The System Seas

Chapter 124: Death

The temple turned out to be out in the open, unhidden and unconcealed in any way. It was a large enough building that they would have seen it from a good ways off if the palace built around it wasn’t massive enough to block the view. As they approached, several Sturdy looking men were ahead of them with wheelbarrows, taking them inside the open archway where several scholar-types stood taking notes and tallies.“Are those…”

“Skill crystals. Pretty much our nation’s whole strategic reserve.” The overseer waved a hand of dismissal as if the dozens of piles of gold interspaced by much smaller piles of much more valuable crystals were an afterthought for him. More disturbing, they probably were. “Trust me when I say it’s nothing we can’t replenish over time, but my people have to have food and supplies to do that. As much as I’d like this to go off without a hitch, the system won’t let me do this for free.”

“I hate to ask this,” Marco said. “I really do, but…”

“Why not just kill me? I asked the same thing. Much quicker. Much easier. It wouldn’t even take much.” The overseer looked genuinely annoyed at a problem that was harder than just getting stabbed in the chest. “Some of my advisors pointed out that would only let you have this temple, and only if you claimed it before someone else decided to make trouble over it.”

“Is that a risk? I thought it was all your people here.”

“It is, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that there’s always risk. It’s moot, anyway. I don’t want to leave the rest of the temples up for grabs. Here, I at least get to look you in the eye before I hand over my legacy. Now, if you don’t mind, I’d like to sit. There’s a nice terrace over there we can use as we wait.”

They made such small talk as it was possible to make with a nonagenarian overlord for a while. Elisa was quiet for a while, then seemed to come to a decision.

“Can you read that?” Elisa held out the notebook they had taken from the turtle. “Or do you know someone who can?”

“Ah. No,” the old man said. “I’ve seen it, I had it looked into, never made much headway, had better stuff to do. It’s been a long time since then. I think they did get a couple words deciphered, though.”

“Really? How?”

“High-level guys. The problem was I only had a little bit of text for them to work on, they said. You want the notebook? I still have it in my desk somewhere.”

“Absolutely. Please,” Elisa said. “Anything would help.”

The overseer sent someone back for it, and within minutes Elisa had a small leather-bound book which she glanced over before reluctantly stowing. Marco respected that restraint. Riv absolutely didn’t have it. It turned out to be a better choice than he even realized when, a few minutes later, one of the overseer’s advisors came to the table.

“It’s ready, sir. Whenever you need it.”

“Alright, then.” The old man wobbled to his feet. “No use waiting.”

They all moved inside the temple, where the piles of wealth were laid out in a large circle. It was more accumulated value than Marco had ever seen in one place, unless it was hidden in the functionality and build of a ship.

“Is the shape important?” Elisa asked. “Like a formation or rune?”

“No, I don’t think so. I think it was just easier for them to count this way. You know book types. They don’t want any extra getting sucked up if it doesn’t need to be. Are you all ready for this? I can get it going any time.”

“Is there any reason to wait?”

“Not that I know of. You should be getting a notification any time now.”

Abdication Initiated!

A network of temples controlled by another party is being abandoned. You have been designated as their recipient. There is no downside to accepting control of these temples outside of the normal downsides related to acquiring control of any temple, in that your death will perhaps become more profitable for some.

This network of temples is currently experiencing issues related to a territory having remained static for too long. These problems will cease at the moment the transfer is complete, returning only if the parameters responsible for the problems reoccur.

You may accept this gift and responsibility by willing it so.

Marco hesitated for just a moment, if only because it all seemed to be coming too easily, too much without problems. In the end, he accepted. The system, at least, didn’t lie. There was only so much deception the overseer could fit around that, even if he wanted to. The real hesitation was coming from accepting something so big without trouble. That, at least, wasn’t a road he wanted to get used to going down. If the universe wanted to send him gifts, he had to be at least brave enough to take them.

He let the system know it was okay and felt a surge of power like nothing he had ever felt before. A cascade of notifications demanded his attention. Not asked, but demanded. There must have been six temples with good or evil alignments to set. He chose the good option on all of them, keeping inhabitants fed instead of starving, well instead of sick, and happy instead of sad. There were a good dozen other temples at least that were just good without option, providing raw power but nothing else of note.

Stolen novel; please report.

It was a lot to handle at once. It wasn’t exactly a huge instantaneous growth in strength, but he could tell what was previously a healthy stream of power and growth from the temples had just about doubled in the process. Combined with the fact that it was all just what the overseer had said he would get out of the deal, it was almost possible for him to miss the fact that the moment he finally resolved all the screens was the very moment the previous overseer collapsed to the ground, limp and hardly breathing.

“Get ready,” Marco hissed. “Hands on weapons. Don’t fight yet.”

Only a second after Jare hit the ground and about the same time Marco finished talking, every person present was charging towards them. There were only a few pieces of evidence that saved the crew when they got close. The first was that every scholar charged, regardless of age, toughness, or general apparent incapability to fight. Elisa was pretty clear pretty often about how odd it was that she was making anything even kind of related to being a scholar work as a battle class. The fact that she had elemental palm attacks was an outlier related to her variant of the class being rare.

That fact might not have been enough by itself, but when Marco realized the Sturdies had all dropped their tools in the mad rush towards, them, it helped put the stake in any idea of fighting. Marco threw his hands out to ward his own people away from making any sudden moves, and the servants and advisors streamed past them to close in on their fallen leader.

Healing flared from a few hands as those present for that purpose did what they could, then Marco heard a weak, ancient voice call him from the ground. He pushed through to Jare’s side, finding him sickly yellow and even more fragile-looking than before.

“I didn’t realize taking away all that support from the temples would do this. It must have been acting like a healer working on me all the time,” the old man said.

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. Did you mean what you said? About leaving my people’s temple working for their sakes.”

“I did.”

“Then you’ve done me a favor.” Jare coughed. “Looks like I’m on my way out, either way. It’s getting harder to talk.”

He didn’t talk after that. Marco watched his breathing get weaker, only at the last moment realizing something bad might still be coming. He started trying to mentally tamp down his own skills without the slightest idea of how to do that, only getting lucky in the end in finding the system was once again way ahead of him.

Conquest Complete!

You have been somewhat involved in the death of an enemy captain, head of state, and incredibly high-level unique class. With that said, your involvement in his death was minimal, voluntary on his part, and adjusted the timeline of his life only minimally.

Given that and the fact that you have already been more than adequately reimbursed for your involvement, no further rewards will be sought by or granted to your conquest-based consumption skills.

“Oh, thank goodness,” Marco whispered to Elisa. “I thought my skill might steal his clothes.”

“Thank you for preventing that from happening.” The servant who had met them at the gate was now present again. “It would have been an embarrassing thing for everyone. Except for him, really. I suspect he would have found it funny.”

—

There was a state dinner that night. Before it started, the people of the area paid a surprisingly small amount of attention to Marco and his friends, considering their involvement in everything.

“No. We are setting up the tables near the gate. Jare’s coffin will be outside the gate. For anyone to see that needs to.”

“That limits our tables.”

“Then limit them inside the castle and make lines of them outside. Not everyone has to be part of the official send-off, Issams. Most will just stop in before going to their own celebrations.”

Riv watched with more interest than most, his hands twitching with the instinctive need to help arrange furniture and get ready for events.

“They keep saying celebration,” he said. “I’ve never heard that before.”

“I get the impression they’ve been ready for this to happen for a long time. Ninety-eight is old. It probably could have happened any day.”

“That’s just about right,” the assistant said from behind them. “He’s given speeches on it, and the day-to-day running of the government hasn’t been in his hands for a very long time. His choice, not ours, and not related to his weakness. He just didn’t like being in command in that way.”

“And that makes things easier?”

“It does. Especially since it appears you all are keeping your word and leaving the temple as is. That hurricane you encountered was just about to wipe out a major port city on one of our islands, by the way. Switching appears to have resolved it.”

Elisa cocked her head.

“Resolved it?”

“Our reports say it vanished from the air like it never existed. Just like our reports say our crops are growing as fast as they always have. Maybe even a little faster. We are all very, very thankful.” The overseer’s servant bowed his head slightly. “Which makes what I’m about to ask for a little harder.”

Marco steeled himself. He knew some sort of trouble must be coming down the pike at him. It was only a matter of time before all this went sideways, as far as he was concerned. He was even a little concerned that in some ways he seemed to almost want it to happen. Waiting around for the other shoe to drop was annoying. Not dangerous, but bothersome in a way where he would have almost preferred having to cut his way out of here.

“Go ahead,” Marco said. “I’m ready for anything.”

“I was going to ask you if you’d be willing to leave a little early. To skip the dinner and head back to your ship. We talked amongst ourselves, and I and the advisors think it might be the best thing.”

“To prevent violence?” Marco said. “Someone who doesn’t like our role in all this?”

The assistant stared at him for a moment before letting out one uncontrollable laugh.

“Sorry, Captain. No. The situation regarding the temples was at least somewhat known throughout the capital for years now. Almost everyone is relieved or thankful, not angry. What we’d like to prevent is you becoming regarded as heroes. Taking a large place in our folklore, and things like that.”

“I’m sorry, but why?” Elisa asked. “Not that we need that, but I don’t see the harm.”

“The harm would come from you replacing the overseer in folks' minds. It hasn’t been true for the last ten years or so, but he was a powerhouse before that. When we were attacked, he’d take care of it. Knowing that had a measurable effect on how many young people became captains, and what kinds. The system pays attention to desire, we think, and our navy is currently less powerful than we’d like.”

“You are vulnerable?”

“Oh, not quite. We are still quite a large nation. We can bring out a lot of ships, if we need to. But we’d like to correct the deviation, if that makes sense. That’s how the scholars put it. And that means not having the populace believe you might return to fix their problems for them.”

If they needed the crew to sail off into the sunset never to be seen again, Marco didn’t think he had much of a problem with that. He was still distrustful that this could have been all of what was happening, but there was no reason to believe that any particular thing the people here had asked for or were continuing to ask for was a trick, either.