Elsewhere

Duke awoke in his own bed with Aurelia cuddled up to him. Before he could even consider what that meant, he was assaulted by notifications.

*** Ungrateful human! I told you to steer clear of this world’s gods and yet you traffic with them directly! There shall be a penalty for this! Oh yes, a grand penalty. You will receive no experience for killing the entire undead army. None. Not one single point. I take it all for myself and give you this final warning. Do not ever put me in this situation again or I will not just withhold something from you, I will take something away! Something dear and precious to you!

I still have need of you so I will permit your Abilities to increase but know that you have tested my favor, and I will not permit it to continue. I can make another Contestant just as I made you.

Your TELEPORTATION has increased to Adept 65

Your REGENERATION has increased to Adept 42

Your LIGHTNING has increased to Practiced 54

Your MENTAL FORTITUDE has ranked up to Practiced 4

Your OVERCHANNEL has increased to Practiced 79

Your CLEANSE has increased to Initiate 25

Your RESTORE has increased to Master 35

Your INVENTORY has increased to Initiate 38

Your ARMOR SKIN has increased to Practiced 66

Your FLIGHT has increased to Initiate 38

Your DUNGEON SENSE has increased to Adept 37

***

Again, the tone of the messages changed.

***

So, you have angered my compatriot. I would normally tell you to not concern yourself, but I cannot. Your interactions with the local deities are very dangerous for you and for our relationship. I cannot say more at this time but do not attract any further attention from them. As it is, the timeline has moved up far too quickly and you are at great risk of not being prepared for what is coming. My partner’s tantrum has deprived you of a significant boost to your power. You must find a way to get that boost elsewhere. And soon.

***

Duke’s eyes snapped into focus after reading that. He had received so many conflicting messages in his notifications over his time in this world that they were starting to blend into the background. This one was different. It seemed quite personal and very directed. The fearful hatred of this world’s gods was very specific and disturbing but what truly struck Duke was the part that called him a Contestant. He did not miss that it was a proper noun. What is going on here? What the hell am I supposed to be preparing for?

At his stirring, Aurelia cuddled in tighter around him, not willing to let him go. The feeling was warm and near perfect. He settled into the warmth of her body and did not get out of bed for some time, enjoying the long moments of comfort. Eventually, though, the moment came to an end and they both got up to get the day started. Neither knew what was in store for them that day, but with the threat of the impending assault by the undead horde ended, they were at least hopeful.

After a CLEANSE and RESTORE to get everything in order, they headed down to join everyone at the breakfast table. Seeing the pair together had become so common now that nobody said anything about it. The events of the previous day, however, were a different topic.

“Good morning, Duke. Good morning, Aurelia.” Baslin started.

“Good morning, everyone.” Duke responded. Aurelia gave smiles to the group as they sat down at the table.

“So, let me get this straight.” Grat started. “You single-handedly destroyed the entire undead army, devastating the area in the process and then completely restored the forest to pristine condition. Did I miss anything?”

“Well, technically, it wasn’t single-handed.” Duke replied.

“You had help?” Elaine jumped in. “Who helped you, Baslin?”

“Orgath.” Duke replied.

“As in the God of Storms, Orgath?” Elaine asked incredulously.

“The same. And it was Gaiathia that made me restore the forest. She really seems to like you two by the way.” Duke delivered the line deadpan.

“The Goddess what?” She spluttered.

Duke continued. “Multiple gods were involved in this conflict. And it needs to end there. I cannot be involved in the affairs of gods.” Duke shuddered at the level of threat looming over him regarding the gods’ involvement in his life.

“I don’t mean to interrupt this delightful conversation, but how exactly are you going to exclude the gods from your activities if they wish to be involved?” Baslin asked, intrigued to hear Duke’s plan on this note.

“I haven’t worked that out just yet, but for now, I’m going to go outside and shout it to the heavens that they need to stay out of my affairs.” Duke answered.

“And you expect that to work? Grat asked.

“Not remotely. But I really am hoping that you four have a better idea for me because that’s the only thing I have come up with so far and I know it’s as likely to fly as a lead balloon.”

“Lead Balloon? Another idiom, yes? You could lay low for a while since the major, immediate threat has passed.” Baslin suggested.

“The approaching undead horde has been destroyed, but the threat that they represented has not lessened. Negron, Chopie, and even Pahst are still out there and no less aggressive. Either I…we…go deal with them directly or they will just rebuild their army of undead and come at us again. Or they will send their regular army, or something else to take us out. I don’t know, maybe they can bribe an ancient dragon to blast us to ash.” Duke responded, exasperation growing in his voice.

“My love, no one bribes an ancient dragon to do anything but not kill them.” Aurelia smiled as she placed her hand on Duke’s arm in reassurance.

“OK, so no dragon, unless we somehow manage to piss one off in some way. At least that’s something.” Duke groused.

“Why are you so afraid of the gods’ involvement anyway? Most would be overjoyed to have one of the Seven act on their behalf.” Elaine asked.

“It has to do with how I came to this world and how I gather my strength here. Their interference could jeopardize my future growth or even more. It’s hard to explain.” Duke responded.

“Are you stealing the power of the gods?” Baslin asked in wonder.

“No, I don’t think so, but I do think my growth is coming from both this world and from the cosmos beyond. My best guess is that their involvement is interfering with the growth from the cosmos beyond.” Duke did not enjoy giving these half-truths but he was nowhere ready to explain something that he, himself, didn’t have more than a tenuous understanding of especially considering how much of a hold it had over him.

“That would explain your phenomenal growth. I would love to study this phenomenon in more depth. Can you tell me how this works.” Baslin asked, excitement rising in his voice.

Duke mentally scrambled, trying to come up with what to say before he finally decided to just explain it all and see what happened. “Let’s go somewhere a bit more private than here to discuss this. I trust our troops, but even having this knowledge could be dangerous for anyone.”

Confused and concerned looks filled those at the table as Duke stood up and led them to one of the private alcoves. Sam greeted them there, closing the heavy curtain behind them. “I have sealed this room off from the rest of the dungeon. Anything you say here will only be heard by yourselves. Well, and me and the Overmind, but there is no avoiding that part unless you want to talk outside where the planetary gods will hear you.”

Duke winced inwardly, having forgotten that the Overmind could listen in. Still, it was better than the gods of this world listening in as the Overmind seemed to be a being of the Cosmos and not something local. He continued.

“I was brought to this world by entities that have not identified themselves. I know there are at least two of them involved but I don’t really know much about them. They are continually watching me and everything I do like I’m a contestant on some sort of reality tv show. I know that doesn’t mean anything to you but just go with it. They are always watching. Every time I go to sleep, they send me messages that I see when I wake up. The messages are system messages that tell me about the experience I’ve earned, how my Skills and Abilities have increased and anything along those lines. At first, the messages also encouraged me to be ‘entertaining’. Now the tone and nature of the messages has changed. They made it clear that working with the gods here was very much against the rules. All the undead I just blasted to atoms? They held onto all the experience from that. I got nothing. That is the power they have over me. Now they are calling me a Contestant. Capital C. It’s a proper noun and it seems they are preparing me for some sort of competition. Pretty fucked up, right?”

“That’s…that’s a lot to digest.” Baslin was the first to speak. “I knew parts of this, but certainly not the whole. I assume you have no idea what this competition will be?”

“No idea but logic would say that there may be others like me that I will have to compete against, right?” Duke responded.

“That does make sense, yes. Do you have any idea of where you might rank against your competition?” Aurelia jumped in.

“No real sense, but if I had to guess, I’m late to the game and behind the curve.” Duke surmised.

“Then you need to get even stronger.” Elaine spoke up. “I know you want to take the fight to Chopie. Maybe now really is the time for that.”

“I can mobilize the Legion in 48 hours. Less if that is what is needed.” Aurelia volunteered.

“The mage corps stands ready.” Baslin added.

“My scouts are already out.” Elaine beamed.

“The, um, walls are staying here.” Grat shrugged. “But I am coming with you.”

Duke looked around the table, seeing his friends all getting ready to join him in his fight yet again. He smiled at the fierceness in their eyes, their willingness to take the war to its source. It warmed his heart and ignited the fire in his soul.

“Then prepare yourselves. In five days, we take the fight to them!”