Ch. 27 Ironing Out Details

The entire meeting dissolved into arguing and posturing about an hour in, with each Head trying to one up the other with their strongest Guilds. I groaned at the headache coming on so I yelled at them to get their attention. "If you don't stop bickering like children, I will open a level 60 Portal right here and throw you all in." That stopped them in their tracks, they went wide eyed at the serious look on my face. "I don't care who has the strongest members or who is better or not. We're not here to show off, we're here to meet with allies in this war. We need people who are capable of being diplomatic as well as being strong. So far not a single one of you has given me a reason to even consider bringing ANY of your Guilds with me."

That got their attention, so I continued before the adrenaline pumping through me died. "I am the Herald and yes you could all kill me pretty easily, of that I have no doubt. If you do though, I can tell you the Council wouldn't pick a single one of you to be the new Herald. Jonas maybe, but not any of the five of you. The ultimate decision of who I bring with me is up to me, because I'm the only one who can open the Rift to their world. So stop acting like children and help me, because this is a lot to take in, especially for me."

A combination of pleading and threat in my voice must have done something, because for the next hour they all began to try and put their best foot forward. Jonas stayed silent the entire time, but I could see his smirk as he watched the Heads all begin trying to work through who would be the best suited with my stipulations. Vanessa however, about halfway through the hour was starting to get a bit uppity, so I began opening a portal behind her seat. She gasped when she felt it, almost falling out of her chair and running across the table.

"I wasn't kidding when I threatened you." I told her and she nodded, going back to her seat when I stopped and closed the portal. They had 5 Guilds chosen, 1 from each of their territories and as I looked over the candidates I agreed with their choices. That left 4 more to choose, so I asked Jonas to have Sean come up here.

He was back with Sean in just a few minutes, so I grinned "Sean, how would you like to pick out 4 more teams to take with me to the Dwarven Homeworld?" he chuckled "Mind if mine is one of them?" I shrugged "Will the Guild survive you being gone?" He nodded "Burt can handle it for a year." I nodded back "Alright, 3 more it is. I need diplomacy and strength, but leaning on the diplomacy aspect. Go talk to the other Guild leaders and see what we can come up with. Nobody under level 20 though." He nodded and saluted, fist to chest, then headed back out.

"Good, now that that's out of the way we need to discuss where the Dwarves will be. I know Galrin said that they will be sending an average of levels 15 to 30, so we need to decide if we want to keep them all in one place, or spread them out amongst the other nations to give them a variety of experience to bring back once the year is up." Then before they could speak I put up a finger "Just remember, no arguing." Robert chuckled at that and Jon smirked, I think they both liked me.

We had decided to spread them out. Russia, Japan, Australia, England, Italy, Africa, China and South America would all get 1 team. America would get 2, with one of them most likely going to Canada.

"Alright, I don't know exactly when we will be leaving, so have your teams brought here to Ohio within the day and let them know that I don't care how strong they are, I am in charge. If we screw this up, we will make an enemy of the Dwarves. I don't have to tell you that we will lose, because their average strength is double what we have and more than half their population is integrated." They all nodded.

I decided to give them another offer, to show I wasn't just trying to be a dick "Oh and one last thing. I have the ability to open Rifts whenever I want, or at least whenever I have enough mana. The Dwarven Herald can do the same and I was thinking that if needed training Rifts could be opened for every nation that would never actually send monsters into our world. We can put locks on the Rifts so only Humans and Dwarves can enter and exit freely, leaving the monster races inside. They can be permanent, or until the boss is killed. At least that's the extent of what I can do. I don't know how much more he can do until I talk to him again, but that is an offer I am willing to give to all of you."

Tony spoke up this time "Can anyone else learn how to open Rifts like this?" I shook my head "No, it is Herald specific. I wouldn't even be able to do it at my current level without the fact that I have Mana Boosted as a Perk. However I will ask Galrin if there is a way to open or control Rifts using other means. Like I said most of this is new to me, so I'm still learning." He nodded and I looked at the rest of them, Victoria speaking up this time "So what is the max level of Rift you can open?"

I felt around for a bit, trying to figure out just how much mana it would take. "Probably 62 or somewhere close to it. I can do at least a level 60 Rift, but more than that I'm not sure." They let that sink in for a moment before Victoria asked another question "I know you said you don't know when you'll be going over there and Herald Galrin will be coming here, but the Rifts you can open, will you be able to have them refill themselves?" I shook my head "Not at my current level of understanding. I think it might be possible at a later time, once I open more Rifts and understand the nuances of them, but for now the only way for the Rift to repopulate itself is to not kill the boss in a Rift I open."

She nodded at that and we all sat there in silence for a minute. Jonas got a call on his cell phone then "This is Jonas…Okay send him up…Yeah we're in a meeting right now…Awesome, thanks." Once he hung up he nodded to me "Galrin just arrived, he wishes to speak with you and your team alone." I nodded and Jonas escorted everyone else out of the room. I stood and waited by the door, then grinned when Galrin arrived and hugged him. He chuckled and hugged me back "Well met Odellin.", "Well met Galrin, come in and have a seat."

Once he was seated I saw his team standing behind him the same as mine. "I see you have found 2 new members?" I nodded "Tyrone and Will were friends of mine from before I became part of a Guild, when I was still below level 10." He nodded "I remember those days. So we have much to discuss before the transition." I nodded and asked the first question that came to mind "So I've noticed I can control Rifts to a point and even create brand new ones. However a question that was asked of me is something that I didn't have an answer to. Can I make a self populating Rift for training at some point?"

He chuckled and shook his head in an amused manner "It is possible, but your skill in opening Rifts is still at the basic level. You need to work with your ability a lot more for that, but it is possible." I nodded, then asked another "What level of Rifts can you open?" he grinned "120 is the maximum for me right now. We have one that the King of the Heartstone clan and his Elite Guards use.", "Alright, one last question. How will I be treated when I get to your world?"

He smiled "That is a question I can answer easily. Herald's are treated as if they were Kings in the worlds of the 'ally' races. The authority you will wield, even though you are a low level, can only be superseded by the King of the Heartstone Clan. As long as what you ask is something that isn't against the law or goes against the King's orders, you will be treated as a King yourself. Those you bring with you, excluding your team, will have to earn the trust of the people for themselves. It is a privilege only given to Heralds."

Once I asked those questions, we got the rest of the meeting underway. It was decided that in one week we would be making the shift into their world. Apparently having two Heralds in the same world for prolonged periods of time would change the Rifts quicker than they should be changed. I was told where we would be staying, that they had a small village for the 100 people and their families that would be coming with me set aside for them.

Galrin agreed to help open training Rifts for the first two months of his time here in all of the different territories, with the understanding that if someone killed the boss, he would not be opening another to replace it. When I asked if I would need to do the same he shook his head saying it wouldn't be needed. I could open them for my own teams, but they had to be at least 10 miles apart, otherwise they would explode and the energies they expelled would be enough to level a city, no matter how powerful the people there were.

I took that warning seriously, realizing just how much I had riding on my shoulders. When I asked him about the proper customs of his people, he just chuckled "Honestly, I think you will all be okay. I've been here for a bit and seen the interactions with you humans. As long as you're not overtly aggressive, you should be fine. Dwarves enjoy shows of strength and power, throwing insults at each other as long as they aren't too nasty or hurtful. I do expect a few fights to break out between your people and ours, but we won't hold a grudge unless that person becomes a liability. Then it will be your job to handle it."

I nodded at that "I was very careful in deciding who I would be taking with me. They had to be Diplomatic and strong, so they should be good on your planet." He nodded. He also added that when we got there, we would be given a certain amount of Chits, which was their currency. Each of us would start out with 10,000 to start. They had their own branch of IRBA, which he made a comment on how funny it was all of the 'ally' races had named their Rift governing branch in the same way. I grinned "Honestly, I think it's part of the System or the Council." He nodded at that. Our badges wouldn't work over there though, we would have to get new ones which would be issued when we arrived.

It took a while to iron out some more details, then we devolved into personal talk. "I have three young ones myself, 2 boys and a girl. Most of the Humans I've met here are those in the Association, how are the normal humans?" I groaned "Honestly, they're a mix of awful and good. Do you plan on letting your kids go to school while they're here?" he nodded "Then tell the boys to be careful, because sometimes kids can be cruel. Your girl might fit in better though if she's half as pretty as your teammates." The women behind him blushed and he chuckled "Lad, if you're not careful you're going to end up with more women swooning over you than you can deal with."

I laughed "I'm just being honest here, besides my wife might kill me." He laughed "Ahhh, you humans prefer monogamy?" I shrugged "Most of us, although there are a few who like polyamory. Why, do your people not practice Monogamy?" he shook his head "Nay, our people are a very loving people. Most of the time we have 5 or 6 men and women in marriage to each other." My eyebrows raised in surprise at that and he chuckled "Don't worry lad, we will respect your culture and ways, no matter how alien."

After a bit Galrin and I stood off to the side as the two teams began getting to know each other. "I have to say, for a level 15 you have more power than I thought you would." I nodded and said "Can we keep something private between us?" he put a hand over his heart, then nodded. I showed him the Devourer Perk and he grinned, showing me his as well. "It's something all Heralds get as well. Once you tear open your first Rift, something in you begins to hunger for the inbetween. We Heralds keep this a closely guarded secret, only telling other Heralds or those we trust implicitly. Usually though this doesn't happen until somewhere around level 30, from our records." I nodded "Yeah, apparently I do a lot of stuff that shouldn't be able to be done as a Rift Breaker."

He grinned "I'll let ye in on a little secret, that's common for Heralds." I chuckled, then went back to watching our teams talk to each other and show off their weapons. "Oh another thing, what is the level of technology I should expect in your world?" He waved his arm towards the window "What you see out there if I'm being honest. Ours incorporates magic into it more than yours, by quite a margin, but we have a lot of what you have and then some."