Grace, who is somewhere around 5 years old, chose me to be her mentor. We climbed up the mountain and came here, to the underground cavern where I became a pacifist, so that she could touch the crystal and gain the same job and skill set.
Except when Grace touched the crystal, she disappeared.
I don’t remember disappearing when I touched the crystal. Some status windows, the handprint that hurt, losing all my stuff, things like that… but I don’t remember disappearing.
I wait a few seconds, but Grace doesn’t return. I hold my arm up to see if water is stuck inside the metal cloth gauntlet, but it looks like it lets the water through somehow. Lucia is still in my arms, but within moments she bounces out, brushes up against the crystal, and disappears in a flash of golden light, too.
Well.
I guess I’m gonna either have to wait, or touch the crystal and figure out exactly what is happening.
I reach out my hand and touch the crystal.
A series of status windows appear before my eyes, changing faster than I can read.
[Intruder alert]
[Scanning for intent]
[Intent confirmed]
[Defense protection system recalibrated]
[Transferring to PAX Dimension]
The air around me turns golden, and suddenly I am… in the same place as before? I’m in the same cave as before. The water is around us, the crystal is here. Except Lucia is here again. And Grace has her hand pressed on the golden crystal next to me. Her eyes are closed.
Wait. Didn’t she disappear? What exactly just happened?
The status windows don’t give me time to process what happened.
[Pacifist detected]
[Scanning memory]
[True Pacifist detected]
[*Oath of Pacifism* protocol recognized]
[Nurture protocol activated]
[Scanning for damage and status conditions]
[Max HP Damage found]
[Seeking authorization to repair damage]
[Please wait]
[Please wait]
[Please wait]
[Authorization denied]
[Damage due to overuse of *Oath of Pacifism*]
[Seeking override]
[Please wait]
[Please wait]
[Please wait]
[Please wait]
[Override denied]
[Damage due to overuse of *Oath of Pacifism*]
[Override would “upset game balance”]
[Seeking override]
[Please wait]
[Please wait]
[Please wait]
…
I shrink the size of the status window and move it to the edge of my vision. Which reminds me. Is the red exclamation mark still there? In the far corner of my vision there are now two screens - one is repeating [Please wait] over and over again; the other has a dropdown menu. No flashing exclamation point!
I glance over at Grace. I’m assuming that she is going through the *Oath of Pacifism*, or having her memories read, or something… right? It didn’t take long for the system to read my memories, since I had only lived here for a few weeks. But Grace was born here. So I’m guessing it will take a bit longer.
I move the quest window to the center of my screen and pull it open. Now that I think of it, I haven’t ever looked at this screen, except to close it during the tutorial. Along the left hand side are a number of groupings, and on the right, empty stars.
It looks like there are lots of potential quests suggested in the system. I open the “Beginner Quests” tab.
BEGINNER QUESTS (90% Completed):
[QUEST] (Completion Points)
CURRENT QUEST:
[Kill a monster]
COMPLETED:
[Choose a weapon] - Secret Complete “Weaponless” (6pts) [+]
[Complete Tutorial] - Secret Complete “Itemless” (6pts) [+]
[Join a Party] (1pt)
[Open a Bank Account] (1pt)
[Complete your first Quest at the Adventurer’s Guild] - Supreme Complete (5pts)
[Buy Something] (1pt)
[Sell Something] (1pt)
[Gather something “sparkly”] - Great Complete (2pts)
[Talk to 10 different NPC’s] (1pt)
Hey! This stuff is actually pretty interesting! It looks like I’ve completed all of the Beginner Quest line, except for the one that says “kill a monster.” Yeah, I don’t think that quest will get finished. At least, I hope it doesn’t get finished. Also, each of the quests awards something called “completion points” - and some of them give way more points than others.
I click the [+] sign next to the “Secret Complete” at the top of the screen, and it expands.
[Choose a weapon] - Secret Complete “Weaponless” (6pts)
[-] Upon first entering the weapon select screen, touch each weapon and read the entire explanation of each weapon over the course of a total of 9:13 minutes. Do not swing a weapon, choose a weapon, or touch any weapon twice. Leave the weapon select screen for 7:32 minutes. Return to the weapon select screen. After 12 seconds, join a party with one other new player currently in the Tutorial. Wait 9 seconds. Enter the Tutorial without a weapon.
Wait.
What?!?
Is that a log of exactly what I did?
How is that a secret quest clear condition?
How is that even possible? That doesn’t make any sense… I thought it was a bug of some sort. I’m sure it was a bug. I click on the next “Secret Complete” mark.
[Complete Tutorial] - Secret Complete “Itemless” (6pts)
[-] Clear [Choose a weapon] through Secret Complete “Weaponless.” Do not touch weapons in the Tutorial. Do not fight or cast spells against Target Dummies. Remove stat points from all stats. Place all stat points into Luck. Enter the starting city through the Tutorial Portal without starting equipment or items. NOTICE: Secret Complete “Itemless” will mark character for automated ban.
I re-read the last statement. “Secret Complete “Itemless” will mark character for automated ban.” Does that mean my character is going to get banned? Or that I was marked for ban?
Either way, now is not the time to get bogged down in that.
There are more quests.
My best friend knows that, when it comes to games, I have a weakness. Actually, more like hundreds of weaknesses.
Quests.
Sidequests, gather quests, meet-and-greet quests, save-the-cat-in-the-tree quests, fetch quests… I’m a sucker for all of them.
He plays games by going from the beginning to the end.
Me? I play games by doing the quests.
And if there are secrets?
Oh man. I have to find the secrets. I remember once literally pounding on every single wall inside a dungeon because I knew that somewhere there was supposed to be a secret. After hours of pounding, I found not one but THREE secret walls. Yes, one had a horde of monsters, one had a treasure chest full of stuff, and the last was an Easter Egg… but I found them and I loved it.
Walking into the Adventure Guild I didn’t feel the same draw to quests that I normally do. I mean, there are literally thousands of quests on the board. But this - this list of Beginner Quests, with more tabs just behind it, and completion points that I have no idea what are used for yet, and secret completion and “Great” completion and “Supreme” completion… suddenly I am filled with an unquenchable urge to do the quests and find the secrets.
I click to close the “BEGINNER QUESTS” log and move to the next tab.
It won’t close.
Really?
The game is going to require me to do all these things before it lets me move on to the next set of quests?
I’ve seen games like that before.
But… I don’t want to kill a monster.
I’m still wrestling with my inner self when Grace opens her eyes.
Grace: “Gabe! You’re here too! I’m done!”
Gabe: “Good job! How did it go?”
Grace: “The blue lady talked about you.”
---
Earlier (immediately after touching the crystal)
Blue lady: “Welcome, Grace. Are you sure of this decision? You’re quite young to be making a promise that will last the rest of your life… but I guess you're special… and you already know that… don't you?”
Grace just nods her head.
Blue lady: “Gabe’s desire for pacifism was to have the ability to protect others with his own body… and to live in the world and make a difference.”
The Blue lady twirls her fingers in her long hair.
Blue lady: “Your heart, on the other hand, is different. I see no desire to conquer dungeons, convince nations, or save the world. You simply want people to be able to live without fear… and so your heart created this.”
She spreads her hands wide, indicating the cave around them.
Blue lady: “The golden crystal reaches into the innermost places of your heart to determine how to help you achieve your goals. But I never would have dreamed that embedding conscious thought into the profession crystal would use resources to this extent! Any resource allocation above a set amount requires my specific permission… which is why I am suddenly here instead of where I was moments ago… and why time is stopped…”
Her voice trails off and she puts her hands on her hips: “You may very well become one of the most expensive things I've ever made, little girl.”
She continues: “This place you are in is called the PAX dimension. It is a safe place. Currently, the only beings who can come here are you and the beings you choose to bring here. It is an exact replica of the outside world. However. Since this is a real world in an alternate dimension, it cannot perfectly mirror. The simplest would be to make it an exact replica at a given point in time. Regardless, that’s where it will cost a huge amount of resources.”
She smiles: “Right now, only this cave is part of the PAX dimension. It looks like that was the extent allowed by the resource allocation rights given to the crystal. But upon taking your vow of pacifism, you will receive the ability to come and go from here. The dimension will grow as you explore it, and provide you and anyone you trust with a safe place.”
Grace: “So Gabe can come too? And Lucia?”
Blue lady: “Gabe? Hmmmmm… I hadn't intended to give any players ownership of space just yet… and I’m honestly concerned about the logistics of running yet another parallel existence where non-AI can come and go at a whim…”
She holds her head in one hand, thinking, then snap her fingers, looks up, and smiles.
Blue lady: “I’ve got it! This can be a static dimension!”
She looks at Grace and continues: “There won't be any buildings here. No trees, no grass, no objects that can be gathered. Everything will be static. Except… that may require a different set of physics variables… how can you breathe air if the place is static? And what about entering bodies of water? And if a foundation of a building was excavated… wouldn’t it be easier just to give you an empty box to play in? Make it a kilometer wide on each side, give it a dirt floor and call it good? Kids like boxes, right?”
She trails off and then looks back at Grace: “You don’t care about any of that. And giving you the ability to store stuff here would lead to abuse as well, especially if Gabe gets involved. So no box. No stored stuff. Anything you bring here will disappear after you leave. You, or another pacifist, has to be here with any guests. Nothing will grow here. There’s also no food here to raise animals. You can't build a city here because you can’t interact with the rocks and anything you leave will disappear. And you can only go back to your original dimension in places where you have already entered this one. So it could be used for safe travel, but only to places you've already been. And it’ll be boringly safe travel.”
She speaks aloud to herself: “That’s enough balancing, right? I might end up regretting the travel thing, but otherwise…”
She looks at Grace and speaks: “Actually, let’s change that. Give someone an ability, and you can be guaranteed it will be used. I mean, look at what he did with Heal - there is no way I could have ever expected him to go into negative HP! I can already think of ways travel could be abused. PAX dimension is a snapshot of the world at the moment you enter it, minus all interactable items, and you can only exit the PAX dimension in same place the last time you entered. That's a nerf if there ever was one. In exchange, I'll let you bring seeds and plant them here. I have to apply the same physics here anyway, so the soil, air, sunlight, and water have to be dynamic regardless since you have to breathe. That should take fewer resources than creating a new dynamic set of physics rules. Sound good?”
The blue lady looks at the 5-year-old as if she expects Grace to give feedback to her. Grace just looks at her.
Blue lady: “Sometimes I forget that each of you only has so many internal functions. And the age-lock thing. Three more years until you actually understand cause and effect, even as a special case? That seems like way too long… whatever. When I leave, I’ll start time again and you’ll be able to take the oath of pacifism. I’ll approve the resource allocation for the creation of the PAX dimension.”