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Nero Walker, Book 2 Ch.27 (59)
🕑 Added 2023-12-26 23:30:01 +0000 UTCCaptain Angelton stood with his hands on his hips looking around at the facility he was taking over. It had a wide courtyard, with training rings and workout equipment. There were obstacle courses, and training aids. Along the wall, there was even a full size shooting range. Surrounding the courtyard were three large buildings in a semi-circle pointing toward the training areas. Tall stone walls encapsulated the entire compound, and wooden gates twice the height of man were the only entrance.
The ground was packed gray dirt, and only a few trees offered any color. The dull stone buildings looked they could take a beating, and the windows were reinforced with metal. Everything here was designed for war. ‘This will work,’ he thought.
The captain watched Sergeant Blackwood organizing the cooks and other staff. If there was one thing that man did well, it was organization. He may be lazy, and a complainer, but the man knew how to get things in order.
Near the building on the right, the two hunter sergeants were organizing the training equipment. They had requested a lot of gear, both for training, and for outfitting the recruits before heading into the wilds. Captain Angelton appreciated their attention to detail, but wondered if the sergeants were just taking advantage of their budget. It wouldn’t surprise him, as both Sergeants Peyton and Jackson were used to being sent into the field with minimal support. Their smiles as they went through the gear made Captain Angelton want to send them for some additional training. He didn’t think anyone should enjoy their time at a training facility.
Squashing his urge to eliminate joy on sight, the captain returned to his assessment of the compound. One building was for housing the recruits. One was for housing the staff and the trainers. The center building was the largest and was for command housing along with lecture halls, magic training, and the armory.
Kneeling down, Captain Angelton ran his hand over the hard ground. He could feel the memory of all the people who had trained here. There was sweat and blood bonded to the earth. Skills would be easier to learn here. He opened his link and reviewed the dates when this compound was last in use. It had been resting for two years. Now it was ready again. Once more, the soil would see soldiers grow.
Trying to imagine it, he was confronted by the image of Nero smirking in his head. The young man didn’t fit the image Captain Angelton was forming in his mind. Imagining Nero training to exhaustion, developing bonds with recruits; Captain Angelton couldn’t see that happening.
Standing up, he dusted off his hands, and put away his concerns. He had a job to do. In two days the recruits would be here. Everything had to be ready.
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Nero closed the book and leaned back in his chair. Rubbing his eyes with his palms, he took a minute to focus on reality again. Getting lost in what he was reading was great for comprehension, but not pleasant when he stopped. He forced himself to stand up and do some stretches to get the blood moving again.
As he twisted his core back and forth, Nero thought about the general’s presentation he had beenforced to sit through. There was only one conclusion: Dorchester was in for a rough few years. Essence storms were common during a level event, and the wilds will be swarming with beasts.
Beast tides were complicated. Like everything here, essence influenced so many factors that predicting anything was useless. Nero was having trouble with the concept that animal populations could be influenced by an area’s history.
Nero finished his stretching, and hopped up and down a few times to finish waking up his body. Checking the time (13:15), he decided to get some lunch. A walk would do him some good. Rather than carry his satchel, he decided to just focus on digesting what he had read while he ate.
The moment he left his room, he remembered why he had been hiding in his room. People in the hallway noticed him emerge. Immediately, all eyes were on Nero. Looking around, he just offered them a nod, and walked off to the cafeteria. Two steps later, he realized that he forgot to bring his dishes from breakfast.
Stumbling, he felt a flash of indecision. Should he look like a fool and return to collect them? Or should he just continue on, preserving what was left of his dignity?
Nero paused in the hallway, paralyzed by indecision. Recognizing the panic he felt, reminding him of his old life, he got angry. Turning around, he stomped back to his room and grabbed the breakfast dishes. He kept the frown on his face as he marched toward the cafeteria.
‘Not here. I’m not that guy anymore. I’m Nero Walker now. I’m a mage and a noble. They can stare and talk, but I am in charge of my actions. I’ve always said that the opinions of others never bothered me, but here I’ll make that true. I have more important concerns,’ he told himself.
Walking the hallways, Nero found it easier than he expected to ignore the looks and whispers. Embracing his new outlook, Nero returned to thinking about how essence and the environment influenced each other.
Essence was everywhere. It was created, changed, and destroyed by meaning. Sapient beings created their own meaning with their center, their sense of self. Materials like rocks could form in areas of concentrated earth essence. Environments were built by conflicting essences interacting. Physical reality on this plane was really just coalesced essence. And that coalesced essence in turn reinforced the environment’s identity.
Animals and plants in an area worked similarly. Unintelligent beings could be ‘spawned’ by the environment. Nero wasn’t sure what a squirrel ‘spawning’ would look like, he found it difficult to imagine. The concept of everything being connected sounded so ‘new-age’ that Nero had to reread the chapter several times.
The book had given a great hypothetical example of a tribe of wolves interacting with their environment: Imagine a forest that has had wolves for a long time. Hunters pass through, killing all the wolves. The forest spends essence refilling the wolves population. Now the ‘imprint’ of a forest full of wolves isn’t as strong as it was before. Hunters kill all the wolves again. They cycle repeats until the forest forgets that it’s supposed to have wolves.
As Nero contemplated the hypothetical, he collected his lunch and found a seat in the busy cafeteria. He ignored the attention he was drawing, and quickly found a seat with some space around it. His face was a mask of concentration, and it was apparent to everyone that he was deep in thought.
While he ate, he tried to make the hypothetical more complicated. The book had mentioned evolution, and how the meaning of what a wolf ‘was’ could changeover time. Once wolves were spawned, they were not attached to the environment, so they could migrate. Over generations, they could imprint themselves into an environment. Ice wolves would exist in the tundra. Fire wolves near volcanoes. The environmental essence would shape them, as they shaped it.
It was difficult, but Nero kept trying to add more scenarios to his hypothetical. Invasive plant species would take time to migrate, but they could. The book talked about this taking hundreds of years, and since people lived so long, they had the data to back it up. The time-frames were mind-blowing.
Understanding the essence cycle was essential for understanding the things that disrupted it. Beast tides, dungeons, monster spawns, planar gates, and tons of other things all affected, and in turn were effected, by local essence conditions. Of particular interest to Nero was a throw-away passage that differentiated between monsters and beasts.
Monsters were animals from other planes. Their identity pattern was lodged in essence knots that converted local identity into monster spawns. Over time, those monsters could start to imprint their identity into an area. Eventually, the knot would unravel on it’s own. The aftermath would be a population of beasts, but fully adapted to this plane. Again, this happened over hundreds of years. In the meantime, hordes of monsters could build up in an area, devistating the local environment.
Beasts started off as animal spawns from ‘this’ plane. Time was the main factor that altered them. They could be monsterized by getting their identity warped. It could happen in places with weak barriers between the planes. However, usually beasts were similar in pattern. The world considered any type of ‘wolf’, a ‘wolf’, regardless of the type of wolf it was. But over time, they could absorb essence, and mutate from animals into beasts. The were so many factors that it amounted to a ‘chance’ of it happening.
Nero realized that he was staring at an empty plate.
Bussing his dishes, he headed back to his room. During his lunch, his frown had gone from ‘angry’ to ‘concerned’. Memories of the general’s presentation were difficult to ignore after what Nero had read. The essence flows were creating beasts and monsters at alarming rates. A beast tide was imminent.
Hordes of mutated predators would spawn. And even with the environment churning out animals for them to eat, there wouldn’t be enough food. Groups of 10 would grow to hundreds. Within weeks, those groups would join together to form thousand strong herds. Their mutations would be working to prevent infighting, and they would strip the environment bare. It was this reality’s ‘reset’.
The descriptions of a beast tide only amounted to a page in a book. But Nero had looked through the link for more information. He had seen bears the size of houses. Panthers large enough to jump hundreds of feet. Mutated Hawks the size of 747’s. Thinking of the walls of Dorchester, Nero wondered if it would be enough.
Nero wasn’t sure how much time they had, but hopefully it would be enough. Villages would have to be emptied. Resources stockpiled. Weapons prepared. Dorchester had survived beast-tides before, but never one empowered by a density shift. At least not according the records Nero found in the link. Across the kingdom, it wasn’t uncommon for cities to fall. They would be rebuilt years later, but the thought of Dorchester falling chilled Nero to the bone.
When Nero arrived at his room, he decided that he needed to make a ping. Opening a connection, he sent out a request to Nick.
As the connection opened, Nero spoke first, “Hey Nick, are you still interested in recording my star usage? I don’t want to sit on them anymore. After leveling last night, I want to put my star to use.”
Nero felt Nick sigh. “No Nero, you’re too much of an outlier to be useful for progress-tracking. I think what we already have will be plenty. Just focus on your leveling. I’m guessing you read up on density shifts. We have some time, but it’s going to be bad,”he said quietly.
Nero nodded, and replied, “I didn’t understand everything I read, but that much I figured out. I’m assuming plans are in motion to prepare the city?”
“Yes, everyone is aware. Troops and supplies are being sent from nearby cities, but it will be months before they arrive. We don’t know how long we have. It could be six months, or one. Analysis teams are being created to answer that question. Just focus on your training. Vera said she sent you the schedule,”said Nick.
“I saw the ping, but I haven’t read it. Don’t worry, I’m on it,”said Nero.
“You have one more day on your own. Study hard,”Nick said and then cut the connection.
Standing in the middle of his room, Nero was deep in thought. He didn’t enjoy the seriousness of the conversation he just had. It was amazing how much can change by just knowing what was coming. This morning he was happy and feeling like the world was full of possibilities. Now he had something specific to prepare for.
Nero felt a disturbance in the room’s essence, and his eyes looked toward it’s epicenter. A heartbeat later, a bright light flashed and a satchel fell onto his desk. Eyes wide, he cautiously walked toward the satchel and he saw a folded note attached to it. His curiosity overrode his caution, and he picked up the note.
Nero,
Here are the books you requested. Start with ‘Magic for Adventurers: Essentials Vol.1’. Don’t worry so much about the next few months. There is plenty of time. Live in the moment, prepare for the future, learn from the past. You have tonight and tomorrow to study. Be ready for training.
Follow your path with conviction,
Jennings
Smiling, Nero carefully folded the note and set it aside. Opening the satchel, he saw a bunch of tiny books. Curious, he put his hand inside to grab one. Once his hand crossed the threshold of the pocket, he saw it distort. It was like looking at a stick going underwater. His hand seemed shrink. The bag was magical! Pawing through the books, he found the book Jennings recommended. Nero placed the note inside the first page, and closed it. He wanted to keep the note safe, as a memento.
Hopping onto his bed, Nero ran his hand over the cover. It was dark red and made from thick leather. Gold embossed lettering ran along the side. Sturdy and solid, the pages were strong. This was a tome for adventurers. This was just what Nero needed to snap out of his funk.
With a grin, he opened the book with reverence. It was time for another step forward.
