Chapter 39

Rewards

[Remmi]

I'm stunned by Yorin's words and I reflexively run through everything I've done recently to see if I'm guilty of something I didn't realize.

It's ... a surprisingly short list, and I don't come up with anything that was actually broken.

"... What'd I do now?"

We're all kneeling around a short, square table in Yorin's ... office-house-apartment-thing. Ayre's to my left and Yorin sits across from us. Kyuuga is off in a corner stuffing his face with potatoes and onions.

When Yorin closes her eyes to talk to me, I've learned it means she's concentrating on her exact word choices. Whatever I've done must be a pretty delicate issue.

"Remmi," she says slowly, "the Essence System does not direct sapient beings. To do so would be to impose a will over them, defeating the purpose of sapience. It will support anyone connected to it, anywhere, regardless of their deeds or intentions."

Without really thinking about it, I reach up and scratch the side of my head. For something that isn't supposed to be willful, the System can get pretty darn cheeky.

Yorin notices, because of course she does, and gives me the glare that says I'd better not even dare to contradict her right now.

I put my hand back in my lap and hold it there with the other.

"The one exception it might possibly make, if it would do so with anyone," she continues, "is with Heroes, due to your unique connection to it."

"On account of us still being jacked directly into it instead of just feeding off the wifi signal?" I venture.

Which, of course, earns me the, Stop right freaking now, glare. Probably should've seen that coming. Probably could've phrased it better, too, but I have a feeling she got the gist.

"For the Heavenly Essence to direct both of you violates every stretch of understanding Man possesses of its nature," Yorin's lecture goes on as if I'd said nothing. "The only possible explanation is the severity of the event. A situation where to do nothing would have led to a result anathema to its nature. Even then, it should have precious little capability to alter a non-Hero directly."

I've already been scolded twice, but an idea hits me hard enough to override my restraint. "Maybe it didn't."

I have the attention of two elves on me immediately, so after a pause to let my mouth catch up with my brain, I continue my thought.

"All it offered Ayre was extra points and affinity increases. Now, those seem more like predicted responses from people finding out what we did than anything actually generated by the System."

I motion to myself by putting my hand against my chest. "As for the points, we already found out that just grouping with me grants regular people extra points, like I'm some sort of portable dungeon."

Aww crud, that made Yorin's eye twitch, a good sign I again said something I shouldn't have. So I bulldoze on to the conclusion. "Maybe the System did nothing to Ayre at all. Maybe it just cranked the bonus from me way up for a moment right at the end to give Ayre the promised reward. I was the only one changed. Used me like a signal tower to roundabout get to Ayre."

Fortunately, that seems to appease Yorin, who cups her chin as she mulls the idea over. "Yes, that would make much more sense. It remains mind-boggling in implication, but it fits more closely to our comprehension of its limits."

"And seeing how infectious what we found was," I put forward with a little more boldness, "I think we can easily say you're right about the severity. If we'd gone back to town and everybody took time to come up with a response, the days or weeks that thing would have been left alone could have been catastrophic."

Yorin's eyes snap back to me at that like hot irons, but her voice remains calm. "You have not yet reached that part in your retelling. You had only just confirmed the skeletal rat. Please continue from there."

So that's what I do. I mention the increasing environmental damage and my suspicions about the rats' cannibalism. I include the large numbers and different creatures, how anything that got killed probably got added to its menagerie.

I detail the tactics we used to eliminate the undead horde and how all of the pieces pulled together to form the abomination. Because I don't want to leave anything out, I also relay the data from both Identify and Diagnose, and these cast a dark pall over Yorin's tightly schooled expression.

For once, I don't think I'm the reason. Those things mean something to her.

I describe how that battle goes, too, and finally get to the damned will-o-wisp. Throughout the recitation, Ayre has been providing her insights and perspectives, how things played out from where she stood.

Now, she only describes her reaction to the flame and goes silent.

I explain why I paralyzed her and my own temptations with the Heart of Corruption, and walk through my own thought processes and tests in trying to figure out what to do with it.

... I get ... interesting reactions when I get to my idea that Heroes could have innate resistance because of their direct System connection. Ayre gives me a bewildered look as she tries to process the idea. She probably can't figure out how I might be wired up differently to a system that clearly affects the whole world as she knows it.

Yorin, meanwhile, gives me a look like I'm trampling all over Vatican secrets. Thinking of things that I'm not supposed to be thinking of. Honestly, I'd be shocked if I was really the first one to make such a guess, but I can also understand why the Temple of the Ascended wouldn't want people thinking of Heroes as inhuman super-soldiers.

When I get to how that thought tied into one of my temptations, though, her face goes darker than I've ever seen it. It's sudden and vicious enough that it takes me a moment to realize I've stopped talking. It takes her a moment longer still, and then to notice me staring at her. The expression promptly dissolves into a slightly troubled wrinkle.

... Okay, so somebody's fallen for that temptation before, then. Good to know. And safe to say that it was with the predictable outcome. From her reaction, one would think I'd suggested reenacting the fall of Lucifer.

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I make it a point to mention how proximity to the Heart disrupted the system display, give a summary of the corporate apology letter, and pull up the description of the Purification Cannon skill to share it with them both.

Ayre reads through it with wide eyes. "... Is the System always so ... violent for you?"

"Only the sales department," I reply. "Normally, skill descriptions are pretty mundane. I figure this one was written by the storefront side of things."

"Remmi," Yorin gently scolds, "Heavenly Essence does not have departments. It is a singular, incorporeal, diffuse entity."

In response, I pull up the skill description for Diagnose. "Is this how it looks for you?" When she nods, I let it go and navigate to the storefront, pulling up the item description for Heavenly ThunderTM Paralysis Rounds.

Poor Ayre swallows so audibly that I'm surprised she doesn't choke on her own tongue.

... Yorin, however, doesn't look surprised at all. In fact, her expression is completely, perfectly neutral, a sure sign she's actually trying very hard not to show anything. "Remmi, I'm going to have to ask you to stop doing that."

"Right, right," I reply, letting the screen go. "Stop breaking everything."

She gives a deep sigh. "Regardless of the individual manner in which the Essence may reach out to each of us, what is relevant is that this Cannon was able to destroy the Heart, correct?"

"Right," I nod. "After that, I collected my rewards and took a breather until Ayre recovered enough for us to leave the area, and since we were both hurting, we made camp instead of pushing to make it back to the village that evening."

"I see," Yorin replies. "And Kyuuga's part in it? You've yet to mention him."

"Ah, that's because he didn't show up until the next morning." I scratch the side of my head. "There hasn't been a good time to bring that up, and frankly, I'm fine leaving it be. Let his legend grow a little bigger. It could help dissuade trouble from targeting a village with such a guardian."

Yorin stares at me a bit longer, but I'm not sure what, if anything, she is waiting for. She drops it before it gets too awkward, however.

"I agree," she says instead. "Though it will mean that people will look to you for dealing with him. After all, he's part of your team."

How close that lands to my own thoughts out in the street is a bit unnerving, but again, she doesn't let it hang there long.

"You mentioned you received rewards?"

"Oh, right!" I pull my backpack off to hold it before me. "The System managed to swing extra-dimensional storage! The new bag's bigger on the inside!" I hold it open - from the outside, it just looks too dark to make out the interior.

Yorin, of course, just stares at it for a moment. "Remmi, that is not a new bag. That is the one that Jentas sold you in the Capitol."

"Yeah, it gave me the option to apply the bonus to an existing bag, and I decided I was kind of sentimental about this one."

She and Ayre both freak when I stick my head and shoulders in up to my collarbone, my voice echoing out of the opening that much of me shouldn't fit in. "I don't think it's actually bigger on the inside, though. I think the System just set aside a room and put the door in the bag! Like a direct deposit box!"

The backpack is yanked off of my head and I'm face to face with an annoyed-looking Yorin again, but I keep talking, anyway. "I always know everything that's in it if I concentrate, and whatever I'm looking to pull out is what comes out in my hand after I reach in!"

"... You do realize that if you are correct, you essentially just beheaded yourself via teleportation?"

"Eh, one of the first things I did was test it with my hand. You don't even lose sensation!" I hold my chin with that same hand. "If anything, it's more like a portal than teleportation. So long as the bag is open, the room and where we are remain connected no differently than in here and outside with your door open."

I reach for my backpack, but Yorin sets it out of my reach.

"Causality is not a plaything, Remmi."

I frown. "I know that! But I've also tested it thoroughly, nothing partially through is separated from the rest of it even if the bag is closed around it."

"... Of course you have." She sighs again and crosses her arms, but doesn't return my backpack. "You mentioned a new magic, as well?"

My frown turns into a big grin instantly. "Auto-loot!"

Both elves give me the bewildered expression I was looking forward to, and I motion for my backpack still behind Yorin.

"Give it back, I can demonstrate."

Her eyes narrow at me, but she relents and passes the bag back to me.

I reach in and pull out a handful of bones. Like when I first picked them up, I open up the window for Identify over them.

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UNDEAD BONES (MIXED)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A random selection of

bones from an undead

monstrosity, purified

from the Corruption

animating them by the

power of a Hero.

Suitable for crafting.

Yes, you can make bone

broth from them.

Please don't.

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Ayre recoils at the mere sight of them. "Remmi! Why would you collect the bones from that thing?!"

I pull my eyes away from the description and give a guilty grin. "Ah, well ... Identify said that, since they were corrupted and then purified, they're good for crafting!"

"You hate crafting!"

"Which makes it all the odder how she cannot seem to stop herself," Yorin puts in with a flat gaze.

"They just seemed worth something, that's all!" I shake my head. "Besides, that doesn't matter. It's just for the demonstration!"

I toss the bones in a wide arc across the opposite side of the room, then hold my palm out toward them. The skill actually gives me an idea of everything in the room I could pick up, but I limit it to the remains. They all briefly glow and then stream as light into my pack again.

I turn back to them for their reaction, a proud grin on my lips. "I'll never lose a game of 52-card pick-up again!"

The seeming non-sequitur disrupts their awe at the ability, but Ayre recovers first.

"It will certainly be of great benefit when we head to the dungeon, to be sure."