'Almost! I need to check in with Nitesh'
Hal said in his mind to Flo.
[You can't waste so much time on connecting with these people. Honestly, most of them are going to die within a few days. You have to get moving!]
Flo didn't let it go.
'I am, I am, I just need to talk to Nitesh about what the area around our start point looks like. It is important!'
[No its not! Not compared to getting your army created and trained! Do you know how slow you are? Every Lord around you already has their talent, their troops, and is exploring with their troops!]
Flustered Flo was trying to get the urgency across to Hal.
'Alright, alright, I will do it. Just let me talk to Nitesh. He deserves it.'
Quickening his pace a little Hal walked over to where Nitesh was standing with the able bodied men.
"Hey, Nitesh, how did exploring go?"
Was the first thing Hal said. He was a little rushed now that Flo was getting so worked up.
"It went well. We found a few interesting things. Come on."
Nitesh smiled and waved Hal over to join the group of explorers. Once there and to his surprise Nitesh deferred to Meiyu's dad.
"Sir, we found the Novice protection field. It extends in a circle around this clearing for a kilometer in all directions. We believe it to be a large dome. It is invisible, but once touched it will flare up and becomes visible as a light golden sparkly field that gently curves up."
Hao, Meiyu's dad, explained carefully.
"Glad to hear that it is a dome. Thanks for exploring."
Not wanting to push Meiyu's dad around Hal was very formal with him.
"Please, Lord, I am just a dad for my kids right now. And I am your subordinate. Just call me Hao."
Hao said uncomfortably.
For Hal this was a difficult situation. Hao was definitely leagues ahead both socially and economically. Before the apocalypse Meiyu had often talked about the different homes and opportunities that he parents had or provided to their kids. How could Hal treat this man like a servant even just as a casual friend. It was beyond Hal's ability to think about at this time.
Yet, he knew that he would offend Hao if he didn't right now communicate casually. So Hal grimaced and spoke easily.
"Okay, Hao, it is good to have you on the team."
"Thank you, Lord, I appreciate your consideration."
Hao said back humbly and then continued.
"Lord, there are a few other details that you should know about. Within the Novice Protection area there are fruit trees, here and there are fish in the lake."
After Hao had finished speaking Hal became very interested.
"Can you show Jane where the fruit trees are and, I don't know, does anyone know how to fish?"
Hal said tentatively, still Hal wasn't sure about ordering people around.
"Sure, Tai, go tell Jane about the fruit trees. Nitesh I know a little about fishing, but will you go ask around to see if anyone was a fisherman?"
Instructing his son Tai, Hao also gave some commands to Nitesh.
It was hard for Hal to see Nitesh setting off with Tai to go see Jane like he was already used to being told what to do.
Hao met Hal's eyes as if interested to see how Hal would react, but Hal backed down and looked away. Instead of seeking to strengthen Nitesh's position Hal just said.
"Alright, I need time to preform a ritual. Can you take care of things here?"
Hao smiled and nodded his head.
"Yes, go off and do your Lord responsibilities. I will take care of things here."
Having devested himself of all responsibilities having to do with his servants for now, Hal turned away and walked a few paces to the side. He didn't want to be too far away from his people if something happened, but he wanted to be at least far enough away to make it clear he wanted to be alone.
[Are you sure you don't want to go farther away? What if your connection fails? Are your servants will see you fail...]
Flo prompted him to move even farther away.
'No, it is okay, let them see me fail. If worse comes to worse I can just surrender to the first Lord who comes calling. Right?'
[...]
Flo didn't seem to appreciate his strategy.
'Can't I surrender?'
[Sure, anything is possible. I have to say though, every smart Lord is going to just kill you. Who wants a sleeping threat in their domain? I suppose it is possible for a really easy going Lord to let you do your thing inside their territory. Maybe, it could happen.]
'Alright, alright, I get it. So I will have to give up my life so that my people will have some better opportunities?'
[...]
Thinking this particular conversation was over Hal moved on.
'So you said you have a way to make this connection succeed?'
Hal said in his mind as he squatted down into sitting on the dry grass with his legs crossed. Slowly he pulled out each of the five tokens that had been on the top of the awakening stone.
[First of all, I can make a few suggestions, but it is not a sure thing. There is still a possibility of failure. And the way you are going it seems like you really want to fail!]
The cerulean box didn't have a tone of voice, but if Flo was speaking out loud then there would definitely be some sarcasm in her response.
'Sure, I understand. And no problem. I understand the risks.'
However, Hal was completely unaware of her frustration.
[Fine! Whatever. Instead of using just one token, use all five at the same time. And dedicate your focus to a particular God of Dead. They like it better when they feel wanted.]
Hal just stared at the text box. He had thought he would have to do some kind of ritual or something. Instead all he had to do was concentrate on one God using all the token?
'This seems easier than I thought it would be.'
[Don't be complacent! This is going to be tough and you only get one try!]
'Sure, sure, I think you put too much importance on the little things. Let's just try it and see how it goes.'
Suddenly Hal started playing with the tokens.
[Uhmmm, what are you doing?]
'I am trying to start the connection... what else would I be doing?'
Having no clue about how to begin, Hal had just decided to start messing with the token to see what would happen.
[Ahem! You begin the connection by selecting the prompts within the system!]
Embarrassed Hal blushed a little and then carefully put down the token he had been rubbing.
'Oh, right. That makes so much more sense. Would you show me what I need to do?'
[Wait, wait, wait. Before we begin you must choose which God of Death you want to connect with!]
Instead of appearing all at once like normal, this time Flo's text showed up a word at a time with an exaggerated amount of time in-between each word. It finally gave Hal an idea of how Flo was appreciating his ignorant actions.
'Oh, okay. I get it. But I don't know any of the Gods let alone the God's of Death. How can I choose one?'
[Well, there are so many Gods of Death. I can tell you about all of them and you can choose among them. What do you think?]
Hal looked off into space aghast.
'That will take too long. Just pick one for me. That is fine.'
[...]
Flo felt like this Lord was a little hard to deal with. How could he just ask her to determine which God he would worship for the rest of his life?
[I don't think you are really appreciating the choice that needs to be made here. I little bit of pride, maybe some interest, would ...]
However, again Hal seemed determined to go about this all the wrong way.
'Oh, don't worry. This isn't that big a deal. ... Fine, let's just choose the biggest one. Which ever God of Death is the most powerful. That will be best right?'
[...]
'Isn't that what you want me to say?'
[Listen, Hal, this is a very serious decision. You need to weigh all the factors including power, there is also difficulty, and degree of match! What if you choose a God that is too powerful? The God will ignore your plea and your connection will fail. But then also what if you succeed and then are stuck with a God that you hate for the rest of your life! Come on show some initiative!!]
After Flo's long lecture Hal started figuring out what was important.
'Oh, I see, I see. So I should probably pick a weak God and one that likes to see how things play out. Is there a god like that?'
[...]
'Come on, there has to be a God of Death that isn't all gloomy and emo!'
Encouraging Flo on, Hal gave he some additional prompts.
[Fine, have it your way. There is a very weak God of Death who is associated with the hunt and bi-directionality. He is only weak, because most of his followers were from ancient history and he really isn't proactive about going out and acquiring more.]
'Sounds perfect! What is his name?'
Hal started to get a little more excited about this choosing process.
[Cernunnos. You should definitely try to connect with Cernunnos.]
Excited to begin, on his own he navigated the cerulean screens for each of the summoning tokens to initiate a connection to a God of Death.
'Cernunnos! I call thee forth!!'
[Wait! Ah you f_ing retard!]
Flo didn't usually swear, but this Lord was just so completely hopeless. It was hard not to let these things out sometimes.
For his part Hal just sat there expectantly waiting.
However, even after five minutes nothing happened.
[I think it failed?]
Half wanting Hal to fail for his impulsiveness and have sad that he had Flo asked a question that Hal ignored.
'I can't fail at this!'
Unexpectedly when Flo thought he would just smile and let his failure go Hal instead cried out to Cernunnos once more.
'Cernunnos, Cernunnos, Cernunnos! I call thee forth from hell! Come, Cernunnos, come from your ugly, disgusting, flame filled hell! I call thee out!!'
[Uhmm, kid, you can't command a God. You know that right?]
However, no sooner had Hal said such nasty things about Cernunnos' underworld then a tall man appeared before this lazy, stupid Lord.
{Who dares to insult my domain!}
'Oh! Hi, glad that you could come out. It is great to see you!'
Instead of reacting to all of Cernunnos' theatrics Hal just greeted the God as if this was only a stroll through a park.
{Mortal, bow before me, God of Death!}
In reply the God demanded a sign of submission.
But Hal just looked at the God confused.
'Do I have to bow to get some troops?'
In Hal's mind he was thinking that this was going to be easy. If all he had to do to get one troop was to bow he could bow a thousand times.
'This is going to be great!'
And then Hal began bowing rapid fire. Bending at the waist while sitting cross legged on the ground wasn't that easy so after about ten bows he swung his legs behind so that he could knelt on the ground and bow.
'Maybe if I make each bow perfect I can get a better troop!'
So then Hal started to bow all the way to the ground, till his forehead touched the earth. Placing his hands out in front with forefinger and thumb touching.
'Is that good enough? How many troops is that? Did I do it well enough to earn some extra powerful ones?'
[Hal! Hal! Stop it. You are just making him even more angry!!]
Desperate Flo read the situation and tried to intercede in order to limit the destruction that might come later.
{Mortal!! ... Mortal! ... Mortal??}
Soon Cernunnos became a little confused. On the one hand this guy was bowing and showing complete submission. On the other Cernunnos felt that there was a certain misunderstanding going on here.
Soon another voice spoke up from the side.
(Master, I believe the child is earnest. Maybe just a little naive.)
A black cowled form materialized to the side. Holding a sythe with a skeletal hand the new comer's face was hidden from Hal's view.
{Ankou? What are you doing here?}
(Master, I became amused by this fellow's antics. Let me take him. I will deal with him, there is no need for you to involve yourself. Go back to your feasting and your hunts.)
{This child is too weak, I have no desire to slay him. He would bring the magnificence of my hall down. But I can not let him off for this insult, either.}
Cernunnos spoke his mind, letting Ankou know where his thoughts lay.
(Yes, Master, I will reform him and then present him to you for your pleasure later.)
Hearing Ankou's words Hal finally started to figure out that things were not the way he thought they were.
'Wait?! You are going to present me later? What kind of sick perverted God is this?'
(Master, go now, before he says anything else!)
Without another word, Cernunnos disappeared only too happy to heed Ankou's advice.
Once Cernunnos was gone and Hal was left with the eerie skeleton an awkward silence fell.
[You really did it didn't you!]