CHAPTER 145

“He was a good person.” Tom said finally as they watched the massive griffin disappear into the distance.

“He definitely was. Tell me with the value of hindsight did your dream help?”

“More than you know.” Tom answered thinking of the tier nine evolution.

Everlyn looked sideways at him. Obviously deducing most of what he had been trying to hide. “You can tell me, privately.”

“Later.”

He nodded over toward Michael who was coming over to see them.

“Anything good?” the healer asked immediately.

“Yes.” Tom said and produced the three containers that Mus had given him to share out and opened each of them.

Spell Evolution Potion Tier 3.

This potion has a 25% chance of upgrading a random lower tier spell to a tier 3 spell.

It has an additional 1% chance of upgrading that spell to tier 4 or another random spell to tier 4.

Pre-requisites - 4 spells with a tier level of 2 or under.

Tom didn’t need to check the two potions that Mus had put aside for him. From their boxes, he could tell that they were at least as powerful as these. Peak tier three or potentially even four. He added up value after glancing at the two he had not looked at yet. If each of the potions were at the bottom of their tiers, then at a minimum they would be worth ninety thousand, which was more than the estimated value of the statue he had given away.

His debt to the adventurer only grew. Especially since the potions were probably at the top of the tier range. Across the five gifts, he was looking at two, maybe three hundred thousand experience worth of product. “One day Mus, I’ll pay you back.”

Michael and Everlyn looked at him weirdly and he just popped open the other two cases so they could read the descriptions.

Skill Hammer Wielding Evolution Potion - Tier 2

This potion has a 10% chance of upgrading a random lower tier hammer ability to tier 3.

Pre-requisites: 3 hammer skills.

Skill Archery Evolution Potion - Tier 3

This potion has a 50% chance to evolve a random archery skill by a tier.

On each successful evolution, the potion resets and you have half the previous chance of upgrading an additional random archery skill.

Pre-requisites. Eight supporting archery skills or Spells.

“That last one’s mine.” Everlyn said immediately.

“Do you even meet the pre-requisites?” Michael asked her.

“Eight archery abilities?” Everlyn shook her head. “Not yet. But for that potion, I will buy them and I’ll even pump a few class levels into fate prior to using it.”

Tom looked at her sideways. “I agree. That’s a good plan. I’m planning on giving the other two to Thor and Michael.”

“Only once we’ve confirmed they’re not the killers.” Everlyn said immediately.

“Right here, guys,” Michael joked. “But I agree with the prudence and with Everlyn’s observation earlier. Whoever takes this should probably pump five full levels into fate before using it. But what about you, Tom?”

“I’ve already used one of them.” He admitted promptly. “And I have more that might as well have been specifically tailored for me. Though I’ll need to wait till I have full fate before taking them.”

“And one a night.” Everlyn stated.

“Obviously.”

“I suggest you don’t tell anyone else you have this. I didn’t even consider percentage chance potions. Wait.” Michael’s face went blank for a moment as he ducked into his own system rooms. Thirty seconds later he reanimated. “I purchased a tier 0 evolution potion for three hundred credits.”

A portal snapped into existence and he reached in and produced two potions.

One he pocketed and a second he handed to Tom.

“For you. Might let you replace touch heal with something.”

Combat Spell Evolution Potion Tier 0.

This potion has a 25% chance to evolve a random tier 0 combat spell that has achieved seventy percent of the requirements for an evolution.

On each successful evolution, the potion resets

Prerequisites. Three non-crafting and non-utility tier 0 spells.

“Combat spells?”

Michael waved a dismissive hand at that question. “Healing is a hundred percent a combat spell according to the pre-requisites. There are lots of mis-priced evolution potions at the auction house, currently. I’ll raise what cash I can and buy the best ones. Then we’ll tell everyone else about the opportunity and let this group procure the rest.”

Together, they went back to the shelter. Joline was staring daggers at them, but Tom ignored her. In a couple more days, he was leaving no matter what. He didn’t have to pretend nice with her.

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With nothing specific to do, he followed Everlyn as she negotiated the sales of the Dancing Silver Flowers and then sat down for an earthly soup. It was lizard meat and several wild herbs and tubers that had been located in nearby areas.

Tom monitored the mood, and it was depressed. Those who had been refused permission by Mus to accompany him were filled with disappointment, and most of the others were upset that Joline’s deal had not been offered. Not that anyone Tom noticed was blaming Mus. Most thought that Joline had over extended and what little they had been gifted were a source of wonder.

There was a fortification stone that generated offensive telekinesis attacks against anything breaching the perimeter. It was not a defensive ward, but an offensive one that would be lethal against the right enemy. A flock of weak boned light birds would be susceptible while something like a massive lizard would be unaffected.

It was tier six and its benefit was unquestionable. Through the rules of the event, wouldn’t’ allow it to be used, but once they moved to temporary camps, it would be a tremendous bonus to their survivability.

The various attribute potions that had been distributed were less well received. Joline had auctioned off half of them to fund the council and kept the rest to reward people the council thought were contributing to the wider community the most. Already there was resentment building.

“Can you imagine what would have happened if the council had got items worth tens of millions of experience?” Harry asked quietly. “There would be a riot by now.”

“Yes,” Michael agreed. “It’s almost like Mus did us a favour.”

“I noted that none of us have been deemed to have contributed sufficiently for a freebie.” Thor grumped. “Not even Everlyn and Tom.”

Michael chuckled. “Rewards for saving us in the last event wave were granted by the system. This is for stuff that had happened outside the formalised reward pathway.”

“Plus, she’s telling everyone that Mus gave stuff intended for our group to Tom directly.” Thor looked pointedly at Tom.

“Some stuff, but nothing for Harry or Toni.” Tom confirmed.

“What!”

“Unfair. I’m integral to the survival of this community.” Toni protested and laughed, knowing how untrue what she was claiming was.

“Wait. I’m getting something.” Thor said in surprise.

“Random luck with what I was given.” Tom answered, and Thor deflated. “But you’ll like it.”

Thor rubbed his hands together happily. “Hand it over. Let’s see it.”

“Later, when we’re on the road.”

“Is it a bribe?”

“No,” Michael interrupted. “Tom has an excellent reason for waiting. He has a gift assigned to me too and I’m not getting it right now either.” Michael winked conspiratorially.

There was an air of nervous tension. A lot of the damage from the longjoules had been rebuilt, and they watched fascinated, as Legen organised an impromptu arena for duelling. Basically, he pushed everyone away from the centre of the courtyard and then he stood dramatically with his hands up.

“It’s King of the Hill rules. You challenge the existing champion to take his place. All fights are to first blood. Martial skills only.” His finger pointed to Sven. “That includes you Sven. No, using your little make people slip magical abilities. Yes, it’s unfair and won’t reflect real life. Tough titties. Them’s the rules and you need to follow them. Line up to challenge. A hundred credits to play and you get fifty for every victory.”

There were nods.

“Rest goes to referees and healers.”

Tom stood.

“What you’re fighting?” Michael asked in surprise.

“Yeah. Figured it will be a good chance to test my abilities out. I don’t have anywhere near enough experience fighting sapients. Plus,” he winked. “I think I’m the highest ranked person here, so I should be able to make a small profit.”

Thor stood and joined Tom as they walked over. Surprisingly, Everlyn followed.

“Are you going to fight Evie?”

“Maybe I haven’t decided.” She squeezed his forearm. “But I’m not fighting you, so don’t ask and when I’m king no challenging.”

The fights were fun. Fast brutal and he challenged the champion four times. Won two of them then held the King spot for a further total of nine victories.

He ended up making slightly more than he paid in entrance fees.

Everlyn only challenged twice for a total of two victories. She used daggers in all of her fights unwilling to use her bow in this sort of friendly battle.

Tom sat his finger drumming on his thigh. Events since they had set up the fortifications certainly felt like they were straying out of control.

Mus was one thing.

Despite Joline’s enthusiastically expressed opinion regarding what a bastard the lookun had been, Tom shared a different view. It wanted to do the best for its people and Tom couldn’t fault that.

If the situation was reversed and Mus needed something desperately from Jolene and she had a choice of being ethical and charging him a hundred thousand or betraying him and squeezing a million from him, Tom knew which choice Joline would take.

Then there were the evolutions Mus had let him gain. He had hidden the true extent of his evolutions from him, but the original potion had been an immense gift and the outcome whether he had got zero, one or two evolutions was not relevant. Then to top off that off there were the two extra potions he had gifted him both of which were well over the value of the statue that Tom had sort of bartered them for.

Mus was unquestionably a good guy, but his attention went to the next issue. The evolution to tier nine had given him the ability to direct his dreams tonight with a directed dream and the boost to ward breaking it would hopefully give him a name.

Or not…

Tom had always been of the school of thought that his subconscious was smarter than his conscious mind. For this problem, he would let it decide.

Plus, a tier nine oracle skill granted him a certain amount of protection. It would calculate the best result for him because even if he consciously wanted something, if discovering it would hurt him he doubted the skill would cooperate with the conscious direction. Or at least that was how he understood abilities like this worked. Ones that passively probed the future for opportunities could not be forced to focus on things that did not help the user.

Then what?

That was where his mind kept coming back to.

The moment he knew the name of the killer, then his protection was on a timer. He would have one day to deal with a killer or to run.

It was that complication that gnawed away at him, especially when the third and final wave was only a couple of days away. Did he really want to find out who the killer was tonight? It was enough to almost pull his hair out. He would prefer to wait until the waves were over, but how would he react if he killed again? If another person died between now and then?

As black and white as the problem should be, he remained conflicted.

When he found the murder’s identity, how should he deal with it? It was not something anyone had addressed. Should he make the name public or quietly make them disappear? Leave them entombed deep beneath the earth where no one would ever find them.

With his new title, that was now an option. Divination magic, or at least that which anyone here had mastered would fail. Earlier today he wouldn’t have been able to do it, as even the tier two ability Bob possessed would have the capacity to locate any corpse Tom dumped and would link it back to him.

Now… Yay… The joy of having extra choices.

What to do? And he still needed to put together his team to start preparation for the grand ritual. The murders, finding the killer, were just a distraction. All that mattered was making progress on the primary plan.

He punched his leg again.

Everlyn grabbed the responsible hand and held it tight to stop him from repeating the action.

She knew him too well for his own good.

“It’s been a strange day.” He complained.

She patted his leg. “I think it’s actually been pretty successful. We did some pleasant hunting and then what you got from him… that was pretty good. Not as valuable as what Joline negotiated, but it was a still a coup.”

“Only because the potions worked.”

She shrugged again. “What’s your plan for after this next wave?

“We go.” Tom declared simply. “Apart from you, the only person I’m really keen to bring is Harry. And then it would be nice to get five or six capable fighters.”

“And since we’re leaving in two days, I assume you’ve already asked them, and they’ve agreed?”

He stared at her.

Everlyn smirked.

“Teasing. I can help.”