Alpha Zero (Alpha LitRPG Book 1)

by Arthur Stone

  Thanks to the rod and the lure, I had it made. Perhaps, within three years, I could build up a decent fortune here. If nothing stood in my way.

  Including, in particular, the strangling grasp of these miners. The gaze of one burned into me, as though smoke was about to pour out of his ears. When a universally despised ghoul and a juvenile pipsqueak of imperial origin were the ones who surpassed you...

  I was hesitant to keep any caviar eggs. But if they were worth so much, I wanted to try one.

  However, not a single square had come my way yet. Hopefully the treasurer would still be around to sort it out after I had eaten dinner. Otherwise, I would catch him in the morning.

  * * *

  I found the man in his office after the meal. However, instead of paying us right away, he barked a warning at Beko. “Out of here, you filthy ghoul!

  And you, follow me,” he said as he directed a twisted finger my way.

  Kucho led me to the back door of his office, which brought us to a narrow maze of passages running through the lower level of the trading post’s main administrative building. Here there were storerooms holding valuable items, besides the offices for the treasurer and other officials. The big cheese himself lived up on the top floor.

  That was where Kucho dragged me. It was a large room, illuminated by a single oil lamp hanging from a massive ceiling beam. The floor was covered with the skins of different animals, carefully placed so as to mimic a single, unbroken carpet. I saw animal fur resembling that of a bear, a wolf, and a giant cat—and one pelt that looked like nothing I had ever seen before. Not that I was any master trapper. It might have been some common animal.

  Their owner himself was sitting at a massive table. A whole ballet troupe could dance atop it, and it would barely shudder when they leaped. Ash, leader of the trading post, was eating dinner. Before him was a dish featuring some sort of large, roasted bird. It was no domesticated duck or chicken, but obviously some sort of game bird. I hadn’t seen one like that before, either. As he chewed the last slice and used a big knife to cut off the next, Ash spoke out of half of his mouth. “Well, tell me how.”

  “How what?”

  The man raised his eyes and locked them with mine. His voice was tired. “How you slept. How you ate. How you shit, and how you picked your nose on the way out. But most importantly: tell me about the garpikes. I wish to know everything about them that you do.”

  “Well, they live in the river,” I hedged.

  Ash, picked up a piece of roasted skin with the tip of his knife and nimbly tossed it into his mouth, nodding approvingly as he mumbled, “Observant lad. Keep going.”

  “They’re predators, like the kotes. However, they’re less numerous, and they never stay in a single spot for long. I’ve only seen them in the fastest part of the stream, chasing the current. Each school has only a few fish. We parked our raft next to the current, and I caught three of them.”

  “With what?”

  “I have a special fishing rod, and a talent that helps me catch fish with it.”

  “What other talents do you have?”

  I shook my head. “Paragraph two of my employment agreement stipulates that a freelance employee has the right not to disclose work or combat talents, attributes, and other ORDER parameters.”

  Ash looked up from the meat, his jaw pausing its chewing. “What?”

  “Paragraph two of the employment agreement. I can cite it in more detail, if you’d like.”

  “Who told you that nonsense?”

  “It’s written on the paper hanging on the inside of the door at the inn.”

  “Ah, right. Literate. I forgot. So you have talents which allow you to catch garpikes. Where did you learn these talents?”

  “At home.”

  “Where is that?”

  “South of here.”

  “Praise the gods, boy, I thought you came from up north. You know, every moron knows that it’s easier to find an honest girl in a southern port brothel than it is to find a garpike in the river. Lying is an acquired skill, Ged. You have your tricks, yes, but not the experience and nerve necessary to live here. But that’s your business. I don’t even care if you’re an imperial, or a fugitive. I don’t care if the demons themselves taught you how to fish. But the fish themselves—that, I do care about. As the only authorized emissary of the Three Sevens in the lands of the Pentagon, I am in charge of all collection of spices, ores, and minerals. None of it is to escape my notice. Everything must go to the Treasury of the Three Sevens, in exchange for compensation. Representatives of the Treasury exist not only at the Stone but also in all trading posts, and in some villages.”

  “I turned all three of them in,” I protested. “Did I do something wrong?”

  “No, no, Ged. But I’m sure you’ve heard that catching garpikes is a rare event.”

  “I heard that mentioned here and there.”

  “I would understand if you just caught one. Anyone can get lucky. Even a boy like you. Two? Well, perhaps that could happen, as well. Sometimes, a person does get very lucky indeed. But three? That’s not luck. You do in fact have talents which allow you to catch garpikes. Do you know how many we caught last year?”

  “Twenty?”

  “Twenty-four. They were a little bigger than yours, perhaps—but twenty-four is still only twenty-four. That was during the entirety of garpike season, which is three weeks long. During that time, they migrate up the river, every year. When they come back down, their caviar sacs are empty. During those three weeks, we caught a measly twenty-four of them. And here, you caught three in a day, two and a half months before garpike season even begins. It is my job to understand people. Which things about them are useful, and which things are dangerous. You are hard to read, Ged. You seemed to have potential, but a dubious potential. Those were the thoughts I had about you the day that the wagon arrived. Now, though, my thoughts have changed. You are useful. Very useful. We need workers just like you. Will you be able to catch more?”

  I shrugged. “Fish are unpredictable creatures. I may not see any tomorrow. Or, perhaps they will learn to avoid the method I use to catch them.”

  “Do whatever you can to get more garpikes. We need them immensely: they drop a very rare kind of spices. The very spices for which we continue to defend the Stone. The guild’s management expected excellent produce from us, but we have had three difficult years, one after the other. Bad luck with the weather. Bad luck with disease. Bad luck with everything. Our incoming supplies have been cut, and now we have fewer workers. Most of the good guards are gone—I don’t even have anyone capable of keeping the local rabble away from the hornflower fields. This whole hornflower season has been lost. We must find our produce somewhere else. Garpikes are a good solution. They drop very rare spices. Some recipes require their caviar, with no alternatives available. Their bile is not only a spice but also a valuable alchemical ingredient. Not as valuable, of course, but still worth something. However, twenty-four garpikes is nothing special. That doesn’t even merit a mention in my report to the guild board each year. Two hundred garpikes, though? That would be something. We have the whole summer ahead. Nearly three months. If you catch three a day, we can hit two hundred. And the run is the strongest towards the end of the season. So many garpikes come through during that time that even those vagabonds of mine managed to catch some. Do you understand?”

  “As I said, fish are unpredictable.”

  “Nineteen out of twenty people here can’t even pronounce the word ‘unpredictable’. Damn hicks is what they are. I’m counting on you, kid. You’re good at catching my meaning, and you’re good at catching fish. Catch a lot of them. I don’t want you to be distracted, either. Guppy and Jadiro will offer you credit. Take whatever you need. All you’ll have to do is sign. They’ll get what they need from Kucho. If you need money, you can go to Kucho, too—we’ll open an account for you. You shouldn’t be walking around with a bag of cash. Everyone with money relies on credit here. If you get
sick again, we’ll get a local squaw for you. But she is just a medicine woman, not a real healer, so it’s better not to get sick. Is there anything else you need?”

  “I’d like a better place to live, and a softer place to sleep,” I replied cautiously.

  “I’ll tell Kucho to find you a good place. If you need anything else, you go to him, or even to me. Just remember: we need to catch as many garpikes as possible. If the board is disappointed by our report this year, we’ll take an even greater hit in the supply department. We’re barely stringing this operation along as it is. The merchants do not understand the Far North. They have no idea what doing business here is like—they think we are on beds of roses here, enjoying the handouts they send us. But the Three Sevens isn’t the only guild. Others are climbing the ladder in the Pentagon. I am certain that one of these is working against our operation here. The forest folk around here don’t have any reason to attack us. So why did they? Someone is paying them. Or holds some other kind of sway over them, other than money. I don’t like any of this. But the South doesn’t give a damn about my complaints and concerns. That is, until my report pleases those fat hogs taking up the seats around the board’s table. Then they’ll care. Your fish could be an impressive line in that report, and your name will be listed. That could do you a lot of good. Right now, you’re a nobody. Homeless. Family-less. A tramp. All you have in the world is your name—and some skills that the guild may find useful. If they do, they’ll give you a home and a good family. Remember that. Alright, you can head off to bed now.”

  “I’ll remember,” I nodded. “Could I ask you a question? I think you are the best to answer it.”

  “Shoot.”

  “Can talents be deleted?”

  “Of course. But why would you do that?”

  “I don’t mean my fishing talents. I mean other talents.”

  “Sure, any talent can be deleted. But in order to do that, you have to spend just as many talent marks as you expended to develop the talent. You’ll have to spend the chi, too.”

  I nodded. “Thanks.”

  I didn’t need to delete any talents—I had room enough to learn a dozen more without trouble. But this was useful information which had been excluded from Mom’s training.

  Plus, why not give Ash a chance to show off a little intellectual superiority? It was a small moment, of course, but such things could have a very beneficial effect on a boss-underling relationship.

  Plus, any conversation at all was bonding time, right?

  * * *

  Ash was no aristocrat, but he had learned from that class at some point. His speech had unnecessarily many words and much pathos.

  I had, however, detected something interesting in what he said. Ash suspected that other guilds were involved in plots against the Three Sevens. Since the board considered his trading post’s future a hopeless one, this thought bothered none but him alone. Therefore, he was trying to distinguish himself as much as possible. He figured that once he got the goods he wanted, financial assistance would flow north to the post in waves.

  How naive. The Stone had not been developed so that the South could pour more and more money into it, year after year. Rather the opposite. They would be happy to see some increased output, of course. Yet this would not cause them to send so much as an extra penny. After all, they could conclude that their current strategy was working fine.

  Most corporate structures suffered from slow response time to varying circumstances and, similarly, mistaken assessments of what was happening “on the ground.” In this world, instant communication and travel was not available, not even to the imperial family, so logistics became much more complex.

  I would reach adulthood before the guild moved to make any changes. In any case, I also suspected that my garpikes were hardly enough to sway any outcome. Ash would have to squeeze as much as possible out of as many areas of production as possible.

  He would push everyone to their maximum. After all, he had just put his faith in an unknown vagabond. Heck, he’d be happy to engage with devil himself for a little extra payoff.

  * * *

  Despite my improving fortunes, I went to bed anxious. It was time for my next experiment with the parameters of the ORDER. My last try had taken me out of active life for twenty-four whole hours.

  I had to keep from overdoing it. A few minor tweaks, here and there.

  I began with my chi, as usual. I would need a lot of it, so I poured in all the lesser symbols I had, 660 in all. They had taken up a lot of space in my purse and my bag. I had spent my time with the treasurer trembling with fear that someone would find it, hidden under the raft platform.

  I needed to boost Perception and Spirit by two levels each. However, that would run in violation of the awkward law of no equal numbers. No two attributes were allowed to hold the same value. Nor could I raise one to level 2 and the other to level 3—my Strength was at level 3. And bumping up my Strength would cause it to conflict with Agility, which was level 4.

  All in all, I would have to increase the levels of three other attributes first, before turning my eye on Perception and Spirit: Strength, Agility, and Stamina. Once I handled all five, I would finally be able to learn my Artificer talent. There was another obstacle. My current attribute level limit was 13. I already had 12 levels active.

  What I wanted to do was simply impossible.

  So, I would first boost my Equilibrium. I used all of the standard universal states in my possession to this purpose. I had 20, and each one gave me 0.2. So, a total of 2.4. This raised my limit by two, as partial numbers did not count until completed. Thus, I could now have 15 attribute levels.

  That was enough for what I wanted to do tonight.

  I spent one minute using attribute marks, and then I had 15.

  For twenty minutes I waited, paying attention to how I felt. My stomach had been fed well and supplied with various spices and grumbled softly, but there was no sign of any trouble. But I was hesitant to continue my work with states and attributes.

  I moved to chi symbols. Burning twenty-one of these gave me a boost of 252 units.

  I decided to risk boosting Fishing Instinct and Trolling with Spinning Rod. That took 600 chi and a bunch of talent marks. I had plenty of those. What I didn’t have lots of were universal states. These were awarded for deeds more impressive than, well, fishing. That was the only item I had trouble obtaining.

  Now, I had obtained Fishing Connoisseur and Spinning Rod Master. The first talent allowed me to clearly see species of fish already known to me—not just blurred silhouettes. In addition, it significantly reduced my chances of frightening my quarry with my actions. The second talent simply improved my use of my spinning rod in general: allowing me to cast further and more accurately, reducing the chance of my line breaking, and reducing the resistance it incurred when rubbing against objects in the water, scales and fins, and parts of the rod and spinner. My bonuses from the level 1 and 2 talents still remained. In fact, they all changed for the better.

  240 lesser talent marks which I had earned from the fish caught were swapped into lesser chi symbols and sent to my reservoir. More chi would cause more leakage, but I would manage somehow. My increase in Shadow would be very useful, as searching for the garpikes consumed a good deal.

  I felt no convulsions, and indeed no other negative feelings, but I declined to continue. Already I had boosted one state by 2 levels, increased 3 attributes, and brought two level 2 talents up to level 3, maxing them out there.

  Tomorrow, I would see how I felt.

  Chapter 32

  The Spoils

  Degrees of Enlightenment: 0 (426/888)

  Shadow: 426

  Attributes:

  Stamina: level 6, 300 points

  Strength: level 4, 200 points

  Agility: level 5, 250 points

  Perception: NA, 50 points

  Spirit: NA, 50 points

  Talents:

  Fishing Connoisseur (tier 3): 10/10
<
br />   Cure Wounds (tier 2): 10/10

  Free Talents:

  Spinning Rod Master (tier 3): 10/10

  States:

  Equilibrium (9.46): level 9

  Enhanced Enlightenment (0.50): level 0

  Shadow of Chi (0.50): level 0

  Measure of Order (3.00): level 3

  I felt great. Less than two minutes at breakfast, and I was staring at an empty bowl. I was famished.

  A beastly appetite was a sign of good health.

  Improving my mood even more was the excellent weather. No one enjoyed spending all day on a raft under a cold rain or beset by piercing winds.

  The ever-unpleasant merchant failed to spoil my disposition. He even improved it. The man had suddenly become friendly. Ash’s words about credit had opened some magical door for me into the grumpy fat man’s heart—or at least his good graces, for now.