by Prax Venter
“… and the glistening green ivy from the Seven Gardens spills down over the bulge o’ the crag, and it’s oh so pretty! After a waltz though Panted Row, we’ll round the bend to the markets and nip into my sister’s dress shop. Her noggin’ll be noodled when she sees a true king and queen, and I know she’ll stitch up the finest of dresses for my curvy dumpling.”
“He’s so homesick- ain’t he cute?” Ryea said with a sideways grin then shook her head. “But after I get talking with your big sis’, she’ll be stitching me up the finest of overalls with thick knee patches and plenty of ventilation. Bah, dresses…”
“Dresses,” Demi began as she stepped up to spawn plates of steaming food, “provide the utmost ventilation.”
Ryea laughed. “S’pose you have the right of it!”
Now that there was a tradition of Town Leaders like Demi helping Mayors run everything smoothly, day-to-day issues were mostly handling themselves. Alt had even said that Blackmoor would probably level up on its own in the next few days, depending on how the other Towns did on their daily Value dumps. In addition to the growing number of Heroes climbing locally, three equally growing Towns also fed Blackmoor now.
Jack smiled into his golden-brown cheese crust that hid a mélange of distant ingredients.
It was all coming together. And after taking maybe two gulps of air, he inhaled his food as Jip prattled on about some ancient magic seer lady who advised the Supreme Mayor on what the plants wanted.
Rest Bonus [+100 Health | +70 Mana | +40 Def | +50 Dodge | +5% Move Speed | Gain 75 Mana on Floor Entrance | Duration: Exit]
~ A unified medley of savory swiftness
Jack opened his mouth to drill deeper into how things were handled at the biggest Town in all the land when a woman near the door began shouting his name as she shoved through the common room.
“King Jack, please! I beg your judgement!”
When he stood and located the young Hero in cloth robes coming toward him, he desperately tried to recall if he’d ever met her.
Greenja - Hero: Ice Mage | Level 16
[Health 330/330 | Mana: 790/790]
Relationship -
[Disposition: Hopeful]
Alt confirmed with a microsecond pulse that they’d both never see her before.
She bowed her head before him before she spoke. “I don’t know if this is your custom or not, but I come seeking your intervention, oh wise King of Blackmoor.”
He held up a hand. Virtually everyone was now silent and watching.
“Intervention? Slow down. What are you talking about?”
“It’s my brother, h-he’s out there trying to climb the Tower!”
“…and?”
“He’s a Townsfolk trying to climb it from the outside! I beg you, you have to stop him before he falls to his death!”
It took a moment for Jack to process what she was saying.
“Okay, sure. We’ll go see what’s going on…”
He looked back to see Lex, Haylee, Jip, and Ryea already standing to join him, but most of the Inn emptied out with them anyway. The crowd from before was still there, but this time Jack focused on the red-haired man vigorously tightening a knot and surrounded by coils of rope.
“I don’t know what I expected,” Jack said with a grin.
The young woman held out a finger toward her brother.
“See! The king and queen have both come to put a stop to this! I knew they were sensible rulers.”
Jack inspected the serene young man currently checking the slackness on the homemade rigging linking his thick, Floor 1 leather boots.
Pike - Townsfolk: Worker | 88% Proficiency
[Health: 5/5]
Relationship –
[Disposition: Inconsequential]
“Hi there, Pike. I’m Jack. So, you’re going to use tension from the rope between your feet against the tension from a second rope around the Tower?”
The shorter man turned to face Jack and he saw the guy’s pointed ears for the first time poking out from his fiery red hair. Pike answered with an outward calmness that did not match the hidden intensity behind his eyes.
“I believe it will hold.”
“Why are you climbing the Tower?” Haylee asked.
“Because I want to.”
“And you came up with this technique all by yourself?” Jack followed up quickly.
The young aspiring climber only nodded as he continued preparing for his ascent.
Jack turned to look at Lex who projected mild worry back. Her golden irises shifted from the piles of rope to him. She gave a small shrug that told him she’d never seen anything like this before.
King Jack turned to the guy’s sister.
“Greenja, I know a thing or two about climbing and he’s kinda got the right idea here, so I’m not going to try and stop him- not that I could do anything anyway.”
The young Ice Mage sputtered with the beginnings of an argument, but Jack continued over her. “And Pike, dude, without other gear to help amplify your strength, your arms will give out before you get high enough to break your legs on the way down… maybe. I hate to make your sister more mad at me, but I am impressed with your ingenuity and wish you the best of luck. Just promise me you’ll remember to only use half your strength going up and save the rest for not dying. No one should try going up the whole Tower their first day. King’s Orders.”
“I promise,” Pike said with a small smile. “It is not my wish to die.”
“I can’t believe this is happening,” his sister sighed, defeated. “It’s infinite, you dolt. It goes up forever.”
“Can someone record what does happen?” Haylee called out, looking around those gathered closest.
“Yes,” Thymus said from behind him, and Jack turned to see the bearded Sage studying the young Townsfolk.
“Hey, yeah,” Jack said with a grin. “Maybe you should keep an eye on this adventurous fellow, Thymus.”
The Bygone Hero nodded but held Jack’s eye. “I will. But do continue to keep yours out as well- if you are able, King Jack. Not much about Pike’s tanned flesh and nor his physique bodes of nose-in-books. Mm?! No…”
With that Jack, Lex, Haylee, Ryea, and Jip left the people of Subroutine Sana to figure out their own limits. According to Harnal the Dockmaster, the port of Ivyset Crag was on the southern side of the known world and seemingly the only way for Jack’s ship to reach that distant Dock was through a Dockmaster. His ship offered only two unvisited harbors via the navigation menu while docked at Blackmoor: Kraken’s Call and Moonglass, both cold northern cites. Natch, the item shop owner was from Moonglass and Jack’s eyes locked on the building as they walked. After whatever they found at Ivyset, he would start going for any low-hanging fruit out there. He turned back to catch glimpses of the sparkling sun scattering off the waves between townsfolk homes and prepared himself for convincing another Mayor to join his kingdom.
Hopefully with less murder.
- 2 -
Harnal laid his hand on the sleek, palmwood hull and opened his Dockmaster’s interface as everyone climbed on board. After he’d done whatever it was his job allowed him to do, The Embrace had been cleared for its distant journey.
Jack focused his will on the wooden steering wheel and found a new option.
The Embrace - Navigation
Crew: Requirement met
Select Destination -
Doveport [00:48:10]
Kraken’s Call [00:25:07]
Moonglass [00:38:45]
Ivyset Crag [03:17:18] - Voyage Plotted: [Expires 00:59:53]
The thought of sitting around for over three hours made him sigh, but he quickly got over it and Jack made his selection.
“This is too frightening!” Ryea called out, the wooden rail creaking with mild protest under her death grip as the vessel jumped to life around them.
“Whoa there, hon’,” Jip said, rubbing her shoulders with his long fingers and she visibly relaxed. Jack noticed the string-bea
n farmhand had put on some sinewy strength from his continued training to be chosen as a Hero the next time Harrak’s promotion cooled down. Now that Jack thought about it- that should be in five days.
“It’s better when we get out of the cove,” Lex added from Ryea’s other side.
“Oh, I’m fine,” the Farmer lied with a dismissive wave. Her other fist was nothing but white knuckles as she clung to the handrail. “I’ve just never not been standin’ on the trusty dirt of Mother Sana, is all. I didn’t expect the ground to be so squirrely.”
The five passengers remained quiet as they waited for the vessel to pass through the sea-polished outcroppings that cradled Blackmoor. Once they were in deeper waters, The Embrace leapt into the wind, swooping around the coast while opening all her sails to the voluptuous northern gusts. The shifting momentum and automated sails all settled into a constant coasting, and Ryea relaxed by the time they shouted and waved to their boat’s father, Tharsin, as he hooted back from the northern tip of Doveport’s beach.
As they continued down around the southern tip of the jutting coastline, Tharsin’s non-wooden child came into view along with his amateur attempts at reconstructing the Town’s Wall from raw pine logs. Jack noticed Haylee’s observant gray eyes absorbing everything along that lonely shore at the edge of the virtual world.
“What do you think?” Jack asked his advisor after they’d sailed further south. “Is Doveport going to regrow its own Wall now that a single Guard is assigned, or is Aarin going to rebuild it on his own first?”
She pulled out a fresh blank book from a custom bag made from Doveport’s silk fabric export.
“I know the Combat Master came to visit him. Perhaps Harrak encouraged the concept of building defensive structures from unrefined materials. I treasure the question, Jack, but no one knows what will happen there.”
“Here’s another question, then,” Jack said, raising his finger with a flourish. “Do you think his ability to build freestanding structures outside the system will be affected by his Negative Mark from the system?”
Haylee’s only answer was the scribblings of quill on parchment as she filled in the first page in her adventure log.
Their swift vessel continued hurtling Southward, and Jack took a moment to appreciate the ropes and canvas tucked in neatly all around them. There was no doubt in his mind that a real crew would never be able to keep it so constantly… tight. As they angled out further from land, the inertia Jack felt on his heels became a few notches above what the wind alone could do, and Alt whispered his theory of violent ocean currents this far out near the edge of the map.
Everyone then watched the distant corrupted plains of an entire continent pass by under a fluffy cotton sky. Despite the growing heat of this region, Jack and Lex leaned shoulder to shoulder against the handrail and began brainstorming how they were going to approach those future challenges.
Soon after, Ryea and Jip declared they were going to head down out of the sun to relax for a while.
Jack turned to acknowledge their departure when he saw a distant infinite line on the other side of the boat.
“Hold on,” he said, his full attention toward the absolute abyss of water to the West. “Jip, please, a moment. You’ve come this way before, right? What is that doing out there?”
Haylee came to join the group from the prow as everyone lined up on the starboard side of The Embrace. Alt spoke first.
“That’s an uncorrupted Level 1 Tower.”
“But in the middle of the Endless Sea?” Jack responded out loud.
“Huh,” the wide-eyed Farmhand mused as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I only came by this way the once- to Blackmoor. And boy-oh-boy, the trip against the wind is a tiresome slog. To add to it, that ship wasn’t comparable to this here beaut’. By this point in the journey, six maybe seven hours had passed. I may have been snooze’n in my cabin.”
“Am I to believe sea people are climbing that one?” Ryea asked into the wind.
Jack looked from his Wife to his Advisor, and he could tell by the way they openly stared at it that they’d never heard about one before.
“We’ll have to ask my father or Demi if they remember anything,” Lex muttered, her eyes turning to search the impenetrable expanse of water below them.
The sun was behind, rising from the East, and everyone grew silent as they watched the illuminated pillar of endless stone bricks piercing the layer of pure white clouds.
“Maybe Demons from the sea is a real concern,” Haylee said at last. “But if I squint, I think I can see faint glistening of sand at the base.”
“Erosion,” Alt said in Jack’s mind. “Through your eyes, I clearly detect an abbreviated island supporting the structure. System modeling indicates the stronger currents near the edge of the map have worn away any initially generated landmass. Low-level scans are returning unique physics emanating from the Fountain… It’s rendering everything completely indestructible below a tight radius around it- which includes the Input Chest and Tower.”
Jack pulled hot, briny sea air into his lungs as he thought about what this could mean. Always so much going on…
“Well,” he said, “we now have a real destination for that first homemade boat.”
“You think we could spawn a whole Town there?” Lex asked.
“I’m the last person who’d know. Alt, however, says he thinks the strong southern current this far out has worn away the originally spawned land around the Tower. It’s what happens when water runs over something for long enough.”
“Such as the worn-down rocks around our cove?” Haylee asked.
“That’s right,” Jack said. “But it takes thousands of years for water to do its thing. Our home will be safe for a long time.”
As the distant Tower started fading behind their dashing vessel, Jip and Ryea had nothing to add, so they continued with their desire to rest in one of the four cabins nestled within the hull.
“Lex,” Haylee said when the Townsfolk were gone, “we were both born knowing about Dark Towers and how depositing Tower drops will keep a Town from falling, but do you have… a feeling that an abandoned, and unclaimed one will have grown rich with Value over time? Um- as in, rarer drops found on its Floors for the first climbers?”
The Bastion crossed her arms. “Now that you mention it, maybe. Yet, I feel uncertain that this is something I started with, because I also feel that an unclaimed Tower shouldn’t even exist.”
Jack remained silent as these two virtual minds sorted out their concept of reality.
Haylee snapped her grey eyes to his, then shifted them to look deeper, pinning the AI fluttering in the confines of Jack’s skull. The young Dark Prism seemed about to speak but thought better of it and began scaping ink into her journal instead. She’d taken Alt’s advice about the power of discovery. Haylee wanted to know everything, yet she embraced the idea of verification by personally interacting with the world around them. Those questions she tested on her own had irrefutable answers.
“I should have brought more empty books,” she sighed after turning another page in record time. “I keep filling this one with questions.”
Alt spoke directly into his mind. “I think now might be a good time to discuss giving Haylee that custom text file interface I mentioned before. It wouldn’t be safe to go beyond that number of NPC edits for now, but I know Lex will want to be part of the conversation. I believe I have narrowed everything down to some potentially viable options for the cost offset to core matrices.”
Jack gazed into the horizon and the over two hours left of sea still ahead before projecting back to the AI how annoying it would be if he had to translate the questions instead of doing this in the Tower.
“Perhaps,” Alt said. “I will follow your lead on this, but my idea is to give you some basic details now and let them think about the choice during this trip. They will have time and space to think of good questions. You’ll still need to shoot anyone interested with a Mining Laser bef
ore I can do anything. Here is a working example, and all you’ll need to explain the costs.”
Jack blinked and crossed his eyes to focus on the new black lacquer system interface popping up in front of him. It was an empty tall rectangle with white painted text carved into the surface.
Obtaining this interface will cost one of the following:
Gain Insomnia (moderate)
Lose the taste of salt
Lose half an inch of height
Lose all hair on head
Lose toenails
Lose 3.33% maximum Movement Speed
Lose 1 maximum Inventory Slot
“I didn’t need to pay any of these for you,” Alt followed up before Jack could fully form the question. “Our connection already allows me to do more than show you text.”
“This is insane…” Jack said out loud and his eyes shot to the same words quickly chiseling themselves into the wood at the bottom of the list.
This is insane
He blinked, and with a mere whim, easily uncarved the new entry. He now had access to a thought-controlled notepad.txt file.
“There is a fine line between genius and insanity,” Alt said. “In addition to its primary function as a permanent, editable, searchable data store, I’ll also be able to directly communicate up to 24 words a day with another digital lifeform within this immensely important subroutine. This could mean… many things for the future.”
Alt wanted this. Jack could feel the digital entity’s personal desire soaking through into his own mind, but there was no denying the ramifications. And not keeping all the eggs in one Jack-shaped basket made sense.
“What are you seeing?” Lex asked, mild concern in her voice.
With another thought, Jack dimmed the interface. “Okay, so…”
He puffed out his cheeks to buy time. How would he approach them about what Alt was offering? The concept of a book-like interface they could edit came easy to both, and when Jack told them the part about Alt’s ability to directly communicate short messages every 21 hours, it was enough for Haylee to instantly agree- no matter the cost.
“Take away the item slot,” the wide-eyed Dark Prism said immediately after Jack read off the actual list of options. “I don’t think you’ll be replacing me any time soon, and with your impossible inventory, my 16th slot has been empty for weeks.”