The evening air carried the metallic scent of spilled blood as Zeph knelt beside Chen's corpse, his hands moving with practiced efficiency through the dead man's pockets.
Three years of scavenging had taught him that valuable items could be hidden anywhere, and the recently deceased often carried their most precious possessions close to their bodies.
His systematic search yielded immediate results.
Chen's jacket contained a surprisingly thick roll of bills; mostly fifties and hundreds that added up to roughly fifteen hundred dollars.
It was not a fortune, but it was enough to buy supplies or information in the underground markets. More interesting was the small leather pouch tucked inside an inner pocket, containing what looked like medicinal pills wrapped in protective cloth.
Buster's corpse proved equally fruitful, if messier to search.
The fat scavenger had been carrying about five hundred in loose bills, but more importantly, he'd been hoarding something far more valuable: eight small blue pills that gave off a faint luminescent glow even in the fading daylight.
'Mana pills,' Zeph identified, holding one up to catch the light. 'Crude ones, judging by the color inconsistency.'
He'd heard about these from other scavengers. They were alchemical preparations that could rapidly restore MP at the cost of introducing impurities into the user's mana channels.
Too many in a short period would cause mana fever, a potentially fatal condition where corrupted energy poisoned the body from within.
But used sparingly, they could mean the difference between life and death when skills ran dry in the middle of combat.
The real surprise came when he rolled Chen's body to check for hidden pockets. Something hard pressed against the corpse's back, and when Zeph investigated, he found a simple silver band tucked into a concealed belt compartment.
A storage ring.
Zeph stared at the innocuous piece of jewelry, his mind racing through the implications.
Storage rings were artifacts of incredible rarity and value; spatial compression technology that could hold far more than their physical dimensions suggested. Even the smallest ones sold for tens of thousands of dollars in sanctuary markets.
'No way Chen could afford something like this,' he concluded after a moment's thought. 'Which means he stole it. Which means whatever's inside probably belongs to someone who's very interested in getting it back.'
The ring itself was locked, of course. Most storage devices required either the original owner's mana signature or specialized equipment to access.
He'd need to find a storage breaker—black market technicians who specialized in cracking spatial locks—before he could discover what treasures Chen had been hoarding.
Still, even an empty storage ring was worth more than everything else he'd looted combined.
But the most impressive find came from Chen's jacket collar, where a pair of sleek dark glasses had been carefully secured with a retention cord.
At first glance, they looked like ordinary sunglasses. They were stylish wraparound design with dark lenses that would look perfectly normal in any sanctuary street market.
When Zeph slipped them on, the world became noticeably clearer.
The fading daylight remained dim, but details became sharper and more defined. Colors were more enhanced, and he could make out objects in shadows that had been difficult to see before.
When he focused on distant rubble piles, the lenses provided a subtle magnification that brought far-off details into clearer focus.
Most importantly, faint glowing trails appeared along certain paths through the ruins; beast tracks that showed where various creatures had passed recently.
The trails weren't dramatic or overwhelming, just subtle indicators that would give a trained eye valuable information about local predator movements.
'Tactical enhancement glasses,' he realized, adjusting the surprisingly comfortable fit. 'Low-level night vision, distance magnification, basic beast tracking… Quality gear.'
The glasses were maybe three centimeters away from where Phantom had punched through Chen's chest. A few inches difference in the strike angle and this useful piece of equipment would have been ruined.
'Lucky break.'
A small solar panel was built into the frame's upper edge, designed to charge the internal batteries during daylight hours. According to the faint display that appeared in his peripheral vision, the current charge would last approximately four hours of active use.
Zeph spent the next twenty minutes efficiently disposing of the bodies, using techniques he'd perfected over three years of cleanup operations.
The Aurora Bridge's height made corpse disposal remarkably simple—a quick trip to the edge, and gravity handled the rest. By the time the local scavenger population arrived to investigate the blood scent, there would be nothing left but stains on concrete.
As he worked, a notification chimed softly in his awareness:
[Human Opponents Defeated: 2]
[+100 EXP]
[Current EXP: 150/200]
[Next Level: 50 EXP Required]
The implications of that message made him pause. The System awarded experience for killing humans just as readily as it did for monsters or dungeon bosses.
While pragmatically useful, it painted a disturbing picture of how society might develop when murder could literally make you stronger.
'Going to be interesting to see how the sanctuaries handle that particular incentive structure,' he thought, then shrugged. 'Not my problem.'
He had more immediate concerns than societal collapse scenarios.
With the cleanup complete and his loot secured, Zeph retreated to his base as full darkness settled over the ruins. His enhanced hearing tracked the approach of various nocturnal predators drawn by the lingering scent of blood, but none seemed inclined to venture onto the bridge itself.
Tomorrow, he'd make the journey to the Underground Bazaar. But tonight was for preparation.
Zeph spent the next five hours in intensive training, working to integrate his new capabilities into a cohesive fighting style.
The Phantom Step technique was more complex than he'd initially realized. It was not just a movement ability, but a complete repositioning system that could be woven into attack sequences for devastating effect.
The key was timing. Activate the technique too early, and the opponent could adjust their defense. Too late, and the three-foot dash became wasted motion.
But used at the precise moment when an enemy committed to their attack, it transformed predictable sword strikes into unpredictable assault patterns that bypassed conventional defensive strategies.
He practiced the integration methodically, combining Phantom Step with various sword techniques until the transitions felt natural.
Step-slash combinations. Step-thrust sequences. Defensive applications where the movement carried him out of danger while positioning for counter-attacks.
By the end of his training session, the technique was becoming more and more familiar; not just a separate ability he could activate, but an integral part of his combat methodology.
Force proved equally rewarding to practice. The enhancement skill amplified everything it touched, turning his already impressive speed into something genuinely supernatural.
When he combined Force with Phantom Step, the results were spectacular, covering distances that should have been impossible while delivering strikes with doubled impact force.
The resource costs were still prohibitive for extended combat, but for brief engagements, the combination was devastatingly effective.
As the night deepened and his training wound down, Zeph settled into meditation position to review his advancement options.
The tutorial completion had provided a substantial foundation for growth, and his PP generation had been accumulating steadily throughout the day.
Current resources:
- Tutorial Reward: 25,000 Skill Points
- PP Generation: 13,000+ points
- Total Available: 38,000 points
It was a staggering amount of advancement currency, way more than most awakened saw in their first year of dungeon exploration.
The skill upgrade costs were well-established knowledge among the awakened community:
[Skill Rank Upgrades:]
- F → E: 1,000 SP
- E → D: 2,500 SP
- D → C: 5,000 SP
- C → B: 10,000 SP
- B → A: 25,000 SP
[Technique Mastery:]
- Each 1% increase: 1,000 SP
- Maximum improvement through SP: 5% per week (System limitation to prevent forced advancement)
The System's weekly limitations were designed to prevent exactly what Zeph was contemplating; rapid advancement through pure resource expenditure. But even with those restrictions, he could make significant improvements to his capabilities.
His current skills could all benefit from upgrades. Enhanced Hearing at E-rank would extend its range and sensitivity.
Phantom Step at higher mastery would increase the dash distance and reduce cooldown. Force… Force at C-rank would provide 150% enhancement instead of the current 100%.
The possibilities were intoxicating.
'Thirty-eight thousand points on day one,' Zeph mused, watching his PP counter continue its relentless climb with each breath. 'At this rate, I'll be S-rank before most people finish their second dungeon.'
The night was still young, and he had optimization to do.
Time to build a monster.