Chapter 8: Chapter 8

He was weak, stronger than Tom but only had a low six rank. Once more, Tom was reminded how Jeffrey had chosen this group and for the first time he was happy the guy was an idiot. Purely by accident, he had actually put a strong team together. Not this instant, but in their collective potential. Providing they could gain a similar amount of experience to the other teams, then they would quickly become the most powerful. With his rank of one, Everlyn’s of four and this latest man being the tenth arrival they were top heavy on contribution point earners. 

“Harry, like potter.” the kid laughed weakly. “I’m a ritualist.”

Sven audibly groaned, and Everlyn frowned in response. Lightning crackled in Tom’s hand and Sven stepped away warily. 

He studied Harry. That was not what he was expecting. And Harry had been the tenth person to arrive as well. Ritualist was also an elite class. He was intimately aware of that. Even as he thought it, he could feel a memory from the DEUS trial stirring.

Tom was standing at the base of a blocky tower. Pinkwing was on his shoulder acting bored and to be honest he couldn’t blame her. Absently, he tossed a piece of jerky up and the dragonling snapped it up with a greedy gulp. With a smile on his face, he scratched her chin while studying the door in front of him.

After over thirty years of this shit, he was glad he had a company to keep him sane. She had come just as the loneliness was overwhelming him and having a baby to look after had beaten those thoughts back. He was so happy to have her. Technically, the find had been random chance, but Tom was wise enough that he would not discount manipulation. If so, he owed DEUS for that help.

Tom laughed hollowly to himself an action he was doing all too often these days. He had been so certain that the consequences for humanity would be enough to guarantee his focus. Years alone had destroyed that arrogance. Not that he would stop trying. The implication for his family, friends, his brother and sister if humans failed in the competition was too much. The misery of this trial would be nothing to what they would suffer.

Luckily, he was no longer alone. He stroked her sleek muzzle, and her tail curled around his neck.

The strange tower was nothing unique, but it was not something he could ignore either. It was part of an overarching quest to find the dragon Torekuic’s treasure. This annoyance was a sub quest to retrieve the eighteen fragments of the Mirror of Illusion Breaking and each of the pieces was in a structure like this. Hundreds of years ago, the fragments had been used in a perverted ritual to hide the location of a blessed blade. Then, to prevent the ritual from being undone the bits had been spread around. Encased in these towers and then guarded by a different master ritualist.

It was a contrived scenario but with contribution points on the line and ultimately the fate of humanity contrived or not Tom still needed to solve it.

The difficulty of the towers varied. It had been ‘nominally’ a long time since the safeguards had been created. The various defences had been ground away as a victim of the ponderous march of time. Sometimes they had failed completely, but not often enough, and Tom was rapidly becoming an expert in the different defensive wards that could protect treasures. That experience made the fact he did not recognise the one in front of him particularly frustrating.

The door had familiar looking patterns criss-crossing, which unusually looked like they had been painted with acid. Usually if there was any damage to the strict precise lines the ritual would vent its power, but not this case. Unfortunately, this one was still charged. Once more, he raised his monocle to his eyes and looked through it. He could see the magic embedded in the door… But… he flipped rapidly between normal sight and the magical vision.

The magical symbols matched the etched lines but were offset, and not all the symbols were present in the charged components of the ritual.

“Don’t recognise this one, girl.” Tom said while scratching Pinkwing’s head. She chirped in agreement and Tom noticed she was focusing on the top right corner. He examined the area in more detail and picked up what the dragonling had noticed. It was the only spot where the magic lines overlapped the physical. “I guess I’m going to have to hit the books.”

There was a chirp of understanding and Tom sat down a metre from the door and pulled out the four books on ritual breaking he had purchased; Barriers, Traps, Summoning, and ‘Demonic and the Divine’. Tom looked at the headings and with a sigh picked up the last book and started flipping through it. About halfway through, he found a diagram that matched one in the bottom corner of the door. It was a self contained attack that, if triggered would shift him into an alternative plane. In this case one of the shadow realm.

With that nugget of knowledge, he examined the eight complicated patterns that were part of the ward and traced the commonalities. From what he could tell, they were all the same with the destination changed, shadow, demon, elemental and even a ghoul plane.

Nasty, Tom thought, but none of that explained why the physical representation was separate from the magical one.

He kept flipping through the book but found nothing to explain the dissociation between the two. The other books he knew would be useless as well. Tom shook his head and luxuriously stretched his back. The hours of sitting on the stone had caused them to tighten. He could survive a blow that would knock him ten metres backwards, but bad posture could still do him in.

He studied the energies at play. Nope, there was no way he was going to attempt to break the ritual unless he knew what produced that strange incongruity that he was seeing.

“Watch out for me, girl.” He rubbed Pinkwing’s chin.

There was an immediate chirp, and he shut his eyes, knowing if anything appeared she would scratch him to wake him in time to fight.

He was immediately in the system room.

“Show a list of texts around exotic ritual effects.”

The wall changed and hundreds of options came up.

“Restrict to books that also provide counter rituals.”

Every single one of the cheap choices disappeared and left him with five choices. The two most expensive taught a Skill, which he ignored. He knew he wouldn’t be able to afford to take a ritual Skill into Existentia and so he did not want to use one as a crutch now. Instead, he wanted to gain technical skill because that and mana control were all that was needed to break rituals. Ritual breaking was one of the few areas where Skills were mainly technical with very little extra spice. If he acquired technical proficiency, that would be useful in Existentia and better still not cost him contribution points.

He selected the third most expensive option and three hundred and twenty thousand experience disappeared from his bank. This knowledge was apparently costly. When he opened his eyes, the physical book was in his hands and he quickly scanned through the contents page.

• Magical overlay phased different to physical pattern.

It was the third topic, and he skimmed through the twenty-page chapter to understand what he was seeing. The magic peeling away from the physical lines created a dissonance effect. In this case, instead of being sent to a new plane part of him would be.

Nasty, he thought again, but this time with even more respect. It was absolutely diabolical. This defensive ward was designed to tear apart who ever tripped it and because the nature of what it did, the ritual actually had the juice to do it unless you were demi-god tier strong. The solution was the placement of a simple stabilisation ritual around him that would prevent the dissonance from occurring. Hold enough of him in the reality plane to stop the defence from tearing him to pieces.

“You should probably give me some space.” He told Pinkwing while he started drawing out the lines he required and infusing them with his mana.

The dragonling flapped away and Tom created the stabilisation ritual. Then he consulted his book and then studied the first pattern he needed to negate. What he had created was not nearly strong enough.

He sat meditated and then drew a second stabilisation ritual within the first and then after another one to give him three. Once more, he examined the door and decided what he had done was sufficient. He pulled out his throwing stars and with a deep breath infused them with mana and started flicking them. They cut through the air and precisely broke line after line on the door. On his fifth throw, the defensive ward realised it was under attack and the pattern in the lowest left corner he had been targeted was triggered. The lines previously in existence on the stone and in magic sight jumped out into a three dimension pattern created of light and magic. They glowed for a moment and then followed the mana trails to him.

The pattern rushed at him.

The stability rituals in front of him crumbled one after the other with the combined effect noticeably dimming the approaching magic but not dispersing it. The pattern crashed over him and he felt himself getting half dragged into a shadowy realm. Bits of him were pushed into the shadowy plain and other chunks weren’t. For a moment, he was suspended between two spots, and then the tether from the shadow realm broke and he snapped back into reality. He clutched at his stomach, pitched forward, and vomited everywhere. Cracks had formed in his skin from which blood was leaking and Touch Heal swept around to close each of them. Sharp pain went through his brain with every heartbeat. Pinkwing landed on his shoulder to provide moral support, but there was nothing she could do to help him.

He lay on the ground for a full minute before feeling well enough to move. He picked himself up and examined the door with physical and magical sight. One pattern was gone.

Success, he thought bitterly. Yay. Seven more to go.

With a wave of his hand Spark and Telekinesis combined to sweep away the left overs of his vomit. Then he started scratching out another stability ritual. He hated ritualists. At least ones not on his side, he corrected wryly. Given they were such a pain to combat he almost hoped one of his future companions in Existentia would have the ability, even if it would take the poor guy or girl years to gain their power back after going through the contribution store wringer.

Tom was returned to the real world with the memory of the backlash from breaking that first pattern still vivid in his mind. His stomach seethed and Harry was looking uncertainly around the group. Tom guessed he had been given the ritualist he had been hoping for. “What field are you specialised in? Barriers, Traps, Summoning, Enchanting, Demonic or Divine?”

“I’m an environmental ritualist specialising in both barriers and enchanting.”

Tom nodded. He could see how those skills would be useful. From the expression on most of the people in the group, none of the others had followed the explanation.

Harry’s fingers nervously twined together. “In more simple terms providing I can source materials and/or magical spaces I can create some power magical defences and eventually cast unique enchantments.”

“Like semi-intelligent or type specific abilities?” Tom asked more for the benefit of everyone else than himself.

“Exactly. In the DEUS gauntlet, I created a dragon slaying enchantment that doubled my power when fighting dragons and made me immune to decay breath.”

“Decay?” Sven muttered. 

“It was a yellow wyvern that had a decay power,” Harry volunteered. “As far as the ritual was concerned they were a subspecies of dragons.”

Andros cleared his throat. “With all due respect, why are you here? Don’t get me wrong I can see you will end up being amazing, but your current skills don’t sound useful on the battlefield. Shouldn’t you be with the crafters?”

“Um,” Harry looked nervously at everyone. 

“Just spit it out,” Tom suggested as he watched Harry get more and more flustered.

“To get experience.” Harry sounded terrified. “I’m not totally useless. I know two field wards. One can suck energy out of anyone who walks on it and the other can draw mana in for people casting spells.”

“How much extra mana.” 

“Umm. It can double regain.”

“That doesn’t do shit all,” Sven laughed.

Harry shook his head in denial. “At higher levels, it can make a difference and I’m a good with my spear.”

“Even at our level it’s good,” Tom assured Harry, glaring at Sven. “As for you Sven do you remember why we’re here!”

Sven had the grace to look embarrassed.

“Harry’s bringing useful skills for the wider group and is motivated to get stronger. That says everything about his character.”

“And once I’ve got some levels, I’ll be able to improve quickly.”

“Like all of us.” Tom agreed, staring down Sven. He liked the guy, but… Sven’s social instincts were iffy.

Sven kicked the ground. “Sorry.”

“We’re one team.” Everlyn reminded them. “Harry, you were talking about your offensive skills. Tell us about the energy drain?”

“It’s not very good. It takes a while to set up, and it doesn’t differentiate between friend and foe and…”

“Can it knock a monster out or stop it?” Everly asked gently. 

“Umm. If you keep them in the area for a few minutes. It will send them right to sleep.”

“I know we’re one team and boosting him, but you got to admit that one sounds useless.” Sven complained.

“I used it extensively in the DEUS gauntlet. It’s really good when you’ve got a defensible position like a cave mouth. When it’s running, you don’t need to beat the monsters, only hold them back for a minute.”

Tom saw Sven take the time to think about that statement and then nod in agreement. “I can see it situationally being powerful.”

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“Good on you Sven,” Tom slapped him on the shoulder. “It’s hard to back down. As for you Harry, I think gauntlet is a terrible name. I called it a trial,” Tom told him.

Andros chuckled. “I called it hell.”

Sven laughed at that. “Hell’s a description, not a name. I prefer trail, tutorial or survival test to Gauntlet. Gauntlet to me implies linear, and it was anything but that.” 

“Sven’s agreeing with me. Time to move on,” Tom said hurriedly while chuckling at how quickly that had deteriorated. “Harry is basically a small boost and occasionally, with the right set up his second ritual can become very useful.”

“Harry thinks the second one can be useful.” Sven specified.

“It was!”

“It was clearly useful, Sven.” Tom agreed.

Sven looked at him a small smile on his lips. “How do you know that Useless?”

Zap!

Sven squealed and everyone laughed, and then Sven joined in easily enough. He rubbed his bum. “I guess I deserved that, but I don’t know how you hit me from behind with Spark.”

Tom smiled and sparks jumped from finger to finger. “I’ve got skill and regarding your previous question, why do I think Harry was successful with the ritual? Look at him. He has come through looking like that, with an initially ineffective strategic class and rather than getting something awesome like Spark.” There was the rumble of thunder as lightning speared from his fingers to the ground. There were a few chuckles. “Instead, he chose an apparently worthless weakening ritual. Why?”

Sven did not look impressed. “He’s an idiot.”

Tom shook his head. “I don’t buy it. This is a ritualist who got into the top million.” 

“So did crafters.” Sven replied half looking for a fight.

Tom glanced around, pretending to be aggravated. “Does anyone else want to address stupid here?” He pointed at Sven with a huge smile on his face.

“Stupid? I’ll show you Useless.”  

“Yes, I will,” a high-pitched voice said.

Everyone’s eyes turned to the tiny, athletic woman who was speaking for the first time. “I’m Gina and in the trial, I developed as both an alchemist and a life tap mage.” She did a little mock curtsy. She was wearing finely worked metal armour and a sword. “I traded in the alchemist skills to increase how hard my magic hits. The crafters probably went in the other direction. Harry, what skills did you develop in your gauntlet?”

Sven snickered at that name.

“Ritualist, Poison and Enchanting were the ones I pushed.”

“Any other abilities?” Gina asked.

“Spear mainly. And then you know the auxiliary ones. Like I can shoot a bow, possessed a scattering of stealth skills, campfire abilities, but none of them were very advanced.”

“Sounds like he knows what he’s talking about.” Tom said quietly. 

Sven made a pacifying gesture. “I knew that. I was just being a devil’s advocate.”

Harry coughed. “Liar.” 

They all looked at the awkward, skinny kid with no offensive magic mocking the imposing spell sword. Everyone burst out laughing. 

“Wait.” Sven held up a hand to halt the question. “There’s something I don’t understand.” 

“What?”

“I get ritualist and enchanting, but poisons?”

Harry blushed a little. “Um. Ritualist and poisons synergize really well. You might not expect it, but they do. But I could only bring over so many Skills and I wanted the high-powered defensive enchantments as soon as possible. I had to abandon the poison stuff. Like I remember how to do it and I’ll get it all back quickly once I purchase some of the supporting Skills.”

Understanding went through Tom. With a thought, magic leapt from his fingers and there was a flash of light. 

Boom!

“My version of a click,” Tom told them, grinning. “Let me guess, Harry, you kept the prerequisites to take an advanced class? But lacked contribution points to buy it outright.”

“Expert.” Harry corrected with embarrassment. 

“How much experience will that cost?”

“Twenty thousand.” There were whistles of appreciation. It was a brave play. 

“That’s what? Seven levels?” Sven asked in disbelief.

“Six, but it’s worth it.” Harry’s face had lit up. “Once I get the class, I’ll be able to work on some amazing rituals and because rituals use the environment energies, I don’t even need attributes. Currently, I’ve got only one major defence ritual. At level one I’ll get to choose another one that I can tailor to what we need. And because its depends on location and or materials it’s something we’ll be able to create.”

“Boring,” Sven interrupted. “Gina, you’re a life tap mage. What’s the range of your skills?”

“Ten meters I have a stun and a stronger damage spell.”

Sven whistled appreciatively. “That’s a long way. What’s with the sword?” 

Gina looked embarrassed. “Well, I was a life tap mage and alchemist. Which is good and all, but I still needed to kill things. I got a sword early as a reward and practiced with it. In the trial I had some supporting skills but,” she frowned sadly. “Not any more. Just my know how.” 

“We’re running out of time.” Andros warned.

“Black dude?” Sven pointing.

“Rahmat,” The black man answered in annoyance. “He waved his basket of spears. My primarily skill is throwing, but if they get close, I can use them like a standard spear man.” 

Tom privately agreed with him. Rahmat, unlike the rest of them felt like a genuine level ten. He had clearly been sent to the misfit profile because someone was biased against throwing spears.

Jeffrey was an idiot. Tom did the mental math, but Rahmat had been number fifty-six, which was better than thirty other people, and he was the last to arrive out of everyone in this Reject Group. With himself, Everlyn and Harry they had three in the top ten and everyone else but Rahmat in the top half.

His team statistically was going to be significantly stronger than most of the others. 

The dome flashed once.  

Sven drew his sword dramatically. “This is going to be fun.”

Then it began to flash rapidly.

Sven stepped forward at the same time as Thor to take the front line position. Rahmat got into the middle and expertly arrayed four spears in front of him ready to be snatched at a moment’s notice. One of them was an extra foot longer and was actually slightly enchanted. and must have been his melee weapon. Tom found himself on the left flank, with Andros on the right.

The healers getting into offensive position was hardly the most standard attack pattern, but both he and Andros were hybrid healers and given the general weakness in their group it made sense for Tom and Andros to be in the thick of the fight. In fact, against the right type of enemy, either of them could end up as the most powerful. Finally, Everlyn, Gina and Harry took the middle. 

“Welcome to Existentia,” a voice said. It was not one Tom recognised, and he knew instinctively it was not DEUS. “My name is SUPREME and I am an independent adjudicator of this contest. If you hear from me again, be terrified. I will ensure fairness and that the GODs abide by the rules of the contest. But note, there is no tolerance for mortals breaking rules.”

“How would a mortal break them?” Sven muttered.

“Having said that none of you have the personal power to break the rules,” SUPREME continued almost like he was answering Sven and the worst thing about it was that the GOD might be. There was no reason someone ten metres away would hear the same things that they did or be talked to for the same length of time, for that matter. “As your power grows and if you stray on a forbidden path. You will be warned exactly once. Now,” the voice warmed up abruptly. “The dome is going down shortly. Gather the ranking points. The more you change Existentia the more ranking points you will receive. If you set something in motion and die that is fine. Ranking Points will accumulate after death right up to the competition close.”

“How does that work?” Sven asked.

“Chatty,” SUPREME said with amusement. “An example of accumulation would be if someone raised a massive undead army and unleashed them. If that horde went pillaging and destroying civilisation for the next hundred years, that necromancer would get ranking points accumulated like he was leading them, as they only exist because of his efforts. Now, as I was saying, in sixty-four Existentia years the contest will end. That is ninety of your earth years. Ranking points generated by all descendants also count toward the final ladder.” Tom expected Sven to say something in response to that, but given the other man’s slightly white complexion he had obviously decided not to push his luck. “We are measuring the impact of your species. All six other races have received this same briefing.”

The full implications of SUPREME’s words finally speared through Tom. 

Multiple components of what SUPREME had said were completely new to him. Ninety years, points after death, children counting, and the definition of ranking points were also different from what he had expected. If you slayed a single ant from the hive every day for ninety years under that measure, you would get zero points. If you eliminated it, even if it meant you killed fewer ants, you would get points because the hive would be gone and other animals needed to enter to fill the area.

Shit, Tom thought to himself.

Extinction and chaos were the fastest path to ranking points. The rules would drive war and destruction. That meant the stakes had been raised for all the competitors. Tom fervently hoped that previous contests were run on different rules and that the details of this new one were not widely known. If they leaked thousands, maybe tens of thousands of sapient species were going to hate the new members of the GODS game. 

Humans and the other competitors might well have a target on their backs.

The dome vanished.

The fucked up GOD’s competition had officially started.

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