Mark stared down at the piece of armor he'd gotten from the silver chest. Its stats were interesting, to say the least.

Item: Thoughtful sacrifice (Chest) [Cursed]

Item lvl: 100

Resistance - 500

Mana +300

Description: Mana regeneration increased by 50%

The chest piece was made of soft white material with good breathability. It even had simple embroidery on the front, but for all its style, Mark couldn't see it being a viable defensive option. The item's stats spoke for themselves, and that was probably the point.

It gave a lot of Mana –not to mention the regeneration aspect– but the downside was almost not worth it.

Not only did it not offer any resistance, it negatively impacted the user's attributes.

Mark was lucky because he had a pretty high Resistance, and while this amount of Mana was almost on par with his total Mana, it just wasn't worth it to him.

If Mark had access to Aura it might have been an option but this particular item could very easily get him killed, not to mention the fact that he'd lose his set bonus that made his healing more potent.

Scratching his head Mark was contemplating what to do when a knock came at the door. He already knew who it was and called out for her to come in.

When Sam entered, she saw him still sitting in bed while staring at the item laid out on his covers.

"I can feel you thinking from over here. What's got you so deep in thought?" she said sat on the edge of his bed.

Mark glanced up at her to see if she was serious about hearing his thoughts. The connection between the three of them had deepened over the past few weeks, and honestly, it was sometimes unnerving how much he could feel coming from them.

She shot him a dry look that said, 'I'm Joking,' and he turned back to examine the item.

"Hmm, you're the perfect person to ask. I was going to consider selling this but check it out and tell me what you think," he asked trading the time to her.

Sam accepted the trade and hummed as she looked down at the light material.

"Hmm, well, the cursed property seems to relate to the drop in stats, but we can't exclude the fact that it could have another meaning. The only way would be to test it."

Then without waiting for Mark to say anything Sam began pulling the item on.

Mark's eyes widened.

"Hey hold on!" he yelped, but she kept trying to wriggle into the armor.

Lunging forward Mark tackled her into the mattress and grabbed hold of the top of the fabric to prevent her head from poking through the hole.

Sam half laughed through the material and her voice followed.

"Oh come Mark, relax. I'm sure it's safe, and even if it weren't, what would be our alternative? Let some poor shmuck test it for us?"

Mark did not agree with that either option. But it wasn't like they could afford to just ignore something like this. Regardless of its downsides, it was still a powerful item.

Realizing he'd just about crushed Sam under his full weight he got, reflexively letting go of the armor.

Sam poked her head through the top and giggled brightly.

"You can just say something like that and then proceed to put it on," Mark muttered.

"Where would we be if we never tried and tested things? I had a hypothesis it would be fine, and look…it is." Sam said

It was hard to tell, but there was a subtle shift in Sam's power and her Mana attribute grew noticeably stronger.

Mark shook his head, realizing he missed the cautious Sam in this scenario.

"Well?" he asked, directing his eyes toward her face.

Sam didn't get up from the bed and got a distant look as she stared at her status.

"Yup, this will do. I'll buy it from you, or trade something if you want."

Mark squinted at her as he realized she meant to keep it for herself.

Letting out a sigh Mark shrugged as he got up.

"Keep it, I can't use it so it's better this way."

This caused Sam to sit up.

"Hang on mister, you're not getting out of this so easily-"

Before she could continue Jonathan's voice came from the doorway.

"Oh? Am I interrupting something?" he drawled.

They turned to look at Jonathan as he entered through the open door.

Sam had forgotten to close it on the way in, and Jonathan plopped down on Mark's bed too.

"Oh, Mark's just trying to swindle himself again," Sam said in a dry voice.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"I'm not trying to do anything. If you want it just take it, as long as you're safe then I'm happy."

Mark was being honest, the item itself had a huge downside, but for Sam who relied so heavily on Mana, it was manageable.

Plus at this stage, Mark had over thirty thousand Sp, if there was something he needed to buy then he could outright splurge like one of those rich young masters.

Jonathan rolled his eyes at Mark.

"Nah, look at him he's got that stubborn look in his eye. He's not going to accept money right now. So how about this, you get him an item you think is equivalent value at a later date."

Mark started to shake his head, but Sam clapped her hands.

"Oh, I like that idea! We'll do that" she started and without giving Mark a chance to protest, Jonathan nodded with her ignoring Marks glares.

"Right, well now that that's sorted we should be getting ready to meet the Loyalists," he said.

Mark wanted to say that they hadn't sorted out anything but Sam and Jonathan were already moving to the door.

With a growl, a construct expanded through the room, slamming the door shut.

"Sam, seriously, you don't owe me anything, but I know I can't stop you when you get something in your head, so whatever works, honestly. If you can't do this, I won't trade items to you in the future."

Sam turned back to Mark, glancing up and down his body, and smiled.

"Mark, you do know threats are more effective when you're wearing more than just underwear, right?"

Mark looked down at himself and clicked his tongue, pulling a pair of pants for his inventory.

"I'm serious!" he tried to say with a little more dignity.

In the meantime, Jonathan crossed his hands behind his head.

"Dude, don't worry, she won't go overboard, we'll just make sure you get something worth your time."

Mark didn't like the use of 'we' in that sentence but he wasn't about to argue with them over it. Sighing he pulled on a shirt and released the construct.

"Alright, let's get going then, I guess."

They headed up one flight of stairs and met with Ethel and Karter who then all went down to the lobby and got in a waiting row of cars.

The Loyalists controlled a good few bases within the city, but they made for the center district.

Ethel produced the permits once more and they were let through.

Mark stared up at the few remaining skyscrapers as they passed and hoped for a better time during this visit as the last one had been an unpleasant experience.

Contrary to Mark's expectations they weren't led to one such tall building but were instead taken to what looked like a parking garage.

As Mark watched from the window he noticed there was a lot more security here than any normal parking garage would ever need.

Soldiers walked around in what they probably thought were discreet security guard uniforms, but their moments and the amount of Aura coming off them weren't fooling anyone in the limos.

When they parked next to a silver elevator Mark noticed another vehicle stopping in the bay beside them. Out climbed Patrica and Lisa. Nathan wasn't here this time but they still seemed to have a confident step in their walk and the silently greeted one another.

Mark got out tucking the folder of documents from the clinic under his arm.

Two guards on the elevator pressed the button for them and when the doors opened Mark saw that the elevator was large enough to accommodate all of them.

Stepping inside, the two guards followed, and although there were only three floors one of them pulled out a key card and tapped it to the scanner.

There was a pleasant beep, and the guard pressed the third floor and then the first. He input something else in the pad but Mark didn't see what that was.

Mark pulled the construct surrounding his body and allowed just the soles of his feet to make contact with the ground.

[Earth Mastery] immediately pulsed out and the elevator shaft came into view. The metal surrounding them was of immediate interest to Mark. It wasn't just cheap aluminum. The whole place was made of reinforced steel and concrete. Mark could tell they were descending at an incredibly accelerated rate, well past the underground, almost thirty-one stories down.

The lack of proximity to any tunnels was probably the only reason they hadn't suffered during the dungeon expansion, but it probably would have eventually become a problem for them too.

When the elevator dinged and opened out onto a busy room with tall ceilings, where people rushed through, going about their business. There was a large flag of red white and blue plastered on the back wall along with a metal plaque.

There must have been at least twenty to thirty people moving through this space at any given time. Several passages were leading off in different directions and Mark could feel them all. They connect in a maze of corridors and rooms all of varying sizes and shapes. The further Mark pushed his Mana the more it began to look like an anthill in his mind's eye.

The guards didn't let their little group get their bearings for long before they headed toward one of the larger rooms.

When they stepped into the corridor there was another heavy door almost twelve inches thick which the guard let them through with a retinal scanner.

The room they entered was a command center of sorts. There was a large screen up on the wall directed over the city and broken down into a grid map of zones and defense fortifications.

People worked at consoles but Mark could see several open meeting rooms at the back of the chamber. One of which he could feel three individuals already waiting. Two sat while one stood to attention and Mark knew who they were before the guard unlocked the door to the room.

Inside were Colonel Rachel, Captain Price, and General Faustus.

When they entered only Rachel shot them a withering glare while both Jason and General Faustus nodded at their entrance.

"Greetings friends, we have much to discuss and little time, please have a seat." General Faustus said.

"First, what proof do you have that you will be able to replace the religious district as the leader in medical care."

Mark got up and handed over his documents to the three individuals.

As seen below we will be more than capable of handling the current religious district's workload and more. We have also set up a voluntary screening for Corrupted humans, as I'm sure Captain Price has already debriefed you on the threats we face outside the city, as well as from within."

Mark went on to describe their processes and when he was done General Faustus looked far happier.

"Alright, I'm of the mind to accept these current conditions, if you'll allow us to place small teams throughout the clinic to ensure people's safety."

Ethel cleared her throat and nodded.

"Yes, well we already discussed it and there are places near our territory where people can be stationed to better protect the clinic. As things stand at the moment, we can allow patrols through the area, this is not a right but a privilege. The moment it's abused we'll withdraw it"

General Faustus's face twitched but he nodded at the terms even though Colonel Rachel looked like she was about to blow a blood vesle.

"Understood, then onto the next topic. The Unbound."

Right away, Mark straightened his spine.

With the system release of all the information, they had to assume the Loyalists were going to demand an answer as to why they had delayed informing them, but General Faustus continued on.

"We Have managed to collect eight such individuals since the spire dropped. We didn't know what their conncetion to the spire was but believed it to be important. We would like you to disclose how many Unbound you have both found as a matter of transparency." General Faustus said.

Mark glanced at everyone as they had the same thoughtful expression on their faces.

The fact that the Loyalists had managed to gather so many was a shock but even if they hadn't known what the Unbound were for, they had still had the foresight to keep them close.

General Faustus looked around and when no one answered he continued.

"We ask because we believe them to not only be for opening the spire but also controlling it when it does open. Because of this, we feel it would be best to make sure all relevant parties have an equal say. We have decided to move to appropriate resource sharing"

The room's air cooled rapidly and no one spoke for a while not even Ethel.

Mark's eyes narrowed at the man, he wanted them to hand over the names of the unbound they had located.

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