The Devil You Know 1.5 - The Demesne .3 (Patreon)

Theo ignored his chair for the moment and turned to the other half of the screen that held a model of his realm. When he reached for it he found that the model was too small for him to touch the finer details. He considered the issue before he decided to try something.

He withdrew his hands and pushed two fingers towards the menu, close together. Then, when he felt they should be close enough, he slowly drew them apart, as he would on a tablet computer. To his shock, it actually worked! The size of the model responded to the distance between his fingers and he was able to zoom in close enough that he could see the individual stones on the ground.

He also noticed that the overall size of the 'ring' that was the outer limit of the menu enlarged to accommodate the increased size of the model. He tested for a moment and it didn't seem as if there was a limit. If he drew his hands far enough back, the model expanded to overlap his entire realm, such that the model and the real thing existed overtop each other.

He brought it back to a more manageable size quickly, worried that he might be charged AU for flame expenditure or energy drain. When he reached out to touch the flame model this time, he found that he wasn't able to add anything to it, but he was able to change what was there.

At the moment the rock beneath his feet was roughly a metre thick and formed the square shaped island which encompassed his, and Bbl's, entire world. When he used this function of the menu he was able to reshape and change that material, so long as the size of his realm didn't grow or shrink. 

That gave him a thought. He exited that menu and went back to the main screen where he selected the 'expand territory' option again. Once in the screen he attempted to shrink the size of his demesne but found he was unable to. It seemed that once he enlarged his territory he would be stuck with the result.

He pushed that thought to one side and returned to the second menu option. He decided he didn't need to make anything right now but there was something about his current realm he could fix. He resized the realm model so he could interact with the loose rocks that mad up the ground beneath his feet and attempted to change them to smooth stone.

When he combined his gestures with clear thinking of his objective, the process became smoother and he decided to add some flair by including a lined tile pattern cut with groove into the black stone, each line a metre apart.

When he was finished he looked closely at the model to admire his work and happily paid the 1 AU cost required to enact the change.

Much like before, he noticed the change through his feet before anything else. The stone seemed to melt together to form a smooth surface in moments.

Bbl scuttled about as the stone beneath his legs shifted.

"Fuck! Warn me next time!" he shouted.

Theo felt that was fair.

"Alright I will. What do you think?" he asked.

"Of what?"

"The changes I've made!"

The small crab rotated on the spot a few times to look in each direction.

"You changed the shape from a circle to a square and you made the ground smooth."

Theo nodded and smiled.

"… That's it?" Bbl asked.

Theo was silent for a moment. He felt it was much better than before. He was only experimenting with the system anyway. He explained his thoughts to his advisor but the crab just scoffed.

"You can literally make anything you can imagine using AU and the realm stone. All you want do you is makes squares! Lots and lots of squares!"

"Well, what was the first thing you did when you were a Demiurge?!" Theo demanded.

"Made a palace" the crab said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

Theo pinched the bridge of his nose as he tried to fight of the headache he felt build as he spoke to Bbl. The idea that he would spend a huge amount of his loaned finances on something as needless as a palace, right at the beginning of his tenure, was so irresponsible and stupid that it nearly made Theo physically ill there and then.

He took a few deep breaths and reminded himself that Bbl was a failed Demiurge for a reason. Perhaps he should question the crab more closely so that he could learn what not to do. He might be able to extract some value from his advisor that way.

Satisfied with the first two menu options, Theo turned his attention to the third. Before he opened the market he turned to Bbl and tried to get some information before he dove in.

"So, what can you tell me about the marketplace?"

"Ah, the marketplace. Got your eyes on it huh? Essentially it allows Demiurge from all across the Chaos to trade without having to actually go to the trouble of meeting each other, which is difficult in a place called the Endless Chaos. It also leads to far less wars since it's possible to buy what you want, rather than having to fight for it."

Theo was confused.

"Trade what? You said yourself just a moment ago that you can create whatever you want from AU using the realm stone. What do they have to trade?"

"Heaps of things soft-brain! Mostly, souls and information but there are other things that you probably can't access yet."

"Souls?"

"Right. Like, there's no point swapping around ordinary souls but if there's someone special you wanted to get your hands on, they're going to be down here somewhere."

Theo just stared at the crab.

"Got an ex-wife?" Bbl asked.

"What?! I don't even know! Shut up!" Theo yelled.

Bbl shrugged.

"Other than that, Demiurge' can loan each other servants for a price, sell artefacts, assistance in conflict, mediation, broker deals, pretty much anything."

"But my access will be restricted, right?"

"Right. Besides that you have hardly any currency to work with so there isn't going to be much you can afford. I wouldn't waste any time or money on it, to be frank."

Theo nodded slowly as he considered the crab's words. Since Bbl said it was a waste of time, then it was very important he took a good look at it. He waved his hand over the option in the menu and in a matter of seconds was confronted with list of items that filled his screen like a spreadsheet.

He grasped with his fingers to try and scroll up and down the list and found that he could, but after a solid minute of scrolling he hadn't found the end of it.

"So many listings!" he exclaimed out loud.

"Obviously, you mush pile! There are Billions of Demiurge within our marketplace zone. There's going to be Trillions of listings in there. Some domains make more AU from the market than they do from souls!"

Theo latched onto something that Bbl said. 

"Wait. What do you mean, our marketplace zone. Isn't the marketplace connected to every domain?"

The crab waved it's hands in exasperation. 

"Of course not! The Endless Chaos is ENDLESS. Infinite universes, infinite souls, infinite domains, infinite Demiurge. Trying to manage an infinite system is difficult, so the Administration breaks the chaos into regions. I've heard that domains of a certain size are able to access the markets of surrounding regions as well but, I, uh, never got that far."

If one tried to imagine a limitless hell it was just too difficult to wrap a head around. Theo had to imagine that if the multiverse contained an unlimited number of universe', then at a bare minimum the Endless Chaos had to be of a size similar to his own universe, which has stupidly large already. And throughout that space were domains, just like his, trillions of them. No, more than that, much more. Quadrillion? Quintillion? Sextillion? 

The sheer scale of it boggled his mind, far too much for one person to grasp.

Theo shook it off. 

Focus on the issue in front of you. Nobody said you had to grasp the nature of reality in your head today. Push it to one side.

Theo refocused on the marketplace menu. There had to be a way for him to filter this list. He searched the space and found several icons in the top right corner. He tried to determine what they might represent but after he thought about for a few minutes he gave up and waved his hand over the first one.

The list went blank immediately. He stared at the blank screen.

He waved his hand again.

Nothing.

Had he wiped it clean? Was it a 'clear' function?

Or maybe this was what he was after!

He waved his hand again and thought 'Information'.

Bam! The menu was once again filled with listings. When he inspected the details on each one he was able to see that each of them pertained to information in some way.

Bingo!

He waved again and this time tried to narrow his search down. 

Information for new Demiurge costing less than 90 AU.

Again the list was repopulated according to his criteria but there was still thousands of listings. Theo sighed and selected the first one so he could inspect it.

The title of the entry was "Arrak's guide to new Demiurge". When he poked it, the entry expanded and he was able to read a broader description.

It read: "Are you a new Demiurge in the Endless Chaos? Confused? In need of advice and guidance? Look no further than Arrak's gujde to new Demiurge! This guide will put you on the fast road to success. Power, influence and longevity are just one purchase away! For the low price of just 10 AU, you can secure your future. Who knows? Perhaps the next Tzuramon will be you!"

What the hell is this garbage? Theo thought to himself.

He moved onto the next entry, and the next, and the next and each one was the same lame pitch, as if they were selling penis enlargement services rather than critical information that might save an individual from torment.

Theo sensed he was going frustrated and took a moment to calm himself. He should have expected this, he should have known that 99% of the entries on the market were going to be trolls or scams. It was like that on every market on Earth and now that he was in literal hell with devils, it only made sense it would the same or worse.

But form the moment Bbl had told him that information was sold on the marketplace, he'd wanted this. His mind churned due to the sheer number of unknowns and intangibles in his current circumstances. He felt a deep unease and his mind itched at the idea that he didn't know what was coming next. Training of some sort? He was on probation? What was out there?

He had Bbl as an advisor sure, but he didn't trust the crab inherently. From his own admission Bbl was a failure of a Demiurge, who had been re-trained by the Administration to serve as an advisor. How reliable was he? Not to mention that information that comes from only one source and isn't verified can't be trusted by default. Theo's instincts were screaming at him to find more sources to try and understand where he was, and what was going to happen to him next and the only place he thought he might get that is through this market.

What to do then? There was no way he could ensure that he wouldn't get scammed, no matter how convincing an entry in the market listing was, there was no way for him to know that it would actually deliver what it said it would, and Theo didn't even bother to ask Bbl if he could get a refund. The Endless Chaos wasn't built that way.

He had two choices, either he could give up on finding information through the marketplace, or he could find an entry he liked and take a punt. 

Theo didn't feel as if he was a gambler by nature, the unreliable nature of it rubbed him the wrong way, but the chance gaining information was huge. Especially since Theo felt couldn't trust what his advisor had to say. 

After he considered it, he decided it was worth a risk. Should he fail he would be down some AU, which would be bad, but he wouldn't be fatally crippled. 

With his mind made up, he returned to scrolling through the listings, trying to find something that spoke to him. He spent an hour sorting through hundreds of listings and most of them were complete trash. Perhaps these Demiurge were being completely upfront but he just couldn't trust something that looked as if it were written by a fifth grader.

Just when he was about to give up, he found something that intrigued him, a simple entry, short and with straight forward language. 

The title of the listing read: Advice for new Demiurge. He could see in the details of the listing it had been made by "Lorrel", and the description read: Take it or leave it. The price was 50 AU.

It was one of the highest prices he'd seen for information of this kind. For whatever reason he felt inclined to believe this listing was genuine. The person who'd listed it clearly didn't care to try and persuade people it was genuine, rather, he felt they had put the price on it they thought was fair and literally said 'take it or leave it'.

Of course, it could still be worthless, but Theo was desperate.

He waved his hand and confirmed the purchase.

He and Bbl both leapt back as flame manifested in the air between Theo and the menu. The fire twisted itself into a shape and faded to leave behind a small book, almost a pamphlet, that Theo snatched out of the air as it began to fall.

"What the heck is that? You bought something? What a waste!" Bbl cried.

The advisor scuttled about as he tried to get a glimpse of what his employer had purchased but he was too short to see that high. He sighed and clacked his claws in frustration. How far he'd fallen. With just a little bit of luck he'd have been a king, a god! The multiverse itself was against him, he thought, full of resentment. He couldn't understand how this useless sack of flesh was in any way worthy of the same opportunity that had been given to him.

Oblivious to the feelings of his crab assistant, Theo opened the pamphlet and began to read, the slight curve upwards at the corner of his mouth the only indication of his mood.