《Reincarn-AI-tion》 1. Failed Launch A force dragging it like a river. That what it first fell. A strong force pulling its non-existing body into... somewhere. It didn''t know. It didn''t know anything, not even who was it or why was it there. But it was sure of one thing: it was being pulled. A strong force that felt like it was ripping it appart. And then, there was the fall. It was falling through an infinite, grey cilinder. It was the first time it could "see", altough there was nothing to see. Just an infinite grey cilinder. However, it felt it was falling. And falling. And a light. There was a little, shining dot where it was falling. A dot that really, really slowly was growing. It realised it was that little dot what make it feel it was falling. A spark growing biger, and biger, accelerating and growing each time even faster. And it started feeling. Not only seeing, but feeling. Something that it would further recognised as fear. And then, suddently, when the light was so bright to reach half of the tube, it stopped falling. It took some minutes to realize it wasn''t falling. It was in an infinite white area. An enormous white blob extending towards the unknown. And there they were three squares all with text. They said "Are you a male or a female?", "Male" and "Female". It randomly chose one, no clue on what that meant. He would sometimes regret having chosen that one. And then a mirror apeared. He was surprised, as the only thing he had seen before were text, lights and monocrome colours. And there was he. He thought of himself getting some facial characteristics. He didn''t know where this thoughts came from, but in the end there he was. He looked at the mirror. Looking back at him, there was a 2 meter tall figure, palid skinned man, completely black-haired except for a small red hair growing from the back of one of his ears. He had it cut in a non organised way, with almost all of it being 2 fingers of collapsed fibres. He also had a big moustache, dark brown, and a small beard that covered his chin. Two eyes, rounded as watermelons had in them a dark-blue iris, followed by a deep black pupil. And a big nose. A large nose, both up and foward. And prominent eyebrows, same colour as his moustache, were frowned as he was looking at himself with that squared face. He was not very brawny, in fact, he sliped more into the slim category. Despite this, he still weighted somewhat a lot because, in the end, he was two meters and 9 cm tall. And that height needed strong bones. All his apearence was something that was shining in a place in his mind. However, he pressed accept and continued there was some time of waiting, after which this appeared in front of him: ERROR: Non detected user. Failure in the race system. Proceeding to establishing default racenarph.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Obviously, he had not idea that was talking about. "Narph?" he asked to himself "What could possibly be that? And why does it say error?" he realised the fact that he was talking "By the way, what the hell am i doing here? Who am I?" He continued asking himself questions until he notice a sign saying proceed. And, after lots of thinking (and discovering the rest of his senses, to) he thought he couldn''t get answers if he stayed there. So, he did as with the previous signs before: touch it. Then a message appeared. Preparing launch: Stay still... Launch protocol:check Warp gate''s power reactor:check He glanced at the list of security protocols going in front of him. Despite, he didn''t understand anything. Destination:check Potential failures and ways to recover: check He personally didn''t like that one. However, they kept flowing and flowing messages making sure everything was alright. He deduced it was a very complicated system. Security checks complete: iniciating the launch. Stand still during the countdown And there was he. His nerves were growing. Wherever he was going, he was planning to get some answers. He would be bitting his nails if he knew he had some. 3 The ground sook a bit. A white plain ground, yes, but a solid and real one. He got nervous, he didn''t even know what was going to happen. It the backside, however, a small controlling computer was starting to analyse the current situation. 2 He didn''t hear the booping of the machine. It was made so no one except the travel program could hear it. But there were failures with the recieving sensors of the gate-launcher protocols. So the controlling program couldn''t comunicate with the launcher, making a catastrofic failure like what was about to happen possible and nearly sure to occur. 1 The computer was trying desperately to comunicate with the launcher. All the comunication methods it had in hand were being utilised. But then, it became aware of something. The fails were not in the travel calculus, neither in its parameters. The problem was with the traveller itself. It suddently realised why. GO! He was only able to catch a weird err- before some stong forces, and an extreme reactor noise stunned him. It was as hard as ascending in a rocket. He tried to stay woken up by thinking about where he was going. He really tried. ***** The computer stayed without making any calculations. It had failed. The only work it had to do, and it had failed. It was sad. Although it was just a computer, it had a sensible brain as big as a horse. So it could feel sad, because it had failed. It started typing the analisis and preparing the long-rang backed com system. It sent the mesage. Then, it started auto-destruction protocol. ***** "Sir...?" "What happens?" "We recieved a message from... a control bot" "Thats your responsibility. Mine is controlling big data." "Yes... but... the bot activated auto-destruction protocol..." "And? That is still your responsibility." "Yes... you should see the report..." "I''ll have a see... Hmmm... Wha-?... " An extreme silence followed as the chief was slowly putting down the papers where the bot''s news were printed. "We are in serious problems" 2. The Traveller He woke up with dust in his mouth and a feeling of being shaken. It took him some minutes to realize he was actually awake. He oppend his eyes in confusion and coughed. He tried to stand up and fell backwards. He heard a voice. "Hey" - it didn''t sounded well - "Are you ok? Hey!" He realised he had his ears filled with sand. He sook his head and looked arround. There it was a man, dressed in light blue and sandy colours, no beard nor moustache dark blue eyes and a roundy nose. He wasn''t fat, although he wasn''t in his best moment. He lended a had and sayed: "Hey, are you ok? You sure have fallen really hard" "Yes? I don''t know. I would have to try. Who are you?" "Just a traveller. Here, i will help you get to my cart." "Thanks..." - He tried to get up - "Ouch! I think there is something wrong with my leg." "Don''t worry. I will get you to the city and visit a medic." He grabbed himself to the extranger and they both walk to the cart. He took a moment to look arround while he slowly moved towards the vehicle. It was a mesa desert, with all that redish sand and tall plateaus. Theyalso had cactae, but a very strange ones. They were more turqois than green, and had their kneedles bright red. The stranger helped him get onto the wooden cart with ease, and then walked to the front. He took some blankets out of a bag and tend them to him saying "Make yourself comfy-there is a long way till Drono town." He procedeed to take the oxes'' reins and to proceed their way. -5 hours later- "You still haven''t told me who you are." "You''ve been silent for five hours and now you ask that suddently?" "I was... making my mind up. Would you now please tell me your name?" "Ozwal Zierto. And would you do me the same favour?" "My name? Ehh..." - he tried to seek for that point in his mind where his appearence came from- "Alex.. I think. Yes Alex. Hum... Maybe Alex Ododay? Yes, I think that is it." "Amnesia, maybe? The way you came here was very abrupt." - He stopped a minute and then he asked - "Are you a narph?" "I think so. Why do you ask?" "Most people that arrive here as narphs have some type of amnesia. It isn''t unusual." "Yeah..."If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He looked arround in the carriage. The sun was setting down, maybe one hour and a half till it was night. He started to look in the cart. There were two chest, one, small and near the traveller, and another one, bigger and with some metal chains arround it, and ropes holding it so it wouldn''t fall of. Then, near the driver''s seat, there was a cloth covering something. Then, all of a sudden, a sadow covered the cart. And, as fast as it came, it went. Alex look upwards just to see a giant sadow coming towards them. However, Ozwal seemed to be unaware of what was happening. "Hey Ozwal... " "Wha" "A freaking giant bird is coming towards us." "Soo?" "A GIANT BIRD IS COMING TOWARDS US OZWALD." "That is not a bird" "I don''t care if it is a bird or a freaking whale, it is aiming at us." "It is a wyvern. Not a bird." "DARN IT. It will eat us" - the wyvern was now pretty close - "Make your ox move faster or something!" - the wyvern stretched his wings as he was ready to land - "Well dew it. I''m hidding in there" - the wyvern let out a roar... - "Well. That''s it. I will die without even knowing who am I" - ...and landed perfectly in front of their car. Moments later, Alex opened his eyes. He looked arround... nothing. The cart was intact. Then, some heavy breathing was heared behind. He slowly turned arround just to see Ozwal petting the wyvern. The beast was a beautiful dark-blue and purple colour, with his eyes brightly red with his yellow pupils in a snake-shaped eye. An eye that was looking at him. The ominous eyes were staring at him, and that was making him freeze with fear. "Gonn, this is Alex. He is a bit scared...-like everyone else when they first see you!" "That... beast... is... yours...?" "Don''t call him beast. He doesn''t like it." "I-I am sorry, mister Gonn"- he gulped and asked - "Who the hell are you to have tamed such a magestic creature?" "He also dislikes that behaivour, but it is very kind and will forgive you as it was your first time, won''t you?" - Ozwald pet him and he roared in please. - "I will now bring you in your capsule" - He took a oval like semi-transparent object, ripe it in half and put it in front of Gonn''s head. Alex stood backwards (retorically, as he couldn''t stand up) as the drangon started glowing slightly and diminishing his size and finally becoming a glob of light, which then proceeded to float into the capsule. Then, Ozwal close it and the blop of light transformed itself into a minature wyvern. "A mage. Well, actually a scorcerer, one of the most superior classes of mage." "What-" "I am an adventurer. I started my quest long ago to slay mosters and blah, blah, blah. Although the danger, is a good job. I like it for several reasons: first, you get to see world; second, you never get bored (although you have sometimes to wait for something worth your quality); and third, because it grats you sweet money and honour. Despite, I just work as a travelling magical merchant. I trade with the greatets mages in the cities I go to get or to sell lots of magical items. I also serve as a postman to the IWAMMU, or the IterWorld Association of Magicians and other Magic Users if you prefer." "Well... Can you please talk more slowly?" "What I am saying is that I see great potential for you to become an adventurer. Thus, it will help you to recover your memory, or at least it will fresh your mind out so you can create a new identity." "Yes but..." - he tried to complain. He had just came to a world without the slightest knowledge of what was going on and now and stranger was sending him - on a quest??? - He really tried to complain, but deep down he knew that was he was supposed to do - "... Ok. I will follow your advice... I guess? There is no many other options rally..." "Ok. Then you should travel to one of the noobie cities." "The what cities?" "Nevermind. Look, there is our destination: Drono town. By the way, you can call me Oz." He looked up to see the clay and sand wall as the city. The tall walls couldn''t hide the houses climbing one over anther, but none of them was as high as the castle. And, at its left, the sun was setting. 3. Drono As they entered the city, the bumps in the paved road and the fact they had been talking all the way there made him realise the pain in his knees. He looked arround. Not many people were in the streets, except the officials who were alredy lighting up the avenue lights or the traders and merchants who were preparing for the night market. He also watched the clay and straw houses, piled on top of each other without any order, and smaller avenues, streets and alleys which were branching of from the main east avenue. "Were are we going?" "Well, the outer city is ok, I mean, but it is mostly residential. That doesn''t mean there aren''t marketplaces or taverns, like this ones" - said as he pointed a market place with an Inn - " but it does mean that most resting places, administrative buildings, market halls and more specific shops, like botanist or shomaker''s, are in there. The Great Market Plaza, the Castle and the IWAMMU embassy are there too, as well as other embassies. The first one is a series of terraces in a big open space where most merchants sell their merchancies. There cover up the lower terraces with colorfull cloaths, making it more jazzy..." He carried on and on, talking about the wonders of the market, the long history of the castle and the strange hierarchy of power. "You know" -Oz said- "Most of them, not to say them all, also don''t know how that exacly works, so don''t worry" He wasn''t even paying attention. Then he carried on not so with politics but with the architecture. At that point the castle could be seen from the conglomerate of buildings. Then he went over the topic of the embassy and his intentions there and bla-blah-bla. "... and then we can go to a healer to see how is your leg going. Then prepare a fast travel for you to an adequate place to start your adventure. And then, to my favourite hostel: The Night Cactus. And dinning and getting some sleep after this long day." "Yeah." - Answered Alex in a bored manner - "So, what are we going to do before I get my wounds healed?" "We are going to the IWAMMU. First of all, I cannot wander arround in the city with a wyvern in a capsule" - Oh, yeah, he remembered that - "I also need to do some paper so I can get some food for my oxen and a bed without paying anything more than my annual fees. And I want to salute a friend of mine working in there." Alex nodded in agreement. Walking arround a city with a wyvern wasn''t a good idea, not even with that magic-capsule things. Then he realized he had no money nor belonged to any guild. "And how am I going to pay my bed and my dinner? I came here with this bare clothes." "Don''t worry, I''ll pay it for you, as well as the fast-travelling fees." "You are a good man. Thank you." - he stayed watching the darkening sky and the brightening stars and asked- "Why will you do that?"If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. "Because I am a good samaritan" "A good what?" "Back to were I belong, there was a religious book called the Bible. Although I didn''t profess that religion, you see, I am not a man of faith, I did profess the moral lessons taught by that book. And I let my acts be guided by the kindness and generosity. That has led my to more than one problem, though. But I am OP so I always outpowered the triksters and bandits who abused my generosity." "Ok..." - He was sure he couldn''t mess arround with an op mage who had gave him free seat in his cart and was going to pay him his travel expences. They arrived at the embassy, and Alex had to stay out while Oz was doing things inside. He nearly slept, but he was woken up by the sound of the door opening and Oz walking back to the carriage. "Ok, lets go heal that leg." They went on another travel arround the streets of the city, minor avenues and streets till they arrived at an apothecarist. Oz helped him dismount and guided him to the door. Most apothecaries dealt with some kind of magic to help their medicines heal faster. The apothecarist they were going to was a mage that couldn''t pass the exam to ascend so he decided to establise an apothecary establishment with his brother who was studying medicine. And that brother was a friend of one of Oz''s best friend''s son. And Alex had to stand all that talking. They then had to find a place were he could get a fast-travel preparated. Luckyly, that city had a PPC (portal plaza conglomerate), where all the fast travel portals, as well as the ones to other dimensions were there. They were trying to get to some noobie cities, but most of them were closed due to overflowing. So they had to decide to go on a normal city instead but that also had an adventurers guild for begginers. "You know." - told him Ozwal while they were exiting - "Our continent is a big one. As big as a whole planet. But hey, Topakame works how it works." "Topakame? That is where we are?" "Technically, yes, but that is as saying we are part of a stellar planetary system." - he looked up at the stars. - "This world, for saying it as some form, is divided in what we most call ''continents''. They are not pieces of land joined toghether, but they are sections, as bigs as worlds, that share the same rules." - he thought about it a bit more - "Though, some continents may have similar if not the same ''rules'' as others, so they group up toghether in what is called a conglomerate system.However, it is still impossible to travel from one continent to another if you are not in one of theICTP, places where a big misterious energy emanates and lets us travell from one continent to another." - He stop one moment as a cart full of agricultural products passed near them, probably goin to the market. - "But inter conglomerate travel is a bit more... confusing." "OK! Thats enough." Then they finally arrived to the Night Cactus. He could finally walk, and using his legs seemed strange. He almost fell to the ground as he stumbled with the Inn''s entrance stairs. They had dinner there. And Oz talked. A bit too much, in Alex opinion. "... and well I then killed the wyvern and got its egg, which I was planning to eat or to give to the guild, " - He was now talking about how he got Gonn - "but it suddently hatched and I got stuck with a 40 kilos baby wyvern. And then I had to manage how to get him out of the cave and fed him, so..." - he continued like that for a long time. Finally, Alex said he was tired and decided to go to sleep. He said goodnight to Oz and walked up the stairs. He was thinking "I need to find out more of that Inter conglomerate thing." He entered his room and closed the door. "And in the way discover who am I" He lied in the bed, very tired. "And, at least, it''ll be a clue" He fell asleep very quickly. 4. Nightmares It was all black. Dark with no light. Completely empty. But black. A pure black with no light left. And suddently, a flash of light. Change He was standing among a valley. Red stones at both sides, and a crimsom river going down trough it. But that was not its natural color. Thousands, maybe millions of corpses everywhere. In the walls of the valley, hunged in trees, a sword or a spear stuck on their abdomen, an arrow on their necks or knees, burned down or chrushed by proyectiles... The river of blood was dragging some corpses along the way, making a horrible scene. He then feeled lots of pain. Everywhere. He looked down and saw a destroyed metal armor, as full in blood as the valley itself. It was full of cuts, chrused on various sites burned in some parts, arrows stucked everywhere. He was lucky to still live. He looked forwards. There it was. His sword. Stuck on a... well. It was so destroyed he couldn''t recognise what it was. He smiled and tried to walk forwards. He nearly fell because of his injuries and the corpses. He tried again. He slowly moved towards the sword. He was stepping on blood, flesh, bones, intestines... But he reached his sword. He tried to take it back... and it broke. All the fragments fled everywhere. And there was a flash. Change He was now sitting in the dark. There was a constant whisper of water flowing. He was in a boat. In the darkness he couldn''t see how big it was, but he thought it was just enough space for the driver, some bags and him. He looked upwards. The stars were dancing in the sky, while the moon was nearly invisible. There where little clouds, dancing in the sky. Suddently, the stars disapeared. He was shoked, until he realized they had just entered a tunel. They continued in total darkness for some minutes. Then they stopped. The boatman said: "Here", so he got the bag and disembarked. The boat continued, and he stood there not knowing what to do untill the whisper of the boat floating in the water disappeared in the distance. He looked arround. Altough he was in a tunnel, he could at least see shapes with the little light that came from some holes. He lighted a torch up, and saw an archway in the wall. He walked through, and saw some stairs going upwards in a spiral. He started climbing them, for a long time. He saw some doors, though all of them were closed. He reached the top, the stairs stopped. There was a door. He tried opening it up... and it was opened. A flash of light came trough that door.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Change He stood on a rooftop. He was alone on the rooftop, on a wooden platform. He looked arround and saw a giant castle being eaten by an even bigger fire. This view made him trip over and fall rolling. He landed in some barrels that were left there and crushed them. He slowly stood up. He could now hear the screams of the people that were trying to escape the fire. Carts, horses and people were cramped up in a race to escape the city. The children''s cries, the horses snorting and, in general, a caos of sounds filled his ears. But, as this sounds were disapearing, the black clouds were getting closer. He looked in the nearest street... and there was the fire. It jumped at him like an animal, causing a flash of red light to consume him. Change He was now up in the sky. When he first looked down he nearly fainted. He was so up in the skies the atmosphere started to dissapear and the space could be seen in its natural colour. He was standing in a very strange sort of cloud, grey and semitransparent, but solid. He took his sight out from the ground and looked forwards. There was a path. And a building at the end of the path. He followed it. He arrived at a building that looked like a small tower. It was made the same material as the path was and it had some whiter color. There was a door. He tried to open it, but it was closed. He shouted. He doubted someone was there, but he didn''t lose anything to try. There was no response. He inspected the tower. He saw a window. He thought he could enter through there and started to climb. He reached the window and jumped inside. There were some stairs, so he followed them. He then arrived at the top of the tower. It had a semi-spherical ceiling with colums arround it. It also had a big window. But the most impresive thing was in the middle of the room. Floating over a pedestal was the most beautiful cristal in the world. It was a octahedron but it had lots of more figures inside, like a spider''s web or a brain. The rotation of this tower arround the planet made the sun enter the window and reflect into the crystal, creating a beautiful light flash all over the room. Change He was now running. The sound of collapsing stones behind him. Footsteps in front of him. He continued running, as he didn''t want to know what was that loud sound behind him. The he looked forwards. A pit. He stumbled and jumped. It was a long jump. He wasn''t going to make it. Someone lend him a hand, but he couldn''t reach it. He tried to grab it desperately. ***** In this moments is when survival comes to play. Our more natural instinc, the fear of death, comes to make the body and mind reach points they couldn''t otherwise reach. Somehow, this instintc was also developed to AIs. In his despair he activated one of his natural aspects and reach the hand. Not enough to grab it, but it released a spark. A spark that somehow made him go back. ***** He couldn''t see anything. Everything was black again. But he could hear. And there were voices talking. "Sir, he is doing ok." "Which are we on?" "The fire, though you know there is latency and it arrives some minutes late." "Yeah, yeah... Well, prepare the last one and then proceed exiting. Lets hope that nothing happens again." "Yes sir" ***** And he woke up. Sweating and 5 cm avove the bed.