Chapter 18: The Peakless Wildlife Refuge

Strangely, the injury was actually encouraging in the end. In the past, a loss like that might have been devastating. Yet now his sister wasn't in danger, he didn't need to worry about getting further injured at work, and he could afford to take a couple days off. The encounter was a setback, yes, but it was easy to see the positive side.

Rick took those days to focus inward and rebuild his defensive core. The injuries might have been serious for some, but he'd built his core to endure breaking. Plus, compared to the devastating assault from Teragen and the recovery via Deathbane, this wasn't nearly so serious. Still beneficial, especially if he ran into this Jack guy again.

His recovery was even aided. First by Melissa, who had an experiment in reducing lucrim clotting that only sort of worked and left him a bit singed. Second and much more successfully by Lisa, who took the opportunity to try recovery mixtures on him. Some were ineffective, but overall it was a benefit he never would have had before. He did think that Lisa was upset to find him injured, but she said nothing explicitly and he wasn't sure how to bring it up, or if he even should.

In any case, he was pleased by how much progress he made. Once it would have been astonishing, but now he found himself looking upward and seeing how far he had to go. For one, he needed to figure out what techniques Jack was using to hide his power.

Until he figured that out, all he could do was keep advancing along the same paths he knew. Rick got out his phone and checked his portfolio again:

[Name: Rick Hunter

Ether Tier: 15th

Ether Score: 299

Lucrim Generation: 46,600

Effective Rate: 44,658

Current Lucrim: 1709]

[Rick Hunter's Lucrima Portfolio

Foundation: 3800 (Lv IV)

Offensive Lucore: 7800 (Lv IV)

Defensive Lucore: 18,200 (Lv VIII)

Bunyan's Step: 8150 (Lv V)

Graham's Stake: 8650 (Lv II)

Aura Leech: -1942 (Stage I)

Gross Lucrim: 46,600

Net Lucrim: 44,658]

He was pleased to see that his Defensive Lucore had finally been evaluated at a higher stage after so long stuck at the same level. Though Jack's assault hadn't been anywhere near as potent as Teragen's, it dealt damage by different methods, so it had helped him grow substantially.

His offense was lagging behind, but that had always been the case for him and he could deal with it the next time he developed a new Lucore. The only thing that actually upset him about his portfolio was that his ether score had basically not increased and he was still on the same tier. Even if the agencies lagged, he felt as though getting his new job should have sent him shooting upward.

Rick shook it off and put his phone away, deciding that he had spent long enough on strength development. Now that he was better, he needed to get back to work. He couldn't afford to slack off if he wanted to meet his quotas, much less rank on the scoreboard.

Intentionally ignoring the scores, Rick instead just checked the announcements and the forums. There was a message to everyone allegedly just reminding them that they didn't carry GLA authority... probably a reprimand to those who had gotten involved in the fights. A few angry messages on the forums suggested that there was still conflict over the anomaly on the golf course. He checked the scores after all, trying not to dwell on them, and saw that only one person's score had increased and some had even decreased. Maybe a penalty for causing trouble.

Since that was still a mess, Rick decided to take an entirely different approach. If he headed north of the city he could potentially take care of two things at once, plus stay away from the conflict. After gathering his equipment, Rick headed out.

In his time off, he'd thought more about the half-starved dragon and the comments made by the Lucrim Authority employees. That had led him to research on local conservation efforts, which turned out to be a deeper rabbit hole than he'd expected. Most were concerned with simpler matters like prairie restoration, but one in particular seemed to have lucrim expertise that might be up to the challenge.

The Peakless Wildlife Refuge lay some distance north of Branton. He wasn't sure whether the name was a statement of strength or a dry joke about the area being flat, but either way they seemed best qualified to deal with such issues. It was so far away that he seriously considered not taking his bike, but in the end he decided to stick with it.

Along the way, he did his best to meditate while biking. It was challenging to maintain the aura flow necessary to accelerate the bike while simultaneously going through the exercises, but at least it was engaging. Between the familiar rhythms of meditation and the tricky new challenges, the time it took him to cross the city and reach the refuge melted away.

Once he arrived, however, he wasn't sure exactly where it began. There were a few fences and signs forbidding hunting, but otherwise they didn't seem big on boundaries. The Peakless Wildlife Refuge was a region of many acres, after all, and enforced only by local organizations instead of the government.

He'd checked satellite maps before going and the headquarters were definitely supposed to be in this direction. Unlike the other refuges, it didn't have an easily accessible office. He hadn't been able to look at the roads online and had assumed that they would be clearer in person. Yet after a while biking back and forth near the relevant area, not even seeing a sign about it, he decided that it must not be so simple to find.

Rick started by wandering from the highway onto a dirt road, then a gravel one where he had to put his bike away. From there he followed a trail deeper, becoming steadily more convinced that he was actually going the wrong way. Yet after having gone this far...

Getting frustrated, Rick closed his eyes and took several deep breaths. Those barely helped him calm down, but while he was focused, something tickled at the edge of his senses. Almost like the feeling he'd gotten when lucrim was in the air.

Suddenly motivated, Rick opened his eyes and looked around for any signs of an anomaly. None visible, so he raised his hands and began flowing the surveying technique between them. At first he was excited by the above average response, yet as he moved, the response didn't decrease or increase.

This entire region had just a bit of lucrim in the atmosphere. It didn't make any sense that it could be naturally falling, so he had to assume that it came from some other source. Perhaps if the Peakless Wildlife Refuge really did keep many plants and animals that used lucrim, they put just a bit of it back in the environment. Though he could have drained it from the air, he estimated it would only be a few dozen lucrim and decided against it. The animals needed it more anyway.

Even if he wasn't close to a particular source, Rick kept trying the surveying technique as he walked. If there was an anomaly here, it could easily have escaped notice due to the environment. Since he was going to end up wandering looking for the right place anyway, he might as well survey the area.

To his surprise, before he found the office, he actually got a stronger response from the technique. Rick began trying to feel out the exact location, though he spent less time staring at the aura and more looking around him. There was a chance that the source was a dangerous wild animal that used lucrim - he wasn't sure if it worked that way, but didn't want to take the risk.

Far from being threatened, he actually found himself relaxing. The trees were ancient and solid, the undergrowth was lush, and wildlife moved all around him. Though the birds stopped singing and flew away when he got close, there were enough of them that he was still surrounded by birdsong.

Though Rick was more comfortable in the city and for him "camping" was something rich people did, he had to admit that the forest was peaceful. Not just in the natural quiet compared to the city, but something that went deeper than that. It was just an impulse, yet he found himself thinking that this was the right place, despite getting a bit lost. He didn't know if they could catch a feral dragon and release it here in the refuge, but he thought they might know what to do with it.

He was getting closer to the source, or at least the aura between his hands was vibrating more strongly. Keeping up the technique while walking was starting to get inaccurate, though, because his control wasn't perfect. When he found an area of clean rock, he knelt down and focused fully on the technique, doing Emily's advanced version to get a better sense for the area.

There was more natural variation here, but that didn't remind him of a lucrim anomaly. He did think there was one, but wasn't sure if it was west or northwest. Otherwise the only lucrim... was an immensely powerful mass directly beside him.

"You shouldn't have come here." The voice spoke at the same time Rick realized that it was a Lucore.

Opening his eyes, he found himself staring at a shotgun aimed at his face.