Character

Status

Constitution: 75/100%

Fatigue: 29/100%

Hunger: 63/100%

Clarity: 74/100%

Stamina: 74/100%

Abilities

Inventory

“Leave?”

“My fatigue is too low.”

“How low?”

“Twenty nine percent.”

Rak wasn’t sure what to expect but seeing Alley spit out with an audible ‘Pah!’ sound he cringed at the sight.

“What twenty nine percent!? This is why it's good you met me, It seems there are too many things wrong. Forget archery, we need to fix your personality. A mouse can’t hunt cats!”

“Uh?”

“Good. We will do this then. Wait. How much gold you have?”

“I got ni-. Wait, that’s none of your business.”

Rak’s expression was already awful, he was tired, he felt a bit ashamed and now he almost blurted out that he had nine gold on him. But it was too late. He saw the look in Alley’s eyes and understood she heard that he was about to say nine. Rak became even paler and while he was already sitting down he tried to back up, looking like he was crawling backwards like a spider.

“This going to be hard on you, okay? Remember no matter how it hurts, how much you cry, that just means it's working.”

“What do you mean? What’s working. Hey! Stay back.”

“Don’t worry, you still need to sign this contract.”

Alley the Advanced hunter

I, Abstinence agree to Alley’s training even if it leads to my death.

Contract completes when Rak becomes a novice hunter or Alley decides Abstinence awful personality traits have been whittled down and reforged.

Initial cost: 2g

Maintenance cost: Up to 3g

Final cost upon reaching the rank of hunter: 3g

“Sign it and we can begin.”

Rak’s head is already spinning and his face pale as snow, but seeing the contract he felt extremely apprehensive. This contract would strip him of his entire fortune and it was so vague.

“What kind of contract is this? This is robbery!”

“What do you know? If it wasn’t for my easy going personality, great looks and amazing teaching abilities, would I even bother with a fragile kid like you?”

“Fragile? Kid? I’m probably older than you!”

Looking away from the contract and to Alley, Rak’s eyes show rare anger. But what he sees is a woman facing the sky and one eye looking down to him.

“This why doing good deeds is too hard.”

“Who wants your good deeds? This. This malicious contract! What even is a novice hunter? Who said I want to be a novice hunter?”

“You don’t even know this?”

Feeling like Rak wasn’t appreciating her generous offer to help him, despite it being a huge waste of her time as and advanced hunter. Sure, she just recently advanced, but to find another advanced hunter in Alp? It was more than just difficult.

In truth it isn’t Rak´s fault. He simply doesn’t understand the advantage of reaching his first tier one job. While it it can be debated what job is the best job, just having a tier one job increases almost every attribute a person has. A person still has to reach certain thresholds to advance to that stage and not just anyone can stumble into it.

It is because these thresholds exist that not many humans have reached this stage. It also because so few people have reached the level of a tier one job that other humans do not know about it. Even Rak’s father and mother, who take Chaos theory very seriously, have not grasped the concept of the strength of a ‘job’. They have a rather impressive information net with all their subordinates and yet don’t know this much.

“I still don’t see how becoming a hunter is worth eight gold. And I can't even afford it!”

What Rak doesn’t know is that Alley even being able to send that contract to him, means Rak must at least be worth eight gold. This trick to find out someones value like this can be protected, but how could a noob like Rak know this?

“I’ll show you then.”

Alley is now standing three meters away from Rak who is looking at her with enormous suspicious. Suddenly he begins squint is eyes, for some reason Alley is going out of focus just before him. That blurring figure begins moving and soon he can’t see anything at all.

Rak twirls around in circles before coming to a stop, his eyes still flickering about and he is concentrating on his hearing rather than eyes.

“How can this be? Is this magic”

While people don’t know too much about the intricacies of Chaos theory, they do know that magic exists in this world, only they don´t know how it works or how to attain it. Url’s spear and Alley’s bow are both imbued with magic in the form of their abilities and the general attributes on the items themselves, making so that mundane items have become strengthened to a previously impossible degree.

Just as Rak flips around, believing he heard something behind him, a hand wraps around him from behind, even though he just turned around and was certain nothing had been there.

“What do you think? Is a hunter worth it?”

“Invisibility.”

“It’s concealment and not invisibility, I am directly interfering with your mind, making it hard for you notice me. This includes sounds and if strong enough, touch.”

When Rak heard her he noticed two hands on his chest and that he was indeed being embraced. Yet he felt nothing, as if she wasn’t there holding him.

“Even this is possible?”

“You’re just too weak. Against a novice hunter I may only be able to blur out of sight and meld into the environment, but hiding my scent, sound and touch will become a lot harder. This also depends on what I concentrate on interfering with. Most hunters hide their scent when hunting with sound as a secondary priority.”

“I can already imagine the possibilities.”

Perhaps because Rak had been thoroughly rattled and Alley interfering with his perceptions, but his eyes gleamed with a suspicious light and slight red appeared on his cheeks.

“What are you thinking about!”

Struck out of his reverie Rak put on the expression of the wronged.

“I was thinking about hunting beasts!”

“Oh? Is that why you are standing at attention?”

Once again Rak felt a shock to his mind. He was indeed standing at attention like a good soldier.

“This. No it’s because of these.”

As Alley already leapt back, Rak pointed at the wrapped up chest, even though the size wasn't too impressive, Rak understood they were being caged behind the tightly wound villainous cloth.

“It seems I have more work to do than I expected. To think you are a lecherous pervert as well.”

“What pervert!? You're the one groping me incessantly! I’m the one being harassed here.”

Before Rak could continue his accusations he suddenly saw the sky. Alley had swept his feet and landed on his back.

“Let’s see if we can drive this evil out of you.”

The wind has been knocked out of him so he couldn’t muster the strength to rebut Alley for her very harsh treatment. He still felt indignant when she sat on his stomach and looked at him the greatest of disdain. He felt he turned into a dirty puddle of water and she was a fair maiden unwilling to even step on him.

“Oh? You even like this? What a beast.”

Rak’s thoughts are swirling unceasingly he is almost like a statue as this point not know what o do. While Alley´s weight didn’t seem much her hands were hold him down and her legs pushing down his thighs,making it impossible to even squirm properly.

Alley has now brought Rak´s hand together above his hand and is using one hand to hold both his hands.

“Looks like a beast, acts like a beasts. Most likely it is a beast.”

Just as Rak felt the strength to speak Alley’s free hand covered Rak’s mouth.

“Are you going to sign the contract? See how weak you are.”

“Mrrmph!”

“What was that? I can’t hear you.”

“Mrph!”

It took some time for Rak’s eyes to turn from helplessness to urgency and eventually to rage and resentment.

“Oh? Your angry? Why don’t you just break free? You’re a man aren't you? Just push me away, I’m just a woman, right? Just a little woman.”

Alley’s playful eyes could easily see through Rak’s struggle but she suddenly became disappointed when she saw Rak give up. It only took a few minutes for him to resign himself to his fate.

“Look at you. Pathetic. If I wanted to, I could entrap you easily and keep you as a slave. Just because you live in Alp doesn’t mean your safe. War could break out any minutes. Corrupt officials could decide to make an example out of you. People with money could buy your life. Is this what you want?”

The extreme disdain and feint anger stunned Rak. he had felt helpless before, in particular with Arlina and that giant of a woman. But this was different, he felt he could see himself trapped in a dungeon of some lousy city, he saw himself capture by a competing merchant, every word Alley spoke struck his heart.

“Alright, what do you think?”

Alley let Rak go and stood up, but Rak was laying there, now he was trapped by his own thoughts.

“I’ll do it!”

“Good. I´ll make something out of you yet.

Rak felt his world turned upside down in the passed five minutes but he was still stunned to see the brilliant smile and the pride in Alley´s eyes. She really felt proud of Rak’s decision and felt she wasn't wasting her time.

2 gold transferred to Alley.

“Two gold.”

Even though Rak was now confident in his decisions he still felt a terrible sting in his heart to see two gold vanish like that. He also knew more were sure to vanish, but Alley’s hearty laughter was the most unsettling to him.

“Alright, we should get started right away.”

“Wait. I still have to tend to my business, I have to go to Cal and Often to sell my beer.”

“Sell your beer?”

“That’s right. I got a brewery here in Alp and I’ve been selling to the nearby villages.”

Unlike Rak, Alley has a far better understanding of Chaos theory, or better to say, the nearby cities. If Rak has been dealing with nearby villages, he must be undercutting other suppliers. Depending on Rak’s competition, they might decided to deal with him directly.

“When did you begin this business of yours?”

“It’s only been a few days, but it's already going really well. I just need to go to Cal and Often and then I’m selling to all nearby villages. I am also going to Whor town and the village Kante for some things.”

Alley looked at Rak with great suspicion. The look caused raked to become curious.

“What?”

“You think this is safe? With your strength?”

“What do you mean? Wait. You don’t think some other brewer is going to come after me?”

The real issue here is that Rak is not a second generation merchant but one of long line of businessmen. He has never felt the real sting of a wealthy and merciless competition, unlike his father and mother. They are also of a line of merchants but they can be said to far more worldly.

“It would be strange if they didn’t. If you are lucky you can hide for a bit but eventually they’ll find your supply chain, your transportation and rob them. That’s assuming they don’t kill you first.”

Rak was a bit speechless. Indeed the more he thought about it the more he realized she was right. And if a casual hunter like Alley could pin him down, couldn’t some wealthy merchant hire someone to kill him or blackmail him? Of course Alley isn’t just any casual hunter but one at the peak of a tier one job, making her strong enough to contend with top people in cities.

“Okay. We’ll do this. I’ll join you and train you while we deal with your business. I’ll only ask for fifty percent of the profits.”

“Fifty percent? Are you insane? I’ll give you five silver how’s that?”

“Oh? You want to die I see. Forget it then. When they come to kill you, there will still be a chance we can make a deal.”

“Ten silver?”

“You’re life is only worth ten silvers?”

“Five percent! That’s final”

Alley let out a great sigh and looked at Rak with great pity.

“Ten percent! Anything else I’ll go to Town hall for protection.”

“Deal.”

Alley the Advanced hunter

Alley will protect Rak and his business for 10% of monthly profits

“What if you can’t protect it? This contract isn’t good enough.”

“Dear me.”

Alley the Advanced hunter

Alley will protect Rak and his business for 10% of monthly profits

If damages to the business exceed 10% Alley will not collect 10% of monthly profits

“What if I die?”

“How is that my concern?”

After back and forth debate Rak finally signed the contract with a sullen face. Alley had slowly convinced him that his life was in no way connected to the business and that if he died it would only serve to toughen him up in the long run.

“You won’t let me die though, right?”

“Probably not.”

It was just as Url predicted. These two talkative people would click like two pieces of a puzzle. While a lot of seemed like arguing it can be said that they still get along really well.

“So how will we do this? Sometime today i’ll get the carriage I commissioned from Town hall and I was planning on heading to Often and then Cal if It isn’t too late.”

“We’ll do that then.”

“We?”

“That’s right. From this day and until you become a novice hunter I’ll stay by your side. Some of the time.”

“Some of the time?”

“Sometimes you have to do things by yourself and I also have things to do on occasion.”

“Whatever. How long will this take then?”

“Just getting you to a novice hunter should be easy, but your timid ways, weak mannered ways may take longer.”

“So how long?”

“I'm thinking two weeks should be sufficient and then I’ll take you to a place with a hunter quest.”

After the ordeal was over Rak is now once again forced to draw the bow repeatedly until his fatigue went below five percent. A this point Rak is as white as a sheet.

“I’m running out of fatigue!”

Rak let out a shout but there was so little power behind it he sounded like a wronged kid.

“This is a part of your training.”

“I will go unconscious for hours if we keep this up.”

“Then you’ll go unconscious.”

At some point Alley had pulled out a chair and was sitting with a drink. She glanced at Rak and then continued waving her finger in the air, as if she was navigating through something. Rak rested for a moment then gritted his teeth and pulled the bow again with shaking arms, they only stopped once he activated |Steady hand|. This time that elusive feeling of surprising nothingness hit him again.

What this current training is doing is increasing Rak’s bast attributes, his fatigue, stamina and especially his clarity. Other general attributes pertaining to constitution are also developing but they cannot be trained with similar efficiency and often require reaching great threshold and complete a transitional point in a job.

From a certain perspective it can seen as preparing the mind to expand the body, rather than preparing the body to expand the mind. It is not unthinkable to prepare the body in order to expand the mind but this processes is long and difficult.

“He finally passed out? He’ll have to endure it a few times before he’s ready.”

Alley finally stands out of her seat, walks to Rak’s unconscious body and carries him to her private house. After settling him in, Alley begins summon one tool after another from her inventory and begins fiddling about. Her intent is to craft various medicine all hunters would welcome.

In addition to being a hunter, Alley, like many other hunters, has taken up a useful job. This job is more in the vein of a brewer like Olric and in Alley’s case is potion making that uses wild herbs, various animal parts and to a degree, magic. Some of this ‘magic’ is Alley’s and the other is the Chaos theory meeting her halfway.

In actuality everything can be considered Chaos theory doing everything, and only a person invoking a command that Chaos theory will then carry out. But to the average person they will feel their mind and body respond with a sense of power when they do, giving the illusion of conjuring magic, a very esoteric feeling.

Rak has now experienced such a feeling through Url’s spear and Alley’s bow, but those were both static abilities and cannot compare to the sensation of casting his own ability. Even his profound state of ‘nothingness’ isn’t comparable as it isn’t casting magic but strengthening what the mind is capable of.

It is easy to think along the lines of, if this is a ‘virtual world’ why can’t people just casting magic casually? And in truth, they can and for the most part will. The grand goal however is stretch the limits of human potential or even more ambitious goal is to add it it, reforge it. Knowing the mind of the Chaos theory General Artificial Intelligence is impossible by any means of the human capabilities.

A lot comes down to what the A.I. wants to accomplish. Its initial directive is to make ‘me’ smarter. Now the A.I. at this point cannot accurately know what ‘me’ entails and it eventually decided the best course of action that cannot be ‘wrong’ by its own parameters of what is wrong, that course of action is to assume that ‘me’ is the entirety of the human race.

Once it established its target, it had to find out what ‘smarter’ means. Smarter is often conflated with the accumulation of knowledge and it is even conflated with social decorum. To make this short, to become ‘smarter’ can mean near any action a human takes, and erring on the side of caution, it had no other recourse but to create a way to better every possible human trait, ignoring all moral distinctions.

Another impossible question when is a person smarter? How smarter? Lacking these parameters the answer can be elusive. As to how Chaos theory answered this question, that’s for it to know and for human to reach out for. Assuming humanity reaches a new pinnacle, that may be answer.

In short, it can be said that Chaos theory was asked to create enough food for everyone so it turned the whole world edible. Overcompensating to assure completion.

“You’re finally awake?”

“Where is this?”

Acting on instinct, Rak brings up his status window, something he’s been doing for almost three weeks now.

Character

Status

Constitution: 90/100%

Fatigue: 80/100%

Hunger: 15/100%

Clarity: 55/100%

Stamina: 99/100%

Abilities

Inventory

“My fatigue.”

His constitution, meaning his general physical being had completely recovered and it is bizarre to say the least, but his fatigue breaching the soft cap of seventy five percent and going into eighty percent is just too mind boggling.

“How?”

“You looking at your status? If you check your logs you’ll see I gave you some supplements, of course my bed played a big part as well.”

“This is amazing. Doesn’t this mean I can stay in Chaos theory forever?”

“You think this is free? Sleeping in my bed is already costing you ten silvers, I’m not sure if three gold will cover all the maintenance fees. You said you needed to go make more deals in Cal and Jurne, right? When are we going? I think we need to get more coin.”

Rak was just barely waking up but hearing Alley’s tone complemented by her calculating eyes, he felt a shiver run down his spine and subconsciously reached for a non-existent wallet. Which is strange as the only wallet he owns is purely for cosmetic purposes.

“Get dressed and let’s go.”

“Dressed?”

It was only now that Rak noticed he was stark naked, not even wearing his underwear. Ignoring any feeling of embarrassment he donned his usual outfit and glared at Alley.

“Why was I naked?”

“I undressed you.”

“Why?”

“I wasn’t about letting you sleep in my bed in your dirty clothes.”

“But naked is fine?”

“That’s right. I already cleaned you.”

Feeling another wave of confusion hit him, Rak inspected himself and indeed he somehow seemed cleaner. Since he entered Chaos theory he had never cleaned himself and didn’t even think it was needed.

He had met some people that stank but somehow thought himself immune, all in all, he didn’t even notice the negative effects it was having, as it is difficult to notice some event not happening. Filth does indeed accumulate just at a much slower rate and cannot be compared to the real world.

“You were filthy and stank. It’s not good to go without washing for so long, alright no need to thank me. We should be productive, this is also a part of remodeling your personality.”

“What kind of pervert is this? Also she couldn’t have been serious about changing my personality, could she? I’m not a five year old.”

Rak is still unclear of what kind of attitude people in Chaos theory carry. While nudity isn’t prohibited it is frowned upon, similarly public sexual activities are not illegal in any way, but they are similarly frowned upon. On top of this, discrete private sexual encounters are not at all vilified and only considered normal or expected, the concept of modesty is far less invasive.

“I should be careful about falling asleep around people, maybe she is a unique case but I got a hunch that other people are just as crazy.”

After making sure everything is in its right place Rak began slowly getting over his feelings of being cleaned and touched while asleep. In truth, Rak has had women around him all his life in form of servants, as a scion of a rich family this was a norm. Being cleaned by a woman is not even unexpected but instead something he has grown used to. Considering all these things it should not be too surprising when he brushed the actions away as a mild annoyance.

“My carriage was ready last night but I was busy training that bow pulling to go.”

Seeing the impatience in Alley’s eyes Rak stood up and followed her outside. Unlike Url, Alley isn’t a beast tamer, though she does have some experience in it, she doesn’t practice it. She does however have a animal riding skills.

“Ley!”

“Ley?”

“Ley is my beast companion.”

Just as Rak was about to continue his questions a furry four legged beast with a snubbed tail rushed out from behind the hunting lodge. In its mouth is a half gnawed bone.

“What is this creature?”

“Get on.”

“This. I’m not so sure about this.”

“What’s there to be unsure about?”

“I’ve never ridden a. What is this?”

“This is Ley. She’s a River Don.”

“You consider that answer?”

“Hurry up and get on.”

Reaching out and grabbing Alley’s hand Rak felt all of his weight vanish and as suddenly as it went it returned. Sitting on the beast Rak could not help but notice the creature glance at him, he isn’t too sure but he thinks he can detect disdain in those large eyes.

“Go.”

The sudden take off nearly made Rak tumble backwards, only staying on by grabbing onto the long furr.

“We can go to see Url first, that little boy can sell you a couple of horses.”

“Little boy? Url has to be two or three times your age.”

It is easy to understand Rak’s confusion, ignoring age, Url looks physically stronger even though he’s shorter than Alley, and yet Alley is leaps and bounds stronger than Url who is only a novice hunter. This has to do with Url’s hobbies more than anything else, it can be said he’s spread too thin. Taming all those beasts and caring from them is a considerable time investment.

In Chaos theory, Rak like many other of people from the real world are more than willing to go with the flow of events. While they can easily reject things, events that happen can be taken in stride. Rak for example has taken his meeting with Alley as a quest of some sort, even though he hasn’t received one from Chaos theory.

Thinking back, Rak has only received two from Chaos theory directly and those were trivial to say the least. Rak of course doesn't differentiate between Chaos theory direct quests and those given by Town hall or other sources, taking them all to be the same. This is because they all give out rewards all the same, experience accumulates and coin is gained.

“We’re here!”

With his head swirling and stomach somewhat unsettled Rak is met with the sight of Url’s house, farm and hunting lodge. All the animals have gathered in one place staring worryingly at the beast Ley.

“We’re already here? How quick!”