Roughly an hour later, Alex and his companions had dug a six-foot-deep hole that slanted into the ground with about a four-foot diameter. Alex was extremely impressed with himself and the others ability to dig a hole so quickly. The dirt and other debris from the dig was piled around the opening to form a very weak barrier. The sun had already set but the sky was still somewhat illuminated by the time Alex finally climbed inside. Opal immediately cast Dome of Protection over the entrance and Alex found himself in what could very well become his coffin. It wasn’t dark as Ruby always seemed to put off a faint red glow due to its aura.
“Well, this is interesting…” Alex said as he took in his small space. He sat down, crossed his legs, and leaned back against the wall as best as he could. Because of the slanted nature of the small tunnel, he wasn’t able sit perfectly upright, but he decided being comfortable wasn’t especially high on his list of worries. He looked at each of his companions and at the dome before deciding he may have some claustrophobic tendencies.
“…How long do you think my air will last in here? Do you think the soil is stable enough not to collapse on us? I bet there are worm monsters… I’ve seen those movies… They have lots of smaller worms in their mouths that bite you and don’t let go. Shit… there are definitely worm monsters.” Alex rambled mostly to himself as his orbs slowly bobbed in place.
“Alex, the soil is well packed and will not collapse and you should be more concerned about Carbon Dioxide than running out of Oxygen. As that is a possible concern, I’ll make a small opening to allow for fresh air exchange.” V.V. said as she floated to the dome and slowly started to spin in place against the lowest part, farthest from Alex. As V.V. did this, Alex could not help but think that V.V. completely ignored his worry about killer worms coming to eat him.
Several minutes passed as V.V. continued to drill against the side of the dome in order to make a small opening, making surprisingly soft tinking noises against the rock as they worked. Alex just sat and watched his little companion cosplay as a pneumatic drill. His mind slowly started to recover from the small amount of panic that had been trying to wriggle its way into him. He slowly collected himself as he listened to the rhythmic tapping of his tiny sentient jackhammer. There were still things he needed to do before he could worry about the worm monsters that would surely make an appearance eventually.
“Ok… It’s time I finally got to the bottom of my Status. Cross all the T’s and what-nots.” He looked at his four present companions and they continued to bob in place without giving him any indication that they were interested in his nonsensical blabbering. He was sure V.V. would have commented on his choice of words, but they were currently busy.
Sigh…
“If someone saw me talking to a group of floating marbles back in the old days, they’d say I’m crazy. They’d be mostly right too…” Alex said to his four loyal soldiers, watched them float for a few more moments and then called up his Status. Nothing else seemed to have changed so he decided now was the time to look into the System Credit Shop. Taking V.V.’s advice he tried to have the System display what he wanted silently. It wasn’t something that was hard to do but it felt wrong in an odd way to Alex to not speak the commands out loud. Regardless of his feelings on the matter though, the System responded to his silent request.
System Credit Store
User Credits: 57327
(Credit) Categories:
Skills
Abilities
Spells
Runes
Quests
Classes
Professions
Companions
Clothing
Armor
Weapons
Accessories
Consumables
Transportation
Accommodations
Miscellaneous
Alex looked over each category more thoroughly this time around. His mind was clearer, and he presumably had a bit more time to peruse options. He decided it would be best to get a System explanation for each category before going through each ones options to see what he should purchase.
Skills: System designated skills that can be learned by Users depending on various qualifications, classes, professions, and other prerequisites.
“Why on Earth did I expect anything more thorough… Uggh… may as well see the rest.”
Abilities: System designated abilities that can be learned by Users depending on various qualifications, classes, professions, and other prerequisites.
Spells: System designated spells that can be learned by Users depending on various qualifications, classes, professions, and other prerequisites.
Runes: Purchasable Diagrams, Patterns, Rune Stones and Glyphs that can be used by Users depending on various qualifications and other prerequisites.
Quests: System acknowledged quests that can be purchased for various rewards and experience.
Classes: Various classes that have been selected as acceptable for current world conditions.
Professions: Various professions that have been selected as acceptable for current world conditions.
Companions: System provided companions that are available in current User sector.
Clothing: Non-Armor garments that range from casual to combat oriented.
Armor: Over-body defense equipment that ranges from super light to extremely heavy.
Weapons: From the smallest needles to the largest blades, each piece has its place.
Accessories: Earrings, necklaces/amulets, rings, piercings of dubious nature galore.
Consumables: Sustenance, potions, ointments, bandages, poisons and more.
Transportation: Movement creatures and devices.
Accommodations: Shelter of various natures, origins and purposes.
Miscellaneous: Items that are outside the purview of all other System Store categories.
“Some of that was useful… I guess. I feel like it started to become more casual for a moment there but maybe that’s just me. I’m really freaking thirsty so I’ll see if theirs anything to drink before I go any further.”
Credit Store: T3 Consumables
Potions
Pills
Poisons
Ointments
Bandages
Remedies
Foodstuff
Beverages
Confections
“Oh, hell yes… Beverages.” Alex said, relieved that the System had something he could hopefully drink to sooth his parched throat and hopefully not melt his insides.
Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.
Credit Store: T3 Consumables: Beverages
Water
Milk
Soda
Juice
Tea
Coffee
Beer
Wine
Liquor
“Wow, that’s actually a pretty decent list of choices. I was thinking it would say Murky Water and Mildly Irradiated Water or something. At least I might get Mildly Irradiated Orange Juice at this rate.” Alex devolved into speculations on what types of milks the system could produce before finally settling on looking at the Water category.
Credit Store: T3 Consumables: Beverages: Water
Mineral Water - 3
Sparkling Water - 3
Spring Water - 3
Distilled Water - 3
Mana Water - 300
Buff Water - 100
Energy Water - 300
Regen Water - 300
Spirit Water - 3000
“Uh… Ok. If a Credit is a dollar, then the System is charging me three bucks for an undefined amount of drinking water… I bet it’s just a cups worth. Spring Water.”
Spring Water: Common consumable water found on current User occupied planet. 1 liter.
“Hell yeah, four cups! That’s slightly less horrible. Purchase please.” Alex asked the System for the Spring Water and it fell into his lap, slightly surprising him. The only other thing he’d purchased was V.V. and they had appeared out of his line of sight. He gingerly picked up the object that looked like a rectangular glass bottle with squiggly glowing lines imbedded into it. Alex turned the strange container over in his hands several times before attempting to open it, only to find that the top was sealed over by more glass.
“No screw off top? Barbaric…” Alex examined the strange top for a few moments before attempting to snap it off to get to the delicious nectar within. Just as he tried to snap the top off, it disappeared and left a perfectly round, smooth opening where the sealed tip had just been. In his confusion at the sudden disappearance, Alex spilled almost half a cup of the precious liquid onto himself and the ground.
“Crap!” He corrected the orientation of the bottle and lifted it to his nose to smell. He tried his best to get a whiff of any odor coming from the glass, but he could only smell his own body odor in his small cavern. Deciding that the System probably wasn’t out to kill him with water, he took a tiny sip. The tiny sip immediately became chugging and then before he took another breath, the bottle was empty.
Burp!
“That’s the stuff! Finally…” Alex exclaimed and slumped against his cave wall. He bought two more bottles, drained one and drank half of the third before he finally felt that he’d had enough. While he quenched his thirst, V.V. had completed their task and there was now a roughly two-inch spherical hole that let in just the faintest amount of light. V.V. floated back to hover in front of Alex with the Orbs.
“That should be enough to keep the CO2 from building up too badly. We’ll also be moving again when the sun begins to rise, so there’s no need to make a larger opening.” V.V. explained as she observed the bottles that Alex had summoned. She floated one up to view it closer, began spinning it slowly in front of her and seemed to go off into her own world as Alex continued to rest against the wall. Some time later, Alex wasn’t sure for how long, but he awoke to see his Orbs slowly floating around the small space. They would rotate in a continuous pattern from the small opening in the dome, back to him and repeat over and over. V.V. on the other hand, seemed to be filling the two empty bottles with a mystery substance that they had floating beside them.
“…What’s that stuff?” Alex asked V.V. while he tried to manouver into a more comfortable position.
“This is a new concoction I’ve been working on for the past hour or so. I’m dabbling with poisons as an additional defensive measure. This liquid is a combination of Death Cap mushrooms, Nightshade berries and the sap from some of the more mana dense trees we passed on our trek through the woods. It should be quite unpleasant.” V.V. said, sounding quite pleased with herself.
“How do you know what that stuff is?” Alex asked, confused by V.V.’s sometimes thorough knowledge and sometimes cluelessness.
“Hmm… I’m not entirely certain but by using Detect, I’ve been able to absorb more information on targets than I was previously. Abilities such as Scan and Observe are more accurate skills to understand what one is viewing but certain things have been relatively clear to me, recently.”
Hearing V.V. hum was like the sound a microwave made while heating something. It was an odd experience for Alex but not something that bothered him. V.V. continued to feel more and more alive to him. He knew that they were alive but until his class change, he hadn’t really felt like they were.
“So, your ability is stronger or at least, changed after my Class change?
“It seems that way. The sap I gathered from the tree did not give me a sense of what to call it, just that it had poisonous properties. The mushrooms and berries felt like they should be called by certain names. I cannot be certain as to why I’ve decided on these names, but they seem accurate.”
“That’s weird. I’m glad you’re able to make poisons. Is Alchemy a class or profession that you can get?”
“There are countless Classes and Professions that exist and many more that have not been discovered yet. Alchemists can sometimes be considered both Classes and Professions and depends on the focus of the User. If they are throwing concoctions at enemies all the time, they may be presented with a Class known as Combat Alchemist. If they focus on the creation of concoctions without combat application, then a Profession of Standard Alchemist could become available. Many other types of alchemists exist of course: Army Alchemists, Beauty Alchemists, Chemical Alchemists…” V.V. seemed more animated throughout her description of the different potentials an alchemist could travel and continued listing off multiple types while Alex listened with a small grin on his face.
Some time later, V.V. became absorbed by their work once again and had stopped listing off what had to have been, over a hundred different alchemical classes and professions. Alex wasn’t sure which ones were which but he wasn’t too concerned about knowing the ins and outs of that particular path. His attention turned back towards the Credit Store once more and decided to check out the first option on the list, Skills.
Credit Store: T3 Skills
Combat
Social
Psychic
Physical
Magic
Tech
“Oh, I thought it would say things like Water, Earth, Fire, Air… Long ago the…” Alex’s mind decided to derail into pop culture for a moment before snapping back to reality. The categories were more generalized than he thought but that was Ok to him. He focused on Combat and viewed the contents. A huge list of basic weapon related skills were viewable at first, such as: Melee, Archery, Swordsmanship, Axemanship, Spearmanship and so-on. It was the longest list of options Alex had seen so far and he was glad that these kinds of things were available to him. The prices were something else though. Every combat skill available had the word Basic preceding it but that didn’t seem to make them any cheaper. The cheapest combat skill he could see was Basic Melee at 1200 Credits, with Basic Wand Handling being a whopping 3300 Credits.
“Damn. I thought I was rich, but I could wipe out my funds on this one category.” Alex said, bummed that he wasn’t as filthy rich as he’d assumed. He looked over the list a bit more before deciding that it was time to check out the Social category. Basic skills once again were the only things on the table even though his Credit Tier was supposedly level three. Alex thought to himself that maybe that just affected the amounts of skills available and not the power. Regardless, he pressed on and read through the Social options. Empath, Intimidation, Manipulation, Charm, Patience, Leadership, and more. He wasn’t exactly sure how each skill would work but for the time being, he didn’t really see a strong need to invest in any of them. Not to mention that the cheapest skill was Empath at an outrageous 4000 Credits.
“V.V, do you know why it seems like Social Skills are so much more expensive than Combat Skills?”
“The higher levels of combat in the greater universe are more often fought through words than through physical means. Due to the System seeing those skills used by such powerful beings on a regular basis more than likely affects what the price for skills looks like. That being said, having a bigger stick than your opponent is never a bad thing.” V.V. said all this without turning her eye onto Alex and instead continued to swish her bottles of death around in small looping circles.
“Ah, I see. So the more powerful beings put priority on something, the higher the price rises in the Credit Store?”
“Correct. The System functions off quantity and quality. A powerful being has the potential to affect how the System changes even more than a fledgling world like yours can.”
“So, one super powerful User can make the System do what it wants? They can make the prices go up or down just by choosing to buy or not buy something?”
“That’s somewhat correct. There are records of several powerful beings and even worlds that attempted to actively manipulate the System. History shows that there have been grave consequences for entire planets that have tried to manipulate the System.”
“What did they try to do and what happened to them?”
“I’m unaware of what they tried to have the System do, but it was most likely related to manipulation of prices, like you mentioned. The consequences have been documented though, and those involved in the manipulations were cut off from the System.”
“What does being cut off mean? No magic?”
“No. You can use magic without the System. The System does make that easier though. Without the System, there wouldn’t be things like Skill or Attribute points. All of that would naturally allocate throughout your body without your input.”
“So, you wouldn’t really lose power but the ability to control it more easily?”
“Essentially.”
Alex thought over this new revelation for a while. One thing was for certain, he wouldn’t ever be attempting to manipulate the System, no matter how strong he got. He didn’t necessarily think he’d become so powerful that it would matter, but on the off chance that he did, he’d steer clear of that craziness. He looked back at the Skill category once more and pulled up Psychic Skills.
“This is more like it!” Alex said excitedly, while he read over the list of available skills. All basic of course but almost every skill was tantalizing: Telekinesis, Telepathy, Clairvoyance, Divination, Astral Projection and Remote Viewing were the available skills. Less than both Combat and Social but far more appealing to Alex’s fantasy focused adolescence. The only thing that stopped him from buying immediately were of course the prices. Telekinesis and Telepathy both sat the cheapest price point of 10,000 Credits apiece. Clairvoyance at 13,500, Divination at 12,300, Astral Projection at 13,400, and Remote Viewing at the outrageous price of 15,000 for some reason.
“Gyaaa. Why is it so expensive!?” Alex shouted his question to the captive audience that were his Orbs.
“Hmm?” V.V. said, again reminding Alex of the hum of a microwave.
“The Psychic Skills are extremely expensive. I really want both Telekinesis and Telepathy but they’re insanely priced. Ten-thousand credits apiece. Woof.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to be greatly disappointed when you see some of the other prices for things once you explore a bit more. Ten-thousand credits for a skill that will be with you for a lifetime is essentially free if you think about it on a grander scale.”
“…I guess you’re right. I was vastly overestimating how much money I had. I think I still want…”
“Before you make a purchase that will severely deplete your funds; I suggest going through the remaining categories and weighing your available options. We do, in fact, have time for you to explore the System like you’ve been wanting to do.”
“You’re right. I really want Telekinesis, but I should look over everything else, first.”
“Not to mention that given your class, I imagine something similar to Telekinesis will make itself available to you before too long.”
“I feel… yet again… you could have slipped that information to me earlier.”
“You didn’t buy Telekinesis, did you?
“No…”
“Then, I believe I’ve warned you within an adequate time frame.” There was no smugness in V.V.’s voice but Alex still felt that he’d just been messed with.