"The greatest blow was learning that faster-than-light travel and communication are, in practice, impossible. In our hubris, we had believed that we would find some way to get around this."
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Alex had no idea how long he had fallen unconscious, but his mangled leg and the flow of energy still rushing into him told him it couldn’t have been more than a minute. He had done it. It was incredibly lucky; there was no way that he would have survived if K’Mposhe hadn’t been so hubristic or if the T’Kordish hadn’t been an insectoid species with an exoskeleton of chitin. He had no time to appreciate his luck, though, because there were now footsteps in the hall. Four of the T’Kordish disciples were now running in.
A few notifications lit up his vision, but he quickly pushed them to the side. He caught a glimpse of one informing him that he was now the Outpost Leader. He could take care of that later, if he survived. In a way, this would be harder than dealing with K’Mposhe. The disciples would be much warier of him. He was severely injured and his channels were once again burnt out, his one trump card having been expended. He was now completely dependent — not on himself — but on K’Mposhe.
There was no way Alex would survive this combat, even if he got extremely lucky again. But if K’Mposhe was anything like human narcissistic leaders, they would have purchased a number of items for self-preservation at their subjects’ expense, and their subjects would be unlikely to have such items. So Alex touched the dead leader’s Spatial Bracelet, which had formed a ring on the ground. Looking inside, he was filled with exhilaration at the number of items that it contained. He took out a healing talisman like the one he had seen K’Mposhe use. A tooltip appeared.
Healing Talisman
Grade: Tier 0-C
Description: Performs 64 lucens of healing within 4.8 seconds.
Value: 515 lucens
It was a shame to spend over 500 lucens so lightly, but he had no choice. The mental activation came naturally now. Pins and needles went through his entire body, and he felt as if he was being stretched and put together again countless times. Within seconds, his leg was restored and his arms felt normal again, after having been weakened by passing through the black barrier. Thinking of the black barrier once again, he picked up the black spheres from the ground near the corpse of the T’Kordish leader. Another tooltip appeared in his vision.
Corrosion Field Matrix
Grade: Tier 0-B. Upgradeable.
Type: Horizontal, Circle
Description: Creates a Corrosion Field (Tier 0-C) 4.4 feet above and below the plane of the matrix.
Energy Cost: 0.8 Ł per second
Value: 4129 lucens
Alex was thrilled to see the value of the black spheres. The value of these alone would be enough to take someone to level 20, and he couldn’t wait to see what else K’Mposhe had in their stash. He picked up the black club, which must have weighed at least 200 pounds. Even with his almost 10x modifier to strength, he found it difficult to wield.
Tar-Covered Wooden Club
Grade: Tier 0-C
Enchantments: 16 x Resistance; 16 x Mass.
Value: 434 lucens
When the charging T’Kordish saw him standing with the club and the black field around him, they took a step back in hesitation.
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Alex realized that the tide had now turned. With his body now restored, the Corrosion Field surrounding him, and access to a better weapon, he could now stand evenly against four level 20 T’Kordish, especially since they did not seem to have Titles. Even if they killed him, he would take at least a couple out before he died. So he took a gamble.
“K’Mposhe was a strong leader, but it appears that they took a lot from you. If you pledge fealty to me, I will halve your taxation rate and allow you access to some of the items from the Outpost Shop.”
The T’Kordish considered his offer, talking quietly amongst themselves. In the meantime, Alex deactivated the Corrosion Field with a thought, since its energy consumption was extremely high. Soon, one of them spoke.
“I am P’Knok. We had no special loyalty to K’Mposhe, but she provided us with an extremely accelerated path. We reached level 20 just two days after the Integration. We will follow you only if you continue this program and expand it.”
So K’Mposhe was female, after all. Interesting. It was difficult to determine their biological sex from their voices or hooded appearances.
Alex’s curiosity was piqued by the program they mentioned. “What is this program?”
“We spawned in a village with more than a thousand Paloquod. We killed all of them, rapidly gaining power and momentum before they had a chance to organize. After establishing an Outpost, K’Mposhe sold the corpses of the Paloquod on the Sector Market for almost ten lucens each, bringing us great prosperity. We then expanded to two nearby towns. We subjugated the inhabitants, and we will harvest them in a few days once they have reached an acceptable level.”
The fact that the T’Kordish discussed genocide so casually sent a deep chill into Alex’s bones. He had not heard of the Paloquod, but the fact that they could “organize” probably meant that they were sentient. He realized that there would be no true dialogue with the T’Kordish. But he still wanted to grill them for information before he killed them.
“An effective plan. But how come there are only ten of you?”
The T’Kordish looked at each other. “We have a relatively high Threat rating, and we are an old species with an established level of Threat. Therefore there were only 16 of us in this Region. Most of us quickly found each other and coordinated an attack.” Alex thought he detected a note of pride in P’Knok’s voice.
The T’Kordish said this as if it were something he was supposed to know. It sounded as if the implicit assumption was that species with higher levels of Threat spawned in lower quantities, but he couldn’t be sure.
“Did you know about this?” Alex mentally messaged his Assistant.
[Unfortunately, that information requires Tier 0-C access. Once you upgrade me to Tier 0-C, I will be able to give you a full debrief on this matter.]
The din of battle outside echoed into the hall. As much as he wanted to keep questioning these creatures, he needed to help the rest of the humans and Ulumou. So he needed to attack sooner, rather than later. The problem was, he wasn’t sure how to make this a decisive victory. He felt they were evenly matched, even one against four, but he needed an unfair advantage. So he kept talking while he looked through the Spatial Bracelet. At the same time, he formed another chitin shard between his hands. It would form much more slowly due to the fact that he couldn’t strain his channels again, but he could stall for longer now.
In the Spatial Bracelet, there were a few interesting finds. He found a cleansing solution that said it would remove a 200% blockage over 22 hours. There was a pile of physical lucens, which, according to the Assistant, was worth 939 lucens. There was one more healing talisman. There were some interesting-looking weapons, but none were worth as much as the club. Finally, there were three tiny, light gray spheres.
Heat Orb
Grade: Tier 0-D
Effect: Adds a Heat Field (Tier 0-D) 1.1 feet above and below the Orb for 4.8 seconds. Orb is consumed.
Activation Range: 4.4 feet
Value: 45 lucens
“Can you translate this into plain English for me?” Alex mentally asked the Assistant.
[Yes. This will be enough to set most ordinary flammable substances on fire, and will kill lower-level players. Physical Resistance increases resistance to heat, though, so it will only injure players Tier 0-C and above.]
It was an expensive single-use item, but Alex didn’t see any other choice. In the middle of his conversation with the T’Kordish, when his shard became fully formed, he launched a surprise attack. First, he activated the Corrosion Field Matrix again with a thought. He then threw two Heat Orbs at the closest T’Kordish. They fell to the ground in agony, and it was clear that significant damage had been done. Not missing a beat, he lunged at P’Knok with his misshapen chitin shard. He had put all of the energy he had gained from K’Mposhe into the shard, and he estimated it weighed about 2 pounds, which was less than the one he had killed K’Mposhe with. It was just barely enough. The shard expanded across their exoskeleton, gaining mass but stopping about halfway through. A quick jab and twist was enough to finish the job, and he felt a rush of energy flowing into him.