CHAPTER 150
Everlyn went off to support Jin and without having to ask Tom knew he wasn’t wanted.
Michael came up next to him. “What are your thoughts?”
“I’m not sure.” he admitted. “Furious, bitter, disappointed.”
Michael sighed. “I feel those and helpless. I’m part of the leadership team. I’m supposed to be doing something and I can’t.”
Tom looked at him. His thoughts crystallising further. He had always had a plan, but it was more certain now. “I’m not staying with the group anymore. The day after the coming event wave, I’m out of here.”
“You go and this falls apart. If you’re running from the killer, then everyone else will.”
“I’m not running from the killer. I’ve a plan that it’s time I put into action.”
“That’s not what everybody else is going to think?”
“Michael, do you even know what you’re arguing? That’s not really my problem. I’m not their nanny and nor are you. The youngest here has lived for at least twenty-five years. We can make our own choices. I’m leaving because I have a scheme, plan, strategy, or whatever you want to call it.”
The other man shrugged. “Most of us do. We all have a ploy to get ranking points.”
“Mines slightly more elaborate.” Tom observed quietly.
“Given everything you’ve done I believe you.”
“It’s oracle question validated.”
Michael appeared interested in that.
“But I’m going to need help. Will you come with me?”
Michael stroked his patchy beard. The doctor had been trimming it, but only with his dagger, so it looked wild. Unlike Tom, who thanks to his cut hair spell was clean shaven.
“Is your task important?”
“Yes. As I said, it’s oracle validated.”
“Do you think it can make more than the future ranking points than the future of everyone you abandon?”
Tom snorted. “Easily. Even if they all die, humanity is better off if I attempt this.”
“Cold.”
“I’m not cold. They won’t die.”
Michael said nothing.
“I wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t certain it was the best I can make for my family.” The unspoken context that he was referring to people who had not made the top million and depended on those who had to make a difference.
“It’s a big call!”
“No, it isn’t. I refined the strategy over thousands of questions. I might fail, but if I succeed the ranking points will be worth ten thousand people worth of contributions. Maybe more.”
“I played me, lots of Texas holdem.” Michael drawled. “Sometimes it was worth staying in a pot even if the probability of getting the right card on the river only gave me a ten percent chance of winning. If the pot was substantial, I stayed in to reap the rewards if I hit the card I needed. What’s that calculation for you? If it’s worth the contribution points of ten thousand people how often are you failing?”
“I might’ve been an apprentice builder, but I’m not an idiot, Michael. The pay off’s positive.”
“How much?”
“What?”
“You’re proposing something that has a high chance of failure. What’s the average payoff. If you attempt this, do you earn two times as many points, ten times… what’s the number?”
“Over a hundred.”
“Over a hundred?”
Tom nodded. “Yes. the total weighted ranking point increase of myself and the allies by attempting my strategy is a hundred times higher than the average of all other lines they’ll take.”
“Very specific.”
Tom laughed at that. “Not really. I was only interested in decision making. It’s over a hundred. That might be a hundred and one or a million times more. It doesn’t matter. That hundred makes it a simple choice.”
“Apart from the higher chance of death.”
“Yeah, I can see that being a problem for some people. I resigned myself to the challenge. If, on average, humanity is a hundred times better off with me making this attempt versus doing something else… I can’t not do it and it’s the same for everyone who helps. I checked.”
“Then we take the whole group.”
He shook his head regretfully. “I thought of that myself, but no. A large group reduces my chance of success. I’m limited to a team of ten, well eleven, but no more.”
Michael laughed sadly. “In the current climate that feels like a bad number you might accidentally bring the killer and then your ten after he kills again becomes eight or lower.”
“Are you postulating it might be one of us?” Tom asked more than aware of his conversation with Everlyn. It was almost likely that the one killer was in their small group and Michael was a prime suspect.
Michael shrugged. “I would have to be an idiot to rule out the possibility. But speculation only gets you so far. You’ve obviously been thinking about this for a while.”
“Since the first day.”
“Who do you want to take? I know Everlyn has been sounding people out?”
“Our core group. Jingyi for his trait maybe Keikain.”
“Why him?”
“I’ve worked with him, and he knows what he’s doing and out of the non-aligned fighters he’s probably the best. He was also number two, which might have influenced my decision.”
“You and your obsession with rankings.”
“I do them because it shows competency.”
“Less than what you imagine.” Michael countered. “It reflects a willingness to exist by yourself and a stubborn refusal to die.”
Tom sighed. “It’s a measure. Everything is too opaque to get an accurate reading. But as I said he’s competent.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“And tell me Tom. Your ploy to use fate to determine the killer. How did that go?”
“Failed.” He lied without hesitation.
“Mine too.” Michael said after a moment. “I think they must have some sort of protection divination because the Skill I’ve been using has got nowhere.” Michael studied the ground. “It’s all screwed up but for a hundred times multiplier. That I can get behind. After the next wave, I’ll come with you and I’ll work on convincing everyone else.”
“That’s a lot of trust.”
The healer pointedly glanced around their surroundings. “Even if the multiplier was only ten or non-existent, I would probably join you. If we find the killer today, the damage is too much. The three Mus took and Riley and Gita it has gutted the community. It’s becoming.” Michael frowned. “It’s lost its family feel. Plus, I’m sick of people. At this point, dropping to a group of ten instead of seventy would be a godsend.”
“Yeah, I’d love a nice holiday. Camping by myself, maybe some fishing and then fighting monsters in the afternoon. Sounds glorious, but unfortunately my plan is on a timer. I can’t afford to delay.”
Michael chuckled. “What’s the plan for today?”
“With all the excitement of Mus, I’ve put off fixing up my golem. I’m going to do that. I was initially intending on going hunting with Everlyn, but with Gita’s death she’ll want to support Jin.”
“How long will that take?”
Tom remembered the intelligence that he was engaging to upgrade his components. The way it had judged him and drawn his attention to his imperfections.
“All day.”
“I can give you that.”
Tom almost jerked in surprise at that comment. He had forgotten that Michael was setting the duty roster.
Michael left, and he went over to the remnants of Golly. He was not sure once he rebuilt the golem whether to keep that name or transition into something else.
That sounded like a problem for later.
Right now, he had to rebuild it.
Slowly, he sorted out what he had available to use.
The whole was both more impressive and less than the previous time.
There were the core components which hadn’t changed.
* Mana engine - tier 2
* Control orb - tier 1
* Broken prison (non-useable) - tier 2
* Spell form crystal - tier 2
* 200 kg of basalt - tier 3
* 100 kg of obsidian - tier 3
* 600 kg of obsidian - tier 2
That was all that he had left.
Three hundred kilograms of tier three stone courtesy of Hao before he had departed. The man had been working continuously on it prior to leaving with Mus and it had been a final gift and given Mus was going to cover all of Hao’s needs it had been free.
Tom was thrilled to have it and having a third of the stone be a tier higher than everything else would make the rebuilt golem more powerful than the first attempt.
The issue was all the other materials that he had lost. He planned on using his next threshold bonus to repair the broken prison. Which would leave him with a high grade group of materials to create the next golem out of.
The only snag was that the offensive spell casting items he had included in Golly had been destroyed in the longjoules magical attacks. There would be no more ice spears being launched or the earth missiles unless he purchased replacements. It was the same with beholder eye stalk that had been annihilated. The new golem would need an alternative way of sensing the world.
Tom retreated into his system room.
“Show me golem components.”
The screen blurred with the system automatically optimising his search based on his previous behaviour. It was not searching for specifics; it was re-running the last search that had helped him make the choice previously. The one he had optimised to find bargains by excluding the useful items like wands. For a golem, he did not need functional objects he needed ones that were broken in a manner that left the primary spell casting module untouched. They would be cheaper while most likely being able to be seamlessly incorporated into the stone construction he was creating. A shield with a hole in it would be fine for him, but not optimal for a warrior. That was the type of gear that he was after.
Tom studied the list in front of him and frowned. The auction cost of broken items had increased since his last group of purchases. The most likely explanation was that there were other golem crafters like him out there, and like he did with the first one they were getting subsidised by the larger groups.
He wasn’t going to be successful with a scattergun approach like last time.
“Only include earth affinity ranged attack spells.”
That was a shimmer as it responded, and a list of items appeared along with their prices.
Mus’s visit had not been kind to his available resources. He was still owed over a hundred thousand from the teleporter. A sum of credits he would not be paid in full, but leading into the last event there should be a flurry of purchases which would hopefully get most of what he was owed reimbursed before he left.
The Dancing Silver Flowers sales were also not available. The deal that Everlyn had cut meant they would be paid the morning of the event. Ten thousand wasn’t much to work with. Even as he thought it, about half the options disappeared, as they were beyond that threshold that he could afford.
He scanned through the first three pages and mentally shortlisted three items as worth further investigation. He read the detailed description.
Broken Shield of Retaliatory Spike.
This previously tier four shield used to allow the user to trigger diamond spike with enhanced sharpness or magic penetration. When it was broken, key parts of the diamond spike enchantments were broken. If all four parts of the shield are stacked next to each other, mana can still be channelled through it to create an enhanced tier 2 Earth Spike with extra sharpness. Efficiency is seventy percent of the standard spell but can be overcast.
Buyout price: 7,500.
If he hadn’t witnessed firsthand how effectively Keikain utilised the earth spell to stop the monster charges, Tom would have ignored the ability. Having observed him stop the charge of a creature that should have been immune by timing the spell perfectly gave Tom hope the elemental could achieve something similar.
The raw performance of the spell was unimpressive. The efficiency penalty while not crippling was not great, and he was only considering it because timed right it was a useful area of control spell. Especially if Tom considered the longer term. The group Everlyn was putting together on his behalf was conspicuous in its lack of a true tank. In fact, Tom knew that with his new pants he was the person who would have to break the charge if a momentum stopper was required.
Giving his golem the ability to help with that rule was tempting.
His eyes turned down the next line. This was a straight out a replacement for the sabatons that had been broken by the longjoules.
Pauldrons of Earth Missiles - Tier 2
These shoulder pauldrons are a pair that with sufficient skill can create the earth missile spell. The left pauldron forms the spell form to create the spell while the right shoots, aims and focuses it. When executed correctly, the created missiles perform at the cost and efficiency of the spell raised to level 16.
Buyout Price. 7,100.
There were a whole host of warnings that went along with the piece which basically amounted to the understanding that mastering the pauldrons was difficult but should be achievable with a couple of weeks of practice, though achieving the peak of reaching the tier sixteen threshold bonus was a longer process.
Tom smiled at the mismatched qualities of the piece. Producing a tier two spell at a level of sixteen was frankly incredible. It was far better than the sabatons had been and instinctively he knew the elemental could use the spell to its full capabilities and even the control orb could use it consistently at a low level. Tom guessed the elemental would produce the missiles reliably at level sixteen while the control orb would bounce between one and three, which was still good.
If he wanted a solid mid-ranged attack, this was the clear winner.
Tom’s eyes however returned to the last item.
Cursed helmet of Slow.
This helmet allows the user to channel the tier 3 earth spell. Extreme Slow at level 4.
The user cannot use or channel any other magic when activating the spell.
Buyout Price. 9,100
Tom checked the description of the attached spell.
Spell: Extreme Slow - tier 3
This spell gives a thickness to all air within a forty-metre dome of the user. Everyone will be slowed by thirty percent, but faster moving items like projectiles will be slowed more materially like they are going through water.
Threshold Bonus 4: Up to four allies can be excluded from the area of effect.
There was one reason Tom was even looking at the spell and that had been his and Everlyn’s theory crafting around what the next event wave would be and what form would challenge them the most. A single super high ranked massive creature was a concern, but they hoped Legen could take the attention of such a monster while the rest of them whittled down its health points.
The other use case that threatened them collectively was a monster or monsters with excessive speed. That particular configuration to Tom’s mind felt like it had a high probability of occurring. Neither of the enemies they had faced so far were super fast and because of that he was convinced the next challenge would be one of the two and speedy options was the pattern they were most concerned about.
A few fast creatures or hundreds of them in their theory crafting led to the same conclusion as much as they might argue otherwise none of them had the Skills, Spells or traits to counter such an attack. Other potential enemies might kill a few of them, but a flood of lightning quick enemies was the death knell for all of them.
This spell he knew would solve that use case, and it was not like the problem would go away after the event. The team he was putting together would be vulnerable to these types of attacks.
With an internal curse, he purchased the helm. If Golly needed to become a utility to save them, then that is what Tom would do. He could include a more powerful attack spell at a later point in time.