CHAPTER XXXI: GODS AND GAMES.
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{06:16 LOCAL TIME 1TH JULY 1ME}
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LONG BEACH
COLONEL
Colonel stared at the LAW from his frozen mid-roll position. The LAW had a soft almost fatherly, or even brotherly smile on his face. The silence stretched on while they stared at each other. “Oh right, you can speak through the telepathic link I set up. Sorry about that.” He apologized, being as old as he was, he didn’t really have a concept of time like other beings.
[Hey Wrath, and I mean this in the most respectful way, but What the fuck?] Colonel exclaimed.
The LAW’s smile turned to a frown not used to being talked to that way, especially from someone this low of a tier. “What?!” He said dangerously. LAWs aren’t used to being spoken to in general, they do the speaking they were the law after all. He wasn’t the wrath LAW for his patience.
[Couldn’t you have said ‘freeze’ first then the ‘cheese stands alone’ line. I am upside down for fuck sake. Come on man! Seriously.] Colonel not hearing the tone, nor would he care if he did, he was frozen upside down, and his shield was activated, so even if he wasn’t he couldn’t even get a view of the LAW.
The LAW looked at him wide-eyed, then started to laugh at the whole situation. He just couldn’t help himself. He had tears coming out of his black and gold eyes by the end of the laughing fit. For two minutes. Two minutes that Colonel was frozen upside down looking ridiculous. “You are right my friend, that was... what is the saying... my bad. Let me fix that up right away.”
***
In a bright flash of light, Soto left the Dungeon, and then groups of former homeless disappeared as well, flashing brighter as they left. Sugar looked back at Colonel nodded, and then was gone in a flash of black. Johnny and the last of the party leave the Dungeon. Adia and Bour turned to him and smirked before they left, there wasn’t any flash from them.
“FREEZE!”
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{YOU HAVE BEEN AFFECTED BY A WORD OF POWER}
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“And the cheese stands alone.” The LAW said from right behind Colonel. He slowly walked around to the front of Colonel smiling. “We meet again my very interesting friend.” He held back a chuckle. “Sorry about that, but time is already a little unstable so I had to freeze it, so you wouldn’t be days behind your party. I am thrilled you survived, but we have to talk. Not just about the state of affairs in the outside world, but more importantly. You have a major choice to make as the first cultivator of your iteration.”
The now-standing frozen Clyde sighed inwardly. He was hoping the game wasn’t real, but seeing this guy again made him really pray it wasn’t, because if it was real then that battle was real, and he wanted nothing to do with a battle on that scale ever.
“Better?” The LAW asked
[Much. So what is this about? Please tell me you are not taking me to some other place again.] Clyde wondered through their mental link.
“Technically you were the one that took me to an ‘other place’ though it was a different time and place, but no we will just be talking here.”
Colonel relaxed.
“For now, we have a lot to talk about, and a little time to do so.” The LAW said.
[But you froze time, doesn’t that mean we have an infinite amount of time to talk?] Clyde asked incredulously.
“That’s not how words of power work.” He shrugged. “They affect the local environment around the target and since you were in a Dungeon it counts as the local area. Plus anyone transitioning in and out of the Dungeon of course.” He explained.
[Okay, again I don’t see the problem.] Colonel said.
“There are two really. One, your mentors didn’t use the Dungeon exit they used some spatial device. So they weren’t affected, and the Dungeon is resetting so it is fighting back against the word of power. It is a really strong Dungeon for this short of time. So I wasn’t prepared for the pushback. Also, my reversing time didn’t help our case.
[Okay we better get to talking then.] Colonel tried to move on. He knew sometimes people with a massive amount of power liked to hear themselves talk.
“Right, you see the outside world has changed drastically. The world is growing at a prodigious rate. Mana winds are not kind to the pre-magic-built structures. The places of high mana concentrations are the only exceptions to that fact. Nature has taken back most of the world slowly, but it has been over six months so it has had time to do a lot of taking. The planet has already almost quadrupled in size since you started the game.”
[Quadrupled?]
“Yes it doubled for the Common period, the Uncommon period it doubled again, and the Rare Period will double the double, it will continue to double again by the time the platinum Period begins, at the end of the year. This is both good and bad. The good is if you wanted to get lost it is much easier now. The bad is you may go weeks without seeing another soul, who isn’t trying to kill you.” He sighed. ”Monsters and powerful Beast rule the wilderness now, and that is twofold in America.”
[How so?]
“Breakings that happen during times before the Industrial Revolution almost always turn out great for the Celestials. The people are used to fighting the environment and each other. The strong get stronger, and the weak can flee to build their strength up in the frontier.” The LAW made a stool appear out of nowhere, and he sat on it in the Lotus position, taking his time to get comfortable.
“Post-information age Breakings are not as ideal because one, electricity can’t exist in the same way it used to prior to the mana winds, and two, humans are much more dependent on each other for the essentials. Most food is shipped in, or grown miles away. Most services are done by others, and most families live apart from each other.”
“If the Breaking didn’t happen over a major holiday like the celebration of a new year, the death toll would have probably been much worse. We were lucky enough for that. Well, most of the world was. Most Countries had Nobility or Clergy ready to step in and lead the people during this perilous time. While almost a 4 billion had died in the first monster wave, the Nobles and the Clergy got most of the city-states up. The Cultivator gods were brought back and formed their trade cities which are havens if you can make it there, and the JTF was lucky enough to have all their sights that survived their initial complications became powerhouses. Most people didn’t know, but all Dust storage facilities and JFT bases were high mana concentration areas. It was why the Nobility made sure they had leadership imbedded in all of the major ones securing them was a major priority in the early days. The ones that fell prey to beast, and monsters are terrorizing Noble lands, or have even made whole provinces uninhabitable.”
[Fuckkkkkkkkk.]
“But that’s not the problem in America. America has the most powerful monsters currently.”
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[Because we had the most JTF bases?]
“No, because the Great Spirit was awakened late. Her chosen people were decimated by a genocidal government, multiple genocidal governments actually.” He said sadly. “She wasn’t happy that over ninety percent of her people were killed in the conquering of her land. So she has sworn to only protect them, at least until their population had risen to acceptable rates.”
[Native Americans?]
Wrath nodded.
[I do not blame her, as a country we have done awful things to a lot of people. But the native tribes got it the worst. In my opinion, and I’m black that’s saying a lot.] Colonel pontificated.
“The Great Spirit agrees with you, and she has let the rogue gods run free in a land not controlled by her people. This Dungeon for instance was a rogue god’s Dungeon. That is a problem, but it is also an opportunity. She has also refused to allow cultivators from being raised. That is a major problem for Gaia though. But our Celestial isn’t insensitive, plus it is early still, no one has been risen yet, but a few have been given the quest. This is the last continent to be offered it. Gaia will allow her to grieve for now. But inside Dungeons, the Great Spirit’s rules don’t hold any weight, especially a rogue dungeon. This is why I am here now.”
[To raise me as a Cultivator?]
“To offer you the choice. You have completed a secret quest that allowed this option. You see you have the prerequisites for all the of the LAWs, as such you can choose which element you want to follow. But as the highest LAW, I was given first dibs.
[I don’t follow.]
You have to get an attribute over one hundred and fifty, have at least seven skills, one of which needs to be Apprentice or above, three platinum or above titles, and a 3 in your magic stat. That is for any of the base elements; Fire, Air, Earth, Dark, Light, and Water. The attributes coincide with those elements minus Magic of course. Strength for fire, Dexterity for Air, Constitution for Earth, Intelligence for Dark, Charisma for Light, and Luck for Water.” He explained succinctly.
“There are a plethora of combinations and even higher prerequisites for more exotic elements and concepts. For instance the Death element requires two hundred fifty in intelligence and any other two stats, and at least one legendary title on top of the other requirements. But you got all of your stats over the threshold, ten skills with three skills at apprentice, and over three legendary titles. This has given you access to all of the elements. With a little bit of tweaking.” He smiled. “This is unheard of for a low-level Classer, even when that Classer is a Legacy, but Breakings are always different.”
[How so?]
“It's like the dwarf and elf said, magic is supposed to build slowly over time, which allows players to slowly adjust to the new world. The Events are not as hard to begin with so leveling isn’t very quick, but it's safe. Usually, it takes ten years for the first Dungeons to appear, only then does the real leveling begin. If done right, by that time the players are more than ready to take on the challenge. It is also when the Legacy counsel decides if the world is ready. Which they often aren’t so they destroy the Dungeon cores, and magic is passed to the next generation. The legacies give their power back to the Celestial as she goes back to sleep. And they continue to level in secret in the Sky or Heavenly Realm until it is the time to bring magic back again.” He sighed
“Most of the weak ones die waiting for the return. But cultivators choose to go to pocket worlds after they have gathered enough followers. These cultivators are what you call gods.”
[There are gods, as in plural?]
“Oh yes, there are thousands, any cultivator that makes it to the Heavenly realm can attach their -Will-, -Intent-, -Growth- or -Inspiration- to a certain group of people making a religion. While you think all of the old gods are dead their Clergy had just integrated into new religions for survival. Their mission was to bring the gods back when the mana level was high enough to sustain them. The signs are always clear when the threshold of no return hits. You have seen it here for the last decade have you not?”
Clyde thought about what he was saying a little confused, but then it clicked. His eyes would have widened if he wasn’t frozen, it all made sense, heck he played a major part in something very similar.
[The Dust pandemic.]
“Got it in one.” Wrath smiled.
Clyde now knew something was really off about this ‘game’, there was no way a company as big as MG Corp or PAR would be so insensitive to billions of lives lost by including the Dust pandemic in the narrative of a game, they would get sued into bankruptcy. The problem with that information was the fact that now he was going to have to tell Soto. But that was a problem for Future Colonel, present Colonel was smart enough to not miss out on getting Lore, or information that could help him and his circle survive, especially if this Game was real.
[Ever since I was a little kid religious people were screaming the end was near. They had no idea how close they were huh?]
“We were close a few times. But the Legacies of the time didn’t think the world was ready. So they passed the buck down the road. But magic will always find a way. Your brother was the catalyst.”
[He always believed that his inventions would either take us to new heights or destroy us. But you know how all doom and gloom middle children can be.] Clyde chuckled.
“He may still be right, but I was not talking about your brother Roger.”
"Clyde’s brain stopped moving. The reality of everything he was avoiding slammed into him. No matter how much information people had on Roger, he was never surprised. Roger was famous, but no one outside of his family, and a top-secret file locked away somewhere, should have information on his other brother Andre. Clyde broke character, lost in his emotional pain thinking about his twin. Then he remembered his face they weren’t identical, but they could pass for each other at times in uniform. Andre or Chef was the family goofball he made everyone laugh while Clyde or Colonel had been the serious one. It was Andre that had introduced Soto to him, he had said 'You need a crazy NCO for your boring ass, plus maybe he can get you into games, and away from those field manuals.' That might have been the greatest gift his brother ever did for both of them.
“The LAW had stopped talking, when had he stopped talking?” The narrator asked. “The better question was why? The LAW had seen many things in his life, but looking into this mortal's eyes he had a glimpse into the future of the world and the GREAT GAME as a whole, and it could only be described as one word.”
“Conquest!” The LAW said in awe.
“The word brought him back to reality, he started to doubt what he had seen in the legacy’s eyes.” The narrator finished.
The LAW shook off his musings and continued much to the very confused Clyde. He was just on the verge of a mental breakdown when the voice of the narrator just took him out of the spiral. He was not going to complain, he had some dark thoughts that were emerging from a place he had kept locked away since his brother died. But now all he could think about was getting into the game again. He paid attention.
“...you see Breakings forces the magic out to everyone at the same time. When the gods came back they always played games with each other. They give out quests to expand their lands and they use their Clergy as their fighting force since they technically they can’t do direct harm to players not on their plane.” He shook his head. “Needless to say they have conquered more land than any other group. The next group is the Nobles, what most don’t know, is Nobles all knew about magic since most of their bloodlines are from former players of failed magic iterations. They have quite a few bonuses because of that. They are one of the only ones that can create and grow new Strongholds. Plus they can also give out Jobs, Professions, and Events for their local areas, all of which people will swear to them to get more powerful. For every person under them, they gain certain benefits. Enough people and they can become as powerful as gods in time. A matter of fact, some gods were once very powerful nobles, controlling millions with force, or the illusion of giving them power. They pass on their kingdoms to their decedents and watch over it from the Sky realm.”
[Gods and games, that's why I was never very religious. It was the story of Job for me. If God was all-knowing, and the devil knew he was all-knowing and Job knew he was all-knowing. Why would he let Job go through all that shit just to prove a point to the devil? It was just so...petty, and everything about God felt way too human in that story. He damned all of us because Adam and Eve ate a fruit, he knew they were going to eat, the very second he made the tree.]
“No one is perfect Colonel, not even the gods. Don’t ever forget that. But we are getting a little off-topic. The Breaking did something that all the Legacies couldn’t do. It made magic permanent. There is no going back now, we grow and live well, or we don’t and die free, and I mean everyone. Most magic ages only last seven hundred years. That is because in seven hundred years if a legendary Dungeon isn’t cleared, it releases a Monster horde. Legendary monsters all start in the heavenly realm ranks, whole pantheons of gods are needed to fight these walking calamities and their minions. Even the LAWs must get involved sometimes if they fail, and they often do when there are not enough players to help. The gods always believe they don’t need the other players' help, until it's too late.”
“Being the first Cultivator of this iteration gives you a chance to set the standard because if the monster horde comes, the LAWs will not step in. The planet will belong to the monsters if they win. And humans will be the hunted instead of the other way around. So I offer you a quest as the first cultivator. Get the gods to work together for the betterment of humanity, and if you can’t, kill them before they can hinder humanity’s growth.”
[Bro for real, I’m level 9] The old soldier was still coming to terms with the fact this game was more than likely real, and that meant levels were still levels. The LAW had even mentioned realms as in cultivator realms, since Colonel had a big fat N/A next to his Cultivator tab on his Character Sheet, he doubted he had the power to convince anyone let alone kill them. But he did admit getting that kind of power made him very excited, not the gamer part of him, a little, but it was the older side of him, the reason why he was a great soldier, he was a Patton, an Alexander, he was a Shaka, he was a Genghis, he was the embodiment of war, he was Conquest.
The LAW laughed hard missing the change in the legacy in front of him. “True indeed, and you still have the maximum requirements of a level 50. Most people have to start with one element and gain more over time. It took me seven hundred years to become a Space Cultivator. And you can do it in under seven months, which for you was only a really long night.” He smirked.
[How many types of cultivators are there?]
“Countless, a player can cultivate anything really, some are much stronger than others, and most are useless in direct combat. For instance, I have met a cultivator of love once. She was...powerful in her element, but there wasn’t a ton of love on the battlefield. Cultivators of ideals are hard to quantify, but they serve a purpose. I don’t recommend taking any of those. Not many of them make it to the heavenly realm, and you need to be in that realm to take on the gods.”
[What’s the most powerful element?]
“That's easy, Time, but only Celestials and Elder races can cultivate it. But on the flip side of time is...”
[Space.]
“Got it in one again. Space is the pinnacle of all cultivation practices, while not as great at direct damage as light, fire, and blade, you can use all their techniques because you have all the prerequisites for them. But when it comes to defense, and countering, nothing comes close. You can’t hit what you can’t touch. You can’t capture what can go anywhere they desire. There is a reason why I came to you, the other LAWs can’t enter Dungeons like this without permission. And no rogue god will ever let a LAW into their safe place.” He smiled cockily.
[Well you had me at best defensive. How do we do this?]
“Accept the quest.”
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< YOU ARE BEING SPONSORED FOR A QUEST >
{Quest Name: Cultivation I
Quest Type: EPIC-LEGENDARY
Description: Cultivators are creatures on the path to immortality. They use Essence to slowly remove their bodies from the mortal coil.
All Objectives completed.
Choose your type of cultivation.
Time limit: None
Rewards: Variable.}
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[So I don’t have to choose now?]
“No, you don’t, but until you choose I can’t offer you the first cultivator quest because you may not be the first cultivator.
[Okay, I accept.]
“And the GREAT GAME changed forever.”
THE END OF BOOK 1