CHAPTER 357 – SETTLING NERVES
They jogged in silence with Tom lost in his own thoughts. His mind replaying the encounter with the giant over and over in his head. Why had he pushed back so hard. Had it been the decision of a genius? Or the recalcitrance of a stubborn fool?
There was, of course no answer to his internal musings.
When they reached the lesser tunnels that led to their sleeping quarters, Clare dropped to a walk.
“Tom, would you consider yourself to have been lucky to have survived that?”
“Seriously?” he asked in surprise, while internally wondering how that question was hitting so close to home. He hadn’t made a stupid decision. It had been a calculated risk. “Do I think I’m lucky? Not really, the giant is incentivised to keep me alive.”
“Do you genuinely think he’s that rational?”
He hesitated. There was always the option to be belligerent, but he remembered Social Silence attempting to stop him and his own recent doubts. He looked her straight in the eye. “There’s no need to lecture me. I’m aware that I pushed too hard. But… You have to stand up to bullies.”
“I’m not questioning your decisions. I was only asking if your survival was lucky? Because my educated position was that your life was on the line back then.”
He scoffed, more with bravo than anything else. “I don’t think the giant was ever going to kill me…”
“Maybe not kill, but did you consider what else it could do? Maim you, lock you into a cave, pressured you through…” she paused. “Pressured you by targeting your friends who you confirmed as being more disposable than you are.”
“If he had tried any of those, he would have got nothing from me.”
“Hey, calm down. I’m not trying to start anything.”
Tom took a long breath. “Sorry. Him threatening me I’ll live with, but if he goes for my friends. Then everything is off. I wouldn’t have helped him at all, and the dragon would have won.”
“Maybe, but the giant has sufficient information to know that your continual cooperation is not necessarily required. Hell, you told him to his face that his survival was not entirely dependent on your continued existence. Out of all of us, Rahmat is the only one who is critical.”
“What’s the point of this conversation, Clare? What are you getting at?”
“Were you lucky? I’m asking that because of your class, Tom. Given your automatic generation of fate in battle and the way we manipulate probability the concept of luck rarely applies to you. But back then, when you stood up to the giant, you didn’t spend fate to protect yourself and you survived. Was that the example of luck that your class needs?”
“You think I should buy a level.”
She kept walking. “That’s up to you. I’m not interested in telling people how to spend their experience or judging them when they do so. I’m just asking a question and it’s your choice whether that results in action.”
Tom pondered the problem as he walked and when they reached their bedroom, the door was open and as best he could tell, every single human was gathered, including Phil.
“What’s happening?” Clare asked immediately.
“A spontaneous get together,” Michael told them cheerfully.
“Not that spontaneous,” Phil called out. His cheeks were red, and he was acting drunk, but Tom still felt his skin crawling when he looked at the other man. His instincts screamed that there was something wrong. That the drunk, the dumb happy smile was fake. “Michael almost begged me to be available to do this when you got back. It’s been organised for almost a day.”
The healer shrugged off the assertion, unconcerned at the truth being revealed. “I thought it would be useful for all of us to gather. Agree on our aims and that sort of thing. A party felt a better option to align ourselves rather than a boring meeting. You two don’t just stand there. There’s food for everyone and what I’m going to call rum for those who want a drink.”
“And beer,” Usko said. “But it’s more bitter than I like.”
“And the beer that Usko bought,” Michael agreed. “I don’t recommend it. Tom, you’ll have to wait for Bao to prepare your food, as we weren’t expecting you back for a couple of hours.” He paused and looked at both Tom and Clare. “And how exactly are you both here so early? We all expected your appointment to take far longer.”
“The giant only had orders to give.” Clare volunteered. “And the whole thing would have been even faster if Tom hadn’t played chicken with the giant.”
Every eye in the room was suddenly on him. Even those who were not part of the immediate conversation.
Michael grimaced. “Please Tom. Please tell me she’s joking.”
“The giant tried to claim all my oracle questions, and I said no.”
“Bargained him down to half, then three, then very nearly got squished when he was about to refuse to yield on two.”
“It wasn’t that bad, Clare.” He protested.
“Oh yes, it was. You’re very lucky.” She emphasised that last word.
“You refused it multiple times?” Michael asked in disbelief. “You know the saying think before you speak. For the giant that translates to kill first and then regret after.”
Everlyn was shaking her head. “What Michael said. Their entire culture only works because usually it takes more than six or seven blows for them to permanently harm each other. If you can’t survive that long, you don’t say a word.”
Tom swallowed.
“See Lucky.”
He shut his eyes. “It felt right at the time.” It hadn’t. Tom remembered exactly what had happened. “And with the benefit of hindsight, it was the best choice.” He said, doubling down.
“You’re an idiot Tom.” Michael said. “I thought Social Silence stopped you from doing this sort of crap.”
“He overrode it.” Clare dobbed on him.
“You did what!” Michael almost shouted. “Are you an idiot.”
“A lucky one.”
“I get it Clare! I’ll buy the stupid level.”
“A level of what?” Phil asked loudly.
Tom tuned him out and stepped into his system room with his decision made. Mercifully, plain metal walls greeted him. He sighed, enjoying the simplicity. Then out of the corner of his eyes he saw the number that said twelve, which made his blood boil slightly. The giant had stolen his question and had been promised another. It was unfair, but at least he was alive. He would test Clare’s supposition with a single level. If he got one of the top five results, then he would use up his remaining reserves.
“Purchase a level of Breadth of Serendipity.”
He felt the experience flow out, and the wall in front of him changed to display the result.
The impact of your fate has been permanently increased by one percent.
Internally, he whistled at that outcome. It was not the best he could have gotten, but it wasn’t one of the bad results. One his calculation it was the fourth most valuable. At a headline level, it was only worth four and a half points of fate, which was significantly less than the reward that gave him twenty points outright. The benefit would grow with his fate pool, but that was unlikely to bridge that difference.
Where the improvement in his fate really shone was around the fate that his dodge ability generated. Yes, that fate was restricted to specific tasks, which made it less valuable. But the extra created was dedicated to keeping him alive, which unsurprisingly was something he actively valued. Every successful dodge created ten points and he could easily do a thousand dodges on a given day.
When he did that mathematics, it meant that this improvement in the potency of fate was actually equivalent to a hundred points not less than five.
The fact he had been awarded it told him that the class had thought he had a lucky day, but not super lucky or he would have got one of the other rewards.
“Buy another one.” He ordered.
Standard First Time Use Warning.
All accrued luck variance is expended whenever a level of Breadth of Serendipity is purchased.
Are you sure you wish to buy another?
He frowned at the message and then nodded sheepishly. That restriction made a lot of sense. If you could buy unlimited levels on the one day that luck shined down on you, then the class would be completely broken.
“Cancel purchase request.”
He returned to the real world.
“And?”
He looked up at Clare’s beaming face and shook his head sadly.
“What? it didn’t count?”
He cracked a smile.
She huffed and punched him lightly on the shoulder. “That’s mean. How many levels?”
“It’s restricted to one per day.”
“I didn’t know classes did that. But I guess, given what you described, that makes sense.”
“Technically, I can buy more levels, but I just get a random draw from the pool and on average that is not a good outcome.”
Phil cleared his throat loudly. “What class?”
“A legendary one with a theme around luck.”
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
The New Zealander only looked slightly surprised at that knowledge. “You’ve really gone all in on the fate thing haven’t you.”
Tom automatically measured his fate against Phil’s. The other man was a higher rank, he knew that and had a kind of assumed that he was going for a physical build. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Their fate pools were about equal. “Not really. I haven’t assigned a single point to it.”
Phil sniffed dismissively. “You know I can assess fate levels just like you. There’s no need to lie.”
“It wasn’t a lie,” Tom told him tiredly. While the cessation of True Dreams had helped him recover, it was late in the day, and he had a slight headache. “Passive gains are the source of my fate pool.”
The new Zealander crinkled his nose and then raised an eyebrow.
“It’s true. Not a single free point from my class level ups have been put against fate.”
“So your ridiculous levels come from a second class and…” his voice gained more confidence. “I’m guessing a great title. You’re a fascinating man. Two fate heavy classes and you excel in close in fighting. Out of interest, what’s your best skill. Is it what’s supporting your dodging?”
Tom did not even consider contradicting the other man’s assumptions. The less Phil knew about him the better was Tom’s attitude. “You’re aware of my strongest skill already. It’s True Dreaming by miles.”
“I’m not referring to out of combat shit. That stuff doesn’t count mate and you’re fully aware of that. So, is it your dodge or domain that is the best?”
“Probably a spear skill.”
Phil burst out laughing. “Good one. But seriously!”
“Not a joke. It’s got the most kills, recently.”
That got Phil’s attention. “Interesting. That’s actually true, or at least a partial truth. A spear skill, hey? You know what? I don’t believe you. Three days ago I watched one of your battles. I know how you fight and while your technical spear fighting is great, I haven’t seen you use any spear skill with sufficient oomph to let you claim it was your best ability.”
“Oomph?” Tom mocked.
“Yes, the ability to enhance the piece of wood you wield to smash through magic defences, reinforced scales, hide and armoured plating. Kind of critical in any fight you get involved in. To be honest, I doubt you’ve got much more than Power Strike happening.”
Internally, Tom smiled. “If that’s your attitude, then you haven’t seen what a fully levelled Power Strike can do.” He told him, thinking of Rahmat’s boost rather than his own. “When it’s active on my weapon, it can go through all the monsters around here like they are made of fairy floss.”
Phil, for the first time in the conversation looked perplexed. “More truth?”
Tom smiled at the look of confusion. The half-truth and equivocations he was spinning were working, which meant the other man was only using a basic truth spell as opposed to the more powerful and subtle version that Michael and Everlyn possessed. Phil clearly couldn’t identify intent only factual, correct or incorrect states.
“How about you? What’s your best skill?” Tom asked.
Phil’s face went flat. “I don’t share my build information with anyone.”
“Then maybe you shouldn’t be asking about mine.”
Phil laughed, reverting to his boyish good-natured act. “It doesn’t hurt to ask mate? And it’s not like your stuff is that confidential half the people here seem to know your ability set better than you do.” He indicated Clare as he said this. “Anyway, have a drink and we’ll share battle stories later. I think it will be fascinating to find out how you managed to get stronger than the rest of your party.”
“That’s sounds great,” he lied.
The New Zealander’s face briefly went annoyed and Tom realised he had stuffed up and that last was an outright light and he had been caught. It was a silly, unnecessary mistake. There were lots of other neutral terms he could have safely used.
“It might not be great, but interesting at least. We can chat later.” Phil beamed at him, having buried the irritation effortlessly. He left to converse with Jane. “I saw you fight the other day. That spinning move you do what’s it called.”
He shook his head at the other man’s antics and then checked on his food and discovered it was still a while off. He considered what was next on his list and waved Everlyn over.
With a moment of focused concentration, he cast his spell to protect them from scrying. There were already bound to be other similar spells protecting them. But because he knew Everlyn and Michael, he would have been willing to bet that all of them got slightly different versions. Having multiple ones running could only improve the coverage.
“How can I help you, Tom?”
“I need some time in your system room.”
She arched an eyebrow. “We’re at a party. How long do you require?”
“Ten minutes or so. When I healed the wador, I studied their anatomy in case I ever needed to fight them. Clare mentioned that Meiji can create realistic illusions. So, if I give you the images, then you can pass them onto her and then…”
“We can all benefit.”
Her face lost animation and a second later he stood within a large room with a single table in the centre.
“I’ve given you full permissions,” Everlyn offered. “And because I’ve been called on to do lots of this, I’ve purchased skills to record everything that happens here. Everything you share I’ll be able to pass on perfectly.”
Tom focused, and a moment later, an image of the wador appeared in front of him. Tom moved it through its various attack stances. The animation was jerky, but it would be good enough for his purpose. When it mimed pouncing, it accurately reflected the movement the wador made in real life.
He sighed in relief as it went through all the motions; he wanted there to be no noticeable errors in how it moved. The simulation was not skin deep but instead went all the way through to the skeletal structure. With a thought, fur and muscle disappeared and left just the blood vessels, organs and bones. The model repeated the simple movements.
“Tom, that’s disgusting.”
“Nothing you haven’t seen before.” He muttered while concentrating on the movement and his memory to make sure everything worked correctly. It was perfect.
“That’s what?” she spluttered.
He restored the fur and muscle and looked at her in confusion. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
She shook her head in disbelief.
“What?” he asked.
“Nothing… Forget it.”
The wador model continued to go through the motion and he added in all the weaknesses. Pausing occasionally to check that the bones were positioned as he expected.
Everlyn had moved closer to study the various identified critical strike spots. “And you really learnt all this while healing?”
He winked at her. “I healed two of them, so was able to do cross-referencing as well.” He waved his hand and the bones on the back were highlighted. “These areas have different presentation between wador, which is why there are no critical locations there, because you don’t know where the floating bones plates are going to be.”
“Fascinating. I can’t believe you were able to do it so quickly.”
“I have practice. This is a technique I used on monsters that challenged me in the tutorial. Subdue them and then mock heal them so I could create a mental image of how they worked so that the next time I faced them, they would be easier to kill. It took many years of trial and error to get it to this state. But recreate enough critical weakness models, then after a while I was able to apply it against anything I fought and was right ninety-nine percent of the time. It was very useful.”
“I can definitely see how the extra knowledge is helpful. Personally, I never autopsied my corpses. I just learned which spots were weak through repeated battles.”
“A valid method. I did the same initially until I thought to refine the process into something more scientific.”
“I can see the benefits, but the level of detail seems excessive.”
The image of the wador rotated briefly until it showed it in midleap. “Here,” Tom pointed at a glowing spot on its stomach. “This is a lethal hit, and I only identified it because of the anatomical knowledge. Without that information, I’m never striking there and this is a weakness I’d never discover through standard fighting.”
“Because at best it looks like you’re inflicting a minor gut wound?”
“Yep. Exactly. But for the wador, it’s a fatal blow because you’re severing two unprotected vital arteries with a single strike.”
“So many spots to hit, but also so many that rely on specific timing.” Everlyn agreed as she paced around the model.
“Their bones move. Which means often you can only exploit the structural weaknesses when they overextend or crouch.”
“I can see that and I also agree that it’s important this is shared. I’ll organise a presentation.”
He was abruptly back in the real world and a hand landed on his shoulder.
“None of that,” Michael said, laughing. “No retreating into system rooms to be antisocial.” With a tug, he was led over to a group that included Keikain, Clare, Vidja and Selena. “Tell me about your trip. Any interesting True Dreams?”
“It was great. I’m qualified once the global quests are accepted. Until we leave, I’m going to focus on directing True Dreams to ensure we know absolutely everything we can about the ambush awaiting us.”
Michael frowned. “But you’re still getting three undirected per day? Can you really afford the extra overhead of a directed dream on top of it.”
“We have no choice. The giant ordered it,” Clare interjected. “Given that instruction Tom can’t exactly claim that it’s too hard. I guess it’s good that it’s taking an interest. I wasn’t expecting that so getting summoned straight away was a huge surprise.”
“Oh yeah, Everlyn was beside herself when she reached me. And then did Tom really tell the giant to go fuck itself?” the healer asked.
Clare laughed and then smiling retold the entire confrontation in detail.
“That’s some nerve Tom.” Michael declared at the end. “When she said you played chicken, I didn’t realise how accurate that statement was. It was definitely the right choice to buy a level of your class.”
“It wasn’t that bad. It was a calculated gamble.” He responded. “The giant was never going to hurt me.” Pointedly, he ignored the fact that he had received such a favourable outcome from Breadth of Serendipity, which unfortunately kind of proved their point. He did not want to think that his survival had been a matter of luck. The fact he hadn’t protected himself with fate annoyed him. Next time, he was summoned that’s what he would do.
“How about you?” Clare asked. “How’s the credit gathering going?”
Michael grinned. “Inventor sales have been a bit lack lustre, so we’ve only earnt net half a million there. But we’ve got one and a half million of value from the wador and I reckon we’ll extract another million from them. Unfortunately, even with all those contributions, I don’t know it will be enough.”
Tom found himself unable to speak as Social Silence locked him down hard.
“And how long do you think that will take?”
The healer sighed as he glanced at Clare. “Maybe four or five days. Longer than I hoped but at that point we’ll sell Tom’s helmet and a couple of other temporary pieces Thor’s bought and hope that it’s enough. Tom, do you have an input on that?”
Social Silence wrapped around his throat. He coughed and, while he knew he could get around this by attempting to say the same phrase repeatedly that was not something he wanted to do. He decided that maybe staying out of the conversation was the right call.
“We’ve discussed the topic in detail,” Clare interrupted. “There hasn’t been any specific dreams, but my interpretation is that his subconscious thinks the precognition blocker won’t be a problem.” Tom wondered if she had prepared for this in advance. Her answers were perfectly phrased to avoid Michael’s abilities.
“That’s a weight off my chest.”
“I know Michael is convinced we won’t have left-over credits,” Clare continued. “But as a thought experiment, if we did what golems do you think Tom could make to shape the battle? And would be a good use of limited resources?”
“Why would we do something like that instead of let’s say an evolution potion?” Keikain asked.
Clare laughed. “And there’s no self interest in that question. Hypothetically, the answer might be because his golems are disposable and can be tailored.” She answered patiently. “And theoretically, he can create them in sufficient numbers for them to be useful.”
For the next twenty minutes, the group debated the various options. Numerous ideas were floated. The best included golems that pretended to be human, to act as decoys and draw the dragon’s flames. Others whose sole purpose was to generate energy interference, both light and magic to distract the target and ones that could fire nets to try to restrain the insects.
He made a note of all of them and decided that in the morning he would investigate further.
His personalised food was delivered. It was an amusing platter that looked a lot like the trays that everyone else was eating from. Fried and battered meat, kebabs and a single mini burger along with a vegetable root that he knew from experience was both refreshing and slightly salty.
Hours passed, with the majority of the conversations dwelling on the final battle. What they would face, strengths and weaknesses and whether there were other ways to gather data, like regent heavy rituals to reduce the reliance on True Dreaming.
The rum was tasty, and he drank heavily but neutralised the alcohol with every sip. With the leftovers of Jenny’s team here and Phil, he couldn’t afford to get drunk. He wasn’t the only one who was visibly unaffected by the large quantities of alcohol they were consuming. Thor, Bao, Michael, Everlyn and Vidja all appeared as sober as Tom had made himself.
“Fuck off you sick cunt.” Everyone looked at the cause of the disturbance. Gerald vibrated with barely restrained violence, his face flushed while he pressed right up and into Phil’s personal space. “There’s no fucking way I’m telling a mass murdering psychopath any details about my build.”
Phil stared at him coldly. “There is no need to shout. I was only making conversation.”
“Bullshit, you were working out how to kill me. We know that is what you did to your original group. How many of us have you killed you prick? One? Two? Three hundred? Tell me you arsehole.”
The New Zealander glared at the smaller man and then looked around at the number of allies that Gerald presumably had and chose not to escalate further. “I wasn’t angling for a fight.”
“If you’re innocent just declare it,” Michael proposed. “We’ve got enough truth tellers here that we’ll believe you.
Silence greeted the offer. Then Phil shook his head. “Nope, I won’t truck in gossip and innuendo.”
“Just say it,” Vidja suggested. “I’ve killed less than two humans. Just say it or your silence confirms our worse fears.”
“Why should I?”
“Because you came alone, without allies.” Vidja insisted. “It’s suspicious, and a few words can put all those doubts to rest.”
“No, I see. I’m not appreciated or wanted here, despite being the strongest. If you’re willing to throw wild accusations without evidence, I don’t want to have anything to do with you.” With an exaggerated huff, he spun and stalked out of the room.
“I think that’s definitive proof.” Vidja said quietly.
“It doesn’t matter.” Tom told her. “Just like we’re allied with the giant we need to make good with him. We’ll just consider him to be another hostile party, like all the other species.”
“I hear you Tom, I hear you.” Keikain said into the silence. “One more problem to worry about.”