Willow
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savriâ
After spending an embarrassingly long time just staring at the UICI in confusion, Willow had finally remembered some of the tutorial how-to. She put the entire thing aside for about forty minutes, spending the rest of the evening, impatiently, with Naomi and Kent. When they’d started to look tired, she eagerly offered to take first watch. They had been taking watch ever since night one, if for no other reason than to have good habits. All of them understood that while the forest around them was currently calm and non-threatening, that didn’t mean that status-quo would last.
The others having headed to sleep, she’d spent the next thirty minutes, an hour I guess, according to the UICI, running through tool-tips and help prompts. She’d learned a handful of extremely useful things, amidst a bunch of trivia-level facts.
First, she’d learned that she’d apparently unlocked a bunch of new modules the moment the UICI detected her “use mana.” This hadn’t happened previously, because she hadn’t previously been a disciple. Apparently the tip Kai had given Naomi and Kent that her modules would unlock “as needed” had been correct. She had even found the price and payment method in the interface.
PURCHASE HISTORY ITEM
----------------------------------------
BASIC USER MODULE PACKAGE
Receipt ID WG-E9921-231899-01 Module Version 1192.02.01 Module Publisher Windell’s United(F) Price 299 R0-EB Paid By Mentee Subscription - Rank 0-10
CULTIVATION HELPER MODULE (CHM)
Receipt ID WG-E9921-231899-02 Module Version REV22.31 Module Publisher Sentekko(F) Price 2,000,000 R1-EB Paid By Mentee Subscription - Rank 0-10
This discovery lead her on another merry little trek through menus, sub menus, help guides, and videos which very much reminded her of earth style YouTube tutorials.
She’d learned that currency was split up by rank, with the “prefix” indicating which rank of currency was being used or requested, while the suffix indicated the currency type. There were actually different types of currency which were accepted throughout the world, which perhaps shouldn’t have been as surprising as Willow how initially found it. Essentially all of the fantasy and scifi she could think of all seemed to assume a single universally accepted currency.
The “EB” did appear to be the most common form of currency. It stood for “Energy Backed” and was, as far as Willow could parse, essentially a magic version of a crypto currency.
Another point of interesting information was the little (F) symbol. This was apparently a “faction” indicator. It was shorthand for showing UICI users that an entity in question was a registered faction, rather than a guild, corporation, clan, individual, or something else. There had frankly been so many possible “entities” that she hadn’t even been tempted to fall into that particular rabbit-hole. Instead, she’d focused back on her original topic of research.
In the end, she’d learned a ton. The basics for the particular prompts she’d gotten were somewhat complicated and she felt it’d take a while to fully process and internalize. That being said, by the end of her link-following and information searching, she summarized the relevant points for herself. She’d even used the UICI journal to note it down, after realizing she now had a module that wouldn’t put her own past notes behind a paywall.
> Insights Insights seem like they’re some kind of internalized understanding of a concept? All of the examples and stuff I found seemed to indicate that, but they all wanted payment for additional details. I don’t have any money of any kind as far as I know.
>
> I’m tentatively going to consider insights as “a concept I understand and resonate with intimately”
>
> Insights are required to generate mana with aspects, so I definitely have one. Even if I don’t understand what it is fully.
>
> Aspects Aspects are like elements in RPGs. Like fire, water, earth, air, etc. except way way more specific and personal. Air doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing to everyone, so even if two people have an ‘air’ aspect, they won’t be exactly the same. They’ll be similar though. =========== Abilities Abilities are kind of like spells, except not like spells. The forums and stuff I found were pretty vague and again very pay-walled. The snippets I was able to find were enough to give hints and show me that the forum HAS people with the answers I want, but I’d have to pay for a subscription to get access. Of course.
>
> Anyway, an ability is essentially a kind of spell that’s ingrained into my soul? I think? I have to send mana into the ability to activate it, and the aspect of mana I put into it will change how and what it does a bit.
>
> This is why adding both of those energy sources, which were my mana, caused the effects to change a bit. It was still similar, as apparently an ability cannot be ENTIRELY changed by mana aspects… But it definitely didn’t work the same way when both mana types were included.
Willow sat back with a smile, feeling satisfied at tracking down the answers she was looking for. She didn’t know a ton about survival, but this, finding information online about a topic of interest? She could totally do that. She froze, looked around tentatively to make sure the others were asleep in the lean-to, then cursed softly under her breath. “Burned Gumbo.” We could have looked up survival stuff using the UICI!
She quickly tried, then let out a deep sigh of mixed relief and disappointment realizing that they could do that, but they’d run into the same issue she had with all the other stuff. Everything truly useful required payment. Unlike with the Insight, Aspect, and Abilities, getting some vague synopsis wasn’t useful in the slightest. “Vines may be used to create rope… <20 R0-SG unlock>” was essentially worthless. Since she had no “R0-SG”, the techniques Naomi had shown them for using the vines were out of her reach in the UICI.
All in all, this was a familiar way to spend an evening after a day of hard work and was oddly comforting to Willow. She’d often “come up for air” after a research binge, midnight having come and gone long ago. The tendency to get hyper-focused on her research and also somehow entirely lose the original point of the research was essentially hard-coded into her DNA at this point.
Glancing at her UICI clock, Willow found she still had a couple hours on watch before she should wake Kent. She got up and started patrolling as she thought. The UICI had asked her to name her insight, two mana aspects, and ability. The ability, at least, was easy. She sent her answer to the UICI mentally, Name ability… she thought of the funnel and the structure behind it, Moment of Focus.
NEW ABILITY NAMED!
----------------------------------------
CONGRATULATIONS!
You have successfully created and registered a new ability MOMENT OF FOCUS into the CHM!
To reward your efforts, and for meaningfully contributing to the CHM database, 100 R2-EB has been awarded!
----------------------------------------
As per UICI cultivation privacy provision 2219.A.33, the CHM is unable to provide third parties with access to information related to your private cultivation techniques without your consent. This includes your newly created ability.
Would you like to share your ability with Sentekko(F)?
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Uh, no. Of course she wasn’t going to give away a unique invention to some faction, how gullible did they think she was? The UICI immediately responded to her denial with another notification coming in. If this becomes a pop-up war… I’m using those EBs to buy a blocker.
FANTASTIC OFFER!
----------------------------------------
Sentekko(F) has offered you an EXCLUSIVE deal!
Would you like to accept Sentekko(F)’s offer?
See Offer
After a very cursory look at the offer, Willow declined. She then setup a rule to put Sentekko related notifications which included the terms, “offer, deal, exclusive, special” into a separate shelf which she turned the opacity down to 1% on. She could have just blocked them, but maybe one day she’d need to review something they sent her. Who knew.
Anyway, she wasn’t interested in giving them the rights to sell her ability for a 1% return on the profit. She wasn’t sure what her ability was worth, which was enough to not agree to any deal in the first place, not even mentioning the frankly insulting offer of 1% royalties. Aside from all that, she wasn’t sure if anyone could look at her ability and figure out weaknesses to use against her or something. She’d been told several times that this world, the real world, wasn’t kind after all.
Putting the offers aside, she tried to work backwards from the ability to name her aspects. She had no idea what her “insight” was but she thought that by working up from her ability she could maybe figure it all out. She’d created the “ability” while still on Earth, so she’d probably need to dig deep to figure out what the insight was. She’d visualized her focus and her moment respectively for a long time.
Alright, what would I call my first mana aspect. It’s the one that’s all viscus and slimy. It’s definitely not a slime aspect… I don’t think. She stopped her automatic walking around the camp, forcing herself to stop in one place for a while. She’d be way to predictable of a guard if she had a constant walking pattern that didn’t change.
If I think about what it does… That mana is what lets my focus activate. It slows everything down, makes me faster, removes colors from things I’m not actively paying attention to, and blurs out the world outside of my area of control… Hm… Or does it… While she was “lost” in thought, Willow’s eyes moved, carefully scanning the area for anything unusual. The first time she’d kept watch she felt kind of weird, but it was getting closer to a habit now.
That’s how I perceive things. Kent said everything besides me lost color, but when we talked later he said the only thing with any color was myself. No matter what he focused on I was the only thing with color. He also couldn’t tell what I was focusing on.
She suddenly turned on her heel and counted a hundred steps before stopping and turning her head, starting her passive “search” for anything off again. So at least that part is external… He also said I moved faster and talked faster. He couldn’t understand me when I spoke while in my focus.
Continuing her patrol, she poked and prodded as she thought through the entire thing. Finally, she decided to come back to that one. The second one actually seemed easier for her to qualify and label. The energy that she couldn’t “see” with her inner eye, but she could hear and feel. The static sounding pressure. She was almost certain that one was time. Except… Wouldn’t other people have had a ‘Time’ aspected mana? Almost certainly. There’s no way something that potentially powerful and that well known wouldn’t already be discovered and named… Maybe the people who have it don’t use the same CHM module?
The rest of her watch was pretty similar. She woke Kent when the timer she setup for herself reminded her that she wasn’t supposed to stay up thinking all night. However, she wasn’t ready to sleep. The problems were still nagging at her, so she spent some time talking to Kent about it. He’d had some good ideas and insights, but in the end she hadn’t decided to name anything else just yet. He had managed to help her find a way to put a stop to her running thoughts for the moment though.
As she carefully positioned herself beside Naomi, careful not to jostle and wake her, she kept replaying his words like a mantra, “You can figure out all the the mechanics later. For now, you have a magical ability and know what it does.”
----------------------------------------
Jonah
Camp, Feather-branch Forest, Savriâ
After doing his best, and failing, to brainstorm with Willow what her aspects were, he helped her find a way to put the question aside for the time being. Jonah sat at the edge of the camp on a large stone and considered.
Willow had explained what she’d learned about insights, aspects and abilities. He thought back to what Ki’ai’en mentioned, that factions usually didn’t expect people to progress for at least ten years after arriving from the tutorial. Was that due to them needing to form an insight and then aspects in order to get access to mana?
Thinking for a long time, Jonah finally decided to use the money Ki’ai’en had given them. The stipend was just enough to buy the 300 R0-EB basics module that he and Naomi had been given. Since Willow didn’t need it, he decided to use it for something else. After a couple hours of searching, he found what he thought was probably his best bet for useful information.
INFORMATION PACKET A3-64-32II
----------------------------------------
INTRODUCTION TO CULTIVATION
Packet Version 1.0.0 Module Publisher Seviòn Ōntegus(I) Price 200 R0-EB
This information packet contains the bare-bones basics of cultivation. This includes definitions for the common terms: insight, aspect, mana, spell, ability, skill, technique. This guide also briefly explains how insights are formed.
This guide does not include information related to creating your soul nexus or aspecting mana.
Briefly considering whether he should talk to Naomi before making the purchase, Jonah shook his head and made the purchase. He’d share it with her, if she didn’t like it… Well he’d been the one who Ki’ai’en had given the money to, since Willow didn’t need it he would use it how he saw fit.
He sighed deeply, already regretting buying it without talking to her. She had as much right to the money as him. It was done now though, so he shouldn’t let it go to waste. A brief thought toward keeping watch flashed through his mind, but he dismissed it. He’d hear anything approaching anyway, as the forest was dead silent other than the rare snap and fall of a feather-branch.
He opened the packet and shifted on his rock, getting as comfortable as he could.
----------------------------------------
Madrick
Frazzlen Faction Dining Hall, Farcem City, Motrendi
Autopilot was more than sufficient for a dinner like this. The Frazzlen had requested he visit them for dinner, in particular to discuss compensation over two of their new recruits being “purloined” by his disciple. Never mind that Ki’ai’en had literally commanded them to follow her. Never mind they had followed of their own free will. Factions. Disgusting vulture nests. He ate, spoke, gave empty compliments, denied responsibility of anything they suggested he owed, and avoided murdering them all. All while paying no attention to them and instead reviewing his new disciple’s progress.
Although he had only been partially paying attention, Madrick still had a good time “supervising” his disciple. Although she hadn’t managed to get into nearly as much trouble as he’d hoped yet, he could tell she was starting to get stir crazy. He’d been pleasantly surprised to be alerted that his disciple had already hit the rank one milestone in the UICI “disciple protocol.”
It didn’t provide a lot of information regarding specifics, due to how strict the privacy restrictions were. Even the disciple protocol respected the majority of those, with the only major exception being a bird’s eye live-feed he could tap into at any time and a recording of the same. The feed was supposed to be to allow a master to ensure their disciple’s safety when separated. Most masters abused this to ensure their disciples obeyed their inane commands. Madrick would never abuse the system like that. He just used it as a source of entertainment.
His unquestionably spotless morality aside, Madrick was thrilled to see Willow had managed an insight, two mana aspects, and an ability. He had been right. She somehow already has a soul nexus. This was, as far as he and everyone he’d covertly interrogated knew, impossible. The fact that the disciple protocol’s timestamp for the milestones matched exactly with the disciple recording timestamps when she activated the same thing she’d used in the recruitment center and then against himself, confirmed she’d done the impossible. She came out of the tutorial with capabilities which put her squarely in the first rank.
Beyond that insanity by itself, her ability was unarguably powerful. He hadn’t been going easy on her when she struck him. He’d been legitimately doing his best to dodge everything she could possibly throw at him. Yet she had hit him. As a, now confirmed, tier one versus his tier twelve.
Her achievements must have been incredible to have been awarded that level of power immediately. He was downright excited to see what she did next. He continued to watch, and continued to not slay the fools asking to be destroyed.