“So, Sam. Where is this canyon that you spoke of before?” Eduardo asked. “I don’t see anything indicating the presence of such a thing.”
“If we keep walking, we’re bound to find it. I circled the entire city, at least as far as I could see. Also, I should warn you. The monsters dwelling in these parts are few, but very powerful. They might be a good source of essence for you all though,” Sam answered.
A few hours later, they got their first chance to test this theory. A high leveled inferno boar appeared, the same creature that Sam had killed at the corpse of the arboreal defender. This one was even higher level however, and seemed like an ample challenge for the rest of the party. In addition, Sam wanted to see how the other fought. They had purposefully foregone entering a party together, because then some of the essence would be wasted on Sam, who could not level up at the moment. Instead, it would be divided among those who needed it.
Sam moved off to the side, ready to step in if necessary. As the boar caught sight of the group, its flames flared and it bellowed in rage. It barreled through the trees, knocking down the smaller ones and cracking the larger ones.
Eduardo and Pyotr moved in front of the others, and Jeffrey hefted his gun. Addas readied his cards, and finally Lao started to draw in energy from his surroundings.
As the boar reached the group, it had built up some serious speed and it threatened to blast through their ranks.
Pyotr summoned his earthen armor, and roared as he braced for impact. The boar crashed into his waiting arms, knocking him off his feet. Pyotr was down for the count, but he had severely blunted the boar’s force, and Eduardo slashed into it with his rapier, sending it tottering backwards. It reared up onto its hind legs and brought them down, causing the earth to crack and molten rock to spill out.
Solitaire used the first of his cards, the devil card, and his body bulked up with muscle and his skin went red. It seemed that the effects for each card were random, but stuck to a certain theme as it had a different effect than what had happened during the tournament. The man charged forwards, his fists glowing with red energy, and he slammed them down together on the boar’s head. The creature roared in pain and flipped over Solitaire’s head, its momentum carrying it quite some distance.
Eduardo was already waiting there, his rapier at the ready. He sheathed it in his Dao energy and elemental energy, creating a glowing lance of light. With a cry, he thrust it deep into the boar. The weapon blasted out a wave of energy into the creature a moment later, frying its insides. The boar stamped its feet, and the earth shook, knocking Eduardo backwards. He was steadied by Pyotr, who rooted himself to the ground with his earthen armor. The man pointed one hand forwards, and a spike of what looked like quartz shot out its tip sharpened to a razor point. It impacted the boar a second later, splintering into a myriad of fragments that burrowed deep into its skin. Blood started to course down its side, and the boar bellowed, this time a bit weaker than before.
Lao skipped in, his feet surrounded with his Dao energy, allowing him to use his own momentum as an echo chamber for increasing his speed. His feet were bleeding heavily, and he couldn't keep it up for long, but he did not have far to go. Lao pushed his Dao energy into the boar, and it cried out in pain as its wounds exploded open, breaking apart its flesh. The exact thing happened to Lao, but it was already over. The boar toppled over, and a rush of essence entered the fighters. A few of them leveled up, and Sam waited until they were ready to check how powerful they were now. He had not seen any of their levels in a very long time, and he wanted to find out how they were doing. Walking up to the group, Sam spoke.
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“What levels are you all now? I’m not sure if I know.”
Eduardo looked at the others, and then into empty space for a moment.
“I’m level 42, Jeffrey is level 41, both Pyotr and Lao are level 40, and Addas is level 38. I did not gain any levels from that fight, but Lao and Addas did.”
“Good. We’re going to need all the power we can get.”
As day turned to night, they decided to make camp for the night. Although most of them did not need any rest, with Lao being the exception, it was a good mental refresher before the day to come.
Eduardo started a fire with a searing bolt of light and they cooked up some provisions. None of them had to eat much, but the act of eating was still a comfort, even if the nutrition aspect of it was unneeded. The food from the city was very comforting indeed.
The others had packed different types of food, each seeming to have brought food from their own birth countries. Eduardo had multiple containers of pasta, Lao had containers of dumplings and steamed buns, Addas had packed tagine and Pyotr had brought some borscht. Jeffrey, having no country of origin on earth, had simply brought some American fare, hamburgers, pizza and the like. During his years on Earth, the man had come to like the food, which was apparently quite different to what was eaten on his home planet. As they waited for the meal to cook, Jeffrey told them all about the ecosystem and culture of his own planet.
“Salvinii Prime is the crown jewel of the Salvinii System, a gas giant that was long ago compressed into a solid planet by the will of some god-like being. Nobody knows who did it, but the royal family of the system has been using it as their seat of power for millennia. It was terraformed long ago, and its surface looks much like Earth does, save for purple skies caused by the gasses that the planet’s seas produce. It is far larger than Earth, at least 15 or twenty times in fact, and hundreds of billions of people live on it. In the time since I left, perhaps a trillion now live there. There is a limit to how much a low level System registered civilization can expand however, as they do not have the aid of high technology. Ascendants and above can simply warp the world around them to their desires, but everyone else has to rely on magical technology that sometimes, but not always, is superior to its technological counterpoint. Technologically speaking, my planet was far behind your own when I left. Of course everything could be fulfilled by magic, but there was a difference. Your planet would have made a great member of the Prophets of the Machine God, that is of course if you survive the reprisals that such an act would entail.”
“I’ve heard about the Prophets before. I know that the System hates them, because they are trying to supplant it, but why exactly? How could a mere B Rank faction threaten the entire System?” Sam asked, remembering the entry in the information crystal about the faction.
Jeffrey pursed his lips.
“Well… it’s complicated. On paper, the Prophets are a B Rank faction, but in reality only about a third of their members are part of the System. Their leaders are completely disconnected, but wield power far beyond the B Rank. If it was merely a B Rank faction, then it would have been wiped out long ago. They actually possess the strength of a low A Rank faction, and even with the entire Multiverse against them, they are still around today. The only reason that they have not spread their tendrils even further is because of the rewards that people who kill them are given.”
“I read about that. What kind of rewards are we talking about here?” Sam asked.
“Oh, the rewards are rich indeed. They scale to the rank of the Prophet in question, but generally they are far out of proportion to the difficulty. Killing a G Rank member could get you a few million credits, or something of equal value, and so on from there.”
“Huh. I am not a fan of the idea of simply killing someone because they are a member of a faction, but I doubt that that faction is any sort of beacon of virtue, am I right?” Eduardo asked.
“Indeed. Some of the most horrific atrocities in the Multiverse have been perpetrated by them. They are second only to the Minorian Sect in their depravity.”