1.29 The Countdown Ends

The sun had begun its descent, though only just, by the time construction of their wooden fort began wrapping up. For his part, Rocky had not seen hide or hair from any animals in any direction. It seemed as though the ‘safe zone’ qualities of the clearing still held true. He glanced at the timer, still ticking its way down.

[1:03:21]

Rocky didn’t really understand clocks. Well, in truth Rocky didn’t understand a lot of things. Something which Harold had chalked up to ‘seeing is believing’. And Rocky had certainly never seen a clock before.

But he could understand several basic concepts that allowed him to grasp what a clock was meant to do. For one, he knew about numbers, and these numbers were counting. First, in small subsets of sixty, then in larger sets of sixty, and then finally ticking down in single digits. Until, eventually, the number would hit zero.

It was also a bad timer, and a good timer at the same time. ‘How does that work in the first place? How could something be both good and bad at the same time?’ He took his time pondering the dilemma.

Rocky found his attention drawn to his last moving golem, Arms. The cold iron construct was the only one of its brothers still moving, the other two having just now ceased any and all construction. With the undaunted precision of a true rock, Arms dug its way into the ground. A hole large enough to support the placement of…

THUD. The final log was dropped into place, and without ceremony, their initial town was complete. Mostly of wood though, much to Rocky’s chagrin.

But it was done nonetheless, and it was the most beautiful ugly thing Rocky had ever seen. He briskly waddled his way out of the gate, which could now be swung open or locked shut based upon need.

Several feet away from his first construction, Rocky marvelled at the walls, seven feet tall, encircling the camp. Within, were several basic living spaces and shacks for resource storage.

[Basic camp constructed. Prepare for testing]

[Updating owner permissions, please reference overview and map...]

Vague as ever, the System made no mention of what the tests would be. Rocky himself had no frame of reference for the subject either, having only heard about a type of test from Harold. Something called ‘Finals’ in education.

Speaking of, wasn’t he complaining when he mentioned these so called ‘Finals?’ That didn’t bode well for Rocky’s new town, especially if it was going to be tested soon. Well he wouldn’t know, but he did know someone who would…

#####

“Alina! Alina!” Rocky’s voice broke the relative quiet that had settled over their camp. Almost immediately, the Sprite jolted upwards from her sitting position across from Amber.

She wasn’t the only one who reacted, however, and every living being in the camp, Simo the spiderling included, responded by either bolting upright, or rushing out of whatever area they were in, ready for combat.

The floating woman sighed. “I forgot how absolutely terrifying your voice is. Yes, what’s up?”

Rocky tilted his head, for what he predicted would not be the first time today. Alina was always confusing, and he had a lot of questions to burn through. “I got this map and screen for the Town! It says that the basic camp was finished, and that we should prepare for a test.”

He looked pointedly at Harold for the last part, the light of his eye flashing to convey the importance of the statement. When the human failed to respond, he followed up. “Aren’t tests a bad thing?”

“Nevermind that!” Alina’s wings sped up, almost imperceptibly. “The tribulation is coming, everyone get ready to fight!” She herself moved to take her place on Rocky’s shoulder. “Any second now, there should be red dots appearing on your map. That’ll be the System testing your new town.”

A new notification appeared before Rocky, who promptly read it aloud. “Error. Test cannot be administered, interference detected."

The sprite sputtered. “Wait WHAT? Share that notification with me!” He did, and she promptly did a screaming circle around the entirety of their wooden wall. “That is physically not possible. It’s literally not a thing that you can- You know what? Fine. Just fine.”

Rocky tilted his head again. This was a confusing response, wasn’t it? “Isn’t it better that we can avoid the evil tests? From what Harold had told me, they seem to be the ‘bane of all civilized life’. Or something.”

Harold gave a short laugh at that. “THAT’S my boy!” He raised his hand, palm forward, high above his head. “High five!”

Was this a test? Rocky chose to stay silent. Typically, when Amber’s hand was out, and especially when her palm was open, it meant that he should not be speaking. Several moments of completely uneventful silence later, Harold let out a small sigh.

“Rocky, when I raise my hand like this, you’re meant to slap it with your hand, okay?” He raised his hand again. “Now let’s try. High five!”

Rocky raised a hand to meet him, the light clap didn’t fill him with any sort of feeling, nor did it seem to accomplish a goal.

“Okay okay, that’s enough.” Before Rocky had a chance to inquire further, Amber turned to address the Sprite of the group, still standing atop Rocky’s shoulder. “But on the topic of tribulations and the like, we should be optimizing our builds. You know,” she looked at Harold. “Instead of trying to teach Rocky how to give high fives.”

“So how about it Alina?” She looked at the Sprite, who still seemed the slightest bit overwhelmed by the revelations of the day.

“Sorry, just give me a moment.” Alina’s voice broke as she struggled to respond. When met with Amber’s questioning gaze, she explained. “To see the process of town creation and protection subverted like this...”

She seemed to realize that all eyes were on her, and she straightened her back, her shoulders set firmly . “No, I’m better than this! Like hell I’m letting my meal ticket die or rot in the Tutorial. Yeah, let’s get to, uh, optimizing!” The attempt at a cheerful tone couldn’t even fool Rocky’s self-admitted lack of social sense, but it was good enough.

#####

“Okay kids, first thing you need to know about Statuses is that it’s all very veryyy important information, jam packed into a tiny space.” She gestured for him to share his status, which Rocky promptly did. “Look at just the first couple lines of this.”

[Rock Hard]

Age: ???

Race: Rock

Class: [Count of Cold Iron II, Level 22]

Constitution: Rock

She flew back and forth, giving the impression of pacing mid air. “With just this, you can see that- wait what?” She flew closer to the screen being ‘projected’ from Rocky’s upper chest area. “How do you have a second tier class at level 22?”

Amber looked worried. “Is that not normal? We just assumed that since he was kinda like a rock golem that he was meant to evolve.”

“Oh. Ooooooooh.’ She flew laps around Rocky’s head, stopping only to poke him a couple times in his side. “I think I see the problem here. I can see a class-shaped problem riiiiiight here.” She booped Rocky on where his nose should be.

Amber pinched the bridge of her nose. “Can you please just tell us the issue? Instead of whatever this weird gloating is?” Rocky nodded in agreement. He was getting that same sinking feeling that had surfaced when the System had first called him an error. Though it had done so much more harshly, and repeatedly.

“What I’m saying, is that Rocky here is supposed to be a monster, but he’s just… not.” Alina hovered just in front of Rocky’s shared Status page, her eyes looking over the same section, over and over again.

Class: [Count of Cold Iron II, Level 22]

“Could you please-” Amber’s exasperated voice was cut off the Sprite’s triumphant laugh. “Ha ha HA! I KNEW IT!” Then, with slightly less exuberance. “Okay okay, gimme a second, and I’ll explain.”

The Sprite’s composure broke into fits of giddiness, obvious even under Rocky’s inexperienced gaze. “The System almost definitely registered you as a monster. You know, because a [Rock Golem] is a very real monster that the System can spawn in Tutorials.”

She took a breath. “Buuuuuut, you have your very own class. Something which should not be possible, given your classification as a monster.”

Harold’s voice broke into the conversation this time. “So what part of this has you dancing around like a little kid?” Rocky whirred his agreement, this was information that he would also very much like to have. That, and an answer to what a ‘little kid’s dance’ was.

“You don’t get it yet?” The smile had never once left Alina’s incredibly smug face. “If he can keep his class, which as the person trying to fix the error, I can promise he will, he’ll be capable of both class rank ups, and evolving. Simultaneously!”

Amber’s eyes lit up. “So that means Rocky can have the best of both worlds?” When Alina nodded, her mouth curled into a smile as well. “Well damn, I can see what you meant when you said he was your ticket to the big leagues.”

“I’m sorry.” Harold raised both his hands up, palms facing outwards, but they dropped far too fast for Rocky to perform a ‘high-five’. “I’m probably just a dumbass, but I’ve been half listening, half trying to figure out what we should do about dwindling foodstuffs. Could you explain why this double-up is such a good thing?”

“Sure, sure.” It seemed Alina’s mood was buoyed by the news, far too much to be damped even by Harold’s inattention. “So class ups and levelling up in general will typically provide sentient beings with stat increases. For example, your constitution, Harold, is now listed as ‘Abhuman’ on your Status, and you may have noticed your skin becoming a bit tougher. For both of you, your next class up will see your base physical and mental abilities skyrocket.”

She took the time to motion in Rocky’s general direction. “He’ll be getting that, along with the amazing skills associated with his class. But in addition, he can evolve. Your spiderling friend, uhh, Simo right?” The spider bobbed its torso in agreement. “He got much much deadlier after his Level 15 evolution. Rocky will have that too.”

“So,” Amber began. “How are you planning on fixing it so the System allows this sort of thing? It kind of seems like cheating, doesn’t it?”

“Eh, it essentially is.” The Sprite brought a finger up to her lips, smiling slyly. “But the thing is, no Administrators can interfere with the Tutorial, and hopefully they won’t mess with Rocky’s System mechanics afterwards. Hell, I’m only here because of a technicality, so with any luck it’ll be ignored.”

She brought her pointer finger up into the air, swiping around with it. “I’m just going through the error correction interface they gave me before sticking me down here and… Got it! You should be getting the updates any second.”

[Error No. 1 Resolved. Race set: Rock (II), Class set: Count of Cold Iron (II)]

Immediately, Rocky could feel what Alina had described as a ‘jump’ in his stats. He tried a light punch on the ground below him, and found the ground beneath him exhibit the smallest of cracks.

“All I did,” Alina stated from behind him, “was register you as a sentient being and a monster simultaneously, which you should have been due to your ability to gain your own sentience. As opposed to the System giving it to you. We’ll work out the kinks later, hopefully.”

“I feel… much stronger. Harold, can you swing your hammer at my arm?” Rocky indicated the lower half of his right arm. He had to test the new durability that he was feeling somehow, right?

“Hold on just a second!” The request seemed to have broken Amber out of her shock. “There is no way I’m letting you bash Rocky’s arm in with a hammer.” As the couple argued about the merits of causing him bodily harm, Rocky looked questioningly at the evolved state of his class.

“If I shouldn’t have advanced by class at level fifteen, why is it still tier two?”

The Sprite shrugged. “There’s just no protocol for forcing a being to devolve or unadvance their class. See, sentient races that meet the threshold of necessary intelligence are usually new species. But you’re a, well, a rock, with an established monster down the evolutionary chain. You’re like the equivalent of a fungus deciding that it just wants to be a goblin one day.”

Rocky tilted his head. “But isn’t that possible? Mushrooms and stuff are alive, aren’t they? What’s so weird about them gaining sentience?”

“I can honestly say, that I have absolutely no idea. I don’t know of plant life that has suddenly become super intelligent without the System boosting it.” She jabbed an accusing finger at him. “But I also don’t know how an inanimate object gained consciousness all on its own.”

Over on the side, Amber and Harold had ceased their relatively lighthearted bickering, as the four sentient beings and one arachnid in their camp turned to face a single notification.

[0:00:00, Safe Zone Nullified]

Immediately, howls rose up from the surrounding forest. It seemed that Alina’s guess had been correct, because red eyed, grey coated wolves began to stalk into the outermost edges of their clearing.

Teeth bared, they were accompanied by a myriad of other beasts. Some, they had fought before. Others were entirely new.

If Rocky’s map overview was working properly, a swarm was headed towards their camp from every direction. He shared as much with Amber and his fellow defenders.

Amber looked grim. “Looks like Status optimization will have to wait. To the North of the map,” she took the time to peer out over the wall. “We seem to have some Kobolds. They’ve probably been stalking us ever since we discovered their camp.”

“Couldn’t get enough of us the first time, eh?” Harold hefted his hammer, the shimmer of his now gem-composed heater shield reflected in his eyes.

She lightly tapped him on the back of the head. “Don’t be macho about this, they’ll be making this whole mess much harder than it has to be.”

Amber redirected their attention the map once more, they noted the wolves once more, coming from the South. “The miscellaneous monsters seem to be giving the two important groups their space, so we can expect that the Kobolds and wolves will be attacking alone.”

Alina cut in at that. “Even so, it won’t be easy. You’ll have to hold that gate for an uncomfortably long time. Tribulations for new settlements are supposed to be difficult because they deliver a proportional response to the settlement’s strength.” She sighed. “But it won’t account for the various monsters in the Tutorial.”

Rocky tilted his head at that. Did whatever land Harold and Amber came from not have monsters? Huh, how strange.

Harold seemed to pick up Rocky’s own train of thought. “So there won’t be monsters on Earth after we get back? We’d just have to fight whatever it is that the System spawns for these, ah, tribulations?”

She shook her head. “Sorry, but no. Monsters will be on earth, it’s just whether or not they’ve been stalking you as a large group for a couple days.” Alina looked at the Kobolds, who were growing much, much bolder in the few moments they had looked away. “And they most certainly have.”

[Interference no longer detected. Prepare for testing...]

Rocky remembered his initial confusion about the System’s countdown being both good and bad. He understood the paradox now, as he watched a veritable wave of monsters begin a headlong rush towards their wooden encampment. But as excited as he was to continue his levelling, he also felt something new bubbling inside of him. A new emotion. Trepidation, anxiety, unease.

He thought about it for a moment, let it marinate in his mind. Nope, definitely not a good feeling.