Creation: Book 3: Strandbinder Complete!

Cagna:

Cagna dry-washed her pink paws as she looked at Walker, unknowingly rubbing each palm against the other. He was an imposing man, not to mention Creator, and regardless of the hug he and Rimi gave her earlier in the day, she couldn't help but feel a little nervous around him. In watching him sit at his creation instrument and write in his journal, she thought he seemed angry again. As she watched, he closed his eyes and breathed for a few moments, before going back to his writing.

"I think he's getting better." Rimi said as he came over. The normally excitable blue squirrel was wearing a serious face as he looked at his Creator. "When I first arrived, he was very gentle and kind. I think..." He paused. "I think he has had a traumatic life, and for some reason, always kept all of his emotions within. Anger, stress, sadness. Then, when things start to come apart, or his big plans and excitement get interrupted, he explodes."

Cagna swallowed past the lump in her throat, "I hope he doesn't explode on me." She said in a whisper.

"Noooo Cagna!" Rimi said with a smile, trying to alleviate her anxiety. "The only people I've seen him get angry at are the Primigenials, and let's be honest, a little bit of booty kicking may just be what those bastards need."

Cagna gasped.

"He can't hear me." Rimi said with a wink and conspiratorial smile.

She couldn't help but smile back. "When do you think he'll be done?"

"Mmm" Rimi hummed, "He's been at it for a bunch of hours already. I think he'll finish up in not too long."

"Good, because I want to work on the Milestone System."

"Yeah!" Rimi said with a hopped punch to the air. " I love working with the Monster system. Nothing better out there, I just feel bad for you since you don't get to play with it."

Cagna thought nothing could be better than the Milestone system, so she was curious. "What's great about it?"

"Are you kidding? I get to monitor and update our breakdowns on what monsters are doing, where they're going, and how they're living their lives. Like, right now, just before we went under the temporal bubble, a Guardian named Barry was trying to work on increasing his speed. I can see his ability update from time to time. He's been zipping around the trees in The Crater left and right, trying to push magic into his feet for an extra boost. His training is really great to watch happen." Rimi smiled as he looked toward Symphony, ever so slowly spinning as it circled the bright star relatively nearby. "Each time they get a little closer to an ability upgrade, it notifies my system and I can monitor what changes are happening. It's amazing."

"You can see all of that?" Cagna asked with wide eyes.

"Yep, it's all updating into the Monster System. I'm tracking everything happening down there. I'll be honest, I watch Chipper more than I should, but that's because he's simply the best." Rimi said with more than a hint of pride in his voice as he stood up to his full, yet also diminutive, size. "I helped design the Guardian genus."

"Wow! You did! That's so cool!"

"Yep, I'm just waiting so I can ask Walker for a little more control over the Monster system. He's going to be working on other things soon, and I'd like to make sure everything keeps moving forward as it should."

Cagna nodded at the wisdom in his words before she noticed Walker getting up and stretching. His long legs bounded over to her at a quick clip. She'd been a bit nervous to really look at him after he yelled at the primigenials. It was a scary moment in her short life, but she trusted Rimi and how he was trying to mend her emotional connection to her Creator. Cagna spent some time looking at her Creator. She hadn't done so before because so little time had passed from her arriving to him running off to write.

Walker was very tall as she understood it. Of course, her information was based upon what Virgil and Rimi had talked about regarding the Homo Sapien infants, but to her very short stature he was close to a giant. He stood a little over six feet tall and was wearing a cream-colored shirt, a black belt with a rectangular buckle hooked through it, and purple pants. His shoes, which seemed like they were once quite glossy from the sporadic shine still apparent, had dozens of scuff marks all over the place. He was broad at the shoulders with large hands, and had a small but pronounced stomach slightly extending into his shirt. Walker's hair was a deep brown color that was combed over the side in a wave, not quite covering his forest green eyes that always seemed to hold a great amount of intensity. The lightly brown-skinned man had a slightly too-large nose and a hint of wrinkles to his face, suggesting he was both always smiling and frowning simultaneously. He made a quick hop step to get over to them faster and spread his arms wide.

"Hey guys!" He said in a deep voice, articulating ever letter with precision. "What'd I miss?"

Rimi reported back dutifully with a salute that Cagna tried, and failed, to imitate with the same crispness, "Dionysus and Minos have been talking at the tree the whole time. Virgil, aside from speaking to Echidna for a moment, has mostly been working with his entities. I talked to him a minute ago and he said that the seal is almost done and the goat will be done soon as well."

"A goat? Interesting." Walker said as he scratched his chin.

Rimi nodded beside her, "Yep! I looked in and it seemed super scary. Like a demon goat. Bigggg muscles." He said, stretching out the word. "The humans will take longer. Something about the graft being complicated, but Virgil will figure it out, he's really smart."

"What about the other primigenials?"

Cagna spoke up this time as she was trying to emulate Rimi as much as he could. She admired the blue subsystem assistant for his constant self-control, "Zeus and Athena have been talking a lot, but they haven't done anything else."

Walker smiled at her, which forced her to fidget a little at seeing his large teeth, "And what about you two?" he asked.

"I...um...I've just been thinking about the Milestone system."

He nodded, still holding his smile, "And? What'd you come up with? I'm dying to know."

Cagna swallowed at hearing the word dying, but dutifully reported to him, "I think I have an idea for how to standardize the milestones so that new ones added are...are not so hard to figure out. That way we can build them more quickly and they'll make more sense to Symphony's citizens."

"Hrmm." He said, tapping his chin with one long tan finger. "What's the idea? I have my own, but I want to hear what you have first so I don't influence it."

"I....I think we should make a listing of different types of achievements and connect them to the other systems." She said in a rush, trying to get her idea out as fast as she could. "I think making the milestones into different types of series, and having them upgrade as each milestone reaches the next tier, would be the best overall option for use of the tracking system." She finished, taking quick breaths as she was speaking so quickly. She looked up to see what he thought of her plan.

Walker stood there, looking at her calmly. She knew he was thinking about it, probably making comparisons to what he had in his head, as his eyes continued to move left and right in thought. He began to pace back and forth, which he seemed to do a lot when he was talking to others. After the second rotation past her, he started speaking, "Okay...okay. So would the points earned for the milestones overlap and combine or would they take over and supersede the previous point value? As in, if I got 3 points for walking a mile, then I walked ten and got 5 points, would I now have eight or would I just have five?"

Doodoo....the points! Cagna thought.

"Sooo, that would be like a traveling milestone series, right?" She asked, trying to figure out how it would work with the series template idea she had.

Walker nodded.

"T-hen...I think they should overlap. It's not fair to umm.... give points then not let them keep them."

Walker smiled, "I agree."

Feeling like she was on a roll, Cagna said, "Okay, then I think the first milestone, for now we'll call it the starter, would be something like this" She took a risk and made a quick update to the Milestone system. She'd been staring at the system in her screens since it was first assigned to her and they'd entered the time bubble. Cagna dearly wanted to work with it, but needed more direction before she could fully understand what they were doing. After she finished her quick write-up, her Creator patiently waiting, she asked him to take a look.

Starter milestone- First Mile:

Journey at least 1 standard mile away from the location you were born. 1 point.

Walker looked at his screens, then turned to her before saying, "I like it, but I'm going to make one quick change here."

After a second Cagna looked at her screen as well. Thus far, there was only one thing shown in the system.

Basic milestone- First Mile:

Journey at least 1 standard mile away from the location you were born. 1 point.

"Diction-wise, I prefer Basic to starter." He explained.

Cagna nodded, "Okay, so Basic then. What ideas do you have for what should come after basic?" Cagna asked.

"That's a good question." Walker replied, and rather than beginning to pace again, he sat down next to her and crossed his legs. She noticed he didn't feel as intimidating when he was sitting. "So, I'm going to pull some thoughts from my world on how they view trades. Trades are skills and professions you learn that don't necessarily require you to go to a higher education school, but are just as vital to how any world works." Still sitting, he leaned back onto two hands as he began to explain everything to her. She sat down beside him.

Walker broke down what a plumber is, and how it worked on Earth. From knowing nothing when they first started in the job, to becoming an apprentice and furthering their experience until they became a master. It fascinated her that his world could be so different from the basic histories the alpha protocol provided for all subsystem assistants. Those memories sat in the back of her mind, coming forth at need. Thus far she'd only pulled from them a little, but it was interesting. She was also fascinated by his obsession with a specific plumber named Mario, and the incredible adventures he went on. Walker stared at the sky for a moment when he finished speaking, then said, "So that's how building a trade works. I feel like their terminology, which has gone through the grinder of time and professional influences across a thousand years, would be a good place to start."

Cagna saw no issue with that and nodded, "I agree."

So they got to work on a tiered list of milestones that could be applied anywhere within the system overall. Walker liked the strictly standard versions, while Cagna kept making additions she thought the future citizens of Symphony would appreciate. She was amazed by how much input he was letting her have on the system, and felt a little bit of warmth seep into her previously nervous heart.

When they were done discussing it, she updated the milestone system to show all of the initial levels and tiers they had agreed upon.

Basic milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 1 Point

Novice milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 3 Points.

Apprentice milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 5 Points.

Adept milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 7 Points.

Skilled milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable.10 Points.

Experienced milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 15 Points.

Advanced milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 20 Points.

Master milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 25 Points.

Epic milestone- Name: Short description that is quantifiable. 50 Points.

Cagna smiled when she saw how the system would work in real-time. Having it written into the system designer and hearing Walker describe the future and what it would entail, she grew to be very grateful that she was the one who would get to work with this, and felt sadness that other subsystem assistants wouldn't be so lucky.

Saying so out loud, a small tiff started with Rimi about whose system was better, with Walker laughing as he watched in the background. He did have a nice laugh.

"Grass monsters! Seals!"

"Growth! Fun! Progress!"

"Krakens!"

They continued for another few minutes before Walker coughed to get their attention and refocused them. Rimi hadn't said anything the whole time they worked on the actual milestones, only speaking up when she had espoused her love for the system. She was grateful that he'd stayed away from designing the system with them. It was going to be her life's work, designed from the start. Aside from Walker, who oversaw everything they were doing, and was needed to show her where they were going in the not too distant future, she didn't like the idea of anyone else trying to change things. This was her project, and hers alone. She didn't want input from anyone else, even Virgil.

After they finished coming up with the tier system, Walker suggested they continue with the first series they'd made. Traveling. It took quite a bit of time to come up with a quantifiable system for traveling that made sense as it upgraded. Cagna argued that she didn't want people to get "bored" with the updates, so why not splash in some esoteric values to the milestones? Walker argued against it at first, but the more she talked about milestones being fun and interesting, the more he started to come around to her way of seeing things. Rimi had told her that Walker wanted a world that was full of discoveries and exploration. His ultimate goal was to create a world where something new was always on the horizon.

She firmly believed the milestone system could be a part of that. She just had to show him it.

Walker asked for a break as he wanted to speak to Virgil about some thoughts he had on the Temporal Subsystem, so as he walked away, Cagna began building the traveling system into the milestone series she wanted to show him. She began with the simple upgrades, a mile to ten, ten to twenty, but as she worked, she found a problem. It was boring. Not to create it, certainly, but to the citizens of Symphony, such a linear experience had to be completely boring and expected. Why not spice things up a little? After about 10 more minutes, Walker came back and she was ready to show off her work.

Basic milestone- First Mile: Journey at least 1 standard mile away from the location where you were born. 1 point.

Novice milestone- A Different Place: Journey to another town, or city, for the first time. Your original city does not count. 3 points.

Apprentice milestone- Traveling Trainer: Train another in the dangers and safety of proper traveling. 5 points.

Apprentice milestone- The Full 25: Travel at least 25 miles across Symphony. 5 points.

Adept milestone- Oh the Places You Will Go: Travel at least 100 miles across Symphony. 7 points.

Skilled milestone- A Further Horizon: Travel at least 250 miles across Symphony. 10 points.

Experienced milestone- Far and Beyond: Complete all skilled to basic milestones in traveling. 15 points.

Experienced milestone- It is Closer Than It Appears: Travel at least 1k miles across Symphony.

"What do you think?" She asked him as she felt her stomach tighten up in nervousness.

"Hrmm." He hummed, tapping a finger on his chin. "This is what you've come up with in such a short period of time?"

"Yes sir..." She said, unable to figure out whether he liked or hated it by the sound of his voice. He tapped one more time before putting a flat palm out toward her while looking into her eyes. Believing she understood him correctly, Cagna slapped her own palm into it, Rimi giving a thumbs up beside her. "This is great!" He said to her with a big grin, and she felt her stomach relax. His teeth didn't seem as scary as they had before. Then he said something that made her worried, "There's a little bit of a problem here."

She looked at her work and couldn't find any issues, so she asked, "What problem?"

"There's nothing here about traveling across planets, and that apprentice milestone won't work because we don't have a mentoring system up yet. Hrmm....for the mentoring system, we'll have to make a note for later and correct it as we go. Same with the Portal system."

Cagna bounced up and down on the backs of her feet, "Okay! I'll add it to my in-progress section." She said, sliding it over to a different tab in the Milestone System window. And just like that, she had her first milestone series written down, and they'd agreed on a strategy for building more.

"What next?" She asked her Creator. "Oh oh! What are the points for?"

Walker looked at her and simply said, "The classes of course." He scratched the back of his head, "I need to talk to Virgil for a minute, be right back!"

The Creator walked away, and Cagna started planning on the next series. What was traveling without exploration milestones? That was next.

Rimi

Rimi had stepped away when Walker went over to talk to Virgil. He needed to strategize and come up with how he would talk to his Creator about this.

The problem was, Walker wasn't viewing the monsters the way he needed to. Rimi knew this, because it was the entire focus of his life now. Every day he would go into his screens and track the movements and growth of his monsters. It didn't hurt him when one killed another, as that was quite literally how the system was designed, but it hurt that their progress was so limited. Tier 5 wasn't large enough to encompass their growth, and many were stagnating. They needed the territory system, and Rimi needed the ability to bring monsters to the world on his own. He needed the entity subsystem. He needed tiers higher than five.

Not unlike his Creator, he began pacing as he filtered a speech in and out of his single-track mind. Virgil had once given an inkling of an idea of how his own brain worked, and it mystified him. He had no idea how the advanced assistant held so many thoughts at once. For Rimi, the moment Walker had assigned him to the Monster System, it had begun a rolling process that impacted every thought, every action, and every word he'd said since.

Hearing Cagna and Walker speak about the Milestone system had made him grind his teeth a little. He didn't know why Walker was so excited for the new system, when the Monster system was obviously better and more important. But, he liked his sibling, and he was willing to give her a chance with his Creator. Maybe if Walker got her set up well enough, he could spend more time focusing on what mattered. Like monsters.

Walker finished up with Virgil and walked back over to Cagna. Rimi watched as they both got excited and heard Walker yell out, "This is great too!". He made a real attempt to not grind his teeth or get upset. Cagna wouldn't be the first assistant to come hurtling out of Virgil's throat, and it wouldn't be right for him to be mad every time they worked with Walker. Intellectually he knew that his envy wasn't appropriate, but the Monster system continued to croon and call to him from within his overlay. It demanded his attention, and would continue to speak unless he gave it more. The problem was, he didn't have much to do with it as the tiers were limited and it didn't feel right to add more without Walker's permission. Rimi needed more autonomy, and Symphony needed more monsters.

The awakened and his pink subsystem assistant were bouncing around, speaking about when Humans would reach their majority and gain access to the class system. Cagna voted for ten, arguing that it was a dangerous world....for humans. While Walker, in his supreme wisdom as the Creator of an entire world, argued eighteen was when, historically, human beings were beginning to be viewed as adults. In the end, they settled on thirteen, and Rimi heard Walker say she needed to add it to the system. This was his chance before they began a new milestone, so he walked as quickly as his too-small feet could take him, and approached the duo.

He was about to hold back, as Walker began speaking again, this time about adding in tiers above Epic...Godly? But, Rimi cleared his throat loudly like he'd seen his mentor Virgil do, "Walker." He said in his most serious voice, "We need to talk about the Monsters."

Walker stopped talking and looked over at him, "Okay Rimi, you have my attention. What do we need to talk about."

"Well." Rimi said, hedging now that he was the focus of his Creator. He wasn't scared of him like Cagna was, but there was still some anxiety about asking for more power, more autonomy. Only Virgil, as an Advanced Assistant, really deserved that in his eyes. But the Monster system hummed in the back of his mind, and he straightened his spine as he continued, "I would like access to the Entity subsystem, as well as permission to begin to create more monsters on Symphony."

Walker tilted his head as he asked, "Why? I thought we were doing two monsters per landmass."

Rimi nodded in response, "Yes, that is what we decided, but the new landmasses are larger than the previous ones, and you just got another landmass upgrade, twice, so I am assuming they'll be larger again. Also, aside from the Guardians with the Mana Trees, and the Battlefrogs who are pretty much trapped in the Crater, the other monsters have already spread out. Phil is currently about to cross into the winter landmass, and the mini-manticores have spread throughout Symphony. Plus, we've mostly produced only predators, and we need to consider the ecological aspect of everything, and you have..."

"Whoa whoa!" Walker said, interrupting him with his hands out in a pleading gesture. "I see that things have reached a critical mass for you. I'm sorry I didn't see it sooner. There's only one of me and a million things to get to." He said as he ran his hands through his brown hair.

"Exactly!" Rimi said as his frustration started to boil over, "Creator, I'm willing to do whatever you want with the Monster system as long as it aligns with what you told me at the start. If that has changed, you need to tell me! You said, it is about creating a self-perpetuating war, or series of battles, so that the citizens of Symphony can build themselves into greater and greater levels of power. But then, after you got a few new systems and toys to play with, plus your not-quite-gods, you forgot the system entirely. I'm formally requesting access to the entity system, and the ecology system."

"What?" Rimi heard Virgil say from the evolution chamber area. He ignored him.

"Once I can link both to my system, I can track the numbers better and start to supply different monsters on Symphony to bring a sense of balance to the world. Right now the mini-manticores are running everywhere and attacking anything they can find." He finished, and showed Walker the population count oh how many were on Symphony. He watched as the Creator's eyes grew large.

"That many!"

"Yes." Rimi said with a short nod. "They're everywhere. If we don't start creating more monster habitats and allow them to seed properly, eventually you'll be overrun with the manticores and have to separate this part of Symphony from the rest of the world....forever."

"Okay, I see your argument. Hey Virgil!" He yelled out without looking, not noticing that the advanced assistant had already made his way over. "Oh, there you are. The manticores are getting out of control."

"Indeed."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

"Because I thought this is what you wanted. They are constantly pushing into different territories and battling other monsters, allowing for growth. That is what you asked for."

Walker nodded slowly as he spoke, "Yeeess, but if there's only one monster taking over everything, we'll eventually not be able to do...anything. Has the ecology warning system been going off for you?"

"It has not, because the number of monsters within their habitats has thus far not dropped to an unsustainable point."

"Hrmm...What do you think about what Rimi suggested here."

Rimi squirmed a little as the advanced assistant looked at him, moving his eyes up and down the length of his form. "I can see how having access to the ecology and entity subsystems would help him, but those are currently my jobs. Also, as a subsystem assistant, he will only have a limited ability to work within the two systems."

"But he could still work with them?"

Virgil shrugged, "Yes. However, he will have to still work through me for any larger projects, and I will need to train him properly."

"Well..how long would training him take?" Walker asked, and Rimi felt his mind stop as he waited for the answer.

Virgil stared off for a moment before refocusing on Rimi, "For the entity system and the attached evolution chambers, he will not be able to make any larger modifications, and will be forced to work with the modifications already present in the system. He will also have to wait and allow the advanced evolution chambers to do their work, rather than trying to make direct modifications himself. I will have to train him in their use, and about proper seeding by population count based on the biological makeup of each entity." Virgil paused before speaking again. "For the ecology system, I will have to train him on weather patterns, tides, and a very large amount of information regarding how a basic ecology system functions. In the end, he will be able to better track habitats and the predator-to-prey relationships, but will be forced to work through me for anything larger than a territory at a time."

"...So as I said. How long would that take?"

Virgil stared again before saying, "With hard work, and a focused mind, no more than nine months if we work at it constantly."

"Holy shit!" Walker said loudly, "That long?"

"Yes, the heavy majority of our temporal displacement will be used for Rimi and I and to become better acquainted, and for him to understand how everything works together. I believe, however, that this will be greatly beneficial to his work with the Monster system. Eventually, I may even be able to push some of my work onto him so I can focus on larger projects in the future."

Walker nodded, "Okay, so, Rimi, are you sure you're up for this? Nine months is a very long time."

Rimi didn't even have to think about it, "Yes, Creator. I am up for this." He said back, not quite understanding the arrangement of the words, but understanding the general feeling they evoked.

"Okay then, here we go." Walker said, and moved his hands for a moment as he messed with his screens.

Rimi's mind exploded with new thoughts.

Congratulations Rimi!

You now have access to the Ecology Subsystem (Ecology)

Uploading new information

Congratulations Rimi!

You now have access to the Entity Subsystem (Entity)

Uploading new information

The Ecology subsystem (Ecology) can now be used by subsystem assistant Rimi (limited)

The Entity subsystem (Entity) can now be used by subsystem assistant Rimi (limited)

Evolution Chambers (Advanced) can now be used by subsystem assistant Rimi (limited)

Mental processors #2 and #3 unlocked.

Rimi opened his eyes after he had downloaded everything, and noticed that his view of the world had changed. Cagna, who before was at the same exact eye-level as him, was now at least a foot lower than she'd been prior.

"Dude! You totally grew!" Walker said in open-mouthed astonishment.

"Indeed, I would say you are around fifty-percent larger than you were before Rimi." Virgil said with an unsurprised look on his face.

"Really?" He said, noticing his voice was slightly deeper than it had been before the downloads. His mind seemed to be working fast now as well, as he processed the information and filed it for later viewing. But there was something new there....something tangible. He just didn't know what it was yet.

"Interesting." Was all Virgil said in return, shocking him out of his self-analysis. "I believe we have wasted enough time here. Rimi, please come with me and we will begin."

"That's it?" Walker asked after Virgil had taken Rimi's hand and begun to lead him away, "Rimi grows up super fast and the most you can say is interesting?"

Virgil stopped, and without looking back, said "There is work to be done Walker, and so little time to do it. Come Rimi, let me explain how and why I am modifying the humans the way I am."

"Okay." Rimi said, allowing himself to be pulled along, as Walker sputtered behind them. It was a brand new day for Monsters, and they couldn't wait.