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https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q7p-HSwhZ_D88LQO1L_6LKkIonysTzU0DXo2tkZl2q4/edit?usp=sharing
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Alex was still trying to pull together his thoughts and consciousness from waking up in the System void, but Natasha was sitting across from him, and she took it upon herself to fill him in on some details. Apparently, they’d all just arrived, and so there weren’t many details to share, but she ended with, “Brianne said you were stable before the scenario ended, even if she couldn’t wake you.”
Grant nodded and gave a little wave. “I’m glad to see you up and around, buddy.”
Alex smiled, barely remembering to keep mana away from his neck before he spoke. “Thanks, Grant.” He looked around. “John and Pilar aren’t here?”
“No, and they won’t be.” A woman had appeared at the head of the table. “They may have joined you within the scenario, thus affecting in-scenario rewards, but the overarching rewards are calculated based on the choices made beforehand.”
We all turned toward the woman, and Alex smiled. “Cheesecake!” When she smiled and shook her head in obvious amusement, Alex continued, “Thank you for watching over us. I think you were the one to provide the Tutorial Addendums?”
She nodded. “Yes. That was one of my duties.”
Kaylee smiled. “I’m Kaylee. Thank you.”
Cheesecake Lady waved the comment off. “It is my job, and one of the better parts.” She glanced at Alex. “Let’s not allow that to be a distraction.”
She made a shooing motion with her hand, and Alex sensed a bit of mana settle around his neck.
Notice:Racial Attribute, Basic Dissonance of Tonality (Level 1), has been locked away by a Watcher. This restriction will last until you depart her presence.
Alex breathed out a sigh of relief and smiled. “Thank you.”
“Of course. I wouldn’t want you to be distracted when making these next choices.” She then turned and looked at each of them again. “I know all of you, and you may call me Watcher 486, or just Watcher for short.”
Kaylee nodded. “Ms. 486—?”
The Watcher cut across her. “No.”
Kaylee hesitated with her mouth open for a moment before nodding. “Watcher, what happens now?”
“I am here to help facilitate several parts of the transition process, if you so wish. I will give you the choices, and you can request my assistance or not at each juncture. Is that understood?”
The five looked at one another before nodding, Lenka remaining silent, though she did smile Alex’s way and give a little wave. He smiled and waved back, happy to see her here too.
“Good. Your overarching reward will be multiplied by two and a half, due to the number of surviving group members.”
They all looked at the empty seats around them. Alex wondered how those who had chosen into different groups, or chosen to be on their own, had done. He hoped that they had been in different instances or some such. He also felt James’s absence starkly once again.
“Because of your group, you each have two and a half picks from the options, or you can combine the ‘weight’ of options to get a better result for any given pick, but I’ll explain that shortly.”
They nodded again, and she continued.
“First, you can receive a System granted magical item tailored to you. For one selection, this will be an item that will be useful through at least common level fifty or the equivalent for you. You can ask for it to be offensive, defensive, or utility, and that will—as you can imagine—affect how long it is useful. You can spend a second selection to increase the item up to a guaranteed usefulness to seventy-five, and if you use all two and a half rewards, it will be of use to you until at least common level one hundred or the equivalent for you, assuming you survive."
It was clear by the expressions around the table that they were all considering this option. Magical items had shown their worth already, after all. Alex pulled a notebook from his Inventory and started taking notes. He could buy items through the store, he’d seen them in there, and while they weren’t cheap, they were available. He was also slowly learning how to create his own…
The Watcher smiled. “Second, you may request Merit. For this reward, each selection that you expend will give you the amount earned in the final quests again. Hopefully it is obvious that half a use will gain you half the amount.”
More nods, and the three women had pulled out notebooks as well. Grant was leaning back, eyes closed, clearly considering internally. Merit was quite the interesting option given he had the multiplier he could use.
“Third, you may select experience points. As none of you are at level twenty, this option is available to you. Each selection will grant you enough experience for a single uncommon level in one Class and your Race at your current level.”
Alex grimaced. While that wouldn’t be nothing for him, it wouldn’t be very useful overall. He supposed it depended on if the next scenario would be one where he could earn experience, but it would be a really odd tutorial if he couldn’t.
“Finally, you can ask a single question, which I will answer to the best of my ability with the intention of addressing the spirit of the question rather than the exact wording.” She held a finger. “Half a selection will get a yes or no answer, and there are some things I cannot answer or say, but if your question is mostly within such an area, your selection will not be expended, and I will notify you of such.”
They all looked at one another.
“Any questions?” After a moment’s pause, her smile grew, and she amended, “These will not count as your selection, and as such I won’t answer anything not relating to your choosing of rewards.”
Alex nodded and asked, “Can we share rewards?”
The Watcher nodded. “Absolutely. Or, if you wish, your questions can be asked privately. Though, if you choose questions and ask too broad a question, I will let you know if it will take more than one selection to answer.”
Alex grunted and considered, writing out his thoughts and some potential questions. This seemed, to him, the best selection for long term survivability. At least, it had the potential to be, if the questions asked were the right ones.
After a minute, he looked up and met his companions’ gazes. “I think I have two questions that should cover us on that front. Are you willing for me to go first, and help cover the cost? Then, you all can do follow-up questions, or use your selections for other things?”
Kaylee frowned. “Is that allowed?”
The Watcher interjected to head off any back and forth on the issue. “Absolutely. It would take one and a half selections from each of you, but that would allow for very expansive answers to Alex’s broader questions.”
Alex frowned. “You act like you know what I’ll ask.”
She nodded. “I can read your notes, Alex.”
He glanced down before shaking his head and chuckling. “That’s fair. So, your answers would be worth seven and a half selections?”
She nodded. “I do believe so. There is much that would be difficult for you to come across on your own, nor even be something you would know to ask. Keep in mind that you are each getting these two questions for a price of one and a half selections, and each answer will be worth well more than one such.”
Natasha grunted and held out her hand. Alex understood and passed the notebook with the final questions circled first to Natasha, and she looked at it before nodding and passing it on. When it got back to Alex they were in agreement. He smiled and said. “Alright, we agree.”
The Watcher chuckled. “I do need you to ask out loud. It is standard operating procedure. Such things need to be explicitly confirmed so there isn’t room for argument later."
He smirked. “Fair.”
Each of the Initiates stated their agreement for Alex to ask those two questions, and then Alex asked the first. “What is the disposition of our loved ones and those whom we would care to check up on?”
The Watcher nodded, and began going down a list.
There was relief, shock, and some tears.
Natasha’s husband and son were both alive and well, in a standard tutorial together. They knew she was alive, and they were working to be strong enough to meet up with her afterward. Apparently, most of the rest of Natasha’s family and friends were similarly alright, and she got a brief update on each.
Lenka’s older brothers were dead, but her younger siblings, parents, and much of her extended family were alive. Just like for Natasha, some of her circle of relationships had died, but not too many, all things considered.
This held true for the others, with Alex being last.
The Watcher gave him a consoling look before she said. “Unfortunately, every one of your co-workers has perished.”
Alex blinked, surprised. “What?”
She sighed. “It is a bit of a statistical outlier, but it does happen.”
She then went on to tell him that some had survived among his cousins—both first and second—along with a few other random relations that he occasionally had contact with, and she also conveyed what they were doing at the moment.
A few of his friends were still alive and in tutorials, and one—Jeff—was actually in a different Apology Tutorial scenario. That man had chosen to fight slimes with a halberd and was actually doing rather well for himself so far. Huh… who knew.
They all took a few minutes in which everyone worked through the news and gathered themselves. Alex assumed that it would have taken longer, but not only did they all have higher Mental Fortitude than pre-System, but he felt the System’s leveling of his emotions once more, just as it had during his initial selection.
He knew that he might be irritated at the interference in other circumstances, but at the moment, he just felt grateful to be able to focus.
Regardless, soon enough, Alex asked their second question. “What would you need and want to know if you were us right now, given your actual current knowledge, insight, and hindsight?”
She smiled again. “Remember: I am restricted in some regards with what I can share.”
They all nodded.
“Good. Then, let’s begin.”
She actually pulled out a chair and sat down before starting to speak. Everyone present was ready to record all that she said, even Grant pulling out some paper.
“You should know that more primitive parts of the planets that are combined generally have an advantage, at least at first. Such people are more used to subsistence living, and that's where you all will be for at least the first few months or few years. Most newly initiated worlds lift themselves out of that with the assistance of whatever world spirit claims victory, or through the acquisition of a System store, or occasionally through good old fashioned hard work.”
There was so much in there that was confusing, but when they opened their mouths—each likely with his or her own question—the Watcher held up a finger.
“If I were you, I would want to know that any question asked now would represent an end to the previous question’s answers.”
Every mouth clicked shut.
She gave an approving nod. “Continuing on. In the Tutorial, System, and in-scenario stores, I would want to be told that all of the available skills are a bit of a trap. Focus your efforts or you'll never keep up, not in any meaningful way. Get only those skills and spells that you need.”
She looked at each in turn, giving the pause to emphasize the point before continuing.
“Under the System, many things are assessed by the rarity of your skills and spells—if you have them—meaning your least rare skill or spell can and will hold you back.”
That got muttered grumbling, but everyone was careful not to voice objections loudly enough to be taken as a question.
“In that vein, the more you advance a skill, the more powerful it is, and the more utility you will have from it. Even for skills or spells of equal rarity, they will be quite unequal when one was acquired at that rarity and the other was grown to that rarity by the Initiate.”
That was… incredibly good to know, and suddenly, Alex’s inability to buy really awesome skills was cast in a new light. Fascinating…
“The circulation of mana is just the necessary, first step. No, I cannot say more than that on the subject. I'm sorry. That little was only allowed because one of you has a mana circulation technique.” Her eyes flicked to Alex, along with everyone else’s in the room. They knew he had such, and he’d been open about how he got it.
Alex would bet that they each were reconsidering their own assessment of such with this new information. For his part, Alex was curious what else could be circulated, and quite a few possibilities came to mind.
The Watcher paused for a moment, seeming to consider before she spoke again. “The System store is a boon to any world that can get one, and generally, every world that survives for long gets one, but usually only one. It is where merit can be spent.” She tilted her head to the side before nodding. “I can go into that as well. When not in a constructed world, everything that earns you experience will earn you merit. Generally speaking, experience and merit are from the same source. When you kill something or perform an act of worth, Life Force is released or created. Roughly half of that is fully aligned with you, and the System helps collect it and make it available to you as experience. Roughly half of what is left is only slightly aligned to you, and that is therefore made available as merit. The rest is free floating, and it is this that the System harvests and runs on… generally speaking. This is, of course, an oversimplification, but it is useful to know regardless. Now, the shop. Generally speaking, the cost of things in the shop is proportional to how hard it would be to get them normally. If the shop sits above a gold mine, for instance, gold will be very cheap, merit wise. If the mine is fully excavated, however, that will change. If there are apples in storage nearby, apples are cheap from the store. The exceptions I can share to this are two fold. First, there are still base costs, so nothing will ever be cheaper through the store than to acquire externally, and store granted items or materials are not counted or factored in. Meaning, if you have one apple near at hand and someone else buys apples from the System store and adds them to the stockpile, that does not bring the price of apples down further as would happen if more apples were added through other means.”
Kaylee was taking furious notes, and Alex was scratching at his chin in thought as the Watcher continued.
“Moving on. It is important to know that, within the System, all challenges are designed to be able to be beaten, but that doesn't mean they are easy.” Her eyes unfocused for a moment before she nodded. “You had some games that illustrate the extreme. Those like Dark Souls for example. Beatable? Yes, but deadly all the same.”
A mug of something appeared in her hand and she took a long sip.
“I must be vague here, but you will learn more in time. The towers are a bit of a trap near the beginning of an initiation, and they are intended as an equalizing mechanic throughout. Though, the promised rewards are legitimate and may be worth it to you even so.” Her tone shifted, and she met all their gazes once more. “The interiors are not considered a part of your world. Remember that, and keep it in mind when you learn more.”
She sighed.
“I’m pushing near the extent of the general knowledge I can convey, but let’s see what more I am allowed. To fight effectively, you will need a means of protection, blocking, or barrier creation that can be utilized in any direction, perception of some kind in all directions, and the ability to move around quickly or teleport short distances. Physics is horrific at higher levels. You must find a way to overcome the limits of movement. As gravity only pulls down so fast, many midgrade fights are constantly moving upward as downward is not a direction that can be moved in quickly.
“You need the ability to create an area of effect too as there are many swarm monsters and threats that would otherwise be difficult to overcome.
“Moving away from combat, worlds like the one you were just in for this first scenario are rare, only really coming about when they find the System on their own. They are also often considered the unlucky ones.”
When that got confused looks, the Watcher smiled.
“Why? I’m sure you didn’t ask, but I know I would want to know. Well, because 90-99% of their population dies before full integration. For your planet, that number will be closer to 50%. Usually, the killer is old age when longevity could be greatly extended with expedited integration. Keep in mind, what is prioritized is sapient life years not sapients alive at any given moment.”
Once more, the Watcher seemed to be consulting a mental list. “The System has to approve tier advancement and does so via titles. So, before you are able to advance from E to D—which occurs at level 100 unless there are extenuating circumstances—you will need a title with a description explicitly granting the ability to do so. Generally speaking, it will be granted when your Race and Classes are close to level 100 and all of your skills and spells are at least mastered to a Uncommon rarity. Though, I have seen those with some Common remaining. When you advance, the general rule is that all skills and spells will drop in labelled rarity, while not otherwise changing.”
She then gave Alex a pointed smile. “This next one will be less necessary for you, but it bears stating all the same.”
Alex frowned but didn’t respond.
“If anyone claims that 'The System is with us!', it is basically never true. Even if your Analyze or similar skill seems to indicate that it is.”
He let out a silent ‘Oh.’ That was why he would be less susceptible to such a ruse. He had the ability to alter his own results, and so he would be more skeptical of such than others might be.
“Such is rare, but it does happen. Some will have very convincing ‘proof,’ but don’t be deceived. The System has decided preferences, rules, and goals, but it does not have favorites or 'chosen' individuals or races... But also you really shouldn't argue with the people who claim to be 'System sent.' It essentially never ends well.”
Grant chuckled, his expression showing that he had had some interactions with fanatics in the past.
Kaylee reached out and gave his hand a squeeze before the two exchanged an understanding smile.
The Watcher smiled in turn before continuing. “Speaking of the System, it may seem so, and while it is effectively so from your current perspective, the System is not all-powerful nor all-knowing. More than that, the System goes out of its way to ensure that this fact is known. Anyone of substance attempting to assert that it is, is unquestionably reminded by the System itself that it is not. To the point that, it is generally assumed that the System is concerned that something else might take affront to such a claim.”
She raised her eyebrows significantly, letting that information sink in.
“Do not expect very many—if any—quests outside of System events, magically constructed spaces, or dungeons. Daily life is not regulated or moved forward with System prompts. And speaking of daily life, this next is something worthy of a selection all on its own. It is something your people will be learning the hard way if you are unable to convince others of its truth.”
The Initiates leaned forward, and Lenka frowned, seeming especially intent.
“Large gatherings of people right after initiations are very, very dangerous. This is because most people don't realize all the various things they need to defend against. I cannot tell you what those things are, but if people begin to act strangely or disappear from near large groups, you must remember that it is likely something other than your fellow sapients and Initiates.”
That… Alex swallowed. That sounded an awful lot like ‘horrors will come for you, band together.’ It also conveyed that it was that banding together that drew in such horrors… Great…
The Watcher gave a consoling smile. “Some of that will calm down once a world spirit comes out on top. I cannot say very much on this subject at all, but know that under the System—and almost everywhere outside the System as well—every habitable world has a world spirit type entity that either is the de facto leader or directly subject to and serving such. They are the true favored children of the System… That is all I can convey at the moment regarding them, but you will learn more in the next scenario.
“Finally, your world will get benefits based on how the average citizens reacted during initiation. You'll learn what that is if and when you get home.”
She nodded then, the action having a note of finality.
“That’s all I can say generally, but I can still offer some specific information and advice for each of you. Are you ready?”