The walk home from the Hall of Mirrors was thankfully uneventful. Nobody stopped her in the streets, nobody seemed to be aware that anything was out of the ordinary at all. She was just another random person wandering the streets. A bit younger than most perhaps, with most her age being at preparatory school before their Class or away at a specialized academy for their Class. It’s what most people – or at least those who could afford it – did. There were exceptions. Some couldn’t afford tuition or weren’t interested in the common paths of their class and apprenticed with specialists. That had been Tina’s plan, to apprentice with a travelling Dancer troupe so that she could see the world. Then there were the Adventurers, who attended separate academies focused on sending people out into dangerous areas to cull threats to civilization; or something like that anyway, Tina had never paid much attention to the situation of modern Adventurers. That was all very far from Veidrodis, tucked away as it was in the center of peaceful territory.
When she arrived home, she quickly made her way to her own room and collapsed into the bed. It had been a day whose exhaustion seemed all out of proportion to how relatively early it still was. While she had been able to walk home with the physical exhaustion, the whipsawing emotions had left her with emotional exhaustion. As she lay there, Tina wished she could convince herself that exhaustion was a type of pain. That way, she could Devour it like she had the emotions themselves. Unfortunately, her brain didn’t seem to buy it.
“That will come in time. Not from Pain Devouring, but as you level, you will learn how to Devour other things, which may help with the exhaustion.” Said the voice that was going to be her new constant companion.
“I feel like if you’re going to be riding around in my head, I need something to call you.”
“I am The Devourer.”
“That’s not a name.” Tina said stubbornly. “I’m not going to think ‘Oh, The Devourer, what do you think about this.’ Or ‘Good Morning, The Devourer, let’s review my Status.’ Unless you want me to call you Dev, we need to come up with something better.”
Silence was all that greeted her proposal, then a grudging, “Dev is acceptable.”
“Really? It was my first idea, we could …”
“Enough, girl. We need to talk, and you developing a cognomen is a low priority.”
Tina heaved a sigh. Even ancient, eldritch entities apparently loved that most ominous of phrases. One she expected she’d hear again from her parents when they got home. She didn’t bother hoping they wouldn’t have heard of the events of the day. “Fine, I suppose we do have a lot we need to figure out. It doesn’t seem like my induction as your Mirror is even complete.”
“Yes, that is the present that we must discuss. We must also discuss the future. You are my first disciple in the System. There are steps we need to take to make sure you are not the last, or else I’ll be booted back into exile. My ancient order must be reborn!”
The fire in The Devourer’s voice caused Tina to bolt upright in bed and angrily yell her response. “I’m not doing any world conquering like that Emperor you mentioned! I have no dreams of glory.” She flopped back on the bed and felt sadness take root in her heart again. “I just wanted to live a quiet, happy life. See the world as a Dancer. Not some creepy Devourer!”
“As one of my Devourers, you will go places a Dancer never could. See things they never would. A peaceful, boring life, will not advertise the Class enough that others might join. Besides, there are other things that my Chosen One has to do as part of integrating me into the System.” The Devourer sounded almost annoyed by that last sentence.
“What do you mean, your Chosen One has to do things? You never told me about any questing!”
“I didn’t know. Much has been revealed about the System since I joined. Including a truly wearying amount of work that I must now do to arrange my powers according to its rules.” In response to Tina’s brow furrowing in confusion. “I couldn’t access the details of the Accords from my exile. Perhaps my ancient disciples could have known more, if they had found a way through the prison that was fashioned. But now I know how the prison is maintained and how the System works.”
“The Administrator seemed pretty happy you’re out. Why do they have to maintain the prison anymore?”
“Apparently, while it was made for me, they have adapted the Accords to bind others, including themselves. None of the gods them can enter this world physically, relying on our Chosen, our Priests, and lesser cosmic beings who we can bend to our will. I’ll have to get on creating angels, heralds and whatnot.”
“Wait, you don’t already have them?”
Dev snorted – she could think of the entity as The Devourer when it was talking about power or grandiose plans, but when it did something as inarticulate as snorting laughter it was definitely Dev – and responded glibly. “Of course not. What use would they be to an imprisoned deity? And in the old days, they weren’t necessary. If I wanted to interact with the physical realm, I just could appear. If I wanted to grant power, I just could. If I wanted to consecrate a temple, I just could. Now … now I have to do everything through Mirrors and Angels.” He sighed.
“Ok…” Tina felt the growth of curiosity in her heart but really, there were probably more important things to worry about. “While all of this is interesting, does it really relate to what we need to talk about?”
“Only a little.” Dev admitted. “The Angels won’t be relevant until we finish my Quest. The limits on how I can grant power matters to your present though. I’m sure your classes at the preparatory school mentioned the idea of skill trees to you?”
“Of course, they are how our powers are sorted into themes that help to reinforce certain skills as we go down them towards a specialization. Those who get to Level 20 find that their Advanced Mirror is shaped by that specialization.” Tina pulled up her Status sheet to remind herself what they were discussing. “This is about the Class Ability Point right?”
Name: Tina Costello
Species: Human
Class: Pain Devourer 2 (50/200)
Health Points (HP): 67 / 67 (6.7/hour)
Mana Points (MP): 85 /85 (8.5/minute)
Stamina Points (SP): 87/87 (8.7/second)
Pain Points (PP): 4 / - (no recovery)
Stats: (2.1 Stat Raises Available)
* Strength – Below Average
* Dexterity - Average
* Constitution - Average
* Intellect – Above Average
* Spirit – Excellent*
Class Abilities:
* Pain Devouring – Initiate
* (Class Ability Point Available)
Non-Class Skills:
* Athleticism – Novice
Traits:
* ADMINISTATOR APPROVAL
* Basic System Mirror
* Chosen One
* Sufficient Schooling
* Adequate Physical Training
“Yes, yes. Here’s the thing they wouldn’t have told you. A god controls the skill tree for its Mirrors. That probably doesn’t affect others in your generation too much. The other gods have had thousands of years to develop theirs. I’m still working on it. The System tells me I’m obliged to offer you six choices every time you increase in level. Which means I need to atomize the abilities in the first place! It’s incredibly frustrating, and with you choosing a new path to begin with …” Dev growled and then sighed. “I will work on it while you sleep tonight and we can discuss your Ability Point in the morning.”
“Yes, that’s from levelling up to Level 2. But I need to assign the Stat Raises too. Right?”
“Sure, there isn’t a time limit, but there’s also no real reason to wait. You got an extra one for being my Chosen One. The first came from becoming a Mirror at all.” Dev called her attention to what had been her first Trait, although she saw it had been bumped down by the special mark the Administrator had made. She was basically familiar with the idea from school but hadn’t looked at the precise definition since actually becoming a Mirror.
Basic System Mirror – You have been granted a Mirror of a patron deity are blessed with the Divine System to be able to understand and control your power. You are granted a reflection of your patron’s power as a class. You are granted a stat raise. Increase in power to be granted additional abilities from your patron and additional stat raises. This is a Basic Mirror, stats are limited to Excellent and only Basic Mirror abilities may be learned. Advance your class to grow beyond these limits.
“So, there’s no point in putting another point in Spirit. At least not at my current level.”
“Not ever. When you become an Advanced Mirror, the cap on your Spirit will be lifted and your share of my divine spirit will give you an Ascended Spirit”
“Ascended!” Tina squeaked. Ascended was the highest level the System allowed a stat to go! Spirit already had a ridiculous affect, applying to all of her HP, MP & SP as well as determining her point recovery value. Looking at her sheet now, she had a hard time processing all that even having an Excellent Spirit did for her. It made it so that she recovered 10% of her points every interval. She couldn’t even imagine burning through enough Stamina quickly enough to actually run out. Although I suppose if I have some Stamina based abilities or skills… “Excellent is the mortal cap though. How am I supposed to have an Ascended stat?”
“They call them Advanced Mirrors now. In the old days, my disciples would call such a person Ascended themselves. Once enough divine power is flowing through you, you aren’t really mortal anymore. Close to a demigod really. But it will take a long time before you are ready for that kind of power.”
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“Huh…” Tina trailed off. “Well, that’s neither here nor there. We still need to figure out what to do with my Stat raises.”
“Your Intellect affects your Mana Point totals greatly. You should at least raise it to Good, if not use both raises to get it to Excellent as well.”
“Since when did you become an expert on the System? Didn’t you tell me you knew nothing about it?”
“That was before you became my Chosen One. I’ve reviewed your knowledge of it. How else could I start to plan the skill tree? Or be a good advisor to my Chosen One? I can’t be all System-Quest-Giver and ‘fate of the world’ with you if I can’t also help you accomplish the goals. That would be poor personnel management.” Tina was confused by the shift in awareness and even tone of Dev’s voice. It sounded like he was quoting somebody, or being sarcastic, or both. When the god spoke up again, it was with the mental image of a shrug. “I did tell you my last Chosen One was a powerful Emperor. We learned a lot about managing people as he built it. It would have been magnificent. I’m assuming the advent of the System led to its destruction. You don’t have any knowledge of it, but we can always look up more.”
“So you know everything I know now?”
“I will eventually. Not yet though, I’ve prioritized the System after I realized you knew nothing about ancient history.”
“Oh.” Tina did not know how to take being told she knew nothing about history. It hadn’t been her favorite class, but she’d always done well enough on it. Although now that she thought about it, her history classes had only covered the last few countries to control her city. They hadn’t talked about the world pre-System. She hadn’t even known there had been a time before the System. “But back to the Stat Raise. Isn’t it also a good idea to patch up weaknesses?”
“Are you going to go rushing out into hand-to-hand combat?”
“What? No, of course not! I’m not a hero!” Much less a reckless one. She hoped to never have to engage in hand-to-hand combat at all. Much less rushing there.
“Then we have time to try an experiment.”
“An experiment?” Tina wasn’t sure she liked the sound of that.
“Yes.” Dev’s tone brought the image of a man gleefully rubbing his hands in anticipation. “The old ways didn’t have a System like this. But a woman could still train and improve herself! I couldn’t grant my disciples powers directly, but they could study under Masters and learn new ones. I want to see if the System still allows for personal growth that is driven by personal training instead of divine fiat.”
“I guess that makes sense. Although I’m not sure where I’d find a master to study under.”
“We’ll keep it simple to start with. Stat raises and some basic Skills. I have hope. There is a Non-Class Skills section of your Status. I didn’t grant you Athleticism, yet it is already at Novice level.”
Tina reflected back on her lessons. “They don’t mention training after becoming a Mirror as a thing in school. They’re focused on getting our stats up for the initial assessment when we first enter the System. I guess I should have worked harder on my Strength.”
“It will be easier to raise Strength to Average than to get either Dexterity or Constitution to Above Average, much less Good.”
“Oh, I remembered something! They said that training alone would probably only get a person to Above Average. You had to be truly gifted to be Good at something, and they said no mortal would get to Excellent without the System.”
“That’s a lie!” Dev sounded really upset by that for a moment before his temper calmed down and he became more introspective. “Although my disciples who raised what would have been their stats that high were adept essence wielders, so maybe they were becoming less mortal. I think all the System does is direct and simplify the process of gaining power, but it was possible before. Training should still be beneficial.”
“Still, it might mean that my points really should go to Intellect, if I wouldn’t be able to train it.”
“Hmm… True. And it’s also a good idea because Mana is going to be the basis of your abilities as a Pain Devourer. Having more of it will always be good.”
Tina laughed to herself as she distributed the points. This morning, she had been rejected as being unworthy of that boy, now she was going to have TWO Excellent stats, the peak of mortal capability! “Suck on that Jerald! Now who’s unworthy to go to a dance with who?!” She was still giggling about it as she pulled up the relevant part of her sheet.
Name: Tina Costello
Species: Human
Class: Pain Devourer 2 (50/200)
Health Points (HP): 67 / 67 (6.7/hour)
Mana Points (MP): 118/118 (11.8/minute)
Stamina Points (SP): 87/87 (8.7/second)
Pain Points (PP): 4 / - (no recovery)
Stats: (0.1 Stat Raises Available)
* Strength – Below Average
* Dexterity - Average
* Constitution - Average
* Intellect – Excellent
* Spirit – Excellent*
“Dev, that feels like a disturbingly high Mana Point total for a second level Mirror.” Tina wondered how you were supposed to know that you were smarter. When a muscle grew, it hurt, but the brain had no nerves in it, so you wouldn’t be able to feel it shifting. Returning back to the conversation, she did some quick math. “Average Intellect would only contribute 10 to MP, Average Spirit only 5, so an Average 2nd level who had developed neither stat would have 50 MP. I have over twice that, but I suppose that makes sense for a Mana-heavy Class. Let’s see… bring that to Above Average and you’d have 65. That’s less of a shift than I had expected. Wait…” She looked at her own number. “I should only have 110, not 118. Where are the extra coming from?"
Sufficient Schooling – You have been educated to a fair, but not greater, degree of comprehension about the world around you. Intellect and Spirit have a 10% bonus applied to their application.
Adequate Physical Training – Your body has been through some rigors of physical training but has neither excelled nor been pushed in them. Physical stats apply normally, with neither bonus nor penalty.
“Your preparation Traits. I’m unsure how these were assessed by the System or if they can be changed. Only just goes to show that Intellect was the right thing to boost first. Hopefully, you won’t have to assign any more Stat Raises until we have perfected the stats to the extent that they can be trained.”
Tina frowned. “We don’t need to get all of the stats to Above Average to prove your point. Raising any of them would do that.”
“Yes, but you need to be the best we can make you for the System Quest.”
Tina closed her eyes and tried to control her breathing for a second. “What System Quest?”
SYSTEM QUEST ALERT
Quest: Find an appropriate home for The Devourer’s Core. This Core will serve as the locus of a dungeon to protect it from interference or destruction.
Timeline: Two years
Reward for Completion: +5 Levels, +1 Stat Raise (above normal progression), Administrator Boon
Penalty for Failure: Loss of Class Mirror, The Devourer is removed from the System
Dev sounded nervous. “Each god has to donate our power to the maintenance of the System. We do that through a Core, which once in place is protected by a dungeon. You’ve heard of dungeons, right?”
Tina shrugged. “Hell-holes of monsters and magic that Adventurers have to keep contained to protect everybody else. Beyond that, I know there are none nearby.”
“Every dungeon has a divine Core at its center. We need to establish mine so that I can contribute to the System.”
“Or else I lose my Class. I wonder what …”
A knock at the door cut Tina off. Her father’s voice sounded annoyed as it echoed through the door. “Tina, come out now. We need to talk.”
Tina’s mouth snapped shut at the interruption. And there it is. I knew I was going to hear that same phrase from my parents when they got home. Oh, well, time to face the music.
Tina hesitated as she stood to make her way to the family room, but no amount of hesitation could make time stand still. So she headed out. Her family wasn’t poor, no true Priest in this city of temples was going to be poor. But Zole was a god of herbs and herbalists, not one of the more extravagant deities. They lived in a simple wooden home that was overflowing with various pots. Her parents were wise enough that only sweet-smelling herbs were allowed in the house. Tina normally found the smell of home comforting. But that was harder to do with the faces of her parents at the dining table. Her mother looked furious, holding a crumpled missive in her hand and glaring at nothing in particular. Her father retook his seat next to her and looked at Tina, his face expressionless.
He decided to lead. “Tina, could you explain today?”
Her mother took a sharp intake of breath as if to start something, but her father placed a gentle hand on top of hers and she backed off for a second. Tina thought for a moment and then decided on a novel tactic. “So, I have a Class now.”
That seemed to snap her mother out of whatever tantrum she had been working up to. “Wait, what? How? Your section of the school doesn’t go to the Hall for another month!” She shook her head. “No, never mind that! Do you know what this is?” She raised her fist with the missive clutched in it and shook it at Tina. “A note, delivered by a runner to the Temple today. From your school, telling us that you had run off! What were you thinking?” She tried to work her way back up to a fiery bluster, but the sails had lost a little wind from the first part.
“Jerald said something stupid, he insulted Zole. It upset me.” Tina rubbed the back of her head in awkward shame. “So… it was probably childish of me to run off. But I went to Hall…”
Her father cut her off, his brow lowering. “Who is this Jerald?”
Tina blinked at him. “Oh, just a stupid boy at school that I had thought wasn’t so stupid. His father got him a Class early too, he’s a Bishop of the Shining One now.” Her mother snorted indelicately at the mention of the Shining One. The god of herbs and the god of glory and their respective Temples were rarely on the same side of arguments. “I went to the Hall of Mirrors and got a new Class. It wasn’t what I expected, so I came home in a bit of a daze rather than go back to school.”
Her father looked puzzled. “So not a Dancer or one of its subclasses then?”
Tina swallowed nervously. “Ummm. No.” She said softly. “It’s a new Class from an entirely new Mirror?”
“A new Mirror?!” This caught her mother’s full attention. “What is it?”
“It sounds worse than it is, I promise!”
“Tina,” her father growled, “your just making it worse by putting it off.”
With a final gulp. “The Devourer.”
A stunned silence fell over her parents as they blinked in shock. They turned to face each other and almost said something but couldn’t formulate words. Her mother got up from the table. “I’m going to Commune with Zole about this. You deal with the child.” The last was directed to her father as she hurried into the back room where her parents maintained a private shrine.
Her father swallowed. “Right. So you know you’re grounded right? School and here, nowhere else until the end of the term.”
“What? That’s not reasonable! Why should I even go back to the school? It’s not like I need their preparation for the ceremonies at the Hall. I already have a Class!”
“Not negotiable, young lady. You ran away from your responsibilities. Until you are officially graduated, you are our responsibility.”
Tina could feel Dev stirring and could feel that he was going to tempt her with running away and so shut him down furiously. I’m not going to abandon my family! It’s a month, we can use it to run your experiment on the System. She turned her attention back to her father. “Ok, I can see that. But can I add one place? The central library. The Dev…” She hesitated over the name. It really did sound ominous. At her father’s arched eyebrow, she rephrased it. “There’s a System Quest, since it’s a new Mirror. I think I need to do some research.”
“Good idea. We will need to research good locations for my Core. Also where you should go with your future…”
Her father mused to himself as he stroked his upper lip. “A System Quest is not something to trifle with. I only hear of one of those every few years.” He looked consideringly at her. “You cannot go by yourself. On rest days, I will escort you, and maybe once a week after your chores are done at home. If you can avoid any further trouble at school.” He gave her a meaningful stare, but it was not the level of the glare her mother could work up to. “Now tell me about Jerald, you haven’t mentioned him before.”
“Daaaad!” Tina rolled her eyes. “He’s just a dumb boy. Alright, I used to think he was attractive. I asked him to the end of term dance, he said he wouldn’t go with a Classless daughter of dirt-grubbing Zole priests. So I won’t be talking to him for the next month and then I’ll be leaving town.”
Her father looked shocked. “Leaving? I know you’d talked about apprenticing with a Dancer troupe, but that won’t be possible now.”
“No, but there is nothing in Veidrodis for me once I finish. I don’t know what the plan will be, but it won’t be here.”
“You’ll need to become an Adventurer.” Dev butted into the conversation.
What? Why? Just because I have your weird abilities doesn’t mean I need to become some violent thrill-seeker! We just need to find some school that can help me learn to deal with these abilities by approximation… Which means they’ll need a wide range of subjects that they’re familiar with and be used to adapting instruction for individual peculiarities … Which means Adventurers. I don’t WANT to be an Adventurer though! Tina’s mental voice was whiny. It was logical, but there had to be other options. What about some Doctor or Healer Academy? They’d be able to teach me about the human body at least. That would help with Pain Devouring.
“That’s only your first ability. You already will have at least one other, and quite possibly even more than that if our experiment is successful. The Adventurers are your best bet for a broad spectrum of help.”
“What are you thinking?” Her father interjected to her mental conversation. His tone was puzzled. “You look like you’re having an entire conversation sitting there by yourself.”
“Oh …” Tina figured she probably had to trust somebody with this. “That’s because I am. I’m the first Mirror this god has ever had, so I guess I became a Chosen One by default. That means that D…” A flash of irritable displeasure made her decide to give the god his full name, “The Devourer is always able to talk to me. He is presenting a plan that I don’t like.” At her father’s cocked eyebrow and patient expression, she continued with a mixture of guilt – although she didn’t know where that came from – and sullenness. “He says I need to become an Adventurer.”
Her father nodded. “I can see that. It isn’t the life I would wish for my daughter, but Adventurers are the fastest path to power, which would make the god the most attractive to new people and so increase their number of followers. But that’s the god’s interests. Not necessarily yours. You’ve talked about wanting to travel and learn about the world. Just because you’re a Chosen One doesn’t mean the god gets to control your life.”
Tina nodded, realizing that he was right. She couldn’t exactly blame the god for pushing his interests, but she had to remember they weren’t the same as hers.
“The Adventurers are also your best bet for being able to survive a journey to an acceptable place for my core. You can’t just drop it in a random patch of woods if we want it to survive long enough to help.”
“Maybe you’re right.” Tina said to the god and her father both. “I think I know one of the big things I’ll be researching at the library. I never looked into Adventurers before.”