ALL NOVEL Chapter 118: Lunch and Life Changes
“So, I have to ask…were you ever actually in danger of losing?” Tess asked. “It didn’t feel like it, but I’m guessing you were trying to downplay any moments of weakness.”
“Sort of?” Atum said, spearing a piece of stake with a fork. “In any individual match, no. The four of us are reasonably confident that we can beat any party registered with the guild, but if we were off in our calculations, we could have used too many of our resources in the first few rounds and run out of steam later.”
“The format wasn’t exactly ideal for our opponents.” Ava said. “It sounds fine on paper, and for a lot of parties it would work fine, but our examiners severely underestimated the extent of our regeneration. Of course, Alberich and Kane wouldn’t make that mistake, but they probably didn’t have enough sway in the group to fix that.”
“Eh, I’m sure they could if they really wanted to, but I’m betting they chose to not reveal that they knew more about our abilities than everyone else.” Eyfura speculated. “They probably used that effort to try and make the simulation harder, not that that worked out well for them.”
Eyfura flashed everyone a grin. “I haven’t had an opportunity to rampage like that in ages, not as myself, I’d forgotten how good it can feel. Did you see the look on Elara’s face when she realized that we’d started regaining more than we were spending? It was priceless.”
“I’ve been meaning to ask, but how were The Rumors?” Maven asked. “Do you think they’re going to rank up?”
“They’ve been on the cusp of a promotion for a while now,” Gramps replied, “and they’ve grown a lot since the last time we sparred. Don’t tell them I said this, I wouldn’t want to put ideas into their heads and influence how they do things, but I think they’ll finally hit rank ten this exam.”
“I’m glad to hear it,” Ellie said, “I’m sure they’ll be ecstatic. Uh, changing the topic a bit again, but do you mind telling us more about Elara? I heard a bit about her from Amara, but she took a pretty prominent role in narrating things, so I’m curious.”
“I’m sure we have nothing to say about her that Amara hasn’t told you.” Ava replied. “She’s a war hero who works as a fight commentator now. The only reason she talked so much was because that’s her job; she needed to make sure normal people could have even a slight understanding of what was happening. That’s not to say she didn’t have a hand in other parts of the process, I’m sure she did, but all those examiners probably had a tacit understanding that she’d do most of the explaining to the public during and those sections of the test.”
“She seemed surprised by your abilities.” Tess said. “Did she not work much with you in the war?”
“We showed off some stuff we haven’t shown in public before.” Gramps explained. “We’ve gained some new abilities since the war, and we don’t often fight publicly. We aren’t very close, so she had no real way of knowing what we’re capable of. Only Alberich and Kane really did.”
Their conversation was interrupted as the server came to take their orders. Once he left, they resumed. “So, do you have a guess as to where they’re going to place you?” Tess asked. “Rank-wise, that is.”
“Yeah, we’re assuming somewhere in the realm of rank fourteen or fifteen.” Atum replied. “The idea with the new ranks was to spread out the top of rank ten to ranks eleven to thirteenish, and our performance was hopefully a step above theirs. Plus, I don’t think a lot of the higher-ranked parties would be happier if we were lower, since we feel almost unattainably strong to a lot of them, and having us lower makes those ranks feel out of reach.”
“But you’re opening the ranks all the way up to twenty now, right?” Ellie asked, frowning. “How will people know when it’s time to start applying for the next ranks?”
“It’ll be as levels rise and as we introduce new initiatives.” Gramps said. “Savage dungeons will definitely be one of those, but other than that it’s a process that’s going to take hundreds or thousands of years.”
“Ah, right. To tell you the truth, I sometimes forget the time scale we’re working with now.” Ellie admitted. “Somewhere in the back of my mind I still expect to be dead in eighty years, you know?”
“I would certainly hope you won’t be!” Maven said, reaching over and grabbing Ellie’s hand. “Though I suppose I can’t really understand the mindset. Natural lifespan just…isn’t really a factor for a lot of people, as long as they’re willing to put in the effort with running dungeons and leveling up. I always assumed that I would only permanently die if I was careless or a sudden monster surge happened or there was a rebellion or something and people couldn’t resurrect me in time. But…those are the sorts of things that don’t happen often.”
Tess couldn’t help but be reminded of her parents’ deaths, how, if things had been slightly different, they would still…be here. If they hadn’t crashed over the ocean, or if Gramps had been allowed to use magic to retrieve them, or…any one of a number of things. She hoped that, if they had gone to the afterlife instead of being reincarnated, that they were happy, and that they were proud of her. She’d…have to ask her mother or Amy about it, and see if she could just…talk with them one more time if they were still around.
Tess only realized she had become lost in her thoughts when Maven laid a hand on her thigh. “Oh. I…forgot about your parents.” She said embarrassedly, looking down. “I didn’t mean to make things awkward.”
“It’s fine, I’m about as over it as I can be.” Tess said. “I just get lost in thought sometimes, you know?”
“There’s no point in walking on eggshells around every topic like this.” Ellie added. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
Gramps gave Maven a sad smile. “Unfortunately, this is the nature of life.” He said. “Tragedy happens, and none of us are immune, as much as we might wish we were.”
“But, when it does happen, remember that you have us, and as much as some people might wish, we can’t die permanently so long as we haven’t done something to revoke our status as Appointed.” Amara added. “Us and the gods. We’re all in this together, so –”
Tess winced as there was a sudden unpleasant sensation that, blessedly, was gone as quickly as it had arrived, leaving only a window in its wake.
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Global Chat: I’ve left a short tutorial for anyone who wants it, just focus on it and it’ll appear. If you have any other questions about it in practice, I’m always available, and Tess, Ellie, Maven, Fortune, Life, Death, and Dungeons have been using this system with slightly fewer features for a few months now, I’m sure they’d be willing to help if you’re polite about it. Also, please refrain from using global chat unless it’s important – everyone will get the message, and it could be distracting. You can make separate rooms with only certain people, though, I’d advise messing around with those, you should find them much more convenient than phones. Oh, and while I have you all here, starting tomorrow, I will begin making all Appointed Higher Beings. I’m having to go through a bit more of an intensive process in order to keep Descents working, and this will involve everyone, including gods without Appointed. So, please message me to set up a day for me to make the modifications. And do it through a private chat with this new system, just so I know you’ve figured it out. This will, for the most part, be first-come first-serve, but Tess, Ellie, and Maven will have priority due to their wedding being soon and their schedules being busy. Speaking of, since I have been asked about it a couple of times, there are no restrictions on going to the mortal realm for the wedding, so long as you have a perception filter up for people who don’t know of their status as Appointed. If you’re interested in attending, speak to them about it. |
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Group Message (Amy, Death, Dungeons, Ellie, Fortune, Life, Maven, Tess) |
There was a couple minutes of silence as everyone read the windows. “You know…” Tess began, “I always wondered what exactly the limitations on the gods coming here were. I don’t think I ever actually asked.”
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Group Message (Amara, Ava, Atum, Death, Dungeons, Ellie, Evan, Eyfura, Fortune, Life, Maven) Death: There’s gotta be a way to shorten the participant list…well, after lunch, I guess. Anyway, yeah, we’re not, like, explicitly banned or anything, we usually just need to let Amy know and also be completely incognito. Amy was basically just getting the perception filter rules out there so others didn’t have to ask. Tess: That’s not as much as I thought, honestly. With how little everyone seems to come down… Fortune: There’s not much to do down there that we can’t do up here. We can’t exactly form normal relationships with mortals, so the internet is…basically as good as we can get in terms of interacting with people outside of the gods and Appointed. Some gods like to take walks in uninhabited places and stuff but at least the four of us are homebodies. Ava: So, this is what it’s like. Heroes and I always talk telepathically, so I had always sort of wondered how the whole window-chat thing was. That aside, most of the gods I’ve spoken to share the sentiment Fortune and Death talk about, so the restrictions aren’t something they tend to think about. |
That question answered, the conversation drifted to other subjects, and the food came shortly thereafter. All too soon, the lunch had finished, everyone said their goodbyes, and the members of Maelstrom began their trip home. On their way, they received the promised message from Amy.
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Group Message (Amy, Death, Dungeons, Ellie, Fortune, Life, Maven) Aside from that, I’ve added support for sending images as well as telepathic communication. They work a little differently than standard apps; for the images, you have two “modes”, one that just captures the entirety of what you can currently see, and one that will only capture something you define as a discrete “image”. Basically, as long as you can clearly separate it from the rest of your vision, you can post it. Good for like, showing the screen of your phone or capturing a screenshot of a window. For the telepathic communication, well that’s actually pretty similar to most voice chats, but the main difference is that it preserves a log of the communication. It actually wasn’t significantly harder to store than raw text, but it doesn’t have a search function. Yet. I’m working on it. Also, I added a function that gives you access to the internet from the windows, and I’m working on expanding it to function as an entire computer, but that’s a bit more complicated. Give it a month or two, though, and I’ll have it out. For computer stuff, the windows work as a touchscreen, or you can control the “mouse” and “keyboard” with your mind. And before you ask, Death, copy-pasting works. I did have a few of the “entire computer” functions ready, so those have been rolled in already; first, a note app, nothing crazy but I imagine people will find use for it. Then there’s a clock/timer/alarm, set to your current time by default but you can check the time at any locale pretty easily. And, finally and most importantly, I’ve integrated the map function of the viewing terminals into this system. You’ll have to put a bit of Worship in to get it to work, but it’s pretty miniscule, so even just your passive income should be enough for normal usage when you become Higher Beings. Anyway, that should be most everything big, the rest is mostly backend optimizations and minor text changes. If you encounter any bugs or anything, though, make sure to let me know, okay? Life: We will, thank you, Amy. |
“Well…about our appointments…” Ellie began, “I have an opening on Friday, so I was sort of thinking about getting it done then.”
“I was angling for tomorrow.” Tess said. “But I’m pretty flexible, I only have a few things this week.”
“Likewise.” Maven added. “You take tomorrow, then, and I’ll take the day after.”
“Deal, let me ask Amy now.” Tess replied.
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Direct Message (Amy): Amy: Absolutely. It’ll take twelve or thirteen hours, is that alright? You’ll be unconscious for 99% of it, but you just won’t be able to do much else that day. Tess: That’s fine, when should I be there? Amy: 8 AM your time would be ideal. Tess: Alright, I’ll be there. Ellie and Maven have days in mind too, so expect messages from them soon. Amy: Thanks, see you tomorrow! Tess: See you tomorrow! |
“Alright, I’ll be leaving at eight in the morning tomorrow.” Tess relayed. “Amy said it’ll take twelve or thirteen hours, so I won’t be back until late. Also, I let her know that you two have days in mind and that you’d be messaging her, so feel free to get that hashed out whenever.”
Maven nodded. “I’ll get on that.” She said.
She and Ellie took turns messaging Amy, and then the three of them began to chat for the rest of their walk home. Tess couldn’t help but be a little nervous about tomorrow, but she trusted in Amy, and it wasn’t like she would even be awake for most of it. So, there was nothing for it but to put it out of her mind and enjoy the moment.
