Chapter 3-75: Goodbye Easy Karma... (1/2)

Four days later...

Dusk Renewal came in as I softly called off the Salute to Aethra.

Everyone was watching in expectation as the incorporeals began to materialize, and our little ducks of Karma began to show up.

And then they began to back away...

All along the wall, the undead and unliving who would normally be shambling or flying out towards the living souls on the Wall were instead pulling back from it rapidly, and that included all the corpses down below.

A couple of Briggs’ shooters called out that they were getting away, and Briggs just held up his hand, silencing them. He turned to look at me, and I just nodded.

“Master Fred, get Sir Pellier on the phone for me, if you would.”

The Warlock pulled out his Vaccine, tapped up an ID, and handed me the phone.

It rang only twice before the stern voice of the Paladin answered, “Master Fred?”

“His phone, Sir Pellier,” I replied calmly. “I need you to suspend your nightly shootings.”

There was a short moment of silence. “That sounds ominous,” he finally replied.

“I am on the DC Wall. We’ve been using it to Advance our Weapons while waiting for information. The Ministers here noticed something was wrong, and just pulled all the undead away from the Wall.”

There was silence on the other end, and then a long, low chuckle. “It was too easy,” he laughed grimly.

“That is very, very true,” I agreed, smiling despite myself. “These unliving are more disciplined and alert than yours, but it seems they do notice eventually, even when keeping the kill totals down.”

“Understood. I’ll tell the others. It was profitable while it lasted, Miss Traveler.”

Six days worth was nearly two million dollars in Karma for my Ring and Staff. Yes, it was indeed worth it for everyone here.

“Yes, it was. Take care, Sir Pellier.”

“You as well, lass. Good luck on your hunt.”

I hung up the Vaccine and handed it back to Master Fred. “Commander, your recommendation?”

Briggs frowned and looked out over the wall, both disappointed and irritated at this development. “Let’s see how far back they pull back, and wait a while. If they don’t come back, we’ll call it a night like any reasonable person. I’ll call regularly to see if they’re testing out the Wall again.”

“If they do, I expect they will do so in small areas, testing to see if where they tempt attacks has anything to do with the missing undead.” I watched them withdrawing out of anything but sniping range, and then just pulling back inside the buildings and not coming out.

Briggs nodded slow agreement at my words. “If anyone finds out we were here, they may wonder if we had anything to do with this kind of behavior,” he growled to me. There were no soldiers close by, as we’d set up our firing line, and they’d seen we were well capable of taking down any undead who broke the Warding.

“Perhaps. We aren’t the only shooters... but we were the only ones who might have improved our guns visibly.” I glanced at his squad, who all pursed their lips at my gaze. They hadn’t chosen Vivic for the first enhancement for their Zvei Slot, for just this reason, but the fact was they had still opened the second Slots successfully.

Fortunately, they had suppressed the fire, cold, lightning, blessed, and other effects, so they were not immediately obvious to those we had passed. Vivic was only useful for picking off undead and getting rid of corpses, after all. Against sahaug, for instance, it was not useful except for cleaning up the corpses in the water and pissing off the sharks.

This was a very alert March. It meant the easy Karma for others was not something that was going to persist, and would be noticed, meaning easy Leveling and Weapon Advances simply weren’t going to happen.

That meant killing them would mean breaching the Warding, which would open someone up to mass incorp attacks, and energy drains to death almost instantly.

Without constant Negative Energy Protection, breaching the Ward was basically a deathtrap, especially since there was no dimension-hopping under a Shroud.

And just like that, our sweet little Karmic exploit was over...

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We were heading back down the Wall when my phone rang. Frowning, I looked at it, and Chulvat’s name popped up on the ID. I’d had them put in their phone numbers so they could call me if they had an emergency or questions.

“Traveler here,” I answered, after pressing the bright green Answer Phone button.

“Miss Traveler, um, dunno if Master Fred told you, but he had us do a drive-by of your place every night, make sure there weren’t any new surprises in the area before you came home.”

I glanced at Fred, who seemed supremely unconcerned about his wise move. “Understood. So, this phone call means you’ve found something?”

“Yes, ma’am. There’s a person in one of the empty condos who doesn’t belong there, and it’s got line of sight to your place. I get the impression from the city he’s not a native, either.”