The Power of Ten, Book Three : The Human Race

“Shard of-? Ringlord? Aelryinth?” he tripped out, eyes falling to my hand. “Is that a working Ring?” He stared despite himself.

“Yes.” I narrowed my eyes. “And I know the ‘real’ Briggs from the game, who looks very similar to you. Do you know where his/your sister was attending college?”

His mouth opened and worked a moment. “No...” he admitted.

“Were you born with full knowledge of Briggs from the game?” I further pressed.

“Yes.” His massive hands crackled on the hilt of his Hammer. “I had to earn the Karma, however. Never knew why I couldn’t remember anything but the game... So, there’s another Briggs out there?”

I nodded slowly. “The original player. He got the same imprint that you did, plus some fake Karma he had to replace with the real stuff. Got turned into a big violet-eyed hulking Ancient Source, just like you, too.”

He glanced sharply at me again, and there was a wave and surge of odd purity around us, making Sleipner neigh sharply in surprise, and Fred’s Pacts all flared up in reaction.

“Damn. I suddenly feel like I have no secrets to hide.” He had a weird expression on his face.

“Secrets, hell. I’ve got Commander Briggs of Redshore here!” I held up my small fist, and despite himself, he smirked and gave me a friendly tap back. “Master Fred, remember how I told you about Forsaken?” He nodded slowly. “Meet Commander Briggs, the most powerful Source in the game and back home. What you just felt was his Sun and Will, the aura of pure mana he generates around himself.

“The original is one of the strongest men alive, one of the most obdurate tanks around... and most famous smiths, too. This Briggs seems to have inherited the exact same game knowledge that the Briggs I know of did.”

Master Fred made an interested face. SOME SORT OF DIVINE GAME AT WORK?, he hazarded without judgment.

“That would be my guess. Any other Power of Ten gamers around, Commander?” I asked.

“Not that I know of, although I didn’t really go looking. I kind of figured that if I got a little famous, just the name and who I was would drag them in.” Not a bad way of going about it. “Of course, if what happened to me happened to others, they could be anywhere on the planet, and simply never heard of me.”

I had to agree with that, especially with the Haze here. Really, how had the gods done anything here? If Mithar or a divine entity was behind it... impossible. They wouldn’t even know this world existed. So how had he come here?

Was anyone else copied in like him? They had an internet... they could have found him, at least, with ease. Type in Commander Briggs, Ancient, Hammer, Smith, and there was little doubt they would have found him quickly...

------

We rolled up to the Temple, and Briggs quickly sent a lay follower off for Luminous Porthier. He brought us to a spacious meeting room that actually had a floating morphable Disk that could hold his weight in full armor.

“Master Fred, could you do a few internet searches for us?” I asked, and he popped out his Vaccine calmly. “Mulcaster, Wizard, Spells.”

He typed in the terms to Libram, and shook his head after thumbing through the results. “Argos, Eternal Helm, Sorcerer.” Nothing. “Justin Songblade, Paladin.” Nope. I tapped my fingers, looked at Briggs. “Sama Rantha, Sword Tremble.”

All three of us heard the ping, and despite himself, Briggs leaned in to look. “Sama’s here?” he asked, shocked.

I reflected what he would know of her, and what I knew of them back home. Sama and Briggs, sitting in a tree... Nah, leave that for later surprises.

Master Fred handed his phone over to me first, and I reviewed the entry.

It was her entry in the mercenary registration database. Name Sama Rantha, height almost six feet, face scarred with the Hag Curse, long blond hair and killer blue eyes, a mean look on her face, and a side note that she was an extremely dangerous swordswoman with highly developed resistance to magic.

There was a string of reviews available and ratings for objectives completed. Noted that she mostly did self-directed jobs, but was available for hire if the money was right.

I handed it to Briggs. “I don’t understand most of the references.”

To my surprise, he spread his massive hands, now gauntlet-free, and refused it. “Me and electronics have a hate-hate relationship, to my dismay.”

“You’re carrying an automatic shotgun,” I had to point out. Well, it was more a portable cannon...

“Which I made myself, and even bought the Gunsmithing Ranks to do so. But anytime I try to purchase something for electronics and computers, I get a whole load of nowhere.”

Gunsmithing was effectively a specific application of ironsmithing and alchemical knowledge. Totally believable that he could take it, even if he was laboring under the same restrictions as I was.

Aelryinth hadn’t had Weaponsmithing, only Whitesmithing for Rings. Wonderful. Why didn’t they make guns from bone or wood or something...

SAMA RANTHA? THE SAMA RANTHA? Master Fred had an odd look in his eyes, which was saying something with his weird eyes, and tapped quickly, setting it on the table.

The holo came up... with a bounty poster.

Sama Rantha, Wanted Dead. Ten million dollar reward.

Sponsored by the Church of Imprus!

I got up slowly, staring at that. “The fuck?” I asked slowly.

SHE’S GOT SOMETHING OF A REPUTATION, Master Fred went on, tapping quickly, sparks on his fingers.

News items came up, and Briggs and I read them quickly.

She was the sole survivor of four different magical events that had wiped out whole towns or communities. She had also attacked five different churches of Imprus and butchered every cleric, templar, and defender of them that got within range of her Sword. The Church of Imprus was blaming her for the events, painting her as an evil mastermind sacrificing innocent souls for some foul purpose. The way she was killing them in return meant she wasn’t happy with them...

“That does not sound anything like the Sama Rantha I remember,” Briggs rumbled darkly. “And the Church of Imprus caters to big fatcat wealthy elitist bastards who love gaining and abusing political and corporate power. There’s a lot of old money associated with Imprus.”

“Powered money?” I asked softly. Both men looked at me.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Briggs agreed. “Imprusar like to preach that Imprus is the Patron of the Powered, that they are the elite, meant to lead all others.” I glanced at Master Fred for confirmation, who just nodded.

“They found out she’s Forsaken.” Both men blinked. “Sama’s THE Null bitch back home. She manhandles Powered all the time. What Imprusar popped up generally always looked down on the Primos as a matter of course, but they loathed the Forsaken, who couldn’t use the greater powers, but were still great threats to them. They really didn’t like it when we started getting as many people to Forsaken status as possible.

“They must have realized what she was and don’t want her spreading the knowledge to others.” I glanced at Briggs. “Have you spread knowledge of being Forsaken?”

He frowned like a carven stone. “Yes... but only to people who were Ones. I haven’t seen a Primos hit Seven yet to take Human/3 and get their shot at it.”

I gestured at Master Fred. “He can take Seven anytime. He’s just been going Deep, since he’s so self-reliant most of the time.”

“Is that true? Congratulations. It’s good to see it’s possible, although requiring a Warlock Pact isn’t exactly encouraging...” Briggs mused, nodding at Fred, who returned it silently.

There was a knock at the door, and Briggs boomed out casual permission that fluttered clothes. The door opened, admitting a lean man in his thirties, wearing a roughly woven brown and gold tunic ubiquitous to all Aruans, a common thing worn over armor or practical clothing.

He was pushing in a Disk of stuff... stuff for me! “Table this,” I said softly, and the holo went down, as Briggs rose and called out greetings to cover for me.

“Luminous Porthier, I had no idea you had connections in Heavenbound Hall,” Briggs said affably, coming forward to shake the Cleric’s hand.

“Just a contact man for the Church, Commander,” the Cleric said respectfully, looking up at the huge Ancient, who could dominate the whole room without even trying. “And, well, I get to meet Traveler!” he had to smile over at me.

I rolled my eyes, but was graceful enough to smile back.

-------

He came over to gush on me, telling me how my video was making differences among the immigrant community already, helping communication among the far-flung churches of Aru and the other Good religions... and the Church had invested heavily in publication resources, as there was going to be a whole lot of books being reprinted in the new language.

Yes, I had definitely earned some Karmic credits. That was wonderful. I could only take one Level a day...

He brought out the stuff I’d asked for. It turns out some Seabound did come through here and get training after initial training in Detroit, and so they were familiar with the kind of equipment needed.

I snapped my fingers several times, and the clothes I’d taken off a dead Sinbound nearly a week ago were dropped on the table, I was dressed properly for a combat mage, and I told the Luminous to say a prayer over them and burn them to ash, which he agreed to do.

He accepted the jug of tiger-blood, and was pleased when I told him that it would be double value when used in Potions of Invisibility or Camouflage. He also took the roll of tiger-skin, noting there was a bidding war going on for it among some of the stylish and too-wealthy Powered, and departed the room without protest.

I was placing things in my new bandolier and belt purses, noting that I would have to truly make my own custom rig in the future, but this would do for now. The two men watched with interest at the casual way I seemed to know where to put everything, and it all had a place.

“You need proper Gear,” Briggs said, and blinked as I lifted out the skull of the raksasha-tiger, and then dumped my small pouch of gravegold next to it.

“I can’t make magic items yet, and my Leveling is progressing sideways, not up. Can you make a Baneskull to Magical Beasts out of this?”

“Ho, starting your collection, are you?” Every Powered worth the name had a Baneskull collection. He picked it up to examine with interest. “I can carve it up for you, and have one of the lay folk Infuse it up, sure.” His eyes flicked to me. “How are you intending to go about Leveling?”

“Yellowstone.” His bushy eyebrows rose. “I want to Level away from undead. When I come back, the slaughter is going to start non-stop.”