Beyond All Expectations (Emerilia Book 8)

by Michael Chatfield

  “So, how are things going with the Nalheim?” Dave asked as they worked. The noise of carvers filled the laboratory as they worked.

  “Slowly. They’re aggressive as hell, but we can work on it. Right now they understand that they’re not as strong as us so they’re not acting out; however, it isn’t abnormal for them to fight over the smallest of things. We’re trying to introduce the idea of bartering and work, so that we can cut down on all of the fighting. That said, they’ve already started to build their homes and are working to bring back their race. They have broods instead of just single births, similar to dragons, so their population should swell up within a few months and take a few years for them to start being able to do more than just survive. They’ve made it clear that they want to fight beside me and that would mean that they would have to join the Terra Alliance. I’m not against it; it’s their choice. But their race is really weak right now.” Malsour sighed.

  “As you said, this is their decision, not yours,” Bob said. “We can lead people along what we see as the right path, but as to if they’ll take our advice and go down that path? No one can predict that.”

  For a time, only the carvers could be heard as they moved through hand-carved sheet after hand-crafted sheet.

  “So, what are our plans for the Nalheim home system?” Malsour asked.

  “Set up an industrial node,” Dave said.

  “There we don’t have to deal with things like building items on a planet or a planetary body. When we’re building items in space, it will speed it up a lot more. Without the need for so much security, we can speed up all of the projects there and take the pressure off the projects we have going on in Emerilia.” Bob smiled.

  “We can also work to link the systems together more and, if at all possible, we can start making bases there that will be able to sustain the people we send to them,” Dave said.

  “We’re thinking of waking up the people in the Earth simulation earlier,” Bob said.

  “What?” Malsour ruined the rune he had been making as he looked to the other two.

  “Look, right now there’s just us three who are running the tech and logistics of this all. Sure, the leaders of the Stone Raiders know what’s going on and the Aleph have figured out that the Jukal are the real people running this world, but we need more people on our side. If we have people who are players right now or even people of Emerilia, then they’re going to think that we’re nuts. What we need is a group of people we can come to rely on. We also need to start getting people ready to fight a battle in space to hold Emerilia, not just one where we fight hand-to-hand,” Dave said.

  “So, you’re going to wake them up? What about Sato and all of his people?” Malsour demanded. Waking up the people who were in the simulation was a risky idea. Sure, it could pay off and he wanted to free them of that prison that was called Earth. Though, just like putting a portal in the gas planet, it could throw all of their plans into jeopardy. And right now, Emerilia wasn’t exactly the safest place; adding in the threat of the Jukal raining down hell on their heads did not instill him with confidence.

  “Sato and his people seem to have been making leaps and advances. However, we don’t know where the hell they are and it doesn’t look like they’re going to be of much help to us. They’ve been hiding for hundreds of years. Expecting them to come to our aid—I don’t think it’s something that we can rely on.” Dave shrugged.

  “I hope that you have some way of covering this up? So that you don’t trip the AIs that are running the Earth simulation?” Malsour asked.

  “Well, that is something that Bob came up with.” Dave looked to the gnome, who had a crafty smile on his face.

  “It’s rather easy. We make the computers all think that all of the people are just like Dave and his Austin counterpart in the simulation,” Bob said.

  Malsour frowned. Having all the same person would just make the world ridiculous. “Huh?”

  “What Bob means is that he can take the data surrounding me and Suzy to trick the AIs in the other simulations to create bleeders. They will automatically start controlling our avatars in order to maintain stability. They would just be tricking themselves into thinking that every person is still within the simulation as they’re simulating it themselves,” Dave said.

  “Wouldn’t that, you know, trip something?” Malsour asked.

  “Well, I’m still here and they haven’t figured out that I’m not going back to Earth, or that Suzy is, for that fact,” Dave said.

  Malsour frowned as he thought it over. It was one hell of a plan. Though is he right that he and Suzy haven’t been discovered? Will it hold up with so many people? “It might be a good idea to do it at a slow pace at first.”

  “Agreed. Well, we couldn’t pull them all out at the same time anyway,” Bob said. “Remember that organic matter? Well, we need a hell of a lot of it before we can even think about having more people being born.”

  “How are we going to educate them and let them know about all of this?” Malsour waved his hands to encapsulate all of Emerilia.

  “We’ll show them what’s going on and what happened to them; then we see if we can get Sato to help us out. We get them to understand what’s going on and then we allow them access to the Mirror of Communication schools. We teach them everything and anything. We give them a purpose and a way to fight against the Jukal. They will also have interfaces. However, if they die, then they will be just like the POE—they’ll be gone.”

  “We don’t know enough about the Altars of Rebirth to totally recreate them. With their first body, we’re just printing a body around a brain—much easier than creating it all from scratch and inserting all the right bits so that it’s seamless,” Bob said.

  Malsour shook his head. Bob said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world, but the sheer scope of what they were trying to do was finally starting to seep into Malsour’s mind. “Okay, so, what’s going to happen with the people who don’t want to help out?”

  “Well, that’s part of the reason that we need to get those materials. We need to make a ship that can travel across Jukal space and find a system far outside. We can set up an outpost there. It will be connected by a portal that can be destroyed by either side. This way, people can have the time that they need to decompress from finding out everything about their lives and the lie of what they thought was Earth. Also, if they make products that are useful to us, then we can trade with them. Having people who are motivated to help out are the best. If someone hates what they’re doing, then they’re not going to be putting their best effort forward. We’re not here to make it so that we force them into doing something they don’t want to. After all, that’s what the Jukal have been doing,” Dave said.

  “However, these people have been conditioned for years—they’ve been raised by the AI to be adventurous to want to play video games. If you were given the option of being in your very own video game world or to just hide out somewhere, what would you do?” Bob asked.

  Dave scratched his head, thinking on Bob’s words.

  “We’ve seen it with players that roughly ten percent of them don’t want to actually get involved in a game. The other ninety percent get so into it that they usually become E-heads within the thirty years that they’re in the game for. They’re more prone to be impulsive; however, they think through their actions to a high degree and they are fine with violence as long as it serves a purpose or it fits with their ideals and interests. So, while you think that there might be a large portion of the people who try to get away from it all, the fact of the matter is that I think you’ll be surprised with the number of people who actually get involved and are driven to help out with fighting the Jukal,” Bob finished.

  “What you say makes a lot of sense, but it makes me feel as if we’re using them,” Dave said.

  “As Bob said, this is their life. Once they’re out here in Emerilia, then they can start to figure out what they want to do,” Malsour said.

&nb
sp; “In the meantime, this new teleportation array isn’t going to make itself! Let’s get to it!” Bob said, filled with excitement.

  “I think I found the area with the highest possibility of having hydrogen on the planet. However, I’m just running off a simple spectral analysis, which, while it is good, the images that we do have aren’t the best quality,” Steve said.

  Malsour tried to clamp down on his excitement. But if they could get that hydrogen—well, then they would be set to move on with the rest of their plans!

  “Well, we could use a hand with putting the rest of this teleportation array together,” Dave said.

  “There really is no end to this all with you lot.” Steve moved to the table they were working at.

  “Have you told the rest of Party Zero and the Stone Raiders’ leadership about everything in the Nal system and the various bases?” Bob asked.

  “We’ve gone over it in general terms but we haven’t gotten in-depth into it all,” Dave said.

  “We trust them, but the fact is that we have a lot of secrets right now. If one of them gets out, then the whole thing will come back on us,” Steve said.

  Malsour nodded in agreement.

  “I understand. Reminds me that we should have a talk with Sato and his people,” Bob said.

  “I’m interested what they’ve gotten up to with all the information on the soul gem constructs. Hey, we could run our spectral analysis through their systems to see if they can figure out where that hydrogen is,” Dave said.

  “Saying I’m not enough?” Steve huffed. “Though, they’ve probably got way more computing power than I do, so it makes sense.”

  Malsour rolled his eyes. “Once we’ve got the portals and the different items into place, there’s not much for us to do. I think that the rest of Party Zero is interested in going and doing some of the quests available to the guild.”

  “Been awhile since we’ve carried out a quest. Be kind of nice to do a low-level quest. Hell, I’d be fine with a fetch quest or a simple clearing one,” Dave said.

  “Anything that gets me out of this padded room with you lot, I’m in for,” Steve said.

  “Thanks, Steve,” Bob drawled.

  ***

  Jekoni floated at the edge of the training arena; a book floated in front of him, the pages moving with a wave of his hand. Jung Lee was in the middle of the arena, moving through different positions. His sword flashed in different colors as he moved.

  Deia cleared her throat as she entered the sparring area. Little Koi was in the crook of her arm, looking around the arena with wide eyes, trying to see everything, and her mouth open as her head moved from side to side in starts.

  Induca was with her.

  “Deia, Induca,” Jung Lee said in greeting to the two, a smile on his face as he looked at little Koi. He waved for them to join him at a bench near Jekoni.

  The archmage looked up, his hat waving before he looked back down at his book.

  “Jung Lee, it seems that you’ve become a part of Party Zero rather easily, but we’ve realized that we haven’t talked about what you want to do. We’ve just been kind of rolling with everything,” Deia said.

  “There hasn’t been much time to take a break,” Jung Lee agreed with a small smile.

  Deia returned the smile as she shifted Koi around a bit.

  “We’re planning on going to try out some of these quests that are popping up all over Emerilia and we wanted to see what you wanted to do—if you wanted to stay with the party or go do something on your own. Even if you want to do something on your own and still remain part of the party, that would be fine. We’ve done plenty of things with just a few people from the party—we don’t always need to be with one another,” Induca said.

  Jung Lee tilted his head, looking into the distance, thinking. “My levels are very high and so is my power. However, I still haven’t been able to come to understand it all. Jekoni has been helping me to understand the power of the Free Affinity spirits that have submitted to my command. While he is able to help me in controlling the powers and understanding them, my fighting style is primarily with the sword and with potions. I have focused on these aspects rather than coming to understand magic.” Jung Lee’s face wrinkled in frustration. “There is also the fact that the Affinity spirits, while they can supply me with their magic and help to augment my abilities, they are essentially creatures under my command. Much like how Lu Lu is under Suzy’s control.”

  “So, you’re having an issue with understanding your new abilities?” Deia asked, wanting to confirm.

  “Precisely.” Jung Lee nodded.

  Induca and Deia looked to each other as Koi started to try to grab her mother’s hair.

  “As for fighting with Affinities through weapons, you, Ela-Gal, and Anna would be the best. Then, for coming to understand the Free Affinity spirits, well, we can probably ask Suzy, or one of the summoners, beast tamers, or necromancers,” Induca said.

  Deia nodded, rescuing her hair from Koi before she started to pull on it.

  “Anna is back in Devil’s Crater again, looking over the DCA. She would be the best as she not only has wind magic but a greater understanding of other magic types. With her analytical mind, she can probably figure out what Jung Lee needs help in the most,” Deia agreed before she turned back to Jung Lee. “Okay, so that should sort out training, but training isn’t everything. What else do you want to do? Do you want to stay with Party Zero or make your position within the Stone Raiders official or do you want to do your own thing?”

  “I like being with the Stone Raiders. You’ve accepted me without a second thought and Party Zero has helped me out more than I could hope for. I would like to become a Stone Raider and stay with Party Zero, if at all possible. However, I have a passion for alchemy and creating potions. To this end, I wanted to see if I could meet with the healers of the Stone Raiders as well as visit the mage’s college to see how far potion making has come.” An excited smile covered Jung Lee’s face as his eyes seemed to shine.

  Deia laughed. “We’re just your party, not your parents. You can do whatever you want to do! If you want to make potions, go for it! I know that Jules would be happy to have a master potion maker helping her out with her various potion stores.”

  “And the markets in Terra have the best ingredients one could desire. It wouldn’t be hard for you to make whatever kind of potions you desired,” Induca added.

  Jekoni cleared his throat and gave Jung Lee a pointed look.

  Jung Lee had an embarrassed look on his face as he averted his eyes from the two ladies.

  “Is something the matter?” Deia looked from Jekoni to Jung Lee.

  “You going to tell her or will I?” Jekoni said.

  “I will, you old coot.” Jung Lee waved Jekoni away.

  “Hey, I’m only a few decades older than you!” Jekoni complained. His hat flopped down. “Don’t you start, too!” Jekoni started to berate and fight with his hat as it flopped all over the place while Jekoni whizzed through the courtyard.

  “The problem is that I have no money,” Jung Lee said, as if Jekoni and his hat fighting around the courtyard wasn’t happening.

  “Well, we could loan it to you.” Induca shrugged.

  “I don’t like to borrow money from other people.” Jung Lee winced slightly.

  “Damn stubborn idiotic honor-bound jackass! And you can piss off and all, hat!” Jekoni flew by, still in a valiant fight with his hat.

  Deia and Induca looked to each other and shrugged. They’d seen weirder things than a spiritual projection of a long dead archmage fighting with his magical and sentient hat.

  “Well, there is no need to borrow from us. We can get Lucy to confirm your acceptance into the Stone Raiders. From there, you will be allowed access to all of the Stone Raiders’ resources, including the quest board. We’re going to Ecora, a city that’s part of the Strabon kingdom on the Ashal continent. There’s a quest to look into missing people. The reward is pretty good—
should be enough to get you some supplies. If you don’t feel like doing that, then there are many fetch quests, or even transporting goods. With the Stone Raiders’ reduced fee for their members when using the teleport pads and onos, traders are willing to pay a good price for Stone Raiders to transport their goods for them,” Deia said.

  Jung Lee nodded. They might not be the most glamorous jobs but if he could grind a number of them out, then he could purchase the various ingredients that he would need and be able to support his profession.

  “Yeah, with more and more of the sea creatures showing up, trade by water is decreasing. I’m glad we got that second section of the city. We’ve got so many people moving goods through Terra it’s getting a bit crazy,” Induca said.

  “You’ve given me a lot to think on. I will look into this quest board.” Jung Lee was relieved now that he had picked a path toward his future goals.

  “Everything is calm right now, but remember that things can change in an instant,” Induca warned.

  “Indeed, it does feel like things have been a little too calm in the last few weeks,” Jung Lee said with a troubled expression.

  The atmosphere grew cold.

  Koi ruined it and started to cry.

  “Seems that someone is hungry.” Deia scratched under Koi’s chin. Koi continued to cry, as if in agreement. “Well, I’ll see you both later. Seems this little miss won’t take no for an answer!”

  “See you later,” Induca and Jung Lee said.

  ***

  A man-shaped statue that seemed to have been carved from trees, rocks, and dirt sat on top of a throne made from interwoven trees.

  A green glow filled the room, creating a series of magical formations that filled the air. A hobgoblin adorned with feathers, bracelets, and other ornaments bowed in front of the statue.

  The statue shifted and opened his eyes. It was the Earth Lord!

  The hobgoblin didn’t dare to raise his head or talk in the presence of this god.

  “The preparations are complete?” The Earth Lord looked to the hobgoblin.

  It chittered in the positive, still not raising its head.