“Display System Store.” Alex said to the System and surprisingly, it worked.
System Store
Access to Credit Store granted.
Access to Token Store granted.
Credit Store: Tier 3 clearance.
Token Store: Y-Grade clearance.
As the new window appeared in front of Alex, two additional windows opened to both the right and left of the center display. This was the first time that multiple windows had decided to pop up and it startled Alex a tiny little bit.
Alex jolted for a moment before calming back down and viewing the new displays.
Once Alex moved his attention onto the leftmost window, the center window blinked out of existence and the two windows slid beside each other but did not touch.
System Credit Store
(Credit) Categories:
Skills
Abilities
Spells
Runes
Quests
Classes
Professions
Companions
Clothing
Armor
Weapons
Accessories
Consumables
Transportation
Accommodations
Miscellaneous
“Wow, that’s definitely more categories than I expected. You can buy quests?” Alex looked over the available categories and his eyes finally fell on Companions for his first selection. Being alone was not exactly the most fun thing when there were monsters lurking all around.
“Companions.” He said, and again the System seemed to either be learning or he was just extremely unlucky with the commands in the beginning because now almost every command he gave had began to return the results he was after. A new window popped up in front of the Categories window with the Companions tab highlighted. The System now appeared to be operating like drop down windows in a computer program, much to Alex’s relief.
(Credit) Companions:
Movement
Defense
Offense
Restoration
Stealth
Discovery
Household
Culinary
Builders
Teachers
Governors
Evolving
Sub-categories for companions were now visible but something new had happened. Several of the potential options to click on were crossed out and as Alex decided to choose one as a test, nothing happened. He said aloud “Discovery.” Nothing. “Restoration, Household, Governors, Evolving.” Nothing for each of the selected categories appeared. Slightly disappointed, he instead said “Defense.” Again, the word Defense became highlighted and a new window popped up in front of the previous windows, pushing them slightly away and into the background.
(Credit) Defense Companions:
User has access to Tier 3 Credit Categories.
Tier 1:
Ragdoll – 4232
Autoshell – 5731
Sawbloc – 4219
Pellowjak – 6322
Wallton – 5221
Glover – 6889
Tier 2:
Helmoot – 15821
Guarden – 17211
Shinner – 16322
Shieldon – 17448
Dodja – 16788
Kitar – 18444
Tier 3:
Anglar – 38912
Boldir – 44800
Muntan – 52822
Whistle “Damn, I thought 40,000 credits were going to last me a long time, but even tier three stuff is going to break the bank.” Alex whistled to himself and complained about his financial circumstances for a moment.
“Hmm, Hide Tier 1 purchase options.” He said this on a hunch that the System was starting to learn how to respond to his needs better. As he said this, the Tier 1 category disappeared and he was left with the Tier 2 and Tier 3 options. “Awesome.”
Even though there were other categories to check out in the credit section, Alex was dead set on not being alone anymore so he decided he would also look at the Companion section within the Token Store. All the same categories were present in the Token store as that were in the Credit store with nothing crossed out at the base level. Before accessing the Companion category, he said “Display only A-Grade and above options.” After saying this, the Companion category opened.
(Token) Companions:
Movement
Defense
Offense
Restoration
Stealth
Discovery
Household
Culinary
Builders
Teachers
Governors
Evolving
This time none of the categories were marked out at all. Alex looked over the list again and decided to get a better understanding of what each category meant. “Display Companion Category explanation?” He said this with a bit less certainty as the other commands but he need not have worried.
(Token) Companions Description:
Movement: Specialize in transporting the User or objects across various terrains.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.
Defense: Primarily focus on defending the User or other specified targets.
Offense: Primarily focus on attacking targets the User specifies.
Restoration: Rare among companions. Specialize in healing or repairing targets.
Stealth: Most effective at sneaking. Commonly used to spy on or assassinate targets.
Discovery: Somewhat rare companions. Mainly used to locate treasures or other hidden things.
Household: Rare due to high demand. Best at managing and maintaining households.
Culinary: A must have companion for the hungry adventurer. Food preparation is their specialty.
Builders: Very skilled at constructing and maintaining structures. Not much combat utility.
Teachers: Valuable but very difficult ability to teach skills to Users.
Governors: These are the second most sought-after companions as they are able to lead other companions without the direct input from the User.
Evolving: The rarest and most sought-after companions. These entities have the ability to learn all other Companions’ roles and perform them to the same if not higher standard as dedicated companions.
“Well, that is pretty straightforward and now I obviously want an Evolving type. It still didn’t explain what a Companion is precisely, but we’ll find out soon enough.” Alex said to himself and then said “Evolving.”
(Token) Evolving Companions:
X-Grade:
V-N9000
Fluff2.0
Liquid V200
UpgradeV
9M
Y-Grade:
Red Gradient
Vibrant Void
Slave Drive
Like the others, the names didn’t really tell Alex much about what they did or why they were named the way they were, but he did know that he wanted an Y-Grade companion. Everything else paled in comparison as far as he was concerned. Skills, Abilities, even Spells (whatever those even did) were nothing to having a powerful being to help him survive the wonky reality of the right here and now.
“So, are there no A-Grade Evolvers? Hmm… Display Y-Grade companion information.” Expecting the system to do something and then having it do nothing again was an unwelcome feeling to Alex but he would do the best he could with what he was given. “Red Gradient information.” Nothing. “Display Red Gradient.” Nothing. He rattled off several more ways of saying each of the names on both the Y and X-Grade lists but nothing happened.
“How am I supposed to make any kind of informed decision if I can’t even see what each of them do?” He asked to himself and the System at the same time.
Alex rubbed his temples and looked over the names again. Red Gradient was giving him nothing. Slave Drive sounded ominous and Vibrant Void had a touch of danger to its name. Void definitely didn’t sound like rainbows and sunshine but it also had Vibrant in there. “Happy Nothingness? Enthusiastic Emptiness? Oh well, I’m sold.” Alex said this to himself and then made a very kneejerk reaction. “Purchase Vibrant Void.”
User has initiated purchase of Y-Grade Companion [Vibrant Void]
Confirm purchase Y/N?
Without giving himself more time to stress over what he should or shouldn’t buy with his one Y-Grade token and whether one of the other two companions were possibly better, Alex chose.
Y-Grade Token Consumed.
Purchase successful.
System rewards are awaiting retrieval.
Alex looked around but nothing seemed to have changed. No companion spontaneously appeared in front of him, nor did he get any kind of prompt letting him know what to do next. He sat and stared at the screen for a few moments, noting that he had rewards available, but he wanted to check out his purchased companion before diving back into the System prompts. He looked outside the truck at the cracked and ruined concrete to see if his companion had popped into existence outside, but he saw nothing. He felt that again, the System was not especially clear on how things worked. If it wasn’t appearing on its own, then he’d have to call for it himself probably. Preparing for who knew how many attempts of summoning his new companion, Alex began with what he felt was the most obvious option.
“Vibrant Void.” Alex said to the air in front of him, not expecting much on the first attempt, only to nearly shit himself when a voice came from slightly above his left shoulder. “Yes?”
Alex jumped halfway out of his seat and pressed himself against the truck door when he heard the voice speak to him. He turned towards the both feminine and metallic sounding voice and stared into a small silver orb with a pitch black dot in the center of it.
“You called for me, User?” The floating pool ball sized creature said to Alex.
Alex only stared for a while at the little thing in front of him. Thing may not have been the right word, but it looked a hell of a lot like a shiny silver cueball. It even had a dot on it like a cueball would have, only this dot looked like Vantablack paint and a black hole had a baby. A darkness that no light could ever hope to escape from, which cemented to Alex why ‘Void’ was part of its name.
“You’re my companion?” Alex asked, somewhat nervously.
“Correct.” The small orb responded concisely.
“OK… So, what can you do exactly? What makes you different from the other Evolving Companions? Also, are you alive or like a robot or something?” Alex stopped himself just as his mouth started to ramble.
“At this time, this one can float and speak, more complex actions are unavailable.” The orb said this with the same metallic monotone voice as before. “This one can grow in many ways as the User grows and chooses paths for this one to take. Also, this one is not currently alive but is also unaware of what a robot is. Therefore, this one cannot say whether this one is or is not a robot.”
A flood of speech came out of the orb, answering each of his questions only to have his mind rushing with even more questions. The orb didn’t say anything else beyond what it was asked to respond to as Alex sat and continued to stare at the curious little ball. It wasn’t alive and didn’t know what a robot was. But it also said it wasn’t alive currently, did that mean it could become alive later? And for now, it seemed that there wasn’t much usefulness the large marble had to show for itself. If it was built sturdy enough, he could probably bash another crazy squirrel to death with it, he supposed. Alex reached his hand up to the orb and poked it.
ZAP!
“Ouch!” Alex yelped with surprise and a bit of pain. “You shocked me!”
“Incorrect. You shocked yourself by touching this one. This one did not retaliate in any way towards the User.” The orb stated matter-of-factly.
“Well why did I get shocked when I touched you? And can you refer to yourself as something other than ‘this one’?
“The User was shocked by encountering the electro-dermal exterior of this one’s body. This one will refer to itself however the User commands.“
“So you have electric ‘skin’ and you didn’t feel I should know that information before you let me touch you.. Good to know.” Alex said with a bit of mild irritation coming through his voice, but the ball didn’t seem to notice in the slightest. “Well, I would like for you to refer to yourself by either your name or saying ‘I’ instead of ‘this one.’ It would make it easier for me to listen to what you’re saying. Also, my name is Alex, not User.”
“Understood. I will refer to Vibrant Void as I from this point forward and the User as Alex.”
“Uh, sure. I think that’s better.” Alex wasn’t sure if that was better or not, but hopefully he wouldn’t have to hear it say ’this one’ or ‘User’ anymore.
He looked at Vibrant Void a bit longer but slowly allowed himself to accept that he had a cueball companion floating around him. Not knowing if him getting used to the weird things happening around him so quickly was a good thing or not, he felt there wasn’t much to do about it and turned his attention back to the System screens. He once more called up his status to see if anything changed.
User: Alexander Ingram
Race: Human (Other)
Age/Sex: 19 / Male
Titles: First Among Many, The Sky Is My Kingdom, Lonely Warden
Class: None*
Profession: None
Companion: Vibrant Void*
System Credits: 40,000
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)
(System rewards are awaiting retrieval)
A few new changes to his status had Alex focusing on it and allowing his mind to not wander back towards all the other little bits of craziness that were nibbling away at his psyche. Three changes were obvious as his eyes passed over the screen. The missing token was a given as he had used it but he noticed for the first time somehow that the System Tokens also had an asterisk beside it.
“That wasn’t there the whole time was it? And I have another reward for some reason.” He mused to himself. Deciding it best to just go top to bottom with the changes, he chose the first change.
“Display Vibrant Void Status.” As he said this, Vibrant Void itself responded by floating down a little lower as the screen displaying its status appeared.
Companion: Vibrant Void
Age/Sex: 1 / N/A
Class: None
Profession: None
Abilities: Consume, Dazzle
Skills: Map, Detect, Scan
Spells: Lifestyle
“Oh, nice, you have your own status page. You get your own class and profession as well. That’s different from what I was thinking would pop up.” Alex said to Vibrant Void as it simply flickered its vision towards him and then back to the status page.
“Do you know what your Abilities, Skills and Spell do?
“Yes.”
“Can you explain them to me?
“Yes.”
“…Please tell me what they do.” Alex said through slightly gritted teeth. One moment, the companion seemed to understand his intentions just fine and the next it was like he was talking to a sentient wall.
“Consume can drain both life and mana from a target. The amounts vary on the power of the target versus the power of I. Continue explanations?”
“The power of ’ I’… Oh, this is going to suck isn’t it.” Alex said to the trucks ceiling as he plopped his head back against his seat.
“It’s good that you have an offensive ability. Continue with the explanations please but we will need to work on your speech sooner or later.”
“Dazzle is I’s ability to radiate extreme heat and light for a short period of time. Effectiveness of this ability may vary depending on the Alex’s judgement.”
“Nope, I’m not having it. This is ridiculous. I am not spending the apocalypse listening to you calling me ‘the Alex’. It’s just not happening.” Alex began a lesson then, an epic journey of grammar that he himself did not know was within himself. After explaining how Vibrant Void should address themselves and Alex in as many different scenarios as he could think of, he asked the cueball to attempt to display what it had learned.
“I am Vibrant Void and you are Alex. You are not the Alex and I am not the I. Corrections have been registered and will not happen in the same way any longer. Continue with explanation of Skills and Spell?”
“Oh, thank all the gods that ever existed. Thank you. Please continue with the explanations.” Alex said with such relief that he noticed himself actively relaxing his body and slumping into his seat a bit. Who knew you could wind yourself up to such incredible degrees over slight grammatical inconsistencies.
“Map is capable of displaying a live map of my surroundings. The distance that can be viewed live increases with my power. Outside the live area, previously viewed areas remain but are static. Continue?”
“Just a moment please, having a map is considered a skill? Since I don’t have the skill does that mean I can’t have the System display a map?” Alex asked half to Vibrant Void and half to the System itself.
“Your System may have the ability to display a type of map. It will be different from the skill that I possess known as Map however.”
“Wow, that was actually very useful information. Thank you.” Alex directed his gratitude towards his shiny sidekick and turned his attention towards the System again. “Map.”
⏺
“What.. the hell is that?” Alex asked as a new box appeared before him. It was a square box with a slightly see-through background and a dot at the very center.
“It appears to be your Systems version of a map, Alex.” Vibrant Void said matter-of-factly, with not a hint of sarcasm to be found.
“Well damn. Uh, can I see your map V.V.?” Alex asked and used a shortened two letter acronym to shorten the mouthful that was Vibtrant Void. A few moments passed and Vibrant Void, now V.V. seemed to process that he was in-fact referring to it.
“Displaying Map, A.I.”
The map that appeared before Alex looked like it had been ripped right from satellite images but even more vivid, something akin to drone footage. It displayed about twenty feet around him and was immaculate in its detail. The grass on the side of the broken road and the edge of the woods to his right could be seen moving slowly with the gentle breeze. Displayed at the center was Alex’s truck with its paint peeling silver roof displayed for the heavens to see. Ahead of the truck on the display he could see the cliff; light blue was used to display the empty void beyond it but it didn’t seem as real as the rest of the image.
“Why is the area beyond the cliff different from the rest of the image? Also, what is A.I.? Artificial Intelligence?”
“Within a ten foot radius, my ability will display live events. The area beyond the cliffside is outside my range to display information accurately. A.I. referred to you, Alex Ingram.”
“Oh, you called me A.I because I called you V.V.”
“Correct.”
“I guess I'm OK with that but I shortened your name to V.V. because saying your full name seemed less personal to me and I liked the sound of V.V. If you don’t like me calling you that, I can say Vibrant instead. If you like calling me A.I. then I am fine with that as well.” Alex let out a mouthful of words for the small orb to take in. A few moments passed before the shiny being spoke.
“I will accept V.V. and will continue to refer to you as Alex.”
“Good deal. So how long can you display the Map skill?”
“Indefinitely.”
“Nice.”