73 What Lies Beyond (1/2)

I shook my head, thinking up what my speech would be. Introducing myself would be an excellent way of gaining some favor. I could mention how I’ve slain enemies hundreds of levels above me as well. Setting myself up with some expertise helped validate what would follow.

After that, discussing how life has changed would be a good topic to touch on. Since Schema came over, life devolved for most people. That’s probably the most demotivating aspect of fighting Yawm. Even if we win, many family members are gone, and life won’t be the same. Ailing those concerns would help these people move forward.

Painting a picture of a better tomorrow would help them more than anything. Just like with Althea, I can mention how life on other worlds sorted itself out. The dungeons are taken care of, allowing people to pursue other, less violent careers. I could mention how we will be hailed as heroes, a generation of warriors that took on the worst of the worst. That would be a good way to end the speech.

With that in mind, I spread out my arms,

“Hello, brothers and sisters.” Adding a bit of familiarity couldn’t hurt. It would make them think of me as one of them.

“I am the Harbinger of Cataclysm. I’ve slain eldritch hundreds of levels above me, and I serve as the disciple of Torix Worm. Torix killed your commander and took over your organization. You no doubt are wondering why.”

I pointed at the looming cloud of gray, “Yawm of flesh, the eater of worlds is why. Soon, his insects will bore holes into you. They will wear your skin and move your bones as if you were puppets. We aim to stop them.”

Alright, my introduction was over. It was time I showed them some understanding.

“No doubt you’ve all seen how devastating he is when he remains unstopped. You’ve lost loved ones, children, and your previous lives. No more can you enjoy a Saturday morning without glancing over your head, making sure a monster isn’t hunting on the horizon. These are dark days. I would know. I lost all my friends, my family, everything.”

I clasped my hand, glancing around at the crowd, “I was distraught. I thought to myself time and time again, what can I do from here? The first answer was revenge. I would make the monsters who struck terror deep into my bones feel the very same fear. I would become a monster among monsters. That goal left this abominable visage before you.”

I gestured my hands with each point, painting a picture as I continued,

“Over time, I found there was no future in that darkness. It was an abyss, a pit with nothing but black at the bottom. That’s when I looked up. The light I saw was a new goal – to rebuild. I learned of worlds were dungeons were handled. Not everyone needed to fight. You could have a family. You could make a new life in this new world.”

I spread my hands, booming my voice, “But that life is no sure thing.” I pointed at the cloud of gray, “That behemoth aims to steal that life from you. He aims to kill your children, murder what family and friends you have left. He aims to steal the life you’ve scraped together. Follow me and my master, and we will tear him asunder.”

With more animation, I moved my eyes to meet the eyes of soldiers as I spoke, “Generations after us will sing our name as the greatest generation. A generation of heroes. A generation of tenacity. History will speak out our names. Tell me, will history remember us as the fallen, or, as the unbroken and unstoppable?”

A roar rippled through the crowd. I nodded, grinning, “That’s right. We are a coming storm, a living force of nature. We conquered plagues, the elements, even each other. Do these monsters stand a chance against something like that? I think not.”

I paused for another moment before thundering my voice out, “These things, we can see them. We can rip and tear them apart. We’ve killed viruses that melt our skin. Monsters we can see? The might of humanity will shatter them. Remember this. We did not have the misfortune of meeting the eldritch. The eldritch had the misfortune of meeting us.”

The crowd gushed with sound, their howling like an emboldened mob. Pride took them, spurring them into a frenzy.

Unique skill unlocked! The skill Listening, Intimidation, persuasion, Leadership, and speechcraft fuse into the skill Words of Strength. Half of remaining points in every skill are rewarded as tree points. +222 tree points.

I raised a fist, “Let’s show the eldritch who the real monsters are.”

The last wave of thunderous outcry coursed through the crowd. From behind me, Torix and Althea clapped as the amplifying magic subsided. Kessiah crossed her arms,

“Not bad.”

I nodded while smirking with surprise glee, “Yeah, I surprised myself there. It was a lot like motivating myself.”

Torix nodded, “Indeed. I anticipated utter failure. It’s almost a shame.”

I frowned, “Thanks oh wise master.”

He shrugged with a knowing grin. Althea chimed, “He did say almost.”

I sighed, smiling despite the close call, “I’m just glad this shit’s over with. Waiting for this trip was killing me.” I glanced at the gray cloud of Yawm, “It’s been a long time since I’ve felt anxious about anything.”

Althea locked her hands behind her, “The future can be scary sometimes. Facing it makes it less terrifying.”

I raised an eyebrow, turning to her, “You sound like you heard that from someone both handsome and intelligent.”

Althea rolled her eyes, but she smiled nonetheless. Torix clapped his hands, “Enough chatter. We have a portal to enter.” He turned to me, “Assuming you’re ready?”

I shook my head, “Naw, I’m not. I need to pack. I got caught up training with these two.”

He nodded his head, “Then we’ll meet back up at my current headquarters an hour from now.”

Torix grabbed towards the blue sky, pulling his fist downward. The pillar of earth we stood on sunk back into the ground, dispersing into a slight hill. Around us, the steel legion buzzed with energy. They lacked direction, but Torix walked up towards them to fix just that,

With his voice amplified, Torix spoke out, “I’ll be sending each of you progress goals soon. Before the harbinger returns from his mission, we must complete them. Understood?”

He put an edge of the Words of Power skill into his voice, driving the point into their heads. His own use of the power was damn near physical, making the command drill into your skull. It was like someone hammering a nail into your temple.

Compared with the slight edge in my voice, I didn’t come close. He didn’t bother with milking the skill like I had too. Just his command was enough to compel action. Taking note of that, I paced back towards my tent. About fifteen minutes into packing, a pile of stuff formed in front of me. Toilet paper, coffee grinds for when I wanted a cup of joe, pots and pans, I didn’t have room for it all.

As if sensing my distress, a tapping snapped across my tent. Walking over, I unzipped the tent. Kessiah grinned at me. I zipped the tent back up without saying a word, but she stopped me. She met my eye, a piercing sincerity laced there. She frowned, the intensity fading,

“I uh, well, I wanted to give you something before you left.”

I raised an eyebrow, still suspicious of her intentions, “What is it?”

Between two of her fingers, a steel ring was between them. She grinned, “It’s a spatial compartment ring.”

I unzipped the tent, letting her walk in. She scratched the back of her head, “I figured it would make my apology sound more uh, sincere.” She stood up straight and sighed. She met my eye,

“I’m sorry about trying to push myself onto you. It wasn’t fair. I was being pushy, and you still gave me the gift you promised even after I blew up on you. When you handed me the ring, I felt so bad. After seeing it was handmade and useful…fuck, I felt awful. I knew you deserved a real apology then.”

She glanced away, “So, uh, sorry.”

I pursed my lips, crossing my arms. I looked her up and down, holding her captive in suspense. After soaking the moment in, I uncrossed my arms and smiled, “Thanks for the apology, and it really wasn’t that big a deal. If it makes you feel better, Torix told me to make a conduit for one of you guys. It was supposed to ground me or something. I made that ring for that reason.”

Kessiah rolled her eyes, “Oh yeah, sure.” She raised an eyebrow, crossing her arms, “Did the conduit have to be home made and useful?”

I glanced away, “Well, no.”

She slapped my shoulder, “My point exactly. Just accept the gift now.”

I pulled it up, identifying the steel ring,

Spatial Holder(lvl requirement: 500) – A rare ring given out by Schema for accomplishing a great mission or deed. It is one of three rewards, each of them used for different purposes. The spatial ring can hold the user’s weight in kilograms and the volume of the person. You can activate the ring by pulsing mana into it. Once activated, the ring grafts to the user. No one else will be able to access the ring even if you die.

Your possessions will be funneled towards the nearest safebox if you die. Depending on your will, the items will be dispersed accordingly. In the instance of no will after death, the items will be auctioned off. Speak with any sentinel for the creation of a will.

Mana cost per kilogram added: 1% of mana and health used per 1% of weight or mass cap used.

Warning: Do NOT break open the ring and study it. Any tampering will result in an immediate S tier bounty and unknown status. Accidents will not be forgiven.

I glanced at the ring in awe. As simple as it looked, the sheer usefulness of it seemed ridiculous. A ring like this would solve Althea’s ammo problem forever. After reading closer, the limitations came up. Since it was based on weight, Althea wouldn’t be able to store much.

She didn’t invest into constitution. Althea’s reason was because it messed with her transformation abilities. Torix gave her the ok with her build, so there had to be some legitimacy to it. The mana cost was prohibitive as well. I could die if I tried putting a mountain or some shit into one of the rings.

Clearing up some of my thoughts, Kessiah tapped the ring, “These things are great for classes like us. It takes advantage of our high constitution. Your health regeneration means you can store consumables or something like that too. Yenno, cause you regenerate so fast.”

I nodded, “What about this bounty thing?”

Kessiah blinked, “You mean the S tier bounty? Yeah, don’t fuck with the ring. Unknowns like us sit around with C tier bounties no matter what. There’s a world of difference between C and S tier though.”

I frowned, “Like what?”

She stretched out her right hand, “For C tiers, you’ll get the mid-tier bounty hunters. Their obnoxious, and a few of them can be dangerous.”

She stretched out her other hand, “S tier bounty hunters send total monsters like Yawm running. That’s a classification for only the highest crimes, like killing a sentinel for instance. Yawm’s one of those bounties, and he’d be dead ten times over if he didn’t have a sentinel’s spear. Otherwise, the entire planet he was stuck on would already be glassed.”

I winced, “Glassed?”

She clicked her tongue, “Yup. It’s an easy way to send a big message. Yawm would be considered an S+ tier criminal. I’m a C+. Torix is B-. You’re probably a C-.”

I nodded, “Well shit…no wonder you and Torix want to get out of Schema’s system so bad. Immortal and always hunted, talk about a pain in the ass.”

Kessiah crossed her arms, “Yeah, it’s not fun, but I deal with it. That’s why I came here, to find a way out of that bullshit.”

She turned her eyes towards a wall of the tent. She wasn’t looking at the wall of the tent. It was one of those looks where your traveling through memories instead of observing something. She continued,

“But nope. I end up trapped on this hellhole with a total beast named Yawm. Fun.”

I shrugged, “I told Althea the same thing. You can look at it as a curse or an opportunity.”

Kessiah glanced at me, her eyes turning hard, “Oh, really? Please tell me how me being trapped here is in anyway a good thing?”

I raised a hand, “Sentinel rights.”

Her eyes opened wide as I let the info sink in. I continued, “You can escape your bounty and unknown status with that. If you think about it, this is a golden opportunity, but only if you take it.”

Kessiah pursed her lips, looking like she tasted something sour. A moment later, the expression faded. She nodded her head, a begrudging sound in her voice,

“Huh…I suppose you’re right. That is a way out of this mess, and a way out of the rat race with Schema…Damn, I nearly forgot about that.”