“Thank you for answering my questions truthfully,” I said, bowing my head slightly. As I spoke, I realized something based on the numbers just recited by Hellman. “Fifty thousand fighters out of a population of two and a half million seems pretty low. Not all naskaloids are ‘Awakened,’ right?”
The widening in Hellman’s eyes and the slight opening in his mouth gave me all the information I needed. His shocked reaction was quite human, and I was surprised to see that those age-old information-gathering tricks worked on Nephilims just as well as they worked on Humans.
With a tight smile on his face, Hellman said, “Even if that were true, Vinzadir, that wouldn’t be information the Coalition of Light is currently prepared to share with the Human tribe.”
There must have been a chance that those born on a planet where the System was present could not use it. For such a thing to limit the number of active soldiers so significantly, the number of unawakened children must have been somewhere between 50% and 90%.
“All right,” Hellman said, clapping his hands. He suddenly seemed very interested in being somewhere else as fast as possible. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a Star Child to kill. You’ll really want to get out of here fast. If I don't find the Dungeon Lord within the next twelve hours, I’ll start calling in limited artillery strikes.”
Artillery? Well, that would explain why the Conquering Horde built all of their bases underground.
Hellman tapped the ground a few times to test its durability before suddenly jumping high into the air and disappearing into the bright blue sky above.
I watched the ascending dot until it was a safe distance away before letting out a sigh and turning to the rest of my group. Their eyes met mine, and I saw a mixture of fear and concern in their stares.
“Is there something on my face?” I asked and let out a forced chuckle. This movement of my diaphragm caused a deep pain to form just under my lungs, causing me to press a hand to my chest. When I pulled my hand back, it was slick with congealing blood.
After seeing Carlos’s injuries, I had completely forgotten that the Bull of Heaven had gored me as well. I turned my eyes to look at my character sheet and was concerned at what I saw.
MDC:11/28(40)
My eyes went wide. I had lost 12 MDC from the lingering injury dealt by the Bull. If I didn’t stop the bleeding soon, I could wind up dead.
“That’s not good,” I said, stumbling and trying to maintain my balance through the bout of lightheadedness that assaulted my mind without warning. “Liz, a little help?”
She ran over to me, and, seeing my bleeding wounds, pressed a hand against my shoulder and said, “Heal!”
Once more, the pain was far greater than I expected. This particular surprise was becoming a pattern of which I was definitely not a fan. It was like my body could recognize that the Revelation System was unnatural, and whenever it tried to interface with my body, my brain received a strong message that something unnatural and potentially harmful was happening.
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My flesh knitted back together, and ribs that I didn’t even know were broken fused back together and slotted back into the preexisting flesh cavity in my chest. Though a significant amount of clotted tissue remained on my chest, the bleeding stopped, at least.
MDC: 18/28(40)
[YOUR MAXIMUM MDC HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY REDUCED BY 12 DUE TO BLOOD LOSS]
YOUR MAXIMUM MDC HAS BEEN TEMPORARILY REDUCED BY 12
I was struck by how similar the System handled [Blood Loss] compared to Dungeon King. In both systems, [Blood Loss] was represented by a reduction in maximum HP until several hours had passed.
“So, Vincent,” Carlos said slowly, “are you going to tell us what that was about?”
“Huh?” I asked, momentarily disoriented.
“You know, with the Bull? You spoke to it in some alien language, and it backed off.”
“Right,” I said slowly. “I don’t know. I just said the first thing that came to my head. The language I spoke probably came from Epsilon’s memories. It’s also possible that I inherited Epsilon’s status as the [Lord of the Fifth Greater Dungeon].”
“Epsilon?” Claire asked, blinking. “Lord? What are you guys talking about?”
The cat was out of the bag, but I figured it was fine. My gut told me that Claire wouldn’t sell me out to the Coalition of Light, and my instinct for people had very rarely been wrong.
“Dude,” Carlos said quietly. “That’s great!” He jumped to his feet with a bit more speed than he probably should with all of his injuries and slapped me on the shoulder. I wanted to complain when his strike tore off the sleeve of my Hawaiian shirt, but I let him continue. “Imagine what you could do with an army of a hundred thousand Uruks! This is exactly what we need to win this game!”
With a frown and a grimace, Liz said, “I’m sure I don’t need to remind you, but these are the monsters that have already done irreparable damage to civilization and humanity as a whole.”
“Buzzkill,” Carlos muttered.
“You both make good points,” I said diplomatically. “Here’s the thing, though. I’m not sure I can convince them that I’m their [Lord]. The Bull was suspicious of me from the beginning. They’d eventually figure out that Epsilon doesn’t have control of me.”
“It’s your power, man,” Carlos said. “How you use it is up to you, but you’ll have my support no matter what you choose to do.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence.”
Liz sighed, and I could see it in her expression as her mind switched gears. She turned her attention to a new topic, and a look of acute fear and worry fell over her features. “Now that all of the immediate threats are gone, I’m going to… check on my Dad.”
“I’ll go with you,” I said. I already had a pretty good idea of what happened, but I wanted to confirm my suspicions with physical evidence.
“Th-thanks,” Liz said, her voice faltering in her effort to control her emotions.
In a neutral tone, I said, “Carlos, Claire, could you two go into House Library and bring as many engineering and physics textbooks as possible to my car? I’ll need them later.”
“Yeah, I think we can do that,” Claire said, looking carefully over to Carlos.
“Sure,” Carlos agreed, and I could tell that he had just resisted the urge to make a joke. One look at Liz was enough to make it clear that now was not the time.
We split up into two groups before walking in two separate directions.