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Chapter 199: Weaponized Generosity
🕑 Added 2023-09-08 17:37:32 +0000 UTCParadox Zauberer (Perry Z.)
Class: Garage Tinker
Level 13
HP: 14
Body: 39
Stability: 60
Nerve: 42
Attunement: 59
XP to next level: 10156
Spells: Paradoxâs Pernicious Prison (6/6) Light (5/5), Dragorâs Kinesis (3/3), Gretchenâs Idyllic Manifestation (1/1)
Still ten grand away from level fourteen,Perry thought, staring up at his stat block scrolling across the roof of the richly appointed orgy chamber.
Perry glanced to the left and then the right, seeing the silk bedding spreading out in every direction for a good ten feet.
Because non-orgies donât need beds this big.
Heâd been content taking the slow XP. Nothing on Earth was particularly dangerous to Perry, except maybe Solaris, Chemestro, that guy who kills you with sound, Grammaâs Word of Death spell, about fifteen other Wildcards, and mom & dad.
Other than that, there werenât really many reasons to be concerned with how quickly he leveled.
Perry was already up to 6.7 times human standard physical capabilities. He couldnât go toe-to-toe with a prawn, but one wouldnât catch him in a million years, either.
If he never leveled again, heâd live another 300 years. Minimum.
His mind flitted from topic to topic and dissected them instantly, grasping the meaning of things heâd found difficult or tedious in instants, and then never letting go of them. It wasnât just understanding, it was application. He incorporated new things near instantly, not having to go through the standard human process of gaining life experience through pain and repetition.
He could perceive ripples in the fabric of dimensions, which was insane because when the fabric of reality ripples, you ripple too. He could touch them, sometimes.
He could make machines that fired spells that could level cities.
He could make machines that fired spells that could feed cities.
And yetâŠI find myself nervous.
His performance denying that he had Abunâzaul would only muddy the waters for a short time. The dragon seemed well-enough versed in the scientific method. Heâd try to prove Perry didnât have Abunâzaul, and when he failed, Perry guessed there was about a 60% chance heâd try to kill him and steal the legendary mimic for himself.
And the other 40% would involve bargaining and/or waiting until Perry was dead.
When he found out that Perry wasnât willing to bargain, and they shared the same effective unlimited lifespan, he would probably revert to Option One.
Stupid cousins, starting a stupid rumor about me. Perry sighed, tucking his hands behind his head.
What kind of super did I want to be?
The dragon was going to be a problem one day. But it was an amorphous problem that would eventually rear its head over the course of time. One day they would be sworn enemies, duking it out for supremacy in the science of magicâŠ.but not quite yet.
Was he the kind of super to cut to the chase and remove the threat before it became a problem, before it had done anything egregious, like Solaris?
Was he the kind of super to wait until things got bad, justifying his dilly-dallying with âfree willâ and never knowing when someone might be redeemed?
Or maybeâŠthe Paradox way?
Tyrannus was going to keep Perry as close as possible as he tried to figure him out, shower him with gifts and exchanged knowledge about the nature of magic. Perry could take advantage of this.
They could be lab partners.
Like Gadravan and Pecholard. When they worked together, they advanced the study of magic by generations.
The question is, which one of us is going to die alone and broken, drooling from severe soul-damage, while the other one lives forever in the annals of history as a âgreat manâ?
Perry had realized there were no such thing as âgreatâ men, they were generally assholes in their day, and the history books had seen fit to gloss over their many flaws in favor of their achievements.
William had something Perry wanted: Decades of experience subjecting magic to the scientific method. That could cut his time down on his universal theory by forty years.
Perry had something William wanted: a legendary symbiotic spirit with unlimited flexibility.
I think I need to take a walk and think about this, Perry thought as he detangled himself from Nat and put on some clothes before heading out the heavy oak door, out into the marble hallway of the dragonâs palace.
Heâd boiled down his options to three:
1: move to kill Tyrannus as soon as possible, avoiding a long-drawn out conflict.
2: keep his head down, go back to Chicago, become a father, and let someone else sort this shit out. The conflict was fifty years away, at least.
3: Play the game. Try to suck every ounce of knowledge he could out of Tyrannus before they inevitably turned against each other. Be a greedy little shit.
âŠI am a greedy little shit,Perry thought with a shrug, watching the scrying eyes following him down the hall.
He couldnât actually see them, but the spell left telltale whorls in the spacetime above him.
They hadnât been in the bedroom, so he didnât really mind. Who didnât have security cameras in the halls of a high-level facility?
Light
(4/5) Remaining.
Perry held a globe of light above his head as he meandered through the dark halls, looking for his quarry.
Perry half-expected to be stopped by guards or run into some kind of magical booby-trap that forced him to get lost in the labyrinthine hallways of the dragonâs palace, but nothing impeded his progress, despite being watched by what he could only assume was Security.
He just wandered through the halls, following whatever direction he felt. They were mostly pitch-black and dim, although there were two raucous parties, whose noise attracted the aimless Perry like a moth to a flame.
A door slammed open in the hall and an obviously drunk couple of revelers stumbled out, lit by a beam of light that emanated from the open doorway.
Perry listened to the noise of maybe forty people living their best lives coming from that room, glanced into the silent darkness in either direction before stepping over the flirty couple and continuing on his way.
This is like walking through an entire city blockâŠmaybe bigger.
It wasnât long before Perry noticed that something was guiding him. it was difficult to detect, but something had made it easy to decide where to go at each corner. An itch, a breeze, the sound of the party, something always drew his interest in one direction or another.
Perry surrendered to it, following his nose wherever it led him.
It wasnât long before he stumbled across a manservant lugging a massive metal component behind him. The whole thing looked as though it weighed half a ton, and the cart it was resting on seemed to be bowing under the weight.
âWhere you going with that?â Perry asked.
âAck!?â the servant flinched, glancing over his shoulder at Perry, who flashed the badge theyâd given him when he first entered.
âOh, um, well, Iâve been instructed to bring this to the masterâs astrolabe.â
âIâm headed the same direction,â Perry said. âLemme help out.â
âOh, umâŠâ The guy retreated nervously as Perry nudged him out of the way and picked up the handles of the cart without any visible strain.
Together they chatted about life as a servant of Tyrannus â Perry assumed he got the sanitized version â until they arrived at the servantâs destination: a massive pair of double doors, hanging slightly ajar.
Inside was an astrolabe in the strictest sense. It was fifty feet tall at the lowest point, with a representation of all the planets whirling around the sun, which was a massive globe in the center of the room.
âAh, thank you, Mr. Smith,â Tyrannusâs voice echoed from the other side of the room, shortly before the dragonâs head emerged from behind the sun.
âAnd Mr. Zauberer, fancy seeing you here.â Tyrannus said, plucking the half-ton chunk of metal off the cart between thumb and forefinger, swapping out an identical part on the massive swirling solar system above them.
âI got your invitation.â Perry said with a shrug.
William glanced at him from the side, giving him the dragon version of a smirk before putting the expired part on the servantâs cart.
âI see. Thank you, Mr. Smith, I wonât be needing anything else tonight,â Tyrannus said.
âVery well, my lord,â The servant said, bowing before retreating as fast as he could, bearing the overloaded cart.
Perry waited until the servant was gone to broach the touchy subject.
âI need you to help me make a decision.â
âOh, what decision is that?â Tyrannus asked,
âWhether to carry on this farce any longer.â Perry said. âWeâre going to try to kill each other eventually, arenât we?â
ââŠMost likely.â
âNo protestations of innocence?â Perry asked.
âI thought the modicum of respect I garnered by âplaying it straightâ would outweigh the negligible advantage of lying to you. Youâve already made up your mind.â
âIâd like to be greedy in how I handle this,â Perry said, studying the astrolabe, which seemed to be distorting around something. That something beingâŠ
Perry closed his eyes and refocused.
âAnd I figure youâd like to be greedy as well.â
âWhat are you suggesting then?â Tyrannus asked.
âWe work together for however long it lasts, advance magic by centuries, until the inevitable betrayal, and one of us dies.â
âAh. In poker terms, you wish to increase the size of the pot, allowing the winner to walk away far richer than otherwise. I like it. Letâs do it.â
âExactly. BUT.â Perry held up a finger. âI canât. Iâm going to be a father. And a father canât abide the possibility of an omnipotent dragon deciding his childrenâs fate.â
âI see. Itâs a problem of responsibility.â
âIndeed.â
âIndeedâŠâ
Tyrannus scratched his scaled chin with an arm-length claw. A moment later, he snapped his fingers, making a sound like a gunshot echo through the room.
âI know what you need. What you need is a guarantee. I think I can arrange that.â
With a flourish, a massive scroll popped into existence and landed in the dragonâs hand.
âBehold,â Tyrannus said, opening the mattress-sized scroll to reveal a thin sheet of ivory that had somehow been treated to make it flexible.
âTreated ivory taken from a Greater Orden tusk,â Perry said. It was the same ivory he used for his blood-contract darts. The highly law-abiding demonâs parts could be used to make magically enforced contracts
The value of a piece of orden ivory was commensurate with itâs size: Bigger size meant more stipulations could be written in the same contract. More loopholes could be closed. Or added in.
A mattress-sized scroll like this was worth more in the eyes of most demons than Franklin city and every soul in it.
âInteresting. Whaddya plan on doing with that?â
âWell, originally it was meant to be the finishing touches on Gnaâkis, but thatâs no longer an option. Until now, I didnât have anyone valuable enough to me to use this on them, and I was considering cutting it up and using it piecemeal, since mortals really donât warrant the full use of the contract.â
âSo I qualify?â Perry said, thoroughly intending to refuse any deal.
âNo. I am going to use the contract on myself.â
Perryâs brows rose.
âWe can work out the details over the course of the night, but the broad strokes are this: I will make an oath not to harm or interfere with your loved ones for seven generations, enforced with my own blood, magic and will.â
âIn exchange forâŠâ
âNothing. I simply believe this is what will allow you the confidence to work together with me and advance our study of Essence.â
âAnd I signâŠâ
âYou sign nothing. I bear the full burden of this oath.â
Perryâs eyes narrowed.
âWhat do you get out of this? There has to be more than just keeping me around.â
âDo you really want to know?âTyrannus asked, leaning forward until his golf-cart sized head was nearly nose-to-nose with Perryâs.
âEarn a modicum of my respect by âplaying it straightâ.â Perry said, crossing his arms.
Tyrannus chuckled, shaking the room.
âYou are a very powerful young man. Iâve seen it. Thereâs a possibility I might not win. When we become enemies, when we are down to the final clash, when we have whittled each other to NOTHING, where one instantâs hesitation will determine who will live, and who will dieâŠâ
There will always be a niggling doubt in the back of your head.â
âEven if I die,â Perry said, understanding where the dragon was going with this. âMy family will be fine.â
âAnd youâll know it for a FACT.â Tyrannus said, hefting the contract.
So Tyrannusâs tactic was to cut out about 40% of Perryâs motivation to win simply by guaranteeing that his family would be better off if he died.
âNot bad, not bad,â Perry said, nodding, a grin slowly spreading across his face to match the dragonâs toothy maw. âSounds fun. Letâs start drafting the contract.â
Comments
Matt DiMeo
An astrolabe is just a device for measuring angles. Do you mean an orrery, which is a solar system model (for example)?
Doodlyboy15
Heck yeah, thanks!
Nathan Quitugua
Psh...Tyrannus wants Abaun'Zul and with the two of them working on it, I could totally see them figuring out how to slice off a portion of it to grow and make a copy for Tyrannus to keep. Then they just chill out and explore the mysteries of magic together and Perry unleashes Tyrannus on Manita. Tyrannus reclaims Manitia and frees Perry from having to do all the royal ruler nonsense and just play with his babies and live with his 2 girlfriends.
Hayden Leech
Man. I really really want them to just get along and not betray each other. I can totally see some best friend potential between Perry and William. So much in common!
Kasper
This was spectacular. Arguably the finest super genius versus super genius writing I've read. Especially love how it manages to show how clever they're being without obfuscation of their thoughts or fancy special effects. And so far they haven't thrown one another off a waterfall either!
Robert Apgar
Possibly the most interesting chapter yet, from a long line of wonderful chapters.
Apotheosis
You know, I somehow hope that in the end of this they end up never betraying each other and fighting, just to prove them both dumbasses
Andrew
Thank you!
vetro 26
I love this plot. I thinking they are going to go back and forth for a very long time eventually becoming friends only with the slight doubt that they might betray each other. Can't wait
Enzo Elacqua
Honestly I think this time the difference is that the enemy was established early, and there is no ultra long term goal. Instead Tyrannus can grow with Paradox competing on how quickly they can grow stronger, providing a much more interesting plot then just eventually killing the evil dragon. Plus the things theyâll be competing over are already dangerous enough that it makes sense, conquering Earth, then Manita. Making a magic country which builds their power, relying on wild cards and ultra powerful people to help and more. More kingdom building, but with the idea of an eventual battle making it so that they still focus on personal growth which is at the core of progression fantasy. At least this all me guessing about whatâll happen, but itâs a fantastic plot line already to have me thinking this far ahead
0xFFF1
Calling it right now: Perry's child will 'Gohan' Tyrannus. Tyrannus will be Perry's final boss at the end of ISM. At that point, you can either stop, or start ISM2, with the child as the new protagonist. It'll probably be a space opera at that point, though. Dunno how confident you would be with that, since you haven't handled taking a story into space properly yet. tOS ended because a T3 power level could throw planet-cracking asteroids at higher tiers via Garth's munchkinning, and you stopped WotR before the fight that would force Calvin into a war against an intergalactic/dimensional empire. The issue, as always, is that a properly munchkinning wizard can throw way above his weight class, and your protagonists will always be wizards.
