New System, Who Dis?

Thursday, April 18th, 2069

“So, remember that talk we had about trust?” Smegma said, as a way of greeting me as soon as I opened my eyes. My eyes were still foggy with sleep but they narrowed as I tried to focus in on the demon. I found a shadow that looked like it had wings, and decided to transfer my apprehension onto it with the look. “I’m over here, dumb-dumb.”

Smegma said this from near the window which made me aware I was glaring down his overly enlarged shadow. “Good morning to you too,” I said dryly, attempting to cover the embarrassment. “So, what’s all this about trust?”

“Well, I need to admit to something, but it requires a bit of backstory,” Smegma responded. I could hear in his voice a bit of embarrassment as well, which surprised me. Had I ever heard that from the demon before?

I sat up and moved to the edge of my bed, before giving him a nod. “I’m not really sure where I should start, so bear with me, okay?” Another nod. “I’m not a living creature…”

He left that statement hanging in the air. I waited for more. When it didn’t come I said, “And?”

“Well, I thought I was a living creature when I first appeared with you,” Smegma added, giving me a bit of context but leaving me confused as to the direction he was taking.

Why did him being alive or not matter?

I didn’t interrupt, knowing he could see my confusion from my pursed lips and blinking eyes. “It’s an important distinction because it will help explain why I did what I did, later. Still, when I arrived Demonic Vault was an out-of-date skill, and the version of me you interacted with didn’t have all the knowledge I do now.”

“Meaning you’re learning from being in our world?” I asked, trying to clarify his story a bit.

“No, well yes, but no for the purposes of this story. Each time the skill has updated, I’ve gained more memories from my life on Crendalar Five. Some of those memories are just pieces of things I already knew but they fill and firm the picture. Still, with this latest update, I gained a huge chunk of time back from when me and my team were creating this skill.”

I opened my mouth to cut in with a question, but Smegma held up a hand. “Wait, just a second. I now understand that it has multiple purposes. That the skill was meant to support my Abyss Sect and the recipient who awakened with it.”

“Okay,” I said quietly. “That’s always what I thought it was, though?” I followed up when I saw Smegma had stopped speaking. For the first time, I could see a bit of disappointment in the demon’s black eyes. Was it directed at me or himself? Since he was looking at the old carpet floor I was leaning toward the latter.

“That’s why I’m telling you this. After the first upgrade I believed that this skill was solely for the betterment of the Abyss Sect. That we would use it to essentially strip this planet of resources and send them back home to continue living the life we did before our Ascension Failure. I now understand that Crendalar Five failed to ascend eons ago. That this skill was created for the inhabitants of Sective Agora. And that something terrible happened during creation.”

His eyes lifted then to meet mine and I was shocked by the depth of emotion they contained. Smegma was scared, sad, hurt and worried at a bare minimum. My skin broke out in goosebumps. This powerfully built monstrous looking creature was terrified—sure through context I could tell he wasn’t scared of anything of this world—but for him to be this shaken up highlighted the seriousness of this conversation.

I bit my tongue to stop from offering any meaningless speculation. Smegma didn’t need my concern. This was clearly leading somewhere, and my guess would be that I’d understand more of his emotions if I listened. Sure enough, Smegma gave me some more information almost immediately.

“I don’t fully remember what happened during the skill creation, but I do know that no response has really come back from the Abyss Sect on the Monster Cores we sold. At first, I believed that was because they’d already gotten some from my previous owner. Now, though? Now I’m worried that they might not even be alive anymore.” His eyes never left mine. Something leaked from his eye. It looked like over used oil from an engine it was so thick and black. It took me a moment to realize the demon was crying.

“While I’m mostly sure that the demonic race from the Crendalar hive has lived on, I have no idea what changes they must have gone through in those long years. With this latest update I’m also aware of three other planets that failed the ascension since Crendalar. Sective Agora was the planet directly after us, and it is home to the Elves. The Elves like the humans were all ‘one race’ but categorized themselves based on skin color, eye shape or color, and ear shape.

“The second planet after Crendalar was Slithera a planet similar to Sective Agora in that it was vibrant in plant life, but different in two major ways. It had a great deal more water, both in its seas and on it’s ‘land’ creating a higher water table and mostly swamp like living areas. The people who lived upon this world were Lizardkin—which were a caste like culture. The older a Lizardkin lived the more powerful their bodies became—starting from what they called kobolds, and growing to eventually be as large as a Felguard and called Dragonkin.

“The next planet was Uther’s Edge, a planet so close to its own sun that its inhabitants lived underground, only venturing to the surface for resources for a few hours a day. You were mining on it when you discovered the Shining Meteorite. The inhabitants of this world were Dwarves, and categorized themselves by how deep into the earth they lived.

“Finally, the last planet I can recall taking the trials after Crendalar was called Morgraine. It was a planet which contained high amounts of Nitrogen in the atmosphere. Similar to where we are now. However, what I can remember is unlike the other races I’ve mentioned, the inhabitants of Morgraine breathed Nitrogen and not Oxygen like the others. This was considered very promising—since differences can lead to power.

“But that’s all I can remember. Even what the race of creatures on that planet were eludes my memories. I can see on your face that your questioning why I’m telling you all this, and what it has to do with my story.”

I nodded with a half grin, trying to apologize for my lack of patience. “Let me get to the point. Somewhere after Sective Agora, and maybe even after Slithera I realized that what the Demons of Crendalar will benefit from most is if the skill-bestowed-individual Ascends. Meaning, that my primary goal should have been helping you become stronger…”

He let that rather disturbing statement hang in the air, allowing me to make the realization of what he was saying. My half smile vanished, and I felt my empty stomach bubbling with a simmering anger. I clenched my blankets in a fist and managed to ask my next question without raising my voice. “Are you saying that you have been ripping me off on Mana Coins?”

“No,” Smegma shook his head vigorously. “Not that.”

“Then, you’ve somehow made me weaker?” I asked, my anger puttering a bit as I failed to understand Smegma’s point.

“Not really, no. I just was given a choice to make after the last update—and I didn’t consult you…”

“What choice did you make after the last upda—” the Overdraft and Extraction options for sub-skills came to the forefront of my mind. Had Smegma somehow offered me duds for skills?” “Wait, are you saying that Overdraft and Extraction were shit sub-skills?”

“No, but you’re on the right track. Those two skills weren’t the only options you had,” Smegma admitted. I leaned back on my bed, trying to understand why this conversation had built up so much. Smegma continued hurriedly though, likely trying to head off an angry response from me. “I scanned through the options that were offered and picked two that would hopefully start making the Abyss Sect more Mana.”

I licked my lips starting to piece together the tale, and what Smegma was saying. Still, I didn’t feel any anger toward him for some reason. I scratched at an itch above my ear, before I responded. “Okay, sure—but they were still strong options?”

“Definitely, but I’ll admit I knew you weren’t going to take Extraction. I manipulated you into taking Overdraft.”

“So, you manipulated me into taking a Skill that has unlocked a stat for me, and helped my family?” Smegma made a face that told me I was correct but missing something. “Okay…What are the other options then?” I asked, needing to understand what I missed out on before investing an emotional response into it.

My brain was clearly doing its too calm logical deductions, but it was immensely hard to fault the Demon considering the results. Not only had I destroyed a Rock Golem, I’d also gotten a skill that could turn my families and friends lives around.

“I can’t share the list with you, I’ve tried multiple times. It seems when we created this skill we wanted to have control over its development—so, we left the decision to the curator of Demonic Vault. Then he can offer the options individually to the user…”

“So, you?” I asked and Smegma nodded. Even more reason I couldn’t get upset. He’d made a decision he was supposed to have made. Plus, if this was leading where I thought it was, he was now including me in the next sub-skill choices. “Does this mean we have another sub-skill to choose?”

“Two, actually.” I stood up from the bed and practically left the ground as my knees locked out.

Did I had two more sub-skills to choose? I couldn’t curb my excitement considering just how much Overdraft had done.

“So, is there a reason why you’re including me in the decision this time?” I asked as I began to pace.

“I think I included other wielders in this decision before, so you probably would have been included either way. However, I’ve also reached a bit of a wall. I’ve been looking through the options all night. The problem is that I’m unable to decide what direction will lead to the best results. What direction will allow you to discover more about the Abyss Sect, and keep you growing to challenge the Deadly Realm tests.”

“Do you have it narrowed down, then?”

“I have several directions to choose from but I don’t know all of the variables—in fact, I’m not even sure I truly know any of the variables…”

Smegma and I stared at each other, as I stopped my pacing. I scanned my room, my eyes eventually landing on my laptop. “I have to go to work today, but I could start transcribing what sub-skills there are to my computer. Than later tonight we could go through them.”

Smegma rubbed at a ridge on his head. “There are about two hundred options…”

“Well shit. Then I guess we’ll go over all the options tomorrow or the day after.”

Smegma smiled widely displaying his sharpened teeth and I shivered a bit before joining the demon. I should probably get started if there were that many choices.

* * *

“What do you husking mean we’re not getting bonuses from yesterday?” Willa shouted.

The target of her ire was Jagger Vance. He hadn’t looked happy before Willa had confronted him, either—so, now he just looked constipated and angry about it.

“It wasn’t my choice you Selfless piece of shit!” Jagger shouted back.

“Oh, please tell me how this isn’t the fault of our Greed CEO? The same asshole that husked three mana banks before his father cut him off?!”

Jagger’s face went so red, he became a tomato. A very angry tomato. He jabbed a finger into Willa’s chest and growled, “That is not the entire story, witch! If you speak another husking word about what you don’t understand I will have you out of my company so fast—it will make your head spin.”

My dad, also beat red in the face, grabbed Willa’s shoulder and pulled her back only to take her place. “The whole mining team will just leave if you don’t hold to your contract terms, Jagger! Yesterday’s haul likely made you hundreds of millions—”

“I’ve made husking nothing! Everything from the dungeon yesterday was confiscated by the UNMH for an ongoing investigation. What investigation they were talking about, the Windsor PD department hasn’t seen fit to tell me! So, not only do I not have the ores, and crystals—they’ve also taken the goram plants—and monster parts!”

“What?” my dad asked as he involuntarily stepped back. “But if they take the monster parts and plants, won’t they be reducing the value?”

“Yes, they are, and they wouldn’t even concede anything to Taz. I’ve got my lawyers on it, but they’ve said that the powers that be are keeping their mouths shut tighter than a Hellclam!”

“Surely, you can front us the money?” Willa said, her voice carrying a hint of her earlier heat. I would probably say it had transitioned to a complaint.

“For all I know they will never return any of the material. There were at least eight unknown ores in there and just as many stacks of unknown materials that presented as rocks. If I front you the money and get nothing back—then I’m out almost a million dollars!”

“What should we do then?” Willa asked, her voice now entirely devoid of anything other than pleading.

“Just keep working—if they return the ores, I’ll immediately make good on my bonuses. In the meantime, I’m sure you can earn some more bonuses with your fancy new picks.”

I looked down at the pick in my hand, realizing that Jagger believed we had all gone out and ‘spent’ the bonus on new gear. I had to admit that the picks did give that impression. I looked over to my right, at Uncle Jarred. He was looking back and forth between the speakers while holding the original Mining Pick from the shop. Well, a particularly bad specimen of the original Mining Pick.

He currently had one of the Pick’s I’d purchased during the Stone Golem fight, leaving me with one remaining. Which I had left in the car—unable to bring myself to hand it out, with everything that was going on. There was just too much of a chance of it ending up in the hands of Mr. Varnish—

“You think it was Mr. Varnish that seized the ore?” Smegma asked, his voice carrying the surprise at my revelation that I also felt.

To stop any further argument on that matter, just in case others made that connection, I rushed forward and grabbed my dad. “He’s right,” I said. “Let’s just get to work, and see what happens…”

Jagger was still upset with our little group of ‘Specialists, and his wide angry eyes fixated on me for a moment. That was all it took for him to discover something. “Is that a Camera?” he shouted. “You know that any recording equipment must be cleared by the site super, right Gary?”

I could tell that he was trying to find any avenue for some quick ‘revenge’ but unfortunately, he had landed on something that was truly going to hurt me if he took it away. I looked helplessly up at my father, who blinked first at me and then at the three-hundred- and sixty-degree Cannondale Camera on loan from Sparkle Legion.

He got the hint and put on a fake smile before turning to address Jagger. “Jagger, he’s a kid and this is for a project for his second year of school—when he goes back.”

Jagger’s face softened a little bit, but he still shook his head. “I don’t care! The level of liability a camera brings into a Portal is too high to ignore. People second guessing decisions, from comfortable office chairs, of people who were in the thick of a dangerous situation. If the kid wants to bring in a camera, he has to sign all the proper forms!”

“Well, that should be fine—” my dad began but saw my paling face.

“Oh shit,” Smegma said, reacting to my worry, and not the conversation.

“Good, then go talk to the super and leave me the Husk alone.” Just as we turned to leave Jagger shouted, “Willa!” which drew all of us up short. Willa of course more so than the rest of us. She turned back to Jagger and he motioned her to follow him. “You will be getting a write up, before you go anywhere!”

Willa looked back to us and rolled her eyes in a way that told us all that she’d been through this song and dance before. My dad’s cough sounded suspiciously like an attempt to cover a laugh. The group split, though, Willa following Jagger into his trailer and my father leading the way to what I assumed would be the super’s trailer.

It wasn’t a trailer. Just a beat-up old Dodge Caravan. It was in better shape than my mom’s car but just barely. The man practically guffawed when we asked him for permission to bring the camera inside. Turns out the forms were supposed to be printed by home office and onsite. Turns out the super didn’t know where they were—so, he said to just start recording once we were inside the mine—because he couldn’t guarantee that the Gecko Guild, the group that owned the dungeon, would want images of the terrain or possible creatures to be leaked.

I waited until we were alone again then I voiced my earlier concern. “Dad, what if the confiscated ores and crystals has to do with my trial?”

My dad stared, his face paling with each second. He gasped in a lungful of air when he realized he’d forgotten to breathe.

“Surely, a self-defense case wouldn’t—”

“I think, it’s pretty clear that Mr. Varnish or whoever is behind him is trying to make this a bit bigger than a self-defense case…”

“I feel like I’ve stepped into a TV show,” Jarred said. “Do either of you care to explain what the hell is going on?”

My dad looked a bit too shaken up to speak so I took up the duty of explaining the situation to Jarred. He knew some of the story, thanks to my father, but learning about the massive value of confiscated ores and the escalating manslaughter trial, definitely shook him up as well.

“You didn’t actually kill him for his skills, though,” Jarred said when I finished. He didn’t really make it a question but I could hear it all the same. The stated-question did startle my father out of his shock, though.

“Jarred,” he crowed, “that’s my son!”

“I haven’t talked to the kid in years, I’m just making sure!” he answered, even as he looked to the pavement at his feet. Today the portal was inside of a Catholic Church—which made the whole thing highly political. I wasn’t totally aware of why, but I could tell that the mood of everyone was subdued as we waited to be escorted inside. I had to wonder if the Gecko Guild, which was a pretty small entity, somehow was related to the church.

I figured they must be, since the Catholic Church had both the pull and the money to have their own team if they wanted it.

My dad’s phone ringing beside me cut off my conversation with Smegma discussing the church, it’s beliefs and why I believed that the Gecko Guild was contracted or owned by them.

“Morning, honey—” my dad said before the speaker blared in his ear and cut him off. It was loud enough that I heard the first couple words, and could make out my mother’s voice.

“None of the cards are working! I can’t even get—” that was all I heard before my father stood up straight and moved a little ways away from the group.