Jake knew he wasn’t exactly a tracker. He could track a little, and his senses were sharper than ever. With some clues, his tracking skill would allow him to chase mana signatures and other signs, though, of course, there were many who were significantly more qualified. Jacob was probably the best on the planet, but there had to be many more who were far more effective than Jake. Something he felt like he did need to voice.

“While I can track, I am not exactly good at it compared to others. I am sure you can ask some seer or something who is far better at it,” Jake said.

It was primarily that she wanted to find her family, which meant it was solely a tracking job. Jake had kind of assumed she needed help tracking some powerful beast or something, but if it was just some humans, she could find far better. Jake had kind of assumed she asked him because fighting strong stuff would be involved.

“I am already on it and have worked with some to boil down the general area. However, it looks like they are on the other side of a large body of water. Based on some space mages from Midtgaard, it is probably around where that guy Arthur and many of the independent factions are located,” Carmen explained but still didn’t address one point.

“I am still sure you can find better once you get there, and if you wanted assistance getting across this body of water, you could have just asked for that,” Jake answered a bit suspiciously.

Carmen just sighed. “Yeah, but I want someone to help who isn’t affiliated with Valhal or anything like that. This is purely a personal thing.”

Jake finally nodded. “Okay, fine. Do you have any plans on when you want to go and how we are supposed to get there? You know, all the logistics.”

“No fucking idea quite yet, but from what I hear, the space mages in a nearby port-city should soon have a circle up and running. Once that works, I can get word to Miranda, and she can contact you about getting to the port? It will be a bit from Haven, but hopefully, the teleportation network will reach there by then, making the journey not too annoying,” Carmen answered. “I know you are currently busy elsewhere, but you can return to our universe, right?”

“I can,” Jake nodded. “How do you know I am not on Earth currently? And does everyone know?”

“Miranda told me, and no, I don’t think others know. Apparently, you are super hard to track. Ah, but don’t blame her for telling me. She did it after getting permission from those gods who blessed her. By the way, how does that work? I thought you could only be blessed by one god at a time,” Carmen explained, quickly derailing herself into a barely tangentially-related question.

“A mix of god stuff and system-fuckery, I reckon,” Jake answered incredibly accurately.

“Makes sense,” Carmen nodded, not a hint of sarcasm in her voice. Well, it did make sense as much as any other answer. “We have an agreement then? I will tell Miranda, and then she will send a response back? Don’t worry, I already got ways of contacting her. Or, well, she's got ways of contacting me with her weird witchy magic.”

“Miranda does have weird witchy magic,” Jake nodded in understanding. He had to admit, he had no fucking clue how any of her skills worked. Even as he began learning a bit about formations and such, he only came to realize her magic was even more complicated and reliant on an entirely different school of thought than the kind of magic Jake wanted to learn.

The two of them kept talking a bit longer about random stuff as Jake learned how Carmen was taught. Apparently, she could set up virtual battlefields of some sort and fight echoes of individuals located pretty much anywhere, even in other universes. The echoes had corresponding magic circles on their end set up by Valhal to facilitate all this, with Carmen essentially being a summoner. These echoes couldn’t actually interact with anything non-simulated outside the battlefield, but it was still an incredibly valuable tool.

Valhal was an organization all about war. Not just the act of fighting but war as a concept, which had also led to Valdemar being called the God of War. Legends spawned from war, the songs of bards, the concept of morale, armies clashing, celebrating after a victory, or dealing with the emotions after a lost battle. All of this was part of what Valhal stood for, and in many ways, they were a truly neutral faction in the multiverse in that they didn’t truly have any enemies.

Because an enemy would mean war, and Valhal had never lost a war. The mere thought of Valhal declaring war on a faction was almost like a scary story one would tell their kids. The tales of the times it had happened where Valdemar had picked up his axe and led what was known as a Warband into battle. Individuals of all grades, hundreds of gods, descending all at once with no regard for their lives, caring for nothing but a good battle and to die with honor.

Other factions were constantly at war. The Holy Church and the Ghostlands – the land of the Risen – were at constant war. Several factions not fans of the Court of Shadows had declared war against the assassins. Jake also learned that the Automata and the Endless Empire were also at war and had been for the last thirty Eras. The Endless Empire was a faction Jake had never heard of before and consisted of some of the most powerful Ectognamorphs in existence, led by a large coalition of powerful Hive Queens. Insect Queens who had ascended to godhood and commanded armies of unprecedented scale. They were, in general, incredibly warlike as they viewed it as a healthy way to constantly thin their herds and grow in power by weeding out the weak.

Yet not even they wanted a war with Valhal.

And if Jake was being honest, he totally understood why. It was a bit similar to why no one wanted conflict with the Order of the Malefic Viper. Most wars only involved the mortals, but if Valhal went to war, they pulled out all the stops and made it a war where one side was annihilated. Meanwhile, Villy would ensure that even if the other side won, it would bring about so much devastation and death upon them it wouldn’t be worth it.

The reason for this was simple enough… Villy didn’t care about having a controlled war, and Valhal viewed war as something where a side had to win. They still wanted to battle, of course, and members of Valhal were primarily known as incredibly powerful mercenaries who joined the side they agreed with the most in a conflict. Carmen even told Jake it often happened that two members of Valhal found themselves facing each other on a battlefield. The result of that would nearly always be one of them dead and the other one having a toast for the fallen comrade he had just slain.

So yeah, Valhal was a paradise for battle maniacs, and Jake felt like he would have fit in pretty damn well. Carmen also seemed happy with it and had an interesting perspective on fighting former comrades or people from the same faction.

“Fighting is fighting. I used to do boxing, and it was normal to fight friends or former colleagues. I was in quite a small town with only one noteworthy gym, and I often ended up fighting people in tournaments I had trained with and gotten along with before. That didn’t mean I would show the slightest restraint in the ring, though. The same is true for the warriors of Valhal… in fact, holding back when you see another member on the opposing side would just be disrespectful. Valdemar allegedly once said that dying in battle is an honorable death, and an honorable death is a good death. A good death means it was a worthy life, and all worthy lives are worth celebrating and remembering.”

Jake had once more found himself nodding along. Jake had a lot of rather infantile views on honor in his early days of the system. He remembered burying the guy Nicholas as he had put up a good fight, and he had refused to loot entire beast corpses as he found it disrespectful. His opinion had eventually been refined, and Jake now no longer cared as much about a concept such as honor. He had his own rules of sorts, and while those rules may be considered honorable by some, Jake didn’t particularly care.

They did agree on a good death being a worthwhile death. Jake viewed dying to anything else than a good fight as a nightmare. Carmen was like him, also a battle maniac, and as they talked, they both looked back on the fight with the Monarch of Blood fondly, even if Carmen had found the conclusion of it incredibly frustrating.

“By the way, is it fine for us to talk in here? People may start rumors we are plotting an alliance or something,” Jake suddenly asked jokingly. “Not that I am complaining. I am sure Miranda will view this as good diplomatic work.”

“Nah, who cares. Sven also kept insisting I should get closer to Haven and the old swordsman, so I guess this counts,” she shrugged.

“Where is Sven, by the way?” Jake asked. He wasn’t at the World Congress, which was a bit weird.

“In a dungeon, I think? He entered with his party a good while ago and has yet to get out. Who knows, maybe they all died,” Carmen just shrugged. “Not sure if people can enter the World Congress if they are in a dungeon or if they were just too busy doing other stuff. He is there with a party of five, and he would only bring one of them if he went to the World Congress, so bailing on more than half the party would also be a shitty move. Sven had at least made plans in case he and the others would not be back in time.

“Huh,” Jake nodded. “You done the dungeon? Is it any good?”

Yeah, probably not the part he was supposed to bite onto. Jake hadn’t found any good dungeons in a while, and he knew his class was probably going to get a bit behind his profession if he kept focusing on alchemy within the Order. So a good dungeon would be a great way to catch up on some levels.

“Eh, I have been in there once but didn’t clear it. It seemed okayish. It was a plant dungeon, and most of the enemies were around level 140. It was not that hard, honestly, and I saw nothing that could take down Sven and his party at all, but it was large and annoying to navigate as the entire dungeon seemed to rearrange itself constantly with a lot of ambush predators lurking about,” Carmen answered.

“Aight,” Jake nodded, not sure if he wanted to even do that dungeon if he could. 140 was way too low for him, though it was possible more powerful foes would appear further in.

“Speaking of challenges… how the hell did you beat that masked monster?” Carmen finally asked.

“Oh man, that is a long story, but to make it short, a bunch of overpowered bullshit items meant to specifically counter him, a lot of luck, me being awesome, and then another massive dose of luck to tie it all together,” Jake semi-joked.

“And you are confident in winning again? I will be honest; I don’t trust that masked freak for even a second. He may have the King title, but that doesn’t make him a good leader. Shit, you are an Earl, and I wouldn’t want you leading even a children’s football team,” Carmen shook her head.

“Hurtful, but yes, I am confident in bringing down the King if he gets out of control,” Jake confirmed.

Carmen nodded. “For the record, I am also a Viscount, but that doesn’t mean I think for even a second I can lead.”

“I guess the primary qualifier for being a noble so far is one’s ability to kill stuff,” Jake joked.

“Kind of fucked up when you think about it,” Carmen noted.

“Sure is.”

Greg kept an eye on the booth and noticed that the female leader of Valhal and the Chosen of the Malefic Viper hadn’t exited for a long time. He wondered what their meeting was about as he tried to comprehend the web of deceit and planning this Chosen had deployed.

Before the system, Greg had worked as a professional investigator running his own online blog, where he uncovered corruption and government secrets. Some people called him a nutjob, but Greg knew one couldn’t trust the masses of sheep who were always blind to the truth and willingly rejected what was right before their eyes.

Many people thought this Lord Thayne was a simple man, but Greg knew differently. The masked man was far from simple and only wished to be perceived as such as he puppeteered the City Leader behind the scenes.

Lord Thayne, if that was truly his real identity, also hid from all kinds of scouting at all times. None of Greg’s investigation skills worked, and no divinations or tracking spells had worked when Greg had sought assistance.

Greg had worked in the industry long enough to know that only people who had something to hide would go that far to hide it. It was obvious, and Greg wanted to get to the bottom of it even if it was the last thing he did. His former colleagues and friends all called him paranoid and that he was overthinking things, but could they not connect the dots? All of them led to the same source: the Chosen.

The Augur was the former “boss” of the Chosen. Greg was sure it was backward, but their connection was obvious. The same was true for the influential undead called Casper. They clearly had some kind of relation, and Lord Thayne had influence over him.

Not to get started on the fact that his brother was the leader of the Court of Shadows. The Sword Saint was friendly with him – something Greg theorized was due to the old man also recognizing the threat this man posed to their planet.

Valhal had clearly already fallen under their thumb based on how that woman Carmen had submitted herself and sought him out. He even heard odd rumors that the Chosen had used animals to get closer to her, something that Greg would have found questionable if not for all of the other extreme methods the man – if he was a man – had prepared.

And now… now this Fallen King had suddenly appeared. Finally, he had revealed another of his many hidden cards. A powerful lifeform to function as his puppet to lead the planet into the destiny the Chosen and perhaps even the evil god known as the Malefic Viper desired.

To Greg, the most maddening thing was that no one else could see this. How no one else could put all the data together and reach the same conclusion that the monster known as Lord Thayne was a true master manipulator. A puppeteer of unholy talent and power who controlled nearly every faction from the shadows.

No… maybe people knew but feared speaking it. Maybe the Chosen was so talented that any who realized or spoke openly were removed from existence. His brother did lead a cult of assassins.

As an investigator, Greg had covered many things throughout his life. Uncovered secrets hidden by the elites. But he had never faced anything as intricate, and as grand as the web of lies and pure manipulation the Chosen had spun. Lord Thayne was no doubt the most cunning individual Greg had ever come across… perhaps the most cunning throughout human history.

It was intimidating.

He had already noticed the fallout and influence this “man” had over others. Greg had noticed that a lot of people had stopped talking to him with complaints that he spoke of nothing but his “mad conspiracy theory,” and while some may write that off as Greg just being annoying to be around, Greg knew better. They feared the knowledge he held and what dangers it could bring them.

But Greg would keep fighting. He would prove the truth to everyone else on Earth… he just hoped that the Chosen wouldn’t realize his grand design before it was too late.

However… first he had to find out what this grand design even was.