CHAPTER 143

Tom focused on Mus while his mind whirled and considered what was being offered. The healing spell was a straight up no. While he wanted a second healing spell in case he earned another evolution like the regeneration one, that insurance did not need to be a tier four spell. Second, it did not make intuitive sense to waste this opportunity on a spell that, on at a relative level was overpriced.

Tom did not doubt Mus’s comment for even a moment. Mus needed these volunteers for the same reason the spells and skills were over priced. It was scarcity. Most people could only get hold of useful skills and spells by getting masters of an ability to teach them. Throw in the usual hoarding of knowledge, wars and the occasional generation lacking a genius to acquire the proficiency. There would be a dearth of higher tier spells. Tom wouldn’t be surprised if cities and empires purchased these sorts of spells and invested into turning them into a master capable of teaching others.

Exactly what Mus was trying but instead of having access to every single ability for an experience cost like humans had the empire could only teach their chosen the ones they could buy on the open market.

If he was not going with healing that meant he had to choose one of the other two options.

The armour which represented a massive boost to survivability or a longer term influx of wealth from the treasure compass.

While Tom enjoyed loot as much as the next guy, he preferred to stay alive more.

In front of him, Mus dug into his knapsack and produced a wooden cabinet that glowed with power.

“Before you make a final decision can we discuss alternative packages? Your skill counts as an oracle ability doesn’t it?”

“Yes.”

“Then,” Mus showed his teeth, body language Tom interpreted as a reflective frown thanks to the skill Mus possessed. “This should work,” the explorer muttered. “But… But the numbers don’t add up. Maybe there is a different option.” It mused to itself. It felt like Mus was considering putting the box away. Then it looked at the three who had volunteered to go with it and shook itself vigorously. “The prices won’t align, but I can offer you this instead of one of the piles. It will supercharge True Dreaming and allow you to find the killer.” Mus held the box but did not pass it over. “This is worth over twice what has been put aside to award you.” He glanced over at Hao, Frank, and Dominica. “I’m willing to do this for you three. I know that finding that killer is important to give you closure. This is a gesture of good faith to help with that aim.” Mus turned to face him. “Do you understand Tom? This is to solve that specific mystery and for no other reason.”

“I do.” Tom answered his eyes fixed greedily on the box while he wondered what it would contain. He wasn’t sure why, the reason was important to Mus but possibly there was a neutrality rule in place that prevented high level individuals gifting things to competitors, from what he knew of the GODs such an arbitrary rule wouldn’t surprise him.

Mus opened the chest and Tom could feel the power that radiated from the contents. There was a single vial inside that glowed a pale blue.

The wooden container was slammed shut almost instantly.

“Did you get an identification?” Mus asked.

“I did,” Tom confirmed and then shut his eyes to check the description of what Mus was offering.

Oracle Advancement Potion - Tier 6

Has a chance to evolve a skill to the next tier.

* Starting skill Tier 5 - 100% chance to evolve to tier 6 (20% to evolve tier 7)

* Starting skill Tier 6 - 60% chase to evolve to tier 7 (5% to evolve to tier 8)

* Starting skill Tier 7 - 20% chance to evolve to tier 8 (1% chance to evolve to tier 9)

* Starting Skill Tier 8 - 4% chance to evolve to tier 9

Immediately after he memorised the description Tom opened his eyes.

“It’s only a twenty percent chance of upgrading your skill,” the otter said immediately. “However, if it’s successful, it might allow True Dreaming to pierce the veil the killer is almost certainly using to hide its tracks. And they will be operating something to block Oracle skills. I’ve seen serial killers like this before, well once, and heard about a few more. They always think about the obvious ways of finding them and block them. Killers that don’t pro-actively shield themselves from after the fact oracle powers are unveiled quickly.

Tom nodded.

Nothing Mus was saying was new to him. Instead, his mind was busily converting those percentage chance numbers into dollar figures. If he was evolving a tier five or six skill, the value of the potion based on the cost of purchasing equivalent skill put the potion’s price at a little over a million. For his situation that value decreased to twenty percent less than that, which was still far higher than the half million in value each of the piles represented. Mus agreeing to this substitution was it doing them a favour. Whether it was for him or the volunteers didn’t change the fact that this was a bargain, and that was before considering his ability to direct fate.

“I’ll take it.” Tom said immediately.

Mus looked surprised. “No haggling?”

“You and I both know that’s worth more than everything else you’ve offered. Haggling in that circumstances would be pointless and probably an insult instead.”

“But this might mean you end up with nothing. Four times out of five, according to those percentages.”

“Go big or go home.”

Mus stilled, and he got the impression it was smirking. “If I’m reading you right, I would raise a note of caution. You don’t know if directed fate will work in this instance.”

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“Mus.” Tom interrupted. “If someone with three hundred fate was using this potion versus someone with a hundred fate who do you think would get the better outcome.”

“I know how fate works.” Mus said tightly. “People who invest heavily in fate are luckier. Full stop. That’s how the river flows and it’s not up for debate. But your racial trait is unique. If it worked on these types of potions… then…”

“I need to write about it in humanity’s internal communications and spread the technique far and wide.”

Tom was relieved to see the Otter’s whiskers twitch, which meant the powerful creature at least saw the concept of humanity’s advantage extending this far as amusing rather than a threat. “That’s one way to look at it.”

The otter sighed. “You taking this will cost me a lot. Are you sure it’s for the best?”

“Stop complaining you’re still paying significantly less than you were yesterday.”

Dominica giggled at that.

“True.” Mus perked up and handed the case across to him and with a wave the three piles he had laid out vanished.

“Well, it was a pleasure meeting you, Tom.”

The otter held out the weapon hand and Tom bumped it with a smile. “Same.”

“However, we have dallied here long enough and I’m keen to get some levels into our master trainers.” The remaining cushions and pool that Mus was sitting in were sucked into his spatial storage.

A thought occurred to Tom. “Wait.” he called out and with a flex of his mind the statue he had gained from the loot portal appeared in his hand. “Do you know what this is?”

Mus focused on the statue, and Tom was surprised by the stillness in Mus features. “That’s…” it paused. “Is a very impressive piece. Though I can’t imagine you have many avenues to sell it.”

“You recognise the maker?” Tom guessed, with a feeling of triumph running through him.

“Yes. I have a friend who, in repairing this could well gain multiple epiphanies. Work by Urrigak is rare and broken pieces with a providence of decades in that reduced state are even rarer. To him it is worth considerably more than a fully intact version.”

“Really?” Tom said in excitement with dollar signs flashing in his eyes, and then he remembered who he was dealing with.

“But to you,” Mus reminded him with whiskers twitching. “This is junk that consumes your storage.”

“I will trade it to you.” Tom said stiffly.

“Fine, but no haggling. I will take the statue and reward you with what I think it is worth.”

Tom hesitated, and a large part of it was screaming. ‘No! You should never agree to deal like that with a merchant.’ Mus, if he wanted to be petty or prove a point could hand him a tier one dagger in trade and call it closed. Tom could be left with nothing. Then the more sensible voice kicked in and forced him to acknowledge the facts.

Mus in giving him the skill upgrade potion had shown the person’s true character. The otter had eaten a large loss upgrading that package, and Tom understood why he had suffered the loss. While the goodwill this act would earn him from the volunteers might pay his people back hundreds of times over in the future, that was not why Mus had done it. Instead, it had been a donation to a satisfactory race to help them out. In the context of how much extra value he had received from that deal. Tom could well have given Mus the statue for free and been happy with the outcome.

“Definitely. I can live with that. The statue is yours. Can I ask how old you are? It seems strange that you know someone who could use the statue? Such connections must be hard to forge.”

“Your guess is correct. I’m old. My race is longer lived that humans. Our natural life span is a little over a hundred Existentia years and class levels particularly increases in vitality extends that further. I’m almost two hundred years old and I’ve spent most of those years exploring. This.” He held the statue delicately. “Will be an excellent gift for an old friend.”

“It’s yours.”

The statue disappeared, and Mus turned to him seriously. “To know what is the best gift to give you I would like to see your directed fate thing in action. I want to see if it is limited or unlimited like you’re assuming. Can you consume the potion now? Plus, it will let me recoup some of my losses by taking back the packaging.” Mus joked.

Tom checked his fate, and it was completely full. He hadn’t bothered using it against the bounce balls because he hadn’t felt sufficiently in danger to justify it.

“Yes, I can.”

Tom picked up the ornament box and focused on what he wanted.

He required fate to balance the probabilities in his favour. When he consumed this potion, he didn’t want to be at the mercy of the vagaries of chance. Instead, he needed the world to conform to his desires. Rather than an arbitrary possibility, he required the fate to shepherd the potions’ actions to guarantee that evolution to tier eight and a second one to tier nine if it could be stretched far enough.

Eight and then nine, he reiterated the mantra in his head while focusing on that feeling that the fate he was about to release had that singular purpose to upgrade his True Dreaming.

The fate flooded out of him as he spent it, emptying his reserves as he did so.

His focus during those moments was absolute.

Fate would guide the potion and ensure that conditions were perfect to maximise his outcomes.

The final bit of fate left his body, and Tom opened the box.

He grabbed the bottle, flicked off the lid, and then drank.

It tasted like he imagined urine did, but he did not hesitate to swallow and even sucked on the bottle lip afterwards, holding it up to the sky and sucking on it so that every single drop possible got into his body.

The flask was empty, and the world seemed more permeable than it had been a moment before. Mus moved but was also frozen in spot and then already back where he started, the flask having been plucked from his fingers as some point in the jumbled stream of events.

There was a pleasant heat in his tummy. A warmth that was spreading from his stomach out to his organs then his heart and then it kept going. It rushed up to encompass his head and arms, and his eyes were no longer working.

Scenes were skipping around. People moving between one spot and another instantly. He felt like he was running on the clouds.

Instinct pushed him to get higher and then rather than sitting passive he was jumping from one to another. When his foot broke the fluffy material under his feet, he saw glimpses of his past. Then what he knew was the future; a majestic city, then a desolate field covered with bodies and then, for a fraction of an instant a tiny figure that he recognised was him facing off against a creature that wasn’t restrained by the normal dimensions and it was winning, losing and being annihilated.

Tom shivered. It was confusing. It was not sure it was him, the enemy, part of the landscape, or both of them that were unmade.

But something was.

Another step and the cloud broke, and he was looking down on a version of him. It was in a strange location, a different bed than the one from the bunker, but that future him had solved the mystery of the murders and was planning their downfall, subjugation or maybe a devious plan to combine with him, them, or…

He took another step; the cloud parted briefly and witnessed a figure whose power was…

Tom’s head almost exploded at that glimpse.

He snapped awake. Not sure how long had passed.

Groggily, he looked around.

Everyone had adjusted where they had been standing. Mus the most, Everlyn, by a single step to the side. Dominica and Frank had switched positions and the girl and Hao were in deep discussion.

“What… How?”

Trumpets that he couldn’t ignore were blasting in the background. He needed to get to the system room.

“You had a fit for a few minutes.” Evelyn informed him immediately. “Did it work?”

“It worked.” Mus assured the others while studying Tom intently. “Are you going to complete it?”