Chapter 5

  Wes sat down to process the information dump he received. He thought about his last thoughts. Instead of saying, move another meter. He now wanted to say, “move an inch.” The information dump was strange. He looked up toward the top of the mountain and found that he wanted to say, “it was a football field away.”

  Wes had so many questions zipping through his head. He took inventory of the most pertinent and took stock of what had changed. The way he was labeling some things now had changed. It was not quite forced speech, more if he tried to use his old measurements and certain types of thinking he would find that his head would deal with sharp stabbing pains. He guessed that these unique skills wanted him to use these labels in his thinking.

  He looked down and measured it in his head instinctively. “Half a mile down.”

  What the heck is half a mile or a football field? He did not have any idea what any of this meant but he would have to make do with not thinking about this new measurement system that now filled his head, or for that matter the old one.

  He picked himself up from the shelf he had been sitting on while he wrestled with the quirks of one of these unique abilities. He gave one last inventory of his status and saw that they were both now inactive and set off down the mountain once more.

  Working his way down the mountain took a considerable chunk out of his clock but when he finally reached the bottom he couldn't help but be proud of what he had just done. The mountain had not been completely vertical, it offered a challenge of rolling to one's death with the wrong foot placement. He would’ve bashed his head on a rock if he had lost his traction and rolled down the mountain.

  When he reached the bottom of the small mountain he moved a lot more slowly than he had up near the top. As the trees began to rise in the distance he could see that they had considerable size to them. Bigger than any house in his village that was for sure. He had been crouched ready to scamper back up the mountain as fast as he could if anything came running out. Wes looked at his clock and realized he now knew how time was measured on his clock. It was measured in Hours, Minutes, and Seconds. His village went by something called Long and Shorts. Those replaced the hours and minutes of the clock. He had no idea what the hell seconds were. He only ever knew Longs and Shorts. They also had only 28 Longs in a day. And 100 shorts per Long. This clock in his status had counted down quite a bit on the way down.

  270:49:32

  Wes had seen the minutes change the hour amount when it reached 0. It had gone all the way back up to double zero before going to 59. So he believed every 60 was when it changed the hour. The seconds were much the same from his observation. Except that the seconds changed the hour.

  That explained why the clock was moving so fast. The Shorts were shorter on this clock. This would be a problem if he got a stabby pain every time he talked about it or thought of it. Because he had to weather the pain while he compared the time differences on the way down.

  With the time estimates out of the way he now had a better understanding of how much time he had left to complete this quest. He settled his heart and snuck cautiously toward the closest tree. Leaving his escape route was a tough mental hurdle but the certainty of death was a nice motivation.

  ***

  Argyros had been a busy man as soon as he sent the boys away. He had to use his unique ability to implant the idea of never having met Wesley. He also had done digging into the years that Katara had spent on this planet. She had spent most of the years since he had last seen her here on this frontier planet. He had no idea why she had chosen this one. He suspected that it would take a god to move here with any sort of speed. Even a Prime would not be able to get here without any expediency without the help of a dedicated Prime or Sub-Prime in special Teleportation. With the Republic being so spread out and the intergalactic bodies always moving, coming here would take months or years from the higher realms. It depends on who wants to track down Katara.

  The real concerning part of Kataraomi’s time on the planet was her manifesting enough mana to terraform the planet. She had amassed enough to kill some levelers on the path. A few of the weaker Sub-Primes as well. From what he had heard about her accord with Tessonia, she had to give up all use of her mana.

  Argyros was glad he started his preparations for someone powerful visiting during the week as he tried to produce an achievement. When he was doing one of his interrogations of one of the last villagers he felt the world lock up. He knew that his chance of escape was zero so he continued as he was doing. He changed the topic of conversation he was having with the owner of a local trade store. Not wanting to tip off whoever had just arrived. He pretended like he was only looking for an ingredient that would be quite rare so far from outer realms.

  When the power locked onto him he offered a bow while holding his palms up in supplication.

  The individual stepped out of the fabric of space in front of him and the shop owner. He deepened his bow as he saw the person's sandals in his vision.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  “This stubborn fool off the path greets thee,” Argyros said

  The owner of the sandals spoke. “Why am I not surprised you beat me here?”

  Argyros recognized the voice. The worst-case scenario had just begun for him. It looked like he would not be meeting back up with Wes anytime soon.

  ***

  Goddess Tesonia was elated with being able to stretch her mana through the universe once more. It had been a long time since her mana had brushed up against anything outside her home system's neighboring stars. She had grown rusty walking through the fabric of reality. Her mana control had been sharpened but her skills had grown dull from so light use in the last billion years.

  When she set foot on the planet she was pleasantly surprised to find Kataraomi’s old mentor and training partner. She would have killed him long ago if not for his own mentor.

  Argyros may be weak but he made up for his lack of power with guile and misdirection.

  After the formalities, she said, “how much did you beat me by?”

  Argyros answered her in his bow. “I got here just as the village was holding her funeral. Would you like me to take you there?”

  “Yes, that would save me the trouble.” Tessonia replied.

  Please follow me then. Argyros teleported to the other side of the village. Tessonia thought to herself, how is he still so sloppy at this? She followed him over to Kataraomi’s grave.

  “How did you know she had passed away?” Tessonia asked while looking down at the grave.

  “I shared one of her charming curses from our time together.” Argyros said.

  “And when did it alert you? Before she passed or after?” Tessonia asked.

  “From what I understand she fought death for months. I suspect that she may have passed only to be revived by her body's innate gifts.” Argyros offered.

  Tessonia looked at the planet around her and could taste the mana in the air. She looked to the the man bowing to her left and asked. “What do you make of all this? You may rise.”

  Argyros hesitated as he rose to meet Tessonia’s gaze. “That is what I have been trying to find out since I arrived. I only have a hypothesis, no real answers. She mostly kept to herself from what I am told. After her brother left years back a decade ago to better his education she got in the habit of helping where she could around the village.”

  Tessonia raised her eyebrows, “brother?”

  Argyros pointed to the graves further away and said. “He seems to have offended the wrong individual himself and was brought back by his mentor. That was two years ago by this system’s standards.

  “Is it your hypothesis that her brother did this or that she did this?” Tessonia asked.

  Argyros’ hesitation was visible, “I think she had somehow found a way to generate mana and began to store it away. I think that she was afraid of someone coming to kill her all this time. She built in a fail-safe to release the mana and terraform the planet after she was laid to rest. How, I do not know.”

  “I will be direct, have you claimed the credit for this?” Tessonia asked.

  ***

  Argyros had been stringing along Tessonia just as he had planned to do with any who came calling. All his preparations had been to alter the truths just enough to shape the narrative of this planet. Now that he laid the groundwork and foundation all he had to do was offer his hard work up to her for free.

  “Even if I wanted to, those that know me would no doubt claim that I was not capable of doing this.”

  Tessonia demanded. “Show me your level.”

  Argryos made a show of being offended, “I am sorry Goddess Tessonia, I do not think I can do that.”

  Tessonia’s mana slammed down on Argyros. His arms and legs disintegrated immediately. His body compacted in on itself and the space around him distorted as the mana became more and more dense. She asked, “Do not make me do this, I do not wish to go to war with him, but do not take my reluctance for weakness.”

  Argyros offered his level.

  Name: Argyros of 18901B

  Race: Human

  Age: 98.7B

  Level: 1689

  “Forgive me, it seems I acted hastily.” Tessonia’s curiosity was now satiated.

  Tessonia did not make any attempt to heal Argyros, she instead walked toward where he had motioned that Kataraomi’s brother was. Argyros was happy that she had bought his reasoning; now he just needed to say just enough to let her think he wasn’t revealing everything.

  He asked as soon as he was done healing himself. “Is it alright if I leave now?”

  Tessonia paused at the graves now before her. “No, I need you to go find this young boy's mentor.”

  Argyros did his best not to smile. “You are speaking with him.”

  Tessonia turned around with her eyebrows raised. “Are you telling me that you broke the edict?”

  “I am saying no such thing. He came to me on his own merits. I simply brought him back when he passed. I had no interaction with Katara, I never even set foot on the planet. I simply had him placed at her door.” Argyros replied.

  He could feel the mana around him shudder. Tessonia was doing her best to suppress her rage. “Was he like her?”

  “I apologize, I’m afraid I can not. He never crossed into the outer realms.”

  Tessonia ground her teeth. “So be it.”

  Argyros asked one more time. “May I now be on my way Goddess Tessonia?”

  She waved her arm at him, Argyros felt the space behind him pull on him. He found himself on a moon somewhere he did not recognize.

  “It seems I have asked the wrong question one too many times.” Argyros looked around him. There was a white dwarf star and what he thought to be the planet A of this system. Behind him was a gas giant that his moon belonged to. He thought to himself, this is going to take an eternity. That boy better not die.