John couldn’t help but be amused by Lenny’s antics. John could feel the sense of pride and accomplishment coming off of Lenny for the work he had put into unlocking these heroic new plants. Once Lenny finished his pose, John could sense an intense feeling coming from Lenny. As he concentrated on this intense feeling of awe, he could see an image of Nunchucks and Michaelangelo appear in his mind, apparently coming from Lenny. Slightly after, he got a more subdued sense of wonder coming from a picture of Batman and Spider-Man, and then a sense of longing from an image of a house and one of what looked like a Karate Dojo. As those images finished coming to him, John saw that a new notification had popped up.

Quests Available:

Give A Mouse A House:

Lenny has requested that you give him a living space in the Dungeon, so he can have some privacy and a place to store his valuables.

Rewards: Improved relationship and communication with Lenny. Lenny is available as a Dungeon NPC.

The First Step On The Path:

Lenny has requested you build him a Dojo so that he can train.

Rewards: Improved relationship with Lenny, Lenny can train martial skills faster, Training area in Dungeon, and Lenny can give and receive more requests and quests as an NPC.

John was excited to receive his first Quests, though he was surprised to see that they had come from Lenny. It almost seemed like giving himself a Quest, though Lenny had shown he had his autonomy and desires, so Lenny must count as his own being in the System. John knew that Lenny’s intelligence had been increased from most mice when he had created him, and Lenny seemed smart when John had got him to go collect the Pigeons and Crows. Still, John was surprised to see that Lenny was intelligent enough to be classified as sapient by the System. In either case, none of Lenny’s requests were ridiculous. They would give John some decent benefits, so he would get to work on both of those quests as soon as he finished with all the notifications he had received, which seemed to be level up notifications for some of his abilities.

Soul Space Level Up, Current Level 8

Absorb Level Up, Current Level 13

Creation Level Up, Current Level 15

Domain Level Up, Current Level 5

John could feel that his control over his soul space had become much more refined, and was approaching a breakthrough, which made sense since he was getting close to the Novice level. Absorb and Creation had been more incremental improvements, though the increases to their efficiency would be helpful. The expansion to John’s Domain had been much more significant. His Domain now spread entirely across the road around him and was close to beginning to overlap the other buildings around Sorenson Station. John could also feel the mana saturation in his Domain increasing, and the mana was starting to push through the borders of his Domain at an increased rate. He had a feeling that would begin to change the local population and wildlife as the effects of mana spread. John was wondering if anyone else had received the System yet as he watched some of the bus drivers come in for their morning shift when one driver caught his attention in particular. John noticed that the driver seemed to react upon crossing over into his Domain and appeared to be reading something invisible. This driver also appeared to be generating more mana for John to absorb than the other drivers around him.

John decided that he should keep on eye on this driver in particular, even though he looked like a reasonably standard man around his fifties. He didn’t appear to have any distinguishing scars or other features, and the driver wasn’t some muscle-bound beast. All in all, the driver appeared to be precisely what he was, a slightly overweight fifty-year-old man who was slightly balding with gray-brown hair. However, the System appeared to have chosen him to be the first user after John, so it must sense some potential. Or maybe he just had some skill or ability that the System wanted. Only time would tell, though John figured that he would be seeing more of this bus driver.

George had been surprised at the message he had received upon arriving at Sorenson Station. The System had informed him that he had entered a Domain, which was why there was an increase in mana density. He was told that this Domain was tied to a strong entity such as a Dragon, Lich, or Dungeon. George figured that if a Dragon or Undead Wizard had been in the area, it most likely would have been something that the news would have picked up. Therefore, this Domain was most likely tied to a Dungeon. And if most of the stories he had read and the games he had played had taught him anything, it was that Dungeon were great places to get loot and grow stronger. George wasn’t excited at the prospect of going through one by himself though, so he would have to be on the lookout for other people who gained access to the System. And he would obviously need to find the entrance, but he could do that after work.

John felt a bit lonely while he was working on the rooms for Lenny, which was surprising. He had spent a lot of time alone since his last relationship had ended, even though John had been visiting with friends with decent regularity. Upon reflection, John realized that this was due to how close he and Gwen had grown lately. The time they spent together had been incredibly intimate since they could sense what the other person was thinking, and John missed how that had felt while he was out of his Soul Space. John hadn’t entirely understood what Gwen had been asking when she had asked to come into his Soul Space, and precisely that bond would entail, but John didn’t regret the decision he had made. John would just have to learn how to deal with it when she wasn’t there, and he was sure she missed him in some way when he wasn’t with her.

As John finished his thoughts about how quickly he had become so close to Gwen, John was close to finishing up with Lenny’s home. He had made a Lenny-sized apartment, with an eating area, a food storage and preparation area, a living room, a washroom, and a sleeping area. Most of them were similar to what you would find in a standard apartment, though there were adjustments for Lenny being more comfortable as a quadruped than a biped. For example, the table and chairs were only a couple inches off the ground, and the bathtub was sunken into the floor so it wouldn’t be too hard for Lenny to climb in. Another concession to Lenny’s mousey nature was that the sleeping area didn’t contain an actual bed but rather a smaller space that Lenny could crawl into, including a comfortable mattress, pillows and blankets that he could wrap himself up. John also made some adjustments to one of his door Blueprints and made a Lenny sized door out of wood to give it a more homey feel. As John finished making this area for Lenny, he got a notification that he had received a Living Area Blueprint. However, John would have to make adjustments for it to be usable for a standard-sized human being. This Living Area Blueprint also came under its own type of Blueprint category, Rooms.

After making some adjustments to also have a Living Area Blueprint for a normal human-sized being and leaving some welcome gifts for Lenny in his living room, John decided to pull up his finished Quest notification and see what happened. As he did so, he could see Lenny perk up, meaning he must have received some kind of message as well.

Quest Completed: Give A Mouse A House

You’ve made Lenny a customized living area and given him a place to rest his head and call his own. Once Lenny has a look at his home, you will see how it has affected your Reputation with him. Lenny is now available as a Dungeon NPC.

John wasn’t exactly sure what exactly how the Reputation system worked, and he wanted to see how it could affect both him and the others around him in the future. John didn’t want any of his actions being bound in case of betrayal just because someone had an excellent Reputation with him. As John looked through the Reputation system, he saw that it mostly applied to NPCs and that higher Reputations would unlock more opportunities and Quests. For example, when he looked into Lenny’s role as a Dungeon Mascot NPC, John discovered that if you had a high enough Reputation with Lenny, he could be asked to be a temporary companion and guide a group going through the Dungeon. Lenny was also more likely to give people that had a high Reputation with him more requests and give them better gifts in return.

When it came to non-NPCs, Reputation just gave you an overview of how interaction with that person had gone in the past. The Reputation system for interactions between non-NPCs essentially gave a reference for how your previous interactions had gone. The System would also know how any significant actions would affect your Reputation with that person if they found out about it. It didn’t seem like it was hugely important for day-to-day interactions between regular people but could be important when remembering past interactions between longer lived beings.

As John finished up looking over the Reputation system, he could feel Lenny trying to get his attention, so he moved his attention to Lenny. Instead of the general pictograms and base emotions John had previously gained from Lenny, John got a more exact picture of the Living area and a sense of contentment about the whole thing. John also received a sense of amusement and happiness when Lenny pictured the iridescent orange cartoon representation of his head on the door. He also sensed a question coming from Lenny, whether John would be building him a dojo. John replied to Lenny, saying, “I’ll be working on that next Lenny, why don’t you open the gifts I left for you?”

John was surprised to hear a high pitched squeaky voice say “Gifts?” back to him, but he quickly recovered and sent Lenny an image of the gifts wrapped on his living room table. John watched as Lenny bounded over to the table, and tentatively grabbed one of the wrapped gifts. Lenny seemed unsure what to do with it, so John sent him images of the paper being carefully unwrapped or torn off the presents. A joyous gleam appeared in Lenny’s eyes as he began to tear the paper off the gifts. After Lenny finished tearing the paper off, his expression turned to one of divine rapture as he lofted the six-inch figure of Michaelangelo above his head. Lenny treated the turtle with such reverence that John felt Lenny was quite close to weeping from divine inspiration. As Lenny gently put the action figure down on the table, he turned with an almost equal amount of reverence towards the TMNT comic sitting on the table. As John watched Lenny flip through the book, he knew that Lenny would be treating this book like holy scripture.

As Lenny put down these near-religious objects, his look became one of curiosity as he turned towards the other gifts. Lenny gave a big sniff, and his mouth began to salivate. And as he raised the contents consecutively to his mouth, his expressions were one of sublime contentment followed by one of joy. As he finished chewing, John saw two notifications pop up.

New Quest: The Finer Things In Life (CHEESE!) (Repeatable)

Lenny has discovered one of the finer things in life, an opinion shared by many others in this world, both rodent and human. This quest is available to any with a high enough Reputation with Lenny.

Rewards: You can increase your Reputation with Lenny by bringing him cheese, and he will occasionally reward you for your efforts with gifts. You can gain bonuses by getting Lenny new, rare, or his favourite cheeses.

New Quest: If You Give A Mouse A Cookie... (Repeatable)

Lenny has found another one of his favourite things, coinciding with a popular children’s book. This quest is available to any with a high enough Reputation with Lenny.

Rewards: You can increase your Reputation with Lenny by bringing him cookies, and he will occasionally reward you for your efforts with gifts. You can gain bonuses by bringing Lenny new, rare, or his favourite cookies.

Since Lenny seemed to enjoy them so much, John spawned him a couple more kinds of cheese and cookies to enjoy while John worked on the Dojo. John decided to make it a more extensive training area, though he was missing some supplies. John would have to get some weights and bags for people to practice with, though he was able to use some rubber to make a padded floor for people to practice martial arts on. John also made a climbing wall and set up the equipment so that it could be used by someone Lenny’s height up to someone as tall as ten feet, figuring there could be some changes to physicality due to the System. As John finished the room, he got a couple of different notifications. The first let him know that John had received a room blueprint for a training area and that people using this training area would receive a boost to physical and combat-related skills while using this area. The second notification was that he had completed the quest for Lenny and that a new Quest was available.

Quest Completed: The First Step On The Path

You have successfully created a Dojo that Lenny can use to train. Lenny will be able to train and use combat skills.

New Quest: A Journey For A Lifetime (Repeatable)

Bring Lenny new equipment for use in training, or give him some training yourself. This quest is available to anyone within a high enough Reputation with Lenny.

Rewards: Lenny will become more capable in combat, may compensate you, and you will gain more Reputation with Lenny.

As Lenny looked around the Dojo, John got a sense of satisfaction coming from him. However, he did sense a question coming from Lenny, followed by an image of a shrine. John quickly built a shrine in the Dojo for Lenny to use and laughed as Lenny removed the Michaelangelo figure from his cheek and placed it reverently on the shrine. He was pleasantly surprised when he received another notification that by having a shrine dedicated to Blunt Weapons, that combat skill would receive a further increase to its growth in this training area. However, now that he was done doing these tasks for Lenny, it was time for him to stop procrastinating and go to talk to his brother.