He was weak, stronger than Tom but still only had a low six rank. Once more, Tom was reminded how Jeffrey had chosen this group; and for the first time, he was happy the guy was an idiot. Purely by accident, he had actually put a strong team together. Not this instant, but in their collective potential. Providing they could gain a similar amount of experience to the other teams, then they would quickly become the most powerful. With his rank of one, Everlyn’s of four and this latest man being the tenth arrival they were top heavy on contribution point earners.
“Harry, like potter.” the kid laughed weakly. “I’m a ritualist.”
Sven audibly groaned, and Everlyn frowned in response. Lightning crackled in Tom’s hand, and Sven stepped away warily.
He studied Harry. That was not what he was expecting. And Harry had been the tenth person to arrive as well. Ritualist was also an elite class. He was intimately aware of that, having spent almost two years breaking ancient rituals. The stuff they could do once they reached a high level was terrifying. Harry was looking uncertainly around the group.
Tom wanted to reassure him. “What field are you specialised in? Barriers, Traps, Summoning, Enchanting, Demonic or Divine?”
“I’m an environmental ritualist specialising in both barriers and enchanting.”
Tom nodded. He could see how those skills would be useful. From the expression on most of the people in the group, none of the others had followed the explanation.
Harry’s fingers nervously twined together. “In more simple terms, providing I can source materials and/or magical spaces, I can create some powerful magical defences and eventually cast unique enchantments.”
“Like semi-intelligent or type-specific abilities?” Tom asked more for the benefit of everyone else than himself.
“Exactly. In the DEUS gauntlet, I created a dragon-slaying enchantment that doubled my power when fighting dragons and made me immune to decay breath.”
“Decay?” Sven muttered.
“It was a yellow wyvern that had a decay power,” Harry volunteered. “As far as the ritual was concerned, they were a subspecies of dragons.”
Andros cleared his throat. “With all due respect, why are you here? Don’t get me wrong; I can see you will end up being amazing, but your current skills don’t sound useful on the battlefield. Shouldn’t you be with the crafters?”
“Um,” Harry looked nervously at everyone.
“Just spit it out,” Tom suggested as he watched Harry get more and more flustered.
“To get experience.” Harry sounded terrified. “I’m not totally helpless. I know two field wards. One can suck energy out of anyone who walks on it and the other can draw mana in for people casting spells.”
“How much extra mana.”
“Umm. It can double regain.”
“That doesn’t do shit all,” Sven laughed.
Harry shook his head in denial. “At higher levels, it can make a difference and I’m good with my spear.”
“Even at our level it’s good,” Tom assured Harry, glaring at Sven. “As for you, Sven, do you remember why we’re here?!”
Sven had the grace to look embarrassed.
“Harry’s bringing useful skills for the wider group and is motivated to get stronger. That says everything about his character.”
“And once I’ve got some levels, I’ll be able to improve quickly.”
“Like all of us,” Tom agreed, staring down Sven. He liked the guy, but… Sven’s social instincts were iffy.
Sven kicked the ground. “Sorry.”
“We’re one team,” Everlyn reminded them. “Harry, you were talking about your offensive skills. Tell us about the energy drain?”
“It’s not very good. It takes a while to set up, and it doesn’t differentiate between friend and foe and…”
“Can it knock a monster out or stop it?” Everly asked gently.
“Umm. If you keep them in the area for a few minutes, it will send them right to sleep.”
“I know we’re one team and boosting him, but you got to admit that one sounds useless,” Sven complained.
“I used it extensively in the DEUS gauntlet. It’s really good when you’ve got a defensible position like a cave mouth. When it’s running, you don’t need to beat the monsters, only hold them back for a minute.”
Tom saw Sven take the time to think about that statement and then nod in agreement. “I can see it situationally being powerful.”
“Good on you Sven,” Tom slapped him on the shoulder. “It’s hard to back down. As for you Harry, I think gauntlet is a terrible name. I called it a trial.”
Andros kicked the dirt. “I called it hell.”
Sven laughed at that. “Hell’s a description, not a name. I prefer trial, tutorial, or survival test to gauntlet. Gauntlet to me implies linear, and it was anything but that.”
“Sven’s agreeing with me. Time to move on,” Tom said hurriedly while chuckling at how quickly that had deteriorated. “Harry is basically a small boost and occasionally, with the right set up, his second ritual can become very useful.”
“Harry thinks the second one can be useful,” Sven specified.
“It was!”
“It was clearly useful, Sven,” Tom agreed.
Sven looked at him a small smile on his lips. “How do you know that, Useless?”
Zap!
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Sven squealed and everyone laughed, and then Sven joined in easily enough. He rubbed his bum. “I guess I deserved that, but I don’t know how you hit me from behind with Spark.”
Tom smiled and sparks jumped from finger to finger. “I’ve got skill; and regarding your previous question, why do I think Harry was successful with the ritual? Look at him. He has come through looking like that, with an initially ineffective strategic class, and rather than getting something awesome like Spark.” There was the rumble of thunder as lightning speared from his fingers to the ground. There were a few chuckles. “Instead, he chose an apparently worthless weakening ritual. Why?”
Sven did not look impressed. “He’s an idiot.”
Tom shook his head. “I don’t buy it. This is a ritualist who got into the top million.”
“So did crafters,” Sven replied, half-looking for a fight.
Tom glanced around, pretending to be aggravated. “Does anyone else want to address Stupid, here?” He pointed at Sven with a huge smile on his face.
“Stupid? I’ll show you, Useless.”
“Yes, I will,” a high-pitched voice said.
Everyone’s eyes turned to the tiny, athletic woman who was speaking for the first time. Her eyes kept flashing to each of them, looking for a threat. Tom had forced himself to banter in order to lighten the mood, but he was not sure it had helped, and he wondered if Sven was making a similar effort.
“I’m Gina, and in the trial, I developed as both an alchemist and a life tap mage.” She did a little mock curtsy. She was wearing finely worked metal armour and a sword. “I traded in the alchemist skills to increase how hard my magic hits. The crafters probably went in the other direction. Harry, what skills did you develop in your gauntlet?”
Sven snickered at that name.
“Ritualist, Poison, and Enchanting were the ones I pushed.”
“Any other abilities?” Gina asked.
“Spear, mainly. And then you know the auxiliary ones. Like I can shoot a bow, I possess a scattering of stealth skills, campfire abilities, but none of them were very advanced.”
“Sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.” Tom said quietly.
Sven made a pacifying gesture. “I knew that. I was just being a devil’s advocate.”
Harry coughed. “Liar.”
They all looked at the awkward, skinny kid with no offensive magic mocking the imposing spell sword. Thor and Everlyn chuckled.
“Wait.” Sven held up a hand to halt the question. “There’s something I don’t understand.”
“What?”
“I get ritualist and enchanting, but poisons?”
Harry blushed a little. “Um. Ritualist and poisons synergize really well. You might not expect it, but they do. But I could only bring over so many Skills and I wanted the high-powered defensive enchantments as soon as possible. I had to abandon the poison stuff. Like, I remember how to do it, and I’ll get it all back quickly, once I purchase some of the supporting Skills.”
Understanding went through Tom. With a thought, magic leapt from his fingers, and there was a flash of light.
Boom!
“My version of a click,” Tom told them, grinning. “Let me guess, Harry, you kept the prerequisites to take an advanced class? But lacked contribution points to buy it outright.”
“Expert.” Harry corrected with embarrassment.
“How much experience will that cost?”
“Twenty thousand.” There were whistles of appreciation. It was a brave play.
“That’s what? Seven levels?” Sven asked in disbelief.
“Six, but it’s worth it.” Harry’s face had lit up. “Once I get the class, I’ll be able to work on some amazing rituals; and because rituals use the environmental energies, I don’t even need attributes. Currently, I’ve got only one major defence ritual. At level one, I’ll get to choose another one that I can tailor to what we need. And because it depends on location and or materials, it’s something we’ll be able to create.”
“Boring,” Sven interrupted. “Gina, you’re a life tap mage. What’s the range of your skills?”
“Ten meters. I have a stun and a stronger damage spell.”
Sven whistled appreciatively. “That’s a long way. What’s with the sword?”
Gina looked embarrassed. “Well, I was a life tap mage and an alchemist. Which is good and all, but I still needed to kill things. I got a sword early as a reward and practiced with it. In the trial I had some supporting skills but,” she frowned sadly. “Not any more. Just my know-how.”
“We’re running out of time.” Andros warned.
“Black dude?” Sven pointing.
“Rahmat,” the black man answered in annoyance. He waved his basket of spears. “My primary skill is throwing, but if they get close, I can use them like a standard spear man.”
Tom privately agreed with him. Rahmat, unlike the rest of them, felt like a genuine level ten. He had clearly been sent to the misfit profile because someone was biased against throwing spears.
Jeffrey was an idiot. Tom did the mental math, but Rahmat had been number fifty-six, which was better than thirty other people, and he was the last to arrive out of everyone in this Reject Group. With himself, Everlyn and Harry they had three in the top ten and everyone else but Rahmat in the top half.
His team statistically was going to be significantly stronger than most of the others.
The dome flashed once.
Sven drew his sword dramatically. “This is going to be fun.”
Then it began to flash rapidly.
Sven stepped forward at the same time as Thor to take the front-line position. Rahmat got into the middle and expertly arrayed four spears in front of him, ready to be snatched at a moment’s notice. One of them was an extra foot longer and was actually slightly enchanted and must have been his melee weapon. Tom found himself on the left flank, with Andros on the right.
The healers getting into offensive position was hardly the most standard attack pattern, but both he and Andros were hybrid healers, and given the general weakness in their group it made sense for Tom and Andros to be in the thick of the fight. In fact, against the right type of enemy, either of them could end up as the most powerful. Finally, Everlyn, Gina and Harry took the middle.
“Welcome to Existentia,” a voice said. It was not one Tom recognised, and he knew instinctively it was not DEUS. “My name is SUPREME and I am an independent adjudicator of this contest. If you hear from me again, be terrified. I will ensure fairness and that the GODs abide by the rules of the contest. But note, there is no tolerance for mortals breaking rules.”
“How would a mortal break them?” Sven muttered.
“Having said that, none of you have the personal power to break the rules,” SUPREME continued almost like he was answering Sven and the worst thing about it was that the GOD might be. There was no reason someone ten metres away would hear the same things that they did or be talked to for the same length of time, for that matter. “As your power grows and if you stray on a forbidden path, you will be warned exactly once. Now,” the voice warmed up abruptly. “The dome is going down shortly. Gather the ranking points. The more you change Existentia, the more ranking points you will receive. If you set something in motion and die, that is fine. Ranking Points will accumulate after death right up to the competition close.”
“How does that work?” Sven asked.
“Chatty,” SUPREME said with amusement. “An example of accumulation would be if someone raised a massive undead army and unleashed them. If that horde went pillaging and destroying civilisation for the next hundred years, that necromancer would get ranking points accumulated like he was leading them, as they only exist because of his efforts. Now, as I was saying, in sixty-four Existentia years, the contest will end. That is ninety of your earth years. Ranking points generated by all descendants also count toward the final ladder.” Tom expected Sven to say something in response to that, but given the other man’s slightly pale complexion he had obviously decided not to push his luck. “We are measuring the impact of your species. All six other races have received this same briefing.”
The full implications of SUPREME’s words finally speared through Tom.
Multiple components of what SUPREME had said were completely new to him. Ninety years, points after death, children counting, and the definition of ranking points were also different from what he had expected. If you slayed a single ant from the hive every day for ninety years under that measure, you would get zero points. If you eliminated it, even if it meant you killed fewer ants, you would get points because the hive would be gone and other animals needed to enter to fill the area.
Shit, Tom thought to himself.
Extinction and chaos were the fastest path to ranking points.
The rules would drive war and destruction.
That meant the stakes had been raised for all the competitors.
Tom fervently hoped that previous contests were run on different rules and that the details of this new one were not widely known. If they leaked, then thousands, maybe tens of thousands of sapient species were going to hate the new members of the GOD’s game.
Humans and the other competitors might well have a target on their backs.
The dome vanished.
The fucked up GOD’s competition had officially started.