“NO, YOU!” Jimmy rounds on me with a snarl, and tries punching me in the face.
I’m taken aback, but not so much that I fail to duck aside, catching his hand before it can make contact. “Calm down. I need an explanation.”
“You just… I just—” He collapses to his knees, energy leaving him as suddenly as it came, staring around at the bloody remnants of what used to be quite a few people. “I… You…”
Okay, so he’s not in any condition to be having a reasonable discussion at the moment. I look around. Why should he be calm? I can only imagine how he’s gotten himself in this mess.
I force my voice to stay calm, though I’m burning with the need to move. “I need to know what happened here.”
“Uh, sir?” One of the Numberless timidly raises a hand, stiffens when I turn to look at him, but stammers out, “I can explain.”
I nod curtly for him to continue.
“Well, we were…” He gulps, eyes darting behind me. “They told us if we signed on with them we’d be protected, that we wouldn’t have our souls eaten tomorrow. So, you know, we don’t want our souls eaten. That sounds like it’d be really really bad, y’know?” he is babbling now, words coming in a rush.
“Take a breath, slow down.”
“Yeah. Uh. So. We signed, let them claim us as dependents, but then they shoved us in here instead. Told us to work in the forest, forced us all in like… like we’re just herd animals to them. And there’s things in here, and they’ll…” The man swallows, quivering, voice dropping. “We lost so many before realizing they’d abandoned us. Their promises were meaningless. They didn’t care.” His eyes flick to Jimmy, crouching on the ground, head in his hands, breathing hard. “He’s the only one who tried to do anything to protect us. He was so strong, but there were too many of them. And then you came and saved him. So I guess that makes you our friend too.”
Hm.
I flick my attention to the extensive stack of notifications. Sure enough, for several of the Numbered I’ve killed, there’s an offer to claim their dependents as my own.
“You’ve seen that I’ll protect my own. Jimmy signed on to work with me, and I’m not planning to let anything kill him. If you want to transfer your contracts to me, I’ll put you to work, but I’ll also ensure that you have the means to protect yourselves. Jimmy was one of my first dependents, and you’ve seen for yourself how he was able to hold his own.” Presumably. I may be going out on a bit of a limb here, but the way the Numberless are watching us, I feel it’s a safe gamble. “It won’t be safe, but it’ll be a chance.”
The crowd immediately begins murmuring among themselves, beginning to separate. Many shy away, shaking heads, retreating. But almost as many are nodding to one another, stepping forward.
Looks like I might be increasing my entourage by a significant amount. Even if it is the day before tax day, this is too good an opportunity to pass up. Not only have I been given an opportunity to save many of these people, this could mutually benefit all of us. The way my levels augment their attributes and their numbers augment my power creates a symbiosis I can’t turn away from.
Around half the Numberless end up stepping forward, close to a hundred total. Some look angry, others fearful; all determined. A higher percentage than I’d have guessed. I’m going to need to designate whole levels of oversight to keep this many people busy.
Can I manage adding this many at once? I hadn’t expected such a large turnout. The amount is staggering, and quick math tells me accepting all of them on my own might be akin to signing my life away to Devil God Yugmuswa.
Doesn’t matter. I’ll make it work.
I did want to make a town around the quarry. Setting up something like that will generate plenty of jobs. I’ll just need to balance it with enough money-making endeavors to cover the tax. Otherwise all of this will be meaningless.
Rejecting all of the notifications to adopt the Numberless as my own causes quite the commotion in their ranks, but I hold up a hand to stop them from freaking out. “All of you who wish to work, come here and line up in front of me.”
Jimmy stares at me as the Numberless begin to form a tentative line. He watches me as I start adding them to my entourage, one by one. I can’t make out what he might be thinking.
Not until he stands up and gestures for many of the Numberless in the line to move towards him. They seem far more enthusiastic to be underneath him, and I let those who want to go. The line is reduced by about a third, but that’s fine for both of us.
I’ve seen what something like this can do to people, and having some kind of immediate concern might help Jimmy ground himself in reality and keep moving. Whatever his reason is, I’ll make sure he gets the help he needs to make things work.
By the time I get to the end of the line, I feel far more powerful, yet a bone deep tiredness clings to me. Figuring out why is a problem for later. I’ve just accepted seventy Numberless under me, and I’ve got a whole thirty-six hours.
Thirty-six hours to determine whether I’ve just signed my life away.
“Okay, everyone!” I shout, addressing the three groups of Numberless. “I’ll be guiding everyone back to the marketplace. Those who have signed their safety to me are required to go back to the entrance, stand in line, and get one of these,” I call, holding up my EID. “This will be incredibly important to all of our survival. When you’re talking to the attendants at the window, mind your manners!”
I turn to Jimmy, and he blankly stares back. There are so many things I want to say to help him through whatever he’s got going on in his mind, but there’s far too little time for both of us to come up with a lot of Coins. A lot, a lot.
With my EID in hand, I select the Numberless Retainer option and look over the updated list.
Gaian One’s Dependents
Gregory Arnold Allen (DR), Jamie Melinda Allen (DR), Samantha Kirsten Allen (DR), Katherine Grace (DR), Marissa Annabeth Grover (DR), and seventy others.
Recurring Dependent Tax: 3750 World Coins
Augment Slots: 3
Augment Effects:
Slot 1: +1 Endurance for each dependent.
Current Bonus: +75 Endurance
Slot 2: +1% World Coins from completed job requests for each dependent.
Current Bonus: +75% World Coins
Slot 3: ALL dependents gain a random attribute for every three Existential levels Gaian One has.
Current Bonus: +7 random attributes
Designated Representatives: 5
Holy hell. “All right, let’s move!”
Jimmy numbly rises to his feet, daggers in hand. His head is on a swivel as he looks for any threat, but the jovial light in his eyes has faded. There’s not much I can do to help him now, but my chest aches.
I understand. The best thing for him now is to keep moving so he can get to the other side and pull the pieces back together then. With the addition of so many dependents, he’s looking at a price tag that drops tomorrow, something he didn’t need to concern himself with before.
As I’m ruminating and we’re making our way through the forest, a bubbly Cori comes to stand by my side. “We had a deal.”
“We did.”
“So you’ve forgiven Lorain and Dorian. That’s good.” She smiles. “Wasn’t sure how to handle that whole situation. Was kind of an awkward position to be in, you know?”
My gut reaction is to say no, but I think of Jimmy. Someone organized all of these Numberless to be moved into the Tower to become worker bees without protection, not to mention the years of dealing with Clarissa and the others.
“I do.”
“Good, very good.” She holds up a blue and silver cube. “Divine regalia?”
“No.”
“Didn’t think so,” she mutters, tossing the cube over her head to Lorain. As if completely unbothered by the slaughter I’ve just committed, she prances by my side. “So what will it take for you to hand over my shadow?”
“I’m not in the mood, Cori.” Even though I agreed to forgive her goons, it’s not that easy to just flip my apprehension and disdain so easily. Seeing them out of the corner of my eye each time I look at her makes me antsy. “I’m kind of busy right now.”
“Eh, busy is relative. This isn’t all that serious,” she says with a shake of her head. “Not busy at all.”
Biting back my initial response, I raise a questioning brow. “What’s busy to you then?”
“Before we came here, busy was looking for my shadow day in and out for the last—one, two, ten, thirteen—thirteen years. Scrounging through Towers all over the Existential plane, bouncing from one place to another. I even got my Tower clear time down to twenty-two days!” she exclaims, bubbling with pride. “That’s not an Existential record or anything, but it qualifies me for the position of an elite!”
Twenty-two days. Why does that seem so slow? “If you’ve cleared so many Towers, then why are you so weak?”
Her face scrunches up like she smells something bad, then she hangs her head. “While that’s not entirely accurate, ow.” She glowers at me from her slouched position and continues to explain, “To hop through newly established worlds like I do, I have to seal my levels and effectively start over. If we left the boundary of your lame world, then I’d be able to unleash all my power.”
“So you should have a lot stored up?” She doesn’t seem to know how to respond to the question, conflicted expressions warring over her face, so I wave the question away. “Don’t worry about it.”
For the rest of the walk, we continue in silence. The murmuring of the plethora of Numberless behind us kicks up a dull roar, one that surprisingly doesn’t attract a horde of monkeys to us. When we get to the portal, I wait for all of the Numberless to pass through.
As they do, many give their thanks to Jimmy. Watching the lack of response in his eyes and the forced smile he puts on for their sake, I can’t help the flood of frustration that pours over me. But there’s nothing I can do about it now.
We’ve both just taken on a massive responsibility, one we have to attend to before being able to hunt and start generating a bit of Coin—or in this case, a whole lot of Coin.
“Good luck!” Cori says, waving as she makes her way through the portal with her glowering attendants.
Then it’s just me and Jimmy, the rest of the Numberless inside the portal waiting for us. “Wanna talk about it?”
“No.” He steps through, following Cori.
“Fair.”
