Duke sat back in the base alone and in pain. The anguish and horrors roiling in his subconscious had been filled to the limit by the Entity known as The Eye of Infinity and since then, he had only added more. The final screams of terror from the pair of psychic beings had torn through his mind before being absorbed into his overloaded subconscious. And now, it all threatened to break loose and consume him.
Consciously forcing himself to stay calm, Duke poured himself a drink and reviewed his notifications, hoping that there would be something that could help him in his current plight.
*** Congratulations, you have killed two more Contestants. Both were Tier Eight and over level 300. You receive 708,500 (779,250) experience bringing you to level 99. You now have 168 Characteristic Points to spend.
You have indirectly caused the deaths of 36 other Contestants so far and receive a reduced amount of experience for their deaths. Even at one tenth of the experience earned for killing them, you receive 879,900 (967,890) additional experience. You are now level 110 and have 476 Characteristic Points to spend.
Your Abilities have seen growth as of late.
Your DUNGEON ENGINEERING has increased to Master 52
Your OVERCHANNEL has increased to Master 34
Your MENTAL FORTITUDE has increased to Adept 159
Your UMBRAL REAPER has increased to Master 21
Your SIMULCASTING has increased to Adept 21
Your CLEANSE has increased to Adept 16
Your RESTORE has increased to Master 267
Your SENSE MAGIC has increased to Initiate 37
Your CLAIRVOYANCE has increased to Practiced 10
Your DUNGEON SENSE has increased to Master 221
Your IMPLOSION has increased to Practiced 63
***
Duke poured over his increases but became increasingly puzzled at the increase in UMBRAL REAPER. He knew for sure that he had not used the Ability at all and yet, it had increased. This caused him to search through the countless messages that had been shunted to run in the background, the activity logs so to speak. It was there he found a disturbing series of messages:
*** Your UMBRAL REAPER containment has reached its limit for current rank and level. Additional psychic trauma will spill over into your own consciousness.
You have absorbed psychic trauma beyond the ability of your UMBRAL REAPER to contain. MENTAL FORTITUDE has been engaged to resist additional psychic trauma.
MENTAL FORTITUDE has reached the maximum level for this rank but cannot rank up as it is in constant use. Relieve the psychic pressure to allow the Ability to rank-up. ***
Great, so the Ability I’m supposed to hold until the end is ready to burst and is leaking psychic trauma into my mind and the Ability that fights psychic trauma is stuck until the psychic trauma is stopped. What the fuck am I supposed to do with all that? And how long should I let them fight it out while I sit in here and wait to spring the “I had the flag all along” surprise. They’re going to be pissed at me for sure. The chaos has already killed a third of the remaining contestants. I don’t know if that was what was intended but it is sure making my odds better.
Placing his free Characteristic Points into Psyche brought his raw score above 11,000 with an effective value over 120,000. It relieved the pressure in his mind slightly, enough that his thoughts flowed more clearly and he didn’t feel completely distracted.
Duke continued to sip his whiskey, keeping an eye on what was going on outside the lobby with his DUNGEON SENSE. With the exception of Kaelion Varis, his red team was losing and badly. The blue team had consolidated their remaining members into a single group and were hunting down any red members they could find. The red team was far less of a team at this point.
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Seeing the situation, Duke pushed the red flag deeper and deeper under the rock. It was more than a kilometer down before he felt comfortable that it would not be found. His strategy had shifted a bit from what it had started out as. Now, he was trying to eliminate as many competitors as possible. The one concern he had was that Varis appeared to be unstoppable, killing opponents quickly with his Ability. He was a particular focus of Duke’s study. He used every sensory Ability he possessed to try and understand the Ability and find some way to counter it but as of yet, he had made no progress.
Varis’ opponents just seemed to cease to exist. There was no indication of how he was doing it or even the type of Ability it was. The more Duke studied him, the more worried he was becoming. He had no expectation to survive the Ability and as time passed, more and more blues fell to him. It was becoming critical. The only thing Duke had discovered from his observations was that it took a full second for the Ability to take effect. He wasn’t sure how that would help him, but it was something. A lot could happen in a second at the speed fights took place at this level. Varis fought completely defensively, keeping opponents from reaching him with their Abilities while he waited for his own Ability to take them out. It was highly effective but gave Duke an idea.
As was often the case, his thoughts were interrupted when Kreen stumbled into the lobby, collapsing on the floor before the door. An orange substance that Duke took for the insectoid’s blood welled from dozens of deep gashes in its exoskeleton. It looked up at Duke, desperation flowing from its entire frame.
Duke put his drink down and walked over to the dying creature. As he approached, he felt the communications network that he had been ignoring start to flicker. He withdrew one of the strongest healing potions he had left from Baslin’s alchemy experiments from his INVENTORY.
As he extended it towards the insectoid, he said very simply, “I am going to win this Contest. By accepting my help here, you know that you are going to have to withdraw. Understood?”
The understanding was clear in its eyes as it accepted the potion and downed it immediately. The potion quickly stopped the bleeding, closing the rips and tears in its exoskeleton. Seconds later, the communication network was back in place, relaying the panicked calls for help as the remaining members of the red team called for help and support. There was no one left to support them out in the area but Varis who had long ago decided to stay on his own – there could be only one winner in the end, and it would be him.
Kreen rose to its full height which was taller than Duke by a good half-meter and strode up to him, resignation and regret fully on display as trails of red energy flowed in waves through the joints of its exoskeleton.
“Thank you for aiding me. You could have left me to die, but you chose to preserve this one. The hive shall be in your debt should I be able to return to my people. This Contest has not been what was promised. The Queen of All has been deceived and that spells terrible things for the Cosmos. She will call the people to war over this.”
“That sounds serious. How many ‘people’ are there?”
“Even I do not know the count, but we populate thousands of worlds with at least trillions of the people on each. Should we go to war, entire galaxies could be swept clear of life.”
“You seem concerned about this?”
“The loss of so many of the people from the True Cycle will disrupt our growth for uncountable centuries. Entire colonies will be lost, and our genetic makeup will become even more singular. And the survivors of the war will all turn on us in time. We will be unable to trade for the things we need to sustain our hives. It will ultimately lead to our decline and possible failure as a race.”
“You sure all that will happen?”
“Sure? No. But it is the most likely outcome. However powerful we are in number, there will always be forces more powerful. It is the Law of the Cosmos. But, if I live to speak against this war, then perhaps, my voice can temper things with the elders, the True Queens and there will be hope for us yet. I don’t know, but that is my hope.”
“I have seen plenty of wars in my days and none of them have ended well regardless of who wins. I am hopeful that you can prevent the war that you see coming.”
“Is that why you stay here and are not out there fighting the others? Fear of the fighting, the wars?”
Duke laughed. “Fear of fighting? No, that’s not it at all. Let me ask you this, is it smarter to have your enemies kill each other than to have to fight them yourself?”
Kreen looked at Duke with surprise, “Are you controlling all this?”
“Not exactly. But I am taking advantage of the situation out there. They will continue to kill each other while I stay here, safe from them.”
“But what about the flags? Aren’t you concerned that they will recover a flag and we will lose be default?”
“Were there ever really any flags? By now, every minute detail of the area out there has been searched and nothing has been found.”
“That is true, but who else will believe that?”
“Does it matter? At the rate things are going, Varis is going to be the only one to walk out of there.”
“And how are you going to deal with him?”
“That piece I haven’t figure out just yet. Maybe I’ll convince him to give up?”
That got Kreen to shudder violently and rapidly. Duke’s XENOGLOSSIA told him that it was laughter. “I do not think you will succeed at that.”
“Perhaps not. But I will find a way to win regardless. It’s what I do.”
While the conversation had continued, the remaining Contestants had continued to dwindle. There were now only three red team members left out in the area and a dozen blue team members were hunting them down as a group. Duke had created a side cavern the size of his hangar that was connected to the area but closed off. The cavern was nearly completely filled with dungeon monsters of every size and shape that this dungeon had available which included boss monsters. He released them all into the area.
As Kreen continued the conversation, Duke held up a hand and cocked his head to the side, “Did you hear that?”
“Hear what? My senses picked up nothing but the distant sounds of fighting.
“I heard the sound of something shifting out in the dungeon. I believe a new phase of this competition has begun.”