An Anarchic-Capitalist society, when it worked, hung on a delicate balance. All citizens must be almost equal with no power imbalances for it to sustain itself. No governnt ant the power to rule over others was up for grabs. Like all social systems that depended on equality, it usually leveled things to the lowest common denominator, the communist countries of Earth being a pri example. It ant people lived in the worst conditions possible. Usually with a ruling elite that called the shots but Anarcho-Capitalism hadn’t such luxuries because one of its basic premises was the lack of a governnt.
Once an exceptional individual appeared in such societies and was successful in his capitalist endeavors, they would quickly grow in power and wealth and fill this power vacuum, becoming the de-facto governnt and imposing their own rules. Thus an Anarchic-Capitalist society wasn’t a construct that could survive its own built-in pitfalls. That is the reason one didn’t see it very often, aside from localized bubbles and willing social experints.
Thus the gno society moved from its “ankle-deep in literal crap” Anarcho-Capitalist cave dwellings into a sunlight-baked monarchy. I destroyed things in this desert in a myriad of ways. The gnos didn’t mind the change as it ca with an improved quality of life, surely making Lysander Spooner twist in his grave.
“Tina,” Grenniana approached one day, “why does the [Queen] and [Pope] act like you’re their superior?”
“Because I am,” I replied without falsehood. The girl was an adult now, she deserved the truth.
“You’re the Matriarch, right? Sotis you slipped and talked about the Goddess in the first person.”
“You passed my test. Now I know you are not a naive girl, I can leave the gnos to you,” I deadpanned.
She snickered and shoved away, “Stop teasing ! I know you’re not leaving!”
She had no idea how much I wanted to go. I had a deadline to get as strong as I could and I needed to level up. An angry goddess who had a thousand years of head start was preparing to co down and kick my ass. And then maybe imprison my soul so I couldn’t be reborn. That’s what I’d do if I were her.
“One day, I’ll have to go. That’s still years ahead. Grow strong quickly so I can go faster,” I snickered back at her.
“Why?”
“I have to kill a goddess.”
I sat with her and spent the rest of the day telling her my story and why I had to fight the brood-bitch.
The repaired Queen Lorna was now safely kept in my item box. Without the kobold nace, we didn’t need armored vehicles to collect salvage. The few patrols that survived the blast were too busy trying to rebuild their society from the ashes and they had trouble breeding their raptors or even multiplying. They needed the gnos magic juice to improve both scaled species’ fertility rate and now they had none. Much of their knowledge and technology was also lost because only warriors survived, making them devolve into feral monster bands who avoided the gno vehicles out of fear. Kobold sightings were rare nowadays and I didn’t bother with them anymore. They weren’t worth the effort to exterminate, conquer, or assimilate. Even if they managed to rebuild their strength, they lacked divine assistance and it would only be a problem centuries down the road.
The gnos learned how to build steam engines and flywheel batteries, making wood was a major import of Glimrvale. The wood they bought mostly ca from the Lierin elves living in Tuisto’s valley. The tiny folk could recycle tal very well so they could make their machines with the tal they salvaged themselves. A few dwarves ca from Windere, enduring the low mana area to learn gnomish tinkering and engineering. They exchanged their knowledge of tallurgy for that.
Windere and Glimrvale were building a road through the mountains to connect both places. Skirting Tuisto’s Valley through the south, the projected road path looked like a smile on the map and would take years to complete. They needed to set settlents and fortifications along the way to protect the travelers from monsters and exploit the local resources. They found rich surface mineral deposits and monster dens, along with a Labyrinth access point halfway between the sister nations.
I created a special category for the Gno priests of the Matriarch with purely martial and physical abilities. These gnos learned a lot of weapon abilities and added a portion of their Faith score to their physical Attributes in a magical area. They also could move in high magic density regions without incurring significant damage or pain.
That caused another unforeseen problem a few years down the road.
5 years later
Glimrvale was growing with the new evolution of the Scavenger gnos no longer suffering from either poison glands or mana sickness. These gnos grew with only tales of a ti where water was scarce and lizards were fierce and the first generation finally ca of age. They were blessed at the local temple by the gnomish war-priests and were guided through their first Dungeon delve and Class orientation day.
Then the System sprung this up on .
> WARNING: You now have a whole subspecies of gnos with more than 10,000 individuals worshipping you. This challenges Wyxnos’ exclusive claim to the gno species. You have two choices:
Challenge Wyxnos’ claim and keep the scavenger gnos as your sole worshippers. This may trigger conflict between your church and Wyxnos’.Agree to share half the faith from the scavenger gnos with Wyxnos. This does not change their allegiance.
Goodness. Ben Franklyn was right. The only inevitable things were indeed death and taxes. Before I could choose either, I was dragged into a call.
[Administrator Hotline]
CALL START
Wyxnos: What do you think you’re doing!?!
Matriarch: Dude, you aren’t my boss. Piss off. Use that Logic domain of yours and go straight to the point. C’mon, I used to be a software engineer.
Wyxnos: Why are you trying to steal my gnos?
Matriarch: I’m not. You should ask the System why it’s doing that. I’m just working with the scavenger gnos you abandoned. Wuss.
Wyxnos: I demand you step down.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringent.
Matriarch: Dude, take a chill pill. If I wanted to take the gnos away from you, I’d do the sa thing to you that I did to Bundeus. Break your church, kill your clergy. I’m not. Now, you should step down before I get pissed. I was thinking about what I should slaughter to increase my level. Your clerics and worshippers are as good as any other source of Exp. You don’t want to fight , Wyxnos. You know that.
Wyxnos: You don’t want to fight . I’m still an administrator.
Matriarch: One of three. I bet convincing the other two to vote with you is mighty expensive. How deep are your pockets?
Wyxnos: I’m going to bring this upon the Pantheon.
Matriarch: Do what you want, dude. It’s a free world. Just rember, I’m not beholden to the Pantheon. You and your cronies can do shit to . Loki can do shit to .
Loki: You break this benefactor’s heart.
Matriarch: Look, it’s a simple yes or no question. Do you want war? I can do war. I’m running out of temples to drop on people. But I dug those gnos out of, damn, literally, a hole filled with excrent. You had the opportunity to do sothing for them and you FUCKING RAN AWAY. Now, do everyone a favor and go whine to the System for being unfair to you. I’m not sharing my toys against my will with those who sucked on their thumbs then stuck it up to their arses. Either give up or et behind the gym building after class. Bring your friends, your mom, the school principal. I don’t care. I got enough sucker-punches for all of them. Or complain to Loki for killing in NYC with a fucking truck and bringing here. But now that I’m here, I’m staying.
Loki: I did everyone a favor. Why can’t you guys see it?
Wyxnos: Stay out of this, Loki.
Loki: I was going to vote for you, now I’m going to abstain. See if you can convince the old Germanic dude of anything.
Wyxnos: I’m warning you. If the Pantheon unites…
Matriarch: If they had the ability to unite, they would’ve eliminated when I was a maid little girl. You guys are so narcissistic you can’t even have a barbecue together.
Matriarch: Oh, how about we make a little wager?
Wyxnos: What do you an?
Matriarch: You list what set of benefits you’ll give the scavenger gnos. You must give all your worshippers the sa benefits. Then we list what they get from . We will show both lists to the gnos as a quest, and have them vote on which deity they want. Simple majority wins. No divine ssages, no campaign. Just pop the notification in front of everyone and let them decide. If the gnos vote for you, you can have them. If they vote for , you lose the rule over the Gno domain. Can’t be more Arican than that.
Wyxnos: You erased from their mind! You converted them! That’s a violation of every treaty we gods agreed on.
Matriarch: Again, I’m an outsider. I’m not beholden to your treaties and accords, or council decisions. I made you an offer, are you taking it?
Wyxnos: It does not benefit even if I win.
Matriarch: Then we’re done here. I’m having your church expelled from Windere and if I see you move a single finger against , I’m going ballistic.
CALL END
The call ended, leaving in the temple overseeing the new generation orientation. I hear gasps from the streets. As I look outside the church, I see the gnos pointing at the sky. I {Shadow Warped} to so gno’s shadow outside the church and looked up. A gigantic teor was coming down on Glimrvale. Burning and leaving a trail of smoke, it was going faster than the speed of sound as it silently descended from the north, going over the mountains and coming straight at us.
> WARNING: A renegade deity has released a titanic creature. All [Heroes] are issued a QUEST: Kill the titanic creature before it destroys the Auvanini continent. Rewards: 2 Ultra-Rare Perk vouchers of any Rank, 50 Attribute Points, The Exp award won’t be affected by rank-up thresholds.
Interesting to know there were others with the [Hero] title.
I spread my wings as I shapeshifted into a harpy and soared up to et the teor. My danger sense went off and I went on an erratic pattern as hundreds of projectiles rained down on . I dodged all of them and stared in shock as they struck the town underneath , destroying whole buildings. Gno souls ca to , attracted by {Soul Shepherd}.
“WYXNOS! You’ll regret your choice!” I shouted at the sky.
Moving up as fast as I could, I reached the range of the item box and tried to put the teor in it.
> ERROR. Living creatures cannot be stored.
> WARNING: Wyxnos has been demoted from the Pantheon. All priests and temples of Wyxnos lose divine status.
What the fuck was that?
> Level 200 ???
The teor struck and I clung to its burning outside. I started to strike it with the [Unicorn King Spear] but my attacks for a few billion HP of damage were but a dent on the creature's massive HP pool. Worse, it regenerated a few hundred million every second. Even if I attacked it with all my might, I wouldn’t bring it to half health before it crashed on the ground below.
I ran through my list of options and ca out short. Then I had an idea. First, I activated {Kitsune Possession}.
> Contested Magic (vs Magic Ego) test lost.
> Contested Magic (vs Magic Ego) test lost.
> Contested Magic (vs Magic Ego) test lost.
> Contested Magic (vs Magic Ego) test lost.
> Contested Magic (vs Magic Ego) test lost.
I activated {Eldritch Aura} and {Royal Aura}, lowering the monster’s Attributes enough to punch through.
> Contested Magic (vs Magic Ego) test won.
I beca the teor creature. It had little to no perception of its environnt but it was capable of floating in space and perceiving… gravity? I hit the brakes and used {Blink Step} to move my host as far up as I could. Not enough when you’re moving faster than the speed of sound. Without much choice, I shifted my host bodily to the Ethereal world.
There we went through the ground as I slowed down and tried to move back up. But the creature was too massive and too fast to slow before we crossed into the Ethereal version of the dead magic zone. I felt the creature's rocky exterior crumble and dissolve as it squird in pain.
It fought back against the possession and ejected . I made sure to leave going up. The flaming teor now appeared like a round stone golem that was on fire. The siphon started to attack as well but I went full speed up, trying to escape before I too was dissolved into raw magic by the dead magic zone. The golem shot more projectiles but the size difference between us was so enormous not even a critical would hit with all the Perks I had to fight things bigger than .
I didn’t want to end this life yet. Yes, I could probably be reborn again and start it all over but I needed the levels. Wasting another decade as a child was sothing I wanted to avoid at all costs. I didn’t even mind losing the Quest rewards if the System didn’t consider throwing the titanic teor in the siphon as my kill.
I saw dim sunlight as I left the underground over the desert. The Ethereal might be a more magical dinsion but was a parallel reality with all its own rules. One of them was that magic emanated light. Inside the dead magic zone, everything seed dim, grayscale, and faded. I couldn’t use magic and was trapped in it until I could leave the dead magic zone. The sands remained calm, heedless of the monstrosity being dissolved underneath. Then everything shook. I looked up at the mountains and saw massive landslides as the earthquake shattered the peaks. I kept going up until I felt I’d left the dead magic zone. The world regained its color as magic was once again on the nu.
I flew back to Glimrvale. About two in every ten buildings was destroyed and I had a lot of gno souls floating around. The tremors were still going as the titanic golem raged in an attempt to save its life. I shifted back to the real world and started to sing. I kid not, the first song that ca to mind was “Earthquake” by BabyBus. One of my friends’ kids back in NYC loved it. My spell covered the town with a dampening field that absorbed the shock from the vibrations. As I kept the spell-song going, I flew toward the landslide and captured the rocks in the item box.
Eventually, it stopped.
> QUEST COMPLETED.
The titanic monster was dead. As it died in the dead magic zone, I got zero rewards but Glimrvale survived. Then the “red phone” rang.
[Administrator Hotline]
CALL START
Tuisto: Thank you for your quick response.
Matriarch: Any chance I can get credit for killing the creature? And what happened to Wyxnos?
Tuisto: He was demoted from his position as administrator and the Pantheon. He is now a renegade deity.
Matriarch: I beg your pardon, I don’t quite understand what it ans.
Tuisto: He has no domain, no priests, no sources of Divinity except what he may steal. And no protection.
Loki: To put it bluntly, he is now like a Jotunn set loose in Asgard. When my dear brother’s ho.
Matriarch: Are you telling to go hunt him?
Loki: Don’t be silly. Never. I would tell you the sa thing I would tell my brother: Don’t bother the poor misplaced Jotunn.
Matriarch: And Thor would…
Loki: Thor does what Thor does. He’s a grown Aesir, he can make his own choices.
Matriarch: Where did that titan golem co from?
Loki: Dunno, Tartarus, maybe? We had no idea he had that. But Wyxnos took sothing from the System Core with him. Tuisto and I would want it back.
Tuisto: That’s true. Would you retrieve it for us?
Matriarch: What is it?
Loki: A small core. Nothing of significance.
(I knew Loki was lying but didn’t call him on that).
Matriarch: Sure. Give the rewards for removing the titan, and I’ll see what I can do.
Loki: Ah! I rembered. Tuisto, “give the Matriarch the Quiz”.
Tuisto: She is not ready yet. Nevertheless, your actions removed the titan from Yznarian. We will grant you the rewards.
CALL END
What a ss.
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