“You know, it ain’t that kind of lucky right boy-o?”
I am a bigger man than him. I am a bigger man than him. I am a bigger man than him. I give him the finger and head down, both of us getting serious again.
The rest of the day sees me climbing down cautiously, scooting around the rather ubiquitous giant creatures when I can and occasionally slaying them when I can’t. The slaying wasn’t my decision but after some hurried negotiation, Ali and I came to an agreement. He’d let me know of any low-level monsters we came across and I’d attack and kill them if I could do it safely. In return, he’d not force my hand – so long as I was actually making a good will effort. If I was in the army, I’d call him a drill sergeant. Since I’m not, I just call him an asshole.
Things only got really scary once, when I walk under what I thought were a pair of trees and realised it was the legs of what I can only describe as a giant ogre. Thankfully, his first swipe missed and once I had him thinking I was running downhill, I activated the QSM and ran back uphill past him. I spent the next half-hour watching him rampage downhill, knocking down trees and smashing other monsters that got in his way. I’d never been more scared in my life, especially since the ogre’s diet seemed to consist of anything fleshy.
On the other hand, I had him to thank for my highest level kill so far – a trapped fox whose spine had been shattered by a fallen tree. The loot just consisted of more organ parts and its fur, but I’m not complaining about free experience and loot.
I’d like to say I spent the rest of the day struggling down the hill, heroically pushing past exhaustion and the fear, but by 3, I was done. Being in a constant adrenaline high, hiding and backing off constantly had worn me down and I knew if I kept this up, I’d make a mistake. I wasn’t making good time at all, barely having covered half the ground I needed to. When I found a small depression that was relatively well hidden I just gave up, pulling out my cellphone and try to boot it up. It doesn’t, just staying dead and I look at Ali.
“Don’t bother. Electronics are always the first to go once ambient mana reaches this point. If it’s not shielded or made to work with mana, it all shorts out,” Ali explains.
“Fuck. All electronics?” I prod and he nods. Damn, that probably means most new vehicles are dead along with the Internet, cellphones and most modern conveniences. I rub my temple, putting the cellphone away and curl up, deciding to rest for a few minutes. I must have slept because the next thing I knew, it was 7pm.
“Why us?” I queried Ali as I made dinner from my camping supplies.
“Unique snowflakes you humans. Perfectly unique with boundless potential,” Ali who has been keeping watch outside answers without looking back to me.
“Enough sarcasm. Really, why us? Why now?”
“Sorry to say, there ain’t no good reason. The ambient mana flow finally reached a point where you could be added to the System.”
“Alright, let’s back off a second. What’s mana? I keep seeing it on my Status screen and you keep mentioning it but it explains nothing.”
“I got a thousand explanations and none for you boy-o. Nanites that enter and control your body using quantum strings and ultra-dimensional energy. Or you could call it the ambient force of the universe, the singular force that makes up all the elements. It could be dark matter made flesh or magic. It’s all the same, just people prattling on without a clue,” Ali shrugs. “It’s what surrounds us, what makes the System work.”
“Okay, then what’s the System?”
“The blue boxes. The experience points. The loot. The Shop which lets you buy anything from anywhere or from the Shopkeepers who rent the place. It’s the way we upgrade our world and ourselves. It’s what constrains me to working with you and for you. It’s everything. The System’s your world, your universe now,” exclaims Ali fatalistically.
“I thought the Galactic Council created it, I mean, their announcement…” I waved my hand to where the blue boxes were.
“The GC make something? About the only thing those bureaucrats could make is a pile of shit. And that’s only because they’d been told where to sit. Those idiots only have the loosest control over the System and the galaxy’s happier that way. Just leave it, kid, the System just is.”
“Come on, you’re not a little curious about what the System is? It rules our lives and…”
“Enough. Just stop already,” Ali spins around, floating up to my face and glaring at me.
“I just want to know damn it!”
Congratulations! Quest Granted. The System
Find out what the System is.
Rewards: Knowledge is power. Or something.
The moment the quest appears, Ali lets out a groan and just floats away. I read it over and then dismiss it before I speak again. “What’s your problem?”
“Nothing. Nothing at all,” Ali just sits in the sky, floating with his legs crossed and refusing to face me.
“Ali.”
“I hate that Quest. It’s the fucking turd-bucket of the galaxy. Everyone gets it, and everyone thinks they’ll be the first one to solve it. And then you end up spending the next 80 years of my life sitting in a fucking library, debating with other fucking researchers over a Kricklik written article first published 2,000 years ago! And then, well, fuck…” as he speaks his voice gets louder and louder.
“I got it, I got it. You have issues. Can we please not bring the forest down on us?” I gesture with my palms down, trying to shush him.
Calming down slightly, Ali growls. “I ain’t got issues. You need tissues.”
Ummm…. Okay, moving along. Quests eh, I guess if the system continues to work the same way, then the Quest tab is under…
Quests
Unique
Get out of Kluane National Park alive
Party
None
System
Unravel the secrets of the System
“When did I get that quest?” I mutter to myself, staring at the first quest listed.
“Oh, I accepted that one for you while you were playing electric eel.”
“You can accept quests for me!” I stare at Ali, “How much control did I actually give you?”
“Not enough lucky boy,” Ali smirks before he shrugs. “I’m your Companion. Can’t do anything to hurt you and you were getting out of here anyway. Didn’t matter if I accepted it or not.”
“Fine, just let me know, will you? I don’t like surprises like that,” I close out the tab then stare at him a bit more. “What exactly is a companion?”
“About frigging time. I’m a System Companion – Spirit Type to be exact. As a System assigned companion, I get access to your interface and certain aspects of the System that general users don’t. We’re linked so once you man up, I’ll get more abilities too. At Level 2, I got access to information about the monsters that are in the System around us. Later on, I’ll be able to provide you more details and at even higher levels, I’ll be able to share my Elemental Affinity and even gain a body.”
I nod in thanks to Ali and then fall silent, pondering what he said. Seems like having him as a Linked Companion was more powerful than I thought. Still, there was so much to learn. “There a Help file?”
A hand waves and in a moment, a giant blue box of text drops in front of me. I grunt and lean further back into the cave to begin reading. Hours later, I have a better understanding of the basics. The base attributes were pretty self-explanatory, though interestingly enough Stamina dictated not only my base Health but how fast I healed. Each point basically healed the same amount per minute. Intelligence dictated how large a mana pool I had while Willpower refreshed that pool on a per minute basis based on its statistical value. Of course, I didn’t really know how useful that was right now since I didn’t have anything that used Mana, but it’s still good information.