The Genesis Game 1

by Andrew O'Kelley

  Garen turned and looked towards Alexander “Alexander, you did your job as expected, but nothing you did stood out, you are neither an expert nor have any natural talent, but you were willing to close with the enemy and that is the heart of the Warrior, however, you also attempted to steal the artifact of one of your party and in doing so managed to be defeated. This is both shameful and embarrassing, for this reason I'm assigning you an Adventurer rank of D and I will offer you two training sessions with the spear.

  Seraph knew who would come next and refused to look to see. “Paul” Said Garen “I watched your progress with great interest, that you already had natural talent and training with a knife was evident, but more so that you remained cool and collected during your fight with the Gigas, this impressed us, less impressive was the distraction your female companion was for you, for this reason I am assigning you an adventurer rank of B. As a reward for your efforts we are granting you an unbreakable knife that can extend up to four feet, we feel you will make good use of it.”

  Garen nodded at Paul and then moved on to an empty table. “The woman who was among you did not respawn.” Explained Garen. “When the soul and the spirit is destroyed, there's nothing left to come back. For those of you who knew her, apologies for your loss.”

  At last Garen stood before Seraph “You and I have already talked about your performance, we can talk further still in private about ways to improve. But for your efforts and for results I deem you an A ranked adventurer. The keys you found opened the door to the outside, though Reverend was beyond you, he was not beyond the Infernals, in this way you could have defeated him, because you did not realize this course of action I cannot grant you an S ranking. Additionally, you were unable to recover the dungeon seed, for this reason I also cannot grant you an S ranking. Also, like in the case of Jack, we do not have any trainers available that I believe will benefit you, in their absence you will also be granted an additional elite cosmetic selection if you so wish.”

  Garen walked back to the front of the room and snapped his fingers, “Alright, most of you are dismissed.”

  And in an instant only Paul, Seraph, Jack and Alexander remained. The tension between them all heavy and palpable, Seraph stared while the other three avoided his gaze.

  “As the only survivors of the tutorial, and the first ones to go through it, you have a choice to make.” Explained Garen.

  “The tutorial you were afforded is not free, there is a cost associated with it. To maintain the tutorial indefinitely for all future adventurers we would need to implement a tax on roughly 10% of all experience earned. That 10% lets us manage this tutorial, and gives you humans a better chance at survival. Alternatively, we can use that 10% tax to give you more power now and put that debt on the remainder of humanity to pay back. Whatever you four decide, it needs to be a complete 100% vote in favor or against. Any questions?

  A hand was raised, Alexanders hand. “Do we get anything from other people in return for keeping the tutorial running? Or are we expected to live off of gratitude? How would you power us up, and why would I want to give that up?”

  Garen answered “Those of you who hold a legendary class emblem will have it unlocked, those of you who don’t will be granted an elite class instead.”

  Seraph understood some of that sentiment as he thought of the Emblem that sealed away his power and the desire to be whole again was tempting. Seraph looked at the other two men and then to his father. His father turned away unable to look at him.

  “I also have a question.” Asked Seraph. “How does the tutorial benefit humanity?”

  Garen looked at Seraph in apparent appreciation for the question. “A good question, if the tutorial respawn was not in place, half of the participants of the tutorial would have died, I cannot say if all will have the same results, but it certainly will save lives, and everyone who goes through the tutorial will be stronger for it when they enter the actual dungeon.”

  "Garen?" Said Seraph, "I'd like to discuss with the other three humans this policy you want us to adopt. It should be quick, I just want to make the best call."

  "Yeah, that's fine.” Responded Garen. “This is a big decision that's going to affect a lot more than just you. It's not something you need to rush through. Just remember whatever you decide, that decision has to be 100% in agreement.

  The four humans grouped up to talk as Garen looked on.

  "There's nothing to talk about." Said Alexander "I'm not going to pay a tax forever for a benefit I don't use for the sake of people I don't know. I was pathetic out there, but if I get a boost, I could become like a god. And I think Jack is with me on that from the way he’s nodding his head, this isn’t worth turning down elite and legendary class upgrades.”

  "Alright then" said Seraph, "What about your thoughts dad? Where do you fall with this?

  “You don’t want to know my thoughts.” Said Paul darkly. “But this is bigger than my feelings, when I served in the Army I learned there is a lot more to being a hero then just being strong. Integrity, courage, service, they matter but sometimes you have to be prepared to do the hard thing when life gives you no other option than to spit on your hands and hoist the black sails. I'll defer to whatever the group decides to make things easier.

  Seraph nodded, appreciative of the blunt advice and knew he would need to talk to Paul later. "Alright, Alexander, do you mind telling Garen then that we’ve made our decision?”

  "Yeah, not a problem, I don’t want any trouble you know. This is just the best decision for me.” Responded Alexander.

  "Yes, I do know how it is" muttered Seraph in disappointment.

  Alexander turned to walk away and Seraph tightened his grip on the Cat Claw that he carried on his person attached to his arm, and with a quickness that no one expected, thrust the weapon through Alexander’s skull, killing him instantly as blood and brain matter splattered from the force of the thrust.

  Seraph walked over to Garen, daring the other two men to disagree with him. "We accept the tutorial tax of 10% of future experience to be imposed on us and all future humans who enter the dungeon."

  "Great! Knew you had it in you.” Replied Garen with a smile. “And welcome to Hometown.”

  Author’s Notes

  Thank you so much for reading Volume I of The Genesis Game.

  Writing about Seraph has been interesting for me. He reminds me a lot of the overpowered characters you can get in your party early on in some Strategy games that can really hinder your gameplay late game if you lean on those overpowered characters rather than learning the intricacies of the game. It’s one of the reasons I opted for Seraph not to be some martial genius, he never would have needed to be in his original timeline.

  I've got a lot planned for Seraph. My office is filled with notebooks were i've been scrawling my ideas for what happens next and planning out the following 7 books.

  If I had to say one regret in writing this, it would be the early reveal of his reincarnation, but in the context, I just couldn’t see him not doing it. I had the same problem when I played Fallout 4, I was never able to do a play through that didn’t have me on the side of my kid. Family makes you do weird stuff.

  If you liked the book, please help me out and leave a review, 4’s and 5’s strongly preferred. Less than that, feel free to send me a nasty email instead.

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