Godfather's System 231

Three hours after I had listened to that snippet, I was on board another grain delivery wagon, hidden in one of the empty crates, being driven out of the town. Yet, even after three hours, I was mulling over the implications of those dozen sentences I had heard.

Of the many implications, the biggest had been the implied scale of things. I had long concluded that there were multiple worlds under the control of the gods. The Ascension concept alone had revealed that, and there were many other factors that confirmed it; like the fact that Set only appeared here as some kind of disposable avatar or the fact that gods paid very limited attention here, as if the whole planet was an unimportant resource point.

I had assumed that the limited attention was also driven by the great difficulty of traveling between worlds. What happened to me certainly felt exceptional.

Yet, the nugget of discussion I stumbled upon implied that it wasn’t the difficulty of travel that had been restricting the process, but the number of worlds. Even assuming their throwaway line about a thousand calamities was an exaggeration rather than actual numbers, the attitude of the older guard certainly implied that he had been an observer of multiple calamities, an event that was supposed to be happening in great rarity.

Previously, I had believed that gods were dealing with the planets numbering in tens, maybe in low hundreds. But that discussion, if accurate, implied thousands, maybe even more planets. It was a scary concept.

Ironically, while even thinking about tens of thousands of planets under the control of callous divinity was scary, it actually increased my confidence in our plan significantly. Previously, I felt like I was an island nation inhabitant, trying to prevent the inevitable coup that was supported by a superpower. Not insurmountable, but close to it.

But, if I wasn’t misreading the discussion they had, our situation was less like a resource-rich banana republic, and more like a mere town only valuable as a drug den. The less important it was, the less retaliation an eventual failure would bring.

It didn’t mean that my self-appointed crusade suddenly turned into a trivial challenge, but it became more achievable.

As for its other implications, such as the horror, it implied on a larger scale… One step at a time.

The implication that the merciless game of harvesting so-called gods had been playing on humanity had a larger scale than I had previously expected wasn’t the only thing I had gathered. I also received two names.

Divine Everlasting.

The Unbound Collective.

Two organizations with interplanetary roots. Divine Everlasting was the easier organization to understand out of the two. While I was careful about taking the lazy mutterings of the two guards too seriously, it was obvious that Divine Everlasting was an organization that sent some amount of troops to planets that were about to have their Calamity to deal with exceptions and keep it running smoothly.

It also told me that I had probably misread just how long that base was under the town. Most of these conclusions I had based on the bored state of the guards, which could be easily accumulated through several routine deployments across multiple regions. Then, when a problem occurred, they went and took over a dungeon and turned it into a base.

Problems such as a mysterious Hero running around on his own, taking down flying castles, and recruiting people.

I didn’t have much to go on.

Paradoxically, I felt that I knew more about the Unbound Collective. After all, unless my deduction was completely wrong, I had already met with one of their members.

Bertnam.

Unfortunately, knowing the name and the origin of the group didn’t make things any easier. The Unbound Collective was another interplanetary organization, meaning they probably had similar methods to Divine Everlasting and their bases wouldn’t be easily penetrated. Worse, they were clearly weaker than the Divine Everlasting, meaning they actually had a reason to stay hidden.

Finding Jertann was going to be even harder than I had expected.

“Still, at least there’s a silver lining,” I muttered.

That silver lining was the abilities of the guards. I hadn’t fought against them, so it was hard to truly assess what they were capable of, but they didn’t feel too strong for me.

They were certainly well-trained, and the smoothness of their actions suggested that Master skills weren’t the limit for skill quality, but they didn’t feel particularly strong. Certainly not how I expected someone above a hundred to feel.

Maybe they were also being affected by the level limit enforced by the planet. I sincerely hoped so, or I would be in a very big mess.

Of course, that wasn’t just hope. I could easily imagine hundreds of more efficient ways of dealing with Calamities if they weren’t under such restrictions.

I left the grain cart only after an hour of lazy travel, not willing to take more risks, and once I had done so, I moved directly toward the base that had been holding my recruit. Before the latest revelations, I was thinking that I was dealing with some kind of rebel force in Somaton. Therefore, I felt that I could take my time.

Realizing that my recruit was in the hands of an interplanetary organization changed the equation. For one thing, I realized that I couldn’t predict them. I didn’t know their limits, but I suspected that if they thought they could catch me by sacrificing all those recruits or by triggering a war, they would have done so.

As I moved, I realized another advantage I held. I had already assumed that it was unlikely that party members could track the location of a Hero, but it was good to have confirmation. They would have long traced the connection back to me rather than setting up an elaborate trap if that had been the case. And, if an interplanetary organization specializing in keeping Calamities in check couldn’t do that, it was either impossible or hard enough that it should count as impossible for all intents and purposes.

Still, just because the connection couldn’t be traced back didn’t make them any less dangerous. I needed to unravel that ticking time bomb as soon as possible. But, as soon as possible didn’t mean immediately. My current trip was another attempt to check the security of my accidental recruit. I needed to get a better view of his security for my eventual move.

The challenge of observing him had been reduced even more after I had discovered the real base. I could watch them as they deployed their next set of agents along the route, which would remove the unpredictability of the route.

The last advantage of the security forces against my infiltration attempts. I stayed near the base, waiting for the deployment, making no attempt to actually infiltrate the base. At the same time, I contacted Zolast and Dahmut, asking them to start researching the Divine Everlasting, and the Unbound Collective, but do so with utmost care and secrecy.

I gave them different briefs.

To Zolast, I explained everything I had managed to collect from my trip: The numbers, the intervention from other planets, the theories about their skills, dungeon bases, skills, and the rivalry between Divine Everlasting and the Unbound Collective.

To Dahmut, I merely said that they were two very dangerous organizations, asking him to keep an eye out for any mention of their names, but to never, under any circumstances, follow up directly without checking in with me.

I did so, not because I didn’t trust Dahmut’s integrity. Even his abilities were not the biggest concern. No, I didn’t trust his composure. He was coming along surprisingly nicely, but he was already at his limit. I couldn’t just pile revelations on him and hope he would handle everything without panicking.

The rest of the time, I spent discussing with Zolast, adjusting many plans. Some of them were discarded, and others were hastened. One plan in particular, turning the mountains into an impenetrable fortress, had its priority being increased several times.

As for communicating the details of the plan with the rest of the youngsters, I left that to Zolast. I was away from our land for a while, which meant I was unaware of the many smaller operational details. Zolast was poised better to deal with it.

The communication through the Heroic Party was very useful, but ultimately, it was merely a modified Morse alphabet. It was not even as fast as talking, and could never rival written reports, particularly since Intelligence allowed comprehending multiple such reports at the same time. Trying to deliver complicated reports like construction progress and supply status through our link was hardly efficient.

Not to mention, I had other things to do. Things that required my utmost concentration.

My possibly genocidal party member was once again on the move…