While I was eating, I took a moment to think through my decision. I didn’t have to work on this project. Why was I doing it?
There were a number of valid excuses:
Sanctuary and K would be useful in the future. Safe zones were rare, and in the long run you would need either that or overwhelming power to thrive. But I was already aiming at reaching overwhelming power, and K wouldn’t exile me for not helping.
Having more survivors would be potentially useful and the most useful support and crafting classes were also the least likely to survive outside of a safezone. But ultimately as long as you had Quanta and a safezone, you could trade on the player marketplace for most of what you needed anyways.
I didn’t have anything more productive I could do. That was actually true, but I hadn’t known what I’d be doing before I signed up. If I’d wound up in a different role, it might’ve been a huge waste of my time.
None of those excuses were bad, but I hadn’t considered them when I made the decision. I just wanted to do this. I could try to draw out a reasoning chain on why it was the optimal decision, but any decision could be justified in that way right now.
That was as far as I got before I was done eating. Then I started upgrading my stats and gear. I decided, based on the work I would be doing, to focus my upgrades on improving my range and ability to do damage within that range. In addition, I knew there was a class ability that would be unlocked when my base Dream Borders stat reached 100, so that was definitely my top priority.
[You have 55,254 Potential]
[You have spent 1,224 Potential to upgrade Dream Borders from 67 to 70]
[You have spent 5,215 Potential to upgrade Dream Borders from 70 to 80]
[You have spent 6,760 Potential to upgrade Dream Borders from 80 to 90]
[You have spent 8,505 Potential to upgrade Dream Borders from 90 to 100! You have 33,550 Potential remaining]
[You have spent 30,000 Potential to upgrade “Internal Apocalypse” from level 1 to level 3! You have 3,550 Potential remaining]
[You have spent 1,600 Potential to upgrade “Usurpation By Fire” from level 5 to level 6! You have 1,950 Potential remaining]
[You have spent 1,600 Potential to upgrade “Lake of The Sacrificed” from level 5 to level 6! You have 350 Potential remaining]
[You have spent 342 Potential to upgrade Dream Durability from 42 to 44! You have 8 potential remaining.]
The notification I was expecting popped up a moment after I finished my class upgrades.
[Due to your improved Dream Borders, the Dreamer Ability “Shallow Dream of Life” has been acquired!]
[Shallow Dream of Life:A Dream can be created that overlaps with a physical realm, at the cost of halving your Dream Borders stat while the Dream exists. Any skills and effects within the Dream’s borders will function as normal, but people will be able to enter and exit the Dream freely. This ability will not bypass any other limitations on Dreams.]
The instant I closed that notification, a second notification appeared.
[Global Sponsored Quest: Paths of Sanctuary
Help people evacuate to safe zones, if they have not been to one yet.
Reward: For each person successfully and consensually evacuated to a safe zone, one moonlight shard will be given. This reward will be split evenly among all major contributors to that person’s rescue. Those who have been within a safe zone previously will not count, nor will any deeds prior to the establishment of this quest.
Players who have not unlocked Sponsored Quests will continue to accrue rewards until they unlock the functionality, at which point all banked rewards will be received.
Sponsoring Group: Nitrogen Poets Club
]
That was new. Of course it was, it was associated with the sponsored quests system, and that also hadn’t been in the game I’d played.
I looked through the system-provided help-guide. All the articles I’d read in “No Savior Needed” were the same, except for two new entries.
[Sponsored Quests: The translated text of the quest will be summarized in the display window. Your system can clarify the text by asking explicit questions of it. {Part of this entry has been redacted. Check back with higher Significance for an update.} The summary will be correct, but does not list all loophole exclusion clauses.]
[Moonlight Shards: The most common reward for sponsored quests, significant players can use it to acquire special Moon-rank gear. {Part of this entry has been redacted. Check back with higher Significance for an update.}]
I scowled at the screen. Sponsored Quests sounded like trouble, honestly. Whatever was sponsoring them, they hadn’t existed in “No Savior Needed”’s simulation of the game - which was surprising, because everything else seemed to hold constant with
That was when my new teammates walked in.
Copper, the Goblin merchant I had traded with yesterday, strolled in with absolute confidence. He must have taken the contract I had offered personally, unless he was merely impossibly lucky. He was at least an inch under five feet, with short black hair. When I looked at him, my mind shouted “tall”, even though he was under five feet. There was something predatory about him now, hadn’t been there the day before.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
Copper’s presence wasn’t quite terrifying, but it was unlikely he had come here for charity’s sake. I’d expected that whoever held the friendship contract would try to avoid me, but instead he’d sought me out. Either that had been an unfortunate coincidence, or he wanted to get free from the contract without giving up his share of the bargain. Killing me would be an easy way to do that.
A step behind him, a tall girl clanked into the room. If her armor didn’t add height, she was at least three inches taller than me. Every piece of her armor, except for her helm, shone like a mirror, reflecting silver light. Her helm was made out of a glasslike material, just large enough to reveal her face.
She walked over to me, shockingly quietly compared to how she had clanked on her way in.
“I’m Marie Fawkes, and this is Copper Salvage.” Marie said, “Are you Ashlyn Thresher?”
“Yes.” I answered.
“Great.” Mariesaid, “Let’s get going.”
She led the way, and we hurried after her.
“You looked like you recognized Copper. Do you two know each other?” Marieasked.
“We’re great friends, aren’t we, Ashlyn?” The Goblin boy said, “The very best.”
“I didn’t know you’d be here.” I said.
“Where else would I be?” He grinned, “Why wouldn’t I spend time with my forever friend?” (1)
“What are you up to?” I demanded.
“I can’t help people out of the goodness of my heart?” He laughed, “You wound me.”
“You’re not a saint.” I scowled.
“Disregarding that, teamwork is profitable in moderation. Working together is safer, until the knives come out.” He grinned, “Of course, I should keep close to you. You wouldn't stab a friend, right?”
“Don’t test me.” I said.
“You’re terrified of me.” He said, “I would only hurt a friend to help them. Don’t you trust me?”
“Not enough.” I said.
“Can you please stop bickering like exes?” Marie huffed.
Copper grinned at her, “Absolutely.”
Marie made a gesture, and a glowing horse of light formed in the air.
“Get on.” She said, and the horse bent down farther than I had thought a horse could.
Copper and I got on.
The actual flow of the first day was fairly simple. It was in a patch of suburbia, not far from the edges of the dome. I set up a defensible area outside the buildings, and ripped through monsters using [Blood of the Sacrificed]. While I was doing that, Copper and Marie explored the buildings to find survivors.
Once Marie and Copper had encountered all the survivors in the area, we’d move together to the next section of the suburb, taking the survivors with us. After the first few buildings, some of them joined Copper and Marie in searching the buildings once Copper declared them safe. The survivors had tended to cluster together, which made evacuation easier. (2)
By the end of the day, we had gathered almost a hundred survivors, and ran into almost no difficulties other than the issues with herding a crowd of that size. A lot of them were competent in their own rights, though none of them came close to any of our group in power.
I should clarify here that I didn't get to see my teammates fight. On the way down, we were passing through the ring that was still being cleared, and only a handful of monsters appeared. Once we left that, I generally spammed [Blood of the Sacrificed] the instant monsters appeared in significant numbers, so we didn’t need to stop to deal with them.
Copper and Marie must have seen each other’s power, because they worked together, but I only got to see the few monsters they killed before [Blood of the Sacrificed] could.
The trek back wasn’t dangerous, just tedious. Marie ran ahead of us, thinning out the monsters before they got close. Meanwhile, Copper stuck to me like glue, and continued to make blatantly insincere declarations of friendship and appreciation.
I had assumed that the bargain was fair when I made it. In truth, the very fact that Copper had taken it proved it was. Even so, he clearly didn’t trust me or like me. What could Copper do to me, while still considering me a friend? The answer, if I couldn’t take him in a fight, was “entirely too much.”
When we got back, just after sunset, Marie stormed up as Copper and the rescuees slowly scattered.
“What’d you do to him?” Marie demanded, “You’ve clearly got history.”
“Not your business.” I said, “We only met once before, and made a trade. It was consensual, and not under duress. I don’t think he’s changed his mind.”
“He said you were the reason he was here.” Marie said.
I laughed, “Guess I made an impression. I’m sure he’s got better reasons to be here than me. He might never speak falsehood, but he’s good at bending the truth.”
Marie winced, “Keep your history, but don’t get me involved. The important thing is saving people, not petty grudge matches.”
I sighed, “I’ll try, but I can’t keep him from picking fights with me. I’m not stupid enough to lie to him, either.”
“You’re not even going to try, are you?” Marie said, and stormed off.
It wasn’t fair that she’d be stuck in the middle of this, but I wasn’t stupid enough to deliberately ignore Copper, or diplomatic enough to be both honest and polite. Even if I was, it might take two to have a proper fight, but it would only take one to make Marie uncomfortable.
---
[You have helped rescue 96 people! 32 Moonlight Shards have been awarded!]
[You have killed a massive quantity of Shadowbeasts! +63,970 Potential, +6397 Net Quanta!]
[You have 63,978 Potential and 16,942 Quanta]
[You have spent 40,000 Potential to upgrade “Internal Apocalypse” from Level 3 to Level 4!]
[You have spent 4,800 Potential to upgrade “Melody’s Reprise” from level 5 to level 7!]
[You have spent 3,200 Potential to upgrade “Lake of the Sacrificed” from level 6 to level 7!]
[You have spent 9,600 Potential to upgrade “Ursupation by Fire” from level 6 to level 8!]
[You have spent 4,800 Potential to upgrade “Fae Glass Dancer” from level 5 to level 7!]
[You have 1,578 Potential remaining!]
Due to your pact with Copper, a new skill has been Acquired!
[Trader of Bonds and Alliances]: Within a Dream, you can swap attribute tags that have to do with factional or species alignment, such as “Sanctuary Guard” or “Shadowbeast”, for an equivalent alignment tag of an entity you are in physical contact with. This effect will persist for the duration of the dream and can be dismissed at will, but no more than three attributes can be traded at once. Depending on your relative stats, some entities may be able to resist this partially or fully. Entities with human-level intelligence or higher can consciously perceive this swap, but will remain fooled on an instinctual level. Sustaining this ability will cause a scaling debuff to your effective [Dream Manipulation], based on the enemy’s resistances. This debuff will be mitigated by [Dream Potency] and [Dream Durability], and will end when the ability is deactivated.
---
(1) Fae can’t lie, but I do not have words for how insincere Copper sounded.
(2) Fortunately, the survivors had no particular desire to talk to me. I suspected they were scared by the blood mist thing, but it could have just been that I managed to look focused on the work I was doing.