64 – Guide Session

When Andy woke the next morning, he was one of the first to stir in the big cavern—a habit that seemed to have formed despite his wishes to the contrary. He didn’t let it bother him, though; he’d fallen asleep early, and he’d told himself that if there was time, he’d study the Lurikeen ring before getting tied up with other responsibilities. Whatever he’d planned, though, it seemed the System thought he needed more to think about, because while he’d been sleeping, it had delivered his reward for reaching a peace agreement with the Lurikeens. At least, he assumed that was what he was looking at as he blinked into the dim light.

The package was conspicuous—a small box, about the size of one made to hold a ring, wrapped in bright silver paper that glittered in the distant lamplight as though it captured and amplified it. The thing was right beside his pillow, so he couldn’t have missed it anyway. Andy was warm and comfortable, and the cavern was chilly. More importantly, Lucy was snuggled up against his back, so he really didn’t want to move. That said, he unzipped his sleeping bag just enough to let his arms free and then he pulled the package closer, surprised at its extreme lightness.

He found a seam in the paper wrapping the box and slid his thumbnail into it, gently tugging until he unfolded all the perfectly pressed corners. He set the square of fancy paper aside and looked at the tiny box in his palm. It was made of a very light, pale wood, and when he turned it over, he found words inscribed on the bottom: Guide Summoning Pearl.

When Andy read the word “guide,” his mind jumped to the early days of the apocalypse and the orb of glowing light that had spoken to him when he’d established the settlement. Along with the memory came a wave of resentment when he recalled how frustrating it had been to get so few answers and to have his time cut so short. He closed his eyes, debating whether he should open the box. If it summoned the guide right away, he’d need to know exactly what to ask it—how best to manage the time.

That said, he lay there for several minutes, contemplating the many questions he and his fellow survivors had with regard to the System, mana, and the greater world of magic that seemed to exist far beyond just their newly changed world. He tried to organize his thoughts and prioritize his interests, and then, when he couldn’t stand the pressure and curiosity another minute, he cracked open the little box to reveal a shimmering, marble-sized pearl that glowed with a faint blue light.

Nothing happened as he gazed upon the pearl, so Andy took it out, marveling at the waves of simultaneous coolness and warmth it sent into his fingers. Even as he tried to wrap his head around the sensation, the world around him faded. The darkness brightened, and he found himself lying on a featureless, flat, gray plane. A glowing orb of yellow-orange light floated into his vision from…somewhere, and then a pleasant, feminine voice said, “Hello, Andy.”

Andy quickly pushed himself into a seated position, cleared his throat and said, “Hello, um, how much time do we have?”

“I am Guide 1092Y211.” It pulsed softly for a moment, then said, “Ah, I see. Your previous encounter with Guide 7643X006 has left you concerned about time limitations. Understandable. Rest assured that we have time for a lengthier conversation; the System has seen fit to reward you with this visitation—your previous guide session was granted as a standard benefit to a new settlement leader, and was much more constrained.”

Andy breathed a sigh, the list of topics that crowded for attention in his mind falling into a more stately arrangement. “That’s a relief.”

“Before we begin, I should let you know why the System has seen fit to award you with this exceptional opportunity.”

“Um, okay.” Andy shifted, getting more comfortable. He looked behind him, wondering if Lucy had noticed his sudden absence. Was he absent, or was he just having some kind of hallucination?

“As you know, based on the logs of your previous guide session, the System is the product of Architects and it exists with the purpose of helping sapient beings to achieve ascension. As such, the System operates in a generally benevolent fashion, aiming to further opportunities for all beings under its influence. However, it works to steer more opportunities toward those who repeatedly achieve success. You can think of this as a sort of hedging of bets, or perhaps a better analogy is to compare it to investing in a winning product.”

Andy had a dozen questions, but he just nodded and said, “Uh-huh.”

“Well, the System is not

omnipotent, and it is not alone in its attempts to influence sapient creatures. You recently had an encounter with one of the other influential forces in the universe, one which is quite at odds with the System and the Architects who built it: the Fae. The System only recently ran afoul of the Faewild, which is the dimension on which the Fae operate—a parallel plane that hasn’t spread beyond a few worlds, but which has tremendous potential for chaos.”

“So, the Fae are at war with the System?”

“Not exactly at war, Andy, but definitely at odds. They refuse the System’s influence, and the power they’ve gathered over millennia in the Faewild is sufficient to deny the System access.”

Andy tilted his head, suddenly feeling a little more respect for the Lurikeens and their kind. They were doing their own thing, and the System couldn’t mess with them. Had he made a mistake? He shook his head, remembering what the Lurikeens had been planning. Bella had made clear to him they’d dodged a massive bullet when he’d stopped the Redcap invasion.

Even as his mind wrestled with doubt, the guide kept speaking: “You won an important victory against the Fae; the mana that has enriched your world thinned the nebulous membrane between our universe and the Faewild, and they’ve made several crossings and had encounters with many people under the System’s influence—you were the first to come out of such an encounter so…cleanly.”

“And that’s why I get to speak to you?”

“Correct.”

Andy decided to voice one of his immediate concerns: “If the Fae are powerful enough to resist the System and they’ve been a part of human history for thousands of years, then why should we side with the System?”

“An excellent question, Andy. The System has, in fact, spent considerable resources looking into the Fae and evaluating the possibility that they might be a more beneficial influence on your world. Unfortunately, the conclusion it arrived at was a resounding no. The Fae are self-interested, chaotic, and have no desire to elevate your kind, nor any of the other peoples that exist outside of the Faewild. While they are a diverse people, they are all Fae, and any others are treated as playthings, slaves, or food.”

The guide stopped pulsing, and Andy got the feeling it felt it had said enough on the topic. “And the System doesn’t play with us?”

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“Not without the end goal of improving the general odds for ascension.”

“Huh.” Andy’s mind wandered to the Laukin and their town. When the vermin invaded, the System had brought them into a dungeon instance and influenced the behavior of the vermin. Was that a benevolent act? He supposed it was for the Laukin, but certainly not for the vermin. “The System shows favorites, though.”

“Did I not say as much earlier? The System hedges its bets. If it thinks one person or group of people has greater odds at ascension, it will tilt the scales.”

“So, it doesn’t like vermin?”

“Ah.” The guide pulsed for several seconds. “The System does not dislike vermin species, but it understands that their growth trajectory does not tend toward any sort of ascension, but rather consumption, desolation, and decline.”

Andy shifted, looking around the featureless plane. “Are we still good on time?”

“Yes, but before we get into other topics, there’s a bit more to say about the Fae—a word of caution direct from the System.”

“Yeah?”

“Yes. As I said, the membrane, or veil as the Fae dub it, has thinned with the propagation of mana in your world. You’re likely to run into them again, and despite your bargain with the Lurikeens, it’s likely that they’ll have designs on you and your people. The System urges caution going forward, not complacency—there are powers far greater and more dangerous in the Faewild than the Lurikeen clan you encountered.”

Andy nodded. “I figured as much.”

“Excellent. Then, for the remainder of our time, allow me to provide guidance on topics of your choice, though I must warn you: there are limitations to what I can say on most subjects. The System values discovery.”

Andy didn’t waste time. “Well, to start, the System gave me a Codex entry that some adventurer wrote. It has to do with Improvement Points and how you can trade them for Evolution Points when you save up twelve. Can you tell me about that system? Is there some kind of secret cap on Improvement Points? Are there limits on how many classes a person can have? Is it bad to have too many unleveled classes? What about the unclassed class? Should we level that? Will we gain anything?”

“I can’t divulge every answer you seek, but I can give you some general information. First, there are no secret caps on Improvement Points nor Evolution Points. Second, you’ll find that you won’t be offered more classes if you have five. However, there are ways to merge classes and even abandon them. To merge a class, you must meet various criteria that change based on the two classes being considered. You’ve experienced this process once, though there are many other methods to achieve this end.”

Andy took a breath, ready to ask a follow-up, but the guide wasn’t finished.

“To abandon a class, you must complete specific rituals, or use an item designed by the System that will essentially complete the ritual for you, such as a Codex entry. Ritual magic is earned through certain classes, but specific rituals can also be found in grimoires. Some are consumed upon use, but others, when studied, will activate a new class opportunity.

“As for leveling your unclassed class—what a strange turn of phrase in this language!—I can tell you only that new classes are offered far more frequently to individuals who are in that unclassed state.”

Andy nodded, and he felt like he had enough to work with on that topic, so he ran through the many other questions vying for attention in his mind. After a moment, he asked, “What can you tell me about the other people or creatures that will be settling on Earth? How likely is it they’ll be near enough to our settlement to pose a threat? Will they be more likely to be friendly or hostile?”

“I don’t have any exact answers for you because I’m not privy to the System’s plans with regard to Earth’s settlement. I can look at previous settlement situations on similar worlds, though, and give you my best guess. It will take up some of our time.”

Andy frowned, weighing the importance of the answer. In his mind, the incoming invasion was the biggest unknown and potentially the largest threat to his community, so he grudgingly agreed. “Okay…”

“One moment.” The guide pulsed softly for several long minutes. After sitting there in silence for a while, Andy really started to regret pushing the topic. He was about to ask it to stop, if he could even interrupt the process, but then it spoke again:

“The System tends to offer settlement opportunities to crowded worlds where competition for resources is intense. This naturally selects for more aggressive species, though that is a trend, not a rule. There will most definitely be some peaceful settlers, though you should be prepared to defend your home. As for the likelihood that you’ll encounter these new settlers, the answer is very. You might not realize this, but your settlement is one of the more successful ones in your region. The System values competition, so the odds that one or more of the new settlements appears in your area are high.”

“Wonderful.” Andy thought for a moment, then asked, “And they’ll all be around level twenty?”

“Correct! The System has determined that an average level of twenty would be an appropriate challenge for your native population, given the time you’ve had to prepare.”

Frowning at the news—more bad than good in his mind—he asked, “Can you give me guidance on how best to select boons for my settlement?”

“I can’t tell you exactly what to choose, but I can give you one general pointer: selecting boons that improve your node tend to lead to more of the same. The more you improve your node, the more connected your settlement will become. With connection comes information exchange, and as you know, information is valuable. Oh! I’ll also happily point out that your settlement’s level will impact the boons available to you. So, even if you don’t have an option that you want to buy at any given time, leveling the settlement could result in new ones on offer.”

Andy nodded. “Okay, so, something like the System Trade Beacon?”

“Precisely. Excuse me, Andy, but I wanted to let you know that we have time for one or two more topics of discussion, depending on how in depth they are.”

Andy frowned. It felt to him like the conversation had been pretty damn short after they’d finished talking about the Fae, but he didn’t want to waste time complaining. “How many—um, tell me about soft-caps on attributes. Like, I noticed a huge increase in my speed when I broke the first cap. If I break the second, will it be just as big a difference? How many ceilings are there? It seems improbable that I can get too much faster…”

“I’m afraid I’m not allowed to say how many there are, though I will say that your instincts are correct: there are diminishing returns, and there are limits based on your vessel. Already, you can move faster than a baseline human could hope to achieve, and that is because you’ve awakened a bloodline that allows for more improvement. Such a benefit is not automatic—your comrades will soon learn that many of them cannot use an Evolution Point to bypass the ceiling on an attribute because their vessel will not support it! I’ve bent the rules a bit by offering that unsolicited advice, but I feel it’s closely related enough to your other questions.”

“Is it because I used the Codex ritual to advance? It did more than an Evolution Point could?”

“That’s precisely right. The Codex ritual was designed to bypass limitations in a more wholistic way than a simple Evolution Point. It sought a solution and found it in your blood.”

“But Evolution Points will always work on skills or spells?”

“Almost always. There are as many exceptions as there are rules.”

“Is there another way to get Codex entries?” Andy blurted out the question as it came into his mind, and he almost tried to take it back, but the guide was already responding, and he didn’t want to risk interrupting and losing the opportunity.

“There are! They aren’t only handed out by the System. The System governs the worlds of more than one galaxy, and there are millions upon millions of explorers and scholars in its area of influence. Many earn Codex entries through quests, or in the depths of dungeons, or by exploring lost civilizations. Many don’t use them, but trade them. If you consider the information I gave you about settlement advancement, you might see how that could be of interest to you.”

“Thank you, and—”

“I’m sorry, Andy, but that’s our time. I hope you found our time together more rewarding than your previous guide session.”

“Um, I did.” Andy smiled ruefully, biting back several more questions. “Thank you.”

“I wish you luck, and perhaps we’ll speak again.”

The guide’s amber glow grew in brightness until Andy had to close his eyes. When he opened them again, he was back in his sleeping bag, Lucy’s warm presence snug against his back. The sounds of the slumbering populace echoed softly through the dim cavern, and he smiled, sighing contentedly as he let his head sink into his pillow, determined to snatch just a few more winks before he got up and studied the Lurikeen’s ring.

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