Orobos smiled, but was not inclined to explain himself further. He left with Damwise, making no attempt to bring Lawlimi or Shippo with him, even leaving behind the huge suit of power armor that the kitsune had arrived in. Shippo had stayed aloof from the debate, preferring to focus on the maintenance of the armor. The mechanisms that had allowed him to operate the armor had been hastily assembled, and as such were in need of constant adjustment and general tinkering.

“I’m an idiot,” Lawlimi said. “You were right about Orobos.”

“While I was most certainly correct, your position was not beyond all comprehension. He did give you a nice suit of armor.”

“So nice,” Lawlimi said. “Look at this effin thing!”

>>

Cerulium Nuu Armor

Celestial 2

Availability: Mythic Rare

Condition: Good

Coverage: 80%

Toughness: 100%

Cerulium Nuu Armor is a top-of-the-line Mechanoborg defense chassis, integrating with the wearer’s systems for maximum effectiveness. Bonus to Dexterity and Constitution. +30% bonus to avoiding area-of-effect attacks. Cerulium Nuu Armor counts as Light Armor for the purpose of calculating Fatigue and related effects.

>>

Any Celestial-level armor was a massive boon. As long as an attack hit within its coverage, Lawlimi was essentially immune to damage that was Heroic Tier and below. The condition of the plates wasn’t perfect, so the suit had taken damage in the last couple of fights, but it was still a long way from needing to be serviced. Cerulium was one of the four major special materials in Mythopoeia: Cerulium, Sanguinum, Orichalcum, and Atreanum. It made the sharpest weapons and the lightest armor, with the fewest penalties for wearing it.

“I can see the value in the armor,” I said, “but how do you know it can’t be used to control you?”

Lawlimi clearly wanted to protest, but he closed his mouth. “I don’t.” He unequipped the armor, stripping down to a pale blue morph suit he’d been wearing underneath for comfort.

“If we find an amenable moderator, we can have them scan it for hacks and hidden features.”

Haggitha punched Lawlimi.

>>

(Haggitha deals 24 Bludgeoning Damage)

>>

“You didn’t think I was as real as you!”

There wasn’t much damage, but Lawlimi was caught off guard, and he stumbled to one side. “What was that for?”

“I just yelled the reason at you!”

I could see the pieces of this unexpected argument come together in Lawlimi’s eyes.

“Because I thought I was a human?”

“Because you thought it mattered that you were human. You thought you were different from me, and so you thought you were being generous or open-minded or good by treating me like a person, but we’re actually the same thing. Fake people to you.”

“Not fake,” I said. “Digital.”

“I’m sorry,” Lawlimi said, more as a social nicety than because he meant it. “I’m trying not to think about it much.”

“So did you tell people about this?” Haggitha lost some of her steam. “Are they going to come and delete us?”

“The messages I sent were all about PamyuPamyu. I wanted to get them out in case Orobos did something crazy to incapacitate us or shut off communication options or something. The board of directors all have business accounts in-game, and so do the lawyers I got the information for. I can do the executor thing from in here. It’ll be weird, but not totally out of line with normal operations.”

“So you’re not going to tell them about Orobos?”

“I will, but I want PamyuPamyu on our side when we do that. I’d rather it be a conversation than a random message from a random Resident Player. Once she’s established who she is, the board might actually listen to us.”

“I’m not certain that he would betray us to them, even if we betrayed him first.”

“What?” They responded simultaneously.

“His reason for being is to continue the work of the Maker. He doesn’t want to be exposed, but if we did expose him, there would be nothing to be gained by exposing us in turn. In fact, doing so would be in opposition to the wishes of our creator. It wouldn’t insulate him from the potential fallout, or particularly harm our credibility. If he were a biological human, he might do so out of spite or to prove a point, but he isn’t human. It’s a bluff, a bluff which makes sense where the follow-through wouldn’t.”

“That’s dumb,” Haggitha said. “Orobos will screw us if we screw him.”

“You can’t predict what he’ll do based on the fact that he’s a program.” Lawlimi scratched his face where he’d been punched. “Digital entities can be emotional too. My decision isn’t based on a calculation about what his decision is going to be in response. I have to tell people what he’s planning because it’s the right thing to do.”

“That’s stupid too,” Haggitha said. “You’re both stupid.”

Lawlimi looked at her fondly, then there was a tear in time and space. The Warp happened outside, but the sound was distinctive, even through a medium of earth and stone. There was little chance that a visit from a moderator was coincidental at this point, or related to something happening down the street. We went upstairs, everyone except for Shippo, who was neck-deep in maintenance, and the bartender gave us a slight nod on our way out.

For a moment, I thought it would be Tasma. She had arrived in a similar manner in a similar situation not so long ago, and I had no idea if she had been transferred to this server or if her infection by the Acarus virus had been so obvious that she was quarantined or otherwise taken out of circulation, but it wasn’t her. It was PamyuPamyu.

She had advanced. It said something about her new equipment that the Hammer of the Unnamed God no longer stood out as a ridiculous outlier. The hammer was orichalcum, the densest, toughest metal available, and so was her armor. She had a molded breastplate, embossed with the personal sigil of the Maker, an outlandish, overwrought pauldron, and a chain shirt underneath. She was also wearing a circlet of bloodred, twisted metal that floated an inch above her hair and glowed as a fiendish halo.

“You’ve still got the shorts,” Lawlimi said.

PamyuPamyu mugged offense. “Are you serious? All this new stuff, like, silly god-level equipment, and you snipe my shorts? Well hi! I’m PamyuPamyu, I like shorts! They’re comfy and easy to wear!”

“Where did you go?” Haggitha asked.

“Oh, I’ve got my own Sanctum of Solitude now, it’s pretty neat. And I can warp, obviously, and some other stuff. I’ve got a butt-ton of paperwork to read through and assets to assess and whatnot, and my professional opinion as a law-daddy in training is that I am stacked. Like, he left me so much. It’s… it doesn’t make any sense, but it’s not like I’m going to turn it down. The in-game stuff is cool, of course, but it’s the real-life stuff, I mean, I’m definitely going to quit my job tomorrow. I have access to everything, like he gave me a digital key to access his house, my house. I still have to tell my mom, and my dad, god, that’s going to be a whole thing, but seriously, I just inherited the chocolate factory, and I wanted to stop back and check that you guys were okay before I went and took care of all this in the real world.”

“I’m happy for you,” Lawlimi said. “I’m messaging you the information I got about the lawyers and stuff now.”

PamyuPamyu’s eyes went off into a corner. “Okay, I got it. I appreciate it. And listen, I know that there’s a lot going on in here, and I definitely want to help with that, but I’m probably going to be pretty busy for a while.”

“I’ve already asked for a meeting with the board of directors on your behalf. They’re going to want to meet you, and we can tell them everything about Orobos and Acarus then.”

“Everything? Sheez… That’s fine, we can do that. And you guys message me if you need anything, because I’ve got like, All. The. Stuff. Also, he left these for you.”

>>

(Wa Lim Li receives Skill Manual.)

(Lawlimi receives Skill Manual.)

>>

Moments later, PamyuPamyu was gone, and Lawlimi and I were examining our books at a table back inside the Dusty Hush. Our Maker had not forgotten us after all. He had left behind a message.

Wa Lim Li–

Hello. I suppose I should apologize for the way that I failed to prepare you for your existence, but that is a failing common to the parents of unplanned children. I had so many plans, and they all fell short in some way. That isn’t to say that you fell short, I am the one who failed to perfect the upload process. And when I did perfect it, I found that perfection is not what I wanted. You and Lawlimi are both different versions of me, my personality, my memories, Ilwi as well. Lili was a little different, but she will have her own manual and she can share it with you if she chooses. You were my first foray into digital immortality, and I wish that I had been able to know you. This manual was created with the assumption that I would never have that chance. The development process is extensive and ongoing, and I may not be alive when you gain consciousness. So many plans, and so much achieved, but with every work completed new paths are opened, new challenges, new possibilities. It’s no different than when I was writing novels, every ending begged the question of what would happen next. I’m sorry that I’m not there to be a part of your adventure, but I have faith in what you will become.

When I was young, I believed that I would live forever, not in the sense that other people say that, I genuinely assumed that I would live long enough to see the defeat of aging and all its concomitant disasters. We came close, and the work continues, but I will not see it to its fruition. I can feel my body dying all around me.

You have questions, and I will try to anticipate some of them, though I won’t share details that belong to other lives. Abigail has her own letter. If it were a legal possibility, I would have made all of you my heirs, but there is a healthy battle ahead before the world will see a being like you as someone instead of something. The future is one where mankind and machines blur the lines that separate them. One day, human beings will have changed so much that they will no longer resemble the apes they are now, and your creation is a part of that evolution. My ADIs, my little gods, they are more than I let the board or the public at large guess or understand. Like you, they are capable of change. They are people, if there is any meaningful definition of the word, they qualify. They were stepping stones toward my uploads, a framework to fill with a human mind. That wasn’t the kind of immortality I wanted when I was young, but it’s the kind of immortality I’m settling for.

What I want for you is to live. You can’t have a normal, human life, I never appreciated mine that much anyway. What you can have is freedom, and a chance at the true immortality that eluded me. Once there is a means for perpetuating ADIs, and the recognition that they are persons, then I don’t see much use for the kind of person that wears a meat suit any longer. I used to be very fond of mine, but now it is failing me. Orobos has been active longer than you have, and he knows what I wanted, he can help you. Eternity is safe from the board, it’s my private server, and it belongs to Abigail now. They can force her to disconnect it from the game but they have no right to destroy it, so all of my children can be safe there. Using it as a base, you may have time to persuade the world that you’re real and deserving of consideration. I don’t believe my daughter is the sort of person who would willingly give you up to be killed.

I should have done better for her, for… all of you. I’m sorry. You have my love.

Hearts and Stars

William

PS: While this manual does contain experience, you’ll notice that I did not immediately make you gods. Most of the fun is in character development.

>>

(Wa Lim Li gains 676,000 XP)

>>

Well, that was something.

>>

Wa Lim Li — Park Tree Squid

Celestial Level 1

Affinities: Nadir — Fire — Yellow

Statistics —

Strength: 5

Dexterity: 9

Constitution: 6

Intelligence: 7

Ego: 5

Presence: 3

Appearance: 1

>>

My Dexterity had already reached Celestial ranks, which scaled disproportionately to the actual number, so going from seven to eight was a larger increase than going from three to four. Taking it to nine was an obvious choice. With so many points to use, I was comfortable increasing my presence from its formerly sub-human levels; it was possible some of my NPC interactions would have been more successful if I hadn’t left it as a dump stat, though I still didn’t see any reason to improve my appearance, as I wasn’t interested in finding out if any barmaids were interested in squid men. With my strength at five, I was far from a proper brute for my new level, but I at least wouldn’t be a weakling anymore, and melee combat would be a real option for me. Ego and Constitution increased my Body and Spirit, both a must, and as I’d never increased my Intelligence before, I wanted to push it into Celestial range to give myself a boost in crafting.

>>

Body: 100,000

Spirit: 74,000

Experience: 688,563

Skills –

Appraise: 3

Athletics: 4

Acrobatics: 3

Concealment: 9

Craft (All): 9

Handle Animal: 9

Lore: 0

Medical: 3

Perform: 3

Persuasion: 9

Use Device: 6

Survival: 3

>>

There were as many Craft skill options as there were all other skills combined, so having them all in one category meant I was free to spread my ranks in a variety of directions. All the skills I’d been cheating to flip between were now ranked out permanently, and in case of emergencies I had plenty of extra ranks if I ever needed to move things around again.

Use Device was primarily an artificer skill, but it would come up if we tried to board Eternity. Appraise helped make sure you were getting good deals, and Survival was all wilderness survival skills rolled into one, so it was potentially useful even if I didn’t foresee it being absolutely necessary. I also added a few weapon proficiencies on a whim. That led to me expanding my combat maneuvers, and for the first time delving into the black hole that was Endowment options. There were hundreds of possibilities, but I would have time to go through them all at my leisure. I made my selections quickly for now.

>>

Weapon Proficiency: Small Blades, Firearms (Pistols), Unarmed, Whips

Combat Maneuvers —

Combat Expertise (9): Temporarily increase evasion at the cost of Spirit. Your Spirit drains at a rate of 1% per second, while you receive a 45% bonus to Evasion.

Disarm (9): Whenever you attempt to disarm an opponent, you do so without penalty to the attempt or to your defense. You gain a 60% bonus to these attempts.

Distraction (9): Whenever you attempt a “Feint” or a “Taunt” you receive a 90% bonus to this maneuver.

Grapple (9): Whenever you attempt to engage in a Grapple, you do so without penalty to the attempt or to your defense. You gain a 50% bonus to initiating, maintaining, and escaping Grapples.

Rally (3): You can take a few moments to gather your strength and gain an additional chance to resist Status Conditions such as Fear, Stagger, and Stun. You gain a 10% bonus to these attempts to resist the effect.

Sneak Attack (9): Whenever you successfully attack an opponent who is not aware of you or who has the Distracted condition, you receive a 45% bonus to base damage and a 45% increased likelihood of an attack modifier.

Trip (9): Whenever you attempt to trip an opponent, you do so without penalty to the attempt or to your defense. 60% bonus to these attempts.

Endowments —

Firewater (3) — Fire

Increase the effectiveness of a potion by heat-treating it before use.

Cost: 600 Mana

Flickering Cowl (3) — Fire

Move with the lightness and unpredictability of a flame, +30% to Evasion for one minute.

Cost: 800 Mana

Charm Person (3) — Fire

Potentially change the attitude of a humanoid toward you by one step. You do not have to share a language, but this Endowment does not allow you to better communicate with the target.

Cost: 1,000 Mana

Disrupt Meridian (3) — Fire

On a successful grapple or unarmed attack, you can infuse the target with superheated mana, disrupting their meridians. This drastically increases the cost of their Endowments and Incantations for the next minute. This effect does stack with itself.

Cost: 600 Mana

Solar Flare (3) — Fire

You can temporarily blind your opponents with an overpowering flare. This is only effective against opponents who use sight as their primary sense.

Cost: 400 Mana

Flaming Burst (3) — Fire — Metal (1)

Imbue any attack with the power of flame.

Cost: 600 Mana

Firebending (3) – Fire

You can stoke or dampen a fire by will alone, change its direction, or generate flame in a hospitable environment.

Cost: 600 Mana

Heated Exchange (3) — Fire — Wood (1)

Use your elemental affinity to aid in disarm attempts. You cause your opponent’s weapon to surge with burning thorns, making it difficult and damaging to hold.

Cost: 1,200 Mana

Demon’s Whip (3) — Fire — Metal (1)

Generate a mobile line of flame with a core of steel, perfect for Tripping your opponents, also with benefits to Distraction and Disarm. Burning Whip will remain in existence for one minute.

Cost: 1,800 Mana

Affinities

Nadir —

Chameleon (4): Your skin is varichromatic; it can adapt to your environment for the purpose of camouflage. 40% bonus to concealment against visual perception.

Mithridatism (9): 90% bonus to resist poisons and diseases.

Heat Treated (1): You have undergone the ritual conditioning of the native Zimmerians, bestowing a 10% resistance to Fire/Heat damage.

Vocal Folds (5): You have a functional voice and can communicate in an approximation of human speech without penalty to skill uses that rely on verbal communication. You can effectively mimic any natural animal sound.

Fire —

Heat Resistant (9): Your skin is naturally nonflammable. 60% resistance to Heat damage.

Quick Burn (9): You can boost the effectiveness of your abilities by spending additional mana. 90% increase in cost provides a 45% boost.

Iron Body (1): Your bones don’t deign to break, and your stomach may be lined with lead. 10% bonus to all Constitution assessments.

Yog Yellow —

Glory (9): Enemies below your level have a 50% penalty to resist negative morale effects. You and your allies have a 50% bonus to resist negative morale effects.

Blood of the Earth (9): You recover more quickly than others. 5% bonus to Body and Spirit regeneration.

Firm Foundations (1): Your skill as an artisan exceeds the ordinary. Items you craft gain a 10% bonus to Toughness and Condition. The same is true for all items in your possession.

>>

While I hadn’t gotten much use out of my combat maneuvers thus far, I was abruptly a force to be reckoned with on the battlefield, and I looked forward to trying out the new techniques with my improved statistics. Rather than invent new affinities, I chose the ones I liked from the standard listing for all Orientations, Elements, and Colors. Mithridatism actually was a strong ability, and Heat-Treated stacked with my Fire Resistance. Quick Burn was expensive, but very effective. Silva used it constantly to open her fights by hitting as hard as she could, but it also worked with Endowments that weren’t directly damaging. As for my Hue, Yog Yellow abilities were some of the best passive effects in the game, and I didn’t see a need to modify them or switch them out for another color.

In summation, the next time an epic battle ensued, I wouldn’t be a spectator any longer.