Waking up in what seems to be late morning, I can see the boat has begun moving while I was sleeping. The Women around me are surprisingly relaxed, mostly just laying around talking to each other.
I always had this idea that ships would be super busy, but that's not true, at least not for this ship.
Come to think of it, I haven't actually seen any men on board yet. I suppose that's another question for Seraphine.
Speaking of which, Seraphine has seen that I'm awake and looking around because she's coming over to me with a bowl in her hand. in which turns out to be some kind of oatmeal that is in desperate need of sugar.
Not wanting to give away that I don't actually need to eat, I manage to eat the entirety of the bowl. after which Seraphine asks me
“So, Izzi, are you doing any better today?”
“Yeah, I suppose I am. It just all kind of got a bit too much, you know?”
“Yeah, don't mention it. It's all fine.” After that there is an awkward silence before she continues.
“You mentioned you had a lot of questions. I think we should probably begin answering some of them. If you have no objections, I think the best place to start is about the system.”
I nod
“Okay, let me think, where to actually start? Well, I suppose a good place to start would be what the system actually is. So let's do that. The system is the force that pulls you to the ground. It is what makes the river move. It is magic.
Seeing an option to get some more information about my own situation, I interrupt and ask.
“Oh, you make it seem like the system is sentient and some kind of god?”
Not quite prepared for the reply, Seraphine exclaims, "No! It is not a god. In a lot of ways it is certainly more powerful than any god, but it is not a god. Any attempt to venerate it, to pray to it, or just treated as a god. it’s punished pretty severely.
At this point, Seraphine takes a deep breath and continues more slowly.
“If you decide to treat the system as a god, at first you will get less experience, which is quite bad on its own, but it gets way, way worse. If you continue, you won't level, your skills will begin to fail you, beyond that, your levels will no longer matter. You'll become weaker, less capable as a whole, more easily become sick, stuff like that. It gets pretty bad.”
“Okay, okay, I get it. The system is definitely not a god. Noted.” I reply, a bit surprised by the turn of the conversation so far. But curious about something else she mentioned, I aske .
“You say that levels no longer matter. What do levels actually do?”
“Well, asking the big questions now, aren't we? So, it isn't totally clear exactly what Levels does. At the very least, some skills are locked behind certain Level requirements. Other than that, everything you do related to your class is just better. For instance, high-level sailors will just have a tendency to be at the right place at the right time. If she's at the helm, the boat will just move smoother, there will seem to be less turbulence and the water will assist more than oppose. Of course it's not easy to see the difference level to level but put a level one besides let's say a level 70 and it's a world of difference. It's just a help though and doesn't make up for actual know-how. I would rather have a level 1 who knows her ship than a level 70 sailor who has never been on one. Of course it would be nearly impossible to become a level 70 sailor without actually having sailed, but stranger things have happened, I suppose.”
Okay, that's a lot. Seems like level influences your surroundings, at least when related to your class. But before I can really come to terms with what this means, Seraphine continues.
“At any rate it’s Good that you understand that the system isn't a god. The general agreement is that the system serves the gods, and as such, even if it seems stronger than any one God, it is in fact a servant.”
Wait, guards? As in several? There's more than just one guard? I ask for obvious reasons, quite curious about the subject.
“oh yeah there's many, most rivers have a god. Heck, some old trees have a god. cities usually have a couple, depending on the size. I don't even think anybody knows how many that the capitals have anymore.”
“I see. You say this as if gods are gods of something. Do they ever leave the thing they are gods of? Like do river gods ever leave the river or do old tree gods leave their trees?”
“That depends on what you mean by leave. Depending on the power of the god, they can certainly get quite far from their source of power. But they will always be tied to that. It's not like you'll ever see a city god visiting the neighboring city.” Serafin seemed a bit perplexed by the very question.
Okay, so multiple gods existed. That was good. At least I'm not unique in that sense. However, them not being able to move away from the source of power certainly didn't align up with what I knew. I wasn't tied to some random piece of forest and the god that wrote the note, the so-called admin, had actually left all of reality which definitely counted for moving away from your source of power.
But then again it might just be because the captain didn't know. I mean, maybe all the gods had some kind of shadow cabal where they agreed to not actually show their powers to the mortals. Wait, mortals? Am I immortal? That's going on the "Need to figure out at some point" list. For now I should probably try to figure out how reliable of a source the captain actually is.
Thinking about this I asked Seraphine"So have you ever actually met a god or spoken to one?"
“I've been at several festivals where gods were present, even been in a couple of squares where they made announcements and stuff like that. But I have never spoken to one, one-on-one, or held a conversation or anything like that, if that is what you're asking.” Seraphine answered and promptly continued.
“But we're getting off topic. Interesting as theology can be, this isn't really the point. I wanted to teach you about the system more generally, not get bogged down in the details. So let's continue from yesterday. Did you manage to pull off summoning your status screen? If so, can you please read aloud what's on it so I can explain anything you don't get? ”
Oh shit, I have no idea how a normal status should look. Guess I don't have too many options other than just declining. “I'm sorry, Seraphine, but I really would rather keep it private if that's okay. But I would be happy if you could teach me how to use it and what the different things mean anyway.”
Now with a look of annoyance Seraphine replied "Well I guess that's fine if that's how you want to play it out. Anyways I presume you did manage to get your status out. That's good. When interacting with the system it's always easiest to do from the status screen. Everything is possible without first going to your status but it's always easiest from there.”
At this point, Seraphine took some deep breaths, evidently to calm herself after being annoyed by my reply. And continued.
“The other main screens you will need to see are the Class Selection Screen and the Skill Selection Screen. All you need to do is think and want to know your possible skills and classes.”
Seeing the perfect opportunity to get an idea of how these kinds of things should look for a normal person I asked.
“Could you perhaps explain how they look and what is on them so I have an easier time visualizing it?”
“Sure, I can do that. Let's start with the class selection screen. In it you will see the classes that you can pick from. Depending on what you have done in your life so far, you should see 1 to 2 if you haven't done very much and eight if you have done a lot. Most classes are common, after which we have uncommon followed by rare. You probably won't have any of those, as they are, funny enough, rare. You will also be able to see what requirement has made you able to unlock the class. So, give it a try.”
With a feeling of slight trepidation I call forward first my status screen and then the class selection screen.
Class name Class rarity requirements Alchemist uncommon System Admin. Assassin uncommon System Admin.
Acrobat Common System Admin.
Apothecary Common System Admin.
Artificer rare System Admin.
Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.
Astrologer uncommon System Admin.
Augur Epic System Admin.
Arbalester uncommon System Admin.
Ancestral Guardian Epic System Admin.
Arcanist rare System Admin.
Artisan uncommon System Admin.
Abyssal Knight legendary System Admin.
Aerialist rare System Admin.
Agitator uncommon System Admin.
Arcanamancer rare System Admin.
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Yeah that's even worse than I feared. Out of a morbid curiosity I hit the next arrow. And again. And again. And again. I stopped when I hit the 20th screen. Even now all the classes still begin with the letter A. Okay, so a bit more than eight classes. What is that? At least a thousand, right? Probably even tens of thousands. Hey, maybe even more. I honestly have no idea. And they are all unlocked due to me being an admin. To not even mention the rarity. Seraphine didn't even mention some of these. Okay, I need more information. Let's try to ask a bit more about classes.
“So, how do people normally unlock classes?”
“Well, it usually goes something like this. Everybody throughout their life makes choices and decisions. These decisions influence who you are as a person. The system reacts to this and gives you the choice to become more of what you already are. Skills work more or less the same way. By demonstrating your ability to do something, you get offered either a passive or active skill.”
At this explanation I frowned slightly. “Wait, so you have to do something, for instance, you have to sow seeds and harvest crops to become a farmer. But let's say the farmer's son wants to be a knight . He would have to risk everything not picking the farmer class. Just for a chance to be a knight?”
“What? No, that's not how it works at all. You can change your class at any time you want. All it would cost you is whatever levels you had in your previous class and some class specific skills. But anyways, did you get anything good offered?”
“Nah, nothing really that impressive. By the way, is there anything more rare than rare?” Oh my god, that was probably the most suspicious way I could have asked that ever.
The captain seemed to think about my question for a moment before her eyes opened up wide and she said "Well, I suppose epic is after rare. Hmm…" After she responded she got this sly smile on her face as if she had figured everything out and quickly asked me
“If you want any help figuring out what a particular class does,then I'm certainly open to helping you out. Don't worry about that. I'm really here for you.” She said with the same smile.
At this point I got a feeling that I might have revealed more than I intended to, although I wasn't entirely sure what. So to get out of this without revealing even more, I blurted out the first question that came to mind.
“Why are the entire crew women? I mean, why are there no men on board?”
Seraphine, seeming a bit perplexed by the subject change, burst out laughing after a moment. "Men! On board a ship as part of the crew? Well, I mean, we do take them as passengers from time to time, if they can pay. But working here, sailing is a woman's work. We wouldn't want any men doing that kind of job.
Feeling that I have walked from one kind of minefield into another, I ask, "What exactly makes sailing women's work?"
“Well, I guess I never really thought about it. Suppose there isn't anything stopping men from being sailors. But you know, all the Legends have female captains. And men do better in cities. Working at shops, or in bars, or perhaps as a farmer, stuff like that. Women need to be free. They have a harder time being closed inside of a city all year round.”
Seems like gender roles are different. I would probably have to look out for that. I guess it does mean Sailor is a career path I could take. I probably have the class unlocked, but it would be hell to get all the way to "S" on my class list.
But maybe I don't have to. Maybe my skill list is more easily navigated than my class list. Let's take a look.
Skill name Active/Passive requirements Archery Passive System Admin. Athletics Passive System Admin.
Adventurer's Lore Passive System Admin.
Astral Magic Passive System Admin.
Ancestral Magic Passive System Admin.
Arcane Magic Passive System Admin.
Abyssal Magic Passive System Admin.
Aerial navigation Active System Admin.
Ancestral Summoning Active System Admin.
Astral projection Active System Admin.
Alchemy Passive System Admin.
Acrobatics Passive System Admin.
Animal Handling Passive System Admin.
Astronomy Passive System Admin.
Abyssal invocation Active System Admin.
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And that's a definite no. It seems like I will have to figure out what it means to be an admin.