Apocalypse respawn

The city streets gave way to dirt paths, which they frequented. On several occasions, they asked the locals for directions to their vague destination.

It was difficult to locate him: Rargnes only remembered the memories of the third through the second. While the second had lived a short life, this was not the case for the first or the third, who had not taken the trouble to remember the path all at once.

The plantation in which he was located was the only thing he could remember, but even there, more than 20 years would have passed. Perhaps he was already dead, never having been able to escape.

They spent the day searching without results and returned to the inn at nightfall, where they rented a room.

The next day, Rargnes told Sengrar to follow him.

"Well, we have enough money with the latest slaves," he said. 

"Have you thought about your class?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"Don't hesitate to ask the goblin mage; they're good at that."

"Okay."

"What do you do if he offers you a title?"

"I'll tell him I'll think about it."

They first needed to recover all the possible tokens - the next three. Rargnes had heard they had to double the token amount to further upgrade their class.

The two could not change their classes twice, but by searching carefully, they could certainly find another, he hoped.

They went to the shop, waved, and met the goblin mage.

"You..." he inspected Sengrar. "You had a good physique." He looked at Rargnes. "But maybe I'd have things to talk to you about in private if your friend could leave us for a moment."

"You..." he inspected Sengrar. "had a good physique." He looked at Rargnes. "But maybe I'd have things to talk to you about in private, if your friend could leave us for a moment?"

The goblin hesitated before agreeing.

"Okay, then let's do this quickly."

He closed the door, loudly ordering his employees not to disturb him under any pretext and to welcome customers properly.

Then he focused and gestured with his magic wand to form geometric figures on the door. The symbols ran along the walls like a spider's web, covering the entire walls.

"What's that?"

"Just a spell so that we can't be heard."

"Can the noble hear us with his power?" asked Rargnes.

"Why would we distrust the noble?" replied the goblin mage. "There are beings and... things much worse." He resumed his smile: "But don't worry, it's just a precaution. Now, if you'll just wait two minutes."

He went to the back of the room, rummaging in the corners of his furniture.

"Ah! I found it! It's been a while since I've used it!"

He returned to the table, carrying an object with difficulty in his hands. It was a large stone to which precious stones were attached and arranged in a pattern. The block was a foot wide in all dimensions.

"What is it?"

The goblin infused it with magic, and the stone cross came to life with a blood-red color.

"Ah! I wasn't mistaken! You have powers! And judging by the color, you both do!"

Sengrar looked at Rargnes, who averted his eyes, focusing them on the object and then on the goblin.

"And the promotion?"

"Wait, wait! I don't mean any harm. Power users are the noblest by far! They are the only ones who can awaken the king!"

He also seemed to follow their religion. Rargnes regretted that he had not taken time to see the goblins' religion, for the human's religion seemed to want to sacrifice the best to painfully awaken the king.

"Don't be afraid," the goblin assured. "It's just that the system is vicious: it doesn't allow you to notice your own powers. Only the power of analysis allows it, and even then, you have to know how to trigger it."

He performed magic before their eyes and read, so excited that he hadn't even bothered to mimic humans by opening his mouth. But maybe that, too, was a ruse.

He addressed Sengrar:

"Your power allows you to modify reality so that at the next appearance of a world, you have the maximum strength you've ever had. This only occurs at your death.

"Which means, thought Rargnes, that even if the noble killed him, he could not alter Sengrar's power; he would still be in the race. This was the power that Rargnes lacked, but it also meant that he would not really be himself: it was the power, not the cells, that he would recover.

The power was useless for their first version, like his.

The goblin, finishing his words, looked at Rargnes in shock. 

"So that's what happened! If we had known before..."

He looked at Sengrar with a gleam in his eyes, then slowly turned to look at Rargnes, shaking his head.

"I can't read your power."

"What? Can't you try again?"

The goblin relaunched his magic.

"Ah, yes... your power -" 

The goblin fell silent. 

He looked at the stone and relaunched the spell, frowning."What's happening?" asked Rargnes."It's strange!" said the goblin mage. "One moment, I can read your power, and the next, I can't. And on top of that... it seems it's not just a power: you see, this object detects all powers, without exception, even those that are inflicted upon you, which is also why I took it out, to verify."

Rargnes gulped.

"And what does it say?"