24.

Santi stared up at the pillar in the midday light. He watched as the seconds counted down the last few seconds as the pillar unlocked and he could fully utilize it. The stench was truly becoming something else, the hundreds of corpses littering the perimeter of the town had a phenomenal stench that had Santi wrinkling his nose.

Frank and Zeke’s people were out there in that charnel house, gathering up supplies under Yessenia and Grimvr’s watchful eyes. Santi didn’t know how they had convinced Yessenia to go outside, but someone had done it. Now a pile of grisly remains were being piled up around her, all of which she looked at dispassionately.

Santi was worried about that blank look in her eyes. The way she seemed to be just walking though the world in a daze. Fear and anxiety were all that broke through that daze and Santi didn’t know how to fix it. That familiar rage at Abraham burned up hot and fast in his gut.

Mom and Torin were cleaning their armor. The older dwarf showed Mom the proper maintenance needed for her armor and weapons. Mom took to it with the single minded determination that she had been exhibiting since Dad had died.

Killed. Since Dad had been killed. Santi looked away from them and back towards the pillar as the countdown ended.

Congratulations, you’re still alive!

Now the Owner of 1 Pillar of Civilization

You have 1 Free Move for this Pillar

There were more of course, walls of text that Santi scrolled through that described the minutiae of what he could do with the pillar. Even with his high intelligence allowing him to process information at superhuman speeds, it took him the better part of a half hour to read it all.

Everything was there that he expected. The wealth of options a pillar gave its owner was well known, but there were a few caveats he hadn’t known about. He would have to adjust some of his plans, but for now everything could work short term. Santi dismissed the Owner’s Manual and entered into the menu section for the first time.

Owner’s Menu

Market Place

Map

Survey

Taxes

Santi locked his eye on the map tab and clicked it. A topographical map sprung up in his vision, the pillar and everyone else disappearing. The map was topographical, the valleys and hills of craggy Northern California easy to read for a twenty mile circumference. Santi didn’t need to know the lay of the land, for the map didn’t reveal any of the towns or settlements, just the geography of the area.

And little blips that showed people who had the System. Santi saw the cluster of blips all around him, the scattered line right outside of town of the scavengers. He even saw one or two hiding about inside the town, either survivors from that death cult or people shirking work.

He saw the watcher who was outside of town. He clicked the blip with his mind and a small screen popped up.

Scout lvl. 31

That was the only information the pillar offered him. The scout was either one of Duncan’s or Mercy’s. He needed both of them to know what he was doing, so he left the scout alone for now. Santi wished the pillar allowed him to see names of people, but class and level had to be good enough for now.

He pulled up the market menu and frowned when he saw so few options. None were of much interest to him currently, most of them having to do with settling a region. Once he had the pillar back at Homebase, then he could fully utilize things like irrigation lines and purifying ponds and enriched topsoil. There were survey probes which cost ten wooden coins each. Most of Santi’s horde was back home, but he had enough to buy three of them. Santi felt the weight of the coins disappear from his pocket as the pillar absorbed them.

The map dissolved and he was back in front of the pillar as three circular, purple glass orbs appeared in front of him. He had to reach out and snag them before they hit the ground, the heavy weight of them taking him off guard for a moment.

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“Oh shit, what’d you buy moneybags?” Cam asked him and Bianca came strolling up to him hand in hand. Some of their swagger was back after getting a few hours of sleep and scrubbing the blood off of themselves. Cam’s shield was dented but the scraps of flesh and blood had been washed off and he looked presentable enough. Bianca macuahuitl hung from her hip, clean of any detritus, and she had found spare clothes somewhere and managed to tame her hair.

“Probes.”

“For a first date?”

“Survey probes for the area, dick,” Santi said trying to hide his smile as Bianca shoved Cam with her shoulder, absolutely not moving him at all.

“What, he’s been weird lately. I just wanted to check,” Cam defended himself while Chloe looked at him with an arched eyebrow, not deigning to respond.

“Yo, DANIEL!” Santi hollered, looking around for the sneaky scout.

Daniel and Hana poked their heads out from around the corner. Santi jerked his head, telling them to get over here. Each of the probes were cool and glassy, but the weight was enough that it was irritating to hold.

“Toys for us?” Daniel asked as they got closer.

“We all know you heard us talking. Yes, they are for you. You and Hana each get one, take them out through the town. I want to see how accurate they are with recording data. Cam, want to take the third and go the other way?”

“Why me?”

“Because your jokes suck.”

“It was funny.”

Everyone looked at him and silence fell over them all. Cam looked back and forth, a look of betrayal slowly spreading over his face as he realized nobody was coming to back him up. Finally, he turned to look at Bianca who just looked disappointed.

“Fine. Come on, amor, you can show me the town,” Cam said sarcastically as he grabbed one of the probes with his giant hand before walking off with Bianca. Everyone turned to look at Santi, faint smiles on their faces.

“All of you, off, scatter, begone. I have stats to go through.”

“So, just you and Chloe,” Hana began, but Chloe cut her off.

“Actually, I want to take a stroll myself. Me and Hana, some girl talk. No boys allowed.” Chloe grabbed Hana, interlinking their arms and the probe in one smooth motion before leaving Daniel and Santi standing by themselves.

“I don’t think the two of them together is a great idea. Sneaky and muscles,” Daniel said.

“It’s the apocalypse. We have more pressing concerns than our girlfriends chatting together.”

“Ye of little faith. Give me that probe. I’m leaving before they get back.” Daniel snagged the probe and went off in the opposite direction of the girls and Santi finally had a moment to himself as he walked a few steps away from the pillar to go over his gains.

Santiago Silva

Air Mage lvl. 49

Strength: 40 (75)

Durability: 40 (75)

Stamina: 40 (75)

Dexterity: 40 (75)

Vitality: 40 (75)

Perception: 35 (70)

Intelligence: 114 (149)

Mana: 149 (184)

Willpower: 120 (155)

Potential: 99%

The gains were quick and easy to find, extra stat points allocated to strength and dexterity to make them equal and the final points towards his waning willpower. In the quiet afterglow of a large affixation he could admit to himself that he wasn’t controlling the curse.

It was insidious. Burrowing itself deep into his psyche, whispering to him to cut and cut and bathe in the blood that was flowing. It spoke to that rage nestled deep in his chest, that hurt and emptiness and pain.

It told him it could make it all go away.

If he gave in.

So he allocated extra willpower points to the stat and felt that the thick wall he had built around those treacherous thoughts grew just a bit stronger. It was unfortunate there were so many cracks in it.

There were no awards for the butchery he had participated in last night. No alerts of the curse gaining in strength, for which he was grateful. At times last night, when the fighting was the fiercest, when his strength flagged and his mana was running dry, he thought about letting those walls fall and embracing the curse.

The heavy thump of a golem’s footsteps stirred him from his daze as he watched as Yessenia and her protector came up towards him. Yessi was dressed in an oversized sweater that fell to her knees, the gray garment stained up to her elbows with all sorts of gore. Her golem was spotless, just dull gray metal that didn’t reflect the light as it marched.

“Santi, I got everything that the book says we need. Except for the power source,” Yesi’s voice was whisper quiet as she stood next to him.

“I’m going to work on that. Is the grimoire unlocking more spells for you to study?”

“Yes. Every time I get to a new level more diagrams open up for me to study.”

“Are you confident in the final spell? It’s a lot more complex than most of them.”

“I’m going to need two days at the minimum to set up the final spell. It needs to see both starlight and sunlight, and some of the ingredients I have need to be purified. Which is a skill I just had to buy by the way.”

“Let’s say three days from today then. We’ll move all up together and I’ll leave you and some guards there to set everything up. I’m going to have to go and kick a hornet’s nest.”

“Sounds like a normal day for you. I understand the other spells, but why the exorcism spell?”