Bo eventually lead us to a medium sized one story building about three neighborhoods over from the shop. It looked like at one point it had been a house at one point but was now run down and abandoned looking. There was a fenced in yard that was covered in trash, broken appliances and a half rotted steed carriage.
Sin was sitting on the porch steps scratching the heads of his fluff-viper Meghido and Razorback Kylodon. He looked up at Bo and I and nodded in acknowledgement tjen frowned when he saw Astrid and Damon.
"Who're those two?" Sin asked as the four of us walked into the yard.
"Damon and Astrid, classmates of mine." I said pointing to them over my shoulder. Sin eyed them both then huffed.
"I Didn't realize this was going to turn into a field trip." Sin teased. I rolled my eyes at him and petted both hos evos as I approached the steps.
"They wanted to tag along. My teacher and my Chiefs of Logistics and Security are back at the shop." I said.
"Well I'll have to meet them later." Sin said as he stood. "A little warning though boss, I didn't exactly clean up any messes Meghido and Kylodon left."
"Noted…Bo stay outside." I said.
"Oh come on!" Bo snapped. "I've seen a dead body before!"
"Dead body!" Damon and Astrid exclaimed and looked at each other.
"You didn't say anything about dead bodies Chase! I don't want to get involved in a murder case and questioned by the police!" Astrid exclaimed. Sin and Bo both laughed loudly.
"Police…ha!" Sin exclaimed. This reaction had both Astrid and Damon looking confused.
"The police only patrol the rich part of the city. Everywhere else is left to theory own devices." I explained to them.
"Oh…" Astrid said.
"You two can stay put here with Bo if you like, it makes no difference with me." I said then walked up the steps towards the front door.
"I wanna come in!" Bo exclaimed and stomped his foot.
"We're just looking at a bunch of junk machines Bo, you're not missing anything." I said and ruffled his hair. Bo scowled and crossed his arms and sat down on the steps.
"Fine!" He pouted.
I looked to Astrid and Damon and neither of them made any moves to follow me so I turned and headed inside the house. Sin followed close behind as I stepped into the foyer of the home. Already there were two bodies of gangsters that were impaled and stuck to the wall with large quills.
I let Sin lead the way as we walked through what could-have been a living room at one time but was now just the scene of a blood bath. Three guy laid dead on a ratty sofa, they looked like they didn't even have a chance to defend themselves, Two more were lying dead by the windows only they didn't have any pants on for some odd reason and one more was by the door to the next room basically cut in half.
"When I got here there guys had some women that they kidnapped…a few were young…too young…" Sin said in a cold yet soft voice.
"I understand…" I replied and patted him on the back. "The girls?"
"I made sure they got back to their families." Sin said.
We left the living room and hooked a left and descended down a flight of stairs to the basement. There were no bodies down here however there were a lot of boxes and large shipping crates. I wondered how they managed to get it all down here until I saw that there was a large tunnel that dug into the back yard.
"Here it is." Sin said making a grand sweeping gesture. I walked over to one of the boxes and opened it. It was full of random junk and stupid knickknacks, probably from when the original owners still lived in the house.
I was about to close it and move on when a golden glint caught my attention. I reached into the box and pulled out a odd stone, about the size of a base ball and honey colored it was a semi-see through stone that had a mosquito in the center of it. I stood up and held the rock up and frowned. Sin walked over and whistled when he saw the stone.
"Wow, you found an amber." Sin said.
"Amber?" I asked looking back at Sin.
"An old rock, it's formed when sap from a tree gets trapped underground for a few thousand years. You find them all the time in the desert. It's rare to find one with a mosquito in it though." Sin explained.
I channeled some shine attribute mana into my other hand then shone the light at the amber to look at the mosquito inside the stone.
"It's so well preserved." I gasped. Sin leaned close and arched his brows.
"And full of blood. It look like it had a big lunch before it died…too bad you can't extract the blood." Sin said. I arched a brow and looked at Sin.
"Why not?" I asked.
"The amber is all that's protecting the mosquitoes body, if you try to break it open the bug crumbles to dust." Sin explained.
'I wonder if it's genetic structure is still intact?' I thought as I frowned.
I channeled some mana into the hand holding the amber. My mana was sucked into the stone and quickly sought out the mosquito and started scanning the bug's genetic structure. I arched a brow as my mind started memorizing the lysdale script of the mosquito when it memorized that my mana moved to the blood in the bug's belly. It started scanning the genetic structure and memorizing the lysdale script as well. Once my mana was done I stopped channeling mana and smiled.
"I might not need to extract the blood." I said suddenly then cast my void pocket spell and placed the amber inside it. Sin arched a brow and looked like he wanted to ask a question but held back and walked over to one of the crates and pulled it open. My mouth dropped open as I looked at the name on the parts in the crate.
"Ford-Lysdale…" Sin said reading the name aloud. I walked over to the crate and pulled a piece of paper out of the crate.
"A generic variance stabilizer!" I exclaimed. Sin looked at me with a arched brow. "This is techno-splicing equipment! You use it to reverse engineer evos."
"Well there are other crates over here." Sin said then walked over and opened the first crate he reached. We went through each of the crates and all the boxes. The boxes for the most part were filled with useless junk. Except for one that was filled with coolers, every cooler had blood samples of various animals in them. I quickly put the entire box into my void pocket.
The crates were all filled with techno-splicing equipment. Really high quality equipment in fact. There were four crates and we found a gene solidifier, variance replicator, bylic press, and Ford-Lysdale gene resonator. Admittedly I don't know what the last two did but it was techno-splicing equipment and that to me made them worth their weight in gold.
"I'm guessing from your reaction to this stuff you want to take it with you?" Sin asked.
"Yeah. It's all techno-splicing equipment so we wouldn't be able to make much money off it if we sold it here even if we sold it for scrap. Makes you wonder what all this equipment is doing here in the first place…" I replied.
[The little human didn't listen to your orders.] Bone-lasher suddenly told me tjen shared his vision with me and showed me what was happening upstairs.
Bo was walking through the living room with Damon and Astrid following close behind them. Damon tensed up when he saw the bodies on the couch and I knew what was coming next.
"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"
"Sounds like your classmate's came inside…that girl has some lungs on her." Sin said with a chuckle.
"That wasn't Astrid…" I sighed. "Bo, Damon, Astrid, down here!"
The trio made their way to the basement with Damon clinging to Astrid like a scared damsel. I rolled my eyes at the display then narrowed my eyes at Bo.
"Bo…" I started.
"You were taking too long and I got bored." He interrupted unapologetically. I scowled at him and folded my arms.
"You can't just do shit just because you're bored! I told you to stay outside!" I snapped.
"But you never let me get to do anything fun!" Bo exclaimed.
"Rooting around a condemned house full of dead bodies is not fun! It's work!" I snapped back. Bo stomped over to me and scowled.
"It would be if you found cool stuff and look you did! Big crates of cool stuff!" Bo screamed.
"I think I just had a glimpse into a future where Chase decides to have children…" Astrid muttered softly to Damon and shivered.
"Do not even joke about that!" Damon groaned.
"Shut up!" I snapped at the two of then them bonked Bo on the head.
"Ow!" Bo groaned and rubbed his head.
"That's for not listening, you'd get two of it wasn't for the fact that you can actually be useful for once." I said.
"What do you mean for once?!" Bo exclaimed incredulously. I ignored go's outburst and pointed to the crates.
"Summon Gargesh and have him put these crates into my void pocket." I told him. Bo arched a brow at me but did as he was told and summoned Gargesh. The orkand stood at attention in front of Bo and bared his teeth.
"Is there stuff that needs doing chief?" Gargesh asked tjen let put a loud huff.
"Yeah! Can you pick up those crates and put them where Chase tells you?" Bo asked.
"Easily!" Gargesh yelled then stomped over to a crate and lifted it up like it was weightless. The side of the crate said it weighed over five hundred pounds.
"In there." I Told Gargesh after I opened my void pocket. Gargesh moved all the crates into it in a mater of minutes and soon we were leaving the small house and heading back to the shop.
"So Boss, what's the plan for all that techno-magi stuff?" Sin asked suddenly.
"I can't splice, at least not in the traditional way but I know plenty about techno-splicing since my parents were both scientists. I want to make a new way of splicing that combines the traditional and techno-splicing…however that might not be possible…"
"Of course it's not possible. Splicing is a complete and closed system of magic, its self sustaining and doesn't need any outside influence to be successful. The level of success relies entirely on the skill if the splicer." Damon said.
"Techno-splicing is the opposite…it's a open system that relies heavily on outside factors in order to be successful. Prep work and research are more important than skill." I said.
"That sounds like too much work…" Astrid grumbled.
"Hey! I did plenty of research when I was designing the orkand!" Bo exclaimed.
"Yeah but even all the research in the world can't make up for a lack of talent. Only ten percent of the world's splicers can splice a tier three evo and even those ones have difficulty with it. You did it with no problem or trouble at all. It was as if it was as natural to you as breathing. Your research and planning might have helped make it easier but your talent…if it were nurtured you'd easily become a Paragon with that level of natural talent." Astrid said.
"Sounds boring!" Bo exclaimed. "I'd rather work at Sho'lajah with Chase. At least then I'd have action and adventure!"
"You say that like you know I'm going to get pulled into another conflict or something?" I said.
"Well you are. You're strong and strong people always have people coming after them wanting to prove how strong they are." Bo said.
"He has a point there." Sin said with a chuckle. I frowned but chuckled in spite of myself.
'Those two idiots that keep jumping me before class is more than enough proof of that…' I thought.
When we made it back to the shop Jane was outside listening to Nate explain something about the shop while Iris was checking around the outside of the shop and the surrounding area. Baset and Jade were nowhere to be seen.
"Jane!" I yelled as we neared the shop. Jane and Nate turned and saw the group of us heading back.
"Anything we can sell?" Jane asked as we all approached. I shook my head then smiled.
"No. It's all techno-splicing equipment." I said cheerily.
"Oh so useless…" Jane suddenly froze mid-sentence and jerked her head to look at Astrid and Damon. "…he didn't actually find techno-splicing equipment did he?"
"Yeah. It was a bunch of machines though. He had the kid's new evo put it all away into some sort of shadow window spell." Astrid summerized.
"Oh no…" Jane groaned in a defeated tone.
"Oh yes!" I exclaimed and laughed loudly into the sky. "I now have techno-magi! Now I have one of the pieces I need in order to create my new way of splicing!"
"And no idea how to do it." Bo spoke up. I frowned and then hit Bo with another chop on the top of his head. "Ow!"
"Shut up!" I grumbled.
"He's right I'm guessing?" Iris teased as she walked over to Jane's side. "Remember your condition of the duel was that you create a evo using a new style of splicing that you came up with, not just using techno or traditional splicing."
"I know! You don't have to remind me and I can't even use traditional so it's not an option for me!" I growled at her. Iris stuck her tongue out at me in a childish display.
Baset and Jade walked out of the shop laughing lightly at some joke told between them inside the shop. The laughing stopped when they saw everyone outside. Baset turned and looked to see of everyone is here then smiled.
"Good. You're all here." Baset said gaining everyone's attention. "Mrs. Kestrel and I have been talking and we've come to a decision. Bo here is going to start attending my class starting today."
"Wait what?!" Everyone exclaimed. Bo rushed over to his mom and grabbed the skirt of her dress and started jumping.
"Are you serious? Can I join the class?!" Bo asked. Nate quickly rushed over and grabbed Bo's shoulder to ground him then looked to his wife.
"Hold on a second! You didn't discuss this with me Jade!" Nate grumbled.
"Do you object to our Bo attending a Paragon's class?" Jade asked in a serious tone.
"No, I just don't like not being included in discussions like this." Nate said. Jade smiled softly at Nate and kissed his cheek.
"Sorry honey. Didn't mean to exclude you." Jade said. Nate blushed in embarrassment.
"Wait a second I'm sorry but how can Bo join the class, he's ten!" Damon shouted. Bunting stating what everyone in the class was already thinking.
"Simple, I get the principle to give Bo a pass to enter and leave the college when he wants and Bo uses that pass to attend my classes." Baset said. "While Bo won't be officially enrolled in my class because of his age he can still attend classes."
"Why though? Why go do all this for Bo?" Nate asked.
"Because your son has talent. Not just a little talent either Mr. Kestrel. The amount of people who can splice a tier three evo in this world is ten percent of the entire splicer population. And about eighty percent of them can only do it with the help of mana systems. Of that remaining twenty percent only one percent of them are able to splice a tier three before the age of eighteen. Your son has talent that already puts most of the world's paragon's to shame and he's only ten." Baset said.
She paused and glanced over to me then back to Bo. Nates eyes followed hers to me and then back down to his son.
"You've already been exposed to the uniqueness of Chase's mind and the talent that he innately posses over a wide range of subjects. Because of his ability to create enchanted items his name will be known all over the world. I believe that one day your son's name will be spoken in the same breath as his for his talent and so I want to help nurture that talent, best he has a guiding hand now while he's still uncorrupted by the world of splicing."
"…I see…" Nate said after a second then looked down at his son who looked back at Nate with bright and excited eyes. "I place my son in your hands Lady Baset."
"YAY!" Bo Bellowed then jumped up and down. "I'm a Paragon's student! I'm a Paragon's student!"
Everyone couldn't help but smile at the unabashed display of happiness and joy as Bo raced up and down the street.
'Baset won't be the only one watching out for him.' I thought to myself.
Evo Fact: There is a liger shark that actually has eyes and can see. It is considered a defective liger shark because the range of its electromagnetic vision is severely limited. After its creation in WW IV the evo was kept as a personal pet of a certain American General who loved collecting rare and powerful evos. After if died the general had a necklace made from it'd hide and teeth and passed if onto his son.