Chapter 69
Chapter 69
DP Deposited
20,000,000 Arena Win
240,000,000 Arena Betting Payment.
New DP Total: 1,410,682,401
Max knew Bob was doing the math on what he still needed to reach tier six as Jazzjak showed Max’s current DP total for everyone to see.
“That’s a lot of DP,” Sog said slowly. “What are you going to do with it all?”
“Spend it, of course,” Cordellia stated. “He’s going to spend it.”
Jazzjak snapped his padded fingers, and the noise it made was surprisingly loud for such soft skin. “You all need to forget about what Max has. You need to spend your DP to purchase the third tier.”
“For once, I agree with Sog,” Batrire said, seemingly ignoring their helper. “I mean, we’re sitting just a little over 230,000,000 DP after getting three-to-one odds on Max and that fight. We’re barely going to have 61,000,000 DP left afterward. Meanwhile, our resident bald friend is going to have a lot more left over.” Tanila squeezed Max’s hand she was holding. “Getting tier four isn’t Max’s problem. It’s the tiers that come after.”
“Tanila’s right,” Jazzjak stated. “I tried to warn you all… The cost to progress gets exceptionally harder. Max’s biggest question right now is what to do with the list of items Hoekamona sent over with the DP from the fights and the bets.”
You need to sell them. Even if the others can use them, it’s not worth passing up any DP. This is a race, and you know that now.
Some of them are nice, though. That ring—
It’s not worth the potential DP you might get. We need every point of DP. I know why you’re thinking, it may be worth keeping those items, but the numbers don’t lie. We’re going to be short if we can’t find different ways to reach the numbers we need.
“Max?” Fowl called out. “You’re frowning. What’s wrong?”
Clearing his throat, Max nodded slowly and made a hand gesture toward their helper, waving a finger in the air and then tapping his ear. “Can you make it happen?”
“No… there’s no guarantee, and that item you have isn’t going to do anything to stop if anyone is listening.”
“Why are we being all hush-hush?” Sog asked.
“After that fight and the discussion with Nerdok, I’m wondering who might be actively watching us. Some older gods might be listening in to what we say,” Max replied. “That doesn’t mean we can’t discuss certain things, but we’re going to have to go back to the old ways when dealing with sensitive subjects like this.”
“Pen and paper,” Rakonath said.
Max nodded and began pulling out blank pieces of paper, starting to write down his thoughts as well as Bob’s. “Whatever you do, don’t read it out loud and don’t discuss it. We’ll destroy them all after we’re done writing messages.”
Max made a few extra copies as he handed out a sheet with the same words to all of his friends.
***
Zogooruth was told to attack me both times by his father . This means we’re looking at another one of the Nine, who has been commanding Zogooruth’s actions since the time I was on Igarra’s world. The problem with this is two-fold:
First, that means I’ve been watched by at least two of the Nine before we ever reached the 50th floor of the tower. With the god of Death involved, that makes three I personally know of having an active hand in my actions. If three are aware of me, the odds of more being aware are likely. That also means they are most likely also aware of the other two black skill holders.
Second, if Zogooruth was told to simply challenge me and take Igarra’s world, not choosing to kill me unless we fought, why did he desire to fight me this time? Is the god of Void wanting my death? Did he expect me to surrender? The only thing I can think of is that by doing so, it weakens and limits my potential gain of DP.
There has to be a reason for one of the Nine, if not multiple ones, wanting to slow down my speed of growth. I fear that it involves all of you.
Bob and I find the timing of everything to be off. Hoekamona didn’t send the list of items over earlier. No reason was given for the delay, and no response came after Jazzjak asked. My first question was how long it takes to sort out the equipment from the death of a god. Jazzjak stated it depends, and he couldn’t answer any better than that. The higher the quality of items one has, the longer it takes. Based on the items Sirocco had, I’m not sure how to measure the timeframe. When I defeated Igarra or the others on her world, I was allowed to claim them immediately because the fight was hosted on that planet, in her arena. But since we fight in the arena hosted by this group of jelly creatures, the rules are different.
Bob says I need to sell all the items and hope to close the gap on the next tier quickly. The longer I stay in tier four, the less potential I have if a fight comes for placing more DP. That then limits how quickly I can try to advance through the ranks. Currently, everything I do is aimed at reaching tier six as soon as possible.
***
He watched as everyone read what he wrote, almost teasing Fowl as the dwarf took longer than the others to finish.
Sog, Rakonath, Batrire, and Tanila all wrote notes and passed them to him. After reading them, Max started another letter for everyone.
***
Sog - The plan is to sell all the items from Sirocco and choose an opponent to fight soon. I’ll bet the maximum of 320,000,000 and hope that the fight has better odds or at least similar ones. Jazzjak wasn’t sure why they were so low, especially since I was facing a void god. We guess that my success in the arena has also been my failure. Any fight I choose now will have to be against a god that Jazzjak believes will be seen as an impossible opponent. Fighting anyone else will result in 1 to 1 odds at best.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Batrire - I’m not sure what we can do for all of you. You’ve obviously done the math. If you all don’t manage to win by betting on me or the other gods that fight, you’re going to be stuck at tier four when the protection window ends. We need to find a way to quadruple what you all could potentially make over the next two hundred years. The problem is… I didn’t see it as a possibility until what Rakonath just asked.
Rakonath - You’re on the right path. Jazzjak will let us know if we can sell items I craft, and if so, only time will tell what dragon armor or dragon tooth weapons are worth across the system. I don’t believe we’ve seen but a few dragon items when looking for equipment for our champions. That does give us a little hope. Nice job on that one. And no, I don’t want to use the scales you or your elders have unless its something you freely give and the chance to sell them is valid. Even still, we’d have to release things slowly. Flooding the market would cause a drop in value. We’ll need to figure out not just how it works, but how much having two or ten or more items listed at a time affects their values.
Tanila - Your question… You always ask the hard ones. I think you’re right. The Nine hope to control me via you all. They have played this game before, yet I’m not sure how many times there have ever been “friends” of a black skill. If what Bob and I think is true, you all are pieces in whatever game they are playing. Right now, only Death is limited in his ability to interact with you. Wekime is a… probable ally, but again, I’m not certain after his encounter with Miranna. With the god of the Void involved, we’re in a game neither Bob nor I has a real understanding of yet. Whatever game is being played, we’re not prepared for it, and all that matters is gaining power as quickly as possible.
Tier five provides the basis for defending our worlds by possessing a domain. This is the point you all need to reach to help protect yourselves. It also allows you to start stacking worlds and trying to increase the long-term DP over time.
This means we need to be cautious about sharing any important plans outside of this process. We also need to stop using the names of the Nine. Doing so may invoke their attention, and apparently, they can hear things, even on a protected world .
***
Max chuckled when Fowl raised his hand after his friend finished reading the second sheet.
“What?” Max asked.
“So… like… are we going to always be writing, or can we talk?” the dwarf asked.
“We can talk, you fool,” Batrire groaned. “It’s just when… it’s important.”
“And how am I supposed to know what’s important and what’s not?” Fowl shot back. “I mean, we’re looking at going through a lot of paper otherwise.”
“He’s right,” Cordellia said. “We’ll have to decide what’s worth talking about and what isn’t. Is even this conversation one that should be written down? Ultimately, we face a major decision on how we communicate going forward in the coming years. In the meantime, I have a question for Max.”
He nodded at their ranger, seeing her smile before she spoke again.
“When you purchased the third tier, did it feel different?”
He smiled and nodded. “Oh, it did. You’ll all enjoy it,” Max replied.
Soon, the six gods around the table all glowed, their skin, scales, and hair all radiating with power as each of them quickly purchased the next tier of godhood.
“Wow… that feels amazing,” Sog said. “Almost better than rubbing Max’s bald head.”
“Did anyone else see that notification?” Fowl asked. “It says I’m immortal now. Wasn’t I before?”
“Not technically,” Jazzjak replied. “You would age extremely slowly, especially for a dwarf, but now your body and your soul are immortal. You can suffer immense damage, but what matters is the destruction of your soul. It’s not like a normal attack to your heart will end your life. There is more to it.”
“Uh… so like… how would someone kill me?” the dwarf asked.
“By smashing you into a paste until there was nothing left,” Sog stated. “I’m pretty sure that would destroy your soul.”
“It would,” Jazzjak said.
A few groans came from the others, but Max took a deep breath and mimicked their action, spending 175,000,000 DP to rank up to the fourth tier.
Power washed through him, and Max felt a cold wave of power that seemed familiar and yet different. Like the others, his body radiated with light as if something had infused it. Max could feel a massive change within him as the power from the system altered his very being.
I can see it… the other realms.
Max closed his eyes and tried to let himself go, letting Bob take over in the steering of everything.
There was one central thread that was woven around Max, which vanished into the darkness of everything. On either side of him were two threads, almost as thick that seemed to move like snakes along water. They flowed past him, but were close. Each had its own distinct scent of some kind.
Are those… the other two realms?
Not the actual realms, but the threads that we are now permitted to touch and interact with. You do remember the book and what it said, don’t you?
Words appeared before his mind as Max pulled the memory Bob was talking about.
*****
Godbound – Gains the ability to travel between realms.
They can directly interfere with other worlds of other gods.
This is limited to one rank above and below their current Divine Hierarchy rank.
*****
How do we travel between realms?
Beyond the ability you have right now? I’m not certain. I am…
Max knew immediately what Bob thought as his skill stopped talking.
His eyes flew open, and Max stared directly at Jazzjak.
“Everyone, into my space. Now.”