Chapter 245 – Hidden Truths
Without hesitating further, Tom reached out to his threshold bonus. It was time to see if his gamble was going to pay off.
The ability responded. His mind punched through more distance than he could imagine and potentially multiple magical planes. It was a call to the ether, an entrée for attention. The intelligence dedicated to help with the skill noticed.
It was available.
Relief and dread flooded through him in equal measures. Whether or not it was a wise decision, he had got its notice, and it was too late to back down. As he hung there, far from his body, Tom maintained the image of the broken mana engine in his mind. That is what he wanted to fix.
The intelligence focused on him and the request he was putting forth.
In a computer analogue, the triggering of a threshold bonus was him sending a ping. It was no more than that. The threshold bonus did not impart sufficient energy to allow him to linger in the Intelligence’s home domain. Like a rubber band being released, he was dragged unceremoniously back toward his own body and the intelligence followed in his wake.
He flashed back through the incredible distance, broke through different planes of energy with all of it happening to fast for his mind to fully register it. Then, with nausea rising his consciousness was returned to his flesh, the immense distance he had travelled a mere dream with the memory of the journey already fading. Tom did not try to grip them, like with broken dreams there was no point. Somethings weren’t meant for the waking world.
Tom stood with his spine straight, the components of his golem in front of him with the mana engine held in his hands like a worshiper presenting a sacrifice. He prayed that it was sufficient.
The intelligence unsurprisingly did not care about his wishes. It assessed everything. The people he had brought, the preparations he was making, the rough nature of their camp, the existence of Puma amongst their ranks, the golem, the mana engine and hopefully the decisions that Tom had been forced to make to reach this point.
Once more, he was no more than a slightly intelligent ant that really shouldn’t be playing in a scientist’s laboratory. He was a piece of belly button fluff. He was inadequate in everyway but with a little luck the mind would see the potential for growth and the key fact that while the mana engine was not in a golem; it was clearly a component that would be used in one.
It shifted, the Intelligence gained a physical presence even if it was not one that he could see. But he could feel it. “Not legal, but appropriate.” It thought and spoke to him in a jumble of images and concepts. “But it’s better than deliberate deception.”
Tom’s mouth was so dry it hurt. He swallowed, licked his lips, tried to moisten the throat sufficiently to speak. “Then will you help me?”
There was a pause and then Tom realised the intelligence was gone.
The physical presence had vanished without giving an answer.
He looked at the mana engine in his hands and then it dawned on him that he knew how to fix it. There was a set of instructions that had been downloaded into his memories and there was even a pool of energy that had been provided that sat in a plain copper ring that had appeared on his hand.
The path to improve the object was more than he had hoped for. It was not just a schematic to only repair it would also enhance.
Tom gulped as he assessed the requirements he had been given. To achieve the enhancement, he had to do more than with the other upgrades and the intelligence would not be there to back him up and nor would there be multiple crafting experts ready to lend a hand. This time, excluding Harry and Keikain he was as good as by himself.
He knew what to do. The copper ring on his finger was something for him to have permanently. It would be used in these engagements going forward, so he had to wear it whenever he used the threshold ability. Seong and the rest of the crafters would have been overjoyed to own such a ring and Tom had got it for effectively nothing. A gift he suspected was only possible because he was a fighter and not a crafter. For an artesian it would be amazing. Currently, it contained thousands of mana to help with his project. Tom, of course, was incapable of infusing anything close to that amount, but he could easily push a couple of hundred mana into the ring, and for many activities that would be the difference between outrageous success and failure.
But it was not for combat.
That magic would not be available for his summoning or any of the many alternatives that could improve his fighting prowess.
The ring was restricted.
It could only be used in creating golems or improving golem components and given its origins that was not a surprise. Likewise, Tom was unwilling to attempt to stretch the limits. What it was granting was already a huge boon, and risking that was not worth it. Especially as it was more than a mana store. It contained three rituals and one was multi-use, that would be available after this upgrade for other purposes and Tom had no doubt that as he used his threshold bonuses more extra rituals would be added.
“And?” Michael asked.
“It gave me the tools to fix it. Let’s get going.” Tom followed the instructions in his mind and he fell into a daze. It was analogous to his battle trance, but rather than providing an awareness of everything around him he became hyper focused on what he was working on it. It was the crafters equivalent to the fighter’s ability that he used extensively.
After what felt like minutes but was probably hours of real time, he was ready for the next step. All the repairs were made, and all that was left was to restart the engine. He looped the energy and then pumped his magic into it. With a spurt of force, everything clicked into place and the artefact began to pump magic out.
He felt like dancing.
That last step, the restarting of the engine had been completed purely with his own skill. The first time had required the intelligence to step in, but at some point he had grown and no longer needed the same level of help. His capacity to manipulate energy had greatly improved.
Did that mean he could fix up other broken tier two mana engines and create an army of high value golems? For a moment he got excited and then realised it was impossible. Fixing this engine which had not been particularly damaged had taken him hours and thousands of points of mana. While he could find the time, he didn’t have the burst mana to complete the repairs however, tier one mana engines was a different matter. Those he could fix.
He wondered if he could create a business by buying broken ones and reselling them for profit once they were restored?
“Is it done?” Harry asked. Sweat ran down the ritualist brow. He had been helping throughout the process and doing a lot of the metaphorical heavy lifting.
“Yes.”
“That was far more intense than expected.” Michael admitted. “Holding that energy was like trying to hold a writhing snake where you weren’t allowed to grab the head or hurt it.”
“Everyone, thanks for the help.” He held out the mana engine for everyone to see. “Not only is it fixed it’s also had its functionality enhanced.”
Artefact: Enhanced Mana Engine – Tier 2
This is a tier 2 mana engine which produces fifty raw mana per minute. The mana produced is useable by most constructs and defensive artefacts.
Three times a day the engine can be tapped to generate two times its usual output for an eight-minute period.
There was a whistle of appreciation from Michael. “For a combat golem, that’s a big upgrade.”
“Providing we only have three major battles a day.” Tom said. “Which really doesn’t sound like us.”
With a thought, the mana engine disappeared into his inventory. There was no way he wanted to risk it being stolen. “Thank you, everyone, for your help. My head’s pounding. I’m going to have a sleep now.”
He could feel the others looking at him and then, with a shrug dispersed in their various directions. Michael escorted Puma to the door, disabled the trap with a smile, and shook the other man’s hand. Tom got the sense that Michael was as much ensuring he left as being friendly.
As Tom laid in his bedroll, he constructed an outline of what he wanted from his skill. The discussion he had with Puma still rang in his head. He needed to give them proof that his skill was as powerful as he had implied. That meant an insight into the other undiscovered races was the best outcome he could get. When he woke, he wanted to be able to describe the anatomy of one of them and hopefully the key distinguishing physical features between the individuals.
With a thought, he fell asleep and True Dreaming kicked in.
Tom was in a new mind that felt alien to any he had experienced before. There was a certain mindset, a singular concentration along with a desire to understand and duplicate that was new. Tom tried not to focus on the thoughts of the person he was in but on the wider the picture.
Clues that would let him place the sapient type and where he was in time and place. Along with a lot of sensations that he suppressed, he was able to see through the person’s eyes and the bodies of dozens of half reptilian birds were spread on the surrounding ground. They had all died violently and the mind he was in helpfully provided context.
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His creations had done this.
The nature of the flying monsters was not a surprise after all the phenotype of scaly skin and feathers was not new. The creatures could very well have originated from his previous home planet of Sanctuary, though they were a little large even if they were smaller than most monsters on Existentia. It was possible the trial had deliberately chosen a lesser monster to remind him more vividly of what they had lost when they had been torn away from Sanctuary.
The new opportunities that Existentia represented were great, but he regretted that he would never see the result of their grand experiment. Hopefully, the lesser sapience they had been guiding on Sanctuary, Second Coming, and the moons would evolve into full sapience. Then his race’s existence in their home universe could be remembered.
The monsters that had attacked. The creatures called retocoles according to his identification had possessed air magic, which was a weakness of his current setup. It hadn’t mattered because they had been too weak despite the unfavourable match up to him. His three creations as limited as they still were had dealt with them even if the plucker had taken damage. The person glanced around and Tom noted that he was in a hilly environment with purple, green grass. In contrast to Tom’s starting zone where the barrier between zones had been natural cliffs this one had a dome of semi-transparent energy that created the wall.
The person continued to glance around. With the mind pausing on the slicer which was currently sitting docile, and conserving energy while it recharged its batteries. There was a mess of feathers, blood and scales under it. The construction was basically a nest of spinning blades. It had been an effective counter for the enemy and the mind he was in moved on.
Then the eyes focused on a robot that Tom could tell was the one that had been damaged. If the retocoles were a slightly larger than a typical earth hawk like Tom suspected then the construct was the size of a bus with hundreds metallic arms with simple joints sprouting out of it. The arms sometimes ended in weapons and other times in hands. Each of them appeared delicate, being only slightly thicker than his wrist but none that he could see were broken which spoke to their craftmanship. Those arms were in sharp contrast too the robot’s legs where all eight were like tree stumps. Squat, functional and clearly designed to shuffle the construction from spot A to B.
It had clearly not been invented for agility in battle.
The person he was in walked straight at the massive robot. He was heading for the shiny flat section that was nestled amongst all the arms. When they got close, the metal acted as a mirror. Tom, for a moment got a glimpse of the body that he was existing in. Two big eyes that were like a cows, then a flurry roughly oblong torso that ended with over twenty tentacles that sprouted from what in a human would be around the waist area. All the tentacles were identical and were like long, non-bushy monkey tails. The person was currently using all of them to propel him across the ground. If Tom allowed him to do so, he could sense them all, but his mind was not engineered for that level of complexity, so he kept those senses blocked off.
Four of those tails reached out to the mirrored panel and pressed on four different spots. There was a flare of magic and an application of significant force and with a crack the entire sheet of metal shifted up.
The mind he was in focused on the internals of the robot to attempt to diagnosis what was wrong. The engine if that was the best words to describe it was a mixture of mechanical, electrical, magical components and the person he was in snorted in amusement when he finished assessing what had happened. He reached forward, with six of the tentacles and fiddled with some of the wires this time interacting almost exclusively with magic. There was a puff of smoke and then all the parts started to move once more. Above arms that had been stationary, began to dance. It was like all they were doing a choreographed routine.
The mind he was in observed it all impassively. This was just the startup sequence. A single circuit had blown, and he had done a quick fix. Already he was thinking about ways he could add redundancy to ensure it never happened again. The dream shattered.
Before he dropped back into normal sleep, Tom desperately catalogued everything he had seen. The reflected physical appearance of the sapient. The details of the two robots he had directly observed and, of course the knowledge of the third that he hadn’t seen. He noted down the distinguishing features. The massive saw blade the slicer had possessed and all the minor ones. That a half of arms on the plucker had contained either enchanted weapons or spell focuses.
The allure of sleep could not be stopped, and it claimed him. Tom was back in the goblin cave, fighting the warlord. This time without using Harnessed Meteorite. It was difficult but fun. Then it was interrupted as another true dream overtook him.
Tom knew instantly that he was in a human mind. There was something familiar about the human body shape and the way thoughts were processed.
The body he was in was staring forward, looking blankly at a small fire pit. It had been expertly dug into the ground and no smoke wafted from it. Out of his peripherals, he could see other people and cave walls. That let Tom guess what was happening. He was with a group resting in a cave. It was all very standard.
The question screaming in his mind was why the fuck was he here?
And what group was he about to get information out of?
He hoped he wasn’t about to discover that Puma was betraying them.
The man he was in looked up from the fire and Tom found himself staring straight at Selena.
Mentally, Tom recoiled. Given recent events, it was better than seeing Vidja, but not by much.
Tom did not want to be here, but nor could he ignore what was about to happen. His dream had deemed this important to share. There was opportunity for him or a way to avoid a calamity.
Jane to Selena’s right stirred. “I don’t like any of the other humans.” She declared. “I was worried when we teamed up with Tom that we would get close to them and start to like them. No danger of that. They were pathetic.” She chuckled.
“That’s unfair. They were good people.” Selena protested. “While Phil gave me the creeps.”
“Historically, you’re not the best judge of character.” Jane reminded her.
“That was one person! I got over it.”
“After he cheated on you.”
“I had known him a week. We had hardly declared ourselves soul mates.”
“You were pretty cut up.”
“My emotions were charged because for the first time in almost twenty years I was around people. Anyway, that situation is not relevant. I don’t have any romantic aspirations with them.”
“I’m just saying you have a type and when you’re around them you’re not very sensible.”
“He is not my type.”
“Well, I hope that’s true because they were a mess. Did you notice how they didn’t even trust each other. As for their bullshit about fate. Pretending they knew more than they did, we shouldn’t have shown them the skill stone trick.”
“Yes, we should have,” Selena snapped at her. “The Goblins’ skill selection was too valuable for us not to go after.”
“If we had of gone second.” Jane muttered.
“Then the trick wouldn’t have worked.” The man whose mind he was in said. “Having said that I agree with you. Something about that group doesn’t sit right.” Tom focused on that statement. There was a general uneasiness about them as a collective. Bits of their performance were impressive, but other components deplorable. He didn’t know how to square that variance. Not that it mattered whether he liked them, they were there to get powerful and that would guide his decision making.
“I agree there is something off about them. But it doesn’t matter they are resources.” Jenny stated simply. She was their healer and had a personality that swayed to the practical.
“You’re overstating the issues.” Selena said with a laugh. “They were just people, and they were as lost as we are. We can work with both Vidja’s and Tom’s teams.”
“Are you sure you meant Vidja?” Jane teased.
Selena, appearing a little frustrated chose not to respond.
“We need to think of them the right way.” Jenny continued. “They’re not our friends and as we descend further into the zone, I suspect resources will reduce. If anything, they are our direct opponents.”
“We’re all humans.” Selena reminded them. “We’re all on the same side.”
“Your view,” Jane said simply.
“It’s fact.”
“We’re not talking about killing them just prioritising ourselves.”
“They’re humans. We can’t be doing that.” Selena protested.
Jane shrugged. “We discussed this eventuality and Selena remember you’re only the boss for tactical purposes. And you shouldn’t have blocked us after they got all those skill stones.”
“That was a tactical decision!”
“A wrong one. Tom’s entire skill set was that flashy meteorite spell, and it took half an hour to recharge from it. We should have jumped them.”
“There were more in that team than Tom. Both the earth and wind mage were scary, and that’s not even mentioning their scout.”
“Selena.” The mind he was in interrupted lightly. “With my artefacts they would not have been a problem.” Tom got a sense of what the man meant when he said that. He could craft two types of artefacts. One that would stun and another that was lethal. Each took almost a day effort to create, but once available, they were rated at around rank thirty, and Tom knew there was no way any of them would be able to resist it. “I can guarantee that they had no charms that could have resisted them.”
From Selena’s expression, it was clear that she knew how powerful the artefacts were and trusted the assurance that Tom’s group would not have possessed resistance.
“See that’s exactly my point,” Jane pounced on that reminder. “We would have won and got those skills. Which is why we have to have this discussion now. Strategically, we all get a say.”
“And my votes count for four.” The female healer reminded everyone.
“And mine get three.” Selena snapped back. “I don’t know why you’re bringing that up.”
“Because you may not want to, but we need agreed actions for next time that type of situation presents itself.” Jenny replied calmly. “How many credits were those skill stones worth? We lost out because our rules of engagement were unclear.”
“We’re not treating them as another member of a competition race.” Selena snapped. “Any ranking points they generate go to helping out humanity… I’ve got parents, kids and close siblings to look out for.”
“Exactly. We’ve all got a reason to be here,” Jenny said. “I understand where you’re coming from but think big picture. They almost lost that Michael guy when we were doing clean up. Do we really want them to take prizes out of this trial that they’re then going to squander? No. We’ll use them much better.”
“We should vote.” The man he was in said. “Who votes that the other humans are a valid target?” Five hands went up, including the body he was in. The mind he was in mentally tallied the votes, assigning extra votes to those who received higher weightings like Jenny and Selena. “Carried by a margin of nine to six.”
Jane looked pleased with that result. “We need to discuss thresholds and limitations of tactical authority when the next opportunity presents itself.”
“I’m a team player.” Selena ground out. “I’ll abide by our decision. But these were rewards from a relatively minor battle. It might be worth waiting until there is a larger score. We only get the advantage of surprise once.”
“I’m not saying otherwise.” Jane told her. “But we need to discuss who has the call and what value extraction makes acting worthwhile.”
Tom woke up.
His heart pounded and sweat ran down his face.
They had intended to betray them and would do so in the future. His fantasy about everyone doing the right thing for humanity was shot.
He searched the room.
No one was sleeping, and only Toni who had been standing guard was visible. The rest of them had to be doing the puzzles.
He couldn’t believe it.
They had chatted, shared tips, and the whole time they had been planning on betraying them and knocking them unconscious before robbing them blind.
He fiddled with the two rings on his finger. If they were observant, they knew about the true source of that fate spike despite Everlyn’s misdirection. Tom had just used the ring rather than trying to be deceptive.
He had thought them friendly and hadn’t worried about concealing capabilities. If it wasn’t for this dream, they would have been stabbed in the back and caught by surprise. And if that had happened they would have been easily overwhelmed.
Why couldn’t they have been good people. He wanted to pull out his hair in anger. It was another complication that they didn’t need.
“FUCK!” he screamed and hit the ground.