Chapter 71: A Business Arrangement (Patreon)

Geminy asked me to follow her down into the basement. Obviously, I was curious as to how I’d coincidentally stumbled into finding her by accident. It was too hard to believe that the first door I randomly chose to hide behind happened to be the right one. She assured me that further answers were waiting in the basement where we were less likely to be overheard.

The owner of the store introduced himself as Dodrick as we went down the steps.

“And what is it exactly that you sell?” I asked him.

“Portable shrines.”

My eyes widened. “Portable shrines? Like you can carry one of those statues around and communicate with a god anywhere type of shrine?”

He nodded. “That’s right.”

“Why doesn’t everyone use these? What’s the point of having churches or big shrines at all?”

“Firstly, my work is expensive and secondly, they break after one use.”

“Still even so, they sound incredibly useful.”

Dodrick looked pleased to hear it. “Would you like to purchase one? It’ll be ten thousand coins.”

My eyes bulged at the number. It was well beyond anything me and the group could put together. Hell, it was more than anyone on the floor could. How could anyone afford something like that?

“Has anyone purchased one from you?” I asked.

Dodrick grimaced and looked disappointed. “No, not yet. It’s a little early for tower residents to be able to afford me. I just got bored waiting around and started making them.”

Dodrick pulled the basement hatch shut, and we were left in a windowless basement with a table, a few chairs, and some lit candles.

Geminy sighed with exasperation. She was impatient to get started. “You can talk about your work later. That’s not why we summoned him.”

“Summoned me?” I asked.

The pair of them went on to explain an ability that a higher-level being could use that was called Aura manipulation. That they could psychically reach out and impact the emotions of others in order to influence their decisions.

“So you have mind control powers?” I asked, feeling disturbed by the concept.

The pair glanced at one another.

“Not exactly,” said Geminy. “The more overtly we try to control someone, the more likely they are to notice and resist. What we did was more subtle. Just a nudge here and there that made certain areas look more appealing to you until you ended up on our doorstep.”

“Yeah, that doesn’t make me feel any better. How am I supposed to know when I’m making decisions versus being manipulated?”

Dodrick shrugged. “Most higher-level beings will have basic aura manipulation like we do, but they’ll also know how to protect themselves from it. You're insulated from such beings inside the tower, and we wouldn’t have interfered like this if things weren’t getting desperate here. By the time you encounter others with the ability, you’ll have the opportunity to shield yourself from it as well.”

It felt like a lot of trouble to go to just to kill one human.

“Is Martin really that much of a threat to you guys?” I asked. “Surely tower residents must have united before in previous integrations? It can’t be that unique of an occurrence.”

Geminy explained that this was different and that usually in such situations merchants are still used.

“Are you saying this is about money?” I frowned.

“As merchants, we represent our worlds. Things can be tough, but if we’re not being used, then nothing gets sent to our home worlds. Not just money, but vital food, medicine and other supplies. Some of our worlds were ravaged by the integrations. We come here to help them, but there’s a deeper reason too that affects you and every other resident. System acceleration.”

Dodrick nodded. “That’s right.”

“If the System thinks the residents are going too far outside the bounds of what it wants, then it will start to nudge things back in its direction. If they go really far outside like refusing to climb, refusing to use merchants etc, then it might think that it’s wasting its time here and just speed up the clock.”

I stared at them in shock. “Are you saying that we don’t have a year to complete the tower climb anymore? That the tower could collapse at any moment?”

“The System wants residents to climb and get stronger, but its also put time and resources into building the floor levels. Martin’s strategy is going to make it feel slighted and so yes, tower collapse is a real possibility. But first it will add events to this floor to shake things up. You’ll see one soon, I’m sure of it. When it happens, you need to be here. It will be your opportunity to take advantage of the chaos and kill Martin and his subordinates.”

I was starting to get the impression that the merchants were closing some kind of line by telling me all of this.

“Are you allowed to get involved like this? Isn’t interfering breaking some kind of rule?” I asked.

She shook her head. “Once we enter the tower, our knowledge of this place becomes limited and we are not allowed to leave. Once in this place, we can say or do as we please.”

Dodrick grunted. “Within reason,” he added.

Geminy nodded in agreement.

I understood what they were saying, but one thing didn’t make sense. “Why tell me this and get involved when I was already planning to kill Martin, anyway?”

They looked at each other. “We’ve been observing you and some of the other residents and we came to the conclusion that there was a higher probability that you’d rescue your friend and then abandon this floor. That you’d continue climbing downwards and advance while leaving Martin and his followers to stagnate up here.”

I pursed my lips over how easily they’d read me. They were right. Rescuing Damian had been the main priority and while killing Martin isn’t something I was shying away from; it also wasn’t my focus.

“Alright, so where is he?” I asked.

“We’re not sure,” she said.

Not exactly the answer that I was looking for.

“We know his people are using the tavern and the church as their headquarters, but Martin rarely stays in either for very long. He seems to be constantly on the move. Even to the point where we can say for certain that he doesn’t sleep in the town. He has a place hidden in the woods somewhere that he uses.”

“Sounds like an ideal place for an ambush,” I said.

She nodded. “If you could find it sure, but following him can be difficult with so much flat open space and his dog has an overpowered sense of smell. It would alert its master as soon as you got too close.”

“So the solution is to wait until some System event happens?”

They explained that there were other things that I could do on this floor to prepare and that they didn’t expect me to do nothing. Though they were vague on what those things could be. Finally, Geminy told me that she’d heard that Damian was being kept in a room at the tavern.

It sounded like agreeing to their terms was the best thing for everyone, but there was something else that they could do for me first.

“Fine, I’ll stay on this floor after rescuing Damian, but I want something in return.”

“What?” she asked.

“I want a free portable shrine to Yakeshi, the Heaven’s Blade.”

Dodrick’s face turned red. “Absolutely not!”

I shrugged. That was my price. Otherwise, I’d grab Damian and take my chances. If the rest of us tower climbed, it would show a willingness to adhere to the System and possibly spare us. It seemed equally detrimental to stall our progress on this floor and wait who knows how long for the next event.

The other reason was that I didn’t entirely trust these two. They were aliens profiting off of my planet’s demise and rebirth. Plus, the System seemed to be aware of everything, so they could just be following a script that it gave them. Who knows how much of what they’re saying is true?

The two of them whispered in the corner. Dodrick raised his voice a couple of times but I couldn’t make out what was said. Eventually they appeared to come to an agreement and Dodrick went back upstairs to grab the shrine.

“You’re lucky that I made this one already,” he said upon his return.

The shrine was a lifelike stone carving of the god sat under a tree with his sword held across his hands. I picked it up and felt a thrum of energy inside it.

“Remember, it’s single use only and I don’t do free replacements,” he said.

*Item Acquired* [Portable Shrine of Yakeshi, the Heaven’s Blade (Rare)] – These extremely rare items are used when a resident is far from a church or conventional shrine while desperately seeking guidance. They can only connect to gods that you have previously formed a connection with.

I thanked them and stored it in my inventory. I wasn’t planning on using it right away, but it was good to know that it was there.

I informed Hugo that I was leaving the store now. It was time to get Damian back and finish this once and for all.