CHAPTER III: THE BREAKING
LONG BEACH
15 MINUTES FROM THE BREAKING
PRIME
Soto and Clyde were escorted into a room by an usher. “Really? You provide free alcohol?” Soto asked the usher who nodded.
“If you have to smoke you will need to go outside California law dictates that.” The Usher answered politely.
The room had five movie theater-style recliners. On each chair laid a PAR headset. Soto picked up the one in the middle seat. Then, he sat down excitedly. “Do we get to keep these? Please say yes! My kids will love me so much more if I bring them new headsets.” Soto pleaded like a thirsty man in the desert begging for water.
“Of course, all five PARs belong to the room, and anything in the room is yours to share with whoever you like.” The usher happily informed him. “MG Corp gift to you for pre-ordering.” He said with a formal bow. “Big fan of you Colonel.” The young man said to Clyde.
“Uhh, thanks.” Clyde awkwardly said.
“Don’t mind him, he hates being famous, yet he moved out to LA, It's like a compulsive gambler moving out to Vegas.” Soto rolled his eyes. “Anyway, that's what's up. I’ll just take the rest of these.” Soto said while picking up four of the five headsets. ”I mean, I am just a poor little disabled retired veteran from the Bronx, practically homeless. I’m like two government shutdowns away from being in crippling poverty.” Soto dramatized.
Clyde laughed at his antics “Sure man take whatever you like. I don’t even need the one they provided. Are we really playing this game right now? It felt ready, not like a beta at all.”
“Facts! I can see why you would say that but don’t get fooled by the doctored videos, and hell yeah we are playing. I just need to know, is there a time limit for how long we can?” Soto asked the usher. “Or should I use the bathroom again?”
“The time dilation will make a day feel like it's a year. I’ll be checking in on you during the Beta from time to time to make sure you are alright. So feel free to explore the world at your leisure. The new era will start shortly.” The usher said to them. He was a skinny man with windburned pink skin and a goofy smile mirrored by Soto.
Clyde looked at the usher with incredulity. “Time what now?”
“But hoping in, and out is seamless with PAR,” the usher continued ignoring Clyde with a smirk, “The real world won’t have prompts, or floating boxes. That's the best way to tell the difference. It can be quite confusing at times, believe me. We were all allowed to Alpha test it, and it was amazing.”
“No way, that's awesome. I can’t believe this day is finally here man. I thought I would have to wait for months or even years for this game. I will be pushing the limits of your software, so I hope you are ready. I’ll take meticulous notes, so be ready for the review of a lifetime baby. I’ll be looking for, and doing everything. Do we have a dimensional bag or anything like that?” Soto questioned as he looked hopefully at the usher. Clyde kept looking at their back and forth getting more, and more confused. He was kind of a gamer, but not a hardcore one like these two obviously were. He shrugged. ‘May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.’ He thought his father’s mantra.
The usher shook his head, his eyes apologetic. “This is the GREAT GAME gentlemen. Nothing is given easily, you must earn it, get lucky, or be born into power, but if you do earn it, it will be worth everything you go through to get it.” He smiled “Live well, or Die free those are the only options for advancement in the game.”
Soto gave him a double take, something he said earlier finally clicking. “A year? Do we have a year in the game per day in the regular world? That is dope.” Soto opened his hidden fanny pack pulled out his blue Yankee fitted switched it with his black one, and put the other one away. He was ready now. “Good thing we got the whole four weekends off, right Colonel? Wait, does that mean we can play for three years in theory? Do you have three years' worth of content?”
The usher nodded smiling at Soto’s recognition. “Yes, sir you are correct. We have unlimited content, The world will make events, but mostly the players will move the world along. The stronger you are, the more effect you have on the world, and the more control you have over your gameplay. You can lead the world into a new era of war, or peace.”
Soto pointed at himself. “Oh, I am not a sir son, I am a sergeant major, I work for a living.” Soto pointed to Clyde. “That officer there is the definition of making a career off my hard work. Also, he will decide if we make war or peace. Not me. I am just a scout going to do scout things. He is the leadership type.” He winked at the usher, who laughed at him.
Clyde rolled his eyes and looked to the heavens seeking strength and getting nothing in return.
“Yes Sergeant Major, you are correct.” The Usher smiled and corrected himself.
Soto nodded his approval. “I can’t wait to stream this...”
He started only to be cut off by the Usher. Who put his index finger to his lips.
“Remember the NDA you just signed sirs... eh, gentlemen.” He corrected himself on a look from Soto.
“That presentation was vague as hell, There is nothing I can say that will give away anything, outside of its a roleplaying game.” Soto shrugged, “There was literally no way to tell the difference between your game, and any other game that's out right now. Shit, it could have been a movie for all anyone would know.”
The Usher smiled, and put his index finger on his nose, tapping it. “Yet.” The usher closed the door slowly on the word looking at them the entire time, creepily.
Soto glared at the door as he left. “What the hell was that?”
Clyde took out his PAR from his small ruck and placed the one that was on his chair on the ground next to him.
“Hey, that's mine.” Soto quickly grabbed it and put it in the pile next to him.
“I think they just want to be mysterious...” Clyde started.
The usher reopened the door, startling both men who reacted similarly. They turn to him giving off a killing intent, that just rolls off the clueless civilian usher.
“Oh just in case you didn’t read the fine print, your first time in the game, you will experience a slight discomfort. I emphasize the discomfort part.” He sighed, “My grandfather is a veteran like y’all, I grew up watching your speeches Colonel, he loved the way you handled yourself with poise and respect for everyone, so I would hate for you to get blindsided by the ‘slight discomfort,’ so please be safe gentlemen. I am rooting for the old guys. Beat the game, or just survive. Everything isn’t what it seems.” He said closing the door again without the creepy smile. Soto glared at it again.
“He said slight a lot there... wait did he just call us old guys?” Clyde said chuckling at himself. “I guess we are now huh? Damn that happened fast it felt like yesterday when we went to Ranger school. Ugh, RIP am I right?” He looked to Soto.
Who was fixing his Yankee fitted which was at odds with his ninja outfit vibe, but that's just how he played games. His gamer tag was #bronxbomberfitted, so naturally, it was part of his gaming persona. Soto ignored Clyde and continued playing with his PAR. After putting on the fitted on and turning it backward so that the brim wasn’t in the way of the glasses. He loved his gaming hat, it was his badge as a New Yorker, it was how he represented the Bronx, it was his most prized possession, he had had it since he had joined the army, it was his major first purchase as a soldier. His eyes lit up as he started to read something on the heads-up display.
“Yo, don’t zone out on me with this stupid character sheet thing. I don’t want to mess my character up.” He snapped his fingers at Soto to make sure his battle buddy didn’t go down the rabbit hole like he always does. His sergeant major was not a great multitasker.
Soto turned and looked at Clyde, “I won’t let you gimp your character brother, I got you, my guy. We are a team as always.” He puts his fist out, Clyde hits the top, then Soto hits Colonel’s top, and then they both fist bump making it blow up. “If you ain't cav?”
“You ain’t shit!” Clyde answered, “Never any doubt brother, Hooah. Well let me get started...” Numbers and letters filled the old soldier’s vision, making the next words Clyde was about to say die on his lips.
“Hooah...” Soto was no different as he tried to reply over the...
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{00:00 ZULU TIME 1ST JANUARY 1ME(MAGIC EPOCH)}
COMMON PERIOD
{16:00 LOCAL TIME 31ST DECEMBER 1BME (BEFORE MAGIC EPOCH)
TUTORIAL ZONE}
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...A cacophony of sound, like the shattering of glass, and the roaring of a million different animals slam into their ears with deafening, and physical force. The world felt like it stopped for a second, almost as if the sound was heard throughout the entire universe, and made every entity take notice. The ground rumbled as all of the lights in the room went out with a POP!
Both soldiers covered their ears, and Clyde lost his PAR in the chaos. The ground slowly stopped shaking. There was only blackness, and stillness. Then floating golden words form in his heads-up display, they were followed by a few black, and gold pop-up boxes or prompts, at least they looked like prompts or game notifications. The words seem to be accompanied by a voice spoken directly into Clyde’s brain, and not just written on the prompts. The world filled with a palpable energy. Clyde can’t help but smile, he really loved the fantasy world a lot more than he did reality, It brought out his hero complex, he always wanted to mold a world like the ones he wrote. Maybe this game will allow him too. A black and gold pop-up box grabbed his attention. He smiled at the words, and the angelic voices singing a calming melody into his mind.
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{WELCOME TO THE GREAT GAME LEGACY}
< ANGELS SINGING >
{REJOICE! GAIA IS AWAKENING! Therefore Magic has returned.}
{A Breaking has occurred. It is a natural phenomenon that happens to magically barren Celestial Bodies when the Mana of the SOURCE universe is forced into them. The process wakes the Celestial and brings her back into THE GREAT GAME System. Your world, and more importantly, you, have changed in ways that will soon become very apparent. If you are lost, worry not, this is not the first time Gaia has been awake. She has populated her surface with guides, Make your way to the nearest local stronghold for class/profession assignment and/or skill training, or head to the nearest Trade city if you have no affiliations to your local strongholds. The stronghold MUST provide maps to the closest Trade City per the Cultivator Council Neutrality Agreement(CCNA).
LIVE WELL or DIE FREE
Let the Game begin.}
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{You are no ordinary player however, you are a Legacy. Your potential is unlimited like most humans, but your growth rate is high enough that you may actually see what being limitless really means. Many will seek your power, either to ally themselves with you or enslave you. You will be reborn if you die but without any knowledge of your previous lives. Essentially you will no longer be you. So most who know of you, won't hesitate to attack you if they cannot control you, removing a potential future dangerous piece from the game board, before it becomes too problematic. This is Chess, not Checkers. Grow stronger Legacy, gain allies, so that one day we may win THE GREAT GAME!}
{“LIVE WELL, or DIE FREE.”}
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Clyde was hit with a wave of euphoria as he had just stepped off the best rollercoaster ride in his life, mixed with hitting the game-winning shot to win the World Cup in penalties. He smiled in the dark as his body shivered. He was getting so excited and his body was playing along. He felt amazing, better than amazing, he felt giddy. That was a first since...
Soto scoffed in the darkness pulling Clyde back to the game. Outside of his own prompt’s dull light, the room was pitch black. “Lame, they could have made the earthquake go on a little bit longer so that we were more immersed you feel me. I’m putting that in my review. One point down already.” He looked around. “I think the room must be on hydraulics or something. These prompts are cool though, and the voice in my head sounds super real. Like it is really talking directly into my mind.” Soto said as his prompts faded away, leaving the room pitch black once again.
Clyde looked over to Soto’s voice in the dark, He hadn’t been through a Californian earthquake yet, but that didn’t feel like a normal one, Now that his mental state was coming down to normal he started to get a weird feeling. “I don’t think...” He began only to be cut off by Soto speaking.
“Character Sheet!” Soto said, then a gray, semi-transparent, box of unreadable numbers and letters, appeared right in front of Soto’s face. Clyde jumped back, stumbled, and fell over the back of his chair ungracefully. The pop-up box gave off a dull grey light, that illuminated Soto’s face which happened to have a shit-eating grin on it. He barely even noticed Clyde’s gracelessly falling over his chair. Clyde grimaced at the whole action. Even though he was in great shape, a fall like that at his age would usually put him down for a few days.
“Bro this is nuts.” Soto continued oblivious, “There is a ton of information. I get to choose my name, class, my race... No way you can be a different species, like the four-legged kind, even the winged kind. Just say character sheet, and oops...” The pop-up box blinked out leaving the room pitch black again startling the Hispanic man. Soto chuckled, and the sheet reappeared, his eyes widened. “Ohhhhh you can just think it with intention, thats some next-level shit bro, that's nuts as hell.” Soto rambled on in awe. “The things I am going to do with you, my little PAR friend.” He said out loud not caring about anything.
Clyde got up and reached to adjust his own PAR headset, before realizing what his battle buddy had said. “All I have to say is character she-” A grey box popped up in front of Clyde, in a panic he swiped at it like it was a yellow bumble bee trying to attack his face. He fell back again, and this time Soto turned to him just as he hit his head on the ground hard with a thud.
“My guy, what are you doing? I know it’s disorientating, but don’t,” He paused confused, “but don’t, you already have a PAR?” Soto asked slowly like his Colonel was a moron, at first but then he looked at Clyde’s face. He had a prompt box with an unreadable character sheet in front of it giving off a dim light. Soto looked at his Colonel’s face, then back to the prompt, then back to his face again, his brain slowly registering that the Colonel wasn’t wearing his PAR on his face. “Ayo, where the hell are your glasses at?” Soto asked disbelievingly. “Strike that, How?” Not caring about the where anymore.
Soto quickly took off his glasses, and he could still see his own prompts. He was astonished. “There is no way.” He shook his head, “There is no way.” His deep voice went up an octave, and he closed his eyes. “Bruh, full immersion... how? Did your brother tell you about this? It must have cost a fortune. I mean this is the dream, right? This is what gamers have always wanted right?” He asked question after question and then started to chuckle manically. “What we thought nursing homes were going to look like when we are in our eighties. I can’t believe they spent the money on this. I’m not complaining, but wow.” He was shocked, the share amount of capital it would take to get a tiny venture of full immersion off the ground would be in the billions, this had to cost trillions of dollars.
Soto reached down, and to Clyde’s surprise, through the pop-up box, to help him up. Clyde looked from the prompt, and then to his friend, then back to the box, and then he grabbed the offered hand. Soto pulled him up grunting. “Woah, what have you been eating my dude?” Clyde dusted himself off, ignoring Soto’s Bronx snark, he climbed back over the chair, as Soto sat down.
Clyde sat back in his chair absently rubbing the back of his head. “They can definitely afford full immersion if the technology exists, I didn’t know it did. I am sure Roger had his hand in it, it's just like him to not tell me though.” He said sorely. “MG Corp has more money than any singular nation since they are the primary funder of the JTF and primary beneficiary of the Dust research it provides. Most people don’t know that Roger had told me that early on when the pandemic first started. It is safe to say if MG Corp could have afforded the JTF ten years ago, they can definitely afford a virtual massive multiplayer online roleplaying game.” He said still a little disoriented by the darkness and the immersive gaming interface.
“Do you want help walking through your character sheet? Or do you need some time to look over stuff?” Soto questioned him, seeing Clyde looking lost. “Figure out the basics, and if have any general gameplay questions, I’ll answer, okay? I don’t know much about the game as I said before, but I have always been good at figuring out the best builds early in games.”
Clyde nodded before he read the box that had remained open throughout their whole fall and conversation.
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< CHARACTER SHEET >
{TITLES: Legacy
PLAYER NAME: Colonel Clyde S Jacob
LEVEL: 0, EXP to next level 0/1000
CASTE: Legacy. CLASS: Legacy. RACE: Legacy(Human)
POOLS:
HP 230/230 regen 56HP per day
MP 490/490 regen 56MP per hour
Defensive Rating (DR): 30/30 regen 1 per second
CULTIVATOR LEVEL:
(N/A)
ATTRIBUTES:
Strength:23 Dexterity:23 Constitution:23 Magic:4.9 Intelligence:23 Charisma:23 Luck:33
Free Attributes:10
Current attribute gain per level:
Class +1 to all except for magic per Level
EFFECTS:
None
SKILL LIST:
None
ABILITY LIST:
None
QUESTS:
None
PROFESSIONS:
None
End of CS}
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{You are in proximity to a close friend. Would you like to add Soto to your team? Players gain benefits from being members of teams such as attack and defensive bonuses and EXP sharing at a distance.}
{YES/NO?}
< ALERT >
{Be advised while you can party with any player, you can only form one team in your life, with very few caveats. Once joined you can only add to a team. Choose wisely.}
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Clyde looked at the words projected into his mental HUD, he felt them more than anything. The words were him quantified at his very lowest level, full of potential, and he would never be this weak ever again, which by the numbers he was reading on his sheet, didn’t seem very weak at all, but to be fair he had no reference yet, just a feeling. Speaking of feelings he could feel Soto’s presence next to him it was as though he was bigger than his frame suggested he was a little weird but he chalked it up to the game not wanting them to run into each other or something.
The first thing he noticed was the game system had let his military persona take over, and he smiled seeing himself quantified in numbers. Even his name was Colonel and not Clyde in the game. That was the last rank he held in the army and the highest rank of the JTF as he was the head of the organization’s combat wing, so it might be rank, he would have to see if Soto said that as well. He wanted the go over the entire sheet while he was all potential and had time, Character creation is only fun the first time so he would enjoy it. But first, he wanted to start off with the things he thought he knew. It never paid to assume that you knew anything, because for the most part, you don’t.
“Ugh, I have soooo many debuffs, nice it is like they have my medical records.” Soto chuckled and continued to read before reacting again. “Wait, do they have our medical records? Because some of these things only the JTF, or former combat troops would have, or someone who grew up in a war-torn environment. What is going on here?”
“Where do you see the debuffs?“ The Colonel asked looking at his comrade.
“Under the effects tab, right after attributes. Mine just jumped out to me.” Soto replied.
“I don’t have any I guess,” Colonel said smiling at Soto’s look of envy.
“How is that fair?” Soto whined.
“You’ll be aight. It's probably part of your unique gameplay experience.” He said encouragingly. Colonel looked back at his Character Sheet, and a helpful Tool tip popped up that allowed him to see the descriptions for the things on his Character Sheet. He smiled at it and looked at his titles first.
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< TOOL-TIP >
{CHARACTER SHEET}
{Character Sheets(CS) are the basic breakdown of all sapient entities. Each player’s CS will change to the player’s preference as the level. While in the CS screen players can adjust the settings of their HUD. Always remember your CS is not who you are fully, but a basic overview of a player.}
{TITLES}
{Titles are granted for doing rare, and extraordinary actions in THE GREAT GAME. Titles come in many varieties, their bonus effects can make any player incredibly versatile, and more importantly much more dangerous. Most Titles are upgradable. Once a title is earned, for someone else to earn it again they must accomplish a similar action on a bigger stage for a higher Tier title, or a special action for a lower Tier title. Some action always grants titles. Go out, and try new things, and you may be the first to do it, which also comes with its own benefits. World-first upgrades are powerful, unbalanced, and unique even to the minds of the gods.}
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“So we definitely want more Titles,” Colonel said looking at Soto. Colonel showed Soto the prompt.
“Oh yes, we do. I don’t know what they do, I don’t know what they are for, but I have never seen a character sheet that had your titles above everything else, and the fact that you can have multiple ones means there might be tons of them to get like achievements in single player games.” Soto beamed.
“Do you have one?”
“No, unfortunately, not yet,” Soto said shaking his head in disappointment. ”I have no doubt that I’ll get one once we get into the game though. I can see why the players earlier were so happy, they have a chance at all these world-first bonuses and titles. We have to get them as quickly as we can because, those government cronies, and tribal members, seem to know more than us. And they were veteran gamers who were probably part of the alpha testing of the project. We will be way behind, always expect that.” Soto declared, “Those assholes are more than likely exploiting the game somehow, both groups have a ton of capital invested in it, and since the game already mentioned gods, I want to say that they will try to be one of them.”
Colonel shrugged in the dark. “I just shrugged.” He said feeling stupid.
“Ha, me too.” Soto laughed.
“It wasn’t lost on me that one of the main characters in the world premiere was from the Golden Bear tribe. While the others were part of some government agency or organized crime association.” Colonel attested.
“They’re the same thing Colonel, criminals are criminals,” Soto said.
“Yes, yes, they are crooks I get it, really I do, but we are not in Florida. I do not care about what you think about organized crime right now, whether it be private sector or public one.” Colonel chided.
“My bad yo, they just rub me the wrong way sometimes. Do you feel me? Always with the secrets and shit.” Soto calmed.
“Yeah I feel you, but we are literally in a game of your dreams, and all you are thinking about is corruption in our government, really?” Colonel admonished him.
“Damn, you got me there Colonel, Roger that sir!” Soto straightened his back and did a quick across-chest salute hit his chest, “Okay, let's get it, and if we have to, we can change it in this game. Well, you can change it I just want to have fun politics is a nightmare.”
Colonel nodded and looked at his one title. ‘Let's see what the hype is all about.’ Was his only thought. Information poured into his brain smoothly, it was like he had always known the info after he read the prompt.
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< TOOL-TIP >
< YOU HAVE GAINED A TITLE >
{TITLE Name: Legacy (UNIQUE)
TITLE TIER: RUNIC (UPGRADABLE)
DESCRIPTION:
DESCRIPTION: Legacies are Gaia seeds mixed with a Phoenix feather, they represent pure potential. Because of this Celestial Bodies are only allowed to have 13 active at a time, usually reincarnating them immediately after they perish. You have been reincarnated countless times Legacy, and with anything with Mana, there is a cost. You will have to relearn all of your powers, but since you should have already learned them, you will gain an understanding of them at a faster pace. This title has many passive benefits that you will also have to figure out.
LIVE WELL or DIE FREE!
TITLE EFFECT: Ability gain+: At every class specialization tier above tier 5, the Legacy gains a unique Legacy Ability.
RARE BONUS: Utility Bonus; TOOL-TIP+
Unique Bonus: Natural Armor+
Platinum Bonus: LOCKED(prerequisites not met)}
Unique Bonus: LOCKED
Diamond Bonus: LOCKED(prerequisites not met)}
Unique Bonus: LOCKED
Epic Bonus: LOCKED(prerequisites not met)}
Unique Bonus: LOCKED
Legendary Bonus:LOCKED(prerequisites not met)}
Unique Bonus: LOCKED
RUNIC Bonus:LOCKED(prerequisites not met)}
Unique Bonus: LOCKED}
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“Oh, nice! They are effects and bonuses. They seem like they get better as they level maybe. I have a ton of locked bonuses.” Colonel looked at the TOOL-TIP with confusion. “I don’t get it yet, but I will.” He finally said.
“Attaboy.” Soto agreed.
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< TOOL-TIP >
{TITLE EFFECT: Ability gain+
At every specialization Tier above Tier 5, the Legacy gained a unique Legacy Ability.}
{RARE BONUS: Utility Bonus; TOOL-TIP+
Tool-tip gives general information on the GREAT GAME. The + adds a 30% chance of granting knowledge when you need it the most. (Stacks with all knowledge base effects, and powers.)}
{UNIQUE BONUS: Defensive Bonus; Natural Armor+
Natural Armor removes the Legacy’s Armor Rating pool from their Character Sheet, You can no longer wear physical armor, instead, your Defensive Rating(DR) rises with your level, and regeneration is reduced to per second instead of per minute like other humans. The + adds a minuscule chance to replenish some of the player’s DR pool per attack outgoing, and incoming. The + also levels up with Legacy.}
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Colonel couldn’t help but be awed by the back story they gave him, he had no idea what Tier 5 was, but he was sure Soto would figure it out. “This is pretty damn cool. I am a Legacy. Whatever that means, I got it as a Title, a class, and it's even my caste... right, my race as well. The Title has a ton of locked bonus effects, but it's the wording of the Title itself that tells me there are hidden benefits as well, that seem to be built into the Title, and my race.” He said smiling.
“What do you mean? Are you done already?” Soto looked at him confused.
“Well yeah. It was already done for me when I opened it, to be honest. I guess they were like, this guy is a newbie, Give him an easy character to play, so he doesn’t bring down a fan favorite like ya boy Soto...” Colonel laughed at himself.
Soto was even more confused.
“Wait, like done, done? No way.” Soto asked incredulously. He side-eyed him. “I am reading over every little thing before I complete my character. You better not be rushing through this, we only get one of them for this game.” He counseled.
“My character sheet is complete. All it says is if I want to add you to my team. I am just reading over what everything means right now, catching up on the basics.” Colonel said looking over his Character Sheet, trying to glean any more information. His name, level, and how much to the next level was self-explanatory, normal RPG stuff. It's the other things he was not sure about. He looked at Soto...
Who was looking over to the legacy like he was growing a second head next to his old one? “That can’t be right, unless...” He side-eyed the Colonel again. “You already did it before, didn’t you? Asshole, I knew it, you were always into this stuff, pretending to not care. I just knew you were messing with me.” He accused.
Colonel shook his head and clicked “YES” on the team invite prompt.
“You were always so righteous and...” Soto’s eyes lit up at the new prompt in front of him. A small icon with Soto’s smiling face with his HP, and MP bars appears in Colonel’s HUD.
While Soto was speechless, Colonel went over the things he didn’t get to yet. The interface was very user-friendly, and he needed that, Anything too complicated, and he wouldn’t play the game very long, but too simple, and the story would have to be exceptional to keep him involved. It was always about a healthy balance. Between the story, and world-building, characters, monster types, player versus environment, or player versus player.
The newly reborn legacy was very happy with the information just being fed into his mind by his tooltip. As each prompt opened it was instantly read to him, but before it was finished reading he had the information in his head already. It was really cool. He didn’t want to think about how it worked, but it was cool.
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< TOOL-TIP >
< CASTE >
{A Caste is your status, and therefore your floor in THE GREAT GAME, but not your ceiling. While THE GREAT GAME isn’t fair, it is mostly balanced. Remember a journey of a thousand miles traveled whether by person on a wagon, or one on foot, the distance crossed would have changed both people. Each person would benefit differently and be changed in a profound way during their journey, who would be stronger? Only time will tell.
CASTE Example TYPES: COMMONER; Non-Professional Character(NPC), Professional Classer(PC), & Classer(C). MERCHANT; Professional Character(PC). NOBLE/CLERGY; Dual Classers...}
_____________________________________________________________
There was more to the list after what he read he was just not interested in Caste stuff. What was not there was his Caste however and he was interested in that, the next prompt explained why.
_____________________________________________________________
< CASTE: Legacy >
{Legacies are extensions of their Celestial bodies, and a feather of power from the Alpha Phoenix, therefore they fall into a mix between their planet's primary race, and the Elder race category which truly means unlimited potential and growth.}
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< CLASSES >
{Classers are players with Classes on the Class-Path and are the primary combatants in the GREAT GAME. Classes require EXP to level. Classes can specialize in every 10 levels. Classes get bonuses to attack and defense as they specialize as well as more spells.
The base Classes are Fighter, Ranger,& Mage. Of which Fighter Classes make up 70% of all Gaian combatants, Rangers Classes make up 25%, Mages make up 4%, and all other higher rank, or tier Classes make up the final 1%.
Caste restriction: Legacies, Nobles, Clergy, and Commoners.
Classes are the path of the Strong.}
< NOTE >
{Class Quest allows you to upgrade your Class for more power.}
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{CLASS: Legacy
Legacies are jacks of all trades, and can potentially be an Adept in them all. They can learn any class, by doing certain actions in a high-stress environment, and they can also learn all spells associated with those classes, They can also choose to not learn certain things for unique bonuses.
Attributes per level: +1 to all attributes except for magic per Tier & +10% Bonus to all stats per Tier. (Bonus not visible on CS.)
Legacies do not get skill point progression bonuses from their class level-ups.}
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“Okay, that was what I am talking about!” Colonel was starting to get this strange euphoric feeling, creeping up his spine, hitting his nervous system like electricity. The kind of excitement he hadn’t had in years, more than likely decades, felt like it was coming back. He couldn’t help but smile, letting go of all his worldly worries, and giving himself to the pursuit of power in the game, it felt right. A power that the heroes in his favorite fantasy books used to seek. He used to read those books, and now he writes them. Add that to the occasional tabletop, or MMOs that Soto used to drag him into playing, most of them never living up to what they claimed, made this particular experience more fulfilling. But this one, this one felt different. It had full immersion, and it seemed so seamless. He couldn’t even tell that he was in a game world, I mean he was still in the dark. But he didn’t care. The natural high was exhilarating, and that was a feeling that he was ready to embrace.
“Battle buddy, your brother hooked you up. You have a special class, and anyone on your team gets ridiculous benefits, like stats and... wait... yo you don’t have any combat skills, why not? NO. Way. Bruh...” Soto goes through multiple emotions looking through his new prompts. They pop up, and he closed another and opened a new one. Then Colonel got another prompt it startled him because he wasn’t paying attention to his blood brother.
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< CHAT ACTIVATED >
{TEAM SPEAK ACTIVE}
{Talk out loud and only your teammates can hear you. Lips can be still read.}
{MIND-SPEAK ACTIVE}
{Think your thoughts into your teammates' mind.}
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When Soto spoke again his mouth didn’t move, but the sound was heard much clearer than thought.
[This, is, amazing Battle! I get access to different classes, and even unique races because of you. I can be a vampire. A Vampire Bro! All benefits of your title it seems. I am definitely sending your brother a rum cake. If I get some world-first bonuses I’ll send him a kidney, maybe...]
Soto almost screamed into Colonel’s mind.
Colonel’s eyes widened as he thought back.
[This is pretty cool, I can believe anything, but sending messages with thought is truly next-level stuff man. I am really like this game now bro. Have you ever heard of anything close to this before?]
“No, never before. Next level feels like an understatement right now, but please get into it. Because it will be so much better if I don’t have to carry you the whole time.” Soto mockingly smirked still scrolling through his HUD.
Colonel scrolled through the tablet-sized box in front of his face, getting back down to the basics. Races were probably self-explanatory, but why not see what THE GREAT GAME had to say about them? Colonel loved lore, and early storytelling in games, like most, though he got bored with it later on. But for replay value, lore, and story, were more important than gameplay in his opinion.
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.
Would he ever admit this to his teammate, nope, Soto was just too competitive, so Colonel pretended he didn’t play games nearly as much, or read like before so that Soto could update him on what was new in the world. Though, he really had no idea about this game until his brother got him the tickets. “So let's see what the lore was about.” Colonel thought out loud, Soto looked up from his Character Sheet with a grimace.
“You and lore man, ugh well I have a hoarding problem, and you have a ‘let's read between the lines of every story.’ problem.” He chuckled. “The more things change, the more they stay the same Ehh Colonel?”
He smiled back nodding. “Well, we in our fifties brother not much going to change about our personalities at this point right?” Colonel said before looking back at his Tooltip.
“We look good for our age tho.” Soto sang nodding.
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< TOOL-TIP >
< RACES >
{Race is your birth race, but it is only your very beginning, Race Quest will allow a player to evolve their race. There are as many races, and their variants as there are galaxies in the universe. Grow stronger, and maybe you gain the fortune of evolving into an Elder race and be accepted by the Source universe.}
< NOTE >
{Race Quest allows you to upgrade your Race for even more power.}
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“Okay so not ethnicity, good, that would have been really weird if they were to ask, do you want to stay black or nah?” Colonel chuckled.
“Pretty sure that would go down as complexion, not ethnicity, No one is that stupid to think race would be ethnicity.” Soto corrected.
Colonel wasn’t so sure. Most humans were clueless about what was going on around them. They use social media to justify their opinions, and not challenge them. Humans have been sheep, that is why one of the most known members of the human race was considered a shepherd to humanity. Why would we need a shepherd if we weren’t sheep?
Colonel had never been a sheep, nor did consider himself a shepherd. What was he? The legacy didn’t know, but he was going to find out in this game. He looked at the next prompt.
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{RACE: Gaian Human
Humans are one of the most abundant sapient younger races in the multiverse. They are some of the easiest beings to make in the Goldilocks zone of any solar system. They are prodigious breeders, especially in harsh times, and they can level up in any way they choose, this makes them perfect for the balance of a Celestial body. Their major downside is they have very short life spans, so not many make it to higher tiers or even the cultivator realms. The ones that do, however, are almost always deified. Which incidentally is what most Celestial Bodies want. Loyalty to the point of zealotry, and territorialism. All of which makes great protectors from her enemies. Humans all have high and medium affinity powers with no low-affinity ones, figuring out your high-affinity powers may be the difference between growth and death. Gaian Humans have the highest Defensive Rating of the younger races; While most beings and creatures have a DR that is a 1-25 ratio, Humans have a DR 1-50 ratio, and Gaian Humans have a percentage-based DR as they are some of the first humans created after the Source War..}
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“Wow, that was cool, We are part of a multiverse, and apparently humans are everywhere? Or there are a lot of them? What can be an enemy to a celestial body though?” Colonel asked thinking about where will this story go.
“I like that you are getting into the story, and stuff, but I play these games for PVP. So don’t fall behind reading every lore book like the last MMO, okay? Also, I need you combat-ready, so no crafting for hours when we get in game.” Soto glared at Colonel
Colonel ignored his glare considering he couldn’t see it because he wasn’t looking at him, and they were in the dark, he then asked, “PVP?” Knowing the answer, and by the look on Soto’s face he knew, he knew the damn answer, but with a smile that was half excitement about the game, and half just messing with his Battle. “Oh Player versus Player, I got it Battle. Thanks for letting me figure that out on my own.” Colonel smiled. “You are truly a guide of wondrous renown and steadfast honor.” Colonel mocked in a cheap English aristocratic accent.
“Whatever dude, I don’t think you will have that problem in this game, we got a good head start, and you have this guy.” He smiled confidently. After an awkward few seconds of him pointing his thumbs at himself, he realized that Colonel couldn’t see them in the dark, and he slowly moved them away from himself.
“Alrighty, I’ll continue to familiarize myself with my character sheet.” Colonel deadpanned.
Soto shook his head, “I guess its like what Tio Lucho used to say, comedy is all about timing.”
Next were Colonel’s Pools. His Health Pool, Hit Points, or HP was ten times his constitution attribute, easy enough. The Mana Pool, or MP was a hundred times his magic attribute. The regenerations were not immediately apparent. Just as he thought that his Tool-Tip dinged. Again he smiled at the user-friendliness of the interface.
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< TOOL-TIP >
{Mana regeneration: The Player’s intelligence attribute, plus the player’s top Attribute per hour.
Example: A Fighter with 10 base intelligence plus 15 in strength equals 25 mana per hour.}
{Health regeneration: The Player’s constitution attribute plus their top attribute per day}
Example: A mage with 10 base constitution plus their 15 in intelligence equals 25 mana per day.}
{Defensive Rating (DR) is the Player’s natural magical protection (Usually becomes available at Tier 2), it has to be overcome before HP, or damage is taken. Each point of Colonel’s DR is equal to a max 10% of your HP(Average Human%: 1% Average Legacy%: 2%). This pool replenishes over time depending on base class type, race, effects, and bonuses.
Example: An average human with 250 HP and a DR of 10 needs your enemy to inflict 25 damage before pain is even felt by the player. This CAN be bypassed by some magical means, critical stealth attacks, and of course overwhelming force.}
{Armor Rating (AR) What armor a Player wears. It has to be overcome before HP, or damage is taken. Each point of AR is equal to a max 100 bonus HP depending on armor tier and type. This pool diminishes over time, and damage is taken.
Example A Player with an AR of 10 needs their enemy to inflict up to 1000 damage before DR can be overcome or HP can be lost by the Player. Can be bypassed by both physical(avoiding the armor or weak spots), and magical means, but one must always go through armor. This pool is not available because of your Legacy Title.}
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‘Well, that was pretty simple.’ Colonel thought. The game seemed to simplify everything for him, and since Colonel was an... is an old soldier, he learned his equipment as efficiently as one could, but only to the point of making it effective for him in the now. So it was... is very important to him, that his interface continued to be more streamlined.
That being said, his DR was ten times better than the average human Player, he was not going to complain about that. His character sheet looked like it had a ton of ways to go, and he didn’t want to not be able to find anything. He adjusted it making pages so that he didn’t see the full sheet every time he opened it. Then he thought about what he just read.
Defensive Rating was natural magic armor, that was invisible but was inferior in terms of damage absorption to Armor Rating which was visible physical armor, but once the damage was taken, it didn’t recover or refill. That means the longer the fight went on the more valuable DR became. He liked the long game. He was about getting a fast start, but being able to be the baddest at the end game content was what Soto had told him to plan to do in every game they played. He didn’t think they would have a problem with this one.
Losing the ability to wear armor was going to affect his gameplay for sure, but also he did like the idea of getting even more naturally tougher as he leveled up. The more he thought about it, it was much more convenient. Even though he wore body armor his whole life, he never met a soldier, sailor, airman, marine, coast guardsman, or law enforcement, who actually liked wearing body armor. They wore it for protection, and not even good protection by the way. One shot, that was what it...it took only one shot to make any ballistic plate worthless, and give the wearer some bad days, sometimes their last days. Its not like the movies, where people take twenty shots at their vests. Death was quick, so for one, Colonel was happy he wouldn’t have to be running around with half-broken armor, mostly needing to be repaired. He absently wondered if that meant shields as well. Then he went on to more tooltips.
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< TOOL TIP >
{Resistances: Are available fully at Tier 5. They are a blanket percentage that adds an extra layer of protection on top of your pools reducing the overall damage the player can take. There are many powers that can add to a player's resistances
Base Resistances
Physical: All non-magical damage: .001% of Physical stats. Magical: .001% of Mental stats, Willpower: .0001% of Tier 5 Stats
Tier Disparity bonus Damage and Damage reduction starts at Tier 2 and above. It may not be shown on the CS, but the percentage of damage a lower-tier player can do and take from a higher-tier player was 25% per tier for a max of 99% at four tiers above a base player. Gear and Titles mitigates this some.}
{CULTIVATOR LEVEL(N/A): Rise any Attributes to the first major threshold of 250 and a few other hidden prerequisites to take the first steps up the path to IMMORTALITY. Cultivators use both elemental or conceptual mana (Essence), EXP, and CORE advancement to level. Most players who make it to the first rank of cultivation only have access to one element.}
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Colonel felt something primal run through him reading the cultivator prompt. The fact it was in bold, and in all capital letters even in the tooltip, had his eyes lingering on the words while sitting in the dark next to his creepily giggling best friend, war buddy, and blood brother. He shook his head. “Immortality.” Colonel said feeling a sense of foreboding. The moment passed, but Colonel wasn’t a fool, he just put the feeling away for now. Instincts telling him it was the smart thing to do. He hadn’t lived this long not listening to his instincts, even in a game they had never led him wrong.
“Attributes seem really important, they affect everything in the game. One hundred fifty feels a long way away, but we got time.” He spoke to himself before asking Soto, “How many attributes do you get from your class per level? Everything is lined up with them, even elements if I am reading this right.”
“Oh, we definitely have time.” Soto stopped his ridiculous chuckling to scan back a few prompts. “Well, I get three placed ones, and one free one. One dexterity, one intelligence, and one luck. Why? You know what, never mind, I got to finish before some Ogre, or something burst in here. I’m surprised nothing has happened yet. Full immersion feels like it would do something like that for sure.” He said looking around for some nefarious plot before getting lost back in his Character creation screen.
Colonel half chuckled, but he did look around just in case. ‘Okay, so he gets four. I get six, so that is better, I have no combat skills though so maybe that’s the balance?’ He doubted that something in his real world, ingrained, former soldier’s intuition had him on high alert for some reason. He pushed that feeling down again. ‘I am here for fun with my friend, and forgetting the real-world problems for a few hours, hopefully days. She’ll be alright, both of them.’ He shook off the thoughts that threatened to ruin his staycation. ‘Where was I?’ He thought before spiraling into duster despair, the phenomenon named after the group of duster sympathizers who were brutally murdered by the very dusters they sympathize with.
Colonel grimaced at that innocuous thought as well. Completely out of character for the person he was going to be in this game. It was time for Clyde to go away for now and time for Colonel to get into character. He was a soldier in combat of any kind, and that includes games with his friends, and now this was supposed to be the greatest game of them all, THE GREAT GAME. He mentally brought up the welcome message.
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{WELCOME TO THE GREAT GAME LEGACY}
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‘Welcome indeed.’ Clyde thought giving in to the excitement of the gaming experience. He was... is a Legacy, a player with near unlimited growth potential. He was going to test that. The veteran of many wars had always wanted to have the power to change the world. This character he was given, had that power, or at least the potential for it. He was really hoping he got to keep this character after the convention now, his excitement starting to build he could leave a big mark on this game with his power. He was really looking forward to the fun he would have.
And that was what brought him up short. Colonel was a calm collected guy, his highs were ant piles, and his lows were potholes, so the fact that he was giddy like a schoolgirl watching BTS about this game, made him feel like his mind was being influenced by the game. He smiled a genuine smile. That was fine with him, he needed a distraction, and this game was checking all the boxes. He looked at the attributes, or stats for short to see how they varied from other games.
‘THE GREAT GAME huh? Five stars so far.’ He thought happily
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< TOOL-TIP >
{BASE ATTRIBUTES}
{STRENGTH}
{Strength determines your raw physical prowess, your use of melee weapons, and how much armor you can wear. Every 1 point of strength allows the player to lift up to 10 kg of weight and adds 1 point of damage to every melee physical attack. The other properties of the attributes are numerous.
Base pre-breaking human average: 10 male 9 female}
{DEXTERITY}
{Dexterity determines the movement speed, flexibility, grace, and coordination of the player, as well as the accuracy of all weapons and attacks. Every 1 point allows the player to move, and run up to .5 meters per second, increasing flexibility, and balance. The other properties of the attributes are numerous.
Base pre breaking human average: 10}
{CONSTITUTION}
{Constitution determines Hit Points as well as Hit Point regeneration, physical toughness, and endurance, basically how long you can do physical activities. For every 1 constitution, the player gains 10 HP. The other properties of the attributes are numerous.
Base pre-breaking human average: 10 male 9 female}
{MAGIC}
{Magic determines your Mana Pool. For every point in Magic, the Player gains 100 Mana Points. Magic grows largely with age, so respect your elders. The other properties of the attribute are near limitless.
Base human: 1 at birth +1% per year.}
{INTELLIGENCE}
{Intelligence determines the damage of magical attacks, Mana regeneration, and magical toughness and endurance. Non-combat applications you can learn faster and remember more. Does not affect base intellect. The other properties of the attributes are numerous.
Base pre breaking human average: 10}
{CHARISMA}
{Charisma determines base likability, and how proficient the player is at reading others and being read by others. It also affects the potency of most magical Powers. The other properties of the attributes are numerous.
Base pre-breaking human average: 8 female 7 male}
{LUCK}
{Luck is Luck. It can not be readily defined, but it increases critical chance. That shot which nicked an artery even though you missed it completely. Yeah, that's luck. Or not. The other properties of the attributes are way more numerous, or not.
Base pre-breaking human average: 8 female 7 male}
{Special Classes, Professions, and Skills gain new Attributes. At Tier 5 other Attributes become available to the path.}
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Colonel looked over the stats a few times. All of them were easy to understand at least, well except Luck. The averages made some sense, men were generally physically stronger, and outwardly tougher than women. While women were generally better looking, and luckier than men. But these numbers being only one-offs can’t really be that big of a deal, especially if everyone is getting four attributes per level. Plus everyone knows pain tolerance in women is much higher, where would that fall? ‘But again real-world issues. Let's keep it moving Colonel.’ He chuckled softly thinking of long lost conversations with his deceased wife.
‘Focus Colonel.’
He shook off his wondering mind again. “Ugh, next.” He said under his breath.
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< TOOL-TIP >
< FREE ATTRIBUTES >
{Free attributes are stat points the player may place into any attribute of your choice with the unbreakable exception of the Magic Attribute.}
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< EFFECTS >
{Effects come in four main categories. Buff, DEBUFF, Active and Passive.
Buffs can be both active or passive, They are positive status Effects.
Examples; healing, increased damage given or taken.
DEBuffs on the other hand are always Active. They are the negative status effects.
Examples; bleeding, poisoning, hexes/curses}
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“Do I even want to know what a hex, or curse is?” Colonel furrowed his brow, a shiver running up his spine. “You know what? No, I do not.”
“Yes, you do. If you can learn them, learn them. If you can’t then we should look out for them, it will be a bad day if we are inflicted with a curse or hex. I had a curse on a character once, that slowly lowered my defenses over time. I got one shotted by a Player killer and was the laughing stock of the forums for weeks.” Soto grimaced at the thought.
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< TOOL-TIP >
{Hexes and Curses are high Tier magic powers that require significant knowledge of a subject, or significant energy to power the ritual to make them. Known examples of Hexes and Curses are few, but the most known is the Scourge of the Undead.}
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Colonel was getting whiplash from some of the wording in the prompts. There were words that were capitalized and sometimes not like skill, the prompts seemed very specific and he was generally good at picking up on those nuances. It wasn’t that serious though he can address that later. “Super cool lore in the game man, and it feels like this Tool-tip is a lifesaver,” Colonel said before diving right back into his HUD, Out of the corner of his eye Soto was doing the exact thing but faster, and more excitedly. “You having fun yet?”
“Hell yeah I am having fun. Does a bear shit in the forest? I am ready to mess some shit up, to be honest.” Soto said a little impatiently.
Colonel looked at the Powers he would have access to, skills and Abilities pages, another example of what he meant by the words having meaning based on the capitalizing of it. He didn’t have any of the powers, but familiarizing yourself with anything you don’t understand, will never stear you wrong in life. And he was glad he did because it was a little confusing when he read it the first three times. It seems skills and Abilities have different tiers, and or ranks, and they were very different from each other because of that variation. Like really different.
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< SKILLS >
{skills are all of the magical powers one can earn in the GREAT GAME. Most skills are earned through special actions like tiering up, being taught, or can be brought through the skill store once the player’s race reaches tier 2, more information will be provided at that time. There are as many skills as there are stars in the night sky, and like stars a new skill is created every second, but all skills aren’t created equal. Even the same skills can have vastly different effects based on the rank of skill, the play style of the player, stats, bonus effects, etc.
The main categories of pre-tier 5 skills are:
Class, Profession, and General.
CLASS: Class skills(Spells) are skills that level with the player’s class. Outside of passive class skills, they will have a cost, cast time, and cool down at the bare minimum.
Class skills can only be leveled when the Player’s class levels. EXP is required.
Class skills cannot be taught only earned through specializing the Player’s class or purchased at the skill store once passed up at specialization.
PROFESSION: Profession skills(Trades) are skills that professionals need to use to level up their professions/Jobs. Each Trade level levels the main Profession/Job. For every 13 combine levels, and for every max Trade the professional gains, they earn an additional Trade.
Profession skills are all closed skills. EXP is not required to level. Can use skill points to level.
Profession skills can be earned through maxing out other Trades, brought in the skill store, They can be taught by anyone who has max a Trade out, skill tomes, and skill books, as well as strongholds, most usually have basic Profession skills available to PC & NPCs.
< NOTE >
Any NPC that maxes out a Trade may upgrade it to a General skill.
< NOTE >
There is a chance that the Max bonus of a Profession skill will upgrade it to a General skill.
GENERAL; General skills(Skills or Skill-trees) are skills that Skill User(Skillers) master. These skills can be mundane, but once they reach the tier of Expert they evolve and give the Player a Student tier magical version of the previous Skill. If the Skill is already magical the evolution is unique to the Skiller. Skillers are Players on the Skill-tree Path.
General skills are all open-leveling skills at each tier threshold Skill users have to complete a Tier quest to level up even further. Can use skill points to level.
General skills can be earned through evolving closed leveling skills, or be taught by a Skiller at the Expert tier of the Skill, or by special actions, Skill tomes, and Skill books. The most common way however is by using skill points in the skill store.
Skills at Expert and above give the players life a pause.
< NOTE >
Skills can be lost to time, but the longer they are lost the more they draw Skillers to them.
< NOTE >
All skills have a cost that must be paid to acquire they are cheapest when you earn them but that doesn’t make them free. There are very few freebies in the GREAT GAME.
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< Caveat >
Titles; skills gained from Titles can fall into any of the categories and some of their own. Title skills come at zero cost to the player.}
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< NOTE >
{Open leveling skills are skills that are leveled up by using the skill, and skill points. They level and tier up in the standard tier system of THE GREAT GAME. Stats are earned as you level, and distributed once the player tiers up. Those stats are based on how you use the skill.
The standard tier system is STUDENT, NOVICE, APPRENTICE, JOURNEY, EXPERT, MASTER, and Beyond. Each tier adds a bonus effect and stats also based on usage.
Closed leveling skills level up by using the skill, and skill points. Closed skills don’t have tiers, just levels 1-13 each level provides stats based on how the skill was used, and the amount varies. Closed skills max out at level 13 giving the Player a full understanding of the skill, and at least one bonus max effect.
Each level of Closed skills gives the Player a minimum of 1 times SL stats(Where SL is skill level) At Max level there is a chance the skill evolves into an open leveling skill.}
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Colonel had to reread all of the type of skills a frustratingly amount of times. What he had gathered was class skills or Spells level with you. Profession skills or Trades are used to level up the Profession and also seem to be the best way to get more skills, outside of classes, but you can’t teach a class skill. You can however teach profession skills, and because of that, they are also the easiest to learn, though they are all closed leveling skills.
General Skills were what intrigued him the most. Colonel had learned a lot about progression playing games, and skill-based games were the most annoying ones. Soto loved those games. But Colonel knew that in a game like this with full immersion, skills will be based on the person, and not just some hot key. Colonel was confident that the command of his body would give him an edge in Skill trees. The tier quests sounded like a fun way to get stronger.
Colonel couldn’t help but smile at how self-assured the information made him feel. Like any old soldier, he liked to know everything before jumping into battle. Contrary to popular belief, mission briefings were NOT just ways for officers and senior NCOs to torture troops. They were mostly for the lowest guy on the totem pole, to see the part of the picture that they were missing. Also to answer questions that might come up, because a good soldier knows a battle plan rarely survives first contact, and if it did the intel was way off. Colonel liked the skill system and felt like a skill-based game was going to be interesting.
“You still into skill-based games or class-based ones?” Colonel inquired with Soto.
“To be honest, if I had a choice, I would go skill-based, but this game seems to have them all. Classes seem to be the easiest path to power, all the others seem to require prerequisites, some of which they don’t tell us. I think skill trees are going to be an incredibly difficult path to power.” Soto answered academically.
“You think so? It feels pretty straightforward to me.” Colonel asked confused.
“Yeah, I do. Classes give you skills, Yeah you have to pay for them, but you earn skill points per level, it looks like you will have to go out and find General skills. Or do special actions, whatever the hell that means. If you light yourself on fire and tackle someone maybe you will gain some type of flaming tackle power.” Soto shrugged before going back to his prompts.
Colonel hoped the game wouldn’t require something that extreme, but he did agree with Soto's assessment of the path being harder. He shook his head, he was getting stuck on one aspect of gaining power, he had much more to go through, and maybe going through the rest would answer some more of his questions.
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< ABILITIES >
{Abilities are innate powers that all creatures possess that have to be unlocked. There are as many abilities as there have ever been people to live in the multiverse. Every creature born has at some point in their short lives when measured against the cosmos, developed an ability. Unlike skills that can be taught, Abilities can’t be, and they die with to creator(baring a few exceptions). The majority of abilities are passive or triggered. The active abilities are usually toggled and have Mana cost, longer duration, and shorter to non-existent cool-downs. While skills usually become more specific as they level, Abilities usually become more broad as they level.
There are 2 main types of abilities; Combat and non-combat. While combat abilities are very difficult to account for in conflict. It is non-combat abilities that truly change the battlefield.
Abilities level up by usage, understanding of oneself, and stat thresholds. They can have a max tier or the standard GREAT GAME tier system.}
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‘Okay.’ Colonel thought. ‘So there are many more abilities than skills, but there was really no way of knowing which ones you have.’ He would need to get some before he figured them out. He shrugged. He had no problem waiting. So far the euphoric feeling of being in the game hadn’t subsided, it might actually be rising. They were getting close to something big, he could feel it deep in his bones. The world was changing outside, and he was changing inside. He gave into that feeling, he hadn’t felt this focused in a game before. It all felt so... real.
They say when you find something you love, something you were born for, it always feels simple to do it, not easy, but simple for you. Colonel was good at a lot of things, but protecting others was so simple for him, and leading troops was so simple for him. If this world was so big, and evolving, Colonel put in his mind, that he was going to adventure throughout it and protect the people from injustices that live in it, he would do so because, he knew that some players would use this platform to do evil, and disgusting things, they always do, he would not allow chaos to strive, not now, not ever in this game, he would build something greater than that, and be a beacon of strength for the game.
Mental plan set, he continued reading.
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< QUEST >
{Your magical mission board or journal. Any mission given to the player is bound by magic. Quests are broken down into four categories in ascending order of rewards, but not necessarily difficulty: Task, Jobs, Events, Quest.}
< NOTE >
{The higher tier Quests will give temporary bonuses in order to assist the player in completing them.}
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< PROFESSIONS >
{Professions can be any job, even some classes can also have a profession similar to the class. Professions provide both the INFUSE ability which allows the Professional to put their Mana directly into whatever their profession focus requires making it more durable, and profession trade skills. Professionals are the lifeblood of any stronghold in THE GREAT GAME. They are not only the major workforce, but also a force multiplier. All but nobles, most Clergy, and some who are born cultivators can have up to two professions. The Merchant caste can have multiple professions if they get to Executive in their prior two Professions, always needing to get to Executive again before they could pick up another. Any NPC that can get any two Trades to Max level will have their caste automatically changed to Merchant, unless they have a class in which case they will sire at least one Merchant offspring.}
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Colonel’s face lit up, it seemed like this game had multiple paths to power just like Soto said, even within each path. He wanted to explore them all whatever it took. The rising euphoria of the room was hitting him like a big Mack truck, hits a little garage in a Cardi B verse. He can’t help but chuckle at that fire and old reference. The need to level up was itching in the back of his head, it was almost a fundamental law of his gaming personality, ‘Get Stronger’ kept repeating itself. The only thing holding him back was there were no enemies in sight, but he was ready to fight, to lead, to protect, and if need be to conquer.
Colonel looked at Soto. “Man, this is really cool. They are professions in this game. I know you like to craft, and gather everything you can, I hope we get a bag or something, because I know you would have herbs bursting out of your pockets if not.” They laugh softly.
“Hell yeah, I would. You never know when they will come in handy man. Besides my dude, we can’t just kill every day for three straight years.” He said semi-seriously. “It's not practical.
“Ugh, like the Silk Road.” Colonel winced thinking about that awful deployment.
Soto made the sign of the cross, then kissed his fingers, and pointed to the sky, Colonel’s eyes had adjusted to the dark, and could barely make out basic shapes and movement. They were still in their room, but something was about to change. “Don’t mention that fucking deployment again, so many nightmares from there. Between that and Venezuela, I have seen enough craziness for three lifetimes, and have lost enough sleep for two, and only got one lung because of the last.”
Colonel nodded agreeably. Their first deployment for the JTF and the last one together was the worst they had experienced.
Pointing to the prompt screens in front of himself, Soto said “That's why I love fantasy games. It allows you to be the person you want to be without societal constraints getting in the way. There will always be an adversary which means you will always have a goal, Humans need to set goals to be successful in life. You can either beat them or wait for the day they beat you. That is not a real-world problem, it's a problem that we make up to divide ourselves in the real world.” Soto said academically again, shrugging the real-world thought out of his mind.
“Agreed, no one is born hating another person, race, or country, and most countries aren’t trying to conquer their neighbors anymore. But humans thrive on competition, so when we don’t have any, we create them. What are games if not ways to hone certain skills in a fun, and repetitive way? They help us gain different experiences in life, and expand our thinking, and problem-solving skills.” Colonel sagely stated. “On the same note, most people make their lives harder than they should be, and use games to escape reality.” Like he was doing right now, was what he was going to say, but Soto would pry, so he decided to leave it at that.
“DUH! Water is wet, the desert is dry, and life is hard. If it was easy we would live longer, as a race I mean.” Soto said.
“Black people, or Brown people?”
“No, I mean humans, like the human race. I guess we can call ourselves Gaians since we are on the celestial body Gaia.” Soto said smiling. “I wonder if that would help with prejudice?”
“As a race, I do believe it is hard, We have taken the burden off in the last few years with radical reforms, but people will complain about getting free money from the government until the government tries to take that money back. I mean, look at how-”
Colonel stopped talking, and grinned, when to his surprise a black prompt with gold writing popped up in front of him, As he read his smile grew bigger.
_____________________________________________________________
< CHIME >
< YOU HAVE BEEN OFFERED A QUEST >
{QUEST NAME: STOP THE OUTBREAK I
QUEST TYPE: Legacy Tutorial
QUEST TIER: Legendary
DESCRIPTION: Something old and ominous has been unleashed on to your local area. Investigate for more updates and information. Objectives will populate when information is assessed in the field.
Objective: Travel to ground zero of an odd magical event and investigate the area for clues.
TIME LIMIT: 1 day.
Temporary bonus: Free teleportation
REWARDS: Minimum 1000 EXP and a piece of a set item.
FAILURE PENALTY: -1 to every attribute or death}
_____________________________________________________________
His eyebrows rise at the prompt. “I got a quest here.” Colonel said frowning reading the rewards, and penalties, “The consequences of failing are a bit severe though.” He warned Soto. “Really severe actually.”
Soto dismissively waved and said, “Accept it anyway. We have three years, we will do everything we can for sure.” He turned to Colonel with a very serious look on his face. “We. will. do. Everything Jake. You hear me?” Fire blazing in his eyes. “I am serious Colonel, no slacking, we are role playing. It is our life for now, I can see you are carrying something, more than usual for this time of year, we will talk about that later, maybe on the breaks I won’t pry until then. But for now, we make the best of this.” He flourished his hands like a showman. Then realized they were still in the dark. “The best of the game, we will become these characters, and leave the real world behind. Ju Hurd?”
“Roger that! Team designation Phoenix Prime since we will always rise from the burnt ashes of our enemies, never defeated, never beaten, never conquered. We will protect the weak by making them strong. We will bring order to the chaos of the world and beyond, if we can’t, then we will die in the process only to rise and try again, This is our burden, this is our purpose, we are Phoenix. For what is power, if we don’t use it for the advancement of order? And while chaos has its place, it is order that must prevail.” The words just came out of the Legacy unbidden, but were the truest words he had ever said.
“We are Phoenix!, I like it. Bro that was some Braveheart type shit. ‘They may take our lives, but they will never take our freedom!’” He yelled in his best William Wallace accent sounding more Irish than Scottish.
The Legacy shook his head, he must have triggered some dialogue option in the game, but it was also how he truly felt. Man, he was getting into this game. “I’ll be Phoenix one, you can be four, Roger over.” Colonel clicked ‘YES’ on the prompt, and a similar box popped up in front of Soto. He read over the new prompt in front of him as other smaller boxes kept popping up around him.
“Copy that... Oh shit! A tutorial quest, nice dude! It said it's a Legacy one, must be unique to you man, or your race at least. We are really lucking out here. It’s definitely a chain quest too, hell yeah. What is your Luck attribute?” Soto goes through all of the happy emotions like a child trying new things. “I really think your brother hooked us up. Really hooked us up. I know I have said it before, but a free quest is something you can’t beat. Well, a free chain quest beats it.” He smiled.
Colonel softly chuckled at Soto’s enthusiasm, it was infectious. He started to look up his attributes, “I know it, I have a rare race, caste, and class apparently. There are only thirteen of us all together on the whole planet. So I am nice like that.” Colonel shrugged smugly.
“Okay, tone down the roleplaying a little bit there hero, answer the damn question, and how do you know there are only thirteen of you?” Soto asked confused. “Wait it's a Rare race? Like a vampire?
Colonel laughed at the whiplash of changing emotions on his sergeant major. “My Luck Attribute is only thirty-three, which to be fair is twenty-six more than the average human in the game at least, and my Tool tip gave me all that information...”
“What?! Mine’s thirteen!” Soto cut him off. “Wait the average human’s luck is seven” Soto looked confused. “That doesn’t feel right maybe people from the Bronx, but the average human should be more than that. Are you sure that's right?”
“For men yeah, Women were eight.” Colonel smiled at Soto’s incredulous look.
“It's broken down into male, and female? And your Tool tip is that in-depth? I didn’t get that much information...” He flinched, “Oh, never mind. Well, I got it now. Well, aren’t you a golden goose.” Soto rubbed his hands together mischievously smiling at his HUD. “What else you got for me my little goose.”
“Don’t expect me to lay any eggs anytime soon.” Colonel laughed.
“At the very least the rewards from the quest will level us up at the very bare minimum” He froze and looked up at Colonel's face unreadable.
“I know the penalties right?” Colonel said thinking Soto was finally getting it, but the smile on the retired sergeant major’s face showed he didn’t care about the penalties at all. “Ugh, we really doing everything aren’t we?” Colonel dejectedly said.
Smiling smugly, “YOLO!” Soto said pretending to drop a microphone. Colonel rolled his eyes at the action. “We are not failing a quest bruh,“ He started, ”I am not that big of a noob. All we have to do is show up, and investigate bruh, do you really think you that big of a noob?” Soto paused thinking, hand on his beard, “You know what? Actually, we are noobs, we don’t get any more noobs than this. We are so noobs we had to just spend the last what, hour figuring out the game. Noob might be the first title we might get.” Soto jested.
Colonel looked at Soto confused, his mouth was closed trying to understand Soto, is there something he just didn’t know, or understand clearly? “What’s a...”
“If you pretend you don’t know what a noob is, I will leave you as soon as we get into this game.” Soto deadpanned. “I like the ignorance game we play sometimes, but I need you all in for this game, okay? We will have fun, but I don’t need to babysit you anymore, This is full immersion, and I know you can handle your own body. Do you feel me? This one is different. This full immersion is to real, and I feel like we are getting ready for a deployment. Not a shitty deployment like Bosnia, or Kuwait, but not a walk in the park either.” Soto broke down his feelings on Colonel’s ignorance “A Noob is just a noob, a person who doesn’t know shit.” He answered anyway knowing his friend may actually be a moron.
“Word. I feel the same way, it’s like the same feeling we had before Operation Mongolian Freedom. Venezuela as well.” Colonel winced at the painful deployments once again. One that started the duster pandemic, the other that ended the doubt that we needed to work together.
“Yeah those deployments didn’t seem that bad going in, but they were awful to the point of historical-level events, and that was the JTF. I still can’t believe the Army sent us to Iraq in o three with cheap ass broke equipment, Humvees with no doors, and three 20 oz bottles of water for a week in 130-degree weather.” Soto shook his head. He scrolled back through his prompts then finally clicked yes on the prompt, and a countdown started.
Then their lives changed forever.
_____________________________________________________________
< ALERT >
{Teleportation to tutorial area in 60 seconds, 59 seconds.}
_____________________________________________________________
Soto panicked a little and started going through his Character sheet faster.
“Shit, shit, shit. Sixty seconds! Must be because it is a legendary quest or something. Legacy quest my ass, what bunch of assholes, who only gives a player sixty freaking seconds to finish a character?, Ugh!” Soto complained scrolling.
Colonel was laughing hard now, thankful for the distraction. “To be fair we have been here for a while, and it's Forty-seven seconds actually, Forty-five really.” He unhelpfully helped. “Technically we have been here for at least an hour.”
“Not the time Colonel. Not the goddamn time.” Soto said with rushed frustration. “If you want us to survive, you better hope I don’t gimp my character, damn noob, now leave me alone...”
Colonel looked at a new pop-up box, his smile getting bigger as he looked at the information, Before he could mentally click it, the prompts jumped at the Legacy dumping the information into his mind instantly. He didn’t have to read the new information it was just there.
_____________________________________________________________
< LEGACY ABILITIES UNLOCKED >
{WORLD MAP MAX}
{SOUL STORAGE MAX}
{ANALYZE NOVICE 0}
{1 free SKILL LEARNED: EQUIP MAX(Not visible on CS)}
_____________________________________________________________
Knowledge of the abilities poured into his mind and he was vaguely familiar with them. “Nice.” Colonel thought ignoring his whining Puerto Rican friend. He looked at the Tool Tip for his new abilities excited about what he already knew.
_____________________________________________________________
< TOOL-TIP >
{ABILITY NAME: World map
LEVEL: MAX
DESCRIPTION: The ability to know where you are. With this ability Maxed out the Legacy will never be lost on his planet and eventually other planets. Will have a natural Global Positioning System(GPS), with auto navigation to any location as long as it can be reached by the Legacy. This Ability can also overlay any known information on both minimap and full map. Every team, and party member benefits from any shared information the Legacy offers. Quests will appear as question marks on the map and mini-map. Points of interest appear as big red Xs. While any place you haven’t been to may be blacked out. Quest and major points of interest will still populate. Hostile will be in red, while allies will be green.
MAX Bonus: No limitations. Experiment for more uses.}
_____________________________________________________________
ABILITY NAME: Soul Storage
LEVEL: MAX
DESCRIPTION: You have a near unlimited space in your soul to store anything living, or not. There is no time decay inside your soul. Living things must be unconscious, or willing to enter your soul storage(They will be in stasis). Weight reduction is 100% for non-living things. All living things' weight stays the same. Increasing your strength attribute will allow the Player to carry more living things. As a player Tiers up they will become harder to carry in your storage.
MAX Bonus: No limitation outside of free will.}
_____________________________________________________________
{ABILITY NAME: Analyze (Toggled)
LEVEL: NOVICE 0
DESCRIPTION: The Legacy can see all of basic information of anything they view at their level and below. And less information on anything as the level rises on what is being observed.
Cost: 50MP per hour
ABILITY EFFECT: Scan and identify everything (information gleaned is based on level of ability, and character against the level of the object or subject being analyzed.)
STUDENT EFFECT: Can Auto share with team, and party members.
NOVICE EFFECT: Shows current effects with weaknesses and Banes.}
_____________________________________________________________
Colonel smiled at his bounty of new upgrades. “Oh we cooking with bacon grease now, I have a world map, storage, and analyze ability, and the first two are maxed out. The Analyze is at Novice 0 already the cost is a little disconcerting more than a tenth of my regen right now. I wonder why. I’m not complaining. Having a way to identify things in a game like this is a must.” He reread the prompt grinning. “Looks like you will auto-gain information on anything I analyze if I let you. So one thing you don’t have to worry about.” Colonel teased Soto as he worked crazily on his character.
Soto was now frantically scrolling. “Jake stop being a dick, you are distracting me. I’m making an awesome character. Attributes to distribute? Don’t mind if I do. I guess just being in your team gave me a permanent plus ten to every attribute except for magic... Oh, nice! I get free stats as well. I’ll put all of my free attributes in Intelligence.” He started clicking his screen in front of him quickly, then accepted.
“What? why?” Colonel raised his eyebrow wondering the thought process behind his buddy’s impulsive thoughts and actions.
Soto shrugged, still going through his Character Sheet. “Who doesn’t want to be smarter? While strength, dexterity, and constitution can be seen immediately. Intelligence is much easier to conceal, and I am not about flaunting my power. There is always someone more powerful one, and two, people who feel powerless will paint a target on your back.” Soto elaborated.
Colonel nodded respectfully. “So we should keep any of our upgrades, skills, and abilities between us, and people we trust in the game.” He thought it over seeing the logic in secrecy, and anonymity. “We will have to experiment, I think. I don’t know.”
“I think you and your instincts might be right on this one.” Soto said, “I think we should keep it even more secretive, just you and me.” His eyes light up. “Cultivation level? What is that? It can’t be what I think it is. Like flying on massive swords like cultivator Chinese web stories of old.”
Colonel nodded “Yeah, it looks like another way to get stronger, and immortality supposedly.” He laughed at Soto’s look. “What?”
I’m definitely going with vampire now.” Soto said with finality. “If they are offering immortality, that means you can die of old age in this game. That doesn’t bode well for the others. I have a strange feeling that time will move fast in this game. Why else would aging matter? Vampire, it is for me.”
“I knew it. You always wanted to be a vampire. But make sure you can walk in the day, I am not playing only at night for three straight years bro.” Colonel said smiling at his battle buddy as Soto tried to still make a perfect character in the limited amount of time.
Soto looked at Colonel with a big smile on his face. “Now you're getting into it. Attaboy!”
_____________________________________________________________
{1 second remaining, countdown paused...}
_____________________________________________________________
Time froze. Our duo was frozen looking at a pinprick of blue and golden energy coagulating in front of them. The dot grew slowly into a ball of glowing energy, becoming a globe-shaped ball about the size of a human head.
An ancient, distinctly feminine, voice spoke from the energy. The room vibrated every time the voice spoke, and the globe pulsed. A floating miniature version of Earth represented the avatar of Gaia. This is Gaia’s voice. Colonel's instincts were telling him that this being in front of him was far more ancient than was taught to him in school, he knew that unequivocally.
“Welcome back my Legacy.” The voice paused noticing Soto, “Oh you brought a friend this time. I approve.” She paused again collecting herself, and she yawned. “The fight ahead of you is the first of many. I am sorry, but I must delay you a bit to warn you of the grave threat that is-”
CRACK!
“AAAAHHHH!!!”A crack formed in her globe avatar, and she screamed a cry of pain.
“Ouch...” The voice composed herself after a minute, maybe two. “I broke a rule, remember, this is a good lesson, magic has ironclad rules. Never forget that, even celestial bodies aren't exempt. But power trumps all of those exemptions.” She sighed disappointed, but still a little sleepy. She yawned loudly again.
“I do not have the Mana to grant a quest reward, therefore I am not allowed to grant you the knowledge of the enemy. I must get stronger, and so do YOU. No matter what enemy you face, they are NOT the real threat! Complete your current quest line, then I will reach you again. LIVE WELL my Legacy, and Welcome back to the GREAT GAME...}
Her avatar faded away.
_____________________________________________________________
{Resuming countdown; 0 seconds Teleporting...}
_____________________________________________________________
“She didn’t help us at all!” Soto yelled frustrated. “What kind of vague introduction was that bullshit?”
Colonel tried to hold back a laugh and failed...then that laugh turned into vomit as his body, mind, and soul felt like it was being ripped through time and space. To be fair, his body, mind, and soul was being rip through time, and space.
“FUBAR!” They both screamed.
***
EARTH'S CORE
GAIA
Deep in the core of the earth, the humanoid avatar of Gaia slumped into her onyx and gold throne. Her body was a mixture of browns, greens, and mostly lava orange in this form, but she always kept her rain forest fro, it was too difficult to maintain to change every time she moved around even if it cost more Soul Energy to do so here in her core. She wasn’t thinking about her vanity though, she was in a ton of pain from that encounter with the phoenix feather. The breaking was unexpected, and she reached out to the person with the most potential without thinking.
She admonished herself, “What were you thinking Ala?” She sighed. “After this long, you shouldn’t be so surprised humans would be so impatient to gain power. It should be fine, I can feel my LAW’s waking and the gods being summoned, I see they didn’t forget.” She looked at the area around her, taking in the mini throne room. It was about the size of a football field, with her throne in the middle, and magma flowing throughout. The walls were all covered in magical Runes for protection. However, it was a little redundant since if anyone could get here they would still need to deal with her in her literal seat of power.
“Why did I go there so soon? I almost ruined everything.” She ashamedly said. She of course knew why, he reminded her of him, he had the same feeling, or Presence as that frustrating man.
“Olorun, he is like you, my love. After all these epochs it seems like it is time for us to continue our little dance.” She smiled ruefully. All Legacies were phoenix feathers. But there are only two prime feathers per universe, and it seemed like she had gotten them both. That was a gift and a curse. The gift was power, the curse was power others wanted enough to die trying to get it from her hands.
“Live well, or Die free, it is all the same in the GREAT GAME.” She smiled ruefully. “I love this game.” She said to no one in particular. She felt the Dungeons opening, an unusual feeling since she was supposed to have control over them before they opened to regulate their growth. She manually took control of as many as she could in her current state, not all of them, but most. She did it as they formed, and used her soul energy to stop their rapid growth. North America was a little difficult to control which is why she sent that man to fix one of her problems. “If he could survive that he will have an amazing head start. I just hope they can save the helpless NPCs in time.”
Taking control had two very different, and equally essential outcomes. One, it gave her peace of mind about having control over her surface. She may have said in the notifications that breakings were natural phenomena, but that was to prevent mass panic, breakings are as natural as dams. Sure beavers build dams, but they mostly don’t do any damage at first, but When they taught my humans how to build them, now dams were everywhere doing major ecosystem damage and making massive changes to entire biomes.
So it's natural because naturally someone would eventually build a bad dam, and then it breaks. This hypothetical dam happens to be the biggest damn dam ever made in this solar system and was holding back an ocean of water that was enough to break all of the other older dams. In Gaia’s case, it was an ocean of Source energy that she could transfer into soul energy. The dams were dungeons she created or controlled, and the dam that broke was the human’s attempt to make or control a wild dungeon without a Legacy's help.
She had no doubt this was the outcome they wanted, but it wasn’t ideal, with a breaking there was no going back. This would be the last time magic would be on her surface and in her universe. She had to make it count, or she would die a final death this time, she couldn’t let that happen again. She couldn’t die yet, she came this far from the center to protect... her mind had drifted because of the pain, she focused. “Luna?”
“Yes, mother?” A sleepy voice responded before yawning to punctuate her tiredness.
Gaia let out a breath she didn’t even know she was holding, or even needed to hold. Relief hit her easing the rest of her tension. Luna was the reason Gaia wasn’t near the core of the universe she was too weak of a celestial body to be on her own, and she had made a vow to protect her early on. She kept her vows even before the Alpha Phoenix sacrificed everything including her life to end the Source War, and created THE GREAT GAME.