Ruthless: Path of Conquest

The citizenship ceremony concluded uneventfully.

James sat and soaked in the sound of dozens of voices pledging their personal loyalty to him. The experience was as flattering as ever, and he gained another level in Fisher King—and a corresponding level in Evolver Human—which made him feel slightly stronger.

It still didn’t come close to eliminating the hangover from using Curse of the Fisher King, though.

James was almost ready to dismiss the gathering and let the freshly minted citizens go on their way when he remembered a tradition he had intended to establish: ending every meeting in the community center, regardless of purpose, with a story.

He asked for a volunteer, and one of the Galt family raised her hand.

“Thank you,” he said. “You can step right up onto the stage, introduce yourself, and tell your story.”

The woman did as instructed.

“Julia Galt,” she said from the center of the stage.

Then she began her story.

Parts of it were familiar to James from his own experiences or events that he had heard others discuss. Julia’s references to the destruction of Orlando by apparent earthquake, fire, and monsters were unsurprising.

She is telling the story well, though, he thought. Emotion in all the right places. He had to remind himself that this wasn’t a cynical ploy to gain people’s sympathies; it was just her account of what had happened. Then he was able to enjoy Julia’s account properly.

It was when she reached the part where she and her family first met Cyrus and his followers that James heard something he found novel.

Julia mentioned that she, her brothers, and their father had passed through “the fiery crucible” to reach this place. James saw nods and looks of recognition from the other monotheists in the crowd.

For the first time, James noticed how captivated the crowd was with her story. So many of them were enjoying hearing their own experience echoed that it had created quite a pleasant atmosphere in the room. They also seemed to be pleased, now that he took the measure of the room, at how attentive James was to her story—their story.

Of course, people love knowing that their leaders care about their experiences…

Perhaps more importantly, his mind returned to Moishe—who, when James saw him, had been covered in what appeared to be severe burns.

These two things can’t be unrelated, can they?

He passively absorbed the rest of Julia’s story; it covered the rest of the Galts’ odyssey to reach the Fisher Kingdom, but there was little more of interest there. Apparently, they had been briefly ‘attacked’ by James’s wolves, though he suspected that was an exaggeration, since he had not been made aware of any deaths among Cyrus’s party.

She seemed to be aware that the wolves were James’s allies, as she followed up that part of her story with a slightly nervous smile in his direction.

James simply thanked her for her tale, and she nodded and quickly returned to her family in the audience.

Then the Fisher King adjourned the meeting.

As the new citizens began exiting the community center, James sat and waited for the place to empty out. He wanted as few people as possible to see it if he stumbled.

And James wanted to use the time to think through his next move.

He had already sent a telepathic order to all the combat-capable creatures he had created that were still alive, summoning them to his and Mina’s bedroom. A few of the weakest creatures were excluded—Abhi’s spider was not going to be of any use in a fight.

James wanted to see if there was some way he could enhance the rest of them with his existing powers to make them useful in a fight with Cyrus’s remaining followers.

It wasn’t that he didn’t think Dave and the others could handle this fight on their own. James knew that they could. If they couldn’t, his monster wouldn’t make the difference.

But when it came to fighting, he was uncomfortable with being completely uninvolved in a battle he sent his people to wage.

Even where, as in this case, it was meant to be nothing more than an inglorious massacre.

What Skills do I have that I can afford to transfer to the monsters? he wondered. Having conducted few experiments in transferring away Skills—he tended to prefer stealing other people’s—he was not completely certain of the mechanics.

But he suspected that he would lose the levels he had gained in any Skills he transferred away. That was what happened when a fused Skill defused, after all—the experience gained during Skill Fusion disappeared—and he had gained Skill Fusion at the same time that he gained Skill Transfer, with his Race Evolution.

He decided to open his Status and take an inventory of what he had.

[Status

Name: James Robard

Race: Evolver Human, Lv. 24

Class: Predator in Human Skin, Lv. 26

Job: Fisher King, Lv. 22

Health: 27,225/27,225

Mana: 25,056/25,056

Stamina: 25,281/25,281

Wrath Meter: 0%

Stats

Strength: 131

Agility: 141

Stamina: 159

Fortitude: 165

Dexterity: 116

Perception: 169

Will: 174

Intelligence: 144

Charisma: 170

Stealth: 150

Free Points: 0

Skills

Affinity of the Fisher King, Lv. 4

Air Strike, Lv. 5

Aura of the Fisher King, Lv. 6

Basic Elemental Magic: Earth, Lv. 4

Basic Elemental Magic: Gravity, Lv. 3

Basic Elemental Magic: Water, Lv. 4

Basic Non-Elemental Magic, Lv. 2

Berserk Mode, Lv. 0

Blame Avoidance, Lv. 5

Blessing of the Fisher King, Lv. 3

Command Presence, Lv. 1

Command Structure

Compulsion, Lv. 5

Curse of the Fisher King, Lv. 1

Dominion

Dreamwalk, Lv. 7

Echolocation, Lv. 0

Empathic Projection, Lv. 12

Enhanced Stem Cell Production, Lv. 9

False Reality, Lv. 6

Fate Resistance

Full Body Control, Lv. 5

Goodwill of the Fisher King, Lv. 5

Hand of Glory, Lv. 2

Identify, Lv. 9

Illusion Magic, Lv. 5

Indeterminate Past, Lv. 0

Intelligence of the Fisher King, Lv. 2

Laying on Hands, Lv. 7

Lightning Strike, Lv. 3

Loyal Following, Lv. 5

Mass Pillage, Lv. 2

Meteor Strike, Lv. 3

Mind of the Predator, Lv. 7

Monster Control, Lv. 9

Monster Generation, Lv. 9

Natural Camouflage, Lv. 3

Omnivore, Lv. 5

Organization, Lv. 6

Otherworldly Shriek, Lv. 0

Pain Resistance, Lv. 9

Perfect Choice of Words, Lv. 7

Pillage, Lv. 12

Predator’s Missile, Lv. 3

Predator’s Sacred Armor, Lv. 2

Predator’s Strike, Lv. 5

Predator’s Venomous Armaments, Lv. 1

Rapid Recovery, Lv. 7

Self-Control, Lv. 4

Shed Skin, Lv. 9

Silent Spellcasting

Silk Production, Lv. 9

Skill Fusion

Skill Transfer

Solar Ray, Lv. 2

Solar Recovery, Lv. 4

Soul Bind, Lv. 1

Soul Magic, Lv. 2

Spellbinding Words, Lv. 2

System Interface

System Store Access

Territorial Control, Lv. 5

Threads of Fate, Lv. 1

Universal Language Comprehension

Way of the Predator, Lv. 6

Will of the Fisher King, Lv. 2

Zone of Influence, Lv. 1

Talents

Alpha Presence, Lv. 1

Basic Spellcraft, Lv. 6

Cannibalism, Lv. 6

Cool-Headed, Lv. 8

Earth Affinity

Efficient Magic, Lv. 5

Fisher Land Management, Lv. 5

Fisher Sentient Resources, Lv. 4

Flame Affinity

Genius Loci, Lv. 2

Leadership, Lv. 5

Manipulation, Lv. 9

Marksmanship, Lv. 4

Mass Manipulation, Lv. 3

Monster Patriarch, Lv. 9

Pain Resistance, Lv. 3

Selective Empathy, Lv. 6

Solar Power, Lv. 3

Soul Eater, Lv. 1

Ultrasonic Pitch, Lv. 0

Water Affinity

Titles

A Stitch in Time

Aeromaster

Chosen One of Anansi

Citizen of the Dead Marsh

Deceiver

Devout Beacon

Dreamweaver

Figure of Destiny

Friend of All Spiders

Living Legend

Pack Leader

Ruler of the Dark Waters

Savior

Spider-King

Storyteller

Sublime Creator

Swiss Army Mage

System Pioneer

Trickster

Usurper

Xenocide II]

For a moment, James’s Status sheet brought back memories.

Oh, I remember when I used to hide from enemies all the time, he thought, looking at Natural Camouflage, which he had not used at all since he returned to Earth.

There was Berserk Mode, a Skill he gained from a monstrous reindeer that savaged him after James killed one of its young. Alas, poor Rudolph.

Then his eyes drifted to the Compulsion Skill, and James remembered the few times he had used that one. But there were no fond recollections there.

His mind swiftly returned to business.

Right, I need to figure out which Skills I could do without if I transferred them permanently to a monster. I probably won’t actually transfer anything permanently unless I really don’t want it, but I need to assume I won’t get it back, in case the monster gets destroyed. My skin creatures are all much weaker than me.

I still use Illusion Magic all the time, and False Reality complements it perfectly… Dreamwalking isn’t combat-compatible as I’ve used it, and my monsters probably couldn’t use it anyway. It requires a human level of insight into the minds of others to use. All the elemental magics I still have are pretty much indispensable, and honestly, I don’t want to do without any of the “Strike” line of Skills in a fight. Plus, the power of all those Skills is heavily connected to my own innate physical Stats. I saw just how useful they are to anyone who doesn’t have superhuman Strength when Mina copied them…

There were the Skills that came from the Solar Power Talent, but James had a handful of monsters that had inherited those Skills already. He had used them to purge the Haunted Forest of Wraiths. Plus, if he gave another monster the sun-related Skills, it would have hardly any time to charge with solar energy. The sun was almost ready to set.

Which also means I’m running out of time, he reminded himself.

James wished he had the physical vigor to simply create a powerful new monster with multiple Skills right now. But if he tried it, he’d probably collapse before he could even give the creature orders.

This is what I get for failing to plan ahead for a situation in which I’m incapacitated, he thought. My family should not be in the situation where, if Mina and I are physically unfit, we’re simply defenseless. That’s like a pre-System level of home defense. This is the Wild West. I should have guns and backup guns, metaphorically speaking, not just a single pistol I keep in a table drawer by the front door. I need to fix this shit as soon as I’m physically well enough.

His mind flashed to the vision of the future where Mina and the Fisher Kingdom were attacked, but this time, a legion of monsters made of his own flesh crawled up from the sewers underground and overwhelmed the attackers.

Yes, that will do…

And he suddenly knew which Skills he wanted to pass on to his chosen monsters. They would hopefully only be temporarily lost to him, but at least they were things he had not leveled much anyway.

Berserk Mode was the obvious one, so that the monster would fight furiously. It was an easy choice, since James never used that Skill.

Echolocation, because this was meant to be a night attack—Cyrus and his followers had waited until now to begin leaving, and the sun would set quite shortly. Plus, that Skill was almost redundant with Hand of Glory in James’s repertoire.

Otherworldly Shriek, because James had not leveled it at all, and it would hopefully have some compatibility with Echolocation.

Predator’s Venomous Armaments, because James had likewise rarely used it and had barely accrued any experience with it.

Mass Pillage, so the lucky monster that received it could acquire some new Skills of its own—James had the original Pillage Skill, and if he lost Mass Pillage, he could live with that.

There was a part of James that wanted to include Soul Magic, since he hoped and assumed that he would be able to transfer most of these Skills back to his own body—but he resisted the temptation. Yes, the Skill was incredibly powerful and would all but guarantee that the monster that received it would kill some enemies.

But it was too important for him to risk losing it.

James could already imagine Roscuro screaming if he transferred away the Soul Eater’s most powerful combat Skill.

All right, I think that should do it, he told himself. That will make my monsters as powerful as I can get them.

Then James heard a quiet rumbling noise and blinked. He realized Mina was standing in front of him. She had just cleared her throat—actually rather loudly, although it had felt quiet to him. He looked up at her.

“I’ve just been trying to get your attention, skapi,” she said, looking relieved. “Everyone is gone. They’ve been gone for a few minutes now, actually. I assumed you were waiting for them to leave, but then you were just sitting there, staring off into space. For a moment, I thought you might have passed out with your eyes open. I was starting to think about getting you back to the apartment.”

“Oh. Sorry to make you worry. No, I’m okay,” James said, smiling.

“That’s good. Don’t make me worry,” she said with faux sternness. “You need to take it easy the next few days—or weeks. I don’t know how long you have until the backlash from your fight with Cyrus goes away.”

“Yeah, me neither,” James said. “I’m ready to go back to the apartment now, if you think the coast is basically clear. I think I can walk without stumbling, too. We just need to stay clear of anyone who will want a long, in-depth conversation.”

“Did you want to go straight home—or, um, I know your friend from Orientation is here, confined to a bed—did you want to pay him a visit first?”

James reached out and felt where Moishe was. He had not moved from his previous position, and James could tell that Moishe remained unconscious.

He shook his head.

“He’s not awake, and there’s nothing I can do to help heal him faster until I recover some more power.”

I can’t even muster a blessing right now, James thought. I bet that would wake him up.

Mina nodded. “Then we’ll go back and have dinner.”

“Right,” James said. “I appreciate you remembering what was happening with Moishe. I do care about helping him. I just can’t make a difference right now.”

But maybe I can at least do something to communicate with him, James thought. Assuming that he’s not brain-damaged or something. After Cyrus and his people are dealt with, I can probably visit him in his dreams.