Our lord! Why have you forsaken us!? Where are your words of guidance!? The Children of Flame have need of you!
* A Children of Flame prayer during the “Silence of Desolation” (… Seriously, they called it that. It was just two frickin’ years!)
-------
Despite Ren’s enthusiastic greeting after I had slain the giant turtle, I could tell something was up.
“Is there a problem?” I asked him.
“No, no! Of course not!” he replied in response. “Things have gone more or less to plan. There is no need to worry!”
However, while his tells were a bit less noticeable when he was actually trying to be sneaky with his lying, I still had seen them enough that I could notice.
“Walk with me for a moment, then,” I answered.
Ren shook his head. “I must watch over the gathering of the treasure, otherwise-“
I cut him off with a shake of my head. “Your men can be trusted, right? So, just give me a moment.”
He hesitated a moment longer but eventually went along with me.
“So, what’s actually the problem,” I whispered to him as we went.
He sighed. “After claiming the treasure turtle’s corpse, I was given slightly more gems than we would generally pull in by the entire raiding party combined.”
I grinned. “That’s good news, right?” He stopped in place, and I was left turning around to face him. His pensive look erased my grin. “Or not… Why is that not good news? Wasn’t that the point of this partnership?”
Ren looked up at the sky and sighed again. “Yes… and no. You see, we are required to report all of our rewards from the raid directly to my father. The amount of treasure from looting the body, plus the number of gems from our attacks leading up to here, and then finally add in the pile of jewels that were unearthed from your attacks when the beast jumped, and we will be at an amount that will be difficult to explain.”
He paused and looked at me. “If it becomes known that I have discovered a way to kill the beast in its entirety, it would surely not be something my father would let lie. While I am confident in maneuvering my way around politics and oaths, the [King] is not such a slouch that he would fail to pull the information out of me… one way or the other.”
“Oh,” was all I replied. “That’s bad.”
Ren gave a short laugh. “Yes, indeed. That is bad.”
We stood there in silence for a moment while I put my brain to work to come to a solution.
I got the start of an idea that seemed promising.
“What exactly do your oaths require you to do?” I asked.
“All of my men are required to turn over every gem that they see to me. Meanwhile, I am required to turn over every gem I receive from this excursion over to my father, who will then distribute payment to all as he sees fit,” Ren replied. “If you were hoping to provide assistance by means of taking your cut of gems that we didn’t notice-“ he shook his head. “-that will help, but it will be nowhere near enough.”
“What if…” I trailed off. “Nevermind.”
“Titus?” he asked.
Meanwhile, I kept my mouth shut. Hey, Tim. I have an idea. Let me run it by you really quick…
Tim was not so happy about me interrupting their ritual research once again, but he quickly gave his blessing for my plan. Or at least, he said that it “had a decent probability of success,” which was about the most positive thing he had said about anything related to my plans with Ren.
“Okay, Ren,” I told him when I was ready. “You’re going to gather all the gems like normal, but don’t look at the total until I tell you. Just stuff them all into your inventory and don’t look, okay?”
Ren raised an eyebrow. “I trust that you have a plan, then?” he asked.
I nodded. “Yes, but the less I tell you, the more likely we can pull it off.”
Ren seemed skeptical, but he went ahead and did it anyway. His men gathered up all the gems that they could find, gave them to the [Prince], and then I got him alone once more.
“Okay… starting… now. Quickly, look at the gems in your inventory and hand over any excess,” I stated.
“I cannot give them away, per my oath,” he stated.
“I’m just borrowing them for a moment! I won’t steal them!” I lied.
He dumped gem after gem into my hands, and then I vanished them all into my inventory. Soon, the flow stopped.
“Done?” I asked.
“Done,” he replied.
I pulled out my staff, and cast.
“[Control Z]!”
To be honest, the entire transaction had taken a bit longer than I expected, and as both my mana and stamina dropped to 0, I was worried that I didn’t have enough juice to pull off the spell.
Ren looked at me and then blinked in confusion. “Titus, we do not have all day,” he stated. “If you have a plan for the gems, I want to hear it.”
I breathed an internal sigh of relief. “Gems?” I asked. “What gems?”
He frowned. “Please do not mock me. You are well aware of what I am referring to.”
“No, [Prince],” I replied. “I am not sure I am.” My [Actor] levels were putting in work because instead of outright disbelieving me, he started to doubt himself just a little.
“The gems that you specifically told me not to look at!” he replied. “You said that you had a plan to help with the excess. This is no time for games!”
“Ren,” I replied calmly. “You told me about no such thing. Are you sure that you’re okay?” The good news about having a ridiculous 1000 mana staff was that I had already recovered a few mana points even during that brief exchange. “[Restore],” I cast on him.
“Ah,” I nodded. “The heat must have gotten to you,” I stated sagely as if my spell had actually done something besides put on a pretty light show.
“The heat?” Ren asked incredulously. “I am a desert beastborn! We have [Heat Resistance]! It cannot be that I had the heatstroke condition on the first day of spring!”
I shrugged and continued my gaslighting. “I’m not sure what else it could be. I mean, you’ve been muttering to yourself about extra gems and then even pulled me aside to talk about them.”
He scowled. “Now I know you are mocking me. It was you who called me over here to discuss this. And you who claimed to have a plan for the extra gems!”
“What extra gems?” I asked in fake exasperation. “I would love to help you, but I need to know what you’re talking about!”
“Fine then, I shall show you,” he stated as he pulled up his inventory. “I am referring to the excess gems that I have… right…” He continued scrolling, confusion overtaking his anger. “… Where did they go?” he muttered. “I am sure I put more than this into my inventory.”
He looked at me and furrowed his brows. “You have done something… which means I should pry no further,” he said.
“I have no idea what you are talking about,” I lied. Internally, I couldn’t help but hide a smirk. I might have been enjoying the mind games I was playing with the [Prince] a bit too much. However, after all the hoops he made me jump through, I figured we were almost even.
Almost. I wasn’t quite done yet.
“Go ahead and ask me under truth stone. I have no way to steal anything from your inventory. And then go ahead and confirm with all of your men. I’m sure they’ve given you everything that they gathered,” I said.
He sighed. “Very well, we shall do that.”
And so, after that particular true statement was finished, the confused [Prince] and I parted ways. He needed to meet back up with Arnit and give all of his gems to the [King], and I had something I wanted to try to figure out.
------
By the oasis, how did he do it? Ren asked himself as he and his party walked back to where the great beasts appeared. I am certain that we gathered more than this… by almost three times. Instead, we have an amount that is large but by no means unexplainable.
That was a dangerous thing to think about with the upcoming ceremony, and Ren knew it. He also knew the folly of attempting to “not think about something” since that would simply make him dwell on it all the more.
However, there was one trick that he could employ.
Think about something else. Aggressively.
What he settled on was imagining the look on his older brother Admon’s face when he found out that he had been shown up by his younger brother.
And after showing myself a more capable leader of warriors than elder brother Admon… I need simply show myself able to outmaneuver elder sister Iris. Ren couldn’t help the grin that came across his face. His first genuine one in who knows how long.
Third child or not… the throne would be his.
-----
“Hey, Tim,” I stated to thin air.
What circumstance would lead you to summon me again so soon? He grumbled in my head. Did your plan fail so catastrophically that you require my aid furthermore?
“Uhh… no,” I replied. “Plan worked great. Anyway, I was thinking about how I would get back here after I finally left Besti and was wondering if you could help me put together a [Spatius] spell for it.”
Did I not already caution you about the hazards of using that manner of spell with us in tow? He asked, and I could practically hear him scowling at me.
“I would probably leave you behind,” I replied. “Pop in here for a day, murder a giant turtle-beast, then pop back,” I stated.
You have squandered enough time on this endeavor. This amount of effort is not worth the pittance that you will receive in recompense from that avaricious-
I replied by dumping my entire inventory of gems into a pile in front of me.
Tim paused for a moment, and then I helpfully added. “Magicite is also really expensive, just so you know. They have to mine it in some frickin’ awful dimension that is so dark I can’t even see down there.”
You are the [Demon Lord]. Why do you insist on paying for anything? Tim asked after a brief pause. Could you not simply seize whatever stores of magicite you need?
Frick… He’s… kinda got a point. I thought. However, I had my hasty back-rationalization ready in just a few seconds.
“Supply and demand,” I stated. “We need years if not decades worth of magicite. If all of it gets stolen, nobody will bother mining it anymore because it will be too risky. But, if we pay full price, or even overpay, then hopefully the increased demand will get more and more people to work on the supply.”
Tim’s only reply was a long sigh that seemed to deem me victorious. And where will you be teleporting from? I understand your goal is to extend your [Teleport] range, but do you require a doubling of range? A quintupling? An entire order of magnitude or more?
“Hmm,” I replied. “I’m going to be in Gram, probably. Maybe Dryadal. I guess I could even end up in Pumil if we need to make some direct trade with the dwarves, so I suppose that means I want-“
A teleportation ritual anchored to a specific location that has a large setup cost but then allows teleportation at a fixed rate irregardless of distance? Tim asked.
I nodded in satisfaction. “Yeah, something like that!”
Engineer it yourself. He retorted as his presence faded away.
I sputtered in indignation for a moment, before shouting at the ghost who I was no longer sure could hear me. “Fine then! I will! I don’t need your help anyway!”
I almost got to work on it right then and there, but I belatedly remembered that I was supposed to meet the [Prince] back at the palace.
I made my way back there with only a smidge of grumbling. By then it was late, so I settled in for the night and planned to work on the new spell, only for Tim to put a damper on that because they needed my help looking at something.
Almost before I knew it, the sun had risen on the next busy day.
------
The first order of business was a ceremony that Ren had to do with the [King] over the treasure from the raid. It was an entire song and dance with Ren’s older brother going first, handing over his gems, and then claiming how his “greatest haul of Besti history” could not have been accomplished without the loyal members of his raiding party.
Meanwhile, Ren went second, and things were a bit sketchy… which was why I was watching over the entire thing from [Sneak].
I wasn’t even sure there was anything I could do if it went sideways, but if he ended up outing me, I wanted to at least know in advance. And while I could have gathered that information via [Scry], I was worried about them having countermeasures to detect or block it, and I didn’t want to waste the mana I could be using to practice magic.
My concern ended up being unfounded anyway. Before Ren started, he made a half-hearted excuse about not being sure he had managed to gather all the gems due to some possible issues with heat stroke. His brother looked pretty smug after that, but he got shut up pretty quick when Ren handed over an even larger pile of precious jewels.
From there, he also made similar humble brags about how he could not have done it without his loyal party members and the special monster lure.
That, of course, launched the questioning around said “special monster lure.” Fortunately, Ren deflected that by stating that he didn’t know the manufacturing method and that his source had sworn him to secrecy. Both of which were true… if he had known a way to manufacture a Titus, I would have been very concerned about our continuing partnership.
The [King] let him off after that, with a slight warning about not making such oaths in the future.
However, that was basically just a sideshow. The main event occurred later that day.
Ren’s older sister was returning from a diplomatic mission, and that timing was apparently what Ren was waiting for to introduce the “roaming dungeon creator.”
The [Prince] had helped me secure an audience with the royal family, mostly through some backchannels that couldn’t be traced back to him, and my goal was to sell them on the idea that I could create a dungeon for them… But to make my pitch somewhat poorly.
To put it another way, I was supposed to come across as just sketchy enough that the royal family would decide to take a pass on me, even if I was willing to swear an oath and talk under truth stone. I managed to pull that off, and Ren swooped in at the last second with reassurances that he would pay for it out of his own pocket and take responsibility for anything that occurred… which also meant that he would get all the glory when it succeeded (and, I would later find out, that included exclusive rights to the usage of the dungeon and its treasures for quite some time).
However, despite having a [Prince] on board and the [King’s] tentative blessing, we ran into a snag that delayed us for much longer than I could have anticipated.
The [Martial Elders].
While the royal family was the diplomatic arm and also handled laws and many other things, creating a dungeon was a matter that would impact training and defense as well. So, I also had to give a much more convincing set of arguments to that group.
I had to fight through delays, reschedulings, and tons of arguments that barely touched on the problem at hand… You know. Standard politics.
Said politics took long enough that the summer solstice came and went, and I helped Ren’s people kill another giant turtle. That caused the same problem as the last time, and I went with the same solution, but I realized that something might need to change given that he was starting to get a bit paranoid of me with the whole [Control Z] and gaslight thing.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
As the [Martial Elders] continued to stonewall us, I made some great strides toward my [Teleport Beacon] spell/ritual that I was working on (or at least, I thought I did). The basic idea behind it was to designate an area in space and juice it up with [Magnetismus] so that it could attract teleports to it.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get the spell even close to finished. Despite my progress, I was still nowhere on the spell for teleporting to the dang thing, and using [Magnetismus] felt like I was using the wrong tool for the job. It almost felt like I was trying to pound in screws with a hammer.
However, that wasn’t the worst side effect of the stay. No, the worst problems were that
1. I didn’t have any time to sneak away and get my levels
2. My cult was surely wondering where the heck I was after spending 50 years in constant communication
3. It turned out that staying in one place for too long caused me to be visited by some unexpected guests…
------
I was tinkering around with my new spell in the MindScape late one night when my physical body was shook by something or someone.
I dutifully ignored it for a second as I tried to make a few last tweaks… and then the entire MindScape flipped upside down.
I heard some sounds of frustration and dismay from Tim and Cameron as we fell into the sky briefly, and then some grunts as the entire courtyard righted itself, and we all collapsed on the ground.
“Sorry about that,” I called. “Body got flipped over in the real world. I need to go check on that.”
I heard them muttering something under their breath, but I didn’t stick around to find out. I snapped back to my body immediately.
“Titus-dono!” I finally could hear Ren frantically say as he shook me. “You must wake up! Hurry!”
“I already told you,” I replied. “I don’t sleep. What’s so urgent that-“
“No time!” he answered as he shoved me to the door. “He is here! You must hurry and get out of here!”
“Who is here?” I asked in annoyance.
“The [Hero]! You must go! Now!”
I snorted and pulled out my hand mirror. “[Scry] Ayluin….” I glanced over at Ren. “What’s his last name, again?”
“Eltris!” he hissed.
“[Scry] Ayluin Eltris,” I cast. We were greeted by the sight of an old [Merchant], covered in mithril armor that had to be the Hero’s Regalia, hobbling slightly as he was escorted by a group of more than a dozen assorted adventurers. “… Alright, that could be enough of them to be a slight problem,” I stated. “But it’s not like they can find me.”
“[Path To Vengeance] has him in this direction,” one of the men stated. “We’re getting close. Everyone be ready.”
“Son of a dave,” I growled.
“Indeed, it is,” Ren replied. “Now, go! Hurry and leave the town, or they will find out about our partnership!”
That last bit revealed the real reason for his concern, but I couldn’t exactly fault him. It seemed that I cared about as much for the man as he did for me.
I shook my head. “No, if I leave town, the trail will take them here first.” I sighed. “Looks like it’s time for the direct approach.”
-----
Ayluin was too old for this [Heroing] business. He hadn’t minded it as much back when it was just matters of capital. In fact, he had enjoyed taking down those swindlers who had ruined so many lives. But this “running across the entire world, gathering a party or two to take on the [Demon Lord]” was not his cup of tea at all. System hadn’t even given him a real weapon to fight with! What was he going to do in this situation with the Hero’s Abacus? Account the [Demon Lord] to death?
But he knew why he was there. The Demon Lord Accords said that every nation would give their aid to the chosen [Hero] to take down the [Demon Lord]. And that was the key. No [Hero]. No support.
He stretched his aching back, which still wasn’t used to wearing his armor as actual armor, and grumbled to himself. Couldn’t they have just waited a few more years until I kicked the bucket?
He knew that letting the [Demon Lord] run around unchecked was a recipe for disaster, but he wasn’t sure that-
His thoughts were interrupted as thunder struck in the middle of the desert, on a night with a cloudless sky.
The adventurers all jumped into action immediately.
“Healer!” one shouted.
“Too late,” another replied. “He’s already dead! Find where that came from and-“
“Right here,” an ominous voice stated as the 7-foot tall [Demon Lord] appeared in the middle of the road.
However, that was about the last thing that Ayluin heard. Between the fright from the lightning bolt and the appearance of the enemy of Placeholder right in front of him, his heart decided that was time to give up the ghost.
He felt his chest seize and the impact of the ground, and then the world was black.
----
I stood there, menacingly projecting my illusion while being lit on fire by my armor’s full effect.
Technically, my main goal was accomplished. I had killed the [Son of Dave] with a [Lightning Spear], and there was nothing to stop me from running away.
However, I didn’t know what the best play was. If I killed them, there was a chance that they would escalate and continue to send more and more people after me. If I didn’t, then they would-
“Holy water and [Heals] now!” one of the adventurers called out.
I was too caught up in my introspection, and one of their vials of holy water landed true.
I hissed lightly in pain, but it turned out that holy water didn’t do as much damage as I expected… then I saw what it did to my flames.
Most of the water evaporated, but my flames were barely noticeable anymore. That, plus the 4 [Heals] that they sent my way, were enough to make my decision.
You’ve seen too much. Sorry. I thought. I stowed my staff. “[Haste] activate, [Strengthen] activate,” I stated as I [Flash Stepped] forward in front of one of the [Clerics].
My [Fire Strike] met the [Guard] of the [Knight] next to him, but that didn’t matter. I swept the [Knight’s] legs out from under him, beat him in the face with a few quick [Fire Strikes] until he couldn’t move, and then went back to work.
The [Clerics] tried to run, but even with the level difference, I was faster than them with my [Haste]. I brought them down one after another with [Elemental Strikes], as the rest of their party tried in vain to even damage me.
Swords bounced off my armor. Arrows clinked off me uselessly. Even the [Wizards] that they brought couldn’t deal damage because I had more than enough resistances to deal with all 4 types of spells they could throw at me.
The one thing they could damage me with was holy water, but they didn’t have much luck landing any of those vials after the initial salvo.
Not that there wasn’t a problem. We were causing quite a commotion in the streets at night, and the [Monks] that passed as Besti’s watch were sure to be on their way soon.
Time to end this. I thought. I needed to take out a large group of adventurers simultaneously so that none could escape, and fortunately, I had a spell for that.
… Actually, I had two.
“[Fireball]!” I forewent the chant and shoved about a quarter of my mana into the blast with [Overchannel]. “[Hell Blaze]!” I cast with all the remaining MP I had.
The results were as devastating as I had hoped. The already downed [Clerics] were reduced to ashes instantly, and the [Wizards] all died along with them.
That left the [Knights] and other adventurers with high HP. They were all downed, but there was still a chance they could be saved.
I sighed. “For what little it’s worth… I am sorry it came to this,” I said as I finished them off one by one as quickly as I could.
My grim work was done, but I couldn’t help but feel like something was missing.
“Wait,” I muttered. “Where was the [Hero] in all that?” I asked, spinning around.
I hadn’t accidentally killed him, or the System would have let me know, so that meant…
“Aw, frick,” I stated as I finally spied the mithril-clad figure collapsed on the road. I sprinted over to him, and rolled him over.
He wasn’t breathing.
“[Restore]!” I cast, to no avail. Meanwhile, Tim decided it was time to backseat me, and he chimed in.
Why are you endeavoring to heal the [Hero]? He asked.
“He’s a [Merchant],” I snapped back. “Take a frickin’ guess.” I tried chest compressions along with [Restoring] with some more of my SP, but that didn’t seem to be helping either.
Ah. Tim stated after a moment. This was the one [Hero] who could not kill you. You wished to keep him alive as long as possible to ensure that you did not run into the next [Hero] prematurely.
I was about to fire back another sarcastic remark, but it was cut off by a message from the System.
System: The Demon Lord has slain the Hero! As the Hero has named no successor, a new Hero will be chosen
I let up trying to heal the now-confirmed dead man.
So, System? I asked in the brief moment before the next message appeared. Am I screwed now, or later?
The pause lasted a bit longer than normal, and that mostly answered my question.
It’s gonna say that it couldn’t choose the [Hero], and then I’m going to get absolutely destroyed in a few years when it picks one to hard counter me. I grumbled.
I didn’t expect… well…
System: The chosen Hero is currently ineligible. Hero selection has been postponed
I stood there blinking at that prompt.
“Alright, you got me. That’s a new one,” I muttered.
Titus? Tim said in my mind. Before I could answer, he continued. Perhaps you should vacate the road next to the expired [Hero] and his party.
Yeah, yeah. I’m movin’. I grumbled back mentally.
I had won against a [Hero] for the third time in my many lives… but I sure as heck wasn’t happy about it.
------
With no [Son of Dave] to track me down, things went on peacefully again. Ren and I slowly argued our way through the [Martial Elders], and the magic studies continued at full speed.
… Or not.
“Gosh frickin’ dang it! Son of a birch!” I attempted to swear before just settling for a long sigh. I was on my 56th attempt at making [Teleport Beacon], and I was sure I was close.
[Locate Spell Flaw] from [Magic Researcher] had been putting in some major work on each attempt, and I had finally cleaned up the last bugs. I was sure it would work now, but…
I was mistaken. I now had a flawless spell that didn’t do what I wanted it to do.
This will now effectively attract people… who are already teleporting to a nearby area. I groaned. I knew of a couple of different game systems where something like that could be helpful… but not in Placeholder. Being the only one who knew how to [Teleport] kinda made anti-teleportation gimmicks useless.
It has to be the [Magnetismus] components. I reasoned with myself as I turned back to the spell. That’s the part that doesn’t feel like it fits. But what else could I use in its place?
It felt like it had to be something from [Impermissus], but [Electricus] wasn’t related at all, and [Temporus] seemed like it would just make things way more expensive without doing much. That left throwing more [Spatius] at it, but if I was going to do that, it didn’t make it any better than just trying to create a longer range version of [Teleport].
I sighed as I debated for a bit about getting some help, and then finally caved and retreated into the MindScape.
It turned out that Tim had more of a plan for making me work on it by myself than just being a prick. The goal was still to get my [Spatius] skill to 5, and the fact that I had been stalled at 4 for quite some time meant that creating my own [Spatius] spell from scratch was probably just what I was looking for to get over the hump.
Unfortunately, as I entered, I was greeted by the sight of two profoundly unhappy former liches.
“Alright,” I sighed. “What’s the bad news?”
“We completed our first trial run from start to finish,” Cameron started. “Testing as large of a section as we could at a time until we were through.”
“But?” I replied, even though I was loathe to ask.
“We are far below even our most conservative estimates regarding the breadth of time that can be traversed,” Tim added.
“Of course,” I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Of course we are. Alright, hit me. How many years do you think it would go?”
“Three hun-“ Cameron started.
“Three hundred twenty-six and one-quarter years,” Tim stated.
Cameron scowled. “Sure, give it in minutes and seconds next. It will be just as far off an estimate.” He turned to me. “From a practical point of view, three hundred fifteen was as far as it would go. So we need-“
“About a hundred and fifty more than that,” I replied. “Okay, that’s bad but… not impossible, right?” I asked.
Cameron snorted while Tim shook his head wearily.
“We can get maybe 50 more years out of this in the next… 50 years,” Cameron said. “So, unless you make some kind of breakthrough, this entire ritual is a non-starter.”
“Lovely,” I stated dryly.
The mood was kinda grim, except for Cameron, who was too busy being a piece of sit to be focused on the problem, so I came to a somewhat off-the-wall decision.
“You know what?” I replied. “Break time. Let’s all just take a break from this and come back when we’re fresh.”
“Titus, none of us require sleep-“ Tim started.
“Don’t care,” I replied. “Break time! Let’s do something completely different to get our minds off things and then come back with a fresh perspective.”
I decided that we would hit the town, do some exploring, see the sights, and even let Tim or Cameron pilot my body for a bit if they were on their best behavior.
That trip was almost an unmitigated disaster.
For exploring, there was a lot of sand… an oasis… and the major attraction, the palace, that I had seen dozens of times and was unimpressed with. The only other things I could think of were to taste the local cuisine (which I had Cameron do, just to prank him. It was kinda worth dealing with that ashen taste in my mouth to get to see him sputter in surprise), and to go out and meet people… which… why would I ever do that?
This was pointless. Cameron helpfully pointed out as I walked back to my room.
I would have argued, but I felt that he had a point.
Well, maybe it helped serve as just a bit of a distraction. I thought to myself.
Wait. Tim suddenly called in my head. Was that magic?
I looked around briefly before finally noticing what he was talking about. It was a person dressed in plain robes running around offering people water.
“Oh, that?” I asked. “Yeah, Ren told me about them. I think they’re… [Well Wizards]?” I said with a shrug. Then, belatedly realizing that I was talking out loud and people were looking at me funny, I kept moving.
Basically, they’re stuck with just the spell [Create Water]. I continued internally. Kinda like a [Message Mage] but more restrictive. They’re the reason why Ren is looking for a bunch of treasure chests in the new zone instead of yet another place to get more water for his people.
This… could be it! Tim replied. You must go acquire that spell! It could be crucial!
Creating water? I thought back dubiously. I don’t think there’s much to learn there. I mean, it feels just like a budget version of [Summon Dave].
There was a long pause.
Tim?
Titus, as soon as we return, I need you to summon a dave! He thought back to me. This is vital! Do you understand?
Okay, okay. Yeesh. I thought back, a bit concerned that the poor guy was losing it again. However, on the off chance that he wasn’t, I summoned a dave for him when we got back to the room. And then, when he wasn’t satisfied, I cast it with [Suspended Spell].
He hovered around it for several moments before finally laughing a long and somewhat unhinged laugh.
“Tim?” I asked. “You okay there?”
“No,” he replied, laughing and crying simultaneously. “I am merely regretting my expectations that the System would behave in an expected and orderly manner. I believe I have discovered our absent piece.”
I looked down at the new dave that finally formed and then back up at Tim. “Daves?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
“No, no!” he replied with a vigorous shake of his head. “A new spell school! I always assumed that the tiers went 1, 2, and then 3, because that is what any sane and logical person would do!” He laughed. “I did not expect there to be a tier of 2.5!”
I scrunched my eyebrows. “Okay, you’ve lost me. How are daves a tier of 2.5?”
“Very well, I shall elucidate you,” he stated. “What do you sense when you examine the spell, [Summon Dave]?” he asked.
“Uhh… a bit of life magic? [Animae]?”
“Close. Investigate further. Do you not also observe… [Mortae]?”
“[Mortae]?” I asked. “Why the heck would a summon use death magic? That doesn’t make any…” I trailed off as I sensed it. “But there it is.”
“And now, the final two. Do you not observe traces of [Evalescae] and [Remolliae]?” he asked. “Oh, and if you are not aware-“
“Buffs and debuffs,” I replied. “Yeah, I have [Haste].” It was harder to find it, but I did eventually notice what he was talking about. “They’re all there… but they’re also incomplete. So, what does that mean?” I asked.
“That in addition to the tier 2 schools which are composed entirely of their direct descendants, there exists a tier 2.5 school compromised of all four bases!” Tim replied with a laugh. “We need simply locate the one for [Impermissus], and I dare not make a claim yet, but if it is what I anticipate, then we shall have our absent piece!”
That was easier said than done. It had us stumped for the better part of two weeks, just slamming our heads into it. Until…
“Another failure,” I remarked, more out of habit at that point than anything. I almost dismissed the spell structure before Tim screamed into my mind.
Stop! That might be it!
We all examined it. It might have been the elusive tier 2.5 school underneath [Impermissus]… but we had no way to tell.
Increase the power? Cameron added, helpfully for once. That would be the easiest way to tell if it has the effect you want, right?
“Cameron, you’re a genius,” I replied. I prepared to dump all my mana into it, but Cameron cut me off again.
Maybe… not in the [Prince’s] guest room? Just an idea.
Tim and I grudgingly agreed, and I hurried out to the desert to test what it would do at full strength.
“Ready?” I asked. I got a feeling of ascent from both my passengers. “Here we g-uuughhhhh.”
The last part was the sound a [Demon Lord] makes when he is forcefully smashed into the sand by approximately 10 times normal gravity for about 3 seconds.
I wasn’t exactly pleased. In contrast, Tim was over the moon.
It is [Gravitus]! I should have known! This will be precisely what we need! All of the calculations will need to be reworked, and entire swathes of the ritual will need to be redone, but-
“It’s gravity magic,” I replied. “Big whoop. Isn’t that just [Magnetismus] with more steps?”
Just [Magnetismus]? Just [Magnetismus]!? Tim scoffed. Titus, gravity is the curvature of spacetime itself! This is the missing component that we required for both our rituals! I could practically hear him shaking his head. Just [Magnetismus]. Might as well complain about just winning the lottery.
“Alright, alright,” I replied. “I get it. This was a huge milestone. Go team.” I paused. “So…. What horrible side effect does this magic have?”
Tim paused in his celebration.
I suppose… You will learn that through your own experiments?
“Great,” I muttered.
-----
Despite my complaints, things went really well after that. [Gravitus] was indeed the missing component of my [Teleport Beacon]. With a downpayment of 6000 mana, I could establish a permanent teleport location near the spawn of the treasure turtles.
It would still take me an entire 1000 mana to cast [Teleport to Beacon], but that was a small price to pay to be able to traverse the entire breadth of Placeholder instantly…. Well, instantly with a lot of setup beforehand.
That was also enough to level my [Spatius] skill to 5 and prepare me to purchase [SpatialTemporus]. And also had the side benefit of freeing me to help out with the ritual once more. Tim was… well, I wouldn’t say happy, but at least less grouchy once that was the case.
As for making the actual skill purchase, I encountered even more delays. It took 2 full years in Besti before the [Martial Elders] signed off on the dungeon. And they only did once “Tyrone the wandering dungeon creator” showed off some level 3 [Martial Arts] to win their approval (I figured any higher than that would be suspicious for a whole other reason).
The dungeon setup after that was as quick as expected. I had it slapped together and under Besti’s faction within a week of the approval.
Oh, and the answer to Ren’s question of, “how many treasure chests can you fit in a non-elemental dungeon” appeared to have been 15.
… At least 5 of them at any time also had to be mimics, but hey, at least I warned him about that.
Once that was taken care of, I was finally free to go level to 20 off the infernal dire snails. That went just about as slowly as I remembered, but it was well worth it.
I upped the cap on [Temporus] for 10 points, purchased [SpatialTemporus] for 5, and then held on to my last 5 points at Tim’s urging. He was hopeful that I would eventually unlock [Gravitus] as an actual skill option, and that would be huge for the modified ritual.
From there, the name of the game was continued preparation. I made it back to my cult in time to find basically everything on fire and them acting like a bunch of chickens with their heads cut off.
Yeah, it turns out that going from “omniscient mastermind who communicates all his orders in explicit detail” to “someone who suddenly dropped off the face of the Earth for two years” was a bit much. I had been expecting one of them to at least [Message] me before things got that bad, but all my major players knew about Gram’s surveillance and didn’t want to risk it in case it exposed me.
That was easy enough to fix by teaching them all [Advanced Message] since it was essentially an encrypted message in a world that knew nothing about encryption.
From there, I used the influx of gems I got every quarter to get things back on track for the magicite purchases. As for the gem farming itself, somehow Ren, that sneaky son of a dave, managed to get himself appointed as the leader of the entire expedition, so I didn’t have to keep gaslighting him just to get my cut.
As for where I left Cameron and Tim during my brief teleports back to Besti… well, it turned out that they couldn’t actually last that long outside of a host when they weren’t in the death lands. Or at least when there wasn’t a large enough supply of death energy nearby. The solution to that ended up being fairly simple. I just had to tell a cultist or two, “Hey, let these guys possess you for a day.”
The ones I chose were often overjoyed… Have I mentioned recently that cultists are weird?
Anyway, things seemed to be going smoothly, and there was still no [Hero] in sight. I was even trying to find a good time to escort a group of 9 speakers across the deathlands to get some levels when Tim called Cameron and me to an emergency meeting.
-------
“We have a dire issue,” Tim stated.
“That’s not a great thing to lead with,” I groaned.
Tim ignored me and continued. “Based on the projections of magicite acquisition less the required mass for the ritual across time-“
“Just get to the point,” Cameron interjected.
Tim glared at him for a moment and then sighed. “Even at the best point in time for casting the ritual, year 484, we will have only acquired half the magicite we need.”
My eyebrows shot up. “But, we were never that far behind before!”
Tim shook his head. “That was before the ritual was retooled with [Gravitus]. The resultant spell matrix is able to be much, much, denser.”
I looked up at the MindScape sky. “And you said projected, so that’s including the ramping production?”
“Indubitably.”
“Fan frickin’ tastic,” I replied. “And that’s not even dealing with the fact that we have to find the mana to charge the dang things.”
“What now?” Cameron asked. “Gonna take over the world to have them mine for you again?” he taunted.
“No,” I replied irritably. “I don’t have the time or power to do that, and even if I did, we weren’t producing as much back then as we are now.”
Tim put forth a few more ideas that I didn’t really listen to, and Cameron poked fun at them until Tim ordered him not to. Meanwhile, my mind was churning on an idea.
“Well, you know what they say,” I muttered. “If you want something done right…”
“Gentlemen,” I interrupted the other two, who were still busy squabbling. “Pack your ethereal bags. We’re headed to the Below.”