Chapter 145 – Future Plans
[Cumberlin]
Cumberlin sat at the end of a long ebon table, staring silently at Cassius, the Twilight Lord of the second floor. Between the two of them sat Elera, the scion of the summer elves. Cumberlin picked at his food, neatly categorizing all the problems of the final mission Mindalia had given him. He thought to be done with it quickly. One exchange with Jack proved that was going to be an impossible task. In fact, he was at a unique disadvantage on the second floor.
Cumberlin didn’t reach the heights of his power until much later on in the upper floors. On his original climb through the Tower, it had been an endless struggle for him. He had been rather weak down here on the second floor, and his stats reflected as much. He was left to rely on overpowered equipment and his overwhelming amount of experience to survive, which should have been more than enough. Much to his annoyance, the perfect storm of overpowered people were gathered on the second floor.
The Twilight Lord had been here a long time and had more or less reached the absolute height of power that could be attained on the second floor. Luckily, he seemed happy to welcome The Black Centipede into his house. Then there was Elera. If the rumors about her were to be believed, she had enough strength and raw talent to kill everyone in this room. Cumberlin had heard that she’s a once in a lifetime genius, but that wasn’t what made her so dangerous. She’s a wildcard through and through. Her motives were currently unpredictable. The only reason she seemed to be sticking around is because she found Jack’s antics amusing.
Cumberlin narrowed his eyes at the Summer Elf, who had a sour look on her face. She did not like the Twilight Lord, which made this little dinner all the more intense.
Finally, there was Jack. Cumberlin couldn’t even begin to make sense of the man. If Elera was an unparalleled genius, then what the hell was Jack? The man had somehow managed to destroy his mana core, which was an outright death sentence if you were hoping to climb the Tower. Despite that, he had his mind set to conquering the second floor and was even showing several signs of success. Cumberlin thought it a trick at first, maybe Jack was just a figurehead and someone was doing all the work on his behalf.
Then the bounties started rolling in. Jack seemed to have turned it into some sort of game as Cumberlin watched in abject horror the bounty on his head rise higher and higher. When he inquired as to why, he learned that he was hunting arbiters. Not only that, but other members of his faction seemed to be joining in on the fun as well.
That was another thing. Jack seemed to have gathered a powerful fighting force of his own. At least two people with epic classes at his side and a faction full of criminals that was growing by the day. Rumors spread about Jack all throughout the Tower. People didn’t make a play for the second floor very often due to the difficulty in taking it over, so when someone did try, it was usually a pretty hot topic among Tower gossip. When word got out that Jack was rank nine, people started paying much closer attention.
That pill had been the hardest to swallow. A high ranker like that was someone you absolutely did not want to cross. He glanced over at Elera, not even she had managed to achieve a single digit rank, and she actually was a genius. Cumberlin felt a shiver run down his spine. If Jack had access to mana when they had their first exchange, he wasn’t so sure he would have made it out of the fight alive. Needless to say, things had turned into a bit of a clusterfuck, so much so that he was currently waiting on reinforcements, assassins he knew had made the most of their time on the second floor. Before that though, he had to survive this dinner.
“Elera my sweet-“
“Do not call me that.” An angry breeze of hot winds stirred in the room, knocking everything around slightly.
Cassius sighed, rubbing at his temples. He was a tall slender man with pitch black skin and midnight hair cut short and slicked back. He wore a simple band around his head that had a crescent moon as its crown jewel. He inspected his nails and then looked back to Elera; his face plastered with a smile of ill intent.
“Elera, if we don’t act soon, I fear my city will be destroyed from the inside. This is for all our sakes,” Cassius pleaded.
“Your city? I’m sure Mortimaxx would love to hear that,” She scoffed.
“You know that old bag of bones isn’t interested in city politics anymore. Why do you think I’ve been able to hang around for so long? He’s all but left me in charge.”
Cumberlin found that last bit interesting. Mortimaxx had always been pretty active as mayor, but Cassius was right, the lich had gone somewhat dormant in his duties. He was surprised Jack was yet to receive a visit from him with how high his bounty had gotten.
“Explain to me once more why I should be the one to surrender my section to you,” Elera asked.
“It’s not that I care about remaining in charge my swe—” he stopped mid-sentence as her eyes turned furious. “Elera,” he quickly corrected. “I would give you all the power you desire should you agree to be my queen. I simply no longer care for power like I once did. I’m ready to settle down and enjoy retirement.” He gave Elera another creepy smile. She sat there in silence, an annoyed look on her face.
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“The issue,” Cassius continued, “Is city coins. As you are aware I can’t transfer them. Should I surrender my faction to you then not only would we lose the safe haven I’ve turned sector two into, but we would lose the collection of city coins I’ve amassed.”
“Why would I care about that,”
“Because I have a plan,” he grinned. “As things are, we’re all going to die if we stick around here much longer. I don’t see the Obsidian Storm Syndicate slowing down anytime soon, and it won’t be long before we reach danger level five, so I say we take advantage of the opportunity and strike while the iron is hot.”
“What are you suggesting?” Cumberlin asked. Both Cassius and Elera looked at him as though they had forgotten he was even in the room.
“My plan is to ultimately have the city wipe out the Obsidian Storm Syndicate. We are currently at Danger level four, which we can all agree is rather uncomfortable, no?”
There was a quiet nod of agreement from both Cumberlin and Elera.
“I have teams stationed to take out the councilors of both section three, and section four, bringing them under my control and launching the city into danger level six. If you think things are bad now, trust me, they will become much, much worse. I can all but assure you anyone caught ill prepared for the sudden jump in danger will die.”
“Doesn’t your little plan involve us dying as well?”
“Elera,” he smiled at her like she was a naïve puppy, “I’ve been in charge of this sector for over a thousand years. Every penny I’ve earned has been spent further fortifying it. I’ve seen what danger level six has to offer and have spent my life preparing to defend against it. We will call a storm of our own to wipe out our opponents while we take shelter in the safety of my domain.”
Cumberlin furrowed his brows together as he thought through the plan, it still didn’t make very much sense. “If you’ll allow an interjection, this plan seems a bit overkill, no? And why would you need Elera to transfer over her section to you?”
“I’m glad you asked, brother centipede,” Cassius smiled. “Admittedly, yes, launching the city into danger level six is a tad overkill, and will be disastrous. However, I plan to have my cake and eat it too. Taking over sections three and four will give me control of three sectors, with Elera transferring her sector over, I’ll be in control of four sectors. With that, and the considerable amount of city coins that I’ve acquired over the many centuries, I’ll be able to summon forth something extremely beneficial to us all. The Millennium Auction.” He finished with a dramatic flourish. Cumberlin and Elera stared at him blankly.
“The hell is that?” Elera asked, her annoyed face returned.
“The last time the Millennium Auction house was brought forth was over five thousand years ago, during the reign of Calypso who maintained control over four sectors for an impressively long time. There's a record of the items sold at the auction if you’re curious…” He trailed off.
“Out with it,” Elera said with an eyeroll. “And quit being so dramatic.”
Cassius smiled, pulling out a small sheet of paper from his breast pocket and unfolding it. “Rare tier items sold, 231. Epic tier items, 73. Legendary tier items, 3.”
Cumberlin gave a low whistle at that. Legendary items were a pain in the ass to get your hands on, much less three of them in one go. He was quickly starting to understand why the Twilight Lord wanted to do this.
“And finally,” Cassius continued, “Ancient tier items, one.”
The room became tense with a deadly quiet. Now he understood completely.
An Ancient tier item was one grade below Celestial. Cumberlin had been in the Tower for over 2500 years and had only seen two in his lifetime. Or he should say he’s only seen the aftermath of two. They were almost always weapons of mass destruction. Elera leaned forward, suddenly very interested.
“And you have enough city coins to summon this forth?” Elera asked.
“Admittedly, it will drain me completely. Fifty million for those curious.”
“And since no one ever sticks around on the second floor and the city danger level will be at six… it’s highly unlikely that anyone will be able to make it to the auction. Meaning we’ll get bidding all to ourselves.” Her eyes turned hard, and she started to chew on her thumb nail as she fell into deep thought.
“Exactly,” Cassius smiled.
“Others will hear about this. The Tower will make sure of it,” Cumberlin said. He had been around the block long enough to know the Tower wouldn’t just let this plan go off without a hitch.
“I know,” Cassius sighed, “Which is why I’m glad you’re here. I intend to hire the Black Centipede to deal with any interlopers. I know we can’t kill everyone, but we should at least be able to thin the ranks.”
“I’m not sure…” Cumberlin started, but Cassius cut him off.
“I’ve already spoken to your new leader Victor. Very reasonable man in comparison to Mindalia. In exchange for allowing him a seat at the auction he agreed to supply as many troops as needed for our little endeavor.”
Cumberlin felt his heart drop into the pit of his stomach at that news. Victor showing up would only further complicate… well… everything. The man was a different level of unhinged. Cumberlin gave Cassius a blank stare, wondering if he knew he had just invited a deranged lion into the hen house.
“Wait. What happens when you lose control of the other sectors? You don’t intend to try and maintain control right? Won’t the auction house disappear once you inevitably lose control of the other sectors?”
“No,” he smiled. “While there is a sector requirement to purchase new buildings and upgrades, it isn’t required to maintain control. Every so often I’ll take control of a second sector to buy a few upgrades for sector two, and then relinquish control once more. I’ve had a lot of time to experiment with the city interface. However, our timing will have to be perfect, I’m under no illusion that I will lose control of the sectors just as quickly as I gain them. The people I have in place to take over the sectors are going to die rather quickly.”
Elera tapped her finger impatiently on the desk. “I’ll need to return home to the first floor to get some additional funding, but I can agree to this plan.”
Cassius let loose a sinister smile, and with that, the plan to throw the city into further chaos was agreed upon.