21
1238 Words
He leaned in closer and whispered, “It’s telling me there are at least five hidden ruins on this world. I’ll give you directions to a second one after you escort me through the one, I want.”
That shocked Matt enough to consider it. Ruins were incredibly rare versions on rift breaks. Normally, a rift break just dumped out monsters, and once its energy was neutralized, went back to normal. But a ruin was where the entire rift inverted and came out to reality. It also caused any items within to become unbound and usable.
They were incredibly rare, but over a long enough time frame, they would appear on some planets. Most were obvious, with structures where there should be none, but those were always the worst versions. The best ones were usually in hard-to-reach locations, or underground. When a rift inverted, it could put an entire city in the mantle of the planet with zero issues. They were also known to be larger on the inside than the outside, and the rift never died when the inversion happened.
No, it kept producing monsters and items. The only difference was that they weren’t instanced, so they always built up and turned into treasure troves of materials and items.
All of this was just too good to be true. Why would a random stranger tell them that, and not seek to profit from the valuable information?
Matt asked just that. “Why tell us, and not sell the information? The finder’s fee would be amazing.”
Malcolm shook his head. “I don’t want the finder’s fee. I want the treasures inside. If we’re the first ones there, we can take what we want. I just have two conditions.”
That was more like what he was expecting. They would probably be incredibly restrictive, with promises involving their AIs or something.
“I just want a fair split of the treasures, and there is one growth item that my Talent’s screaming is perfect for me. I just need help getting in and killing all the beasties.”
Camilla asked, “Why not get a team of Tier 6s. There’s some around.”
She was right. The place wasn’t crowded yet, but they were one of the few Tiers 5 teams. It would have been safer for the man to get one of the stronger Tier 6 groups.
Malcolm shook his head once again. “My Talent is saying that would backfire on me. Either they would rob me, or just give me nothing. You’re the third Tier 5 team to come through since I’ve been waiting, and the first one I got a good feeling for. I don’t need much, just a quarter of the loot and that one growth item.”
“Let us talk it over.”
With Liz’s proclamation, they huddled up and quickly chatted.
Camilla was the first to speak, “I don’t trust this.”
Matt nodded, and Liz added, “It’s fishy by every ascender’s sweaty balls. But a ruin…”
She let that trail off, and it spoke on its own.
Even Camilla agreed. It was a good point.
Matt wasn’t going to say it out loud, but he wasn’t keen on bringing another person into their party. He was friendly with Camilla, but he didn’t think the explorer would be anything other than dead weight on this trip.
He corrected himself. If he was being honest, he just didn’t have a good feeling about this. A fifth party member was out of his comfort zone.
But the rewards.
Matt could hardly imagine the rewards in a Tier 6 ruin. Rifts got larger the higher the Tier, and a Tier 6 that had spent however many years producing items, and monsters would be amazing for advancement.
While Camilla was able to hold her own now, he and Liz were hitting well above their Tier, and a Tier 6 rift would be easy pickings for them.
Finally, with the others looking at him, he spoke against his better judgment. “I didn’t see any obvious ruins on the satellite imagery. If he’s not full of it, this is too good to pass up. I just don’t like it. This is way too sketchy for my blood.”
Both women nodded at him.
Liz looked at Camilla and said, “We’re in this together. Are you up for it? This is the point of exploring new worlds, after all. Finding treasures in the open is luck-based more than anything.”
Camilla chewed her lip and nodded. “I don’t think he can kill us or anything, so if we’re careful, we can mitigate a lot of the risk. I agree. We just can’t pass this up. Finding it on our own will negate the advantage we got by coming early. If we end up chasing the first wave, the best of the loot will be taken away. I don’t want other people’s scraps.”
Matt added his final thought. “I don’t think he’s telling us everything, but his logic is reasonable enough. I wouldn’t trust people a Tier above mine to not overpower me either.”
With nods, they turned back to Malcolm, who was pacing back and forth impatiently.
“What’s the answer? Good news, I hope?”
Camilla asked the first question, “How far away is it?”
“I don’t know. I just know the direction, and it’ll get stronger the closer I get.”
Matt asked the second one, “How do you know there are five ruins?”
“My Talent works on the question I ask, and five ruins on an untouched planet isn’t a crazy number. This is a Tier 6 world, and the higher the Tier, the more likely there are ruins.”
Liz finally asked, “Well, what direction? We don’t have time to waste after all.”
6
Before they left, Matt still couldn’t shake the feeling that this whole thing was a trap. So, he called out, “Hold up, Malcolm. We want an AI-backed promise that you can do what you said. I’m sure you can understand how sketchy this is from our perspective.”
Malcolm looked aghast at the suggestion. “I would never, but if it would set you at ease, I can do that for you.”
Liz gave a slight nod from behind Malcolm’s view. A moment later, they all received a message, ‘Malcolm can find and guarantee that five ruins are present on this new and unexplored planet.’
With the message from Malcolm giving him an AI identification number, he sent it to the other three. If they ended up disappearing, the message would at least provide a paper trail on who to investigate.
For all the man’s apparent goodwill, Matt still expected that he had some kind of ulterior motive.
They walked to the edge of the protected area, and as he crossed the border, Matt received a message.
‘As you are under the Tier of this world, please note that this isn’t an established world. The Empire has little recourse to punish those that break the law. Please take the appropriate measures to keep yourself safe.’
Matt waved the message away from his field of vision. It was a good warning, but he was confident in their power. So long as they didn’t stumble into an ambush, that was.
- Writer
