I didn’t know what I’d been expecting. Perhaps a grand room housing thousands of books with various job opportunities and instruction manuals on how to work said jobs? Maybe a human worker to assign me to a job like all the other people who’d gotten me this far?

But no.

I cocked a curious head to the side and dared another few steps closer to the humanoid… Object? Machine?

What is that?

“The machine you see before you, Rayden, is an android,” Dex chimed in my head, having read my personal thoughts.

In the last day or so, Dex’s database had been automatically dumping information in my head when I’d come across new technology or foreign ideas and events, as long as his scans had garnered enough information about what I came across. But something about this “android,” as Dex had called it, warranted a full-on conversation with my internal AI.

“It is a sort of an artificial intelligence like me,” Dex continued, “but with a physical body made of various metal alloys.”

“Interesting,” I breathed aloud. I dared to bring my face closer to study my reflection in the metallic sheen that glinted on the android’s own featureless face.

“Have you never seen an android before?” Emmett said, sidling up next to me.

“No, I haven’t.” I circled around the machine, ascertaining every detail. Even the joints on its arms and legs were made from a dark metal.

The android stood upright in a frozen position, thin arms with wily metal fingers held straight at its slender sides. Every part of it was a deep gray with a sleek, almost screen-like surface for a face.

“You have to grab its hands, then the android will have access to your Soul’s information and the neural implant in your head,” Emmett said.

Dex said something similar in my head at the same time, but I could have sworn I heard Dex’s words trail off as if annoyed by Emmett’s interruption.

I scowled. “Uh, what’s it going to do?”

Dex spoke loudly and quickly in my head like he wanted to beat Emmett to the punch, “The android will scan your Soul Strength and Tier level, and then decide on a job based on your current stats and capabilities.”

I looked to Emmett to see if he had anything to say, but he looked at me curiously, eyes narrowed and lips drawn to a tight line.

“How do you know what Tier you are without a scanner like an android? Forget that, how’d you receive your Mark?” he said. “You’ve seriously never seen an android before?”

I chewed on my tongue and drifted my gaze to the floor. So, even the people on this planet didn’t cultivate quite the same as I did. I knew that the Edronans would meditate similarly, churning essence and directing the streams to their core, but they all had to attend the Temple of Euridice to receive a Mark and attain the ability to cultivate. And they had to continue to go to the temple on a somewhat regular basis to see if they’d advanced to another Tier and received a new Skill. This was all done by placing their hands on a tablet device that would scan their Souls.

But I didn’t have to attend temple or use the tablet the Edronans did. I cultivated and advanced through Tiers automatically, with the help of Dex. He showed me all of that in the blink of an eye, and I was shown my levels within the Tiers and had the capability to allocate stat points wherever I wanted. Lady Euridice would steal 20% of the Edronans’ essence and allocate their stats as she saw fit–the people from home didn’t even know about the existence of levels and stats.

Of course, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that most, if not all, of the subjects within the Erudition Collective, Lady Euridice’s universe, would suffer the same drawbacks because of her deceptions. It was more than likely that the people in Solomon’s Realm Academy, obvious worshippers of the goddess, had to do regular scans to keep track of their Tiers.

It didn’t seem Emmett expected me to answer his question. Instead, he said, “This android will scan your Tier and Soul Strength, but this one is also specifically for selecting a job that befits you. There are many other androids around the academy, most to assist after cultivation and tell us when we’ve advanced a Tier and received a new Skill.”

A thought struck me that, during my time here, I might have to visit these androids more often than not to avoid any suspicion coming my way. Even though I could officially advance and learn of my Skills on my own, most in this city couldn’t. I made a mental note to ask Nic how it worked for him–at least, before he had somehow turned off his Codex.

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

I slowly reached my hands out toward the metal fingers of the android, then hesitated.

“Is there anything I need to expect? Like, does it hurt?” That question fell in the category of things Dex couldn’t answer for me since he wasn’t made of flesh and blood and had no feelings.

“Nope!” Emmett flashed me a toothy grin. “It’s quick and painless.”

Shrugging, I took his word for it and placed my palms atop the android’s palms, the cold of its metal biting my flesh uncomfortably. However, the unpleasant cold disappeared quickly after a few seconds of my hands warming the metal. I settled into my feet firmly, not knowing what to expect next.

A hum sounded; It was a soft, high-pitched hum that accompanied a vibration and warmth that both crept through the entire android. Once the sensations reached my skin, the android’s fingers tightened around the tops of my hands. I flinched slightly from surprise but felt no pain or other discomfort.

The android’s chin–at least, what I thought would be its chin–rose from the machine’s chest. Its face lifted to meet mine, and I could clearly see my reflection in its shiny, screen-like face.

Emmett cleared his throat. “I, uh… It’s not common for people to watch another’s scanning. Most don’t want others to see their Soul Strength levels.”

“Oh,” I breathed.

I kept my eyes on the android’s screen face that had now lit up in white. My breath hitched as I feared my strange Soul Strength level–the “too high to compute” level–to appear on the screen and warrant some unwanted interrogation from Emmett. I didn’t know how he’d take the fact that I’m a clone of a dead god with a perfect Soul.

“I’ll leave you to it then,” Emmett said. “I’ll wait just outside.”

I didn’t dare remove my eyes from the screen but said, “Alright, thanks.”

The doors shut behind Emmett just in time, for as soon as he’d left the room, the android’s face revealed a list of numbers and words that looked very similar to the stat screens Dex showed me when advancing and leveling up.

STATUS

NAME: RAYDEN GRIM, STUDENT #1,005,003

TIER: 3

A small smile grew on my lips. Though it most likely had to do with my registration as Rayden Grim in the academy’s systems and with my new neural implant, it was nice to see my actual name on the stat screen instead of “Clone Number 52.” But maybe, since I’d changed the name Codex called me from “Master” to “Rayden,” I could get my internal stat screens to change, too. It was worth trying at some point.

Before the first words and numbers on the android’s face faded away, I also noticed that my level within Tier 3 wasn’t listed.

The android must not have the ability to see levels.

Cold clutched at my heart as I was once again reminded that these people still belonged to Euridice. And yet, I was grateful that the android didn’t seem to catch on to the fact that I didn’t have a Mark like everyone else. But that gratitude left me once I saw the following screen:

ERROR: UNABLE TO DETERMINE SOUL STRENGTH. TOO HIGH TO

COMPUTE.

I instinctively darted my eyes about the dark room, making sure no one hid in the shadows and saw my strange situation regarding Soul Strength. But I saw no one.

The words hovered on the android’s face ominously–almost the exact same wording as when I’d gone through my Marking Ceremony in Edrona and found out that one, the goddess wouldn’t Mark me and allow me to cultivate. Though, I’d quickly found out people didn’t even need a Mark to advance through the Tiers. Receiving her Mark essentially imprisoned a person to her will. And two, when I discovered that my Soul Strength levels were innumerable.

The eerie flashbacks of my first Marking Ceremony sent a shiver down my spine.

I returned my attention to the android just as its screen flickered, and then it went completely dark. Panicking through a realization that the machine hadn’t assigned me any sort of job, I tightened my grip on its metal hands and focused my stare on its sleek face.

“Work,” I grumbled, squeezing my hold on the machine a little too tightly.

Miraculously, a glimmer of white flashed over the android’s face, and it reignited with a new set of words:

JOB RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RAYDEN GRIM

JANITORIAL WORK

KIOSK MANAGEMENT

WEAPONS WARDEN

…

The words continued to scroll by on the screen, showing me about 20 or 30 menial jobs. I didn’t know what all of the job titles meant, but I didn’t suspect to receive an offer of anything exciting. Most likely because I was only a Tier 3. And I wondered if my incalculable Soul Strength level played into that at all. Maybe the fact that the android couldn’t determine an actual number for my Soul Strength broke the system in a way that prevented me from having any exceptional work options.

Having no idea which job to select, or even how to select one, I found my eyes scanning over the words and unconsciously reading them without allowing each title to sink into my brain. That is until the words “SCOUT SUPPORT” flashed in front of my eyes. I focused on the job title, and it seemed that’s all I’d needed to do to activate another page on the android’s face with a job description of “SCOUT SUPPORT.”

I tried to ignore the fact that the machine had just read my mind, probably by using that new neural implant in my head. Dex reading my mind was one thing–I was more used to him. And I trusted Dex. Sort of. At least, the logic behind his existence in my mind had been explained very well by the Lord Solomon AI.

SCOUT SUPPORT

AN INDIVIDUAL HIRED TO ATTEND SCOUTING TRIPS ON THE SURFACE OF

PLANET X-47-35. A SUPPORT PERSON HELPS THE SCOUTS BY CARRYING HEAVY

LOADS AND WATCHING OUT FOR ANY IMMINENT DANGERS. THEY ALSO

PROVIDE FIGHTING SUPPORT AGAINST THREATS, BUT ONLY WHEN

NECESSARY.

“Do you know if the scouts on this planet are similar to the Hunters back on Edrona?” I asked Dex.

“There are many similarities, Rayden. Scout parties are set up here at Solomon’s Realm Academy, and said parties are sent to the surface of this planet in shifts to do things such as find food and retrieve valuable loot.”

I nodded, mulling over the words hovering on the android’s face in front of me. Though I’d only be a support person, most likely not participating in any of the moments that might make a scout’s job exciting, selecting a job that I was somewhat familiar with felt comforting.

I cleared my throat. “Uh, android… thing… I want to be a Scout Support.”

The screen flickered in bright whites and yellows, then presented my name in large lettering with my new job title:

RAYDEN GRIM

SCOUT SUPPORT