It took them a moment to get down to the clearing. However, when they finally arrived, the unmaintained and overgrown road they had been traveling on since morning met another, much more used and apparently well-maintained one, creating a Y-shaped intersection. They entered the intersection and headed towards the village. Right after that, the overgrown meadows and trees were replaced by fields full of golden grain. In the distance, wooden and stone buildings located on the edge of the settlement, could already be seen.
After a few more minutes, they were already in front of the village itself. Slowly entering its precincts, the road surroundings changed into fences and gardens by the houses where the residents worked. They did not pay much attention to the newcomers to their village, only glancing at them from time to time, without much interest. Rock and Revy themselves behaved quite the opposite.
Rock looked at people every now and then. He surreptitiously observed their behavior and how they were dressed, wondering if they don't stand out too much. Most of the residents were dressed very simply. They limited themselves to a simple shirt and pants or a simple dress, and sometimes a wide hat on their heads to protect them from the sun. Some of the women who worked around their house or with animals, instead of dresses, wore pants or dungarees. Looking at himself and Revy, he felt that despite the fact that they did not look like locals, they did not stand out particularly.
The vast majority of people were busy with their duties. He saw families working in their gardens by the house, or taking care of animals in the barns. He also noticed two men repairing the roof of the house they passed. A few buildings away, he could hear the sound of metal clanging, and looking in that direction he saw a sign in the shape of a horseshoe and anvil hanging on the corner of the building. A few more buildings away, a group of kids, no older than 10, started running after them only to be chased away by old men who shouted at them while sitting at a table under the roof of one of the buildings. The entire settlement seemed very peaceful and even idyllic to him, the opposite of the dangerous Roanapur he had known so far or the busy Tokyo. However, something didn't feel right about this picture. He had the impression that he was missing something. Revy was looking at the surroundings slightly differently and noticing different details.
She carefully observed the people they passed. Most of them paid no attention to them, they didn't seam consider them a threat. Most of them weren't even armed, so far she had only noticed 3 people who had weapons hanging from their belts. However, despite this, everyone was somehow nervous. Those in the gardens suspiciously watched the area around the fences and walls of the buildings, as if searching for something. The men on the roof, every now and then, glanced far ahead, as if observing the edge of the village. As she passed the blacksmith's building, she noticed a line of people holding axes in their hands. As she drove past the old men, she noticed that right next to the table with some golden drink and cards, there were hunting rifles leaning against the wall. The anxiety hanging in the air reminded her of New York and Roanapur respectively. But what worried her most was that she didn't know what everyone was wary of, but she was sure she would find out soon.
After a few turns, they reached what looked like a main road, leading to some square. And at the end of it stood a larger red brick building. It towered significantly over the rest of the buildings around it with a tower pointed towards the sky with a clock inside it. There was not much traffic on the square itself, but a group of people gathered under the building, clearly not in the best of moods.
"To be fair, up close it looks more like a city than a village or settlement, or at least a town..." Rock said looking around at the buildings lining the road they were traveling. Although they weren't tall, the fact that they were made of brick made it seem like they were getting closer to the center.
"The behavior, also more city-like..." Revy commented as she saw the nervous crowd of people in the distance. Dewar mumbled, himself amazed by the buildings he was looking at.
"That's true..." He spoke with amazement in his voice, running his fingers through his beard. "When I was here a few years ago, this settlement looked much more miserable... And now... I wonder if it's because of the trade route that goes through this city..."
"A city could grow that much in a few years just because of a single trade route?"
"It's possible... We're talking about a trail that supplies a third of the settlements in this area. And if it's not it doing, then it probably has some part in it..." He said looking around, continuing to comb his beard before turning his gaze towards the crowd at the end of the square. "I wonder if all this commotion has something to do with this..."
Less than 5 minutes later, they were already close enough to hear the lively discussion of the crowd. The shouts and screams were clearly directed at one person standing in front of the mass of people. His voice was loud, yet relatively calm and composed. He was clearly trying to calm everyone around him, but due to the commotion, they couldn't quite make out what he was saying. At one point, his voice threw off its composure to be more loud.
"... This is dangerous! Do you want to orphan your children and widow
your wives? It would be better to wait for the specialists!" His shout suddenly and effectively silenced the small crowd in front of him. Only then were Rock and Revy able to see him better. A man dressed in a dark brown, slightly worn suit stood in front of the crowd. Wisps of graying hair peeked out from under a simple hat. And a gray mustache covered his lips. The man took a deep breath to speak to his people once again. "Soon the hunters will arrive and get rid of the monsters from the forest, and none of us will have to risk our lives to return everything to normal..." However, another man from the crowd interrupted him.
"Before the hunters arrive, autumn will come and the creatures will hide underground! And in next year there will be twice as many of them, if not three times as many!" The crowd agreed loudly with the speaker, openly opposing the older man in front of them. However, it slowly began to quiet down when the people at the back of the gathering began to notice two unknown riders and a wagon.
Before Rock, Revy, and Dewar reached the group, it split up and everyone went their separate ways. There was only one man left standing in front of the man with grey hair, shaking his finger at him.
"I'm telling you old man. Organise a hunt with us and we'll get rid of this problem. And if you don't do it, I'll do it myself, because if we don't do anything, this city will fall..." However, the old man was not moved by his words. The man was about to add something, but then he noticed the shadow of an approaching horse and left in a hurry. The old man watched him go, then with equally unwavering eyes, he looked at the newcomers.
"Can I help you with something?" He asked, trying to regain the balance in his voice, that had been disturbed by the earlier conversation. Rock and Revy remained silent, not entirely sure how they should answer this question. However, Dewar, who had joined them, spoke up immediately after a moment.
"I apologize for disturbing you, Mr. Chief..." The dwarf said in a calm voice, with a hint of enthusiasm. "The shop nearby is being closed down and I was hoping... along with my companions, that I could sell some of my goods in your settlement, instead of dragging it back to the city..." The old man thought for a moment, then answered Dewar.
"Mr. Dewar, if my eyes do not deceive me. You are Afredan's brother, right?" Dewar's face saddened at his words, but he nodded. "I understand... Please accept my condolences, because of his tragic death."
"Thank you... Fortunately, I have the consolation that the band that caused his death is also smelling the flowers from the bottom."
"Good to hear that..." The old man replied in a calmer voice. "Altho, today is not a trading day, but you can set up on the main road, next to the communication post." Dewar nodded again in thanks and turned the horses towards the road, but then the settelment chief stopped him again. "Just be careful at night... I hate to admit it, but monsters have started to roam around our village..." Dewar stopped and looked at him again, along with his two companions.
"Did you issue a contract?"
"Yes, but so far no one has shown up... And as you can probably see, the villagers are nervous about it."
"Yes, we have seen..." Dewar replied, and Rock and Revy nodded. "Do you know what these monsters are?"
"Sherads."
"Sherads?" Revy asked, setting the stick down and leaning it against the wagon so Dewar and Rock could make a makeshift tent over the wagon out of the tarp.
"Exactly..." The dwarf replied, throwing the tarp over the other side of the wagon. "You have called them a wooden skeletons with an infinite appetite. They feed mostly at night and sleep during the day... Do you remember anything I told you about them?"
"Hmmm..." Revy scratched the back of her neck, trying to remember something Dewar had said, but before she could, Rock spoke up.
"Sherads are creatures that resemble skeletons made of wood. They are rarely taller than 130 cm, and their height does not exceed 150 cm. Their body consists of two types of wood-like tissue. Hard but brittle, which acts as armor, and soft and flexible, behind which there is a slime with all the important organs. They live in nests and hunt at night..." He said full of pride, tying the end of the tarp to the cart.
"Bravo... You sound like you're reading from a book..." The dwarf said, clearly satisfied with his answer, but equally surprised. Revy only rolled her eyes at him. "And now tell me something that is equally important, if not more important... What are their weaknesses?" Rock hesitated for a moment at this question.
"Emmm... Head and torso..." He said uncertainly and without conviction, to which Revy reacted immediately.
"Torso... Losing their head and limbs can slow them down or even disable them, but they can regenerate. Damage to their torso, where their delicate organs are, is fatal..." This time it was Revy who grinned with pride, while Rock just looked at her with irritation in his eyes.
"Exactly..." The dwarf replied, equally pleased with her answer, then commented further so there was no understatement. "Even if a Sherad doesn't die instantly, any damage to their torso is almost fatal to them. That's why their soft tissue on their torso is covered in ribs of hard tissue to provide protection from organ damage. The hard tissue itself is hard but brittle, so blunt weapons are better against them than cutting weapons. It should also be remembered that the slime in which their organs are suspended is so dense that the force of impact is distributed throughout it, causing a Sherad to withstand several blows from a blunt weapon before their organs are destroyed... However, it distributes the impact so well that a single shot from a firearm can destroy most organs, even if it misses them, as their delicate organs cannot withstand the pressure created by a bullet hitting their body..."
"That's right, that's why the best weapon to fight this thing is a firearm..." She said as she got down from the wagon once the tent above it was secured, then pulled out her revolver from her holster, gleaming with a steel gleam and she looked towards her partner. "You see Rock, even in another world firearms are a solution to many problems." After these words the irritation in his eyes increased.
"Maybe, but sherads during the day, so when they are sleeping, should be killed with something other than firearms, as the sound of a shot can wake them up... Especially when eliminating the nest..." He said, pointing out an element from the teachings that he remembered in particular to stop her in situations like this. Dewar, seeing their behavior, decided to react before it got worse.
"I see your commitment... Surely one of you also knows why the contracts for Sherads should be carried out before autumn. Hmmm?" The dwarf looked at Revy. She hesitantly put the revolver in the holster and after a moment of thought, looked at Rock, clearly losing hope that she would remember on her own. However, itlooked lilke Rock had no idea either.
"Emmm... The Sherad contracts need to be completed before fall because..." He said and then fell silent awkwardly, unable to finish the sentence.
"Contracts for sherads hunting must complited before autumn, because during autumn Sherads burrow into the ground to produce offspring..." A young female voice spoke from the building next door, and a moment later a petite girl with dark short hair and tanned skin emerged from the same building. She was dressed in a dark blue uniform, reminding Rock of what his female colleagues wore in office. A moment later she continued slowly walking towards them. "Sherads burrow into the ground, where, from autumn to late winter, their body divides into two or more offspring, which come to the surface again at the end of winter..." The young girl spoke proudly with her eyes closed, as if she was in a trance. "That is why all sherads must be hunted, before autumn, any not eliminated now will be at least twice the problem after winter..." She said standing proudly in front of them. "Additionally, sherads are technicly not one creature, but two connected by a deep symbiosis." She finished by adding a sincere and charming smile to them. For a moment, Rock and Revy weren't sure how to react, and Dewar sat with a visible smile on his face.
"Cool... But who the fuck asked you?" Revy spoke up, clearly irritated by how the girl had intruded on their conversation. Hearing her stern tone, she quickly jumped back and, bending over, began to apologize, in a much less proud, and more squeaky tone.
"I'm so sorry! I just heard your conversation and wanted to help! Please forgive me!" Revy felt strange seeing her ashamed reaction, while Dewar could hardly hold back his laughter.
"Nothing happened, young lady. Besides, what you said was true..." The girl quickly straightened up with a wide smile on her innocent face. "Tell me, how do you know so much about them?"
"I'm Alena and I work at the communications post..." She said in a cheerful voice, bowing slightly. "I've always been fascinated by monsters, so I've read and asked travelers everything I could to learn as much about them as possible."
"Wow, amazing..." Rock commented upon hearing about her dedication. She turned a sincere smile his way in gratitude. Revy narrowed her eyes at this and clicked her tongue, which neither Rock nor the girl noticed.
"Yes, it's really extraordinary..." The dwarf said, drawing the girl's attention back to him. "Is that why you work at the communications post?"
"Yes!" She quickly replied, then quickly became embarrassed. "To tell you the truth, at first I wanted to become a hunter, but I'm sickly and don't have the courage to be hunter..." She added losing all enthusiasm, but after a moment it returned with redoubled force. "But I help them as much as I can as a communications worker. Plus, they want to transfer me to the city. That means I'm good at what I do, right?" She asked, looking at three of them, to which only Dewar nodded, giving her his approval.
"Yes, that must mean something..." The dwarf added after a moment. "If I remember correctly, the chief said he had put out an order for sherads... Can you show it to us, my dear?" Ailena's eyes lit up.
"You're also hunters?! Of course! I'll go get them now!" He said, after which she ran off and disappeared behind the building. Then, an awkward silence fell.
"Well, that was a fucking lot... " Revy suddenly spoke up, after she shook up from girl's excesiv energy. "But I don't understand something... What do communications posts have to do with hunters... Didn't you say that hunters belong to some league?"
"If I remember correctly, these outposts are an... Extension of the league... or something like that..." Dewar nodded, hearing that Rock and Revy were on the right track.
"Despite their name, communication posts serve more than just letter and telegram communication for local residents... But most importantly for you as hunters, these posts collect local quests for hunters and pass on information about them to the League network. Additionally, as hunters, you can accept a quest from the area directly at the post, without having to go back to the larger city where the local league office is." Suddenly, the girl's energetic voice could be heard from behind the building again.
"Ummm... Could I ask you to come over here..." She said, sticking her head out of the building.
"Yeah, we're coming..." Dewar spoke up before Rock or Revy could say anything.
"Great." She replied, then hid behind the wall again. Dewar moved towards her, immediately motioning for Rock and Revy to follow him.
"This girl is all too friendly..." Revy said in a tierd, half-whisper to Rock.
"Maybe... But I don't see a problem with that..." Revy rolled her eyes again hearing his answer. A moment later they approached a counter built into the wall of the building, behind it stood Alena with a piece of paper in her hands. She quickly handed it to Dewar, who began reading its contents.
"Oh my... That much for for sherads?" He said looking at the amount given in the reward. The girl nodded. "These aren't particularly dangerous monsters in comparasions to others..." He added passing the piece of paper with the contract to the back.
"The whole village really wants someone to take care of this contract. If you look at the traces from around the village, there are a lot of them. Everyone in the village is afraid that next year there will be so many of them that merchants will stop traveling here in fear of them and the village will fall... Or maybe even the village itself will be attacked by them..." Dewar scratched his head.
"How many are we talking about?" The girl turned her attention to Rock.
"It's hard to tell, but the tracks indicate more than a dozen present..."
"That's a lot..."
"Don't exaggerate, it's not that many." Revy said with confidence. "I could handle it myself."
"I have to add that only tracks around the village indicate a dozen... In the nest, there could be twice as many..." Revy didn't care much about these words. Two dozen didn't sound problematic either.
"And in the worst case?" The girl behind the counter fell silent for a moment.
"From four to five..." Revy froze for a moment hearing her answer, but then her speech returned.
"Still doable..."
"Revy!" Rock aggregated with a shout. "Can you multiply? 12 times 5 is 60... Can you handle 60 monsters?!"
"Did you hear that? They're not dangerous monsters compare to Wexling, and we killed one already... Its day so, all that needes to be done is to be quiet to not wake them up and deal a killing blow... Plus... If you decide to get your hands of office boy dirty and help me, we'll definitely manage!" She replied, teasing him more than arguing. Dewar didn't aggregate, being already somewhat immune to them raising their voices at each other, but Alena behind the counter clearly started to panic.
"Excuse me..." She said in a squeaky voice, but they paid attention to her nonetheless. "The order calls for help in dealing the sherad threat, so finding the nest and confirming their number will be rewarded... Of course, not the full value of the reward, but still..."
"You hear that, Rocky Baby... We don't have to fight them, all we have to do is find the nest and count them." She said with a smile, not breaking eye contact with him. He still wanted to be against it for a moment, but after a moment he gave in, sighing.
"We'll find them, count them and come back to discuss what to do next, okay?"
"Agreed!" Rock just sighed upon hearing her answer, certain that it wouldn't be that easy, not with her. But lowering his head, a gentle smile of excitment formed in the corner of his mouth. Revy at that moment headed towards Dewar's wagon.
"Dwarf, we'll borrow an axe." She said, taking the tool out of the wagon and throwing it over her shoulder. "Time to make some money chopping wood..."
Rock and Revy had been walking through the forest following trail for more than an hour, but for the last few minutes, it was more like wandering in the dark. The trail of the group of sherads they had been following from the outskirts of the village had died out about 10 minutes ago. All the traces of the sherads they had seen so far had suddenly disappeared. Scratches and torn bark from trees, branches that had been forcibly stripped of their leaves, traces of fresh digging in the ground for something. All these traces, like in a textbook example, indicated that the sherads had passed through here, and in an attempt to tame their hunger imposed by nature, they had eaten whatever they could get from the flora along the way. However, despite this, for 10 minutes, they had not been able to find any of these traces, and they were approaching the end of the forest.
"Fucking hell..." Revy sighed, stopping at the edge of the forest, in front of a densely overgrown clearing, then turned towards Rock, throwing her rifle over her shoulder. "Maybe we went the wrong way... We should go back to the last tracks and go in a different direction." Rock looked at her from the notebook he had written down the last instructions from Dewar before they set off in pursuit of the monsters. Obviously looking for something that would help them in this situation.
"Dewar said that sherads are characterized by two things, eternal hunger and cowardice..." He said, adjusting his belt, behind which he had put Dewar's axe and headed towards her. "They will always move the shortest route to a cluster of good quality food, so they will go in a straight line..." He walked up to her and looked around. "So far, all the tracks have been in a relatively straight line..."
"Yeah, but all those fucking tracks have also ended..." She cut him off, simultaneously receiving a look from him, after which he again buried his nose in the notebook to find something more. Revy sighed. "We could have taken the horses... At least we could have return faster..."
"It would have been hard to follow the tracks from the saddle..."
"You talk like we had any tracks now..." She commented with lack of enthusiasm. Rock just looked up from his notebook to look at her, then went back to looking through the same two pages of notes. Revy shrugged and started looking around, looking for anything that would help them. "By the way Rock... Have you thought about what you're going to name your mare?" She asked, her gaze wandering from tree to tree looking for clues.
"Ummm, I was thinking about the name Gamble..." He replied without looking up from his notebook. Revy looked at him reproachfully from the corner of her eye.
"Yeah, thats definitly name you would give..." She commented quietly, looking away.
"And do you have an idea for your, black as night, curse of a horse?" He asked, smiling slightly under his breath, imitating her way of naming the black mare she rides.
"Well... I wanted to use Eda, couse of character similarieties... But that's probably too cruel to name animal like that... Even for me." Rock laughed lightly at her answer. "...I'm thinking about Whiskey, Bacardi or Beretta..." Rock looked up at her this time.
"...Definitly a name that you would give..." He replied with a slight disappointment in his voice. Revy just shrugged, clearly not bothered by his comment. He went back to reading right away, but after another minute, he made sounds of frustration. "I don't get it... We followed the directions, but why isn't there a nest..."
"Maybe we passed this fucking nest and didn't even realize it?" She said, turning to face him.
"We would have noticed them..." He replied with growing frustration. "Sherads build nests in the forests, but because of them, the trees in their nest and around them die out... We would have noticed if we had passed a few dead trees in one place..." Revy sighed, agreeing with him. They might not have known much about monsters themselfs, but they weren't blind.
"By the way... Again, what did you say earlier about losing the trail?" She said, with a smile. Rock sighed at her obvious dig.
"Dewar said that if we stopped finding tracks, it would be a good sign, because we were close to the nest... That's why we didn't stop..." Revy nodded. She had heard those same words from him when they had lost the trail earlier. "Sherads apparently intentionally don't feed near their nests, so that the trail wouldn't lead directly to them..." Revy walked to the edge of the forest. In front of her stretched a clearing fully overgrown with thick and tall grass, and behind it were more strands of trees indicating another forest.
"What do you think, could those monsters have passed through the clearing and had a nest in that forest?" She said, pointing her finger towards the clearing and forest. Rock walked up to her.
"Maybe... Although it's quite far from where the trail ended..." At that moment a strong wind blew. Rock and Revy, despite standing in the forest, had to grab their hats so that they wouldn't fly away in the wind. The crowns of the trees they were standing between began to bend gently, and the grass in the clearing in front of them began to sway violently.
"We should turn back... At least to the place..." She said, scanning the clearing in front of her, when suddenly she noticed something that looked like a good sign for their hunt. "Wait! Check this out!" She pointed her hand in front of her. Rock looked at the indicated place, noticing a figure standing behind the swaying grass, which looked like it was made of wood.
"It must be a sherad." He said after a moment, when he understood what he was seeing.
"Fucking finally!" Revy said with satisfaction. "Come on Rock, time to do some work..."
Revy jumped down, just as the wind stopped. Rock was a few steps behind her. They carefully made their way through the tall grass, in the direction where they saw the suspicious figure, hoping that despite losing sight of it, they would be able to find it. After a few minutes of careful walking through the thickets Revy managed to find a wooden figure, entwined with blades of grass.
Up close, its description matched the dwarf's teachings. The monster looked like someone decided to carve a human skeleton in wood. Apart from that, it was shorter than her by a head and sholders, it had long and pointed legs on which it stood motionless in the middle of the clearing. His equally thin and long arms were wrapped around his shoulders, and ended with claws on the end of each of his three fingers, which looked sharp even without approaching them. Revy quickly waved at Rock, who quickly came.
"That's it, right?" She asked as soon as he approached. Rock pulled the axe from his belt and slowly walked around the figure standing in front of him, observing it closely. It was slightly bent forward, its jaw was open, and instead of the familiar look of teeth, there were something that looked like overgrown thorns on a rose. Above the mouth were eye sockets that were empty. Looking down, the entire torso looked like it consisted of an overgrown ribcage with more ribs. It started at the shoulders and ended at something he could call the pelvis. Between the ribs, you could clearly see the delicate tissue that was hidden and protected behind them.
"Yes, that's a sherad..." He replied in a calm voice, straightening up and nodding his head in her direction. "Looks like it's hibernating, or whatever Dewar calls this state, so it shouldn't hear us..." Revy nodded. Rock himself began looking around in the direction the monster was facing. "There must be a nest somewhere there... I guese this one didn't make it before sunrise and fell asleep here..."
"Never mind that... What are we going to do with it here? We probably won't leave it here. A quick shot at the center of mass should kill it." She commented, taking her gun out of its holster. Rock shook his head quickly.
"Remember, sherads are not sensitive to sounds when they sleep, but they can wake up under the influence of loud noises... We don't know how far the nest is, so..."
"So if we want to catch the rest in the nest, firearms are out of the question for now..." Revy finished reluctantly, then put the revolver back in its holster. "Rock, hand me the axe..."
"Are you sure?" He asked, extending the hand he was holding it in, towards her.
"Yeah, it'd better if I take care of this." She said, taking the axe in her hands and giving Rock her rifle to hold on to, after which, for his own safety, he took a step back. Revy stood to the side of the monster, put the blade of the axe to the creature's chest, then swung and struck with all her strength, slightly below the center of the monster's torso.
The axe blade broke through the monster's ribs without a problem, digging deep into the soft tissue. Revy immediately tried to pull the axe out of the monster's guts, but it was no use, she could only see thick and transparent goo seeping from the blade. Suddenly she heard a gentle swish. Wanting to see its source, she looked up, noticing how the monster's head was turned towards her, and a green glow shone in its eye sockets. The impact must have awakened the sherad from its hibernation. Revy froze for a second, not knowing what to do, then Rock's voice woke her from her trance.
"Pull out the axe!"
"Fuck! I know it!" She shouted back, focusing all her attention and strength on the axe handle, after a moment ripping it out of the monster's body, and in the process tearing the soft tissue in which the blade was stuck. Immediately after pulling out the blade, a waterfall of thick but transparent goo spattered from the monster's body, along with several watery organs of dark colors and irregular shape. The beast itself, after pulling out the axe's blade, fell backwards onto the ground, making a dull thud as it hit the ground.
"Revy, are you okay?" Rock asked, approaching her.
"Yeah... Fuck..." She replied, wiping the goo that splashed her face when pulling out the axe. "Do you think this shit is poisonous or other fucking way dangerous?"
"Dewar didn't mention anything about it, so I guess not."
"Ehh, I fucking hope so, and not that the old dwarf simply forgot about it..." Rock nodded in agreement. Immediately afterward, he walked to what was left of the beast. First, he looked at the organs, but unable to recognize any, he looked thoughtfully at the monster's body.
"Revy, you can come here with the axe..." He said without taking his eyes off the carcass in front of him. Revy looked in his direction, then walked up to him. He pointed to a place on his upper torso with his finger. At first, Revy was surprised by his strange behavior, but she raised the axe and hit the indicated place.
The ribs shattered, but this time the blade did not go as deep as before. Something stopped it. Revy easily pulled the axe out of the body, and in the place where the blade had been a moment ago, a golden color shone.
"I remembered correctly..." He said, putting his hands in the newly created hole and struggling with the remains of the monster. Revy did not understand what he was doing, but before she could gather the words in her head to compose the right question, Rock ripped something out of the monster's body. "There it is!" He said and extended his hand towards Revy, on which lay something that she could describe as a poorly made amber sun.
"What is this?" She asked clearly without emotion.
"Sherad's weave..." Rock replied with enthusiasm, but this answer did not impress her. "If I remember correctly... It is like the sherad's brain... It is the point where all the layers are connected..." She was not even slightly excited about what she was hearing from him. Rock sighed and then said without enthusiasm. "Based on this, they will calculate how much we will be paid for the contract..." Revy looked at him and then said with slight boredom.
"Fuck Rock... You could have start from that..."