[First Duchy’s Adventuring Academy, Bustel Sendrin’s Point of View]
The man who had come into my office had made an appointment to see me. It concerned his daughter’s interest in becoming an adventurer. My secretary had told me his name was Merz Sholut. I greeted him, asked him to take a seat and state his business.
He did so. “Master Sendrin, thank you for taking the time to see me. I will apologize in advance if you are not the best person to see. My family lives in Cycles. I believe it will have been worth the day’s journey to get here, on the chance you might be able to assist my 16-year old daughter Niscus. She has always wanted to be an adventurer and has chosen classes that should prove useful to any adventuring team. But up until now, she has been working in my wife’s shop to assist the family. By the way, she was a childhood friend of a cadet of yours, Onre Litman. That is why I believe you might be the appropriate person to speak with. I would also enjoy seeing Onre if he is available.”
“Yes, I know Onre well. He has been an outstanding cadet.” I was torn as to whether I should tell this man Onre’s whereabouts due to his ties to Cycles and potential involvement with The Grease. “Unfortunately he is off campus and will not be able to see you. Concerning your daughter, we would be happy to interview her and see if the opportunities available at this school fit her needs.”
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Merz stated, clearly flustered. “I have heard this is a fine academy, and Niscus could learn a lot here. But her specific interest is enrolling at the new academy being established in the Fifth Duchy. She is an empath, and the idea of interacting with people from all over the world excites her in a way I have not seen before. We actually know very little about that academy other than it will be for youthful adventurers and its potentially broad student population.”
Well, that is a blow to my ego. I guess this sort of thing was to be expected, however. “In answer to your unstated question, yes, the two academies are related. It hadn’t occurred to me that people from the First Duchy might see me as a potential contact for the Fifth Duchy’s academy, but it should have. The answer is likely obvious, but is your daughter willing to move away from home and travel across the continent? So far, I do not believe a selection process has been established.”
“My wife, daughter, and I have already decided to move to the Fifth Duchy regardless of her status at that school. We will commence our journey in just a few days. However, I want to give Niscus the best possible chance of acceptance which is why I took this short trip to meet with you. Honestly, we should have taken Onre and relocated four years ago. But he ended up safe and happy here, so thank you for that.”
It certainly sounds as if this man cares for Onre. Hmm. There is still no need for me to state his whereabouts. Meeting him there could be a nice surprise once they relocate. “What’s done is done, and I am sure Onre’s experience here will prove very useful to him as he matures. For Niscus, I will give you our normal enrollment questionnaire, and have you fill it out to the best of your ability. Normally, the student herself would fill it out, but do your best to represent what you believe she would say. Then I’ll pass the questionare on to those establishing the other school, noting that you personally have impressed me.”
“Thank you, Headmaster.”
-= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -=
[City of Cycles, Belenay Sholut’s Point of View]
A few days ago, members of The Grease joined the zealots outside my shop. It was clear something terrible was building up, and not just at my shop either. With the growing corruption in the city, remaining became almost a foolish decision. Three days ago my shop’s landlord informed Niscus and me that he would not be able to renew our upcoming lease. Once home, Niscus told Merz and I that he was terrified. The Grease had probably threatened him or his family. That was when we made the final decision to relocate. As my daughter and I close down the shop here, Merz is making the two-day round trip to the Adventuring Academy to see about getting Niscus enrolled in the Fifth Duchy’s academy.
We are proceeding outwardly as if nothing has changed. Merz got a few days off work, stating that he would be making arrangements for our daughter’s schooling. If Pastrana Gold assumes that to be to the Academy he is visiting, so much the better. Niscus and I are slowly trading out goods in the shop. High end ones are being replaced by much lower quality, but still visually appealing. She can use her Bubble Pocket skill to covertly bring in cheaper materials, and essentially smuggle out our high quality merchandise. I am using the cheap materials to make inexpensive replacements. Our long-time customers are offered special prices on these still good-quality products.
Daddy Large’s organization is still influential, even without him. For all practical purposes, they have become a large, legitimate enterprise, but we no longer enjoy the personal ties we had with Daddy himself. For the sake of our landlord, we let them know what is going on, without going into detail concerning our plans. We made sure that they knew our concern was mainly for the safety of our landlord. We’ll be leaving this dumpster soon. I’m guessing our contact read between the lines and understood our intention to leave. He has been a friend, and Niscus finds him to be trustworthy.
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[Fifth Duchy, Forrest’s Point of View]
After we got up, everyone went to Arrjee and my house for breakfast. We all went for a run after that, with Carrie joining us. She was excited to spend a little time with Sun and Ferret. But that had to end, when Carrie, Kossa, and Arrjee headed off to class, Lenyet, Onre, Sun, Ferret, and I ran to River River for a swim. It turned out that Sun only knew the basics for staying afloat, and Ferret had never learned any type of swimming.
Ferret at first didn’t like the water, thinking it was only for drinking and bathing. Going deep where the water reached his chin was unthinkable. I taught him how to float, dog-paddle (Ferret paddle?) and a very free-style stroke.
Lenyet and Onre had a more complex time with Sun, even though they had no fear of the water. We didn’t know what would be good Trichyan strokes, and Sun didn’t know either. One advantage they had is that any of their three faces could breathe, so there would be numerous good approaches. I thought of an octopus, using its eight tentacles to contract and propel backwards to drive its body forwards. Sun would not have the ’jet propulsion’ capability, but his limbs should be able to coordinate in double strokes of three simultaneous limbs. I was able to explain what I meant, although I wished Group Mind included a visual aspect. Showing him an image would have been much easier. My idea sort of worked, but we told Sun to continue trying new things. There was likely a better approach.
After the lesson, the five of us played like kids, with races, splashing, grab-assing, and general fun. Eventually 8:30 approached, so I got out, dried off for a few minutes, and redonned my leathers . By that time it was just about time to vanish, and I bid them farewell.
-= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -= -=
It was calming to be back in the absence of the void. There weren’t a lot of things I could change here, but I adjusted the clock from 12-hour Earth time to 20-hour Heere time. That was my new normal, and I was ready to make it official. Well, sort of. My perception of time, perhaps time itself, was compressed by a factor of 60. Somewhat over two hours for me will be six days for everyone else.
Time is actually compressed here; it is not simply your perception of it.
“Interface, how does that work? How does time compress?”
Outside of the void, it cannot be. It is only possible due to the lack of anything actually being present here. System made this change because if time could be compressed within the material galaxy, then one-way interstellar travel would have remained a possibility. Within the void it is allowed because neither mortals nor gods can come here. At any rate, literally 1 second per 60 seconds for you, only System can compress time.
“Is there such a thing as expanded time?”
Yes, and its usage in physical reality is allowed. It has no utility to allow interstellar travel; beings under such a field would age themselves to death before they got anywhere. It is commonly used in the void, though, for other immortals.
“Why would immortals need to do that, and to come here?”
Their experience here is very similar to your sixdays, but backwards. All immortals experience somewhat over two hours of void time, but for anyone not a tuesday’s wildcard only about 2 minutes passes in the world at large.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Are you saying all immortals come to the void every seven days?”
No. It varies depending on immortal archetype from six to 12 galactic days. You all get an opportunity to step away from the world, interact with their interfaces, and make diary entries. The periodicities for each of you are fixed, however, so no one can just zap-away to the void to get themself out of danger. An immortal could try to schedule such a thing; sometimes they might even succeed in rebuffing mortal danger exactly as they planned. But if so, what are the chances the danger will have passed in just a couple minutes? Don’t answer. ‘Slim.’
“But it could happen.”
Yes. Jacques might have also won the lottery mid-level prize with four matches. Did he?
“No, I get your point. Besides, he did not play the lottery very often.”
Because he realized his chances of winning were so slim?
“Yes. He wasn’t anti-gambling; he was just anti-stupid. Not that playing the lottery is that bad, really. The Ohio lottery was basically voluntary taxation. When played on that basis, fully expecting to lose, there really wasn’t any harm. Casinos are different. In those places people are not paying voluntary taxes, they are voluntary victims. That’s true even if the games are not rigged. What is crazy is that some are very openly and legally rigged.”
What do you mean?
“The big slot machines, standing at a casino entrance, say they offer huge potential payouts. Most of the time, however, the chance of winning is literally zero. Not extremely small, zero. They are not games of chance – they are outright theft devices. They are programmed not to offer their big jackpot until the casino gets around to allowing it. There was even a case where a court allowed a casino to stiff a jackpot winner due to ‘software error’. I.e., it wasn’t supposed to allow a win yet. The crooked Nevada courts actually accepted that excuse, and the casino did not pay. I’m guessing they offered him a nice suite for alternate compensation. That way he could waste his money in their crooked casino for another week.”
You sound bitter.
“Do I? I’m not really bitter, but there was a reason Jacques rarely gambled. ‘Here, rob me first’ was not his approach to life.”
Earth is odd. The casinos do not need to cheat; in the long run, the odds are in their favor. And they set the odds in the first place.
“Where greed is allowed, greed prevails.”
“I’ve got an idea. While I don’t want to spend the entire sixdays watching a movie, we could watch a cartoon. There are a lot of good ones. Have you watched Codename: Kids Next Door?”
No, but I have all 78 episodes in 5 languages.
“Heh. How about we watch the English version of the first episode?”
Yes
“Great. The only thing I’ll tell you is that this series is intentionally absurd, which is what the adult Jacques liked. Most kids will just see it as fun fantasy, like most other cartoons they watched. But the writers added intellectually humorous elements that adults could enjoy. Don’t try to pick apart the logic.”
We watched it, and Interface’ reaction surprised me.
You were correct. For Earth and other starter worlds, there was a pleasing absurdity. In the broader context of interfaced worlds, the absurdity was minimal. All it requires in that context is the conceit of children already having classes and skills. A morphing child, a trained pet army, a common consciousness among several children – those things are not really that much of a stretch. That’s not to say I did not enjoy the Operation: C.A.K.E. episode; I certainly did. The absurdity factor simply did not strike me the way it does you.
I had to laugh; Interface was correct. And he did like it, so that was six minutes well spent. “Thank you for letting me share that. Maybe next time you can recommend something to me. You have already shown that you understand my tastes in music really well, so it will likely be the same with video. For now, would you like to play Think for an hour?”
Yes.
I should look at my new skill. “Query Group Mind.”
Group Mind is a semi-active mental skill which allows you to passively listen to the thoughts within a group mind field, and actively share your own thoughts and emotions. Deceit is unavailable with Group Mind, although vocal and written communication can still be false, but detectable. It is normally an innate capability of select species, but certain individuals might learn it as a skill. Rank E values:
Reception level: low
Range: 1 + perception/25 yards
“Nice. I know at F, range was less than one yard, but I still ‘heard’ people further than that. How?”
The listed range is your own personal field. However, if you are near someone else with Group Mind, their range extends yours. This effect does not daisy-chain. If you were close to Sun, you shared their range, but no one else's.
“Okay, I understand. Query To-Do List”
1. Don’t die
2. Learn bo and bow
3. Bring plumbing to Cottages
4. Learn Make Water skill
5. Don’t bitch
6. Learn teammate’s birthdays
“Cool. I didn’t even have to ask anyone’s birthday.”
You also learned Sun’s and Ferret’s.
“Okay; thank you again for adding them to my notepad. Delete item 6.”
Done.
“I know that my Level 5 braking period was complete, but I still did not level. I’m not surprised, considering how little I trained yesterday. Query level.”
Level 4 + 3941 / 4807
“I’m actually surprised it is that high.”
Although you and Onre were not teamed when you killed the salamander, his interface agreed to give you his XP based on your prior teaming while hunting the spiders. You ended up with its full 2408 XP. He will level soon, however, and XP will no longer be useless to him.
“Cool. If it makes sense to thank it, please do.”
I already did. Professional courtesy, even if it is not operating at an AI level.
“I’m going to make my diary entry, and then meditate for the rest of sixdays.”
Alright.
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Sevennthday, 3 Fifthmonth 726 KE
A lot happened today even though I’m still Level 4. Two new students were transported from the Trichyan continent. The first is Sun, a Trichyan. He has three arms, three legs, three faces – you get the picture. Actually you probably don’t – imagine him sitting as a three-legged stool. Not on a three-legged stool, but his legs being the three supports with his torso rising from the center. He also has three sexes, male, female, and shell. The last is not an egg shell; I guess something in the vagina offers temporary protection for the fertilized egg, and it adds genetic material over and above egg and sperm.
The other student – they are both friends now – is named Ferret. He is classified as new species, “Covargh Emergent Ferretman”. He looks sort of primitive, hunched, and his hands are closer to claws than a regular Covargh’s. Interface speculates that Heere may be starting a sudden evolutionary epoch. He met a lot of people today, and no one seemed to be familiar with what he was. Unfortunately he was raised by a very poor nomadic tribe, and had a low intellect. Fortunately, by the end of the day his intelligence and wisdom had both been raised from 5 to 8, which is the norm for Level 0s. He still has a lot of catching up to do, such as learning to read.
Two Skolturi Wraiths also arrived today. Asiel Windgarden will be the co-administrator of the school, as well as a part-time teacher. His brother Orian will be a full-time teacher. They both lived for over 100 years and have been wraiths for over 2000. They are ghosts with some level of presence in the world, as well as maintaining their full consciousness of who they were and are. Skolturi were essentially elves, and from her default appearance, I think the goddess Einvigi was originally Skolturi, but ascended.
Similarly I think Skawa was originally a Trichyan. I don’t have any idea what it took to ascend. Einvigi said if you wanted to compare, mortals and immortals can reach Level 50, but the rough rating for a god would be between 75 and 100. So they aren’t all-powerful, but it would be extremely stupid for any group of mortals to try to fight one.
Sun and Ferret joined our normal apprenticeship session during the afternoon. They both seem very motivated to learn. Sun had gone to school until a month ago, but they want to learn about life on this continent. They also want to be a tank. Ferret has had no formal education, and does yet know what classes he is interested in.
After training, the Skolturi had us meet in the brand new administration building for the school. Its meeting room features a large, round table that seats 15, with overflow chairs in two corners of the room. They interviewed the six pre-accepted students, three masters, grandma, and, Dad. Well, Asiel did most of the interviewing. He is a Justicar, and has a high level skill called Revelation. When asked a question with Reveal, the target not only speaks the truth, but adds any information they believe to be relevant. He asked me who I was, and I answered. Then Jacques answered too, but during that I, Forrest, had no awareness. Oh, Orian was also interviewed, so there were twelve of us who had to reveal who we are. The adults were also asked what they would offer the school. The second question to students was what we hoped to learn.
After that, Lenyet and we six students had a sleep-over in an empty cottage which had been reserved for the Skolturi. They spent the night in the two apartments at the school. (Actually, they might have just used one apartment; I don’t know. ) Lenyet taught those of us who didn’t know a card game called Straight Face, which is very similar to poker. I’m supposed to learn it to help me stop signaling when my Dodge skill is active. Deceit and all that.
When we got up, all of us went to my home for breakfast. After that, we exercised until it was time for Tuesday to end.