The Bargainer 4

Commissioned by Kejmur

The Bargainer

Chapter 4

-VB-

At the end of the negotiations, I agreed to join Cauldron. It was a tit for tat kind of exchange.

Cauldron agreed to provide me with women who were willing to offer their service and bodies for power upgrades. I, in turn, would also use my tantric empowerment for individuals of their choice that didn’t want life-long relationships.

I would go to another world that was not part of parahuman networked Earths and set up a nation of sorts for refugees. There was no chance that a non-established organization could take in refugees numbering in hundreds of thousands, if not millions. To be able to accept that many refugees in the eventual apocalypse to come, Cauldron needed a dedicated organization or a nation capable of hosting them, if only for a short while.

Thus the Project Ark was born.

(I know, the name sucks. It’s not original at all, but Doctor Mother insisted on it.)

It was up to me to decide which world was best suited to accept millions of refugees should Earth Bet and its sisters become inhospitable.

Yeah, it wasn’t the kind of thing I expected to be doing after realizing I was in Worm. I expected to go fight villains, rescue some girls, and have a good time.

Not plot to make a kingdom whose sole purpose would be to support an inevitable refugee crisis. Jesus.

At least, Cauldron was nice enough to get me an office in their headquarters.

Knock knock.

I looked up in surprise. I stared for a moment, blankly, at the white metal door in my grey walled office. ‘Since this was going to be my office, I really need to put up some decorations up around here,’ I thought to myself before answering. “Come in.”

The door opened, and my eyes widened in surprise when a woman in black costume and cape walked in, one whose costume bore the tower of Alexandria.

“How can I help you, Alexandria?” I asked politely as I pushed aside the dossier of worlds I made. I needed to visit those worlds and do more research in depth, but I knew that I was limited on time.

“Doctor Mother directed me to you after telling me that you were capable of altering or bolstering my power and that you are also in charge of setting up a backup world for possible end of Earth Bet as a habitable world.”

Ah, I see. Doctor Mother wanted Alexandria, the only reliable Brute among Cauldron, to be less vulnerable and to have Alexandria, the second best Thinker in our group, to help me with the planning.

“Did she tell you how I could go about granting you that power boost…?” I asked.

“Yes,” she replied firmly.

“Would you like to do that first or do the planning first?”

“Planning.”

Very curt today, huh.

“Very well. Here’s a list of planets I have visited, though all of the ones that I am considering are marked in blue,” I replied as I gestured for her to sit across from me and pushed a small stack of papers to her.

With Alexandria’s help, we went through a total of fifty worlds and reduced our options to three: Planetos, “Merlin’s” Earth, and the Earth of “Avatar: the Last Airbender.” All three worlds were free of world-shattering threats, and what threats that did exist could be met in force by parahumans or conventional military.

“Planetos is humanity’s best bet,” Alexandria said coolly. “It has a large population that can be put to work as quickly as possible.”

“It has an uneven and unpredictable climate cycle,” I countered. I too thought that Planetos was for the best because Merlin’s Earth possessed magic that was too varied and the world was in a state of chaos with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and Avatar’s Earth was also in a state of world war but also had spirits that may or may not be affected by parahuman powers, thus leaving humans from Earth Bet vulnerable as much as, if not more, than the locals.

Planetos had magic, but it cost its users heavily and weren’t reliable. In that regard, Planetos was easier to manage. Also, there was a lot of land that weren’t in use, even if they were claimed.

“My job is to have a land ready, then,” I hummed.

“Yes.”

“Alright. Planetos, it is. Now, about your upgrade…”

“How does it happen?”

I paused for a bit before answering. “It’s a tantric ritual.”

“...” Her expression didn’t change nor did her body language. However, her pause was a first. “I do not believe I am ready for such an activity.”

“Sure,” I waived it off. “I’ll be working with you guys for a long time anyways, so you don’t have to rush it. Just inform your friends and coworkers for me,though?”

“Once I can get you to perform some power testing, yes.”

And then she stood up and left.

I looked down at the file about Planetos after Alexandria left my office.

“A song of Ice and Fire,” I muttered as I thought about my brief stint on that world. “I should still have some contacts there.”

-VB-

And I did.

Oh, I did.

I may or may not have been instrumental in repelling a dothraki horde from conquering a city, and their offer to me to be their “patron god” was still open.