Savage Awakening 597. The Final Training Montage (VIII)

She dove straight into it.

“There’s too much to get into, some of which hasn’t been finalized, including final battle plans,” she said. She hesitated. “I’ll only let you know what’s relevant to you, for now—I’ll catch you up on the rest when they’re decided.” 

Which sounded sensible to him.

Reina nodded. She seemed fully in ‘business mode’ now. 

“First, the list of those who’ll receive an unlimited portal charm is now set. I made sure to let the Council know the World Tree’s stance on the matter, and they agreed that you’d be on it shortly after—which means your role in the war should now be set in stone.” 

Zane’s role would be as a roaming ronin-like figure, going around taking out whatever major threats popped up in his territory. A role that he was pretty happy with, especially as he’d thought about it some more in the last few months. It sounded like it’d let him accomplish the few key aims he had in mind for the war. 

The first being that since he wouldn’t be a front-line fighter or even locked into a specific Great Faction’s territory—he’d patrol a three-Faction front instead—he’d have a lot more freedom to pick where he’d assist. 

He’d help where he was needed, and he was up to fight any Endbringer that menaced Dragonspire’s front lines. But he’d always been quite clear that his ultimate loyalties would be to his friends—which meant he’d drop back to the World Tree if he found Reina in trouble, or fight alongside Noughtfire in the Azure Flame if needs be. He’d help out Evan and Avery or even the Sage if it came to that. 

The second big benefit of the role was this it just sounded like a huge Credit-scoring opportunity. 

The Sage had told him a little about just how lucrative hunting higher-tiered Monsters could get. 

Back in the first wave, the rewards had been— 

10,000 Minor God Monsters slain = 1 Credit

1,000 half-step True God Monsters slain = 1 Credit

10 True Gods = 1 Credit

The credit rewards wouldn’t stay the same once Zane hit True God—he’d also learned, after talking with Reina and the Sage, that killing True Gods at True God didn’t seem to give as many Credits. The System seemed to be trying to weight the reward relative to the accomplishment. 

Still—according to the Sage, taking down top-tier Endbringers, regardless of what power level you were, brought in quite a few Credits. At least while the War rewards system was in place. The exact figure seemed to depend on the kind of Endbringer. 

Suffice it to say, if things went well he’d protect his friends, fight the Galaxy’s hardest Monsters, and mine the System Store at the same time… a man couldn’t really ask for more. 

So this was pretty great news. 

Also, imagining Reina going out to make his case in front of all those Dragonspire Elites kind of amused him. 

She seemed quite satisfied with herself too. She told him the front he’d patrol had also been finalized—a front that’d include the Azure Flame, Steelheart, and Thundercrest, which would share defense duties over the region. The World Tree and the Guild of Endless Shadows, which were nestled just behind them, would assist too. Just how much assistance the incredibly strong Endless Shadows would give to the front-liners was still up for testy debate—a few Heads thought they were being a bit conservative with their pledged support. But Reina felt that’d sort itself out in time. 

“We’ve also been finalizing our defensive constructs,” she continued. “The first line of defense is the Dragonspire Greatwards, which everyone just calls ‘the Wards’. Every Great Faction contributes to powering them.” 

She gave him a rundown, the gist of which was that they could survive hits even from Prime Endbringers, and drew the bulk of their power from the core of the Galaxy—although the Great Factions all pitched in top-grade spirit stones to help. 

“Even if the Wards are broken they ‘refresh’ every 24 hours, which is a godsend considering we’ll likely be under siege,” she said. “Now that the System’s as weak as it is—we don’t think it’s strong enough right now to properly enforce debuffs on Monsters in Safe Zones, much less punish tampering Primes… this really is our best bet when it comes to constructed defenses.” 

She hesitated. “That said, they’re more like fortress walls than perfect force-fields, albeit walls that reconstruct themselves periodically. They can be breached, and it’s likely they will be. We’ll need you to fight off invaders before they break through the wards. But if and when they breach them—Zane… that’s when we’ll need you most. For all intents and purposes, you’ll be the last line of defense.” 

Reina knew him better than pretty much anyone. She knew how big of a burden that was, but by the look on her face, she also seemed quite confident in how he’d perform there. 

Then again—he was pretty sure only the Barbarian Sage could rival Reina when it came to the amount of faith she put in him. 

Zane felt the gravity of the task, just like he’d felt the gravity of it every time he’d had to defend Earth, or his friends… he also just felt pumped for it. 

Some part of him wanted that weight on his shoulders. He knew she knew it too. 

He felt kind of hungry. He grabbed a drake leg, took a munch, and started up the letter again. 

“We’re also looking into how Malzareth plans on circumventing our defenses,” said Reina, pulling out a few scrying diagrams of the Superdungeon. It essentially showed a bunch of worlds stacked on top of each other, from what he could tell, with key points marked out. But most of them were blanks. She considered them, lips pursed. 

“Based on what little data the Scryer’s Guild can pick up, we’re sure Malzareth’s forging new Corrupted Bones for his Greater Endbringers, possibly even his Primes. Otherwise, they’ve found the deepest layers of the Superdungeon essentially impenetrable.” 

She put the diagrams away, brow furrowing. “Zane, I can’t say for sure, but…just based off my read of Malzareth’s psychology, I get the feeling that incident with Hreinn the Undying changed his thinking. I just think he’s much more inclined to take drastic measures—he seems the type to hold a grudge, even when it isn’t the wisest.” 

That sounded like pretty reasonable to him. 

It was also a quality Reina herself kind of shared, come to think of it… He wisely chose not to mention this in his next letter. 

“I’ve decided to commission a report,” Reina said firmly. “It’s actually a joint report—we’ll be conducting it with the World Tree’s best scryers and the Scryer’s Guild itself. We’re also getting some special assistance from Sage Noughtfire.” 

Zane blinked. 

That came out of nowhere. Reina said she was pleasantly surprised Noughtfire agreed to help too. “He’s really been of great help so far, especially when it comes to reading the lines of Fate,” she said. “I’m excited to see what he’ll be able to do. I hadn’t realized the extent of his knowledge of the Superdungeon and Malzareth—we had a brief chat just a few hours ago. With him onboard, I think it’s much more likely we get to the bottom of this.”

She winced. “I won’t be able to include the most sensitive details here, though. It’s Council rules.” 

The most top-secret information could only be shared in-person from a location confirmed to be un-Scryable from Malzareth. 

“If anything like that comes up, I’ll tell you when we meet in person,” she promised, which suited Zane fine. Then, more brightly—“Sage Noughtfire’s much less prickly than I thought he’d be—I’d say he’s actually pretty personable. I’m… really not sure I expected that.” 

Noughtfire had never seemed a prickly person to Zane, minus a brief stint in the Pure Yang. In general he got the feeling Noughtfire was quite prickly or aloof, unless he liked you. Then he was quite chill to be around. 

Which boded well for what the old fellow thought of Reina. It was nice to see. Zane hadn’t thought about it all that much, but it made sense in his head that they’d get along, weirdly. He supposed it would’ve been kind of awkward if they hadn’t. 

In any case—if Reina and Noughtfire were the ones teaming up to figure out Malzareth’s secret plans, on principle Zane had to assume that big snake was screwed.

He’d wait and see, though. 

That seemed to be the extent of Reina’s world updates. She did have one final present. 

“Turn this letter over once you’re done,” she told him, a playful grin on her face. “I’ll write again in a few months, okay?” 

The vision winked out. 

When he did turn the letter over, he found a silver treasure token on the back. It was quite the pleasant surprise. 

Bundle of 20 Transferrable Credits (Promissory Note) 

A promissory note for 20 Transferrable Credits, to be redeemed by the wielder. This promissory note will instantly draw Credits from the vaults of the Ventor Corporation. This promissory note is currently valid.

Underneath there was a note from Reina, explaining that this would make up 20 of the 70 Credits Elias had promised to pay up after the War began—Credits stemming from the broadcasting rights he’d signed all those years ago to air the Haxorax fight. 

Zane hadn’t thought about it in ages. It kind of felt like free treasure falling out of the air as a result, which he’d certainly take. Redeeming it— 

+20 Credits!

Brought his total Credits, once he pulled it up, to— 

141 Store Credits 

Still a far cry from 200 Credits he’d need for that 100-Million-Year Bone, which was one of the first big dominos in the power-avalanche Zane was trying to set up here… though if Elias did come through with the other 50 Credits he owed, and in relatively quick fashion, that’d put him at a cool 191. Close enough to touch. 

Actually—Zane wasn’t sure how easy it’d be for Elias to scrounge up 50 Credits all that fast, now that he thought about it. You’d have to kill some pretty hefty Monsters to manage that conventionally. 

He wasn’t too clear on just what Elias’s businesses were like nowadays—he hadn’t checked in on the guy in ages; he only heard about him every now and again, whenever Reina reminded Zane she had him under her boot. 

In any case. Whether Elias turned in the rest of that debt fast or not, Zane had to imagine he’d be in pretty strong position. 

The last things she’d included was some film of recent top-level fights he’d requested a while back out of idle curiosity. With that, he pocketed the letter. 

The very next morning, he got back to work. 

*** 

Weeks passed, then months… 

“Hold it, lad—hold it! That’s it!” Zane grunted, teeth gritted, and did just that, even as he trembled with the sheer exertion.

He found himself gripping the deadlift platform, with the bulk of his body suspended over the black hole. Two cuffs hung on his ankles, which were chained to giant boulders dangling a few hundred miles below. 

It wasn’t a grip strength exercise, at least not primarily. His body was in a full dragon flag, quite a useful exercise even before the System came along. Now that he could weight it with black-hole-pulled boulders, it’d quickly proven to be one of his favorite core exercises. 

Holding it until failure like this was quite strenuous, especially with these kinds of weights, which was exactly why he enjoyed it. He wasn’t just training his force output with all these exercises—the durability of his muscles increased a great deal too. 

Which was to say, he was building abs of Origin-grade steel. 

He collapsed in a pool of his own sweat—his body was still dripping, even as he heaved in deep breaths. The Sage clicked a token, and in the distance the stopwatch ceased. 

“8 minutes, 33 seconds—that’s what I’m talking about!” laughed the Sage. 

Zane drank some Spirit Water the Sage gave him and picked himself back up. 

A few minutes later, he got chained up and threw himself right back into it. 

*** 

Six months in, and his fists on the Wrecking Bag were starting to look like proper craters.