The back of the airship opens. A descent ramp unfolds, sending a flood of lights directly into my sensitive retinas.
The minor decrease in daytime perception from Night Owl is noticeable but doesn't change much. My perception is more or less at the level of the average Human vision. It remains to be seen how big the nighttime boon is, pun intended—awfully.
The good—me—the bad—Valeria—and the ugly—he who shall not be named—file out of the airship.
My boots dig into damp soil. A cacophony of critters bombastically sing throughout a lush forest and an overwhelming wave of calm washes over me. It's organized chaos.
Honestly, all of this has been anticlimactic. I was expecting grand, empowering speeches. A spectacle. They must be saving all the theatrics for the broadcast.
The Dim feels too much like a logical, orderly rat race. Typically, you'd see education as the primary propagator of ideology. But when everyday society is already so extremely stratified, the Dim can purely focus on making the best Favored. The fluff has been cut out, essentially.
Speaking of Favored, time to get a good, sneaky look at my companions with God's Eye. First up, the only important one.
┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐
Name: Valeria Drysdale
Age: 18
Race: Human
Health: Healthy
Essence: 200/200
Rank: C+
Shards: ◇─◇─◇
Strength: A+
Agility: A+
Vigor: A+
Soul: C
Magic: F-
Charisma: D
[Imprints]
Bloodthirst: Sanguinically drown in power. Maintaining Imprint activation increases base stats. While Bloodthirst is activated, every kill will result in a temporary overdrive, where statistical power exponentially increases for each kill within a small time frame. Complete.
[Manuals]
★★★★ Blade of Rage: Two-Sword style ◄ Mastery: Adept
[Skills]
Slot 1: Quick Step→ [Rank: C]
Description: Speed is good for killing. Fast feet means fast speed means more death. Usable every few minutes, or something like that, who knows.
Common. Replicable. Cooldown.
Slot 2: (Quick Step)
Slot 3: Unlocks at B- Rank.
[Traits]:
Antisocial - A monster will always be a monster in their eyes. Those gazes weaken you. They will kill you. Run.
└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘
That trait isn't disturbing whatsoever.
On a more serious note, her Antisocial trait does create some sizeable issues. Though the description is vague and comically paranoid, it appears as though our mere existence will negatively impact Valeria.
This is a team event. I do wonder that if she realizes we're currently being broadcast to hundreds of millions of people, will she be so weakened that she dies from sheer exposure to 'gazes'? It's more likely that it solely applies to in-person interaction.
Fortunately, she might be the strongest at the Dim physically, with A+ ranked physical stats all across the board. Surely she can suck it up a bit.
Her Imprint won't be able to capitalize on the exponential growth from killing. I doubt Valeria can use Magic. It's a mental art, and it's clear she's the dullest tool in the shed. That Skill description even talks like a chimp.
Valeria is hyper-specialized in physical brawling. Specialization in one's stats can be incredibly powerful, but it leaves plenty of weaknesses.
Speaking of weaknesses, I push Essence into the weeping tears of God's Eye:
┌─────═━┈┈━═─────┐
Name: Nicklas of Adeca
Age: 18
Race: Human
Health: Healthy
Essence: 90/90 (-10 from Skills)
Rank: F
Shards: ◇─◇─◇
Strength: F
Agility: F
Vigor: F
Soul: F-
Magic: F+
Charisma: F
[Imprints]
[Manuals]
[Skills]
Slot 1: Sweat Dampener→ [Rank: F]
Description: Everything is so hot all the time. And water is a high-value commodity. Therefore, it must be incredibly valuable to have a Skill that severely limits the negative effects of sweating while also cooling down body temperature!
Common. Replicable. Passive.
Slot 2: Unlocks at D- Rank.
[Traits]:
Natural Encyclopedia - This world is so beautiful. Every inch of it fosters an entire micro-realm of secrets. With a keen eye, you are allowed to catch a mere glimpse into the world's greatest horde of unspoken knowledge.
└─────═━┈┈━═─────┘
Yeah, that's about what I thought.
Just utterly useless.
Nicklas's greatest contributions to the team will be a lessened usage of our water reserves and an occasional bug factoid. Great.
At least I still have Valeria.
…
"Valeria?"
I look around, dumbfounded.
Our transport airship has silently departed. We are in the middle of a forest.
Just Nicklas and me. Two out of three.
I spent less than ten seconds reading my teammate's statuses.
She's run off in the blink of an eye. Antisocial indeed.
For fuck's sake.
I look down at my watch. It's noon exactly. We're still in the northern hemisphere—guessing from the massive airship transport time and the cool air temperature—so the noon sun points south. I can barely see it through the dense canopy.
To the west, I can make out the supermassive Dim airship, Oak of Augustus. It circles the island like a hungry shark.
The most important people in the entire world are on that ship, eating cheese and crackers off a charcuterie board as a bunch of their rich children play around, imitating shitty gladiators.
It's sickening. They all need to die.
An invisible camera Artifact watches us, and likely every other team. Hundreds of millions all across the Seven Realms listen and watch our every move. I only know it's there from a combination of guesswork and a tinge from Endangered.
Tread lightly, it says.
My mind says to stomp the ground. Make a fuss. Attention is power.
All in due time.
"So…" Nicklas breaks the silence. "We're… um, we're down a teammate already."
I look at my watch. It shows the remaining teams, the time, and the status of my teammates. Valeria hasn't been eliminated or captured yet.
Funnily enough, a single team has fallen already. 332 remaining. Maybe she massacred some poor sods fresh off the airship.
"I'm starting to think that I'm… not in good hands," he squeaks, looking all around semi-frantically.
"Nah, we're fine," I reassure the trembling little scumbag. "Valeria will thin out the weaklings and scout our surroundings."
I lie through my teeth, but a part of me hopes it's true. For all I know, she's run off to be part of Leara's team like the good leashed dog she is. Honestly, she's far too good for the Dim to even consider ranking her outside the top 30%, no matter what she does now.
Nicklas and I choose a random direction and begin walking to discover our surroundings.
"What are… what are we gonna do then?"
"Build an empire for Valeria to return to."
For some reason, Nicklas looks at me as if I'm the retarded one.
Actions before words, then.