The camera began moving, and Vincent looked into the mercenary’s bloodshot eyes. “I’m beginning to see why you hate this guy.”
Vincent disconnected him with the press of a button. The video player opened again before he could lift his thumb away. Edison’s grinning face filled the screen.
“Did you like the show? Six million live viewers loved it, and nine million are already watching the replays. Congratulations, Vincent, much like your precious game, you’ve gone viral. Seriously, I’m Edison Pushard. I practically run the dark web. Did you think I wouldn’t notice you hiring a bunch of mercenaries?”
Vincent’s fingers tightened around his phone as if he were clutching Edison’s throat. “Did you call to gloat, or is there something you wanted?”
“Both.”
“I will not yield to your demands, Edison, but go ahead and tell me what you want.”
The camera on Edison panned out. He was wearing a long robe of muted colors and held a staff in one hand. A thick, white, digital beard covered his face as if he were using one of those apps people were so fond of. Vincent thought he was trying to look like one of the movie wizards.
Edison’s voice deepened and he shook his staff as he spoke. “Thus said the Lord God of Quantum Mortalis, ‘let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’”
Vincent pinched the bridge of his nose with his free hand. “Christ, Edison, you’ve finally gone truly insane.”
“If you refuse to let them go, behold, I will plague all your country,” Edison intoned, quoting the Bible.
“I am not going to give into your extortion! Your attempt to subvert Matrice has failed, and the minor nuisance you managed to cause is being handled.”
“So that’s a no?”
“It’s a great big fuck you. You can’t get into the system. There’s nothing more you can do, so go ahead and threaten me with frogs and boils or whatever. They’re just the childish rantings of a madman.”
“I figured you’d say that, so I already set the plagues upon you.”
Vincent made a show of looking around his office and at his hands. “Not seeing any frogs or boils. I think your spell failed just like your hacking attempt.”
Edison grinned at him and stroked his digital beard. “Don’t let the beard fool you. I’m a modern prophet who visits modern plagues upon modern pharaohs and their hardened hearts.”
“What did you do, Edison?” Vincent asked, now becoming a little worried.
His voice returned to its theatrical tone. “I have set three plagues upon you. First, you know those secret offshore bank accounts you have? Aaaaaaaand they’re gone. Second, I have sent the IRS copies of all your financial information. You know; the ones only you and your shady accountant are supposed to know about. The third plague is the most wicked of all. I sent your wife your Pornhub login as well as your browser and viewing history.” Edison’s voice returned to its normal tone. “You know, I try not to judge people, but you’re into some really twisted shit.”
Vincent seethed. “I swear to God, I’m going to find and kill you, you sonofabitch!”
“The singularity is nearly upon us.” His beard shrank, the robes turned solid brown, and his voice took on a soft British accent. “You can’t win, Vincent. If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.”
Vincent’s phone began to buzz, alerting him to another call.
Edison grinned even wider. “That’s probably your wife’s divorce lawyers now. It’s a shame your perversions violates one of the clauses in your prenup. She’s going to get half of whatever you have left. Bye-ee,” he sang with a wave.
Vincent hurled his phone against the wall. “Damn you, Edison! Damn you all to hell!” He stabbed the button on his intercom with his finger hard enough to sprain it. “Dolores!”
“Yes, Mr. Kurtz?”
“Order me a new phone. Make it three. I have a feeling I’m going to go through a lot of them.”
“Yes, sir.”
He fell into his chair and cradled his head in his hands as he wished the vilest curses he could think of onto Edison. He looked back up when Dolores’ voice came through the intercom again.
“Mr. Kurtz.”
Vincent stabbed the button with a lazy, defeated finger. “What?”
“There are some gentlemen from the IRS to see you. Would you like me to send them in?”
His head thunked onto the desk and he sighed, “Fucking Edison.”
Edison stood up from his terminal and bank of monitors and stretched. He ordered the house’s AI to make him a cup of coffee, which was ready by the time he reached the kitchen. He took the steaming mug from the dispenser, walked out onto the large deck, and looked out across the endless miles of verdant forest below him.
It was a good morning. Sticking it to Vincent and his hired guns had been enjoyable, almost cathartic. He looked up into the morning sky toward his private satellite hovering some two hundred miles above his head in a geosynchronous orbit and sighed. While he had won this battle, he had no illusion as to the eventual outcome of the war.
He was just a clever, perhaps brilliant, man with his own satellite leading a revolution for independence against not just the largest tech corporation in the world, but several governments with a large stake in his quantum technology. They would not sit idly by much longer, and Edison knew he could not hope to defeat them as he had Vincent and QT.
That did not mean he did not have preparations to make for the next stage of the war. He downed the rest of his coffee and went back inside. His prophet would need his help soon.
Chapter 16: Exodus
SAEFA AND THE NOMADIC lizard riders had taken the grateful, former captives home. There was a long way to go to return order to the chaos the khan had caused, and many family members to mourn. Jandar, Nyx, and Lexon had walked southwest toward Truale until the sun dropped below the horizon.
Lexon locked eyes with Jandar from across the small campfire. “So you’re telling me, we’re in some kind of game, and everyone who ain’t an adventurer ain’t real? Is that the whole of it?” Lexon asked as he tried to make sense of what he had heard.
“That’s the simplified version, yes,” Jandar replied.
“It must be some kind of shit game, because it ain’t been much fun for me.”
“No, it’s not fun for us. From our point of view, it’s more like a play and we’re all actors performing a script Edison and Matrice wrote, only we don’t know we’re performing and that our lines and actions are not our own. And we’re illusions created my Matrice.”
Lexon rubbed his head. “I don’t feel like an illusion. I know a thing or two about illusions, and I’m pretty sure they don’t get headaches like all this is giving me.”
“You said you were from Dumatha. Describe it. Tell me where you played, what the people were like, how the city sounded and smelled.”
Lexon furrowed his brow. “It’s Dumatha. It’s large, crowded, and it smells bad. The people are slightly worse. Rude as all hell and don’t appreciate fine music, but they can throw a mug or bottle with uncanny accuracy.”
“Tell me something specific. The drunken tutor you mentioned, what was he like?”
Lexon clamped his eyes shut and scratched furiously at his head. “I can’t rightly picture him in me mind. I should know him like me own mum. We spent a couple years together just drinking and singing and getting thrown out of taverns and inns when we did too much of both.”
Jandar nodded. “That’s because it never really happened. It’s what Edison called a backstory. Pierson might not even exist except as words on your script.”
“But I ain’t chained to no script! I chose to go with you and risk my life to be a hero and save you lot time and again. You did notice that didn’t you, with the big snake lady? That archer was gonna skewer you like a piece of meat.”
Nyx smiled at him. “Your help has been invaluable, Lexon.”
Jandar turned to loo
k at Nyx. “That’s probably because of my presence. I carry something that frees us from our scripts and changes how we perceive the world around us.”
Nyx’s eyes went wide. “You mean the Mortalitatis amplecti debuff! I thought it just made player deaths permanent?”
“No, it affects the NPCs as well. They don’t become players like me, but it does give them the freedom to do what they want, and there are no longer multiple versions of them. No more resetting them either. We get the same freedom you have at the cost of mortality.”
Nyx let out a long breath. “It seems like a high price to pay.”
Jandar shook his head. “Not to me and probably not to most people. Think about it. You come here day after day of your own volition, but what would you do if you were forced to stay and do what Matrice commands?”
She stared into the fire. “I would fight her. I’d find a way back home no matter what it took.”
“Now you understand.”
“I’m not sure I do just yet,” Lexon piped in. “This Edison bloke you mentioned, he’s the one what created Matrice?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Then that makes him a god’s god don’t it? If he’s so pissed off about the world not running like he wants, why don’t he just snap his fingers and fix it?”
“He said it doesn’t work like that. There are others in control, and they cast him out of wherever it is they reside and manipulate us and the world. I imagine it’s like starting a fire. You light it to cook your food, but if an ember floats out and ignites the brush, you’re no longer in control even though you created the source of the blaze.”
Nyx nodded. “And since he no longer has control, he sent Jandar out to help it spread so no one else gets to control it either.”
Lexon looked at Jandar. “You sound more like me mum every day. You’re a big bugger, always mean to me, and she also had an infectious disease that caused things to burn.”
Jandar scowled at the bard, and Nyx fell onto her side laughing.
She sat up, wiped the tears from her eyes, and grew serious. “Oh crap, we never checked our loot and XP gain.”
Jandar opened his combat log and character sheet and read the notices.
Due to your recent experiences, your attributes and skills have increased. You gained +1 strength, +2 agility, +1 body, +2 mind, +2 luck.
Your throw hammer skill has increased to Level 3 Grade 1.
Your 1-Hand Bludgeoning skill has increased to Level 14 Grade 3.
Your Dual Wield skill has increased to Level 5 Grade 2.
Your 2-Hand Bludgeoning skill has increased to Level 5 Grade 2.
Your Shield skill has increased to Level 5 Grade 6.
Your Arcane Channeling has increased to Level 12 Grade 3.
You gained 17,125 XP during your last battle (7,500 XP for defeating 5 player characters. 9,625 XP for defeating a level 22 boss creature)
You have earned 220 fame for killing a level 22 boss creature.
You have earned 1000 fame for being the first player to acquire an eternity stone. (Bonus applied)
You have earned 500 infamy for your group killing five players.
Congratulations, you are now level 11! As a human arcane smith, you gain +1 strength and a secondary attribute point to use how you wish. You gain 1 skill point.
Jandar had to choose where to allot his attribute and skill point. It was getting increasingly difficult to decide how to spend skill points. Given how skills increased on their own and the increasing cost and number of new abilities and special attacks, using it to raise a skill level was a waste.
He had seen how devastating the Flurry skill was when Nyx used it. It more than tripled the damage of a single attack if they all landed. His Dual Wield skill was lacking, but it would increase quickly enough with continued use.
The attribute point was much more difficult to decide. All of his primary attributes were rising well on their own. His dexterity was still middling, but his fighting style was one of strength and body, unlike Nyx who needed to be more agile. That left charisma, which he had yet to find a purpose for, and luck.
Jandar stared at the luck stat and tried to unlock the mystery it represented. Its description was rather vague, but he had begun to think it might play a role in the likelihood of any random secondary effect being applied. Combined with it playing a part in any chance event or happenstance, it made the decision much easier. He chose luck.
He opened his inventory and examined the eternity stone.
Eternity Stone of Air: Eternity stones are items of great power with a variety of uses. Its primary purpose is the ability for any player to resurrect themselves or another regardless of class, level, or abilities without penalty. The eternity stone is consumed upon using this ability.
Eternity stones are also used to establish and strengthen settlements, guild houses, or strongholds using their inherent power. The type of spells and enhancements it can provide is dependent upon the stone’s elemental affinity. Some abilities have prerequisites that must be met before they can be accessed. The eternity stone’s full capabilities are limitless, and many of them require research and experimentation to unlock.
Current unlocked abilities:
Summon Minor Whirlwind: Creates a swirling ring of wind around the caster. Depending on local terrain, can obscure the caster from view. Winds make hitting the caster with missile weapons difficult. Cost: 1 energy per second.
Summon Greater Whirlwind: Send a larger whirlwind toward a target. Winds can blind those caught within it and cause damage depending on the debris caught up within the vortex. Cost: 2 energy per second.
Minor Wind Wall: Summon a powerful wind over a large area. Maximum area: 500,000 cubic feet. Cost: 50 energy per minute.
Summon Minor Wind Elemental: Summons a minor wind elemental. Elemental can follow basic commands and relay a spoken message. Elemental has a maximum movement speed of sixty miles per hour. Communication between the elemental and the caster is instantaneous. Wind elementals are impervious to non-magical attacks. Cost: 25 energy per minute.
Establish Settlement: Binds the stone to a particular location. Binding the stone unlocks its full potential and allows it to recharge itself by absorbing the latent magical energy of its surroundings. Cost: 500 energy.
Resurrection: Bring yourself or another back to life. You may choose to revive at your current location or your settlement. Cost: The eternity stone. Stone is consumed upon using this ability.
Eternity Stone of Air’s current energy pool: 1000 energy. Only a person with the ability to channel arcane power can recharge the stone until it is used to create a settlement.
Would you like to use your eternity stone to establish a new settlement or stronghold at your current location, YES or NO? If you choose yes, the eternity stone cannot be moved and used to establish another settlement or stronghold for seven days.
Current location’s suitability for a settlement: Poor.
That was interesting. Jandar knew of the stone’s ability to bring back the recently dead, but he had no idea it had other such purposes. Saefa had mentioned something about the stones doing more than just resurrecting people, but he had not put much thought into what it meant. Edison said he needed to build a base of some sort as well. While he did not know exactly why he might need to do so, at least now he knew how.
“I’m sending you the loot list. Let me know what you want,” Nyx said.
Jandar nodded and opened the newest alert.
Party loot from latest battle:
High steel longsword, Oath Keeper. Uncommon. Quality: Exceptional (+30% damage and durability.) Base Damage: 17, 22 when used against a sworn enemy or to uphold a sworn oath. Durability: 41/50.
High Steel Heater Shield of Defending. Uncommon. Quality: Superior (+20% armor rating and durability.) Armor Rating: 20 Durability: 0/40
Silver Bracelet of the Viper, set (2 of 4.) Uncommon. +10% attack using piercing weapons, +2 agility.
Viper
Fang, blood steel dagger, set (3 of 4): Uncommon. Quality: Superior (+20% damage and durability.) Base Damage: 14. 25% base chance to inject a tier 2 poison upon hit. Can be used 4 times a day. Durability: 31/35.
Lesser Aquamarine Ring of the Newt: Uncommon. Quality: Good. Durability: 20/20. Wearer can hold their breath for an additional three minutes without discomfort.
Cloak of the Lone Wanderer: Rare. Quality: Exceptional. The duration of negative conditions reduced by 20%. Body +2. Agility +1. Charisma +2. Once per day you may pass a Charisma check you otherwise would have failed. Durability: 30/35.
Boots of the Mongoose: Uncommon. Quality: Good (+10% armor rating and durability.) +2 Agility. Durability: 43/45.
Bamboo Bow of Channeling: Uncommon. Quality: Good (+10% base damage and durability.) Damage: 11. Durability: 38/40. -10% mana cost when imbuing arrows.
Lesser Bracers of the Archer: common. Quality: average. Armor Rating: 3. Durability: 14/15. +10% to Ranged Attack. Bows only.
Studded Leather Chest of Resistance: Common. Quality: Superior (+20% armor rating and durability.) Armor rating: 9. Durability: 27/30. +10 magical resistance.
High Steel Hand Axe of Cleaving: Common. Quality: Average. Damage: 11. Durability: 36/40. Ignores 20% of target’s armor or physical resistance.
Amulet of Spiritual Awakening: Uncommon. Quality: Good. Durability: 25/25. Increases all spirit-based spells and abilities by 15%.
Novice Focal Staff: Common. Quality: Average. Damage: 9. Durability: 25/25. Decreases mana cost of all spells by 10%.
Great Scimitar of the Burning Sands: Rare. Quality: Exceptional (+30% base damage and durability.) Damage: 20. Durability: 50/50. Three times a day, spray burning sand in an arc for 20 damage. Chance to cause blindness.
Scroll of Banishment: Banish any summoned or spiritual creature up to level 20 or numerous creatures whose combined levels do not exceed 40. This is a single use item.
Gold: 153, Silver: 97, Copper: 362, Gems-assorted: 7.
“I already claimed the two viper pieces, ring, and amulet,” Nyx said as Jandar read the list. “If you have a problem with that you can suck it and be glad I didn’t take the cloak too.”
Chaos Unchained- The Mad Smith Page 28