INIT ANIIK

"Why the heck did you decide to go with these poison-pushers?" Init was enraged. "You don't know anything, do you? You are just happy without understanding the underlying structures! You are aware that this band of small-scale criminals will now think they own this repository?"

Jaaru sat on a chair, her feet on the soil. "What can they legitimately own about it? They cannot stop people getting skills, they cannot stop people changing skills, they cannot stop people disassigning skills. They can prevent people from getting in and out of the area but that would piss so many people off that they cannot do that. It would be easier to do so for Jiiti and her clan as they are much more remote."

Init looked shocked: "Are you not trusting Jiiti? She has been a friend for years!"

Jaaru shrugged: "She had been your friend for years! I don't mind her, but… she was never my friend. Nothing against her, but you know… But I was thinking of more practical matters. I want it to be trivial to change skills. Not something you walk your legs sore for. Like, if you are at home and hungry, just switch to a cooking skill, then revert when you're done. I want what I have to be available for others with the same ease. I don't want the skills to be just for those who have enough time to get to and fro. Or those whose legs don't work well. If someone has diminishment, I want them to be able to just take medicine skills and cure themselves. Not hope that someone like Kereu gets there and has enough fortitude to cure them."

Init stared at Jaaru as a light went through her, indicating a level up. "Is that your vision? Or is that something you tell yourself."

Jaaru smiled: "Of course this is my vision. I had it when we ran for the bus and you had to touch me to get a recovery skill. I had it when people at work touched me and noticed that they were able to adjust their skills. I understand why we set up the first repository where we did, I have a feeling that it is wrong. These repositories don't want to be in the middle of nowhere, they want to be where the people are."

Init sighed: "You are being controlled by your class?"

Jaaru shrugged: "Influenced, not controlled. I could have remained in the shed. I chose not to. I just saw little reason to do so. And many not to. Including just how freaking draughty the workshop is."

Init stared at her: "That one is the real reason, isn't it? Not wanting to be in the air and in nature, only separated by a thin wall?"

Jaaru responded harshly: "I am afraid of the local creatures, yeah, but it's one reason of many."

Init shook her head: "I will not understand your decision for this, but I understand that it cannot be changed. That doesn't mean I like it."

Jaaru shrugged: "You did a lot of things I didn't like and I didn't say anything. Like when you signed our latest lease for the both of us."

Init shrugged: "I don't know why you wanted out so much and it was easier!"

Jaaru shouted: "It was easier for you, not for me! You realise that I wanted out for a reason, even though I was too embarrassed and ashamed to say it? That I didn't just make it up?"

Init shrugged: "What would that reason even be? It always seemed like you were upset about something and I couldn't take a random, undefined upset seriously."

Jaaru explained: "See, you cannot even imagine that I have a reason… Have you ever wondered why maintenance always requested me to be in the building during repairs?"

Init responded nonchalantly: "Because you were first on the lease, isn't it?"

Jaaru shook her head: "Because the repair person likes me… in the physical sense. And he… demanded payment to repair things in the house. Just… not in money."

Init looked at Jaaru for a second in confusion, then the realisation set in: "He… did… that‽ To you‽ In our bed‽"

Jaaru shook his head: "He never, like, did the act, but he fondled me, demanded me to kiss him. And I could feel how hard he was."

Init was speechless for a moment, then she cried and hugged her sister: "I never knew! I thought it was just the stairs! Because all the rooms you suggested were lower…"

Jaaru shook her head: "It wasn't… The stairs thing was just random happenstance."

Init held her: "Oh dear! I had actually moved myself first in the lease when I extended it because I knew how much you hated staying home for the repair person… You know what‽ That person doing the repairs needs to pay! And now that I most likely outlevel them, I can make them!"

Jaaru sobbed, her tears wetting Init's shoulder. "You did change the order? You never told me!"

"I did!" There was a long pause on which nothing happened but sobbing, "but you were right, I guess I absolutely sucked at seeing you as your own person! I am sorry! And I am sorry that I wasn't trustworthy enough for you to tell me!"

Jaaru didn't say something, just pressed her closer to herself. They spent minutes just in each other's company, silently just crying to each other. Eventually, they ended the hug, cleaned their noses and wiped their eyes. Init felt, even though there was no notification, that she realised something important and that was almost the equivalent to levelling up. Just in a metaphorical sense.

She had to remind herself after leaving the tent, that everyone she met was not just a character in a story, but as real as she was and if they did things that she found deplorable, they might have their own reasons. Maybe reasons she would not understand or ones that she would vehemently disagree with if she knew them, but which were as legitimate to them as her own reasons were to her. She realised just how often she had failed her fellow people. She realised just how insidious her thought patterns had been and as she did so, she walked to the apartment complex she lived in with Jaaru. She kept her eyes open for that particular villain but at that moment, he had saved his life by his absence. As she entered, she noticed that the office door was closed, but she heard sobbing from the other side. This generally had nothing to do with her, but with the creep being around and potentially being creepy to others, she knocked.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

The human employee looked like she had been trying to look as if she hadn't been crying. "Hello, Miss Aniik, isn't it? How… how can I assist you?"

Init smiled encouragingly: "Hello, I wondered if you happened to know where the maintenance man is. I have some questions regarding his behaviour."

The woman moved backwards and her complexion turned white: "I am not sure… He is technically no longer employed with us. The situation right now means that we cannot collect rent and thus cannot pay him or anyone."

Now Init was confused: "Oh, why can rent no longer be collected? I have not kept up with the news because of all that has happened or rather is happening."

The clerk looked at the ground: "We are cut off from all financial transactions. Unlimited Potential has locked everyone's account balances. Unless someone has hoarded coins from some integrating world or some dungeons or something… there is nothing we can do. I don't get paid, I can't accept payments, I can't do any repairs that I cannot do myself. I just stay here in the office during business hours so no one can evict me. It's one huge mess."

Init smiled reassuringly: "Things will change, certainly so. And I don't think your parent company can do anything about it other than to report a loss."

She smiled vaguely: "I barely knew anything of what happened. The information that I hear in the media is strange, and then it just dropped out completely. I am this close to going to Breezeplains as the media says. There is no streaming either, getting information from earth, well, that is just about impossible. From what I heard, most people lost their levels, most of my friends did. The only reason I didn't is that I am level 1. Our money was blocked, supermarkets are not receiving new shipments, but with no money, we cannot buy things anyways. I received the message from the governor, and yeah, as a human, things were difficult. It's like being ill, with my stats being less effective… it's one huge cluster!"

Init nodded: "I can imagine… Thanks for the information. May I ask what the reason was that you came here as a level 1?"

She shrugged: "Oh, you know, I ran away. I saved money, then took the first spaceship anywhere. I had just recently arrived… just started making a living and then everything exploded, metaphorically speaking. No one has prepared me for that and I have no idea what is happening."

Init decided to be honest: "Oh, I can tell you what I think will happen: This planet will leave Unlimited Potential to migrate to a different one. One which doesn't ruin us, bankrupt us or exploit us. This is the new system that Kadish… errr… the media is talking about. So, yeah, there are folks trying to build something new. I would assume that this is the one thing we can and should do no matter our species. Kadish is not Sigya-ha-Sygian either, he just also got swept into this. So, you currently cannot integrate into the new system and gain all benefits, but at the same time, in two days, the new system is up and running in the centre of The Backwaters. Then you don't need to go to Breezeplains to be integrated there. Until then… I guess it's best to lay low. You're not nerfed, which is an absolute advantage over others, though that one decreases with time as people will get used to their new stats… If you get integrated, that will not matter much anymore though. Skills beat stats, as my sister used to say…"

The clerk looked down: "Is… she…?" She didn't even dare asking about her potential demise.

"What? Oh, no! She just had to eat her words after she lost all of her levels. It's still a good guideline for any other case!" Init corrected herself.

"That's good to hear. Though it makes me wonder: This new system… Does that mean that everyone is returned to level 1? Even if they were level 100 beforehand?"

Init explained Solidarity in great detail starting from the lack of levels and the existence of skills as replacement both of skills and magic, or as Unlimited Potential liked to call it: 'skilled practice'. That there was no way to level up but that ranking up a skill to a higher tier than any other skill you had before was the equivalent as it allowed people to slot skills of higher ranks should they be available in the repository. And, yeah, even if you remove the currently highest level skill, the rank of you doesn't change. Init then went on to explain how to rank up skills. Or what she knew about that at least: It required emotion and improvement and was possible the best when someone had some form of autonomy about how they were doing things. Which was why gaining levels at work was painstakingly slow if happening at all, but gaining skills at hobbies and things one just plainly needed to survive was much faster. Through all of this, the clerk listened intently. Eventually, she asked: "So, to rank up, you need to improve a skill, even if it already exists on a higher level in the repository?"

Init nodded.

The clerk looked relieved. "I was worried. This looked for a few moments like the boni in newly integrated worlds. But you are telling me that anyone can rank themselves up, this does not sound too horrible. It sounds like something you can do. Provided you can actually rank up."

Init nodded: "It certainly is possible. I did so several times."

There was a pause, then she asked: "Can you happen by when it is up? I am in apartment 7. Anna Stricthome, but the sign at the doorbell still says KS, who was the previous tenant."

Init nodded: "Of course. Right now, my sister is setting up the repository."

"Ah, Init is setting it up? She's always been such an industrious person," Anna said.

Init shook her head: "I am init, Jaaru is setting it up."

SHIVERS-IN-SUNLIGHT

Shivers struck the Salamar with an angry strike of a spiked beam of wood. ex needed to train and the best way to do so when xe was not assisting the humans, was to do dungeons. Xe preferred to do the rank 2 dungeons as they were simple to do so but allowed xir to try to improve xir skills. Generic buffs like the ones that the humans had were incredibly hard to emulate using the magic of Solidarity. Xe tried to use the pattern that xir magic sight had shown in people who used generic buffs. Keeping the magic in place was like herding cats. Xe tried to see what it was that was making the establishment of these structures far harder than other ones. Xe raised xir magical sight skills as xe was watching the establishment fail again, but realised, for the quickest moment, that it was being failed. That there was the quickest movement of magic coming out of seemingly nowhere that prevented the establishment of these structures. Something was interfering with the magic and xe had a good idea as to what it was. Xe was frustrated about this. Something was happening that shouldn't be happening. Something was interfering that shouldn't be interfering. Xe hit the ground several times with xir stinger out of frustration. Xe needed to do something, anything.

Xe fought the salamar with vigour and anger, eventually xe started to ruminate about the matter while doing so. "What I need is something like a tent… or a pane of glass, I guess," xe murmured, "Just with magic instead of made with plant fibres… or electrified sand." Xe cussed, jumped onto a salamar and stung it with great vigour.

It was only when xe reached the boss that xe had an idea. Something xe learned about from the humans: a net, just not made out of whatever fishing nets were made of but instead made out of magic. Xe tried to first make a net and then tried to make a simple buff shape that the system prevented. The interfering magic hit the net, kept on doing so and then the structure established itself correctly and xe realised that xe could attack slightly stronger, slightly better.

That was when xe saw a notification:

Skill gained: Magical shielding against foreign system interference (Level 1)

Xe cussed like a human. So that was what prevented them from emulating human magic. Some system feeling really smug with itself that was never invited to this planet in the first place. All because some humans wanted to have everything expanding but their own waists. As the boss fell, xe took the items xe could never afford to attune to into xir village. Xir steps were fast. Xe had an important skill to sign into the repository.