CHAPTER 283 -TRIAL REALITIES
Thor’s announcement had silenced all the conversation. Phil had successfully found and stopped the giant from exiting the second last layer. It was a huge success. Even the three discussing strategy stopped talking.
“Quick,” Michael demanded. “Read it. Tell us what happened.”
“Hold your horses,” Thor said, waving the piece of paper around. “There is nothing that incredible to report. Phil spotted the giant from almost the other side of the zone.”
No one blinked in response to those numbers. They all knew there were lots of skills that could manage that, and Phil as a solitary fighter would have them.
“Even over ten kilometres away he could feel the aura of the creature. His instinct was to flee immediately.”
“Wait? Are you saying he didn’t follow his instincts?” Keikain said doubtfully, capturing what they were all feeling. The tutorial had taught all of them that instincts in a magical reality were not like on Earth. More often than not, they were almost psychic in the information they conveyed.
“No, of course he did.” Harry continued. “He ran, but as he did, he remembered your description and compared it to that brief glimpse he had. Apparently, it was wrong. The giant is a deep green colour.”
“That’s not my fault they see in different wavelengths to us.”
“I know,” Thor responded, waving the comment away. “But that incongruity piqued his interest. He checked the auction house almost the instant that my first message came through.”
Tom felt a chill go down his spine. The smallest had said that his GOD had as good as suggested that this might be the case. That somehow the cascade of events that had resulted in the giant not proceeding deeper had been dependent on his hasty, unthinking remarks.
“Phil said he saw it and noped out. Then messages kept coming, and he thought about what we were saying… the fact that your skill was right about him seeing the giant at that precise time… that your description of the giant was mostly accurate.” Thor paused and looked up. “He decided that if you got those right, then your dragon vision is probably as true. He wants to live so he will join the collective effort even if it stymies his growth.”
“Yes,” Michael’s fist pumped in excitement. “That’s what we’re talking about.”
“Both Phil and the giant will wait until we get there before challenging the dragon.”
A sense of relief washed through him. This was great news. They still had a chance of winning.
“Phil is also going to send through a note covering the setup of all the zones and his observations.”
Tom listened in as the conversation progressed to what was next.
“Damn it! Selena’s squad is still holding out,” Everlyn said finally. “Vidja’s team’s already on board and now Phil. Selena is the only explanation for why the unified humanity quest hasn’t triggered.”
“I’m working on that too,” Thor said. “I think I’ll get to the point soon where we can implement a two way contract.”
“There’s no rush,” Tom interrupted quietly. “We have weeks.”
“Months on my calculation,” Michael reminded him dryly. “We still have five layers to go through and sixteen days in each.”
Tom shook his head. “No… I think weeks is more accurate.” Mentally, he tried to understand the basis of the feelings and where they had come from. To track their origin down. But the threads that built up to the concept were nebulous, and he couldn’t point to anything specific. It was more the accumulation of weeks of True Dreaming granting something almost actionable. “Five weeks. That’s it. We need to be unified by the time we leave the fourth layer or.” Tom drew a finger across his throat to emphasise the point.
Michael’s brow wrinkled. “Is that a feeling or a fact?”
“The former,” Tom told him. His instincts screamed otherwise. He knew immediately he had misspoken. To claim it was a feeling was inaccurate, and he had to correct it. “Actually, no, that’s not right. It’s not a feeling it’s a fact. It’s going to happen.”
“Shit.” Michael said with a sigh. “I’ll get on Thor’s case. He keeps telling us Selena is close to agreeing.”
“It’s also the other two races. We all need to be unified.”
Michael’s head snapped back sharply to stare at him. “Is that even possible?”
Tom shrugged. “I’m having these dreams for a reason.”
“You sound like a two bit fortune teller when you talk like that.”
Tom struggled to formulate a response for a moment.
“I know,” Michael slapped him on the back. “My genius can strike you mute.”
“No! That’s not how my skill works.”
“Sure, it isn’t,” Michael said, laughing in amusement. “Make sure you share everything you can about the other two races. I’ll also push for Vidja’s team to set up a similar level of responsiveness to Selena squad. They’ve improved after the insects almost got them, but I’m sure their coverage isn’t perfect and it needs to be. We can’t rely on luck like we did with Phil.”
The chosen returned, the smallest conspicuously absent.
Tom still felt like crying when he saw the evidence that the Grace Break had been completed.
The circumstances sucked, but there was no twinge of guilt in him anymore. Phil’s letter had made it clear that any delay would have been fatal for all of them. Speaking out as he had was certainly thoughtless, but with the benefit of hindsight it was the right action. It was easy to imagine a situation where if he had delayed, when Phil had briefly consulted the auction house the urgent messages wouldn’t have been there. He would have found only old missives and none of them would have provided motivation for Phil to contact the giant. He would have hidden away and not looked at the auction house again for hours, and by then it would definitely have been too late.
The elder zoomed over to hover in front of Tom. The abject sense of despair that had accompanied it had vanished. “Blessed of SANATORIES, my tradition has been corrected and potentially my good speak. I want to ensure you that we will not fail. The continuing middles will be supervised and not entrusted to anything decisive. They will lend their power exclusively to non-critical defensive efforts.”
Tom noted the change in language. It was not perfect, but there was definitely an improvement. The smallest had done something to fix that issue. “Thank you. If we can truly return to being able to fight like we were before, the relationship fractured, that will speed our progress. Can we?”
“Blessed of SANATORIES, that is correct.”
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They continued clearing the zone and the shielding defences were back to what they had been before Tom had made the mistake. Once more, he could set up a battle rhythm and provide opportunities for the shields to intercede to deliver the maximum benefits. Just like in the first few days, the chosen’s timing was impeccable. Despite the masochist nature of his dodge skill, he was getting through the skirmishes without getting hurt.
They uncovered the secret treasure room and finished the Zone.
“Stock take.” Michael said immediately as they were awarded all the experience from the zone. “What did everyone get?”
They quickly exchange notes. The experience cap had not changed and Tom, Harry, Rahmat and Everlyn had all reached it. The others were close behind, with Michael being the lowest at a little over a million experience in the layer. Even if they had time, it wasn’t worth doing another zone as the experience they got would be taxed so heavily for the four at the cap and then for the others once they reached a similar state.
“Same cap as last time.” Harry observed, sounding disappointed.
“It’ll increase in the next zone,” Thor told him. “Phil said that he got almost three million experience, in the third last ring, so we know the experience cap situation improves at some point.”
“Next layer will probably be double the experience,” Michael hypothesised. “I reckon the cap increases when the rank between zones jumps. So you have two zones with the same CAP and then I guess it doubles and if that’s right I doubt any of will hit the cap again.”
“We’ll find out,” Thor agreed neutrally. “But first what’s our strategy? The next zone, according to Phil, is going to jump to rank twenty-two. That’s too high. Even with the chosen to support we’ll struggle at our current strength. I hate to say it, but we just won’t be able to put out enough damage.”
The Elder zoomed to be in front of him. “Honoured scribe, it’s our view that we will be able to protect you in the next layer.”
“I trust Elder’s assessment of the situation,” Thor said without blinking. “But fighting things double our rank is ridiculous. Even if they can’t hurt us, we’ll struggle to hurt them back.”
“Usually, I would say no more than a thirty percent gap against enemies with their own skills, but the chosen support means we can go more aggressively than would usually be prudent. We can push to be within fifty percent of them.” Michael said. “That’s still a huge gap and it should get the majority of the experience benefit. With our expertise being so far beyond our rank, we’ll still be able to hit back at that level. We’re all capable of crossing a fifty percent gap, which means if our opponents are twenty-two, then we need to class up to…”
“Then we’ll have to be rank fifteen.” Keikain finished for him.
“No point walking that close to the edge. Let’s all agree low sixteen.” Michael suggested.
No one looked happy. They wanted to maximise experience and minimise the cost of traits. Levelling for immediate strength worked against those aims.
This decision to force them to gain seven ranks in that context was a disaster. For most of them, they were talking about fifty class levels. It would balloon out the cost of the future traits. It would double the cost of most of them, and sometimes even more.
Tom glanced at each of them and measured what he was feeling to what they must be thinking. There was resigned, bitter disappointment in all the faces that he examined. He felt similar to them even though he was way better off than they were. With the number of additional attributes, he received per level instead of fifty level he would need only half of that and then once he factored in that he was already several ranks higher the cost of this decision to him was only ten levels… he could preserve far more of the recent gains to continue his trait purchases.
This need to keep pace with the strength of their enemies was a painful blow for their plans. Over half of their experience was going to have to be put into levels. It was a lot.
“Can we even afford to buy traits?” Harry asked. “Because I’m not seeing it.”
“Only on the margin,” Keikain answered him flatly. “Apart from Tom we won’t be getting all the traits we want to. Phil’s data shows the rank of our opponents escalating too quickly.”
Harry’s face scrunched up in annoyance. “It’s bullshit.”
“It is what it is,” Keikain replied. “For the weaker races, which we most definitely are one of, this trial is a game of survival. It is designed to force level everyone weak who enters it. We have no choice but to play to its tune. As it is designed when we leave, it will be as true powerhouses who are at least level two hundred and rank thirty. If we take the smarter path, we will leave just as strong but with complimentary traits, skills and spells and a lower level. There isn’t enough experience to keep up with the monster growth. In the final zones, no matter how we invest we’re still going to be punching up fifty percent. As I said this is about survival.”
“Unless you’re a freak like Tom with his titles.” Michael said. “If he invests in class levels, he’ll end up at rank sixty and be able to stomp everyone. Remember this is for champions. For them, the trial is less about survival and more about becoming stronger.”
“So we get back to the need to get traits like tom’s fate’s agility to boost our progress.” Toni concluded. “But of course it’s a game and to make that entertaining they give us difficult choices.”
“Yes, traits have to be considered and not just per level ones, but flat attributes and percentage traits should also be included.” Michael agreed. “I reckon the flat ones will be useless. Per level and percentage are a lot more palatable now that we’re getting a hundred levels.”
“Exactly,” Keikain chimed in. “We have short-term survival to think of along with preparing for the final zone. On my calculation, we’ll receive between twelve and eighteen million and we need to plan accordingly.”
“Plan long term, but reach rank sixteen immediately.” Toni said doubtfully.
“Yes,” the earth mage nodded. “It’s very achievable. This is what I worked out.” He thrust a piece of paper toward Toni. “Providing we get close to the experience cap in each layer we can promote our rank high enough. Now I know this method isn’t perfect. I’ve assumed six attribute points per class level. I’m currently getting four, Tom’s getting twelve, but with better classes and the right traits we should all be able to match him.”
Tom checked the sheet with interest.
Layer Number
Monster Rank
Experience CAP
Proposed Rank
Class Level Required
New experience required
8
16
1.3
7
18
1.3
6
22
2.6
15
46
0.9
5
26
2.6
18
66
1.2
4
30
2.6
21
86
1.8
3
36
5.2
25
113
3.3
2
42
5.2
29
140
4.6
1
48
NA - Dragon
33
166
6.3
Apparently Keikain was assuming that all the experience they could have got from the final zone would have been already taken by the dragon and insects. Tom suspected that he was right.
If they survived the trial, they were all going to walk out as monsters when compared to what they were when they entered it. Their rank would be so high that they would be able to crush the area of the underground they had been in. Other areas… well, he knew better than to assume that they would be easy. Despite its threat to them, the area they had travelled through had been low level. Other spots weren’t.
Complete the trial… get out… find out which of the four species to target and defeat them. Their extra strength wouldn’t make that encounter trivial. In fact, it was the bare minimum. While Tom had been rushing to fight them deep down, he had known their group would not be strong enough. He had been secretly hoping for a miracle. He guessed this trial was it.
“That’s all very interesting,” Everlyn said dryly. “But let’s get it over with. I already know what I’m buying. So why don’t you all go shopping while I keep watch with the chosen.”
They all hesitated.
“Guys,” Everlyn laughed at them. “This is called decision paralysis. I know Tom hasn’t been involved because of True Dreaming, but for everyone else we’ve gone over this in detail. Phil’s data is one of the strategies we prepared for.”
Tom considered the common titles he had received, and he was about to get a third class. There would be a title awarded. “Wait. I need to go first.”
“Why?” Keikain asked immediately. “I’m guessing titles.”
“I want to know what title I get for a third class.” Tom answered. Given the other titles he had received for normal progress he expected what he would receive for having three classes was going to be significant.