“John!” Xev chitters at me, hunched over and waving her claws in my face. I plaster a smile on for Xev, looking it over again. Six legs and a pair of three-fingered hands on a black, hairy body with a bulbous abdomen and front, Xev looks like a giant black spider with hands. It’s just a little disconcerting and the first time I saw it, I had to work really hard at not shooting it and I’m not even scared of spiders. “Is Sabre good?”
“Not bad, just some minor structural damage,” I gesture at the bike as I turn it off in the parking spaces outside its workshop before pointing out the damage. It chitters angrily, waving me away.
As Xev scrambles around the bike, fitting a variety of wires into the bike, it pokes at one of the armor points and peels it away, staring at the insides. “This is old! You should bring in faster even if your nanite upgrades fix the armor.”
“Sorry,” I apologise automatically. Really, the structural damage was so minor it didn’t seem to matter. Putting all that money into the Omnitron Class II Nanite Armor Upgrade had saved me a ton, even if the armor class hadn’t gone up. As Xev mutters to itself more, I have to clear my throat to get its attention. After a quick discussion, I leave Sabre with it for the evening and start walking, heading for the butchering yard.
The butchering yard is what used to be the Old Firehall, a single story large building with wide barn doors with the old train tracks running next to it. The entire area from the Firehall to the old tourist train station is part of the yard, with the newly made compost piles making up the third portion of their rather smelly triangle that sits next to the river. Thankfully, low level enchantments keep the wind blowing from the yard and the compost heap into the river, keeping the smells away from the downtown itself. Of course, that brings its own problems and they’ve recently had to add guards to deal with monsters drawn to the smell.
At the yard, I follow directions and watch as the bodies are pulled apart, weighed and portions of the body separated for both Sally and Xev. As usual, I get a Quest completion with a small amount of experience and Credit bonus for turning in the meat which is partly why I do so. The other reason being that while we’re doing well with food for now, come winter food is going to be significantly more difficult to acquire and the city is desperately attempting to stock up for the winter. Shaking my head, I dismiss the thought. Not really my problem. I stand and watch the men and women swarm the bodies, harvesting the body parts and dumping them into carts, moving with both grace and strength that would have been impossible even a few month ago. I watch for a few moments more, the last of the corpses I deposited from my Altered Space weighed, tagged and priced before I turn to leave.
As I turn away, my eye is drawn to the futuristic, towering silver monstrosity of an office building that sits smack, dab in the centre of the city at odds with the quaint two and three storey 1920’s era commercial buildings of the town. It’s a building that I know well - it’s where the Shop is and where Lord Roxley both resides and reigns over us all. Once upon a time I was a regular visitor there, till things fell apart. Once upon a time…
I shake my head, dismissing the matter. As I walk up Main St. I notice that more and more buildings are coming back to life. We have a grocery store with handmade local luxuries, an armourer with locally crafted low-level protection, a couple of competing alchemists, a pair of clothing stores, the Guild, the hotels that have been purchased and of course, the pub.
As always, the pub is noisy and busy. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s not as if the Yukon led Canada in the highest alcohol consumption per person. Or that our local brewing company had been set-up two weeks ago as one of the first major private enterprise. Of course it would be busy. \What kind of Adventurers would we be without a pub?
I can feel my lips twist as I stare at it, wry humor and irritation sparking along one another. I don’t even know why I’m angry… I shove it aside, bottling up the anger as I head in.
The inside of the Nugget is all dark faux wood and worn, mismatched furniture. The Apocalypse had come fast, and rampaging monsters and panicked humans had destroyed the old sets. Now, it was catch as catch can. At eight in the evening, the Nugget is busy and noisy, filled with people resting, eating and drinking. Mostly drinking.
All around me, people sit and the grouping is easy to tell. Hunting parties sit together and dominate the room with only a few craftsmen present. Skimpily dressed young women do most of the serving to the majority male-dominated group among the hunters, dropping off beer, steaks and fish and chips in large quantities. As I survey the insides, a waving hand catches my attention. Jason.
I walk over, letting my gaze slide over the group with him. Richard, redheaded and dashing with a new young lady on his arm and Shadow curled up at his feet. Mikito, her ever present naginata resting against the wall behind her, a strained look of patience plastered on her face. Jason, thin, weedy looking and oh-too-young and Constable Gadsby with his metal arm. Half were my former party members, the other the leaders of Carcross.
Jason Cope (Level 38 Elementalist)
HP: 230/230
Constable Mike Gadsby (Level 37 Guardian)
HP: 940/940
Mikito Sato (Level 36 Samurai)
HP: 530/530
Richard Pearson (Level 34 Beast Tamer)
HP: 250/250
I look around, spotting Rachel seated with the Brothers of the Wolf, the First Nation exclusive group of teenagers and my eyes narrow. I wonder if she quit to join them or…?
I shake my head as Jason squeezes a chair next to the table for me, taking a seat. I get my back to the door which makes me twitch slightly, but I’m the last to arrive so beggars can’t be choosers. “Evening.”
“John, we wanted to ask Ali about something,” Kevin says immediately, not even bothering to greet me. A passing waitress drops a pint of beer on the table for me, presuming I’ll be drinking. No need for questions - it’s water or beer and I’m not drinking water.
“Questions are 5 Credits, answers are 10,” calls out Ali as he floats after one of the waitresses. “Toots, I need a drink too.”
I see the quick flash of irritation before the waitress nods, returning to drop a glass from her tray before she heads to get more.
“You drink?” I blink, staring as Ali proceeds to pick up the pint glass, holding it up to his three-foot figure before chugging it down.
“I do now,” Ali smirks, proud of himself.
Jason blinks, staring at Ali before he shakes his head. “It’s about Stats man. We’ve been talking about it and I’ve been charting the growth and it just doesn’t make sense. Like, I’ve got a Strength of 20 now. So that should mean I’m like twice as strong as a normal human or maybe double the peak? However, it doesn’t seem to work like that.
“Worst, the non-physical ones don’t even make sense. I’m smarter then before but I’m not, you know, making physics breakthroughs. Richard’s all kinds of sexy and all, and he’s getting laid, but for the level of his Stats, I should be wanting to sleep with him and I ain’t. No offence.”
“None taken. I don’t do kids,” Richard replies and the girl next to him frowns, looking at Richard and then Jason.
“So, what the hell? I don’t get this shit,” Jason waves his fingers.
“Ali, I got this,” I think to my friend and then as the waitress comes up, I point to the chalkboard menu. “One of everything.”
Having delayed it long enough, I turn to Jason and grin at him, a little cruel streak popping up. “First, stop swearing. Your mum would be angry. Second, you sure you old enough to be drinking here?”
“Har, har. Funny. I was talking to Ali,” Jason replies, prodding at his nose as he attempts to adjust non-existent glasses.
I chuckle, leaning back and pull a chocolate piece from my inventory as I continue, “Seriously though, I can answer this. It’s very simple - it’s the System.”
Richard groans as I say it and Mikito snorts, sipping on her beer. The others just look puzzled at the inside joke before I elaborate. “The System’s the System. No use trying to figure it out, it doesn’t make sense.”
“Oh, come on! I know you said this isn’t a game, but we still need to understand this!”
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I grimace and then glance at Ali who sighs, putting his third pint down half-finished. He lets out a large burp before he waggles his fingers, a glowing blue screen appearing. It’s filled with symbols, circles, dashes and dots that combine together in distinct groupings much like Egyptian hieroglyphs. “Right, System basics 101. 100 Credits. And I won’t ever give this talk to you again.”
“100!” Jason sputters, glaring at Ali who just nods before he finally relents, sending over the payment.
“Right, good man. You see that? That’s what it actually says for ‘Strength’. That’s in System,” Ali points. “That gets translated to this,” the screen shifts, the language changing to a series of scrawls now, “which is Galactic Script. That then gets translated to your respective human language. As you can guess, the translation is actually a lot more complex.
“When you increase your Strength, you are actually adjusting the way you manage Mana via the System. For example - Gadsby, you probably could shatter the table you just put your glass on and the glass itself by being that rough normally. After all, you could punch through steel right now. However, because you adjusted your Strength stats via the System, the System alters the density and strength of things you interact with for you. Thus, non-breaking tables, ground that can handle movement, hell, Mikito even bends beam weapons ever so slightly around her as she dodges. The System ‘helps’ all of you without you consciously knowing it.”
Jason opens his mouth and then shuts it while Gadsby and the girl look on in interest. Both Richard and Mikito look bored, having heard this before. Me? I just get to eating as the first plate arrives. Funny thing about Adventuring - you end up eating a ton.
“So, your points aren’t a straight line. They literally are a kind-of-approximate tool to let you understand the System better and one that the Council cobbled together from the way you guys understand the System and what it’d bring about.
“As for Intelligence and the other intangibles - well, as I told John a long time ago, Intelligence increases don’t necessarily make you much smarter. Physically, you’ve been changed, but you can’t do higher Physics because you never learnt the basics. You have faster neural processes, but it’s like a muscle. If all you’ve done is fight with it, you might think and react faster in a fight but that won’t translate much outside of it. Also, don’t forget that much of those increases and changes are going to help you control and manipulate Mana itself,” Ali shrugs. “I’ve heard of a few people who have managed to become super-geniuses from increasing their intelligence, but most of them were already on the borderline anyway.”
I watch as Jason shakes his head, trying to put it together, “What are you saying? That Intelligence isn’t intelligence? That it’s more Mana pool?”
“Yes. No. Maybe,” Ali answers and mutters, shaking his head. “Look, think of it like your earth computer. You got a motherboard - your body. Intelligence increases help adjust the motherboard and the RAM, increasing both. Sometimes, it upgrades your motherboard, sometimes it upgrades the RAM. Sometimes it adds a new graphic card or new slots so you can plug in more things later like Psionic powers. However, you still need to run the right programs to make your computer work better and that means getting the right Skills. Doesn’t matter how good a computer you have, if you are doing 1+1, it’s still 1+1.”
I see Jason frown and then open his mouth before shutting it, thinking hard. Kid’s trying to game the System again, just like he did when he started. Still, the fact that he’s filled out a bit and doesn’t look like a stiff breeze will send him over probably means he’s been putting points into something other than Intelligence. Which is good.
“How about Charisma? Am I sleeping with Richard because I want to or because he wants me to or because the System does?” the girl queries, a brow furrowed as I push my plate aside and tackle the next one. I tilt my head, curious about the answer to this one. I know I have… issues, with that ability. It’s part of why I turned down Roxley. And Lana. I don’t like the idea of being told to like someone.
“Sort of,” Ali shrugs and opens his hand. “It’s the same answer. Yes, his Charisma trait makes him look better looking to you, makes his pheromones more powerful and enticing. No, it’s not directly affecting your emotions or thoughts, you need to use a Skill for that. Maybe the System is affecting things to some degree, but then again, if Claudia Schiffer came along, I wouldn’t say no.”
The girl opens her mouth and then shuts it, looking at Richard and then back to Ali. Unconsciously, she edges away from him, putting space between the two of them. Richard just rolls his eyes at Ali, mouthing ‘Thank you’ to the Spirit as he leans back and folds his arms. Mike on the other hand is frowning, rubbing his chin in thought. I guess the question of consent really bites considering his former profession.
I push my other plate aside, grabbing the third and last bowl of stew. Not much choice yet, but what there is, is good. As the others devolve into discussing the details, forcing Ali to pull up the descriptions and going into them line by line, I turn back to my own thoughts. One thing I don’t add is that it’s quite likely whoever created the System is purposely nerfing Intelligence in particular. I’d lay good money that whoever built this didn’t want a bunch of super-intelligences running around. After all, if we got too smart, we might figure out a way to survive without the System and that, I know, is something the creators don’t want. I’ve called the entire System a scam and the more I read and learn, the more certain I am that it is. It’s like one of those multi-level marketing schemes where the moment you buy-in, you have to keep buying in.
“Coming tomorrow?” Mikito says to me when she manages to catch my eye. I blink, raising an eyebrow and she sighs, “The Boss attacks. Are you joining us?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I clarify and she frowns, shooting a look at Richard who has joined in the discussion.
“That’s why Jason and Mike are here. We’re grouping up, all of us, to take on some of the Bosses that have been growing up around the city. You should have been invited,” she says, concern tinging her voice.
“I’m not exactly Mr. Popular around here.”
“I don’t care. Are you coming?” she pushes and I shrug.
“No idea,” I answer, leaning back as I push the stew aside, wiping my face down and sipping on my drink. “Maybe. You guys probably can handle it.”
“It’d be good for you. For us,” she adds, and then sighs. “Fine, you baka.”
Yeah well… I don’t really see a point. I don’t owe the city anything, not anymore. And whatever she thinks, my presence might cause more problems than they fix. As she falls silent, shrinking back into her seat, I turn to listen in on the conversation. It’s moved on, thankfully, from the System to town gossip and I make sure to pay attention. After all, you never know what I might learn and I’m getting paid. I think.
“Lana,” I greet the redhead stunner as I walk into my house. She’s tucked away in the kitchen, waving her hands at screens only she can see when I come in. Richard and Mikito had left a few hours ago, both of them heading to get some rest for their big day tomorrow, leaving me to my silence and beer.
Lana looks up and Richard’s sister as always takes my breath away. A gorgeous redhead with bright blue eyes that turn green in certain lights, she’s dressed in her version of a uniform - a simple blouse and pair of jeans, none of which do anything to hide her ample curves. She smiles back at me, flicking her hand to dismiss her System screens as she greets me, “John.”
“Up late?” I step in to the kitchen, drawn like a moth to a flame. Closer, I realise there are slight bags under her eyes and a tension in her shoulders that I’ve never seen before.
“Just work,” she murmurs, her eyes flicking over my form too in silent assessment. She pauses before she speaks again, “What’s wrong?”
“Isn’t that my line?”
“Har! I’m not the one who runs into trouble all the time. I’m just a paper pusher,” she says, shaking her head. “Seriously John, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing much,” I keep my hands clasped and on the table, mostly to make sure I know where they are as I sit down across her.
“John…” her voice changes, growing stern.
“I just had some visitors. The Hakarta,” I shrug and at her puzzled expression, I add, “The Space Orcs.”
“Oh,” her lips tighten and she frowns, looking at me and then she shakes her head, drawing her own conclusions. Probably violent ones.
“So, what papers are you pushing?” I ask, changing topics.
“The usual. Business proposals. Loan extension requests. Reports and cashflow projections,” she shakes her head, rubbing her temples. Lana runs the biggest investment fund in Whitehorse, initially funded through my killings but these days it’s pretty self-run. From what I recall, she basically a hand in every significant private enterprise since the System came into play. Not that I’ve seen a Credit in return - every single Credit of profit has been plowed right back into the City.
“Get an AI toots,” Ali says, appearing on the table next to her and flashing her a grin.
“Ali,” the smile she gives the Spirit sends a spike of anger through me and I quell it. Just because the two have gotten closer since they saved my ass a month ago is no reason for me to get jealous. None at all. “Aren’t those expensive?”
“Only if you get them as a Companion. If you get an off-the-rack one, they’ll be pretty cheap. If you just get a basic one, shouldn’t cost you much at all. Just make sure to get the heavy security models,” Ali adds. “Definitely don’t get a Spirit. No self-respecting Spirit wants to be a glorified personal assistant.”
Lana nods, rubbing her chin. “I don’t know, I don’t have a lot of Credits left…”
“Use the Fund,” I chime in, “It’s a business expense.”
“I don’t think it works that way,” Lana says, frowning at me.
“Says who?” I smirk and then wave my hand. “Not as if the CRA are coming after you for taxes and Roxley will be happy for you to spend more with him anyway.”
“I guess…” she says and then rubs her temples again before she falls silent, her voice dropping lower. “John, we should talk…”
“Yeah…” I blink, tilting my head. I quell the urge to flee, sensible as it may be.
“Mikito says you won’t be with us tomorrow,” Lana says and my brain jerks to a stop as thoughts re-arrange. Oh, we’re having that talk.
“Yeah, I wasn’t… wait. We?” I lean forwards, my voice getting tight.
“I’m going too. The Bosses, they need to be killed.”
“Of course, they do. Why are you going?”
“Because it needs to be done,” she replies, frowning.
“Sure, sure. But you’re…,” I open my mouth and then clamp them shut as Ali keeps shaking his head at me. Oh crap.
“I’m what John?” her voice rising, she glares at me. “A paper pusher? A girl?”
“No… not that. You just, you know, haven’t really been…” I stammer and she snorts.
“If you’ve forgotten, I walked here with Mikito and Richard. I still go out with them once in a while,” she snaps, getting to her feet. “I can take care of myself.”
I open my mouth, wanting to point out that she was just about to ask me to keep her higher Leveled brother safe if I knew her at all and then snap it shut at Ali’s screamed, mental NO. Right, right. Not the way to win an argument. While I’m working that all out, she stomps right out and I watch her departing back, grimacing.
“Well done boy-o,” Ali golf claps from his seat on the table.
“Bite me.”
Fuck me. Late at night, I stare up at the ceiling trying to figure out what went wrong. I spent weeks away from them all, trying to come to terms with who, what I am. The anger that sits in me, the world that we live in. And within hours of coming back, I am fighting with Lana and confused once again.
I don’t know what they want from me, not really. I’m lying in bed here, trying to figure out what it is they want because the gods know, I definitely don’t know what I want. To survive, sure. Get through another day, get a little stronger, get a little better. To fight, because I can? Saying, thinking it out loud, it seems so stupid.
I slowly exhale, focusing on just breathing for a few moments. I don’t know what I want, for myself or for Lana. I just know that I don’t want her to die. I don’t want anyone else who I could save to die. I don’t need that, not on my conscience.