章 113: 111: A Company of Fools VI
"Lady Baset will see you now." The guardsmen at the security desk said. I walked over to the elevator and took it up to her office floor. As the elevator opened onto the floor I had a bad feeling creeping up my spine. There was nobody on the floor, at least as far as I could see. The pathway to Baset's office was clear and the door was closed as usual.
As I made my way towards the door that bad feeling kept getting worse and worse. Just as I was about to reach out and open the door the doorknob turned on its own and the door was pulled open by Baset.
"Ah, Chase. I'm glad you could come see me so early." Baset said then stepped to the side and motioned me into her office. I took a few steps inside and frowned when I saw Dean Baxter inside, standing by Baset's desk.
"I hope you don't mind but Dean Baxter had business to discuss with you and I decided to let him use my office after our discussion was finished."
Her statement was less of a question and more of her telling me that Dean Baxter was there and that I better not have any problems with it.
"Fine, whatever." I said nonchalantly then walked over to Baset's desk. Dean Baxter smiled politely as I stood opposite of him, I nodded then looked to Baset. "You wanted to talk to me about my body modification?"
"Yes…" Baset said as she shut the door. "…I would say it seems that you've made some progress but that would be an understatement. I never would have thought that you'd be such a natural with it, have you done any further research on it?"
"No actually." I replied. Both Baset's and Dean Baxter's eyebrows shot up.
"None? How have you grown so much then? The first time you tried it you tore holes in your skin but the last two times you altered the DNA of fully formed evos. One of them was an ascended." Baset said. I scratched my chin as I tried to think of the best response.
"Have either of you ever read any research papers from Dr. Lysdale or Dr. Hamish?" I asked. Both educators looked to each others then shook their heads. I sighed and popped my claws from my left hand.
"Dr. Lysdale is the grandson of the scientist that created the lysdale script. He's one of the reasons that techno-splicing is as profitable and easy as it is. Lysdale script allowed humans to put the entire genetic makeup of an evo or any living thing for that matter on paper. Dr. Lysdale and Dr. Hamish together developed a way to break apart certain sequences and alter them with corresponding sequences from other animals. That's all techno-splicing is, altering sequences." I said.
"If I'm understanding you correctly then that means all you are doing when you modified your evos was applying the same principles of techno-splicing to body modification only using the mana manipulation and conversion spell as a medium." Baset said. I cocked my head to the side then nodded in agreement after a moment.
"I guess I am. Judging by how Jane spliced the other day traditional splicing is different than techno-splicing." I said. Baset nodded and walked over to desk.
"Very much so, with traditional splicing there is a high skill ceiling. For the unskilled it is basically just mashing the DNA of animals and hoping for the best. With the skilled and talented it's less of mashing and more tearing off qualities you find desirable and then stitching them together." Baset said with a weary sigh. "That being said there has to be a very high skill ceiling for modifying evos the way you do?"
"Not really…they teach lysdale script in high school. It's a basic class. As long as you can remember the lysdale script of whatever you are modifying it's not that hard to the sequences using flesh attribute mana." I replied.
"Hmmmm….what about adding new DNA to an evo?" Baset asked. A crystalline structure formed and shot from her crystal and landed on her desk. Her evo-viper emerged from the crystal and spread its dark brown wings in a stretch, ruffling each feather before folding them back into its hood shape. "Like adding scorpion DNA to my evo-viper here."
"Maybe…the only DNA I've added to an evo before is my own." I replied. "What do you want to add the scorpion DNA for?"
"Armor, evo-viper are quick and lethal and their ability to read the minds of splicers weaker than their masters is handy but they don't offer much by themselves in terms of combat power." Baset said. "Even though I specialize in reptilian and avian DNA sequencing I have to admit I have no ideas how to make it more powerful, I figured adding armor would help."
I looked down at the evo-viper and scratched my chin. One of the main reasons evo-vipers were so popular in parts of the world was their small stature, stealthiness, venom and mind-reading abilities. They weren't designed for combat.
I suddenly felt an alien presence in my mind trying to slither between the small cracks. I heard Bone-lasher, Alpa'nagia, and Grimm-Guard all hiss and growl at the intruding presence.
The evo-viper flinched and flew to Baset then coiled around her neck. The evo eyed me cautiously as it stuck its tongue out at me.
"Seems your viper found out how protective my evos are…" I said. Baset chuckled and reached up and petted her viper on the head.
"Most splicers don't have a strong enough connection to their evos to allow them free domain of their mind. The fact they so readily came to your defense when they sensed my evo-viper says a lot." Baset said. I shrugged and sent a wave of emotion to my evos to let them know I appreciated it.
"I want to say as I am now, I wouldn't attempt to add scorpion DNA to your evo-viper. Mostly because it wasn't created with that DNA originally. Maybe once I learn more about splicing and body modification…or maybe find a way to combine the two I would attempt it." I said.
Baset looked at me for a second then smiled and nodded her head then looked to Dean Baxter. I turned and looked at the dean to see that he had a similar expression on his face. They looked impressed.
"Seems you've had some growth over the last month." Dean Baxter said. "I was worried that you'd jump at the chance to try body modification on Baset's evo-viper."
"No! It's one thing to test stuff like that out on myself but on others…" I said then paused and sighed. "…the only reason I attempted it with Alpa'nagia and Grimm-Guard was that their lives were in danger."
"I see…" Baset said with a slow nod. "You passed my test."
"Of course it was another test…" I groaned, not even slightly surpised she decided to test me again. The woman loved her morality tests. "Was that all?"
"Yes, though as I've said before I'll let you and Dean Baxter discuss your business in my office. I'll be back in about thirty minutes. There are things I have other prepare for our next class." Basey said then walked over to the door. She opened the door then paused and looked over her shoulder at me. "If you really want to try and combine body modification and splicing it might be something that could revolutionize splicing…however I feel it would be limiting for you. Despite your inexperience, your mind is like a scalpel: sharp and precise, splicing however is like a crude butcher's cleaver: rough and bulky. Your mind might not be compatible with splicing the way that we were all taught."
With that Baset turned and left the room. Closing the door behind herself. I arched a brow at her final words of wisdom and couldn't help but agree with her. After seeing Jane splice Grimm-Guard the idea of splicing that way has left a sour taste in my mouth.
"Well now that we're alone…" Dean Baxter said drawing my attention back to him. He reached into his inside coat pocket and pulled out a envelop with a packet of papers inside and handed it to me.
"Since your rather unorthodox presentation last week I've been getting a lot of requests to have you create enchanted items. That is a list of all of then."
My eyes widened as I pulled the packet put of the envelope and looked at the packet. There had to be at least thirty pages, each one having three to four requests on them describing what they wanted done. I frowned as I flipped through most of them, some of these people wanted me to create elaborate and expensive looking jewelry. Not only did I not have the skill to make anything that extravagant looking if I added half the details they wanted I wouldn't have any room to add the runes to enchant them.
I went through the packet and pulled all the pages that had those requests and crumpled them up and threw them in the trash. Unfortunately, that cut the packet down by more than half.
"Those ones are impossible. Way to elaborate." I said. Dean Baxter nodded quietly I looked through the others. I then crumpled up a few more, while theirs weren't as elaborate as the ones before they were either too small or too vague in their description to understand.
Of the ones that were left one stuck out to me. It was a request to enchant an engagement ring. I pulled that one from the rest then set the packet down and looked over the request.
"Something wrong with that one?" Dean Baxter asked.
"It's different than all the others. They all want to create something for themselves. This guy wants to create something for someone else." I replied. The dean arched his brow and walked around to look at the request.
"Hmmm…a rarity among the splicer community. Are you going to accept this request?" The dean asked. I nodded then handed Dean Baxter the request sheet.
"I'll do all three on that sheet. They're all relatively simple and good first jobs." I replied. The dean nodded and took the sheet
"The three who made those requests are brothers, half-brothers actually from the Ascred family. A rather unusual family. All three bothers have ties to French, English, and Japanese nobility." Dean Baxter said. I frowned and crossed my arms.
"How the hell did that happen?" I asked.
"The family's patriarch Douglas Ascred is well known for being a…how can I say this delicately? Passionately diverse gentleman." Dean Baxter said.
"Nice way of calling someone a man-whore." I said. The dean coughed politely and then nodded.
"Yes, well they agreed to the pricing that young miss Yearwood gave them for the quote, of course I told her she was setting the price a little too low." Dean Baxter said. I frowned and crossed my arms.
"We never really go around to discussing pricing before the whole thing with Grimm-Guard. What was the price she told them?" I asked. Dean Baxter handed me the sheet back and pointed to a group of numbers at the bottom of the page. I looked at them and blinked a few times.
"TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY MILLION FOR THE ENGAGEMENT RING AND FIVE HUNDRED MILLION EACH FOR THE OTHERS!" I barked. The dean nodded and sighed.
"I know! I share your outrage. Enchanted items usually go for billions at auctions. Given that you are offering them custom-made enchanted items I figured she'd at least charge a few billion but she was adamant about the pricing." Dean Baxter explained.
'I could make almost two billion dollars with just three items….' I thought dreamily then a thought popped into my head that sobered me up real quick.
"Dean, what exactly are you and the college getting for letting me conduct business on school grounds?" I asked. The dean smirked and crossed his arms.
"Prestige, same thing we get for owning your Star crystal mana system." Dean Baxter replied. "Creating enchanted items is a lost art. Literally no one else in the world can do this. The simple fact that a student at our college has rediscovered that lost art more than pays for itself in advertising."
"Pays for itself….?" I muttered to myself for a second then frowned as realization hit. "You got paid to ensure that I saw these people's requests , didn't you?"
"They all made sizable donations to the school…to repair the wall that your teammates destroyed." Dean Baxter replied.
"Hmmm." I grumbled with a shake of my head. "When exactly can I meet these three to go over the specifics of what they want me to make?" I asked.
"Tomorrow at the earliest. Everyone that made a request on that list is staying in Andromeda city for the time being. I can have them come to my office tomorrow for a consultation." Dean Baxter said.
"Tomorrow is a little quick…" I mused. The dean nodded in agreement.
"True but I believe it would be best to get this out of the way quickly. Not to give to much away but you will probably need the money from these commissions for your upcoming class in two days. " Dean Baxter said then pulled out twice packets from his breast pocket and handed them to me. "Be sure to have young miss Yearwood and Stone read these over before the three of you appear Tomorrow."
"Wait you want me to bring Jane and Iris to a consultation?" I asked a little confused.
"Yes! For one they are members of your company and it's a good look to have all members there during the consultation process. For another thing you will be dealing with nobility and even royalty at some point, Young miss Yearwood is the most diplomatic of the three of you. She is better suited to soothing the egos of splicers who are used to having people bend over backwards to please them." Dean Baxter explained.
'That does make sense…I might still be mad at her but if I want this company to succeed I need her and Iris's help. We'll just have a calm conversation about their use of splicing in my lab after all this is over.' I thought.
"Okay, I'll make sure all of us are there, about what time?" I asked.
"Normal time for a business meeting, say eleven o'clock." Dean Baxter said. He paused for a slight moment then looked at me seriously. "Chase you are going to find that the college is going to be willing to look the other way for a lot of the things you do. Like with the damage to the library. We decided to accept the donations to pay for the damages instead of making you pay for it. Normally we would not do this. This is solely because of what prestige the school gets from having you attend Here. As such we will give you the best chances at success but you will still have to put in the work. Should you fail…you will find a lot of your privileges revoked…"
I stood there silently digesting what he had just told me. I already had a response in my mind when he started talking about privileges but kept it myself, which turned out to be the smart move. The dean's expression softened when he saw me taking his words seriously.
"I understand…however, I'm not going to let any self-important noble walk over me or talk to me like I don't know what I'm doing." I replied. The dean smiled deviously.
"Of course, they are coming to you for a product that only you can provide, there will be plenty of people willing to pay more for that product. Never be afraid to remind them of that fact should they get unruly."
クリエイターの想い 
Hutexa_The_Djinn
Hutexa_The_Djinn Splicer Fact: A strong emotional connection or understanding of an evo is required for a splicer to share senses with them or to talk telepathically. This sort of connection is normally only shared between a splicer and evo that has spent years together or gone through a lot.
[HUTEXA_THE_DJINN HERE! Another Day, another chapter! Hope you like the story so far. leave a comment and a power stone, they help a lot.]
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