“We would be all too happy to be of aid to the Deities’ command, Exalted One,” proclaimed the old priestess of the Zikeal temple after Esperanza gave her an abbreviated version of the story. Even if she did not have Ani backing her up on the matter, the priestess looked so enamored that Esperanza guessed that she would get Zikeal’s support either way.
Despite the mentioned effect from [Gaze Unto the Abyss] which stated that it blocked all sorts of [Analysis] type skills from working on her, if Esperanza were to contain the skill’s “aura” within herself, she found out that she could allow others to identify her using said skills. A side effect of that, however, was that the one doing so would be subjected to [Far Down the Deep End]’s side effect.
Which did nothing whatsoever to people who worshiped Oldies in the first place, and if anything, only reaffirmed their belief that she was a divine messenger sent directly by their deities. It made some sense, since by the system’s recognition all believers of Oldies had negative sanity, and as such rather than driving them mad like it would to believers of the new gods, all that Oldies’ worshipers would feel was a sense of godly awe towards her.
“That said… I am afraid Zikeal does not have that much to offer in terms of martial might, unlike what the presence of Seneschal Abr-Niz and Chieftain Ubra’Neugh here might have suggested,” added the old priestess as a caveat. “Our people… barring a select few, most of us never left our caverns, as we are mostly self-sufficient here. Only a few had any interest in fighting and classes that leaned that way. The guards you had seen with the Seneschal were already the majority of our best ones.”
“I had noticed, está bien,” replied Esperanza with a nod. While she had relaxed quite a bit during the welcome and the feast, she had also taken the time to analyze everyone in her sight. The results brought her to a depressing conclusion, namely that there were far fewer combatants in Zikeal compared to Agur-Bas, despite the settlement’s larger size.
Agur-Bas had more than enough guards – including multiple fourth tier ones, where Ani was the strongest mostly thanks to the quality of her class rather than her level – that they could easily afford to part with the volunteers who wanted to follow Esperanza. She had yet to see another fourth tier fighter in Zikeal other than the two before her.
The Gour-Ug’rech living in the settlement likely had more, due to their more frequent jaunts to the sea outside, but unless they were hybrids like Ani, they wouldn’t be of much help on land. Most of the other guards she had seen amongst the locals were third tiers at best, and out of those few were at higher levels of the tier.
“Zikeal had never been discovered by hostiles since its founding, and like others, most of the people here hid to escape the persecution and violence that those who worship the new gods would enact upon us,” offered Abr-Niz with a rather apologetic tone. “Since the place is mostly self-sufficient, there was little to no incentive to go out and hunt, or to level in a combat class. Even our current force of guards is arguably the strongest this place has had over the past century or so.”
“I would have liked to offer my services to the Exalted One, but that would mean leaving Zikeal poorly defended, given my responsibilities. Chieftain Ubra’Neugh is not familiar with fighting on land, so it would be a risk, since, as the Exalted One has explained, this world is about to change,” he continued. “I can only offer my deepest apologies for that.”
“There is no need for apologies. Your settlement has its own situation, and we completely understand that. All we would ask is to be allowed to rest and replenish our supplies for a while here before we continue our journey,” replied Esperanza diplomatically. She figured assuaging the locals’ worries and using polite words should go a long way given how much they put her on a pedestal.
“We would be most willing to provide, Exalted One,” said the old priestess with palpable relief. Did they probably think that Esperanza would have flown into a rage if her demands were not met or something? Then again, she did recall that Oldies once told her how it sometimes sent agents into the mortal world to weed out activities that threatened the cycle as a whole, like one time when some maniac mage tried to subsume the souls that were supposed to reincarnate to turn himself immortal.
Given their rather eldritch-y nature, the agents Oldies sent would have been much like how she was in the start, terrible beings of hunger and devastation. Unlike her, however, those agents wouldn’t have a rational mind keeping them under control. They would just arrive, do the task they were supposed to do with great violence, and be removed from the world once finished.
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So on second thought Esperanza guessed that the old priestess had reason to be relieved after all.
“Oh, right, a question,” interjected Esperanza as she recalled something. “On our way to Zikeal we found another, smaller settlement that seemed to have been abandoned many years ago. All signs we discovered hinted that the inhabitants migrated to Zikeal, and we also found some unfortunate souls frozen in a crevasse, likely part of these people. Do you happen to know of their fate?”
“If I may be allowed to answer that question?” asked an old man who had been silent so far, seated at the side of the council. Esperanza noted how the old priestess was the one who gave permission instead of any of the others. “Exalted One, I believe you have just described Baslem, the settlement my family originated from. My late father was the leader there who made the decision to evacuate the settlement and migrate to Zikeal after what was at that point decades of continued decay.”
“Ah, so some of you made it, then? That’s a load off my shoulder,” noted Esperanza with a relieved sigh. After she and the rest of the group had found the abandoned settlement and the frozen corpses, she couldn’t help but worry a bit about the fate of the people who used to live there. To hear a confirmation that some of them made it to Zikeal and apparently having integrated well – given that one of theirs sat on the council – was a good thing.
“I am familiar with the crevasse you mentioned, Exalted One. We had lost fourteen of our own to it, including my father. Fortunately the rest of our journey was spared from misfortune, and most of us made it to Zikeal after a while,” narrated the old man. “At the time, I was elected as representative of our people since I was the only son of the leader, my late father, and I have served in the council since.”
“Glad to hear your people are doing fine, then,” offered Esperanza with a nod, which seemed to cause the old hybrid man to straighten up with pride. “Anyway, priestess, my group aren’t familiar with what Zikeal could offer for our cause since none of them have ever been here before. If you could help enlighten us on that matter, it would be helpful.”
“Certainly, Exalted One,” replied the priestess with another respectful bow. “We would naturally offer to replenish your food supplies, as we have plenty of that to offer. We even trade our excess regularly with some nearby Gour-Ug’rech communities,” she offered, accompanied by a nod of agreement from the Gour-Ug’rech chieftain. “Other than that… I cannot help but notice that the clothing worn by the Honored Ones are not the most suitable for the climate here, we have skilled [Tailors] who could likely help with that as well.”
“Exalted One, may we inquire as to your plan once you leave here?” asked a middle-aged woman who, interestingly enough, was pretty much human without any obvious sign of heritage from other races. “Me and mine might have some… qualities that might be of use to you, depending on your chosen direction,” said the woman somewhat cryptically.
“We intend to lay low for a while in the human kingdom,” replied Esperanza honestly. “We pulled off some sabotage in the demon territories with the hope that it would weaken the demons and hopefully make the war more even somewhat. The longer the humans and demons fight against one another, the easier our task will be since both sides are our enemies to begin with.”
“Ah… To let the worshipers of the usurpers fight and kill each other on their own first, yes? It would definitely help weaken them, definitely better than what we could achieve on our own indeed,” replied the old priestess with a nod. “There are far too few of us who still worship the Deities on land. Even if we were to gather all our forces, we would at most be a nuisance to those under the usurpers.”
“Exactly. We’d be a nuisance to them while trying to slowly weaken them and prolong this ongoing war so they could slaughter each other to their hearts’ content,” noted Esperanza with a nod. “I am not so arrogant to think that just our interference alone would change the course of the war, but sometimes, taking out the right person at the right time can indeed result in disproportionate effects compared to the scale of the action.”
“In that case, Exalted One, would you be interested in… gathering information from our enemies?” asked the middle-aged human woman from earlier with what seemed to be a twinkle in her eyes. “If we could learn some intelligence from them, we might be able to do what you described with even better effectiveness, wouldn’t you agree?”
“We have considered that angle, yes, but so far none of us has the necessary skills to do that sort of work. The way people who worship the new gods could tell that we worship the old gods easily meant that we could not infiltrate their society, even when some of us would be able to blend in physically and speak their language,” replied Ani as she explained the issue on Esperanza’s behalf. “Neither the Exalted One’s current party nor my people back in Agur-Bas have been able to do this.”
“I myself could infiltrate for a very short term, but that involves a rather gruesome process and it’d be easier to pull off against demons. Maybe if my skill evolves another time I would be able to change my form until it wouldn’t attract suspicion from a human, but that’s still only a possibility, and besides, it doesn’t solve the issue of skills like [Analysis] or [Identify] finding out who we are.”
“If I may offer a suggestion, then,” said the middle-aged woman with a smile on her face. “Our families… that is, my family and a few others, have been keeping our descendants human, unmixed with the others, so that we could infiltrate the usurper-worshiping society outside from time to time. The successful ones amongst those descendants have earned skills that would allow them to blend into society unnoticed. Skills that would shield them from detection as well as present themselves as something they were not to those who tried to use [Analysis] or [Identify] on them.”
“Go on,” said Esperanza with some interest in the woman’s words.
“If the Exalted One wishes, We would be willing to offer some of our best infiltrators for your perusal. Our society here in Zikeal might be too peaceful to be able to offer warriors that could match those already by your side, but we have our ways to contribute to the cause as well,” suggested the woman with a slight bow. “If you find this approach to be worthwhile, I will have several volunteers from amongst our best gathered by tomorrow.”