She looked around, then at me. "Luke?’

Julianna Pidcock has identified you.

I nodded at her.

She smiled at me. I got the impression of a shark - and much more than just a shark. She was a professional lawyer if I had ever seen one, pure evil in the guise of a stunning young lady. She had one of those rare smiles with the quality of an eternal predator in it that you may come across once in your life, just before you were eaten, or had your soul stolen, or got a lawyer’s bill. I knew it well from dealing with Lawrence's other partners. It seemed she faced the whole world instantly with that defiant smile and then concentrated on me with an irresistible grin. With a flick of a switch, the predator was gone, replaced with an intense but caring smile.

I was glad she was going to be on my side.

"I am Julianna Pidcock from the Imperial Special Investigations Department. I am to be your liaison and legal counsel until we are done. I am semi-retired but was activated for this due to my expertise in unusual and exotic cases. If you wish to see my credentials, you may request them. I have received payment for my time, so until further notice, you will be my client. You may assume that what I say to you is considered Legendary Confidential. You may refer to me as Julianna, Investigator or … " She looked me up and down, " Ms. Pidcock is sufficient."

With that, I was ignored as she focused on Tasar, "So this is where you have been hiding out. I read your case, and it would help if you headed back to the Imperial Library. No one cares anymore, and the Empire needs you now more than ever. Whoever you are hiding from is probably dead or has forgotten you. It was a shame what happened."

Tasar looked slightly humbled but nodded.

"Luke, the AI, Petal has informed me of your issues, so show me the ring, don’t give it to me yet, and share your stats. I am technically in your employ as a legal counsel, so I cannot divulge any details about this without your permission. There is a System-bound agreement in place."

Share stats, Ms Pidcock.

You are about to share your stats with Julianna Pidcock, Special Investigator for ISID, who is currently bound by the Legendary Confidentiality Agreement.

Julianna frowned.

I held the ring out on my finger.

She hesitated and, for the first time, looked uncertain. "May I?"

I tried to remove the ring to pass it to her. Interestingly, she did not get a shock. It did not move off my finger. Frowning, she pulled a silver jeweller's loupe out and squinted through it. After examining my hand from all angles, a few minutes later, she stepped back.

"Amazing. Well, it is indeed the Ring of ????." Her voice took on a different significance as she said it, and the words seemed to make sense, but I could not hear or understand them.

I could hear the capitals, and even the name seemed to resonate through my mind.

"Even with this Epic loupe and pushing enough mana and energy into it, all I get is the name. Everything else is hidden. When I see it, I can identify it as a Legendary item. I can feel the Karmic weight of it, and it seems, … more. More physically present than it should be. Aware even. Perhaps it is a Spirit Bound item, or maybe it contains an engram that needs unlocking."

She paused for about 10 seconds with a slightly vacant look, "I have scanned the ISID item databanks, and it comes up with nothing for a genuine Legendary artefact that is unheard of. This is magnificent. Can I say it has been a pleasure? This is the highlight of my career so far. The chance to see a Legendary Item, let alone an unidentifiable Legendary item. It is a unique opportunity. As your legal counsel, my advice is straightforward: DO NOT SELL THIS or even let it out of your sight. Do not tell people of it; until you know more, keep it on and run for the hills. This sort of thing can become something that makes you great."

She paused again. "Even now, I feel the compulsions. It feels slippery in my thoughts, and I fear I will not be able to recall it when you take it out of my vision. No, not quite forgetting, more it becomes unimportant, or someone else's to worry about." She was thoughtful. "Are you sure it is only Legendary?"

I nodded. I wanted to avoid correcting her and telling her the ring was Mythical. If she were freaking out about a Legendary item, I would be killed outright for a Mythical one.

I looked at her, the ring, then Tasar. "So, what do I do? Petal said something about collateral. I guess that is out..."

"I will talk to the IB, and they will offer 1 million credits to look at it. After they read my confirmed identification and additional notes, I will laugh at them and suggest 100 million for complete field notes, complete testing notes and the log files from its use. 1 million would be for a rare item, not a unique, undocumented, legendary one. We must give them first dibs on its power list, effects and other data as we learn them. They will want to view the item within 30 days. This is so rare, a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them. If you play your cards right, you could be a celebrity, a targeted one, but famous. Don’t worry. I will be there with you and take my fee from their payment. I will take it as a retainer and be in your employ soon. It is about time I took a long sabbatical from the ISID and took myself off their roster. Retirement was boring anyway. This is going to be much more interesting. Seeing your stats and luck, I am sure there will be a great story here."

I looked at her, "So?"

"Ok, ISID and the IB will agree to my terms, and that will be a good start, money in the bank. The safer bet would be to do nothing and train with Tasar here and pretend you are normal. But you don’t put over 100 points into luck without big brass ones… well, you get my drift."

Both Tasar and I gasped. Both at the amount and the change in Ms. Pidcock’s attitude. It had gone from predatory to almost cordial. She seemed very sure and very in control. Just what I needed right now.

"OK?" I hesitated. I was sure I sounded a bit simple.

"Open the connection to IB again. Petal, was it? "she smirked at the name, "We will arrange a deposit, and in thirty days, you will have to present yourself to the bank for this to be examined or refund the credits. In the meantime, I will prepare your paperwork, send my report, and set you up."

She looked me up and down, "Big brass ones indeed. I think you can call me Julie for now. I’ll call you boss or Luke." She looked me up and down, "Maybe boss in a few years. For now, Luke will do." She smiled. "We need a corporate entity to protect you and others doing some legwork. What will you do once you are out of training?"

Well, what the fuck was going on?

"Look, Julie," She stopped and looked at me, "There is a bit more going on."

I told her my story.

"I am so sorry, Hon. This is unprecedented and highly irregular. Tasar, can you summon a system presence? I need to protect my new business interests. I really hate it when business and politics mix. Damn Empire. Damn the Karassians. War is good for profits, but this is just messy."

Tasar looked concerned.

Julie said, "ISID will pay the costs for this now. They will bill our entity when it is set up, so don't worry about your precious energy. I read your profile."

He fiddled on his tablet, mumbling, with a half scowl, a half grin on his face.

Petal’s voice sounded, "Hello, Julie, Tasar and Luke. I currently represent the System and am Luke Hammond’s System Liaison." There seemed to be a presence enveloping the area with a warm fuzzy feeling.

Julie looked at me, "Do you give me the authority to act on your behalf? I kind of already do, but let's confirm it for all present."

"Sure, I guess."

Julie spoke to the air, "Petal, do you know of the circumstances of Luke’s enhancements?"

"No, I was not a party to the original recombination package, and there was no data about Earth Humans to baseline. Now that we know the facts, there are several serious issues. There are at least three anomalies, two of which seem to come from outside sources, which is impossible. The third anomaly comes from the planet itself, an unprecedented number Karmic confluences are occurring."

I looked at Julie. "Serious issues sound .. Serious" I smiled.

She sighed and rolled her eyes. I got the message: grow up. "Petal, other than those issues, do you know who would likely be behind this illegal integration of Earth?"

Some moments passed, and Petal's voice sounded, "There is nothing illegal about the integration. The System and Prism have concurred that all legal forms have been observed. It does not make it Karmically right from our point of view. But the probability of the Human Race on Earth surviving another century is far lower than their chance of surviving under this forced integration, despite the anomalies. From the sounds of it, Earth made first contact with the Karass Collective, who processed the application for integration with both the Empire System’s AI and their Prism. They are following all procedures so far. The first anomaly is the early access to nanites. It is unusual and frowned upon, but not against our Accords. This would give the evolved and enhanced beings system the status to make contracts on behalf of Earth Humans. However, there has been some detection of non-standard modifications to both Empire nanites and Prism nanites. We have seen the rise of two new sapient species."

"When was a species last raised beyond their baseline?" Julie asked.

"Not since the split and the Accords. We need to work out if Luke's stone is a settlement stone, then that would enable the invasion to be bound within a System-sanctioned Agreement. If it is, an Earth agreement with Prism would be bad for the Earth but not as bad as doing nothing. There is a 99% probability of total extinction of the human species without integration. It is a 15% chance after integration.”

Petal paused to let that sink in.

“The issue with the Empire’s System is that the Empire does not have the resources or assets to compete and assist with completing this integration with minimal interference. Without access to the contract, which would require both parties to be enhanced, I do not know what exactly is in effect. I have pushed this matter to the Imperial Senate with a note to send the Imperial Legion’s First Cohort to investigate. Within the sector, the Legion and the Karass Collective have rights that must be met per the Accords."

Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.

"Can you confirm the timeline for integration?" Julie asked.

"492 Earth Hours once Luke returns to normal time. The Earth Leadership triggered an early integration, but that does not account for the increasing Chaos and Void incursions occurring already. As I said, Karmic confluences. To balance those, the Accords and even the natural laws dictate that the indigenous species must be given a chance to survive that is above even odds, which is why some lenience to improve the chances of survival have been allocated within the bounds of both the integration or evolution process and this tutorial. With the rise of two other nanite-aware species outside the purview of the System, all the Systems must make allowances to balance the Karmic ties."

Most of that was beyond me, but I asked a pretty important question to me, "Is there anything that can be done to mitigate an invasion?"

"I cannot advise at the moment. I can make two suggestions, which are different from the advice. Train hard and acquire Land, then convert to a system-sanctioned settlement. These are important."

"How are suggestions different from advice?" I asked. I hated sophistry and semantic wrangling, " what sort of training?"

"Advice is something I would recommend you should do in your situation. A suggestion is what I would do in your situation. I cannot give advice, only suggest what I would do."

I laughed at the sophistry. "So if you were me, you would do something different from what you would do."

"Of course. Outside of this tutorial, acquire land, gain power, to do that you need training, so let’s move onto the training."

Tasar looked up, "What do you think I have been trying to do? If I was not interrupted with all this nonsense. It’s not easy training young people these days, you know. Lazy, lack of attention span and all that. What do you think I am going to do with you? You have 30 days compressed into two, so let's get to it. Thank you, Petal. Thank the System for me, that my boy is the power of Tiers, one Tier 5 energy crystal can power this time compression. If you were using Tier 3 or lower, it would be an astronomical cost and not nearly as good."

"Energy crystals? How does that work?"

Tasar was happy to lecture me, "Well, you can store energy in a solid form, a matrix. Remember, this is the noobs version for you. The Empire standardised Energy Crystals around a Tier 1 energy matrix need to be able to store at least ten and less than 100 Energy. A Tier 2 energy matrix needs to store between 100 and less than 1000. Tier 3 is 1000 to 10000."

I jumped in, "Tier 4 is 10000 to 100000?"

"You would think so, but remember, Tier 4 is where we get serious. Anyone can get to Tier 3 with time and effort. Tier 4 requires resources, luck, time and effort. Tier 4 is up to 1000000. That’s 1 million. 100 times. Tier 5 jumps again from 1 million to 100 million. Now, bottom-end crystals are worth less than high-end crystals. People trade them for credits, but at the high end, it is sometimes it is easier to trade crystals, or just forget them and trade favours. If you are Tier 5, you probably don’t even need them."

It was pretty straightforward but not entirely logical. The math was not quite as straight forward as I liked, which was not at all, math was not my favourite thing.

Tasar let it sink in and continued, "So back to the issue, 1 Tier 5 Energy Crystal, at the top end, is worth 10000 top-end Tier 3 crystals."

Hey Petal, thanks for sending Julie - she seems an excellent choice. I don’t understand half of what she says, but it sounds like she knows her stuff.

You have requested Julianna Pidcock, CFO of Earth Inc., to join a chat.

Julie: I have sent the documents for the transfer of funds. Is everything agreed upon?

Petal: It seems in order. IB agrees to the terms and conditions. Your account opened with an initial deposit of 101,000,000 credits. That is 100 million credits, a Tier 5 energy equivalent, plus the 1 million credits Tasar gave you. I suggest paying him back now. You can access it at any bank terminal or shop or send it via the Imperial Credit Exchange. I recommend avoiding that. They take 2%.

Pay him back. No big deal while I have the money.

Julie: Are the other accounts open?

Petal: Yes. Transferring capital now. Luke, your current balance is 40000000 Cr. Earth Inc: 50000000 Cr.

Title Awarded: Millions and Millions.

First in the realm to amass more than 1 million credits on the realm.

Effect: 10-20% better prices at all empire shops. (Charisma and Karma based) You don’t earn money by spending money.

Petal: If that is all, I will leave you to it. It has been an exciting little while. Thank you, Luke.

See you, Petal.

Julie smirked, "I took my commission and bought a 16.7 % share of the company, so don’t worry. Do you want to have some fun? Because we are going to have plenty of fun. First, I have scanned all your logs and read the preliminary reports about your planet. This is wonderful. Thank you, Luke. This will be good for me. I was getting bored. It happens when you get old. We are going to be so rich. Now, I am going to represent you concerning the System. I believe that the stone that your sister gave you is an inactive settlement stone. If we use that, we should be able to hold territory against the Karass to get a jump start on building and claiming territory. It is more the chaos and void incursions that you need to worry about, though. Do you know what happens when a planet is Integrated?"

"No idea." It was about time someone started with the basics.

"Well, neither do I. It has not happened in my lifetime. I have only read reports. I know that areas become unstable and void, and chaos incursions and rifts become more common. The more un-tamed or latent energy and mana, the worse it gets. Newly integrated planets are a hotbed for these until the ambient mana settles. Settlement stones can create stable zones. There are other ways, but energy is going to be an issue. I’ll sort something." She pulled a comfortable chair from nowhere - her inventory, I assumed and sat.

"Well, get on to training, boss, unless you have other things for me to do. I will relax for a bit, and then I’ll be going to Earth at some stage. I’ll have to hop back by a few portal hops through the Empire, but I’ll get there soonish. My only advice is to stay here as long as possible, train and ensure you get to Level 10. Pick a great class, Mind, Spirit, don’t force body, we can hire muscle now. If you want to be a brawler, I’m out of here, although you would look great with some more muscle."

Tasar looked at her, then at me. "Don’t give him ideas. The last thing I want to train is a Brawler chasing pretty skirts, which has been the downfall of many powers over the years. Let’s get you sorted at the shop. What was it? A skill and a perk?"

"What skills do you have now? We should pick complementary ones."

Skills

The Lucky Bastard

Interlingual Reproduction

"I have The Lucky Bastard and Interlingual Reproduction, that’s it. I’m level 0, 20-year-old here, remember."

I could see the smirk on Julie’s face, and I could also tell that Tasar was quite amused.

"70+ Body, Mind and Spirit at level 0. This is going to be so much fun."

"What?" I checked my stats

Stats:

Luke Hammond Earth Human (Beta) Tier: 5 Level: 0 Unskilled.

Body: 74 (S:74 A:74 E:74 C:74)

Mind: 74 (I:74 W:74 P:74 I:74)

Spirit: 74 (P:74 W:74 E:74 C:74

Karma: 193 (K: 79 L:286)

"Holy crap! Tiers count, alright!"

"Now, do you know how your stats work with skills, technology and mana?"

"Um, no."

Tasar put his hands behind his back and started. "OK, Body will influence how resilient you are. Your overall Strength, your health, how quickly you recover and how agile you are. Endurance and Strength give you your health pool. You can think of this like …."

"Hit Points"

"Yes. That kind of works. Health. Health is a holistic value. You can suffer more damage and only lose a little health, but the more health you have, the better. Also, a huge health pool will not stop you from instant death like decapitation or exploding. The higher your endurance, the quicker you recover and are more resilient. Your Mind stats affect how you use technology and Magic. Intelligence is the speed at processing, not necessarily how smart you are, although once it gets high enough, things get freaky. Technology and Magic are fluid areas. Energy and Mana can be weird for lower levels; only high-level individuals understand them properly. Wisdom is roughly how quickly you learn things. Willpower is like your inner resolve, your ability to overcome mental obstacles, to push through, like mental endurance. If you have any skills requiring mana, your mind stats will govern how much you have. Your spirit will govern how quickly you recover it".

I sighed; I wish I had known this before. I may have stacked more into Strength and intelligence. Maybe comeliness too. I’d bet Mike was going to stack comeliness.

Tasar paused for breath, still in lecture mode, "Your spirit stats are more personal. They connect your mind and body. They are your perceptions of the cosmos around you, your social presence, and your karmic fate. Your Karma stat is separate from your Karmic balance, an invisible stat you have no control over. You can lose Karma from your Karmic balance – the system's overall measure of how you operate within its oversight and within the Accords and how your records of deeds against the Void and Chaos stack up. You can also gain it, but your overall Karma stat can influence those rates. My advice is to keep your karma high. It is not like luck, but it is more like that if you do nice things, the system recognises this in many small ways. If the System warns you about your Karmic Balance – Listen. It is not vindictive but tries to keep beings on the good side."

"Ok, "I replied, struggling. He was a really crap teacher, " What about luck?"

Tasar got into his serious lecture stance and thought, "Well, luck is fickle, and the higher, the better. You cannot train it or earn it even through gambling. Honestly, I think your high luck should make things a bit easier, but it is not easy to measure. Roll dice, and I bet you would not notice the difference. Walk down the road, and you will be missed by a car that should have hit you, stuff like that."

I had always been a little lucky, I thought of my lucky coin, I could flip long streaks of heads or tails quite often. Sometimes, I left a streak running so I would not break it. I wished I had not given my coin to Sarah.

"Lucky bastard, indeed. Get your skill and perk sorted. The shop will offer you some, but you won’t get a free choice. It will be a couple suited to you and a random one or two, depending on what they have in stock. You may or may not be able to see much info in the shop, and the shop reviews are hit and miss, so go with your feelings and see if you can find ones that offer synergy with what you want to do. Then we can get some gear and train you up. For your class, make sure you pick something you can live with. Put your hand on the shop interface, and you can use the screen or the tablet I gave you earlier. I would suggest the tablet."

Julie said, "I would not. Do not use a tablet yet. It is convenient, but you will have a permanent connection to the system. Someone can buy that information. When we are more established, that may be a different story, but now, we are trying to lay a little bit low. That ring is both a curse and a blessing. I can’t tell you about it until it is properly identified, but I guess it will be interesting. Maybe a perk or skill to help hide you. Also, if you get the option, a unique shop is better than a system shop. Sometimes you get the option, but I am not sure about how it gets allocated, I have heard that Merchants love integration worlds and want to get in on the ground floor. Unique shops may not want to wear the freight and energy costs wherever we are now on the fringes."

I stood before the shopping obelisk and rested my hands on the plate.

The Pixysun Syndicate offers you a personal shopping experience.

Silver Enterprise is offering you a personal shopping experience.

Shab Shop 4 be friendly is offering you a personal shopping experience.

Lucky4Ten Diners is offering you a personal shopping experience.

About another dozen scrolled past quickly.

I broke contact. "Julie, help. Lots of personal shops. Too much choice. Who is reliable?"

"What do you mean?"

"I got about 15 offers for personal shopping experiences!"

She looked shocked for the first time. Then, the shark grin surfaced again. "Give me a moment. I am going to enjoy this, cool, The Karmahouse Emporium!"

She stood, hit the shopping obelisk, and disappeared with a slight pop and air displacement.

"Well, let’s not waste too much time. I am doing a training schedule, and we will make you a genuine powerhouse. If you follow my training, you will be my best student ever. You may even save your planet, Earth, was it?"

A few moments later, Julie reappeared, "Fun and Shopping First! Back soon," Julie yelled, grabbed me, and things went blank again.

As the world faded. I hated shopping. I wished Sarah was here.