Mark was the first one to voice, “You CANNOT be serious with that ‘talk to them’ shit!”
Isoko stared at David, letting Mark’s words hang as enough. Eliot did the same.
David fully expected this, so he easily said, “When you are out there with others of Earth, you might come across those who are unable to understand that monsters are monsters. Therefore, in this training mission, you will be charged with acting on behalf of one of those kinds of people. The purpose of this is to show you exactly what to expect when you come at goblins with talks of peace.”
Isoko scoffed. Eliot frowned.
Mark said, “Leaving aside the fact that we’re coming at them disingenuously, and therefore they would never believe us anyway… No wait. Let’s start there.”
David said, “That’s a problem with this scenario, yes. The goblins view us as food that they need to be tricky to get though, so they take the bait. You will still try to make inroads at peace.”
Isoko spoke up, “Peace is a literal impossibility. They eat us. They LIKE to eat us.”
Eliot said, “They like to infect us and have our bodies turned into incubators for their young. Eating is secondary.”
“Both of you are correct,” David said. “You will still make one attempt at peace. You are allowed to offer that area of Rome as the new goblin home. We could even open a hole back to Daihoon to let them through. And then, when they do what they’re going to do, you kill them all. Every single one, to the last. 100% clearance rate.” He added, “Consider this a primer on unreasonable requests from your leaders, because that’s also part of the mission; clear the mission, as requested, and then fix the actual problem, as seen on the ground. We expect it to take you about a week. Longer if you scare the goblins into running. Potentially less, if you manage to make them all race at you to see who gets to bite you first.”
Silence spread in the room.
People spoke outside, walking in the halls. A door opened and shut. Hovercars hummed and thrummed in the near distance, as a door in the hallway opened to the outside for a moment, before shutting again.
Mark asked, “Do people actually try to talk to goblins?”
Eliot was the one who answered. “All the time. It’s a real problem. Every video online that shows the goblin problem —that they see us as food and baby makers— is always met with disbelief among the young and the unknowing. They can’t envision a world where bad things actually happen to good people.” Eliot looked at David. “We are killing them, though, right? I’m making an extermination film, yes?”
David nodded once, as he said, “You will do as you will do in a normal mission, and for you, Eliot, that is being a bard, since that is what you want to do. Don’t let it overtake your scouting duties. Isoko is a frontliner, since that is what she wants to do. Mark is the healer/protector, though you can flow around the situation as desired. I imagine Eliot will need to be the most protected, since he is at PL 11, in Body. Isoko is at 30 in Body and a little lesser in everything else. Mark is at 22 in Body, which is enough to survive small injuries. You can expunge a normal goblin infection through a typical resilience/weakness Union, so I’ll let you do that. If the corrupter goblin bites you, then you should consider yourselves dead if I were not there, but I will step in with my own Union and clean up the infection.”
Mark centered himself. Okay. This was the mission.
He could do this.
The others had similar body language.
David nodded, “Now… You all know your powers but we’ll go over them again, as though this was a team you did not know. After that, we’ll go over your supplies for the mission, and that’s enough for now.
“I’m David. I’m a general speedster rated at times-35 speed, Rank S. Full melee weapon clearance. Frontliner and scout. Tier 9 in Body and the usual spread in the other categories. Freyalan Chosen Union at tier 7, so Natural is at tier 7. I’m qualified in Union of Blood, Breath, and others that don’t need to be spoken about, since Mark is still learning. Mark, you’re up.”
Mark reeled a little bit from hearing ‘times 35 speedster’. That was a lot.
The rest of it was what Mark expected of a man at the peak of his power and with a good Talent.
Tier 9.
‘The usual spread’ for a One Talent (which was the normal amount of Talents), who had reached tier 9, was something like tier 9 in their category, then tier 5 in the categories next to their category, tier 2 or 3 in the other two, and then tier 1 in the category directly opposite their own main category. So, since David was a speedster of some sort, which was a Body Talent, then that meant that he was something like…
095 Body, 50-ish Shaper, 25-ish Mind, 15-ish Natural, 25-ish Soul, and 50-ish Arch, in the hexagonal grid form.
But since David was in the Chosen System, of specifically Freyala, he had a 75-ish in Natural, which put him artificially at something like:
095, 50-ish, 25-ish, 75-ish, 25-ish, 50-ish.
That meant that anything below those levels of astral body strength would have a hard time affecting him, but anything above would still hurt him. There was a lot of nuance to that, with specific materials and the insidiousness of those materials to consider, with Union as an example of something that was ‘insidious’ if used that way, but generally, a person with a 95 in Body who tried to injure a person who had a 25 in Body would be like a diamond scratching a fingernail.
Or, more importantly, that fingernail ain’t scratching that diamond at all.
As a side thought, Mark considered Curtain Protocol, and how most people on Earth Awakened with a brawny, Body Talent. A lot of Earthlings —a lot of brawnies— went into the Chosen System, too. This was wildly good for a person, because the Chosen System was a way for them to supplement their natural astral body. For David, who was a speedster, becoming a Chosen of Freyala erased his main weakness as a brawny, which was any monster or person of the Naturally-Talented sort.
Most of the other gods had arisen on Natural Talents, too. Drakarok’s Retribution, Hearthswell’s Castellan, even Verdado’s Farmer.
Mark was still kinda mad at Curtain Protocol hiding stuff from him, but it was easy to understand why things were hidden once you understand the reasonings, and why the powers-that-be wanted most people to be brawnys. With any normal brawny Talent, and entering into the Chosen System, a guy erased their worst weakness. Of course they had to devote parts of their lives to working for the gods, but they got a ‘Second Talent’ and the accompanying Astral Body benefits.
David was really strong then, huh.
The others raised eyebrows at David, too, but they got professional a lot faster than Mark.
Mark recovered. He said, “Mark. Healthy Body, an unusable Shaper Talent as of now, which means not this mission, and Union. Tier 2 in Body, Shaper, and Mind. Soul and Arch are tier 1. Union is at tier 3. Blood and Breath Union… And I’m not sure how much further to go with that.”
David said, “Weapon skills, place in the group. Say you don’t have tactile telekinesis yet. They expect brawnies to be TT capable, or not.”
Mark added, “Good with most weapons. Spear is the best. I think I’m healing and protecting. No TT.”
David nodded, said, “Think of a way to shorten that while including all the necessary information.” He looked to Isoko.
Isoko said, “Isoko. Platinum Body. Tier 3 in all categories. Frontliner. Shield and sword. No TT.”
David nodded, then looked to Eliot.
Eliot said, “Eliot. Man-made Manipulation, high tier 2 Arch, normal spread. 13 in Body. I’ll be using a mana shield to up myself to defensive-20 in every category. Big time scout, trap master, defensive fortifications. Anything you create, I can manipulate. Anything you are around… I might be able to manipulate. Anything the monsters touch degrades out of my manipulation fast. I can gradually influence the environment…” He paused. He continued, “Ehhh… There’s a lot.”
David nodded. “That’s enough, anyway. I was going to ask you to cut it off. It’s important not to dump too much information onto a team, too fast.
Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“I’m electing a team leader now, and it’s Mark. Healers are team leaders and shot callers. You don’t know how to do it yet, Mark, but you’ll eventually be able to gauge the health of your team, or rather, the depth to which your healing or protections are being taxed, which is usually the result of enemy action. That’s how you gauge your team. But for now, brainstorm how you will enact the given mission, and the true mission, which is always to eliminate all the monsters you see, anywhere.
“You have the floor, Mark.”
Mark stood straight, thought, then said, “So… Eliot scouts everywhere and builds fallback locations outside of the incursion zone, and… And we’ll go from there?” That was not enough, and now Mark was kinda flowing into the question, so he said, “Eliot is familiar with the area so we rely on him to pick a starter location and build defensive with the expectation that the enemy goblins have co-opted some of the local wildlife to goblinhood. Do we have readouts on any scans taken of the areas over the last month? Can we get those?”
Eliot said, “I have those! Let’s go over them?”
David spoke up, “It’s your job as Scout to have all the information you can and when called upon that information, you need to be succinct, Eliot. No hour long chats about monsters and whatnot unless you have that sort of downtime. If you have an idea for a starter base and monsters that are in the area, then point out three locations, and you should limit it to three best options. Also, I assure you that unless you picked up information this very morning, as of an hour ago, then it’s out of date already. Goblins move fast and reinforce faster, and monsters always move through locations, changing everything.
“You encountered a hive mind spider a few weeks ago, but you were surprised by that, because monsters move fast and eat faster. You need to scan on location to have any hope of being prepped.
“However, knowing the previous information is a good start. Don’t give too much information, though; we’re on a mission here, not making a documentary. Keep that stuff for the Bard career, Eliot. That goes for you, too, Mark. More information is better, but too much gets you bogged down from the mission. Also, since this interaction is between you, Mark, as leader, and Eliot as scout, you need to get Isoko’s input as well, after Eliot gives you the initial three locations.” David added, “Continue.”
Mark appreciated the quick lesson on how to run a group, he supposed.
Mark looked at Eliot, and then to the picture on the screen on the wall. “Uh. Projections?”
Eliot was bubbly as he pulled out a drone from one of the pockets of his cargo pants and set it onto the table. With a flicker of Power that Mark could only guess at, the drone unfolded and began to project a holographic image of flooded Rome, on top of the table. Bubbles of color, mostly grey, began to form over this and that part of the holographic projection. There was the blue territory of the goblins, centered on the map, but Eliot’s map also had red, yellow, and green territories, right next to the goblin area, surrounding it.
Eliot said, “There were some hive mind spiders there last time I was in the area. The goblins cleared them all out, according to the high-powered scans from our satellites. I’d get better information on-location, but this is what I know:
“The new breed of goblins that spawned from the corrupter goblin are good at blending into the background and coordinated action. The goblins that came out of the corruption of the big mind spider are probably lieutenant class goblins. With any luck, most of them went through the Monster Tutorial and died, but probably not. So we might have 2 corrupter goblins or more. They’re mostly just very smart.
“They might have gotten a Mind knack, or Power, but hopefully not.
“They will want to expand. They’re probably going after the other monster areas here, shown in red, green, and yellow, in order to take them over. The reds are a bunch of wyvern-class monsters; a colony of flying lizards about the size of dogs. The yellows are toxic slimes. The greens are poison slimes. The goblins will probably be going after the lizards next, because those are meat and goblins can’t transform slimes very easily, and maybe they can get some flying gobbos out of the wyvern dogs.
“My suggestion is we set up in the slime areas, but… They do make the air hard to breathe, so… Can you clear the air, Mark?”
Mark wasn’t sure he could.
The blue area was north of something labeled ‘The Vatican’, while that place was all yellow with toxic slimes, and the space to the northwest of the goblin land was green with poison slimes. The red area was by the waters, which was either a good or bad thing.
Mark wanted to go after the wyvern fliers because they couldn’t let the goblins get flying goblins.
David had opinions; Mark could tell.
Mark asked Isoko, “Thoughts?”
Isoko said, “We can’t let the goblins get flying goblins. We need to take over and scatter the flying lizard area, at least. That will allow us to hinder them on all sides. What’s around the lizard area? Aside from backing up against the river/ocean?”
Mark nodded. “Eliot?”
Eliot smiled, happy he was able to talk about what he had researched, “The river/ocean is filled with fish, some of them flying. We can’t let the gobbos get to the fish, either.” Eliot gestured to the holomap and red-ish colors illuminated all along the banks of the river/ocean. “The coasts of the Tiberranean, if you would permit the portmanteau, from the Mediterranean all the way to the inland sea over here, is chock full of wyvern dogs. If we took over this red territory by the goblins, then I am rather sure that we could hold it, but being near open water is always dangerous. Stuff comes out of the ocean all the time. It’s mostly a river here, though, which means it's a transition, thin sort of space, and we could see most big monsters coming.
“The inner sea is packed with wyvern dogs that took over that place long ago and kept it under their control. There are actual wyverns in the inner sea, but we won’t be going that way. The smaller ones like to hunt in packs, with most of them being semi-aquatic. They avoid the big predators and hide out around their big cousins, while they work to kill and eat anything that is remotely their own size. So if we clear this red land by the gobbos, we might send the dogs scattering to the other side of the river, and make them not-our-problem anymore.
“Knowing goblins, as soon as the red territory is clear, and if we make a big shining castle on a hill, then they’ll surely come to us. They’ll want to eat humans most of all, after all. That way, we can let them come to us, to die, and maybe the corrupter goblin will appear, and want to talk!” Eliot was excited. “That’ll fulfill our mission, too! It’s brilliant!”
Mark thought about it, and it sounded good. Could Eliot actually make a big defensive structure, though? Something that could survive smart monster attacks? There were other concerns, too.
Isoko looked concerned, too.
Mark said, “I am unsure about having a strong central location. Can you really build… something like that, Eliot? Something that can withstand smart attackers?”
Eliot said, “Absolutely. As long as I have help with the initial construction; Killing plants and monsters in the area, stacking some rocks here and there with me that I can piggyback off of with Man-made Manipulation; that sort of thing. Painting walls is actually really important, too.”
Mark realized something. “We haven’t really gotten to see your Power shine yet, have we?”
Eliot smirked. “No, you have not.” And then he got a concerned look on his face and added, “I have a very big weakness to concentrated monster attacks. I cannot hold any location by myself at all.”
Isoko laughed once. “Don’t worry; I’ll protect you.” And then she asked David, “So what kinda supplies do we get to start?”
Mark and Eliot looked to David.
David said, “First, Eliot empties all of his pockets, and then changes into some basic brown clothes, and then we all get dropped off into the wilderness with practically nothing.”
Mark paused. Isoko’s expression went blank.
Eliot scoffed, disbelieving, “You’re not serious.”
David smirked. “I am very serious.”
“But… !” Eliot asked, “But how can I record anything without… without anything?!”
David said, “Find some rocks and smash them together to make some silicon and then scrape the oil from your hair for plastic and go from there. Or go a different way. Scavenge. Whittle spears, too.”
Eliot lost all of his words.
Mark spoke up, “Will you still be able to scout like that, Eliot?”
Eliot took a moment, looking up at the air, at nothing, and then coming back to himself. “I can make it work— I’ll lose hours of footage, though! All of the initial mission!”
Isoko asked David, “No rations? No weapons? Armor? Anything?”
David said to the three of them, “The three of you, together, are strong enough to overcome any sort of problem out in this mission. It will be dangerous. You will be injured. But Eliot can make weapons and fortifications, Mark can support you all with sustenance, wakefulness, healing, and protection, and Isoko is an excellent frontliner. I could dump you three into any wilderness and I would expect Eliot to come out of it wearing power armor, Isoko to be covered in the blood of your enemies, and Mark making sure everyone looked even more healthy than when you left into the wilds.”
Eliot complained, “But my shield! How can I go out in the field without a shield! My PL’s are going to be too low!”
David said, “You’ll be fine. Mark can buff Body instead of you relying on a shield. And your Body isn’t that low, Eliot.”
Eliot looked to Mark, pleading with his eyes.
Mark said, “I can protect you but… but this is kind of worrying.”
David told Mark, “You’re fine, too.”
Eliot looked to Isoko, trying to find support.
Isoko shrugged. “I am actually okay with this. You can make all the weapons and stuff we need, Eliot.”
Eliot breathed in. He calmed himself. He stared at David and bargained, “I want one drone for camera work.”
David said, “Sure. It can’t be used for anything else and I’m destroying it myself after 5 hours.”
Eliot relaxed. “Okay. I can deal with this.”
Isoko asked Eliot, “Have you ever forged weapons at all?”
Eliot excitedly said, “I’ve read about it. Extensively, even!”
Isoko withheld judgment. She did nod, though.
Mark said, “I think this is good, actually.” Isoko and Eliot looked to him, while David grinned a little bit. Mark said, “We can do this.”