N. Francis
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Chapter 117: Teaming Up
🕑 Added 2025-07-08 13:00:13 +0000 UTCThe thing that surprised Rory the most when he awoke was the fact that he had woken up in the first place.
You know, what with the fact that he should probably have been dead.
“Anyone ever tell you that you’re way too fond of theatrics?” A voice spoke out as Rory’s eyes fluttered, brain rebooting.
“How long was I out?” Rory questioned after a moment of making sure his tongue was still functional.
“Only a few minutes,” The Vanguard said, frowning at Rory.
“Oh, not that bad.” Rory nodded to himself as he slowly leaned forward from where he was lying at the bottom of a rather large crater. “I would ask how I’m alive, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize that was your doing, wasn’t it?”
“I’m glad a guy called the Architect isn’t a total moron.”
“You know, some people I know would say otherwise.”
The woman scoffed, offering Rory her hand. Grasping it, Rory let the woman pull him to his feet.
“So… how?” Rory asked.
“I’ve got a damage nullification skill. It’s how last time I withstood you dropping a meteor on me. I managed to eat up most of the initial damage. As for the aftershock, well-” The woman gestured vaguely about the crater they were within.
“A skill that can nullify an attack like that?” Rory whistled, impressed.
“It has its limitations.”
“It’s either time-gated or it uses some sort of valuable resource.” Rory hypothesized, watching her expression as he spoke. “Ahh, time gated.”
“Hey,” She crossed her arms, glaring at him. “You know it’s rude to pry into a woman’s secrets?”
“Uh-huh, you seem like the delicate sort who would get all bothered by that,” Rory snorted. “Well, by the definition of you having to bail my ass out, I guess we can safely call this your win.”
“Yeah, I’d say so,” The Vanguard said. “By the way, quick question.”
“Yes?”
“What the actual fuck was that?” The woman all but yelled.
“You ever seen a movie with a mad scientist who gets an idea and decides to go ahead without ever considering if maybe, just maybe, they might be getting ahead of themselves?”
“I guess so?”
“Yeah, well, that’s what that was,” Rory said with a sigh.
“I’m pretty sure without my nullification skill, that attack would have killed me in one hit.” The Vanguard admitted.
“Exponentials be exponential-ing.”
“Meaning?”
“Nothing,” Rory said with a sigh, waving it off. “Just that it’s something I’m going to have to lock up for a long time, probably until tier eight at the earliest.”
The two stood around awkwardly for a moment before Rory finally spoke.
“So… If I lost, now what?”
“Well, we’re tied 1-1.”
“Tied?” Rory questioned, raising his eyebrows at the woman.
“Yeah, you won the first time around, you know, when you dropped a meteor on me.”
“You seem strangely hung up on that.”
“It was a meteor; how wouldn’t I be?!”
Rory ignored the comment, the woman reminding him briefly of a certain former apprentice.
“I’m not sure I would have called it my win,” Rory answered honestly.
“Nah.” The Vanguard said with a straight face. “I had to burn up my nullification skill, and at that point, trying to return to my boosted state would probably have knocked me out on the spot. You probably could outlast me at that point with your magically appearing goodies and all that, or do you mean to say you had nothing left?”
Rory frowned slightly, considering what she said. She was, in fact, correct; he’d had plenty of things within his inventory still, not to mention some ossified blood gems to help replenish his strength and vital energy. Part of the reason he had bailed out was that, after blowing up in anger and then the ensuing chaos of the fight against a fellow founder that had been far more perilous than he had prepared himself for, Rory’s instinct had been to retreat, plan, and prepare for their next encounter instead of committing fully.
“Yeah, alright, one to one. Next round, winner takes all?”
“Sure.”
Having come to a mutually favorable agreement, Rory was prepared to turn around and leave, when he found himself considering a certain niggling thought at the back of his mind.
“Are you like, going to try to stalk me?”
“What, why would I do that?”
“Because Eia has said that she’s noticed you around the mountain occasionally.”
“I… I don’t like that implication. Also, is that the name of your pet snake?”
“Not a pet,” Rory corrected. “She’d probably bite me if she found out I called her my pet.”
“Oh.”
Again, an awkward silence reigned for several moments before Rory coughed into his fist, trying to break the tension as he finally asked what had been working around his mind.
“So… where exactly do you live?”
The Vanguard glanced to the side, as if suddenly embarrassed. “Around.”
“Around,” Rory said, deadpan.
“Yeah, you know… around.”
“You’re homeless.” Rory sighed. “How the hell are you tier seven and homeless?”
“You think this is where I first appeared?” The Vanguard said with a snort. “I would have been chewy little Zoey-bites for even the weakest monster here. No, I got stuck here a while back.”
“Alright, but again, I should remind you, you’re tier seven. How are you homeless now?”
“I found a cave,” Zoey said defensively, crossing her arms and looking anywhere but at Rory.
Don’t do it, Rory. You’re not a charity. What would Eia say?
Sighing, against his better judgement, Rory’s big, fat mouth opened.
“If, well… I guess if you need somewhere better to live then some random ass cave… I could probably lend you a room.”
“Lend me a room?” Zoey finally met Rory’s gaze again. “Like, you don’t live in a cave?”
“I mean, I sort of live in a cave,” Rory admitted. “But ya’know, ‘Architect’ and all that jazz is in my title.”
“And you have rooms?”
“Quite a few of them.”
“A bath?”
“Sort of?”
“A kitchen?”
“I mean… not a fancy one.”
“And you’re offering me a room… for free?”
“Well, maybe not free, but I guess-”
“Deal!” The woman said, all but yanking his arm out of its socket as she grasped his hand and began wildly shaking it.
“If I may ask, how long has it been since you had anything like that?” Rory questioned.
“Umm, when did I leave… Ehh, more than ten years?”
“Oh, Christ on a stick,” Rory thumped his forehead, palming his head for a moment.
“I look forward to getting to know you, roomie.”
I made a mistake.
-----------------------------
“Now, I know what it may seem like,” Rory said, prematurely raising his hands defensively as he entered the main workshop, the armored woman following behind him with her jaw on the ground.
“Why is sssshe here?” Eia questioned, her ‘accent’ coming out thicker in her agitation.
“Oh, you’re Eia?” The Vanguard stepped forward after overcoming her initial shock, glancing down at the serpent. “Sorry for almost killing you before.”
Eia’s head rose until she was looking down on the deceptively short woman.
“I do not appreciate being stomped on.”
“You wouldn’t stay put.”
“I do not appreciate being slammed into the ground like a chew toy.”
“You tried to bite me!”
“And I do not appreciate being treated lightly,” Eia said, perhaps the point that stung her pride the most. “If you should best me, do it properly.”
“She for real?” Zoey turned to Rory, her face scrunched up in contemplation.
“She’s… she is prideful,” Rory said with a sigh.
“Right,” Zoey said with a nod.
“As for you,” Eia turned to fix Rory with her serpent’s gaze. “Is this meant to be some sort of mating ritual?”
“What? No!” Rory answered defensively. While the woman was attractive, he wasn’t particularly interested in shorter women.
“Sorry, I don’t roll that way anyway,” Zoey said with a shrug.
“Oh, like… you’re a-”
“Ace,” Zoey corrected Rory before he could stick his foot further into his mouth. “I don’t roll any way.”
“Gotcha, well, nice to know,” Rory said before turning to Eia. “See, no mating stuff. Aren’t you too young to be considering that?”
“I was simply making an observation,” Eia turned her nose upward as if not intending to dignify his remark.
“Well, either way, uhh, welcome to my humble abode,” Rory said as he waved his arms about. “This is the first main entrance room, my main workshop.”
As Zoey looked about, her gaze landed on where the lava spewed into the magma whirlpool, the bust of a dragon’s head recognizable.
“Is that the same dragon head you dropped on me?”
“Not the same in the sense that it didn’t teleport and grow, but it is the inspiration.”
“Huh, gotcha,” Zoey said before her gaze turned down to the magma whirlpool, where a certain elemental decided to emerge, flapping his arms around.
“Should I be alarmed that an elemental is splashing around in there?” Zoey asked, clutching her shield a tad harder.
“Relax, Jinn isn’t even tier three.”
“Jinn?”
“Yeah, I named ‘em.”
“Right, of course you did. Speaking of which, what exactly is a ‘World Ichor’ elemental? And does that have anything to do with the reason I’ve suddenly started seeing fire and volcanic elementals pop up recently?”
“Err, sort of?” Rory answered. “I made Jinn,”
“You made an elemental?”
“And as a result, I think Aelia or Eon decided to copy the idea and started popping them into existence as well.”
“You made an elemental?” Zoey questioned once more, not letting that specific point pass by.
“Not as difficult as you’d imagine.”
“Uh-huh, sure... So, are you planning on giving me a tour of the rest of the place?”
“Not really. Unless, for some reason, you want to… I guess?” Rory scrunched up his brows, not having made any plans to do so in the first place.
“Ehh, truthfully, no. I spent enough time as a kid being shuttled around fancy places being given tours of things I wasn’t actually that interested in.”
“Sounds like you had a tough life,” Rory said, facetiously.
“Right! I just feel for my younger sister. I ducked out pretty early on, basically lost all contact. Well, not that it matters at this point.”
Hmm, familial problems… Yeah, not going to touch that.
“Alright, well, we can skip the tour, and I’ll just show you the main areas of interest, the bathroom and kitchen area. As a fellow tier seven, you really shouldn’t have a reason to need anything outside of showering-”
“Haven’t had to shit in years,” The woman said proudly, flexing her arm as if it were an achievement she’d personally accomplished and not simply a matter of ascensions changing how their bodies operated.
“Good to know,” Rory muttered. “Anyways, I don’t really have much of a guest bedroom, as I don’t have much of a proper bedroom myself. I should probably get around to that. Actually, maybe while I’m at it, I could also…”
Rory mumbled for several moments before he snapped back to attention, his fellow founder eyeing him as if he were a strange animal.
“Sorry, I get distracted at times,” Rory answered.
“Question,” Zoey asked, suddenly sticking her hand up as if he were a teacher she was desperately trying to get called upon from.
“Err, yeah?”
“Can you make me some armor?”
“Can I make you some armor?” Rory repeated the question.
“Yeah.”
“I could,” Rory answered.
“Awesome so-”
“I can make you some armor, not that I will,” Rory corrected. “We’re not exactly on the same team after all, so why would I make you some armor?”
“Why not?”
“Well, because I’d rather not have you use it against me.”
“No, I mean, why not team up?”
Rory opened his mouth for a moment, ready to respond, before closing it a second later.
Huh. I mean… I guess there isn’t really a good reason.
Aelia had told them they were to compete against one another, but that had also been before many a transpiring, such as the introduction of the creation and introduction of the former System, now rebranded as Eon. As for their 'rivalry,' unlike with the Chosen Banes, there wasn’t any specific event saying they had to beat each other’s skulls in.
“What about our tied record?” Rory offered.
“I mean, we can always have spars, right?” Zoey asked, confused at Rory’s reluctance. “Honestly, I’m not all that competitive, not usually. That was more of my younger sister; she was insanely competitive.”
“Same, I guess,” Rory responded, he'd never been competitive, so much as he was focused.
“So, we’ve got a deal?”
“Hey, slow it down a moment,” Rory said with a frown. “What do you get out of this?”
“Well, first off,” Zoey started, clapping her hands together as if Rory had walked into a trap. “Armor, obviously. I’ve got a skill that enhances the effectiveness of my durability stat, dependent on the overall quality of the armor I’m wearing. With the armor you’ve got, bam-” She mimed throwing a fist forward as she spoke, “Hitting me would be like hitting a steel wall.”
“Aren’t you already tougher than steel was on Earth?”
“Besides the point,” She said, waving it off. “Also, I might have another bit of an ulterior motive.”
“Is it an ulterior motive if you tell me directly?”
“I’ve got this item, called a Horizon Mirror. Every morning, it would allow me to ‘jump’ from one Horizon to the next, and I could do a decent few. It allowed me to travel damn fast.”
“And the point is…?”
“It’s broken.”
“Broken?”
“Broken,” Zoey confirmed. “I didn’t have a way of, nor did I even know how to repair it, so over time it started to degrade. Eventually, I made the mistake of thinking I could squeeze a few more jumps out of it, so I jumped up here with it.”
“Then it broke, and you were left stranded.”
“Yep!” Zoey said, surprisingly cheery. “Been here for years now.”
“Rough,” Rory added.
“Indubitably.”
“Indubitably? Who actually says that out loud?” Rory said, scoffing.
“I do,” Eia suddenly spoke up from where she had been silent for the last few minutes.
“You don’t count,” Rory snapped back.
“It’s a fun word,” Zoey added.
“It’s not a fun word,”
“It totally is,” Zoey said with a smirk.
“Are… are you doing this on purpose?” Rory said, realizing that she was deliberately irritating him.
“Hah, yeah, sorry,” Zoey rubbed at her neck, sheepishly. “For a moment, it felt a bit like I was talking to my sister again, and I couldn’t help it.”
“Right… Anyway!” Rory said, deflecting. “What benefit do I get from teaming up with you?”
Again, Rory wasn’t actually against the idea, just that he was at least a bit paranoid about the thought of so freely teaming up with someone that Aelia had for years been saying he would be competing again.
“You’re squishy,” Zoey said, poking his side as Rory glared at her for a moment. “I’m not. Plunk me in front of a monster with your armor, and steel wall mode activated. Truthfully, it will be nice not to have to rely on inverting my attributes to beat down a monster for once. Anyway, I take all the focus, and you do your stuff from the background. Just not that exploding bomb thingy you did, I’d rather not die because you got carried away.”
“Wasn’t planning on it,” Rory countered. “But…. I must admit, it’s not a bad idea.”
A big issue he had was that his big attacks required build-up time, and Rory, for all his fancy equipment, was not a physical juggernaut. Investing in growth had helped alleviate that problem, extra attribute density that could be used for cognition and physical attributes, but it didn't solve the problem. After all, some investment in physical attributes wasn’t the same as a focused investment; he still fell behind any real combat type in that regard, and it was only the caliber of his gear that kept things in his favor.
Against more powerful opponents, it simply wasn’t good enough; the ape had been a perfect example. Powerful armor only went so far when your opponent could break you in half like a chocolate bar; his armor prevented instant death but his main strength was still in how much damage he could lay down when left unmolested.
Now, if he had someone like Zoey, decked out in armor of his caliber, taking the aggro, while he was free to lay down covering fire and major impact attacks…
We might even be able to handle that damn ape.
Thoughts of clearing the Trial of Burning Snow and Freezing Fire-
Or was it the Trial of Freezing Fire and Burning Snow?
-flooded his mind, the potential rewards tempting Rory something fierce.
“Fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes, really,” Rory said with a sigh.
Once more, Rory found his arm nearly torn from its socket as his hand was vigorously shaken.
“Here is to a long and fruitful partnership!”
Comments
Nathaniel France
Hi there thanks for the comment. I’m not exactly certain of what you’re asking, as the totality tier is 12 chapters ahead of the royal road, and chapter 105 is dropping later today on royal road, meaning 117 is in fact the most recent chapter for the totality tier. The absolute most recent chapter, chapter 121, is currently out for the True Immortal tier, as the tier offerings are 4-8-12-16 chapters ahead. Hopefully that clears up any confusion!
Malikulashter Tass
Bro where are you? Where's the next chapter.
