Chapter 119

Forging an Alliance with a Bonfire

I don’t know if I should really hold it against her, or if I am just clutching at reasons not to have any relationship other than Jess. Honestly, I am so conflicted right now, that I don’t even know where to begin.

I could begin with the fact that despite my best efforts, Día Monde still seemed set on luring me to her side.

What her side was exactly, I couldn’t quite tell you. Was she the head of an inter galactic crime cartel? Was she just the heiress to the Monde estate as she claimed? Or was there yet another deeper facet to her that she kept hidden? I didn’t know.

Still despite my best efforts to self-sabotage, or maybe because of my best efforts to self-sabotage, she pushed forward.

“Technically a cougar.” Día said, after a quick regaining of her bearing.

At that I laughed.

I laughed hard, harder than I had any right to.

Finally, after a moment, I calmed down and managed to respond, “fair enough.”

“So, I must ask, what exactly are your plans for the future?”

“Get a vehicle capable of long-distance space flights, find lost temples, and explore each of them, until I find what I am looking for.” I answer truthfully.

At that she tilts her head. “You aren’t lying, are you?”

“Nope. I have a grand total of 1,000 certs to buy passage too.”

“Certs?” Día asks, a note of confusion in her voice.

At that, I let out a sigh. Of course, this universe didn’t have certs. At least not before I went and changed everything.

Seeing this as a semi-trust scenario, I go on a hunch and reach into my violin case to pull out a cert from the secret compartment.

“Wow, I must say I am impressed by your instrument there.” Dia says, making overly flirtatious tones towards my violin.

“I bet you say that to every starving artist.”

“Oh, on the contrary, my days of being drawn to regular band members are over.”

At that I smile, almost imagining a story behind that statement. Still, I cut it off, by passing over a cert.

“Here.” I say, transferring ownership of the cert to Dia.

“Oh, this is odd. It says that it now belongs to me?” She said, holding up the cert to the light.

“What exactly are these for?”

“All types of things. Improving your class, unlocking new powers. Increasing your levels. You name it, it can do that and more.” I respond.

“How would I use this?” Día asks, holding up the glowing cert.

“Simple, just think about using it to improve your psychic class.”

With that she focused for a moment before the coin she had been holding disappeared.

“What?”

I smile. “Good you found out how to, right away.”

“It is saying I need six more of those to complete one class evolution?”

“Yes, and you will need a total of forty-eight more to evolve your class to the omega rating.” I respond.

She nods, no doubt verifying my own status again with her magic lenses.

Then she seems to come to a conclusion.

“Where can we get these?” She asked.

I was about to say nowhere, but then I remembered the temple run with Alternate Jess, or the Jess from this universe. There we were also able to generate certs, so long as we went on the Nightmare mode. A mode that was not available to me when I first went through the temple.

I then realize this is my chance.

“Remember what I said about getting a ship to find and explore more temples?”

At this Día is fully intrigued as she leans forward, her head resting on her interlaced hands as she wants me to continue.

“Well, I’ve found a way to get these from temples. The only problem is, I can only get them from temples I have previously never visited before.” I admit.

“You truly believe everything you are saying, don’t you. The sad part is, I am inclined to believe you as well.” Día says, as she continues to stare at me.

Silence.

I use the time to start eating some of my salad.

“Out of curiosity how did you become so powerful? Was it because of all your temple runs?” She asks.

At that, I just laugh. “Honestly, that played a start in how I first began. But I’ve only gone through two temple runs myself. The rest of my strength, well that came from a long route.”

“What did you do?”

I smirk, then out of sheer audacity I decide to tell her the truth. “I saved not just one, but three universes from destruction.”

At that Día’s eyes grow wide, as whatever power she has that lets her distinguish truth from lies, must be telling her that I am stating the truth.

Then I decide to hit her with the ultimate bombshell, “permanently?”

“Permanently?”

“Yeah, originally, they were only to be done on a timer. A group of people get together, storm off fight the great evil of the universe, then reset the clock. I, well I guess you could say I broke the clock by winding it backwards too much.” I say, using my fork to mimic the hands of a clock going forward and backwards.

“Is that why you say you are technically 18?” She asks.

With that I smile, “you are smart and pretty. A dangerous combination.”

“Oh, calm yourself. Flattery will get you everywhere, don’t you know.”

There is another pause, before she continues.

“How do the certs work? You can transfer them to others, but how many times can they be transferred?”

“They can only be transferred once. Though you can make them generic, like transferring to a corporation, a government, or a particular space faring race. From there anyone that meets those criteria can take the certs and apply them as they wish.”

Día pauses at the implications of that. “So, what you are saying, is that we have a potential gold mine of untapped resources for this universe? One that we will own the monopoly on generating and distributing. All you want is to use my equipment to go to different temples, where you can what exactly? I take it you are looking for something other than certs?”

I nod, “that’s personal. But yes, I need to see if I can find a particular place within a temple.”

“But you don’t know what temple will have this?”

“No.”

Día nods at that, as I can see she is making out a plan. “Can you prove this?” Día asks.

“Well other than looking at the level and classes of Jessica Childers I can’t really say.”

With that Día’s eyes grow wide.

Poof.

She disappears for a moment. Only to return a few minutes later, her hair is slightly disheveled as she clearly went somewhere.

“Total Recall?” I ask.

She nods, the multiple hops in such a short time clearly having some type of effect on her.

“So, you have me convinced. What sort of agreements would you need or want from me, to help make this arrangement work.”

I blink.

“What arrangement?” I ask.

“The one where you discover temples and give me half of all certs you find while exploring. In the meantime, I will let you use our equipment, our navigation tools, and even help you buy your way into the deeper parts of space.” Día says, clearly thinking that her personal leverage will be enough to entice me.

Sadly, she is working her cougar claws into me. And I can’t quite think of an excuse not to go on this trip. At the very least it will show that I tried. Then if it doesn’t work, I can safely say I tried everything.

“So we just need a list of the temples you have already completed in this universe. Also, do temples count for this universe and your home universe? Or can you double dip?” Día asks.

Once again, I am floored by her assumptions.

Then I realize how stupid I’ve been.

Poof.

Total Recall.

With a moment of insight, I teleport to this universe’s human temple. The same temple that I went to, so I could rescue Alternate Jess. The same one that I still have psychic resonance linking me to.

WRRAPP, WEERRRPP, WRRAPP.

An alarm blares as I appear. Stupid military industrial complex.

“Hold it right there.” Officer Beergut shouts as he once again reappears.

“Look officer Beergut, I am going to be extra pissed if you shoot me again.” I say, as I casually walk over to the temple entrance then press my hand against the readout.

Beep.

I am met with a message.

User has already completed Temple 0589.

Of course, now I have a couple of questions come to mind. Is this because all temples are linked across all universes and this one denotes my personal signature as trying to access it? Or is this because Wizard me also already accessed the temple?

That is the same exact number as the one from my universe, but there are just too many variables.

“All right. False alarm.” I say, as I wave goodbye to officer Beergut.

Poof.

Total Recall.

I get back, and immediately let the gravity of my situation kick in. The temple that was the most likely to wield the result I wanted, is off limits to me. While I could theoretically piggy-back with another awakened human, I still wouldn’t be able to follow said person into the magic shop. This meant, I truly needed to go with Día, or at least gain access to her ship and resources.

In the grand scheme of things, the deal she is proposing won’t be bad. Better still, I can see it from her angle as well. She gains access to power she never had before, while I get more chances to run temples and look for access points to the mysterious items shop.

“Oh, I guess there is one thing I should point out, well quite a few other things about these certs.” I say, pulling out six more and sliding them over to Dia.

Día for her part grabs them all and absorbs them greedily.

I smile as the smile on her face quickly disappears. “What is this? It is saying that I have six of seven needed to improve my psychic class, but now I also have one of seven needed for my magic class?”

At that I smile brightly. “Yes, you can use these to not only improve your psychic prowess, but also to improve your magic abilities as well. In fact, if you, or anyone for that matter, does a full seven groups of seven they are guaranteed to unlock the Psychic or Magic classes.”

With that, Día is fully eating out of the palm of my hands.

“So, what would you want for this? Also, I take it that you can join others once they are already within a temple?” She asks.

I nod.

“That is what you did with Ms. Childers? You joined her, after she already started her run. Showing that even though you are banned from entering the temple yourself, you are still able to join others who are already in a temple?”

“Yes.”

“Then, what are your terms?” Día asks.

“Terms?”

“Yes, we are going to form a team. We will offer a unique resource to people of this universe. We will take you to temples, where you can do a run first, seeing if the item you seek is there. Then if not, just go with me and a few of my workers, until it is time to go onto the next run. My only question for you is, what is your price?”

I pause, I don’t quite want to say that I’d do this for free, as I can still gain my own certs and attributes for running the temple, even as a guest. But there does need to be something.

“Well first, we need to find and heal these women.” I say, gesturing to the stack of papers still by Día’s side.

“Done and done. I was going to do that with you regardless. Now, name your price.”

A price.

Why did it feel like I was making a deal with the devil, as opposed to a twenty-six-year-old cougar?