The Gamer Chapter 1447 – 27 Days of Preparation 2 – To impress or to dazzle (Patreon)

“First question is what the primary goal of this grinding session should be,” John addressed everyone. “On the one hand, Assaults would probably give us the most levels.” It felt nice that he could now officially say ‘us’. The Equalizer Perk assured that they would naturally rubber band back together as long as they did what they usually did. “On the other hand, Raids will give us a good amount of levels in addition to potentially incredible items. Particularly, if we defeat the king of Astria at max difficulty, we get 4 Legendary items guaranteed, plus that Mythical Ichor, whatever it is.”

“Isn’t it 5 Legendary items?” Rave asked. “1 for each knight and then the big guy himself?”

“Observe actually doesn’t say that the king will drop his Legendary guaranteed,” John told her.

“L-A-M-E, that is lame!” Rave declared.

“…A dark path,” Lorelei whispered and all attention in the room suddenly switched to her. Lids closed, blind eyes rapidly moving behind them, she concentrated intensely at something beyond the now. “…No, a… path buried in the foundation, exposed to twilight… it is stepped through… a terrible presence of rage advances and… no harm comes of it?” Lorelei sounded deeply confused. “I have never seen such intense red followed by a warm embrace?”

“If you don’t understand right now, don’t worry about it,” Claire threw in with a calming smile. “Do not let mysteries wear you down. Do not let the doubts mess with your pretty head. Do not let one vision get to your head.”

“Yes… yes, of course,” Lorelei mumbled. “It has been difficult to deal with these. Lately I’ve been seeing more things. Smaller things, inconsequential things. The Lady must see it fit to expand the reach of my sight, now that the light of my eyes will remain.”

“Try to work at it in your own time,” John told her cautiously. He did make note of a glance Aclysia shot at Claire. The vampire maid kept her expression happy and friendly. She was the much greater liar of the two. ‘A path buried in the foundation, exposed to twilight, eh?’ the Gamer thought. “Say, Claire, your spiders are still watching over the Palace, right?”

“Yes, of course, Master! If anything unexpected happened after we return, we’ll know,” Claire assured with several nods. “Anything that threatens your domicile will be eradicated,” she added, her expression progressively darkening. Then she suddenly snapped back to cheeriness. “But that would never happen. Your subjects are smart enough. No reason to revolt against benevolence and perfection in a human body. Smart people understand your greatness!”

John scratched the back of his head and sighed. All of what she said, she believed in. ‘This is driving me mental,’ the Gamer thought. Aclysia and Claire were conspiring something and Lorelei’s vision was proof that it wasn’t something the entire harem was involved with. Unless he was reading way too much into this. ‘I hate not knowing things,’ he concluded, then dismissed this riddle like he always did: trusting that his maids would never do something they knew would harm him. “Anyway, levels or items, what’s the priority?”

“I believe items would be the wiser choice,” Lydia weighed in. “We are preparing for the Divided Gates summit. Albeit, this depends on outside factors. Lorelei, does the outcome of the event remain obscured?”

“Indeed, sister,” Lorelei responded, opening her eyes to search for a definitive future. “I have never seen such a knot of futures before and I do not expect it resolved. All Divided Gates are in possession of seers capable of peering into the future. Our advisements, current and predicted, meddle with one another and create a fog of potentialities unnavigable. Once I am more experienced with my newfound reach, I may be able to glean some details. Some likelihoods that span across the possibilities.” She bowed her head in apology. “I cannot say whether Fusion’s ascent will be confirmed or put to the test.”

“That is fine,” John assured her. “Lydia, can you continue with your explanation?”

“I believe to show items of resplendence will be of greater value when it comes to the persuasion of those among the Divided Gates uncertain of where their vote will fall,” the queen of steel responded. “Your power is great and so much is self-evident, but the Divided Gates have many a great, powerful individual among their leaderships. You may be the first Latebloomer that has the potential to rival Romulus himself, but you do not yet have that power and you will not be able to reach it in the coming month. What the Divided Gates has never seen before, however, is a person that can potentially create World Turtles out – of – nothing.” Lydia let a slight bit of agitation echo in her voice at the end there.

“…Out of interest, would the public breeding have entailed the potential to bend you over the fancy table the Divided Gates sit on?” John asked and the royal nodded. “Dammit,” he cussed. What an opportunity wasted, just because the drop chance didn’t play along. “I could have entered the annals of history, pun intended, by being the first man to impregnate another leader of the Divided Gates in a meeting.”

“It would be an awkward story of conception for my heir, however,” Lydia cautioned.

“…Why are you talking about it like it could still be an option?” the Gamer asked.

“I am willing to repeat the offer if something sufficiently ridiculous enters the Loottable,” the royal revealed. “Which I say not least of all to reinforce the point: your capacity to create items that would usually require the careful exploitation of dozens if not hundreds of years of Natural Barriers along leylines is, as the jargon goes, bullshit.”

“So you are suggesting I focus on presenting the material wealth, rather than my personal power… Hmm…” John rolled his head while he considered. “It has ever been the American way to conquer the world through capitalistic pressure rather than military force.”

“Making people rich is the best way to convince them you’re right,” Scarlett agreed with a mild smile. Her hands played with the collar, turning the fine leather between her hands.

“The downside is, if this plan does not work out, I’ll be weaker for it when the battle does come about,” John considered the worst case.

“As you said yourself, the Raid does still give us EXP,” Momo weighed in. “Take this as personal advice and as my statement as your chancellor: the world over, they’re hearing of the wealth of the Guild Hall and the oddity of your abilities. This will be the first time we have more than fleeting contact with the majority of the Divided Gates. We should dazzle them. Not just to sway votes, but to leave an impact even if we end up not getting the seat somehow.” The fairy maid shrugged. “In the end, it’s a position of honour, we don’t need it for the future.”

“Having it would be good for the Quest, if nothing else,” John told her. “Who are we certain will vote for us anyway? Rex Germaniae?”

“I am reasonably certain I will cast the ballot in your favour,” Lydia responded with overplayed graciousness. “Alas, I do it only for political expediency, you must understand. Perhaps you should sweeten the deal?”

“How about public breeding?” John suggested with a chuckle.

Lydia tilted her head and hummed. “I will give it consideration.” The joke played out, she returned to the topic. “Romulus has made it clear that he wishes for you to take a seat at the table. He is a man of his word, he will cast his vote in your favour. You will likely draw the favour of the Illuminati as well.”

John nodded; it would align with the Horned Rat’s plans to have him have a more pronounced voice in the world’s affairs. Besides, Fusion shared many of the enlightenment values that the Illuminati founded its independence from the Greater Empire on. “Since the Illuminati and the Sons of Rome align on my side, Prometheus will likely follow suit.”

Lydia nodded. “Not only are they allied to both forces, they also align with Fusion and your chancellor is popular with their elite.”

“I am?” Momo asked.

Lydia’s eyebrows almost met, so confused was she by the fae’s confusion. Nightingale spoke up first. “Are you not aware of your own contribution to their pursuit of knowledge?”

“I mean, I just exchange some research with them every now and again, its no big deal.”

“You helped increase the number of ruins discovered in Mesopotamia by 30% within less than one year,” Lydia stated. “Although so far reclamations have only been interesting rather than revealing of new facettes of the past, your contribution has been noticed.”

“B-but I annoyed them with an angry message about their archaic library system!” Momo protested.

Siena giggled. “Such difficulty to accept that you’re popular with the intellectuals. Is it really that surprising?”

“Yes!”

“Ya sound dangerously self-deprecating to me.” Rave tapped her chin a couple of times, before shooting John a glance. “Maybe she needs some affirming time in the cuddle box, tiger?”

“Can do,” John promised with a grin.

“No!” Momo immediately turned a shade of red. “No, please… not again! I will… I will… I’ll cry….” The fae shifted where she sat, pouting and only making herself more of a potential cuddling victim. As a matter of fact, she was immediately assaulted by Gnome and Beatrice. The two haremettes were the closest and they wrapped their arms around the weakly protesting sassy support.

“Any other guaranteed support?” John asked, if only to make sure he wasn’t missing anything. No responses, so they moved on to the opposition. “Against me, I certainly expect the Purest Front and the Dangun Clan.”

John was far from suggesting the Nazis and the nationalist Koreans had anything in common with each other. If the Purest Front was still located in Germany, perhaps one could have said the two were united in excessive pride of their home country, but even that couldn’t be said to connect those two. The Purest Front ruled as a foreign class over the Brazilian natives and, from what John knew about them, they didn’t subscribe to the myth of the Aryan people anyway.

They believed in the supreme people, they just didn’t believe that was connected fundamentally to German genes. They tied it more to Innate Abilities and thus elevated the Germans for having had the wisdom for instituting a program maximizing the chances for people with Innate Abilities to be born in the form of the nobility. The Purest Front spoke for a radical expansion and modernization of this effort with modern understanding to fundamentally increase the ‘purity and power’ of the genetic stock,

Like with most 20th century ideologies, there was a reasonable throughline to it and, although it could be followed, there was a line there were every reasonable person threw up their hands and said that it was too far. Certainly, it would be useful for the prosperity of the human race if they maximized the number of people that had powerful magical abilities.

John, however, was not certain there was any centrally planned effort that could actually maximize this nor was he certain whether it should be done even if it could be done. Any solution implemented by people was ultimately prone to the biases of those people, after all. Plus, mission expansion was a thing. Once there was a system in place to maximize the percentage of people with Innate Abilities in the population, inevitably someone would suggest that there should be a ledger for the kind of Innate Abilities that should be treated with additional preference. Then someone would want to expand those privileges. Maybe there should be mandatory crossbreeding in order to attempt to create something new (if that was even possible).

And on and on the creep went, until the tyranny collapsed under its own weight. The crushing weight of history.

While the Dangun Clan had its problems, it wasn’t a guild so guided by absurdly rationalistic utopianism. The Dangun Clan saw in a potentially resurgent Japan a threat to its safety and history had taught it that those concerns were well justified. Simultaneously, whether the top brass knew or not, the common soldier had money to earn by plundering the Natural Barriers that popped up between raids of the island. It was nationally cautious and lucrative to keep suppressing Japan. Two very good reasons, from their perspective, to keep doing it and two reasons as old as the very first nations.

What aligned them was no treaty, no alliance, not even an amicable relationship, they simply both had an enemy in Fusion. “My stance on the raids on Japan is quite clear,” John mumbled. “As is my distaste of the Purest Front for many reasons their leadership is aware of.” He looked at Eliana and Thana growled.

“If he is there, I will slaughter him,” the goddess of genocide declared.

Mengele, the creator of Thana by means perhaps more accident than proper experiment. Mengele, current leader of the Purest Front. The goddess of genocide had been clear about what she would do and John could not fault her. “You will be stopped,” he reminded her. “By him or his guards or Romulus himself.”

“But not by you?” Eliana asked.

“Never by me,” John responded grimly. “Let it be an international outcry, let it sour relations between our guilds forever, let any sympathisers in Fusion complain. They hurt you, Eliana. They hurt you more than I could ever comprehend. That this hurt led you to me was a lucky coincidence. For the torment they brought to you, they will be crushed into the ashes of history. Whether you succeed on killing him on the day of the meeting or not.”

A great many pragmatic arguments could have been made against this stance. None of them were voiced in that room. All that had ever heard Eliana whimper in the middle of the night, that had seen her two halves at war, or watched her hyperventilate due to cold water hitting her skin, all those that loved her knew that there was no defence that could be mounted that would satisfy.

The Purest Front would be dismantled. The people in this room would see to it. Vengeance would be had.

Tense silence filled the room for a little while, until Rave took it upon herself to move things along. “…The Great Sultanate was likely to stay neutral?” she asked.

“The prince hinted towards as much, but we do not have hard knowledge on the matter,” John reminded her. “We are, however, on their bad side since we outlawed the slave trade and we are on cosy terms with their main rival.”

“Personally, I believe the Great Sultanate is on the verge of modernization,” Lydia stated. “Prince Osman is a snide prick, but he is no fool. The death of his father will inevitably lead to the complete abolition of slavery. Although much of the guild is stuck in decadent systems, its people and resources are numerous, and you may find allies in them against the Lorylim. They border the old lands of Babylon, after all.”

John slowly nodded. He and the Great Sultanate did have a common enemy in the first foe. ‘Well, everyone has an enemy in the Lorylim, but we and they especially have to deal with them,’ the Gamer clarified to himself. “What about the Sons of Odin?” he mumbled.

Nobody had a good answer to that. The problem with the Scandinavian guild was the borderline schizophrenic schism between the authorities. The day by day was handled by the many humans, but ultimate authority and power still lay in its impressive pantheon of patron gods. They had the largest surviving set of gods out of any ancient mythology, a boon, likely of being located in a corner of the world Romulus didn’t care to venture into during his conquest days.

While Fusion was on good terms with the mortal leaders of the Odin’s Sons, the pantheon was annoyed with John and Nightingale for personal reasons. If the pantheon took an interest in this election, that’d put another vote against them at the table.

“And the Mandate of Heaven…?” Lydia asked.

“A talk with them has ended with the friendly agreement to postpone diplomacy until the meeting,” Nightingale revealed to the queen. “I suspect they remain neutral.”

“But, they could decide to vote with their ‘little brother’,” John weighed in.

“Which,” Momo let out a deep sigh, still sandwiched between Beatrice and Gnome, “would mean we are 4 for and 5 against, in the worst case.”

“A tie should be construed as a win. Romulus can assert himself in such a situation,” John stated. “We do not need a clean victory. Once we’re at the table, there’s nothing anyone can do about it.” Crossed his arms, fingers drumming on his skin. “I think I do agree with Lydia, ultimately. If we can dazzle at least one of the five into neutrality or even assurance, that’s all we need to do… I suppose our most likely diplomatic success would be the Mandate of Heaven or the Great Sultanate?”

“The easiest diplomatic success could be had with the Dangun Clan. You would just have to promise to back off the Japan situation,” Scarlett stated and earned herself several scornful gazes. “I’m not saying he should do that, I’m just giving the pragmatic analysis. He can always ‘change his mind’ later.”

“I’m in the process of trying to build a reputation that is more honourable and less contract bender,” the Gamer told her. “That wouldn’t help. Fusion is beyond the stage where I need to bother with favourable interpretation of side clauses.”

Scarlett just shrugged, she had made a valid point. “This Osman guy may modernize the Great Sultanate in the future, but we are in the now. The Mandate of Heaven would be our best bet.”

“Agreed,” John said. “Then we will aim to dazzle. Raiding it is.”