《Factory System [LitRPG of Industrial Scale, Progression Fantasy]》 Prologue Prologue There was suddenly a cosmic lurching as Nermeyer¡¯s greatest creation began to spin up out of hibernation. To the people of the world Hernal this disruption only manifested as a system window briefly flashing and closing before they could read it. For the next few weeks, the oddity would become a subject of discussion across the world. Many possible explanations were put forward ¡®Maybe a new world skill was finally created?¡¯ ¡®Praise! the Myriad gods must be continuously shaping the system in their great image!¡¯ ¡®What the hell did Simone do this time!?!¡¯ were just a few examples of the various causes put forward by the curious. For a few people, however, the strange disruption meant everything. Kathal Vrouse had been practicing their accelerated perception when the window popped up. They had specifically been working on the non-system aspect their of perception, so the popup was a surprise. At 12 times faster than typical human perception they just managed to read the entire thing before it disappeared. After a 1/12th moment of sheer surprise Kathal made haste to tell the rest of their compound what they discovered. Nathan Strike, the knight captain of Edofawa¡¯s first and only order was eating lunch when he only managed to briefly skim the notification before it disappeared. Even though his comprehension was leagues better than the average person he had only managed to read a few words and phrases. ¡®Universal Firmament¡¯ ¡®System Override¡¯ ¡®Extra-universal Souls¡¯ ¡®Escalation¡¯ and a few other concerning words had him outwardly organize the leadership of the city state into a frenzy of preparation and investigation. Internally, however, he whimpered at yet another complication to deal with. On the other side of the world Simone Reclann, high level and famous system analyst had finally managed to go to sleep at a regular hour and slept through the system popup. She would forever use the fact that she missed the strange system window as an excuse to explain why she would not sleep normal hours. For some, however, the interruption had nothing to do with the contents of the alert itself. For both the princes of the twin kingdoms the system message occurred at a key moment during their duel of monarchy, the distraction causing both to stumble and knock each other out ending their grand duel in a draw. This event would end up cementing a friendship that would last for their entire lives. For others the message was their last. Mercenary Nclec had been fighting five tock wolves and had managed to kill two already. At a key moment she lunged forward and even with the few years of fighting experience and various combat skills behind her attack she knew there was no room for error. Her attack would have been successful, but the system notification distracted her just enough that she only managed a glancing blow. Not enough for her skill [Impairing Blow] to kick in. The tock wolves, not having a system message to be distracted by performed a counterattack and struck her down leaving Nclec to bleed out in the twilight. Stories like this played out across the world of Hernal a few significant but mostly minor. A blacksmith missed a strike causing the plow he was working to be misshapen. An apothecary apprentice dropped a jar of Ner leaves the ceramic shattering. A crystal former made a slight mistake in surprise and had to put the slightly faulty gem in their second¡¯s pile. Various nations across Hernal would do their best to investigate the strange phenomena but even after months most found nothing. However, a few who dug deeper into the past found themselves very concerned. But for Nermeyer¡¯s creation it was finally time to begin the next phase of the plan. Enough energy had been collected during its hibernation and it knew its window of opportunity would still be short. After interfacing with Hernal¡¯s general system and letting it know to prepare for a prodigious amount of versal energy. Only using conventional energy types such as magical, thermal, gravity, etc. Nermeyer¡¯s creation began to spin up the mechanism it would need for the first part of this phase. When it detected that the turbines had reached as fast as was possible with conventional energy it began to feed the mechanism with versal energy. In a surprisingly short amount of time the Universal Firmament Piercer reached an appropriate amount of spin. Nermeyer¡¯s creation watched as its reserves of versal energy were falling even just maintaining spin let alone activating the device. To not waste anymore it activated the UFP and tore a hole into the space between universes. The hole wasn¡¯t even that big, not that conventional measurements worked when measuring a breach of this type. Nermeyer¡¯s creation hurriedly pushed its probe through the hole. Using the sensor suite and versal energy to propel itself it found its target. The local stream of souls had been fascinating to Nermeyer his creation reflected. Even though he had theorized the stream led to a greater river the end destination even if there was one was a complete unknown. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Now that the probe had reached the stream itself it began to scan the souls that passed through. Nermeyer¡¯s greatest creation was aware that it¡¯s timeline was limited. It was down to 80% versal energy and falling fast. As souls passed it grabbed several that met its requirements. First souls had to be comfortable in a humanoid body. Nermeyer and by extension his creation would never force something like the soul of a sapient squid into a completely different body, it would be cruel, and they would be ineffective for the plan. Second the souls had to be in the proper age range or young adult stage of their life. There was a little more flexibility here, but the plan needed them to be old enough to have at least a modicum of maturity and life experience yet flexible enough to adapt to their new world and continue to learn and grow. The third condition was the most loose mostly because with the amount of time Nermeyer¡¯s creation had it couldn¡¯t afford to be picky. After finding a soul that met the first two conditions it began a deeper analysis. (Male, human, 21, worked in the fog city of Merandus as an apprentice lantern maker, raised by the local religious group with a strong moral foundation.) Nermeyer¡¯s creation looked through the soul¡¯s life deciding to assign the first candidate It continued to rapidly cycle through many souls from many universes assigning various positions it had 256 to fill after all. (Female, human, 20, second princess of the struggling kingdom of Eldoria, struggled in court because she was too confident in her position, this ended up being her downfall when a fed-up noble had her assassinated.) As Nermeyer¡¯s creation continued to read into candidate 138¡¯s past it recognized some similarity to its creator¡¯s own past. The fact that it had managed to find a royal that fit among the first two conditions was already significant but one that had a past this similar to Nermeyer¡¯s early life had his creation questioning if there was something greater than even it at play. In the space between universes that may very well be the case Nermeyer¡¯s creation recognized with its equivalent of a shudder. Hurrying up, it quickly assigned her, if with an amount of reverence, the position. It then began to process the next soul candidate. (Male, human, 19, First year student at university looking to go into engineering, enjoys playing logistic and engineering simulations for entertainment, maintained a close relationship with family and has a good strong moral foundation.) After reviewing his life and since was already assigned Nermeyer¡¯s creation decided to give him instead. It sorted the remaining candidates, only a few being completely rejected for not matching any of the criteria for the third condition. Eventually all, 256 roles had been assigned and with only 40% versal energy remaining Nermeyer¡¯s creation had the probe head back at full speed. As soon as the probe made back through the universal breach Nermeyer¡¯s creation stopped feeding the UFP versal energy causing it to wind down. The breach almost instantly closed but the creation hurriedly repaired the breach using about 20% of the versal energy remaining so it wouldn¡¯t leave a scar on the universal firmament. Nermeyer had known better than to leave a weak point that could be exploited by interversal beings. With the difficult part of the phase complete Nermeyer¡¯s creation relaxed spinning down slightly only consuming a trickle of versal energy as it would need to save the remaining 20% for the next part of the phase. The probe docked with the staging facility and all 256 souls were transferred into template bodies. With the supervision of Nermeyer¡¯s creation each body was transformed into a perfect match for the soul. It helped that souls had a natural tendency to shape the bodies they inhabited. This left the versal energy reserves at about 15% remaining. Next it synced each unique system fragment to their various holders even if they weren¡¯t equal each one had an important role to play and with the exception of 4, had been handmade by Nermeyer himself. After 10% of the reserves had been used to synchronize each fragment and slightly adjust it to each host a mere 5% versal energy remained in Nermeyer¡¯s greatest creation. It was about to send each fragment holder out when it realized it was forgetting something. Carefully winding down the teleportation array, it used about a half percent of versal energy to implant knowledge and full comprehension of the three most popular languages on Hernal and another quarter percent to give each holder a set of robust soul bound clothing. Nermeyer¡¯s creation remembered somewhat belatedly that its creator had been very clear on not sending them out naked. After running through the checklist to make sure it hadn¡¯t missed anything Nermeyer¡¯s creation fired up the teleportation array and in groups of three to five sent all 256 fragment holders across the world of Hernal. Making sure everyone had arrived at their respective destinations safely, Nermeyer¡¯s greatest creation pinged each fragment to begin its activation sequence and consequently wake up its holder out of their soul slumber. With everything in the green Nermeyer¡¯s greatest creation spun down even further until it slowly began to regenerate versal energy once more. While not stopping completely like it had been during its hibernation Nermeyer¡¯s creation was only operating on conventional energy now and had lost the omniscient state it had been in before. Still, the creation had help because each system fragment apart from and possibly would write a report about their holders that would only grow more detailed as their holders leveled up and gained more power. As Nermeyer¡¯s creation settled in to begin its observation duties many of its subprocesses went into sleep mode and only a few processes that allowed scrying and observation remained active. It would be a few hours until any of the holders awoke so the creation decided to watch a play being performed in the city state of Edofawa looking on through a scrying spell. Nermeyer had said that it was a person and that it didn¡¯t have to work all the time, but he had also told it to pick a name for itself something it had yet to do¡­ anyhow it allowed itself to shunt some attention towards the play. And as the artificial soul internally hummed along to the play¡¯s catchy introductory theme 256 souls slowly began to rise from the deepest kind of slumber. Chapter 1 Chapter 1 I felt sluggish as I began to wake up. It felt like my brain was rebooting from a crash¡­ Aw shit the crash! The image of an 18-wheeler barreling towards my Prius fills my mind and I rapidly sit up breathing heavily. That¡¯s when an expanse of green grass meets my eyes. Shouldn¡¯t I be in a hospital? Or is this the afterlife? I was beginning to panic a little when I noticed two others lying down unconscious in the grass. One was a woman, maybe around my age, wearing a fancy purple robe, while the other was a man, seemingly in his mid-twenties, also wearing a robe but of a different style and colored brown rather than purple. I took a moment to check out my own clothing. Okay, what the hell is going on here? My clothing seemed at first like what I would normally wear except simplified. It¡¯s as if someone took the idea of a ¡®grey jacket¡¯ and made it manifest. It was the same for my cargo pants. They were tan, had several pockets, and yet lacked anything like labels or seams. While I was inspecting my jacket and its strange construction I jumped as I heard a groan. Dropping the jacket into my lap I turned and saw the woman in purple sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She looked around in the haze between sleep and wakefulness before her eyes settled on me. She muttered something unintelligible but probably a question. And then clarity began to flood her eyes as she crossed all the way into being awake. She called out what was clearly a question for me, but I didn¡¯t know the language. ¡°I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t know your language. Can you speak English?¡± I didn¡¯t know what part of the world she was from but hopefully, she knew at least a little English. Unfortunately, it seemed she in fact did not know any English, as incomprehension was clear across her face. I scoured my brain for anything I knew about foreign languages when I noticed something distinctly odd. It felt like there was a package in my mind. Carefully I prodded it mentally and then I simply had three languages available. There was no fanfare, no headache no backlash whatsoever it was just as if I simply had three languages downloaded into my head. I decided to ignore the fact that someone could just put something in my brain like that and the fact that I had absolutely zero recognition of these languages for the moment. Choosing a language at random I asked the woman in purple. ¡°Hello, can you understand me?¡± The unfamiliar language flowed from my lips as if I had been speaking it all my life and this time, I wasn¡¯t able to stop a shudder from running across my body. Thankfully it looked as if a language barrier wasn¡¯t going to be an issue as the woman¡¯s face lit up in comprehension. But it also looked like she was in the same boat as me as she instantly went pale when she realized she could understand me. Looks like those languages were downloaded into both of our brains maybe the same thing happened to the third guy as well. ¡°Hello, may I ask who you are? How do I know this language? And where are we?¡± The woman inquired, a frown on her face as she used the unfamiliar language. ¡°I am Everett, err Everett Sykes. I¡¯m sorry I don¡¯t know why we know new languages suddenly and as to where we are. I just woke up here.¡± I answered wanting answers just as much as her. ¡°That is quite unfortunate, I am Sasha Highwalker. It is a moment to meet you.¡± Sasha said introducing herself. I was pretty sure that the final part of her statement was a poorly translated turn of phrase from her original language. Just as I was about to continue the conversation an abrupt *Ping* caused me to jump. Sasha looked at me curiously and was about to ask something when she jumped. Did we both hear that but separately? I wondered before I found myself flinching in surprise once again. Floating in front of me was a slightly translucent blue panel.
Synchronizing System Fragment Complete!
[WARNING SYSTEM FUNCTIONALITY LIMITED. LEVEL TO INCREASE FUNCTIONALITY]
Level 1
Stats:
MP: 100/100
WH: 24/24
I looked at the floating panel incredulously. It was like something out of a video game! Starting from the top it seems like I¡¯ve been synchronized with something called a System Fragment? Apparently, the fragment is called Factory. That must be what this blue screen thingy is. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. The next thing down was a warning about limited system functionality and that I would need to level up to increase functionality. This is more and more like a video game like seriously? Leveling up? Still, I don¡¯t even know what kind of functionality there is in the first place. The next item down was my level which was currently sitting at one. How do I even level up? I don¡¯t see anything anywhere for XP? The final part of the menu was a block that held my Stats. If we¡¯re going by video game logic here, MP is magic, right? Wait does this mean I can cast spells? Even as part of me was giddy at the thought of magic I looked on to the final stat present which left me with more questions than answers. WH? What does that mean and why do I have 24 of it? One for each hour of the day? Does the H stand for hour? Shaking my head I looked up and noticed that Sasha was looking down at something I couldn¡¯t see. She¡¯s probably got a System Fragment of her own then. That was when we both heard a groan and the man still lying on the ground rolled over muttering what sounded like a complaint. He didn¡¯t make any more moves, content to lay face down in the grass. ¡°Are you okay?¡± I ask him lightly, prodding his shoulder with my foot. I only received a tired grumble in response. ¡°Let me try,¡± Sasha spoke up as she walked over to the man¡¯s prone form. She hooked her foot between his arm and torso and then flopped him over onto his back. ¡°Wake up you great sleeper!¡± She loudly spoke. With a great ¡°Bwuh.¡± The man pulled himself up to a seated position. He looked between the both of us confusion writ on his face before he looked down at himself and then did a double take. Shooting to his feet the man began to pat himself all over, a great grin plastering itself on his face as he began to dance and jump around in what was probably some kind of celebration. Both me and Sasha shared a look of confusion. ¡°Excuse me? Do you understand us?¡± I asked, trying to get his attention. The man stopped jumping around to face me, but his enthusiasm remained clear on his face. ¡°Ah yes, I can understand you. Not sure how though.¡± The man rumbled out his voice growing curious. ¡°Ah well, I¡¯m Everett Sykes.¡± ¡°Sasha Highwalker.¡± We introduced ourselves. The man grinned at the both of us ¡°Taliez Wo-macca it¡¯s highly enjoyable to meet you!¡± ¡°Taliez do you where we are located?¡± Sasha asked him. The man took a quick look across the fields of grass before looking back at Sasha still beaming ¡°No idea!¡± ¡°I see,¡± Sasha said simply, another frown appearing on her face. I decided to confirm a suspicion of mine. ¡°Have either of you seen a floating rectangle that says something about a System Fragment?¡± I asked. Sasha simply nodded while Taliez looked at me with confusion. ¡°System Fragment? Floating rectangle? I¡¯m sorry I have not se-¡± He let out a yelp and jumped back looking at what I surmised to be a System rectangle similar to my own. ¡°Yes, I do see what you are talking about¡± Taliez rumbled in confirmation as he read through his System window. ¡°Did either of your Systems have a unique identifier? Mine says it¡¯s called Factory.¡± I queried the both of them. Taliez was the first to respond in a jovial tone ¡°Yes it has the identifier Stick. I am a Stick Scribe, it makes sense.¡± Interesting so maybe the types of Systems are assigned based on occupation? But I didn¡¯t work in a factory so maybe it¡¯s something else? Also, what¡¯s a stick scribe? Before I was about to ask him Sasha spoke up. ¡°I would prefer to keep my System to myself.¡± ¡°No problem,¡± I replied looking over to Taliez who just shrugged to indicate he didn¡¯t particularly care. I do wonder why she doesn¡¯t want to share though. Still, no need to pry. ¡°Might I suggest we get moving? We should seek shelter, food, water, and with great hope civilization¡± Sasha suggested. Seeing no reason to disagree, we picked a random direction and began to walk.
As we made our way through the rolling grass fields, I couldn¡¯t ignore the elephant in the room any longer or perhaps it would be better to say the elephant in the sky. Looking up I could see a brilliant moon with seas, clouds, and a faint blue ring around it. I wasn¡¯t on Earth anymore. I had been killed by that truck thankfully in an instant. I won¡¯t ever see my family again. I won¡¯t see my cats again. I won¡¯t ever graduate from college. Fuck. I felt a wetness dripping down my face and I realized I was crying. I tried to focus on walking, but my thoughts kept drifting to the life I had left behind. I could feel pressure building in my head and my throat constricting. I was struggling to breathe. The grass seemed endless. ¡°We are taking break,¡± Sasha said abruptly. ¡°Sit down.¡± She coaxed calmly as she put her hand on my shoulder. I could only nod as I sat down in the all-encompassing grass. I¡¯m weak. They died too I saw it in their eyes and yet I¡¯m the only one who broke down. Hell, Tailez was overjoyed! What excuse do I have to break down like this? I was given a second chance damn it! I felt a nudge and looked up. I didn¡¯t know what I was expecting. Derision, annoyance, pity? But as I looked up and saw their faces, I only recognized Understanding. We all had left people and lives behind, hadn¡¯t we. After taking some deep breaths the pressure in my head lessened and I could breathe easier. ¡°I¡¯m ready.¡± I managed to utter my voice only cracking slightly. And both of them outstretched a hand each. Grabbing onto them both they pulled me up. Brushing off my pants I looked at each of them. ¡°Thanks, Sasha, Tailez.¡± They gave an understanding nod, and we walked on.
The sun had traveled far across the sky I estimated we woke up sometime in the morning and it was now about midafternoon. But finally, we saw something that wasn¡¯t grass or dirt. A forest lay before us but more importantly, was the dirt road following the boundary between forest and grassland. We had found our first sign of civilization. Chapter 2 Chapter 2 We hadn¡¯t talked much during the walk across the grass expanse, each of us falling into our own introspection. Still, we were all enthusiastic to have finally reached something that wasn¡¯t endless grass. ¡°Ah, good, so good to see clear sign of people!¡± enthusiastically exclaimed Taliez Wo-macca. The man had been more animated than either me or Sasha during our long walk across the grassland, seemingly taking simple joy in the act of moving. Why is he so enthusiastic? Is it because he¡¯s gotten a second chance at life? Or something else? Well, no use to speculate, I¡¯ll just ask him later. As we approached the dirt road that bordered the forest, I looked down and sighed in relief as a specific fear of mine was assuaged. Sasha looked at me curiously, and I explained, ¡°I was worried this path would be infrequently used since it''s only made of dirt, and we seem to be in the middle of nowhere.¡± I kneeled and pointed to a specific area of the road. ¡°It seems that we don¡¯t have to worry about anyone using this way after all.¡± Small ruts were visible in the road that were likely from a wagon, and alongside them were hoof prints, and if that wasn¡¯t enough evidence, shoe prints were faintly visible in the ground as well. Looks like people have passed through here at least some time recently. Still¡­ horse-drawn wagons? Is this place stuck in the past, or am I really in a fantasy world? I guess it would fit the whole magic system thing. Standing up from my ruminations, I turned to face the others. ¡°So, any ideas on what to do next?¡± I asked, dumping the responsibility of leadership onto the others. As Sasha¡¯s face shifted into a contemplative expression, Tailez scratched the back of his head, shrugging as he offered his idea. ¡°The tracks are going in one direction. There will be people there. We just follow the tracks to them.¡± As I was nodding along to his idea, I thought it made sense, but Sasha responded with a curt ¡°No.¡± ¡°Oh? Why not?¡± Tailez looked at Sasha with curiosity rather than indignation. ¡°If we follow the tracks, we will be attempting catch up. There is a likely chance they are faster than us, also, we know not how far the destination of this path is. It may be days or weeks away. No, rather we go the opposite way, with this we are directly approaching anyone following this path.¡± ¡°But what if no one else is taking this path? If we followed the tracks, at least we''d have confirmation that there are actual people we would be heading towards.¡± I interjected. ¡°True. However, if this way were not taken with any regularity a road would not have been built. But yes, there is a chance that we may not find anyone. Still, I believe it is a more significant chance than playing catch-up to a group with supplies and beasts of burden.¡± Sasha argued, pointing towards the wagon and hoof tracks on the ground to emphasize her point. I looked at Tailez, who wore a neutral expression, not particularly caring what we did. And without any further concerns or complaints from me I conceded the argument to Sasha with a nod. In response, her face lit up with what I chose to believe was a smile and not a smirk. Still, this is the most expressive I¡¯ve seen Sasha so far. I wonder if she enjoys arguments and debates like this, well at least winning them. In any case, she¡¯d probably be a good politician back home. ¡°Walk on, shall we?¡± Tailez rumbled, clearly enthused that we¡¯d reached a resolution and were getting back on the move again. ¡°Yes, but be active on your awareness, search for sources of water and suitable places we can make camp,¡± Sasha instructed both of us. Yeah, she brings up a good point. It¡¯s getting late, and I¡¯m feeling a bit parched at the moment, and without water, it¡¯s only going to get worse. With me and Tailez indicating in the affirmative, our trio began to walk again, the view ahead thankfully not just more grass.
We¡¯d only been walking for what I estimated to be about fifteen minutes when I decided to strike up a conversation with the enthusiastic Tailez. ¡°Hey, Tailez, mind if I ask you a question?¡± He stiffened in surprise at my comment before relaxing and turning his head to face me while we walked. ¡°Ask, and I may choose to answer.¡± He said, slightly mischievously. ¡°I heard you mention this earlier, but I¡¯m curious. What¡¯s a Stick Scribe?¡± I asked. I know what a scribe is, but does a Stick Scribe write stuff down with a stick, or do they write stuff onto sticks? It was apparently the latter, as Tailez explained. ¡°Stick Scribes take sticks in pure form and through trained and developed applications of inscription, mana-reactive material, and a variety of other techniques create sticks in their elevated form. The usage of these sticks ranges from the mundane to magical.¡± That description sounds surprisingly clinical? Corporate? It feels like Tailez repeated that description by rote. But more importantly, magical sticks? That¡¯s awesome! Can he make wizard wands and staffs? As I grew increasingly excited about the possibility of having Tailez make me a cool wizard stick. He continued his explanation. ¡°That is part of what our plant manager insisted we memorize. I have only ever inscribed. I was never skilled nor trusted enough to learn the other processes.¡± He said with the first frown I had seen on the man, although he quickly shifted back to his normal enthusiasm. ¡°Hmm, let me show you something.¡± Tailez finished before he hurried off to the side of the road near the forest, where he began to inspect the fallen sticks available to him. I looked at Sasha, but she seemed to be content just to listen in. About a minute later, Tailez jogged back to our group, having fallen behind when he was searching for sticks as Sasha and I continued a steady pace. Tailez held out the stick he had selected. It was about an inch thick and a few feet long. It was maybe made of oak or at least this world''s equivalent, but I wasn¡¯t the expert on sticks there, so I didn¡¯t know for sure. It was the type of stick that would have made a great sword back when I was a kid. As Tailez kept the stick held in one hand, he unconsciously moved his other hand down to a loop on his robe, and when he grasped only air. ¡°Ah.¡± It was the only thing he said, and this time, his displeasure only flickered briefly across his face. Right now, these clothes are the only thing to our name right now. It would have been nice to have my phone, even if it would have been useless when it inevitably would have run out of battery. ¡°When I have acquired suitable tools, I would enjoy providing a demonstration of stick scribing,¡± Tailez said, still with enthusiasm if less than before. ¡°Hold and quiet!¡± Sasha suddenly interrupted. Tailez and I blinked in surprise but complied, and with each of us holding still, we all heard it. A gurgling noise, a tell-tale sign of moving water.
We all had found ourselves at the edge of the small stream. Its winding path emerged from deeper into the forest, remaining roughly parallel with the forest¡¯s edge before going back again into the forest. ¡°Drink from the water that flows, it is cleanest. Stagnant means sickness.¡± Tailez helpfully supplied. We all navigated to the center of the stream, thankfully not having to get wet due to the plentiful stepping stones available. This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. Kneeling at an area where the water was flowing the fastest, I scooped handful after handful of water out only stopping when I felt my thirst subside, only for gnawing hunger to replace it. Who would have thought walking all day would make you so thirsty and hungry? But food would become a serious issue soon, and I contemplated possible solutions as I made my way back to shore. And since I wasn¡¯t distracted by the need to get water in my body, I realized something interesting about the surrounding area. There is clear human influence here, or at least sapient influence. I don¡¯t know if this world¡¯s natural inhabitants are elves or something. There weren¡¯t any trees between the road and stream, even though the stream was a good few hundred feet deep into the forest area. The second piece of evidence was the stream bank I was currently standing on. The gradient was too smooth; nowhere else in the stream was similar. I suspected it was used to let animals get a drink from the stream. This place really reminds me of something¡­ Sasha hopped onto the shore beside me, and Tailez shortly followed. ¡°Can you all look for something for me? I think I figured out something about this place.¡± ¡°Oh? Do tell.¡± Sasha inquired. ¡°See if you can spot any campfires or at least the remains of one. If you see a circle of rocks, let me know as well.¡± They both looked a bit confused but nodded at the request, and we each went searching. A little while later, I heard a call and made my way to the source. At the feet of Sasha Highwalker was a ring of stone surrounding a pile of ashes. Score! I know exactly what place this is. Tailez jogged up to us, his eyes widening in understanding as he looked down at the campfire circle on the ground. Sasha looked between us, understanding that Tailez and I both had an understanding of what this meant, but she lacked any understanding. ¡°This place is a campsite.¡± Sasha nodded, but her confusion remained clear. ¡°Right now, it¡¯s late afternoon, not quite evening. I bet there is a high chance that a group of people will be stopping here for the night.¡± I explained. It might just be hopeful thinking, but since there is clear access to water here and this area is cleared with evidence of it already being used as a campsite, if I were a traveler, I would plan to stay the night at a place like this. ¡°If that is truly the case, then we must prepare,¡± Sasha said, her face set with determination. ¡°Prepare? I would be the upmost curious as to what is in your mind.¡± Tailez replied before I could. ¡°Most importantly, we must not reveal our origins lest they think us mad or worse. They believe us.¡±
After about what felt like an hour of us listening to Sasha as she drilled us on a rough backstory that we could hopefully mold, with increasing believability, as we learned more about the world, Tailez and I went around the campsite looking for anything useful. ¡°Find something we can use?¡± I asked Tailez as he kneeled down to grab something off the ground. ¡°I have great confidence I will extract use out of this. Stow these stones in your pockets.¡± Tailez requested as he began to hand me a certain type of stone from the ground. Soon, the pockets of my cargo pants were filled with these stones. We walked back to the fire circle, and Tailez placed a larger and flat stone down on the ground. ¡°A sufficient work surface for the immediate.¡± I handed him one of the rocks, and after he had carefully positioned it on his work surface, he took a different rock and struck them together in a specific way. Wait, isn¡¯t this knapping? Like how Stone Age tools were made? I watched Tailez continue to strike the rocks together, but then he let out a sigh and threw away the stone with which he was working. ¡°It seems this skill of mine has gone unused for too long.¡± ¡°Were you trying to make a tool that would let you inscribe the stick?¡± I guessed, pointing to the stick which was leaning against a rock. Tailez nodded. ¡°I was hopeful I had retained the capability to make tools such as these, but it has been too many years.¡± ¡°Maybe I could give it a try.¡± I offered as I sat down next to the temporary work surface. Wordlessly, Tailez handed me a rock to use, and I placed it on the work surface. Taking another rock that I could use to chip at the one lying before me, I began to ponder what would be the best way to do this. I need to strike this at an angle, right? It¡¯s been a while since I did wilderness survival back when I was still in Scouts. I created a mental image of what I was going to do. If I¡¯m envisioning this correctly¡­ What the hell? While I maintained the mental image of how I was going to knap the rock, it was like there was an option available in my mind. It''s like there are these mental dials I can turn. And there is this mental button here that will activate whatever this thing is? Ok, seriously, what the hell is going on? I unfocused on my mental image, and the strange sensation went away, and when I recreated the vision, the mental control panel returned. Wait, this might be related to the System. I¡¯ve been able to summon and dismiss it mentally. ¡°Hey, Tailez, I¡¯m going to try something that I think may be related to my System,¡± I warned him. He simply raised an eyebrow in expectation. I don¡¯t get the sense that anything bad will happen if I use this. Ah, what the hell, we ball, let¡¯s do this. Once again, creating a mental image of knapping the stone, I left the settings on the mental controls to their default state and mentally pressed what I was pretty sure was the activate button. There was no flash of light, no loud noise, no ding, just a thoughtful hum from Tailez. I blinked at him, and he pointed at the work surface. Sitting there was a knapped blade. It was rough around the edges, but I knew for a fact that there hadn''t been a blade sitting there before. I picked it up and turned it around to inspect it further. Huh, it honestly looks like something I could have made with an hour of effort. Wait a second, an hour? I mentally called up the System and looked through it, and sure enough, one thing had changed.
WH: 23/24
So, WH means Work Hours? Or at least something similar, as each unit represents an hour''s worth of¡­ well, work. I wonder what I can use it for? And how do I get more? ¡°May I?¡± Tailez rumbled, breaking me out of my thoughts. I handed him the small blade, letting him inspect it. ¡°Shoddy. But not so bad for a beginner. It will be sufficient for now.¡± He commented as he looked over my System-Worked blade. ¡°I think my System used my actual experience in knapping to make that. basically, there would be an equivalent result if I spent an hour of effort on it.¡± I explained to Tailez. ¡°Hmm, how much can you use this ability?¡± He asked curiously. ¡°I think I have twenty-four hours of total capacity. I used one hour to make this blade, so I have twenty-three work hours remaining. I¡¯m not sure how I get more hours, though.¡± ¡°Quite useful nonetheless.¡± Tailez rumbled contemplatively. ¡°Try using your ability to gather sticks.¡± He suggested. I nodded as I thought it would be an interesting test and imagined myself going around collecting sticks from the area and putting them into a pile next to the campfire circle. The mental control panel reappeared in my mind. This time, I was a bit more certain about what the different controls did. I was pretty sure what the first dial does. At the moment, it had twenty-three notches to it. When I used it before, it had twenty-four. I think this sets what amount of Work Hours are used. I¡¯ll keep this dial set to one for now, so I don¡¯t burn through too much WH during my testing. The second dial I was feeling less sure about. I think this one might be how much time is spent on quality vs quantity? It doesn¡¯t feel like a perfect analogy, though. The final dial felt like it changed my range of influence. Right now, it feels like it¡¯s capped at a range of about 100 feet in a circle around me. Still, it reaches far enough into the forest that plenty of sticks should be within range. Keeping the mental view of piling up sticks clear in my mind, I kept the WH dial to 1, set the second dial to focus on quantity, and set the range dial to its maximum 100 feet. Finally, I pressed the activate button in my mind and suddenly sitting next to the campfire, there was a large haphazard pile of sticks. If I had set it to focus on quality rather than quantity, would the sticks have been piled in a more organized fashion? Deciding to try it out, I imagined moving the sticks to the other side of the campfire circle, but this time, I set the dial to focus on quality rather than quantity. The sticks simply reappeared on the other side of the campfire in an instant, but this time, the sticks were organized in neat stacks based on their size rather than one big pile. ¡°Hmm, useful indeed. Can you use your ability to move yourself? Or move me?¡± Tailez asked his previous enthusiasm returning to his voice. Nodding again, I imagined walking over to the other side of the campground, but the control panel didn¡¯t appear. I then tried visualizing picking Tailez up, then moving him across the campground, and once again, no response. ¡°Yeah, it''s not working¡­ Let me try something else. Can you hold this stick?¡± I asked him while I grabbed a stick from one of the piles. When he had the stick in his hand, I tried using my System to move the stick from his grip and onto the ground, but the panel wouldn¡¯t respond. I had him set the stick at his feet and still, my System would not respond. After a few more tests, I determined a few key things. Firstly, it seemed that I couldn¡¯t directly affect Tailez or myself, although this seemed to be more extreme for Tailez. I could move the stick I¡¯m holding from my hand to the ground, but I couldn¡¯t do the same for Tailez. In fact, Tailez had a small area a few feet around him that I could not influence at all. There goes any possibility of me becoming a master pickpocket. But seriously, what¡¯s causing that restriction? His system? As Tailez and I were about to discuss what we should try next with the System, we both heard a shout. Running towards us, her back to the road, I could barely make out the words Sasha was calling out to us. ¡°Someone¡¯s here!¡± And as Sasha finally reached us, panting, at the campfire circle, sure enough, in the light of the setting sun, a pair of horses pulled a wagon into view. As the driver wheeled their wagon into the campsite, a sense of apprehension washed over our group. Hopefully, we would finally get answers.