by Prax Venter
“From the day I laid my eye on you, I knew you’d stir this pot,” Demi said as she tapped ‘Accept’ on the interface. “Now, what’s this nonsense about Town Leaders?”
“I’ve always benefited from your wisdom, Demi. I just made it official. I’m sure your boyfriend Reno can handle everything after the Exit rush. Let’s all meet at the Town Hall, ohh- let’s say two-after-Exit?”
Demi narrowed her sharp eyes, thought for a moment, then nodded.
“Your bizarre views and odd questions have all turned out to be valid in one way or another. And I’m sure that change I saw you bringing to our Town was a meager crumb compared to where you’ll end up taking us. What wisdom I can give you I will do so gladly.”
“Thanks, Demi,” Jack said. “But speaking of crumbs, can you send a pot pie my way when you get a chance?”
“Coming right up, Mayor,” Demi said and then spun to vanish behind her blue curtain with the white eye.
When Jack turned away from the bar, he saw that Farah and Andor had taken two spots at an empty table near the entrance. No one in Blackmoor Cove picked those seats first as aggressive ocean winds would often blow in with every swing of the door. Farah was angrily whispering at Andor while he just sat staring forward toward where Jack had been standing on the stage, a blank look on his face.
Jack left them to sort their lives out and headed for his usual table already filled with the people he cared for most in this warzone of a world. With a heavy plop, he sat across from the pointed-eared, blonde Bastion.
“Lex, Haylee, I’ll want you both there for the meeting too. I haven’t worked out all the details, and I’m sure we’ll have special guests- like you, Ryea, and Thymus. Maybe three times a week we’ll… I’m getting ahead of myself.”
Jack rubbed his hands down his face to try and reset. He felt Lex’s father slap his huge hand on his back, and Jack turned to face him.
“Jack, my boy. You’re a deadly bastard, but are we truly planning to take back Emberstone?”
He was right. The focus of everything should be the Dark Tower. Jack nodded then looked across the table to the young woman sitting down at the other end.
“Haylee, can you elaborate on what you just said by the door?” The words came from his mouth, yet there was a slight feeling that the motivation to ask this question wasn’t entirely his own.
She turned her intense gray eyes on his.
“I’m not sure if the traditions you break were always able to be broken or are now only breakable after your arrival. Regardless, I now question everything that I was born knowing until I confirm it for myself.”
Reno stepped up into the quiet contemplation coming from the digital entities sitting at the dinner table and began to take their orders. Alt took this opportunity to speak.
“My emotions toward Haylee spread into your mind and- first and foremost, I have put up safeguards between us so that will never happen again. It wasn’t all me though, that question was mostly yours. Having a group member phrase your plans makes everyone more likely to accept them as good ideas. Some of System Sana’s NPCs seem to adapt quicker to the actions of a nearby Player than others. Haylee, in particular, benefits from a specific synergy of her Alpha-level personality tags; Observant, Skeptical, Judicious…”
“…and I’ll bring that pot pie in a moment, Jack,” Reno said, and Alt stopped rambling.
“Thanks,” he replied with a deep sigh. Jack put the concept of ‘Alpha-level personality tags’ aside for now, but it would be something that he’d come back to later. Then turned back to Harrak.
“Tell me everything you know about a fallen Tower. Leave nothing out. Say it as if you needed to record it for others who aren’t born knowing it.”
The burly old man smoothed his wild grey beard down his barrel of a chest as he ordered his thoughts.
“The Corruption is always spreading. The Town must be fed items from the connected Tower to keep it at bay, or-”
Jack held up his hand for a pause. He already had a question, and he knew if he didn’t stop to ask, a hundred more would pile up and he’d forget something important. They were going to take this nice and slow. He was getting serious answers from everyone for a change, and he was going to force them to keep it going.
“You said ‘connected’ Towers. Are you saying I can’t take a big pile of items over to Emberstone and dump it all in their Input Chest?”
Harrak’s mouth snapped shut. He opened it again- about to argue, but he shot a wide-eyed look over to Haylee before snapping his mouth shut again and finally coming to a thought-out answer.
“I don’t know, Jack. I don’t think anyone’s ever tried it. Someone must have dumped gear they looted from one Tower into another Town at some point- maybe after finding an upgrade.”
Lex crossed her arms. “Heroes exit, then they deposit their items into the chest that waits at their feet. No Hero would ever intentionally travel with items in their inventory to another Town when they could climb that Town’s Tower instead. I’m not saying it’s not possible, it’s more about inventory space.”
“In fact,” Jack added, “I’m currently holding-”
“Perhaps,” Sol interrupted him swiftly, “we should wait to discuss this when we meet with Demi. I agree with my daughter, everything must be explored and exploited for all its worth. I also thank you, Jack, for including me. I will do everything in my power to aid in our cause.”
“Hey,” Ryea said with a frown, “don’t forget, we’ll be getting cows back any day now. I’ll be needing everything in your power to help stuff ‘em full of hay.”
Jack gave Sol a nod. The owlish man was right on a few levels. Demi was a higher-level Bygone Hero than Harrak and should be here for this conversation. He also needed time to get his head right and his questions in order. Not only was it important for them to figure out what they were going to do about this Dark Tower, but how they got to those decisions were equally important.
These NPCs around him were starting to see the virtual world for what it was, and he felt responsibility to guide these living minds as they awakened through proximity. Hopefully, more and more people would join his cause to burn away the Corruption. It would start with Emberstone. He would take it back. Eventually, as he captured more land, he’d need sharp people around him to help keep it all going.
Jack looked around the table as Ryea and Sol took lighthearted jabs at each other about naming the new cows and found the golden eyes of Lex on him. Her deadly competent yet soft presence grounded his desire for excited, rash action. This was going to take time to be done right, and rushing it as he was apt to do, would be the death of them. No. He would do this right.
An empire would be born tonight.
- 2 -
Demi joined the rest gathered within the inadequately sized Town Hall. The six of them could fit, but there were only four chairs, including the more ornate piece of furniture obviously meant for the Mayor. Sol had claimed it when they entered, yet he stood to offer the larger seat to the silver-haired innkeeper when she shut the door behind her.
Jack watched with interest as the owlish man began what appeared to be political maneuvers.
Demi waved her hand. “No, thank you. I think better on my feet. Now, Jack. What exactly are we all doing here?”
The Irrelevant Hero crossed his arms. He’d thought about this opening during dinner while mechanically shoveling the Orb Pheasant potpie into his mouth that he didn’t remember eating.
“When I first came here, I thought your world was just a sophisticated game. By living among System Sana’s people, I experienced your lives and your fading dreams of a better life. Down to my core, I came to understand the truth and the consequences of not respecting the ways of my new home.” Jack paused then looked them each in the eye as he said their names. “Demi, Lex, Harrak, Sol, Haylee… Today I realized that it is you who are treating this world like it is a game.”
Jack held up his palms to stop any discussion and quickly continued. “I
believe everyone here is beyond the point of thinking what I say is heresy or nonsense. From now on, in this room, we will talk about everything. Nothing is off limits. No matter how bizarre it feels to question something you’ve always known. If you feel uncomfortable pushing on the edges of your reality, now’s the time to leave. If you want to continue to do things like you’ve always done them, there’s the door.”
Demi pulled in a deep breath and then walked across the stone floor of the Town Hall as if she were gliding on the balls of her feet.
“Out of my seat,” she said to Sol, stopping by the larger chair. “On second thought, I think I want to sit down for this.”
The owlish man nodded and moved to lean against one of the windowless brick walls. As he did, Harrak moved to take the final empty seat, joining Demi, Lex, and Haylee at the table.
Jack continued.
“Okay, then the first thing I want to discuss is Emberstone and its Dark Tower. We need to plan its recapture. Simply defending is never going to be good enough.”
“You make a good point, Jack, generally,” Harrak said, “But taking back a fallen Tower is something… Something we simply don’t have the forces to accomplish. Our only real plan would be to wait until we have more Heroes to face something of that magnitude.”
“Father,” Lex said, “everything Jack says about us playing this game makes perfect sense to me after the way I see him abusing the layouts inside the Tower. But it goes beyond the Tower… there is an ocean of possibilities the size of the Endless Sea that I have been blinded to until Jack has awoken me.”
Harrak narrowed his eyes at the cryptic words coming out of his daughter. Lex reached across the table and rested her much smaller hand on his.
“Without killing a single demon, what would happen if we were able to put 10,000 points worth of items into Emberstone’s chest tomorrow?”
Jack smiled. Apparently, the love of his life had been thinking about her own questions and plans during dinner.
The old Combat Master frowned, his mind trying to diverge from the well-worn paths it had always traveled.
“You must have found quite the Artifact,” Demi said, one of her thin eyebrows arching.
“No,” Jack said, pulling the stoic innkeeper’s attention. “You know I have special… talents that set me apart. I’m not going to get into everything- I’m sure you’ll all learn soon enough. But for right now, assume my Inventory limit is much, much higher than 16 slots.”
“I’d prefer to work with real numbers,” Sol said from the back of the room. “Exactly how many slots do you have?”
Jack shrugged and pulled up his Character window.
“Two billion, one hundred and forty-seven million, four hundred and eighty-three thousand, six hundred… give or take the pile of random stuff I’ve held onto.”
“Two… billion?” Sol repeated. “I’ve never heard of a number that large.”
Something clicked in Jack’s mind.
“Sol, please tell me. What is the largest number you can imagine?”
He saw the balding man press his lips together as his V-shaped eyebrows came down into his familiar sour scowl, then he paused to glance at his daughter.
“I see now. If Jack would have asked me that when he first arrived, I would have dismissed the question as foolish and never consider the power of such a concept- as I almost did right now. But if I force myself to stop and think about it, it would seem to make sense that any number of coins I can imagine could always have one more tossed on top. I suppose there is no largest number…”
Demi nodded, bringing a hand to her chest.
Jack followed up with another NPC world-shattering concept.
“Remember when I asked everyone in Town to gather and grind up rocks for the Lightning Tower ritual? All of you, I want you to imagine what would happen if I asked you to stack those stones into the shape of a house instead, or into a second Wall. Would there be something physically stopping anyone from adding new structures or manually repairing buildings in Town?”
Harrak took in a shuddering breath and let it out, his face turning an angry beet red.
“Father?” Lex said, and Jack was worried he might have broken him with too much too fast.
Alt spoke telepathically before Harrak pulled himself together.
“No, this is good. You… astonish me yet again. I was thinking of stopping you, but entities inside the system are incapable of going too far. Let me clarify, the ‘video-game physics’ as you think of it cannot be broken, but the Corruption will never notice if you teach the NPCs to get away with everything they can. Nothing is truly off-limits for anyone working within the rules of System Sana.”
“I’m all right,” the Combat Master said. “I… finally understand what nonsense you all have been spouting off about.” He turned his bloodshot eyes up to Jack. “You continue to take me down over and over as if we’re sparring and I’ve never held a sword. First with my daughter and this Town, then Thymus, now…”
The old man stopped and looked around at the others. “I stood out by that broken Wall for years, and not one time did I ever consider something so simple as moving a pile of rocks into the gaps. What else have we been blind to?”
“Infinite possibilities…” Demi whispered.
Jack stepped up behind Lex and leaned his hand onto the table.
“Good. I’m glad you all are finally paying attention and starting to see what I want to bring to the rest of this world. System Sana is done playing by the rules. You were all born thinking you know all there is to know- that ends now.”
Sol looked up from staring at the floor.
“Why don’t you start with teaching us how you broke the 16-item limit, and how we could do the same.”
Jack struggled for a moment with how to phrase that some of the possibilities weren’t limitless when Haylee solved it for him.
“That is a gift from Alt.”
Everyone turned to the young Hero at the table. She continued. “For those of you who do not already know, Jack was brought to our world by an intelligent entity. Not a god. Limited but powerful. The layers of possibilities grow deeper the more you know what is out there. Currently, there are some limits, and Jack’s expanded inventory comes from his custom Class.”
“Limited gods? Custom Class? This is getting over my head,” Demi said, putting her hand up as if she were on a carnival ride and signaling for a stop.
Lex moved her hand from her father to Demi. “All you need to know about Alt is that we’ve fought many battles with him by our side in the Tower, and that our world stands between his and the Corruption. If we fall, his world is next.”
“Fascinating,” Sol said. “I’m glad I know, but our innkeeper is right. I told you I do not like change, and while I’m certainly trying, this is getting overwhelming.”
“Agreed,” Jack said, crossing his arms. “The only way we’ll get to explore all of these new possibilities is if we take back Emberstone. That’s enough to worry about on its own, but if we are going to do this smart, we all need to be on the same page. Harrak, Demi, please start talking about Dark Towers.”
The two Bygone Heroes looked at each other and Harrak nodded for Demi to speak first.
“Alright,” the older woman said slowly, squeezing Lex’s hand then crossing her arms over her white apron. “A Town pushes back against the Corruption as it is fed items, but that power is reversed if the Corruption reaches the Tower. This is what I… was born knowing, but when I was a young Climber, I met a Hero who said he’d just come back from a failed attempt at taking back an ancient fallen Tower.
“He said there was a type of beating heart that grows where the Fountain would be. This bile-covered organ feeds off the Tower and births Demons. If that attractive young man and my memory can be believed, this pulsating growth needs to be destroyed before anything else.”
“I’ve heard such tales,” Harrak nodded. “The Corruption feeds itself from the Tower just as the Towns do.”
“Good,” Jack said, “now we’re getting somewhere.”
“I know nothing of fallen Towers,” Sol said from the back wall. “But if this… beating Demon Heart feeds from the Tower like we do, wouldn’t that mean a corrupted Town would start at Level 1, as we do? Does it even have Levels?”
“I don’t know,” Demi said, “but it makes a kind of sense.”
Alt spoke up in Jack’s mind. “We are dealing with a lot of unknowns here, but based on how the Towers are set up, I can confirm with a 99% certainty that a Dark Tower only grows more powerful over time.”
Harrak started nodding. “Yes, the surrounding area gets saturated by Corruption with age. That means the bloody thing should be weakest right at the start- unless the bastards are bolstered with reinforcements. I wish I’d thought to ask more damn questions in my youth…” The grizzled Combat Master growled that last part.
“How far is Emberstone?” Jack asked. He’d never taken more than a few steps outside Blackmoor Cove since he woke up here. It wasn’t going to be tonight, and probably not even tomorrow, but Jack would need to leave eventually.
Harrak answered. “About two and a half, maybe three hours. You’ll need a Hero with a Healing Path, for certain. Depending how far the filth has spread from their Town, the Corruption Drain status effect is going to take a few hundred Hit Points along the way.”
“We will need more than the three of us,” Lex said, standing and turning to face Jack. “We also probably wouldn’t be able to climb the Tower the day we attack, which causes its own problems. And holding Emberstone is yet another layer to this. Heroes will need to stay behind to guard and feed the Town, or we’ll just lose it again.”
Jack put his hand on her shoulder. “You’re right. But we also can’t wait for our enemy to build up too much strength.”
His mind was racing with questions and plans, and everything was pushed aside when he thought of Lex standing with him against an army of demons. The deadly scene only dug up more questions.
“Lex, can you use your Aether Tone outside the Tower?”