Frank could tell that the priestess and her fraternity were no villains, and so, he told them everything about the spiritron vein.And as expected, after hearing his story, the priestess did not think that he was lying—in fact, she felt sympathy for him. "Not treating humans as humans, even its host? It truly is evil! What a pity that my paltry skills can't destroy it!"Still, Frank remained curious. "I've told you everything I know. Shouldn't you tell me the source of your power too?"The priestess smiled. "I'm no angel, but I know a little courtesy. Come with me."With that, she stood up and started leading Frank up the mountain.The geezers behind them scrambled to their feet and followed, reasoning, "Let's think about this please, Your Excellency. He's an outsider—we can't reveal our secret to him!"The priestess simply laughed coolly. "Sure, then why don't you stop him? Let's see if you can."The geezers were left speechless right then, not because they were afraid to die,
Naturally, there would definitely have been differing circumstances, since the priestess's group looked no different from normal.And there was what she said about survival bias, and it was a million to one odds that something like this would happen. Otherwise, everyone in contact with the meteorite would mutate!Frank then suggested, "Should I get someone to research it?""Absolutely not! It belongs to us—no one gets to be near it!"While the geezers were absolutely vehement against the idea, the priestess snapped, "Yours? Is your name written on it? It's true that our predecessors passed on a tradition to us, but none of us even understand if it would hurt people."The geezers were simply bemused. "How could you say that?""If it does, why didn't our ancestors notice it over the last thousand years?"The priestess smiled in wry amusement—being uneducated was a terrible thing. "They wouldn't have felt it because of the low average life expectancy. Just read the stats—even now
The priestess took the ring, put on her mask, and started dancing.Halfway through, she suddenly threw it into the crater!She turned, ready to explain herself when she saw that Frank remained unaffected.That left her perplexed. "Aren't you worried that I'd take that ring for myself?"Frank chuckled. "I gave it to you, so I'm ready to lose it. It's not that important anyway!"The priestess smiled at Frank's unexpected generosity—she had certainly chosen wisely!Even as the thought crossed her mind, it happened—the ring shot out of the crater. But now, it was blindingly radiant and covered in runes that Frank did not recognize.Still, he could tell that it was useful for him and so asked, "How did you know this would work?"The priestess smiled. "I sensed it when I smelled the evil presence, and it felt familiar. I'm sure that it shares the same origins as the meteorite in that crater, so I tested it—I just didn't think it would work."Frank nodded. "Thanks!"The priestess sm
Jouri sighed. "Thank goodness I read up a little, or I really wouldn't know how I should explain it to you."See, the basic principle of radiation is the decay of the atoms. Those aren't actually particles, but 99.9999% of everything we see and touch every day is built up of it. Do you understand what that means?"Neither Jada nor Moxxi really got it, though that was when Frank strode up. "I'll try!"The spiritron vein was at stake, and there was a brighter future if this went well, so Frank was not about to give up on such an opportunity.Naturally, Moxxi was a little worried. "You shouldn't, Mr. Frankton. It's too dangerous! What if something happens to you, what with the high radiation?"Jada disagreed, since she had been with Frank longer and knew Frank's strength. "I think you should try! The spiritron vein is quite radioactive in the first place, so the meteorite might be neutralized if you got close. And you had said before that the spiritron vein does care about you, since
Frank then picked up the meteorite and only started to absorb the meteorite after ensuring that the crater would not collapse.But just as he did, the golden dragon spoke in his mind. "Have you come up with an idea on what to do with that? You're right that we come from the same place, but there are some elusive details… Would you like to know more?"Frank chuckled coolly. "Don't tease me. You'd never tell me anyway.""Smart. As expected of the one I chose!" The golden dragon laughed. "However, I can teach you how to handle it—who knows, it might help you absorb it."As the golden dragon finished, text that Frank somehow recognized appeared in his mind, telling him how to use the power of the spiritron vein.Not only could it be used against the meteorite, but it would still improve Frank further and grant him techniques that he had never used before.As such, he wasted no time and went to work, and just as expected, the radiation readings soon showed that the meteorite was harml
Soon, Jouri left with the members of Mystic Sky Guild.Jada watched as their vehicles sped off into the distance and whispered, "Mr. Frankton, shouldn't we set up a laboratory or something? Technology has the strongest production capacity, and with cutting-edge tech, we'd definitely rise to the next level."Frank nodded. "Good idea. You'll handle it after our trip.""No!" Moxxi quickly protested—she had been really eager to put on a good showing for Frank!"If we set up a subsidiary or a research center, there's no telling how much monetary investment or human resource we need to put in, and there's no guaranteed success anytime soon. "The way I see it, we could invest in established tech companies—I've worked on Wall Street, so I'd know the game. You can just leave it to me!"Moxxi's reasoning was sound. And while Jada was in management, she was no match against Moxxi on that front.Nodding, she said, "Then I'll leave it to you. Don't worry—I'm not going to sabotage you on thi
The geezer smiled. "I'll be frank, ma'am—I've been looking around, but this place suits my needs the most. They may all be homestay and local businesses, but this one is different from the others."Jada smirked—the geezer actually knew his homestays. Talk about ridiculously high standards!"Since you know this is the best one around here, why do you think that we'd give it up to you?"The geezer beckoned, and his two bodyguards left for a moment before they soon returned with two suitcases.The zippers were pulled audibly, willingly piles of cash."For this!" The geezer smiled. "Let me stay here, and you can have all of these. I'll even ask someone to get more if you want, as long as you allow me to stay here!"Jada was actually surprised that the geezer was so rich, even carrying so much cash around.There were really all sorts of weirdos out there these days, with this geezer being an amusing example.Still, Jada refused. "I'm sorry, but we're not short on money!""You keep
While Frank did not believe in luck, he realized that luck was part of a person's strength—who knew, maybe he really was lucky.Even as he thought that, Alda came running. "We have trouble!""What is it?" Frank asked, sitting up.Alda pointed at the distance, and Frank narrowed his eyes to see that there was a fire near their homestay cottage!He did not hesitate to fly down the mountain, waving his hand and extinguishing the fire right then.The cottage that had caught fire was just a wall away from their cottage, and theirs would have caught fire too if he did not make it in time!And while theirs did not catch fire, Frank's instincts told him that something was fishy."Shit, it went out on its own?!"Even as Frank was busy wondering, Conan, the owner of the cottage, arrived with a bucket of water.He had promptly evacuated his guests when he saw the fire and was going to try putting out the fire himself with the most primitive method.But even as he brought the bucket of w