it.”

“Void core?”

“It’s difficult to explain fully, but more or less, it is a cultivation aid for Trinity, and will make her control over her voidspace stronger, and by extension, your control of it will grow stronger as well.”

“I see.”

“That gift is yours fully and completely, but I also have an offer I’d like to make to you. Not sponsorship, but something similar.”

“I don’t want to get involved with your family’s politics-”

“I am aware, and this offer is only tangentially related.”

“-and I’m not really feeling like working with the family who has already tried to kill me once. Especially when the attacks probably won’t stop since your family is divided in two and siding with one side will make me an enemy of the other. No thank you, I am not at all interested.”

“I could make it worth your while.”

“No you could not. Anything you could give me would be material, and no matter what it is, it won’t be worth getting involved in that mess. I’m not naive enough to think that I’ll be able to get in and out without getting my hands dirty.”

“What if I could guarantee that you would not be involved in anything that would put a target on your back?”

“Even if you could do that, why would I work to benefit the group that tried to kill me?”

“...I can see this isn’t going to work out right now.”

“‘Right now’?”

“I’m not going to give up. I can be patient. I am shameless, yes, but unless I’ve miscalculated, you’d prefer this to me scheming to try to get you on my side. I’d rather air everything out right now and keep our dealings clean and transparent from now on.”

“You say that like we’ll have more dealings.”

“I sincerely hope we will. You may not forgive me, but I was acting in the best interests of my family. I would do it again in a heartbeat. I have watched countless siblings, cousins, nieces, nephews, and other relatives die needless deaths because of the current regime. I want to change that, and I will get my hands dirty if I need to, but I will keep them clean when dealing with you.”

I have to admit, she’s right about one thing. I much prefer this to Organa’s scheming. And I can also see where she’s coming from. I don’t like it, and I don’t want to work with her, but it’s hard to hold a grudge against her. Assuming this void core thingy is as good as she says it is, I’m more than willing to put the past behind us, but that doesn’t mean I’m ready to join hands.

It might be different if I hadn’t just won the Starter Quest. I’m sure that the support from an Ascendant family would be immense, and if I didn’t have the Seven Color Star Fruit and the 10,000 Year Ginseng, it would be a lot more tempting. Free cultivation resources to push me through the tedious lower levels would be appreciated. Unfortunately for her, I don’t need that right now, so it’s not happening. Maybe once I reach Middle 3 star and have to start figuring things out for the first time again.

“My answer is still no,” I say. “I’m not interested.”

“Alright,” she says with a sigh. “But my offer still stands, and it will stand for as long as we are both alive.”

“Sure.”

“Now enough of that. Unless I’m mistaken, you’ve fully formed your bond with Trinity, right? I promised to help you with that, and that was completely independent of all the other stuff, so if you’re still willing, I’m still happy to instruct.”

I consider for a few seconds, then shrug. No point in turning down free instruction from the best beast tamer on the Floor.

“Alright, let's do it.”

The lesson lasts an hour from there. I take her into Trinity’s voidspace with me, and she helps me practice a few techniques for customizing it. The main benefit of this lesson is the little glowing stones she gives me, and her instruction on how to make tiny alcoves to put them in. By the end, the room is suddenly well lit, allowing me to see the corpse in its full glory.

Whatever Nadia had Benny teach Trinity about corpse preservation, it’s working very well. I don’t understand it fully because it has something to do with how the void works, but as best as I can tell, the corpse has a layer of void around it that basically turns its location into a vacuum to prevent decay while simultaneously preventing the other side effects that would come with a normal vacuum. According to Nadia, doing this to something living would kill it, making it dangerous to enter another’s voidspace, but it’s not instant, and the dangers of letting someone else into your voidspace are also high, so it’s not a technique that is used often.

After the lesson, right as I’m about to leave, I suddenly remember something and turn around.

“I know you said you wouldn’t give up on recruiting me, but I’m warning you, if you try to use the people around me to get to me, you will guarantee that I will never consider even doing you a small favor. Got it?”

Nadia blinks in surprise, then smiles. 

“So you’re saying that you’re willing to consider a small favor now, since I haven’t done that?”

“...I didn’t say that.”

With that, I turn around and walk out, not giving her another chance to speak. 

I then head back to the dorm, cleverly avoiding the others by using a powerful technique known as “ignoring them,” and flop down into my bed. Now that the Starter Quest is over, I don’t really have any hard deadlines. I plan on entering the Tournament in five weeks, but that really all depends on how long the rest of the Phoenix’s Legacy takes to claim. I should get back to that. 

But not yet. I’d be willing to bet that the challenges to claim the Legacy will be a lot easier if I’m 2 star, and I have this very convenient Seven Color Star Fruit in Trinity’s voidspace that I can use. I could go there right now and just cultivate there. Or I could stay here in the comfort of the dorm where the room is nicer and the food is more varied. Also, the room underground doesn’t allow for hot spring waterfalls, and also also, I will have to fight my way through an army of ants to get there. Yeah, definitely gonna cultivate in here for a little while.

I reach into the voidspace and pick out the wooden box containing the star fruit. From the outside, it looks like a normal citrus. It has an orange-ish yellow skin with a dry green stump of a stem. When I peel it though, it looks like it’s a fake fruit put together by a con artist that you’d see at a roadside attraction. It looks more like someone took 7 different-colored segments of citrus and stuck them together in a rainbow pattern, but they used weak glue. The segments are barely held together without the skin, and they’re not even the same size. The red, which is the weakest, is noticeably bigger than the strongest violet segment.

If I couldn’t sense the immense oum it contains, I might suspect it to be fake, but there’s no denying it. I’m fairly certain that if I ate the violet segment right now, I would literally explode. It would be like when I accidentally cracked Organa’s oum seed, but worse. 

Speaking of her oum seed, the second one she gave me is gone. And good riddance too. Most of it went into helping me with my breakthroughs down at the Phoenix’s Legacy. I’m glad I got that thing out of my body again. I knew she was trouble. I don’t want to have anything to do with her. I kind of regret telling Vanessa to eat the pill. If she does though, she’d better bleed the Hateps dry trying to get to me before they realize it’s impossible.

I smile at the thought of Organa’s face when she realizes she just poured all her resources into something that never had a chance at success, then turn my attention back to the fruit. No point in delaying. I’d like to get back to that cave as soon as possible. 

I separate the red segment from the rest and pop it into my mouth. It’s delicious. It’s like an orange, but stronger. I’ve always liked oranges.

Just as I’m done enjoying the flavor, the oum hits me, and I sink into a deep meditation.