Chapter 54 – Attack (Patreon)

Dimitri smirked at the request. “Your development over the last nine months has been impressive, but I’m not sure I can sign off on that.”

“Why not?” Tom asked flatly, abandoning the cute look. He really wanted access to the lairs. “I need it.”

“Because we don’t know what caused today. You know it was unnatural. That boss monster was three ranks higher than it should have been. That’s not something I can ignore. At a minimum, you’ll need protection in case something like that happens again.” Dimitri, Tom noticed to his relief had switched from responsible adult to a focused solution mode. “I need to explore options.” He mused.

“Thank you.” Tom inclined his head gratefully.

“We’re done here. I have responsibilities. I need to leave, be visible and clear up the mess the alarms I triggered have caused. Can you do me a favour, I need you bundled  back into the fabric.”

Tom scoffed in annoyance. “Why?” he challenged. He didn’t object as such. It wasn’t like being hauled around was that uncomfortable or particularly humiliating. It just felt like he was being treated at his biological age, and that was not something he appreciated.

“Plausible deniability. I’m going to stash you in a malfunctioning isolation room.”

He honestly couldn’t work out the game Dimitri was playing. This moving him from place to place felt like it would paint a target on his back. “I don’t understand. Isn’t that the most suspicious thing we could be doing?”

Dimitri shrugged helplessly. “We can’t know the best move. It’s just about probabilities. If they’re physically observing me, then we’re in trouble. But if that’s the case, then you’re already one of the walking dead.”

Tom winced at that blunt description. It wasn’t the case he was sure of that. DEUS was intimately involved in protecting him. All he could do was trust her. She would not allow him to be pitted against an unbeatable enemy, not when after his first proper death, she had sought to reward him. For him to die now would be her breaking the implicit promise she had made, and that was not something that she would ever do. As far as he could tell, it was not in her nature and, therefore, he was safe.

The big man scratched his head. “There’s nothing I can do to counter the risk of physical observation so I ignore it. The continuous issue we face is the scryers with all their different tier ten and above skills. They’re an ever-present  problem and they’re dedicated to searching for reincarnators. They’re restricted from interfering, and by that I mean killing, anyone who is not a reincarnator but they can watch them. I don’t know how many remote scouting powerhouses the other GODs have arrayed against us, but it’s a lot. Probably every suitable resource that multiple terror races can dedicate to the problem. We’ve done some testing. There are more than four that’s for sure. Myself, my peers in the other towns, we maintain a working assumption that we’re continually under observation. As do all the other human powerhouses who have contact with kids. When they’re in town. The assumption is we’re being watched. That’s the true threat we need to counter, and it’s what the fabric does.”

“But downstairs I wasn’t protected.”

“Do you mean in the lair?”

He winced at Tom’s clarifying nod.

“That’s like worrying about physical observation. But with the fate, we’re investing and all the wards, scrying down there will be hard. We’re probably fine. And if we’re not.” he shrugged. “There’s nothing we can do about it. Everyone in the town standing guard over you won’t save you. Not with rank one attributes they’ll sacrifice fifty rank seventy assassins, and one will get through. The only shield you have is anonymity and the fact the GODs won’t allow wholesale slaughter.

“Okay, so if we assume we’re safe what about physical observation when we suggesting rooms? Wouldn’t it be better for me to stay here and sneak out when you’re not around. Or  are you suggesting that you’ll sense any while you’re moving me and kill them?”

“No. I’m good, but not that talented. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a deficiency on my side. It’s just that the people they send are better, but only once they’re entrenched. If they’re moving around or following me, I’ll spot them. There’s a strategic layer to this problem.”

“But the carpet will still be obvious.”

“Yeah, if any are in here, and that’s a big if, they’ll see me carrying it around. And they’ll know someone is in it, but not who. I’ll move around to lots of places and they’ll have a couple of data points. The main gymnasium, possibly some corridors. They won’t be able to work out where I put you. And there are too many rooms for the remote scouting to monitor all of them.”

“It sounds…”

“It’s me being paranoid, Tom. Excluding the scryers, I could walk you covered in blood back to your dorms and you’d almost certainly be safe. This approach is slightly better.” Dimitri winked at him. “Older kids get locked overnight in the isolation rooms all the time. Those things malfunction constantly. It’s almost like they treat it as a game. I have to admit it’s very convenient for me. Even if I pretend to be super grumpy every time. I don’t know how such a practice started happening.”

Tom let himself get bundled up. Dimitri clearly knew what he was doing. Once more, he was slung over the bigger man’s shoulder and transferred via lots of stop start movements that went up and down multiple floors until he was deposited in a new room.. Dimitri spent a few minutes fiddling with the controls and then picked up the fabric roll. He turned to face Tom. “You’re going to be stuck in here for at least six hours. I’ll give you a five-minute warning before I fix.” He mimed inverted commas when he said the word fix. “Before I fix the malfunction. Do whatever you want in the meantime, but when I come back, assume you and the contents of the room are known to the enemy.”

With that, he left with a door clicking firmly shut behind him..

Tom washed himself and then spent his time alternating between magic spear work and meditating on Danger Sense while maintaining an open cut seeping blood that he attempted to influence with his sideways evolution, the one that sped up clotting. All the effort invested into skill development made him feel like the evolution was responsive to his will even if the total sum of his theoretical knowledge suggested that was an impossibility.

The attempt didn’t cost him anything, so he persisted, hoping that it might somehow lead to him obtaining a trait.

After what felt like days, but his pseudo system room tagged as only eight hours the entire room flashed.

The room was spotless, but he healed himself and triggered a clean spell to remove the blood. Then he grinned and tipped over two of the toy boxes and used his feet and hands to fling the toys wider.

Smugly, he sat in the only cleared area of the floor. The door opened and Dimitri strode in. He looked in annoyance at the scattered toys and glowered at Tom.

Innocently, he smirked back.

Neither of them said anything other till the door shut and it dinged to indicate they had privacy once more.

“And?” Tom asked.

Dimitri shook his head. “I’m going to have to clean this you know.” Then he sighed. “But it was probably the right call. There’s no way a five-year-old is getting stuck in here for eight hours and not causing a mess.”

“Yeah, that’s the only… reason why I did it.”

“Yes, the mess was only to aid your disguise, and you weren’t smirking.” Dimitri rolled his eyes. “On to more important things, Eden’s completed her sweep. The wards weren’t penetrated like I thought. Unlike me, Eden, if an assassin’s entrenched has abilities to let her pierce their defences. So, you’re off the hook.”

“Good and her views on the boss?”

Dimitri grimaced. “Eden couldn’t find any evidence to suggest it was anything but random.”

“Damn. A ritual.” Tom cursed. While humans were the only species that could spend fate innately, other species could do similar things with structured magic, admittedly at a massive cost. 

“Yes exactly. Not great news. And if a ritual’s leveraging fate there’s no way to prove it post fact as all it’s doing is distorting of probabilities. The boss remains a random occurrence, even if it was off the scale level of unlikely.”

There was something in how Dimitri looked. “And you think I’m the target?”

The big man sighed. “I’m almost certain that’s a yes.”

“You know my history then. That’s great. Tell me everything?”

Dimitri winced slightly. “Well, that’s the thing, Tom. I know what the holes in your memory represent. Eden inadvertently told me exactly what was stripped away and, as you rightly guessed it was definitely responsible for your new precognition affinity.” He trailed off into silence.

“Don’t stop there. What did I do? How did I help? Was it a soul bound artefact?”

Dimitri said nothing and scratched his hair, looking particularly uncomfortable. “Um, the problem. um. the thing is uf the memory was stripped from you, then DEUS obviously didn’t want you to know them. If that’s the case I’m not sure I’m qualified to tell you.”

“What? That’s ridiculous. It’s my story I have a right to know.”

“I’m sorry. Given what you did, I don’t want to keep secrets, but if this is what DEUS’s wills then who am I to circumvent her wishes.”

“That’s bullshit. It might have been one of the other GODs.”

“And it might have been, but the common view is that DEUS controls the process. I’m not taking the risk, Tom. If you want to learn more, you’ll have to convince a priest that you should be granted the information.”

“What priest? Keikain?”

“He’s the easiest, but if a priest is willing to vouch for your need to know, then I’ll tell you everything. I just won’t do it without permission from someone who has the mandate of DEUS.”

“Can you give a clue?”

“Sorry, Tom. I know the role you played. I know it was your plan to get the racial trait, and that you made other substantial contributions as well. We all owe you a great debt. But, that’s not enough for me to go against DEUS’ will.”

Tom’s instinct was to argue. But he understood the point that Dmitri was making and if the positions were reversed as much as he hated to admit it, he would do the same. However, even if Dimitri was in the right, it didn’t mean he couldn’t leverage the situation. “That’s… sorry, I’m just really emotional about this. I can’t put into words how much those holes in my memories trouble me… It’s… Sorry, you’re doing the right thing. Don’t say anything.”

“I wish I could help.”

“It’s okay. I’ll be fine.” Tom sighed and covered his eyes. “It doesn’t matter. We should stick to business. First. I assume since you now know who I was that I’ll continue getting access to the bat lair?”

Dimitri stared at him suspiciously. “Yes, I can do that. Just so you know, I didn’t deliberately give any clues to Eden because if my guess is right, there’s a bit of a history there and I don’t like pissing off powerhouses, current or future. But then when I was trying to get you resources I might have mis-spoken. I basically listed your achievements and what you’re focusing on.”

“She picked up on the healing spells.” Tom guessed immediately.

 Dimitri nodded. “Yes, sorry, she sort of stuttered, shut down for a moment, when I mentioned them so I know she noticed. In hindsight, I probably should have protected your privacy better and pretended that you were developing a different set of spells. I just wasn’t thinking.”

“It’s fine,” Tom said to put him out of his misery. “I understand and the history’s complicated but not necessarily problematic.”

“Anyway, if that comes back to bite you then sorry. I told her to try to get resources and the good news is that it worked.”

He pulled out an arm guard. “I’m authorised to give you this. It’s a defensive artefact that’s warded so scry’s can’t notice it. While you’re in the lair’s you need to wear this. If you trigger it, it will create a powerful personal shield and an attack golem to defend you.”

“That’s going to slow skill acquisition.”

Dimitri shrugged. “It’s one use and most promising students in native cultures wear a similar limited use life saving treasure. With all their history and knowledge of how Existentia works, if they’re doing it then we’ll be safe to do the same. If there’s another surprise like the bat, this will be more or strong enough to counter anything that can be generated even by extremely unfavourable probability events. It won’t stop an assassin, but it will slaughter any future boss monsters. If you’re wearing it you can continue training against the bats and once you get spear mastery, then I’m fine with you testing yourself against the orcs. And after Touch Heal and Spark, you can fight whatever you want down there.”

Tom stared at the bracelet, and then mentally shrugged. His point about natives using this was a valid one. He could live with a small drag on skill acquisition and he really couldn’t afford to turn down extra protections when someone was willing to throw major fate rituals at him. “I’ll wear it,” he promised.

“Good boy,” Dimitri smirked. “Oops, I didn’t mean boy I meant man.” The other man smirked and his eyes momentarily flickered pointedly at the toys that covered the floor. “In addition to the defensive artefact, I also extracted an additional promise. Eden’s going to reach out and try to get a trait stone for you. She’s also agreed to fund it.”

“If she’s being watched is that sensible?”

“No, it wouldn’t be if they’re watching her continuously.”

“I don’t understand. You said they watch powerhouses and surely she counts. And if they caused the boss event. They probably know I’m here and their spies will be turning their attention to surveilling everyone you’ve been in contact with, as you’re their only lead. Are you sure this course is safe?””

Dimitri frowned. “Yes, yes. There’s risks to everything but even they can’t afford to watch us constantly. Especially with Eden’s protections. Their only allowable target is reincarnated kids. That’s the only thing they’re interested in. They’re observing us when we interact with the kids because they know we don’t discuss or even gossip about children outside of warded rooms. Watching us all the time is a waste of effort for them. Don’t stress so much. We’ve been doing this longer than you and we’re aware of the risk and we both think it’s worthwhile. Now you’re probably hungry.” The door dinged open and the volume of Dimitri’s voice increased. “I don’t know why it malfunction like it did, but you’re free to go now.”

Tom left to get lunch while he considered what had just occurred. Evelyn attempting to get him a trait stone was a massive win. He wouldn’t count on it, as it wasn’t guaranteed. After all, a suitable trait for what he wanted might not appear in any of the markets that humanity had access to. It was more likely than most traits out there, as most sensible people tried not to pick fights against things faster than them. Especially when higher attributes also corresponded with enhanced skills. If you faced a deficit in speed, then after you removed that, you would usually still be at a disadvantage because of the superior skills of the higher ranked creature. Anyone who survived to high ranks knew better than to fight anything where you weren’t overwhelming stronger. Even if you had only a one percent chance of dying in a battle, that meant if you fought a hundred of them you would die. Generally speaking you only wanted engagements when you had an advantage in pretty much every aspect of the fight.

As for Eden or Everlyn like he strongly suspected… She was hopefully not an issue he would have to deal with for some time. He wondered how she felt about him. He was all too conscious of how passionate she had been in the debate about whether to resurrect him or not. How she’d fixated upon that idea even after it was revealed Tom would live on via reincarnation. She had wanted to save him and then there was he evidence of how she had spent the last fifty years. She had been the force behind building a base for reincarnators, she had slaughtered the wador and her other hobby was farming ranking points.

The last was something she was always going to do. But those first two, he knew was because of their relationship. He would have thought fifty years would have been enough to get him away from the blowback from his brief romance with her, but maybe not. It was all too hard.

He wondered who, beyond Everlyn and Keikain had survived. He contemplated if he would ever reunite with them. The others maybe, but not Thor. Given he had a month named after him he probably hadn’t made it.

He sighed, forced the sense of dissociation and sadness down before he went to face the world. 

Once more, he threw himself into training. With Everlyn searching for a trait stone, he had genuine hope once more that he would get strong enough to qualify for the Divine Champion’s trial. Speed based opponents were the enemy that his training plan couldn’t counter. The fact that others were looking to help him with the issue inspired him to train harder.

The trio of them had just finished exploring their magic in an isolation room and Bir ran off. She was excited to try the obstacle course again while the older kids were undertaking compulsory survival courses.

Happy not to waste any time Tom went to follow but Kang grabbed him before he could.

The isolation doors shut with a ding.

“What are you doing?” Tom snapped.

Kang looked him calmly in the eyes. “An intervention. Pull your head in Tom. You’re pushing yourself too hard and making things too obvious as a result. And I know I spend more time than anyone else around you. I understand that means I’m more likely to pick up on this than others. But, my senses are no better than a kid and I’m catching you practicing your magic. If I catch you once, how many times will a trained skilled observer see? You’re taking shortcuts. Bleeding constantly.” He pointed at Tom’s leg. “Every fifteen minutes blood drips into your shoes.”

“It’s just training. It’s not like I’m going crazy.”

“I know it’s just training, but if you keep this up, I’m going to have to cut off our friendship.” The unspoken context of the statement was that Kang was worried that Tom’s recklessness might expose him as well.

“Fine.” In frustration he struck the door. It dinged and swung open.

 Bir stood there with her hands on her hips. “What happened?”

Kang shrugged and pursed his lips apologetically. “Um… about that. I tackled Ta. Pinned him to the ground. It took him ages to yield.”

She looked puzzled. “Why?”

“To see if I could.”

The response didn’t seem to remove her suspicion. “Whatever. We do obstacle course, now. Unless of course, you’re scared. Are you scared?”

Kang laughed and took off at a run. Tom followed and pondered the accusation the other boy had made.

Damn it, he thought, Kang was absolutely right. As he ran he used Heal Cut to close the nasty gash on his leg.

Another day passed and when he emerged from the isolation room. He froze. The corridors felt constricting and like they had turned hostile.

Bir and Kang had exited at the same time.

Kang had a tense expression.

Bir appeared worried. “What’s happening?” she hissed

Both Kang and he looked at each other. Tom’s guess was that this was an alarm, but he wasn’t about to volunteer that.  

“I’m not sure.” Kang said carefully.

“Isolation room together? Or the main hall?” Tom asked.

There were shouts from the stairwell and the sound of running feet. “Everyone to the gymnasium, everyone to the gymnasium.” A slightly pudgy older boy was yelling as he and others his age descended from above.

Bemused, the three of them joined the growing crowd and became one of the many sprinting toward the promised safety. When they reached the main hall, Tom gazed wide eyed with most of the other kids.

There were over fifty volunteers in the room with all of them wearing full battle gear.

Dimitri stood on his usual platform. Commanding everyone’s presence. His voice enhanced with magic boomed. “Wards are breached if you’re a reincarnator retreat to your pseudo system room.” He was shouting it over and over again.

”Reincarnators must enter their pseudo system room! This is not a drill it is life and death.”

Tom didn’t hesitate further and followed the orders.

He was worried.

Fifty armoured volunteers were here. The entire orphanage had been gathered. Dimitri shouting for everyone to go to their system room. And worst the boss monster had targeted him just four days ago. Coincidences existed, but this was not one of them. This, he was a hundred percent certain was his fault.

That bit of him that was never wrong confirmed it.

Somewhere potentially even in this very room an assassin watched and was waiting for the slightest hiccup and then they would strike.They were here for him, and a pit formed in his stomach. He hoped no other reincarnators were going to die because of this. But he knew a different truth. This wasn’t as certain as he was with the other, but he was pretty confident. This attack would end in a bloodbath he could almost guarantee that.