Amazon Apocalypse: Chapter 69 (Patreon)

When the light of the teleportation finally faded, I was far from where I'd been. Elder Thalassa had shooed me away like some sort of overgrown bug. That was likely the entire point of teleporting me away.

When the spell faded, all around me were waving stalks of wheat. They were taller than any wheat would have been on Earth, each bearing a bundle of seeds on their tops nearly as thick around as a corn cob. At least she hadn't dropped me off at the bottom of an ocean.

The actual trip in the teleportation array had been quick, so I couldn't have gone very far. At least I was definitely still on Themyscira. I used Power Jump to give myself a vantage point and was disappointed when I couldn't see anything but wheat stalks in every direction—even at the peak of my jump. This field looked large enough to feed half a planet.

I felt a sharp burning tension in my temples and realized I was clenching my jaw as tight as steel. Closing my eyes, I rubbed the sides of my face, forcing myself to relax.

"Deep breaths... the System was going to bring me back to Earth soon anyway..." I sighed. I had to be calm about this, no matter how big a wrinkle it put in my plans.

Then a giant beetle sprung out of the wheat to bite me in the face.

"Ugh!" I swatted the thing aside, opening my eyes to Examine the thing.

Field Beetle (Level 2)

Despite being roughly the size of a dinner plate, the beetle was no more dangerous than the Scavenger Cockroaches I'd slain shortly after the integration. Despite the monster's apparent weakness, I hadn't the slightest bit of mercy for it. Spells flew from my fingertips one after another. Eldritch Blast. Mana Barrage. Corrupting Mark. Arcane Blade. Disassemble.

Moments later I was staring at a smoldering crater. There was no trace of chitin or twitching insect left. There might have been a beetle husk there a few spells ago, but now it was little more than a bowling-ball-sized hole in the ground.

"I think I need to take a few more deep breaths..." I muttered to myself.

I walked through the field for a few minutes, gathering up some of the wheat into my bag of holding as I did. My travels would stomp it flat anyway, so there was no sense in letting what was going to be destroyed go to waste. Perhaps we could plant some of this stuff back on Earth. I could tell there was much more mana in it than mundane wheat.

Maybe I could summon Sharky again. On his back, I might cover ground fast enough to get somewhere—assuming I still had some time left. But then what? Would there even be a teleportation array in whatever small town I came to first?

I hadn't been traveling for long before another wave of teleportation magic enveloped me. But unlike the elder's teleportation spell—which I could have resisted, if only I'd had the time to shatter the shield within—this one was inescapable. The System had decided my time here was up, and send me back to Earth.

And for once, I was grateful. But that gratitude did not translate into happiness. No. I was decidedly unhappy with this current turn of events. Things had been going incredibly well for me… up until recently, that is.

I'd been slowly growing my interests on Themyscira and things were finally shaping up to the point that we had something along the lines of a genuine trade network. I'd been gaining levels steadily, as had Sakura and Bridget. I got along well with Myrina’s sister, Cyra, and her mother, Kyrina, and I was sure that a few months or years of steady and reliable progress would have landed me permanently in their good graces. I had hoped at that point, that Kyrina would be okay with letting Myrina and I explore whether or not we were going to be more than friends.

But then that stupid, arrogant, nosey, entitled, evil bitch of a Samhain Elder decided to meddle where she wasn't wanted. If I'd been a twisted bastard with malevolent designs on the Samhain Clan, things would have happened differently. I’d had a thousand and one opportunities to steal Myrina away. She wouldn't have protested—a bit of self-centered prompting from me, and I could have lured her into doing all sorts of things.

They'd let me run loose in their castle, and I'd proven I could sneak around unimpeded. I'd taken their mark and treated them as friends and allies. I'd fought side by side with them, first to defend Valkyrie's Watch, then to sabotage the workshops of their enemies, and finally to take a city in open rebellion.

At any step along the way I could have betrayed or exploited them. At any step along the way I could have simply asked Myrina to ditch her family and run off with me. In fact, she'd been the one to come up with that idea. Instead, I'd warned her against the move in the hopes of preserving her relationship with her family.

Time and time again I'd sacrificed my own agenda for that of the Samhain Clan. And at the end of all those sacrifices... here I was. Alone on Earth.

If there was somewhere I'd gone wrong, I couldn't see it.

Elder Thalassa was simply intent on finding Myrina a better catch than me—despite both of our best wishes. Scratch that, Thalassa was intent on scoring the Clan a better catch than me. Myrina’s desires didn’t count at all, apparently.

The more I thought about what had happened, the more I worked myself up into a frenzy. There was something particularly frustrating with having my honest efforts not only go unrewarded, but they’d been entirely ruined.

I thought about flopping down on my couch and telling the world to kiss my ass. I figured I’d wait a few minutes and vent to Sakura and Bridget who should be only a few minutes behind me.

After my teleportation trip home, the System had deposited me on the pad in my farmhouse I'd left from, so it was just a few steps away. I tried to sit and let myself mope about it for a while, but this was not a smoldering ember. This was a burning hot anger. In other words, it was not something I could sit and stew in.

After waiting twenty minutes, I figured something must have happened because of that spell to shorten my time on Themyscira. I would have to wait for the girls, trying to stay busy until they got back. But who knew how much time that teleport had shaved off of my remaining time on Myrina’s world? Just one more reason to be pissed at Elder Thalassa.

Crafting the rest of the day away might be worthwhile. I had meant to make something from those troll orbs, after all. I wasn't about to swallow them like Martin and his friends did, since I was highly suspicious of their side effects. But I figured a few regeneration items would be very useful indeed.

But the more I thought about crafting, the more I thought about the situation back on Themyscira. I'd set most things in motion, but not all of them. Would Elder Thalassa discover the items I'd been selling? Surely she'd shut down Thulga, the orc teleporter I'd been using to get to Themyscira. But would she track down and destroy everything else I'd built?

Bridget and Sakura would be fine, of that I could at least be certain. They’d been hired as mercenaries who had done their job but had yet to be paid. Any action against them would look very bad indeed for Elder Thalassa. The Samhains, by all accounts, made sure their reputation among mercenaries was impeccable. It had to be, considering how many they hired.

But Misa and Thulga might get into trouble because of this. Something had to be done—only I was worlds away and would be unable to attempt anything at all until my cooldown between trips ran down. I growled to myself. No, crafting anything at all would just bring out the wrong sort of thoughts.

I needed to work this anger off by beating something into the ground. I decided to head into Crownhill. The run would give me the chance to burn off some steam. And with their growing population and larger patrols, there were probably some heads that needed cracking.

Come to think of it, we’d just passed the seventh day of peace Margaret had arranged for to allow people unwillingly taken under the Three King's sway to switch sides and join us. I needed to head back to the settlement anyways, to make sure I had the all clear to wipe out the remaining two members of the three kings. Once they were out of the way, I could secure this shard.

If I couldn’t be with my girls, I might as well make myself useful. I cracked my knuckles in anticipation. I didn't want to be the kind of guy who looked forward to violence, but I was just in that sort of mood.

***

The run to Crownhill was uneventful. I jumped down the valley's sheer cliff faces, swinging across treetops to land among the leaves and underbrush. A few warp steps later and I was jumping over the lava elemental’s crevasse in the road. Its day would come soon.

Then I was past it and off down the road toward the city. I could see people patrolling the main road leading into the city and standing guard, which was a good sign. I wasn't sure what I'd do if I'd arrived to find the city under attack in my absence again, but it most definitely would have involved lots of blood and screaming.

I didn't recognize the two guards standing at the entrance to the city, but one of them recognized me. They quickly waved me through, and then again at the barricade leading into the main settled area.

The barricade was still in place, though it didn't see constant use now. We'd grown strong enough that the small monsters that still plagued the city were only a problem for the weakest amongst us. And I was happy to note that most of those people were weak only because they'd focused on crafting over levels.

Perhaps it had something to do with the price of food going up in the obelisk. By now the obelisk was down to canned food. Fresh meat was still available, but for exorbitant prices. Real estate was no longer up for grabs either, but something the council charged taxes for, with occasional exceptions for anyone who could prove ownership prior to the system.

I didn't envy the council. But that wasn't a surprise. After all, needing things done that I didn't want to do was the whole reason I'd given them the job.

Once again, the settlement had swelled in size. Whatever Margaret and the rest of the council had been doing lately had pulled in a lot of the neutral shelters, and hopefully saved the people who'd originally thought they'd be forced to side with Cromwell and his ilk.

I was impressed by how many people there were on the streets. It reminded me of my trip to Europe with my family when I was young. The city was tightly packed and there were so many people just walking to their destinations. We probably had half the city's survivors packed into a chunk of street no larger than what had been a city block before.

The roads had been designed for a car-dependent city, but when the narrow one lane streets became pedestrian pathways there was plenty of elbow room. Someone had even lain down reflective paint to mark the center of the road and smooth the flow of pedestrian traffic.

Humans could move a lot faster on foot now than they could before the System, so just because the city was car dependent now didn't mean people were content to get by slowly. I spotted more than one person scaling the side of an apartment complex arm over arm before sliding in the back door of their twelfth-story residence. That would have been a feat fit for an Olympian before—now it was just part of everyday life.

I was surprised nobody came to bother me. Normally whenever I showed my face in the city there were a dozen problems all beyond the scope of the council and existing institutions or issues that people wanted to send straight over the council's head and into my arms.

But now, none of that came for me. In fact, I couldn't find any of my councilors either. That could only mean they were already in session. I'd have to drop by if I wanted to talk with any of them.

They weren't all meeting in Margaret's cramped office anymore. Now that she was using it to host the city's only official radio channel, it was filled with equipment and there was hardly any room at all. Fortunately, there was plenty of extra space now that the barricade had been pushed further out, and part of that expansion had included the old recreation center, complete with plenty of meeting rooms.

I hunted them down and dropped in on their meeting just as they were getting started. I sat through the talk about city infrastructure, since I didn't care much about that. It was entirely a council project. I did look up when they discussed their food problems though.

"Prices of raw goods in the obelisks are getting higher." Frank fingered his cup of coffee impatiently. "There's a lot to salvage across all the houses in the city, but most people are already down to canned goods. What happens when those get too expensive for the average person too?"

Terrance, the leader of our security force, gave a shrug. "Monster meat, maybe? You're going hunting often enough."

Frank waved his hand back and forth. "People aren't adapting to the new dishes as fast as we'd like. And monster meat alone won't fulfill our nutritional needs."

I thought back to my growing trade routes in Shadefall. Assuming Elder Thalassa hadn't figured out they were there or a way to shut them down, I could get us food.

My personal income as a Master Artificer would probably be enough to feed the whole city. It had been enough to feed the suddenly destitute workshop workers of Shadefall, after all. I didn't like the idea though. Yes, I needed to keep things running both here and there, but I didn't want everyone dependent on me to feed themselves.

The whole reason I'd made the Obelisk public and let everyone use it instead of keeping it as my personal time-stopped piggy bank, and the whole reason I'd established the council, was because I didn't want absolute rule. Just the thought of having something even halfway to a centrally planned economy where I held the monopoly on food seemed horrible.

Find Carter copper wire otherwise you won't eat tonight!

It sounded like a lot of work all to end up with a lopsided economy in the end. I was no expert, but I had Adam Smith somewhere on my shelf. If kings of old made their nations prosper by his words, I would hope to do the same. The fact that a laissez faire policy meant less work for me was just a very convenient coincidence.

Really, just a coincidence!

"I may or may not be able to provide some food. Nothing major, but maybe some raw grains or something." I shrugged. "Don't count on it being a permanent thing though. Just enough to keep prices cheap enough that nobody starves. A better solution would probably be encouraging people to plant gardens."

The council cast a few interested looks for me to elaborate, but I shook my head. One thing I've learned from Elder Thalassa's recent actions was that it was convenient to compartmentalize my assets to avoid losing them all at once. Only Sakura, Bridget, and Myrina would be fully in my confidence on all my operations.

Besides, my allies here on Earth had dealt with enough issues just surviving the integration. So far only I'd interacted with the goblins, so every non-human intelligent life form everyone else had met had proven hostile. The Wolfmen, Ogres, and Trolls were scary enough. No need to add in Amazonian warriors with a penchant for squishing heads.

"With the matter of food settled, I want to ask Terrance a question. Did you get the people we captured to talk?" I turned to the lean former policeman sitting beside me.

Terrance sighed as he put down his notepad. "Unfortunately, I did. Wish I hadn't though. The things the Three Kings have been up to aren't just regular crimes. They're more like war crimes. The kind of thing you get dragged up in front of The Hague for."

I drummed my fingers against the table and turned to the other council members. "Then I take it we have everything I need to re-arrest some former criminals? By any means necessary." I looked hard at Margaret.

She was the one who'd pressed hardest for me to hold off a little longer.

"Now you've brought up the elephant in the room. Yes, Carter, it's time we finished things." Margaret shook her head with a grim look of determination on her face. "We've given everyone as much time as we can, and the remaining two leaders of the Three Kings haven't exactly held up their part of the peace treaty."

"Really?" I leaned closer.

Margaret sighed. "They were supposed to stay confined to their own territory and let anyone leave their faction if they wanted. In reality, after the first few when it became clear they were both losing men to defection, they locked down the family compounds. The men and women in the upper ranks of their organizations who could leave already have. Right now there are a lot of children and loved ones keeping the rest on a leash. And presumably the Three Kings have some true loyalists as well."

"Martin, the guy who lives in a swamp with a bunch of trolls, actually helped us quite a bit." The way Marcus spoke Martin's name made me suspect everyone was talking about the crazy orb-munching band of swamp dwellers who'd defeated the trolls. "They drew off a lot of the people who would have been impossible for us to recruit."

Terrance flipped a page in his notebook. "Mhm. Lots of former convicts. Criminals, but of a lighter shade than what they're up to in the prison. Plus those who have since found such a lifestyle more appealing than continuing to walk the straight and narrow."

"Good." I turned to eye everyone gathered around me. "Well, if that's all settled and our treaty time is up, its time to wrap things up with the Three Kings once and for all."