Scale sat in a conference room with her hands on her p. An Association Staff member, a young woman in a nice suit, was expining how Awakeners bid on dungeons and gates. Scale thought that the Association’s system was fascinating, if a bit profiteering and exploitative.

  “You just use the app, filter dungeons and gates by rank and location, and then pce a bid. The bidding for Gates closes depending on their erosion rates, and most Gates must be cleared within three days of winning the auction.” The Association detected, tracked, and sold rights to clear Gates to independent contractors, either guilds or individuals with Awakened licenses. The Association took on none of the liability for the health or well-being of those contractors.

  “It’s a well oiled setup,” said Scale with a nod. She had never delved into these things before. “What happens if you don’t close the Gate within three days?”

  “Assuming standard erosion rates, the Association sends its own team in to clear it, instead.”

  “Ah. Makes sense. How much do these bids typically end up costing?”

  “It changes with the rank of the Gate. Typical prices vary a lot depending on initial Association assessments, too. Rights for long term subjugations can also be negotiated if the Gate has particurly valuable resources.”

  “Let me be more specific then. What’s a common price for D-rank Gates?”

  “Around five grand, USD.”

  “Ah. That’s a little scary.”

  “Profits from a D-rank Gate typically run around 25 grand if the team is skilled and doesn’t damage the monster corpses too much, so it’s worth it.”

  “How much do S-rank Gates cost then?”

  “S-ranks don’t go to a public bid. Gates of that rank are typically handed off to Guilds based on location. The Association also hires teams of high ranked individuals to help with troublesome ones.”

  Scale wore an awkward grin and looked down at her phone. She was logged into the Association’s App and fiddled with it. She had plenty of money in her account so she wasn’t against bidding on a few Gates.

  “Now, you’ll be able to bid on Dungeons and Gates of any rank, but if you fail to clear within the allowed time then your account will be suspended for six months. So make sure to take you and your team’s abilities into account.”

  “So a D-rank could bid on an A-rank Gate?” Scale looked up and asked.

  “Sure. I don’t know why they would or how they’d afford the winning bids, but they could. Maybe a corporate bigwig hiring a team of Awakeners to carry them through a dungeon might? Most bidding is done by Guild rep accounts.”

  “I guess I just thought there would be more limitations to what you can bid on based on your rank. You know, for safety—”

  “This is America, Miss Altiman. If someone wants to fuck around and find out, then they are free to do so.”

  Scale was starting to like this dy a lot. She had good energy.

  “Does that answer all your questions, Miss Altiman?”

  “Yes. Thank you for your time.”

  “No need to thank me, I’m paid to do this. We get a lot of Canadian hunters who don’t know our systems here, since we’re so close to the border.”

  “Well I still want to express my gratitude,” said Scale with a smile. She stood from her seat and shook the staffer’s hand. “If you ever need help with something feel free to contact me through the Association.”

  “You’re sweet but I don’t think I’ll need help from a D-rank anytime soon~” The staffer teased Scale, clearly not understanding the value of the favor she was turning down. Scale just shrugged in response and left.

  Online forums for Awakeners had all kinds of ‘Looking for Group’ posts to recruit teams for clearing dungeons and gates. Scale browsed these offers for a while and sighed. It was a risky but lucrative business, it seemed. Winning a dungeon or Gate bid could result in a big payout, assuming you could clear it in the allotted time. The recruitment notices were picky about vetting who they accepted in these raid teams, too.

  “Should I just bid on a Gate and solo it, instead?” Scale talked to herself while walking. She had plenty of money in her account after signing a contract with the Association, so winning a few bids wouldn’t be too hard. She just wanted to smash some things to vent for a bit. She didn’t care about collecting monster materials or magic stones.

  Scale opened the app to all ongoing bids. She frowned because there were only two avaible to bid on, a C-rank and a B-rank Gate. She realized she should have asked how much other ranks of Gates went for on average instead of just D-rank.

  “The C-rank bidding ends in five hours? I’ll put in a bid and check again then.” She had a couple million in her account. She figured multiplying the price of a D-rank bid by five should suffice. 25,000 was a lot of money, after all. “I’ll work on the front yard to kill time.”

  Scale made a quick trip to a garden supply store about a block away. She only had two hands so what she could carry back alone was limited. She bought a wheelbarrow first to fix her limited carrying capacity and loaded it with a teetering tower of mulch, seeds, tools, and other miscelneous items.

  “I really need to work on learning proper subspace magic.” Scale grumbled to herself. “Or maybe I need a car.” The wobbling tower of garden and wn supply elicited several gasps from nosy neighbors, but miraculously it never fell over.

  She’d never done work like this before in either life. Landscaping turned out to be oddly soothing considering her phenomenal physical abilities. She didn’t feel pain from being hunched over a garden plot, nor did her muscles get sore from lifting heavy bags of mulch and fertilizer.

  “Heh,” she ughed to herself. “Even if all the Gates and shit disappeared tomorrow I could probably make good money just doing manual bor.”

  Scale lost track of time but came back to her senses when her phone’s arm dinged. She checked the bidding app and frowned.

  [Current Top Bid: 120,500]

  The number was much higher than she expected. C-rank was only one higher than D-rank, but the price was far from a little higher. It meant the resources were that much more valuable, probably on an exponential scale, as the rank of the Gate increased.

  “Did I get scammed when I sold off that dungeon with Hana?” Scale shook her head. She had more money in her account than she’d ever had before, after all. She also considered that perhaps gate-based resources had a cap past which the prices didn’t increase much. She also wondered if maybe this C-rank Gate had a specific feature that made it more valuable. Scale opened up the auction for the B-rank Gate to check the price on that one.

  [Current Top Bid: 440,440]

  “Hmm?” Scale was losing her will to bid on gates solo. She thought about maybe finding and clearing a Gate before the Association marked it but she doubted she could find them first. The Association had some serious magic detection equipment.

  Scale id down on the grass and looked up at the fluffy white clouds overhead. She was covered in dirt and surrounded by a battleground of ndscaping material. She huffed and absentmindedly pulled up a fistful of grass. The rustle of a hedge made her lift her head. Scale rolled onto her stomach and stood up. With a leap she nded on the roof of her house and, from her perch, could see Harper sneaking through the hedge again. The girl was barefoot and covered in dirt again…

  “Hey.”

  “Aaah!” Harper jumped. She never noticed Scale approaching. “D-don’t do that!”

  “Where are your shoes?” Scale’s voice was a lower register from normal.

  “I left them in my locker. I just wanted to feel the dirt and grass on my feet.” Harper lied. She didn’t make eye contact while speaking and turned her head to the side. Her fingers opened and closed incessantly.

  “Your feet are cut up.”

  “I forgot about how sharp the crushed stone by the creek is and I was already past the halfway point—”

  Scale sighed. A white light shined from her palm and the cuts on Harper’s body vanished. Scale reached up and grabbed the girl’s arm, dragging her towards the house.

  “W-wait I told you I’m fine so—”

  “Shut up. You wanted me to train you so we’re starting today.”

  “My god you’re so strong. Stop pulling!”

  Harper knew Scale was strong but it wasn’t until this moment she realized exactly how big the difference between them was. Pulling against Scale felt like an ant trying to drag a freight train. Scale pushed Harper into the bathroom and closed the door.

  “Take a shower. I’m going to get some clothes from your mom. There are towels in the cubby above the washing machine.”

  “H-hold on—”

  “No. You don’t get a say in this.”

  Magic flowed like water. A golden barrier encircled the bathroom, covering the door and the window.

  “Not even a nuclear strike can harm this barrier. I’ll be right back. Clean yourself up. Throw your clothes in the washing machine, too.” Scale paused for a moment before adding, “If you aren’t squeaky clean by the time I get back I’ll scrub you myself.”

  Harper grunted and smmed the golden barrier with her fists to no avail. She screamed something but Scale wasn’t listening.

  Scale pulled out her phone and, right before the C-rank dungeon bid closed, put in an absurd bid for 500,000 to ensure no accidents happened. She won the auction and grimaced at the text notice from her bank that followed.

  “Being an Awakened is going to ruin my sense of money, isn’t it?”

  “Thank you, Ma’am,” Scale bowed her head as she held a pile of Harper’s combat clothes, a pair of boots included, in her arms.

  “It’s no problem at all! I should be thanking you for taking care of our little Harper.” Mrs. Tomtom smiled and gently pat Scale’s shoulders.

  Scale hesitated for a moment while looking at that woman’s kind face. Finally, with a sigh, Scale said, “I don’t know if I should be the one to say this, but I think—”

  “That Harper’s being bullied at school, right?”

  “Ah.”

  “That girl has too much pride. She’s terrible at hiding things from us. We’re aware of the situation and looking into it already.” For the first time, Mrs Tomtom wore an unfamiliar, unreadable expression. “I kept hoping she’d talk to us first, but her head is firmly pnted up her own ass.”

  Scale had no idea how to respond to that. She stood still with her jaw hanging and her eyes quivering.

  “Oh deary, where are my manners! I’m sorry about that little outburst, Miss Altiman.”

  “Please Ma’am, just call me Scale.”

  “I’m sorry about my little outburst, Miss Scale. Then why don’t you call me Betty from now on.”

  “Sure, Ma’a—Betty.”

  “Now hurry along. My little girl is waiting for you, after all.”

  Scale stumbled briefly from the gentle push but caught herself and made her way back home.