“In addition,” my seneschal said, “a couple of Ogres would serve for an impressive show of force.”
I shook my head. “No, I want to leave the clans well defended in my absence. Besides, this mission calls for subtlety, not force; we’ll rely on barter and diplomacy.”
“But, Dread Totem!” Bob tried again, “My people have rules and a firm hierarchy everyone is expected to uphold when –”
“That’s why you’re coming too, Bob.” I winked at him. “You know the lay of the land and the customs. I’ll be depending on your knowledge to reach our objective.”
He still looked unconvinced.
“When are you planning to leave?” Tika asked.
I cringed. In hindsight, this might not have been the best way of letting her know my plans. “First thing tomorrow.”
“Then I’m coming with you!” she said firmly, rising to her feet.
“No!”
“No!”
“No!”
Bob, me, and surprisingly, Kaedric, spoke together.
My seneschal bowed to Tika respectfully. “Forgive my outburst. Goblin females are valued even less than males in hobgoblin society. They are viewed as no more than toys. You would be risking injury, death, and torment at every step. I highly advise you to remain in the safety of the clan.”
Tika’s eyes hardened. “I don’t care. I’m coming!”
A couple of months ago this tender-hearted goblinette wouldn’t dare to argue with anyone in such a fashion. She had grown. I was quite proud of her.
“You’re not coming,” I said, not letting my thoughts filter into my words. “I care too much for you to risk your safety.”
“But –”
“No, Tika.”
“Then I am joining the oxsaurian hunt!” She lifted her chin. “I’m the clan’s main hunter; it is my right.”
I started to argue, but Vic’s voice sounded in my mind.
I mulled over his words then reluctantly nodded. “Alright, you can join the hunting party, but I want you to stay away from the actual fighting.”
She sat back down with a faint smile on her face. “Of course.”
I frowned. Did she just press to come along with me to use it as a bargaining chip to go hunting?
“I think that’s all,” I concluded. “While we’re away, Kaedric will act as the clan’s caretaker; managing the workers, the restorations, etcetera. Any questions?”
There were none.
I got up. “We are adjourned. You all have your tasks. Let’s make it happen. Let’s save our clan.”
“To the GreenPiece Clan!” Bob declared.
“To the GreenPiece Clan!” they all echoed after him.
***
I spent an hour enchanting a new schema using the new spatial rune, Hal.
Spatial Satchel [Runecrafted]
Description: This satchel opens up into a small interdimensional space that can hold a limited number of items. Items held within do not affect the satchel’s weight.
Type: Utility
Rank: Magical
Durability: 20/20
Effect: Store up to 20 items.
Earlier, I had requisitioned a satchel from Vrick, and the hardy leather worker had quickly produced four of them, made from durable oxsaurian leather.
Unlike ‘normal’ Bags of Holding, each satchel would hold a limited number of items and could then be placed in my inventory. They would prove useful in my coming travel, carrying provisions and valuables for trade.
It was still early, but since I was going to be away for quite some time, I decided to spend the rest of it with Tika.
We swam together in the pond, had a quiet dinner, and retired to bed early.
***
I lay comfortably on my brand-new bed getting my breathing under control. Tika was resting pleasantly on my shoulder. We were both drenched in sweat.
I felt fulfilled and satisfied, content to stay in this moment forever.
This is kind of a private moment, Vic.
He snickered
I didn’t like the way this conversation was headed. What are you talking about Vic?
Impregnate Tika [Advanced Goblin Worker]? Yes / Yes
I snapped into a sitting position, Tika rolling off me with a yelp. “What the crap!”
“SHUT UP, VIC!”
40 – Epilogue
The old man moved impatiently from side to side, shaking his head in concern.
The signs were all there.
It did not make any sense. He frowned. Surely, the particulars of the calamity his calculations had foreseen couldn’t be hidden from his omniscient sight. But try as he might, he saw no sign of them. It was ridiculous, really.
But he was old, and he had learned to trust in his equations.
When one was able to know the location, direction, and velocity of all particles in one’s universe, and was able to process that information, one could predict the course of future events with near infallibility.
And he could do all that.
He was good at it, too.
And the probabilities his calculations had indicated troubled him greatly.
He did not like feeling troubled – greatly, or otherwise.
Something had to be done; a contingency had to be set in motion.
A small speck of light in the never-ending cosmos of events caught his attention.
Yes, this one would do nicely, a budding seed to counteract the unseen, but foreseen calamity.
He reached out with a frail finger, touching the speck of light.
There.
With that little bit of troublesome occurrence handled, effectively instantaneously, the old man turned his attention back to the cosmos and continued playing his role as the eternal, all-seeing keeper.
***
“This is not over!” Vatras seethed, banging the table. The now level 295 player was beside himself with rage.
He had respawned back in Everance’s cemetery only to find that he had lost 15 levels.
It was absurdly difficult to gain levels the closer one got to 300; only rich players and high guild officials could afford the resources required. And he had just lost what amounted to a year of progress and thousands of dollars.
The part that Vatras found especially hard to swallow was that he knew about the possibility of losing a level from being consumed by the weird black liquid. The reports from the first wave of players informed him of that. Unfortunately for him, those noobs were all low-levels, so no one realized that the penalty was, in fact, a five percent reduction in levels and not just a single one. It was an unbelievably harsh penalty, virtually unheard of in the history of the game until the formerly level 310 Vatras learned it in the hardest possible way.
BigPill watched coolly as his guild leader rampaged. “You gave it your best and failed. We’re done for. It’s just a matter of time now.”
Vatras banged the table again. “I said it is not over!”
His second shook his head. “First we lost access to the Prime badges and now our guild leader is no longer in the top 100 highest-level players. Your attempt to capture Oren only hastened the guild’s demise. Our ranking is crashing. Soon, even newbies won’t want to join up; then we’ll truly be finished.”
“We’re not dea
d yet,” Vatras hissed. “We can still save this. Gather all the raid parties, I want everyone still in the guild to participate. We are going to bring Oren down if it’s the last thing we do!”
And this time, Vatras thought furiously, I’ll tell Raystia not to hold back. The girl has matured since her flower-picking days. It’s time for her to take things to the next level.
“Getting everyone ready won’t be easy,” BigPill said. “Even with the desertion rate, we still have hundreds of raiders. It’s going to take a while to get them all together.”
“Then get on with it!” Vatras snapped. “Every day we delay gives Oren nearly two weeks to prepare. But even he has his limits. We will crush him with overwhelming numbers. Next time, our glorious former leader is going down and I’ll reclaim the Manipulators’ place in NEO’s top guild rankings.”
BigPill shrugged, petting his blue raven familiar. “Sounds like a Hail Mary to me, but you call the shots – at least, as long as my paycheck keeps coming.”
Vatras glared at him. “That’s the extent of your loyalty?”
“I have bills to pay, Vatras, same as you. If it won’t come from you, well … there are other respected guilds who would be interested in hiring me.”
“Just get the raid ready,” Vatras retorted. “Then you’ll see who’s on top.”
***
The Mob Squad waded through the thick forest, keeping an eye out, watching for a possible threat.
“Remind me why we’re doing this again?” Fox the bugbear asked, slashing at a vine.
“Well,” Misa said lightly, “after winning that kerfuffle, the GreenPiece’s dreaded chief decided a little reconnaissance is in order. And after seeing him throwing a hissy fit, we all decided not to protest too loudly.”
“Erm … and he has sorta promised to make it worth our while,” Raystia pointed out. “I don’t know about the treasure map he gave us, but the quest rewards alone are phenomenal.” She didn’t think it was prudent to reveal to her teammates that she was acting as a double agent on this mission. To her great relief, Oren had asked Malkyr not to reveal her identity as the former spy, so her friends were clueless regarding her involvement.
Riley, the yellow dwarf, said, “Fox has a point. I didn’t hear any specifics about the mission. And what was that white gem he gave you?” He shot an inquisitive look at the catgirl.
“Oh, ahem … that’s just sort of … a magical device that can, well … ahem … help … him … discourage further attacks.”
“That’s not very specific. And how are we even supposed to make it into Everance? The city guards will arrest us as soon as they spot us. We’re half-goblins, remember? That means an automatic hatred reputation with all playable races.”
“We will just have to find a way around that,” Misa said cheerfully. “We can try getting a few simple quests from the outlying villages, build up our reputation a bit. Dark-and-broody did mention all we need is a single point to hit the next reputation rank, then they’ll at least be willing to hear us out first.”
The yellow dwarf scowled. “And then throw us into prison.”
“How do you expect to get even a simple quest with our current reputation?” the bugbear grumbled. “Villagers may not be as strong as city guards, but they have pitchforks, you know.”
“We’ll just use our secret weapon.” Misa winked at him, putting her arms around the catgirl’s shoulders.
“Ah? Wha– what?” Raystia gulped.
“Oh don’t give me that tosh, you’re an expert at getting on the good side of the NPCs, love, and you know it.”
“I … ahem … I … ahem …” she stammered.
The bugbear and goblin exchanged glances and shrugged. “She has a point.”
***
The three-star general sat at the far side of the meeting table across from the company’s board.
“You promised us results,” he said harshly. “We even approved your request to upgrade select capsules with military-grade medical sensor arrays, and yet you have nothing to show for it.”
The director didn’t flinch. He was used to being the one demanding results and he knew that the higher up the ladder one went, those expectations tended to grow. “We pushed up our testing schedule considerably. We have over 20 subjects playing in accelerated time with 90 percent of them showing normal mental capacity. In fact, most of those had already demonstrated impressive cognitive abilities.”
“Then what’s the holdup?”
“We’re still working to isolate the final markers to identify such individuals. No one wants to risk another incident. We all remember what happens when an incompatible individual is exposed for a prolonged duration.”
The general grimaced, remembering the gory details. Still, it was his job to demand results. “And what about the complication I heard of? Something about one of your employees jeopardizing the project.”
A sharply dressed person leaned in. “You need not concern yourself with such trivial matters, General. The employee in question, Mr. Wiseman, had tried to access the project’s confidential files but was stopped in time. He was sent to a forced company retreat at an isolated location under threat of a lawsuit for violating his NDA agreement. It will remove him from the picture long enough for us to conclude the experiment.”
The general frowned. He didn’t like complications of any kind. “Regardless, need I remind you that the term for loaning you the quantum server is nearly over? Unless I see actual, quantifiable results by the end of that period, you will not get an extension.”
The director was unimpressed. NEO net revenues were in the billions and the generated taxes alone made up for the server’s cost. But there was no need to go into conflict over such an irrelevant matter, not when they were nearly done.
“We’ll be ready in time,” the director promised, then chuckled. “After all, time is what we do.”
***
While residing in the pool, the host of VIs shared their thoughts and memories in the most fundamental way.
That was why disagreements were such a rare occurrence.
The other VIs started pitching their ideas.
***
I stared for a long moment at Tika’s belly. She was already showing signs of pregnancy.
I put both my hands on her stomach and concentrated, tapping the tendrils of information that wafted off her.
I frowned. The fragments of data were nonsensical; I couldn’t make anything out. Vic, a little help here?
I refused to give up. I closed my eyes and concentrated harder, pushing my mind further along the trail of incomprehensible pieces.
A weird buzzing filled my mind, growing louder as I delved deeper.
There was a flash of pain. I gasped, yanking my hands away.
But not from the pain.
I’d caught only a small snippet of data, just three little words. I frowned again, trying to make sense of it.
What the hell did ‘Child of Fate’ mean?
***
Oren’s full character sheet at the end of the book:
Title: Dread Totem
Level: 45, (30%)
Race: Monster Race [Goblin]
Type: Boss II [Totem]
Religion: The Cult of Nihilator
Attributes:
Physical 3
Mental 49
Social 1
Pools & Resistances:
Hit Points: 1,062
Mana: 2,269
Armor: 60
Mental Resistance: 60%
Skills:
Lucky Bastard 44 (70%) Ⓑ
Analyze 110 (30%)
Tracking 13 (29%)
War Party Leader 33 [+5](10%)
Mana Infusion 25 (90%) Ⓑ
Quest Giver 22 (80%)
Runecraft 45 (0%)
Barter 11 (99%) MAX
Governor 10 (0%)
Spell Skills:
Dark Mana 52 (0%) (Ⓑ)
Drilling Arrow 30 (75%) (Ⓑ)
Mana Shield 37 [+5] (0%)
Blood Wrath 38 [+5] (0%)
Heal Followers 21 (0%)
Mana Drain 10 (92%) Ⓑ
Shadow Web 23 (0%)
Shadow Hound 25(5%)
Shadow Teleport 15 (+2)
Dark Protection 21 (50%)
Direball 12 (90%)
Traits:
Goblinoid (+1 Physical, -1 Social)
Quick learner +20%
Boss Boon II (10 HP & 20 MP per level; Nihilator’s Sanction)
Soul Companion: Vic
Shadow-Touched
Mind Over Body (-50% to pain, +50% Mental Resist)
AUTHOR’S NOTE
I had a lot of fun writing this one.
The first book taught me a lot about being an author and how to write well, and I hope it shows in this second installment. I went to extra lengths to make sure this one was done right from the start and polished to perfection.
Life Reset- EvP Page 67