The Calamitous Bob

“Pack it up, boys and girls. We’re heading back.”

Ban Junior gave Viv a confused look. The green zone wasn’t a permanent base. Rather, Viv led the One Hundred, recovery crew, and two other elites there a couple of months every year to recover valuables and necrarch cores. It came with the ‘reveal’ of how the yries war machines were powered.

For centuries, the yries had used the physical cores of their eldest and greatest shamans as power sources for their digging machines. Obviously this wasn’t enough cores to build an armored battalion, so Viv had managed to negotiate with them so they would accept necrarch core substitutes, provided they were only used in their war machines. They had accepted, or rather, Lak-Tak had been all for it while the shamans and ‘normal’ members of the tribe did their best to stay out of his way.

Fortunately, Old Harrak had a massive reserve of black mana cores, which while not being the most versatile, still allowed for some nasty shields. The expedition was thus a matter of national security, not just profit.

As for the profit itself, just the Harrakan Treasury’s vault had released actual tons of gold ingots of exceptional purity, all of which had been carefully extracted and invested to limit risks of inflation. New Harrak was still feasting off the corpse of its predecessor and the scavenging business was good. The issue, of course, was that only Viv and a couple others could manage necrarchs. No Viv, no expedition. She didn’t even leave unless she had at least one elite and two golems with her.

“Milady?”

“Duty calls. We’re leaving tomorrow. Where is Solar?”

“East gate, ma’am. I’ll let the men know.”

Viv nodded, walking past a purifying obelisk linked to a charging station. The green zone was surrounded by high walls but inside, it was still old Harrak with its brutalist architecture and colorless vistas of once-bustling living spots, now ruins eaten by corruption. Crews walked around at a brisk pace as they carried reports, supplies, and the precious goods they found in derelict places. Someone had apparently found advanced smithing tools in a workshop. Sinur’s Gate’s artisans were going to be delighted.

Viv walked while Second Spawn followed, sniffing occasional crates and people. The crews were completely used to the tiny black whelp by now. They knew not to be alarmed and not to give her sweets, no matter how much she squealed at them.

Arthur’s three children were growing up slowly, even though they ate a lot. Viv was ok with it but it also reminded her of how long and how much Arthur must have had suffered, cut off from food and company for the beginning of her life. In a way, she was lucky her mind had been so stunted. Perhaps it had protected her from much of the trauma. It still sucked for her though.

“Squee?”

“Yes, we’re going to see your brother.”

Solar was at the gate, as promised. He was practicing his forms while Third Spawn happily jumped around him, blue scales narrowly avoiding the stick with every slow swing. Third spawn was by far the most chill and shy member of the lot so no one had any idea why he would bind with someone who had ‘dragonslayer’ among their titles. Nevertheless, his wife Wamiri was delighted because the short creature was a constant source of distraction for her kids so she didn’t always have them under foot. Solar was surprised to see her pop up though.

“Themis and Clio are out on patrol. No contact for now. What’s going on?”

“I’m being called by fate. We must leave.”

He waited.

“No I’m serious,” Viv insisted. “Something came up. I’ll make a round of the country then off I go. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be emperor in my absence this time.”

“Not that I would have accepted anyway,” the blade master said.

He tilted his head to the side, smiling.

“In the meantime, and since you’re leaving… a spar?”

Viv nodded. She probably wouldn’t get another chance in a while. Solar was one of the only people who could still teach her things, even if it was just battle experience to keep her sharp.

The two flew and ran to an empty spot they enjoyed. It used to be a large park, but now it was a carved up, devastated promenade of pitted rocks. Viv checked her status. She was one, exactly one step away from pathing up. The latest tick upward had happened after she’d reached over 50 with every mental stat.

She guessed there was some sort of specific condition she had to fulfill to path up. From discussions with scholars, the prerequisites to become a fifth step person were usually lower, or more specialized in other paths. She wasn’t sure but she believed there was a specificity to the Ascender class that prevented her from moving on. Despite her best efforts, she hadn’t figured out what those conditions were yet.

Her progress was still nice.