Unwilling Eldritch Horror of Fortune

The journey to our destination went by faster than I thought, although that was mainly due to the great company that kept us entertained. Between a few naps and some rounds of board games, it felt more like a cozy get-together than anything else. Even Vadeem seemed to grow accustomed to flying after a few hours in the sky, although he would still stay far away from any windows.

But the cabin started to shake as the dragon slowed its speed, signaling the end of our little journey. Vadeem almost had a heart attack and immediately grabbed onto the closest object. He all but flattened the table, which is something that will probably come out of my pockets to fix. Much to his relief, we stopped shortly after, having arrived at wherever it was that the Regressor dragged us to.

We followed Jae-Hyun off the platform once we came to a complete stop and set foot on a goddamn floating island in the sky.

“Wow…” Noel whispered, and even she was at a loss for words gazing into the new local.

The Dragon blimp thing flew a little off to the distance, finding a more spacious space to wait for our return, which left me with a jaw-dropping view of the place. We were just barely above the lowest cloud cover, which made the landscape before me look like it was floating in a sea of white. The place was large as well, I couldn’t make out the full scale of the island even when I was on the dragon, as a lot of our view was obstructed by the ancient buildings that dotted the landscape.

Now the buildings themselves were awe-inspiring. They were massive monuments that seemed to have been built in a bygone era, and they seemed to stretch impossibly high into the sky. Moss and vegetation covered the huge stone pillars and large archways, and everything seemed to be too large for normal-sized humans to use comfortably, which suggested that this place had been made for beings that were perhaps much larger than its current guests. The marble pathways and steps were still visible under the grass and flora, and a gentle breeze blew steadily.

It looked like we just stepped into a set piece right out of a fantasy movie.

The Regressor stepped in front of us and smiled, “Welcome to Mount Olympus, or at least an old version of it.”

“Olympus as in the place where all the Greek Gods used to live?” I asked in disbelief.

“Yes,” he answered, “or at least one of them. There are many versions of Mount Olympus, Asgard, or Heaven scattered between the dimensions when the gods are involved.”

“Wait,” Vadeem added, “those old gods are real? Zeus and Poseidon and all?”

“And many more besides,” Jae-Hyun answered, “We’ve stepped onto a larger stage the second we were taken to the Trials. Expect things to be very different from here on out.”

“Well shit…” the big man muttered, “Won’t they mind if we’re trespassing in their old home then?”

Jae-Hyun laughed bitterly, and I could tell there were some hidden grievances behind that bitterness, “They will not, nor will they care. They barely notice us now, but they will once we are further into the trials. You know that Sponsorship Walter gained?”

The rest of the group nodded.

“The people doing the Sponsoring are what we generally know as gods.”

“Damn,” Vadeem said as he looked at me in earnest, “You got the attention of some kind of tentacle god? Well, that explains a lot.”

“Maybe it’s the Flying Spaghetti Monster that sponsored him!” Noel added with a smile, “I knew he was real!”

The Regressor shook his head and his tone became serious, “I’ll say this now, and I’ll remind us again when the Sponsors come in full, but never accept help from them. They are not your friends, although some of them will do their best to convince you otherwise. Their terms are never fair, and they all want you to suffer in the long run.”

We all saw how serious Jae-Hyun was and quickly agreed. I’m willing to bet anything that he’s had a lot of run-ins with the various Sponsors in his previous life, and none of those meetings were positive. There was still so much I didn’t know about the man.

“But what about Walter?” Yoona asked, “He’s already accepted one.”

Her brother frowned for a second before quickly composing himself, “There are ways to undo that in the future. It won’t be easy, but it’s not impossible. If it’s only Walter that has a Sponsor, then we can still do something about it.”

I thanked him, although I most certainly didn’t need whatever help he was offering. Not that I’ll tell him that of course. Still, it was nice to see that I was important enough for Jae-Hyun to go out of his way to help. Hopefully, this also means that he’ll try his best to save me from whatever horrible future disaster that did him in the first time.

“But enough about the Sponsorships, we can worry about that when it’s relevant,” he continued, “For now, I want to talk about why I brought everyone here.”

“Finally!” Noel added, “You have a horrible habit of keeping all these juicy things under wraps!”

The Regressor shrugged, “It’s faster to just show you, and I hate repeating myself.”

“Alright, alright, you are the boss after all, boss,” pouted Noel, “So what’s so special about some abandoned buildings?”

“Other than the fact that they were used by the literal gods?” Vadeem added incredulously, “That’s not special enough for you?”

The other girl shrugged, “It’s all abandoned now, so what?”

“So what?” Vadeem muttered, “How can-”

“It’s important,” the Regressor interrupted before Vadeem and Noel could get into another one of their dialogues, “because while the gods have abandoned this place for greener pastures, these ruins are not completely empty. Other, lesser beings have inhabited the mount while it was vacant, and this is the perfect opportunity for us to gather cores and other material that we can’t find elsewhere. There is also one particular place I want to visit as well.”

Noel pouted, “So we’re just collecting the unwanted stuff the gods left behind? We’re like, glorified garbage collectors, ew.”

“But it’s godly garbage, Noel!” Vadeem smiled with excitement, “Imagine what they’d left behind!”

“Well, you can go pick up godly toenail clippings or something,” the redhead mumbled, “and I got excited for nothing.”

“It’s not that bad, Noel,” Yoona added softly, “There’s bound to be hidden treasures and artifacts as well, plus there’s a lot of aliens you can fight as well.”

“My sister’s right,” Jae-Hyun said, “The gods are never exactly thorough when they move homes, so there are things in there that will be worth our time.”

That perked up the redhead a little, “Well… I guess it’s not too bad, and I always wanted to go search for ancient ruins one of these days.”

“That’s the spirit!” Yoona exclaimed with a cheerful smile, “So what’s the plan, brother?”

“Yeah,” Vadeem added, “Got traps and stuff we have to watch out for? Magic barriers we need to avoid like last time?”

The Regressor shook his head, “No, it’s more standard this time, like I said, that last Trial was abnormal. We’ll set up camp close to the dragon, it’s part of the reason we rode here on one in the first place. I’ll tell the driver to detach the cabin for us to use.”

“Good idea,” I muttered, “I doubt anything will want to get too close to that thing, so we’ll definitely be safe.”

Jae-Hyun nodded in agreement, “Yeah, she’ll stay put for a week before we have to go back, so we’ll use that time to thoroughly explore this place. Our goal is to gather as many cores as possible, treasures are a secondary concern, but most importantly, we need to practice our formations and synergies in a fight.”

Yoona agreed, “That’s a good idea, I’m still a little hesitant to shoot when you or Vadeem are too close to an enemy.”

“And you have two other archers to account for as well,” Vadeem added, “The twins are good, but they’re more used to scout work than fighting in a team.”

Ana and Eva started to flex their arms to affirm what Vadeem said, but Yoona quickly corrected them and they nodded instead. I guess they still defaulted to the Vadeem method of communication even after all this time. However, I knew that the big man was still teaching them ridiculous things when he thinks the others are not looking. I don’t think he’ll ever stop, regardless of how many times he gets scolded by the others. I think Ana and Eva secretly like the ridiculous gestures as much as Vadeem did.

“Right,” I said, “we’ve never really had a proper chance to fight together, what with us being split up before even starting the Trial. I still don’t know what Yoona’s class does, come to think of it. Or that weird thing Jae-Hyun did in that last fight.”

Jae-Hyun spoke before his sister could answer, “It’s easier to get the proper feel of things in combat than just explaining.”

“We’re not all like you, brother,” Yoona said with a sigh, “But generally speaking I can imbue my arrows with mana and give them different properties. I think you saw me control their flight well. There’s a bit more nuance but you’ll see when we fight.”

“Alright, enough talking!” Noel joined in, “Let’s go stab some baddies already! I’ve been cooped up in that box all day, I need to stretch my legs a bit.”

I actually agreed with Noel for once. As fun as that trip was, it had been over a day since we were able to stretch ourselves properly, and I wanted to test out my new class passives as well. I’ve yet to see just how much more damage I could do with my luck charges completely full. Then another thought hit me, just how much damage could I do in my Xollon form combined with Noe’s new class?

“I’ll speak with our driver and we’ll head out after,” the Regressor agreed, “We might need to camp out for a night or two inside the ruins, so keep some supplies ready.”

“Got it boss!”

“Oh right, Walter?” he asked as he turned to look at me.

“Yeah?”

He took out something from his inventory and tossed it over. I barely managed to grab on to it without cutting myself. That would have been embarrassing if it had.

“Your weapon’s fixed, it’s not the sturdiest thing, but we can find something better here.”

Ah, the damn whip-blade, I almost forgot about it, but it’s not like I could actually use the stupid thing when Noe’s Absolute Luck was out of the equation. Now I still plan to use it in the future; I had the idea that I could swing the thing in my left hand randomly and let Noe do most of the work on that front while I concentrated all my attention on using my right feeler to attack. That way, it’s like having two people fight at once, although I’d still have to see how feasible this plan of mine was.

But all of that can wait for later, once Noe’s upgrades are complete. Instead of swinging it around like an idiot and letting people know that I had no actual ability to use it, I stashed it in my inventory and pointed to my open palms.

“Thanks,” I said, “But I want to try out my new abilities this time since we’re here to practice. I know you don’t like the fact that I got a Sponsorship, but I might as well use the tools I’m stuck with, right?”

The Regressor slowly nodded, “Fair, it’s best to make use of any advantages you have, and as I said, I’ll make sure that we fix your particular problem later on.”

I watched the Regressor head towards the dragon and felt a mounting anticipation of what was to come. The feelers in my hands were wiggling happily as well, just waiting for a chance to be free. I was never one who welcomed violence, yet I was strangely amicable to the idea right now, in fact, I was practically scrambling at the chance to fight. Was that the Xollon in me speaking?

Thankfully we didn’t have to wait for too long as our leader came back within a few minutes. He did, however, make us do one last check to make sure that all of our gear was ready. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my interactions with the Regressor, it’s that he never wants to go into any situation unprepared.

Once things were all accounted for, the seven of us walked with glee into the ruins, all of us glad to be on our feet once more, anticipating what was going to be in store for us.

 

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