Deciding to begin looking for a User Jack returned to the globe of the world. It was still zoomed in on the city of Narak. He was about to zoom out and look for another location when he experienced a strange feeling as if he should begin his search within the city as something called for him in it. While not the biggest city in the world, it was a decent sized one to begin in.
Before he began to search for a User, Jack had taken a moment to think exactly what he wanted in a User. While he could always decide to have a great amount of Users, he felt more was not always better. Therefore he had to make a decision on which ones would be good for him and the world.
While the rules did not preclude him from taking a User with bad morals, he preferred taking one that at least made an effort to do good. In addition he wanted one that did not overly depend on Jack, as he believed it was in their best interest to stand on their own. Looking down at the city, he took notice that almost all of them had a distinct aura about them.
As he focused on the Aura Jack found it pushed back at him when he attempted contacting the various beings with it. The ones with the strongest of the Aura’s were mostly prevalent around certain buildings that he identified as being temples to gods.
Each of the auras seemed to range in a wide variety of colors, with the majority of them in the city being a pale white. He did note a few ominous black aura’s that had a peculiar red flickering within them that made Jack almost physically ill when he approached them with his mind.
Desiring nothing to do with those black aura individual’s Jack turned his attention to the others with an aura. Curious he pulled up information on that aura.
Aura: When surrounding a being, this colorful field is an indication that that person has entered into a contract with a powerful entity. The stronger the color and field the stronger the contract is between them.
There are many forms that such a contract may take, but are primarily divided into two types. The first type is called soft contracts where the contract will expire after a certain amount of time. Soft contracts provide limited benefits, but are looser in rules.
Hard contracts provide more benefits, however it typically comes with more restrictions. Any hard contract is one made directly by that being of power to that specific being. The most standard hard type of contract in this world is the one made between a priest and their god.
All of your contracts fall into the hard type. This will prevent other systems from contracting your Users, but at the same time other powers may contract with your Users as long as you agree to it and or they other powers are also your Users.
Any being with an aura, you will be unable to contact them without the consent of the powerful being they have contracted with. If you attempt to break through this aura, you will alert the powerful being to your actions. As such at the moment, it is currently recommended that you only attempt to connect with Sentient Beings without an aura.
Noting the advice in the last paragraph, Jack began looking for sentient beings without aura’s that met his qualifications. Jack soon encountered an older being without any aura and closely observed him. It was a human male currently working in a private garden pulling out weeds with a little bit of difficulty.
With the dazzling sun in the air, it was bearing down on the man causing him to sweat profusely. Despite the cursing the man let out as he pulled weeds, Jack could tell that the man was a hard-working individual. Jack could note no evidence of him being evil or leaning that way.
Name:
Sam
Race:
Human
Age:
65
Level - 5?
HP:70/70
MP:100/100
Carefully looking at the status screen Jack noted that the level displayed was just an estimate of the system. As the man was struggling with the garden, Jack saw the man definitely could use some help. While Jack did not have a straightforward gardening class at the moment, he genuinely felt he could still offer some assistance to the man. With a bit of thought, he prepared a message to invite this human to become his first user.
A second later, Jack could see his message arrived in front of the man’s eyes. The old man was startled, and he fell backwards onto his ass. Blinking Sam appeared to read the message that was on the blue window then he snorted in disbelief and promptly declined the invitation.
The moment the window closed, the connection that Jack had linked with Sam slammed shut and a spike of pain went through Jack’s mind. With a slight push of his power, Jack could tell Sam was now blocked from contacting him again forever. Naturally wondering why Sam declined his offer, he kept watch on the old man.
Getting up, Sam ran into his home and spoke excitedly to the elderly woman that was currently cleaning. “I think an Evil God just tried to recruit me to be it’s servant. I must leave and go to the Temple of Eramis to warn the priests that the Evil God’s rise once more!”
The grey-haired woman scoffed and said “Why would an Evil God want to recruit you? Are you seeing things again Sam? Do I have to forcibly bring you to the healer again?” The old woman glared at Sam who shrugged and went back out to continue gardening.
Dismayed at Sam’s response, Jack took a few minutes to review the message he sent and could not find a reason why Sam would think he was an Evil God. Jack, feeling he needed more information about what an Evil God is, pulled up a more in-depth explanation.
Evil God: Explicitly referring to a Divinity power that has fallen into corruption. These Evil gods pursue the destruction and corruption of all Sentient beings, even those who would follow them. Note that a regular god can be morally evil and not be an Evil God, but an Evil god will never be morally good except in deception.
Due to the corruption within them, they are highly corrosive to reality and will seek out its eventual destruction. The Great Singularity calls for them to be destroyed absolutely. As a System, you do have a bit of an immunity to this corrosiveness, though too much corruption can harm you still. You have a natural duty to seek out the destruction of these Evil Gods as a protector of your world.
Take note that Corruption can take over any power, not just Divinities. While corrupted each power will retain the characteristics of that power.
By this very definition Jack could see he was no Evil god if he was some sort of antitheses to their very concept. But perhaps just approaching them out of the blue did seem suspicious. While he could see some history of the world by looking at objects, he did not see all of the history.
Tailoring his message to make it more clear that he represented no Evil god, he went around again looking for another being that met his qualifications. He found a poor looking man that looked as if he was having a hard time and was wearing a funny looking metal foil hat.
While the man had a great amount of fear within him, Jack could sense the man had a great amount of compassion in him. When Jack sent him the message, the man declined almost instantly and began to scream something about aliens invading his mind. Neighbouring people stared in fear and fascination before the guards came and calmed him down. They then took the man away.
The fears of these Sentient Beings were proving to be a hindrance for him to get a User. He briefly considered lowering his standards, but Jack thought he would take one more look around the city before going to another city.
The eerie feeling he had gotten in the past came on stronger pulling his gaze to another being that seemed to match all of his qualifications. A deep red-haired woman who possessed a frazzled look to her, and more importantly to him she lacked an aura. She was currently climbing down a ladder into the sewers below.
Taking a look at the sewers Jack found that it comprised a large series of tunnels underneath the city. The part that this woman was entering was a relatively small section of the sewer system. Each of these sections looked like they had been built as the city grew. The one she was accessing looked to be the oldest of the bunch. A few paths seemed to go even deeper below it.
Trying to follow those paths deeper, Jack found he hit some sort of wall. It was as if some great force was hiding the lower sections from his view. Pushing against this veil, Jack found it began to strain his mind, and he had to give up when he failed to make any progress. He found this to be incredibly suspicious and vowed to look into this later. For the present he returned his attention to the section where the woman was headed towards.
Going through it, Jack discovered the main section was filled with a monster that he identified as being slimes. The weaker slimes should be no trouble for her. Unfortunately several larger and far more dangerous slimes prowled the sewers with enough strength to kill her should she encounter them.
Taking another look at the woman, he found that she was only armed with an old rusty sword that was so dull it likely wouldn’t even cut butter. The lack of armor also troubled him and a burning desire of not wanting to see this woman die came over him. Jack dispatched her a message offering to become his User and cautioning her of what lay ahead. At least even if she rejected him, she would be warned of the danger.
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The second Alexia woke up, she knew in her bones that it was not going to be a good day. For most of last night, she had helped out at a friend's warehouse moving boxes around. Getting out of the hard cot she had for a bed, her muscles began to scream in massive pain. As she stood, she could hear sounds of weeping coming from her mother's room.
Frowning, she opened the door and went into the room next to her’s and found her mother Christie currently crying sitting on her bed. Alexia spotted a tear stained note in her mother's hands and took it from her. Reading it, she discovered her dick of a stepfather's poor writing on it. Only one word was scrawled on the paper, a single ‘Sorry.”
Harbouring a bad feeling, Alexia quickly rushed to the small living area and cursed when she saw the rug had been moved revealing the small hiding space that she had made. Moving aside the wooden board, she found that the money that her mother had been saving over the years was gone.
Curses spilled out from her mouth as she slammed the trapdoor closed again. Alexia ground her teeth in frustration. She had been saving money with her mom to help them get a new place out of the slums. She knew it had been a bad idea for her mother to tell John that fat asshole about, but she was insistent on it just in case of an emergency.
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Unfortunately, several fights had happened between them over the reveal of the money stash. Instead of seeing it as a good safety net, John had claimed it was a waste of time as he could use that cash now to make them richer in the future. To him it was always more important to live in the now then to save for a future that might not even come.
Taking a breath, Alexia began to think of way’s she could track John down and retrieve the money before he spent it all. While she was deep in thought, she heard a knocking sound coming from the front door. Annoyed, she stood and made her way to the front and opened the door, and got the unpleasant surprise of finding one of her stepfathers gambling friends standing on her doorstep, Malv.
The short man was a bigshot in the slums and most everyone in the slums knew who he was. He had his customary ugly grin on his face that made her want to grab his head and slam it into the wall over and over again to wipe it off his face. Alexia held herself back from telling him to get lost, as Malv had a particularly nasty reputation.
Standing with that awful smile Malv was playing with a knife. “Well hello there Alexia, I’ve come to see John. Is he in?”
He was not even bothering looking her in the face as he was staring at her chest. From the mockery in his tone, she could tell he already knew that John was not here at the moment. A bad feeling started to rise in her gut and she said “John took off sometime last night. I don’t know where, and am not sure I care either.”
“Isn’t that a damn shame.” He paused and spat to the side of the door. “See John owes me quite a large amount of money, and it’s time for him to repay me all that he owes me.” There was a cruel sense of glee to his voice as he looked her down.
Glaring at the thug, Alexia responded “John is not here. If he comes back, I’ll make sure to bring him personally to you.”
“Oh is that so? Guess if he ain’t here then that just means the second person who cosigned the loan I gave John will have to pay.” Malv said reaching into his jacket and withdrawing a discolored piece of paper. “This sheet of paper here is a copy of the agreement that John and your mother Christie signed.”
Snatching the paper from him, she read the paper quickly and let out several swears when she saw just how much the paper said that John and Christie owed. The price was set at a staggering Ten Big Gold coins! Alexia had worked hard for years to save just one small gold coin. Ten Big Gold coins was enough to purchase a small mansion near the city park.
Malv spat again and said “John’s been having quite a few rough nights. Always on the verge of winning only for it to all disappear before his very eyes. Made one last gamble last night and what do you know he lost yet again. At that point he told me he would be able to pay off the loan today.”
With her head spinning because of the amount, Alexia glared at Malv and said “There is no way we can afford this. Hell no one in the slums can afford this, what the hell was John thinking?!”
“You have nothing to worry about, why I’m certain we will be able to work something out.” Malv said grinning that sick smile of his as his eyes roamed down her body.
“Before that happens I’ll make sure you get your damn gold.” Alexia said, annoyed.
“I see you have quite the work ethic. Tell you what, I will grant you till the end of the day to raise the coin. Conceivably you’ll even be able to find John and persuade him to pay up.” Malv chuckled at that, “If you can’t I’m sure we can either work out a payment method, or I will take your mother as a cheap whore. I assure you if that happens, I will put her to good use as a dumb slut.”
Malv stepped back and turned and said before he left “A few of my associates will be keeping a close eye on you. We wouldn’t want you to leave without paying like poor old John did. Needless to say you are free to try. I’m certain my friends will like to get a taste of you before I break you in.”
As Malv left chuckling, Alexia slammed the door in disgust and anger. Placing her hand on the wood door, she took a deep breath and let it out. Then she turned and found her mother looking at her with concern. Taking the copy she handed it to her mother and asked “Did you sign this contract?”
Christie took the paper and looked at it, and her face went bloodless and she collapsed onto a nearby chair. “Yes, but when I signed it had a blank space for the coins. It definitely wasn't for ten big gold coins! John said he was only going to borrow a few silver coins and needed a second person to sign it. He said he just needed it to cover him for a few days until he got his pay a few days later.”
Alexia rubbed her head as she felt a headache coming on. “So you thought it was a good idea to sign a blank contract for that piece of shit? God dammit mom.” Feeling her blood pounding she took another breath to cool herself down. “All right, I will take care of this. I need you to stay inside and don’t open the door to anyone else till I get back.”
Seeing that her mother was about to burst into tears again, Alexia knelt down and hugged her. Christie said crying “I’m sorry, this is all my fault. I shouldn’t have listened to him.”
“Yes you have a share of the blame, but it’s mainly John’s fault for being a complete and utter fool. I will take care of this.” Alexia helped her mother back to her bed and laid her down. Her mother curled under the threadbare blanket and weeped into the pillow.
Alexia shook her head, her mother was too naive and too trusting. No matter how many times that fool John had taken advantage of her she kept accepting him back. She had become like this after her father had passed away, the scars of the loss still tormented her mother. For a long period of time, Christie had been almost unable to take care of herself, at least until she met John and became enamored with him.
From what Alexia could see, she guessed that John had blindly walked right into a dangerous scheme of Malv’s like the fool he was and he had dragged her mother into it. Now Christie was in danger of drowning, and Alexia felt like it might drag her down too. The question now, was could she save her mother and herself from Malv’s grasp?
Going back into the hall she went to the storage room in the back of the house. Opening the door Alexia was confronted by the mostly trash John had collected over the years. He collected them in the hopes of selling them for salvage, but most just sat her rotting. Stepping over the junk she went to the side wall and cleared the space around it.
She tore down the curtain that hid the panel behind which she had placed her brother's old belongings. Opening the panel she took out a heavy chest with some effort and placed it on the ground where she took another look at it.
It was her brother Eric’s old battle chest. He had found it on one of his journey’s and taken a liking to it. Using some red Ink he had scrawled his name on top of it. Alexia traced the name with her finger as she remembered the last time she had seen him use this chest, and the time she placed his stuff into the chest to be put away forever.
Opening the chest she saw several stacks of Erick’s clothing. Moving them aside she pulled out her old mission guild copper plate. Taking the plate Alexia hung it from her neck. The only way she would be able to get the money in time was to head to the mission guild and pick up a mission. Unfortunately she had sold off her armor after her brother had passed so she would have to take it armorless.
Perhaps not weaponless though as she moved the clothes aside again and removed her brother’s old rusty sword out. Her brother had found it in an old pile of junk when he was helping a farmer out one summer back in the village they used to live in. He had brought back it’s shine with hard work, yet when it was returned to Christie by the Mission Guild, it had turned into a rusty dull blade.
Pushing aside those sad memories, Alexia strapped the blade to her side and withdrew it. Old and battered now, the blade looked like it was nearly done for. Waving it however Alexia could tell the sword still had a strong core and would take a beating. Perhaps not the sharpest blade, it would have to suffice as she had no time to sharpen it.
Sheathing the sword, she closed the chest and placed it back into the hidden area. Then she left the storage room stopping to just grab a small piece of bread for breakfast and left the house heading for the Mission Guild. Walking through the city to the Mission Guild took almost an hour, and she found herself starting to sweat in the heat of the day.
Reaching Mains Street she headed down it until she reached the first street. Situated on a corner, the Mission Guild was inside of a massive building that took up nearly the whole block and was six stories high. The first floor was the common area, where she needed to go. Standing in front of the red bricked building she was reminded of the last time she stood here, it was the last time she had ever thought she would come back here. Yet here she stood prepared to take on another mission.
Taking a deep breath, Alexia grabbed the bronzed handle of the door and entered into the building. The atmosphere of adventure and challenge still seemed as ripe as it was when she had entered in her three years ago. Though she noticed the mission board had been replaced with one that looked more sturdy than the previous one.
Walking up to the imposing board, Alexia found that most of the missions had been long taken during the morning rush. Going through the ones that remained she frowned as most of the ones that remained paid far too little and she did not have enough time to take multiple missions. The ones that did pay close to what she needed though did seem rather dangerous, especially since she was so ill equipped.
Still she had little choice but before she could take a mission she spotted a slip of paper that seemed to have slipped into a crack by the board. Picking it up she found it was a mission note, Alexia was surprised to find it had fallen down. Usually, the missions were secured to the board better. Taking a look at the mission, she found it was exactly what she had been hoping for.
Reading it over, it was a mission to go down and check out the main sewers and determine the cause of several problems that had been happening with the plumbing in the city. Deciding this was the one she headed towards the Mission Reception Desk, only to come to a screeching halt when she saw who was behind the desk. It was Lisa, her ex she had dated several years prior.
With a sigh Alexia walked up to the desk where Lisa was currently making notes in a large book in front of her. When she looked up, she spotted Alexia and a look of shock crossed the girls face. “Alexia?”
Scratching her head in embarrassment Alexia coughed awkwardly and said “Hey Lisa; it’s been awhile since I saw you last.”
Lisa nodded and smiled. “Yeah it’s been about three years. I’m sorry about what happened with your brother. I know things didn’t end well between us, but I didn’t react the best back then. I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. I said some things I shouldn’t have, and I’m sorry for how things ended between us.” Alexia said.
“I accept your apology, so I see you have taken a mission? Are you returning to the mission guild?”
Alexia said “Yeah, I guess I am. I’m in a hurry, so could you tell me if this mission is still available?” She handed over the mission paper to Lisa who took it and looked at it.
“Oh this one. Yeah, this is still available, I’m surprised it wasn’t picked up during the morning rush. Many people have been complaining lately of plumbing issues. But because it originally paid so little, no guild members wanted to head down. It was getting to the point where the Head was going to order someone to do it.”
Lisa subsequently said “Last night the City Lord donated Twelve Big Gold Coins just to get this problem looked at.” She took a glance around then leaned forward and whispered “I heard a rumor that the City Lord was on the toilet when liquid shit exploded underneath him.”
Alexia chuckled and then said “So why hasn’t he sent down the guard down there?”
“I’m unsure, but it seems like the Guard Leader and the City Lord have been butting heads quite a lot recently.” Lisa said. “Let me see your guild card, and I will get you registered for this mission.”
Handing her guild card over, Alexia watched as Lisa took it and wrote into a large tome. After that she then had Alexia sign next to it signaling she had taken responsibility over this mission. If she abandoned it before completing it, she would have to reimburse the mission guild half of the reward fee.
“Look it was really nice seeing you again. Would you like to catch up sometime maybe over coffee?” Lisa said putting her hand on top of Alexia’s hand.
Glancing down at the hand Alexia found she didn’t feel the attraction she in the past possessed for Lisa. “Maybe, I will have to see. Goodbye Lisa.” Taking her guild card back she turned around to leave.
“Goodbye Alexia. Be sure to keep an eye out for slimes while you're down there.” Lisa called as she left. Alexia let out a wave and exited the building. When she was outside, she took a deep breath to settle her nerves. While she could say she no longer felt anything for Lisa, seeing her had conjured up some unpleasant memories.
Moving down one of the side streets, she approached the Main Sewer entrance. Alexia was confused for a moment as she did not see any guards standing around the entrance. She found that incredibly strange as they were usually stationed there to prevent people from heading into the sewers.
Some of the new entrances to the sewers could be locked, but for some reason they have not rebuilt the other entrances to be able to be locked. Usually, the foul smell was a great deterrent to people going down the sewers but the homeless of the city liked to head down into the warm sewers during the winter. Though it was a bit risky with slimes, it was usually safer than sleeping on the streets.
Cautiously opening the door, she made her way down an old stone staircase where she was starting to smell the stench of human waste wafting up from beneath her. The stairs leveled out to a landing where there was a hatch that led to a ladder to the sewers below. Before she could lift up the hatch a glowing blue screen suddenly appeared right in front of her startling her.
Greetings, sorry for disturbing you. I am Jack (a System). I have been carefully looking for Users throughout the city for the unique opportunity to sign up for a contract with me. This contract would be a mutually beneficial contract providing the User with several benefits like increased power and abilities.
As I was looking over the city, I discovered you were heading into a dangerous area. I estimate that is above your current skill level. Notably of a particular note are several higher level King Slims and a Fungal Slime Lord. With your current weapons and skill level, if you were to head in you will most likely die.
With my help, you would secure a high chance of accomplishing your mission. Would you like to accept a contract to become my User? (yes/no)
In mild shock Alexia stared thoughtfully at the glowing window for a better part of a minute before her thoughts began to flow again. She had heard terrible stories of Evil Gods offering immense powers for a price, so she considered briefly that this offer was coming from one. Yet she had never heard of one called Jack. She also did not feel that corrupting feeling that she had felt years ago that had struck her brother in his accident.
What did Jack allude to when he said it was a system? She had also never heard of King Slimes ever appearing in the sewers; such a thing should have been impossible. Was this some god wanting to deceive her as some sort of game?
Alexia knew the gods liked to play games with mortals, though she had never heard of anything like this. Perhaps this Jack wanted her to become a champion, and she appreciated he was at least offering her a choice. If it was as dangerous as this Jack said, then she had no possible way to slay them let alone a fungal Slime lord.
She considered briefly she should return and inform the Mission Guild, but without proof she would have to pay the fee. That fee would be promptly returned if her news turned out to be true, but that would take time. Time she did not possess.
“Fine then, Jack I accept your contract.”