Colt stood at the table with the compass, the dagger, and the cube laid out in front of him.
He stared at them for a while.
“How did you manage to acquire those?” Kevin asked.
Colt said it quiet. “Fuckin’ coyotes.”
Clay stepped up beside him and crossed his arms. “That Isapa guy Toyahdoh told us about. He had some of his people on that Earth.”
“He knew about me, Kevin.” Colt looked up at him. “Knew about the cabin. Knew I used the portal. Knew things he shouldn’t have.”
“It was a fella named Tahvo and his son Naha,” Clay added. “They were pretendin’ to be Toyahdoh’s boys.”
Kevin’s head tilted a fraction. “Isapa has agents on every Earth. However, they should not have known that you traveled to 447.”
“We ran into a lot more than coyotes too, ninjas came and stole the compass—”
“They killed a boy. Couldn’t have been more than seven.” Colt cut Clay off. “Must have been fifty or sixty folks killed along with him.”
“Both those ninjas and them coyotes both showin’ up like that.” Clay shook his head.
“I don’t think it was a coincidence,” Colt said.
Colt motioned to the cube and dagger.
“I got these off of Naha.” He reached down and picked up the dagger, turning it over in his hand.
MELEE WEAPON EQUIPPED
Conduit Dagger
It was way too heavy for its size. But that extra strength he gained from his AP made it feel just right.
“Naha killed a man with this. Stuck it right through his head and sucked the shinki right outta him. That’s the second I knew for sure Toyahdoh didn’t send ’em.”
Kevin’s eye focused on the dagger and his light blinked four times.
“This is a Conduit Dagger. It will add five points to your resonance stat while it is in your possession. When an enemy is dispatched by this weapon, you will directly absorb their shinki without the need for manual extraction.”
Clay let out a low whistle. “So if Colt kills one of them ninjas, he don’t have to pluck those crystals outta their heads no more?”
“Affirmative,” Kevin said.
Colt wondered how many lives this dagger had taken, how many innocent people’s shinki been stolen by Naha. He set the dagger down on the table and picked up the cube. The thing was heavy, had to be twenty pounds at least, but it was barely an inch across on each side. The weight didn’t make sense for something so small.
“And this thing?” Colt held it up. “What’s this do?”
Kevin’s eye flashed four times again.
“That is a Phase Cube. If equipped in your Module Bay, it will cover the fifty shinki cost required to travel back to the HUB. You will no longer need to expend personal reserves for return transport.”
Colt turned the cube over in his palm. Free trips back. No more worrying about having enough shinki to get to the HUB.
“How do I do that?” he asked. “Equip it? I’m holdin’ it right now.”
“Open your interface, select Module Bay, select the Phase Cube from your inventory, and move it to an equipped slot.”
Colt focused on the corner of his vision.
PROJECT: LAST STAND v1.10
Stats
Status
Map
Armory
Module Bay
Skills
Help
?????
?????
?????
He opened Module Bay.
Module Bay:
Module Inventory: 3
0/3 Gear Equipped
Module Display
He opened the inventory.
Module Inventory:
CONDUIT DAGGER MK-I
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
PHASE CUBE MK-I
SPATIAL ANCHOR MK-I
Colt looked at the Phase Cube and a message popped up.
Equip to Module Bay?
“Yes.”
The phase cube flashed in his hand and disappeared.
CONDUIT DAGGER MK-I
SPATIAL ANCHOR MK-I
Another message appeared.
Phase Cube MK-I Equipped
He did the same with the compass. It flashed and vanished from the table.
Spatial Anchor MK-I Equipped
Then he tried with the dagger.
INCOMPATIBLE WITH MODULE BAY
“It ain’t lettin’ me move the dagger to the module bay,” Colt said.
“The Conduit Dagger is classified as a weapon,” Kevin said. “Weapons cannot be equipped to the Module Bay. They must be carried physically.”
Colt closed the menu and went back to check.
Module Bay:
Module Inventory: 1
2/3 Gear Equipped
Module Display
“Man, it ain’t fair you get all the magic stuff.” Clay crossed his arms but a small grin pulled at his mouth.
Colt pulled his bowie from his belt and held it out handle first.
“You can have this if you want.”
“Hell yeah, brother.” Clay took it and slid it into his belt with a satisfied nod.
Colt slid the dagger into his sheath.
He stood there with the dagger on his hip. The weight of it sat different than the bowie had.
He pulled it back out and looked at it.
MELEE WEAPON EQUIPPED
Conduit Dagger
The blade was clean now but he could still see Naha driving it through that man’s skull. The way the light had traveled up his arm and into Naha’s chest.
Same thing that one eyed ninja did to the boy.
“Kevin.” Colt kept his eyes on the blade. “Back at the museum. When them ninjas killed people, I saw somethin’. A white flash comin’ outta their eyes.”
“You observed shinki extraction,” Kevin said.
“Every living being carries varying quantities of ambient puha. Upon death, that energy can be harvested by a nearby conduit.”
Clay shifted his weight. “So they weren’t just killin’ folks. They were collectin’ from ’em.”
“Affirmative.”
Colt’s jaw tightened. He thought about the boy with the toy gun. The smile on his face right before the blade came down. Seven years of life, maybe less, and all of it got sucked up into some ninja’s chest like it was nothing.
“That city,” Colt said. “All them buildings. All them people. Why was it so built up? So many folks livin’ there?”
Kevin’s head tilted. “Earth 447 exists in an advanced developmental state. Populations on such Earths tend to be dense and technologically progressive.”
“But why?”
Kevin was quiet for a second. His eye dimmed, then brightened again.
“Some Earths are cultivated,” he said. “Others are harvested. Others are depleted.”
The words sat in Colt’s gut like a stone.
He didn’t know what that meant. Not all the way. But he could feel the shape of it. A city full of people going about their lives, raising kids, building things, thinking they were free. And the whole time they were just getting fattened up for slaughter.
“Cultivated,” Colt repeated. “Like cattle.”
Kevin didn’t confirm or deny. He just stood there with that single eye glowing.
Colt slid the dagger back into the sheath. He didn’t want to hold it anymore.
He opened his interface and went to Stats.
Stats:
Strength: 24 (?)
Speed: 20 (?)
Endurance: 15 (?)
Perception: 15 (?)
Willpower: 10 (?)
Resonance: 5 +5(?)
Luck: 10 (?)
AP: 0
He looked at the resonance line. It had been sitting at five since he first checked. Now a plus five say next to it.
“Hey Kev. My resonance went up. That the dagger doin’ that?”
“Affirmative. The Conduit Dagger adds five points to your resonance stat while in your possession.”
“What’s that mean for me? Practically.”
Kevin’s head tilted a fraction. “Resonance governs your connection to cosmic energy. It affects how efficiently you absorb shinki, your capacity for holding it, and your sensitivity to external power sources.”
Colt turned that over in his head. “So I can take in more now.”
“More precisely, you absorb it more efficiently. At your previous resonance level, one unit of harvested shinki would deposit one unit into your power bank.” Kevin paused. “At your current level, one unit of harvested shinki will deposit two units into your power bank.”
Clay let out a low whistle. “So every ninja he kills is worth double now?”
“Affirmative.”
Colt looked down at the dagger on his hip. This changed things. Every fight from here on out, he’d be climbing twice as fast.
“Damn,” he said quietly.
He closed the interface and the stats folded away. The number sat in his head though. Ten resonance. Double absorption. He didn’t know how high the stat could go, but he knew he wanted it higher.
“What happens if I get it up more?” Colt asked. “Twenty? Thirty?”
“The scaling continues. Higher resonance yields higher absorption multipliers, increased shinki capacity, and improved detection of energy signatures across distances.”
Colt nodded slow. The dagger wasn’t just a weapon. It was a tool for getting stronger faster. And after what he saw at that museum, he needed every edge he could get.
Clay stretched his arms over his head and let out a long breath. “Man, I’m tired.”
Colt nodded. He was beyond tired. “Yeah. Me too.”
They both looked at the bed. There was only one.
“Go on,” Clay said. “Take it.”
Colt shook his head. “Nah, you take it. You’re older.”
“That’s exactly why I ain’t takin’ it.” Clay’s voice got a little quieter. “Pa’s gone, Colt. I can’t do much to protect you out there.” He gave Colt a small shove, playful but with something heavier behind it. “Considerin’ I was just about dog chow a little while ago. Let me at least make sure you get some good sleep.”
Colt looked at his brother for a second, then smiled a little. “If you say so.”
He laid down on the bed and stared up at the ceiling. The lights were too bright and the hum sat in his teeth the way it always did. The air smelled like nothing and the metal walls reflected everything back cold.
An hour passed. Maybe more. Colt couldn’t fall asleep.
He turned his head and looked at Clay on the floor. His brother was laying flat on his back with his eyes open, staring up at the same ceiling.
“Hey Clay.”
“Yeah.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“Me neither.” Clay let out a breath through his nose. “It’s so weird in here, man. The lights. All the metal. I miss the cabin.”
Colt was quiet for a second, then called out. “Hey Kev. Throw that calmin’ stuff back on.”
Kevin’s eye flickered once. “Perception overlay activating. Calming profile applied.”
The room shifted around them. The smooth walls turned to rough planks. The cold floor became packed dirt. The bright lights dimmed to the flicker of a low fire. And the smell rolled in with it, pig shit and wood smoke filling the air.
Clay chuckled from the floor. “Thanks, brother.”
“Yeah, man.” Colt breathed it in. He didn’t mind the pig shit smell after all. It smelled like home.
A couple minutes later, Clay was snoring.
Colt closed his eyes and let himself drift.
The dream came fast.
It started like being pulled through something, rushing past lights and lines of ones and zeros that didn’t make sense. Colors that moved too quick to name. Everything around him hummed and pulsed like it was alive, like he was inside something that was thinking.
Then it stopped.
He opened his eyes and everything was murky. He couldn’t move. He couldn’t breathe right. Something thick pressed against him from all sides, holding him in place.
He was looking through glass.
On the other side, shapes moved. Blurry at first, then clearer. People in white coats walking past rows of glass vats just like the one he was in. The same lab from before. The same vats. The same bodies floating inside them.
Two of the white coats walked up to his tube and stopped in front of him. Their mouths moved but the words came through muffled and broken, like hearing someone talk underwater. He couldn’t make out what they were saying.
One of them leaned in close. A man. Colt could see his face now through the murk. Dark hair slicked back. Eyes that looked like they were measuring something.
The man smiled.
He leaned in closer until his face was right up against the glass, eye to eye with Colt.
Then Colt’s gaze dropped to the man’s chest. On his white coat, stitched into the fabric in neat letters, was a name.
Dr. Isapa
Colt woke up gasping.
