My vision faded till I once again found myself transported to an interface space. And yet this one? This one was completely different than anywhere I'd been before. Very creepy to boot.

I stood in a graveyard, one covered in a dark fog. The entire place, and even myself for that matter, was leached of saturation. It was like I was looking at an ancient black-and-white movie. Deeply unsettling.

"Caw~!" The cry of a crow echoed from beyond the fog. It merged with other cries, turning into a constant background noise.

The graveyard itself stood on a hill, completely surrounded by dark fog. The darkness beyond the hilltop gave me an incredible sense of danger. The kind of danger that far exceeded something like insulting Fox's Grace. If I went out there? I was guaranteed to die.

I shifted my gaze to the graveyard itself. The graves around were weird. I'd never actually visited a graveyard like this, but the tombstones should have names, right? No- wait, they did have names. Dense fog just covered up the writing.

Items, thousands if not tens of thousands, sat scattered around the darkness of the hill. They were hard to make out, but I spotted everything from a shiny toy car to an ancient longsword. 'Course, every item had the same saturation issue with the rest of the place.

A midnight breeze blew by, caring with it a feeling of dread and despair. I glanced up, spotting the moon so far above. It was full, glowing a blood red. Also one of the few spots of color in this entire space. A chill went up my spine.

An ancient withered tree grew from the center of the hill. Little red crystals dangled from its branches, catching the moon's beams. A liquid, almost like liquified ruby, bled out of the tree. It flowed, creating a small mote just past the tree's roots. It would've been oddly beautiful if not for the eerie ambiance around the place.

For the briefest of moments, I considered activating Aetherial Perception. The screams of Insight held me from committing such a grave offence. I didn't feel like I'd die, but it was definitely a bad idea.

"U-um… hello?" I called out into the darkness. What was I supposed to do here-

Silence. Absolutely silent. Even the caws cut off, leaving me in a situation where my heartbeat was louder than anything else. Just as I started to feel deeply uncomfortable, something stirred just before the tree.

The fog condensed. Darkness converged, covering a space with its reaching presence. The fog left just as quickly as it came, revealing a massive wheel. It looked like the ones I'd seen in a game show. Red text was written along the rim of the wheel in a language I couldn't understand.

"Is- is this it?" I asked once more. Crow's Wheel of Wares was what I was brought here for, so must be.

A bright ray of moonlight peeked through the gaps in the withered tree, shining on the wheel. That was all the prompting I needed. I edged forward to the wheel and stretched out my hand. There was a small amount of comfort in that nothing jumped out yet. This place was just creepy, not all that scary-

Ugh- I changed my mind. When I approached the wheel, something changed in my outstretched hand. The skin, muscle, and blood all faded away, leaving just the bones. I flinched backward and pulled away. My hand returned to flesh and blood as soon as it distanced itself.

The only path was forward. I didn't really have much of a choice. 'Sides, it didn't look like it had any permanent effect. I stretched out a hand once more toward the wheel. The flesh just vanishing made me feel sick, as did seeing my pure white bones.

I ignored the effect to the best of my abilities. Surprisingly, I'd gotten quite good at just ignoring what made me uncomfortable since I got the interface. I had no issue grabbing the edge of the black and red gameshow wheel.

Immediately, a chill rolled down my spine. It wasn't just cosmetic. I couldn't feel anything from my hand. There was no feedback with no nerves. How was it even still held together-

It didn't matter. I pulled the wheel down as hard as I could and backed away. My hand returned once more, though it was a bit slower this time around. I watched the flesh reappear, more interested in it than the wheel spinning just ahead of me.

The wheel spun. Each tick of its pin against the black and red blur sounded like the eternal ticking of time. I had chills down my spine the entire time until the ticking slowly came to a stop. I couldn't read what it said, but that didn't matter. The interface popped into my vision.

「Crow's Wheel of Wares

Crow's Canteen of Chaos」

Was that… good? It sounded weird. I looked around the dim graveyard once more. The fog grew denser with each passing second, flowing toward me like a wave. Not dangerous though… Was I getting kicked out?

Insight caught my attention. I looked up to the top of the tree. A crow, massive in size, sat upon its branches. Eight glowing red eyes stared down at me with a cold, calculating glare. Fear surged through me like the Reaper himself stood there. I flinched away just as the dark fog covered me fully-

Then I was back in bed. My heart pounded with the unmistakable weight of absolute terror. It took quite a while to calm down, especially considering I saw the eyes every time I closed my own.

If I wasn't sure before? Now I definitely was. The eidolons were behind the interface somehow. I figured when the reward was 'Crows' Wheel of Wares. Actually seeing an eidolon just like that though?

Ugh- and that meant the six tailed fox from Fox's Paw was actually Fox. I'd wanted to pet an eidolon. I was lucky to get out of there relatively intact. What were these high-level entities doing with a lowly person like me anyway? What was the plan with this whole thing?

Unfortunately, no answers hit me. A weight, however, did press into my chest. It drew my attention to a black canteen. It was bespeckled with what looked to be rubies all over it, similar liquid that flowed from the trees. It was covered metallic feathers, almost as if the wings of a crow wrapped around the whole thing.

I picked it up.

「Crow's Canteen of Chaos

Alchemical Replication - Can replicate any liquid poured into it. The liquid can be changed at will but will need to replenish.

Current: Water」

A magic item… Remnant, maybe? It didn't look like it had a will, so definitely not a Revenant. Or was it just enchanted? Or- or did eidolons even play by the rules? Maybe this was something entirely new.

Part of me wanted to hide the thing and never touch it again. Regardless, it was magic. I never trusted magic much, and the name 'of chaos' didn't make me feel all that good about it… but it'd been a long couple weeks. I didn't find myself as resistant to it.

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'Sides that, I could recognize the usefulness of the canteen. Replicate 'any' liquid? I stared down at the lux canteen and shook it slightly. Liquid sloshed around from inside.

I popped open the lid, peering in. Water slowly filled it up, condensing alongside the walls of the thing. It was a slow-moving process, one that looked like it could take quite a while. Infinite water though… that was kinda nice?

I sipped some of it, holding it in my mouth- oh wow! I involuntarily gulped. The water- it tasted so good. It was the purest I'd ever had. It lacked the usual rotten tang most water had these days. Before I even realized it, I drank the entire canteen down. Heh, so much for hesitations.

I moved to my fridge and pulled out a soda. I poured a bit of it into the container. The rubies decorating the item flashed with a crimson glow, though nothing else seemed to change. Physically, at least.

Mentally? Mentally I felt like I could interact with an invisible menu while holding it. Right now, there were just two options. I could see how the menu would grow to hundreds if I dedicated some time to expanding it. I kept it on water. The pure water from the canteen was so much sweeter than a pop could ever be.

Too bad there was no easy way to carry it around-

A shadow condensed around my hand. In seconds, it enveloped the canteen fully. The shadows faded away, taking the canteen with them. Was it just- just gone? As if thinking about it was a trigger, the shadows moved once more and the canteen reappeared. Cool. And very convenient.

Unfortunately, I couldn't just sit around and play with the gift… the gift from Crow? Ugh- I didn't even want to think about that. About being linked so closely to an eidolon. Probably even closer than even a Magus ever would be.

I sighed and tossed the canteen back into the shadows. I grabbed my new bag of tools and headed down to the bike. It was really about time I figured out what was wrong with the damn thing.

The dirtbike was extremely cheap. It wasn't literally a dirtbike, but it looked like one so that's what I'd been calling it. Honestly? It was more surprising it lasted as long as it had considering how much I got it for. Then again, the Jade Fang had yet to truly screw me over.

I checked the battery first. The tool kit had a multimeter, so it was as good of a place to check as anything else. The volts surged through the multimeter, reading above the normal. Wasn't dead, and didn't look to be in danger of dying anytime soon. I used it almost daily anyway, so there wasn't much of a chance for parasitic drain to kick in.

I went ahead and checked the fuses while I had the multimeter out. It was a bit awkward at first, but I eventually found the right way to stick both ends of the device onto the fuses. All looked good.

I looked in the fuel tank and checked for AE3 parasites. Wasn't that, thankfully. I'd read horror stories on the Net about trying to get them out of AE3 tanks. Hmm.. maybe the thermoelectric semiconductors? I moved to the connection points between the AE3 tank.

Sand clogged up the connectors. It was such a simple thing, and yet it was screwing with my bike. How annoying. It was an absolute bitch to disconnect the semiconductors, but actually clearing them was easy. I just tossed them into soapy water to clean it off.

While I left them to dry for a few hours, I read through a few screamsheets on my phone. There were some things of interest. The Oasis Nomads were coming to Aythryn City, as they did every spring. Tensions were bound to rais around them as always. Something about having fresh, non-synthetic food drove people up the walls.

Sentinel was also making a move. The corporation was bringing their corporate Supercarier Phalanx to the city. I'd never seen one in person, but they were supposedly a mile long. Absolutely beasts of vehicles capable of destroying whole cities if they wanted to.

Speaking of- I was fucked. Well and truly fucked if they every discovered their research. I dug into the wall of my fridge liner and hid it there for now. The stuff was obviously precious. I didn't want to just burn it and be done. Not yet. Once my Tech reached a higher level, I might actually be able to build some of the stuff myself.

The parts eventually dried and I took them back out to my bike. It was even more annoying getting the thermoelectric semiconductors back on it. I even nicked my hands several times that I would've liked with the clamps. I wiped the blood from my hand and looked at a job well done.

One thing left to do. I straddled it and kicked on the ignition. The engine didn't quite purr like a well maintained machine, but it definitely quit chugging so hard. I drove out and around the Ryu Container Yard once. It ran as good as when I bought it.

「Tech - 2>3」

I flinched in surprise. So wasn't expecting to get such a thing from this simple task. Maybe I was wrong about the leveling conditions? I assumed it was only through a mission, but maybe it's anytime I complete a project?

Hmm… this requires more testing. Maybe I should head back to the range and shoot a thousand shots or something. My skills with weapons were trash as is, so even a slight improvement would help.

There were other skills I was more interested in though. Specifically, Evasion. I hadn't had much of a look at it, but… well, dodging damage was thousands of times better than tanking damage, right? Assuming it got to the level of dodging bullets? I'd be set.

I drove back around to my container and shut it down-

"You finally fix that bike of yours, dearie?" A cracked voice asked.

I glanced over to see Granny Smith's shadow through her grate. "Chek, ma'am."

She smiled. Thanks to the Image Enhancer, I could make out her wrinkles' wrinkles flapping around with the effort. "That's great! Do you think you could fix something for me? I'll pay, of course."

I don't have anything else going on today. "I can talk a look."

"C'mon in then." She backed away and opened the security door. I headed in, hesitating at the door. It'd been a while since I'd been in here.

Her container was exactly like mine. Manufactured by the same people, and had the exact same dimensions. Yet? Hers looked nothing like mine.

My container was barebones. I didn't really have anything in the first place. Hers? Filled to the brim with furniture, decorations, and small collectible statues. Noticeably, most of her decorations were associated with Knights. Kite shields and swords of all kinds sat strapped to the walls.

A massive TV dominated the space, only contested by an equally massive couch covered in blankets. Did she not have a bed?

"TV stopped working… my favorite show was on, too." The elderly woman sidled over and took a seat on the couch's armrest.

I moved over to take a look. "That sucks. Which one?"

"Catfight." I think that was about genetically mutated big-cats fighting to the death? "Your friend really likes my show! It's been so long since I had someone to watch with."

Friend? Oh, right. Iris hung out with the older woman while I slaved away looking over evidence. Shoulda realized it was Catfight. It'd be right up that brute's alley. "Glad you enjoyed her company."

I hit the power button. Nothing. Not even a slight buzz of electricity. I unplugged the TV and plugged it in again. Always step one for this kinda thing. Unfortunately, it didn't fix the problem.

Granny Smith chucked sadly. "Funny… she reminded me of little Eddie, back before he-"

It wasn't the cords, at least I didn't think so. They were all in one piece, and my multimeter didn't show any issues. I shifted and checked the outlet itself. It broke at some point.

"He?" I pulled off the outlet's cover and glanced over my shoulder.

The old one sighed deeply. Her shoulders slumped as if they bore the weight of the world. "Left to avenge his parents. Joined the FSA to fight Dune Walkers… hadn't seen him since."

How sad… to outlive your children, and then your grandchildren don't even talk to you? No wonder I always thought she was a bit lonely. "He alive?"

"Sure hope so, dearie." She shrugged and plopped down onto the couch itself. Never got a message from the FSA… it's been ten years though."

How tragic… I hadn't interacted with her all that much, but she seemed like a pretty good person as far as people went. To spend your days idly waiting, hoping for someone to reach out… someone that might not even be alive.

Maybe I could help out? Uncle Ezra was quite high up in the ranks, so he might be able to find what happened to 'Little Eddie'. See if he's even alive, or MIA or something.

"What was his name?" I looked down and spotted the issue. Some of the wires had been frayed. Probably thanks to elemental exposure. Whoever set this up hadn't insulated it very well.

"My little Eddie. Edward Franz Smith." Her voice practically dripped with emotion.

"I can ask my uncle about it." I fixed the outlet. It was a minor thing. Far easier than most stuff showed to me in the initial acquisition of Tech.

「Request - Suspicious Disappearance

Find out what happened to Edward Smith

1 Skill Point」

That didn't bode well. I really, really hope this isn't anything more to this than just a quick investigation… yet the request suggested the entire opposite. Why would the eidolons be interested in a simple disappearance? They know something I didn't?

The television flickered to life. Granny Smith excitedly clapped her hands together, the clap sounding more like bone on bone than skin on skin. "Oh! You fixed it. Thank you, dearie! How much do I owe you?"

I shook my head and gathered my tools back up. "Nothing. Thank you for looking out for my bike all these years."

"Are you sure? I'm not hurting for money too badly." She shifted on the couch.

"Chek, ma'am. It was just a simple fix." I headed for the door. "I appreciate the offer, though."

She pulled out her remote and flicked to Catfight. It flicked to a scene of a cybernetic jaguar ripped a green lion's throat out. "Right, well… good night."

"Night." I backed out of the door and stretched. Might as well go give uncle a call now. See if I couldn't figure this out quickly. There was even a Skill Point on the line this time.

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