Galmi was at the outskirts of Linkston along with Robert. He wore an outfit made of wolf hides, put together by the local leatherworker. Gone was the branch he often used and in its place was a smooth staff, one that he’d personally carved.

“It was a pleasure, Robert,” Galmi told the tracker as he shook his hand, “if you ever need my help don’t be afraid to send me a request.”

Robert chuckled at that. “If I ever need your help that means Linkston is probably burned to the ground.”

Galmi smiled in response, as he couldn’t quite argue with that. “Scarlet, come here,” he called out to the wolf pup.

The small red wolf bounded past Robert, yipping excitedly. Tim followed after the pup, but Robert held out one hand to stop his son from going further. The tracker looked down at Tim and then gave a jerk of his head back at Linkston.

“Go on home,” Robert told his kid, and then he turned back to Galmi, “now you listen to me. If you follow that road you can reach Faeriver in six or seven days. It’s a bit of a long path but you should only see goblins.”

Galmi balked at that time estimate. That seemed to be a pretty long while to not be near a town, let alone surrounded by monsters. “What about as the crow flies?”

“As the...oh, straight?” Robert asked, before he scratched at the back of his head, “I think two days maybe? I don’t know, I’ve only done it once and that was when I was carrying my wife.”

“...Carrying your wife?”

“Ah, yup, she fell and hurt her leg real bad,” Robert explained with a laugh, “she told me if I didn’t get her to the doctor she’d probably die. I mean, of course I was young and dumb so I believed her and ran all the way. She wasn’t too happy when we ran into twigs though.”

“Twigs?”

Robert gave a wave of his hand as he turned away. “You’ll see. Good luck, adventurer.”

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

A few hours into his walk through the wilderness Galmi paused, taking a moment to eat some jerky. He’d opted to settle down near an odd rock outcropping, one that almost crumbled with the slightest touch.

It made Galmi realize that he should’ve picked up a shovel or pickaxe from Linkston. If this game was like any other it would have mining nodes, and this outcropping might be one of them. As Galmi chewed on the jerky he mentally cursed himself for forgetting something so basic.

Meanwhile Scarlet raced around him in circles, her energy seemingly infinite. Anytime she saw something new she’d zero in on it, and Galmi constantly found himself chasing after her. He’d already had to stop her from sniffing what looked to be dangerous plants numerous times.

He watched her, the red puppy a bit odd but she’d shown some degree of intelligence. Any time he called for her she came, and whenever fights broke out she would always find a safe spot to hide.

She seemed to have a mind of her own as well, as he’d learned by her interest in rabbits and squirrels. All of those actions seemed to show she had an intellect more than what you’d expect from a pet character. It was that which made Galmi ponder on how much programming went into her creation.

You Have Learned A New Skill

Deep Thinking

Level 1(0%) Beginner

By thinking deeply often you have take your first steps toward wisdom. Continued deep thinking will result in an increase in skill level.

Grants a small bonus to intelligence and wisdom.

Galmi jumped at the sudden skill acquisition. He hadn’t planned on it, as he had on a few recently, but he still welcomed the gain. He’d already begun to catch on to how one acquired skills in the game, and with that knowledge he’d also wondered about the limits.

Since it seemed most people gained their skills by doing, rather than anything else, Galmi guessed it’d result in people automatically getting skills that suited their playstyle. It made him ponder if you could get an idea of a person’s personality if you saw their skill list.

Galmi paused at that thought, and then he popped open his own skill list.

Skills

Skill

Level

Description

Mind’s Eye

3(82%) Beginner

Evolved Skill. Grants the ability to perceive the surrounding environment using all of your senses, even when blind and deaf.

Staff Fighting

1(15%) Beginner

Evolved Skill. Gain a significant damage boost when using Staff weapons.

Sword Fighting

1(5%) Beginner

Increases damage and accuracy with a one-handed sword.

The Fool

6(52%) Beginner

??? ???? ?????????? ??????? ???? ??? ??????? ????????. ?? ?? ???? ??????? ??????????? ???? ??? ???? ??? ????? ??? ???? ??????????.

Quickened Recovery

8(48%) Beginner

Increases the recovery of your stamina, along with an increase to both health and magic regeneration.

Basic Brawling

1(29%) Beginner

Increases the power and accuracy of bare-handed fighting. Has the potential for evolving based on playstyle.

Packleader

3(72%) Beginner

You have proven yourself to be a strong fighter, capable of leading a pack of animals and showing them the proper way to live. Generates bonuses for any animals following you.

Heavy Blow

2(90%) Beginner

You're capable of delivering a powerful blow. The damage output is significant but it comes at a significant stamina cost.

First Aid

4(44%) Beginner

You have learned how to care for people at the most basic level. With the proper tools you can help others recover a small amount of health, as well as stop bleeding.

Arrow Guard

1(5%) Intermediate

You have gained an increased awareness of projectiles fired in your vicinity, and have a bonus to catching and deflecting them.

Deep Thinking

1(0%) Beginner

By thinking deeply often you have take your first steps toward wisdom. Continued deep thinking will result in an increase in skill level.

Grants a small bonus to intelligence and wisdom.

Galmi couldn’t resist grinning at all of the hard work he’d put into his skills. He’d worked with Robert for a while in order to get Mind’s Eye, and picked up Arrow Guard as a side effect.

He mostly understood how his skills had changed, but there was one change that’d only left him puzzled. It was when the Pitiable skill evolved into The Fool.

Galmi had almost felt like his brain had broken with how weird it was. He’d at least understood Pitiable, but a skill with only question marks for a description made no sense. In the end Galmi had popped open the menu and put in a bug report, though he hadn’t heard a response yet.

Scarlet growled, the noise disrupting Galmi’s line of thought. He pulled out the staff from his inventory, and looked around at the nearby trees and rocks.

“Hello?” Galmi called out to the air, studying for any sign of another person or even a monster.

There was no response, and after a short bit Scarlet stopped her growling. Galmi patted her on the head, his eyes never once leaving the shadows cast by the trees. He knew there was a reason she’d done it, as she’d never steered him wrong before.

Galmi eventually gave up on his wariness when nothing happened. He put the staff away with a shrug of his shoulders. With a light whistle to Scarlet he once more returned on his trek to Faeriver.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

As Galmi darted through the light forest he was consistently impressed by Scarlet’s speed. She had no issue following him, and it meant he didn’t have to worry about delaying his trip so as not to leave her behind.

When they reached a river he came to a pause, as though the flow was slow he didn’t know how deep it was. He looked down at Scarlet, and then scooped up the pup and put her on his head.

“Keep my brain warm,” he told her, and then he stepped into the river. The cold water send a shiver down his spine, but the strength of it was weak enough that he could wade through without worry.

Galmi needed to take a break by the time he reached the other side, and only when he was on dry land did he put Scarlet back down. He lounged in the sun, basking in the warmth, while he watched the surface of the river.

The ripples combined with the glittering of the sunlight on the water proved almost hypnotic, and Galmi smiled as he somehow found joy in such a trivial thing. It was when Scarlet started to growl and puff up that he snapped back to reality.

Galmi stood up, his staff summoned immediately from his inventory, and he looked around to try and figure out why Scarlet was upset. All he saw were the trees that were close to the river, some thin and some thick.

“Calm down, there’s nothing there,” Galmi said as he went to give Scarlet a pat on her head.

Scarlet accepted the pat on the head, but her growling never stopped. Instead she continued to glare almost accusingly at one of the thin trees nearest Galmi.

Galmi frowned at her actions, yet he looked at the trees again. There had to be a reason for her actions, either that or a glitch in her programming had broken her. That was a thought he’d rather not think.

When he finally figured out why Scarlet was upset he was relieved, but also shocked, as the thin tree he’d looked at multiple times swayed at him. One of the higher branches came down almost like an arm, the sharpened tips raking at his head.

Galmi sprung away from the attack and back toward the river, his right foot sinking in the mud he landed on. With his balance disrupted Galmi drove his staff against the ground, relying on it to keep him from falling into the river.

The tree monster ripped its roots up out of the soil, the grey tendrils stretching out like tentacles across the ground. The creature pulled itself toward Galmi, the pace slow and yet still intimidating to witness.

Scarlet had started to bark at the tree, though with her small body she stayed away from it. Galmi glanced at her, shaking his head, and hoped that she continued to be that smart in the future.

The tree launched another attack at Galmi, though it was the exact same motion as before. The predictability of it made it easy for Galmi, as he pushed his staff against the unstable ground and lurched forward.

The swing of the tree went over Galmi’s head, and as he hit the ground he did a roll that put him right into the midst of the roots. Galmi gripped his staff with both hands and readied it for a powerful strike.

“Heavy Blow!” Galmi yelled as he activated the skill, and then he unleashed the staff.

Though he was using a wood weapon to attack a tree, Galmi’s staff proved the sturdier. The bludgeon crunched all the way through the base of the tree monster, severing it from the roots it relied on.

Like what Galmi was accustomed to the monster exploded into a cloud of white particles. They swirled around in the air, and Galmi’s body automatically siphoned them all up as he acquired the experience points. It was during that acquisition he learned the name of the monster.

“That’s a twig? Man, Robert could’ve told me it was some sort of monster,” Galmi complained, and then he noticed Scarlet.

She’d stopped growling and run over to where the twig had died, and with her little mouth she’d picked up a piece of wood that the twig had dropped. She dragged it over to Galmi, her tail wiggling in excitement.

“Aw, thanks girl,” Galmi said as he picked up the loot from the monster and deposited it in his inventory. As he was depositing it he also pulled out a piece of meat and tossed it to Scarlet.

As she happily ate the offered chunk of meat Galmi patted her on the head. It was when she finished eating that he picked her up and put her back on his head, almost like a hat. “Come on, we need to keep moving.”

It was about an hour later, and many more twig fights, that Galmi reached a fairly large clearing in the forest. A river ran near it, the same one that Galmi had crossed, and large stone blocks lay all over the place.

Galmi approached the blocks, curious about if they hid something, but when he looked them over all he found out was they were smooth. Someone had clearly made the blocks, but there weren’t any signs of a trapdoor or anything else.

Deciding this was as good a place as any to camp for the night, Galmi started to set up a simple campfire. Once he managed to barely get the flames going he also pitched a tent, something that Robert had said was a necessity for adventurers. It created a safe zone nearby, which would keep monsters out.

The sound of a branch snapping caused Galmi to turn around, his hands moving up into a defensive position. Though he’d been told the tent would make a safe zone his instinctive reactions remained.

What he saw was a young woman with long blonde hair, wearing a robe and what looked to be a witches hat. When she noticed Galmi she froze where she stood, a small wooden wand half-raised to point at him.

“Hey!” Galmi called out to her with a big smile on his face. Since Scarlet hadn’t growled at her approach she was clearly not dangerous.

Selene looked at him for a few more seconds, and then logged out of the game.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

“What we consider artificial intelligence nowadays is significantly altered from how it was perceived previously,” Professor Haas said to the people seated around him.

Selene tapped at her chin as she half-listened. She’d logged out of the game in a bit of a hurry, panicking when she ran across that weird man. For all she knew he was one of those player killers that Nika’d warned her about.

After all how many people would she meet out in the middle of nowhere. To make things even more suspicious the man had a puppy dog on his head, one that was clearly alive. Nobody did that, it was ridiculous.

“During the mid-twentieth century there were many scientists who proposed the concept of AI, and during the late twentieth significant amounts of fiction were written that dealt with what they’d be like,” Haas lifted up his left hand and numerous images appeared, showing books and still images representing those stories.

One hand was raised by a young looking man in the second row. Haas paused and pointed his hand at him. “But how could perception change? I mean, AI is AI isn’t it?” the undergraduate asked.

Haas gave a chuckle at that question. “If Grahams heard you say that he’d want to block you from this college. The programming classes cover this in exquisite detail, but simply there are different types of artificial intelligence and different uses.”

Haas paused in his speaking as he lowered his hands to his sides. New images started to appear, pictures that showed people holding banana shaped objects in their hands. Some even held what looked like giant blocks to their ears.

“Every single one of you has a comm, but near the end of the twentieth century people mostly relied on these basic wired telephones to talk. It wasn’t until the start of the twenty-first that cellular technology became prevalent. That in turn evolved into the communication buds you all wear on your ears, which have condensed every aspect of the phone into a miniaturized package.”

Haas glanced at the student. “So in this way while phones are still phones they’ve evolved, and you couldn’t even recognize the wired phones of old could you?”

The student shook his head at the question, choosing not to say anything else.

“Clearly AI has changed as well. Currently we use it for everything, and most of you couldn’t make it through a day without relying on an AI once. However at the end of the twentieth AI was barely used, and even then mostly for light entertainment.”

Selene’s attention snapped back to what Haas was saying, her eyes narrowing at that. Entertainment? Was he talking about AI constructed movies and music?

“In simplest words they utilized reactive AI in the earlier digital games,” Haas told them, and then he glanced at the watch on his wrist, “but we should stop here for today. Your work due for the next class is an essay. You will watch one of the approved works on the list, and then write how you feel that the movie was wrong in its application of AI. Bonus points to those who can deduce why they were written that way.”

With those words the room went dark, and then the holographic overlay ceased. Selene sat in her chair in the dim room, but try as she might all she could think of was that odd man in The Cracked Earth. For a brief moment she thought about calling Nika, but then she decided to just go to bed.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

The next day Selene logged back into the game. The vision of the ruins once more came to her, and she glanced around in apprehension of the stranger.

When she saw that he was asleep she let out a sigh of relief. She walked past the man, and the small red dog that was sleeping on his stomach. She pointedly chose to ignore the oddity of how the man hadn’t slept in the tent he’d made.

Selene summoned the key she’d gotten from Gia, and as she gripped it in her hand she felt a tugging sensation. With that to guide she picked her way through the ruins, and finally came to a stop near a cluster of fallen rocks. In one of them was a visible hole.

She slid the key into the hole, and then almost cried out in surprise when a brilliant light shone from it. The ground in front of her opened up and revealed a hidden staircase.

“Oh ho, a hidden dungeon?” a voice asked from behind her.

Selene twisted, stumbling due to the surprise, and almost fell down the staircase she’d revealed. A hand reached out and grabbed her own, stopping her from falling.

“Leave the clumsiness to the expert. So is this why you came here?” Galmi asked as he gently pulled Selene away from the hole.

Once Selene had her feet back under her she pulled her hand free. She took a step away from Galmi, looking away from him and instead at the staircase. “Thanks,” she mumbled, and without a second thought walked down the steps into the unknown.

Help Files

Safety Zones

In The Cracked Earth logging into and out of the game can be done anywhere. When logging out of the game in a Safety Zone your character also vanishes and is temporarily stored until you log back in.

If you use an Inn and rent a room to use as a Safety Zone you will own the room until you come back, with differing in game expenses required depending on how long you spend offline.

Certain items can be used to create temporary Safety Zones in the wilderness. Monsters will not spawn in them, and for the most part will be repelled. Players who have acquired aggro can still be followed into Safety Zones. Attempts to abuse this system can and will be countered by the system itself.