Chapter 36 - Heroes of Humanity (Patreon)

AG This is the second of two today.

Alarm bells went off in Tom’s head the moment he realised what he had said. Everyone knew about the existence of dragons, but how many people had fought one, especially in the first year of the trial? Dragons were physically a long way away from all the humans. Yes, there had been a dragon in their trial, but only for his one. They had only bothered with the primary trial. For the other two, they hadn’t sent a representative. Had there been any other encounters during that period?

Tom didn’t know, but based on their reactions, he couldn’t help but think not. Both their responses were so far from the normal scale that Tom’s fight-or-flight instincts took over and pumped adrenaline into his system. His body grew jittery, his heartbeat increased, and his breathing rate quickened. He wasn’t sensing a threat, but it felt like he had committed some cultural faux pas.

Corrine calmed herself with a visible effort:

 “Tom, don’t answer him. He shouldn’t have asked, and I shouldn’t have reacted like that. We’re not supposed to talk about our past. But fuck me, I can’t believe you fought the Dragon.”

Kang shook himself.

“Ta, you said you died in the first year… didn’t you?”

Social Silence chose to activate and his throat closed up, stopping him from responding.

Thump, thump.

His heart boomed in his own ears.

The other boy, who had been watching him like a hawk exhaled sharply:

“It is. Jesus, he was one of them… and he said he knew a hero as well.” Kang snapped his fingers. “The priest… ken-something. He’s the person you know, isn’t it? You were part of them?”

Tom realised he had stepped backward to create space. It was the way they were looking at him that made his skin crawl. He raised his open hands defensively:

“I don’t… I don’t know who them are.”

“The heroes of humanity.” Kang exclaimed. “The ones who were in the champion trial, the trial with the dragon. You were there, weren’t you?”

He stared at the two of them, confused. This wasn’t making any sense. He might have expected this sort of reaction from the racial trait, but it didn’t feel like this was about that. It felt more primal, something they had experienced directly, a response based on a transformative event from Kang’s and Corrine’s previous lives. Lives that had ended before the racial trait was gained.

“I don’t understand. Guys, what’s happening? Why would it matter if I fought the dragon?”

“Because the fight was significant.” Corrine told him. “Everyone knows basics, but not details. The heroes were tight-lipped about themselves and those who died. They were free, however, on their description of events and their interactions with the other species.”

“And the backstabbing that went down in the trial.” Kang said quietly still staring at Tom with a disturbing intensity.

“Yes, both between the species and us and the GODs. They told everyone how the GODs turned a massive win into an apparent loss.”

“Apparent loss, but not,” Kang agreed. “Not that they realised it at the time.”

Corrine shot him an annoyed glance. She looked like she wanted to be the one telling the story:

“The priests, not ours, but those of other races, spoke of the outcome in different terms to what our first impression was. The events of that trial were felt throughout Existentia, and it was couched as a massive win for DEUS.”

Tom stared at her incredulously:

“Why would a fight between a few competitors be noticed more widely?”

“I don’t fucking know. The priests didn’t fucking know. I’m not an oracle, I’m a battler. The survivors had no idea, and, if they did, they refused to share it. But fuck that. You were there? You were one of them? What do you know? Do you remember anything important? What were Clare, Keikain and Selena really like?”

Tom hesitated. Her veneration was weird.

“I don’t get it. Why are they significant to you? Surely it was just some dry reports through the auction house. You’re speaking like this mattered in your first life.”

Corrine began laughing hysterically.

Kang stared at him with wide eyes.

“You don’t know.” He said. “Of course, you died before it happened. SUPREME made a competition-wide announcement. Thirty-two days after you finished the trial, he basically declared that, despite the stacked odds, the humans had emerged as the champions and winners. That it was an Existentia level significant victory. The notice itself was both a surprise and not. The few groups of humanity in contact with other species by that stage were already talking about the upheaval. Wars were starting up because of the fight. We already knew it was important because the rumour mill had been in overdrive. But SUPREME’s statement, that confirmation changed everything.”

Corrine calmed herself down.

“My… our,” she gestured at Kang. “Reactions are like this because your fight mattered. Your team spat in the other species’ eyes.” Her tone was fierce. “I can’t even put into words how important that was. We were losing on the ladder. The environment was tearing us a new one. It was hell, and my group, at least, comforted ourselves with the knowledge that the one time we had gone head-to-head against the others in the competition, we had fucking won. When all other hope was lost, we clung to that fact.” She shuddered. “When the swarms of oddogs flooded us and we were all delirious from having to eat them raw for a month, that hope kept us going.”

“Especially when the newsletter from the heroes got circulated more widely.” Kang said reverently. “A dragon the size of a hill. A breath attack more potent than a meteorite, one capable of creating a crater fifty metres wide and almost as deep. It was amazing to imagine humans fighting such a creature.”

“Fighting it and beating it,” Corrine added. “Despite everything, despite our failures on the ladder, despite losing over a third of our starting number, we’ve beaten a monster that strong. The heroes of humanity gave us all hope when we needed it.”

“Everywhere,” Kang agreed. “There were people in my tribe fanatical about the heroes of humanity. They were in contact with thousands of others across the population.”

“I… we.” She gestured at Kang, “Didn’t experience it firsthand. But I jumped up and down in joy when I discovered the expanded racial trait, then found out the heroes of humanity had done it. It was...” Tom was stunned when she wiped away a tear. “Unless you lived as we did for that first two years with everything going wrong and that one legend sustaining us you can’t understand how everyone thinks of the heroes.” She sniffed and brushed away another tear. “If you tell Dim, I imagine he’ll get you anything you want. If you tell anyone, really. It’ll get the same outcome.”

“I wish I did more to help them in the battle.” Tom admitted. He had been part of the fight, he knew that much. Even if his memory had gaps, there were enough fragments to piece together large parts of the battle. He had distracted the giant and killed one of the insects, and, in doing so, avenged Toni. Not that he remembered how he had gotten the upper hand in that fight, but he had done it. Against the two main threats, though - the ones everyone was being lauded for, the giant and the dragon - he had not landed a single blow.

He had been there, but not as a material contributor, so his conclusion ran. Only his pre-fight work - using his trait of DEUS’s Chosen to help the planning - had been significant, and even then, he hadn’t been trusted with the information. He remembered Clare asking him, ‘is strategy alpha better than strategy beta?’. He had asked and relayed the answer without ever knowing what either of the plans actually entailed.

His purchased trait had been useful, not him personally.

Kang shook his head:

“It doesn’t matter. Just being one of them is enough. They said everyone did their job, and lots died willingly to help the rest live.”

Tom winced at that. He had died because he had made a mistake, not as a sacrifice to let others live. It was not like he had sacrificed himself for them.

“Tom, I don’t think you understand how much hope you guys gave us all. We might have fucking given up without it. Fuck me! You were part of the champions’ group. I’m pinching myself. Fucking hell, you are competition royalty and you’re right here.”

“A minor part,” Tom reminded them. “Minor, and…” he thought about the assassins that were hunting the reincarnated ones. “And maybe don’t tell anyone about this. We don’t want unwanted attention.”

“As if we would. We’re not fucking idiots. This was always going to stay in this room. Kang, shouldn’t you be…” She waved at the ceiling. “It’s not like we have that much time left.”

Looking slightly embarrassed, he returned to studying the room. Tom watched Kang, while, out of the corner of his eye, he saw that Corrine was studying him. It looked almost like she wanted to reach out and poke him to see if he was real.

“I see it,” Kang suddenly yelled. He spun around to study the room. “Wow! There’s a lot of cupboards up there.” He took the artefact off, holding it in his hand. “I can still see them. I got a title, didn’t I.” Smiling broadly, he stepped over to the status ritual, which was as good as next to him.

Corrine reacted instantly.

Her arm snapped out and pointed an open palm at Kang like a policeman telling traffic to stop.

“No,” she yelled.

Kang’s hands were already dropping toward the ritual to activate it and Tom realised the problem, but it was already too late for him to do anything. He knew how fast that ritual responded when you knew what you were doing.

“Wait!” he tried to call out.

Wind howled through the tiny room like they were briefly transferred to a mountaintop in a storm. Tom staggered, but the main part of the spell struck Kang. It picked him up and tossed him across the room like he was a leaf. His body smashed into the wall and collapsed into a broken puddle. 

“Fuck.” Corrine cursed as she rushed over. The artefact, the special glasses, had been caught up in the spell, and looked like they had shattered against the wall.

Corrine only had eyes for Kang.

“Fuck, fucking idiot.” She reached him and then dragged him over to the nearby healing crystal. “Please…fuck.” She forced his hand onto the crystal and its magic activated. A torrent of healing was pushing through Kang. To his credit, he only groaned and didn’t scream as his bones were clicking back together.

Corrine’s face went relieved and then flushed red:

“You’re a fucking idiot,” she poked her patient in the chest. “A fucking dumb cunt. What the fuck were you thinking? You know you got a title for seeing through the illusion when you got a ding. There’s no need to use the fucking ritual to confirm. Did you even consider the risk that would put the rest of us under? You use that now, and then, if anything is sniffing around, they’ll be able to see someone used it. What the fuck! You’re an adult. You don’t have an excuse for this stupidity.”

With a groan, Kang scrambled from her arms and stood on his own feet. The healing current was still flowing, and there was another audible crack as presumably a more badly damaged rib was forcefully realigned and healed.

“Sorry,” he apologised. “It was a dumb instinct. I’m glad you were able to react in time.”

“Fuck. I almost had to kill you to stop you.”

Kang laughed hollowly:

 “Not even close. It was just some slightly tenderised ribs, maybe some softened organs. Nothing critical was hurt.”

“We heard the fucking cracking.”

The other boy shrugged and then winced at the movement. He wasn’t fully healed yet.

“It’s not too bad, wasn’t too bad. I’ve kept fighting with worse.”

Corrine wiped her brow and then saw the broken artefact. Her shoulders sagged slightly:

“Dim’s going to be mad, but it’s a good thing you can already see them,” she said, glancing at Tom. Then she snorted. “Fucking hell, now that I know you were one of the Heroes of Humanity, none of the other weird stuff seems quite so outlandish. You fought the fucking dragon, having an ability to pierce illusions and reflect a terror spell isn’t so unbelievable now.”

For a moment, her words resonated with him. Was that a reason for the unknowns? Were the holes in his memory there to protect the larger group? How did the anger factor in, though? How about the precognition affinity? There were so many questions spinning in his head. But if being a part of the so-called Heroes of Humanity was so significant, maybe there was an explanation there.

“Since you’re a hero, I’ll tell you more about the Divine Champions Trial.” Corrine said finally. “Dim won’t be happy, but stuff him. The entry is open only to the most worthy. Fuck, the very knowledge of it is only limited to the best. I’ve only had access to it for a few months. As far as I can tell, I’m the only human currently in it, and the last one before that was a few years ago.” As she spoke, the thread of flames reappeared, coiling around her like a snake. There was no heat, but Tom knew she could change that with a single thought. “Which makes sense. If you factor in my flame control with my other abilities, I’m the strongest one in the orphanage.” She didn’t talk about them, but she also didn’t have to. Tom remembered that wind blast, both how it had thrown Kang and how quickly she had released it. “And I don’t mean the strongest twelve-year-old. I’m the most powerful person here, full stop. Despite that, I’ve only just qualified and I doubt I’ll be able to keep my spot. I had to show general nine combat to enter, and to stay in, I’ll need to reach eleven in something like two hundred days. Which I am sceptical about having a chance of achieving.”

Kang whistled in appreciation:

“What are your attributes?”

“Rank two,” she said flatly. “I only have biological growth gains. I haven’t and won’t take any elixirs until I’ve spent my first chunk of experience.”

“Same, but...” Tom hesitated, not sure how to phrase it. “How are you fighting things four times faster than you? I mean, if you’re general nine combat you have to have proved your ability to beat something that fast.”

She shook her head:

“Just four times faster? I wish! I said I needed a general nine combat rating. The average is four times, yes, but the speedsters are ten times quicker than me.”

“That’s my point. How do you fight something that moves so fast you can barely see it?”

“I have a trait and a skill that boosts my brain and, another to increase my mana reserves. Even together, it’s barely enough. I’ve only just snuck in, but the rewards are fucking amazing. I fight under a partial GOD’s shield, and, despite not taking the highest danger and highest reward option I’ve already earned sufficiently for a tier five skill or artefact. If I can keep my place beyond the next cut-off point…” She shook her head sadly. “Even if I don’t, it was so worth the effort.”

“How do you get in, then?” Tom asked again.

“You have to be strong enough. General four combat by the time you turn six is the first entry point. Nine before twelve, eleven by thirteen. For humans, gaining strength early is hard. The earliest that I know of someone getting in was at age ten.”

“I’ll do it earlier,” Kang promised immediately.

Corrine stared at him in response. In a way, that said ‘You’re an idiot’, or, if she was the one saying it, something with the same meaning, but slightly more colourful language. Tom ignored the interplay:

“And how would I go about proving I’m good enough?”

“Asking the trial can force an evaluation. Otherwise, on your birthdays. Your Existentia birthdays,” she clarified immediately. “Not earth ones. For that confirmation, there’s no testing. The system just knows.”

He nodded. His mind focused on that challenge. General Four Combat by the time he turned six… this was going to be his aim. Danger Sense, Spark, Touch Heal, Spear Mastery, something to improve his mana reserves and probably reaction speed as well - that would be enough to get him there. The last two were optional for the six-year-old threshold, but in the later years he would need it.

“Corrine,” he looked her in the eye. “You said you’ve boosted your mana and reaction speed. How?”

She touched her neck and winced:

“Um… well, for me, the mana improvement came about because I got a soul-bound necklace. Besides containing an active shielding spell, it had a thousand mana reserve. It was, as I’ve said, soul-bound, so the loss of it manifested as a trait.” She frowned. “I only found it when I turned ten and had access to my system room. But if you didn’t have a soul-bound mana store in your last life, that method won’t help you.”

Tom kept his face neutral as he remembered his own soul mana crystal. He wondered if it had been similarly transformed, and what he could do to find out if he had got a trait earlier than age ten.

“And the reaction speed?”

She hesitated. “Again, this might not suit you. I’m a fucking good crafter, and I’m not saying that to brag,” she continued hurriedly. “In the trial, I’ve earned a shit load of credits from my crafting, sufficient for the trial to buy me a tier one skill before I turned ten. You guys probably won’t get near that, but the skill was called Speed Equalise. It allows me to speed up my brain and perception to seventy-five percent of that of an opponent’s. It does nothing for my physical attributes, but I win most of my fights with my flames. If I can follow their movements, I can burn them to hell. Dim also got me a trait stone that boosts me up to a further twenty percent against faster opponents. That one is better in some ways, as it includes physical attributes. I think it cost four million credits. It’s not something he’ll be willing to do again. But to push me into the divine trial, he figured it was a sound investment.” She paused and licked her lips. “Mind you, if you tell him you’re a hero of humanity I’m sure the equation will change.”

He nodded and didn’t blink at the price. It was exorbitant, but for what it did it was worth that and more. The only question was whether it had been too valuable a gift for a child, no matter how promising she might have seemed.

“I’m sorry guys,” Corrine was genuinely apologetic. “I doubt you’ll be able to make it. I got really lucky and only just snuck in.”

Tom ignored her. He had his aim. He had his build, and no matter how impossible it might seem to Corrine, he was confident he could meet the qualification thresholds by the time he turned six.

“I’m going to beat Thunder Fists,” Kang declared quietly. “I’m going to make a difference in the competition. If doing that means I need to gatecrash the divine trial, then that’s my goal.” 

Corrine, Tom realised, was staring at him and had ignoring the other boy:

“And you, Tom?”

He glanced at Kang and grinned:

“I’m not about to let this lug beat me. If he thinks he can qualify, I’m confident I’ll do better.”

“Are you fucking serious?” she glowered at him. “You have no idea how difficult that’s going to be.”

 “What do you mean? It’ll be easy.” Tom smiled at her. “The challenge for Kang and me isn’t going to be about getting in. It’s going to be getting Bir qualified.”

Kang laughed, and Corrine went apocalyptic. Her face went red and for a moment, she couldn’t form coherent words. A moment that, unfortunately, didn’t last.

“You arrogant dumb…”

Smiling at how convenient it was, he retreated to his system room and watched her facial expression with the sound off. Tom wasn’t underestimating the difficulty he faced, but with hard work he was sure he would make it.

If Bir was as talented as he suspected, then she would, too. At least, after she received expert tutoring from him and Kang.