Congratulations. You have defeated the player Sandman in PVP combat.

Because you were in a team with him, you do not gain any advancement.

Because he was using a nonstandard version of the Game, He is not eligible for respawn.

Please choose where his advancement energy will be used:

1. It will remain in the dungeon, and be used to upgrade its core to class 3, suitable for rank 15-20 parties. This will increase the speed at which the ambient energies of this world will be balanced with the Galactic standard by .013% per local year and allow a new tutorial dungeon to form. Currently, there are only four entities in this world capable of meaningfully combating this class dungeon.

2. Release the energies to increase the amount of ambient essence in the local atmosphere to 25. This will eventually disperse, increasing the global essence average by 4%.

3. Spawn a class 2 world event. This will create a raid group that is capable of expanding. It will increase the essence locally to compensate, but upon raid completion will only increase global essence by .005%.

“What is ambient essence?” I asked.

Essence is used by entities to temporarily alter local physical laws and is a determiner for both how high rankings are permitted to extend, as well as how much energy is available for affinities.

It is used by creatures to sustain life. Until 100 years ago, the local ambient essence was maintained at 10% for nearly three thousand years by an artificial obstruction created by a local sorcerer.

Currently, the global Essence is at 21.13%. The galactic standard is 100%. Essence growth is the side effect of dispersing Chaos incursions. This can be used to create exceptions to baseline physical laws, upon which the world currently operates, based on affinity.

Well, it was certainly helpful now. “What kind of exceptions?”

What your world considers universal constants. The speed of light, the existence, and use of gravity, and the law of conservation of mass and energy. Metahumans unconsciously use this flexibility, what you refer to as ‘magic’, to create effects, matter, and energy that do not conform to these constants. This allows the universe to continue expanding, and to resist the effects of entropy and Chaos incursions.

Please choose.

I was starting to wish I was a gamer. Was this the thing that Caelo was referring to as dangerous? A sort of system, that could allow anyone to gain the ability to manipulate physical laws?

I could see where she was coming from. If everyone had it, the wrong hands most certainly would. Was there a way to keep it under some sort of control? If so, who would decide what hands were the right hands? Proteus? Me? It was a ‘who watches the watchers’ scenario.

I was not a believer in ‘there are things man was not meant to know’ because if there were, we wouldn’t know them. At the same time, though, I was not the sort to hand a loaded handgun with no safety to a toddler, either. Sure, it would probably even out in the long run, as most things did, but I could not imagine the loss of life, the horror, and the monstrous actions of those who operated on a code of morality that was completely different from the rest of us, would do.

Sure, I worked for fairly reasonable cowls, but I was well aware of how many unreasonable ones there were as well. Hell, even the wrong cape, someone with a chip on their shoulder, could commit horrors if they were suddenly able to gain more power easily and decide where it went. Lauren had clued me in when she said she ‘spent points’ on teleport tracking. What if she were nuttier, and spent those points to create a lightning storm that could wipe out an entire city?

Decisions, decisions. How badly would I upset the world order?

“Can people come in here and get the system if they are too low of a rank?”

No, this location will only be accessible to players capable of challenging it. The system was designed to encourage development, not limit it by immediately murdering all those that attempt to take advantage of it.

“What about the new tutorial dungeon? Where will it be at?”

Currently, this is the only location on Earth with a high enough essence to support a dungeon. Because your species is considered to have limited spacefaring capacity, the nearest alternate location could be either a terminator core in orbit or the satellite of Earth known as Luna. While Luna, itself, does not possess enough ambient essence to support life, a dungeon core could take advantage of nearly its entire capacity.

That, I could live with. No more random invasions. A place for really powerful people to challenge themselves. I just wish there was someone I could talk to about it. I didn’t even have a phone.

“Umm… go ahead and, uhh, graduate this place to class 3, I guess. Can you tell me who the four people are that can use it?”

You, and three others. I cannot tell you who or where they are. Upgrading the location. Because it is no longer a tutorial dungeon, you may choose to either upgrade to an appropriate rank, or you and the Player named Calixte Lovelie Dupree will be ejected.

“Can it wait until after I upgrade? And is upgrading bad? What will happen?”

Upgrading will allow you to use the User interface system, define your class, unlock guided enhancements which will allow you to choose which direction your advancement will move, allow you to observe and monitor your affinities, abilities, and attributes, track your rank, and open options to adventure elsewhere.

I had an idea, but I didn’t know if it would work. “Okay, upgrade me, and this dungeon.”

I wasn’t sure what I expected from the introduction, but as I said, I read a lot of books. I guess I thought I would get some sort of test or something, and I wasn’t far wrong, but it wasn’t some sort of thing where I was put in charge of an army or thrown into a fight or anything like that.

The world went dark again. In front of me, the display flickered again slightly.

Welcome to The Game of War version 3.11

Hi, this is Max, a system admin. Look, sorry about the weirdness here, but your version already had a custom version of the game, that was severely outdated.

Your people already picked up unnamed classes innately, but the older version was supposed to be subtle, and it was updated because it had a shitty AI in charge instead of a sapient synthesis engine, as well as a problem with local life it couldn’t adapt to.

This led to a weird situation. Only about ten percent of your population could advance in the Game. The ones you call Metahumans, and a few others that it could adapt to. Genetically, the rest were incompatible with that version.

Any user can upgrade, but unlike introducing it to a new species, it cannot just be picked up voluntarily.

Once I read through the first screen, it changed again

Anyway, normally an introduction would be to determine your starting class, but you have gained enough advancement since the event that the older version already assigned you three classes based on your own experiences. At rank 1, you were a survivor, at rank 5, you became a soldier, and at rank 10 you joined a class called a mook.

The thing is, up until about a week ago, you didn’t spend any of your advancements. Very few were assigned for you, based on your experiences, but you have a huge load of class options available. So I am going to give you a quick test to narrow those options, and help the system create a custom rare or epic class, but it’s not a whole lot of fun.

Are you interested? Or should I just start showing you the list, which is over 200 options?

“No, I am fine with a test,” I replied. You know. As much as loved the idea of having options, 200 of them, probably contained a lot of classes based on the many, many jobs I had in my long life. I didn’t want to read through stuff like ‘barbed wire disposal expert’ and ‘Line cook’. “What’s a rare or epic class?”

When someone has a lot of unique experiences to draw upon, they open up classes that have a higher rarity. There are basic classes, like laborer, military, student, cleaner, line cook, settler, and survivor. Then there are common classes, like rifleman, sailor, gardener, superhero, supervillain, crook, and politician.

Then there are uncommon classes, such as sniper, ship captain, brick, speedster, mad genius, and the like. Rare classes are definitely rare, Such as Icon, warp breacher, hoard thief, Bulwark, astronaut, and that sort of thing.

But the test… is just a test.

Heh. Whatever the test was, it was very familiar. A steel chair with a brown padded cushion, a wooden card table with a small hula dancer lamp lighting it, a ballpoint pen, and a stapled set of papers. I could move around and sit in the chair, but the rest of the environment was still very dark.

I could still feel the pressure of energy around me, and I could probably absorb some of it if I chose, so I was not particularly worried about being locked in here for the time being. Was that normal? Being able to affect the all-powerful game?

The questions were… sort of like you would get on one of those joke psychological profiles that retail chains try to get you to answer to see if you inclined to rip them off. Except that it wasn’t obvious what the answers were supposed to be like the retail tests were.

Not to mention they were not multiple-choice. I was not a good writer but discovered while I was mouthing my reply that the ballpoint pen was superfluous. When I spoke, the words appeared on the test. I have no idea if I answered the way it wanted me to, but I was a firm believer that a yes/no question deserved a detailed answer.

Did I enjoy stealing? I enjoyed the challenge of getting away with it, and I enjoyed the food it put on the table. I wouldn’t steal from people who couldn’t afford it. I didn’t ‘covet’ as such, stealing for me was just a means to an end.

Some of the questions I refused to answer in a way that the questions asked. There were 3 variations of the ‘trolley problem’, and I refused to pick a binary choice. Life isn’t binary, do this or that. I’d rather fail at saving anyone than admit I couldn’t save everyone. Yeah. Stupid. Even Commander Freedom admitted he couldn’t save everyone, which was why I was glad that wasn’t my job.

Sometimes hard limits are a blessing. I even made that one of the answers to a question about power. Power always has a price. If you don’t want the price, you shouldn’t pursue the power.

One of the questions surprised me a little though.

“Would you be angry with your wife or girlfriend if you discovered she was using abilities to manipulate your emotions?”

I thought about that for a few minutes. “Of course, I would. It shows a lack of subtlety and training. Women have been manipulating men’s emotions forever, it’s one of their greatest strengths, both positive and negative. I should never have discovered it, even though I assumed it was happening.”

Was Naomi manipulating my emotions? Of course, she was. Even with my reservations about commitments to people who would age and die, she could have made me easily believe I was in love with her. Men were simple creatures, and that was both our strength and our weakness. That she hadn’t, was either evidence she wasn’t interested herself, or she had reasons I didn’t know about.

Was Caelo manipulating me? Absolutely, and I had no problems with that. She was sweet and had no problems with playing to my interests. The best emotional manipulation was the kind that felt innocent and genuine, and you would never realize it was manipulation at all. I doubted she was using her powers to do it, but I had no idea of the extent of her abilities… If she was able to get through and fool me into thinking I was resisting them, I could only applaud her skill.

Getting angry about it was pointless, useless, and the best way to wreck a good thing.

I eventually finished the packet, it took me nearly two hours, and I had to wonder what was going on outside, and especially how Caelo was.

“Hey, are you still there?” I said aloud, and the packet disappeared. “How’s Caelo, what’s going on outside?”

Caelo is doing very well. She was willing to allow us to make a few changes since she had to spend enough advancement for a respawn anyway and it was optional, but you have been here for two hours. There are some...people, examining the monitoring equipment and measuring the rift.

Because it is a class three, when the guiding intelligence moved in, they had to assign a physical presence to the rift. Meaning, a door. The guiding intelligence has requested firmly that you not be permitted to explore the now class 3 dungeon until she has, and I quote, “Banged this shit-hole into shape”.

“Is there a way you can make sure that Caelo and I come out of this at the same time?” I asked. I really didn’t want to pop out with her floating in a glowing, immovable bubble until she woke up, and I might be there or I might be on Stronghold… oh wait, dreadlocks said Stronghold got dropped. Whatever they used to replace Stronghold.

If she was awake and alert, I doubted anyone short of my granddaughter herself could force the two of us into doing something we didn’t want.

Of course. Your body is technically still vulnerable because you were not put in a respawn stasis, but vulnerable is a very liberal term when it comes to you. The guiding Intelligence has altered the dungeon’s parameters, as is her right, turning it into a staged dungeon. That means inappropriately-ranked beings will be restricted to ‘floors’ where they can advance, before being permitted more deeply in, rather than entirely restricted.

In deference to your wishes, however, she will not permit entry to those who have not already upgraded to version 3.11. She wishes for the chance to speak with the two of you before you leave. Your test has been analyzed, would you like to hear what classes have been selected as the most appropriate? If you wish to choose one of the others, of course, you may, but that might take a lot more time.

“Yeah, I will talk to her. This whole thing is a bit confusing. So whatcha got?”

Your affinities are Redirection, Imbue, Physical, and Temporal. Basic classes do not require affinities, commons require one, uncommon require two matching affinities, and rares require three. Epic classes require four, but while rare classes only tend to have a few members within a given civilization, Epic classes tend to only have one or two members within a given galaxy, if any. You have two epic classes available, but their rarity does not necessarily mean they are any better suited to your goals.

Righteous Paladin- (rare)

The righteous paladin fights against injustice in all of its forms. Law is no obstacle to doing what is right.

When you absorb incoming attacks, you can maintain your physical bonuses longer, if not indefinitely. You gain an improved ability to protect others and can choose to mitigate the damage they take by assuming it yourself. If you are currently fully resistant to that attack type, your target will be protected as well.

Interestingly, the idea of being able to protect people just as well as myself had merit, even though the idea of being a white knight spending the rest of my existence ‘fighting injustice’ seemed a little far-fetched.

Immortal Calamity- (Epic)

All Universes build entropy and are attacked by chaos over time. Immortal Calamities can absorb the energies from these struggles and unleash them in an incredible wave of destruction.

You can adjust to absorb nearly anything almost instantaneously, and the more incoming energy you absorb, the greater the broad-scale destruction you can unleash. This may sound negative, but unleashing these calamities on Chaos strongholds can be an amazingly effective weapon in preserving the universe. You gain both the tools to create these calamities, as well as the knowledge and ability to be at the right place at the right time (Or the wrong place at the wrong time for your enemies).

Nope, no interest. Even if I got cool powers like flight and teleportation, I could almost tell what sort of hell I would go through. I could already imagine the price this kind of power could extract. I’d fight Chaos, sure, but not like the Unabomber. Besides, I hated hoodies.

Essence Enchanter- (Rare)

There are enchanters, and then there are essence enchanters. You can use the energy you absorb to craft items like a Gadgeteer. Unlike a Gadgeteer, however, you can create items of metatechnology that are permanent, and unconnected to you.

Wealth and power can be yours by putting together items that are of unbelievable value! You can use this for good, or evil, but who else could create an entire legion of magically armed and armored warriors for fighting incursions safely and efficiently?

Yeah, that one had potential, but also… I would have to play boss over how anything I made was used, and that would be an entirely new set of headaches, right up there with Alchemyst’s ‘invite people to upgrade’ medicine. If I created, say, a set of superpowered armor, and someone stole it, they could go on an unbelievable rampage and it would be MY fault.

Earth had plenty of Metahumans already looking for an excuse to fight… I didn’t need to jack the number into the stratosphere by offering toys that could make everyone into one.

Nemesis- (Epic)

Sometimes there’s a power that no one can match. An ability that makes a person or monster or Chaos entity incapable of being stopped by anyone without incredibly grave consequences.

The Nemesis can absorb those abilities if they are close enough, or are capable of coming up with the perfect countermeasure, and the tools and ability to use those countermeasures.

You can choose to clone another person’s abilities with improving mastery or create a counter to those abilities to help stop those who abuse their essence abilities. This is not a perfect defense, but it is close.

** Caution- You can use these abilities against yourself as well. Max note-that means you can kill yourself if you aren’t careful.

Wow. That… was kind of right up my alley. I skimmed through a bunch of others, some of them nearly as helpful as the Righteous Paladin without the baggage, but I kept coming back to Nemesis. I mean, I had worked for a lot of cowls in my life, and it was still sort of my preferred thing. But some of those cowls… would have been a lot better off in the ground.

Even some of the heroes out there deserved to be in the ground, too. Someone that throws a cowl through an occupied orphanage, for example. Or uses cars, with people in them, as missile weapons.

I guess I still had time, so I said, “I think I will pick Nemesis. I am not ready to spend my life saving the world, but if I can occasionally help out against greater threats while still doing what I love, I figure that works.

Done. It will take some time to work things out, about five hours, and I will engage subjective compression so you wake up a few minutes before Caelo does and can get a look at your interface. That work?

“Sounds like it. Besides, if I am going to get into an argument with Alchemyst about his upgrade potion, I’d better know what I am talking about, right?”

When you wake up, and in the future, you can choose to engage the interface by thinking the words “Character sheet” or stating them aloud.

I woke up.