Walker involuntarily let out a long breath of air after Ulysses finally lowered the Crystal Imager. They’d watched it twice to ensure it said exactly what he had intended. Nothing more and nothing less. It was important to him that they nailed it. After all, who knew how many people would see that one video?
Ulysses popped the crystal out, and it disappeared. He smiled at the act before looking over at Walker, “Don’t worry. I made copies. That’s the great thing about Crystal Latices. They’re very easy to duplicate. See-” He pulled one from the air and tossed it over, “-now you have one as well. That way, you have your own record of this momentous event.”
Walker smiled at him as he placed the crystal within a small pouch located on his belt, “Thank you. I appreciate you helping me with everything.”
Ulysses shrugged, “That’s what we agreed to. Partners. One to manage the mechanics of everything, and one to manage the people.”
Walker waffled a hand back and forth, “A bit, but you know it’s not going to work purely like that. You’ll have your watching and recording, and I’ll still be building worlds as I go. Think of it more as-”
“Guidelines?” Ulysses supplied with a smirk. Receiving a happy nod from Walker in return. “Well, I believe we have just about exhausted all of your plans after arriving here, Walker. You’ve spoken multiple times now about your haste to return, and I can now focus a few parts on working with the Cosmic Life Engine’s A.I. I believe it is time for us to go our separate ways.”
Walker nodded, taking a moment to slowly look around the blank white room. He wouldn’t exactly miss it, as he missed his friends even more. But still, he had enjoyed the process of working with Ulysses to better empower Symphony’s citizens. There were good memories here, even if some of them had included exploding copies of himself and Ulysses.
“So…” Walker said as he scratched the back of his neck, “Goodbye for now? I mean, eventually, I’m hoping to bring everything over here.” He gave a sudden laugh at a higher pitch than normal, “I feel like I’m breaking up with an old girlfriend. How strange.”
Ulysses nodded with a smile, “It’s a goodbye for now, yes. However, due to your natural state of being consistently distracted, I would like to give you a few reminders to keep in mind. Please be sure to share my contact information with all of your assistants so they may ask questions as needed. I would also prefer it if you did the same with your planetary pocket dimension, something I have been tinkering around with myself.”
“Oh?” Walker asked.
Ulysses sighed at Walker before smiling again, “What you showed me on that strange planet was exceedingly helpful in my understanding of Dimensionality, including the gift of your Gravity strand. In fact,” He waved a hand, which Walker knew was for dramatic effect more than anything else. A moment later, the strange strand that had caused him so many issues appeared in front of him, causing him to look at it with no small amount of trepidation.
Ulysses looked at it before turning back to Walker with a smile, “This has served its purpose. It is only right that I give it back to you.”
Walker’s dour face shifted into a cracked smile, “Thank you. Hopefully its as easy to assimilate as the Spirit strand was.”
The orange ball of gaseous energy danced in front of him. He stepped over quickly and, with a gulp of courage, reached a darkness-covered hand out. He shouldn’t be nervous, as none of the strands had hurt him so far. In fact, when he’d formed it, the thing that had hurt him was Ulysses himself. From the corner of his eye, he could see the Universal Personality grinning as he got closer.
Once he was only a few feet away, it zipped toward his hand, attaching directly to the darkness of his soul. Immediately, Walker was forced to take several stuttering steps as his hand dropped towards the ground. It felt like it weighed two hundred pounds, and he was struggling just to lift it. Ulysses' booming laughter rang out behind him.
“Oh, oh, this is the best.” He said with another laugh, “Come now, Walker. You should know that a strand, literally labeled as gravity, was going to put you on your ass.” Walker continued to tilt forward, the strain apparent on his face as Ulysses cracked up again, “Oh, you should see yourself. You look like the better part of a pretzel.”
The weight increased again, dragging him fully to the ground, “Is this fucking thing getting heavier?”
Ulysses wiped an apparent tear from his eye, “Oh my, yes. And it will continue to do so. I suggest you move quickly.” He finished by pointing at his eyes with two fingers.
Walker got the gist of it. He leaned his head toward the thing, covering his head in darkness, but then gravity grabbed onto that, too. Only, instead of pushing towards his eyes, it was his chin that landed on the strand.
“Ahahaha,” Ulysses laughed out. He lay on the ground in front of Walker so he could see his face, “You’ve got something on your chin.” He said with a titter before backing up quickly as gravity began to assert on him as well.
Walker tried to speak but his tongue currently felt like it was glued to the bottom of his mouth. Covering himself completely in darkness, he tried to push his head. Millimeter by millimeter, Walker was able to gain a better angle. Just as his chin began to slide the way he wanted it to, his nose met the ball in a quick and painful fashion.
“Ahahahahaha”
Walker ignored him and continued to shift his head. Once he felt gravity start to assert itself further on the rest of his body, he began to move with more haste. He didn’t want his feet to suddenly have to touch the ball as well, or he really would become a pretzel. After another few agonizing seconds, Walker was able to get his eyes just close enough for the strand to touch his overlay. It disappeared moments later.
Walker rubbed his nose, happy to feel that it wasn’t broken. He stood up and looked around for Ulysses, who stood over fifty yards away, waving at him. A moment later, he stood only feet away, a big grin on his face.
“If that had gone on just a few moments longer, Walker…I don’t even know.”
“You could have warned me?” Walker said with a pout. Ulysses took a step closer as he tapped on Walker’s head, “You could have used your noggin. It’s gravity. G-R-A-V-I-T-Y.” He said, spelling each letter out, “Now, go ahead and look at your notifications. I know you want to.”
Walker snorted and pulled up the blinking icon.
Congratulations Architect Dante!
You’ve discovered the Gravity strand!
With your discovery of a new helix strand, the Omniverse has seen fit to reward you with three options:
1:
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Access to Architect Dante’s regional seat. This includes a lifting of restrictions on purchasing goods and services for the designated universe: Symphony.
Warning: This will allow Omniversal citizens to travel to and visit the designated universe.
2:
The system will reward Architect Dante with access to the Gravity system. An independent system that allows for the creation of independent gravity locales.
Warning: The cost of use for this system includes both Gravity and Primordial resources.
3:
Receive A Universal Traveler’s Companion: The 3,487,305th edition of the infamous Universal Traveler’s Companion now includes sections about the recently ended Manhunter war and pictures of the lusty warrior women of Gygax.
Walker laughed out loud when he read the third description, “Fucking Omniversal porn man.” Still, the title did weird things to his brain. Like he was missing something. He looked over and noticed the confused look on Ulysses’ face, so he quickly described his options. The part’s confused look shifted to one of extreme concentration, causing Walker to ask, “What?”
Ulysses waved a hand, “I was just thinking of the commonalities between these choices and what you received for the Spirit strand discovery. The options for the Gravity strand have a certain flavor to them that fits similarly with those from the previous strand. The first option, meaning the ability to unlock our Universe to the greater versi surrounding us, would be something a less intelligent being would jump at. It would allow others to enter with what I assume are virtually no restrictions.” He looked up and stared at the white ceiling for a moment before nodding, “Yes. That’s what my parts studying the Omniversal guide token are saying. This is a trap.”
“A trap?” Walker said as he leaned forward, “So, basically, it allows for Omniversal immigration, that’s what? Virtually unchecked?”
Ulysses nodded, “Yes. There are slight restrictions naturally put into place, but no policing of any kind. It would allow anyone within the Omniverse to travel here and do as they please.”
Walker sighed, “Well, I know what I’m not choosing.” He took a few steps as he considered everything, then turned around, “What do you think of the other two options?”
“Well, I don’t believe the third option is purely Omniversal porn, as you so eloquently stated. It sounds like it would remove those redactions you’ve complained about in the past, and provide a brief history of the Omniverse. That could be a great boon to our future progress as a group.”
Walker stopped, “But I know you. As nice as that would be for me, and probably Virgil, I’m guessing that you want me to pick the Gravity system.”
Ulysses gave a tilted grin, “That I do. I’m trying to consider the gravity of it,” Walker groaned, “What would be the use of creating localized gravity wells?”
“I’m a teacher, not a physicist. Hell, even the fact that I know that’s a matter of physics is astounding to me. Why don’t you tell me, and I’ll pretend to know what you’re talking about.”
Ulysses nodded, “Okay. There are quite a few options. You could establish gravity options within the Territory system, allowing for the construction of larger buildings than ever before. You could create zero-gravity environments, which might be useful for future events or even the training of specific sapients and monsters. Or, you could go with my personal belief of its greatest use.”
Walker raised an eyebrow, “And that is?”
“Closing Temporal distortions,” Ulysses replied with a grin, “What did you think those tears in my body were when I helped you form the strand? As soon as I saw the strand, I assigned multiple parts to it in a temporally advanced location. It took a few years, but for you, that was only seconds. The control of gravity is a powerful thing.” He snapped his fingers, and Walker felt something pull him directly up. Another snap and it released its hold, dropping him a few feet down. “Like I said, a powerful thing.”
Getting his bearings after Ulysses messed with him yet again, Walker considered what he’d said. He hadn’t been sure of how to close all those ripped up holes, but now that he had a solution, he couldn’t not take it.
Double negatives are tricky
With a sigh that he didn’t really have a choice, and a wistful thought for what those lusty warriors might have looked like, Walker chose the second option.
Congratulations Architect Dante!
You’ve unlocked the Gravity system!
Please allow us a moment
…
Secondary rewards for your discovery of a Helix strand:
500 Gravity resources
1000 Kinetic resources
1000 Dimensional resources
The first part showed what he’d seen in the past, only instead of a thousand resources for gravity, he only received five hundred. Casting his mind back, he remembered that the Spirit strand only gave five thousand as a reward for its discovery. It further confirmed his theory that his gain in resources was halved whenever he crossed the strands from different categories. Walker nodded and clicked on his newest system.
Hello Architect Dante, and welcome to the Gravity system!
The Gravity system is designed to empower established System Architects as they further discover the wonders of the Omniverse. This system allows for the creation of customized gravity locales, enabling anything from unique construction options to optimized agricultural practices and new methods in patient rehabilitation.
The Gravity system has a large assortment of different options, with the only restrictions being the resources used, and the creativity of the Architect using it. Please peruse the manual when you have a moment.
Walker checked his inventory, and lo and behold, he had a new item.
Omniversal Manual: The Gravity system
Walker groaned, “Son of a bitch.” He pulled out the book, noting its weight and thickness being only slightly lighter than the Bounty system’s manual.
Ulysses looked at it, “Did you choose the porn after all?”
Walker waved a hand as he placed the manual back into his inventory, “No, although I will admit to being curious. That’s a manual for the Gravity system.”
“Oh.”
Why does Ulysses look disappointed?
Walker mentally shrugged off that thought, then had another, “So, it was pretty nice of you to give me the strand back.”
“Ehh,” Ulysses replied, “I felt it apt as I was truly only borrowing it. After all, I crushed your hands to make it in the first place, which disallowed you from claiming it into your resources.”
Walker grimaced as he looked at his fully healed hands, “You don’t have to remind me. But still, it was a nice action. And one good act begets another.” Walker pulled one hundred Spirit resources out and tossed it in the air. One second, it was there, and the next, it was gone.
Ulysses smiled with a very slight bow, “Thank you, Walker. That is very helpful, but you should keep a close eye on your resources. They do not reproduce, although I believe the next time you visit, I should have a solution for that.”
“Neat.” Walker put his hands in his pockets as he rocked back and forth, “Sooo, how the hell do I get out of this universe?”
A door appeared in the white room that hadn’t been there before. Ulysses pointed at it, “That door will take you directly over Symphony.”
Walker smiled, “Thank you, but can you have it float over Romulus and Remus?”
“Why?”
He scratched his chin, “Because I need to fix some shit I fucked up.” He shook his head, “In fact, I need to fix a lot of shit before Symphony’s thrown out of our displacement.”
Ulysses put a hand on his shoulder, “Well, you don’t have to worry about Milestones and Quests. I will manage that myself with your lovely assistants. You just worry about the things you can directly affect. And, of course, you now have another solution for helping Symphony. After all, you’re a rare creature, like myself, that can be in many places at once.”
Walker grinned, “Hah, you’re right. Maybe it won’t be so rough after all.” He stretched his back and took a few steps to the door before Ulysses called out, “Hey, wait.”
Walker turned around and found Ulysses standing there with two Imagers and a small collection of crystals. He handed them off to Walker who immediately placed them into his inventory with a curious expression.
“Just play them when you get the chance,” he turned around and began walking, slowly becoming transparent the more he moved. “And you’re welcome. See you soon, Walker.” His body faded away. “Don’t be a stranger.”
Walker pocketed it and, with a nod, turned towards the door. Just before he stepped through, the Creator covered himself in Temporal energy. It was time to go home.