***** PoV: Arthur “Necrosbane” Boateng *****

[My name is Victrina Vitafino, and I am the Lead Ragner of the 1st Challenger Battalion of the Vantabu Collective. We don’t know where it came from or what it exactly it is trying to do, but some of our Seers have confirmed that The System is trying to help make the universe a better place.]

{Wait, so The System is what teleported us here and has been showing us these purple and green boxes?}

[Correct. It has ways to help its users learn and grow faster than they otherwise would without it, and tracks their growth through their Status Screen, making it easier to see visible results from training and combat. No, don’t try to look at your Status Screen now, we don’t have time to deal with the tutorial that will pop up the first time you open your status before we deploy. I know what I can do and have a general idea of what must be done, and I’m sure you know what you can do, we just have to hope that is enough. I’m still not sure how we’re supposed to complete a bunch of Faction Quests and Faction Challenges that are intended for an entire battalion with just the… two of us. Do we still count as two people in terms of man power?]

{First, I’m a dragon, remember? I’m perfectly capable of fighting a battalion all on my own in most circumstances. Second, I’m not sure. We’ll have to wait and see I guess? Hopefully we have some time to experiment before we have to deploy.}

[Agreed. Anyway, a Faction Quest and a Faction Challenge are System Events that are intended to be completed by everyone a given faction brought with them on a given Event Cycle, which is a period of time that The System makes its Events available to the various worlds under it’s guidance. Quests are System Events where a Challenger or group of Challengers are deployed into an area that appears to be part of a larger world to solve a problem therein. Sometimes this means defending a city, other times it means hunting a specific monster or group of monsters before they become a problem, or it could be hunting down a group of infiltrators and foiling their plans. The important part is trying to make the area a better and/or safer place than you found it while completing whatever objectives The System has given you.

[Faction Challenges, on the other hand, happen in custom-built temporary pocket dimensions where the only consistent objectives are to survive and reach the end before the timer runs out. These range from a connected series of rooms stuffed full of monsters, traps, puzzles, and treasure, to miles wide expanses from a wide variety of biomes full of natural resources and monsters to guard them. Most of the System Objectives other than survive and find the exit are optional and come in a wide variety of difficulties, and the rewards scale with the difficulty and quantity of objectives completed. What makes them really interesting is that individual Challengers and even sub-groups of Challengers will have their own objectives.]

{So if your entire battalion had shown up as planned, you’re saying that there would be objectives for the entire Battalion, as well as objectives for each person, squad, section, and so on?}

[Correct. Between Quests and Challenges, every Faction has their own Home Base Pocket that they return to in a permanent pocket dimension that can be customized however the faction wants, provided they have the time, resources, and skill necessary to do so within certain limits. Unlike the Challenge Pockets, which cease to exist after a certain amount of time or when the last Challenger leaves, Home Base Pockets persist between Challenge Cycles. Each individual Challenger also has their own sub-pocket dimension that they can also customize as much as their faction will let them. There is so much more I can say about the Home Base Pocket, but we can discuss that later. For now, let's try to get ready for the first Event.]

Stolen story; please report.

{Fair enough.} I said, looking down at the ruins of Victrina’s leather armor, which was still covering all of the important bits as we were still sitting on the floor. {First off, we should probably be wearing my armor for a while, partially because yours is ruined, but mostly because mine has built in plumbing that should be able to handle both of us.}

[Wait, by plumbing, do you mean your armor has a built in chamber pot?]

{Yes, thats exactly what I’m saying. That way we don’t have to look at each other’s nether regions. Hallelujah! It found your reality layers automatically, so all I have to do is tell it that to give your layers chamberpot access. Fair warning, this is going to feel a bit invasive at first, but you’ll get used to it in a few minutes. Are you ready?}

[No, not really, but waiting won’t make me more ready, so just go for it.]

{One moment.} I said, being careful not to look down as I stored her armor in my smart wrist bag, before standing up and giving a small jump as I summoned my armor from storage. {Alright, armor is on, applying chamberpot in 3, 2, 1, boop!}

[Oh! Huh. That wasn’t quite what I expected. You’re right, I can get used to that.] she said as I projected my full length mirror app in front of us so she can get a look at my armor. [Also, I’m not sure what I was expecting your armor to look like, but I was not expecting it to be a shiny, seamless blue and black thing. How can it bend enough for you to move, yet still be strong enough to protect you?]

{I’m not entirely sure of the details as I’m not an enchanter, but my brother, Broohn, who is one of the main contributors to the design, said something about there being an external contact filter so that each layer of the armor can only be touched by whatever damage type it is best against. So what you are seeing is the pretty layer that is air and water tight, which is made out of some sort of tough yet flexible plastic. Don’t ask me how many layers it has, I have no clue. Like I said, I’m fairly decent at space magic and reality layer shenanigans, but the rest of my adopted family is a lot better at those kinds of things than I am.

{Anyway, with that sorted, what’s next?}

[Next we should look at the briefing table, which is over by the deployment portal.] she said, as she started walking us over towards it, before I used a carefully controlled burst of draconic strength to jump us over there in a single bound.

[Oh! Well that’s a neat trick! I’ll have to remember that!] she said, before switching to normal speech. “Briefing Table, begin next Event Briefing.”

Vantabu Faction Quest 001, Cycle 506

Primary Objective: Defend the Goblin city of Hashkranth from the invading Gobin horde.

Time until Reinforcements arrive: 10 days.

Secondary Objective: Prove Your Worth as a Full Chosen One.

See planning table for City Map.

[Huh. Well, at least it’s simple. Let’s see what kind of defences we’re going to be working with.]

{Wait, what are Goblins and Gobins?}

[Both are short, green skinned humanoids with large triangular ears and sharp teeth. However, Goblins are civilized people and highly competent engineers. Gobins are monsters that breed like rabbits and try to eat any creature that they can catch.] she replied, dismissing the window and pulling up the map it mentioned.

{Ah, ok. Well, the city looks like it shouldn’t be too hard to defend. Wait until the gobins are in the cleared space around the city walls then swoop in and fill most of the area with dragonfire.}

[That sounds like a fairly solid plan, actually, considering that we shouldn’t have to worry about them digging under the walls or something since it’s a goblin city. Fighting goblins underground isn’t quite as bad as fighting dwarves underground, but it’s a close second. Given our lack of other information, I think we’ll have to play the rest by ear.]

{So now we wait I guess?}

[Yup, now we wait.]