“What’s happening here?”
“The land of Kharinza is dying,” the shaman barked. “Our warriors are sacrificing themselves to return life to this soil.”
I turned to look at Ranakotz.
“Tell me more.”
“A corruption spreads across the island, chosen of the Inexorable One. The goddess wishes to help, but her abilities are not limitless. We shared her suggestion with the great and wise Rvg’har and the courageous Grog’hyr. They took it upon themselves to help. Their weak warriors volunteered their blood.”
The howiing and wailing came from all sides, and if I understood correctly, it was from the wives, girlfriends and cubs of the kobolds chosen as sacrifice for Morena. I didn’t like the sound of that one bit.
“Stop!” I shouted. “No sacrifices!”
They didn’t hear me. I had to run to the head of the procession and stop Dekotra by force. The troll was fanatically singing odes to the glory of Morena and marching blindly, his eyes rolling as if he was elsewhere, and only Ghastly Howl brought him to his senses. A side effect was that everyone started running around in Fear. Even Patrick, who had come out of the tavern to see what was going on, ran off swearing into the Fiery Wasabi.
I sat down to wait forty seconds for the earsplitting screams and chaos to end. I wondered how the game system knew what I wanted. After all, all those around me were allied NPCs, and that meant that Ghastly Howl shouldn’t have any effect on them at all. But it did! But when I was in the group with the boys, it hadn’t worked on them then… Strange.
My rarely used talent from Crusher became relevant as soon as I leveled up. Among all the sentients on Kharinza, not counting Behemoth, I was the highest in level. And if I put some effort in now, then I could be number one in the world…
“What have we done wrong, chosen of the Inexorable One?” Dekotra said to me, shaking off the effects of Fear. His eyes were full of blood. He was still shaking. “I’ve never been so afraid in all my life!”
I’d been a little worried that the cultists or the kobolds might take Ghastly Howl as an attack and aggro on me, but apparently the chain of command worked; for the first group I was the chosen one of their goddess, and for the second, Initial of the Sleepers.
“No sacrifices, Dekotra!” I said firmly, standing up. “Every adept is important to the Sleeping Gods…”
Wait a sec… I could have thirty-nine priests now! The kobolds had increased in number, but there were also the cultists of Morena… Hmm. It didn’t matter that they already worshiped an Old Goddess. The kobolds hadn’t forsworn their faith in Kurtulmak either! The Sleeping Gods were outside that hierarchy, and the Old Gods themselves accepted their superiority!
“What would you say if I invited you to be a priest of the Sleeping Gods, Dekotra? The gods whose temple you see there,” I pointed down the street. “What would you say if I called on you and your people to worship the Sleepers? Would that contradict your faith in Morena?”
The troll froze, his eyes rolling. An alarmed whisper rippled through the other cultists behind my back. I turned.
“Speak louder if you want me to hear you. If you want HIM to hear you!”
Behemoth had arrived, and just in time. He must have taken the stream of Faith from Tiamat temporarily to show himself in all his splendor—the shadow of his hundred-times-enlarged avatar covered the entire fort and Shazz’s camp. The effect lasted several seconds, but that was all it took.
“This is just as the Inexorable One wishes,” Dekotra answered. “I would be honored.”
“As would I!” Ranakotz shouted.
“And I!” a two-headed ogre roared with two voices. His shoulder bore traces of a recent bite.
“And all of us…!” a minotaur roared.
Alongside Patrick, Tissa and Manny, I assigned Dekotra, Ranakotz, Grog’hyr and Ryg’har. The Sleeping Gods now had eight hundred and seventeen followers—six hundred and forty-eight more than before.
I got just as many bonuses from Unity. Along with all the Awoken, including the noncitizens. Not counting equipment bonuses, my stats now looked like this: Primary characteristics
Strength: 574.
Perception: 489.
Endurance: 619.
Charisma: 489.
Intellect: 282.
Agility: 447.
Luck: 1648.
Secondary characteristics
Health points: 1,032,863.
Mana points: 235,273.
Vindication points: 2,197,000.
Plague Energy points: 2,000,000.
Ugh, if only I could get ColdBlooded Punisher back! At my current level, the set would have given me another six hundred and eighteen points to each main stat.
Nether. It looked like I’d have to complete the Nucleus’s quest! I planned to part ways with the Nucleus eventually anyway, so I might as well get a quest reward and get my armor back first.
Chapter 4: Nether Rift
“ALEX, wait!”
I heard Gyula’s shout just as I was casting Depths Teleportation. I had many things to do and not much time to do them, so I sighed in annoyance.
Canceling the cast, I waited for the builder to gallop over to me on his new horse. A gift from me. The mount was standard and hadn’t cost much. I’d bought the stallion in Kinema and delivered it to the fort, along with a hundred and fifty comm amulets, a few far-sight mirrors, a batch of blue picks and green profession equipment for our miners. The key to any victory was a well-protected flank. It would be silly not to buy things to increase the workers’ productivity.
By now, the boys had already logged into Dis and got down to handing out new gear. Even I got some. Crawler plucked three legendary Crystallized Nightmare gems for me (each gave +500 strength) out of preventer armor. I put them in my SharkorTs Mane shield.
Gyula dismounted, although that was putting it charitably. In fact, his mount cantered past me, reared and threw him from the saddle. He had a lot of training to do…
“Never mind, I’ll get the hang of it.” He stood up, brushed himself off and waved away my quizzical look. “What did I want to say… Uhm… I understand that the clan has enough
