“What is it that you seek?” the Horned Rat asked.
“I want two things,” John answered. “One, I want you to give me as much of your energy as I can hold.”
“Are you not afraid I will gain even more control over your life if you do that?” the Horned Rat mused.
The god’s face was directly in front of John’s, the red orbs gazing closely at him. “I will just have to become stronger than you, might as well wield your power as a weapon until then,” the Gamer freely stated. “I’m a small piece on the chessboard right now. I hate that role, but I’ll play it.”
“Mhmhehehe,” Richard giggled, his teeth parting a slight bit and a white steam rising from the gap. A smell of rotting flesh and electric smog filled John’s nose. “I can agree to that request. State your second desire, and I will consider what I want, want in return.”
John waved away the stinking breath. He had the inkling suspicion that this was all still going according to the Horned Rat’s expectations. Either this outcome had been planned all along or the god was very good at playing it by ear.
‘I hope all of this is worth it.’ “Secondly, I want you to tell me what you know about this,” John pulled the Metracana from his inventory. He had already asked Nathalia about it, but aside from what its name was, the dragon goddess was helpless as well.
A whistling noise escaped Richard, “Now that is something rare you have there. Which one is it?”
“Its name is Metracana Metra, if that is what you are asking.”
The grin vanished and the Horned Rat took a respectful step back. “The first one, the high priestess,” he muttered and rubbed his bony chin. “How did you get your hands on it…? Ah, it could only be that…, yes, it was stuck in Thana’s head, wasn’t it? I can’t think of another explanation for her curse and you getting your hands on this.”
“I already told you all you need to know,” John cut this discussion short. There was no reason to confirm what the Rat guessed, even if it happened to be correct. There was also no reason to keep that knowledge, other than that John was annoyed with the god’s conduct.
“Indeed, here are my demands: First, you tell me exactly how Thana came back. Second, you, and whatever guild you will form eventually, will enter into an alliance with the Illuminati – starting next year,” Richard said.
“Next year in days or just next year?” John probed as he thought about the proposal in detail. It was December after all, so there was a massive difference there.
“365 days,” the Horned Rat clarified, “a purely defensive alliance between us.”
“Wait, BETWEEN us?” John asked, “Not me having to aid you?”
“No, a two-way alliance,” the Horned Rat raised his hands. “I am here to nourish you, John Newman. To mould you. Make you the weapon that becomes my way to counterbalance Romulus and his empire meddling in my affairs.”
“So, you want me to be your nuclear warhead?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.
How John understood it, there was an extreme unbalance in power in the Abyss. There was Romulus at the top and then there was a gap no one could properly fill. There were contenders, but none powerful enough to more than inconvenience the one at the top. The Apex, the sole dominator, who no country or organization that earned his ire could resist. It was evident that Romulus had stopped caring a great deal about the affairs of reality, but a return was always possible. When that happened, one did not want to be on his naughty list. Not without having someone who could push against him, at the very least.
And that was exactly what John could become for the Horned Rat. Accepting this would put him in a collision course with Romulus. It may happen in one year or in a thousand, but it was likely to happen.
However, the alliance was going to be purely defensive. In a world where Romulus was going to be the aggressor and John was strong enough to stop it, it was better to stop it early. ‘And if I become that strong I can always break that alliance,’ John thought. ‘Not the honourable thing to do, but always an option.’ “Fine, I accept,” he finally said and, after being presented with it, shook the Horned Rat’s hand on the matter.
As the weaker party in the agreement, he was the first to uphold his end of the bargain. John told him everything about Thana’s revival. That included how he had gotten the Metracana, so he learned that after all, but he wasn’t going to break his end of the bargain.
“Disappointing,” the Rat said at the end.
“Disappointing?” John wondered. “It all came as you prophesized. The hell do you mean ‘Disappointing’?”
“Ah, prophecies are such a fickle thing, do you know how they work?” Richard seemed to ask genuinely. John had to shake his head. “Do you think I am more intelligent than you?” the Horned Rat asked out of nowhere.
“Currently? Yes.” John had no doubts about that being a fact. Maybe the Gamer was smart, but the Rat was a genius schemer. “I would say your analytical prowess surpasses mine twice fold,” John took a wild guess.
“Mhm, let’s say I agree to that. My Intellect stat is about ten times yours, yes?” Richard continued asking.
John let out a frustrated sigh, “That’s the number you showed me, so let’s say I agree to that.”
Snickering for a moment, the Rat continued, “I would say when you reach around 1000 Intellect yourself you will unlock it, the ability to guess the future.”
“Guess?” John asked, “You are telling me that you GUESSED that whole prophecy?”
“Divination is nothing else but a moment of extreme clarity,” the Horned Rat calmly explained. “The pieces fall together, all of the information you have forms a neat little picture. The problem is you will never have all the pieces and they can be put together in drastically different ways. In the case of Thana, I knew all the important players; however, it turns out I was wrong in the end,” the god turned towards the house. “She did not ascend.”
“What do you even mean by ‘ascend’ anyway?” John wanted to know. If it wasn’t her coming back to life, he was truly confused.
“I just expected… more,” the Horned Rat gave a cryptic answer. “Maybe. I think. To reiterate, it is a moment of extreme clarity. Even the one speaking a prophecy is often left confused as to its contents. Maybe I will receive what I want another time. But enough of this matter, let’s give you that power boost.” Richard tipped John on the nose. “Boop.”
Okay, overall, it wasn’t all that great. That Achievement sounded ominous as fuck, just like the last one he got from getting a god’s blessing, and it came with something awesome, again.
‘Finally,’ John thought, ‘something to counter all of that spying shit going on!’ The bonuses were okay, free Intellect and Arcane Resistance was nice, also an SEP, but THIS skill would hopefully lessen the giant headache he got whenever he had to deal with information brokers.
“Onto the next part then,” Richard said, pointing at the Metracana. “I think I don’t need to explain to you what an Artificial Spirit is.” John looked up at Momo, still soaring through the skies.
“That is a pretty safe assumption, yes,” he agreed.
“The Metracanas are to Artificial Spirits what the atom bomb is to the nuclear power plant. They are the first application of the creation method, an artificial sentience created from the theory of how to create a golem. The ancient Akkadians came up with the method, and their king, Sargon of Akkad, was the one to finally succeed in it, aided by the star god Enki and the goddess of chaos, Tiamat. By combining the technique with the most valuable metal he could find, Astrotium, a metal that is only present where a falling star crashes into an Illusion Barrier, he made an autonomous, artificial, and sapient being,” the Horned Rat explained.
“Okay. So, this,” John held up the Metracana, “is an Artificial Spirit prototype made from a meteorite?”
“Correct,” Richard said, “but also oversimplified. Artificial Spirits are the tamer, more publicly useful cousins of Metracanas. They are creations of war and of a less civilized time, when Gaia wasn’t quite as uppity about interfering with normal folk. They can be reprogrammed for pretty much all of the nasty stuff you can think of. Acclimate them with your mana for long enough and eventually they will have some sort of reaction to your intention based on which one of them you have. The dormant personality will awaken.”
“That is very vague,” John pointed out.
The Horned Rat made a helpless gesture, “The how to create them and all finer details about the individual Metracanas were lost in the burning of Alexandria. All I can tell you is that they pop up throughout history, typically as advisors or generals to ascending or established sovereigns, rarely being outspoken about what they are. Metra is the first Metracana and bears the title First of Wrath – a title that similarly limits her approach to things.”
“…So, if its owner wanted to use it to sedate someone, that someone would only be able to feel while in battle,” John extrapolated.
“Indeed,” Richard agreed and then tapped John’s chest in a jesting manner; “If you were to awaken it, the Metracana would most likely turn into a beautiful berserker woman.”
John stayed silent, that was not unlikely. It would be kind of weird, but not unlikely. “So, wait, are these things shapeshifters?” The Horned Rat just stared at him for a few seconds. John waved off, as soon as the stupidity of the question dawned on him. Aclysia could already change her exterior to a certain extent, so having things that were like her be able to do the same wasn’t unusual. “Just continue,” he urged the Rat.
“Once you form a bond with a Metracana you agree on a contract. After that, one of three things happen: either the mission you gave it is fulfilled, in which case it will either disappear by using the remaining mana as fuel or ask for a new contract. Second option is: you die, in which case it will blank itself after confirming your death. Last option is that the Metracana rebels against you, although I have rarely heard of this. Not that Metracanas commonly talk about their past contracts.”
John nodded, that was a lot of information but largely understandable. There was one more thing he wanted to know though, “How dangerous are these things?”
“You tell me; it evidently wasn’t dangerous when it came out of Thana’s head,” the Horned Rat shrugged. “Maybe your Gamer powers will warp the rules of this thing as well, maybe it will become an equipment piece or useless trash. These things are like the Japanese curses or the passing down of the Mandate of Heaven, mysteries of an older time. You would need to find a truly ancient god of knowledge to inform you in detail about these things.”
“And where would I find one of those?” John probed.
“You have heard about Babylon?” the Horned Rat returned the question.
“The attempt to kill Gaia before Pompeii? Yes… they are all dead, aren’t they?”
“From Marduk to Thoth, pretty much,” Richard admitted and looked at the moon with worry. “As a last titbit of knowledge, there has not been a single report of a Metracana being permanently destroyed.” The Horned Rat glanced at the moon above. “Now, I’ll have to make an exit, before Luna reconsiders whether her dislike of me is stronger than her wish to see her love and Nathalia on talking terms again.”
“I really hope she associated me with one and not the other,” John pointed out, and the Horned Rat cackled in response. Then, the god turned into a liquid of some kind, glowing a light blue before being whisked away. ‘Is that what teleporting looks like from the outside?’
John had another SEP to spend while he waited for Momo to finally land. Still no reason to hold onto these. What to use it on though? Blink was an eligible new target, but he had the feeling that he would get something like proper teleportation next. While that sounded awesome on paper, he doubted he had the mana to support that at this time.
‘Let’s go with Mana Ray,’ John decided on a whim. His goal wasn’t even to evolve it necessarily, but maybe he could get a new skill out of it? He could use something else in the long-range department.
Arcane Lance was easily the worst of the bunch. Enemies lining up in a row was a fringe case and most times he would be better off using Arcane Explosion instead. Mana Laser was just a more cost-effective version of Mana Ray, maybe with a higher range and damage as well. It was the smart choice.
But Arcana Strike sounded REALLY cool. He also didn’t have siege magic yet. That thing sounded like he could put it above a city, go drink coffee and come back to accept their surrender. Without any second guesses, he chose Arcana Strike. Then he called Momo down, they had to eat dinner.
John was all fidgety to test the skill tomorrow. He was almost more excited about that than the tournament starting.
“What is it that you seek?” the Horned Rat asked.
“I want two things,” John answered. “One, I want you to give me as much of your energy as I can hold.”
“Are you not afraid I will gain even more control over your life if you do that?” the Horned Rat mused.
The god’s face was directly in front of John’s, the red orbs gazing closely at him. “I will just have to become stronger than you, might as well wield your power as a weapon until then,” the Gamer freely stated. “I’m a small piece on the chessboard right now. I hate that role, but I’ll play it.”
“Mhmhehehe,” Richard giggled, his teeth parting a slight bit and a white steam rising from the gap. A smell of rotting flesh and electric smog filled John’s nose. “I can agree to that request. State your second desire, and I will consider what I want, want in return.”
John waved away the stinking breath. He had the inkling suspicion that this was all still going according to the Horned Rat’s expectations. Either this outcome had been planned all along or the god was very good at playing it by ear.
‘I hope all of this is worth it.’ “Secondly, I want you to tell me what you know about this,” John pulled the Metracana from his inventory. He had already asked Nathalia about it, but aside from what its name was, the dragon goddess was helpless as well.
A whistling noise escaped Richard, “Now that is something rare you have there. Which one is it?”
“Its name is Metracana Metra, if that is what you are asking.”
The grin vanished and the Horned Rat took a respectful step back. “The first one, the high priestess,” he muttered and rubbed his bony chin. “How did you get your hands on it…? Ah, it could only be that…, yes, it was stuck in Thana’s head, wasn’t it? I can’t think of another explanation for her curse and you getting your hands on this.”
“I already told you all you need to know,” John cut this discussion short. There was no reason to confirm what the Rat guessed, even if it happened to be correct. There was also no reason to keep that knowledge, other than that John was annoyed with the god’s conduct.
“Indeed, here are my demands: First, you tell me exactly how Thana came back. Second, you, and whatever guild you will form eventually, will enter into an alliance with the Illuminati – starting next year,” Richard said.
“Next year in days or just next year?” John probed as he thought about the proposal in detail. It was December after all, so there was a massive difference there.
“365 days,” the Horned Rat clarified, “a purely defensive alliance between us.”
“Wait, BETWEEN us?” John asked, “Not me having to aid you?”
“No, a two-way alliance,” the Horned Rat raised his hands. “I am here to nourish you, John Newman. To mould you. Make you the weapon that becomes my way to counterbalance Romulus and his empire meddling in my affairs.”
“So, you want me to be your nuclear warhead?” John asked with a raised eyebrow.
How John understood it, there was an extreme unbalance in power in the Abyss. There was Romulus at the top and then there was a gap no one could properly fill. There were contenders, but none powerful enough to more than inconvenience the one at the top. The Apex, the sole dominator, who no country or organization that earned his ire could resist. It was evident that Romulus had stopped caring a great deal about the affairs of reality, but a return was always possible. When that happened, one did not want to be on his naughty list. Not without having someone who could push against him, at the very least.
And that was exactly what John could become for the Horned Rat. Accepting this would put him in a collision course with Romulus. It may happen in one year or in a thousand, but it was likely to happen.
However, the alliance was going to be purely defensive. In a world where Romulus was going to be the aggressor and John was strong enough to stop it, it was better to stop it early. ‘And if I become that strong I can always break that alliance,’ John thought. ‘Not the honourable thing to do, but always an option.’ “Fine, I accept,” he finally said and, after being presented with it, shook the Horned Rat’s hand on the matter.
As the weaker party in the agreement, he was the first to uphold his end of the bargain. John told him everything about Thana’s revival. That included how he had gotten the Metracana, so he learned that after all, but he wasn’t going to break his end of the bargain.
“Disappointing,” the Rat said at the end.
“Disappointing?” John wondered. “It all came as you prophesized. The hell do you mean ‘Disappointing’?”
“Ah, prophecies are such a fickle thing, do you know how they work?” Richard seemed to ask genuinely. John had to shake his head. “Do you think I am more intelligent than you?” the Horned Rat asked out of nowhere.
“Currently? Yes.” John had no doubts about that being a fact. Maybe the Gamer was smart, but the Rat was a genius schemer. “I would say your analytical prowess surpasses mine twice fold,” John took a wild guess.
“Mhm, let’s say I agree to that. My Intellect stat is about ten times yours, yes?” Richard continued asking.
John let out a frustrated sigh, “That’s the number you showed me, so let’s say I agree to that.”
Snickering for a moment, the Rat continued, “I would say when you reach around 1000 Intellect yourself you will unlock it, the ability to guess the future.”
“Guess?” John asked, “You are telling me that you GUESSED that whole prophecy?”
“Divination is nothing else but a moment of extreme clarity,” the Horned Rat calmly explained. “The pieces fall together, all of the information you have forms a neat little picture. The problem is you will never have all the pieces and they can be put together in drastically different ways. In the case of Thana, I knew all the important players; however, it turns out I was wrong in the end,” the god turned towards the house. “She did not ascend.”
“What do you even mean by ‘ascend’ anyway?” John wanted to know. If it wasn’t her coming back to life, he was truly confused.
“I just expected… more,” the Horned Rat gave a cryptic answer. “Maybe. I think. To reiterate, it is a moment of extreme clarity. Even the one speaking a prophecy is often left confused as to its contents. Maybe I will receive what I want another time. But enough of this matter, let’s give you that power boost.” Richard tipped John on the nose. “Boop.”
Okay, overall, it wasn’t all that great. That Achievement sounded ominous as fuck, just like the last one he got from getting a god’s blessing, and it came with something awesome, again.
‘Finally,’ John thought, ‘something to counter all of that spying shit going on!’ The bonuses were okay, free Intellect and Arcane Resistance was nice, also an SEP, but THIS skill would hopefully lessen the giant headache he got whenever he had to deal with information brokers.
“Onto the next part then,” Richard said, pointing at the Metracana. “I think I don’t need to explain to you what an Artificial Spirit is.” John looked up at Momo, still soaring through the skies.
“That is a pretty safe assumption, yes,” he agreed.
“The Metracanas are to Artificial Spirits what the atom bomb is to the nuclear power plant. They are the first application of the creation method, an artificial sentience created from the theory of how to create a golem. The ancient Akkadians came up with the method, and their king, Sargon of Akkad, was the one to finally succeed in it, aided by the star god Enki and the goddess of chaos, Tiamat. By combining the technique with the most valuable metal he could find, Astrotium, a metal that is only present where a falling star crashes into an Illusion Barrier, he made an autonomous, artificial, and sapient being,” the Horned Rat explained.
“Okay. So, this,” John held up the Metracana, “is an Artificial Spirit prototype made from a meteorite?”
“Correct,” Richard said, “but also oversimplified. Artificial Spirits are the tamer, more publicly useful cousins of Metracanas. They are creations of war and of a less civilized time, when Gaia wasn’t quite as uppity about interfering with normal folk. They can be reprogrammed for pretty much all of the nasty stuff you can think of. Acclimate them with your mana for long enough and eventually they will have some sort of reaction to your intention based on which one of them you have. The dormant personality will awaken.”
“That is very vague,” John pointed out.
The Horned Rat made a helpless gesture, “The how to create them and all finer details about the individual Metracanas were lost in the burning of Alexandria. All I can tell you is that they pop up throughout history, typically as advisors or generals to ascending or established sovereigns, rarely being outspoken about what they are. Metra is the first Metracana and bears the title First of Wrath – a title that similarly limits her approach to things.”
“…So, if its owner wanted to use it to sedate someone, that someone would only be able to feel while in battle,” John extrapolated.
“Indeed,” Richard agreed and then tapped John’s chest in a jesting manner; “If you were to awaken it, the Metracana would most likely turn into a beautiful berserker woman.”
John stayed silent, that was not unlikely. It would be kind of weird, but not unlikely. “So, wait, are these things shapeshifters?” The Horned Rat just stared at him for a few seconds. John waved off, as soon as the stupidity of the question dawned on him. Aclysia could already change her exterior to a certain extent, so having things that were like her be able to do the same wasn’t unusual. “Just continue,” he urged the Rat.
“Once you form a bond with a Metracana you agree on a contract. After that, one of three things happen: either the mission you gave it is fulfilled, in which case it will either disappear by using the remaining mana as fuel or ask for a new contract. Second option is: you die, in which case it will blank itself after confirming your death. Last option is that the Metracana rebels against you, although I have rarely heard of this. Not that Metracanas commonly talk about their past contracts.”
John nodded, that was a lot of information but largely understandable. There was one more thing he wanted to know though, “How dangerous are these things?”
“You tell me; it evidently wasn’t dangerous when it came out of Thana’s head,” the Horned Rat shrugged. “Maybe your Gamer powers will warp the rules of this thing as well, maybe it will become an equipment piece or useless trash. These things are like the Japanese curses or the passing down of the Mandate of Heaven, mysteries of an older time. You would need to find a truly ancient god of knowledge to inform you in detail about these things.”
“And where would I find one of those?” John probed.
“You have heard about Babylon?” the Horned Rat returned the question.
“The attempt to kill Gaia before Pompeii? Yes… they are all dead, aren’t they?”
“From Marduk to Thoth, pretty much,” Richard admitted and looked at the moon with worry. “As a last titbit of knowledge, there has not been a single report of a Metracana being permanently destroyed.” The Horned Rat glanced at the moon above. “Now, I’ll have to make an exit, before Luna reconsiders whether her dislike of me is stronger than her wish to see her love and Nathalia on talking terms again.”
“I really hope she associated me with one and not the other,” John pointed out, and the Horned Rat cackled in response. Then, the god turned into a liquid of some kind, glowing a light blue before being whisked away. ‘Is that what teleporting looks like from the outside?’
John had another SEP to spend while he waited for Momo to finally land. Still no reason to hold onto these. What to use it on though? Blink was an eligible new target, but he had the feeling that he would get something like proper teleportation next. While that sounded awesome on paper, he doubted he had the mana to support that at this time.
‘Let’s go with Mana Ray,’ John decided on a whim. His goal wasn’t even to evolve it necessarily, but maybe he could get a new skill out of it? He could use something else in the long-range department.
Arcane Lance was easily the worst of the bunch. Enemies lining up in a row was a fringe case and most times he would be better off using Arcane Explosion instead. Mana Laser was just a more cost-effective version of Mana Ray, maybe with a higher range and damage as well. It was the smart choice.
But Arcana Strike sounded REALLY cool. He also didn’t have siege magic yet. That thing sounded like he could put it above a city, go drink coffee and come back to accept their surrender. Without any second guesses, he chose Arcana Strike. Then he called Momo down, they had to eat dinner.
John was all fidgety to test the skill tomorrow. He was almost more excited about that than the tournament starting.
