“Me? Will I support you?” Thor asked and pointed at himself dumbly. “Why do you feel the need to ask that? Of course, I’m in. I committed myself at the start. It wasn’t like you hadn’t made it clear that what you planned was abhorrent… Disgusting but a prize to go with it is what you promised and now that I’ve heard what we’re actually doing. Wow, that reward is beyond broken. You would have to be crazy not to participate.” He glanced around at the others. “Right?”
Out of his original team, only Michael looked uncomfortable. Even Toni, who he had feared would react poorly did not look perturbed.
“Michael,” Tom asked tentatively. “Are you okay with this?”
The healer snorted and shook his head like he was clearing it of cobwebs. “I’m good. Nothing’s changed. I’m still me and I’ll do what’s best for humanity no matter the collateral or personal cost.”
Relief made him exhale sharply. “Thank you.”
Vidja cleared her throat, and he found his eyes turning back to the strangers in their midst. They were much more likely to be a problem. He had been travelling with the others for an extended period and they had faced death together multiple times. They knew and trusted his character, which made the sale of an outlandish idea easier. They would be conscious of the pragmatism behind his decisions and their minds wouldn’t leap to a scenario like he was only proposing this because he was a psychopath who wanted to unleash misery on the world. A group who had only been with him for less than a week, with most of the time spent in battle or with him sleeping, would be more susceptible to such suspicions.
Automatically, his gaze flicked over each of them. Surprising, the immediate condemnation he had expected was not there. Bao and Gerald seemed excited by the idea, but the other three clearly had reservations.
“I’m not evil.” Tom said, trying to justify the statement that he wanted to commit genocide. The additional arguments he was going to make died when his throat constricted in a familiar warning manner. To be honest, he was surprised he had been able to slip that much out.
Vidja turned to face Michael. “I wouldn’t have expected you to support this. At least not after all our debates about morality.”
The healer shrugged with an apologetic look. “Tom’s a good guy. He hasn’t made this decision lightly and the selection weighting was very well done.”
Tom couldn’t remember discussing that with the healer and so he shot Everlyn an annoyed look. She noticed and her cheeks reddened slightly, and she refused to make eye contact. She had definitely been gossiping behind his back.
“The trolls might not be a terror race under the standard definition,” Michael continued. ”But for them to be selected, they must be close.”
Vidja turned her attention back to him. “Is that right?”
There were lots of things he could say, and many of them would make things easier for him and they were sufficiently diplomatic that his throat wouldn’t betray him. Tom however was not willing to go down that path. “I’m not going to lie to you. I didn’t restrict to only terror races. There was a criterion and a series of rankings that kind of prevents good nations from being selected. For example, a species like the chosen would be safe. The fact the trolls are our target means that they’ve destroyed or enslaved another race in the past. That, in one way makes them evil, but I’m not naïve.” He glared at Keikain when he said that. “Given sufficient time in Existentia I’m sure humans will be caught up by my criteria. Hopefully not by enslaving another species, but given my knowledge of history that is hardly a given. If we did it to our own, we can definitely do it to an alien species.”
She studied him intently, and he couldn’t tell what she was thinking. “And you’re comfortable with that?”
He laughed. “Am I comfortable? Yes, I can honestly say I am. I made my choices and humanity comes first.”
She nodded and sighed. “This was the last thing I expected to be discussing today. Xenocide it’s not a pleasant thing to imagine doing. Especially on a people that culturally might be similar to humans.”
“I’ve got no desire to deceive you. I’ve had almost two decades to wrestle with my conscience and I’m comfortable with executing this.”
“And Your entire team supports you?”
“I think it’s a good plan.” Tom repeated stubbornly not addressing the question. He couldn’t talk for them.
Michael coughed. “And the fact we’re going to do this is not on us. It’s on the situation we’re placed in. In a perfect, I mean in more natural conditions,” he corrected. “We wouldn’t consider this. We didn’t sign up for these rules and this war it was forced on us. Under those conditions, this especially for the likely rewards is more than worth the gamble.”
Vidja nodded. “The benefits certainly sound impressive. Is there any way that I can independently verify that it’s real?”
Tom bit his lip. That was a difficult thing to ask. Of course, she wouldn’t trust his words. Extraordinary claims required a similar amount of evidence. You didn’t claim you had solved cold fusion unless you had the proof to back it up. The problem was he had searched beyond the oracle questions in the tutorial and got nowhere. What he had uncovered was hidden information, and he suspected he was not supposed to know about it. He knew for a fact that there was nothing in the archives of information that humans had access to because he had asked that in the tutorial. There was no simple independent check he could point at, and this couldn’t even be bought from the system because it was missing even from that source. “I’m happy to submit to a truth spell or scroll.”
Vidja smiled at that offer and then shook her head. “There’s no need for that. Puma is already doing that.”
He looked at Vidja’s scout and got a smirk and a thumbs up in response.
“He has been assessing you since this started and the fact he hasn’t said anything tells me you at least believe everything you say. But that doesn’t mean the whole thing is not a lie. I was asking if there’s an independent way we can obtain information.”
“No, there’s not. As far as I’m aware, such a source doesn’t exist. I suspect deliberately.” He looked up at the sky and shivered. It was permanently dark here in the ghost zone, but that wasn’t what he was checking. Out there were GODs who had decided this cheat wasn’t supposed to be readily obtainable and he knew it and that was far scarier than any night sky.
“You’ve thought about this for ages. You must have some ideas.”
“There’s nothing available in our system rooms by design. I checked in the tutorial so that’s a complete dead end. While theoretically there are ways you could source corroborating evidence in Existentia, it will be difficult. Hypothetically, some survivors from recent competitions might have acquired an additional racial trait. If they had, they’ll probably have records on how to do it. The problem is I don’t see any world where they’d share that with us”
“So there’s no way to verify this. Basically, I need to trust you’re not insane. That’s a difficult step to take.”
“Everlyn can verify the use of my oracle questions. I’ve used them in front of her. She knows they’re real.”
“They are.” She confirmed immediately.
“Um, apart from that…” Tom shrugged helplessly. He couldn’t think of anything else to suggest.
“Would you be willing to use one of these questions in Everlyn’s presence to confirm everything you’ve told us conforms to reality?”
Tom stopped. For them, that would be independent verification. It was an astute solution, but for him the cost benefits did not align. He shook his head. “I think that’s a trivial use of the ability.”
“Seems a pretty cheap way to get five allies.”
“No,” he stated firmly. “I’m not doing it. I don’t see any benefit in convincing the five of you. It’s not like you’re going to be able to help against the trolls given that once we’re out of this we’ll have no idea where each other is geographically.”
“How about them?” She waved her hands at his own team. “It will give them certainty, too.”
“They don’t need convincing.”
“We don’t.” Michael confirmed. “Tom’s proved his value time and time again.”
“But if this is a delusion.”
“I’ve been there when he’s used questions,” Everlyn interrupted. “I was there when he worked out our destination. This is not just some delusion the oracle wouldn’t have been able to answer if it was. Anyway, we don’t need to finish this discussion now. We’ve got the rest of the day and I’m assuming we’ll complete another zone on this layer. That’s plenty of time to work through this problem. Let’s get going. I want to sleep in the next zone’s safe room. The air in this zone has an unpleasant smell”
She led them onwards, and they continued killing the ghosts.
It was boring and repetitive.
Finally, they reached the safe room, and in a wave of individuals ducking into their own system rooms they confirmed the experience they had been awarded. They had all got between four to five hundred thousand experience for the zone. Which was less in total than the previous zone, but more per person. Considering how easy it had been for them with the tailored weapons it was a significant windfall.
It was time to travel to the next zone, and in an upbeat mood they went through the long tunnel. Once they arrived in the safe room, they checked the system’s quest for the new zone.
Collecting Puff Balls
Puff balls are the flower of a tier 2 plant that grows on the taller mountain peaks in the zone. You need five per person to open all exits from this zone.
They looked at each other as they absorbed the quest.
Generally, gather quests were better than the kill versions because sometimes the dangerous battles could be circumvented by strategy. However, the zone was supposed to be filled with aerial threats and if they were climbing mountains, then they would be exposed to attacks.
“Not the best.” Everlyn said with a frown. “Let me check what we’re facing.”
Her face lost focus as she used her remote scouting skills. She narrated what she was observing as she explored. The safe room’s inside had presented as a typical cave, but she rapidly told them it was unusual. Rather than exiting out on top of a hill or somewhere with a view, all three exits were into deep crevices. Two of them to be precise that appeared to run parallel to each other on either side of the safe room.
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“Rising above the fissures now,” she reported. “the zone is mostly mountainous but not what you’re thinking. Its more impossible natural spires of rock than anything we would see on earth. Monster density at least nearby is low. We’re expecting aerial opponents, but currently I can’t see any, which might mean there are sections of the day where we can move unopposed. We’ll have to monitor that. But there are thousands of deep crevices everywhere and that screams prime ambush lairs to me, so we’re going to have to be careful how we explore.”
None of them disagreed with that assessment..
“Can we see with our own eyes?” Gerald asked finally. “I’d like to see the environment we’re going to be living in for the next few days before we got to sleep.”
“Can we?” she asked Rahmat and Puma.
Puma nodded, and after a moment Rahmat matched the movement. “I’ve checked the immediate crevice, and it’s safe.” The spear man reported.
As a group, they left the safe room and Tom got to see exactly what had been described to him. Two vertical rock walls rose on either side. At the bottom where he stood, the dirty yellow stone walls were only two metres apart. If he stretched out his arms, his fingertips could touch each wall. Twenty metres above where the cliffs ended, he wouldn’t be able to do that because it had widened slightly, but probably by less than a metre. The stone was rough to touch, but there were no crevices or easy handholds visible.
The geography was not an issue for his group. Puma and Rahmat sprang up the wall ahead of him, using some scout technique to find places to grip. After they had climbed five metres, he started to follow them.. A flex of Earth Manipulation allowed his hand to carve out a hand hold and then he started climbing. Keikain was doing the same beside him. They moved up the cliff together, leaving the foot and handhold divots in the walls behind them for others to use.
Less than a minute later, and a good five seconds ahead of the earth mage, he pulled himself out onto the flat rock above them. Curiously, he looked around. Everlyn’s worded description had not done the view justice.
They were on the top of a plateau and positioned near the centre of it. It was mostly square and about two hundred metres wide but was cris-crossed, with crevices like giants had turned the stone to cheese and then cut it up with thick knives. The chunk of rock that they stood on was right above the safe room and was the largest such piece of unbroken surface he could see.
Then his eyes went further. The local landscape was unique and clearly something created to house the safe room because everywhere else was different.
There were no other plateaus in sight instead it was a panorama of natural rocky spires as Everlyn had described. Geometrical features that could not have existed on earth. They were too pointy and dense.
“I wish we had the chosen.” Michael said quietly from beside him. His eyes were on those impossibly tall up thrusts of rock. There were thousands of them and a small percentage would hold the Puff Ball plants they were tasked with harvesting.
Rahmat unleashed an abrupt piercing whistle. “Incoming.” He pointed at a fish like monster that was flying or swimming down from nearly directly above them. It was only the size of a human’s torso, but how seriously the spear man come scout was responding made Tom focus. Instinctively, he took a few steps away from everyone else to create space. Their immediate flat area was not particularly expansive but if necessary all of them could easily leap over the nearby crevices if that degree of dodging was required.
“Vulnerable to water, immune to air and will attack from range.” Everlyn warned them. “I recommend chaos bolts.”
With a thought, he manifested three stones and then waited for it to get closer. While focusing on it, his eyes roved over the sky to ensure there were no other surprises incoming. If it attacked from a far, Tom wasn’t sure how he could make himself be effective in this fight, beyond being just another body, slinging chaos bolts. His gut said his specialised attack spells of Lightning Spears or Lightning Balls would be too slow and he lacked any other dedicated techniques to attack over distance.
Maybe a long distant taunt has become a required investment, he thought to himself. At least it would useful be in this battle. If he had one, it would allow him to utilise his high tiered dodge ability. . . Tom’s skill set was as equally proficient at defending from ranged magic as it was from melee attacks, potentially with stuff like Channelled Mirror even more so. As it was, there was no way it was going to get close enough for Lightning Enrage to hurt it and if it was as agile as he feared, then his Throw Rock was unlikely to be a difference maker.
He settled his thoughts and entered his battle trance.
When it got within range, he threw his first rock just after seven chaos bolts arced up. He deliberately pitched the stone to a patch of air that none of the missiles were heading towards in the vague hope it would dodge into his stone while attempting to avoid the magical attacks. It did no such thing and instead duked and spun away from his missile. He literally missed it by over two metres.
Tom didn’t care the trajectory had always been a gamble. The creature was way too agile for him to hit at this range without a large helping of luck.
Another stone was already on its way and he had adjusted to everything else that was happening on the battlefield. His throw was far more accurate this time. Unfortunately, it saw his stone and chose to avoid it an action that caused it to run into two chaos bolts that would otherwise have missed it. The first hit with a flash of flames across it and the second sunk into it without apparently doing any real damage. Possibly the fish was no longer moving quite so quickly.
The flying fish Tom realised was focused on him. Its whole body seemed to phase out of existence. Then there was a thrum of noise and he saw air blades shooting out from it. One targeted him, another was aimed at Michael and the final missile at someone behind him.
Crack
Everlyn’s arrow struck the fish before Tom had fully registered the sound. Time slowed ever so slightly as he swayed out of the way and then teleported to ensure he suffered no damage from the air blade. There was a spray of red from Michael as his dodge attempt was far less successful, but the healer’s magic fused the skin back together nearly instantly, cutting off the blood flow.
Above the force of the arrow, sent the monster briefly spiralling out of control and more chaos bolts taking advantage of its distraction struck home along with one of Rahmat’s spears.
He raised another stone to throw, but the opportunity had passed. Internally, Tom cursed his slow reaction.
It stabilised with the magic attacks, having been shrugged off almost completely because none of the chaos bolts had tiered up into a strong strike. The same could not be said of the two projectiles. Both of them had done significant damage, and it was visible in how the monster was moving.
Once more its body wavered like it had gone out of focus and this time the attacks struck out at Everlyn and Rahmat as it targeted the people it thought were the greatest threats. The spear man blocked it with his weapons, while Everlyn briefly moved almost too fast to be seen as she leapt out of the way having clearly used a moment of her alternative forms to improve her quickness.
Crack.
A second arrow flashed out of her bow. The monster tried to dodge upwards but was a fraction too slow. The projectile arrow slammed home with a blue energy over it and it tore a much larger chunk of flesh off its belly than a non magical version could have managed.
Suddenly it was swimming furiously like it was trying to flee, but it was making no progress. It was as if it was mired in treacle or something and clear liquid ran from that gash in the middle falling in a waterfall to the ground.
Everlyn raised her bow once more.
There was a sizzling noise.
A chaos bolt coming from behind Tom took on a life of its own. It sped forward far faster than any of the other missiles had managed and it grew in intensity as it went.
Tom grimaced in anticipation as the energy contained within it increased. It was a sickly yellow colour, and it hit with a bright glow but no heat. Instead, it sunk into the creature’s head the magical strength not decreasing. There was a rent in the fabric of reality and all the matter the magic was touching vanished. Most of the fish’s front half was gone.
It fell from the air, killed instantly.
“That version was a winner,” Thor said proudly.
Everlyn frowned. “Agreed, but that was a disaster. I think we can improve a lot in future fights.”
“Yes, we have to coordinate the chaos bolts better.” Toni suggested. “Establish both a tighter grouping, but a greater minimum distance between individual missiles.”
“And I need a ranged taunt.” Tom said straight after her.
“Yes, to both,” Everlyn agreed. “It’s getting a bit late to go exploring. Let’s have dinner and reinforce the safe room.”
When they got below, Tom could feel his exhaustion. His head was pounding, but it was clear that after the revelations this morning that everyone wanted to talk further.
With a mock groan to show his suffering, he took a sip of the special potion he had been given and sighed in relief as the throbbing ache receded. Over dinner, they spent an hour discussing the ethics of his plan. He was surprised that almost every point they raised was one he had already agonised over in the tutorial and he could clearly articulate his reasoning and position. He was not sure about everyone else, but when they broke up to sleep, his resolve to go through with the actions had strengthened under the intense flood light of critical examination. Once they escaped this trial, he was confident in what he was going to do and most of the others from their expressions would be enthusiastically following.
Even Vidja’s group was divided. Thor had been chatting with Bao all day and she was clearly converted and even asked if when they got back whether Vidja would support their community attempting a similar effort in their area of Existentia. Gerald was of course leaping in enthusiastically and the others were at least open to the idea now rather than rejecting it like Vidja had been.
The instant he entered sleep a True Dream grabbed him.
She was furious. This entire thing was intolerable. If she hadn’t been explicitly ordered, there was no way she would be here. The other competitor races were so inconsiderate. How could those weaklings possibly take this long to reach her? It was like they were deliberately mocking her.
Tom was instantly aware of whose mind he was sharing.
It was the dragon.
The attitude of absolute sadistic superiority could belong to nothing else. Her body was lazing on the ground doing nothing, but he could feel the underlying power and the way time seemed to be slowed for her such was the level of her perception.
It was both horrifying and humbling.
The active sentries of the insects were positioned in front of the many portals that ringed the zone. They were flying and from sharing Jingyi’s last moments he understood how fast the wings moved. To the human they had been a blur of motion, but it was the opposite for the dragon. Every flap seemed to take over a subjective second..
A puff of deadly breath left her throat and like a missile struck a section of ground about five hundred metres from her. There was a sizzle, and another perfectly melted patch appeared. She smiled at the mosaic she was creating. It was a simple pattern of transformed burnt crystalised dirt interspaced with untouched sections. At this range, it was even challenging her control.
But it wasn’t enough.
She glanced down at her shrivelled and now useless hand. Her breath was powerful she already knew that.
She was bored, annoyed and over this. It had been over a month and apart from her allies’ arrival no one else had come through since. It had taken her less than seven days to reach here. How were these other competitor races so slow?
It was a mystery and it was intolerable, and a test of her patience. The Gods had not even given her a nice sun to laze under. While the orb in the sky produced a significant amount of light, it was empty without the heat she would have liked it to carry.
She examined the insects.
Useless weak creatures, but they were there to help her kill the others. Her GOD had told her once the rest of the races were taken care of she could destroy them as she wished.
This was so boring… They had one on each door on permanent sentry duty. Then smaller groups of three or four positioned midway between her and the portals who were theoretically ready to respond to slightly stronger threats. That felt like over engineering to her.
Surely it would be okay to kill a few of them. Everyone would understand it was necessary to her mental health and by killing them she was actually improving the chance of eliminating all the other annoyances when they eventually reached her.
She went to move, and then with an effort of will restrained the impulse. Her GOD was too literal. He would take offense at her breaking his orders.
Plus, they were hardly worthy of her time and she logically understood why they were positioned as they were after all she had ordered it.
The immediate sentries were at each exit to stop anyone from sneaking in. The portals did not flash when you used them, so if their targets were the sneaky type it would be easy for them to get in without being noticed if specific guards were not in place. Potentially that would be enough to fool even her if a mass of sneaky things appeared at the same time she might miss some of them.
This way when they came through they would be greeted by the insects’ ranged magic that would both tag them in light to prevent stealth and debuff them with a slow spell.
Her eyes flickered around the tiny zone she was in. She was only four kilometres from its edge. The exit was under her and with the guardian dead anyone could use it.
Killing it had felt like the right thing at the time, but MAKROS had not been happy about it and she could see how that had been an error of judgement. Now, if the useless opponents flooded the zone, it was possible that some could reach her and leave before she could kill them all.
And that’s why she wouldn’t hunt any of the insects. She needed them to stop the runners.
The dream faded away and as always he burned it into his memory.