System Breaker: Surviving Apocalypse with Nine-Tailed Kitsune-Chapter 17: Market

Damon didn’t need more than a glance to immediately recognise his best friend. The person he grew up with and considered family.

He watched as people swarmed him like some divine figure, thanking and shaking his hand with awestruck expressions on their faces.

Kade’s eyes trailed across the crowd until they went beyond those right in front of him and moved toward where Damon was.

For a moment, his golden gaze lacked recognition, but then, his sly smirk vanished. His eyes widened slowly, and his smirk twitched into surprise.

As Kade pushed through the crowd, excusing himself as he moved toward him, Damon noticed something odd. The people who were smiling and thanking Kade just a moment before seemed to let out shaky breaths the moment he left.

But before he could dwell on that sight, his best friend had already approached him.

"D-Damon?"

"It’s been a while," Damon replied.

"You’re alive," Kade mumbled, more to himself than to Damon.

"Why would I not be?" Damon shrugged.

A moment of silence followed before they both smiled.

"What are you even doing here? I thought you said you’re gonna be home all day."

"Oh, I was out to meet Eleanor when people turned to monsters."

Damon nodded in understanding before asking another, more pressing question.

"By the way... you’re the leader?"

Kade chuckled nervously. "It... kind of just happened. I was here when everything started and just got lucky, I suppose."

"Lucky..." Damon nodded at the word.

Unlike him, who had been unlucky his whole life, Kade was the opposite.

"Kade..." A voice of one of the twins called from behind. The broad man was stomping his foot as he watched the whole reunion.

Kade turned and nodded toward his companion.

"I’m sorry, but we have to go. There was a hunting party that went missing, and we’re going to search for them. When I return, let’s catch up."

Damon barely had time to nod as Kade already turned and hurried outside with his group.

He couldn’t help but smile seeing his best friend do well, but before he could dwell on that, Victor’s voice cut through his thoughts.

"You... You know Kade?!"

Damon turned and shrugged. "Yeah?"

Victor’s jaw almost dropped before he shook the surprise away. "You know he’s like... a celebrity here. Everyone sees him not as a leader but almost like a hope in the world that had ended."

Damon scratched the back of his head. His best friend was supposed to be not only a leader but also a symbol of hope for the people here?

’The world really has ended, huh...’ He thought to himself before walking, but toward the stands filled with relics he had seen before.

As he arrived in front of the proper stands, he saw relics lining the tables ahead of him. Armours, weapons and accessories like rings, necklaces or earrings filled the space. Each gave off a luminescence that made it clear those were no ordinary items.

"How much for the armour?" Damon asked, pointing toward a dark grey, steel armour. The only armour on the table in front of him.

"Ten shards"

"Ten?!" Damon yelped in surprise.

The merchant, a young man with dark brown hair and blue eyes, scoffed at his surprise.

"It’s an E grade relic. It’s one of the only three E-grade relics in this whole market."

The merchant paused, then, without Damon even trying to speak, he continued.

"I won’t go any lower. I already had offers of seven shards. But if you insist, I can do nine shards. What you say?"

Damon watched the merchant with a perplexed expression. The man was basically haggling with himself.

"Do you have anything I can get for one shard?"

The merchant froze at the question, then studied him as if trying to see if he was joking.

"Fucking time wasters," the merchant shook his head before turning to another customer that just approached.

"Let’s check the other stand," Victor said nervously, "He’s known for being rude to customers, so don’t worry about it."

Following Victor’s advice, Damon moved toward the second stand. There, a young girl stood behind the stand.

The items on this table were significantly smaller, mostly accessory-type relics.

Damon’s eyes trailed indifferently across the items, not seeing anything worth his attention.

"This...!" Kitsune’s voice suddenly cut through Damon’s head.

’What is it?’

"That feather... What’s it doing here...?"

Damon’s gaze shifted toward a dark feather. It gave almost no presence; if it wasn’t lying along with other relics, he would assume it might’ve fallen from a pigeon passing by, not dropped from a monster as loot.

"What’s this feather?" Damon asked.

"Th-This?" the female merchant pointed to the feather with a surprise on her face. "Someone traded it in when buying a different item. It doesn’t have any use as far as I know, so I try to sell it as an ornament for the girls."

’You want me to waste a rift shard on an ornament?’

"No. It’s not an ornament, just trust me." Kitsune replied.

"How much is it?" Damon asked, after standing there awkwardly in silence and talking to Kitsune in his head.

"O-one shard?" The female merchant stuttered, as if charging even a single shard for this thing was a scam.

Damon lingered for a moment, watching the useless item with a cold gaze before summoning his only shard and passing it over to the merchant.

"Really? Oh, right, okay. Here you go, mister!" the girl said cheerfully, passing him the black feather with a wide grin.

As Damon gripped the item, he saw a small window with a description appear before him.

[Relic]

[Name: Black Feather]

[Grade: F]

[Type: ???]

[Stats: ]

’F Grade with unknown type and no stats... I didn’t just waste my shard on nothing, right?’

"Don’t worry," Kitsune giggled victoriously, "I promise it was worth it."

’So, what do I do with it?’

"Find some place alone, oh and make sure you have something to make fire with." 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Damon raised a brow at the words before letting out a long exhale.

"Victor..." he suddenly said, making the scrawny man jump. "I need a place alone and something to make fire with."

"Place alone? Platform 8 is empty, you can get through, but there are monsters in the tunnels-"

"That’s fine. Fire?"

Victor patted his pockets before pulling out a metal lighter. Damon spotted Victor’s name carved onto the side of it.

"Here, you can take this."

"You sure?"

"Yeah, if it wasn’t for you, I probably wouldn’t have made it back."

Damon accepted the lighter and followed Victor toward platform 8.

***

Moments later, Damon was already standing on the empty platform. The person holding guard before the last flight of stairs refused him entry at first. But after accidentally mentioning Kade’s name, the man quickly moved aside, letting him through without a hindrance.

After Victor left, excusing himself as needing to run some errands, Damon was left alone. Looking down at the black feather in his grip, he frowned slightly.

"Burn it," Kitsune suddenly said.

’What?’

"Set it on fire."

’I didn’t spend one shard just to burn this thing.’

"Just do it."

Damon hesitated. The feather looked as if it could break in the gust of wind, let alone fire, but with Kitsune insisting, he flicked open the metallic lighter and set it on fire.

In an instant, a bright flame engulfed the feather. His stomach sank for a moment. Instead of a feather, he saw his last shard burn in the flames. But then, just as he thought the feather would turn to ash, the relic seemed to absorb the fire until its colour and presence changed, turning to a fiery orange.

[Item restored!]

[Black Feather -> Phoenix Feather]