“Are there forbidden skills? This is the first I am hearing about it,” Luke said calmly. He strode through the mountain lord’s court and sat down casually. “Which skills are interdicted?”

  Momoh turned on his throne to face Luke and gave a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “There are several. Tell me your skills and I can tell you how much danger you are in.”

  “I’m not sure if I am in danger at all. Edobar said I had an interdicted skill, but he was in the middle of a duel at the time. I bet he was trying to distract you and get you to turn on me. He seemed like the type. Not you though, you certainly seem like a more honest and straightforward lord. Please tell me more about the skills the elves have forbidden.”

  The compliment seemed to put him at ease. “Well, like I said, there are levels of distaste in elven society. We dislike skills that change your body, since the elf is supposed to be the pinnacle of perfection and any change would make it worse. Druidic skills are also distasteful, but in a different way. Those that focus on growing and nurturing plants are seen as dirty. I understand your people consider trashmen to be similarly unclean. Don’t worry if you have druidic skills, they are not truly forbidden, just embarrassing in royalty.”

  “I don’t have plant skills, you already know my class is War Machine. You’ve seen my summoning skill that can create tanks and bombs. It’s mana intensive though, so it will be a while before I can use it more than once a day,” Luke said, mixing truth and half-lies. “Are war skills like that on the interdicted list?”

  “Naturally not, summoning skills are well regarded, and warfare skills have their place in society. Edobar must have been shouting about one of your other skills. Not the repair one, that wasn’t important. It must have been whatever you hit him with at the end. I saw a flash of gray and violet. Do you have necromantic skills or something that bypasses armor altogether?"

  Luke laughed, doing his best to make it sound genuine. “No, my war class didn’t give me necromantic skills. I did have a skill that could bypass armor, but I sacrificed it when I hit level eighteen. I have an armor skill now.”

  Momoh adjusted his bulk in the stone throne chair. “Did you now? That is very convenient. Phantom skills and ones that can bypass armor are high on the interdicted list. I’m glad you don’t have that skill anymore so I don’t have to consider starting an interplanetary incident.”

  “Interplanetary incident? Are armor bypassing skills so distasteful?”

  “Not distasteful, fully forbidden. The triumvirate won’t allow anything that could threaten them. They may have legendary classes, but certain skills can bypass their defenses. But you do not have that skill anymore and I don’t have to kill you. Please alert me when you hit your next threshold and I will guide you on skill choice so you don’t make a deadly error.” He sliced his hands downward. “Let us talk of more pleasant things.”

  “Yes, you mentioned we need to take a trip to the capital?”

  “Indeed. Shortly before the shuffle, we will escort the Falodun widow and her brood to the capitol. The journey will take several days, and the return trip just as long. You will need to clear your schedule. We leave on the first day of the Spear. That’s eighteen Kalibutan days from now.”

  “I’m not sure I should leave my company right now. I’m the strongest fighter we’ve got. I hate to think of what could happen if a titan appeared while I was gone.”

  Momoh leaned back, an amused look on his face. “If you do not come, you won’t get your portion of the Falodun holdings. That would be a rather large gift to give me. You do not need to be so generous. I have more than enough money already.”

  “Why not cede some of his holdings here? You said a twelfth of his holdings, right? Surely there is that much here that you can give to me. Even just the slime herd would be enough for me.”

  Momoh flicked his fingers away. “No, no. Everything out here is owned by the Empire. It’s a bit of legal fiction to say the lords own the country estates. That’s why the Indomitable only awarded us with half of the Falodun estate, everything out here goes to the next lord to manage. We are expected to pass on all of our profits to the state. Only our holdings in the capital are truly ours.”

  “Then why come out here at all if it doesn’t benefit you?”

  Momoh scoffed. “A truly human question. We are not out here for money, we gather glory. The more we send the Empire, the greater our glory.”

  Luke nodded like he agreed. They might profess to care about intangibles like glory, but Edobar had been bribing people so he could advance. The elves clearly cared about money as much as humans, they just lied about it. “Alright, fine. I’ll come with you to the capital. What’s the city’s real name anyway?”

  “Its full name is The Summer Wind Falling on a Spear of Blood and Might. Everyone just calls it the capital.”

  Luke gave him jazz hands in agreement. “I can see why. How are we getting to the capital by the way? Are we taking a caravan or are there portals?”

  “Using divine power to save a few days' travel would be a horrible waste. We will take carriages to the city of Vedastine and then catch a train to the capital. I’ll pay your fare, but you must bring appropriate attire. Your bulky armor is too big. Pack food for the journey as well.”

  “Sounds good. Should I meet you here on the morning of the first day of the Spear?”

  “No, meet at the gates of the farming estate, Fekundaj Kampoj. The path north starts there.”

  “I’ll see you there. I’d better get going. It will take some preparation to get my company ready to carry on in my absence.”

  “Of course. One more thing before you go,” Momoh said. He turned and shouted, “Seer Romanie, I have need of your services.”

  “What’s the Seer for?”

  The dwarf walked in before Momoh answered. His naturally opalescent skin was dull white in the dim light the crystals gave off. He bowed and said, “How may I serve, Lord Momoh?”

  Momoh pointed to the side and said, “Lord Edobar accused this one of having an interdicted skill before he died. Luke of Machines admits it was the truth, but claims to have sacrificed it. Since we are traveling to the capitol, it would be negligent of me not to double check. Do a deep scan.”

  Internally, Luke started swearing. Momoh hadn’t believed him when he said he got rid of Phantom Shot. He chuckled and said, “You really want to know my skills, don’t you? All you had to do was ask. I’ll show you. This is Armor Adjunct. Aren’t the colors pretty?” The skill sent out an aura of magical protection, with faint colored lights flitting around him.

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  “Very nice,” Momoh said distractedly and glanced back at Romanie.

  The Seer’s eyes were glowing and a frown formed on his face. “I’m sorry, Lord Momoh, I can only tell that he is level eighteen now. I can’t see into his core.”

  “Your skill must be blocking him, stop it at once,” Momoh said angrily.

  ‘Yeah, that’s the point,’ Luke thought to himself. Armor Adjunct blocks magic and Luke had rolled the dice that it would block the Seer’s skills too. His gamble had paid off, but only bought him a few seconds.

  Romanie grimaced and said, “I’m sorry. My deep scan is a once a day skill. He will have to return tomorrow.”

  Luke deactivated Armor Adjunct and said, “Why bother? I’ve already shown you all my skills. Unless you forgot about Summon Vehicle. I used it in the duel. Maybe you were distracted? Let me show you, it’s pretty cool.”

  He made an unnecessary gesture and chanted a few nonsense words. Then he activated Summon Vehicle, throttling the skill so it would work as slowly as possible. An M10 Booker tank formed in the center of the room with gray armor and violet highlights. The summoned engine rumbled, the sound echoing off the stone chamber.

  Momoh covered his ears and gave Luke a look. He chuckled and unsummoned the tank. “Sorry about that. You did ask.”

  “What about your other two skills? I thought you had a platinum class, you should have four skills.”

  “I never said I had a platinum class.”

  Seer Romanie cleared his throat. “I said he had a gold or platinum class. You assumed platinum and no one disagreed with you. A gold class for a human is already surprising. After seeing him flounder around in the duel, I don’t believe he has a platinum class.”

  Luke shrugged.

  Momoh sputtered for a moment and said, “Alright, fine. Leave us, I am a busy lord and have things to discuss with my staff.”

  Luke was only too happy to escape and hurried out of the deep mountain estate. That had been close. It was a good thing the dwarf’s prejudices had helped him sell the lie. Still, he would avoid the Seer for the next few weeks until they left. And maybe replace Phantom Shot at the next threshold at level twenty-four.

  Maybe. He was really tempted to keep the skill, no one told him what to do. Plus, it would be a fantastic skill to have in his back pocket if he ever went up against someone stronger than him.

  Either way, that decision was a long way from now. He couldn’t level up past eighteen until he had a skill above that number. His highest skill was level twelve, so it would be weeks or months of work to get it up past eighteen.

  Despite the risk of traveling with a forbidden skill, Luke was excited. The capitol city sounded fascinating and he couldn’t wait to collect his loot. He could just imagine what kind of treasures that greedy bastard had hoarded.

  ???

  Back on Earth, Luke found the entire company huddled around Allen’s desktop monitor, watching a news story. The President was addressing the nation from the oval office and big red lettering was scrolling across the bottom of the screen.

  “What’s going on? Did something happen?” Luke asked and rushed over.

  Vanessa glanced back at him and, “China invaded Kalibutan from their portal.” She turned back to the screen.

  “What?!”

  The others shooshed him without turning around. Luke held his questions and stepped closer to listen in to the President as she continued talking.

  “... trust them. China has a nebulous relationship with the truth at best. We would expect to hear of their success whether or not they actually conquered the village on the other side of their portal. What we know for sure is that a large contingent of heavily armed soldiers went through the Chongqing portal at 10:20 AM this morning. It’s clear that President Jeong has violated the Kalibutan treaty, as well as the one he signed on Earth. This invasion puts us all in danger. Our reaction must be swift and firm. Later today, I have a meeting with the NATO Secretary General as well as the leaders of the G8 nations. We will discuss a global response to this provocation. President Jeong’s reckless actions cannot be allowed to plunge the world into war once more.” She looked off screen and widened her eyes a bit. Then she turned back to the camera. “I understand the next few days will be stressful. But please understand that I will be there for you and do whatever is necessary to protect this great nation and the world. God bless America.”

  The camera cut to the White House logo before the news anchors came back on. They started talking after a bit, but the ending of the address was clearly more rushed than expected.

  Luke put both his hands up to his hair and slowly slicked them back. “What is happening? Is Kalibutan going to retaliate? Do we need to leave?” He turned and glanced at the wall in the direction of the portal.

  Vanessa put her hand on his shoulder. “Not yet, no. They don’t have instantaneous communication like we do. It will take a while for their government to hear about this and decide on a response. It will be even longer before they move troops, if that’s what they decide to do. They might not do anything.”

  “Really? Why wouldn’t they retaliate? Earth just attacked.”

  “It all depends on what happened on the other side of the portal. If the Chinese actually did what they claimed, captured an entire town and defeated all their challengers in battle, the Triumvirate would consider that a glorious fight. They might let it slide. But it was still a violation of the treaty, so if they didn’t fight honorably by bringing guns or whatever, then all bets are off.”

  Luke started pacing. “Why did China attack? They had to know that the Empire has been building up their armies since the first invasion failed. Earth has been doing the same thing. The only thing a fight does is start a bloody war.”

  “No idea. The talking heads are making stuff up, but no one knows for sure.”

  It took a while for Luke to calm down and settle into the same state as everyone else. A kind of numb panic where everything seemed a bit unreal. He was glued to the TV for the next few days, but nothing substantive happened. China got sanctioned and a complete trade embargo was put in place. But there was no response from the Kalibutan government.

  The portal remained open, Monster Jaegers continued their work, and everything seemed to be fine. Most of the humans knew about the attack, but they didn’t let the news spill over to Kalibutan around their portal. The other fifty portals were in the same situation, an uneasy balance, where they were waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  Vanessa took it particularly hard. The thought of war between worlds made her a nervous wreck. Luke encouraged her to go to therapy and she did. Her therapist helped her deal with that stress, along with the PTSD from almost dying to the Spore Velociraptors. She stopped visiting Kalibutan, focusing on herself instead.

  Luke continued to plug along, slowly getting used to his two new skills and leveling up all four of them. The company improved as well. His new hires were competent and shifts went smoothly day after day. No one died, and Allen suggested hiring more employees.

  WikiRunes had increased the demand for mana cores among the general public and China’s blunder increased the demand for cores from the US army. Monster Jaegers Inc was more than profitable. Luke wanted to raise everyone’s wages, but Allen begged him not to do it until their savings account hit ten million. Luke agreed because that would happen within a year or two.

  It was two weeks before they heard a response from the Triumvirate. They ruled that the conquest of the Kalibutan village was acceptable and they could keep it as long as they sent regular taxes. But the treaty had been broken and that required a sacrifice. They demanded President Jeong and five of his generals make a personal apology at the capital. China’s leader refused, perhaps correctly assuming that the visit would end in his death. Multiple messages were sent back and forth between the two heads of government.

  The rest of the world relaxed at the news. The magic aliens weren’t mad at them, only China’s leadership. An intergalactic war wouldn’t be breaking out. The peace might be uneasy, but at least they had it. Earth kept turning, life marched on. Luke focused on his own life again, killing monsters and making money. He’d leave the fate of the world to the others.

  Now that war wasn’t imminent, he also went back to planning his trip to the capital of the Empire. Momoh had promised that Luke’s share of the Falodun holdings would be well worth the week-long journey. He couldn’t wait.

  Today’s chapter title comes from Se7en (1995)

  This is the last regular chapter of book one. A short epilogue is up next and then we’ll have a week break before book two starts. I’ve already written several chapters, so we’ll keep trucking along after the break.