Walker felt the ground shift as the platform rose again, Ulysses by his side. Looking down, just as his eyes adjusted to the size of the room again, he found the the entire space began to fill with different parts, each writing on a board in front of them.
“What the fuck is this?”
Ulysses looked at him like he was an idiot, “They’re plotting out the skills, of course.”
“Which ones?”
“Any we can think of,” Ulysses said with a smile. “Showing this isn’t necessary. In fact it will slow down the process a small amount, but I know you enjoy learning visually.” He spread his hands out as the platform came to a stop in the air, slowly spinning, “This is how many parts I have working on the Skill system for perpetuity. If I need to increase the amount, I will, but I believe this is an excellent starting point.”
“I’ll say,” Walker replied in a strangled voice. For as far as the eye could see, boards and parts filled up the space. There was simply no end to them. When he looked closely at what one part was working on, a screen popped up beside him.
[Mathematics]
Potential learning paths:
37:
Speed crunching
The development of rapid calculation skills for quick decision-making and problem-solving
Associated Minor skills needed:
Algebraic Structures
Mental Arithmetic
Number Theory
Theoretical Mathematics
…
Associated Major skill synergies:
Data Analysis
Dating
Engineering
Finance
Project Management
…
38:
Statistical Analysis:
...
“Mathematics?”
Ulysses chuckled, “All skills have value, and all skills can be chosen, right?”
“Yeah, I guess. But if you chose, I don’t know, the power of math as your Profession, how would magic even influence that?”
“Potential Energy has a great selection of options from my, admittedly, loose use of it thus far. I’ve found combinations that would blow you away, Walker.” He snapped his fingers, and Walker looked away from the screen. In his palm was a floating orb of shimmering light.
“Concepts have as much or more power than the more elemental forms you’ve discovered thus far. That is why the strand is named Potential Energy and not Magic itself. Magic regretfully is stigmatized to mean fighting and death, whereas Potential Energy can develop around virtually anything. This particular collection of strands has integrated mental and mathematical principles.”
Walker’s eyes became round as saucers while he looked at the orb, “Wait, that makes no sense.”
Ulysses gave a brief smile, “That is because you’re looking at the world from a limited perspective. You think of magic as fire and lightning when it can be so much more. Why do you think it meshed so well in the creation of items and buildings?” He snapped his fingers again, a second shimmering orb appearing in his other hand. “The original orb I’ve shown you is a manifestation of advanced calculative concepts. I call it Mathematical Unification.” He raised the hand holding the other orb, “This concept is a byproduct of the space in my body wherein as much Temporal energy as possible was drained. It contains what I call Temporal Deceleration, although a better word for that might be-”
“Slowdown?”
Both orbs disappeared as he twisted his hands back and forth, “We can workshop it, as that’s not great or terrible.” Walker inwardly winced, “The reason you haven’t seen concepts so far is because you don’t have a Magic chamber. Actually, correction,” he said with a tilt of his head, “You had one, but you returned it immediately after because of guilt. I don’t understand it, but that was your choice, and it lies in the past.”
“Thanks,” Walker replied drily, “What’s the difference between the Temporal strand and the concept of Temporal Deceleration?”
Ulysses shrugged, “Strands are powerful on their own, but also incredibly linear. Potential Energy is an exception to that rule. When placed within an area, it takes on the qualities of its surroundings. Place it within an area that time is constantly slowed, and it becomes-”
“Slowness?”
Ulysses winced, “Still bad. Do you remember Chomp and his spatial control?”
Walker paused at the odd question, then nodded, “Yeah. I remember wondering how that had come to be.”
“Chomp was surrounded by the power of magic escaping from the Mana Trees. I believe that as the magic inundates an area, there is a chance for sporadic concepts to form based on the environment it is placed in. Those golden flowers he seemed to love so much? I am betting if you grabbed a few, you might find that there is an element of spatial concepts within them.”
Walker scratched his chin, “So you’re saying Chomp didn’t just love the smell of them, he was powering up his spatial attunement?”
“That’s exactly right.” He held up a hand and the shimmering orb reappeared in it, “Identify this.”
Walker acceded, hitting the ability.
Temporal Deceleration:
This orb contains multiple concepts related to slowness
“Wha-”
Ulysses held up another orb before he could finish. Unlike the plain white of Temporal Deceleration, this one was cherry red.
Burning Haste:
This orb contains multiple concepts related to Pyrokinetic Speed
“Now, I’m curious, Walker. What did the first orb say?”
“It said it was related to the concept of slowing,” Walker parroted back, “But that doesn’t make sense.”
“Doesn’t it? It holds multiple concepts, and the concept you most connected with was simplified into a singular word. The first one you came up with.” A grimace quickly crossed his face, “Slowing. At its root, Temporal Deceleration is a much weaker version of what we can do with the Temporal strand. But your mind immediately leaps to that particular word. In the hands of another person, with their own identify, it would likely say something completely different, such as Lethargy or even Dilation. That’s the fascinating thing about concepts versus basic magic. The entity directly impacts the value of the concept based on their own understanding of it. Fire is fire, ice is ice, but a concept is different.”
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“What do you see?” Walker asked, extremely curious about what he saw when looking at a concept.
“Temporal Attenuation of Chronometric Progression.”
“What the fuck?”
Ulysses rubbed the back of his head, for once seeming embarrassed by something, “It’s not a pure definition of what the concept is, as I’m still working on my understanding of time. But!” He held a finger up in the air, “I believe the further down the pathway I move in my reconstruction of Temporal Deceleration, the more I will be able to parse when viewing the concept.”
“So, concepts are impacted by the user.”
Ulysses nodded with a grin, “Exactly. Isn’t that exciting! It’s a whole new field of power.”
“Since I only see the word Slowness, I’m guessing that my control over the concept would be pretty weak.”
“Yes, that is true. But you viewed a more descriptive breakdown with the second concept, Burning Haste. That tells me you have a stronger understanding of what that concept is and could further develop it for your own needs. When I identified the concept, I had a more limited understanding, at least initially.”
“So what decides my understanding of the concept?”
Ulysses shrugged as the platform began descending, “I have a limited amount of data so far. If I had to guess, I would say it has to do with your experiences in life. The closer you are to the concept, the better your understanding, and the easier a time you will have to attune yourself to it. If we went by pure percentages, your understanding of Temporal Deceleration would likely be somewhere around five percent or less, while your understanding of Burning Haste would be closer to twenty percent.”
“So, if we had to classify everything. Basic magic, like fire and ice, would be tier one magical power.”
“If you had to classify it that way, sure, that would work. You could then state that combination magic moving beyond simple elements would be tier two, and concepts tier three.”
“Okay, I can get behind that,” Walker replied, thinking quickly, “But if those are one through three, what would tier four and five be?”
“That’s the question, is it not?” Ulysses said with a smile, “I’m sure it exists, just as I’m sure we will discover it as time accelerates.”
“Ha-ha,” Walker replied, grinning as the platform came to a stop. The room around them was empty as could be, the Universal Personality having already demonstrated his commitment to the Skill system. White floors stared at him, causing an errant thought to appear that made him a little worried.
“What about pure magic?”
Ulysses smiled, “Thinking of a certain group of white squirrels?”
Walker nodded.
“Pure magic is perfectly unattuned. That’s why it can be absorbed by any entity, regardless of what magic they’ve chosen. That also means it’s a blank slate, and can be overwritten by an attunement if the entity tries hard enough.”
Walker smiled, knowing that his friend Chipper could always move on to a higher order of magic if he wanted. He decided it was time to redirect them back to the bigger priority before they became further sidetracked by the wonders of magic, “So, Professions.”
Ulysses nodded, “Yes.”
“The Milestone system is already set up to allow anyone to take on a Profession at any time, Cagna took care of that a good bit of time ago.”
“I recall that as well.”
“So, the question becomes, are there any limitations we want to put in before we build out this whole thing?”
Ulysses created a board and they got down to work. After creating the Skill system, it didn’t take long for them to build a series of requirements for Professions to work as intended. They had to plan for not only long-term thinking, but about odd situations that might crop up.
Walker intrinsically knew that they wouldn’t be able to figure out everything in this small amount of time. That was impossible. What they instead needed to do was create some general guidelines that Ulysses could later adapt as needed. Updates to Skills, Professions, and Masteries would be necessary. They just had to build things to a point where everything made sense, and any changes necessary would be minor. Tweaking, rather than deletions and removals.
The thresholds were already decided, a carryover from their previous work. Each Profession would start out with three skills, allowing the Professionals to choose a mastery and a milestone skill at need. As the skills developed, new openings would appear, allowing the entity to continuously build up its base of power.
Calling Math a power didn’t sit right with him for a moment, but Ulysses immediately dashed that with a simple. “You’re an idiot.” Then they moved on.
Due to the nature of their first truly selectable system, meaning one that allowed for full choice, they spoke a lot about incipience. It was an old word that Ulysses liked to throw around, the definition of such translating to the beginning of things. The Origin. What would it look like? How many professions would appear? What would the trailblazer difference be?
Ulysses and Walker both agreed that Milestones would help. They could use them to help define the entity's potential paths forward, but there just weren’t enough of them yet. Cagna was working on them twenty-four-seven, and still, there were only several dozen. Ulysses came in handy here.
He promised to directly assign a part to the creation of Milestones, with Cagna as the approving force. However, he extracted a cost directly from Walker for the effort.
“Don’t worry, I won’t bankrupt you.”
Walker scratched his chin, “How much?”
“Not a lot, and stop touching your face so much,” Walker’s hand dropped, “A hundred Spirit in one lump sum. I’ll use some of that to work through Milestones for you moving forward, adapting as necessary. I estimate I can produce, at a minimum, over one hundred new milestones an hour. That will allow your pink Subsystem Assistant to approve and direct my parts in what direction she’d like them to move. A simple solution for a simple cost.”
“A hundred Spirit just for your guys to build Milestones? I feel like that’s a lot, knowing what I do now,” He said with a pointed look around the room that had previously held millions of physical manifestations.
Ulysses sighed, “Fine, I can add in more. How about…tasks. I’ll also direct some of my parts to focus on building tasks and further connect them to Cagna’s Milestones. That way, Milestones and Tasks have a synergy, further benefiting the citizens of Symphony.”
He sold it pretty well. Connecting Milestones to Tasks would be a big deal, as Symphony’s people would now have a way to directly track what Milestones to go for. But still, there were issues inherent in what Ulysses was asking for.
Walker pulled up the Communication system in his overlay. He knew there was a subcategory for Tasks, but due to time constraints had skipped it at the moment. He’d been interested, long ago, in creating his own Task system. Of course, he was going to call them Quests to further align with his childhood dreams, but still, there was a big issue.
If he went with what the Communication system offered, he would have to spend further resources to modify it, rather than the cheaper cost of building it from scratch. Yes, it would directly connect with their overlays. And yes, that would be amazing for his citizens. But the cost was high.
Task Creation:
Allows the Architect or Controller to build new tasks into the system.
Current members with access: System Architect Dante
Cost for activation: 500 Primordial Resources
Cost for each modification: Variable
Walker repeated to Ulysses what he read off the screen before saying, “Five hundred resources I don’t really have, a hundred Spirit to rope you into this, then even more of a cost for anything else we want to do.”
Ulysses nodded, “I’m waiting for a but.”
“But are we sure we should go through the Communication system instead of just building it ourselves?
“The great part about the Omniversal systems, is that they have been refined over who knows how much time. The Evolvers are shit with systems, and to my understanding, even Kwaya wasn’t great. You’re…alright,” He said, waffling on how to break it to him,” But these are extremely adaptable systems that are built in the right way for what we want. For instance, how much does it cost to merge the Milestone system into the Communications system.”
Walker clicked into mergers and found a shock, “Five hundred Primordial resources.”
“See, that isn’t so-”
“Paid.” Walker ended with a smile.
“Huh,” Ulysses replied, looking stunned for the first time since Walker had met him, “Really?”
Walker nodded, “Really really.”
“So, you pay five hundred to activate Tasks, then merge the Milestone system into it, receiving the cost back. That’s pretty nifty. Does it say why you’d get paid for it?”
He shook his head, “It doesn’t. Maybe it’s because we’re contributing to the Omniverse’s collection of systems. I was already hoping to merge the Event system in as well.”
Ulysses stretched, which Walker knew was an act as it wasn’t really a body. “Then I’d say your problems are solved there. That should make this nice and easy.”
Walker agreed, and they talked about what would need to go into everything. He wasn’t looking forward to Cagna’s hissy fit when he returned to Symphony, but at least this way, her rudimentary Milestones would be cemented into Symphony’s overarching systemic framework.
He quickly added the Task system, wincing as the subtraction hit his resources, then added both Cagna and Ulysses as Controllers, but not before spending a single Primordial resource on changing the name of the system to quests.
Fantasy come to life, Walker thought with a grin.
The five hundred resources, however, weren’t deposited back into his total. Instead, it said something else.
Please collect your Primordial funds from the Cosmic Life Engine
Walker asked for a portal to the engine, and Ulysses quickly made one. As he touched the screen, back in space for the first time in hours, the screen update gave him another shock.
Changes since Architect Dante’s last visit:
+30 Allocated Stipend
+30 Allocated Stipend
Universal descriptor change
+80 Allocated Stipend
+500 from Communications system merger
…
Updated!
Current rank: System Architect
Current lifeforms: 4
Current universal size: Intermediate
Allocated stipend: 80 Primordial resources per hour
Current collected resources: 670
Would you like to make a withdrawal?
Yes/No