John didn’t detect any malice or scorn coming from the voice as he closed down his Status, figuring it would be rude to continue looking through them when first meeting the person who was to be his guide. As he first saw the figure in front of him, John felt a bit self-conscious about what he was wearing. John feared he was currently wearing nothing due to his previous lack of a body. Still, as John looked down, John realized that he had a body to his slight relief. It was also currently wearing the shorts and T-shirt John customarily wore in the morning, performing his morning routines before going for his shower. At least he had put those on over his boxers before he was yoinked into this intradimensional space. John wasn’t unattractive with dark brown hair and beard and hazel eyes but had put on some weight since High School and the sports he had played in those days.

As he looked across at the raven-haired athletic figure with amber skin and green eyes wearing a green dress, his self-consciousness began to return due to him feeling under-dressed. It took him a couple of seconds to realize the woman in front of him had gossamer wings similar to a dragonfly coming out from her back, and that she must not be human.

As John began to feel a bit awkward and felt he needed to break the ice, Mahaytar’s voice broke the silence. “Gwen, this is John MacIntire, who is about to become a Core. John, this is Gwendolyn Lilydew, the Fairy that will be your partner if you both agree to the arrangement. I’ll give you some time to decide between yourselves.” As Mahaytar finished his sentence, his presence seemed to fade into nothing.

Trying to recover from the awkwardness, John stuck his hand out and said, “Nice to meet you, Gwen.”

Gwen seemed to take a second before grabbing John’s hand and saying, “Nice to meet you, John.”

Realization flitted across John’s face, and he said, “Sorry. It’s a greeting from my culture, intended to show friendliness and that we aren’t carrying a weapon, though the second part is much less prevalent in modern times.”

Gwen gave John a light smile and asked, “So John, how much do you know about the System and the duties of a Core? I know the System is new to your world, so I won’t be too surprised if you aren’t very knowledgable.”

“I think I have a bit of an idea,” John said. “While we don’t have the System, we do have many stories that I enjoyed that follow rules that seem close to the System. So getting to do this is a bit of a dream for some people from my world. Though I’m not sure how practical most of my knowledge will be, and I will be relying on you to help me correct any misconceptions or bad habits that I may have..”

“Fair enough, I’m willing to agree to some kind of trial period for us working together, there’s no need for us to tie ourselves together at this point permanently.”

“What do you mean permanently tie ourselves together? Is there some kind of bond between dungeon and guide like I have seen in some stories.”

“While I am not familiar with your society’s stories about Cores, that sounds relatively correct. Though I suppose I should say in perpetuity rather than permanently. There are ways to sever or change the bond, depending on whether the bond ends up being transactional, familial, or romantic.”

“Okay, so I’m guessing this initial bond will be a transactional type bond with limited access to each other? What kind of benefits will we get from it?”

“Correct. Initially, I will advise you on the quirks and uses of the System and do some physical interactions for you in the early stages of dungeon development. On my end, I will be gaining access to a good source of mana and opportunities to improve my skills, gaining valuable field experience, and increasing my opportunities in my profession for the future. Worst case, we go our separate ways with our increases capabilities and experience, though hopefully, we each gain a friend and partner.”

John appreciated her bluntness when it came to laying out the situation along with the hope and joy he could see in her expression. In John’s experience, the best partners were informed and capable of expressing their desires and ideas. At the same time, they need to be dedicated and excited about their prospects in the venture. You need clear communication and enthusiasm to be successful in most undertakings.

“So,” John said, “what kind of terms are you thinking for an initial contract?”

“A year-long, with a week’s notice for termination barring extraordinary circumstances. A month-long trial period for both of us to evaluate our own and each other’s capabilities before setting any specific duties..” Gwen replied after a short pause and a pensive look.

“Sounds good. Let’s include any contract negotiations in the one week notice.”

“Agreed.”

Another DING! brought John’s attention to a new notice that popped up.

Achievement Unlocked

Let’s Make A Deal

Most interactions with others will involve some kind of give and take. You have managed to make a deal that seems to require an equal amount of giving and taking.

Rewards: The Negotiator title. The System will boost negotiation abilities when dealing with someone with a higher negotiation skill.

Negotiation skill unlocked. The current level is 21. Novice.

Upon finishing reading the notice, John noticed Gwen looking at him. “I just unlocked a skill. It’s my first skill, and I wondered what the difference between skills and abilities is.”

“Abilities are generally more discrete than skills. Everyone starts at level 1 and increases in mostly the same manner. Some abilities are even just unlocked and don’t even have levels. Skills are evaluated by the System the first time you use them and start at the level the System evaluated your current abilities to be. Skills have many different ways to be improved, including just increasing a certain technique within the skill. Certain skills are also related to each other in other in different ways, and improving one will simultaneously improve or help boost progress in the other. Abilities do not relate to each other in this way, though they may have sub-skills that can be unlocked that help in specific areas of the ability. However, this description only applies to Cores and other similar types of system users. This setup will be slightly different for a standard user, and I can get into these differences later.”

“Okay, I’ll hold you to that. What do the skill and ability levels mean, and what is the cap?”

“The general breakdown of the skill and ability levels and their ranks is: zero to nine is Beginner, ten to twenty-four is Novice, twenty-five to forty-nine is Apprentice, fifty to seventy-four is adept, seventy-five to ninety-nine is Journeyman, and one hundred and above is Master. There is no cap, though levels above one hundred are tough to achieve. Rank 0 is also a bit special; it either represents a skill you know of but have yet to use or an ability that you know of that you have yet to unlock. Most skills and abilities gain some kind of bonus as they rank up beyond Beginner, though some may only gain one or two bonuses at specific ranks, rather than a constantly improving bonus at each rank.”

“Sounds straight forward, if you don’t mind I’m going to check out my new skill and ability.”

“Sure. Could you share your stat screen with me so I can look it over? You do that by willing it to manifest for me. Normally you would only do this with a close friend or family, and you can choose for parts to not appear. For example, you could will it to only show your name if you want to prove your identity.”

“Will do,” John said as he sent over his full Status to Gwen. He hadn’t felt she would try to take advantage of him, a benevolent higher being had sent her to partner with him, and he didn’t have anything to hide. Due to those reasons, he felt there wasn’t any reason to hide anything on the sheet from her, and he pulled up his new skill first.

Negotiation, Level 21, Novice

Description: Negotiation is the ability to determine and trade items and ideas of value with another.

Parent Skill: N/A

Techniques: Bartering - Novice, ???

Subskills: ???

Related Skills: ???

Novice Bonus: Gain a general idea of your value in the deal compared to your opposites value

John had some questions for Gwen regarding those question marks but held them off to check out his updated ability first, figuring that she may just answer those questions herself after looking over his Status.

Creation, Level 1, Beginner

Description: Allows Dungeons to Create Structure and Items. Beginning efficiency is n% where n is the level of ability.

Prerequisites: None

Subskills: Trap Creation (1 RP), ???

As John closed up the notifications, he saw Gwen looking at him with excitement in her eyes. “What’s Research?”