Trust

"Well?" Ozyrus asked. "What is this plan of yours?"

Ignatius gestured to Ozyrus's Astral Clone. "You can command pets to take simple actions based on their physical capabilities. A character needs two hands to interact with these orbs, so we need to find a basic zombie—there's plenty of them around the city, if I'm remembering right—and rip an Astral Clone out of it."

Ozyrus nodded, his eyes shining with understanding. "Ah! Very clever. However, I'm limited to a single Astral Clone at one time. I have no other ability to summon minions at this time. I assume that, as a Monk, you have no ability to summon minions, either?"

But then, even before he finished this sentence, the Revenant Cultist understood. "Oh. You were thinking about your companion, that knight."

Ignatius pulled out the whistle which he could use to summon Siegmund. "Yes. I know you're suspicious about companions, and that you believe the AI watches us specially through them. Well, as far as the AI's concerned, our ability to complete Floor 5 on launch day is going to be pretty unexpected. If you don't want it to pay extra attention to you, then you should leave right now. Otherwise, using Siegmund and your Astral Clone will let us avoid the eyes of other players in your organization."

Ozyrus turned around and stared at the glowing dome for another long moment before responding. "Alright," he said. "I see your point, and I see its validity. We must take care not to speak of anything... important... while the companion is present. Agreed?"

"That seems like a good idea," Ignatius replied, though he doubted the AI was really listening through companions. That seemed like an arbitrary way of observing players when the AI or mods could simply observe any player they felt like already.

However, he understood why Ozyrus would believe something like this. It made sense if you didn't fully understand how omniscient the AI was. The secret to avoiding the special gaze of the AI was actually to avoid infamy from other players, after all, since the AI was pretty bad at understanding what 'should' be abnormal in the game world that it had created.

Regardless, there was one complication in the plan. "I can't resummon Siegmund here," he said. "Not after you killed him while we're on a boss floor. I'll need to go back to town to resummon him. Then I'll need to teleport back to you. However, I can't carry any of the Essence or treasure I've earned back to town, not unless I send it through a companion. Which, of course, I don't have. So... I need you to hold on to all my loot until I get back."

Ozyrus laughed. "That's quite a lot of trust you're placing in me, my new friend!"

Ignatius chuckled along with him. "Not really. It's only the first day, after all. If you betrayed me now, it'd only be a few hours of setback. And, considering everything you've told me, I don't think you have any possible motivation for betraying me."

"Indeed, I don't," said Ozyrus.

So Ignatius transferred his whole inventory of loot to the Astrologer. A wave of instinctual anxiety washed over him as he handed over almost all his character's wealth to someone who was, effectively, a stranger, but he wrestled control over his emotions and then teleported back to town.

The environment shifted, and the shattered, ruined version of the City of Stomrus resolved into the marketplace of a much more pristine, peaceful Stomrus. Dozens of players were queued up in front of merchant stalls nearby, impatiently waiting for their turn to sell an inventory full of worthless trash for a handful of Essence.

Ignatius ignored all these people and walked behind a nearby alley. The privacy wasn't terribly important, but he wanted to avoid as much attention as possible. He then blew on Siegmund's whistle, and the Onion Knight appeared in perfect health in front of him.

"Hello again, my friend!" said the grandfatherly knight in a cheerful tone of voice. "I didn't expect to meet you here! I've been enjoying some downtime after our last adventure. Are you ready to return to your quest to stop that dastardly dragon?"

"Yes," said Ignatius. "And we've got a new ally for the time being. He'll make our mission much easier to complete."

His Hunger Clock was still ticking down, even though he was outside the Eternal Tower. If it reached 0, he wouldn't be able to return to the party.

Fortunately, all the items which Siegmund had brought back into the Eternal Tower from outside were allowed to be brought outside it again and didn't count as Eternal Tower loot, so Ignatius pulled a piece of cheese from his inventory and ate it to restore some time. "Listen carefully. I'm going to need you to hunt down a magical artifact for me..."

***

Shortly after, once Siegmund had received his instructions, Ignatius opened his party menu and selected "Ozyrus (Astrologer LVL 6) [currently playing Eternal Tower Floor 5] → Teleport to party member."

The world shifted around him, the brilliant edifices of the City of Stomrus cracking and crumbling into their ruined versions from the future. The glorious noonday sun turned blood-red, and the light-ringed Eternal Tower hung once more in the sky above the shattered remains of the Immortal Shrine.

"Welcome back," Ozyrus said lazily. He had wrapped a scarf over his face to obscure his identity—as though, if the AI truly wanted to observe him, it wouldn't be able to see through any disguise he could put on.

"Now let's find a monster with hands and get this over with," the Astrologer continued. "By the way... I've been thinking about a way to preserve our secrecy once we complete this floor. You just focus on remembering how to break through these challenges that were intended for a party twice our size, and I'll make sure nobody knows that we overcome them."

"If you say so," said Ignatius. Perhaps this coy, self-important hacker would be useful after all.