The stormy sea

“Back already?” Magoi said and turned the page of the newspaper he was reading. The dinosaur masked Fateweaver was sitting on a wooden table next to the Loot Basin, neither the table nor the chair he was sitting on had been there this morning, but with his actual god-like powers over this space that was of little surprise. John had noticed him reading newspapers before but had paid no mind to it. With what just happened, however, more of his latent curiosity, repressed by anger and the desire to just win, shone back through.

“Stuff happened. What are you reading?” John said after reaching the basin. “I am glad you ask!” said the Fateweaver with great enthusiasm and folded the paper with a forceful motion before shoving the cover into John’s face. ‘Abyss Minutely,’ John read the cover. “This is the most prominent of the great newspapers in the Abyss, the Abyss Minutely. As the name suggests, it is updated every few minutes. Check it out!”

He opened a page in the middle of the paper. The headline read ‘Koreans raid Japan once again!’ “What is up with that?” John quickly asked before Magoi could close the page. “Oh, just the usual,” he mused in return, “Ever since World War 2 the Koreans go out of their way to keep the Abyss of Japan very, very small. Was understandable at the start but by now it is just a cruel display. The European powers are less than amused, but the Heavenly Emperor is who has the power over there so there is little they can do.”

“Heavenly Emperor?” John asked with a puzzled expression. Magoi kept his cheery explanation going, “The Leader of the Mandate of Heaven. I suggest you inform yourself by reading the work of Frederik of Rex Germaniae or the more comprehensive guide from Lenin, although both of them are riddled with ideological annoyances.” John scratched his neck, “And this Heavenly Emperor can stand against Romulus?”

Silence, then Magoi laughed loudly and patted John on the back, “Naïve child, nobody can stand against Romulus,” he said with absolute certainty, “Although we speak of the two Emperors of the World, as someone who has met both of them I can assure you that the Heavenly Emperor is a god amongst men but Romulus…. Romulus is a king amongst gods. However, he also rarely cares about real life affairs,” Magoi finally closed the newspaper, waited a moment, and then opened the exact same page again. Physically, the same page, at the very least, as the content had shifted completely.

“Speaking of the devil! This might be of interest to you,” the Fateweaver said and pointed at the new headline. “Romulus to visit Germany,” John mumbled to himself and then continued to read the article in silence.

‘In the wake of the upcoming election for the throne of Germany, Romulus has left Rome and the business of running the greater empire to his advisor Rodaclam of Oreh. This election has been pushed back several times, but as Frederik the Great announced, “My time has come, let the new generation rule!” three years ago. Since then the two current candidates Maximillian Franz IX of house Habsburg and Lydia Augusta IV of house Hohenzollern had two draws in the election leaving...'

The article went on about the current situation of the electors and how it was likely to be a draw again, but John didn’t care as much. “Why should that concern me?” John finally asked. Yes, Lydia was the one paying for this important endeavor of his, but he could hardly pay back by voting for her. “Wait… she hasn’t told you?” Magoi asked. “Told me what?” John shot back, causing Magoi to giggle into his mask some more, “Priceless. You will find out. Don’t want to ruin the surprise.”

John decided to get back on topic. After checking on his mana bar. It was empty and had been for a bit now; this was no wonder however as he was currently giving all of his mana to Undine to revive her, apparently simply re-summoning her would not do the job.

“So, this newspaper just creates new pages?” John was curious about that. “Correct. Now you might wonder: But what if I want to read the article later? The answer is easy.” Magoi folded the corner of the page. “There.” “Will that fold disappear afterward?” asked John with open disdain for the **** of paper. Magoi nodded, “Yes, you could also use any other kind of bookmark. Also, you could just think about the article really hard and hope that you get the right one.” “That sounds like this would work better on a Kindle or some other device with a proper search function and, you know, catalogs.” “…Typical youngsters…” Magoi mumbled, suddenly very grumpy, “No appreciation for the classics.”

With that their talk came to an end and John finally turned to the loot. He was barely even interested in what the floors 1-4 had dropped; he had seen most of these already and found no use for them. However, the Vermintide drops warranted a look.

So, there were another 100 grand. At this point, money was no concern for him. Then he had both normal and minor Warpstone; their Observe description was roughly the same.

In the Rare department, he only got a single item this time around, the Eye of the Rat II was, just like the first one he had gotten a while back, of pestilent green color but worked with more detail. It had slight, and with that, he meant really slight, likeness to a real eye. Maybe higher versions would become more ornate?

This was nice; he would use it for crafting training and hope that the result sold for a good amount. However, it was useless for himself as he possessed no abilities that fit the bill. The last item on the list, the epic drop, was impressive, however.

Sure, the finger length, thin jewel didn’t look like much but getting 100 Mana for free? He was ready to sign the fuck up for that. Just as he was thinking about what item he best create with this another window opened.

He was taking a relieved breath when he quickly got another, much more worrying, window together with Undine’s reappearance as a swirling pool that slowly changed into the little slime girl he knew her as.

‘John.’ The voice of Undine, normally clear and beautiful, was distorted and filled with a tone that made him immediately think of storm and heavy rainfall. He had expected her to be angry but what rampaged through his mind was the second most terrifying experience he went through until now, the first one being when Thana had started laughing like the maniac John understood her to be.

‘I died for you, you failed. You failed at protecting me, and I see you failed at protecting yourself too. Think about your actions!’ These few words rang through his head strong enough to make even Aclysia close her ears shut with her hands like that would somehow shut out the horrible feelings of anger that crashed into John and his familiars’ minds. ‘Undine, I am so very sorry,’ He sent back and with it the memory of the talk she had missed, the earnesty of those words, and through him, Salamander also guided her apologies. The storm slowly died down until Undine only sent back the feeling of serenity. John knew that it still boiled under the calm façade however.

With worry, he looked at his character sheet. The Water Elemental Skill had turned red and when he clicked on it the permanent -1 was on display. ‘My actions have consequences,’ he reminded himself. If he had thought less about what was the quickest way to get through the boss fight and more about what would keep him and his allies safe this would not have happened. It would have been easy, just change Undine into her incorporeal form and this disaster could have been avoided. Of course, the blame didn’t lie with him alone, Salamander with her indiscriminate destruction and Undine, herself, as she did not talk about her pain until it was too late. They were all to learn from this but John could only better himself, so that was what he had to try.

“By the way, when would you have ported me out? I was pretty close to dying today.” John asked the Fateweaver. “The second an attack would actually kill you.” Magoi said, “And I don’t do that, the barrier does, I have set it up this way.” “You can do that?” John wondered. “I can, yes.” Magoi turned a page of his newspaper and clarified, “This is High Fateweaver stuff, but I guess I can explain the theory to you: Inside a barrier, Gaia can sense exactly which attack or trap will kill you. She does that to make out what she will do with you once you exit the barrier, because, as you likely know, she will make it so that you can return back into the public eye without being too suspicious and she can stop caring when you are dead. In other words: All I do is give my energy to prevent that moment from happening and instead bend causality within this, my personal, barrier to have you come back here. This is the ability that we, the leaders of the barrier organization, developed and that gave us our name: Fateweaving.”

John waited for a moment to ascertain that this little history lesson was over. “Is it hard?” “To learn, yes, to use, not so much, if you build the barrier with that skill in mind it is actually very easy. Keep in mind however that there are beings that I cannot save you from; beings that can overwrite my control on the barrier. I felt that you met one today.”

John knew who he meant by that. “The Horned Rat,” he simply stated. “Oh, wow, you met a particularly nasty God of Knowledge there. Great to play poker against, much less if you want something because he will usually get what he wants instead. Did he try to sell you something?” “No, he told me a prophecy,” John answered. “Oh…keep that to yourself then; I don’t want to get tangled up in some great chess match between him and whoever else he is fucking with this time around.” Magoi ended on that statement, closed his newspaper and walked to his copy of John’s house.

With the last thing to keep his consciousness focused gone John once again felt his lack of HP and mental fatigue and yawned. “I will go sleep for a bit. Aclysia could you prepare something that I can eat when I get back up?” Aclysia bowed with the slightest hint of a bow upon that request, “Of course, Master.”