Sun was in its peak when Lucas finally opened his eyes. Bruce came to relieve him some time after dawn and he went to get some shut eyes. He actually looked forward to getting some answers and hoped the old man wasn’t going to talk too much about stuff he wasn’t interested in. He finally announced he was awake by getting up and actually had a decent meal waiting for him. He casted a questioning look at Bruce, who just shrugged.
“I still have some friends in town” he simply told him. Lucas decided to put his questions for later and took his time savoring every bite, unsure when he will have a chance to eat something finely made. After finishing his meal, he sat down on the ground and put his eyes on the old Loremaster. He sighed.
“What do you want to know?” he asked.
“Who are these military guys and what have they done to Camp?” Lucas opened with what he considered as the most important question.
“Those “military guys” as you so aptly put it are the personal army of the individual known only as the General. They swore to bring order back to the world, in their vision order being the old world governments and defined limits to how much regular person can progress” he explained.
“Isn’t every human already limited to how much he can go?” Lucas asked, confused. One of the first things he learned was that the progress wasn’t unlimited for all but the few of the brightest. And he aimed to be the brightest.
“Yes, but that is flexible. In theory, System allows for an unlimited progression and protection from natural death if you are sufficiently advanced. As far as is known in the multiverse, and countless people put their whole life into that researches, mind you, there isn’t a protection from death in battle. There are mechanisms for second chances, creatures and beings that are reborn or reformed, but even that is limited and always costly.” Bruce explained. “But for much, there is a hard limit for how far they can go. Some get killed, some just give up and the majority never even tries, getting some version of crafting or civilian class and leading a normal life.” he finished.
“So, they are trying to accomplish something that is already in place” Lucas asked, completely confused.
“Well, there is a thing you are missing. Everything in there is a personal choice of a sentient being who decides how to live their lives, System just acknowledging it and providing tools. What the General trying to accomplish is bringing that decisions under his control, under veneer of dangers for humanity”
“Dangers for humanity? How, why?” Lucas was still confused, although he parsed and started to dislike what he was hearing. This was essentially politics. And he fucking hates politics.
“Pre – System method of checks and balances. No individual should be able to hold that much power, at least according to their propagandists that are doing overtime over there in Camp Hearth. That is how I ended in jail, entering into the argument with one of those people” Bruce explained.
“So basically, Michael betrayed me because of politics? That fucking imbecile” Lucas was almost shouting.
“Michael? Our Michael?” Bruce asked, his turn to look confused.
“Yea, son of the bitch ambushed us after the dungeon. Killed the whole team except me” Lucas told Bruce the story of that fateful night. Old Loremaster went from confusion to anger and then to resignation, as he then told Lucas that he didn’t know who went to close the dungeon, but that night they embarked, troopers entered the Camp Hearth and essentially occupied it. City guard was dissolved and adventurers were brought under martial courts where they either complied with the new rules and were inducted into the unit, or were killed and their bodies put on the city center, where they served as the warning for all would-be rebels. All jobs were put under administration locks and were reserved for the members of the troopers, with “independent contractors” put solely on fetch duties and with a ban on giving experience as a part of reward.
“And people just accepted that?” Lucas asked, visibly shaken. He just couldn’t figure out why anybody would just roll over for something like that.
“You have to understand, they were surgical in the first night, putting the strongest among us quickly under arrest. They suffered losses, of course, but after the first night there just wasn’t enough for any sort of real resistance. Especially as people knew that you four, strongest among us, are going to come back any time now and put things right.” Bruce said.
“I guess John, Maraya and Hannah were paraded throughout the whole town then.” Lucas tried to guess.
“Exactly. They recounted the events of finding them as they were trying to rob some merchants, who were standing next to the General and solemnly nodding head. He used that as the example why anybody with such power would inevitably turn to something like that or even worse stuff” Bruce confirmed Lucas’s prediction.
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“I guess now I know how they had so good intel. Michael must have fed them everything he knew, and I guess he did some legwork before luring you out” Bruce continued.
Lucas could only nod to this conclusion and curse once himself once more for not noticing. There were telltale signs that something was wrong, but he convinced himself Michael was just pretending to be responsible and flexing his new fancy words he learned while serving.
“Will you satisfy my curiosity for a bit” Bruce startled him from his dark thoughts and Lucas nodded “You said you cleared a scenario dungeon before the ambush? How was it? I hadn’t had the chance to study them during my long career?”
Lucas recounted the tale of their fights and tried to reconstruct from memory what they learned from the story of Viridi and its people. During the whole time he talked, Bruce injected even more questions and inquiries before asking Lucas to just share prompts he got during the run.
“You can do that?” Lucas asked, taken completely by surprise.
“Of course you can, dumb young” Bruce responded to him, visibly annoyed. He told him to find that messages in the logs and share them with him.
“Logs?” Lucas asked, still shocked by the influx of the new informations.
“Did you watch any of the tutorial vids I made for the newly initiated?” Bruce was almost shouting him.
“Just the one related to skills and combat, and even that was a long time ago” Lucas told him with the shit – eating grin.
Bruce rolled his eyes and started guiding Lucas step by step how to find his logs and then how to share them. He then lost himself in reading, allowing Lucas some free time to think about everything he learned. Dismissing flimsy reasons, underneath laid a naked power play. The General started consolidating power in the region, akin to what travelers and merchants spoke happening all over the Earth.
“I guess that is inevitable. With the System, every asshole could try and force himself over other people. Keyword being try, as equally powerful people could simply kill him and critical mass of lesser powerful could drown him in numbers. That was the key reason he sought to limit grow of people, as Lucas guessed drowning in number strategy stops being effective when there is a big difference in power.
“Hey, gray head. Is there an insurmountable difference in power where you become essentially invulnerable against weaker people?” he asked Bruce, looking for confirmation.
“In theory, no. But the prices in life for the weak become so catastrophic that it starts being hard to find enough of the critical mass to actually kill someone” Bruce answered, and after a short pause continued “it’s good to see you are using your head for change. I also think that is the end goal for our shinning new overlord, because I’m sure as hell he didn’t limit himself the same way.”
Satisfied with the confirmation, Lucas continued thinking but after a short while he stopped himself. Not a thing he heard changed his goal of killing Michael and avenging the betrayal. It maybe interfered with his long time goal of becoming more powerful, but the Earth is vast and there are always other places for Lucas to achieve his goals. And after finishing integration, the whole multiverse will open. But, he was extremely interested to find out what made them to come to Camp Hearth and so he once again pestered Bruce with a question. The old Loremaster quickly muttered “Archive” before dismissing the prompt Lucas shared with him and took a pause to think about that question.
“I guess it has something to do with the cult status our little settlement have in humanity. Being the place of the last battle give Camp Hearth a lot of prestige and that value was something that a highly charismatic build, like I suspect General have, could do a lot of good with. That plays in the name of the organization they donned on their uniforms. My best guess is he had a plan to place himself as a defacto ruler of Earth” Bruce shared his theory.
“I don’t get how the organization plays into it? Hell, I don’t even know what that organization is” Lucas asked for further clarification.
Bruce went into the lengthy explanation about pre – System political order and the role organization General was trying to connect himself to played in that. As he was droning on and on, Lucas got the gist of it. They were supposed to be top dogs settling any disputes member states might have. That basically spoke the old man was right in his theory the General was going with the Charisma and briefly wondered what is his real class before losing interest in that line of thinking, just as Bruce was finishing his tirade. He decided to ask Bruce about regular troopers, since he forgot to check them in town, and during the ambush their information were obscured.
“Why are you asking?” Bruce cast him a suspicious look.
“Well, I still have vengeance to dish out” Lucas explained.
“Michael?” Bruce asked. Lucas only nodded.
“Good. Your training starts tomorrow.”
Lucas once again was shocked, which was becoming slowly becoming a norm during the length of this conversation.
“Or are you expecting to just waltz back and start killing again? I don’t want to offend, but that woman in the prison was outclassing you”
Lucas opened his mouth for an angry retort, before closing it and reflecting on that fight. She did appear to have the upper hand, not to mention she was out leveling him. He used his new found knowledge of System logs, and found information he got when identifying her.
“Carmen Diaz, Mistress of the Whip, level 44”
“Okay, old man. What I’m to do ‘till tomorrow?” Lucas asked, and regretting the question as a big smile appeared on the face of the old man.
“You read” he simply said as he started sharing a lot of prompts to Lucas, who only managed to groan.