SOM - Chapter 34 - What Now

It took Luke twelve hours of cultivating [Recovery] to mend his leg enough that it could support his weight. This left the attribute at an even thirty. His swollen credit balance would have gone further had he spent more time shopping around, but he lacked patience for such trivialities.

While Luke had spent half a day healing his broken leg, Frank had been busy. Hundreds of freed slaves needed organising and most lacked the drive to do so. It was easy to forget that they weren’t real.

At least half of the tailless were what Luke had taken to calling blanks. They were intelligent, but lacked individuality. These blanks would follow instructions to a fault, like true NPCs. The rest of the viran retained more of their original selves, but even those reminded Luke what a caricature Frank had been when they first met.

The red furred viran helping Luke pick up his golden coins in the blood soaked mud was a great example. He was practically the physical manifestation of anxiety. Every little noise made him twitch, and his eyes darted all over constantly looking for threats. 

His name was Naeveron, and he was one of the rare aetherlings who remembered his original name. Though the viran didn’t make for good conversation, his eyesight was sharp, and he was adept at picking out shiny metals from the carnage. 

"I th-think that's all, m-master," Naeveron said, his ears flattening against his head as he spoke.

“Please, don’t call me that,” Luke groaned. He had already told the little ratling that the title made him uncomfortable, but chastising the little creature just made it worse.

After collecting the last of his spoils, Luke thanked Naeveron, and hobbled off in the direction of Frank in the viran command tent. 

The ‘White Death’, as his kin had taken to calling him, had been acting as the new pseudo-leader of the viran. Frank didn’t ask for this, but the tailless were quite lost without him.

None of the ratlings really knew what to do with themselves. 

Many had gone back to work, while the more strong minded debated what to do next. That was what Frank told him before the ‘White Death’ went into isolation.

Frank had gained a lot of aether from slaughtering the overseers. 

Now he just needed to hold onto it. 

Without a soul, Frank’s core was leaky, and his internal control of aether was tenuous. The ratling had shamelessly taken out a loan with the bank of Luke to purchase an item called a [Will Stone]. It was a stone that burned the aether of the person touching it. If the person could endure the pain it helped them cultivate [Will]. 

Frank didn’t have the [System], therefore didn’t have a [Will] attribute, but the stone would help regardless. When he had used the [Master’s Ring] to remove his [Thrall] domain with Rurik it had been a similar process. It would have been a lot easier with [System] access, and if Luke ever had another audience with Gaia he would have to ask if she had any spare [System] seeds. 

Thinking about the [System] made Luke pull up his quest reward again as he approached the tent/

[Please choose a reward from the options:] 

[Prophet’s Mantle - Rare (Initiate) - This cloak carries within it a zealous Fire. Channelling Fire aspected aether through it will set it alight and burn nearby foes.]

[Master’s Chains - Rare (Initiate) - These chains can vary their length and mass. Physical contact suppresses domains. 

[Warlord’s Banner - Rare (Initiate) - This banner allows a one-time claiming of land. It creates a nexus and suffuses the area with your aura, to allow the founding of an outpost.]

[You have 3 hours, 56 minutes until the resonance is lost.]

After leaving the decision hanging for a couple of hours the warning had appeared, but he had plenty of time yet. Luke was fairly certain that the rewards had been tailored for him. That was why he was taking so long to choose.

The mantle was his current favourite, as it would give him a way to work on his [Fire] domain, and give him a tool against non physical opponents. His brief encounter with the [Shade] near the Gothic cathedral illustrated that not every enemy would die from a hammer to the face. 

Though the reward timer was more imminent, it was Gaia’s deadline that he kept coming back to. He only had two days until the second wave of invaders arrived; two days to escape the dungeon and find Nate.  

Time flies when you’re having fun, Luke thought.

He was being sarcastic, but after a moment Luke realised that it was true; he had enjoyed the constant danger, the life or death fights and the thrill of growing more powerful. It hadn’t all been sunshine and roses, but he was thriving in this new reality, as evident by his [Apex] domain.

It made a change. 

While walking towards the purple command tent that Frank was secluded in, Luke passed by dozens of idle aetherlings. Like glitched characters, these tailless just stood around. All they knew was to mine metal and farm grubs for the warband, and Frank had shut down both. 

Luke had been stretching his legs when he saw Frank fly off in a rage about his kin willingly going back to work.

Though he wasn’t officially in charge, the tailless did whatever Frank wanted without question, so the lower cavern remained closed. He hadn’t given them anything else to do, so they just idled. 

The albino viran seemed to be unsure what he wanted now that his mission on vengeance was completed. In time the three-headed-rat anchor would respawn, but until then this area of the dungeon was ‘dead’, and none of the warband would respawn.

It gave Frank time to grow stronger, and prepare his fellow tailless. He could then spawn camp Maruk. This would only work in the short term, because when the dungeon decoupled from Earth, the whole thing would reset. It was possible that the slave rebellion would stick across iterations, but unlikely. Frank and his kin were trapped in a cycle of servitude, unless something changed. 

"Hey Frank, how's the soul stuff going?" Luke asked, ducking into the tent.

Frank looked up from some parchments. "Finished, for the most part."

"So you have a soul now?"

The albino viran shook his head. "No, and I'm not sure I'll figure it out before the dungeon resets."

"Maybe I can talk Charon into letting you leave with me?" Luke suggested. "You could escape the reset that way."

Frank's red eyes hardened and his fur bristled. "I will not abandon my brothers and sisters."

Raising his hands placatingly, Luke said, "Just a thought. What about the dungeon break? When I die or leave, couldn't you escape into the Veil then?"

"It won't work," Frank said. "Aetherlings cannot survive long in the material world."

The certainty in the ratling’s tone stuck out to Luke. “Your memories coming back?” he asked.

“A little? Not really? I don’t know. This is something I instinctively know to be true.”

“You could escape the dungeon then go back into the Veil somewhere else couldn’t you?”

“Isn’t your planet being invaded? Won’t your nexus points be swarming with invading armies?”

“Will they?”

“I don’t know. Probably.”

“Well, I think I have a solution,” Luke said with a sigh. “I think one of my quest rewards is basically the perfect solution to your problem, but you would owe me a flaming cape.”

“I would owe you a… cape?”

Luke explained the quest rewards to Frank. The ratling was nodding along, until Luke mentioned the [Master’s Chains], and he flew into a rage.

Frank blurred forwards, snow white fur turning black as he swung his axe and split Maruk’s dining table in two. Curious, Luke reached out with his aura sense to get a feel for Frank’s gains. 

[Level 10 viran - an aetherling who is an ERROR. Cultivates Shadow.]

Luke stared at the remains of the table, then at Frank, whose fur was slowly returning to its snowy white. "Well, that's one way to express yourself."

By the system’s metrics, Frank was ready to choose a path. He had grown rapidly in Luke’s shadow, and the death echoes from the overseers had taken him to the precipice. Actually forming a path was probably beyond him. 

Amassing lots of aether was something that came naturally to an aetherling, but it was an entirely different matter to control it, shape it and change it. That Frank had managed to incorporate his [Shadow] domain into the swirling mass of aether at his core was impressive, even if it owed in large part to Luke’s largess. 

Luke saw it as an investment, one that had now paid off, but could continue to grow under the right conditions.

“Are you done?” Luke asked after Frank stopped turning the table into kindling.

“Yes, sorry. Dying once isn’t enough for that Kunyas,” Frank said. It was odd that the system didn’t translate the word, but not the first time it had happened. The angry ratling had a colourful vocabulary. 

Luke gestured around himself. “Is that what you plan to do next, sit in this cavern killing the triumvirate over and over?”

“That was my plan, but I sense that you’re about to suggest something else.”

“Correct. Before you interrupted me by turning that table into firewood, I was going to tell you about the third reward, which is a consumable banner.”

“Why would an edible flag help my people?”

“Consumable as in it can only be used once.”

“Ah, I see.”

“The description says it would let me create and claim a nexus. That’s like an area where the physical world touches the veil isn’t it?” Luke asked eagerly. 

“Yes.”

“That means your people could live there right?”

“You would do this for us, and only ask for a cape in return?”

“Well… I was hoping you might help us out against the invaders.”

“I see. You wish to use us.”

Luke rolled his eyes. 

“Don’t be overly dramatic. If I gave you guys a safe place to live, all I’m asking is that you help out where you can,” Luke said with a sigh. “I don’t know what kind of crazy shit is going on out there.  For all I know the second wave will wipe out humanity as soon as it arrives.”

“A grim prospect.”

“Hey, I’d just as soon take the fire cloak, if you want to try your luck here be my guest.”

“I am… sorry,” Frank said in a rare apology. “I will accept your offer, but will not force any of my kin to come with me.”

Ultimately, Luke was sure that if Frank left then most if not all of the other tailless would follow. What exactly he would do with several hundred NPCs he didn’t know. They might be helpful building up an outpost he supposed. 

If the video game logic of the [System] extended to base building then it was definitely something he would delegate to Nate; his brother always kicked his ass in strategy games. 

Over the next couple of hours, Luke used the coins that Naeveron helped him gather to buy a cheap [Band Aid]. Though it wasn’t as potent as [Primordial Tea Leaf], the cheap item would help ease the lingering tenderness in his leg. 

When Frank was ready to go, the pair of them headed over to the elevator shaft, and climbed the rope that still dangled down. Luke expected the tailless to put up more of a fuss as their saviours left, but a quick word from Frank and they were happy to wait around for further instructions. 

As they walked through the sewers again, Luke and Frank discussed what to do next. With Frank’s shadow domain he was best suited to scout out the Gothic cathedral, and Luke volunteered to dig through the collapsed city district to search out the Draugsvär anchor. 

They still needed to kill one boss before escape from the dungeon would be possible. Before making any moves, Lule decided it was time to have a difficult conversation.

I hope he doesn’t take it the wrong way.

_____

I'd just like to take this post chapter note to thank everyone who has signed up to the patreon, and apologise for the late chapter. My toddler has been acting up (as toddlers do), and I've had a bit of writer's block the last few days. I'm still not that happy with this chapter, but I think its better to push forwards than lose the momentum.