Giada Marino - Scholar - Intricacies of the System

Past and present

C4 - The biggest difference between the four tutorials was group size. Those who chose easy were put in groups of 30; those who chose medium were put in groups of 10; those who chose hard were put in groups of 5; and those who chose extreme were put in groups of 3. Whenever someone in your group died, another would be cycled into your tutorial to keep the group size constant.

C7 - One of the defining features of the System is its quantification of attributes. As far as we can tell, the five core attributes are in fact composite measures comprised of several readings. Generally speaking, Strength is a measure of physical power, Dexterity a measure of agility and control, Arcana a measure of magical capabilities, Constitution one of vitality and toughness, and Perception one concerning the sensitivity of your senses. Besides this, there is thought to be a number of hidden attributes that the System keeps from us for unknown reasons.

C8 -The extreme tutorial, in particular, provided exceptional attribute boosts unseen anywhere else, even on Idroa. This, in turn, set all its survivors to become flagbearers for their races, especially the ones who took the extra step and killed their teammates for their rewards.

C10 - Another of the System’s defining features is its use of classes. Although the prerequisites for the classes are unknown to us, especially for the rarer ones, it is accepted in scholarly circles that their function is to not only provide immediate power but also direction.

C13 - The final boss of each tutorial is meant to challenge the group that faces them. In the easy tutorial, they are testing how many of the thirty are combat-proficient; in the medium tutorial, they are testing the group’s teamwork; in the hard tutorial, they are testing how far you can go past your limit.

I have not included the extreme tutorial in the above list as, having listened to its survivors, I believe their final boss goes beyond the bounds of a challenge. You see, you are simply not meant to pass the extreme tutorial. Even if you had a perfect team of classers, all at the top of their health, you would still lose against the final boss. Rather, it is my belief that you need an unreasonable amount of luck on top the mentioned qualities to pass the extreme tutorial.

C15 - The System placed many hub crystals on Idroa as the tutorials came to an end. These acted as lures to nearby animals and, once consumed, buffed their attributes. In addition, the crystals emitted piercing rays of light into the sky and gave their hosts tough crystalline covering.

However, despite these perks the hosts were all simple-minded beings marked for slaughter. The crystals cultivated insatiable bloodlusts inside of them, forcing them to mindlessly kill and kill until killed themselves.

C16 - On the note of Idroa, I must mention the newly formed planet’s geography. Our best estimates suggest Caen and Xiivet (the two other planets that fused with ours to create Idroa) are similar in size to Earth. This should mean Idroa has somewhat more surface area than Earth, even if not 3 times as much due to the square-cube law. However, that may not be the case as we are near-certain the System has only brought over portions of Earth to the new planet and not all of it, and therefore we can assume it has only brought over portions of Caen and Xiivet as well.

Whatever may be the case, there is at least no dispute that the population density of apex predators has massively increased with a considerable number of these newly introduced predators posing a significant risk to human survival.

C17 - Moving on from Idroa’s geography, the next topic I must discuss is naturally our initial placement in the new world. After rigorous surveying, it is my understanding that our initial placement on Idroa depended on our original positions on Earth and a random variable x.

While the value of x is different for every person (and every other living organism, I imagine) I am certain the minimum value of x attainable is 0 and the maximum value attainable something around 0.2. This means while you may have awoken on Idroa in your house, or your city, or your country, or a neighbouring country, you are unlikely to have awoken any further than that.

However, there is a caveat to the above statement in that the majority, if not all, of known landmass on Idroa exists on the central supercontinent. This expansive stretch of land shares similarities with Pangea of prehistoric times, which in turn means your new neighbouring countries may be different from those which you grew up with.

C20 - The hordes are the System’s way of developing races, ensuring constant progress by culling those who fail to keep up. While simple at first, they grow terrible with the passing of time. Guns grow ineffective, bio-agents become useless, and although weapons of mass destruction remain deadly, they become unusable as the hordes always spawn abreast to settlements. The only way to survive is to play by the System’s rules: by becoming a classer.

C26 - The Test of Merit does not end with a summative exam. Rather, it is a formative assessment with the System constantly examining our progress. As mentioned earlier, the hordes are its primary method in doing this. However, like any adept teacher, it understands students are fond of passing as easily as possible and will, therefore, abuse any tricks they find to work. For this reason, the System will often change the format of its hordes to force its students to adapt and grow or fail and die.

C44 - It must be noted that with sufficient credits, one can build a settlement far greater than the megacities of the past. The System provides everything you could desire and more even while it drags you through the meat grinder.

C46- Non-combat classes can be alarmingly powerful, especially when supplementing those with combat classes. In addition, non-combat classes tend to have more achievable class activities and quests, allowing its users to maintain level with their more violent counterparts. These, amongst others, are measures the System has taken in allowing several avenues of survival through the Apocalypse.

C48 - While larger settlements have many strengths over their smaller counterparts, the System accounts for this when evaluating which horde to send them.

C49 - The key change in the second stage of hordes is that the System allows them to bring in more troops after surviving for twelve hours on Idroa. To supplement this change, the portals release a lingering cloud of smoke that gives the hordes the opportunity to build up a fortress to hole up in. While the smoke suffocates and obscures attackers, the horde is given one Reducer artifact which allows them to mark an area for the System to thin the smoke.

As the second stage is a large step-up from the first stage, the System tends to wait until a settlement passes 12 000 citizens to enable it, but there are recorded cases where it enables it at lower citizen count so it’s ultimately up to the System’s volition.

C55- The magics introduced by the System all had distinctive natures that could affect the characters of their users over time. Fire tends to make its casters more aggressive and easily provoked, while ice tends to make its casters cold and unfeeling, and void tends to make its casters lust ever more for power while simultaneously degrading their mind.

C59 - At the end of the day, there is still much we do not know about the System. For one, while we acknowledge that classes are one of its most defining features, the truth is we do not know how far this extends. We know that the other civilised races can access them, but what of unintelligent organisms or those creatures that are already greatly powerful without the System’s aid?

Our research suggests that some have a limited pool to choose from, whereas others simply don’t get classes. But where does the System draw the line, and more importantly, why does it make these distinctions? As we have already acknowledged, the classes provide direction on top of power, so is this the System’s way of stating that certain organisms do not require direction? Or is it something else entirely?

C69- The hub crystal is one of the most important, and yet least remembered, components of modern settlements. After you join a settlement, you no longer need to be in physical contact with it as all its major functions can be accessed from anywhere on the planet. This causes many to forget about its presence after a while. However, there’s a reason why hordes always rush towards the hub crystals, and why the ratkin aim to secure them during their raids. It’s a relic of great power, and the links with its users can be manipulated.

C98 - The ratkin, being the hosts who initiated and then requested to join the Test of Merit, have many restrictions placed on them by the System. Otherwise, we would have all been wiped out from the get-go if they had been allowed to swarm us with overwhelming numbers and beasts levelled over 100. For this reason, the most important restriction concerns the rate at which they arrive on Idroa. The System ensures that they trickle into Idroa instead of gushing in like a flood. In addition to this, it restricts the level of Ratkin allowed on Idroa, which is why we had classers well before them.

These restrictions are all in place to allow us inhabitants a fighting chance, although they are all gradually and considerably relaxed as time goes on. If you don’t keep up with the System’s expectations, even if only for a moment, you will trip and never get back up.

C99- Another restriction on the Ratkin is that they cannot claim any hub crystals as their own. This means that they have limited access to the System’s functions while on Idroa. These functions can be very powerful if utilised well, which is why the Ratkin aim to destroy all the hub crystals of other settlements. Fortunately, this cannot be done by a lone agent sneaking in through the night as the System warns all the settlement’s citizens when damage is done to the hub crystal, which is why the Ratkin prefer to wage war and crush armies before shattering the crystals.