The "Gutter" was a canyon of rusted titanium and flickering neon. It was a place where the cast-off technology of higher dimensions came to die and where the "Unsettled," those who survived the migration of their worlds, struggled to breathe.
Kenji and Bjorn walked through the crowded thoroughfare of Rust-Basin. The inhabitants here weren't the clean, ranked humans of Aethelgard. They were "Patchworks" creatures with hydraulic limbs, extra eyes scavenged from optics-drones, and skin hardened by atmospheric radiation.
[ZONE: RUST-BASIN MARKET (NEUTRAL)]
[ATMOSPHERIC TOXICITY: 12% - REDUCED BY ASCENDANT VIGOR]
"Everyone's staring, Kenji," Bjorn whispered, his hand tight on the cracked handle of his axe. "They smell the 'Fresh-Meat' on us."
"Let them stare," Kenji replied. He was carrying the glowing Void-Ether Core from the drone they'd killed. In this place, it was like walking around with a briefcase full of diamonds. "We need two things: a signal-booster for your comms and a stabilizer for my forge. I can't build anything more complex than a toothpick with the mana-noise in this sector."
They stopped in front of a stall made from the ribcage of a massive mechanical beast. Behind the counter sat a creature with four spindly arms and a face covered by a welding mask.
"Fresh-Meat wants to trade?" The merchant's voice sounded like gravel in a blender. His nameplate read Krot the Dismantler. "Or does Fresh-Meat want to get dismantled?"
Kenji set the Void-Ether Core on the counter. The purple light illuminated the merchant's mask. Krot's four hands froze.
"Void-grade? From a Seeker-Drone?" Krot leaned in, his mechanical eyes clicking as they zoomed in on the core. "How does a Level 4 'Gutter-Rat' crack a Seeker?"
"I'm a Scrapsmith," Kenji said, his voice flat. "And that core is worth more than this entire stall. I want a Hyper-Wave Transceiver and a Grade-B Mana Filter. Now."
Krot laughed, a wheezing sound. "Bold. But a Scrapsmith without a filter is just a man with hot hands. You want Grade-B? That'll cost the core and your friend's axe."
Bjorn growled, but Kenji held up a hand. He used [System Sight]. In this new world, the "Truth" was harder to see, it looked like layers of static but he could still spot the flaws.
"Your 'Grade-B' filter has a hairline fracture in the containment lead," Kenji pointed to a dusty device behind Krot. "It'll leak radiation and kill your customer in three days. And that Transceiver? It's a repurposed mining-comm. It can't pierce the interference of the Industrial Spires where my friends are."
Krot's mechanical eyes whirred. "You... you can see the faults? Without a Scanner-Eye?"
"I don't need a scanner," Kenji said. "I'm the one who built the world you're living in."
It was a lie, but in this place, reputation was as good as scrap.
Suddenly, the crowd in the market parted. A group of five warriors in matte-black armor The Void-Hounds stepped forward. These weren't Gutter-Rats. They were Rank 15 Enforcers, the bottom-feeders of the higher sectors.
"A Void-Ether Core," the leader said, his voice amplified by his helmet. "That belongs to the Syndicate. Hand it over, Fresh-Meat, and we might let you keep your legs."
[TARGET: VOID-HOUND ENFORCER (RANK 15)]
[THREAT: HIGH]
"Bjorn," Kenji whispered, his fingers twitching toward the core. "Remember how I told you to become part of the weight?"
"Yeah?" Bjorn grunted.
"I'm going to 'Short' the core," Kenji said. "When the flash happens, you don't swing for the head. You swing for the Gravity-Belts on their waists. If they lose their weight-sync, the atmosphere will do the work for us."
Kenji didn't wait for a response. He slammed his palm into the Void-Ether Core, not to harvest it, but to [Micro-Forge: Overload].
The core didn't explode. It released a blinding pulse of violet "Anti-Mana."
The market was plunged into a sensory blackout. The Enforcers roared, their advanced helmets malfunctioning as the Void-energy scrambled their optics.
CRACK!
Bjorn's axe, even in its broken state, found the lead Enforcer's belt. The magnetic tether snapped.
In the 4x gravity of the Outer Forge, losing your weight-stabilizer was a death sentence. The Enforcer let out a choked scream as his own body suddenly weighed four times what it should. His bones snapped instantly under his own mass, and he collapsed into a heap of black armor and crushed flesh.
Kenji grabbed the other two Enforcers by their collars and used [Recursive Echo] a tiny version that only affected his grip. He didn't throw them; he "looped" their momentum into the ground.
Within seconds, the Void-Hounds were pinned to the mud by their own equipment.
Kenji turned back to Krot, who was cowering behind his counter. Kenji picked up the now-dimmed core there was still 10% charge left and tossed it to the merchant.
"The filter and the transceiver," Kenji said, his eyes glowing with a faint, dangerous violet. "And throw in a map of the Spires. Or I'll see what your 'Base-Code' looks like."
Krot didn't argue. He scrambled to pack the items.
As Kenji and Bjorn walked away from the stunned market, a notification popped up on Kenji's vision.
[SKILL EVOLUTION: COMBAT RECYCLING (RANK 1)]
[EFFECT: USE THE ENEMY'S GEAR AND ENVIRONMENT TO AMPLIFY DAMAGE]
[LEVEL UP: 4 -> 7]
"We're getting stronger fast," Bjorn noted, his breathing finally steadying.
"We have to," Kenji said, looking up at the Spires. The transceiver in his hand was already humming, picking up a faint, rhythmic pulse of frost-mana. "Elara's alive. But she's being moved. The signal is heading toward the Reclamation Pits."
"The Pits?" Bjorn asked.
"Where they turn 'Unsettled' into 'Materials'," Kenji said, his jaw tightening. "We're going to need more than a wrench for this."