Chapter 146: Making Friends with a Walking Calamity

Squabee helped dig a massive hole around Sarah’s arm, setting her free. Sarah laid in the grass and stared at the sky, exhausted. Her entire body felt extremely weak and fatiged from using her power for such a short time.

"Well. That makes one of us. It looks like I can manipulate my body to go intangible whenever I want."

"Why didn’t you just reactivate your power to get yourself out?"

"I’m completely exhausted. I must have used too much energy trying to test out the power. That’s probably why my whole arm got stuck."

"So, should we head back?"

"No. Not until we at least get an idea of what yours is. Maybe you should try picking up grass to or something."

Squabee studied the grass oddly and bent over to pick it up. With no effort, she got a large handful of grass in her palm. She felt something in her hand that was hiding in the grass she picked up. After clearing some of it, the saw a shiny golden coin. She showed Sarah the coin and started jumping up and down.

"Sarah, look what I just found on the ground! We’re rich!"

Sarah simply stared at her in awe.

"So lucky for no reason. Maybe we should wait for the random person to finish the charm to help you out."

Squabee sat down next to Sarah as she laid in the grass.

"What did it feel like to use your power? I mean, you activated it without your eyes being open, so you had to have done something, right?"

Sarah sat up and hugged her knees.

"I don’t really know how to explain it. Do you know that feeling where you know an attack is coming so you prepare your body for the impact? It was something similar to that, except the part I was preparing felt stronger in some way."

"So, does that mean you have a curse?"

"I think so. However, that would also mean that our powers are completely different if you don’t have one. A curse, that is."

Squabee sighed heavily and crossed her arms.

"This is so unfair! Everyone has all these cool powers, but all I am is human bait! This is ridiculous!"

"Just calm down a bit. We’ll figure it out."

Sarah stood up and stretched her arms a bit.

"Okay, I think I can practice a little more. Try throwing small pebbles at my hand and I will try and have it phase through me."

Squabee picked up a few small rocks and threw them at Sarah’s hand. Her face started sweating as she tried commanding her power. A few times, the rocks simply bounced off her palm. The other times, the rocks successfully passed through her hand.

"This is more troublesome than I thought. The timing this requires is insane."

After three hours of practice, both Squabee had enough. Not only this, but Sarah had three rocks stuck inside her hand.

"Damn it. I’ll have Doc try and fix this for me when we get back. The charm might be done by now. Let’s head back."

Squabee excitedly followed Sarah back towards the main gate. The guards looked at both of them suspiciously.

"Man, for punishing your daughter, you look more exhausted than her!"

"She tried to run from me. I made sure we both made it back here."

The guard laughed.

"Be careful from now on."

Sarah and Sqaubee slowly walked back towards the beaten-up shack where they saw the strange enchanter. There was a sign on the door in big bold letters:

We Are Open!

Squabee turned the knob and walked into the dim store.

"Hello? Is anyone here right now?"

Loud bangs and falling scraps could be heard from the back of the store. After a few moments, the random clothed figure appeared behind a stone counter. His clothes looked ripped and dirtied, but it was still impossible to see any part of their body.

"Hello there! Have you all come to retrieve your charm?"

Sarah nodded.

"We have. Is it ready for us to take yet?"

"Oh yes. It only took me a few minutes to finish it."

"A few minutes? I thought you said it would take you hours to finish?"

"Yeah, I lied. I just like to work in peace and quiet is all."

Sarah stared at the figure dubiously.

"Right... so, how much do we owe you?"

"Hm... I’ll say two gold pieces!"

Sarah gasped.

"Two gold pieces?! You must have lost your mind to think we would ever pay such a price for such a simple charm that you made in a few minutes!!"

"I am a master of my craft I will have you know! You are paying for the quality!"

"There’s no way this product is quality if you hardly took any time to make it!"

"I’m just that incredible, I guess. Two gold pieces. I won’t take anything less."

"One hundred silver pieces."

"Two gold."

"Five hundred silver."

"One gold and you come back to buy something else in the future."

"One gold and I don’t ransack your shop."

"Are you threatening me?!"

"It’s called bartering!!"

"One gold and you make me a nice meal. I haven’t eaten anything in a while."

Sarah smirked and lifted her rock-filled hand.

"Deal."

The figure squinted its glowing yellow eyes down at Sarah’s gross-looking hand.

"Five-hundred silver and you keep that hand away from me."

Squabee took out the gold coin she found and placed in the counter. The shopkeeper studied it before throwing it in a drawer by his counter. Then, he reached into one of his many pockets in his robe and pulled out a pair of glasses. They didn’t seem to be glowing and didn’t look special. Sarah lifted them and tried peeping through them to see if anything changed, but nothing looked different.

"What gives? I thought enchanted things are supposed to glow?"

"Only bad enchanters keep the hue of their work. This is much more stealthy and catches more people off guard. Sure, it’s a lot more work to get rid of, but I knew you two would be worth the effort."

"How does it work?"

"Put them on and see for yourself."

Sarah put on the glasses and stared at the keeper. Glowing text appeared next to his figure out of thin air.

Name: Enki

Zalo: Error

Zalo Type: Error

Zalo Description: Error

Threat Level: Not enough information

Weakness: Error

Sarah’s eyes widened seeing the information being displayed before her.

"This is... incredible. Why did you add the extra things?"

"Well, I thought they would be useful to you just in case. Isn’t it great?"

Sarah studied the last line carefully.

"What does threat level mean?"

"When you look at a beast or a person, the threat level will assign them to one of the categories of dangers we have in this world such as an infant beast. I also made myself immune to your charm for my own personal protection. I hope you understand."

Sarah still stared through the glasses in awe.

"Thank you so much."

She finally stared at Squabee. When she did, Sarah almost passed out reading the words as they appeared next to her.

Name: Squabee

Zalo: Luck

Zalo Type: Rend

Zalo Description: This user can manipulate luck to fit any outcome she desires. This ability transcends destiny, fate, and breaks any natural order, for luck is a factor that can never be anticipated or predicted. A being like her should not exist, but by pure luck, it seems she does. Even when she isn’t in control of her power, it protects her best interests anyway.

Threat Level: Providence Deity (avoid conflict at all costs)

Weakness: Presumably vulnerable when sleeping