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Deathworld Game
Deathworld Game, Chapter 28: Catching Up, Because Heaven Knows We're Behind

Deathworld Game, Chapter 28: Catching Up, Because Heaven Knows We're Behind

We collected all of our loot and made our way back to the village as fast as was safe to do with our injured, as well as the obvious situation with Nemeses being around.

Everyone was pretty sure that our Nemeses would survive their injuries easily, but a lot of the other Fifskae lost a lot of blood in that last fight.

I'm hoping for the best.

After giving our well-wishes, I called all of our Nemeses, minus Hund who needed to treat the wounded, to a mutual meeting space.

The faces of everyone were somber.

"Alright, it's time to look at everything we got." I announced.

Everyone looked at me with various levels of disbelief, but the silence persisted.

"Hey come on you guys, it's an important aspect of our strategic situation, don't get it twisted, if it weren't important we wouldn't be doing this right now." I defended.

"And you're sure that being excited to see what we got has nothing to do with it?" Polyu accused.

"I'm not going to pretend that that isn't a part of it, but I also don't want to repeat what happened this time because I didn't know who had what abilities."

"Then why don't you just ask us about it?" Polyu pressed.

I looked at her blankly. "What do you think you're here for?"

She was about to continue, but then stopped herself. "Oh."

"Any further objections?"

Nobody replied with anything more than a shake of the head.

"Then we'll start... first I wanted to ask for an update on [Skills]. Polyu, how about you first?"

Polyu gave a start, and then gave me a dirty look. "I got [Foresight], it helps me predict the next action someone will take."

"If I asked you to use it on me, what would you predict?"

Polyu's eyes shifted slightly, taking in my whole body in a moment. "I guess it doesn't work that way or something... I got no read."

"Only combat then, good to know." I turned to Rahyu. "What'd you get?"

"[Heat Burst] is what it's called, I think I saw the Nemesis do it once."

I perked up. "That might be useful for working metal."

Rahyu shook his head. "It's too imprecise, it just fires off in all directions."

"Yeah, that sounds too..." I suddenly had a thought. "I'm an idiot... Rahyu, I need to chat with you after this."

"What about?" He asked, glancing at everyone else for a second.

"It's not a secret, it's just going to take us off track for a long time and I assume everyone else has places they'd rather be." I looked over at Juohen. "I know it's a bit late, but I forgot to ask you what you had before, so here you go."

Juohen, who didn't expect to be called, looked at me for a second before he understood what I asked.

"Oh, sorry... it was such a long time ago that I forgot I didn't tell you."

"Mostly the fault of circumstance I'd say, a lot has been going on."

Juohen nodded. "Ain't that the truth." He straightened. "Anyway, I got something called [Toughness], which lets me take a single hit without it causing damage. Its cooldown is like ten seconds though, so not super useful."

I rubbed my temples. "You can use [Hysterical Strength] at absolute full power every ten seconds, that's insanely good."

Juohen blinked. "Oh... huh..."

"This is exactly why I wanted to have this meeting." I explained with annoyance, more mad at myself than anyone else.

"Because you think we're all stupid?" Polyu accused.

"No, because no man is a mountain, I've made a similarly simple mistake this whole time... yes it is relevant to the after-meeting with Rahyu. Also, what is with you today Polyu?"

"Don't change the- wait no, don't- uh... SHUT UP!" Polyu meandered, before storming out of the room.

The room was full of stunned silence.

After a solid few seconds, I turned to the others. "Was it something I said?"

After I had the assurance that nothing I said was something that anyone thought would cause that sort of reaction, the meeting continued.

"Alright, next order of business is Sydui. What happened with your promotion to Second Stage?"

Sydui nodded. "I got a new [Skill], I also feel stronger, but it's definitely less of a boost than the first one."

"Oh? What kind of [Skill]?"

"It's called [Slaughter], it allows me to 'cut flesh and break bones significantly more effectively for twenty seconds'."

"That sounds extremely metal, so we'll definitely have to try that out sometime later." I turned my attention to, and gestured at, the table with three [Skill Orbs], two gems, and one small disk. "The next order of business is our spoils and I have to say, we have a strange haul."

I picked up the disk. "I still have no idea how this thing works, even though we've had it since Sydui and I went to go make the tubes for Hole Puncher."

[Trophy: Disk Of The Deforester]

I placed it back down. "That aside, the rest is pretty standard."

[Special Skill Orb: Burning Form. This Skill does not use gamemaster resources and instead activates as if the slain Nemesis used it according to your whims. Crush the orb to gain this Skill.]

[Special Skill Orb: Leap. This Skill does not use gamemaster resources and instead activates as if the slain Nemesis used it according to your whims. Crush the orb to gain this Skill.]

[Gem Of Echoes]

[Gem Of Retrospect]

But the one I'm most excited about is the last one that we got from The Envious Hunger.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

[Special Skill Orb: Ascend. Due to the slain Nemesis' Skill "Devour", this Champion-only Skill has become a Special Skill instead. This Skill does not use gamemaster resources and instead activates as if the slain Nemesis used it according to your whims. Crush the orb to gain this Skill.]

If this is what I think it is, a lot of shenanigans have just opened up for me.

"If it's alright with everyone, I'd like to take the [Ascend] one."

No arguments were made, so I crushed it.

[Ascend allows you to promote an inhabitant into a Nemesis, or a Nemesis one Stage above its own for a duration of one minute. This Skill cannot be used again until twenty four hours have passed.]

Oh hell yes!

"Well everybody, I can now give you guys temporary promotions to the next Stage! So that's cool."

That widened some eyes.

Rahyu even let out a cheer.

After everything had calmed back down, I spoke again. "Alright, as to the gems, I think we're going to have to do some testing to see what they do before assigning them. I'm also not sure what to do with the other two [Skill Orbs] as there's multiple candidates for them... so we'll have to come back to that one too."

There was definitely disappointment present, but they understood.

"I assume a ditto on the Disk then?" Juohen asked.

"Yeah, I have some tests in mind, but that's pretty low priority as far as I'm concerned." I clapped my hands together. "That'll do it for this meeting of the Nemeses, there's quite a bit to do for everybody, including taking some time to rest. Heaven knows it's been hectic these last few..." I reconsidered my words. "Recently."

Everyone except Rahyu, Sydui, and I filed out of the room to do whatever they needed to.

"So, why did you want to see me?" Rahyu asked.

"So, I realized midway through our meeting that I'd overlooked an incredibly easy solution to our metalworking issues."

"What's that?"

"[Photon Gaze]." I replied, mentally kicking myself.

It was actually a bit of a shock to me that neither Sydui nor Rahyu had even heard of blacksmithing before this.

Apparently, it was a technique so outdated that it never even came up except with historians and hobbyists. Sydui and Rahyu were neither of those things.

I wouldn't count myself an expert, in fact I have no idea how tempering works or even what it does other than the literal 'it changes the metal somehow', but I did know a thing or two about blacksmithing and got to work teaching Rahyu.

The rest of the day was spent working out the kinks of using someone's laser eyes to heat up metal to be worked, and to try to weld with as well.

It was a bit of a mess at first, but we figured out a system of sorts after a little bit.

After that was in place, I just had Rahyu experiment on his own, after all, it's not like we were going to run out of metal any time soon.

"You mentioned plenty to do, so what's next?" Sydui asked, as we left the defacto smithy.

"I have to chat with Ayula, Polyu, and Hund... I plan on letting Hund do his thing for now though, as he's likely very busy."

"Polyu I get, but why Ayula?"

We turned a corner towards where Rahyu said his house was. "Firstly, I have to get Shreddy back from her, secondly, I have to follow up on her emotional state... it wasn't great before and it likely took a hit."

Sydui didn't really seem to understand, but didn't argue with me. "Well, I'm here to help if there's something I can do I suppose."

We arrived at Ayula's house and I knocked on the door.

The sound of shuffling feet, followed by a deep breath, heralded the door's opening.

Ayula stood in the doorway, a clear attempt having been made to make herself presentable after simply having not been. "Oh hello Andrew and Sydui, what brings you here?" She asked with false enthusiasm.

"If both of you don't mind, I'd like to speak to Ayula privately for a short while."

Both Ayula and Sydui looked confused.

Ayula shifted to let me inside.

"I'll be right back Sydui, sorry about this."

"I guess I'll stand watch then?" Sydui offered, more of a question than a statement.

"Sorry again Sydui."

Ayula brought me over to a crude set of table and chairs. "I'm sorry I don't have any tea prepared..."

I held up a hand. "It's fine, I wouldn't drink it anyway, no offense but poisoning myself because of biological differences once is enough for me."

She slumped. "So I'm not even good for that huh...?"

I rubbed my temples. "Ayula, it's okay not to be good at fighting, some people just don't have the killing intent necessary for it."

She started a bit when I said 'killing intent', but then slumped again. "Yeah, I know... but I feel so helpless here. When I originally took the deal to come here, I was just planning on hiding out by myself... of course, it didn't work in the least."

I cocked my head to the side. "So you thought you'd be by yourself?"

"Yes, and there was no reason to believe otherwise based on their description of it, I even tried splitting off to hide... it didn't go well. Especially when I found out that my brother had also joined."

"I have to ask, why exactly did you join?"

"I joined because my life was in shambles." She interlaced her fingers. "You see, before the war, I was a historian and I owned a library... but when the New Wave came to power I became a fugitive of the law... even now, I'm not allowed to return to Fifska space."

"That's extremely unfair."

She smiled sadly, eyes fixed on the table. "Preaching to the choir Andrew, I've lived it."

I exhaled deeply. "I'll tell you what, when all of this is over, I'll see if I can't take you to my planet if that's something you'd like."

She looked up at me with a tinge of hope. "What's it like?"

"It's basically like this planet, except more civilized."

She chuckled gently. "That sounds dreadful."

"It's not so bad once you get used to it, I promise."

"Maybe you're right." We both sat in silence for a moment until she spoke again. "Back to topic, what did you actually come here for?"

"I came here to make sure you were doing alright, and also to get Shreddy back."

"Oh! I had forgotten I even had it!" She exclaimed, rising to her feet.

"I figured as much."

She was back moments later with Shreddy. "Here you are."

I took back the flamboyant cutting implement. "Hey, you said you were a historian right?"

She nodded, not seeing where this was going. "Yes, that is correct."

"I may need you to teach me about the Fifskae if that's alright."

Her eyes lit up. "Of course!"

My next stop was Polyu's house.

I wasn't sure which one it was, but it's not exactly a large village, so it wasn't hard to ask around.

"Do you mind if I chat with Polyu alone?"

"Why?" Sydui asked, slightly suspicious.

"I want to make sure she feels more willing to confide in me about private stuff, it's one of the oldest tricks to get people to open up about their problems."

Something seemed to click in her head. "Do you think about this kind of stuff a lot?"

"I mean sometimes, why?"

"I was just curious." She replied, and then paused. "But yeah, that sounds fine."

I smiled at her. "Thanks a million Sydui."

She shrugged. "Happy to help I guess."

I knocked on the door.

"Go away!" Polyu called from inside.

"Polyu, I made sure to give you some time, but I really need to talk to you!"

"Piss off Andrew! You're the last person I want to talk to!" She called back.

"Polyu, I'm not against breaking your door down so that I can find out what's bothering you!"

What came next was about a minute of silence, followed by footsteps and the door opening.

"Fine, but only because this door took me a week to make." Polyu said angrily.

"I don't have any tea or anything, but have a seat." Polyu offered dismissively.

"I didn't want any anyway, so don't worry about it."

"Why? Is my tea not good enough for you?"

I stared at her. "Did everyone forget that time I poisoned myself?"

Her glared softened and then turned to the floor. "Oh yeah..."

I let the awkward silence continue, hoping that she would say something else, but I had no such luck.

"So Polyu, why are you mad at me? Is it something I said?"

"No!" She yelled, followed by a wince at her own volume. "Sorry... it just feels like nothing's changed."

"What do you mean?"

She sat back in her clumsily-made chair and stared at the ceiling. "My dad is General Oluptu and-"

"Sorry to interrupt, but I have no idea who that is." I interjected.

"How do- right you're not a Fifska, I forget about that sometimes... he's a big-shot from the New Wave military branch, he was the one who initiated the purge." She looked at me for a second to see if I had anything to add, but after I said nothing, she continued. "Anyway as I was saying, after the war started my dad was always on about 'the good of the Fifskae' and how 'we need to go back to our roots as Fifskae'; I got so sick of hearing it day in and day out... so I ran away." She took a rock out of her pocket and started to fiddle with it. "There wasn't anyone who would have me besides criminals, so I became a pirate. But then the rebellion guys approached me asking for this and that intel, and it was back to 'the good of the Fifskae' again." She frowned at her rock.

"So, how's this tie into you being mad at me?" I asked, trying to piece it together, but failing to.

"Weren't you listening at all?!"

"All I got was problems with authority from that, I'm sorry."

She looked at me dumbstruck. "You're the ultimate authority here!"

Despite myself, that caused me to crack up. "Me, an authority?"

"You call all the shots and nobody bothers to question you! What else do you call that?!"

My laughter stopped all at once. "I guess you're right... I hadn't thought of it that way."

"It always comes down to the people around me wanting me to never stick out, no matter where I go! It's insane!" Polyu let her chair back onto all of its legs. "You must have seen how everybody looks at me when I disagree with you."

I nodded. "Yeah, I see your point." I mulled over how to put my next argument. "I'm not sure it's one hundred percent what you're saying, I think some of the backlash is how you say it."

She looked at me as if I was an idiot. "How?"

"Allow me to demonstrate." I took in a deep breath. "POLYU I VALUE YOUR INPUT!"

Polyu predictably jumped backward, almost falling out of her chair. "What was that for?!"

"What's wrong? I just told you that I value your input."

She thought for a second as her breathing calmed down. "Point taken."

"Unlike some leaders, I'm willing to take your input, I just want you to tell me instead of accusing me of everything under the sun."

"Yeah, I'll try to dial it back... no promises." She replied apologetically.

"Hey, I'm glad you brought it up; someone's gotta call me an idiot every once in a while, how else will I get better at leading right?"

Polyu suddenly started laughing.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"I think your definition of 'leader' is different than mine." Her laughter turned to a chuckle. "Not that that's a bad thing."