Chapter 8: Jane's First Quest

After being uplifted for nearly four months, Jane had finally reached her goal of being able to remain anonymous while also having the ability to gather information and plot. The Advanced Mind and Mental Fortitude skills were just icing on Jane's Cake of Possibilities.

Jane wasn't what she wanted to do next. She had three weeks before the next semester of school started. It was so little time.

Walking home from the library, she was debating the merits of exploring just how far she could exploit the Advance Mind's information absorption ability with potential passive learning when she noticed that her neighbors were back.

Before Jane learned the truth about their village, she thought that most of the empty houses were simply vacation homes or rentals for tourists. Now, she wasn't so sure. She suspected that while some tourism was encouraged, it was most likely half-heartedly done and those that came were mostly due to an open secret in the supernatural community. Organizations within likely sent their minions to monitor the hiding people under the guise of a vacation.

An endless stream of expendable and rotating faces would fit the cover of tourists perfectly, Jane mused to herself.

Jane hadn't given the middle-aged couple that would pop in on Summer and Winter holidays much thought before. Sometimes when she'd read in the backyard she'd hear the husband talking on his phone in a foreign language while going over a set of documents, but she'd heard her parents casually commenting about him being an overworked business man. It'd be natural for one of them to argue about foreign markets.

Now, she was quite intrigued at the business he was involved in as she watched him and his wife unload his SUV.

Phillip Browning (Daniel Evers) > >

>

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Patricia Browning >

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>

Oddly enough, his wife was normal and shared the Browning name. The most logical reason for what Jane witnessed was that Daniel Evers was the man's real name and Browning was an alias he used. She wondered if he deliberately sought out such an unaware person to marry out of convenience or whatever organization he was with found her for him.

~*~

Jane still nurtured some animosity towards her mother for her reaction months before. She joined her mother for their runs and to join her at the Gym on Sunday, even if she wasn't going to continue those exercises that she did before. This eased the tension with her mother somewhat, if only enough to engage in small talk.

This was only on the surface, though. Mainly to see if she could get a rise out of her mother, as well as to have a reason to keep some distance when she wanted to be alone to train in the future when her mother learned that she was able to fully suppress her aura.

Jane's training in the library's Instance was very effective therapy for dealing with her psyche. As it progressed, Jane noticed a pattern in how the enchantment displayed Illusions.

When Mrs. Pettigrew said that the first time was always the hardest, it wasn't a comment meant to placate Jane due to her unprepared mind. At least not the main reason. It seemed that to someone without any resistance to Mental or Illusion magic, the enchantment was able to dig and recover the most tightly kept and buried psychological issues. The things first struggled with growing up or those nurtured for many years.

As Jane gained some semblance of resistance, she was able to respond and manage this fear. This not only gained her experience in the Mental Fortitude skill, it limited the enchantment's access to her mind and progressed her to other less rooted issues. It was the ultimate immersion therapy.

These experiences also made Jane realize that keeping people at arm's length solely for the reason of anonymity and not being hassled was really just her not dealing with abandonment issues. She could still interact with people and maintain privacy. Even more-so now that she had her new skills.

Today she was going to start interacting more with her parents.

~*~

Her mother was in the kitchen preparing dinner. Jane watched and realized she had been thoroughly neglecting her Cooking skill. She decided that now was as good a time as any.

"Do you want help?" Jane asked.

"No, honey. I'm almost done."

"Okay. Well, how about some conversation? We haven't really talked since I awoke and learned about the supernatural world." Jane tried again.

"Alright," Her mother said distractedly. "What do you want to know?"

"You know I've been seeing Mrs. Pettigrew at the library. She told me you had mentioned I awoke to her, which led to a lot of other discussions. In one of those, I had told her you said organizations fight for power and control of resources. This led to us eventually discussing this village and its safe-haven status and that those organizations and governments likely send people here to watch us." Jane said awkwardly.

"What's your point?" Her mother asked while chopping up some carrots.

"I just thought it was interesting at the time. Then we had a conversation and you and dad needing disguises good enough to fool bounty hunters. I remembered you had said that people tend to come here to run away from politics." Jane continued.

"Are you worried about that, Jane?" Olivia turned, looking at her daughter.

Jane shrugged. "Not really. At least not when she told me that you have a teleporter and that you and dad commute with it for work instead of having jobs in the village."

Olivia winced. "We really haven't had a proper discussion, have we?"

Jane smiled. "Nope, but we can do that at another time. I was just saying all of that to let you know that I know that and have been thinking about the implications. Especially when Mrs. Pettigrew discussed that most people in the village don't even need to work. And if that's the case, what else had I been wrong about for this village? Do we even need tourists? If this place is a safe-haven, a refuge for supernaturals and their families who don't even know about that part of the world, along with organizations keeping watch on us...then are the tourists even tourists?"

Jane's mother laughed. "Most likely not. I'm surprised you're taking this so well."

"As you said while subjecting me to your torture months ago, I am your daughter." Jane chided.

"Too true."

"Anyway, I wanted to discuss our neighbors." Jane said, changing the subject.

"Why's that?" Her mother asked, turning back to dinner preparations.

"I think they're spies. At least the husband." Jane informed.

"Oh, them." Olivia said. "They're harmless."

Jane was confused. "How? I remember you saying that he's a business man, but if he's really a spy then having him next to us is a risk to you and dad. Right?"

"It's like I told you after you had awakened. This place is a safe-haven. And the people who come here are largely escaping from power struggles. There natural environment keeps those organizations who hunger for resources of mutated Instances and the resources and power they bring from taking much notice. And if those supernaturals who come to live here are here, they aren't a threat to those people concerned about power. Any spies are likely just watching to see if those people will leave to return for a play at threatening their power." Her mother reasoned.

"But any information out could still bring someone here over a more personal grudge to cause issues." Jane pressed.

"Your father and I got a good deal from Elanor when she did our disguises. As long as we don't share our pasts with people here, which is already an unspoken rule for everyone, then we are fine. Most people don't look too closely unless they have a reason, and in this Village there's no enchanted tool or spell that can look deep enough to see past what Elanor did to us." She consoled Jane.

"If you're sure, mom." Jane said. She was hoping for something more than indifference. Her mother really didn't get worked up about anything.

"I am. Besides, I said that the couple next door were harmless. He's with one of the government's intelligence agencies and just here to vacation under the guise of being an ambassador and fishing for potential leads to supernatural organizations. This place is an open secret to those who know about supernaturals and dig enough. They all know we're here to hide away from the power struggles. Any real intelligence gathering isn't done here." Her mother finalized.

Jane frowned and left the kitchen to let her mother finish dinner. How boring, Jane thought.

~*~

Jane was lying on her bed, staring at the ceiling as she planned her Winter vacation. "If there's no Big Brother conspiracy to thwart from the shadows, and I don't want to broadcast to my mother that I'm done with aura suppression until next Sunday at the gym, I guess I can only continue on with my earlier plan to see how far I can use Advanced Mind."

Smiling at the thought, Jane decided to make a list to see just what she should try.

Learning a new language.

Listening to audio books and lectures while sleeping or meditating.

See if Braille isn't the only way to learn information from touch.

There were a lot of off-shoots that she considered trying, such as building a catalog of tastes and smells. Being forewarned of potential poisons without having to consciously check everything with Observation would be handy. However she wasn't sure how she could get a ready sample to train with.

Also, understanding what something says by touching would be useful if she had her eyes damaged. So learning Braille would be useful. It'd also be good training if she ever ran across some information carved into stone or wood, such as hieroglyphics. Enchantments were also sometimes done through engravings. This would help there, but also something which she couldn't test without drawing suspicion at this time.

That left anything she could learn visually or through sound with her computer or phone.

Jane got up and went to her computer to search for some self-learning free web resources. It took awhile, but she finally found one that listed Arabic alongside English. She felt that starting with a language that used an entirely different style, but was also heavily documented was the best way to test out her skill.

This website had an alphabet comparison, the phonetic pronunciation, and even a sound clip for each letter. Jane went through these slowly, then moved on to listening and reading words. When she had exhausted all of the materials the website offered, she could understand the basics. Yet it was far from being what even the lowest level of language learning programs would offer.

By this time, it was time for bed. Jane decided to just hunt an audio program and meditate for the night. She had heard some of the kids at her school mentioning a web service that allowed people to offer up any of their music and other audio resources for a group share to create a streaming playlist, so she found that and signed up.

After searching for a few minutes she had moved a beginner, advanced, and master level course set for Arabic into a playlist. Each level had around 12-15 tracks that played for 15 minutes each. By morning she should be finished.

~*~

Seven in the morning saw Jane opening her eyes from meditation to be greeted with a new System prompt. Jane read through the information with a smile before dismissing it.

[table=white]New Skill: Language Comprehension - Beginner 1Through your careful study of the parts of text and speech that form to allow beings to communicate, you have learned Language Comprehension. True Masters of language are able to quickly communicate with anyone, regardless of knowledge of the other's language.

Each level, spoken and written communication become 1% more effective, regardless of knowledge and fluency of the language.

Current Languages:

Arabic (Written: 6%, Spoken: 78%)

English (Written, Spoken)

[/table]

Stretching after arising from the floor, Jane made a note to try and find some middle-eastern music to listen to to hopefully finish off the spoken portion of Arabic. Trudging her way through a few ebooks in the language would also take care of the written portion now that she has the basics. The percentage shown would help her modify her plans.

Regardless, Jane was satisfied. If she followed this path, she'd finish off one of her mini-goals of learning all the major languages by the end of the year. She might even pick up a few of the ancient ones as well if she could find enough resources.

It was at this time that Jane noticed that the blinking light in her eye wasn't just from the morning glare shining through her window. Focusing more closely on it, she realized that it looked similar to a message icon.

What could this be? She thought. Do I have mail?

She was hesitant to click on it and see. If it was a message, then it might be something innocuous like a follow-up to the Knowledge Base questions now that she's had a few months to acclimate and think of more to ask. At the same time, it could be something designed for the people's entertainment that were watching her due to her becoming boring.

Jane really didn't know. At the same time, she had ample free time for a few weeks and not clicking on it would likely result in random pieces of paper spawning around her until she did. She didn't want to think about what else could pop up in front of her besides paper.

Jane click it, revealing a new System prompt.

[table=white]Message from: American AdministratorGreetings Jane,

As you might have expected, we do keep an eye on your progress since the Player profile of the Universe System was designed for entertainment. So there is no need for me to state that I hope you are acclimating well after having time to get use to your uplift.

Being your country's Administrator, The Council has tasked me to be an intermediary on future contacts where direct communication like this is required. I think you'll find that we'll work well together.

Now to business.

Inspired by your conversation yesterday with your mother, The Council has decided to allow you early access to a Quest and Rewards set of features in line with your Player class. Rewards will be determined by how well you do previously in performing tasks set forth by the System, difficulty of the task, and how the task was generated (personal request or System generated).

Due to your inquisitive and paranoid nature, please be assured that Quests are not mandatory. If you feel one is against your interests, ignore. If we do issue a personal request in the form of a Quest that we'd like you to handle for us, however, ignoring will be highly ill advised.

Enjoy your day.[/table]

"That's not foreboding in the least," Jane exhaled. "Still, the message was rather upfront about it all, and it seemed like they were going to give me access to these features in the future anyway. We'll see how it goes."

After closing the message, Jane saw a new addition to the HUD, as she thought of it, below her Health and Mana in her vision. "Available Quests" and "Active Quests" text were displayed with a drop-down list for each. There was only one quest available and Jane pulled it up.

Suspicious characters have infiltrated your village. Despite the local villagers shrugging off their presence as nothing to worry about, is it really? Gather intelligence on their purpose to ensure your village's safety.

[table=white]Quest: Monitoring Big Brother Part 1Quest Type: Series

Time Limit: N/A

Quest Objectives:

Gather intelligence on Phillip Browning.

Gain access to his resources to aid your mission of monitoring the other spies in the village.

Remain undiscovered as a supernatural.

Quest Rewards:

Skill: Singularity (Upon Acceptance)

Access to Player Inventory (Upon Completion)

Accept:

[Yes / No][/table]

"This is..." Jane was speechless.

She had only toyed with the idea of there being something sinister with spies in the village. They had likely been there since the beginning and the villagers hadn't been adversely affected. This meant that either it was harmless and her watchers wanted to see how she'd sneak around for their own amusement, it was an intro-mission designed to acclimate her to the world of supernaturals, or there was something amiss and she needed be aware of an actual threat.

The truth could be any variation of those, of course. Most likely the Council thought it'd be a good opportunity for her to learn of organizations and their reach, teaching her who to be wary of with low risk.

What really caught Jane's eye was the skill she'd receive. If she was to get it upon accepting the quest, it had to be important in completing her objectives. The name of the skill was what had her hesitating, because she was certainly fine with the snooping and Player Inventory reward.

Before Jane decided to become involved with Landless Wonders, her only interest in electronics was limited to using computers to complete projects for school or gather information about a subject that tickled her fancy from one of the books she was reading. However, how could she not learn what the term Singularity represented when she began researching about a game that made so much use of artificial intelligence?

The entire concept of a self-improving AI had fascinated her at the time and was the basis for her plan of placing her mark on the game.

In this situation, however, a Singularity seemed redundant. She was a human, even if she was a supernatural one. Her mind was the equivalent of an organic neural network that was already capable of all the functions that a Singularity implied. So the skill shouldn't be able that.

No, Jane suspected it was a feature that the issuer of the quest was having fun at her expense with. At the same time, she couldn't discount the possibility of them turning her more into a computer program. She was a Player in the video game that is her life, after all.

Jane sighed, resigned, and clicked the acceptance of the quest. She was already going to do it, so she might as well take a tool that could help her achieve her goal.

Her HUD updated with the updated quest parameters below her Health and a new prompt with the skill information popped up.

[table=white]New Skill: Singularity - MaxThrough the use of your Aura, the ability to interface with technology in your immediate area becomes available. The System's visual interface can be used to display and interact with the data received.[/table]

"Oh, now that's handy. That answers my question of if I could use my computer since I can see a clock." Jane smiled, then paused. "If they're giving me this, then the information I'm sniffing around for is likely to be stored in a safe or some restricted area. Encrypted, too."

The skill just described being able to access technology. Her aura was essentially a network cable. Since she was the computer, she'd need a way of deciphering the information given. It looks like she was going to have to find a lot of books on Cryptography, computer programming, and anything else that would aid her in accessing computer systems and restricted areas that use them.

Jane used her new ability to listen to one of her favorite songs while she thought of how to go about this new quest of hers. It was a brave new world she had just stepped into: a world without headphones.

Updated list of Stats and Skills in Spoiler

Spoiler :

[table=white]Player Information:Name: Jane BlackthorneClass: PlayerHP: 310/310MP: 510/510Title: NoneAffiliation: NoneStats:Strength: 29Vitality: 31Dexterity: 34Intelligence: 50Wisdom: 50Luck: 27 (+10)[/table]

[table=white]Acting - Intermediate 1Through the use of emotional manipulation, body language, and tone of voice you have shown you have what it takes to sway hearts and minds. With each level increase your lies become 1% more believable, even if they are poorly constructed.[/table]

[table=white]Advanced Mind - MaxThrough your ever expanding cognitive abilities, you have noticed the benefits of and nurtured amassing information and knowledge. You have surpassed the abilities of an eidetic memory to store, sort, and manipulate information quickly and efficiently. Your mind has truly become a machine.

Effect 1: 50+ Intelligence and Wisdom, all information obtained through the senses is perfectly remembered and can be recalled instantly without conscious effort.

Effect 2: 75+ Intelligence and Wisdom, your thoughts are unnoticed by others. Theirs, however, are communicated to you within a 10m radius.[/table]

[table=white]Alchemy - Beginner 6You have learned to see that all Sciences share a common root. Alchemy is the heart of Science and can unlock the potential in all things. True Masters of Alchemy can take the mundane and transform it into the Divine.

Each level increases the probability of a successful potion by 1%, regardless of preparation.[/table]

[table=white]Aura Manipulation – MaxBy acknowledging how your emotions and will affect the world around you, you gain the ability to control your Aura. True Masters who are at peace with their actions and memories and accept their place in the world can maintain a tranquil state and pass through life without affecting the lives of others.

Each level reduces the chance of unintentional leaks of personal aura by 2%.[/table]

[table=white]Cooking – Beginner 1You have decided to join the lovers of domesticity and gastronomy in this age-old art. True masters of Cooking understand that food is as much an art as it is a science splashed with a dab of magic and love. Meals you prepare have a 1% chance of being edible per level, regardless of your effort.[/table]

[table=white]Language Comprehension - Beginner 1Through your careful study of the parts of text and speech that form to allow beings to communicate, you have learned Language Comprehension. True Masters of language are able to quickly communicate with anyone, regardless of knowledge of the other's language.

Each level, spoken and written communication become 1% more effective, regardless of knowledge and fluency of the language.

Current Languages:

Arabic (Written: 6%, Spoken: 78%)

English (Written, Spoken)

[/table]

[table=white]Mana Control - Beginner 1Through looking beyond the commonly accepted reasonings for how the Universe works, you realize that Mana behaves in a more unique way. True Masters of Mana use the energy of creation with ease, treating it as an extension of themselves.

Effect 1: Each level reduces Mana consumption by 1%.

Effect 2: MP is boosted by 2% per level.[/table]

[table=white]Meditation – Intermediate 8Through calming your mind and centering yourself, you've found the benefits of self-reflection and introspection. Stillness brings oneness with the Universe and all life within it. True masters of Meditation can sustain themselves solely on the energy of the Universe.

Each level increase in Meditation brings a 1% quicker recovery rate of Mana per minute while meditating.

Gains towards Intelligence, Wisdom, and Luck have a chance to slightly increase while meditating.[/table]

[table=white]Mental Fortitude – Advanced 3Through sheer resolve and determination, your mind resists being affected by outside influences. True Masters of Mental Fortitude push through even the strongest opposing perspective.

Each level increases Mental and Illusion magic resistance by 2%.[/table]

[table=white]Observation – Advanced 2Through careful study of the world and those that live within it, you have gained insight into being able to assess your surroundings and not be taken by surprise. True Masters of Observation glean hidden insights without prior knowledge.

Each level increases the probability of additional helpful insights by 1%, regardless of prior knowledge or Player level in relation to the target's difficulty.[/table]

[table=white]Singularity - MaxThrough the use of your Aura, the ability to interface with technology in your immediate area becomes available. The System's visual interface can be used to display and interact with the data received.[/table]

[table=white]Unarmed Combat – Intermediate 4By incorporating your knowledge of the body's movements and its weight distribution through a variety of poses and exercises, you can see how it would be used to effectively be used in combat.

Each level, physical attacks given and damage negated is 1% more effective.[/table]

[table=white]Yoga – Intermediate 7By understanding that the body is an extension of the soul, you have found that through Yoga you can strengthen the body. True masters of Yoga have gained spiritual awakening and insights as they incorporate Meditation in their practice.

Each level increase in Yoga brings a 1% quicker recovery rate of Mana per minute while performing the skill.

Gains towards Strength, Vitality, Dexterity, and Luck have a chance to slightly increase while performing Yoga at rates of 0.3%, 0.3%, 0.8%, and 0.1% respectively.[/table]