Darling of Fate 3: A LitRPG Apocalypse Adventure, page 10
“Conflict,” I supplied.
“So you know.”
I sighed. “Yes, I’m very familiar with the Aspect that created these Towers and the purpose behind them.” I shook my head in frustration. “I don’t get this guy. Everyone I’ve talked to claims he’s honorable, that he’s doing this for some grand purpose, but I look around and all I see is needless suffering and pointless fighting. Wouldn’t we all be stronger if we worked together?”
Turok pursed his lips, not quite in disagreement, but I could tell that he had some thoughts on the matter.
“Do you see things differently?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It’s not that I disagree with the sentiment,” he said, “and to be honest, I have no memories of my life before the Tower. But I have been through many iterations, many Climbers, many races, and one thing that I have come to realize is that power is a limited resource, and there comes a breaking point when you concentrate enough power into a single individual. No amount of cooperation, teamwork, or camaraderie among weaker individuals can overcome that breaking point. From what I’ve heard of the outside world, every faction of note collects power and funnels it to the top as much as they can. One B-grade powerhouse is worth more than a thousand C-grade cultivators.”
“I don’t buy that,” I said. “We’re all still Nascents,” I waved my hand to encompass my party. “You said so yourself, you’re an Adept, right?” He nodded. “But you would agree that the gap between our power levels is not insurmountable.”
Kundar stepped forward. “You are not wrong, Climber, but as Turok said, none of us have our memories from before the Towers. We woke up with these powers, we didn’t develop them naturally. We skipped all the struggle, strife, and revelation that came with our rise to the Adept Stage. To us, it’s like this power was handed to us on a silver platter. I’m quite confident that the Turok from before the Tower could handle all of us without breaking a sweat.”
That was a thought that gave me pause. I had been considering breaking his geas the same way I had broken Yuri’s, only this time on purpose. If we entered a Soul Contract once my redos were back up and he broke it, then on the next redo, his geas would be broken and he’d remember his past life. I hoped to use this as leverage to guarantee a friendship with another powerful Adept. But the truth was, we had gotten lucky with Yuri. Though his Tower persona had been bloodthirsty and merciless, he claimed in his pre-Tower life that he never murdered sentient beings. What if Turok was a raging dickhead before the tower? I’d have no Soul Contract in place to guarantee his good behavior. And now, Kundar was telling me that the pre-Tower Turok might be something that we couldn’t even handle.
“So, what, then?” I asked. “Three alien races enter, only one leaves? Are we doomed to extinguish each other in the pursuit of this Conflict guy’s sense of the universe?”
Turok shrugged. “It does appear that a certain amount of fighting will be mandated. But my offer still stands. I am willing to sign a Soul Contract not to engage in hostilities with your people and your faction. There will be plenty of enemies as we Ascend.”
Well, I could at least agree on peace. I gathered my thoughts and willed the System to offer an amended Soul Contract to Turok. He couldn’t conscript or mislead any potential recruits and in exchange, he’d be able to meet his quota. There was also a stipulation calling for peace, though I made an amendment that they could defend themselves if attacked—using the least amount of force necessary. God knew I didn’t have anywhere close to a handle on the bulk of the human race—could barely even corral my own Instance without the help of my party.
Turok’s eyes scanned the air in front of him, then he turned to me and nodded. “We accept.”
The Soul Contract materialized in my soul, forming a familiar knot near where my contract with Yuri had rested. The conditions coalesced into physical strands that wrapped around my soul, locking in place like chains. I felt the unbreakable nature of those chains, felt how it would destroy me to violate the conditions. Redos or not, I realized that I had no interest in testing the bounds of a Soul Contract.
“Um, can you tell us what’s happening?” Byron asked from behind me. “What the hell is a Soul Contract?”
I looked over my shoulder to see Byron with a confused expression. Jerome was crossing his arms with an annoyed scowl while Amos was coddling his pigeon like a newborn. Lacy, thankfully, didn’t give me a disapproving look, but I could tell she wished we had talked things over more before jumping into another alliance. Frank had a quizzical look on his face, and I could already hear him asking to inspect the Soul Contract once everything was settled.
“I’m about to explain everything,” I said to Byron.
And I did…almost. I relayed everything I knew from Astrid, Hiko, and Yuri about their history, the conditions that brought them into the Tower, and all of my interactions with them.
Except one thing.
I made sure to omit exactly how Yuri had regained his prior memory and lost his Tower memory through violating the Soul Contract. It was risky, but I had specifically noted that Turok had crafted my Condition so that I only had to answer his questions faithfully. So I spewed out almost everything I knew to drown him in information and direct him away from that topic. He never asked about Yuri’s memories, and I didn’t bring them up.
Once Turok was satisfied, we bade them farewell. The Condition didn’t fulfill, as none of them had time limits or closing conditions specified. Which was fine with me. As long as they couldn’t mess with us, I was content with having the Soul Contract conditions stand. If we avoided too many interactions with the Champions, I wasn’t too worried about my half of the Soul Contract.
“If there’s nothing else, we’ll see you on the Second Floor,” I said.
He gave us a respectful nod and said, “Till then.” Kundar and Aladar followed him as he turned to go. I hadn’t seen the Champions of Order’s stronghold yet, but I assumed that was their destination.
Once they had cleared off, I turned back to the party. “Sorry for taking the reins there, guys. But my Fate vision showed me that the fight was gonna be bloody.” Lex had flown down from the sky, where he had been diligently waiting to see if the fight kicked off again. Once the Soul Contract was signed, he landed on my shoulder and listened as I filled Turok in on the details. “In fact, in the vision, Lex was the first one to die. I thought peace was the better option.” I gave him a loving pet.
“Wha—excuse me?” he asked indignantly. “I am a battle-hardened combat goose. There’s absolutely zero chance I died first.”
I snapped my fingers as I remembered the vision. “You’re right! You died second. Lala died first.”
Amos’ head snapped up, his eyes wide. “Thank you, mate.”
I didn’t do it for Lala, I thought. All the same, I gave him a friendly nod.
I surveyed the group. Everyone seemed uninjured, though I knew Jerome had taken a blow across the chest of his armor. And, of course, the pigeon clutched in Amos’ hands had a bent wing—but I wasn’t counting her.
“Everyone good?” I asked, just to make sure.
Byron held his hands out and examined them. “Ten fingers, ten toes. All good.”
I nodded, turning to Frank and Jerome. Frank nodded shyly while Jerome rubbed at his chest and grunted once. Turning to Lacy, I raised my eyebrows in question. She was biting her lip and I immediately grew serious.
“Lacy? You good?”
She nodded, waving away my concern. “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. We just…we need to talk,” she finally said.
I suppressed a groan. Those were the words someone used before they broke up with you. But we weren’t even together! Not that I didn’t want to be, but someone wasn’t allowed to break up with you before you even became official!
Right?
“Sure thing.” I tried to keep the trepidation out of my voice. Turning my thoughts from that looming conversation, I addressed the group. “Now that that’s dealt with, it’s time to grab our final round of Boons.” Frank and Byron shared an excited look. Jerome’s expression remained neutral. Amos was still fussing over his pigeon. Lacy had a thoughtful expression as she chewed her lip. “Let’s head over and we can gameplan the best distribution.”
As we walked over to the Boon plaza, we engaged in idle chat. But I was only partially paying attention to the conversation around me. Inside, my mind was churning.
What was the best plan? I thought fitfully. There were the two Heirloom Boons, the Class upgrade, the Spirit stat unlock, the stat boosts, Karmic Sight, the crafting tables, the information packets, and the two skill Boons from Time and the Keepers.
I knew none of us would pick Fate’s Boon, no matter how overpowered it was—beholding ourselves to that bitch anymore was off the table.
The Boons we couldn’t pass up on were the Heirloom items and the Class upgrade. In my opinion, those were the three biggest level ups on the entire First Floor. Three Boons down, three to go. Karmic Sight and the Spirit stat unlock were probably my next two choices for the team. Byron had explained the Karmic Sight a bit in the last redo and Yuri had claimed it was one of the most powerful Boons before I told him I couldn’t take it.
From what Byron had mentioned, when activated, it displayed the Karmic threads tying living creatures together. He had said that by focusing on specific strands, he could glimpse packets of information about the person or animal and how they were connected to the living being on the other end of the thread. When he looked at me, he said the Karmic threads were obscured by blinding, golden light—my Fate energy, I had guessed. But for the others, he saw interweaving strands connecting to each other in fascinating ways.
We hadn’t fully experimented with the Sight, but I had already thought of a few powerful use cases. For one, it seemed to be usable as an infallible bullshit detector. Anyone claiming to be friendly would immediately be found out based on the information from their Karmic threads. We also suspected it could be used to detect invisible or hiding enemies—the threads trailing away from them would out them once in range.
It was a definite must-grab, but I wasn’t certain Byron was the best candidate for the final run. He wasn’t the most reliable amongst the team, nor the brightest if I was being honest. On the other hand, the Class upgrade and the two Heirloom items didn’t require any big-brained thinking. But Byron wasn’t my top candidate for the Heirloom items. His Class was more about support and being a force multiplier for the team. The weapon or armor would be wasted on him. The Class upgrade, however…
As the most studious—and probably most intelligent of the party—I figured Frank would be the best candidate for the Karmic Sight. Though I knew the Mind stat boost would also give him a nice power-up, the plus 50 across the three Mind stats was a Boon that would be eclipsed once we all hit Adept. It was a short-term decision that I couldn’t justify if we wanted to make it to the top of this Tower.
Of course, that was assuming he wasn’t able to select his Patron’s Boon for a second time.
As for Amos, I heavily considered the Body Boon again. For one, his pigeons scaled on his Body stats, making them less flying rats and more of a legitimate fighting force.
And for two, I had really been enjoying forced-sobriety Amos. Our battle with Turok had shown that shit-faced Amos was a liability that we couldn’t afford.
That just left Jerome, Lacy, and me.
Chapter 12
A Sinister Thread
Ihad considered the Weapon Heirloom for Jerome, just to round out his set. But there was some concern that since he wasn’t built around offense, we’d just be muddying the waters with an offensive Boon. Yuri had mentioned that I shouldn’t be so narrow-minded about the Heirloom Boons. With my enhanced memory from my trait-boosted Intelligence, I remembered that he said he’d seen Climbers choose the Weapon Boon and come back with a giant shield. That would be something that suited Jerome’s role within our team. It was something worth thinking about, as he was our only real frontline fighter.
Sure, I could mix it up in close, but that was against untrained people still fresh to the Apocalypse. Against heavy hitters, I was more of a hit-and-run type fighter; getting Jerome a weapon to balance against his armor would definitely be to the team’s advantage.
As for Lacy, she already received the Class upgrade and demonstrated incredible power against others at our Stage. She had even fooled Turok and his people, though he had eventually pulled out a counter. My personal choice for her would have been the Armor Boon to shore up her survivability, but I suspected she would push back and try to get someone else to take it.
If she refused, the other decent options for her were the Mind stats boost, unlocking her Spirit stats—such as Enlightenment and Willpower—or grabbing one of the information Boons. That last one was not something I planned to push for since the one I had grabbed had turned out to be useless. However, the primer on Stages interested me. Still, I was fairly confident Kurian could help walk us through our breakthrough, so it wasn’t my top priority.
And then there was me.
I’d already grabbed the Class upgrade, the Weapon Boon, the Spirit stats unlock, and the partial information packet that pertained to the Second Floor. Though I’d made an agreement not to grab any more information packets, Null had fucked me in that deal, so our agreement was out the door as far as I was concerned. All the same, I didn’t want to waste a pick on a useless info packet. But I couldn’t get Karmic Sight, Fate’s Boon, or Time’s Boon. I probably could get the Keeper’s Boon, but Frank already had double of that, so it wasn’t my top choice. And none of the plus fifty stats boosts appealed to me since I was currently sitting on hundreds of unspent stat points as it was.
Which didn’t leave me with many options.
One, I could select the percent effectiveness Boon that raised every stat by 5%. Two, I could risk going against Frank’s Patron’s advice and select Fate’s Boon to boost one of my cores into the Adept Stage. Or three, I could grab the Armor Heirloom Boon to round out my own set. The very last Boon—which I had never considered—was the Boon from the desecrated statue that claimed picking it would make me an enemy of the entire Integrated Universe. That one wasn’t even a real option, so I didn’t count it.
The stat effectiveness boost would be massive, and would obviously scale incredibly as I climbed through the Stages. But at the end of the day, I was abundant in stats and nearly every trait I received came with an effectiveness increase. Since this was my last Boon—at least on this Floor—I wasn’t confident that it would be the most impactful choice.
On the other hand, Frank’s Patron—the Keeper of Secrets—had specifically used one of Frank’s limited information dumps to warn me off of choosing Fate’s Boon. On top of that, every single source of information I’d received suggested Fate was not to be trusted. Worse, she was known for actively working against her chosen Climbers when it suited her. That seemed good enough reason not to mess around with her Boon—even if boosting one of my cores up a Stage sounded incredibly overpowered.
Which left the Armor Boon that I was hoping I could convince Lacy to snag.
I explained my thought process to the team as we neared the Boon Plaza. There were some questions and some back-and-forth, but no major disagreements. I purposefully didn’t explain the Body Boon’s effect on Amos’ inability to get drunk. And after his display against Turok, I felt justified in that bit of deceit; he had almost gotten us killed because of his drunkenness.
The one thing we got stuck on, which I knew we would, was who would take the Armor Boon.
“I don’t need armor,” Lacy said for the third time. “My illusions are enough. Plus, if I’m in the line of fire, it’s because I did something wrong.”
We were standing in a clump in front of Conflict’s statue as pedestrians streamed through the plaza. Though we were chatting casually, I had one eye scanning around us at all times. Though the Beasts of Chaos, Champions of Order, and Watcher Yuri were all neutralized or friendly, we still hadn’t seen Kneer and the Jree in hours.
Which meant I was only half listening when Lacy said, “If anyone should grab the Armor Boon, it’s Dirk. We all saw him in the thick of the fighting against those Champion weirdos.”
“Yeah, Dirk gets the Armor fosho,” Byron added.
Jerome grunted, which was generally indecipherable, though in this instance, I could tell he agreed. Amos was ignoring us as he stood in front of the Body Boon while Frank was rubbing his chin in thought.
“Why don’t you all get your Boons and we can figure out my Boon after,” I suggested.
Frank shrugged and went over to the Karmic Sight Boon. Amos flashed me a thumbs up and turned toward the Body Boon. Byron nodded but then hesitated in front of Conflict’s Boon. We had told him that both Lacy and I had been knocked out for a spell after picking that particular Boon. Jerome stood with his arms crossed. I couldn’t tell if it was because he wanted everyone else to go first or if he was just being defiant because he thought I was telling him what to do.
And that just left me and Lacy.
“I still think you should get the armor,” I said. “I’ve got lots of survivability with my Mass core boosting my Endurance. Not to mention the Endurance from my traits.”
She crossed her arms and tilted her head. “Dirk, you’re being ridiculous and you know it. I’m not a frontline fighter and never will be. You’re the one racing toward the enemies with a katana in your hands, using speed and luck to avoid attacks. Can you just pick the Armor Boon so we can move on?”
I pursed my lips in equal parts annoyance and lack of rebuttal. It was hard to admit, but my push for Lacy to grab the Armor was 95% favoritism and 5% practicality. But was it my fault that Lacy’s deaths hit me the hardest? She was the one that I’d been rushing to save in those first few redos. Yes, I obviously had been trying to save everyone, but it was Lacy who was kidnapped and assaulted. Lacy who Kneer’s Mantle had shredded while I was forced to run like a coward.
