Chương 156: 156

Mark, Isoko, and Barba slowed down when they came within sight of the walls, which loomed 50 meters high. The walls were flat on this side, but on the inside they were sloped slightly. The gate ahead was a simple affair; a gentle slope of stone-solid dirt leading up to a 5-meter square hole in the wall. A thick steel gate held above the hole, ready to slam shut if needed.

Monitors and scanning systems of all kinds poked out of the walls here and there, making sure that if the gate needed to close, it would close, and it wouldn't need human intervention to close to prevent incursion. The gates of the settlement were almost the same as the gates of Memphi, but on a much smaller scale, and with much fewer people anywhere nearby.

Mark, Isoko, and Barba, were one of only three groups within sight, and those other two groups were a kilometer outside the wall, and headed out for the evening. Mark and them were the only group going inside right now. As Mark walked up the hill, he thought of the hordes of monsters outside of Memphi, and wondered why the same thing wasn't happening here.

They had been told that the monsters only attacked Memphi because of all the people, and there weren't many people here so there weren't too many monsters, so that made sense, but… Maybe 'the cultist' would have a different answer? Cultists were supposed to be very much outside of Curtain Protocol, after all. Mark started with, "The monster density here is really thin!

It was in the information packet of the settlement, but it's still kinda weird to be able to run for 40 minutes and not run into anything worse than some birds and freaky ground squirrels that just avoid us." Barba arched an eyebrow.

"This is surprising?" Isoko asked, "It's some sort of magic, isn't it? Some magic that makes the monsters spawn outside instead of inside? That's my working theory. Like with Union; you can't just erase something, you have to move that something around." Mark loved it when Isoko backed him up like that. Barba furrowed her brow a little, then said, "It's Castellan. From Hearthswell.

The goddess turns off monster spawning inside her Domain, and the mana doesn't like not being able to touch people, so the demons in the mana make more monsters outside of settlements…" She drifted off because Mark and Isoko were both staring. … The FUCK?! Mark had no fucking clue what to say about that. With a quizzical, worried tone, Barba said, "It's a part of Malaqua ordaining the System? The Protections of Hearthswell? The Consecration of the New Pantheon? The Retaliation of the Demons? … The War for Life?"

Pause.

"… You did not know this?" Mark felt some sort of heat. An anger, perhaps.

"The demons… control monster spawns? Because Hearthswell protects the cities? So the demons make more monsters outside of cities… of course they do." It wasn't a Union-situation at all. There was no redistribution of monster spawns. It was a lot simpler than that. Mark knew that Hearthswell prevented monsterization inside of cities. That functionality was part of the Castellan enchantments on the walls and in the land.

Eliot had been laying down those very same enchantments for the last week, in every building and in every wall and meter of tram track… probably. Mark didn't see him lay down enchantments, not exactly, but there had been a small container for gold on the tram track vehicle, and that container had needed to be filled up several times over the course of the last few days. Was there a lot of gold in normal construction? Mark wasn't sure, but he thought not.

He never saw gold anywhere on any of the buildings, after all. All of that fell under the umbrella of 'Hearthswellian Secrets', though, so Mark never asked about it. In a different sort of situation, but in a situation that was poignant to the situation with the monster density outside of cities, Malaqua, the Stone God of the System, was responsible for keeping Curtain Protocol solid.

As long as people partook in the ritual of the Curtain, and kept their sight and senses averted from the truth, they'd prevent their astral body from spontaneously Awakening outside of the Tutorial. In that way, a person would be eligible to take the Tutorial and Awaken to a good Power, instead of Awakening to a Knack or a Knowing. So Malaqua did more than control how mana functioned in people, and Hearthswell did more than move monster spawns outside of cities. They controlled mana in certain ways.

The demons in the mana didn't like being controlled. So of course they assaulted the cities with monsters all the time. That's why there were so many more monster spawns outside of the gates of Memphi, as compared to here. Mark and everyone else had been told that the monster density outside of the settlement would be a lot less than any of them were used to facing outside of Memphi, or any other large city, and… and this was why.

This was why Eliot was running himself ragged putting up the settlement as fast as he could. Mark had assumed, and Eliot had said, that the settlement just needed proper defenses as fast as possible, and that was true, but it was bigger than that. This settlement, this twin city of Memphi, was going to be a major expansion of humanity's capability. That's why Aurora was here. That's why… why so many big named people were here. And maybe even Addavein would be here, too, eventually.

The Reveal had never actually ended at all. It was still happening. The demons were still at war with humanity, and it was only because of people who went out and killed monsters that the demons weren't winning. … And the demons had spawned that 6-crystal bird kaiju over Wolf Bayou 4 months ago, hadn't they? On purpose. They had made that kaiju on purpose. The demon Leash. The Betrayer God, Thrashtalon.

They had been aiming for Mark, or maybe in a sideways strike against Addavein, so of course they had been aiming for Mark, because the War of the Veil, the Reveal, had never ended. Addashield, one of the major Heroes of Humanity that had saved humanity from the demons, was still out there, and in a much larger, more powerful form, so yeah, they were trying to attack Addavein. Of course they were. Humanity had never won the Reveal. The war was still going. What had she called it?

'War for Life'? Mark had heard that before, but he had not made the connections he was making right now. It was like a lightbulb had turned on. Mark had imagined that all of the kaiju, all of the monsters, were just a natural response to being touched by mana. Because that's what it looked like on all the documentaries that Mark had ever seen. They had watched a few videos on the subject in middle school, as warnings not to go beyond the walls.

There was this one video about a rat being left out in a cage, outside of the city walls of some city —one of those cities out in the Californias— and the rat was fine for a while, but then it spontaneously mutated. Its fur turned from brown to pink, and then it flowed outside of its solid cage as though the bars weren't even there. The rat disappeared. The rest of the video was of a guy standing in front of pictures of the aftermath of the rat escaping, and the hunt to track it down.

They found the little thing two days and two hundred monsters later, burrowed into the chest of a much larger monster, making its home in the beast's entrails. That rat hadn't become a phase rat due to 'a natural response of exposure to mana'. That had been the 'demon in the mana'. The war was still happening, and every noble family was out there acting on war footing, while people like Mark didn't realize they were in a war, because to be allowed to know the truth was to have your entire worldview shifted.

The reason for Xerkona politeness was not to 'be nice to each other', to 'foster a community of togetherness and unity', but because generals in different armies needed to be polite with each other because war among the humans was unthinkable when the demons were still out there, making war every single day. The reason the dragon cultists and the anti-dragon faction weren't in open civil war was because there were bigger kaiju to kill. The reason for archmages was because demons… Oh shit.

For a moment, Mark was transported back in time. There he was, at the bottom of a Light Box, with demons all around and fighting to survive. An inquisitor had yelled about how demons only cared about other demons. In another time and place, an archmage had once told Mark that demons only cared about other demons. Were archmages simply a way for demons to fight other demons, in a different sort of way. Through proxies?

Leash had certainly been trying to Contract with Mark to make him a proxy in his fight against Kanda, who was currently still stuck inside Addavein. Kanda was stuck inside Addashield's much larger soul. How many kaiju-versus-kaiju battles out there were demons fighting each other through proxy wars? Mark felt unmoored, thoughts swirling, head fainty. This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Barba's face was stony. Unsure.

She had dropped too large of a secret, and she had not meant to do that at all. She backpedaled, "I am not versed in history. I only know what I have heard." Isoko was serious as she asked, "But the demons control the monster spawns?" Barba looked at the ground for several moments, and then she turned and walked toward the gate, to the settlement, saying, "You should talk to Julie when we take the gourds in for harvest."" No," Isoko began.

"You can't drop that and then—" Barba cut her off.

"I don't understand the outrage on your faces. I know Curtain Protocol is big, but… This is like talking about bolting cows in the brain. The meat is made in certain ways. I know how to make meat. I don't know history. Talk to someone else about that. I am sorry I… I clearly upset you both." Isoko breathed— Mark made a decision. He said, "Okay. Let's get this stuff officially harvested and deal with other stuff later. That was a good harvest out there, Barba. I'd go harvesting again with you some other day."

Barba blushed a little bit. She nodded tersely.

"It was… good. Yes." And then she started walking through the gate. Mark and Isoko followed. Soon they were on the other side, facing a slope to an open expanse of flat grasslands, a mudhole-lake beyond that, more grasslands beyond that, and then the buildings of the settlement rose in the distance, like collections of sand-colored towers. The Grey Whale still floated atop Castle North. To the left, to the west, beyond the river, were agricultural buildings and the farms.

To the right, to the east, beyond the river, were a few noble houses. The northern side of the lake and river had stuff on it. Nothing but tram tracks and stations of various sorts had been built on the south side of the lake and river; not yet. Barba led the way down the staircase, to the tram station. Isoko fell in beside Mark, and they followed. As the tram rumbled underneath them, Barba spoke conversationally, "The gourds hold life-glow water and meat-of-vitality, which is not actually water or meat at all.

If we're lucky, a few gourds might even have vivant crystal. The lake was certainly pure enough, which is a rare thing to have in a normal situation this close to a city. But we're still just a settlement right now… The vivant crystals will be worth 150 points apiece to the Artificer's Guild, split three ways." Mark asked, "The quest itself was a baseline 100 points, but we get more based on what we brought in?"" Yes. Today was a great harvest, too," Barba said, turning briefly and grinning.

"These gourds will each make 1 to 2 high-grade healing potions… The majority of the hollow gourds will go that way. With terrible luck you should both get about 500 points today. With good luck, maybe 1, 500." She paused. She was silent for a little while, her vector pointed inward. And then she said, "The majority of the work order was for the Healer's Guild. The alchemists. Grand Healer Lysara Whisper and Duchess Elaria Valen. They know a lot about the demons in the mana.

Would you like to deliver the order yourselves? They would normally pick it up from the depot, but you could deliver it and ask about... history… Aurora's mother, Elaria…" She went silent. Mark had met Aurora Valen's mother, Elaria, at the 'alchemist's shop' in the Grey Whale, though he had not known it at the time, and she hadn't spoken her name to him, either. She had invited him for tea, though, and for a talk, but Mark had said that he did not have the time back then, since he was about to meet someone else.

Mark had time now, though. Mark decided, "I could do that. You want to go too, Isoko?"" Yes," Isoko said, without hesitation. Soon, the tram reached the depot. They got to process the gourds in one of the processing rooms. Barba cut the gourds in half and scooped her hand around inside the red, pulpy, seed-filled guts, searching for bright red crystals among the seeds. She didn't find a single crystal until gourd #18, and then she found four in a row in gourds #21-25.

That was an extra 50 points for each of Mark, Isoko, and Barba. If they had a third person, then it would have only been an extra 35 points per person. The broken halves of the gourds did not go to waste. With a special processing machine that was part AI, part engraved magics, and filled with blades and armatures and made for processing a lot of plant matter in a short amount of time, Mark and Isoko fed the cut gourds into the machine. It sliced and peeled! Whirred and separated! Crushed and pulped!

And then it spat out materials through three different ports, because it was set for that sort of distribution. Barba spoke of how they could have let the machine process the gems, too, but those were too valuable to risk inside of the machine." Is it an actual risk?" Mark asked, wondering if the machine would break the vivant crystals.

"Eliot made this, right? It should work well?" Barba shook her head.

"My sister prefers not to have any risk at all with the crystals."" Fair enough." Glowing, milky red liquid went into one set of mana-tight containers, while red pulp went into another container, packed down tight and mostly dry. The seeds had been absolutely crushed, and they went in with the pulp. The peels went into a trash bin, to be thrown into the compost bins of Agriculture and Resource Management.

Eventually, the compost would enter the soil and the food supply, but only after it was thoroughly checked over for seeds." Sometimes the machine misses the seeds, and they get sorted into the compost," Barba said.

"That is not good."" I can imagine plant monsters growing in the compost," Mark said.

"… That hasn't happened though, right?" Barba shrugged.

"I have not heard of it happening, but I don't trust machines that are not alive, and this one is not alive." Mark smirked.

"Fair enough." Soon, Mark and Isoko's contribution was logged and sorted. 137 gourds amounted to 17 vivant crystals, which was 850 points for just those alone. The pulp and liquid was another 270 points for both Mark and Isoko. With the 100 point baseline payout for the quest added in, Mark and Isoko had both made 1, 220 points." Not bad for… what was it? 3 hours?" Mark asked. Isoko told Barba, "Wonderful to work with you." She said to Mark, "Let's go deliver this to the Healer's Guild."

Barba bowed once again, looking like it was a reflex, but other people were watching so she straightened up quite fast, saying, "A pleasure to work with you both!" And then she left, carrying a small bag of crystals with her. … And that was that. A pretty good first harvesting trip! Isoko and Mark shared the weight of gourd milk and gourd pulp as they walked out of Castle North, toward Castle South. It wasn't long of a walk so they avoided the trams. Mark said, "I was meaning to get there eventually, anyway.

You said something about the Healer's Guild having specialized tools for healers to avoid danger, yeah?" Isoko nodded.

"I went there once with Sally, but we did not stick around or look into the stuff for sale too much. They do have a bar next door, though. All the paladins hang out there after hours." As they walked across the field, Mark looked to the right, beyond the tram tracks, to the much larger fields beyond the castles. A whole group of brawnies were training, doing drills with spears and with guns. The guns were paintball guns right now, but they mimicked how it was to work with real bullets well enough.

Some machine spiderbots were today's targets. The spiderbots rushed this way and that upon the field, while the brawnies worked in groups to incapacitate the bots. Captains called out maneuvers and the brawnies followed them, but they were all clearly still learning. It was the training class, and it had started four days ago. A person could earn 250 points a day just training in a squad. It was good money, if you didn't want to hunt monsters.

Mark had thought the drills were simply 'good money for non-hunters', or even simply 'a job', done while the rest of your team was doing something else. But looking at them again, and thinking about how Aurora's official title was 'General of Expansion'… Oh yeah. They were still in a war. Mark wondered if he had been blind, or just ignorant. He was sure he had heard someone use the term 'War for Life' before Barba had said that phrase today, too. It hadn't just been 'a saying'.

It had been a truth; the Reveal, the War of the Veil, was still happening, even today. And there was a name for it. The War for Life. … Mark was still going to kick, punch, and possibly stab Tartu into 2 days of downtime, though. Just a little stabbing! Or a lot. Nothing too serious, of course. There might be a war on, but Mark still had his own goals in life. But he needed to figure out how, exactly, he was going to accomplish that particular goal. …

Maybe he could buy some shavallian from these alchemists and stab it into Tartu? That might work.