Chapter 81 – Introductions

AG. Don't know what to think of this chapter. My text to speech software was running like a sick dog and made my last pass of editing super painful. I meant the whole thing was so disjointed and my levels of frustration so high that I'm not sure how well it will flow. Anyway hopefully it's okay.

Tom decided to test the waters immediately and strode straight to the door. It was time to gain some more information. Nevertheless, he paused for a moment before going through.

There was always a certain excitement, the feeling of the great unknown that was fun to savour. He wondered what the lobby was going to be like. Once he went through the door, would it be to a grandiose castle, a roughhouse adventurer-style pub from the stories, or an idyllic landscape like the place where April sent him to do battle? Despite his extensive experience, he was at a loss at what he was about to see. Guessing the desires and thought patterns of a GODDESS was beyond a mortal. There was even the possibility of a more exotic presentation of the lobby, with every individual person getting a unique, tailored construction.

He bit his lip, then laughing at himself he opened the door and strode through the rippling portal on the other side.

He was teleported instantly. He could feel the change in the ground under his feet, a shift in the ambient noise. He froze and glanced around, slightly perplexed.

The world he found himself in was nothing like what he had expected. The sky was stretching infinitely far above him, and it was the same with the horizons, but what he knew was the habitable area wasn’t what he had been anticipating.

His feet stood upon a cushioning blue dense ground cover made up of lots of little leaves. The air temperature around him was almost perfect. There was slight, but pleasant radiant heat from the sun combining wonderfully with a cooling, but not cold breeze. However, that pleasant environment was just for the area where he stood.

DEUS had clearly chosen a lobby space filled with lots of micro-habitats. Close enough for him to reach out and touch was one of the invisible walls that demarcated the different areas.  On his side, it was warm and pleasant. Curiosity got the better of him, and he thrust his hand through the pane of energy that separated him from the hellish winter. His hand felt the swirling snow and the tugging breeze. The temperature stung, and when he drew his fingers back, the snowflakes that were clinging to him melted rapidly. Tom watched the environment carefully. None of the snow or wind had breached the barrier directly. It was a swirling blizzard that was completely accessible, but also absolutely cut off from the temperate environment that he was in.

He wanted to jump through and see what would happen, but he resisted the impulse in order to glance around more curiously. Twenty metres in front of him there were pools of magma that looked hot; unlike the blizzard, this was an environment that would be rapidly deadly as opposed to merely briefly uncomfortable. From where he stood, he could see seven different water domains. Only two were steaming, but at least one pool had large ice blocks in it. Adjacent to the magnum was an area filled with what looked like swirling embers.

It all made a lot of sense: if you drew in people from everywhere, you needed a variety of environments to house them. He finished his little spin, and then focused on what mattered. A short distance away with his feet on the same blue not quite grass was the pot plant from the contender contest. Its vines were currently stretched out to expand it to three times its usual size, and Tom got the impression of a country bumpkin gaping, mouth open, at the sky-scrapers in a modern city. The magic that had allowed him to interpret body language in the contender’s circle was clearly active here as well. Tom couldn’t blame it for its over-the-top reaction. He kind of felt like doing it, too. The environment was spectacular, extraordinarily magical while remaining practical. Most of the specific terrains exited to a large, central paved area with a big boulder in the middle; those that didn’t appeared to have portals that probably served the same purpose.

“Excuse me…”

Tom jerked around in surprise at the unexpected voice. A creature had appeared between him and the blizzard. It might have stepped out of the storm, but Tom suspected it had teleported, because there was snow on it or evidence of it having melted off either. The creature was roughly humanoid and seemed to be a golem. While it was sculptured to look like a human, none of its features were quite right. Besides, it was extraordinarily weathered, like a marble statue that had been left outside for a couple of hundred years.

“Um… yes,” Tom answered cautiously.

“I’m your assigned guide.”

There was an abrupt whistle and then a crash as the thing he was talking to exploded. A sticky, wet substance splashed outwards. It splattered everywhere apart from on him, he realised when he checked his clothes. Then he stared at what had done the damage. It, too, was perfectly clean. It was a heavy stone the size of a beach ball that had apparently squished the construct which had been his assigned guide. The fact it was perfectly clean spoke to high-levelled, directed magic. Briefly, Tom searched his surroundings to see if there was anyone noticeably watching him. Then he glanced down in disgust at the liquid that had gone everywhere. His now thoroughly in-operatable guide, despite its appearance, had clearly never been a golem…. Perhaps, it was a magical construct or exotic summon of some type - Tom didn’t have the knowledge to tell.

The stone moved slightly, and Tom tensed up.

The rock opened its eyes. “Apologies for the dramatics. They get a bit icky when cannonballed, but I had to act fast so you wouldn’t be subjected to them. The constructs are dumb and super annoying if you’re forced to interact with them. This way, you’re saved. Now, am I correct in assuming that this is your first time here? You’re a recruit for the child one bucket, right?”

He stared at the creature in shock, momentarily unable to get his brain around the incongruity of the moment.

“Is that right? Are you in the child one bucket? Hey there? Are you listening? Or are you one of those creatures that think really slowly? Do I need to give you more time?”

“No, I’m fine. I was just surprised. Yes, I’m in child bucket one. I’m trying to work out how everything around here works.”

“Great. I once inducted a stone elemental. It was so slow” The rock winked at him. “Let’s go. I have things to show you.”

It hadn’t moved, but Tom staggered as a massive weight landed on his shoulders; then it shifted to his back and proceeded to shove him forward. It was as though multiple bouncers had their thick, meaty hands against his back, pushing. Being rock-handled in a way that he could not resist, he was herded toward the large central area that he had already identified. The rock rolled smoothly next to him, even though it should not have been possible due to its irregular shape.

He was forced out of the blue ground covered area and made to step onto the hard stone floor. The temperature was suddenly perfect, and, given the starting biome had felt tailored for him, he wasn’t sure how this area suited him more.

But somehow, being here felt even better than in his original starting spot.

The stone person groaned in relief. “Much, much better. I don’t know how you exist in somewhere so cold.”

“What did you mean?” Tom looked pointedly at the blue covered ground. “That temperature was near perfect.”

“Oh, I know. People are always shoved into their most suitable biome. But this can be your first lesson. Not everyone likes the environment at the same temperature as you do. This central area is the only exception. This has such magic that everyone experiences their optimal conditions. It’s the place where we can chat with each other without any party suffering. I don’t know why the whole place wasn’t like that, but you know, that’s just GODs being GODs. Just give me a moment. I need to save your fellow inductee.”

Tom looked in the direction the rock had half rolled toward. The pot plant was talking to a bright yellow plastic plant.

“Got to fix this. Meddlesome things.” The rock muttered.

He glanced at it, and then it vanished.

There was a loud thump and his eyes shot up to see the rock firmly embedded into the ground where the hideous yellow plastic plant had previously been. Then there was a long pause as the two of them were looking at each other and clearly having a conversation that Tom couldn’t hear at all. He had already deduced that sound couldn’t cross the area barriers, so he wasn’t surprised that he couldn’t listen in. After thirty seconds, the pot plant was abruptly propelled forward and toward the central area in the same undignified manner that Tom had been.

Curled into a little ball - a posture that showed frustrated annoyance - it was forced to stand next to Tom.

“Great, now that you’re both here, we can continue with lecture. Unless...” The rock paused, and a pulse of energy radiated out for it. “Unless, of course, there are more.”

Almost on cue, like the rock had personally timed it, a cloud of red mist expanded, and the contender Tom thought of as the big guy was deposited. A very anaemic mushroom-looking person, one that was a head over Tom but would only have come up to an adult’s shoulder, seemed to have been the one to have brought him here.

“A big welcome to the three of you. I’m here to give you a rundown on how things are going to work. First introductions. My name is Amkhael, and I’m a member of the open section; my friend here is Esedhuil. Don’t feel required to listen to anything she says. She’s pretty new around here.”

“What do you mean? I’ve survived four cycles, and I have the debuffs to prove it.”

“And I’ve been here for five, so, as I said, ignore her. She’s too inexperienced to give good advice.”

The anaemic looking person puffed out to be twice her size, which he interpreted as her rolling her eyes. The seamless certainty that came with his interpretation of the other species body language was incredible.

Amkhael ignored her. “As we are open contenders, our responsibilities are different from yours, young ones. Not only are we expected to be the strongest - we’re required to mentor the newbies. So, I’m going to show you the resources we have. The data archive is the most important part of your being here.” The stone rolled over to the central boulder, which had a roughly cylindrical shape and the size of a small house. As Amkhael approached it, the entire thing lit up. “This is where we record all of our lists. If you don’t spend a significant part of the next four days studying it, you’re not doing things right and are likely to fail.”

The two other child one category people next to him immediately became more attentive.

The rock jiggled, clearly pleased. “There’s an expectation that, after every fight, you are going to record the details of the battle. The more information we gather about the opponents, the better, and, if you’re not recording every detail possible, we’ll kick you out. We may fight individually, but winning is a group effort.”

“DEUS is not using this in the same manner as the other GODs,” Esedhuil interrupted. “MAKROS and FAMES use it to eliminate emerging powerhouses. SUPREME, GOBUS and WADOR focus on winning and building strength, and the other two barely participate. Only DEUS, and, to a more limited extent, WADOR use it as a macro-economic tool to save civilisations in the wider world. That means our candidates, like you,” she looked straight at Tom, “are often weaker than those representing the other powers.”

“I’ll hold my own.” He promised.

Esedhuil fluffed herself in amusement. “How you can say that so confidently given your weakness stuns me. But the fact you’ve made it through must mean you’ve got some hidden trump cards.”

“It’s obviously like Corrine,” Amkhael interceded. “It looks a fair bit different, but it’s probably the same species.”

“She’s a giant. She’s taller than me, and her hair goes to her shoulders, not short like it.”

“You know we can ask it?” the rock said. “But I’m betting it’s from her species.”

“Yes, I’m human, and my name is Tom, and I use he pronouns.”

“Sorry,” the rock apologised. “It’s always hard with your weird shapes and furry mating rules. What’s the distinguishing features? Is it the white streak in the hair? Is the lack of that what makes one of you male?”

Tom laughed at that. “No, it’s not. There are lots of clues, but I guess you’ll need to have a skill or to be human to be able to tell. About Corrine, is she around often? I know her, but I don’t get to speak to her as much as I would like to in the real world.”

“Wait. You have two of the same species here?” The pot plant interrupted, looking dazed, something it expressed by letting all of its leaves hung limply. “Two at the same time!?”

“Yes, we do, and do you have a name?”

“Baptiste and I guess I’m what you would call male.” the pot plant said, introducing itself.

“Gruh Mul,” the large hulking creature said after a moment.

“Yes, yes,” Esedhuil continued, sounding frustrated at the interruption. “Some species like names. As I was saying. DEUS’s champions are often weaker than others, and we offset that by sharing data and compiling lists.”

“Exactly,” Amkhael interjected, his rock body bouncing up and down on the spot. “And these interfaces,” the central boulder glowed as he said that. “Allow you to access that data.” Abruptly, a list of names appeared - thirty-one of them, to be precise. Tom could see his own at the very bottom of the list. “This here is the DEUS child one list. It’s currently sorted by combat prowess.”

Tom devoured the information. There were three people with a general combat rating of above ten, and then Gruh Mul was in the next clump of names with an eight point three, while Baptiste was a bit below midfield with seven point four. Below Baptiste, the scores dropped steadily through the second worst had a combat ranking of four point nine.

“Our friend Tom is not very good on this metric,” Amkhael unhelpfully pointed out.

“I’ll grow.”

“I have no doubt.” The rock shivered on the spot, its equivalent of grinning.

Then the list changed abruptly with a new set of names, with the second place highlighted.

Adam – 9.6, 700

This list had been sorted by the number of coins rather than combat ranking, and Adam was there because he had gotten seven hundred of them. The general combat rating was far higher than the average in child one, so Tom deduced that this list came from an older category.

“Adam was a human,” Amkhael told him.

The list shifted again. This time, the person highlighted was Corrine. She had two hundred and sixty-one coins to her name, and, once more, her combat rating was far below everyone around her level of success.

“I have no doubt you’ll do well, because I’ve seen it before.” The rock said smugly. “It’s clear that you humans punch significantly above your weight. Is it a racial ability or is it a special skill you’re all taught?”

Tom glanced at him, sharply. “No. I’m not answering that. I’ve spilled that secret once. I won’t do it again.”

The rock bounced up and down on the spot. “Good.”

“Wait,” Baptiste interrupted. “Are you seriously telling me humans have had three champions in the time you’ve been here?”

“Humans are reckless,” Esedhuil observed. “They are clearly fighting without a GOD’s shield.”  While earlier she had fluffed up to show amusement right now, she looked almost desiccated to show strong disapproval. “Their success does not justify the risks they’re taking or have taken.”

“See now,” Amkhael stated proudly. “What Esedhuil is missing is that humans are a special case. Their survival rate is better than average.” A new list with eight names appeared. The last two, his and Corrine’s, had question marks, but above those, there were two with skulls and four with coin totals ranging from five hundred to fifteen hundred.

“You’ve had eight?” Baptiste’s voice sounded strangled. “Eight! How long has the competition been going for? Forty years?”

“The first one was twenty years ago,” Amkhael told him, unhelpful yet again. Tom couldn’t tell if it was deliberate shit-stirring or if the stone was that oblivious to social clues.

“Eight in a quarter of a generation.” Baptiste squeaked. “That’s unconscionable.”

The lines in the mushroom went even sharper. You could see creases that went a centimetre into the thin creature. He didn‘t need the supernatural empathy sense to interpret what that meant. If she had shown annoyance to this point, she was furious now. “Don’t question DEUS. The humans are here because she wants them to be.”

“Don’t concern yourself with Esedhuil,” the stone said. “She’s a priestess. She gets touchy about certain topics, especially if your careless words impugn on our GODDESS.”

Tom’s other two companions immediately did their equivalent of prostrating themselves. Tom did nothing, his mind racing. Part of him thought he should venerate the priestess of the GODDESS who had claimed them from Earth. Showing her respect was in his best interests, because it was not sensible to mindlessly challenge cultural norms, but he still couldn’t bring himself to do it. Instead, he considered the new information from the lists. The trick he had been considering implementing clearly worked. All the other humans had gotten far more coins than their strength should have enabled them to. If Tom added his precognition mana into the mix, he hoped he could supercharge his coin acquisition even further. He would confirm the exact technique Corrine used, and then improve on it. He wondered how often they had all fought without the GOD’s shield, but without knowing how long they were here and how many battles they’ve fought, it was impossible to tell. 

“There’s a locked file for human eyes only,” Esedhuil told him. “I presume it explains their secrets.”

“I’ll check it out in private,” Tom promised. “But I doubt it would be necessary. I’m pretty confident I know their trick.”

“It’s some kind of oracle cheat.” Amkhael speculated.

“You know better than to pry like that.” Esedhuil snapped at the rock. “It’s dangerous to try to find another’s secrets, especially when they’re in the competition. Please, ignore my colleagues’ stupidity – but, Tom, I would also like to warn you. Please, don’t be overconfident and throw your life away. Nothing is infallible, and especially not humans’ tricks.” She had various appendages sprouting out at seemingly random spots on her body, and they were all a variety of different sizes, but, as she said her warning, they all straightened to point at the screen, and the list upon it had changed. “That’s human activity, listed chronologically.”

Tom gulped slightly. One of the skulls had come in after Corrine, and the other one was just before them. The first four had survived, but the later ones had either died or were still active. The reason for the warning couldn’t be clearer.  “I’ll be careful.”

“Excellent.” Amkhael said happily. “Now that that’s resolved, let me draw your attention to the opposition research we have available.”

“What the fuck.” a female voice abruptly yelled behind him. “Tom, is that you? What the fuck are you doing here? How the fuck did you manage that?”

He turned sheepishly to see Corrine’s red-tinged face.

He shrugged. “For now, it’s just me. But I’ll get Kang and Bri in soon.”

“You’re too weak to be here. They’re even worse. Humans died in this shithole.”

He couldn’t help but smirk at her. “Too weak? Clearly not.”

“You are weak. I know this; I’ve fought you in the real world.”

“I said I was going to make it.”

“And you know each other personally,” the pot plant said with a despairing voice. “How can one species be so lucky?”

“And, surprise,” Tom beamed at her. “Here I am.”

For a couple of seconds, it seemed like Corrine’s brain had shut down. “This is bullshit. You’re too fucking weak to be here. I challenge you.”

“Wait a moment.” Amkhael said. “I haven’t finished. It’s not appropriate to give challenge before I’ve finished.”

“You think you’re the fucking best, Tom. You’re not.” Corrine continued, ignoring Amkhael’s interruption just like he had disregarded Baptiste’s. “I challenge you. Right here, right now.”

Text appeared in front of his eyes like it would appear in the system room on a wall, but there was no wall and he knew with absolute certainty that no one else could read it.

Corrine Hayley Roberts has challenged you to a duel to the death under a full GOD’s shield.

Accept or Decline.

Tom wrinkled his nose. She had a combat rating of nine. Him fighting her was clearly ridiculous. “Is this really necessary?”

“Yes, it fucking is.”

There was a full GOD shield involved, so he accepted the offer and found himself on a mountain peak immediately. Cutting freezing gusts of wind assaulted him and almost knocked him off his feet. The total space they had to fight with was about equivalent to a soccer pitch, with you falling off a sheer cliff once you went beyond that point.

Corrine stood with the wind powerful enough to upset his balance, not even fluttering her hair because of one of her skills. “When you do an official battle, it generates a random arena. I’ve fought in water that comes up to my waist, a blizzard, and a desert so hot it hurt to breathe. This,” she glanced around. “Is almost fucking pleasant.”

A countdown appeared above him.

“When it reaches zero, I’m going to kill you.” She smiled.

Tom had no doubt she meant every word. He held a spear, and he tried to work out how to fight his opponent. He knew for a fact she had magic far superior to his own. If it became a long-range magic fest, he would lose.

He would have to charge her.

The moment the countdown finished, he sprinted forward. Time slowed down as his trait activated. She was, after all, three ranks higher than him and it showed by how sluggish his body abruptly felt.

Corrine didn’t change her posture. She was apparently waiting for him to close.

Suddenly, he was no longer in his body and he was looking down on the mountain plateau. Time had stopped, then it started. His body took a step and then Tom saw the wind blades coming for it. There were three of them - neck, chest, and knee-height. Like an idiot, he ran through them like they weren’t there and then they tore into his unbraced and unprepared body. His head went flying, decapitated, his leading leg was cut off at the knee, and the other leg survived, mangled, while the middle blade cut halfway through his chest.

It was gruesome.

A moment later, he was back with the others.

They were all staring at Corrine, their posture exhibiting various amounts of horror.

“You can’t challenge like that.” Amkhael protested.

“Fucking weak. You shouldn’t be here. What kind of fuckhead doesn’t bother with mana sight in a duel to the death?” She snapped. “Fight again. You need to be better.”

Corrine Hayley Roberts has challenged you to a duel to the death under a full GOD’s shield.

Accept or Decline.

“Is this really necessary? Your build hard counters mine.”

“I won’t use air blades. Fucking accept the invite. You need to understand what you’re fucking facing. There are people in the child category stronger than me.”

He accepted.

A flame whip cut him in two, starting from the top of his head and then crossing all the way down to his groin.

Then, in the next battle, her sword finished the fight. Each time she killed him, she removed the method from her arsenal.  

She had restricted herself from using any offensive magic and no legs. Basically, she had only her fists, elbows, and head left to attack him with. He lasted a single blow longer. Tom catalogued her skillset. She was very impressive, and there was a very good reason she had qualified to be here. She possessed deadly flame, and air magic, and more than just the blades and whips. Corrine also had bolts, remote detonation spells, and could control six different attacks simultaneously. In addition to external magic, she could also empower her blows, and had two separate fast movement techniques. Her general combat rating of above nine was clearly well earned.

“You’re too weak.”

“I’ll be using a GOD’s shield.”

She looked at him incredulously. “No, you won’t. I’ve known you long enough to know you’ll take risks.”

He winked at her. “Don’t stress. I promise, I’ll be using it some of the time.”