Chapter 10: Hector – Awakening

Hector was trying to wrap his head around the rules of this strange place. “So… you can just. Ask? For… anything? And as long as you, what would you even call it? *Prove* yourself? You can, have it?”

The friendly man who was there when he woke up from his endless walk chuckled. “In theory, yes. In practice, well, don’t think it’s *anything*-anything. The guy before you, George? He thought of something pretty smart, but also pretty dumb, all things considered. He asked for Omnipotence of all things. Figured that even if it got bumped down to Rank I, it would still be the strongest Technique there is…”

Hector blinked. “Given that I’m not required to give tribute to George the Almighty, I’m guessing it didn’t take?”

Carl belly laughed. “Oh, oh George… The Almighty…. Oh I’m gonna have to tell him that one… ah, to answer your question, though, no. Asking for something that overwhelmingly strong seems to have some rather… negative side effects. Pretty much the second he asked, he collapsed to the ground, screaming, his nose bleeding… damn scary stuff, that was. I wasn’t sure he was gonna make it! But he eventually got up and said the normal voice or writing or what have you that comes with the Trials just, well, *screamed* at him. Hell of a thing, I tell you. He got better, thankfully. Long story short, you can ask for a lot of things, around here, but you can’t ask for *literally* anything.”

Hector gulped. “I, uh, guess so, yeah… any recommendations on what I *can* get, then?”

Carl looked thoughtful. “There’s basically 2 main ‘paths’ most people go down. And by ‘most’, I mean everyone but me and Erving. Adam and Frankie are, in Beth’s terms, ‘meatheads’. Warriors, basically. Adam uses a super-sharp one-handed sword to cut through things, while Frankie has a tremendously large two-handed sword to clobber anything that gets near her.”

Carl got a faraway look in his eyes. “She’s an impressive woman, that Frankie… where was I? Right, the two paths. There’s also Beth, and now George, who take things a little more defensively. They dodge around, waiting for the right moment to strike. Beth mostly uses bow and arrow, while George does some rather interesting martial arts moves. He has some interesting ideas about Technique Trials, but you’ll have to ask him about that.”

Hector counted on his fingers. “That’s… 2 ‘attack’ warriors, 2 ‘defense’ warriors, and then you said you and that Erving guy don’t count… didn’t you say there was someone else, too?

Carl grinned. “Didn’t realize my math was being tested! Yeah, Dee is a little bit, shall we say, indecisive. She tends to only do Trials after other people prove they’re doable. She got Dodge like Beth, a hand-me-down sword from Adam as opposed to doing a Trial for it, a near-exact copy of Frankie’s chestpiece – looks better on Frankie, though – and I think she juuust got Meditation like Edwin. And even that was based on something Beth said about ‘warrior-monk combat-trances’ or something along those lines.”

Hector nodded along. “Impressive. I guess you keep track of all the trials that have been taken, then?”

Carl raised an eyebrow. “I guess you could put it like that… though, it mostly comes down to me just taking an interest in what other people are doing. Not like there’s a lot else to take an interest *in*, around here. And, hey, Adam asked me to help the new people out where I can, so that’s another reason to keep tabs on them.”

Hector thought for a bit. “Hey, when you said George-“

“Carl? You there?”

Carl looked thrilled as an impressively tall woman with an impressively tall sword appeared from around a rocky outcropping. “Frankie! Aw, you didn’t come all this way just to see li’l old me, did you?”

Frankie gave a wry look. “Carl, you know as well as I do that it takes maybe 2 minutes to walk over here from the meeting area. The hardest part is remembering which piles of rocks are the important ones!”

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Without missing a beat, Carl picked up that thread: “And you did a certainly wonderful job of remembering! Now, tell me, is there something the matter? Or perhaps something that’s very much… *not* the matter? Should I tell Hector, here, to skedaddle?”

Frankie rolled her eyes, though Hector noted she was also smiling a bit. “Nothing like that… Adam asked me to tell you that Beth is back from… wherever she was.”

Hector was confused. “Carl, I thought you said no-one could leave here?”

Carl, however, was thrilled. “Ahh, I had heard Beth was getting ready to take the big plunge, but I didn’t know she had already done it! Darn, I didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye… I suppose there are downsides to always talking to the newest person around… Hector, when Adam took his Rank Up Trial, he apparently went to some other place for about an hour or so. He thought he might get to live there from then on, but he was forced back here afterwards. Beth is only the second person to rank up! Exciting times, my friend, exciting times! Let’s go!”

As Carl, Frankie, and Hector hurried over to an otherwise unremarkable plateau of black rock, Hector noticed that everyone Carl had mentioned seemed to already be gathered there. A man in armor, a nervous-looking girl, an older man who seemed to be only half paying attention… and in the center, a woman who was telling her story.

“So yeah, the meathead might have gotten a nice forest, but you know what? I think I got the better end of the deal! His forest is forgettable, it’s literally fucking called the Forgettable Forest, right Adam?

The man in armor chuckled. “ForgottEN Forest. I agree, though, it was no tropical paradise. The Windswept Isles sound beautiful.”

A man that Hector hadn’t noticed before stepped forward. “Yes, yes, I’m sure it was all pretty. But the Trial, what was it like? Adam said it’s based on your previous Trials, right? Aspects, I believe he said?”

The woman who must be Beth rolled her eyes and pushed the man back a little bit. “Easy there, guy. If you give me half a fucking second, I’ll tell you. I was just, you know, setting the scene a bit. But yeah, there were those three Aspect things that were based on the rewards of the Trials I had already done. Dodge, my bow, and Quick Draw. Nothing for my dagger or dagger technique, which was fine by me. The Trial was to shoot arrows at these targets while not getting killed by these little green archer bastards. Which is all well and good, until halfway through when the targets started fucking MOVING! Turns out, the rocks they were painted on were actually giant crab shells, and those shells had crabs in ‘em alright. Thankfully they didn’t move *too* fast, but they were quicker than they had any fucking right to be…”

The man, who was probably George, nodded along at her every word. “Incredible… a life form besides the ‘goblins’ that both you and Adam encountered. But neutral, not hostile. I wonder, are goblins always the enemies in these Trials? Did they set them up? Or perhaps some ancient enemy of theirs? Hmm, none of us seem to regard goblins in a positive light, so perhaps *humans* are-“

Beth sighed. “God, you are *exactly* the kind of fucking nerd I thought you were, ever since you tried to buy ‘Rank I Omnipotence’ and got slapped down at for it.”

George put his hand behind his head. “Ah, yeah, well… if it had worked, then I would be… yeah. Anyway. I’m glad your Rank Up Trial was a success. One, final question, then. Do you have the same kinds of Trials that Adam gained access to?”

Beth looked off into space for a little while. “Yuup, Practice, Enhancement, Group, and the Rank II versions of everything. Huh, and I guess my trial limit’s increased, too. Guess I’ll have to figure out what to go for….”

George had a glint in his eyes. “You should try a Rank II Technique! If we can narrow down what the strongest allowable-“

“Ohhh no, not a chance in any kind of hell will I risk being screamed at in my mind. You wanna try, even after it happened the first time? Be my guest, just fucking Rank Up yourself.”

George almost seemed like he was… pouting? “…but if I Rank Up with incomplete information, then I-“

Beth shook her head. “Then you’ll be like the fucking rest of us. ‘Incomplete information’ is how things work around here, get used to it. Nerd.” After that, she walked away from the plateau, not responding to any of George’s further inquiries.

Carl patted Hector on the back. “Wellll wasn’t that interesting? Beth and George are great people… on their own… they just get on each other’s nerves a bit. But, hey, didn’t you hear that first bit? Do five Trials, and then you might end up in a beautiful forest or a tropical paradise! Wanna bet on who’s going to be the next person to Rank Up? I bet Frankie, ohhh I bet she’ll get to go somewhere GREAT! Wish you could take people with you on those adventures, maybe when Adam goes up to Rank III it’ll let him? Assuming Frankie doesn’t get there before him! Ohh, lemmie tell ya, the sky’s the *limit* in this place! Well, really the mist is the limit, but we don’t really mess with that stuff. Oh, that reminds me-“

As Hector gently tuned out the exuberant man next to him, he thought about what he had learned. Yes, wrapping one’s head around the rules of this place would be difficult… and working with an endless stream of new people would perhaps be even moreso. But… it did seem possible. And for now? That was good enough for Hector.