Exploration (Welcome to the Multiverse Book 10), page 14
“I assume that having you on my ship isn’t going to cause me a problem, since the guild master is with you?” Suther asked us.
For the first time, Clay spoke up. “Uh, no. They’re registered as guild trainees. I’m responsible for them. The Order has been tightening their hold on Basetown, but even they won’t directly undermine my authority over guild members unless the guild members have committed some known crime.”
Tad and Suther exchanged a look. “What do you mean by ‘tightening their hold’?” Tad asked.
Clay went on to paint a picture of a city that was practically under martial law. He made it clear that the City Lord and the guard were still technically running things and that the adventurers’ guild still had sufficient forces to guard the entrance to the dungeon, but then he said something alarming. “It’s not so much their numbers or patrol patterns, even if those are issues. The bigger problems are the Inquisitors and Dreadnoughts.”
Suther grimaced and Tad nodded. Clay seemed surprised by their reaction. “You know what they represent, then?”
“Sadly, I’ve had some interactions with them,” Tad said. “Any idea what level they are?”
“Too high for any of my people to reliably read. I’ve been hoping that an old friend of mine would answer one of my letters and come here. I could use the counsel of a Grand Mage now.”
Tad chuckled softly. “His name wouldn’t be Oliver by any chance, would it?”
Clay broke into a grin. “You know him, then? Yes, we were in a party together. The two of us are the only ones still alive to tell the tale, and despite my current level, he’d left me in the proverbial dust until Silas and his team helped me break into the next tier.”
“What help was that?”
I felt a little frustrated at where this conversation was going. It was covering a bunch of subjects, and not really addressing what I needed to know, but patience was sometimes necessary.
Clay didn’t immediately answer the question, looking to me to see if it was okay to say what we’d done for him. “We’re here to meet Tad,” I said to him. “It’s important for all parties involved, and we won’t build a proper relationship if we start it with half-truths and hidden agendas.”
Tad looked at me, but only briefly. Most of his focus remained on Clay, who continued. “To put this shortly, because the assessment spheres have been on the fritz, they needed a test to become guild members. They are otherworlders, as you guessed, and claimed to be quite high-level. Impossibly high, really, but seeing is believing, as some say. Anyway, I was level 100 when we left the guild hall this morning, and here we are, just after lunch. When I hit level 150, I got a notification saying that I could not progress further without being awakened.
“I don’t know much about that beyond some obscure references in old books, and most of that was stuff Oliver told me. Speaking of which, how do you know him?”
“He helped us out in Coopertown, and he knows a great deal about me. I’m expecting to meet him in a few months at the human capital, and if we can figure out how to awaken you, we can awaken him as well. Oh, and sorry about the assessment spheres. That was my fault.”
I couldn’t help but jump in at that point. “Wait… so you don’t know how to awaken him?”
Tad shook his head. “I got a quest to awaken him, and was told that the power to do so would be supplied by the Endless Dungeon through my dungeon core.”
“You… have a dungeon core.” I turned to Samvek. “He has a dungeon core.” That led to an interesting conversation. Tad could essentially create his own dungeon wherever he wanted to. I’d thought that my Dungeon Manager title was cool, along with the dungeon seed I’d planted on Galen, but what he could do sounded so much more impressive. It hit me again that each system had its own strengths. This was likely why I got the Borrow from Other Systems quest in the first place.
Before we could get the conversation back on topic, the ship had completed its docking procedures and the mooring lines were in place. A few moments later, a trio of Lawkeepers walked up the gangplank. I didn’t know for sure if it was a custom in this world to ask permission before boarding a ship, but based on Suther’s expression, I was betting it was, and these three had ignored it.
“Have your entire crew up on deck. We will need to evaluate everyone here. This ship matches the description of a wanted vessel.” The casual arrogance dripping out along with the Lawkeeper’s words made me feel angry, but it was nothing to what I was sensing from Tad. He felt ready to explode.
“Under whose authority?” he demanded.
“I wasn’t speaking to you, boy, but if you want to have a nice little sit down with the Inquisitor, I’m sure that can be arranged. A messenger’s already been sent to notify him about this ship’s arrival.”
Tad glanced at Fara and suddenly she was moving. Within a few seconds, she’d cleared the side of the ship and was running up the dock. Selena quickly said, “I’ll go with her.” An instant later she was in rapid pursuit of the illusion-clad lizard woman.
“Stop them!” the lead Lawkeeper shouted. The other two looked at each other but neither moved. “We can’t catch them,” one mumbled.
The leader turned back toward Tad. “Where are they going, boy?”
“I don’t know about Selena, but Fara is going to track down your messenger and kill him before he can report to the Inquisitor. And stop calling me boy. I really hate this, because the terms are so pompous, but I’ll make an exception for Lawkeepers. You can call me Your Highness, Prince, or more properly, Twin Prince.”
The man’s eyes widened, but only for an instant as his hand went for his sword. His two companions were only a fraction of a second behind him. I almost cut them down where they stood but waited to see how Tad would handle this. There was a lot going on here that I didn’t understand, although I did recognize the title Twin Prince from one of the system notifications.
It turned out that I didn’t need to worry about it. Holes in the deck opened up at their feet, and while they might have had better reflexes than normal Earth humans, it wasn’t enough to save them. Then again, each was only between level 50 and 60, so their arrogance had been completely unsupported by anything to back it up.
Tad barked out a round of orders, and the elves sprang into action. The archer climbed up to the crow’s nest, while the dark elf cast a spell. A moment later, she reported there were no other members of the Order currently on the dock, but there were several hundred in the city.
Tad didn’t look pleased at the news, and for my part, my patience was running short. Tad looked at the treant. “Lexa, please go downstairs and help Arbormaris clean up any mess.”
“I can’t leave you here alone with strangers.”
“If they wanted to harm me, then, sadly, I don’t think you could do anything about it. Surely you’ve gotten a sense of how strong they are. I’d have to draw far more attention than we want to have any hope of keeping up with them, and it’s not like I can control that part of myself. Besides, I find myself liking Silas’ idea about no half-truths or hidden agendas. Yes, I know you all want me to get better at keeping secrets, and sometimes you’re right. This time you aren’t.”
With that, the treant went below deck. Suther left without any instructions to corral the sailors. The elves moved into positions to watch the dock, but hadn’t left the ship. Meanwhile, I got a message over party chat from Selena. “We got him. I still don’t know how much of a threat any of these weaklings are, but you’re doing a good job playing it safe. Follow your instincts. I think I’m gonna have a little conversation with the lizard girl.”
“Play nice.”
There was mirth in her voice as she replied, “Don’t I always?”
“So what now, Tad? I admit we’re guests here, so I’m trying to follow your lead, but I don’t know all the players or what’s at stake here.”
“I think we’ve got a lot to talk about, but I’m a little worried about Fara.”
I shook my head. “Selena sent me word that the messenger was eliminated and that she and Fara are having a conversation. Don’t worry. While my fiancée can get a bit aggressive, she won’t do anything to harm your friend.”
“Fara can take care of herself, even if you all are impossibly powerful for… well, whatever you are. Your race reads to me as Heretical Trailblazer of the Fused Path-Ascendant Guaranteed. I’m not at all certain what that is, but it’s a mouthful, and I’m not exactly human either, so…”
“I was human, but I’ve evolved. I get the feeling that you were never human, although Identify told me you were at one point. Then it told me you were a foundling and a fey. I don’t know if that means the same things as the stories back home, but I’ve already learned that a lot of the legends from my planet are actually based upon real people from other places. It seems like you’re a fey, but I don’t see any wings.”
He smiled. “They come and go. Honestly, they’ve been almost as much of a problem as they’ve been a boon. How about we go downstairs and talk? There’s someone I’d like you to meet, and hopefully between the three of us, we can figure out what this awakening is all about. Guild master, you are of course welcome to come with us.”
“But I am not?” Samvek asked.
Tad shook his head. “Oh you are, but seeing as you all apparently have a way to communicate over distance, and realizing just how powerful you are, I was going to ask you to stay up top. My elves are much stronger than their levels might suggest, but if an Inquisitor or Dreadnought shows up, they’d be outclassed immediately. Frankly, if we were going by level alone, so might you. I’ve seen some of them who were level 350, but I also get the feeling that you might be more capable than your level suggests.”
Samvek put fist to chest. “As one who is hopefully a future ally, I will take pride in assuring our mutual safety.”
With that, Tad led the way downstairs. Clay followed us. It became immediately clear that the inside of the ship was larger than it should have been. The nerd in me couldn’t help but smile. It wasn’t massive—there weren’t any swimming pools or tennis courts—but it was clear there was a little TARDIS effect going on here.
We reached a room with a table and several chairs. Tad asked us to sit, then disappeared for a moment. When he returned, it was with a member of another fantasy race I’d yet to see.
The words came out before I could help myself. “Gnomes rule!”
Chapter Seventeen: Visions Revealed
The gnome held up a finger. “Uh, actually, fey rule. We just assist them as necessary.”
I could only laugh at his reaction to my statement. It wasn’t that I wanted to mock him, but something about it struck me as funny. “My apologies. That’s a saying from my homeworld, and it’s sort of a niche saying that only a small group of people would get. But to be fair, they are my favorite people in the world. I meant no offense. It’s just that I’ve never seen a gnome.”
Tad seemed a bit taken aback by my joke and subsequent laughter, but he didn’t correct me. “I suppose that being from another world carries with it its own set of oddities. I’ve been trying to prepare for this meeting, and I guess after the vision, you weren’t quite what I’d expected.”
It took a second for his words to make sense. “You’ve had a vision about me?”
He nodded.
“Sorta. More to the point, I had visions with messages for you, but before we talk about that, I think we need to understand a bit more about one another. That, and Clay deserves his quest reward. I can admit I’m curious about this whole ‘awakening’ thing.”
We stared at one another. I liked his style so far. There had to be history between him and the Order that I wasn’t privy to, but he had dealt with the threat to his people decisively. Selena would get as much information out of Fara as could be gotten. I trusted that she was much better at this sort of diplomacy than I was.
He held out a hand toward me. “Since you’re the guest here, it’s only fair you begin the introductions.”
“Fair enough. This world is under the Fey System, correct?”
“Most don’t call it that, but yes. All the worlds under the branches of the World Tree are subject to the Fey System. At least that’s how I understand it to be,” Tad replied.
“I see. Well, just a few years ago, there was no magic on my world. There was no system, and no notifications that popped up in your head. Nor were there monsters, other than people given to monstrous acts of evil. Then a system came to my world, but it wasn’t the Fey System. It calls itself the Heavens, and it chose five new worlds to integrate, but forced us to compete against one another for a period of five years.
“Only during the final year was I chosen to help champion my world. The top world would win a prize, while the next two worlds would be turned into what we call dungeon worlds. Most of the population of those worlds was doomed, and the ambient mana levels would rise until the monsters became truly powerful. Then the two losing worlds were meant to be scrapped for resources.
“Things got… mixed up, and despite winning, my world was turned into a dungeon world. But with a great deal of luck, we were able to keep the number of deaths to well under one and a half billion people. Oh, and I should add that prior to the arrival of the Heavens, the only people on my world were humans. We had stories about elves, dwarves, dragons, orcs, and gnomes, but they were just stories.”
The gnome, who I’d already identified as the highest-level individual I’d met, spoke up then. “Did you say billions? On one world?”
That led to a brief discussion about the population disparity between Aerth and Earth. Neither of them knew an accurate estimate for the current population of Aerth, but it was assumed that it couldn’t be more than a few million, which was shockingly low to me. Geminus—that was the gnome’s name—surprised me again when he talked about his previous lives and about worlds which had hundreds of millions of life forms, but to him the concept of a single world with more than eight billion beings, exclusively the domain of one race, was well outside of his experience.
He stroked his beard as he looked at me. “But why would your system be so cruel? The death of so many can’t really be necessary, can it?”
I shook my head. “I’ve encountered other systems which are even worse. The Fey System is the fifth system that I’ve encountered. Hopefully something of a fifth element that will help me make sense of the others.”
They both gave me their undivided attention when I mentioned the Dragon System, and had many questions that I was unable to answer. The same went for the Hell System and the Divided Realms. Geminus mentioned that he remembered hearing in one of his past lives that there was more to the cosmos than we knew, but he said that his head was so crammed full of competing memories that sometimes it was difficult to make sense of it all.
“So, is the fact that you’re awakened the reason you can remember your past lives?”
“In a very roundabout sense, yes, but my experience is anything but normal. I wasn’t awakened in the usual fashion.”
Tad went on to explain how he had taken what he called Geminus’ sprite from a magical weapon and had created an adult body for him to inhabit. “Not that I could repeat that again. It was in a moment where the system was giving me access to my potential, or at least part of my potential, rather than me functioning with the limited power that I have now. In that moment, destruction and even creation were as simple as a swish of my wings.”
I thought about that. “I’ve experienced something like that, though maybe not to the same extent, but I definitely had my mind expanded to experience the world as a god might. That and I’ve had visions of possible futures which may come to pass.” I decided not to mention I’d just had one. “I guess the question now is whether you can help Clay become awakened?”
Tad sighed happily, and I assumed he was wistfully recalling what that elevated state had been like. I knew that after my mind had been expanded to know the entire Earth and choose the original 1000 members of the Vanguard, returning to Silas-normal had made the world feel bland. “By myself, no. But I got a form of the quest you got. My relationship with the Ways is different from most other people. It certainly has the power, and I think together, we’ll make sure that Clay has the chance to be awakened. But the first thing we have to figure out is what being awakened actually means.”
I thought about that for a second. I assumed since I got the quest that Tad would know. “Just one quick question. You mentioned the Ways, and that term was in some of my previous notifications, but I thought it was the Endless Dungeon offering the power to help Clay?”
“A simple and common misunderstanding, and unsurprising for you, since you come from a different universe.” He blinked a couple times as he rolled the words around on his tongue. “Even saying those words feels odd to me.” He shook his head and grinned before continuing. “The Ways are made up of two halves, or rather I believe the Ways split into two halves, to better interact with the reality around them.
“Those two parts are Yggdrasil—the World Tree—and the Endless Dungeon, but they both still have the same core purpose as the Ways always had. They spread from world to world, across all reality, seeking to build bridges that connect those worlds. Both operate in space differently and can cross the Void that separates universes. They are meant to create a supremely safe way to travel, but their purpose has been stunted and I don’t know why. I’ve been tasked with helping the Ways grow again, which I don’t mind telling you seems like something far beyond me.”
I raised my eyes at the mention of the World Tree. “Believe it or not, we actually have legends of Yggdrasil on our planet. It’s a small multiverse, after all. But what is the connection between the Ways and the Fey System?”
“This again is where my knowledge is thin, but something called a Remnant of Eternity was used to create the system. The Ways provided the power and structure for it to spread across all the worlds they connected, but the authority for it was centered on three fey who became the first Queens of the Summer Court, Void Court, and Winter Court.”
