Leo walked next to Lucas as they headed westward toward the old mall. Their small group didn’t expect any conflicts, but that didn’t stop them all from remaining on alert.
“So, who is taking bets we even get inside?” Lucas asked.
“I’ll take you up on that.” One of the adventurers held up a hand. “Eh, make it 10 Currency.”
A few others pitched in, all while Leo kept walking forward while deep in thought. He wanted to hurry up and get to the end of the week when the convoy of extra soldiers would show up with supplies. With the extra man power, Leo can easily get inside that Dungeon.
“Leo, you want in on this too?” Lucas asked.
“No need. We are getting inside. I promise you that.”
“Ooo, so you are against the current bets along with Hue there. Okay okay. How much?”
Sighing, Leo rolled his eyes. “Put me down for fifty.”
“Yeesh, how much UC do you have to just throw down that much on a simple bet?” One of the guards asked.
“Enough.” Leo replied, ending the conversation. “We are almost there. Keep an eye out for anything that could be a lookout spot, or scouts.”
The group made their way through the streets. Leo was on edge, thinking any undead could come around a corner at any moment. Yet, there was nothing to see.
Soon, the mall was in sight. Leo could see a few people standing on top near the side where trucks would unload or load supplies. He headed in that direction. The entire mall was boarded up. Windows had sheets of metal or stacks of vehicles in front of them. At first Leo was surprised to see vehicles moved like that, then remembered the old world standards don’t exist anymore. If someone were to build their entire life around strength and lifting heavy objects, they could.
Near a set of double doors, six guards stood at alert. Nobody had any weapons raised, but were poised and ready to fire at a moment's notice. Leo stepped forward. “My group would like to enter this place. Possibly to trade, possibly to talk to your leader. We come from another zone near the Air Base known as Blue Oaks. Hopefully you won’t turn us down.”
“You gotta wait for the boss to show back up.” One of the female guards said. “He has to vett you first. It’s the rules. Should be back in a couple of hours.”
Leo nodded, understandingly. And stood back with his group to wait. The minutes soon turned into hours. He was growing tired of waiting. They were possibly playing some sort of game. Making them wait and want to rush whatever meeting he wanted with Bob, their leader. All of this in an attempt to put Leo on the backfoot of the negotiation.
He was used to waiting. Plenty of cases ran him through loops and loops of paperwork, waiting on line D to just end up at line C to be told he needed a slip of paper from line A. Years of working as a child representative in court cases involving their families made him immune to waiting. He would wait with kids, giving them eons of time till they were ready to talk to him. He would wait till the heat death of the universe to ensure an abusive parent could never even know their child still existed.
This was nothing. He made it past the hard part, which was getting even the ability to enter their small safe zone. He gestured toward his purely melee outfit. At first they claimed his weapon was magical. Which, in their defense, it was. He then said it was a gift from his God, which in his defense, it was. It wasn’t from The System. That seemed an acceptable answer to the guards. Enough that he was able to be allowed to enter once Bob came back.
“So,” Leo said, breaking the silence. “How is life here for you all?”
One of the guards shrugged. “Keeps us safe. Not as easy here in the city for us. I imagine being not neighbors with a dungeon is nice for you all. Safe, plenty of food, I imagine you have power as well.”
“Actually the opposite for the safety part. We had a Beginner tier dungeon as our neighbor. Give you a single guess what ended up happening.”
“Damn, and you are alive? How?”
“We got stronger than them, and won.” Leo said. “Something we are going to do to that Undead dungeon. Its life is measured in the single digits of days, I promise you that. Once we set up trade with this place, food will be easier to manage but not solved for you guys. Power isn’t something we can fix. We barely have any left. Used for the hospital, that’s it.”
“Wait, you guys have food?” Another guard asked, seeming to salivate on the spot.
Leo nodded. “The Air Base had a year's supply for the most part. Mostly heavily packaged canned goods and MRE’s, but it’s better than starving.”
“You guys wouldn’t happen to have extras would you? We…are starting to run out of places to loot for food. The undead make it dangerous to go out.”
Lucas stepped forward and opened his bag and gave out the two MRE’s he brought with him for himself. Leo did as well and the adventurers handed one of each of theirs. The guard's eyes grew brightly at the food and tore into it all.
Leo felt bad for the hungry guards. Hopefully he can come to a good agreement with this Bob guy. He was tempted to forgo Mathew’s plan in favor of helping these people out. Then again, he wondered why Bob was letting the people he was supposedly in charge of starve.
“How's life living in the mall?” Lucas asked.
“Not bad. There is a home furniture store on the west side. Plenty of sleeping and clothes. Food is our only problem. We mostly set up a small hierarchy. Those of us with classes guard, or a profession related to fighting like [Soldier] or the like. Ammo is cheap enough, the guns are expensive though.”
Lucas nodded solemnly, “I can only imagine, how many of you are here?”
“Barely a couple hundred. More and more people leave every week. After the last Area Quest we had ten die, and two dozen leave. Some of us are tempted to try and convince Bob to move with us when we leave.”
Leo raised an eyebrow, “If it’s this bad, why not kick Bob out of his leadership position?”
“Really ain’t his fault to be honest. He does his best. He is always out killing Undead, protecting us and stuff. He can’t make food appear, and sadly can't protect everyone.”
“I guess that makes sense…” Leo muttered.
Silence filled the air again. It was well after noon before a small group walked in behind Leo. “I take it you are the mysterious visitor?”
A bald man walked with a quarterstaff in his hands. He looked both old and young. A pair of eyes that seemed to have years of experience, but a baby-like face. He wasn’t an actual baby face, just appeared very young for an adult man.
“Yes sir. I am Leo, representative of Blue Oaks. I am here to talk about trade, and possible alliances. Our leader understood you didn’t trust magic, nor The System, and as a dabbler in magic, he decided to respect your wishes and send me instead.”
Bob looked Leo up and down. His own Axiom of [Heaviness] wafted around him. A show of power. Bob was strong, and apparently respected both physical prowess, and lack of magic. Axioms were not magic. They were truths. Very few had any. Leo knew of five people who had one, including himself. It was a rare trait. He wanted to show he wasn’t a push over, and could hopefully be viewed as someone to entrust and not make an enemy of.
“Hmmm, I suppose I could talk to you. Are you friends with the other group I heard about? Some sort of red flying pig?”
“That would be our other envoy, Mathew. Not the pig, that is one of his summons. As you saw, he messes with magic. But we are not here about his abilities. I am here to talk about trade, possible alliances, and more. May we talk somewhere better than outside your front gates?”
Bob smiled and nodded, “By all means. Don’t worry about leaving your weapons to the side or anything. I assume you can fight without them, but I plan to carry my own weapon. Seems only fair you can do the same.”
Leo eyed the simple looking staff, but didn’t doubt it was strong. He had questioned the guards a bit about Bob. Apparently he could kill waves of undead with a single swing of his staff. Killing dozens without a sweat.
If he were to guess, Bob had hand to hand combat skills. He apparently never showed abilities or skills to others according to the guards. Which meant all his techniques were physical and internal. His mind briefly wandered to Madison and how she fought. He pushed those emotions to the side for now. He would get vengeance one day, his God promised him that.
Leo was led into the mall. After going to the third floor, Leo entered an office room. Most likely some sort of guard office or security place before it was repurposed.
“So, let me see this deal you have proposed. I’m not against trade, actually I’ve been wanting to trade with New Watago for a while now. I won’t allow magic in my land, but I respect the use of it by others. Supplies are demanding here after all.”
Leo was impressed with this outlook. It was very mature and logical. He liked that. “Mathew mentioned their leader was, for a lack of better words, childish. A toddler given the key to the city.”
“Hmm, I've met Ty twice. He is strong, but like you said, childish. He has no clue what he is really doing.”
“And you do, Mr. Bob?”
“Just Bob please, and I like to think so. Our previous leader sadly passed away in an attempt to clear out the Dungeon. I just joined the zone shortly after, and he gave me the ownership just before he passed away.”
Leo nodded slowly. “I see, and you were the only person to live?”
“Oh no, the opposite. He was the only one to die. After that, we all abandoned the dungeon. Sadly that seemed to count as a loss, and since then it has only grown stronger. The other zone keeps harassing us, with the damned system giving out quests to fight each other, it’s impossible to try to work with them. They refuse to work with us at all.”
Leo heard the opposite from Mathew and his visit, but didn’t say anything about it. “Well, we hope to have both zones in trade with us. I have a contract you can sign and as soon as the first trade convoy arrives, we can begin.”
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“May I see it?”
Handing over the papers, Leo watched the man's face. Leo barely noticed it, but he saw surprise on Bob’s face. “Come on, Mathew might be a good lawyer, but he isn’t that good at contracts. He always fenced that work off to me my first few months at work.”
“Who wrote this contract?”
“Mathew did. He and I used to be partners as lawyers.”
“Ah that makes sense.” Bob waved a hand to dismiss the odd question. “I just never seen a… a well written contract like this is all. I was expecting…”
“Something simple and to the point?” Leo filled in the open sentence.
“Exactly.” Bob said with a smile.
“That’s Mathew.” Leo said as he smiled lightly. “Complicated and over does things. I’m much simpler.”
“So why didn’t you write the contract?” Bob questioned.
“Mathew has a writing ability. That thing is almost ten pages long and double sided. Imagine the hand cramps and ink smears. He can do it with a simple wave of hand.”
“I suppose you have a point.” Bob trailed off as he continued to read the contract. Leo sat silently, letting the man read it fully.
“Hmmm. A few of these requirements I don’t find favorable to me and my people. Why do we have to pay a tax, but you are expected to not pay one to us?”
“That tax is specifically to use our assets. We left it open to whether you wish to tax us, hence the blank spaces to fill in numbers.” Leo answered.
“Ah, of course, okay well that explains the portion down here. Hmmm.” Bob flipped a couple pages back to reread something. “I think this is well written, and I agree. Do I need to sign it, or…”
“Please do. Mathew signed it ahead of time, just in case you did agree to the contract.” Leo couldn’t help but secretly laugh. They had two other contracts prepared for Bob to read if he didn’t like the first.
“I just have one problem.”
“Ahh, of course there is.” Leo muttered mentally.
“I want a clause that states that all Blue Oak citizens must obey my own laws, just like we have to obey yours if we visit your zone.”
“Ah, well that contract marks you as an ally, and will one day join with Blue Oaks permanently.” Leo admitted. “This zone will be following our laws, not yours.”
A sligh worried expression fell upon Bob’s face. “Then I won’t sign this one. If I have to follow your laws, and I can’t add my own, then I refuse to agree to it.”
“Blast, so close.” Leo pulled out a set contract. “This one will be more to your liking. Same idea, but we are allies, and no plans of absorbing your zone under our power. Same outline, no attacking our leader, he won’t attack you, yadda yadda.”
Bob nodded, but continued to read the whole contract. He seemed to accept it and signed away. As soon as he did, his eyes widened. “That was odd, I felt something off after I signed. You said this contract was made with skill right?”
Leo smirked, “I did. I hope using a magical skill isn’t something you were against.”
Bob’s eyes narrowed, “No…just unexpected. I don’t know how to use spells, but I feel like a bit of mana was used by me.”
Leo shrugged, “Just means the contract is official, is all.”
Bob slowly nodded. “And this Mathew fellow. Is there a chance I can meet him?”
“You want to meet the man who can cast spells, someone you are against?” Leo found that very odd.
“I would like to meet the man in charge of Blue Oaks. Be unfriendly to not shake hands with my new trading partner.”
Leo pressed his lips together as he refrained from showing any surprise. “Of course, I’ll let him know.”
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Mathew woke up floating in space. Actual, literal space. He was surrounded by stars of varying size, color, and groupings. Panic washed over him as he struggled to figure out what was going on.
He twisted and turned to look around. As he turned behind him, he saw a giant rock with a hole going through it. Mathew blinked then realized it wasn’t some close up asteroid. It was a planet. The blue waters washed around brown earth.
No longer was he faced with the panic of his situation. A wave of power washed over him emanating from the hole. He could see more of space on the other side, showing whatever did it to this planet did so all the way through.
At first, he assumed it was Earth. That something just destroyed his planet, his home. Yet, a few key things were off. Land formations that didn’t match anything he recalled. He glanced back at the hole and a wave of power hit him once again.
Mathew felt as whatever caused that damage could only be done by a God. Anything that collides with a planet should shatter it, not leave a hole like this. Several ideas of what could do this flooded his mind, and a magical spell was his only conclusion.
As he peered into the hole, his vision blurred and he was suddenly back on the ground. Surrounded by a crowd of people. Taking a step back, Mathew realized all the people were not humans. They had violet skin and nearly black eyes.
None of the beings seemed to notice him and were looking up to the sky. Mathew looked up as well and saw two things.
The first was a yellow force stretching across the sky. Further out into space was a giant blade. Mathew had no idea how large it could be for him to see it from the surface of the planet he was on.
A moment of silence soon ended with the crowds of people running in a panic as the realizeation of what was about to happen doned upon them all. Mathew started to run as well, but stopped as one of them ran right through him, as if he was a ghost.
He looked down at his own body and saw he was translucent. The idea of him being dead was shoved out of his mind. There was something else going on, something that reminded him of The System. He couldn’t tell what it was, but every time he was moved thus far, it was instantaneous like how The System had done so in the past that first night. Appearing in the gray void then back on his bed.
Glancing back up, he noticed the giant blade was getting closer. A question came into his head, “Is that going to penetrate through the barrier?”
That single question echoed in his mind as if it was the question of a lifetime. Mathew’s eyes were glued to the sky as he watched the impending doom loom closer.
There was a sharpness to the blade. Mathew was afraid if he got too close he would be shredded into pieces. Yet the barrier gave him a comfort of protection. That nothing can reach him so long as he was behind it.
He didn’t question why a giant knife was attempting to attack a planet. Nor did he question where the barrier came from. Mathew continued to watch the two forces grow closer together, the impending impact coming closer by the seconds.
A high pitched squeal washed over the land followed by a wave of force as the blade and barrier collided.
Mathew watched with wonder as the blade slowly, but steadily continued through the barrier. It failed to resist its penetrating power. The ground started to shake below him as the knife entered the atmosphere and the sky caught on fire.
Just before it touched the surface of the planet Mathew blinked away into space once again. He watched the yellow barrier that apparently surrounds the entire planet wink out of existence. The gigantic weapon continued through the planet and out the other side.
Mathew just floated in awe and inspiration flooding his mind. A power that resonated with him on the level of his sole Axiom continued to do so after the blade had left his sight. Time ticked by as he just floated there, running the scneario that he witnessed over and over
“Was this how the powerful in this universe fought? Entire planets destroyed and civilizations killed with a single giant blade? It didn’t even seem to be moving fast, just continued on it’s own way, as if the planet didn’t even exist..”
Could he do that too? He didn’t notice that he was no longer in space. Instead he was lying on the floor with his eyes closed. The moment he realized this, he bolted upright and then groaned in pain.
“Mathew!” Lindsey exclaimed. “Oh thank God you are alive.”
Wincing painfully, Mathew found something to lean up against. “Yea, I’m a bit tougher than you think. How long was it out for?”
“A few moments.” The guard treating him said. “We were worried you were lights out for real, but I guess my powers are getting better. Shortest unconscious patient I had yet.” She said,
“Only a moment?” Mathew muttered in confusion. “That was hours if not a day or two of how long I was there…”
“Yea Boss. Glad you are alive. Good job killing the brute.” Agnox said from on top of Jeffrey’s back. Both looked fine, minus some dust on Jeffrey’s fur from the battle.
Honestly, everyone looked mostly fine minus two of the guards who were attacked. Everyone was alive, including himself.
He looked around the room and saw the dead monster. His knife was still sticking out of its skull, and Mathew’s mind clicked. “Unstoppable force versus an unyielding object. The ability to pierce through any shield.”
“What’s that?” The guard asked.
Mathew shook his head, “Nothing.” He started to stand up. All of his wounds were bandaged. He was mostly exhausted due to the lack of mana.
He had enough though, and summoned his knife to his hand and looked at it. The tip of the blade was chipped from the battle, but overall was still in good condition. Mathew shook his head, “Let’s go back. I need to rest.”