Chapter 61 - It Was Time For Stibbs To Pay Up

As elated as Eric was to see so many of his combat skills improving, thanks to high level kills, a high Finesse score, and his Maximum potency to skill rank conversion factor, it still didn’t change the troubling revelation that his True Shot archery perk had a significant flaw. It seemed that some powerful creatures, like the Arachnid boss monster that had come so close to killing Alice, were able to resist. At least partially.

Which was a damn shame, because the whole point of a perk like that, that allowed for absolute pinpoint accuracy even if only a few times in a fight, was to save it to take out the greatest threat, then count on basic skills, stats, and training to handle the rest. It now seemed that analysis was flawed, and even if his True Shot perk had kept him from actually hitting Alice, it had been the sheer absurd power behind the arrow, not the skill perk, that had let him take out the threat.

He gave a rueful chuckle, realizing it changed nothing for him. He’d continue to train hard and master his skill as best he could, counting on his own marksmanship and sense of timing to line up kill shots as best he could. And if True Shot allowed him to achieve oneness with his prey, then so much the better. But it wasn’t something he could count on. Not 100%.

Not that he was shedding any tears. He had definitely come out a winner after that final encounter.

After a final satisfied glance at his sheet, practically beaming ear to ear at his glorious stat boost, he turned his gaze back to his friends, noting Louie, in particular, staring at him with a curious frown.

“Okay, I get the leveling up part. Hell, I’m feeling so juiced that I just hit level 13! But that’s because of all the bastards we took out. How the hell does this title thing work? And can we all get these titles?”

Morlekai shrugged. “My master instructed me on what little he knew about adventurers who actually managed to earn titles while I was working on breaking you all out of those conscription cells. The working theory is that just as monster-slaying grants us experience towards levels, Earning titles saturates us with a different tier of potency, perhaps tied directly to Earth, or the intergalactic System that’s infected our planet. Either way, it seems to be a path to power that exists outside of leveling.”

Drake whistled. "So, there's more than one way to power up our builds? Sweet!"

Louie furrowed his brow. “How hard is it for others to duplicate those feats? Can they also earn these titles?”

“My master was interested in that very topic, as another way to accrue power outside of our own Necromancy Professions and, of course, leveling up our Conscript combat classes that almost all of us who survived the pods were forced to accept.” Morlekai sighed and shook his head. “Unfortunately, no one has successfully earned a perfect copy of any title already won, even when they had a detailed account of exactly how it occurred. At best, they earned Lesser versions of the title. Of course, that was months ago. New information might have come to light since then.”

Louie’s scowl grew. “That could end up really bad for the rest of us, Morlekai. I mean, it's one thing if it's a one-time freak occurrence like boy scout here, who saved my girl's life yet again, and I'm never going to be able to repay this motherfucker at this rate. But, on the other hand, if there are just a few power-leveling champions, and they end up grabbing all the titles...”

“And they will. Count on it.” Alice shook her head and cursed, lighting up a fresh smoke despite her earlier admonition. “Because as any student of history or finance knows, power and wealth beget more power and wealth. Always. Once a handful of bad-boys start powering up, they’ll find it easier and easier to claim an increasing number of titles and accolades, because they already have such a huge lead over the rest of us." She turned her glare Eric's way. "Which means the rest of us better be spreading those cheeks wide and reaching for that Vaseline, because the entire world’s about to get fucked in the ass.”

Eric blinked at her expression, raising his now empty hands. “Hey, what gives? I’m on your side!”

She froze at his words, angry glare instantly fading to a poignant mixture of exhaustion and grief. And Eric could sense how shaken she truly was as she slumped beside her man, hands shaking in tight little fists, cigarette crushed and flicked among the arachnid corpses without a second thought.

“I know, Eric. It’s just… We all came so close to dying. We’re in so far over our fucking heads, it’s a miracle we’re even alive. You know that, right, boy scout?” Her words were almost a plea as their earlier euphoria was replaced by a grim sense of their own mortality, how fragile their lives truly were.

Eric was forced to nod his head in acknowledgment, remembering all too well the frantic pace of battle that left no time for anything except the adrenaline high of fighting for his life, and the sheer exhilaration of mastering Burst of Strength so well that he could supercharge his swing for the split-second needed to power through even a level 20 arachnid's seemingly indestructible shells. Alternating it with his weapon feats, sometimes using it in tandem, a perilous dance between revelation and mastery of the battlefield, and exhaustion, both physical and mental, as they all skirted certain doom.

Yet still, despite their best efforts, despite shining like never before, they had been ambushed and overwhelmed. Eric was increasingly certain that the now past-tense spider queen he had just put in storage had somehow been cloaking countless high level hunters so well that not even his infravision and high Perception made them out until it was almost too late. Hunters that had effectively cleared miles of this central passageway, a massive tunnel normally full of savage roaming lizards and stranger creatures still, from the tales his friends occasionally told over dinner. Yet they had encountered absolutely nothing before the ambush. And that alone should have been all the clue they needed that they were, as Alice had put it, in way over their heads.

“I know all too well how close we came to kicking the bucket,” Eric said as he raised his head, pinning Alice’s haunted gaze with his own. “And I know for a fact that if it hadn’t been for Morlekai and his massive flood of blood-crows distracting so many of them and slipping into every crack and crevice we managed to tear into those carapaces, we would have been in a really tight spot. But most of all, if it hadn’t been for your lightning… your magnificent storm that tore through them all like a tidal wave… we’d all be dead.”

He flashed a genuine smile of admiration. “Honest to god, Alice, you absolutely kicked ass. You were glowing like a goddess of the storm as the spiders kept trying to overwhelm you. And there was Drake and Louie working in perfect tandem to keep them at bay while your lightning sizzled those motherfuckers to oblivion, while I’m dancing around like a fool, just trying to stay on my feet and stay alive.”

Eric dipped his head in profound respect. “And I took out barely a handful. And if they hadn’t been so distracted by you, I’d be long dead myself. You know it, and I know it as well.”

He strode over and gently clasped her trembling hand. “And if I ever gave you the impression that I had anything less than absolute respect for you as an adventurer, a warrior, and an absolutely devastating kickass battlemage who could probably slaughter entire armies with your lightning life-force drain combo attack… you have my sincere and heartfelt apologies.”

Eric bowed his head once more, and when he raised his eyes to meet her own, melancholy despair had been replaced by a cheeky smile.

"Well, as long as you know your place, Eric, I guess were cool."

She darted in for a kiss, soft lips locking with his own, leaving him breathless and dizzy with the taste of her sweet and smoky breath before she flounced away with a sultry chuckle, a dazed Eric just grateful that Louie had settled on an expression of tolerant bemusement as opposed to hotblooded ire, saying only, "Welcome to the crew, kid."

Before turning to Morlekai, who was now before a very visible gate shimmering like liquid obsidian, glaring at them all. “I’m afraid we have a problem.”

Drake winced. “Jeez, I hate it when you say things like that, boss.”

Alice gazed at her brother for long moments, and no one said a word as she lit up a fresh cigarette and took a deep drag. “What’s the fucking problem, bro?”

Morlekai flashed a bitter smile. “Touch the gate and see for yourself.”

Alice swallowed, bemused smirk turning to a look of anxious dread as she forced herself to step forward, like a girl going to her own execution.

“Babe, you don’t have to...”

“Shut up, Louie.”

Slowly, Alice approached, glaring at her brother as she took a trembling breath and raised her fingers to caress the shimmering gate.

Before Morlekai's lightning-fast hand caught her wrist. “Sense it. But for fuck’s sake, don’t accept or try to jump through.”

His sister flashed a relieved smile. “I know that,” she softly said, though it was several seconds before she actually had the courage to touch the gate.

She blanched and shuddered, eyes going wide with fear.

“Babe!” Louie blocked, darting forward with Quickness now definitely above 14, catching her in his powerful grip. "Easy, love. You're safe. I got you."

Her lover’s words eased her pallor, but did nothing to stop the crimson tears running down her porcelain cheeks. “Don’t you get it, Louie? We’ll never be safe. This world’s become hell, and only the strongest demons will make it.”

“Bullshit,” Morlekai snapped. “We’re going to make it, Alice. One way or another.”

This earned a brittle laugh. “How, Morlekai? How? We’ve been fucked over every which way till Sunday! Mayor Stibbs refuses to give us the codes to the black book vault until we stabilize his fucking sanctuary, never mind that we already saved everyone’s asses from an undead invasion!”

She pointed a trembling finger at the shimmering gate. “But to do that, we have to close that rift! And to do that… fuck, Morlekai! Even the System’s telling us it’s a bad idea!”

Drake frowned at that. “The System?”

Alice shook her head. “There’s a message blaring in our interface stating that a White Tier dungeon portal has been detected. And the combined levels to take it out… do you want to guess what those fucking levels are?”

Drake sighed. “Higher than ours?”

Alice chuckled bitterly. “It recommends a total of 55 Advanced Class levels, or 75 Standard Class levels or, get this absolutely special bullshit, 125 Basic Conscript class levels! Which shows you just how fucking cheap-ass awful our goddamned Conscript class is! Even the System is admitting we were totally screwed over!"

Louie just shook his head in disbelief. “I just hit level 13. My Vitality is 20. My Quickness and Finesse are 17, and my strength is 25. I never felt so strong and powerful in all my life. And with that single sentence… I feel like a noob stuck in the beginner zone while all the ‘leet PvPers are laughing their asses off at my pathetic self for not reading the elite manuals we'll never be allowed access to.”

Drake just slumped to the ground, too despondent to do anything more than shake his head.

Morlekai flashed a bitter smile. “It does feel like the fates are laughing at us right now, doesn’t it?” Hawk-like eyes peered at his men. “Alright. I can tell you all boosted the crap out of your Strength. And considering how hard it was to crack through those carapaces, I don’t blame you. But we sure as hell need to eat and rest, or you’ll be absolutely ravenous with hunger. I don’t know if you’ll need as much fuel as you did when boosting your biological Strength up to twenty, but we’d be fools to bet otherwise, when we have the food we need on hand.” He turned to Eric. “Pull out the pasta. We’re eating our fill, just as soon as I put up a bloodward.”

And within minutes, they were all drowning their sorrows in plenty of good food and maybe more ale than was good for them. But clearly Morlekai had more than enough energy to spare for his shimmering ward, letting it be known that he had reached 15th level himself.

"And I just blossomed to sixteenth, processing all those spider kills," Alice said with a sad little smile. "I've never felt more powerful… or that I'm somehow doing everything wrong."

“Bullshit,” Morlekai said. “One way or another, our master is getting ahold of that library. We’ll also have access to a clean pod, along with whatever research our clans were able to put together over the months we were away. With how far we’ve already grown, we’ll have access to exceptional classes, or at least know the steps we have to take to get there. I have no doubt of that, Alice, and neither should you.”

Alice flashed a bitter smile. “But wouldn’t it be truly fucked up if, in order to get a good Elementalist class, I need a fast arcane regeneration, not just a fucking ridiculously high mana pool? And without both, I’m basically a trash tier wanna-be mage forever? A setup that works perfectly for high mana regen elves, and utterly fucks over bloodmage hybrids like you and me."

Her brother pointedly looked at all the electrocuted corpses. “Trash tier my ass. You’re fucking epic, and you know it.”

Alice rolled her eyes, but she didn’t look displeased by the compliment. "I know. Let's just hope the stupid Freetown pod agrees with you."

Alice flashed Eric a gentle smile. “What level are you, now, Eric? Pretty damned powerful, I’m guessing, after the killshot on the queen, which my lightning couldn’t take out. So I went from badass bitch to utterly drained helpless damsel with a single overcharged blast.”

Eric smirked. “Level 9. I’ve chosen the core infusion route. Didn’t I already mention that? Anyway, I’m at 60.1% so far.”

This earned a number of stares.

“Seriously?” Louie asked.

Eric blinked. “Um… yeah. Why?”

The man turned to Morlekai. “I thought Master Grim said only elite clans even expected their scions to hit the 30% saturation mark, and not any time soon?”

Morlekai shrugged. “A lot could have changed in the last few months, Louie. Maybe it’s more doable than we thought. Maybe it doesn’t get increasingly difficult the closer you get to full, or, hell, maybe Eric’s just popping bonuses left and right, doing what he does best.”

Alice smirked at that. “Probably. This is Eric Lightning Archer, the boss-killing ass-saving hero, after all.”

Eric grinned. “Most definitely at your service, any time my favorite succubus needs her cute ass saved.”

She chuckled throatily at that while Eric frowned at his ale. He was definitely getting cheeky with an already-spoken for girl, though Louie, thankfully, just looked amused, shaking his head while helping himself to another heaping plateful of pasta.

“This ale spiked with anything?”

Alice's eyes widened, before she flashed a wicked grin. "Oh shit, that's our homebrew. You should probably share one with Sue. You won't stay broken up for very long, I can promise you that. Good thing you got a twenty Vitality, Eric.”

“Twenty-two, but what’s a point or two between friends?” he said, carefully putting the rest of his drink away and filling up on a jug of ice-cold water, though not slowing down his devouring of pasta at all. “And if you spiked the pasta too… fuck it. I still need the protein.”

But even with the protection of the blood ward and a now absurdly high Perception that made it clear that there was absolutely nothing worth worrying about, Eric kept his focus on the shimmering obsidian gate, before finally rising to his feet and approaching it.

"Eric?" Morlekai's voice was an odd mixture of command and concern.

“I’m not going to jump. I’m not a complete idiot. I just… Fuck it. I don’t know what I’m going to do.” He took a deep breath, allowing his fingers to gently touch the portal, an interface message instantly flashing across his mind’s eye.

You have successfully located Greater Cave Spider Incursion Gate!

Quest Chain progression requires closing this gate to earn Mayorial Reward: Keys to A Golden Opportunity!

Warning! You have less than the recommended levels for this mission! Recommended levels = 55 Advance Tier, 75 Standard Tier, or 125 Basic Tier class levels! - Your party currently contains: 66 Basic Tier levels (Plus Uncategorized ranks in Non System-Standard Terran Potency Paths!)

Do you wish to enter Greater Cave Spider Nursery? Y/N

You have chosen NO!

Eric gazed at the shimmering gate that almost seemed to be mocking him for long minutes, his mind going around and around in circles.

The keys to a fortune in gold was finally in their reach. But only if they could close a gate leading to a dungeon that would probably kill them. The final stumbling block in a quest chain that had included bringing aid to the community and lots of additional work by Morlekai and the rest of the crew over the weeks Eric had spent constantly training, in addition to rescuing the entire town from an incursion of the undead

Eric couldn’t help but shake his head in bitter frustration, feeling just like he had countless times before, when what seemed to be mild stumbling blocks nonetheless stopped him cold from doing anything but what those with power over his life wanted him to do. He knew it was subtle. It always was. Even at 17, however, he had been savvy enough to appreciate the incredible power those in charge of hiring and production had over everyone else's lives.

The way the world seemed to be set up was really just an extension of how it had always been. King and serf. Master and servant. Those who had power, and those who didn’t. One thing they all seemed to have in common, at least in this day and age, was that those actually in power loved to design complex systems that implied a degree of meritocracy, at least for a fortunate few. But for most, it was about knowing the right levers to pull and paths to take. Information that you’d never receive, if you weren’t already one of the chosen few.

Eric chuckled bitterly. If there was one thing his mother and the books that made up his childhood curriculum had taught him, it was that society was always stratified by those who had power and those who didn’t. The stablest societies merely gave the illusion of upward mobility, with just enough cracks for the unanointed to fall through, and the truly gifted to rise, such that everyone could pretend their society was perfectly just and fair.

And Eric seriously doubted it was any different with this new world order. The System might be better at hiding it, with the undeniable sweet boon of being able to level up already making his life much more than it could ever have been otherwise. But all he needed to see was a single clue pointing to the differences between Basic, Standard, and Advanced classes to see how utterly shafted they already were, compared to whoever the true elites of this world might be.

It was a hint he had first borne witness to, when his own Interface gave him a surprisingly powerful class option, should he willingly give up his more unorthodox talents. It had been easy to refuse in the heat of the moment. But now their whole crew was forced to viscerally appreciate like never before just how significantly the odds were already being stacked against them.

And the bottom line was the same. Just like game developers working 16-hour shifts to make a soulless corporation a billion-dollar product… before half the staff was fired and replaced with interns whose only jobs would be basic patches and customer service, the quest chain they had blazed through, to Mayor Stibbs’ enormous benefit, had successfully stonewalled them at the end.

They had risked their health, their very lives, for nothing that would benefit them.

They had all busted their asses, and ultimately there would be no payout.

Not for them.

Not until high-powered assholes full of titles, probably with a dozen hidden connections to the major power brokers of this world, deigned to clear this dungeon and earn the keys to a gold fortune, in addition to everything else coming to them.

Eric found himself chuckling bitterly. Because of course it was this way, with them all stuck as basic classers, and none of them even taught the starting rules of this brave new world, let alone how to get ahead.

Eric shook his head, filled with a sudden profound sense of outrage that instantly spiked into white-hot fury.

Just how hard had they fought, how far had they pushed themselves, how much had they already accomplished, just to be fucked over by quests they had no chance of completing?

Eric caught Morlekai’s gaze, sharing a look so profound it was almost as if they could read each other's mind.

“There’s another way. Isn’t there, Morlekai?”

Morlekai dipped his head. “Of course there is. But then you’ll be no different from us, Eric. You sure you want to walk that path?”

And the sudden cessation of the good-natured ribbing enjoyed moments before, all four of them gazing at Eric with their hard, intent smiles, made it clear that they were all on the same page on this.

They had given it their all, in good faith.

They had stopped a flood of undead, destroyed a zombie titan, even made an eternal enemy of a lich, for the sake of that town.

They had even stopped a certain band of treacherous worms from revealing their location to orc scouts, which was the only reason why the town wasn’t overwhelmed with orc invaders at that very moment. And they certainly had never gotten any credit for that.

They had, in many ways, already gone way beyond the call of duty.

Active quest or no, it was time for Stibbs to pay up.