[1% LIFESTEAL] Chapter 183 - A Beacon Among Faded Memories

Freddy had three problems with enchanted equipment: first, he made his weapons through abilities, so he didn’t need those; second, his style was too destructive to equipment, with Leviathan’s Fury being the biggest culprit; and third, he was so naturally durable that most equipment just wasn’t worth the strain on mobility. 

That being said, he wanted to have proper equipment again. Nobody was above needing a solid set of armor. He just needed something a bit more exotic.

For a while, he’d been thinking that he would have to consult an expert on what would be best for him. 

He hadn’t expected that an expert would move before he even asked.

As he read through the features of the set that cost just a little over 4 billion dollars, he didn’t even make it halfway through and he already knew he was going to buy it. 

It consisted of a sort of half-piece upper body bodysuit that roughly resembled a white hoodie, a pair of tight leggings made of leather-like synthetic material, and a pair of tall black boots. There was also a small collection of masks he could buy for extra money, but that was clearly secondary to the set itself.

Now, while the leggings were pretty standard-looking, and the boots were also nothing particularly special even if they were quite tight-fitting, the upper body part was… a little bizarre. 

It was a tight white shirt that had basically no holes other than at the waist. The sleeves extended into gloves with a subtle rubber grip so they wouldn’t slip, and the head part consisted of a two-part set of a tight-fitting pseudo-balaclava without any eye-holes, and a hood he could throw over it. 

The balaclava part would effectively make him look like a faceless mannequin, but the sellers promised that it was completely transparent when viewed from the inside—same as the hood, which meant that neither part would obscure his vision. Thankfully, there was a zipper, so he wouldn’t have to walk around with his face covered like some sort of psychopath serial killer, which was a plus.

But its looks weren’t the reason it cost a damn fortune. 

For starters, every piece had a greater—not minor or major, but greater rune of self-repair, which could store up to 50% essence. That was also the only standard, whole rune inscribed into every piece—on the inside so it wouldn’t be visible. And, on top of that, every piece was imbued with a three-star tzenekite imbuement, including both the boots, which were worth approximately half the cost of the set. 

The whole set was intentionally designed to be extremely fragile. It was actually specifically worked on by someone with the unique ritual affinity; yes, the same unique affinity as the one that Silver Heart had. While that was a bit of a freaky coincidence, it wasn't impossible for two people to have the same unique affinity. 

It was certainly rare, though. Rare enough that Freddy doubted he'd ever find guidance on Perished Water. 

The ritual affinity seemed to target an esoteric form of rune based on principles similar to the unholy affinity. They could be used for, well, rituals, but it was also viable as equipment runework. 

It didn't cost essence like normal runes, but it did sacrifice some aspect of the gear to enhance another.  

And, in this case, the thing being sacrificed was the durability of the set, making it easier to tear apart than the average piece of cotton cloth. 

So why then would anyone want to wear equipment that provided seemingly no protection? Well, it was quite simple, actually. While it didn’t provide any physical protection, it provided protection of literally every other kind. Those sacrifice runes took away the toughness of the material, and then traded it to enhance everything else. 

Extreme hydrophobia—all liquids would just repel straight off it. Acids, poisons, adhesives—they would struggle to find perch on it. 

Highly thermally stubborn—both cold and heat would struggle to get through. On top of that, the cloth couldn’t burn at all. 

Exceptional essence impermeability, making it an incredible form of defense against hostile essence. It could also dissipate essence on contact, which would slightly weaken most abilities he was struck by. 

Last but not least, it had an aura filter that allowed Freddy to more easily conceal his presence. Not to the level of full stealth, but it was a welcome addition nonetheless.

And all of this was wrapped up in the wonderful package of self-repair.

The thing about the self-repair rune was that it scaled poorly with tougher materials. A self-repair rune on a plate of steel would be a lot less useful than one on a regular piece of cloth. 

And this set was designed to be as fragile as possible. All while having a three-star imbuement and a greater self-repair rune. 

To put it bluntly, it was almost completely indestructible. 

Anything short of tearing every inch of it to shreds wouldn’t stop the self-repair runes from doing their job. And with a three-star imbuement, it was a matter of seconds before the rune was topped up again. 

Runes had a certain essence capacity, and while those runes worked, that essence was drained. The peculiar thing about the self-repair rune was that it could only fix damage immediately after it was inflicted. And if it ran out of essence before everything was fixed, the remaining damage would be permanent. 

But that limitation would hardly ever be a concern with this set.

For starters, 50% essence for a set so fragile was borderline overkill. And if that wasn’t enough, the three-star imbuement would recover 3% essence every second. 

Something like Leviathan's Fury would barely even register. There was actually nothing he could do that would put the set anywhere near the risk of actual damage. Well, unless he did something crazy like taking it off and throwing it into a vat of boiling acid for half an hour. Even then, he wasn’t sure if that would cut it.

Of course, it still was basically useless against even the most mundane of physical attacks. For most people, that alone would make it a poor choice. 

But not for Freddy. 

His physical defense was off the charts, and he could heal himself through 1% Lifesteal. 

But stuff like acid, poison, fire, and ice—he wasn’t nearly as resistant to them.

This was why he knew that this set was being sold only because he was likely to buy it. 

He was quite impressed, but also a bit disturbed by how well this armor covered his needs. It made him question just how much was publicly known about him, and in what other ways that information could be used.

Still, they had hit the nail on the head with this one, and it was thus that he clicked on the buy button without any regrets. 

The set would be delivered to his room by the end of the day, but not before it was adjusted to fit him.

The tablet requested that he raise it above his head so it could scan his physical proportions so they could be sent to the seller for the final adjustments. While that made him a little uncomfortable, it was necessary unless he wanted to wear poorly fitting armor.

Sophia watched him complete the purchase before muttering, “Uh… Freddy. What the hell?”

“Hmm?” He turned to face her. “What?”

“Don’t tell me you’re actually going to wear that?” She grinned at him. “It’s so, so ugly. I mean wow.”

He shrugged. “I’m not buying it for the looks, Sophia.” He rolled his eyes before taking a quick look at the bonus masks that were on offer. There were a few he could get for free with the set, but there were also a couple he could pay extra for. 

They were all stylized in one way or another, and while his juvenile side begged him to grab the edgiest thing on offer—a scary-looking black skull mask—he held himself back and focused on the functionality. 

Which inevitably brought him to the most expensive mask on offer. It cost about half a billion dollars, further draining his pockets, but the effects were certainly worth it. 

The mask itself was a plain oval of gold, again without any eye holes since it was transparent from the inside, like a one-way mirror. It was made of exceptionally hard material and had a greater hardness rune with a two-star imbuement. No self-repair, likely because it couldn’t do shit if the mask was actually damaged. 

It had two primary functions other than just protecting his face—it highlighted movement, allowing him to more easily keep track of large number of monsters, especially in poor visibility conditions, and it also “pinched” the reflection at the edges, squeezing in more information into the user’s field of view. It could apparently almost allow him to see all the way behind him—even if it was quite distorted—and the movement was extra highlighted at the edges, which would give him a bigger warning if something was approaching his back. 

The highlighting feature also worked better on fast-moving objects, doubly so if they were headed his way. 

Sohpia watched him complete the second purchase and groaned. “Oh, come on! Are you trying to look like you belong to some fringe religious group?”

“You are literally the last person I want to hear that from.”

She scoffed and looked away. “Okay, now gimme, I want to buy something, too.”

Passing it over to her, he got up to head to the bathroom.

They spent the next few hours shopping. Sophia ended up getting two cursed items—both of them were rings with a discount for life-affinity essence. It was only 7 and 9%. And due to the way essence discounts applied one after another rather than all at once, that added up to a 15.37% discount. 

She also ended up buying herself a brutally price-hiked one-star satellite, a bunch of different treasures and random drugs, a few half-broken rune tablets for the life affinity, and a whole assortment of knick knacks. To his surprise, she bought no armor or weapons. When he asked, she said he’d see why later. 

Freddy also got himself a potion that would temporarily grant him a strength boost, and a handful of essence-recovery elixirs. He wanted to avoid the instant-recovery stuff due to risk of soul damage, but he still picked up a few that boosted his passive recovery for a while. As long as he didn’t go too crazy with them, he would be fine.

With the final purchase of a massive pile of luxury food pills, they were done, at least as far as themselves were concerned.

The last thing they needed to check out was the mercenaries they could hire to fight alongside them. And the other two that would be going with them.

Freddy sighed. “If we’re taking Lucas and Janice, we need to get them some equipment.”

“Of course we will!” Sophia said. “But we should ask them what they want, first.”

After a moment of silence, he scoffed. “Yeah… I don’t know about that.”

“What?”

“I’m not sure I actually want to take them with me.”

“Are you going back on your word?”

“Maybe…” he said, letting the word settle for a while before echoing it, “Maybe.”

Sophia looked like she wanted to say something, but decided to give him a moment instead. 

After gathering his thoughts, he continued, “My first meeting with Lucas is like a blazing beacon among faded memories. Back then, I gave myself some shitty excuse, but I know damn well I was lying to myself. When I saw him heading into a passage as a mortal, wearing oversized gear and shaking in his boots… Man, it was like looking into a mirror.

“So I decided to help him. And, you know, for what it’s worth, I do think I’ve done a reasonably good job so far.” He laughed at himself. “I have half a mind to just let him go. After we change his face, we can just give him some money and say our goodbyes. Then, whatever happens, happens.”

Sophia gave him a pained smile. “But you don’t want to do that, do you?”

“Of course I don’t. But what else am I supposed to do? The hundred years of isolation aside, I barely have more life experience than him. If I’m being honest, I don’t know what the fuck I’m even doing anymore. I feel like I don’t want any of this, and yet I’m still here, politicking and fighting monsters and sinking further into shit that drives me insane. Dragging him along with that won’t do him any good.”

Sophia smirked at him. “Funny. You don’t seem to have any qualms about dragging me along.”

He snorted at her. “Oh, please. You know damn well I ain’t dragging you anywhere. We just happen to be going in the same direction.”

“Fair enough,” she said with a giggle. “Though I feel a bit obligated to point something out.”

“Oh, god…” he muttered, planting his face into his hand. “Why do I feel like you’re going to say something that will make me feel awful?”

Sophia burst out laughing. “I don’t know if it will make you feel awful, but… I feel like you’re still projecting yourself on Lucas.”

Freddy froze. “What do you mean?”

“You’re acting as if he can’t choose for himself. Or live for himself. Or be himself. Like, you do realize that he is ultimately responsible for his own life, right? You aren’t his dad.”

“I’m responsible for what happened to him, Sophia. I have to make it right.”

“No,” she said sharply, turning dead-serious. “Basilisk is responsible for what happened to him. You act like everything is either your fault or your responsibility. But it isn’t.” She sighed. “Let him choose. If it goes to shit, then so be it.”

He winced at that and opened his mouth, but she stabbed an index finger into his cheek. “No,” she stated with authority. “No more of that.” She sighed. “You said it yourself. Without the century of losing your mind in a small box, you are just a kid in your early twenties. 

“You’ve tangled yourself into this web of nonsense and it’s clearly overwhelming you, even if you’re not ready to admit it. Stop doing this to yourself. You’re going to have to learn to just let go of things. Because it will break you if you keep it up.”

His lips turned down as he turned away. “I wish it were that easy.”

“It is that easy. You’re just too used to doing things the hard way.” She clicked her tongue and growled. “You really suck to yourself, you know that?”

He chuckled. “Yeah. I know.” Picking up the tablet again, he clicked on the mercenary section. “Let’s keep going. I want this day to be over.”

Shaking her head, she focused on the tablet. 

It was time to check out the mercenaries.