Chapter Forty-Nine – Fortitude – Part Three

Give me a world with a single hero, and it will receive my blessing. Give me a world filled with heroes, and I will give them nothing, for they need nothing. Such is the balance that must be maintained. Need not, receive not.

- Ninth Passage of the Third Testament of Goddess Jaledi of the Mosei -

There's a timer that's running down while Fisban grills Smith and tries to get the information out of him, it's longer than last time. I'm not going to give Red the satisfaction of clicking either option, fuck them.

One of Fisban's suits has taken off the remaining restraints from us, which to be honest might have been a mistake.

"Well, fuck," I sigh.

"What's wrong?" Gilroy asks.

"Shit's about to hit the fan," I say, stretching my neck. I'm going to get at least one shot in before the gate zaps me away. I'll get my pound of flesh.

"I'm going to fucking kill them," Tran seethes, looking at Barlow, "Which fuckhead did this?"

Barlow looks around, eyes locking on one of the people now standing behind Princess Smith.

"That fucker, he's mine," Barlow says.

"Boys…" Gilroy growls, but no one gives a shit about his rank right now. Not with Barlow's clothes covered in blood.

"You guys in?" Tran asks.

"Is that even a question," I say, rolling my neck.

"Fuck," Gilroy says, bouncing up on his heels, "Why not."

We all look at him, he rolls his eyes, letting out a deep breath and putting his now uncuffed hands in front of him, ready to strike. Damn, he's actually turning out to be a cool guy.

Fisban shoots a glance over at me, shaking her head no, but I don't work for Fisban. My first-line supervisor is technically Sergeant Gilroy, the king of turds no longer.

The gap between me and princess closes in an instant, I almost topple over with the speed of my legs. I don't sucker punch this fuckwad, I want him to know it's coming.

"Oi," I say, standing in front of him now, "Night, night, princess."

He raises his hands up to block his face, but I swing anyway. Bone cracks as I slam my fist into him. Shattering his wrist and breaking his jaw on impact, knocking him the fuck out and sending him flying backward.

"Holy shit."

Strength stat is no joke. My wrist feels like it's fractured though, even with the blessing. Everyone is silent as they look from me to Smith unconscious on the ground.

I point to the disfigured sleeping princess and then look at Verantha, "Heal."

She blinks, but Tran doesn't as he uses his rogue quickstep skill to close the gap on one of the people in Smith's group. Kicking them right in the sack and elbowing them in the throat. His backfoot kicks a woman with equal opportunity as she tries to stop him. Leaving her cross-eyed and holding her groin. Guess it hurts for everyone.

"Warrior's blood," Barlow growls, his veins bulging as he barrels toward the guy who tortured him. Grabbing him by the suit collar and slamming him to the ground, giving back what's due.

Gilroy is exchanging blows with the two who try to pull Barlow off. I leap at the person coming behind him, shoving them with my shoulder hard, I hear their collar bone snap from the impact, and their eyes bulge as they grimace.

The brawl is short-lived as Fisban discharges her gun. Even though it was seven versus four, I'm pretty sure we won that. Most of them are on the ground, clutching something and missing teeth.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Fisban asks me through clenched teeth.

"A lot," I admit.

"This isn't how things are done," she explains, a strand falling out of her neat bun, she talks quieter now over the groaning of people on the ground, "This is really going to complicate things."

"Not as much as what's coming."

The timer is almost out for the Respec on Death quest.

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"What?"

"Quest."

She raises an eyebrow, "Already?"

"Yeah."

"But you're…"

Her sentence gets interrupted as reality bends. That familiar feeling slaps me in the stomach, the Jello that Barlow spoon-fed me in the hospital churns. The air is hot, not painfully hot, but really hot, which is surprising, given the low light of my surroundings and the breeze that strikes my body. Humid. Hot. I breathe deep, the air tastes salty. Near an ocean? My eyes adjust to the low light, the blur from the travel fading. Weird-looking tropical trees with rungs of bark that seem to collect rainwater in basins. Above is a thick canopy and the sound of bountiful life, albeit alien life. A quest pops up in my vision. The text is all red.

[ Quest: Desecrate the Temple of the Goddess Jaledi ]

Well, that sounds like a great way to make friends. A branch cracks behind me in the sandy terrain, and I spin fast. Blinking faster.

"Where are we?" Tran asks, putting his hand in front of him to block a patch of light.

What the fuck…

"Novak, is this the shit fan you were talking about?" Gilroy asks.

I look around, everyone that was near me… they're all here. Fisban, Thomas, every single last one of Smith's goons including him, Cactus Cleric, the boys, and Gilroy.

Fisban moves toward me, stumbling over a sand hill in her suit.

"Did you select all of us as a party?" she asks.

"As a party?" I reply.

She stares at me blankly seeming to notice I don't know shit. I didn't know that I could take people with me. Niva the fox is the only one I've ever transported.

"Fuck," she sighs, "You weren't supposed to have another quest for at least ten and a half months. There's something wrong with your system manager."

"System manager?" I ask.

She tilts her head at me, "You don't have one?"

"Uh, I have something that manages to fuck me."

"Fuck's sake."

Fisban pushes back her hair.

"Where are we?" Verantha asks, spinning around in a daze, her heavy white robes are definitely not suited for this type of heat. In the sun, it's going to be hell.

Barlow moves towards me with Gilroy and Tran, closing the circle with Fisban.

"So, what now?" Barlow asks.

"What's the quest?" Fisban asks.

"It wants us to desecrate a temple of some Goddess."

"What?" Fisban says loudly, her eyes flaring with her nostrils, "Your system sounds defective."

"You're telling me," I say, then leaning in, "So are there other people like me?"

Fisban doesn't answer, she pulls up her bun again, taking off her suit jacket and rolling up her sleeves, she booms a command "Gather on me!"

Everyone moves toward her, there are a lot of confused looks. Smith is still unconscious, but he looks healed.

"Alright, first thing's first, I'm in charge."

No one says anything against it.

"We need to secure the perimeter and establish shelter, water, and food sources, in that order. There's no telling what kind of weather we should expect on this world," she looks up at the canopy, "If the day cycle of this world is similar to Earth's then it should be either late afternoon or early morning."

If it's early morning, I don't want to know what the midday heat wave will be like. Most worlds we go to are similar to Earth, especially if the flora and fauna are. These trees look like strange palm trees, so it's safe to assume that it should be similar enough. Besides that, the gravity is nearly identical too, which is nice.

"Right," Gilroy says, nodding, "What she said."

The boys and I give him a look.

"What? She clearly knows best," Gilroy scoffs.

"Okay, you have your marching orders," Fisban says, "Fan out, stay within eyesight though."

Everyone turns and moves in different directions, except me.

"You deaf now too?" she asks.

"No, I'm just tired of not getting answers."

"You think now is the appropriate time?" she asks incredulously. But I don't care.

"You're breathing right?" I ask.

She squints at me.

"Then you can answer."

Her jaw flexes.

"Three questions then get to work, you do well, maybe I'll answer more."

Shit. She's actually going to answer.

"Just keep in mind that anything I say is likely classified. You repeat it, you'll get acquainted with lead poisoning, catch my drift?"

I nod, the first question that comes to mind is, "How did you know about Respec on Death?"

"Well, that's a two-part answer."

"Fine."

"You're not the only one with it."

Okay, getting somewhere.

"Based on the circumstances of your class change, the divine item drop, and the space fluctuations that happened during your irregular quest where you brought back an alien Fox baby, there was only one explanation. You're a Respec on Death skill holder. The system doesn't do random quests, at least not that we know of. Only RoD skill holders get them."

They do know everything. But how?

"As a bonus, the reason I know your system is malfunctioning is because you're only supposed to get one quest per year. Otherwise, you'd accumulate too many tokens, the ten they start you with is already busted."

"Ten? I started with zero."

She stares at me blankly again, shifting her weight uncomfortably, "How many do you have now?"

"One."

"That's… that's not normal. Even your being selected is abnormal. Each world is only supposed to get six skill holders. You're the seventh, maybe that's why you didn't start with ten?"

Six holders? If all of us are fucking with time, what if one dies? Do the tokens get restored for the ones that don't go back? This is confusing.

"Does everyone go back in…" The next word, time, doesn't come out. A massive popup in my vision, purple text.

[ Warning: Speaking about Cosmic Time Fluctuations will result in eradication. ]

Oh shit.

"Go back in what?"

"I uh," my eyes stare at the warning, pulsing purple text. This is the big boy system, the one that fucked earth for Ulana breaking the rules. Is it talking about just eradicating me, or Earth? Fuck.

"You what?" she asks, hands on her hip with an annoyed expression.

"Does everyone go back into the Cosmic Exchange?"

"Back from where?" she asks.

I'm not good at lying. But the pop-up disappears. My heart starts to calm. Well, I guess I have my answer. Don't fucking talk about time distortions. That must have been what Ulana meant. Not the system itself, but what she did. The voice from the Nexus, the meatsack one, said it's not impossible to go back in time, but that it's highly frowned upon. Guess it wasn't full of shit.

"From the RoD menu."

"I'm not entirely familiar with it, I've never been a handler for a skill holder. What I do know is that your assigned system entity which was supposed to guide you, is in the Cosmic Exchange."

"Wait, what?"

"That's enough questions for now. If we survive this, there will be plenty of time to talk about what comes next."

"You can't just drop all these truth bombs and then tell me to fuck off."

She slings her coat over her shoulder, tilting her head again, "Watch me."

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