Chapter 7

7. Battle Core

Guild MotD

Yes, everyone, we have confirmed that little brother is back in the game.  No we don’t know where, his location is listed as “The Recent Past.”  Updates on the website in real time.

Hail

Hey everyone.  Yes I’m back.  Also, I figured out how to turn mentions on, so … um, you guys talk about me a lot?  Or does it just seem that way?  I had chat minimized 95% of the time before, but now it seems like I have a blinking bumblebee in the corner of my eye all of the time.  It’s kind of annoying.

Stan

Hail holy shit how are you?

Zebras

Hail, WB!  Sorry if we’re blowing up your icon, we’re excited

Malick

WTF is the recent past and how do we get there to help you, Hail?

Worple

Corinth says hi.  He’s trying to solo that new dungeon you created.  He says it’s wicked awesome, btw.

Peafowlet

Hail, we heard you were stuck on Earth.   Did Arc let you go?

Gummytiger

I just realized that under location, there’s an icon, and if you focus on it it says ‘the near future.’  Holy crap, Arc is pulling a time paradox on us!

Softspook

You can’t have time paradoxes.  They either resolve themselves or destroy the universe

Potatoad

This is a videogame, nerd.

April

Hail, what level are you?  Still late 30’s?

Wesle

Hail, I know where three of the hideouts for the bandits are.  Or were.  They got raided by an endgame guild a while ago and haven’t respawned, but they might help you if you’re in the past.

Zebras

Guys, try to calm down.  It’s not like he hasn’t done this to us before

Daemon

Hail, give me a moment to respond to the gong.  I am putting affairs in order to bring the greatest number of helpers with me as possible by expanding your household staff at the last moment.  I have a while left on the timer, but it seems that this is a one way trip.

Hail

Yeah, I’m not going to read all of that, I have to get ready.  We’re going to merge the recent past with the near future soon guys.  Get ready.  Take the option to jump back in the time stream as soon as you can if you want any sort of advantage.  Also turning mentions off again.  You guys are too noisy.

I minimized my guild chat window again, then looked at my HUD with satisfaction.  It now more closely resembled some of the more powerful and successful Travelers whose videos I had watched through the forums while on earth.  I had cooldown timers, debuff duration reminders, cast time estimators all in convenient places which would not distract me.

Considering that I had been virtually winging it before without any of those things, I was certain that my performance was about to take a solid shot upwards.  However, I didn’t need any of that right now, so I switched it back into social mode and checked in with the two parties I had sent out on Quests.

Tarisha’s group hadn’t yet outrun Phil and Laurant’s but I expected it was only a matter of time.  My Shire Deputy and the Lieutenant of my growing army were both bound to the land, while Tarisha’s group had swift flying mounts which would eat up the leagues rapidly.  One of the Travelers had attempted to open a portal to shorten the trip considerably, but they had gotten a message that portals were ‘temporallyunavailable while in The Recent Past.’

After I’d satisfied myself that I’d done everything I could do, I returned to the study where my throne for Thorn March rested, and I took a seat.  And once more I delved deep into the menus which represented the support system that helped me generate quests.  There was a lot I had to do, and most of it was experimentation.  I hadn’t really had all that much time to grow familiar with the features before I had been ejected from the world previously.  Every time I had scratched the surface, I had found a new layer of paint beneath that represented an entire subsystem which helped me interact with the world-system directly.

Not that I could control most of them, of course.  But there was a few which I needed to figure out, for when I returned to North Shire.  My return would be one of either triumph or humiliation, and I didn’t like to look foolish.

Reputation wise, I had more people actively in the corner of House Jeoran than ever before, although my personal Reputation remained unchanged, mostly.  The completion of the guild alliance quest gave a significant boost, as did the handful of quests which I had written personally before my disappearance, despite the fact that they had been issued by Malkios, or one of my other more powerful associated Quest Givers.

I was pleased, and annoyed, with the success of those quests.  Pleased because the quests were to literally keep my brother and mother safe if I were unavailable for any reason.  Annoyed, because the quests had been issued 11255 times and completed 8084 times.  That marked it as a very successful quest line by the system’s standards, but it meant that threats to my family existed.

I had more than just a completion / dropped / failed / incomplete ratio, however.  I had detailed reports issued from the Travelers in question to Malkios himself.  I quickly began to run through the more common tropes, to identify where they were coming from.

Storm, mostly.  But also a few nobles from Eolstree who viewed baby Rain as a threat.  I committed the names to memory.  I am very good at remembering things, when I want to, and I was determined to see those who would threaten either my mother or my brother have their malice repaid.

I was amused to note that six of the guilds which had completed the quest for an alliance had done so by killing Nial Kingslayer.  I found it strange that the company which created my world had no issue with that quest, but had taken me out of Lagrea for weeks because someone had broken the windows of his apartment.  Something which I hadn’t known or had any control over at all!

A part of me wanted to wallow in the unfairness of all of that, but I knew I didn’t have time.  Eventually someone outside of my circle of trust would realize that something was ‘changing the past’ of Yuikon, and that people would begin investigating.  Tarisha had warned me that this event would likely blow up larger than any of my previous ones.  She didn’t know the half of it, because I hadn’t told her the capstone yet.  I had wanted to make certain that it would work.

And now, sitting on my secondary throne, I knew that it was possible.  From my inventory, I selected five cores in preparation.  I pulled them from my inventory one by one and fed them into the system menu, each core unlocking more and more options.  The Dungeon Daughter Cores vanished unused, but when I finalized all of my selections, one single item was returned.

[Battle Core: The Battle for North Shire] has been received!

17/17 uses remain.

Reduced Death Penalty selected for all player participants.

I smiled in satisfaction.  This, this was how battlegrounds were meant to be generated.  What I had done before had been done in panic.  I had echoed the words my grandfather had spoken, and the system had done the rest.  This method was better.

I put the battle core into my inventory before anyone saw the multi-colored, multifaceted jewel.  As though anyone but a Native would know what it was, and I doubted that anyone in my household would snitch on me.

With this core, I could generate up to 17 battlegrounds.  It hadn’t cost me 17 dungeon cores, but five.  I could have gotten a full 50 battle grounds out of that many cores, but I had chosen options which had reduced the available number.  If it took more than 17 battles to secure my land, then I would be in trouble.

The battle core was perhaps the most potent item I had ever held, but it was much more limited compared to a simple dungeon core.  It could only be used to generate battles between the my faction, and factions invading my lands.  I could reuse it, in fact, if I managed to clear out the bandits with charges remaining.

However, the Travelers on my side must have established a link to my house before the beginning of the battle, or to my enemies, or they would be marked as a mercenary.  Participation would still reach out to all Travelers in my world, both those in the Near Future and the Recent Past, which was why I was planning on waiting in The Recent Past and preparing for a few days before triggering the first of the battles.

Because once that happened, the Recent Past was about to smash into The Near Future.  One of the timelines was going to be obliterated, leaving only a shattered remnant of those unwilling to go on.  I was quite certain it wasn’t mine.

Daemon arrived an hour after the creation of the battle core.  And he wasn’t alone.  A hundred Travelers of various races were accompanying him, including a distinct twenty goblins.  Which surprised me, since goblin Travelers hadn’t been around long enough for me to have hired them into my household before being whisked away to earth, but I guess that the entire point of having a steward is that they are able to make decisions on your behalf while you’re unavailable.

Like the decision to expand your household to include a hundred people, with twenty goblins among them.

I heard the procession from my room with the throne, and I decided to go out and meet them.  Wearing my [Golem Crafter’s Coat], which looked something like a suit from earth with inch wide stripes of blue and silver making a spiraling pattern along the length of it, and my [Nagaskin Cloak], a heavy leather cloak of a deep blue color, I feel that I looked quite impressive.

That was, of course, in addition to my natural good looks and unique coloring.  My suit highlighted my black hair with its silver highlights, and my heterochromatic eyes were perhaps the most distinctive feature of my face.  If I weren’t going out to meet friends, I would cast [Illusion Magic: Disguise], which made my appearance less distinctive.  Especially to Natives, for some reason.  It had just reached level five the last time I’d used it, and now it would also obscure the details of my clothes to make them look like a more ordinary line of item, rather than the unique boss drop that it was.

I wondered if I should get a tie.  I had an [Amulet of Lesser Insight], but people from earth all wore ties when they dressed in suits.  I’d ask Daemon, he seemed like a stylish guy.  I really couldn’t figure out why I’d been so standoffish with him to begin with.  Now that I’d gotten to know him, I was growing to like him.  Maybe he was just that sort of person.

The others were all gathering outside the building, having been directed there by Max Benarth once the summons had come through.  Daemon tried to impose some sort of order, but these were Travelers, and so there was gossiping and talking and laughing.  It was great, and I was sort of sorry to ruin it by walking out the door.

Daemon had been watching for me, and as soon as I emerged he bowed deeply.  “Lord Hail.  We have come at your call, to The Recent Past, to serve you,” he said.

Half of the assembled Travelers copied him, the others reacted in various other ways.  Half of the goblins began jumping up and down and running around me in a circle, thanking me effusively for unlocking their race.

I began scanning around the crowd using [Analyze], and I quickly noticed something.  “Nobody here is higher than level sixty,” I commented.  “Nobody except you, at least, Daemon.  And nobody has the [Veteran of Mooncrest Manor] Title active.”

Daemon nodded.  “Indeed.  It was a strict limitation on the portal which brought us here,” he explained.  “I gathered up everyone who was eligible and interested, but we’re not likely to be of much use to you in combat.  Most of us have given up on that aspect of competition in this game and compete in other ways.  Don’t worry, we’ll prove our worth.  Just don’t expect us to carry the battlegrounds, and we’ll complete your noncombat objectives just fine.”

I nodded.  Then I bowed formally to the assembled crowd, the way that a Lord bows to honor his servants.  “Thank you all for coming.  I’m sure that I will find good use of your services very soon.  If there is anyone skilled with tending infants, please raise their hands.”

Twelve hands immediately shot into the air.  But that was only ten volunteers, because two of the goblins had raised both hands at once.