Chapter 1433 - Importance of Positioning (Patreon)

One’s starting position within the World of the Exalted Prima was truly a matter of sheer luck. There was clearly some level of seeding going on, making stronger Territories appear closer to weaker ones, though this rule certainly wasn’t absolute. Nor was it very accurate, likely due to how factions used the Administrator system to send in people from other universes. The seeding seemed mostly, if not entirely, based on how well a galaxy did during the Prima Guardian event, so when a weaker galaxy that barely managed to survive had a high-tier expert from another universe come in, it clearly changed how powerful they were.

That was perhaps how a situation like the immediate area of Meira’s Territory came to be.

Meira herself had become an Administrator and joined a galaxy that the Order of the Malefic Viper had claimed, but which hadn’t done particularly well. They had survived the event, but hadn’t exactly thrived, largely because the nature of the Prima Guardian event meant that monsters that had benefited from the system-given Records items couldn’t take part.

While Meria herself was a decently powerful person by now, she still couldn’t truly be called a top-tier elite. She was still not very good at combat and was far more of an alchemist than anything else. Her Patron and master had taught her plenty of alchemy, but fighting was something she mostly had to figure out on her own.

That’s one of the reasons why she had been teamed up with other skilled members of the Order of the Malefic Viper. People who weren’t generational talents like Draskil, much less the Chosen of the Malefic Viper, but still decently powerful in their own right. Their job was to support her and buy time in the initial days of the competition, giving Meira enough time to set up.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, due to their low seeding, Meira’s galaxy ended up being placed right next to one with a high seeding. A Territory led by a faction most would be utterly terrified to find themselves next to:

The Endless Empire.

To make matters more complicated, their other borders weren’t much better. Of the six borders the relatively small Territory possessed, one was connected to the Endless Empire, another to the Holy Church, a third to the Altmar Empire, a fourth to the Risen, with the fifth and sixth being smaller, weak factions that weren’t a threat.

The Endless Empire and Altmar Empire also bordered one another, and in the early days, they found themselves in conflict as they both expanded in opposite directions, growing in size and power without ever being confident they could take down the other. Meanwhile, the Risen and Holy Church fought, ultimately resulting in the Holy Church winning and claiming the Risen Territory before also invading other smaller forces, with Meira only conquering the bare minimum to stay in the event.

Like so, only a month into the event, Meira found herself surrounded by top-tier factions, completely enclosed with no good way to fight back. Under normal circumstances, this would be quite bad, but she did have two distinct advantages.

The first one was neutrality. The Endless and Altmar Empires both had a good impression of Meira and were more focused on invading elsewhere. Plus, if Meira’s Territory disappeared, both would end up with a larger border, with no buffer between them and the Holy Church.

Meanwhile, the Holy Church also wanted to avoid the two Empires. For that reason, they were hesitant to claim her Territory, but that wasn’t the only reason.

The second reason was perhaps more important than the first... because the fact was simply that it wasn’t worth it. Her Territory was small. Non-threatening. Yet also somehow an absolute fucking nightmare to invade, courtesy of the one single city sitting in the center of it all.

More accurately, the spire that was there. Meira was a good alchemist and had truly put her teacher’s lessons to work as the wooden spire that looked like an odd, warped tree had entirely surrounded the Territory Beacon, twisting into the sky where it crowned into a massive, glowing orb of pure power.

It looked almost like a second sun, which wasn’t even an inaccurate description of what it was. Granted, it wasn’t quite an artificial sun, but it was very close and was repurposed for war rather than growth. It was capable of rather impressive feats of destruction, and Meira was very happy she’d been able to create it before any opposing faction could invade.

By the time the Central Domain event began, things only got better. Her Territory had been rather starved of Prima Credits due to its small size, but suddenly the elite team sent with her could earn plenty of points by exploring and taking part in this event. Plus, it made the elites from the surrounding Territories absent, allowing her to reinforce the defenses of her small Territory further.

All around her war continued, but her small Territory was a safe haven no one dared enter, as if they did, they would instantly be detected and risked being smote by a scorching beam of light from the spire. That’s why, rather than invade her, the Endless and Altmar empires used her Territory for something else.

Neither faction was willing to ally, much less become the Vassal of the other, but with Meira’s Territory as neutral ground, a truce was negotiated. The Holy Church wasn’t interested in such an arrangement, but still didn’t dare invade Meira’s Territory, as doing so would surely lead to losses. Plus, due to its small size, it wouldn't take a long time for the Altmar and Endless Empires to move and help Meira should that be needed, something they could surely do. Not because they deemed her an ally, but because it was a great opportunity to take down the Holy Church, which was the biggest threat to both of them.

Thus, a stalemate between three top factions was reinforced by little Meira working on her spire and alchemy while taking advantage of the simulated world. She didn’t bother with or need soldiers, so all her Prima Credits went to more and more defensive structures, aiming to turn her Territory into an impenetrable fortress.

It wasn’t a good strategy in the long term, but it was Meira’s best option, and, in truth, her main goal was to buy time until she could link up with either the Order of the Malefic Viper or the Pantheon of Life. Perhaps she would even abandon her own Territory, but for now, she was happy enough being a small lighthouse surrounded by three roaring seas.

--

The Viper explained Meira’s situation to Jake, making the Chosen nod and smile, happy to hear that Meira was doing well for herself. It did seem like she was in a bit of a tight spot, but hearing about her Territory gave Jake some good food for thought regarding the entire system event and how everyone was kind of doing their own thing and finding a way to survive. He’d mainly been all about expanding, but few Territories could do that, and he reckoned most were just trying to get by while nervously finding themselves surrounded by powerful foes who could invade at any moment.

Her positioning herself as neutral Territory also made Jake consider something else.

“This system event is going to last a long time, isn’t it? Just the century of protection already makes it clear it won’t be over soon, and the more I hear, the more this world starts to almost feel like it might be designed to be-“

“Permanent,” Villy finished Jake’s sentence before continuing. “I do agree that the setup lends to that idea, and most World Wonders do have a sense of permanence. Not always, but often. It wouldn’t be out of the question that there will be a permanent virtual world at some point, and this is effectively a competition to claim ownership over the World of the Exalted Prima.”

“If that is the case, will the endgame even be to claim all Territories?” Jake questioned, finding the idea of that utterly exhausting.

“Likely it will be,” the Viper nodded. “I do believe there can only be one winner; that’s how events like this usually work. Then again, competitions with a World Wonder as the grand prize aren’t exactly commonplace.”

“Sounds like there’s a lot of war ahead, huh?” Jake muttered, definitely having a lot of work to do.

“Yeah, it’s great, isn’t it? War is always fun,” Villy smiled, not at all looking like he was joking. “Plus, this is a virtual world. You can really go ham in there, you know? Kill whoever you want, deploy whatever means you think up, with nothing of it being permanent or having any true real-world consequences. Well, besides probably pissing off a lot of factions and people, but that’s pretty tame compared to real war.”

“You almost sound like you’re encouraging me to do unhinged shit,” Jake said, shaking his head.

“All I’m saying is that there are a lot of things that could be fun to try, and the commonly agreed-upon laws of the multiverse don’t apply in a virtual world. Isn’t this a perfect chance to experiment a bit with that cursed energy of yours? Perhaps even play a little with plagues?” the Malefic Viper said with a big smile, really living up to his name while trying to make people commit evil deeds.

“Next you’re gonna tell me to make a giant sacrificial ritual,” Jake said in a deadpan tone.

“Unironically, that would be a really good idea. These NPCs, as you call them, count as living beings, right? While at the same time being disposable? Sounds like the perfect fodder for a sacrificial ritual. Won’t work well if you integrate curses, though. You usually want to have the sacrifices really suffering with curse rituals to add some of that sweet resentment to the magic, but there are definitely plenty of rituals you can still use. In fact, here, take a pamphlet.”

Villy summoned and tossed Jake a pamphlet out of nowhere. He caught it instinctively and saw what was written on it. Yeah, it was a goddamn advertisement for sacrificial rituals, and even some handy tips with the names of certain rituals Jake actually recognized, partly due to his own studies and partly due to his ritual circle skill.

“Did you just make that?” Jake asked in disbelief.

“Why do you assume that? I could have had plenty of those printed a long time ago in preparation for just this day.”

“The fucked-up thing is, both of those possibilities seem entirely likely,” Jake sighed, nevertheless putting the pamphlet away to make his Patron happy.

“The Holy Church is going to use those kinds of rituals for sure,” the Viper pointed out. “I wouldn’t put it past that witch of yours to do the same.”

“Believe it or not, I don’t really care,” Jake said, not seeing the issue with sacrificing armies of NPCs as fuel for ritual sacrifices. He didn’t see them as real living beings but truly as just disposable tools to be used. Unlike the creatures in dungeons or inside Nevermore, they didn’t have true sapience. Just a bad attempt to mimic it, allowing them to show just enough intelligence to be useful soldiers who could take orders.

“Does that mean...?” Villy asked, looking genuinely hopeful as he smiled brightly.

“No promises,” Jake waved him off. “I wouldn’t get my hopes up, though.”

“And yet I will, so know that I’ll be immensely disappointed if I don’t get a report at some point that the Chosen of the Malefic Viper is an absolute monster who sacrificed his entire army to unleash pandemonium upon his enemies,” the Viper said in a totally serious tone. It was really a fifty-fifty chance whether he actually meant that.

“A little disappointment has never hurt anyone,” Jake said with a sigh as he looked toward the sky. “Out of curiosity, is there any reason we’re still standing on the lawn and haven’t moved inside yet?”

“Because you never invited me inside or prompted us not to stand on the lawn?” the snake god answered. “I’m just an avatar. It’s your house, and you’re the only real person here.”

“When are you not an avatar?” Jake asked, kind of half-seriously, as he was actually unsure most of the time. Unless the Viper flared his aura, it was hard to tell.

“Pretty much never,” the Viper shrugged. “Real body is busy in the Mycotic Depths.”

“I see,” Jake nodded.

“Don’t you want to ask what I’m doing there?”

“I don’t really-“

“Mushrooms.”

“Really, keep the detail-“

“I’m eating all the mushrooms. Big, small, powerful, weak, I don’t care, all of them are eaten,” the Viper continued, sounding almost threatening with the way he spoke. “You should go when you have the opportunity. Eat some yourself.”

“You know, I have the feeling I won’t get that opportunity for a very long time. Perhaps ever,” Jake said, not even wanting to have that kind of discussion, which was also why he changed the subject quickly.

“Do you know if Artemis is busy these days?”

Villy stared at Jake for several seconds before letting out a loud, exaggerated sigh. “Where did I go wrong? To prioritize women over mushrooms...”

“That didn’t answer my question,” Jake said, refusing to entertain the god.

“I know,” Villy just nodded. “We can discuss politics, though, that’s fine. The alliance with the Pantheon of Life is going strong, especially since we’re working together in the World of the Exalted Prima, but I must also acknowledge the efforts of the ambassador from the Pantheon, Artemis. She’s been very competent despite diplomacy not being her forte, though I do have some criticism, one of which is that she’s sleeping with one of the Order’s high-ranking-“

“The more you refuse to answer, the less inclined I become to try out sacrificial rituals,” Jake cut him off.

“Anyway, as I was saying, Artemis is just having a normal workday as far as I know. She does have a meeting with the red dragons, which I believe should already have concluded unless it dragged on. Would you like me to inform her of your arrival?” the snake god turned incredibly polite very quickly.

“That would be nice, thank you,” Jake smiled. “Also, just to make sure, we’re keeping my return to the real world under wraps, right?”

“Does seem like the smartest thing to do,” Villy nodded. “No one knows who won that final fight besides the ones who took part. Though it is a risk with the Chosen of Aeon still around. Once factions know he’s still in the simulation, they’ll know he won.”

“I don’t think that will be too much of a problem,” Jake shook his head. “Chances are, the old man will be out of commission for at least as long as me, if not longer.”

He still remembered the backlash the Sword Saint had suffered after using Springtime Advent in Yalsten during the Treasure Hunt. It had effectively reduced his level for a time and made him incredibly weak. Even if the backlash wasn’t as bad as before, he definitely wouldn’t be all fine and dandy in a short time.

“In that case, yeah, we should definitely keep people guessing,” Villy nodded. “And I just got the message that Artemis is indeed available and will be heading over. Gonna be super fun for the three of us to hang out, maybe we could even discuss the wonders of mushrooms and sacrificial rit-“

“Lovely having you visit. Talk to you later,” Jake cut him off yet again.

“Wha... what?” the Viper asked, sounding absolutely devastated.

Jake just looked at the snake god, who looked incredibly sad and hurt. After a second, his face returned to normal as he chuckled. “Fine, fine, I’ll let the two of you have some privacy. In the meantime, I’ll set up the time dilation chamber.”

“Who says I need that?” Jake asked, perplexed.

“That finger you got and the fact that you only have a year before returning to the World of the Exalted Prima. Better make proper use of that time,” the Viper said, before nodding and giving Jake a devious look. “See you later!”

With that, the Viper disappeared from the lawn in an explosion of green smoke that washed over Jake... sticking to him and turning his entire body neon green right as space shivered once more and Artemis arrived.