《Valkyrion》 The Rending There was no real warning. No earthquakes or hurricanes¨C or even the sound of the world cracking apart to be put back together. But there was screaming. Though, I thought I was just hearing a bunch of people partying nearby, at first. It''d started so suddenly and without warning, I thought they were kids running around, screaming their heads off just for fun, after school. It didn''t happen a lot, but it did happen. ¡­ the clock said 2:14. Maybe they got out early? "Blissy!" my sister was sitting in the window. On the little desk I''d pulled over and converted into a seat with a cushion. "There''s monsters! She shrieked and came running to me in the kitchen. It was only a few steps but she took them at a speed that meant business. So I picked her up and patted her on the back as I quickly made my way to the window, thinking... I didn''t know what. Escaped Zoo animals she didn''t recognize? Maybe a pack of coyotes? She was shaking. What I saw was neither of my best guesses. Part of me wondered for a moment if I needed to find someone to adopt Sophia immediately so I could commit myself to an asylum. Giant, Hyena-like things. Brown coat, spots and they appeared to be attacking people on the street. "Sophia, what did you see?" I asked her. She tried to move. "It''s a-" "Sh, don''t look, just tell me what it looked like," I said-- it was too ridiculous to be real, but she''d seen something. And then I saw something. CO poisoning? Gas? I walked back toward the bedroom, intent on opening the windows and putting us in one to get a good deep breath of fresh air. "You don''t believe me!" she cried and began to wail. This was very bad. Upset children made a lot of noise. And I wasn''t entirely sure those Hyena-looking things were fake. It could very well be that someone had been raising them and feeding them steroids or something? It could be a hallucination, but... what if it wasn''t? Dog-like creatures had good hearing and Hyena''s went after weaklings like babies all the time. "Of course I believe you," I said and slowly soothed her with a hand rubbing up and down her back. "But I didn''t see them except a little, so I need to know what they were so we can protect ourselves." "It''s- It''s a doggie!" she said, hiccuping and sniffling now. "Big doggy¨C but it doesn''t look nice!" That about cinches it. She and I had the same hallucination? Not likely. Not without some kind of catalyst, like a herd of dogs running down the road and she saw dogs while I saw... Hyena-things. They were too big to be real hyenas, though... and we''re in an apartment building, on the eighth floor. If they looked that big from this high up, then they were BIG. "Alright, we''ve got to prepare ourselves and protect the house," I said. It''s what I usually do when she''s afraid of something. The dark, the monster under the bed, in the closet... "You need to sit here and look for news." I placed her gently on my bed and put my laptop in her lap. I kept it plugged in and on, so it was just a matter of clicking the thing awake and entering the password. I entered the url of a news service. "Open up all the articles I should see, okay? Blissy is going to get some food and make sure the doors and windows are locked." She sniffled again. "Okay..." Sophia has had to deal with crises on her own before, when she lived with our parents. Which is the biggest reason she lives with me now. So she''s quite used to self-soothing. It''s a great skill to have, but she should''ve learned it through loving admonishments and soft spoken voices¡­ The door was locked, as it always was. But I got out the door-bar to be safe and set it up on the knob. Locks could be picked. These bars couldn''t be thwarted unless you kicked the door down. So the door was secure and all that was left were the windows. When I turned to attend to those... there was a strange floating light, in my living room. I just stood and stared at it for a long moment. It was inexplicable. A will-o-the-wisp in my living room. The bizarreness of the entire circumstance really hit me then. It glowed brighter and began drifting toward me. My first thought was to get to Sophie before¡­ whatever the weird light was, could get near the bedroom. Slam the door shut. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. But it swerved to meet me as if it could sense my plans and slammed into my sternum with the force of a freight train. It wasn''t pain, exactly. It was just immense pressure. Like a force holding me¨C I was bent in half backwards and not falling over, I could still perceive the world around me¨C but it was foggy, hazy. "BLISSY!" My world shook and I realized I was clawing at my chest, after the ball of light. Like I could dig it out if I just scratched hard enough. Get out of me! Get away from me! Sophia. SOPHIA. SOPHIA! The light flared one last time and I was left to fall to the floor. Gasping for breath, scrambling to get to my feet and rush into the bedroom. My body was so weak and shaky. It was like I''d just spent all day gardening on my knees. But... I could shove myself up. Onto my feet. The wall was cool to the touch as I smacked my palms to it and used it as support to walk the first few steps. My body was quivering less and less as I approached the doorway, but it was still difficult just to stand. I could see her through it, but only the tip of her shoe on the bed. When I finally got through, she was lying there, shaking and crying in such a small way, it made me angry. Whatever the fuck that light thing was, I was going to fucking kill it. Sophia hadn''t cried like that since I brought her home, except once when she had a nightmare that she''d be forced to go back. I collapsed on the bed next to her and wrapped her up in my arms, humming brokenly as my body slowly began to recover. But my heart still throbbed. And then... well. That appeared.
You must find a vessel for your Familiar.
WHAT? It didn''t make any sense. Not only the words, but how they appeared there. I could barely see them. The letters were like an after-image and I could only see them when I blinked. Like they were just seared into my corneas for a second. Sophia hiccuped. "What''s a famlier?" "What?" I reel for a moment. "Sophie, can you see the words, too?" She sniffed and rubbed her eyes. "No... s''a voice saying... find a vessel... What''s a Vessel?" It''s giving information dependent upon whether the person can read or not. Sophia could read her alphabet and numbers, but she was barely six. She wasn''t reading whole sentences with complex words, yet. Just small words and short sentences. "Well, let''s ask it," I said. "Hey... whatever you are. What''s a Vessel for a Familiar?" I might be having some kind of hallucination and Sophia never really saw anything and I made that all up in my head... but I have no idea how to react except as if it were real.
Anything meaningful to you, is sufficient.
Meaningful... like a memento? My heart throbbed again and Sophia gasped, clutching at her chest. There was a period of time after shoving myself upright that I had to sit there and just blink. I have no idea how long it took me to get my bearings, but I stumbled onto the ground and crawled for the toy chest in the corner of the room. I bought Sophia all her toys. Including the first one that she''d kept since she was two. Valykree. It was how Sophia pronounced ''Valkyrie'' which is what she named it after I told her what the character was. I had no idea what she liked back then, as she wasn''t really watching tv shows appropriate to her age and basically just stared at a tv screen for the moving colors more than anything while dad watched tv and refused to play with her. So I got her something I liked. A little doll made of crinkle satin. Commissioned to look just like her, but with a Valkyrie headpiece with wings on it, a pair of pauldrons on the shoulders of her purple dress and a gold belt and shoes. No fingers or even a good foot shape, but it was more of a chibi style, so I hadn''t expected it to be detailed or anything. She''d had it for four years. If anything was going to mean something to her, it was Valykree. Even though this whole situation was fucking weird, I tried to bring Valykree to her with urgency¨C like it really mattered, because what if it DID? But my heart throbbed again and I had to throw Valykree to her on the bed and drop to the floor gasping for air and clutching at my chest. "Blissy!" she shrieked for me, but I was sure, it had to be just that I''d fallen. Because I had no energy to get up. I couldn''t believe anything was happening to her and I couldn''t get up. Something chimed in-between Sophia''s gasping sobs and I felt... like someone else... was there... Darkness was closing in on me... Who the FUCK is in my house!? 2. Thought to Action My body was aching like I¡¯d been hit by a truck. Several times. And then crashed a motorcycle into a Semi. It was warm, too warm. Like my body was fighting off some kind of illness. Head throbbing, eyes burning¡­ Fever? When I blinked open my eyes, I was staring directly up at the ceiling, though I could recall falling on my face¡­ And then something came into my field of view. A pair of paws stepping on my breasts, and a cat skull staring down at me with red gemstones for eyes. I assumed immediately that I was dreaming, before my memories started trickling back in. Because it was my cat. Well, not my cat. A cat skeleton I¡¯d bought and then affixed red resin ¡®gemstones¡¯ into the eye sockets. I¡¯d also had the skeleton fit together with 3D printed parts so that the whole thing would be poseable. It was a decoration and shouldn''t have been moving. And it was staring down into my eyes. Like it could SEE me. And it felt like a real cat. There was even a silhouette of the cat¡¯s body around the bones. Dark red like a shadow of blood. ¡°What¡­ the fuck¡­?¡± I muttered. The cat leapt off me and stared at me from a few steps away, as I slowly turned over and pushed myself upright. Sophia was sitting against the bed, near me. Her doll was in her hands, but something wasn¡¯t right about it. For one thing, it was gripping her wrists where she was holding it by the waist. And it¡­ it looked like it was looking back at her. ¡°S-¡± I coughed and reached up to rub my throat. Wondering¡­ if I screamed while I was passed out¡­? ¡°Sophia!¡± She jolted and put her doll aside, gasping. ¡°Blissy! You have to name the kitty or it¡¯ll go away forever!¡± I had no idea what she was talking about. But she was staring at me and looking anxious. Like she¡¯d been just waiting for me to wake up so she could tell me this, thinking it would make perfect sense to me. And of course, it¡¯s of some urgency, so I can''t try and puzzle it out with her. Fuuuuuck. The cat was still sitting there, looking at me like it was waiting for something. ¡°What¡­ what are you talking about?¡± I''m all for validating children, but when nothing makes sense, how can you choose what to validate? ¡°Valykree told me,¡± she said with all the air of a six-year-old who knew her business. ¡°You¡¯re familli¡­ler¡­ has to have a name or they go away forever. And you need them for magic!¡± ¡°Magic?¡± I knew I was making a face, and after everything, maybe I shouldn¡¯t have. Maybe I should¡¯ve instantly believed it and went with the program. ¡°What kind of magic?¡± Problem was, I was very familiar with Magic and I knew ''magic'' being involved in something wasn''t always necessarily good. Anyone who plays video games will be aware of that. ¡°You have to naaaame it!¡± she insisted, her fists bunching up and beginning to pout slightly. ¡±Alright, Alright!¡± I turned my head and stared at the cat. And flipped through every name I knew of. But none of them really felt right. I mean, if I was naming this thing forever, whatever it was, I didn¡¯t want to call it ¡®Snowball¡¯ or ¡®Fred¡¯. With the weird blood shadow and visible skeleton, that would just be fucking ridiculous. ¡±You can name it anything you want,¡± Sophia said, crawling up on the bed and then swinging her legs, feet slapping against it. ¡°Valykree already had a name. So I couldn¡¯t name her, because she already had one." I sighed and flipped through the more symbolic names I could remember. Norse mythology, Roman and Greek¡­¡±Uhhhh. Oh!¡± it was a good name for a weird skeleton cat and I didn¡¯t feel embarrassed about saying it out loud. ¡°Phobos." The cat meowed-- a weird echoing noise that I felt like¡­ it rang in my head and not my ears? Then it ran to sit in my lap. I could see its skeleton, but didn¡¯t feel it when I hesitantly reached down to pet it. It purred and curled into a ball in my lap. ¡°Okay¡­ now, what is going on?¡± I asked Sophia. ¡°You¡¯re acting like someone explained something to you.¡± ¡°It was Valykree!¡± she said and held up the doll, before placing it on the floor on its feet and releasing it. It walked. It blinked. It stared at me and tilted its head. But it didn''t speak. If a doll was going to be animate, I''d prefer it could talk. Things that could talk, could be negotiated with. It was really starting to freak me out. ¡°Why isn¡¯t it saying anything?¡± ¡°They don¡¯t talk out loud,¡± she said. ¡°Valykree only tells me stuff. She just showed me the letters and read them to me.¡± Letters. ¡°How do I see the letters?¡± I asked as I cracked my shoulders and neck. What the fuck am I even doing? Crossed my mind. Nothing seemed real. But if I was hallucinating or having some kind of coma dream, then there was nothing I could do. However, if I was simply awake and shit was happening, then I had to do what I could to protect Sophia. There was no harm in treating it like it was real. I just wished, if it were really a hallucination, that it could¡¯ve allowed me to call my Cousin and hand over my Sister before I got committed. She was set to go there anyway, but social services was obsessed with reunification, even in cases of abuse¡­ ¡°Just hold your Famillyler and look at them in the eyes and the ¡®menu¡¯ opens,¡± she said. Well, I have nothing to lose. I¡¯ll just look a little ridiculous if it doesn¡¯t work. It''s not that I can''t observe how things work for myself, or that I don''t believe Sophia... but sometimes children make things up in their mind and you won''t know until you check the closet, whether or not a man is really in there. And so you check. So I reached down and situated¡­ Phobos¡­ so that I could look into its eyes with my hands holding it still. A few seconds passed with nothing happening. Where the hell is the menu- And then it was like an overlay was placed directly over my eyeballs. Augmented reality isn''t this pervasive. I could barely see shapes on the other side of it. It went transparent when I thought about that, and then back to normal when I flinched at the weird instant effect. There was something glowing and pulsing. It was all in the same red as my Familiar¡¯s silhouette. The icons were in black, but they glowed and pulsed yellow-orange if they wanted attention, I guessed. An envelope? I looked at the icon and it instantly opened an¡­ inbox. The ¡®letter¡¯ opened itself and I was treated to an indescribable sensation. My spine tingled, my skin shivered and my stomach flipped.
(This letter has been translated into mortal terms for better understanding.)
Congratulations, Mortals! We, Those Above, Beyond and In-Between are thrilled to inform you that we finally granted your wish. You¡¯ve been screaming into our ears for millennia on every world you exist, and it¡¯s been quite difficult to sleep. So we decided to grant this wish so that you might get a bit quieter. We used everything every Mortal wanted to determine the optimal creation. Some of you come from worlds abundant in magic, some from worlds with only technology. In some worlds, the only magic that exists is alchemy and in others the only advanced technology was the telephone. So finding a happy medium was both easy and difficult. You''re all so picky, hahaha. We decided to intermix you as equally as possible across all sixteen parallel worlds that are closest to us in space-time. And then we created the system, as it was a fine idea. Three worlds had conceived of some form of it for use in these situations and the rest had some other lower form of the idea already. It was basically universal! This system will enable you to use magic, learn swordsmanship or anything else we have discerned your hearts desire. Your familiar will allow you to work magic through them if you had no magic in your universe, so that your puny mortal bodies are not overloaded by the power. Perhaps in a few generations, not even the entirely nonmagical humans will need Familiars! Some of you can just use magic naturally and will not require familiars and can access the system independently! The System will watch over you and facilitate your gradual growth! Now, since everyone has what they¡¯ve always wanted, PLEASE only pray to us in the manner that is approved by the system. Unauthorized praying will cause status effects. If you do it enough times, it will even curse you. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. We¡¯ll be going to sleep now. Goodbye, Mortals!
I just kind of sat there and stared at it for a while before looking away from Phobos and petting it as it began squirming around for attention in my lap. It really acted like a cat. Those above, beyond and in-between? I wondered what the fuck that meant. It didn¡¯t say ¡®gods¡¯ so it couldn¡¯t be that kind of situation. Gods would always announce themselves AS gods, wouldn''t they? It¡¯s easier to get people to understand the concept. And it said ¡®mortals¡¯ but it spoke like we were just connected somehow, not like they¡¯d created us. Like they could manipulate the worlds, but not like they were responsible for them. Praying. Approved methods for praying. Essentially, praying to something that is not a god is not allowed, unless you do it in a specific way? But humans never knew if the gods were real or not and just prayed to every one they believed in. Maybe half those gods were or weren¡¯t real. Maybe some of them died or went away. Maybe when they did, the other beings kept hearing the prayers because they weren¡¯t actually going anywhere? I¡¯d come to the conclusion that there were no gods, myself, when I was about twenty-two. Big point of contention between me and mom. And if that were the case¡­ yeah. They¡¯d said we¡¯d been praying to them for ¡®Millenia¡¯. Essentially¡­ there¡¯s a baby crying somewhere nearby. It¡¯s not YOUR baby, but there don¡¯t appear to be any parents. And although the baby appears to be potty trained, well kept and uninjured with an ample supply of bottles it can reach and eat and seems perfectly capable of doing so¡­ it keeps crying. So you walk in, assuming it just needs a rattle. You give it the rattle and say ¡®there, now, stop your crying¡¯ and walk away again. You put a noise-canceling device in the rattle so that even if it cries, you don¡¯t hear it. So even if the baby smacks itself in the face with the rattle and screams, you won¡¯t hear it unless they break the rattle, at which point, you¡¯ll come with a different toy. Which is better than before as this way, you go long periods without hearing any screaming at all. That¡¯s essentially what the Above, Beyond and In-Between had done to ¡®mortals¡¯. They¡¯d given us a rattle to keep us occupied and created a funnel for the noise so they didn¡¯t HAVE to deal with it if they didn¡¯t WANT to. I took a deep breath. ¡°So, some kind of Eldritch Entities got together and fucked up all the worlds, because we were being too loud?¡± I muttered to myself. ¡°Blissy, Blissy!¡± Sophia got off the bed and picked up Valykree, rushing out into the kitchen. ¡°Watch, watch what I can do!¡± I had to get up and follow her. But my body was so heavy and every inch of it twinged with pain as I slowly pushed myself onto my feet. Sophia was standing in the doorway with an anxious face when I finally managed it. ¡°Hurts, Blissy?¡± It¡¯s something she¡¯s said since she was two. ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°It just aches. The familiar apparently isn¡¯t supposed to stay in the body long¡­ so I guess it just made my body very tired.¡± ¡°Valykree said so,¡± she replied and hugged the doll tighter. ¡°She said that they need vessels because¡­ um¡­¡± she thought on it for a long moment before triumphantly stating. ¡°Cause we have no magic and our bodies are too weak!¡± There wasn¡¯t anything about that in the letter I¡¯d read. ¡°Come on!¡± Sophia started jumping up and down and repeating herself. At least her ''familiar'' didn¡¯t fuck up her body too badly, I thought as I slowly slogged my way into the kitchen area behind her. She grabbed the box of treats I give her for completing our alphabet and number exercises and takes one out. Showing it to me. ¡°Now watch!¡± Sophia shoves the treat into her pocket, but¡­ it doesn¡¯t go in her pocket. Her pocket doesn¡¯t bulge... and it should. Even as fluffy and soft as the treat is, it should most absolutely have enough mass to bulge in a six-year-old''s pocket. ¡°What?¡± I stare at the pocket in question. ¡°Where did it go?¡± ¡°It¡¯s the inveltory!¡± she said. ¡°You put stuff in and it fits there and you can get it out by saying the name. Treat!¡± she said and reached into her pocket, then frowned. ¡°It¡¯s not coming out!¡± ¡°That¡¯s because it¡¯s not called ¡®Treat¡¯, it¡¯s called a ¡®Snowball¡¯,¡± I replied. ¡°Right, Snowball!¡± she said. And then took the treat from her pocket. ¡°See! I got it!¡± Inventory, magic familiars¡­ I was starting to have a sneaking suspicion what the Eldritch Beings meant when they said ¡®the System¡¯ and I didn¡¯t like it one bit. Gaming systems might seem fun to most people, but when it¡¯s real life, it means you have to fit certain criteria or you can never move on. Meet a certain level, have a certain herb, find a certain enemy and kill it. And if you can¡¯t, there¡¯s usually some kind of bad outcome or you just don¡¯t get what you need. What would we do for food? Were we not allowed to pick or plant or anything unless we had the requisite skillset? And even if not, would that mean that without the skill, the food was disgusting or small in number? And what about things like childbirth? Do you need to have levels in that as well? Do doctors need to get a whole new set of ¡®skills¡¯ that they¡¯re unable to use reliably until they figure out how it works? Will it no longer let us use our old abilities? I walked over and took the Snowball from Sophia. ¡°Is there any way you know of, to see the Inventory?¡± ¡°It¡¯s in the familyler,¡± she said. So I put the Snowball in my pocket. It disappeared as predicted and I turned around to find Phobos on the counter. Just like a real cat, it was staring at me, eerily. I sighed internally and stepped over to stare it in the eyes and think ¡®menu¡¯ and then when it opened, ¡®inventory¡¯. I¡¯d figured out it worked based off of thoughts and intentions from earlier. Like that implant they were working on, to help paralyzed people interact with their computers. For a moment, I paused. If there¡¯s an implant in my brain, I¡¯m killing those Eldritch ¡®gods¡¯ before they can even think to be annoyed at my existence. Then I look at the actual display window. There are four slots, and a note up above with an x at the far right corner.
Pockets only have four slots! And that¡¯s for all the pockets you¡¯re wearing, unless there¡¯s more than four, in which case you get a bonus slot! Get a backpack or trunk if you want more storage!
I frowned, I could feel it contorting my face. ¡°Annoying¡­ but useful, maybe. Sophia, go get your backpack and bring my duffel from the under the bed spot I showed you.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± she ran off to get them and I hit the x on the corner of the notice. The entire note disappeared and the inventory was all I could see.
Snowball Not very nutritious, but will stave off starvation in a pinch. Might inspire feelings of happiness from a rush of serotonin in the brain due to the high levels of sugar.
What? That¡¯s it? Usually in games, certain foods gave bonuses. Some just gave hunger relief or something. But this just basically said ¡®this is unhealthy but it¡¯s food I guess¡¯ and¡­ nothing else. I glanced at the stove but then shook my head. No telling when the electricity would go off, if it was even on now¡­ We didn''t usually need the lights during the day, because the windows let in so much light in the living area, kitchen and bedroom. I¡¯d check to see if the lights were on later. And I could see if ¡®home cooked¡¯ meals were different then. For now we had to pack. ¡°I got it!¡± she walked back into the kitchen, dragging my duffel behind her. With her own bright purple backpack on. I opened it while it was still on her and frowned. ¡°There was stuff in there, get it all out, if it¡¯s in the inventory.¡± ¡°Okay!¡± she said and stared into her Doll¡¯s eyes. A moment later, a bunch of shit was belched from her backpack and onto the floor. Pencil case, coloring books and workbook homework. ¡°...try to take it out without it falling to the floor, next time. One at a time if you have to,¡± I said with a sigh. ¡°Anyway, give me your backpack and I¡¯ll put your clothes in it.¡± ¡°Are we going away?¡± she asked as she paused in the act of taking off the backpack. ¡°We¡¯re going on vacation,¡± I said. ¡°Until we figure out how to make the house safe from monsters. We¡¯ll go somewhere with stronger doors and walls.¡± ¡°Okay¡­¡± she took off her backpack and handed it to me with a sullen expression. She liked our apartment. It was a special place she could always go and visit when mom was being mean or dad wasn¡¯t helping with her letters and numbers. She could always just call me and I would bring her over. Even after she started living here she didn¡¯t like leaving the place, except for school. ¡°Just for a while,¡± I said as I speed-walked into my room and opened her dresser drawers. But they were¡­ empty¡­ ¡°Fuck. Sophia, these dresser drawers have an inventory, too! You¡¯ll have to take out the clothes one by one and put them on the bed for me so I can pick out the ones you should put in your backpack!¡± She clomped in and began the process, apparently able to access the inventory by just staring at the dresser and then began pulling things out of the drawers, like they came from nowhere. That might be more secure, but it¡¯s annoying as fuck. Guardians should be able to handle their kids¡¯ inventory. Do the Eldritch beings think we¡¯re all the same level of incapable and ignorant? That there didn¡¯t need to be special considerations for kids? Mostly in these stories the protagonists WERE kids, treated like adults, so it made sense nobody thought about the practical side¡­ but it was annoying nonetheless. I went back into the kitchen and looked at the inventory for my duffel bag. There were eighteen slots. And a message.
Duffel bags have eighteen slots! Two more than backpacks! If you need boxes for stacking, please ask your Familiar!
Boxes¡­ for stacking¡­? And it seemed like there were tutorial messages, but only when you discovered something. That was one of the most annoying aspects of a lot of games. Why did they use something universally hated? ¡°Hey Phobos,¡± I stood up and stared at him as his tail flicked around him on the counter. ¡°Does the inventory not stack without those Boxes?¡± He mewed and the Menu opened. The message thing was glowing again. But so was a section entitled ¡®Codex¡¯, so I looked at that first. It had only one entry.
Box Stacking: When using the inventory, items don¡¯t stack. You must put all of the same item in one box, if you want multiple of that item to fit in one slot. Otherwise, those items take up a slot on their own.
¡°Okay¡­ give me eighteen boxes, then?¡± I asked. They appeared out of Phobos¡¯ mouth. Like he was literally puking them up. But it was like watching a snake eat a huge ostrich egg in reverse, so it didn''t seem Phobos was struggling or anything, just... like it had an unhingeable jaw... One big stack of nested boxes, then two, then three. I began pulling them apart, and at the end I had¡­ eighteen cardboard boxes. The long, skinny ones that weren¡¯t that tall? I could maybe fit four normal-sized cans of food in each one if I laid them down on their sides and stacked them two on top, two on bottom. The number one thing was probably going to be my special nutrition mixes. They were in case we couldn¡¯t eat anything but ramen and rice and other cheap shit. They had all the vitamins and fiber. It was a cheap brand, but it ensured we didn''t get malnutrition symptoms or scurvy, so it was pretty damned essential. I had three cans, but I opened the cans and upended them into the boxes, as the cans themselves were huge and it wouldn¡¯t fit that way. They came in their own individually wrapped packets, for a single bottle of water. The whole amount barely fit into the box. It had no flaps for the top so I just kneeled down and set it inside my duffel, after which it just disappeared like a fog enveloped it. In the inventory was the box as a whole item.
Box of Nutrient Powder: These packets can give energy and good health when one is missing out on nutrients in their meals.
Okay, so that also had no special effects¡­ I filled each box with whatever I could get my hands on. Two boxes filled with eight packages of Ramen each, two others filled with twelve bags of rice each. They were small ''boil-in-bag'' rice baggies. Long, but half-empty, so I could just pin the bottom bags under the top bags and then continue layering. Thank god. Rice was one of our staples now and a great way to ensure your condiments weren''t too overwhelming in the dish you were eating. Which was a godsend when you were feeding a picky six-year-old... That left thirteen boxes. And I quickly figured out after checking the inventory, that there was no indication that things went bad. And then my realization created another codex entry. Because apparently just wondering about something was the trigger mechanism. Not even asking a direct question.
Storage Conditions: The Inventory will keep each food item in its optimal conditions. It will last much longer than if you¡¯d simply refrigerated it. If it becomes close to the time in which it would rot, the Inventory will give you a notification through your Familiar.
So I took the canned food out and I started opening it up and putting the contents into ziploc bags. A lot more could fit in each individual box, that way. I managed to fit multiple cans of food in one massive ziploc and I was able to layer at least five in the box before I felt like any more wouldn¡¯t fit without teetering on top. And I learned something through experimentation. One ziploc had red beans, the other had black. But they both went in the same box without issue. So as long as they were of the same TYPE... The ziploc actually took a lot more beans than I thought it would. We only had eight cans of red beans and six cans of black beans, so the bags weren''t even half-filled. But luckily peanut butter also counted as a legume that had been prepared, I guess? So I was able to melt the huge tub we had into the gallon ziploc and put that in the box with the beans as well. I had to use a funnel and put the ziplock into a tall glass to keep it upright, considering I was doing it all myself. I didn''t know if my body was still aching from the familiar, or if I was just getting a workout. The Inventory took them all. One after the other. No issues. Even when I put two different kinds of fruit in the same box. A ziploc of canned pineapple and the other of pears. Then a few cans of fried apples for pies. Everything went in the same box, just to test it... and there was no problem, apparently. I didn''t have enough to fill the bags, but it was a hefty amount anyway, as it was everything we had in the cabinets for when things got lean and we wanted a treat. ¡°I did iiiiit!¡± Sophia called from the bedroom. I went to look through it and tossed away any socks we couldn¡¯t find the partner for. Any clothes that would be too snaggy, easily damaged¡­ ¡°Alright, now ask your Familiar for your Boxes,¡± I said. ¡°However many slots you have in your backpack inventory.¡± She hummed and held up Valykree, looking into her eyes. ¡°How many boxes do I need, Valykree?¡± She let go of the familiar when it wriggled for freedom and it fell to the bed in a superhero pose, before promptly puking up the boxes. One stack this time. Eight boxes. So children¡¯s Backpacks had less slots than adult backpacks. I packed her clothing in each box. Shirts, Pants, Underwear, Socks. And then I even added in some of mine, because it wouldn¡¯t fill the whole box. Once we were done, we had almost all of her clothes packed, but a good week''s worth of mine, as well. And we still had eight slots in our pockets, altogether. ¡°Pick out the toys you absolutely cannot live without for the vacation,¡± I said and walked distractedly back into the kitchen. I could hear her shuffling around in her toy box. And I stared at the cabinets with a thought. Did Salt count as ¡®salt¡¯¡­ or as a ¡®condiment¡¯ or ¡®spice¡¯? So I tried. And I was able to box up every single spice in the rack as well as the Ketchup, Mustard and Ranch in one box. And I just had to think I wanted it to go in my pocket, and it did. I didn¡¯t even have to shove it in there. Ridiculous amounts of storage. I wondered what the limits on amount of storage per person was. But I had more important stuff to figure out. I could hear the screaming again, further away, but coming closer. People were running down the street again. And those things¡­ were chasing them. The window had the perfect view of it, but I only glanced out to make sure they were indeed still there before moving away and heading back to Phobos. ¡°What do I need to defend myself?¡± I asked. 2.5: Chosen or Choosing? ¡°In games you always get starter equipment and weapons¡­¡± Another tutorial message popped up.
Choose your class and get your starter pack! You¡¯ll get a free set of clothing or armor that goes with your Class. Of course, you CAN upgrade with Coin to get a better set of clothing or armor and weaponry. You have two free skills no matter what, as well!
There was a list of classes in the letter, but it seemed like they were all drop-down menus. ¡°Ugh¡­ can I narrow down the things that don¡¯t require a lot of strength? The magic classes and stuff?¡± I was not a fighter. I''d try if it said it could change my body, give me muscles and train my mind so I''d already have learned it, but just looking at how you could only unlock two skills to begin with... A bunch of the classes slowly faded away and the list was much smaller as it reassembled itself.
Alchemist: Pharmacist: Creates magical potions with various effects including healing and status clearing. Poisoner: Specializes in creating poisons and other solutions for people to dip their weapons in or feed to monsters. Tinker: Develops explosive and chemical devices for use in traps and combat as well as small intricate devices like watches. Diviner: Augur: Uses prophecy to predict outcomes based on occasional visions from those Above, Beyond and In-Between. Oracle: Calculates the future with a Seer Index given by the Above, Beyond and In-Between that will predict outcomes based upon knowledge of events and people¡¯s behavior. Astrologer: Can use the stars to predict the future, love matches, business opportunities and other possible lucky or unlucky events for a person. Warlock: Summoner: Summons helpful spirits in physical objects for assistance in tasks or combat. Exorcist: Banishes spirits and removes all effects of spirit magic. Can help to calm spirits in an area that have become agitated. Channeler: Healing magic using Spirits to channel the energy of your body and surroundings. Machinist: Engineer: Specializes in building complex mechanical structures of all kinds, that are entirely mechanical with no magical components. Bigger structures than what a Tinker can build and repair. Artificer: Blends mechanical and magical principles to create powerful hybrid devices of all kinds. Gunsmith: Designs and creates firearms that have special effects. Can also craft the Bullets that go with these firearms.
Machinist is greyed out, why? Another Codex entry.
Greyed Out? These options are ones you COULD choose if you were to train in one or more skills required. As this is your first class selection, you may only choose what you already have skills for.
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. I don¡¯t have Alchemy skills, but that¡¯s not greyed out¡­ wait. It¡¯s like cooking, isn¡¯t it? I have cooking skills, which transfer over? Maybe¡­ but then why would it show it at all? Something to look forward to? Everything is hinting at you being able to change your class. But maybe it just means there''s one or two small skills and that you had all the rest? Meaning you''re just an inch away from it? And that symbol... was that a wand trailing gold smoke? And... a pen and a hammer crossed... Crafting! Right. Crafting class, magic class... ...I had no idea what that other symbol next to Diviner was. When I focused, the icon got bigger. It was three eyes... facing outward... with weird green billowing energy going between them? It looked like a cloud of smoke going in three directions? It couldn''t mean Vigilance, it was like a Priest class... The rest were¡­ ah¡­
Ranger: Beastmaster: Partner with Beasts or magical creatures to aid in scouting or combat. Pathfinder: Excels in navigation and wilderness survival, providing valuable strategic insights. Trapper: Sets up traps and snares to capture food or take enemies off-guard. Scout: Infiltrator: Masters of disguise and subterfuge, infiltrating enemy lines or secured locations. Agent: Gathers valuable intel, executes targets silently and escapes easily from enemy compounds. Private Eye: Follows evidence till the conclusion of each case has been determined. Has incredible tracking and logical reasoning skills. Bard: Minstrel: Playful entertainer that can raise morale through song and dance. Skald: Uses magic to demoralize enemies and uplift comrades by having a psychological effect on enemies. Historian: Gathers and records vital knowledge while sharing powerful stories of historical events to educate others.
It seemed that not only entire classes could be greyed out. It also applied if a subclass had a skill you didn''t have that was absolutely essential. Like combat or...wilderness survival? I had skills for that, though...not many, I will admit. The symbols, too, they obviously had meanings that were easy to figure out. But only for gamers, probably? A masked hood for stealth class. Crossed swords for combat... but why didn''t it have crossed swords next to every class that counted? That must mean they only put a symbol to indicate the ''dominant'' trait. And there were those eyes again... And then there was something¡­ else. Different than I¡¯d seen in games before. Kind of like an Enchanter? Someone who makes enchantments¡­ but¡­ the name was new.
Sigilrant: Runesmith: Specializes in the inscription of runes onto weapons and equipment to create an enchantment. Sigilmaster: Focuses on using intricate sigils for the creation of specialized spellcards. Glyphweaver: Crafts powerful, long-lasting magical glyphs for traps or support.
It was the most attractive option to me. As it appeared to not only be a crafting class, but also a spellcasting class, judging by the fact that it had that wand symbol next to it-
CLASS CHOSEN
¡°What!?¡± I shrieked and then corrected, so as not to alarm Sophia. ¡°What the fuck do you mean ¡®class chosen¡¯?¡± I hissed. The class of Sigilrant was all that was left and it said ¡®Choose a subclass¡¯. ¡°I didn¡¯t WANT to choose Sigilrant!¡± I said. ¡°I was just analyzing it!¡± Truthfully, it¡¯d be more useful to take up a class like Alchemist, Diviner, Warlock or Ranger for the subclasses Tinker, Oracle, Summoner or Beastmaster. Tinker can make explosives, Oracles can predict the future based on what I think is the thin slicing principle? Which is WAYYY more reliable than visions. Then you¡¯ve got the Summoner which can call spirits into phsyical forms to defend you. And Beastmaster where you can get animals to help you. The sound of something cracking broke my concentration and I looked away from my Familiar to stare at the door, listening hard. AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! That was inside the building. ¡°There¡¯s no way to change class, is there?¡± I asked as I returned to my familiar. No codex entry. That most likely means no. ¡°Fine, give me Sigilmaster then and show me how to make spellcards.¡± 3. First Blood Spellcards are more complicated than they¡¯d seemed just two minutes ago.
Skill Points: Skill Points are gained in battles with monsters and approved duels between people. No unauthorized duels will yield any Skill Points. Skill Points can be used to purchase new skills!
¡°So I can¡¯t buy any cards until AFTER I defeat a fucking monster?¡± I hissed at the menu. Then a ping! And Another Codex card opened.
Coins: Coins are the currency of the new world. All your assets in digital and physical money has been liquidated and turned into Coins. You can purchase equipment, supplies and anything else you could regularly buy with money, with Coins. But you cannot purchase skills unless you have Skill Points.
So Skill points weren''t currency. They were like XP being put into different categories. Coin was currency. But that likely also meant... ¡°Show me the¡­ Coin balance?¡± I asked, pre-emptively cringing. It would probably say Zero. And then what?
5025 Coins
Yeah, that was the balance in my bank account. I remembered specifically because I¡¯d just checked it yesterday. It said it liquidated assets, but I was pretty sure it was going to pull one of those ''you have to complete a quest to get it'' tricks that games sometimes did to make you feel like you ''earned'' the starter equipment. Thank god I was wrong. ¡°Coin¡­ Store-?¡± I halted and listened hard. There was a sound of bone crunching and chewing. They¡¯d killed whoever they were after on the lower floors and were now enjoying their meal. They¡¯d stay away if it stayed quiet up here. But I needed to quickly find some method of protecting us. They''d killed one person earlier, but also another, I think. I barely heard it. But I was sure SOMEONE else got killed on the much lower floors. The ¡®Coin Shop¡¯ opened. There were filter tabs for weaponry, armor, supplies¡­ I looked through them all and found basically nothing worth the coins to spend on the lower, cheaper tiers. I needed at least a Brass ¡®Stylus¡¯ and Watercolor Paper Cards. But I couldn¡¯t afford that AND the magic ink, plus the other stuff I might need. As soon as I thought about it, it all bundled, too. The entire set of stuff that would last a long time and actually afford protection was three-thousand, one-hundred and seventy-three Coin. I only had five thousand Coin. That¡¯d leave me like eighteen-hundred Coin. The food area was actually pretty well-priced. Things cost what they took to make and people were registering their goods as soon as they figured out the system, apparently, because people kept popping up with new items on the front page. Eggs were actually Cheaper and Milk, too. Not by a whole lot, but¡­ The Codex Pinged again.
Prices: This is a Fixed Capitalist System. The item costs what it took to make it and the hours spent doing so. For food, the cost is what the person bought in terms of feed, fertilizer and any medical concerns for livestock as well as other small expenses. There is a certain percentage of profit that will remain fixed. And the prices will go up if it¡¯s a rare object as well as down if it¡¯s more commonplace.
So things only cost what they cost, I thought with some surprise. And as I looked through the catalog¡­ I still couldn¡¯t risk spending three thousand Coin- A notice appeared on the Shop page.
Sell your things! This shop will buy anything you own and give you back whatever it costs in Coin. We use the matter to create objects of the same material. We can refurbish your old, broken sofa into a brand new one, quite easily! Anything you own at all, will be acceptable for sale.
I hit the x and started grabbing things from around the apartment, taking it over to my Familiar¡­ and¡­ The first thing he eats is a Book. And it gives me ten Coin. The rest of the books are the same, as long as they¡¯re fiction. Informational books are only five coin. ¡°What do you do with the books, just sell them as-is?¡± I asked Phobos. No response. It did say it could ¡®recycle¡¯ them or whatever. ¡°Alright, since I¡¯ve seen how it works¡­ buy the Starter Set I had my eye on,¡± I said with great internal pain. THREE-THOUSAND Coin for an outfit, a fancy pen and some fancy cardstock¡­ Well, at least I got three decks of the cards for a bargain because I was buying in bulk. The cards had some kind of tougher black backing that seemed to just be for decoration... or maybe make it so you didn''t poke through them, considering it WAS watercolor paper, after all... Wait, I blinked once at the menu. That¡¯s what happens to your books and stuff. I¡¯m sure someone gives their sketchbooks and it becomes the watercolor cards. And if you give a book, it gets repurposed into one of those informational books for magic stuff! It all made some kind of logical sense, and it was drawing me in, but I shook it off. I could figure everything out later, because right now I needed some way to protect myself and Sophia. ¡°...equip Starter Set?¡± I asked in a hesitant tone, because¡­ well, it felt ridiculous. Why didn¡¯t I just think it-? I looked down at myself and saw the set already on my body. It''s black and witchy. Gothy. Whatever. The Stylus was Brassy and bright, sitting on the counter in front of me with the three decks of cards. ¡°Shit, I only have one deck thing,¡± I muttered as I put the Deck of cards on top of the pile into the special open pouch on my belt it obviously was supposed to go into. Then I put my other two decks into a small ziploc and thankfully, it counted as one stacked item, just like the boxes. The decks had these strings around them. I untied the one in the pouch and pulled out a handful of cards. Phobos was still waiting when I looked up. He was much more well-behaved than a real cat. ¡°What do you eat?¡± I asked. He meowed and the menu opened again. Two codex entries.
Feeding Your Familiar!
Quick-Use Items!
Feeding him could wait till later, so I opened ¡®Quick-Use Items¡¯ first.
Quick-Use Items: You can register five items in total for ¡®quick-use¡¯. All you have to do is give the slot for the item a name and that item will appear in a linked pouch or pocket when you say its name. Pouch or pocket must be big enough to contain any one of the items. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.
I looked and there WAS an inner pocket in my jacket¡­ robe¡­ thing. It was pretty big. Big enough for the cards to appear in a stack, even. So I told it to connect it- And it glowed for a moment. The inside of the pocket turned murky blood red and then... faded. I guessed that was my indication that it''d synced or whatever. ¡°Okay, now how do I make the ¡®spell¡¯ part of the spellcards?¡± I asked, gripping the edge of the counter and wishing it would just open a tutorial section for how to do it and stop beating around the bush with all these steps! They should''ve already equipped me with equipment and taught me to use it to begin with! That''s how it works in the games it''s aping! The Set had come with a free amount of ink. Not a lot, but enough to make around ten simple spellcards, it said. So at least I didn''t have to buy more just yet. I was only going to make five for now. If I could. The ¡®Skill Shop¡¯ opened then and¡­ well¡­ Brenna and Vara. ''To burn'' and ''to Protect''. It wasn¡¯t fireball and barrier-- it was more like something to throw an open flame at someone and the other was¡­ well, apparently the weakest type of barrier there was. Those were the two ¡®starter¡¯ spells I had. And I couldn¡¯t pay Coin to upgrade like I had with my starter set. I immediately went to write Vara and Brenna on one card each. And something¡­ overtook me. It wasn¡¯t just the word itself that had to be inscribed. A symbol had to be written in the center of the card as well. And it looked like¡­ a gout of flame. The second card had a grid of sorts for its illustration. And... it wasn''t the word in English. If I had to stake a guess on it, it was like... Runes? When I finally came out of it, I shook my head and blinked. The world tilted slightly and I gripped the counter harder as a wave of exhaustion just... swept over me. But not for long. It soon settled into a low-level tiredness... like I''d just spent two hours doing something not arduous, but intense. My muscles were tight. ¡°Fuck,¡± I put the Stylus down. ¡°So that means it costs some kind of energy to make them. Just like casting them? So it¡¯s¡­ it¡¯s a stored spell, not something like a medium.¡± And I did need to know that. Mediums were used as fuel for spells. But a stored spell is like a scroll. You use the scroll instead of your own mana, because the spell''s mana and whatever ingredients are stored in the scroll... Phobos meowed at me to get me to look up and opened the menu to the Skill Shop again. It said I had two free skills to choose and one extra from upgrading my Starter Set. ¡°It never said you get extra skills from spending money¡­¡± I was so irritated that my skin was hot and starting to itch. I hate that sensation. Frustration is so uncomfortable for me. ¡°I got them!¡± Sophia came hustling in with three toys in her arms. One was the Tablet we used to do her letters and numbers on. Just a cheap learning toy. The other two were a Modified Barbie that she called Mesa, dressed in something similar to Scandinavian peasant wear and the Unicorn I¡¯d gotten for her on her fourth birthday. It was supposed to move around and neigh, but the batteries had gone out. She didn¡¯t seem to care. ¡°I have to bring Mesa and Sir Pokey!¡± she said. ¡°Mesa is Valykree¡¯s girlfriend and Sir Pokey is her loyal steed.¡± I kept forgetting the Unicorn''s name because it was so silly I kept thinking ''no, that can''t be it''. ¡°Yes, I remember. Go put them in the last box and then put them in your pocket inventory. Just think about it going in there, you don¡¯t have to make it fit your pocket,¡± I said. ¡°And try to be quiet. Monsters are outside, we don¡¯t want them coming in, do we?¡± No reason to frighten her too much. ¡°Shhh!¡± she said and put a finger over her lips before rushing off to the bedroom. She didn¡¯t seem to understand that running was loud. Of course she doesn¡¯t, she¡¯s six. I checked the Skill Shop for the last three skills I would need to pick. All Skills on the lower tier were 150 Skill Points each. Those were the ones I could pick, so I couldn¡¯t just get a free high-tier skill. It was the same ranking system I was used to in RPG¡¯s. JRPG¡¯s most specifically. S to F with no E. It also said I was F-Rank and would only qualify to go up if I did a lot of fighting. Though there was also another panel that said if I completed other types of ¡®Quests¡¯ my rank would go up in that category, instead of overall. So, essentially the overarching rank is power. Physical or magical. The other ranks are for proficiency. The skills I could choose were¡­
Styrkja: This spell provides a temporary buff that partially reduces incoming damage. This is the first tier, so the effect is only 20% of the final tier of this spell Lysa: Conjures a floating wisp of light that illuminates the surrounding area. This is the first tier, so the effect is only 20% of the final tier of this spell L?sa: This spell allows the caster to magically lock a door, preventing unauthorized access. Frysta: This spell encases enemies in frost, slowing them down and causing cold damage over time. This is the first tier, so the effect is only 20% of the final tier of this spell Hrekja: A gust of magical wind bursts forth from the caster, forcefully driving back enemies in its path. This is the first tier, so the effect is only 20% of the final tier of this spell Deyfa: Using arcane energy, this spell disrupts the target''s internal balance, leaving them nauseous and disoriented. This is the first tier, so the effect is only 20% of the final tier of this spell Fela: By weaving shadows around the target, this spell hides a person or object for a short period, making them blend seamlessly into the darkness. The effect creates the illusion that they are part of the surrounding shadows. This is the first tier, so the effect is only 20% of the final tier of this spell Binda: This spell uses nearby materials or pure magical energy to entangle a target¡¯s movements. This is the first tier, so the effect is only 20% of the final tier of this spell
Please, repeat that it''s only 20% effective some more. I didn''t get it the first time. I huffed internally and thought to myself that the only one that DIDN''T say it, was probably because magically locking a door would only keep it locked. It wouldn''t prevent it from being busted down. I picked the three that were the most useful as of this moment. I didn¡¯t have any idea how to use Freezing attacks right now and it likely wouldn¡¯t be powerful enough. And Magic locks were unnecessary and useless as of yet. Maybe once I''d gotten some more durable doors. Illuminating the area with a wisp, Driving the enemy back with wind and then the binding one. I could use two of the skills I had just then, if it worked the way it said it did in the Menu. So I decided to try it. There was a rattling sound outside the apartment. Clackety swishing noises like claws on a floor¡­ down under us. The floor below. I went over and shut the door to the bedroom. ¡°Stay here until I come get you, I¡¯m experimenting with Magic.¡± "I wanna try!" she said as I shut the door. "We''ll do that after I figure out how it works," I said as I looked for a spot to write the Sigils. It''d said I could inscribe them on anything, basically, but that my specialty was the cards. So... the effect might not be as good? "Don''t do anything in the menu until I come to get you, alright. Play with Valykree." There was a sullen response, but I didn''t think I had to worry about it. Sophia was fairly obedient to authority figures on average. Never really did things ''just'' to do the opposite of what she was told. I hoped that held true, just for today. Vara, I wrote on the Door with my Stylus. And now that I was looking at it, it was¡­ ornate. Brass but like it was poured into a mould? And the tip looked like a glass pen with the swirled end. Plus, there were grooves carved into it, for better grip... The door began to glow red as soon as I finished the word. I guessed that was just the color of ¡®my¡¯ magic? I¡¯d have to take stock later. Right now, I had to figure out what I could do, for how long and how effective it would be. So I couldn''t worry about the details yet. Cooperate with me, brain. I know it''ll be a first, but be a pal here. I walked over and got a knife from the knife block. A big unwieldy cleaver, as I wanted to see how long it would last and test its durability. I had no idea how these things worked, how to turn them on and off... or if I even could. The clacking got louder. They were on this floor. I inscribed Brenna into the Cleaver, right on the blade, on the bit farthest from the edge. The Cleaver¡­ started to heat up. I was SURE that would happen, but I was afraid it might burst into unquenchable flames. So I put it in the sink and waited. It kept heating up and heating up until the metal was orange. When I tapped the handle, it was way too hot to touch, but... then it stopped. And cooled. It wasn''t super fast, but fast enough I could tell. Do spells only last for short periods of time when inscribed on weapons and stuff? Is it because it melted the metal? I tried again with another, smaller knife that was still a bit huge and unwieldy. I didn¡¯t want to use any Knives I¡¯d actually use. The blade glowed red before I had to drop it. I felt more and more tired and fuzzy-headed as I practiced and I knew my limit was coming soon. Using that freezing spell on the handle might¡¯ve been useful, but I don¡¯t have any Skill points. Apparently, you start with zero. And I picked my one extra skill already. It was NOT something I was willing to give up, either. Not a single one of them. Well, at least I knew what kind of skill to get next. The door burst open. It happened so fast, I couldn¡¯t even comprehend it in the instant the weird Hyena-thing burst through and slammed directly into the bedroom door which was straight across from the front door. But the bedroom door held, flashing red. The Hyena-thing went limp for a moment. Shaking its head. The barrier was disappearing. Stuttering and guttering like a candle. What happened next was blurry for me. I just knew it couldn¡¯t get in there to Sophia. I grabbed the knife I actually wanted to use, wrote a quick Brenna on the blade and then rushed over to stab downward into its unprotected neck from the side at an angle as hard as I possibly could. Hoping to just instantly kill it. Of course, I couldn¡¯t be that lucky. The thing bucked and howled with a gurgle as its throat was occupied by a knife. But even after it threw me across the room, I heard its screams get louder and saw as it thrashed and ran around, slamming into things, trying to dislodge the knife, but very stupidly pushing it further in instead. So monsters are just animals, but¡­ big and magical. The thought was lethargic. I lied there and watched it from where I was slumped by the ''window bed'' I''d made for Sophia in the living area. I was upside down and my neck hurt something awful. I didn''t want to move too fast in case I accidentally paralyzed myself. It turned in my direction and started thrashing near me but... it leapt and slammed into the wall next to me instead of bodying me. When I looked, it had landed on my arm and I yanked it out from under it, with as much strength as I could get. I didn''t want it knowing where a soft part of me was, that it could sink its teeth into... but I couldn''t feel it. My arm tingled but it was mostly numb. I realized in that same moment, that it was finally dead. Lying limp on the floor beside me, its flesh sizzling. Ugh. I could smell it. Smells like food. That''s terrible. Or is it? It''s an animal, right? ¡°BLISSY! BLISSY WHAT WAS THAT!? IS THE MONSTER IN THERE!?¡± She¡¯ll keep screaming until she attracts another one. So I shoved myself up and had to use the furniture and wall to get to the door and turn the knob. It opened easily. The barrier wasn¡¯t a lock and it''d fallen anyway. Sophia just didn¡¯t use knobs when I closed the door and told her to stay inside. She¡¯d learned not to, from mom. No lock actually necessary. She saw the Hyena thing and started shrieking, but I put my hand over her mouth and asked, ¡°do you want Blissy to get hurt?¡± Her crying was so loud. She shook her head under my hand. ¡°Then you have to stop making noise. Stop crying, stop stomping. Stop screaming.¡± She was still wailing under my hand. ¡°I said, stop crying,¡± I hissed. It made me feel terrible, but between hurting her feelings a little and getting her killed¡­ She hiccuped but went somewhat silent. Just slightly ragged gasping breaths as I removed my hand. It was actually worrying how fast she got her noise making under control. ¡°Those things track sound and smells,¡± I told her. I didn¡¯t know for sure, but they probably worked off the same basic principles as earth animals. ¡°You have to choke down noise and move gingerly to get around them. Remember how you had to be quiet at home because dad got annoyed by noise? You have to do that until I tell you we¡¯re in a safe place. And don¡¯t worry about the door and the furniture, those things can be fixed. Okay?¡± She sniffled and breathed deeply, soothing herself in the way she used to. I¡¯d just gotten her feeling safe enough to be loud when she played and cried, damn it! ¡°Do you have your toys?¡± I asked. She nodded silently. ¡°Okay. We¡¯re going to fill up some of our empty containers with water. Fill up the bathtub, the sinks, everything. And then we¡¯re going to leave, get in the car and go somewhere safe. What I need you to do is put all the stoppers in the sinks and bathtub, can you do that?¡± She nodded and walked slowly into the bathroom right off the bedroom. Even if we couldn¡¯t use it, someone else might come by and see the water filling up the basins and be able to. And for right now, we needed to plan for the water to stop at some point. For now, though¡­ I need to make more spellcards and figure out what my limit is for this¡­ Ugh, I bent in half, just at the thought of doing more. My stomach churned and something in my skull throbbed. I wasn''t sure it was my brain. So that is my limit? I calculated. I did two spellcards, two etchings on a knife, then on a door, then another knife. I¡¯d be able to make six spellcards¡­ a day? God I hope it recharges every day. 4. Character Building ¡°W-wait!¡± Sophia whispered as we walked into the hall. ¡°What about Toria?¡± Shit, I hadn¡¯t even thought about Victoria. She was in the room just down the hall. She had a cat she let out into the halls sometimes. But it didn¡¯t appear to be anywhere, there wasn¡¯t any blood. She might not even be in. I didn''t know if that was lucky or not. There were too many of those things on the street to go making noise, but. I pulled out my phone. Still no signal. It was displaying a message.
Instant Messaging Network is still being established. Please wait!
The entities are just going to create the same system for messaging in rpgs, aren¡¯t they? I groaned internally. You could usually only send text messages. I hoped they allowed calls as well. I don''t like talking on the phone and prefer texting. But sometimes it''s necessary. Sophia was going to need a cellphone and if we got separated, messaging her ''it''ll be okay'' is not going to be nearly as effective as saying it over an open line. I pulled Sophia with me down the hall toward Toria''s door, then very gently tapped on it. ¡°Toria¡­¡± Sophia whispered loudly. But at least she wasn¡¯t yelling. The door was flung open in that moment, ¡°Sophia!?¡± She''d obviously been waiting on the other side of the door, listening for some kind of activity. She had to have heard the monster attacking us, right? But she likely had no idea where it was or even if she''d be able to fight it, considering she wasn''t wearing any gear. And she looked a wreck, besides. ¡°Oh god, I need help. I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on. I¡¯m seeing and hearing things!¡± she said with tears pouring down her face. Her eyes were already red and puffy. It baffled me how she couldn¡¯t know what was going on. She had to have found a familiar vessel if she wasn¡¯t insensate on the floor¡­ The locket which she always wore around her neck had a single jewel eye, now. It was right in my line of sight so It was easy to spot. And it made sense, because that Locket is something her brother gave her. He was younger than her and scrounged up money to get her a real silver locket with some kind of gemstone arranged around the circular top lid. But they were an eye now. ¡°Victoria, listen closely,¡± I said. ¡°We¡¯re all going in your apartment and closing and locking the door, okay?¡± She sniffled and rubbed her red eyes, nodding silently. She stepped backward and shook while we walked in. Victoria went to her sofa but the cat didn¡¯t instantly leap into her lap. I shut and locked the door, just to be certain it''s as secure as possible before following her over. ¡°Oh god, what is that?¡± she said as she noticed Valykree riding Phobos, walking around next to us. ¡°I¡¯m seeing it again-¡± ¡°It¡¯s Valykree riding my skeleton cat, right?¡± I asked. She went wide-eyed. ¡°WHAT!?¡± It was too loud, but she was shrieking very lowly, like her throat was too raspy to do more. ¡°You¡¯re not crazy. The world just kind of ended. And restarted. Hang on, I can help,¡± I said and stepped over to sit next to her. ¡°I¡¯m guessing you grasped that Locket and called for your brother when you were in pain, convulsing because of some unknown force?¡± She shook, staring at me in silence, lips parted slightly. ¡°It happened to us, too,¡± I said. ¡°Sophia had to bring me my cat skeleton so the Familiar could inhabit it. Our bodies can¡¯t handle them. I thought I was hallucinating as well.¡± She started sobbing openly. ¡°I¡¯m going to help Sophia with something in the bedroom, so when you¡¯re calm and able to talk, just come in and find me.¡± Her head shook, but she didn¡¯t respond, face buried in her hands. I didn¡¯t know if it was despair, thinking she really WAS insane, or if she was relieved she wasn¡¯t. But either way¡­ it was time for the Class Selection. And Sophia was a child who needed entertainment. She''d do it out of boredom and accidentally end up with something very WRONG or very HARD if I didn''t help her. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Come on, Sophia,¡± I got up and led her into the bedroom by the hand. Valykree and Phobos followed us. ¡°Now, I¡¯m going to say something important,¡± I said. ¡°I want you to tell me what you see when you open your menu to ¡®classes¡¯. Just listen to the names, DO NOT think about how cool they are or anything else but telling me what you hear when they¡¯re read off to you, okay?¡± ¡°Okay!¡± she picked up Valykree and opened her menu. She hummed until she finally made a triumphant noise. ¡°I found them! It says I can only do Hiller, Color Mage, Elmensal Mage and something called a¡­ Beesmaster?¡± One of those was a Sub-class. Did they just entirely remove the over-class to make it easier for her? ¡°Is that first one ¡®Healer¡¯?¡± I asked. ¡°Yeah! Hiller!¡± she said. I wondered why she had such trouble with certain words. She could say other ¡®ea¡¯ words just fine¡­ and she can pronounce her t¡¯s usually¡­ Healer, Color Mage, Elemental Mage, Beastmaster. I remembered that was a class I could get, too. As are all the rest. They have to be the base classes everyone can get. So they would each have equal chance of helping you survive the new world, unlike the other classes, most likely. I might¡¯ve gotten Beastmaster if I¡¯d been given an actual choice, but¡­ she¡¯s different. ¡°Okay, put Valykree away so she can¡¯t choose your class for you while we talk,¡± I said. She got up and put Valykree on Phobos again. ¡°Go and play with-¡± ¡°No no. Poggers is probably scared,¡± I cut her off. ¡°And so is Toria. Tell them to go and sit and wait in the bathroom.¡± Phobos took off before I was even finished, through the slight crack of the bathroom door just to the left of us. ¡°Okay, Blissy is a Sigilrant,¡± I tell her. ¡°It¡¯s a class that means I can draw spells on Cards to save them for later, and I can draw spells on stuff to make effects. What we need are a ¡®Tank¡¯, ¡®Healer¡¯ and ¡®Damage Dealer¡¯ for a full party, and I''m not any of those. So you could be any of those four classes, maybe. But the best would be Beastmaster, Elemental Mage or Healer.¡± I explained what each one was. She looked incredibly stumped. ¡°Why can¡¯t I just learn everything?¡± ¡°I think it was implied you can change your class later, so maybe you can,¡± I said. ¡°But we need to assume you have to keep this class for the next ten years, so you can really grow into it and get a lot of skills.¡± ¡°Ten years!?¡± her eyes boggled at me. To her it must''ve seemed an eternity. She can barely wrap her head around ''one'' year. ¡°You¡¯ll only be sixteen, you won¡¯t even be an adult yet,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯ll have at least another sixty years to do whatever you want, then.¡± She thought that over. ¡°What¡¯s best for fighting monsters?¡± And started kicking her feet against the bed. ¡°Well, you could pick Beastmaster and befriend a bunch of the monsters,¡± I said. ¡°Or Elemental mage to throw fireballs and lightning bolts at them. Or you could be a healer and fix me up whenever I get hurt.¡± ¡°Hmmm¡­¡± she hummed to herself as she thought it over. ¡°Can beesmaster and Elmensal mage do healing? Or can Hiller do fighting?¡± ¡°No, I don¡¯t think so,¡± I said. ¡°But who knows what kinds of skills you¡¯ll get in the future.¡± ¡°I¡¯m gonna pick¡­ uh, what¡¯s a Valykree?¡± she asked. She¡¯d obviously forgotten the original word was Valkyrie. It was very cute. But I had to stay focused. ¡°A Valkyrie is an angel who guides the souls of warriors to death. So I guess you could say it¡¯s a lot like a Healer. But not exactly-¡± ¡°Then I¡¯ll be a Hiller!¡± she said triumphantly. And then Valykree came rocketing in, rushing up to her. Like it sensed she needed it. ¡°Now, pick it up and tell it you¡¯ll be a Healer. Then do the same thing as before, reading off the subclasses to me and then putting her down.¡± She did so and told me, ¡°Uhhh, it says I can be a Fegbomis, an erbist and a generator.¡± They must be big words. ¡°Try sounding out the first one for me,¡± I told her as she put Valykree down. ¡°Uhh¡­ Feg¡­ Flem¡­ Flehg,¡± she tried very hard. ¡°Phlebotomist.¡± I jolted and looked down. Valykree was looking up. ¡°Herbalist. Regenerator.¡± It wasn¡¯t a voice. More like a sound that issued from it, like an AI reading text. ¡°Ask it to tell you all the abilities of each one,¡± I told her. ¡°What are those?¡± she asked the doll. ¡°Phlebotomist: Create blood from mana or take it from a willing participant, then transfer the blood to a patient. Herbalist: Learn to create basic tinctures and creams for ailments such as infection, itching, swelling and fever. Learn to make bandages. Regenerator: use mana to encourage the body to heal naturally, faster. Learn techniques such as stitching, stapling and splinting.¡± ¡°Okay,¡± I sighed. ¡°So you can either be a blood healer, which is very useful and can help people survive long enough to get to another healer¡­ but you probably can¡¯t heal wounds closed. Or if you can, that skill comes later and you have to unlock it with Skill points.¡± ¡°Ew, blood,¡± she was making a face. ¡°Yeah, I know,¡± I replied. I¡¯d still have probably picked it if given the choice, considering that sounds really fucking vital... and I tend to like blood-themed things. ¡°Herbalists can mix things like¡­ remember when I showed you how to use honey to make your scratches stop itching? And for your chicken pox when we used calamine lotion?¡± She nodded furiously. ¡°Can I make candy!?¡± It was mentioning honey that made her think of that. ¡°I don¡¯t know, but you could only make it if it were medicine, I think,¡± I said. Sophia huffed and crossed her arms. ¡°A Regenerator helps the body to heal on its own. But part of that is sewing shut wounds and stuff¡­ we could probably just buy you the skill to staple and a staple gun and you would just staple it like you do paper. And you¡¯d learn to splint, which helps with broken arms and legs.¡± ¡°The Generator¡¯s not icky or hard,¡± she said. True. Using magic to encourage healing after stapling a wound shut is probably easiest. But¡­ ¡°It will still be a little icky,¡± I said. ¡°You¡¯d have to hold together the wound while you staple it. That¡¯s blood and sometimes you might see bone. Though you¡¯d likely be wearing gloves so you wouldn¡¯t get it on your hands¡­¡± ¡°Ugh¡­ I don¡¯t like it,¡± she gripped her dress in her hands. ¡°Why can¡¯t I just be a magic healer like in the games?¡± I¡¯d introduced her to those when she hit five by mostly letting her watch me play and doing what she asked me to do here and there. Those healers just waved their hands and a light shone on people and suddenly, they got up. ¡°That¡¯s what a Regenerator is,¡± I said. ¡°But you aren¡¯t powerful enough to close the wounds by yourself yet, that¡¯s all.¡± She pouted. ¡°Fiiinnneee.¡± After her class and subclass were finalized, I had her look at her starter skills and starter set. I was able to upgrade her starter set, and when asked, the system allowed her to dye it purple with gold details. Thank god it allowed me to pay for her things as her guardian. Maybe they HAD some consideration for kids and just decided not to let the adults in for a reason. Thank god this didn''t happen while she was with mom and dad. I can see now, why them accessing her inventory would be horrific. 4.5: Other Angles She started jumping up and down and running around in her new set, shrieking that she was a ¡®Valykree¡¯ now once she got it on. Her little rod was in a fasten on her waist. Like a rip-away velcro loop? Toria chose that moment to show up in the doorway, looking haggard. She blinked at Sophia for a moment before asking, ¡°did you change her clothes?¡± ¡°Yes, and we¡¯re going to change yours, too. I know this is a lot, but there are monsters running rampant. One attacked us,¡± I said. ¡°We need to outfit you with self-defense and good equipment.¡± She sniffled and walked over to sit next to me. ¡°I could never handle stuff like you and Jeremy. You¡¯re always so good in crises.¡± ADHD and Autism comorbidity for the win. Neither of us was really sure which one we had, we had too many symptoms of both, but¡­ we definitely had something. ¡°What Classes are showing up for you? Oh¡­ you have to pick up your locket and look it in the eye.¡± ¡°What eyes?¡± she asked and looked down, holding it up on the chain, then dropped it and shrieked before shortly choking herself off and flapping her hands like she was trying to fly or something. ¡°Calm down, it¡¯s just your familiar,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s like having an AI built to help you survive. Okay?¡± I¡¯ve never been good at comforting. Some people want to be touched, some people don¡¯t¡­ so I just focus on verbal affirmations and directions. Her breathing began to even out as she rubbed hard at her eyes before nodding sharply and picking up the locket again. It was long enough she could look into the eye upside down. ¡°Just ask it to open the menu,¡± I said. ¡°You don¡¯t have to say it out-¡± A sharp inhale. ¡°Uh¡­ ohhhh. It looks like my Spacetime account¡­ is that normal?¡± That space-themed social media thing, I recalled. Though I had no idea what the dashboards looked like as I preferred Chainly. And my own menu looked nothing like either. It looked like a normal video game menu. Dark mode with red accents... ¡°Well, they probably all look different,¡± I said. ¡°Go to the icon that means ¡®inbox¡¯, what does it look like for you?¡± ¡°It¡¯s an envelope, just like on the site,¡± she said. ¡°A letter¡­¡± As she read through it, I called Phobos and used the Menu to look through my Skills again. Killing that thing¡­ gave me points. And now there was a Bestiary and I knew it was called a Warg. Like those things in some fantasy settings that Goblins often used or Orcs or¡­ some other ¡®evil¡¯ species. It¡¯s probably different in reality. They¡¯ll likely just be people, or animals shaped like people. Not ¡®evil¡¯ or whatever. Fourty-five skill points. Because I¡¯m F-class and the Warg was D-class. When fighting something above your class, you get half again the multiplier, apparently. If I could fight a class S monster and win, I¡¯d get three and a half times the base points. Which was 30 for Wargs¡­ Shaking that thought away, I reprimanded myself. What, do you think you¡¯re the chosen one? What¡¯s important is survival, not heroics or earning money and skill points just for the sake of it. But I knew games. We¡¯d have to grind up to a point where we¡¯d be safe, and THEN maybe it¡¯d calm down. ¡°This says something about¡­ Inventory and an introduction to Battle?¡± Toria intoned aloud. I hadn¡¯t seen that. ¡°Is that a letter or a codex entry?¡± ¡°I-it¡¯s in the instant message folder,¡± she said. Letter. The menu opened my Inbox and I found I had three unopened letters, actually. I sighed and opened each and every one. Inventory and Introduction to Battle were two different letters. But they had all the information I needed. They seemed to have been sent the same time as the first letter. Battle, as is stated in the letter, is about killing the opponent when facing a monster. But anything that has sapience is a person and combat with people should fall into three categories. Duels, War and Self-defense. War doesn¡¯t earn Skill Points for your lord, only for yourself. And they¡¯re non-trasferrable so it was a good thing the Entities apparently understood exploitation. The Last Letter was about Death and Healing. Healing would heal you, but if you died before it could fix the problem, there was no bringing you back. ¡®Revival¡¯ skills only bring you back from the BRINK of death, or trade someone else¡¯s vitality in exchange for you being healed much faster so you won¡¯t die before it works. All written in that strange tone, same as the first letter. With that note about it being translated for ''mortal understanding'' at the top of each one. Which meant Letters were only ever from those Above, Beyond and In-Between, or the System, maybe. But I think the System primarily communicates through every other- ¡°Well, at least Death still exists,¡± Toria sniffled. Sophia was standing next to her, leaning on her side and patting her gently on the knee. She was much better at comforting than I was. ¡°I¡¯ll bet there¡¯s even a tax system,¡± I said. The Codex chimed, but I checked it and it was just ¡®Taxes¡¯ and things that I already knew by now. It was like it was just keeping track of things I discovered and as a result, giving me tidbits of information I didn¡¯t have before. Just like Codexes in games. At least it confirmed there WERE taxes... ¡°Alright, close it,¡± I said as I finished looking through the new entries. ¡°It¡¯s telling me I have Journal Entries,¡± she said. That¡¯s her Codex, I guess. ¡°Tell it to read them to you aloud and close it,¡± I said. I didn¡¯t know if it would work, but it was worth testing out. It''s what it did for Sophia. But maybe it didn''t work for adults? She told the Locket to read out her Codex entries and- It did. Slowly, in a monotone voice, using a low tone in-between each one, to denote that it was moving to a new one. When it was finished, I had no new information, really, but she¡¯d unlocked an entry about the Familiar¡¯s capabilities, which outlined what we¡¯d already learned. So¡­ at least it was confirmed. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Don¡¯t look at it and ask it to list the possible Classes to you, and their subclasses and what those subclasses are,¡± I told her. "Call it by the name you gave it. You probably said or thought about Jeremy, so that''s likely it." She closed her eyes, took a deep breath and asked, "Jeremy... what are my class... uh... options?" ¡°Classes available are: Calligrapher, Elemental Mage, Color Mage, Beastmaster, Healer, Monk.¡± The sub-classes it listed were basically the same as before, except Calligrapher and Monk. Monks were usually associated more with religion than martial arts, but in RPG''s that was the opposite. So I wondered if her weekly Tai-Chi and Taekwondo sessions had anything to do with that. And it seemed that everyone even remotely familiar with animals was getting Beastmaster... ¡°Color Mage,¡± she whispered. ¡°It says¡­ the subclasses are switchable if I pay mana? That¡¯s that magic energy stuff in games, right? Jeremy made me play once, so I learned a few things.¡± ¡°Yes, it¡¯s unique that way. Most others, you have to choose a subclass and stick to it. The powers of a color mage are potent, but limited. That¡¯s probably why you can just switch subclasses with mana but only one ability is listed for each.¡± Each color had its own power, and I¡¯d bet you could build on the original power but not get new ones. It¡¯d be overpowered otherwise. ¡°I¡­ I wanna pick that one. Is that¡­ okay?¡± she asked, fiddling with her locket. ¡°It¡¯s your class, and I think it would suit our party well. Sophia chose to become a healer with regeneration abilities and I¡¯m a Sigilrant. I¡¯m sure your Codex will load up with information about those two things in a moment.¡± She nodded and told the Locket what she¡¯d chosen. ¡°Now, open the Shop,¡± I said. ¡°Ask it for the upgraded Starter Set and choose the one that you¡¯ll be using for the next few months, at least. Something good. Don¡¯t worry about price unless it goes above three thousand and some Coins.¡± It was a good starting price, I''d found. I''d had to sell basically everything else in our apartment to leave us with eating money after buying Sophia''s at fifteen-hundred, but that was fine. As long as it lasts. And thank god kids were cheaper to outfit. ¡°Ohhh I don¡¯t know any of this,¡± she muttered. ¡°I like how they look and all, but the effects are¡­¡± ¡°Choose something with Weatherproofing, me and Sophia both have something with that and extra pocket slots for the inventory.¡± Sophia and I now had five pocket slots each instead of four because of the upgrade. She muttered more as she looked through the options before finally gasping and saying, ¡°I found one like that! And it says it has good mobility?¡± The same combination that showed up for my starter upgrade, AND Sophia¡¯s. Odd. Either those just went together naturally in the system, or we accidentally thought them into being somehow and the System accommodated it. ¡°Do you have enough Coin to pay for it?¡± I asked. She stared at the locket in shock. ¡°It¡­ it says I have eight thousand coin? That¡¯s not right! My balance in the bank was like three-thousand something!¡± ¡°You had investments though,¡± I said. ¡°All our assets like that were liquidated.¡± I suddenly regretted not having invested anything. But it was better to be safe than sorry, I''d felt. ¡°But that wasn¡¯t worth-¡± she pauses and appears to read something. ¡°Oh. It says it had a multiplier for how well the stocks would do in the next year. And apparently they were going to do¡­ pretty well¡­¡± Sophia petted her knee again, making shushing noises as Toria''s voice cracked. ¡°Stocks rise and then fall, it¡¯s the nature of them. Thank the Eldritch Assholes that you managed to get a rising year.¡± She snorted and rubbed at her eyes. ¡°I¡¯m buying it.¡± ¡°You can also dye it for extra coin,¡± I told her. ¡°You¡¯ll be wearing it every day, make sure it¡¯s something you¡¯ll like to look at.¡± All my outfits were black. There were accents of course, of gold, green, red. The one I was wearing was just black with silver fastens and things, though. Looked fine. ¡°I¡­ uh¡­ want a rainbow tie-dye pattern?¡± she said. ¡°With¡­ uh¡­ well, if it¡¯s got leather belts and stuff, just leave it leather brown colored?¡± The outfit appeared after she equipped it, like a hazy dream being overlaid on her body and her clothes from before were just, behind us on the bed. ¡°Ohhhh that was¡­ very cool and also creepy as hell,¡± she muttered and looked at herself in her mirror, getting up to look from multiple angles. Shorts with thigh-high stockings, boots that went to mid-calf. Poofed sleeves that belled around her wrists and a hood. The ends of her blonde hair poked out, the pink tips on full display. Sophia had gone with a sort of Magical Girl style dress with cute little ¡®going to a church recital¡¯ shoes and a ¡®Rod¡¯ with a butterfly at the top in her hand. She also wore an adorable beret on her head with a butterfly on it. I couldn¡¯t really appreciate the cuteness before, because I was in crisis mode. Still am, to some extent. But it¡¯s been a few minutes since the attack, so I¡¯m able to notice more around me that isn¡¯t essential to survival. ¡°You look so cuuuuute!¡± Toria finally said and swooped Sophia up in her arms giving her kisses on her cheek while Sophia laughed and shrieked. ¡°Noises!¡± I hissed. Toria stopped and looked like a deer caught in headlights. ¡°Oh my god, you said you were attacked-¡± she put Sophia on the bed and looked at both of us. ¡°How, are you hurt? Should we call an ambulance?¡± ¡°It just broke the door and rushed in, no, and the phones don¡¯t work yet because the ¡®network¡¯ isn¡¯t set up, whatever that means,¡± I replied. ¡°Sophia picked the healer class ¡®Regenerator¡¯, but she¡¯ll probably not be able to do much. We can¡¯t rely on her healing us, so we need to be extremely careful.¡± She nodded. ¡°You need to change your color to Scarlet and see if you have an attack skill,¡± I said. The Scarlet subclass was ¡®Blood Blade¡¯ which made a sword of the person¡¯s own blood. I had a codex about the colors after she chose her class. But without attack skills, she wouldn¡¯t know how to use it and we were therefore boned. She instantly opened her Menu and started muttering to herself, still kneeling there on the floor in front of us. ¡°Slash!¡± She said with excitement. ¡°It says I can use Slash¡­ but that¡¯s all.¡± ¡°It¡¯s probably to keep your class balanced,¡± I said. ¡°One skill per every color of the rainbow, they¡¯re probably going to be mostly useless at the start.¡± ¡°I can¡¯t buy more, it says I have no skill points,¡± she said. ¡°You get them when you kill monsters. But we¡¯re F-rank and those Warg things are D-rank. We¡¯d get fourty-five points apiece for them, but¡­ it¡¯s not as easy as it looks. I stabbed one with a dagger that was heating up to melting point and it still ran around the room howling and crashing into things for at least thirty seconds¡­ maybe a full minute.¡± ¡°THAT¡¯S what that was?¡± She reached up and shoved her hands in her hair, knocking off her hood. ¡°Oh god, I thought I imagined that like everything else. I should¡¯ve come and help!¡± ¡°You would have died, as you hadn¡¯t chosen a class yet,¡± I replied. ¡°We need to find more people in the building and help them choose their classes and equipment. Do you think there are many still in their rooms? I know at least two people on lower floors died.¡± ¡°Oh Christ,¡± she pursed her lips and then shot up. ¡°Mrs. Katz!¡± She rushed toward the door but I hissed ¡°STOP!¡± as loudly as I dared. Halted, she seemed to actually think and stopped altogether. Shifting out of her ''just about to sprint to the door'' pose into resting position again. She had such good body control, it honestly made me jealous. ¡°We need to all move together, so I can protect us until you learn to use Slash with your blood blade. Did you even pick scarlet yet?¡± ¡°I¡¯m doing it, I¡¯m doing it!¡± she said frantically. ¡°Uh¡­ Color Change¡­ Scarlet?¡± Stupidly, it actually worked. Her rainbow became a gradient of reds. ¡°Ah!¡± she gasped. ¡°I didn¡¯t want that to happen. Fuck. The Rainbow is gone¡­¡± ¡°No,¡± I said. ¡°That makes no sense and defeats the purpose of buying a dye pack¡­ check your codex and ask why it did that.¡± ¡°It says it¡¯ll bleed away with time because I have a time limit to use every color and... when I choose ''No color'' it''ll go away and be a rainbow again. Still really annoying.¡± She appeared to be pouting. ¡°It would be better if they¡¯d just changed the red bands to black or something and had them slowly fade,¡± I said and sighed. ¡°Call your blood blade ONLY if we encounter a Warg. Call it immediately, do not hesitate. They are NOT friendly... unless you¡¯re a Beastmaster, I''d guess.¡± ¡°Got it, this way,¡± she opened the front door and ushered us through before locking it behind us. ¡°We¡¯ll get Poggers before we leave¡­ but for now I¡¯m not letting him out.¡± ¡°Probably best,¡± I replied. And then wondered how we were going to protect and care for a cat while on the run from Wargs. A codex pinged, but I ignored it. It didn¡¯t seem like either of them noticed it, which confirmed my suspicion that our ¡®pings¡¯ were in our heads. We went down the hall to the third on the right, the opposite side from Toria¡¯s apartment, the same side as ours. ¡°Mrs. Katz-¡± she stopped knocking loud when I literally hissed at her. She reached down to grab the doorknob instead and it easily opened, unlocked. Mrs. Katz was sitting in her recliner, asleep. I could clearly see her breathing. But I had no idea where her Familiar was, if she¡¯d even found one. ¡°Oh shit,¡± Toria stepped in and went straight to Mrs. Katz, stepping over two cats on the way. They appeared to be frozen or trying to make themselves small. The fright in their eyes was obvious. Mrs. Katz gave Toria her own ginger cat and regularly fostered homeless cats to give away to people in the building. So she had about ten in the apartment at any one time. And they all looked terrified. But unwilling to run off and hide without Mrs. Katz. I walked in with Sophia, then shut and locked the door behind us. Sophia clung to my leg. ¡°Did she get her famillyler? Did it go away forever?¡± A shock like that to her body, I was thinking she had a heart attack or stroke. Maybe she might¡¯ve just been exhausted. But I don¡¯t know what happens if they leave after you pass out and almost die. Or maybe they kill you. She wasn¡¯t dead yet, that much was certain when Toria shook her, called her name and she blinked her eyes open. ¡°Ohhh¡­ Victoria,¡± she mumbled. ¡°Good morning, dear. What¡­ oof. I had the strangest dream, you know?¡± ¡°What did you choose?¡± I asked. Her head turned to look at me and blinked hard once, twice. ¡°My, you and your sister look so adorable all dressed up¡­ and you too, Victoria. So very cute.¡± ¡°Mrs. Katz,¡± I said and moved closer. ¡°There was a voice or words, right? They said ¡®choose a vessel¡¯, didn¡¯t they?¡± She stared at me with wide eyes. ¡°Beg your pardon?¡± I looked at her person and all around the chair, then had a suspicion and lifted her left hand. Her wedding ring had an occlusion in it, that looked like an eye. And the gemstone had turned bright spring yellow. ¡°My ring!¡± she gasped. ¡°It¡¯s yellowed!¡± ¡°No, ma¡¯am,¡± I said. ¡°Your spirit is in there. And I¡¯m guessing you called it by your husband¡¯s name.¡± It was relatively easy to figure out. Toria only had her brother and Mrs. Katz had her late husband and a bunch of kids off in all directions. If she felt like she was dying, of course she¡¯d say something like ¡®I¡¯m coming to you, Harry¡¯ and so¡­ ¡°Well, yes¡­¡± she blinked hard again. ¡°How¡­ how did you know?¡± ¡°Because she¡¯s a freaky detective mind-reader with powers unknown,¡± Victoria said. ¡°But, it happened to us, too. Even Sophia. That freaky pain and throbbing in our chest, the weird letters and voices.¡± Mrs. Katz gasped, ¡°The End of Days!¡± ¡°No, Mrs. Katz,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s a science thing, not a religion thing. Some weird aliens from another dimension thought we were loud and did this to the world to shut us up. It¡¯s all in the menu. Just look at your ring and ask it to open the menu and you¡¯ll see the letter.¡± She stared at me askance. ¡°Lila¡­¡± Toria sighed. ¡°Mrs. Katz, if you want to believe it¡¯s the end of days, that¡¯s fine, but you really should do your best to protect your cats. Even if we¡¯re all left on earth in the wake of the rapture or something, and we¡¯re meant to suffer¡­ the innocent shouldn¡¯t, right? And Sophia and your cats, they¡¯re all still here. So maybe we have to protect them.¡± Mrs. Katz seemed to calm at that explanation. I know I messed that one up, but that¡¯s literally what is happening. It says so in the letter. I have no idea how to ¡®dress it up¡¯ without being manipulative. I¡¯m not even sure what Toria did just now wasn¡¯t manipulative, but I never know where the line is. ¡°You¡¯re right, dear,¡± Mrs. Katz said and grasped for Toria¡¯s hand. She heaved up out of her recliner with Toria¡¯s help and said, ¡°what is it I need to do?¡± 5. Fucked up FAQs Of course Mrs. Katz was going to be a Beastmaster. Why would she be anything else? It was actually Clich¨¦, though I''m sure that didn''t count in real life. ¡°Oh this is lovely,¡± she said and twirled in her new outfit. ¡°It¡¯s just like my mummy wore when I was a little girl.¡± It was a fifties style dress, with a v-neck. And on her head she wore some kind of Shawl. It was lacy and one arm was crossed over the other and thrown over her opposite shoulder. It was delicate and intricately spun. Sky blue dress with grass and flowers on the bottom and floating dandelion puffs all over it, pure white lace shawl. Her shoes were more dressy, too. Matched her dress with a lace pattern on them in white. All of her available armor options were apparently wayyy too hardcore for her, so she ended up upgrading to a ¡®personalized¡¯ outfit. Which I did not know about. The system actually offered for her to design her entire outfit based on an idea in her head of how it should look. When I looked into the codex, it revealed the cost of the item was reflected in its effects and what materials it was made of. The Personalization was just an optional upgrade for people who wanted to pay a bit extra for exactly what they wanted. So Mrs. Katz had the best gear of all of us. And I wondered-- feared-- what would happen to the professions where people crafted things if the System could just do it exactly how you wanted in your mind? She instantly wanted to send some Coin to her kids, but Toria told her to wait until her kids could contact her and tell her how much they needed. She needed to buy food for her and the cats, too. And that was about the moment our phones all started to chime. ¡°Network repaired, please enter screenname?¡± Toria read her own screen off in disbelief. ¡°What are we supposed to do¡­ our real names or is it a¡­¡± ¡°It says they can be changed later,¡± I said. ¡°It¡¯s like an address to send a letter to. Just use your real name for now, so your brother can get hold of you.¡± ¡°Right!¡± She started tapping on her phone. I put my screenname in, instead of my name. Anyone who knows me, knows me by that name, not my real one. BlissfulDreams. My first middle name was ¡®Bliss¡¯ and that¡¯s why Sophia called me Blissy. I had two middle names because mom couldn''t stand me not being ''special'' somehow. And Dad had already threatened divorce if she named me the name she had in mind. So, she compromised with a ''normal'' first name and just used the names she wanted for me as two middle names. Mom called me Bliss growing up, despite my wish to be called by my first name, so that''s why Sophia didn''t really know ''Lila''. Plus... Blissy was cuter to hear her say. I only resented being called that by my mother because I had no choice in it. It''s not a terrible name on its own. Though, Coupled with the other middle name, I can understand why Dad put his foot down. ¡°Ohhh I hope this works,¡± Mrs. Katz said and finished typing. ¡°Delia Katz-Bergen. Michael Katz.¡± She frowned at her phone. ¡°Wait for an hour and try again, it¡¯s possible they just aren¡¯t concerned with the phones yet. They may be in a dangerous zone,¡± I said. ¡°They¡¯re likely evacuating.¡± She nodded slowly, clutching the phone close to her chest. Toria¡¯s phone went off immediately as she finished typing. She gasped. ¡°It¡¯s Jeremy!¡± She rushed off into the bedroom and answered the call. I wasn¡¯t going to try calling anyone until later. I only had a few friends online and everyone else I knew, was in this apartment. ¡°Oh my¡­¡± Mrs. Katz looked down at her cats. ¡°I can feel their emotions, a little¡­ I think. But¡­ I can¡¯t use my Pack Bonding on them. Why?¡± ¡°Check the codex,¡± I said. ¡°For Toria, it was a Journal.¡± ¡°Yes, I have a Journal here,¡± she said and then her lips parted and hung open. ¡°I see! Beasts and Animals are different. Beasts are large, wild things that are aggressive toward humans. Animals are domesticated.¡± I checked my own Codex and it too had a card about that. It also made me realize there was probably a distinction between Beasts and Magical Creatures as well. Earlier on, I''d read that the Beastmaster had the option of taming Beasts or Magical Creatures. Which meant they were different, in different categories... Ranks, maybe? The Codex pinged again. Magical creatures are Beasts filled with mana. Like Unicorns. It specifically says ''like Unicorns''. Unicorns exist? I tried to get more meaning from the Codex entries, but all I found was the one I missed earlier and it was about Pet storage. Useful to know, but not viable at the moment. ¡°Jeremy said he¡¯s still at college,¡± Toria came tromping back in. ¡°He said neither of us should move, except to get somewhere safe. We shouldn¡¯t try to find each other until the army can make a path or something.¡± Where¡¯s the army¡­ I realized with her mention that I''d heard not a single bit of rapid gunfire. Pistols going off, sure. Shotguns in the distance, maybe. But automatic rifles like the army used? None at all. ¡°The Army is being held back by something, or they¡¯d already be rolling the tanks down the street,¡± I said and went to the window to look out. No army. Toria huffed and ran a hand through her hair, knocking her hood off again. ¡°Oh god, what kind of monsters showed up everywhere for them not to-¡± A ringing phone and Mrs. Katz sighed with relief. ¡°Delia, baby, are you alright?¡± She had a conversation in which they basically seemed to affirm that this was crazy. A lot of ''yes, I know, isn''t it novel?'' and ''Oh that''s just awful, I agree''. Then Mrs. Katz gestured me over and handed me the phone. ¡°Tell her how to do classes, like me.¡± So I explained the process and told her everything we knew. I instructed her to tell as many different people around her as she could and to immediately choose any children¡¯s classes because they might choose them by accident and be stuck with ¡®chef¡¯ or something when what they actually need is a combat or healing class to protect themselves with. She thanked me but sounded shell-shocked. I gave the phone back to Mrs. Katz and went over to speak with Toria. ¡°We need to get everyone in this building down to the lobby and figure out who¡¯s staying, who¡¯s going and what kind of resources and protection we¡¯re working with, here,¡± I told her "Why would anyone leave?" Toria blinked. "We just need to barricade the doors or whatever, right?" While it was true that this was a semi-defensible location, being an apartment building with all the amenities and all, at least for now... "Some people are going to want to go home and find their families," I said. "A lot of divorcees and college kids live in apartments. We aren''t that near any colleges, but there have to be other groups staying here that have families elsewhere, like you and Mrs. Katz." "Shit, I hadn''t thought of that," She bit her lip and squeezed her fists together. "Uh... fire alarm!" "Noise," I replied. "Right," she smacked her fists together and began squeezing them tighter, eyes narrowing at them and gnawing her lip. "I don''t know what else we could do... there aren''t any announcements over loudspeakers like there''d be in a school." I lifted my phone and said, "Any ''whole area'' text messages? Like in rpg games?" The phone chimed and-
To access the ''Message All'' feature, you must have the name of the place you wish to message the residents. Or the names of all the people you wish to inform. You must enter the name into the address path.
"There''s a feature," I said. "What''s this apartment building called, or what''s the address?" I never remembered addresses. I kept them saved in my phone and then brought them up when I needed them. "You still don''t know our address?" Toria sighed. "I''ll do it. What should we say?" "Just be authoritative-" I cut myself off and think about the last time Toria tried to be authoritative. "Just put the address in my phone and I''ll write the message." "Hey, I can be tough!" she said with a frown, but snatched my phone anyway. "Here, it''s done. The building doesn''t have a name, we''re not like Heartwood Acres or something."
Everyone, please read this message. This is a resident from the 8th floor. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. We all need to convene in the lobby. But please only send one person per apartment or floor so that we don''t overload it. Before you leave, check on your neighbors. If they appear to be convulsing or in pain, find items around their apartment and bring them to them. I know it''s disorienting right now, but it''s the only way to ensure they don''t have a heart attack or worse from the Spirits refusing to occupy something unless they''re touching it. Come to the lobby when you''re certain everyone on the floor has been awoken and tended to. If some people are awake and have no vessel, that means they are now entirely unable to access the system. Write down their name and bring it with you, but tell them they can stay in their apartment until we''ve discussed what''s going on.
It was the best I could do. It was authoritative and reassuring enough, but people still might question why I''m the one saying it when they see me. People usually did. It''s not like I think I''m in charge, but it seems most people really don''t like to be the boss or any form of leader in any situation. Someone has to do it, but everyone either balks or gets in an argument about who SHOULD be leader so they can actually put it off longer. Just my observation though. "Uhhhh," Toria stared at my phone as it began to chime and light up... over and over again. "Seems like you''re gonna be busy answering those." "Not necessarily," I replied. The messages were mostly the same, except for a few that seemed to be the more lucid folks trying to get a grasp on the situation.
What''s going on? Why was I in so much pain and why did that weird message say to grab some kind of heirloom?
Why is my menu flashing? Is there another thing I have to do or it''s going to punish me?
The classes I have are terrible but it chose one for me before I could even think them over! How do I change it!?
My son collapsed and I tried to bring him his stuffies and toys but nothing is working and he''s glowing, what the hell do I do!?
So I created a... FAQ. It was the easiest and quickest way to disseminate information.
Everyone, calm down and read your codex. Just look into your Vessel''s eyes and open the menu. You just have to think ''menu'', you don''t have to say anything aloud. Open the Codex or Journal that is there. Read the entries. Ask questions to prompt more entries. For now, I''ll just say if you can''t get the person to say a name, then finding something for the Familiar to occupy is meaningless. They have to name the Vessel after the Familiar occupies it. And if you can''t find something for them to occupy in their ''most-used'' objects, then try looking for something special they almost never use. 1. This is not the end of the world. And even if it were, we''re still here and our kids are still here. We have to do what we can to look after them. If you want to kill yourself in fear, please wait until we''ve secured the building. 2. Do not make noise if you can help it. Walking is fine, but please do not thunder down the hallway. There are creatures outside roaming around, I''m sure you''ve seen them out the windows. Be as quiet as possible. 3. Any and all children left unattended should be taken to the lobby so they can call their parents from someone''s phone. 4. Any and all dead bodies should be left where they are and covered with sheets until we figure out what to do with them. 5. Until the Army arrives, our main objective is survival. Reconnecting with family will come later. If you want to leave because you disagree, that''s fine, but don''t come back and lead the creatures to the apartment building, please. 6. The System has implied that at some point Classes can be changed, so don''t panic if it chose your class for you, right now. Just choose a subclass that works for you and make do. 7. If you want to avoid it choosing a class for you, do not LOOK at your menu. Ask your familiar to read off your class list. Write it down, bring it to the lobby. We''ll figure out what the best classes are for everyone together.
"Is this enough?" I showed the message to Toria. "It''s all I can think of. She adds a point 8. "We need to tell them to use their names as their username on their phone." Then a point 9. "Oh, we need to recommend they upgrade their starter sets, like we did." I wasn''t very good at remembering and putting together things that weren''t vital for survival or piquing my curiosity. If I already completed a task, my brain decided it didn''t need that information right now and filed it away somewhere I couldn''t access it until I did. "Okay," Toria finally hit send and handed me back the phone. "I also added that they can sell stuff in their apartment for more coins if they needed to, like the Codex said." I thought about that for a moment and added:
On Inventory: Ask your Familiar for however many boxes there are in your inventory. Put everything of one category into the boxes. You can dump food into ziplocs as long as they''re in the same category. ''Fruits'', ''Vegetables'', ''Condiments and Spices'' can all go in the same box. Then put it in your inventory by thinking about it going there. You can pack away all your food and it''s much better than putting it in the fridge. Get backpacks or duffel bags. Pockets have fewer slots.
"I didn''t know that!" Toria said, watching over my shoulder. "We should pack up all Mrs. Katz and my food." "Food?" Mrs. Katz looked up from her phone screen. "Are we going somewhere?" "Not for now," I replied. "But the inventory system stores it in an optimal environment. Better than the fridge or freezer." "How useful!" she said and looked at her ring. "Oh, it says I have six pockets?" "Six slots," I replied. "Our upgraded starter sets also have more slots, though we only have five. You got an extra somehow." "It says it was because I chose personalized equipment," she said. Then turned to look at me with confusion. "Why would that give me another pocket?" "Probably promotional," Toria said. "To get us to spend more coins... but why? The System is like a computer program running on magic or something, right?" Ping!
The System: The System was created by Those Above, Beyond and In-Between to evaluate the needs, wants and wishes of Mortals. The system is alive but not a person. It is similar to artificial intelligence or Magical Constructs. The System was built to do a job.
"So it really IS like an AI!" Toria stated as we finished reading the entry. "But wait, what''s a magical Construct? Could they make AI''s in Magic worlds?" "It''s likely similar to a zombie being given a task," I replied. "But made of mud or stone or something similar." "Golem," Mrs. Katz whispered. "It''s a Golem." "It''s not a person but alive," I mused. "Like an animal that was trained to do a job. So it''s less like a construct... or an AI... and more like a bomb dog." "Ugh, who cares!" Toria threw up her hands. "Let''s pack up the foo-" Several rough knocks on the door. I bolt over to it and unlock it. When I open it, I hiss, "What part of stay quiet did you not understand!?" The woman on the other side is holding a small boy and flinches back. "I- what?" "Oh, Felicity!" Mrs. Katz rushed over when she saw the woman through the doorway. "And little Max. You aren''t supposed to make noise, dear, it will attract the monsters." ''Felicity'' looked confused and blinked. "What? I just got up from a fainting spell and I need someone to take Max so I can go to the hospital." "You JUST woke up?" Toria asked. "Oh, you don''t have a familiar, do you. But Max is holding a toy. Its eyes are moving." The boy was indeed holding onto an action figure of sorts. One of those transforming toys that turned from a truck to an animal. It was supposed to just be a versatile toy, I guessed. And its eyes were indeed blinking and moving. "Okay, I don''t know what weird game you''re playing-" she began to get belligerent and loud. "Did you not see my door broken in?" I hissed. Her eyes went wide. "Are you alright? Did they hurt you?" She thinks it was a burglar. "It wasn''t a burglar, come on," I took Max from her and handed him to Toria. "I''m handling this one, you stay with the kids and Mrs. Katz, I''ll find everyone else on this floor." "What is going on!?" Felicity barked and I- Well, I smacked her across the face. She looked flabbergasted as she held her cheek. "Every time you make noise like that, you put the children in danger," I hissed. "Shout again and I''ll beat your ass until you can only whimper. Now move!" She seemed to do as I said because she was frightened of me and not because she understood. It was a short walk and she only slightly hesitated in front of my door. When I looked back, Toria hurriedly shut and locked the door to Mrs. Katz apartment. Thankfully she has that much sense. "What the hell is that?" Felicity asked in a breathless voice as she walked into my apartment and caught sight of the Warg. "It''s called a Warg," I said. "And there are a lot of them running around outside. Now, answer me. Did you get a Familiar?" She looked at me and asked, "how did you know about the voice?" "Because we ALL got a voice or a message," I replied. "If you only just woke up, that means you went a long time without finding a Vessel and the Familiar likely vacated your body." I gestured down at my feet where Phobos was twining around my legs. "This is my familiar." Felicity appeared to be on the verge of a breakdown with the way she was breathing. Her hands went up to press on either side of her head. "Are you going to break down and leave your son completely defenseless?" I asked. "I think that can wait, can''t it?" "Not everyone is a fucking robot!" she snapped, at a lower volume. Then seemed to instantly regret it, but well. It''s said now, isn''t it? "You are an adult though," I replied. "Your son is not. And this building is still not secure. So what will it be? Will you break down or get to business and save it for later?" I''ve never understood how a person can just do that in a crisis. Or how it works. But if you''re still lucid enough to talk and aren''t just screaming and banging your head on things, usually you can be talked down and directed to a task. So far as I can tell. She swallowed and tears sprung to her eyes. "I just need a minute to come to terms with reality not being right, can''t I have a minute!?" "I have to go and check on everyone on this floor, so fine," I said. "I''m just saying you shouldn''t have a panic attack. They make you weak and sluggish. I should know, I used to have one every day. It won''t be helpful to you. Control your breathing." And then I turned and left my broken down apartment to try the first door on the left, going the other direction from Toria and Katz''s apartments. It was unlocked and the occupant looked up from slumping on the sofa as I walked in. "Ugh," he shook his head. "Did you hear me retching? I''m fine. I''m... ugh. Had too much to drink last night." Wonderful. 6. Masks of Necessity
Notice to Users, For those who missed their initial chance to bond with a familiar, you can still do so by following the attached ritual. Everyone will have an equal opportunity to succeed, but you must now earn your familiar through effort. Your starter sets will be the final handout provided; any further advancement will depend on your ability and dedication. Follow the instructions carefully, gather the necessary ingredients, and perform the ritual with precision. We will not intervene or provide additional support beyond these guidelines. The System
The letter was sent shortly after I found and convinced Mr. Grand to look out the window and explained the situation to him. But since he didn''t have a familiar, the Letter came in the form of a message that inscribed itself into his walls. I had the letter in my inbox, so it was sent to everyone and only people without familiars got it written on walls or whatever. "Can''t believe this," Mr. Grand rubbed his eyes. "So everyone else got a big leg-up and I''m just... supposed to what? What even are these ingredients?" "Monster parts, I believe," I replied. "We have a dead Warg in our apartment, but the ingredients don''t say they can use anything from a Warg. So I suppose you''re supposed to take a job that has nothing to do with combat, then buy the ingredients." "Why would anybody need me?" he grips his hands together in his lap. "Isn''t everyone some kind of amazing rpg class? I used to play those. Chefs and other mundane people probably have a class too. We''re screwed unless someone has pity on us... or gives us the goddamn ingredients in exchange for a corporate contract." He stood up straight and itched at his messy brown hair in a furious manner. "That''s what''s going to happen. People will see the demand, write up contracts that people will have to choose a certain type of class and work for them for a span of time. It''s how it''s always worked." "We''ll just have to find the ingredients and nip it in the bud, then," I replied. "If people can get it for free somewhere, they won''t need to sign a contract." "Why would people do that?" he asked. "If there''s nothing in it for them, it''s just a loss." "If you''re part of the same community, it just makes sense to empower others," I replied. "Because then you don''t get stuck defending them in a crisis. And there are more people to defend your collective resources. Also, if they get a choice of classes that could be useful to a community, it only makes sense to take stock, see what they choose and send them where they''re needed." "Not everybody is logical," he replied, but seemed to be thinking very hard on it. "You said there was a message on my phone? Hang on." I had only begun explaining by the time the letter arrived to prove my words fact. I could understand the hesitation to believe something so fantastical. I just wanted to ensure no one was collapsing into a puddle of tears. I''d wondered why no one else was moving around, but a lot of people were probably hoping to stay in their apartment, barricade the door and wait. If they were even fully sensate at the point we left our own apartment. Toria had been utterly convinced she was insane because she was alone. Felicity didn''t know what''d happened because she and her son live alone and he''s two. He couldn''t articulate what he was hearing or seeing and couldn''t even really understand what he''d need to do. He would''ve grabbed his toy and hoped the bad feelings would go away and babbled a noise that he associated with the toy or his mother or fear or something and it would''ve ended up being the Familiar''s name. Pure accident. And also by pure accident, his mother failed to get a familiar because he didn''t know to bring her anything and she didn''t clutch at something and say a name the way Katz and Toria did. She likely only had a thought for her son, but she didn''t have anything on her body precious to her, so it didn''t count and didn''t accidentally name the familiar after someone dear. "So we need to get everyone on this floor awake, up to speed and then meet in the lobby," Mr. Grand said. "Whoever sent the message seems like they''ve got their shit together. They should be helpful." "I sent the message," I said. He paused and stared at me for a moment. "Yeah, that checks out. Come on, let''s go find everyone and then get you down to the lobby so you can make people feel safer. Let''s go, go, go." What? I was familiar with the principle. But my flat affect tended to have the opposite effect. People reacted more typically like Felicity had, calling me a robot or other more slur-like terms and deciding I couldn''t do anything and knew nothing. Sending messages was essentially the only thing I could do to project a different image. And then... I had a thought as I followed him to the next room. I stopped him as he was going for the knob. "You''ve seen I am not good with people," I said. "But I am very good at knowing what to do next and then doing it." He squinted at me. "Yeah..." "You seem to be very good at remaining calm in crises, but are also capable of acknowledging the situation and pointing out new facets I hadn''t considered," I said. "We should simply say that you are BlissfulDreams." "Hang on, what?" He turned to face me with an incredulous expression. "Why would we do that? Why can''t you just do it?" "You haven''t spent enough time with me," I replied. "I can mask, but in crisis situations, I tend not to. I will not be comforting. I will not be leadership material from everyone else''s perspective. I''m a much better planner and executor than I am a public figure." Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. "...you seem fine to me," he said. "I just slapped a woman for being too loud, as there are monsters outside that could be drawn in. And then I told her to stop freaking out and get busy when she learned about the monsters and what was going on," I said. "And I know that was considered wrong to other people, but I can''t comprehend why. To my mind, I do what needs to be done and everything gets done, so what''s the difference? But people are often angry or frustrated with me because my emotions show themselves in different ways." "Ahhh," he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "You''re one of them... uh. Autistics?" "Autistic person, but no," I replied. "I don''t have an official diagnosis, but it''s something similar to Autism and ADHD, at least. I just can''t say I am one, because... well, no official diagnosis." "And people get pissy about that kinda thing," he muttered to himself as he seemed to think my proposal over. "Alright. Give me your screenname and make yours something else. We''ll pretend I''m in charge so people don''t get scared. But you need to message me about what to do next, what to look into... I''m good at projecting confidence, you kinda need it to get jobs, but... I''m honestly kind of a slob." "I had noticed from the state of your apartment," I replied. He sucked his lips in and then let them out with a pop. "Yup, you''re right, that was a completely rude thing to say." I changed my Username to Lila Cooper and he changed his to BlissfulDreams before it could be snatched up by someone else. Though I wonder if that even works that way... Checking the messages, it seems the sent message was still from BlissfulDreams, thankfully. It didn''t change the name of past sent messages, then... "Alright, I''m gonna get down to the lobby then and start getting everyone chilled out and tell them to wait till we have more people to talk," he said. "Get down there as soon as you can and start sending me messages about what to do." "Yes," I replied and watched him walk away down the corridor. I didn''t envy his job. He''d have to smile and pretend everything was fine while I got the easy jobs of just simply completing tasks. I felt a bit guilty, but then reasoned that perhaps it would be easier for him than someone like me. I wasn''t able to open the door when I went for the knob for the next apartment. "GET AWAY!" someone''s voice shouted from the other side of the door. "I DON''T NEED HELP, I''VE GOT MY CLASSES AND EVERYTHING, JUST LEAVE ME ALONE." Well, ordinarily I would. "If you''re staying, then we just need to know what class you chose-" "YOU DON''T NEED TO KNOW SHIT! I''M NOT SIGNING UP TO GET TAGGED AND BAGGED," her voice was hoarse but also had that telltale tang of... "Ma''am, are you high?" I asked. "I can just wait for you to come down from your bad trip." "WHAT!?" There was a lot of noise and she eventually threw open the door, huffing and puffing, red-faced. "What''d you just say to me!?" "Your voice sounds hysterical," I replied. "But you seem to understand the situation. I thought perhaps you were partaking in recreational drugs." She stares at me. "Are you really stupid enough to say some shit like that to somebody''s face?" "Are you stupid enough to try and attack someone who has much more practice with her class than you?" I asked. "I killed the Warg on this floor. What have you been doing?" The silence as she just stared blankly at me was strange. "You... you killed it?" "It''s dead in my apartment," I said and pointed. "Go and look if you must, but then get down to the lobby if you''re the only one in your apartment. Or group up with some other people and send a representative." "What makes you think you can tell me what to do?" she asked, seeming to come out of her stupor a bit. "Who put you in charge?" "The entire point of going to the lobby is to PUT someone in charge. If you don''t want to be part of that decision, then stay," I replied and moved away from her. "Where are you goin''!?" she demanded. "I''m checking on the neighbors," I replied and tried to turn the next Knob. This one didn''t open either, but no one said anything from inside. I tapped on the door with my fingertip, to make a noise they could hear, but not loud enough to draw attention. I heard a shuffling and then suddenly an eighteen-to-twenty year old girl was blinking her sleepy eyes at me. "Huh? I didn''t order anything." She tried to close the door again, and I asked her, "is there anything carved in your walls?" Her expression went from confusion to irritation, and then instinctively she just looked. And then it changed to alarm. "What the FUCK is that!?" I repeated this process about fifteen more times. Though a more accurate number might''ve been sixteen, since I stopped to look at the biggest number on the floor and it said 20. So minus myself, Toria and Katz, plus Grand, that''d be sixteen other apartments. So I repeated it sixteen times. I''m so tired, I thought as I made my way back to Katz''s apartment. It wasn''t a long walk, but it felt like it. And everyone was getting out in the halls now, to discuss who to send as representative. I just had to go and let Toria and Katz know about the arrangement with Grand and tell Sophia that I''d be back later. But when I tapped the door and Toria opened it, Sophia and Max were both asleep and Mrs. Katz and Felicity were both sitting on the couch, holding hands and praying. I didn''t really understand religion, but I respected privacy, so I brought Toria out into the hall and explained. "You could''ve asked me," she said and frowned. "I would''ve helped and you wouldn''t have had to tell anyone else." "Grand wasn''t sobbing when I found him and easily accepted and adapted to the changes," I said. "You could break down again in an important moment. Besides, I only thought of it because he and I were talking about it, or I might''ve asked Mrs. Katz to do it." She was crossing her arms tightly and glaring at me. "Everyone has these kinds of reactions sometimes, even you!" My brow pinched. You have to really get me to feel annoyed or confused for that to happen naturally and frankly, I''m both. "Yes? But you''re more prone to collapsing into a heap of tears. It''s just a fact. I would trust you with making promotional art for me before anyone else. Does that help?" She''s a graphic designer, so of course that''s her skill. But she cries a LOT. "Not really!" she snapped and then thought about it and sighed. "I know you don''t mean it like I''m a baby or something, but god, can''t you learn to talk to people? It''s not that hard! You just have to avoid saying stuff to offend people." "But that''s everything," I retorted. "I can''t so much as point out that someone''s made a mistake on their homework, to HELP them, without people being angry at me. So I gave up on being ''polite'' in that way and just follow the other rules of etiquette instead." She nodded, rolling her eyes. "I remember. I just... stop mentioning people''s weaknesses. Can you do that? Focus on their strengths. Is that possible?" I thought about it. It was telling the truth, it was just that I wouldn''t be mentioning something related. Which can be difficult when trying to explain something. How do you tell someone they aren''t fit for this job when they illogically think that their fitness for it, doesn''t matter? When a toothpick person asks to be allowed to lift a heavy load you KNOW they can''t lift without hurting themselves, how do you say ''You are too small and weak for this'' in a ''nice'' way? "It will be a challenge," I said. "But I will try. I won''t hide what I think." "I know, god forbid," she said. "Jeremy at least knows how to be nice to people. God I miss him, he can communicate with you better than I can." True, I thought. Jeremy and I were on a similar wavelength and while we did still have problems communicating, we had it easier with each other than anyone else. He''d tried to explain to me how to avoid offending people, but I only understood it logically as ''lie'', ''obfuscate'' and ''manipulate''. My phone vibrated and I checked it to see that BlissfulDreams was sending me ''Where the hell are you?'' essentially. "Mr. Grand requests my presence. Will you be alright to watch Sophia?" "Me and Felicity can handle the kids," she said, sighing. "I know you''re better at stuff like this than I am, so... whatever. But I still want to help." "Your class will be extremely helpful," I replied. "It''s versatile. You simply cannot help every second. I don''t understand why people are always so irritated by that." "Huh," she looked up and then back down at me. "Yeah. I guess that''s true. It''s just when you''re sittin'' still, it feels like you''re just relying on other people." "I''ve been told since I was six that ''relying on other people'' is supposed to be the way we live," I said. "But at every turn people spit it out like a curse. I''ve never been able to figure that out." She turned slightly pink and coughed. "Just go, okay?" and returns to the apartment. 7. Democracy It didn''t take long before I was on the ground floor. And there were... I counted Seven people, excluding Mr. Grand. He looked up with relief when I arrived and waved me over. "This here is going to be my assistant. She''s going to take notes on everything, so don''t mind if she''s typing on her phone in the corner, alright?" And then... I got a message. Or, to be more specific... a ''letter'' and it wasn''t from the System or the Eldritch Assholes. It was from Grand.
Hey, I''m going to hit send when you get here. This is going to be rushed. You can write letters to people on your phone and then send it as a letter, so it''ll go to their menu. Just choose ''Menu'' in the dropdown section. It doesn''t look like a dropdown at first, you have to click on it. Send me any and all questions I should ask or tell me what direction you want me going in. These people are getting impatient.
Hmmmm. I don''t like subterfuge and manipulation, but people don''t like me and it''s a survival situation. People usually say the same rules don''t apply when survival is on the line. Ethically it''s questionable, but if I don''t do this, no one would listen to me anyway. So I sat down at reception and made a show of looking down at my phone.
I see. If they haven''t introduced themselves and said their piece already, you should ask them to do so, now that I''m here and it seems everyone who is going to come, has come.
Grand clapped his hands together not twenty seconds later. "Alright, I think everyone who''s coming is here, so let''s get started. Introduce yourselves and say your piece," he said. "Emily Carter!" a woman with a dark brown bun and a modest dress, stepped forward. "We decided to group up all the religious folks in the building into a faction, because we saw that people were grouping up in political groups and we wanted to just leave the politics aside." "Politics can''t just be left aside," a man with salt and pepper hair and a mustache replied to Emily and then turned to address Grand. "Jacob White, sir. I was a football linebacker in the day, so I want to take a combat class as soon as it''s approved. Us in the Unified Voices faction are willing to put our heads together to find solutions that both Republicans and Democrats can agree on, at least a little." "I''m Sarah Johnson," a woman with curly auburn hair said. "I''m representing the parents. We just want some security. Immediately, to protect the children." I send a message to Toria to tell Felicity that Sarah Johnson and Emily Carter are likely who she should speak with about her concerns. "Alright, next on the list?" Grand said when a group of people broke out in bickering instead of introducing themselves. "I''m going next!" a Black middle-aged man said and stepped closer to Grand. "We''re paramedics, people with first aid training and anybody else with a medical background of some kind. And we want people to start finding all their medical supplies and handing them over so we can treat people in the building."
"Is someone injured?"
I assumed the quotes would be enough to communicate what he should do. "Somebody hurt?" he asked. "Two people died in the initial... you know, so... it''s a matter of time before we get more injuries," he said. "We were told about both their bodies and found them. We need combat classes and medical personnel standing by in the future, too."
"Just giving you a bunch of over the counter medicine, will that really be that helpful? We need you to compile a list of things you need."
"Well we can''t just haul off and give you shit you don''t need," Grand said. "You''ll just be overworked for no good reason. Tell us what you need and we get it. As much as you say you need." "That''s all we can ask," he said and reached out to shake Grand''s hand. "Michael Lawson." "Morrigan Grand," Grand replied. I found I didn''t need to type on my phone. I could think and it would translate my thoughts to text for me. I still had to send it through my phone and hit the ''send'' button. Thank the Eldritch Assholes. "David Clarke!" a man in denim and boots with a flannel top and short cropped dark hair said. "I''m in construction. We all got together in the building and we think it''s important we secure everything physically first. We can worry about classes later. We need to build barricades, cut off the supply of water and electricity from elsewhere and make ourselves independent with Solar panels, wind turbines. And dig a well." This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. "That, sounds like an awful lot," Grand said to stall as I was composing my message.
"Sensible, but not feasible at the moment. The barricades are the only thing we can do right now. Working on the tenth floor should be quieter."
"We can only really manage the barricades right now," Grand said. "I think you should get right on that, though. Before one of those things takes notice of us. Take everything up to the tenth to hammer or screw it. We don''t wanna attract any attention." David nodded and stepped back, walking immediately toward the stairs. "Yes, no one has a problem with barricades, I''m sure," Jacob said. "But we''re very concerned about the classes being chosen. We should carefully select based upon what will most serve the common good. Allowing everyone to choose their own, now that some people already have, it''d be irresponsible. There are too many people who have no idea what they''re doing!" A woman with a blonde pixie cut and blue eyes also stepped forward. "Now hold on a second! If we just go dictating which classes people can choose, they''re going to be miserable! That leads to stress which can lead to rioting and strikes. We need to let them choose and then only tell them what jobs they need to do." "And they''re all going to choose well?" Jacob asked. "You and I both know that most people in this building don''t have any combat experience and that playing video games is NOT universal. How are we going to get protectors and security members in enough numbers if everyone focuses on what they''re already good at or people muck it up because they didn''t know what a certain class even was?" "Anyone who has a combat class as an option, is probably going to pick it," Michael said. "Unless they''re one of us. We''re all going to pick healer if everyone is fine with it." "Well of course, that''s only reasonable!" Jacob said. "But there are people here who can use... god above, I can''t believe I''m going to say this- people who can use ''magic'' to attack instead of their bodies who would end up choosing a class only because it''s what they''re most familiar with and not what would be useful right now. And if we could use those people as security personnel, it''d ensure we had some protection without putting people directly in the line of fire!" I could see a very simple solution to that...
"We could let people choose and then recruit from outside if we need more of a certain position."
"Hey!" Grand said and clapped his hands once firmly. "I got a great idea! Let''s just let people pick their class and if there''s positions we got holes in, we just recruit from outside! There''s bound to be people looking for safe places to stay." "That''s an idea," the blonde with the pixie cut said. "Ooof, forgot. I''m Olivia Turner. I''m representing the Conscientious Objection faction. We don''t want religion or politics to interfere with the cold, hard facts." Huh. Could I join that faction? Though their name is a bit confusing. Conscientious Objectors are those who don''t want to go to war because they didn''t consent to the draft or something, isn''t it? "You always decide what those are," Jacob stated disdainfully. "You keep saying everything is scientific and then flip-flopping your opinions!" "Science provides new answers and you have to change your point of view based on newly discovered facts!" she protested. "And we do not ''flip-flop''! We determine whether or not scientific theories are credible and when we find out they aren''t, we find ones that are." It sounds agreeable, but... I''ve met people with those opinions before and they aren''t as similar to me as would be necessary for them not to be annoyed by my mien.
"Science, Psychology and personal experience contribute to everyday life and sometimes people just focus too much on one and not the others. We should pool our perspectives instead of arguing over which one is correct."
"I think you''re ALL vital," Grand said. Not what I asked for, but I waited to see where he was going with it. "We''ve got the Political point of view, which means personal experience. We''ve got the Objector point of view, which is science. And we got the Religious point of view which is good for the morale and all. Then there''s the medicals for physical welfare and such. These are all different things, which is why we have different jobs for ''em, you know?" He appeared to be floundering, so I offered another line.
Ask what they would all do if a child was crying and injured. They would not only treat the injury, but soothe the child. And if that child asked them to fix the stair they tripped on, they would. Every problem has multiple angles.
"If your kid tripped on a stair, you''d fix the stair AFTER you got them a bandaid and told them everythin'' was gon'' be okay, right?" Grand said. "All those things are important, but they have their order, don''t they? So, we just need everybody to decide that everyone''s opinion is important, even if you personally think it''s dumb." There was a slight murmur and a latino man with a compact, muscular frame spoke. "I''m John Ramirez. We''re Essential Workers. Two Janitors and a Cook. We need everyone we can get to help us clean the place up. We''ll have to get those bodies out as soon as possible. Can we get approval for that?" "Go on and do what needs to be done, my man," Grand said. "Bring whatever you find on their bodies here so we can identify them and maybe find their families." "Will do," John said and walked off. There was a woman and man waiting at the stairs. The man left with John and Michael made a head movement toward them. Grand nodded and Michael took off after them. "We should absolutely advise people on their classes," Emily spoke up again. "But we don''t need to order them or force them. We can just put up a notice that we need certain class types and people can be incentivized. We can put up Coin for it." A great idea, actually.
"That''s a good idea, let''s do that. Vote?"
"Let''s vote, since we got three options!" Grand said. "I''ll send a message to the other people, I''m sure my assistant has their names. So, do we tell people which classes to get, let ''em choose and deal with them afterward or help them decide and incentivize with Coin? Everybody just send their vote to ''BlissfulDreams'' with no other words. No arguments. Just ''This is what I pick''." He seemed somewhat overwhelmed, but was handling himself ably. Grand made a show of coming to sit next to me in the other chair and started muttering. "You''ve got those names, right?" I listed them off, as I had been taking notes. Couldn''t do otherwise and keep up the ruse. "Damn, how''d you focus on two things at once, like that?" he asked. "It was mostly talking," I replied. "Delete my letters to you." "Right, I''ll do that next," he muttered and began messaging each person who was no longer there. Everyone else left to speak with the people in their own factions. They''d have to reach some kind of consensus to vote. Though I was sure the Political and Objector Factions would just vote for their suggestions. Same for the Religious. That just left four factions to convince one way or the other. And they''d all be trying their damnedest. Where is everyone else? I wondered. Seven people, ten floors... "It''s likely best..." I said and waited for Grand''s attention. "For you to send that message to everyone and simply list the names of the faction representatives." 8. Changing Faces "Blissy! We''re having breakfas''!" Sophia was happy to see me when she woke up, apparently. So happy that she jumped on me, waking me from a dead sleep, causing a panic in me so deep that the only response was to freeze and assess. My brain had decided that she was shouting and leaping on me because something was chasing her. My heart was already thundering as I woke, gasping because she''d slammed into my stomach- and it wasn''t just my breathing and my heartbeat. I felt an electric current running through my body that I''d never felt before. I could tell without being told, that it was my magic. It was just such a weird feeling, like my skin was crawling with pinpricking lightning. And it wasn''t the usual feeling of being frustrated, irritated or... whatever you call it when you''re full of static electricity and you can feel it. It was like cold lightning. "Okay... breakfast," I said slowly. "Did you get some of the food out to give Mrs. Katz or are we eating her food?" "I didn''t give nothing," she said and then her expression twisted. "Should we give her food?" "We''ll just make dinner," I replied. We were sleeping in an unoccupied apartment, since ours had a broken door. Everyone was getting reinforced doors as soon as the barricades and gates were taken care of. But we were first on the list, since our door was entirely missing. Thankfully, there were a handful of empty apartments. One or two on every floor. Sophia hasn''t left the apartment, so why does she think we''re having breakfast together? "Sophia, did you leave the apartment?" I asked. "Nooo!" she denied and sat up, wriggling out of my arms. "Toria sent me a letter that said to come over for breakfas''." "I see," I replied. "How did she do that?" She likely meant ''message'' but perhaps she found a way to send letters without the phones? "She gave me her old phone that doesn''t work- but it works!" she said and took the phone out of her pocket inventory to show me. The phone was indeed old. It had an entire keyboard on it and looked pink and sparkly. Likely she kept it from when she was fourteen or so. She was sentimental like that. I think she even told me once that she had an old phone for Sophia if I needed one. I''d been keeping Sophia in homeschool, to ensure our parents couldn''t try to take her after what they did when I enrolled her in school last year. So I hadn''t thought she''d needed one. "That''s good. Here''s Blissy''s contact," I said and typed it into her new phone''s address book. I was right about the phone only really being good for text messaging- though calls were allowed. Because it seems it even removed the internet. There was a logo, but it just said ''In progress''. I wondered why. If those beings were ''all knowing'' or something, being able to gauge the hopes and dreams of people, shouldn''t they have a good grasp on how the internet works? And if not, couldn''t they just bend reality to make it work how they liked? "Let''s goooo!" she sang in a high pitched tone. "Sophia, noises," I said in a quiet but stern tone. "Just because the barricades are up, doesn''t mean we should make the doggies madder than they are. Somebody could get hurt." "I'' sorry," she said, reverting to a smaller voice. It''s something she used to do back when she was living with our parents. Making herself cuter and ''dumber'' sounding. "Don''t be sorry, do better," I reminded her. "Sorry is meaningless if you don''t change the behavior." As I''ve found that telling her she didn''t need to be sorry had an effect... and not a good one. So getting her to stop saying it for other reasons was my only real recourse at the moment. "Okay!" she said, bright and sunny again as she unlocked and opened the door herself. It took an extra minute, but it made her feel in control of her surroundings, I''d guess. So I usually allow her to do small things like that. She used her phone to message Toria that we were at the door, too, instead of knocking. She thought of it all by herself and looked up at me with a very proud expression, so I patted her on the head. Children understand me much more easily than adults. Sophia has always accepted my lack of affections, because it''s all she''s ever known of me. It''s easy to be with children. "Hey guys!" Toria said as she opened the door. "Iiiiit''s breakfast time!" She picked Sophia up and twirled her around, setting her down inside the apartment as she giggled. I followed, closing the door and locking it behind me. "Hello, good morning dear," Mrs. Katz smiled brightly and adjusted her shawl as she put a plate on the ''dining'' table. It was more of a small square with four chairs. Two of them had been taken from our apartment, I could see. "Felicity and Max still gone?" I asked. "Oh yes, after you sent her the message about those people to talk to, I think she said she was going to join one of their groups," Mrs. Katz said. "She said the Parent... well, whatever they were called, they seemed like the group for her, I think." I checked my inbox. Unfortunately, I had no idea how to get notifications, so if an emergency happened while I was asleep, Grand would be on his own. And he might be fine, but he also may resent me for it. There was a codex entry instead.
Several Areas have begun to create factions and guilds! If you want to create a guild, it will only require at least thirty people to agree to join and an agreement on what the name should be. Guild Benefits include: A shared Guild fund which can be managed by a Guild treasurer and used to buy things that everyone needs! For example, if you find that the water isn''t running, you can purchase a well from the Shop and the System will give you the parts needed to construct it for a good cost! You can also rent the equipment to do the digging! When your guild members increase in rank, so will the Guild. The highest ranking Guilds will get rewards for their ranking and whatever quests and missions they''ve undertaken and finished! Guildmaster is a title that can only be held by the highest ranked member. Members are not allowed to fight each other over the position without authorization. Your rank will determine if there needs to be a duel and only then will you be allowed to duel for the position after the System has fully evaluated you. And this will only be necessary if a vote is tied or inconclusive.
"Guilds?" I said aloud. "Factions... like they''re considered different." "Well, Guild is a business thing, right?" Toria said, pausing in taking a bite of her frozen waffles. The syrup drizzled onto the plate as she spoke. "And Faction is a political thing." "True, but they both essentially mean ''group of people does stuff together''," I replied. "Usually, it''s only the tabletop games where they go in-depth on that kind of thing. I was so sure they were doing it like the video games." "So they''re doing it more... realistic?" Toria asked. "Why''d they do it like this instead of any other way?" She jabbed a piece of waffle and shoved it in her mouth. "I have no idea," I said. "The Familiars were a surprise. They''re for ''non-magic'' using species, they said. Like us. Meaning that magic is something fundamental to a universe that one cannot use unless they were born there, made from the same stuff." "That''s so odd," Mrs. Katz said. "And why on earth would they not simply find something to inhabit and THEN make a contract with you?" She was pursing her lips. "Who knows," I replied. "It might be a cultural thing, though the System says they''re about at the level of intellect as actual cats and pigs and ravens and such. Smart, but not sapient." "Maybe that''s why?" Toria asks, swallowing her food hurriedly and coughing a bit. "Kuh! Maybe- hack! Ugh. Maybe it''s that the system tried to ''herd'' them to give us a good head start, but after that, they couldn''t control what they did?" "It''s likely it''s something similar, but," I cracked my neck. "If that were so, they could''ve simply given us the ritual beforehand. A bunch of people would''ve performed them just for fun, so they would''ve had a good pool of people with familiars by the time the whole world changed. And I''m... confused about some of the wording." There was a ping, but everyone reacted to the noise, and we all reached for our familiars, so I assumed it was a letter from the System. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. It wasn''t.
To all Humans on Earth, I''m trying to send this to everyone, but I don''t know if it''ll work. When the System said ''nonmagical humans'' I thought all we were going to get were monsters and magic humans. But then it kept making references to... others. So I went out to look. It wasn''t advised, because we were holing up somewhere safe from the monsters, but I had to know. There. Are. ELVES. And ORCS. And humans wearing weird clothes that make me think ''renaissance fantasy noble''. I probably didn''t even see every species out there. But I made it all the way to the library and I found some people trying to sell the books for coin. Not possible, they''re owned by the library. They said I could join them, so we''re all looking for another way to earn Coin for the communities we''re part of. I have to get back soon, maybe if I drop food in front of them, they won''t be mad. Why am I saying all this? Just in case I die, I guess. The Elves didn''t seem hostile, neither did the weird looking humans. But the Orcs didn''t seem to know if they SHOULD be Hostile or not. So this is my warning. DO NOT ATTACK A HUMANOID SPECIES WITHOUT REASON. I saw an Orc take the head off a Warg with a single swing. We are NOT on their level. Do not provoke them. They will DESTROY us. Understand? Maybe I''ll make another announcement once I''m safe, but maybe I''ll be too busy. Hopefully this message works. This is Jackie Bay, signing off.
"Elves... and Orcs," Toria looked pale and ill. "Aren''t Orcs the bad guys in games? My brother always talked about ''those damn orcs'' on some levels he had to fight." "Orcs and Ogres and such were thinly veiled racial allegory in the past," I replied. "The ''evil species''. It''s very unlikely they''re actually just pure evil. And this is reality, not a game. So we shouldn''t assume to begin with." "Oh," she blinked and seemed to come out of her daze from looking at the menu. Wait... "Sophia. Why do we have to look at our Familiars to open the Menu?" I asked, gently. I didn''t want to make her feel like she was in trouble. I should''ve asked for more details in the first place. "Cause they like it when you look at them," she said. "They get happy and their eyes glow." "But can we open the menu without looking at them?" I asked. We didn''t look at them when using the menu. We couldn''t even see them. It would be nonsensical to have that be any kind of mechanism. "Sure, I do all the time!" she says easily. "Watch!" She turns away from Valykree on the floor next to her and opens her inventory to remove her phone. I hadn''t even thought about it before, but she''d not needed to even glance at Valykree to get it earlier. "I''m very annoyed with myself for not noticing this earlier," I sighed. Phobos jumped up on the table and sat in front of me. "Phobos? What''s wrong?" He pawed at the plate''s edge and then tapped his paw near his mouth. "Oh. You need to be fed. We should all feed our familiars... I have no idea how you''d feed a Ring and a Locket..." I said slowly. "Let me check, I have a codex entry. I forgot to read it."
Feeding Your Familiar! Feeding: A single spell''s worth of mana can feed your Familiar for two days! Just fill a glass marble from the shop with as much mana as you can. It won''t let you overfill it. Then give it to your familiar. If your familiar does not have a mouth of any kind, then simply hold it and focus mana into it. Your Familiar will not take more than it needs to be sated. Of course, this does mean that it will take a LOT if you haven''t fed it in days. Healing: Familiars will heal their vessels naturally over time. It''s faster if you give them Mana, but their vessels are not their ''bodies''. Breaking the vessel does not break the Familiar. It merely weakens them and makes them incapable of carrying out their emergency function. Purpose: The Familiar will hold onto the magical power your body cannot handle. And in an emergency, if you throw a few extra marbles to the familiar, they''ll be able to grow and change shape in order to spirit you away from the battlefield! Or, if your familiar is in a form that doesn''t allow for movement, you can transfer them into a different vessel. You can''t change their name though.
"So we can move it to some other vessel?" Mrs. Katz mused. "How do we do that?" No codex entry... probably means it''s simple. "Hang on. Toria, come back to your place and let''s experiment." "Yes! I just want my locket back to normalllll," she got up and followed me as I left the table. Both of our breakfasts were only half-eaten, but we''d finish them later. That''s what microwaves were for. "Did you get all the stuff left over in your apartment?" Toria asked as we took the few steps to her door. "I sold most everything before we left, but yes, the remaining things of Sophia''s and our other clothes and such..." "Great," she said and unlocked the door. When she stepped in, an orange furball came running at the door. "Poggers! There you are! He wouldn''t come out from under the sofa, yesterday. "You can put him in storage," I said and walked past her to sit on the sofa. "What?" she wrinkled her nose as she rubbed her cheek on poggers'' head. "Storage?" "There''s apparently a ''pet slot'' you can buy. You can put your pet into it and as long as you take them out every day to feed them, they''ll mostly be fine. So if you think it''s an unsafe area, you can just put him in the slot." "Ugh, that sounds awful," she said, making a face. "Like putting him in a cupboard." I shrugged. "Anyway, go pick another vessel for your Familiar, and make sure it''s something with legs of some kind." "Well, I have a favorite chair..." she said and grinned when I simply stared at her. "I know. Something that means something to me, but it can move around and eat things. Uhhhh. Well, we''re not using Poggers. Apparently only dead things or things that are objects can become familiars, but still. Wanted to make that clear." I wouldn''t have suggested it, but she thinks I''m ghoulish, I supposed. I didn''t feel like correcting the misconception, honestly. "Oh!" she put Poggers down and rushed into the bedroom. "One second!" Her hood bouncing off of her head as she skips. She and I, Sophia and Mrs. Katz... we were all still wearing our equipment. But how do we maintain it? Ping!
Maintenance for Equipment! If your equipment has become dirty or damaged, simply pay the Equipment repair fee! Laundering is only 1 coin. Repair depends upon how extensive the damage is. Your equipment will be sent to those with classes specifically suited to repair and laundering. Like Servant Classes! Just like Chefs will cook the food you eat and carpenters and upholsterers and metalworkers will make all the furniture you purchase. They are also in charge of repairing your sold items for resale!
I opened my Menu by focusing on the mental image of Phobos and it''s ludicrously easy. I feel even dumber for not noticing before. But... it was a good way to associate the menu with your familiar in your mind, anyway. It helped to make the connection. Maybe I''m just in denial and making up excuses for why it wasn''t stupid. The shop interface opened and looked like most of the tabs they have for laundering are people offering different types of services. Some of them offer to dry clean, some can hammer out dents and others can just disinfect and then make it smell clean. It made sense that some Classes had to be mundane, but it was odd... it was like they had a full rpg class dedicated to the practice. Because when I looked at the time for laundering and repair, it said one hour. For every single option. Which meant there was a skill they used or a special machine only that class had access to, because I looked and nothing like an instant repair/washing machine was for sale. "Found it!" Toria came back into the room and instantly rushed to sit next to me, a very old toy in her hands. Or perhaps I should call it a sculpture. It was a well-detailed and painted horse. Its fur a sort of reddish-brown with a black mane. "It''s my Blood Bay!" she said in excitement. "It''ll be able to move and I can ride it in an emergency!" "It''s a good choice," I said. "I''d rather Sophia put her Familiar into Sir Pokey, but she''ll likely refuse." A horse is much better than a plush toy for escape. But I''d likely be sending Phobos to pick her up and run, anyway, if things went badly. "Maybe I can talk her into it, later. She can just move them back and forth, apparently," she said. "There must be a cost, though," I replied. She bit her lip. "Oh yeah... and how do I even do it?" "I''d assume you call its name," I said. She thought about that and said, "Jeremy!" But nothing happened. "Jeremy IS who you were thinking about when you thought you were dying, yes?" I asked. "There isn''t a partner you haven''t told us about?" "No!" she said with indignance. If I had anybody that important to me they would''ve already met Jeremy and Sophia. "Uhhh... oh!" She nods to herself. "That''s what the problem is. When I was thinking I was having a heart attack or something, I was prayin''. About Jeremy. But I think I actually said something to Saint Jerome... patron of abandoned and orphaned children." The horse in her hand glowed with... clear light? It was like it sparkled, but there was no color. And then it moved. It leapt from her hands and onto the floor, cantering around, lifting its head and neighing. We could hear it, but again, it didn''t feel like it was making the noise out loud. "Some kind of telepathic communication?" I muttered. "But they can broadcast?" "You could hear it too?" she asked. "I hear when Phobos mews at you, I never thought it was like... in our heads." "It sounds like a mental echo. Like what I think a cat or horse should sound like," I decided. "It''s possible they''re making actual noise, it just didn''t feel like it to me." She picked up her locket and sighed in relief. "Thank you god for your mercy in restoring my favorite thing in the whole world," she said as she held it tightly. "The eye is gone, it''s just like it was." Her eyes misted. "It almost felt like I was losing everything. Having something back is... great, actually. Wait, I''ve been calling you by the wrong name all this time and you still answered me!?" I hummed. Phobos had remained with Sophia, which he usually did, if I wasn''t going far. But I had a thought. "Ask Jerome if he can pass through walls or go under the door," I muttered. "What? Oh man, I didn''t even think to test that kind of thing. Jerome! Can you walk through walls or go through tiny holes or somethin''?" she was fidgeting now. Her guilty face affixed in place. It likely doesn''t care about its name. It''s a method to bind it to us or something... "No." It responded so simply, it sounded somewhat rude, actually. "Oh well," she said. "Let''s go and show Sophia. And tell Mrs. Katz how to do it." By the time we returned to Katz''s apartment, though, it was unnecessary. "Blissy, look!" Sophia was cradling what looked like a living Ceramic cat. "It just came to me," Mrs. Katz said as we closed the door behind us. "I have so many statues of cats. Some small, some big. I thought, if he''s this small, I can just tote him around in my pocket! And he''ll always be so adorable." It was a kitten ceramic sculpture and was kitten-sized. So she absolutely could tote it around in her pocket. He appeared to be some kind of gray breed. With green eyes... and a blue gem-studded collar? "I had a ceramic made of a kitten I fostered when he was very young," Katz explained. "He died of a type of illness they didn''t have treatment for back then. He was so lovely. That collar is actually much prettier than the one he used to wear, which just had blue rhinestones on it. I splurged a little on his likeness." My phone vibrated and I checked to see a message from Grand.
Hey, Lila? There''s a whole bunch of people not voting. What am I supposed to do to get the vote over with?
Not voting? Taking too long, he means. I would''ve thought that would be over by now. 9. A New Plan "What is the problem?" I asked as Grand opened his door. "Come on," he gestured me in and paced away from the door, running his fingers through his hair in agitation. I closed the door behind me as I came in and tilted my head at him. It just feels appropriate to do so. He''s behaving like he''s on his last tether. "Have you slept?" "Four hours or so," he waved it off and turned to face me. His stubble is a bit less perfect than it was yesterday. Yesterday the edges were razor-straight and it wasn''t dark, but it wasn''t patchy... "So, Paramedical is still deliberating. As are floor groups two, seven and nine." "Floor groups?" I echoed. "That''s not what we''re calling them, is it? Why not just ''the nine''?" "Well, you weren''t there," he said and smiled in a terse way. "So we''re calling them the floor groups until somebody has an issue with it. Anyway, two wants more order and structure, seven wants more freedom and nine wants to not even have to make these decisions at all. Mostly. They can''t come to a consensus between them because two or three of them in each group thinks the exact opposite." "This is why they shouldn''t be in those groups," I replied. "They really couldn''t be convinced to just go up or down a floor? There''s plenty of empty rooms for shuffling people around." "Not everybody is as adaptable as you, grabbin'' their shit and going off to another room isn''t as attractive to people that are... well, emotional. Some of ''em have been living here for years. Some just got here, but everything else is changing so much they don''t want to change anything else..." "The rooms are essentially all designed so similarly that you wouldn''t notice, as long as you got a room in a similar position as yours on the adjacent floor," I retorted. "Otherwise, they could just stay where they are and join the group that has the opinion they agree with. Why the hell do people do this?" I was beginning to become agitated and that was never good. It meant I''d hit my limit for everything. Agitation is usually followed by snappishness, the severe urge to grind my teeth, set my jaw and hit things. Then I''ll be so sullen and depressed that I won''t be able to do things for days. "Well, people want everything," he replied. "They wanna be happy and comfortable. So they try to make everything fit how they want it to be." "Then all we need to do is make it fit," I said, clasping my hands before me and suppressing the irritation. I should''ve seen this coming and sequestered myself. But Sophia needs me, Grand can''t do his job without me, apparently... and I have to learn and get stronger to protect Sophia. That should be the solution then. "Give me your phone," I held out my hand. He smacked it into my palm and immediately went for the bedroom. "Let me know when you''re done and I''ll be ready to go!" I began typing up the message to the Paramedical Faction first. Wondering how I was going to manage messaging Grand the entire meeting through as fast as I needed to. The thought-to-text option was great, but it took several seconds to write an entire paragraph and a few more to send and receive. I wish I could just message him in real-time. There was a ping and Phobos leapt into my lap as I sat on the sofa. I decided to check because I was already irritated and I just wanted it out of the way. It wasn''t a Codex entry or a Letter. It was a shop advertisement on the front page of the ''Skill'' area. I didn''t have the skill point to spend on it, but if I could get it... yes, it would be very useful... and it meant I could do a part of my plan before I had to see them later. "Grand!" "What, already?" he swung out the doorway, his shirt rumpled and his hair even messier than before. "I''ve decided we''re setting this meeting for in three hours," I said. "Before then, we need to talk to the combat specialists who already chose their classes. I''ll send them a message to meet in the lobby if they''re not on guard rotation." "That''s like six people," he said. "And there''s at least two on rotation in the lobby at all times." "Four people is enough," I replied. As a matter of fact, it might be better. It all depended upon how the ''party'' system worked, or if there even was-PING!
Create a Party! Parties have party chats and collective Points. Collective Points are divided equally amongst combat members and those members who may not have any combat skills but are nonetheless useful, such as healers and mages that spent the battle creating barriers and pulling the wounded out of the line of fire. Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. All points earned while in a party are added up together and then divided equally amongst everyone. Party Leaders can kick or add people to the party. Party members can leave at any time, but forfeit all the Points they''ve earned till then.
"There''s a party system," I said. "The Codex has provided. Though the answer is better than I''d expected, it''s still worse in some ways." "How so?" Grand walked over to stand near me, wringing the bottom of his sweater in his hands. "If you leave the party early, before it''s disbanded, you forfeit all your skill and experience points," I replied. "And if I''m reading the implication correctly, your Party leader decides when you disband." "Oh that''s going to create a hell of a situation," Grand muttered. "All you''d have to do is make a party and then refuse to let anybody out until they all got fed up and opted out." And most ''smart'' people would wait to reveal their scheme until the party had already done a few missions together. In which case, they themselves would be the only ones to see the benefits... or they and a particularly stubborn person, but splitting between two would still be better than five or more. "It seems as though the System has thought things through in some directions, but not others," I said with a sigh. "Let''s get to the lobby." The message I sent was quick and simple, ''meet in the lobby for a mission'' and that was all. "What are we doing?" Grand asked as we left his apartment. "Leveling up, in a sense," I replied. "We can''t just hole up in here forever. Those monsters are only D rank. Imagine if we''re besieged by so much as a single C rank monster?" "Ahhhh," he bit his lip, I could see it in my periphery. "Why right now, though?" "There is a skill I need, before the meeting in three hours," I said. "Did you send them a message?" he asked and checked his phone. "Hey, that''s awfully light on details." "It says to meet in three hours to discuss the vote," I replied. "Without knowing their issue, we can''t really know what''s holding them back." "Bring both sides? That''s a lot of people," he said. "Of course they''ll know I meant a representative of both sides. And if they don''t, we can simply send the excess back and apologize for the inconvenience," I replied. People are always hinting and beating around the bush, but strangely whenever I try to mimic them, they always say I wasn''t specific enough. I didn''t ''come out and say it''. This was the truth for basically everything. I could never figure out that intrinsic ''something'' that made something a joke versus an actual insult or stupid remark. Or the difference between ''too vague'' and ''just subtle enough''. So I just stopped making jokes or trying to be subtle. Period. And now people call me boring or a robot. Well. That''s fine. I like robots. The lobby wasn''t a long walk from the 8th floor, even without using the elevator, which almost everyone refused to do -(aside from the elders who HAD to use it)- because... what if it failed? Walking down eight flights of stairs appeared to be a bit much for Grand who was huffing and puffing by the time we made it to the lobby. "You will start with a walk," I said. "Up and down the stairs every day in the morning. Then Once at Noon and once at Night." "What?" he gasped and bent in half to cough. "I''m fine! I don''t need to exercise that much." "You DO intend to eventually get a class, do you not?" I asked as we loitered outside the door to the lobby. "You need it." "Yeah well, I''ll exercise WHEN I get my class, how about that?" he coughed again and cleared his throat, seeming to have regained some energy and breath. "Now... what do I say to them?" "We need them to rise in rank for the benefit of themselves and everyone in the building. Wargs are worth forty-five skill points if you''re rank F. The F tier skills are one-hundred-fifty points each. To get another skill for five people, we would only need seven-hundred-fifty skill points to be divided up when we disband. Which is seventeen Wargs." "Se- Seventeen!?" He asked, incredulous. "Look, I know you''re Brenda Badass and you killed a Warg on your own without getting injured, apparently-" "I had mild injuries," I cut him off. "And it was only that difficult for me because I had no support and am not a combat class. And yet... I still did it, did I not?" "God, you talk funny," he sighed. "Yeah... okay, maybe. Maybe it''d be easier... but what are you gonna do in the party?" "Spellcards," I replied. "I thought that obvious. I will give them spellcards and then provide support in the battle. Though, I will need to use their mana to create barriers for them. I can only make six cards a day... and I still need to keep one in reserve to feed Phobos-" Phobos mewed loudly and I looked down. I opened the menu and immediately bought a pouch of marbles. It appeared in my hand. I took one out of the pouch and I felt it greedily suck the energy from my body. "Wha-what are you doin''?" Grand had backed away as the marbles appeared. "Fuck, what the hell was that? I only ever seen people take shit out of their inventory. They usually reach in their bags for it." "The shop puts things in your hand if you don''t have space," I muttered absent-mindedly as the spell energy left my body and I had to blink through a tiny wave of tiredness. Then, I dropped the marble. It was now swirling with red energy that looked like smoke. Phobos lifted onto his back legs to open his maw for it and swallowed it down. He began to glow a slightly brighter shade of red. His tail swished and he gave a mew that sounded wholly satisfied and happy. "Ohhhh I didn''t even really look at that thing too close before," Grand said and apparently realized he was trying to push his back through a wall and ceased. "Ahem! Well... let''s go and tell the group that I''m uh... giving them a job. Do I offer to pay ''em?" Ping! "This is getting ridiculous," I grit my teeth and then breathed to calm myself. "System. I would prefer you give me every codex entry now and allow me to go through them at my leisure as I please. Having them pop up like this is annoying." Nothing. "I see, so you are supposed to be annoying, then," I huffed and gestured at the door. "The Codex says you can create a ''Job'' and have a party take it and offer up a reward that isn''t monetary. Such as awards, trophies or even types of currency only to be used in certain locations. Like Guild currency." "We''re not a guild yet, so..." he sighed. "I''ll just tell them it''s a job for status? Like uh, be the leaders of tomorrow or some crap like that?" "Don''t call it crap, but otherwise, yes," I replied. He rolled his eyes and opened the door, stomping out and then holding it for me. 10. The First Takedown "Bad news... we''re weak. Like, really weak. We''re ranked F. And the only person in the building who''s killed something, is Lila," he gestured back at me and the assembled persons look at me with confusion. "She killed that Warg that went up to level 8," he added. There was realization, even relief. And then further confusion as they looked me over again. "My menu says she''s a crafting spellcaster class," a woman with curling black hair in a ponytail tilted her head. "I''m a crafter, sure, but I''m a ''trap'' crafter." "I can create spellcards, which hold spells for later use- and inscribe sigils on things other than paper with the ink provided," I replied. "Such as a weak barrier on a door or piece of armor... or a burning rune on a knife from my kitchen, which is how I killed the Warg." One of the men laughed shortly. "Sure, she took down a Warg with a kitchen knife. What¡¯s next? Scaring them off with a stern look?" He looked vaguely similar to those... what are they called? The men who look boyish in popular culture? Not a boy band member, but something similar. "The Warg is still dead in her apartment if you''d like to verify," Grand said. "I don''t understand the attitude. Don''t have a reason to lie. She''s only here to offer support to the party, so it''s not like you''ll be relying on her to kill anything today. She just knows what it''s like to fight one and you''re going to need to fight quite a few to get a new skill." "If she knows more than us, we should probably at least listen to the story," another man said. He was black with a well-manicured beard and short locs. "Oh sure," the boyish one said. "Regale us!" "Derek," the man standing slightly behind the rest said the boyish man''s name with a tone of warning. "We''re here to work." "Whatever man," Derek mutters. "First, why don''t we introduce ourselves," Grand said. "I''m Morrigan Grand. You?" "Jamal Edwards," the black man with short locs. "I''m a Seedwarden." Derek made a loud scoffing noise. "What!? What the hell kind of class is that?" "It''s a druid class," I replied with a twinge of irritation breaking through. "Considering it''s about seeds, I''ll assume it''s something to do with plant control. That can be useful for controlling the battlefield." "So you''re a nerd, too?" Derek asked with a smile, but I didn''t think he was joking. I''m not an expert, though. "What are you, twelve?" the woman with curly black hair asked. "I''m Marisol Vega, I''m a Tinker." "Carlo Ruiz," the man in back said. "Urban Ranger." "Derek," Marisol prompted. "Name and Class." "Why the fuck should I?" he asked. "Like this guy is our boss or something?" "If you''d prefer not to come along to earn a Skill, that''s fine," I said. "No one is required to come. But if you withhold your class, we won''t know how to work with you." "Pff," he flapped his hand at me. "I''m like one of the assassin guys or something. What''s it matter?" I checked his information by focusing on him. Marisol had just done it, which clued me in on the fact that it can be done. So I looked at him and thought ''Profile'' because it was the only word I could think of that didn''t refer to him as a ''character''. It doesn''t show everything, but it shows the basic information. Age range, weight range, the name of his Starter Equipment which is just ''Unassuming Set''. Class: Stealth Combat So that fits what he''s saying, but. "I''m not making you part of the party if you''re just gonna be a little snot AND you''re not a team player," Grand said suddenly. "This is a JOB I''m assigning you for the Building. In the future, we''ll be able to make this place a guild, maybe and I can pay you in guild currency when that time comes. But either way, how you perform now is going to determine whether anyone wants to hire you in the future. So either beg off or tell us your class and then shut up." "He''s a Backbiter," Carlo spoke with finality. "It''s a class that has to wait for an enemy to be vulnerable." "What the fuck, how did you know that?" Derek demanded and turned to stare at him with a red face. "I''m an Urban Ranger. Seeing detailed information about the armor and weaponry you''re using and checking the class glossary..." Ping. Fucking christ. "Well, thanks for fucking outing me!" Derek said. "I''m not as effective a fighter if everybody knows what I am!" "Were you intending to betray us or murder someone in the building?" I asked. He looks at me with wide eyes. "What the fuck are you saying!? Of course not!" "No no, she''s got a point," Marisol said. "You only aren''t effective because your target knows, isn''t that right?" "Ugh, I just wanted to surprise you with my moves," he said. "They''re really cool!" "Show us, then," Carlo said and gestured to the front door. "There''s a Warg just down the street. I was looking at it earlier from my window." "Fine!" Derek said and attempted to strut powerfully to the door. But it was more of a strange stomping thing... I wasn''t even sure if ''strut'' was what he was actually going for. "Let''s follow him," Marisol said as he left and trotted after him. "Don''t want anybody to die yet!" "We still have to create the party!" Jamal said as he rushed after her. Carlo waited for me. He walked next to me as we left the building and we snuck with the others along the wall of the apartment building. As the Warg down the street was faced the other way, apparently eating garbage out of an overturned dumpster. He stayed near me as we crept closer, boxing me in against the wall of the building. It wasn''t difficult to figure out what he was thinking. Protect the spellcaster. It was a common enough strategy when one is on a Quest in an RPG. The mages and healers need to be backed up by melee fighters and protected, because they''re fragile. It''s the tradeoff for being so powerful and useful. At least I knew that one of them would watch out for healers and other personnel sent with them on Quests. That was good information to have. Derek strode down the street, freezing when the Warg perked its ears. Apparently, he hadn''t considered the fact that it might be able to hear him. It went back to eating shortly afterward and Derek switched to creeping. "He''s going to fail," Jamal said. "How do we keep him from dying?" He was muttering, thankfully. "I got some stunners ready to go," Marisol said. "I''ll get its attention," Carlo said. "Can you wrap it up once it goes down?" he asks Jamal. Jamal nodded. Derek was wielding a pair of incredibly small knives. So small that I could barely see them from this distance, even though they were very clearly clutched in his fists. As he crept up behind the Warg, I thought- Surely, he isn''t going to simply walk up and stab it with those tiny little things? But indeed, he leapt upon the thing with what he obviously thought was a mighty Roar. Stuck his tiny little needle daggers into the beast¡¯s hide¡­ and of course, they pierced through. Unfortunately, the daggers were about four inches long, so when they pierced through the hide, it was really only enough to enrage the Warg and give Derek a handhold. And boy did he need it. The Warg screamed, there really is no other way to say it. It was high-pitched and it grated on the ears. Derek also screamed, though he was drowned out by the Warg to some extent. And still, nobody moved, because he was fine. He was just hanging off the back of a bucking Warg. It thrashed, tried to throw him off but he had a death grip. There was a memory that was sparked by the vision of Derek being flung around in every direction as the Warg tried to detach him from its ass. When I was young, my mother had some weird obsession with making me into a horse girl of some kind. I wasn''t very feminine and this seemed to worry her for some reason. She didn''t seem to care if I turned out gay or anything, just thought that a woman should behave a certain way, or something. Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation. She took me to some kind of Rodeo Show and there were bucking Broncos. Derek didn''t have the same control or skill as the men who were riding those Broncos, but he flailed around about as much as those who were flung from their saddles and kept a grip on the saddle horn. Eventually, he seemed to realize that he had to let go or this thing was going to slam him into something, very hard. So he released his grip and instead of being slammed into a wall, he was thrown into one. Derek crumpled, but he didn''t seem badly hurt. He just sort of sat there looking dumbfounded. It wasn''t long before the Warg realized that its passenger had disembarked, though when it tried to whirl on Derek, Carlo was there. He instantly had a throwing axe in hand that I knew he didn''t have a moment before. And hurled it with a grunt. The axe buried itself in the Warg¡¯s right shoulder with a noise akin to beating meat with a hammer. This effectively drew the Beast¡¯s attention and had it turning toward us with all the fury it could muster, screaming even louder. Marisol rushed out in front of Carlo to throw a bunch of metal balls all over the ground in the Warg¡¯s path. Then promptly turned and ran. I ran with her but Carlo trotted after us at a much more sedate pace. She and I took cover behind a nearby car and watched. The Warg came rushing sloppily down road, limping until he stopped trying to put weight on that front right leg. Soon encountering the shiny metal balls that Marisol had spread across the ground. It didn''t even appear to think to avoid the shiny metal balls, then went rigid and dropped. Jamal was already moving closer to the Warg and had seeds prepared in his hand apparently, as when he got close enough, he threw them. I don''t know how else to describe it, as my vocabulary for magical happenings is quite small. I''m usually reading the descriptions or watching a scene on my screen. It grew, or bloomed if you so please, though there were no flowers. Sprouted vines which grew exponentially with every passing moment. The Warg appeared to still be stunned, as the Vines grew around it in a choking tangle. The Warg twitched, whimpered and appeared to soil itself. It couldn''t really move, bare its teeth or even growl at us. Seemed a bit unfair, even. Especially when the vines had completely entangled it and began to turn dark brown and hard. Like they were petrifying. Carlo stepped forward and used his other throwing axe to split the Warg''s skull. In all, it took him three really good swings. He seemed quite at home with using an axe. "Well, that''s that," Jamal sighed. "I just wish we could have killed it quicker and cleaner, so much pointless suffering." "Don''t sympathize with the monsters that invaded Earth and tried to eat us," Marisol said. "He''s allowed to be upset that he''s causing suffering, as long as he still kills the thing," said Carlo. "How ''bout it? Did we kill it faster or easier than you did?" I realized that last part was directed at me and looked up at him. "It took you less time than it took me, but you had to use multiple skills and attacks. All I had to do was put a barrier on a door and then stab it with a knife that I had inscribed with a burn enchantment." "Ooooh, so we''re tied," said Marisol. "What, are you kidding me?" Derek made an appearance. "She said we killed it faster, and she just got lucky with it slamming itself stupid into a door." "And where were you?" Jamal asked him while lifting his brow just ever so slightly. "It threw me into a wall!" Derek protested. ¡°And I got first blood in.¡± He seemed very proud of the stupid thing he said. But I didn''t have the energy to correct him on all the points he was wrong. Luckily, Marisol had an abundance of energy to share, apparently. ¡°You mean you got thrown into a wall after stabbin¡¯ it in the ass,¡± she said while pointing at him very emphatically. ¡°And then left us to deal with the pissed off Warg while you sat your ass on the ground and sulked.¡± ¡°Hey, I could have a concussion, bitch-¡± Carlo, who had retrieved both of his throwing axes, used the butt of one of them to sock Derek in the gut- who promptly bent over gasping and coughing and sputtering. ¡°I don''t think you''re in a place to be throwin¡¯ around names,¡± Carlo said, then turned his attention to us. Briefly, he licked his lips and his eyes flicked down. ¡°We didn''t make a party, so I got all those points from landin¡¯ the final blow,¡± he said. ¡°I''m thinkin¡¯ we need to make one before we go anywhere else.¡± ¡°So we just killed a Warg, and we''re not getting anything out of it?¡± Derek huffed, gripping his middle and speaking in a labored fashion. ¡°Marisol, Carlo and Jamal just killed a Warg,¡± I said to Derek. ¡°I didn''t do anything and you were apparently too injured to help beyond the initial strike. Considering Carlo is the one who killed it, he should get the points. If the rest of us want points, we''ll just have to contribute to the next battles while part of a party.¡± ¡°So¡­¡± Jamal glances around. ¡°Who''s going to be the party leader?¡± ¡°I call party leader!¡± Derek said, shooting upright with a hand in the air. Everyone ignored him. ¡°Party leader isn''t even a special thing,¡± Marisol said. ¡°They just decide when to disband it.¡± ¡°Yeah,¡± Derek said in aggravation, noticing that no one was looking at him. ¡°So anybody can do it.¡± I felt I had to inform them of the potential dangers. ¡°If you leave the party early, you forfeit all of your points and other Rewards. And the party leader is the one who decides when you disband, so they could, in all honesty¡­ make a party, take them on a mission¡­ and then simply refuse to disband until everyone leaves the party.¡± The Codex entry might''ve implied it, but it certainly didn''t spell it out. Marisol swore in what sounded like Portuguese. ¡°So you have to pick someone you trust not to be a skeevy little conniver.¡± She glanced over at Derek. ¡°So Derek¡¯s out. I don''t trust this guy not to try and sniff my hair, let alone let me out of a party with all my points intact.¡± Derek almost seemed tempted to retaliate in some way until he saw Jamal and Carlo staring at him, waiting to see what he would say or do. ¡°I have to have a good working relationship with you as I am not transient. Nor am I an overgrown child looking to show off to feel important. The rest of you could leave, but I have a child to care for in this building. When choosing a party leader, taking those things into consideration is probably wise," I said. "If one of the other of you have any reason you cannot leave this building, at least for now, that would be a good enough reason to make you party leader. Nobody wants to piss off the people they''re going to have to live and work with for an extended period of time.¡± Derek actually seemed to miss the fact that I was making commentary on his childish behavior- Either that or he''d resolved not to say anything no matter what, out of fear of Carlo and Jamal ''s reaction. ¡°That''s a good point,¡± Carlo said. ¡°You¡¯ve got family to provide for, so that probably means you ain''t gonna do nothin¡¯ that could threaten your position here. I got siblings and parents, but I could only contact my brother and sister. And they don''t live here. My abuela lives here, but that''s my only connection.¡± Jamal spoke next, ¡°I have family in another state and might leave to find them if I can''t contact them all. Got a hold of my nana, cousins and an uncle. Nobody else yet.¡± ¡°I wasn''t in contact with any of my family,¡± Marisol said. ¡°Good number of ¡®em died during the recession crisis.¡± Calling it a recession was quite polite. It would be more accurate to call it the hostage negotiation enacted by the government and every rich person in America. They refused to pay a living wage and Americans refused to work for peanuts. Which of course, ultimately resulted in a standoff. A lot of people died because they couldn''t support themselves and their families. And the more people died, the more people got angry. We''d only just recently come to an agreement on an equivalent pay system that would enable billionaires to continue to collect profits while also providing for their employees. Their profits came slower, but didn''t stop, which is likely the only reason they even considered accepting it. They were losing profits every day that people refused to work, so slower profits was better than no profits. ¡°Looks like Lila¡¯s it,¡± Carlo said. "Now we just have to convince Derek." It was then I realized Phobos was gone. "My familiar?" I looked around. Theirs aren''t around either, and weren''t this whole time. I have to be more vigilant than that! "Oh didn''t you know?" Marisol asked and said the name ''Beb¨º''. A small robot toy appeared in her hands as she held them out. "They only come when called when you''re out in the world." Ping! I''m going to severely beat whoever built the system. 11. The Warg Party
Warg Party
Leader: Lila Cooper
Marisol Vega Class: Tinker Jamal Edwards Class: Seedwarden Derek Finch Class: Backbiter Carlo Ruiz Class: Urban Ranger
"Why isn''t it saying what your class is, Lila?" Marisol asked. The System had automatically formed the party as soon as everyone decided on a leader. Well. Everyone but Derek. I had to add him to the party by saying he was allowed in. Apparently, that''s just how that works. ¡°No idea,¡± I replied. ¡°maybe it just assumes you already know, considering I¡¯m now the party leader." ¡°What, like they expect us to know everything about the person we name our leader?¡± Jamal said in a facetious tone. ¡°Maybe they just think we''re smarter than we actually are, as a species¡­¡± Carlo said. ¡°Or maybe, they''re trolling us.¡± ¡°Oh yeah,¡± Marisol said. ¡°We¡¯re loads of fun to troll right now. Runnin¡¯ around like chickens with our heads cut off, wondering when we''re gonna die because the all powerful weird space things decided we wanted video game monsters in real life.¡± ¡°I''ve just been calling them the Eldritch assholes,¡± I responded. ¡°Like Lovecraft?¡± Carlo asked. ¡°Weren''t they so far beyond mortal comprehension that they could melt your brain just by looking at ya?¡± ¡°Well, every single letter I''ve gotten from them has had a little notice at the top about being translated for Mortal understanding,¡± I reasoned. ¡°I assumed they created the system so that that whole brain melting thing wouldn''t happen, on top of the other reasons to create it.¡± ¡°Now there''s an idea,¡± Jamal stated with an uptick to his voice. ¡°They said they did this because we wanted it, and we all kind of thought it was a bunch of bull. What if it wasn''t?¡± That thought appeared to unsettle most everyone. Except Derek who was staying out of the way for now. ¡°I don''t think it matters much,¡±I told him. ¡°My father used to think beating me was a great idea because his father beat him and told him it was for discipline. Just because they think they''re helping, it doesn''t mean they are¨C or that their actions should be excused.¡± The other three in the group, aside from Derek who was too far away to hear, stared at me for a moment before Marisol spoke. ¡°You''re damn right,¡± she said while caressing the hammer on her belt. ¡°Good intentions or good excuses don''t mean you should forgive somebody.¡± ¡°Anyway,¡± Carlo hefted one of his axes, looking at it skeptically. I didn''t blame him, it was covered in blood and brain matter, how much longer would it last? ¡°That''s how many now?¡± ¡°Twelve, wasn''t it?¡± Jamal stated. ¡°Aside from the first one, so twelve for me, Marisol and Derek¡­ thirteen for you two.¡± Since I''d killed one in the building. Yes, it is a grand total of thirteen¡­ and that makes me antsy. My grandmother always used to say that that number kept showing up every time something bad happened in her life¨C and lot of weird shit happened to her. No one else had been bit by snakes or struck by lightning or pricked by needles in a haystack like my grandmother. Metaphorically speaking, of course. ¡°I don''t like that number,¡± I said. ¡°Me neither,¡± Marisol agreed with a smile. ¡°Let''s go catch a few more.¡± We didn''t figure out why all of the Wargs were no longer around the area until we turned a corner after killing the fourteenth overall. It was almost like being in a dream, one of those dreams where you''re having fun and suddenly you turn around and there''s a wolfman baring its teeth. But usually, when I have non-human creatures in my dreams, they''re friends or companions. My nightmares come from machines and people, not monsters. But that situation was certainly a nightmare. ¡°Do you think if we stand real still, they won''t see us?¡± Carlo asked. I¡¯ve never understood the need to ask a stupid question in a crisis. Seems like a waste of energy just to distract everyone away from what they should be doing. Running. Only, it felt a bit ridiculous to run when they were as frozen as we were, staring back at us. But after Carlo broke the silence between us, the Wargs came for us. And there wasn''t one or two. It was a herd of at least twenty. That meant the reason they weren''t on our street except in small numbers is that the herd spread out. We ran hard, but I noticed which direction we were running in and quickly diverted them by grabbing Marisol and Carlo¡¯s wrists and dragging them with me down a side-street. ¡°We can''t lead them back to the building!¡± I said as I did so. They didn''t resist, though Derek took off at a sprint in that direction. ¡°Dumbass!¡± Jamal huffed and puffed as he ran with us around corner after corner, trying to slow the Wargs down behind us with a tossed handful of seeds, here and there. ¡°As soon as he hits the limit, he''s out of the party, he''s going to lose all his points cause he''s chickenshit.¡± Jamal is getting tired and the Wargs are barely getting caught up on the young vines¨C what few are getting tangled just run on, with the vines wrapping around them, completely free to move even after the vines die and petrify themselves. But I wasn''t very concerned with that. I didn''t get out of the house much, for recreational purposes. But I did work, and a fair few different kinds of jobs at that. There were even a few stints casing places for con artists. They said they liked the fact that I noticed small details nobody else did. Whether or not those details were useful, it seemed to tickle them. As long as they were stealing from a chain and not a mom and pop, I didn''t really give a damn as long as I got paid. And this Bank I recall on this street, just around this corner¨C wasn''t a mark, but it was right next to one. ¡°Get to the bank!¡±I told them as we ran, releasing Marisol and Carlo so that I could sprint for the door and heave my entire body weight into it. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. The shutters weren''t active, so I knew the door locking device was the ordinary kind. Not the emergency kind that the tellers would have activated with the hit of a button. So the door rattled and shook, but with the addition of Marisol and Carlo slamming into it right after me¡­ It groaned, squealed and broke open. We rushed inside and I ran for the open door of the tellers area, wondering where the fuck they were and why they didn''t use this place to hide when they knew damn well what the security was like? My hand slammed down¨C or rather up on that button under the counter, with extreme prejudice. ¡°Hey,¡± Marisol gasped and bent in half, clutching her mid-section. ¡°They can¡¯t¡­ get in, yeah? Too big. Why the¡­uh¡­¡± ¡°It¡¯s for everything else,¡± I replied. ¡°Shit, didn''t even think of that,¡± Carlo said. ¡°Wargs are the only things we''ve seen on the street this whole time. ¡°There''s a Bestiary, but it fills up as you discover beasts,¡± I said. "I wonder why the System works that way." The bank was entirely empty of all human life. Not just humans themselves but any trace of them. Like their entire existence was totally erased from this place. The teller¡¯s area was clean. Of anything. Paper, smears of fingers and hands on the teller windows. ¡°This place was locked, do you think they were going out of business?¡± Carlo asked. ¡°No,¡± I replied. "I was here last week. This is supernatural cleanliness. Or they paid someone to come in and deep clean because of a huge mess. But I highly doubt I wouldn''t have heard about it." Something occurred to me, then. "The Banks... we all had bank balances... most of us, anyway. And yet the banks have been cleaned out. And our Coins are representative of our amount before that happened." "Shit, you think they sent the bankers away somewhere?" Jamal said. "Or... I don''t even want to think of the alternatives, honestly." "We should," Marisol said. "But we need to deal with the problem outside first." "They''ll likely lose interest now that they can''t smell or see us," I replied. "I can''t even hear them outside, which means this place is effectively sound-proofed as well. They''ll linger for a few hours, but they''ll go away when it''s clear they can''t find us here." I took out my phone and sent a message to Toria.
We''re alive and fine, but Derek is likely to come screaming back home in a moment. He abandoned the party and ran off toward home base with a Warg Herd on our tails, so I won''t be back until tomorrow, likely. We have to clear out as many on the way home as possible. If you can''t watch Sophia for any reason, please ask Mr. Grand or Mrs. Katz. I''ll be happy to pay you in coin for your trouble if you like, as well.
And then, to Grand.
Lila Cooper: Derek deserted his party, make sure everyone knows it. Make sure everyone knows we''re still alive and doing fine. And Derek is a coward. But make sure to say it in a kindly ''maybe he''s just not suited to this'' fashion. You''ll get less pushback that way. Suggest that he just run security on a higher floor, which essentially means he''ll likely never see action again. Or tell him he can leave if he wants to try somewhere else.
BlissfulDreams: Jesus, are you serious? Aw hell, he''s here.
Lila Cooper: It might be best to ask the residents if they want to penalize his actions in some way, to make them feel in control of the outcome. If you were to simply fine him, they would say you are making unilateral decisions.
BlissfulDreams: Do I have to? I mean, smearing his name should be bad enough...
Lila Cooper: That depends. Do you want this happening again? People speaking badly about you is only one layer of deterrent and it''s something only some people care about. Money is something EVERYONE cares not to lose, unless they have a lot of it.
There was a silence for a few minutes, before he finally answered in the affirmative. I don''t understand why he''d want to ''go easy'' on Derek. He quite literally put the whole Building in danger. People are far too compassionate when they shouldn''t be and not at all when they should. The irritation I felt earlier was mostly dealt with in our successive battles with the Wargs. Just like me, Marisol and Jamal had prepared a handful of goodies beforehand, and then produced more today, before being called to join the party. And like I thought, six is around the limit for everyone in the F rank. Marisol got eight, because most of the components in her traps were mechanical. Less energy required to power them. Carlo, though, he could keep going as long as his stamina held out. And that was quite a lot, considering he''d killed each and every single Warg today. We only provided minimal support. I would give him a shield and he''d use it on his Axe to stun the thing, then sprint over and hammer it until its brains were on the pavement. Or Marisol would throw traps and we''d lure it over. Or Jamal would toss seeds when we had a Warg cornered and Carlo would step out in front and yell at it, to make it confused. It would pause for just long enough to get twisted up. And since we all had access to, let''s say five to ten of our tricks, we were easily able to handle the number I''d wanted to go for. Until now.
User Derek has abandoned his Party! He forfeits all points and other rewards!
"Well," I said as the notification popped up in front of me. "The Menu is actually just showing me messages now... do you think the System was waiting for us to acclimate? It''s so strangely thoughtful and thoughtless all at once, at times." "I think that''s just party stuff," Marisol observed. "I still can''t see messages unless I look at my phone and I still can''t see letters and codices unless I look in the menu." "You play games?" I asked. "Yeah!" she grinned. "How''d you know?" "You said ''codex''," I replied. "Toria and Mrs. Katz see a ''journal''. Toria also said her menu looks like her Spacetime account..." "Mine looks like the site we used to build our characters," she replied. "We play tabletop online where our DM can build maps and shit and we don''t have to go anywhere." "I never played many games or used the internet much," Carlo chimed in. "Mine just looks like the interface from work at the firehouse." "Mine looks like a game I used to play when I was a kid," Jamal said. "I play games occasionally, but nothing avid. Just some battle arena, farming or story games..." "That means you two should listen to us," Marisol said and walked over to grasp my arm. "We''re the experts. And you know what I''m thinking, Lila?" "That the Wargs are essentially sitting ducks, now that we know where they will most likely be and in what numbers?" I replied. She smiled wider. "Just like getting a good distance, quick-traveling to a merchant, buying a bunch of potions, taking a rest and then popping back to finish off the boss." "We would need an actual strategy, and to wait until the morning, when we will have renewed energy," I replied. "I''ve got another two kind of seeds," Jamal said. "My base skills were Entangle, Nourish, Enrapture and... Poison. Enrapture is basically like ecstasy and poppy. It makes a target sleepy... but only a little bit, since I''m still pretty low level. Nourish is just about growing outside seeds that aren''t in my pouches. It''s for like, food. I''d rather not use Poison, it goes everywhere, apparently. Because my level is low." "My skills are Slice, Throw, Bash and Block," Carlo said. That was expected. "I have Brenna and Vara, burn and barrier from my starter pack," I said. "My starter pack upgrade skill and other two free skills are Hrekja, Lysa, Binda. To drive back, to illuminate, to bind." "You get an extra skill from upgrading your starter gear!?" Marisol sighed and slapped herself in the forehead. "S''too late now, isn''t it?" "I don''t know, you should try," I said. I wondered, if she''d just skipped reading a lot of the information in the FAQ''s I sent to everyone. Maybe she hadn''t had time. She turned away from the party and then turned back with a displeased look. "It says I can''t upgrade my starter set, but I can buy a whole new set. And the one that comes with extra skills is like five thousand Coin." I suppose I got a discount because it was an upgrade that I hadn''t purchased yet. "Well," Jamal pursed his lips. "I''m not gonna lie, I have enough money to outfit all three of us. But I''m a bit reluctant to use it all at once." "Outfit Carlo, he''s the one who needs it most. And I''m sure you could work out a payment plan," I said. "How do you figure?" Carlo asked with a surprised look. They were ALL looking at me like that. "...you''re the Tank, of course you need good equipment and skills, more than anyone else?" "Ohhhhh!" Marisol smacked herself again. "He''s not supposed to be, but he''s all we got. So yeah... he needs it bad. Me and Jamal can just make more seeds and traps tomorrow. But Carlo needs protection. He gets hurt and we''re all screwed." "Alright," Jamal nodded once. "We''ll buy one of those payment contracts off of the shop menu. We can set the amount low for monthly coin payments so we don''t strain a teammate while we''re trying to level up." "Marisol," I turned to her. "What is your coin balance and what have you got to buy for the traps?" 12. A Man Wants a Plan "We ready for this?" Jamal asked while pacing around. Scoffing, Marisol retorted with, "is that really something to be asking now?" "I just mean," he began and lifted his hands. "We might maybe die here. Does everyone have a will?" Carlo makes a face and says, "that''s ghoulish. Do wills even work in the system?" No Pings. "It''s likely that our effects and Coin will simply disappear with us," I said. I was still trying to wake up. Usually, I woke up two hours early, drank tea and watched videos online. Then got ready for work. We had to sleep to recharge our mana and I just woke up fifteen minutes ago. I have to make Vara cards for everyone and that''s four spells. I''ll only have two spells left and I''ll be extremely exhausted after I use the second. "Here," I lifted the cards into the air and spread them in a fan. Marisol was sitting next to me and quickly plucked one. "Ohhhh, this weird grid thing isn''t pretty but the letter things are." "Sigils," I replied. "I think. Considering my Class is ''Sigilrant''." "Sigilrant?" Carlo walked over to take one of the cards and then walked away, staring at the wall. "I''m checking the Gloss." Which reminded me that no one knew my class until now. I''d somehow allowed it to keep escaping my mind, not really bothering with it. I''d told them my abilities, so I hadn''t thought to mention the actual name. I felt a bit conflicted over it. Was it really important when they already knew everything else? But it was withholding information, wasn''t it? I didn''t intend to... does that change anything? Jamal took the remaining card and pursed his lips. "So¡­ do you think you could make Tarot cards?" "I have no idea and at present, do not care," I replied. "Everything is ready now, and Carlo is outfitted." "Yeah, we should get ready," Jamal stared over at Carlo looking at the wall. "Carlo! Check the glossary later!" "Nah, nah, I found it," he turned back to face us and cracked his neck. His newly bought armor was much more suitable to be fighting Wargs. All he had before was some kind of leather vest fashioned after a ballistic vest, some leather pants and leather vambraces with leather boots. Now, the top half of his armor actually covered all of him and left none of his arms exposed. And he now had head protection. It was just a leather headband, but it had Concussion Protection on its info page when we were looking for the full sets and we all greed the other leather headpieces were just too flimsy and seemed to have no effects. His armor appeared to be fashioned after Motorcycle gear. "We''re ready to go," Carlo said. "Are we?" Jamal asked. "I absolutely think Derek is a dumbass and a traitor... or whatever you call it, deserter? But I also think he knew damn well that we''re too low level to be handlin'' a whole pack''a Wargs!" He appeared to be changing the Cadence of his voice to make a point but I didn''t really understand when people changed tones like that. I know what sarcasm is and it certainly wasn''t that... "So we just leave them To move around as they please? Come after us later in a big wave?" Carlo asked. "Hell no," Jamal replied. "I just think we need to be extra careful and aware that this isn''t actually a game! I think we''ve got a Dream Team here, really... it''s just that, I feel like we''re not taking this as seriously as we should be?¡± "Because we¡¯re not quaking in fear?" I asked. "Yeah, we know all the risks. just cuz we''re not cryin¡¯ doesn''t mean we don''t know." Marisol said. Carlo took a pair of what looked like brand new throwing axes, out of his inventory. "We wanna do this, because we do know. I don''t want these things coming to the building and trying to eat my Abuela." Marisol gasped. "You live with your vov¨®?" She appeared to be quite taken aback. "Don''t you have a place to live at the fire station?" "Did you really think that firefighters all live in the station all the time?" Marco asked with an amused grin. "Or are you just shocked that a fine specimen like myself isn''t married yet?¡± Marisol¡¯s skintone is a bit too dark to see if she''s blushing or not at first glance, but the rich brown of her cheeks, becomes even richer. ¡°No flirting while the rest of us can''t escape,¡± Jamal stated. ¡°I know we already figured out the ¡®plan¡¯...¡± His tone was skeptical. ¡° But if we could just have more to go off of than ¡®attack the stragglers¡¯, I''d feel a whole lot better.¡± ¡°Me, Lila and you are all small and pretty quiet,¡± Marisol said. ¡°So it shouldn''t be hard to sneak around and find ¡®em, bring ¡®em this way and kill ¡®em in small numbers.¡± The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Jamal nodded tightly, lips pursed. ¡°But, yesterday we thought we were movin¡¯ around pretty quiet and it didn''t matter, because when we rounded the corner, there was a herd. what if we poke our head around, they see us¡­ and we have to run again?¡± ¡°That''s why we''re doing this so close to the building and the bank,¡± I replied. ¡°So we will have a place to run to.¡± ¡°Look,¡± Marisol said. ¡°I get where you''re comin¡¯ from, but one way or the other, we gotta do this.¡± ¡°I know, I just don''t like it,¡± Jamal said. ¡°I should¡¯ve never told people that I could use Entangle.¡± ¡°Opening the door,¡± Carlo said as he walked back toward the teller area. At that point, when the shutters opened, we were ready. Walked slowly and peeked around the doorjamb before moving out into the alley. But when we did, I almost double-checked we hadn''t exited from the front door somehow. It looked entirely different, with wreckage everywhere. Torn bits of refuse, broken pieces of furniture. ¡°What did they do? Rip everything apart because we might have been hiding in it?¡± Jamal asked. It may have seemed a ridiculous question, though considering they also ripped apart an old broken down sofa¡­ it could have been merely to assert dominance or show their displeasure with us... ¡°These things really are pretty dumb, huh?¡± Marisol stated. ¡°Looks like they don''t even know how small we can fold ourselves down or not. Even wild Earth animals can usually make a good guess.¡± That is true of the smarter animals, though some will keep trying to fit something in something that doesn''t fit¨C but that is likely due to a belief that they can simply break or fold things into shape, rather than thinking the shapes match. ¡°They may have never seen humans before,¡± Jamal said. ¡°Maybe the only reason they attacked us, was confusion. we were suddenly in their territory, but their territory didn''t look or smell right.¡± ¡°We''ll worry about that when we have the resources to pin them up and breed them for domestication,¡± I replied. ¡°For now, we need to thin their numbers, so they will be easier to control.¡± ¡°Doesn''t seem like any around here,¡± Marisol said. ¡°Do we spread out? Or keep together?¡± ¡°If one of us were to encounter a full herd again,¡± I mused. ¡° The rest would be left scrambling and we might not get to a safe spot before the herd was upon us. staying together ensures that everyone runs away together.¡± No one had an argument against that, so we crept together to the end of the alley. Marisol produced a pocket mirror to look around the corner with. ¡°You didn''t say you had that,¡± Jamal muttered. Marisol simply smirked to herself and did not reply. I tapped Jamal on the shoulder and put my finger across my lips, then tugged on my ear. He seemed to understand fine enough, considering his eyes widened and he firmly closed his mouth. Marisol put a finger up. One Warg, is what I understood that to mean. Carlo stepped out and around the corner, then gently tapped his axes together. It caught the Warg¡¯s attention, as it quickly whipped around with a snarl. The only problem was, it''s body had been hiding the other two behind it. Then, when they came abreast of their companion, there was a third behind them. Four Wargs. Marisol cursed in Portuguese again. Carlo did the same in Spanish. It was near-simultaneous and their words became a confused jumble. But the tone was clearly cursing. ¡°I told you this was gonna go bad!¡± Jamal said. ¡±What do we do?¡± ¡°Same plan as before,¡± I said while retrieving one of my two knives from my belt. They were actually fairly cheap. Likely because they were made of a metal that would melt as soon as I wrote Brenna on them. ¡°I only bought two knives, so I''ll kill two Wargs, or try to.¡± ¡°We got the other two,¡± Carlo said while shifting into an aggressive posture. The Wargs were watching us, and it was odd. They were giving us so much time to discuss our strategy. If they were smarter, I''d say it was because they were stalling until their friends could get here. But I realized it was likely a much simpler answer. ¡°Do you think they can tell that we are four individuals and not one big creature?¡± I asked. ¡°You think they have bad vision?¡± Jamal asked. ¡°They do look like they''re trying to figure somethin¡¯ out about us,¡± Marisol said as we all stood there, watching them watch us. ¡°It''s more likely,¡± Carlo stated as he walked forward. ¡°That they''re tryin'' to see if they can take us or not. They look like hyenas¡­ I know they aren''t... but hey could have similar habits. I mean, if they''re D class, that''s one of the lower rungs.¡± That''s true, and after yesterday they might have found the bodies lying around. Plus, those Vines are more like brambles. Maybe they''ve decided we''re too dangerous to fight. Which could be a good thing. We appeared to have spoken to soon as one of the Wargs lunged just then, trying to snap his jaws around Carlo¡¯s head. Carlo had fast enough reflexes to dodge out of the way, but that single action, galvanized the rest of them into movement. I''d waited until then to write the sigil on the knife, because I knew I had a time limit. So, when Marisol threw the stun balls, it gave me the moment I needed. It was almost the same as before, Jamal threw his seeds and two of the Wargs were wrapped up in them, ready and waiting. Except now, I was aware of my every movement and I wasn''t sure if I could stab down hard enough. Before in the apartment, I was caught up in some kind of adrenaline rush and since then I''d only been running support. Right now, I didn''t feel the situation was so urgent that I had to go mindless to defend myself. I was confident we could handle it. The feeling of stabbing through an eyeball is one of the grossest I have ever experienced in my life. But it appeared to work, and kept the Warg down at least. Screaming and thrashing, but down. Which is when I noticed the other two getting up. I tried to shout a warning, as Jamal was getting too close, assumedly trying to throw some more tangling vines¨C but my shout was too slow and only served to distract him. Jamal yelled as the one nearest him, snarled and lunged at his leg. It''s jaw clamped down and it attempted to lift him into the air, but Carlo was there. He immediately abandoned his own Warg to throw an axe into the side of the head of the one attacking Jamal- and though it did drop him, it was a bit late. Jamal''s leg appeared to be hanging on by a thread. He was screaming and I''ve never heard anything like it. Even the screams of the two residents dying in the building seemed melodramatic and unreal. Jamal''s scream had an effect on me that I''d never experienced before. My body shook and went cold. That was only supposed to happen when I didn''t take my meds! While Carlo was attempting to finish off his own Warg so that he could help Jamal, I realized he wasn''t going to make it there fast enough. Everything was happening so slowly, too quickly- ¡°Eat this!¡± Marisol once again threw a handful of stun balls- this time directly at the Warg about to finish off Jamal. I took the opportunity, immediately. The Warg that I had stabbed was slowly dying, constricted by petrified vines and unable to move as it began going through its death throes. So I climbed it. Even as it thrashed, I was able to get a handhold and get on its back because of the vines. From there, I was able to draw my last knife and write the sigil. The one free Warg was after Marisol, so I shouted at her to head for the bank as I leapt from the Warg¡¯s back and onto the stunned Warg that had been menacing Jamal. It jerked¡­ and I missed. I may have planted the knife in its flesh, but it wasn''t anywhere near anything vital. We were screwed. 13. Tardus ex Machina Thankfully, the Warg I stabbed with the burning knife was too concerned with thrashing around trying to dislodge the knife to worry about where I was or what I was doing. So even if it didn''t work, I figured it was a good opportunity. I rushed to check Jamal''s injury and found it was much better than I''d thought, but worse than I could treat on my own with just a spell that could maybe be used to cauterize a wound. So I focused on wrapping. Marisol had run as I''d told her to and the Warg had followed, so we only had one to worry about for the moment. Jamal''s Warg seemed to gather itself and managed to dislodge the knife by rubbing its side against a car. the knife caught on something and essentially cut itself worse than I had, just to get it free Carlo was stalking toward it slowly, taking stock. He didn''t look at us once, which was the smart thing to do. Momentary distractions often got people killed in these situations. People felt like they were terrible if they didn''t look and let their emotions overcome them because they couldn''t stand to be ''terrible''. Thankfully, Carlo did not appear to have that issue. As he went after that one, I heard the one that had been chasing Marisol coming back our way. Or maybe it was another one altogether. I was able to use the hastily bought bandages in my pockets to wrap up Jamal''s injury, though I knew it wouldn''t hold for long. I''d only been able to pour alcohol over the wound and slap antiseptic bandages over it. I''d readied them last night, but hadn''t thought we''d be dealing with an injury of this magnitude. The shop refused to open, with a message stating that I should be focused on battle. Which meant it was idiot-proofed, but also completely fucking useless! ¡°One moment,¡± I told Jamal and gently patted him on the shoulder. The other Warg burst onto the scene just as Carlo summoned one of his bloody, blunted axes from yesterday. He threw it, hard, directly into the side of the head. Which appeared to disorient Jamal''s Warg, But did not kill it. Still, it gave him the opportunity to summon the other blunted axe and throw it at the Warg that had just come from down the alley. He was drawing aggro, though I wasn''t certain he could handle it. It did give me the opportunity to make a call, though. ¡°Lila?¡± ¡°Mr. Grand, we will require medical assistance when we return, Jamal has been badly bitten on his leg. I disinfected and applied bandages, I am now going to use my belt as a tourniquet.¡± I had the phone on speaker, and set it beside us on the ground. I''d been hoping to use a proper tourniquet when I tried to open the shop, but it seems it wasn''t to be. ¡°Shit, hang on, I''ll call paramedical and the security guards to help you carry him over,¡± he said and then the call ended. The tourniquet was basically just my belt wrapped around his thigh and tied as tightly as I could manage, but it was all I knew how to do. Double loop, buckle outward, ratchet it tight. He screamed a bit loud when I had to fit the double-loop over his leg and move it up to his thigh, but he grit his teeth and then shoved his fist in his mouth, so he didn''t appear to be losing control. He wasn''t yet in shock, perhaps. I couldn''t judge without asking if he was cold and asking that might make him imagine the symptom. Marisol made another appearance just as I managed to get my overcoat off and bundled it under Jamal''s head, skittering to a stop next to Jamal on his other side. ¡°I can help you carry him, into the bank.¡± ¡°I called Grand,¡± I replied. ¡°He''s sending assistance, we shouldn''t move him. We''ll help Carlo.¡± For his part, Carlo was doing quite well. The Wargs knew how to lunge, bite and claw¡­ but they had no idea how to strategize. Carlo was able to keep them at bay, simply by running between cars and throwing things at them to throw them off. But even with his stamina, even with the fact that his class was not dependent on mana, he was going to run out of energy soon. He hadn''t been using skills up until now, as he said last night right before we all went to sleep. His skills pack more punch, which meant they also took more energy. I can tell he''s using Throw now and not just throwing, because the items he¡¯s throwing have a slight glow to them, every time he does. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. It''s working but it also can''t last. ¡°All I¡¯ve got are spike traps and caltrops,¡± Marisol confessed. ¡°I don''t know what to do to help.¡± ¡°Use this,¡± I showed her my Vara card. It was in my quick slot and I''d taken it out in case one of those things charged me while I was protecting Jamal. ¡°Use your barrier and mine on yourself and slam into one of those things. The one that isn''t badly injured, preferably.¡± She took a deep breath and then yanked the card from my hand ripping it and smacking herself in the chest with both hands. She then pulled out the card I¡¯d given her earlier and did the same before running, screaming toward the Wargs. Glowing a subtle, but bright shade of red. Why is all my magic red? They almost seemed frightened of her for a moment, Carlo certainly seemed to think she''d gone insane with the way he looked at her. But when she slammed into the Warg, the barrier was strong enough to make it stumble, which was enough for Carlo to take advantage and jump off the top of a car, and sliced downward with one of his axes. I could tell it was his Slice skill. Not only did the axe glow, it went through the head of the Warg like a hot knife through butter. The effort left Carlo gasping on the ground and the injured Warg stalked up on him as Marisol tried to help him to his feet. I had only one skill that would be useful here, but as soon as I used it, I might pass out. I was already experiencing dizziness and fatigue, which is why I didn''t take Marisol¡¯s Vara card and do all the slamming myself. I¡¯m bigger and meatier than she is, but I¡¯m also not confident I could walk a straight line, right now. So I looked at Jamal and asked, ¡°do you need to be the one to throw those?¡± His eyes went wide and he pointed at one of his pouches. I reached down into it and got a handful of the seeds. They were very subtly glowing a deep blue. They only had seconds, really, but I couldn''t stumble that fast. ¡°Phobos!¡± I called for my familiar and threw the seeds. He seemed to shoot straight from my palm, and his jaw opened wide, just as I thought it would. He swallowed the seeds and ran. The Beast attempted to Lunge and bite, but something miraculous happened. Phobos got bigger. In theory, I''d known he could get bigger, as the Codex said they could whisk you away from the battlefield in an emergency. What I did not know was that he would get about half as big as a Warg. Which was about the size of the average car. Phobos slammed into the Beast and then vomited vines all over it. It''s not like he was retching or something, that''s just what it looked like. He was able to grab Marisol and drag her away from the Beast- but also away from Carlo. I assumed that he did so because Marisol had no weapons. She was likely perceived as the weaker of the two. The Beast was struggling, but so was Carlo. He didn''t seem capable of getting up on his feet and finishing it off. If I were to use a spell, I''d pass out, leaving Marisol all by herself. But if I didn''t, we would almost certainly die. I hadn''t thought about the brambles as a danger to us before, but when the Beast shoved itself over to slam into Carlo, I could hear him yelling and making pained noises as he attempted to get out from under it. Standing, I readied myself to use Hrekja. In just a moment, that became utterly unnecessary. CRACK! A gunshot rang out, loud and final. One of the guards who had been in the lobby yesterday, came sauntering over. ¡°Clear!¡± Then, many things all happened at once. I realized that the final Beast was dead, with a gunshot straight to the eye socket. Paramedical rushed over to scoop up Jamal and one of them asked me if I was injured, flicking a pen light across my eyes. ¡°I''m just tired,¡± I told them. ¡°Help Carlo, he''s exhausted and badly bruised.¡± Then, there was this huge flurry of activity. The Paramedicals took Jamal away first, but the other security guard from the lobby also walked over and helped Carlo to his feet. I checked their information and it said the woman was Ranged Combat and the man was a Pure Combat class. The woman walked over to me and said, ¡°I''m Patrice, nice to meet you. We woulda come out last night, but Grand said you didn''t want us to.¡± That was true, I preferred not to make the building anymore defenseless than it already was. ¡°We were doing fine,¡± I said. ¡°Until we ran into four at once. We killed fourteen just yesterday, one and two at a time.¡± ¡°Whew,¡± Patrice said. ¡°That''s a lot of dead beasts. You guys are definitely gonna get some new skills.¡± They were in the lobby when we talked about it, so it''s not surprising they would know. ¡°We should have left Derek behind and brought one of you, but we didn''t know everyone''s classes at the time.¡± ¡°Yeah, I figured considerin¡¯ your lineup, that maybe you didn''t even know I¡¯m a Gunslinger or that Jonathan is a Guardian,¡± she said. ¡°We really do need to get that vote over with, thank God they put a time limit on it, finally.¡± She then reached down to me. Holding out her hand with great patience until I finally realized what she wanted and used her to leverage myself onto my feet. ¡°You look dead on your feet,¡± she said. ¡°You need to get home, get a meal and get some sleep.¡± I have to pick up Sophia and help Grand figure out the vote, though it sounds like he may have found a solution on his own. If he was actually taking the initiative, that would make me feel much more reassured. I only wanted him to be the public face because I was the only one coming up with plans at the time and noone would¡¯ve wanted to listen to me. I didn''t want him to be so uncertain about what to do that he couldn''t function without me. Maybe if I were more power hungry, I''d love his confused and whiny energy and use it to my advantage. But power is only useful if you have something to use it on. The only thing I need power for, is to protect Sophia and myself. And importance was dangerous. "I''ll do that as soon as I can," I replied. I was good at taking care of myself. It was one of those things I never got to do until I left home that I luxuriated in, now. I likely wouldn''t be able to do much of that for the time being. No bubble-baths with glitter bath bombs that would make my skin shimmer for days. No lying on the sofa and vegging out on my days off. No working a normal, average every-day job anymore... The Eldritch Assholes owe me a job. 14. A Scheme Team "Ohhh this is bad," Grand paced before me. "This is very bad." I didn''t really understand his panic. "You didn''t anticipate this?" "Of course I didn''t-" he whipped around and snapped, pointing at me. "You saw this coming?" "Yes?" I said with confusion. "This building is too diverse and humans tend to be the types to want everyone to agree with them, first and foremose." The vote was essentially tied. There was a clear winner, but it was only by a handful of votes. Which meant, no matter what was chosen, everyone was going to be angry, because there was no clear majority. Three-hundred and eight people. That''s how many there were in the building. And that''s after calculating the two deaths.
Option 1: Control the Class selection for the greater good. 104 Votes
Option 2: Let people choose, then recruit from outside. 97 Votes
Option 3: Incentivize people with Coin. 107 Votes
The letter that was sent to everyone with the results of the vote after everything was counted up, made it clear that the difference was ten or less votes in each direction. "Okay, so what''s the plan?" Grand said. "And why the vote to begin with?" "People are petty and dumb in big numbers," I replied. "They want to focus on control. Giving them a vote makes them feel like they can control something." Then I got up and held out my hand. "Phone." "Yeah, okay, but you''re gonna explain, right?" he asked as he slapped it into my palm.
Since the vote was basically tied, with each category within ten votes of each other... I think we should combine the options to reflect the will of the people in the building. We should take the absolutely essential roles, figure out how many we need and then only assign those individuals to choose the class that is essential for our survival. After which we can allow everyone to choose their class, but incentivize them to choose certain ones by offering a certain income for each job we''d have them doing. After that, if we don''t have everything we need, we go outside and recruit. But we still have people in the building who don''t have access to the system, so that''d have to wait until we get everyone a familiar.
"Here," I said and handed it to him. "Okay..." he began to read and then started pacing as he did so. I sat back down and checked my menu. No messages from anyone, not the System or people or the Beings. Which is what everyone is calling them now, apparently. According to Toria, anyway. "This," he stalked over to collapse beside me on the sofa. "Why didn''t we just have them vote on this as an option?" "It would''ve been the most obviously thought out and correct option," I said. "That makes people irritated and they would''ve chosen something else because they felt they were being ''railroaded''." "So... we do it this way and they have to choose what we wanted the whole time?" he asked. "They all chose every single option," I said. "We''re choosing what they wanted. And now we''ll make them aware they can combine their choices in the future. Which will force them to think. How can this and that go together?" I shrugged. "So... they''re gonna do all the thinkin'' for us, in the future?" he asked. "But how do we decide which suggestions to take?" "Another vote," I said. "Like a tournament. In this case, there''s only one clear option. But in other situations, that won''t be true." "Yeah," he sighed and hit ''send''. "Now I just have to deal with people complaining that I made a unilateral decision." "Hmmm," I sat back and folded my legs. "Let''s wait and see." My own phone vibrated with the receipt of the building-wide message. I read it over again just for something to do while we waited, and he''d changed a few words to make it less... clinical. It was his job and I was impressed he was still able to make it sound authoritative and knowledgeable. "Ho-ho," he said and sat up straighter as he began to receive messages. "Half of these say ''finally, a decision'' and now I''m getting some that are complaining, but it''s like ''why didn''t we come up with that before'' and stuff... you''re really good at this kind of thing." There WOULD be ramifications and blowback... "We should practice that skill now, right?" Grand asked. "Where is she?" I sent a message to Toria that we were waiting for her. "Probably had to change, like the rest of us. Gear won''t maintain itself." I''d had to change into regular clothes myself this morning at six a.m. but. Toria tended to wake up much later and not think very far ahead, besides. ¡°You¡¯re still wearing yours,¡± he said. ¡°I wake early,¡± I replied. As soon as it was available again, of course I immediately put it back on. It was more protective than regular clothing and comfortable as well. There was a tapping at the door. ¡°Come in!¡± Grant projected. ¡°Probably fine to be loud now, right?¡± As Toria walked in, I replied, ¡°we shouldn¡¯t throw any raves, but knocking and shouting is likely fine unless the front door says there are too many lurking beasts about.¡± ¡°So, we''re practicing a skill?¡± Toria asked. ¡°You said it wasn¡¯t for fighting¡­¡± Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. ¡°Grand, this is Victoria Ephram,¡± I introduced. ¡°She is also aware that our assistant positions are switched.¡± ¡°Ahhh a co-conspirator,¡± he said and popped up to put his hand out. ¡°Morrigan Grand. I¡¯m the public face. What are you in for?¡± She shook his hand, making an indecisive noise. ¡°I¡­ don¡¯t know. I was just there when she sent the message.¡± ¡°Toria¡¯s class is versatile,¡± I said. ¡°She¡¯s a color mage. So she¡¯ll be quite useful to the building. But for this, we need other people involved sometimes and involving only Toria and perhaps Mrs. Katz would be best. I¡¯m not sure if Mrs. Katz knows I was BlissfulDreams first, or if she thinks I still am, but¡­ we¡¯ll clear it up when we need to. As for today¡­ she¡¯s going to talk.¡± ¡°Talk?¡± Grand asked. ¡°Yes, talk.¡± I replied. ¡°She''s going to have a conversation with you while I have the skill active and then she¡¯ll tell us if the skill use is obvious and how so.¡± ¡°Uhhhh,¡± she stammered. ¡°What do I talk to him about?¡± ¡°Something difficult,¡± I said and crossed my arms, settling deeper into the sofa. ¡°Like a hard-hitting news journalist. But a bit less aggressive. You''re scared and you want answers.¡± ¡°Okay, so uh,¡± She turned to look at him. ¡°Why haven''t we assigned more people to combat rules yet?¡± That was a fine subject, though her acting could use some work. I took the marble from my quick-slot that I had readied just this morning. Counting the votes took all night, last night. Or at least, most of it, as Grand promised me he was getting at least four hours of sleep, every night. Phobos sat on the floor, near me. He immediately perked up, when he saw the marble and ate it eagerly when I tossed it in the air for him. Grand and Toria stood awkwardly as this took place. Phobos rushed over to Grand, to stand behind him and then sat in a prim manner. I got up from the couch and walked into Grand¡¯s bedroom, closing the door behind me and kneeling on the floor to focus. Though, it would appear that merely closing my eyes would have been enough. Phobos can''t project what he sees, but there is a representation of it every time a noise is made. I can feel where they are both standing and where the edges of the room are. ¡°Well, the results have only just come out,¡± I muttered. Grand gasped slightly as the words were whispered to him through Phobos. I was incredibly grateful that I had thought to practice before putting this skill to work.
Hv¨ªsla: The Whisper Sigil. This Sigil can be used to turn your familiar into a relay for whispers for a short amount of time. You can send any message, no matter how long or complicated, as long as it''s within the fifteen-minute limit.
"Uhhh," he coughed and I could hear it all. "So, the vote was just finished and everything, not too long ago. You''ll just have to wait to see who''s been assigned as combat. If your name was up for consideration, I promise we saw it." But I didn''t hear Toria. I just heard Grand hemming and hawing after she presumably asked something. Oh, I could hear her voice through the door, of course... but I couldn''t hear her through Phobos or make sense of what she said. I got up and walked back in, "this isn''t going to work if I''m not in the room. I can''t hear through Grand, I can only hear what he says and respond to it. It''s a walkie-talkie skill-" "Well, there''s the answer!" Grand said with excitement and ran off into his room, past me. Knocking shoulders slightly. "I got just the thing! I dunno if it still works, though." ¡°He seems real¡­ enthused,¡± Toria observed. ¡°He doesn''t have a familiar,¡± I replied. ¡°But his position here is secured, regardless.¡± Her eyes went wide and she shoved her hands into her pockets. She was wearing regular jeans and a glittery pink top. ¡°You need to wake up early, every other day, to get your things maintained,¡± I said. ¡°At least for washing.¡± ¡°Hell no,¡± she responded. ¡°I''m only going to wear my gear when I go out, now that the buildin¡¯ is secured and all.¡± It was a safe choice, considering the equip ability. She could just simply call the starter set¡¯s name and wear it whenever she needed. it was me that was always paranoid someone was going to attack. ¡°I got it!¡± Grand was laughing a bit as he returned to us. ¡°I asked the system, if it works. They sent me a text, sayin¡¯ all the things we own should work like they used to. They just work different now.¡± My codex pinged but after a cursory glance at the contents of the entry, I simply ignored it. It was just the same information repeated. We''d discovered that the system still responds to inquiries from those without Familiars just yesterday, apparently, but I only found out through the codex entry this morning. They still needed a phone for it, though. I catch a glance of my new ranking as Grand puts the earbud in his right ear, the side of his head where the hair is slightly longer. ¡°Okay, let''s try again,¡± Grand said. I went back into his room and tried again. This time, I could hear what Toria was saying, as long as I held my phone to my ear. And it was ingenious. People would maybe hear me talking on his earpiece if they had sharp hearing, but the spell negated that risk by ¡®whispering¡¯ it directly to him. If I just silenced my end, I could hear and then ¡®whisper¡¯ to him the answers. If people noticed me talking, they''d see the phone and likely just ignore me, unless they were nosy. And if the spell ended, I could just simply unmute myself and say ¡®Flector¡¯ to get Grand to drop one behind him for Phobos to eat to extend the time. That was the proper name for the Marbles. Flectors. Apparently from ¡®Reflector¡¯ as the Marbles show the purest form of your magic and therefore ¡®reflect¡¯ you. I was pretty sure the System was like a living organism that¡¯d only been alive for a few days. Like an infant. Maybe, over time, they¡¯d help us advocate for better things with the Beings, but for right now¡­? Glancing at my ranking again, I wondered how many points it took to get to C, since the system said from F to D was 200. How funny that we all ranked up because Derek abandoned the party. If he''d been there to get points with us, we never would have known how close we were to D rank. Everything was so hectic yesterday, nobody in the party even got to enjoy seeing their rank up notification. I just ended the party as soon as we arrived in the building and we all basically just sighed at the results. Maybe with relief, exasperation or even happiness. But there was no jumping or screaming or even high-fives. We just went to bed. ¡°Seems like everything is ready,¡± Grand said. ¡°I got the flectors and my earpiece¡­" "Now all you need," I said. "Is for the people in this building to all be reasonable enough to agree that the outcome of the vote and the combination of the options is perfectly logical." His expression dropped. Toria sighed, "I''m sure everyone can agree that they''re glad the vote is at least over with. Maybe start with that." 15. A New Guild is Born ¡°Maaaan,¡± Toria looked over the list. ¡°Priority on Combat and special priority on Tanks? Why¡¯s that?¡± ¡°Almost everyone in the building was given rogue, mage or civilian type class options.¡± I was sitting next to her on the couch in our new apartment. Nothing in the apartment was owned by me just because I was living there, I discovered after asking the system about it. I was essentially squatting until my door could be fixed. ¡°Almost no one got tank options. Those who were assigned to choose the tank options were already the ones who were going to pick it to begin with. But now that we have enough tanks, it still can''t hurt to have more. We wanted to make absolutely sure that we were only telling a very small number of people which class they should choose.¡± ¡°Well,¡± Toria said and then bit her lip before continuing. ¡°At least it says we''ll earn Guild coins for doing work for the guild at a pretty good rate if we go out in parties. My Scarlet subclass will be useful for that, right?¡± ¡°Your class is not combat-oriented,¡± I replied. ¡°You are capable of it, but only because of the skills. You would have to go out and kill very many things just to get a handful of skills that would be useful in combat. Not to mention if you go in a party, you''ll have to give up a share of all of the points you earn. Which means the bigger the party, the slower it would be to gain those skills.¡± ¡°That doesn''t mean I couldn''t do it,¡± she said. I thought perhaps this was one of those times when I just shouldn''t mention the downside. No one wants to carry a companion through like two hundred kills. Maybe if she only needed one skill, but she only has one combat skill and needs more. everyone already has at least two or three¡­ even if she contributes to those kills, it''s going to seem like everyone else is doing all the work. ¡°If you want to try, I can''t stop you,¡± I said. ¡°Why are you always so negative?¡± she asked. I had no idea what she was talking about, did I say my thoughts out loud? I was sure I hadn''t. ¡°I said, you can do whatever you want,¡± I emphasized. ¡°As in, it is not my decision to make, whether or not you do?¡± ¡°Yeah, but you obviously think I can''t do it,¡± she said indignantly. ¡°Toria,¡± I said as I scrolled through the messages from Grand on my phone. ¡°I''m going to need you to stop putting emotions on me that I am not having, or at least not showing to you. I am doing as you asked and not saying things that could be offensive, the least you could do is not project offensive things upon me.¡± Her mouth opened and then snapped shut, then she blinked. ¡°I-¡± She pulled her lips inside her mouth and looked off to the side, I could see her out of the corner of my eye. She often made ridiculous expressions when she was thinking. ¡°You didn''t really have a tone,¡± Toria said. ¡°It just felt like you were sayin¡¯ I couldn''t, because you weren''t sayin¡¯ I could.¡± ¡°That, is not my problem,¡± I said. ¡±I can refrain from saying true things, I cannot say untrue things or dress up true things to look prettier. The truth is, I cannot determine what you do. You are a grown adult who makes her own decisions. The other truth, is that you would inconvenience others while you are trying to get more skills. And in so doing, would make people look down on you. How should I say that, so that it isn''t offensive?¡± Her eyes teared up, ¡°you''re right, I liked it better when you just said the other thing. I¡¯ll shut up and stop picking at you.¡± I always disliked that. People always constantly insisting I must hold a certain opinion simply because I refused to speak on a subject or refused to give my opinion at all. Even when I was doing as they specifically asked me to. Maybe I was snappish today, though I had taken the medication I¡¯d bought from the system and felt relatively fine. The system recommended not only a hormonal medication but also something for personality disorders. The formulas were a whole bunch of gobbledygook that involved magical creatures and their parts. They were things that could only be made by Alchemists. Herbalists only handled herbs, apparently, so that''s where we¡¯ll get most of our herbal supplements and salves and creams. The hormonal medication was birth control, but it also just equalized your hormones altogether, apparently. I had decided to try it because my usual medication would likely no longer be made. The system had determined that our medicines were limited on some worlds and more advanced on others, so it decided to split the difference and make it advanced but magical. So I didn''t think I was being meaner than usual. "Did Jeremy not reply to your messages?" She hiccuped in surprise and agitation. "How do you do that but you don''t know how to talk to people right!?" "I''m perfectly capable," I replied. "But I only lie when necessary. I''d prefer not to do it otherwise. No matter how ''polite'' it may be." "Yeah, that thing about never lying doesn''t really count when it wouldn''t be a lie, you just look down too far on people," Toria retorted. "I''m not looking down, I''m looking across," I replied in an irritated tone. "And what do you call taking your sad and worried feelings out on me, exactly?" Funny how I''m the only one ever expected to meet these standards, isn''t it? She flushed and stood up, stomped to the door and then out of it, though thankfully she didn''t slam it like an idiot. Just because we can finally make noise, didn''t mean we should push it.
BlissfulDreams: Send your vote for the name of the Guild to me and we''ll count them up. The options as it stands are: Ironvault Grandview Bloodreign Magi Meadow Fully Tanked I can''t believe I let you people talk me into making all those options. I added Grandview because one of our elderly folks suggested it and it didn''t sound insane. Please for the love of god don''t vote for Bloodreign. I don''t care about the rest.
Interesting. Last I''d checked, people were still sending in suggestions. If those were the ones that came out on top, it was likely the rest were worse. It was difficult to think of something worse than ''Magi Meadow'' or ''Fully Tanked'' but... maybe they''d thrown in some profanities or something and Grand thought it was utterly rude. I have no idea. He keeps see-sawing back and forth between down-to-earth and pearl-clutching-grandma. Ironvault, Grandview, Bloodreign. Those would be the actual contenders. But most people won''t want to work for a place like ''The Bloodreign Guild''. That was likely one of the older kids. There were about three teens in the building. Still, people were children at heart at times and might think that it would be intimidating enough to keep others from trying to fuck with us. Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit. Ironvault did that job also, though. Making the Guild sound intimidating. A message came through again.
BlissfulDreams: Shit, everyone pay attention to this text. The System says Bloodreign and Ironvault were just taken. That means we have to register a UNIQUE name. Vote now! Vote NOW! Here are the names that aren''t taken yet: Grandview Fully Tanked Magi Meadow ClottedCream Epicentral Spiracle CrimsonCloak Loot Lurkers
Ah, so that''s how much worse it could''ve gotten. Though strangely, CrimsonCloak and Epicentral didn''t look nearly as bad as Fully Tanked or Magi Meadow. It was likely because Crimson was associated with blood and Epicentral looked too juvenile. I''d already cast my vote earlier and that option was still there. Though I did send another message stating that if it was taken, I would cast a secondary vote for Epicentral, Spiracle or CrimsonCloak.
BlissfulDreams: What the hell am I supposed to do here?
LilaCooper: I don''t know what you mean. Once there''s a clear majority vote, just choose the name and have everyone confirm. That''s it.
BlissfulDreams: Some people are saying if we don''t pick their choice, they aren''t going to confirm.
LilaCooper: It likely won''t be enough to do anything. You only need 30 people, remember? There''s over 200 people in this building.
He went quiet for a while after that, so I hoped he''d ceased panicking over nothing. It''s not as though there''d be no names left at the end. We''d just have to get more creative, which would likely create better names from the whole debacle. The Guild that would be established was going to exist for the express purpose of having the system handle the votes from now on. Grand was buried in work just keeping track of the votes. He brought the final counts to me and I made the final decisions, usually, but... it''s not like I asked him to do that. I would happily count the votes. He disagreed and said if we were ever found out, it had to look like he was actually doing all the work, so that nobody would believe it. I countered with ''an assistant should be doing that work'' but he refuted that point by stating a ''boss'' should do the important work while the assistant does the ''nothing'' work to free the boss up for said important work. I didn''t think he was living in reality with that one, but he refused to budge. So, there we were. Toria was likely to refuse to watch Sophia for the next few days, as she tended to like to be petty when she was angry with me. So I messaged Felicity about the daycare service everyone was setting up. I''d already sent her an apology for the slap just this morning. Once I''d come out of my mental fugue, it was obvious that situation could have been handled in a less violent manner. She actually took it better than I''d thought she would, considering her reaction to my apathetic manner. With a curt ''You were trying to keep from attracting more in the building, we were all scared. You''re not off the hook, but I''m letting it go for now'' sort of response.
FelicitySmith: The System says we can charge five coin an hour, so that''s the going rate.
LilaCooper: That''s fine. If I ever end up overshooting because of a situation like before, you can drop her off at Mrs. Katz. She already agreed to help out.
FelicitySmith: I''ll make you an account and note that down.
There was a chime and the menu forcibly opened.
New Guild Created! Do you agree to join the Guild ''Grandview''?
YES
NO
I hit ''yes'' immediately. It was my first choice of names, after all. Mrs. Katz had suggested it. It was named for Grand. He didn''t know that, as Mrs. Katz had messaged me to send him the suggestion. He only knew an elderly resident had asked for it to be put up. He''d have immediately shot it down if he thought it had anything to do with himself. He laughed very uneasily when people praised him for being the leader. The guilt of lying about who was really making the decisions was likely eating him up inside. Ping! There was only a short wait, before the system finally sent a letter with confetti raining in the menu.
Congratulations Grandview Guild! You have successfully begun your journey into the wonderful world of politics! That''s right, Guilds are large groups of people that all agree to work together, so we''re giving each guild ONE vote to determine changes in the system. Don''t get too excited now, we can''t revert anything. But we CAN slightly adjust things! The first vote will occur once we''re absolutely certain no more guilds will be made this year! Which means the end of the year, December 30th. Once that vote is cast, the Guilds that exist now will get priority in votes going forward, meaning newer guilds will get a vote, but that vote won''t count as much as the Guilds that have existed longest. Congratulations to the Bloodreign, Ironvault, Grandview and Thitopia guilds on being the first four to get here. Your votes will count quadruple as long as you continue to exist every year and vote every time. If you don''t vote even once, your vote''s value goes down by a half. You''re also receiving gifts from the system for being the first four to make guilds! Bloodreign, as a guild with combat focus, is receiving the first place prize of an entire underground Arena! We will be affixing it to your base with the powers of the system, as it is within our power to grant. It will be a training ground for your warriors to partake in harmless duels to practice their skills. Warning: Duels in the Arena will not give experience or skill points. Ironvault as a defensive guild, will receive a series of magical turrets on the bounds of their small territory. These turrets can be powered by mages and Sunstones both. Warning: These turrets cannot determine for themselves who is friend and foe, you will have to have people on round-the-clock guard duty and if you make a mistake, the person will likely be killed immediately unless they''re rank C and up. Grandview is going to get something a bit different, as they are a Survival First guild and they happen to have a Seedwarden among their number! They will receive a rooftop greenhouse, as well as planter boxes outside every window that will be able to grow any number of seeds. Magical or otherwise! Warning: Some plants can be dangerous and professionals should always be present when you''re trying to grow something new. Lastly, Thitopia is a crafting Guild and as such will get the very special privilege of the entire grounds outside their base being transformed into a perfect Artisan''s Enclave! You will have a designated area for every kind of crafter. You will have to buy all the equipment and materials, but now you''ll have a place to put it all! We hope everyone will still be here when the Vote comes in December.
Zzzzzggggnnngggg "What-" I jolted up off of the sofa and rushed to the window of our temporary apartment. When I looked out, it was... uh... The weird effect that was taking place, appeared to be similar to many video game crafting systems. The shape of the thing is outlined, then it slowly becomes less transparent and more solid. In this case, a purple glittering glass box took shape outside the window and a weird magical effect noise kept playing as it continued to build itself, atom by atom. Is this the absolute highest limit of magic? I watched in something of a daze as it slowly built itself up. Over time, the box became more solid and I could see the planter box was actually coming in full of soil already. The box was simple, the soil was likely to be average and the real prize would likely be the greenhouse... but that didn''t mean these wouldn''t be useful. Each person likely had something they needed to grow themselves in order to keep up their classes or something. Like how Seedwardens needed to either buy or grow seeds, I''d guess. But we''d also be able to grow our own herbs for medicine, which meant less money going out and more coming in, if we were the first guild to think of it. But we likely wouldn''t be the only ones to go down that path, so even if we did it that way, it wouldn''t matter. We''d eventually be outperformed. Still, we could grow the really expensive plants we''d need, like for the heart medicine our elderly residents would need or... Is there a magical alternative to insulin and other medicines like it? Could we grow magical lichen and mold that could be turned into strong antibiotics? Grand was messaging me again. He was likely going to cry about the new vote we''d have to set up... but wait... The System pinged again.
SYSTEM: This is a notice! There are two people tied for the highest ranking in Grandview. This will mean there will need to be a duel to determine who will become Guildmaster. LilaCooper and CarloRuiz, you will duel in two days after the manner of duel has been decided. Play fair, everyone!
Ah, fuck. 16. No Elections Allowed "This is ridiculous, it''s obvious Carlo should be the Guildmaster," Jacob White was back. And wearing what looked like mecha armor? "He''s the strongest so far, he''s a combat class-" "I don''t think that''s obvious at all," Grand denied. "Lila''s a little weird, but she''s got a good head on her shoulders. And she killed the Warg first, let''s not forget- before anybody else." "I think it''s quite obvious the entire process is a farce," I interjected. "The strongest gets the title? That''s just begging for tyrants of all kinds. Thank god other classes count, or we''d be screwed beyond all reason." "That is concerning," Michael Lawson was newly garbed, as was everyone else. His was a long doctor''s coat with surgical tools in the front pockets. Everything underneath appeared to be sterile scrubs. "Is there any way we can change that?" No message from the system. We were in the basement we''d had converted into a meeting room. Kind of. We just sort of pooled our money together to buy some stuff that everyone needed from the shop and one of those things was a big meeting table that could seat like twelve people. The chairs were just unused dining room chairs from the empty apartments. "Well, if someone is the Guild Master, they just manage the Guild, right?" Sarah Johnson again. She was dressed... witchy, like me. But she appeared to be some form of actual mage. Not a crafter. And it was much more... feminine? Femme Fatale? "Don''t go thinking we can just overrule them by ordering them around," Olivia Turner was wearing something... different. It had fish scales on it? "They''re going to be the strongest, remember? Or the person with the best progress in their crafting or magic crafting skills..." "Oh, right," I said and checked my menu. "Ah. That''s why I qualified. My skill in Spellcards is also D-rank." "I think it would''ve been enough on its own, either way," Olivia said in a consoling tone of voice. "But I do think Carlo is a good choice. Carlo used to be a fireman. Lila has a child to take care of. Who knows when she''d be unavailable for some reason, randomly?" Carlo himself seemed deep in thought on the issue. "I think it would be predictable enough most of the time, but there are unforeseen circumstances," I said. "Regardless, people don''t really like me." "The System isn''t giving us a choice," Jacob said. "Can''t you just throw whatever duel it is?" "No, absolutely not," I retorted. "Do you want it implied that we''re already corrupt and our leader is a weak bully who got me to throw the match?" "She''s right, we can''t rig anything," Olivia stated. "Even if it''s the best option, we have to at least try to make it fair or people will start muttering about it." "Thankfully, there''s a vote at the end of the year," Sarah said. "I checked the announcement, did everyone else?" We''d all likely read it, but we pulled it up in our systems anyway. Because that''s just simply what you do when someone references a document in a meeting. "Yeah," Michael sighed. "The vote is on what to vote on. Apparently there''s going to be a tournament-style vote. Narrow down the subjects, pick one, vote on it. We might not even end up fixing the problems that are actual problems because the other guildmasters don''t know how to lead any better than ours will, either way. No offense." "I''m no Politician," Carlo said, finally speaking up. "None taken. But don''t politicians... do something to get people on their page?" "Politicking is a good idea, but we have no idea where to start," Jacob said. "I dunno that it''s a good idea," David spoke then. The Structural Engineer was wearing... something with bricks on his shoulders. "Politics ruined the country." "I do believe you mean capitalism and corruption," I retorted. "Every political system is flawed, but the base principle is ''talk out your differences until you can agree on something'' and I do believe that''s what we teach our children in preschool." "I think we need to do it different this time, though," John was the one to speak that time and his outfit was hard to describe. It was like a tuxedo but it was patterned and had long tails on the coat part. Like he was supposed to be some kind of fantastical butler? "Before, it was all money changing hands and people staying in power because they had money. Now, we have means to go to war over it. People aren''t going to want that. We just need to keep each other in check and actually do the job instead of taking every excuse not to." His accent was very light and he sat with a casual businessman''s posture. "No offense," Jacob began. "You know it''s going to be offensive," I cut him off. "Politicians weren''t the only ones expected to take part in politics. Politics is just life. It''s the issues that plague us all. Telling him he can''t have an opinion because you assume he doesn''t have a degree in politics or because he is a janitor specifically would be incredibly stupid." Jacob turned beet red. "That isn''t what I was going to say! I was only going to say we have more experience and knowledge in politics!" "You assume," I stated again. "I know about as much as anyone else," John said. "The Average American doesn''t even know they''re supposed to be voting in state elections until they''re an adult and get an advertisement about it." "Also, I''ve been to college for polysci," Olivia stated with her hands folded on the table in front of her. "A lot of people here might''ve taken classes or might''ve studied on their own. We''re all representatives and John is about to get a lot of underlings working for him, so it''ll be about the same number of people as every other faction. He has a right to his opinion here." "Fine!" Jacob flicked his wrist. "I''m just saying, I wouldn''t say I know more about cleaning than he does." You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. "Because upper class white men do their own cleaning," I muttered to myself, turning away from him. Carlo snorted. Because he likely knows as well as I, that it''s a terrible comparison. It wasn''t even a political stance to have, it was just statistics and facts. Men of his age in his income bracket have a mother and then a wife to clean for them. And even if they do half the chores, it''s likely the uncomplicated half, like putting dishes or laundry into a machine, measuring some soap and hitting a button. Everyone is expected to vote or take part in political discussion at some point in their life. Not everyone is expected to learn to deep clean. "You''re white too!" Jacob protested. "Yes," I replied. "I am." He turned even redder. He didn''t have a comeback, because my response didn''t give room for one. Explaining the difference between upper class white and lower class white and men and women wouldn''t get me anywhere. He''s right in that we''re both white and we both have advantages. Explaining how I have less than him is a moot point and will just allow him to steer the conversation as he likes. "Movin'' on," David said and leaned forward over the meeting table. "All that is for later. For right now we need to shore up our defenses, make money and get stronger. That duel will determine whoever gets control of the Guild, and we can''t effect that. We need to focus on everythin'' else." "That is true," Jacob said and then smiled. "What if the System gave us a duel like that? Whoever improves the guilds'' condition fastest, wins?" Ping! Ugh!
DUEL TYPE CONFIRMED
The two candidates competing for Guildmaster of Grandview Guild will be given one week to improve the conditions of the Guild! The Candidates LilaCooper and CarloRuiz will each be given tasks that can improve the Guild''s well-being. How they carry out these tasks, how quickly they finish and how much they improve the Guild''s condition, will determine who is chosen to be Guildmaster. All Trial rounds will be concluded with a combat trial!
"It really does just do whatever it wants," Grand sighed. "It''s trying to do what we want," I replied. "It''s just very... limited ...in its understanding of us." "Well, only one person wanted that kind of trial-" John paused and thought about it. "Chale. Do you think it reads minds?" "It has to," I replied. "It takes our cue mentally to work the system. It''s trying to anticipate our needs instead of asking us. Which is strange, considering the amount of people who were upset that their class was chosen for them." "Right?" Sarah''s head jerked up to respond. "It''s like it''s not allowed to do certain things. Or make certain rules on its own." Everyone went silent for a moment. It was still new and strange to consider that there were ''gods'' in play. And only in the most literal definition. ''Powerful beings beyond our comprehension.'' "No, I mean when we''re not using the system," John said suddenly in the silence. "Do you think it''s ''scraping'' us?" And that was another horrifying thought. AI scraping was a controversial issue. After all, why not just ask permission and use the documents given by people that they themselves owned? But it was also the next wave of technology that was supposed to make everyone''s lives easier. And it was... really cool and futuristic. A lot of people hated the reality of AI but kept supporting it because they wanted to see where it went. But scraping your brain for data was something nobody wanted, which is why those brain chips weren''t popular with anyone but the physically disabled. If you can''t move and your entire existence is dependent upon others, you''d prefer the slightly dangerous option that allowed you to get your own groceries and play video games with a thought, even if it was really icky. At least, I would. Michael sat up straighter, "this is our reality now, we better get used to it. First things first. We have to move everyone on the first floor that isn''t an elderly resident and get all the elderlies down there. They might be in danger, in case of attack, but it''ll also be easier and faster to evacuate them that way." "We''ve got people agreeing to move right now," Grand reported. "And there are enough empty rooms on the ground floor. You guys are taking up a few on the second?" "First floor is first responders, second floor is... the closest we can get to surgery," he said. "It''ll be as sterile as we can manage. We''ve wallpapered it with ''sterile plastic'' from the Shop and we''ve got all the tools we need. But only one of us was taught any surgery and not a lot. I took the Chirurgeon class with the Anatomancer subclass..." He pressed his lips together. "But earning high-level skills will take time and a lot of patients." "You''ll go out with the parties, then," I said. "For a while, instead of relying on lotions and potions, we''ll rely on the healers. They''ll level up and it benefits the fighters and everyone else, in the end." "And we wouldn''t have to pay for the potions in bulk yet," Grand said. "Just pay the healers their salary." "Alright, next we should probably talk about the... quests," David said. "Yes, those," Jacob wrinkled his nose. "Quests posted by people are ''jobs'' and Quests by the system are just Quests? Why is it all in the same menu?" "They''re all tasks to complete," Carlo said. "I''m a little worried about that too, ''find the dungeon''... that means there''s monster farms out there, essentially." "It''s typical of video games to have such a convention," I said. "And that does appear to be what it''s mimicking in its structure." "Which one do we send people for?" David said. "They''re all D Rank. We''re not ready, are we?" "So let''s get ready," Olivia said and sat up straighter. "My Class is Enhancer. My Subclass is Siren. It''s a Buff and Debuff class. I can improve physical condition for thirty seconds at this point. But at a really harrowing time, it would be useful. And I''m sure we have others." "I''m a Black Mage, Subclass Cursed Witch," Sarah Johnson stated. "I can do incredibly powerful magic... the problem is the tradeoff. Since I''m Cursed, that means it''s not just mana I have to pay. It''s physical condition, too. Not as bad as it could be, but it''ll cause me pain and suffering if I have to use my powerful spells. I can use the normal ones, no problem, though." "We can''t send our leaders," Jacob protested. "We''ve already got a whole squad of combatants. Somebody has a gun, somebody has a... shield sword thing..." Right, Jonathan the Guardian. His weapon was very strange. A shield on a sword. Kind of. It was a sharp sword in the shape of a shield? Difficult to describe. "We''ll go," Carlo said. "One of the instructions from the system is to clear a dungeon. Me and Lila can do that together or take two different dungeons. We have to do it either way." "I''d like to take this one," I said. "The Corrupted Copse of Elderglen Grove." "Well, it''s got some adds and a boss monster," Olivia stated. "But it''s less combat-intensive than the other options, besides the... gathering quests?" "Yeah," Carlo said. "We''ll take the Monster Infestation of Gleamwell Springs. More combat, more rewards." You would certainly think so. "Okay, so now that that''s figured out... who''s going with whom?" Sarah asked. "We''ll put it up to a vote," Grand said. And that is where I would ultimately fail, I believed. After all, some of these people knew me. Word could''ve gotten around about the last party I led ending up with a nearly-amputated leg. Thank GOD the Shop let them buy special equipment to fix the damage. Even if it''s slow. I might get a few people, who didn''t want to judge me before they met me. People who wanted to go to the less dangerous place... but I doubted it''d be anyone I really needed. Oh well, I tried. If only two people show up, I can just say that I can''t in good conscience take them into a dungeon with me alone. It''s true. 17. Party Up Unfortunately, in telling everyone that I wasn''t going to go easy on Carlo¡­ I had given my word. I hated going back on things I had said in the past. Especially things like that. So, when an entire team showed up to my new apartment, asking to join my party¡­ I actually had to put effort into beating the dungeon and winning the duel. I was always going to do my best, but I figured the numbers would be against me and I could pull back and throw the competition without actually throwing it. If I was seen doing my best but also no one supported me, then my losing wouldn''t be obviously some kind of Ploy. And you could argue that I had indeed ''done my best''. "So why''d you choose this one?" Marisol asked. We were all seated on the floor in my living room, Sophia playing in the bedroom by herself. I didn''t know they were coming, so I hadn''t set up a playdate ahead of time, to entertain her. "I''ll tell you," I said. "As long as it doesn''t leave this room. I have to at least put up a good fight so that Carlo won''t look bad when he wins." "You don''t think you''ll win?" that woman from before asked me. The Gunslinger. What was her name? I surreptitiously checked my system notes and found the name Patrice. "Of course not," I said. "Leadership and tactics aside, you need people skills to be a leader... and not just the type that gives orders really well. Not to mention, I''m not a combat type. People like when their leaders are not only kind and smart, but also strong physically if it''s needed. And I''d say it''s needed in this new world, wouldn''t you?" "But you''re still going to try your hardest?" Toria asked. She wanted to join the party, though I wasn''t certain in what capacity we were going to use her. She wanted to fight, but she had nothing but a slicing skill. "We can''t have anyone crying foul," I said. "If I''m a candidate chosen by the system and I just bow out, people are going to suspect I was bullied into it, no matter what I say." "Yeah," our newest addition said. "I can see that being suspicious." Her name was Annika. Brunette, slender, hair in twin dutch-tails... those were pretty much her only defining traits. As all ''pretty'' people, she looked pretty much the same as anyone else with a symmetrical face, to me. I preferred people with imperfections, easier to recognize. She was also an Ossifer. A Chirurgeon subclass specifically for the mending of bones. Though she was a bone specialist in general, her class was centered on healing... "Alright, we''re sworn to secrecy!" Marisol said, bouncing on the couch. "Now tell us why you chose it." "It was the dungeon with the rarest resources," I replied. "Not only do you gain dominion over the dungeon for the whole month, in which time you can strip it bare of resources- you can also then do it again when it ''refreshes''. Even if only for the monsters and not the trees and such, though... I''m not entirely certain that whatever is there won''t just grow back while it''s ''resetting''. Not to mention, nothing else on the list said ''cursed'' and I''ll bet cursed creatures are somewhat rare, as are their body parts and organs. I looked it up afterward and we could likely make anywhere from two to three hundred Coin for just the pelts. Apparently Cursed type magic users can use them to make great cloaks for their armor sets." "But you don''t know about the body parts and organs?" Annika asked. "It seems like a huge risk. We might get the pelts for two to three hundred each, but how many pelts even is that? Meanwhile, the other team will be getting at bare minimum, fifty coins for every pelt, one hundred for every hunk of meat, seventy-five for the organs that can be used in potions. And that''s the bare minimum. If we only have to fight six enemies, we''ll only make twelve-hundred Coin. If they fight six enemies and they get pelt, meat and just one organ that''s used for potions out of each one, that''s thirteen-fifty. Even if the pelts themselves are expensive, we might end up short." I make a mental note to tell Carlo to appoint Annika as Treasurer and then move on to my most convincing argument. "It wouldn''t just be for medicine. Cursed animal parts can probably be made into poison bait for other monsters. So even if we can''t find organs that can be sold as potion ingredients, we''ll be able to use it as poisoned chum, which we can then use to make our fights easier in the future. If it works that way. For all we know, the curse is broken upon death. In which case we''ll be able to sell the meat." "So we have to wait and see," Marisol said and huffed. "I wish the System would just give us a skill to know how much stuff is worth." "Oh!" Toria straightened up. "I do! My Gold Subclass! It has an appraisal skill in it." "Let''s go and appraise, then," Marisol said and grinned. "First," I turned to her. "Toria, have you practiced with the skill, yet?" She tangled her fingers together in her lap and frowned. "I''m sure it works just like magic." "Yes but, how does it work?" I asked. "Does it give the worth in coins or does it just say ''normal'' versus ''rare'' or ''legendary''? Does it take into account how beat up the thing is, or does it just give the base value? We''d need to know all that, first." The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. "Yeah, if you''ve never used it, it might just say ''this thing is valuable!'' and we''d have no idea how much," Marisol said and turned to Toria. "I got a perfect one for ya. This is 24 karat gold on my watch." She proffered her wrist. "If you can guess the real value of the Watch from your skill, then we can use it on the creatures later. If you can''t, then you probably need to level it up, first. Or the System bungled something." "I-" Toria huffed and tightened her hands in her lap into a grip that made her knuckles white. "Color Change. Gold!" There was a slight glowing effect as the gold took over the rainbow pattern on her outfit. It seeped into every crevice, like a marker on a paper towel. Just because it did it quickly, didn''t mean we couldn''t see the whole process. Like it bloomed across the entire canvas of her outfit until it was the only color left. She turned to Marisol and grasped her wrist where the watch sat, then stared at it. "Uh... I dunno how to activate magic skills or whatever," Toria said, turning beet red. "But you were going to come on a mission?" Patrice asked with incredulity. "Why the hell weren''t you practicing?" "I was putting energy into the marble- Flector things!" Toria said and turned her eyes to me. "You told me to!" "Yes," I replied and frowned. "But you could have simply made one or two Flectors a day. What about the rest of your casts?" "You never said that!" she said in a somewhat hysterical tone of voice. "Why should she have needed to tell you to be sure to practice your own skills?" Marisol asked. "I keep hearin'' from everybody that Lila is ''weird'' or ''blunt'' or even ''mean'' but I''ve never seen that. Is it just that she won''t ''mommy'' you?" Toria''s mouth dropped open. "That''s not fair to say," Annika protested. "We''re all civilians. Just because some of us took to this better than others, doesn''t mean everyone should be expected to be perfectly functional right now-" "I''m functioning fine!" Toria argued. "And you haven''t seen it cause you don''t know her well enough! She''s mean! She doesn''t mean to be, but she refused to just tell polite lies and shit! If you ask her how you look in something, she''ll tell you your hips look fat and your boobs are poppin'' out and won''t just say ''you look fine'' or nothin''. She''ll tell you that you''re bad at a thing you''ve been training to do for ten years! She has no tact." "I''d say she has tact," Patrice said. "That just sounds like brutal honesty. And not the fake kind where you lie in the other direction. It might be annoying sometimes, but that''s not mean. Why do you ask for her opinion if you know she''s going to offend you?" "I should be able to ask my friend how I look and just have her compliment me!" Toria said. "I even told her to just focus on complimentin'' the positive and ignorin'' the negative-" "You told me to focus on what you did right and what looks good," I interrupted. "However, you balked when I asked if you wanted me to stop saying anything negative at all." "Yeah, cause it''s a question that''s meant to make me back off!" she retorted. "Just because I don''t want you saying anything negative when I''m feeling vulnerable, you ask me if like ''should I never say anything negative at all then?'' and-" "We were speaking in a specific context," I replied, my brow beginning to furrow, though I try to remain calm. "I was asking if you wanted me to not say anything negative about your appearance." There was a long pause. "Oh," she said in a small voice as her eyes filled with tears. "And that, my friends," Marisol said. "Is why communication is Key." "Now we can-" I started to speak but Toria leapt up to her feet and ran from the apartment. "I think that was a bit too much for her," Annika stated with a frown. "But we didn''t even ridicule her," I replied with a sigh. "How am I supposed to talk to people when simply mentioning things makes them cry!?" I hadn''t realized, but I was gripping my own arm hard enough to leave depressions when I removed my fingernails. "I''m pretty sure it was just a feeling of embarrassment that we had nothin'' to do with," Marisol said and I think she was trying to console me. It''s always hard to tell if it''s not accompanied by touch or a certain facial expression. "Toria seems like the easily embarrassed type, sensitive to rejection and judgment. She might''ve thought we were judgin'' her just because she was judgin'' herself." "Well, obviously we can''t count on her," Patrice said. "Not responsible enough to know to practice her skills on her own and then gets mad at other people for giving her suggestions she chose to follow to the letter. Not to mention, she only had one attack skill and one heal skill. It might be versatile, but in a battle environment, versatility is only useful if you''ve got the skill to use it." "We''ll just take her some cookies later," Marisol said. "Maybe she''s just feelin'' extra sensitive and needs emotional support?" "At the moment, we don''t have the resources to be doing that," I replied. "We have to focus on surviving and providing. She can sort out her emotions herself with all the Coin and business we bring in. She can do jobs that involve one of her subclasses, it''s not like Combat is her only ability." "Sure," Marisol said. "Do you really tell people their hips are fat?" "If the outfit makes them look that way, then why not?" I replied. "I was under the impression that when they asked, they wanted to look a certain way. If they don''t look that way and instead look a different way, am I not supposed to tell them? It''s like asking someone to evaluate your blue painting with ''Is it blue enough'' but the whole painting is purple or red. Do I just say ''sure, seems blue'' when that is untrue?" "Well no," Marisol said. "But in the future, maybe consider that they want to know what they''re doin'' right, not what they''re doin'' wrong. They probably know what''s wrong already, they just can''t see the ''right''. People are self-conscious and see the flaws more than anything. You just need to point out the positive things, because those are the things they actually miss." "Ah," I said. "Alright, then." "What, that''s it?" Annika said with a gaping mouth. "Why didn''t you just do that before?" "No one explained what was expected of me," I said- and I knew was being defensive. But after thirty years of this, I was just tired of it. "Everyone just kept telling me to lie." "Right," Patrice said. "Just so you know, that goes for everythin'' but things that actually count for life or death. If someone is bad at something in a fight and you know how they can improve, you gotta tell the truth." "But you''ve gotta ask first," Marisol said and gave Patrice a look. "You have to ask ''do you want concrit?'' and then take no for an answer." "Fine," I said. "In the meantime, we should find someone else with an appraisal skill and find out how valuable Cursed things are." 18. Whats Old is New Clarissa was a short, stout woman. She had jewelry dripping off of her in hanging chains with little gemstones in them. She even had a chain from her nose to the top of her ear. Though it appeared all her ''piercings'' were just clamps. "Okay, my skill is called ''True Value''," Clarissa said as we all sat around her table. "This watch, it says is 24 karat gold." "That''s right," Marisol said with a smile. "It''s worth one-hundred-twenty-five Coin, because the gold is only really being used as an accent piece. Most of the gold-colored metal here is brass that''s been shined up," she explained. "It''s very expensive looking, but for a fraction of the price." "Yeah," Marisol picked up the watch and put it on her wrist. "Back when, it was worth like two-fifty, but since it''s just labor and materials now..." "Yes, I''d say that''s correct," Clarissa stated. "There''s only a small percentage of profit allowed. People are even able to ''set'' the amount of profit. Everyone has it set to its highest right now, of course..." "Stockpiling coins is smart," I said. She grinned, showing off gold capped teeth. "I''d agree. That''s the whole reason I bought so much jewelry and fine art. I sold about half of my possessions and now I''m sitting pretty." "Very shrewd," I said. "But isn''t art just a painting, now?" "In terms of value, no," Clarissa replied. "After the change, now my paintings and jewelry are actually worth more or less depending upon their uniqueness. And age. My vintage pieces are worth double, but the gaudy sets I bought for the purpose of just selling the big gems later was half the price it was supposed to be, because it was a mass-produced sort of thing." "So, actual artistic value," Patrice said and sighed. "I have art in my place, but it''s all mass-produced." "Ahhh," I thought that over. "One moment." I pulled out a spell card, an empty one. And I began drawing all over it with my ordinary pen. Not my Stylus. Clarissa starts laughing when she sees what I''m doing. But I simply continue as she explains to the others. Resolving to myself that I will never make anything like it again, I hand it to Clarissa. She grins as she uses her skill on it. "Would you look at that. The worth of the ink and paper are low, but the fact that it''s one of a kind and from an unknown artist, also factor in. You''ll still get about ten Coin for it. Twenty if you become a bit more well-known as an artist or if you just do this on better materials." "So wait, we can just be artists now?" Annika''s eyes were wide and she slapped the countertop. "Damn it!" "The System has hinted before that we can change our classes at some point, for some reason," I said. "So you''ll get your chance, eventually. Survival is most important. And until now, that meant defending yourself, as you had no idea if anyone else would do it." "Yeah, you''ll put that art degree to good use, later," Patrice said. "For now, you''re a healer. Why''d you pick Bone Healer, by the way?" "That''s what my art is," Annika said. "Broken bones, like from ancient burial sites, covered in flowers... wrapped in ribbons and maybe fashioned into hairpins or something." "You mean like paintings or actual bones?" Marisol asked. "Both," she replied. "I use animal bones for the jewelry and stuff, though." "Wow," Patrice said. "Anyway, can you tell how much Cursed Items would be worth? Like... cursed pelts from monsters and their organs and such...?" "Hmmm," Clarissa looked off into the middle distance, which is likely what it looks like to anyone when we open our personal menus. "Ah! Someone over on the other side of the world cleared a cursed dungeon. It''s called Sector ''Asia'' on this thing, but it''s not Asia anymore, so it''s likely just... uh. Where it was, in relation to us. East. They only put up the pelt, teeth and heart..." "Why?" Marisol asked. "Can the rest not be used for anything?" "The system doesn''t have information on it, but maybe they have a different kind of appraiser on their team... or maybe no one has any gutting and cleaning skills," Clarissa replied. "How much do the pelts, teeth and heart cost?" I asked. "Well, since it''s combat, it takes your level and experience into account," she said. "It''s two-hundred-fifteen Coin per cursed pelt at your current levels, with your current party. But if your party were bigger or more highly leveled, it''d go down. From thirty to fifty Coin, depending. But only that low, I think. So you''d still get a good hundred from them, even if you were highly leveled. And then there''s the teeth and heart. Teeth are worth about fifty Coin, as they''re able to be used in cursed objects that certain classes need to boost their abilities. The Heart though, is five hundred Coin. It''s used in certain potions, though it doesn''t say which ones..." "Do you think there''s immortality potions now?" Marisol asked and everyone exchanged a glance. I tilted my head. "If there were, it would likely require trading someone else''s life for your own," I said. "You have to get the vitality from somewhere. Even the things the System first made were likely made from the cast off matter of the worlds they ripped apart. I refuse to believe they can just will things to existence from nothing." "And even if they could," Patrice said, leaning over the table on her crossed arms. "That doesn''t mean we could." "We need someone to clean the carcass," Marisol said. "Let''s go and find someone who''ll do it for a good price. There''s got to be someone in the building or neighborhood that knows how, right?" Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. There was a chime, but it didn''t come from the system. It was a simultaneous phone chime, for messaging. Everyone in the room looked at each other, though I was already reaching for my phone and bringing up the message.
BlissfulDreams: Some people from the Neighborhood want to join our Guild. We don''t really have any reason to turn them away, but this does mean we have to find places for them to live. We can''t postpone the Guildmaster selection, so we''re doing that first. Whoever ends up Guildmaster is going to have to prioritize finding places for these people to live that are secure. For now, we''re putting them in empty rooms in the building and letting them sleep in the lobby where it''s safer than outside or in their homes. Just letting everyone know.
"Huh," Patrice said. "Can''t say I didn''t expect it, but... I figured people would try to wait it out at home for a while first." "They likely saw the monsters, even if they didn''t fight any," I replied. "It will most likely be those with children and elderly relatives, or those who are disabled themselves... or just those who live alone and are afraid to do so any longer." "This means we have to look ahead. Even if Lila isn''t the Guildmaster, we can give a list of places to Carlo," Marisol said. "Marisol, you and Patrice can do that," I said. "Annika and I will find someone to clean the carcasses and if possible, line up crafters in the building who might want first grab of the items." When we left Clarissa''s place, Annika seemed highly discomfited. I wanted to leave it alone, but she kept swallowing and the sound was going to drive me insane. Once or twice over time, perhaps I could''ve handled. But my biggest sensitivity issue aside from touch was sound. "What exactly is the matter?" I asked her as we walked toward the door of the one who''d answered our Guild-wide message. "You''re swallowing like you need to drink a gallon of water." "Uh... it''s nothing really-" she began. "I am not going to sit here and politely pick at you for an answer," I said. "Stop doing that or answer me." Her lips pursed. "I just... isn''t it unsafe for a bunch of unknown people to come and sleep in here? Especially since all our guards are mostly looking outside for trouble. We don''t know who they are." "I assume you feel the same about refugees from other countries," I said. There was a dead silence between us as she stared back at me. "No... I don''t." And that was all we said, as she took the initiative to walk ahead and knock on their door. I followed behind, but I was dissatisfied with the situation. People are twice as idiotic when they''re afraid of something. They stop using logic and reasoning, start following their feelings and get upset when you don''t. I predicted many people would have this problem and sent a quick message to Grand that he should ask them to go out and find another place for them to stay, if they''re so opposed. Most people in the building now have personal protection in their combat skills or have a means of calling for help that no one can just ''shut off'' without knocking them out first. It''s possible for people to attack you, but now it''s even less likely they''ll get away with it. We''re actually safer from each other now than we were before. Even if you''re meticulous, your skills will leave traces and even if you don''t use them, your victim will. Not even mentioning the familiars. "What is it?" the woman who opened the door was familiar, and I realized it was the woman from a few days ago. The one I asked if she was high and having a bad trip. "Oh, it''s you. I got that class ''Cleaner'' so I can do it, but I want Coin." I suppose it''s just who she is. Loud, abrasive and paranoid. At least she''s upfront about it. "Cleaner," Annika blinked. "Subclass or Class?" "Class," the woman retorted. "Subclass is Gutter. I used to do it with my daddy out on hunting trips. He showed me how to make it quick and easy when your shot didn''t kill the thing right away, too." "That''s great," Annika said with a queasy look on her face. "Uh, I''m Annika Christof. You are?" "Bella Bern," she replied. She had a cigarette in her mouth, but wasn''t smoking it. "Didn''t you see my name on my message?" She asked with an irritated tone, then noticed me. "Hey, are you with this girl?" she called out. "Yes," I replied. "Well, both of you get in here," she said and turned, walking back into the apartment. We followed, though I kept my distance from Annika and Bella both. I disliked talking to people if I knew it was going to be confrontational. Nobody else has ''rules'' for arguing, like not getting up in the person''s face or only screaming when you''re across the room from each other. And I didn''t want to get in trouble for punching someone who got too close and yelled too loud. "Now, my skills say just Field Dressing," Bella said. "But I have two ''subskills'' and I don''t know what that means. I tried calling my daughter, but I can''t guess what name she''s usin''." "Subskills are skills dependent upon other skills," I said. "If you had the skill ''Slice'' and the subskill was ''Dice'', it would mean the level of skill you had with the subskill would be directly dependent upon your skill with the first one." "Well, the skills are Skinning and Gutting," she said. "Why aren''t they on their own? Field dressing''s just a name for those." "It means that your Gutting and Skinning skills are too different from each other to be dependent upon each other, but still belong to the same category," I said. "Field Dressing makes it so you can gain skill in both when you practice either. Which likely means Field Dressing can be leveled or evolved to something else." "Well, either way," she said. "I can skin and gut whatever you bring me. Field Dressing just says it can remove the blood. I figured that''d be in gutting or that gutting with the organ and meat would be with Field Dressing, but I guess not. I can even preserve the meat and organs if the old ways hold true, even without a skill." "Have you tried, since things changed?" I asked. "Nope," she replied. "Bring me some fresh meat and we''ll see what happens." There was another simultaneous Chime.
BlissfulDreams: Hold your asses, everyone, it''s a hell of a newsbreak. Some of the people we brought in were interviewed as part of the processing. You know, ''how many kids you got'' and everything. But we asked them how many skills they had and we boggled a bit, you know. Cause we only got two to four, depending upon class? Except Toria up on the 8th, cause her Class is exotic. They told us they got a skill every time they did something they used to do. One of them had a ''poisoning'' skill because they knew what chemicals did what to whose body, cause they were in poison control. But their Class had nothing to do with it. Everybody, start doing your old job tasks and anything else you can think of. Hobbies, art pieces... find the skills you''re missing and send a message about what you''re able to get.
It went without saying that Annika and I had to leave after that. We promised to return when we needed her for the job, but Annika was anxious to get to her room and start painting... As for myself, the only things I really knew how to do before the fall were crocheting (which tortured me with the disgusting feeling of the yarn), weaving on a small plastic loom (same issue unless I wore gloves, which I usually did) and some small cleaning skills I''d learned while doing particular jobs. I thought on it as I left for home, to find out what sorts of skills Sophia might have uncovered, as I''d taught her both of those crafting abilities... And I knew one or two things that were going to get me in trouble, if I did them and someone found out. Weaving it is, then, I thought. 19. The Raid It was ridiculously easy to get Weaving to Rank D. And then even Rank C. I just had to practice and watch videos that were being sold in the Shop, recorded by professionals. The Guildmaster showdown was already decided, so even if I ranked up higher than Carlo now, it was still going to happen. I asked, to be absolutely sure before I began. There was no way in hell some weird technicality was going to make me Guildmaster. But the skill wasn''t really high enough to sell the goods. Everyone else was good enough to sell class A or S, if they''d had the skills in the past. Even B class folks, hobbyists and the like, were getting good prices for things. But until I could get to A, it just wouldn''t be worth it. The only thing I got in skill form that made things easier was patching and darning. I could fix any damage dealt to Sophia''s equipment, because it was cloth. Mine was silk, which would require a MUCH higher level of expertise. Not to mention the leather parts... But after weaving a bunch of blankets from Rayon Yarn with rubber gloves on, at least I managed to get a useful weaving skill. ''Simple Weave'' which was the most simple type of weave a person could do. The Beginner''s weave. When I used it, it would give me a menu of items and I could have them woven from the pattern. It made me exhausted afterwards, so I stopped yesterday, as today... today was for the ''raid''. "We''ve got everything, right?" Patrice asked. "I''ve got bullets, Annika has her surgeon kit and Marisol has all those traps you had her make. Uhhh." "I''ve already outfitted Marisol and Annika with the spellcards they would need," I replied and walked over to hand her a few Shields. "Just rip them and tap whatever you want to put a barrier over. One at a time unless stated otherwise, please." She took them from me and tucked them into her belt. It was fairly tight, so I didn''t see them going anywhere, but it still made me frown internally. I tried to keep my actual expression flat. I''ve noticed that lately it''s getting harder and harder. And I don''t know why. I''ve been taking my meds faithfully, I shouldn''t be losing control of my emotions or expressions. "Everybody got their Caltrops?" Marisol asked. "Stun Balls? I''ve got the Spike Traps ready to set up." "We''re all just nervous," Annika said. "We shouldn''t feel rushed just because Carlo cleared his dungeon the day after he picked it." "They came back with severe injuries because they were unprepared," I said and frowned. "Carlo hadn''t seemed that hot-headed to me, before." "They''re men," Patrice said. "They''ve been raised to believe if there was a war they would conquer all and come home to plough their rightfully-earned wives. Of course they just ran in." It was a bit ridiculous. None of them were in the army before, only Carlo was a firefighter. The rest in the building that joined his party were mostly old retired men... well, aside from Jacob White. He was a ''linebacker'' but that only meant he was suited to defense. Tanking. Carlo and Jacob alone couldn''t have cleared the dungeon, so they had to accept help from whoever volunteered... Except Derek, who was blacklisted by all parties at this point. Jamal was still recovering, but they had Michael Lawson. They hadn''t wanted anyone from the ''council'' to go, but they said they needed to be seen backing Carlo, since we were all fairly certain he would win anyway. And to make it look as natural as possible, by borrowing a trick from old books. The hero''s adventuring party were all risen to fame next to him, after all. And even if it was only really one council member, it didn''t really matter which one of them it was or how many they had behind him, it mattered that a councilmember was supporting him. Made people a bit more jumpy, though, when they all came home with bloody lacerations and an unconscious Anatomancer. "I don''t understand how that could take precedent over their actual thoughts," I said. "Michael at least, would''ve said something about being prepared, wouldn''t he?" "You''d think so," Annika rolled her eyes. "I''m under Michael in the Paramedicals, and he was saying with a healer, they wouldn''t really need to be that prepared. That as long as he made a bunch of healing spells in the Flectors they could use, then he''d be able to hold out during the whole raid." "Has anyone in this building played video games before?" I asked. "You always need to be on top of everything as a healer. You have to stay close to the tanks and DPS to keep them healed and it often involved spamming. In real life, our ''mana'' or whatever doesn''t recover that quickly." "Yeah, well, they learned their lesson," Annika said and shrugged. "Oh, did I tell you guys I sold a bunch of my work to the Shop?" She smiled brightly. "The more I sell, the more well-known I''ll become and the more they''ll be worth. The Shop advertises based on the persons'' own stated preferences, so let''s hope the algorithm doesn''t fuck me over." "That''s great," Patrice said, but there was no enthusiasm. She looked back to the entrance of the ''dungeon'' and seemed to swallow hard. "It''s time to go," I said. "Does everyone remember their roles?" "Me and you stay at the back, behind Patrice," Annika stated. "Marisol uses her new D-rank skill to summon ''tanks''," Patrice said. "Patrice provides ranged dps support," Marisol said. "If anyone needs more mana, I have Flectors, call for me," I said. I''d been stocking up ever since I found out they were a thing and there weren''t any attacks all day. Every night at bedtime, six Flectors. You could fill them with spells, too, but I didn''t have normal spells. Michael did. I''d have to write the spell ON the Flector, it didn''t accept anything else from me, specifically. Class balances... We stood before the entrance and Marisol took a deep breath. She lifted her hand and said "Clockwork Dummy!" and there it was. It erupted from a spray of sparks and stood before us, utterly lifeless. She said it twice more and then there were three of them standing there. She''d had them stored away in her inventory, rather than summoning or creating them with a skill. Summoning things from the inventory had those weird little touches. Like red smoke in my case... They appeared to be made of some kind of brassy metal. And they looked... kind of like Mannequins. Empty-chested Mannequins. The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. "Okay!" she sighed. "I''m gonna put the cores in, give them their orders and then we''re starting for real!" "Annika, you can''t heal the dolls, so focus on Marisol," I said. She scrunched her nose. "I know!" "Did you really?" Patrice asked. "Cause I figure those rods should count as bones, honestly." Marisol ignored the jabberjaws and stuck the core into each doll. The cage of brassy metal was wrapped around some kind of glowing blue orb. I had no idea how any of that worked, but Marisol seemed to understand it perfectly as she nestled the cores into their empty chests and whispered something to each of them. They made these weird click-clack noises as their limbs began to move. "Okay, I told them to ''occupy the enemy and protect our allies''," Marisol said and moved toward the portal. "An enemy appears, and they''ll handle it!" They looked flimsy to me, but they were made of metal, so I assumed they could at least take more damage than a human could. We stepped forward behind Marisol and her clockwork dolls, but we all had a hesitation before entering the portal behind them. Annika clutched her Surgeon''s kit and rushed forward into it. We heard a clang and a high pitched voice shrieking ''ow!'' so Patrice and I both walked slowly to the portal and took one step through before stopping. "Are we in the right place?" Patrice asked, her eyes bugging out. "I know, right!?" Marisol was already further in with her dolls, examining a tree. It was silver-barked with purple leaves. Weeping willows with twisted trunks of pure silver... and the atmosphere might''ve been creepy if it were darker, but since the light was peeking through the mist... and the mist wasn''t that thick... "This is the most beautiful tree I''ve ever seen," Marisol said as she leaned on the biggest one in the clearing. "It''s like Wisteria, but..." Annika suddenly said. "That bark looks like... it''s made of metal?" Marisol knocked on the trunk and it did indeed make a clanging sound when the metal parts over her knuckles hit it. "Oh my god, I think this is real silver, or... something like silver, but bark?" Marisol turned and looked at us, biting her lip. "Can I get some!?" "After we defeat the enemies, feel free. But you''re sharing it with the guild. We have more than just you in a Tinker-like Class," I replied. She clapped and bounced, then turned to her dolls. "Are there any enemies around?" They didn''t respond. "I guess they''re not close enough," Marisol said. "Let''s walk them around, find these creatures FAST and AHHHHHH!" We were attacked before we could even perceive their presence. Thankfully, the Dolls immediately lunged to get the weird little creature out of Marisol''s hair and we all backed into the middle of the clearing. "What the HELL is this thing?" Marisol demanded. She stared at the creature being held tightly by the Doll. "Patrice, can you-?" Patrice already had her gun out before I could stop her. It was idiotic to kill something loudly in a copse of trees that were likely FILLED with hundreds more of the things. They were the size of housecats, with purplish-silver fur and small enough to populate the entire GROVE without being detectable in the trees! When the reverberating waves of the shot had died down, I turned on Patrice with a glare. "Great job, now they all know we''re here! Don''t shoot something in captivity unless it''s-" And they dropped. They dropped from the trees. There were tiny ones, too, that seemed entirely purple. Like a baby duck with its yellow down. "Fuck, sorry!" Patrice said loudly as they began rushing toward us. "Save it for after," I said and pulled a card immediately, ripping it and tapping one of the Dolls. "Grab as many as you can and offer them to us for the final blow!" It was all they could do, because of their instructions. Protect and hold off the enemy. I needed to talk with Marisol about her instructions in the future. They were able to grab one or two at a time and since we had tapped them all with barriers, the things couldn''t even damage them a little. But we struggled. Patrice shot the things one after the other, but she had to use her skills to hit them, which tired her out quickly. They were too fast and zipped all over the fucking place! After they''d badgered us back toward the portal, they took off for the trees again, where their babies were sitting. Grabbed them and climbed back up into the trees. "They''re just protecting their babies!" Annika said. "I don''t like this!" "They''re cursed creatures," Patrice argued. "Their existence makes the surroundings... well, like this. I saw the name of the tree in the system before they attacked and it said ''Dead Silver Wisteria''. Those trees are DEAD." "But they just want to live!" Annika argued. "And they will," I replied. They both looked at me. Marisol was shaking, holding her arm where one had scratched her. It was turning purple. "Marisol, get a curse cure from Annika, Patrice... we''re going to hunt down and kill every ADULT cursed beast." Because I had looked at THEIR names as well. Cursed Encrova - Beastkin. "Then we''re taking the babies to Mrs. Katz." "Oh!" Annika sighed in relief. "She can tame beastkin, right? I still don''t like it, but as long as we don''t have to kill the babies..." We''d be unable to get ALL the babies, of course. Mrs. Katz can only have so many Beasts in her... was it a pack or a colony? Either way, only so many beasts would be allowed in at her level, currently. And these things were D-Rank, which meant she might not even be able to tame them at her current F. "How many?" Marisol asked as Annika handed her one of the cures we''d bought from the Shop. I waited until she''d swallowed it, to answer. "She might not be able to tame any," I said. "But at most we''ll be able to give her three of them. Next month, I''ll bet these babies grow into the new mommas with babies that have to defend their territory from whoever comes after us." "That''s awful!" Annika said. "If we can''t even purify the place-" PING!
CONGRATULATIONS ''GIRL TALK'' PARTY!
Fuck, what is it now? God, that name looks as bad as I thought it would.
You have discovered a hidden quest!
Purify the Corrupted Copse
"It''s underlined, like a link," Patrice said and reached up to touch it. "Don''t FUCKING touch it," I snapped. Her hand whipped down. "Sorry! Sorry." "If you''re sorry, stop making unilateral decisions or following the lead of only one party member!" I said. "Marisol hadn''t even specified what she wanted you to do yet, before you whipped that thing out!" "Okay! I get it!" she huffed and crossed her arms. "I''m touching nothing and shooting nothing unless everybody agrees! I''ve got it." "Or it''s trying to kill us," Marisol said. "Right?" "If it CAN," Annika said with a pout. "Those things could barely scratch us." "Let''s decide. Do we want to purify the Copse?" I said, to get us back on subject. The System waited patiently, as it always does. No countdowns. "Yeah, let''s do it!" Marisol said. "Even if we can''t stop it from resetting, it''ll be uncursed from now on, right? And these little... it says ''Encrova'' right? These little Encrova will just be normal animals." "They''ll still get hunted," Patrice said. "But it''ll be less dangerous for us and their pelts will probably be worth less, so... less hunting overall?" "Fine, everyone hit the link and let''s go," I said. 20. Puzzling The battle wasn''t really a battle. It was more a massacre. Marisol gave her spike traps and all our caltrops to the Dolls and they set them up, halfway to the treeline. The Cursed Encrova didn''t react, as we weren''t anywhere near the trees. The Dolls could go only a quarter of the way to the trees before the Encrova dropped again, leaving their babies on the ground as they surged after the dolls which were speedwalking back toward the traps they set and the paths they''d left for themselves to walk through. The Encrova were clever enough to stop surging forward after they saw the ones in front getting killed by traps or injured by Caltrops- but we had the Stun Balls held in reserve. The Encrova were only D rank because of their speed, maneuverability, numbers and the fact that they had a ''curse'' status. They were entirely too easy to kill, especially as Patrice didn''t have to walk up and get close to take shots on the stunned ones. She just had to dash out behind the line and fire, fire, reload and fire again. They didn''t stay down that long in the stun, but it was longer than the Wargs stayed down. Meaning a D rank stun was more powerful than an F rank, but also the Wargs had more endurance against stunning, most likely. They were kicking up dust everywhere, which made it a bit difficult, but not nearly difficult enough to justify the D ranking. "God, that was brutal," Patrice sat down once the bulk of the creatures were dead and looked ill. "I had to use my skills again on the ones that ran away, but I don''t think I can, anymore. Ugh..." "The adults are mostly dead," Marisol said. She''d been using a knife I''d given her, but it wasn''t looking great the last time I''d seen it. I found a way to create the melting knives so as to use them multiple times. Just pop them in the inventory directly after creation, then only take them out when you attack and pop them right back in after. It was difficult to get the hang of it, especially as it popped into existence where you wanted it to, but couldn''t go in your curled fingers. You had to pop it out on a flat palm. We''d managed to kill a good number of them that way, but now our knives were on their last legs. The next attack was going to completely melt them down. Unfortunately, I had to ''purchase'' Hv¨ªsla instead of Frysta, so I didn''t get my ''to freeze'' skill that might''ve helped with that little problem. I still wasn''t sure how. Freezing and heating something was bound to make it break. But there had to be some way to use a cooling spell to keep the Brenna heat controlled at a specific temperature. "There''s just a few left," Annika wrung her hands. "Can''t we just leave them and go and purify?" "We can now," I said. "The group is small enough, they''ll likely avoid attacking us, now. Let''s figure this out." Annika smiled and turned, pointing to the big tree that Marisol had been looking at in the beginning. "That tree is the biggest here. I don''t have any skills for analyzing trees, but I think it''s probably either a landmark or a clue." "Why?" Patrice asked, her voice drawn and tired. "We need to rely less on game and fantasy logic," I said. "Those things were all designed by someone. Real life fantasy shit is just... scooped up and planted here? It might be a form of design, but we have no way of knowing if the System is following the ''there has to be a way to win'' logic. Or the ''obvious big signals are the answer'' logic." "It''s gotta be bigger for a reason," Annika insisted. "It''s the oldest, Annika," I retorted. "That''s the ''reason''." Annika huffed and sat down on the grass, crossing her arms as a huge cloud of dust went up around her. "Well, I have no other ideas!" "Okay," Marisol walked over and sighed, sitting next to Annika. "Let''s talk about it a little more." Patrice and I also sat on the grass across from them. It was silver, like the tree bark. Not purple like the leaves... "Something is strange," I said. "Why are the leaves purple when everything else is silver?" My tone meandered from wondering to sharp. "Because everything silver is dead, and the cursed parts are purple." "How do you figure that?" Patrice asked and then plucked up a silver blade of grass that immediately turned to dust as soon as it was lifted into the air. "Oh wow. That is either super dead or super cursed." "The leaves are the only part left alive," I said. "Otherwise they''d have fallen off the trees a long time ago. This Grass is disrupted by our steps," I pointed to the places where we''d stepped and it''d become silvery dust. "That means the wind blowing through here should''ve knocked off at least a few of the leaves. And I''m betting those Encrova are cursed because they eat the leaves to live. But the leaves still grow on the dead trees. How?" "They''re cursed to regenerate or something?" Marisol mused. "Like that guy who keeps getting his liver eaten?" "Prometheus," I said. "But if there''s no suffering to be had, then why?" And then I have another thought. "We need to drag the carcasses out of here immediately." I leapt to my feet and started moving, but the others seemed to not understand. I hate having to explain perfectly obvious context. "THEY''RE GOING TO REGENERATE, NOW HELP ME!" I shouted at them while running toward the corpses we''d left on the ground. We managed to get a good bulk of them outside the portal, with Annika putting as many in her inventory as was possible... before they started coming back to life. "I hate being right," I muttered as the few left on the other side of the portal began to writhe and put themselves back together. "Marisol, do you have any traps left?" "I can re-use the spike traps," she said in an uncertain tone. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. It wouldn''t work again. The Encrova were smart enough it barely worked the first time. We had to use other traps to supplement, then. Thankfully, the things rushed into the trees before they did anything else. It gave us a moment to breathe. "So the trees can''t die, and the leaves bind you to this grove, so you can''t die here," Patrice said after poking her head through the portal to check on Annika and the corpses. "But you can die if you leave." "That means the grove itself is cursed, not the trees or the Encrova," Marisol said. "But what''s the center of a grove? We''re in a clearing. Is that not the center?" "Water," I said. "A lake, river or underground grotto that feeds the whole place water. The Encrova might''ve been drinking it, too." "Shit, yeah," Patrice clapped her hands. "That''s how the trees got it! and the grass!" "How are we going to find it if the Encrova keep attacking us?" Marisol asked. "One person needs to run around, drawing their attention while the others find the water source, or vice versa," I said. "We can send the dolls to look for water, but that''s not their instructions, so maybe they can just keep the things busy and Marisol can monitor and give orders to them while we go find the water." "Can''t leave her all alone," Patrice said. "You go, you''ve got spells that can protect you, Marisol only has shields and traps." "Fine, but I''m going to need some way to purify the water or cleanse the curse," I said. "Let''s find something in the Shop," Marisol said and we all stepped out of the portal. At which point a timer popped up.
Cleanse the Corruption or lose access to the Grove in: 1:23:05
"Well fuck," I said and hoped that weird pressure in my head wasn''t an incoming migraine. "Hmmm," Marisol was in her menu. "Okay, I found something, but it''s... expensive." "Let''s pool our coin for it," I said. "What is it?" The coin pool popped up in front of us and it only said ''0''. No explanation of what it was. The System worked off context way too often for my tastes. "It says it''s a curse purification ritual kit," Marisol said. "And the reason it costs so much is that you need ingredients that are REALLY hard to get. Like a Phoenix feather!?" "How much?" I asked. "Fifty-two hundred," she said with a grimace. "That''s thirteen hundred apiece!" Annika said. "I can afford it maybe, but... it''ll tank my savings." "Until we sell the parts of the Encrova," I said. "And if we can purify the place, maybe there''ll be something in there even more precious than the cursed animals." "I say we take anything purple, put it in our inventory and THEN purify the place," Patrice said. "No way to know what''s valuable and what''s not until we get it back to the Appraiser." "Not a terrible idea," I said. "Pick as much as you can, WITH GLOVES," I emphasized. "And we''ll use the ritual wherever we need to use it to purify the place. We only have an hour. Let''s go." We each purchased a pair of rubber gloves after the ritual kit and ran back over the threshold, without Annika, of course. She was watching the carcasses. Thankfully, we had a shared party inventory, though it couldn''t hold much, it was useful for ''quest items''. If they found the water somehow, they''d be able to change the plan and Patrice could perform the ritual. And if I found it, I could just as easily use it. Marisol and Patrice immediately ran past the dolls, Marisol shouting at them to follow. The Encrova jumped out of the trees to follow them. I waited for several seconds and then went the opposite direction. I had five cards in my quick-draw slot. Which is a much better name for it, when you''re using cards. I would be fine, even if I encountered one or two little creatures. Even if they leapt at my face, I''d just activate a shield and it would bounce them off. Hopefully. The forest was incredibly beautiful, cursed or not. But now that I''d noticed our footsteps were breaking the grass and making silver dust, it became much more morbid. I used one of my inventory boxes to scoop up the dust. The gloves were extremely helpful, but I had to be careful not to breathe in the dust, either. Even if it wasn''t cursed, it was likely unhealthy. I then picked off pieces of bark from trees as I walked by them. Any time I passed one I just yanked off a good stretch of Bark. The others were going to pick up only purple things, most likely, but I wanted to study the dead parts, too. The box went back in my inventory and I stopped to look around when I hit... healthy trees? Looking back, I could tell the trees I''d been passing had been in the process of dying, not actually dead yet. Which meant this was the end of the corruption. So I followed it around. I knew it would take a long time if I walked, so I ran. Heedless of any Encrova around, I just kept my eyes out for any sources of water or bigger monsters. But eventually I got to the other side and could see Marisol and Patrice in the distance. Which meant I knew the full radius. That meant that was the center... A massive mound of earth that seemed to be some kind of hillock, but what was befuddling is that there were no special features I could see. I ran all the way around it and there weren''t even any caves. That made me think ''you must have a way to win'' was definitely not a rule here. It was so huge, it just seemed like part of the landscape, like the other hills and dips. But this one almost looked manmade... it was too perfectly round. When I got to the side the others were on and found... a weird little rock bowl on a rock plinth? I thought that must be the answer. It was like those things you saw in games sometimes for offerings to gods or forest spirits or something... "System... if you''re mimicking games, that means there have to be clues and things to find to complete the puzzle." I said. "If there''s no way for me to figure this out, then it''s not a fair game and we never would''ve asked for that." There was no response. Usually that meant the System just had nothing to say. Which could either mean it didn''t have the authority to change that, or there WAS something to find. The Grove was small. Incredibly small. The difficulty was likely due to the ''undying'' Encrova and figuring out that you needed to remove them from the Grove. And finding the offering cup and whatever went into it if you were purifying the place. I walked over and touched the grass on the Hillock. But it wasn''t different, it dissolved like the...rest. Under the grass was stone, not dirt. I could tell the difference when I pressed my palm against it. So I started erasing the grass over the stone. I cleaned an area of like, twenty feet across and six feet up. And it had murals... I checked the timer, now that we had access to it and we had used thirty minutes already. Shit, I really moved slow when my hyperfocus started in on me. There was shouting. "LILA! We have to go back! We''re cursed! We''ll come back in a minute!" Marisol shouted at the top of her lungs. It was fine, as they led the Encrova right past me and they were agitated. They would stay around the clearing to watch for them to come back. I had time. Even if not a lot of it. Close to fifty minutes, though I wanted to finish in thirty, which is why I said we had ''an hour'' because cutting it that close was NOT the best of ideas. We had no idea if this thing would spit us out... or close up with us inside it. I had to find the answer. The Mural was pretty self-explanatory, but... I didn''t know if dead was the same as living, or if cursed was the same as uncursed. A small fluffy Encrova with one tail stands in the bowl in the first image, then in the second, there''s only the tail in the bowl. The next image is a hole the Encrova walks through. In the last image, the Encrova walks OUT of the hole and they look... bigger. Fluffier. More tails. Three, to be exact. The adults put their babies on the ground when they attack, to make it easier to grab them and run somewhere, but they also leave them totally unguarded. When the others came back through the portal and started running the opposite direction, toward where I went before, I took my opportunity. 21. Puzzle Solved The baby began crying immediately when I scooped it up, but stopped as soon as I dropped it in the offering bowl. It seemed to know exactly where it was and calmed down in an instant. The other babies had rushed after me, like adorable little cotton balls with tails trying to stop me from taking their friend. But they didn''t come any nearer than six feet away from the bowl- and watched, like it was some kind of important ritual. As I had no time to study them and figure out the odd behavior, I let it go. The baby walked in circles in the small bowl and eventually sat down, turned around and bit off its own tail. But it didn''t bleed. It was like it was some kind of dry twig instead of an actual part of its body. Baby Encrova flocked around the bowl and then followed the one without a tail as it leapt down to the ground and sat in front of a section of the stone wall. What happened next was the most magical damn thing I''d seen since that grow box built itself right outside my apartment window. A blue line drew itself from about four feet up, down to the ground, on the stone Hillock. When the stone began to melt away in favor of the blue light, it slowly formed what looked like an arched doorway. The Encrova bolted inside and... well, I followed my instincts. And nearly fell down a set of stairs as the door magically disappeared behind me. Figured the door was going to close, maybe... why didn''t I foresee it closing behind me and hesitate for a second? I didn''t usually just act on instinct, but when I did, it was usually in times of crisis. My brain probably thought of the whole cleansing task as something I had to do, or I would be in danger. My brain does that when I feel something is ''important''. Well now I''m sealed up in a stone hole in the ground, in the dark- I took out one of my spellcards that I''d stored in my inventory- and a spoon. Ripping the card, I then curled my fingertips around the spoon head. And it began to glow with... REALLY bright light. I''d only practiced this with normal items, so I didn''t know if it would be brighter in a gem or something. I just knew when I used metal or glass, the light got brighter. The Spoon had to be held above my head, so as to not strain my eyes. But it allowed me to slowly walk down the steps without tripping and falling. Only problem is, I have a... thing with stairs. I''m fine with going up them, for as long as anyone wants. But going down... is different. I can see how far below I can fall, when I look down a set of stairs. Eventually I had to sit down and slowly work my way down the steps that way. Because the Vertigo was just too much. It was hard standing anyway, as the opening and this tunnel were only four feet high and three feet across. Sitting at least meant I wasn''t bending down. I had to move quickly to get to where I was going before the deadline, so I ended up kind of sliding down the steps once I''d figured I could. Just straightening out my legs and lying back was enough to have me slowly but surely sinking down further into the dark... cave? Pit? Thankfully, I only went somewhere between thirty to fifty feet down. I wasn''t good at estimations in measurements, but I imagined things by their size and a Shipping container is at least thirty feet, right? That''s about how far I went. When I hit the bottom, it was a bit confusing for a moment, because the baby had run ahead. But I could hear something splashing. So I investigated. Walking through the weird maze-like underground was actually pretty easy for me. Sound may bounce around, but I could always tell which was the real sound, because it was clearer and sharper. Same for double vision. I never really understood why people couldn''t tell which one was real. Unless their head had been so messed up they couldn''t aim at the real thing even if they did know where it was. It was one of those things my mother told me made me a freak. She''d say it ''lovingly'' like ''My Little Freak'' but it never really made me feel loved. It felt like a way she could insult me that everyone else would see as kindly, so if I got upset about it, they''d blame me. Such resentment A voice whispered in the dark as I got close to the sound of the water. It was dying down now, the splashing. Come and evolve, child. Seek out the source of your resentment. Have your revenge. I felt something, but it fuzzled against my brain. Like drinking soda with your forehead? There is no need to fear, child, I will make you powerful. What the hell was she talking about? I thought it was a she, at least. Could''ve just been a man with a high-pitched voice... or some kind of creature. So I readied myself to call for my burning knife. "Who are you?" I didn''t shout it, like an idiot. If it was speaking to me, it could obviously hear me. And I had no idea what else was down here. I am the Guardian of this Grove. You do not carry the blood of the murderers. I will help you. That sounded ominous, but also like the kind of lore you''d find in games. If the System had thought ahead and ''modified'' these dungeons so that the creatures or people in them would have some method of being talked into nonviolence, that''d be horrible, but much better for both of us. "I don''t want to kill you," I said. "I came to heal... your injury." I have no injury... "It was inflicted upon you by the murderers," I improvised. "You don''t know it''s there. But I can heal it." ...what is the injury? I figured they''d come to the conclusion of me coming here to purify it. Which was bad. If it didn''t want to be purified... "There are gaps in your memory that you are unaware of," I said. "I can restore them to you." Yes... I fail to remember... many things. Everyone does. I figured I could just convince them that they didn''t remember not remembering, but real memory gaps... made it easier. "I promise that once I''m done with my ritual, you will feel much, much better." Keep your promise and I will make you powerful... and if you don''t, you will be horribly cursed. Right. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. I breathed slowly and walked down the final hallway, slowly drifting toward the water sounds I could hear. It wasn''t splashing anymore, just the ebb and flow of tide. And when I finally entered the Grotto... I was a bit bewitched. I can admit the sight arrested me. There was a tree in the center of a small island in the middle of a great lake. And I was irritated, because that probably meant the tree was the center of the goddamn grove. And so I stepped forward and waded into the water. Promptly, I discovered that the water went all the way up to my chest. "Ugh," I muttered as I moved forward. "I hope my armor holds out." I could see the menu pinging with warnings that I was about to be cursed in a few seconds, because my armor would fail and the curse would touch my skin. Absorb in. I ignored it, climbed up on the island and promptly downed a curse cure. They were sold for like fifty coin a pop, but we had enough for three per person because the Guild put up some money for both myself and Carlo. The clearing of the ''dungeons'' themselves would bring some benefits to the Guild, either way, after all. I saw in the shared inventory, that someone had left a note. I plucked it out and it basically just said ''if you''re still alive, tell us what''s going on'', but... I didn''t have time for that. So I just left the Note out of the inventory, so they''d know I''d read it. I''d send them a message afterwards. The kit was easy to pop open and set up, straight out of the inventory. What is that!? The voice sounded agitated and pained. It could probably feel the purifying energies. "My apologies. But like most types of healing, a bit of pain is necessary. Lancing a boil requires a needle, after all." It was fairly easy to slip back into the persona of the person I''d been in the first few years after leaving home. When I thought my power to manipulate people would bring me riches enough to never go back home. When I felt angry at the world and everyone in it. I don''t want to hurt. The voice was quavering. I hurt so much already! "Don''t you want the hurt to stop, forever?" I asked. "I can heal this one injury for you, and that will stop the hurt from that injury. I don''t know if that''s all that''s paining you, but... we should at least try, no?" There was silence, so I continued setting up the kit. It was an openable table, with everything already in place. You just had to drop mana or mana-filled Flectors into the center, where an offering bowl of sorts was etched. It was like one of those chessboards you could open up and store the pieces in. Slowly and methodically, I took out six Flectors and placed them carefully in the center. And since I knew this entity was probably going to panic soon and demand I stop... I said the incantation as quickly as I possibly could. It wasn''t any language I''d ever known before, but the voice knew it. NO! I DON''T WANT TO BE PURIFIED! But it was a bit late for that. Even as they screamed and tried to fling some kind of magic beam at me, I was just jumping back into the water and swimming my way across. Usually an incredibly stupid move, but staying near the tree would''ve been a mistake. So I had to choose between two shit options. The purifying light was overtaking everything already, there was no way to stop it. But... A root of some kind wrapped around my ankle and dragged me down. I''d anticipated they might be able to do something like that, but... I was not calm. I tried to be. But drowning is a recurring nightmare of mine. Even if I thought they''d be purified soon... and that I wouldn''t be down under long enough to drown, my body began to betray me. I shook, I felt weak. I can''t swim up to the surface like this! The darkness was closing in around me. I didn''t have good lung strength. I was going to be forced to take a breath soon. It might''ve been logical to learn to swim better and hold my breath longer, if I was afraid of drowning, but... I never thought I''d have to swim again! Damn those fucking Eldritch Bastards to hell! And then abruptly, the world shifted around me and I was being pulled harder, harder. I had no idea how deep the water was- But my head broke the surface. Albeit... upside down. I coughed and dragged in breaths, thankful that I hadn''t inhaled much water as I was coming up. I was surprised, so there was a little. It burned but as long as I didn''t get pneumonia- Oh, the voice was back, but it had a warmer cadence. Before, it was sharper. It wanted to harden me into a weapon. My rescuer. What boon would you ask for purifying my Grove? I was able to slowly crack my eyes open and blinked heavily until she came into view. The tree wasn''t there anymore. In its place stood a woman more beautiful than any I''d seen before. She had pointed ears, but her skin was green, so she could''ve been anything from an elf to an alien, but... I was betting on Sylvan, since it seemed she was wearing a flower petal dress and had green skin. Her hair... it defied explanation. It was inky and black, but sparkled like the night sky. And her eyes were the clearest blue of pure, clean water. "Uh..." I coughed. "What... what do you mean, boon?" Oh my, she said with some amusement, her eyes glimmering with hidden depths. Did you not think about that, before you came? "We were trying to avoid having to kill any more Encrova," I said. Her hair flickered and twitched. Oh... my poor, beautiful children. They shouldn''t be a threat any longer. But you must want something... surely? "I... suppose you have a nature or healing domain?" I asked. It was awkward hanging upside down to talk. I do, she said. Do you require healing? "I was thinking more... can you make something for a healer?" I asked slowly as my blood rushing to my head was distracting. "My sister is still a child, she could use all the help she can get... the world has changed. Did you notice?" Just now, she replied. The Elder Beings have rearranged things again. "Again?" I asked. She smiled. And then the dizziness intensified and I felt myself hit the water.