"Alrighty man, you go collect up whatever you want to sell - you're going to need it. I will get the conversations lined up. How fast can you get there and back?"

"Fast," Cass said. "I will have to go kill a few things but it shouldn't take too long."

"Oh ho, so you're not all wide-eyed and innocent then, huh? Well, you do what you need to do. How much time do you need?"

Cass considered. "Maybe… half a day?" Time had become more generalized as electricity disappeared, and people were getting more comfortable with estimates. Ironic, considering how many of the System's skills had cooldowns with incredibly specific timeframes.

It was still early, sometime before noon.

"I'll need a little more time than that. Tell you what - the players you're looking for are all night owls anyway. Meet me back here a few hours after sunset. Don't worry, the tent looks open but it's heated. I'll know when you cross into it, I get a little jingle when a new person arrives. If you end up with more supplies than you can hold just drop them off at Ginny's table. She'll be there late since she's expecting you to drop stuff off." Ginny had rented out a larger dimensional bag to Cass, something that would save a lot of trips. That was five more credits per day, but it was worth it to him not to have to keep running back and forth.

With that done, Cass was off. He was back in their neighborhood in minutes, still amazed at making a trip that used to take 45 minutes in under five. The bulwarks were going up quickly and the neighborhood was completely transformed. What had been a street and houses was now a true barrier of houses and earth. The houses were lined up side by side with dirt filling in the gaps between, arching slowly to create a large series of double rings with the cul-de-sac at their center. He glanced at the Bouchard compound and realized that their neighborhood probably looked like hydrogen atom from above. Dad would love that.

He walked up and touched the dirt, shocked to find it hard as stone. It blended perfectly into the houses themselves, the windows hardened as well. He skirted the huge circle the neighborhood had become until he found a break in the walls - an unfinished opening with some heavy wood doors stacked to the side, waiting to be hung. He went through their house for any gear or items they hadn't touched in a while, stowing it away. On a whim he threw in all the cans of food they had left in the garage. He was at the Bouchard's soon after, haggling with Madison about items he could take. In the end she parted with a lot of miscellaneous items that were either earlier versions or things she never got working right, as long as Cass agreed to give her 90% of the profits. Cass was beginning to feel like everyone wanted cuts of profits everywhere and he was losing track of them all.

He decided not to worry about it - he didn't really care how much money they made off of everything. He had a goal, and that goal was to get some high-powered individuals to come here. He'd do whatever it took.

With that thought in his mind, Cass made a high speed detour through the Bouchard compound on his way out, hoping he was too fast for anyone to see.

Then he was off again, this trip taking longer. As he slid to a stop in front of the zoo his heart fluttered in his chest. He was standing where he'd been shot the last time they were here, the sensation making an old skill wake up. Sanctuary Recall started forming inside of him but he stopped it. He wasn't in danger, he reminded his body. But I'm about to be, he thought as he looked up at the entrance to the zoo.

Later that evening, a few hours after sunset, Cass walked into the Market tent.

"Jesus kid, what happened to you?" Ginny's usual tone was softened at the sight of him.

Cass was covered in blood, mud, and who knew what else. His clothes were ripped to shreds, his hair a mess, and he was limping. His face, for all its damage, held an expression of triumph. The animals at the zoo had gotten harder since the last time he'd been there, but he'd gotten a hell of a lot faster and had more tricks up his sleeve. The monkeys may as well have been standing still, the penguins were sitting targets, and even the hyenas weren't bad if you got in and out before their fear effects took hold. He even managed to clear out some of the singular boss animals, gaining a level in the process. Without a word he started pulling items from his dimensional storage and placing them across the table. Murmurs filled the room as people tried, and failed, to discretely pay attention to the wide array of items he had.

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Ginny, for her part, was rapidly going through them, scanning each before touching it to make it disappear.

"Arcane Scamperer cloaks? Pretty useful and not uncommon, but how did you get so many? Are these ice affinity pearls? And some sort of cloak made of… Hyena Cackle Cloak? And a fear-based pendant? Fleetfoot hooves? What is…" This continued on for another 30 minutes, Cass would pull items out and Ginny would catalog them and make them disappear.

Her eyes went wide as he placed two more items on the table.

"What in the hell are those? I don't get anything from them when I try to identify them, which should be impossible."

"I don't think they have a name, we've been calling them energy rods."

She ran her hands over the long metal spikes. She could feel some sort of power within them and her skills let her know that these were potentially very, very valuable.

"They are basically power batteries. Right now this one," he tapped one of them, "is filled with the energy essence of a Thunder Titan, a kind of electric gorilla. The other is filled with Howler Monkey energy, fast, sharp, and vicious."

Once she knew what to look for she could feel it and it was exactly as he described. "These things are going to make us a fucking fortune!"

"The rods aren't for sale, just the energy inside. I can get other types too, if someone lets me know what they want."

Ginny spluttered. "But - you have no idea what you're giving up here! The energy, yeah - that's valuable and you'll turn a lot of credits for those, but the rods themselves. Who made this? Was it a System item? I've literally never heard of anything that does anything even close to this before. The types of uses… Listen, you are super, super lucky you signed that exclusivity contract. Whatever you do, do NOT tell anyone about what these do. If anyone in here asks, I'm going to tell them it was some sort of weapon or something. This is the kind of thing that will absolutely get your entire town burned to the ground just so some rich wizard or something can kidnap the person that made these. I'm going to have to make the extraction process secret as well. It'll cost, but you'll make that back no problem."

She dismissed all the items and Cass handed her the bag back. "So where are my items?"

"Some of them are already on the market. Don't worry, we both make more money if I sell them for more, so I'm going about it in the way that'll make us both rich. Some of the other items I put up for auction, although I'm going to spread them out. I don't want to flood the market and drop your prices. I also don't want it to be obvious that someone dumped a shit ton of high-value, rare items on my table in the middle of the fucking busy hour. I'm going to drip them in slowly so it doesn't cause any ripples."

"Won't that mean it'll take longer to get my money?"

"It will, kid, but you're better off for it. If you need money I can loan it to you, but you'll make more with a slow burn than just dumping everything into the market at once. Lowering the value doesn't just cost you credits, it makes it harder for you to keep up this part of your contract." She flashed something across his screen, something he hadn't paid attention to before.

Ginny retains the right to terminate if Cass fails to engage in at least one transaction every one week or an average sales amount of 500 credits per month. Any transaction Cass does complete within this period will carry a 5-credit fee for processing. If Cass is unable to meet the transactional requirements Ginny retains the right to apply a fee of up to 500 credits per month for the value of the missed transactions.

"What is this? I didn't see this!"

"It was there kid. I know it looks unfair but it's just motivation. I only have a set number of exclusivity contract slots, I can't fill them up with people that aren't going to keep up their end. You need to provide at least 500 credits worth of material per month. If you dump everything on the market and the prices for your items drops because of it you'll have to gather even more the next time, and more the next. It becomes a death spiral until your prices are so low that there's no point in even selling those items anymore. This slow method is better."

"And don't worry - the good news is that, with what you have here, I'm betting you're set for the next couple months anyway. Don't let that slow you down, though. Bring me more stuff - and not the same as this stuff, different stuff. Should have plenty of opportunities with the Challenge coming up."

Cass felt swindled but didn't know what to do about it. The worst part was that he didn't even know if he HAD been swindled, just that he felt like he had. He tried to push those emotions to the side so he could focus on his meeting with Marcus.

"Fine, okay. It is what it is. I need those rods back as soon as you can get them, though."

"I put the energy up on auction, kid - it'll be seven days. And before you object," she put up a hand just as Cass opened his mouth. "That was your best option. The System will value the energy as basic, unrefined, System energy. The very specific, pure, refined nature of the energy in these rods makes them incredibly valuable to the right market. Potion makers, artisans, crafters, wizards - people like that who can use energy in its purest form will love this. You would have been leaving hundreds of credits on the table if you'd posted them to the market."

Cass felt dejected but tried not to let it show in his voice. "Okay then, I'll be back for them in a week."

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