The Heartship’s prismatic core around which their entire civilization was built hovered in the center of a vast engine for converting its fluctuating chaotic emanations into usable energy and pumping that energy throughout the ship.
The core itself was too bright to look at, but you could guess the shape of it from the rainbow refractions on the walls and equipment around.
It was a broken cube, one end elongated, another sheared off into a jagged edge. Now, though, there was someone standing in front of it with her back to him.
"Who are you?" Cevxar asked, frowning. "I don't recognize you."
"I am Xian." He turned, and Cevxar could almost recognize the face of one of their lower negotiators, a shipmaster's assistant from the slave cargo teams. "I have been elected by Her Glory, Ivy, as a subordinate representative of Loke, Daughter of Chaos. And I know you are here to make an offer."
"Well, of course I am, why else would I come down here at a time like this?" Cevxar blustered, his heart racing. How did this Xian know? And why was he normal? He could have sworn all the negotiators were oversized mutants, the better to communicate with the giants. But this Xian looked entirely ordinary. Perhaps a bit on the small side, even.
"What is your offer?"
"Your goddess deals in lifespan, yes?"
Xian nodded. "That is the primary payment we accept, yes."
We.
So quick to cast aside the people of his birth, throw everything away to go chasing this new goddess fad. It made Cevxar sick, needing to work with slimes like that, but he couldn't deny that Loke was a new power in the region, and when powers arose, they had to be dealt with on mutually acceptable terms. One couldn't win everything and expect to survive long. Compromise and negotiation, both essential tools in a successful businessman's arsenal.
"Oh, I'm not interested in selling." Cevxar grinned. "I want to buy more. What kind of arrangement can we set up so I can live forever?"
"That would be a very expensive trade. Even Loke's power is not infinite. To sustain your existence indefinitely would require a perpetual influx of material that would escalate far faster than you could hope to keep up. It is not a straight trade. You can be made younger or stronger, faster or larger, but immortality is not so easily given."
"I don't care what it costs. I will find a way."
"The simplest way is to transfer it. You will need to convince others to give their lifespan toward your goal. This transfer is very inefficient. You will receive around thirty percent of the pledged duration back, and the number will only get smaller as you get older. It is not simple to reverse age advancement, and the more times your body is changed, the more wear it will be subjected to."
Cevxar laughed aloud. "That's all? I just convince other people to give me their lifespan? That's so easy. I could have been doing this all along?"
"No. Only with the direct intervention of Loke. If you wish to engage in this practice, you must seek out Her Glory, Ivy. I am only authorized to discuss terms, not to form contracts."
"I see. Can you tell me where she is?"
Xian grinned nastily. "Of course I can. But can you pay for that knowledge?"
"I should have you executed, insolent beast."
"You cannot. I am under Loke's protection. You will not be able to touch me."
Cevxar was sorely tempted to take him up on the challenge and punch his snout in right then and there, but he refrained. After all, if he was going to become an immortal, having to accept a few indignities was a low enough price.
All he needed to do was persuade other people that he needed their lifespan more than they did? That was so trivial. He knew so many sectors that produced hopeless drones whose lives meant nothing to them. They would probably be glad to give up the responsibility of continuing to live and work at their pointless, soulless existences.
"How much would the knowledge of Ivy's location cost?" he asked instead, putting on his most sincere-looking expression. "I am willing to make the investment if it isn't anything unreasonable."
"Five years of your lifespan."
Cevxar sputtered and nearly passed out on the spot. "Five years? For one location?"
Xian shrugged. "It's a big ship."
"I can search it top to bottom in three months. There is no need to pay your exorbitant prices."
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"Then by all means, find her yourself. I'll be here if you change your mind." The arrogant rat waved and turned his back to Cevxar. He barely held himself back from introducing the back of the insolent bastard’s head to the walls.
Wordlessly, Cevxar spun around and stomped away. In less than an hour, he mobilized a search party to find the faux goddess.
Immortality would be his.
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The journey to the shop took longer than James expected as he found different locations with all kinds of materials he thought the shop could integrate into some of the manufactured equipments’ effects.
In all the stories he read, an invaluable alchemist could doom a party to paying exorbitant prices for healing, cause unnecessary deaths due to the lack of resistances to certain types of damage or poisons, and all other kinds of things.
He even found a single flower in the middle of a wasteland that oozed lifespan. He thought about seeing if the shop could replicate that effect. Maybe something like an isolated cultivation chamber could be created in one of the shop’s rooms for Shen Ai, or maybe they could even set up a farm of them and collect the lifespan for themselves?
Either way, he happily plucked it up and stowed it away so it didn’t try to absorb him or Verox.
“If people knew the hoard you carried on you right now, they’d stop at nothing to annihilate you and steal everything you have,” Verox commented tiredly, somehow managing to keep up.
“They could just buy it, but if they want to take it by force, I’d be put into the position of beating them into a pulp until they paid anyway,” he said with a shrug. His fists clenched as a torrent of elemental energy formed at the top of his hand, then dissipated. “I don’t get Ivy’s fascination with grinding so hard for her improvements when we could just buy power like this.”
Verox, for what seemed like the millionth time, gaped at his casual use of power. She eyed him with fascination, an awe born from seeing him mercilessly destroy a whole faction. “You keep mentioning that. I’m quite curious.”
He stopped in place and regarded him over his shoulder, staring at the number over her head: twelve thousand and sixteen. “I’m sure you are, just like I am.” He looked around and saw nobody nearby. “I’ve been to a few worlds where even god-like beings don’t have a lifespan as long as yours. It’s very strange, in fact, because when we first met, you had maybe forty years to your name.”
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” she said sheepishly, turning away and tucking a lock of dirty hair behind her ear.
“I’d really like to know if that’s true.” Without being at the shop, he couldn’t verify her personal profile. He regretted not being there already but also wondered what the cause of her increasing lifespan could possibly be. “I suppose everyone has their secrets. I won’t pry if you’re unwilling to share.”
“I’m not hiding anything. I don’t really have a way to prove it either, so I guess we’ll just have to be confused.”
“I suppose so.”
With that, their talk lulled into an almost companionable silence. He mulled over how she possibly gained nearly twelve thousand years of lifespan when he hadn’t seen her do anything even remotely close to manipulating it. Even now, she had no lifespan flowing into her, yet the number ticked up another year.
Truly a mystery. One he’d crack before leaving Euriste 3 to head to the next world, possibly right after he overthrew the tower’s current management.
That would have to wait until he met with the shop again. However, as much as he was in a hurry, he wouldn’t skip past opportunities. Every floor had more than he imagined, and even after weeks of travel, they’d only managed to get down to the sixty-third.
Maybe by the time he got back, he would have a treasure trove large enough to impress the shop.
“Oh look, what’s that.”
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On the projected map, the target was depicted as a single glowing point of golden light. Silver stars surrounded the path he was expected to take, twenty frontline strikers, each supported by an army of long-ranged buffers, shielders, and lockdown. Another thirty affliction strikers waited behind them, ready to do the real damage once the shield was shattered.
From the vantage point of the Overhead, he could see his mother at the back, double-checking her equipment and preparing to ensure her kill.
It had to be her.
To guarantee the Legendary dropped, her Boon would be of utmost importance to ensure the target’s entire deck became theirs. Father had donned his gauntlets and enchanted armor, items that he’d affixed before Laril had been born and refined in war.
Laril brimmed with familial pride as he saw his aunts and uncles beside his grandparents. All of them, each and everyone of his family, came to support his mission, answering the call to arms. Reunited against a common enemy, brought together for the first time in years, they could not fail.
Yet the unease still lingered in his gut as he watched the target casually stroll through the fortieth floor. As a bystander, he could do nothing from where he watched, safe and sound.
The seconds lingered, each moment longer than the last. Three steps, then two.
The target didn’t even pause as he walked straight into the middle of the ambush. He continued picking off monsters with his magestrike power, pocketing their cards with the casualness of a window-shopper, completely unaware that he was surrounded by close to a hundred of the best Epics the tower had to offer.
As the observer and coordinator, it came down to Laril. If anything had gone wrong, this was their last chance to call it off and pull out.
But, just like everything else with this plan, nothing went wrong. Everyone was in position, and the target was right there. Oblivious.
His reactive shield would prevent their opening strike from being an instant victory, but that was only to be expected with prey on this level.
Laril’s finger hovered over the switch to activate the audio communication link. For one brief moment, his paranoia screamed that this was too easy, that he was a fool to trust it. He considered ordering a recall, giving up on this quest for vengeance and power.
But there was no reason to back down now. They were fully prepared for every single one of the man’s tricks. All his fights had been analyzed, his capabilities dissected, and his deck simulated. They had the element of surprise. They had the best of the best standing by, ready to strike.
There was nothing to be afraid of. Just a perfect plan to execute. So Laril pushed away his doubts and held down the switch.
“Begin.”
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