Chapter 30 – Can You Blame Them?
They say you never stop learning new things. That day, Matt learned that the design terminals in the forge that allowed for 3D designs to be projected and worked on, also played his helmet recordings. Franklin and Tobias both stared at the display, watching his fight with the bear guardian, Tobias more studious while the orc was borderline horrified. This was his first-time seeing Matt and the levels of brutality he was capable of when paired up with his construct.
After the fight was over, Matt stopped the playback, he had to brief them on his findings and suspicions about guardians and high value items. “Listen, Frank. I would greatly appreciate it if you didn’t tell others about Van being awakened.” He paused, letting the stunned man gather himself. “I am reading you into this because I don’t think you will betray me but also because you might need to leverage this in the future.”
Franklin nodded, swallowed, and took a breath before responding. “So, you are not solely a ranged fighter.” The statement was redundant. “I swear not to tell anyone about this, but please can we fast forward through the similarly gory fights?” Franklin looked a little paler than normal, losing the color in his face and holding his stomach.
“Yeah, no worries. The reason I stopped it is because I wanted to talk about its name, or the guardian part of it. The creatures that have a guardian title seem to be protecting high value area or items.” Matt fast forwarded through his skill selection and level up, skipping right to the moment he contacted the trial orb.
Matt had learned the recording wasn’t just a visual and audio sort of recording but also captured his identify usage and any system windows. He learned that he could scrub that data from the playback but chose not to. He decided to show some trust to the governor, and Tobias would always be his confidant so with just the two of them it was easy. If he wanted to use this for training material, he would remove a lot of data to prevent a lot of uncomfortable questions.
“This is what the bear was guarding.” Matt began to narrate as he played the video. They watched his discovery of the trial orb and then him entering it. He then showed them a highlight reel of his exploits before producing half of his rewards since the other half was napping in the corner. “This codex was the second reward I received. I already filled it with information and its ready to be used. Tobias, before you ask, the option was to input Technical, procedural, or personal info.”
“This is quite the impressive item.” Franklin said as he examined the large book. “It says unlimited uses but are there any other criteria?”
“No clue, I figured we could run it through the ranks and find out. Probably best to do it in batches and have someone ready to record failures.” Matt replied. Franklin and Tobias agreed with his assessment and said they would come up with a plan to use it. He then showed the rest of the video, skipping to the high points. The fight with the rok was mostly skipped for Franklins’ sake but the visual survey of the surrounding land was not.
“This is the perfect time to try out my plan.” Tobias began to polish his palm before adjusting the controls on the display and having Matt restart the recording. “I was hoping to piggyback off your recordings and wrote this program to capture and convert images to terrain maps.” The idea was a good one and Matt was hoping it worked. Fortunately for all of them, it worked flawlessly.
Tobias immediately converted the map to a 2-dimensional version and sent it to his and Matts tablets. Matt was impressed with the quality and detail of the maps, and he was able to manipulate it pretty easily. He did notice that the areas around his path were much more detailed, showing that the program had been running the whole time and this was the test for large scale. Matt then produced the elemental stone for Tobias to hold onto and work him magics on.
“Now” Matt said as he started the recording to show the mines, playing it through to get the map updated. “It’s time we talk about the crusade we will be conducting. I fear that we cannot suffer these vile beings to exist right upon our doorstep any longer.”
Franklin looked up. “What crusades? Matt, I didn’t take you for a zealot.”
Tobias facepalmed. “He isn’t but he also hates insects with a passion.”
“Yeah, I’m not, but we can’t let this abomination stand.” Matt replied in a falsely tired voice. He then showed the video of the mines area, playing it right next to the newly created map. “Where the trial orb only had one guardian for whatever reason, this one is different.”
Matt went on to explain the situation that they could see and what he had picked up on that the recording wasn’t quite showing. Franklin and Tobias both listened intently as he outlined the plan that he had come up with over the past day and a half, getting feedback from them on timelines and feasibility. He wanted to use the trials along with some power leveling to bump their power up before assaulting the mines.
The trials would be a great opportunity, but they also weren’t sure of when to send people. Franklin eventually won out with some common sense of letting those that reached level 20 go but only after they had their time with the codex. He said that if the suspicion about performance dictating rewards was correct, the could gain much more from trial with that method. Matt also pointed out that there was a creation trial, and they should send some of the higher-level people to do that as well. Tobias fully backed him on that and volunteered some of the forge personnel to go in the early waves.
With the exploits of Matt fully accounted for, they moved on to what had developed while he was gone. Franklin gave a general summary about levels increasing for nearly everyone in the settlement and mentioned the building initiatives. The squat tower in the middle of the settlement was going to be used as government offices as well as a command center for any combat operations.
Tobias reported that they had been making components for radios and repeater towers but hadn’t yet installed them. He wanted to test the manufacturing process and function before committing to putting them in the hands of the populace. Just the radios would be a massive undertaking if they wanted everyone to have one. Matt then asked about the repeater sites.
“Well, I was hoping that we could set quests for the teams to take on. It would help with their levels and help get a network set up for the future.” Tobias said. “I just don’t know if any of our teams are up to traveling out to the optimal range to set them up.”
“Well, what if they only go as far out as they can?” Franklin asked, “Is there any problem with them being set up closer and moved later?”
Tobias thought for a moment. “No, it’s just that we would need to move them twice but other than that I don’t see a problem as long as the terrain makes sense.”
The talk of teams jogged Matts memory. “So, about the teams. What’s the story there?”
Franklin was the one to explain. “When the initial work was going into the tree clearing project some of the, uh dismounts?” Getting a nod from Matt and Tobias he continued. “The dismounts went out to do some hunting and we tasked the pilots to guard them as they did so. The practice kind of stuck and now the hunting parties are mixed with those in constructs and those on foot.”
It made sense to Matt and was probably the way he would have done things. “So, I accidentally got access to the party system.” Seeing the confused look on Franklins face and Tobias screaming into his hands, he elaborated. He explained the system and how it worked, also detailing that he could ‘give’ it to people for a credit penalty and they could do the same if they set it up like he did. Franklin was ecstatic about the prospect of giving out the party system and was already planning on organizing team leaders to get it from Matt.
“How fucking lucky can you be?” Tobias asked while Franklin was just about dancing his way out of the office.
“Well, if you ever left the forge, you would be more than level 23.” Matt shot back. “Getting close there, what’s holding you back?” he said, offering his fist for a bump.
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Tobias returned the bump. “It’s the combat class. I have my Forge Master class at 24 and ready to go but I need to get my second class up to the threshold to evolve. Turns out you need to do both at the same time for whatever reason.” He was sounding annoyed at the end of his rant.
Matt knew that Tori would have some insight into the topic and would try to ask her about it later. “What was it that you needed my help with?”
Tobias looked at him for a couple seconds before jumping out of his seat. “Right! I need to scan the crap out of you and all your stuff.” He said as he made his way out of the office and toward one of the pads that ran the perimeter of the machining area.
Matt was then told to go get Van and bring him onto the pad so they could scan him. When that was over, they scanned all of his equipment that could be removed. So, he was forced to put his rifle, magazine pouches, individual cartridges, grenades, radios, helmet, armor and more onto the pad. Over the course of a couple hours, part of which he was standing around in only his boxers, all his equipment was scanned. The process went on and on, even after one of the other forge techs ran over to talk to Tobias. Matt noticed she stared at him a little too long and gave him a wide berth as she passed.
“What’s that about?” Matt asked Tobias after she left.
“Oh, we hit the threshold a while ago but I’m still getting all your stuff to get a jump on the next tier for the forge.” Tobias said idly as he ran the scanners.
Matt sighed. “No, not that part. She acted like I was the boogieman, and her aura was filled with fear.”
This comment caused Tobias to stop and give Matt his full attention. “Remember how you just showed up and casually killed the most powerful person in the settlement?”
Matt didn’t feel that was fair, the guy was either going to dule him or shoot him in the back, so a fight was impossible to avoid. “Well, I didn’t reall…” He was cut off before he could finish the rebuttal.
“Then you up and change everything these people know about power and growing stronger?’ He was on a roll and not stopping for comments. “Then gave that power away, showing them that everyone can grasp it for themselves. Then you just up and fucked off for a few days to gods know where and came back at level… what level are you?”
“Thirty-four.” Matt said quietly. Tobias had to ask since he was still wearing the viper hood and it obscured his information.
“Thirty-fucking-four!” Tobias hissed. “These are good, honest people but they don’t know whether to love you or be afraid of you. It doesn’t help that your aura now oppresses them unless you actively control it.” He calmed a little before going on. “Just give them some time and let them see you as a normal dude. It wouldn’t hurt to go joke and smoke with them a little either. Hell, bring Echo so they get used to him too.”
Taking the words to heart, Matt made sure they were done with the scans before leaving. Tobias told him to stop by the next day for some updates and he left out the same bay door that he had brought the mech through. He wandered out to the grassy area near the forge, sitting down in the shade of the mech while Echo came up and sat beside him. He had gotten a little wakeup call from Tobias and was just wondering how to solve it when someone familiar walked around the corner of the forge.
Rohm was walking in his general direction. Matt waved at him as he looked in his direction and the commander changed directions to head straight for him. He had taken off his armor and was walking around in just his pants and tunic. It was the first time Matt had seen him not wearing his armor and was surprised by how lean the man was but also by the tail flicking out behind him.
“Evening commander.” Matt said, standing and offering his hand for a shake.
“Greetings Matt. Are you and the governor all done for today?” Rohm asked. He was keeping Echo in his line of sight, not quite trusting the drake.
“Yeah, I was just at a loss for what to do. I found some kind of distressing news and didn’t know where to start to deal with it.” Matt explained. “Echo, come say hi.”
With a stretch and yawn showing all his teeth, Echo got up and moved over to greet Rohm. The poor Felid didn’t know what to do when the drake sat and was eye level with him. Matt coached him how to give the good scratches and palmed him a piece of jerky to feed Echo. Matt did explain the circumstances of how he met Echo, giving the commander a measure of relief that it was just some wild animal he took a liking too.
“So, what’s there to do in this town now that there is a startling amount of buildings up?” Matt asked.
“Well, we have the baths set up, there is a bar and a couple eateries. Most of the food is some sort of grilled meat right now but the bar has a type of mead that isn’t half bad.” Rohm started listing things off and gesturing to where they were in the city.
“Can you show me around?” Matt asked. “Tobias said I should socialize with the locals since they are somewhat terrified of me.” He decided to be blunt about his dilemma and it paid off big time.
Rohm’s face grew excited, and he gestured to Matt and started walking. “I would be happy to, please, follow me. This actually might help with my problem.”
Matt wasn’t sure where they were going but Rohm did explain what his issue was as they walked, Echo trailing not far behind. According to Rohm, the local combatants were divided in how to treat him. On one hand they respected him, and he didn’t have any issues with good order amongst the ‘regulars’ as he called them. His problem was that they knew he wasn’t top dog and didn’t know if his rule would change if Matt came back.
“I’m sure they will see that you don’t have any desire to take the position when talking with you.” Rohm paused briefly as they passed a small group of people coming from the other direction on the road. “It also might help ease the rumors.”
“What rumors?” Matt asked, genuinely curious about what some people were saying about him. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to be upset. Honestly, I’m kind of curious to what Tobias was alluding to.”
“Some people say you are a monster disguised as a man who wields weapons beyond the realm of mortals. Others say you are an honest to God savior and we should worship you.” He then paused, coughed and said the last part very quietly. “Others believe you are a psychopath that could snap at any moment and burn the whole city.”
“Probably don’t have to worry about any one in particular.” Matt said. “Is it because of how I handled lord what’s his name?”
“Well, that and you being level 28.”
Matt laughed and, seeing they were unobserved, dismissed his hood. “Not anymore.”
Rohm stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide as he looked at the Matt and saw the level. “Oh, this might not go so great after all.”
Matt grabbed him by the shoulder and, in a hushed voice, explained his position. “Look, I am not going to sit around and wait for the everyone to catch up or pass me by, so they feel better.” Rohm’s eyes were still wide as Matts fingers relaxed their grip on his shoulder. “It would be best for everyone involved that you act like it is no big deal. We are friends, Rohm and the more we show people that, the better.”
Pushing a calming aura out, Matt swept it over Rohm and his slight fear. Instantly he could see the man relax, carefully, he switched to his neutral aura and tinged it with his honesty emotion. He would just be himself and let others near him feel that he was not putting on a front. He hoped that this aura trait was good for more than just dominating everything within its radius. After Rohm got himself back under control, he continued leading the way. After another few hundred meters, they rounded the corner and he pointed to a large building standing mostly by itself.
There was a tall perimeter wall running around the back of the building and Matt could sense the aura’s within as being relaxed or jovial. Then he was able to read the sign on the front of the building and gave Rohm the side eye.
Ezra’s Baths and Spa
“So, you brought me to the baths?” Matt asked, not quite believing the sight in front of him.
Rohm looked a little hurt at his skeptical tone. “I can guarantee they are traditional baths from my home world, Matt.” He then must have remembered their earlier conversation about Matt not having them in his culture. “Ah, do not worry, I will show you and explain everything.”
Matt just shrugged and followed the felid inside, stowing his helmet in his ring as he went. Echo was still right behind them, and Matt was going to let him come with unless he was told no. The entrance was a rather comfortable lobby with benches and tables arranged neatly but to allow for easy cross conversation between groups. The lighting was rather bright despite the wood walls and interior. There was a counter at the far end, set up before 3 doors that lead to what Matt guessed were locker rooms.
The elf receptionist behind the counter smiled as he saw Rohm. “Ah, commander Rohm, Welcome back. Who is your fr…” His face went completely slack as he must have identified Matt, or maybe when he saw the massive drake lurking right behind the duo.
Rohm stepped up while Matt used his calm aura on the man. “Ezra, this is lord Matt, the one that helped rid us of lord Alfron.” He completely ignored Matts huff of annoyance at being called Lord and pressed on. “He just returned from scouting our territory and asked me, as his friend, to show him our finest establishments. Of course, I had to bring him here, to the greatest baths our city has to offer.”
Matt thought Rohm was laying it on a bit thick but introduced himself. “Good to meet you Ezra, just call me Matt please, all my friends just drop the lord thing.” He gave his best smile and hoped it would be enough to get past this awkward introduction.
“YES, ahem, yes of course… Matt.” The elf said, briefly losing control of the volume of his voice. He then turned to Rohm. “Commander Rohm, the usual this evening?”
“Yes please, the mixed baths tonight, Matt was hoping to meet as many of our citizens as possible.” Rohm supplied that information like it was completely normal. He then walked through the middle door with Matt having to follow behind.
Matt wasn’t sure if the baths was the right place to have a meet and greet but he would trust the man. After all, this was his chance to extend a little trust and see where it got him.