43 Secret Revealed

I could hardly wait for Morrow to reveal the secret. I had lived my entire past life assuming that everyone was placed here randomly. Knowing that the government had a method to place people where they wanted was a huge revelation and could help me in figuring out where my brother could be.

Morrow leaned in and began to talk, "For the first 100 years after discovering the portal to Agartha every attempt to send something in resulted in failure. No signal or communication was ever returned. We sent people, drones, communication devices, special forces and nothing worked. At that time the government wasn't even sure if the portal lead anywhere. There only clue was a spacial disturbance when someone passed through. For all they knew it could have been a black hole like existence that just crushed everything that went into it to pieces then hurtled those pieces through space. They couldn't give up though, since no solution to the resource crisis was revealing itself. However, after 100 years something came through the portal to Earth."

Morrow took a sip of his juice and continued, "It was amazingly, a person, one of the people who entered the portal ten years prior. He described Agartha and everything he experienced. He said that one day while exploring he came across an old cave at the base of a mountain and went in to seek shelter for the night. When he woke a pack of savage beast appeared outside the cave and nested there. Afraid they would attack he went in deeper hoping to find another way out of the cave. After what he said felt like eternity he arrived in a brightly lit underground cavern that was impossibly large in size. Everything within was ten times larger than its counterpart outside. A forest was growing there and the man tried to make his way through it to find some kind of exit. He almost died many times, even the ants were capable of biting off a human limb. One day deep in the forest the man came upon a building that, like everything else there, was ten times larger in size. Afraid to alarm the potentially sentient resident he decided to quickly leave, but before he could the massive door flew open and what looked almost like a human stepped out. The only difference, it was almost 20 meters tall and had grey skin."

I had actually heard of the existence of the Agnar Giants before. An Una I was familiar with in my last life gave me a book that described them as an ancient superior race. The book described them as a secretive but formidable race. However, I thought they were a myth. The book said no one had seen one in 1000 years. Eventually, the native races of Agartha considered them a lost civilization. After my split second of thought I returned my focus to Morrow's story.

"So after the door opened the giant beckoned the man into the building. Afraid for his life he entered, but to his surprise the giant tried to communicate with him. In the short span of a few minutes the giant learned our language and began talking to the man. He said it was by far the most intelligent being he had ever encountered. Vastly more intelligent than humans. After explaining Earth and how they couldn't find a way to pass information back the giant showed him something that altered the course of human history. A space stone, its a small rock that is normally unidentifiable even if you are staring at it. You can actually walk right through it since it exists in a fold in space. The giant taught the man how to see and collect the stones. Then he showed him how to use a formation to harness the stones power allowing him to travel back to Earth."

I was shocked. Their were people that postulated the existence of space stones in the past, but everyone laughed at them and called them crazy. It makes sense though, In Agartha almost every element has a corresponding stone that harnesses it just like wind and sun stones, therefore, space can have one too.

Morrow continued, "The man learned a lot from the giant and took careful notes, all of which he passed on to Earth. Before he left, using the space formation, the giant told him that if the man returned he should not look for him and that his dwelling will not still be in its current location. That mans notes are now considered a holy book by the new government and is kept in a secret location. What I have been told is only a small amount of information held in it. Also, starting that day The United Human Federation came into existence. It has been controlling everything behind the scenes since that day. Even world conflicts and news media were orchestrated to make everything seem normal."

I knew about The United Human Federation since they publicly appear as the new human government in a couple months. I just didn't know they had really been around for 400 years organizing everything. However, my real concern was about how the space stones placed people and if everyone was put in a chosen location. If so, why was I put in a cave surrounded by beasts? Even if they thought I was useless that doesn't make much sense.

"What do the space stones have to do with people being sent to specific locations." I had to ask.

"The formation to send someone back wasn't the only one the giant taught the man. Another formation allows you to manipulate the flow picking a spot where someone traveling through the portal will end up. Fortunately, this takes significantly less of the stones power than to send someone back to Earth. Unfortunately they didn't have enough to shift everyone's location. This means some people really will be randomly placed on Agartha. The people with needed skills for the fast development of a settlement and high ranking government members had priority. If the public knew we picked and chose who we wanted to put in safer areas close to settlements they would be furious."

I could understand why the public would be furious. If I were deemed important enough I wouldn't have had to face all the hardships of my past life and I could have found my brother before he was tricked into killing me. Unfortunately, this information isn't useful in helping find my brother since he was still placed randomly like me.

Morrow continued his explanation, "My being here and the plans for development my father provided including being near a lake were not a coincidence. Using ALIC they can know when a person is coming through and shift them using it. ALIC also has an infinitesimally small piece of a space stone in it. That's why it isn't fried when you portal. Fortunately, the new government did have enough space stones to provide everyone with an ALIC. Soon everyone will be on Agartha and you would think the government wouldn't need space stones anymore. For some reason the government needs more stones after everyone gets here and they need an enormous amount, so they created a plan. Every single ALIC can sense a space stone that's close by resonating with it even if the human can't see it. The ALIC will then automatically activate a program and send a message with the space stones location to the government."

If they can send a space stones location can the government track my location?

"Are they able to track us using ALIC?"

"No, the space stone in ALIC isn't strong enough.It actually has to draw on the power of the space stone you are close to in order to transmit the location. ALIC was primarily designed so humans can get stronger using essence. It also worked as an anchor for those that were chosen for specific locations. It only has one other function that I will tell you about in a moment."

Morrow took a deep breath, "Now let's move on to the important part. Certain people like myself were chosen to run human settlements which while creating a place for humans to live, will also retrieve space stones. Using a specific verbal command ALIC will allow a person to see the space stones in the folds of space that normally would be impossible to see. I am also allowed to pass on the command to people who agree to retrieve the space stones. If you agree, on top of your usual Captain duties, you can lead the retrieval team I will set up. From what we know so far, space stones tend to show up in areas that are considered very dangerous. They are almost always guarded by a high level beast since the fluctuations of the stones appear to benefit them. While it is dangerous, you will be rewarded for it. From what I understand the government will give people involved in retrieving space stones points that can be used in exchange for captured beasts that are known to give you specific abilities and high essence. The rest of the team will think the points are for a monster hunt. However, the team leader and Lord will know its for the space stone and will receive more points than the rest of the team."

In the past these hunts were known as [Boss Hunts] and you had to be an elite of a city to even get a chance to join a team. Many of humanities greatest figures had once been a member of these teams which will eventually be called Battle Teams . Every recognized city had at least one battle team and some had more. In the future these battle teams will fight each other once a year in the human capital to decide a cities rank. Of course this system won't be fully developed and go public for about another three years. In the past I had thought this was to push humans to improve and inspire them. Now I realize there was a deeper purpose behind it.

After taking a moment to consider everything. I said, "I accept the position."

This entire revelation made it a little more difficult to kill Morrow and take over Black Lion Village. There are more parts involved than I was originally aware of. However, now I know and he revealed it with his own mouth. Unfortunately, just knowing these doesn't currently give me anymore leverage to kill him and take over. I still have to develop a force that can help me takeover his. I need backing that can shelter me from his dad's retaliation. I need to learn more about his responsibilities and how he communicates with the new government so I can smoothly take over his role without alarming them. Most importantly I need to get stronger. If I had enough strength nothing else would matter. I lose nothing and stand to gain a lot by becoming the Battle Team Leader.

I haven't decided where I stand regarding The United Human Federation though. They did give every human access to ALIC which has made us stronger and given us a chance to survive. However, when they chose who to put where they essentially said some lives aren't as important as others which I can't agree with. Also, I still don't know what the their true purpose is for gathering the space stones. For now all I can do is continue to deceive Morrow and take it step by step.

Morrow was greatly pleased after I accepted. He said, "Great! It may be a while before we get any locations for space stones since most humans aren't strong enough to reach areas they are found in yet. Also I will need to hold competitions to find members. The United Human Federation said I have about a year before they expect people to start finding the stones. The only thing I am suppose to reveal to people on retrieval teams is that they will be rewarded for killing certain monsters the government designates. Only the team leader can use the command to see the stones and be told the true purpose and they have to be sworn to secrecy. They specifically stated that anyone caught divulging the secret will be hunted and killed along with their family and anyone else on or in charge of that team."

I nodded my head, "I understand. There is no chance someone find's out from me."

"As long as you understand. This is an important mission that can make us both immensely powerful and wealthy. Together we brothers can rule the world." He stood and placed his hand on my shoulder.

"Ready to become Captain? We can shelve the topic of the space stones for a while. I will pass you the command to see them when we get the team finalized. It's useless till then anyway. Let's go to the ceremony. I'm ready for everyone else to know about my little brother."

Morrow had a huge grin as he stared off into space. I'm sure he thought he looked inspiring and regal. I was a little shocked at how effective my plan to gain his trust worked. In the end he was only a 22 year old young man who apparently enjoyed playing the role of a big brother.