Achievements

Chapter 147

Since I was officially barred from interacting with the mortal occupants of the valley, aside from Elim’s family, I was watching Dawn talk to Felix through the security system. Thus far the Catkin was making a good recovery. The potions I’d supplied had dealt with the disease immediately, as well as most of his other physical issues. The fact he’d been way too skinny to start with would take more time.

“I don’t understand why his map data for a few weeks is w-worth so much,” Henry admitted. It was the main thing I was after and what Dawn was trying to get.

“He’s patient zero,” I replied. There was a long pause in the wake of my words.

“What the fuck is a zero patient?” Chris asked loudly. I hadn’t realized he’d come in, but wasn’t surprised to see him lounging with a can of chaos and a book on a bean bag. It was technically part of the decor from Andrea’s room, but I’d just made another when he’d stolen and dragged that one into the palace of shadows.

“It’s the first person to contract a disease. He had to get it from the source, which is likely near Dr. Satan’s dungeon, if not part of it. The time frame is when he would have contracted and incubated the disease plus travel time,” I explained. That disturbing little nugget of information had been listed like a fucking achievement in Felix’s data.

At the start of things I’d actually wanted more, all of his map data, but Felix hadn’t played ball. Though it wasn’t his primary occupation, he was a cartographer and wasn’t about to part with that kind of information easily.

“Say Tan is such a stupid fucking name,” Chris muttered, turning back to his book. I couldn’t help but laugh at that, it would sound pretty dumb to anyone who didn’t have even a passing knowledge of Judeo-Christian lore.

“It's such a strange thing to know how such afflictions move. I’d been taught w-was foul air that spread it,” Henry said, only half paying attention to the negotiations.

“It sort of can, but air itself can’t spontaneously become disease-bearing. It has to be exhaled by an infected person, and not all diseases pass that way,” I offered. Henry’s understanding of the idea was pretty common among the skeletons and some of the cultures of my own former world.

“It can carry poison too,” Chris chimed in with a sage nod. I gave him a look that he ignored. That information was definitely work-related rather than academic.

“What do you intend to do if you find out where Dr. Satan is?” Henry inquired.

“Kill him,” I said flatly.

“Wait, whaaat?” Chris asked, rolling out of his seat and scrambling to his feet.

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“Once I know where he is, I’ll figure out how to kill him,” I explained.

“You're lying? Having me on?” Chris asked, peering into my orbs as if he suspected a head injury.

“Chris, leaving aside the fact he’s a plague rat, I don’t see a reason to put up with another dungeon close by,” I offered by way of explanation. There was more to it, a kind of instinctive knowledge conflict was inevitable, but it wasn’t relevant. I had plenty of reason even without some kind of territorial instinct kicking in.

“This I like,” Chris said, grinning. “You need to be like this more often.”

“Like what?” I asked, honestly confused. I wasn’t acting any differently than normal in my estimation. It was the circumstances that were unusual.

“Decisive, brutal,” Chris replied, like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I felt irritated with the idea immediately.

“So I should have killed Andrea for points?” I asked. It was a low blow and I could see it hit home with startling clarity. Chris froze, whatever joke or foul comment he’d been about to make lost.

A pop-up and chime appeared, startling us both. I had everything in share mode for the moment. It seemed Dawn's negotiations had borne fruit while I wasn’t looking. The deal on offer looked a bit lopsided if one were unaware of how the system worked and why I wanted the information. Not that I really cared about some money and supplies.

While I was confirming the deal, Chris took that moment to make a hasty exit. I didn’t try to stop him. It hadn’t been my intention to upset him, but I couldn’t say I minded him realizing brutality had a cost in opportunities. You couldn’t make deals with or befriend the dead, at least not without some fairly serious system intervention like with him and the rest of the bone brigade.

“Think that was too harsh?” I asked Henry.

“Not particularly,” Henry said but his expression turned thoughtful. “If you never challenge him, he won’t think and grow, let alone change.”

“Fair, I just hope this doesn’t result in a property damage spree,” I said with a shrug of my own.

“That is a valid concern,” Henry agreed. We both sighed at that, but I didn’t pop into the security feed to check. Even if Chris was, I'd let him work it out of his system so long as he wasn’t bothering anyone. There honestly wasn’t much he could break or deface I couldn’t fix with a few moments of thought.

“Putting that aside, I’m going to call a meeting about dealing with Dr. Satan. Bloody mana fever, going by the information I have on it, first appeared a few years ago. Since it’s dungeon made, that means he’s had time to dig in and build up his defenses,” I explained.

“That wouldn’t be a problem if you could send us, given the training we’ve done,” Henry said. I nodded and wished it was that easy.

“I can pair anyone interested with one of my mortal contractors, but I haven’t got enough for the team size I’d want to use,” I said unhappily. There were reasons to favor a smaller group, but they didn’t apply when my goal was simple annihilation.

Elim was the only guardian-enabled contractor I had at present. That could change easily, Tiller was likely to ask me for a deal again, but I wanted five mortals so the team would total at ten. The others who were aware of me weren’t likely to want to change their contracts to help with the exception of Andrea.

I wasn’t entirely opposed to the idea of letting Andrea participate in a raid against Dr. Satan, but it wasn’t my favorite option. She needed to work her personal problems out and develop better teamwork skills before I’d be comfortable with it.

Under slightly different circumstances it would have been a non-issue to leave Andrea out of the initial talks. Unfortunately, at present that would either require asking Chris to keep something from her, or excluding him and ordering everyone else not to tell him anything. Both options seemed like they’d just breed more problems than they solved, so I invited Andrea myself.

Honesty might not always yield the desired result, but it couldn’t be beat in terms of simplicity.