Chapter 32
No vaseline
Initially, it was a bit overwhelming, but after a second of sorting through the info dump, I understand. This must have been how information was traded in the greater system. It was convenient, and I liked the little things. The information on the cube was interesting. It was a welcome-to-earth packet. These Ectovizzor guys had paid for the right to become pioneers of the new galaxy and were dropped off on Earth after the integration. Apparently, this was happening all over the Milky Way galaxy, and the Ectovizzors were just one of the billion-plus pioneers that would be moving into our galaxy.
It looks like we will be meeting many more aliens than I thought, and probably sooner than later. The other two cubes were the Ectovizzors pioneer contract and a one-way transportation contract from their ride here. Interesting, for sure, but nothing to act on at the moment. I put the cubes back into the bag, tossed it back to Brianna, and we continued on to the village. This is another thing I would have to bring up to the council, or I could tell Beth and Janet about it and let them deal with it. Yeah, I liked that way better.
We returned to the village around noon, and everyone looked dead on their feet. Other than having our people bring the loot to the treasury, everyone was let go to rest and see their loved ones, or you know, get supper drunk. Whatever they needed to do to chill out. I needed to do the same, but there was no rest for the weary, and we needed to debrief with the council on the mission’s outcome. Janet, Brianna, Devin, Tess, Dean, and I all dragged our asses to the council room where Beth was waiting.
We discussed the mission in detail, reviewing as much as we could remember as Beth took notes. When we got to the end of the meeting, I gestured to Brianna to pull out the little cubes. She popped them out and tossed them to me.
“Thanks. So Brianna brought me something that turned out to be pretty interesting.” I held one of the little green-tinted cubes in my hand and showed it to the group. “When you push a little bit of Mana into them, they dump a bunch of information into your head. In the case of this cube, it’s all about how the Ectovizzors paid for the right to settle in the newly integrated Milky Way galaxy. The Ectovizzors were apparently pioneers, and they weren’t the only ones. There should be around a little over a billion more pioneers moving into the galaxy, and that’s just so far.”
“What the fuck! And they can just fucking do that!” Brianna said, an indignant look on her face. Dean seemed to agree with her as he said.
“This is our planet, fuck them if they want to come in and just take our planet. They better be ready for a fight.”
“I think we’re gonna have to learn to live with it. There will be good aliens, I’m sure, and probably more assholes like the Ectovizzors. It’s a new world, and I don’t know if there’s enough of humanity left to hold the planet alone. We may need to learn how to make friends.” I said, and everyone looked like they were thinking about that. Well, except Brianna, she just shot back,
“fuck them all. These so-called pioneers can suck my dick!” I laughed along with most of the room, but all jokes aside. We would have to learn to live with it, whether we liked it or not. We talked on the subject a little longer, but the meeting was over soon enough, and I needed to eat something and sleep or maybe just sleep. I was struggling. As I was leaving the council room to find a shower, food, and a bed, Beth stopped me and pulled me aside.
“What’s going on, Beth? I’m exhausted. I need to eat and pass out.” I asked her. To my surprise, her expression shifted, and she suddenly looked annoyed as hell at me. I pulled my head back a little and said, “What?”
“You know what. How dare you leave those people there. They were terrified, and you left them.” Everyone had left the council room, and Beth and I were alone now. “You weren’t that farm from the village. You could have come back to the village and then just carried on after that. They were terrified, terrified Travis. Come on, what the fuck? What the fuck were you thinking?” Beth had really gone off on me, and I was about to snap back at her to get the fuck out of my fucking face. That she was a stupid bitch, and she didn’t get what I did for this village, but I didn’t. I took a deep breath and calmed down.
“I’m sorry, Beth. I fucked up. I made a bad choice, and I honestly think I need to take some time to deal with my anger. I’ve been getting reckless, and I realize that. I’m sorry I did that, but I seriously need to shower, eat, and pass out. Can I go now, please?” Beth still looked pissed off at me, but she sighed and then gave me a hug and told me to get some rest. I headed out to do just that. It was two days later, around ten am when I woke up. I was feeling pretty good. As I went about my morning, taking a shower and getting breakfast, I thought about what Beth had said after the council meeting.
Maybe I was getting too desensitized to all the violence and insanity that was our new world. Maybe I was losing my humanity, and that thought shook me. There had been moments during battle where I felt more like a beast than a man. I was considering going out on my own for a few days to take a breather from Treehouse and everything, but the vote was coming up, and I needed to be here to support Beth. However, I needed to get out of town for a month or so when that was all done.
Now that the Ectovizzor threat had been dealt with, the village was getting into a festive mood. I had found time to distribute my stats from the battle with the Ectovizzors, and other than a few levels, I didn't get much else. That was fine, to be honest. I wasn’t too proud of how I dealt with that situation, and moving on was all I could do. As I walked through the village, which was now closer to a proper town, everyone seemed to be in good spirits. The vote was coming up, and the village had decided that the week beforehand would consist of a week-long party to show pride for the village and bring the village closer together as a whole. The brewery was pushing out booze now, and their latest batch was tasty and strong. Everyone loved the booze, and it was a big hit.
Someone had come up with a flag for the village consisting of a Treehouse crossed with an axe and a Teremnocal. It was everywhere now. On business, on clothing, on hats, everywhere you looked, you could find the flag of Treehouse Village flying. It was inspiring to think I helped build a place where people had so much pride to live. Humanity could always find a way, and Treehouse Village was proof of that. This vote was important. We hadn’t made it public yet, but as far as the council was concerned, this would be the one and only vote, and it was so that the people felt like they got to play a part in who their leaders would be.
I say leaders because Beth wasn’t the only one who would be elected that day. Every spot on the council was open, and twelve people would be elected to those positions. I was even running, well, at least I think I was. The current council members were almost asunder to get their spots back, but we would be adding some new faces to the mix. I was all for it. It just meant I would probably have to deal with less than I did now, a win in my book. These council positions, unlike Beth’s, as town leader would be up for reelection after a period of ten years, and anyone who was a citizen of the town could run for the position. The first thing the new council would have to accomplish after the election would be to increase the size of the village. We might even really be town-sized now. We were growing so fast. We just needed more space, so expanding the town’s borders was a must.
A big issue and an unforeseen one was that apartment living was great, but people wanted the space to build a single-family home and have a backyard and shit, but as I said, we just didn’t have the room. There were many issues like that, but most inevitably revolved around getting more space. The issue with adding more land to the villages was not as straightforward as you might think. We first needed to clear the area beyond the walls. We had done a bit of that to give us better sight lines on the attackers, but it would need to be handled properly. Then, there was the cost of expanding the walls. This was done through the village interface that Beth had access to, and apparently, the price was exorbitant.
The week leading up to the festival and the week of the festival itself were thoroughly enjoyable. There were lots of games and drinking and more drinking. It was really right up my alley, and I was finally meeting many of the new faces of the village. I didn’t spend much time hanging out. Usually, I was training or something of the like. So it was nice to take some time and enjoy the village we had worked so hard to build. When the day before the vote came, things took a turn. Finneas Balintine decided the day before the vote was the perfect time to stir up some trouble. Many people woke up with a bad case of food poisoning that day, and Finneas blamed Beth and her constituents, a.k.a. the council, and he said he had Prof.
Finneas put on a whole mock trial he put on where he found the current Administration to blame for the poisonings and how it was a tactic to ashore their victory in the upcoming vote. Everyone knew it was bullshit, but the problem was that some people were beginning to think that it wasn’t bullshit, and that was the scary thing. It was starting to feel like Beth was actually going to have some competition in this vote. That wasn’t supposed to happen. Beth was the better choice by far. This Finneas Balintine was just a power-hungry asshole. He didn’t give one shit about the people in Treehouse Village. It was at the rally, where each candidate would present their final statements before dinner and the vote in the morning, that I genuinely started to think that I might have to take matters into my own hands.
By the end of the rally, Beth looked a little frazzled, and most of her supporters looked like they wanted to hit somebody. I know I did. Finneas, on the other hand, had a fat smile plastered on his face and was clearly very pleased with himself. As a sign of good faith between us, I walked over to shake the man’s hand. I wandered over to where Finneas was talking to his constituents. As he saw me draw near, they stopped speaking and watched my approach. The smile never left Finneas’s face as I approached the man.
“Well, good luck tomorrow, Finneas. I do wish you the best, but I have to say I don’t see you beating Beth even after today’s show, but good luck tomorrow.” I reached out to shake the Finneas’s hand. When I did, Finneas looked down at my hand in disgust before simply ignoring my attempt to be cordial, then met my eyes. With a smile on his face and cheery in his voice, Finneas replied,
“you’re a piece of shit, you know that, right. You are nothing but a bump ball of muscle without a clever bone in your body. Thinking must hurt your small little brain. Aw, well, soon you will no longer have to worry about that. Much will change once I lead this village, including your time here. This is not your village just because you built it, and tomorrow, I will show you this to be true. Sleep well tonight, Travis, for this village will be mine when the morning comes. Good night, Travis.”
I just grit my teeth and walked away. That was really hard to do when I knew I could snap the man’s neck like a toothpick, but if I hadn’t walked away when I did, Finneas would be dead, and then I would really be fucked.
That night, I couldn’t sleep. My mind was racing, and I couldn’t stop thinking about the future of Treehouse as a whole, as a Village, as a people. What Finneas had said fucking got to me too. Should I do something? After an hour had turned into four, I had decided I needed to do something, and before I knew it, I was out of my bed and had a dagger in my hand. I took a second then and thought about what I was about to do.
I was really thinking about finding Finneas Balintine in the night, pulling him from his bed, and killing him. Was this real who I wanted to be? The man who used his power to backstab people in the night, like some sort of assassin. Or was I taking up the role of the hated but necessary evil? I didn’t know what to do. Then I thought about Tilly. What world did I want her to grow up in? One led by a confident, powerful woman who would lead Treehouse into the future or a man who would siphon every last thing he could from the village for his own gain and then leave Treehouse a dried-out husk of what it was.
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That decided it for me. Tonight, Finneas Balintine would die by my hand. I snuck out of the apartment complex and headed over to where Finneas and his people were camped. They had made a point tonight about “not sleeping under the same roof as their oppressors” and had built a camp outside the voting poles with signs, tents, sleeping bags, the whole nine yards. I snuck around the back of their encampment and found Finneas while looking through a hole in one of the tents.
I bent down and picked up a pebble off the ground, just a regular old pebble, and as hard as I could, I flicked it right into Finneas brain. I had even empowered my throw with a bit of Mana to really seal the deal. Finneas Balintine died that night. I even checked my battle log to make sure of it, and yes, the man was dead, and no one heard a thing. Flicking a pebble had worked better than using a silencer on a pistol. Job done. I slipped back to my room and went to bed.
The following day, I awoke to a furious uproar coming from the town square. Finnea’s camp had woken up to find their leader dead, and they were not happy. They were yelling in the streets about subterfuge and assassination. Beth was not going to be happy about this one. The vote was pushed by two days to deal with the situation, and Beth set up an investigation into Finneas Balintine’s death. I kept a pretty low profile for the next few days, but no one could find any evidence except the pebble in Finnease’s skull, and the investigation came to a close with no suspects. The matter was dropped to the outrage of Finneases supporters, and the day of the vote came and went.
Beth was voted in as leader of the town, which we were now officially considered, with the caveat of expanding our territory before the system would recognize Treehouse Village as a town. Janet, Tess, Brianna, Devin, Dean, and I were still on the council, and six new faces joined us. Most of the members of the community were fine with the election results, and a week after the elections, the expansion of the town had begun. No one was too concerned about Finneas Balintine anymore. There was too much going on in the village or, well, Town now. Everyone forgot except two people, Beth and Devin.
I was getting lunch in the cafeteria when Beth and Devin found me and sat down across from me.
“What’s going on, you two? How’s the expansion going?” I asked them.
“Hey Travis, yeah, it’s going well. We’re reclaiming the area quickly due to all the people who have pitched in to help. Thanks for your help as well. I think seeing the council members working with everyone else and pitching in on the hard work makes them more willing to do what needs to be done for the town. Thanks again, Travis, but on another note, we need to talk about something, and we can’t do it here. You got a second to have a chat in the council room.” Beth finished.
“When you are done eating, of course.” Devin chimed in. I thought they were acting odd, but I didn’t see the harm in it. I was almost done with my food anyway, so I scraped my plate, put my dishes away, and joined Beth and Devin, who were waiting for me. I walked with them over to the council room. For some reason, it felt like I was going to the principal’s office, and I didn’t like the feeling. Once at the council room, we all walked inside. The rest of the new and old council members were sitting in the room, gathered around the large table that we had needed to have brought in due to your increase in numbers.
When I walked in and saw everyone sitting down, I knew something was going wrong. My gut was screaming at me. This was bad news.
“Take a seat, Travis,” Beth told me, and I wearily nodded and sat down.
“I assume you probably know why we are here?” She waited for my response. I looked around wearily, then shot out a guess. Fuck, it looked like the gig was up. I breathed, then said, “Becomes I killed Finneas Balintine, I assume?” Beth looked down at the table and then held the bridge of her nose. I glanced at Janet for support. She was just starting at the table, looking mad as hell. I then looked around the table at all my friends, but no one would meet my eyes.
“Travis, you’re not even going to deny it. You can just, Travis, I don’t think you realize what you’ve done. You are strong, yes, and you did help found this town, but that doesn’t give you the right to kill whoever you want whenever you want. We’re trying to build a society, he damn it.” Beth stopped yelling at me to catch her breath. She was pissed at me. I’d have to do a lot to make up for this one. I’d never seen Beth this mad. No one said anything for a minute, so I decided I better start apologizing, then we could just move past this.
“Look, Beth, I fucked up. I just couldn’t see Tilly growing up in a world where that man was in charge. He would have ruined this place in less than a year. I couldn’t let that happen. Look, I'll do whatever I need to do to make this right. Come on, Beth, I’m sorry. Truly everyone, I was wrong, and I know that now.” I finished talking and looked around at the group, and Beth just stared at me for a second, then said,
“You don’t get it, Travis. Yes, you helped build Treehouse into what it is today. A beautiful, safe haven in this fucked up world, but you went too far, Travis. You went too far! You left me with no choice, Travis.” Beth stopped talking briefly as she started tearing up, but then she continued. “Why did you do it, Travis? We could have worked together and brought Treehouse into the world as a true force to be reckoned with.” Beth grabbed Devin’s hand for Support before telling me, “I have no choice. You left me with no choice, Travis. Dam it! You are hereby exiled from the Town of Treehouse.” Beth was interrupted by Janet.
“This isn’t right!”
“Janet, stop. We talked about this. Travis, go get your things and then leave. I know you’re probably the strongest person in the world right now, but please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.” Beth finished speaking, and I was numb. There was a soft ringing in my ear, and I was in shock. Dean and Janet looked pissed off at Beth, but all the other council members were looking down at their laps, not daring to meet my eyes. I got up slowly from my chair. Beth was crying, and Devin was holding her tight. I walked over to the door and walked out into the Hallway. I rode the elevator up to my floor and got into my room, where I took a shower, still numb.
I then packed my gear, which was almost nothing, thought my armor on, and then just stood there in my room, looking around. I was actually really going to miss this place. Treehouse was my home or had been for a long time now. I had lost myself somewhere to let this all slip away. I turned my back on the room and walked out. I was headed towards the gate when Janet and Dean caught up with me.
“Hey, Travis, what are you doing? You’re not actually going to leave, are you?” Dean said as he grabbed my shoulder and turned me towards him. Janet was right there with him.
“Yeah, fuck the council. You’ve done more for this place than anyone other than, well, me of cores.” Janet said, then flipped her hair.
“Come on, man, don’t go, fuck them. Just ignore them. It’s not like they could do anything about it.” Dean said, then laughed and punched me in the arm.
“Thanks, guys, but I think Beth is right.” They both looked like they were going to cut me off, so I kept speaking before they could butt in. “Hear me out. It’s just time for me to move on. I’ve been in Treehouse for too long. I need to go see what this new world has to offer. Treehouse will be fine. They have the infrastructure in place now, and with Beth having a firm hold of the power here, they’ll do fine on their own. It’s time for them to stop relying on me to solve all their problems. They will have challenges, but they will be able to handle them. It’s time for me to leave. I think I’m ready?”
I finished my little speech, and Dean and Janet looked like they were thinking about what I had said. Then Dean spoke,
“I can’t say I totally understand where you’re coming from. Honestly, I would go with you to see the world, but I need to keep an eye on the kid a little longer. I’ll miss you, lad. I really will.” then he pulled me into a huge. Janet was staring at me, and she just looked a little confused.
“What?” I asked her.
“Nothing, it’s just, you’re serious about this, aren’t you? Are you really leaving Treehouse? You can’t leave me here! If you’re leaving, I’m coming with you.” Janet said.
“Janet, no, you don’t have to.” I tried to say, but I was cut off.
“No, Travis, I’m coming with you. If you leave me here, I’ll just die of boredom, no offense, Dean, and you’ll probably do something extremely stupid and get yourself killed out there alone. Travis, I’m serious. If you leave without me, I’ll kill you. Just give me ten minutes.” Janet finished, then ran off to get her stuff, leaving me standing there with Dean, mouth a gap in surprise. Dean just slapped me on the back, laughed, and spoke.
“Alone time with the lady? Good luck, my friend. Don’t get her pregnant.” Then Dean started laughing again, even harder. Janet was back in less than ten minutes, and we headed out, just the two of us, as Dean waved goodbye from atop the walls.
“So, where to now?” Janet asked.
“I don’t know. You got any ideas?” I asked her.
“Not really. You got any family you want to try and go find?” She asked me.
“Fuck my patients. They could be dead for all I knew or cared, but I might have an aunt still. She lived in Seattle before the integration hit. We could go see what the Pacific Northwest is up to?” I offered.
“Sounds good to me. Both my parents died years before the integration, and I was an only child. I have cousins, but we’ve never been close. So, if you want to head up and see if you still have an aunt, that’s cool with me.” Janet said, then shot me a smile as we started heading north. While we were walking, Janet told me how I had got caught for killing Finneas. She said that I hadn’t been as sneaky as I thought and that a few of the night guards saw me out and about that night, and they had eventually put two and two together, at least enough to feel confident enough to accuse me of the crime.
When I had straight up said I did the deed, there was no way Beth could let it slide. Janet had no idea Beth was going to kick me out of the town, though. That had been just as much a surprise to her as it was for me. That was one of the main reasons Janet had decided to come with me. She felt Beth had forgotten who was responsible for founding the town and didn’t trust her as much anymore. She had been afraid that something similar would happen to her, and Janet told me that would not have gone well for anyone.
We chatted for a while as we walked, fighting off the random attack here and there. We pulled out sleeping bags and rested for a few hours under the stars together when it got late. We didn’t need to sleep much anymore, but it was nice to lay down with Janet for a little while and just be cozy together. If this was what life on the road with Jane would be like, I could see myself getting used to this kind of life rather quickly.
Travis’s stat sheet at the end of book one
Travis Mullins
Level: 24
Race: Human
Class: Path of the Pole Arm
Experience needed to next Level: 131,360/134,220 XP till next Level.
Stat points per level up: +3 free
Titles:
Lucky Bastard: (+2 to luck)
Explorer: 1 (+3 to all stats)
Settlement Defense level (3): (Plus 7 to all stats)
Cold Hands: (plus 10 to luck)
Gluten for Punishment: (plus 15 points to con)
Stand Tall: (all stats plus 5)
Self Taught: (+5% to all stats)
First in world to:
Complete a dungeon run: (+8 to all stats)
First Settlement Defiance: (+5% to all stats )
Sector leader. You are among the top million newly
integrated life forms in your sector of the Milkyway galaxy to achieve a level two
class: (+50 to all stats, extra +10 first on your planet)
War Bounces:
War Machine: +8 to all stats for the next 90 days. (76) days left
Blood drenched: +15 to all stats for the next 90 days. (76) days left
Follow Me (2): 30% boost toward the influence my words had on others for the
next 90 days. (76) days remaining
Resistances:
Element of Fire: 11%
Element of Corruption: 15%
Element of Lighting 2%
Stats:
Strength: *166 WB: (+23)
Dexterity: *165 WB (+23)
Intelligence: *145 WB (+23)
Wisdom: *146 (WB (+23)
Constitution: *159 WB (+23)
Luck: *135 WB (+23)
* = modified
(+) = Amount modified by
Class Sheet
Path of the pole Arm
Level 2:
Plus two stat points to Strength each level up.
Plus three stat points to Dexterity each level up.
Step Lightly:
When activated, it gives you the ability to move up to ten feet so fast that it may appear as if you have teleported to people with a dexterity of less than twenty-five and an intelligence of less than twenty. Anyone with a dexterity over twenty-five and an intelligence over twenty will see you move, but you will move at 300% of your normal movement speed. Step Lightly, coasting fifty ManaMana and twenty stamina to activate.
Pinpoint:
Pinpoint:
Pinpoint increases your accuracy by 125%. This ability can be activated at the cost of ten ManaMana and five stamina per second, allowing you to land critical hits more often and deal more damage with each strike.
Quick Strike:
When activated, Quick Strick at the cost of one hundred ManaMana energizes your arms into almost a seizure-type state. This causes you to strike out with your polearm many times in rapid succession.
Spear Shadow:
When activated, Spear Shadow conjures a mana shadow over your weapon. This mana shadow will then extend past your weapon at a distance, dependent on the amount of ManaMana you have invested into the ability, with a minimum range of five feet and an undefined maximum range. This ability is truly what you make it. At an initial cost of eighty ManaMana, this ability can be augmented, and the distance the Mana shadow travels is determined at a ratio of ten ManaMana and five stamina per foot.
Mana Manipulation:
The ability to alter and control the movement of Mana. (20% efficiency)
General Identify: (1)
When activated, gives you general information about a target you intended to discover more about. Only give basic information at level one and on targets. Results may veer with some targets.