JESSIE : LEVEL 4

DAY 9 : A-DAY, SECONDWEEK, AGNI, YEAR 1

TOWN OF ALL BEGINNINGS 7 : BENCH 5 : MOREOVER

Once she reached Level 100, Jessica the Racist Human Stone Kicker decided to take a break from kicking stones to open a stone-kicking shop.

In the midst of a normal business day, she was approached by a customer. Snuck up on, actually.

Unaware of the visitor, Jessica went about her business arranging stones by kickability. She turned halfway around to get a medium-kickable stone from the table behind her, only to see an unfamiliar face about an inch from her own. “GAH!!!” Jessica reflexively kicked that very stone at the day’s first customer before she could even fully register what she was kicking it at. But thankfully, stone-kicking was disabled in her shop. So it didn’t do anything.

The cross-eyed man stared her diagonally down for a few seconds before finally elaborating. “I have to go.” Then he left the store, prolonging his eye contact by never once turning his head until the door closed behind him. Or in front? Since he was walking backwards and all…

The Racist Human took a moment to calm her breath before turning back around, only to be met with another unblinking gaze.

It was that of her only employee standing not an inch away in the other direction. She was wearing a big name tag that said ‘Mai Patreon’.

For her part, the Stone Kicker couldn’t help repeating herself as she stumbled backwards. “ACK!!!” Tripping over a pipe, Jessica had just enough time to catch a single word from the world before it went black.

“Money-”

But just as the back of her head was about to hit the shop’s cobblestone floor, I'm suddenly standing upright again. This induces a bout of amnesia for some reason. What was I doing? I… Can’t remember…

Then it clicks. Oh yeah… Mission failed, huh? But at least I got whatever a Mod Stone is. And 256 XP Debt. That’s like 128 stupid-spiders-worth. It was only 64 at Level Two… Sure, the math works out, but holy fuck does that add up fast.

That’s when something bumps me out of the respawn point.

“Ow…” Stumbling into the street, I find myself smack-dab in the middle of what has to be the largest crowd of people I’ve ever been in. But they aren’t there for me. Or even the spawnpoint itself. In fact, they seem just as confused as I am. Before I can quite come to grips with the situation, I’m pushed again from behind. “Ow!”

The guy who bumped me seems taken aback. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

I can’t help feeling silly as I realize that jostled as I may have been, it didn’t actually hurt in the slightest. Neither did getting mauled by spiders for a day straight for that matter. Turning around, I hurry to correct the misunderstanding. “It’s okay. It didn’t-Woah!” But I fall backwards as I’m bowled over by the torrent of people now streaming in from the pillar of light. Backing up, I trip and fall over a nearby curb. “Fuck!” Belatedly, I remember that dying resets my toggles. My one and only Toggle. The one I’ve already resigned myself to becoming entirely dependent on.

[ COMMON TOGGLE ON: RADIAL AWARENESS ]

Getting to my feet, I back away from the incoming flood of people spawning in. But even as I do, the general unease that I didn’t realize I was feeling, fades. And the stomach I didn’t know I was clenching, unclenches. I really am getting spoiled on this Radial Awareness thing, aren’t I? I just don’t want to not have it on… Reminds me of the first time I tried the noise-canceling headphones I got for my birthday. Wait, is that a skill you can get too? I only stopped wearing them because my ears got chafed bad enough that the discomfort stopped being worth the lack of noise pollution. And me with an unused Skill Point…

I jump as I realize something far more urgent. “Wait, where’s that Oneshot fucker?”

A general discontented groan overtakes the crowd, muttering over each other in a customer-service-maligning haze of dissatisfaction. Things like ‘he can Fly AND Teleport-’, ‘took my best weapon-’, and dozens of well-considered critiques consisting of everything from ‘hacking-ass cheater’ to ‘cheating-ass hacker’.

“Unless I miss my guess…” A mostly muffled Mich gets to work jostling his way out of the now extremely crowded spawnpoint. “I think we missed him by about eight hours.”

That’s when I remember how respawning works. And that I still have my Vengeance Quest.

[ HERO TARGETED: ONESHOT - BFS ]

I try to look around for what in my clusterfuck of a visual periphery just changed, but I can’t spot anything like a ‘target’. I’m confused until I think to actually look where my subconscious is telling me. Squinting up at the sun like a smart person, I can just barely make out the standard target box. Now at what is clearly its minimum size, it seems to be highlighting a tiny dot in the middle of the sun itself. What in the fuck is he doing up there? Let alone how. Or why. At least he’s gone though. That’s what’s important.

Craning my neck back down, I nod at Mich as he finishes making his way out of the crowd uniformly throwing him less than friendly looks as he passes. “Seems that way, yeah. So did he kill everyone here or what?”

Mich hesitantly looks around at everyone. His hesitation only grows as the gazes that meet his own turn out not to have gotten any friendlier in the last few seconds. Plastering on a smile, he tries for a nonetheless unconvincing laugh. “Y-yeah… Care to sit and talk for a bit?”

My earlier desire to sleep in an actual bed for once is in no way lessened by the eight-hour respawn. But I really feel like I’m missing something here… About as hesitant as Mich seemed just then, I join him in his walk over to that same bench.

As soon as we sit, he throws me a curveball. “I was surprised by his Title, by the way. Why didn’t you ever mention that?”

“What title?” Oh… “You mean the ‘BFS’ thing”

Mich gives me a concerned look. “You do know what that means, right?”

“What? Do I know about BFS? Of course the fuck I do. Who doesn’t? What those three letters are doing under that dickhead’s name, I have no fucking clue. I figured he did that for some sort of cringey shock value. Far as I can tell, that fits his whole thing, so I didn’t really question it beyond that.”

Mich chuckles darkly. “I take it you haven’t heard of Titles?”

“The proper noun?”

“Yeah.”

“Then no.”

Mich blinks at that. “You know, you could just come out and ask when you don’t know something.”

“I thought that’s what I was doing.”

“Uh-huh… And when, exactly, have you ever asked anyone about that?”

I let out a groan reminiscent of that crowd back there as my tiredness spikes. “I feel like we’re having two different conversations. And I have no idea what’s going on in yours.”

Mich sighs. “If someone has a Title, you’ll see it along with their chosen name when you target them. Except the title itself can’t be chosen. It doesn’t supply a system bonus of any kind. It’s just a label based purely on what most people know you by. It’s your nickname. Or alias. Maybe even a literal bestowed title. Whatever it is, it’s how you’re known by a certain population threshold. If you’re known primarily by your own name, then you won’t have a title. Which you don’t. And neither do I. Neither of us can get one, either. Not in any way besides making a consistent impression with enough people-”

I pretend to listen past the first few sentences, at which point my mind is consumed by one thought in particular. Eventually, I come out of it, interrupting whatever he’s saying. “Hey.”

He freezes mid-word. “Y-yeah?”

“Is it really him?”

Mich seems a little disturbed himself. “I don’t see how it’s possible. I’d put money on it being a copycat.”

“But, I mean, why would you want to copy… That?”

Mich groans a bit under his breath as though in memory of a sight he’d rather have forgotten. “There are people…”

“And those people are likely to be here?”

“I’d assume not. But I’d also assume that literally any of them are a whole hell of a lot more likely to make it in than the real BFS.”

I gulp in pure disgust, not the least bit surprised at the sudden taste of quesadilla. “Yeah… That makes sense. Or at least more so than the other thing. Either way though… Fucking gross.”

“On that, we agree. Best to just forget about him and move on.”

I solemnly nod. “Yeah. At least until we’re stronger.”

“What?”

“Whaddya mean ‘what’? You’re okay just leaving it like this?”

Mich shrugs. “Not particularly. But-”

“But nothing! You tell me all that shit the other day and then you just give up after one loss? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

“What? Oh-I mean… That’s, uh… I really gave it my all there…”

“What do you mean ‘your all’?”

“After our conversation, the one we had on this very bench, I gathered some people for a little anti-spawncamper group. We were gonna go and clear out any nearby scumbags making Heaven, of all places, unfriendly to newcomers. They were the best the town had to offer. We were meeting to coordinate teams to work together and take down anyone trying to rob the recently deceased.”

Huh… “Sounds like a solid plan. If not in terms of an end goal, then at least I could really see that helping some people. So what happened?”

“He happened. Out of nowhere, Oneshot just materialized in front of the spawnpoint, strolled right past all of us, and into the mayor’s office. Jessie, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you made quite the splash when you got here. And that was one thing. But when you made your first payment on that ridiculous sword in the most prestigious weapons shop in town? That’s when the word got out. Small town like this? Even mundane rumors spread like weeds. In one fell swoop, your reputation went from that random girl who jumped into an orgy, to someone to watch out for. So that big group of people I gathered? They heard all about you. And about Oneshot. And what he did to you. And to at least the one other that you saw. And then there he was. The worst spawncamper of them all, just walking through the center of town without a care in the world. So we, in our wisdom, attacked. And you saw how that went…”

“You mean after I kicked it all off by dying?”

Mich smirks wryly. “You didn’t start that particular party, Jessie. You should’ve seen how surprised he was the first time one of us lunged at him. He wasn’t expecting to be challenged. Not here, anyway.” Mich sighs. “But then he phased right through it.” He shakes his head. “Killed a bunch of us before you jumped in. But then you did. And somehow, you actually dealt damage to the guy. Not much. But it was something. And it got the rest of us thinking we could do it too.” Mich looks wistfully up at the sky. “But no. After that, none of us dealt him a single point of damage. And then he killed everyone who didn’t run as soon as you went down.”

A heretofore unseen Sennefer sticks his head between us and lets out a pointed cough from our left and right respectively. “Now that’s not quite right, is it? I may not have attacked the man, but I certainly didn’t run.” He smiles warmly down on both of us. “But look at me being petty. You tried. And believe it or not, that truly does make a difference. Both here, and with me. Please accept my apologies for the influence of this damnable bench. Speaking of which… Want it?”

Mich adjusts himself on the seat in question. “Do we want… The Bench?”

Sennefer actually looks rather ashamed. “With my apologies for all the mess. I really do try to keep high-level shenanigans from affecting our residents. Especially the new ones. And I’ve failed rather miserably in that respect it seems.”

Mich blinks. “That’s really not necess-”

I jump up out of the best seat ever and give the mayor a tight hug. “Holy fuck, THANK YOU!!!”

Sennefer passively accepts the embrace and smiles no less warmly as he similarly accepts the trade he sent me.

[ RARE CHAIR GAINED: BENCH HALF ]

[ USD LOST: $1 ]

That very moment, exactly half of the actual bench disappears from in front of the mayor’s house or office or whatever his whole deal is. I waste no time.

[ RARE CHAIR EQUIPPED: BENCH HALF ]

[ RARE CHAIR DEPLOYED: BENCH HALF ]

I happily re-take my seat on the newly displaced half of the bench I just summoned from my inventory.

Nodding in approval, Sennefer turns to Mich and gestures at the remaining half of the bench he’s still sitting on. “Now… if you please?”

But Mich just shakes his head. “I can’t accept payment for any of this.” He points his thumb over his shoulder, back to the still-crowded spawnpoint. “That entire mess was my fault. And mine alone.”

Sennefer snorts. “Debatable. But regardless…” He points directly at the bench, half of which is unnaturally cut away in what should clearly be the middle of a single object. “I think you’ll agree, that is an eyesore. At this point, you’d be doing me a favor, regardless of what is or isn’t your fault.”

Getting up, Mich turns around and lends a critical eye. “I dunno… It’s got a kind of post-pre-post-modern thing going on that’s really working for me.”

Sennefer lowers his arm and chuckles. “I’m glad you like it. I don’t. Please take the thing.”

Belatedly, the remaining Bench Half disappears from where Mich was sitting on it for most of the past week.

As soon as it’s gone, Sennefer visibly unstiffens.

Even I notice the clear dissipation of tension from the normally unflappable old man. “Was it really that much of an eyesore?”

Sennefer’s stretches his suddenly limber back. “The whole bench? No, I quite liked it. Gave the whole street a rather homey feel. And I think you’ll agree, it was quite comfortable. A nice place to rest right between wherever you’re coming from, and wherever you’re going.”

I cock my head. “Then why get rid of it?” My eyes go wide and my heart rate skyrockets at the implication of what I just said. “Not that I’m complaining. Or returning it. No takesies-backsies.” And I mean that.

Sennefer snorts again. “You think you were involved in the only trouble that thing ever caused? Make no mistake, this recent incident was absolutely the last straw. But that cursed bench has been no end of problems since I got it. For everyone involved. Especially me. I am well rid of the thing.”

Mich clears his throat. “Excuse me, but I distinctly heard you mention ‘high-level shenanigans’? Is this sort of situation common, then? Or is that a label you just made up?”

Sennefer shakes his head. “It’s not really what I’d call ‘common’, no. Not in my little town, anyway. Certainly not at the rate that damned bench seemed to attract. But there are quite a few Wandering Maxlevels with not much to do besides bother those weaker than themselves. Oneshot, as you may have guessed, is one of those. And as you saw, they tend to just go wherever and do whatever they want. Sometimes, they even ‘wander’ right into Outset. And sometimes, indeed, shenanigans ensue.”

Stretching his back in a way that doesn’t make medical sense given my admittedly limited understanding of human skeletons, Sennefer looks over the crowded square. “Although I must say, those shenanigans typically involve significantly less wanton killing. All the more reason I hope you enjoy that bench. But please, do me a favor and enjoy it somewhere far, far from here.”

A man pops up from just behind and to the left of Sennefer, looking straight at me. “And on that note… Welcome to The Adventurer’s Guild.”

I just stare blankly at the new arrival. “Hold on… What?”

The guild representative from a few days ago looks excited to see me again. “I was just strolling by, and I happened to spot you. And you’re Level Four now! That’s such amazing progress.”

Sennefer looks seriously at the spot where the bench was. “Perhaps I ought to wall off this whole area…”

The implied reference to the system reminds me of something I can do to avoid the inevitable awkward question.

[ HERO TARGETED: STEVEN ]

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Oh thank god, it really worked… Not that I didn’t expect it to. But Holy fuck! That means I don’t have to ask anyone’s name, ever again. I’m so happy I could cry…

Apparently familiar with Sennefer’s eccentricities, and equally unfamiliar with my not having known his name a second ago, Steven continues unabashed with eyes only for me. “I’m sorry to have deceived you. The weeklong approval process was something of a test, you see. It’s one we give to all New Heroes who approach us quickly enough. If you’d spent a week here, safe behind the fence…” He looks around at the very recently unsafe throng of people. “That is to say, if you hadn’t reached Level Four of your own volition in that week, your tentative invite would’ve been retracted. But here you are. Not even half the time gone, and you already passed with flying colors.”

Mich’s curiosity finally boils over as he fails to hold himself back from butting in. “Hold on, now. From what I’ve heard, The Adventurer’s Guild is a highly exclusive organization. But you’re saying there’s a time-sensitive, but otherwise clear and simple path to get in? How am I just now hearing about this?”

Pursing his lips, Steven turns to him. “I seem to remember you showing up here about a week ago yourself. I’m not blind. But even if I was, I could still see perfectly well that you’re only Level Two.”

Mich actually blushes.

Steven continues, gesturing to the rapidly dispersing crowd of recently dead folks. “But you’re the one who organized this little… ‘Anti-spawncamp raiding party’, I think you called it?”

Mich puffs up for a moment, but then deflates in a sullen sigh. “…Yeah. That was me, alright… Not exactly the best performance to lean on if I’m trying to convince you that-”

Steven interrupts him, gesturing this time to me. “Hold on, now. Strong, self-motivated fighters are one thing.” He looks back to Mich. “And we need those. But we also need people who can communicate, delegate, and direct a group tactically towards a strategic goal. From where I’m standing, you seem to have a particular talent in that area.”

Mich smirks wryly. “And you saw how that went…”

“From those you gathered, I’d put good odds on you steamrolling any of the bandit groups we tend to get around here, spawncamping or no. But it just so happened that the first one you ran into was someone you’d never stand a snowball’s chance in hell against. And how could I blame the snowball for that? No, what you pulled off, regardless of the result, was damn impressive. And if you’re expressing an interest in joining The Adventurer’s Guild along with your friend, I’m of the mind to give you a bit of an extension on the standard time limit.”

“What kind of extension?”

“Saaay… Half a week? You’ll have until twelve days since you arrived, to match what your friend achieved in four. Get to her current level by E-day this week, and I’ll extend you the same invite.”

Before I can even ask ‘what invite?’, I get exactly that.

[ GUILD INVITE: THE ADVENTURER’S GUILD — ACCEPT? ]

With more effort than I’d like to admit, I pull my focus away from the prompt, and back on the guy. “So just to be clear… I can leave at any time, right? No potential penalties? Or fees? Or any kind of bullshit like that?”

Steven turns to face me fully, all hints of flippancy gone. “If you join and then leave, you do so at no penalty. That hasn’t changed in the few days since we last spoke. There are ways to accrue penalties, but those are exclusively due to receiving guild benefits that cost us money, and then skipping out before you’ve been in the guild a commensurate time to make the investment worth it. Keep in mind, this refers to items lent. Asked for and given. Not rewarded. What you earn yourself is yours.”

Mich chimes in. “Hypothetically, let’s say you accrue such a penalty. What’s the ballpark rate and method of repayment, if you don’t mind me asking?”

Steven smiles over to him. “Not at all. And it’s a good question. This kind of system could be very easily abused by the wrong people. But please do remember, we’re the largest guild for a reason. Our policies aren’t nearly so draconian as what you’re thinking. There’s no interest. And by merely existing as a member, you’re cleared of $80 USD worth of any debt to the guild, per day. You can also pay it back in full at any time. But honestly, if you can afford to do that, you really shouldn’t be borrowing resources in the first place.”

I promptly raise my hand. “So there’s this sword I really, really-”

All humor disappears from Steven’s face. “NO.”

Flinching at the rebuke, I lower that same hand. “I’m, um… Sorry?”

Steven groans tiredly into his open palm. “Look… It’s me who’s sorry. I have to deal with people wanting to treat us like a bank day after day…” He smirks. “So suffice it to say…” He pauses for some reason, grin only widening at the lack of response. “That’s not the sort of lending we’re in the business of.”

Mich looks contemplative. “Still… My knowledge of this world’s economy leaves something to be desired. But my limited understanding indicates that kind of debt forgiveness is quite generous, even for Heaven. Assuming you don’t nickel-and-dime people for every little thing-”

“Again, we’re the largest, most successful guild across all of Humanity’s territories. This is for many reasons. But perhaps the main one is that we treat our members fairly. More than fairly, even. And with respect. Please don’t compare us to something so asinine as a multilevel marketing scheme. In fact, $80 is just the passive forgiveness rate for someone at Level Four. Once you get to Five, it goes to $100. Then $120 at Level Six, $140 at Seven, and so on and so forth, all the way up to $1,280 per day at Level 64.”

I do something akin to a squeal. “Is that max level, then? 64?”

“Sure is.”

I look to Sennefer for confirmation. But he already left. So, I turn my questioning gaze towards Mich.

He just shrugs. “Sure seems that way.”

“Huh… Well, alrighty then…” Unable to find anything particularly wrong with the deal, and without any other stake on my loyalty, I accept the invite.

[ WELCOME TO THE ADVENTURER’S GUILD ]

A moment later, Steven’s face lights up with a warm, welcoming smile.

[ GUILD / STEVEN: PLEASE JOIN ME IN WELCOMING OUR NEWEST RECRUIT. LET’S HEAR IT FOR JESSIE ]

[ GUILD / ANNIE: GREAT TO HAVE YOU! ]

[ GUILD / PIERCE: LET’S GROUP TOGETHER SOMETIME ]

[ GUILD / SHIRLEY: WELCOME HOME, JESSIE ]

[ GUILD / ANNIE: BE CAREFUL OF PIERCE! ]

[ GUILD / PIERCE: SHUT UP, ANNIE ]

[ GUILD / ANNIE: NEVER! ]

I feel my cheeks heat up with each successive message radiating with positivity, excitement, and a sprinkling of performative, obviously sarcastic drama. They’re saying this… Over me? This smells like bullshit. Or maybe I need to calm down about suspecting everyone of being out to get me. But what if they are? What if everyone is? God I’m tired…

Steven interrupts my self-destructive thought spiral by clearing his throat. “For your first official guild duty… You are to report to the guild’s Central branch.”

“Okaaay..? And that would be… Where, exactly?”

“Central.”

Mich raises his hand like I just did. “Who’s on first?”

We both look at him.

In my exhausted state, I’m the first to break. “What the fuck is anyone talking about?”

Steven chuckles, shaking his head. “When will I learn to stop assuming anyone knows anything in this town?” He sighs, once more resigning himself to explain the obvious. “Central is… It’s the center. Of our whole world, basically.”

Mich looks up. “So… The sun?”

My heart races. Is that where Oneshot went?

But unlike me, Steven didn’t fall for it. “No, smartass. The center of our, humanity’s, area of influence. You know… The big city? Orbited by big concentric rings? Big tower in the middle? Big pillar of multicolored light rising up from it, into the sky? Through all the planets? Into the sun? Which is, in fact, the literal center of Heaven, by the way. So, in spite of your best efforts I’m sure, your comment wasn’t entirely stupid.”

In light of my gullibility, I blow right past how hard Mich got reemed just now. “Oh! That’s gotta be that big-ass city I’ve been seeing way off in the distance, right?”

Steven considers that for a moment. “Probably, yeah. There aren’t many cities visible from these parts. And that’s definitely the biggest one.” He points at the mayor’s house or office or whatever. “Step outside of town and you’ll see it over thataway or so. You truly can’t miss it. So go there for the next step in your Adventurer’s Guild Career.”

Mich looks more concerned than I would’ve thought. “It’s so far…”

“That it very much is. Everything is far from everything in Heaven. I’m sure you’ve noticed… The scale at play is rather larger than Earth.”

I grumble under my breath. “Or maybe just concave…”

“It’s actually both. I’m guessing this is another thing you haven’t been told yet? Humanity and all the other races… We each have our own territory, equally sized and equally distanced from the sun on the inside of a sphere. But the sphere itself is indeed, ‘rather larger’ than Earth. In fact, its radius is about the distance from the Earth to its sun. And the distance from here to that city you saw is about half the circumference of Earth itself.”

I look off through the town entrance, the only view not fully blocked at ground-level. Then, I follow the path. Around. And up. Above the horizon. And above the clouds. To more horizon. So that means past all the upward-curving land is… More land? All the way to… My sightlines are cut as it curves up and up and eventually fades from view, the sun’s light blocking me from seeing the rest. But my gaze keeps climbing anyway, tracing the invisible half of a sphere I now know is there. Even after staring straight up at the sun, I keep going in a slow circle that eventually falls back to the horizon in the opposite direction. “Woah.”

“Indeed.” Steven gestures the opposite direction, towards a building labeled ‘Town of All Beginnings Station’. “That’s why there are expedited travel options. They’ll be your primary way to cover large distances. At least until you get a solid travel power of your own. And even then, you’ve got slim hopes of outrunning a System Train.”

I gulp, remembering the train tracks spider-webbing out past the town in a direction I haven’t had to go yet. They don’t point towards the city. No, there’s probably just a hub nearby. Which begs the question. “Just how fast are the trains? I’m already pretty fast myself, and I don’t imagine I’ll be getting any slower. But unlike public transportation, I don’t have tracks to follow or scheduled delays or really anything to get in my way.”

“They’re quite a bit faster than any trains you’ve been on.”

“That won’t be hard. I’ve never even seen a real train before.”

He deflates a bit. “Oh right, The Collapse… I died long before that, so I sometimes forget that the world I feel like I just came from doesn’t really exist anymore. If you wish, you could take the train. It’s great. And also fast, and free, and it’ll get you to Central in no time.”

Mich looks that way and nudges me. “Great, so you can just board a train bound for Central.”

Steven holds up his hands. “Woah there. Now hold on a second.”

We both do.

“Y’all can do that. It’s a perfectly valid option, and I certainly won’t stop you. But there’s a potential for some better rewards if you don’t go rushing straight there.”

I feel a jolt at the word ‘rewards’. “I’m listening.”

“Level Four is the minimum for admission. When you check into Central HQ, you can start earning contribution points. Which you can unlock faster if you go straight there. But on arrival, you’ll get to pick one piece of equipment from our vaults, the rarity of which will be commensurate with how far you’ve gotten between now and then. Put simply, the higher your level, the better your reward. Gain a single level in that time, and you’ll have your choice of all the Common equipment we own as a guild. Two levels will upgrade that to Uncommon. Three for Rare, Epic at Four, Legendary at Five, all the way up to Mythic for gaining six or more levels by the time you check in. You can think of it as a kind of signing bonus.”

Awe… But I literally just bought one of those. Or started to buy one… “So the rarities available only go up to six?”

“And what would you upgrade it to?”

I give him a blank look. “Seven?”

At that, Steven gives the first belly laugh I’ve heard from him. But he quickly catches himself and looks abashed afterwards. “My apologies. Of course you don’t know. Unique equipment is a bit special. If the value of an item doubles from one rarity to the next, which isn’t exactly the case, but for the sake of argument… Then the value of a Mythic item is squared for a Unique. You’d be lucky to ever even see one for sale, let alone for a price you could hope to afford. And it’s certainly not something you’ll find as the reward for any guild’s welcome quests. Maybe if their backer is rich and eccentric enough… But that’s just a for-instance. I don’t actually know of such a deal. If I did, I’d be hard-pressed not to take it myself. But don’t you go underestimating the rewards that are available, young lady. Mythic items don’t exactly grow on trees either. I seem to remember you looking for a katana when we met, yes?”

I nod like if my neck operated on malfunctioning hydraulics.

[ UNCOMMON WEAPON EQUIPPED: KATANA OF THE DADDY-LONGLYCANTHROPE ]

“I see congratulations are in order once more. After you left, I looked up the drop rate estimates on one of those. Suffice it to say, they aren’t kind.”

I belt out a dark chuckle. “Don’t I know it…”

“Well, there might not be much in the way of katanas just sitting around these parts, waiting like that to be dropped for anyone willing to put the work in. But there are quite a few when you expand that to all the dungeons and raids and things across the rest of the world. And we have a lot of members who we offer a lot of money to make sure we’re fully stocked.” He leans in and raises his eyebrows. “With all of them. No matter the rarity you end up with, you’ll have your choice from a quite literal armory of katanas.”

“Wow…”

He chuckles. “Right? Now, I don’t want to set false expectations. It’s true that you shouldn’t underestimate the potential rewards. But nor should you underestimate the work it takes to get them. Most new heroes don’t reach Level Ten the same year they arrive. You can do it in less time if you really put the work in. But that’s the point, right? The Adventurer’s Guild is in the business of rewarding those who put the work in. So if what I just said is something that really interests you, you should absolutely go for it. It’s not every day you’ll find an opportunity like this. At least not now. And not for a long time after you unlock contribution points either. As you might imagine, the choice of literally any Mythic item isn’t a reward most people can earn in a decade. Get a Legendary Skill and the contribution points you have access to will escalate quickly. But under Level Sixteen or so, I’d say that this is not only your first, but likely your best chance to get a leg up on all the competition.”

“What competition?”

“You said your goal is The Tournament of Ascension, right? I’m assuming that hasn’t changed in the last half-week?”

I shake my head. “Not unless there’s a better way to get to Level 64.”

Steven smirks. “That there isn’t. And to answer your question… That competition.”

“It’s really that competitive?”

“The tournament itself? Yes. Placing on the guild’s Tournament Team? Also yes. In fact, as our team is nearly always favored to win the whole thing, the tournament itself actually tends to be the less competitive of the two for those who make it.”

Mich looks constipatedly at Steven. “Can’t anyone start a new guild and register for the tournament though? I thought that was the whole idea.”

But to his surprise, it’s me who answers him for once. “Apparently, you can’t actually win that way.”

Mich just raises his eyebrows at me, keeping them that way even as he looks to Steven. “Is that right?”

Steven nods, smiling as though impressed that I’d actually listened to anything he said. “That’s about the long and short of it, yes. Anyone can enter. But then they’ll be up against the best of the best of every other guild. While you can theoretically assemble a group of super-elites on the level of our top competitors, I think you can imagine how hard it would be to wrangle and unite them all under your own banner. Especially in light of all the generous offers from larger guilds such as ours who will not only support their goal, but hand out free resources like candy to help them get there.” He shrugs. “If you’re talented enough to be a threat in The Tournament, anyway.”

“Yyyeah… I see your point. So there can’t be many more than 20-or-so teams competing each year, right?”

Steven snorts. “More like thousands.”

“I’m confused. Didn’t you just imply it’s pointless to even try?”

“Oh, it is.” He sighs. “But since when has something as inconsequential as nearly inevitable futility stopped people from banking on the ‘nearly’ part? Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of powerhouses who simply don’t compete out of having better things to do than spend half of each year losing a tournament. It’s why the number is in the thousands, and not the millions. Or billions, even.”

My mouth practically drops open. “That many?”

“The Gamesphere has been around for a long time. Long enough for a lot of heroes to make it here. As for the number of humans who’d very much like to unlock their level ceiling but can’t? I mean we don’t exactly survey this sort of thing, but I’d put it comfortably in the billions at least.”

“So just how many people-”

Mich violently waves his arms in a stopping motion, cutting me off and interposing himself between the two of us. “WOAH, Woah, woah… ‘Gamesphere’? Is that what you just said?”

Steven winces. “Y-yeah… Look, it’s another word for ‘Heaven’. I don’t even like it. I just end up using it if I’m not paying attention. It’s just so on-the-nose, you know?”

Mich is clearly trying very hard not to laugh at the guy. “It is quite the pun, yes.”

“I don’t know who started calling it that. But it caught on like a pandemic around a century back. I was already here the first time I heard it. Worst day of my life… Okay, that’s probably not true. It was a bad day though. And I don’t want to talk about it. So I won’t. Jessie, welcome to the guild. Mich, you have four days to qualify.” Apparently urgent to be elsewhere, Steven bones out.

Blinking at that, Mich turns back to me. “So what’re you gonna do now? That train system is pretty neat, right?”

I grumble out a more hesitant reply than I assume he was expecting. “Yeah… I guess…”

“You don’t sound too excited by the idea.”

“I mean… I just did this dungeon. Got a brand new katana and everything.”

“I noticed. Congratulations, by the way.”

“I, um, thanks… My point is, I had fun.”

“And congrats again.”

“On what?”

Mich shrugs. “On having fun? In hindsight, I get that’s a weird thing to say. It just felt right at the time.”

“Five seconds ago?”

“Hindsight can have a pretty quick turnaround.”

“Mkay… So anyway, I was kinda thinking I wanted to do more of that? You know… Take the long way around.”

“You wanna go somewhere other than Central, then?”

My reflexive shrug turns into a shake of my head. “Not really. Sounds like that’s the place to go. But I guess I’d rather walk? And do whatever dungeons and shit I run into along the way? Kinda like a cross-country hike? Not to mention that I have Mythic and Legendary katanas waiting for me when I get there if I don’t take a train.”

Mich’s eyes widen but he doesn’t seem surprised from his understanding nod. “A road trip.”

“What’s a road trip?”

“It’s a thing people used to do before big swaths of all the major roads got flooded. Instead of flying somewhere, they’d drive.”

“Even if where they were going was thousands of miles away?”

“Especially then.”

“Wouldn’t that just take longer?”

“Yes. And they’d stop at every landmark along the way to see the sights.”

Huh… That actually sounds nice. “A road trip… Yeah. I like the sound of that.”

“Sounds like a plan. So you gonna leave now?”

“Oh god no.”

“What are you gonna do, then?”

“I dunno, man… I’m thinking I’ll get a room somewhere and sleep this whole thing off like a bad hangover.”

“Have you ever had a hangover?”

“No. But they suck, right?”

“…Right.”

“So you get it.”

“I guess. But what’s with this all of a sudden? You were all ‘go, go, go’ when we last met. Surely, it can’t be the death… That’s your third in as many days, right?”

I can’t help flinching back. “Yeh… How did you know..? Oh yeah, you were basically there for all of them, huh? Well fuck… No, it wasn’t a death that swept all the wind from my sails. Not mine, anyway. The lack of his, though?”

“Oneshot?”

I sullenly grumble out a nod.

“I was there too, remember? None of us stood a chance against him. Not together. And especially not alone. You shouldn’t let it get you down. And you certainly shouldn’t blame yourself.”

I feign a smirk. “I really thought I could do it. As soon as I saw the Uncommon counter Skill, I knew what it meant. Or I thought I did. I was so excited when I finally got to the point where I could put it into effect. I just needed him to show up and try to hit me. And then, there he was. And he already had his stupid knife thing out. It was perfect. Then, I threaded the needle and made him hit my blade right as I drew it. He was supposed to take the same damage he would’ve done to me. But he didn’t. And I activated my trump card that was supposed to deal three times that same amount. Perfect strategy against an instakiller, right?”

Mich Apparently knows not to give the obvious answer. Or any at all.

I’m honestly too tired to care. “It turns out, no. It didn’t do three infinity’s-worth of damage. It did three damage. And not three of his weird opaque super damage, either. Just three normal damage. Total. And then I died. I actually managed to land the attack. Not once, but twice. I did so much better than I ever thought I would manage. But it didn’t even work. Not even a little. And now I’m just tired. Like I said… Kinda takes the wind out of your sails, you know?”