CHAPTER 294 – FUTURE RELATIONS
They stood awkwardly. A stake of shock appeared to have descended on all of them. The revelations around the equaliser box, both what they and the chosen had received plagued all of their minds.
Everything had been discussed, but at the same time nothing had. Facts and knowledge were definitely important, but simultaneously were absolutely meaningless. It was a disconcerting feeling that every one of them was experiencing.
On one hand, it felt like there had been a monumental breakthrough in solving the trials issues, but when they actually studied what they had learnt, there was nothing tangible. Yes, Vidja had her prizes. They almost certainly existed. It was not something only written on a piece of paper. Her team had a lot of metal that they were going to struggle to transport. They also had some interesting partially worked crystals, some weird wood and some super valuable trait stones, but that was just stuff.
So what if it existed? What did it change. Why didn’t it provide them a path to salvation.
“Guys,” Toni waved a hand in front of Thor’s face, standing up on tippy toes to do it. He was staring blankly into the distance. “Why are you reacting like this?”
Thor shut his eyes in response to contemplate the information privately.
She nudged Michael who was on her other side.
He startled. “I’m absorbing it. Letting it soak in.”
“What do you mean?”
“I just don’t know what to say. It’s all unexpected and I need to get my head around it. Does it change anything or everything?”
“I think,” Keikain said abruptly. “That it’s no more than a nice diversion. I hate to be the one to say it, but nothing’s changed.”
Michael shook his head, laughed, and that burst of delight released him from his lethargy. “Hate to say… nah…You love being able to say that. Crushing our dreams what could be better.”
“I’m not like that. I would have preferred it if that the equaliser box had solved something. It was never going to provide a complete solution, but something would have been nice. What’s in Vidja’s note has left us in the same position as previously. That’s disappointing. And,” he pointed at Michael. “I do hate saying this. Nothing has changed. Our aims are the same. First, we personally need to grow and profit by completing the zones. Second, we need to recruit the other alien species and then third, and finally, we have to keep relying on Tom’s stupid dreams to solve everything on our behalf.”
Thor sighed. “Apart from the stupid bit, that pretty much sums it all up. But the way you phrased it raises an interesting question. I wonder if there’s anything we can do to help Tom. I mean beyond giving him a chance to sleep and not force him to take guard shifts and stuff.”
Everyone looked uneasily at each other without having anything to volunteer.
“I get the sentiments, Thor, I really do,” Keikain said finally. “But it’s not happening. True Dreaming is the best Oracle skill we’re going to get. Any of us could save everything for the next four zones and even with that sacrifice there’s no guarantee we’ll be able to buy anything better than his tier nine version. And if we get a miraculous purchase, a superior version to Tom’s,” Keikain shrugged dramatically. “Will it even matter? We’ll already be in the layer before the dragon. It’ll be too late for it to help, anyway. Changing the future is a lot like spending fate to do things. The longer the skill gives us to respond the more likely we’ll be successful.”
“We could buy instances of future sight rather than acquire a skill to give us glimpses,” Harry said finally.
“What you think we can just buy time with an oracle?”
“You’re mocking me, but yes,” Harry told Keikain. “From within the trial, I doubt we’ll be able to contact anyone living but artefacts and one off spell stones… they might be available. Rituals too, my class gives me various abilities that facilitate peering into the future.”
Keikain did not appear convinced. “Are their availability anything more than theoretical hope? I bet they’re stage gated behind achievements and fetes that are unlikely to occur.”
“Their achievable or else I wouldn’t have brought them up,” Harry answered flatly, then his nose scrunched up. “The better ones aren’t but some are. The regents to utilise them might be hard to source and prohibitively expensive but it’s an option.” He shrugged. “It depends on what the group needs to do.”
“What does everyone think?” Everlyn asked. She looked around and got a smattering of fifty fifty gestures and two thumbs up. “Consensus is that it’s definitely worth considering. Glimpsing the future now might save us all later and we can’t just keep relying on one person. Harry, can you take point to investigate options.”
The ritualist nodded, grimly. “I’ll talk to Thor about working out if anyone in the other groups has a trait or skill that might help.”
“Great, we’re agreed.” Michael clapped his hands. “Unless there is anything else anyone wants to add why don’t we return to gathering experience.”
They had an established routine, and they fell back into it. Over two hours, they fought seven different swarms of zlotorcs before it was time to stop for a break. This zone’s quest objective was to kill a hundred and sixty thousand of the monsters. That seemed like an intimidating amount, but when you broke it down, it was achievable. They were able to kill around four thousand an hour, providing everything went smoothly, which was two small size swarms and one of the larger ones. That meant they were looking at four to five days to complete the zone. Assuming that things either got easier for them, not a bad assumption based on how their efficiency improved in previous zones, or they worked for more than ten hours they could restrict it to four.
While they prepared lunch, Everlyn called them over for a council of war meeting. “Guys, we need to talk strategy.” She said, launching herself immediately into business. “Our plan was only to do three zones on this layer. But this zone will go faster than expected. We can complete it in four days, which in turn gives us over five days to complete another zone. The question is do we risk it?”
“Depends on if we become experienced capped or not.” Michael said.
Tom shook his head. “Even if we’re not experience capped, I would only do it if there’s a reason we want to do a zone on this layer versus the next one. We can always take those five days and spend twenty instead of sixteen days on the next layer.”
“That was why I’m questioning staying in this zone,” Everlyn agreed. “But there is an advantage to taking the risk. Once this zone is completed, we’ll have access to two zones with treasure rooms in them. Next layer, unless we do four zones we’ll only do one with a treasure room. Basically staying and taking a risk will yield an extra treasure room.”
“Are they favourable?” Michael asked. “I mean in terms of monsters and geography?”
Evelyn shrugged. “If there is one thing this layer has proven is that the tiles can’t be used to make a matchup estimate. Possibly on magical vulnerabilities, but even then our team is rounded enough that one of us can exploit any weakness out there. For example, I thought this zone apart from the treasure room was going to be shit for us. Instead of being open air it’s in tunnels where Tom can go crazy. Rather than being a struggle, it’s almost perfect.”
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“The question is not whether it is favourable to us. It is whether its favourable to the chosen.” Keikain said. “If we can get another one like the ocean zone where the chosen with their current rank advantage can crush the challenge and complete it in a couple of days. Then, if we also raid a treasure room, it is obvious we should do it. Against that if we get something like the elementals but a little harder, then five, I mean the six days we have isn’t enough.”
Everlyn frowned. “If that’s our criteria we can rule out one of the two zones. The monsters from the tile were drawn with tools. I know…” she raised her hand quickly to stop the elder who had risen in the air and started to zoom over towards her.
It stopped.
“I know tool use doesn’t mean anything and non-sapient races use them, but you have to admit it’s a pretty damn good indicator.” The elder moved back to where he’d been waiting with the other chosen. “The question then becomes whether we think the third zone is worth exploring. Will the chosen be able to help? Is there a risk of us getting stuck in there for too long.”
Tom took a moment to shut his eyes pictured the localised map of the tile room. He visualised the zones they could reach from the current one. The zone that Evelyn had just referred to contained pictures of triple winged birds that clutched a variety of objects in their four legs. There was nothing that looked high tech rather the items they carried were just basic sharpened branches and shaped stones. The images didn’t scream sapient to him, but Everlyn was right: any tool use increased the chance that they would be near sapient and therefore the chosen wouldn’t be able to help.
With that tile rejected, he studied the second connection that possessed a treasure room. It was predominantly painted a dark blue with tinges of green. It appeared to be flat planes with regular pools dotted around. His mind jumped to swamps, but they could have been freshwater lakes as well.
More importantly he focused on the fauna that was supposed to be in the tile. There were pictures of a multitude of different monsters. Some looked like hydras, another a giant turtle and a third a pack of wolves. As his eyes swept over the memorised picture, he developed the impression of a place where a boss guarded each of the ponds. “It’s a good candidate, a multiple monster zone.”
“Exactly,” Evelyn said with a smile. “I think we take the risk. There’s a creature depicted as a rat like monster that is spread throughout the map. They might be near sapient, but if the primary threat is the boss monsters, then the zone is perfect for us. If we have a favourable match up, we’ll kill them and, if not the chosen will eliminate them on our behalf. It will enable both fast progress and a wealth of experience for all of us.”
“We’ve been very wrong about zone make up before,” Michael pointed out.
“The tile’s image is pretty clear.”
Michael raised a hand. “I know. I was going to suggest if we finish this zone in four days and most of us aren’t experienced capped that we give it a go. If it takes longer, then we go to the next layer and use the extra days there.”
They agreed and Tom ate the meal he was given and then he fell asleep. He was not expecting a True Dream. It had been a couple of weeks since he had been subjected to one of them during the day. But after Vidja’s insect scare they kept up the discipline of letting him sleep every day at lunch, just in case somewhere something was going wrong.
He drifted off, and then a True Dream struck.
As always, he grounded himself with his mind instantly searching for clues on species, location, time and person. The first one he could answer immediately he was in the body of one of the competitor species. The champions of Wador, Tom recognised the specialised fine motor control patch on his chest and the six legs.
Everything else was a mystery. The scene he was witnessing was not something he could link back to the previous vision of this species.
He was in a female, and she was currently on a hill looking down upon a manufactured city.
The metropolis spread as far as she could see. At least in front of her, it was everywhere. Behind her was the countryside, as she was right on its edge. It was mostly a refurbished city with everything south of the river, where she was located, thankfully, had been converted to modern living arrangements. A beautiful marriage of nature and convenience. Architecture that allowed plant growth on multiple layers and provided comfortable shelters.
In her own city, she lived in one of those, and Tom received a detailed impression of how they actually worked. The mind he was in was apparently a bit of a connoisseur of architecture. The modern living arrangement broke up the landscape with lots of vertical gardens and gaps to allow sunlight to get down to deeper layers and the living quarters that were on the ground. A careful balancing of plants allowed the establishment of multiple thriving ecosystems, the top layer exposed to the sun, then two middle layers and then finally the floor where very little sun reached. The main genius was the plumbing that supplied water to where it was needed and got daily growth exceeding that of a rainforest. Every home was designed for beauty, substance and to support the local wildlife. A typical pack would get all their vegetable needs from their modest residence.
Her eyes then flicked briefly to the old style homes on the north of the river bank. Her whiskers twitched in response. That was one of the mistakes they had made in their rush to dominate the planet. A common solution they had produced to house people in those hundred of years when they transitioned from a more nomadic lifestyle to their current one. The result was those buildings. Large soul sapping monstrosities that had created crime and single-handedly lowered the utility index of all permanent residence by a staggering twenty. That was more than any other factor, including abusive pack mates.
They were a cancer on society and she was glad they had moved on from that, but it was disappointing that this nearby city still allowed the blight to continue.
She forced her eyes away from that and down towards the well lit piece of parkland below her.
Beside her, the other four dignitaries waited patiently for her to move. They had been invited to negotiate peace. The other representatives were waiting for them and they all wanted the settlement but for the honour of their people the right rituals had to be enacted or else they’ll go straight back to the quiet war.
She sighed. She needed to do her part. Which was easy. She just had to give them the chance to carry out the ritual appropriately. The onus was on them to get it right.
She studied the distant field and confirmed the obvious. There was no obvious use of technology. Then she squinted her eyes and verified that no grand ritual magic was in play as that was the only type that was powerful enough to worry about and finally that there was no campfire because fire was an object of war.
“They honour their accords.” She told the aides next to her formally and then sprang forward and galloped across the distance separating them. It was almost two kilometres, which was a long run for someone her age, but she endured for the sake of their purpose.
She reached the field that had been set aside and nodded in relief. She wanted the peace desperately, but if they broke the tradition, she wouldn’t be able to give it.
The four in her escort followed her and the leader of the city stood by himself with a boulder that had been split in half and then washed in front of him. The flat section faced the sky and had been in the sun all day, absorbing the heat.
They bowed their heads to each other.
Behind him, four of his colleagues moved from the submissive positions where they had been laying to stand guard next to him and even their numbers. The others, all nine of them remained prone on the ground. They, of course, had not known how many of her kind were coming, so he had brought extras to allow him to match numbers as required.
She sprang forward, her body protesting at the extra effort, but this was for a ceremony, so it was important to project an aura of grace. She stopped directly opposite her counterpart with only the stone separating them.
They bowed their heads to each other once more and then from a box next to him he produced ten thinly sliced pieces of meat.
It was pale and from a ground clacker as required, and he slapped each one down in front of him. Two rows of five. Once the food was placed, he ate the first piece that had gone down. She reciprocated with the second.
It was raw meat without any herbs or salt, as demanded. She chewed it mechanically and barely tasted it despite its obvious quality.
Once she had finished, one of his aides helped themselves and then they alternated between the two parties until everyone had eaten.
Nothing had been said as the ancient ceremony playing out.
The moment the last of her aides swallowed their portion he knelt down again and produced a single fillet of meat. It was the size of her thigh and was a dark brown.
Ceremoniously, he tossed it on the stone in front of them and then without fuss, he used a single extendable claw to cut it into ten even pieces.
This time, she ate first, and he ate last.
His mannerisms were perfect, which meant there was a chance of peace.
There was one final step.
Once they were all sated on the large fillet, he pulled out another chunk of meat. Her eyes widened. It was the most succulent wagyik heart she had ever seen.
He cut it precisely as per traditions. One third for her and a portion for her attendants and his. He personally would get nothing.
She ate her portion even though she was full.
It was divine.
The ceremony was perfect and she could see all the attendants almost salivating for a chance to try the heart but that would have to wait.
The talks that she had come for could begin. She cleared her throat. “Let’s confirm the terms of a ceasefire of hostility between us.”
The dream ended, and Tom slept while his subconscious planned how to take advantage of this information.