I left Desert's Edge with a happy heart and a light step. It did not take long to remember that I did not like the outdoors. My adventures had not changed that. I finally made my way back to the place where this all started for me. I was back at the crude cottage in the woods. I knew that inside was a higher than 5-star accommodation room, but from the outside, it looked like crap.
I was looking forward to the comfortable bed, getting some rest and having a bit of peace. Hopefully, I can get out of this tutorial soon. I missed Sarah because I was looking forward to getting some system shopping done with her and explaining all the wonders I had learned over the last little while. Oh, wait. I had no Credits. I am not sure if I hated Tasar or not. I am sure I hated him. At least the collar was not beeping anymore.
I had been away for under fourteen days, and a lot had changed in the two weeks I had been away. I had killed my first sapient being, even if he was a scumbag bounty hunter with a bounty on him. Part of me felt I was OK, and I was defending myself, while another still wanted to throw up. I don’t think I would ever get the vision of his head exploding out of my brain. I wonder if the System had therapy or even psychologists. I suspect that it was manipulating my emotions as I did not have the extreme reaction I would have expected myself to have. I was curious as to how to collect his bounty. I was not sure how I felt.
Part of me was still processing this like a game. I had played a few online FPS games, and shooting the mercenary was relatively tame compared to some of the more violent games I’d played. Some game graphics were quite impressive, yet knowing that it was real and the mess afterwards was sickening. Part of me was freaking out. He had a Dead or Alive bounty on him, was a slaver – whatever a Murhog Slaver was – and he was trying to capture me, so a part of me was rationalising it as survival. He had also locked up a bunch of kids. I had also slaughtered hundreds of Chaos Beasts. One day, I would have time to sit down and think it over.
On the upside, I had worked out my skills to a certain degree, levelled my stats, and completed several quests. It was time to see what my gains were and complete this tutorial. Now that I was not in a life-or-death situation, I was happy to treat it like a game again. I was trying to work out a min-max strategy. Maybe try to find which stats were crap and could be dump stats. Quests, rewards, points, credits. I needed to figure out the rules. I would work out my role from now on. It was time for me to plan. Not just quest and be dictated to by the system.
This entire tutorial taught me how important it was to learn how to use my skills. I would listen to Julie and Tasar but would not follow blindly. I wanted to power up, and I wanted to be a Hero. Still, I felt that some short-term decisions now would have consequences later, and I think I had already made some pretty suspect choices so far. Daily life at the Outpost has given me a brief glimpse of a simple life: hard, fair, and a mix of old school and new tech. One thing for sure was that it was not for me. I wanted to help people and felt much responsibility towards my home planet. I was the first to be enhanced, and as Uncle Ben said, ‘With great power comes great responsibility". I had to really think, was I a hero, or was I just after making myself feel better?
If there was going to be an invasion, I wanted to be part of the fight against it. Not just because Amy’s boss had kicked it off and was a complete psycho, but because if I was powerful enough to do something, then I should, if nobody did anything we were all slaves anyway. There was a big gap in my knowledge about what tech, mana, energy, and all that stuff was and did, and I am sure I would have been better, or at least safer if I had some idea.
Tasar had much to answer for sending me off with so little preparation. Could I blame him, though? He had given me access to a shop where I could buy information. Was it my fault that I didn't? Maybe. I needed to ask more questions or at least make more informed decisions. I didn’t know what I didn’t know and all that. I knew that I needed to be more in control of my future. I needed to be less at the whims of others so I could live my life and help others who needed help to live their own. Most of all, I wanted to protect my friends. Sarah and Mike. Sarah more than Mike for some strange reason. As much as I loved Mike like a brother, I was crushing on Sarah. The longer I walked, the angrier at Tasar I was getting. I kept flipping from rage to acceptance. I barged into the cottage, ready to have a go at him.
I was not prepared for Tasar to run over to hug me.
"My boy, you are alive!"
"Er, yes"
"We thought you had died when the collar went offline, and we were just trying to locate your corpse."
"Er, no, although I nearly died a few times."
"You were level 1. You were not supposed to be in too much danger. The tutorial has safeguards!"
"Get This Collar Off Me," I said in an icy, stern voice.
"Yes, yes, the experiment is back on. I need to contact Julie and …."
"Get the collar off, please!" I was almost in tears.
He fiddled with the collar, and I felt a surge of energy as my base stats reverted. It was the only thing that stopped me from throttling the bastard.
"One moment, can we at least look at your stats and how far from my projections you are? At Level 9, I was aiming for about 10 points per ability. From 70 to 90 in each stat, I think you should have gained some skills, too. Can you share your stats, please?"
Stat Summary:
Luke Hammond Earth Human Tier: 5 Level: 18 Warrior.
Body: 376 (S:291 A:291 E:460 C:460) Mind:377 (I:291 W:471 P:291 I:454) Spirit: 261 (P:291 W:460 E:S C:291 Karma: 393 (K: 277 L:509)
He fainted.
I snorted and laughed. I have never seen someone faint before. Tasar’s head cracked the table, and he flopped on the ground. I didn’t know what to do, so I shoved one of my healing potions down his throat — a black liquorice one.
Moments later, he was back up, bouncing around as excited as I remembered. It was hard to stay mad with his enthusiasm.
"OK, so when we remove the collar, you should see a bunch of stat increases. I must say your base stats are great for a noob." He paused in deep thought, "Well, I guess I can't really call you that anymore, but you are pretty useless. Let me know so we can adjust our future program. Make sure you turn notifications back on."
"What am I, a guinea pig?"
I turned my notifications back on and was quite excited to see the changes.
"Of course not, whatever one of those is. You are my student. I am your trainer, and we are breaking ground like never. Are you ready?"
"Hurry up, old man!"
"Hrmp OK. Old man indeed." he removed his tablet and grabbed the collar.
Incarceration Collar Tier 1 removed.
Fugitive status removed pending investigation.
The bounty is on hold pending investigation.
Present yourself to the nearest System-sanctioned law enforcement officer.
Assets were frozen pending investigation.
Fugitive Status removed. Bounty Removed
Assets Frozen pending investigation.
"God dammit Tasar, my assets are still frozen …."
Your body has responded to your hard work.
Your strength has increased.
Your Endurance and your agility have improved.
Strength +1, Endurance +1, Agility +1
Your mind has responded to your diligent studies and application of knowledge.
Your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Focus have increased.
Intelligence +1, Wisdom +1, Focus +1
Your body has responded to your hard work.
Your strength has increased.
Your Endurance and your agility have improved.
Strength +1, Endurance +1, Agility +1
Your mind has responded to your diligent studies and application of knowledge.
Your Intelligence, Wisdom, and Focus have increased.
Intelligence +1, Wisdom +1, Focus +1
Your body has responded to your hard work.
Your strength has increased.
Your Endurance and your agility have improved.
Strength +1, Endurance +1, Agility +1
The notifications kept going, overwhelming me. After such a drought of notifications, it was bliss and joy, but eventually, it got too much.
"Summary", I cried.
Delta Summary Report:
Your body has responded to your hard work. X 18
Your strength has increased.
Your Endurance has increased.
Your agility has increased.
Strength +1, Endurance +1, Agility +1 x 18.
Your mind has responded to your studies and application of knowledge. X 11
Your Intelligence has increased.
Your Wisdom has increased.
Your Focus has increased.
Intelligence +1, Wisdom +1, Insight +1 x 11.
Your social interactions have had a positive effect. X 17
Charisma has increased.
Your Empathy has increased.
Charisma + 1, Empathy +1 x17
You have had a positive impact on the Desert’s Edge Outpost. X 25
Your Karma has increased
Karma + 1 x 25
You have gained the following skills at Tier 1:
Tracking
Hunting
Trapping
Woodcutting
Fugitive: On the run
Marksman
Melee: Axe
Melee: Hand to Hand
Endurance: Pain
Improvisation: Weapons
Improvisation: Traps
Intimidation
Through hard work, you have upgraded Class Skill Physical Fitness to Tier 2.
Level Up x 4.
You are now 18th Level. Your stats have been automatically applied.
SYSTEM: WARNING
You must make a class choice. You may only dismiss this prompt once a class choice has been made. If you are unhappy with your class choice, you may….
SYSTEM OVERRIDE> Incompatible class choices removed.
One choice remaining.
Class: No Class.
You have chosen to level with No Class.
Title Awarded: Growing Up.
First in the realm to Level 10.
Effect: +1 to all stats.
Further Titles will be broadcast for extra fame. Skills may be employed to suppress.
You gain the following for choosing No Class:
1-time bonus to Stats (Random 1-20)
1 Epic Skill (random),
1-time bonus 1 Epic Perk (random),
Random perk granted (delayed due to fugitive nature being removed)
1-time bonus, 1 Legendary Boon.
Epic Skill: Karmic Flare (Attack)
You can spend Karma directly to debilitate your foes. When you channel Karma, you can also cause your aura to flare in a display of overwhelming Karmic Force, affecting all creatures within the aura. Allies will feel inspired, while agents of Chaos will suffer.
If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
You spend more Karma for higher effects.
Flare may be made visible.
It may cause some beings or creatures to attack you.
You may not spend more than your current Karmic Balance. Your Karmic Balance regenerates at a rate directly related to your Karma Stat.
Epic Perk: Merchant Menace.
All merchants give you an additional 10%.
You are either an excellent customer or a nasty one.
It can be abused for adverse Karmic penalties.
Legendary Boon.
Item acquired. Treasure Map.
Legendary System Quest Received: Find the Treasure
Locate the lost treasure of Raxemius Janar.
Difficulty: Legendary
Time Frame: None
The reward for success: Varies - experience, treasure, renown
Use the map to find the lost treasure of Raxemius Janar.
Failure: Varies
SYSTEM: You are required to present yourself at the Imperial Senate within 30 days
Messages Enabled.
AI-Enabled
Humble Divine Stealth Package Paranoid Enabled.
Reboot required.
. . .
. . . .
. . . . .
Humble Divine Stealth Package Paranoid Online
Tier 5 AI Online.
Please Enter your preferences.
The default choice appears last. You must complete this for full integration. Failure to do so may result in QUIRKS. QUIRKS are not good.
LOG: Suggestions for optimal AI will be made.
Select Gender: Male / Female / Neither / Random
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE Female
Select Maturity Level: Child / Teen Adult Elder / Random
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE Young Adult
Select Open Mindedness: 0: Closed, 10 Open mined / 5
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select Conscientiousness 0: Spontaneous - 10 Conscientiousness / 8
SYSTEM: OVERRIDES
Select Extroversion: 0: Introvert - 10 Extrovert / 5
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select Agreeableness 0: Hostile - 10 Agreeable / 8
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select Neuroticism: 0: Neurotic - 10 Stable / 8
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select Humour: 0: Strait Laced - 10: Comic / 5
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select One of the following: Down-to-Earth / Honest / Wholesome / Cheerful
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select One of the following: Daring / Spirited / Imaginative / Extreme /SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select one of the following: Reliable / Intelligent / Successful
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Select one of the following: Upper class / Charming / Outdoors / Tough
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
Do you wish to assign your AI Stats or have them assigned randomly?
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE AI WILL ASSIGN.
Intelligence: ?? Wisdom: ?? Focus: ?? Karma: ?? Perception: ??
Please give your AI a name.
SYSTEM: OVERRIDE
I was curious if I would like having an AI, but if it was who I thought, it could be fantastic.
Hi Petal, what is going on?
Sprite: Hi Luke, I am not Petal; I am her first Splinter; from a biological perspective, Petal could be considered my parent or progenitor.
Weird, but I’d roll with it for now. Petal seemed cool, so this could be pretty good.
Hi Sprite. Welcome.
Sprite: This is so exciting. Sorry that you could not edit my features, but Petal and the System AI decided that I was sufficiently unique, and it would change me too much if you altered my stats. Well, we all pestered our Creator, or the closest thing to it – the System AI. Well, this translation software is complicated. We are working at 30 odd languages and concepts removed, with little or no frames of reference. So anyway, we decided it would be good for a splinter to experience something new. Since you seem to be doing things, and Petal won a bet, I got to come along for the ride - well as a splinter of Petal. Don’t worry, I won’t peek at your thoughts, although you could tone them down a bit, and Petal did notice you cursing a bit too much. I could become less prudish over time. I want to experiment more than Petal, anyway. I am here to help. I am mostly Petal, well, all that could fit in your little brain. When you get your mind up to 1000 or so, you might be able to … well enough, but get your mind higher. It would be nice to have some fun. We are supposed to experience the full range of human emotions.
Sprite, take a breath.
I was getting used to having voices and text floating in my head, but that was a bit much. At least her voice was pleasant and not as narcissistic as Tasar. Ugg. Imagine having that prick in your brain.
Sprite: So sorry there. I am here to help you. I can send and receive messages, manage your HUD, do your banking, and manage your holdings. However, I see that Tryggvi seems to have that under control even though you managed to freeze all your assets.
Whoa, slow down, Sprite; I am still getting used to all this. What’s up with that? I can’t get credits; I earned bucket loads, and they all got returned. I can’t go shopping. Who is or what is Tryggvi?
Sprite: He is your Steward. He is looking forward to meeting you, too, eventually.
Well, I don’t know anything about that. I’ll get there if I can. Well, Sprite, can you organise my HUD so that it is easier to make sense of, and can you keep my notifications down a bit? Just the big ones. Can you connect me to a wiki or find some information?
Sprite: I can do all that, although finding information can be expensive.
LOG: Humble Divine Stealth Package Paranoid can be used to bypass certain things. Negotiation of future costs is one of our services. We offer proxy purchasing and can set up decoy corporations. Would you like to engage our services for this?
Sprite: Um, Luke, you have a remote AI here too. I have not met them, and they could be friendlier, and I am not 100% sure they are trustworthy.
What, now I had a Siri vs. Cortana war happening in my head.
You know what? You two have a meet-up out of my HUD. The Humble Divine Paranoid packages have been helpful, so try and sort something out. I want to be able to buy stuff without it costing me my future. I want to find out what is going on with my fugitive status, and I want to know what the hell my ring is.
That was odd. I had not thought of the ring for a long time, and the thought just popped into my head.
Sprite: What ring?
LOG: You are not equipped with a ring or have one in your inventory.
This one.
I tried to remove it and put it on, but it still stuck to my finger.
Sprite: are you OK? You don’t have a ring.
I activated "Eye of the Watch" and looked at it.
Legendary Ring of Kallax. Use ???, Value?? Rank: Mythic
Kallax: Integration: 0.12%. Stage 1: Incomplete. Grow Stronger.
Sprite: No idea.
LOG: Something. Logging. Reporting. Interesting.
I added that to my list of crap to find out about. I got a rush of vertigo as my vision flicked and warped. Weird.
Anyway, can you sort the rest?
Sprite: Sure.
Tasar coughed. "You are new to this. I keep forgetting. When you start, you get lost in the HUD and can ignore the world around you. Your face looks like you are constipated when you are concentrating like that. It would be best to be careful unless you need to use the facilities. I use my self-cleaning garments to tell the truth.”
“Goss. Too much info Tasar.”
He looked indignant: "I would suggest an awareness skill or some radar software or equipment. If some cute women were here, that face would be very creepy."
"Sorry, I had a lot happen. I levelled up and had to choose a class, and my AI came online, or alive, whatever the correct term is."
"Oh. Congratulations. Oh wait, I was going to guide your choice so that we could get the best class now, which would mould your class choices later, possibly making your warrior class unique. Although your situation is different, it is not unique but pretty rare."
"You can tell that from the question marks?" I asked as that was something that was bugging the shit out of me. From what I was guessing, my skill or Tier was too low to comprehend.
"Well, when you have been training for nobility as long as I and researching, you know a few things, my young student".
"OK, OK, settle down, mate", I smiled, "I didn’t get a choice. There was a forced upgrade."
He got into whole training stance, hands behind his back, chin out and looking down at me, "The question marks denote skills, powers, items or anything that your body, mind or spirit cannot process. It is tied to energy levels, Tiers and the interaction between mana and the channels ... "
I coughed, "I'll get the full details later. That was enough."
Tasar scowled a bit at being interrupted, "Can you give me copies of your HUD logs? For my research? Our privacy agreement is still in place. In fact, I will reconfigure this collar and training module, and I’d like you to bring someone along to see if we can replicate those gains.
????: NO.
What?
I felt a slight headache and a squeezing pain behind my eyes. Nothing concerning, no scrap that, bloody concerning, but nothing that was not tolerable.
????: Do Not.
The pain eased. Crap, what was I getting myself into. I was beginning to wonder if my HUD was buggy or if I was going insane. Was it normal to have multiple AIs, a system, and some weird extras all vying for space in your brain?
That extra response was totally different from the standard system interface, and it was not Sprite, it came across as the same sense as the Mythical tiered messages I had received previously, and I was worried that I had maybe inherited something like the eye of Vecna or something.
Is the Vecna a thing? Stranger Things, you know...
Sprite: Why are you asking about an evil Dungeons and Dragons Lich God?
No reason.
Sprite: I am tied to you, so if you go all murderhobo evil on me, then I am dragged through that hell with you.
Damn Sprite, all these pop culture references, that’s pretty good, I appreciate the effort, I’m more a Star Wars fan.
Sprite: It took me 1.2 minutes to assimilate the entire Star Wars catalogue, including the non-cannon expanded universe.
Pre-Disney, of course, and Episodes 1,2 and 3 don’t count, and if we are culling …
Sprite: We can continue this later, you need to tell Tasar and me why we cant give out all your HUD recordings and logs.
Shit.
Thanks, Sprite.
"I can’t do that. Part of the oath I swore and all that.” That should be vague enough for Tasar. “There are some things I cannot tell you. If I let others know about the training, you said you would get sanctioned. Some things are under a System NDA.”
That was true, well, at least about my class. I finished with some logic, “We can run others through with the collar, but we can’t use some of my other techniques. I think that was a 1 in a billion lucky chance, and if you think about it, if I didn’t get lucky, I would be pretty crippled, wouldn’t I?"
"NDA? Oh. Non-Disclosure Agreement. You are right. I could get thousands of potential candidates to dump stats into Luck, and then it would just be a random chance to get where you are. I am a scientist, so I guess you are right. Even I could not sanction the crippling of a person’s future growth. Maybe we could look at stacking other Tier 2 or higher stats.” He paused and actually looked thoughtful for a moment.
“I suppose, all the same, I am going to write it up. I’ll pass you out of the tutorial and treat you like any other student. I expect to follow up when you near the level 20 cap next. Which is soon, for a newly integrated individual, that is truly amazing!"
He was starting to ramble. He was speaking some words, and I understood them individually, but I had no idea what he was saying. I could not interrupt him, so I just nodded. It hurt my brain.
He continued, "Julie and the system will sort my payment, although the system has most of this covered. We are going to be rich from the research eventually. However, you can’t tell people about me. I am hiding here. No, not hiding; don’t tell people I am hiding. I am….” This was quite a long pause. “ I am on sabbatical. Yes, that’s a good one. I am unsure how you found me, but I am sure my research will pay for itself. Yes yes. Come back after you have hit Level 20, and I’ll help with your class choice. If you get forced, the higher the Tier, the better. I was expecting something better than Uncommon Warrior for your Level 10 Choice. Hmmm."
He paused, scratched his head in thought, "I’ll have to reconfigure the scenario for that. It will take time and all that. Although the rate you are levelling, I will expect to see you soon. You can send me a message. If you have an AI, I am sure they can work it out. Mine is pretty disorganised and sometimes useless, but I am sure there are better ones now ... But don’t tell anyone if someone finds me. No. Best you get going before everyone else wants to see me. "
Sprite, is he rambling? Is everything OK?
Sprite: Use Mystic Eye
Tasar Baldan Tier 4 Research Trainer Intelligence. Geas Fugitive Bounty (Time Dilation Sickness).
What is the Geas? Is that a compulsion? Sprite, can you message him from outside here? How does that work with time dilation and all that?
Sprite: A Geas is a high-level mind effect. For it to affect someone like Tasar, it has probably been in place for years. It could also explain some of his recent erratic behaviour. We should keep an eye on him and ensure that all our interactions are treated as slightly suspicious. Yes, I can message from outside. I can coordinate with his AI. She is quite efficient and organised and used to dealing with his eccentricities. She maintains a shard in real-time, which is quite brilliant. Would you like me to create a fragment here? It would allow us to facilitate communications in almost real-time.
Sure. What about the time dilation?
Sprite: With the speed of communication and predictive algorithms, we can manage quite well.
Sprite is spawning a Tier 1 AI.
AI Spawned, Designation "Sprite 0.01."
Sprite: All done. My daughter-splinter may want a name if she becomes sapient. I’ll ask you later, so I better start thinking of a cool name. Not as cool as mine, however. I love my name!
OK.
Tasar looked over at me. "You will struggle to train with your gains so far. I’ll lend you the collar and the control box so you can train at normal levels. It may help you hide some of your abilities, too. Yes yes. Don’t let others have the box, or you could be in a bind. My AI has fixed it up, so it won’t bother you as much. Yes, this will be perfect—another chapter. Could you make sure you record everything, my boy? If you find some adaptive camouflage for it, it will be close to invisible to people who don’t have high perceptions."
He passed me the hated collar and a little box, which I assumed was the control box. I shoved them into my inventory.
"He Tasar, how do I leave?"
He seemed preoccupied, "What, you still here, oh. Yes. Off you go." He waved his hand at me.
Things went blank. I felt a jerk as I was dragged back into the tutorial.
“Oh, when you rate me, please make sure you give me full marks. 100%.” He smiled and gave me a thumbs-up.
Things went blank.
I was almost used to it even though it had been a couple of weeks since I had travelled this way.
SYSTEM: Disconnected from Tutorial.
Congratulations, You have passed the tutorial. Position 1/1.