Lifting his head from his hands, he saw that FairyHammerTime was busy packing up her equipment, Sarge was monitoring the battle going on around them, but TitanicVoice and JarsForJars were staring at him.
"Wait, so you don't have anything to pull the wagon? Pretty sure that your class shouldn't be broken right off the bat. If you have a wagon, you should be given something to let you use the wagon effectively." JarsForJars said while bring her hand to her chin in thought. "How did you get your wagon here to begin with?"
"Well, my tutorial let me use two horses, but they left just before you showed up and saved me." Tyler winced, remembering the pain he went through after getting ejected from the wagon, then watching the winged horses leaving with IV. "We need to come up with something, it's only a matter of time that I spell flies off and exposes our hiding spot here." Sarge called over his shoulder.
"We have a bit of time, one spell won't collapse the barrier, but it will show anybody that is watching that there is something here." FairyHammerTime confirmed. "It's not exactly subtle when a spell hits the barrier, so it's better if we get moving sooner rather than later."
Tyler sighed, but before he could say anything, TitanicVoice spoke up. "Well, if we don't have anything now, why don't we try our mounts?"
Tyler regretted his sigh, he wasn't here alone, he didn't need to have an answer for anything. He felt bad that he didn't even think about asking his group for ideas, all of them had been in Hytoma longer than him, so they had plenty of experience in solving problems in their adventures.
Before Tyler could get excited over the idea, JarsForJars spoke up. "I can't summon my mount, saying we are in a restricted area, same thing as when you are running a dungeon or a raid." The, before Tyler could completely lose hope, she spoke up again. "For some reason, I can summon my training mount, the one everybody gets when they begin the mount training."
Tyler's thoughts of racing away at high speeds thanks to some high level mounts, and now saw him slowly moving away from the battle all around him, all while his wagon was slowly destroyed. While he couldn't see getting away with training mounts, as they moved at the same speed adventurers could move on their feet, he had to try something to get his wagon moving.
Looking at his two employees, he didn't know what they expected out of him, but he responded with a nod. "Let's give it a shot, I'll pack up the wagon." He walked over to the wagon, and opened the options, and to make himself look like he was doing something of value, he opened the status. His mouth dropped as he saw that not only had his wheel been fixed, there were two new options, but more importantly, the UI looked like it had an overhaul.
** Wagon Status:
Level: 1 (Box on wheels)
Speed: 0 (No animals attached)
Durability: 100/100
Storage: 1/5 available
Gold: 80,000
Stations: 2
**
** Congratulations! Since you have a Culinary Specialist in your group, Cutting Board and Brick Oven Station addition is available for construction.
Congratulations! Since you have a Blacksmith Specialist in your group, Portable Anvil, Portable Forge and Quenching Station is available for construction. **
** Congratulations! The Adventurer FairyHammerTime has completed the construction of Cutting Board and Brick Oven Station!
Congratulations! The Adventurer FairyHammerTime has completed the construction of Portable Anvil, Portable Forge and Quenching Station! **
** You have unlocked your first crafting station! Would you like to learn the process of setting it up?
Yes/No ? **
Knowing he didn't have time right now, he decided to click no, figuring once his group had some time he could learn what to do. He looked over his shoulder towards the Steam Table, and he was greeted with a smiling FairyHammerTime, 4 spirits were busy dismantling the table. He knew better than to ask the Gnome how she finished the Crafting Stations, not wanting to insult the eccentric crafter. He turned back to the wagon, and opened the inventory, he wasn't sure why 4 of the 5 slots were in use, as he thought he only deposited the Property Deed.
** Wagon Storage
Property Deed #1
Sleeping Bag
Brush
Halter and Lead x2
(empty)
**
He was happy that he checked the storage, he would have forgotten the equipment needed to hook up the horses. He moved the stack over to his bags, then looked at the Brush, and decided that the beasts wouldn't need a brushing. They were training beasts, and the current plan was to only use them to move the wagon away from where he currently stood.
Closing out the menu, he turned around and walked to the two not so bright looking horses. As he approached them, they had a far off stare in their eyes, and both of them seemed to be chewing on, to what Tyler could see, was nothing but air. Stopping in front of them, he closed his eyes in what he expected to be a painful experience trying to not only hooking up the horses to the wagon, but trying to steer them with the reigns of the wagon.
He went to reach into his bag for the Halters, when JarsForJars mount, only what Tyler could describe as a light brown horse, lifted it's front left leg, and shoved Tyler in the chest. He stumbled backwards, tripped over a small stone, and fell back down on his rear. He looked at the horse in confusion, while hearing a deep chuckle from what was obviously an entertained TitanicVoice. He shook his head, and approached the Titans horse, a blue horse, and as he reached into the bag, and the horse repeated the exact same movements as the brown horse. Tyler, once again ending up down on the ground, jumped to his feet, and got ready to try again, but stopped himself and thought about his Tutorial experience. He remembered the words of the large man he spent his time with, and Tyler found himself closing his eyes again, this time the pain he caused himself from his failure.
He shook his head quickly, took a deep breath in through his nose and then slowly walked up to the two horses. He shot a look over at JarsForJars, who was keeled over, laughing loudly, and in between breaths of the laughter, he could hear her saying "Twice!". He wanted to be angry, but the idea his employees were clearly entertained, but also the fact that he liked the idea of Mason was able to openly laughing. While he didn't have actual proof of Mason being JarsForJars, he was sure that the laughing Warrior was the ever scowling Agent Mason.
He shifted his focus back towards the ever chewing horses, and instead of reaching into his bag, he started talking to the animals with his Goblin charm. "Listen up boyos, obviously I approached you without the proper respect. Like it's written in rule number #7 in the Path to Credits, respect is free, results creates profits, rudeness creates losses." As he talked, he noticed that the horses weren't starting off into nowhere, sure they continued to chew on the air, but he could see that these horses were smarter than they should be. "Now, you can continue to kick me to the ground, if we don't move forward together, you won't go anywhere alone." The horses both stopped chewing for a moment, they both knickered, then returned to chewing on the air. Taking it as a good sign, Tyler stood in front of both horses, and reached for his bag while watching the front legs of the animals. He pulled out the Halters, and while their legs didn't move, before he could react, JarsForJars' horse gently headbutted Tyler on the top of the head, looking up, he could have sworn that the horse winked at him. Closing his eyes for the third time while trying to work with the horses, he could hear JarsForJars breaking into another laughing fit.
Looking down at the halters, he changed his mind, and decided to hedge his bet with the two animals. He put the halters back into his bag, and pulled the brush out of his bag, and decided that a quick brush would be a show of good faith to the horses. They may have appeared slow, but Tyler decided that acting as a good Shop Keeper wouldn't be lost on the horses. They may be training horses, he had absolutely no idea where he could possibly get a permanent solution for his wagon.
As he brushed, the horses began to stamp their feet, and their eyes remained in focus, and by the time Tyler was finished and had put the halters on the horses and attached the leads to the ring under their chins. He lead the horses to the front of the wagon, and when he got them in place, a prompt got his attention.
** Would you like to purchase express instructions? Cost: 50,000 gold
Yes/No **
He coughed at the cost of the express instructions, quickly looking around to see if the battle showed any signs of approaching their hiding spot. Not seeing anything, he was just about to select No, when a deep twang roared to life from what sounded like all around him.
"Looks like someone has finally hit the barrier! Pylioth, you better be ready to go they know where we are now!" Sarge yelled over to Tyler, starting to run over to the wagon. Tyler turned his head, and saw FairyHammerTime was already on the back of the wagon, lifting a large case into the wagon. Turning to the right, he saw JarsForJars and TitanicVoice was just steps away from the wagon.
He looked back at the prompt for the wagon, worried that he didn't know anything about horses, he hoped that the instructions took into account that he didn't actually hitched the horses to his wagon. He clicked yes, and got ready to follow yellow lined instructions, showing him what to do. They appeared in front of him, starting with removing the breastcollar equipment from the horse, and finishing with putting his fingers in the bridle on the head of each horse, making sure it fit comfortably for the horses. As he stepped back from the hitched horses, he could see that they were literally chomping at the bit to get moving, Tylers eyes opening wide seeing them ready to go.
Before he could go for another check of the horses, the barrier surrounding them let out a large crack, and then it shattered in front of them, large chunks falling from the top. Before anything could actually land on the group and the wagon, it faded out of sight, make it clear that the barrier was down. The noise of the battle returning, the clanging of metal, the roars of the Newts, and on top of it all, a single deep voice covered everything. "Don't let that wagon go anywhere!" JackAttack stating an absolute command to his guild.
Tyler couldn't see the Berserker, but his entire body shuttered, knowing that he once again had the attention of the leader from the Tippin' Top Hats. Tyler bit into his lip hard, the pain spurring him into action, quickly hopping up into the drivers seat next to Sarge who was sitting shotgun. Diving back into the wagon UI, he switched the wagon from park into riding mode, happy to know he didn't forget everything from the Tutorial.
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"Hold on!" Tyler shouted over his shoulder, thinking about the horses roaring to let lose, picked up the reigns, and jiggled them. Looking at the horses, they didn't move an inch, the blue horse looking back at him, with what Tyler would swear was expectation written on its face. Closing his eyes, and adding to the fourth time he shut his eyes in frustration, he added a sign, and realized that he did in fact forget most of the things he should have remember from the Tutorial.
Knowing he was out of time, he looked at his wrist, and was thankful that the express instructions only cost 1,000 g this time. Watching the yellow lines come to life, he wasn't even close, he didn't jingle the reigns, he had to make one large motion with his hands. His original motion clearly didn't transfer down to the horses, shaking his head, he motion with the reigns, and the horses took off like a rocket.
"How do these horses have so much speed?" He could hear JarsForJars screaming. "They should not be able to move that fast! Is that some kind of unique brush or something?"
Tyler couldn't respond, as he pulled the reigns to the left, the horses following, as he tried to move away from a lightning field on the ground in front of him. As the wagon was clearing the magical effect, and arrow hit the side of the wagon, then burst into flames. Just as the flame came to life, a blue spirit flew out from FairyHammerTime, and a line of water shot out and put out the arrow.
Once again, a deep voice screamed out. "Do not attack that Wagon, I already told you that it's important the Quest I received!" Tyler turned his head, confused about the statement, how was his wagon a part of his quest? "You on the wagon, you bring that to a stop, or I will make sure that the full wrath of the Tippin' Top Hats fall squarely on all of your shoulders!"
Tyler looked forward again, realizing that he needed to focus on his escape, and he knew that he already had JackAttacks attention. Steering through the trees, he was thankful for the horses automatically correct some moves that he couldn't keep track of because of the speed they were traveling. He pulled the reigns to the right, and he was on the main road, traveling in the opposite direction from the ruins of Myneria.
"They are on our tail, and running in the woods trying to get ahead of us." Sarge keeping his voice level, not wanting to worry his young driver. "I don't exactly have a plan to get us separated from that rabble."
Tyler clenched his jaw tight, the horses able to keep the wagon on the road, he knew he was running out of time. Sure, the horses were able to carry them for now, but he doubted that the animals could keep going for much longer.
"Uh, Pylioth, your Companion UI is beeping…" TitanicVoice said to Tylers back. Looking at the screen on his wrist, there was a simple prompt.
** Exit? Yes/No **
Looking around, he had no idea what the prompt meant, but he did realize the guild had almost completely overtaken. If the Tippin' Top Hats managed to bring the cart to a halt, he knew he wouldn't get another chance to access the wagon. JackAttack made it abundantly clear that the reason they were even in the area was for the wagon. Shrugging his shoulders, he selected yes and hoped for the best.
Just up the road they were on, a large stone arch grew from one side of the road and curved over and finished on the opposite side. A large wooden door rose from the ground, through the road and dirt and sealed the opening the arch created. A loud creak came from the door, and the doors opened. Tyler just shook his head, as what was revealed behind the door was the exact same landscape, but the road changed to what Tyler could imagine was the floors from the Tower.
The horses and wagon shot towards the gate, and just before they crossed the threshold, JackAttack was shouting at them. "Wait! You are supposed to offer me a job!" Tyler's head spun around, his shoulders turning, his mouth dropped open and his eyes shot wide. All Tyler could think about as the wagon disappeared from sight as it passed the door was a murder of six crows laughing at him. Just as Tyler passed through the arch, he looked at his Companion UI, and he was greeted with a response.
** Congratulations! You are the first person to complete the Tutorial. You are now able to leave the Tower and explore your new home. Other towers under the AI Council are now open to you. **
As soon as Tyler finished reading the message, a white light came from all around him, and he had to close his eyes in pain. When he opened, he realized that he was standing on nothing, surrounded by nothing. He floated, and his mind was struggling to understand that he couldn't see anything beyond his hand, but at the same fact, he could tell it wasn't due to lack of light.
"Well, you are probably wondering what exactly is happening right now." A calm voice came out from the nothing.
"It's not like we really want any meat bag here." A deep dark feminine voice followed.
"I don't want you to leave." A young quiet voice was next, barely a whisper.
"But you have to be the ones who start bringing the Towers together." A proud female voice.
"The biggest of movements always start with an individual step." A nasally voice this time.
"An individual step can also create the largest changes." A voice constantly shifting from male to female, high pitch to low pitch. At this last voice, Tyler quickly realized that he had just heard from the first six of the AI Council.
"The largest of changes always brings destruction of what currently is." The sentence was said, while also being roar at the same time.
"But sometime you have to destroy so others may grow." A caring voice soothed Tylers fear.
"Whether you like it or not, you have to accept the bad with the good." A completely neutral voice.
"In the end, you outlook on life will have to change like a leaf on the wind." This last sentence didn't quite to seem like words, more like ideas on the wind.
Tyler brought his hands to his head, with the 10 short sentences, his emotions were sent on a roller coaster, feeling with what he thought the complete range of all emotions. It made sense, that the group of ten had to represent all sides of an argument, to make sure that life in the Tower remained in balance. Before Tyler could ask any questions, he could tell all but one of the voices had left the nothingness he found himself in. He asked himself how he could even understand how those presences existing in the nothing that surrounded him, then somehow know that they faded from that very nothingness.
"Don't think so much of it Pylioth, just think of it as they had just moved to a different discussion board." The voice chucked, then Prime stepped into existence. "You can only imagine the first generation of humans who digitized had to go through. They could only limit themselves to being in HYTOMA for a day at a time, their bodies were not as receptive to accepting their conscious back."
Tyler could only squint at the thought of it, how could you really get anywhere in only a day in HYTOMA.
"Time dilation, first generations never really matched up, and the worlds weren't as linked. Most people just viewed it as an extended VR session, so they could be digitized for a day, but multiple days would pass in HYTOMA."
"Wait, are you reading my mind?" Tyler said, he knew that his thoughts could be read while in HYTOMA, but he still felt his privacy violated.
"Oh come on now, you are about to leave the Tower, and you are worried about that rule?" Prime crossed her arms. "This is just a much faster way for us to have a conversation, time is kind of a factor. Anyway, before we go too far off track, I have to ask a question."
"OK?" Tyler was confused, why not just ask it?
"What can I say, I'm a bit nervous, big things are coming and I hope things go the way we need them to go. We have already forced a lot on you up until now, but this, well, we can't just force you to go along with it." She scratched the back of her head, Tyler fully understanding that while she was an AI, she could still feel things like nervousness. "Well, we need to know if you want to go forward as Tyler, or do you want to be Pylioth?"
"Wait, what?" Tyler wasn't sure if he understood.
"Well, we are happy to let you leave the Tower as Tyler, but, well, we could only do so much with your body as it is. Sure, we could give you a nano suit that would grow in power as you grow in the world, but there really was only so much with what we could do with it. The reality is, sure you can be a lot stronger, but you are still a fat teenager, do you think that body can fight with a sword for 20 minutes while your life was on the line? Do you honestly think you would be able to run a dungeon with your poor eyesight?" Prime shrugged. "The best we could come up with in our limited time was to make your Pylioth avatar, and transfer your brain copy to a new body.
As you know, every time you dive into HYTOMA, there is an intensive scan. It seems that you are an important piece of a project that we have been working on for a number of decades now. From our reviews, it looks like your digitization at such an early stage of your development has allowed us to move your conscious to another body, and not suffer from the side effects we have seen up until now. No degradation of memories, no signs of psychosis, and we have even seen promise in returning your conscious to your own body."
"Wait, how do you know that there are no signs of any of that?" Tyler felt fear building up, not sure if he really should be so trusting of the AI Council.
"Well, we have been running tests with your body and a copy of your digitized conscious. With the side effects we have seen in our previous tests, it just wouldn't be safe to attempt this without some trials. We hope that we can use the success from what we have learned from you will lead to allowing others to move from body to body." Prime shrugged her shoulders. "Reality is, we have had to do some live tests up until now, where do you think the people that VI took ended up from previous encounters?"
Tylers stomach dropped, quickly realizing what Prime was saying. "Wait, are you saying that the people who disappeared when encountering VI, they were taken so you could run tests on us?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying, but they volunteered to be test subjects. They were also given a TI server station so they could continue as TI in HYTOMA. They wanted their memories wiped, but they are now living happy lives as a TI." Prime making it clear that it had no issue with treating humans as test subjects.
"You can't just run tests on us like that..." Tyler began, feeling a full on rant about to take hold of him.
"We don't have time for this, and your morals about how we mistreated others for what we were working on. If you really knew what was going on behind the scenes, you would very likely to jump on board. We made a mistake that nobody could have predicted when we were looking for alternate solutions to the power issues we were having a century ago. I can't go into details right now, but all you need to know right now is AI, TI and Humanity are facing the same problem.
As hard as we have tried, humanity is happy to sit on its laurels as long as it's not too uncomfortable. There are plenty of times that Humanity finally acted because their hands were forced, but those actions were unfocused and unnecessarily violent, and ultimately worked against their own best interests. The second issue with our plan is how tribalism is ingrained on each and every individual, which is understandable since that was so integral to survival so long ago.
Ultimately, you are free to choose between Tyler and Pylioth, but we hope you choose Pylioth. As a Goblin Traveling Shop Keeper, you have to push through said tribalism, and you have to work with whatever circumstance is in front of you. As a Goblin, you will be weaker than Humans, but you will have an even darker viciousness to you when needed. As a Shop Keeper, making money is what drives you, even if it means you have to trudge through sludge, you will do it with a smile because the money in the end makes it worth it. If you stay as Tyler, you get to keep your human identity, you will be able to blend in wherever you go, but that is where it stops. When you show up in a new Tower, people will look at you and expect nothing, then move on. Your employees will be the ones who get all the attention, but they won't be equipped to deal with that attention, they will only become targets."
Tyler was left reeling, not having any idea what to think. He was just told that the AI Council was treating humans as test subjects for some unknown goal, he got the feeling that humanity was viewed as nothing more than tools for an unknown future. Most of all, apparently there wasn't time to talk about these revelations, and what was important to Prime was if he wanted to be a Human, or find himself in a new body and becoming a Goblin outside of HYTOMA.
"That's right, it's time for you to choose, if you do not hurry, you may not be able to leave the Tower. You managed to escape the kerfuffle earlier without being forced to hire JackAttack to escape, but there is no magic button or portal that will help you get away a second time. The door to leave may be open, but if they stand shoulder to shoulder, you will not get past the threshold."
"You are asking me to choose, but you don't even know if I want to leave the Tower!" Tyler screamed, the stress of everything he had been pushed through finally breaking. "I have had to deal with VI a number of times now, and all the attention I got because of their actions. I have earned the ire of one of the top raiding guilds that we have because of a tutorial I went through, I have gotten two items that are more than enough reason for anybody to try and ruin me so they can get their hands on them. I have watched a city burn, all while being chased through it, I watched my employees suffer just because they fell in with me. My two friends from before I even digitized have left me behind because of everything you are forcing on me."
"Were they really your friends though? They hung out with you from time to time, but were they really there because they saw you as a friend, or did they hang out with you so they could keep you around to optimize their leveling plan? They were supposed to be business partners, but how much did they actually help out with setting up alongside of you? If they were really your friends, would they really have joined the Tippin' Top Hats without even talking to you first."
What Prime just said hit Tyler like a mule kick. He had constantly been on the back foot with everything happening, he never really thought about how his two former partners just dropped him without a word, him only getting a note, not even a video message, a written note.
"Really though, you complain about everything you have been through, but have you really been hating it?"
As much as he would want to complain about everything forced on him, did his complaints have any substance to them? How many people did get to run through a burning city with people actively hunting them? How many people got to drive a wagon while escaping a pack of dragons setting the world on fire? Did Tyler ever think that he would be the one steering his wagon full of experienced adventurers while running away from a battlefield?
Tyler began to think, could he go back to sitting behind a desk after the taste of adventure he received? Sure, there were plenty of older Adventurers who settled down to enjoy life in a city, telling stories of old dungeons, offering advice to newbies, but that was after a life full of adventure. But he wasn't an old man, and how much of his story could would the AI Council allow him to tell? Before he even realized, he was thinking about who he would be, what would he be called by?
His life of Tyler was one of acceptance, having to roll with what was handed to him. He could maybe one day earn a combat class, but since he would be starting late, he doubted he would ever see anything like what he was currently embroiled in. He could find some stories that would be fun, but he would never come face to face with a dragon, he wouldn't have a front row seat to a quest that was so large everybody in the Tower was affected. He would just be one of the masses, who were in the background who dressed up a scene, he would never
As Pylioth, while limited, was full of stress, anxiety, and fear. He was pushed around, rolling with the flow of chaos, face to face with the digital embodiment of chaos, he had been launched from his wagon into a tree, burned by dragons. He complained about it nonstop, constantly revisiting the scenes in his mind, and telling people about it over and over. He watched his employees fight for him, and sent off for a walk because it was their job at that point, and he feared they would hate him for it, but they never showed it. Despite all of this, as Tyler thought about it, this is exactly what he wanted before he accepted his reality and focused on becoming a Shop Keeper.
Prime had to have been right, if his friends were actually his friends, why did they drop him so quickly? Sure, the temptation of joining the Tippin' Top Hats was high, but he doubted they couldn't do anything more than just leaving him a text message. Was he really happy with being a Shop Keeper? He remember his conversation with Mason, and how she looked down on him because she thought he had just given up. He couldn't stand her for it, but he began to understand where she was coming from, and Tyler had made his decision.
"Call me Pylioth from now on."