Chapter 31: A Really Good Mattress

Damon listened as attentively as he could as Harvey narrated their entire ordeal since descending to the building’s lower floors.

According to Harvey, on the twenty-ninth floor, they encountered a total of eleven mutants, two of which were already dead, and there was not a single survivor on the entire twenty-ninth floor after checking all the apartments.

Having concluded their business on the twenty-ninth floor and seeing as they were still short on Origin crystals, they then descended further to the twenty-eighth floor. The twenty-eighth floor was better; they found two apartments that still had survivors.

As for the other two apartments, they had to deal with a combined total of five other mutants, and they were so lucky that dealing with these mutants earned them more than enough of the crystals they required, even before the announcement of the addition of the trade function to the system.

Their previous plan was for Mildred to amass the required five crystals in order to make the purchase herself since there was no viable way to transfer crystals at the time. However, the trade announcement soon came when they were in the middle of clearing the last apartment on the twenty-eighth floor.

All in all, they came back safe, and that was all that mattered. On the plus side as well, the two closest floors were now cleared and safe, and they confirmed the presence of other survivors on the twenty-eighth floor. No doubt there will be more survivors on the lower floors as well, and just as much danger.

However, Damon made it clear to Harvey and Mildred that he wouldn’t be letting them descend those lower floors again until he could equip them with some of the impressive-looking tools from the origin store, so they could be as safe as possible. He too would need to descend these floors eventually, but there was no need to risk it now, seeing how weak he was.

The value of his ability does not only lie in purchasing items from the origin store; it was even more useful in terms of raising one’s stat points.

However, there lies the problem—

This privilege was only for awakeners. Though regulars(non-awakened) could access the origin system, what they see in terms of their character status is quite different from awakeners, and most importantly, since they are not awakeners and they have no classes, they also can’t improve their stats using origin crystals. This was one of the earlier discoveries discussed on the chat channels.

This means that no matter how enormous the amount of origin crystals Damon accumulates in the future, he couldn’t improve Mildred and Harvey’s stats, as well as his own. He would only be able to spend his crystals in the origin store.

No matter how Damon thought about it, that seemed very inefficient and unfortunate. He couldn’t raise his stats, and he also couldn’t raise the stats of his attendants. If only there were a way to help them awaken classes as well, he wished deeply.

There was also another option; he could use his soon-to-be vast volumes of crystals to boost the strength of a trustworthy awakened around him, or even look for some to recruit. Maybe even as many as he wanted.

It was a good plan, but the clause in that plan was trustworthiness. He was sure to draw unnecessary attention doing all that. But there was strength in numbers, and Damon could potentially create an army of max stat awakeners.

Even for him, that sounded quite interesting.

According to the information gathered online, the origin crystal required to increase one point in physique or mentality stat rises exponentially—

And since the trial had just begun, no one had discovered what the max stat value was, or what way there was to unlock one’s other class skills.

This was also the matter of Tiers; just like Damon, every awakener was still at Tier zero, no matter how much they raised their stats, which became exponentially more costly.

Presumably, just like the option to increase the Tier of the origin store, there might just be a way to improve an awakener’s tier as well. There were hypotheses on the channels that Tiers are linked to class skills. Those are just speculations, but it was quite probable.

There were a lot of questions still unanswered, and just as Damon needed to find optimal utility for his current class skill, he also had to find a way around the curse placed on him—

A way to actually be able to use these origin crystals on himself, as well as, if possible, find a way to make Harvey and Mildred awakeners; even Hazel as well.

"What are you thinking so deeply about, young master?"

"Ah... nothing much, Mildred. But I think I really do need to get some shuteye." Damon remarked, noticing the toll the last couple of hours had taken on him; he certainly couldn’t function for much longer without getting some much-needed sleep.

Harvey and Mildred had a look of relief seeing Damon admit he needed rest. This had been by far the longest they had ever seen him go without sleeping.

They carefully led Damon into one of the guest rooms; His meticulously curated master bedroom of comfort had been usurped by Brad—

And the more Damon thought about it, the more his insides churned. He was getting that same familiar emotion that was previously so foreign to him. Messing with his sleep and comfort was affecting him in a way he couldn’t put into words, even though he was basing these feelings on the memories inherited from the former Damon.

The reality was that this Damon had barely spent any quality time with that cloud-like mattress, and it was making Damon feel that emotion more strongly, even more so than when he had been punched twice in the face.

Harvey and Mildred were also sharing in Damon’s displeasure as they led him to settle into the closest guest bedroom. This one was also quite comfortable; the mattress was at least five times as large and comfortable as what he slept on in his former world. Still, it was a far cry from the perfect setup in the master bedroom.

A moment later, Mildred brought in some snacks they had scavenged on their way back for Damon to consume before drifting off to sleep. Good thing they did, as Brad had already laid claim to what was in the penthouse.

Hazel and the others feasted on these provisions as well, while the rest was then kept safe by Mildred until tomorrow. Hopefully, most of the provisions should still be in edible condition by then.

"Good night, young master. We’ll be right here."

Despite Damon’s insistence that they both get some rest, Harvey and Mildred had decided to take shifts keeping watch through the night. One of them slept while the other watched.

This vigilance wasn’t for Mutants, but for Brad and his crew. The twins had seen them enter the room with Leo in tow, and none of them had made a move to cause trouble. But they felt it was better to be careful.

"Yeah... good night."

Finally, Damon fell into the long-overdue embrace of slumber. Even with all the madness of the day- jumping worlds, being attacked three times, the trials, the awakening— at this moment, none of that mattered—

Ignoring the searing discomfort around his torso, only one thought lingered in Damon’s mind as he sank deeper into the cushioning mattress....

’Hmm...so soft."

It was a really good mattress.