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Echos Chapter 3
🕑 Added 2023-11-15 19:59:01 +0000 UTCEchos Chapter 3
Baroness Margaret Thresh was watching the ascension ceremony at Marquess Heartless’s estate. With Duchess Felicity at the actual ceremony, the next highest noble in the chain of command had taken over the duty of gathering the Empire's nobility. Similar to Light and Shadow’s Ascension ceremony, she was there more to mingle and get her name in the ears and mind of both the other barons and her superiors, the viscounts and counts. Marquess Heartless was only one of thirty of Duchess Felicity's direct reporting subordinates, which meant there were only a few hundred direct nobles and their immediate entourages instead of thousands.
A ducal event was a far more impressive thing than that of even the grandest marquess, but she preferred this smaller style of event.
While she was the lowest form of noble here, she was at least able to talk to some of the viscounts and counts without them clamoring to chat with the foreign marquesses who weren’t Marquess Heartless. Contrary to the man's family name, Burt Heartless was an ideal lord to serve under. He never imposed anything more than the Imperial minimum taxes or tried to use his authority to secure one-sided trade deals with his underlings. In fact, he was unerringly fair and expected his Counts to be the same. That was fantastic, but it had the side effect of causing the viscounts, and barons especially to clamor, for the Marquess's attention like schools of fish circling a corpse whenever all of his nobles gathered.
As the newest baroness and the one who had been replacing one of their former peers, Margaret had little voice at such events. At a gathering like this, with just the marquess's direct reports, things were far more manageable, thus she could work to repair her undeserved reputation.
Not that it was her fault. But she was the one who benefited from the Emperor’s heavy-handed actions. It didn’t matter that the Junipers hadn’t even been well liked by most of their peers. A god had come down and crushed one of the ants, and now the rest of them didn’t want to interact with the replacement ant.
Margaret smiled as Baroness Dulta walked over to where she stood. She expected the other baroness to walk by her like everyone else had this evening, but Baroness Dulta turned slightly to intercept her.
“Good to see you Thresh, I didn’t see you at Sural’s a decade ago.”
Margaret analyzed Dulta’s expression as she nodded. It didn’t sound like a slight to her not attending the party for Countess Sural’s second child's birth, but a barb didn’t need to be so obvious to be there.
“I was sadly occupied with a negotiation with TrueMind and their desire to establish a manufacturing plant on Lilly.”
Baroness Dulta eyebrows went into her hairline as she gestured with her glass in a small toast. “Well, congratulations then. That's a massive fish to pull in… I assume you did pull them in?”
Margaret smiled and returned the small toast. “Of course I did.” Taking a sip, she let her fish struggle on the hook for a minute before she dropped some of the details about her deal with the largest AI corporation in the Empire. “They are already breaking ground on a new manufacturing plant as we speak. By next year, they will be producing AI locally.”
Baroness Dulta sighed in envy. “Ah, now that would be nice. I mean it's still nice, AI prices will drop all across the duchy. But you are going to see at least five higher Tiers move in if they follow their usual customs of overseeing their factories with Tier 30s. Combining their tax revenue with the taxes TrueMind will be paying? I’m burning with envy.”
Margaret dropped her other shoe. “Oh, it's better than that. While nothing is settled yet, they even hinted at wanting to open up a research laboratory as well. That would take a while, but the contract allows for it, and I sure won't deny them. It will help set Lilly apart from the faceless masses of low Tier worlds and give us a favorable export. I just need to make sure and use this to bring in more industrialization that my people can use.”
And it was true. The TrueMind deal probably had more to do with Matthew Moore and his royal inlaws than anything else, but they were the largest of the few large corporations to actually set down roots in Lily after that revelation. Others had inquired, but when she hadn’t been willing to give them a sweetheart deal, and sell her planet and people to them for the cheap in the process, their desire had shriveled up.
TrueMind, on the other hand, had treated her equitably and given her a near boilerplate agreement, which benefited both sides.
While a lot of the process of making artificial AIs was handled by robots, the plants were expensive and burned mana at a fantastic rate. That would raise the price of mana across the board, and while that would certainly be hard on some of their local crafters, the poorest and most desperate would see their personal mana become far more valuable. It wouldn’t even be too bad for the local crafters driven out of business by the increased costs, as TrueMind preferred to hire local personnel for the few areas which did require manual intervention, but weren’t directly involved in the manufacturing itself. Baroness Dulta had been correct when she mentioned the Tier 30s. There would be five moving into Lilly permanently, and Margaret wanted to make sure they were comfortable on Lilly so they wouldn’t treat it like exile.
To that end, she intended to schmooze the Counts and Marquess Heartless to see if she could get a higher Tier chef on loan from one of them, as no one on Lilly could cook food that a Tier 30 might desire.
Beyond that, she needed to capitalize on the at-cost quota of AI she had been given access to as part of TrueMind’s contract. They would be a useful bargaining chip in securing trade deals, which could capture this momentum and turn it into useful business contracts beyond her system. AI was a great export, but there were a dozen other industries she wanted Lilly to expand into. Creating footholds locally across multiple industries would both reduce costs to her people and also give the planet other valuable exports, which would encourage more traders from even farther away to come to Lilly.
After Matt and Liz had come to her planet, a number of higher Tier companies had wanted to settle. But their terms had either been not to Lilly’s advantage or they simply negotiated for the most basic of factories that did nothing more than produce mundane unexportable goods. The first was a hindrance, and the second was useful only for improving her local citizens' lives. That was a good thing, but if she could get some reputable name brands to move in and start producing on Lilly, she could both help her people and earn Lilly a valuable export.
Baroness Dulta’s lip twitched as she shook her head. “That is remarkable. Do be sure to go by and let Countess Sural know that. She didn’t say anything, but despite you sending a gift, Baron Bruce was in her ear about how you no longer cared about the structure of nobility, with the assistance Queen Mara and King Leon had sent your way. Thanks to their daughter marrying one of your natives. Whether the Countess believes it or not is another matter, but Baron Bruce was a good friend of the Junipers and will take any opportunity to toss a fireball in your lap.”
Margaret nodded, her jaw flexing. She hadn’t known that, which spoke volumes to her position in the local noble circles and made her reevaluate Baroness Dulta. They weren’t friends. Before this, they had been passingly friendly at best, but nothing more. That the baroness hadn’t allowed her to remain in the dark was a large mark in her favor.
And it was apparent she needed to find a friend in these circles if she was to remain connected to the political maneuverings.
“Thank you, Taylor. I owe you one.”
Margaret could tell Baroness Dulta was pleased by the acknowledgment of debt, but she had the good grace to not preen.
“Well, I’ll happily take a trade deal with some AI at, say, five percent over the cost that TrueMind is giving you. Currently, the trade route is so long from the nearest TrueMind production world that what does reach my world is horrendously expensive.”
Margaret nodded. It wasn’t surprising to hear that request, and to her credit, Baroness Dulta hadn’t pushed for her to operate at a loss.
She could work with this woman, it seemed.
Not bothering to quibble, she agreed. “Deal. And while I’d love to chat, apparently there is a fire that I need to ensure isn’t still smoldering.”
Baroness Dulta waved her away. “I detest Bruce and his line. That said, I wouldn’t mind working closer going forward. Find me if you want to chat about some other deals we can make. But your first priority is placating the Countess.”
Margaret had to stop herself from running, but that was only through an effort of sheer will.
Careful to not offend everyone, she snaked her spiritual sense out to find Countess Sural. She found her in a slightly less busy area of the ballroom, sipping a drink while looking at a sculpture Marquess Heartless had scattered around the floor.
It was a style Margaret detested, minimalist to the extreme. No larger than a grain of sand, the sculpture might as well have been invisible to a mortal without the exceptional sense that came with advancing in cultivation.
There was no reason to make anything that small except to prevent those weaker than the artist deemed worthy to see the art.
It was Tierism, plain and simple.
From what Margaret knew, Countess Sural wasn’t the type, but she had been staring at the sculpture for minutes now.
Grabbing a fresh drink off a passing server's tray, she nodded to the Countess's entourage, who made an opening in their encirclement to allow her to pass through.
Coming to a stop next to the Countess Sural, Margaret nodded somewhere between a nod and a bow.
Before she could say anything, Countess Sural spoke, “Took you long enough. I half expected you to come crawling over the moment I arrived. Imagine my surprise when you just nodded at me.”
Margaret opened her mouth, but Countess Sural held up a finger stopping her. “You didn’t know. That's obvious now, Baroness Thresh. However, ignorance is inexcusable. Allowing your political rival to maneuver around you while you sit cluelessly will find you, at best, embarrassed to a superior. And at worst, removed for cause. If you are woefully unprepared for your position you need to correct that failing. Now, why are you here?”
Margaret was going to speak, but hesitated.
Countess Sural wasn’t wrong. Margaret was a pretty damn good administrator, but she knew she was a child in the political landscape.
The sea was deep, and there were a dozen layers of currents blowing every which way, and she was only able to see the surface. The thing was, Countess Sural wouldn’t, or rather shouldn’t, have said something if she was going to come down hard on a lowly baroness. She would have smiled, nodded, and then bad talked Margaret to her peers, ensuring Margaret found it difficult to work with them or anyone they worked for.
So why had she spoken out?
Before Margaret could formulate an answer, Countess Sural gestured to the statue. “What do you think of this work?”
Margaret scanned it to find a perfectly modeled estate with over a hundred unique people going about their lives. Some existed on the outside and were therefore visible with assistance, but others were inside closed rooms, where no one without exceptional spiritual sense could see them.
The sculpture itself was perfect. Plates had bits of food left on them, beds had creases, peoples outfits were frozen in movement. Sweat even rolled down a man’s face as he sparred with a golem.
It was perfect.
“It's stupid. It's pointless. It’s extravagant Tierism put on display under the clause of an artist flexing the ability to make things small. The only thing the miniature size of this sculpture did was make it so low Tiers couldn’t partake of its beauty.”
Countess Sural raised an eyebrow. “You find it beautiful? That surprises me. I had figured you would hate it.”
Margaret shrugged as she flexed her spiritual sense around the object. “It's beautiful. That's a fact. My distaste doesn't change that. It's a perfect moment for some family and their friends. The walls talk about how the children play while the adults try to keep them in line. How the parents love each other and leave little notes to each other. How the youngest two prank each other. How can I hate that?”
Countess Sural tapped her glass with a finger. “As a Tier 16, I hadn’t expected you to be able to delve so deeply into the intricacies of the sculpture, but I forget how advanced the spiritual sense of one who went into Minkalla can be. Let us return to my original question. Why are you here?”
Margaret felt whiplash at the sudden change of topic, but rolled with it. “I wanted to ensure there is no bad blood between us and to offer a token of my appreciation to ensure the same.”
Countess Sural sighed, and Margaret froze. “It's one thing to be direct about an apology. Falling on your sword and making such a statement obvious and direct can be useful. Doing the same with a gift makes it more like a bribe. I don’t want your gift of cheap AI from TrueMind. I’ll take their normal rates and subsidize the cost to my people myself. No, if you want to get in my good graces, you are going to come and spend a few years getting taught the things your parents would have taught you if you were a hereditary noble.”
Margaret churned through that idea in her mind before nodding slowly. “I accept. But why bother?”
Countess Sural let a faint smile cross her lips. “If you pay attention to my lessons, by the end of them, you will understand without me having to answer. Now, first things first. By the end of this party I want a plan of how you intend to infiltrate Henry Bruce's court and plant a few spies so he can’t blindside you again, and you don’t have to rely on the good graces of Taylor Dulta.”
Margaret assumed they were under some kind of privacy bubble if the countess was speaking so freely, and so spoke freely herself. “Shouldn’t I be working to infiltrate a number of courts and not just his?”
Countess Sural nodded. “Good. You passed the first lesson. No matter how good your plan was, if you didn’t hit everyone, I would have failed you. You need to know what everyone is doing, both your enemies and allies. Walk with me. We need to do some work on repairing your reputation. So far, you have made Baron Bruce's job easy. No longer.”
Margaret hadn’t known her reputation was so damaged as to need repairing, but followed along with the rest of Countess Sural’s entourage as the Countess took her from noble to noble starting with Marquess Heartless.
She was now a protégé. It was weird but useful, as the warm and welcoming faces attested to. Her new status allowed her to make a few new deals and connections thanks to the Countess' backing with people who would have ignored her before.
Three days later, the ceremony for Quill, Torch, and Scoop’s Ascension finally got started and the nobles gathered to watch.
Marquess Heartless had the position of honor next to the passive real-sized projection that made it seem like they were just part of the crowd of the ceremony, and Margaret had a much better position than she should have if she wasn’t part of Countess Sural's entourage.
The projection was lifelike and even came with spiritual perception feedback that allowed her to scan the Empire’s newest Ascenders.
The murmuring slowed and then died as the trio got closer to the center of the Emperor's throne room.
Then pandemonium broke out.
Margaret froze as she tried to process the faces of the trio.
She knew them.
She had eaten dinner with them. On more than one occasion, in fact.
Matt, Liz, and Aster, though the human form of the bond was new to her. They hadn’t been by Lilly since Matt and Liz’s wedding, but they had kept in contact through the occasional messages.
She wasn’t the only one to recognize them.
Everyone recognized them.
Elizabeth was the daughter of two royals for fuck's sake.
There was a moment of clamoring as everyone started to chatter, but Countess Sural froze. Margaret saw as her nails sharpened into claws before returning to their perfectly manicured human shape as she turned to Margaret. Her reaction was a moment faster than the rest of the nobility, but only by a moment.
It at least confirmed that Countess Sural had not been aware of the identities of the newest Ascenders, and had not only chosen to take Margaret under her wing because of that.
Her barely recognizable words only reinforced that belief. “Smile and nod, but agree to nothing.”
It was good advice, as every noble in the room turned to her like hounds who smelled blood.
The nearest Count was slower than Marquess Heartless, who seemed to teleport with how quickly he moved to Countess Sural’s circle. It was rude to move that fast at a party, but he was both the host and not the only one to do so— just the highest Tier and therefore fastest.
He smiled at Countess Sural, but stepped through her retreating entourage to stand before Margaret.
“Earlier you mentioned you had a cooperation with TrueMind and were looking to bring in a few higher Tier amenities to help their workers feel more at home. My personal chef just got an opening. Why don’t I send him your way? He can act as your chef and the Tier 30s' without issue.”
If Matt, someone born on her planet and someone who was known to care about his birth planet, hadn’t just been revealed as the Empire’s newest Ascender, she would have jumped on the offer.
Before she could speak, Countess Sural did so. “Baroness Thresh is still in shock and needs time to process such a generous offer after such a monumental change. As her liege, I’m sure she will look favorably upon your offer, my lord.” The Countesses' eyes swept the rest of the gathered nobles as she added, “Along with everyone else's very generous offers.”
That blunted the initial wave of nobles coming over to congratulate her, but it by no means stopped them. Just reminded them to be civilized.
The first five days of this party, she had been trying to just talk to someone and make some kind of deal which would benefit Lilly, but few had the time for her. Things had changed once she was taken under Countess Sural’s wing, but people were still hesitant to agree to anything long term or large in scale.
A few food producers who were willing to look into expanding into Lilly, a fellow baron who had a hand in the production of children’s toys, and best of all, a single viscount whose family was known for mass producing low Tier arms and armors. They weren’t the best items, nothing mass produced ever was, but weapons and armor were still expensive on Lily. In fact, most of them were imported from neighboring systems, despite her trying to raise a generation of crafters. Before this, the companies who had wanted to work on Lilly hadn’t wanted to include criteria that ensured they sold a portion of their goods locally. And if that wasn't in a contract, she would just be pulling money out of her people's pockets as their hard work went off-world.
Now? Now she had every noble bending over backwards to send their specializations to Lilly, happy to take massive short term losses.
It was incredible what could change in fifteen seconds.
Looking up, she looked to the now ignored hologram of Matt, Liz, and Aster receiving their writs of nobility.
She owed them everything.
She and Lilly both.
***
Agent Delta watched the shocked Baroness Thresh fend off noble advances from his vantage point in a small personal dimension only he could enter. He was just as shocked by the revelation of who the newest Ascenders had been, but it didn’t really affect him.
That his target was related to the Ascenders was interesting, but unimportant.
His job was normally to ensure the Emperor’s hand-appointed noble didn’t fall into any trouble, but with Countess Sural taking the girl under her wing, he expected to be reassigned in the near future.
He wasn’t surprised by the Countess's move; she was a hard-core loyalist despite being from a hereditary noble family.
Noting the change in situation to his superiors, Agent Delta waited and watched.
It took two minutes to get a response.
The Orchestra: Mission accomplished. Report to the recording studio for your debriefing.
Acknowledging the reply, Agent Delta flexed his Talent to appear outside the Marquess's estate. His range was limited, but even if it wasn’t, no one at the party would have seen him. He was far too good for that.
With the news of a set of new Ascenders, he wondered if he could be sent on spy hunting tasks.
He wondered if he had enough merits to force such a mission change.
The war was in full swing, and hunting enemy spies was the best way to contribute.
First, he’d have to see what his handlers had to say, but he suspected that they wanted to put him on another babysitting mission.
***
Director Helen sat in her office idly watching the children below celebrate the fact one of their own was completing the Path. The entire place had shut down for the event. No one was working. The rifts were empty. Food had been brought in from the mainland as the chefs had taken the day off like everyone else.
And it was a big day.
Helen agreed.
She just couldn’t find it in her to enjoy it.
She was tired, and felt every hour of her seven thousand years.
How many of these kids would even be alive next week? Ninety-nine percent? Ninety eight?
How many would be alive next month? Ninety five? Next year? Five years? Ten? Twenty? Fifty?
In fifty years, a full thirty percent would be dead.
She tried to pick them out. She couldn't tell the difference. They sure couldn't. But some of them were walking corpses and didn’t even know it.
And those odds were for the normal times, when these children only had Ascenders to look up to as distant figures. Movie stars, action heroes, larger than life images they dreamt of but nothing more.
But today… Today, Helen knew that these kids had a new set of idols. Idols they would feel they could reach out and touch. Idols who they believed they could become if they just worked hard enough. Delved that one extra rift. Lunged when their training said to back off and re-engage.
All things that would get them killed.
It wouldn’t be the first mistake that got them killed. No, they would do something risky once, survive, shake a little as the adrenaline pumped through their veins, then calm down. They would realize they had survived, and the next time they should hold back, they would be a little less hesitant to lunge.
They had survived once after all. Why not a second?
Why not a third?
That was when the risky behavior became common. Became second nature. Their first instinct was no longer to dodge but to lunge, and that was what got them killed.
It was simple statistics.
Find ten people and get them to flip a coin.
Statistically speaking, half of them would land on crowns and half on shields.
Take the five that flipped crowns and have them flip again.
Now you were down to two. Maybe a third.
Make those two flip again.
There were one in eight odds that one of the flippers had landed on crowns.
Even if they did, have that single person keep flipping their credit, and they would eventually land on a shield.
The Empire was flipping credits. They were looking for the children who could flip a credit a hundred times and have it land on crowns every time.
They were looking for that rare, lucky person who could beat the odds.
And if the Empire was just having children flip credits, that would be fine. But they weren’t. They were asking the children to bet their lives. Over and over again.
She had known all of this going in, she’d reached Tier 15 on The Path, but knowing and seeing were two different things.
The truth was far darker than the public liked to acknowledge.
And with an Ascension to drive recruitment and fervor, Helen knew that she'd be lucky if seventy percent of these children were alive in fifty years. The lucky ones would leave here and take a bad hit that scarred them physically and emotionally. The physical would be fixed with some credits, but the mental scarring would be harder to heal. Hopefully, it would keep them out of a rift for long enough for them to join a guild, which would limit their delving rates to something reasonable or push them into civilian life.
But she knew those would be the outliers. The anomalies. Anyone who made it this far in the Pather system was a little mad in the head. Willing to throw themselves into danger and enjoy it.
If she thought it would work, she would go down and rip the children's limbs off, but she knew that would only drive most of them to try and reach her power level.
She had needed to quit drinking in the first decade of this posting, but she wished she still drank at times like this.
Tea just didn’t have the same kick, and she wanted to drown her bleak thoughts.
But that was exactly why she had stopped drinking.
No matter how somber the occasion was, she couldn’t be drunk. The children needed her at her best. Deserved her at her best.
At least when she wasn’t hiding in her office like she was now.
Only two hundred and nineteen more years and she could escape this thousand year contract.
A thousand years of simply watching a PlayPen had seemed easy money after her delving team had gotten tired of the grind and broke up. She had such good memories of her time on the Path, she thought it would be like a vacation.
What a joke.
She contemplated shutting down the rifts for the next week and sighed. She had done so when Light and Shadow had completed the Path, but she wasn’t sure it had stopped eager kids from killing themselves, as she had hoped. There had still been a spike when she reopened the rifts, despite everything.
Helen just wanted to shake these kids and make them see reason.
But that wasn’t her job.
Her job was to watch the slaughterhouse and ensure it ran smoothly.
And she was good at it.
She had to be.
A better run PlayPen had fewer deaths in both the short and long term.
The better she did her job, the fewer children died.
That might have been the worst part of this job.
If she left her PlayPen to someone else, they would be worse, and the consequences for that would be more dead kids. Replacements were hard to find. People either burnt out like she was, or turned into bitter, angry assholes who disregarded the kids' lives. The Tribunal monitored the former, but they didn’t allow the latter.
Those who cared too much were better in the long term than the opposite.
She could do two hundred more years so a competent replacement could replace her.
She had to.
For the endless stream of this planet's children.
Once this was over, she could go spend a decade in a pleasure world and recover. The Tribunal would ensure she recovered, it was part of the contract she had scoffed at before, but was now eternally grateful for. If she didn’t have a therapist ready on demand, she would have fallen apart in the first decade.
She just wished the Empire didn’t need Ascenders.
But they did.
She was a Tier 20, she had access to most of the EmpireNet and could see the war feeds. Even with two sets of Ascenders, things weren’t good. A third Ascender would help, but a fourth would help more.
So they had to keep having children flip credits.
Helen idly used her spiritual sense to watch the screen and the kids' reactions.
When she first saw the redhead, she nodded. Daughter of nobles, nothing she had to worry about, but she froze at the boy.
Matthew Alexander, now Matthew Moore. Aster Alexander.
She didn’t need the information feeds to tell her who they were. She knew them. She remembered all the foolish ones who came to her attention. They deserved for at least one person to remember their brief lives before they were lost in the annals of history.
Young Matthew had been foolish enough to run headlong into a rift challenge like he was the next coming of Duke Waters, and then an idiot healer tried to steal his egg bond. Griff had taken care of the situation, but she had still been informed and reviewed the incident.
Helen had pegged the boy as one who was going to lunge when he should have retreated one too many times and die.
She had been right.
At least half way right.
He was one who learned that lunging forward worked. He just also happened to be the one that had his credit land on crowns the full hundred times.
As the children down below started to cheer and rave about how someone who had come through the very halls they lived in was now completing The Path of Ascension, Helen wanted to vomit.
That was not the lesson they should be learning.
She’d be lucky if fifty percent of these kids were alive in a decade.
She could read it in their eyes. In their elevated heartbeats. In the cocktail of hormones, their brains were dumping into their bodies. They knew they were going to be the next Matthew Alexander.
It terrified Helen.
Terrified her to her cores.
***
Matthew stood in the bar with his wife, Elizabeth, cradled in his arms.
Her curly hair poked at his chin as she shifted to get out of the way of someone trying to get to the restroom and nearly knocked the almost empty beer out of her hands.
The bar was packed, but they didn’t mind the closeness.
Pressing a kiss to the top of her head, he laughed as his best friend Eddy made a face and shouted over the chatter, “Get a room you two!”
Elizabeth flipped Eddy the middle finger. “We will after this while you go home to little Miss Lefty.”
Eddy shrugged. “I’m sure I can find someone to take me to their home instead. I’m not picky.”
That was true, Matthew well knew. His friend had always been a playboy, which had made their friendship odd to most outsiders.
They had been friends through thick and thin, from diapers to adulthood.
Elizabeth squeezed his hand and Matthew lowered his drink for his wife to sip on as he saw her drink was empty. There was no way they were getting to the front of the bar now.
They tried to shout to chat with Eddy, but it was impossible with the bustle of the bar.
For low Tier 2s like them, this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and they didn’t want to spend it in their apartments. They wanted to be among the people, even if most of their friend group was off at the capital of Verlun at the much larger parties.
They had been invited, but Matthew and Elizabeth were more homebodies, and so had declined. Eddy had stuck with them like he always did.
Friends like that were rare.
Matthew chanted along with everyone as the countdown to the face reveal and cheered with everyone else as it happened.
Then he froze as he read the names and felt his pad vibrate.
He also felt Elizabeth’s through their pressed-together bodies.
He saw Eddy’s light up.
He didn’t need to read the message to know what the contents said.
Eddy, thank his heart, was as cool as a cucumber and casually flipped his pad over while hitting the silence button before slipping it into his pocket. His easy grin never even wavered.
Matthew tried to keep the panic down as he started to hyperventilate, and he could feel Elizabeth doing the same, but Eddy slipped in next to them from around the table and hugged them. He whispered in his and Elizabeth's ear, “Play it cool. No reactions. We stay for half an hour, then leave. Do it all with a smile.”
Matthew felt like he was going to be sick, and he felt Elizabeth squeezing his hand painfully hard, but they nodded.
As people cheered and laughed, the three of them joined in the joking.
He almost shit himself when someone remarked how low the odds were that Matthew and Elizabeth shared a name with the newest Ascenders.
When that revelation was known, the entire bar had toasted them.
Someone even remarked how they should have bet at one of the gambling houses.
They laughed it off, and Matthew didn’t know how his voice didn’t stutter as he agreed it was a shame.
When they finally left, they quickly hailed a taxi; this was a nicer part of town, which meant it was one of the automated ones that let the three of them finally react.
The moment they were alone Matthew slumped, Elizabeth pulled her hair so hard her hands shook, while Eddy repeatedly said, “What the fuck!?”
He kept repeating those same three words until they got back to Matthew and Elizabeth’s apartment.
The world seemed to sit still as they sat on the couch and clustered around Matthew’s pad and the displayed message from The Odd One Out gambling hall.
The blue and red logo loomed large in their faces. Matthew had seen their logo for the last three years any time he watched a show or movie. They were a betting house that was trying to get people to gamble on the newest Ascenders identities.
Eddy had brought beer and pizza over one night, and when their ads had come up Elizabeth had sneered at it. She’d called out how the odds were impossible to get right with how many people the gambling house was allowing bets on, which meant they were basically stealing from anyone who bet.
Eddy, a little drunk, had navigated to the site and brought up the number of available bets. Over ten thousand. And that was just locally, at one gambling house.
Jokingly, he searched for his name and bemoaned that there weren't any Eddy’s in the running. He then searched for Matthew, and all three of them were shocked to discover there was a Matthew and Elizabeth pair in the betting pool.
Out of curiosity, more than anything, they had looked into the pair because, what were the odds? A married couple like them but, unlike them, royalty. According to the The Odd One Out gambling hall, the only reason they were on the list was they were the right age, known former Pathers, and the wife, Elizabeth, was a phoenix. Nothing else matched the new Ascender duo, but that slim connection was enough for people to want to bet the odds.
Eddy had laughingly said, “We might as well put some money down with the coincidence. What can it hurt? Let's throw a few credits into the pot.”
The odds had been astronomically low, but here they were looking at three identical life-changing messages.
‘Congratulations: The Odd One Out gambling hall has declared you a winner. Payout: two hundred quattuordecillion credits.’
Comments
-Sanguine-
What in the credit Fuck 😂😂😂 loved this chapter
Donan The Barbarian
Probably did mean clause of an artist as tierism is legally banned in almost all cases in the Empire with the apparent exception of 'artist making something as small as they can for the challenge'
ThymEnough
I think you meant "guise of an artist" and not "clause of an artist"
J A.D
Nice chapter, thanks!
John Rogerson
What’s that in mana stones
47 zeros. it says 200 quattuordecillion
PoeticSaint
...... my brain malfunctioned.
Owen Kaz
take the number 2 ADD FORTY FIVE ZEROS FORTY. FIVE.
PoeticSaint
What 𝑰𝑺 that number!?
Quixotic
was this the last echos chapter?
Violet
If I ran the Empire I wouldn't change anything, because of the actual critical point here: The intrinsic logic of a cultivation setting prevents the right thing from being done. Call that "nature" if you will (although I think the metaphysics of "nature" are philosophical laziness), but the point is that a cultivation setting must produce tyranny. One person or a few people are capable of exceeding the power of billions of others. In such a setting, all societies will be built on the principle of tyranny. In the real world, we have a counterbalance to tyranny in the form of "go too far and get Qaddafi'd", because a few thousand people can still tear you limb from limb if you give them reason. In a cultivation setting, the power to just kill those with power if they go too far no longer exists, and thus all societies have no element of counterbalance.
Eidetic Eidolon
I do need to point out that most of ya'll are forgetting about nature. For us, it's overcome easily (at least on a local scale) and forgotten about (until our actions bring about global-warming). But we don't have rifts that spew man-eating monsters. Once you factor that in, the production of immortal fighters is necessary to replace those immortal fighters who will ultimately die in humanity's defense. You gotta imagine that it took humanity, in the PoA world - just as in our world, a long time to get to the point where they could spare effort and manpower from their eternal scrabble for bare subsistence and monster repulsion to having the post-scarcity society and war as sport that most in the PoA universe seem to so enjoy. Once any world in the realm loses the number of at-tier fighters needed for their rifts, they are thrown right back into a struggle just to exist.
James Van Riper
I feel like Agent Delta's job just got upgraded not finished. There should be a whole planetary protection team taking over. After all, Matt is if not officially the Duke of Lilly he is very much unofficially the Duke of Lilly and if someone could stir up trouble there it would reflect on Matt.
SinCinnamon
We need a specific Alyssa
Alex
Maybe Kelley, their crafter friend from the vassal war
Isley
good chappie lol
DasGoat622
Can you clarify if it is 1 Tier 25 mana stone or 3 Tier 25 mana stones. Considering that all 3 got messages it would stand to reason that all 3 placed individual bets.
C_Mantis
A Tier 25 mana stone.
DasGoat622
What’s that in mana stones?
DasGoat622
It’s not an orphanage anymore it was turned into a school once all the orphans were placed or aged out. It became more like an academy for poor kids.
Stephen Weinberg
The PoA universe has scarcity. The main scarce resources: Mana, skilled people (cultivators will useful skills), high value land, and the time of unique people (Talent or Domain which can do stuff no others can). Food is also not completely post-scarcity because food comes from somewhere. It requires skilled people, rifts, and a bit of mana (to power and enchant automatons) to produce the food. You need a functioning society and economy to produce the food, even in the empire. The empire has comprehensive social programs which provide food, healthcare, etc to those in need. Those programs cost a lot in Mana and skilled people (such as healers). These are paid for with taxes that are mostly paid by immortals. The vast majority of mortals never delve and never become immortals. So they are already being pretty decent. The secret to the empire's success is providing these services and protection (from immortals) to increase the number of mortals resulting in more immortals. Also, circling back to the note about fighters... those are unfortunately needed too. When you have scarce resources, others will want to take them for themselves. That isn't cultivation logic, that is just human nature. Even if most people are good people, if they don't learn to fight, the few bad guys will and then they will take the good guy's stuff. If you ran the empire, what would you change?
Violet
See, that's just capitalist realism you're using now. A decent society does not need a reason to ensure post-scarcity. It just does it.
William Johnson
I would guess that the next day, if not the next minute, some nice tier 15 from the local government probably stopped by to discuss how they wanted to manage their economy wrecking wealth. We've seen that the Empire is pretty careful about that, I'd imagine they won't take the money but they'll probably make it very easy to spend in ways that don't utterly devalue credits for an entire world.
C_Mantis
IDK. I have no set limit for these chapters. I'm just writing until I run out of ideas.
Vayash
Would love to see Matt and Liz reaction to finding out people bet one them, then finding out its their relationship dopplegangers
Stephen Weinberg
I never said immortals are only good for fighting. They make great chefs, enchanters, etc. My point isn't that the PoA universe needs strong people to fight, it is that the weaker people have effectively no exports and provide little value to the immortals. An immortal is not going to value the food produced by a T5 chef. A T4 therapist is unlikely to be able to help an immortal through their 200 year depression. A T7 mining expert is useless when an AI and automatons can work quicker (or a high tier could snap their fingers and mine an entire planet in a moment). Mortals are useful to immortals because they have the potential to become immortals (especially if they have a great Talent) and contribute to immortal society. Farming is automated only after delvers go in and kill everything in the rift. Even still the automations need to be built and maintained. Ongoing work is needed by higher tier individuals to keep resources available. Even still, as far as I can tell the empire does provide the basic necessities. No one goes hungry. Health care is free, etc. So from that perspective, I guess they are already post scarcity? Even with that though, if the empire allowed everything to be provided by immortals, it would likely lead to the collapse of mortal society. People who can't contribute lose self meaning which leads to unhappy people and societal decay. The main thing mortals have is the ability to contribute to each other and form a society among other mortals.
Violet
Okay, so, first of all, the Malthusian economics there are just wrong. People don't multiply exponentially. Basic resources are almost never constrained by population. I have to actively suspend disbelief to even believe the population of the Empire grows, given what we know about population growth in sufficiently wealthy societies. Second, we've seen the production process for most staple goods, and it is almost entirely automated. Delving itself is separately profitable to higher Tiers, because it produces mana stones, and delving is the only thing needed to permit those automated resource extraction processes to occur. Third, you've reiterated the point I was making, which was that the logic of cultivation worlds prevents great societies from developing. You only need more immortals because the logic of the cultivation world (specifically, the need for high Tier fighters) demands them. In the absence of the presence of the threat of other cultivators, there is no reason not to have a post-scarcity society because the cost of providing one is next to nonexistent.
Stephen Weinberg
@Serran, I suspect the cost of carries after tier 15 go up way faster than the value of manastones. After tier 15, just getting time in a rift becomes expensive due to how few of them exist.
Stephen Weinberg
There is also aura, but I agree, it is going to be too expensive to purchase. They can probably buy enough essence stones or carries to get them up to T14. Then it is on them to find their concept before time runs out.
Stephen Weinberg
It is equivalent to a Tier 25 mana stone. So you can use that for perspective. A T35 would scoff, a T25 would consider it a reasonable amount but not life changing. A T15 would murder you for it.
Stephen Weinberg
"Purposefully withholding post-scarcity economics in order to drive more people into the dangerous career of delving". I would argue this is not true. Post-scarcity only exists in the PoA universe if you are both at least tier 15 and are happy to live inside a virtual world tuning out reality. Before you reach that point, you need food, air, living space, and if you want to live longer, you need rifts. People multiply exponentially. While food, air, and living space can all be created with the judicial application of high tier worker's time and mana, those are both severely limited resources. If the high tiers did everything for the lower tier, the lower tiers would become effectively pets. Their lives would lose meaning and whatever they came up with to replace that meaning would not be good. Less people would delve which would make increasing the higher tiers impossible. The unfortunate reality is that as far as I can tell, the only value provided by lower tiers to immortals is potential to become more immortals. They can also be used as play things/pets. Thankfully we haven't really seen that much. The mortals have no export that they can trade to immortals for things with the exception of growth weapons.
David Lund
Remember this was an intro bet on a low tier world. One purpose of the betting was to ensure there were not legitimate rumors coming from somewhere in the empire. A Tier 30 mana stone, or 300M (or some other number) is nothing to the emporer compared finding out if there are people who really new Matt and Elizabeth were ascenders. If additional bets only gave say a tier 10 stone this is certainly a good lost leader.
Nicholas Williams Chamarro
"All ships lead to Alexandria"
Rhys Rathbun
Its probably in the trillions minimum and just because there were 10k options doesn't mean they were all weighted the same. some would have had better odds that others. Matt and Liz were seen as a very unlikely option included only because it was not impossible for it to be them. Real life example There are 32 teams in the NFL Right now I can get +100000 odds on the Giants or the Patriots to win the superbowl. Theoretically it is possible but obviously not going to happen. In an event with 10k plus options I can see you getting pretty astronomical odds for the people most thought were incuded as formality. Especially if the higher tiers who think they know better are wagering large amounts of high tier mana stones on other contestants pushing the line.
Thanks for the chapter! <3
Caelum
Name every city Alexandria
Stephen Weinberg
I still think the empire would look down on a Tier 2 on a low tier planet being handed a tier 25 manastone. He could buy his entire planet. Is he going to be limited in his spending like an immortal would be as long as he stays on a low tier planet? That is an interesting idea.
Andrew K
Odds that high could maybe make sense if we assume that the betters were progressively more likely (presumably on account of general impact of age/experience) to engage in serious consideration before betting, with the really long-shot bets only getting attention from the younger (on average) low-tier crowd.
Nathan Victor McGraw
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
Nathan Victor McGraw
200 followed by 45 zeros I had to look it up haven’t even seen that term since college
Haikaiko
Remember that Venezuela circulated trillion dollar bills, and that's in recent history. Credits are a regulated currency, and considering most delvers don't even bother with them past T2 or so, probably subject to some fairly extreme value fixing. Or in short, a T25 mana stone is only valuable to delvers in the T20-24 range, to everyone else that's either "pocket change" or "more money than you'll ever need ever again, even if you live forever." And for mortals, expressing what a T25 mana stone that was likely just a rounding error to the betting house (sir, what do you want to do about the bets made in credits? Lowest bet was 10 credits, eh, what's the smallest stone we have on hand, just give them that and convert it to credits), IS a ridiculous number.
Stephen Weinberg
With 200e45 credits, they could like pay delving teams to power level them to tier 15 to become immortals. Not sure it would be enough to pay for enough aura or whatever to get their concepts. That would be on them.
Stephen Weinberg
I don't think the winnings at the end are reasonable. 1:1e45 odds is insane even in the PoA universe. How does such odds happen?
Jeppe Fiig
XD the hell even is a quattuordecillion and love the story about those three friends winning the grand Prize
Havokk
okay seriously love the winnings just based on the names. The first thing Baroness Thresh should do is rename the capital of Lily to Alexander in honor of Matt and Aster, if not the capital then at least hi hometown, and ofcourse declare a planetary holiday
Preston
These chapters are so snackable. I can't wait to see Price Albert / Sarah / Juni's reaction. I feel like we never got to see how their story ended and Albert was in desperate need of a happy ending.
Cindercon
Yeah, but they can turn some credits into mana stones, and essence stones and then tier up until they can purchase more and more. If my math is correct its essentially 64 Billion Tier 20 mana stones. They could literally ride that fortune from Tier 2 near immortality without actually delving, either through paying for carries or essence stones.
Mistfate
Would be funny to see those. But I would also enjoy getting to see the two leaders of the army and where they are now.
Pawaidan
I love the last one the most.
0x0F
What is that in mana stones?
Alex
Technically as soon as you awaken you're considered an adult. It is weird seeing that age at 14 instead of 18. 18 is so ingrained in our culture. 14 is young. But they all still chose to join the Path. Nobody forces anybody. Still sad to see them die. Usually even on the Path they only fight rift monsters for quite a few years though. By the time they're fighting humans, if they do at all, they're proper adults. (truthfully I am more concerned with Cammies story. After awakening you're an adult, that includes prostitution. I can deal with little kids killing mindless monsters, some kids in real life go hunting too. Little kids doing legal prostitution feels way worse.)
Alex
A chapter on the King after Mara sentenced him to terraforming duty. He already pissed off Mara and now her kid is an Ascender? Serves him right. (and the Queen may realize that maybe the person that hurt her wasn't hired by Mara and Leon, though her assumption that she got hurt because Liz was part of the war was still right, just for the wrong reasons. It wasn't cause Liz was a princess, it was cause Liz had a Manager.
Jonathan Campbell
Mantis can also remove any ambiguity with 2 words, by adding 'just after' right before wedding
wanderer117
'At a gathering like this, with just the marquess's direct reports, things were far more manageable, thus she could work to repair her undeserved reputation.' ... 'Margaret hadn’t known her reputation was so damaged as to need repairing, but followed along with the rest of Countess Sural’s entourage as the Countess took her from noble to noble starting with Marquess Heartless.' So At a gathering like this, with just the marquess's direct reports, things were far more manageable, thus she could work to repair her undeserved reputation. should be At a gathering like this, with just the marquess's direct reports, things were far more manageable, thus she could work to improve her undeservedly bellow average reputation.
Violet
The Empire is generally better in terms of the three things you list, however it is also: - A feudal state of houses willingly harming one another (and thus one another's holdings, thus people) to get ahead. - Purposefully withholding post-scarcity economics in order to drive more people into the dangerous career of delving - Full of guilds that we have repeatedly seen behaving with incredible corruption. - A patron state to even worse protectorates which don't meet its own standards. - Still a dictatorship Yes, the Empire isn't a total hellhole (except to the degree that it continues to produce Lillys - it's unclear at what rate that happens, though) and my "slightly" is an entirely subjective assertion based on my own measures of what a state is obligated to do are. But any measure, whether we say 'significantly better' or 'slightly better' is going to be subjective based on what we think 'good enough' looks like.
austin kutz
Still credits and therefore only useful for mortals. I doubt you can buy too many immortal materials or skills with just credits.
Evernap
During MAL training they were shown how to get into specific rifts and rift instances. Was very difficult. Now imagine across multiple instances x rifts x people.
Tsorov
While i do agree that the "good guys" in this story aren't necessary pure good, i disagree with that they are only slightly less awful. Yes they risk their youths in the path of ascension, but in the end it is their own decision to risk their lives. The other aspects of the empire (public protection of citizens, advancment chances, tler discrimination) are far better than what we have seen in the sects, the clans and i thinkjthe federation (rune soldier program, mortal worlds).
TheFallingWhale
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000
1FantasyFanatic
Great Chapter. I really appreciated the emotional dark side of the Path.
Evernap
Now to go bet it on black and double it.
Mistfate
Still really want to see Talous and the queendom v kingdom war people. I want need to know what happened to those people after the war. Loving the echo chapters. Definitely some of my favorite side content.
Dylan Alexander
I literally just realised that the Empire creates child soldiers/killers. Crazy.
Panzer
I REALLY want a follow up some day of the lotto couple!! Also Id like to get some context on how rich that actually is. Would a T25 scoff at it? T35? Edit: ah nvm i see it answered above
Observer Whimsy
Yes, but we know very few characters directly affected by the war, and have seen almost none of the consequences of the war. I expect setbacks and death in a story with stakes like this, hence brutal.
Alex
They aren't the only ones that gambled though. Billions did. And with only 10k+ options, a fair share should've landed on Matt and Liz. And some would've gambled higher amounts than some random T2s. If the T2s already get a T25 stone, what are those gonna get that gambled with a T10 stone or sth. Sure they are big, but a lot of big companies have pretty thin margins
Dominic Harney
It’s a interesting contrast. The empire and its allies know the cost and make the participants aware of the odds but give them the choice. The republic hides most of the rest of reality from it’s citizens so they live in ignorance. The sects throw their pathers into a pit and expect them to be grateful. The feds get thrown into the pit with fire and don’t even get a glance from the higher tiers.
Corwin
I'd love to see the response of the people from the vassal wars to Matt and Liz ascending. It would be amusing.
Revan694
I think the gambling company is a multi world enterprise. Tier 2 people gambling a few credits are probably rounding errors to them. They won a single tier 25 mana stone, which is great for them, but when you consider that delving a single tier 25 rift makes a person multiple mana stones. It becomes someones change at a higher tier. I doubt the company even felt the loss.
Violet
It's always nice to see someone inside the Empire who doesn't see the Empire and the Path through the same lens as Matt. Helen's abject horror at the children she is sending off to die feels like a good reminder that even the 'good guys' of a cultivation setting are only ever slightly less awful than their counterparts. The Empire's bet on the law of large numbers coming through for them is a guarantee that there will be an even larger number of failures.
Nemelor
Love last story part
Alex
"In Britain, however, under the influence of American usage, the short scale came to be increasingly used. In 1974, Prime Minister Harold Wilson confirmed that the government would use the word billion only in its short scale meaning (one thousand million). Apparently even British English doesn't do the extra steps anymore. (in German it's still Millionen, Milliarde, Billionen, Billiarde, Trillionen, Trilliarde.... Long scale, took some getting used to seeing billion as only 1000 millions when I was learning English)
Istyatur Elestel
It is. IIRC what makes the empires different is it's size; most paths are significantly more selective for initial applicants, which means it has a corrisondingly higher body count.
zenot funr
Actually I think it is more of a crazy payout because unlike a tier 25 they probably won't be hit by the huge increase in cost for lower tier items so they're purchasing power will vastly exceed a tier 25 stone in a tier 25s hands right?
Alex
It could probably be enough to hire carry teams, possibly enough for carry teams up to T15. The concept will be the biggest bottleneck. Ascensions are rare, Minkalla is almost suicidal and shards of reality should be quite a bit more expensive than T25.
Anime Problem
Or 1 mana stone
Joshua Jernigan
Fair enough I just remember Luna saying that their honeymoon was over and using it as a jump off point to have them publicly step off the path
Alex
Yes? It said that they hadn't been to Lilly since the wedding. I guess technically the honeymoon isnt part of the wedding itself, but its close enough.
Rhys Rathbun
🤣🤣🤣 love betting on the people with the same name as them
Thomas Brusilovsky
That sounds like a lot of credits lmao
DisgruntleFairy
How many of these chapters are we going to get? Because I'm really enjoying them.
Alex
I guess, that would be how to safely do it. I just keep thinking of horse racing or sth where they will give you specific odds at the time you buy your ticket. In that case the house is totally able to loose. Playing it safe on a larger scale is probably smart. But the gambling house could've also gambled? If nobody on their list became the ascender they could keep all the money. Or if someone with bad odds won, they'd still get a hefty profit. And considering a lot of Ascenders are nobodies, that would a valid choice. Light and shadow got their managers at T5 and they hadn't done anything impressive on a large scale up till then. Their parents were nobodies. Chances are nobody was gambling on them cause nobody knew who they were. They were just random path kids who disappeared at T5. There's millions of them.
Joshua Jernigan
I swear they stopped by lily after the honeymoon to sponsor a tournament for the young kids.
Jonathan Campbell
Wow ok so is the empire using US or UK reconning for that number? Because apparently to US reconning it would be 200 with another 45 zeros after it where in the UK it would be 84 zeros. I have no idea how or why that discrepancy exists and I don't feel up to doing the research to find out right now.
brennon Petersen
Tftc!
J
No reason not to; gambling like this they basically just take a cut of everything put in and then pay out based on the % of people who voted each option. People of all Tiers participated, so if Matt and Liz only had say 2% (which is probably very overestimated given how unlikely they were considered) of people bet on them, that 2% of bettors get the whole pot minus the gambling house's cut split based on their bets. I'd say the huge payout for a few credits bet just shows the massive amount of wealth that was gambled in general; some people with higher bets probably got truly ridiculous payouts. The Great Powers in this universe are insanely huge and gambling on something like this would apply to all Tiers pretty equally.
Revan694
Things have already been pretty brutal in the war... It's a war... I thought that was obvious. I mean Matt, Liz, and Aster have killed a lot of people already, just with their first two battles. The author just doesn't portray it in a grisly way, which I appreciate, it's not the theme of the series.
Alex
I misread, over 10K available bets, not 1K. And as T2s they would've probably had some money, so maybe throw 100K credits at the bet? Matt's T1 rift slot he was saving up for was 10K. Still very impressive odds. 1T25 mana stone isn't all that much by itself, but there have got to be a bunch of people who just randomly picked someone to bet on, and those add up. (once again, gambling maths is complicated, but I get the feeling that the gambling company may have made a loss with such an underdog with crazy odds winning. It happens :))
Alex
The Path equivalent in every nation is filled with blood isn't it? I only remember the sects, they have mandatory big fate battles every two tiers after T5 that only end when at least half the young masters are dead. Usually more than half cause staying longer can lead to opportunities and prizes. I doubt whatever Path equivalent the Republic has is any safer than the empires. Probably less bloody than the sects, but everyone is less bloody than the sects
sambee
It’s a real number. It’s 1 exp 45 in the US and 1 exp 84 in Great Britain.
Sezra_
Thanks a bunch! ʕ•ᴥ•ʔゞ゛
Serran
That is a lot of money. Not anything compared to what MAL have to throw around but for someone below a Tier where they can seriously try for an Intent it is basically all the money. I always had the general Idea that a Manastone of any given Tier between 5 and maybe 40 is enough for you to pay for you being carried to 5 Tiers below the stone. Is that an accurate estimation? Poor Helen, she really has a point that this is barbaric. Until now I thought maybe that at least in the Playpen there would be a Fail save like what happened to the Team that overestimated themself at the Tier 10 tournament. For all that the Empire is at least passable this is still a Cultivation world. With all the bodycount implied by not being a MC. On happier news, the reaction of the party with Baroness Margaret Thresh was everything I was hoping for. Alongside everything that is wrong with heridatory nobility. So not as much happier news only less sad one.
Chris Fey
There’s still another generation there now. That’s who I want to see.
C_Mantis
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Credits. or 1 Tier 25 mana stone so really its not even that crazy high of a payout.
Alex
They're dead. Most likely anyway. They were already old and only T2/3 more than a century ago when Matt visited before the tournament. I suppose the school may still be standing, but the director as well as the caretaker are both gonna be dead.
C_Mantis
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Credits. or 1 Tier 25 mana stone
Alex
Would the gambling houses really give people trillion to one odds if they only offer 1000 options? They're T2, so I doubt they would've had a ton of money to spend on gambling. Making a fortune, sure, but this seems like way too impressive odds. (then again, who knows what maths was involved in making the odds)
Miguel Canarte
That last echo had me laughing
Mario Morales
To be paid out over the next 10,000 years.
William Johnson
A one with 45 zeroes if you're curious, that's a lot of funny money!
William Johnson
Great section from Helen, and I think it also kind of jives with Janet from the Republic's thoughts back in chapter 278. The Empire's success with the path really is built on rivers of blood, even if it is offered willingly. Also loved the section from other Matt and Liz, I wonder how much two hundred quattuordecillion credits is in mana stones. Like, one tier 30 stone? The conversion table on the wiki only goes to tier 15 and I am way too lazy to do more than napkin math. I guess they're not going to be tier 2 for long!
Austin
Really enjoying these echo chapters thanks! Excited to maybe see some reactions after the recent battles.
Azulmar
Its totally a real number. Its equal to one matcoin which is the value of one Matt sized stone of crystallized mana 😉
Kacoo
Thanks Mantis, knew I should have just refreshed the comments! 🤣
Accio123
LFMAO THE GAMBLING HALL PAYOUT
Sam Duralde
That's gotta be enough to get past tier 15. These people lucked into a literally immortal amount of money.
Namorat
Oh, that ending 😂
C_Mantis
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Credits. or 1 Tier 25 mana stone
Kacoo
Love these echos chapters. There is just such base value I find in them. In terms of Mana stones what is 200 quattuordecillion? Or was it just an unthinkable large number
C_Mantis
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Credits. or 1 Tier 25 mana stone
Sam Duralde
It works out to $2*10^47
Tucker Glick
Hmmm instead of seeing if that’s a real number I’m just going to assume that’s a very very large amount and move on
John Balman
Hahaha winners
Derze
For those wondering two hundred quattuordecillion is 200 followed by 45 zeros. So 10^45 Ridiculously high number Edit: it’s equivalent to a Single T25 mana stone (C.Mantis answered on discord)
Authorii
All numbers are made up
James Faulkner
Tftc!
Discordian23
1 tier 25 mana stone.
Jason Hatter
It actually is a real number. https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quattuordecillion#:~:text=quat%C2%B7%E2%80%8Btu%C2%B7%E2%80%8Bor,zeros%20see%20Table%20of%20Numbers
Chris Fey
There will be lots of hometown pride and a realization who had been funding them
C_Mantis
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Credits. or 1 Tier 25 mana stone
C_Mantis
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Bob Bryan
They were only tier 3 and 4. Not to mention older. They might not be alive anymore.
Marco Zorbach
Depends, are you using American or British English?
C_Mantis
200,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Credits. or 1 Tier 25 mana stone but the number makes a larger impact lol.
Gavin
Oh that payout tho 😯
Anton Selling
😂 unknown Number of credits levels of winnings are insane
Ryan Berends
Damn I need a conversation rate to mana stones please. Lol
Observer Whimsy
Love Helen’s reaction. I forgot her name was also Helen, so it threw me a bit, but it was awesome. We have seen detractors of the Path outside the empire, but it’s interesting to see someone so invested responding that way. I hope things get brutal in the war.
Fake Name
quattuordecillion has 2 definitions: Is that the 1 followed by 45 0's or the 1 followed by 84 0's?
Charlie Staner
What a time to be named Matthew and Elizabeth? Lol
Chris Fey
Poor Helen. I wanna see the former orphanage next.
Bob Bryan
That's not a real number, you made that up.
Ryan Berends
Thanks for the chapter!
william wallace
Sweet
