---James---
Zone 2 clear!
Clear description:
Your path is your own. You prefer to take it alone. You refuse to accept the well trodden trail that others and have decided to head off into the woods instead. Does your path in a random direction lead somewhere? Only you know.
Clear stats:
Clear time 28 days. 7 hours
Total travelled distance 740 km
Natural wonders used: 1
Dungeons Cleared: 2
Nests Cleared: 4
Monsters killed:4290
Deaths: 1
Revivals used: 2 (?)
Highest stat, Leg Muscle Speed
Second highest stat, Arm and chest muscle power.
Total stats 755
Clear state. Rank 3
Next Tier: 296 stats to go.
Clear Rewards:
Upper Percentile of monster deaths
+3 free stat points.
Unique titles x4
+40 free stat points.
Unique body modifications resulting in higher than analyzable Tier.
+8 free stat points.
'build' deviation from average bonus.
+3 free stat points.
James had a moment to look at his clear stats and begin mentally optomizing where he wanted to destribute everything before someone appeared in his peripherals.
That guy from the badlands? Ralph was it? No…It was just R.
R stood across from James, a wide Cheshire grin upon the mask that was his face. The creature held a blue panel in his hands as if it were a trophy or some other form of accolade.
“Hi?” James spoke while some distant atrophied bit of his brain cringed and bashed itself into smithereens.
“Welcome, welcome.” R spoke. The man hefted his blue pane a few times before snapping it down the middle ceremonially.
James blinked.
“Well then, Standard extra clear rewards are altered and now altered again.” R sang. He held both of the shattered pane chunks a long moment before finally tossing them to either side.
“What?” James asked.
“Among other things this is the point where I promise to answer three questions, provide a free item to create something and tell you a bit of what’s to come. Really simple rewards this time around – I’ve already given you an absolute mantle which takes the same sort of place...”
James blinked.
“First reward for example, I’m actually able to answer as many questions as you want really pending mood…you’ll still get a seed but it won’t be as big of a deal as your mantle even if the seed appears to do more at first glance.” R began flipping his hand back and forth in a ‘Comsi Comsa’ motion.
“Without the bells and whistles-“ R began to rattle off points like a salesman “-Theme of the first reward was the past. Theme of the second was the present. Theme of the third is the future. You get to pick a reward that will effect your future and the cost for it will be taken continuously from the future. It’s a lot like the last trial really – take your pick from the loot reward, I’m sure you’ll find some use in one of them and then we can move on.” R finished a rapid-fire series of explanations an impatient look upon his face. A second later a new box appeared in James’s view.
Instant nest. Create a monster nest at your current rank and tier matched to either your affinity or the environment. Nest may be influenced by a concept you impart or follow as much of the shape of its surroundings as your magic allows. Customize a foe to challenge you! Create a free source of materials that match your style. Heavy degree of customization allowed and encouraged. Upon beating your personal nest’s guardian, options to variably alter it in limited ways will be provided.
Warning, nest customization locked to owner, should you perish what you have unleashed, may continue uncontrolled joining the ranks of the standard background danger.
Note: Due to mantle, a potential influence may grow your nest to the standard world calamity should it be mismanaged.
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Instant dungeon. Create a dungeon at your current rank and tier matched to your affinity, concept or following as much as your shape and desires as the magic allows. Variable control and results.
Dungeon creation will be limited to a series of requests with more challenging results providing larger benefits. True trials may grant any wish but may contain a cost none would willingly give.
Warning, heavy loss of control over exact methods the dungeon uses to fulfill your request. Attempting to micromanage or artificially limit the dungeon will result in worse rewards. Open ended requests such as “a challenge of perception” or “a reward of gem concepts” or “a way to fix something I’m lacking in” will result in better trials.
Note: Due to mantle, a potential influence may corrupt the trial dungeon into a world trial.
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Domain Anchor. Provide a free foundation for your domain should you choose to bind yourself to a location. Anchor will empower your domain into being unbreakable and unalterable in its vicinity. Anchor will give initial burst of constructive energy allowing you to create a rudimentary settlement or structure. Method for domain expansion customizable.
Example structures. Tower, Castle, Town.
Warning, not binding yourself to an anchor will allow others to claim in instead. Warning, binding yourself to an anchor will increase reliance on anchor. Warning, Death of bound owner may result in weakening of anchor unless proper care is taken.
Note: Due to mantle, projected domain will forcefully take on antagonistic role. Typical example of a mantle anchor is a ‘Dark Lord’s Castle’ which may produce monsters to draw humans towards you. Due to mantle, anchor’s hold on you will lessen – empowering you while in its sphere of influence but not binding you to it as strongly. Note Due to anchor binding to mantle effects of mantle may diminish while further away from its bound position.
Well then.
These were…surprisingly interesting options despite each containing heavy caveats. James skimmed all three options then took a closer look at the first two. Anchor was out – that sounded a lot like what the Queen of the floating city had… Although she hadn’t once mentioned having an aid for it…did she create that town and anchored domain herself? Did she earn an anchor in a dungeon or something and then use that to found the city?
Either way, not James’s style. He didn’t want to be tied down or trapped.
Between the other two it seemed like nests were the super customizable but simple option. If James wanted to make a good fight he could maybe customize some monsters to give him a challenge. If he got bored of a specific type of monster he could swap to something else…
In some ways it felt like a form of self sufficiency. It would be a lot like the domain anchor in some ways – if he were hungry he could customize his nest to make the monsters drop good food for example but he wouldn’t be tied down to it.
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In comparison a dungeon would be more hands off. He could ask it to give him a specific sort of challenge once and that was it.
…
James wanted control. It all came back to control in the end. He wanted control over himself. That part of him wanted to reach out for the instant nest button. He could micromanage his dream fights that way. James remembered the way R had thrown an invisible ball into the grassy plane and created a nest from that. He would have the same ability with this option – even if only once.
And yet in some ways the option felt boring. Was there really a point in a challenge if he designed every bit of it himself? Was there even any danger if he knew exactly how strong his opponents were? If he knew everything about them?
That level of control was a trap…it would let him grow complacent with known fights. No…no the unknown was a better challenge.
Even if an instant dungeon had a fraction of the control available for him, in some ways the dungeon having that control would be better. James didn’t care about controlling others – all he cared about was controlling himself. It was like playing chess – if he played both sides of the board did the game itself even matter?
Besides, even if it was a single unchanging trial it was bound to be better. Even if it was single use, James was bound to get a better permanent reward with a ‘real’ trial themed around what he wanted.
Finally the mantle’s corruptive influence seemed to be lessened for this option. A ‘world trial’ seemed less dangerous than a ‘world calamity’.
James was going to chose to believe the mantle was helping him in his job of keeping humanity from tearing itself apart. Otherwise it just looked like his mantle broke all three options and James didn’t want to second guess his choices.
Confident he had chosen the best of the options, James tapped his reward and watched the blue box implode – twisting and crunching down into a single blue speck.
As soon as he reached out and grasped hold of the seed – less a physical object and more a crystalized ball of whatever made up blue boxes – he felt…something deep and dense hidden behind the ball.
The real dungeon seed.
The moment this seeds carrying case was grabbed, yet another blue box flickered into view above it.
“Write any requests here before planting me then germinate with as much mana and aether as you desire. Note: The majority of the dungeons fuel will be supplied from elsewhere the growth dictated by the seed itself. Your gift of mana will simply help attune your requests and influence it towards your wish. A blank request field will create a random dungeon at your current power. Attempts to weaken the dungeon may create a lower tier of dungeon despite your higher tier of power. Attempts to increase the challenge may result in an effectively higher tier of dungeon.”
Checking for his backpack for a moment and feeling dumb when he realized it disappeared in between zones, James slipped the seed into his pocket instead.
Looking over his rewards James allocated everything and then nodded.
He couldn’t think of any questions right now – actually…
“If I’m going to ask you questions, how do I reach you?”
“Your mantle links to me. It’s a two way link so you should be able to either get my attention or send stuff down it…I’m sure you can figure it out once you get out of the in between area.
Well. In that case James guessed he was ready?
Looking at R, ready to head out, R shook his head slowly instead.
“The final bit of the reward is…the true reward without being anything much at all. As my champion you’re privy to a bit more of the mechanics as well.
James looked about. There’s more?
“To start with, I see you’ve crystalized a Truth past simple Facts affecting you,” R began.
“The Truth of magic is flexible…the affinities you know as standard – life, light, fire, movement, creation…they are what you could call the laws of the universe. The laws of reality. Magic that will work even in the thinnest of manaspheres. Pretend the universe itself has a domain pushing those laws onto all who dwell within it.
“But…if you colonize and found your reality properly, those laws become more flexible. If you liked the dungeon’s glimpse of time…well you could influence your worlds laws into accepting that sort of magic more freely. Time mana and a time affinity…a small influence might allow true foresight to exist in your world and all it influences. It might allow those in your world to read the flows of mana and divine potential futures. Precognition battles could become commonplace and those who hold great potential to influence history would shine brightly to all who could see. A much larger influence would allow partial or true time travel to exist in your world the timeline bending to its strongest. With a time mana affinity you could rewind your timeline past mistakes or skip forward through a period of dullness.
“I bring this up as you yourself have cultivated a spec of time.
“Currently its impact is limited. It’s suppressed by reality and only exerts a fraction of its potential inside your domain.
“If you choose to influence the laws of your world to allowing it, that spec would bloom. Not to the point of an affinity but a concept can influence the laws all the same.” R looked through James as if staring directly at the skill he broke and cultivated through his circuit.
Did James want that? He hadn’t liked the oppressive feel of fate and the dungeons magic…it seemed shifty.
“Currently a lot of things are impossible, but with enough will anything you might imagine gains possibility – at least in the realm you will call home.” R spoke flickers of images passing through the air around them.
“Bloodline abilities to pass on your greatest strengths to your children? Innate mana types and abilities held by all? ‘Killing intent’ and ‘suppression’ are popular choices to prevent those weaker from unknowingly attacking those stronger than them.
“You can help design and influence the [system] of your world as well. Some worlds suppress it down to barely a flicker of automatic growth, the masses forgetting its very existence. Others pull it up – adding useful general purpose spells to it – giving everyone a map, or ‘inventory’, or store. You could fix up the old quest system and make it more robust or toss it – I really don’t care about that toy. You could choose to add classes and create legacy abilities – limit the areas of ones body that stats may function on into preset configurations or force new stats into existence the weight of your world giving them power…
“There are rules for what has to happen in a settled world – nothing is free and every choice has a cost… an easy example would be the way worlds must have challenge and threat in monsters or otherwise…the way that threat is shown is flexible but the more you attempt to cheese it the worse off you’ll be. Besides that you’ll find the potential to customize the trials for your existence is immense. Do you wish to add a nemesis system? A single being opposite to you in power advancing as you do which seeks to end your line? Similar to the rarely used true love system, but set up for mortal enemies.
“A tribulation system dropping bloody burning rain and waves of monsters or maybe bolts of lightning and waves of pressure upon you at every rank you reach? Bottlenecks that must be crossed or inner demons to expel and overcome?
“None of these are ‘real’ and yet all of them…they could be real if you desired.”
James stared at flickered half images and imagined how he might challenge himself. A faint hunger for that level of control flickered up and faded. What would he do? How would he set up the challenges inherent in a world? How would he change the system if he had that power?
“Why does the world need challenge?” James asked – not that he disliked that rule.
“The stated reason shifts between worlds. Some think the monsters create a sort of mana or essence that is needed to keep the rank of a world – and in those worlds that is true. Others think life itself is one big trial and for anything to have meaning it must have strife in it. Those worlds are also true. Some believe there is an external force out there that will seek out and end them if they grow power without the strength to defend it. Those worlds believe monsters are simply training to keep a world strong enough to defend itself against the cowardly other that only seeks out easy meals. That is true as well.
“Truth is tied into belief and the world you create. As your mantle allows this question to be a True question…well the Truth above worldly truths is less satisfying. The Truth is just that there must be challenge. Theres no reason for it, there’s no grand mastermind behind this rule, its simply something that must happen. Truths and higher answers to questions that no one should be able to answer are sometimes boring like that.” R finished answering then grew silent for a moment.
When James didn’t ask anything else R nodded and continued his original set of information.
“The rules for how your world could work are flexible and will remain flexible for years to come. Gods are one of the final popular choices. I can create a few mantles of divinity and toss them out into the world each equivalent but different to your own. Depending on the type of world, those mantles would be more or less powerful – in one world they coalesce out of the strongest in a specific field and can grow in numbers despite being lost when its bearer dies. In another the mantles are limited in number but can pass through either consent or death. In some the power of a mantle must grow through adherence to the field a god represents in others it grows through worship or remains fixed like a title.”
James…could be a god! What a goal to work towards, the stated top of a worlds power – although he was already supposedly an absolute…and he was already probably one of the strongest. God just had a nice ring to it. Could he become an absolute god?
…it was probably blasphemous for an atheist to suddenly want to start being called a god. Especially with the mystery of the title lost in all this behind the scenes information. R should just stop showing how the sausage is made and pretend godhood is something unknowable but achievable!
“Now that I can see you’re suitably interested in the rewards and goals there’s some final notes. Contractually as your magic guide I’m supposed to tell you one method of gaining this ‘founder’ power is to destroy the power of reality. Kill its cultists – crack their effigy’s stranglehold on the world and influence the budding domain in its passage. As a plus side, the heightened danger of a growth world will fade and its cost will be paid. Instead of challenge enough for mana you can use to exist being increased by challenge of aether you cannot use existing in the same area…well you’ll simply have to pay the cost of your own power system. Your strength will remain the same while the danger will drop.
“On the other hand, contractually as your aether contact I’m supposed to tell you one way of gaining control over the resonance bands is to smash the chaotic beacon of corrupted aether. Clean up the corruptions, still the flows of the world and stabilizing all technologies potential. Don’t worry about lost chaos for true knowledge and careful study of the bands allow pure versions of all that could be created using those corrupted sources.
“As your ‘investor’…well you know my true wishes. Prevent a side from prevailing – rank up the world and survive the trials that will be thrown at you. An unbound or wild growth world will automatically rank up in a years time – that’s the timeline I ‘need’ to tell others to win their war in. Alternatively if you push a full tier above its rank cap…if you gain enough power to reach rank 4+ at 3154 total stats you can force the quality of the world up sooner. A decade or so for a rank 5 world and 5+ at 9463 total stats is a better goal to achieve the impossible… but no one’s reached that in a non-supported world. You got this! I’d imagine the rank 5 tribulation would be a rank 6 true dragon like you saw in trial and the dragonslayer achievement is the highest quality possible. Could be a good goal to work towards?
“Good luck my champion. I doubt you can convince others to listen to you and stop fighting but if you grow threatening enough, they might just band together and fight a common enemy. Good luck my ‘dark lord’.”
James hesitated a moment longer staring at all the images of potential. God James. Fuck that sounded pretentious and dumb…but deep down James kind of liked it. He then bowed slightly remembering himself and vanished into the mist.
R stayed behind. The creatures gaze remained on an empty spot a strange half smile upon his face. The flesh statue didn’t so much as blink as he stood in the darkness watching his flawed hope for something new disappear. The scene then ended, and the actors playing this part faded away.