A pall of shocked silence blanketed the campsite following his hallowed pronouncement. Eleven pairs of eyes staring back at him, uncomprehendingly, as if awaiting the punchline to a particularly unfunny joke. The only sounds to be heard, the distant felling of trees, the overlapping susurrus of an alien tongue, and the merry crackle of the campfire. One of the burning logs popped suddenly, sending a spray of embers high into the sky. Birds twittered from somewhere deep in the forest.
Sheesh. They’ll catch flies if they let their mouths hang open like that for much longer.
In fact, the awkward silence went on for so long, that his voracious little protégé began to get a bit peckish. Tugging on his ears, clothes, cheeks, and otherwise pestering him about the sorry contents of her stomach, for what had to have been the umpteenth time that week.
Food?
Please food?
What? Were they not feeding her around here or something?
The empress of all humanity retrieved her fingers from his nostrils with a put upon sigh. Richard, for his part, had to resist the sudden urge to sneeze. A fact which surely aided in the image of the high and mighty divine emissary he was trying to portray. Now, as for why he’d decided on this to be his grand fa?ade—the cover he’d use to explain all the major discrepancies of his existence—well, to put it simply, it was because, like any good con, it was actually steeped in a layer of truth.
Technically, he had been sent here by a god. Or rather, the goddess Opon. And while, having a divine sponsor this early in the tutorial was unusual to say the least, it wasn’t exactly unheard of. And, in all those cases wherein a god or goddess took interest in a mortal ahead of schedule, they each demonstrated similar qualities to what one could easily ascribe to him. Greater intelligence, stronger bodies, higher insight on the system and its rules.
Really, it was only the future knowledge question mark which was likely to get him in trouble.
All was fair game when the powerful got involved, but when an upstart nobody tries to flip the game on its head…? Well, that was usually when you ran into problems. Problems he really didn’t need. Problems like a company’s worth of mercenaries camping out on your front porch. Those kinds of problems.
He still wasn’t sure exactly where he’d slipped up, though he could no longer deny that the cat was out of the bag. He was a strange one, and the system had likely flagged him as a liability. Granted, he’d honestly expected a far harsher response than… well, than what he ultimately got, though he’d take it if it was being offered.
Now that his secret was out—and somehow, miraculously, he hadn’t instantly been vaporized—he saw no reason in keeping up the pretense of being a feeble baby boy. No instead, a baby who spoke with the will of a god suited him just fine.
To absolutely no one’s surprise, Maya was the first to break the silence.
“Wait… you mean… gods are real?!”
Before that bombshell of a question could spark any sort of heated theological debate, he answered simply.
“Yep. So, are you ready to listen to what I have to say?”
“Wait! Ooo! I have a question!” Maya raised her hand. “Did you ever meet your god? We’re they nice? Oh! Was it scary?!”
“I-” Richard blinked. “No, I haven’t-”
Robin was the next to raise her hand.
“You said a god. As in plural? How many gods are there exactly? If you don’t mind me asking. Also, are they at all related to any of the widely known pantheons? Greek? Roman? Hindu?”
“I-” Richard stuttered. “That’s a really good question-!”
“Ooo! Ooo! Are there special powers you can get by swearing allegiance to a certain divinity? Sort of like paladins in an mmo?!”
“Uh- you know? It’s funny you mention that-”
“Oh, that’d be so f-ing cool you guys! I’d smite all you fools. Look out for me!”
“Wait! You can’t be serious!” Denise cut in sharply. “Are you actually taking this kids word at face value?! Are you kidding me?!”
“Well, like, I don’t know,” Eva said. “Sure it, like, sounds crazy, but it’s not like this last week has been sane. I’m still not a hundred percent sure I’m not, like, in a coma somewhere, and all this isn’t just some trippy fever dream.”
“Besides,” Marlene said. “If ya need proof, all ya gotta do is look at ‘em. Walkin’ and talkin’ like he ain’t a month out the womb. What do ya call that except divine intervention?”
“Oh?! I don’t know?! Forking demonic possession? A shapeshifter? He could be an f-ing alien for all we know!”
Maya turned to Richard.
“You’re not a demon in disguise, evil alien, or body swapper are you?”
“Not since last time I checked.”
Maya turned to Denise.
“See? He says he’s clean.”
Denise let out a long groan of frustration. She then let her head sag into her palms.
“Idiots…” she mumbled. “I’m surrounded by idiots….”
“Hey!” cried Maya. “I take offense to that!”
The others, who had just been about to voice their own protests, promptly snapped their mouths shut. Not wanting to throw their own hats in the ring after that… interesting pronouncement.
“So… alright,” Denise let out a sigh, raising her eyes to meet his. “Let’s just say, for the sake of argument, that it’s true, what you say. How on earth does this change anything? It’s still your fault that we’re effectively stuck here now-”
She shot an accusing look towards the hundreds of lizard men surrounding the clearing.
“Just as it was you who led the children into who knows how much danger, against our explicitinstructions, and nearly got them killed.”
Richard grimaced. Yeah, when she laid it all out like that, it really wasn’t looking too good for him. Richard’s lips moved before his brain could catch up with them.
“Well, in my defense, I didn’t ask them to come with me.”
Immediately, he could tell that was the exact wrong thing to say. Even those few who’d begun to turn around grew cold right before his eyes. Denise, for her part, was near apoplectic with rage. Steam could’ve been coming out of her ears and it wouldn’t have seemed out of place.
“You… what?!” she said in a bone chilling whisper.
Richard thought he knew when to cut his losses, and now looked to be one of those times.
Richard lurched forward in a formal bow, nearly dismounting Penelope from her perch, arms held at his sides.
“You’re absolutely right. In hindsight, it was extremely irresponsible of me and it will not happen again.”
Richard held this pose for a few more seconds, before he dared to sneak a peek at their reaction.
Denise huffed. Clearly still angry, though at least she seemed somewhat mollified by his sincerity. The same went for the others’ reactions. It was kind of ridiculous. He would’ve bet dollars to donuts an adult man making the exact same apology would not have gotten off this easily: Score another point for the cuteness factor, he supposed. It also probably helped that they were all expecting.
Man, do I really want to get rid of this body? It seems to come with way more upsides than downsides. I mean, what competent person doesn’t love being underestimated?
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
“Now that all that’s out of the way, however,” Richard rose to a standing position, looking each of the adults in the eyes in turn. “Would you like to know how we’re going to kick those scaly mercs right back into whatever hole they crawled out of? Or should I just let all this divine intuition go to waste?”
+++
It wasn’t exactly a conscious decision he made, to train this ragtag group of women and children. Give them the tools they needed to survive the world outside this sham of a tutorial. And yet, if that barely mitigated disaster from yesterday had taught him anything, it was that he wasn’t nearly as disaffected as he’d thought he’d been. And in fact, just the thought of losing any one of them—Denise included!—due to his own negligence…?
No. No that simply wouldn’t do.
And so, he would help them. Narrow down their focuses. Power level them up as high as humanly possible in what little time was left, so that, should he not be there to jump in at the last possible second, they’d have the tools they needed to properly defend themselves. Before he got to any of that, however…
First things first, Richard needed to know what he was working with.
“Alright!” Richard exclaimed, his arms akimbo. “Everyone who’s reached level fifteen, but hasn’tchosen a class, raise your hand.”
Much to his surprise, all five of the women raised their hands. The kids, meanwhile, merely looked on enraptured, whispering excitedly with one another as they sat round the crackling fire. Apparently, they must’ve seen the surprise on his face, because Robin was quick to explain.
“Well, we figured Denise and Marlene must’ve had a reason for holding off like they did. We just didn’t know that reason was so-” she glanced at him briefly, before averting her gaze. “Well,” she cleared her throat. “Anyway. So, when the time came to pick a class, the girls and I, we just sort of… didn’t. It was always meant to be a temporary thing.”
Huh. A pleasant surprise. A very pleasant surprise. Situating himself in a free camping chair—with Penelope, of course, scrambling around to plop herself in his lap—he then asked each of them to recount their deeds in as great a detail as they could manage. Even the smallest triviality could be important here. How many monsters they’d killed, what roles they played in said conflicts, which weapons they’d used, etc.
Again, he was left somewhat astonished by their initiative.
It would seem they’d been busy these last few days. Organizing raids and strategic sorties. Taking the fight to a contingent of career toy soldiers. A sustained campaign levied against a higher leveled enemy, lasting nearly two whole weeks all told?! Honestly, he couldn’t have asked for a better base to work with in terms of deeds. Especially when you considered they’d been doing all this on their own.
He was most elated to hear that some of the experience from the named elite he’d killed, what felt like ages ago now, had actually gone to each of them.
Add all that together, and it basically guaranteed each of them an Uncommon class, with decent enough prospects to expect a rare evolution at E Grade. Not bad. Not bad at all.
Really, with their rarity grade guaranteed, all that was left to figure out was individual direction. Maya frowned.
“You mean like, how do we wanna fight and stuff?”
“It could be that, what you’re naturally drawn towards. Or it could be what you’re most suited towards.”
Now the others were frowning as well. Richard scrunched up his face.
“I’m not doing a very good job at this,” he muttered.
And while the others didn’t outwardly agree, their confusion spoke volumes. This was hard. He had the knowledge, knew it by heart in fact, but teaching it to others—regular folks who weren’t bona fide information sponges, *cough cough* Penelope—was proving far harder than he’d expected.
“Alright!” Richard clapped his hands together—above his head, awkwardly, seeing as Penelope was hogging up all his personal space. “We’ll do it like this. I want you each to narrow down a role you think you’re uniquely suited for. Be that as a frontline fighter, a protector, a support, a rogue, you get the gist. Then, I want you to look at one another, and assign each person a role based on what youthink their strong suits are. Got it?”
He got a few hesitant nods as they parsed the meaning behind his words, then nearly a quarter hour’s worth of silence as they worked through it in their heads. He wished he had pad and paper to help ease the process, but then if he had that, a whole lot would’ve been different now wouldn’t it? Eventually, their little brain storming session came to a close, and the results were in.
“Okay, let’s go from left to right. Denise? First tell everyone the role you perceive yourself as having, then everyone else,” he swept his gaze across the gathering of women. “I want you to voice what you think she’s best suited for.”
Denise pursed her lips.
“Question. Why the swell does it matter what any of them think? If it’s what I want to do, I’ll just do it regardless of what they say.”
Oh really?! She’s a duchess? And all this time she’s been such a team player! Who could’ve guessed?
“True, true. And, were this just a game, you would be absolutely correct. However, right now, we’re not just talking about personal preference, we’re talking about deeds. And a lot of the time—well, most of the time, really—when you lack concrete achievements that solidify your deeds in the annals of history, public opinion holds the second greatest sway on your future progression paths. The way people perceive you, the way you’re remembered, it holds tangible weight in this new world governed by the System.”
The ladies frowned, clearly having a hard time taking all this in. He didn’t blame them. It’d been years before humanity even became privy to the existence of deeds, and even longer still, before they began to get a handle on its nature. Robin raised her hand tentatively.
“Yes?”
“You keep saying this word, deeds, with that strange inflection. Why is that? What are, deeds?”
“Not deeds. Deeds. The record of your past actions,” Richard paused, seeing that he was already losing them.
He thought about it for a second, then began again more slowly.
“Think of it as a hidden achievement system with trillions upon quintillions of entries, ranging from the utterly mundane, like how often you brush your teeth in the morning, to the uniquely impressive—or, in some cases, reprehensible. Every action you take, good or bad, forming an interconnected constellation that in turn informs the system on how it should see and interact with you.”
“And, that’s important… why?” asked Denise.
“Because, without notable deeds, your progression will stall. And since the System has been theorized to be heavily tied to fate, and all that other holistic mumbo jumbo, unexceptional deeds can lead to a lot of things. None of them good.”
They were definitely paying attention now. Even Denise was hanging on his every word.
“There are external things. Good loot will drop less frequently. The classes you’re offered will be lackluster. The special events you’re invited to will be fewer and far between. Then there are the internal things. You’ll be more likely to run into bottlenecks, for instance.
“Mental, physical, or spiritual barriers which ruin your momentum. While those with notable deeds blast past your little obstacle without even noticing, you may be stuck there for years, without any idea of how to proceed. And, worse than that, it’ll be much harder to regain said momentum once the bottle neck has been passed.”
Eva gulped.
“Remember this, because it’s probably the most important lesson I can impart on you. The System tends to acknowledge those that shine the brightest in its eyes. And for us mere mortals? That means possessing laudable deeds. And sometimes, having enough people believe something about you is enough to appear laudable in the systems eyes. Now then, as I was saying, we’ll start with Denise, and move on from there.”
And that’s precisely what they did.
As it so happened, Denise saw herself as a frontline fighter. Someone who ran headfirst into ranks worth of enemies, and chopped them to bits with her oddly shaped rapier. The others, much to his surprise, seemed to agree with this assessment. It made planning out her progression path a whole lot easier, though he definitely could’ve done without the smug looks shot his way.
The next in line, Marlene, saw herself as filling a support role. The others, much to his frustration, saw her as much the same. Now, obviously it was unacceptable for royalty to be relegated to support. He might settle for a combat support role, but anything less would’ve been an utter waste. Clearly he would have to work extra hard on this one.
Maya, meanwhile, saw herself as an assortment of things. From a talented swordswoman, to a talented barbarian, to a talented thief, to a talented mage, to a variety of “talented” [insert fantasy role here]. Basically blurting out every little thing that popped into her head. The others, meanwhile, saw her, almost universally, as a class clown and general nuisance, if extremely quick-footed and uniquely agile.
Rogue it is then. Honestly, I’m not especially surprised.
Eva, on the other hand, was a bit of a mixed bag for the very opposite reason. She didn’t see herself as being especially good at anything. And the others, much to the young woman’s chagrin, seemed to generally agree with that assessment. She would need more one on one training, he decided. He’d ask her for a look at her screens, and try to come up with a strategy from there.
And finally, they came to Robin. Richard was most curious about her, and was honestly shocked when she saw herself as healer and caretaker. The others, sensibly, mirrored his disbelief, showering the increasingly uncomfortable woman with their praises, until she looked just about ready to bolt. In the end, however. It was unanimous. Despite the presence of a Duchess, Princess, and Empress inside their little cohort, there wasn’t a doubt in their minds that she was the leader.
Something that was practically unheard of and could only bode well for her deeds. Richard was honestly a bit tempted to advise she pick a class right that instant, if only to see what she’d get.
“Okay!” Richard cut off their discussions. “I’d say that was productive. Now I think I have a few suggestions on how to proceed, to get the most out of your class selection and future evolutions. First things first, what do you know about ability cubes?”
Richard nodded at the blank looks he received, not especially surprised when Denise didn’t volunteer the ability cube she’d snagged off of the named elites corpse. Now that he was revealed to be a divine emissary, and not some dumb brat, he was sure the last thing she wanted to remind him of was the loot that was rightly his. Little did she know that he didn’t actually care, though he was somewhat curious as to what had dropped.
Richard quickly went over the basics of ability cubes, then went over how, should the right action be performed a certain number of times, it was possible for a corresponding ability cube to spawn as a result.
“Of course this is extremely rare, so don’t feel discouraged if you don’t manage it the first hundred or so times. Some never manage to coalesce an ability cube whatsoever, but if you do manage to create one that also relates to your desired class, it will significantly add to your deeds in that regard.”
Richard leapt from his chair and stretched his sore back with a sigh. Leading the others from the campfire in search of an open area to train.
“Of course I would’ve preferred it if there was someone else to teach you the minutia, while I see to other things. Seeing as I’m the one here with experience, we’ll just have to brute force our way-!”
Richard paused at the sudden chorus of giggles which erupted from behind him. Richard spun around to see the gaggle of children giving him decidedly self satisfied looks. Then, to the astonishment of everyone present, Richard very much included, they each pulled a shining gray ability cube from their chests, and held them up to the light.
“Oh. Or… that. Yeah. That works too.”