Corn was getting desperate. So the first thing he did after the funeral was to borrow a couple of tubes of Whiff. With the right dosage, he could sleep for two hours a day and still feel completely energised the rest of the day. After that he borrowed credits. A bit from Line and a bit more from Pock who took from the community coffers.

Next he went to the nearest Screen booth. After scanning his bracelet, the menu popped up.

Profile

Quests

Communications

Search

Credit

He selected Credit.

Account Balance: 200 credits

View Transaction history?

He ignored the transaction history and selected search.

Input search enquiry.

Using the keyboard he typed, ‘How to solve the test for the Stat of Magic?’

To view the results of this search you need 2,000,000 credits. You do not have sufficient credit.

His jaw dropped open: the amount was insane. “Then how do you solve the cube?” he asked aloud.

To view the results of this search you need 75,000 credits. You do not have sufficient credit.

‘Oh great! The Screen booth has voice recognition but can’t display a single useful result,’ he thought. He spoke aloud, “View the latest Player games.”

The results of this search are free. View now?

Row after row of advertisements popped up.

[Ad] Conquer the Stars. Play free now! [Ad] Player for a Day. Be worshipped by your followers. Slay Monsters. Go shopping and…. [Ad] Guild Head. Start as a one man guild, hire Players and rise to ….

‘As expected,’ he thought. He spend ten minutes trying various combinations, but in vain. Without credits, the System was completely useless. He logged out and left the Screen booth.

As usual, he collected the cube from the Priestess and sat down in the hall to solve it. But this time he brought something with him. He pulled a mini-screen from his pocket. Unlike the invisible Screens connected to Players or the visible Screens he had to scan in guilds; this one was the size of his palm.

He didn’t have to scan his bracelet and at a measly 200 credits it didn’t have any special storage or any other magical abilities. Of course he could connect it to his ID but the most he’d get is playing those games for free. Why bother?

He switched on the camera. Placing it on his lap, he held up the cube and began solving it. Step by step. Each time he finished a step he’d turn the cube showing the camera the pattern. He tried multiple methods, only stopping in between to take a Whiff. When the allotted time was over he handed the cube back and went to the dwarf community. Connecting his Screen to the charger, he replayed his video and sat in his tiny room watching himself solve the cube. He tried to picture the cube in this mind and solve it.

It took him a week and a half and three tubes of Whiff to figure it out. When the Stat Priestess handed the cube to him, he stood still and waited. She arched her eyebrows. He first solved the red side. Then flipped the cube and solved the blue side. Ensuring the opposite ends were maintained, he solved the layers in between.

He plopped the cube on the desk. Complete.

She picked it up. “Wow!” she said, looking genuinely impressed. “That’s the first time I’ve seen someone solve it. Normally, people just buy their way out.”

She stood up and tapped on her Screen. She walked over to him and placed one hand on his chest and the other on his forehead. After a few seconds she walked back.

“That’s it?” he asked. He felt no difference whatsoever.

“Yeah, there’s a screen booth in that corner, just check it out.”

Corn scanned his bracelet. Immediately a message popped up.

You have received your first Stat: Magic! You have 0 Latent Ability in Magic. Magic: 0. Hurray!

His face froze. How could he practice and use a Stat if it remained at zero? He checked his profile.

Name

CornWall

ID

#################

Species

Human

Age

18

Races

Not Assigned

Lives

3: Middle aged

Ranking

2: Indentured Servant

Unknown

Not Assigned

City

Approval Pending….

Level

0

Stats

Magic : 0

He turned to her. She shrugged her shoulders, “I warned you in the beginning. Magic is support type Stat. You shouldn’t have chosen it. There’s a reason most people avoid it to the point of sheer ignorance.”

For a second he hesitated, but asked anyway, “And you know no way of increasing it?”

She approached him. “I’m sorry, there’s nothing,” she said. At the same time she held a piece of paper next to her chest in angle that only Corn could read. ‘Fountain Plaza, Blackwood Avenue. 8 pm.’

“I understand,” he said.

Fountain Plaza was huge. It was land mired in a convoluted stream of canals and connected to surrounding land by glass bridges. Water gushed forth from numerous fountains and flowed through the canals as pretty lights dazzled onlookers. Manacled mermaids swimming through the canals entertained the crowd with kisses and acrobatic dances. The sea of people thronged through the Plaza endlessly.

Corn sat alone on a glass bench.

He had spent the evening probing Line and any friendly dwarf from the community. In all of the stories they told him a Stat was like a muscle: use it and it will grow naturally. The more vigorously you use it the faster it would grow. But none of them mentioned having a zero for a Stat. He sighed and rubbed his neck.

“Don’t turn around.”

“How did you find-”

“And don’t speak. The Eyes are everywhere. I’m sorry for making you wait, but I had to be sure. The best camouflage is in public, anyway. Look I’m sorry about your Stat. You’re the only person, I’ve seen in my entire career, who genuinely worked hard on that test. And I feel bad for you. Go to the UP12 junkyard. There’s a hidden quest there.”

“And?” Corn asked but he heard nothing back.

Waiting for a minute, he looked around discreetly and left.

Calling the place a junkyard would have been wrong. It was a small warehouse and was surprisingly well-lit. Inside were huge white washed steel shelves stacked with all junk imaginable. Corn was immediately stopped by an old giant. He was short for a giant, only 10 feet tall, and stood by a cart offloading junk on the shelves.

“I’m here for the hidden quest,” announced Corn.

"I'm sorry I don't understand,” murmured the giant.

“Are you giving out the quest?”

“I don’t speak that language.”

“Can you speak Standard? Standard. The language everyone else speaks.” Corn repeated the word Standard a few times.

“Staaandarrrd?” asked the giant. Corn’s eyes lit up.

“Look I’m not one of those pigs. I might be stuck with this job but I’ll have you know that I come from a noble line of miners who…” and the giant went on in.

“Can I look around?” interjected Corn, miming his actions. The giant smiled and tapped his bracelet. Corn stared blankly at him. The giant tapped it again and held out five fingers.

“You want credits?” he asked. The giant nodded.

After the payment, Corn wandered the aisles looking for the quest. It certainly had nothing to do with the giant. The shelves were filled with scrapped steel, curios no one would buy and other mundane junk. One entire aisle was filled with junk wrapped in brown paper. There were wrapped sculptures, a wrapped cube, wrapped rods, wrapped animals. Hold on, wrapped cube? He walked back the aisle.

He picked the package up. It was tied up with string and sealed with green wax. He picked open the seal and tore the string. On top, under the seal and in faint cursive writing, was written ‘To the Blessed StormEater’. He tore the paper and threw it to the side.

“Yes!” he shouted. The cube was exactly the same as the magic test. Only this time it was messed up. So with practiced ease he twisted and turned the sides.

Twenty minutes later, he slid the last face into position. Corn blacked out.

He felt a burning sensation travel from up the cube, through his arm and into his head. He felt a dull throb, as though a new sensory organ had opened up. Then the sensation vanished.

He looked at his hand to see ash slip though his fingers. The cube was destroyed. For a few seconds he stood there, uncertain. Then he broke into a smile. That was Magic!

Spreading his feet apart, he held out his hands and shouted, “Blazing Inferno!” Nothing happened. “Thunderbolts of the Heavens!” he shouted, even louder this time. Nada.

He tried shouting all the special moves he could remember from Player fights. But not even a cricket chirped. At this point, he was beginning to feel like an idiot. If that’s not how magic works, why the hell have Players been screaming out all these embarrassing names?

‘Better to take advice from someone who actually had a Stat,’ he thought. Corn headed out of the workshop, glimpsing at the giant who was smiling coyly at him.

The receptionist was different this time, so Corn managed to slip in, grab a few squirming snacks and head to the dorms without difficulty. Much to his surprise, the entirety of the old gang were not only present in the dorms, they also stood conversing together.

When he joined them, the old man (still a spectre) approached him and shook his hands. “Thanks for seeing me off Corn, I appreciate it,” he said with a bony smile. Even though all his skin and flesh was mostly intact, the old man was looking thinner than ever.

Corn felt suspicious at his tone. ‘Was this another funeral?’ he thought. He squeezed his way to find Line standing in a corner with a morose expression. He saw Corn, pretended not to see him and turned to the crowd, “That’s it guys, we have to be going now.”

They all murmured in response, the old man bowed. Both Line and the old man left the crowd and exited the dorms. Corn ran behind them all the way to the bus stop. “Hey, stop ignoring me,” he cried out.

The old man turned to Line and gave him a stop-being-such-a-child look. Line turned to Corn and mumbled, “Come with us.”

So Corn followed them. Initially he was curious but after a number of scorching glances from Corn he kept his lips shut. They alighted at a huge glass building, shaped like a balloon. The three of them entered the building into a hall lined with a large number of booths. The booths were manned by three or more people, but there was a giant sized glass cylinder in front of each booth.

“Welcome,” sang their attendant.

Line nodded and the old man walked into one of the glass cylinders. Corn stood still, perplexed as usual, wondering if this was a funeral of some sort. Two other attendants in grey uniforms circled the old man. The one behind the desk waved at his screen, sorting and inspecting something.

This went on for about two minutes before Line interjected, “How does it look?”

“To be honest, not very good. The chances of a good sale is minimal.”

“There will be buyers, right?”

“Of course, there will always be buyers. But at that point there might be no use coming to us. To be honest, he has a lot of experience as a slave and no Stats whatsoever which makes him a safe product. But he is down to his last life. Maximum he has about ten years left of a very low quality. That’s kind of a dead investment.

Ok, I have input his information. The auction starts in twenty, you can see the results on the board to your right.”

Line looked to the old man and addressed him, “GoodBone.” Tears were streaming out of Line’s eyes.

“Young master,” replied the old man with a serene smile. “It’s been a long time. I’ve kept my promise to your parents. So don’t waste your time on revenge. Now that you are back, I suggest you live life. It’s what they would have wanted you to do after all. Good bye.”

“Good bye,” whispered Line, turning his eyes to the ground. Line walked away.

The old man turned to Corn, still smiling, and nodded. Corn nodded back, grossed out by everyone’s sudden sentimentality, and hurried back to Line.

Line was standing in front of a huge blue board titled ‘Slave Auction’. A profile appeared showing a 3D scan of an elf, listing out strengths and drawbacks. Then the board pinged with a green color and a guild name appeared after which the next profile appeared.

Watching all this, it finally clicked. “You’re selling him,” said Corn aghast. Fury rose up in him, gnawing away all reason. “How. Dare. You.”

“How dare I? What in Abyss do you know? You think I want to. I have no choice, he failed his ascension. That’s what happens when you fail, you go straight back to your previous rank. The old man will be grabbed up by some sick necromancer and tortured on. Selling him is saving his life. So shut your fucking mouth about things you don’t fucking know!”

Corn kept quiet. But he couldn’t change his impression of Line. Slave master. Seller of friends. What Line sell him also? But he needed Line right now, so he repressed those thoughts.

The screen changed colour again. The old man’s profile appeared. It rotated on the screen for some time. Line held his breath. The screen pinged. Line whipped his mini-screen. He punched in something and seconds later sighed loudly, “It’s not necromancers.”

“It could have been?”

“There’s always a chance considering that he’s a spectre. But this company specialises in domestic slaves, it’s as safe as it can be.”

Corn looked back to the booth. The old man was gone. He looked around to see people staring at them curiously.

Instead Corn told him why he came.

“Demonic fucking Dragons!”

“Can you show me your Status?” asked Line, pulling his hair. Going to a Screen booth, Corn showed him his quest page.

Quests : Pending

Citizen of Iridicrodium Part 1 of 2

All citizens of our great city do their part to make it great. Earn 20 pts in any Stat to prove that you are worthy.

Time Remaining : 1 month 23 days 3 hours 42 minutes

Stats : 3/20

Ranker

To ascend to a higher ranking you are required to pay of your debt to the city.

Debt Payable : 100,050,000 credits

Debt Paid this month : - 1000 credits

(Failure to pay off monthly debt will accrue monthly interest)

Quests: Completed

Citizen of Iridicrodium Part 2 of 2

All citizens of our great city do their part to make it great.

Forge a Fish Badge to prove that you are worthy.