Nick sat stunned, reeling in his recliner. He was shocked all the way down to his core, struggling to process what had happened. Taltos. I just met Taltos in the flesh. Holy shit. Never in his wildest dreams had he imagined that he would have a cozy, fireside chat with the Mad God himself, even if the manifestation had only been a fragment of the deity’s consciousness.
Sometime later, his musings were interrupted by a message from the System, which appeared on the screen of a television mounted to the wall.
System message: Quest update.
The quest, “System tutorial,” has been modified.
The mentor for the planet [Earth, 1] has paid the cost to authorize an extra, invitation-only phase to the tutorial. You have been invited to take part in the bonus round. Note: participation is optional.
The bonus round will belong to the category: Two-stage arena battle.
Volunteers will be transported to a secure location, where they will participate in two back-to-back arena fights.
Rewards: If anyone survives the challenge, humans of Earth will permanently unlock the ability to choose from a range of common classes. Additionally, you will be given the opportunity to change your class at the end of the tutorial. Participants in the bonus round will have their personal class selections unlocked at uncommon. They will have a chance to recover after the battle before moving on.
Would you like to participate? You have one hour to make your decision before the bonus round begins.
The words faded from the screen as Nick read the last line, leaving him with a timer ticking down and a colossal decision to make.
Although he was on the clock, for the next twenty minutes, he simply sat there, enjoying the uncomplicated comfort of the fire’s warmth as he took it all in. Surviving the tutorial. Meeting Taltos face-to-face. Being offered a chance to unlock common classes for the whole human race, if he was willing to put his life on the line. Although Nick didn’t pretend to understand how inconsequential his existence was in the eyes of a god, it was deeply disturbing that Taltos knew who he was. While his intentions and motivations were perilous mysteries at present, Nick was utterly certain that attracting the Mad God’s notice would invite nothing welcome into his life.
All in all, Nick found the encounter to be profoundly unsettling. How… friendly Taltos had seemed. How delighted he was by the catastrophe that had befallen the Earth and all the creatures who called it home. By humanity’s desperate struggle to survive. What chance do we have if that’s what we’re up against?
The Mad God’s cheerful malice made the pitiless System seem downright wholesome. He glanced at the countdown clock that was displayed on the television, the ever-diminishing digits reminding him that his ordeal was not yet over. That it would likely never be over.
Nick found himself spurred into action once more, with no time to decompress and process his trauma and grief. A situation that was becoming achingly familiar the longer that his reality was governed by the cold, calculating logic of the System. With a bone-weary sigh, he gathered his will and forced his beleaguered mind into action once more. He would have to contemplate Taltos and his bizarre behavior later. While he wanted nothing more than to stretch out on the recliner and sleep for a week, it was time for Nick to make a decision.
As he struggled to come to grips with his dramatic change in circumstance, he helped himself to a pitcher of water and a plate of dried fruit sitting on the coffee table, which he hadn’t noticed until now due to Taltos’s dramatic arrival. While the System’s prompts were clear as a bell, Nick didn’t trust a word that Taltos said, although he had yet to catch the deity breaking any of the rules he set or uttering words that were patently false.
Regardless, Nick sensed elements of deception at play. He didn’t buy the Mad God’s charity act and his offer was too good to be true at face value. After all, only a single person needed to win the bonus round to secure a reward that would benefit millions. Why would Taltos lock us into basic classes, then offer us the chance to raise the bar to common only a month later? He must be getting something out of this that is beyond my comprehension.
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In addition to his latest offer, the deity had promised that he would give humanity a chance to win back the Earth. That failing his challenge would lead to the destruction of Nick’s home world and the extinction of humankind, along with all life on the planet. The two events must be connected. He was certain that failing the bonus round would make winning the Earth back impossible. That the success of the latter was predicated on that of the former.
However, there were other considerations in play. The offer to participate in the arena match had only been extended to the top thousand participants in the tutorial. Those individuals who were, at the moment, the elite fighting force of his species. If the best of the best suffered catastrophic losses during the arena bouts, it would make winning back the Earth a great deal harder, even if they managed to get everyone better classes in the process.
On the other hand, if humanity’s elite did well in the arena, their strongest members would gain access to uncommon classes, multiplying their power and giving them an edge during the challenge for the fate of the Earth.
But that was only part of the equation. Even if they somehow won the bonus round and the challenge to win back the planet, if too many of Earth’s strongest fell during the process, it would leave humanity critically understaffed to deal with whatever awaited them on the other side. When Earth was officially recognized as a sovereign member of the labyrinth.
Nick desperately wanted to obtain a better class, and he was convinced that humanity was doomed if they let this chance slip through their fingers. He had no idea how many people would volunteer to take part in the arena battle, but if they failed, it would be the end of them all. He knew that the arena would offer his toughest fight yet. That Taltos was certain to stack the deck in one manner or another. That the Mad God had deliberately created this dilemma, and was likely watching every move they made, laughing all the while.
Part of him wanted to sit this one out. To let others take the risk while he got some much-needed rest and enjoyed the benefit of their efforts. He had already decided to participate in the challenge that would determine Earth’s fate, since if that failed, they were all dead anyway.
But Nick was worried that most of the survivors would feel the same way. That the trauma of integration and the stress of the tutorial would make many unwilling to jump right into another life-or-death struggle. Although it had served him better than he had expected, if he was stuck with his Survivor class much longer, Nick had severe reservations that he could endure whatever came next.
He was still wound as tight as a drum. Still coming down from his prolonged ordeal. The last thing he wanted was to throw himself back into the fray. But despite all of that, he couldn’t deny that he was tempted. Not only to make sure that humanity was given a fighting chance, but because of the lure of personal power. The chance to leave behind his basic class and win an uncommon for himself was indisputably tantalizing.
If there was one thing that Nick was now certain of, it was that he was weak. So far down on the cosmic totem pole that he was utterly powerless to make a difference. He desperately wanted to grow stronger. He needed it. Powerful enough to fight for his people. To bend fate to his will. With the way that the System rewarded risk with power, Nick knew that he would never become strong enough if he took the easy path.
On the other hand, taking the wrong risk or going all in every hand would inevitably result in a short life, and if he died, he wouldn’t be able to change anything either.
As he mulled the matter over, polishing off the bowl of fruit along the way, the timer on the TV hit twenty minutes. Nick wished that he could collect the rewards for completing the tutorial before he had to decide if he wanted to fight in the arena. But due to Taltos’s intervention, his tutorial hadn’t technically ended. He wondered about the strange struggle taking place between Taltos and the System. The entities were often working in tandem, like how the System handled the administrative aspects for the Mad God’s offers, but they were clearly not allied with one another.
In certain instances, their wills seemed diametrically opposed. Like when Taltos had hacked the System to claim ownership of the Earth, then modified the parameters of Nick’s tutorial, forcibly overriding the System’s objections. And yet, while Taltos could influence and even thwart the System at times, he clearly had to play by the rules more often than not, leaving Nick uncertain as to which entity was more powerful. In the end, it was a problem for another day. He was running low on time, and he didn’t have enough information to analyze the dynamic further regardless.
“Fuck it. I’ll do it.” Nick sighed and rose to his feet. While his concerns were valid, in the end, he was unwilling to pass up the opportunity to gain a new class that was two rarities higher than his own. He could score an uncommon class now, then level it up during the next challenge. Be in the best possible shape to fight for the fate of his planet and his people.
As his words faded from the air, a message appeared on the television. He wondered why the System bothered communicating via display when it could make the words appear directly in his vision. Perhaps it was a compromise with Taltos or a way of saving energy.
Nick realized that he was stalling, so he turned to face the screen and started to read.