Big day, Big Day Millie thought, a sense of elation rushing through her mind as she woke-up a the first sign of sunrise. Out of habit she quickly glanced at the simplified view of her Interface to see where she stood as she moved mechanically through her morning routine. Still level 248, she thought as she let out a soft laugh, it’s going to be a long time before I hit 250. As she got dressed a bright green notification popped up in her vision alerting her that she was do to work at Guild HQ in one hour. With a sense of euphoria, she quickly turned off the notification. Thanks be to the Integration and all that was holy in the world that she was done with that constant drudgery.
Just as she finished getting ready for the day, she received a notification that someone was approaching her front door. Quickly pulling up her security camera through her interface, she confirmed that it was her expected guests and rushed to the front door to greet them.
When she opened the door Millie saw three other people standing there.
“Shit MVG you actually did it.” said a tall man with massively muscled forearms as he scooped her up in a hug.
“I told you that I would, you didn’t doubt me did you?” Millie gasped out as she pried herself out of his arms.
“We would never doubt you Millicent- it's just hard to imagine someone giving up everything that you have...er… had” replied a short, rail-thin woman to her left.
“Please, no more Millicent. It was worth quitting the guild just to never be called that again”
“Sorry, Millie”
“It’s fine Yash. I see most of the crew showed up, but where is Torran?”
“Ahh..., Well, apparently he got the last minute jitters and backed out, the little weenie.” The tall man said as Millie finally pried herself out of his grasp. “The rest of us went through with quitting though.” The man quickly added
“Don’t be to hard on Torran, Kore. This wasn’t an easy decision to make. It’s never easy to give up what you worked on for half your life and we all know he was working on something big. Now everyone get inside, there is no reason to be having this conversation standing in a hallway when there is a perfectly good table in my dining room.”
Millie looked around the table as everyone dug into the smorgasbord of food that the three had thankfully brought with them. God knows that she couldn’t cook, even in this world where picking up skills seemed as easy as walking some days. Deebo sat directly to her right, the two of them had started concocting this crazy plan together and over time they had pulled the other three with them. As they pulled the group together Millie and Deebo made sure that everyone brought skills to the table, but most importantly, they made sure everyone worked cohesively together. Millie and Deebo were both from VanGuard and both saw how useless an entity was when no one could make a decision. All that resulted from that type of arrangement was everyone agreeing to protect the assets and the two wanted much more than that. Deebo was a true tech head, he specialized in developing technology for the guild to use in field assignments as well as data informed risk analysis. Since the guild had largely been ignoring his input for the last decade, he had turned to his newest passion, studying worlds during the course of their onset and transition into full Integration. Five years ago his passion had morphed into obsession because of a lucky discovery Millie made while they were raiding a settlement in the ongoing war the guild was embroiled in.
Ever since that discovery, they had begun planning for this eventuality, attempting to reach out and recruit like minded individuals. That is how Torran, Kore, and Yash came into the picture. None of the three were from VanGuard, but they were all part of other large organizations in the same social circles. As they encountered each other in social situations over time they had expressed similar dissatisfaction to what Deebo and Millie experienced. Yash was, as she called herself, an Assault Mage. It wasn’t her class, that was something people tended to keep hush-hush, but rather her mindset. Time had shown that she had an exceptional talent for manipulating system-skills to become ever more lethal. More important to her guild, she had a propensity for teaching others. Because of that she was removed from combat situations and placed in the safe-haven of Varanthis where she spent everyday teaching new guildies rudimentary system-skill development. At first she enjoyed it, but after 3 years she wanted to return to the frontier and start developing her own skills again. The guild put her transfer on hold, now it was 11 years later and she was doing the same mind-numbing thing far from the excitement the frontier contained.
Kore was unique from the rest of the group. Despite his large and imposing frame he was a non-combatant like Deebo. What made him different from the rest is that he was always in the frontier, which he loved. However, during his worlds Transition and Integration Kore developed a unique skillset for resource identification and harvesting. This skill set that had started with him cleaning kills and searching rubble for potential resources had evolved to the point where he was basically a walking bag of money. He could easily identify valuable resources with his skill activation and he was capable of completely harvesting even the highest level kills the guild made with no loss in quality. This ability had been a massive boon in allowing him to join the region's largest and most prosperous guild called Chevalier, but it had also become a shackle as the guild smothered him in guards whenever he was anywhere near potential danger. He was always escorted from potential resource to potential resource, harvesting whatever he was told to. The pay was massive, but over time he had begun to feel like little more than a slave with no real control over his future.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
Millie looked to her left to where Torran would normally sit, her gaze a mixture of disappointment and sadness. Torran was the first person Millie and Deebo had pulled into the group, and she thought the one who would be the most gung-ho of all of them for this opportunity. The oldest among them and undoubtedly the highest level, he had thrown himself into dangerous situation after dangerous situation throughout the course of his life in order to make money and help people in the process. He was not a member of any guild, instead he was a member of an elite tactical mercenary group. Mille had really been hoping he would come along, it would make their vision a lot easier to realize with his insights. Letting out a soft sigh, she reached down, picked up her breakfast sandwich, and began chomping the delicious sandwich with gusto.
Seeing that everyone had finished eating and that she had their full attention Millie stood up and walked over to the wall. Her apartment was austere as she never really planned on living here long term, initially she had just viewed it as another investment. Because of this austerity, there was no painting or mirror hiding the window-sized wall safe. She smiled to herself as she felt Kore’s and Yash’s anticipation building to a crescendo as she punched in the twelve letters, numbers and symbols to successfully open the lock. Once the door was open she pulled out what looked like a large, metal, shell-casing; walked over to the table and gently set it down in front of her.
“So that’s it?” Kore said, “You weren’t just messing around with us to trick us into joining VanGuard after all.”
“Wait... you two thought… why would I ever? Nevermind, just pull up the item description and you will see.”
Deebo tried to act disinterested, but Millie could see that he was pulling up the status like the other two. With a seconds concentration she activated the item description in her mind as well and the familiar descriptive box appeared, overlaying her vision in semi-transparency.
Item Name: Another Shot ( Travel to a non Integrated World)
Item Type: Unique System Generated (Item #109883)
Item Description: When charged, this item allows the user and up to seven other group members to travel to a world that has yet to Integrate into the system. Due to system restrictions, any individual who utilizes Another Shot will have all system generated abilities and advancements stripped excepting one.
User will be able to choose from list of Worlds with upcoming onsets in the next 10 years. System will construct identity and suitable background to be recognized as an adult in the chosen world...
Drill down for more information >
“Holy crap, you have a numbered item.”
“That is your first thought? You really are an idiot sometimes.”
“We told you that we found something special Kore,” Deebo said with a smirk “and come on Yash, how often do you get to see a unique system generated item?”
“Stop messing around! Is everyone going to be alright giving up everything they’ve have gained over the past few decades? I can’t even imagine what life is going to be like without some of these enhancements. Can you imagine getting tired after a jog again? Heck, we might even be able to get drunk if we do this. I’m going no matter what, but are you guys willing to make that big of a sacrifice?”
Deebo quickly piped in, “You know I am going Mil… I am ready to go somewhere and make an impact instead of being ignored at every opportunity.”
“Why not?” Kore chipped in, “I am ready to do anything that doesn’t involve me living in a closely guarded box in the near future.”
“No system skills? That means no magic… I don’t know guys that seems pretty rough. Did we have a timeline of when we can expect the Onset to occur? I don’t think I can go 10 years without mana.”
“I know that will be rough for ya Yash, but you still get to keep one skill. Imagine being the only person in an entire world who can manipulate mana.” Kort chimed in attempting to appease her.
“We don’t even know if there will BE mana there pre-onset.”
“Actually, according to my studies there will be ambient mana. The system just hasn’t provided structure for it to manifest in yet.” Deebo added, “In addition, Millie and I have narrowed the pre-integration world choices down to three. We were hoping to talk them over with you before we made a final decision. Of the three choices the earliest we would experience Onset would be in 2 years while the latest is almost 9.5 years away.”
“If there is mana already there, does that mean I will be able to interact with it without help from the Interface?”
“We just don’t know yet. Sorry Yash, I wish I could tell you more, but we have never met anyone who went from an Integrated World back to a place where the system doesn’t exist yet.”
“Hmmm…. That’s fine Mil. I am curious what the results will be…” after a pregnant pause Yash finally nodded her head and said “I’m in. I basically spent the last 14 years without doing any useful magery. Worst case scenario it's 9.5 more years. Best case… maybe we can learn to manipulate mana without system interference…”
Deebo and Millie both let out the breaths they had been holding. Yash was the person they were most concerned about signing on. Not because she was unreliable, but because she acted like a mana-addict. Luckily, she gleaned the possibility of experimenting with mana in way no one else has had the opportunity to or she might very well have backed out. Tor might have backed out, but Millie was confident that they could make their plan work with just the four of them.
“So what’s the plan? Are we just going to go to this new world and wait for the Onset?”
“Not quite.” Deebo chuckled, “How do you two feel about building an empire?”