The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
> But I mentioned not one, but two groups who fall into this inaccurate belief. The second group are those who arrive from highly magical worlds. Their thoughts and assumptions are, perhaps, more grounded in reality. Many tutorial worlds include so-called magic systems.
>
> These are smaller, perhaps parody, versions of Universal Laws. Consider a tutorial world wherein growth through cultivation is possible. Upon arriving within the real world, it is understandable that they will draw parallels. In fact, these parallels do exist in truth. However, in all cultivation tutorial worlds one mechanic is certain: once a cultivator has advanced through a rank, they will never return to a ‘lesser’ one. Learned or will-based magic systems are similar in that once a being has achieved the use of a spell or magical art, they will never lose it.
>
> This is not the case in reality. Here in the real world, concepts may be warped or even broken. Insights may weaken or even shatter. The most obvious example of this “loss” of advancement is the complete restart which a respawn initiates. All insights are wiped from a being’s soul. All spells they learned are lost, every ability is scrubbed from the shell, the being’s new body is formed without any skills they’d earned.
Luzzi
TeleP-Comute Hub, Farcem City, Motrendi
The previous week and a few days brought to mind the first couple years of Luzzi’s own entrance into the world. Though, her tutorial had prepared her for a much more violent and less civilized world than Willow’s had. Talking with the human, she’d learned that the never-ending bureaucracy, currency based economy, and political maneuvering were all what she considered ‘normal’ and even ‘expected.’
Yet, somehow, the girl was the wild one between the two of them. It was becoming increasingly clear to Luzzi, to her dismay, that she’d been domesticated. On her home tutorial of Sochra, where she and all of her kin might die in a moment if their care and stealth failed them, she’d been canny and wily.
She’d been a leader of her people, an innovator. She’d discovered the application of uscurri paste to lay traps for the prime predator of the world, the sorcharas for which the planet was named. The tribes had met in peace for the first time in anyone’s memory to share secrets and in particular learn from her. It was a pivotal time in their history, she was certain. Though, she’d never seen past the turning point itself. Instead, she’d been ambushed and assassinated. The irony was, she wasn’t certain whether it was a rival paavaras who took her life, or one of the sorchara themselves. If it was the later, perhaps they were more intelligent and vindictive than anyone knew.
“Yer so cute, thinkin’ you’ll rip me off.” Willow’s ‘I’m about to punch you’ voice broke in. Another oddity of the only human she’d consider, maybe, calling a friend. The brighter her smile, the sweeter her tone, the more likely she was about to bring violence. In many ways, she reminded Luzzi of one of the more savage paavaras from the ever-clear planes tribes. They too bared their teeth and laughed to intimidate their prey and rivals.
Blustering, the large mvalos waved its many tentacles. Being a cousin to the common slime, or ooze, mvalos used their malleable body to take on whatever figure suited them. This one was a off-blue, but still as transparent as anything within its genus, and had taken the basic form of a humanoid with tens of tentacles. The tentacles might have been purely formed for utility, but Luzzi suspected it was a subtle form of intimidation as many beings instinctively feared beings with many limbs. Too many of them were believed to be in some way related to the Outsiders.
Besides failing, the slimy vendor burbled an angry response from the area around its smooth head-area, its gelatinous skin rippling to produce the sound. “While I appreciate being called cute… While you stand there accusing me… While I offer you a gracious deal!”
“You offered to give me ‘unique information’ about the sheerna rift. In exchange for my weapons.” Willow waved the high quality finger-less gloves she was wearing. A casual observer might assume them to be a fashion statement, especially given the overall monster material imperial-chic style her armor choice mostly exuded. The pseudopod covered mvalos certainly wasn’t a casual observer. It had an aura of strength around it which made Luzzi suspect it was a Ranker. Her soul sense wasn’t as strong as it had once been, having not fully re-developed it after dying, but it was still enough to keep her out of trouble. She considered whether she should try to train Willow in soul sensing, it might keep her from picking fights she shouldn’t.
“While this is true… While I was unaware of your glove’s status as a weapon….” The tentacles moved in a shrug-like manner.
Willow’s scent was amused rather than truly angry, so Luzzi felt no need to actually warn her of the danger this seemingly harmless vendor might pose. She didn’t think she’d actually pick a fight while waiting in line for their scheduled teleport to activate. Most beings were talking, moving about, peddling wares, and being otherwise active as they waited. Many beings were likely waiting on this kilometer square teleportation pad simply for the business.
Their destination being the planet Shee, most of the beings here were traveling for Sheerna in one sense or another. They might be going to run the first, as they were, or they might be going to seek fortune in a rift city. Many were likely even going simply to join other adventurers in patrolling the wilds in the hopes they’d find a child rift or something else of interest. The planet hadn’t been fully mapped yet, after all. Like all rift worlds, it was left to appropriately ranked adventurers to discover the secrets of the planet. A god could have traveled to the planet, scanned it, and learned all there was to know about it. However, they had better things to do. It was more economical to simply leave it to their factions or orders to collect anything of interest.
It was clear Willow was going to let the mvalos’ lie pass in favor of bartering for whatever information they had. Luzzi had heard her uncrossing her arms from over the sweet-smelling leather she was wearing. Before she could sniff out the deal, Ravavka interjected casually. “Mvalos are all like that, they lie and cheat. Don’t bother with that thing, Willow.”
The scent of the woman’s amusement faded. Luzzi had noticed before how much she disliked generalizations of species. In particular, negative ones. The subtle movements and creaks of her gear told Luzzi that Willow had turned to stare at Ravavka. Likely glaring. Unfortunately, Willow had no tail she could lash to show her anger, so Luzzi could only assume based on her knowledge of standard humanoid body language.
“That’s rude, Rav.” She said coldly, then turned back to the mvalos with a more honest smile, “Anyway, how about we trade information for information?”
Hesitating, all but two of the tentacles merged with the slimy main body. The remaining two turned smoothly into proper arms with hands, one of which it used to rub it’s friction-less chin. “While this sounds acceptable, while I wonder whether your information is of similar value.”
“Of course it is!” Ravavka poked his nose in, “Hers will be real, yours will be a lie.” He snickered as best he could, though he clearly wasn’t feeling that amused.
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Although her shoulders tensed for a moment, Willow continued to ignore his prodding. She knew he was trying to get a rise out of her, he’d been doing so at every opportunity recently. After she’d snapped at an overly-friendly vampire who had tried to touch her butt without permission while they were out on the town, Ravavka had been trying to recreate the chaos it had caused. Of course he’d want to start another full scale mob against them while they were confined to a teleportation pad.
Twisting her mana just-so, Luzzi created the illusion of Ravavka which manifested snugly around the real version. She pressed upon her mana, stretching her intents and their linking concepts to force the illusion to absorb all sound within its confines, while also remaining tightly wrapped around Ravavka. His next incendiary words were muted to nothing and Willow continued her negotiation in peace.
As it happened, they ended up agreeing to a trade which Luzzi thought was slightly slanted in the mvalos’ favor. It sent Willow its information on the dungeon, while she sent it a pristine picture of Madrick looking surprised.
Once the exchange had been made, the two parted and Willow forwarded it over to Luzzi. The information was quite interesting, at least. It was a single line of text, but still worth the price, “Shee is no longer owned by the Orcish Federation Faction. It’s been purchased by the Summer Court.”
Moments after reading those words, the teleportation array activated. Without even a hint of a sensation, their position in space was swapped with the space above the sister array at their destination.
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Jonah
Flight Deck Personal Airlock, Central Bridge, Wesnmen’s Coallition Trading Barge
Two humans, six goblins, and an Avron stood within the quarantine gate between airlock doors. “They couldn’t find the bar.” Jonah sent to Naomi through the ‘whisper’ channel he’d figured out how to use. He’d been trying to figure out how to talk to Naomi - Prism - without being overheard for a while. It had only really clicked when he’d stopped trying to complicate things with reasons and negotiation with his own system.
The revelation had actually come when he was thinking about his code-name. He’d been thinking that being called ‘System’ while also having a system was maybe a bit too on the nose. That had led him to thinking about his second insight, the one which had clicked but hadn’t done anything as far as he could tell. He’d really started considering what it meant, ‘The game isn’t everything’. For him, the most obvious part had been what caused him to have the epiphany in the first place, levels didn’t necessarily translate to combat power. It didn’t know everything.
Upon further exploration, he’d realized that he wasn’t fully captured and represented by the system, either. His personality, his thought process, it wasn’t all there. If someone was given his character sheet, they’d know next to nothing about him. Despite having the system’s entire dossier on him. Finally, he’d realized that his first insight wasn’t about having a system, and his second hadn’t either. They were about the world being a ‘game’, and ‘the game’ lacking something.
So what existed beyond the world? He did. People did, consciousnesses, souls, whatever. The system did, too. Because he was the system, it was at least in part his interpretation of what a world which was a game would look like. Likely a hold-over from reading too many web novels and playing too many MMOs. Games could be anything, though. It was based on their designer, not restricted to floating windows and stats sheets. That had been the final bit of realization he’d needed to simply change the system a bit. He’d created a private messaging system. It had taken him several days to figure out how to get it all working, as he couldn’t just ‘make it so’. Games, and the systems that interfaced with them, had to be designed with intention. Not just manifested. The entire process had lead him to wonder how the ‘base’ system that he’d just been given had come to be. He definitely didn’t design it. But someone had to.
Besides the existential questions and philosophy the entire thing had brought him, Jonah was satisfied with what he’d accomplished. He didn’t think Naomi had even realized he had been using the private version of the channel off and on until they’d been partied with Chaven and he’d used it to exclude the bird-man.
“Everyone ready?” Prism’s voice broke through Jonah’s wandering thoughts. She’d ignored his poor attempt at a joke. It was something he had begun to appreciate about the woman, if she was missing context or didn’t understand something that was clearly a joke, she’d just ignore it. It felt way better than the awkward silence as people tried to understand a joke badly conceived or executed.
“Yes, yes!” Chaven’s grating voice chirped.
“Let’s go!” Jaxa agreed.
Taking a deep breath, Jonah pushed his mind into ‘System’ mode. Forcing himself to view the world from a distance. Without even really meaning to, he slipped into RTS View. “Ready.”
Stating, “Enforce contract: Page six, section A.2, subsection 1.1”, Chaven tapped a wing tip over the door opening button. The many slabs of heavy metal which comprised the air-tight door hissed as they rotated and pulled away, vacating the center to grant passage.
The scene within was grim. A huge orc was sitting in the captain’s chair, which swiveled from its forward observation position toward the invading force. Behind the orc, System could see the lower floor which the captain’s chair oversaw. Below, all of the flight command controls were manned by goblins which were chirping back and forth to each other. They seemed entirely unaware their captain had been replaced.
Thanks to his over-head view, System instantly spotted what had become of the ship’s captain. He was bound and laying unconscious in a partially closed closet. It seemed the orc had knocked him out and bound him before haphazardly tossing his unconscious body into a closet and hadn’t bothered to make sure the door had closed properly.
“I was unaware goblins had the wisdom to provide their warriors with a way to bypass security ship lockdowns.” While she spoke in a shockingly smooth and seductive tone, the orc stood. Every single orc they’d fought and killed had been huge, but this one’s head nearly brushed the ceiling three meters above.
Her entire body was covered in twisting tattoos which invoked the sense of nature, rage, battle, and savagery. While he couldn’t comprehend even a single line of the complex intermix of black ink on red skin, those impressions were strong.
She was in what System could only describe as tribal-punk gear. A savage headdress sat on her brow. It appeared to be made of computer chips and industrial metal cut and shaped into delicate feathers which even swayed with the orc’s movement. In the center of the mess of delicate circuit boards was a black gyroscope which seemed to glow, emitting a dark purple light.
While the feathery crown was the most striking aspect of her wardrobe, that was not to say the rest wasn’t eye catching. Most of the orc’s skin was exposed, allowing anyone to trace the intricate patterns inscribed on her body. Simple wrappings tightly squeezing her breasts, covering the center of each grand orb while pulling them close together. The wrap seemed more intended to keep them from getting in the way than to preserve modesty, as they were made of some kind of semi-transparent material. If it hadn’t been a ridiculous notion, System would assume it was glass. It moved and shifted with her body far too well for that to be true, though. Even so, the view through the material proved that the ink on her body did, indeed, cover it fully.
Finally, the skirt she wore. It seemed to be made of robot bits and pieces. Arms, legs, servos, wires. All interwoven in a strange display of brutal craftsmanship. System assumed the heavy looking metal which comprised the skirt provided significant armor, if only through sheer material mass.
Looking down on her from above, System still felt intimidated by her tusk-forward grin.
☠️ - [LVL 60 |Hell Spawn Troll-ling|Mage]
The little skull and cross bones before the tag hovering over the orc wasn’t a good sign. While the system was as devoid of tool-tips as always, System assumed it either meant she was a boss monster, or that the system considered her level too high for System to have a whisper of a chance at defeating her. Either could be true.
“We don’t!” Jaxa yelled, shivering in either fury or fear. Possibly both. “Goblin lockdowns are absolute, no one is exempt!” Her little chin was lifted, trying to stare into the blazing silver eyes of the orcish shaman.
“Level sixty, Hell Spwan Troll-ling Mage, there’s a skull by the tag.” System sent to the entire party, which included himself, Jaxa, Chaven, and Prism. It was much more expensive with this many people. He’d wanted to pull all nine of them in, but simply didn’t have the mana for so many. It would cost him 47 mana per minute to have all nine of them, or twenty mana per second for four. He’d thought his one hundred GSM, which was the mana pool used for the party, was pretty good. Now he was wondering if he should invest more into the GSM stat when he got his next level.
“She’s a shaman, she shouldn’t be that strong away from nature!” Jaxa chimed in.
“Her outfit seems to indicate she’s plenty comfortable away from nature.” Prism disagreed.
Chavan’s voice was much more grim than System had heard it thus far, “Bad, bad. She is a ranker. At least rank ten, perhaps higher. Yes.”
“Mmmm, my new thralls appear startled by my majesty. An appropriate reaction. Prostrate yourselves, and I will have mercy.” The pleasantly smooth bass of the shaman’s voice reverberated pleasantly in System’s mind and he wondered if he should just do as she said.