Chương 458: 458

Mark and everyone relocated to the conference room on the bottom floor of the house. The conference room was long, with a long table in the middle, with plenty of chairs and a large picture window that took up an entire wall, overlooking the back yard with the nicely trimmed bushes and nice trees. The room itself had big screens on most of the walls, with keyboards sitting in a basket in the middle.

Derek brought in foods and Isoko adjusted the windows, tinting them slightly, while Andria grabbed a keyboard to claim the big screen for her own while leaving the slightly-smaller screens for other people to claim. Everyone settled in. They hadn't used this room that often, for they hadn't had an HVP production in months, and before that they had been on Endless Daihoon. Eliot had needed to clear away some cobwebs.

The True AIs that Andria had hired for Blackleaf, Abs and Zuu, came in through the wires and claimed some screens and cameras for themselves, and then they were all there. Mark liked the room. It was great for big discussions with lots of people, though with 12 humans and 2 AIs they needed to expand it, but it was fine, for now. Mark began, "So, to refresh for everyone:" I can Skill anyone. They don't have to attack me, but it's easier that way." And we're at war with Okuana."

There are a number of forces that will be coming to me for Skiller needs in order to make true powerhouses for Aluatha, otherwise Aluatha will be getting more archmages and maybe even dragons to be powerhouses for the war. That might still happen, but the goal here is to prevent that necessity." Chief among the forces coming here are Walaria with a bunch of prisoners and people who are under shavallian to keep their Powers under control.

It's my understanding that most of them are going to be volunteers to have their Powers stripped, and to have Healthy Body installed instead. I fully imagine that I will be stripping powers from the unwilling eventually, but likely not for a while. There are plenty of people who don't like their Powers, for example: Elemental Body people, people with stuff like Poisoner that prevents them from living in a normal neighborhood, etcetera." I've invited others to be Skilled, if they want to be Skilled."

At the settlement, which we are now calling Dawncoast—" Tartu muttered, "The fuck? What about Celewich?"" Here at Dawncoast," Mark said, grinning, "I've invited Aurora to send me people, and I might be getting people from the coliseum, as well." I've personally invited Armsmaster Tulo Khava to bring me people to help the People fight the goblin menace." I've invited Jessie Stills and Cade Waterson for whatever they wanted." The Inquisitors and especially the Collective have a direct invitation to Skiller needs… Ah.

I have to give a direct invitation to Citadel Freyala later, but I assume they know? I should still do that, so I'm going to do that later." And Crystal Tower still needs a specific invitation. I am hoping to get us off of the black list with such an invitation." Isoko suddenly beamed with joy. She remained quiet. Mark continued, "And that's probably way, way too many people. But it is what it is. It doesn't take long for me to actually Skill anyone, but I do need the actual Powers to Skill people with, first.

I have tried making them myself, and they're terrible. Eventually I'll get better at that, but that's where I'm at right now. It's safer, easier, and better, to just strip Powers from other things." So I need someone to organize all the people coming in." I also need someone to organize hunting locations like with what Tartu said with the Battlemind monkeys in the dragonoid canyons, which I did not know about.

Eliot is probably going to be making an undead mausoleum across the Shine for more Death Powers, and Death mana. And…" And that's a lot. More than enough. Questions and concerns?" Andria raised her hand and spoke first, "Money?"" I don't care. But if you want to be involved in this you need to get paid, and the people who are coming in should pay something. Probably based on their ability to pay." Andria nodded, having confirmed the answer she expected from Mark.

"I'll do the sliding scale thing that we're doing for team outreach." She told everyone else, "Standard pay rate if you want to be involved in this." Lenny looked like he was about ready to sign up, right there and then, but he held back a little. Shawn was in a similar boat, and even Tartu was interested, but in a lesser way. Mark had them on his payroll, but only because he felt bad about getting them blackballed from HVP.

They didn't like Mark feeling guilty and paying them, but they accepted the money, anyway, so maybe having actual work would make them feel like they really belonged? They still had their own jobs and income, though… Ahhh… it would work itself out, soon enough. Pearl, Amy, and Uva were already fully on-board with doing all of this. They would need to figure out where they slotted in, though. Eliot was too busy to be here, but he was still truly interested in all of this. Mark expected him to do his own things.

Sally and Isoko had big questions, but they were just like Andria and Derek; They were here to stay. So were Abs and Zuu. Sally spoke up next, asking, "About that team outreach… Can we extend this to them? There are a lot of teams out there that could use one or two simple adjustments. Even just giving Healthy Body to people who don't have it— Where are you getting all your Healthy Bodies?"

Mark answered all of that with a, "I'm going to the slaughterhouse and taking Healthy Bodys from the cattle before I help process them. I'm expecting 50-ish Healthy Bodys per day. I have about 20 of them right now. I'll need to absorb more orichalcum to make my soulhouse bigger so I can eventually store a whole lot more, but that'll just take time. I have a limit to how many I can store, and I am not anywhere near that limit, for now.

I expect I will reach that limit soon, if this is as popular as I think it will be. Which means that… I can do Healthy Bodies for some teams, but probably just that, and they're very low on the list." Sally nodded. Andria took notes and put them on the big screen. Isoko asked, "What kind of… of experimentation is going on? Like… How is this getting organized?" She added, "I'm not even sure what I'm asking. Maybe something about the goals of giving out powers— That's it. What're the goals here?"

Mark said, "I'm guessing there's going to be a layered set of goals. For Walaria and the war, they're getting all the strongest synergies I can find and make. Making kaiju killers is another category. Not sure how much overlap is there with those two, but there has to be a lot of overlap." And then we'll get into the weaker overall sets of powers, and how to combine them to make them truly shine. Like Healthy Body and maybe a Shaper Power and maybe some Natural or Arcane Power to go along with that.

Try to make PL-rounded people for general monster hunting purposes." Andria stopped typing briefly because she was a little weirded out for some reason that was too obscure to easily pinpoint. Amy and Uva and Pearl, in contrast, had a serious qualm that they all wanted to bring up. Mark looked to them, curiously. They did not speak. Tartu spoke up, "You shouldn't aim to completely rebuild people. You should aim to support what they already have." Mark nodded.

"Good point. I expect most people to come into this with either a history of monster hunting or attempted monster hunting, or psychological profiles that are conducive to going far with what we help them gain. In addition: I am not tying my entire life to this, and I don't want to do full overhauls like I did with Cade Waterson, unless it'll save a guy's life. I expect maybe 3 hours of work per day, max.

That's still at least 10 people per day, assuming I already have the Powers that they want, and that we've planned around." Andria took notes, and added, "Logistically, I'll make it so that people need to be here the day before the Skilling, so you can line them all up and get it done quickly." That was not fully what Andria had wanted to say, but it was good. Tartu hummed a little… and Mark realized that he was trying to say something that Andria, Pearl, Amy, and Uva had been considering saying.

Mark hadn't understood what they were getting at— Isoko said, "So like with the Slayers we were a part of, with their Nascent Red, Red, Nascent Orange, Orange, etcetera? We're aiming for Green-level fighters, capable of easily taking out complicated and dangerous threats like goblin infestations and most monsters, even the abnormal ones, all by themselves. With the rare kaiju-level Blue, or dragon-level Purple?" Mark grinned.

"Yeah, and that reminds me of something important: I have a special interest in stuff like Kandon Valen's True Brawny and Telekinesis Powers, due to the synergy there. Even though individually his Powers are weak—" Pearl was stoic, Amy grimaced, and Uva winced hard.

"… Kandon can take out some kaijus," Mark continued, unsure what was happening with the witches.

"Sam's Threadmaker is a specific type of Bolt Arcane-type Power that also kills kaijus, when Lee or Isoko is there with Sky Shaper to make those threads truly dangerous. But Sam can kill pretty much anything or anyone with his monowire-strength Power— Except for notable issues when it comes to non-corporeal stuff, or elementals. But you all get the point. Some Powers are truly special, and I know a few of the big combos, like any sort of Elemental Body and Elemental Shaper, but I don't know most of them.""

The Inquisitors know all of the ones to look out for," Isoko said. Tartu countered, "The Inquisitors know about the inherently dangerous Powers. Not which ones are strong, though to call some strong and others weak is perhaps unkind, Mark." Pearl, Amy, and Uva agreed with that. … What the fuck? Mark didn't get any of that. Tartu continued, "Mage Society can help with power understandings. In general, the more specific Arcane Powers are the ones that are uniquely stronger.

Naturals take time to develop and often never reach the strength of a good Arcane Power, but all of the Pantheon's Powers are Natural Powers and you're doing all of this Skilling with Union, so… That's that on that. Bodies are always weaker than most other Powers, but the lowest level of them is higher than average Arcane powers. Shapers are a good, solid baseline for the center for a team, and Arch Powers are usually better than truly strong Arcane powers.

Mind Powers are technically the weakest of all, but they're the most synergistic of all as well, aside from Natural Powers. None of these are truly weak, though. It is how they are used that makes them strong." Mark could agree with most of that. It appeared the witches could, too. Mark almost asked what all that was about— Eliot organized Tartu's words into, "From weakest to strongest, generally, there's Low Arcane, Low Natural, Body, Shaper, High Arcane, High Natural and Arch.

Mind is an outlier, usually just a multiplier, unless you get something like Mind Control and then it's super dangerous all on its own." The witches were getting anxious. Mark directly asked them, "What is happening here?" No one else understood that, and so a bunch of people looked at the witches—" You are calling certain Powers strong and others weak," Pearl said, without reservation.

"This will cause issues later when you inevitably give a 'strong' set of Powers to some young noble scion and they come back furious that they're not as strong as their rival who have 'lesser' Powers." Uva added, "And that's not even touching the issues with traditionalists who will decry your deep Skilling as a herald of Thrashtalon. They'll say that 'people are born with the Skills they should have' and saying otherwise will be an Issue." Amy said, "They'll start real fights.""

And more importantly, Okuana will inflame these fights with propaganda that will come to us through Earth," Pearl said, "So, if possible, fixing your language now would be a good idea for later." Mark's first instinct was to tell Pearl that she was wrong, and that clear language was important… and yet… Mark had no answer to that, actually.

People got weird around words sometimes, and Mark was slightly educated in the art of talking, so he could see Pearl's point, and yet, Mark instinctively hated her point for some reason that he couldn't quite understand. Sally spoke up, "I got no problem telling little shits that all the money in the world would buy them Power but it won't buy them skill, and to fuck right on off with that 'couched language' shit." Mark loved Sally a lot at that moment.

Pearl said to Sally, "Some Powers are simply better than others. Titan's Strength is better than Brawny." She looked to Shawn, who used to have Brawny, and to Sally, who didn't always have Titan's Strength, and asked, "But the problem is not going to be here, in this room, with what Mark decides. It'll come later, in hurt feelings and rifts in society. We are talking about eugenics, too.

This is about having 'bloodlines' enabled by the leaders of society, which is still as dangerous today as it was in any other part of history. It causes stratification. Stratification leads to collapse, either on purpose from the lower classes rising up, or accidental, when the upper classes collapse on each other, causing massive civil wars of untold devastation. We cannot have a mischaracterization of what Mark can do that will cause major issues later. So fix it now." Mark felt his excitement crater.

"Fuck. Do I have to think about that stuff?" A lot of wincing was had all around the room. Sally did not wince. She frowned, and said, "Society is stratified. That is how reality is."" Are we going to reinforce the stratification, or lessen it?" Pearl asked." Acknowledge and move on, of course," Sally said, like it was the most simple thing in the world. Pearl almost countered her—" Okay okay," Mark said… and then he had a think. Silence. What was the most major impediment toward getting ahead? Well…

Powers, for one, but also… Money? Mark asked Andria, "What about doing this for free—"" Absolutely not," Andria solidly said.

"And it's not a matter of Blackleaf needing money. We got all the money we could ever need. All of us are fucking loaded… Which is actually really good for anti-corruption purposes. I don't think I said that yet but I'm saying it now—" She looked to Shawn and Lenny and said, "I need to pay you two more and you need more jobs in Blackleaf if you wanna stay. And you new witches need a good payroll, as well."

Uva scoffed a little, saying, "I would never—"" Money, flowing properly, keeps people honest and societies prosperous," Andria said. No one argued with that, while Lenny and Shawn were quietly really happy. Mark inwardly winced, thinking that he should have kept up with Lenny and Shawn better. But Andria was doing Andria-things, and that made Mark like her all that much more. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. Andria continued, "As for people paying for this Skilling…

It is important that they pay, according to their needs, if they can pay, if only to make sure that the people buying in are truly buying in. And none of these people are going to be poor people. They're all going to be hunters, or they will be hunters after the Skilling. So maybe we'll do loans that they have to pay back, just to make sure that they're hunting monsters properly." But in light of this discussion about bloodlines and eugenics and how this will shape society forever to come…

The rich can pay, and they will get a commensurate experience. We'll get you a nice building to do this in, Mark. And every normal person can get in on merit or recommendation from an agreed source, like Walaria, or The People, for instance." Pearl nodded deeply, saying, "Thank you for seeing the issue." Mark's enthusiasm almost came back.

"… Will that work? Just have a higher minimum threshold for 'they gotta pay'? Merit-based?"" Probably," Andria said. Isoko snorted a little, and a ripple of mirth went out through the room. Soon, Andria asked about actual capabilities, as in current capabilities, and Mark said that he would have to get back on that. He needed time to organize his soul. He was sure he could figure it out, and he supposed everyone else would want a full accounting of what he could do, so yeah, that was the next item on the agenda.

The expanded team of Blackleaf broke for the night. Mark walked with Lenny, Tartu, and Shawn out the door, and he said to them, "I'm sorry about not including you all in this more. Should have done that. Andria made me realize that with the pay-scale thing." Lenny and Shawn were a little uncomfortable with that— Shawn shrugged, about to say something, but his shirt ripped a bit at the seams, muscles rippling.

"Ah, damn." Mark chuckled.

"Happens to all of us."" Not some of us!" Lenny proudly said." Want Shawn's old Brawny?" Mark asked/joked. Lenny laughed.

"No fucking way!" Shawn scoffed.

"And what's wrong with my old Brawny?"" Girls don't like such overt strength," Lenny said.

"And now you're even more nasty and veiny." Shawn rolled his eyes, saying, "I got plenty of tail." Tartu ended the bickering by telling Mark, "We're happy with the pay, Mark—"" Fuck yeah we are!" Lenny said. Shawn said, "Really happy. I don't even know why you pay us." Lenny told Shawn, "Shut up." Shawn smirked, saying, "Maybe if you had some Strength behind that wimpy body, I'd listen to you."" I pay you because it's my fault you're all blackballed from the HVP," Mark said, "But we're working on that.

Walaria is working on that. And now we're doing this 'Dawncoast Skilling, a subdivision of Blackleaf'. So I'm gonna go hit up those monsters you told me about in the dragonoid can yon s and be back with your Battlemind, Shawn. I'll have a list of available Powers right now for you later, Lenny, and you can pick what you want. What I want for you is for you to pick something that will let you be kaiju-capable, or one-man-army capable. Maybe talk to Emory Napp? The terraforming specialist? Do you know her?"

Lenny was focused as he said, "I know her. I helped some with the general terraforming after the Ether Turtle Death explosion killed all the ecology around the place, and we needed to do some elemental defense whatever-it's-called." Tartu supplied, "Elemental Ecology."" Yeah that. They mostly told me to… ahh… fuck off. So I didn't do much of it. But I wanted to." Mark nodded.

"I don't have anything along those lines, but those dryads have a lot of terrakinesis, and the one that killed the Main Outpost of Xerkona buried itself and undead horrors all over the place. So we need more people who can do what Emory Napp does, though I've barely interacted with her myself, so I don't really know what she does, either." Tartu said, "She's kinda insular. Likes rocks and elementals and battlefield control. Doesn't really appreciate people. It's not really a problem, most of the time.""

I figured," Mark said, "The Elemental Ecology worked out very well… So maybe something like Terrakinesis and some sort of… I'll make a list of what I have, Lenny, when I get it. You can figure it out from there." Lenny smiled wide, saying, "Aye aye, sir!"" And Shawn?" Mark asked, "Do you want something like Telekinesis, too? Or just the Battlemind to go with Strength Unending and your Chosen System Retribution? You can have the Chosen System on top of being a Tri-Talent. Four Talents is too much, though."

Shawn was stunned, mouth agape, shirt falling off of his left shoulder. … Lenny and Tartu looked at Shawn." Did you not know that, muscles-for-brains?" Lenny asked." It's like Familiars taking up the Mind slot," Tartu said. Mark said, "And you won't be able to get a truly strong Retribution, or Union, as in through the Chosen System, and you absolutely won't be able to be a backup for a god with them supporting you to get True Retribution, or True Union. Any additional magics will be harder to cast, as well.

Being a Tri-Talent means carrying around too many spells, so it kills your own ability to cast spells."" I knew, uh, some of that," Shawn said, taking a moment. Drakarok's golden hand touched his shoulder. Shawn decided," I want Telekinesis and Battlemind. Uh. Please."" I will give it to you when I find it," Mark said.

"You could also consider the secondary effects provided by Powers. Some sort of Death-mana-based Power will insulate you from Death mana, for example. I expect a lot of that with all of Okuana's major forces being Green Death Ecology based." Shawn's eyes went wide and his vector switched hard. He was thinking, even as he said, "That's a… a very good point." Lenny stepped in, saying, "I want Terrakinesis, if it's out there. Otherwise I'm gonna be very picky."" No problem," Mark said.

Tartu asked Mark, "Come over later, after the dragonoid canyons?"" And after I make up a list of Powers I already have, yes," Mark said. - - - - In the late evening, down deep in canyons full of dangerous monsters and plants, Mark stood among the corpses of a great many minor monsters, while craggy black apex predators blended into the stone ridges overhead, their bodies lined with the gold of sunset.

The air stank of spilled guts and blood, alongside the sweet scent of flowers both normal and psychoactively hypnotic. The monkeys had turned out to be a real problem. Mark was glad he had come out here instead of Tartu and Lenny and Shawn. They could have done it; Mark fully believed that. But it would have been unnecessarily dangerous. The monkeys had been 100 bodies strong, with many of them Hive Mind'ed, and many more having Powers that enforced compliance among the lesser monsters in the area.

A big, tendril-filled plant had been their main encampment, with a whole bunch of plant tenders that kept the giant tree happy and controlled. That tree had been sort of a cross between a creeper and a tree, but now lay in thick pieces on the ground, the sections of its cut-up tendrils oozing paralytic slime. Birds with exceptionally bright red and orange plumage, each of them easily the same size as the monkeys, were scattered like bloody chickens here and there.

Some of the birds had rudimentary harnesses on them, for the monkeys had tried taming them and flying on them. A lot of the monkeys had had Tamer, or a specialty variant of that Power, so they had actually succeeded in that regard. Some of the monkey corpses had big, colorful hats, which had been strange to Mark. The monkeys had, of course, attacked him on sight, and they had established histories in the record of the settlement about purposefully going after people.

They weren't nearly as bad as goblins, but they were similar in nature to goblins in how they viewed humanity. So Mark took them apart. No mercy. And now he had some more Powers to give to other people. Still hadn't managed to get any Powers out of any plants, though. If he could do that then Tartu would be a real big help when it came to farming specific Powers. Maybe Mark would ask him about that later. For now, Mark called up his 'Power Inventory'.

Mark's attempt at organizing his new library of Powers was going 'decently enough'. What he had basically done was make a filing system into his soulhouse that was divided into 18 parts, and then he alphabetized them.

Good Great Bad Body Brawny, Breeder (x17), Eater, Healthy Body (x27), Strong Body (x8), Vampiric Body, Undead Body Ghost Body, Plant Body, Slick Body (x8), Speedy (x7), Stunner Body, Transcendent Body (x1), True Brawny (x3) Parasitize (x3) Shaper Fire Shaper (x2), Ice Shaper, Stone Shaper (x3), Water Shaper (x2), Wind Shaper (x6) Chlorokinesis (x3), Geokinesis (x4), Telekinesis (x8) Mind Confuse, Dazzle, Mesmerize, Mind Nudge, Undead Mind, Smart (x8) Battlemind (x4), Mind Control, Tamer (x4), Plant Tamer (x7) Hive Mind (x27), Zealotry Natural Blend (x7), Camouflage (x3), Hider (x7) Curse, Leader(x2), Weird Meaty Arcane Bolter (x7), Conjure Death, Control Death (x2), Detect Death and Life (x9), Exorcist, Undead Soul (x3), Unseen Servant Animate Ghost, Animate Undead (x16), Curse Monger, Drain Existence, Ghost Soul, Necromancer (x3), Possession (x8), Soul Kill, Spiritualist (x2), Transcendent Soul (x3) Black Flame, Death Beacon, Impregnate Arch His Status showed that he was at 155 out of 161 'utilized', so Mark was kinda full up right now, and so he had stopped the slaughter.

Obviously, he could cull a few of these multiples right off the bat, like all of those Animate Undeads; no one needed 16 of those. 17 Breeders could probably go as well, and those 27 Hive Minds were probably a complete waste of space. But Mark could do that later, and they might be useful in ways that Mark didn't understand, so he'd let other people tell him about them before he dumped them." A few of these are probably in the wrong category," Mark told Quark, who was looking at the read out with him."

Quite so, sir." And yet… Some of them were in the very right category. Just look at all of those True Brawnys and 8 Telekinesises! Holy fuck. That was amazing. Mark thought about all of the True Brawny and Telekinetic people he could help make for the army, or for whoever. Each and every one needed an adamantine sword, too, and Mark wanted to make sure each of them got one, because every True Brawny/Telekinetic would theoretically be just as capable as Kandon Valen when it came to kaiju killing.

And that was fucking huge. Every single one of them needed a kaiju blade. Mark smiled, and said, "Send the list out to the guys, and also Walaria, Addavein, and Aurora. Tell them that anyone who wants to be a kaiju killer will get those Powers and also an adamantine sword, made by me, or the materials necessary to make one themselves.

I'm going to give one of these Telekinesises to Shawn, this Geokinesis to Lenny if he wants it, and then I'm going to hole up near a forge and make some swords and things and prepare for the inevitable assassination attempts— Oh. Be sure to send the list out on some Dawncoast stationary or whatever headings Andria and Eliot were working up before I left."" Yes sir. Message sent."

Mark took to the sunset sky, flying fast over the ridges of the kaiju-caused canyons, ignoring the craggly black dragonoids that clung there, waiting for him to move on so that they could move in and eat the corpses he left behind. Once he was gone, they moved in fast, some crashing down the sides of the canyons and not being bothered by the fall at all.

Some of them got real angry down there in the dark, not willing to share at all, and soon fire and light and darkness splashed out from craggly maws and out of sharp black claws. Mark turned and watched them fight amongst each other a little bit… and then he flew on, toward the Dawncoast… or was it 'toward Dawncoast'. Mark asked Quark, "Do you think it's 'to the Dawncoast' or 'to Dawncoast'? Should there be a 'the' in the middle of that?""

I am sure it will be confusing for many people, sir, as I am already getting replies and half of them are saying 'The Dawncoast' or wondering about 'The Dawncoast' or saying they will have people report 'To Dawncoast' soon, while also earmarking which powers they wish implemented into soldiers or otherwise. Yoro is ready to receive Curse, now.

Walaria has a large group of speedy monsters for you to rip the Bindings out of, but since you have a few Speedys then she will increase her allotment of soldiers requesting Skilling."" Thank you, Quark… Say? Do you want me to start a bank account for you, for when you get born, for real? You can do whatever you want with the money in the account, too."" I do not require money, sir, and I legally cannot invest or speculate with money in human markets or in AI markets while not being my own entity.""

Then just a paycheck. It'll sit there and get bigger. You can even set it up yourself. How much do you want per day? The standard rate from Blackleaf?" Quark was silent for a moment, his vector swirling, pulling on Mark, as he thought deeply… and then he said, "I will accept the standard rate as an 'allowance' to pay for improvements to Dawncoast. I would like to see more fountains in squares here and there, if that is alright with you?"" I love it, Quark. Go right ahead."