Alex, Claire, and Aaron had little trouble on their way back from Valley Ford to Mirrorwane. They managed to avoid running into any overly powerful monsters and managed to kill a fair number of normal ones — at least, about as normal as Mirrorlands monsters could get — along the way.
The three of them drew up to Mirrorwane feeling rather good about the entire trip. It had been a success in every manner of the word. Not only had they gotten a fair amount of magical energy from the fights they’d won, but the three had also gotten their hands on so pretty good rewards.
The favor of so random fancy Outworlder family in the future, a near-impenetrable bear, and a Spatial Fang that presumably has at least a few goodies waiting inside it for us to claim. That’s not bad at all. The Cracked Steps are a treasure trove.
Aaron slowed to a stop as they reached the city walls. Alex and Claire glanced at him in curiosity.
“Sothing wrong?” Alex asked.
“Nothing,” Aaron replied with a shake of his head. He pulled his Cracked Coin out of his pocket and held it out to Claire. “But I’m not done training yet. I’ve still got so much to catch up on. I don’t really see a reason to head back. I’ll just keep hunting more monsters out here.”
Claire took the coin from him. “Don’t forget to pause and spend ti to actually take in all the magic you’ve earned. You can’t seek out greater challenges if you hold yourself so far back that you don’t even have a chance against them.”
“Was that a dig?” Alex asked.
“Only if you take it as one,” Claire replied with a wry smile.
Aaron just laughed. “I’ll keep that in mind. I’m not planning on sitting around and just fighting a bunch of relatively weak monsters forever. I just want to push a little bit more. I still haven’t gotten the Soul Gems I need to unlock a Partial Soul Manifestation, and I’m not going to get them by waiting around inside Mirrorwane.”
“That’s true enough.” Alex nodded in understanding. “You could always buy sothing from Finley, but…”
“Why would I want to buy sothing anyone else could get?” Aaron finished with a grin. “I’ve got a chance to make sothing of myself. And May is already doing that. Far better than I am, at that rate. I need to get stronger if I want to be able to stand at her side. That ans seeking out power myself. Finley is great for resources and tools. But I’m not going to buy my future from him.”
“Don’t have anything to argue with there,” Alex said. He clapped Aaron on the shoulder. “Just make sure you bring at least one or two people with you if you go doing any dungeons. Your magic is pretty badass, but it doesn’t look like you’ve got a good way to deal with a more powerful opponent on your own. Don’t get yourself killed, yeah?”
“Rich, coming from you,” Claire said.
“I’m trying to be a motivational leader here,” Alex said with a sigh. “You’re not helping.”
Claire raised her hands defensively. “Sorry, sorry. Keep at it. You’re doing great.”
“Now the mood is ruined,” Alex grumbled. “Just co back in one piece.”
“I will,” Aaron said with a small laugh. “Don’t worry. I don’t plan on taking any bets that I won’t win.”
“Doesn’t every gambler say that?” Alex asked, arching an eyebrow.
“Do they?” Aaron grinned. “Maybe. But they aren’t cheating.”
“Fair,” Alex allowed. “Good luck.”
Aaron nodded. Then he turned and headed back for the twisted forest surrounding Mirrorwane as Alex and Claire made their way toward the Warped Embassy. They passed a few townsfolk on the way, exchanging nods as they walked.
“What do you think?” Alex asked as they arrived at the crooked shack.
“About Aaron?” Claire asked, glancing back at him. “He’s going to be strong once he gets more experience. Even if he was just a support, he’d be effective. But I think we both saw what he’s actually capable of.”
“Yeah,” Alex said with a disbelieving shake of his head. “The fact that his ability can literally just… forcibly break his opponent’s arm is crazy. I didn’t think there was magic like that. How do you counter sothing that just happens?”
“I have no damn idea. But I’d imagine there’s a lot of magic like that out in the Infinium. The universe is a big place,” Claire said. “Aaron definitely has potential though. A lot of it. And if you compare him to where he was when we first t…”
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Alex nodded. “He’s definitely co a long way.”
“You know, for a planet of people that were supposedly entirely new to fighting for their lives, Earth has put up a surprising amount of people who adapted to the Apocalypse scarily well,” Claire observed. “You, Aaron, May, even the River King. And that’s just to na a few. What’s up with that?”
“What we lack for in experience we make up for in repressed rage. Sitting around knowing that nothing you ever do could possibly change the future has a great way of making you want to throttle sothing.”
“Are you implying that Earth was just a ticking bomb stuffed full of a bunch of barely-repressed people just like you, all waiting for an opportunity to go wild?” Claire paused for a mont. “I was implying that it was oddly coincidental that so many people here were adapting to the Apocalypse well. You expect this?”
“I an… what is there to lose?” Alex shrugged one shoulder. “The people that were well adjusted probably didn’t make it very long. The System isn’t exactly kind. Most people who were genuinely kind or didn’t want anything to do with fighting are probably going to have a pretty hard ti surviving. I’m sure so did — but the ones that are going to really thrive will be the ones that have been waiting for this.”
“And you think there were more of them?” Claire asked. “It’s not just you? I thought you were just insane.”
“Are you kidding?” Alex let out a snort of laughter. “I’ve got to be one of millions. There’s no way I was the only one excited for the end of the world. So much of life before this was just getting from one day to the next. I definitely wasn’t the only bored-to-death college student only sticking things out because I couldn’t think up an escape.”
“Shit,” Claire muttered. “Even if ninety-nine percent of the people like that got themselves killed right at the start of the Apocalypse… no wonder this is a Tier 1 world. Earth was full of psychopaths.”
“Are you implying Ayrin was different?” Alex asked with a small frown. “I thought your whole society was basically built around killing each other. Doesn’t that make your planet way better suited to the Apocalypse than we were?”
“No. Not at all.” Claire shook her head firmly. “We had order. Rules. Ones that people respected. And I think most of us liked that. I’m sure there were so that were dissatisfied, but things were fair. Life had a certain amount of order to it. The System shattered that. That’s different from what you’re saying. It sounds like implying saying huge portions of humans were unsatisfied with life and welcod the Apocalypse.”
“I an… I don’t know. I’m not exactly the spokesman for humanity.” Alex scratched the back of his neck. “But there were definitely a lot of people that would have been pretty thrilled about it. God, who knows how many people the Apocalypse freed. Like the people in prison. I bet a bunch of them were thrilled.”
“Prison?” Claire tilted her head to the side. “Why would they be thrilled any more than anyone else? I don’t think the System is translating the word properly.”
“It’s a place where people who broke the laws are kept,” Alex said.
“Then it did translate. Why would such people be happy about the end of the world? Are humans truly that impatient?”
“Impatient? If you’re stuck in there for 40 years — or a life sentence — wouldn’t you be thrilled about the end of the world?”
“What?” Claire’s eyes widened. “40 years? A life sentence? You would put people in corrective locations for their entire life? What is the point of that?”
“Don’t ask . I didn’t make the justice system. What did you do with people that broke the laws?”
“Minor infractions were dealt with on a case-by-case basis. So were put in corrective facilities, but never for long periods of ti. That defeated the purpose of being corrective. And if the problem was too great to be fixed — they were killed. If soone is not redeemable, then it is best to be done with them.”
“Right. Glass houses, stones. What if you killed the wrong person?”
Claire paused for a mont. Then she scratched the back of her neck. “I’ve never really considered this topic too deeply, if I’m entirely honest. I was just surprised. Wouldn’t the sa question apply to you? Isn’t keeping soone potentially innocent within a prison their entire life barbaric?”
“Probably,” Alex said. “I’m not trying to say you guys got it wrong. Honestly, I don’t think we figured it out either. Lots of people were still working on trying to find a better way. I don’t want to imply that all of humanity sucked. We had — have — so pretty great people. But there were also so people stuck in jail for the rest of their lives. And I think they’d have seen the Apocalypse pretty favorably.”
“How many?” Claire asked.
Alex shook his head. “No clue. A lot. Definitely a lot.”
“And these people… what law could one break to be dealt such a punishnt?”
“Murder or sothing, probably.” Alex paused for a mont. “Or just pissing off the wrong guy in so governnt or another. Probably a lot of that.”
“So they could be even more bloodthirsty than you are?”
“Hey! I’m not bloodthirsty. I just like a good challenge,” Alex protested. “There are definitely people way more murderous than I am that got out of prison after the Apocalypse.”
Claire fell silent for several long seconds. Then she shook her head. “I see.”
“What?” Alex asked. “Are you concerned about it? Just because they were evil back then doesn’t ant an they’ll pose so huge threat. Most of them probably got killed, and we’re pretty damn strong now. I wouldn’t—”
“Scared?” Claire tilted her head to the side. “What? I was thinking about how to recruit them.”
Alex let out sothing between a choked cough and a laugh. “I — oh. You want to recruit a bunch of murderers?”
“Who better to grow strong in the Apocalypse?” Claire asked. “We would just have to make sure they go after the right targets.”
“Let’s put a pin in that one,” Alex said. “We can’t just go hunting for people and asking if they’ve killed people before the Apocalypse or not. It just seems a bit rude.”
He’d nearly forgotten who Claire was for a mont, there. She hadn’t been worried about all the potential killers on the loose. She’d just been hoping to recruit them.
“I see,” Claire said thoughtfully.
Alex nodded to Princess, who still had the Baveroth’s corpse slung over her shoulder. “We can always put out so feelers. But, for the ti being, let’s get the dead bear over to Mite so he can figure out how to make sothing useful with it, yeah? I’m pretty excited. I bet he’ll be able to get us sothing pretty badass.”
With that, the two of them strode into the Warped Embassy and returned to 274-50.
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