Chapter 82 - Justice

Blake crouched silently on his branch. Only an hour remained before first light when he unexpectedly received a message from his mother.

Donna Summers: Blake, please call me asap!

That can’t be good.

Blake had been about to assassinate his next target, but paused in his attempt. Instead, he activated his newly evolved Adjustable Dampen Sound and called his mother through holochat. As he did so, he kept one eye on the Lupus, forty feet below.

Donna appeared before him, distraught.

She was seated behind her desk in her office on the second floor of the faction hall. Both elbows were planted on the polished wood, and half her face was hidden behind her hands. Immediately after she accepted the call, she placed her hands flat on the table and let out a deep breath to calm herself.

Blake was alarmed at her condition, as it had been a while since he had seen her that upset. “What’s wrong?” He pressed. “Is everyone okay?”

“No, everyone’s not okay,” she stated in a steady voice.

A spike of dread rose from his gut, and his heart rate soared as he blurted. “Is it dad? Oliver?”

She shook her head. “No, your father and brother are fine.”

He let out a sigh of relief. “You should have led with that,” he chastised her.

“Sorry,” she winced. “But this is bad,”

Blake grunted in frustration. “Then tell me what the hell is going on!”

His mother gave him a stern look, but chose to ignore his rudeness. “Jeff’s group had an accident, and Dahteste died.”

Oh.

“Is everyone else okay?” he asked in concern.

“Yes.”

Relieved his friends were okay, he said softly. “I know this sucks, Mom, but it was bound to happen sooner or later. The scenarios are dangerous, and a lot more people are going to eventually die. Remember, we’re preparing for the Apocalypse.”

Donna rolled her eyes. “I know that, and if her death was the only problem, I would have just let you know when you got back.” She took another calming breath and said, “I had to lock Rajesh up in the jail downstairs for everyone’s protection.”

“Wait, what?! I thought you said it was an accident!” Blake tensed when he realized that he had shouted the last response, and immediately released a Mind Sense. “One second,” he whispered.

While he still continued to channel Adjustable Dampen Sound, it did not block one hundred percent of the noise within its field. He would need an advanced spell for that, Sonic Void. 

A moment later, he let out a sigh of relief. The Lupus that searched below remained blissfully unaware of his presence. 

After he confirmed he was still hidden, Blake turned to his mother and asked in a quieter voice, “What did Rajesh do?”

“According to Montgomery, he disobeyed Jeff’s orders and got Dahteste killed. They’re both pretty pissed at him and kicked him out of the group, but Kuruk is the real problem. He’s out for blood.”

“I can imagine,” Blake nodded, and wondered if Montgomery’s perception of the event was accurate. “If Kuruk blames him for his sister’s death, he’s going to want Rajesh to suffer, and there’s no way he can take him in a fight. Not with all his attributes maxed.”

“That’s why I had Montgomery and Jeff escort him to the jail cell. I needed to make sure things didn’t get out of hand.”

“That was a good idea,” He praised his mother’s quick thinking. “Now I just need to figure out how to fix this. Montgomery can be a bit, ‘excitable.’ Did his story make sense? I’m not saying it isn't Rajesh’s fault, but before Kuruk does something rash, we need to know the whole story.”

“Jeff made it seem pretty clear-cut, but that’s another reason I jailed Rajesh. I needed everyone to cool off, so more details can surface.”

Blake agreed. “Save me the details till I get back, I’m in kinda a tight spot right now, but I’m almost finished with the scenario.”

Montgomery and Jeff won’t team up with him now, and I doubt any others will want him, either. They’re either friends of Kuruk’s or related. No, it’s best if I get him out of town. The Payson expansion has a bunkhouse now. He can live there and kill Arachne by himself until we recruit another fighter.

“How long until you’re back?” His mother asked, interrupting his thoughts. “I think having a meeting with everyone involved is prudent.”

“The portal should be open in about an hour. After that, I figure I’ll need another thirty minutes to get the non-combat classes situated and wait for my reward, and then another forty to drive home.”

“Okay, I’ll let everyone know it’s going to be a while.” She then added, “Be safe.”

Blake disconnected from the holocall and sighed. He had been afraid something like this would happen, and did not look forward to calming everyone down. 

In his past life, people died in similar circumstances all the time. Once that happened, the combat team would be split, obviously, but it was not really a big deal. Others would gladly invite in the ostracized members, or they would form a new team on their own. 

Death was commonplace.

At the moment, however, people were used to civilized society. One where death was rare, and freedom was abundant. However, after Invasion day, that was going to change.

Blake hoped that Earth would one day return to its current shape, but he doubted it. Even if humanity thrived and defeated the alien invasion in ten years, the power dynamic would be forever changed. 

In his past, the high level combat classes were like gods compared to those who chose not to fight. Non-combatants would not be able to band together to overthrow a high level tyrant. The best they could hope for was to escape to another faction.

Poor Dahteste, I hope she didn’t suffer. 

Blake shook off his gloomy thoughts, and focused on the here and now. First, he contacted the relevant non-combat classers and informed them when to show up to collect the resources. 

Then, he used Mind Sense to locate the lone Lupus, stealthily approached it, and expanded the size of his Adjustable Dampen Sound spell. He teleported forward, executed the beast, and then shrank his aether spell to a size that used far less energy to maintain.

I might as well get as many kills as I can in the next hour.

Over the next hour, he was glad for the distraction and was able to kill an additional eight Lupus. In the end, he eliminated fifty-two total over the thirteen-hour scenario. Those kills netted him a massive three hundred and eight million nano. He could have killed more, but he was severely limited by his aether’s regeneration rate. Of course, ten percent of that largess went straight to the town treasury, but it was still a great haul.

When the portal finally opened, Blake waited beside it to greet his faction members. Eight separate people entered, and Blake greeted each of them somberly.

After he was done and before he selected his reward, he broke from the main group, cornered Owen, and asked, “How bad are things?”

The skinny man shook his head. “Most of the natives are pretty pissed. And, I don’t blame them. No one really likes Rajesh, and it doesn’t help that he refuses to apologize.”

That sounds just like Rajesh. Why apologize if you think you did nothing wrong?

Blake ran a hand through his long hair and sighed. He then turned to address the crowd. “You guys can start mining and chopping now. The forest is safe.” 

Owen frowned. “I thought you said there were hundreds of monsters here. You killed all of them?”
 Blake shook his head. “No, but when I survived the night, the Collective forced all the Lupus out of the boundary.”

“You sure about that?” the stonemason asked.

“Certain,” Blake assured the young man.

A timid native in his upper teens walked up to him. “Uh, Lord Summers?”

“Just call me Blake,” he corrected the thin man.

“Sorry,” he apologized.

“Don’t worry about it. It’s fine,” Blake assured him.

The man nodded and asked, “What about me? How do I find the dead monsters?”

Blake used Analyze on the young man to identify him. His faction had a lot of new members, and he had yet to learn all their names. According to his skill, Elan was their new leather worker.

“Just stay here, Elan. I’ll drag the corpses back to the portal for you.”

“Thanks,” the kid beamed. “These are super high level and are gonna boost my skills a lot!”

Blake opened his map to locate the closest marker. Each kill was automatically denoted for him, and he mentally chose a path that would save him the most time. In his estimation, he could retrieve three bodies at a time, and with judicious use of Alacrity, would be done in a little under half an hour. 

However, before he did so, he wanted to select his reward at the portal entrance for convenience. That way, he would not have to travel to retrieve the assembled item. 

Blake opened the interface, selected yes to the open query, and was presented with four choices. After he quickly browsed the list, his brows rose in surprise.

Every single option was an upgrade.

The Collective offered him a choice between a short ax, a pair of steel pauldrons, a quiver, or a set of ten Physical Stamina potions. The ax would be a fine weapon. It was capable of channeling chi through its head to enhance its strikes, and its edge would never dull. The pair of steel pauldrons were nano-enhanced to provide far greater protection compared to their mundane counterparts, and at the same time enchanted to weigh less. 

That’s odd.

The quiver was unique. It held forty arrows, and slowly siphoned his mana away to regenerate new ammo. Each arrow it created was also capable of storing chi to enhance its piercing power. Blake had seen each enchantment before, but never together. 

There would be no point to crafting this combination, as almost no one could utilize both chi and mana at the same time. Sure, there were dual classers, but Blake had never seen someone choose mana to compliment chi. Psi was the obvious choice, as it had no cast time, and could be used to stun or disorient their opponents.

At the same time, mana and aether fit well together. A skilled user could channel an aether spell while they simultaneously completed the spell forms required to cast a mana-based ability. Blake was sure there might have been a few people who could use this quiver in his past life, but he had never met them.

Whatever.

Blake rarely used a bow in combat, he preferred to fight in melee range to disrupt his enemy’s spells. His abilities were even chosen with close combat in mind, and complimented his style well.

He moved on to read the description of the ten Physical Stamina potions offered. These were much higher quality than Oliver’s current products. They would boost his Physical Stamina by five, and lasted a full four hours. Eventually, his brother would be able to replicate these vials, but it would be months before he got there.

Tempting, but I can wait.

The potions would boost his healing by around fifteen percent compared to Oliver’s. However, that reduction in healing time rarely made a difference. He even considered handing them out to his faction in case of emergencies, but nano-enhanced jewelry could perform the same function while not having finite uses.

Blake also discarded the pauldrons as an option. While they would provide him greater protection, they were bulky and would impede his maneuverability in combat. The one-handed ax was a great weapon, and provided superior damage compared to his spear, but its short range limited its usefulness.

You know, I do have that level three bow in the armory. 

One of the biggest reasons he rarely used a bow in his past life was the prohibitive cost of ammo. Each arrow had to be painstakingly carved and enchanted to hold chi, or they would never pierce through his enemy’s natural armor. After a battle, Blake was lucky if he could recover even ten percent of the expensive consumable. 

If, however, he had an unlimited supply of ammo, he could snipe his enemies from afar until he ran out of arrows, then switch to his spear. He could even use his Dampen Sound spell to muffle the snap of the string when he fired it. The more he thought of the possibilities, the more he wanted it.

I choose the quiver.

After he made his selection, he rubbed his hands together excitedly. It would take around forty-five minutes for the nanomachines to assemble, but it would be well worth the wait.

Okay, now I need to bring back the corpses.

To his surprise, it took him only twenty minutes to retrieve his kills.

I’m a lot faster than I thought.

As he waited the additional twenty-five minutes, he chatted with Elan, the leather worker, while the man worked. The young native was upset with Dahteste’s death, but did not really know her that well. 

From the rest of the conversation, he found out that Elan’s skinning ability overlapped with his father’s. Not only could he send back the raw hide to their warehouse, but the meat was sent directly to the cookhouse freezer as well.

Eventually, the quiver was assembled, and he said his goodbyes. When he exited the portal back to Snowflake, he was thrown back into the water-filled gravel pit. However, he did not mind, he was eager to wash the mud, sweat, and blood away. When he finally felt clean, he drove his modified diesel truck home in the dark, and parked it in the field beside the front gate. 

To his surprise, the area beside the entrance was still filled with vehicles. Normally, when he arrived home late, everyone else had already left. Only those that lived in the faction city with him remained.

I guess they want to find out what we’re going to do with Rajesh before they go home.

Blake hoped his decision would not create too many problems. People willing to throw themselves into combat were rare. Even rarer was someone as skilled as Rajesh would eventually become. 

However, if the majority of the natives threatened to quit if Rajesh remained within the faction, he did not know what he would do. He needed their assistance in building the faction, and could not openly recruit until after Invasion day, over a month away.

As he approached the faction hall, he saw a crowd of people waiting beneath its covered front entrance. They leaned against the massive marble pillars and chatted quietly amongst themselves while they waited for him to arrive. 

In the midst of the gathering, he located Kuruk. The young man had red eyes and talked with an equally saddened woman almost twice his age. From their condition, they had both obviously spent hours in mourning. 

That must be his mom. She must have driven here after she heard about her daughter.

Kuruk must have noticed him out of the corner of his eye, because he suddenly cut himself off mid-conversation and turned to address Blake in a fierce voice. “Good, you’re here. Now you can take care of that murderous piece of shit!”
 “Yeah!” an angry man added. “Cut the bastard’s head off!”

“Justice for Dahteste!”

Before he knew it, the crowd began to chant the phrase.

Well, shit.