Chương 108: A mild disagreement

Out of the two times he had gone out and interacted with the common people of the city, both had ended up with him knocking everyone out. It was starting to look like a pattern. Of what exactly, he hadn't decided yet. Knocking out the squad of wannabe policemen might turn into a problem in the future, but, honestly, he was starting to realize that he didn't care.

Not in the way he hadn't cared without a Soul, but more in a way that he was getting fed up with everyone treating him like a monster or an asset to be managed. It was a different kind of feeling. Not indifference, but a realization that something had to change. Low-level people saw him as a thing to be avoided at all costs. Those who had a few levels on them had enough bravery to try to fight him with numbers, like it was a heroic thing to do.

Elites saw him as some kind of natural disaster that could be carefully told what to do or maneuvered around. Aside from a very few exceptions, one of which was quietly humming something under her breath nearby, he just wasn't treated like a person. More like a golem, like El'el did at the start. But she, at least, had an excuse of drawing the wrong conclusions because her magical senses were confused. In short, Dennis realized that he didn't like living in the city.

The soft bed was nice, as was the food, but other than that… He arrived here out of indifference. Too lost and unsure what the 'right' thing to do was, he just followed along whatever whim people around him had, hoping that that sweet clarity of purpose would just come back if he thought hard enough about it or something. Hoping that since he didn't know what he was doing, maybe someone else did.

Passively watched people around him, trying to figure out how the fuck did they decide what to do without a grand goal pushing their every action. People just did whatever they felt like. The only reason they came to the city was because Mary wanted to. She had friends here, and enjoyed the safety and perks of civilization. Dennis just followed along, Lily and El'el stuck to him like ducklings for their own reasons. Dennis felt kinda dumb for not realizing it sooner, but… Heroes weren't made by doing nothing.

Passively following along while brooding about the nature of heroism was, at best, a sidekick behavior. Or maybe a monk one, trying to enlighten himself into becoming a better person while watching the world from the sidelines. It was, in short, some pussy ass dao shit. It was better to fuck up while trying to do the right thing, than to fuck up while doing nothing. Maybe he'd figure out how to be a proper hero, maybe he wouldn't. Whatever. He had people to save.

Halfway back to the mansion he noticed that their lonely path wasn't as lonely as before. While normal people were long gone, he was seeing more of those guards. They stood between the buildings, and on the roofs, watching as he passed. No one approached him, but they were clearly amassing forces. It was a dumb move. He was strongest against crowds of weaker enemies. To defeat him, they'd need to have a counter. Numbers just wouldn't work.

"So what, exactly, is the plan?" Lily asked lazily, not bothered by the people gathering against them in the slightest. Though, maybe it was just her robo-face thing. Her aura was less pronounced than he was used to, so he wasn't sure.

"We're getting El'el," he said.

"Uhuh."

"Finding a dungeon."

"Mhm."

"She opens a portal, and I go in and save Gareth in a few minutes," he finished, and paused for a moment.

"I'll target everyone still lost in the Echo, pretty sure that would work." Lily didn't reply. Glancing at her, he could see that she was thinking. Feel it, anyway.

"It's a good plan," he defended.

"I'm not saying anything," she replied.

"It's very simple."

"Yes. It's simple. Really, no failure points. It's like a stick. No. A rock." Lily still didn't reply.

"That's good," he decided to explain to her.

"Good plans are simple."

"How are you gonna carry everyone?" the girl finally voiced her mind.

"How am I– What?"

"If you're going to target everyone still lost there, it could be… I dunno, hundreds of people? Thousands? And if I'm going with you, you really won't have many options to carry people."

"Ah, you see, that's–" he raised a finger to explain. Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. A few seconds passed in silence.

"Yes?"

"We can grab a cart on the way." He glanced at the girl.

"A big one."

"Did you just suggest that I'm–" The mansion came into view, making the girl stutter as she noticed their reception. Sydney stood in the middle of the road with her hands crossed. By the look on her face, she wasn't happy. Not at all. Beside her, to her left, stood Mark. A glance was enough to understand that he wanted to be anywhere else but here. He was nervous. Tense, but not in a way low-level people tensed in Dennis' presence. The man's hand rested on one of his daggers.

To Sydney's right, Mary stood, biting her lip. She looked somewhat guilty, if Dennis had to guess. There were quite a few of her shimmering butterflies floating around the street, glitching in and out of existence in that weird way that was hard to logically comprehend. Not quite teleporting, but appearing in different places with every flap of their wings as if they were always there. He tried not to focus on them too much, to avoid a headache.

The goons–guards or policemen or however they called themselves–were scattered around the corners. Not quite nearby, but more like watchers. Blocking the exits, or, what was more likely, not letting people in. The air was tense. Dennis had a feeling they didn't come out to greet him politely. El'el, notably, was nowhere in sight. His plan was simple. Just three steps – get El'el, make a portal, save Gareth. Very few points of failure.

It seemed that the first step of it–getting his hands on the elf–wouldn't be as simple as he had hoped. The question was, how did they know?

"Dennis," Sydney drawled out his name as he approached, in the tone a tired mafia boss would use to scold their underlings.

"What do you think you're doing?" Since when did he become her underling? Or was she just so used to being in charge in every room she walked in, just because of her strength?

"I kinda have the same question," he said calmly after he stopped about a dozen feet away. He locked his eyes with Mary.

"What do you think I'm doing here?" Mary looked away. The butterflies shimmered in the air.

"You're making a mistake," Sydney said. From her, it was a statement of a fact. Like she observed the weather.

"Please enlighten me."

"El'el's knowledge could be enough to kickstart something on a scale of industrial revolution," she explained patiently. Like he was a child that didn't understand. He did.

"You've seen already what Skills did for the city. Almost unlimited food. Construction on a scale comparable to humanity's capabilities before the event. Healing beyond what our best medicine was capable of."

"Okay?"

"Skills are fickle," she continued.

"Random. It's a lottery, who gets what. Wizardry, on the other hand, is universal. It can be taught, and it can do anything. Skills are good for fulfilling the basic needs, but anything beyond that is too obscure, and makes us dependent on key figures." She raised her hand, and started closing her fingers one by one.

"Communication without reliance on people like Mary. Magical wards instead of people with enhanced perception. Enchanted weapons. Conversion of mana into electricity, instead of the haphazard way we're handling it now. Even straight-up portals into other settlements. Skills mean that a few key individuals can uphold a city." She looked him straight in the eyes.

"Magic can eliminate the dependency on people like that altogether. I can't let you risk her, because she is the key to everything. She can make us the magical capital of the world." He could see Mary nod slightly alongside the woman. It seemed that she had bought into that rhetoric. Fuck knows what she was seeing with her limited omniscience, but it was clearly enough to convince her that getting rid of the need for characters like Christopher was the right way forward. Honestly, he kinda agreed.

Power to the masses and all that. It was hard to really blame her, because he could see how she thought she was doing the right thing. Still, it stung. Lily hummed beside, and looked at him. It seemed that she wanted to know what his answer would be, but he could feel that she'd go along with anything he decided. The girl didn't care about the betterment of humanity in the slightest. What she valued, though, was his opinion. Weirdo.

"Not that I disagree…" he tentatively said.

"But?" Sydney asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You're missing the part where El'el uplifting humanity through her knowledge somehow prevents me from saving people."

"Dungeons kill people," she said tiredly.

"You want to bring her into a dungeon. To the core. The risk is too great, for too little benefit. I've compromised enough. Wait until she teaches us the basics, and then we can talk about raiding a weak one once it emerges." Wait for how long? How many people would be erased out of existence, until she decided to indulge his whim? Would Gareth still be alive by then? Noticeably, she didn't say anything about the political inconvenience of bringing a bunch of overpowered and traumatized people into her city.

Plainly, Sydney didn't want them here. More people like Dennis, with their own agendas and power to enforce it. More chaos. She probably didn't want him here either. She was strong, but… She was afraid of losing control of her little kingdom. He brought her the golden goose, and from that point on became a liability to be managed. Her point about the risk of bringing El'el into a dungeon was, in a way, valid. But it was also bullshit.

An argument to win an argument and get what she wanted, instead of a real concern. After all…

"Lady, you're kind of missing the elephant in the room, aren't you?" he asked. Sydney scowled. Mark gripped his weapon tighter.

"I don't really brag that much usually," he continued. Lily chuckled quietly nearby.

"Okay, I brag a lot, but that makes it even weirder how you ignore reality staring in your face." The woman looked like she ate a lemon.

"I'm fucking strong," he said with a grin.

"There's a good chance, like, ninety-nine percent chance that there is no place on the whole fucking planet as safe as where I am." That was the plain truth. His skill was specialized in saving people, he had a higher level than anybody he had seen aside from literal elf-demigods, and every single stat point he had was invested in that one and only skill, which made him capable of punching way above his weight class. The weight class noticeably higher than the one anyone else was in.

Not to mention that Heroic Dash was a fucking cheat. Not to mention that Kriya Shakti covered the most obvious weaknesses his build had, being a fucking danger sense on a budget and a counter to precogs in one neat overpowered package.

"Didn't Mark tell you what happened the last time I found myself in a dungeon?" he asked.

"I think I beat a record on the fastest clear. I'll confess, it wasn't hard." Sydney was silent.

"So I have a question. Is it really a risk to El'el that you're worried about?" Of course, keeping El'el safe was important. But when the danger was comparable to choking on a peanut, one couldn't help but wonder if the problem was the danger in the first place.

"Or are you just mad because you're an overcontrolling bitch?" He felt pinpricks on his back. Like a storm approaching.

"Where's El'el?" he finally asked.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Sydney muttered in response.

"I very much would." At this point, the smart thing to do for her would be to compromise. He wasn't asking for much, honestly. The only thing she'd lose would be a few 'I'm a boss' points. He'd bring the elf back to her in an hour at most. It wasn't like he was opposed to her whole spreading the knowledge of magic plan. It was great, really.

"Then it seems we have a disagreement," she said plainly.