People were sleeping on the porches of Hagain as Daniel trudged by Lograve. The night air was calm and cool. It reminded him of the long trek he’d made with Ringcat, and he was surprised to be nostalgic of the memory. It seemed more real compared to the drudgery of his normal life. Even the dangerous things that had happened to him were a form of emotional high. Daniel realized he’d lived more in the past half week than in the last four years of his life.
He also realized he was hungry again. The results of the standoff with Gadriel left him unable to partake in the village’s evening meal, assuming they even had one and weren’t severely rationing their supply. It was far too late to eat anyway.
After a short walk, Lograve stopped in front of a building. A library, according to the sign he could somehow read. “You live here?”
“Indeed. Before all of this, I was the village’s librarian. I still am, although my collection of hats has improved significantly. Does your world have libraries?”
Daniel inspected the building. The same melded wood construction with larger windows on the bottom floor than normal. The first floor seemed taller than the second compared to the neighbors. A different blueprint? “Yeah, but normally no one lives there.”
“What if someone needs to access information during the night? Or do your librarians work in alternating shifts? Larger settlements can manage that but my staff of one is rather lazy.”
“Well, there’s-” Should I tell him about the internet? Eh, why not. “So my world doesn’t have magic, but we have technology.” He held up his phone. “In my world, this can contact people anywhere, look up any knowledge we’ve collectively stored in this kind of- you know, I don’t entirely get how that works. Let’s just call it a worldwide library. And it can record video. Whatever happened to me seems to have changed it too, though.”
Lograve wasn’t looking as shocked or impressed as he’d hoped. It was more of an analytical gaze taking apart his claims to make sense of them. “Interesting. Is everyone in your world an Artificer?”
“We don’t have classes.” I definitely shouldn’t tell him about video games. “People can just learn to work on that kind of stuff. Some do it as a hobby. Does your world have anything similar?”
Lograve unlocked the front door and ushered Daniel through. “Nothing as versatile as that device. High level Artificers might be able to replicate something with those functions, but not this worldwide network. The church of Torch stores and disseminates knowledge in what you could call an ‘Octyrrum-wide’ library. My collection isn’t as impressive as theirs, though it does contain some editions theirs doesn’t.”
The two rooms directly adjacent to the front door ran the length of the building. Shelves lined the outside walls while reading tables filled the space between them. Makeshift beds were placed between them and on some of the tables, though none slept there. Lograve preempted Daniel’s next question. “The village isn’t so full that this space needs to be used, but we’ve prepared it. Soon I’ll have just as diverse a collection of people as books.”
The books were everything Daniel had hoped for. It’d take him weeks, maybe less, to read them all. He could imagine waiting out the doomsday here, but Lograve said he’d had something else in mind. He turned back to the tall man and a question came to him. “Why aren’t you more skeptical of what I’m saying? For that matter, why are you trusting me?”
“What reason do you have to lie?” Lograve asked back. “You’re strange, certainly. You could be exaggerating your world to impress me. Fabricating it entirely is unlikely, given the scope of what you’re suggesting. If you knew me better you’d know that’s completely pointless, and I suppose that’s my point. I am an even-keeled joker. Or at least, that’s what others call me. As far as trusting you?” he continued, beginning to walk the shelves and take books. “If you are the level one Artificer you appear there’s not too much damage you could do before you’re stopped, and I’m admittedly too curious to just stick you in a tent somewhere until we get out of here. But onto business.” The inside of the house was poorly lit until Lograve also took a candle from the shelf and lit it.
Daniel stared at the magical glow. It wasn’t a flame, instead it was like a lightbulb without the bulb. The torch the earth gestalt with Heldren carried had been similar. The books were far less impressive.
Lograve noticed the disappointment. “Unfortunately, I have to assume you know nothing, and what you need to know first is often taught to young children.” The books he handed to Daniel were brightly colored, thin, and had more pictures than words. “If you’d take my advice, swallow your pride and start with those. Don’t go rummaging through my library or you’ll just throw off my ordering and find a topic you don’t have any bearing on.”
“Is it ok if I read these now?”
Lograve nodded. “I’d prefer you do. You’ll need to decide on something soon I need to know that you understand what you’re agreeing to. I’ll explain that later. For now, read, rest, and try not to anger the invisible Hero that watches my library. He’s Gadriel’s brother.” Daniel didn’t even flinch as the corner of Lograve's mouth had irresistibly risen with the delivery. “Ugh, I’m too tired for this. If you need anything I’ll be upstairs. Try not to interrupt my rest, though. I need to restore my mana, and if I don’t recover by the time we set out it will be Murdon hounding me about not getting enough sleep.”
“Mana? I was wondering how that worked.”
“Books,” Lograve said, mimicking a gestalt. “Read. I sleep.”
“That last one was two words. Can gestalt say more than one word at a time?” Lograve just rolled his eyes and climbed the staircase.
...
It took Daniel about an hour to finish the dozen books. He could have read them in a few minutes but closely inspected the depictions in search of things the text didn’t explicitly state. The Octyrrum, according to books, was the only place where life was. It was flat and divided into seven territories or ‘Realms’. They functioned like continents on Earth, separated by their space on the Octyrrum instead of an ocean or other natural border. Instead of all meeting in the middle, the center of the Octyrrum was taken up by the seventh Realm that made up the center of the six wedges surrounding it. All the Realms had a symbol on them. The one resembling a hand caught his eye as familiar, and there was also a stylized torch that matched Lograve’s offhand comment about another church.
The notification on his phone from that discovery had immediately drawn his attention.
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Alert: You have acquired Crude World Map. This has been added to the Function: Maps.
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Unfortunately, it was just as brightly colored and poorly labeled as the one in the book. He did learn he was on the second Realm’s outer border by the flashing marker that was too imprecise to tell him anything else. This Realm didn’t have the hand symbol, but rather something that looked like a regal hammer. His marker sat next to the Crest, a topic with a history that bridged into theology.
According to the books, which Daniel reminded himself were aimed at children, the Octyrrum was a benevolent primeval force in addition to being a world. Another book had described individual gods as aspects of the Octyrrum, and there were seven of these as well. These beings were agents of the Octyrrum’s greater will, but at some point, they’d fought and neglected their stewardship of mortal kind. Something, the books were unclear, had then caused a great catastrophe known as the Collapse.
What the prefix of Octyrrum implied didn’t escape Daniel. Whether the weird translation thing affecting him had just shoved the proper noun through without adjusting it and it was a coincidence, or the missing eighth god and Realm were symbolic, he couldn’t tell from the books. Not wanting to interrupt the rest of someone no doubt higher level than him, and his only lifeline in this village, he shelved the insight and moved on.
The Crest was this world’s Satan and Hell combined into one. It had eaten into the Octyrrum from its edges and killed the majority of life when it first arrived. The territories not immediately engulfed became monster-ridden. To one familiar with science fiction, it seemed more akin to a cosmic horror than a religious one. The societies of the Octyrrum eventually found a way to fight back by spreading Spokes, though only after being pushed to the very center of the seventh Realm. These Spokes stabilized sections of the Octyrrum and pushed back against the Crest. Slowly, they were reclaiming the world, as every planted Spoke strengthened the Realm they were in. The Spokes themselves were not described in great detail, and there was no sense of time besides ‘deep history’ and ‘slightly less deep history’. Daniel had no idea how long they’d been at it. Centuries at least.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
That knowledge accounted for half of the books. The rest covered immediate concerns: classes, mana, powers, and advancement. Some of it he’d been told or had guessed but the books filled in the gaps. With a similar mystical air, the books described how the Octyrrum had granted some kind of blessing to allow mortal kind to improve beyond their feeble nature. This became the classes, which predated the Collapse. There were some caricatures of several classes included with the educational bedtime story. A noble Hero, an Arcanist ringed with magical light, and what looked like the first half of the front cover of a book where teenagers gained the power to turn into animals. That one was titled Totem Warrior. Cool, am I some kind of werewolf? Wait, I’m not a Totem Warrior!
Attributes were mostly in line with what he’d discovered, and advancement was indeed the way to make them better. The topic was complex enough that the books only had a graphic similar to a thermometer, leaving out the mechanics of the process. Levels were on the left and a range of attribute values on the right. It started at 0 for both sections, with a golden line separating level 1 and 10 on the attribute scale. Levels continued to climb until 9, incrementing at every 10 points of the attribute scale as Daniel had guessed earlier. A Hero accompanied the rise in power, growing stronger and acquiring flashier gear as he climbed. Daniel swore the one at level 2 was glaring at him.
Powers were only mentioned as fantastical things of magic that the blessed were allowed to wield. How and why people were chosen, it didn’t say, but there was a nice reminder that even those who couldn’t gain a class were still loved by the Octyrrum and could help society in other ways. This was followed by an illustration of several people working in fields, smiling up to the air where every symbol of the gods collected in the rough pattern of the Octyrrum.
Mana was the last topic he delved into and it was described in flowery language. The Octyrrum was responsible for distributing mana to the ‘faithful’ during their rest, although this could only happen if they were asleep. To Daniel it sounded like some kind of Santa Claus allegory, but he wouldn’t complain about free mana if it didn’t recharge naturally. This is kind of like spells refreshing after a long rest. Speaking of, it had to be past midnight. Long nights weren’t unfamiliar to Daniel. Being terrified by stone giants and interrogated by draconoids was. He was exhausted and out of things to keep him awake. As he settled into one of the library’s beds, he wondered what kind of dragon Murdon was supposed to represent.
…
The next morning, Daniel awoke to find Gadriel glaring at him with a sword raised to split him in half. His scream slowly died as Gadriel didn’t move. Mischievous laughter echoed from behind him. “Really?” Daniel’s withering tone faded as he peered closer at the Hero. “Wait, is this an illusion?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t resist.” Lograve put a plate of food on the table as a peace offering. More cord fruit and meat, though it was a kind of breast now instead of a leg, “And I had to make up for last night.”
“So you are a wizard. Uh, Arcanist,” he corrected.
“I see you’ve been learning.”
Daniel nodded as he reached for one of the fruit. “I’ve got a basic sense of things. The books didn’t go too much into advancement.”
“That is a rather complicated topic for a children’s book and requires live instruction. I thought it best to discuss over breakfast.” He gestured to the false Gadriel. “This clod mentioned you had four advancement potential?”
“Yeah. He said I should try and keep things even.” Daniel briefly went over his attributes, grimacing when he reached the last one. “I guess I should just put everything in charisma?”
“It’s not as simple as Gadriel makes it out to be. He’s something of a fanatic about his development path. In truth, there is no superior path. Or, if there is, we don’t have the evidence to show which one it is.” Lograve began drawing on a board lying on another table, a surprisingly normal set of blackboard and chalk. “From one point of view, advancing your attributes together means you have a wider variety of powers and fewer weaknesses. What that ignores is how advancements are earned.”
Lograve drew a curve. It started sloping upwards at a fair pace but then leveled off. The chalk pointed to the start of the curve. “Mortals unlock the potential to increase their attributes by pushing their limits and accomplishing feats through the use of their powers. Before they gain a class, this can include anything from cooking, to studying, to fighting. Once you gain a class, those tasks will relate to the ideals underpinning them and the powers they grant. However, if the task is too simple compared to your level and power, you won’t get anything out of it. Worse, there are diminishing returns for repeating the same task, and some people can lose the ability to gain advancement for no discernible reason. The sole exception is combat, specifically slaying monsters.”
Lograve waited a moment to see that Daniel had understood. He continued in a completely serious tone, and Daniel realized he hadn’t joked at all after dismissing the illusion. “Advancement requires time and a state of focus on the attribute you want to improve. However, mortals can’t advance beyond 10 until they do take a class. Perhaps it is better to say they gain their class when they reach an attribute score of 10, and can’t get that high without doing so. Now, the problem with a zealous path of balance is-”
“I think I got.” Daniel indicated the chalk, and Lograve gave it to him with a quizzical look. Daniel drew the same curve but started the rapid sloping again halfway through. “If you stick around in one level for too long, you run out of things to advance quickly with and get stuck. Level up sooner and you can continue with some disparity to fix, but you don't get stuck.”
“Exactly!” There was a familiar pride shining in the man’s eyes and no sign of whimsy. “Of course, there are other benefits. If you level one of your core attributes early enough, you awaken all other powers at a higher level even if the source attribute itself is lower than that. One common strategy is to rush a core attribute while others are in the middle range of your current level so that you acquire better powers without making it too difficult to correct the disparity.”
Daniel looked around and put the pieces together. “You’re a teacher too?”
“You’ve got me all figured out, haven’t you?” He took the chalk back and drew a solid line to block off the first solitary curve. “Gadriel is near the high end of level two. At this point, it will take fierce battle with monsters or extraordinary deeds to get him the attributes he needs to level up. Only then can he attempt tasks appropriate for level three. Or, rather, that would normally be the case. By all accounts, Gadriel is known for being aggressive with his advancement.” Lograve erased the drawings but didn’t immediately replace them. “Heroes typically advance by taking formal quests in addition to hunting, by the way. It’s more open-ended than most classes, but if they aren’t careful they can get locked into an impossible one and there goes that method.”
“He mentioned level disparity, though. Wouldn’t leaving an attribute or two alone be bad?”
Lograve nodded at the point. “You certainly shouldn’t leave your charisma at level 0. Kob is a prime example of why. Their strength and endurance are somewhere in the 40s but their dexterity is still level two, which is below even their mental attributes if the rumors are accurate. Quite honestly, they could kill you with one strike. If you were as nimble as them you could negate all that power by simply dodging. In the case of your charisma, left alone you wouldn’t be able to project your personality with the grace and aplomb expected from someone of levels such as I. Attributes are as much for defense as offense as well. Attacks that target your sense of self can be resisted if your charisma is high enough, but a weak charisma makes for a sword that swings at allies.”
Daniel thought about it for a moment. His mind was moving back and forth between the two sets of curves taken from the chalkboard into his mind, pondering his path. The obvious bait was something in the middle of the two extremes, but that neglected the merits of either end. Neither of those seemed right either, and there was also the fact that some of his attributes advanced together. Nothing he’d read had mentioned that being possible.
“You don’t have to decide on your path now,” Lograve said after the silence extended. “You may not have to at all. If you disappeared from your world without notice then fate may find you sent back in three, two, oooone,” he counted down on his fingers. Nothing happened when he reached zero. “Anyways, we natives of this world have years to ponder the question of our path. You’re low enough level that you won’t do any real damage if you go one way and then decide on another later. There are only two things that permanently prevent you from reaching level nine.”
Lograve looked at him like he expected Daniel to know the answer. To be fair Daniel had been ahead of the game several times. This one stumped him. “Dying?”
“Well, yes, I suppose. There’s also multiclassing. It’s not common, but some choose to take a second class when they reach level two or three. It trades the heights of power you may one day reach for greater versatility and niche potential today. Not everyone has the will or expectation to reach the highest levels and adjusts their path accordingly. For most people, they can’t advance at all into a class, though that is another topic entirely.” Lograve shook his head to dismiss any questions on it. “Until today it appeared that the total class level one had couldn’t exceed the level of their highest attribute. You are a vexing exception.”
“Wait.” Daniel now kind of got why Lograve and Murdon had been so confused about what he’d said. “You’re saying I glitched into a multiclass?”
“I don’t know what that word means. I am, however, quite curious to see what happens when you reach level two. You are a rather interesting bundle of mysteries.”
Daniel decided not to advance any of his attributes that morning as he still needed to think about it. Lograve stacked a few more books on the table before departing for business of his own. No mention was made of the idea he’d had last night, only that they’d talk about it in the afternoon.
These books were more Daniel’s speed. The text was Greather Forlothan, like the others, but still inexplicably legible. There were three books in total. One on features, one on abilities, and one on monsters. “Now we’re getting somewhere,” he said, as he cracked open the abilities book and saw a depiction of an ability called ‘Twin Blazing Blades’. It was far better illustrated compared to the children’s book. Two stabbing blades of molten rock cut into something just off frame as their wielder stood afar. “Encyclopedia, I hope you’re hungry.” His stomach grumbled, not fully sated by the meal. “Because I am.”