Chapter 46

Everyone moved inside and Adrian noticed the entrance had been set up with an airlock type of arrangement, where you could transition inside to outside without light leaking. They all entered the corridor. The outer door was shut and only then was the inner one opened.

Adrian stepped into the bright light. The entire supermarket had been rearranged. It was now a shelter and over a hundred eyes turned on them.

Kiyoko strode forward. “I am the oracle of Wangaratta. I need food for my travelling companions and someone to tend my horse. And mayor.” She spun, pinning the heavyset man with his ridiculous moustache with her eyes. “Mayor Patterson, you’ll need to give us a full briefing immediately.” Silence descended across the broad space. “Now,” she said, at little more than a whisper. “That’s if you want your town to survive a month.”

There was an abrupt explosion of activity.

Jules gaped at the response. “What the hell?”

“My name has currency here.”

Once more, Adrian was reminded there was a lot more to the diminutive woman than was originally apparent. They seemed acquainted with the oracle, at the very least, stories had travelled. A bit of interface-gifted knowledge could be leveraged to build a legacy. Adrian was only too aware of that fact. Himself? Sure, but Steve was the better example. He only had a fraction of the gift that the oracle class would receive, and he had found them that wyrm. It should not have surprised him that Kiyoko was the most important person in the region.

People moved, and they were dragged to the dining area and a massive table was hastily cleared of half-finished dishes and the previous users of the table. Fresh food was brought, and they were all shown to chairs. It felt like twenty people had volunteered to help them. There were no arguments and no discussions about payments. Mayor Patterson came over all flustered and worried. “Please sit and eat,” he encouraged.

Adrian sat and eyed off a plate of vegetables. It was only carrot and broccoli with what looked like butter, but his mouth watered. It looked home-cooked and normal. The others were already digging into the food, including Kiyoko. Adrian caught the mayor’s eye. “While we eat tell us what’s happening.” Then he grabbed the veggies just as Omala reached for it and grinned at her look of outrage.

The mayor ignored him and instead looked at the oracle seeking permission. Kiyoko gave the smallest of nods.

“It’s the greater imps. They started attacking about three weeks ago. Most of us survived the initial strike thanks to your message.” He did a little bow to Kiyoko. “The first day was horrific. I think there must have been a thousand of them and almost two thousand of us died. The next day the same number came again, but we had learned to consolidate into heavily defended key sites and use blackouts.”

“I don’t understand. I told you to do that weeks ago,” Kiyoko’s response was frosty.

The mayor wiped sweat off his brow. “Our preparations were not as complete as I had hoped.”

“You failed.”

“I…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Kiyoko said brusquely. “Continue.”

“They still come every night and usually overwhelm at least one safe house. We’re not sure we can hold out. They’re just whittling us down, a hundred every night. Over thirty percent of us have died, and they keep coming. There wasn’t much else to say. We have tried everything. We’ve bought knowledge but we lack the energy to buy anything that will make a difference.” Kiyoko’s eyes narrowed and Patterson dashed more sweat from his forehead. “And we aren’t strong enough to go on the offensive.”

Adrian knew where this was going. He glared across at Kiyoko, knowing she had manipulated things to set this up.

She noticed and winked.

Even getting them to arrive here after dark was most likely part of her ploy. If they had been slower and camped outside, they probably would never have discovered the humanitarian disaster that was unfolding.

“I might have a solution for you,” Kiyoko said quietly. “But we require payment.”

“You can have everything we have.”

“Payment will be the Yukon fungus.”

His alchemy and gathering knowledge triggered on the name.

Yukon Fungus

A light blue fungus that releases five types of gaseous poison when disturbed. Requires a poison-tempered body to harvest.

His alchemical knowledge also presented him with common uses of the fungus. There was one. It could create a deadly poison and antidote at the same time. Historically, a warlord would get hold of the fungus, use the antidote to give his soldiers immunity, and then have them coat their weapons in it. After that, every cut became deadly and even worse for the other side. Once the poison started killing people, it would use the power released by the death to spread itself in gaseous form. That would then create a chain reaction and if you were not prepared, then you would lose. A small group could slaughter a larger and higher levelled army using that technique. It was indiscriminate and once the deadly gas was produced it could perpetuate itself and spread over vast distances. Cities had been wiped out.

It was ghastly.

The mayor gulped at the request. “You know we can’t harvest that.”

“He can.” She pointed at Adrian.

“That is the future of our town.”

“Yes, it’s future. I gave you its location and which parts of the valley you could collect and how it could help with your other problem.”

“And we thank you.” The alarm in the mayor’s eyes was clear, but there was also a more base emotion that Adrian recognised, it was greed and not the good type that Ashmal had displayed to get the best deal for his people. “We have three gatherers working on gaining the skills to harvest it. That fungus is worth ten million energy. It can establish us as a town of note.”

“You won’t survive long enough.” The mayor stared in shock at Kiyoko. “He gets all the fungus, and in return, we take care of the imp problem.”

“To sell?” the mayor asked in shock.

“No,” Kiyoko said flatly.

“I am not using it,” Adrian said definitely, challenging Kiyoko to dispute him.

“Hopefully, dear,” Kiyoko answered absently, but her eyes had not left the mayor. “That’s our deal.”

“It’s blackmail.”

Kiyoko shrugged. “No, it’s economics.”

He wouldn’t do it, Adrian decided. He wanted nothing to do with the substance. “I don’t like—”

“Enough,” Kiyoko said, interrupting him. “This is my price for my help to get you to Melbourne. We save this town. You harvest all the fungus. All—” she repeated.

“Can’t you leave a few to allow it to keep growing, then we can harvest it sustainably,” Mayor Patterson interrupted, his voice desperate.

“No,” she said her eyes on Adrian now. “You harvest all of it.” The reason she was insisting on all was clear. She did not want anyone controlling a source of the fungus, a position that Adrian wholly agreed with. If it was destroyed, the evil substance would not be available for misuse, and Adrian knew humans would misuse it. “And once you have it, you take it to Melbourne and keep it for a month.”

“And…”

“Nothing more. After that, you can sell it, burn it, use it, whatever you want.”

“You are just going to give him ten million,” the mayor’s voice was strained with disbelief.

“I can destroy it?” Adrian asked.

The oracle’s eyes had not left his. She nodded. “After a month, whatever you want. I know you have the skills to destroy it safely, and I trust you to do the right thing. World Saver.”

There was a hiss from everyone gathered when she used that title. The way everyone looked at him changed. Several of the older people who had volunteered to serve them actually bowed to him.

“And taking care of the Greater imps is the cost of you helping us?” Adrian asked, trying to ignore the spreading commotion that the use of title had created. People were already whispering about what it meant.

Kiyoko nodded. “And you taking the fungus to Melbourne,” she clarified.

“Okay,” he agreed after a moment’s thought. Keeping the oracle close to them was too valuable to throw away. He did not have percentages, but he was sure her presence skyrocketed his chances of success. If Jaracol was available, it would be different. But even if Jaracol was available, Adrian knew he would still save the town from the greater imps. It was what he did.

“If he is getting ten million, what do we get?” Galan asked cheekily.

Kiyoko stared him down.

“Joking,” Galan said quickly. “We’re all in. We don’t need payment”

Kiyoko’s eyes switch to the mayor. “Mayor Patterson, are you going to doom your town for greed or do we have a deal?”

“Can I consult?”

Kiyoko rolled her eyes. “No.”

“You’re not giving me a choice.” Patterson was angry. “But you have your blood deal.”

“And you’re no longer needed.” She waved him away rudely. “Everyone eat and while you do, I’ll tell you about the imps. The problem wasn’t the nightly attacks. It is that the greater dark imps have established a breeding colony complete with portals fifteen kilometres south of here. Both Benalla and Violet Town are in a range of their raids. They live in the hills, and we need to close all the portals because there are worse things in broken worlds than imps. We must also slay as many queens as we can.”

“Under the deal, you have to eradicate all of them,” Mayor Patterson interrupted, having only drifted a few metres away.

“The deal is—they would deal with a threat and as an independent arbiter.”

“You’re no such thing?”

“Randy, do you want to put your leadership to a vote?”

The mayor suddenly did not seem eager to continue the conversion.

“As I was saying, as the independent arbiter, ten hours of fighting and the closing of all fifteen portals will meet the intent of the deal. You’ll go tomorrow before sunrise but tonight you’ll harvest the fungus. I’m thinking you sleep for a couple of hours and then get going.”

“No, he gets paid after he does the job.”

“Once it is all harvested, you go dead south and work through the colonies in a westerly direction. After that we go to Violet Town and tell them the good news. The result is only half a day lost. We stay the night in Violet Town instead of skipping it.”

“Okay,” Adrian agreed. Half the day was better than he feared.

“One last thing, only you, Jules and Charlotte are going after the imps.”

“Why?”

“The others will slow you down.”

“Makes sense. And what are the others doing?”

“They’ll escort me to Violet Town. It’s not like I can defend myself. In terms of movement. You three eat, then sleep. Adrian, you’ll want to start harvesting at one, and the three of you leave at four a.m.”

“Early,” Jules interrupted.

“The rest of the team needs to go outside and protect the town against the nightly raids. Then they can catch some sleep from five to eleven in the morning. The town will supply lunch and then we’ll head off.”

“Any questions?”

“I—”

“Not you, Randy,” she snapped.

“Not really, but can Omala organise people to process all the swoopers?” Adrian asked.

“Snap,” Kiyoko said. “We should pass on the hunting technique and mirage defences to the town. Keeping swooper numbers under control should grant a good passive income.”

“Sure, I will take the right people from the town through it tomorrow morning,” Praveen volunteered.

Charlotte handed over the piece of jewellery and her thrower to Praveen. Adrian hurriedly followed suit.

“Excellent, I’m an old woman, so I’m going to have a sleep now.” With that, she got up and walked away. Locals immediately jumped up to guide her to what was presumably the best room in the complex.

“That woman is a hard task manager,” Jules said.

“She has an agenda but her heart is in the right place,” Adrian observed thinking of the locked away Jaracol. “I don’t see the point in fighting it.” He pulled out a flask of the special liquor and drank it without tasting it. “Can someone show me to a room?”

Instantly, a man was by his side, offering to guide him. “I wish we had something better, but the oracle got the mayor’s room and there are no other individual ones. If you need anything at all, just ask, and I’ll be there to help.”

Adrian found himself guided to what amounted to a barracks. With a shrug, he took a bottom bunk in the corner, threw down a camp stone, changed its active range to only cover his bed, popped out the green sleep liquid and in moments was dreaming.

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