Perhaps this Emperor played coy with me, or perhaps the nature of our worlds was different enough that he legitimately did not know of which I spoke. Given his apparent honesty with me so far, I remained inclined that the latter assumption contained the foundation of truth. Apparently feeling that conversation had moved into topics too serious for all present, he dismissed the gathering of what I presume to be important individuals of this world. Only his entourage remained after the rest vacated the room, the egress expedited by the floor and ceiling slowly moving towards one another. Self-preservation in the face of being slowly and painfully crushed outweighed their curiosity, for soon the elders and I were alone with the Emperor and his. Only once alone did the Emperor speak.
“I believe I understand the basis of which you speak. You talk of an individual’s source of power and magic, what techniques he or she has to influence the world through supernatural means. Is this so?”
“It is indeed. Is discussing this taboo in your world?”
The Emperor considered this for a moment as his eyes and head turned slightly upwards and to the side, perhaps in some sort of social cue of contemplation or a display of honesty. I could not tell the meaning behind the gesture, but it seemed more natural than calculated.
“We do have sources of magic as such, and we call them Blessings. Most people only have one Blessing, and it is very rare for someone to become Dual-Blessed. Sometimes, Blessing evolve to more powerful variants, but that takes dedicated effort that the common masses are too complacent to achieve. However, these Blessings do not have ‘levels’ as you put it. Most people only share information about their Blessing with people they are very close to and trust. Could you elaborate?”
Such a peculiar system of magic that his gods had enacted upon his world. How do they possibly gauge strength without any levels? And only having one Class, that sounds very difficult indeed. I suppose I would need to give him the same lesson that all children receive.
“Everyone here in this room from Crixli is old and powerful enough to have three or four Classes, which have a limit of 1,000 levels, in theory. The highest level in any one Class I have seen was just over 600, but some in history got into the 700’s, or perhaps higher, but such rumors are unconfirmed. With each level, acquisition of the next level becomes slightly more difficult. Most commoners are between 150 and 200 in their Primary Class by full adulthood, and they may grow to 300 before old age claims them. A new Class is unlocked at level 100 in the Primary Class, and after that, the math is complex based on Class quality, levels shared between various Classes, and a myriad of factors. In short, the stronger one becomes, the more Classes one gets.
“Classes offer many Skills, of which you can choose any 8 to have, along with 8 General Skills. When you unlock a new Class, you can also assign 2 new Skill Slots to any previously owned Class or to General Skills. Class-specific Skills tend to be stronger, but also focused on what the class does. Skills go from levels 1 to 10, and it is very difficult to get a Skill to 10, for one needs complete mastery with it to do so.
“I am a 183 [Great General], which was my most recently acquired Class when I became an accomplished commander, which is also called a Prestige Class. I am also a 541 [Soldier], which is my Primary Class, and a 320 [Lightning Warmage], which is my Specialist Class. If I attain a fourth class, it would be my Paragon Class, and my Fifth would be my Ascendant Class. The terms for those with more classes than that are mostly hypothetical, and anyone who gets to be that powerful certainly has the means to dictate terminology.
“It is customary and polite to introduce oneself by one’s most advanced Class up to Prestige, and beyond that, if you feel like flexing on people with higher tier Classes or when it would be suspicious that you don’t have more powerful Classes, by your second strongest Class. Ergo, I would introduce myself as a 183 [Great General] after giving my name. I apologize for not doing so when we first met, but I did not know the social normal of saying such things.”
I bowed my head to the Emperor, as is appropriate for one who has failed to observe courtesy, and it is also expected protocol in formal settings.
“That’s quite alright, Kirov,” the Emperor responded as he tried to gesture with his hands for me to cease bowing, if I understood the motions correctly. “I understand keeping such facts secret around strangers. That whole system sounds very complicated. I know that as a dragon, the rules that govern my Blessing are very different from mortals, but for mortals, they don’t appear to have any limit on how many Skills they can acquire, although they don’t have much control over which Skills they get. Skills don’t seem to have levels, but one can acquire more advanced versions of the Skill, or through training, acquire Abilities that mimic a Skill. Those Abilities could come from those granted by a god to a priest, which usually require incantations or tools to use, such as some sort of magical catalyst, like a staff with a gem on it. I don’t imagine there is anyone here among my entourage who has fewer than a hundred Skills, and I have several hundred Skills.”
My thought-matrix ceased working for a moment at that final and seemingly casual revelation of his words. Not just an entire 100 different Skills, but hundreds of them in one person. Hopefully, their Skills were not as strong as ours, otherwise each and every one of them was a veritable monster. I looked to the saurkin elders, who have long since abandoned this world in favor of the one now lost to us, and they seemed to show no sign of foreknowledge of this fact, for their tails swayed in a nervous pattern. My own kin fared little better, for the rhythm of their singularity-matrix resonated with irregularity.
But, the Emperor barely paused to let his words soak in, for a smile crept upon his face as he continued to blast us with information.
“As an Emperor, I have complete control over the Skills I acquire. The dragons of my flight have slightly less control the further down in peerage they go. Mortals just try to focus their Skills in a certain direction based on their actions. If a [Warrior] wants to be good with spears, he will train hard in the use of them and forsake the sword, axe, or other weapons, so that he acquires Skills related to the spear. A [Tailor] or [Brewer] may have a hard time getting any Skills related to the spear because their Blessings are not themed around fighting.
“I have different webs of Skills themed around different activities or goals I wish to achieve. I know what Skills are that I don’t have if I am close to acquiring them, but ones too far away, that require too many other Skills for me to unlock them, I can only guess as to what they do. I don’t think most mortals even know what Skills they could get, for no two seem to have the same Blessing. My Skills may detect someone as a [Tailor], but the exact name of their Blessing will be more verbose than that. Essentially, no two people are going to have the same loadout of Skills or capabilities.”
Horror flooded through me at the nightmare of such a world. No doctrine casts, no known builds to aim for, no rhyme or reason to their Skills. Each and everyone one of them had to discover things for themselves. The logistics of coordinating large groups working together appeared impossible, especially on the military scale. How could I hope to lead troops into battle if they collectively had thousands of different Skills? Clearly, there had to be a trick to it, or this world would be nothing but chaos.
“Am I to understand that the saurkin somehow adapted the system of magic of your world at some point?”
My thought-matrix still raced at the implications of what the Emperor had shared with me, and already he asked a question before I had sufficient time to process everything. Hurriedly, we went through the process of selecting a speaker, picking the same saurkin elder that had answered him last time, for these people seemed to appreciate answers coming from as few sources as possible.
“Our sagas say that over time, fewer and fewer were born under the rules of our home world, especially as the worship of those gods waned in favor of the gods of the new world. I admit, our histories are not complete, and the knowledge of different systems of magic in other worlds has been lost to us. I would imagine in time, new generations will return to the fold now that we have returned to this world. Gods long since forgotten and dormant will spark anew now that the saurkin have returned. We will undoubtedly favor the pantheon our ancestors once held reverence for, and with that, the system of magic favored here.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
The old saurkin slowly returned to his chair. To be honest, I could not remember his name, which probably involved a Skill of his, because, as a [Great General], it is imperative to remember names of important people.
“Can your people craft objects of magic, ones that can perform tasks similar to what Skills could do?” the Emperor asked with an unusual zeal in his voice, as if he had been waiting for the conversation to steer this way. It was more forced than natural, but perhaps he tired of dancing around his true interests.
Old Frigemi the Elder, one of the Brass and Ruby cast, opted to answer, most likely because he was the most senior [Matrix Weaver] among us.
“We can and do, and indeed our whole world was founded on such feats. We need sunlight to live, and our greatest works involved collecting sunlight from beyond the Invisible Mantle and siphoning it into our world. We had all manner of such devices to manage temperature, move objects, monitor our surroundings, and so forth. We certainly know how to do it even still, for we did not leave our schematics behind.”
A hungry grin adorned the Emperor’s face, and he took a moment to converse with the one called Nanu. They seemed to reach an agreement, for when the Emperor spoke, parts of his true nature shined through.
“I will be honest with you, I am sympathetic to your plight and the great loss you have experienced. I am keenly interested in what enchantments your people have mastered, not so much that I require you to build them for me, but that I may study them and learn how to replicate them. I do not need you to slave away on my behalf, to overly burden yourselves with furthering my ambitions, or to surrender your resources to me.”
I could feel it in my scaffolds, there was a large “but” coming with his words, and I wondered if this is where he would threaten us with shackles. I primed my mana-vortex for conflict should the need arise for us to withdraw when we rebuffed his offer.
“I understand that, should you share all you know with me, you may believe that you will be perceived as outliving your usefulness, and therefore become expendable. Thus, you would be inclined to share as little as possible. In a time of such strife, such distrust could be our undoing, and so I will be rather candid with my position and offer, so that you understand what you are getting into.”
I looked around the room and observed everyone was on edge as the Emperor built up to some sort of offer that may or may not be in our favor. The tension was thick, the people ready to fight or flee, even his allies looking concerned that diplomacy may devolve at any moment.
“I am a young Emperor. Should I die, a new Emperor may appear through means I do not understand. The other flights have not displayed interest in this coming war or you, but they will in time. Likewise, the nations of the world are poised to use and abuse you until you have nothing left to offer. I cannot say that I am the strongest choice for an ally, for my allies are few in number. What I can say with confidence is that you will not find an ally as loyal as I will be nor one as willing to offer as favorable terms should you choose to formally ally yourselves with me. I wish to make an offer, not one that you need to decide here and now, but one that I hope you will hear and consider.”
Those of my peers were not young and inexperienced in matters of negotiation or conflict. Tempers did not flare easily, nor were we prone to speaking when we lacked information. Yet, as we quickly discussed the merits of even listening to the offer, I could tell that we were all on edge, nearing the limits of reason as we plunged headfirst into the unknown. Our situation was almost unprecedented, for though the saurkin had made a similar deal with my own people in the past, the history of those times remains shrouded in lost manuscripts and destroyed texts on the matter. After a short few minutes of debate, we finally came to a consensus that we should at least hear the offer, but hold off any acceptance or rejection until a formal meeting of every clan and tribe. For his part, the Emperor patiently waited with a slight grin on his face, apparently unbothered by our sidebar.
“Tell us your offer, Emperor, but know that we will need the approval of more than those present to agree to any terms.”
“It is all very simple. I offer protection, housing, land, and prosperity for your people. I would expect no tithes of soldiers or workers, and taxation would be modest. I hope to build opportunities for your people, to create career opportunities that you would be eager to apply for and that you would find to be rewarding. As an Emperor, I will not die of old age, and so I plan for the long-term. I do not want to create an adversarial relationship with your people due to me taking advantage of you when you were desperate. I hope that you and yours will follow me not because I have power over you, but because my actions have proven that I can be trusted and will provide for you, protect you, and give you opportunities to further your own ambitions and find fulfillment in life.
“To that end, I would hope your best would come to the service of my flight, for which you would be generously compensated. You would not be slaves, but rather employees, and hopefully, friendship would develop between you and others that serve me. I wish to know about your people, your culture, your developments in magical pursuits, your techniques of administration, so that I can build an environment where you and others can thrive. I believe a happy populace is one that will help me in my time of need and cause the least amount of headache for me.
“I invite you to not merely take me at my word, but to deeply consider the offer and to investigate matters further. Talk to my associates, those who I do business with, or the citizens of World’s End, which is my primary holding. I am willing to negotiate with you, to draft up contracts that protect your interests and futures, because I do not want animosity over a diktat to fester into resentment that leads to rebellion. Naturally, I would not want all of you as subordinate to others that work with me, for I am in need of capable advisors, administrators, educators, and technicians. I can draft up a preliminary contract for your review as a starting point, and from there, we can negotiate until all parties are satisfied. In a general sense, are those of you gathered here interested in such an alliance?”
They say that if something is too good to be true, it probably is, and his words were like sun-cubes to the fuel-deprived. Yet I found no glaring flaw in his words, and knowing that we would be preyed upon if we did not find a benefactor, his offer was more than just as good as any. We debated for a whole five minutes, our words filled more with hope and excitement than heat, but eventually, we gave the Emperor an answer that made his smile widen all the more.
“Most excellent,” he exclaimed as he clapped his hands together once in approval of our acceptance to hear him out. “For as much as you have cause to trust me, believe that I have not instructed those with me to be dishonest or act in a deceptive manner towards you.”
He turned to address the collection of people behind him, with seemingly many different races or castes to be observed among their number, though I knew not one from the other.
“Everyone, please cooperate in answering the questions of our guests. Be honest and candid, for I know I am not perfect. Everyone has flaws, myself included. Speak true of your opinions and knowledge, for I do not want an alliance that is founded on falsehoods, even if what you have to say does not reflect highly upon my actions. I trust that even with my shortcomings and failures, I have overall behaved in a manner that has found me worthy of your continued trust and support, which I value dearly.”
The Emperor turned back to us as he continued to speak, his words tinged with some manner of Skill that inspired confidence in his words, but not tainted with those Skills that embellish. It would take significant expertise to pull one over on the collection of elders gathered, for it was our very job to handle negotiations. Overall, I found myself under the impression that he was honest, but mystified as to how the benefit of our alliance could outweigh the cost to him.
“Please, talk, discuss matters, mingle, and ask questions of my friends and trusted allies. So as to not exert pressure on them by my presence, I will depart the room and let any who wish to erect privacy wards to do so, so that no one, such as myself, could eavesdrop on your conversation. I will return to World’s End to begin drafting up a treaty so that you have something more specific to consider. There is no rush to decide as far as I am concerned, but social and political pressure from other interested parties may force you to decide sooner rather than later. I hope we establish a relationship that is mutually beneficial, prosperous, and lasting.”
And with that, the Emperor departed, along with the one named Skull who merged into his shadow, a feat that was beyond anything I had ever seen before. I suspect that his plan the whole time involved the sales pitch for an alliance, which indeed we had suspected that such an offer would be made. That part that bothered us was that he was seemingly too honest with us. We expected a certain degree of duplicity and for him to leverage our situation against us. This left a general feeling of suspicion that we were overlooking something insidious hidden within his offer, and indeed, we vowed to comb through every line of his contract on every revision to ensure there was nothing untoward there.
I don’t know about the rest, but I found it hard to stay on topic. I knew so little of this world and its people that I often got distracted. This little ‘gnome’ wearing a ‘top hat’ stood in my hand as I raised him up to eye level, and the small creature was a ceaseless fountain of information of dubious accuracy. I suspected he embellished his role in events, but overall, I was getting a read on him and his Emperor, and all signs suggested that he was on the up and up. The gnome showed no sign of stopping in his monologue, and, not wanting to be rude, I carried him around with me as I looked for more plates of those titanium cubes, nodding occasionally to show that I still followed along in the ‘conversation’ that was anything but a mutual dialogue. There was much to learn, and little time to learn it before predators came looking for an easy mark.