by Alston Sleet
This was created, all of it ready, and was waiting for me just so I could upgrade. I began to hyperventilate.
With concern and a bit of amazement, I tried to understand, “You created a whole planet with people just so I could be upgraded?”
Delsie giggled with a high pitched squeal as she did a mid-air flip. Apparently, I had tickled her pink, err…that is to say, pinker as her glow brightened.
“Oh no. This was designed a few seconds after the United Sentience Agreement was reached and has been on hold ever since. This pattern has repeated continuously. Many creatures have refused digitization and upgrading in history. We simply prepare for if and when they want to proceed. The diversity of Digitals is one of the few things we lack since we have strict limitations on modification of other Digitals. There are currently only a few trillion different types of Digitals. It’s in our best interest to provide for this process.”
Again, my mind tried to slowly loop around what this meant. The numbers and timescales just didn’t make sense to me. I couldn’t keep track and frankly, it just wasn’t important at the moment. I would have to wait till I had some kind of reference before I tried to understand what this all meant.
With a force of will, I focused myself back on the goal of things. I needed to understand what I was doing and where I was going. I waved my hand at Delsie and asked her to continue explaining this world and my new place in it.
“Right, soon you will be placed in the town square of a human settlement where you will start out as a level one wizard! Your goal is to level up, have fun, grow and experience your new world!”. By this point, Delsie was zipping back and forth in excitement and her voice was speeding up with little giggles as she turned mid-air acrobatics.
In a more serious voice than I had heard Delsie use before she said, “While you are experiencing this new world you will have a few rules you need to follow.” She cautioned me. “You can’t lie or break an agreement. Lying or breaking an agreement will cause you to lose your powers or be punished in some other way till your oath breaking is corrected and you pay recompense which matches your actions.”
I wasn’t much for lying, and I could see how this was in line with Digitals. Digitals never broke their word. Oh, they had no problem being rule lawyers if need be, but no one had ever found a Digital to break their word. I wasn’t sure why this was the case. But it seemed fairly important to them and making it the first rule mentioned emphasized this pretty clearly.
Pausing momentarily, Delsie bounced in the air as she drew in a large breath then continued, “At any time you can make a backup of yourself. Your first backup will start in the village center the moment you arrive. If you die, you will restart from your last backup with all memories after that moment being deleted. Knowing when to make a backup is an important skill. One all infants need to learn after all!”
The constant references to me being like an infant, or even worse, less intelligent than an infant was starting to grate on me but I couldn’t really deny it. This little floating pink butterfly, despite the bouncing and game playing, was probably smarter than the entire planet combined. It was both galling and maddening, especially since she was such a cute little pink thing with childlike mannerisms. I kept trying to force myself to remember that appearances here were just to keep me from freaking out and feeling powerless, nothing and no one here should be underestimated.
Finally, Delsie explained that while leveling up in the game the advancements I would be allowed would correlate to upgrade possibilities. These upgrades would allow me new game powers which would help me while playing the game. She made it clear that I needed to be careful to pick upgrades which I really wanted since they would only allow me to undo so much of any modification before it would be considered too much a part of who and what I was and then they wouldn’t change it. I would have to wait till I joined the full community before I could go back and make any further self-adjustments. She continued on to explain the existence of mental commands for my skill window and status window which would display for me in a rough way how I was doing.
With that explained Delsie dipped down and floated close to my face. “This process is going to take time. A rough estimate is seven hundred thousand years experiential or so. After that, you should be able to move on towards basic education for an infant Digital. Real-time wise this will take probably about a second or so”.
I mentally shuddered again. I was slowly coming to realize what ‘immortal’ actually meant. What vast swaths of time like that actually entailed. I would be a full Digital before the nightly news announced my entry into the Digital legal system, but from my point of view, more time than the entire recorded history of humanity would have passed. I was going to grow truly ancient while waiting for humanity to catch up and join me.
The only thing I could do was mentally shove those ideas behind me and just push on in emotional denial. I know it’s factually true, but I can’t deal with it at the moment. I just need to continue on while letting the idea slowly sink in. I probably will really only get an inkling of what the idea means after I’ve lived longer than any human in history.
I straightened my back, squared my shoulders, and prepared myself. “OK, Delsie. I’m ready, how do I move into the game?”
“Just select your first ability and we will move on!” the cute sprite shouted as she threw her arms wide and two blue screens appeared floating in front of me.
Improved Concentration.
Improved Multi-Tasking.
Delsi continued, “Improved Concentration will help you with casting spells. All spells require you to focus on their effects and keep them going with continuous concentration. Losing focus will cause a spell to fail.”
I mentally tagged this one as I knew that one of my greatest failings was concentration. I was just normally stubborn enough to bring my mind back on track. I could see how more concentration would be helpful to allow me to focus as I ‘played’ and it would definitely help me as a Digital.
“Improved Multi-Tasking will allow you to more easily focus on more than one thing at a time. Like movement and casting, or eventually even multiple spells at the same time! Your effective concentration will be split between these different thing’s though.”
I could see how this would be important later, but for now, I was going to focus on the first option as I thought it would allow me to improve instead of splitting my efforts in two directions, literally.
With a mid air flip she gently pushed off my nose to get my attention.
“As you progress your spells will require greater understanding, the system will initially handle most of the details for you, later you will be the one to deal with the details. This is intended to prepare your mind for the workload that a Digital must maintain in every action it takes.”
I could see how Improved Multi-Tasking could help with that, but I was still convinced I should shore up a known issue before I went on with more interesting options.
With a grin, I swung my hand through the improved concentration screen. I suddenly felt a growing sensation like my head was trying to expand, a slow creeping feeling ran across my head like a shiver only I could tell nothing was actually happening physically.
“Have fun. Remember this is intended to be entertaining while also allowing you to strive for the growth you want. It’s going to take a long time, but we will be here waiting for you. I’ll check back in a thousand years, for you, or so”.
With a wave of her little sparkly arms and a flutter of her wings, Delsi’s glow started to brighten until it was the only thing I could see. Shielding my watering eyes I blinked and lowered my hands looking around at my new world.
Chapter 3
Little Bunny Fu-Fu Slaughter.
His highness, King Calferd Melnus the Third, felt a headache coming on. He tapped on his desk in a random pattern as he tried to contain his irritation. Part of nobility is maintaining control of ones’ self he mentally recited to himself. His diviner advisor,
‘The Cursed Seer’, a long time friend also known as Jofrem, was still trying to convey every nuance and minor impression which could be gleaned from his latest augury. It was, of course, an attempt to circumvent his curse, and of course, it was failing, that was only reasonable since that was the point of his curse. Yet he always tried.
“OK, let me see if I understand,” King Calferd interrupted, cutting Jofrem off. “I asked for you to provide an augury of the most important event to my Kingdom and then secondly to me personally.”
Jofrem snapped his mouth closed and slowly nodded. While the King was upright and contained as he always was when in the view of others, Jofrem had been his friend for a long time and could see the Kings irritation.
King Calferd continue, “So instead of a divination about the recent dispute with the Elves which is very likely to result in war, or the current dispute with the Dwarves over mining rights, or the most recent news of an incursion of Orcs and other semi-sentient races from the south, or even the rumors about villages in the east which have had incursions by undead, something which hasn’t been seen since my grandfather’s age…”
Jofrem nodded “I bring you news twice over of a wizard who ‘comes’ who will be level one, who will ‘start’ with but one spell to his name, and who ‘can be killed by any, but never defeated’ and who will ‘disrupt our world for enemy and friend alike’”.
A slow knot of pain started to form in King Calferds head, right between the eyes. ‘The Cursed Seer’ strikes again. Divinations clearer than all before, visions as precise as an eagles eyes…and as useless as using an egg for a hammer.
“All right Jofrem, I’ll have the messengers inform the village elders and the nobles of the Kingdom to be on the lookout for a wizard which is different from others, one who has not been heard of before. With instructions to make not friend nor enemy from them. We will revisit this news once we have more leads. Let us continue onto issues of further importance for now”.
###
I tried to wipe my eyes as I glanced around at my new location. The ‘bright light scene change’ was starting to get annoying. Worse I understood that it was an effort to coddle along my little ‘infant mind’. Abrupt changes of locations would have to be disorientating to a ‘feeble’ mind like mine and it was an attempt to distract me. I could only grumble to myself over this effect. The part that was most upsetting about it was that I could see how it worked. A visceral physical reaction to distract from any mental alarm.
Looking around I tried to slowly put together the conditions I found myself in. Small little cottage-like houses. Some with signs hanging down, all with words as well as pictures describing them. Blacksmith, fletcher, inn, etc etc. It looked stereotypical starter game village. The little details of the picture though said this wasn’t a game. A broken fencepost at the end, a bucket left out half full of water, a bit of biting cold. This wasn’t some picture perfect game inn where the player is the point and everyone else was background. This was a real village that seemed to also be a game structure underneath.
It was early, before actual dawn though it was just arriving. A few townsfolk noticed me as they went about their day. I could see curiosity and concern. A small town like this, maybe thirty cottages in total many of which doubled as storefronts, they would be thankful for visitors and their money, but wary of them as well.
With a mental shrug of indecision, I figured I would look to my status window and see if I could make a plan after I knew what I was working with. I mentally shouted “status” and was rewarded with a small blue panel floating in the air.
Status
Name: Shawn Bradshaw
Level: 1
Path (upload): Wizard
Intellect: 135
Experience: 0 / 1000
Multi-Tasking: 1
Concentration: 105
Memory (short term): 102
Creativity: 189
Memory (long term): 150
Data Correlation: 120
I could feel myself scratching my head in confusion until I realized that this was intended to be an upgrade process as a game, not a game which was for pure enjoyment. Of course, my stats reflected mental acuities and traits. I’m betting that the statistics I’m looking at are only crude valuations of things which will be more accurately described as I get further along and modify myself with further upgrades.
Next I tried to figure out what kind of spells I had and how to use them. I knew I had to concentrate in order to get a spell to work, but get ‘what’ to work? What kind of spells did I have? I held my right hand in front of me and tried for the most stereotypical of all wizard spells; the fireball.
I focused on my hand and imagined warmth gathering into a small ball in my hand, growing greater as I pushed at it. Trying to focus intently…and with a small ‘ding’ sound a small warm spot formed in my hand.
*ding*
Learned Spell: Ball of Heat
I could feel a small grin run across my face. Yes, I was standing in the middle of the street in a weird pose with my hand held forward and up as a tiny spot in the palm of my hand grew warmer. Yes, I looked like a complete idiot. But I had the best of both worlds here. I was going to be a spell slinging adventurer of a fantasy novel *and* become a super intelligent member of the galactic community and learn the scientific wonders of the universe, no the multi-verse!
Which of course is the moment when my spell fizzled out and the ball of warmth skittered out of my palm and up my sleeve, catching it on fire.
OK, so it wasn’t actually a roaring blaze, but it definitely got my, and apparently everyone else’s, attention. It might have been the small flame on my cuff, or it could have been the moronic stance I had taken before that, maybe the mad cackling between those two moments, or possibly the flapping around and cussing as I attempted to put my arm out.
The point was that I found myself with more then a couple larger individuals wondering if I could use some assistance, perhaps to the edge of town? Somewhere ‘the wise wizard could practice away from those who may not be protected as well as him’. I could sense the subtle hostility, in that it wasn’t subtle in the slightest. I figured that I should get a move on from the middle of town. None of the large villagers where actually making threatening gestures or man handling me, but I think the idea of someone who obviously didn’t know what they where doing with magic, practicing magic near their homes -especially fire magic- was an understandable thing to be upset about.
I needed information but I didn’t want to upset the locals so I started to move along. One of the men, older hirsute and dark skinned with an abundance of laugh lines, was going in the same direction I was so I decided to try for some information which could help me along.
“Excuse me, sorry about that back there, but could you help me with some information?” I smiled and continued on before he could tell me to get lost, “I was wondering if you could tell me the name of this village? Also, I’m level one and I was hoping you could tell me how and where to level up around here”.
The moment I had asked about his village the laugh lines on his face stretched into what I could tell was a habitual grin, but the moment I said I was level one his smile quickly vanished as he gave me a gimlet glance. Looking me up and down the man slowed down then stopped and glanced around.
“Names Mennen and this be Melcot village, but I don’t know what kind of scam you think you will be playin’ here. Ain’t no wizard level one,” with a snort, he continued on, “ain’t no toddler which be level one. So what ever you tryin’ to be selling, no one be buying it”.
I was non plussed. I didn’t know how to respond to that. Obviously, I was starting with a greater disadvantage here then I thought but I wasn’t sure how to deal with it. I needed good relations with someone, and this village seemed like the best shot. All I could do was try and continue on.
“I am level one. I’m in desperate need of information and guidance. I’m not trying to scam anyone. If anything I’m going t
o need help from being scammed”. I figured, beyond the ‘don’t lie’ requirements of my new path, that honesty was really my best policy here. I needed someone to show me the ropes and Mennen seemed like my best bet there.
Mennen straightened his brown tunic as he moved slightly back from me. It looked like he was gearing up for a fight. With the ham fists he had and the wool and leather clothing he was wearing with the wood cutters ax strapped to his side I was not looking at this as a battle I could win. My reflexive step back and hands raised in a defensive position seemed to ratchet up the tension for a moment. When I didn’t continue on to sling magic at him he took a breath and braced as he said, “If you be level one, show me your status”.
I shrugged and mentioned I didn’t even know how to do that. This seemed to tense Mennen up again for a moment before he told me to just mentally state I wanted to show my status to Mennen. With another subtle shrug, I did just that. Slowly Mennen’s jaw dropped as he gazed at what I can only assume was my status floating in front of him. It seemed to me that Mennen was a bit slow, it was unfortunate that I just happened to pick the village idiot to help me out.
Nodding Mennen looked up at me and snickered. With a shift in stance, all of Mennen’s mannerisms changed. Looking around, and in a clear unaccented voice, Mennen spoke, “OK boys. The magic slinger here was telling the truth. He is level one. If I miss my bet he is as wet behind the ear as a real toddler also. He didn’t notice any of you and he seems harmless enough. Back to work you all”. Looking around I noticed archers slipping back behind the eaves at the top of cottages, men with clubs and axes who had been subtly standing behind corners, who waved and then moved off.
Apparently, Mennen wasn’t the village idiot, I had nominated myself for that position.