CHAPTER SEVEN
A bead of sweat trickled down Richard’s brow. It took every ounce of self control he possessed not to shift his gaze towards the looming purple creature. The very same that always seemed to hover just outside of his periphery. So close, its long whiskers tickled the skin of his ear. Its golden eyes like full moons, trained specifically on him. Gleaming, unwavering, and feverishly intense.
Seriously, what was this girls problem?! Was she trying to get him killed?!
He’d specifically gone out of his way to use the smallest projectiles possible in order to avoid undue suspicion, and here she goes, little Ms. Gabby Gabberson, straight up blabbing his secrets to the whole wide world and-
Oh my god, I’m beginning to think like one of them. Saints preserve me. I think I’m aging backwards.
Shaking himself to rid his mind of such childish notions as “fairness” or “blind trust,” he finally succeeded in something he’d been working towards all this time. With grace and poise he performed a daring escape, out from the thumb of the budding rumormonger, and all her backstabbing ways. Plopping butt first on the soft turf, he was only allowed a brief moment of true autonomy before a pair of strong hands reached down to once more manhandle him into submission.
I mean, the audacity. Do I get a say in whether I get picked up or not? Not once! Not one time! Granted, strained gurgles are the best I’ve been able to manage so far, but it’s the thought that counts! It’s the principle of the thing!
Tantrum over, Richard magnanimously allowed Robin to do the gentle rocking thing she knew he liked while he surveyed the system timer and thought about his options.
Time remaining until Boss Encounter: 56:49
Mainly being, was it worth participating in this fight? Of course he would if he was forced to, but would it really be a good use of his time? And more specifically, of his mana? It’s not as if it would gain him much. He doubted it would even net him a level.
•-|—(You have slain an enemy: Ailing ShareBear [Lvl 1])—|-•
Experience Gained.
Six solo kills in that last fight and it hadn’t gotten him a single level. And that was with him at lvl 0. In fact, perusing his master formation briefly, he could tell that it hadn’t even gotten him half way. Barely a quarter. And it wasn’t as if he didn’t know why that was, either. It all stemmed from the fact that talent was extremely hard to come by, yet it also made the largest difference, and he somehow had none of it.
Now, what did he mean by talent?
Well, naturally he meant the grades and nobility you were born with. Soul grade. Master formation. Peerage.
These were the kinds of things that couldn’t normally be altered or changed except for in the rarest of circumstances. Most commonly seen through the advent of system run events. Coincidentally making them some of the most hotly contested and widely sought after system events out there.
The Peerage Games being one such example. With Devil’s Arcadia serving a similar, if far less nobility oriented, purpose.
Each the glimmering chance for some humdrum Joe Schmo everyman to pick himself up by his bootstraps and finally make something of himself in this lousy world. That uplifting message, of course, quickly unmasked for the farcical dog and pony show it always was and always has been, when the truly talented individuals swoop in at the last second and snag all the priceless opportunities for themselves.
One of the ways in which he’d figuratively rolled snake eyes, in so far as the universal lottery was concerned, could be seen in his master formation. In his first timeline, it was common knowledge that some people merely grew in levels far faster than others, though they didn’t realize how closely tied that was to one’s master formation until several years into the tutorial.
He wouldn’t get into the exact specifics of how it all worked. The point to take away—really, the only point that matters in a material sense—is that the higher ranked your master formation, the more efficient your experience intake.
Let’s say, for instance, that a lvl 1 slime had a sum total of 100 potential experience points for the taking. If you were to have, say, a B grade formation, you could reasonably expect to receive around 15 experience points per kill. Were you to have an A grade formation, on the other hand, that number would automatically shoot up to a cool 30 experience per kill. Meanwhile some poor sop with a lowly F grade formation could bash lvl 1 slimes into the dirt all day long, and they’d still only receive about 1 experience point per kill.
Sitting at a rank below even F grade, and he was looking at an efficiency even worse than that. And not a little worse either. He had this sneaking suspicion it was ten times worse, at least. Meaning, in this hypothetical slime slaying scenario, he would be earning about 0.1 experience points per slimy execution. Meanwhile the S grade genius born under the syzygy of seven celestial bodies is earning a whopping 50 experience points per slime. That was why talent was so important. Just that little glimpse should go to show you that, in this world, talent is everything.
Or, well, at least to most people it was. Luckily he knew a few things the greater world at large wouldn’t become privy to for many many years to come. Because, while talent may be everything, he knew a few ways to circumvent it.
First things first, he needed mana. Buckets and buckets of mana. Then…? Well, then they’d see, now wouldn’t they?
+++
As it turned out, what, at first glance, felt like a glut of time in which to prepare, wound up being just barely enough time to get everything in order.
It might as well be a universal law at this point, Robin thought. However long you think something is going to take, triple it, and then you at least have a place to start.
The first things that needed addressing were the injuries received during the fighting. Thankfully, no one sustained anything major during the melee, though that didn’t mean some weren’t worse off than others.
And yes, she was talking about Marlene, who’d sustained a significant number of shallow lacerations across her legs, torso, and back side. Terrible, but not life threatening under normal circumstances. Until you considered all the rust coating the blades. As it was, if the symptoms of tetanus hadn’t begun to show themselves already, they would soon, she had no doubts. And then—no matter how callous it felt to think of mere kids that way—they’d be down a fighter.
Something they could ill afford.
These were the arguments she used to convince Denise to pitch in for a basic med kit. It had been a hard won battle, with plenty of shouting all round, but eventually she’d managed it with the “small” caveat that when she wanted something for herself, they would all do the same for her. Somewhat leery of the open ended request, Robin had begrudgingly agreed.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
•-(Do You Wish to Purchase a [Basic Med Kit] for 100 points?)-•
(Note: this purchase will be split five ways!)
Pressing the accept button with her mind, Robin was quick enough on the uptake this time to catch the item when it materialized midair. To her surprise, she found that the metal box resembled a genuine first aid kit—with the Red Cross and everything—though upon lifting the lid, she was presented, not with gauze, antibacterial spray, or bandaids, but instead with four glowing green syringes.
“What are those supposed to be?” Maya grumbled. “Isn’t this whole fantasy set up supposed to supply us with potions or something?”
Robin shot an inquisitive glance the girl’s way, but she was already marching off toward where Eva and Denise sat chatting, fingers laced behind her head.
Re-latching the med kit, Robin made her way over to where Marlene sat on a fallen log, far away from any of the others. Sitting down next to the girl, she did not comment how the teen scooted away ever so slightly—eyes downcast.
“Hey kid. How you holding up?”
Marlene shrugged. Robin sighed. She thought about repeating for the umpteenth time that it hadn’t been her fault what had happened. That the girl would do better next time. And that they would do a better job of supporting her when that time came, but she could already see, in the mood Marlene was in, that her words would only fall on deaf ears. So instead, she merely asked.
“How good are you with needles?”
+++
In less than an hour Richard became a bona fide celebrity, and he thought he knew exactly who to thank for the inconvenience. All you had to do was follow the money trail. Or, he supposed, in this instance, the social capital. After all, who really stood to gain from the casual spreading of secrets he’d have rather left unsaid? Secrets that might, very well, get him killed one of these days.
Not him certainly.
And, wouldn’t you know it? Who’s sudden explosion in popularity happened to coincide perfectly with the abrupt uptick in his odds of being devoured by a mascot that was most definitely not a mascot.
Why, none other than precious young Alice of course! With the sunny smiles and the dimples and the little pigtails cleverly hiding the machiavellian mastermind that hid beneath. Who else could be so vindictive, callous, and cruel as to use his future suffering for her present gain? His own personal Judas. She might as well serve him up to the unfathomable creature on a silver platter at this rate! Slather him in honey glaze and cork an apple in his mouth, it makes no difference!
Seriously, why does she insist on making things difficult? Is it me? Huh? Is it something I’ve done? There has to be a way to get rid of her without the others noticing. Because the way things are headed, I’ll be deified by the end of the week! And while it might be a flattering offer under normal circumstances, I just do not have the luxury of being worshipped right now! And besides, what would I even wear?
You can’t show up to your coronation unto godhood in dinosaur pajamas. It simply was not done!
“Ah dinnae know. Ye sure about tha’?” asked Skye.
“I saw it!” replied Alice.
“Ye sure ye dinnae just rub somethin’ in yer eye?”
“I SAW it! Jimmy! Tell her I saw!”
“She saw,” Jimmy added helpfully, carefully shifting the infant girl in his arms so he could scratch at his nose.
“See!?”
“Hmm…”
“Me too! It was all like, squish, boom, pow!” cried Donald. “Because, see this one time? My big brother double dared me to stomp on a toothpaste? But then the dog ate it all up and got real sick after… But that was okay ‘cause mom wasn’t home, but then…”
“I saw too! I saw too!” butted in Chance.
“Nuh uh. You’re lying,” declared Sanya. “I saw you and you had your eyes closed the entire time like a great big scaredy cat!”
“Nuh uh!”
“Yuh huh!”
“NUH UH!”
“YUH-!”
“Hey! What did I tell you kids about fighting?!” called Mrs. Robin from the other end of the clearing.
“Sorry Mrs. Smith!” they all chorused in unison.
Then, there was a moment of silence, before the raucous back and forth started up anew.
“Well if he didn’t do it, then how did all their heads go boom?” Alice countered, a smug smile on her face.
Skye Mackenzie just shrugged.
“Maybe they went bad?”
Her smug smile slipped.
“Th- they don’t just go bad!”
She paused. Turned to Jimmy Yoon.
“Do they?”
Jimmy Yoon just shrugged. The girl in his lap looked on impassively.
“…and so that’s pretty much how it was,” finished Donald Donaldson.
“How what was?” asked Sanya Mehta.
“How that kid blew all those teddy bears’ fricken heads off!”
“Aha!” cried Alice Roth.
“That dinnae prove anythin’. He coulda got somethin’ in his eye too.”
Alice gaped at the sheer audacity, the girl’s utter mulishness.
“Th-that didn’t happen! I swear you’re hopeless. Just face it, you’re the only one who won’t believe!”
The red haired girl crossed her arms and shrugged.
“Maybe. Dinnae mean Ah’m wrong though.”
“Unbelievable!” cried Alice. “You’re a whole piece of work, you know that?”
Again, Skye shrugged.
“Ah s’pose theres only one way tae know. Hey, wee bairn, gie tha’ tree o’er there a blowin’ up, would ye?”
And like iron shavings to a loadstone, the rest of the little brats focused their collective gaze on him.
Time remaining until Boss Encounter: 2:42
Having spent the hour in deep cultivation, he awoke from his “nap” to find that his peaceful role as perfectly uninteresting infant, and sometimes rag doll, had been completely flipped over on its head. He didn’t even get to check his increased mana capacity before he was mobbed.
Richard snapped his eyes shut, praying they hadn’t noticed. His prayers, of course, went completely unanswered. In the next moment Alice, his sworn nemesis, practically fell on top of him. All the air exiting his lungs in a rush.
Oof!
“You’re awake!” she hugged him tight. “Oh good, I was so worried!” she hugged him tighter. “Hey! Can you do me the smallest, teensiest tinesiest favor? Please! Pretty please! Promise I’ll pay you back!”
“H-hey Alice?” tried Jimmy Yoon.
“Woah! Look at his face! Thats like that time my big brother had seafood for the first time, cause my dad had us that day, and…”
“Was his face always so… purple?” asked Sanya.
“Uh huh!” Chance butt in. “I remember-“
“No you don’t you liar,” Sanya cut him off. “You’re always making things up.”
“I do not!”
“You do so!”
“I DO NOT!”
“You DO SO!”
“HEY!”
“Sorry Mrs. Smith!”
“Um, Alice? Maybe ease up some…?” asked Jimmy.
“Poor bairn… Ah dinnae think he’s long for this world…”
“Huh?”
Finally picking up on the fact she was squeezing the life from him, Alice eased up immediately, though she, most notably, did not release him from her grasp. Instead propping him on her lap, casually, like she had the right, after everything she’d done.
“So, will you do it?” the girl whispered. “I don’t have any money, but my daddy does! He’ll pay you heaps when we get back home. So will you? Pleeeeaase!”
Not even considering the fact she hadn’t actually told him what it was she wanted, or that he was, ostensibly, a one month old child, and so should have no concept, whatsoever, of what she was saying, the simple fact of the matter was, he wouldn’t have complied with her demands regardless. Out of spite, more than anything. Pure, vindictive spite.
“Everyone? Gather round!” called Robin. “I want you to bunch in as tight as possible. It’s going to be just like the last time-” the woman paused. The teen, Marlene, flinched. “Minus that little… mishap near the end there. Remember, there’ll be nothing to worry about, just so long as you all stay far far away from the fighting. Got it?”
“Okay!” the kids chorused, already shuffling forward to follow her instructions.
Richard, for his part, forced to suffer the indignity of being hauled along by his armpits like a sack of potatoes. And by his sworn enemy no less.
Time Remaining until Boss Encounter: 0:31
Now seated on her lap at the center of the huddle, he ignored the girl’s incessantly whispered entreaties. Instead closing his eyes and settling in to cultivate.
And while sure, it is technically a boss encounter, let us not forget the mode we’re currently in. Compared to what they’ve been fighting, a lvl 3 mob would prove more than enough challenge to be considered a “boss.”
Alas, no elite encounter’s to be found here, he was afraid. And a named elite was, naturally, entirely out of the question.
Baby mode never fails to disappoint…
He was sure they’d somehow manage without him.