Another week flew by like it was nothing. D-day was approaching, and Arden, Vera, and Sya were training just as hard as before in the intermittent time. Their basics had been solidified, and now they were all trying to turn the basics into their own style.

  For some, like Vera and Arden, it was fairly easy. Swordfighters and pugilists were fairly simple. Stick close to your opponent and hit them hard. If they try to hit you, either back off or block. Or in Arden’s case, take a metaphysical bite.

  Sya’s was a lot more complex to figure out. Affliction specialist was a niche role on the best of days and just as esoteric to properly learn. Hit and run attacks were the standard for someone in her role, both of which were made more difficult by her unique setup.

  Rogier’s Tree had shapeshifting abilities, but it would always remain a spear, always at least a meter and a half long. That would be fine in a straight fight, but her build relied on sneaky and quick attacks, something that a guandao was unfit for. It was fluid, but it wasn't as quick as a weapon used by a poisoner should be. Daggers or short-swords would be more her style, something that discouraged her after falling in love with the guandao.

  It was something that Sya aimed to address during their most recent hunting expedition with Savish, to some success. Her weapon was still her greatest limiting factor, but she wouldn't let it make her a worse Starborn.

  The trip was the day before, a week after the first one, and it went better than the first one in terms of danger. There were no supergiants, but there was a main sequence variant of a streamer stag that the trio fought against in a battle that was harder than any of them expected.

  As soon as the main sequence ribbonboned elk was killed, Arden put the corpse in his inventory to experiment with, along with the antlers that were cut off during the fight.

  Currently, Arden was in his bathroom facing the tub. In the tub was the corpse he acquired the day before with several chemical cleaning agents along the rim. This was messy work, helped in no way by the size of the elk, as it was nearly twice as large as the base streamer stag, which was already a bit bigger than a fully grown deer. Thanks to that, its hulking body rose above the edge of the tub, spilling blood all over the porcelain and the floor.

  Arden sighed, looking at the mess. He sincerely hoped that the cleaning supplies he “borrowed” from room service would be enough. The last thing he wanted was for the cleaning lady to show up and see a bloodstained bathroom filled with the empty bottles of cleaning supplies. It would be a bad look, to be sure.

  He cracked his fingers and stood over the dead elk. He never realized how large the supplier of venison truly was until their first hunting expedition. The biomass he was able to obtain from one was staggering.

  He chuckled softly at the pun he unintentionally made and held his hands out above the corpse.

  A week ago, Yuro had questioned how Arden was able to provide such high quality materials, and Arden responded that he had a Satellite to help with collecting them.

  What he was doing right now was what he did with one of the streamer stags last week. It was just a hunch back then, but it was proven to be effective, so he would abuse the hell out of it.

  Arden smiled mischievously at the thought of this Satellite possibly becoming his most used one. It would be used as much as the Bone Talons and the Stoneflesh Shroud, though this one was strictly utility based.

  As white sparks coalesced in the air above the dead animal, Arden wondered what else the Forge of the Imaginarium would be able to do if he managed to figure out how to increase the thing's rank.

  After a few seconds, the anvil that appeared to be made of cooling lava fully manifested a few centimeters above the carcass. It fell into the elk, crushing it.

  Actually, crushing it was the wrong word. The animal burst like a balloon, sending blood everywhere. The body disappeared, though, leaving only a room and a Starborn painted in blood.

  Arden sighed and held his hands up to his eyes to devour the blood that drowned them. When his vision was cleared, he was able to see that the mess was much much worse than he initially thought.

  “Oh, balls. I definitely don't have enough cleaning supplies,” he said, taking off his soaked shirt and shorts, leaving him in his boxers that were mercifully spared..

  A Status notification appeared in front of him.

  Ribbonbone Elk skull has been added to your inventory.

  Ribbonbone Elk bones (17) have been added to your inventory.

  Ribbonbone Elk hide has been added to your inventory

  Ribbonbone Elk skull has been added to your inventory.

  Arden was about to start the arduous process of cleaning the entire bathroom and entry way to his bedroom when he paused, seeing the message.

  “What?”

  Putting down the lone sponge that he realized would not be enough for this endeavor, he reached into his inventory with both hands and pulled out identical skulls belonging to the dead beast. He stared at them for a few seconds, confusion burned into his face.

  “I don’t…This is…How?”

  He glared into the vacant eye holes of both skulls for several seconds.

  “Why did you guys explode? This didn't happen last time. Last time, the other body was just exsanguinated. And why did I get separate notifications when the bones were grouped together?”

  Deciding he had a better use of his time than questioning the skulls (?) of a dead elk, Arden began spraying some cleaning solution everywhere.

  He was about to start going at it with the sponge until he heard a knock at his door.

  Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “There cannot possibly be a worst time for guests…” he muttered. “I’m mostly naked cleaning up a murder scene in my apartment.”

  Arden slowly approached the door as the knocking continued.

  “Uh, who is it?” He asked in his best non-suspicious voice, which failed completely.

  Vera's voice answered.

  “Are you alright in there? You sound like you're trying to hide or dispose of a body.”

  Arden glanced back at the bathroom, still coated with blood, as was the foyer that he just tracked blood through. For the first time, he loathed having a carpeted floor.

  ‘Fuck me till I fart.’

  “I’m not hiding a human body.”

  There was a pause as Vera digested the answer he provided.

  “I didn't say anything about a human body.”

  “I know, I'm just putting it out here. I'm not disposing of a person. Before you get that idea.”

  “...What are you doing in there?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Are you sure you're not getting rid of a body?”

  “Positive. There's no body left.”

  “Can I come in?”

  “Can you help me clean?”

  Arden opened the door and quickly ushered Vera in, scanning the hall for any passersby that may have been in the vicinity. Thankfully, Vera was alone.

  She gasped when she saw the red discoloration added to his room since last time she had been in here, which was last night.

  “Jesus, Arden.”

  “I didn't expect it would get this messy. This is the first time this happened, and I'm kind of at a loss.”

  “What did you do?”

  “I dropped my anvil Satellite on the main sequence we killed yesterday. That's how it auto harvests materials.”

  “Thats a strange way to use an anvil.”

  “Not as strange as the fact that I got two skulls from it. How does that even happen?”

  Vera gestured wildly at the bathroom coated in blood a centimeter thick.

  “How does this happen!?”

  Arden shrugged and started to devour the blood that covered him. It was too slow a process to devour the blood staining the bathroom, but it was enough for him.

  “I wish I knew. Last time, there was just like a bucket of blood that all went down the drain or into me. This guy just exploded.”

  Vera ran a hand through her hair, exasperated.

  “I was going to tell you something, but I guess this comes first. What do you need?”

  “A lot of cleaning solution.”

  Arden marched back into the bathroom and read out the names of the cleaning products that he was going to need.

  “Palm Alive, Doorex, bleach, tile cleaner, and a shit ton of soap and air freshener. The air tastes like pennies.”

  Vera sighed and left Arden’s apartment to go collect what he needed to clean.

  “I don't think she'll want to spend the night with me in a room that smells like bleach and copper.”

  Before Arden began cleaning with what supplies he had, he took out one of the 17 bones that he got from creating this mess. Despite the situation, he smiled as he waved it in the air like a ballerina's ribbon.

  ‘Perfect. I was hoping that their ribbonbone elk's bones were like its antlers.’

  He now had a rather large supply of the most precious resource that could be obtained from the deer Celestials. These would definitely come in handy when it came to forged equipment.

  He put the bone back into his inventory before it was affected by rigor mortis and got to cleaning.

  Half an hour into his cleaning journey, there was another knock at the door, accompanied by the familiar voice of Vera.

  “It's me. I got the cleaner and some more help.”

  “Sup,” Sya said.

  Arden made his way back to the door and let them in, only pausing for a second when he saw a man staring at him with befuddled eyes.

  “Where are your clothes?” He asked.

  “Soaking in a puddle of deer blood.”

  The man gave a half nod in understanding before his brain caught up to him, causing him to stop. He was about to inquire further when he realized Arden shut the door to his room.

  Back inside Arden’s room, Vera lowered the plastic bags full of cleaning supplies onto Arden’s bed. After unbagging them, Arden noticed that there were a lot more chemicals than he expected.

  “Drain cleaner, toilet bowl cleaner,” he read aloud. “You really went all out.”

  “The last thing you want is to clog the plumbing with blood,” Vera said. “I know your name was cleared before the cascade, but you don’t want to give people a reason to think that you are a killer again.”

  “I feel like most killers don’t try to flush the evidence down the drain.”

  “And yet here you are, doing exactly that.”

  “She’s got you there,” Sya said, putting on some rubber gloves. “Where do we begin?”

  *****

  Several hours later, the room was cleaned as well as it could have been. There were probably a few errant drops of blood somewhere, but after a few hours of backbreaking labor of trying to get rid of all of the blood, they were ready to leave a few specks here and there.

  Seven mop buckets had been filled with the mixture of main sequence blood and cleaning chemicals and now sat next to the tub. Arden’s bloodied clothes and the several mops that were ruined with this job were in his inventory ready to be disposed of. As for how, he wondered if Chorzo would be able to help him out.

  Arden and Vera laid down on the bed, exhausted, while Sya eyed the buckets of blood with interest. As Arden sniffed the air, a little miffed that the coppery stench hadn’t yet faded, Sya popped a question.

  “You’re not going to devour the blood now that it's all been contained, are you?”

  Arden looked at his sister for a moment before he answered, taking some time to think of one.

  “Nah. If it was just blood, then yeah. But it's full of chemicals now. No different than poison.”

  “Perfect,” Sya said.

  She sliced her finger open with a knife Savish gave her the day before. It wasn’t serrated, but it was perfectly sharp, just what she wanted for a bit of quick bloodletting. She let her blood fall into each of the mop buckets and gave them a stir with Rogier’s Tree.

  After around a minute of stirring the buckets, she put lids on them and added them to her inventory, happy to have some more poison to use when things got hairy.

  “You should get some vials,” Vera said. “Glass darts as well, if you can find them.”

  “One thing at a time,” Sya said, sending her spear back to her soul cluster.

  “What was the thing you wanted to tell me before?” Arden asked, putting on a new set of streetwear from his dresser.

  “Oh right,” Vera said. “Laurent found me earlier. He got a call from Loyid. Our weapons are ready.”