Nevin spoke up, “I’ve hypothesized that the reason he gets so many class shard drops is because they are a consumable item and he has boosts to consumable items.”

  Mayor Nitrin nodded along. “Exactly so, but the reality is that most have to work far too long to get four sets of the same uncommon class shards and can never make a rare core. Even if they do, it will generally be weaker than intended because of being made from forged uncommon shards.

  “Rare shards are, as the title implies, truly rare. That is why the reward to your part of epic shards, even just one each, is a staggering reward. Anyway though, the true pay wall hits when you try to go from rare to epic. Have you noticed that none of the Forerunners you’ve encountered have been higher than a rare core?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, but how did you know that?”

  “Because one of the requirements to create an epic core can’t be met until after your world has been inducted…”

  Samvek abruptly cut the mayor off, “That’s enough about that. He doesn’t need to know any more right now or it will muddy his potential growth.” Then he looked at me very intently. “I’ll tell you when the time comes. Don’t doubt that.”

  I knew better than to argue with him now. My curiosity might be piqued, but Samvek never told me anything he didn't want to. So instead, I asked the mayor, “Without going into details, I assume it’s called the pay wall because it requires resources.”

  Nitrin looked at Samvek who gave him a slight nod, then he replied to me, “You could say that, but as hard as it is to go from rare to epic, it is even harder to go to legendary. You’ll find that even in your clan, which has a presence on more than a hundred worlds, that there is less than one legendary per world. I don’t know the details about House Rayden, but I’m confident in making that statement.”

  I nodded. “Okay, but you still haven’t said why there is so much interest in Forerunners? I get it. We have potentiality, so maybe we can go further?”

  “Yes, every Forerunner has it within them to reach legendary tier and if you listen to the sects, then perhaps even more if such a thing truly exists.”

  “Then wouldn’t there be more legendary if every newly inducted world has five Forerunners?”

  Samvek said, “This is getting off track. Suffice it to say that most Forerunners tend to have trouble working with those from other worlds. How many of your world’s Forerunners have formed a team?”

  I nodded. He already knew I was the only one. “Okay, so I get why that makes me more valuable, since I’m willing to work with non-humans.”

  “There is also the fact that each induction competition has a significant event at the end and most Forerunners don’t survive it, so there might be twenty-five in your competition, but at best, probably five of those will survive till the final judgment.”

  Everyone grew very silent with that pronouncement. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was Crag who was the first to speak. “It can’t be just that, though. It’s about how they affect people around them, right?”

  Nitrin said, “Exactly. That’s why we were so keen for you to form a connection with Anwich. You can see the changes which have already happened. The adventurer’s guild is building a chapter house here, Clan Rayden now has something like a hundred warriors on our world, and instead of Transhek trying to bully us, there are now three major corporations and a few smaller ones all vying for resources from Anwich.”

  “Okay, that makes sense, but what’s the next step? I’d like to maybe run a dungeon with the complete team so they can get used to fighting with each other, but I’ve only got a few hours left on this mission. There was no time dilation for it.”

  Samvek said, “Think about what I told you.”

  I smiled. My eyes lit up as I remembered his first words to me about how to deal with the corporations. “Okay, so we set up a bidding war?”

  He nodded. Then we started discussing the best way to make a splash with the various corporations. I only had four hours left on the mission, so we’d have to be fast, but all I had to do was flex a bit. They needed to know that we couldn’t be controlled.”

  Dori said, “What about their rares?”

  “They’ll be careful not to overstep. I’ve been making it clear that Silas is part of Clan Rayden and while we have fewer people on this world, fully half of my people here are rare tier. I’d have brought an epic tier, but there are still limits on Galen until the first 100 years have passed.”

  We talked for a bit more. My team was understandably nervous about the plan, or at least the Galenians were. They had to live here all the time, so it made sense. Dejin loved our schemes and plans. His people had no use for the corporations. Apparently, they drove out every one that had come to their world. As I understood it, they had some odd concepts about ownership which were not compatible with the corpies.

  Nevertheless, I found myself walking through the streets of Anwich a short time later. I was keeping available buffs up on the party as well as flight on myself, coupled with Adorably Harmless. The number of merchants who offered me what they swore were great deals, because of the aura, was becoming a bit annoying. That and the looks I was getting from a number of aliens. I wasn’t even sure if I was biologically compatible with all of them.

  Dori finally asked, “Just how freaking high is your Charisma? I’m part of your team and partially shielded from it, but even I keep looking at your backside. And no, I’m not into you. At least I’m not if I’m in my right mind.”

  I laughed. “It’s at 190 now. I’ve been dumping most of my free stat points into it and was planning on doing so until I hit 200 because of something I have to do back on Earth.”

  Crag just whistled. “200 in a dump stat. Not counting gear and your buffs, I don’t even have 1,600 total stat points and I’m level 75.”

  I definitely decided not to say that I had nearly 2,900 stats without gear and was only level 60. By level 75, I’d have another 1,000 points, and that was simply broken. That didn’t even factor in the bonuses I got to effectiveness. A sudden chilling realization hit me though, and I felt a wave of sadness rush over me.

  Dori must have been observing me, because she nodded at Nevin, and they both turned to me. “Something up?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “No, just something Nevin and I talked about since our last mission. We’ve been wondering when you were going to realize it.”

  “What’s that?”

  Nevin said, “Basically that at some point, you’re going to realize that you so outclass us that were likely holding you back. Maybe we can stay relevant till you gain a rare class, but after that, your stats are just going to put you beyond us.”

  “I’ll never feel like that, and I’ll always need people I can trust to have my back.”

  Nevin sighed, “We feel like that about you too, but facts are facts and the numbers don’t lie. Maybe there’s a reason that none of the other Forerunners want to work with off-worlders.”

  I shook my head. “Numbers may not lie, but they also rarely tell the entire story.”

  Crag said, “This is depressing me, can we just get on with the plan?”

  We all exchanged glances. All of us seemed to be uneasy now except for Dejin. He just rolled with whatever happened and made me glad once again that I’d picked him.

  The center of the town was mostly controlled by the town guards. There were common, with a few uncommon though, so they lacked the power to fight the corpies. The presence of House Rayden changed that though. According to Samvek they were making their presence known. They were spread out all over Galen building up contacts. At least a few rares were in Anwich at any given time. Samvek introduced us to them, but then stayed with them so as not to interfere with my training, as he put it.

  We stopped by the half-built adventurer’s guild hall and made sure we were registered as a team. Then we headed out. Dori asked me one more time, “You sure Transhek is the one you want to pick on?”

  “They’ve done nothing but antagonize me since I got here.”

  Nevin said, “But they do have the most forces on Galen currently, so this could cause problems.”

  “Are they stronger than Bymorte or Acme?”

  Nevin shook his head. “Not overall, but their presence here is at least as strong as the other two combined.”

  “Good, then if we can destabilize things a bit, we’ll be able to get the best deals.”

  “And who do you want a deal from, Bymorte or Acme?” Crag asked.

  “From what the mayor and Samvek told us earlier, as well as what I experienced already, Bymorte is the least physically aggressive. Their strategy is to become the exclusive supplier in an area and start with really good prices, but use binding contracts. They’re like drug dealers back on my world, They give you a little taste, but then make you dependent on them until they own you.”

  The three Galenians all nodded, while Dejin simply kept watch around us. Nevin said, “But it isn’t like Acme is much better. They won’t care about exclusivity as much, except when it comes to access to your world after the induction. They also won’t give you as much and have a habit of selling experimental gear which backfires. There was a case I read about that actually made it to a system tribunal. Some poor guy named Wil Eecoyote was sold defective items so many times that he nearly died three times in half an hour.”

  “And what happened?” I asked.

  “The case was thrown out because they had an iron-clad liability waiver.”

  I smiled. Lawyers were the same no matter what world you were on and corporate greed was something I could understand. It was practically a part of human DNA.

  Dori shushed us. “Keep quiet. We’re almost into Transhek territory. Remember, no fatalities and we can pull this off.”

  We passed by a few of the checkpoints they had set up. There were shops and an assortment of various crafters. Most of it was in early stages, but that didn’t keep there from being guards posted every couple of blocks. It seemed like the Transhek people kept a firmer grip on their own people than anyone else. That only confirmed my decision.

  The guards stared at us but none tried to stop us. So far, so good. Dori led us through the area till we got close to their three warehouses. They weren’t all full yet, according to Nitrin, but portals were opening on a daily basis to bring in more materials and not just for Transhek.

  We finally stopped when we reached a corner. Dori held up her hand and even Dejin reacted perfectly to the signal. “Only Silas and I can go from here. If one of us gets caught, then well shout and the rest of you come running for it. Otherwise, we’ll go in separately. Silas will go high and I’ll go low.”

  Everyone nodded. She looked at me, “Grab the most valuable stuff you can get and then get out of there. If we get caught, this could go really badly, but if you can sneak in and out, then Samvek’s plan can work.”

  I didn’t reply. There was no need. We’d been over the plan before. I recast Stealth Flight, Mass Physical Boost, dropped Adorably Harmless since it drew attention and then activated my Stealth ability while keeping a focus on the skills I’d acquired. As a last step, I used my Boots of Shadows to pull the shadows around me, but needed to be careful. When I flew through a clear sky, a cluster of shadows would be as much of an eye draw as if I had no camouflage.

  Then I was off. I didn’t pay any attention to Dori, she’d been at this far longer than I had. My speed while flying was becoming ridiculous now with my effective Agility well over 300. Leveling up was having a huge impact on that spell. If I pushed myself, I could easily break Mach 2, but I didn’t want the attention that breaking the sound barrier would bring with it, so I flew fast, but not too fast.

  Once I was high enough that I could look down on the warehouse, I was going to hit. It took fifteen minutes and I checked every corner of the building. There were two guards on the roof, but Identify didn’t show me any traps. I hummed a simple tune to see if there was anything odd in the spiritual energy of the place, but all I felt was greed and anxiety.

  My camouflage held as I checked a second-story window and still couldn’t find any traps. I knew that I couldn’t be the only one with a flight spell, and contingencies for thieves had to factor that in. Then at the last second, I felt a glimmer of mana around the window. My paranoia paid off. There was a trap here. The problem was that I couldn’t do anything about that trap. Well rather, I couldn’t disarm it, but hopefully, Spirit Walk would allow me to simply pass through the wall. I’d watched enough heist movies to know that the windows and doors were usually better guarded than the walls between them.

  Sure enough, as I phased out, I was able to pass straight through the wall and I didn’t feel so much as a twinge of mana or hear any kind of alarm. What I did feel however, was something related to Urg. It was odd. It was like he was trying to talk to me from underwater. The sensation was garbled, but caused me to suddenly feel nervous for him. I clamped down my will and made a mental note to ask Samvek about this later on. For now, though, I wanted to be done with this chore. There were less than two hours left on my time on Galen.

  I made the most of the sixty seconds I could stay in Spirit Walk. With Stealth activated at the same time as this ability, I should be undetectable to anyone but a spiritual savant. The Transhek goons didn’t strike me as that type.

  I maneuvered around, identifying anything that I could find until I stumbled upon the perfect item. It was clearly valuable because there was an extra guard next to it despite it being deep inside the warehouse.

  With only five seconds left on Spirit Walk, I settled in behind him. He wasn’t built like Bek, but rather was a smaller, humanoid form with suckers on the end of his fingers and antennae instead of hair. If I had to guess, he was an Agility type fighter. The short blades on his hip only helped to confirm that.

  My arm was already around his neck when I rematerialized. He started to struggle, but didn’t have any chance. I might not be as strong as someone of my level dedicated to Strength, but this guy was no match for me. In retrospect, I realized that I should be glad that he needed to breathe through his mouth because otherwise this attack might have been entirely pointless. Note to future self for sure.

  After a bit of struggling, his body went slack, but I kept choking him for a bit longer to make sure he wasn’t faking it. Eventually, I lowered him to the ground. I didn’t have long now; I was sure of that, but I reached out and grabbed the box that he was guarding. It was covered in runes and Identify was screaming at me that it was super valuable, even if it couldn’t tell me what was inside.”

  As soon as I touched it, an alarm started to sound through the warehouse. I stuffed it into my spatial storage and then activated Stealth and the camouflage function again as I dove into the area behind sacks of grain. This time the ability to gather shadows really came in handy. I just needed to hide for a minute until the cool down on Spirit Walk was off.

  Bodies were running all around, and I soon heard Bek screaming. He was saying he was going to kill whoever had done this, and I had to admit to myself that his frustration only made this sweeter. I practically held my breath as guards performing a sloppy and overly quick search walked within inches of where I was lying. But then the minute passed, and I phased out of the physical world. The same sensation of Urg was waiting for me, but I couldn’t stop and assess it now.

  Instead, I flew out at peak speed. This was a neat trick that I hadn’t considered before. Because I was moving without interacting with the physical world around me so, I didn’t create a sonic boom. At over 1,800 miles per hour, I was back in the safe center of town in something like three seconds. Once again, because I wasn’t currently a physical entity, coming to a complete stop was effortless. This definitely warranted further examination.

  It took the rest of the team far longer to get back to me, but Dori had managed to get in and out of the warehouse with a stack of spell scrolls. Part of me wanted to go through them, but the plan called for something different. We then initiated the second part, which seemed to go even easier. I was getting the hang of using Spirit Walk to sneak and easily dropped off the box I’d found inside of one of the Bymorte warehouses, while Dori did the same with her loot and the Acme warehouse.

  Then we returned to Samvek and reported in. He didn’t say much, which wasn’t surprising. Now we just had to wait for the fireworks. Unfortunately, I was going to be back on Earth and wouldn’t be able to return to Galen for 18 more hours. Hopefully, I wouldn’t miss out on too much fun.

  Chapter 58- Heading to Prison

  The reality of life back on Earth hit me hard after the excitement of our attempts to brew some corporate warfare. I’d been feeling so alive and now… It was like a cold towel had been thrown over my head. I knew there was still plenty to do on Earth. Heck, I got to work with alien technology every day, but I missed the rush. I wondered if I was becoming a battle junkie. You read about them in litrpg novels all the time, had that become my life now? I wasn’t sure, so I decided to focus.

  The first step was to get on my computer and see if I could dig up news stories about Emil and where they might be holding him. Fortunately, social media and various platforms were more than eager to offer all kinds of information. There was a recent article interviewing a secret source, which was allegedly a doctor who’d been treating Emil at an Oslo Prison. He made some claims which were pretty extreme, such as, claiming that they were unable to medicate Emil, despite his obvious delusions and a court order requiring him to be medicated.

  The article didn’t really go into why that was, but I could guess that they might have trouble medicating a rare tiered individual. After that, I looked up some information about Oslo Prison. Its location was readily available online and even much of its history. Apparently, it could house up to 350 prisoners. That sent me down the rabbit trail of comparing the prison population in Norway to that of the US. In a nation of over 5 million residents, they had less than 3,700 prisoners. I quickly left that rabbit trail because it didn’t lead anywhere, but I was sure one of my professors would have made a point about it.