Chapter 24: Chapter 24

Chapter 24

Tom as always slept fitfully potentially even more so than usual. There was too much happening around him, and he was not tucked into a nice, convenient cave. He woke whenever the interviewing party raised their voice. Bits and pieces of what they were discovering seeped into his consciousness. Jeffrey had died only just before being found. The fact the body was cold was part of whatever had killed him, not a consequence of exposure to the frosty night air. Worse, the culprit was almost certainly a human. The guards’ water cups had been dosed with a sleep poison, as had Jeffrey.

They proved that when they discovered a stain on the corpse’s gums. 

The conclusion was horrific. 

A human had done this. Adrenaline flooded him, waking him up fully.

Why?

It made no sense. 

They were all on the same team. There was no ambiguity in that. Every ranking point counted, and humans could only ever contribute to the human pool. When you killed another human, you came a step closer to guaranteeing that as a species they failed. 

Why?

Was the perpetrator such a psycho that they lacked both friends and family that they cared about?

If so, why would DEUS allow them entry or did she have no choice? Unsurprisingly, this was not a question he had thought to ask when playing twenty questions. 

What did that mean? What were the motivations of the creep? The backstory? A sadistic psychopath serial killer stuck in a trial by him or herself for ten long years and being unable to satisfy the itch to kill? That person was now put amongst humans with magic power… Then the temptation got too much and literally days after coming through they resorted to bad habits. 

Even a psychopath wouldn’t do that, surely. The risk of discovery was too high. It was an explanation, but it did not feel right to Tom but his mind could not find a more reasonable one.

There was a cold-blooded murderer amongst them. 

Awake but deliberately not showing it. Tom considered his options. 

While it might be arrogant, he truly felt the fate of humanity was on his shoulders. Everyone would come through with a plan to get strong, but Tom had come with that and a pathway to getting millions of ranking points. 

If his crazy scheme worked, it would be worth more than everyone else’s attempts. Tom was confident of that.

And with thousands of questions having been applied to increasing the probability of success it was not like it was a pipe dream either.

One fact unfortunately was incontrovertible, if he was dead, his strategy would perish with him. Which meant that the most important thing to do was to guarantee his own safety. He had not suffered the loneliness and pain in the trial to fail because of psychopaths’ twisted desires. 

He needed to ensure his future.

With a thought, he entered the system room. 

There was a single number one on the wall.

A single yes or no question and he would not get another for three days.

What did he want?

He wanted his freedom in order to get ranking points.

He wanted his friends, or at least the ones he knew not to be a killer to survive.

He would like to hunt down and stop the murderer.

He would like to help everyone stuck within the hives deadly embrace to escape to an area they could control their own destiny.

Tom was confident that if they needed to, he could get through the wasps with a small team. All it would take is regularly switching over his elemental to target the new type of insect as they moved between territories. If the insect was immune to all elemental magic types, then they could change direction and avoid it. With Michael and Everlyn supplementing his healing, he would be confident of getting through. It would be nice to save everyone, but it would also have been nice if the GODs didn’t run the stupid competition, unfortunately they did, and all he could do was to deal with the problems as they were presented.

That meant that the question he needed to ask had to be tailored around whether or not he and friends should run.

Within his head, he composed the exact wording and while he was careful with the words, intention mattered the most. It was his internal image that had to be precise. Ultimately, that was what DEUS answered and not the spoken words. Theoretically, practically it was best to eliminate doubt by ensuring the question was phrased perfectly.

“Will I have time and knowledge for myself and my friends to safely flee before the killer or killers target one of us?”

“Yes.”

Tom let loose an explosive breath and then calmed his breathing as the familiar panic head him. That ever-present fear that his question had been mis phrased. He replayed what he said in his head. Ensuring it worked how he wanted it, too.

It was okay. The phrasing had been accurate. He did not need to flee now. The killer would be brought to justice before one of his friends was targeted. Alternatively, Eric would find out who the killer was before the killer moved against them and that would give them time to flee. 

He sighed in relief.

“Thank you DEUS.” He whispered. If he hadn’t invested those contribution points into the oracle function, Tom knew he would have taken their small group and ran and, in doing so, he would almost certainly have been abandoned by the others to likely death. He could just imagine how they would have felt stuck in a small space with a serial killer while the one person who had protected them from the surrounding monsters had disappeared.

Thankfully, his question had bought them a stay of execution.

For now, he would stay and use his talent to shepherd the group out of the deadly insect plains safe, knowing that the people he currently cared about would be protected.

He needed to go back to sleep, but wide awake from that burst of fear he figured he should probably complete his administrative tasks.

“Change in status.” 

Attributes

Vitality: 53 (+ 1 natural vitality)

Skills

Pact Master: 22 (+1) (tier 2)

Other

Ranking Points: 340 (+35)

Position on human ranking ladder: 12

Experience: 7645 (+4512)

Tom assessed the details. The increase in Pact Master did not surprise him at all. That was because of the deal he had made to get the wisp and then its promise to answer his call next time he summoned something from the ice plane.

It was also clear that he had received a title. He had been almost certain of it when he got six natural strength in the twenty-four-hour period, but those extra ranking points confirmed it.

“Display new title.”

Strength Spring (minor): Receive an additional point of strength at every even level

• Awarded for: gaining fifteen percent of your vitality pool in a single day via natural means. 
• Rare Title. Competition Rank: 3rd, 30 Ranking Points, 1000 experience.

Relief flooded him. When he had failed to get nine natural strength, he had been plagued with worry that despite his best efforts that he was going to fail. He had been hoping that a lesser title than the vitality level would be an available for achieving an admittedly less impressive feat.

It seemed the hope hadn’t been misplaced.

He was exhausted, but he delayed a moment to glory in what he had achieved. Every single level, he would receive at least two but potentially four free attribute points from fate’s agility, and then after that these two titles were giving him another one and half points on top of it. Add in an advanced or expert class and he would get almost ten points per level instead of the four everyone else got. That was absolutely maximising what his experience could buy.

Even in the system room, the world was swaying. With another sigh, he returned to the real world and, completely exhausted he fell into a deep sleep despite all the surrounding people. 

He was shaken awake at noon by Everlyn. “What?”

“We’re moving camp and we need our mobile bug repellent.”

“You know I don’t exactly repel bugs.”

“Oh, we need our majestic talisman that stops the wasps from biting all the rest of us.”

“You know they hurt when they bite.”

Everlyn arched an eyebrow. “You know, I know you can just turn the pain off.”

“You know that?”

“Of course I do. It’s like the most interesting bit about you.”

“Hey!”

“Joke.” She linked arms with happily. “From your comment, you’re not switching off the pain. Why?”

“I’m worried about not having sufficient mana.” She did not look impressed by that answer. “And suppressing pain is a crutch that I try to avoid.”

“To macho for your own good?”

Tom shook his head. “As far as I’m concerned the moment I made the top million my life stopped being my own. I won’t risk failing to avoid some pain.”

She pouted. “The worst bit about that speech is that I agree with some of it. But you still need to take time to live.”

He grunted non-committedly.

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“At least when things are not critical.” She suggested hopefully.

“Yeah, I can do that.” The armour was chaffing around the groin area. Instinctively, he scratched and shifted it to make things more comfortable.

“Charming.”

He looked at her in alarm his cheeks heating.

“Such a pretty shade of pink.”

“It was just… that… it was…”

“I’m not judging you,” she assured him. “But you need to promise that you’ll live life when opportunities present themselves.”

Her bright eyes caught his own, imploring him to agree.

“I will,” he vowed.

“And I will too.” She agreed happily. “We only need to get somewhere more civilised. Small steps.” She quipped. The shelter had already been packed up and everyone was gathered. Not getting into his personal space, but getting as close as possible without being rude.

“I’m feeling popular.”

“Don’t get a big head. They look like the crowd lining up before a big sale.”

“You mean they’re going to fight to get to me and then rip me to bits.”

“Yep, you’re a quality microwave on sale for only twenty dollars.”

The throng of people watching them had not responded at all to their ridiculous banter.

“Everlyn can they hear us?”

“Nah my trait is suppressing the sound.”

“Thank god.”

“They already think you’re Useless. I will not make it worse for you.” She beamed at him.

“Not helping.” 

“Liar, I saw you smile.” 

The last of the materials from the shelter packed away and Michael came and stood next to him. “Tom, you’re going to walk in the middle. You’ve created a fair highway to walk down, but as we discovered coming back a few hours ago there’s still going to be roaming wasps, even if we stay in the centre of the cleared area.”

“I know.” Tom answered. Then a thought occurred to him. “Is there anything I need to know about the killer?”

“We haven’t found him.” Everlyn said darkly.

“Or her.” Michael corrected. 

Everlyn shook her head. “You can be politically correct if you want, but we all know it’s a guy.”

“Precise language is important.” Michael lectured. “We need to keep our mind open to all possibilities.” 

Everlyn stopped arguing but clearly disagreed with him.. 

They started walking and someone bumped in to Tom. He cursed and glared at Tiny who had accidentally stepped too long. The big man raised his hand apologetically, so Tom nodded pleasantly and kept walking. He looked at Michael. “Do we have new rules I need to follow?”

“Yep, a minimum of four to a group when leaving the shelters. Guards patrol as opposed to stand watch. There’s a godamn hall monitor who records your time going in and out of the shelter.”

“We’re back at school, hey.” Tom joked.  

“It actually isn’t that bad.” Everlyn told him. “It’s not like that many people should be leaving shelter when you’re out. While some people have purchased trinkets, there hasn’t been enough experience funnelling beyond us the vanguard team for others to act autonomously outside the shelter. And excluding the clothes we’re using to support your efforts we only have like five sets of coverings.”

“I don’t realise it was so painful for the rest of you.”

“If you weren’t making the visible progress you had.” She leaned up to whisper in his ear. “Jeffrey would have been killed at least a day earlier.”

He laughed before swallowing. “Hey, too soon. That was inappropriate.”

“What?” she looked all innocent. “Why did you laugh? You know we’re all thinking it.”

“Still too early.”

“Really, I thought the taboo on joking about him had already passed because once one person’s made the quip anyone can. Plus,” she was abruptly serious. “With the murderer out there, we need to find joy in the small things.”

It was time. “Can you suppress sound?” She nodded. He leant forward to whisper into her ear. “I asked Dux, an oracle question, and we’re safe from the killer.”

Her eyes went wide. “You used one of your questions?”

“I’ll get a new one in another three days. But if a matter of life and death is not the time to use it, then when is?”

There was a thoughtful silence for a moment, and then he saw her eyes go hard. “If you got a different answer, you were going to run away with our group and abandon everyone else weren’t you.”

Tom nodded. He looked over at the crowd surrounding him. They were clustered as close as they could. Relying on his enmity, everyone crowded in on him. They all seemed scared, and one of the people he could see was a murderer. A betrayer of humanity.

“We’ll find them.” Everlyn promised. “Well, now then we can stay. If you hadn’t asked our question, I was going to insist we leave tonight.”

Tom glanced at Michael walking on his other side seemingly oblivious to their potentially inflammatory conversation.  

“He can’t hear us.” Everlyn assured him. “I’m also sure he would have agreed to come.”

“As you say we’ve got time. We’ll find the bastard.” Tom’s head went side to side, but despite searching he could spot no one acting suspiciously. While they were all subdued when he stumbled, multiple hands reached to steady them. 

“If you watch them like this. It’s hard to imagine that one of them is.” She stopped talking. “At least I know you’re too Useless to be the murderer.”

“The joke was funny yesterday.”

“Still funny today.” She poked out her tongue at him.

They had not unlinked hands.

“I need to find a similar nickname for you.”

“Oh, a descriptive name for me as well. I love the idea. What are we going with? Beautiful, gorgeous.”

“Annoying.”

“Funny, amazing, incredible.”

“I’m going with annoying.”

She laughed. “Won’t stick. Plus, don’t you think it is more appropriate? You know a nickname like bewitching.” She frowned. “Not that it doesn’t flow nicely on the tongue. Too long, a little ambiguous. Maybe Hot Ev.”

“Modest?”

“Yeah, that’s a good one, an accurate description of me.”

He pushed her away, laughing. “It is not.”

“What wouldn’t you describe me as hot?” 

“Um.”

“Or Gorgeous.”

The word caught in his throat.

“Or incredible.”

“I would be happy to describe you as that.”

“Say it.”

“You are bewitching, beautiful, and not at all modest.”

“I didn’t hear gorgeous.”

“And gorgeous.” He said hurriedly.

“And you’re not Useless.” she leant forward and kissed him lightly on the cheek.

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