CHAPTER 103

Abruptly, there was a chiming sound.

Congratulations!

The first challenge of the settlement event has been successfully completed.

For personal rewards, please check the loot rift in the centre of the fortifications.

In front of him, the hundreds of slaughtered goblins faded away to nothing. The metal weapons melting and vanishing within moments. All that was left of the battle were the remnants of the scars of their spells and the golem’s fury on the landscape along with a scattering of arrows, most chipped or broken from the force of punching through the goblin armour or skin.

Almost as one everyone turned away from the vanishing goblins and moved to look down onto the central courtyard. Sure enough, the familiar colourful spatial distortion that they all associated with random loot rose like a flame in the dead centre of the enclosed space.

As far as rifts went, this one was sizeable, rising to the height of a man shoulder Tom could almost taste the reward he was going to receive.

Rewards are calculated based on damage minus protocol.

Your personal contribution has been assigned as 42%.

Total experience awarded is 2000 per participant plus tailored loot from the portal.

71 participants for a total experience reward of 142,000

Your proportion assigned is 59,600.

Tom did not know what Damage minus protocol was, but the percentage contribution he had been assigned met his expectations. There had been four prongs of attack. The first he had destroyed almost in totality and then two others had been ravaged by him and his golem.

That put his estimated kills at close to fifty percent. Four hundred? Was that excessive? Tom recalled the fight and in particular what the golem had done. It was probably a high-end estimate, but in the right ballpark at least. Without having to verbalise the wish the desired information was explained.

Damage Minus Protocol assigns ninety percent of allocated experience to direct battlefield actions with a slight bias towards mortal blows. Healers are compensated based on damage healed. The remaining ten percent of experience is allotted to leadership actions both during and before the battle that helped to positively influence the eventual result.

Allocation method for future waves can be changed to one of six pre-set options with the support of 70% of participants.

Tom disliked the protocol immediately. It might benefit him directly, but it was too biased toward damage dealers. It was feasible that an illusionist could be responsible for a victory by trapping an enemy in its mind while the fighters destroyed the helpless monster and despite the overwhelming contribution he or she could receive zero direct compensation.

This protocol had the advantage of being independently verified, but Tom much preferred when experience was allocated by the GODs. If someone tripping over their feet meant an enemy was distracted and died easily, then that person should be rewarded even if no mathematical system in existence would allocate experience to them. Well, it wouldn’t be him, but if a vote was organised, he would support the change, but there was no way he was doing it himself.

Forty-two per cent. He mused in his head. Under that specific protocol, he would have expected slightly higher, which told him his four hundred estimate had been overly optimistic. Then again, it was not completely bad news. He had to have got a higher contribution percent than Everlyn.

He grinned.

She was going to be so annoyed. Everyone but his friends Tom noticed with amusement were moving toward the colourful spatial distortion. Instead, they were all descending upon him. He was not surprised they were all smart and they would have come to the same conclusion that he had. There was no advantage to getting the reward faster and there were things that would be best to discuss in person. Check future priorities so they could be unified and collectively influence the direction of the wider group before others thought to question things. Everlyn and Clare were approaching from the west and Michael, Sven and Harry from the east.

With a sigh, he waved his hand and created six chairs in the corner of the fortifications. There was not really enough room, but it was better than nothing.

“Show off,” Everlyn said, sitting next to him and the others settled in.

Michael raised his hand to draw their attention. “Before we debrief. Let’s go around the circle,” He gestured, starting with himself and then ending with Everlyn and Tom. “Contribution percentage. I got two percent.”

Claire laughed, shooting a knowing look at Tom. “One per cent.”

“Half.” Sven admitted.

“Half what,” Harry asked.

Sven glared at him. “What did you get smartass?”

Harry smirked. Everyone’s eyes were upon him. “Five per cent”

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“What?” Clare asked in surprise. “You didn’t do anything.”

“Leeched off Tom,” Michael suggested.

Tom shook his head. “That’s not fair to describe it like that. I think he earnt it. The golem would have been far weaker without him. His mana recharge circles were vital.”

“Six percent,” Everlyn admitted.

“Forty two.”

There were a few snorts at that.

“That was a nice explosion.” Clare agreed.

“I only saw the aftermaths,” Sven said in excitement. “How spectacular was it?”

Michael shot him a look. “I’m sure it was incredible, but you can get blow by blow descriptions of the explosions later. For now, we want to discuss the future. I assume our group’s opinion is that we stay for at least two waves. Thoughts?”

They all looked at each other.

“I agree,” Sven said finally. “I think risk versus reward means we should commit for two more.”

“How will fate work?” Michael asked, looking at Tom.

Tom scrunched up his face. “I don’t know. For something like this, it should keep working, but the event will challenge us. It won’t send a goblin wave again. It’ll present a different type of monster and so almost by definition a harder test.”

“I know.” Michael interrupted. “Our wording on the fate should have been specified around three or four waves. I would have preferred to face flying creatures now if it meant infantry weak against our fortifications would have been guaranteed for the final wave.”

Everlyn chuckled. “Probably best that this was an easy fight. Can you imagine how quickly the crafters and scaredy cat fighters would have fled if it was a challenging one. This way, we might convince them to stay.”

“True,” Michael agreed.

“On fate,” Tom said thoughtfully, “there is no need to wait till the dome goes up. If we all give a little each day with the same image, by the time the next wave starts, there will be a heap of fate changing the outcomes.”

“Michael can lead morning, lunch and evening prayers.” Everlyn snickered.

The healer scratched his head and then glanced thoughtfully down to where most of the community were congregating near the portal. “It’s not a bad idea.”

“The ultimate expression of weaponizing fate.” Tom agreed.

Everlyn smiled. “And not just for the event. We can construct a fate prayer. A twenty percent tithe twice a day. Most of us won’t feel it and the benefits will add up.”

“Worth trialling,” Tom agreed. “Can you imagine the impact if we get everyone doing it?”

“I suspect the GODs would have a way of stopping that.” Michael suggested quietly.

“Probably.” Tom licked his lips and studied Michael speculatively. “Michael, you just mentioned three or four waves. Is four serious or internally are we in agreement that we restrict to just two more for a total of three?”

“We should push for four.” Everlyn suggested after a moment. “Especially if we use the intervening days to change the battlefield. If we can force them to filter the enemy through choke points…” she mused. “You should have seen how much damage Tom’s meteorite skill did.”

“Let’s wait and see.” Tom suggested. “If there’s an aerial attack–”

“We’ll struggle.” Michael said smoothly. “But I think we can agree on two more rounds and if they go well, we reassess and decide whether to push for four.”

“Tell everyone four for now,” Everlyn pressed. “It’ll be easier to convince people to abandon the event if we struggle on the third wave than change their minds when they’ve already mentally decided that they are going after the third.”

“Agreed.” Michael said quickly. “I’ll see what we can spin. But that’s not why I wanted us to gather here.” He looked pointedly at Harry.

The ritualist winced slightly. “The ritual…”

“You recognised it?” Tom asked in excitement.

Harry shook his head. “It was gone.”

“What!?” Tom stood ready to charge down and personally check, but Everlyn grabbed his arm before he could extract himself.

“There was only smooth rock under the body.” Harry told him.

“There wasn’t. I could sense it.” Tom said in confusion.

“I’m sure it was, but when I got there, the stone was perfectly smooth.”

“That wasn’t all.” Michael told them. “In between your investigation and us checking on it someone moved the body.”

Tom sat down. “The killer went back to cover it up?”

There were nodding around the group.

“And they got rid of the ritual…”

More nods.

“Shit.”

“Harry was more vocal,” Michael said quietly.

“Residual energies?” Tom asked hopefully.

Harry shook his head. “Nothing. It was gone.”

“I might be able to write some of it down if we purchase some memory aids.” Tom suggested even while privately doubting it would add much.

“We’re keeping this tampering secret.” Michael told them. “Theoretically, the suspects were all under watch when the sabotage occurred.”

Tom stilled when the implications of that statement hit him. “Theoretical or actually?”

“Actually,” Michale answered calmly. “You don’t look too surprised.”

“It was all too convenient,” Tom admitted. “Like you flawlessly get away with murder on three separate occasions, but make a mistake that means you’re a prime suspect, anyway… It doesn’t make sense.”

“I don’t think you can fake being in a trial.”

Tom shrugged at that. “I don’t pretend to know all the rules.”

“Just pretend to know most,” Sven quipped, and caused everyone else to laugh.

“But if we assume that trial entry can’t be faked,” Michael said seriously. “Then it’s really only the alibis from Jeffrey’s murder that are under suspicion. That’s me.”

“And from Tiny’s murder.” Everlyn pointed out. “It’s possible someone hid outside the trial and entered later.”

“I think they would have been visible.” Michael argued.

“But there is doubt.” Everlyn pressed.

Michael nodded. “Agreed, and with this crime scene being cleared after the fact that makes it even more likely that some of the previous assumptions were false. We need to find the murderer or there is no way the group will stay together for three cycles, let alone four if more people die.”

Tom sighed heavily. “He’s only killing every couple of weeks. We might get a break for long enough.”

“He?” Clare asked, arcing an eyebrow.

“It, she the murderer, whatever,” Tom snapped back. “I’m sure I read somewhere that serial killers are usually male.”

Michael pinched his brow and lowered his head. “Guys. Try to take this seriously. We need to solve this?”

“We should all independently throw some fate at it.” Tom suggested.

“I’m not comfortable doing that with a killer on the loose.” Claire said. “Plus, with the daily prayers, it’s better used elsewhere.”

An awkward silence deadened.

“How about protecting ourselves?” Harry asked.

Tom cleared his throat. “I have a solution for that.” He waved at the seats he had created. “I can create a stone cave. Then we can set guards.”

“And we need to watch when we use the system room. Double guards or something.” Everlyn suggested.

“There’s a skill you can buy for that.” Clare whispered. “It lets you be summoned back to the real world under a lot of conditions from both the system room and sleep.”

“None of us need the second.” Sven protested.

Clare shook her head. “It should work against various sleep spells as well. You can configure it physical damage, noise levels, specific words, temperature, basically everything you want.”

“Name?”

“External Awareness. It’s tier two.”

“Everyone get that.” Michael ordered. “We include Thor and Toni in the group and set watches for two. Then tomorrow at least we take the risk and use fate to see if we can find something.”

“My golem can also stand watch.”

“Let’s do maintenance right now.” Michael said finally. “Three at a time.” He pointed at Tom, Clare and Harry.