Mason was soon followed by a thin, skeletal hawk-eyed man, who appeared tiny standing next to Mason.
He said in an excited, squeaky voice, “I am Admiral Thrag, one of the two commanders of the Black Rose fleet. The other commander being my wife, Thrasha. You may have heard of the fleet, as it was the one that led the Empire’s Prime fleet on a wild goose chase during the most recent rebellion. Now, it all began on a cold, clear night. Well, I suppose all nights in space are cold and clear, but this one seemed especially cold as my wife had just kicked me out of the bridge for—” Elissandra let out a small cough.
Thrag glanced over at her, then said, “Um, right, but that’s a story for another time. Talk to me later if you want to hear the grand and glorious tale of—” Another cough. “Um, never mind. Where was I? Right, while the fleet is rather small, with only a single capital ship, my baby, the Scarlet Rose, we are particularly looking for those who are able to distinguish themselves as exceptional, rank B or above fighter pilots and engineers skilled in ship repair, whatever rank. For those who wish to join the fleet as an Ensign, you will be required to undergo a series of additional assessments and rank highly in various other fields. Um, right, I’m done now.”
Next stepped up an odd-looking, squat man with a funny nose Alan couldn’t quite see, wearing what looked to be highly advanced Revenant armor. He intoned in an emotionless voice without inflection, “I am Enigma, quartermaster and lead research officer. You have already been informed if you may join our ranks, and will be receiving additional assessments as they are deemed necessary.”
A number of other guild officers slowly made their way up, introducing themselves, outlining what they were looking for, but Alan slowly began to lose focus. All this organization stuff was rather boring, and if he understood correctly it looked like he’d either end up under Phantom, who was under Enigma, or with the general armed forces. The healers/medics, the psionic corps, the robotic specialists and researchers, none of those really mattered to him, at least not for now. Eve would record it all and give him any important information he missed anyways. Still, he had a few questions for Eve regarding what he heard.
What is it with all these rankings? Like I know some abilities have various rankings, but can overall combat ability or piloting skill be ranked like that?
With the proper tools, certainly. We shall see how it’s done tomorrow. Similar to how other systems categorize things in term of rare to legendary or normal to godlike, the Game simply assigns a rank and associated number. Overall abilities and creatures are similarly ranked, as well as things like ships and even guilds. As you have surely noticed, various enemies with the same levels have far different capabilities. A general rule of thumb used is it takes 100 players of the same rank to take on someone with one higher rank. Thus, 300 rank C soldiers might take on 3 rank B soldiers. This is a generalization of course, as ranks are further assigned numbers in the range of 1 to a bit over two billion (2^31 – 1, to be precise), the lower the number the better. Predecessors and major bosses like space dragons are generally assigned a rank of S, humans a rank from F to A, depending on equipment and ability, and Haxlards a rank of D to S, for example. Once I possess more information, I will be able to also display enemy's ranks in addition to level.
After a few more introductions, Alan and the rest of the recruits were sent out in groups to tour the guild grounds, at least the parts they were allowed into. Alan had Aurora and Sidestep in his group, but stayed at the back, away from them
The tour turned out to be rather simple. First, they were taken to a capsule center aboveground holding hundreds of capsules, where they were told to set their spawn point. Then their guide, an android with limited intelligence, like a city guard NPC that you might find in an ordinary MMORPG, led them directly to an elevator within the keep. It showed them two floors, the training floor, which was a cool sort of futuristic gym, and their temporary rooms in an underground barracks. Those were the only floors they were allowed on.
Then they were led to the Simulation Dome. The building was, as its name suggested, a massive dome. The dome was made up of a huge array of tessellated, silver metal triangles. Surrounding it were huge power generators, filling the air with a low humming sound. Alan stepped into the dome, which was about the size of a football stadium, wondering what he’d find. A message appeared:
You have entered a simulated zone! All damage will be simulated and not actually affect the player. No death penalties. Severe XP penalties while in the zone.
Permissions: Recruit Level, unable to call into being or change the simulation. Basic interaction with simulated environment.
Alan glanced around, it looked as if he had stepped into a different world. The dome was split in half by a giant wall. On one side, there was a bright white artificial light, filled with a multitude of steel dueling rings about the size of a small field and stern looking arms masters in brown robes, Mason among them. On the other side there was a dark orange landscape, along with a squadron of Black Rose soldiers fighting what looked to be waves of Haxlardian soldiers.
Sidestep looked back at Alan.
“You think this is cool, newbie? I bet you’ve never been inside a spaceship simulator either, where you’re able to drop into any major space battle at will. I’d like to see your first test run. You’ll probably fire on your allies or break out of formation before the fight even starts. I bet your planet didn’t even have spaceships. What planet did you come from again? Dirt?”
Alan tore his gaze away from the simulated exercise and glared at Sidestep. He knew that he didn’t even know all the rules of dueling, and the accused would probably be better off, but he angrily blurted out, “I challenge Sidestep to a duel.”
Sidestep grinned, and Alan instantly knew this was what Sidestep had wanted.
Shit, Eve, why didn’t you stop me?
I believe this is actually to our advantage. Sidestep likely highly underestimates you. Standard coliseum rules go as follows: The person who is challenged will choose either the number of points wagered or the rules of the duel from pre-set rule sets. The challenger will decide upon whatever was left undetermined.
Confidently, Sidestep looked over at Alan, and said, “I accept.”
With a flash of light, Alan found himself suddenly standing in a silver ring the size of a kiddy pool next to Sidestep. Right next to them was Mason, who was looking bored, resting his hands and chin on the handle of his war axe.
With a great roar, Mason lifted up the war axe, and cheerily said, “Finally! Actual warriors. Usually recruits dick around for half an hour trying to figure out all the rules and who best to challenge, waiting to challenge someone weak. 50 guild points to both of you for not standing about comparing dick sizes! Now, who challenged whom? Ah, Alan challenged Sidestep. Very well, Sidestep you may determine either the wager or rule-set now.”
Sidestep confidently stated, “Let the wager be 1000 guild points. How you got 5000 points I don’t know, but by the end of tonight I’d be surprised if you had a single point to your name. I’ll have to thank the examiners that felt sorry for your sad planet and wanted to give you a leg up at the start.”
Alan glanced at Sidestep’s guild mark, which showed Sidestep had 1550 guild points, then at the screen that showed up before him.
It listed a number of dueling rule sets, which seemed to consist of an environment, and weapon loadout. Eve highlighted a scenario as Alan was scrolling down the list.