The Collector in all of his black and blue glory gave a suspicious looking grin s he rubbed his hands.
"You certainly don't waste any time do you Slade?"
Staring at the Collector with a bit of confusion, my eyes followed his gaze and drew them to the blue vial hanging off the belt holding the cloak together.
Filled to the brim with blue cells, I nodded my head when checking the high amount contained within.
"Yeah, I've come to buy."
I made a gesture as if I was taking something out of my pocket when in reality I was pulling something out of my inventory.
Presenting the blueprint, I continued "I also have one of the blueprints that you were looking for."
"Oh?"
Looking at me with new eyes, bluer ones at that, the Collector carefully took the blueprint from me and observed it with an appraising eye.
"It seems pretty new for something that you just found roaming about."
'Yeah, that's because this is the copy.'
Since I've only received one blueprint so far and it was only due to killing a boss, it seemed stupid to not copy it down to the very last detail.
Even if it was a hassle to do since paper and ink have gone in scarce supply due to apocalyptic situations, I made do with what I could access.
Though by the words of the Collector, it seems like I'm not supposed to have fund this blueprint through the corpse of the Concierge.
'Oh well.'
"Well then Sir Slade, what would you like to buy with the cells you have?"
Bringing out a scroll of black, the obviously enchanted scroll appeared before me.
"Hmm..." Staring at the catalogue seriously, my eyes caught sight of something rather... interesting.
"This one."
"That one? Are you sure?"
Eyes widening slightly, the Collector had a thin smile on his face.
"Positive."
"It will take all 300 of the cells that you have saved up at the start of the cycle."
"The start of the cycle...?" I hurriedly shook my head. "I'm positive."
"Don't you regret it later when the cycle takes everything from you at the end of the month..." Quietly speaking, the Collector couldn't hide the smile on his glowing face, making itself known through the shadows of their hood as they handed me the items.
Gratefully taking the items, I equipped it with a wide blazing grin on my face.
Taking the blue vial from me, the Collector took out a pipe hanging off of the gigantic blue tube on their back.
Connecting it to the blue vial, a loud sucking noise came from the tube as the blue vial int he Collector's hands suddenly lost most of its blue light.
And in return for sucking up most of the blue light from the vial in his hands, the Giant tube hanging off of his back with the help of several chains, three drops of concentrated blue cell solution formed at the top of the tube.
Dripping into the blue fluid, although I was curious how many cells it took for half of the giant tube bigger than an adult man to form, the Collector interrupted my thoughts.
"Now then Slade, any questions you want to ask me?"
"How many questions do I have?"
"If we go by the agreement we went with in the beginning, you gave 15 of them, this question not included."
'20 cells for a question huh? Better try and confirm some of the information I have.'
Not that I don't trust the Messenger's words or anything, hell, since she knew about the God of death albeit with another name, I trusted her alot.
The thing was, this was just one perspective of the situation at hand.
And if you knew anything, it wasn't wise to only focus on one aspect of a situation
Things were always more complicated than they seem
In this case, in a situation as wide reaching as a super zombie apocalypse that had the potential to spread mutant undead all across the world, ending the world in a different way, it seemed wise to see how other people thought of this situation
Wasn't it just a while ago that I found out for myself that the believers in the fractured shrines were nothing more than people worshipping a deity called the Mother?
Hell, they were the ones who revealed to me that most of the Malaise was contained in small lockets and symbols
And who knows, I may find a lead on this case that was just filled with nothing but questions with no possible answers.
Pausing for a moment, I answered the Collector.
"Now then Collector, I was hoping that you would answer a few of my doubts"
---
In the end, after one question, I didn't bother to ask anymore of them, instead saving them for the next time I inevitably came here.
It wasn't as if I had many questions I needed answering.
Only possibilities of what my answers could be, not exactly questions so to speak
"Guillian"
"Hmm?"
Tilting his head, the short bodied and lizard headed male with an orange mask turned to look at me with a look of confusion that turned into amazement when I revealed the organs in my hands.
"I've gotten what you ordered."
"Oh"
Hurriedly hobbling towards me over the piles of corpses on the ground, the pair of lizard eyes in his skulls dilated a bit as they focused on the giant boss heart I had (Mostly unwillingly) retrieved from the corpse of the Concierge.
Hands trembling, Guillian reachedd out towards the heart in an almost desperate manner as strange gasps left his mouth.
"Oh!? Oh!!! It's a boss heart!!! Where did you get this!"
"Woah woah, just wait a little, Guillian, be patient."
Raising my hands and preventing Guillian from taking the heart out of my hands, although the short statured lizard seemed incredibly desperate, he nevertheless restrained his desires.
His mouth never stopped moving though
"WhatCanIDoForYou?"
"First things first, can I get the mutations catalogue from you?"
"HereYouGoDearCustomer!"
Joyfully handing me a catalogue, I briefly scanned the surface only to see that nothing much had changed in the catalogue.
If anything, the catalogue looked newer and less covered in blood and grime, probably as a result of the time loop.
"I'll take... this one and this one."
"Two of them at the same time? Well if is you who's brought me these valuable organs than that's fine with me! Customer is king after all!"
Guillian paused before a desperate light filled his eyes "NowCanIHaveThatHeartPleasePleasePleasePlea-"
"Alright! Alright already, take it."
Moving the Concierge's heart down, Guillian hurriedly took the heart from my hands as if afraid that I would go back on my word.
Eagerly taking the organs to the pile of corpses, a mad cackle left the little lizards mouth as he grabbed two tokens from their oversized bag.
Hurriedly returning, the two tokens in their hands, they eagerly handed the two tokens to me and spoke with zeal.
Although now that zeal was slightly subdued and less eager as before, it wasn't energetic enough for me to struggle to understand what he was saying.
"Take Care Flame Head, can I call you that? I hope you do well in the Toxic Sewers!"
Placing the tokens in my hands, I took them gratefully and nodded my head.
"No worries Guillian."
"It's not you that I'm worrying about! It's the undead's organs!"
"...Not the type of encouragement I was expecting I will admit."
Shrugging my shoulders, I crushed the two tokens and felt their powers flow into my body, enhancing its function with supernatural abilities.
"Anyways, anything I should look out for in the... toxic sewers you said?"
"Yeah! You don't know? No offense, you look like you came from there, oh wait! I shouldn't have said that!" Green eyes staring at my face with sudden fear, Guillian hurriedly spoke.
"Please don't take that to heart flame head! It's just that you look like you've mutated slightly due to the malaise that I said that! Please don't stop supplying me organs!"
"...I've thought it before, but you are unhealthily obsessed with organs."
Briefly recalling the zeal in the lizards eyes when he told me how to dissect a human corpse to extract organs at their highest quality, Guillian quickly added.
"Well... if you aren't from the toxic sewers, then you should know, the malaise is stronger down there for some reason, strong enough that the mutations that have disappeared for some time now appear there frequently."
"Mutations... like the ones that you make?"
"Ew!? No! Never ever mention that to my face ever again! MY mutations are of a different class from those random monstrosities of nature that don't care for the life of their host!"
"..."
"Ahem." Coughing into the palm of their hand, Guillian continued awkwardly
"Anyways, for some reason, the Malaise in the Toxic sewers is stronger then usual, probably because its a disease? Well either way, when you go down there, avoid the waste water."
"Besides avoiding the waste water... I guess you should also beware the monsters that hide in the walls and floor? They really like hiding in there for some reason... And I guess that's it." Guillian shrugged.
"Besides those points I don't think you can prepare that much else, the rest you're going to have to learn on the fly with hands on experience, I wouldn't know since I've only been here testing my skills."
"Well... Either way, thank you for this valuable knowledge."
"You would eventually come to pick it up if you go there by yourself, bye now."
"Bye."
Shrugging, I waved at Guillian who promptly returned to gutting the fresh corpse pile and walked to the orange fountain of youth.
Gratefully taking the life giving fluid that the fountain had within the orange fluid, I filled the flask on my waist and slowly walked to the green doors heading to what I found out was called the toxic sewers.
Stepping down the stairs, the green haze thickened.
Leaving to the Toxic Sewers, my mind buffered slightly as I continued down the green set of stairs.
'Wait a minute, I don't even have my own head on my shoulders, how the hell did the Collector recognize me?'
Thinking that, my head of black flame slowly disappeared into the light of green.
I was now entering the Toxic Swers.
+++
Tree