I feel the sun coming up. Rolling on the ground after a restful night asleep, I rub my left eye and notice something under my eyelid. I touch my eye carefully and any doubt is dispelled. A seed is growing there.

I need to take a better look at it. I pull my Aether and send a trickle all over my eye socket establishing the familiar coaction only possible with Pando and his descendants. I look through it carefully. The seed has grown slightly. Capillary tendrils form a mesh over my eyeball. The only part with gaps is the visible part of my eye. I think about what I could do but I just don’t have the heart to rip him out. He may not survive. I don’t want to hurt him unnecessarily so I put it off for later and get on with my day.

A couple of people are giving me sidelong glances but I ignore them.

I head to the town square and find a place to sit.

Town square, this is a village, not a town, so why is everyone referring to the central pace as the town square?

I let the thoughts drift away and pass the remaining time meditating. Up to this point, I have not dedicated time exclusively to this. The system considers my natural mental state to be a passable version of kinetic mediation, but there must be some benefit from focusing more on a single thing.

Even moving around so long as nothing is distracting me, I can keep at least one-third of the normal effect, sometimes even half, but that can’t be the only benefit of meditation. I think over what I could have done to prepare for this day. In some ways, I could have done more, but that would require prior knowledge, and all things considered, I had done pretty well.

I change mental gears and think of Earth. Could everyone have prepared for this day? If we had time and information, how would things have developed? Maybe a few of us did know. I wouldn’t put it past the people in power to make a deal with the council.

I sigh and slump my shoulders. That is not helpful.

I slowly clear all thoughts of my mind and try to let my feelings express themselves. This is the method of meditation most suited to me. Pando’s meditation. It is something I learned from Pando. It’s simply being, with no logical and conscious thoughts. As a human, I may not exactly be suited to live my life like this, but it provides insight that I find nowhere else.

A tree lives its life with no higher thought. They do everything by instinct, or it may be more appropriate to call it biology. Even instinct seems to indicate abstract thought in a manner most trees are not able to perform, nor does it need to. A tree finds no frustration at meeting obstacles; it simply grows around them. A tree does not move to accommodate, it simply changes in the most efficient way possible.

I may not be able to truly imitate Pando, but I can learn from his lessons. And maybe one day we shall talk as equals as I find what I become apart from him.

The sun moves across the sky slightly. Ants walk over my feet on the way to their work. My body reaches chemical equilibrium after my short walk. Each of my vertebrae does minuscule movements to keep my posture straight. I breathe in and out. My aura diminishes and people’s glances start to slide off me. My neurons keep connecting to each other as if I was still asleep but at an even higher pace. Time seemed to disappear. I could spend minutes or hours and but I would only be able to tell the difference by the movement of the sun.

The clock rolls and I hear the pompous mayor. I open my eyes and get up to stand close to everyone else.

“Hello, my citizens. Good morning. I will be reading today’s information prompt as I told everyone. I won’t be waiting for everyone to arrive, you can tell them ourselves.”

“Today we will be tackling the question of stats.”

Hearing this, a few people groan. They were probably hoping for something else. I am pretty sure the information he will provide is probably quite limited and filled with useless stuff. That is a problem. They might also be spying on us to make sure they provide the information we already have.

I have seen a couple of indications the system wished information to be doled out to us, but the council must have made their will known, and everyone understands they should only provide the bare minimum of information to the newcomers.

We need to get more information on…. everything. With it, we could get a handle on what bullshit was being fed to us and make more informed guesses on the council and their dealings.

This whole situation deeply frustrated me. The internet spoiled us. Most people don’t have any idea what it would be to go back in time. Sanitary concerns and other aspects of technology may be the first thing to come to mind, but information was the real change.

How many people had maps to travel more than a day or two away from their homes? Their whole lives only knowing stories of the places beyond. Wars may have begun and ended before someone even heard the news just a couple of hundred miles away.

Today you can in a few minutes have the blueprints for old rocket technology, and a good idea of what modern tech is like. In a few seconds, the entire world knows if their favorite teams won the super ball or not. You can find half the population of the world by simply typing their name on a search engine. Most of the information of the human race was at the tip of our fingers, always accompanying us wherever we went.

The council managed to manipulate the situation so it would be the opposite of modern life in this aspect. They created as much of an information blackout as they could and it’s infuriating. I listen as the mayor continues, but there is little new information.

“Stats are an essential part of the system. Each stat has a unique function on your body but they are also all interlinked. An example is if you increase your strength. Strength primarily affects muscle mass and a higher strength exertion will strain your whole body more, primarily the bones. Agility will increase the speed with which you move and have a similar effect on the body. So a higher level of either will require a higher constitution, which in simple terms makes the body stronger.

“Stats need to be properly balanced, having your highest stat be over double your lowest stat has been known to kill the user. People with too high strength attributes can tear their muscles out, or even splinter bones. All attributes are related in two primary ways. They increase all other attributes if only very slightly, or they allow for the other attribute to come into full effect, and sometimes both.

“Stats are dependent on biology. So a wolf with higher agility will see bigger improvements in speed than a human. The opposite also happens. Wolves will see fewer improvements in endurance compared to us, given the human body is better suited to endurance than a wolf.”

Are you even human? You look like it, but I would guess no. Something else to think about.

“Other stats are similar in that regard. Strength is dependent on muscle cross-section, and unique biology. So, as a general rule, just like before the system as long as two people have the same strength number the size and biomechanical advantages applied are roughly the same.

“For those who chose to increase their attributes the hard way instead of relying on the system the best way is to use a RoschWell training method. It provides a steady and…”

That is fucking cheating you motherfucker.

All the peace and serenity I managed in my meditation earlier evaporates. And here I was hoping you were gonna provide something more useful. He drones on and on about different methods and what are the advantages of each.

You started out so well, then you had to go and ruin it. He finishes in a few minutes and I wait for him to close the door before approaching. The unofficial spokesperson of the guild starts just after. He calms everyone down before speaking. Most in the crowd are just as pissed as me at the mayor.

“I know, I know. It pisses me off as well. But we all have to come to terms with the facts. We have been kidnaped, placed in a foreign world under the rule of the enemy, however benevolent they may seem. Hell, they may even be benevolent, but just too alien to understand us. We, as a group, for that is the only chance we have, need to keep this in mind.”

He grabs the attention of the crowd with the last phrase and his gesture encompassing us all. He is skilled at giving speeches and capturing people's imagination he is. Maybe not in the way a traditional storyteller is, but he does tell a story. And it’s a story that resonates with each of us, for it is our story.

“We not only are in a foreign world but we have also been segregated. They have engineered the situation to pit us against the small part of the world population we can reach. Yesterday, Nash, our resident wizard, and senior advisor brought us a book we are all familiar with. It did not contain much information but the information it did contain was alarming when looked through carefully. So we investigated, I mean the book is one source.

“What if we were misreading the situation? What if it was wrong or had a faulty translation. As the day and night went on, more and more information was brought in from our investigations. While alone, they seemed to be simple affairs, it became evident that there is a systematic and pervasive effort to hinder our development in all areas. Economic, scientific, leveling, and exploration. Anything besides following the rote RPG game, following scripts they generated, is heavily discouraged.

“I’m not suggesting we storm the gates of everyone in town, kill them and be happily ever after. I go so far as to say that most of the people in the city are here because the system, for some reason, is punishing them. Whenever they can be circumspect, they will help us. But there are also those that lie or tell half-truths. There was even a case of someone hinting at a secret, not to be shared feature of the system. Now, any who volunteers to test the respawn mechanics?”

Charlie says and pauses for a moment allowing the tenseness of the crowd to disperse for a moment.

“We could be wrong, but I don’t think so. And if you want to be the first to test the respawn feature, be my guess, but it won’t be me.

“By the way, someone else went hunting alone last night and hasn’t come back. He went east the last time he was seen. I recommend that no one travel alone, at least in the first few days. Please, keep your eyes and ears open to any signs of him.

“On a more positive note, not all is doom and gloom. While we are in the middle of a shit-storm, either for political reasons or through what seems a quagmire of rules and regulations we have some degree of protection. All this means is that now is the time to do our best, and as humans have done since the times of the caveman, let’s explore, to imagine a world different from our own and make it a reality.”

He pauses again to catch his breath and then continues.

“Now before we continue, for those who haven’t heard, I just like to make everyone aware we are calling ourselves a guild. Every person involved with our form of government is going to be a guild member. To officially introduce myself, I’m Charlie, the guild Spokesperson.

“We have some information we are reasonably sure is accurate. Over the night, people read a summary of our information and have begun to experiment. At this moment we have six new magic users, besides Mr. Nash. But do not be too enthusiastic just yet.

“They are all fairly weak. For now, the best anyone can do is to dry ink on a piece of paper. Even that takes over a minute and requires absolute concentration. The mana costs are also terribly high. A candle flame can burn through 180 mana a minute. Spending that much mana leaves the caster exhausted. So no flinging fireballs at monsters just yet.

“For people wanting more specific information we have set up reading rooms besides the town hall where you can request copies of all the information we gathered. There are limited copies for now, as people show up we may have to make accommodations, but soon we'll be making paper ourselves. For now, we ask for a copper coin a day to make our operations work. We understand it is hard to trust a few of us to spend the money wisely, but we will account for each penny and do our best to not let a single copper go to waste.

“We will be requesting volunteers to work as needed. They will receive fair compensation, and that will be public information. The first is to find 8 people to become guards. We suspect it is good practice for when we do need them, just in case of an unexpected attack from monsters or other villages. They will receive 10 copper coins and gear as we can afford.

“This gear is a loan from the guild and we will probably be loaning to other people when the guard is not using it. We are also thinking of buying a few extra weapons to share with everyone. Given that the cheapest weapon costs 35 coppers, the weapon being the spear. And take note that it comes without the shaft. With the shaft and assembled its 45 copper. That is almost the price of a sword. With that everyone should have an idea of how long it will take to buy gear working alone.

“We will need people to scout our region and eventually find the other villages. For people wanting to learn magic now, read the material we have prepared. It is of significant help, and it will help you avoid the more dangerous pitfalls.

“There are people who have come preoccupied with whether their system was broken or malfunctioning. We can't swear by this, but from everything we have looked into, the system seems to be individual and unique. There are no two systems alike. There are some aspects that are more uniform but if each time you level you receive a different message, don’t worry, it is normal.

“If the system curses at you, it’s normal. If the system is formal and I never miss a punctuation point, that is normal. If the system talks in code or spells things wrong, that is also normal. The only caveat is if you don’t understand what the system is trying to say to you, if that happens, come talk to us.

“We also urge any of you to find jobs on the blacksmith, the tanner, and one or two people in the other shops. How fast they work seems to depend on how much help they have. I don’t think everyone will want to spend half the day waiting in line at the general store, or even months for an item to be crafted.”

“Last but not least a few people have expressed concern over something everybody should have noticed, our population breakdown. Preliminary inquiries have revealed that there are two types of the village and in each one this trend is reversed, so there is no need to worry there. There might also be immigration when contact is established.

“For the hunters going out at noon, we will be having another gathering with some information about night hunting. That is all for today and I hope everyone is more well informed than when they got here.”

As everybody disperses I wonder what they were talking about, but it doesn’t seem too important so I put it out of my mind. I head to the platform, hurrying to not be late for my work on the smithy. As I get there, Charlie greets me.

“How does our resident wizard fare?”

“Fine, but I don’t have much time. Did you buy the book?”

“Yes, if you want to read it later you can, but it is mostly an expansion on yesterday’s and today’s speech. All filled with references to other books. I guess that those books will only contain information in a couple of pages, the rest being filled with bullshit. The worst of all? Royalties.”

“What? What kind…What are the rules?”

“In short, if you buy it, you can read it. If you want to read it to someone else or let them read it, the license costs twice the original cost. But if you want to copy the book, as long as it is by hand you can get away with a license that costs 100 times the original price.”

Hearing him, I open my eyes, and my mouth gapes.

“Holy cow, that is….. a lot.” After a second of thinking, I say: “That also means my book is even more valuable.”

“Yes, that’s how you got your titles. We wanted to recognize your contribution. On the subject of the books, we only have the specifics of how a licence works for the one we bought. They don’t give anything away they absolutely don’t have to.”

“Damn. I still want to read everything as soon as I get a chance.”

“You are welcome to. At first, we were not sure, but you seem to be someone worth listening to, not just someone lucking out on getting that book. “

“I hope to live up to the guild’s standards. And don’t worry, I’m not gonna start to hoard information. Tonight I will stop by the guild and write a rough outline of any new information from the book. You guys see what is useful, and what is junk.”

“We appreciate that.”

“Gotta go,” I say turning around and running to my sleeping spot. I get my wood and head to the blacksmith. I shouldn't be late the second day in a row.