Chapter 2:

The system just appeared one day. There were no warnings. Suddenly, the statistics that define a person were visible to anyone who managed to learn “Inspect”. Not that it was particularly hard to learn the inspect skill. For whatever reason, learning how to “Inspect” other people just required squinting hard at someone for about 5 minutes.

When the system came online, it didn’t stop technology from working in any sort of coordinated fashion. In fact, the System generally worked with technology to improve our ability to use it. Sure, certain technologies stopped working, like nukes, but unless the system decided to ban a technology, it worked just fine. My soldiers who entered the army and actively used the system were able to outmaneuver and outshoot my soldiers who insisted on ignoring the system interface.

General Tsu Yang, Excerpt from the War on the System Published in 2073

“AI Please open this door,” said Lucas as he knocked on the secure door just beyond the waiting area he had entered. “I know you can hear me as you led me here, but I cannot get the door to open,” There was some sort of response, but all Lucas could hear was a muffled voice and some grinding gears.

“Assuming you are trying to engage the door motors, but they aren’t working well enough to open the door, I will push on the count of three, and you can engage the motors, and we can try and break it loose. One, Two, Three!” With a heave, the door finally opened a crack. Not enough for Lucas to enter, but enough that he could hopefully hear the AI. “AI, you OK in there?”

My system is functioning as well as it can be given the circumstances. I would suggest that you grab a piece of rebar and we try again. Introductions and explanations will work much better if we aren’t trying to talk through a 2” gap in the door.

“Roger that. Let me scan around for some Rebar and hopefully get a little more force on the problem,” said Lucas. With a few quick Locate Loots, Lucas was able to locate a piece of Rebar long enough for his purposes. Setting down his rucksack, Lucas positioned his new length of rebar in the door gap, ready to start pushing.

“AI, are you ready to engage the door circuits?”

I am.

“One, Two, Three!” With a heave and a whir of gears, the door finally slid out of the way and into its door pocket. “Phew.” Picking up his rucksack, Lucas walked into the AI Server Room.

The first thing he noticed upon entering is that almost all the servers were dark. On most servers, there were no clicking switches or flashing lights or any other signs of life. But there were wires snaking everywhere across the room. Lucas followed the wires until he came upon what appeared to be a maintenance room that had been set up as a bedroom at some point. There appeared to be a dead body on the bed. Upon inspection, Lucas noticed there was a thick wire running from the body to join the tangle of wires coming from the server room. Checking the uniform name tag, it appeared the body belonged to a Specialist named Rose. Intrigued, Lucas continuing to follow the wires until they connected into a switch and then the switch connected to what appeared to be an AI Diary.

“Hello AI,” said Lucas.

Hello Lucas.

“I take it you are not the Base AI.”

That’s right. I am not the base AI. I am a combination of Rose’s memories and the AI that was contained in her diary. I feel like I can simulate most emotions, but without an endocrine system, as far as I know, they are just that, simulations. I am sorry that I had not been clear to begin with, but while interacting with the remaining base servers, If I don’t pretend to be a simple AI, my connection would be disabled. If that happened, it would take me a good day or two to hack back in. Only using by using systems outside the control of the base can I act and speak like myself.

“So, should I call you Rose, or do you have another name you go by?”

To me, I am Rose. The entire time the diary was inhabited by an AI, Rose was sharing her feelings and memories with me so that I could help her work through them. Right before my, her death, she connected herself directly to the diary to do a complete upload. Or should I say, I connected myself to me? Anyway. Hi Lucas, I’m Rose.

“Hi Rose,” said Lucas. “I am going to take it from the fact that you are hacked into the base that you and I are the only two sane people remaining on the base. Is that a correct assumption”?

It is. It is my understanding that the base was abandoned due to an incoming enemy assault shortly after the reserve was established. While the suspension chamber and support areas were not breached by the attack, nobody wanted to be left behind. According to the records, they just sealed it up tight and hardcoded the AIs to keep it that way. The only people who were able to remain were those inside the suspended animations tanks. Everyone else had to flee. The General made it out alive, but I don’t know what happened to him after that because the data feeds were cut off. Based on the available data stored in the base servers, my working theory is that the entire world is currently in thrall to the Domains.

How much do you know about the System screen?

“Less than I’d like I suppose,” said Lucas. “I mean, it existed when we were put in there, but mine was always sort of lacking in detail. There are certain aspects that I am pretty clear on, but I have a rather hard time leveling some skills compared to most people, and before I was put in the tank, there were certain skills I just couldn’t get.”

I guess we can start with the basics of the world then. We can start at the bottom and work our way up. I’m going to borrow heavily from the old gaming terminology to simplify the explanation since it seems whoever is controlling The System is also borrowing heavily from gaming concepts. Keep in mind a lot of the terminology I am going to borrow is a simplification and not, strictly speaking, accurate. That being said, most people who live out their lives right now do use these terminologies and don’t understand the truth behind what is going on. Got it?

“I think so. The easiest way to explain the current way the system works is to refer to the terminology from fantasy novels and video games,” said Lucas.

That’s also a good way of looking at it. Let's start with the current state of the world. From what I can gather, after we were placed in suspended animation the Hidden Domain shut down most technology above the medieval level but below the information age level. The Hidden Domain is most likely in control of the appearance and rules behind the System screen, so he probably could have knocked us all back to caveman levels if he wanted. We know the controller of the system is a he because a pronoun appeared in one of the System Update patch notes.

We do know that the Hidden Domain oversees the crafting Domain, so it does seem to make logical sense that he would control the System, since crafting is a combination of all other domains. I assume he also has control of a unique strand of nanobots to enforce the existence of the system. I’m not sure if this falls under the Crafting domain or something entirely different. Crafting nanobots are not cultivable, but indirectly you can increase it by increasing the eight other domains in equal amounts. The crafting Domain is unlocked if you have any amount of affinity in it.

The Hidden Domain’s technology embargo is entirely enforced by what we are going to call system nanobots for lack of a better term. Any manufacturing tools that were above a medieval level and below a Nanoforge have been destroyed. In this case, they were consumed by the System Nanobots. Most forms of weaponry not recognizable to someone from a civilization at the medieval level have also been consumed by the system nanobots.

This means you will not see a functional plane, train, or automobile in your travels. You will also not see gunpowder, Ion rifles, or chemical weapons outside of Dungeons where the system rules are either loose or not as well enforced, I’m not sure which. There are probably a lot of other devices that you would expect to see after a worldwide war using advanced technology that you will not see. The crafting domain, or crafting school of magic if you’d rather, allows you to improve the quality of your crafting, provides access to random crafting bonuses and allows you to imbue nanobots into any item. You can think of this as improvements to the innate enchants to an object from fantasy books, but there is an entirely separate enchanting profession that allows you to improve already created items further called Enchanting.

“OK. So, we are living in a low fantasy world, where magic is replaced by incredibly advanced technology,” said Lucas. “and as we know from Arthur C. Clarke, ‘Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic,’ so the world treats it as magic. The world's state is being enforced by the Hidden Domain using nanobots. Unless we can get him to change his mind we have to live with it."

Bingo. There are nine total Domains. Now the information that follows was handed down by Theta-Sigma, who, while not actually in charge of the Domain which includes humans themselves, probably cares for them the most. Theta-Sigma is the only other Domain beside the Hidden Domain to not use the name of a god or goddess from history. He based his name on some TV show with a relationship to his Domain. I do not have access to any records which state, nor do I recall, which TV show it was. Theta controls the Time & Space Domain. This means things like Gravity alteration, Teleportation, and Haste Buffs or Debuffs.

“I think I know what TV show Theta took his name from,” smirked Lucas. “I wonder if he considers himself a Lord of Time and Space, or just a Lord of Time. I do have a 5% affinity in his domain. Doesn’t that mean I should get some spells?”

While you are correct that you unlock a Magical domain by having any affinity in that domain, the system does not just grant you spells. You must learn what your nanobots can do on your own. Once you figure out something that they can do, the system will register a spell on your System screen. In all reality, the System screen is just saving the coded request that was sent to the Nanobots and calling it again at will, but ‘spell’ is a lot easier to say.

“Do you have any recommendations on spells that I should learn?”

With the Space Domain, I would strongly recommend you learn the Haste Buff. There is also a Slow spell you should learn as it is the debuff form of Haste for your enemies. I only know about these spells because of repeating FM radio broadcasts that the AIs recorded before I was decanted.

“Duly noted.” Said Lucas “Please proceed with the lecture.”

This is not a lecture. If it were a lecture I would be standing up in front of a classroom, writing on a chalkboard and droning on without stopping for questions. Anytime you want the information to stop, just say the word. I’d like an ally in you, but I don’t want you leaving the facility just to get yourself killed by the first monsters you came across.

“Did you say monsters?” said Lucas.

Yes, Monsters. Or I guess you could call them mobs too if we want to use RPG terms. I suppose that is as good of a lead-in as any for the next Domain. Hades. Hades is the Domain we were primarily fighting against when we built the reserve, not the only one, but the primary one. After the Domains won, Hades got nastier. Hades’ Domain is death. That means the magic he controls are the standard Necromancer or Warlock type spells. He feeds on conflict, so he modified the creatures of the world to increase that conflict.

Any creature you may have heard of from a fantasy novel probably exists. In some cases, the monsters were created from scratch. In other cases, they were created by mutating existing creatures. Goblins would be a relevant example of monsters created from scratch, whereas the giant rats you’ve already met are an example of mutated creatures.

“How are the goblins relevant?” asked Lucas. Looking around to make sure nothing was sneaking up on him. “Can goblins use stealth?”

Rose giggled at Lucas's actions, showing that she could clearly see him, and then said, There are goblins infesting this facility on the lower levels. They have taken out the base sensors in the lower levels, so I cannot provide an accurate count of their numbers or locations. But yes, Goblins can use stealth. Goblins are humanoids and as such have some level of access to the system and affinity even though they could be considered monsters.

“We will just leave that alone for now,” thought Lucas.” Maybe I can tackle them after I figure out the Haste spells.”

Most of the other Domains don’t mess with Humanity too much anymore. If you have an affinity with them and you call out for their assistance, they may provide help if they are in the mood, but they might ignore you entirely. It just depends on if they are bored and if you are good entertainment for them. In no particular order, they are Aphrodite, Hephaestus, Hestia, Demeter, Ceto, and Cardea. Respectively their domains are Mind, Fire, Light, Earth, Water, and Air. Do you happen to have any of the remaining Domains unlocked?

“Yes, I have the Mind Domain unlocked and I have 7% affinity,” Lucas lied. Still not wanting to admit to anyone else that he had the System domain unlocked.

Ok, the recorded broadcasts show some spells for the Mind domain as well. You should be able to unlock the spells known as ‘Mind Over Matter’ and ‘Cure Disease.’ Mind Over Matter allows your nanobots to passively heal yourself with mind affinity. The greater your affinity, the greater the healing. Mind over matter can be an active skill or a passive buff depending on the commands you give the Nanobots. I’d recommend trying for the passive buff so you don’t need to remember to cast it after an injury. Set it and forget it is way better. Cure disease allows you to send out the same type of Nanobot to heal an ally of any ailment that does not require physical healing of the body. It can be used to take out Bacteria, Poisons, or other assorted Microbes but the healing of someone else's body falls strictly in the Light Domain. No explanation was given by Theta on the reason for this split in the Domains.

“Well,” said Lucas, “I’ve got about five spells I want to unlock. Any idea with how I should start?”

Well. How much do you understand about mana?

“Zilch. Nada.”

Then first you must connect with your mana. Since you have Affinity, you have mana as they are two sides of the same coin. Relax your body and relax your mind as if you are floating in the Mindspace where were first talked. Once you have achieved that, reach for your center with your mind. Once you get there, you should feel a slight pressure. That pressure is the energy that your Nanobots have stored. The Human body is perfectly capable of storing energy, and the Nanobots use it for that quite effectively.

Once you have found your mana, press out with your nanobots and give them commands. You can either think commands or say them. Outside the passive effect of the Crafting domain you must focus intently on the action you want the nanobots to take. You must visualize the result and then you must express the desire for the nanobots to complete the action. Your nanobots will then depart and complete the required actions. It takes some time for them to return, which means that a percentage of your ‘Mana’ is tied up until it regenerates upon their return or upon them storing additional energy as appropriate. Passive spells which do not require the nanobots to leave your body tie up a percentage of your mana since the Nanobots cannot be used outside of your body, but do not actively deplete your mana.

“How do you unlock enchanting?” asked Lucas

Unless you have unlocked the Crafting domain, you will be unable to learn enchanting

“I have 3% affinity in crafting, so I should be good to go,” replied Lucas

I’m not sure how you have 3% affinity in crafting since your total affinity is at 17%. You only have 5% left after the two we have already discussed, which is not enough to get you to 3% affinity in crafting.

“Um,” stammered Lucas, “you can see my total affinity?”

Rose sighs and says Yes. Everything above the abilities bar is visible to anyone with the inspect skill; Mr. 13 Luck. So, would you like to explain to me how you have 3% affinity in the crafting domain?

Lucas was stuck. He’d backed himself into a corner He would have to either lie or tell the truth. Since Lucas wasn’t any good at lying, he mumbled under his breath “I have a 10th domain.”

WHAT! exclaimed Rose. Do you have any idea what this means? Do you have any idea of the implications? Can you tell me what the domain is? What percentage is it at?

“Look,” said Lucas, “I know precisely what the implications are. I may only have a 10 in intellect, but you know as well as I do that intellect has nothing to do with how smart someone is. That’s why I wanted to be accepted to this program to begin with. It’s probably why you couldn’t get me to come out of suspended animation until you’d told me how many times you have attempted to wake me up. I don’t really know you that well, so I would rather not tell you my deepest, darkest secret yet. But I will tell you, the domain seems to have a one-to-one ratio between it and Crafting.”

I can accept that. I might not be happy with it, and I may have some suspicions about what that domain is, but I can accept it. I would like to be able to help you more if you told me, but we are all running from something. Maybe I can tell you more about myself and convince you that I want to help and that I won’t abandon you if you tell me what is obviously a very distressing secret. I will set that aside for now, however, and answer your question.

Regarding unlocking Enchanting. You cannot unlock enchanting until you have unlocked some spells. Once you do that, you focus on pushing the spell out through your hand and into the object you wish to enchant. Keep in mind that the spells you use only have a passing resemblance to the resulting enchantment. The Haste Buff pushed into a Knife would probably give you an agility modifier. Heck, the haste Debuff would also probably give you an agility modifier. Unless it were a weapon, then it would probably be a chance on hit to slow the enemy. You need to be in the right frame of mind, or a enchant will never work. All of this is conjecture, again based on the radio broadcasts and data that the AIs have stored.

With that, I guess it’s on to the last ‘lecture’ topic. Active Skills versus Passive Skills. Did the difference between the two ever really sink in before you went into the reserves?

“I had both types of skills before I went into the suspension chamber, but it wasn’t really clear what the difference was. I could think the name of an ability and have something happen, but I could also just stare at something and have inspect be triggered.”

That makes this easy. Active skills are skills which require an activation action of some kind. Passive skills are always on. They are essentially the same thing; the System just separates them to sort those that require an activation into a different category from those that are always on. Your inspect skill is being activated by staring. You took an action and the System responded. You could also say something like ‘Inspect all’ and have the inspection screen show up for those around you.

“That makes sense,” said Lucas. “Inspect all!”

Before Rose could say anything, a green screen popped up in Lucas's vision.

Name

Rose

Race

Human-AI Hybrid

HP

110

Stamina

100

Total Affinity

N/A

Mana

N/A

Strength

0 (10*)

Endurance

0 (10*)

Agility

0 (10*)

Charisma

12

Intellect

19

Luck

15

Status: Stats & Affinity reduced due to current Chassis