Tess sat down in the stands, looking down at the Arena in anticipation. It was a big day; Gramps and his party were having their rank evaluated, and the event was to be done publicly, to help combat any potential accusations of rank fixing. Of course, it wouldn’t stop those accusations, people would still make them when Gramps’s party inevitably got a high rank, but at least they would have something to point to back up whatever rank they got.
Making it publicly viewable also served the secondary purpose of reminding people exactly why The Titans were so respected and feared. The value their name had and the fear it put into people was a huge contributing factor towards the peace that the Outlands had. People knew that, if they wanted to attack the Outlands, they would have The Titans to contend with, and that was an intimidating thought.
“So, what do you think they’re going to have them do?” Ellie asked, sitting down next to Tess. “I mean…what would even be a reasonable test for them?”
“It almost certainly has something to do with why The Rumors say they won’t be here.” Maven said. They had, of course, asked The Rumors if they wanted to watch the event together, but The Rumors said they would be busy and unable to watch with them, so the three members of Maelstrom had come alone.
“Have room for one more?” Amara asked, taking a seat next to Maven. “If you’re on a date then I won’t intrude, but I thought I’d at least come say hi while I was here.”
“Ama – Grandma?” Tess asked, taken aback. “How did you know we were going to be here?”
Amara waved her hand, giving Tess a smile. “I didn’t, but I figured you wouldn’t miss it, and you know I don’t exactly have trouble finding people if I’m looking. Plus, even if you weren’t going to be here, I thought it’d be a good timewaster. I haven’t seen the four of them work in ages, and they’re sure to make this flashy.”
“Well, we could use the company.” Ellie said. “We asked The Rumors, but they’re apparently busy.”
“Ah, so that’s what’s happening.” Amara said, nodding her head sagely.
“You know what’s going on?” Maven asked. “We assumed they were involved somehow, but we’re not sure how.”
“I have a guess, and now I’m about eighty percent confident. I know the kind of people Evan hires, and I’m familiar with how the guild operates. With that in mind, I had a few guesses on how they’d handle the matter of the rank exam. Honestly, guessing about this kind of thing is more of a game to me than anything. After so long of doing what I do it’s ingrained into me to think about stuff like this, even when it’s not work-related; it helps keep me sharp, and it’s fun, too. Still, I think I’ll leave you in the dark a bit more; if I’m wrong, it’d be awfully embarrassing.”
That made sense. As Subterfuge’s Appointed, this was the kind of thing that Amara dealt with as her job, even if this wasn’t that important in the grand scheme of things. Of course she would have a better idea than Tess would about what was happening. “You know we’re going to ask you later if you were right, right?” Tess teased. “Are you just going to lie if you get it wrong?”
“Wasn’t planning on it, I’d just be embarrassed and own up to it.” Amara admitted. “But I like to keep the suspense going. Tell you what, though…” Amara reached into her bag and pulled out a pen and paper. “I’ll write my guess down here, and hand it to you. Put it in your bag, and you can take it out later to confirm I’m not lying.”
“It’s okay, we trust you, I was just teasing.” Tess said.
“I know, but where’s the fun in that?” Amara replied, giving her a wink and writing down something on the paper before folding it up and handing it to Tess. “It’ll make this more exciting for me.”
“If you insist.” Tess replied, taking the paper and storing it in her pockets. “Anything you are willing to share?”
“Well, I know you’ve already figured out that they’re involving The Rumors, but I’d ask you to think about why they chose them. After all, we all know that, as good as The Rumors are, they’re not even close to a match for Evan’s party if they were just going to duke it out.”
“Could they be using the Arena to equalize their stats?” Ellie suggested. “Then it’d be a test of skill, both actual Skills and you know, like, combat experience.”
“That’s one of the ideas I considered.” Amara said. “It might be part of what’s happening, but I don’t think that’s everything. Any guesses as to why?”
“Well…that’s not really what they’re testing, right?” Tess asked. “Equalizing stats isn’t exactly going to wow people when The Rumors have been active for way less time than Gramps’s party. They weren’t even rank ten before this, it would make more sense to choose a rank ten party that’s been around for longer.”
“Exactly.” Amara said, smiling proudly. “I see Ava’s taught you well, you sound just like her. The whole reason this is being done publicly and is even being televised, is because they want to demonstrate that the inevitable high ranking their party gets isn’t because Evan is the guildmaster. That’s not exactly something you can do by defeating a party that isn’t your match.”
“Do people really doubt their capabilities?” Maven asked skeptically. “Everyone knows they’re the strongest.”
“You’d be surprised.” Amara replied. “They haven’t had a public display of power in decades, and many people who haven’t seen them in action tend to assume that their reputation is exaggerated. I doubt you’d find anyone like that amongst people above rank seven or eight, but public trust in the process is important.
“You know, it’s funny. Even though they have clearly stated that no one will be getting above rank fifteen or so in this exam, I think many higher-ranked people are going to think that The Titans are intentionally downgrading their rank to placate people who think they’re only getting a good rank because of nepotism.”
“I mean…they basically are, right?” Ellie asked. “Is there anyone stronger than them?”
“Not really.” Amara confirmed. “The only people I can even see potentially getting stronger than them within the next hundred years are you three. Still, they’re trying to future-proof the system, and making them the highest rank from the get-go kind of ruins that.”
“You’re joking, right?” Tess asked. “There’s no way we’re going to catch up to Gramps by then. I don’t see myself ever catching up to him.”
“Serious as the grave.” Amara replied. She paused for a moment, then cast a spell. “As Appointed, you have access to resources that other people don’t. For instance, you’ve reaped the benefits of a savage dungeon before the public even knew they existed.
“Even without that, you all have a fast-track to success; once your training is done and you no longer need to worry about falling into bad habits, you can simply walk into literally any dungeon and clear it. You can farm EXP by having monsters sit still while you kill them, so you’ll hit high levels in record speed.
“Ellie has the literal best stats possible and two different Blessings, and I don’t think you fully realize how significant your Blessing is, Tess. With each and every Skill you get serving to enhance your build in the best way possible, your growth is exponential rather than linear, and that’s not even getting into the sort of things Monster Breeder grants you, because there are some frankly absurd abilities that only monsters get.”
“Surely, The Titans would beat us as a party, though.” Maven argued. “They outnumber us, have more experience working together, and as an individual I’m not especially strong outside of a dungeon.”
Amara shrugged. “Without Descent, sure. But, when you reach our level, it’s a given that Descent is active in any serious conflict. And, when it comes to Descent, you happen to have some very strong ones on your side. Have you ever actually seen Fortune’s Descent in action?”
“No, but I’ve heard about what it does.” Maven admitted.
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“Have Tess show you later.” Amara suggested. “Since her Descent is risk-free, which is another completely absurd thing, by the way, it shouldn’t be a big deal to whip it out for a private demonstration. I don’t think you quite realize how good it is; it’s easily the strongest Descent out there.”
Fortune: I actually had Death take some video of it so I could look over it later and see how I could improve. I can show you, if you’d like. Oh, and BTW, I talked to Amy about the whole “making Appointed Higher Beings” thing this morning, and she says she’ll be doing it later, when she rolls out this chatroom to everyone. Maybe let Amara know while she’s here? I’m sure she’ll get told later, but might as well get her in the loop now, it’s not secret or anything.
“Fortune says she has video of the incident.” Maven said. “And she wants us to tell you that, soon, Amy will be rolling out the chatroom feature we have to encompass every Appointed and god, and will be making Appointed Higher Beings at the same time.”
Amara froze. “What? I was under the impression that that was impossible if we wanted Descent to work.”
“Was impossible.” Tess said. “She seems to have figured something out after all the work she did on Monster Breeder in order to get it to work properly with Descent.”
Amara sat back in a daze. “Wow.” She said. “I was…not expecting that. That’s a big deal, you know.”
“To be honest, I’m not sure I’m totally clear on what a Higher Being is.” Ellie admitted. “Care to refresh me?”
“They’re the step between regular people and Administrators.” Amara explained. “Gods are almost always Higher Beings, but Higher Beings aren’t always gods. For instance, our Aunt Kali was a Higher Being before being a sub-Administrator, but she wasn’t a god. You and Tess haven’t met her yet, but I believe she’ll be at your wedding, so you can ask her about it then.
“Gods are, basically, an arbitrary subdivision of Higher Beings who have Domain over a certain area. We’ll probably end up with no Domain or a small share in our patron god’s Domain or something, but that’s still plenty to give us benefits. In all likelihood we’ll see an increase in our stats and our Skills will become more efficient, but that’s not even the important stuff.
“We’ll start earning our own Worship passively, and we’ll be able to actually use it on our own, which has a lot of possibilities. We also get what basically amounts to immunity against mind-altering effects that don’t use Worship, and it’ll make it so we cannot die permanently without another Higher Being doing some very specific things to stop us coming back. If we get fed some Worship or would have accumulated that Worship naturally over time, we just come right back no worse for wear. It’ll make reviving us a little more expensive, but that’s really the only downside.”
“Oh.” Ellie said. “That’s…a lot.”
“Like I said, a big deal. We may be nominally equal to the gods now, but we don’t actually have the power to back it up. After that, we will, for all intents and purposes, be gods, just probably with lower Worship gain and no public recognition as divine beings.”
“Anyway, we sort of interrupted you, please continue what you were saying earlier.” Maven said.
“Give me a moment to collect my thoughts.” Amara replied. “That was a bit of a bombshell.”
She took a deep breath, but was cut off by the magically-enhanced voice of Gramps. “Hello, everyone, and thank you for taking the time to come watch our examination. As a reminder, all examinations of parties that are rank nine or above will be public in this same manner, and we have a schedule posted on our website, so do check those out if you’re interested.” He said.
He was dressed in a heavy robe, and holding an innocuous-looking staff that Tess could only assume was his weapon of choice. “Before we begin, there is something I would like to address. I am sure that many of you watching today have concerns that the results of this specific examination will be tainted because I am the guildmaster. While it is impossible to completely and utterly assuage every worry, we will be doing our best to make the process as transparent as possible.
“For this examination and this examination only, the deliberation of those reviewing our performance will be videotaped and made public, along with full transcripts of their notes and a document containing their individual thoughts on what our rank should be and their reasoning for that choice.
“Additionally, after some deliberation, for this exam only we have decided to allow some respected public figures act as examiners to avoid conflicts of interest. They will be advised by a member of guild staff on best practice and how ranks are determined, but the guild staff members will have no input on our actual rank.
“For those who have graciously accepted the offer to be our examiners, we have Alberich Stonewarden, head of the City’s university, Kane Io, former rank nine freelancer and owner and head artificer of the leading equipment chain for freelancers, Elara the Bold, hero in the war for the Outlands and commentator for the Challenger’s League…”
Gramps listed five or six more names, but Tess only recognized Alberich and Kane. “So, I’m assuming these people are all big names, right? And what’s the Challenger’s League?” She asked.
“Yeah, they’re all important,” Amara confirmed, “and there’s enough variety in them that most reasonable people won’t find too much bias in their overall judgement. The Challenger’s League is an organization that for exhibition fighting. To put it in terms of things you have on Mael, consider it to be similar to martial arts competitions.”
“With introductions out of the way, I will be handing the proverbial mic over to Headmaster Stonewarden, who has volunteered to be the spokesperson for our examiners today. He and the other examiners may make comments during our test, but rest assured that those of us in the Arena will be unable to hear them unless the comment is specifically directed at us. In order to minimize confusion for the viewers, such communications will be preceded by a short tone.” Gramps continued, motioning at Alberich.
Alberich cleared his throat, the sound magically amplified over the stands. “Thank you, Guildmaster Los. As agreed, I will now be sending your party into the Arena, where I will give a short overview of the first test we have for you. After the overview, you will have ten minutes to prepare, and I will explain to our viewers why we have chosen this test.”
Gramps disappeared, then reappeared in the area underneath the Arena with the rest of his party. Like Gramps, they were each properly decked out in their gear, and they exuded an air of competence and caution.
A short chime rang out, and Alberich began to speak. “For your first test, we have opted to give you a defense mission; a monster surge of unprecedented proportions has hit the City, blindsiding everyone. You must organize the City’s defenses in the limited time you have before the monsters reach it, and deal with any unforeseen issues as they arise.
“As this is a rather complex scenario, Kane will be manually controlling the Arena to simulate areas you are not in, advised by the rest of us to help maintain as much realism as possible. You will start out in the Guildmaster’s office in the main branch of the guild, and a sheet of your available resources you have and the gathered information on the monster surge will be laid out on the table.
“After your ten minutes of preparation are up, we will prompt you to present your planned defense, as well as which part of the City you would like to be in when the surge hits. We will then reshape the Arena and give you one minute to regain your bearings, after which the test will start in earnest. Any questions?”
Gramps shared a glance with the rest of his party, then looked up at the roof of the Arena. “No, Headmaster.”
“Very well. Your time begins now.” The Arena took on the familiar shape of Gramps’s office, and The Titans immediately grabbed the paper that was sitting on his desk and began to read. As they did, the televisions set up around the viewing area lit up to show a closer view of their party, as well as the transcript of the paper to the side. And, as they spoke amongst themselves, captions appeared on the screen below, subtitling their inaudible words.
“Now, for the viewers, allow me to explain a little more.” Alberich said, his words appearing as captions on the top of the screens. “Currently, we have muted their audio while we explain more about this setup and why we have chosen it, but if that doesn’t interest you, feel free to tune us out and read their dialogue on screen. When our explanation is finished, we will unmute them and allow you to hear what they are hearing.”
Alberich looked over at Kane. “First and foremost, I anticipate that some of you will be concerned about the scope of this scenario and if it is in our capabilities to actually present it accurately. For those unaware, the Arena is Kane’s own invention, and he has had a hand in the design of most of the preset scenarios that come with one. With him operating the Arena, as well as the advice of myself and the rest of the examiners, there should be no mechanical issues with the test.
“As for the contents of the test, defense scenarios are common in freelancer rank examinations. These scenarios allow examiners to test the examinees’ decision-making skills in times of crisis, show how they deal with protecting civilians, and ascertain how the examinees fight when they have to be mindful of how destructive they are.
“For The Titans, a standard defense mission simply isn’t enough to properly gauge their capabilities. As many of you are no doubt aware, The Titans played pivotal roles in every monster surge that has impacted the City, and even once defended a small city from one by themselves.
“We had to create an exceptional scenario if we wanted to give them any sort of proper challenge. The monster surge we will be simulating is twice the size of the largest recorded monster surge, and contains significantly more high-level monsters than usual. For the curious, the exact details of this scenario will be posted online with the rest of the documents regarding this test, but I’m afraid we don’t have time to go over the specifics now.
“And, with out of the way, it’s almost time to turn the focus back to The Titans. But, before that, a quick word on how the examiners’ commentary will be handled’; if any of us examiners have important commentary or explanations, it will be broadcast audibly and the sound from the Arena dimmed while we speak.
“For those of you watching online, we will have a separate stream that is purely focused on the examiners, so you can hear all of what we say if you wish. Furthermore, a full transcript of our conversations will be included in the aforementioned documents surrounding this exam. Now, The Titans.”