The almost three-thousand-strong population of Kharinza had to be moved to Mengoza. Thankfully, I still had the gold baton-beacon for the Great Portals and the activating coins. On the reptiloid island (although there were no lizardfolk there yet in this version of Dis), Gyula began the construction of a Small Fort consisting of three structures: tavern, barracks and storehouse. It could take over a day to build.
The cultists of Morena left us for a time, returning to Shad’Erung, but the kobolds and troggs needed no roof over their heads and preferred the caves in the mountains. The workers went the same way to explore new ore deposits. I sent Ripta and Anf to protect them and assigned them Crusher and Iggy, for company. Unlike Kharinza, there were mobs here, and they were over level 300.
My friends also planned to stay on Mengoza, to level up the workers — they all needed to hit level 100 to rank up. In addition, Irita started picking out flying mounts for all the clan officers, for mobility and patrolling the island. The sight of the Ruins of the Departed put a smile on Infect’s face. He raised his pick and rushed off to start his archeological dig.
I, on the other hand, planned to climb out of my capsule and get a bite to eat. I had a long shift of immersion ahead of me — to farm Serendipity for Fortune and seek Oyama, Supreme Grand Master of Unarmed Combat. As for how to withstand the heat of the desert, I already had some thoughts.
But how to handle the frost of Holdest? Despite Behemoth’s warnings, I still wanted to try the Balancer again. I couldn’t use Depths Teleportation to get into the Nucleus’s lair; I’d have to go on foot to the spot beneath which the underground cave lay. How would I get down there? I had a personal drill, but would he survive on Holdest? Sharkon was a desert beast; he might die there…
I summoned Monty and Storm and ordered them to patrol the zone and keep mobs from interrupting me, then sat in the shade of a lone tree with wrinkled, cracked bark and started to rack my brains. The dwarf builders had interrupted our short breather in the tavern while we held the clan council meeting, and now there was no excuse to relax. But before sprinting off like a headless chicken to take action like I usually did, I decided to come up with a clear plan.
What did we have? The Triad and the United Cartel were looking for me, but Hairo had taken on that problem. My parents were safe — the Moon wasn’t Earth; all the resorts were under forcefields, and you couldn’t just walk into a hotel there.
Next. The preventers didn’t know where to find me, and Mogwai was unlikely to share his intel on Kharinza with them, so the Alliance was the least of my troubles. Especially since they’d spent their strongest artifacts in the battles with Shazz the lich — just a shame the fight at the temple didn’t happen. So Hinterleaf still had his Conjoining of Souls, which meant Modus was best avoided.
The Destroying Plague — that was the true danger. It bothered me that Kharinza still had that instance with the Plague Vector and the lich Uros. Sure, Behemoth had cut it off from the Nucleus, but the destruction of Tiamat’s temple had weakened the Sleeping God! In light of recent events, that fact had flown from my mind. Clearing the cave was a priority. Not used to putting things off, I jumped up, but then made myself stop and sit back down again. I couldn’t put off the cave for long, but a few minutes wouldn’t make a difference. That lich had lived there for years; he’d wait.
Our main danger was the Elites, and Mogwai in particular. Unlike the Nucleus, who was currently more focused on expansion, the legates had two things on their minds: the rewards for eliminating the Threat and the fact that I was now their main opponent. No other players could hold a candle to them; any legate could take out a full raid of preventers. I myself had proved that.
How could I deal with the legates? It wasn’t even an issue of how to kill them. I’d already done that and they just revived again, although with less experience, but regaining what they’d lost was no longer a problem for them: they could just go to the Lakharian Desert, pull a bunch of mobs and fire off Plague Fury. How to neutralize them? Set up some traps like the one Eileen put me in? Then the legates would be close to each other and they could just kill themselves to get free (I remembered dealing damage to myself). What if I spread traps across different zones? Eight (or nine, now?) similar cells and just as many castles. Where would I get them..?
The most reliable trap seemed to be the Nether, but if I made a rift (although I didn’t even know how to get to the instance on Terrastera where I could learn the skill), then the legates would get there with all the abilities of the Destroying Plague — if Three’s theory was right, of course. With Immortality they’d level up so fast that there’d be no holding them back without Three and Nine. And anyway, using the Nether was unrealistic for now.
I started to feel depressed, hopeless. I had Behemoth and his quests to deal with too. I could put a second temple on Terrastera, but first I had to wait for Isis’
