CHAPTER 138

“Can you explain how you got the ring?” Mus asked shrewdly. “It doesn’t seem like something you could have bought from contribution points?”

“You’re right.” Tom admitted.

“The question is where did you get it?”

They sat in silence for a moment.

“Since no one knows about it I’m guessing a temporary trial.”

“Yes. That… I spotted it first, and it only had charge for a single challenge. I dissipated it.”

“To stop fights over the opportunity?”

“Why would you suggest that’s necessary?”

This time Mus’s whiskers twitched uncontrollably, but he resisted playing them. “This place is a powder keg. The selection criteria to bring you here seems to be particularly problematic. And the other explanation would have been greed, which doesn’t strike me as your thing.”

“You’d be surprised.”

Mus’s whiskers twitched.

“You’re right but, I went in to stop the entire group from self-destructing. They were all trapped in with the wasps, and tensions were high.”

“Did you expect to return?”

“What?” Tom asked in surprise. “Of course. I’m not suicidal.”

“You misunderstand me. That’s a very rich prize.” Mus pointed at the ring on his finger. “At your rank that cannot be earned by skill only life and death.”

Tom remembered the trial. “It was Colosseum. I got tricked by the manager and forced into six more battles than I wanted. I should have died multiple times.”

“Ahh.”

They sat in silence while Tom finished the fish. It was better than the meat he had abandoned.

“I’m not going to choose any of Joline’s volunteers.” Mus said finally. “I’m happy with the deals I’ve negotiated without help.”

Tom bowed his head. He had sort of guessed that was what the otter was going to say. “Were you always planning this?”

“No, no. I would have been content to pay what we had agreed. The party was to celebrate.” Mus rubbed his whiskers. “But hu-mans are individual sapients. Newly integrated into a collective without a tribe, a camp, a ruler to bind you to one river.”

“You planned it.” Tom said, wanting to cradle his head in his hands.

“Then once I spoke to some hu-mans, I realised to my shock that you were not motivated to traverse the same river.” Mus continued melodramatically. “I had a thought, not an epiphany and saw a lucky loophole in the deal I had negotiated with Joline.”

“You’re laying it on a bit thick.”

Mus ignored him or at least tried to, the rapid twitching of his whiskers was a significant tell.

“I was stunned by my good fortune and took it as a sign from the GODs and sought to forge agreements that would relieve me of the requirement to deal with the foul witch Joline.”

“You could have just answered with a yes.”

“That would have been boring. While I would have been happy to honour the deal, your race or at least this camp, is very fractured. I had people volunteering, no strings attached, no need to pay the rest of the group for anything within an hour of the party starting. They just wanted to get out of here.”

“You make it sound so…”

“Basic,” Mus supplied.

“Like we made a deal with the devil and were tripped over the fine print.”

Mus’s whiskers twitched, and then surprisingly bowed his head. “I’ve learnt more of your customs. I am sorry I know how this must look, but I too need to do the best for my people.”

“I understand,” Tom sighed. “I get that. But what about the damage your trick does to us? What about my family when they come through? What happens to my innocent little sister if we fail? She’ll die alone. Helpless.”

The otter shook his head, demonstrating that he had learnt human body language cues. “The competition is unfair. Very few dispute that. But whether or not you flourish is not on me. I want you to succeed, but I will not rob myself or my people to achieve that outcome. It’s also not like the people who agreed to come with me have totally abandoned you. They have the same need to win as you do, and for similar reasons. They too have their loved ones.”

“They haven’t abandoned us?”

“Why do you sound so surprised? No one who is leaving wants the rest of you to fail. Most of them asked for my help to find the murderer, but that’s not something I can do. Nor do I have any artefacts that could support discovering who the killer is.”

“But that killer meant they were all scared and wanted out.”

Mus nodded. “It did, and it made my job to split individuals off from the collective far easier. I have a question for you Tom. Why are you not in the same pond as everyone else?”

Tom laughed. “Do you think I’m the murderer?”

Mus shook his head. “Clearly not. But you know something.”

Tom wondered what he should say, but he guessed for all intents and purposes the situation was beyond his control. If the otter wanted to kill them, he would and lying would not help. He shrugged, knowing the otter would understand the expression. “It’s no big secret. From the competition I have a small oracle skill. It is protecting me from the murderer, but I can’t really extend it to protect everyone.”

The otter nodded. “Ah, my second guess. It was that, or you knew who the murderer was and were controlling the situation. Including guaranteeing your own safety.”

“I wish I knew who. For one, we would have got a lot more out of you.”

The otter’s whiskers twitched, and he rubbed at them helplessly. “Yes, you would have. Not as much as what Joline negotiated because having spoken to you hu-mans your nature would not have supported a unified front. There were concerns about who would be chosen and the community payment.” Mus paused from talking to desperately rub his whiskers. “Lots of people don’t like your council or trust them with your resources.”

“Humans never trust governments.” Tom agreed.

“I’m surprised that you’re not rushing over to the people sleeping and seeking to convince them not to continue with their deal with me.”

“If I thought I could do so successfully I would. I don’t think I can change their mind and I’m not sure you’d let me try. So what’s the point of trying. At best it will stain future relationships.”

“There’s nothing sacred in business. I do like you Tom and hopefully when you have more power, we can meet again on more even footing.”

“What did they negotiate?”

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Mus shook his head. “You’ll find out in good time. I expect some people to revise their agreements some to drop out others to join, especially once that Joline starts trying to throw her weight around. If I’m lucky, she’ll negotiate my cost down to nothing because people will be desperate to get away from her.” The otter’s whispers twitched.

Tom was not sure how to respond to that.

“You should go,” Mus told him. “I don’t think you’ll appreciate being part of the negotiations that are about to occur. A lot of ugly slurs are bound to be launched.”

Tom did not move. “Yes, I’ll skip that.” He agreed evenly. “But is there anything I should be aware of.” Tom smiled. “I feel like our conversation last night was a bit abridged. As I remember, there were some underhanded dealings with gases.”

“It was underhanded.” Mus said quietly. “Not because I was eager to hide anything, but there are no answers to your questions. Everyone will see you as a resource to exploit or a threat to be destroyed. Historically, there is no middle ground with competition species. Stealth will be your best defense initially and as much as it might grate on you, staying out in the wilds and avoiding all civilizations is your calmest river. I don’t want to talk numbers because they vary for every person you meet.”

“Do you have any advice?”

Mus collapsed on to the floor desperately playing with his whiskers.

“I don’t see what I said. That was so funny.”

The thrashing got more wild. Eventually Mus could sit up. “Get stronger.”

The otter collapsed once more into a cross between a wet poodle and a ferret in its final death throes. It was apparently clear that he wasn’t getting anything further from the person.

“I’m glad I could amuse you so much.” With a sigh. Tom got up and went back to the camp.

When he went through the entranceway with rebuilt murder holes, Everlyn was waiting for him.

“That was bad…” He started but was interrupted when Everlyn encased him in a giant hug.

“I saw enough.”

When she broke away, Tom walked over to where Joline was eating her food. That he was interrupting her breakfast made it worthwhile.

“Joline, we’ve got a problem. Mus has negotiated his own volunteers, and he’s only paying for the ones that you facilitate.”

The plate of meat she’d been holding fell to the ground, and she leapt to her feet. There was murder in her eyes. “That’s unacceptable.” She snarled with furious anger.

Tom shrugged. “I just found out. I thought it was proper to tell you immediately.”

“It was. That sneaky otter.” She stormed away to speak to Mus and Tom pointedly walked in the opposite direction towards where they created their small defended bedroom under the camp.

“You're not going to watch?” Everlyn mock pouted.

“I can’t imagine anything worse.”

“Where are you going?” She asked curiously.

“Away, somewhere private.”

“Maybe you can come hunting with me. I know you need to rebuild the golem, but killing stuff.” She looked hopefully at him. “Lots of fun.”

“Hunting?” Tom asked, intrigued.

“It might just be exploring, but I spotted a fissure that I want to investigate.” She lowered her voice. “I think it goes into the underground.”

It took him only a few moments to make the calculations. If he stayed here, Joline would probably find him and expect him to somehow solve the issue. The one thing he was not was suicidal and there was nothing he could do against Mus’s strength and if he couldn’t fix it physically, then he had no chance of doing it socially.

Tom looked up at Everlyn with a big grin. “A day with you sounds fun.”

She beamed and rather than going down into the bunker they went over the wall.

“Should I use meteorite?”

She hesitated probably remembering the start of the fight against the longjoules. “Conspicuous. Do they do anything up close?”

Tom shrugged. “Not as good as they are at being missiles, but they’re a reasonable shield. They can block attacks and stuff.”

“Above ground, no. But once we reach the fissure, they won’t be hurting our stealth anymore.”

“They make a small amount of noise.”

Everlyn shrugged. “Yeah, but the noise is consistent, and I can counter it. They’re only bad for stealth because of the spinning being so eye-catching. In most cave systems, that’s not that much of an issue. Either everything is blind or there are so many twists and turns that a sight advantage does nothing.”

Once out of the fortifications, Tom used his limited stealth skills. He was impressed with the command that Everlyn had of her silence trait. The slight noise of his footsteps was sucked away by whatever mechanism she used.

“Has your sound cancelling ability got more powerful?” he whispered.

“Shh.” She patted his arm. “Yes, but no chatting when we’re on a mission.” She smiled to take away the sting of her comment and then knuckled down.

He should have known better than to chat in the wilds, but he was still used to being a lone wolf. He had always been silent previously, but that was because he hadn’t had anyone to talk to. Having Everlyn next to him required a conscious adjustment.

Everlyn took them on a trajectory that went almost directly away from the wasp plains. You couldn’t tell as you walked but they were steadily pushing higher on the foothills. She moved with practiced efficiency and often differently to what his technical skills told him to do. He stepped where she did, and it caused a significant difference. Somehow, she made crossing the complicated broken landscape easy.

While overall it was flat, in practice it was a field of boulders and regularly between rocks there was a crack that would descend metres and sometimes tens of metres into the ground. They were rarely large enough for a human to fall through, but an ankle or your entire leg was a different matter.

There were more overt magical and living challenges in the landscape. The soft stone that seemed to actively grip your feet was annoying. Not only did it result in visible tracks it was like stepping in quicksand and potentially dangerous. Everlyn avoided the patches effortlessly. The only time she paused her quick movements was when the vegetation growing in crevices and on rocks changed. At those transition points, she was a lot more wary about her actions and took time to make sure there was nothing lurking in ambush in the nearby fissures.

Tom kept his mission discipline and remained silent. After all, he got to stare at her behind without being told off.

She began moving again.

“Why are you so careful at the transition spots?” he whispered, using her Party Communication ability to make sure she heard.

Ahead of him, Everlyn shrugged. “I’m not sure, but from my observations there is a higher likelihood of ambush at those spots and it doesn’t hurt to slow down and check them more carefully.”

They kept moving.

Abruptly, Everlyn froze and pointed.

Tom followed her eyes and nodded when he saw the sleeping lizard. “Can we go around?”

“No. The fissure we want to explore is here. Leaving it alive will just put us at risk when we leave the cave.”

“I can’t see the head. Should we circle to get a better angle?”

With almost imperceptible movements, she shook her head. “It won’t help. When sleeping, they tuck their heads under themselves.”

“Meteorite?” Tom suggested through the party chat. It was probably an overkill and noisy to boot.

Surprisingly this time, she nodded.

Tom cast the spell. Burst Casting sped it up, but in the couple of seconds it took form he was paranoid that the lizard would wake up. With confusing silence, the rocks came into existence around him.

He glanced at Everlyn, but she just smiled smugly and then pointed significantly at the sleeping lizard.

With a flex of his mind, one of his five missiles was launched. The instantly it left his control it began to grow and heat up. He completed the calculation, and a second rock followed on the same trajectory.

The first struck with the sounds of a train crash. The sheer momentum of the strike shifted it two metres away and its skin at the impact point depressed. Then the rib bones broke, and the meteorite sank deeper, split skin and the muscle underneath it got cauterised. The collision left a physical crater in the lizard.

It was a solid blow, but not fatal.

The lizard reacted by leaping to its feet.

Wrong choice, Tom thought sadly as he watched the trajectory of the second missile. The lizard was moving almost exactly how he had anticipated. The second strike was aimed higher, and it was moving into the firing line.

It was almost perfect; he thought to himself. Unfortunately, his prediction without the aid of a Skill was not exact, and the animal moved more to the left than he had predicted, so he didn’t hit the wound with a perfect bullseye shot, but it was close.

The second meteorite went into the depression and broken skin caused by the first missile.

There was a whomp, and the lizard was blown off the ground. Being the size of a small commercial airliner didn’t help it resist the impact of his spell, which caused it to do a full somersault.

It crashed to the ground with the gaping hole that the second meteorite had created facing toward them. The hole went right through the monster and in the internals, Tom could see fragments of rock and cauterised flesh complete with the larger chunks of rock still glowing red.

A rush of experience struck him. This version was not as large as the ones on the first day, but was close to their size and had belonged to the smaller, more agile variety. Yet despite how much the entire team would have struggled against it that first day he had killed it while only using two fifths of the power of his new spell.

“Good job.” Everlyn told him. “Let’s move underground before the smell of its blood and the noise of the fight attract scavengers.”

She rushed forward and then came to a stop and stared down one of the normal fissures in the rock. They were less than fifteen metres from the creature they had killed. The coppery scent of blood filled his nostrils along with cooked meat.

“Here,” she said through the telepathy ability.

He moved up next to it and looked down at the crack. It was wide enough that he wouldn’t get caught when he lowered himself down. There was a three metre drop and he could see a shadowed spot with a dark shadow in the middle at the bottom. That was probably their destination and apart from that small extra detail the rest of the fissure was similar to a dozen crevices he had jumped over on the way here. “That’s a cave?”

She punched him in the arm playfully in response to his doubtful tone. “Yes. It’s a tight entry that opens up and descends pretty steeply immediately afterwards. I didn’t have time to explore when I came the first time, so I don’t know much about it, but I’m pretty sure it leaves the surface area.”

“Really?”

“Yes.” Everlyn said. “At worst, it’s a den or lair. At best….”

“Another trial?”

She laughed out loud and then cut it off. She threw him an affronted look like her breaking stealth was his fault. “We won’t be that lucky.” She said more composed through the Party Communication.