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(The Art of the Deal 1 — Achievement

You have successfully navigated a significant Challenge through negotiation rather than combat. The Ghouls may not trust you, but they are provisionally willing to extort, rather than outright murder you. If you continue to develop this relationship, you may find yourself with some unusual allies.)

(You gain 80 XP.)

(The Art of the Deal 2 — 50% Complete)

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The air was full of knives. From Lawlimi's perspective, there was a bright flash and a lot of flinty edges that bent around him as if they were liquid. Tasma was the center of an emanation of pink power, her mana manifesting as countless (837) fractal representations of stone-punch daggers. They washed over the trio of Ghouls and shredded them, testing the limits of the game's ability to realistically render physical trauma. The end result was three vaguely humanoid reddish-gray lumps standing in a cloud of their own blood and scraps of skin, flensed flesh; the muscles and connective tissues that were still attached to their bones were curled into wet lumps, exposing them like the subjects of a particularly vigorous and undisciplined dissection. Plopping sounds followed as it all came down. The knives had burst into a cloud of stone dust.

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(A Thousand Cuts deals 456 Slashing Damage to Yuk)

(A Thousand Cuts deals 657 Slashing Damage to Dawg)

(A Thousand Cuts deals 488 Slashing Damage to Derek)

>>

Lawlimi held up his hands, coughing from the dust.

"Oh my gosh!" Tasma covered her mouth and exclaimed. “I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to scare you! My name's Tasma, I'm a moderator on this server." She pointed to her tabard, marked by a golden triforce. "I got a report that you may have suffered a bug."

"I just…" Lawlimi slowly let his arms fall to his sides, surveying the remains of the Ghoul. “I just made a deal with them.”

Tasma looked around. “What? Oh no! Have I interfered with a Quest?”

Lawlimi picked up the vase again, he had dropped it on its side on the ground. His expression was pensive “Not exactly. It just feels like every time I accomplish anything, something goes wrong and I’m right back at the start. It’s frustrating.”

Tasma produced a wax tablet from thin air and began tapping and swiping. Moderators had these items in-game to let them view and interact with actual coding issues while fully immersed. She initiated a scan of Lawlimi while she talked.

"Normally, I get called to check on collision issues: a cat that walks through walls, a tree that's floating in midair, that sort of thing. Once, we did have a sharknado incident that was pretty wild. That's a rare weather event now. Players were stoked about it. Mostly it's small stuff I can run a quick debug for… okay, you're clean."

"I'm clean?"

"Yeah, I was checking you for mods. You know, hacks. Some of those can cause problems with how the game reads player status, but you're not using any."

"You could have asked me," Lawlimi crossed his arms.

"I'm sorry," Tasma said, and she really did look sorry. She had that kind of face, sweet and expressive. "It's a standard scan, I promise. There wasn't any funny business. Hey, so this is interesting. If you're not cheating, then we've got a mystery on our hands. I checked with the ADI that runs Haggitha, the NPC that killed you, and they aren't aware of any problems, so I'm going to have to keep digging."

"How did you know about that?

“An anonymous report.”

Lawlimi frowned. “Okay, well, if there’s no virus making NPCs crazy, what’s next?”

"This." Tasma reached into her pouch to retrieve another, less glossy pouch of about the same size from inside, holding it out to Lawlimi. He took it and checked the contents.

(1000 Gold Lions)

"Huh." Lawlimi attached the pouch to his belt, making it a part of his inventory. "I'm actually kind of disappointed."

"What?" Tasma pouted. "What is it?"

"No, I appreciate it. Thank you." Lawlimi stretched his mouth, his lips mostly vanishing. "Hmm... I just thought this was going to be a whole big thing for me—escaping the underworld, becoming stronger. Getting my ticket for free is anticlimactic."

"Oh, well, you don't have to leave if you don't want to. The gold is yours, and here, add me to your contacts." Lawlimi accepted her request, and a new option appeared in his menus. "If you have any more problems, message me immediately. Okay?"

"Thank you. I will."

The moderator curtseyed and vanished in a violet flash. The thunderclap that followed was caused by the sudden vacuum of her absence, and it had the side effect of pulling a surge of ash up from the ground. Flakes of it settled on Lawlimi, mixing with the perpetual drift generated by the morbid skies. He started coughing again.

"Hollen," Lawlimi said when he'd recovered, "do you know who might have made a report? I guess I should have, but it’s weird that someone was watching me."

"The NPCs in Mystic Seasons are AIs, and clumps of AIs are operated by an ADI. ADIs divide their attention among large batches of tasks, but it's likely that one of them observed when you died and subsequently reported the issue as a bug." Very likely.

"I never figured out the difference, AIs and ADIs. It's all computers, isn't it?"

"Computers, yes. As an analogy, consider yourself to be an ADI, and a bombardier beetle to be an AI. You are both biological organisms of some complexity, composed of essentially the same materials, elements, and molecules, operating on the same principles and seeking the same ultimate goal of reproducing your genes, many of which you share. You might argue, however, that a human being is of an order of complexity higher than a bombardier beetle, capable of consciousness and creativity and the like. While there is no strict dividing line between you, at a point it becomes quite obvious that you are not the same. So, it is with so-called "artificial intelligence” when contrasted against “autonomous digital intelligence."

"Wow," Lawlimi said. "So, bombardier beetles, huh."

"They are the greatest of beetles."

"Why do you even know about them? They aren't a part of Mystic Seasons, are they?"

"I ..." Why do I know about bombardier beetles? "Someone mentioned them." Someone must have.

Lawlimi looked down at the stone urn. He'd dropped it when all the knives happened. It was still covered in Frozen Tears.

It was time to finish a quest.

Mona was having dinner when Lawlimi arrived, and by having dinner I mean to say he was chewing mice bones and spitting them back into a clay pot. He froze, a bit of osseous grit on his lips when he saw the urn.

"I underestimated you."

Lawlimi grunted as he pushed the urn onto the table, knocking the mortar on its side. "Is this enough of them?"

Mona chuckled, dry as a mummy's wraps. "This is more than enough."

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[Quest Completed — The Frozen Tears]

You have returned from the graveyard with the desired fungus, and more, the remains of a famous hero. An alchemist of Mona's skill will have uses for such a rare ingredient.

(You gain 210 XP.)

(You have enough experience to advance in level.)

(You have enough experience to advance in level.)

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"How do I level up? Shouldn't that happen automatically?"

"Pshaw," Mona said. "You advance while you sleep when your consciousness returns to the adytum of your soul. What a ridiculous question."

"Is there a place I can do that here?"

"Go up to the basilica. Hannah will find you a cot. I expect you back in the morning to begin the real work. No more dalliances out in the ash for you."

Lawlimi made his way up through the catacombs to meet Hannah in the entrance vestibule. She smiled at him and was happy to show him to a private, if spartan, chamber.

"I'll lock you in," she said, "then come for you in the morning."

"Is that necessary?"

"Yes."

He heard the key turn when she shut the heavy iron door. The room was a thin cot next to a stone stool with a washbasin on top of it. A window, caked completely with soot on the outside and dust from within, allowed for the barest of illumination. Lawlimi brushed off the cot, removed his toga, and lay down to sleep.

The creators of Mystic Seasons bucked many of the traditions of MMORPGs. Instantaneously increasing in power after killing an opponent was one of the tropes they disposed of. Experience doesn't accrue specifically from combat, but more generally from completing Challenges, which include Quests as well as Achievements. Skill challenges are the most common, and beating a tough opponent is another common way to overcome a Challenge. As Lawlimi had already discovered, you can advance through negotiation as well.

It is entirely possible to play the game, advance, and gain in power, without fighting anyone. Many users do, and there are competitions and organizations on every server that revolve around a nonviolent style of play.

Once you accrue sufficient experience to advance in level, your avatar has to sleep. This forces players to take some time to make the many decisions advancement entails, and it forces them to take breaks. Even headset users have to rest their avatars in camps or safe zones on a regular basis to keep them functioning. Mystic Seasons can be dangerously addictive, and these measures were put in place to ensure users could not play continuously.

Fish like Lawlimi genuinely needed to sleep like any human would IRL. Their brains required a refresh period, and it was also an opportunity for patches and updates to be downloaded into their neural nets.

Lawlimi went to sleep, and shortly before he woke up, a subroutine opened a packet in his neural net that caused his skin to briefly glow with radiant, fertile darkness. Instead of returning to his avatar, his awareness was transported to a region contained entirely within his own brain hardware, discrete from the server, where he was able to edit his character and advance. The designers had called this space the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, in reference to an antiquated cartoon, and in-game it was referred to as an adytum. It was a place I couldn't follow. When Lawlimi returned to his body, I viewed his updated character sheet.

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Lawlimi - Human (Valanthian)

Level 3 Mortal

Affinities : Nadir — Crystal — Infrared

Statistics —

Strength: 2

Dexterity: 2

Constitution: 3

Intelligence: 3

Ego: 2

Presence: 2

Appearance: 2

Body: 120

Spirit: 100

Experience : 290 (Next Level at 400)

Skills —

Craft (Alchemy) : 3

Handle Animal : 2

Survival : 1

Armor Proficiency : Light

Weapon Proficiency : Bows, Unarmed

Combat Maneuvers —

Combat Expertise (1) : Temporarily increase your evasion at the cost of Spirit.

Disarm (2) : +10% to your disarm attempts.

Grapple (3) : +20% to attempt and maintain Grapple.

Learn from Losing (3) : Gain a cumulative bonus to attack and defense against a single opponent the longer a combat Challenge extends.

Affinities —

Nadir —

Carnal Instinct (1) : +10% bonus to flirtation and seduction with all genders and orientations.

Mithridatism (3) : +30% resistance to poisons and diseases.

Burning Blood (1) : When Spirit falls below 10%, you begin to supplement it with an equal amount of Body to fulfill the costs of physical exertion and Techniques. This extra mana cannot be used for Wizardry.

Crystal —

Brittle (1) : Natural healing is 20% less effective, alchemical and magical healing is 10% more effective.

Crystal Clarity (2) : +20% to perceive deception, dishonesty, and hidden truths.

Crystal Capacitor (2) : Your mana appears transparent, like liquid glass. You receive no affinity bonus, but you can use Border elements without penalty. You can use Diametric elements at a 60% penalty.

Infrared—

Worm Friend (3) : They just like you. 35% bonus to Handle Animal with any species of Worm.

Mark of the Fool — People sense something off about you, penalty to first impressions. You receive a bonus to experience gained from Quests and Achievements.

>>

The statistics in Mystic Seasons are mostly recognizable imports from classic Dungeons and Dragons, though the system they fit into is very different. Strength gives a bonus to physical damage and informs lifting capacity. The game doesn't bother with carry limits for minor objects; money and trinkets and even small weapons in the inventory don't have weight, but big ones do. It's unrealistic, and leads to some counterintuitive situations; for example, a weak character carrying ten thousand grass bracelets who was unable to pick up a large branch and walk with it. Charmlet had been a friend and an introvert using the game as therapy, crafting alone in a field, and she had hoarded her work.

Dexterity affects a character's ability to evade attack, to hit consistently, as well as movement and manipulation skills. Knitting and Acrobatics, for instance. Constitution is used to calculate Body and Spirit, resist poison and disease, hold your breath, and so on. The final physical statistic is Appearance, which is what it sounds like. This score tells NPCs how physically attracted they should be to your character, give or take circumstantial factors, and a higher score will trigger a subroutine that makes a player's avatar more classically beautiful. It's just a symmetry map, and it can be turned off if you truly want to look like yourself. Appearance mostly exists so that tourists and role players have something to spend their stat points on.

The non-physical stats are Intelligence, Ego, and Presence. Intelligence is very important for many skills, including Wizardry, and a high score allows the player to automatically bypass certain Challenges that they might not want to manually solve. Ego is force of will, and it helps calculate Spirit along with resistance to both magical and pedestrian influences. It can reduce the penalty for certain status conditions, like fear and fatigue. Presence is how to make friends and influence people and plays a large part in social combat.

Every player begins with two ranks in each statistic, which makes them average humans, and one floating rank they can assign. At each advancement, they have another rank to spend. Nothing can rise above six until celestial levels, while the actual maximum is nine. There is also a "cool down" rule. You can't advance the same stat consecutively. At most, you can put a rank into a stat every other level, because the designers frowned on min/maxing in the early game.

At each advancement, you also receive three skill ranks and three combat maneuver ranks you can use either to advance what you currently know by one rank or learn something new. You cannot put multiple ranks into the same skill or maneuver for the same level. Lawlimi was as deep into Alchemy as he could be, and he had spread his other points around by picking up weapon and armor proficiencies, which are a sensible choice unless you planned to spend the entire game weaving grass accouterments behind city walls. You can also add ranks to skills in-game via manuals, but never above the normal maximum set by your level.

Because player affinity choices are generated by drawing cards from the Major Arcana during character creation, customization comes into play during advancement. For each affinity, Lawlimi had one rank to use to decide what aspect of that affinity he would focus on. As he had jumped from level one to level three, he was able to add ranks to two of his Crystal affinity abilities and raise Mithridatism and Worm Friend to rank three each. At heroic and celestial tiers, new affinity abilities would become available to develop.

Lawlimi opened his eyes.

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(Hungry — You receive a 5% penalty to any task that requires focus. Hunger is distracting!)

(Thirsty — 5% penalty to focus. Have you tried Sprite?)

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"What the eff?" He got up. "Hollen, why am I thirsty and dead?"

"It's classical. In one ancient society, the afterlife was nothing more than hungry, thirsty shades with little to do but complain. Even the famous Elysian fields of the Greeks were nothing to brag about. The best those heroes could hope for was to be summoned by a ritual adept and fed blood until they regained a semblance of temporary humanity. You will experience some discomfort until you return to life."

"There's no food here?"

"There is, but it's cost-prohibitive. Unless you become undead, in which case there is plenty to eat."

"I'll pass." Lawlimi found his door already unlocked and made his way down to Mona's laboratory. The lich was awake and reading over lists of ingredients for the day.

"I'll have you fetching these from the bazaar for me. Then you can try mixing a few of the less important products for the day."

"That's fine," Lawlimi said, "I need to buy equipment for myself as well."

"You have coin?"

"I came into some. You also owe me for the urn."

"Pshaw," the lich said. "Your pay is the knowledge I pass on to you. However, as I am generous, I will allow you to keep whatever you save in barter."

He passed over (150 Gold Lions) and Lawlimi filed them into his inventory.

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[Open Market — Mortal Quest Level 3]

Buy Mona's ingredients for the day without being killed in the Grey Market. Any money you save is yours to keep. Be warned, not everyone is open to haggling.

Reward — 20 XP

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"Without getting killed," Lawlimi said, "that's my middle name."