James read the descriptions of the Talent—and consequent Skills—the Great Venom Wyvern had acquired from Cyrus Berberian, and then he read them again.
[Holy Emissary: You’ve secured the blessing of a holy entity through your piety and competence. As a result, you have acquired the presence and privileges of a representative of the sacred in the material world. Generates Skills “Summon Divine Helper” and “Conflict of Visions.”]
[Summon Divine Helper: Summon a being that possesses divine or semi-divine aura. Requires that the user and summoned entity each use a compatible form of divine or semi-divine power. Consumes Mana.]
[Conflict of Visions: By the power of a divine entity, bend the mind of another into obedience to the divine mandate. Initiation requires direct eye contact. Only one target at a time. Effectiveness depends on the power of the divine entity whose blessing you possess relative to the target.]
He chuckled. He already knew what “Conflict of Visions” did. It appeared to be a more powerful version of James’s hated “Compulsion” Skill. But “Summon Divine Helper” could wind up being an interesting Skill.
While the Talent acquired from Christopher Smith was the fairly commonplace Fire Affinity, the Talent from Cyrus could be valuable indeed, depending on just how this Skill worked.
“All right, then,” he said quietly. “Hester, could you ask Anansi a question for me?”
“Yes, sir!” Hester replied instantly. “What can I do?”
“My monster acquired a Talent and two related Skills from the leader of the monotheists that we killed. ‘Holy Emissary’ is the Talent, and the Skills are ‘Summon Divine Helper’ and ‘Conflict of Visions.’ What I want to know is what I might be able to use ‘Summon Divine Helper’ for. ‘Conflict of Visions,’ I’m pretty sure I’ve already seen in action.”
“I will let him know what you need, boss!” Hester said eagerly. She seemed to be in a good mood. James guessed it was still elevated after having helped him with Moishe earlier.
“Thank you,” he said. James waited a few seconds, but then he recalled that Hester frequently took longer than he would like to hear back from Anansi. James had been spoiled lately by very quick responses from the Spider God, but that had been related to dealing with his monotheist problem.
He shouldn’t hold his breath waiting to hear back from the Trickster about the stolen Talent.
So, James set about doing the other tasks he wanted to do that afternoon.
He spent time with the children, gave Mina a break from cooking—which she had been doing a lot more often lately thanks to James’s incapacity—and after dinner, he followed up on the priorities he had set at his meeting earlier.
James first visited Harry Luntz to confirm that the Kingdom had enough food to give both the Royal Fisher Army and the Fisher Expeditionary Force provisions.
He and the leader of the Agricultural Commission spoke in the midst of the Fisher Kingdom’s fields, now more extensive than ever, occupying almost the entire space between the apartment buildings, the alligators’ swamp, and the squirrels’ and bats’ jungle.
There were densely packed rows of many different plants that James did not recognize immediately, plus corn that blocked some plants from sight and orange tree saplings in the distance—perhaps a marker of the border between the territory of the farm and the swamp.
The area seemed to grow more plants per square foot than any farm James had ever seen in the pre-System world.
As Luntz explained, it was this space where most of the manual laborers in the Kingdom spent their days. So many people had been concerned with the food supply when they first arrived in the Fisher Kingdom that the Agricultural Commission still had an excess of workers, more than any other Commission.
But the actual pace of work seemed very relaxed to James’s eye. He saw people wandering casually up and down rows of plants, weeding and watering—and spraying something from a can that smelled funky to James. Homemade insecticide?
This did not feel similar to the way farming had been conducted before machinery, at least not as James understood the history. More like these people had taken up gardening as a hobby.
“Frankly, sir, we have more than sufficient resources to supply your forces and get the Kingdom through the winter,” Luntz said, smiling. “The land has been remarkably productive since the System with—” He lowered his voice—“relatively little effort. I’m guessing that’s because you blessed the soil. The members of the Commission are going to meet and adjust our calculations based on changing crop yield and consumer behavior next week. We’re definitely on track to have sufficient food over the next few months, and a lot of people aren’t taking their full portion of daily rations anyway, since many of them visit Carol’s Dungeon once a week and stock up on food there.”
“That’s interesting,” James said. He tried to think whether he knew of any negative consequences that could result from the status quo as Luntz described it. But there was no downside he could imagine to having too much food other than people gaining weight—which seemed like a quaint concern when many of them were acquiring their groceries by battling a Dungeon.
It’s impressive how professional the Commission is, honestly. I guess I lucked out getting actual farmers and other experts from before the System who know how to figure out what people need to live on.
“I like to imagine that people think of it as a slice of normalcy, having a grocery store they can buy their food from,” Luntz said. “The ones who don’t have some other occupation to fill their time are competing to climb the ranks of Carol’s leaderboard. A pretty healthy way to fill the time, if you ask me.”
“Oh, yeah, that sounds—wait, Carol has a leaderboard?”
“You haven’t been in there lately, then, Your Majesty?” Luntz asked.
“No,” James said. “Not since I, um, brought her here.”
“Well, she has a leaderboard set up now,” Luntz said. “I understand she acquires more System funding and new features with more people visiting her and fighting their way through the Dungeon. So, she still has the groceries as prizes, but she also has rarer items now than she did even a couple of weeks ago. And she started operating a leaderboard with scores for everyone who visits.”
“Wow. It sounds like fun.”
Am I in the leaderboard? James wondered. He had completed Carol’s Dungeon once, back when it was small and in a different location, so he doubted that he would be included in her ranking. But if he was, he needed to be at the very top—to reinforce that he was the best. For entirely practical and logical reasons, of course.
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“If not for being stuck inside of the Dungeon all the time, I think a lot of the younger folks would be interested in a Dungeon Evolution themselves,” Luntz said.
“Well, it does make you a lot safer,” James replied.
“Yeah, that could be a consideration, too,” Luntz said, though he raised an eyebrow.
“So, you’ve been spending time in the Dungeon yourself, I imagine?” James said. It was the only thing that made sense of how much Luntz seemed to know about it.
“I have to remain in good condition in case we’re needed to fight,” Luntz replied. “We live in a world at war, as you yourself have pointed out, sir. And we’re sending the military and a bunch of other able-bodied people and monsters on missions to acquire more territory and explore parts unknown.” He gave James a pointed look.
The Fisher King couldn’t help but smile.
“I admire the fact that you’re willing to disagree with me so openly,” James said. “I need that from people sometimes. But I am confident this is the right path.”
“I understand, sir,” Luntz said. “I just wanted to let you know once more where my mind was. Pardon the presumption. It’s just that I know people feel like they’re safe here. That’s why hardly anyone is seriously considering the idea of actually looking to become a Dungeon—though I think there are one or two who want to follow in Carol’s footsteps. Gamer types from before the System who are just bored now.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t understand it. “I think some of them were into the Dragon and Dungeons game?”
“I get it,” James said. “I will make sure to let people know the military is away, so they should be on guard. And I intend to create my own early warning system, so we’ll know if something approaches the Kingdom. I think that’s all I can reasonably do, though. If we aren’t securing our borders to the ocean on each side, though, I think we’re asking to be surrounded by enemies again.”
Luntz looked pleased. “I appreciate the reassurance. Letting people know is a big thing. And I don’t want to give the impression that we’re further apart in our views than we actually are. I’ve been thinking about what people were saying—why they were kind of piling onto me in the meeting—and I know you’re doing what you have to, for the sake of growth, which in this new world, might mean security. I guess I don’t expect you to actually curtail your ambitions by limiting yourself to expanding until you hit the ocean.”
“You’re probably right,” James said. “I’m thinking the southern half of Florida would be a good stronghold.”
“Or the whole of Florida,” Luntz suggested. “Why not?” There was a note in Luntz’s voice that suggested that he expected this Kingdom to expand like the Roman Empire—conquering every neighbor in the name of security—and the head of agriculture still felt ambivalent about it.
James just shook his head. “I’m not thinking about that right now,” he said. The Ring of Lies burned hot against his fingers, almost painful.
But its power seemed to work.
Luntz looked surprised, then nodded slowly.
“Even though you get power through levels, which require fighting?” Luntz asked. “I have to admit, I suspected you would be plotting how to get the most power possible. It might even be a good idea, given the game-like world we live in now. It’s something I’m apprehensive about, but—” He shrugged and threw up his hands, expressing as best he could how little either of them could do about the new structure of reality.
“Well, it’s something I will think about,” James replied, “but I’m really mainly focused on the Kingdom’s security right now. Getting levels for me is important, but primarily because it helps keep the Kingdom and my family safe.”
This time, the Ring of Lies barely did anything at all, which James found reassuring. He thought he was telling the truth. Almost completely.
There was a part of him that wanted to play “Risk” with the whole world.
And there was a separate but related part that wanted to pick fights with the strongest beings on the new Earth. Mostly, though, he was just concerned about his people’s safety—and his family’s first and foremost.
“I appreciate the honesty,” Luntz said, smiling earnestly. “Thank you for coming out here to talk, Your Majesty.”
James felt a small twinge of guilt at Luntz’s appreciation. But he just smiled back and shook the other man’s hand.
He wanted to go and see Alan next, but as he turned to walk away from the fertile fields, he felt the distinctive heat of Hester’s body receiving a message from the Spider God on the back of his ear.
James quickly returned home to the privacy of his and Mina’s bedroom to hear the message.
“So, Hester, any news?” he asked quietly.
“Yes, sir,” she said. Despite the wait between her receipt of the message and her arrival in the apartment, she still sounded drained. James made a note to not use her as a go-between for trivial tasks like this any more than necessary.
“All right,” he said. “I’m excited to hear it.”
“Well, Lord Anansi said you were asking something slightly vague, but he thought he knew what you were trying to ask. He says you’re a thousand years too early to think of summoning him to help you, sir. More powerful entities require more energy to summon.
“He figured out that I’d want to try that, huh?” James asked sheepishly.
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, he was right,” James admitted. “I was also curious why I didn’t get this summoning Skill when Anansi made me his Chosen One.”
“It seems to be a special power that the tools of the monotheists’ deity receive,” Hester said. “Lord Anansi doesn’t know for sure, but he has seen it in action before. In a battle with some other high-ranking angels, eons ago, Satan summoned most of the Kings of Hell. It seemed to take a lot out of him, but they were only a tier below their master in terms of power, and they turned the tide. The Morning Star lived to fight another day.”
“Anansi was just, um, watching that battle, then?” James asked. He was having trouble wrapping his head around the concept.
“Sir, I don’t know if this is going to bother you, but among the gods, Lord Anansi is known to not typically take sides in good versus evil struggles like that,” Hester said. She sounded slightly nervous—even defensive. “I should point out that most of the pantheons don’t fight Satan or the angels either unless they have a good reason to. It’s not that he’s content with evil beings just hanging around, but—”
“Hester, I really don’t care that Anansi doesn’t take sides,” James interrupted. “What I was surprised by was that he was that close to a battle that destructive. It sounds a lot like the fall of Satan from Heaven that a lot of people believe happened, and you were talking about it kind of casually, like ‘Oh, this one time, Anansi saw the angels fighting a battle where Satan was pushed to his limits.’ To me, that just sounded crazy. You know?”
“Oh. Oh, all right. Yes, it is pretty crazy.” Hester chuckled. “I sometimes forget how amazing Lord Anansi’s achievements are. Even when he’s avoiding danger and just watching his enemies to see what their weaknesses are, he puts himself in some situations I couldn’t imagine.”
“Watching his enemies?” James asked. “Is he enemies with Satan?”
“Oof.” Hester made a little sound as if she had shoved her feet into her mouth.
“Uh, is that something you’re not supposed to talk about?” James guessed.
“That’s right, sir,” Hester said.
“I’ll say no more about it, then,” James said. “All right, so I can’t summon Anansi, but I can use the Skill? Is that right?”
“Yes, sir. You can use it. You have semi-divine power.”
“Because of my Chosen One blessing from Anansi?” James asked.
“Yes, but also because you’re a Ruler,” Hester said. “All Rulers possess semi-divine power. That’s why you can give out blessings and curses. And you should be able to summon anyone you’ve blessed. They all have some of your semi-divine energy from the blessing.”
“All right, that sounds pretty good,” James said, smiling.
It was time to try some experiments.