Alex followed V.V. in silence as his little companion guided him through the steadily dimming wooded area. The Ingram’s Orbs slowly orbited around Alex at various heights, switching positions with one another occasionally. Alex finally started to feel a bit more secure as all his companions did their part to keep him safe. As he followed closely behind V.V, he opened his Status to check on certain things that he had been neglecting. Having what he was sure was a decently bad concussion for the better part of two days had not worked in Alex’s favor. He scanned over the illuminated sheet before him and decided to go from top to bottom until something else decided to interrupt him.
User: Alexander Ingram
Race: Human (Other)
Age/Sex: 19 / Male
Titles: First Among Many, The Sky Is My Kingdom, Lonely Warden
Class: Orb Caller
Orbs: Ruby, Emerald, Sapphire, Opal
Level 3: 2200/2500
Profession: None
Exp: 455
Companion: Vibrant Void
System Credits: 57327
System Tokens*: 3 X-Grade Tokens, 8 A-Grade Tokens, 6 B-Grade Tokens, 9 C-Grade Tokens
Skills: Mana Tolerance (1), Mana Absorption (1)
Attribute Points: 20
Skill Points: 2
“Race: Human (Other).” Alex said this, expecting nothing to pop up after multiple failed attempts in search of information but his eyes widened when something happened.
User Race Information
(88%) Human: Previously dominant biological lifeform on the current planet. Bipedal, Proliphic birth rates, long adolescent periods, low Mana signatures. Weaknesses: High or Low temperatures, most System known poisons, blunt trauma, etc. View more weaknesses? (Y/N)
(12%) Other: Unknown bloodline detected.
“Um… V.V, what does Other mean in the Race category of my status?” Alex said, extremely confused by what he was seeing.
“Other? That means there is a portion of the User bloodline that isn’t identifiable by the System. I was wondering about that as well when I viewed your Status. So, what are you other than Human?” V.V. said as she continued to move forward, telekinetically snapping small limbs and twigs that might hamper Alex’s movement.
“…What do you mean? I’m just Human. One-hundred percent Human.” Alex said, somewhat defensively.
V.V. stopped moving forward and turned her eye onto Alex. “You are in fact, eighty-eight percent Human, Alex. You are something Other than Human by roughly twelve percent. It seems that you didn’t know that but the System doesn’t lie. If it detects you’re something other than Human, then you are.” V.V. turned back to her task of guiding Alex and moved forward once more.
“…How does the System even know what a Human is. I thought the planet had Mana millions of years ago or something. If the System is just now seeing Humans, how does it know what we are and how are you sure it cannot be wrong about anything.” Alex felt a bit of anger start to well up inside him. Due to irritation building in him, he noticed his Orb’s start to move in a more erratic fashion around him. Their previously smooth orbit was now jerky and starting to speed up. Seeing his Orb’s behavior, he was able to surmise they were reacting to his emotions and tried to calm down. The System saying he wasn’t fully human and V.V. seeming to think that was anything alarming had started to bring out something Alex didn’t like in himself.
“I can feel that you’re becoming frustrated Alex, but being something slightly different isn’t a bad thing. The System may be detecting some type of ancestor in your genealogy that isn’t fully in-line with what you would normally consider human. It shouldn’t affect your status in a negative way, nor your interactions with other Humans, probably. As far as why the System knows you’re Human and what a Human is, observation is the simplest answer.” V.V. said this as she continued on in a direction that Alex was starting to feel looked familiar.
“So… It may figure out what this Other part is after some time observing me? It’s probably just Homo Erectus or something? If that’s the case then most humans would show a similar result by their Status, presumably. Also, when did it observe us enough to decide what we are?”
“Possible. The System observed your planet moments before Mana fully rushed back to it. There was enough Mana to support the Systems presence but not interaction.”
“The System sounds like some weird god, but you say it’s not alive or anything?”
“To the best understanding of many thousands of years’ worth of continuous study on the System; the prevailing theory is that sentient creatures existing are what formed the System. No one made it per se, it simply appeared one day. The way you visually see and interact with the System is different than other sentients way of interacting to an extent. It is thought that you, we, sentient beings are what shape the System and essentially give it its purpose. I’ll provide a simple example of how the System changes to accommodate the User base. Sentient beings wanted a way to buy and sell things to different species throughout the universe, but countless wars were fought over differing opinions of ‘money.’ So, one day, boom, System Credits became a thing. There was a collective need for it, so it happened; did the System do it on purpose, maybe, maybe not.” V.V. explained this to Alex without missing a beat in her mission to annihilate pesky, poky limbs.
“So you’re saying that because sentient lifeforms exist, the System exists. When enough people want the System to do something, it just does it.”
“Hmm… Essentially. There are more complexities involved and most changes don’t happen quickly or without a lot of death for some reason, but yes, you’re correct.”
“Well then… So the System knows what a Human is because it observed a bunch of us and then for some reason, just knew what we were. If this Other part of me was common enough I feel like the System would just know what it was as well, right?”
“Possible. I imagine the System knows what a Human is, because your species actively identifies as such. When scanning your species, the dominant trait was then tagged as Human. You may very well be partial Homo Erectus, as you said previously but since you don’t consider yourself that, the System didn’t know to identify you as such.”
Fwap!
“Ouch!” Alex exclaimed as a branch that V.V. missed poked Alex in the thigh. The Orb’s spun quickly around him for a moment but settled quickly. He was so engrossed in looking over his Status and thinking about the Other part of him that he didn’t notice it. V.V. reacted by snapping the branch into multiple small chunks and flinging them off into the woods.
“Apologies, Alex. I thought I was being thorough in removing obstacles.” V.V. said with something resembling remorse in her voice.
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“It’s Ok, I was distracted by this whole Other thing. I need to set it aside though and move on to more actionable things in my Status. I appreciate you getting rid of all the extra limbs and twigs though. It feels denser in this area even though I’m pretty sure we’re heading back towards the truck.” Alex said quickly, not wanting V.V. to dwell on missing the limb which he didn’t think they should have to focus on anyway. He decided he would need to pay more attention but also get as much of his Status knocked out as possible.
“We are moving back in the direction we came from, and it is denser than it was previously. Everything reacts to Mana over time and the forest isn’t exempt from this. As the weeks and months pass, what we see now won’t be here anymore. All these trees will grow taller, sturdier, and of course, deadlier.”
“So even the trees are going to try and kill me eventually. Great…” Alex said as his eyes roamed over the forest and he felt it slowly creeping towards him, ever so slightly.
“Ugg… That’s not something I wanted on my list of ‘Things out to get me’ list… Sigh.” He gave up on the unhelpful path his mind was wanting to run down about killer trees, wrapping him up with roots and sucking out his delicious Other blood. He wondered briefly if the trees would consider him a delicacy before reining his thoughts back in. Status, status, status.
“Hmm, need to figure Professions out one day, lots of Credits, no idea what to buy, Tokens, for sure need to look at those, Attribute Skill points are an absolute must, but I need to sit down to fiddle with that much info…” Alex said all this under his breath, looking up every few steps to make sure he wasn’t going to walk into anything else. Deciding that everything that he really wanted to look at would require too much focus, Alex decided, yet again, to put off looking into his other Status options until he could sit down. The group continued to move back in the direction of the vehicle for almost an hour before they finally entered a clearing.
“I can’t believe we didn’t run into anymore squirrels, lizards or worse while we were coming back through.” Alex said, relieved to be out of the woods but also a bit confused.
“We cleared out a great many of the smaller beasts while we moved through earlier. The stench of blood and battle is still present in the air, dissuading prey animals from coming too close. Once nightfall arrives, things will be drastically different.”
“Well, that’s terrifying of you to say. Where’s the truck at? Alex said, immediately not wanting to think about whatever deadly things were going to be popping their heads out in the next hour or so.
V.V. floated towards a large mound jutting up from the ground. Alex followed, his eyes growing to saucers as he realized that the dirt mound he saw in front of him was in fact, the truck. “Holy shit! What happened to my truck!”
“As I said earlier with your backpack; combinations of materials that have been manipulated extensively may break down due to not being able to hold Mana properly. Manufactured plastics, metals, rubber and other technological advancements your people created will be breaking down all over the world.”
“…So we’re headed back to the stone ages?”
Snort
“Hardly. The System has technology far more advanced within its shops than anything your species will have created thus far.”
“How is that possible if all technology breaks down?”
“Technology doesn’t just break down. It’s non-Mana infused material. Mana infuses itself into all naturally occurring substances, for the most part. Something about processed material makes it harder for Mana to latch onto. If you want to build your truck again in the future, just acquire all the appropriate materials and build it. You’ll have to know how to combine all the metals, plastics, fabrics and what-not; not to mention gathering the materials for and creating the tools needed to create the trucks components.”
“I get it. But damn, that was fast, my truck is mostly dirt in the time it took us to go in there and come back.”
“The metals and plastics that your truck was made with were heavily processed and because of that, broke down quickly. Your backpack did have several heavily processed pieces but a lot of it was woven cloth. Mana shouldn’t have had to much time fusing with it instead of destroying it.”
“You make it sound like it did it on purpose.”
“No more than water chooses to make you wet. It flows everywhere that it can and fuses into everything that it’s able to.
“Isn’t it denser here or something compared to other places?”
“It is. Where we are now has a Mana saturation of about forty percent. As we move further inland, the saturation will go up. The center of the island will be no less than seventy percent saturated.”
“Woah. I thought you said it was like water. It looks like the land starts to go up in that direction.” Alex pointed towards the opposite side of the road, which had already started to break in many places to allow grass to shoot up from every opening. The land seemed to gently slope upwards but it was hard to tell how steep it would become as the trees were so high that he couldn’t see anything but slowly dimming sky above them.
“Ah, the Mana is pooling towards the center of the island. The Mana Core that is there attracts Mana, like magnets. Mana is like magnetic water as far as you should be concerned at this point in time.” V.V. said cheerfully, like she had said something truly clever.
“Uh… K. So the further we go in, the more Mana there will be and the more dangerous monsters at night will be.”
“The more dangerous monsters will be in general. Prey animals that stay in denser Mana zones will be naturally stronger.”
“Great… How would that work on the ground though? Like, ocean level ground, not this ground.” Alex said as he stomped his foot into the muddy dirt beneath him.
“Mana will always flow towards Mana Core’s, so it will work similarly as it works here. Weaker monsters in low Mana zones and stronger ones nearer to Core’s. There are always exceptions though. There are some monsters that prefer to roam around, leaving the denser zones that they should naturally prefer in favor of hunting down weaker prey in less dense areas. These monsters are usually more sadistic in nature, similar to your common house cat.”
“Wonderful… Just what humanity needs, house cats that see people as mice.”
“Beasts will be the least of Humanity’s worries after some time.” V.V. said as she floated around the mound of dirt that was once Alex’s truck.
“What does that mean. Ominous Void would be a better name for you. O.V, has a nice ring to it.”
“It is clearly a much worse name. I am referring to other sentients that will stumble upon this realm eventually.”
“Ok, wait, wait, wait. Other sentients, like other people? Other species?” Alex said, blind-sided by the idea that what essentially amounted to Aliens were going to be invading his planet. What next, Angels and Demons descending from Heaven and Hell to wage an immortal war across the land? After thinking it, Alex immediately regretted it. There were definitely going to be both Angels and Demons waging a war across Earth now that he’d thought about it, as far as he was concerned.
“Indeed.”
“You can’t just say, Indeed, and nothing else! What kind of sentients? Are they all hostile or can they be reasoned with? Are they strong, technologically advanced, multi-limbed? How many eyeballs does the standard sentient being have?” Alex let his mind immediately start to wander into unnecessary places in his panic.
“Most sentients in the universe all want the same things. Food, water (or whatever they drink, if they drink), shelter, power, etcetera. Think of what you want and they probably want it too, to some degree. If you want peaceful relationships, then you’ll probably find some that want that as well. But on the other hand, there are Humans that want war and death, so you’ll find those sentients also.”
“Well, that’s just fantastic… Humans suck sometimes.”
“Any being capable of thought is also capable of being good or evil and everything in between.”
“Ok Plato, let’s get moving… somewhere before it gets dark. I was kinda hoping to climb back inside the truck and closing off one sides windows with Opal’s dome. Now there’s a pile of dirt in place of that plan.”
“We should move back down this road for about a mile and then dig a hole large enough for you to climb inside if you are wanting to wait out the night. Going further in now would be more dangerous than standing our ground here.”
“Why not dig a hole here?”
“The hares corpse may have been eaten by scavengers but the remains are still right over there.” V.V. gave her best attempt at a head nod towards a pile of bones and fur that were being rapidly covered by something that looked like dark green moss.
“Oh yeah… that guy. Yeah, lets move away from that for sure.” Alex started to lightly jog up the sloped drop-off that lead back up to the road. Once he made it over the lip he could see more clearly how fast the road was breaking down and being taken back over by nature.
“It’s like a hundred years have gone by in the few hours we’ve been gone.”
“Yes. As I said before, it will continue to accelerate until the Mana levels stabilize.”
“When will that be?”
“It varies from world to world, but my best guess is within a month or two. However, just because Mana stabilizes doesn’t mean there won’t be zones that pop up from time to time that will destabilize that region occasionally.”
“What do you mean, pop up?”
“Gates, portals, doorways, you know, stuff like that. When tears occur from other worlds linking up with this one.”
Alex slapped his palm against his forehead. “You know? How am I supposed to know that, V.V? Portals to other worlds? The fact that I haven’t gone completely insane (assuming I haven’t already) is commendable, if I do say so myself. This is just so… ridiculous.” Alex said this but continued to walk in the direction that V.V. had indicated they move to.
“I was using ‘you know’ as an attempt at a ‘crutch’ word. I’ll attempt ‘Um’ or ‘Like’ next time. Like, um, you know? I’m good at this.”
“I’m definitely getting eaten tonight.” Alex said as he continued to walk further and further away from where he had landed in this crazy new reality. V.V. continued to test out their newfound joy of interweaving odd words in between otherwise easily understood sentences. Alex made good time even though he was only walking to the part of the road V.V. wanted to reach. Only about ten minutes had passed when they arrived at their destination.
V.V. immediately started levitating small chunks of asphalt away and Alex bent to help. As he did so, Ruby and Opal moved in front of him and started pulling small clumps of weeds and dirt away with their own, much weaker forms of telekinetic ability. Emerald and Sapphire continued to orbit Alex. He moved around to the other side of where his Orb’s had started to dig and began to help as well. For a moment he thought his Orb’s would prevent him from digging but it seems they just wanted to help, or maybe his subconscious wanted them to help, who knew, Alex definitely didn’t.