Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 127: Setting the Course

“I picked something called Seeker,” Ibtep relented after a while, “I am unclear about the details, but the description was interesting. Knowledge, Treasure, Power. The search never ends.”

Zac had no idea about what kind of class it was either, and could only guess it was something of a mix between a scholar and a scout. He actually found it a bit fitting, since if there was one thing that personified his new tentative ally it was an unrelenting curiosity. He was starting to get the feeling that the Holiness picked Ibtep for this mission party to get some peace and quiet.

After they’d done what they needed he brought the Zhix with him to the town, and the reactions were quite expressive. A group of warriors quickly gathered close-by, balefully glaring at the Zhix. Zac sighed as he knew this reaction was coming.

“Greetings people of Hive Atwood, I am Ibtep, liaison of the holiness,” It said, looking unperturbed by the bloodlust in the gazes.

Noone answered, but only kept glaring at the Zhix. Of course, Zac knew that only a scant few in the audience could understand him.

“They’re mad about the friends they lost on your island recently, so making friends might be a bit hard,” Zac said.

“It was weakness leaving your hive. But if anyone feel it was unjust I can arrange a death match against those who felled your warriors. Hive Kundevi is always welcoming a test to hone their purity.”

Those with [Book of Babel] translated the Zhix’s words, and his words gave the demons a start. Many started hesitantly glance at each other, looking a bit unwilling to enter a death battle for the fallen demons. Zac wasn’t sure what to do about the situation either, and he felt it wasn’t right for him to start meddling. After all, no one had killed more demons than he had.

But he also knew that the demons wouldn’t be angry forever. Sudden death was a much more expected part of life for them, as most of them didn’t expect to die of old age. Dying in an effort to gain power or wealth was the norm, and the scouts had all volunteered for the missions.

“I’m sure you want to explore our, uh, hive on your own for a while. You will need to have an escort at all times though, since our alliance still isn’t set in stone,” he said, and the Zhix looked excited rather than offended.

“Very well human, it has been an interesting experience to travel with you. We’ll speak again soon,” it said as it walked away.

“You two, please escort him for now, keep him away from any critical areas. And no death matches against this one, I am trying to form an alliance with their kind. But they are a bit crazy, and if any you want to fight in the future I’m sure they won’t mind,” Zac said as he looked at two of the demons in the group, who nodded and followed the Zhix.

Zac was quite relieved to leave the Zhix a bit to its own devices after a day of odd questions. So far he felt that the Zhix might not be the worst groups of people to form an alliance with. They were a bit insane, and Zac felt they might be crazed zealots, but he didn’t sense much duplicity from them.

If he could help them understand that cosmic energy wasn’t some corruption, but rather a natural part of their new world, they might not attack everyone and everything. If he could use this hive to make alliances with the Zhix all over the world they might be in a far better position against the incursions. They clearly loved battle, and if they could change their focus from the so-called Dominators to the foreign invaders, then Zac would have allies that were likely even more useful than humanity.

Still, it was a plan in its infancy, and he wouldn’t risk his town just for such a goal. If they showed any signs of betrayal he wouldn’t hesitate in eradicating the hive. Luckily they were completely isolated in their island, as seafaring was not their forte. With the waters being filled with dangerous things they were essentially stuck where they were unless Zac helped them.

With all that in mind, he was once again heading for Adran’s command tent and found the administrator neck-deep in various documents.

“Call the various leaders, I’d like to have a meeting in an hour,” Zac said as he immediately left, only hearing an acknowledgment as he left the door.

Next he walked back to the Academy and found the schoolmistress lounging in a chair while overlooking the training field. Zac took out an intricate box from his pouch and handed it over to Alyn as he walked up to her.

“The upgraded array,” he simply said.

“Perfect, I will set it up as they are resting,” she said happily.

“How are things going?” Zac asked.

“Splendid, no permanent disabilities as of yet,” Alyn answered with some pride, drawing a pained grimace from Zac.

“They’ve had a tough life. I want them strong, but not to the point where half of them die or get crippled to get there,” Zac said as he glanced down at the demoness.

“Of course, I have it under control.”

Zac looked out over the field and saw the recruits stand in proper lines, following the movements of one of the demon soldiers who held the same type of spear as the others.

“I will need roughly a million nexus coins to get these recruits started. After that I expect them to be self-sufficient by hunting barghest or mining,” Alyn said.

Zac simply transferred the funds over to her, actually being a bit surprised by the low quote.

“From the way you equipped them I understand that you intend to follow my advice, giving them all uniform classes?” she asked as she looked up at Zac, who nodded affirmatively.

“It would be good if you could find more recruits. Having a male battalion would be good as well, creating some friction between the genders. Add some rewards and punishment and we can probably see much higher improvements,” she said.

“There’s roughly a week before the third wave appears, I’ll see what I can do during that time,” Zac said. “There’s a meeting within the hour, I could use your input.”

“Very well, I’ll set up the array and have them work on their attributes. They’re quite fragile at the moment and there’s much room for improvement,” she said.

Zac made the rounds and invited those that needed to be at the meeting before they all conveyed at Adran’s tent.

“I have gathered everyone here to discuss the coming week,” Zac began as he looked out over the gathered people.

It was the various leaders that were part of planning Port Atwood, but also Sap Trang, Janos, Alea and Ilvere. He couldn’t find Namys, and guessed she was guarding Ogras while he was in seclusion.

“You should all have seen the new people of Port Atwood. They are my first troop who will be training under Alyn,” he began.

“Poor bastards,” Ilvere muttered with a snort, eliciting a few chuckles around the table.

“There is also one of the insectoid beings on the island called Ibtep,” Zac continued. “Earlier today I traveled to their island and brokered a tentative peace with them. My wish is to incorporate them into Port Atwood, as they would be another strong addition to our forces. Their strength was surprisingly high even though they were stuck on an isolated island with few targets to hunt.

“Even though they had such a disadvantageous starting point, they are born warriors, and their leader was strong enough that maybe only the rankers and a few more in the world could contend with it,” he said.

The people looked quite surprised at the information, and the surprise only increased as Zac quickly recapped their battle. The surprise turned to shock when he explained Zhix society, and that the holiness was only in charge of this small hive, while there were leaders of huge hives out there in the world.

“It’s lucky that they will attack anything with cosmic energy, as that puts them against the invasions as well, but I think you humans are in for trouble in the future unless you manage to broker peace. I recommend making use of the hive, turning them into ambassadors for other hives in the future. Not all hives will be on the brink of starvation, and as open to communication as these ones were,” Ilvere said.

“Ibtep is here for that very purpose. Show him around, and teach him about cosmic energy. I think the first step we need to take is to normalize the energy in the world, so they not think of it as corruption, and us as Fallen or Dominators,” Zac agreed.

“But do not tell him anything about the incoming monster horde. I don’t want to risk them taking the opportunity to attack from a second front while we are already besieged. I also need you to figure out a way for us to be warned if they actually start digging toward the island. Something with vibrations, maybe? Like how the earth mages felt the vibrations from the Ayr Ants digging.”

What followed was some discussion regarding who’d be responsible to be the main liaison to Ibtep and the Zhix. Zac couldn’t keep going back and forth or answer all the questions, as he was busy with so many other things.

In the end it fell upon Zakarith to take care of it. She had been trained to become a merchant, which included both the language skills and knowledge of how to converse with people of various cultures. In fact she seemed pretty excited at the prospect of getting some real responsibilities instead of just babysitting the first group of humans.

“Next on the docket is my last trip,” Zac said as he changed the subject.

He briefly recounted the events during his trip, skipping over any sensitive information about his family.

“My goal is to get to the border towns of the Undead Incursion as soon as possible. Toward that end I will finish the last horde as fast as humanly possible. There will be no ten-day grind spree. Everyone has already gained years of wealth from the first two hordes, it is time for me to properly establish a force,” he said as he looked out over the group.

The warriors looked disappointed, but the others were generally positive. There were so many projects regarding the town that were put to hold due to the looming threat of the hordes, but as soon as they were dealt with the town building could begin in earnest.

The reason Zac wanted to move as quickly as possible was since he wasn’t willing to wait around any more in his search for Kenzie. He didn’t wish for his experiences in Greenworth to repeat.

“I believe your best opportunity in the short run is the Auction you mentioned in three days,” Adran said after some deliberation. “Both for your personal goals and for Port Atwood.”

“Oh? How so?” Zac asked, intrigued.

“It sounds that your human leaders are putting on a big show for some reason. They likely have some goal in mind with gathering so many elites into one spot.”

Zac could only nod, as it was in line with his own belief and the information from the broker.

“That means there won’t be only locals there. If they have a public array they likely have multiple private ones. They wouldn’t open up an array to the public unless they felt safe doing so, and having reinforcements come from various towns around the world would generally do the trick.”

“I believe that the auction is announced to local powerhouses at most Government Towns around the world, and the powerhouses who wish to go will use the private teleporters to get there. Them opening up the portal to the public two weeks before is likely in an attempt to find various unaffiliated forces like ourselves,” the administrator continued.

Zac hadn’t even considered that fact, not having analyzed Julia’s too hard. She’d said that they had a teleporter since they were ahead of the curve, and Zac took it at face value. But there was nothing to say that there weren’t multiple towns around the world that had private Teleporters. If a somewhat small village like Winterleaf Village could pool their resources to build the array, then so could the government-owned towns.

“What you’re saying is only making me less willing to go, not more,” Zac said skeptically.

“Well, it is a risk, but also an opportunity. First of all, you might find some force that is located by the Undead Incursion. That way you can both gain more in-depth information, and perhaps even gain access to their teleporter, and save months of travel time,” he said.

“This also sounds like a great opportunity to make a great deal of money,” Zakarith added. “Natives seldom know the worth of many treasures, often since they might not be useful in the beginning when everyone is weak. Those treasures might only show their worth when making E-Grade gear, or trying to break through bottlenecks.”

“So you’re saying we should go there and gobble up any treasures that humanity have no way to evaluate at the moment?” Zac asked, his heartbeat slightly speeding up in anticipation. No one hated making a lot of money.

“Precisely,” the demoness said with an impish smile.

“Well, it’s fine by me, but I don’t think I can learn all these kinds of things myself. I would either have to bring one of you or one of the Sky Gnomes. Can I even take the gnomes with me through the teleporter?” Zac said.

Everyone looked around hesitant, not sure about the answer.

“I think… Yes?” Zakarith finally said with some uncertainty. “There are restrictions to their activities, but if the purpose is mercantile, such as attending an auction, I think it is fine? But you need to check it out with them though.”

“Ogras would go.” Janos suddenly said.

“Huh?” Zac could only ask.

“Well… Ogras kind of loves auctions…” Ilvere said with some hesitation, and it looked like a light dawned in the eyes of most of the old clan members of Azh’Rezak. “He was somewhat known to attend various auctions, spending his grandfather’s money. I believe that trait of his was not part of his fake persona. He would definitely want to go if he is out of seclusion by then.”

Zac started to feel a headache as he imagined the haughty demon running around rampant in New Washington. If his current relationship with the government was strained now, he couldn’t imagine the demon making it better.

He truly hoped the demon would still be in seclusion in three days. Then again, bringing the crafty demon might be even better than bringing Sap Trang. It would probably be more beneficial having him take care of any negotiations with the government.

“Well, he’s busy at the moment so we’ll see how it goes,” Zac said noncommittally.

“The last thing I want to discuss is what to do about all the refugees scattered about our neighboring islands. It’s time to make Port Atwood a proper town.”