I watched the brothers vanish through the door as I stared at it, debating if I should actually go through or not. The last hours of my life played through my head again as my mouth went dry. The anxiety was there, constantly threatening my thoughts. What other choice did I really have besides the door? I steeled myself against the other thoughts and forced myself through.
“Dave Imogen. Registered, starting level–error, please wait. Starting level, negative ten, standard six orbs have been deposited on your person.” A voice chid in my ear from seemingly nowhere. I felt a new weight in my pocket as the room around ca into view. I was standing behind the brothers in front of a large wooden reference desk. Behind it sat what I assud were the librarians.
At first glance, I thought they were both humans, but then I spotted the extra set of eyes on the sides of their heads. I snapped my attention back to the ssage I had heard: levels? Like in a ga? And why, or for that matter, how was I at a negative number? Usually, that only happens in poorly programd gas with overflow issues. It wasn’t really my expertise, but I had played enough early gas as a kid to see many a programming mistake, not that I understood what was going on until I was older.
“Welco to the Archives of Gortrin. Will you be staying with us long?” one of the librarians behind the desk asked the brothers, pulling out of my thoughts and back to reality.
“Likely a few years. We’re newly registered with the Arena. Thanks to Dave behind us, we got access to this place as a training world,” Elicec answered.
“Oh, that’s so interesting. We rarely get anyone coming to us as a training world anymore; mostly, they prefer the ones full of monsters, but we are fully equipped as one. There’s a terminal in your bedroom that’ll give you your full system access, and of course, the archive is available at all hours for your convenience. If you have any questions, the reference desk is always available to help. Here are your library cards. I hope you both enjoy your ti with us,” she said as she pushed two laminated cards across the desk to the brothers. One of them grabbed them both and stuffed them into their pockets.
I stepped up to the desk as they moved aside. “Hi, I’m the Dave they ntioned. It's the sa story as those two for the most part,” I said nervously, trying to speed this along. I wanted that bedroom they had promised. I needed ti to sit and process everything that happened.
“Oh, good. Assuming you heard everything, I’ll just give you your card and let you head off with your friends. It was nice eting you all,” she said as she passed another laminated card to with a large smile across her face.
“So, gentlen, what’s next?” I asked, still not really sure what I was supposed to be doing here besides seeing how much of the archive I could read per year. I hoped I didn’t need to start that today, though.
“Use your library card at the elevator over there. It’ll take you to your room. Then, you can look at the terminal and see if there are any System quests available for you. We’re going to do the sa. We will probably call it an early night after that. But hey, you should join us for breakfast tomorrow, I bet you will have all kinds of questions,” Cecile said. He was right, the questions were already starting to form in my mind. I had no idea what a System quest was, or the terminal for that matter. But now wasn’t the mont for even more information. I’d do that tomorrow over a al.
“That sounds good. I’ll give that a try to see if I can find the dining hall,” I said, stuttering slightly, my nerves flaring worse than ever. My stomach also decided that was the perfect mont to rumble loudly. I gave them an awkward half-smile and walked over to the elevator and inserted my library card into the slot marked for it. It beeped, and the words changed from insert library card here, to please remove the card. There was no screen, as far as I could tell. The words looked painted on. There was going to be so much I needed to learn.
The sound of doors opening in front of hid my worries. They imdiately closed again behind once I stepped inside. I felt a small mont of acceleration, then stopping, and the doors opened again, revealing a completely different room. I had only been inside for a few seconds. The speed at which it must have moved was impressive. I stepped off and surveyed my new room. There was a bed, a desk, and what looked like so sort of computer sitting on the desk. Was that the terminal?
There were two other doors at the back of the room. The leftmost one was a small closet, surprising with several articles of clothing resembling the usual t-shirts and jeans I tended to wear. The other door led to a small bathroom, complete with a shower. I turned on the sink and splashed cold water on my face, both to help my anxiety but also to see if it would wake up. It did nothing for either thing.
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Walking back to bed, I felt myself collapse forward onto it before I could even make the decision if I wanted to rest just yet or not. The room spun around as my brain worked to catch up to everything I had experienced so quickly. I managed to pull myself further onto the bed, letting myself drift into a state of half-sleep, half panic. I had no energy left for anything else at the mont.
When I finally awoke from the restless attempt at sleep, I had no idea what ti it was, or how to even find out. At least I was now able to sit up without feeling nauseous again. I sighed into my hands and forced myself to stand up and scan the room again now that my thoughts had sowhat cald.
With nothing else in sight that could be the terminal, that ant the computer had to be what the librarian and the brothers had been referring to. The problem was I didn’t see anything that resembled a keyboard or a mouse, much less a power button on the tower or monitor. I pulled up the chair and sat down to take a closer look at the side; maybe I was missing sothing. As soon as I relaxed in the seat, an interface popped into view.
“Welco, Dave Imogen, to the Master Spiral Control System, version two million point seven, stable version. What can I do for you today?” I heard the voice in my head, the sa as when I had stepped through the door.
“Uh, what questions can you answer?” I asked, once again, not knowing what questions I should be asking. I hated unknown unknowns.
“I will attempt to answer anything you ask, though I may fail to do so,” the System replied.
“Okay, then, let’s start with sothing simple enough. What are levels?” I had a feeling I partially knew the answer already, but I wanted to hear it from a native of whatever this was; I needed certainty.
“Levels are a derived categorical system to help push all beings to further heights. They are defined by how much experience a person gained in a certain proximity from a mana-rich environnt,” it explained. Was that why I was negative? The lack of mana in my world? But shouldn’t that just be zero?
“Then why am I at level negative ten?” I asked it.
“Error, Error, Error,” it responded. Great. So that was an answer it wasn’t capable of giving .
“Okay, what happens when you gain a level?” I asked.
“You gain a subset of points that you can allocate to boost certain aspects of yourself. By applying these, you are able to, through training, transcend the normal limits of your form,” it answered. Now, that was interesting. So this did work sothing like a video ga.
“Are you able to tell my starting stats?” I asked, expecting more errors.
“Base human, with the origin of U-1.9392912^10e37 Earth-107I2T112, error.” It had managed to get further this ti before the error, at least.
“Alright, how about quests? What are those and are there any of them?” I asked, annoyed that the level topic was getting nowhere.
“Quests are objectives given to people registered with the System. One quest is currently available. Read Karlinovo’s Guide to Core Creation. Would you like further details?” the voice asked.
“Yes,” I answered enthusiastically. I wasn’t sure the tone of my voice matched how I felt in my chest, but getting sowhere was better than nothing.
“Track down the works of Karlinovo, read it first, understand it, and read it again. Successful completion will unlock further quests in this chain. The reward for this quest is a better sense of inner self. Complete further quests in this chain to unlock more rewards and potential completion bonuses,” the system explained.
That seed incredibly strange. Not to ntion that quest didn’t seem all that great. Was it just an abstract for sothing else? “What are the usual types of quest rewards?” I asked, trying to focus away from the confusion I felt.
“The range of potential quest rewards is too great for an answer; beyond that, anything is possible, depending on the quest itself.” Great, it was another vague answer.
“What about completion bonuses? What are those? How do they differ from rewards?” I imagined they had sothing to do with completing multiple quests as the na implied, but I couldn’t take anything for granted at the mont.
“Completion bonuses co from completing entire quest chains. These are usually sothing related to the quest in so way,” it answered. At least this ti, the information actually answered the question, and I was relieved to see I was starting to catch on.
“Is there anything you think I should know?” I wasn’t sure what to ask next, so I figured I’d give a generic question a shot. I wasn’t hoping for much.
“The food in the dining hall is quite good. It is important to share als with friends and discuss your starting quests.” That was not remotely the answer I expected. I felt like it was trying to give a hint at what to do next, though. Okay, maybe more than a hint. That was closer to beating over the head with an order than it was a hint.
I opened my closet again, this ti to look closer at the clothing in it. It looked to all be made for a human, and better yet, in my size. I changed out of my bloodied and torn garnts, then went in search of the dining room. Who was I to question a computer telling to discuss quests over breakfast?
The Master Spiral Control System has existed at least as long as the Spiral has; the records from first worlds are sparse, but they do reference a System, and we have to assu it’s the sa one, as we’ve never found records suggesting a second one. Now, the question of what ca first, the Spiral or the System, is sothing historians have investigated. But given how little evidence exists from the first worlds, we may never know the answer. As the ti synchronicity bubble continues to hold, I don’t expect that to ever change.
Paulio’s Twenty Rules for a Better Tomorrow
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