The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
> Rank 6 - 9
>
> Similar to ranks 2-5, 6-9 are somewhat unordered milestones. These milestones are all about deepening and broadening one’s insights.
>
> The sixth through ninth ranks are categorized by accomplishing each of the following (one per rank).
>
> * Refinine an insight
> * Expand an insight
> * Combine two or more insights into one
> * Link all held insights conceptually
>
> Note: The final milestone is one which is “retractable.” Meaning it’s possible to achieve the milestone, then lose it later when forming a new insight. For this reason, most scholars and progression experts advise you form all of your insights prior to progressing past rank nine. We will explore further within the individual discussion of what each milestone means below.
Jonah
Kobold Trading Clearing, Savriâ
QUEST: LITIGATION MITIGATION!
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Survive meeting the Frazzlen(F) lawyer!
Reward: 4000xp
One foot tapping rapidly, Jonah glanced at the quest prompt for about the millionth time since waking up to it this morning. The vague, yet ominous, message had put a damper on what had promised to be an exciting day. It had been a week and a day since Willow’s death, and he and Naomi were finally getting the opportunity to leave planet Savriâ. Since the unexpectedly mutual destruction of the culmination of Willow and the final form pop-hopper, things had been incredibly boring.
There was a portion of the boredom which likely came from a lack of Willow’s vibrant energy, shenanigans, and drive to go do things. Though, honestly, Jonah suspected the larger part of it was a lack of anything interesting to pursue or find. Since the pop-hoppers were gone, there was essentially nothing of note on the planet. There was a grand total of fifteen flora varieties on Savriâ. After having been shown how to find the most elusive, the only thing left of note were the sunsquat trees. They certainly had some incredible applications and some magic scholar would find the tree interesting, mostly due to the sunchild stones. However, Jonah didn’t know enough to have any clue where to start on trying to figure those things out. Therefore, they were a mildly interesting mystery which was well outside of his ability to delve.
Given the absolute lack of anything interesting to do, Jonah had been excited for what the kobolds called ‘trades day’. Primarily due to the promise of escaping this never-changing planet. Skeetha and Halshath had suggested he and Naomi stay several times, praising their quick progress through the ranks and promising additional training in both soul nexus development and a craft of their choice. Had he still been wheelchair bound, there was a very good chance Jonah would have accepted without further thought. After all, with extremely limited mobility and poor sight he’d grown used to seeing and doing more or less the same things day in and day out.
Things were different now. He found that he’d started pacing. A habit he’d picked up some time between returning with the kobolds to their camp and a few days ago. He wasn’t really sure the exact day it had started, but it was a difficult tick to kick. He just started moving while distracted. Because his effortless movement passive ability made walking cost literally no effort, he didn’t even notice until he exited whatever thoughts he’d lost himself in. That was another new habit. Without Willow there to chat, or anything really interesting to do, Jonah found himself thinking more and more. Losing himself in his own mind. Not that he wasn’t being productive, far from it. He was pretty much training.
Forcing his feet to stop, a plume of dust rose as his feet suddenly dug into the soft, dry, dirt marking the several square kilometers clearing they were waiting at the edge of. Glancing toward Naomi, he saw her staring up, waiting to see the shuttle that the kobolds had warned them to expect. The cold blankness in her eyes was still there, but beneath it was something subtly different. Since Willow died there seemed to be a depth to her gaze. If he studied her for long enough he could see a deep mix of sadness and determination. He didn’t like studying people’s eyes, so when Naomi met his eyes and nodded, he found himself staring at her nose and nodding back.
Autonomously returning to his task of nervously pacing without properly noticing, Jonah pulled up his status as a way to occupy himself.
JONAH LOCKE
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Level: 9 Experience: 10,013.10…/12,143.71…
RESOURCES
GSM (Gaming Systems Mana) 77/90 MP (Mana Points) 39/39 [ (28 - 2)-> 42-3 (Effortless Movement)] Stamina 110/110
ATTRIBUTES
Body Strength 10 Dexterity (Macro/Micro) 7/6 Agility (10)-> 13 Resilience 10 Endurance 13 Perception (11)-> 12 Mind Memory 13 Processing 16 Ideation 11 Spirit Ego 8 Will 11 Resolve 12 Focus (20)-> 21 Presence 4 Connection 3 Soul
Note: Insight and related mana aspects lack conceptual linkage with the soul. This section cannot be managed by your ‘Gaming (life is) System’ ability.
SPELLS
* Predator Vision [Buff] - 2 MP
* Trick [Debuff] - 3 MP
* Creature Comforts [Utility] - 10 MP
* HP Siphon [Debuff] - 5 MP
* Haste
ABILITIES
* Gaming (life is) System
* Overwatch (User Tag: RTS View)
* Party Up
* Character Interface
* Settlment/Camp Interface
* … ?
* Effortless Movement
* Simulate
The previously stiff and unbending system had recently conceded somewhat to Jonah’s desire to mark the most recent stats he had invested in. He’d found it annoying to have to refer to his UICI journal to keep track of his stats before and after, it seemed like his system should have more capabilities built in. It was still stubbornly against the idea of being truly useful. The thing was more a glorified spreadsheet than some all-powerful game system. So much for having a ‘GameLIT’ insight. He grumbled internally.
Despite being frustrated at the seemingly terrible and inflexible design of the system his insight had saddled him with, Jonah was more than happy with his level progress. He’d gained an entire two levels for his part in the battle against the titanous entities which had spawned through the odd magical ritual which combined thousands of pop-hoppers.
If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
A soft whirring noise caught Jonah’s attention and his head snapped toward it. Upwards. Floating gracefully down from the still confusingly gentle orange-red sky was what looked like a large wooden raft. Just a simple, no-frills raft. Jonah licked his lips as he focused, pushing his sight and over the head tagging to give him details. [LVL 82|Avron|Utility (*Quest Character!)]. Seeing the regal plumage of what looked to be some kind of brightly colored bird-man. He sent a mental message to Naomi, who he already had party chat running with. “The bird guy is the lawyer my quest is warning me about. He’s level eighty two.”
Suddenly, his level eight wasn’t looking so impressive. Naomi was level nine as well. Between the two of them, they were still nowhere near this apparent opponent. The only thing reason Jonah could think of for a Frazzlen enforcer to be tracking them down was to enforce their contract with the faction. Since Willow had died, they hadn’t been meeting the terms of their contract. A problem which the UICI had been annoyingly persistent in reminding them of. Given the threatening quest and the UICI complaints, Jonah and Naomi had both spent some time going over the revised contract that Ki’ai’en had offered them as replacements to their originals. The contract was a total of five pages long and didn’t include a lot of fluff, making it easy enough to understand the details.
Jonah’s problem was a lack of background on standard legal practices in this world. On Earth, he would have been somewhat confident of his rights and what he should expect. Not so much here. Unfortunately, the kobolds didn’t have any lawyers or legal experts, as all of them hated bureaucracy and red tape. They preferred a simple life, as illustrated by their decision to come to this boring backwater planet and just exist with very few opportunities, responsibilities, or social obligations.
What advice they’d been able to glean had essentially boiled down to what the kobolds had hesitantly called a “good faith effort” expectation. A few of them had been in legal trouble during their stints working for their various factions, orders and guilds. One of the things they all vaguely remembered was that there was some kind of standard understanding or legal agreement that if a contract didn’t specifically specify a time range to complete a task, it fell to the contract holder to act in good faith and put forth their best effort. If the contract holder felt they were being stiffed or sandbagged, the contract holder had the right to enforcement. The enforcement was different based on the contract itself.
In Jonah and Naomi’s case, Ki’ai’en’s imprecise terms might be a problem. The enforcement clause stated any authorized faction authority could, “determine an appropriate method of motivation to incentive proper attendance to the assigned task.” Thankfully, there was another clause, actually an entire page, which specified that they could not be assigned to any other task by anyone unless either Madrick or Willow specifically complained about their quality of service. From what he’d seen of the man, Jonah suspected Madrick might do something like that as a laugh. Willow, on the hand, wouldn’t complain unless they did something truly horrendous. Even then… Would she? If it was bad enough she thought about it, I feel like she’d just ‘take care of’ us herself…
Noticing the raft was near to landing, Jonah put the question of Willow’s willingness to dish out punishment out of his mind. Instead, he focused on the Avron lawyer, who was now easily within range to make out details. As had been the initial impression, it was a bird person. They wore what looked like a skirt, or maybe kilt, around their waist. It fell far enough that Jonah was willing to classify it more as a skirt, as it obscured their shins . Three long, sharp, talons poked straight out from under the silver material’s fringe. Another talon jutted out from another angle, a perfect match to what Jonah might have imagined a man-sized bird of prey would have.
The lawyer’s upper body was wrapped in what kind of looked like coloured gauze, soft oranges, yellows, and reds. The wraps appeared varied in their tautness, with some areas seeming snug, while others hung loosely. The entire body-covering seemed to be an attempt to somewhat reproduce the look of a bird’s plumage, without sacrificing modesty. Weird, if it’s a bird then it’s probably not a mammal, right? Why would it be worried about upper body modesty? Maybe it’s just a culture thing?
Despite the odd clothing and sharp looking talons, the head and face were certainly the most shocking. A sleek ball-like head covered in sleek black hair, or perhaps down feathers, was framed by a sharply hooked beak which transitioned from black to pink like it had been dipped in paint halfway down its length. At the point where the beak connected into the head, a large loose bit of orange flesh flopped obscenely. The eyes on either side were ringed in bright crimson red, with turquoise irises and highly dilated sharp black pupils. Just below the eyes were fleshy white tube-like bits which wrapped in an oddly slack manner around to the back of their head.
Finally, the head was connected to the body with a neck which appeared painted in shades of sunset, with bright yellows and reds which led down into a thick mane-like plumage which somewhat called to mind a boa which might be wrapped around some model on a runway.
Red-ringed eyes focused on Jonah as the Avron turned their head to scan the area. While the eyes were more toward the sides of their head, they were far enough forward that they had no trouble both focusing on a distant point. Currently, Jonah found himself as that distant point. Then its gaze moved on, locking on Naomi. Given they were the only two non-kobolds in attendance, it was certain the lawyer had no trouble ascertaining who they were here for.
Taking a fortifying breath, Jonah strode forward. Before he was really ready, he stood near enough he could easily converse with the passengers on the raft. The raft which was, exactly that. There was absolutely nothing special about the thing, so far as he could tell. Before he could get a word out, though, Halshath spoke from his right. The grizzled kobold had arrived at the same time and took charge with the ease of habit.
“Welcome to Savriâ! The feathereds lands tribe welcomes their trading partners!” He gave a deep nod, which was the kobold equivalent of a polite bow. When Jonah had asked, one of the kobolds had explained that if they tried to bow they would over-balance and fall head first. That wouldn’t quite make the impression they were going for, so they had to compromise with the longer deep nod.
“My friends!” Called a boisterous, short, green woman as she rushed off of the raft. She took Halshath’s hand and shook it vigorously, then spun in a quick search and ran off to catch Skeetha who was still several steps away. Grabbing her hand with just as much excitement, she pumped her arm excitedly.
“I bring with me many many things of goodness! We will never ever ever be so fortituoudnacious again!” Jonah scratched at his ear as he watched, wondering if the UICI really messed up that badly. What the bloody hell does forti-tu-da… Whatever she said… mean?
Skeetha chucked and began to chat with the green lady with the solemnity which Jonah had come to expect of her.
“You’re the lawyer, then?” Naomi’s voice caught Jonah off guard. She’d arrived while he’d been distracted by the odd reunion between the trader - goblin? - and the kobolds. Is that 21 in focus just for show? He berated himself before turning to see how the Avron replied.
The answering voice was clearly male, though on the higher end and slightly nasal. “Yes, yes! Have you received a message in warning of my coming, then? Also, also, I do so appreciate the archaic term you chose! It’s been so so long since anyone addressed me as such! Most would call me an enforcer, yes!”
Eyes flicking for a brief moment toward Jonah, she answered evenly, “Something like that. We believe you’re here due to the unexpected and uncontrolled circumstances which separated us from our client?” Nice, way more focused than me. I’d have got distracted by that archaic term comment. Seriously, what’s that focus score good for?
Calling Willow a client felt weird, but it was how their contract referred to her. So they’d decided this was the best approach. They’d also decided Naomi should do the talking, as she had a much better chance of not losing her cool. Better known as not freaking out… Legal stuff is terrifying. Memories of back and forth correspondence between his mother and some law office, visits from attorneys, they were an unpleasant memory. Those nights had always been the worst for Jonah’s younger self. Full of drawn out silence, though his mother always said she was fine. Looking back, Jonah realized he’d believed her. Which was why those dinners had been so bad. They’d been so confusing to him. If she was fine now, then what was she normally?
Shaking the unexpected thoughts, Jonah focused back on the conversation. Thankfully, the flash of memory had been sharp and fast.
“I am, I am. It sounds as though you’re already aware of your violation of the contract and prepared to submit yourselves for enforcement? I’ll certainly levy a reduced sentence as a reward for your prompt acceptance, yes!” The bird-face was smiling. With no lips, no actual facial motion at all, it was somehow smiling.
“We are happy to inform you that no enforcement will be necessary. We are acting in good faith, putting forth our best effort to remedy the situation.” Came a rehearsed sounding reply. They hadn’t rehearsed it, so Jonah wasn’t sure how she’d pulled that off. Or why.
“Oh. Oh! I’m afraid that’s not up for you to decide! You see, I have been dispatched to meet out justice for your transgression, yes, yes!” The plumage bristled and fluttered.
A moment of hesitation, the Naomi stepped up onto the raft and sat down. Jonah frowned at her, but she just waved for him to follow. He did, sitting beside her and giving her a concerned look. She answered calmly as the bird looked down at them like curious scraps of carrion, “If you do, you’ll be interfering in our ability to fulfill the terms of our contract.”
“What, what? How? Explain! Now, now!” A quick tilt, then a single red ringed eye stared down.
Naomi shrugged, “Page three section A.2. states, ‘The contractee must follow, to the best of their abilities, the directions presented by their client. Outside interference shall be opposed heavily.’ Then page six C.1, under secondary enforcement, it says, ‘In the event the contractee is made unable to follow the orders of their client, the perpetrator(s) of said event shall be remedied by a faction enforcer.’” With an exaggerated smile that didn’t meet her eyes, Naomi finished, “So it sounds like if you interfere with us following Willow’s instructions, another enforcer will have to come ‘remedy’ the situation. Or would you have to remedy yourself?”
The bird head twitched from side to side, switching between which eye it looked down at them with for a while, then it seemed to lose patience and shrieked, “Tell me! Tell me! No more holding back! What was the instruction?”
Jonah smiled as Naomi finished dryly, “She said, ‘After we take out these giants we’re gonna party! If something weird happens, like Madrick decides to teleport me away again or something, take care of yourselves! Stay safe guys!’”
“Proof! Proof! I demand evidence!” The Avron, who Jonah realized still hadn’t introduced himself, demanded. “We can send you the recording from our UICI, I think. If you can tell us how.”
“Yes, yes! I’ll explain! But, but! Why are you sitting there?”
Waving her hand in a kind of nebulous gesture, Naomi answered, “You looked really tense and ready to jump on us, I thought sitting down would help you relax and let us finish.”
That sent a shock through Jonah. He hadn’t noticed that the enforcer had been tense. Shite, my survival skills are… Well, shite.
“Oh! Oh! Yes, I was planning to eat you both! It’s been so long since I had human!” He preened happily.