Val Kazar couldn’t believe how out of hand things had gotten. First had been the matter of the human called Devon killing the chief’s daughter. Then Kal’o Dar went missing. Then Yur Kazak turned up dead. And now…

Now Kal’o Kir had gone and killed one of the humans.

When the report that the humans of the plains settlement had somehow gotten their hands on strange crafting materials Val Kazar hadn’t paid much mind. He was still busy going over the case of Yur Kazak’s death, and figured it wouldn’t matter what kind of natural treasure the humans had found. It would be theirs in the end anyway.

And so the mistake was ultimately his for not realizing the significance of as of yet unseen materials appearing within the tutorial. Kal’o Kir hadn’t been nearly as oblivious.

And now Val Kazar had to deal with the aftermath.

The dichotomy between the two different camps of humans was something he’d taken as an extremely fortuitous event. The plains settlement would have been perfectly suited for their less experienced warriors to get real-world experience in the takeover of passive settlements, and the forest camp would have suited their more bloodthirsty warriors craving for battle.

But now the status quo had been completely overturned in the plains. Most of the humans hadn’t yet evolved past their instincts as pack animals, and would see the death of one of their own as something that could not be overlooked.

Still, it wasn’t like the situation was a total loss.

Kal’o Kir’s outrage had caused her to put herself in a position that Val Kazar desperately needed. Once the tutorial was over her head would likely be taken by the chief, to make use of her new status as a cursed being. But until then…

He would have use for one who was no longer bound by the limitations of an overseer.

***

Devon watched Terance’s public execution through the eyes of Gregor. He pitied the man, he truly did. It was entirely unjust that Terance had been used as his catalyst, but that was just the way it was.

Terance had simply been the perfect candidate for his plan. Known by everyone and with a reputation to match his popularity, there wasn’t a soul in Plainstown that wouldn’t feel the weight of his death.

Most important of all was that he hadn’t been even close to the elite. He’d gone on hunts here and there and helped out in various ways, sure. But in the grand scheme of things his practical value was about nil.

The girl, Lex, had played her part to perfection as well. He’d needed someone naïve enough that they never would have suspected that the person they were talking to wasn’t the person they assumed. It was the greatest danger in his ploy, that the one he interacted with would grow suspicious and examine him. His name would have said Terance, but his level would have immediately tipped them off that something was wrong since The Mask didn't have a setting for changing what level it displayed, and could only display his true level, 33.

In all honesty, he hadn’t expected things to escalate so fast. He’d anticipated a thorough examination of the camp’s goods and activities by the overseers. Not enough to harm them, but enough to plant the seed of dissatisfaction and distrust.

That was the purpose of step one, to sow dissent among the humans of the tutorial towards the overseers.

The people of Plainstown’s view of the overseers was until now entirely too passive for Devon’s scheme to come to fruition. In the eventual clash that he was orchestrating, if the gullible residents of Plainstown found themselves beset by the overseers he anticipated they’d react much like headless chickens, too confused to do anything but stand there dumbly before they got cut down.

But if he planted the seed of doubt in their minds early…

The troublesome part was that such a seed couldn’t come from word of mouth. Especially in Plainstown, the likelihood that the people would simply brush off any allegations that didn’t fit how they wished to world to be was extremely high.

People were stupid, but that stupidity could still be used if the correct kind of pressure was used. Apply a bit of external force instead of internal, and you got mob mentality.

“Murderer!” Somebody yelled out from the crowd.

Several other shouts and outbursts erupt from the crowd before one rang out stronger than the rest.

“Monsters!” Lex shouted out. Others around her quickly picked up the moniker and echoed it. Soon the entire area was screaming cries of ‘Monster.’

“SHUT UP!” Trey roared, silencing the crowd with his sheer presence. He turned to the overseer with a look of fury, “Get out.”

The ex-overseer matched his gaze with a look of disdain, but said nothing.

“Get the fuck out, or I won’t be responsible for what happens next.”

They stared each other down for several more seconds before the reptilian form of Kal’o Kir turned and made for the exit. The murmuring of a restless crowd started as soon as the Vishan was gone, and Trey did nothing to silence it.

Susan walked into the clearing and sadly looked down upon the body of Terance. Trey looked to her and said, “I’m sorry, can you take care of his burial?”

“Of course,” Susan said solemnly.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

Trey stormed off, but Devon stayed to watch how the crowd’s reaction would develop. Shortly after, Devon accepted the messaging prompt from Trey. They’d decided that all of their conversations that needed to stay between just the two of them would be better kept in a place nobody could possibly overhear.

[Trey]

That was fucked.

[Devon]

Yeah.

[Trey]

Your prediction of what would happen was off by about infinity and a half. How the fuck did this happen?

Devon didn't blame Trey for being aggravated. A death in the streets was a far cry from the economic pressure he'd anticipated. Still, it sped things along much quicker than expected.

[Devon]

Calm down. Did you catch the name of that Vishan?

[Trey]

No, I didn’t particularly care. All I noticed was that they were level 47.

[Devon]

When I was in the mountains I killed an overseer named Kal’o Dar. It’s where I got all that stuff in the first place. The Vishan that we just watched kill Terance was named Kal’o Kir.

[Trey]

You think they were related somehow?

[Devon]

Yeah, which would explain why they had such a visceral reaction to us spreading Kal’o Dar’s keepsakes around.

[Trey]

Even if that’s true, it doesn’t leave us in a good spot. Terance, who was supposed to be a symbol for us, is now dead with his head split open. And even better, they’ve got their executioner now.

[Devon]

Not so fast. Just because Terance is dead doesn’t mean he isn’t a symbol. If anything, his death will represent something far more powerful than if they'd simply decided to abuse him.

[Trey]

That doesn’t solve the issue of them having their executioner.

[Devon]

No, but I don’t think that’ll be as big of an issue as you’d think.

[Trey]

What? How is them having someone that can come around and kill us anytime they feel like it not a massive issue?

[Devon]

Because we’ve forced them to play their hand. It doesn’t matter how powerful a card is, if you expose it to your enemies then by default it loses at least half of its true value.

[Trey]

We’re not talking about a game of poker here, Devon.

[Devon]

But the metaphor still works. Since we’ve forced them to play their hand we’ve not only acquired extremely important information, but we’ve most likely ensured they won’t have a chance to play it in the future. We now know for a fact that the executioner possibility is a valid strategy for them. And even better, we know who the executioner is. Kal’o Kir is level 47, as you said. That by itself is also a massive boon. We know now that their executioner is passionate and prone to outbursts. Imagine if they had taken their time selecting one of the overseers above level 50, one who was level headed and could counter anything we threw at them.

[Trey]

What’s to stop them from still doing that?

[Devon]

If my theory is right, Kal’o Kir has probably been cursed by the system, same as me. If my understanding of the culture of the Infinite Realms at large is correct, the curse isn’t something you’d take upon yourself so lightly. Most likely, the other overseers will look to Kal’o Kir and be less willing to accept the curse upon themselves when there’s already a perfectly valid executioner among them.

[Trey]

So you think we need to move in ways that cause animosity between the executioner Kal’o Kir and the humans, but not bring it to the point where either side would go out of their way to attempt to kill each other.

[Devon]

Right. That would only result in losses for us.

[Trey]

We’re treading along a fine line here.

[Devon]

Indeed, and it’s only going to get harder from here.

[Trey]

So what’s next?

[Devon]

I need you to fan the flames here while I work on step two.

[Trey]

It’s going to be a serious pain to manage all of this and work on leveling up at the same time.

[Devon]

Yeah, you’re telling me.

Connection closed.

While the crowd remained in a state of distress and outrage, Devon took the chance to look at the other system notification that had popped up.

Plot [The First Step] complete.

Calculating resulting Karmic Influence… Done.

Minimal Karmic Influence.

Calculating difficulty… Done.

Complexity set at Normal.

Factoring Plot Karmic Influence and Difficulty into reward… Done.

[The First Step] added to Completed plots.

He went ahead and looked to see what it gave him as well.

[The First Step] - Cleared

Karmic Influence: Minimal.

Complexity: Normal

Time investment: ~1 Day

Reward: All stats +10.

Two levels worth of points, huh? Interesting that it gave me greater rewards than the last plot, despite that one being rated a higher difficulty. Perhaps time investment is weighted more heavily when it comes to distributing rewards, or maybe it has to do with how this time around most of the plot was spent interacting with and manipulating people. Somehow I doubt the system views clearing a dungeon as a very schemer-like thing to do, even if it is more difficult.

After a while of lingering among the crowd, feeling out all the residents of Plainstown and gauging reactions, Devon decided to move on. He hopped over to Arkania through the terminal and went right to Phil’s bar. It was amazing what the old man had managed to throw up around himself even in this primal world.

Once there he drank a lot and shared the story of what had happened with anyone who would listen. Of course, he was only pretending to drink. Still, the crowd that gathered around him quickly swelled to a bigger size than he’d anticipated.

Once he was done for the day he took his leave, thoroughly satisfied with how the first step had gone.

The people of Arkania, while by nature self-centered, had voiced a huge amount of negativity towards the overseers at hearing of what happened. At first this seemed to be contradictory to their beliefs of self-sufficiency, but Devon knew it was a part of human nature to sympathize with others in a bad spot.

And the overseers made a really easy enemy.

It was almost comical. If the overseers had devoted even an iota of time to getting to learn about the humans and teach them then it would have been far harder for Devon to turn everyone against them.

But the Vishan didn’t see humanity as their equals in the slightest, and that arrogance had led them to believe that they could do whatever they wanted without any consequences. After all, who would expect a family of squirrels to get in the way of a logging operation?

Overnight the overseers had gone from being a symbol of fear and doubt to an emblem of hatred. It was amazing how incredible the turnaround truly was, but then Devon supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. Humanity was good at finding enemies amongst themselves, but such conflicts needed time and motivation to brew. But the Vishan weren’t even human, so there was an inevitable moniker that came with creatures of the unknown, creatures that preyed on the weak and defenseless.

Monsters.

And if there was one thing that hadn’t ever faded from human culture it was the need to rid themselves of monsters that lurked in the dark.