Luke danced backwards, keeping out of the Time Slime’s range as he thought about how to kill it. Its magic was unlike any he had seen before and he wracked his mind for something he hadn’t thought of before.

  First he tried combining attacks, Phantom Shot and Fireball, Acid bolt and Lightning ball. It didn’t work. Every time the attacks hit, the monster would die, but then reverse time and be completely whole again.

  He tried physical damage next, hitting it with his chainsword and ice hammer. Neither worked. Or rather, they killed the monster spectacularly and sent slime splashing everywhere, but then the monster reversed time and was whole again. He did notice that the spots on his armor where the droplets of acid hit weren’t repaired. The monster could only reverse time for itself, not the world around it.

  That gave him an idea. He fired off another Phantom Shot, and then as it died, Luke fired off an Acidbolt. This time, he sent the second shot behind it, to the ground where it had been a moment before. When the monster reversed time and bounced backwards, it landed into the pool of acid Luke had temporarily created.

  The magic acid ate away at the slime and killed it again. The monster’s instinctive magic activated again, and sent it jumping forward through time. This time, when it landed, it was immediately torn apart. Luke hadn’t fired a third shot, but the time magic still replicated the injury. When it died, it bounced backwards again, burning up once more.

  The slime bounced back and forth between deaths. Luke would feel guilty if it had enough cognition to feel the agony of constant death. He sat there and watched it run through the loop over and over again. He glanced around to make sure no other monster was coming near their camp.

  After dozens of deaths, the monster’s innate magic must have run out. It died and stayed dead. A small tier one core coalesced above the dripping slime. Luke plucked it out and made sure it was clean before tucking it away. He wondered if he could make something cool with it. Kruro had mentioned once that there was a different branch of runic crafting that used the elemental magics the monster cores still had. It was an entirely different process than the runework he was used to, but it would be fun to learn something new.

  He walked back to the center of the camp and resumed watch. It was a boring night. No other monsters approached and Luke couldn’t pass the time by reading or playing on his phone. He spent some of the night practicing his bond with his prosthetic leg, circulating his internal mana to replicate the rune that allowed him to retain his buff even when he was out of his mech. One of these days he would be grateful he practiced.

  Eventually, his shift ended and he crawled into bed. He noticed that Bosa woke up when he entered the tent, but pretended to keep sleeping. Apparently she didn’t trust him yet. He ignored her and drifted off to sleep.

  The next morning started shortly before the sun rose. Bosa snuck out of the tent, waking him. Jinx was snuggled up to Luke, her head resting on his chest. So cute. He decided to wait before he got up, just enjoying the moment. Even though she was huge now, she was still a housecat at heart.

  Bosa called him when breakfast was ready. She packed up the tents while the lords and Luke ate. He felt a little weird being waited on like that, but he was trying to build up a reputation in Kalibutan society. He might as well start practicing it now.

  “We’ll be passing through two dangerous areas today, the acrid canyon and the queen’s forest,” Momoh said as he skewered a vegetable roll and used it to point towards the path. “We can’t afford to stop as often today as we did yesterday. If you need assistance during your shift, Luke of Machines, just ask. I suspect my nephew and I will be pressed into service several times today.”

  “It gets worse? How do the wagon trains get to and from the portal if it’s that dangerous?” Luke asked. He picked up a slice of pickled monster meat as they talked.

  “They choose stealth over speed. The mundane wagons sneak along, doing their best to avoid attention of the stronger monsters. For weaker monsters they have crossbows and special bolts.”

  “And that works? We saved a wagon train yesterday, their stealth clearly wasn’t good enough.”

  “One of the reasons lords do not sneak as they travel is so that we can kill pests and make it easier for them. But do not pity them. They succeed more often than not. I would say at least four fifths of the wagon trains arrive at their destinations.”

  “That’s not great odds. I’m not sure I would want to join a wagon train that had a twenty percent chance of death. Do they have to force people to be merchants, like an alternative to jail or something?”

  “Of course not. People vie for slots on the trading wagons. It is a dangerous job, but one comparatively well paid.”

  Luke shook his head slowly, aware that the gesture wouldn’t translate. “It sounds like life in the cities is a desperate struggle for the bare necessities and people will take any risk to get out of that life. Sounds like a pretty shitty Empire if people are literally dying to leave it.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Imohi scowled and put down his dish. “How dare you besmirch the great name of the Empire of the Rising Dawn! I could challenge you to a duel for that slander.”

  Momoh put a hand on his young nephew’s shoulder. “Calm yourself, Provisional Lord Imohi. You won’t be able to lose the provisional if you explode at every incendiary comment. Use this time with an irritating human to practice your calm demeanor. You will have to work with idiots and ferrets if you want to secure all six votes during the shuffle. Politics is self control.”

  Luke bristled at being called irritating. The corner of Momoh’s mouth twitched up.

  Momoh continued. “I understand how this must seem from the outside, Luke of Machines. You see the easy life the aristocratic class has and contrast that with the desperate lives that the lowest class lives. There is a great disparity.

  “What you don’t see is that our culture has many strata. We all earn a higher place through effort and risk. The lowest class risks death, true, but success means advancing to a better life. A joyful struggle is better than a hopeless trudge. As I understand it, most people in your world have lives full of drudgery.”

  Luke slashed his hands down. “I wouldn’t say most have a life of drudgery. And almost none of them risk their lives. Even our military, people whose job it is to fight, have a better survival rate than eighty percent. I believe most people on Earth would never accept a joyful struggle if it meant possible death.”

  “I don’t believe that is true. I lived on Earth as a visitor for five months. I saw several different nations and ways of living. There are a great many people in abject poverty, I believe they would jump at the opportunity to fight for a stable life. However, I am not human. Perhaps you are correct. There are things that I cannot understand as someone who has grown up outside your culture.”

  Luke took a few seconds to think about it. There were plenty of Americans that lived in poverty and even more from other countries. Maybe he was right, if they had the chance to fight for a better life, some of them would probably take it. “There are many different cultures on Earth. Violence is always an option, and I suppose some of them do choose it.”

  Momoh waggled his hands. “Yes, and unlike your people, my people choose violence against monsters, not each other.”

  “You act like you live in a paradise. That may be true for the aristocrats, but it certainly isn’t for those at the bottom.”

  “Struggle reaches from the dregs to the pinnacle. We have no heartless tyrants because all of us have earned our spots. Success breeds glory and compassion.”

  “That’s quite the claim. I would be surprised to find compassion at the pinnacle of any society.”

  “It is the truth for the Empire of the Rising Dawn. It comes from how our society is constructed. There are five mortal strata and everyone is encouraged to do their best to rise to the top. On the bottom are the monster cullers and others that live without glory like civic servants. If they work hard enough, they could be promoted to the second strata, the craftsmen. If they make a strong enough contribution to society, they are promoted to the next strata, the farmers. Many stop at this strata, it is a profession full of glory. Those that strive for more can apply to be an administrator. This is a growing strata in recent centuries because modern life demands it. Those that show clear leadership in their administrative duties may be advanced to the aristocracy. Even once they have reached the aristocracy, they must continually justify their position in the periodic shuffles.”

  “Is that how you gained your own position as a lord? Did you and your nephew start as monster cullers and work your way up?” Luke asked, trying not to let his supreme doubt seep into his voice.

  “I was born into a family of farmers, I worked my way up from there. Provisional Lord Imohi was born after I reached my position.”

  Of course. They talk about social mobility, but the biggest asshole Luke had met on this planet was a nepo baby.

  Momoh continued. “I can guess what you are thinking, that these two lords did not work up from the bottom. It’s important to note that each member of the Triumvirate has worked up from the lowest strata. They were born without glory and earned every scrap as they climbed up. Glory and compassion come from the top, and we all follow their example.”

  Luke could see the fervent look in Momoh’s eyes and decided not to continue this conversation. That kind of zealotry wasn’t usually associated with truth. They talked of other things and loaded up into the hover vehicles.

  The first shift went to Luke again. He had a new plan that would hopefully help with the increased monster presence and not scare the Falodun Widow’s kids. Two Machine Souls had regenerated during the Kalibutan night. That brought him up to four, and he sent one into his magic drone. After he gave it instructions, the small device shot into the air and zoomed down the path at max speed. The trio of cameras should spot most kinds of monsters well before he got there.

  A half hour later the camera spotted a group of Explosive Crows about three miles ahead. Instead of waiting for the caravan to get closer, Luke immediately used Summon Vehicle to create a Viper. He threw a Machine Soul into the helicopter, but didn’t tell Bosa to stop driving.

  The hover vehicles left the gray and violet construct behind as it slowly spun up its blades. Three minutes later, the heavily armed Viper buzzed past them, flying a few feet above the treetops. After seeing the bones of the dragon, he had no wish to send the helicopter high enough to draw their ire.

  Luke kept track of his mana as it flew forward. Summoning the Viper had cost twelve points of mana, and in the four minutes since then, his mana hadn’t gone down yet. The summons took a point of mana per minute, but so far his mana regeneration had kept up with it.

  It was too early to tell, but he might be at the point where he could keep the Viper summoned indefinitely. The actual numbers depended on his regeneration from his Acuity stat and the local mana density. Yesterday the mana had been thinner. The denser mana in the area combined with his upgraded stat might have finally hit the sweet spot of one mana a minute. Time would tell.

  The helicopter’s nose gun pivoted and tracked the flock of five foot tall birds. They were all black with ugly feathers that drifted down to the forest floor and exploded on contact. The explosions were more like grenades than fireballs. The monsters immediately took flight when the beat of the helicopter blades reached them. They flapped their wings and sent swarms of feathers flying forward like arrows. If even one feather hit the helicopter blades, the Viper would crash.

  The chapter title is a quote from Blade Runner (1982)

  An alternate title was “Time is a wibbly wobbly, timey wimey... stuff" But that’s from Dr. Who, which is a TV show and I only do movie quotes