---James---
What now?
James was lost.
He had been invited back to Maddy and her two friends’ Inn to rent his own room... but – after thanking them for the invitation – decided to escape and head about on a walk instead.
James had made a mistake.
The other day he had jumped into a well to learn about magic…the cost for that knowledge unknown at the time. Now that he’d learned of magic it seemed a lot like the cost was actually his real goal.
He would be forced to break into magic.
Was that really it? Was there a solution?
His supposed future self had broken into magic and only magic…had he done so because he was forced to? Or because he had learned that aether was simply mana working differently in a tech-based domain?
That’s what it had sounded like when the glass woman explained it at least.
Had his future self known that breaking into aether was chaining himself to someone or something else’s power? Was that really all aether was?
It couldn’t be, could it?
And now James was confused.
He’d finally learned of both sides – the ‘quest’ he’d requested and been sent on on was somewhat complete…and yet now he didn’t know his next step. Supposedly the final part of his quest was ‘a push’ wasn’t it?
‘R’ had mentioned helping him at that point…how did James contact him? Would it even still work now that he had been cursed?
“R?” James spoke into the street looking about – trying as hard as he could not to look at the ground.
Looking at the ground was hard to do when you weren’t supposed to look at the ground – like thinking of pink elephants when you were told not to.
…
How had he contacted ‘R’ last time?
He’d…used the quest panel, right?
But that cheat was only usable once every three weeks resetting in a new zone or upon completion of all three quests. He could try anyways?
“Quest: Help Me R” James spoke.
Nothing appeared. No blue box was there to show the way.
James sighed. It couldn’t be that easy could it. This did seem like the best chance he had…it looked like he would have to wait the rest of his current three weeks out. How long had it been? At least a week, right? It felt like it had been a month since he was exploring the night life with Richard.
“I guess that’s good enough”. A voice spoke from his shoulder.
Whipping his head sideways, James clawed and tried to fling the small blue figure sitting on his shoulder off in surprise.
Jumping over his hand and laughing the figure expanded and pushed through the air as if it were thick and sticky as he floated to the ground in front of James.
Spinning about with a slight giggle the short man – for he was a man now if slightly waxy looking – looked up and James and smiled.
“I do remember making a promise – I keep my promises ‘don’t chu know.” ‘R’ spoke twisting his head slightly and giving himself a strange accent.
His current guise shifted to that of an old, wrinkled man. As James watched the man continued to look like he was growing older – as if ‘R’ was tweaking his character profile in real time before settling on something he liked.
“You came?” James spoke almost surprised.
“And miss whatever’s going to happen next? My man! I wouldn’t miss it for this world. Before we get started what do you think about me bringing us somewhere easier to work in?” ‘R’ responded his tone and acent shifting between various youthful tones despite his continuous aged appearance.
“…sure” James confirmed watching as the world was suddenly gone.
He stood in a wide-open field. An endlessly flat expanse of grass in all directions…one that reminded him of something. James spun slowly looking across the empty planes before with a flinch and upward jolt he remembered.
Craning his neck back as he looked about the sky James crouched slightly ready to start running or attacking someone.
“This is the final zone, not the dragon area.” ‘R’ spoke from behind him, an amused look on his face.
“This…this is the final area?” James asked looking about cautiously.
“Yepperonie old chap – it might change once you all funnel out of the closed zones, but this is the physical location.” R confirmed nodding enthusiastically. Shaking his head like a wet dog R’s body lengthened and his age melted away. A final fluroushing twitch of his arms and there stood an incredibly incredibly waxy looking man wearing a suit.
It looked like he had suddenly given up instead of settling on a guise he liked the look of. Was this the real him? Somehow James doubted it.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to kick start the terraforming and then I can get around to sorting you out – one moment.”
R began muttering to himself searching about his pockets as if trying to find his keys – realizing he didn’t have pockets and then shifting his suit back to a baggy coat so he could reach in and fish something out.
Pulling an empty handful of ‘something’ out of his recently made pocket the creature eyed its surroundings then mimed pitching his empty hand to the front.
A few seconds after the mimed action, a splotch of colour began to spread across the grass like spilled oil.
Dark orange tinted the grass in a wave that burst outwards and then rapidly slowed. The plant life spasmed and twisted – grass combining into each other and then withering as dead blades smouldered and then suddenly grew again splitting and combining and twisting into something more.
“Do you mind if I skip this?” R asked James’s glancing sideways at him the creatures arms extended as if ready to snap its fingers.
“What?” James asked glancing to the creature and then back to the steadily growing wave of weirdness.
“I mean, do whatever you need to do?” James responded causing the ‘man’ to grin.
With a dramatic snap the world changed once again.
The surroundings were suddenly all orange, with red and brown notes. Bits of smouldering shrubbery dotted the landscape, and several trees were placed haphazardly about. The branches creaked and crackled – small holes in the bark showing a contained inferno hidden underneath each trunk.
Directly ahead, a massive creature loomed – it looked like a dark yellow brontosaurus with spider limbs near the ground…or more accurately the massive monster was a single thick neck. A single massive neck towering up into the sky topped with a flat looking head and mounted in the center of a large mound surrounded by dozens of thin legs.
It was now night – as if ‘to speed up the process’ ‘R’ had simply fast-forwarded through time – and the sky was a mass of stars. Directly set above them casting a steady blue-tinted glow was an utterly massive moon – one at least five if not ten times as large as the moon from Earth.
“Alright, now on to the product survey–” ‘R’ spoke simply as he turned to James.
James jumped and stared about wide eyed. He tried desperately to give the surroundings the same calm note as R was – but he couldn’t help being surprised.
“What is this?” James asked eyeing the massive monster as he tensed his body.
“Come on, can’t you guess? You should have enough information already…” R spoke laughing as he fiddled about with blue key cards.
“A nest?” James asked still eying the biggest threat and keeping his senses peeled for any surprise dangers.
“Bing! What you call a nest is one of the cheapest ways of transforming the surroundings I have. Comes with a free field boss if you playthings right as well. Anyways, on to the survey!” Blue que cards vanished from R’s hands and began appearing in front of James as familiar blue boxes.
General disclaimer and TOS (Terms of System)
----------------------------------------
Overview:
What you have done so far is the bare minimum needed as foundational fuel for your wish. You now have the potential to break into the two opposing systems but do not have the ability to do so. The requirements for aid must be accepted to complete your wish as stated.
Requirements:
One, acceptance of all aspects of the ‘push’ henceforth known as the ‘trial’ and any alterations made by the one issuing this contract.
Cost includes among other things (1) life as stated in previous contract rules, (1) body stat permanently being locked and forced into host status. Final break may still have restrictions based upon your own actions.
Two, the actual effort must be completed by (you) with the requirement of beating the designated creature stated as ‘the completion requirement’. Completion is deemed possible but may still fail if proper effort is not taken to cross the finish line.
Three, due to this being an amendment of a previous contract a new set of requirements will be provided. This payment will be conveyed by the one issuing this contract.
Accept all requirements?
“Simple enough,” R spoke as he reached over and ran a waxy-looking finger down the list.
“To start: Actually, doing the break would cost quite a bit more for me if I couldn’t lean on some existing options, Even if you are charting a new path, its easier and cheaper for me to tread between established guidelines to interface with the systems you are ‘joining’ but not aligning yourself with. In other words, even if I do most of the technical bits, you still need to fuel the final break. You still have to put in some work without me breaking even more systems than are in place, or shouldering the cost myself for no particular reason. Finally, I want something minor for this boon. Everything else is requirements for the process, this note is a requirement from me. Think of it as payment for my time and knowledge even if the cost is taken from you.”
James looked at the list and then looked over at R without signing. “I’m not accepting anything without knowing what I’m accepting” James spoke careful not to sign his life away cringing internally at how bratty he sounded in his head. He had been quite happy with the previous contract even if he didn’t remember much of the actual contents. This one…seemed way too flimsy.
R smiled and nodded “Of course, Of course, I completely understand. Want something to drink as we go over the terms of our agreement?” Gesturing over to a smouldering log, ‘R’ made as if to sit down at a desk.
James shook his head slightly causing R to nod again as if he didn’t care either way.
“No problem, no problem. In terms of requirements, you’ll have to pick a body stat to host your second affinity and one of your spare lives to act as the cost fulling this transformation. Additionally…I was going to go over the potential limitations in the quiz but to start off with I’d like to ask about your quest. What do you know about Mana and what do you know about Aether?”
James thought for a second still feeling slightly on edge due to the surroundings.
“Magic is mana as fuel, concept as…meaning and direction, shape as desire and intent? There's also some stuff about domains and imagination. On the other side…Aether is split into fuel and effect, but more importantly seems to be split into physics chemistry and biology fields? There's also some stuff about Esper powers and slots and stuff.” James began.
“No, no no! How does mana feel. How does aether feel. How do they differ in terms of goals?” R prodded – and so even though James felt he had answered the question properly the first time, he tried again.
“Mana…mana is about doing stuff with your imagination and aether is about learning the rules of how things work and using those?” James started.
“Closer if simplified,” R nodded and then continued. “Mana and the magic made with it is the pure wish for power. Magic is not caring about the why and how of things but instead a focus on the results. It’s a mainly personal and solitary field with no easy way of building upon or collaborating with others. One of the major focuses of ‘advanced’ magic is in restrictions and limits. Self imposed and chosen limits with purposeful or subconscious origins…control over what limits are in place through blind misunderstanding.
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“From your actions and goals, you fit entirely within this ‘side’ – you’ve even limited yourself already without even gaining a strength from those actions! If it weren’t for your conviction and pure desire not to be ‘chained’ to anything…well, I’d have assumed you’d break this way and move on over a month ago.
“Aether on the other hand… is more selfish in its goals while remaining less selfish in its actions and interactions. Instead of a blind wish for power, aether is a wish for understanding and control due to that understanding. Aether devices, drugs, esoteric modifications…they are all designed to achieve comparable and greater strength to those of mana without dealing with conceptual limitations. You could say they are trading one limit for another but that’s getting into a bit more than is needed here.
“Essentially aether is defiance of the natural. Instead of accepting your natural affinities, strengths and weaknesses… aether allows you to customize and overcome the hidden laws of existence. It’s a collaborative force as well as a more stable one. In some ways it's better than mana, in other ways it's worse. More importantly its not a solitary system. Aether needs infrastructure to shine. You can exchange, gift and create using that which was created from others…but for it to truly sparkle you need to combine your strengths with others. In terms of a long-term world of aether, power will accrue over generations with individuals adding their knowledge or creations towards the good of the whole. One might invent a novel way of creating batteries another might perfect interface an artificial mind with a fleshy one. This world has been kickstarted with quite a bit of external knowledge and devices, but humanity can build off of that growing to be greater than what came before.
“From all your actions so far…I’d say you aren’t a good fit for this system. You don’t act like you want to rely on or help others. You aren’t as focused on knowledge as others – in fact. Despite breaking into magic, a recent acquaintance of yours seems much more in line with aetheric temperaments and goals.” Pausing his explanation, ‘R’ pulled out a blue pane of glass that looked similar to a tablet. Flipping it to show James he leaned in and saw a silent image of Maddison writing down notes in bed while illuminated by a single floating light and surrounded by companions each meditating on their own goals.
“She’s treating magic like a science. Keeps trying to figure out the rules instead of embracing the lack of rules. She’s doing well in terms of strength, but she should really start using her imagination more. Now, I once told you that a combination of both sides gives more weaknesses than strengths. Your goal isn’t actually strength however – nor is it a perfect power. What you truly wish for is control over yourself. Control, that’s what all of this is about. You want to pick and choose your limitations and then discard them or overcome them…and that is something I can do.
“So, lets talk about the limitations that will exist as soon as you finish this breaking ritual. After we can go over the cost and job offer. Are you sure you don’t want to get comfortable?” R asked gesturing about.
James slowly nodded and went over to the previously offered log.
There seemed to be more involved than he was expecting.
Why couldn’t ‘R’ just wave his hand and set James up?
No…this was better. It gave James a sort of validity to his eventual break. It made if feel more real.
“Comfortable? Good. This shouldn’t take too long, but a verbal description helps cut out a lot of the legal jargon from any contract. An informed contract is stronger and gives a lower chance of regret. Let’s start with the interactions directly after the break. To start: ‘mana effecting aether’. Mechanic wise, by personalizing your aether fingerprint it will no longer interface well with others. Your source aether will be ever so slightly off the general resonance – for all intents and purposes power wise it’s a true aether break but in terms of results…
“In terms of effect, one of the biggest strengths of aether will be nerfed. You should be able to use a few simple devices, but any complicated aether devices made by others will no longer work for you. The strength of aether is being able to act as a hobbyist – buying and combining parts from others without needing to understand how they were made. You won’t be able to do this easily. If you want to use aether to its fullest potential, you’ll need to create most of your items from scratch or heavily modify others work before you can use it yourself. This is a limitation… but one you might be able to overcome using your own strength or knowledge. For now, considering how uninterested you have been in leaning on others strength, it doesn’t seem too bad of an initial weakness…” ‘R’ finished.
James thought things through. In many ways he was completely fine with this but at the same time…it felt big. He was being told the greatest strength of this side would not be there for him. Unless he figured out how to overcome it? Could he…create some sort of adaptor? Find a way to modify devices to work for him as well?
Wait-
James pulled off his bag and reached around, finally finding a small, cushioned box wrapped in multiple cushioned layers.
The ai he bought with Richard…the cellphone equivalent he had promised to use once he broke into aether.
He…wouldn’t be able to use this if he accepted the request. He wouldn’t be able to keep in contact with his friend…
“…that would make a more balanced break.” R muttered staring at the device and fiddling with his cards.
James also had the burning question of the dungeon.
“Can I even break into aether? I went through a dungeon that basically said I had to break into magic” James finally asked R already waving it aside as non important.
“Don’t worry about that. It’s a stupid truth anyway. When you break into both, you’ll break into magic and break into aether and that’s going to count for the dungeon’s purposes. You can even go back and continue delving and it wont mind if you don't stick to mana abilities. That sort of law is weakend by aether anyways. More importantly I’ve changed the plan a bit! As part of your breaking ritual, I can start you off with that AI. Call it me throwing it in for free as you wouldn’t be able to create something like that from scratch without relying on others and it should help you out. Offset how little your aether break will give you to start." R seemed pleased by this.
James took a moment longer to consider then nodded. He had no real interest in relying heavily on others.
“Perfect. That should balance out the ritual. Now! On to how the stability of aether will stunt mana…I already mentioned the easiest way for the two systems to play nice is to borrow a magic trait. You’ll need to sacrifice a single body stat at the start to host things but…the same restriction will prevent you from exchanging more stats for more affinities. You won’t be able to pick a second or third affinity…not if you want to keep the balance you have.
“It all boils down to balance. I’m going to give you a pretty stable foundation but unless you figure out how to overcome this yourself…on either side too large an effect would snap your split systems into a single one. If you attempt to gain a separate dual affinity using magic, you’ll lose your aether pool first. If you try to do something of equivalent self change on the aether side, you’ll lose your magic but I find that hard to imagine. Like everything due to the nature of your break you might be able to combine higher concepts and knowledge from both sides to do something simultaneously and remain balanced.
“For safety I’d say you need to do the bare minimum of practice using both ability sets – but the job offer later should remove that restriction anyways. And again, plus side with the amount of potential we are going to be cramming into you, you might be able to overcome this restriction as well.” R smirked slightly as if he doubted that would happen.
James thought through this restriction carefully as well. On one hand he was really hoping to have both the strengths of aether and strengths of mana without any weaknesses…on the other hand these ‘initial’ restrictions he ‘may’ be able to overcome sounded…reasonable.
He already hated the idea of losing a single one of his focused stats – James couldn’t imagine wanting to sacrifice more just to gain more affinities.
The initial cost for mana on this deal seemed worse – sacrificing a body stat. Obviously defense but…he’d prefer dropping one of the stats he didn’t have much in. He didn’t even have any stats in his soul after all! That would be a real easy chose to drop he barely knew he had a soul. What about mind? Mind stats seemed lame other than making him think a bit faster so he could react better…
Finally, after several minutes in silence James spoke.
“Okay, I accept. Anything else?” James asked, finally ready to accept the requirements and move onto the actual breaking.
“Theres also that final note. Itty bitty requirement from me. Don’t worry this one is fun” R laughed pointing at the last line and then pulling out more sheets.
“The cost from me. It’s a way you can help me help you as well as a way you can solve a problem for me. I want to make you an absolute.” R’s voice gained a strength as he spoke that last line and pulled out a new contract.
“To start. This zone you see about you is the final area. It’s the planet you are being gifted – nearly unaltered from the empty floating rock it was before we got here. On that technicality its not a ‘zone’ – there are no instances or non-natural barriers isolating it from the surroundings. What there is however is the final trial. This world…is only big enough for a single system. As soon as the strongest clients find themselves in this area, they will find themselves pitted against each other.
“Its…unavoidable. The way I was contracted to set up this expedition, its basically a given the final area ends in war. Both sides increase the difficulty for the other side without providing benefits – each side actively hinders the other in as high a level as settlers end up. Because of my contractual obligations – because of how this whole system is set up…I cannot interfere in this scenario. Not directly. Not through an external force at least. The only way I can interfere in the scenario is through an inside agent.
“That’s where you come in. There’s a lot of names for your job – demon lord. Agent of chaos…Actually, on that note this isn’t even a new position. I was always going to try and field an insider absolute – I was actually planning on saving it for a familiar face. This one was my highest contender. I had such…such high hopes for him.” R shook his head in deep sadness.
For the second time in as many minutes, R pulled out a blue tablet showing off a scene of someone James knew. A scene of the tutorial town way back when.
Richard was dropping his trousers a gleeful satisfaction flickering across his face as he peed off a roof onto a figure down below.
It flipped to him walking past a group of earthlings pausing and swapping two of their drinks then stepping back and watching the two reach over and take a sip of each others’ drinks.
It flipped to him standing in a booth calling out fake sounding quests and sending people off to do silly things for him.
And then it flipped a final time and showed Richard sitting in a desk in a classroom. A complicated looking mess of wires and chips sat in front of him, and his hand was raised. The teacher called on him and he excitedly began to point out random bits on his mess of an item before asking a question. The teacher nodded and Richard smiled, unplugging something and twisting a dial before plugging it back in. Looking up at the teacher Richard gave a double thumbs up then went back to listening to the lecture.
The scene ended.
“Disappointing really. I have no clue why he’s gotten so boring…I might have miscalculated giving him that affinity instead of leaving it up to chance. It was meant to break into magic.” R shook his head before looking back at James.
“Anyways that’s the job. The reason I want you to take it is unimportant. The reason you might want to take it is easy. By winning the final ‘scenario’ this world will be ‘settled’. On one hand the difficulty will drop. The strength and quantity of monsters will at least halve after one side is removed, but the conflict of having two sides will also end the chances for advancement. The number of challenges you have to face to grow stronger will shrink.
“On the other hand, on a more personal reason for you to take this mantle – one tying into both how mana and aether work as well as how your break will solidify. By removing either of the pylons on this planet and ‘breaking the planet to magic or science’ half of your power will become suppressed and limited. That will snap you into the side that breaks – that’s tying into the power of an absolute. To fuel your continued wish you’ll have to continue to work for it.” R finished. Reaching around in his pockets – they obviously weren’t pockets…were they like miniature inventories? Portals to some other area?
R pulled out a gold card tossing it into a box for James to sign.
Unlike every other blue box James had received this one was solid. It was a physical sheet of something held floating in the air in front of him.
It felt like a piece of thin glass – the words painted onto it with black paint. The signature field at the bottom scribbled with a real pen.
All of the words were in a strange language that shifted slightly out of the corner of James’s eye – like the words were rearranging when they thought he wasn’t staring at them.
James squinted slightly at the incomprehensible contract. R had done a lot to describe the job but if the contract itself was obscured?
…James didn’t want to accept without knowing what he was accepting. He already didn’t like the idea of working for someone else…especially when it felt like that someone else was trying to manipulate him into accepting by pretending he was ‘working for himself’ instead of for them.
“Can you tell me what an Absolute is? You threw around a bunch of different titles. I’d also like to know what that catch is. What do you get out of this? Why create a scenario forcing everyone to war and then try and stop it? If I know that I’m fine accepting it.” James asked without agreeing to anything.
Since when was he able to negotiate or talk back to someone this powerful?
‘R’ stared at him for a moment then nodded a faint smile growing on his face.
“An absolute is what every single one of the helpers running your settlement are called. In terms of what it is…think of it like a self fulfilling prophecy. A non mechanic – a title and ongoing requirement an inalienable fact with a singular weakness and everything in between. Its easier to describe the idea of an absolute with a simpler example than yours. Say someone comes to me and asks for the power to make an absolute barrier. A perfect defense – something only they can let others through. I can do that. I can give them a defense stronger than any defense that exists in their world – stronger than any attack that could possibly reach them.” R gave up on the panels and simply projected an illusion of the barrier that surrounds each zone a shadowy figure standing behind it one hand held high.
The illusion flipped to show the domes surrounding each zone like a series of nesting dolls getting larger and larger.
“Now, by definition at the time of my gift their ability is absolute in its effect. To keep that absolute ‘status’ however means they need to squish anything or anyone that could threaten it. Elm for example needs to kill or otherwise disable anyone who could threaten his barriers. Any attack strong enough to threaten his state of absolute defense. As soon as an attack can break the strongest defense, the breaker gains the status after all – they then have an absolute attack or absolute ability for destruction and the mantle passes to them with their ‘job’ to prevent a defense that could overwhelm them.
“Absolute immortality contingent on keeping someone from becoming able to kill them. Absolute soul sundering death contingent on someone not making a defense that could beat them.
“An absolute that doesn’t flip flop would be the strongest mage. As soon as someone grows stronger than them their status as the absolute strongest mage would shift to the newcomer.
“Really really simple isn’t it? In your case, your absolute state of having both mana and aether is contingent upon the world you live in having both mana and aether…so as soon as the world flips to one or the other for good you’ll have to ether transcend the world and its limitations…or lose half your abilities. Alternatively prevent the ridiculously rare chance of someone becoming able to break your dual status. That’s your ongoing cost” R paused for a moment staring at James to see if he got it.
James did…but didn’t. As far as he could tell, it was a synonym for the best or strongest…but it also didn’t seem to give anything beyond that? With how much R kept focusing on it and reverberating the air when he spoke of absolutes there had to be more of a status…
“As for why I want you to try and keep the world in flux – besides entertainment...The growth of each zone is a somewhat natural thing. Each has a tier requirement that prevents leveling too far past its point, but also prevents anything stronger than its range from existing inside of it. Breaking that zone’s cap will forcefully increase the strength of the zone – or in other words, ‘unstable zones provide more growth’ but will also tier themselves up after a certain point becoming harder for everyone inside of the zone…this knowledge will be told to everyone likely leading to them attempting to stabilize the zone and prevent the difficulty from spiraling out of control.
“I want you to keep the world unstable. Keep the unbalanced teetering between aether and mana. Keep the world growing for as long as possible…keep increasing the max tier allowed. The civilization that contracted me to set up this whole settlement wants you to settle down in this final zone…but I personally want this place to grow stronger than the civilization that contracted me. As high a rank as possible – even if you fail and wipe yourselves out after reaching monsters too strong for you to handle I will still have a higher rank world in the end. If individuals wish to transcend their current world to reach a stronger one and continue advancing…well those worlds need to exist to send them to. That’s what I get out of this.” R finished.
James stared at him. If he didn’t know better he’d say that last bit had slipped out…but no. This is what R wanted and James had wanted to know.
There was still a bit he didn’t understand – the ‘why’ of things like why R couldn’t just interfere directly or make a higher rank zone without them but.
…but James was satisfied.
Building up some courage he reached out and carefully drew his signature on the contract – like signing a slip at the post office.
“Alright, Now on to the breaking?” James asked looking about.
“Nope! We keep getting distracted. We still need to do my quiz!” R laughed and spun with boundless excitement.
…soon.