Chapter 58 - Fallout (Patreon)

AG. Just a heads up. It's school holidays for this week and next week and my wife is working three days a week currently so I have primary responsiblity of the kids. I might miss a couple of chapters over that time frame.

It felt longer, but it had only been a day since Dimitri had declared the orphanage as being most likely safe. Not that it had changed anything. The banners were still red, which meant he was restricted to the cloying isolation of the system room, but hopefully this meeting would change things. The unknowns, unsurprisingly, worried him the most. From the chatter that slipped from the volunteers to the children, and then to the gossip mill the particulars of this attack had been unusual. Tom knew in his heart his existence had triggered this. He was not responsible as such, but he kind of was at the same time. Each of those deaths added to the contribution he had to make. He had a lot to pay back.

Impatiently, he sat outside Dimitri’s office. At least the bit, with his adult mind, did. His treacherous body was happily playing with some monster figurines.

Hopefully, he was about to find out the truth about what had happened.

The study door opened. “Ah, Ta, it’s good to see you. Please come in.”

His body responded and followed Dimitri’s directions.

“It was only supposed to be a week between follow-ups, but I was otherwise engaged for a bit there. Sorry about that.”

His body said nothing. Everyone knew that Dimitri had been away doing important stuff. After all, it had been he who had brought Eden back to save them.

Tom tensed as his body passed the room’s threshold into the study. Last time, because of the wardings in place, he hadn’t even known about the hairy assassin until he was inside the room with it. He knew Eden had gone through and eliminated them, but he still deep down expected Danger Sense to trigger.

Nothing happened.

Surrounded by metal walls, Tom sighed in relief and watched on the screens as without fuss the other man triggered the wards so that they glowed.

“Sit, sit,” Dimitri insisted.

Tom was getting much better at speeding up speech and then skipping sections so he could follow conversations in real time even while handicapped by the time dilation.

“I’m not going to beat around the bush. I know you’re a reincarnator.” Dimitri said firmly. Then the caretaker’s eyes went wide, and he clutched at his neck. A pained cough escaped his lips.

Instantly, Tom took control of his body. That declaration, as per the title descriptions, meant that the current environment was protected and safe to be himself in.

“Shit, I should have known better.” Dimitri complained, wincing as he coughed hoarsely. “That is not a work around and I admit I’m a but if an idiot for trying. The title does not like being used as a canary in the coal mine.” He coughed again, and Tom saw a splash of blood on his hand. “I should have expected that. On more pleasant things, Tom, how are you?”

Healing magic wrapped around his throat, but Dimitri still cleared his throat uncomfortably. “And of course it can’t be healed. I think she took me abusing the title as a form of blasphemy.”

Tom wasn’t sure what to say.

“I’m serious about my question. Mentally, how are you holding up?”

“It’s frustrating. Especially not knowing. What happened? Why did you revert to green barriers when you did?”

He sighed. “The Ladorin, the second species were new.”

Tom hesitated. He was surprised by that admission and not sure how to take it. “What do you mean? Are they some sort of construction? A summons? Because they couldn’t be a new species?”

“Not new, new. We know of them as a species, but this was the first time they were used against us. They’re a terror race from deep in the Underground. Literally years of travel away from here, the logistics to get so many to attack was impressive.”

Different facts weren’t coming together properly in Tom’s head. Years of travel meant this must have been pre-planned. And if it took that much lead time then he was off the hook. “Are you serious? Years of pre-planning. That means this raid wasn’t related to me?”

“Oh, wrong conclusion. It was definitely about you. The priests are stirred up.”

“But you said years. Did they teleport?” According to his knowledge of Existentia, teleporting over that type of distance was impossible. An ancient power might have a solution, but Tom doubted it. When Dimitri said years of travel, he was not talking in terms of a mortal person. The standard was to use rank thirty-two which meant they were eight times faster than a human. The assassins were clearly stronger than that, but not enough to make that sort of distance trivial.

“No, or at least not much. They were positioned between our towns and when the ritual got a lock on you they moved. It only took four days to reach us, which is still scary, given it would have taken me weeks.”

“Do you know, or are you guessing?”

“That hypothesis has been priest confirmed. So we know. The fact you had sixteen rank hundred assassins and four support staff waiting for you to emerge for years is worrisome. However, I think such an investment goes beyond the level of reasonable. Hopefully, this will cost the responsible GOD a lot.”

“Did you say rank hundred?”

Dimitri nodded.

“But then how did you defeat them. Eden can’t be that strong. You’re not rank a hundred are you.”

Dimitri laughed. “No, I’m not close to that, but if Eden took them on, then she might have been able to kill them all. No, the cleanup was trivial for a different reason. Because they need to hide from our divination magic, they made an oath on the GODs not to harm any human apart from reincarnators and to avoid my Danger Sense equivalent a specific oath not to hurt me. They were literally unable to fight back.” Dimitri chuckled darkly. “It was good experience. I like enemies that are sworn not to hurt me.

“Why would they go to that extreme?”

“You know why I’m in this role?”

“To keep me, us, safe?”

“Exactly. I don’t have a precognition affinity, but I have high tiered and highly levelled skills. If anything comes into the orphanage that is a potential threat to me, I would feel it instantly. Our enemies are not stupid. They understand that and to counter it all the assassins that come in take an oath not to hurt me specifically and more widely any locals with precognition abilities.”

“That’s genius. They’re totally exploiting the system.”

“That’s frustrating is what it god damn is! It’s why we needed to wait for adventurers to get back. They returned, and we killed the Cotalda like usual. We thought we were safe then like every other time, but they had brought a new species to help them. Both higher ranked than before and had stronger racial gifts to protect them. We eliminated the Cotalda, relaxed because we thought we were safe while the others remained watching and ready to eliminate any reincarnators who let their guard down. It was a diabolical plan.”

“A false sense of security,” Tom whispered. “A strategy that could only be deployed once, before we adapted”

“Exactly,” Dimitri agreed grimly. “They set a trap that they’ve been priming for forty years while waiting for you to emerge. I reckon at any point for the last couple of decades they could have pulled the trigger and wiped out a generation of reincarnators. Those sixteen could have been split across all three orphanages. You can’t imagine the disaster that would have caused, instead you emerging spooked them into coming here. And if it wasn’t for you, having an unreasonable Danger Sense they would have got everyone. Their plan would have worked. Of course, they would have cleared only one orphanage instead of three, but it would still have been devastating for us.”

“It was more than just Danger Sense.” Tom told him.

Dimitri crooked his head curiously. “What do you mean?”

“I could see through their illusions.”

“See through! No, impossible. You’ve got to be kidding me. How the hell could you do that? Eden didn’t suggest you had anything like that in your old life.”

“Because I didn’t. I think… um… You know, my status is screwed, but in this case I’m pretty sure it’s a title I just gained. Danger Sense told me they were there and then they were testing everyone in the isolation rooms in an attempt to scare out a reincarnator. Frighten them and leave them effectively broken for ages. The pseudo system room’s acting skill had my body staring almost blankly at a camouflaged one for twenty minutes. The pseudo system room has crappy time dilation, but it lets you replay a memory perfectly. That’s what I did. I replayed the scene over and over again.”

Dimitri burst out laughing. “That’s awesome. I would never… that’s so funny. They came to kill you, and all they did was to rank you up. Speaking of which, I gather you earned these outside the trial?”

“Obviously.”

“So you don’t actually know what you’ve got yet.” He was instantly digging into his spatial bag to produce the ritual status screen. “It might be too late for you to get the names, but in the time we’ve got before you have to leave you can probably make fifty or so attempts. If you’re lucky, you might hit the right one.”

He placed it on the small table in front of them and Tom immediately started fiddling with it to try to find the description of what he had just earned. “Out of interest, how did you figure out the nature of the threat so quickly when I pulled your ear?”

Before Dimitri could answer, the description appeared on the screen. Tom guessed he shouldn’t have been surprised because he was pretty sure he had gotten this skill, and this process was only confirming it.

Skill: Advanced Danger Sense – Tier 2 – Level 9

Reveal imminent threats. 

Threshold Bonus 8: Includes threats to party members as well as to self.

Dimitri who had stood to see the screen nodded approvingly. “That’s a solid, broad upgrade of the standard skill. The advanced level takes it from physical threats to more conceptual ones, like enemies focused on data gathering.”

Tom stared at it. The fact it was level nine already was impressive, but then he guessed he had been training it for weeks against rank hundred stealth and information specialists. It getting ramped up so much shouldn’t be such a surprise given that context. Even so, the levels he had on it were remarkable. In tier zero equivalent that was rank thirty-six and in the tutorial, it had taken him half a decade to get his first spell to that level, which probably highlighted the peril he had been in more than anything else. 

“It’s a good skill. As for your question that,” he pointed at the screen. “That kind of answers you. I knew about your training with the bats, your precognition level and oaths that assassins usually take. I figured if you had developed an ability, then you would be much more likely to sense them even though my skills are at the tier six level.”

“Tier six. With fifty percent boost with each tier. Your skill is five times more potent.”

“That calculation excludes affinities and with yours at ninety-five and…” he frowned. “At level nine yours is probably as strong or slightly stronger than mine. Anyway, I figured that we had somehow missed an assassin, so I reacted accordingly.”

“But then why delay for so long?” The angry question burst out before he could help himself. “It was a full five minutes before you yelled out code red.”.

“Don’t get distracted,” Dimitri reprimanded mildly. “Keep trying to find out the title that lets you see through illusions.”

With a flush of heat in his cheeks, Tom returned his attention to the ritual screen and guessed at another title name. The screen failed to respond.

“I waited because they came for you. If I had called code red immediately, they would have been able to guess you were the cause. So, I delayed. I spoke to every five- and six-year-old and fours for good measure and only then acted. They’re not dumb. They must have known or suspected someone passed the message, but they couldn’t see who.”

Tom shut his eyes. “Sorry, that should have been obvious.”

“I hated waiting, but it was for the best. They only got Arnali after that screw up, but it could have been worse and to be honest he might have been uncovered in advance of the green banners. There may have been nothing we could have ever done to save him.”

Tom didn’t believe that for a moment and he doubted Dimitri did either, but he was glad the other man had said it.

“Then when I brought you in here and couldn’t talk to you like you were a reincarnator I knew the truth. I can’t believe,” he glanced up to the left corner. “That one had snuck in here to compromise communications.”

That wording was deliberate and sounded suspicious. “What do you mean by that?”

“They were intercepting all the messages to Eden and others.”

“Why wouldn’t you just use the auction house?”

Dimitri shook his head. “No, the GODs shut that down. I won’t call it a loophole because it was there deliberately but once we began linking the settlements, they stripped the ability to do targeted communication through the auction house. Now everything is done by message spell or courier. I sent multiple ones, and they were intercepting every attempt. The moment I realised one was in here I guessed what had happened to my messages and went personally.”

Tom was horrified at the implication. The body count was far more than he had realised. Multiple couriers had been sent and apparently intercepted. “How many died?” he asked flatly.

“It doesn’t matter. It’s not on you.”

“Dimitri, I’m not a child. How many?”

“In total, I sent almost thirty people.”

“Thirty? What the hell. I thought they weren’t allowed to touch anyone but reincarnators.”

“They didn’t all die. They were skirting a fine line. Technically, it was an operation to hunt reincarnators, which they’re kind of allowed to do. They tried to capture, but at least three died and another four are missing.”

Tom winced at that.

“It’s a personal tragedy, but not a humanity level one. They were all unnerved.”

He had said the last bit like it was a slur. “What do you mean unnerved?”

“What can I say. The unnerved are ones that have given up, those who had settled for mediocrity.”

“That’s a bit harsh.”

“It is, and it isn’t.” Dimitri said quietly. “Mostly I pity them, but considering the risks I’ve taken and continue to do so, it’s also galling to see others lose heart like that. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I don’t understand where they’re coming from. It’s difficult to maintain the rage for decades. I’ve had issues with motivation, but never for more than a week. To watch such potential being squandered. It’s hard, and it’s not like they didn’t try. Most sacrificed a lot before they became unnerved. They deserve respect and them dying is sad but do you know how many good friends I’ve lost.”

“Me too.”

“Yes, at some point we all become slightly desensitised to loss. It doesn’t help that in some ways them dying like this is better for humanity than them surviving. I imagine the penalties DEUS will extract for those deaths and twenty plus people being incapacitated for a month by a directed out of competition force will be significant.”

“Damn. That’s why everything took so long. They killed the communication line.”

“Don’t get the wrong impression, Tom. We’re not just dependent on Eden. There were dozens of humans who could help, and four were close enough to contact. The Ladorin blocked me from contacting the other three as well. The moment I managed to get any of those four to come their operation was over and they knew that and did everything they could to prevent it. This was very well planned. They even pre-planned distractions to draw people away.”

 “They drew people away?”

Dimitri nodded grimly. “Some Bugs,” he said bugs like they were a curse to make it clear he was referring to the competitor species. “Managed to establish a colony nearby. Given how fast that cursed species expands we had to act immediately to eliminate them.”

“But? Aren’t they years of travel away. I thought it was impossible that we’d ever engage them head on.”

“Yes. They snuck down. They arrived about a decade ago and had been suppressing their growth so we wouldn’t notice them early. The operation was very well planned.”

Tom shut his eyes. It was extraordinary. Almost unbelievable that so much effort was being put into killing him. It had to be personal. But how? For a moment, he recalled his recent brush with an echo of a memory. Of an encounter with a figure… a figure filled with power… a terror started to seize his muscles… white static descended and ever so briefly enveloped him. The soothing love of that energy pushed away the other and with a jerk he forced himself to not think any more in that direction.

The why didn’t matter as much as the facts. He was a target. “They’re going to attack again, aren’t they?”

“Yes, that’s what we think.” Dimitri agreed. “It’ll be years before they can gather sufficiently skilled assassins. I don’t know what form the next raid will take, but my guess is they’ll go the carpet bombing approach.”

“Shit,” Tom cursed bitterly. “Extra people are going to die.”

Dimitri shook his head.  “No, it’s the opposite. We’re too far away. Any operations they launch would have happened, anyway. This way we force the timing and we know they’ll hit this town instead of the others.” He smiled with bloodlust. “Yes. You being here as a lure is good for us.”

Tom frowned internally at that attitude. Then again, he understood the cold calculations at the heart of it. They were all here to die to save humanity’s future. Knowing where a threat was coming from meant they could make the enemy bleed. Any of them dying was worthwhile if it hurt the enemy more.  Tom could empathize with the reasoning, using his presence here as a lure was an advantage that would let them set the terms of the engagement. Humanity could fortify one town instead of three.

Dimitri tapped the machine, reminding him of where his focus was supposed to be.

Mentally, he concentrated on an alternative concept to the image that he had been pursuing. A title that let him see assassins or threats rather than a general illusion piercing ability. Possibly one linked to Danger Sense.

Nothing happened.

For what must have been the fortieth time, he repeated the same concept, but with a slightly different focus between the components.

To his shock the screen in front of him updated.

 Title: Reveal Hidden Threats:

·        Reward: You can pierce sapient based illusions and privacy compulsion shielding a person you have identified as wishing you harm up to the tier 7 level instantly. Higher tier defences take progressively longer to break, but once a specific spell or skill is pierced once, then on future exposure it will be broken instantly.  

·        Awarded for: Successfully breaking a layered skill and spell defence consisting of ten different defences with tiers ranging between 7 and 11.

·        Legendary Title. Competition Rank: 4th, 75 Ranking points.

He read the details hungrily. Next time creatures stalked him like that he would be able to see them. Not only would illusions under tier eight fail to stop his vision it was clear the title was a stacking one. Theoretically, it would let him break anything once his Danger Sense had identified it as a threat. 

Beside him Dimitri whistled appreciatively. “I know this is building on an existing ability, but that’s impressive. There’s a tier eight skill I’ve been eyeing that does similar.”

“What would that cost, five million?” Tom guessed. A number that would take Dimitri a year to gather if all of his earned experience was directed at a single skill. Tom, once he started earning experience didn’t expect to get more than a million a year for at least half a decade.

“Yep,” Dimitri agreed quietly. “There’s a reason I don’t have it yet. And you, you fucker got it for free.”